Happy autumn one and all and welcome to another month of round-ups.

Our one and only poetry review so far this year is from Jonathan @Me Fail? I Fly. He gives us the “beautiful, generous, delightful” Uncommon Feast by Eileen Chong – a poetry collection that could almost fit under the non-fiction tag as well.the uncommon feast by Eileen Chong

It contains poems that are like recipes, as well as actual recipes….

As Judith Beveridge says in her Introduction, the poems are at the heart of the book, but the prose essays and recipes, and the line drawings by Chong’s husband Colin Cassidy, are what transform it from a slim vol of poetry to a feast of a book.

I personally, love books that mix and merge genres. After enjoying Jonathan’s response to this one so much, I will be on the look out for a copy for myself.

In our non-fiction section we had 8 reviews for 7 books during the month of March, including my review of Annabel Crabb and Wendy Sharpe’s Special Guest: Recipes For the Happily Imperfect Host.

We had two more responses to Leigh Sales’ heart-breaking yet hopeful, inspiring book Any Ordinary DaySanch @Sanch Writes and Angharad @Tinted Edges.  While Cass Moriarty explores feminism through Jane Caro’s lens in Accidental Feminists.

As mentioned above, I love a book that mixes it’s genres, especially if there is a memoir element to the essays, poems, recipes etc. So does Kate @Books Are My Favourite and Best. Her response to Small Wrongs by Kate Rossmanith has me scrambling to find a copy to read asap.

When an author gets the balance between memoir and journalism just right, it makes for brilliant reading. Kate Rossmanith has done it with Small Wrongs, a book that explores how we say ‘sorry’.

Anna Greenwood gives us her thoughts on Laura Tingle’s Follow the Leader Quarterly Essay and It’s Not My Fault They Print Them by Catherine Deveny.

While, finally, Tracey @Carpe Librum gets us ready for the cooler months ahead with The Easiest Slow Cooker Book Ever by Kim McCosker – the pulled pork burgers sounded delicious – and easy!


About Bronwyn: I have been a book blogger at Brona’s Books since 2009 and a bookseller (specialising in children’s literature) in Sydney since 2008. Prior to this I was as an Early Childhood teacher for 18 years in country NSW.

I joined the AWW team in 2015 as the History, Memoir, Biography editor. In 2017 I moved to the General Non-Fiction page and in 2018 I picked up another semi-regular role as editor of Poetry. You can also find me at The Classics Club as one of the new Gen 2 moderators.

dragonflyI taught myself to read when I was four by memorising my Dr Seuss books. I haven’t stopped reading since.

You can find me on Twitter @bronasbooks and Litsy @Brona.