I am increasingly reading eBooks and listening to audio books. During 2019 I enjoyed listening to Helen Garner read her collection of short essays in True Stories (originally published in 1997). As I listened, I recalled that I had read one piece in particular — about cruising on a Russian ship — in a newspaper, so it was great to hear it again. Also, her reflections on the controversy she faced when she wrote The First Stone (1995) were fascinating, particularly given the more recent #MeToo movement — for an excellent reconsideration of The First Stone, see Gail Acorn‘s 2018 discussion, published in The Guardian. I notice that Helen Garner has kept quiet so far about the current debates about what constitutes sexual harassment but, since she’s an obsessive diarist, no doubt we will have the opportunity to hear her thoughts at some stage.
This year I also managed to keep up with some of the many recently published novels. Here are three of my favourites. (I read some on eBook, listened to others through my Audible subscription and, for Margaret Atwood’s latest novel, I did both modalities, swapping seamlessly from listening while driving to reading on my iPad!)
| Author | Title | Year | My Star Rating | In a nutshell review |
| Atwood, Margaret | The Testaments | 2019 | 5 | Piercing insights into oppression, told from three perspectives with deft shifts in the use of language |
| Harper, Jane | The Lost Man | 2018 | 4 | Outback noir with heart |
| Pullman, Philip | The Secret Commonwealth | 2019 | 4.5 | Sequel packs an adult angsty punch |