To celebrate International Literacy Day 2017, Penguin Books Australia asked on Facebook: What is the first book you remember reading? While I don't recall reading my first book, it must have been a Sooty or Joe 90 Annual. I still have a worn copy of Sooty, but sadly the boy spy Joe 90 went AWOL long ago.
The other night, I watched Their Finest, based on the 2009 novel Their Finest Hour and a Half by Lissa Evans. It's a British period comedy-drama about making propaganda films and life on the home front during The Blitz in London. But it also has a modern take on the role of women in society and the war effort.
A pleasant memory from 2013 popped up in my Facebook timeline the other day. It was a comment I’d made in response to a post by the Sydney Writers' Festival on a “fantastic find” in Sappho Books (Glebe), a treasured secondhand copy of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox.
Penguin Books Australia posted a question on Facebook in August 2017: What is the last book that made you cry? The books could evoke tears of joy or sadness, and I immediately thought of three books, all for the latter category. My top tear-jerkers are Tuesdays with Morrie, Marley and Me, and The Book Thief.
