Author: Liz Barr

Words written. Opinions expressed.

No Award reads Auslit (that’s set in England and France): Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil by Melina Marchetta

On By Liz BarrIn australia, books, Uncategorized1 Comment

Bashir “Bish” Ortley, a London cop — currently suspended after his drinking problem led to an incident with another cop — gets a phone call: a bus full of British schoolkids has been bombed in France, and his teenage daughter was on board.

And worse, one of the other passengers is Violette LeBrac, whose mother has been in prison for thirteen years after she confessed to helping her father bomb a supermarket — and Bish was the cop who took four-year-old Violette from her mother’s arms after the arrest.

Violette is the obvious suspect, but before the investigation can even begin, she has disappeared, taking a thirteen-year-old boy with her.

Controversial OzYA opinion: I’m really ambivalent about Melina Marchetta’s work. Looking for Alibrandi was my favourite book in grade nine, but then it became assigned reading for grade twelve advanced English, and didn’t really hold up.

So I’m not a wholehearted Marchetta fan. I’ve liked some of her books, hated one, didn’t bother with her fantasy series. And YET, when I heard that her next book was a thriller aimed at an adult audience, I was intrigued. (Crime fiction: my other passion.) I bought Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil from Kobo and spent the weekend on the couch, inhaling it.

It was wonderful.

Continue reading “No Award reads Auslit (that’s set in England and France): Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil by Melina Marchetta” →

Libraries, politics and social justice

On By Liz BarrIn libraries, politics

Many years ago, I planned a career as a librarian. It didn’t work out, but I still have a lot of feelings about libraries, library management and politics. I’m delighted to present a guest post by Friend of No Award Heidi, on the myth of the library as an apolitical space.

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No Award goes to the movies: Doctor Who – The Power of the Daleks

On By Liz BarrIn media, television

 

This Classic Who serial originally aired in 1966. I’m not sure when it hit Australia, but my dad watched it on the ABC as a child, and the Very First Regeneration (Hartnell to Troughton) made enough of an impression on him that he could describe certain scenes to us kids.

But because early television was ephemeral (and the BBC needed to reuse that tape a bunch of times and then burn it), the serial itself was lost. Only the audio track survived.

To celebrate the serial’s 50th anniversary, and to make a quick buck, the BBC has “restored” the video via animation, and the result has been given a limited cinema run.

Continue reading “No Award goes to the movies: Doctor Who – The Power of the Daleks” →

Called-out author bingo

On By Liz BarrIn books, racism, writing

Does it even matter what inspired this? The sad truth is that all this has happened before, and will happen again, for as long as agents keep repping racist books and publishers keep buying them.

There’s hope for change, in that the massive outpouring of criticism in this instance has persuaded the publisher to move the release date so that the manuscript can be revised, and the attempts to destroy Justina Ireland’s career have been unsuccessful — but this is an extreme case, and meanwhile, how many microaggressions are slipping through?

The world doesn’t need another white lady with an opinion here, so instead, I have made a bingo card for use whenever a pasty-faced writer responds to a call out.

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Second Form at Malory Towers – Chapters 13 and 14

On By Liz BarrIn books, enid blyton

I have a new appreciation for Blyton right now, because I’ve been reading some early Angela Brazil novels, and, well.

Brazil was one of the pioneers of the girls boarding school novel as a genre in its own right, but her early stuff, at least, hasn’t aged well. I don’t just mean the old-fashioned, episodic narrative structure, I mean the bit where the heroine’s sister writes minstrel songs for a hobby (a … different term is used), or the long digression about the inhumanity of the Chinese. I have a new appreciation for Blyton’s “everyone is white, and we’ll just be prejudiced against the Europeans who aren’t English” approach.

(“Appreciation.”)

Anyway, stay tuned for more about Brazil in the podcast I’m launching with my friend Heidi in the new year. Yes, it’s about boarding school stories. Obviously.

When we left Malory Towers, scholarship girl Ellen was flouncing out in tears after Daphne makes a just-barely-inaudible jibe about her limited finances.

Continue reading “Second Form at Malory Towers – Chapters 13 and 14” →

Swimming pool review: North Melbourne Recreation Centre

On By Liz BarrIn melbourne, swimming pools of the world1 Comment

This is a new feature that we’ll be running over summer, assuming that we actually get a summer, seeing as how Melbourne’s Climate Change Dystopia currently allows us one warm, sunny day per week.

(Seriously, it’s late October, and I’m still using my electric blanket. Come on, Melbourne, what are you doing?)

Swimming pool reviews: not just an elaborate excuse to visit the Harold Holt Swim Centre.

Continue reading “Swimming pool review: North Melbourne Recreation Centre” →

Deep Water

On By Liz BarrIn australia, media, television1 Comment

I promised Stephanie that I’d watch SBS miniseries Deep Water over the weekend, and report back to No Award about (a) whether or not it’s worth watching, and (b) whether it contained any amazing/hilarious auscore.

Unfortunately, my plan hit the most Australian snag ever — my internet was too slow to stream the final two episodes via the SBS app. And I’m on the NBN. I mean, really.

(I was attempting to airplay to my AppleTV from my iPad — I might have had better luck hooking my laptop up to the TV, but I was like, come on, it’s 2016, we’re not animals here! Also, I have to rearrange half my living area to make a stable place for the laptop to sit, and it’s all a lot of effort when the series is just $9.99 on iTunes. Or $7.99 in standard definition, and let’s face it, it’s not like I have the bandwidth for HD or a TV that will do it justice.)

The fact that I’m going to pay money to finish the series probably answers question (a) — I was enjoying it, and found it a worthwhile way to spend a Saturday evening (but not enough to move my laptop). But Stephanie was probably expecting a proper post, and I guess that’s fair, so…

Continue reading “Deep Water” →

Second Form at Malory Towers – Chapters 11 and 12

On By Liz BarrIn books, enid blyton, Uncategorized

Previously at Malory Towers:

  • Daphne has come to secretly like Mary-Lou
  • Mary-Lou quite openly adores Daphne
  • The two Mam’zelles are feuding
  • Belinda has been entertaining her peers with satirical illustrations of the Mam’zelles’ French civil war
  • Alicia suggested that Belinda “accidentally” leave her sketches where Jolly Mam’zelle Dupont can find them — but knows it will in fact be Bad Tempered Mam’zelle Rougier who’ll see the unflattering pictures

Continue reading “Second Form at Malory Towers – Chapters 11 and 12” →