pickI LOVED this book! My first 5 🌟 read of 2025. Thank you Allissa @LapReader for putting this on your #AuldLangSpine list. I might never have heard about it otherwise. Thanks @CarolynM and @LeeRHarry for letting me know it‘s not to be missed. Quiet Francis reflects back on her life as a first year art student who falls for her charismatic art teacher.
#12BooksOf2024 January
A gift from @thegirlwiththelibrarybag this story of painters and their practice was the best book I read in January.
pickI‘ve got a🦶injury & I ain‘t coping! Thanks to Kylie, the author of this 📕 for keeping me slightly sane this week & hopefully only this week, while I rest from 🩰. Turns out I‘m not good at that. Kylie‘s old friend, Jo recommended this 📕 to me & I already owned it so bumped it up my TBR list. I don‘t normally read a 📕 in a week but this is an 🖼️ in itself. I may actually get the author to sign it at the Newcastle Writer‘s Festival & keep it.
pickI think this is the best novel about painters and their practice that I have ever read. I‘ve been struggling with concentrating on anything half way challenging over the last few months, but this one drew me in immediately and I read it in one sitting (it‘s quite short, only 187 pages, but still…) Thank you again, Sharni, for sending me this. I loved it. #ozfiction
Oh Sharni, thank you so very much, my friend. That is so extraordinarily thoughtful of you. I appreciate your kind words more than I can say.
pickA beautiful Australian debut about love, life and artistic inspiration. I listened to this and it was so lush - the descriptions of paintings have me longing to wander through an art gallery.
We first meet Frances when she is in her forties, living her best artistic life in a remote mountain town in NSW and then we go back 20ish years to see how she got there and what effect it had on her art.
pickLoved this Australian novel. Beautifully written in vivid, spare prose. Complex characters in artist Frances and larger than life ‘art royalty‘ Clem, their relationship has echoes of Sylvia Plath/Ted Hughes or Celia Paul/Lucien Freud. It has an Australian sensibility - earthy, fresh & direct. A knowing & satirical insight into the glittering art world of Sydney rings true & contrasts with Frances‘ quiet work in the hills. Recommended.
Girl in a Pink Dress | 
