August 2015

gleebooks
gleaner
Vol. 22 No. 7
August 2015
news views reviews
new releases events calendar
Gleeclub Special Event
Dust off your safari suits
and platform shoes and
join us to celebrate
Gleebooks' 40th
anniversary!
7–10 pm,
Wednesday 5 August 2015
49 Glebe Pt Road, Glebe
Theme: 1975
RSVP:
events@gleebooks.com.au
quote Gleeclub number
Invitation to a Marxist
Lesbian Party
I've been feeling ambivalent about this Gleebooks 40th anniversary year.
I've decided that it's quite simple: I was young when I started here (38
years ago) and now I'm old, and not happy about it. But it's also mixed
with nostalgia for the halcyon days of 70s Glebe, with those exciting new
Lebanese and Vietnamese cafes, an amazingly cheap and liberal renters'
market, the wonderfully quirky Valhalla cinema, and a whole batch of
unrenovated pubs full of diehard locals and earnestly argumentative lefties (thinking of which, was there ever an uglier venue in which to have
such a good time as the Forest Lodge? and how on earth has it survived?).
Anyway, talk about Gleebooks' events led a young staff member to ask
when the first was. It was, I reckon, a poetry reading in 1975. But seared
in my memory is the first book launch we organised in 1978. It was for
two books of poetry, by Lee Cataldi and Laurie Duggan, both published
by Wild and Woolley. The students in one of the classes at Tempe High,
where Lee and I were teaching that year, made a lovely poster for us to
promote Lee's book, which was called Invitation to a Marxist Lesbian
Party. Our naivety was remarkable. A lovely handmade poster in a bookshop window at the main bus stop in Glebe Pt Rd inviting all an sundry to
a Marxist Lesbian Party was, as you'd imagine, amazingly effective. Remember that Gleebooks was a small, and very cluttered shop. Hundreds
of people turned up. I guess the launch went OK—all I can remember is
that it couldn't, and didn't, end until the police came to clear the overflow
from the shop, the footpath and the street. I'm tempted to say those were
the days. Certainly, Glebe was a place to be.
My winter reading hours have been filled recently with two new books
which demand attention—in very different ways. I've always admired the
way Richard Glover has consistently rendered the everyday more meaningful, and entertaining, through his weekly SMH columns. He has a deft
touch, and a rich sense of irony and understatement. I'm currently enjoying his memoir Flesh Wounds (more next month, it's due out Sept 1st) and
marvelling at how fabulously un-nostalgic he is about the wounds (flesh
and otherwise) sustained in his childhood. It's bringing new meaning to
that old phrase 'you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your
relations'.
There's much food for thought about childhood, and much, much more in
Jonathan Franzen's new book Purity (also due for release in September).
It's a long time between Franzen's novels (The Corrections was 2001,
Freedom, 2010). His writing can crackle and spark, and be long-winded
and ponderous, in equal measure, but it's never less than fully engaging.
Franzen's always been interested in the big questions at the intersection of
personal commitment and burning social issues, and Purity won't disappoint anybody looking for argument on the big issues in contemporary
life. David Gaunt
Australian Literature
An Astronaut's Life by Sonja Dechian ($30, PB)
In Mireille Juchau’s second novel, Burning In, a woman’s daughter goes missing
and in struggling with her grief she comes to terms with the relationship between
parental love and the imperatives of survival, as well as the impact of the past on
the present. Juchau (pronounced jooshaw) is clearly not done with these themes,
because in her new novel, The World Without Us, she again examines the idea of
family, motherhood, loss and renewal. Set somewhere on the north coast of New
South Wales, Evangeline has been brought up on a commune called The Hive,
run by cult-like figure Jack Hodgins. The commune has been destroyed by fire
and its residents scattered. Many, like Evangeline and her husband Stefan Mǖller,
have moved to the local town. Pip, their youngest daughter, has died of leukaemia;
the eldest, Tess, hasn’t spoken since her sister’s death; and Meg, the middle girl,
wavers between them all. Evangeline is a painter and Stefan keeps bees, whose
honey they sell at the markets on the weekend. But the bees are disappearing, trees
are being felled, the landscape is changing.
Invasive technology, rampant consumerism, the destruction of the
natural world. Exploring the most urgent issues of our time Sonja
Dechian's profound, moving and wry stories speak to our deepest yearning for connection—and the inevitability of our isolation.
From a terrorist cell of cyber-bullying victims working to annihilate
the digital memory of their humiliation, to a pandemic that leaves
grieving parents battling for the media spotlight, these affecting tales
invite us to examine our inability to control the world around us—or
our own desires. A beautiful debut from a sharp, intelligent new
voice in Australian writing.
The World Without Us by Mireille Juchau
After a fire destroys her family's commune home, Evangeline is
forced to start afresh in the north coast rainforest town with her
child, and partner, Stefan Muller. Years later, while tending the bees
on their farm, Stefan discovers a car wreck, and not far off, human
remains. While the locals speculate on who has gone missing from
the transient hinterland town, Stefan's daughters Tess and Meg, have
a more urgent mystery. Where does their mother go each day, pushing an empty pram and returning wet, muddy and dishevelled? Jim Parker, a Sydney
teacher escaping his own troubles arrives in their clannish community. One morning he
stumbles upon Evangeline & their charged encounter propels Evangeline's past into the
present and sparks a change in all their lives. Meanwhile ten year old Tess, mute since the
loss of her youngest sister, attempts to escape. Will getting lost help her discover where
she belongs? As the rainy season descends, and each of the family are separated by flood,
they realise nothing is what it seems. ($29.99, PB)
There are mysteries, questions of paternity, an affair. But plot is not the whole story in this beautiful novel. There is no clear protagonist but it is Evangeline around
whom the other characters revolve. We see her through the eyes of her daughters
and her lover, Jim, but she remains opaque right until the end. Evangeline is in
the world, but not of it. The death of her daughter, Pip, is not the only trauma she
has experienced and as Juchau teases out the events of her past, she is gradually
revealed to us—and to those close to her. The power of the book lies in a kind of
swirling of events and characters. Points of view change from chapter to chapter
as Juchau seamlessly switches from first, second and third person, from an intense
interiority to an external perspective.
There is a great humanity here—everyone has their own struggle, but all are interdependent and can’t resolve their pain without each other. While we feel for all
of these characters—young Tom Tucker publishing his reports on the coming environmental Armageddon; Jim, so at a loss in the world; Stefan, stoic and loving
and bewildered—it is the daughters, Meg and Tess, with their desperate yearning
for their mother to come back into the world who tug at your heart. Before Pip
died they’d had their mother, mostly present. They had promised visits to the town
pool; her strong hands beneath their spines, her face dappled with reflected water,
her steady, unbroken gaze.
Surveillance by Bernard Keane ($30, PB)
The government is spying on everyone. But who is spying on the
government? A ruthless online activist group called Kittehsaurus
Rox has hacked into top-secret Cabinet information and gone public with it, creating widespread panic and embarrassing a government that will stop at nothing to hunt down 'KSR'. Journalist and
cyber-expert Kat Sharpe is chosen by KSR to break news of their
operations, and overnight she becomes the media sensation she has
always longed to be. But as she gets closer to KSR and its circle
of supporters, she can't shake the feeling that something doesn't add up. Cybersecurity
company Veldtech Industries is in line to make a fortune out of the carnage created by the
hackers. But they have their own desperate secrets to protect—from the government and
from each other. A thrilling, timely novel about the price we pay for our 'security' and the
lengths companies—and governments—will go to hide the truth.
This is not to say there is not a strong narrative structure holding the book together. There has been a fire in the past which has had far-reaching repercussions
and there is a flood coming to sweep away all that has gone before and from which
they will emerge anew.
The World Without Us is a luminous novel of beauty and wisdom and deserves to
be widely read and admired. Morgan Smith
Endurance by Tim Griffiths ($30, PB)
A Guide to Berlin by Gail Jones ($33, PB)
A Guide to Berlin is the name of a short story written by Vladimir
Nabokov in 1925, when he was a young man of 26, living in Berlin.
A group of six international travellers, two Italians, two Japanese, an
American and an Australian, meet in empty apartments in Berlin to
share stories and memories. Each is enthralled in some way to the
work of Vladimir Nabokov, and each is finding their way in deep
winter in a haunted city. A moment of devastating violence shatters
the group, and changes the direction of everyone's story. Brave and
brilliant, A Guide to Berlin traces the strength and fragility of our
connections through biographies and secrets.
Frank Hurley's photographs and documentaries of Douglas Mawson's and Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expeditions, and his astounding images of World War I have been so widely exhibited
and reproduced that in many cases they are the principal means by
which we have come to see those world-shattering events. His iconic
images of the ship Endurance trapped in an ocean of ice, of men
battling the most extreme elements in the Antarctic, and suffering
under unthinkable conditions in war are imprinted on the Australian
consciousness. Tim Griffith's debut novel has Hurley, telling us of his part in the two
ill-fated Antarctic expeditions and recounting tales of great heroism and suffering as he
fights for his life among the ice and the elements, and witnesses the worst ravages of war
on the Western Front.
Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar ($30, PB)
Salt Creek, 1855, lies at the far reaches of the remote, beautiful and
inhospitable coastal region, the Coorong, in the new province of
South Australia. The area, just opened to graziers willing to chance
their luck, becomes home to Stanton Finch and his large family,
including 15 year-old Hester Finch. Once wealth political activists,
the Finch family has fallen on hard times. Cut adrift from the polite
society they were raised to be part of, Hester and her siblings make
connections where they can: with the few travellers that pass along
the nearby stock route, and the Ngarrindjeri people they have dispossessed. As Hester witnesses the destruction of the Ngarrindjeri's subtle culture and the
ideals that her family once held so close, she begins to wonder what civilisation is. Was
it for this life and this world that she was educated?
Feet to the Stars and Other Stories
by Susan Midalia ($25, PB)
Fantastica Prose Shop:
6 Aug, 20 Aug, 3 Sept, 17 Sept, 1 Oct, 15 Oct
Following up on the fun we had with Prose Shop 2014, and the genre trend from
Seizure's Viva La Novella competition, we are starting up a new course specifically
for speculative fiction writers! Welcome to: Fantastica Prose Shop 2015!
Course details: Six two-hour sessions, fortnightly (6 Aug, 20 Aug, 3 Sept, 17
Sept, 1 Oct, 15 Oct) 6.30-8.30pm at Gleebooks in Glebe, Sydney.
An equal mix of discussion-based insight into the speculative fiction genre, practical development of your writing technique and detailed workshopping of your
work, with fellow participants as well as notes and feedback from the course tutors.
10% Gleebooks discount for course participants on suggested reading-list titles.
Information and suggestions on approaching publishers. One payment of $200.
This workshop is designed for writers who already have a project either underway
or at the planning stage. The class will be capped at ten to ensure that each participant’s work receives the type of attention that will take it to the next stage.
How to apply:
Send two examples of your work (and a short friendly introductory email) to
info@fantasticascifi.com
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Feet to the Stars, Susan Midalia’s third collection of short stories,
offers keenly observed details about everyday life expressed with
pathos, tenderness and bracing wit. Subtly rendered and emotionally
engaging, these stories speak of the transformative capacities of the
heart and mind, and of the ways we affect each other, sometimes
unwittingly and often profoundly. They offer us the pleasure of listening to different voices, and the satisfaction of careful crafting and
evocative prose.
The Beast's Garden by Kate Forsyth ($32.99, PB)
It's August 1939 in Germany, and Ava's world is in turmoil. To save
her father, she must marry a young Nazi officer, Leo von Löwenstein, who works for Hitler's spy chief in Berlin. However, she hates
and fears the brutal Nazi regime, and finds herself compelled to
stand against it. Ava joins an underground resistance movement that
seeks to help victims survive the horrors of the German war machine. Gradually she comes to realise that Leo is part of a dangerous
conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. As Berlin is bombed into ruins, the
Gestapo ruthlessly hunt down all resistance and Ava finds herself liv- ing hand-to-mouth
in the rubble of the shell-shocked city. A retelling of the Grimm brothers' Beauty and The
Beast, Kate Forsyth's new novel is a compelling love story set in a time when the world
seemed on the brink of collapse.
The Bit In Between by Claire Varley ($30, PB)
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After an unfortunate incident in an airport lounge involving an immovable customs officer, a full jar of sun-dried tomatoes and the
capricious hand of fate, Oliver meets Alison. In spite of this less
than romantic start, Oliver falls in love with her. Immediately. Inexplicably. Irrevocably. With no other place to be, Alison follows
Oliver to the Solomon Islands where he is planning to write his
much-anticipated second novel. But as Oliver's story begins to take
shape, odd things start to happen and he senses there may be more
hinging on his novel than the burden of expectation. As he gets
deeper into the manuscript and Alison moves further away from him, Oliver finds himself
clinging to a narrative that may not end with 'happily ever after'.
On D'Hill
As we celebrate Gleebooks’ 40th birthday this August, memories
come flooding back of my own long association with this wonderful
bookshop. I first worked at 191 Glebe Pt Rd in 1982 after meeting
David Gaunt at the Forest Lodge Hotel where a gang of ex Sydney Uni. students hung out on Friday nights—a gang who’ve been
mates ever since. I think David mentioned they had a vacancy and
as I had previously worked in bookshops, I got the job. Many will
remember that cramped little shop which had become the centre of
the intellectual universe for many academics and students as well
as writers and poets and hungry readers. I was in heaven. There
was great excitement each time a shipment arrived from America,
containing philosophy books and journals otherwise unavailable
here, along with the best new fiction by people like Richard Brautigan, Bukowski, Margaret Atwood and so many others. In those
pre-computer days we wrote sales down in a book which we later
trawled through to do back-orders, amusing ourselves by creating
shorthand for various titles, so Christina Stead’s For Love Alone
became ‘felafel one’.
I worked as a TV scriptwriter and editor for ten years until personal
circumstances led me back to gleebooks in 1994, where I’ve been,
on and off, for 21 years. I sat at the customer service desk at the
bottom of the stairs at ‘49’, researching books for students’ theses,
tracking down hard-to-find titles, writing my Untitled column for
the gleaner and generally being rather bookish. For some years I
wrote the entire Summer Reading Guide, my little flat in Annandale
awash with books. As events manager, I had the privilege of meeting a host of inspiring Australian and international writers giving
me a lifetime of name-dropping—Clive James admired my ankles,
don’t you know. And just as I tired of being out at events every
evening, it was decided to open a Gleebooks branch in Dulwich
Hill. What luck! I live in the area and it seemed right to have someone local run the new shop. We’ve been at Dulwich Hill for five
years this past June, and it’s been a huge pleasure to get to know a
whole new generation of readers—including one young mother I
babysat as a toddler—plus a lot of long-time customers to whom
I’ve sold books at the old shop at 191, then at 49 and now on D’Hill.
It’s been a privilege to spend my days sharing books with readers,
all under the auspices of kind, generous and entirely unconventional bosses like David (defying OH&S laws by padding around
barefoot in summer) and Roger (snoozing on the stage Upstairs at
49). Thanks guys.
Enough nostalgia already. Children’s Book Week runs from Saturday August 22 to the 29th and we’re having a humongous kid’s
book sale On D’Hill. See you there! Morgan Smith
Like Morgan said!!!
Massive Children's Book Sale
Picture books,
junior and senior fiction,
non-fiction.
something for everyone!
Children's Book Week
Saturday 22 – Friday 28 August
Gleebooks @ Dulwich Hill
536 Marrickville Rd Dulwich Hill
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The First Execution by Domenico Starnone
When retired teacher Domenico Stasi learns that Nina, his former
student, has been accused of armed conspiracy, he agrees to help her
by doing a simple task, but in doing so he becomes inexorably involved with her and her cause. ($24.99, PB)
Eros by Helmut Krausser ($28, PB)
A reclusive millionaire living with an enigmatic past invites an unnamed writer to stay with him and ghostwrite his autobiography. But
the story he recounts turns out to be a dazzling fabrication, the fruit
of madness and erotic obsession.
The Have-Nots by Katharina Hacker ($25, PB)
Jakob and Isabelle meet at a party on September 11. They marry and
move to London, where Jakob takes the post of a colleague killed in
the World Trade Centre attack. But the couple's relationship, like the
world they once knew and the happiness they once shared, proves
more fragile with each passing day. Winner of the 2006 German
Book Prize for best novel.
Timeskipper by Stefano Benni ($28, PB)
A young boy is given a magical gift: an internal 'duoclock' that allows him to see the future. Timeskipper sees and foresees the big
events of his era, from postwar reconstruction to the birth of television. These events are offset by his own experiences: first love, first
job, and wild adventures with oddball acquaintances.
Lions at Lamb House. Freud's Lost Analysis of
Henry James: Freud's 'Lost' Analysis of Henry
James by Edwin M. Yoder ($25, PB)
Lions at Lamb House imagines what happens when an Austrian
psychiatrist responds to the request of a Boston colleague. The colleague, who fears his brother's intention to rewrite his early novels
may be the sign of debilitating neuroses, urges the psychiatrist to
visit and evaluate his brother at home in the south of England.
The Worst Intentions by Alessandro Piperno
This novel charts the astounding rise and equally astounding fall of
the Sonninos as seen through the eyes of the youngest heir to the
Sonnino dynasty. This is a boisterous, passionate story of adventure, sex and betrayal in the opulent neighbourhoods of contemporary Rome. ($25, PB)
A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome: Daily Life, Mysteries, and Curiosities by Alberto Angela ($27.99, PB)
The roar of frenzied spectators inside the Coliseum during a battle
between gladiators. A crowd of onlookers gathered around a slave
driver. The wondrous plenty of banquets where flamingos are roasted
whole and wine flows like rivers. The silence of the baths and the
boisterous taverns. For all those who have ever dreamed of traveling
back in time, Alberto Angela's narrative style will come as a welcome change to dry historical tomes. Rich in atmosphere and historical information, A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome is a voyage into
a world both distant to us in time and surprisingly near in its habits,
mores & passions.
The Taming of the Queen
by Philippa Gregory ($32.99, PB)
Kateryn Parr, a 30 year-old widow in a secret affair with a new
lover, has no choice when a man old enough to be her father
who has buried four wives—King Henry VIII—commands her
to marry him. Kateryn has no doubt about the danger she faces:
the previous queen lasted 16 months, the one before barely half
a year. But Henry adores his new bride & Kateryn's trust in him
grows as she unites the royal family, creates a radical study
circle at the heart of the court, and rules the kingdom as Regent.
But is this enough to keep her safe? A leader of religious reform & the first woman
to publish in English, Kateryn stands out as an independent woman with a mind of
her own. But she cannot save the Protestants, under threat for their faith, and Henry's
dangerous gaze turns on her. The traditional churchmen and rivals for power accuse
her of heresy—the punishment is death by fire & the king's name is on the warrant.
Hunters in the Dark by Lawrence Osborne
Adrift in Cambodia, Robert Grieve—pushing thirty and eager
to side-step a life of quiet desperation as a small-town teacher—decides to go missing. As he crosses the border from Thailand, he tests the threshold of a new future. And on that first
night, a small windfall precipitates a chain of events involving
a bag of 'jinxed' money, a suave American, a corrupt policeman
and a rich doctor's daughter, in which Robert's life is changed
forever. Alive with malice and grace, this is a taut tale reminiscent of the nightmares of Patricia Highsmith: a story of double
identities, and innocence in the midst of evil, from a master of
atmosphere and observation. ($29, HB)
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International Literature
Wind/ Pinball: Two Novels by Haruki Murakami
Wind/Pinball are Haruki Murakami's first two novels—available for
the first time in English outside Japan. With a new introduction by
the author. They follow the fortunes of the narrator and his friend,
known only by his nickname, the Rat. In Hear the Wind Sing the
narrator is home from college on his summer break. He spends his
time drinking beer & smoking in J's Bar with the Rat, listening to the
radio, thinking about writing and the women he has slept with, and
pursuing a relationship with a girl with nine fingers. Three years later,
in Pinball, 1973, he has moved to Tokyo to work as a translator & live
with indistinguishable twin girls, but the Rat has remained behind, despite his efforts to
leave both the town & his girlfriend. The narrator finds himself haunted by memories of
his own doomed relationship but also, more bizarrely, by his short-lived obsession with
playing pinball in J's Bar. This sends him on a quest to find the exact model of pinball
machine he had enjoyed playing years earlier: the three-flipper Spaceship. ($29.95, HB)
A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler ($29.99, HB)
Andreas lives his whole life in the Austrian Alps, where he arrives as
a young boy taken in by a farming family. He is a man of very few
words and so, when he falls in love with Marie, he doesn't ask for her
hand in marriage, but instead has some of his friends light her name at
dusk across the mountain. When Marie dies in an avalanche, pregnant
with their first child, Andreas' heart is broken. He leaves his valley
just once more, to fight in WWII—where he is taken prisoner in the
Caucasus—and returns to find that modernity has reached his remote
haven. Like John Williams' Stoner or Denis Johnson's Train Dreams,
A Whole Life is a tender book about finding dignity and beauty in solitude.
Orphan #8: A Novel by Kim van Alkemade
In 1919, Rachel Rabinowitz is a vivacious 4 year-old living with
her family in a crowded tenement on NY's Lower Eastside. When
tragedy strikes, Rachel is separated from her brother Sam and sent
to a Jewish orphanage where Dr Mildred Solomon is conducting medical research. Subjected to X-ray treatments that leave her
disfigured, Rachel suffers years of cruel harassment from the other
orphans. But when she turns 15, she runs away to Colorado hoping
to find the brother she lost and discovers a family she never knew
she had. Though Rachel believes she's shut out her painful childhood
memories, years later she is confronted with her dark past when she becomes a nurse at
Manhattan's Old Hebrews Home and her patient is none other than the elderly, cancerstricken Dr Solomon. Rachel becomes obsessed with making Dr Solomon acknowledge,
and pay for, her wrongdoing. A debut novel inspired by true events, in the vein of Sarah
Waters' historical fiction. ($25, PB)
US Conductors by Sean Michaels ($30, PB)
Inventor of the ethereal, musical theremin, Lev Termen performed in
the gilded concert halls of Russia & Europe to rapturous applause.
The toast of the Soviet Union, he was sent to New York with a plan
to infiltrate capitalism itself, to win its heart & capture its secrets. But
instead, Manhattan infiltrates Termen & in the city of dreams he rubs
shoulders with Gershwin & Rachmaninoff, the Rockefellers & the
Astors, Charlie Chaplin & Glenn Miller, and dances night after night
with the beautiful young violinist Clara Rockmore. But when his spy
games fall apart & he is forced to return home, he finds the Motherland
not quite as he left it. Exiled to a Siberian Gulag, with nothing but his wits to keep him
alive, Termen is drawn ever deeper into the labyrinth of Stalin's Russia, where only his
feelings for Clara, passing through the ether like the theremin's song, seem to show a way
out. Winner of Canada's Booker, the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
The Sea by Blai Bonet ($25.95, PB)
A profoundly touching contribution to the tradition of the metaphysical novel as exemplified by Dostoyevsky & Bernanos, and likewise a
worthy counter-part to the vibrant & polyphonic work of fellow Iberians Camilo José Cela & Juan Goytisolo, The Sea is a cornerstone of
postwar Catalan literature. Set in a tubercular sanatorium in Mallorca
after the Spanish Civil War, it tells the story of three children sharing
a gruesome secret who are brought together again by chance & illness
as two patients & their nurse. A love triangle, a story of retribution,
and an exploration of evil, The Sea is 'a profound and radical descent
into the depths of the human soul.' (Gérard de Cortanze).
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara ($33, PB)
When four graduates from a small Massachusetts college move to
NY to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their
friendship & ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter
seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a
prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves
as their centre of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen
& darken, tinged by addiction, success & pride. Yet their greatest
challenge, each comes to realise, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind & body scarred by an
unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he'll not
only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.
One Hundred Days of Happiness by Fausto Brizzi
What would you do if you knew you only had 100 days left to live?
For Lucio Battistini, it's a chance to spend the rest of his life the way
he always should have—by making every moment count. Womanising, imperfect, but loveable, Lucio Battistini has been thrown out of the
house by his wife and is sleeping in the stock room of his father-in-law's
bombolini bakery when he learns he has inoperable cancer. So begins
the last hundred days (in 100 epigramatic chapters) of Lucio's life, as
he attempts to care for his family, win back his wife (the love of his life
and afterlife), and spend the next three months enjoying every moment
with a zest he hasn't felt in years. From helping his hopelessly romantic, widowed fatherin-law find love, discovering comfort in enduring friendships, and finding new ones, Lucio
becomes, at last, the man he's always meant to be. ($30, PB)
Radish by Mo Yan ($10, PB)
During China's collectivist era in the later 1950s, a rural work team set to
repair a river floodgate receives a new labour recruit: Hei-hai, a skinny,
sorry, silent boy. Assigned to pump the bellows at the worksite forge,
Hei-hai proves indifferent to pain or suffering, but eerily sensitive to
the beauties of the natural world. As the worksite becomes embroiled
in human jealousy and strife, Hei-hai's eyes remain trained on a world
that only he can see, searching for wonders that only he understands.
One day, he finds all that he has been seeking embodied in the most
mundane and fragile of objects: a radish. 'That dark-skinned boy with
the superhuman ability to suffer and a superhuman degree of sensitivity represents the soul
of my entire fictional output. Not one of all the fictional characters I've created since then is
as close to my soul as he is.' Mo Yan, 2012 Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech.
Paris Nocturne by Patrick Modiano ($28, PB)
In the opening scene of Paris Nocturne, the nameless narrator is hit by
a car near Place des Pyramides. He and the woman driving the car are
taken in a police van to the hospital. He's sure he has met her somewhere.
He is given ether, wakes up in a different hospital, and the woman, Jacqueline Beausergent, has vanished. A mysterious figure presents him
with an account of the accident and hands him an envelope stuffed with
bank notes. Does Jacqueline Beausergent have the answers to the narrator's questions about the past, about his father? He will comb the city's
cafés and stations to find her. Paris Nocturne is like a mystery novel in
which we are searching for the crime itself, as Nobel Prize winner, Patrick Modiano relentlessly explores the elusive nature of memory.
Little Jewel by Patrick Modiano ($27.99, PB)
One day in the corridors of the metro, nineteen-year-old Thérèse sees a woman in a yellow
coat. Could this be her mother? Who called her Little Jewel? But didn't her mother die in
Morocco years earlier? She follows the woman, hoping to find answers to questions that have
haunted her since childhood. As Thérèse describes her elusive memories, travelling around
Paris, she reveals how every corner of the city recalls the past.
A Want of Kindness: A novel of Queen Anne
by Joanne Limburg ($27.99, PB)
The wicked, bawdy Restoration court is no place for a child princess.
Ten-year-old Anne cuts an odd figure: a sickly child, she is drawn towards improper pursuits. Cards, sweetmeats, scandal and gossip with
her Ladies of the Bedchamber figure large in her life. But as King
Charles's niece, Anne is also a political pawn, who will be forced to
play her part in the troubled Stuart dynasty. As Anne grows to maturity,
she is transformed from overlooked Princess to the heiress of England.
Forced to overcome grief for her lost children, the political manoeuvrings of her sister and her closest friends and her own betrayal of her father, she becomes
one of the most complex and fascinating figures of English history.
The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman
Growing up on the idyllic island of St Thomas in the early 1800s, Rachel
dreams of life in faraway Paris. Her mother, a pillar of their tight-knit
refugee community of Jews who escaped the European Inquisition, has
never forgiven her daughter for refusing to live by the rules. But Rachel's fate is not in her own hands: in order to secure the future of her
father's business, she is married off to a widower with three children.
When her husband dies suddenly and his handsome nephew Frédéric
arrives from France to settle the estate, Rachel seizes control of her
life, beginning a defiant, passionate love affair that sparks a scandal
affecting her entire family, including her favourite son, Camille Pissarro, who will one day
become a founder member of the Impressionists. ($29.99, PB)
John ‘Nashville’ Grant is an American
military policeman in the R&R town
of Vung Tau, behind the front lines of
the Vietnam War. Nashville knows
how everything works: the army, the
enemy, bars, secrets, men and women.
But when another MP is involved in
shooting a corpse in a brothel, the
delicate balance between the military
police, South Vietnamese gangsters and
the Viet Cong is upset. Nashville and his
partner are drawn into events, forcing
them to take the law into their own hands.
In 1962, statesman Dean Acheson
enunciated a principle that has
dominated global politics ever since:
that no legal issue arises when the
United States responds to a challenge
to its ‘power, position, and prestige’.
In short, whatever the world may
think, U.S. actions are legitimate
because they say so. From the impact
of Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing,
to Palestinian-Israeli relations, and
on to deeper reflections on political
philosophy, Because We Say So tackles
American imperialism head on.
For much of its extraordinary life,
Baghdad, ‘City of Peace’, as it has been
called almost since its foundation, has
been one of the most violent cities on
Earth. Baghdad has also been a city of
terrible hardships – its people suffering
epidemics, famines, floods, foreign
invasions, military occupations and the
brutal rule of strongmen. In this new
history of Baghdad, Justin Marozzi brings
to life its tumultuous history, charting
a captivating course through thirteen
centuries of splendour and destruction.
On a summer night in Seattle, friends
Mickey Montauk and Halifax Corderoy
throw one last party before they part
ways. They had planned to move together
to Boston, but Montauk has just learnt
that his National Guard unit will deploy
to Baghdad at the end of the summer.
Corderoy is faced with a moral dilemma:
his girlfriend Mani has been evicted, and
he has to decide whether to abandon her
when she needs him most. The year that
follows will transform them all.
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend
by Katarina Bivald ($33, PB)
Sara is 28 and has never been outside Sweden—except in the (many)
books she reads. When her elderly pen friend Amy invites her to come
and visit her in Broken Wheel, Iowa, Sara decides it's time. But when
she arrives, there's a twist waiting for her—Amy has died. Finding herself utterly alone in a dead woman's house in the middle of nowhere was
not the holiday Sara had in mind. But Sara discovers she is not exactly
alone. For here in this town so broken it's almost beyond repair are
all the people she's come to know through Amy's letters: poor George,
fierce Grace, buttoned-up Caroline & Amy's guarded nephew Tom. Sara quickly realises that
Broken Wheel is in desperate need of some adventure, a dose of self-help and perhaps a little
romance, too. In short, this is a town in need of a bookshop.
Now in B Format
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, $19.99
The Stories by Jane Gardam, $22.99
Time and Time Again by Ben Elton, $20
5
THE WILDER AISLES
Just recently I read a list of 10 great spinsters—both real and fictional. They were Stevie Smith, Rhoda Nunn, Gwen John, Barbara
Pym, Anne Elliot, Elizabeth, Lolly Willowes, Miss Jean Brodie,
Miss Havisham, Eleanor Rigby. All interesting, but I just want to
talk about two of them, Lolly Willowes & Rhoda Nunn. Sylvia
Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes was published in 1926 and became the talk of the town within the first year. It concerns Lolly,
who on the death of her father is forced to live with her brother in
London. There she performs the duties of the conventional maiden
aunt—keeping house, making tea, all the things that such a person
is required to do. Longing for freedom, she escapes to a small town
in the country, and there she becomes a witch, making friends with
an elderly man who turns out to be Satan. This is a whimsical
look at postwar womanhood—the many women who were denied
work once the men came back from the first world
war, and also any chance of marriage because of
the many men who didn't return. A lovely read,
I'm very fond of Townsend Warner, and I thought
Lolly just great.
My second great spinster from literature is Rhoda
Nunn. Rhoda is one of the 'odd Women' in the book
of the same name by George Gissing, published
in 1893. This is a deeply complicated book, with
many issues and ideas explored by Gissing. The
odd women of the title are the over one million
more women in Victorian London than men. These
women were left out of the possibility of marriage,
forced into spinsterhood and having to make their
own way in the world. For the poor it was a very
hard life, and one of the scenes from the book really sticks in my mind—the image of the sisters,
Alice and Virginia, eating a meal of boiled rice
with a little salt and pepper. Alice and Virginia are
two of the Madden sisters, who have been eking
out a living teaching and being a lady's companion. Now they find
themselves without work, sharing a very small room in London.
There were originally six sisters, three have died, and Monica, the
youngest, comes into the story a bit later. The sisters had a childhood friend, Rhoda Nunn—and to their surprise they suddenly
receive a letter from her, with an invitation to tea. Rhoda lives
with friend and colleague Mary Barfoot, and together they run a
secretarial college for middle-class girls. Both Rhoda and Mary
are against the idea of marriage. Rhoda feels that it is nothing but
a form servitude. Not so rigid in her approach, Mary admits that
there could be such a thing as a good marriage between equals.
After their visit, the sisters think that secretarial college would be
good for Monica, the youngest and prettiest of the sisters. Monica
is working untold hours in a shop run on very strict lines, with
no rights for the workers. As a result, she is worn out, unhealthy,
and longing to escape. So it is decided that she should attend the
college to obtain a better place of work. Unfortunately, Monica is
not really keen on any kind of work, and just wants to get married—much to Rhoda's disappointment. Monica meets a widower
in a very unconventional fashion, and is too embarrassed to tell
anyone. This man Mr Widdowson, falls in love with her, pursues
her, and wears her down until she agrees to marry him. This is, of
course, a disaster and when she meets a young man, Bevis, later on
she deeply regrets her decision. Meanwhile, Everard, the cousin of
Mary Barfoot returns to England which he left under a cloud. He
calls on his cousin and meets Rhoda, whom he decides to seduce
to see if he can change her mind about love and marriage. After a
while he realises that he has actually fallen in love with her. How
Rhoda responds is true to her nature and her beliefs. Of the two
partners, Rhoda and Mary, I really liked Mary the most. She, while
maintaining the ideals that they both pursued, was not as strict, or
as seemingly without human feeling as Rhoda. As I mentioned at
the beginning, this is a book full of issues—poverty, marriage, and
the fate of those women left on the shelf.
6
Of the rest of the list, I would single out, Barbara Pym, Anne Eliot,
Elizabeth I and Miss Jean Brodie, but maybe for another time.
Also for another time are two new crime novels by Martin Walker,
he of the Bruno fame, and also a new Ann Granger, about whom I
don't think I have written yet—but I've read some of her previous
books and really liked them.
Janice Wilder
Crime Fiction
Please Don't Leave Me Here by Tania Chandler
Is Brigitte a loving wife and mother, or a cold-blooded killer? Nobody
knows why she was in the east of Melbourne so early on the morning
she was left for dead by a hit-and-run driver. It was the Friday before
Christmas 1994—the same day police discovered the body of a man
beaten to death in her apartment. 14 years later, Brigitte is married to the
detective who investigated the murder, which she claims to have lost her
memory of in the car accident. They have young twins, and seem to be a
happy family. Until the reopening of the cold case. ($30, PB)
Close Your Eyes by Michael Robotham ($29.99, PB)
A mother & her teenage daughter are found murdered in a remote farmhouse, one defiled by multiple stab wounds & the other left lying like
Sleeping Beauty waiting for her Prince. Reluctantly, clinical psychologist Joe O'Loughlin is drawn into the investigation when a former student, calling himself 'the Mindhunter', jeopardises the police inquiry
by leaking details to the media and stirring up public anger. With no
shortage of suspects and tempers beginning to fray, Joe discover links
between these murders and another series of brutal attacks.
You Are Dead by Peter James ($30, PB)
A young woman, Logan, disappears from an underground carpark in
Brighton, workmen digging up a park in another part of the city, unearth
the remains of a woman in her early twenties, who has been dead for
30 years. At first, to Roy Grace and his team, these two events seem
totally unconnected. But then another young woman in Brighton goes
missing—and yet another body from the past surfaces. Meanwhile, an
eminent London psychiatrist meets with a man who claims to have information about Logan. And Roy Grace has the chilling realisation that
this information holds the key to both the past and present crimes. Does
Brighton have its first serial killer in over eighty years?
Without the Moon by Cathi Unsworth ($28, PB)
London during the long, dark days of the Blitz: weakened by exhaustion
and rationing. But behind the blackout, the old way of life continues:
in the music halls, pubs & cafes, soldiers mix with petty crooks, stage
magicians with lonely wives, scandal-hungry reporters with good-time
girls—and DCI Edward Greenaway keeps a careful eye on everyone.
Out on the streets, something nastier is stirring: London's prostitutes are
being murdered, their bodies left mutilated to taunt the police. And in
the shadows Greenaway's old adversaries in organised crime are active
again, lured in by rich pickings on the black market. Val McDermid
meets Kate Summerscale in atmospheric wartime London.
Broken Promise by Linwood Barclay ($29.99, PB)
Reporter David Harwood is a single parent with no job, forced to return
with his young son to the small town of Promise Falls to live with his
parents. When his mother asks him to look in on his cousin Marla, who
was still not quite right after losing her baby, he finds Marla nursing a
baby she claims was delivered to her 'by an angel.' A woman's body is
discovered across town, stabbed to death, with her own baby missing,
and David must find out the truth about what the police think is an open
& shut case.
The Neruda Case by Roberto Ampuero ($25, HB)
In 1970s Chile the world-famous poet Pablo Neruda can sense his impending death, as well as the end of an era in Chilean politics, but there
is one final secret he must resolve. He recruits Cayetano Brulé, a Cuban
émigré who has moved to Chile, as his 'own private Maigret' (lending him Simenon’s novels as a crash course in the job). Brulé travels
through Neruda’s past & political faiths, retracing the poet’s life from
Cuba to Berlin, while Pinochet moves to take power in Chile & all the
poet has believed in is threatened. Spanning continents, cultures & the
convulsive end of an era this is an intriguing glimpse of Pablo Neruda
as well as a gripping political thriller.
Dark Suits and Sad Songs by Denzil Meyrick
When a senior Edinburgh civil servant spectacularly takes his own life
in Kinloch harbour, DCI Jim Daley comes face to face with the murky
world of politics. To add to his woes, two local drug dealers lie dead,
ritually assassinated. With his boss under investigation, his marriage
hanging on by a thread, and his sidekick DS Scott wrestling with his
own demons, Daley’s world is in meltdown. When strange lights appear
in the sky over Kinloch, it becomes clear that the townsfolk are not the
only people at risk. The fate of nations is at stake. ($22, PB)
The Body Snatcher by Patricia Melo ($17.99, PB)
One bright Sunday, alone on the banks of the Paraguay River, the narrator witnesses the fatal crash of a small plane. He finds a kilo of cocaine
in the dead pilot’s backpack. After a moment’s hesitation he pockets the
coke & the pilot’s expensive watch. Thus begins the protagonist’s long
slide into corruption. Our hero gets involved in a busted cocaine deal
and ends up owing a Bolivian drug gang so much money that blackmailing the wealthy family of the dead pilot seems to be the only way
out. The family secretly agrees to pay serious money to recover the
body of their son. Our hero doesn’t have the pilot’s body so someone
else’s will do. Or so he thinks.
The Father: Made in Sweden I by Anton Svensson
The Father is inspired by the extraordinary true story of three brothers
who held Sweden to ransom, committing ten audacious bank robberies
over just two years. None had committed a crime before. All were under
24 years old. All of them would be changed forever. In this intoxicating,
heartbreaking thriller, the fourth brother, who was not involved in the
real robberies, tells of three boys who grew from innocent children to
become public enemy number one—and of the man who made them
that way. ($29.99, PB)
I'm Travelling Alone by Samuel Bjork ($32.99, PB)
When a six year old girl is found dead, hanging from a tree, the only
clue the Oslo Police have to work with is an airline tag around her neck.
It reads ‘I'm travelling alone'. Veteran PI Holger Munch must re-assemble his homicide unit, and to complete the team, he must convince his
erstwhile partner, Mia Kruger to return from the solitary island where
she has retreated with plans of suicide. Mia finds a thin line carved
into the dead girl's fingernail: the number 1, and to save other children
from the same fate, she must find a way to cast aside her own demons
& confront the most terrifying, cold-hearted serial killer of her career.
A Perfect Crime by A Yi ($30, PB)
On a normal day in provincial China, a bored high-school student goes
about his regular business. But he's planning the brutal murder of his
only friend, a talented violinist. He invites her round, strangles her,
stuffs her body into a washing machine and flees town. On the run, he
is initially anxious, but soon he alerts the police to his whereabouts,
surrenders to undercover agents in a pool bar, and sabotages all efforts
by China's judiciary system, a steady stream of psychologists and his
family to overturn the death penalty, all without ever showing a shred of
remorse. With shades of Kafka, Dostoevsky & Camus, this is a chilling
insight into the psychology behind a murder committed simply as an
intellectual challenge to relieve the daily tedium of existence.
A group of six international
travellers – two Italians, two
Japanese, an American and
an Australian – meet in empty
apartments in Berlin to share
stories and memories. Each is
enthralled in some way by the work
of Vladimir Nabokov, and each is
finding their way in deep winter in
a haunted city. Then a moment of
devastating violence shatters the
group, changing the direction
of everyone’s stories.
Orry-Kelly won three Oscars for
costume design, and dressed
all the biggest stars, from Bette
Davis to Marilyn Monroe. He was
an Australian, yet until now few
of us knew who Orry-Kelly really
was. Discovered in a pillowcase,
Orry-Kelly’s long-lost memoirs
reveal a wildly talented and
cheeky rascal who lived
a big life, on and off set.
Even the Dead: A Quirke Mystery by Benjamin Black
When a body is found in a burnt-out car, pathologist Quirke is called
in to verify the apparent suicide of an up-and-coming civil servant. He
can't shake a suspicion of foul play, but the only witness has vanished.
Piecing together her disappearance, Quirke finds himself drawn into
the shadowy world of Dublin's elite—secret societies & high church
politics, corrupt politicians & men with money to lose. Then the trail
eventually leads to his own family. Quirke has shaken the web. Now he
must wait to see what comes running out. ($33, PB)
The Big Whatever by Peter Doyle ($24.95, PB)
As the swinging 60s turn into the 70s, Billy Glasheen is stuck in the
slow lane. He's deep in debt to the mob, driving a taxi, running lowlevel rackets. One day he finds a trashy novel in his cab—and he's the
main character! Only Max could've written it, his double-crossing expartner in crime. Except Max went up in flames after a bank job, along
with the cash. If Max is alive, Billy has a score to settle. If he didn't get
burned up, maybe the money didn't either. Billy follows the clues, and
discovers he's not the only one on the trail.
Brother's Keeper by C. E. Smith (28, PB)
When disgraced American doctor Burkett's twin is murdered while
working for a Christian medical charity, Burkett travels to war-torn
Khandaros to claim his brother's body. Staring down at the lifeless form
in the mortuary, it is as though Burkett is gazing at his own failings.
Hooked on prescription drugs and booze, Burkett has little to go home
to, and so he agrees to take over his brother's surgical clinic. He struggles through the days, sliding inexorably into a spiral of drug abuse.
When he & his twin's devoutly Christian colleague Nick are taken hostage by Islamic fundamentalists, Burkett is forced into withdrawal, and
Burkett becomes convinced that their captors are his brother's murderers, and that revenge may be his path to redemption.
Also New
The Revolving Door of Life: A 44 Scotland Street Novel
by Alexander McCall Smith— $29.99, HB
Catch up with the delightful goings-on at
44 Scotland Street from Alexander McCall Smith.
Research for that Crime Novel
you've been planning
The Map Thief: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions
Stealing Priceless Maps
by Michael Blanding ($28, PB)
Maps have long exerted a special fascination on viewers—
both as beautiful works of art and as practical tools to navigate the world. But to those who collect them, the map trade
can be a cutthroat business, inhabited by quirky and sometimes disreputable characters in search of a finite number of
extremely rare objects. Once considered a respectable antiquarian map dealer, E. Forbes Smiley spent years doubling as a map thief—until
was finally arrested slipping maps out of books in the Yale University library.
The Gates of Evangeline by Hester Young ($32.99, PB) he
Michael Blanding has interviewed all the key players in this stranger-than-fiction
Journalist Charlie Cates begins to experience vivid dreams about chilstory, and shares the fascinating histories of maps that charted the New World,
dren after her only son dies. Theses disturbing images lead her from
and how they went from being practical instruments to quirky heirlooms to highly
suburban NY to small-town Louisiana, to write a true-crime book based
coveted objects.
on the case of Gabriel Deveau, the young heir to a wealthy & infamous
Southern family, whose kidnapping 30 years ago has never been solved. Why Did They Do It? Inside the Minds of AusThere she meets the Deveau family, none of whom are telling the full tralia's Most Unlikely Killers ($33, PB)
truth about the night Gabriel disappeared. And as she uncovers long- Cheryl Critchley & Helen McGrath
buried secrets of love, money, betrayal, and murder, the facts begin to Gerard Baden-Clay was described as charming & successful,
implicate those she most wants to trust—and her visions reveal an evil with a picture-perfect life, until he murdered his wife, Allison.
closer than she could have imagined.
John Myles Sharpe killed his pregnant wife & their young
Speaking in Bones by Kathy Reichs ($33, PB)
When forensic anthropologist Dr Tempe Brennan is approached by amateur detective Hazel ‘Lucky' Strike, at first she is inclined to dismiss
the woman's claims that she's matched a previously unidentified set of
remains with a name. But as the words of a terrified young woman echo
round her office from an audio recorder found near where the bones
were discovered, something about the story won't let Tempe go. As
Tempe investigates further she finds herself involved in a case more
complicated and horrifying than she could ever have imagined.
daughter with a spear gun. Simon Gittany flung his fiancée
off the balcony of his upmarket inner-city apartment, having
proposed lovingly to her, in public, just two months before.
These & other crimes, committed by people described as
average, ordinary, normal. Journalist Cheryl Critchley & psychologist Dr Helen
McGrath dissect these cases and identify the personality disorders of each of the
killers. Using psychological analysis, combined with scientific evidence, they
identify the reasoning and motives of the men and women whose brutal crimes
shocked the nation.
7
Biography
War Letters of General Monash ($45, HB)
These extraordinary, intimate letters from General Sir John
Monash to his wife and daughter, record his experiences throughout WW1, from landing at Gallipoli to leading decisive battles
on the Western Front. Monash describes with great candour the
challenges of ordering the lives of tens of thousands of troops
and meeting with various dignitaries, including King George—
providing one of the most moving personal accounts ever written
of an Australian soldier at war. This edition, reprinted in full for the first time since
1935, contains newly discovered letters, including Monash's moving final missive
to his wife before the Gallipoli landing. With an introduction and notes by historian
A. K. Macdougall, and new photos, this volume provides unparalleled insight into
the experience of Australians in World War I.
The Orpheus Clock: The Search for My Family's
Art Treasures Stolen by the Nazis
by Simon Goodman ($39.99, HB)
Simon Goodman's grandparents came from German-Jewish banking dynasties, and perished in concentration camps. They had a
magnificent, world-class art collection that included works by Degas, Renoir, Botticelli, Guardi & many, many others. But the Nazi
regime snatched from them everything they had worked to build:
their remarkable art, their immense wealth, their prominent social
standing, and their very lives. It was only after his father's death that Simon Goodman began to piece together the clues about the Gutmanns' stolen legacy and the
Nazi looting machine. Through painstaking detective work across two continents, he
has been able to prove that many works belonged to his family, and to successfully
secure their return.
In a Dark Wood: What Dante Taught Me About
Grief, Healing, and the Mysteries of Love
by Joseph Luzzi ($44.99, HB)
One cold November morning, Luzzi, a professor and Dante
scholar, was told his pregnant wife Katherine had been in a car
accident. She did not survive, but their daughter Isabel did, delivered by emergency Caesarean a mere forty-five minutes before
her mother died. In one terrible instant, Luzzi found himself both
a widower and a father. In the aftermath of an unthinkable tragedy, Luzzi turned to the support of his Italian immigrant family but it wasn't until
he turned to Dante's epic poem—a poem he had devoted his life to studying and
teaching—that he found a way to resurrect his life. Following the same structure as
Dante's epic poem, Luzzi is shepherded out of his own 'dark wood', passing through
the grief-stricken Inferno, the Purgatory of healing and learning to be a father to
Isabel, and ultimately stepping into the Paradise of rediscovered love.
Women I've Undressed: A Memoir by Orry-Kelly
Orry-Kelly created magic on screen, from Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon to Some Like It Hot. He won three Oscars for costume
design. He dressed all the biggest stars, from Bette Davis to Marilyn
Monroe. Discovered in a pillowcase, Orry-Kelly's long-lost memoirs
reveal a wildly talented and cheeky rascal who lived a big life, on
and off the set. From his childhood in Kiama to revelling in Sydney's
underworld nightlife as a naïve young artist & chasing his dreams of
acting in New York, his early life is a wild & exciting ride. Sharing
digs in New York with another aspiring actor, Cary Grant, and partying hard in between auditions, he ekes out a living painting murals for speakeasies before
graduating to designing stage sets and costumes. And when The Kid from Kiama finally
arrives in Hollywood, it's clear his adventures have only just begun. ($39.99, HB)
Billy the Blackfella from Bourke by Chris Woodland
This is the story of Billy Gray, who called himself 'a blackfella from
Bourke'. It is the authentic 'speaking' voice of the man. Transcribed
from tapes made by his friend of 52 years, he tells of life working
as a stockman, drover, fencer, taxi driver, factory labourer, water and
oil driller, in Australia, South America & Indonesia. His travels and
experiences gave him a deep understanding of the cultures of different
peoples. In South America he found for the first time in his life that
he could move freely without experiencing that feeling of being an
outcast; he just blended in. ($24.95, PB)
Time to Be in Earnest: A Fragment of Memoir
by P. D. James ($25, PB)
Part diary, part memoir, P. D. James considers the 12 months of her life
between her 77th & 78th birthdays, and looks back on her earlier life.
She recalls what it was like to be a schoolgirl in the 1920s & 1930s
in Cambridge, and then giving birth to her second daughter during the
worst of the Doodlebug bombardment in London during the war. It follows her work, starting out as an administrator in the National Health
Service, then on to the Home Office in the forensic & criminal justice
departments. Along the way, she deals with her burgeoning reputation
as a novelist, starting with Cover Her Face in 1962, and with the craft of the classical
detective story, details the writing of one of her most intriguing and carefully researched
books, A Certain Justice.
Army of the Night: Jean Moulin and the French Resistance
by Patrick Marnham ($33.95, PB)
Who was the enigmatic Jean Moulin beyond being the emblem of the French Resistance?
The memory of this anti-Nazi hero, who was betrayed to the Gestapo & tortured to death
by Klaus Barbie, the infamous ‘Butcher of Lyon’, is revered alongside that of other national icons. But the truth of Moulin's life is far more complicated than the legend. This
is the thrilling story of France’s greatest war hero—bringing to light the shadowy & often
deceitful world of the French Resistance it offers a shocking conclusion to one of the great
unsolved mysteries of WW2.
The Boy Who Talked to Dogs: A Memoir
by Martin McKenna ($22, PB)
When Martin McKenna was growing up in Garryowen, Ireland, in the
1970s, he felt the whole world knew him as just 'that stupid boy'. Badly
misunderstood by his family and teachers, Martin escaped from endless bullying by running away from home and eventually adopting—or
being adopted by—six street dogs. Camping out in barns, escaping
from farmers, and learning to fend for himself by caring for his new
friends, Martin discovered a different kind of language, strict laws of
behaviour, and strange customs that defined the world of dogs. More importantly, his canine companions helped him understand the vital importance of family, courage, and selfrespect—and that he wasn’t stupid after all. Their lessons helped Martin make a name for
himself as the 'Dog Man' in Australia, where he now lives and dispenses his hard-earned
wisdom to dog owners who are sometimes baffled by what their four-legged friends are
trying to tell them. .
Renaissance Woman by Gaia Servadio ($34.95, PB)
The Renaissance created a new vision of womanhood and indeed a
New Woman, proposes Gaia Servadio in this rich feast of a book. She
dates the birth of this revolutionary movement to the invention of the
printing press in 1456, which made books and hence education available to women. Central to her story are the lives of such as Vittoria
Colonna, whose extraordinary mutual love with Michelangelo is told
here; Tullia d'Aragona, poet and the best known courtesan of her age;
and French poet Louise Labe, who fought in battle in male clothes.
They are placed centre stage to the Renaissance's power plays, paintings and architecture,
courtesans and popes, music and manners, fashion, food, cosmetics, changing societies
and the language of poetry and symbols.
Inside Out by Greg Fisher ($29.99, PB)
After growing up in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Greg Fisher did what
he thought a good Jewish boy should do. He married, had a child and
started making his way up the corporate ladder. But after coming out
and leaving his wife, Greg’s life veered into the fast lane. A-list parties and a growing business empire were an intoxicating mix, and by
the early 2000s his high-stakes lifestyle was spiralling dangerously
out of control. Eventually jailed for corporate fraud and drug dealing,
Greg spent almost eight years in prison, sharing a cell with some of
Australia’s most notorious criminals—and began the slow process of rebuilding his life.
Written with brutal honesty, Inside Out is an extraordinary story of ambition, addiction
and the long road to redemption.
Sonny Ball: The Legend of Sonny Bill Williams
by Paul Kent ($33, PB)
Big, powerful, handsome, gifted & enigmatic, Sonny Bill Williams
has the ability to get fans flocking, sponsors scrambling and coaches dreaming of winning dynasties. But when he broke his Bulldogs
contract mid-season to play rugby union for Toulon in France, he left
teammates shocked, fans enraged and the NRL threatening a life ban.
When he returned to New Zealand, he steered the Crusaders to a Super Rugby final before leading the Chiefs to their inaugural title and
helping the All Blacks with the Rugby World Cup... while becoming a heavyweight boxing champion. Then he returned to League and led the Roosters to a premiership before
switching back to Union again for the All Blacks' 2015 World Cup defence. Paul Kent's
book is as intriguing and action-packed as any grand final in any sport, anywhere.
Peggy Guggenheim: The Shock of the Modern
by Francine Prose ($32.99, PB)
One of 20th century America’s most influential patrons of the arts,
Peggy Guggenheim (1898–1979) brought to wide public attention the
work of such modern masters as Jackson Pollock & Man Ray. In her
time, there was no stronger advocate for the groundbreaking and the
avant-garde. Her midtown gallery was the acknowledged centre of the
post-war New York art scene, and her museum in Venice, Italy, remains
one of the world’s great collections of modern art. Yet as renowned as
she was for the art and artists she so tirelessly championed, Guggenheim was equally famous for her unconventional personal life, and for her ironic, playful
desire to shock. Francine Prose follows Guggenheim through virtually every aspect of her
extraordinary life, from her unique collecting habits and paradigm-changing discoveries,
to her celebrity friendships, failed marriages, and scandalous affairs—delivering a colourful portrait of a defiantly uncompromising woman who maintained a powerful upper hand
in a male-dominated and anti-semitic world.
The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects
by Deborah Lutz ($35.95, HB)
8
Deborah Lutz illuminates the complex and fascinating lives of the
Brontës through the things they wore, stitched, wrote on, and inscribed. By unfolding the histories of the meaningful objects in their
family home in Haworth, Lutz immerses readers in a nuanced re-creation of the sisters' daily lives while moving us chronologically forward
through the major biographical events: the death of their mother and
two sisters, the imaginary kingdoms of their childhood writing, their
time as governesses, and their determined efforts to make a mark on
the literary world. From the miniature books they made as children to the blackthorn
walking sticks they carried on solitary hikes on the moors, each personal possession opens
a window onto the Brontë sisters' world, their fiction, and the Victorian era.
Travel Writing
London Overground: A Day's Walk Around
the Ginger Line by Iain Sinclair ($40, HB)
The completion of the full circle of London Overground in
December 2012 provides Iain Sinclair with a new path to
walk the shifting territory of the capital. With 33 stations &
35 miles to tramp—plus inevitable and unforeseen detours &
false steps—Sinclair embarks on a marathon circumnavigation at street level, tracking the necklace of garages, fish farms, bakeries, convenience cafés, cycle repair shops & Minder lock-ups which enclose inner London.
Here he encounters traces of writers gone or nearly forgotten, uncovers evidence
of careless erasures & incongruous overlappings, follows signs of decay hijacked
by official rejuvenation & generally slips between the cracks of the approved &
over-capitalised. This new railway, which turns out to be not new at all, provides
new inspiration for Sinclair & is a brilliant extension to his previous expeditionary
epistles, Lights Out for the Territory & London Orbital.
A Literary Tour of Italy by Tim Parks ($35, HB)
Tim Parks has delighted audiences around the world with
his finely observed writing on all aspects of Italian life and
customs. From Boccaccio and Machiavelli through to Moravia and Tabucchi, from the Stil Novo to Divisionism, across
centuries of history and intellectual movements, these essays
will give English readers, and lovers of the Bel Paese and its
culture, the lay of the literary land of Italy.
On Track: Searching out the Bundian Way
by John Blay ($40, PB)
On Track tells the story of John Blay’s long-distance search for
the Bundian Way, an important Aboriginal pathway between
Mt Kosciuszko and Twofold Bay near Eden on the New South
Wales far south coast. The 360 kilometre route traverses some
of the nation’s most remarkable landscapes, from the highest
place on the continent to the ocean. This epic bushwalking
story uncovers the history, country and rediscovery of this significant track. Now heritage-listed, and thanks to the work of
Blay and local Indigenous communities, the Bundian Way is
set to be one of the great Australian walks.
The Eyeball End by Ali MC ($25, PB)
So begins a decade-long descent into worlds far removed
from the comfort of middle-class Australia. Beginning with
an acid-fuelled night in the Kimberley, the first decade of the
21st century sees Ali MC travelling the globe in an attempt to
understand the forgotten corners of the world. Although he is
beaten and shot at along the way, Ali encounters some of the
most enduring stories the so-called Third World can produce. The Eyeball End
steps away from the safety net of well-worn travel guides, taking the reader on a
unique and challenging journey into the human condition.
Archipelago: A Journey Across Indonesia
by Ian Burnet ($40, HB)
Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago nation, comprising over 17,000 islands, it is the most culturally diverse
nation, containing an extraordinary mélange of races, religions, languages and culture. Travelling by bus, train, plane
& motorcycle from Java to Timor, Ian Burnet hops from
island to island across the archipelago. He traces the history
of the early Malay people, the influence of Indian religions
of Hinduism & Buddhism. The heritage of the Indians, Chinese & Arabs trading in spice & sandalwood, and the rise of Islam. He takes the
reader on a personal journey through geographic space and historical time, offering a rich understanding of this complex nation—its culture & people.
New York Nobody Knows: Walking 6,000
Miles in the City by William B. Helmreich
As a kid growing up in Manhattan, William Helmreich played
a game with his father they called 'Last Stop.' They would
pick a subway line and ride it to its final destination, and explore the neighbourhood there. Decades later he decided that
the only way to truly understand New York was to walk virtually every block of all five boroughs—an astonishing 6,000
miles. His epic journey lasted four years and took him to every
corner of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx & Staten
Island. Helmreich spoke with hundreds of New Yorkers from every part of the
globe and from every walk of life, drawing on first-hand insights to examine essential aspects of urban social life such as ethnicity, gentrification, and the use of
space. He finds that to be a New Yorker is to struggle to understand the place and to
make a life that is as highly local as it is dynamically cosmopolitan. ($46.95, PB)
Also New
The Cyclist's Bucket List by Ian Dille: A showcase of the
world's quintessential cycling experiences from locations
such as Italy & Belgium to Nova Scotia & Texas. ($33, PB)
9
books for kids to young adults
compiled by Lynndy Bennett, our children's correspondent
picture books
The River by Alessandro Sanna (tr) Michael Reynolds ($41, HB)
There is nothing typical about this picture book; set out in the four seasons, it is a journey down the River Po, where the Italian illustrator Alessandro Sanna
lives. Very exquisite, appropriately fluid, watercolours depict the earth, the river and the sky—with four slim landscape vignettes on each page. In the artist's
notes at the back of the book, he explains that the pictures were painted without first being sketched, the watercolour being applied to wet paper. The resulting
images are mysterious and full of light, the temporal quality of the landscape being captured perfectly on the page. Like the picture books of Anno (without
the extreme precision), this book tells a story of a whole time and place, by using figures in the landscape, and just a very few buildings. The palette changes
with the seasons, reminiscent of Japanese woodblocks, and the changing time of day (the night skies are particularly beautiful). This is a stunning book, not
one for the very young, but something for an older child or an adult who is prepared to lose themselves in the page. Louise
The Cow Tripped Over the Moon by Tony Wilson (ill) Laura Wood ($25, HB)
Travelling to the moon is a major event: the first astronauts did a huge amount of preparation before actually taking off on that momentous trip. We all know
the classic nursery rhyme about the cow jumping over the moon and the dish running away with the spoon. This very amusing new slant on that rhyme puts
a whole new perspective on the cow’s trip to the moon. She makes several unsuccessful attempts (as happens in real life) and is hugely discouraged, but
with lots of the support she finally makes it—‘Moon Attempt 8’. Her perseverance and final achievement are acknowledged when her friends, the cat with
the fiddle, the little dog, the dish and the spoon, compose the rhyme dedicated to her. This is a very imaginative extension of the original, written in easy
to read, hilarious verse. Young children love well-written verse read and they delight in humour. Supported by very colourful full-page illustrations,
this book will be requested over and over and would even be fun for emerging readers, who will relate to the humour. Recommended for under fives.
Margaret Hamilton (Margaret Hamilton is a former children’s book publisher. She now provides freelance publishing services and runs Pinerolo, the
Children’s Book Cottage in Blackheath www.pinerolo.com.au)
Mr Huff by Anna Walker ($25, HB)
Mr Huff is about a boy called Bill. One day Bill woke up and the weather was miserable. He lost his favourite socks. His cereal was soggy. It was going
to be a miserable day. By the time he gets to school, a large whale-shaped creature named Mr Huff is following him everywhere. This just makes Bill’s
day more miserable. But something surprising happens—so you will just have to find out! With its beautiful illustrations, Mr Huff has many different
textures and moods with gorgeous little characters in the nooks and crannies that beg to be further scrutinised. Absolutely superb. Persia (age 12)
A Treasury of Wintertime Tales (ed) Noel Daniel ($60, HB)
I'm giving this book to a very special 3-year-old: a winter book for a winter birthday. Thirteen winter classics from many countries, with their
original illustrations, appear in the book, eg. Children of the Northlights, Too Many Mittens, Winter and the Children to name just a few. There is
a definite Northern Hemisphere feel to the book, and a fairly Christmassy atmosphere (at least half the stories are about Christmas), but I am so
enchanted with the quality of the illustrations, and the excellent design, I just don't care. It's a big book, with large, clear, colourful illustrations and
heading pages. A trip down memory lane perhaps, but how often do I see my old favourites looking a lot better than they did in their original form?
This is a bumper book, it reminds me of the annuals and treasuries of stories so loved in my childhood. A delight! Louise
teen fiction
Prince of Afghanistan by Louis Nowra ($17, PB)
When a hostage rescue mission in the remote, Taliban-controlled region of
Afghanistan goes horribly wrong, the two survivors, 18-year-old Corporal
Mark Hollis and the Army sniffer dog Prince must band together to survive
in foreign terrain to avoid capture or death at the hands of the Taliban. This
is a well-paced, dramatic story of war about the bond between dog and man.
It shows developing maturing friendship, trust and loyalty whilst being pitted against the human and geographical challenges in the unforgiving landscape. I loved the setting and the pace was Mathew Reilly
quick. It was very gripping. It had great character development especially that of the bond between Prince and Mark as they struggled
to survive. I found this book wonderfully enthralling overall, and I
recommend to any survival junkies out there as a good read. Kai (13)
Shadows of the Master: Book 1, Star of Deltora
by Emily Rodda ($10, PB)
No advance copies of this were available, but given its pedigree I’m confident this
series will attract a massive readership amongst readers of 8+. Britta of Del wants to
be the new Apprentice Trader of the Rosalyn Fleet, sailing like her father across the
nine seas and bringing precious cargo home to Del harbour. Her dreams seemed safe
until her father’s quest to find the fabled Staff of Tier ended in blood and horror. Now
his shamed family is in hiding, and his ship, the Star of Deltora, belongs to the powerful Rosalyn fleet. Undaunted, when she suddenly gets the chance to win back her
future Britta knows she has to take it whatever the cost. She has no idea that shadows
from a distant, haunted isle are watching her every move…
The Hush Treasure Book ($30, HB)
Created especially for the Hush Foundation, this anthology features stories, pictures and poems by 30 acclaimed Australian authors and illustrators, and includes a 6-track CD: a treasure indeed. Proceeds from the
sale of this collection will benefit The Hush Music Foundation, which
produces music to reduce stress and anxiety for children, families and
others in hospital.
Who Lives Here? My First Gruffalo
Lift-the-Flap Book
Spot & Say: My First Gruffalo
by Julia Donaldson (ill) Axel Scheffler
Littlies aren’t forgotten: here are two interactive books for
the very young, featuring pre-schoolers’ favourite monster
the Gruffalo and his forest cohorts. Discover which furry
beasts are hiding under the flaps, or build vocabulary with
the tabbed Spot & Say. ($15, BD)
10
Urban Outlaws: Book 1 of Urban Outlaws
by Peter Jay Black ($15, PB)
fiction
Deep beneath the city of London live five kids skilled in parkour, computer hacking, inventing and pocket-picking. They steal money from rich
people and give it to those in need. Their latest target is Benito Del Sarto
who is trying to use a quantum computer to collect data that is capable of
stealing money from every person in the world. The kids must stop Benito
Del Sarto before it is too late. I recommend this book for people who like
cool gadgets as well as spy and adventure books.
Ryan O’Dempsey (Age 10) (The sequel, Blackout, is also available and
Lockdown, book 3 in the series, is due in October.)
Lynndy's Pick of the August Releases
The Beauty is in the Walking by James Moloney ($17, PB)
Thought-provoking teen fiction. Everyone thinks they know what Jacob
O'Leary can and can't do and they're not shy about telling him. But no
one—not even Jacob—knows what he's truly capable of and he's desperate for the chance to work it out for himself. When a shocking and
mystifying crime sends his small country town reeling, and fingers start
pointing at the newcomer, Jacob is convinced that the police have accused
the wrong guy. And he's determined to prove it.
Two Tengu Tales from Japan
retold by Duncan Ball (ill) David Allan ($20, HB)
Japanese folktales of magic sensitively retold, illustrated in classic style.
Bamboozled: 21st Anniversary Edition
by David Legge ($16, PB)
I’m celebrating the reprint of one of my favourite
Australian picture books. In this story of a girl and
her eccentric grandfather Legge offers a houseful of
imaginative absurdities for a new generation to pore,
and laugh, over.
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Food & Health
The Drugs Don't Work: A Global Threat
by Sally C. Davies ($9.99, PB)
Antibiotics add, on average, 20 years to our lives. For over 70 years,
since the manufacture of penicillin in 1943, we have survived extraordinary operations and life-threatening infections. We are so familiar
with these wonder drugs that we take them for granted. The truth is that
we have been abusing them: as patients; as doctors; as travellers, in our
food. No new class of antibacterial has been discovered for 26 years
& the bugs are fighting back. If we do not take responsibility now,
in a few decades we may start dying from the most commonplace of
operations & ailments that can today be treated easily.
The Life Plan: Simple Strategies for a Meaningful
Life by Shannah Kennedy ($40, PB)
Discover what you really want in life and how to get it! Do you want
to live with purpose and achieve your life goals? In The Life Plan,
leading life coach Shannah Kennedy sets out a step-by-step strategy
to help you identify your true self & values, declutter & simplify
your life, improve your time management & create structures that
will help guide you towards your goals & visions. This hands-on workbook includes questionnaires, charts and exercises and will become a
valuable record of your life goals.
The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction is Not a
Disease by Marc Lewis ($30, PB)
The psychiatric establishment & rehab industry in the Western world
have branded addiction a brain disease, based on evidence that brains
change with drug use. Cognitive neuroscientist & former addict Marc
Lewis makes a convincing case that addiction is not a disease, and
shows why the disease model has become an obstacle to healing. Lewis
reveals addiction as an unintended consequence of the brain doing what it's supposed to
do—seek pleasure & relief—in a world that's not cooperating. He shows why treatment
based on the disease model so often fails, and how treatment can be retooled to achieve
lasting recovery, given the realities of brain plasticity. Combining human stories with
clearly rendered scientific explanation, The Biology of Desire is enlightening & optimistic
reading for anyone who has wrestled with addiction either personally or professionally.
The Naked Surgeon: The Power and Peril of Transparency in Medicine by Samer Nashef ($30, PB)
Thanks to the ground-breaking risk modelling of pioneering surgeons
like Samer Nashef, we at last know how to judge whether an operation
is in a patient's best interest, which hospital & surgeon would be best
for that operation, when it might best be performed & what the exact
level of risk is. But how should surgeons, and their patients, use these
newfound insights? Ever since his days as a medical student, Samer
Nashef has challenged the medical profession to be more open and
more accurate about the success of surgical procedures, for the sake
of the patients. In this book he unclothes his own profession to demonstrate to his reader
(and prospective patient) many revelations, such as the paradox at the heart of the cardiac
surgeon's craft: the more an operation is likely to kill you, the better it is for you. And he
does so with absolute clarity, fluency & not a little wit.
Apple Cider Vinegar for Health and Beauty
by Simone McGrath ($23, PB)
Apple Cider Vinegar is an amazing substance that has many health benefits—it helps with weight loss, allergies, skin and health issues, and
much more. It is recommended in many health programs and diets. It
can be overwhelming to figure out all of the great uses of this magical vinegar, but this comprehensive handbook can help. With detailed
information on everything to do with apple cider vinegar—the benefits,
uses, recipes, and insightful facts—this guide will teach you all about
using it to: lose weight, treat common ailments, and to cook soups,
salads, main meals, healthy drinks & desserts.
The Healthy Life by Jessica Sepel ($35, PB)
Nutritionist Jessica Sepel's philosophy is simple: good health starts
in the kitchen. Her focus is on fresh produce, prepared simply and
with love. Her work with girls & young women has taught her
that the common practice of counting calories and restricting food
groups is counterproductive to a healthy relationship with food. Her
message is 'get healthy' rather than 'lose weight'. This book contains
100 recipes & meal plans.
The Good Gut by Justin & Erica Sonnenburg ($35, PB)
Our intestinal microbiota plays an important role in the prevalence of
predominantly Western afflictions, such as cancer, diabetes, allergies,
asthma, autism & inflammatory bowel diseases. The average person
in the Western world has around 1,200 different types of bacteria in
his or her gut. The average Amerindian living in the Amazon has approximately 1,600 species & is much less likely to develop Western
illnesses. This book offers a new plan for health that focuses on how to
nourish your microbiota, including recipes & a menu plan. It looks at
safe alternatives to antibiotics; dietary & lifestyle choices to encourage
microbial health; the management of the ageing microbiota; and the nourishment of your
own individual microbiome.
Rick Stein: From Venice to Istanbul ($19.99, PB)
From the mythical heart of Greece to the fruits of the Black
Sea coast; from Croatian & Albanian flavours to the spices &
aromas of Turkey & beyond—the cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean is a vibrant melting pot brimming with character. The
book includes over 100 spectacular recipes discovered by Rick
during his travels in the region. The ultimate mezze spread of
baba ghanoush, pide bread & keftedes. Mouthwatering garlic
shrimps with soft polenta. Heavenly Dalmatian fresh fig tart.
Jamie Oliver's Food Tube: The Pasta Book
by Gennaro Contaldo ($20, PB)
Written by Jamie Oliver's Italian mentor, Gennaro Contaldo,
this book covers ten basic pasta dishes, from classic spaghetti
carbonara to ragù bolognese, as well as 40 beautiful dishes
embracing each season, including seafood linguine, summer
vegetable ravioli & pumpkin lasagne. These are simple, easyto-follow recipes, using both dried & fresh pasta that you can
learn to make yourself.
Creole Kitchen: Sunshine Flavours from the
Caribbean by Vanessa Bolosier ($40, HB)
Creole food is one of the first fusion foods, drawing in influences from years of trading history & mixing cultures on the
islands of Guadeloupe & Martinique. This book features 100
recipes from prawns colombo to creole cassoulet, from coconut slaw to saltfish boudins, from flambé bananas to pineapple
fritters & delicious rum-laced punch & cocktails. The recipes
are both delicious and easy to make, and Vanessa Bolosier offers substitution ideas for traditional Caribbean ingredients.
Fried Chicken & Friends
by Gregory Llewelyn & Naomi Hart ($49.99, HB)
Pull up a chair with the team behind award-winning restaurant
Hartsyard and get stuck in to the high-octane flavours of beef
poutine, crab cakes and chargrilled broad beans. All served
with a generous shake of the hot sauce bottle. This a collection
of down-home American-inspired recipes, including the ultimate buttermilk fried chicken, as well as aperol sours, oyster
po' boys, waffles with bacon and maple syrup, and all the other
delicious things that go with it.
Meatballs by Matteo Bruno ($35, HB)
60 recipes for meatballs like you've never seen them before —
meatballs rustico, seared beef carpaccio meatballs, pork, ginger
and lemongrass meatballs, lobster meatballs. There are recipes
for lamb, chicken, fish, prawns, venison, duck—and vegetarian (meat)balls: corn & quinoa balls; chickpea & cauliflower
ball, tofu with mushroom balls. Select from 20 ideas for sotte
palle (literally 'underneath the balls'), from creamy polenta or
roasted fennel to wasabi slaw, cheesy bread or toasted quinoa.
Top with one of the 20 sauces such as aioli, red wine & onion
or creamy mushroom, then sprinkle with truffle salt or crushed
pistachios—and tuck in.
China Towns by Jean-Francois Mallet ($55, HB)
In Western countries, the Chinese food eaten in restaurants is
often a far cry from the dishes prepared and served by the Chinese themselves. This is because the Asian communities that
have settled in so-called 'China Towns' around the world. JeanFrancois Mallet goes behind the scenes in Chinese communities around the world
in order to understand how & why the food changes so much depending on location.
As well as intimate portraits of these fascinating communities, this stunning book
contains, 200 delicious recipes capturing the essence of China Towns from across
the world and their various geographical influences.
Also New
Australian Wine Vintages 2016: 33rd Edition
Robert Geddes MW, $34.99, HB
Vanilla Table: The Essence of Exquisite Cooking from the World's Best Chefs
by Natasha MacAller ($40, HB)
With its fragrant and captivating scent, vanilla is a must-have
in every kitchen, and the ways it can contribute to your dishes
are endless and often surprising. From sweet to savoury, these
recipes have been collected from around the world to show you
how to make the most of this wonderful ingredient. With more
than 100 recipes, you will find out how well vanilla and trout get along; how a
pinch of vanilla can do wonders for a pork chop; and of course, the endless ways to
enhance your desserts. In this book Natasha MacAller not only offers you a wide
array of recipes put together to bring you the best from well-known chefs all over
the world - she also gives you the tips, tricks and knowledge to turn you into a
vanilla connoisseur. With advice ranging from how to recognise good vanilla to the
best way to store it.
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SUNDAY
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MONDAY
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15 Launch—3.30 for 4
Ron Ragel
The Way of the Sacred Warrior
Ron Ragel is an author, educator and
a multi-skilled musician, committed
to living the life of a Sacred Warrior.
His latest book The Way of the Sacred
Warrior provides essential and practical tools for a journey towards a
happier and more consciously
fulfilled life.
22 Launch—3.30 for 4
Brad Buckley &
John Conomos
Erasure: The Spectre
of Cultural Memory
This book moves from the seminal
act of the American Pop artist Robert Rauschenberg erasing a drawing
by the painter Willem de Kooning in
1953, to explore key issues around
the increasing aesthetic and cultural
erasure occurring in our society.
29
Launch—3.30 for 4
Michael Costello
Season of Hate
Launcher: Irina Dunn
In the 19502 two brothers befriend
Johnny, a mute Aboriginal teenager.
The boys are exposed to the best &
worst of human nature as they become aware of the undercurrents of
discrimination & racial bigotry that
erupt into violence in their small
wheat town.
16
—3.30 for 4
23 Launch
Carolyn Little
Bergstrom’s Orange
Launcher: Jeremy Little (Former
Senior Ranger for the Daintree)
This entertaining and informative
contemporary thriller explores the
growing interest in biodiscovery
and the modern crime of biopiracy,
against the back-drop of the beauty
and challenges of the Daintree World
Heritage site.
30
Dave Andrews
11 Launch—6 for 6.30
Lynda Blanchard &
Hannah Middleton
Conversations in Peace
Launcher: Dame Marie Bashir
The first 14 recipients of the Sydney
Peace Prize show how poverty can be
eradicated, non-violence embraced,
the rich and powerful persuaded
that peace with justice is precious.
Event—6.30 for 7
Rick Stein Dinner
Gleeclub
Special Event—Party!
5
18
12 Launch—6 for 6.30
Sandra Darroch
Power for the People
Launcher: Peter Baldwin
This book tells the story of electricity in Sydney and Australia, and how
it has influenced the development of
our cities, and shaped our lives. The
book begins in 1770 with the arrival
of electricity aboard
Captain Cook's Endeavour.
19
Rick Stein: From Venice to Istanbul
Indulge in a special dinner which will
include a 3 course meal drawn from
recipes in Rick Stein's new book.
Efendy Restaurant
79 Elliott Street
(Cnr of Darling Street), Balmain
Ticket price includes three course
meal and a drink on arrival, extra
drinks not included.
24
31
25
Event—6 for 6.30
Tim Flannery—Talk
Atmosphere of Hope: Searching for
Solutions to the Climate Crisis
From atmospheric carbon capture
through extensive seaweed farming,
CO2 snow production in Antarctica
and painting landscapes and cities
white, Flannery outlines an array
of innovative technologies that give
cause for hope.
12
Launch—6 for 6.30
WEDNESDAY
The Jihad Of Jesus: The Sacred NonJoin us to celebrate Gleebooks’
violent Struggle For Justice
40th Anniversary.
Dave Andrews, and his Muslim col7-10pm
league, Nora Amath, will intro49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe
duce their approach to empathic inTheme: 1975
terfaith engagement, then discuss the RSVP:events@gleebooks.com.au
key questions raised in his book. The
and quote gleeclub number
evening will include an opportunity And please bring a current gleeclub
to chat with Dave & Nora over some membership card on the night to
delightful halal snacks & fruit juices.
gain admittance.
10
17
Events are held upstairs at #49 Glebe Point Road unless otherwise noted.
Bookings—Phone: (02) 9660 2333, Email: events@gleebooks.com.au, Online: www.gleebooks.com.au/events
TUESDAY
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All events listed are $12/$9 concession. Book Launches are free.
Gleeclub members free entry to events at 49 Glebe Pt Rd
August
2015
26
6
13
Event—6 for 6.30
The Intervention: An Anthology
Panel: Nicole Watson, PM Newton
and Rosie Scott
In compelling fiction, memoir, essays, poetry and communiqués, the
dramatic story of the 2007 NT Intervention by the Howard Government
and the despair, anguish and anger
of the First Nations people of the
Territory comes alive.
FRIDAY
7
Event—6 for 6.30
Andrew Fowler
The War on Journalism: Media
Moguls, Whistleblowers and
the Price of Freedom
Newspapers which flourished for
centuries and TV networks that once
ruled the world are failing. Drawing
on personal interviews and his background in investigative journalism,
Andrew Fowler traces the decline of
the culture of truthbringing.
20
Rosie Scott & Anita Heiss
In September
THURSDAY
Launch—6 for 6.30
Fiona Katauskas
The Amazing True Story of How
Babies Are Made
Launcher: Rebecca Huntley
For the new Australian go-to book
for parents wanting help with THAT
talk, Australian cartoonist Fiona
Katauskas has written a thoroughly
modern book on this
timeless subject.
14 Launch—6 for 6.30
Luke Beesley
Jam sticky vision
Sarah Holland-Batt
The Hazards
Jam sticky vision is the successor to
Luke Beesley’s 3rd book of poetry,
New Works on Paper. The Hazards
much-anticipated 2nd collection
from Sarah Holland-Batt, the 2007
winner of theThomas Shapcott Prize.
21 Launch—6 for 6.30
Philip Crisp
So You Want to be a Leader: Influential people reveal how to
succeed in public life
Launcher: Dr John Hewson
37 voices of experience and reason—both early achievers and the
venerable from across the political
and social landscape—share lessons
learned in public life.
27
Event—6 for 6.30
Gail Jones
28
A Guide to Berlin
A group of six international travellers, two Italians, two Japanese, an
American and an Australian, each
enthralled in some way to the work
of Vladimir Nabokov, meet in empty
apartments in Berlin to share stories
and memories—tracing the strength
and fragility of our connections.
Wed 2nd of Sept.
Event—6 for 6.30
Chris Bowen
The Money Men: Australia’s Twelve
Most Notable Treasurers
Former Treasurer Chris Bowen
provides a rare insight into Australia's most important economic office through interviews with former
Treasurers and senior bureaucrats.
Remember!
Join the Gleeclub and ge
t free entry to ALL
events held at our shops,
10% credit accrued
with every purchase, an
d FREE POSTAGE
anywhere in Australia.
13
Granny's Good Reads
with Sonia Lee
Of last month's good reads, the best for me was Stuart Macintyre's book on post
war reconstruction, Australia's Boldest Experiment. Politicians such as Curtin
and Chifley, and enlightened bureaucrats like Nugget Coombs, worked from
1942 to ensure that the soldiers who defended Australia would return to a country with employment, health care, education and housing for all. Chifley had
been sickened by the streams of unemployed who traipsed round the country
during the Depression looking for work or sustenance. As Immigration Minister
after the war Arthur Calwell first brought in Ten Pound Poms, but a shortage of
ships made him turn to readily available US ships and Displaced Persons from
Europe—to our mutual advantage. I wrote to my Member of Parliament recommending this book. Wouldn't it be great if our present crop of politicians could
show as much vision and commitment as those of 75 years ago?
My other two best reads are Ross Gittins' Gittins A Life Among Budgets, Bulldust and Bastardry, and Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen
by Mary Norris.
Regular readers of Gittins in the SMH know what a good teacher he is—with
interesting things to say about economics and politics. The most engaging part
of this memoir is his description of his Salvation Army upbringing. His Officer
father, though poor himself, always gave help to the streams of unemployed
so deplored by Ben Chifley. In the last chapters he tackles the problem of the
declining readership of newspapers and the future of quality journalism.
Anyone who, like me, shouts at the TV and radio correcting people's grammar,
will love the 'Comma Queen', Mary Norris, who is a proof reader at The New
Yorker. Her book is often hilarious, especially when her brother becomes her
sister, necessitating a discussion of the his/her problem. My first teaching job
was in a high school in Toowoomba. Queensland kids did a lot of drill in parsing
and analysis, noun clauses, adverbial clauses and so on. None of my students
would ever use 'less' where it should be 'fewer', or use 'media' and 'criteria' with
a singular verb, misplace an apostrophe or dangle a participle. Standards since
then are more relaxed, encouraging fluency rather than a grammatical strait
jacket ... But I still scream 'fewer' at the TV set. Norris obviously never learned
Parsing and Analysis at Primary School, and never learnt Latin or even a foreign
language until the last year of college when she did some German. So she gets
into contortions trying to explain transitive verbs and the accusative case, but
probably most modern readers would be in the same boat and would find her
discussion adequate. Her chapter on swearing is funny.
I also recommend A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson; The Whipping Boy: My
Forty Year search for my Twelve year Old Bully by Allen Kurzweil; The Simple
Act of Reading edited by Debra Adelaide, On the Move by Oliver Sacks and, for
lighter reading, The Truth According to Us by Annie Burrows who co-authored
the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Sonia
Santamaria: A Most Unusual Man
by Gerard Henderson ($60, HB)
B. A. Santamaria was one of the most controversial Australians
of our time. An ardent anti-Communist and devout Catholic,
in the 1940s he created the anti-Communist organisation 'The
Movement'. In the 1950s he was a key figure in the tumultuous
split of the Australian Labor Party. He subsequently enjoyed
great influence as a public commentator on his television program Point of View and in his weekly column in The Australian.
Santamaria had a strong social conscience and spent much of his time helping the
underprivileged. Although he began as an advocate and champion of the Catholic
Church, he spent much of his last decades opposing some of its activities. Biographer, Gerard Henderson, was a close colleague until a disagreement saw the two
men estranged and never reconciled.
The Shearers by Evan McHugh ($32.99, HB)
14
'For much of its history Australia has been described as riding on the sheep's back—but if the country rode on anyone's
back, it was on the aching, creaking, flexing spines of Australian shearers.' From legendary figures such as blade shearing
record-holder Jack Howe and fearless union man cum poet Julian Stuart, to today's young guns having to adapt to a rapidly
changing industry, these rugged, resilient & proud characters
have influenced the social landscape a& folklore of the country. Shearers contributed to the formation of both the Labor &
National parties, while Australia's national song, Waltzing Matilda, was written
on a Queensland sheep station. Evan McHugh presents the definitive history of
these men, bringing to life the toil, tumult and toughness of the shearing life,
and the effect it has had on Australia's national character.
Australian Studies
Catch and Kill: The Politics of Power by Joel Deane
In factional politics, there are two kinds of kills—the kind done for
a meaningful purpose & the thrill kill. The attempt to unseat John
Brumby as leader after only 7 months in the job was purely a thrill
kill: exhilarating & pointless. This is a sweeping tour-de-force about
political power, written from the inside. It looks at the secrets, lies
and truths of 4 friends—Steve Bracks, John Brumby, John Thwaites,
Rob Hulls—and what they did with power. How they beat the factions to get into parliament. How they won government. How they used the power of
their state government to attempt to hijack Canberra’s domestic reform agenda from the
Howard & Rudd governments. Joel Deane reveals the secret world of the mythmakers &
the mongrels, the shellbacks & the sacrificial lambs—betrayals, allegations, parlays &
shanghais, steeped in the dark dirty language of the inner political sanctum. ($32.95, PB)
Waterfront: Graft, Corruption and Violence - Australia's Crime Frontier from 1788 to Now
by Duncan McNab ($32.99, PB)
Ever since the First Fleet dropped anchor, Australia's ports have been
our opening to the world. They are also the breeding ground for many
of Australia's most notorious criminals, and a magnet for local &
overseas criminal syndicates. From the time of Phillip & Bligh to today, from the gold rushes to modern-day drug smuggling, a criminal
element has always found ways to profit from the rise & dominance
of waterfront unions. After a century of Royal Commissions, reports,
denials & crackdowns, crime & wrongdoing in Australia's ports remains organised,
entrenched & incredibly profitable. Duncan McNab lifts the lid on the intriguing & chequered history of Australia's waterfront.
The Changi Book (ed) Lachlan Grant ($60 HB)
Changi is synonymous with suffering, hardship and the Australian prisoner-of-war experience in WW2. It is also a story of ingenuity, resourcefulness and survival. 70 years after its planned
publication, material for The Changi Book was rediscovered in
the Australian War Memorial archives. Containing essays, cartoons, paintings & photographs created by prisoners of war, the
book provides a unique view of the camp: life-saving medical innovation, machinery & tools created from spare parts and scrap,
black-market dealings, sport and gambling, theatre productions,
and the creation of a library and university.
An Economy is Not a Society: Winners and Losers in
the New Australia by Dennis Glover ($19.99, PB)
This is a passionate and personal J'accuse against the people whose
abandonment of moral policy making has ripped the guts out of Australia's old industrial communities, robbed the country of manufacturing knowhow, reversed our national ethos of egalitarianism and
broken the sense of common purpose that once existed between rulers
and ruled. Those in power, Dennis Glover argues, must abandon the
idea that a better society is purely about offering individuals more
dollars in their pockets. What we desperately need is a conversation
about the lives, working conditions, jobs & communities we want for
ourselves and our families
Making of a Party System: Minor Parties in the Australian Senate by Zareh Ghazarian ($49.95, PB)
Minor parties have come a long way in Australia. From an era where
there were no minor parties in the national parliament, they have become crucial players in shaping government policy & the political
debate. This book charts the rise of minor parties in the Australian
Senate since the end of the WW2 and constructs an analytical framework to explain how they became the powerful actors they are today. It
shows that there has been a change in the type of minor party elected.
Rather than be created as a result of a split in a major party, newer
minor parties have been mobilised by broad social movements with
the aim of advancing specific policy agendas.
Money Men, The Australia's Twelve Most Notable
Treasurers by Chris Bowen ($35, PB)
How much do we know about the second most important office in the
nation? Who was Australia's first treasurer? Who resigned because
of a relationship breakdown with the PM? And who did Frank Hardy
base his character Ted Thurgood in Power without Glory on? The Money Men is the first
in-depth look at the twelve most notable and interesting men to have held the office of
Treasurer of Australia. Former Treasurer Chris Bowen brings a unique insider perspective to the lessons learned from the successes and failures of those who went before him.
Machine Rules: A Political Primer
by Stephen Loosley ($35, PB)
'The best decision of my life was to go into Labor politics. The
second best decision I ever made was to leave politics.' But does a
powerbroker like Stephen Loosley ever leave the political world?
In his candid memoir, Loosley writes about defending the indefensible, the best way to start &kill off rumours, the value of truth in
campaigning, how to use humour to squash a scandal, the key to
fundraising and why bullshit always comes back to smother you.
Politics
History
Griffith Review 49: New Asia Now
(eds) Julianne Schultz & Jane Camens ($27.99, PB)
The New Spymasters: Inside Espionage from
the Cold War to Al-Qaeda by Stephen Grey
The War on Journalism by Andrew Fowler
Sailing with Cook: Inside the Private
Journal of James Burney RN
(ed) Suzanne Rickard ($50, HB)
The Asian century is in full swing, generating unprecedented economic and social power. New Asia Now features outstanding young
writers from the countries at the centre of this transformation—taking the reader on a journey through the region's diversity with a new
generation of literary stars, who will shape the way we understand
the complexities of culture, politics and modernisation. All born after 1970, the
contributors are cultural agenda-setters who explore issues of identity and belonging in
the new world that is unfolding. Featuring Murong Xuecan (China), Joshua Ip (Singapore), Annie Zaidi (India), Miguel Syjuco (Phillipines), Sheng Keyi (China), Maggie
Tiojakin (Indonesia) and many more.
When first WikiLeaks & then Edward Snowden blew the whistle,
they did more than reveal explosive secrets: they undermined establishment, or insider, media—where governments ‘leaked' information to favoured reporters in return for sympathetic coverage. Along
with lawyer-turned-gonzo-journalist Glenn Greenwald, these outsiders challenged everyone from The Guardian on the left to Rupert
Murdoch's global media empire on the right. The establishment
fought back with draconian laws to silence the new journalism.
From the UK to the US to Australia, governments harass journalists, threatening to jail
both whistleblowers and those who publish their leaks. Staying one move ahead of post9/11 intelligence agencies is fraught. Every cell phone is a mobile tracking device. The
public's right to know is a battleground. At stake are the kind of journalism that survives
and the kind of world in which we will live: democratic or dominated by executive
government, unchallenged and unaccountable, spying on its own citizens and producing
fraudulent arguments to fight horrific wars. ($35, PB)
Because We Say So by Noam Chomsky ($33, PB)
In 1962, the eminent statesman Dean Acheson enunciated a principle that has dominated global politics ever since: that no legal issue
arises when the United States responds to a challenge to its 'power,
position, and prestige'. In short, whatever the world may think, U.S.
actions are legitimate because they say so. Spanning the impact of
Edward Snowden's whistleblowing and Palestinian-Israeli relations
to deeper reflections on political philosophy and the importance of
a commons to democracy, Because We Say So takes American imperialism head on.
Being Berlusconi: The Rise and Fall from Cosa Nostra to Bunga Bunga by Michael Day ($30, PB)
People the world over are appalled& fascinated in equal measure by
the stratospheric political career of the tycoon & 3-time Italian PM
Silvio Berlusconi. Michael Day tells the story of a bright & ambitious man from a lower-middle-class family who shook off his humble origins & rose to become rich & powerful beyond most people's
dreams, a multi-billionaire whose Mediaset company remains one
of Europe's largest television & cinema conglomerates. Along the way,
amid the election victories & business triumphs, he became bogged down by his hubris,
egotism & sexual obsessions—and his flagrant disregard for the law. How and why did
Italy and Italians put up with him for so long?
Global Minotaur: Europe, America and the Future
of the Global Economy by Varoufakis & Mason
In this provocative book, Yanis Varoufakis—the fiery finance minister in Greek’s new Syriza-led government—explodes the myth
that financialisation, ineffective regulation of banks, and generalised
greed & globalisation were the root causes of the global economic
crisis. Rather, he shows, they are symptoms of a much deeper malaise, one that can be traced all the way back to the Great Depression,
then through the stagflation of the 1970s, when a 'Global Minotaur'
was born. Today’s deepening crisis in Europe, Varoufakis shows, is
just one of the inevitable signs of the weakening Minotaur—of a global system that is
now as unsustainable as it is unbalanced. Rather than simply diagnose a problem, however, Varoufakis also offers a solution, a programme for introducing reason into what
has become a perniciously irrational economic order. ($27.95, PB)
Capitalism by John Plender ($40, HB)
Award-winning Financial Times journalist John Plender explores the
paradoxes & pitfalls inherent in the extraordinarily dynamic mechanism called Capitalism—and in our attitudes to it. Taking us from the
Venetian merchants of the Middle Ages to the gleaming temples of
commerce in 21st-century Canary Wharf via the South Sea Bubble,
Dutch tulip mania & manic-depressive gambling addicts, Plender
shows our economic creation through the eyes of philosophers, novelists, poets, artists & divines. Along the way, he delves into the
ethics of debt; reveals the truth about the unashamedly materialistic artistic giants who
pioneered copyrighting; and traces the path of our instinctive conviction that entrepreneurs are greedy, unethical opportunists, hell bent on capital accumulation, while
manufacturing is innately virtuous. A remarkable contribution to the enduring debate.
Now in B Format
Merchants Of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes, $20
In this era of email intercepts & drone strikes, many believe
that the spy is dead. What use are double agents & dead letter
boxes compared to the all-seeing digital eye? They couldn't
be more wrong. The spying game is changing, but the need
for walking, talking sources who gather secret information
has never been more acute. And they are still out there. In this searing modern history of espionage, Stephen Grey takes us from the CIA's Cold War
legends, to the agents who betrayed the IRA, through to the spooks inside Al-Qaeda
and ISIS. Techniques & technologies have evolved, but the old motivations for
betrayal—patriotism, greed, revenge, compromise—endure. ($50, HB)
This book features facsimile pages extracted from the private journal of James Burney detailing his experience of
shipboard life and the momentous events that took place
during the second voyage of exploration when he sailed
with Captain Cook on the Resolution and then on the Adventure between 1772 & 1773. The book is beautifully illustrated with maps, portraits, contemporary documents &
artefacts, including information text boxes on people & issues.
Heroes of the Skies by Michael Veitch
In April 1943 Cyril Burcher bombed a German U-boat, killing
its entire crew. 30 years later, a letter arrived for him out of
the blue from the daughter of the U-boat captain. Cy Borscht
jumped out of his burning Lancaster & parachuted into even
more danger, being taken prisoner by the Germans for the duration of the war. Stan Pascoe can still remember the tension
of the briefing room before every mission, which disappeared
the minute he was in the aeroplane. For each of these airmen
and the many others interviewed in this book, the very fact that they survived the
war is miraculous enough; that they are still with us today to tell their stories is another amazing feat. Michael Veitch, long-time recorder of wartime tales, has sought
out WWII pilots and navigators from across the country to record and honour their
service all those years ago. ($34.99, PB)
Now in B format & Paperback
The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union
by Serhii Plokhy, $24.99
The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World
by Lincoln Paine, $40
The Hollow Crown The Wars of the Roses and
the Rise of the Tudors by Dan Jones, $23
In These Times Living in Britain through
Napoleon's Wars, 1793–1815 by Jenny Uglow, $25
How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the
Modern City by Joan DeJean ($30, PB)
At the beginning of the 17th century, Paris was known for isolated monuments but had not yet put its brand on urban space.
Though most people associate the signature characteristics of
Paris with the public works of the 19th century, Joan DeJean
demonstrates that the Parisian model for urban space was in
fact invented 2 centuries earlier, when the first complete design for the French capital was drawn up & implemented. It
became the first city to tear down its fortifications, inviting people in rather than
keeping them out. Parisian urban planning showcased new kinds of streets, including the original boulevard, as well as public parks & the earliest sidewalks &
bridges without houses. Venues opened for urban entertainment of all kinds, from
opera & ballet to a passtime invented in Paris, recreational shopping. Parisians enjoyed the earliest public transportation & street lighting, and Paris became Europe's
first great walking city.
Xerxes: A Persian Life by Richard Stoneman
Xerxes, Great King of the Persian Empire from 486–465 B.C.,
has gone down in history as an angry tyrant full of insane ambition. The stand of Leonidas and the 300 against his army
at Thermopylae is a byword for courage, while the failure of
Xerxes’ expedition has overshadowed all the other achievements of his twenty-two-year reign. In this lively new biography, Richard Stoneman shows how Xerxes, despite sympathetic treatment by the contemporary Greek writers Aeschylus
& Herodotus, had his reputation destroyed by later Greek writers and by the propaganda of Alexander the Great. He draws on the latest research in Achaemenid
studies & archaeology to present the ruler from the Persian perspective—setting
Xerxes’ failings against them such triumphs as the architectural splendour of Persepolis and a consideration of Xerxes’ religious commitments. What emerges is a
nuanced portrait of a man who ruled a vast and multicultural empire. ($61, HB)
15
Science & Nature
Eureka: How Invention Happens by Gavin Weightman
Tracing the long pre-history of five 20th century inventions which have
transformed our lives, Gavin Weightman reveals a fantastic cast of scientists and inspired amateurs whose ingenuity has given us the airplane,
television, bar code, personal computer & mobile phone. Not one of
these inventions can be attributed to a lone genius who experiences a
moment of inspiration. Nearly all innovations exist in the imagination
before they are finally made to work by the hard graft of inventors who
draw on the discoveries of others. ($49.95, HB)
Odd Couples: Extraordinary Differences between the
Sexes in the Animal Kingdom by Daphne J. Fairbairn
W
hen Greg Fisher was a
child his mother said
he’d either be very successful
or end up in jail. After a
comfortable upbringing in
Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Greg
Fisher married, had a child
and started making his way
up the corporate ladder. But
after coming out and leaving
his wife, Greg’s life veered into
the fast lane and by the early
2000s his high-stakes lifestyle
began to spiral dangerously out
of control. Eventually jailed for corporate fraud and drug
dealing, Greg spent almost eight years in prison, sharing a
cell with some of Australia’s most notorious criminals – and
began the slow process of rebuilding his life. Greg, now
general manager of Our Big Kitchen, tells his extraordinary
story of ambition, addiction and redemption.
The male garden spider spontaneously dies after mating with a female
more than fifty times his size. Female cichlids must guard their eggs and
larvae—even from the hungry appetites of their own partners. And male
blanket octopuses employ a copulatory arm longer than their own bodies
to mate with females that outweigh them by four orders of magnitude.
Why do these gender gulfs exist? From the fields of Spain to the deep
oceans, evolutionary biologist Daphne Fairbairn uncovers the unique & bizarre
characteristics—in size, behaviour, ecology & life history—that exist in these remarkable
species and the special strategies they use to maximise reproductive success. She also considers humans and explains that although we are keenly aware of our own sexual differences, they are unexceptional within the vast animal world. ($39.95, PB)
Light from the East: How the Science of Medieval Islam Helped to Shape the Western World
by John Freely ($36.95, PB)
Long before the European Renaissance, while the western world was
languishing in what was once called the 'Dark Ages', the Arab world
was ablaze with the creativity of its Golden Age. This is the story of
how Islamic science, which began in 8th century Baghdad, enhanced
the knowledge acquired from Greece, Mesopotamia, India and China.
Through the astrologers, physicians, philosophers, mathematicians and
alchemists of the Muslim world, this knowledge influenced western
thinkers from Thomas Aquinas and Copernicus and helped inspire the Renaissance and give
birth to modern science..
The Dingo Debate: Origins, Behaviour & Conservation
(ed) Bradley Smith ($39.95, PB)
Throughout its existence, the dingo has been shaped by its interactions
with human societies. With this as a central theme, this book traces the
story of the dingo from its beginnings as a semi-domesticated wild dog
in South-east Asia, to its current status as a wild Australian native animal under threat of extinction. The Dingo Debate reveals the real dingo
beneath the popular stereotypes, providing an account of the dingo’s
behaviour, ecology, impacts & management according to scientific &
scholarly evidence rather than hearsay.
Bird Minds: Cognition and Behaviour of Australian
Native Birds by Gisela Kaplan ($45, PB)
I
n the tradition of The Anzac
Book comes this fascinating
collection of accounts of
life in the notorious Changi
prison camp. Containing
essays, cartoons, paintings,
and photographs created by
prisoners of war, The Changi
Book provides a unique
view of the camp: life-saving
medical innovation, machinery and tools created from
spare parts and scrap, black-market dealings, sport and
gambling, theatre productions, and the creation of a
library and university. Seventy years after its planned
publication, material for the book was rediscovered in the
Australian War Memorial archives. It appears here for the
first time along with insights from the Memorial’s experts.
w w w. n ews o u t h p u b l i s h i n g .co m
16
Now in B Format
How Not to be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of
Everyday Life by Jordan Ellenberg, $25
Invisible: The History of the Unseen from Plato
to Particle Physics by Philip Ball, $24.99
Bird Minds is the first attempt to shine a critical & scientific light on the
cognitive behaviour of Australian land birds, demonstrating how intelligent and emotional Australian birds can be. Gisela Kaplan describes
complex behaviours such as grieving, deception, problem solving and
the use of tools. Many Australian birds cooperate and defend each other,
and exceptional ones go fishing by throwing bread crumbs in the water,
extract poisonous parts from prey and use tools to crack open eggshells
and mussels.
Prehistoric Marine Life in Australia's Inland Sea
by Danielle Clode ($24.95, PB)
Step back to a time when Australia’s red centre was flooded by a vast
shallow ocean, the Eromanga Sea. While dinosaurs stalked the scattered islands that made up the Australian continent, giant marine reptiles ruled the waves. Plesiosaurs & ichthyosaurs swam in an inland
sea filled with schools of ammonites, pterosaurs flew overhead & giant carnivorous amphibians lurked in the rivers. This is a guide to
the fauna of the Eromanga Sea and its coasts during the Cretaceous
period—richly illustrated, the book brings to life yet another aspect of the fascinating world
of Australia’s prehistoric past & provides an accessible introduction to some of the amazing
fauna, geology and fossils found in this part of the world.
Pogue's Basics: Essential Tips and Shortcuts (That No
One Bothers to Tell You) for Simplifying the Technology in Your Life by David Pogue ($27, PB)
Did you know that you can dry out your wet cell phone by putting its
parts in separate bowls of uncooked rice? David Pogue's columns for
Yahoo Tech are read by millions. Here are 200 tips that will change your
relationship to your phone, computer, tablet, camera—all of the technology in your life. A layflat format makes this the perfect reference book
that you can turn to time and time again to pick up more helpful cheats
for all your devices. At last, you can lose the nagging, insecure feeling that you're not the
master of your own gadgets.
Philosophy
The Black Mirror: Fragments of an Obituary for
Life by Raymond Tallis ($39.99, HB)
Inspired by E. M. Forster's thought that 'Death destroys a man but
the idea of it saves him', The Black Mirror takes death as an external
viewpoint from which we may see our lives more clearly. Raymond
Tallis looks back on his world from the standpoint of his future
corpse. He reflects on the senses that opened up his late world, the
elements they reveal, the distances, divisions and intimacies of
space, the multifarious activities that occupied his days, his possessions, his utterances, his relationship to others, the extinguished
flame that was his self, his journey towards the end, and his after-life either side of the
grave.
Language, Madness, and Desire: On Literature
by Michel Foucault ($45, HB)
This book brings together previously unpublished transcripts of oral
presentations in which Foucault speaks at length about literature & its
links to some of his principal themes: madness, language & criticism,
and truth & desire. The associations between madness & language &
madness & silence preoccupy Foucault in two 1963 radio broadcasts
in which he ranges among literary examples from Cervantes & Shakespeare to Diderot, before taking up questions about Artaud's literary
correspondence, lettres de cachet, and the materiality of language. In his lectures on the
relations between language, the literary work, and literature, he discusses Joyce, Proust,
Chateaubriand, Racine & Corneille, as well as the linguist Roman Jakobson. What we
know as literature, Foucault contends, begins with the Marquis de Sade, to whose writing particularly La Nouvelle Justine and Juliette he devotes a full two-part lecture series
focusing on notions of literary self-consciousness.
At the Edges of Thought: Deleuze and Post Kantian
Philosophy (eds) Lundy & Voss ($59.99, PB)
Exploring the shape of Deleuzian philosophy through the influence
of thinkers such as Maimon, Kleist, Hölderlin, Fichte, Schelling,
Hegel, Spinoza and Feuerbach, this collection serves to situate
the work of Deleuze and several of his most important concepts
with respect to his post Kantian predecessors, further illuminating
both the breadth of his philosophical heritage and the manner in
which he moves beyond it. As such, readers are invited to join with
Deleuze as he traverses and transforms post Kantian philosophy,
taking it towards the very edges of thought—addressing the breadth of Deleuze's post
Kantian influences and engagements, exploring underdeveloped encounters in Deleuzian
thought & advancing novel readings of established problematics.
Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of
Philosophy by Susan Neiman ($52.95, HB)
For 18th century Europeans, the Lisbon earthquake was manifest evil.
Today we view evil as a matter of human cruelty, and Auschwitz as its
extreme incarnation. Examining our understanding of evil from the Inquisition to contemporary terrorism, Susan Neiman explores who we
have become in the three centuries that separate us from the early Enlightenment. In the process, she rewrites the history of modern thought
and points philosophy back to the questions that originally animated it.
Whether expressed in theological or secular terms, evil poses a problem about the world's
intelligibility. It confronts philosophy with fundamental questions: Can there be meaning
in a world where innocents suffer? Can belief in divine power or human progress survive
a cataloguing of evil? Is evil profound or banal?
Music as Thought: Listening to the Symphony in
the Age of Beethoven by Mark Evan Bonds
Before the 19th century, instrumental music was considered inferior
to vocal music. Kant described wordless music as 'more pleasure
than culture,' and Rousseau dismissed it for its inability to convey
concepts. But by the early 1800s, a dramatic shift was under way.
Purely instrumental music was now being hailed as a means to
knowledge & embraced precisely because of its independence from
the limits of language. What had once been perceived as entertainment was heard increasingly as a vehicle of thought. Listening had
become a way of knowing. Music as Thought traces the roots of this fundamental shift in
attitudes toward listening in the late 18th & early 19th centuries. Focusing on responses
to the symphony in the age of Beethoven, Mark Evan Bonds draws on contemporary accounts & a range of sources—philosophical, literary, political & musical—to reveal how
this music was experienced by those who heard it first. ($43.95, PB)
Heidegger's Children: Hannah Arendt, Karl
Lowith, Hans Jonas, and Herbert Marcuse
by Richard Wolin ($46.95, PB)
Often heralded as one of the twentieth century’s most important
thinkers, Martin Heidegger’s work has stimulated much that is
original and compelling in modern thought. A seductive classroom
presence, during the 1920s he attracted Germany’s brightest young
intellects. Many were Jews, who, ultimately, would have to reconcile
their philosophical and, often, personal commitments to Heidegger
with his nefarious political views. With a new preface by the author.
Psychology
The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death
in Life by Sheldon Solomon & Jeff Greenberg
Psychologists Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom
Pyszczynski have spent 25 years researching the many ways
that fear of death—and our desire to transcend it—guides our
behaviour. This book is the culmination of their ground-breaking work which proves that fear of death is the hidden motive
behind almost everything we do. It shows how human culture keeps our fear of death
at bay by infusing our lives with order, stability, significance and purpose, allowing
us to function moment to moment without becoming overwhelmed by the knowledge of our ultimate fate. It provides surprising evidence of what happens when that
fear breaks through: when reminded of their own death, judges dole out harsher punishments, people become more intolerant towards those different from themselves
and more in favour of violence. But the fear needn't consume us: the authors offer a
compelling new paradigm for understanding the choices we make in life & immerse
us in a new way of understanding human evolution, child development, history, religion, art, science, mental health, war, and politics in the 21st century. ($49.99, HB)
The Ghost in My Brain: How a Concussion Stole
My Life and How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Helped Me Get it Back
by Clark Elliott ($50, HB)
In 1999, Clark Elliott suffered a concussion when his car was
rear-ended. Overnight his life changed from that of a rising
professor with a research career in artificial intelligence to a
humbled man struggling to get through a single day. At times
he couldn't walk across a room, or even name his five children.
Doctors told him he would never fully recover. After 8 years,
the cognitive demands of his job, and of being a single parent, finally became more
than he could manage. As a result of one final effort to recover, he crossed paths
with two brilliant Chicago-area research-clinicians—one a specialised optometrist,
the other a cognitive psychologist—working on the leading edge of brain plasticity.
Within weeks the ghost of who he had been started to re-emerge. Remarkably, Elliott kept detailed notes throughout his experience, from the moment of impact to
the final stages of his recovery, this astounding documentation that is the basis of
his fascinating book.
The Weary Sons of Freud
by Catherine Clément ($20, PB)
First published in France in 1978, Catherine Clément, a Communist, feminist, and analysand, asks what the social function
of psychoanalysis should be and condemns what it has become.
Clément contrasts the insights of the psychoanalytic theory of
Freud & Lacan to the obsessive imitations of their followers—
the weary sons of Freud. She asks how the attentive ear of the
analyst has become deaf to the social & political questions of
her practice? Does a woman who is both a socialist & an analysand necessarily hear
such questions more clearly & answer them differently? Clément reflects on her own
history, the history of psychoanalysis & the history of the French left to demonstrate
what an activist & feminist restoration of psychoanalysis could be.
In the same series
Read My Desire: Lacan Against the Historicists
by Joan Copjec, $20
Intelligence in the Flesh: Why Your Mind Needs
Your Body Much More Than it Thinks
by Guy Claxton ($51.95, HB)
Guy Claxton draws on the latest findings in neuroscience and
psychology to reveal how our bodies—long dismissed as mere
conveyances—actually constitute the core of our intelligent life.
Embodied intelligence is one of the most exciting areas in contemporary philosophy & neuropsychology, and Claxton shows
how the privilege given to cerebral thinking has taken a toll
on modern society, resulting in too much screen time, the diminishment of skilled
craftsmanship, and an overvaluing of white-collar over blue-collar labour. Discussing techniques that will help us reconnect with our bodies, Claxton shows how an
appreciation of the body's intelligence will enrich all our lives.
Value of Psychotherapy: The Talking Cure in
an Age of Clinical Science by Robert Woolfolk
Psychotherapy as a discipline is very much in flux. From a seasoned scholar, clinician & teacher, this engaging book offers a
thoughtful and current analysis of where the field is currently
and where it may be headed. Robert L. Woolfolk illustrates
how the growing medicalisation of mental health care—in
particular, the attempt to fit psychotherapy to the templates of
evidence-based medicine—have challenged psychotherapists
to reaffirm the value of their work. The book explores ways in
which certain kinds of efforts to endow 'the talking cure' with greater scientific legitimacy can be problematic. Woolfolk makes a strong case for the benefits of psychotherapy not only as a technology for treating disorders, but also as a practice that
can promote practical wisdom and human flourishing. ($44.95, PB)
17
An Immediate Re-read
The early novels of Kate Atkinson were in turn fascinating and original, but also slightly irritatingly smart
and ironic. Human Croquet was a revelation, (my book
group enjoyed it so much that we played a memorable game of real human croquet one evening on an
oval, for hours); her later Brodie Jackson books were
hugely enjoyabl—less ironic and more grown up. The
much acclaimed Life After Life was extraordinary.
Atkinson played with time and narrative, making her
hapless heroine Ursula Todd destined to repeat the tribulations of living through the Blitz over and over. Her new book, A God in Ruins,
is set in the same time and place. The central character Teddy is the
younger brother of Ursula, who in turn grows up to rain down terror
on Germany, as a fighter pilot with the RAF. Much more linear than
its predecessor, this is an engrossing, absorbing account of one man's
life. Teddy does survive, he goes on to lead a reasonably normal life.
Except there's no such thing—his child and his grandchildren are testament to this—all that is hidden is revealed, and nothing is as it seems.
With incredibly vivid characters (his daughter's vile mother-in-law is
particularly disturbing, as is his daughter), and powerful, evocative
emblems that pop up through the story, A God in Ruins delights and
surprises to the very end.
Nell Zink's second novel, Mislaid, is reminiscent of
Kate Atkinson. It has the same rather smart, fatly ironic
tone of some of her early books ... at first. I wanted
to read this book after the long and slightly awestruck
article Kathryn Schulz wrote about Zink in a recent
New Yorker. It starts off well enough, an innocent
named Peggy is sent to a college by a lake and seems
to be instantly seduced by a male professor and poet,
Lee Fleming—who lives in a large wooden Victorian
house beside the lake. The tone is funny and wisecracking—Peggy is
actually gay, as is her seducer. A desultory domestic life ensues, with
Peggy producing a son, and then a daughter, despite her husband's profound lack of interest in her. Peggy has dissolving literary ambitions,
Lee has dissolute literary friends, and soon Peggy tires of her situation,
and decides to disappear, leaving her son and taking her daughter.
What happens next is like reading a fairy tale in reverse, and it is both
very startling and yet familiar. This is really a book about politics—
race, gender, class. And, of course, being set in Virginia in the late 60s
through to the early 80s, there's clearly a rich seam of subject matter for
Nell Zink to immerse us in. It's also a book riddled with literary allusions and poetry (and poets). Peggy reminisces about being given drugs
by Allen Ginsberg. Her daughter's friend Temple at 13 finds the poem
In My Craft or Sullen Art 'especially hot', and at a later date is seen unknowingly wearing an elegant jacket of poet Mark Strand. At one point,
when Peggy's daughter is playing with a toy mouse the author writes:
'What is a poem, if not a toy mouse viewed from an angle that makes it
take over the whole world?' When all of the threads of the story unite,
as of course they must, and when what is lost is found, one can't help
but be pleased for all the characters—each one is so compelling in their
own oddness. This is such an enjoyable book, so easy to read and yet so
complex and many layered... I may just have to read it again, tonight.
Louise Pfanner
Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of
Social Mobility by Gregory Clark ($44.95, PB)
While it has been argued that rigid class structures have eroded in favour of greater social equality, The Son Also Rises
proves that movement on the social ladder has changed little
over eight centuries. Using a novel technique tracking family names over generations to measure social mobility across
countries and periods renowned economic historian Gregory
Clark reveals that mobility rates are lower than conventionally estimated, do not vary across societies, and are resistant to social
policies. Clark examines and compares surnames in such diverse cases as modern
Sweden, fourteenth-century England, and Qing Dynasty China. He demonstrates
how fate is determined by ancestry and that almost all societies—as different as
the modern United States, Communist China, and modern Japan—have similarly
low social mobility rates. These figures are impervious to institutions, and it takes
hundreds of years for descendants to shake off the advantages and disadvantages of
their ancestors. For these reasons, Clark contends that societies should act to limit
the disparities in rewards between those of high and low social rank.
18
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Cultural Studies & Criticism
Latest Readings by Clive James ($29.95, HB)
In 2010, Clive James was diagnosed with terminal leukemia. Deciding that 'if you don't know the exact moment when the lights will go
out, you might as well read until they do', James moved his library
to his house in Cambridge, where he would 'live, read, and perhaps
even write'. James is the award-winning author of dozens of works
of literary criticism, poetry & history, and this volume contains his
reflections on what may well be his last reading list. A look at some of
James's old favourites as well as some of his recent discoveries, this
book also offers a revealing look at the author himself, sharing his
evocative musings on literature & family, and on living & dying. As thoughtful & erudite
as the works of Alberto Manguel, and as moving and inspiring as Randy Pausch's The Last
Lecture and Will Schwalbe's The End of Your Life Book Club, this valediction to James's
lifelong engagement with the written word is a captivating valentine from one of the great
literary minds of our time.
The Evil That Men Do ...
'Oh No!...Yet more lurid Crime thrillers...', sighs the Editor. Indeed. This
month features a quartet of entertaining paperback 'Pulp' novels with some
delightfully lurid covers. Ideal for winter reading.
The Blackboard Jungle by Evan Hunter (1954). 1960 PB reprint. $10
'Violence and hatred among teenage hoodlums—the best-selling novel of
a burning problem.' Oh dear. And that's merely the publishers' blurb on the
front cover. Followed by: 'What are the roots that clutch, what branches
grow out of this stony rubbish?'—a quote from T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland
which features after the title page. This is a notorious (and bestselling) early novel from the prolific author Evan Hunter—born Salvatore Lombino
(1926–2005)—who later wrote under the pen name of Ed McBain for his
crime fiction.
Set in a New York inner-city vocational school it sees newly appointed
English teacher Richard Dadier defiantly attempting to bring order and
learning to his chaotic class of near murderous juvenile delinquents. Respect and discipline triumph by the end.
An equally popular film appeared the next year, starring young actors
Sidney Poitier, Vic Morrow (anyone else remember him starring in the
1960s TV series Combat?) and one Jameel Farah, better known under the
americanised name, Jamie Farr, the actor who played Corporal Klinger in
M*A*S*H. It also made stars out of Bill Haley and the Comets when their
hit Rock Around the Clock was used as the musical opener.
The Sex Myth by Rachel Hills ($33, PB)
Fifty years after the sexual revolution, we are told that we live in a
time of unprecedented sexual freedom; that, if anything, we are too
free now. But beneath the veneer of glossy hedonism, millennial journalist Rachel Hills argues that we are controlled by a new brand of
sexual convention: one which influences all of us – woman or man,
straight or gay, liberal or conservative. At the root of this silent code
lies the Sex Myth—the defining significance we invest in sexuality
that once meant we were dirty if we did have sex, and now means we
are defective if we don't do it enough. Equal parts social commentary,
pop culture, and powerful personal stories from people across the English-speaking world,
The Sex Myth exposes the invisible norms and unspoken assumptions that shape the way
we think about sex today.
Guidelines for Mountain Lion Safety
by Poe Ballantine ($29.95, PB)
Poe Ballantine visits his dying Grandfather Bing, receives free rent in
return for evicting difficult tenants from the Totalitarian Hotel, models nude for budding artists, reconnects with his parents, befriends a
lonely Austrian tourist on the Greyhound bus, cooks & gambles in
Vegas, falls in love, returns to his wife’s homeland of Mexico to baptise his son, and discovers the true meaning of Guidelines for Mountain Lion Safety. In this new collection of essays, Ballantine is at his
soulful and penetrating best—recounting the trajectory of his own journey from reckless
adolescence to the responsibilities of parenthood with disarming honesty, always fearlessly
confronting those bullies and demons that threaten to blow us all off course.
Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult
of Technology by Kentaro Toyama ($37, HB)
After a decade designing technologies meant to address education,
health, and global poverty, award-winning computer scientist Kentaro
Toyama came to a difficult conclusion: Even in an age of amazing
technology, social progress depends on human changes that gadgets
can't deliver. In this incisive book, Toyama cures us of the manic
rhetoric of digital utopians and reinvigorates us with a deeply peoplecentric view of social change. Contrasting the outlandish claims of
tech zealots with stories of people like Patrick Awuah, a Microsoft
millionaire who left his engineering job to open Ghana's first liberal arts university, and
Tara Sreenivasa, a graduate of a remarkable South Indian school that takes impoverished
children into the high-tech offices of Goldman Sachs and Mercedes-Benz, Geek Heresy
is a heartwarming reminder that it's human wisdom, not machines, that move our world
forward.
Unnamed Desires: A Sydney Lesbian History
by Rebecca Jennings ($34.95, PB)
Rebecca Jennings explores the compelling stories of ordinary women
who struggled to build lives and express their love for other women in
a hostile society. Focusing on Sydney and country New South Wales
in the mid-20th century (1930–1978), it traces the development of
lesbian culture, identities and gathering places from the interwar period to the first Mardi Gras. Drawing on major oral history interviews,
conducted by the author, and archival research, this book offers fascinating new insights into the social and cultural history of mid-20th century NSW.
Franz Kafka: The Office Writings ($57.95, PB)
Franz Kafka had an established legal career, and his briefs reveal him
to be a canny bureaucrat, sharp litigator, and innovative thinker on the
social, political, and legal issues of his time. His official preoccupations inspired many of the themes and strategies of the novels and stories he wrote at night. These documents include articles on workmen's
compensation and workplace safety; appeals for the founding of a
psychiatric hospital for shell-shocked veterans; and letters arguing relentlessly for a salary adequate to his merit. In adjudicating disputes,
promoting legislative programs, and investigating workplace sites,
Kafka's writings teem with details about the bureaucracy and technology of his day, such
as spa elevators in Marienbad, the challenge of the automobile, and the perils of excavating
in quarries while drunk. Translated, with commentary by two of the world's leading Kafka
scholars and one of America's most eminent civil rights lawyers.
We, The Accused by Ernest Raymond (1935). 1960 PB reprint. $10
This is a surprisingly powerful and dramatically written crime novel, loosely based on the famous Dr. Hawley Crippen murder case of 1910. In an
Introductory Note on the Places and Time Of this Tale, author Ernest Raymond (1888–1974) states that 'I have conceived it as happening at a time
when gold coins were still in use (that is pre-1914 England) ... and prison
officers were called warders.'
After years of disappointment and humiliation, mild mannered, nondescript
schoolmaster Paul Presset, seizes the chance to dispatch his overbearing
wife, Elinor. 'He was always kind to her, for it was not in his nature to be
unkind; the world of Islington Vale supposed that Paul and Elinor Presset
were as happy as most married couples ... She did not know she was the
negation of all his hopes.' His passion for another woman leads to murder,
a nationwide manhunt, arrest, trial and in the closing pages a graphically
described appointment with the hangman: 'Paul opened his eyes to see the
grey cell with morning ... A sparrow chirped and chattered in welcome to
the day. Paul's heart began an irregular and rapid hammering, and he tried
to steady it by repeating 'One moment of pain...' He lifted his hand off the
bedclothes to see if it was shaking. It was. He clenched his fist in an attempt
to master it, but could not.."
Watson's Worst Words: A Compendium of Management Gibberish by Don Watson ($30, PB)
Depending where you are on the change continuum, a quick pulse
check will be in order and a scan of the forthcoming weather events
before you move forward with your shark mitigation strategies.
Were any animals were harmed in the above statement? The level
of customer-centric vigilance remains below acceptable benchmarks and weasel words continue to fill our mailboxes, inboxes,
ears and minds. Don Watson will make you cringe with recognition, and perhaps shame, and encourage you to rise up against this
language that is obliterating all song, meaning and beauty from communication.
Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral
Economics by Richard H. Thaler ($48, HB)
Misbehaving is Richard H. Thaler's arresting, frequently hilarious account of the struggle to bring an academic discipline back
down to earth—and change the way we think about economics,
ourselves, and our world. Traditional economics assumes rational
actors. Dismissed at first by economists as an amusing sideshow,
the study of human miscalculations and their effects on markets
now drives efforts to make better decisions in our lives, our businesses, and our governments. Coupling recent discoveries in human psychology with a practical understanding of incentives and market behaviour,
Thaler reveals how behavioural economic analysis opens up new ways to look at everything from household finance to assigning faculty offices in a new building, to TV game
shows, the NFL draft, and businesses like Uber. Laced with antic stories of Thaler's spirited battles with the bastions of traditional economic thinking, Misbehaving is a singular
look into profound human foibles. When economics meets psychology, the implications
for individuals, managers, and policy makers are both profound and entertaining.
Gun Baby Gun: A Bloody Journey into the World
of the Gun by Iain Overton ($30, PB)
There are almost one billion guns across the globe today. There are
12 billion bullets produced every year ­almost two bullets for every
person on this earth. And as many as 500,000 people are killed by
them ever year worldwide. The gun's impact is long-reaching and
often hidden. And it doesn't just involve the dead, the wounded,
the suicidal and the mourning. It involves us all. Gun Baby Gun
takes the award-winning investigative journalist Iain Overton on a
shocking and eye-opening journey to over 25 countries. Meeting
people affected by guns from all walks of life—porn starlets who appear as snipers in
XXX films, Zionist anti-terror gun trainers, El Salvadoran gangland killers—he unearths some hard truths about the terrible realities of war and gun crime. Harrowing and
sobering, it's a riveting expose that anyone with even the smallest interest in how the
world really works will want to read.
19
A Flag in the City by Christopher Landon (1953). 1958 PB reprint. $9
Author Christopher Landon (1911–1961) led as colourful a life as the protagonist of this, his first novel. Set in Persia in 1943 it sees British Intelligence Officer Major Bill Conway (aided by Tania, his Colonel's beautiful
Polish secretary) battling a pro-Nazi secret society, the Friends of Iran and
their mysterious leader—a German agent known as The Skull!
During World War 2 Landon served as a Major in North Africa in the Ambulance Corps. Post war, he worked as a publican, taxi driver, stockbroker
and aircraft company executive. Landon was also the author of the novel
and film screenplay of the World War II drama, Ice Cold in Alex (1958) starring John Mills, Harry Andrews, Sylvia Sims and Anthony Quayle.
Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis (1927) 1960 PB reprint. $9
Sinclair Lewis' novel is a scathing satire of American religious fanaticism
and hypocrisy featuring a cynical, hard drinking, charismatic con-man Dr.
Elmer Gantry and his female evangelist lover Sister Sharon Falconer who
enrich themselves by selling revivalist religion to small town America.
It was reissued with a suitably eye-catching cover to promote the 1960
film featuring Burt Lancaster and Jean Simmons. In real life, author Lewis
(1885–1951) was denounced from the pulpit, declared a 'cohort of Satan',
given 'a personal invitation to his own lynching', and saw his book banned
in several states.
Stephen Reid
19
Midwinter Reading
This month, a title to be read in front of a wood fire...
The Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved
by P. V. Glob
It is always a pleasure to revisit a classic—especially one as handsomely reissued as this by The New York Review of Books.
In December 1962, the Danish archaeologist and museum curator, Peter Glob (1911–
1985) received the first of two letters from Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, written by
a group of English schoolgirls seeking information about Tollund Man—the body
of a man some 2,000 years old, found preserved in peat bog in Jutland, Denmark in
May 1950.
On the verge of departing for archaeological work in the Arabian Gulf, he sent them
some English pamphlets on the subject. Returning several months later, he found a
second letter awaiting him: 'We are very interested in History which we like very
much ... We think it must be very exciting to look for people in peat bogs. We like
hearing about these people because it is amazing how well they have kept ... hope one
day to have the chance of meeting you and the Tollund Man...'
This prompted a second reply, dated 1964, from Dr. Glob: 'Home again ... I find your
enthusiastic letters on my desk. They have aroused in me the wish to tell you about
these strange discoveries in Danish bogs. So I have written this 'long letter' in the following pages for you...' That 'long letter' first published in 1965, is now a recognised
classic of archaeological literature.
Right from the opening paragraph, in which he describes the discovery of Tollund
Man, the simple clarity of the prose was addictive: 'He lay on his damp bed as though
asleep, resting on his side, the head inclined a little way forward, arms and legs bent.
His face wore a gentle expression—the eyes lightly closed, the lips softly pursed, as
if in silent prayer. It was as though the dead man's soul had for a moment returned
from another world, through the gate in the western sky.' The author's imaginative
reconstruction of the Iron Age Danish peoples and the society in which they lived
make this book read like an absorbing thriller that returns these ancient people to life.
Even more memorable are the numerous detailed black and white photographs of the
'Bog People' themselves. These were indescribably moving to this 15 year old who
picked up a paperback edition of this book in 1972, and they remain so over four decades later. I am certain I was not the only teenager to read this book in one go in the
1970s and have kindled a lifelong interest in archaeology! I also liked the wonderful
onomatopoeic similarity—'Glob'/'Bog' of author and title.
Peter Vilhelm Glob dedicates his book to the fifteen English schoolgirls (he lists them
by first names), whose letters caused it to be written and also to 'the many others who
take an interest in our ancestors about these strange discoveries.'
Put my name on that list, too. Thank You, Dr. Glob! Stephen Reid
Poems of the Decade: An Anthology of the Forward Books of Poetry ($23, PB)
The Forwards are among the world's most coveted poetry honours. They have been awarded annually since 1992 for the Best
Collection, Best First Collection and Best Single Poem published
in Britain and Ireland, and the roster of winning, shortlisted and
highly commended poets regularly juxtaposes familiar canonical
names with fresh voices. This anthology of anthologies draws
on the ten Forward Books of Poetry published to accompany the
prizes between 2001 and 2010, & is the perfect introduction to a
wide range of contemporary poetry: works that speak of violence, danger and fear, of
love and all that opposes love, in forms of language broken & reshaped by the need to
communicate what it is to be alive now, here.
Language Lessons: V I
(eds) Ben Swank et al
'The Third Man project originated from a weekly poetry
series in Nashville that attracted both ends of the poetry
spectrum—established national award winners (Pulitzer
Prize finalists Dale Ray Phillips and Adrian Matejka) and
complete unknowns such as local bartenders, teachers and
even a mortician. Both are side-by-side in the book for a purpose.'—Chicago Tribune
Language Lessons: Volume I is a box-set including two vinyl LPs of music and recitations, a hardcover book with 300+ pages of literary fiction, biography, and poetry, and
five frameable broadsides. ($80, BX)
City Terrace Field Manual
by Sesshu Foster ($22, PB)
These brawling, street-wise prose poems push the boundaries of
narrative form, taking the reader through the physical and psychological landscapes of East Los Angeles.
Was $24.95
Numberland:
The World in Numbers
Mitchell Symons, HB
Poetry
Fire Songs by David Harsent ($25, PB)
The poems in David Harsent's new collection, whether single poems, dramatic sequences, or poems that 'belong to one
another', share a dark territory and a sometimes haunting,
sometimes steely, lyrical tone. Throughout the book—in the
stark biography of Songs from the Same Earth, the troubling
fractured narrative of A Dream Book, the harrowing lines of
connection in four poems each titled Fire, or the cheek-byjowl shudder of Sang the Rat—Harsent writes, as always,
with passion and a sureness of touch.
Happiness by Jack Underwood ($23, PB)
With the sort of smart, persuasive voice associated with Simon Armitage and Michael Donaghy, these poems worry at
the world in search of consolation, or else meet life's absurdity and strangeness half-way; whether sitting proudly atop an
unexploded bomb, or injecting blood under the skin of a banana, playfulness and imagination are vehicles for confronting 'the fearful and forgotten things I've lied to myself about'.
Here are poems which address anxiety about fatherhood, remorse for lost lovers
and friends, or mourn for a miscarried sibling.
20
Now in B Format
Paper Aeroplane: Selected Poems 1989–2014
by Simon Armitage, $22.99
Now $39.95
Histoire des Oiseaux
Francois Nicolas Martinet, HB
Was $60
Now $29.95
1001 Gardens You Must
See Before You Die
Rae Spencer-Jones, HB
Was $110
Now $49.95
Talk on the Wild Side: Roy Carr's
Interviews with John Lennon, Mick
Jagger, Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Pete Townsend, Keith Moon,
John Entwistle, John Bonham, Cat
Stevens and Phil Spector, 4 CDs
Was $89.95
Now $34.95
Callas: La Divina / La Musica 4
CDs
Was $39
Was $34
Now $17.95
The Spoken Word:
American Writers, CD
Now $16.95
Was $39.95
Was $55
Now $16.95
Now $19.95
The Great Charles Dickens
Scandal
Michael Slater, HB
Was $40
C
I
L
A
Was $35
Now $22.95
Pity for the Guy:
A Biography of Guy Fawkes
John Paul Davis, PB
Now $17.95
Was $55
Lebanese Cookbook
Hussien Dekmak, HB
The Life of Kingsley Amis
Zachary Leader, HB
Was $50
Was $39.95
Now $19.95
Now $19.95
Hitler's Furies: German Women
in the Nazi Killing Fields
Wendy Lower, HB
Was $26.95
Now $9.95
The Big Book of Vegetarian Recipes: Healthy Indian Cooking:
More Than 700 Easy Vegetarian Recipes Over 100 Recipes for
Vitality and Health
Rachel Rappaport, PB
Monisha Bharadwaj, PB
Was $80
Was $110
Chagall and the Artists of the
Russian Jewish Theater, HB
A Private Passion: 19th century
Paintings and Drawings from the
Grenville L.Winthrop Collection
Now $16.95
Now $21.95
Now $24.95
Now $9.95
A Curious History of
Food and Drink
Ian Crofton, HB
Was 60
Now $17.95
Was $59.99
Was $19.99
Now $18.95
Nora Webster
Colm Toibin, HB
Was $38.95
Sex, Murder, and the
Meaning of Life
Douglas T. Kenrick, HB
Thomas Wyatt:
The Heart's Forest
Susan Brigden, HB
S
Was $43
Now $16.95
How to Read Literature
Terry Eagleton, HB
Was $59.99
Now $16.95
The Age of Reason:
1600 to 1750, HB
E
P
Parrot and Olivier in America Children of the Days: A Calendar
Peter Carey, HB
of Human History
Eduardo Galeano, HB
Bring Up the Bodies
Hilary Mantel, HB
Was $40
S
Was $35
Now $14.95
Dante's Invention
James Burge, HB
Was $99
Now $12.95
E W
N
Now $39.95
Now $39.95
Was $59.95
Now $29.95
Photo Journalism
Nick Yapp, HB
21
Winton's Paw Prints
The Arts
the stunning debut
from a powerful
australiaN voice
My Salute to Five Bells by John Olsen
John Olsen was an established artist in 1971 when commissioned to produce a mural for the Sydney Opera House. This
book features a full reproduction of Olsen’s illustrated journal, one of the most spectacular art manuscripts in the National Library of Australia’s collection. This richly illustrated scrapbook of thoughts, quotes, diary entries, original drawings, and magazine
& book clippings documents Olsen’s Sydney Opera House experience from his
initial speechlessness at being asked to do the mural to his attempts to instil ‘wacky
madness, more humour’ into it & his very palpable relief towards the end. Olsen’s
great intellect & creativity shine through in his lists of ‘Things I like’, haikus, and
playful & poetic expression. His margin notes & reminders, such as ‘You’ve got to
interrupt the gestalt’ & ‘Remember Olsen vitality transcends pleasure’, offer great
insight into the artistic process of one of our living treasures. ($30, PB)
John Heartfield: Laughter is a Devastating
Weapon by David King & Ernst Volland
Born in Berlin in 1891, Heartfield, along with George Grosz,
is widely considered to have invented photomontage. During the 1930s Heartfield appropriated the widely-circulated
propaganda of the time to create its total antithesis. His preeminence in photomontage was confirmed by the work he
produced for the Communist weekly AIZ and Volks Illustrierte, creating 237 photomontages between 1930 & 1937. In
his own words, he used 'laughter as a devastating weapon' to
target the Nazi regime of violence & demagogy, which in turn made he himself
a target for Nazi scorn & censorship. In 1933 much of his work was destroyed
when the Gestapo ransacked his studio, and the ensuing years saw him flee in exile
around Europe where he continued to produce his brilliantly terrifying images.
With an essay written by the author in his own inimitable style, the book includes
over 150 full-colour reproductions of Heartfield's work, both in its original and
printed forms, as well as documentary photographs and recollections from Heartfield's surviving family members. ($60, HB)
Timothy Cook: Dancing with the Moon
by Seva Frangos ($50, HB)
Timothy Cook is a maverick artist – non-conformist, individualistic, original and inventive, straddling the modern and ancient with confidence. In this stunning monograph prepared
by Seva Frangos, she and her fellow four writers attest to his
achievements, inhabiting a place and space where innovation
might seem impossible against the background of tradition
and ritual; where he realigns artistic and cultural boundaries
and re-explores being Tiwi. These pages capture the remarkable levels of energy and emotional charge in his painting and provide a brilliant
introduction to his vast body of work over two decades in a range of media.
DVDs with Scott Donovan
Mlk: The Assassination Tapes: Region 1, $12.95
April 4, 1968. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is gunned down on
the balcony of a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. It was all caught on
film, tape and audio. So why have we seen so little of it? The wellknown photograph of Dr. King's aides pointing toward the direction of the gunfire is iconic, but tells only part of the story. For the
first time, a remarkable collection of recently rediscovered footage
has been chronologically reassembled. The resulting documentary allows us to revisit the tumultuous events surrounding one
of the most shocking assassinations in America and relive history
through the voices of the era.
Archipelago: Region 2, $29.95
With her son Edward (Tom Hiddleston star of Thor & The War
Horse) about to embark on a volunteer trip to Africa, doting
mother Patricia wants to give him a good send-off, and gathers
her family together for a getaway to a holiday home on idyllic Tresco, one of the
Isles of Scilly. Edward's father's attendance is eagerly anticipated,
though sister Cynthia appears to be there under some duress, going through dutiful motions. Gradually, deep fractures within the
family set-up begin to surface in this second feature from director
Joanna Hogg (Unrelated & Exhibition).
Of Horses And Men: Region 2, $29.95
Winner of the Best New Director award at the San Sebastian Film
Festival, Benedikt Erlingsson's critically acclaimed debut feature
is a darkly comic country romance about the human streak in the horse and the
horse in the human. Set in the stunning Icelandic countryside, love, death and
sex become interlaced in this playful, affectionate yet unflinching portrait of a
remote valley community as seen from the horse's perspective. Iceland's official
submission for the 2014 Oscars, it won in six categories at the 2014 Edda Awards
(the Icelandic Film and Television Academy), including Director of the Year,
Screenplay of the Year and Best Film.
22
Lucy Treloar
S A LT
CREEK
Platform Papers 44—Cultural Precincts: Art or commodity? by Justin MacDonnell ($16.99, PB)17/07/2015 10:18 am
LT SC GLEANER 90x65mm.indd 1
An estimated $250 billion will be spent worldwide in the current decade on creating ‘cultural precincts’: collections of buildings with some
arts-related function. Today, most Australian cities are building their
precincts in the guise of urban renewal, tourist destinations, residential
development, arts promotion and ‘liveability’. Does any of it mean anything? There’s evidence that they sell more tickets but none that their
art is better. Property values rise but are artists better rewarded? Does
the public have a richer experience or just a more convenient one? Are
cultural precincts another commodifying of the arts? Is there a better way?
Stik
Stik first came to notoriety as an underground street artist who
painted life-size stick figures during the night around London's
East End. As a firm believer in the right to protest, the freedom
of speech, and basic human rights, Stik has now painted murals
in cities, towns and villages all over the world, focusing his work
in communities which have not been afraid to express themselves
in the face of repression and disenfranchisement. Having gained
an international following, Stik credits his audience with the intelligence to fill in the details with just six lines and two dots to imply
emotion. Each piece is a meditation. This first collected volume of his work to date,
revealing the political and artistic inspiration behind his work. ($54.99, HB)
Goya in the Norton Simon Museum ($94, HB)
Industrialist and collector Norton Simon (1907–1993), assembled monographic holdings of work by several masters, chief
among them Francisco de Goya This book examines this extraordinary Goya collection—which includes more than 1,400 prints,
a drawing & three paintings—in the Norton museum. Norton's
enduring interest in serial images led him to acquire prints from
various series and editions treating a range of subjects, such as
religious iconography, landscapes, portraits & social satire. Spotlighting rare proofs & single prints, the catalogue also presents
a complete set each of Los Caprichos, Disasters of War & other seminal series. The
book is lushly illustrated & authored by Goya scholar, Juliet Wilson-Bareau.
CitizenFour, $32.95
In June 2013, filmmaker Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald
met with Snowden confidentially in Hong Kong, where he handed over
classified documents providing evidence of mass indiscriminate and illegal invasions of privacy by the National Security Agency (NSA). As the
story breaks, they are forced to manage the raging media storm around
them, and find their personal security and that of their loved ones under
threat. Citizenfour not only shows you the dangers of governmental surveillance—it makes you feel them. After seeing the film, you will never
think the same way about your phone, email, credit card, web browser,
or profile, ever again.
OK, so I've ripped through the event publication released on July 14th and have my two cents to add.
Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman is, I think, a must
read for everyone who has read and loved To Kill a
Mockingbird (and if you haven't, read both). Not because it's a great novel like its Pulitzer winning offspring, but—called me biased if you will—because
it is such a testament to the lost art of the editor, and testimony to how powerful the relationship between editor and author can be. In the world of dumping text onto the page
or website with barely a spell-check, where the unnurtured high concept is packaged for
rapid consumption before the fast and fickle zeitgeist is trending to hotter topics, the role
of the editor has been pretty much universally down-graded to head pedant in charge of
grammar. It would be unheard of now to take a fully-formed novel and request not just a
rewrite, but another book altogether—suggested by a page of flashback.
Apart from being awed by what Harper Lee did in developing that one page, the thing I
couldn't stop thinking about whilst reading Watchman was, what a terrible shame Ms Lee
wasn't prevailed upon in the ensuing 50 years to develop another couple of pages into a
second prize winning narrative. Go Set a Watchman feels like a series of conversations
Harper Lee was having with herself regarding her outsider status both in the Yankee
stronghold of New York and in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama in a 50s America
divided by its own version of apartheid. The last few chapters are mainly dialogue—arguments between the appalled Jean-Louise Finch (aka Scout), her uncle, her presumed
fiancée, Hank, and her sainted father Atticus. Perhaps, having created this mythic father
in Mockingbird, Lee was wary of the iconoclastic act of revealing Atticus as a fallible
man of his time, espousing paternalist doctrine about the 'child-like' negro.
But, given the book is written in the third person, not the lyrical first person remembrance of Mockingbird, what if Lee had taken a few pivotal scenes in Watchman and developed them into a proper narrative of intersecting plot-lines? The first character I hope
she would have fleshed out is the Finch's black maid, Calpurnia. Take the awful scene
in Watchman where Jean-Louise treks across the divide to visit Calpurnia for solace and
instead gets a silence that slaps her out of a fantasy of closeness to her surrogate mother
and into an understanding of the gulf that exists between them, and make it a leaping
off point to give 'the faithful help' a voice and a life outside of the Finch's household,
and a plotline all to herself. I would also love to be inside Atticus' head while he's at the
Maycomb Council meeting listening to the racist rantings of Mr Grady O'Hanlon—what
are his plans, does he really believe change can be achieved through stealth from within
the white power structures?
And two key characters who don't appear in Watchman, because Mockingbird didn't yet
exist. What of Mayella Ewell? After being released from the tyranny of her father—is
it too proscriptive to hope that she got an education and is now helping the NAACP?
Perhaps, but a clash between her and Jean-Louise would be, to my mind, a most satisfying way to explore the Maycomb county class divide. And most of all, I imagine an
ostracised Jean-Louise climbing the rickety Radley steps and saying 'Hey Boo,' as the
door opens. Where would Maycomb's ghost, the house-bound paler than paler, whiter
than white, Arthur Radley stand? Lots to think about! Winton
That Sugar Film, $32.95
In That Sugar Film Damon Gameau embarks on a unique experiment to
document the effects of a high sugar diet on a healthy body, consuming
only foods that are commonly perceived as ‘healthy’. Through this entertaining and informative journey, Damon highlights some of the issues that
plague the sugar industry, and where sugar lurks on supermarket shelves. This documentary will forever change the way you think about ‘healthy’ food.
Andrew: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara—'When four
college graduates move to New York to make their way, they're
broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition'.
It is hardly a 'gotcha' premise to reel the reader in, and after finishing Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch earlier this year, I thought I
might allow myself a break from reading another brick of a book
for some time. However, the buzz around this 700 page number
is such that I feel like I had to give it a go. The evocation of one
of the character's childhood trauma is so compulsive and affecting
that critics having been lining up to tearily hail the writing as a
revelatory masterwork.
Judy: The Green Road by Anne Enright—I highly recommend
Anne Enright for a start, but I highly recommend The Green Road
especially. Rosaleen is the very difficult but beguiling mother at
the centre of the novel, ensconced in a house in the Irish countryside. Her grown children radiate and ricochet away from her into
the world. The characters are so diverse, and the life of each so
vividly realised with such humour and such insight that there is
genuine suspense when they all come home for Christmas because
Rosaleen is threatening to sell the family home. It can't possibly
work out, but how capaciously it all comes together!
I did indeed feel 'refreshed' & 'renewed'—to quote Colum McCann
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The Salt of the Earth, $32.95
For the last 40 years, Salgado has been traveling through the continents,
in the footsteps of an ever changing humanity. He has witnessed the major
events of our recent history; international conflicts, starvation and exodus.
He is now embarking on the discovery of pristine territories, of the wild
fauna and flora, of grandiose landscapes as part of a huge photographic
project which is a tribute to the planet's beauty. Salgado's life and work
are revealed to us by his son, Juliano, who went with him during his last
travels, and by fellow photographer Wim Wenders.
Scott: Adrian Newstead's book The what we're reading
Devil is the Dealer is a fascinating
account of the Aboriginal art trade
since the early 1980s. For many
years Newstead ran Cooee Gallery
in Oxford St, Sydney (now relocated to Bondi Beach) and was a key
figure in the development and marketing of Australian Indigenous
art. His book exposes an industry with an extremely murky past—
but it is also a beautifully illustrated and valuable introduction to
the culture and personalities of some of Australia's greatest artists, many of whom Newstead had the good fortune to work with
personally.
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Bestsellers Non-fiction
1. H is For Hawk Helen Macdonald
2. Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most
Under-Rated Organ
Giulia Enders
3. From This Day Forward: Marriage Equality in
Australia
Rodney Croome
4. Appetites for Thought: Philosophers & Food Michel Onfray
5. Supermarket Monsters: The Price of Coles &
Woolworths' Dominance
Malcolm Knox
6. The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable
Recoveries & Discoveries From the Frontiers of
Neuroplasticity
Norman Doidge
7. No Small Change: The Road to Recognition for
Indigenous Australia Frank Brennan
8. Australia's Boldest Experiment: War &
Reconstruction in the 1940s
Stuart MacIntyre
9. Justifying Same-Sex Marriage: A Philosophical
Investigation
Louise Richardson-Self
10. Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma
Queen
Mary Norris
Bestsellers Fiction
1. Go Set a Watchman
Harper Lee
2. The Eye of the Sheep
Sophie Laguna
3. To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
4. The Green Road Anne Enright
5. Almost Sincerely
Zoe Norton Lodge
6. The Girl on the Train
Winton’s Paw Prints
7. The Strays
8. A God in Ruins
9. The Rosie Project
10. The Lost Swimmer
Paula Hawkins
Emily Bitto
Kate Atkinson
Graeme Simsion
Ann Turner
....... and another thing
Seeings as everyone is in a 40th anniversary bookseller sharing mood ... I
worked at Grahame's Hunter Street bookshop in the early 80s with Janice
and Morgan—booksellers are a tight knit group. Following this I worked
as warehouse manager for Wild & Woolley's (publisher of Invitation to a
Marxist Lesbian Party) distribution wing, the Glebe-based Allbooks. They
were the Australian distributor of City Lights Books and political publishers
Zed Press, Pluto Press and the like, and I would occasionally see Roger wandering about the showroom with his shopping trolley, stocking up on leftie
publications. After a brief and unconvinced stint in Melbourne at film school
I was back in Sydney at the end of 1989 looking for work and lucked out on
a job at Gleebooks doing the endless (there were a lot of books, on the floor
as well as the shelves) data entry necessary to getting the bookshop on computer. For a reader and collector, Gleebooks is a very seductive workplace,
and Roger and David are very easy-going bosses. My job interview entailed
talking to Roger's back in the cramped back office at the old shop—'When
can you start?' was about the gist of the conversation. A few years later, after
we'd moved to the new improved premises, some roster confusion was being
discussed down the back in the unpacking bay. At the time the roster was a
pencilled affair maintained by the constantly over-worked David. I said unguardedly: 'Who knows, I think David's lost it.' Two seconds later David pops
up from shelving directly in front of me, and instead of giving me the sack
for insubordination, says: 'Do you want to do the roster then?' Twenty-five
years later ... the book I'm reading (and loving) at the moment is pianist,
James Rhodes' memoir, Instrumental. This is an enraged no holds barred
tell-all about the physical and psychological legacy of violent childhood
sexual abuse (he was raped by his gym teacher from the age of five). But
alongside this horror he somehow manages to draw you into his love
affair with classical music and the piano—both music appreciation and
instruction (if you're learning the piano, his tips are excellent!). I highly
recommend it. Viki
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