What I'm reading now
Top Blokes: The Larrikin Myth, Class and Power
The blurb:
The figure of the larrikin goes deep in Australian culture. But who can be a larrikin, and what are its political uses?
This brilliant essay looks at Australian politics through the prisms of class, egalitarianism and masculinity. Lech Blaine examines some "top blokes," with particular focus on Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese, but stretching back to Bob Hawke and Kerry Packer. He shows how Morrison brought a cohort of voters over to the Coalition side, "flipping" what was once working-class Labor culture.
Blaine weaves his own experiences through the essay as he explores the persona of the Aussie larrikin. What are its hidden contradictions - can a larrikin be female, or Indigenous, say? - and how has it been transformed by an age of affluence and image?
What I've read
- The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett
- To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn
- Jingo, by Terry Pratchett
- Year's Best SF 2, edited by David G Hartwell
- Slow Horses by Mick Herron
- The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir
- Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
- Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
- Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang
- An Offer From A Gentleman by Julia Quinn
- Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett
- Men At Arms by Terry Pratchett
- The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
- Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
- Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
- Soul Music by Terry Pratchett
- The Drowning House by Cherie Priest
- Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett
- Midnight at the Houdini by Delilah S Dawson
- Mort, by Terry Pratchett
- The Terraformers, by Annalee Newitz
- Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon by Wole Talabi
- Bury Your Gays, by Chuck Tingle
- We'll Prescribe You A Cat, by Syou Ishida, translated by E Madison Shimoda
- Mean Streak, by Rick Morton
- Here One Moment, by Liane Moriarty
- Buried Deep and Other Stories, by Naomi Novik
Still to read
- Chapelwood: The Borden Dispatches 2, by Cherie Priest
- Mrs Martin's Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan
- The Bass Rock, by Evie Wyld
- The Gods Below, by Andrea Stewart
- The Last Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison and J Michael Straczynski
- Bloom, by Delilah S Dawson
- The Duke Who Didn't, by Courtney Milan
- Blood Covenant, by Alan Baxter
- The Saint of Bright Doors, by Vajra Chandrasekera
- Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Not Quite by the Book, by Julie Hatcher
- Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh
- Requiem Moon, by CT Rwizi
- Primeval Fire, by CT Rwizi
- The World We Make, by NK Jemisin
- Countess, by Suzan Palumbo
- Never Flinch, by Stephen King
- So many Pratchett novels...
On top of this, I've got issues of Clarkesworld, Forever and Khoreo, plus a bunch of year's best anthologies in horror and science fiction to catch up on.
On reserve at the library
- Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Williams
- Dead Lions, Mick Herron
- Gunnawah, Ronnie Salt
- When He Was Wicked, Julia Quinn
- Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
Plan to reread
- The City We Became by NK Jemisin, ahead of reading The World We Make
- Scarlet Odyssey by CT Rwizi, ahead of reading Requiem Moon and Primeval Fire
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