The Maroon Diaries

2025 was the year I got my reading groove back.  It's been a source of nagging sadness to me that I just hadn't been reading as many books over the last several years. I mostly blamed the discovery of social media addiction. And then this year, I got my new home. I got an armchair from the op shop, and I put it directly underneath the small, north-facing window in the lounge room. I got a footstool to put in front of the chair. And now I have a reading chair. A comfortable chair with a footstool and natural light coming in over your shoulder when you sit in it.  And I started reading more books again.  As it turns out, I still have time for social media addiction, as well.  1. Nocturnes by John Connolly 2004 2. The Knowledge Gene by Lynne Kelly 2024 3. House of Glass by Susan Fletcher 2018 4. Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison 2024 5. Angels and Insects by A.S. Byatt 1994 6. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective ...

 Another year, another book list.  1. Circe by Madeline Miller 2018 2. This is Happiness by Niall Williams 2019 3. Lily On The Dustbin by Nancy Keesing 1982 4. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman 1990 5. Inspiration Sandwich by SARK 1992 (re-read) 6. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent 2013 7. Monkeys With Typewriters by Scarlett Thomas 2012 8. Literary Witches by Taisia Kitaiskaia 2017 (re-read) 9. Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen 1966 10. milk and honey by Rupi Kaur 2014 11. After Story by Larissa Behrendt 2021 12. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood 2005 13. Hansel and Greta by Jeanette Winterson 2020 14. Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter 1984 15. Dearly by Margaret Atwood 2020 16. Home Body by Rupi Kaur 2020 17. Lovers' Knots by Marion Halligan 1991 18. Sugar Crush by Dr Richard P Jacoby and Raquel Baldelomar 2015 19. 12 Bytes by Jeanette Winterson 2021 20. Homecoming by Elfie Shiosaki 2021 21. Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue by John McWhorter 2008 2...

 New Year's Eve and the annual reckoning of the books - my favourite holiday ritual! You can click on the link at each book's title to find out more about it. 1. Traditional Healers of Central Australia: Ngangkari by NPY Women's Council Aboriginal Corporation 2013  2. Fight Like A Girl by Clementine Ford 2016 3. Desert Country by Nici Cumpston 2010 4. All Systems Red by Martha Wells 2017  5. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells 2018 6. Splitting by Fay Weldon 1996 7. The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North 2016 8. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari 2011  9. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells 2018  10. How We Became Human by Tim Dean 2021  11. Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield 2018  12. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa 1994, English translation by Stephen Snyder 2019 13. The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott 2020 14. Soil by Matthew Evans 2021 15. Oryx And Crake by Margaret Atwood 2003 16. The Second Cure by Margaret Morgan 2018  17. The Reason...

Here we go for my traditional yearly book list, which traditionally I would publish at New Year. However, I seem to have spent most of January floundering around like a shipwreck, and I'm just finding my feet again now. I can face things like embedded links again. Here is what I read in 2020. 1. The Night Brother by Rosie Garland 2017 2. To The Land of Long Lost Friends by Alexander McCall Smith 2019 3. Melmoth by Sarah Perry 2018 4. Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton 1973 5. Heroes and Villains by Angela Carter 1969 6. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 1959 7. Mother, Sister, Daughter, Lover by Jan Clausen 1980 8. Everything is F*cked by Mark Manson 2019 9. The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay 2020 10.  The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern 2019 11. Boys Will Be Boys by Clementine Ford 2018 12. Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta 2019 13. The Great Cosmic Mother by Monica Sjoo & Barbara Mor 1987 14. Nightflowers by Kathleen Stewart 1996 15....

Haha you thought I'd forgotten, didn't you! No, it's not that, but my procrastination is rotten. My book reading habits are also still suffering terribly at the hands of social media. But anyway, here we are. 1. Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite 1992 2. Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing by Daniel Tammet 2017 3. The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet by Dr Michael Mosley 2015 4. Soul by Tobsha Learner 2006 5. Aspecting the Goddess by Jane Meredith 2018 6. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks 2001 7. My Mother's House by Colette 1922, English translation by Una Vincenzo Troubridge and Enid McLeod 1949, and Sido , 1929, English translation by Enid McLeod 1949, published in one volume 1953 8. Witchcraft into the Wilds by Rachel Patterson 2018 9. The Clever Guts Diet by Dr Michael Mosley 2017 10. There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbour's Baby by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, 1987 - ?, collected and translated by Keith Gessen and Anna Summers 2009 ...

Well I must say I am ashamed at the paucity of this list, yet again. I have recently been learning about how social media changes your brain, making it want to take in information in small pieces and articles, rather than reading books the old-fashioned way. I've had to realise that this is an issue, and I've started making some changes to address it. I hope that my efforts will be reflected in the next Year in Books. 1. The Walworth Beauty by Michele Roberts 2017 2. Bright Young Things by Scarlett Thomas 2001 3. The Children's Home by Charles Lambert 2016 4. After Me Comes the Flood by Sarah Perry 2014 5. Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson 2016 6. Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick 2011 7. Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig 2015 8. The Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen 2010 9. Songs of the Gorilla Nation by Dawn Prince-Hughes 2004 10. Dragon's Green  by Scarlett Thomas 2017 11. Kleinzeit by Russell Hoban 1974 12. The Olive Readers by C...

Hello dear readers, I hope you are enjoying your New Year's Eve celebrations. I am getting back on track with publishing my book list in a timely fashion. I'm afraid it's quite paltry pickings this year. I've had a lot going on. Not to mention the discovery of streaming services and binge-watching... I've linked the title of each book to its page on Goodreads , so you can click through and quickly get an idea of what kind of book it is. 1 Glad No Matter What by SARK 2010 2  The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman 1997 3  Wise Children by Angela Carter 1991 4  The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler 2014 5  The Palace of Curiosities by Rosie Garland 2013 6   The Great Automatic Grammatizator and Other Stories by Roald Dahl 1982 7   The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman 2000 8 Gypsy Cante: Deep Song of the Caves selected and translated by Will Kirkland 1999 9  Caught in a Story: Contemporary Fairytales and Fables edited by Christine Park ...

Hello dear readers. I'm very pleased to say that 2015 was a very good year in books for me. Especially through the autumn and winter, so many really excellent books passed through my hands. I must admit, Goodreads deserves some of the credit. Checking out their recommendations and 'other readers enjoyed' I've found a few precious ones I might otherwise never have heard of, such as The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. Absolutely brilliant. Each book title is linked to its page on Goodreads, so you can quickly see what kind of a book it is. 1. True Brews by Emma Christensen 2013 2. Mothers Grimm by Danielle Wood 2014 3. Awake in the Dream World: The Art of Audrey Niffenegger by Audrey Niffenegger et al 2013 4. Gypsy Boy by Mikey Walsh 2009 5. The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Eddie Campbell 2014 6. Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins 1971 (re-read) 7. Hollow City by Ransom Riggs 20...

Hello and welcome to my annual Reckoning of the Books! Since Moonwave 's excellent comment on last year's Year in Books , I have discovered Goodreads and joined up, so you can see a really, really long list of books if you check out my profile there . And here, each title on my list links to that book's page on Goodreads, so you can find out what kind of a book it is pretty quickly. In some cases, where the author has their own website or blog, I've linked the author's name to their home sites. 1. Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie 1990 2. The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith 2013 3. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver 2007 4. Whole Larder Love by Rohan Anderson 2012 5. Opal - The Journal of an Understanding Heart by Opal Whiteley 1920, adapted by Jane Boulton 1976 (re-read) 6. The World Without Us by Alan Weisman 2007 7. The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris 2007 8. Peaches for Monsieur le Cure...

Happy New Year, everybody! Cheers! I meant to spend the New Year's Eve putting this post online, but instead, I spent the evening socialising with Loved Ones over drinky-poos like a normal human being. I'm so pleased with myself. So here we are with my Year in Books for 2013. 1. Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter by Lloyd Kahn 2012 2. The Joy of Less: A Minimalist Living Guide by Francine Jay 2010 3. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin 1974 4. The Pickled Pantry by Andrea Chesman 2012 5. Wild Women edited by Sue Thomas 1994 6. Ignorance by Michele Roberts 2012 7. The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson 2012 8. European Mythology by Jacqueline Simpson 1987 9. The Stone Key by Isobelle Carmody 2008 10. Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs 2011 11. The One Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson 2009, English translation 2012 12. World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler 2008 13. Precious ...

I read a fabulous book recently, as I often do, and I want to tell you about it, which is something that I also often want to do, but often don't. I had a little epiphany about why I don't get those thoughts out and onto a blog post. I've been using the term 'literary review' in the titles of posts about books. This is because I like literary reviews, and they're definitely a good thing to do. But now I realise I need to stop using this expression. I have too many constrictive ideas about what a literary review actually is, and many of the thoughts I have about books don't seem to be part of my definition of a literary review. So I'll just write about books. If you would like to read a more conventional kind of proper literary review of this book, there's this one here on Goodreads and this one on Novel Niche , both of which I quite liked. To begin with, my story about a book begins quite a bit earlier than when I actually read it. First, there ...

This year, for the first time since primary school when such lists were pretty much compulsory, I've kept a list of all the books I've read. I was inspired by the various blogs I was reading. Many bloggers were publishing their reading lists, and I really loved seeing everyone's lists. In fact, I have found several amazing, gorgeous books that I would not have ever heard of but for a mention on a blog I was reading. I thought it was such a good idea that I tried it too, and I must say, it has been very enjoyable to keep this list throughout the year. I like that I can now place exactly when I read a book, and compare it to other events happening in my life at the time. When I started by typing in the first title here, Love Times Three by the Darger Family , I immediately remembered laying on my bed, reading this book and listening to the sounds of the New Year's Eve revellers lurching around the streets outside. I remember that New Year's Day was hot, so I sta...