Free march 2013

Benjamin Law ON Michelle Dicinoski / Simmone Howell on groupie love

Event Highlights Monica Dux

Ben Pobjie with Young Damon

Lili Wilkinson

Books music film events

March new releases

Michelle Dicinoski $24.99 p4

J.M. Coetzee $35 / $29.95 p5

Simmone Howell $16.99 p10 o u p ) er Gr W int er SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN ky Jac (The TIN MAR $29.95 MARC p17 by tion u st ra Emmylou Marc Martin’s The Curious Explorer’s Illustrated Guide to Exotic Animals A-Z Harris ill er Cov $24.95 / $21.95 p18 easter mon fri to more inside... 08 12 apr apr AllianceFrançaise intensive de Melbourne Get cracking! We teach French courses Learn French these holidays ☎ 9525 3463 51 Grey street, St Kilda www.afmelbourne.com.au

CARLTON 309 Lygon St 9347 6633 HAWTHORN 701 Glenferrie Rd 9819 1917 MALVERN 185 Glenferrie Rd 9509 1952 ST KILDA 112 Acland St 9525 3852 READINGS AT THE STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA 328 Swanston St 8664 7540 READINGS AT THE BRAIN CENTRE 30 Royal Parade, Parkville 9347 1749 See shop opening hours, browse and buy online at www.readings.com.au 2 Readings MONTHLY march 2013

This month’s news

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE FRENCH LAST WEEKS FOR SCHOOL OF Mark’s FILM FESTIVAL LIFE POP-UP SHOP Now in its 24th year, the Alliance Française If you haven’t yet visited the School of Life Say French Film Festival is set to rekindle its love in Collingwood and its special Readings’ affair with audiences once again. Running pop-up shop, now’s your last chance. Based from 6 to 24 March, the festival will screen on philosopher Alain de Botton’s famed London News and views from Readings’ an enchanting selection of the finest movies institution, which opened in 2008, The School of managing director, Mark Rubbo to emerge from France over the last 12 Life runs a wide range of classes, conversations, months. Readings is proud to be a sponsor meals and workshops with Australia’s most It was dusk when our bus reached the outskirts of Jaipur; fleetingly, down a side road, an elephant lumbered of the Melbourne festival for 2013. For more innovative thinkers. But hurry – the end of the by. Our guide, Prabahv Dev Shekhawat, began to give us a rundown on the city and on the literary festival information and to book tickets, please visit summer term is fast approaching, with the last that was about to start the next day. Prabahv’s cousin had been involved in the first festival six years ago. www.affrenchfilmfestival.org. day of trading for the Readings pop-up shop Then, around 100 people came. Last year over 120,000 attendees were counted; this year, it was 200,000. being Sunday 24 March. The School of Life is located at 22 Peel Street, Collingwood. Visit THE MELBOURNE PRIZE FOR Set in the grounds of the Diggi Palace, a former backpackers’ hotel, the Jaipur Literature Festival must www.theschooloflife.com/australia for more. MUSIC 2013 be the grandest celebration of books and ideas in the world, attracting writers and patrons from the The annual Melbourne Prize, which operates whole subcontinent and across the globe. I was part of Readings’ tour to the festival, eleven of us on a three-year cycle, will return this year to the AUSTRALIAN FESTIVAL OF alive with anticipation in Jaipur’s dusk. Over the next five days, we were treated to some of the best art form of music. The 2013 award will consist TRAVEL WRITING discussions about writing from authors such as Sebastian Faulks, Zoë Heller, Tom Holland, Howard of the Melbourne Prize for Music ($60 000), The Australian Festival of Travel Writing is on Jacobson and Pico Iyer, as well as writers from the subcontinent. A surprise guest was the Dalai Lama the Outstanding Music Award ($30 000), the again from 22 to 24 March at the Melbourne in conversation with his biographer, Pico Iyer. However, the biggest crowd came to see Rahul Dravid, Development Award ($13 000) and the Civic Brain Centre at the University of Melbourne. former Indian Test captain and now captain of the Rajasthan Royals. Choice Award ($4000), of which Readings is This year’s festival will uncover the wonders and Naturally, given the overwhelmingly local audience, the focus turned to writing and issues from around a proud sponsor. International air travel and delights of crossing borders, the ethics of travel, the region. Eager to learn something about India, these were the sessions that attracted me. Obviously an artist residency will also be included with industry secrets, and researching and writing the Delhi rape case was at the forefront of many of the discussions. There is a terrible problem with the 2013 prize pool. Please note the prize is travel narratives, featuring a stellar line-up of the Indian justice system, with far too few judges and courts to hear cases. Gurcharan Das, author open to Victorian residents only. For more internationally acclaimed guests. Readings are of India Grows at Night and a former CEO of Proctor and Gamble, commented that his son had had information, and to register your interest for also thrilled to be the official booksellers. Please a case before the courts for years. Even with his influence, he couldn’t progress it. In his book, Das an entry form when it becomes available, visit www.aftw.com.au for the full program. argues that India is a strong society but suffers from weak and ineffectual government that holds back please visit www.melbourneprize.org or call development and economic growth. One of the problems is the power of sectional interests that stifle 03 9696 4410. civil progress. This was demonstrated when, in another session, sociologist Ashis Nandy, talking about corruption, said that lower caste Indians were more likely to be caught for this. This drew boos from the audience and resulted in the issue of arrest warrants against Nandy and the festival organiser, 25% OFF LONELY PLANET VERSO RADICAL THINKERS Sanjoy Roy, for criminal intimidation. Back from summer holidays and already The Verso Radical Thinkers series brings As well as the politics, there was talk about good writing. US writer Andrew Solomon gave a moving planning your next trip? Luckily, the Readings’ together seminal works by leading left-wing talk about his book Far from the Tree, which examines how parents cope with a child that is different annual Lonely Planet sale is on once more, intellectuals in beautifully designed paperbacks. to them. One of the festival’s organisers, William Dalrymple, gave a brilliant presentation on his new with 25% off all titles from 1 to 31 March. This During March, you can buy any two of the titles book, Return of a King. It was an exciting and immensely rewarding time, wonderfully organised in a fantastic offer includes travel guides, phrase and receive a third free! (Please note, offer only beautiful setting in a fascinating city and country. Why don’t you join us on next year’s tour? Margaret books, activity guides, photography books and available at Readings Carlton and while stocks Atwood, Pat Barker, Peter Carey, Umberto Eco, Stephen Fry, Michael Palin and Jeanette Winterson more. Sale on at all Readings shops and online last. Lowest-priced book will be free of charge. are just some of the announced guests. Expressions of interest should be sent to Christine Gordon at at www.readings.com.au. Not available online.) [email protected].

Readings Monthly is a free independent monthly newspaper published by Readings Books, Music & Film. Editorial enquiries: Jessica Au at [email protected] Advertising enquiries: Ingrid Josephine at [email protected] or call 03 9341 7739. Design by Sonja Meyer www.sonjameyer.com.au Thank you to Readings staff members and contributors for your reviews. Oslo Davis www.oslodavis.com

CINEMA NOVA RECOMMENDS TOM HANKS HALLE BERRY JIM BROADBENT SUSAN SARANDON Visit the Cinema Nova Bar HELENA BONHAM CARTER ROBBIE COLTRANE RALPH FIENNES JEREMY IRVINE DAVID WILLIAMS SALLY HAWKINS Based on the prize-winning novel by David Mitchell, 380 LYGON ST CARLTON Mike Newell lavishly GREAT ★★★★ directed by Tom Tykwer www.cinemanova.com.au adapts the classic novel “One of the most ambitious “Anand Lana ambitious & Andy Wachowski by Charles Dickens“An EXPECTATIONS ambitious thriller assisted Join our e-news for updates on the Met Opera, for the screen films ever made”thrillerRoger assisted Ebert FEBRUARY 28 National Theatre and other stage spectaculars. by excellent performances” EmpireMARCH 7 Readings MONTHLY march 2013 3

Kate March Events Damon 20 Forsyth Young YA author Kate Forsyth will talk about her new For more information and updates, please visit the events page at 14 book, The Wild Girl (Random, PB, $32.95), an www.readings.com.au. Please note bookings do not necessarily In conversation with Ben Pobjie extraordinary re-imagining of how the Brothers guarantee a seat and some events may be standing room only. Writer and comedian Ben Pobjie will talk with Grimm discovered their fairy tales. Damon Young about Damon’s new book, Philosophy in the Garden (MUP, PB, $24.99). Gold coin donation. Please book on 9819 1917 Marc or at [email protected]. 5 Martin Gold coin donation. Please book on 9819 1917 Monica or at [email protected]. Wednesday 20 March, 6.30pm Illustrator Marc Martin will launch his new book, 7 Readings Hawthorn The Curious Explorer’s Illustrated Guide to Exotic Dux Thursday 14 March, 6.30pm 701 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn, 3122. Animals A to Z (Penguin, HB, $24.99). See more of Readings Hawthorn n ch l au Don’t miss comedian and Marc’s work at www.marcmartin.com.au, and on 701 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn, 3122. broadcaster Libbi Gorr talking the cover of this edition of the Readings Monthly! n ch l au with Monica Dux about Free, no booking required. Monica’s new book, Things I Lili Didn’t Expect (When I Was Rebecca 21 Wilkinson Tuesday 5 March, 6.30pm Expecting) (MUP, PB, $24.99), 14 Law Readings Carlton a much-needed attempt to In conversation with Emily Gale 309 Lygon St, Carlton, 3053. make sense of the absurdities, Lilies and Stars (Picaro Press), Rebecca Law’s

n ch l au The Zigzag Effect (A&U, PB, harsh realities and downright lies we’re told second poetry collection, will be celebrated $17.99) is a highly entertain- about having babies. at Readings Carlton. The poems explore ing and original story of crime Simmone Howell the philosophy of place, esprit, nature and Free, no booking required. and romance, perfect for 6 & Kate Constable endurance by reflecting on personal value teens who like their fiction systems. Expect a reading and wine! Simmone Howell and Kate Constable will Thursday 7 March, 6.30pm fast, funny and chock-full of talk about their new books – Simmone’s Girl Readings Carlton Free, no booking required. sass. Join author Lili Wilkin- Defective (Pan Macmillan, PB, $16.99) and 309 Lygon St, Carlton, 3053. son as she talks with our very n ch l au Kate’s New Guinea Moon (A&U, PB, $16.99). Thursday 14 March, 6.30pm own children’s specialist, Emily Gale. Readings Carlton Free, no booking required. Gold coin donation. Please book on 9347 6633 309 Lygon Street, Carlton, 3053. Torre n ch l au or at [email protected]. Wednesday 6 March, 6.30pm Readings Carlton 12 DeRoche Thursday 21 March, 6.30pm 309 Lygon St, Carlton, 3053. Geraldine Readings Carlton

n ch l au Love With a Chance of Drowning (Penguin, 309 Lygon Street, Carlton, 3053. PB, $29.99) is a breathtakingly brave memoir 19 Robertson about adventure and overcoming your deepest A Song for anxieties. Author Torre DeRoche will speak on her Join us for the launch of Geraldine Robertson’s 7 the Road travels, and why some risks are worth taking Prejudice and Reason: Some Australian Women’s Responses to War. Jacinda Woodhead Stuart Join us in celebrating A Song for the Road: Touring Gold coin donation. Please book on 9347 6633 and Noni Sproule will discuss this historical 25 Cunningham Tales From Our Best Singer-Songwriters (Murdoch, or at [email protected]. journey, as articulated in women’s own words, Professor Stuart Cunningham will talk about his PB, $29.99), with live performances and readings from 1909 to the present day. new book, Hidden Innovation: Policy, Industry from Kim Salmon, Mark Seymour, Angie Hart, Tuesday 12 March, 6.30pm Free, no booking required. and the Creative Sector (UQP, PB, $35). Dave Graney and Magic Dirt’s Raúl Sánchez. Readings Carlton 309 Lygon St, Carlton, 3053. Free, no booking required. Gold coin donation. Please book on 9525 3852 Tuesday 19 March, 6.30pm n ch l au or at [email protected]. Readings Carlton Monday 25 March, 6.30pm 309 Lygon St, Carlton, 3053. n ch l au Readings Carlton Thursday 7 March, 6.30pm Hot Source/ 309 Lygon St, Carlton, 3053. Readings St Kilda 12 Hot Water n ch l au 112 Acland St, St Kilda, 3182. n ch l au Earlier this year, Age investigative journalists Nick Stephen McKenzie and Richard Baker were ordered by the 19 Downes Chris Supreme Court to take the witness box and be Sally Professor Greg O’Brien will launch Stephen 26 Somerville questioned over a confidential source. They’ll talk 7 Rippin Downes’ A Lasting Record (HarperCollins, with Margaret Simons and Peter Bartlett about Ronnie Scott will be launching Chris Somerville’s PB, $29.99), the true story of an extraordinary Sally Rippin, of Billy B Brown fame, is back with the importance of confidentiality in today’s media. collection of short stories, We Are Not the Same recording of one of America′s greatest another wonderful book in the Our Australian Girl Organised together with New News. Anymore (UQP, PB, $19.95). concert pianists, made by a little-known series. Meet Lina (Penguin, PB, $14.95) is set in Gold coin donation. Please book on 9347 1749 man from Melbourne. Free, no booking required. Carlton. Join us for a chat, a reading and a book or at [email protected]. signing. Parents welcome. Free, no booking required. Tuesday 26 March, 6.30pm Gold coin donation. Please book on 9347 6633 Tuesday 12 March, 6.30pm Readings Carlton Tuesday 19 March, 6.30pm or at [email protected]. Readings at the Brain Centre, Dax Centre 309 Lygon St, Carlton, 3053.

Readings Hawthorn n ch l au auditorium, 30 Royal Parade, Parkville, 3052. 701 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn, 3122. n ch l au Thursday 7 March, 4.30-5.30pm n ch l au Readings Carlton 309 Lygon Street, Carlton, 3053. Simon Hudson Sue Andy

n ch l au 4 Band 13 Williams 20 Muir Mike Pop into Readings St Kilda for some Sue Williams – Australia’s own answer to Janet Join us for the launch of Underbelly: Squizzy Latin-infused folk, courtesy of the wonderful 7 Sheahan Evanovich and Sue Grafton – will launch her new (A&U, PB, $22.99) by Andy Muir, the official Simon Hudson Band and their delightful new crime novel, Murder with the Lot (Text, PB, $29.99). book of the new Channel 9 miniseries. record, Time and Space. Hawthorn premiership player, and premiership coach for the Hawks and the Blues, David Parkin Free, no booking required. Free, no booking required. Free, no booking required. will talk with journalist Mike Sheahan about the game and Mike’s new book, Open Mike (Slattery Wednesday 13 March, 6.30pm Wednesday 20 March, 6.30pm Thursday 4 April, 6.30pm Media Group, PB, $34.95). Readings Carlton Readings Carlton Readings St Kilda 309 Lygon St, Carlton, 3053. 309 Lygon St, Carlton, 3053. 112 Acland St, St Kilda, 3182. n ch l au Gold coin donation. Please book on 9819 n ch l au 1917 or at [email protected]. n ch l au

Thursday 7 March, 6.30pm GOLD COIN DONATIONS: We’re now asking people who attend our events to please make a small gold coin donation, when possible, Readings Hawthorn to The Readings Foundation. There will be a tin for donations at each event. All contributions over $2 are tax deductible. Thank you for 701 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn, 3122. your support. n ch l au 4 Readings MONTHLY march 2013

New Australian Writing Feature

In 2005, Michelle Dicinoski and her girlfriend, Heather, decided to get hitched, travelling to Canada, where, unlike Australia, same-sex marriage has been legalised. Their brave, romantic and sometimes wonderfully funny journey has become the subject of Michelle’s debut memoir, Ghost Wife. Here, she talks to Benjamin Law about revolution, love and our hidden queer histories.

ast your mind back to the last where decade, and you might be forgiven ‘It’s easy to for thinking same-sex marriage was going to be legalised in Australia see how Cat any moment. For the first time in history, the majority of polled Australians supported Ghost Wife the idea. Around the world, countries made – published just history by passing it into law. First came the the Netherlands in 2001, then Belgium, Spain, in time for South Africa, Norway and some American states. Shortly after Canada legalised same-sex Mardi Gras marriage, Australian writer Michelle Dicinoski and her girlfriend (now wife), Heather, flew over – might be seen to get hitched – the story of which has become as a clarion Dicinoski’s debut memoir, Ghost Wife. heart ‘I kept thinking I’d have to write this call for equal book relatively quickly,’ she says now, ‘because the law would change [in Australia].’ She laughs marriage.’ thinking about it. ‘Ridiculous, in retrospect.’ Ghost Wife is a pioneering book on several levels. As far as I can tell, it’s the first published Australian memoir about same-sex lies marriage. It’s also released at a weird juncture in time where Australians can get married overseas, then travel back to an odd mirror existence where Benjamin Law interviews Michelle Dicinoski about no one legally recognises it at home. ‘I always wanted to make some her debut memoir Ghost Wife. document that would last,’ Dicinoski says, ‘because I knew the wedding, in some ways, unexpectedly, Dicinoski also found wouldn’t. There was the question around the herself writing about her own hidden history legality of it, and the fact it would be this “ghost and the secrets that wound their way up marriage” in Australia. So I wanted to give it an her family tree. Her great-grandfather was embodiment in another way. If it couldn’t have it Japanese, her mother grew up in a children’s through legal standing, I’d try to make a book.’ home and had her sister taken away – they The book is revelatory in other ways were part of a generation that the federal too. While Ghost Wife centres on the story of government now acknowledges as the Michelle and Heather’s marriage in Canada, Forgotten Australians. Dicinoski also weaves in the history of same-sex ‘When I started digging into my couples from decades – sometimes centuries childhood and teenage years, I was surprised – ago. There is Lilian Cooper and Josephine at how related these stories seemed to be,’ Bedford, who board a ship in 1891 from London Dicinoski says. ‘Throughout history, different to Brisbane to carve out a new life together, kinds of stories have been silenced, for and are now buried side-by-side in Toowong different reasons.’ Another reason Dicinoski Cemetery. There’s Bill Edwards, the Victorian included these histories was to properly explain man who moved to Brisbane to take a wife, only and contextualise her parents’ discomfort with to have the police discover him to be a woman the idea of her marriage to Heather. ‘In order to in 1905, igniting a media frenzy. And there’s Ivy write about them – and how they happen to feel and Jerry, the interracial lesbian couple who this way – I needed to acknowledge: they’re staged a wedding in Toronto in 1957, only to not just my parents. They’re people with this have the ceremony written in the local gossip whole history.’ rag as a scandalous freakshow. It’s easy to see how Ghost Wife when Penny Wong said on Q&A, “I know what ‘It’s a funny section of the book,’ ‘During the research, I found these – published just in time for Mardi Gras – might my family’s worth”? It’s like that. I used to feel Dicinoski says. ‘In some ways, it encapsulates other stories of these people who really were be seen as a clarion call for equal marriage. like I maybe needed the law to change to feel so much about this situation. You don’t know pioneers,’ Dicinoski says. ‘Some of them I knew Dicinoski says she’s still getting her head like I was married. Now I just know. I’m married. what to do. How do you have a gay wedding? about already. Others, I started to dig up once around the possibility of being a spokesperson And I have been for quite a while now.’ She You don’t know! Our wedding was the first I started writing the book. What I wanted to do for the cause. At the same time, she has always laughs. ‘The public support is there, but I’ve just same-sex wedding we ever went to.’ She was map not only my journey with Heather to attended protests and marches, and still feels become more realistic about how slow the legal laughs. ‘In retrospect, I actually wish I wore these different cities in our wedding journey, but palpable frustration towards the government’s side of things is to change.’ something else now.’ Which, when you think also uncover these relatively hidden histories of lack of progress on the issue. However, Ghost Wife is not all about it, makes her not too different to most other people who were, themselves, ghost wives, ‘I’m extremely frustrated,’ she says. serious. There are some tragi-comic moments, other brides then. from 50, 100 or 150 years ago. Just because you ‘But I’m also sort of beyond being frustrated, like the chapter where Michelle and Heather don’t always see this history doesn’t mean it’s not because I was frustrated for so long. I’m must decide what they’re going to wear to the Benjamin Law is the author of The Family there. It was important for me to feel like we had resigned to it taking a lot longer than I thought it wedding, resulting in a grand-mal meltdown at a Law (2010) and Gaysia: Adventures in the these predecessors, these people who were so would.’ However, she adds, she used to take it department store. Queer East (2012). brave. I wanted to create a link.’ more personally than she does now. ‘You know Readings MONTHLY march 2013 5

From New Fiction the Books Desk book Australian Fiction —Martin Shaw, of Mullumbimby Readings Books Division Manager the Melissa Lucashenko UQP. PB. $29.95 Let’s start my wrap-up of March with some highlights from the thriving independent Australian month Review: Melissa publishing scene. Our new writing feature this month focuses on Michelle Dicinoski’s Ghost Wife Lucashenko’s latest novel from Black Inc., a moving account of her long journey to marry her partner by way of Canada, The Childhood of Jesus depicts life as equal parts one of the few countries to legally recognise same-sex marriage. From MUP, Monica Dux gives J.M. Coetzee cheerful and heartbreaking, us an insiders’ guide to pregnancy and birth in Things I Didn’t Expect (When I Was Expecting), Text. HB. Was $35 mundane and back-breakingly which also takes to task some of the impediments the medical profession – and society at large – hard. Jo, recently divorced, Special price $29.95 put in the way of how new and expectant mothers ‘do’ pregnancy. moves to an old farm in the ebook $24.50 Byron Bay hinterland – the Bundjalung land of Released 7 March In fiction, the redoubtable Sleepers Publishing bring us this year’s Almanac, their eighth assembly her ancestors. She is a strong, intelligent figure: of some of the most interesting new writing in Australia today. Text also have J.M .Coetzee’s Review: When they arrive in the town of sharp and funny, with a measured cynicism astonishing new novel, The Childhood of Jesus. I found my reading experience of this unusual. Novilla, a child and a man are directed to a towards the hippies, tourists and tree-changers I tend to make copious (and sadly very hard to decipher) notes for fiction that I seriously engage building with a large sign in Spanish that who people the area. The tone is richly with, but I jotted down not a word in this case. I was simply transfixed by a work of great beauty and reads ‘Resettlement Centre’. The man seems descriptive, evoking the fierce sense of sadness. And, as to my mind it so clearly tips its hat to Kafka’s The Castle, I couldn’t help but think to have had his memory wiped from him. The belonging that Jo feels now that she has that it might possibly be, like that novel, a final fictional work as well; a Coetzee summa. boy in turn has been separated from his returned to country. parents, his identification washed away a central theme of Mullumbimby is Some other great new releases this month include Kate Atkinson, who has taken the ambitious literally and metaphorically. the duality of modern life. The novel depicts decision to have her protagonist suffer multiple deaths, and then to consider the various at the camp they are given names, the conflict between urban cosmopolitanism trajectories her life could have taken in each instance. Our reviewer is already ranking it as their David and Simon, clothed and taught and life on the land, between Indigenous and likely book-of-the-year. rudimentary Spanish. The man is determined non-Indigenous people and between traditional to reunite the boy with his mother; although and contemporary beliefs. This is mirrored in High praise too for new novels by Jim Crace, Javier Marias and Tash Aw, as well as a new he has not met her, he is certain he will know the parallel story of Twoboy and Laz, a couple short-story collection by Appalachian writer Ron Rash. In biography, Daphne du Maurier and her her when he sees her. They are treated in an of brothers who are pursuing a native title Sisters looks a treat – it seems her two siblings had creative and romantic lives even more bold offhand, but not unkind, manner. They are claim, single-mindedly trying to prove traditional and unconventional than Daphne’s own. Finally, in young adult writing, there’s Simmone Howell’s allocated an apartment and Simon is given a ownership of their own ancestral lands. Girl Defective, which I’ve heard described as ‘the best St Kilda novel ever’ and – you guessed it – work permit and instructions to try the docks In reading Mullumbimby, I had the is already our reviewer’s pick of the year. for employment. He gets a job unloading distinct impression of a novel written for an sacks of grain from what seems like a never- Indigenous audience, first and foremost. As ending procession of ships. His workmates with all Aboriginal art, each viewer will take are a kindly bunch and treat him well. The something different away from it, depending on a mountain for firewood. In A‘ quarium’, a man knows begins to fade. Anna’s behaviour foreman, Alvaro, teaches David chess while their own experiences of life and the country in negotiates an uncomfortable exchange with becomes increasingly erratic and then she Simon works. Australia. And so it is with this novel. Its slang his ex-wife and her new lover for his daughter’s disappears altogether, along with their son. as ship after ship arrives and is and humour reminded me of the town of my birthday. The birthday present, a goldfish in an ice- unloaded, Simon wonders why they do not North Queensland childhood, and the country cream container, operates as a potential analogy use a crane. When he brings this up with described was that of more recent ambling Twitcher for the claustrophobic nature of suburban life – the his colleagues, they are shocked and hurt: drives between Brisbane and Lismore. At times I Cherise Saywell drama itself unfolding in the familiar domesticity of ‘What is wrong with our honest work; do felt a cultural cringe at the colloquial and daggy Vintage. PB. $32.95 the kitchen and the backyard. we choose to do it because we are stupid?’ expressions used, but I wonder whether this is The stories themselves are often The small coastal town where Alvaro explains that theirs is a labour that the point. While the book is an exploration of left without any formal conclusions, creating a 16-year-old Kenno lives has hit a keeps them in touch with the food that gives ideas of Indigenous belonging and entitlement, feeling of continuity between them. There is also boom time. Tourists are buying, them life, that they are proud of it. There is no I felt as I read that I was being prompted, a similarity in mood that provides a space in building and developing place for Simon’s cleverness here. challenged even, to think about my own place which one can dwell upon questions of familial property, and to Kenno, it seems One day, after taking a bus to the in Australia. Where do I come from? Where do loyalty, the gradual demise of relationships, and like easy money is everywhere. end of the line, David and Simon chance I belong? To what am I entitled, and where do I the uplifting possibility of rebirth in the aftermath When his own family, haunted by upon a palatial yet rundown home with a truly call home? of trauma. a recent loss, is evicted, he figures they’re entitled large tennis court. Two men and a woman Amy Vuleta is from Readings St Kilda Somerville’s collection features a to a little of their own share. He makes a plan to are playing. Simon becomes certain that range of different narrators and it is this diversity buy a new house, but it isn’t long before events the woman, Ines, is the boy’s mother and that best demonstrates the common threads move quickly beyond his control. implores her to take David, offering her their We are not the that connect us. His strength as a storyteller flat, his possessions and money, though they Same Anymore resides in his ability to draw upon seemingly both know that she is not the boy’s biological Chris Somerville simple, ordinary occurrences and routines, and mother. While he has grown to love the boy, Anthologies UQP. PB. $19.95 tease out the significance of emotions hidden Simon is prepared to give him up. In this just below the surface. new land everyone has been washed free Review: A collection of The Sleepers of their memories and is free to create new short stories by Tasmanian- Felicity Ford is from Readings Carlton Almanac No. 8 born writer Chris Somerville, ones. David is like everyone in his quest for Louise Swinn & Zoe Dattner (eds.) a present and a future, but the nature of his We Are Not the Same Anymore Fractured reflects upon loss, trauma, Sleepers. PB. $24.95 urgency makes him different and unique. Dawn Barker coetzee’s characters play with memory and isolation. Review: Sleepers Hachette. PB. $29.99 conflicting ideas in a way that is at once Although each tale is varied, Publishing and their Almanacs disarmingly simple and maddeningly there is a strong common voice that binds them Drawing from her real-life are known for championing convoluted. The result is a delightful, together, creating an interesting metanarrative in experience as a child new authors, many of whom stimulating puzzle. The Childhood of Jesus is which the shadows of the past continue to psychiatrist, Dawn Barker have gone on to win acclaim, a beautiful yet complex work that will reward trouble the present. tackles the trauma of mental awards and hearts with their the reader handsomely. The collection focuses on the illness in a new family in this work. This edition contains 28 simple connections and voids that exist emotionally fraught debut. quality short stories and showcases many Mark Rubbo is managing director within relationships. ‘Snow on the Mountain’, Tony’s wife has wanted a child promising writers. ‘Happy Monday’ by Michelle of Readings a particularly interesting story, follows the for so long that when their son is born, Tony Radke is a superb opener. The main character is interaction between a 35-year-old woman expects her to be overjoyed. But when they assailed by a plague of anthromorphised cane and her young neighbour as they drive up arrive home from the hospital, the woman he toads, one of whom knows about past 6 Readings MONTHLY march 2013 indiscretions and makes her re-examine her The Infatuations a handsome and charming Madrileño. Marias the package must have been washed out to sea motivations. Just when I was thinking ‘oh no, not probes leisurely and delicately at the thoughts Javier Marias by the tsunami and set down on the coast of the another talking animal story…’ another level of and feelings of each. Never rushing, he teases remote island where she lives, and she seeks to Hamish Hamilton. PB. $29.99 insight and pathos is introduced in the form of a out allusions and possibilities. Secrets abound. discover more about the diary’s author. drug-addicted daughter. Review: Even if your idea of Marias knows how to cater for doubt and Nao’s first-person narration is often another piece that stands out for its a good time isn’t reading an curiosity, and to engage the intelligence as well extremely distressing – she suffers insidious use of form is Belinda Rule’s ‘Statement of Claims emotionally complex and as the emotions of his readers. ijime (bullying) from her classmates and on Behalf of My Father’. First the narrator itemises intellectually subtle novel that The Infatuations is a holistic and escapes into the pages of her diary. Yet these (‘Ways in which I have disappointed my father’). takes the tragic powers of love atomic examination of the behaviour of those chapters are also the most compelling. Ruth’s This is followed by a formatted table (‘Places as its subject, and that nearly citizens that Marias takes to be the most reading of the journal is a meditation on the that the small screwdriver my father has had hums with latent erotic energy dangerous members of society: people in love. space between fiction and reality, exploring the since he was 14 was not able to be found, with and mystery (and if that isn’t your idea of a good Will Heyward is from Readings St Kilda relationship between the writer and the reader, related comments’) and, finally, a diagrammatic time, then you’re a miserable so-and-so), I and how humanity is connected through time. (‘Reasons I rang my father from overseas and would still recommend reading Javier Marias’s With constant references to Marcel Proust’s their probability of untruth’). This is a sweet latest book, The Infatuations. A Tale for the Time Being In Search of Lost Time, Zen Master Dōgen’s summary of a father/daughter relationship and Before I try to back that up, a Ruth Ozeki thirteenth-century Buddhist teachings, quantum family history in the vein of Jennifer Egan’s prize- question: what is a romantic writer? Is it Text. PB. Was $32.99 mechanics and time slips, this novel could span winning A Visit From the Goon Squad. someone whose prose favours feeling over Special price $27.95 many genres including literary, popular and There are also some excellent stories thought? Is it a writer unconcerned with speculative fiction, as well as philosophy. The Review: A Tale For the Time by authors whose books will be published by theoretical questions, whose greatest ambition novel’s power lies in the way it poses so many Being is an engrossing story Sleepers later this year. In the ironically titled is to move the reader? I’m not sure. Probably the questions about states of existence, and how to that alternates between the ‘Kid-free’, Eleanor Limprecht writes about question requires hundreds, if not thousands, live as ‘time beings’. You may lose your sense diary of Nao, a suicidal a struggling couple who try to revive their of pages of meticulous argumentation from a of reality and wonder what is up or down while 16-year-old teenage girl from relationship. In ‘Pilgrimage’, Vanessa Russell team of only the most prestigious and erudite of reading A Tale For the Time Being, but perhaps Tokyo, and the musings of focuses on a young wife who is suffocating scholars to be answered. All the same, I’m going you’ll find, as Nao’s great-grandmother Jiko says, Ruth, a middle-aged novelist under intense pressure from her husband and to go ahead and say that Marias is amongst the ‘Up, down, same thing. And also different too.’ living in Canada. Parts of the novel are set a few their rural fundamentalist community. most romantic of contemporary novelists. Love months after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, and Ingrid Josephine is marketing and events The collection also includes work and death, those evergreen sources of sublime the subsequent tsunami which devastated assistant at Readings by established authors like Melanie Joosten, literary material, are his bread and butter. north-eastern Japan. Ruth discovers a plastic- Paul Mitchell, S.J. Finn and Laurie Steed. Overall, The Infatuations runs deep. The story wrapped package washed up on the beach, there’s a lot in here for a very little, making this – of a woman who falls in love with a man after Five Star Billionaire ominous and covered with barnacles. The one of the best-value anthologies around. an improbable and gruesome murder – is the Tash Aw package reveals a metal Hello Kitty lunchbox sort of thing a more conventional writer might with a diary inside, as well as some other HarperCollins. PB. $27.99. ebook $13.99 Annie Condon is from Readings Hawthorn deal with in a novella. There are only a handful of mysterious objects – an antique watch engraved Review: In Five Star characters, connected via a web of relationships with Japanese kanji characters and a collection Billionaire a large cast of that forms following the death of Miguel Desvern, of letters written in French. Ruth supposes that migrants battle to find security International and happiness in a New China that is hurtling into the future. Fiction Malaysian author Tash Aw skilfully juggles the perspectives Nothing Gold Can Stay WHAT I LOVED of all these loosely related characters: the heir to a Ron Rash property development empire, a fiercely Text. PB. $29.99. ebook $19.47 aspirational young woman, a disgraced pop star, a It’s Raining in Mango lovelorn businesswoman, a smooth philanthropist Review: I first discovered Thea Astley and an unnamed writer of self-help books. Ron Rash when I read his 2008 Penguin. PB. $9.95 aw takes a painterly and impressionistic novel Serena, a brilliant retelling ebook $7.99 approach to the city of Shanghai, focusing on the of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and lights and colours of a metropolis that morphs have been a fan of his prose Review: As 2013 will see the introduction of the inaugural Stella daily in the name of progress. The relentless ever since. Rash hasn’t had as Prize, the first literary prize for Australian women writers, I feel compelled demolition and construction of the physical city much success in Australia as to revisit one of my favourite Australian authors. Despite winning four is mirrored in the destruction and rebuilding of he should. His storytelling is concise and to the Miles Franklin Awards – as many as Tim Winton and more than any other individual identity. The characters of Five Star point – a talent that is paramount in the craft of writer, male or female – Thea Astley’s novels have never reached an Billionaire all recognise that survival requires their short-story writing – and his latest collection, audience as widespread as the likes of Winton or Peter Carey, who won the award three times. personal histories to be erased and replaced with Nothing Gold Can Stay, is true to form. (Incidentally, Astley shared two of her Miles Franklin wins with a man, the only two times the something newer and shinier. Yet what grows The book’s title may refer to Robert award has been shared in its history.) Sadly, most of Astley’s books are now out of print. Every clearer towards the end of the book is that it is very Frost’s poem of the same name, and Frost’s single one of her Miles Franklin Award-winning titles is no longer available, whereas each of Tim difficult for people not to let past events drive future sentiment of innocence lost seems to be echoed Winton’s prize-winners are. Astley was a prolific writer, and before her death in 2004 she had actions, no matter how much the more superficial in each tale. In the title story, two drug-addled published fifteen novels and two short-story collections. Only three novels and one short-story aspects of their lifestyles may have changed. young men revisit the farm they worked on collection remain in print. Following the separate threads as boys to steal their former employer’s very It’s Raining in Mango was her tenth novel, and its relative stylistic simplicity may explain requires concentration, but the rewards are unusual trophies of war. In ‘A Sort of Miracle’, why it is one of the few still available. Published in 1987, it tells the story of four generations of many. Aw’s characters are isolated and deeply Denton deplores his brothers-in-law, the oddly the Laffey family in far north Queensland. Each of the family member’s lives intersect in some insecure, tethered to the past even as they try named Marlborough and Baroque. He thinks way with the history of Australia itself, from the murderous settlement, the gold rush and the to shrug it off, but their resilience and pugnacity they’re lazy, naive and lack ambition. But one Depression to the Stolen Generation, World War II and the hippie movement of the 1970s. But It’s insure them against pity. There’s great pleasure day he drives into the forest with them to set Raining in Mango is far from a celebration of Australian history or a heroic family epic. Published to be had in glimpsing these varied slices of life, bear traps. Hopefully his passengers have learnt in the lead-up to the Bicentennial celebrations, Astley uses the particular failings of each member and Five Star Billionaire gives true insight into something from the medical reality programs of the Laffeys to parody the failure of the popular narrative of Australian history. the forces driving modern China. they watch. ‘The Magic Bus’ finds sixteen-year- astley has cited Flannery O’Connor and Carson McCullers as influences on her writing. old Sabra entranced by hippies Thomas and Of McCullers, she has said that ‘she writes with tenderness and sympathy for the oddball. I have Leanne Hall is from Readings Carlton Wendy when their bus overheats in front of her sympathy for the oddball.’ The Laffeys are most definitely a family of oddballs, filled with strong- family farm. She knows her parents wouldn’t willed and intelligent women and sensitive but often misguided male characters. The landscape Wise Men approve, but she insists that they stay overnight of northern Queensland is a character unto itself and the sound of thudding mangos is a regular Stuart Nadler in the barn. Her ingenuousness and lack of backdrop to the conversations. Astley has also said she relates stylistically to Patrick White and Picador. PB. $27.99. ebook $14.99 judgement ends in disaster. Two runaway credits him with teaching her to ‘look at the essence of things [and to use] ordinary words in slaves, one young and flighty, one older and strange metaphysical juxtapositions’. Astley loves to play with language and particularly favours Review: Arthur Wise worn down, find themselves at the mercy of an using grammatical terminology in unexpected ways to comic effect. epitomises the great American elderly farmer after they are caught trespassing It’s a shame that her final novel, the Miles Franklin Award-winning Drylands, is out of print. bluff – where arrogance is ‘often on his property in ‘Where the Map Ends’. The subtitle of Drylands is ‘a book for the world’s last reader’ and her narrator (an ex-bookshop mistaken for the genuine artifact: each work here ends with a surprising manager) despairs that people are no longer reading books that matter. Written 12 years after It’s skill or competence’. A turn. I had to spend a day between some Raining in Mango, her last novel revisits many of the same themes, particularly that of violence loudmouth lawyer obsessed stories mulling their sometimes devastating against women and Indigenous people. Drylands is a darker book and perhaps more subtle in its with wealth and full of disdain for conclusions. Despite the Robert Frost reference, message than her previous novels. I can only hope that this year’s Stella Prize will bring a renewed any moralising argument, he becomes obscenely please forgive me when I say Nothing Gold Can focus on Australian women writers and that we will see Astley’s novels returning to the shelves. rich on the back of a crashed Boston Airways jet. Stay is mis-titled. This collection is made up of Wise catapults from borderline poverty to dining 14 brilliantly glimmering nuggets. Kara Nicholson – Readings Carlton with presidents, from fifties ‘new money’ to becoming friends with the powerful and elite. Jason Austin is from Readings Carlton Readings MONTHLY march 2013 7

It’s unsurprising then that his son Hilton always varied, changing both Ursula’s lives and the ‘Hilly’ Wise rejects his dirty money and tries to lives of those around her. While Ursula is born and carve out a life for himself. The key ingredient for dies many times throughout the novel, it never feels this is what Hilly later calls the ‘race beat’. Moving repetitive. She doesn’t exactly remember her from New Haven at the age of 17 to a prestigious previous lives, but there is a sense of subconscious beach house in Cape Cod, Hilly falls for Savannah, memory that prompts her to respond differently MARCH RELEASES the young black girl whose uncle is the family’s each time. Her family think she’s a little odd, but housekeeper. But is this just another tale of are otherwise oblivious to Ursula’s frequent forbidden love? No. What happens here is quick reincarnation. and drives the rest of the book, and Nadler has no I know it’s early to make statements like qualms about ripping the rug of expectations from this, but I think this might be my favourite book of This March, we are delighted to under you. The plot turns like a curve ball, at times 2013. I wanted to re-read it as soon as I’d finished. bring you three masterworks of to great effect, at others less so. Life After Life reminds me a bit of Sarah Waters’ 20th-century literature by Hans Fallada a story in three parts, with 20-odd The Night Watch, partly because of the wartime Little Man, What Now?, intervening years between each, it is narrated English setting, but also because I felt the point Wolf Among Wolves, and The Drinker by Hilly in his old age. While the swift death of both books was not the ending so much as of characters is sometimes a relief in fiction, the journey. Atkinson has constructed a complex Praise for Hans Fallada: ‘As morally powerful as anything it’s frustrating to jump ahead and leave details narrative – we go back and forth many times, yet I’ve ever read’ Telegraph unresolved. The expectation is that they will all still feel like we’re moving forwards because of the ‘Deeply moving’ come out in the wash at the end. By and large they way Ursula develops as a character. We all have The New York Times do, but the narrative harness tightens occasionally, things we might have done differently if given the ‘An heroic book, brave, fearless giving you a sense of running against the wind. opportunity. Here Atkinson extrapolates that feeling and honest.’ The Sunday Times Regardless, Nadler’s first novel is very much like to explore how if one person had that chance, she a Seurat painting, where the whole puzzle locks could have changed the course of history. into focus at some point. In this case it’s the last Edwina Kay is from Readings Carlton page, where Marilynne Robinson’s epigraph also becomes most poignant: All love is in great part affliction. This is much more than race and wealth; Harvest it’s about men and taste. Jim Crace Luke May is a freelance writer Picador. PB. $27.99 ebook $14.99 The Light and the Dark Review: Harvest is a Mikhail Shishkin slow-burner of a book that sneaks up and surprises you. Quercus. PB. $29.99 There’s ‘witchery about’ but I ebook $14.99 think that’s more to do with Jim This groundbreaking book explores Essential reading for anyone involved Review: Two lovers, Crace’s sorcery with words than the phenomenon of internet piracy in social change — at any level. asking: if everything on the internet ‘Your behavioural-change toolkit separated by circumstance, anything else. Starting off as a is free, how do artists get paid for won’t be complete until you’ve begin to write letters. Tentatively quiet meditation on ancient village life, the rituals of their work? read Changeology.’ at first, they explore their feelings the annual crop harvest are laid out. The novel LINDSAY TANNER and their ability to express them becomes more gothic as we get further into it, with – their shared joys and love for civil manners and neighbourly thoughtfulness one another, as well as cherished covering up acts of shockingly careless brutality. past moments and everything that they miss. As There are men given rough village justice – sent to time goes on, the letters expand, recounting their the pillocks for seven days with their bodies bent evolving lives: his as part of the Expeditionary over and their hands and heads locked into place Force sent to China during the Boxer Rebellion, – all for the crime of being in the wrong place at What if there was a magic bullet hers as a medical student and then a doctor, alone the wrong time. Children are pronounced witches to fix our ailing planet? in the city, surrounded by sickness, sex and death. and taken from their kin. Neighbours turn on As they never receive the other’s letters, their neighbours. Mob rules. It takes just a single week What if it meant seizing control of the Earth’s climate? reflections turn inward, at once philosophically for an entire thriving, comfortable village to speculative and sharply observant. The letters are become an empty, dry husk. full of love and yearning, for each other and for the On a thematic and environmental quandary that is the world as they’ve found it, level, we can see the seeds of the modern world uplifting and harrowing in equal measure. sown in those ancient times, when crops made The original title of the book translates way for sheep and workers were damned, all in from Russian roughly as ‘Letter-Writing Manual’ the name of progress and profit. and Shishkin has used this epistolary form to This book is as close to perfect as you free the novel from narrative constraint, letting his get. Crace’s writing is so beautiful, so evocative, characters explore their existence and mortality in that I’m now gathering his entire backlist into my their own words, as addressed to the only one who arms and reading through it. Expect to see this will understand. In the end, one wonders whether little gem appearing on all the major shortlists. our two are even writing to each other, so disparate An absolute beauty. have they become, and so seemingly distant in Gabrielle Williams is from Readings Malvern time. One of the most intensely human books I’ve ever read. Instructions for Andrew Cornish is a former employee of Readings a Heatwave Maggie O’Farrell Life After Life Headline. PB. Was $29.99 Special price $24.95 Kate Atkinson Doubleday. PB. Was $32.95 Review: London during the Special price $27.95 remarkably hot summer of 1976 Released 18 March is the setting for Maggie O’Farrell’s sixth novel, Instructions Review: Ursula Todd is born for a Heatwave, and although the on a snowy night in an English actual temperature would seem village in 1910. She dies before quite ordinary to most Clive Hamilton investigates the huge risks of the desperate taking her first breath. But what if Australians, her story of a family suffocating in its measures being contemplated to save the planet. things had happened differently? own drama is perceptive, enjoyable and intense. What if she had lived? Ursula is The disappearance of sixty-something born again on that snowy night, Robert, father of three grown-up children and Available now where all good books are sold and again, though older this time, she dies. Then husband of Gretta, is where we begin. But in she is born again, and we see another life she order to find out where he’s got to, the story Join the debate on Twitter: #Earthmasters could have led. Atkinson has crafted an entrancing goes backwards as well as forwards, delving www.allenandunwin.com novel in which the same event is repeated, but into the family history of these Irish Catholics. 8 Readings MONTHLY march 2013

meanwhile, in the 1976 ‘present’, Middle C the three siblings scrabble about for our William H. Gass attention as they deal with the mystery as a Knopf. HB. $40.95 Short loves by longtime fans dysfunctional unit, reunited utterly against their will. First-born Monica is gripped by an Released 12 March Contributors to the Sleepers Almanac No. 8 tell us about their favourite anxiety common in eldest daughters, while William H. Gass gives us a short stories and why they love them. middle child Michael Francis is fed up with mosaic of a life with music. In his lot (a wife who can’t stand the sight of him 1938, Joseph Skizzen’s father Eleanor Limprecht: ‘Good Country People’ by Flannery O’Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find and two eccentric children). The youngest, leaves Austria for England with I was a high school student in Arlington, Virginia, the first time I read Flannery O’Connor’s short Aiofe, who has been living in New York, is at his family, pretending to be story ‘Good Country People’ in her collection A Good Man is Hard to Find. It has lingered in my once ashamed of herself and bolder than the Jewish in the hope of avoiding head ever since. Her bleak portrait of an unhappy family – a mother and a grown daughter at odds other two put together. The head-hopping any connection with the Nazis, – is shaken up by a visit from a Bible salesman. There is more than a touch of the Southern gothic narrative churns up our perspective on each whom he believes will soon take over his in O’Connor’s writing but there is also an economy to her words in this story. The epiphany that the sibling and wittily demonstrates how families homeland. In postwar Ohio, Joseph becomes a daughter has with the Bible salesman is fleeting and ends up being this extraordinary moment of get so tangled up in misunderstanding that decent amateur piano player, all the while creating grace amidst the stark landscape of her life. And then it all disappears as quickly as it has come, they can hardly be in the same room. his own fantasy self to cope with his father’s and no one is quite who they appeared to be. It is a haunting story, and one that reminds me how The level of dysfunction isn’t abandonment and a crippling sense of guilt. powerful short fiction can be. particularly shocking – that’s not O’Farrell’s style. She’s a sensual writer who cleverly Benediction Melanie Joosten: ‘The Beautiful Indifference’ by Sarah Hall, The Beautiful Indifference involves us in every character, teasing us Kent Haruf My favourite short story is the somewhat reticent title story from Sarah Hall’s collection The Beautiful about whose side we should be on. But for Macmillan. PB. $27.99. ebook $14.99 Indifference. A woman waits in a hotel room for her much younger lover, who has missed his train me her triumph is Gretta, the impossible from London. She dresses, then changes her outfit. Applies lipstick, knowing it will not last long matriarch whose backstory deserves to be a When Dad Lewis is diagnosed after his arrival. Her friends think her relationship with a younger man is irresponsible, that she is novel of its own. My one disappointment was with terminal cancer, his wife and running out of time for the important things, for children. And perhaps she is. A quiet and careful that the level of ambition O’Farrell showed in daughter must work to make his story which, considering its denouement, is oddly uplifting. To a reader it embodies acceptance, to her last novel, The Hand That First Held Mine, final days as comfortable as a writer, enviable control. has eased off here in terms of storytelling. possible, despite the noticeable However, that was a particularly hard act to absence of Lewis’s estranged Vanessa Russell: ‘Speaking in Tongues’ by ZZ Packer, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere follow, and this is still a very worthwhile read. son. Next door, a young girl The characters are so vibrant and complex in ZZ Packer’s ‘Speaking in Tongues’ that they leave moves in with her grandmother and contends with Emily Gale is from Readings Carlton an afterglow. Fourteen-year-old Tia Townsend is punished by a church elder after she laughs at a the memories that Lewis’s condition stirs up in her mawkish Jesus comic. The next day, a fuming Tia boards a Greyhound bus. In Atlanta she catches own family, while down the street, a newly arrived the eye of Dezi, equal parts drug-dealer, saviour and sleazebag. Packer balances the story on Tia’s How to get Filthy Rich preacher soon faces the disdain of his church-bred apartness, but never lets her tip into naivety. The dialogue sparks with Tia’s bravado, in Rising Asia congregation when he offers more than they are while the narrative shows how she wavers between fear and fascination as she encounters a Mohsin Hamid used to getting on Sunday mornings. church-free world. Hamish Hamilton. PB. $29.99 All the Way Helen Addison-Smith: ‘The Girl who was Blind All the Time’ by Sheila Heti, The Middle Stories From the internationally Shelia Heti’s writing is risky and the thing it risks most of all is being bad. This story has odd, bestselling author of The Marie Darrieussecq (translated by unnatural cadences. It skips from one place to the next, without a why or a wherefore. But it’s one Reluctant Fundamentalist, this Penny Hueston) of the most alive stories I’ve ever read. I guess it could’ve been too fey and hipsterish, what with boldly imagined tale steals its Text. PB. $29.99. ebook $19.47 shape from the self-help books the blind girl, the odd flat tone and the marching with flags. I think what saves it is smut and snot, Solange wants to have sex, devoured by ambitious youths the suffering of real live bodies. What I admire most about Heti’s writing is that it (and she) doesn’t though she’s not sure who with all over ‘rising Asia’. Our seem nice. It’s peculiarly brave. yet; there’s really not much scope nameless hero journeys from impoverished in her boring village, Clèves. S.J. Finn: ‘Lyrebird’ by Isabelle Li, Sleepers Almanac No. 7 rural boy to corporate tycoon in a sprawling She’d also like to see more of her You don’t have to go far to find this gem of a story in the Sleepers Almanac No. 7. ‘Lyrebird’ by metropolis where he begins to amass an father even though he’s so Isabelle Li is a seamless, well-told tale of a quietly ambitious girl who is bright, thrifty and socially empire built on the most fluid and increasingly embarrassing, and as for her astute. Exquisitely drawn, the narrative takes the reader from the working-class suburbs of Sydney scarce of goods: water. Throughout this mother, that woman is too depressed. Meanwhile, to the leafy possibilities of the Blue Mountains. With a subtlety that deserves to be applauded, Li journey, his heart remains set on a girl whose her neighbour, Monsieur Bihotz, is supposed to be weaves a taste of suspense throughout. Then, in a whimsically uplifting manner, the end rings of life crosses and recrosses his path. her babysitter, but Solange has other ideas. All the heart without fuss, joy without sentimentality. ‘Lyrebird’ left me sated and awestruck. Way is a hilarious and achingly honest picture of a young French girl discovering her sexuality. Paul Mitchell: ‘The Boat’ by Alastair McLeod, The Lost Salt Gift of Blood and Island: The The Fun Parts Collected Short Stories Sam Lipsyte Picking a favourite story is like choosing your favourite song. ‘What about The Stones, Nirvana or FSG. HB. $35 The Drinker The Smiths’ becomes ‘What about Carver, O’Connor, Winton, Carey or Strout?’ I’ve just grabbed In this book of bold, hilarious Hans Fallada (translated by one from my top ten, Alastair McLeod’s ‘The Boat’. The opening story in his collection The Lost Salt and deeply felt fiction, a boy Charlotte & A.L. Lloyd) Gift of Blood, ‘The Boat’ captures a lifetime’s yearning, despair and hope in a few thousand words. eats his way to self-discovery Scribe. PB. $22.95 The final image whiplashes you back through the narrative, giving retrospective power to McLeod’s while another must battle the This astonishing autobiographical masterful prose. The story’s boat becomes a character, alive in an ocean swirling with human reality-brandishing monster tour de force was written by Hans questions of loyalty, honour and regret. preying on his fantasy realm. Fallada in an encrypted Meanwhile, an aerobics notebook while he was Laurie Steed: ‘Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams’ by Sylvia Plath, Johnny Panic and instructor, the daughter of a Holocaust incarcerated in a Nazi insane the Bible of Dreams survivor, makes the most shocking leap asylum. Discovered after his An unnamed narrator records the dreams of mental health patients in a city hospital. She sees their imaginable to save her soul. This collection death, The Drinker tells the tale of woes as endemic, feeling the world to be rife with one thing: ‘Panic with a dog-face, devil-face, gathers together new stories alongside old a small businessman losing control as he fights hag-face, whore-face, panic in capital letters with no face at all – it’s the same Johnny Panic, awake favourites previously published in The New valiantly to blot out an increasingly oppressive or asleep.’ This piece of short fiction taps Plath’s poetic spirit more successfully than any of her Yorker, The Paris Review and Playboy, to society. Fierce, poignant and extremely funny. This other stories. As an exploration of madness, sanity and all points in between, it is striking, even by recreate Lipsyte’s richly imagined worlds in a edition includes an afterword by John Willett. today’s standards. single volume.

Michelle Radtke: ‘The Happiest Moment’ by Lydia Davis, Samuel Johnson is Indignant Red Doc> In Diamond Square ‘The Happiest Moment’ by Lydia Davis from her collection Samuel Johnson is Indignant is a brilliant Mercé Rodoreda nugget of a story about a man who is asked to recall the happiest moment of his life. Davis writes Anne Carson Virago. PB. $29.99 with such sure economy, her prose so unadorned, that it is hard to believe the rich and complex FSG. HB. $35.95 truth that a text only one paragraph in length can deliver. Every time I read ‘The Happiest Moment’ When a stranger asks Natalia to Award-winning poet Anne I feel my expectations at once fulfilled and subverted, and I am reminded that human emotion is dance at the fiesta in Diamond Carson reinvented a genre in layered and conflicted. Happiness, as Davis points out here, is no exception. Square, she’s hesitant at first, Autobiography of Red, a but Joe is charming and stunning work that was both a J.Y.L Koh: ‘William and Mary’ by Roald Dahl, Kiss Kiss forceful and, almost inevitably, novel and a poem, both an As with friendships, it can be difficult to predict which short stories will stay with you in the long she accepts his hand. The unconventional re-creation of an run. In Roald Dahl’s ‘William and Mary’, William Pearl has terminal cancer. To his wife’s horror, he former shopgirl is soon sharing ancient Greek myth and an considers taking extreme measures to ensure that his brain lives on after the death of his body. her life with two children and a husband who original coming-of-age story set in the present. In The first time I read the story, I was a teenager and I hated it; no other tale had made me feel so breeds pigeons. When the Spanish Civil War this earlier work, a boy named Geryon fell in love uncertain about my attitude to revenge. ‘William and Mary’ has since become a favourite (though erupts and Joe leaves to fight the fascists, she with Herakles and now Carson asks, what still unsettling) companion. Its images haunt me – the smoke of a defiant cigarette and the stare of remains in Barcelona, struggling to feed her happened next? Red Doc> continues their an ice-blue eye floating in a basin. family and care for the birds left behind. adventures in a wholly new and imaginative style. Readings MONTHLY march 2013 9

not take her angle seriously, but Commissaire Adamsberg is determined to follow the case to book New Crime Dead Write whatever end, despite the distraction of his new with Fiona Hardy family connection and a dearth of clues. of Murder With the Lot amongst the country’s sparkling teenagers. Dead the Linda, As in the Sue Williams Linda Murder Girl Sing is a searing thriller not recommended for reading on the Gold Coast’s beaches. Text. PB. $29.99 month Leif G.W. Persson ebook $19.47 Doubleday. PB. $32.95 The Lost Boy The town of Rusty Bore is not Good News, Bad News Released 18 March Camilla Lackberg exactly brimming with excitement Maggie Groff (or with people, it has to be said), Witty and blackly entertaining HarperCollins. PB. $24.99. ebook $12.99 Macmillan. PB. $27.99. ebook $14.99 without losing a realistic touch, so the arrival of someone new is After the breathtaking last pages Leif G.W. Persson has unleashed the highlight of the day, not in the Review: Sometimes a book comes along that of Camilla Lackberg’s last book, a new character upon readers: least because that someone is is exactly the right read at the right time. Good followers of Detective Patrik the ‘short, fat and primitive’ covered in blood and ordering a News, Bad News, and the perky heroine contained Hedström and crime writer Erica Inspector Evert Backstrom. Here burger from Cass Tuplin, private investigator and inside its pages, were a balm for me this month. Falck will probably be desperate is a man full of loathing for just superb burger-flipper. The arrival coincides with After too many crime reads that were just a step to pick this one up and find out about everyone and everything, including those Cass’s discovery of a body, but the local police beyond gritty into the unpleasant, or filled with exactly what happened to them. with the misfortune to work under him. When a force (i.e. Cass’s son Dean) is not interested. So it’s violence against women, I’d almost had enough So (spoiler alert) ... Council member Mats Sverin police academy recruit is murdered, Backstrom is up to Cass to track down the killer and prove that and was thinking of watching Play School reruns is murdered in his home and uncovering his life there to be utterly useless to the case and as she has skills beyond using the deep fryer. to make myself feel better. Then Byron Bay leads a recuperating Hedström to the island of offensive as possible. This is a crime you actually investigative journalist Scout Davis flew out of the Gråskär, a place residents call haunted. Here won’t want solved, just so you can read about him Three Crooked Kings pages to save the day. he’ll find a woman from Sverin's past with literal a trio of reclusive sisters, much for more pages yet. Matthew Condon blood on her hands. gossiped about in town, hire Scout to find a UQP. PB. $29.95 Dead Girl Sing runaway husband who had apparently died some The Ghost Riders Matthew Condon, author of 30 years earlier but whose handsome face shows Tony Cavanaugh of Ordebec recent Dead Write favourite Toe up in a current newspaper article. Scout is unsure Hachette. PB. $29.99 Tag Quintet, has spent two Fred Vargas about the proposition – bossy sister Hermione Darian Richards isn’t enormously years interviewing those is not her usual cup of chai – but she is far too Harvill. PB. Was $32.95 keen on the Gold Coast’s involved in the infamous intrigued by the mystery to say no. So she rounds Special price $27.95 raucous schoolies week, but Fitzgerald Inquiry – the one that up her friends and family to take on the case, one Released 18 March when he’s contacted by unveiled the extent of decades eccentric day at a time. someone who needs his help, A young woman sees visions of of corruption in Queensland’s police force. Starring alongside Scout is the bay that’s exactly where he finds ghostly men on horses who Terence Murray Lewis was the police itself, full of endearing characters, delicious himself. Upon arrival, however, come for the wicked – a myth commissioner knighted for his work, then jailed food and petty crimes. Throw in a boyfriend she’s vanished, but there are two beautiful young that has fed into local lore for for corruption years later. With Condon granted returning from a war zone alongside another women who have suffered a much worse fate in centuries – and, sure enough, total access to Lewis, his files and hundreds of equally handsome man and the whole book is a the water. No stranger to the darkness of someone very wicked vanishes others involved, this is a great writer tackling a delight. It’s sexy, funny, rollicking and, best of all, humanity, Richards will not stand by with a killer right afterwards. Local police do sordid part of Australia’s past. completely refreshing.

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www.newsouthbooks.com.au 10 Readings MONTHLY march 2013

GROUPIE GIRL New Young Adult Fiction Simmone Howell writes on her failed attempt at groupiedom and her See books for kids, junior and middle readers on page 15. beloved collection of band-date paperbacks

records. But when a brick is thrown through book the shop window, a girl drowns in the St Kilda canal and a new boy starts working at of the store, the season turns into anything but ordinary. Gully leads the investigation into the window vandalism and Sky becomes the obsessed with the dead girl from the canal. Nancy becomes scarce as she takes up being month a groupie for one of the local musicians, and the new boy plasters pictures of a stencilled Girl Defective girl crying around St Kilda. Simmone Howell With investigations, new friendships and experiencing the world with all its quirks Pan Macmillan. PB. $16.99. ebook $9.99 and problems, Girl Defective, simply put, Review: Sky lives above the family record is brilliant. Once again, Simmone Howell ‘Research psychologists say that girls from the ages of 11-14 reach a lifetime high energy peak. Their shop with a dad who loves beer too much and a captures her audience with unique characters, appetite is insatiable. They never again care about things as much as they do during this period, and brother, Gully, who has trouble fitting into captivating situations and a creativity that minutiae don’t exist for them.’ – Groupies & Other Girls by John Burks and Jerry Hopkins society’s idea of normal. Oh, and there’s Nancy always astounds me. I know it’s early days – Sky’s idol of sorts. She doesn’t live there but but I can’t see anything beating this one for One summer’s day when I was 13, I dressed in purple baggy pants and a lilac polo shirt and caught she’s around, in a world of her own. my book of the year! For ages 15 and up. Sky spends summer at the shop the 9.22am train from Ringwood to Flinders Street. I was off to meet The Hooters, an American pop Katherine Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn band named not for their manboobs but for their signature instrument, a melodion, which looks like putting zinc on Elvis’s nose and dusting the a Casio organ with a mouthpiece attached. The year was 1985. ‘And We Danced’ was charting and the band had just played Festival Hall. I’d been in the front row, screaming, because everyone knows that’s what you do at pop concerts. There were five Hooters and each wore a different colour. Rob Freaks Like Us the rest of the sportingly handicapped students wore white, Eric wore black, Andy wore blue, David wore yellow and John wore red. Rob was my Susan Vaught and ordered to stage Shakespeare, this bunch of misfits interprets Richard III as a musical! I can favourite. He looked mouse-ish, nice, non-threatening – what you want at that age. Bloomsbury. PB. $15.99 This was my second attempt at making contact. Two days earlier, I’d set my alarm and see why one enthusiast has aptly described this snuck out at 5am to wait for the Airport Bus, but my mother had come tearing down Loughnan Rd Review: Plenty of YA novels as ‘Glee meets Summer Heights High’. It’s a fun, in her dressing gown, scooping me up and scuppering my plans. Later, after much argument, it contain characters that see tongue-in-cheek, light-hearted and irreverent look was decreed that I could go to the city and attempt to meet the band, but only if my sisters came themselves as existing at the at what happens when a bunch of teenagers with with me. I had been growing my nails in preparation for the coming of The Hooters. As I sat on edges of society, but in Freaks nothing in common are forcibly thrown together. the train, I stared at the smooth ovals (painted lavender, with Stop-bite) and thrummed with the Like Us it’s undeniably true. Recommended for ages 13 and up. Jason becomes an instant knowledge that if I could grow my nails I could do anything. Athina Clarke is from Readings Malvern We camped outside the Rockman’s Regency hotel for most of the day, meeting other murder suspect when his best friend goes missing, and his story is one of a fans and exchanging gossip and phone numbers. And then: a sighting. That’s HIM. OVER THERE! New Guinea Moon Exiting the cafe, wearing sunglasses (of course!). Our new, more experienced friends stormed the person rarely given a voice, both in fiction and in pop star, blocking his path, proffering Violet Crumbles and cling-on koalas and autograph books. I real life. The interesting twist here is that Jason Kate Constable had my photo taken with Rob and John. Rob seemed slightly bored but John signed his autograph doubts himself as much as everyone around him A&U. PB. $16.99 with ‘Love’ , put his man-sized arms around me and kissed my cheek for the camera. I had that does, because his thoughts and recollections are ebook $9.99 never free of a disturbing crowd of extra voices. photo blown up and framed. In retrospect it looks like a girl getting monstered by some old dude in Review: This is a wonderful Jason has schizophrenia. Finding out whether or a bolo tie. But it was the start of something. coming-of-age story set in the not he’s killed Sunshine, the girl he’s loved for most Stalking John Justin at a Saturday afternoon sound check, ‘fainting’ to get backstage exotic and racially divided world of his life, is a confronting, addictive experience. I’d at Mister Mister, nicking Paul Hester’s phone number from my guitar teacher’s Filofax … over the of New Guinea just before have read it in one sitting if life hadn’t got in the summer I apprenticed but never managed to get up close and personal. I was too young, too Independence. Julie is 16 and way. Two sittings had to do. The voices in Jason’s deluded and too, well, tame. You wouldn’t have found me brazenly waving a toothbrush about like has asked to spend the holidays head are relentless and Vaught’s prose never lets that girl at Billy Idol. in New Guinea with her father, us forget it. Jason’s perceptions of himself and Perhaps it was my failed attempt at groupiedom that led to me to collect books by and whom she has not seen, and barely heard from, others are as witty as they are heartbreaking. about fans, groupies, muses, inamoratas and ‘ol ladies. I devoured rock biographies, not because since she was three. Brought up to be spirited Although he is no stranger to reactions ranging I wanted to read about the musicians, but because I wanted to read about their girlfriends. Tony and independent by her strongly feminist mother, from indifference to violence, his inner turmoil is the Sanchez’s Up and Down With the Rolling Stones had whole chapters on Anita Pallenberg and Julie is forced to call on all her resilience, despite most confronting. Mental illness is still so feared in Marianne Faithfull. A photo of Jim Morrison and his girlfriend Pamela Courson in No One Here Gets the kindness of those she meets, and the our society, and I loved how Vaught, who has a Out Alive was, to 14-year-old me, the image of romantic love. I found Rock Wives by Victoria Balfour support and attentions of two very different guys. background as an adolescent psychiatrist, shows at the book-swap outside the cobblers at the new Ringwood market. Reading it felt like walking into Though Kate Constable, who grew up in New us that the real fear is being on the inside. A a lightning field. There was Myra Lee Lewis (who married Jerry Lee Lewis, her cousin, at age 13) Guinea, clearly sets out to question white expat moving, brave read for ages 14 and up. and Suze Rotolo (the girl on Bob Dylan’s arm on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan) and Gail assumptions of superiority, she does so with a Zappa (whose numb acceptance of her husband’s infidelities boggled my teenage mind). Then Emily Gale is from Readings Carlton light touch. Her characters are flawed but there was ‘super-groupie’ Pamela Des Barres’ I’m With the Band, where she detailed her exploits likeable, and dramatically unexpected moments with Jimmy Page etc. in a breathless, stream-of-consciousness style that I echoed in countless Stagefright keep the narrative alive and compelling. Highly ‘Fantasy Time’ notes to friends during veggie maths or unwinding post-exams. recommended for ages 13 and up. I read Angie Bowie’s Free Spirit and Cynthia Lennon’s A Twist of Lennon. I was Carole Wilkinson disappointed with the G-rated content of Carol Bedford’s Waiting For the Beatles: An Apple Scruff’s Black Dog. PB. $18.95 Kathy Kozlowski is from Readings Carlton Story but made up for it with Body Count: The Sexual Autobiography of Francie, Queen of the Review: Carole Wilkinson, Groupies. Groupie by Jenny Fabian was frank and funny, even if the names had been changed, and the award-winning author of the All This Could End Going Down With Janis Joplin by Peggy Caserta was a carnival of smack, smut and feather boas. Dragonkeeper and Ramose Steph Bowe I was looking for the kind of education I wasn’t going to get from school. I can’t remember how to series, has revisited her 1996 Text. PB. $19.99. ebook $13.97 do fractions but I can tell you that when Cynthia Plaster Caster made a model of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘rig’, book, Stagefright. She’s Nina’s family is unconventional. despite assiduous ‘plating’, he could only rise to ‘half-mast’ (it was still impressive). Revisiting my ‘updated and rejigged the They rob banks, and even she groupie books now is like an invitation to cringe, but I know what I loved about them then. Even in story a bit’ for a whole new and her 12-year-old brother Tom the sordid stories, the dream is there: it’s about freedom and living an unconventional life, of being cohort of readers, who’ll enjoy poor Velvet are in on the act. After yet known-of but not known. It’s about being Ruby Tuesday or Penny Lane and not someone who Pye’s consternation at being forced to attend another move and another new works part-time after school at Target. It’s about getting so close to the light that it reflects upon Yarrabank High. This grungy school and its school, Nina wants things to you, until one day it might even be you. collection of temporary classrooms is populated change. This time she’s made a by bullies, dummies, emos and boy-crazed friend she’s determined to keep: Spencer. The girls, all under the inept leadership of a sports- By Simmone Howell two of them can talk about anything and need mad principal.Much to Velvet’s horror, there’s each other more than ever when their families Simmone Howell is the author of Girl Defective (Pan Macmillan). She likes op shops, sand no music program, but there is an abundance start to fall apart. But soon Nina is back on the run dunes, polished floorboards, girl gangs, freesias, old records and chocolate. Find her at of sporting pursuits which she deftly dodges. and doesn’t know if she’ll ever see Spencer again. www.simmonehowell.com Relegated to the Cultural Studies class with Readings MONTHLY march 2013 11

QUARTERLY ESSAY 49: the Good Weekend. Storr has covered some of this territory before in his first book,Will Storr vs. Not Dead Yet: Labor’s the Supernatural – One Man’s Search For the Post-Left Future Truth About Ghosts; however, the difference with New Non-Fiction Mark Latham Heretics is that rather than trying to find out the See books for kids, junior and middle readers on page 15. Black Inc. PB. $19.95 truth about what a person believes, he is more ebook $9.99 interested in why they might hold that belief in the Released 11 March first place. THINGS I DIDN’T EXPECT This leads to some interesting In the latest Quarterly Essay, Australian conclusions about how the brain works to create (WHEN I WAS EXPECTING) former Labor Party leader Mark narratives in order to make sense of the world. Monica Dux Latham argues that the time has Storr asks, ‘[H]ow is the conscious function of the Non-Fiction MUP. HB. $24.99 come to go beyond the criticism ‘mind’ created?’ and receives some fascinating of recent years. Instead, he offers Review: It’s been nearly a responses from a variety of philosophers and a timely assessment of the future, Ghost Wife decade since I was first neuroscientists. As well as one-on-one interviews, examining the union nexus, the Michelle Dicinoski expecting, and six years since Storr tours Holocaust sites with David Irving and Keating settlement, the education revolution, Black Inc. PB. $24.99 my last child, but I seized on talks to Lord Monckton about climate change. He climate change and the party’s handling of the ebook $9.99 the chance to read what might is particularity interested in how different people Greens. Latham suggests that Labor’s biggest be described as the anti- respond to facts and evidence, and how their Review: In 2005, Michelle problem is the steady erosion of its traditional pregnancy book – the one upbringing may influence this process. Dicinoski and her American working-class base. Families who were once that tells it like it really is. And that’s because, Storr is often compared to Jon Ronson girlfriend, Heather, decided to get resigned to a lifetime of blue-collar work now like Monica Dux, I’m still really miffed about and Louis Theroux and their styles are certainly married. The proposal came, expect their children to be well-educated the whole thing. very similar; Storr is perhaps a little darker and wildly and beautifully, from professionals and entrepreneurs. Can Labor In Things I Didn’t Expect (When I not afraid to confront his own history and belief Michelle musing casually about a reinvent itself and speak to a changed Australia? Was Expecting), Dux categorises all of the system. Heretics is a compelling read and highly road trip together to Canada. remarkable and unremarkable aspects of recommended to anyone who is interested in a And of course, it had to be Canada, because being pregnant – from petty annoyances to Glorious Days: variety of theories abo0ut how our brains might neither Australia nor the US recognise same-sex major outrage – and her personal experience actually work. marriage. Australia 1913 creates a far more realistic document than the Strong-willed and simply told, Ghost Stuart Macintyre et al. books that tell you to look forward to shiny Kara Nicholson is from Readings Carlton Wife is a memoir of turns and eddies. Michelle National Museum of Australia. PB. $44.95 hair, an increased sex drive and bucketfuls begins with her contemporary self – tracing of euphoria. The year 1913 was a her long flight with Heather to the town of Animal Wise There are many laugh-out-loud fascinating and important time Newburyport, just outside of Boston, and from Virginia Morell moments, though admittedly some of my for Australians. Ambitions there, their journey to Toronto’s City Hall. It is a trip Black Inc. PB. $29.99 laughter had a distinctly hollow sound as a were high, the new navy was filled with anticipation and nervous excitement, but ebook $12.99 few of the disappointments and discomforts a source of pride, the arts also uneasy reflections on the nature of belonging of pregnancy, birth and post-birth came flourished, and the motor car Did you know that dolphins are and choice. What will it mean, for example, to be flooding back. Dux discusses the vast and movies were having their self-aware, that rats love to be married in one country but not at home? Will her range of emotions women experience, most first impacts. This richly illustrated book, a tickled, that chimps grieve, and soon-to-be in-laws accept them? And what does notably guilt, fear and anger, as well as the companion to an exhibition at the National killer whales have cultures and one wear to a wedding when the last thing you accompanying physical symptoms of an Museum of Australia, takes us into the lives of octopuses personalities? Animal want to appear like is a stock-standard hetero average pregnancy and post-birth, from ordinary Australians and an emerging nation. Wise takes us on a surprising bride and groom? unrelenting nausea to mastitis. Try knitting and enlightening exploration into The book is also interspersed with booties during that lot. But Dux isn’t just the minds and emotions of everything from parrots memories of Michelle’s teenagehood and angry with Mother Nature, she has bones to to wolves through the researchers who study early twenties, from her move to Melbourne in Science pick with the way the medical profession and them. Virginia Morell examines the amazing the hope of meeting a girl to her eventual and wider society treat women who are pregnant Heretics inroads made in the field of animal cognition, the painful coming out to her parents. Moving, gentle or have just given birth, including the Will Storr moral and ethical issues raised, and the profound fragments of hidden queer histories drift by. depth of the human-animal bond. righteousness of breastfeeding evangelists. Macmillan. PB. $29.99 There’s Lilian Cooper and Josephine Bedford, two Blokes get their own chapter, with women who journeyed from London to Brisbane ebook $14.99 Dux pointing out the honest truth that one of Permanent Present so that Lilian could work as Queensland’s first Review: The subtitle of this the best reasons to have your partner in the female doctor; they spent their entire lives together book is ‘adventures with the Tense room when you give birth is so you can use and were eventually buried side by side at the enemies of science’, which is Suzanne Corkin the ‘I gave birth, you saw how awful that was, Toowong Cemetery. perhaps slightly misleading Penguin. HB. $39.99 so it’s only right that you should clean up this It’s hard to describe just how affecting because not only does Will poo/make the tea’ argument, which, when In 1953, at the age of 27, Henry Ghost Wife is. Because it is, at heart and in the Storr interview a creationist, a used sparingly, can work for years. This is a Gustav Molaison underwent an truest sense, a very romantic book, meaning it UFO expert and a homeopath smart, sardonic but somehow joyful romp. experimental procedure intended rests not on clichés but deep-running emotions. (the so-called ‘enemies’), he also spends time Dux gives just the right amount of history and to alleviate his debilitating Michelle’s voice is clear, sensitive and defiant, and talking to neuroscientists, oncologists and social commentary to make Things I Didn’t epilepsy. The outcome was her gathering of stories and histories gracefully biologists in his quest to understand exactly why Expect an intelligent read without turning it devastating – when Molaison handpicked. That it is timely and important is a we believe what we believe. into a dry text. Accessible and lively, with a woke, he was unable to form new given, but that it is unsentimental and yet incredibly Storr refers to himself as a ‘longform’ satisfying blend of humour and fact. memories and, for the rest of his life, would be moving is a feat. This is one that will stay with you. journalist, and several of these chapters have trapped in the moment. But Molaison’s tragedy Emily Gale is from Readings Carlton appeared in publications like The Guardian and Jessica Au is editor of the Readings Monthly

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would provide an unexpected gift to humanity, Love with a Chance illuminating the functions of the brain and of Drowning Philosophy revolutionising the science of memory. For nearly five decades, distinguished Torre DeRoche neuroscientist Suzanne Corkin studied Penguin. PB. $29.99 Landscapes of the Molaison and oversaw his care. Her account ebook $6.99 Metropolis of Death of his life and legacy reveals an intelligent A city girl with a morbid fear of Otto Dov Kulka man who, despite his profound amnesia, was deep water, Torre DeRoche is Penguin. HB. $35 altruistic, friendly, open and humorous. not someone you would As the child of a distinguished ordinarily find adrift in the historian, Otto Dov Kulka was middle of the stormy Pacific. sent first to the ghetto of Writing But when she meets Ivan, a Theresienstadt and then to handsome Argentinean with a Auschwitz. As one of the few On Writing humble sailboat and a dream of exploring the survivors, he has spent much of Daphne Du Maurier world, Torre has to face a hard decision: watch A.L. Kennedy his life studying Nazism and the and Her Sisters the man she’s in love with sail away forever, or Holocaust, but always with his personal story set Random. HB. Was $49.95 head off on the watery journey with him. Set to one side. Nevertheless, he has remained BY JANE DUNN Special price $39.95 against a backdrop of the world’s most beautiful haunted by specific memories and images – Released 7 March 9780007347087 and remote destinations, Love with a Chance of thoughts he has been unable to shake off. The Special Price $29.95 Review: Largely made up of Drowning is a sometimes hilarious, often brave result is Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death, blog posts written by A.L. memoir that proves some risks are worth taking. a unique and powerful account of one man’s Kennedy over a three-year attempt to understand his past, and our history. Based on new research, this group period, all of which first biography explores the dysfunctional Wave appeared on The Guardian upbringing of Daphne du Maurier Sonali Deraniyagala website, On Writing is made for and her two equally talented sisters. Little, Brown. PB. $24.99 History those interested in what it’s like Full of jealousy, creative energy and to lead a writer’s life. It’s also a lesson, in itself, on In Sri Lanka on 26 December compulsive make-believe, their lives how writers can recoup more from their work 2004, Sonali Deraniyagala lost The Penguin History were as unconventional and complex as through the simple act of republishing material on her parents, her husband and her of the World (6th ed) a Daphne du Maurier plotline. a different platform to reach a wider audience. two young sons to the tsunami J.M. Roberts & Odd Arne Westad that she miraculously survived. The tone is colourful, chatty, anecdotal Penguin. HB. $59.99 and, at times, introspective, and fans of Kennedy During the initial aftermath, she For generations of readers The will enjoy reading about her experiences, from found herself entrapped by her Penguin History of the World having a book published to attending literary own horror, her whole being furiously clenched has been one of the great festivals, as well as the various aspects of a against the reality of what happened, someone cultural records – the entire novelist’s day – from the mundane to the sublime. always at her side to prevent her from harming story of the human endeavour The blogs are followed by a BBC herself. Wave then traces her reluctant emergence laid out in all its grandeur and Radio talk, a lecture explaining why she gave up over the ensuing years, moving from memories of folly. Now, for the first time, this on a career in the arts sector and three essays her childhood in Colombo and her family’s home in landmark authority has been completely on the technical craft of writing. Indeed, the London to the year she met her English husband at overhauled and revised in light of new book is worth buying for the essays alone. One Cambridge and the birth of her children. A frank discoveries, looking back on the Ancient World is a humorous, self-aware piece that examines and profoundly moving memoir of grief and loss, to the inexorable rise of Asia and the the value of conducting and enrolling in writing told without artifice. increasingly troubled situation in the West. workshops. Another examines the development The Accursed of character in fiction and the third is an acutely BY JOYCE CAROL OATES personal essay on the connection between a Politics writer’s ‘voice’ on the page and their actual self. Business 9780007494200 | RRP $29.99 The last piece is the script of a one- SEX AND THE CITADEL person show that Kennedy has toured with over Shereen El Feki Changeology An eerie, unforgettable story of power, several years. Here she talks passionately about Vintage. PB. $34.95 Les Robinson loss and family curses in early 20th what motivates her to write (it’s a four-letter word Scribe. PB. $27.95 century Princeton. Narrated with Oates’ that’s as good a motivator as any). In the political unrest that swept unmistakable psychological insight, These pieces are infinitely readable across the Arab world in 2011, Changeology is all about The Accursed combines beautiful and Kennedy has a refreshing ability to take all eyes were on the streets and influencing the behaviour of historical detail with chilling fantastical the piss out of herself, as well as the publishing squares erupting in protest. But human beings for the better, for elements to stunning effect. and writing industry. On workshops, she writes: for the past five years, Shereen projects both large and small, ‘That’s what you do when you can’t write yet: El Feki has been looking at the with particular emphasis on you lead workshops for other people who can’t upheaval a little closer to home climate change, poverty, obesity, write yet, and hope they can’t write yet a little bit – via the sexual lives of men and women across AIDS, tobacco and drug use. It is more than you can’t.’ region. Sex might seem a strange lens through for anyone – professionals and individuals – who which to examine change, but it is in fact a prism wants to make a change to their corporations, cities Clare Kennedy is a freelance reviewer refracting political, economic and social trends. and neighborhoods, as well as in their own lives. Rich in first-person stories and original research, Sex and the Citadel gives unprecedented insight Lean In Biography into a part of the world that is transforming Sheryl Sandberg before our very eyes. Random. PB. $34.95 Daphne du Maurier Released 18 March and her Sisters Ask most women whether they Jane Dunn Cultural Studies have the right to equality at HarperCollins. HB. Was $35 work and the answer will be a The Fine Colour of Rust Special price $29.95 FREELOADING resounding yes, but ask the BY PADDY O’REILLY ebook $17.99 Chris Ruen same women whether they feel confident asking for a The middle sister in a celebrated Scribe. PB. $27.95 9780007434954 | RRP $17.99 raise, a promotion or equal artistic dynasty, Daphne du Internet piracy has created pay, and some reticence creeps in. The Maurier, author of Rebecca and unlikely allies. On the one hand, The Fine Colour of Rust is a beautifully statistics, although improved, are still grim – Jamaica Inn, is one of the master there are the original creators of observed, wryly funny novel about of 197 heads of state, only 22 are women. storytellers of our time. But her content, including artists and friendship, love and fighting for things Women hold just 20% of seats in parliaments fame and success overshadowed corporate copyright holders. On that matter. Single mother Loretta globally, and a meagre 18 of the Fortune 500 that of her sisters, Angela and the other, there are legions of Boskovic is a heroine with a big heart CEOs are women. In Lean In, Facebook COO Jeanne, a writer and an artist of talent in their own free-spirited consumers and fans and a strong sense of injustice who Sheryl Sandberg looks at what women can rights. In this group biography they are who see themselves as part of the hacker tradition. gives us all permission to dream. do to help themselves and effect change on considered side by side: three sisters brought In Freeloading, Chris Ruen takes a critical, cool a more universal scale, drawing on her own up in the hothouse of a theatrical family with a look at this phenomenon, examining the famous experiences working in some of the world’s peculiar and powerful father, full of creative SOPA protests and the attendant rhetoric, as well most successful businesses, as well as energy and compulsive make-believe in a life as as proposing practical solutions that would academic research. psychologically complex as a du Maurier plotline. provide protection to artists and consumers alike. Readings MONTHLY march 2013 13

Food& Gardening Art & Design Meet with Christine Gordon, with Margaret Snowdon, Readings Carlton Readings Carlton the Bookseller DR BRYAN Lou Fulco – Readings Hawthorn A Bite of the Big Apple The Books That Shaped MENDELSON Monica Trápaga & Lil Tulloch Art History Lantern. HB. $39.99 John-Paul Stonard & Here is the dream: mother and Richard Shone (eds.) daughter run away to New York, T&H. HB. $49.95 collecting food ideas and friends Fifteen out of these 16 essays on In while they search for their groundbreaking art history books Hispanic and Filipino roots. For originally appeared in The Monica Trápaga and Lil Tulloch, Burlington Magazine as part of a it’s a dream that lasted two years. series called ‘Art History A Bite of the Big Apple is a collection of their Reviewed’. This approach is favourite experiences along with 60 recipes for excellent because it informs on Why do you work in books? Your tapas, cocktails and a particularly delicious batch several different levels – exploring the books I actually came to Readings as a music and of spicy oatmeal biscuits. Think of it as a cross- themselves and providing an introduction to their DVD specialist. Readings was the place that I cultural romp through the melting pot of a city that content, as well as looking at the achievements of used to buy many of my books from prior to never sleeps. This is the book you give someone the authors and the important historical and that, so the marriage was a bonus. who wants to go to New York, who has never been cultural context of the works. John-Paul Stonard to New York or who should go to New York. It’s says in his introduction, ‘Whereas many books What’s the strangest experience Face also for you, who may have already been to New introducing art history do so from the perspective you’ve had in a bookshop? York. Drink the Manhattans and reminisce. of theories and methods, the points of Many years ago, working in a music store, embarkation for this volume are rather the I was confronted by a very angry man who A lively exploration Hummingbird Bakery: landmark publications that have shaped the wanted to return a DVD that had bite marks of the history of subject, as well as the personalities and stories Home Sweet Home and saliva on the case. When I told him behind those contributions.’ I didn’t read one Tarek Malouf that his dog had bitten it and I wouldn’t facial surgery and sentence that I wasn’t engagingly informed by, HarperCollins. HB. $35 take it back he got angry, to say the least, from the preface to the biographies at the back. why looks matter, telling me that it was only the case that was It goes without saying that our damaged. When I opened the case to find love of baking has from world-renowned Paris Street Style the disc had also been bitten I laughed and been handed down from aesthetic plastic told him in no uncertain terms that I was generation to generation. Isabelle Thomas & not taking the disc back. This angry little The smell of baking breads Frédérique Veysset surgeon Dr Bryan man lost the plot. My boss at the time made and cakes is surely one of Abrams. PB. Was $29.95 me give him his money back (not so much Mendelson. the greatest loves in life. This Special price $24.95 because he was so angry but probably collection of 100 recipes includes cupcakes, An indispensable guide to because she thought I might belt him) but loaves, layer cakes, biscuits, sweets, roulades, easy everyday chic, straight not until I had told him subtly that I would pies, puddings and savouries. There’s everything from the streets of Paris. not have him in the store again. (NB. This from the really simple Olive Loaf to the much more Pitch-perfect wardrobe advice story has been cleaned up for the reader). time-consuming Lemon Layer Cake. You may is accompanied by a list of have been to the famed Hummingbird Bakery essential French boutiques What’s the best experience you’ve in London. If not, here is your chance to create and restaurants. The book had in a bookshop? your own world of whimsical delights. This book includes tips from designers, stylists and Whenever someone comes in wanting to is definitely for the home kitchen – the recipes are editors, and mixes eclectic design with photos chat about something that I also like usually easy-peasy and a sure way to achieve success. and hand-drawn sketches. makes my day. I find these customers are The Perfect Meal open to recommendations. I also find they Phaidon Focus Series can have a surprise or two that I haven’t John Baxter Phaidon. HB. $24.95 each seen or heard or read about before. Harper Perennial. PB. $19.99 Francis Bacon, Brice Marden, One such customer is Jan Grant. Our ebook $10.99 Andy Warhol, Robert conversations about foreign crime shows John Baxter’s The Perfect Meal Rauschenberg, David Smith have been known to be lengthy. is part grand tour, part French and Anselm Kiefer are the first culinary history. Having lived in six artists to be covered in the What’s your favourite book, film or Paris for more than 20 years, new Phaidon Focus series, a album of all time and why? Baxter guides us through some collection of accessible, Favourite book is probably The World of the country’s most famous enjoyable and thought-provoking books on According to Garp by John Irving. His style AVAILABLE (and not-so-famous) eateries, internationally renowned modern masters. is unique in that he puts me right into the and argues that some of the more complex Up-to-date and authoritative, each title covers heart of his stories. His humour is also left MARCH elements of French cuisine are in danger of the full span of an individual artist's work. of centre, much like mine. Never have I disappearing. If you are someone who needs to Chronological essays are accompanied by laughed out loud in public as much as I know the history of every garnish, who believes Focus sections that explore specific themes, have with this book. that the French do it better or simply enjoys food series or pieces. These lively and beautifully Favourite albums are probably Bruce journeys, then this book is for you. Personally, illustrated books are perfect and indispensable Springsteen’s Born to Run, The Beatles’ I’m going to give a copy to my partner in the introductions to modern artists, providing Abbey Road and Santana’s Abraxas. I can’t hope that it spurs him on to buy those tickets for invaluable insight into their life and work. us. It’s that type of book. It makes you dream. decide! Don’t make me, please don’t make me. All different moods but all powerful for A Map of the World different reasons. Toxic Oil Antoniou et al As far as movies go, I will watch anything. David Gillespie Die Gestalten Verlag. HB $85 Viking. PB. $29.99 I have been watching some old westerns A new generation of designers, lately, of which Red River and The ebook $19.99 illustrators and mapmakers are Searchers stand out as wonderful for David Gillespie, of Sweet discovering their passion for different reasons. I am also partial to the Poison fame, simply does not various forms of illustrative four-hour print of Dances With Wolves. I hold back in his new book, cartography. A Map of the love the cinematography, the soundtrack again forcing us to question World is a compelling and the story. our own eating habits. He collection of their work, from accurate and outlines why seed oils will surprisingly detailed representations to personal, But hey, that’s just this week! make you sick with cancer and naïve and modernistic interpretations. Featured heart diseases and offers a practical guide to projects range from maps and atlases inspired by dealing with the shock of coming to terms with classic forms to cartographic experiments and the truths he presents. editorial illustrations. 14 Readings MONTHLY march 2013

zap me! to read chapter 1

Picture Books The Curious Explorer’s This month’s Readings Monthly cover art by Marc Martin has been proudly brought to you Illustrated Guide to Exotic by the very friendly faces, mouths, and hands at The Jacky Winter Group. Animals A to Z Marc Martin Viking. HB. $24.99

Review: Kids may have to fight for ownership of this absolutely splendid book. Sure, it’s an alphabet book, but children will delight in the bold shapes and luscious colours. They will wonder at the Latin names that sound poetic and magical. They can ponder the fascinating facts and descriptions of the curious creatures. Adults with artistic persuasions will also be beguiled by the beauty of Marc Martin’s creativity. His first picture book, A Forest, portrayed a fragile jackywinter.com world with pleasing patterns and delicate watercolours. In his new work, he is bold and no less admiring of nature. He luxuriates in the perfection of each animal’s anatomy. The Did you circular motif is central to the illustrations and satisfyingly links the elegant shapes of the animals and birds. Nature appears so know... noble and empowered, even as so many are fighting for their survival in their precarious environments. This is a book that respects the intelligence and creativity of children while ...that Dr Seuss’s remaining sophisticated enough for designers and artists to be Green Eggs truly inspired. and Ham Alexa Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn was written Flora and the Flamingo using only 50 Molly Idle Chronicle. HB. $22.95

words? Seuss’s Review: A graceful flamingo attempts to teach Flora how to dance in this gentle publisher, story of patience and friendship. The Bennett Cerf, narrative is eloquently expressed through pictures – no words are used, and nor, in bet him $50 that fact, are they needed. The clever flaps capture Flora’s journey from clumsy it could not be copycat in flippers, poorly mimicking the flamingo’s every move, to the two performing a routine and soaring in tandem. done. Out of the This beautiful, pink-hued story will particularly appeal to young 50 words, 49 readers who love movement and dance. have just one Angela Crocombe is from Readings St Kilda syllable – the I Dare You Not to Yawn longest word in Hélène Boudreau & Serge Bloch (illus.) Preschool Candlewick. HB. $24.95 the whole book is Review: This cheeky bedtime book Story warns young readers against the perils of ‘anywhere’. an inadvertent yawn. Be careful – yawning Time is contagious and it inevitably leads down a slippery slope to bed and lights out. In fact, even looking at a picture book that Come along to Story Time gives us the sights and sounds of a yawn at Readings! Everyone is can be enough to induce one in the reader. My daughter and I have enjoyed this story a few times now and have both felt welcome to listen to some compelled to yawn at each and every reading. Bold and the final thrilling wonderful books, suitable colourful illustrations by Serge Block perfectly complement this story in for a pre-school audience. amusing story for ages 3 and up. AC the hero trilogy No bookings required. My Easter Egg Hunt Rosie Smith & Bruce Whatley (illus.) Readings Carlton Scholastic. HB. $16.99 out now Monday 11am Hunting for eggs is fun ... when you share with everyone. Beautifully put together by Readings St Kilda well-known Australian husband-and-wife Thursday 10.30am team Rosie Smith and Bruce Whatley, and including many delightful animals, My Easter Egg Hunt captures the excitement of Easter time.

amba2839r Readings MONTHLY march 2013 15

Book of the Month Timmy Failure Stephan Pastis Walker. HB. $17.95

Review: Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made is so funny and engaging that as my nine-year-old son sat reading it on the tram, giggling away, he completely missed his stop, Graphic Novel twice! In fact, all of the members of my household, children and adults, read and loved this book. LiO: There’s a Monster in Along with his polar bear sidekick, Timmy Failure runs a detective agency, which he claims My Socks is perhaps the best in the nation (modesty is not his strong point). Timmy takes his detective Mark Tatulli business very seriously indeed; however, his complete lack of actual skills or insight sees him Andrews McMeel. PB. $14.95 blundering his way from one misunderstanding to another. Author Stephan Pastis’ clever use of drawings and comics not only adds to the charm, humour and accessibility of the text, but also Review: Liō is naughty and inventive. He serves to show the reader much of what Timmy misses or misinterprets. devises cool experiments that fool his father and get the better of bullies. He has a pet This book will definitely appeal to reluctant readers and established book lovers alike. snake and octopus, but sometimes the Highly recommended for mums, dads, girls and boys ages 8 and up. We’re living in animals fool him, even an alien or two. He has hope of another hilarious tram-stop-missing instalment. been known to associate with ‘Wild Things’ and vampires hold an endless fascination for Kate Campbell is from Readings Hawthorn (this review was written him. He’s an awesome little dude and all in collaboration with Blake Williams (9), Clay Williams without uttering one word! (11) and Steve Williams) This is a funny and offbeat graphic novel, and Liō has an Edward Gorey sensibility as he masterminds ingenious creations and hoodwinks those around him. Mark Tatulli’s cartoons are very clever and Liō is a hilarious and endearingly crafty kid who will have wide appeal, particularly for those who find reading a struggle. This is a book that isn’t a battle and My Superhero yet sneakily promotes reading, as books are Lio’s constant New companions as he plans his cheeky contraptions. Young Chris Owen & Moira Court (illus.) artists and cartoonists will also find plenty here to inspire them. Fremantle. HB. $26.99 Madcap fun for ages 6 and up. AD Superheroes have lots of super attributes: amazing strength, incredible speed, sensational costumes. But this charming book Classic is a celebration of super skills of a different kind Kids’ – the kind that are much closer to home – and The Steadfast Tin Soldier the illustrations are a hit. Cynthia Rylant & Jen Corace (illus.) T&H. HB. $25.95 Not a Cloud in the Sky A new version of the classic Hans Emma Quay Books Christian Andersen fairytale about a tin HarperCollins. HB. $24.99 Quiz Champs soldier who falls in love with a ballerina. The tin soldier is thwarted by a goblin, Released late March Susan Halliday & Tom Jellett (illus.) becomes separated from the other toys Bird had been flying for such a long time. Ford Street. PB. $9.95 and is washed down a sewer, where he Sometimes everything looks the same all Marcy, the lead female character from the encounters a rat and gets swallowed by a over, with nothing different apart from the Toocool books, now has her own series. fish. Somehow, against all odds, he manages to end up back clouds. A beautiful picture book about how The class has been divided into two teams home, only to be cast into the nursery fire! But there’s a happy finding a friend can change the shape of a for a quiz. It’s boys versus girls and Marcy twist in this latest version. day, from the author of Rudie Nudie and is the captain of the Girls’ Team. She has a Shrieking Violet. go at everything, and her positive attitude, self-confidence and candid humour are Paris, Line by Line contagious – there is no challenge too large! Classic of the Month Robinson Universe. HB. $26.95 King Matt The First A brilliant souvenir for people of all ages, back in Non-Fiction Janusz Korczak print for the first time in 40 years. In the early Vintage. PB. $12.95 Meet Ned Kelly 1960s, Robinson documented Paris in his Review: King Matt the First is a classic Janeen Brian & Matt Adams (illus.) signature style. Page after page is filled with of children’s literature that seems to have Random. HB. $19.95 beautiful, precise drawings of the Right Bank, the escaped the knowledge of those outside of Champs-Élysées and the Moulin Rouge. ‘Ned Kelly was a notorious bushranger. Europe. Indeed, it would have remained He was daring and clever and bold. In a unknown to me had I not begun teaching suit made of iron, he battled police; and grade six after teaching juniors. I spent my Junior Fiction his story is still being told.’ Meet Ned summer searching for books to read aloud Kelly is part of a great picture book – books that would interest both girls and Starring Jules (As Herself) series on the people who shaped boys, that would provide them with Beth Ain & Anne Keenan Higgins (illus.) Australian history, from Saint Mary Mackillop to Captain Cook excitement, suspense and new ideas to A&U. PB. $11.99 and Douglas Mawson. discuss, and that would lend themselves to being shared. Thankfully I found King Matt the First. Review: Jules Bloom is the central In the story, a child is crowned as the ruler of his character in this new series that will appeal to Jandamarra country after the death of his father. Thrust into leadership before fans of Judy Moody. Quirky, fun and Mark Greenwood & Terry Denton he can even write or count, Matt must navigate the strange world wholesome, the first story sees Jules tying A&U. HB. $29.99 of grown-up politics. herself in knots about an audition for a TV Set in the Kimberley region in north-west King Matt the First offers as much to adults as it commercial – the trouble is that the audition Australia, this is the story of a young warrior does to children. On one hand, it is a rollicking tale filled with involves gargling orange mouthwash and born to lead. To the settlers, he was an outlaw adventure and excitement; on the other, it asks its readers Jules has terrible associations with the flavour to be hunted. To the Bunuba, he was a (especially adults) to consider not only the rights of children of orange. Like a lot of US fiction, the young characters sound courageous defender of his country. Mark as part of society, but just how much they are capable of when older than they are, but Jules is not overly sassy for the Greenwood’s text and Terry Denton’s given the chance. six-to-nine-year-olds this book is aimed at. Sweet illustrations, watercolour illustrations bring to life this story I can’t wait to share this book with 6L. sound themes relevant to the age group and a heart-warming of conflict and divided loyalties – giving a sibling relationship complete the picture. unique insight into an extraordinary man and a tragic but Louisa Dretzke is a friend of Readings Emily Gale is from Readings Carlton important part of Australia’s frontier history. 16 Readings MONTHLY march 2013

The Age of Our Great The General The Search for Wonder Game Jonathan Fenby Tutankhamun Richard Holmes John Murray HB. Was $49.99 Niki Horin & Andrew HB. Was $56 HB. Was $115 NOW $16.95 Hopgood (illus.) NOW $16.95 NOW $29.95 This is a magisterial, sweeping HB. Was $34.95 biography of one of the great This captivating history argues Follow the journey of the NOW $13.95 leaders of the twentieth century, that the Romantic imagination was inspired, country’s biggest sporting code, Australian The Search for Tutankhamun presents the Charles de Gaulle, as well as the country with not alienated, by scientific advances. Richard Rules, from it’s origins of in 1858 right through greatest real-life treasure hunt of all time which he so identified, France. Written with Holmes looks at prominent British scientists to the present day. The glossy coffee-table in breathtaking 3D detail and includes terrific verve, narrative skill and rigorous detail, including astronomer Humphrey Davy, leading publication brings together the most complete educational aids such as a handbook of this major work brings to life the private man chemist and amateur poet William Herschel collection of images ever published on the archaeological terms, along with beautiful line as well as the public leader, through exhaustive and his accomplished assistant and sister, game, some of which have not previously been illustrations and photographs. The book reads research and analysis. Caroline, and Joseph Banks, whose journal seen by the sporting public, with a foreword like an adventure story, so young readers can of a youthful voyage to Tahiti was a study in from Kevin Bartlett. easily follow in the steps of Howard Carter as sexual libertinism. Parallel he searches for the tomb. Mateship With Stories Civilizations Birds Péter Nádas The Children’s Felipe Fernández- Carrie Tiffany HB. Was $55.95 Atlas Of The Armesto PB. Was $19.99 NOW $15 Universe PB. Was $25 NOW $11.95 In the year the Berlin Wall Mark Garlick NOW $15 came down, a university student on Set on the outskirts of HB. Was $29.95 Oxford academic Felipe an Australian country town in the his morning run finds a corpse NOW $12 Fernandez-Armesto 1950s, Mateship With Birds is on a park bench and alerts An authority on astronomy, Mark Garlick argues that civilisation is not evidenced a novel about young lust the authorities. From creates a journey of discovery for children with by a formal political structure, aesthetics, and mature love. It’s a this classic police- illustrations and lively, authoritative text, maps, ethical principles or religion, but rather by a hymn to the rhythm of procedural scene charts and hard-working cutaways that reveal culture’s attempt to refashion its environment. country life – to vicious Readings we open up to the inner workings of our universe. This book By arguing that a society’s relationship birds, virginal cows, an extraordinary is essential for any eager space explorer and to climate, geography and ecology are adored dogs and ill- novel that traces clearly explains complex concepts, covering key paramount in determining its degree of used sheep. On this Bargain the fate of myriad areas such as deep space, supernovas, black success, Civilizations connects the world of one small farm in a Europeans across holes and visiting space itself. ecology with the panorama of cultural history. vast, ancient landscape, the treacherous years of the mid-twentieth a collection of misfits Table A to Z of Nine Lives question the nature of what century. Parallel Stories is a demanding and William Dalrymple a family can be. Animals moving exploration HB. Was $37.95 Peter David Scott of humanity. HB. Was $24.95 NOW $15 Joseph NOW $12.95 From the author of The Anton Warrior Last Mughal and In Xanadu Salman Rushdie Explore this amazing alphabet Women of animals, from ants to butterflies, from comes a mesmerising book PB. Was $35 Robin Cross iguanas to polar bears, from whales to zebras. that explores how traditional religions are NOW $19.95 Peter David Scott’s stunning artwork brings a observed in contemporary India, revealing Hailed as a literary martyr & Rosalind Miles menagerie of creatures to life. Accompanied ways of life that we might otherwise never and derided as a prima donna, Salman Rushdie HB. Was $49.99 by a section of fascinating animal facts and have known. The titular nine lives are those emerges as both inspiring and insufferable NOW $15.95 nature notes, this wildlife adventure is a of a variety of religious adherents, including a in the memoir of his life following the 1989 Women leaders abounded in the ancient pleasure to rediscover every time the book Jain nun, a sacred dancer, a Sufi mystic and a fatwa issued against him by Iran’s Ayatollah world from Ireland to Israel, often rising to is opened. Tantric practitioner. Khomeini. The British-Indian novelist’s third- power through naked opportunism and raw person account of the firestorm surroundingThe courage. Presenting an array of fascinating and The West & Satanic Verses as he is taken under protection sometimes little-known female leaders in war, Rome: Rise and The Map Of and into hiding is frank and harrowing. author Rosalind Miles and acclaimed military Fall of an The World historian Robin Cross do full justice to some Empire astounding achievements. Matthew Richardson The Man Who Philip Wilkinson Loved China HB. Was $29.95 HB. Was $69.99 The Stranger’s NOW $16.95 Simon Winchester NOW $11.95 Inspired by antique mapmakers and their PB. Was $22.95 Child Step inside Rome and take a journey back global vision, The West & the Map of the World NOW $13 Alan Hollinghurst in time to one of history’s greatest empires. Immerse yourself in the excitement of the presents the past as a single narrative in Simon Winchester brings to life HB. Was $49.99 crowd as gladiators fight to the death at the which European history is an offshoot of Asian the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the NOW $13.95 Colosseum, read first-hand stories of what history. Lavishly illustrated with more than 100 brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the It is the late summer of the last life was like for the people of ancient Rome, maps from the State Library of Victoria, and most closely held secrets of China. By the time year before the first Great War. Cecil Valance, and see what happened to Pompeii when based on ancient writings, this book reaches of his death, Needham had produced seventeen a young aristocratic poet, is visiting Two Acres, Vesuvius erupted. new conclusions about the modern success of immense volumes, marking him as the greatest the home of his Cambridge friend and lover, the West. one-man encyclopaedist who ever lived. The Man George Sawle. Here is a deliciously funny novel, Who Loved China is both an epic and intimate glittering with acute observation and arch insight The We Are portrait of a man, and the nation he loved. into the worlds of those who belong and of Inheritance Geelong those who are excluded. Cycle Role Models John Murray Best Movies Christopher Paolini HB. Was $49.95 John Waters PB. Was $79.85 NOW $15 HB. Was $29.95 of The 70s NOW $24.95 We Are Geelong explores NOW $16 Jürgen Müller When Eragon finds a the special relationship between the city of John Waters’ Role Models HB. Was $22.95 polished stone in the forest, he thinks it is the Geelong and Victoria’s only regional AFL club. is a self-portrait told through NOW $13.95 lucky discovery of a poor farm boy; perhaps The handsome hardcover edition, celebrating intimate literary profiles of the The 1970s, that magical era it will buy his family meat for the winter. But the 150th anniversary of the Cats, takes you cult filmmaker’s favourite personalities. Some betwixt the swinging 60s and the decadent 80s, when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, on a colourful journey through the club’s rich are famous and some unknown, some are the age of disco music and platform shoes. Eragon soon realises he has stumbled upon a history and includes essays from Australia’s criminals and some surprisingly middle-of-the- As war raged on in Vietnam and the cold war legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself. The leading football writers and historians, along road, but all of them, from the foul-mouthed continued to escalate, Hollywood began to heat Inheritance cycle is a thrilling fantasy series with stirring photographs. An essential item for proprietress of a favourite bar to jazz singer up, recovering from its commercial crisis with about dragon riders, comprising of Eragon, any fan’s library. Johnny Mathis, influenced the author in forming box-office successes such as Star Wars, Jaws Eldest, Brisingr and Inheritance. his own particular brand of neurotic happiness. and The Godfather.

New books are regularly added to our website – visit the bargains page at www.readings.com.au for more. Readings MONTHLY march 2013 17

GAME OF THRONES: SEASON 2 DVD $59.95 with Lou Fulco Released 6 March of The battle continues in Westeros with feuding families and themselves The Cause, forming a strange places such as Hollywood and Mumbai, and the power-hungry rulers. Season 2 bond with its charismatic leader, Lancaster features interviews with legendary filmmakers plays out against the backdrop Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Seen as and actors. month of a fast-approaching winter as controversial upon its release for its five kings vie for a single throne. Scientology overtones, The Master explores ROBOT & FRANK SEARCHING FOR In King’s Landing, the coveted cult fanaticism and lies being sold as religion. $39.95 SUGAR MAN Iron Throne is occupied by the cruel young Released 14 March $29.95 Joffrey, counselled by his conniving mother TO ROME WITH LOVE Cersei and uncle Tyrion. But the Lannister hold is Set in the near future, Frank, a Rodriguez was the greatest 70s US rock icon $39.95 under assault on many fronts – there’s Robb retired cat burglar, is gradually who never was. Momentarily hailed as the Stark, Ned Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, Stannis A romantic comedy from Woody going senile. Not wanting to be finest recording artist of his generation, this Baratheon and Stannis’ brother Renly. In the Allen, To Rome With Love follows placed in a home, his son buys Detroit folk singer disappeared into oblivion, meantime, a new leader is rising among the four different storylines around him a robot caretaker. Only Frank only to rise again in a completely different wildlings north of the Wall, creating peril for Jon the Eternal City, ranging from the manages to persuade his new context an entire continent away. In South Snow and the Night’s Watch. Confused? Don’t absurd to the fantastical to ‘friend’ to be his partner in crime Africa, he became the musical inspiration for be. This brilliant series continues to take giant straightforward farce. While you for some late-life capers he has planned. What a generation, even though it was rumoured he strides in imagery and storytelling. Season 1 is can’t compare this with the follows is an often hilarious and heartwarming had suicided. Thanks to a few fans hoping to still available – don’t get left behind! brilliant Midnight in Paris, To Rome With Love is story about finding friends and family in the most seek out the truth, this construction-worker- well written and wonderfully acted, and has Woody unexpected places. Starring Frank Langella, come-singer discovered that long-lost dreams THE INTOUCHABLES asking, ‘Just where has the time passed me by?’ Susan Sarandon, Liv Tyler and James Marsden. can come true after all. $39.95 Released 6 March ON THE ROAD FRANKENWEENIE $39.95 An irreverent, uplifting comedy $39.95 Americans hostage. In the midst of the about friendship, trust and Just after his father’s death, When young Victor’s pet dog chaos, six Americans managed to slip away human possibility, The aspiring New York writer Sal Sparky (who stars in Victor’s and find refuge in the home of the Canadian Intouchables is based on the Paradise meets Dean Moriarty, home-made monster movies) is ambassador. A CIA exfiltration specialist true story of a handicapped a charming ex-con, married to hit by a car, Victor decides to named Tony Mendez came up with a risky millionaire and his street-smart the very liberated and seductive bring him back to life the only plan to get them safely out of the country – a ex-con caretaker. The film Marylou. Sal and Dean bond way he knows how. But when the plan so incredible, it could only happen in the depicts an unlikely camaraderie rooted in instantly and, determined not to bolt-necked ‘monster’ wreaks movies. A critically acclaimed film directed by honesty and humour between two individuals get locked into a constricted life, the two friends havoc and terror across the neighbourhood, Victor and starring Ben Affleck. who, on the surface, would seem to have cut their ties and take to the road with Marylou. has to convince everyone (including his parents) nothing in common. A great film that Craving freedom and liberty, the three head off that, despite his appearance, Sparky’s still the incorporates a fantastic soundtrack. in search of the world, of other encounters and good loyal friend he’s always been. Tim Burton GRAND DESIGNS of themselves. Based on the groundbreaking captures the feel of the old horror movies in this AUSTRALIA: SERIES 3 THE MASTER novel by Jack Kerouac. stop-motion animated film. $39.95 $39.95 Released 6 March Released 13 March THE STORY OF FILM ARGO Based on the successful UK $89.95 $39.95 show and hosted by architect A striking portrait of drifters Peter Maddison, the third and seekers in post-World War An epic 15-part guided tour of Based on real events, Argo season of Grand Designs II America, Paul Thomas the greatest movies ever chronicles the life-or-death Australia continues to follow Anderson’s The Master follows made, filmed over six years on covert operation to rescue six the structural, financial and the journey of troubled naval six continents and covering 12 Americans, which unfolded emotional journeys of people veteran Freddie Quell decades and a thousand titles, behind the scenes during the building their own homes over the course of (Joaquin Phoenix). 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ebook $9.99 ebooks.readings.com.au AUSTRALIA’S OWN SINCE 1969 18 Readings MONTHLY march 2013

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He’s that good. and Band of Gypsys line-up, it paints a 22 March solo album; it’s not quite Eraser part two, but feels Forever Endeavour is his twelfth album and it’s fascinating musical portrait of the direction in Tooth & Nail / Billy Bragg, 22 March closer to that than a Radiohead album. Of course, every bit as good as anything he’s done, which which Hendrix was heading, featuring horns, Overgrown / James Blake, 5 April it is hard not to think of how it all fits within this is to say it’s very fine indeed. keyboards, percussion and second guitar. Division Street / Harper Simon, 5 April famous band’s discography, whose records are Mosquito / Yeah Yeah Yeahs, 12 April obviously less guitar-driven now that electronics Declan Murphy is from Readings St Kilda Readings MONTHLY march 2013 19

Special classical of the cd of the Virtuosic in style, it’s a fascinating insight into Joachim Raff: month the ideas of Ravel, who orchestrated it, and month Mussorgsky’s original intentions. Following on Symphony No. 2, Four J.S. Bach: Ouvertüren: from that are Prokofiev’s Five Sarcasms and Shakespeare Preludes Vivaldi: The Four Complete Orchestral Visions Fugitives. Osborne delightfully trips his Orchestre de la Suisse romande Seasons Suites way around the keyboard in the Allegro & Neeme Järvi Recomposed by Max Richter movements, demonstrating slow restraint yet Chandos. CHSA5117. $24.95 DG. 4810044. Was $26.95 Freiburger Barockorchester maintaining momentum throughout the entire Review: Who is Joachim Special price $21.95 (for a limited time only) Harmonia Mundi. HMC90211314. 2CDs. album. KR Was $29.95 Raff? That was my first Review: Why on earth would anyone re-write Special price $19.95 (for a limited time only) Rachmaninov: The Isle question on getting this one of the most endearing and famous works in recording, but as soon as I This month’s classical special is the 2012 the history of classical western music? I'm of the Dead, The Rock, listened to the very first notes, it Gramophone Award-winner in the Baroque assuming that it’s because you have such a strong didn’t matter. One of the few of Raff’s symphonies Instrumental category. The Freiburger Orchestra Symphonic Dances musical concept that you must express it. And without a programmatic title, it is nonetheless full give an exhilarating account of all the suites. Andrew Litton & Bergen what a world Max Richter creates! Vivaldi is clearly of musical descriptions. There is a genuine warmth As the Financial Times noted, ‘[They] offer no Philharmonic Orchestra present – his genius is not muddied – but Richter’s in the playing from the Orchestre de la Suisse star soloist, but don’t need one in Bach’s four BIS. BIS1751. $29.95 is built around it. This is a truly beautiful re- romande that I have not heard for some time, and orchestral suites, where the entire ensemble imagining of a classic in a totally unexpected way. Review: This new the delicacy in the slower movements is is the soloist. The touchstone of these Give this one a chance – it might just surprise you. recording from Andrew overshadowed by the outpourings of phrases in performances is their “joie de vivre”: a lively pace, Litton and the Bergen the faster ones. This CD is a must for any fan of Kate Rockstrom is from Readings Carlton a rhythmic verve, a stylistic sleight-of-hand that Philharmonic is the perfect orchestral music in the style of Beethoven, Brahms keeps this music fresh and the listener on his/her introduction to these and other such distinguished composers. KR toes.’ This is Bach played the way it should be. wonderful works by Rachmaninov. Beginning equals what I thought could never be replicated with The Isle of the Dead, a tone poem dating Mozart: Keyboard in their original performance of Symphony No. 1. back to 1909, and inspired by the painting of Music, Vol. 4 There is just so much depth of character in each the same name by Arnold Bochlin, Litton musical idea. The perfect Mahler recordings. KR Nielsen: Symphonies builds the tension beautifully and the result is Kristian Bezuidenhout Nos 2 & 3 haunting and powerful. Litton again delivers Harmonia Mundi. HMU907528. $24.95 Rachmaninov Rarities the goods on The Rock and Symphonic Sir Colin Davis & London Review: I know a lot of Vladimir Ashkenazy Dances. His passion for the music is obvious Symphony Orchestra people are firm in their Decca. 4782939. Was $26.95 and all pieces benefit greatly. This is a must opinions whether or not LSO Live. LSO0722. $19.95 Special price $21.95 (for a limited time only) for all diehard fans of Rachmaninov, and for Mozart (and other such Review: I don’t know music lovers in general. composers) should only be Review: One of my why Nielsen is not a more played on period instruments, but I have to admit favourite recordings ever is popular composer around Phil Richards is from Readings Carlton I’m a fence-sitter on this one. I believe it all comes that of Vladimir Ashkenazy here. Lush and romantic in down to the individual performer to pull it off. In performing the Bach Partitas. style, but with interesting Zarebski: Piano Bezuidenhout’s new recording of Mozart piano For his latest, Ashkenazy has twentieth-century harmonic ideas, his Quintet Op. 34; works, he commands the period instrument with made a comprehensive study of all of symphonies are truly gorgeous. Continuing in Zelenski: Piano superb skill and sounds thoroughly at home on Rachmaninov’s piano and orchestral works. If their Nielsen series of recordings, the LSO the difficult fortepiano. At no point did I notice anyone was going to get close to what now present Symphony No. 2, The Four Quartet Op. 61 there was unequal temperament, despite being Rachmaninov truly wanted in his music, Temperaments, and Symphony No 3, Sinfonia Jonathan Plowright & so used to hearing equal temperament Ashkenazy would be that performer. With 13 Espansiva. The former is lyrical and often Szymanowski Quartet instruments. Listening to the slower movements, I different works showing both the prowess and gentle in its depiction of the four Hyperion. CDA67905. $24.95 almost felt that the fortepiano was truly the master sensitivity that Rachmaninov had as a composer, temperaments of our emotional states, but the Review: This recording of genteel music. KR Rarities does not disappoint. KR opening of the latter shows a completely from two obscure Polish different side of Nielsen as a composer. composers is another first for Mahler 9 Karajan Adagio Kate Rockstrom is from Readings Carlton the Hyperion label. Both Gustavo Dudamel & Los Angeles Herbert von Karajan works are excellent examples Philharmonic DG. 4790540. 2CDs. $29.95 of chamber music from the Romantic period DG. 4790924. Was $26.95 Review: If you’ve ever Mussorgsky: Pictures and wouldn’t be out of place beside Special price $21.95 (for a limited time only) heard The Death of Ase by From An Exhibition Schumann, Mendelssohn or even Schubert. Grieg and not been moved, Steven Osborne The skill of both composers is obvious from the Review: When Gustavo then you need to hear it done Hyperion. CDA67896. $24.95 opening notes, and they are fortunate that Dudamel first started with the by Karajan. Deutsche Jonathan Plowright and the Szymanowski Los Angeles Philharmonic, Review: As someone who Grammophon have chosen the best adagios from Quartet play with great passion throughout. they performed Mahler’s is more familiar with the their vast library and this is a truly gorgeous Credit must be given to Hyperion for bringing Symphony No. 1. This was, orchestrated version of selection of music. I know there are those who these works to the attention of the music and still is for me, the best performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an dismiss compilation albums, but every work you buying public. Highly recommended. PR Mahler’s first that I have ever heard. What is so Exhibition, it was very see in this list is something that catches your eye exciting about this recording of his ninth is that it interesting listening to the original piano version. and immediately makes you want to put it on. KR

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