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The Library Is Open

A blog about books and writing, through rainbow-tinted glasses. Every book gets a gay rating.

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    • Fiction
      • Contemporary
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Review: Mammoth by Chris Flynn

A mammoth and a tyrannosaurus skeleton find themselves in storage, setting the stage for a fascinating and ultimately moving romp through history.

Animals, Australian, Contemporary, Dinosaurs, Environment, Extinction, Fiction, Novel

Review: Half Of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A story of love and war in Nigeria in the 1960s, Half Of A Yellow Sun reaches outwards through history.

Classics, Fiction, Historical, Nigeria, Novel

Review: After Australia (edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad)

“Australia is just a glitch,” writes Wiradjuri writer Hannah Donnelly. After Australia is a collection of speculative fiction that explores what Australia is, and could be.

Anthology, Australian, Fiction, Indigenous history, Indigenous writers, Racism

Review: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Christmas Eve, 1617, an extraordinary storm – almost supernatural – emerges from the Arctic Ocean and, “like a finger snap”,…

Contemporary, Fiction, Novel, Scandinavia, Witches

Review: Truganini by Cassandra Pybus

In Truganini, historian Cassandra Pybus attempts to “release” a woman from colonial myth-making. It is a shattering book.

Australian, Biography, Colonialism, Environment, History, Indigenous history, Nonfiction, Tasmania

Review: Notes From An Apocalypse by Mark O’Connell

Mark O’Connell is a very entertaining, self-effacing and thoughtful companion to the end of the world.

Apocalypse, Climate change, Contemporary, Environment, Nonfiction

Review: A Wizard Of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

A strange, meditative and watery novel.

Classics, Fantasy

Review: Throat by Ellen van Neerven

Ellen van Neerven conjures magic from trauma in this fluid collection full of warmth and light.

Australian, Indigenous writers, Poetry

Review: Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor (translated by Sophie Hughes)

A brutal tale of murder, sex and witchcraft set in the steamy coastal plains of Mexico.

Contemporary, Fiction, Man Booker International, Mexico, Novel, Translation

Review: The Tradition by Jericho Brown

The tradition is violation: of the land, of women, and especially black men’s bodies.

Contemporary, Poetry, Pulitzer, queer, US

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