If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.
— Milton Friedman, born in 1912
Age Book of the Year shortlist
The Australian Age Book of the Year has been 'on hiatus' for nine years, but it's back this year, and they've now announced the shortlist -- and, as Jason Steger (one of the judges) reports in The Age, Tasmanian authors dominate line up for Age Book of the Year award.
The winner will be announced 3 September.
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The irony of this quote is that celebrated novelist Marilynne Robinson is known precisely for her ability to capture the human experience in graceful prose. Still, if words are poor things, perhaps it is because Robinson has so much to be grateful for. Since the 1980 publication of her debut novel “Housekeeping” (which won the PEN Award for Best First Novel), Robinson has gone on to write a dozen books and collect numerous awards including the Pulitzer Prize (for 2004's "Gilead"), the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, and the National Humanities Medal for her “grace and intelligence in writing.” This quote is a beautiful reminder for the rest of us, too: Taking time to appreciate all we have can be a powerful feeling.