In episode seven of Literary Canon Ball we discuss Sei Shonagon's The Pillow Book. Join us as we discuss the genre bending nature of this thousand-year-old book. And, as always, we have a bunch of excellent recommendations just for you!

What would the world look like if women had had access to and been welcome in the scientific realm from the beginning? The mind boggles. This is not a question Australian scientist and science journalist, Margaret Wertheim really attempts to answer in ‘Pythagoras’ Trousers: God, Physics and the Gender Wars’ but it is a question you’ll be left with after reading.

Published in 1997, ‘Pythagoras’ Trousers’ is a cultural and social history of physics—from ancient Greece to the renaissance to now, or at least now twenty years ago—that does attempt to forge links between physics and religion and the barriers this link served up to women.

Join us as we discuss the connections between physics and religion, women in science and the barriers they have faced and continue to face. Plus we have a seriously great stack of recommendations just for you.

In episode five of Literary Canon Ball we discuss Valeria Luiselli's Sidewalks. Originally published in Mexico in 2010 before being translated into English in 2013, Sidewalks is a collection of essays that explores the places, both real and imagined, that shape our lives. Join us as we discuss place, the role of the writer and the beauty of language. Plus we have a whole swag of brilliant recommendations just for you!

In the fourth episode of Literary Canon Ball we discuss Helen Hodgman’s Blue Skies. Originally published in 1976, Blue Skies was republished earlier this year as part of Text Publishing’s Text Classics series. Join us as we discuss the anti-heroine, the Australian landscape on the page and if we do or do not like this book!

In episode three of Literary Canon Ball we chat about Angie Thomas' debut YA novel, The Hate U Give. Join us as we discuss the beauty of Starr Carter and her family, the complexity of telling political stories and the progressiveness of the YA genre. Plus we have a whole bunch of stellar recommendations for your viewing, listening and reading pleasure.

In the second episode of Literary Canon Ball we chat all about Hang Kang's Human Acts, a novel originally published in Korean in 2014 before being translated and published in English in 2016. Join us as we discuss the body, the weight of grief and trauma and the art of translation.

In the first episode of Literary Canon Ball we chat all about the forgotten classic that is Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle. Join us as we discuss the feminist merits of this book, the relationship between Cassandra and her sister, and whether I Capture the Castle is YA or not YA.

Who the heck are we? What's a canon? And how can you get involved. Listen to our Pilot Episode to get some answers to those questions and more!