Went to the library for two new reads: The Chilling by Riley James (2024) and Your Asian Veggie Patch: A guide to growing and cooking delicious Asian vegetables, herbs and fruits by Connie Cao (2024). At this stage I am keeping up with my reading, but getting a bit fatigued writing book reviews. i.e. I am not the kind of reviewer relying on “oh my god I looooooove this book” sort of vibes. Instead, I want my reviews to actually offer objective, constructive and meaningful criticism. So, yeah, it is hard.
Talking about library: Despite its prominent role as a historical, cultural and literary institution, it is not often that the State Library of Victoria makes it to our national news. So I was delighted by the article featuring SLV’s “World of the Book” exhibition that I wrote about back in July. The ABC News story can be found here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-11/ancient-texts-hyakumanto-darani-world-of-the-book-exhibition-slv/105611148
I love how some of the displays highlight the making of books and other printed texts from ancient times. Particularly this quote: “Not just what’s in the book, but how is it made? What does its form tell us about its cultural context, its meaning and about our own assumptions of it?”
Also interesting is how the curator puts original texts and translations side-by-side, to showcase how cultures are “reflected, refracted and reframed”. And what is the first science fiction novel written by a woman? Margaret Cavendish published The Blazing World in 1666, so the 1688 edition in the SLV collection is early enough, I suppose.
Image credit: “Cyanotype for Beginners” class hosted by Lebanese Australian artist Deanna Hitti via The Art Room (https://the-art-room.com.au/classes/cyanotype-for-beginners/).
(Day 73 #WarmWinterRead #WWR25 via @librarieschangelives)
Voices under the Sun 陽光下的聲音 