The Week That Was…

/ Theresa Smith Writes

Something that has me jumping for joy this week is finding out that Melbourne Writers Festival is digital for 2020, meaning that at long last, I can go! And there are quite a few sessions I’ve marked to attend, it’s looking quite fabulous in terms of variety and topics of interest. The program is now available, you can find it here.

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Joke of the week:

I have refrained from Covid jokes, but I couldn’t resist this one. If only he were real and life was a forty-five minute episode of an American drama…

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Book of the week:

This one isn’t out until September so it will be a wait until my review is posted but heads up, it’s going to be a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ one!

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What I’ve been watching:

I’m now into season three of this series and bear in mind, the seasons are twenty-two episodes each. Honestly, it’s nothing more than a soap opera for historical fiction tragics (that would me) but I CAN’T STOP WATCHING IT! I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I am in it until the end, which is, as we all know from history, probably the point at which Mary loses her head. Despite knowing the ending, here I am, still watching every minute of it. That’s television for you!

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Feel good photo of the week:

I’ve fallen a little bit in love with this latest Royal wedding but the part I love the most is the bride wearing ‘vintage granny’. Can you imagine that wardrobe? ❤ Here they are, both wearing the dress, one when it was new and the other now that it’s vintage.

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What I’m reading right now:

I’m actually undecided at present but all of these books have arrived in the mail this week. The pile on the left are from publishers, the pile on the right are my own purchases. I’m wavering between Ordinary Matters and Vinegar Girl. I’m feeling in need of some Anne Tyler at present.

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Until next week… 🙂☕📚

26 thoughts on “The Week That Was…”

  1. I am so thrilled about this year’s MWF… I didn’t go last year, and only to one event the year before that turned out to be so disappointing that I didn’t write about it at all. And last year, I stopped sending my annual donation as well, because I was so fed up.
    But this year I have booked in for 16 events *and* indulged an attack of spendyitis so that I have all the books that go with the talks, even though i do not have a hope of reading them all beforehand. But that’s ok, as you know from my blog posts about other festivals I go to, I always buy books there and read them afterwards in due course.
    What do you think about the idea of comparing sessions, and share the blogging task between us?

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    • Oooh, that would be fun! With the sessions I’ve selected, I’ve either already read the book or have it on my shelf, with the exception of one that I’ve supposedly got coming to me from the publisher for review. For the online talks, you only had to sign up for the emails, didn’t you? I added ten to my wishlist but can’t see any other manner of booking. All I read was that the content would go straight to my inbox once I was an email subscriber.

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      • Ok, here we go: I’m paid up for:
        Matter of Fact, & have Judith Brett’s Coal Curse on the TBR & Windfall by Ketan Joshi on order
        A Touch of Magic, & have Robbie Arnott’s The Rain Heron on the TBR plus The Fire Starters on order
        An Evening with Elizabeth Strout, don’t have Olive Again & probably won’t buy it, but interested in her.
        Ann Enright in Convo, have Actress on the TBR
        Aust Response to Climate Change, have Rebecca Huntley’s How to Talk abut CC on order
        Becky Manawatu, have already read and reviewed Aue
        How Crises Shape Lit: have Caoilinn Hughes’ Wild Laughter on the TBR and James Bradley’s Ghost Species on order
        Two Friends Discuss Reading: have Tegan Bennett Daylight’s The Details on the TBR and have already read and reviewed Charlotte Wood’s The Weekend
        Jing-Jing Lee: How We Disappeared, have this on order
        Megha Majumdar, have The Burning on the TBR
        Michael Christie, have Greenwood on the TBR
        Navigating Our Future (have already read Alexis Wright, the other two don’t seem to have books)
        The Fifth Estate, the Future of Socialism (LOL have signed up for this to provoke The Spouse)
        The Language of Animals, have Chris Flynn’s Mammoth on the TBR, have read and reviewed Erin Hortle’s The Octopus, probably won’t read The Animals in That Country because I am tired of foul-mouthed characters. But will amend this PoV if someone I trust loves the book.
        We Can’t Say We Didn’t Know, Sophie McNeill, have this on order.

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      • Ok, this what I’m paid up for:
        1. Charlotte McConaghy – The Last Migration (this is being sent to me soon)
        2. Kevin Kwan – Sex and Vanity (I loved Crazy Rich Asians)
        3. Victoria Hannan – Kokomo (have a review copy)
        4. Jessie Tu – A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing (have a copy on backorder)
        5. A Touch of Magic (liked the sound of this and I like Angela Meyer)
        6. Jing-Jing Lee – How We Disappeared (have a review copy)
        7. Clare Bowditch – Your Own Kind of Girl (read and loved)
        8. Julia Gillard – Women and Leadership (I always enjoy listening to Julia)
        9. How Crises Shape Literature (appealing to my interests)
        10. An Evening with Elizabeth Strout ( I haven’t read the Olive books but I have other Strout on my bookshelf)
        11. Michael Christie – Greenwood (this is one of the best books I’ve read this year, this might be my most anticipated talk)
        12. The Language of Animals (I read and enjoyed Mammoth, Octopus I have for review)
        So exciting!

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      • I had a look at the online program last night but found it hard to understand/figure out how/where to book and even what the sessions were going to be. Some were podcasts, some writing and others just blank. How did you work it all out?

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      • I had trouble initially too, but when I went back on today, I discovered where/how to book. I actually think the website was updated between my visits. If you go on now and hit the read more button on the front of the site on the festival program ad, you’ll go straight to the session dates, and then clicking through from there breaks it down even further and you can properly book. None of that was there when I looked yesterday.

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      • Ohhh, I can see it’s completely changed now from when I first looked at it too! Perhaps I was too eager, and then gave up. I’ll have to have another look at the sessions now that it’s all sorted. Thanks so much for letting me know 🙂

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  8. To be honest, Vinegar Girl was NOT Tyler’s best book. It is supposed to be a modern version of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, but… if fell short. Tyler didn’t make her shrew harsh enough, or the love interest tough enough. I see you have Clock Dance there, so… if you’re in the mood for Tyler, go with that one – much better.

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  9. I’ve booked a bunch of sessions and will likely add more (I happen to have a BUSY week that week because of MIFF and some professional development sessions! I’ll be glued to desk). So far I have booked:
    Anne Enright
    Julia Gillard
    MWF Gala
    Navigating Our Future
    Take it From Me
    Elizabeth Strout
    Charlotte Wood/ Tegan Bennett-Daylight
    Patrick Radden Keefe

    Kevin Kwan, Brit Bennett and Michael Christie will probably be added next… and probably then a few more!

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