Readings Monthly

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Readings Monthly

Free
may 2009
Readings Monthly
p h o t o g r a p h y o f t h e s tat e l i b r a ry b y A n d r e w L l o y d
your independent book, music and DVD newsletter • events • new releases • reviews
New Readings shop at the State Library >>p3
May book, CD & DVD new releases. More inside >>
tAust fiction
Reunion
Andrea Goldsmith
Was $32.95
Now $27.95
>> p9
Fiction
The Little Stranger
Sarah Waters
Was $32.99
Now $27.95
>> p10
NON-fiction
The Red Highway
Nicolas Rothwell
$32.95
>> p15
dvd
Slumdog Millionaire
$34.95 (2 DVDs)
$44.95 (Bluray)
>> p25
pop cd
Together Through
Life
Bob Dylan
$21.95 CD
$35.95 CD &
DVD
>> p27
classical
Monteverdi: Teatro
D'Amore
Christina Pluhar,
L'Arppegiata, Philippe
Jaroussky, Nuria Rial
$30.95
>> p30
May event highlights. More Readings events inside >>
Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie
at Readings
hawthorn
Andrew Davidson &
John Armstrong
at readings
carlton
Norman Doidge
At readings
hawthorn
All Shops Open 7 Days Carlton 309 Lygon St 9347 6633 Hawthorn 701 Glenferrie Rd 9819 1917 Malvern 185 Glenferrie Rd 9509 1952
Port Melbourne 253 Bay St 9681 9255 St Kilda 112 Acland St 9525 3852 email readings@readings.com.au shop online at www.readings.com.au
From
the Editor
NOW FASTER AND WITH MORE TITLES AND REVIEWS
WWW.READINGS.COM.AU
Resurrected Waugh
Last month we reported on new
novels from the likes of Roberto
Bolano and Jack Kerouac. The
trend in posthumous publishing
continues, with the news that
Picador has acquired the rights
to an early unpublished Evelyn
Waugh novel, Perfect Tense,
written in the early 1930s – the
same period as comic classics
Vile Bodies and Scoop. It’s the
story of an aspirational but hapless pageboy at a London hotel
who is embroiled in a scam to
steal the priceless diamond ring
of an airhead socialite, so that
it can be given back to her by
her cowardly arriviste fiancé. In
return for stealing the ring, the
young pageboy demands that
he be taught proper etiquette
and introduced into polite
society, where he brings disaster
upon everyone he meets. Publication is slated for 2010.
BOOKS CDS DVDS EVENTS INTERVIEWS REVIEWS
SEE HUNDREDS OF BOOK,
CD & DVD REVIEWS, READ
OUR EXCLUSIVE AUTHOR
INTERVIEWS, FIND EVENT
INFORMATION ~ AS WELL
AS SEARCH, BROWSE,
AND BUY ONLINE.
When a young man is given the chance
to rewrite his future, he doesn’t realize the
price he will pay for giving up his past
Raised by his mother in the
slums of Casablanca, Youssef
has always had big dreams.
And then one day, the
unattainable is suddenly within
reach when he discovers that
his wealthy father – whom he’d
been led to believe was dead
– is very much alive and eager
to care for the son he never
knew. His future seems assured
– until a reversal of fortune
sends him back to the streets
of Casablanca. Trapped once
again by his class, painfully
aware of the limitations of his
prospects, Youssef becomes
easy prey for a fringe Islamic
group known simply as the Party.
Marquez still
cooking
And don’t write off 82-year-old
literary titan Gabriel Garcia
Marquez, who recently told
a newspaper he doesn’t ‘do
anything but write’. Just don’t
ask him when we might expect
another published offering. ‘My
job is to write, not to publish,’
he said. ‘I’ll know when the
pastries that I have in the oven
are ready for the eating.’
‘A tale of contemporary Morrocco straddling the personal and the
political, told simply, beautifully, with heart and panache. Lalami
has talent to burn.’ — Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan
Pride and Extreme
Prejudice
Austen fever has hit new and
surprising heights recently.
Elton John’s planned film, Pride
and Predator, has been beaten
to the punch with the stealth
bestseller literary ‘mash-up’
To find us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube,
follow the links at penguin.com.au
C I N E M A
An uncompromising local romance
set in Australia's red centre.
N O VA
GOMORRAH
A film by
Warwick Thornton
2
C
- Jo Case
I
GRAND PRIX CANNES 08
Directed by Matteo Garrone
Based on the bestselling book,
Garrone's underworld thriller
is a Cannes prizewinner.
OPENS MAY 14
NOVEMBER
OPENS MAY207
Make a purchase at Readings for your chance
to receive one of 25 double passes to either film.
Atticus Beats Bible
for Inspiration
In uncertain times, we could
all do with a little inspiration. Perhaps it’s in this spirit
that a recent UK survey asked
readers to nominate their most
inspirational books. Harper
Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was
named the most inspirational
book, beating The Bible (at
second place). That makes sense
to me. More strangely, Dave
Pelzer’s controversial, grisly,
misery memoir A Child Called
It came third, followed by Men
Are From Mars, Women are from
Venus (John Gray). The Diary
of Anne Frank was number five.
What books have inspired you?
Email your pick to jocase@
optusnet.com.au with 'Inspirational Books' in the subject
header. We'll publish results
online next month, in an effort
to make our own, much more
genuinely inspiring list.
R E C O M M E N D S
“a love story with
heart and humour.”
Screen International
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
(Quirk, PB, $26.95), by Seth
Grahame-Smith, featuring ‘allnew scenes of bone-crunching
zombie mayhem’. So, when
Elizabeth is slighted by Mr Darcy at the ball – ‘she is tolerable,
but not handsome enough to
tempt me’ – the ‘warrior code’
demands she ‘must avenge her
honour ... She meant to follow
this proud Mr Darcy outside
and open his throat.’ When
a crowd of ‘unmentionables’
pour into the ballroom, she is
distracted by joining her sisters
in beheading the zombies, impressing Darcy no end. Helen
Fielding eat your heart out!
(Literally, perhaps.) At the time
of writing, the novel is number
three on the New York Times
bestseller list.
N
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380 LYGON ST CARLTON
www.cinemanova.com.au
This Month’s News
Literary news of all kinds, award winners, Readings shop news, and more.
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DVD new releases
il book, CD &
Apr
The Enchantress
of Florence
Salman Rushdie
$32.95 $27.95
>> p8
Something to
Tell You
Hanif Kureshi
$32.95
>> p10
The Sum of
Our Days
Isabel Allende
$32.95 $27.95
>> p15
Hiroshima
Mon Amour
$29.95
>> p25
Here Is What Is
Daniel Lanois
$25.95
>> p27
iJacaris de Murcia:
18th Century Spanish
Guitar Music
$14.95
>> p30
ents inside >>
Stop! Re-subscribe !
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Merri Creek
Planting and BBQ
Readings Environment Committee invites you to a planting
event organised by the Merri
Creek Management Committee.
Help celebrate MCMC's 20th
Anniversary by joining in this
BIG planting, part of a project
to restore the natural habitat of
the Merri Creek. All gardening
equipment, including gloves
is provided. Where: Rushall
Station North Fitzroy, Melway
map 30 D12. When: Sunday
31 May, 10am–1pm. RSVP:
michelle.calligaro@readings.
com.au.
DEN
FRE
Read
ings M
onthl
y
ly
More from Gore
Al Gore will return to the
subject of global warming in
a new book. Our Choice will
return to the milieu of Gore's
2006 bestseller, An Inconvenient
Truth. Gore says the book would
offer plans for addressing the
climate crisis while creating
jobs and promoting economic
growth that were developed
through meetings he held with
scientists, engineers and policy
experts. US publisher Rodale
said that the book will be published on 3 November 2009
and would be printed on 100
percent recycled paper, with all
proceeds being donated to the
non-profit Alliance for Climate
Protection.
John Button Prize
The newly created John Button
Prize awards $20,000 to the
best piece of non-fiction writing
on politics or public policy in
the previous 12 months. The
patron of the prize is Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd; the
impressive panel of judges
comprises J.M. Coetzee, Bob
Carr, Kerry O’Brien, Judith
Brett and Morag Fraser (chair).
The due date for entries (which
must have been published as
books, in the media, in journals, on stage or online) is 31
May 2009. For more details see
www.johnbuttonprize.com.
HAR
Readings at SLV
The State Library of Victoria
is Australia's oldest free public
library and the first of Victoria's key cultural institutions.
Founded in 1854 when Victoria
was barely 20 years old, the
Library has continued to reflect
the cultural and social development of the state and its people
for over 150 years. Regular
For many years it had been the
hope of the library board to also
establish a bookshop within the
premises; finding a suitable location in this grand heritage listed
building wasn't easy. Ultimately
a space in the marbled library
foyer was chosen, mainly for its
accessibility – over one million
people stream through those
doors every year! The library
also decided that they did not
want to be booksellers and
called for expressions of interest
from Melbourne's bookselling
community. We put our hands
up straight away and after a
long process the Library decided
Readings provided the best fit.
Readings at the State Library
of Victoria opened on the 23rd
of April to coincide with the
start of the marvellous new free
exhibition (curated by Steve
Grimwade) – The Independent
Type: Books and Writing in Victoria. Victoria's literary culture
is unique, as evidenced by Melbourne's recent designation as
a UNESCO City of Literature
and The Independent Type looks
at the history and diversity of
Melbourne's literary life that led
to our designation.
Melbourne Prize
for Literature 2009
The $60,000 Melbourne
Prize for Literature 2009 and
$30,000 Best Writing Award
2009 will recognise and reward
excellence and talent amongst
Victorian authors across all
writing genres. Entries open on
11 May and close on 17 July
2009. For more information
visit www.melbourneprizetrust.
org or call the Melbourne Prize
Trust on (03) 9685 9276.
FREUD
CONFERENCE 2009
The 2009 Freud Conference,
‘Vermeer, Orpheus and “The
Blues”: A journey into creativity’ will be held Saturday 23
May, 8.30am – 5.30pm. The
Treacy Centre, 126 The Avenue,
Parkville, Melbourne. Please contact Christine Hill for conference
enquiries (email: christine.hill@
med.monash.edu.au) or see www.
freudconference.com.
AEL
Miles Franklin
Competition
Thank you to
everyone who
sent in Miles
Franklin
Award
shortlist
predictions. With the shortlist
now announced, we have
decided to run a second
competition! Can you pick the
winner? Please email your
prediction to clare.mckenzie@
readings.com.au with 'MF
winner' in the title. You could
win a win a selection of Annie's
Lane wines, a double pass to the
MTC’s production of The Man
from Mukinupin and a copy of
each title in the longlist. Entries
close 17 June.
So come along and visit the
library, The Independent Type
and Readings at the Library –
although we are small we have
an eclectic range of exciting
current publications as well as
all State Library collection-based
publications and a sampling
from our famous bargain table.
Even if we haven't got the book
you want we can get it from our
other shops within hours.
We are open in the foyer
10am–6pm, seven days a week.
MICH
users of the State Library will
have seen many changes at what
must be one of Melbourne's
most loved institutions. Changes that include the refurbishment of the grand spaces such as
the famous domed reading room
and the creation of exciting new
spaces such as Experimedia,
making the collection accessible
and relevant to a wide range of
Victorians. Part of the plan to
make the library more welcoming was the incorporation of the
highly successful cafe Mr Tulk in
the library's northern wing.
Miles Franklin
Shortlist
The shortlist has been announced for the 2009 Miles
Franklin. In alphabetical order,
the contenders are: Breath by
Tim Winton (Hamish Hamilton, HB, $45); Ice by Louis
Nowra (A&U, PB, $32.95);
The Pages by Murray Bail
(Text, HB, $34.95); The Slap
by Christos Tsiolkas (A&U,
PB, $32.95); and Wanting by
Richard Flanagan (Knopf, HB,
$35). The winner will be announced on 18 June.
Patti Sm
ith
October
book,
FICT ION
Kate Grenv
The Lieute ille
nant
$45.00
$35.95
>> p10
FICT ION
John Le
Carré
A Most Wante
d Man
$XX.XX
$27.95
>> p10
October
event
in conver
sation at
Reading
CD & DV
s >>p2
D new rel
eases. M
ore inside
>>
FICT ION
Marilynne
Robinson
Home
$45.00
$35.95
>> p12
DVD
The Coun
terfeiters
$34.95
>> p28
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Chimneys
Afire
$29.95
>> p31
Reading
s events
BRU CE
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NOVA MA
CLA SSIC
Schubert: AL
Lieder
Bernada
Fink
& Gerol
d Hube
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$34.95
>> p34
inside >>
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3
Readings Events in May
All our Readings book and music events are free, unless otherwise stated. For updates on events listed here, and for more information about next
months events, check our website: www.readings.com.au. Alternatively, call the shop where the event is to be held, or the booking number provided.
5
Stephen Cummings
in conversation with
Brian Nankervis
Legendary
Melbourne
musician
Stephen
Cummings
reveals some
inside truths about the music
business, and he pulls no
punches. Will It Be Funny
Tomorrow, Billy? (Hardie Grant,
PB, Normally $34.95, Our
special price $29.95) recounts
anecdotes of his childhood:
getting on Michael Gudinski’s
bad side; getting older and
developing back problems (and
seeing shiatsu Nazis); and the
internal politics of rock bands.
Tuesday 5 May, 6.30pm,
Readings Carlton. Free, but
please book on 9347 6633.
6
Andrea Goldsmith
in conversation
with gideon Haigh
We are delighted to have Andrea in our shop talking about
her new novel Reunion (Fourth
Estate, PB, Normally $32.99,
Our special price $27.95).
Wednesday 6 May, 6.30pm,
7
Jo Seagar
The hugely popular Kiwi cook
brings her delicious and completely accessible recipes with
her tonight as she celebrates the
release of Cook School Recipes
(Random, PB, $39.95). Join us
for a glass of wine … and more.
Thursday 7 May, 4pm, Readings Port Melbourne. Free,
but please book on 9681 9255.
7
Bill Granger
Bill Granger is one of Australia’s
best-known cooks. His seventh
beautiful book Feed Me Now
(HarperCollins, HB, Normally $49.99, Our special price
4
$44.95) is a vision of tried-andtested recipes, told with good
sense and delight. Thursday 7
May, 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. $15 per person includes
wine by Annie’s Lane and tastes
from his book. Bookings essential 9819 1917.
9
Peter Combe
KiddyWinks is a new CD from
Australia’s best-loved, threetimes ARIA-awarded children’s
song writer Peter Combe,
famous for his songs like Wash
Your Face in Orange Juice (Mr
Clicketty Cane). KiddyWinks is
particularly suited to preschool/junior primary-aged
children. Saturday 9 May,
10am at Readings Hawthorn
and 12 noon at Readings Port
Melbourne. Free, but please
book at the respective shop.
9
Pure Shit
They banned it, slammed it and
now after 35 years lost in the
wilderness comes Bert Deling’s
1975 masterpiece Pure Shit,
the most controversial film ever
to be made about Australia's
heroin subculture. Its tools are
speed, rock 'n' roll, humour
and kaleidoscopic colour.This
is uncompromising Australian
cinema at its best. Together
with 3RRR’s Film Buffs' Crew,
join us to meet the actors, the
producers and the directors.
Free poster giveaways. Saturday
9 May, 12pm to 2pm. 3RRR
Live Broadcast. Readings Carlton. Free, no need to book.
11
Bob Ellis
From the suicide bombing of
Glasgow Airport and the flooding of England to the horse flu
and the Bhutto assassination,
from the rise of Turnbull and
Rudd to the slow disintegration of Howard, Ruddock,
Costello, and Bush, to the great
economic meltdown and the
night of Obama’s audacious victory, Ellis took notes, attended
funerals, went to the cricket,
wrote mordant midnight verse,
and pondered humanity’s most
hectic interim in quite a while.
And So it Went (Viking, PB,
$35) is a book to re-read and
savour. Bob Ellis is a screenwriter, speechwriter, and
political essayist. Monday
11 May, 6.30pm, Readings
Carlton. Free, but please
book on 9347 6633.
13
Julian Burnside
Robert Manne
MUP’s Little
Books on Big
Themes pair
leading
Australian
thinkers and
cultural figures with some of
the big themes in life. Julian’s
topic, On Privilege. takes in
politicians and infamous legal
cases, he asks: what is privilege
and who has it? Julian Burnside, QC, is an Australian
barrister deeply involved in
human rights work, particularly
in relation to refugees. He is
president of Liberty Victoria.
Wednesday 13 May, 6.30pm,
Readings Hawthorn. Free, but
14
Nicolas Rothwell
Sally Warhaft
On returning from a war zone,
Nicolas Rothwell began to
explore the deserts and towns,
sleepy coastline and hidden
worlds of Australia’s north. As
he traveled, his journeys gathered momentum and finds a
shape – as told in The Red Highway (Black Inc., PB, $32.95).
He has unforgettable, even
mystical encounters. It becomes
a quest – for knowledge and a
sense of home – that builds to a
stunning climax. Nicholas will
chat with editor of The Monthly,
Sally Warhaft. Thursday 14
May, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, but please book on
9347 6633.
18
David Ebershoff
David Ebershoff’sThe 19th
Wife (Black Swan, PB, $32.95)
combines epic historical fiction
with a modern murder mystery. It is 1875, and Ann Eliza
Young has recently separated
from her powerful husband,
Brigham Young, prophet and
leader of the Mormon Church.
Expelled and an outcast, Ann
Eliza embarks on a crusade to
end polygamy in the United
States. Before he flies up to the
Sydney Writers' Festival, come
meet this enthralling storyteller.
Monday 18 May, 6.30pm,
Readings Hawthorn. Free, but
please book 9819 1917.
19
George Friedman
Together with the Australian
Institute of International Affairs,
Black Inc. and Cinema Nova we
are proud to bring you global
intelligence expert George
Friedman. In The Next 100 Years
(Black Inc., PB, $29.95), he
offers a lucid, highly readable
forecast of the changes we can
expect around the world during
the twenty-first century. George
Friedman is the founder and
chief intelligence officer of
STRATFOR, which analyses
and forecasts trends in world
affairs. He is the author of
several books, including The
Future of War. Tuesday 19 May,
6.30pm, Cinema Nova. Free,
20
Nicholas Evans
Dying Words: Endangered
Languages and What They Have
to Tell Us by Nicholas Evans,
formally of Uni Melb Linguistics Dept, will be launched in
the swish grounds of Alcaston
Gallery, a contemporary Australian art gallery dedicated to
the promotion of indigenous
art works by living artists
through an extensive exhibition program and series of
open education forums.
Wednesday 20 May, 6pm,
Alcaston Gallery, 11 Brunswick
Street, Fitzroy. Free, but please
RSVP to: Nikki at art@alcastongallery.com.au by 13 May.
24
Kids' Authors Unite!
Join us for a lively morning of
stories from a variety of authors
for young children. Enjoy a
coffee as the authors read and
entertain! Juliet Williams and
Elizabeth Botté will talk about
their picture book The Giggle
Gum Tree (Carindale, $24.95);
Goldie Alexander and Michele
Gaudion will discuss Lame
Duck Protest (IP Kidz, HB,
$24.95), a picture book that
deals with issues of conservation
and wildlife preservation;
David Reiter will talk about
his novel Global Cooling (IP,
PB, $15.95), the second in
a series of environmentally
conscious but enjoyable novels
for kids; Di Bates and Marjory
Gardner will discuss their nonfiction book, Aussie Kid Heroes
(IP, PB, $24.95). Sunday 24
May, 11am, Readings Port
book on 9681 9255.
24
Catherine Deveny
& Barry Jones
Catherine Deveny, Age columnist and author, will chat with
the Hon. Barry Jones about all
things pertaining to a good life.
What could be better on a Sunday afternoon? 24 May, 4pm
to 6pm, North Fitzroy Star
Hotel, 36 St Georges Road,
Fitzroy North. Please phone
9553 6810 or email artman2netspace.net.au to book. $25
(full) $20 (concession).
25
Christian Lander
Kenneth Nguyen
On the release of this book
Stuff White People Like
(Hardie Grant, PB, $24.95)
by American author Christian
Lander, Kenneth Nguyen
asked in his column in the
Age: ‘What makes a true
Melburnian? Loving Cate and
buying Murakami at Readings?’
Christian reckons they love
nothing better than cycling
down to the local farmers'
market on the weekend,
discussing their difficult break
ups, etc. Join us for a lively
debate. Lots of insight and
laughter guaranteed. And we’ll
serve cleanskin wine too!
Monday 25 May, 6.30pm,
25
Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie
After the
opening
address of
the Sydney
Writers'
Festival,
Chimamanda will visit
Melbourne to take us through
her opening remarks. The Thing
Around Your Neck (Harper,
PB, $32.99) is her latest book.
Chimamanda's first novel
Purple Hisbiscus was longlisted
for the Booker; Half a Yellow
Sun won the 2007 Orange
Prize for Fiction. Monday
Hawthorn. Free, but please
book on 9819 1917.
Want to do something with
your Tuesday night?
Join us at Readings Carlton for
cheap red wine and literary discussion, Melbourne music and
international thoughts. We will
be covering the deep dark parts
of our souls as we bring together two authors from the Sydney
Writers Festival in conversation
with two loved Melburnians,
Prof John Armstrong, from the
University of Melbourne, and
acclaimed singer-songwriter of
My Friend the Chocolate Cake
fame David Bridie.
26
John Armstrong
Andrew Davidson
When a renowned philosopher
chats with author of the
bestselling novel, The Gargoyle
(Text, PB, $32.95), we can
expect the conversation to be
tackling the big questions in
life: love, loss and loyalty. The
nameless and beautiful narrator
of The Gargoyle is driving along
a dark road when he is dazzled
by what seems to be a flight of
arrows. This novel will take you
on a wild and vivid journey:
it will have you believing in
love, miracles and redemption.
26
David Bridie
in conversation
with Philipp Meyer
Philipp Meyer’s debut novel
American Rust (Faber, PB,
$32.99) has received incredible
early praise from names
including Patricia Cornwell,
and mentor Colm Toibin –
completely backed by early US
reviews. American Rust is a heartwrenching, unputdownable tale
of redemption and survival set
in a beautiful but economically
devastated steel-mining town
in the rust-belt of western
Pennsylvania. Tuesday 26 May,
8pm, Readings Carlton. Free,
26
Mark Kitto
China Cuckoo (Constable
& Robinson, PB) is the true
story of an eccentric Sinophile
Englishman and his Chinese seachange. In booming Shanghai
in the 1990s, Mark Kitto hit
the big time. As a publisher,
he created the most successful
English language magazines
in China. But on the verge
of signing a ground-breaking
deal, it all came crashing down.
Variously accused of being a spy,
a pornographer and a terrorist,
Mark retreated to Moganshan, a
beautiful and isolated mountain
village. Funny, fascinating and
perceptive, China Cuckoo is
about getting on with life in
the most unlikely of places.
Asialink Centre, University of
book on 9347 6633.
26
Norman Doidge
Dr Norman Doidge, author
of the phenomenal bestseller,
The Brain That Changes Itself
(Scribe, PB, $35) will be at
Readings Hawthorn for one
night only. The Brain That
Changes Itself explores the
astonishing new scientific
discovery called neuroplasticity,
which is overthrowing the
centuries-old notion that the
adult human brain is fixed and
unchanging. Using personal
stories from the heart of this
neuroplasticity revolution,
Dr Doidge has written an
immensely moving, inspiring
book that will permanently
alter the way we look at our
brains, human nature, and
human potential. Tuesday
Hawthorn. Free, but please
book on 9819 1917 – book
quickly. Standing room only.
27
Tash Aw
The Map of the Invisible World
(HarperCollins, PB, $32.99)
is the much-anticipated second
novel from the author of the
award-winning The Harmony
Silk Factory. Wednesday
Carlton. Free, but please book
on 9347 6633.
28
Dominic Knight
A romantic comedy that’s
equal parts bitingly cynical
and naïvely idealistic, Disco
Boy (Random, PB, $32.95) is a
fantastic first novel by the very
talented Dominic Knight, one
of the founders of The Chaser
comedy group, and writer for
ABC-TV’s The Chaser’s War
on Everything. His first novel
is either a highly original and
cleverly observed work of fiction, or a thinly-veiled whinge
about his own life. You decide.
Thursday 28 May, 6.30pm,
30
Mal Peet with M.T.
Anderson
Two well-loved young adult
writers are coming to town. If
you love adventure stories and
stories with a twist and a twirl,
you will already know these two
international authors. If you
don’t …why not?
Saturday 30 May, 10am, Readings Hawthorn. Free, but please
book on 9819 1917.
And in June
Keep an eye on our website
(www.readings.com.au) for
our huge range of June events.
5
Special Feature
The Outsiders
Tony Birch interviews Craig Silvey about his new novel, Jasper Jones
Craig Silvey started his career
with a bang with his first novel,
Rhubarb. Seven years later,
his new novel, Jasper Jones
(Allen & Unwin, PB, Normally $29.95, Our special price
$24.95), has the literary world
abuzz. Tony Birch spoke to him
for Readings for our New Australian Writing Feature Series.
C
raig Silvey’s first novel,
Rhubarb, was published to critical acclaim in 2004. The excitement surrounding the book’s
release quickly spread from his
home state, Western Australia,
to the eastern seaboard. The
reception and following success
of Rhubarb resulted in Silvey
receiving a prestigious Sydney
Morning Herald Best Young
Novelist award in 2007. Those
who have been eagerly awaiting a second novel from Silvey
will be pleased. Jasper Jones is an
engrossing and immediate pageturner that evokes an influential
literary history while producing
an original and rewarding narrative in its own right.
The story is set in the fictional
WA rural town of Corrigan
in 1965, and begins with the
rattling at a bedroom window in the dead of night, the
mysterious death of a young
girl, and the murky secrets held
in the bottom of a swamp. The
tragic circumstances that follow
this eventful night involve the
outcast Jasper Jones himself, a
‘mixed race’ boy, born of shame,
secrecy and town gossip, and
a pair of self-imposed internal
exiles of Corrigan. One is the
young teenager, Charlie Bucktin,
the narrator of the novel, while
the second is his closest friend,
Jeffrey Lu, a boy of Vietnamese
background, who confronts the
6
racial taunts regularly hurled at
him with a razor-sharp intellect
and the genius of a pull shot to
the boundary.
Corrigan is a town steeped in
mystery, where the barely hidden secrets and whispers of the
past litter the landscape. It is
also a place wrought by tragedy
and loss; a theme explored in
the book through the emotions,
thoughts and exchanges between
Charlie and Jasper. While Charlie in particular is racked with
guilt and despair over his own
actions as well as those of others,
he also articulates a poignancy
and tenderness beyond his years
on realising that he must confront his own dishonesty.
While the aggression of Corrigan is often apparent, it is the
potential for violence pervading the town that provides a
relentless tension throughout the
book. I was particularly struck
by the degree to which past
actions haunt the contemporary
landscapes of town; whether it
be through the fragile relationships within families, the sense
of shame and subsequent secrecy
that can destroy the concept
of love itself, and the inability
of a community to cope with
and accept difference, rendering notions of the communal
redundant.
I was also interested to what
extent the fictional Corrigan
might reflect the realities of
‘ Jasper Jones
contains a
sharp and
lively narrative
drive found
in all great
storytelling ...
while inviting
us to reflect
more deeply
on the qualities
and flaws of
the human
condition.’
life in rural WA. Silvey, while
drawing to some degree on his
own experience growing up in
a somewhat similar place to
Corrigan, had no desire to write
a book that was parochial. He
is interested in universal themes
that reflect and question a
wider experience than his own,
and those conveyed through
and possibly restricted by the
‘regional’ novel. With the writing of Jasper Jones, he wanted
‘it [Corrigan] to be recognised
as a country town that could be
anywhere in Australia. I would
hope that it reflects a broader
Australian experience'.
The novel leaves us with
important questions to ponder
about the ‘Australian experience’. In discussing this theme
in the book, Silvey speculates
on whether Australia really did
‘come of age’ during the 1960s,
the period when the book is
set, as is often claimed by social
commentators. Or did we
instead ‘learn to be adult, rather
than grow up?’ (For the author,
there is a subtle but important
difference between the two
ideals.)
Questions such as this are testament to both the creative and
intellectual range of this novel.
Or to put it more simply, Jasper
Jones contains a sharp and lively
narrative drive found in all great
storytelling (no doubt assisted
by a superb and authentic use
of dialogue), while inviting us
to reflect more deeply on the
qualities and flaws of the human
condition.
While covering the familiar
territory of the coming-of-age
novel, Silvey projects some
fundamental moral questions
onto each of the teenage boys,
who in various ways represent
for the author, ‘what it’s like to
grow up smart or poor or Asian
or black or shy or tentative in
rural Australia’.
Personally, I identified with the
young Jasper Jones, in particular.
I loved his cheek and his courage, as much as I felt dismayed
by the saddened circumstances
of his life. To some degree, Jasper represents those people who
are too often ostracised by the
wider community. Those who,
based on Silvey’s own experience
of living in a rural town, become
‘the fall-guy, an easy target', often held to blame for all the ills
of a town. ‘It seemed that people
were assigned these character
categories,’ Silvey reflects, ‘which
they could not free themselves
from once they were in place.’
Jeffrey Lu and his parents are
also outsiders. They are a Vietnamese family living in a country town when Australia itself
is in conflict over a war being
fought elsewhere (a reiterated
theme of Australian history).
Jeffrey is often abused, and appears to accept his mistreatment
with undue deference – until
he conjures his (sweet) revenge.
Which is not at all surprising,
having since discovered that
Craig Silvey feels that ‘Jeffrey
may well be my proudest literary
creation'.
No character appears to be a
comfortable insider in the town
of Corrigan. While Jeffrey and
Jasper are clearly marked as outsiders, discomfort and alienation
visits most everyone in the town.
There is the mysterious Mad
Jack Lionel, a seemingly dangerous ‘village idiot’ archetype who
has a far more complex story to
tell; Charlie’s parents, who are all
but estranged from each other
from the outset of the novel;
Eliza Wishart, a girl Charlie falls
in love with, who just can’t wait
to defy her parents; and the local
gang of ratbag teenagers, whose
attempts to bully and humiliate
Charlie and Jeffrey serve only to
highlight their own marginality.
Jasper Jones is also a book about
first love and the depth of
friendship that can hold outsid-
‘Charlie escapes
into ‘‘his own
mythologised
utopia, a place
where intellect
is praised, where
writers are beloved and books
are revered.’’’
ers together when faced with
adversity. It is also unashamedly
a book about books. Those of us
who have read throughout our
lives will appreciate, as Charlie
Bucktin does, the sustenance of
the soul that comes with reading
– and re-reading – favourite novels such as To Kill A Mockingbird
(the themes of which resonate
subtly throughout Jasper Jones).
These books were the emotional
security blankets that nurtured
us through difficult times as
teenagers. Therefore, we remain
fiercely loyal to the fictional
characters that subsequently became our lifelong companions.
This is a sensibility that Silvey
and his own fictional companion, Charlie Bucktin, are acutely
aware of.
Holden Caulfield and Huckleberry Finn make cameo
appearances in Jasper Jones, as
does Atticus Finch himself, the
quintessential fictional father fig-
ure that many of us longed for as
teenagers. Atticus is both a tower
of strength, and the loving and
wise parent. (This idyllic image
was enhanced further, of course,
when Gregory Peck became Atticus on screen.)
It is obvious that Charlie sees
something of Atticus Finch
in his own father, a quiet
and reserved man, who both
introduces his son to the world
of books while secretly scratching away a novel of his own,
Patterson’s Curse. Silvey explains
that it is ‘literature that provides
Charlie with his own method
of escape', not only from the
landscapes of his country town,
but the emotional predicament
he subsequently finds himself
in. Charlie escapes into ‘his own
mythologised utopia, a place
where intellect is praised, where
writers are beloved and books
are revered'. Amen to that.
Jasper Jones is a wonderful book,
containing an ensemble cast
of rich characters and several
sub-plots that maintain their
own level of enthralling drama.
And overlaying the lot is one of
the major issues of experience,
of life, found at the heart of all
good novels. For Craig Silvey,
‘it’s about that moment where
the bubble is burst and you’re
suddenly exposed to the real
truth of things and the blind
trust of childhood dissolves'.
Special Offer
Readings is offering Craig
Silvey’s Jasper Jones (A&U)
for the special price of
$24.95 (normally $29.95).
Jasper Jones
Craig Silvey
Staff review
Craig Silvey’s
much-awaited
second novel is
very different
from the elegiac
Rhubarb – but
it’s every bit as good, if not
better. And, like Rhubarb’s play
on the Beatles song Eleanor
Rigby, with its blind, achingly
lonely protagonist of the same
name, Jasper Jones draws on a
range of literary and pop
culture references, from Mark
Twain and To Kill a Mockingbird to Audrey Hepburn’s
Holly Golightly.
It’s a riveting tale, set in 1960s
small-town Australia, about a
young, bookish adolescent who
is drawn into events surrounding the grim disappearance of a
local girl when the solitary Jasper Jones, a rebellious mixedrace older boy (in the town’s
eyes, ‘a Thief, a Liar, a Thug, a
Truant’) comes asking for his
help. Alongside the mystery
of the missing girl is a forensic
examination of the small town
of Corrigan, a place beset by
undercurrents of racism and
fear of the unknown.
‘I think Jasper Jones speaks the
truth in a community of liars,’
says Charlie. Indeed, nearly
everyone here has something to
hide, including Charlie’s father,
an Atticus Finch doppelganger
who believes books are the
font of all wisdom (especially
Mark Twain), and his caustic,
unhappy mother, whose glare
‘could make a eunuch out of
Errol Flynn’. Some of the most
gripping sequences involve
Charlie’s best friend Jeffrey Lu
and his family, Vietnamese
refugees who bear the brunt
of burgeoning anger about
the war. Deeply thoughtful,
remarkably funny and playful,
this is a gloriously Australian
book about outsiders and
secrets (both ordinary and
extraordinary).
Jo Case is Editor of
Readings Monthly
7
Q&A with Andrea Goldsmith
Jo Case interviews Andrea Goldsmith about her latest novel, Reunion (4th Estate, PB, Was $32.95, Now $27.95)
Reunion is a
wonderfully
rich and lively
novel of ideas;
but it’s also very
character-driven.
What came first,
the characters or
the ideas? Did you have to make
a conscious effort to keep them
balanced – not to let one override
the other?
The ideas always come first for
me. I have a very low tolerance
to boredom; a few juicy ideas
will hold my interest through
the long years of writing a novel.
The nature of enduring friendship, obsessive love, a passion for
work which is blindly irresistible, the seesaw of risk/certainty
which is rarely balanced in a
fully lived life, these were the
ideas that fuelled Reunion. They
also provided hugely fertile
ground for creating characters.
As you develop the characters, so
the ideas become absorbed into
their own particular stories, their
own desires and confusions,
their mistakes, their secrets.
The ideas are absorbed into the
fiction.
For the four university friends,
‘the only life worth living was the
examined one’. But at various
points in the novel, they are careful
not to examine their relationships
and ideals too closely, for fear of
being challenged. What drew you
to exploring this paradox?
I’ve long been fascinated by
the discrepancies between how
people want to behave, how they
actually do behave, and their
understanding of their actions
in retrospect. It seems to me
that we cut quite a lot of slack in
important relationships, that we
will protect such relationships
even at the expense of honesty or
authenticity. This happens with
8
the characters in Reunion – and
not just with the old friends,
but also in the marriage which
is central to the novel. It’s a
question of ideals and how
these survive the push and pull
of everyday life. It’s a question,
too, of compromise, and how
one person’s compromise is
another’s capitulation. I find
these issues pretty gripping –
both in life and in fiction.
‘It is the storms that matter, the
storms that test you.’ This concept
seems to be at the heart of the
novel –not just in relation to
the conflict between ideals and
ethics, but relationships, too, as
the idealised, ‘special’ friendship between the four university
friends is pushed to the limits.
Did you set out to explore this
concept, or did it develop as you
wrote the book?
Everyone can manage the
calm seas – work going well,
marriage and affair nicely
balanced, no debts, regular
holidays – but that’s not the
stuff of a fully-lived life. Nor
does it make for an interesting
novel. I’m fascinated by what
happens when competing passions are brought hard against
each other, how people (and
characters) untangle the conflict between, say, loyalty to a
friend and a passion for work.
Novels provide a wonderful,
leisurely way of exploring the
complexities of being human. You, the author, create
the characters, you create the
situations, you throw up the
conflicts. It’s great work. At the
beginning of writing, I knew
my characters would be faced
with challenges and conflicts
that would test the friendships,
but the exact nature of these
only emerged as the novel
started to take shape.
Your juxtaposition of 1970s
Melbourne with new millennium
Melbourne throws the way we
live now into sharp relief, as well
as showing what we have lost and
gained in the changes of the past
twenty years or so. Was that something you were hoping to do?
Yes. Reunion was written and set
during the endless Howard years
– a period of terrible wear and
tear on the moral fabric of this
nation. Of particular concern to
me was how readily Australians
accepted the Howard agenda.
Values and beliefs need constant scrutiny and interrogation
otherwise you can find yourself
behaving in ways that in a different context you would, without
hesitation, judge as reprehensible. Talk helps to sort things out.
I regret the loss of face-to-face
discussion, of risky argument,
and riskier confession. I like
real-time, real-space talk with
its blushing emotion, its dry
mouth and faltering eye-contact.
I regret that leisure time these
days is more likely to be spent in
silent communion with a computer than potentially excruciating embarrassing engagement
with others. (And none of this is
to suggest I want a return to the
1970s; no woman who loves her
iBook would.)
Helen wonders ‘how she would
live’ if forced out of science. This
seems to be a central thread of the
book – how would you live without your driving passion? How
important was this to the book?
It was crucial to the book and
one of the original ideas I wanted to explore. I love connecting
with people who have a driving
passion – whether for quilting or
gardening or cooking or doing
science, it doesn’t matter. Without a driving passion, existence
would be a warm water bath.
A recurring theme considers the
line between calculated risk and
caution – particularly, the risk we
take of losing out on life and experience when being overly cautious.
What made you want to explore
this idea? Do you think it relates
to society as well as individuals?
At this time in human history
the desire for certainty has per-
vaded practically every aspect of
life. We seem to be prepared to
forfeit a whole swag of freedoms
and possibilities in order to
ensure safety and predictability.
Yet as the terrain of what is
defined as acceptable behaviour shrinks, we lose much of
what constitutes being human,
including an appreciation and
embrace of diversity. The fact is
that we may well chafe against
uncertainty in human existence,
but uncertainty has always been
a characteristic of human beings
wherever they have lived in
groups. As children, both Helen
and Ava had relationships with
much older men. At university
Ava had an affair with Conrad,
her philosophy lecturer. All these
experiences – risky as they were
– nourished the successful adults
they became. Yet in these days of
caution, those involved would
be condemned out of hand, and
result in sackings and prison
sentences. Jack, in his devotion
to perfection, has opted for
certainty in his life. Perfection is
an absolute, you know exactly
what it looks like: it is neat and
tidy, it has all the answers. I
think there is quite a lot of this
sort of ‘benign’ fundamentalism
around and it threatens to suck
the richness and imagination out
of life itself.
The impact of technology and the
methods of communication we
use on the relationships we have
is an ongoing thread in Reunion.
There are various references to the
‘romance’ and intimacy of letterwriting and email’s susceptibility
to surveillance. But new technology is also integral to key events in
the book.
I love my Mac. I marvel at what
I can discover within reach of
my laptop. At the same time I
think we need to understand
better how technology affects
learning, memory, identity, communication, privacy and I think
we need to do this before the
new technology is in widespread
use. No one knows exactly
how the dodo disappeared. We
wouldn’t want future generations
to say the same of memory, faceto-face communication, even
privacy itself.
Books
Book of the Month
Macleish, a specialist in Indian
Antiquities. To the surprise of
Andrea Goldsmith
the group, Harry has rein4th Estate. PB. Normally
vented himself as the director
$32.95
of a cashed up quasi-academic
Our special price $27.95
foundation – NOGA (NetA number of
work of Global Australians).
years
ago
it
was
r
Fo
One of Harry's first grand
m
my
great
u
M
gestures is to appoint the first
honour and
privilege to be NOGA fellows. The substana judge of the tial fellowships go to Ava's
Miles Franklin three friends and so the origiAward; in the nal group are reunited back in
Melbourne for the first time
2003 awards Goldsmith’s
novel The Prosperous Thief was in 20 years.
shortlisted; coincidentally her For Jack, there is the hope
partner, the late Dorothy
for a real relationship with
Porter, was also shortlisted for Ava; for Helen, recognition
her verse novel Wild Surmise. and significant funding for
It was a wonderful tribute to her work; and for Connie
the wildly different talents of the chance of the spotlight,
these two marvellous Austra- money and women. And for
lian writers.
Ava, a chance to gather her
reunion
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The friends’ careers and
personal lives have gone in
different trajectories – there
is the beautiful Ava, who has
become an internationally
acclaimed novelist; there is
Jack, a mediocre academic
whose earlier obscure interest
in Islam has given his career
a boost in our post-9/11
world (Jack also harbours
an obsessive and unrequited
love for Ava); Helen, a brilliant scientist on the cusp of
a major breakthrough; and
Connie, who was a slightly
older tutor at university and is
now a charismatic philosopher
on the verge of a major TV
career. Behind these four is
Harry, Ava's unlikely husband – the three friends (and
especially Jack) can't see what
attracts Ava to him. Indeed,
Ava had a very passionate
and public affair with Fleur
Australian Fiction
Look Who’s
Morphing
Tom Cho
Giramondo. PB. $24.99
This is a playful
collection of
stories, linked
by the unique
voice of the
central characr
Fo
m
ter. The title is a
u
M
clever play on
the 1989 movie Look Who’s
Talking, and many stories pay
homage to aspects of the 80s.
The book is written in the first
person, and this allows the
reader to enter otherwise surreal
worlds. The character does
indeed ‘morph’ – memorable
stories involve him joining the
cast of The Muppets (as a
Muppet), becoming Whitney
Houston’s bodyguard, and even
gate-crashing the movie Dirty
Dancing with his extended
family. These are not just
well-written, humorous stories
though – there are many
reflections on identity. In
‘Today on Dr Phil’, the
protagonist and his Auntie Lien
appear on the psychologist’s
show to talk about anger. As
Auntie Lien has Dr Phil and his
audience transfixed, the
narrator ponders how he has a
tendency to ‘intellectualise first
and get angry later’. The
concept of the body is also
central: the narrator fantasises
about changing his size and
therefore status. These desires
are played out in many stories,
particularly in the last and
longest of the collection.
Annie Condon is
a freelance reviewer
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Goldsmith is at heart a storyteller; she writes rich, complex
narratives with elaborately
drawn characters that confront
big dilemmas and convoluted
relationships. Reunion tells the
story of four people, friends
from university days whose
friendship has survived the
twists and turns of adulthood
and matured into a strangely
compulsive bond.
New Fiction
friends around her, to push
her affair away and re-establish
her relationship with Harry.
Reunion brings up questions
of friendship and different
kinds of relationships and it
also questions the narcissism
of contemporary society. For
all their contempt of Harry's
NOGA and its corporatefunded largesse, the friends are
initially happy to accept the
money and comforts their fellowships bring. Initially, they
grudgingly accept Harry's
suggestions for the direction of their work and his
promises of more, couched in
veiled threats. As the friends
become embroiled in their
own petty concerns, they fail
to really notice or care about
the changes in their friend
Ava and in the end she has to
turn elsewhere for succour and
support.
Reunion is a rich and at times
frustrating novel; it's bold and
brash in describing a group of
characters who are ultimately
frail and selfish. It's hard to
like most of them, but equally
hard not to become obsessed
with them – in the end, Reunion is a wonderful novel.
Mark Rubbo is Managing
Director of Readings
The Bookshop on
Jacaranda Street
Marlish Glorie
FACP. PB. $29.95
Fifty-something Helen BuddDoyle has had enough. Her
marriage is dead and she lives in
a house crammed with ghosts.
Her elder son Gabriel is in the
army; the other, Vivian, has
drifted aimlessly into a mining job up North. One cold
morning she chops up her
bed, sets fire to it and moves
next-door to live with her
neighbours Astrid and Hendel.
This is the start of a new life for
Helen, away from the stifling
sadness of her marital home,
her bewildered, well-meaning
husband Arnold and his piles
of junk. A windfall from an
unexpected source leads her
to buy a decrepit second-hand
book shop from a man in a pub
and her sons come home, one
to help revivify the business,
one to persuade Arnold to let
go of his obsessively hoarded
treasures. As they pick their way
through this uncertain territory,
unlikely new connections open
up their lives and help reconcile an old family sadness. This
is Marlish Glorie’s first novel
and her style can be somewhat
clunky at times. She has, however, assembled a collection of
pleasingly oddball characters to
explore the landscape of family
and friendship.
Vicky Booth is Program Administrator of CAE Book Groups
Ways of Escape
Hugh Mackay
Headline. PB. $32.99
Academic Hugh
Mackay has a
distinguished
career bringing
sociology to the
masses. His
latest work,
Ways of Escape,
sees him turn his hand to
fiction while still delivering his
acute observations about
contemporary middle-class
society. The novel follows the
lives of five adults struggling to
deal with the pressures associated with work, family and
relationships – issues which
Tom, a practising psychologist,
helps them reconcile while
simultaneously trying to
reshape his life after his
marriage breakdown. The
narrative is framed by the
disappearance of Tom’s close
friend who may or may not
have committed suicide. Or
perhaps, as Tom speculates, his
friend is another case of
someone ‘wishing they could
9
Books
Disco Boy
Dominic Knight
Bantam. PB. $32.95
Retro DJ Paul
Johnson has the
musical jumper
leads to get even
the most dismal
party started,
but he can't get
his own life
moving. Trapped in a job he
despises, a perpetual failure
with the ladies and living at
home with his distinctly
unhelpful parents, Paul's stuck
in limbo while everyone around
him is limbo-dancing. While
he's avoided the corporate
mousetrap that's ensnared his
friend Nige, Paul dreams of one
day playing his own music
instead of John Farnham's. But
it's much easier to joke about
your problems with your
friends than to do something
about them.
Breath
Tim Winton
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Penguin. PB. $24.95
Tim Winton’s
latest novel,
For
m
winner of last
u
M
year’s Age Book
of the Year, is
now available
in paperback.
It’s about the
wildness of youth and learning
to live with its passing; about
wounds that heal and ones that
don’t – and, as so often,
Winton wonderfully evokes
his character’s deep communion
with his surroundings, particularly the ocean. Reviewing it
in the Readings Monthly last
year, Mark Rubbo called this
gorgeous novel ‘one of
Winton’s best works yet’.
10
International
Fiction
the Little Stranger
Sarah Waters
Virago. PB. $32.99
This disquieting
psychological
thriller from
the author of
Fingersmith and
The Night Watch
revolves around
a shabby genteel
English family disintegrating
in the post-war years. The local
doctor, whose parents were
once servants in the big house,
narrates the story, as he becomes intimately involved with
the Ayres family after a routine
house-call renews his boyhood
fascination with their home.
But the main character
is the house itself, both lovingly
and eerily evoked, a symbol
not only of the family, but of
the country-wide post-war
decline of the English gentry.
‘One could see so painfully ...
both the glorious thing it had
recently been and the ruin it
was on its way to becoming.’
As the inhabitants of the house
are increasingly plagued by
menacing taps, knocks, scribblings and shadows; as they
recoil from the threat of ‘ordinary things’ like a mysteriously
ringing telephone and a mirror
that seems to move, both the
doctor and the reader are
forced to wonder: is the menace
supernatural, psychological,
or a strange blend of both?
Oddly terrifying, thoughtprovoking and overwhelmingly
character driven, this gripping
novel beautifully dramatises
the uncertain angst of a
changing world.
Readings Monthly
The Children’s Book
A.S. Byatt
Chatto & Windus. PB.
Normally $32.95
The Children’s
Book, the latest
novel by Booker
Prize winner
A.S. Byatt, is a
masterful
examination of
a child’s
initiation into adulthood: the
insecurity, the predators, loss
of innocence and the uncovering of secrets and lies woven by
the adults close to them.
Spanning the austere England
of the 1890s to the giddy
Edwardian years of the early
1900s, the novel maps the lives
of Olive and Humphrey
Wellwood, their seven children
and the young cousins and
friends in their privileged
circle. Olive is a celebrated
children’s book writer and the
family exist in a golden
bohemia where children are
given choice and freedom in a
world where men’s paths are
fixed and women have few
rights. The Children’s Book is
meticulously researched and
Byatt brings to life a remarkable array of characters, as well
as the political and social
climate of England and Europe
at the time – a region seething
with change and unrest. This
novel is involved and works on
many levels; it’s not one to
pick up for a casual read, but it
is highly rewarding.
Sanchia Hovey is
a freelance reviewer
bystanders in this context is extraordinary. A book to savour.
Chris Gordon is Events
Coordinator at Readings
Nocturnes
Kazuo Ishiguro
Faber. PB. Normally $29.99

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Kazuo Ishiguro
is acclaimed for
novels like the
Booker Prizewinning
Remains of the
Day and, most
recently, Never
Let Me Go. In this collection of
extended short stories, he
proves himself to be a similar
master of this quite different
form. The stories here are
linked by their connection to
music – and their exploration
of the way music forges
connections between people
and marks moments or stages
in their lives. They also explore
ambition, its pursuit, and its
effect on relationships. The first
story, ‘Crooner’, features a
divorcing Hollywood crooner
on a farewell trip to Venice with
his soon-to-be ex – who is
reintroduced in a later story,
‘Nocturnes’, not only giving us
the fun of following her story,
but allowing us a more intimate
perspective than the narrator.
Other stories explore a promising cellist’s unexpected encounter with a mysterious ‘virtuoso’
who tutors him daily in her
hotel room; an adolescent
friendship sutured by shared
musical interests, awkwardly
(amusingly) revisited many
decades later; and an aspiring
singer-songwriter who surprisingly bonds with a holidaying
musician couple.
Readings Monthly

wipe the slate clean, make a
fresh start, turn back the clock,
snatch a moment out of time
and put it to better use’.
While Mackay is unable to
provide an easy solution for
the underlying tensions plaguing society, his probing into
the interior lives of his characters makes for a fascinating
character study that most readers should be able to identify
with one way or another.
Emily Laidlaw is a freelance
reviewer
In the Kitchen
Monica Ali
Doubleday. PB.
Normally $32.95
In the Kitchen is
a superb novel.
Slowly but
surely, in
Monica’s
capable vision
the reader is
taken into the
lives of staff at a cosmopolitan
hotel in London. She makes
you look around at all the
people that are needed to make
this institute work. The story
is told from the perspective of
Gabe, the head chef, heading
in directions he didn’t think
about for long enough, and the
plot centres on the mysterious
death of a porter. The suspense
builds as we learn more about
the lives of the diverse characters that are affected by this
death – and why. Monica is an
observer and the magic of her
debut novel, Brick Lane (which
was shortlisted for the Man
Booker prize) is replicated
here. Her understanding of
different cultural backgrounds
and her ability to understand
victims, persecutors and the
For
Mum
American Rust
Philipp Meyer
Faber. PB. $32.99
Set against the
decline of the
American
industrial
heartland,
American Rust is
the story of two
unlikely high
school friends, Isaac English, a
spindly young prodigy, and Billy
Poe, hulking high school
football star, who have put off
college and found themselves
Books
mired in their dying hometown. On the verge of Isaac’s
escape, they are caught in a
momentary act of incredible
violence that changes their
lives and further restricts the
few options available to them.
Told by the narrators and those
close to them, this is a beautiful portrait of two young men
oppressed by the double
burden of escaping the prison
of their everyday hometown
life, and their immaturity in
the face of the decisions that
will get them out. We watch
them fumbling through,
burying themselves deeper in
their hopelessness with every
misstep. Meyer’s writing is
sometimes lyrical in its loving
depictions of rural Pennsylvania, itself too a parable of the
story – of the hidden beauty
trying to emerge from the
world of post-industrial
desolation.
Andrew Cornish is Manager
of Readings Carlton
ultimately deal with their
demons or be forever lost.
A wonderful debut!
Kabita Dhara is from
Readings Carlton
THE Selected Works
of T.S. Spivet
Reif Larsen
Harvill. PB. Normally $34.95
Tecumseh
Sparrow Spivet
might only be
12 in human
years but with
his genius for
For
map-making
m
u
M
and observation,
he could very well pass for 100.
His intricate notebooks cover
such pressing issues as how
many corn cobs are shucked
before a bad one is found, why
a badly-painted Happy Meal
figurine looks pensive instead of
tough and a series of numbered
drawings that clearly show the
awkwardness of grown men
dancing. Unaware of his age,
the Smithsonian Institute
awards T.S. a major scientific
prize and he leaves behind his
taciturn rancher father,
insectologist mother and surly
sister to travel precariously
across the country as a Depression-era hobo instead of the
simultaneously terrified and
fascinated twenty-first-century
child he is. Interspersed with
his puzzling about the eccentricities of adults are his
yearnings for his dead brother
Layton to come back and share
the adventure alongside him.
This wonderfully inventive gem
is about finding a place in the
world, negotiating the inexplicable process of grief and love
and valuing the discoveries
along the way.
Kath Lockett is a freelance
reviewer
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Atlas of Unknowns
Tania James
Scribe. PB. $32.95
Sisters Linno
and Anju are
brought up by
their grandmother,
Ammachi, and
their father, the
good-hearted
but somewhat bumbling
Melvin, after the death of their
mother, Gracie. They share an
idyllic childhood and a close
bond, but when Anju betrays
Linno and wins a scholarship
to America as a result, it seems
that their relationship will
never recover. At first, left
behind, Linno seems to have
few prospects. One hand
crippled, she nevertheless
perseveres with her art, making
a name for herself as the
painter of beautiful shop
windows. In a twist of fate,
Linno’s art propels her into a
brilliant career, while Anju
struggles in New York, helped
by a stranger called Bird, who
seems to know a lot about
Anju’s past. Sharp yet sympathetic, Tania James confidently
and skilfully portrays a family
and world strained by secrets
from the past. Certainties once
held are revealed as illusions,
and her characters, at once
inspiring and pitiable, must
THE Repossession
Mambo
Eric Garcia
Scribe. PB. $24.95
The Repossession
Mambo is set in
a near future
when people live
long lives, rarely
dying of old age.
There's big
money to be
made in the 'artiforg' business
– the buying and selling of
artificial organs that promise to
prolong life. But buyer beware:
if you fall too far behind in
your payments you just may
find yourself visited by the
Repo Man. Remy, our narrator,
is just such a man – making his
living reclaiming organs from
debtors who can no longer
afford them. With five marriages and five divorces behind
him, his life is his business and
his business is to take life. And
business is good until one day
Remy finds himself being
hunted and quickly running
out of places to hide.
Jeff in Venice,
death in Varanasi
Geoff Dyer
Text. PB. $32.95
This is Geoff
Dyer’s first novel
in 11 years and
for sheer
entertainment
value, it's
difficult to beat,
particularly its
first half, a skewering of the
pretensions of the art world at
the Venice Biennale, as seen
through the eyes of freelance
journalist Jeff Atman – who, like
everyone else, makes a nodding
acquaintance with the art, but
really only wants to know where
the next party/free drink/line of
coke is. Then there's the
hilarious inversion of the
Thomas Mann story the title
nods to – not for Jeff unconsummated desire, but instead a
carefree sex-romp with a
stunning gallery assistant he
picks up and ‘falls in love with’
over three days. The vacuity of
this life is never far from the
surface however, and for all its
classic English self-deprecation
the tone changes in the novel's
second half, ‘Death in Varanasai’, where the story relocates to
India and the ‘I’ character
(presumably Jeff) enters a rather
unusual limbo. The travel piece
he's been commissioned to do is
dispatched soon enough, but Jeff
stays on – an omen in this city
known as the best place for a
Hindu to die. The problem of
eternal recurrence is indeed Jeff's
symptom, and the novel ends
with him finding his personal
nirvana of sorts. Dyer is a classy,
often hilarious writer; this novel
certainly stands out for its
originality!
Martin Shaw is from
Readings Carlton
Secret Son
Laila Lalami
Viking. PB. $32.95
Youssef El
Mekki is a
19-year-old who
lives with his
mother in the
slums of
Casablanca.
Like anyone of
his age, he struggles for an
identity. His poverty and the
absence of a father compound
this need. He feels rejected, a
stigmatised, bastard child. That
is, until he discovers that his
long-lost father is a very
wealthy businessman who lives
on the good side of town.
Youssef El Mekki is suddenly
Youssef Amrani, the occupier of
a plush apartment, son of Nabil
Amrani. He has a job and a life
away from the hellish slums and
putrid stench of people living
on top of each other. Here he
dines in restaurants and people
greet him. It’s a world of
designer labels, greed and
connections. But fate will send
him back to his slums depressed, and more lost than
ever. In this glumness, it is the
Party – an Islamic organisation
– that will befriend him. Before
he knows it, his identity will be
forever lost to the social and
political agendas of fanatics.
This is a beautifully written
novel that highlights the
socio-economical dichotomy
in this part of the world.
Dimitri Gonis is a freelance
reviewer
Map of the
Invisible World
Tash Aw
4th Estate. PB. $32.99
An enthralling, turbulent new
novel from the award-winning
author of The Harmony Silk
Factory. Sixteen-year-old Adam
is an orphan three times over
– he and his older brother
Johan were abandoned by their
mother as children; Johan was
adopted and taken away. Then
Karl, the Dutch man who
raised him, was arrested by
soldiers as part of Sukarno’s attempt to purge Indonesia of its
colonial past. Adam’s quest to
find Karl leads him to Jakarta,
while Johan, living a seemingly
carefree life in Malaysia, is unable to forget the betrayal of his
brother.
11
Books
THE Canterbury Tales:
A Retelling by
Peter Ackroyd
Poetry
Allen Lane. HB. $55
The prolific
Peter Ackroyd
turns his
considerable
talents to a
fresh, modern
retelling of a
seminal classic
– Chaucer’s outrageous,
life-affirming cycle of comic
poems. Ackroyd hopes that his
translation will allow this
‘central’ work of literature to be
reborn for new generations.
Fable. PB. $25
Geoffrey Chaucer
Book of Clouds
Chloe Ardijis
Left alone to care for his aging father after his
mother commits suicide, Isaac longs for a life
beyond his hometown. But when he finally
sets out to leave for good with his best friend
and former high school football star, they are
caught up in a terrible act of violence that
changes their lives forever …
American Rust is a heart-wrenching,
unputdownable tale of redemption and
survival in small-town America in the
tradition of Richard Ford, Pete Dexter
and Cormac McCarthy.
12
Sallie Muirden
Acclaimed
novelist Sallie
Muirden
(Revelations of a
Spanish Infanta,
We Too Shall Be
Mothers)
ventures into
poetry with this, her first
collection. The title poem
rewrites the mythical story of
the weaving contest between
the goddess Athena and the
brilliant, conceited, ill-fated
Arachne. Other poems explore
literary and emotional entanglements, the family and sexual
identity – along with a selection
of love poems written by the
poet to her children in their
early years.
Fantasy
Lavinia
Ursula Le Guin
Harcourt. PB. $32.95
In a richly
imagined,
beautiful new
novel, an
acclaimed writer
gives an epic
r
o
F
heroine her
m
Mu
voice. In The
Aeneid, Virgil's hero fights to
claim the king's daughter,
Lavinia, with whom he is
destined to found an empire.
Lavinia herself never speaks a
word. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin
gives Lavinia a voice in a novel
that takes us to the half-wild
world of ancient Italy, when
Rome was a muddy village near
seven hills. Lavinia grows up
knowing nothing but peace and
freedom, until suitors come.
Her mother wants her to marry
handsome, ambitious Turnus.
But omens and prophecies
spoken by the sacred springs say
she must marry a foreigner –
that she will be the cause of a
bitter war - and that her
husband will not live long.
This is a book of passion and
war, generous and austerely
beautiful, from a writer working at the height of her powers.
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‘A grimly powerful hybrid: provocative literary
fiction crossed with a propulsive thriller’
Kirkus Reviews
Grove. PB. $32.95
This debut
novel is set in
Berlin in the
early 2000s.
Tatiana is a
young Mexican
who, in her
mid-20s,
escapes a stifling family
environment and seeks her
freedom in Berlin’s abundant
bar and music scene. Years
pass in a pleasurable haze, but
self-discovery isn't necessarily
a correlative, of course. When
Tatiana takes on a job for an
elderly historian, transcribing
his dictated essays on various
aspects of the Cold War years
in Berlin, she is for the first
time exposed to the city's underbelly, discovering the hidden histories of familiar buildings for instance, or learning
the stories of former citizens of
the East through research interviews she does on his behalf.
Many episodes in the book are
reminiscent of Anna Funder's
superb Stasiland. Of course,
this is fiction – but many aspects of Book of Clouds exhibit
a verisimilitude that all readers
with a knowledge of the city
will find finely observed and
convincing. Possibly her most
significant achievement is the
sensitivity with which Tatiana
is drawn – her emotional honesty is something that quickly
charms the reader, and her
experiences, from the ghostly
to the romantic, never fail to
captivate.
Martin Shaw is from
Readings Carlton
The Fable of Arachne
Dead Write New Crime Fiction with Kate O'Mara
Book of the Month
The Preacher
Camilla Lackberg
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HarperCollins. PB. $32.99
It’s unusually
hot weather for
For
Sweden, and
Mum
Erica Falck is
heavily pregnant
and stir-crazy.
Her mood is not
helped by the
enforced absences of her partner
Detective Patrik Hedstrom,
investigating the grim, lonely
death of a young German
tourist. Her damaged body has
been found atop the remains of
two young women missing
since 1979 – both of whom
met an almost identical fate.
The murders appear connected
to a bitter and feuding family
still living in the shadow of a
long-dead patriarch – but
which one of them, if any, are
responsible? This was not
originally slated for Book of the
Month, but I was so impressed,
so drawn in and so moved by
this that once I finished (and
wiped the tears from my eyes) it
belonged nowhere else.
Detective stories are sometimes
trashed as plot-driven entertainment for the masses, a guilty
pleasure not meriting serious
literary attention. The Preacher
reminds us that some of the
best, most poignant writing
comes from this genre that
does, after all, trade on the most
extreme examples of the human
condition. Truly wonderful.
Kate O’Mara is from Readings
Carlton
The Redeemer
Jo Nesbø
Harvill, PB, $32.95
The week before
Christmas, a
Salvation Army
officer is neatly
dispatched by a
professional
r
Fo
m
hit-man in a
u
M
busy Oslo street.
The shooter’s plans for a quick
escape are foiled by a snowstorm and a cancelled flight,
and while trapped in the city he
realises he has killed the
intended target’s brother by
mistake. Hungry and cold, with
the police on his tail and no




means of support, he will resort
to anything to finish the job.
Anti-hero Harry Hole – a
brilliant, alcoholic detective
often on the verge of being fired
– leads the investigation into
this strange, complicated crime
with shocking results. Nesbø,
although building up a loyal
following, has never quite got
the push or attention his
sterling series deserves. His
publishers have indicated this is
about to change, which can
only be a good thing, as The
Redeemer is arguably his best
yet. KO
Italian Shoes
Henning Mankell
Harvill, PB, Normally $32.95
Our Special Price $27.95
Having kicked
off this month’s
Dead Write with
Scandinavian
writers, it’s only
fair to salute the
man whose Kurt
Wallander
mysteries pretty much introduced Scandinavian crime to
the modern English speaking
world. Italian Shoes is not a
Wallander novel – it’s not even
a crime novel. It’s simply a
beautifully written meditation
on loneliness and attempts to
rebuild and make amends for a
life gone astray. Frederick
Welin, a former surgeon
destroyed by a malpractice case,
has isolated himself on a remote
Swedish island, his only ‘friend’
a taciturn, hypochondriac
postman. An unexpected (and
unwelcome) visit by a terminally ill former lover forces him
to confront his past behaviour
and make up for lost time. If
you’ve read Mankell, but never
ventured beyond his detective
stories, this could well be the
place to start. KO
specials In Brief
In her last outing Ritual, Mo
Hayder reintroduced DI Jack
Caffery, and he returns in
Skin (Bantam, PB, Normally
$32.95, Our price $27.95),
a solid thriller with the usual
Hayder flair and polish. I so
wish I had space to say more
about this, but be assured fans
will not be disappointed!
Dark Places
Gillian Flynn
Weidenfeld & Nicolson. PB.
$32.99
Ben Day had a
terrible January
in 1985. First he
was accused of
molesting a
schoolgirl, then
he went down
for the horrific
murder of his mother and two
of his sisters – a murder blamed
on Satan and heavy metal. His
only surviving sister Libby
fingered him in court, and that
was pretty much end of story.
Years later, however, Libby is
contacted by a freaky underground club of amateur sleuths
who claim her brother is
innocent, and she was wrong.
Flynn won two CWA daggers
for her debut Sharp Objects, and
she’s not letting the quality dip
in her second outing. Well
worth a look. KO
True Crime
Infiltration
Colin McLaren
MUP. PB. $32.99
Police detective
Colin McLaren
takes the reader
on an engrossing undercover
journey into the
Griffith mafia.
For two years,
he lived as a dodgy art dealer,
talking his way up the ladder of
the local mafia and finally
befriending the Griffith
Godfather, Antonio Romeo. It’s
a world of listening devices,
wire taps and trying to stay sane
while dealing cocaine and
cannabis – knowing all the
while that the Mafiosi are
furiously looking for the traitor
they know is in their midst.
True Crime In Brief
Now in paperback, Kate Summerscale’s The Suspicions of
Mr Whicher: Or the Murder at
Road Hill House (Bloomsbury,
PB, $24.99) has won both the
Samuel Johnson Prize for NonFiction and the Galaxy Book of
the Year. Written in the style of
a Victorian thriller, it follows
the investigation into the highly
publicised 1860 murder of a
small boy at his family’s house,
and the life of the Scotland Yard
detective almost broken by the
case. Criminologist Dr Arthur
Veno and former American
Bandido Edward Winterhaler
combine their expertise to bring
us Biker Chicks: The Magnetic
Attraction of Women to Bad Boys
(Allen & Unwin, PB, $35.00)
– a timely release, given the
current wave of bikie-related
violence being reported in the
media. For those who prefer
their true crime with a local
bent, Sydney Morning Herald
journalists Robert Wainwright
and Paola Totaro dissect the
mind of one of Australia’s most
infamous and enigmatic criminals in Born or Bred? Martin
Bryant: The Making of a Mass
Murderer (Fairfax, PB, $34.95).
In Brief
Matt Hilton chucked in his
police job after being paid an
£800,000 advance to write a series of thrillers. The first – Dead
Men’s Dust – is out this month
through Hodder Headline (PB,
$32.99). Jan Kjaerstad’s sequel
to The Seducer – The Conqueror
– has finally been translated
into English (Arcadia, PB,
$24.99). Marek Krajewski
takes us back to 1920s Germany in The End of the World in
Breslau (Quercus, PB, $29.95),
while Carol McCleary takes
us back to the seedy underbelly of nineteenth-century
Montmartre in The Alchemy of
Murder (Hodder Headline, PB,
$32.99). Self-styled ‘bearded
raconteur’ Stuart MacBride
has a particularly grisly series
of murders at the heart of his
latest Blind Eye (HarperCollins, PB, $32.99) and sometime
Spooks scriptwriter Neil Cross
has received rave reviews in
the UK for Burial (Simon &
Schuster, PB, $29.95), dealing
with the aftermath of a party
gone terribly wrong. Going into
cheaper formats are Alexander
McCall Smith's The Unbearable
Lightness of Scones (Abacus, PB,
$22.99), Michael Robotham’s
Shatter (Sphere, PB, $19.99),
and Patricia Cornwell’s Scarpetta (Little Brown, PB, $34.99).
13
Books
Norman Doidge touring Sydney
and Melbourne in May 2009
14
Non-Fiction
Biography
the Weight of Silence
Catherine Therese

the Mother of
Mohammed
Sally Neighbour
MUP. PB. $34.99
Walkley
award-winning
former Four
Corners
journalist Sally
Neighbour tells
r
Fo
m
the story of an
u
M
unlikely
Australian jihadist, Mudgeeborn Rabiah Hutchinson. To
Western intelligence analysts
she is ‘the matriarch of radical
Islam’; her fellow jihadists
know her as ‘Umm Mohammed’, meaning the mother of
Mohammed. This beach bunny
turned hippy backpacker spent
four years working as a doctor
in a mujahidin hospital and
orphanage on the Pakistan–
Afghanistan border under the
Taliban and married a member
of Osama bin Laden’s inner
circle. Today, she is one of the
most watched women in the
world, officially designated ‘a
threat to national security’.




Jane’s Fame
Claire Harman
Text. PB. $34.95
This lively,
fascinating
biography tells
the real story of
Jane Austen the
author. While
the (then-beneficial) myth
crafted by her nephew’s
biography portrayed a demure
hobbyist, the real Jane was
characterised by her serious
dedication to her craft and a
steely determination to
succeed. Harman also looks at
Strange Places:
A Memoir of Mental
Illness
Will Elliott
ABC. PB. $25
Will Elliott’s
first book, the
novel The Pilo
Family Circus
(winner of the
inaugural ABC
Fiction Award)
was described
by judge Malcolm Knox as ‘a
nightmare broken by laughter’.
When the book was published,
Elliott had just recovered from
his own bout of terrifying
fantasy (a psychotic episode)
and had just been diagnosed as
a schizophrenic. This is his
memoir of that harrowing and
enlightening time.
Australian Studies
The Red Highway
Nicolas Rothwell
Black Inc. PB. $32.95
Can you
imagine the
dislocation you
might feel upon
returning home
from a war
zone? It’s
precisely this
moment that award-winning
writer and northern correspondent for The Australian, Nicolas
Rothwell, begins his journey
along Australia’s red highways.
Spurred on by a series of
serendipitous encounters both
here and in the Middle East,
he hits the road to unlock the
meaning of memories, conversations and images that have
affected him deeply. What
follows is a kaleidoscopic
outback sleuthing expedition
with a dream-like quality to
it. Rothwell’s treks around the
Kimberly, Darwin and Alice
Springs are guided and inspired
by some fascinating characters, both living and dead. My
favourite is straight talking
roo shooter, Charlie, who says:
we’re all philosophers out here
– it’s not about the landscape,
it’s what’s behind it. And The
Red Highway is brimming with
ideas ‘behind the landscape’,
about life, art, travel, history,
exploration, ‘desert logic’ and
death. Readers best ignore the
author’s own advice that some
‘things of beauty are best seen
once and never looked at again’
and read this beautifully written
book a second time.
Sally Keighery is Program
Coordinator of CAE Book
Groups
people’s lives is explored through
relationships, memory, culture,
identity and the meditative act
of bushwalking.
And So it Went:
New Thoughts in
a Year of Change
Bob Ellis
Viking. PB. $35
Bob Ellis
describes himself
as ‘a nervous
union hack, a
political
bit-player, an
r
Fo
edgy pontificatm
Mu
ing witness of
earlier times’. He’s also the ALP’s
truest believer, a man who
affectionately calls his Party
mates ‘comrade’. He opens this
book, the fifth in a series of
sorts, hanging rather mournfully
around Parliament House in
the days after Rudd’s historic
win, hoping for a job of sorts
and remembering when Rudd
called him ‘Uncle Bob’. Here,
as always, Ellis is intermittently
brilliant, passionate, self-deprecating and bombastic. He helps
Bob Carr choose a title for his
book, attends the 2020 Summit, dines at Parliament House
with Natasha Stott-Despoja and
Kim Beazley (who calls Rudd’s
leadership ‘a victory for middle
management), brings lollies to
work, gossips in theatre foyers
with Andrew Upton and Max
Cullen, and text messages
Geoffrey Rush and Wayne
‘Swanny’ Swan. Throughout, he
draws on his impressive wealth
of political, literary and cultural
knowledge, with the affable ease
of a boozy dinner party companion, covering various hot topics
– particularly, Rudd’s election
and early days in government,
and Obama’s journey to the
White House.
Readings Monthly







Headline. PB. $29.99
Catherine
Therese’s family
r
o
F
m
all describe her
Mu
as ‘unusual’
(pronounced
‘un-you-sual’).
In this unique
memoir, she
tells us of her pride in having
an outie belly button, being
greedy for choosing the names
of two saints and seeing her
first doodle courtesy of the
naughty grandson next door.
Despite being laugh-out-loud
funny, the underlying theme
is much more serious. The
irony of her father’s alcoholism and verbal abuse, with
her mother and sisters never
daring to mention his appalling behaviour due to the
fear of embarrassing him, is
at turns painfully funny and
incredibly sad. First kisses,
shallow school friendships
and a dodgy boyfriend occupy
her teen years as the family
silences grow and the deceptions increase. The birth of
her son is relentlessly depicted
via the madness of free verse,
highlighting the horrors of
contractions and impending
parenthood. Therese generously allows us a glimpse into
her tortured but uniquely
creative soul and her eventual
redemption.
Kath Lockett is a freelance
reviewer
the rise of her fame and the
evolution of ‘Janeites’, the
conflicting opinions of her
many critics and fans and her
enduring influence on literary
and popular culture. ‘Not a
dull sentence’ – The Telegraph
Books
My Life in the
Sea of Cars
James Murray
Transit Lounge. PB. $29.95
James Murray recounts nine
days walking in the remote
and beautiful landscapes of
the Northern Territory in this
delicate hymn to the wilderness
of Northern Australia. My Life
in the Sea of Cars is a heartbreaking journey of personal exploration and self discovery, and a
passionate argument for a new
way of living. The ways in which
rampant consumerism, and an
obsession with the motor car
have become so entrenched in
Captain Cook
Was Here
Maria Nugent
Cambridge. HB. $39.95
A dramatic and
lively account
of the first
encounters between Captain
Cook, his crew
and Australia’s
indigenous people. This book brings together
for the first time all the known
15
Books
The Alchemy of Murder
Carol McCleary
MY DRIVER Maggie Gee
Vanessa Henman flies out from London to Uganda
for an African writers’ conference. But her former
cleaner, Ugandan Mary Tendo, has secretly summoned
Vanessa’s ex-husband to her home village to build a
well. A hilarious comedy of cultural errors.
9781921401374 $29.95 Pb Fiction
SHAKING HANDS ON THE FRINGE
Negotiating The Aboriginal World At King George’s Sound
Dr Tiffany Shellam
This ethnographic history narrates several
intimate cross-cultural stories of the developing
relationships between British and Aboriginal
individuals at King George’s Sound.
9781921401268 $29.95 Pb History
Paris 1889. Nellie Bly is on the trail
of an enigmatic killer. Black Fever
rages, anarchists plot to overthrow the
government and a murderer preys on
the prostitutes who haunt the streets of
Montmartre. Can the combined genius of
Oscar Wilde and Louis Pasteur help Nellie
prove a match for Jack the Ripper?
$32.99
Hodder & Stoughton
Trade Paperback
The Weight
of Silence
Catherine Therese
NATIVE TITLE MARKET David Ritter
Challenging the orthodoxy, this book reveals the
secrets of native title negotiations in a critical account
by one of Australia’s leading analysts on the subject.
9781921401169 $19.95 Pb Current Affairs
‘Sometimes a book comes along that
is exceptionally special. The Weight of
Silence is one of those gems’ – Vanessa
Radnidge, Publisher, Hachette Australia.
In her achingly funny childhood memoir,
Catherine Therese takes the reader inside
her head and upside down in a unique
coming-of-age chronicle.
$29.99
Hachette Australia
Trade Paperback
www.uwapress.uwa.edu.au
The Little Stranger
UWAP_May09_Reading.indd 1
Sarah Waters
25/03/2009 9:41:56 AM
In a crumpling country manor in 1940’s
Warwickshire, a once grand family are
slipping into debt and madness. They lean
heavily on the impressionable young local
doctor as their way of life disintegrates
around them – yet unfathomable, upsetting
things occur. From this wonderful writer
comes a chilling ghost story.
Eco-Sufficiency and Global Justice:
Women write political ecology
edited by Ariel Salleh
Through studies of global neoliberalism, ecological
debt, climate change, and the ongoing devaluation of
reproductive and subsistence labour, these essays by
internationally distinguished women thinkers expose
the limits of current
scholarship in political
economy, ecological
economics, and sustainability
science.
By far and away the best
collection of ecofeminist
writing I have found. –Richard
Norgaard
Distributed by
Spinifex Press 03 9329 6088
ISBN: 9781876756710
RRP: $39.95
$32.99
Virago
Trade Paperback
Through Black Spruce
Joseph Boyden
Winner of the 2008 Giller Prize. ‘A
beautifully written and haunting story
of survival and innocence shattered, of
friendship, death, redemption and love of
the land. The three protagonists, Xavier,
Elijah and Niska will be in my heart
forever. Please, please don’t miss it!’ –
Isabel Allende.
To be launched at Readings Tuesday 2 June.
www.spinifexpress.com.au
16
www.hachette.com.au
$32.99
Weidenfeld and Nicolson
Trade Paperback
Books
surviving objects collected,
and all the visual material
produced, during Cook’s time
on shore. The central narrative
is complemented by over two
centuries of stories told in art,
word and performance. Captain Cook Was Here shows how
the meanings and interpretations of these encounters have
changed over time.
To the Bitter End
Peter Hartcher
A&U. PB. $35
Walkley
award-winning
investigative
journalist Peter
Hartcher takes
an in-depth
look at one
dramatic year in
politics: 2007, the year that
saw the demise of John
Howard and the rise of Kevin
Rudd. With unprecedented
access to the key players and
hours of confidential interviews, Hartcher delves behind
the closed doors of the Liberal
Party as it buckles under the
inertia of incumbency, the
back rooms of the ACTU and
the campaign war room of a
revitalised, newly disciplined
Labor Party.
Little Books
on Big Themes
MUP. HB. $19.95 each




For
Mum
Melbourne University Press,
the latest to join the publishing
craze of small essays by bigname writers, has released
the third instalment in this
series – and the five new books
look set to be great reads (and
big hits).
Readings favourite Julian Burnside writes On Privilege, with
reference to his area of expertise – human rights law – and
his background as a son of the
privileged classes. Robert Dessaix writes On Humbug, which
he defines as ‘a kind of bluster,
with a casual disregard for
whether something is strictly
true or not’.
Lifelong sceptic and ABC
journalist Leigh Sales praises a
much-maligned – but professionally useful and socially valuable – quality in On Doubt.
Novelist Susan Johnson ponders
the ‘paradox’ of a difficult-to-define concept in elegant, thoughtful prose in On Beauty. And
Elizabeth Wynhausen draws
on her family history, among
other things, as she reflects on a
process ‘now often acclaimed as
a key to success in personal and
commercial life’ in On Resilience.
Politics
Filthy Lucre:
Economics for Those
Who Hate Capitalism
Joseph Heath
Scribe. PB. $35
It is not easy
to be a rogue
economist.
Economics itself
is usually so
grounded in scientific data and
theorems that it
takes someone particularly visionary to take economic studies in a new direction. Joseph
Heath does not pretend to be
that person. Instead, Heath
tackles already established ‘fallacies’ often cited by both the
left and right and blows them
out of the water. Along the way
he covers the more influential
theorists from both past and
present. Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ theorem is explored
in great detail, as is the work of
Milton Friedman, leader of the
Chicago School of Economics.
Freakonomics authors Steven
Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
are given much less attention,
with Heath being mostly
critical in his single citation.
Filthy Lucre is more a primer
for the financially illiterate
than an intensive study of
today’s economic climate.
That said, this is one hell of
a primer. In the course of his
book Heath dispells nearly
every commonly held belief
about economics and in doing
so, he encourages a free-thinking, conscious approach to this
most misunderstood of fields.
Laurie Steed is a freelance
reviewer
Spirit Level:
Why More Equal
Societies Almost
Always Do Better
Richard Wilkinson
& Kate Pickett
Allen Lane. HB. $49.95
‘Material
success, social
failure.' What
does this mean?
According to
the authors of
The Spirit Level,
it represents
what’s wrong with societies
that have never had more
material comfort, yet leave us
lonely, stressed and depressed.
But what’s the cause? In a
groundbreaking theory, they
propose that it’s not factors
that are traditionally blamed –
‘parents, religion, values,
education or the penal system’
– but the gulf between rich
and poor. In societies with
high levels of inequality, at
every step down the social
ladder, health gets worse.
Those who see themselves as of
low status can suffer chronic
stress, leaving them vulnerable
to obesity, teenage pregnancy,
violent behaviour and imprisonment. They can also be
prone to mental illness, leading
to costly treatment and
self-medication with drugs and
alcohol. Crime and violence
result – and everybody, rich
and poor, suffers. The solution?
Since further economic growth
in developed nations can bring
no increased benefits, and the
world can absorb no increase
in carbon emissions, it’s time
for a more equitable future:
‘social and environmental
sustainability go together.’
Judith Loriente is from
Readings Hawthorn
Essays
This is Water
David Foster Wallace
Little Brown. HB. Normally
$24.99
This book, based
on a 2005
address to
graduating
students, is all
the more
affecting because
of the circumstances surrounding its publication: the author’s recent
shocking death. But the words
and sentiments here celebrate
the value of life – more particularly, the value of the examined
life. David Foster Wallace, in
seeking an answer to the actual,
real-life value of education,
concludes this: that it enables us
to get out of our own thoughts
and learn to see what’s right in
front of us; to question and
analyse the obvious. Blending
humour, intellect and practical
philosophy, Foster Wallace
insightfully probes the challenges of daily living.
Gray’s Anatomy:
Selected Writings
John Gray
Allen Lane. HB. $45
The renowned
author of Straw
Dogs presents a
series of
pugnacious and
brilliantly
readable essays
from across his
career. Here, he confronts
questions like: ‘Why is the
human imagination to blame
for the worst crimes of the
twentieth century?’ and ‘Why is
progress a pernicious myth?’
Environment
Ecological
Intelligence
Daniel Goleman
Allen Lane. PB. $32.95
In Emotional
Intelligence,
Daniel Goleman
revolutionised
the way we
think about
‘smart’, broadening the
definition from IQ scores to
encompass a range of abilities.
Here, he’s going all No Logo on
us, aiming to change the way
we shop and enable us to make
genuinely ecologically friendly
choices. Our ‘green’ awareness
is so superficial and one-dimensional that we often do more
harm than good when choosing
‘organic’ or ‘recycled’ products.
Enter radical transparency –
the availability of complete
information about all aspects
of a product’s history. This is
a guide to finding and using
that information to create
genuine change. 17
Books
Now or Never
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FROMMER’S 500 PLACES
FOR FOOD AND WINE
LOVERS
Holly Hughes
&ROMMERSææsææ0"ææsææ
Frommer’s brings you a tour of the most
compelling destinations to visit around
the world as a lover of food and wine.
This book features open-air markets,
culinary festivals, farms, street food,
cookbook and kitchenware shops,
gourmet and specialty food stores,
vineyards, breweries and distilleries,
plus must-visit restaurants and coffee
bars. It includes more than 40 entries
from Australia and New Zealand.
YOUTUBE
Online Video and Participatory
Culture
The Balance
of Nature
John Kricher
Princeton University Press.
PB. $52.95
John Kricher
refutes the
popular notion
of a ‘balance in
nature’, arguing
that in fact
nature is
constantly in
flux. He traces the science of
ecology and evolutionary
biology, from the early innovators to Darwin and evolution, to
the brilliant scientific minds of
today. Blending insights from
his own life in science, he reveals
how evolution is a powerful
engine that drives ecological
change – and how notions of
natural balance are misguided
and ultimately hazardous. He
argues that this understanding is
essential to formulating policies
of environmental ethics.
The Thoughtful
Dresser
Linda Grant
0OLITYææsææ0"ææsææ
www.wiley.com
18
Black Inc. PB. $22
A brilliant call
to arms by
Australia’s
leading writer
on the natural
world, including nine
responses to the
original Quarterly Essay
(reproduced here and including Richard Branson, Ian Lowe
and Gwynne Dyer) and
Flannery’s response. He
questions where humanity can
rise to the challenge of
sustainability, brings to life the
latest climate science and its
implications, and discusses
three potential climate-change
solutions in fascinating detail,
with particular reference to
Australia.
Cultural Studies
Jean Burgess, Joshua Green
YouTube is one of the most well-known
and widely discussed participatory
media sites in the online environment.
The authors discuss how YouTube
is used, why it matters and its role
in culture and society. Replete with
examples, this is essential reading for
anyone interested in the contemporary
and future implications of online media.
Tim Flannery
Virago. PB. $32.99
In October
2007, Linda
Grant started a
blog ‘as a way of
thinking aloud’
about what
became this
book. Grant
writes neither as a fashion
historian nor as a fashion writer,
but as an amateur enthusiast.
What interests her is not so
much fashion, but CLOTHES:
how they make us feel, why
they matter, how they tell the
stories of our lives. And we do
learn a lot of autobiographical
detail: her life and times
through her clothes. In fact the
book is a crash course in
twentieth-century fashion from
couture to the Swinging
Sixties’ boutique revolution
and onwards. For her, it all
started with her eastern
European grandparents (with
the perennial boast of the
successful immigrant of how
they arrived ‘with nothing but
the clothes on their backs’)
who first taught her how you
look is what matters. Linda
Grant’s writing style is
episodic, snappy and witty,
rather derivative of blog style,
and while her opinions are
sometimes infuriating, they are
always interesting and
thought-provoking. Her
topical word of warning: ‘In a
recession you cannot allow life
to become beige’.
Sally Madsen is from
Readings Carlton
Who’s Your City?
Richard Florida
Basic. PB. $29.95
The bestselling
author of The
Rise of the
Creative Class
shows how,
even with the
rise of mobile
technology and
telecommuting, the place you
live is more important than
ever. Where we live determines
our access to jobs, like-minded
people and lifestyle options.
Globalisation, far from
flattening the world, has
concentrated its human
resources, as it becomes
ever-easier for people to
relocate. Friedman shows how
40 ‘megaregions’ account for
20 percent of the world’s
population, but two thirds of
its economic output and nine
out of ten of its innovations.
‘You need to be smart about
place to actually have the life
that you want to have,’ he
advises.
Books
Death of the Critic
Ronan McDonald
Continuum. HB. $50
This lively polemic bemoans the
demise of the professional critic, in an age of Amazon readers’
reviews and literary bloggers.
He doesn’t blame amateur critics – the fault, he argues, lies
with literary academics, who are
devaluing their own profession
by embracing the view that all
artistic value is simply relative and subjective; thus, one
opinion is as good as another.
He lays out his case against the
eclipse of literature by cultural
studies, traces the history of
criticism and applauds the
advent of creative writing as a
discipline.
History
the Words to
Remember It
Caroline Jones
Scribe. PB. $35
This deeply
moving
collection came
out of the
creative- writing
sessions of a
Sydney group of
child survivors
of the Holocaust. For many
members, finding ways to
remember was the beginning of
a painful reintegration of their
sense of self; telling their stories
was a way of locating their
memories in a broader context
and meaning. The 30 stories
here tell a broad picture of life
before, during and after World
War II, from Paris to Warsaw,
Berlin, Prague and Shanghai.
Woman: An Intimate
Geography
Natalie Angier
the Drunkard’s Walk
Leonard Mlodinow
Vintage. PB. $29.95
This popular
mathematics
sensation is
earning raves
from critics and
fascinated
readers alike. It
shows how
randomness, change and
probability influence and
explain our daily lives, and how
we misunderstand the significance of everything from a
casual conversation to a major
setback. This book conveys
complex scientific knowledge
with the lightest and most
accessible of touches, fleshing
out facts with anecdote, lively
example and personal detail.
‘This should be the would-be
gambler’s constant companion.’
– The Guardian
philosophy. ‘Long on wit,
intelligence and curmudgeonly
scepticism’ – New York Times
Julianne Schultz
Anthology
Griffith Review 24:
Participation Society
ABC. PB. $20
The latest Griffith Review
explores the possibilities thrown
up by the transforming global
change set in train by the reaction to the global financial crisis
and growing understanding of
climate change.
Philosophy
The History of
Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Routledge. HB. $89.95
First published
in 1946, The
History of
Western
Philosophy went
on to become
the bestselling
philosophy
book of the twentieth century
– and one of the most important ever. This dazzlingly
ambitious project remains
unchallenged as the ultimate
introduction to Western
Andrew Blauner (ed.)
Wiley. HB. $42.95
This diverse and touching
anthology brings together a
wide variety of stories about the
complex and unique relationship between brothers. Contributions range from comic
to tragic; contributors range in
age from 24 to 84. Boasting a
foreword from Frank McCourt
and contributions from David
Sedaris, Tobias Woolf, Ethan
Canin and Richard Ford, this is
a marvellous read.
Food & Wine
Snowflakes
and Schnapps
Jane Lawson
Murdoch. HB. Normally $69.95
This gorgeous cookbook
takes you on a culinary journey through the cold-climate
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Can your guiltiest secret ever be buried?
Nathan has never been able to forget the
worst night of his life: the drug-fuelled
party that led to the sudden, shocking
death of a young woman. But one night
years later his secret comes back to haunt
him, threatening to destroy every aspect
of his life.
A psychological crime thriller suffused
with a rising sense of menace and paranoia
and a totally unexpected climax, from the
acclaimed author Neil Cross, also the lead
scriptwriter for the hit TV drama Spooks.
John Adam

Princeton University Press.
PB. $58.95
This intriguing
book decodes
For
many mathm
Mu
ematical
mysteries of
nature, with 96
questions about
common (and a
few uncommon) natural
phenomena. For instance, why
can you see further in rain than
in fog? The problems are
illustrated with photos and
drawings; the book includes
answers, a glossary of terms and
a selection of patterns found in
nature. Readers will gain a new
appreciation of the beauty of
nature and the mathematics
that lies behind it.
Brothers: 26 Stories
of Love and Rivalry
9LI@8C
A Mathematical
Nature Walk



Scribe. PB. $32.95
This extraordinary book delves
intricately into
female physiology, drawing on
mythology,
For
history, art and
m
u
M
literature as well
as science and medicine.
Pulitzer Prize-winning biology
writer Natalie Angier writes
with wit and elegance, layering
biological factoids with her own
personal encounters and arcane



Mathematics
Journals

Science
anecdotes from the history of
science. She goes beyond
breasts, womb and estrogen to
chart the distinctly female
structure and elements of DNA
and the human brain. ‘Angier
challenges readers to question
assumptions about women’s
bodies and minds. She prods us
to understand biology as a feminist tool. And her book
provides the analysis and the
ammunition with which to do
just that.’ – salon.com
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In January 1945, as many as a million people
died violent deaths in Germany. That stark
fact provides the starting point for this book,
which examines Germany’s emergence from
the most terrible catastrophe in modern history.
When the Second World War ended, millions
had been murdered; millions of survivors had
lost their families, homes and health; cities
and towns had been reduced to rubble and
were littered with corpses. Yet people lived on,
and began rebuilding their lives in the most
inauspicious of circumstances. This is the story
of Germany in 1945, a story of life after death.
19
Books
cuisines of northern, central
and eastern Europe. From the
seaside towns of Scandinavia,
to the alpine villages of Austria,
from the ski fields of France, to
the fairy-tale castles of Germany,
and the white-blanketed cities of
Russia and beyond, comes this
enticing collection of traditional
recipes with contemporary flair.
Celebrate the season of winter
and enjoy this irresistible selection of simmering soups, hearty
meals and indulgent desserts.
Travel
Jenny’s Coffee
House: After Yenni
Eugenia Jenny Williams
Transit Lounge. PB. $32.95
In May 1969 seven assisted migrants stepped out of the plane
that had touched down in a
strange place called Hobart.
Jenny Williams, was one of
those adults. From this time
on, little of what Jenny and her
family knew was of any use to
them. Like newborns, they had
to learn to exist in a different
world. From factory to restaurant work, to new relationships, Jenny’s Coffee House
takes the reader into the rich
heart of a hard working family
searching for their niche in life.
Music
Will it Be Funny
Tomorrow, Billy?
Stephen Cummings
Hardie Grant. PB. Normally
$34.95
As a long-time
fan of Cummings, I was
initially taken
by surprise that
his latest book
was in fact an
autobiography. I
was further taken aback when I
read how honest he has been in
his descriptions of various peers
from the Melbourne music
scene. It would be fair to
suggest that maybe after this
book is released he might not
receive quite as many Christmas
cards as he, mostly in a very
humorous way, has unkind
things to say about people such
as Nick Cave, Kate Ceberano
and Michael Gudinski. Certainly the latter is no surprise, as
Gudinski has probably never
forgiven Cummings for
20
sabotaging his first attempt to
make it in America. The book
title is part of a very funny story
about how The Sports ruined
their shot at US fame. A very
enjoyable read. See Steve
Cummings launch the book at our
Carlton shop, May 6.
Dave Clarke is Music Buyer
for Readings Carlton
Girls Like Us
Sheila Weller
Washington Square Press. PB. $34
A groundbreaking, irresistible
biography of
three of
America's most
important
musical
artists – Carole
King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly
Simon – charts their lives at a
magical moment in time. Filled
with the voices of many dozens
of these women's intimates,
speaking in these pages for the
first time, this alternating
biography reads like a novel –
except it's true, and the heroines
are famous and beloved. Sheila
Weller captures the character of
each woman and gives a
balanced portrayal enriched by a
wealth of new information.
Lowside of the Road:
A Life of Tom Waits
Barney Hoskyns
Faber. PB. $35
The definitive biography of one
of rock’s great enigmas follows
the extraordinary 40-year career
of Tom Waits, a chameleonic
survivor who achieved longterm success while retaining
cult credibility. Affectionate and
penetrating, Lowside of the Road
charts Waits’ life step by step,
album by album.
Art & Design
the Way We Live With
the Things We Love
Stafford Cliff
Thames & Hudson. HB. $59.95
After the
enormous
popularity of the
original Way We
Live, this latest
in the series is
my favourite,
because I love
playing with and arranging
things, and that’s the focus of
this book. It’s also good for the
times, relying on an eye for
detail, or a bargain, or a look,
with maybe some new colour to
recreate your interiors – without
damaging the budget too much.
Margaret Snowdon is Art and
Design Buyer at Readings Carlton
Subway Art: 25th
Anniversary Edition
Martha Cooper
& Harry Chalfant
Thames & Hudson. PB.
R. Klanten
& L. Feireiss (eds)
Die Gestalten Verlag. HB. $130
According to
the introduction by Lukas
Feireiss, ‘Beyond
Architecture
presents an
eclectic survey
on architecture
as a primary source of inspiration and stimulation in the
contemporary arts’. I would go
even further to say that this
book illustrates how architecture and the built environment
Gregor Muir
Aurum Press. PB. $39.95
If you somehow missed the
original brouhaha over Damien
Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Tracy Emin,
the Chapman brothers et al,
then Lucky Kunst is a lighthearted memoir and introduction to the beginning of it all, by
gallerist Muir. Back then he was
a young journalist, in the right
place at the right time. MS
In The Mother of Mohammed, Four Corners journalist Sally Neighbour
tells the extraordinary story of how a dope-smoking beach bunny from
Mudgee, Robyn Hutchinson, became Rabiah—a member of the jihadist
elite. Known among her peers as ‘the mother of Mohammed’, and as ‘the
Elizabeth Taylor of the jihad’ in CIA circles, Rabiah lived for twenty years
on the frontlines of the global holy war.
New from Taschen
In late May,
Taschen are
releasing
another batch
of their wonderful titles in
smaller format
and at more
affordable prices. Stand-outs
include Tashen 25 editions of
the works of Cezanne and
Toulouse Lautrec and a
collection of still life works,
all $34.95. Originally published in 1876, Auguste
Racinet’s stunning study of
worldwide costume and dress,
Costume History, is fantastic
value at $110 – and while
we’re on fashion the groovy
Fashion of the 70s is now in
the Icon format at $17.95,
as is The Design Handbook.
With a reputation for tough investigative journalism, Sally Neighbour
persuaded Rabiah to tell her story. She investigates how Rabiah became a
trusted insider to the Jemaah Islamiyah, Taliban and al Qaeda leaderships,
and married a leading figure in Osama bin Laden’s inner sanctum.
In The Mother of Mohammed Sally Neighbour discovers a world of converts
and true believers. This unique and confronting account from inside the
jihad helps us to understand the magnetism of the Islamist cause.
Sally Neighbour is a reporter with
Australia’s premier investigative public
affairs program, ABC TV’s Four
Corners, a writer for The Australian
newspaper and winner of three
Walkley Awards for excellence in
journalism. Her previous book was In
the Shadow of Swords: On the Trail of
Terrorism from Afghanistan to Australia.
Cover photo: © Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images
Cover design: Nada Backovic Designs
BIOGRAPHY/WO RLD AFFAIRS
MOTHER OF MOHAMMED/FULL COVER 1
INFILTRATION_MKT_ART.indd 1
25/3/09 1:11:14 PM
A blistering tale of the only undercover cop
to infiltrate the Griffith Mafia – the biggest
undercover sting in Australia’s history.
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Beyond Architecture:
Imaginative buildings
and fictional cities
Lucky Kunst
IS ANYONE
EVER REALLY
QUITE AS
THEY SEEM?
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This is the
original (and for
a long time only)
book – the bible
– of the
international
street-art
movement. This
large format special edition
features over 70 photographs of
artists and artworks not included
in the original. In 1984,
photographers Martha Cooper
and Henry Chalfant captured
the imagination of a generation
with Subway Art, a groundbreaking book documenting the work
of graffiti writers who illegally
painted subway cars in New
York City. In new introductions,
the authors recall how they
gained entry to the New York
graffiti community in the 1970s
and 1980s and describe the techniques that they used to
photograph it. New text reports
how the lives of the original
subway artists have unfolded,
and chronicles the end of the
subway graffiti scene in the late
1980s and its unexpected rebirth
as a global art movement. An
essential book for all fans of
graffiti, stunning photography,
and 1980s cool. MS
are now materials themselves –
verging with art to the point
where it is hard to tell anymore
what is a 1:1 scale model and
what is a real building. Beyond
Architecture takes us on a wild
ride where not only architectural models become reality,
but buildings become fonts,
VHS cassettes become bricks,
cities are made from chocolate
and technical drawings
illustrate how one might
fashion a dress out of a humble
home. Featuring names both
big and small; everything from
Erwin Wurm’s melted silver
buildings to local Australian
artist David Keating’s Seven
Wonders of the World
amalgamated into one structure, the ideal pitch for the
ultimate tourist destination.
This book is deliciously rich, a
veritable cornucopia of
examples of building dreams
and dreaming of buildings.
Tai Snaith is Art & Design
Buyer at Readings St Kilda
BOOKS WITH SPINE BOOKS WITH SPINE BOOKS WITH SPINE BOOKS WITH SPINE BOOKS WITH SPINE BOOKS WITH SPINE BOOKS WITH SPINE BOOKS WITH SPINE BOOKS WITH
Books
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An Australian Woman’s Extraordinary Journey into Jihad
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19/3/09 4:55:41 PM
The extraordinary story of how a dopesmoking beach bunny from Mudgee
became a member of the jihadist elite.
BOOKS WITH SPINE
www.mup.com.au
21
New from Palgrave Macmillan
Creating a World Without Poverty
Muhammad Yunus was the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner.
In the last two decades, free markets have swept the globe. But
traditional capitalism has been unable to solve problems like inequality
and poverty. In Muhammad Yunus’
groundbreaking sequel to Banker to the
Poor, he outlines the concept of social
business—business where the creative vision
of the entrepreneur is applied to today’s
most serious problems: feeding the poor,
housing the homeless, healing the sick, and
protecting the planet. Creating a World
Without Poverty reveals the next phase in a
hopeful economic and social revolution that
is already underway.
$27.95 Pb, ISBN 9781586486679
Publish June 2009, 288 pages
Public Affairs
Meltdown
Paul Mason is an energetic and sought after TV
and print journalist.
Meltdown tells the story of the financial
crash that destroyed America’s investment
banks, pushed the global economy towards
a major recession, and began to undermine
three decades of neoliberal orthodoxy. BBC
journalist Paul Mason explores the roots of
financial hubris, documenting the real world
causes and consequences, from the Ford
factory to Wall Street. In response to this
challenge to the reigning ideology, he outlines
a new era of hyper-regulated capitalism that
could emerge from the wreckage.
$29.95 Pb, ISBN 9781844673964
Publish June 2009, 192 pages
Verso
Transit Lounge Publishing
www.transitlounge.com.au
BOY HE CRY
In May 1969 seven assisted migrants stepped out of the plane that
had touched down in a strange place called Hobart. Jenny Williams,
the author of Yenni, was one of those adults. From this time on little
of what Jenny and her family knew was of any use to them. Like
ROGER AVERILL
newborns they had to learn to exist in a different world. From factory
to restaurant work, to new relationships, Jenny’s Coffee House: After
Yenni takes the reader into the rich heart of a hard working family
searching for their niche in life. Full of the drama and humour of a
life fully lived (love, disappointment, separation and triumph ), this
is an evocative and compelling read. Much like the author herself, it
is inspiring, honest and real. Hobart shimmers and enchants, Europe
is never far away, while Jenny welcomes us all, like the best of
friends, into her world.
( Brief commendation to follow)
BOY
HE CRY
E UG E N IA J E NNY W IL LI AM S
ROGER
AVERILL
Kids' Books
Board Books
An Australian 123
of Animals
An Australian ABC
of Animals
Bronwyn Bancroft
Little Hare. Board. $12.99
Well-known
Aboriginal artist
Bronwyn
Bancroft
presents these
two lavishly
illustrated books
that combine to
teach young children about
basic letters and numerals and
Australia’s unique wildlife – as
seen through the eyes of an
indigenous artist.
Picture Books
Stanley Paste
Aaron Blabey
Viking. HB. $24.95
Aaron Blabey
won the 2008
Children’s Book
Council Book of
the Year Award
for his first
book, Pearl
Barley and
Charlie Parsely. His distinctively
quirky humour and droll
illustrations are on display again
here, in the story of very small
Stanley, who discovers being
small’s not so bad after all when
a new girl arrives at school.
Naked Mole Rat
gets Dressed
Mo Willems
Walker Books. PB. $15.95
AN ISLAND ODYSSEY
After Yenni
AN ISLAND ODYSSEY
‘A lucid,
Autobiography
tender tale – a journey that
brings our humanity home to us.’
Chris Eipper , author of Dieback
‘a beautiful, touching tale.’
The Australian
‘vibrant, wry, timely’
The Courier Mail
BOY HE CRY: AN ISLAND
ODYSSEY
Roger Averill
22
EUGENIA JENNY WILLIAMS
‘Opportunities and chances
and my strength to take
them up. I know how success
feels, the exhilarating goals
with deadlines, the hard
grind behind it.’ Jenny Williams
JENNY’S COFFEE HOUSE:
AFTER YENNI
Eugenia Jenny Williams
Mo Willems is a revolutionary.
First it was pigeons driving
busses! Now it’s a Naked Mole
Rat, the ugliest animal in the
universe, getting dressed! In his
delicious, quirky style, Willems
takes a strange, lovely world
and makes it so believable that
we’re cheering on the sidelines.
Wilbur, a Naked Mole Rat,
decides to get dressed one day.
Not a big deal, one would
think, except when naked is a
part of your name! Madness –
and consequently freedom –
ensues. Ah Mo, you had us
at Mole Rat!
Callie Martin is from
Readings St Kilda
The Composer is Dead
Lemony Snicket & Ellis
Carson (illus.)
Harper. HB. $24.99
This clever,
engrossing
murder mystery
combines the
storytelling
talents of
Lemony Snicket
with music
performed by the San Francisco Symphony orchestra (on
an accompanying audio CD)
and fabulous art deco illustrations. Join the Inspector as he
interrogates a host of suspicious musicians after the
composer drops dead during a
performance – then listen to
the CD and hear for yourself
exactly what took place on that
fateful, well-orchestrated
evening.
Duck
Janet Holmes
& Jonathan Bentley
Little Hare. HB. $24.99
The young
narrator of this
story assumes
that Duck loves
and needs him.
But when Duck
goes missing‚
playing in the
bath‚ story time and even
chocolate cake lose their appeal.
Great is the relief when Duck is
discovered under a cushion ...
but even greater is the discovery
that he needs Duck just as
much as Duck needs him!
Alex and Lulu:
Two of a Kind
Loren Siminvich
Templar. PB. $19.95
Meet best
friends Alex and
Lulu. Alex loves
having noisy,
exciting
adventures, and
Lulu likes
painting and
Kids Books
making things. Even though
they are different, they always
have fun together. Until Alex
begins to worry that they might
be TOO different — that they
might actually be opposites!
Discover what opposites really
are in this quirky story that
celebrates differences.
Novelty
The Very Hungry
Caterpillar Pop-Up
Book
Eric Carle
Puffin. HB. $34.95
facing the grief of family loss.
Kathy Kozlowski is
from Readings Carlton
Mates Readers
Ombinus. PB. $10.95 each
This engaging series of fullcolour chapter books for
beginning readers features some
of Australia’s leadings kids’
writers. Welcome news for kids,
parents and teachers alike. First
titles are Thorpey (Ruth Starke);
Wombat and the Great Poohjam
(Jackie French); The Smartest
Dog of All (Ian Horrocks) and
Chook Shed Snake (Phil Cummings).
Middle Fiction
The Mysterious
Benedict Society
Trenton Lee Stewart
Celebrate the fortieth anniversary of one of the world’s most
loved children’s books, with this
glorious pop-up edition.
Do Dogs Dream?
Ladybird. HB. $24.95
Help small
children answer
a range of
common
questions about
the animal
kingdom (Do
sheep get cold
without their wool? Why
can’t penguins fly?) with this
gorgeous pop-up journey from
the creators of the successful
Why is the Sky Blue?
Early Readers
Pearl Verses
the World
Sally Murphy
& Heather Potter (illus.)
Walker. PB. $14.95
Pearl writes in
blank verse all
about school,
and her
classmates, and
her teacher’s
problem with
poetry that
doesn’t rhyme. But mostly she
writes about home and her
beloved Granny who is fading
fast, and whom Pearl cannot
bear to lose. The text and
illustration work perfectly
together in this simple chapter
book, which will be enjoyed by
younger readers and be
especially precious to any child
Scholastic. PB. $16.99
‘Are you a gifted
child looking for
special opportunities?’ An ad in
the newspaper
directed at
children and not
their parents
catches the eye of gifted orphan
Reynie Muldoon. Following a
series of challenging and
increasingly bizarre tests, Reynie
and three other orphans Sticky,
Kate, and the objectionable
Constance are inducted into the
service of the mysterious Mr
Benedict. Their mission is to
infiltrate the Learning Institute
for the Very Enlightened; their
goal – to save the world. Great
plot twists and challenging
puzzles make this a real pageturner, but readers will find the
developing friendship between
these well-realised characters is
the true joy of The Mysterious
Benedict Society.
Marie Matteson is from
Readings Port Melbourne
Young Adult
Worldshaker
Richard Harland
A&U. PB. $17.99
When your
grandfather is
the Supreme
Commander of
the juggernaut
city Worldshaker, you’re not
expected to
fraternise with the lower classes.
And being the well-brought up
boy that he is, Colbert Porpen-
tine wouldn’t dream of making
friends with the subhuman
classes known as Filthies that
work deep in the bowels of
Worldshaker. But when he
discovers a Filthy girl hiding in
his room, Col finds himself
thrown into a situation beyond
his control. As Col becomes
entangled in Riff the Filthy’s
plans to overthrow the upper
classes he begins to unravel the
awful history of Worldshaker
and his family’s part in it.
Richard Harland has created a
wonderfully brooding world in
Worldshaker that is part
Dickens, part steam-punk and
will appeal to those twelve and
up who like their fantasy a little
on the dark side.
Holly Harper is from
Readings Malvern
characters who will take him
a little closer to the centre of
life’s mystery. Will Charlotte
find true love? Will Kevin get
his guy? How did Juliet lose her
virginity and will the school
principal succeed in having
Malcolm’s project banned?
Malcolm is just the person to
find out.
Audio Books
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn
Stephanie Meyer
Bolinda. CD. $39.95 each
Malcolm and Juliet
Claire Harman
Text. PB. $19.95
Malcolm is 16. With the mind
of a science nerd, the body of
a teenager, and an ambition to
reconcile the two, he embarks
upon his latest research project
– sex. Join Malcolm on his
journey, as he meets the cast of
Edward and Bella fans will
swoon at the news that the
bestselling vampire love novels
are now available to listen to.
books you can trust
MY SISTER SIF
Ruth Park
‘An essential read for ’09.’ DOLLY
A lyrical, environmental tale blending fantasy
and reality from one of Australia’s most
celebrated authors.
$14.95 / Young Adult / 978 0 7022 3701 0
TRACEY BINNS IS LOST
Sherryl Clark
‘Sherryl Clark’s Tracey is a fantastic character:
sassy, smart, but never a smarty-pants. You’ll
be cheering for her to the very end.’
SUNDAY AGE
$16.95 / Younger Reader / 978 0 7022 3705 8
BROWN SKIN BLUE
Belinda Jeffrey
‘A compelling story, powerfully told.’
NICK EARLS
A cinematic tale about a boy’s search for
identity set in Australia’s Top End.
$19.95 / Young Adult / 978 0 7022 3713 3
university of queensland press
www.uqp.com.au
Readings Famous
bargains on the web
Our new arrivals are regularly
added to our website. Just click
on the Bargains tab at www.
readings.com.au.
How Language
Works
David Crystal
Overlook Press. HB.
Was $46. Now $24.95
A world
authority on
language,
Crystal (The
Stories of
English) offers
an impeccably
organised guide
to language and communication that brings clarity to a
scholarly subject, and is sure to
become a standard reference.
New Zealand: Continent in a Nutshell
Clement Emmler
Bucher. HB.
Was $75. Now $24.95
Describes New
Zealand, a land
between fire and
ice – and a
paradise on the
other side of the
Tasman.
The Man Who Smiled
Henning Mankell
HB. Was $49.95. Now $16.95
The Man Who
Smiled begins
with Wallander
deep in a
personal and
professional
crisis after
killing a man in
the line of duty.
Italian Two Easy
Rose Gray
& Ruth Rogers
Potter. PB.
Was $69.95. Now $29.95
The bestselling
authors of the
River Cafe
cookbook series,
present Italian
Two Easy,
sharing 150
additional quick
and easy recipes.
24
The Lost: A Search
for Six of Six Million
Daniel Mendelsohn
Harper. HB.
Was $59.95. Now $24.95
A writer’s search
for the truth
behind his
family’s tragic
past in World
War II brilliantly
explores the
nature of time
and memory, family and history.
Wood: Craft,
Culture, History
Harvey Green
Penguin Press. HB. Was $49.95.
Now $24.95
Harvey Green’s
authoritative
and fascinating
book explores
wood’s natural
and human
history, celebrates its
myriad forms and possibilities,
and suggests the crucial roles
wood has played in a range of
human endeavours.
Classical
Destinations
Peter Beveridge
& Simon Callow
Viking. HB. Was $49.95.
Now $19.95
This book brings
landscape, music
and history alive,
visiting some of
Europe's most
beautiful
destinations as
revealed through
the lives and music of great
classical composers.
City of Heaven
Jasper Becker
Viking. HB.
Was $49.95. Now $14.95
The great city of
Peking, capital
of China from
the ninth
century, was for
a millennium
one of the most
extraordinary
places on earth. It was an
administrative centre and
residence of the Emperor – the
Son of Heaven.
Bargain Table
the Birthday Present
Independent People
Vintage. PB.
Was $32.95. Now $12.95
Set amidst an
age of IRA
bombings, the
first Gulf War,
and sleazy
politics, this is
the story of a fall
from grace.
Eagle. PB.
Was $27.95. Now $13.95
Laxness won the
1955 Nobel
Prize; this is
considered his
masterpiece. ‘I
love this book.’
– Jane Smiley
Barbara Vine
Liver
Will Self
Viking. HB.
Was $49.95. Now $15.95
These pieces
feature the
largest of our
internal organs:
the liver, in
varying states of
disease and
decay.
Haldor Laxness
the Kitchen
Revolution
Rosie Sykes, Polly
Russell & Zoe Heron
Ebury. Was $79.95. Now $24.95
Adopting a
‘back to basics’
approach, this
book helps you
with home
cooking using
fresh, seasonal
produce.
Shadow of
the Silk Road
Uncommissioned Art
Colin Thubron
Christine Dew
Vintage. PB.
Was $24.95. Now $13.95
On buses,
trains, jeeps and
camels, Thubron
traces the drifts
of the first great
trade route out
of the heart of
China.
Miegunyah. HB.
Was $39.95. Now $24.95
This illustrated
guide combines
color images
with analysis of
the history and
evolution of
Australia's
graffiti scene.
The Constant
Gardener
Mary Queen of Scots
and the Murder of
Lord Darnley
Holly Kerr Forsyth
Miegunyah. HB.
Was $79.95. Now $29.95
A comprehensive, erudite,
passionate guide
to creating,
enjoying and
maintaining the
garden.
Alison Weir
Vintage. PB.
Was $27.95. Now $13.95
One of Weir's
most engaging
excursions yet
into Britain’s
bloodstained,
power-obsessed
past.
Classics
The Terror
Knopf. HB. Was $34.95.
Now $16.95
An accessible
and inspiring
guide to the
great books of
the past that will
be eagerly
embraced and
discussed.
St Martins. HB.
Was $59.95. Now $19.95
A characterdriven chronicle
of revolutionary
terror and the
men who turned
the French
Republic into a
slaughterhouse.
Jane Gleeson-White
Graeme Fife
New DVDs
Slumdog Millionaire
Single disc $39.95. 2DVD
$44.95. Bluray $44.95.
Danny Boyle
directs this
wildly energetic
drama about the
desultory life
and times of an
r
Fo
Indian boy
Mum
whose bleak,
formative experiences lead to an
appearance on his country’s
version of Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire? While people begin
to suspect Jamal has cheated
after making it through to the
final question, a parallel
adventure takes place in the
telling, through flashback, of
stories and events that have got
him to the place he is today.




Funny Games
Released 6 May. $29.95.
In this provocative and brutal
thriller, a
vacationing
family gets an
unexpected visit
from two deeply
disturbed young
men. Their idyllic holiday turns
nightmarish as they are
subjected to unimaginable
terrors and struggle to stay
alive. Remade from his own
acclaimed 1997 film, Funny
Games is written and directed
by Michael Haneke (Hidden).
Pure Shit
They banned it
.... They
slammed it ...
and now after
35 years lost in
the wilderness
For
comes Bert
Mum
Deling’s 1975
masterpiece Pure Shit. In 1975,
the Australian underground
spewed out the most controversial film ever to be made about
the heroin subculture. Four
young people desperately
searching for a fix in a world
with no rules and death all
around. Pure Shit speaks truths
never mentioned in polite
society but its tools are speed,
rock 'n' roll, humour and
kaleidoscopic colour.




Choke
Released 6 May. $39.95
A movie about
addiction and
terminal illness
– your everyday
comedy. Victor
is a disgruntled,
unrepentant
sex addict; his
dying mother Ida thinks he’s
her lawyer instead of her son.
Ida’s doctor says the only way
Victor can save his mother is
to impregnate her for a controversial stem-cell treatment.
Marley and Me
Released 6 May. DVD $39.95.
Bluray $44.95.
John Grogan
(Owen Wilson)
is a reporter
reluctantly given
his own column.
Writing about
Marley, his holy
terror of a yellow
Labrador, he finds the mischievous dog to be not just excellent
inspiration but a reliable
companion as he builds a life
with wife and fellow journalist
Jennifer (Jennifer Aniston).
Frost/Nixon
DVD $39.95. Bluray $44.95.
Ron Howard
brings to the
screen the
electrifying
battle between
Richard Nixon,
the disgraced
president with a
legacy to save, and David Frost,
a jet-setting television personality with a name to make, in the
story of their historic encounter.
Revolutionary Road
Bluray $49.95.
April and Frank
Wheeler are a
young, thriving
suburban couple
living in the
mid-1950s.
Their selfassured exterior
masks a creeping frustration. As
their relationship deteriorates,
their dreams of self-fulfilment
are thrown into jeopardy.
25
DVDs
Brideshead Revisited
DVD $24.95. Bluray $39.95.
This lavish
drama brings to
life Evelyn
Waugh’s beloved
novel. After
meeting gay
schoolmate
Sebastian Flyte,
student Charles Ryder becomes
enamoured with his friend’s
aristocratic family, over the
course of two World Wars.
Affinity
London, 1874:
Margaret Prior
becomes a visitor
at a women’s
prison, where
she meets famed
medium Selina
Dawes, imprisoned for murder. But Selina
claims the crime was committed
by an evil, uncontrollable spirit.
All is not what it seems to be in
Andrew Davies adaptation of
Sarah Waters' novel.
Vicki Cristina
Barcelona
Bluray $49.95.
Woody Allen’s
exotic romantic
comedy finds
Vicky and
Cristina
(Scarlett
Johansson) on
holiday in Spain
when they both fall for a
charismatic painter (Javier
Bardem), whose ex-wife
(Penelope Cruz) intriguingly
throws herself into the mix.
The Wrestler
Bluray $49.95.
Back in the late
‘80s, Randy The
Ram Robinson
was a headlining
professional
wrestler. Now,
20 years later, he
ekes out a living
performing for handfuls of
diehard wrestling fans in high
school gyms and community
centers. When a heart attack
forces him into retirement,
he begins to evaluate the
state of his life. Yet all this
cannot compare to the allure
of the ring.
26
Peter Greenaway
Collection
$39.95.
Peter Greenaway
has crafted a
string of visually
extravagant films
that have won
him a cult
following. This
exclusive
collection includes his celebrated
first feature The Draughtsman’s
Contract, and A Zed and Two
Noughts. Includes a documentary of Greenaway’s career.
Rock ’n’ Roll Nerd:
The Tim Minchin Story
Filmed over
three years, Rock
'n' Roll Nerd is
an intimate tale
that charts Tim
Minchin’s
meteoric rise
from obscurity
to celebrity. Capturing every
moment of Tim’s first frenzied
break onto the comedy scene,
the documentary weaves
never-seen performance footage
with backstage antics, home
footage and candid interviews.
F For Fake
In this hilarious
documentary,
Orson Welles
attempts to
expose the
degree of fakery
in the artistic
world. From the
forged artistic masterpieces,
which allegedly hang on the
walls of great museums to the
claim made by an actress that
she was Pablo Picasso’s muse,
Welles wittily examines the
nature of counterfeit art and
false biography, all the while
tricking the audience itself to
further the debate.
The Tomorrow Show
On April 25
1975, John
Lennon gave
what was to be
his last televised
interview, to
Tom Snyder
on The Tomorrow Show. Includes interviews
with Paul McCartney and
Ringo Starr.
Ben 10: Alien Force
Series 3
Five years have
passed since we
last saw Ben
Tennyson
transforming
into aliens and
fighting crime.
Today, he is a
normal teenager who has put
away the Omnitrix. But Ben
soon finds himself once again
forced to turn to it.
Watership Down
$49.95
A beautifully
animated
television series,
adapted from
the novel of the
same name by
Richard Adams.
It aired for 39
episodes and starred several
well-known British actors,
including Stephen Fry, Rik
Mayall and John Hurt.
In Treatment:
Complete First
Season
$89.95
Set within the
intimate
confines of
individual
psychotherapy
sessions with
five sets of
patients, the
series centers around Paul
(Gabriel Byrne), a therapist
who displays a crippling
insecurity while counselled by
his own therapist, Gina
(Dianne Wiest).
Sports Night
Before there was
Aaron Sorkin’s
West Wing, there
was Sports Night,
which followed
the trials and
tribulations of a
smart, energetic
television staff as they scrambled
to put on a nightly cable sports
show. Sports Night was every bit
as good as its political successor
– in some ways, even better. The
trajectory of 45 episodes on this
DVD set allows you to watch
one of the best and most
groundbreaking half-hour shows
ever put on television.
Meerkat Manor:
Series 1 & 2
Released 15 May. $29.95 each
Follow the daily
saga of a
12-inch tall
family that’s a
lot like yours.
This groundbreaking series
follows a group
of meerkats living in the
Kalahari Desert in southern
Africa.
Antonio Carluccio’s
Southern Italian
Feast
With sundrenched
landscapes,
colourful
characters and
hearty flavours,
this series is a
cookery show, a
travelogue and a love letter to
Italy – all under a brilliant blue
Mediterranean sky.
Glass:
A Portrait Of Philip
Glass In Twelve Parts
In July 2005,
filmmaker Scott
Hicks started
shooting a
documentary
about the
composer Philip
Glass to
celebrate his 70th anniversary
in 2007. Over the next 18
months, Scott followed Philip
across three continents.
Nick Drake:
Under Review
$14.95
Nick Drake:
Under Review
is a 90-minute
documentary
film which goes
some way to
unravelling the
mystery of this
enigmatic singer-songwriter,
who passed away at the age of
just 26. With the aid of those
who were close to Nick, those
around at the time and family,
we begin to gain insight into
this much admired talent.
New Release CDs
CD of the Month
Together
Through Life
Bob Dylan
Normally $29.95.
Our special price $21.95.
Deluxe edition (2 CDs & DVD)
normally $47.95
Bob Dylan
introduces us
to his new
album by
For
explaining that
Mum
the whole
process began as a ‘one-song
recording’ for the French movie
My Own Love Song. He needed a
ballad for the movie and from
there the album took shape.
Although Together Through Life
has a ‘live-in-the-studio’ feel,
much like Love and Theft and
Modern Times, it is still very
much an original and fresh piece
of work from a man who
continues to push boundaries in
song-writing and arrangement.
Accordion appears on every
track and this gives the feel of a
street-corner café. The struggle
for love and loss seem to
permeate all the songs. Dylan’s
enormous legion of fans will
embrace this album as they do
all new works by a music legend.
Lou Fulco is from
Readings Carlton




Midnight At
The Movies
Justin Townes Earle
$24.95
With the looming figure of Steve
Earle as a father to cast off, J.T.
continues to plough his own
course on album number two.
That he manages so successfully
is testament to his obvious talent
and knowing way with a tune.
From the easy country swing
of Poor Fool to the beautifully
observed intimacy on Here We
Go Again, Earle covers his territory with growing confidence
and control. He even throws in a
fantastic Replacements cover for
good measure. This is the sound
of a young artist coming into his
own, proving that it takes more
than a name to survive in this
game. Great stuff.
Declan Murphy is from
Readings St Kilda
LOVE IS THE WAY
Eddi Reader
$25.95
The Scottish singer-songwriter
is a favourite of the Australian
folk community. A regular visitor here over the years, she is a
captivating live performer with a
strong voice. Her albums haven’t
reached the sales heights of her
first band, Fairground Attraction, but she remains worth
following and listening to.
This recording session was
originally designed to find a few
new songs to complement a
‘best of’ release, but the results
were so strong, Eddi decided
to go ahead and release a whole
new album. Very enjoyable.
Dave Clarke is from
Readings Carlton
SMOKING GUN
Lady of the Sunshine
(Angus Stone)
Normally $27.95
Our special price for May $22.95
Last year Angus and Julia Stone
released the terrific debut album
A Book Like This; now Angus has
decided to release a solo album
(despite the strange name he has
recorded it under). The album
has a similar loose acoustic feel
to the siblings’ project – in fact,
anyone who bought it would not
be disappointed. Why a solo album and not another album with
his sister, we don’t know. But if
he can knock out a quick solo
album as good as this while we
wait, I have no complaints. DC
BLACK ACROSS
THE FIELD
Lucie Thorne
$29.95
Largely unknown but highly
talented Lucie Thorne was raised
in Tassie, lived in Melbourne
for a time and now calls the tiny
hamlet of Bimbaya in the Bega
Valley (NSW) home. This new
album, recorded at her home
studio, will hopefully see her
find the larger audience she
deserves. This is one of the finest
female vocal albums released
by an Australian in the last few
years. Her beautiful breathy
vocals occasionally stretch out
on the rockier songs. The whole
album – from her band, to
production, to the songs – is
first-rate. You won’t find it on
the radio, but you should make
the effort to seek this fine album
out.
Hazards of Love
The Decemberists
Normally $27.95
Colin Meloy has always worn
his love of classic British folk
rock on his sleeve and this love
affair seems to have reached
its climax on Hazards of Love;
indeed, the title could well be
used to describe his penchant for
that particular sound. Don’t let
that put you off though! This is
a record which can seem slightly
pretentious at first but which,
when taken as a whole, reveals
a depth of ambition that’s ultimately, well, pretty cool. Check
out the liner notes for a ‘who’s
who’ of all-star guests on board
for this epic 17-song suite, then
delve in. DM
Elvis Perkins
in Dearland
Elvis Perkins
$24.95
Another
sophomore
album from a
man of famous
stock, who
continues to
show much promise. Perkins’
father was the actor Anthony and
his mother was photographer
Berry Berenson (who died during
9/11) and while there has always
been strong themes of death and
grief threaded through his music,
it’s his ability to explore such
material in a celebratory rather
than maudlin fashion that makes
his records so compelling. An
eclectic range of styles and
instrumentation await the listener
here. From rootsy Americana to
old-timey New Orleans brass,
Elvis delivers a fine set of tunes,
which closes with the graceful
heartbreak and album highlight
of How’s Forever Been Baby. DM
FORK IN THE ROAD
Neil Young
CD & DVD. $29.95
Neil Young has always been a
romantic when it comes to the
world of the automobile. Therefore, it seems to make sense that
Fork in the Road is Neil Young’s
one-man campaign to remind
everybody what cars used to
mean and what they should be
again. It’s Neil Young at his rock
'n' roll best: chunky rhythms
and snarling lead guitar lines.
Tackling subjects as the oil crisis
and the economic bail-out, this
is a brief, bracing, at times very
funny, garage rock blast. The
DVD features three live, neverbefore-seen concert videos, and
videos for four songs on the
album. Great stuff.
Phil Richards is from
Readings Carlton
Tony Palmer DVDs
First up: the 17-part series
All You Need is Love,(TPDV
DBOX1, $109.95). Made in
the mid-seventies with over 14
hours of footage spread over five
discs and sub-titled ‘The Story of
Popular Music’, this is an exceptional piece of documentary filmmaking. Next is the 1968 documentary All My Loving ($39.95).
Originally broadcast on the BBC
back in 1968, this groundbreaking rock documentary features
vintage performances by such legendary rock and roll acts as The
Beatles, The Who, Pink Floyd,
Cream and Jimi Hendrix. And
the third film is Tony Palmer's
film of the Fairport Convention
at the Maidstone Fiesta from
1970. (TPDVD105, $39.95)
This film, directed and restored
by Palmer, captures the band as
they run through their set of the
time. Featuring original members
Richard Thompson and Simon
Nicol alongside Simon Pegg,
Dave Swarbrick and Dave
Mattacks. PR
glorio
McKisko
$24.95
One of my first thoughts listening
to this beautiful new album was
that it’s one for fans of Joanna
Newsom with a less extreme
voice, only to find the exact same
observation on a plug for her
album launch (unfortunately now
past). McKisko, aka Queensland
gal Helen Franzmann, combines
her lovely voice with engaging
lyrics and orchestration. Simple
and beautiful, like a journey on
the sea, this is an Aussie songstress
we can be proud to claim.
Amy Tsilemanis is from
Readings Carlton
27
CDs
2DAIKOPAREHBEHI'RAARANOAAJ
J@NAS+?G=U+AH>KQNJA&AN=H@
Goodnight,
Bull Creek
Bob Evans
Normally $29.95. Our special
special price $22.95.
Bob Evans (Jebediah’s Kevin
Mitchell) gives us his follow-up
to the award-winning Suburban
Songbook. Again recorded in
Nashville, Goodnight, Bull Creek
retraces his whimsical songwriting style but introduces us
to a bigger sound full of more
instrumentation, a harder edge
and extraordinary stories and
characters born of his early life
experiences growing up in the
Perth suburb of Bull Creek.
Evans is an artist embracing the
world outside of his own and
continues to broaden his songwriting style into something
instantly recognisable. LF
Ashes of
American Flags
Wilco
DVD. $29.95
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-B-58-.81;:0B09-E
www.beyondhomeentertainment.com.au
28
Wilco release
their first ‘live’
performance
DVD and
begin with a
rehearsal of
Ashes of American Flags. Jeff
Tweedy gives a beautiful, sombre
performance and what follows is
a tour-de-force of live footage
taken from shows at Nashville’s
Ryman Auditorium and Tulsa’s
Cain Ballroom. Never a band to
be pigeonholed, Wilco gives a
blistering set of songs where the
musicianship is absolutely
extraordinary. Interspersed are
snippets garnered from all the
band members on their tour bus
and during sound-checks. None
are more significant than Tweedy
talking about his band-mates
– and in particular, his feelings
for long time co-conspirator
John Stirrat. LF
Lost Channels
Great Lake Swimmers
$25.95
I must admit that by the time I
had completed my first sitting of
the third album by Toronto band
Great Lake Swimmers, I sat in
silence as if still taking in what I
wasn’t sure my ears had heard. I
have since listened to Lost Channels many times and each listen
has sent me into a trance. Beautiful, mellow, echo-laden songs
telling intelligent stories written
in an almost conversational style,
chief song-writer Dekker has
upped the ante and created what
is probably his first ‘band’ album
after normally single-handedly
controlling previous releases. The
majesty within these songs jumps
out and completely grips your
senses. Great Lake Swimmers
deserve to be spoken of with the
same reverence as Fleet Foxes,
Iron and Wine and Band of
Horses. The album is still playing
in my head and I am unashamedly blown away!!!! LF
Country
Honey Moon
Handsome Family
$24.95
For more than a decade, America's sweethearts of alt-country,
Brett and Rennie Sparkes, have
been bewitching and beguiling us
with their seductive imaginative
vignettes of ordinary lives gone
awry. Madness, murder, suicide
and despair on the plains and in
the suburbs: all your favourite
neo-gothic themes. Now, they
turn their tunes to everyone's favourite theme: love. This is their
most optimistic, eclectic release
to date. But the established HF
enthusiast need not worry that
they have abandoned the path
they blazed so well. There is still
a lingering feeling of psychic
disquiet in those pleasant sounding melodies of yore, and I'm
sure there is still a noose swinging
out back in the barn. For lovers
everywhere. Amen.
Garry Mansfield is from
Readings Carlton
The Rise And Fall
Of Goodtown
Wagons
$24.95
Wagons’ new release is confident,
dirty and strong as per usual. The
incredibly big vocals of Henry
Wagon are matched perfectly
with the talented sextet of players
that play with him. The Rise and
Fall of Goodtown will happily satisfy those with a love of country
rock with impeccable guitar
and quirky stories. Its sounds
quite 'live' in a lot of tracks and
is surprisingly variant in moods
– going from an all-out crashing
force to basic and haunting, with
small cello intersections like on
track seven. All in all, it’s a really impressive and stand-alone
example of this genre that, for
me, was quite an uplifting listen.
Ryan Euinton is from
Readings Carlton
CDs
Jazz
Homage
Sam Anning,
Allan Browne,
Marc Hannaford
$29.95
One thing that gets my goat
is the calcification of the jazz
songbook to the point where
about half a dozen composers,
all a million years dead, are
given the lion’s share of the attention. So I was hardly jumping for joy when I chucked
this in the tray, being that as it
sees Allan Browne’s young trio
(led by the bassist Sam Anning
for this occasion) play Ellington, Morton, Monk and Armstrong. Consider me chastened,
as every minute of this record,
well, jumps for joy, it must be
said. The best thing about it
is that at no point does it feel
like players soloing on a set of
classic changes: you’re sharing
in moments of spontaneous
creation from the suitably
jungly Black and Tan Fantasy to
the more subdued material.
Pianist Marc Hannaford gets
most of the space but never
rubs his technique in your face.
Consider the honour of the jazz
standard suitably upheld.
Richard Mohr is a friend
of Readings
The Best of Bill
Frisell Volume One:
Folk Songs
Bill Frisell
$29.95
For 25 years,
Frisell has
mapped an
idiosyncratic
course through
and beyond
the world of jazz guitar,
smashing both its stylistic and
technical limitations. His label
Nonesuch have mapped out a
series of themed discs charting
that course. This first volume,
with liner notes by Elvis
Costello, focuses on Bill’s
wonderful excursions into what
we quaintly call ‘Americana’.
The albums drawn from include
his most popular efforts,
Nashville, Good Dog, Happy
Man and Gone, Just Like a
Train. Expanding on the
‘pastoral’ style of jazz he’d
pioneered alongside the likes of
Pat Metheny and Charlie
Haden, these saw Bill jamming
out with the likes on Ry Cooder
and Viktor Krauss to forge
something cinematic, tuneful
and unique. RM
Going Home
FGHR
$24.95
Both alphabetically and
democratically named, Farrugia
Grigoryan Howard Robertson
is one of Australia’s finest young
instrumental ensembles. Going
Home is their second recording,
and marks a clear step forward
from 2007’s Stationary. Aiming
for a totally empathic interplay
beyond the head/solo or verse/
chorus limitations of jazz, popular or ambient music, they’ve
come up with an album that
packs the same level of atmospheric sophistication (‘intense
ambient’, you could call it and
not be 100% wrong) but with
much more readily assimilated
melodies. All of which sounds
rather dry, I’m afraid: this stuff
doesn’t squeeze itself into 100
words of text as easily as some
albums. As always nothing
comes from a vacuum: classic Pat Metheny remains a
powerful reference point, and
nobody does it better. Singer
Emma Gilmartin, percussionist
Alex Pertout and accordionist
Anthony Schulz enhance the
atmosphere in places. RM
STAY
Fallingwater Trio
$29.95
Band leader Phil Bywater (saxophone), Elliott Folvig (guitar)
& Dale Lindrea (bass) are
Fallingwater Trio and together
they have created a stunning jazz
album. Bywater’s lyrical sensuous sax is the standout, but the
lovely gentle backing of Folvig
and Lindrea make a perfect
backdrop. At times this is very
zen, if you like your jazz soothing (but not in that horrible
muzak-y way) this is your thing.
Sid Grane is from
Readings St Kilda
Blues
Sweetheart Like You
Guy Davis
$29.95
Davis’s sixth album for leading roots label Redhouse is
an extremely enjoyable and
varied collection of six originals
and inspired covers from the likes
of Leadbelly, Son House, Willie
Dixon, Big Joe Williams and
Bob Dylan. Davis is a fine singer
and accomplished on harmonica,
banjo, mandolin, six- and twelvestring and bottleneck guitar. He
has become a leading exponent
of American acoustic country
blues with occasional forays into
ragtime and jugband music.
Throughout the album, it’s the
powerful pulse of Davis’s acoustic
finger-picking that drives things
along, whether it’s within the
context of a small band setting
or a solo acoustic setting like the
twelve-string guitar on a version
of Leadbelly’s field holler Ain’t
Going Down or the gentle and
whimsical Steamboat Captain,
with its beautiful guitar picking . Paul Barr is from
Readings Carlton
Folk & World
Alkohol
Goran Bregovic
$29.95
Goran
Bregovic’s
latest album is
both titled and
opened with
an enthusiastic
‘Alkohol!', following his
universal call to revelry in the
form of energetic (at times you
could say manic!) musical
expression. The signature horns
and bass combine with female
vocalists and Bregovic’s own
versatile vocal stylings, taking us
on a musical journey from the
wild opening through to the
slower romantic Ruzica (Rose)
and finishing with the track Tis
Agapis Sou To Risko (Your Love’s
Risk) that took me back to
where I first discovered Bregovic
– the 1998 film Black Cat White
Cat (dir. Emir Kusturica) – a
must for any Bregovic fans! True
to form, and recorded live, it is
impossible not to feel the
pulsating energy in this album
– put it on and combine a
celebration of life with some
hardcore dancing exercise! AT
Milk and Honey Land
The Fagans
$24.95
This album from the NSWbased Fagan family opens with
a really great version of Woody
Guthrie’s Pastures of Plenty before
moving on through many rarely
heard and recorded traditional
and contemporary folk songs
from Australia and the UK. This
family are all accomplished singers and players and do some really fine a capella singing as well.
Daughter Kate sings and writes
and is an accomplished solo
artist, while her brother James is
a sought-after guitar/bouzouki
player and member of noted
Australia/UK traditional duo,
with Nancy Kerr, who is also
a band member. A lot of these
songs deal with historical and
political themes and it’s really
good to see a cover of Redgum’s
Long Run in there too. Certainly
this is one of the significant Australian folk releases of 2009. PB
salsa
Various
$24.95 and Special Offer
of Free Dance Lesson.
The world's best world music
label Putumayo has once again
delivered a fantastic album. And
as a special offer, the first 75
Readings customers who buy
Salsa, will get a free Salsa lesson
with Dance Dynamics (studios
in Richmond, Malvern, Box Hill
& Doncaster. More details with
your purchase.
Heartstring Sessions
Arty McGlynn, Chris
Newman, Nollaig Casey,
Maire Ni Chatasaigh
$29.95
This Irish
import is a real
grower. At first
listen, this
sounded
very smooth
and polished, but after a few
listens, some real power and fire
emerges beneath the surface.
There are two husband-and-wife
teams: the women (sisters) play
harp and fiddle. Classically
trained fiddler Nollaig is equally
at home with traditional
music and husband Arty has
played with all the greats
(Christy Moore, Planxty) and he
is also a master rhythm guitarist,
producer and sometimes-member of Van Morrison’s touring
band. What we get here are
exciting jigs, reels and achingly
beautiful laments. On a couple
of old-timey tunes and a Merle
Travis classic Saturday Night
Shuffle, the guitarists cut loose
and trade licks – but for the
most part, the fiddle, harp and
guitars are perfectly integrated in
this elegant recording. PB
29
Classical CDs
CD of the Month
Monteverdi:
Teatro d’Amore
Christina Pluhar,
L’Arpeggiata, Philippe
Jaroussky, Nuria Rial
Virgin Classics. 2361402. $30.95
I first heard
one sublime
track from
this CD on a
For
Naïve sampler
m
u
M
for forthcoming releases over a year ago.
Since then, I’ve been keenly
anticipating its release.
Thankfully it finally turned up
on the Virgin label earlier this
year. The innovative Christina
Pluhar and her group
L’Arpeggiata get together with
several well-known classical
singers (including the wonderful Philippe Jaroussky) for a
baroque/jazz style jam session
of the music of Italian master
Claudio Monteverdi. Be
prepared to hear Monteverdi
arranged and performed as
you’ve never heard before.
You’ll be both excited and
converted. In fact, you can
go online at www.teatrodamore.com and sample tantalising snippets and watch a
performance of one of Monteverdi’s most exquisite miniature gems, Si Dolce e’il Tormento, poignantly performed
by Jaroussky and the band.
The experimentation and improvisation on this CD could
so easily have failed, but due to
the outstanding musicianship
and enjoyment of all involved,
the risks have paid off to create
an extraordinary album.
Catherine Koerner is from
Readings Hawthorn




Eloquence Sale
For the month of May, Readings
is celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Eloquence label by
offering special prices on all titles
in the Eloquence catalogue. If
you are not familiar with this
label, these are classic recordings
from Decca, Philips, DG and
ABC Classics, covering everyone from Bach to Hugo Wolf
and across the entire Classical
repertoire. On the single disc
Eloquence titles, which normally
sell for $9.95, the deal for May
is ‘buy three for $20’. (This offer
is only relevant for the single
disc titles).) There are also 2-CD
sets, normally $14.95, reduced
to $9.95, and 5-CD sets reduced
from $29.95 to $19.95.
Remember: this offer is only
valid for May.
Cherry Ripe: Vocal
treasures of the
18th & 19th centuries
Deborah Riedel,
soprano, Richard
Bonynge, Arcadia
Lane Orchestra.
Melba Records. MR301118.
$29.95
The recent passing of Sydney
soprano Deborah Riedel earlier
this year (from cancer, aged 50)
was a tragic loss to the Australian opera scene. In this, her
last recording, it’s a treat to hear
her sing such forgotten miniatures, barely ever performed
and recorded. The works on this
album stem from the eighteenth and nineteenth century
and are by such composers as
J.C. Bach, Boyce and Thomas
Arne via Cimarosa and Mayr to
little-known songsmiths such as
Crescentini, Pietro Generali and
Stephen Storace. So elegant and
pastoral are the gems on this CD
experience orchestral
music like never before
musica d’amore
Melbourne Recital Centre
Sunday 24 May, 2:30pm
that at times I was transported
to the drawing rooms and recital
halls of Jane Austen’s England.
At other times, I was reminded
of another great Australian opera
talent Joan Sutherland – who
Deborah uncannily sounds like.
However, Deborah had a quality
that was uniquely hers; this CD
stands as testament and memorial to her talents. CK
Venezia 1625
Maurice Steger
and Ensemble
$33.95. HMC902024.
Recorder virtuoso Maurice
Steger is the soloist and director
of the new release on Harmonia Mundi dedicated to the
works of particular Venetian
composers from the 1600s. An
interesting collection of works,
many originally composed for
violin that have made a smooth
transition to recorder. The duet
by Tarquinio Mercula makes a
particularly striking impression.
There is a habit of slight overembellishment that detracts
somewhat from a lovely musical
interpretation. However there
are beautiful contrasts in colour
and rhythm that spark the interest throughout the recording.
Kate Rockstrom is from
Readings Carlton
Bach Arias
Anne Sophie Von Otter,
Lars Ulrik Mortensen,
Concerto Copenhagen
DG 4777467. $29.95
I recently attended a classical music workshop where we
were privy to a smorgasbord of
upcoming classical CD releases.
One of the examples on offer was
a track from this forthcoming
release by Anne Sophie Von Otter singing the aria Ebarme Dich
from JS Bach’s St Matthews Passion. When it was over all attending sat there in captivated silence,
moved by a divine performance.
With this CD Von Otter returns
to the repertoire which launched
her international singing career
20 years ago. On offer are 24
arias and duets from some of JS
Bach’s greatest oeuvre. Von Otter
immersed herself in the music
of JS Bach in 2007 studying and
notating as she went along. The
resulting program reflects Otter’s
integrity, intelligence and great
vocal gifts along her journey back
into Bach. CK
The Romantic
Piano Concerto: 46
York Bowen
Hyperion. CDA67659. $33.95
Hyperion’s Romantic Piano Concerto series is proving to be an
invaluable document and somewhat of an eye-opener. This disc
of concertos by York Bowen,
like many of the other 45 in the
series so far, is something of a
revelation. They are full-blooded, with that wonderful allencompassing romantic presence
so important to music of this period. The question arises then, of
why only a handful of concertos
from this period remains in the
repertoire today. The series so
far has attracted some great performers such as Stephen Hough,
Howard Shelley, The City of
Birmingham Symphony and
our own Tasmanian Symphony
Orchestra. This disc features the
young pianist Danny Driver
with Martyn Brabbins and BBC
Scottish Symphony Orchestra,
all of whom add to enjoyment
of this marvellous disc.
Maurice Smith buys classical
music for the City of Boroondara
Library Service
$10 Readings Gift Voucher
for each ticket* purchased at the Melbourne
Recital Centre box office when you quote
“Readings’ MCO Offer”.
offer
Special dings
a
for Re ers
custom
Diana Doherty is Australia’s doyen of the oboe.
Diana’s Bach is nourishment for the soul.
And with MCO playing Handel, this concert
will enthral. Details at mco.org.au
Call Melbourne Recital Centre
box office on 9699 3333 or email
boxoffice@melbournerecital.com.au
to take advantage of this offer.
*Full priced single tickets only
30
5608-2 MCO_Readings_55x190May.indd 1
15/4/09 4:30:27 PM
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the Cannes Film Festival
33 directors. 25 countries. Five continents.
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Influential Cinema from Around the Globe
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