I forgot to name my good friend Carmel, when I was mentioning friends I was grateful for. She was lumped in with my work mates. She has leant me book 4 of the ‘Tales of the Otori’ series, ‘The Harsh Cry of the Heron’
Tales of the Otori
I have thoroughly enjoyed the entire series I’ve loaned from Carmel so far.
‘Across the Nightingale Floor’, ‘Grass for His Pillow’ and ‘Brilliance of the Moon’ were all wonderful and I look forward to reading this latest one. There is a new book ‘Heavens Net is Wide’ that goes back to the start. I will savour these ending and beginning books as I did Harry Potter.
Lian Hearn
Lian Hearn lives in Australia, yet these books are based in Japan. She weaves the landscape and mythology well and I learnt a lot from these books that helped me to understand Feudal Japan.
My Book Pile Right Now….
I have a delicious pile of books I’m currently reading in addition to ‘The Harsh Cry of the Heron’. I have James Moloney’s ‘Master of the Books’ and it every bit as engrossing as ‘The Book of Lies
Enid Blyton Characters Reappear
It’s interesting to me that I was just thinking about all the old Enid Blyton books I loved to read when I was a kid and in the mornings papers was this story: Famous Five Set to Find Fame. Made me feel almost magical.
I read the ‘Secret Seven’ series, the ‘Famous Five’ of course, but loved the ‘Faraway Tree’ trilogy and ‘Wishing Chair’ set more I think. My favourite of all the many though would have to be ‘The Naughtiest Girl’ books. I am sure I only read 2 or 3 of them, yet it appears there are 8 on this site.
If you want to learn more about Enid Blyton, The Enid Blyton Society website is absolutely a must read. It’s quite amazing to see the list of writing, there are 100s of books. When I look through the list I see many other familiar books that I read as a child.
Melbourne Writers Festival Today
We saw three authors speak today and each had something valuable to say. The first up was Maureen McCarthy, then Greg Pyers and finally Brigid Lowry. I thoroughly enjoyed the balmy spring day in the city with some of my favourite ‘book worm’ students.
Maureen McCarthy
Maureen McCarthy has written a number of books and I have read Queen Kat, Carmel & St Jude Get A Life
Greg Pyers
Greg Pyers
Brigid Lowry
Juicy Writing with Brigid Lowry delivered everything it promised with such a luscious title. She spoke with passion and read some great writing to us. I got quite watery in the eyes by a piece she wrote about a mo
ther reflecting on her son’s impending independence. I am sorry I didn’t have the time and presence of mind to ask where I could get it. I am not even sure who wrote it, but I suspect she did. I have spent the weekend reading her latest book Tomorrow all will be Beautiful and have found what I have read so far poignant and touching. It is truly juicy.I will get my hands on Guitar Highway Rose