The Afterword

Tag: book-review

  • My Virtual To-Read List

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    Peter
    in

    What books do you want to read? I’ve got a to-read list that, if I’m honest, looks like I’ve been downloading books the way some people buy grocery items: on the assumption they’ll be useful later. But when I line the titles up, it’s not random. It’s a self-portrait. There’s a part of me that’s…

  • The Afterword Studio

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    Peter
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    Come up with a crazy business idea. Here’s my crazy business idea: a micro-publishing house that turns ordinary lives into beautiful short books. Not celebrities. Not people with Wikipedia pages. Just the people who are quietly carrying whole worlds around inside them — the nurse, the migrant, the widow, the tradie, the teacher, the neighbour…

  • The Man Who Sees the Heart of Things

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    Peter
    in

    Describe a man who has positively impacted your life. Some people help you by giving advice. Others help you by asking better questions. Neville belongs firmly in the second category. I first met him many years ago when we were both working for a major bank. We were in a lunchtime Bible study together—two people…

  • Unsettled

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    Peter
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    What book are you reading right now? I’m reading Kate Grenville’s Unsettled: A Journey Through Time and Space at a moment when its questions feel especially close. It’s an honest, steady book — the kind that doesn’t offer comfort, but clarity. Grenville looks at the challenges of the present and then turns to the past…

  • When Truth is Uncomfortable

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    Peter
    in

    Who is the most famous or infamous person you have ever met? I’ve met a number of famous people over the years — famous not for their celebrity, but for what they’ve contributed. Artists, musicians, politicians, clergy, business leaders. The ones who stay with me aren’t those who draw attention, but those whose conviction shows…

  • Favourite Childhood Books: A Reflection

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    Peter
    in

    When people speak of their favourite childhood books, there’s often a glow—a warm memory of being read to at night, of turning pages beneath a doona with a torch, of library visits and beloved stories that shaped the way they saw the world. My childhood wasn’t like that. Books didn’t feature heavily in our home.…

  • Woman Announces She Will Be Seeing the Outside World Again, on a Trial Basis

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    by

    Peter
    in

    Two months after retreating into a semi-permanent relationship with her phone, local woman Clare Montgomery has announced plans to give “offline life” another go. In a statement released from her kitchen bench—via Notes app screenshot—Clare confirmed that she’ll be attempting to reintegrate with real life, as long as it doesn’t require group activities or being…