Julie
Favourite genre: Literary Fiction
​
Get to know more about Julie and her taste in books below:
More about me
1. A book you didn't think you were going to like as much as you did?
The Woman in The Library by Sulari Gentill. I'm not usually drawn to crime thrillers but I loved the twisty, turny, tongue-in-cheek adventure Sulari took me on.
2. A favourite book of 2022:
Spring Cannot Be Cancelled by David Hockney and Martin Gayford
3. Your favourite book of all time:
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
4. A book that changed your life:
The God Of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
5. A book that ruined you:
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis; the rats!!
6. A book with the best first line or quote:
Burnt Coat by Sarah Hall has the best first AND last lines!
"Those who tell stories survive."
"A life is a bead of water on the black surface, so frail, so strong, it's world incredibly held."
Reading goals?
Never stop!!
Currently Reading:
North Woods
By Daniel Mason
​
'Truly outstanding' Mail on Sunday
'This is a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic . . . The only constants are the land and Mason's genius' Washington Post
'Daniel Mason's latest novel is one of those rare books that truly deserves the description "spellbinding" ' Observer
'A tapestry at once intimate and epic' TLS
'Utterly beguiling' Scotsman
'Extraordinary characters . . . a tour de force' Independent, Best Books for Autumn
'Epic . . . weaves a Cloud Atlas-style narrative of humanity under pressure and nature under threat' Guardian, 2023's Biggest Books
FOUR CENTURIES. A SINGLE HOUSE DEEP IN THE WOODS OF NEW ENGLAND.
​
A young Puritan couple on the run. An English soldier with a fantastic vision. Inseparable twin sisters. A lovelorn painter and a lusty beetle. A desperate mother and her haunted son. A ruthless con man and a stalking panther. Buried secrets. Madness, dreams and hope.
All are connected. The dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.
Exhilarating, daring and playful, NORTH WOODS will change the way you see the world.
​
'A monumental achievement . . . I loved it' Maggie O'Farrell
'Ambitious, alive, and lush with generosity . . . an immersive sprint through time' Tess Gunty
Gunflower
By Laura Jean McKay
​
The brilliant new short story collection from the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of The Animals in That Country.
A family of cat farmers gets the chance to set the felines free. A group of chickens tells it like it is. A female-crewed ship ploughs through the patriarchy. A support group finds solace in a world without men.
With her trademark humour, energy, and flair, McKay offers hallucinogenic glimpses of places where dreams subsume reality, where childhood restarts, where humans embrace their animal selves and animals talk like humans.
The stories in Gunflower explode and bloom in mesmerising ways, showing the world both as it is and as it could be.
Praise for The Animals in That Country-
'This is a game-changing, life-changing novel, the kind that comes along right when you need it, and compels you to listen to its terrifying poetry. Compulsively readable and yet also pushing the boundaries of what is possible in terms of language and narrative, this is a brilliant and disturbing book that will make you rethink everything you thought you understood about non-human animal sentience and agency. I don't think any reader can ever forget a voice like Sue the dingo's - wise and obscene in equal measure. A triumph.'
-Ceridwen Dovey, author of Only the Animals
'This is an absorbing and affecting book, and one to which I'm able to pay the highest compliment- that, in the days after finishing it, the world felt different to me, its animals not speaking but not silent either.'
-Ben Brooker, Australian Book Review
'The genius stroke of The Animals in That Country is the preternatural 'body talk' of its animals ... an affecting book, one that gets remarkably close to the unknowable wildness of animal sentience.'
-Jack Callil, The Age
