Lisa Hill

Green Hands (1943), Barbara Whitton Many years ago when we were having one of those ‘Did we do the right thing?’ conversations that migrant families inevitably have about leaving their birthplace, my mother said something…

A 1943 novel about the Women's Land Army, by an author with real-life experience: Green Hands by Barbara Whitton
anzlitlovers.com/2026/02/15/g...

Spell the Month in Books February 2026 Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month, but that’s the day for #6Degrees, so here we are, a week later instead. This month, is a …

#SpellTheMonthInBooks with a round-the-world theme: anzlitlovers.com/2026/02/14/s...

Yes, I saw that film too, at a time when no one I knew had dementia. It was revelatory.

Not many novels depict early-onset dementia, but Out of Time by Steve Hawke features a man facing it in fear of what it means: anzlitlovers.com/2026/02/13/o...

The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen (2025), by Shokoofeh Azar, translation anonymous One day in the future, our bloody dance will continue in the free and joyous laughter of our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, even when we are forgotten.  (p.513) It is hard to r…

Don't miss Shokoffeh Azar's magnificent new novel The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen anzlitlovers.com/2026/02/11/t...

The Last Living Cannibal (2025), by Airana Ngarewa Well, Airana Ngarewa’s The Last Living Cannibal certainly has an attention-getting title. Longlisted for the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, it’s Ngarewa’s third work of fict…

Longlisted for the #2026Ockhams The Last Living Cannibal (2025), by Airana Ngarewa certainly has an attention-getting title. anzlitlovers.com/2026/02/06/t...

I hear you about WP and their stupid blocks. I had a long and fruitless 'chat' with them, where the solutions were that I should invest A LOT of MY time in learning how to use them, OR buy some plan that would allow me to continue as I am though it might ruin the look of my blog.

Bird Deity (2026), by John Morrissey I am too fond of reading at whim to participate much in challenges, but John Morrissey’s debut novel Bird Deity is a serendipitous addition  both to Kaggsy’s Reading Independent Publish…

A serendipitous choice for #ReadIndies and #SpeccyFicChal: Bird Deity by John Morrissey published by @textpublishing.bsky.social
anzlitlovers.com/2026/02/03/b...

2025 Aurealis Awards Shortlist Announcement We congratulate the Aurealis Awards finalists for 2025! The 2025 Aurealis Awards, Australia’s premier speculative fiction award, attracted more than 775 entries across 14 categories, including reco…

Congratulations to the finalists of the 2025 Aurealis Awards!

aurealisawards.org/2026/02/01/2...

Sensational Snippets: The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen, by Shokoofeh Azar, translation anonymous As I write today, the world waits to see what will happen in Iran, sponsor of international terrorism and supplier of arms to terrorist organisations like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis of Yemen and…

If you want a glimpse of why Iranian women are risking their lives to topple the theocracy that has oppressed them since 1978, see this Sensational Snippet from Shokoofeh Azar's new novel The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen
anzlitlovers.com/2026/01/30/s...

2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Longlist 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Longlist has been announced, so now begins the quest to track them down on our side of the ditch!  I’ve been able to reserve three at my library so far&#82…

#TheOckhams 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Longlist anzlitlovers.com/2026/01/29/2...

Death of an Ordinary Man (2025) by Sarah Perry Sarah Perry’s Death of an Ordinary Man came to my attention because it’s been longlisted for the £10,000 Gordon Burn Prize, a prize which… …recognises exceptional writing which ha…

Longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize (shortlist due soon!): Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry
anzlitlovers.com/2026/01/28/d...

My brain is discombobulated. Yesterday Melbourne got through a day of record-breaking 43 degrees Celsius (more than that in the north of my state), but my BlueSky feed is full of ice and snow and storms. But the advice for both is the same: stay indoors and read a book.

Ha ha. Trust me, it can be an amusing pastime for about 90 seconds. I've done the same with banal or loathsome '5-star' books, just to see how out of touch I am with the zeitgeist.

Yellow Again, a poem by Hanna Yerushalmi A fortnight ago, in my post about the hypocrisy of authors who sabotaged the Adelaide Festival, I noted that those authors posturing about ‘freedom of speech’ … … had declin…

Yellow Again, a poem by Hanna Yerushalmi
anzlitlovers.com/2026/01/27/y...

Gerald Murnane’s Transnational Reception – Mémoires du livre / Studies in Book Culture An article from Mémoires du livre / Studies in Book Culture, on Érudit.

This is from a great new essay by @emmettstinson.bsky.social
www.erudit.org/en/journals/...

The Rudashevski Diary (1941-1943), by Yitskhok Rudashevski, translated by Solon Beinfeld Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is commemorated each year on the 27th January, because that is the day of the liberation of the Nazi extermination and concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945.…

January 27th is Holocaust Memorial day, and on this day I always read testimony from those that were there. Testimony from those who perished is rare, and from a teenager even more so: anzlitlovers.com/2026/01/27/t...

The Spoon and the Sea (2025), by Rachel Caplin Shortlisted for the now defunct Vogel Award, The Spoon and the Sea is Rachel Caplin’s debut novel. This is the book description: Ashi has always lived between the Arab island of Zanzibar wher…

A superb rendition of the complexities of dementia with a compelling storyline about the messiness of cross-cultural relationships: The Spoon and the Sea by Rachel Caplin.
anzlitlovers.com/2026/01/26/t...

I'm finished Dante's Divine Comedy. Many thanks to the late Dante scholar Mark Musa whose translation and notes guided me on my journey over 16 weeks: anzlitlovers.com/category/boo...

The Cone-Gatherers (1955), by Robin Jenkins The Cone-Gatherers (1955) was Robin Jenkins’ fourth novel, and it is outstanding.  IMHO it belongs in the pantheon of great 20th century novelists and I wasn’t surprised to learn that i…

The Cone-Gatherers by the late great Scottish author Robin Jenkins: anzlitlovers.com/2026/01/21/t...

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1308-1321), 1984 translation by Mark Musa, 1985 Penguin Edition, #15 Paradiso, Cantos 17-24 Well here we are at the end of another week of Shed Hell, we have four days left to get the last of the stuff out of the shed (and have of course left the hardest stuff till last) and I haven&#8217…

One more week to go and I'll be finished The Divine Comedy! anzlitlovers.com/2026/01/17/t...

Loved this, still chuckling over Salman Rushdie's 'too busy laughing'.... thanks for sharing it.

Saturation (2025), by William Lane William Lane’s sixth novel Saturation (2025) was such an interesting book for the 2026 Speccy Fiction challenge hosted by Book’d Out.  Ambrose and Ursula, two librarians, strive to have…

For #SpeccyFicChal hosted by Book'd Out at bookdout.wordpress.com I read Saturation by William Lane
anzlitlovers.com/2026/01/14/s...

Spell the Month in Books January 2026 Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month, but that’s the day for #6Degrees, so here we are, a week later instead. This month’…

Spell the Month in Books on the theme of New, in which I celebrate the ways in which we discover authors new to us.
anzlitlovers.com/2026/01/14/s...

Kokoro (1914), by Natsume Soseki, translated by Edwin McClellan I’m the first to admit that it takes a certain amount of chutzpah to share my thoughts about Kokoro because I haven’t read much J-Lit, and — with the exception of Death by Water (2009) …

#JanuaryInJapan: Was Sensei, like Oblomov, a 'superfluous man'? anzlitlovers.com/2026/01/12/k...

The First Friend (2024), by Malcolm Knox Longlisted for the ARA Historical Fiction Prize and the UK Walter Scott Historical Novel Prize, The First Friend by journalist, author and SMH columnist Malcolm Knox, is a black comedy starring Sta…

Here's another, The First Friend by Malcolm Knox anzlitlovers.com/2025/10/01/t...

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1308-1321), 1984 translation by Mark Musa, 1985 Penguin Edition, #14 Paradiso, Cantos 9-16 It’s been a quiet week on the blog due to a domestic crisis involving the drinks fridge.  For the benefit of readers overseas, the Australian drinks fridge is a small fridge that supplements …

Despite some domestic travails, I'm on the home run with The Divine Comedy: anzlitlovers.com/2026/01/10/t...

The Mountains Sing (2020), by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai I owe my discovery of this illuminating historical novel from Vietnam to Chris Gordon, community engagement and program manager at Readings Bookstore.  She was a real stalwart during the pandemic, …

I could be wrong, but I don't think it is the first, Stu. There's this: anzlitlovers.com/2024/01/23/t... and others here: anzlitlovers.com/category/ori...

Authors of novellas and Short NF: Entries for the 20/40 Prize for 2026 will close on the 31st of January. Details and Guidelines here:

finlaylloyd.com/20-40/

*chuckle* "Lazy" is not a word I'd ever have associated with you!