Sally on "Books and Musings from Downunder", lists all 141 books she read in 2006 - a pretty good effort - along with her ratings for each. I notice she gives Banville's The Sea a D+, Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson a C, and an E for The Broken Shore by Peter Temple.
On his weblog, "Cheeseburger Gothic", John Birmingham outlines some rules for introducing characters in fiction: "Don't front end load the entire backstory of a character the first time we meet them. Physical descriptions, yeah. If you want to go into great depth about what they look like, it's appropriate to do so early, if not necessarily in the first line."
A new discovery for me is Peter Rozovsky, from Philadelphia in the US, and his weblog "Detectives Beyond Borders: A Forum for International Crime Fiction". Late last year he discussed the books of Peter Corris, during which he stated: "After reading Peter Temple, Garry Disher, David Owen and Shane Maloney, I found myself associating Australian crime writing with humor, of course, but also with a low-key approach and a lack of self-pity on the part of first-person narrators." So it looks like I'll have to check out David Owen as well. If Peter includes him in that company he's got to be worth checking out.
Cam, on his MySpace page, waxes enthusiastic about a David Malouf novel: "I just finished reading David Malouf's The Great World, and I have to say that this is actually one of the most fantastic books I have ever read. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in some holiday reading. Malouf's an Australian author who wrote a lot of poetry before turning to novels, and it shows in his writing style which is-- well, I found it to be utterly incredible. He isn't particularly verbose, but he manages to evoke very clear and powerful images with just a few words. Seriously, it's fantastic."
