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Summer reads

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Summer in Sydney.

The summer that changed everything

In this Herald series, we asked prominent artists, comedians, authors and journalists to write about their “summer that changed everything”.

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A Mini Cooper in the foreground, and in the background a Ford Cortina Mk I (a car the author once owned in real life).

I love my toy racing cars, but I think they’re ruining my dating life

Is it a thing of beauty or a ridiculous relic? Karl Quinn just can’t decide, but he knows that slot-car racing set is just too damn big.

  • Karl Quinn
Jessie Tu tried skateboarding for a while, but valued her wrists more.

Skateboarding made me realise: I’m a writer – I need my wrists

I wanted to learn something new, something hard, and be gracious at sucking at it. And everyday I got on that skateboard, I fell. I fell several times each hour. I broke my wrist twice.

  • Jessie Tu
The barefoot bride: Jenna Price and her husband, John.

As I walked down the aisle, what was that sinking feeling?

There was rain on her wedding day but the sun eventually came out for a tiptoe through the beachside park.

  • Jenna Price
Smoke from nearby bushfires billows across Moruya in January 2019.  

Amid bushfire’s smoke, there was kindness everywhere you looked

As the fires raged, we huddled in an evacuation centre with 100 other people: it was Armageddon-like.

  • Samantha Selinger-Morris
Victoria Devine had preecalmpsia during the last trimester of her pregnancy and was trolled on social media.

Taylor Swift helped me through one of the toughest times of my life

My pregnancy was not an easy one, but there were some days of magic – including three glorious hours singing at the top of my lungs with some of my closest girlfriends (and 96,000 others) to Taylor Swift.

  • Victoria Devine
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FitzSimons setting off on his adventure.

Shelter from the storm of Africa

At the southern Italian port of Brindisi, I bought a map of Africa and set off on the trip of my life, which felt like a long-running Bob Dylan song.

  • Peter FitzSimons
Ryan Adams at the Metro Theatre, January 2002. Back of author’s head potentially pictured in crowd.

How my fake ID led to a baptism of warm beer and rock’n’roll

What a week in Sydney that was: I caught the train home feeling like I had been dumped by a big, sweaty, wonderful wave.

  • Callan Boys
The author in Santorini, aged 19; and (right) recovering from her accident.

I joined the next idiot tourist procession at the hospital

With Eurail passes and no plans, these “serious girls who had studied hard” were ready to cut loose, and Greece was calling.

  • Jacqueline Maley
LIfe’s a beach for Kumi Taguichi.

Apocalyptic skies, a homecoming like no other

Returning to a very different city, I had a new job, an apartment, friends and was free to enjoy life for the first time in a long time: all solidified by an eerie beach experience.

  • Kumi Taguchi

Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/topic/summer-reads-1m4a