This week I review K.L. Slater’s The Narrator after a week’s break from the blog. I begin the new year with some photos of the lovely beach that was an important part of my holiday away from the computer, fun with an onerous 2000-piece jigsaw, a delightful visitor and some scenery from the many walks we enjoyed.
The Kookaburra’s generous posing was appreciated but it was also lovely to see that when tiring of the adulation it felt that independence should be established!
K.L. Slater The Narrator Bookoutur 2023.
Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.
K.L. Slater has combined domestic drama and some interesting perspectives on creating and maintaining a popular series of novels; authors’ obligations and struggles; the process of writing, narrating and dealing with publicity; and fans. The plotting works well, with short chapters relating the story from the past and present, told from the perspectives of the main characters, Phillipa Roberts (author), Eve (narrator); and Chad (a super fan) interspersed with scenes from a dank basement and its alternative, a clean room with writing facilities. Books: Reviews
Covid in Canberra since lockdown ended
The most recent update for covid in Canberra is for the week ending December 23, 2023. The new cases numbered 1,283, with 69 active cases in hospital, 3 in ICU and 1 ventilated.
CELEBRATING FILM FOR 30 YEARS
BFI Film Classics
Picnic at Hanging Rock – this looks interesting. BFI Film Classics, published by Bloomsbury Film and Media Studies has published this ‘study of an Australian classic… The first ever singular study of one of Australia’s most iconic films’.
The haunting and allusive Picnic at Hanging Rock is widely hailed as a classic of new Australian cinema, seen as exemplary of a peculiarly Australian style of heritage filmmaking. In her study, Anna Backman Rogers applies a feminist, psychoanalytic and decolonial lens to this classic film, exploring its setting in a colonised Australian bushland. Richly illustrated, with over 50 colour images from the film, the book delves into the film’s production history, addressing director Peter Weir’s influences and preoccupations at the time of its making, its reception and its lasting impact on visual culture more broadly. Rogers suggests that there is more to the film than one first realises. Through its exquisite and captivating production, the film purposefully obscures a more sinister reality: one of violence done to young girls on the cusp of womanhood, the denial and disenfranchisement of Aboriginal people and their land, and the folly and arrogance of white, colonial, European settler culture. |
Cindy Lou enjoyed some simple meals this week – a sandwich on the way to the coast, and breakfast at one of the few coffee places open in Canberra before the new year.
The Pie Shop Bungendore
The Pie Shop was fantastic during the period when Covid rules applied, so I like to return when on my way to the coast. They have wonderful rock cakes as well as a range of pies with succulent fillings, toasted sandwiches, a nice choice of cakes for afternoon tea, good coffee, a cool drink cabinet and ice-creams.
Divine Cafe & Bar
This coffee shop has newly opened in the Jamieson Centre and was a welcome sight when my favourite coffee place was closed. The service was friendly and efficient, and as usual when it includes a water bowl for dogs I was won over before the food arrived. The ‘breadbasket’ was generous, with fruit loaf, rye, and white well toasted offerings. There could have been more butter – but that is a failing with so many places offering toast, I find.
Biden and Zelensky Press Conference and Zelensky Speech to Congress
Robin's Room 