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A delicious new recipe from Hetty McKinnon

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New books by Richard Flanagan, Trent Dalton, Craig Silvey, Marilynne Robinson, Gail Jones and more

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by Richard Flanagan describing some of Monthly, which will both be full of gift ideas Bargains his thoughts in writing the book. To enter and recommendations, and if you sign up to October You might notice something missing from online, simply write ‘competition’ in the notes our enews, you’ll receive lots of great ideas your Readings Monthly this month. Due to field during checkout when finalising your and special offers direct to your inbox. Visit the ongoing lockdowns, restrictions and purchase of the book. If you are purchasing readings.com.au/sign-up to subscribe. News supply issues in Victoria, we are unable to the book via pick-up from our shops, let the include our Bargains page in this October Readings staff member know over the phone edition. But don’t worry, the Bargains page that you’d like to enter the draw. The winner Introducing Latitude Pay will return to the Readings Monthly in 2021, will be chosen at random and contacted by When our shops reopen to the public, Thank you to all of our customers for your and, in the meantime, you can still browse Friday 30 October, either by phone or email. Readings will be introducing Latitude Pay continued support throughout this difficult our wonderful range of bargain books at as a payment option. Latitude Pay allows year. As you know, due to the ongoing readings.com.au/bargains customers to buy now, and then pay for their public health situation in Melbourne, our Christmas 2020 purchase in 10 weekly instalments, instead of shops are operating a little differently. For We know, it’s only October, but shopping all at once. In order to use it, customers will the most up-to-date information about how 25% off Thames and Hudson for Christmas might look a bit different this need to set up an account at LatitudePay. we’re trading, our trading hours, special To celebrate Thames and Hudson’s 50th year, and we want you to be prepared! com first, and then request to pay with trading conditions, and when our shops birthday, Readings is offering 25% off a We recommend organising your festive Latitude Pay when making their purchase will be open to the public again, please visit range of their beautiful art, design, fashion, purchases a little earlier than usual. To at the counter. Please note, Latitude Pay will readings.com.au/our-shops. You can also photography and architecture titles help, we’ll be printing our annual Summer only be available in our shops, and is not follow us on social media (@readingsbooks throughout October, including An Australian Reading Guide and a November Readings available online or via phone orders. on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook) or Garden by Philip Cox, Design Lives Here sign up to our enews (readings.com.au/ by Penny Craswell, Courtyard Living by sign-up) to get current information as it Charmaine Chan and more. When buying happens. online, apply the promo code THAMES in the final page of checkout to access the 25% discount. When purchasing from our Readings online events shops (via phone or over the counter when In response to the COVID-19 health crisis, we re-open), simply mention the promotion Readings has moved its events program when purchasing and a staff member will online. Each month, we’re bringing you apply the discount. To see the full range of an array of local and international authors books, visit readings.com.au/collection/ discussing their books, all accessible and thames-and-hudson. This offer is only available to watch right from your home. available during October, while stocks last. Upcoming highlights include Alex Miller launching his latest book on Monday 12 October, Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton Win a special edition of Richard on the latest instalment of the Treehouse Flanagan’s new novel books on Tuesday 20 October, Rosalie Ham All customers who purchase a copy of discussing her sequel to The Dressmaker Richard Flanagan’s new novel The Living on 28 October, and many more! For details Sea of Waking Dreams from Readings before on how to watch, and to see what’s on offer 5pm, Sunday 25 October can go in the draw across our whole events program, visit to win a unique signed first edition of the readings.com.au/events novel, replete with handwritten annotations

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About Love, will be looking forward to her fiction debut, Ghosts. So many people Mark’s Dear discovered Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi last year, and Say Reader will be eager to meet four new customers with Mark Rubbo with Alison Huber of its unusual café. Plus, there are new books from Nick Hornby, Hari Kunzru, Nir Baram, Cory Doctorow, and Naomi You might be surprised to As Mark has pointed out, Novik, as well as a paperback edition of know that year-to-date this month’s avalanche of last year’s hit doorstop, The Eighth Life: books sales in Australia brilliant new releases for Brilka by Nino Haratischvili. are up 7.7% on last year, provokes mixed feelings Our Nonfiction Book of the Month is despite Victorian for the bookseller in Unseen by broadcaster Jacinta Parsons, bookshops being pretty much closed for the lockdown. There are so many fabulous an intimate memoir that shares her last two and a half months. It’s good news books entering the world, but we do so long journey with Crohn’s disease, as for the Australian book industry, and miss introducing them to you through well as speaking more broadly to the heartening to see books being embraced as conversations in real life, in the lively experience of living with chronic illness, a means of inspiration and escape in the bustle of our shops. We can’t wait to which affects a staggering portion of Netflix age. At Readings, our shop sales are welcome you back to our shops – and when the Australian population. Our staff down around 80%, but it’s not as bad as it we can, you’ll see the huge piles of The also review the wonderful new books sounds as our online sales are up 450%. Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard from Ramona Koval and Gabrielle That’s nowhere near enough to make up the Flanagan, our Fiction Book of the Month, Carey. Josephine Rowe has written a shortfall, but it’s enough to mean that most which Mark calls Flanagan’s most contribution to Black Inc.’s Writers on of our staff have some shifts to keep them audacious and accomplished work to date Writers series on Beverley Farmer. And engaged and employed. Thank you so much (don’t forget to enter our competition to check out some of the other folks who for your support. win a very special first edition of the book have books out this month: Jerry Seinfeld, As I write this, wonderful new annotated by Richard himself: see page 3 Hilary Mantel, Alex Miller, Jimmy October books are streaming into our for details). You’ll also find Himalayan Barnes, David McAllister, Robert Dessaix, shops. Yesterday, Richard Flanagan’s stacks of Trent Daltons, Craig Silveys, and David Attenborough, Claire Messud, Bill The Living Sea of Waking Dreams and Gail Joneses. In amongst these books by Bailey, David Chang, Natalie Haynes, Trent Dalton’s All Our Shimmering Skies authors whose names you know well, don’t Robert Macfarlane, Kim Gordon, and arrived, today Craig Silvey’s long-awaited overlook debut novels from Nardi Anne Applebaum, plus new cookbooks Honeybee is being unboxed, as is middle- Simpson, Tobias McCorkell, Claire from Hetty McKinnon, Shannon grade fiction sensation Hollowpox, the Christian, and Daniel Davis Wood. Martinez, and Bill Granger. I absolutely latest in the Nevermoor series by Jessica International releases are just love the nostalgia trip that is Warren Townsend – and that is just to name a few! as exciting. The more I think about Kirk’s Northside: A Time and Place, a It is a wonderful selection of books for the Earthlings, Sayaka Murata’s completely book of photos documenting Melbourne’s Christmas season, one of the best ever. bonkers follow-up to her hit English northern suburbs, with an introduction Sadly, our doors are still more or less closed language debut, Convenience Store written by Christos Tsiolkas. and there’s no one to see this cornucopia Woman, the more I adore it. (NB: it is And finally, dear reader, it is publisher of delights, however, it does look like if actually quite hard to stop thinking Thames and Hudson Australia’s 50th everything goes according to the metro about it.) I can’t wait to revisit Marilynne birthday in 2020, which means it was Melbourne public health plan, we’ll be able Robinson’s Gilead, in the final of four established the year after Dot and Ross to reopen around the 19th of October. novels set in that town, Jack. We also Reading set up the first Readings shop in When the Victorian Premier announced recommend new work from William Boyd, Carlton: that makes Thames and Hudson the second lockdown, my heart sank; it Akwaeke Emezi, Clarissa Goenawan, and Australia a local institution too! To mark was worse than the first. I spoke to Richard Jess Walter. Martin Amis does autofiction the occasion, we have a selection of books Flanagan about his book on the morning in Inside Story, which means characters at 25% off, including fine examples of their after the announcement and told him I will include Christopher Hitchens, Saul art and design, gardening, fashion, and thought I couldn’t go on. A few hours later, Bellow, Iris Murdoch, and Elizabeth children’s publishing. See readings.com.au/ he rang back to say that the thought of a Jane Howard. The many readers of Dolly collection/thames-and-hudson for a list of depressed Rubbo had been preying on his Alderton’s memoir, Everything I Know the books on offer. mind. That call helped lift me. Once we get through this, then we’ll be in the clear, I thought. The spectre of a third lockdown program that I hope allows everyone an was (and is) too terrible to contemplate, and opportunity to be part of our community. I embraced Dan’s strategy despite its pain. On Were you there listening to Andrew In the Writers on Writers So, now we are coming out the other side; O’Hagan (Mayflies) talking about the series, leading authors it will be so nice to see people in the shop Events paradox of the Scottish author? Did you looking at books, talking about books and hear Steven Conte (The Tolstoy Estate) with Chris Gordon reflect on an Australian engaging with our booksellers. But it will confess that he has never been to Russia, writer who has inspired be different. Social distancing will still be despite setting his epic novel in its very in place and that’s going to mean that we’ll ‘I’m on Zoom,’ I yell to my wintery heart? Perhaps you joined me and fascinated them. all have to plan how we shop for Christmas. daughter. to celebrate a recent release by a local Last Christmas, at our Carlton shop, in the ‘It’s okay,’ I say to my son, author? Have you joined an online cooking ten days before Christmas we had on average as he waits to walk past discussion with us? (Perhaps for To Asia, 4000 customers a day; with social distancing my desk to his bedroom, With Love by Hetty McKinnon?) Have you we’ll only be able to accommodate 1200 ‘I’ve turned the video off.’ considered how a place can be a character customers a day – that’s 70% fewer I whisper to my partner, gesticulating at with Jane Harper (The Survivors)? Did you customers. So, if you love books and love the screen in front of me, ‘I’m talking to an cry a little when hearing Sarah Wilson giving books as gifts, I urge you not to be like author!’ (This One Wild and Precious Life) talk me and leave everything to the last minute. And so, another evening of the about finding light and calmness in our The global supply chain is under immense Readings events program commences. tremulous world? Have you been part of pressure, so the books that you want may sell After the final words are said, I shut down the collective experience of an audience out. We are planning ways to make it easier my computer and reflect on how incredibly spread as far as one can imagine? for you to shop early. Our Summer Reading fortunate I am to chat with people from all Each event is extraordinary. On my Guide will be out in early November, and our over Melbourne, Australia and the world. turn of the emotional rollercoaster, I find BLACKINCBOOKS.COM enews will give you up-to-date news about My horizons keep expanding, even now in deep solace in listening to other people books and what’s happening – if you haven’t lockdown. talk about their craft and the reasons already, you can sign up at readings.com.au/ Coming up in our events program, we why so many people continue to carve an sign-up. You can also continue to shop from have Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton existence out of words. Communication is home – as long as you get your online orders answering questions sent to me by their the foundation upon which all humanity in by the 6th of December to allow enough fans; we have Paul Jennings talking with thrives. And it is literally a click away. time for shipping! So, as I am reminding his son; Louise Milligan in conversation myself, remember to think this when with Annabel Crabb; Trent Dalton on All To find out more about the Readings events planning your Christmas shop: October and Our Shimmering Skies; Craig Silvey on program, or to book your place at one of our November for December! Honeybee – and more! It’s a full and varied Zoom events, visit readings.com.au/events EXTRACT October 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 5

To Asia, With Love by Hetty McKinnon, published by Plum. Photography by Hetty McKinnon. Find out more about To Asia, With Love on page 17.

A delicious recipe from To Asia, With Love, the new cookbook by Readings’ favourite Hetty McKinnon. Hetty McKinnon’s Nepalese ricotta and spinach momos with chilli and tomato relish

Makes 20 When we lived in Sydney, we often visited a modest little restaurant called The Nepalese Kitchen, an institution in our local neighbourhood. Inside, 140 g baby spinach leaves it was warm and familiar, with rich aromas of spice that hugged us as we 1 garlic clove, finely chopped entered. At that time, and perhaps still now, traditional Nepali food was hard 220 g ricotta to come by in Sydney. Their menu featured traditional street-style snacks 3 tablespoons grated pecorino like pani puri (crispy bite-sized semolina puffs stuffed with potatoes and 2 shallots, finely chopped chickpeas), a curry made with nine different legumes called kwanti, and, of 20 round store-bought or homemade course, momos, Nepal’s take on dumplings. It was here that I first tasted dumpling wrappers cheese in a dumpling. Filled with spinach and ricotta and served with a spicy, sea salt and black pepper tangy achaar, it was an exciting interpretation of a food I knew so well. These momos are impossible not to love, a total crowd pleaser and probably the Chilli and tomato relish dumplings I make more of than any other at home. 1 teaspoon black or brown mustard To Asia, With Love seeds, toasted For the chilli and tomato relish, place the mustard seeds in a frying pan, cover and Hetty McKinnon Plum. PB. Was $39.99 vegetable oil dry-fry over medium heat until aromatic and the seeds have popped. Add a drizzle of vegetable oil to the pan, then add the tomato, turmeric, garlic, curry leaves and a pinch of $34.99 500 g tomatoes, roughly chopped sea salt and cook, covered, for 8–10 minutes, until the tomato mixture is thick and mushy. Available now 1 teaspoon ground turmeric Stir in the tamarind, chilli and sugar and cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Season with 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1⁄2 teaspoon of sea salt. Take off the heat and stir in the sesame oil and 2 tablespoons of 6 curry leaves (fresh or dried) vegetable oil. Store in a sterilised jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. 3–4 tablespoons tamarind puree In a large saucepan, add the spinach leaves, garlic, a pinch of sea salt and a splash of 1 long red chilli, roughly chopped water. Cover and cook over medium heat until the spinach has wilted, about 2 minutes. Drain the spinach and allow it to cool, then squeeze it with your hands, wringing out as 2 teaspoons sugar much liquid as possible. 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil Roughly chop the spinach and combine with the ricotta, pecorino and shallot. Season sea salt with sea salt and black pepper.

If you are using store-bought dumpling wrappers you will need to wet the edges, so set up a small bowl of water. With each wrapper, rotate the edge in the water until it is wet all the Substitute way around. If you are using homemade dumpling wrappers, there is no need to do this. spinach: kale or chard Hold a wrapper in the palm of your hand and place a small teaspoon of filling in the middle. Fold the wrapper over to form a half-moon shape, then, starting from one corner, pinch together and pleat until you get to the other corner. Gently flatten the dumpling to Veganise form a level bottom so they can sit upright. use crumbled firm tofu instead of ricotta As you finish each dumpling, place it on a sheet of baking paper and cover with a damp and pecorino tea towel to stop them drying out.

Place the momos in a steamer that has been lined with baking paper or wombok cabbage leaves. Steam over a large saucepan of boiling water for about 10–15 minutes. Serve hot, with the chilli and tomato relish.

Hetty McKinnon is a cook, food writer, publisher and podcaster with a passion for vegetables. McKinnon is the author of three bestselling cookbooks: Community, Neighbourhood and the award-winning Family. 6 READINGS MONTHLY October 2020 FICTION

be. Dalton’s writing will mobilise you Everything in Its Right Place to reflect on this country’s epic human Tobias McCorkell New past, and also to remember what it is to Transit Lounge. PB. $29.99 be young and hopeful and certain. All Available now Fiction Our Shimmering Skies offers a wonderful Ford’s father left his array of characters, and then there mother when Ford is the weather, there is more history was five years old. Over a (Darwin has just been bombed), and decade later, the fallout Families are funny things; they can be the source of there is a search for goodness. As you from that separation is meander through the landscape of BOOK OF THE great strength, but also great cruelties, humiliations, still haunting the and sadness. In a soulless Hobart hospital, Francie’s three northern Australia following Molly MONTH McCullens. A financial adult children gather round her bed. The prognosis for and her companions, Greta and Yukio, bequest has seen Ford Australian Francie is not good; she is coming to the end of her life. It allow yourself to be seized by Dalton’s uprooted from his local high school in Fiction has been a good life in the eyes of Tommy, an unfulfilled life celebration of Australia. Coburg and sent to a private school in according to Anna, and a wasted one according to Terzo. Read this novel because you need to Toorak for his last years of secondary Tommy is the bumbling ‘unsuccessful’ child, a failed believe in happily-ever-after stories; because education. There, he struggles to cross the artist who gets by with odd jobs; he’s the sibling his brother you want to be taken into Australia’s red class divide and make friends. and sister rely on to affirm their apparent success. Anna is a dust, into its rivers and its waterfalls; and At home, he has the loving (but highly successful Sydney architect with a hidden sadness. because you desperately need to clamber to sometimes claustrophobic) support of Terzo’s in venture capital; he’s bombastic, overconfident, the highest point to see the horizon. Read his mother and her parents. With their and a charming bully. Haunting them all is the untimely this novel because Dalton’s vison ensures passion for the Carlton Football Club and death of their brother Ronnie. you can see the daylight. plenty of frozen pizza on offer, they do Chris Gordon is the programming and events their best to encourage Ford to find his The Living Sea of Waking Dreams is manager for Readings place in a world far removed from their Richard Flanagan’s most audacious, own. However, Ford’s lack of ambition, his mother’s mental illness, and the effects most accomplished work yet. It will Song of the Crocodile Nardi Simpson of the abuse he may have suffered at the challenge the reader, but the rewards will hands of his father’s ex-boyfriend, all The Living Sea Hachette. PB. $32.99 be great! stand in the way of him ever becoming Of Waking Available now the man he thinks he ought to be. Instead, Dreams Song of the Crocodile Ford’s teenage years are confused Richard Flanagan Tommy is the only child who has remained in Tasmania was the winner of and awkward, fuelled by alcohol and Knopf. HB. Was $32.99 and has, in his clumsy way, cared for their mother. For Anna the 2018 blak&write! hormones. $27.99 and, especially, for Terzo, there is a powerful sense that they writing fellowship, which The setting of this story will feel Available now can redeem themselves for abandoning their mother by serves to find and develop familiar to many. Located in Melbourne, keeping her alive now. Tommy’s pleas for mercy are treated outstanding unpublished with occasional visits to Shepparton, with disdain, ignored, shouted over; it’s the way the siblings manuscripts by certain parts of the book felt like coming have always been with Tommy. As Francie’s condition deteriorates, their obsessive need Aboriginal or Torres home. This reader spent many of her to stop her from dying grows. They demand, and get, via influence and money, excessive Strait Islander writers. Song of the childhood holidays with family in interventions that needlessly keep Francie alive. Before she drifts into a catatonic state, Crocodile is Nardi Simpson’s first book, regional Victoria and my grandmother’s Francie’s last words to Anna are, ‘Let me go’. Anna’s heartless response of ‘Go where?’ and 2020 has also seen her debut her first Sunday roasts were legendary, just like comes even as she demands more interventions. play at the Sydney Festival. Ford’s grandmother’s meals on scorching Meanwhile, outside the hospital, the world is falling apart. Bushfires rage near The characters are at the heart of summer days. Hobart, through areas that have never seen fire; later, fires encroach upon the very Song of a Crocodile. As an epic multi- It is also a story that can be crude, outskirts of Sydney. It is as though the world is drifting away. Things start happening to generational story, we follow the lives uncomfortable and lacking in depth. Ford Anna’s body that are a metaphor for what’s happening outside: first a finger disappears, of the Billymil family in Darnmoor (as a is self-absorbed, he is a teenager, after just vanishes without pain or scar, then a knee, then a breast, then bits of her son, then fictional town in which the Yuwaalaraay all, but as a reader I wanted to be shown other people. people live, it might be thought of as more of the characters surrounding him, There is great sadness in this book, but it is also bleakly comical. Richard Flanagan rural north-western New South Wales). to be allowed access to the backgrounds is pushing his writing to new limits. The Living Sea of Waking Dreams is his most Beginning with Margaret, the story of those who hurt him as well as loved audacious, most accomplished work yet. It will challenge the reader, but the rewards then follows her daughter Celie, then him. Tobias McCorkell’s debut novel does, will be great! Celie’s daughter Mili, followed by Mili’s nevertheless, capture the essence of a Mark Rubbo is the managing director of Readings husband Wil and their children Paddy young man trying to figure out his own and Yarrie. The sharpness of these identity in a world which appears to fight characters reminded me of Elizabeth him at every turn. Win a special edition of Richard Flanagan’s new novel Jolley’s writing, and, more recently, the work of Tony Birch. Simpson skilfully Kate McIntosh is the manager of Readings All customers who purchase a copy of The Living Sea of Waking Dreams weaves in Dreaming and demonstrates Doncaster from Readings before 5pm, Sunday 25 October can go in the draw to the connection between the present and win a unique signed first edition of the novel, replete with handwritten past through ancestral stories and care Honeybee annotations by Richard Flanagan describing some of his thoughts in for nature. Craig Silvey writing the book. This is a novel that deals with the A&U. PB. Was $32.99 For details about how to enter, see page 3. violence acted upon the Billymil family $29.99 with such delicacy, that although the Available now novel depicts rape, sexual assault and Originally, Craig other violence, this is often described Silvey wanted to be Australian able to pull together music, mythology, with careful metaphors that place the a palaeontologist, but by landscape and emotion into a type of reader into the characters’ dissociative the time he was nineteen Fiction evocative fairytale through which their states of mind. In many ways this years old he had readers are transported to a new place – a mirrors the era Simpson is describing – published his first novel, place of creation and of endless where the massacre of Indigenous Rhubarb, to great acclaim. All Our Shimmering Skies possibilities. Trent Dalton is this type of people is seemingly in the past, but the Then, of course, he wrote Trent Dalton writer. Who that has read his bestselling Billymil family and the other families Jasper Jones and now, eleven years later, Fourth Estate. PB. Was $32.99 debut novel, Boy Swallows Universe, will of the Campgrounds outside of town we have Honeybee. But, if we consider $24.99 forget it? Now, with his second novel, his are ultimately rejected by the people of Silvey’s first love of discovering and Available now prose will sweep you up into our Darnmoor and are subject to ongoing digging and reflecting on the past, and It seems to me that ‘shimmering skies’ and take you on an racism. This is a book that, to some bundle all of that passionate need for some authors work adventure perhaps not considered in extent, explores the anger, boredom and answers with his innate ability to tell desperately hard to popular adult fiction since Alice fell down frustration that rigid race relations and stories, well, then we understand why the ensure that their readers that hole and emerged into a wonderland. colonisation bring to Darnmoor. The results are so brilliant. deliberate on who they All Our Shimmering Skies celebrates Billymils do what they can to survive, Silvey is an author who wants the are in relation to a that wonderland, that place of pushing against this system just a little reader to understand that each story is particular character. possibilities that lies within the heart of further in each generation. larger than its own self. Each character Other authors want their Australia. At the centre of this fairytale Simpson presents a promising debut, and in his work carries the weight of the past, readers to consider history, or an is Molly, a gravedigger’s daughter, and readers who enjoyed The Yield, The White holds history in their heart and considers alternative narrative of humanity. And her quest to find a family, a home, and Girl, and Carpentaria will be drawn in. the ramifications of being present then there are the authors that seem to be some understanding of who she could Clare Millar is from Readings Hawthorn against the backdrop of reality. We saw it FICTION October 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 7 especially with Jasper Jones, and now, as a Our Shadows treat to all of us who have suffered through Gail Jones this year, we have Honeybee. Text. PB. $32.99 The novel centres on fourteen-year- Available now old Sam, who is in search of a home. Sam Nell and Frances meets old and tired Vic late one night Kelly are raised by on a bridge, as they both contemplate their grandparents after suicide. They save one another, but their mother dies in labour not without considerable vulnerability and their father abandons and, indeed, empathy. Honeybee is them in a fit of grief. The about identity, and about elements of sisters grow up with a masculinity being ostracised; or, at least, special bond cemented by definitions of masculinity being caught, a shared language, a love of stories and a if you like, at a type of crossroads. The mutual fascination with Hokusai’s The novel hosts a roll call of characters with Great Wave. This closeness dissipates in diverse backgrounds. Many of these are adulthood as they individually struggle men we know. with the legacy of their orphanhood and This is a big, brave, wonderful novel. the loss of their grandparents. Following It will not disappoint fans of Jasper Jones, the death of her husband, Frances becomes but it will also make you reflect on what determined to excavate the past and travels it means to have a moral compass, what home to Kalgoorlie in search of answers. it means to be brave and how we, as a Our Shadows largely focuses on the community, can make Australia a true stories of these three generations of place of freedom. We have so far to go. the Kelly family: Fred and Else, their Reading this tremendous novel will help. daughters Mary and Enid, and Mary’s Chris Gordon is the programming and events daughters, Nell and Frances. Woven into manager for Readings their stories is the tale of real-life miner Paddy Hannan, the man responsible for It’s Been A Pleasure, Noni discovering gold in the West Australian Blake goldfields. The novel moves between nineteenth century Ireland and the Claire Christian Australian goldfields; mid-twentieth Text. PB. $32.99 century Australia and World War II Available now battle sites; and contemporary Sydney, Claire Christian Melbourne, and Kalgoorlie. was one of the This might sound like quite a lot to fit finalists for our 2018 into one 300-page novel, but Gail Jones Readings Young Adult deftly and sensitively brings together these Book Prize for her disparate stories into a meditation on grief, impressive debut, loss, estrangement, identity and, strangely Beautiful Mess. Now, this enough, mining and underground rescue. talented young writer is The concepts and feelings tackled here are back with an entertaining novel for beautifully universal, but told in a context adults that has just as much heart, but that is uniquely Australian. Jones’s novel considerably more sex. is an inventive blend of contemporary It’s Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake begins and historical fiction, real and imagined with our titular character agonising characters. This is required reading for over the one-night-stand etiquette of anyone interested in the state of literary leaving a note as you’re sneaking out fiction in Australia today. or not. It’s been a tough couple of years for Noni: her long-term relationship has Tristen Brudy is from Readings Carlton disintegrated, her career has stalled, and she’s drowning in grief. A drunken At the Edge of the Solid World night of soul-searching reminds her of Daniel Davis Wood the many what-ifs from her past – missed Brio. PB. $32.99 opportunities, rejected invitations ... Available 7 October un-loved lovers – and Noni decides In a snowbound Swiss to embark on a (possibly misguided) village, a husband and campaign to tick off some names from wife find their lives her should-have-boned list. breaking apart following This is a frank and funny novel that the death of their is refreshingly, unabashedly, queer and firstborn. Meanwhile, in inclusive. Noni is many things: witty, the couple’s hometown of self-deprecating, fat, loving, considerate, Sydney, a man commits and bisexual; and the fact that Christian an act of shocking violence that galvanises has managed to include almost every international attention. As the husband iteration of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum into recognises signs of his own grief in both this delightful book without making it the survivors and the perpetrator, his A Book About Being Queer is actually fixation on the details of the case feeds kind of radical. For readers struggling into an obsession. through a quarter-life crisis, a Saturn rising, a breakup, a tough year, It’s Been The Godmothers a Pleasure, Noni Blake is the romantic Monica McInerney An unforgettable new novel ‘Hands down, it’s the most comedy you want to lose yourself in. Michael Joseph. PB. $32.99 by the award-winning author comprehensive assessment As Noni embarks on her life-changing Available now of the international French of Australia’s lack of parental pursuit of pleasure, you’re taken along on Eliza Miller grew up in bestseller The Godmother. leave equality to be written’ a joyous, absurd, and sex-filled ride. But, Australia as the only underneath it all, there is a great depth daughter of a troubled —Emma Walsh, Women’s Agenda of feeling. young mother, but with Ultimately, It’s Been a Pleasure, Noni the constant support of Blake is a book about growing older, two watchful trusting the voice in your head, and godmothers. Thirteen learning that the most important love years on, an enticing affair isn’t with someone else; it’s the one invitation from one of her godmothers that you have with yourself. prompts Eliza to leap into the unknown. Lian Hingee is the digital marketing manager Within a fortnight, Eliza finds herself in BLACKINCBOOKS.COM for Readings the middle of a complicated family in 8 READINGS MONTHLY October 2020 FICTION

Edinburgh. Yet, amidst the chaos, she The Death Of Vivek Oji extremes. This book is a roller-coaster; and critical about religion, to describe seeks to solve the biggest mystery of Akwaeke Emezi parts made me want to puke, but I wound those experiences so often indescribable, all – the identity of her father. Faber. PB. $29.99 up hysterical and itching to go again. and to show real humanity, proves her Available now When we meet Natsuki she is a child to be at once exceptional and exemplary Too Much Lip The Death of Vivek and suffering cruelty and abuse from the of contemporary fiction. For all of us, Melissa Lucashenko Oji is the third novel adults in her life. Natsuki finds comfort living in the breach of insidious political UQP. PB. $24.99 from Nigerian-born Igbo in believing magical powers have been individualism and pandemic-generated Available now and Tamil author bestowed upon her by her friend Piyyut: isolation, Robinson affirms the value, Wise-cracking Kerry Akwaeke Emezi in as an alien who is visiting earth in the form of transcendent or not, of turning to someone Salter has spent a lifetime many years. It opens with a small, plush hedgehog. During visits to and asking, ‘What are you going through? avoiding two things – her the death of Vivek Oji and, a family home in the mountains, Natsuki How can I help?’ hometown and prison. with graceful deftness, forms a deep bond with her cousin, who Jeremy George is from Readings Malvern But now her Pop is dying, weaves back and forth through time and admits that he too is an alien. so she heads south on a multiple perspectives to reconstruct As a grown up, Natsuki is vehemently The Perfect World of Miwako stolen Harley. Kerry plans Vivek and the space his shocking, against becoming part of the ‘baby Sumida to spend twenty-four too-soon death has left behind. factory’. She is married for convenience Clarissa Goenawan only, to a man who also resents and resists hours, tops, over the border. She quickly This novel is a portrait of grief. It is also Scribe. PB. $29.99 the pressures of society. When Natsuki and discovers, though, that Bundjalung a portrait of a person whose very existence Available now her husband take a trip back to the family country has a funny way of grabbing on to is confounding to the patriarchal, ultra- It only takes a few home a reconnection with her cousin people. Gritty and darkly hilarious, Too conservative community of his childhood lines of reading to mutates into an all-out rejection of society Much Lip offers redemption and in regional Nigeria. discover that the and shedding of trauma. The book spirals forgiveness where none seems possible. Throughout The Death of Vivek Oji, character of the novel’s into absurdity and horror, but the tone is we get flashes of Nigeria in the wake of title is dead; she has never anything but matter of fact. Violence the death of dictator Sani Abacha, with committed suicide, and sexual assault are described boldly International people rioting in the streets and tensions leaving behind a young and briskly; though it reads like a bizarre, often turning bloody over ideological coterie of confused and Fiction grotesque fantasy, Murata keeps it real for disagreements. Within this space of devastated friends. They each think they her characters by omitting any niceties. unrest, Vivek dies. knew her, but none can make sense of her Earthlings is an outrageous book and I Written with a quiet reserve, the ultimate decision. The narrative is absolutely loved it. The Cold Millions novel pivots from the notion of self as organised into three sections, each Jess Walter an unfixed definition. Vivek’s parents, Kim Gruschow is from Readings St Kilda focusing on one of Miwako’s friends. The Viking. PB. $32.99 wider family, and girlfriends are defined first is Ryusei, her not-quite boyfriend, Available 20 October through the prism of Vivek and how Jack who has received letters Miwako sent Vivek is refracted through their lives. The free speech fight Marilynne Robinson after her disappearance, but they give Despite the multi-perspective structure, of 1909 in Spokane, Virago. PB. $29.99 him few clues. The second, Chie, is a no character feels fleshed out, alive … Washington, was a civil Available now friend from school days, party to a except for Vivek. number of secrets on which Ryusei has no disobedience action The love of our A murder-mystery-esque tension perspective, but these fragments don’t staged by the Industrial neighbour in all its is stoked by Vivek’s grieving and solve the puzzle either. The third, Fumi, is Workers of the World, also fullness simply means determined mother, Kavita, who is Ryusei’s sister, who has come to know known as Wobblies, under being able to say, ‘What restless until she understands what Miwako at one step’s remove through her the charge of the then are you going through?’ has happened to her son. Unusually, brother, and she waits back in Tokyo nineteen-year-old firebrand Elizabeth states French philosopher, and most interestingly to me, liminal while he goes on a journey to get closer to Gurley Flynn. During this action, mystic and political themes – such as love as amorphous and what happened. Wobblies would mount a soapbox and activist Simone Weil, a boundaryless; love’s intersection with begin to speak. Each orator was arrested thinker who, like American novelist This novel is both familiar and sex; and sex and its ability to give shape immediately. Within a month, Spokane’s Marilynne Robinson, properly considers unusual. It is written in English by an to the non-verbal, the inexpressible – jails were full to overflowing. the charge religion makes on us to be taken Indonesian-born Singaporean author, but override the logic of a murder-mystery This is a fertile period in US history seriously. To be taken seriously, of course, summons the atmospheres of Japanese novel. Emezi explores taboo as a jarring and one that serves as the backdrop to is the precondition to be taken critically. fictions (both written and cinematic), by-product of intersecting cultures; and is set in the recognisable urban and Jess Walter’s wonderful The Cold Millions. In Marilynne Robinson’s latest book, family as simultaneously alive and dead, rural locations of Japan. It tills the known Peppered with real characters such as Jack, we return to the world of Gilead, genetic and chosen; the unsaid as toxic emotional fields of early adulthood and the aforementioned Gurley Flynn, police Home and Lila. Readers of her previous and inevitable; and grief as possessive. the individual’s search for the self, and chief John Sullivan and labour lawyer books will know Jack as the White, This novel proffers the unnameable and the moments of heightened feeling that Fred Moore, Walter introduces orphaned troubled son of Robert Boughton, named the world of emotion, impression and characterise the relationships of these brothers Gig and Rye Dolan. At the ages after John Ames, who narrates Gilead. A spirit as alternate spaces in which to formative years; yet this familiarity of twenty-three and sixteen, the brothers friend of mine only half-jokingly refers seek truth and knowing. At times, the is unsettled by its mysterious plot, are subsisting on seasonal work while to Jack as ‘a bad egg, sure, but a fallen evocations feel heavy and obvious where and the unfolding story about who sleeping rough. When the handsome and star too’ – prophetic. In Robinson’s latest they might be encompassing and sensual Miwako was, as the facts of the book’s idealistic Gig joins the IWW and both instalment, Jack gets a story that is – fleetingness could be a feeling as well paradoxical title are revealed. Clarissa brothers are locked up during the free- properly his own, and structured around as an idea. Goenawan is an emerging talent, having speech action, Gurley Flynn employs his long-term meditative, romantic and, The Death of Vivek Oji is written in a won the 2015 Bath Novel Award (a prize the acquitted, and underage, Rye to her frankly, tortured relationship with Della, generous, accessible manner. Emezi has for unpublished, self-published, and cause. He accompanies her on a speaking a young Black schoolteacher. It is an given us a portrait of intersectionality independently published novels) for her tour whose main purpose is to raise unlikely pairing, and Robinson does not which celebrates life as fragments of first novel, Rainbirds (published in 2018, enough money to engage the legendary shy away from the complications that time. It will appeal to readers who liked and also set in Japan), and her writing is lawyer Clarence Darrow and release the arise for them in racist 1950s America. Orlando, Americanah and In the Dream intriguing. The ripple effects of suicide protesters. But with Gig in jail, the naïve But their friendship is more than the House. I look forward to what Emezi on a community’s collective psyche are Rye finds himself in the spotlight and adversaries they face in the street, in part offers us next. carefully handled here, and her portrayal open to manipulation. because of their shared recognition of of people inhabiting the aftermaths of The titular ‘Cold Millions’ refers Kalinda Vary is from Readings St Kilda the value of faith, even if the institutions trauma is compassionate and compelling. to what we call the 99% today, and that practice it prove to be a sometimes- it’s a novel that shows us that a lot of Earthlings antagonistic force. Alison Huber is the head book buyer for the social injustices of 1909 are still Sayaka Murata (translated by Indeed, for the novelist concerned Readings being perpetuated. Walter alternates Ginny Tapley Takemori) with (to risk a cliché) an account of a chapters with occasional deep dives Granta. PB. $29.99 certain ‘human condition’, a recourse Trio into the backstory of its secondary Available now to the language of faith is difficult to William Boyd characters, such as business-savvy Sayaka Murata has avoid. It is simply more apt at expressing Viking. PB. $32.99 show-woman Ursula the Great, French- really ramped it up values and experiences that cannot be Available 20 October speaking Native American man Jules, with Earthlings. Her newly reduced to tasks to complete, things to As the title and the aging Pinkerton detective Del translated novel shares buy or boxes to tick. Faith is necessarily suggests, William Dalveaux, who has seen it all and doesn’t themes with Convenience rooted in community: grace, redemption, Boyd’s new novel Trio suffer fools gladly. To juggle as many Store Woman; Murata salvation and love – none of these can follows the characters as Walter does, yet provide again writes about people be possible without recognition of the interconnected fates of genuine surprises, is masterful. This is a who can’t or won’t meet fact that you live your life around other three characters. Elfrida brilliantly lucid historical epic. society’s expectations. In Earthlings, she people. This register of Robinson’s Wing is a novelist Jason Austin is from Readings Carlton takes these ideas to shocking, exhilarating work – her ability to be at once serious formerly celebrated as FICTION October 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 9

‘the new Virginia Woolf’, but she’s mired variety of comic get-rich-quick schemes. in a ten-year writer’s block, a displeasing When Edgar re-enters Felicia’s life at a marriage, and alcoholism. Talbot Kydd is typically inopportune moment, the book’s a successful film producer, husband and exhilarating final act is set in motion. father, former soldier and, in a secret parallel life, an amateur photographer Before the Coffee Gets Cold: gradually reconciling with his hidden Tales from the Cafe self. Anny Viklund is a talented young Toshikazu Kawaguchi American actor of considerable renown, Picador. PB. $18.99 but her unfortunate relationship history Available now refuses to stay in the past. A film project In a small back alley in brings all three – and the conflicts Tokyo, there is a café between their secret and apparent which has been serving personal lives – to Brighton, England coffee for more than a during the eventful summer of 1968. century. But this coffee It’s a pivotal year globally: student shop offers its customers protests across the world (with notable a unique experience: the fallout in nearby Paris); the Vietnam chance to travel back in War and backlash against it; the time. From the author of Before the Coffee civil rights movement, unrest, and Gets Cold comes a story of four new assassinations in the United States; customers, each of whom is hoping to revolutions and invasions in Europe; take advantage of Cafe Funiculi war and famine in Africa – in short, Funicula’s time-travelling offer. a year too historically significant to summarise here, or indeed in the novel. Pizza Girl As creatives at work in an English seaside Jean Kyoung Frazier resort town, Boyd’s trio are mostly HQ. PB. $24.99 distant observers of these events, but Available 7 October the outside world does creep in. Some of Eighteen years old, these intersections are expected – none pregnant, and working are impervious to the enormous social as a pizza delivery girl, changes of the era. Other incursions from our dysfunctional beyond Brighton are unexpected, such heroine is deeply lost as the threatened arrival of an estranged and in complete denial ex-husband, who is now a fugitive about it all. Her world is wanted by the FBI for terrorism. further upended when While the trio and their crises she becomes obsessed with Jenny, a anchor the novel, the cast is varied stay-at-home mother. As one woman and numerous, and there are amusing looks toward motherhood and the other subplots aplenty. As habitual Boyd toward middle age, the relationship readers would know, the author can between the two begins to blur in inimitably convey enormous amounts strange, complicated, and ultimately about his characters’ inner lives and their heartbreaking ways. interpersonal dynamics in just a single scene, with a few choice insights and his knowing yet compassionate wit. In this The Eighth Life: For Brilka enjoyably careening novel, you never Nino Haratischvili quite know where you are going, but you’ll Scribe. PB. $26.99 find yourself on board and helplessly Available 20 October laughing throughout the ride. At the start of the twentieth century, on Elke Power is the editor of Readings Monthly the edge of the Russian READ IN 2020 Empire, a family At Night’s End prospers. It owes its Nir Baram (Translated by Jessica success to a delicious Cohen) chocolate recipe, passed Text. PB. $32.99 down the generations. Available now This compelling family hears echoes and A writer wakes up in a sees reflections. Great characters and hotel room in an greater relationships come and go and unfamiliar city. When he come again, and the reader rejoices to attempts to reconstruct have found at last one of those glorious his lost days, Yontan old books in which you can live and learns that he told people learn, be lost and found, and make at the festival he was indelible new friends. attending that his best friend had died. But in fact, his friend is Fifty-Two Stories still alive. At Night’s End is a The Tales of Heartfelt and Anton Chekhov (translated by compassionate and personal novel about Richard Pevear and Larissa breathtaking adventure, hilarious, this is a an extraordinary friendship between two Volokhonsky) new picture misadventure, book for anyone men haunted by a shared past. Penguin Classics. HB. $49.99 book from the love and loss - who has tried to Available 20 October Reproduction creator of this collection imagine what their Chekhov’s genius left an Here We Are. of non-fiction dog was thinking. Ian Williams indelible impact on every Dialogue. PB. $32.99 short stories is literary form in which he Available now wrote, but none more so vintage Jimmy. Felicia, a nineteen-year- than short fiction. Now old West Indian student, renowned translators and Edgar, an impetuous Richard Pevear and heir of a wealthy German Larissa Volokhonsky give family, meet when their us their superb renderings of fifty-two ailing mothers are Chekhov stories. These stories reveal the assigned the same extraordinary variety of his work, from hospital room. An the farcically comic to the darkly odd-couple relationship blooms between complex. Including several never-before- Edgar and Felicia. Fast forward, their son translated stories, this is a collection that Armistice is a teenager fixated on a promises to delight. 10 READINGS MONTHLY October 2020 FICTION

Atomic Love data on her side, she realises she might not writerly interest and sends her digging reminds us that there are more Jennie Fields be as powerless as she thinks. A sharp, into the tragic past of the Salviati family. I important things than survival. Michael Joseph. PB. $32.99 witty, modern debut, Hench explores the Give It To You is a riveting novel about Available now individual cost of justice. who owns a story, and whether we have a Afterland While Rosalind Porter right to what we inherit. Lauren Beukes was working as a Inside Story Michael Joseph. PB. $32.99 physicist on the Martin Amis Red Pill Available 20 October Manhattan Project, she Johnathan Cape. PB. $35.00 Kunzru Hari All Cole has left in the was also in the depths of Available now Scribner. PB. Was $32.99 world is her boy, Miles. a passionate love affair His most intimate and $29.99 With men now a prized with colleague Thomas epic work to date, Inside Available now commodity, keeping him Weaver. Five years later, Story is the unseen, When a Brooklyn writer safe means breaking the FBI wants Rosalind to spy on Weaver, semi-autobiographical wins a residency on the hastily written new whom they suspect of selling nuclear portrait of Martin Amis’ shore of Berlin’s Lake rules. But is one person secrets. Rosalind’s assignment launches extraordinary life, as a Wannsee, he arrives with enough to save Miles her on a mission to find the truth … no man and a writer. What romantic dreams of days from the many who would kill to get their matter where it leads. begins as a thrilling tale devoted to total artistic hands on a living boy? Together, Cole of romantic entanglements, family and absorption. However, and Miles embark on a journey across a City of Spies friendship, evolves into a tender, witty rather than writing, he changed, hostile country, towards a Mara Timon exploration of life’s hardest questions: how spends much of his time watching an freedom they may never reach. Bonnier. PB. $29.99 to live, how to grieve, and how to die. ultraviolent cop show. This kicks off a Available now journey into the heart of moral darkness Attack Surface After escaping from Just Like You that threatens to destroy everything he Cory Doctorow Nazi-Occupied France, Nick Hornby holds most dear, including his own mind. Head of Zeus. PB. $32.99 SOE agent Elisabeth de Viking. PB. $32.99 Available 7 October Mornay must infiltrate Available now The End Of The Day Masha works for a high society in neutral The person you are with is Bill Clegg company upgrading the Lisbon. As Solange Verin, just like you: same Jonathan Cape. PB. $29.99 Interior Ministry’s ability a French widow of background, same age, Available now to spy on its citizens’ independent means, she same interests. And it is a A retired widow in rural telecommunications. will be able to meet all the rich Europeans disaster. Then, you meet Connecticut wakes to an Can you offset a day job who have gathered in Lisbon to wait out someone new. You seem to unexpected visit. A man helping repressive the war, and discover which of them is a have nothing in common arrives at a hotel to regimes spy on their traitor. But in a city that is filled with spies, and yet, somehow, it feels introduce his estranged citizens with a night-time hobby where how can she tell who is friend, or foe? totally right. Nick Hornby’s new novel gets father to his newborn you help those same citizens evade to the heart of what it means to fall in love daughter and finds him detection? Masha is about to find out. Ghosts with the best possible person – someone collapsed on the floor. A Pacy, passionate, and as current as next Dolly Alderton who is not just like you at all. taxi driver receives a phone call that jars week, Attack Surface is a paean to the drive to make the world a better place. Fig Tree. PB. $32.99 her back to a traumatic past. Deeply Available 20 October Modern Times observed and beautifully written, this Nina Dean is a successful Cathy Sweeney novel brings these seemingly writer with a loyal W&N. HB. $32.99 disconnected lives together as half- Poetry following, but a life that Available now century-old secrets begin to surface. is falling apart. Her There once was … a man The Anthology of Australian beloved dad is vanishing who transfixed his The Last Story of Mina Lee Prose Poetry into dementia, her estranged daughter by Nancy Jooyoun Kim Cassandra Atherton & Paul mother wants a midlife making films without a Headline. PB. $32.99 Hetherington makeover, and all her camera, a couple who Available now MUP. PB. $39.99 friends seem to be slipping away. And on administered electric Margot Lee’s mother, Available now top of all that, she is being ghosted on shocks to each other, and Mina, is ignoring her Cassandra Atherton and dating apps. Dolly Alderton’s debut novel a world where everyone calls. Margot cannot Paul Hetherington have is funny and painfully relatable, filled began to turn blue. Startling, wry, understand why, until gathered a broad and with whip-smart observations about the beguiling and emotionally charged – the she makes a surprise trip representative selection way we live today. stories in Modern Times are unlike home and realises how of the best Australian anything you’ve read before. little she knows about prose poems written over her mother. Through the Help Yourself the last fifty years. This intimate lens of a mother and daughter Curtis Sittenfeld Stalingrad anthology includes who have struggled all their lives to Doubleday. HB. $19.99 Vasily Grossman numerous distinguished prose poets and understand each other, Margot and Available now Vintage. PB. $22.99 documents prose poetry’s growing appeal Mina’s story unravels the unspoken Suburban friends fall out Available 20 October over recent decades, from the poetic secrets that can drive two people apart, after a racist encounter at In April 1942, Hitler and margins to the mainstream. This or bind them closer together. a birthday party is posted Mussolini plan the huge collection reframes our understanding on Facebook. An offensive on the Eastern not only of this dynamic poetic form, but illustrious Manhattan Front that will culminate of Australian poetry as a whole. film crew are victims of in the greatest battle in Fantasy/ their own snobbery. A human history. The war Sci-Fi The Fire of Joy: Roughly 80 group of young writers will consume the lives of Poems to Get by Heart and fight about love and narrative style as a huge cast of characters. Say Aloud they compete for a prestigious bursary. Stalingrad is a magnificent novel not only A Deadly Education Clive James Full of tenderness and compassion, these of war but also of all human life. It is Naomi Novik Picador. PB. Was $34.99 three dazzling stories celebrate our tender, epic, and a testament to the power Del Ray. PB. $32.99 $29.99 humanity in all its pettiness and glory. of the human spirit. Available now Available now Enter a school of magic The Fire of Joy was the Hench: A Novel I Give It to You unlike any you have ever final book Clive James Natalie Zina Walschots Valerie Martin encountered. Once completed before his HarperCollins. PB. $32.99 Serpents Tail. HB. $29.99 you’re inside, there are death in 2019. In this Available 7 October Available now only two ways out: book, James has chosen After a bad encounter Jan Vidor seems like the graduation or death. El a succession of English with a so-called ‘hero’, ideal houseguest for a Higgins is uniquely poems, exploding in Anna is laid off. With only summer holiday in a prepared for the school’s sequence from Chaucer her anger and internet Tuscan villa: unobtrusive many dangers: she possesses a dark to the present day. In offering these research acumen, she but not antisocial. But an power strong enough to level mountains. poems to you, the main purpose of this discovers her suffering at offhand remark about a Except, she might accidentally kill all the book is to provide ammunition that will the hands of a hero is far violent death at Villa other students, which she wants to avoid. satisfy your urge to discover, learn and from unique. And with Chiara piques Jan’s This wry, witty, endlessly inventive novel declaim verse. CRIME October 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 11

called The Kingdom, she finds a heady new A Song for the Dark Times existence with some equally Ian Rankin Dead Write untrustworthy new acquaintances. They Orion. PB. $32.99 with Fiona Hardy are well away from the political upheaval Available 29 September of the real world outside its walls – until Rebus’s life is slowing people start to disappear, and the perfect down: he’s retired, he’s In the seventeenth century, the East India Trading glass exterior starts to crack. moved to a ground level BOOK OF THE Company has a tight grip on the world. Those who sail Recommended by none other than home to avoid as merchants rule absolutely, and everyone who works for MONTH multi-Booker-Prize-winning Hilary unnecessary stairs, and them is ruthless, amoral, and evil. Sailors, in turn, are the Crime Mantel, this atmospheric thriller is one to he needs more help than worst of people: those who cannot find work on land because look out for. he’s happy to admit. of past misdemeanours. Superstition runs unfettered There have been years through everybody who travels by water. And into this The Survivors when he didn’t see his month’s crime reads The Devil and the Dark Water sails, its daughter Samantha as much as he should captain ready to guide you whichever way he pleases. Jane Harper Macmillan. PB. Was $32.99 have – but when she calls in the middle of $27.99 the night and tells him her husband’s been Sara and Arent, united in a quest for Available 22 September missing for two days, he drops everything justice, will do all they can to figure out Jane Harper’s rise to to help her. Even though he knows one what is going on, and readers will be right Australian literary fame thing all too well: that when somebody there with them has been stratospheric, goes missing, it’s usually their partner who and now with this, her did it. Meanwhile, DI Siobhan Clarke is part of an investigation into a wealthy The Saardam is on its way from Batavia (now Jakarta) standalone fourth book, Saudi student, and as connections to Amsterdam, its hold full of spices and cargo – both she propels her readers between the cases start to appear, Ian known and unknown. Even before it leaves port, a leper below the surface: into The Devil and the Rankin’s fans can rest assured that he’s with no tongue curses the ship and bursts into flames. the coastline caves and Dark Water back to weave a story you’d murder to read. But the ship’s master is not swayed. Jan Haan, the shipwrecks of Stuart Turton Governor-General of Batavia, sails home with a plan for Tasmania’s Evelyn Bay. Years ago, in a Raven. PB. $29.99 glory and a family he abuses. His wife, Sara, is used to terrible storm, one person died and The Postscript Murders Available 1 October restrictive confines. His daughter, Lia, knows how to hide another vanished. Kieran Elliott still holds Elly Griffiths her true self. His mistress, Creesjie, is there to keep him himself responsible for all of it. He’s back Quercus. PB. $32.99 happy. Then there are the soldiers, the musketeers, the sailors, the nobles – a cast of in town with his baby daughter and Available 29 September characters that fill your reading room with their voices. Prominent among them are partner, remembering now that many When aged-care worker human mountain Arent Hayes and pre-Sherlock Sammy Pipps, both detectives of others hold him responsible, too. When a Natalka finds ninety- great repute – until Pipps is thrown unceremoniously into a tiny cell on the Saardam dead body is found on the beach, the town year-old Peggy Smith for a crime nobody knows anything about. finds itself awash with fresh anguish – and dead in her window seat, As the curse works its way through the ship, with unholy miracles apparently occurring questions that need answers. Another it doesn’t seem that under the doomed auspices of a mysterious demon named Old Tom, the entire vessel simmering small-town mystery from a suspicious: after all, as becomes a wretched place of filth and bitterness, fear and confusion, and soon nobody master of the genre. everybody knows, Peggy expects to survive the trip. Sara and Arent, united in a quest for justice, will do all they can had a heart condition. to figure out what is going on, and readers will be right there with them: the deck creaking Night Falls, Still Missing But when DS Harbinder underneath your feet, the storms battering your porthole, the world swaying as you read Helen Callaghan Kaur is called to the case, it turns out Peggy through the book’s twisting plot, your life in Stuart Turton’s hands. Revel in it, and don’t Michael Joseph. PB. $32.99 lied about her condition – and that Peggy’s sleep without a candle lit. You never know who might be whispering in the shadows. Available 20 October past, as a murder consultant who helped It’s a bitterly cold day authors kill off their characters, might mean when Cambridge she knew more about what was happening professor Fiona Grey outside her window than anybody else. tale of Australia from nearly a hundred Over My Dead Body arrives on an island in Populated by an entertaining bunch of years ago rings with truth in this cosy, Dave Warner Orkney, ten miles off characters, set in a sleepy small town and historical outback crime book. Fremantle. PB. $32.99 Scotland’s north coast. with the classic feel of a book decades older, Available 29 September She’s there for Madison this an excellent armchair read. After a near-tragedy as a Trust Kowalczyk, an old girl, Georgette Watson Chris Hammer friend working on an A Time for Mercy found reason to study A&U. PB. Was $32.99 archaeological dig who’s asked for her John Grisham the effects of freezing on $29.99 assistance. But Fiona’s not sure what help Hodder & Staughton. PB. $32.99 the human body. As an Available 13 October she’s supposed to give – and when Madison Available 13 October adult and now After the hectic events doesn’t arrive to help her on her way, going John Grisham’s third cryogenicist, she of Scrublands and at all seems like a bad idea. Now, Madison book involving Jake freelances for the NYPD, Silver, life will surely be isn’t even at her lodgings, and the others Brigance – you may who are searching for a mellow now for journo on the dig are flippant about her remember him from an killer who seemingly slaughters at random. Martin Scarsden and disappearance. But what really happened obscure title called A They need help – and it’s about to arrive in a his partner Mandalay to Madison? A suspenseful psychological Time to Kill – sees the very unexpected, long-dormant form: Blonde, right? Well, sure thriller that will freeze you to the bone. lawyer, always Sherlock Holmes and Watson are about to – until Martin hears a determined to seek take the case. Dave Warner has taken a voicemail from Mandy One White Lie justice, as the court- sharp but welcome about-turn with this that chills him to the core. She’s been Leah Konen appointed lawyer representing a sixteen- entertaining addition to a genre I could abducted, and he needs to head to Sydney Michael Joseph. PB. $32.99 year-old who shot a deputy sheriff to peruse endlessly. to find her. Mandy’s past has been buried Available 20 October death. The citizens of Clanton, Mississippi, deep these past few books, but now is the After fleeing an abusive want the boy’s neck, but the more Jake Death Leaves the Station time to find out why she’s so secretive, and, relationship, Lucy finds learns about what led to the trigger being Alexander Thorpe along the way, Sydney’s darkest heart will solace in Woodstock, pulled, the more he’s willing to sacrifice Fremantle. PB. $27.99 be exposed. Another romping doorstop of a where life seems like it everything to defend the boy against the Available 29 September book to scare us right back into our houses. might turn out all right. death penalty. A legal thriller exploring On a dusty afternoon in The community is kind, class division and backdoor police deals, 1927, a small and The Glass Kingdom and her neighbours are this is classic Grisham. cheerful friar turns up Lawrence Osborne the delightful John and at the door of Halfwell Hogarth. PB. $32.99 Vera, who make her feel Also out this month: Station. He’s there for Available 20 October at home. But Lucy’s not the only one with Finally, a special mention of a book from refreshments and the Sarah Mullins is on the a past to hide from, and when John and last month: Ellie Marney’s None Shall polite but strained run from New York, and Vera hatch an overzealous plan that will Sleep. It’s generally categorised as YA, company of the station Thailand is the place help all of them, it seems like a solution. but the protagonists are over eighteen, master and his wife. where she’s sure she can All she has to say is one little lie: that she and the story – of two students training After he leaves, he is approached by the lose herself with her saw John fall off a cliff in a hiking for their specialist field by interviewing couple’s adopted daughter, who leads him spoils while she figures accident. But when a body turns up at the teenage serial killers who aren’t interested through the sparse landscape to show him out what happens next. bottom of the cliff, the lie turns out to be in talking – is very gritty. It’s a compelling, the dead body she’s found – a body that In a once-glorious not so little after all. With a plot like that, smart and wildly entertaining read, so has now disappeared. Alexander Thorpe’s apartment building how could you resist? check it out. 12 READINGS MONTHLY October 2020 NONFICTION

this trend around? In Reconnected, Armin was able to demonstrate happiness Andrew Leigh and Nick Terrell look at through her work. In exploring this New some of the most successful community observation, Carey is pointing not to organisations and initiatives – from prescriptions for behaviour to invoke Nonfiction conversation groups to community happiness, but, rather, to von Armin’s gardens, from Parkrun to Pub Choir – to ability to embody feeling with a light discover what really works. touch. With a deftness I can only read about, von Armin invokes the happiness About 9.5 million Australians live with a chronic What Happens Next?: and subversion to be found in one’s own actions: ‘If I could only dig and plant BOOK OF THE illness. Many of these conditions are not outwardly Reconstructing Australia after visible, so symptoms and side effects are often experienced myself! … I did one warm Sunday ... And MONTH COVID-19 by sufferers in solitude. Emma Dawson & Janet McCalman run back very hot and guilty into the Biography Unseen is a powerful memoir about chronic illness (eds) house and get into a chair and behind a book and look languid just in time to save by ABC broadcaster and 3RRR alumna Jacinta Parsons. MUP. PB. $29.99 my reputation ...’ Diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in her twenties, Parsons Available now details her journey from diagnosis, to treatment, and, Long before the Marie Matteson is from Readings Carlton eventually, to acceptance. COVID-19 pandemic

shut down the global A Different Kind of Seeing Unseen is a compelling antidote to economy, a reset to Marie Younan damaging misinformation and limiting serve the wellbeing of Scribe. PB. $29.99 stereotypes about chronic illness. people and the planet Available now was plainly needed. As Marie Younan was born in Australia rebuilds, it 1952 into a family of Parsons’ memoir is an honest and engaging account of must be with the explicit purpose of Assyrian refugees living in how a chronic illness impacts our ability to navigate the constructing an economically and Syria. Blinded as a baby, workforce, maintain personal relationships, and develop ecologically sustainable world. she migrated to Australia a sense of self. It’s grounded by extensive research, expert With contributions from some of at the age of thirty-three. opinion, and first-hand accounts from other people Unseen Australia’s leading thinkers, What Initially completely reliant personally affected by chronic illness. By situating key Jacinta Parsons Happens Next? sets out a progressive on her family, Younan’s moments in her journey in a broader context, Parsons Affirm. PB. $32.99 agenda to tackle the twin crises of life changed when she attended the Royal transforms the personal to political. Supported by Available now climate change and inequality. Victorian Institute for the Blind and comprehensive evidence, she acknowledges some of the became fluent in English, literate in braille, complex intersections of chronic illness with race, gender, and learned to use a cane. This is the story and socio-economic factors. Biography of her remarkable life. Unseen shares some similarities with Gabrielle Jackson’s Pain and Prejudice: a personal memoir about endometriosis and an incisive exploration of how women’s bodies Cubed: The Puzzle of Us All are often misunderstood and mistreated in the medical discourse. There are two very Only Happiness Here: In recent Australian releases that may also be of interest to Parsons’ readers: Show Me Where Ernő Rubik Search of Elizabeth von Arnim W&N. HB. $32.99 It Hurts by Kylie Maslen and Hysteria by Katerina Bryant. Gabrielle Carey Available 27 October As someone with a physical disability that is relatively unseen owing to decades of UQP. PB. $32.99 Ernő Rubik was a child surgery and physiotherapy, I felt a deep resonance with Parsons’ experience of isolation Available now when he first became and disconnection. While there is, of course, immense privilege in seeming well and ‘I think I’ve so got obsessed with puzzles of ‘healthy’, it can also mean that your experience is minimised or erased entirely. into the habit of all kinds. Rubik’s own Unseen is a compelling antidote to damaging misinformation and limiting being happy inside and puzzle, the Cube, went stereotypes about chronic illness. With chronic disease as the leading cause of ill health, quite secretly ...’ on to be solved by disability, and death in Australia, this is essential reading for all of us. So wrote Elizabeth von millions worldwide, Flick Ford is from Readings Carlton Armin in her diary, in becoming a global the year before her death, symbol of intelligence and ingenuity. In according to Gabrielle Cubed, Rubik reveals what it was like to Carey in her new memoir and biography sexually-repressed era of Australia in the experience the astonishing worldwide Only Happiness Here. The memoir is Australian Studies second half of the 19th century. With a cast success of an object he made purely for Carey’s, the biography von Armin’s. of remarkable characters, it weaves a tale of his own play. Only Happiness Here weaves together extraordinary lives. The Ways of the Bushwalker Carey’s emergence from a devastating Max Melissa Harper personal time into a period of some peace NewSouth. PB. $34.99 On Beverley Farmer and equilibrium as she turns to writing Alex Miller A&U. PB. $29.99 Available now Josephine Rowe the biography of von Armin, an author Available now Bushwalking – an Writers on Writers. HB. $17.99 relatively forgotten now. Available 19 October Max is an astonishing, organised long-distance Von Armin wrote twenty-one books in moving tribute to Alex walk in rugged terrain In the Writers on Writers the last decade of the nineteenth century Miller’s friend, Max that requires maps and series, leading authors and the first half of the twentieth century. Blatt. Max’s story camping equipment, or a reflect on an Australian In her lifetime, she was a bestselling unfolded, slowly at family day out – is one of writer who has fascinated author, feted by readers and critics alike. first, from the Australia’s most popular them. These books start a Born in Sydney, she spent most of her Melbourne Holocaust pastimes. Whether you fresh conversation life in Europe. Her cousin was Katherine Centre’s records, to are inclined to put on your walking boots between past and present, Mansfield. One of her lovers was H.G. Berlin’s Federal Archives, to Max’s old and pack your sleeping bag, or would and shed new light on the Wells. She married twice: a German count hometown of Wroclaw in Poland. This rather stay in a luxury hut, this surefooted craft of writing. Here, novelist and and an English earl. She employed E.M. book is a meditation on memory itself, and witty book reveals how the ordinary short-story writer Josephine Rowe finds a Forster. She lived in more than thirty and a reminder to the reader that history act of walking can become extraordinary. kindred spirit in Beverley Farmer, and houses, many of which she built. She had belongs to humanity. argues for a celebration and reclamation of five children, and fourteen dogs over the Moonlite: The Tragic Love Story this unique Australian author. course of her life. of Captain Moonlite and the She was happy. Von Armin records Greyboy Bloody End of the Bushrangers Reconnected: A Community her happiness often in her diaries and Cole Brown Garry Linnell Builder’s Handbook her novels. It’s a happiness Carey dearly Skyhorse. PB. $29.99 Michael Joseph. PB. $34.99 Andrew Leigh & Nick Terrell wants to learn from and find. In von Available now Available now LaTrobe University Press. PB. $32.99 Armin’s diaries, it’s a happiness of the Greyboy asks an This is the true and epic Available 29 September moment, coming after her weather report, important question: what story of George Scott, an Strong social recorded as a similar observation on the is Blackness? It also Irish-born preacher who connections make state of being in the day. For her readers, provides the answer: became one of Australia’s communities more it’s a joy found through her novels, books much more than you most notorious criminals. resilient. But today that had made Carey laugh on first thought. Through a Told at a cracking pace, Australians have fewer reading. This time Carey would read them series of personal and based on the extensive close friends and local for understanding as well as pleasure. anecdotes and interviews letters Scott wrote from connections than in the Carey comes to one conclusion in with his peers, Cole Brown transports us his cell, Moonlite is set amid the violent and past. How can we turn her search that touched me deeply: von to his adolescence growing up in white NONFICTION October 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 13

spaces, digging into the places where and award-winning author Danielle Clode difference is most acutely felt: parenting, embarks on a journey to solve the police brutality, Trumpism, depression, mysteries surrounding Jeanne Barret. and dating, to name a few. The Windsor Diaries: A Lowitja Childhood with the Princesses Stuart Rintoul Alathea Fitzalan Howard A&U. HB. Was $45 Hodder & Stoughton. PB. $34.99 $39.99 Available 13 October Available now During the Second World Lowitja O’Donoghue was War, Alathea Fitzalan born in 1932 to an Howard was sent to live Aboriginal mother and a at Cumberland Lodge in white father. At the age Windsor Great Park. of two, she was handed There, she became a over to missionaries and close friend of the two cut off completely from princesses. Written from her people and her the ages of sixteen to twenty-two, these culture. Years later Lowitja returned to unique diaries give us a bird’s eye view of Central Australia in search of a past she Royal wartime life, with all of Howard’s didn’t remember. This long-awaited honest, yet affectionate, judgments and biography tells the story of that journey, observations. We’ve got you covered this Christmas. and how Lowitja became one of Australia’s most respected and Kant’s Little Prussian Head recognisable Indigenous leaders. and Other Reasons Why I Write: An Autobiography Killing Time: Through Essays Short stories from the long Claire Messud road home Fleet. PB. $29.99 Jimmy Barnes Available 13 October HarperCollins. HB. Was $45 Arranged in three parts, $39.99 Kant’s Little Prussian Available 7 October Head and Other Reasons This collection of Why I Write is a collection nonfiction short of personal and critical stories from the essays on everything Australian rock legend from childhood to turned writer is womanhood, literature to vintage Jimmy. visual arts and the relationship between Outrageous, witty, form and meaning in storytelling. As www.uqp.com.au warm and wise, Killing Messud writes, in a time ‘in which our Time shares more than ideals appear shattered and abandoned’, forty yarns reflecting an epic life – it is in the return to language and to including an encounter with a soul stories that ‘we return to the essentials legend in Memphis, a night in a haunted that make us human’. studio in upstate New York, an all-too- revealing appearance for a Sydney A Repurposed Life charity, and much more. Ronni Kahn Murdoch Books. PB. $32.99 The Ways Soar: A Life Freed by Dance Available now David McAllister As the owner of a of the Thames And Hudson. HB. Was $39.99 successful events $34.99 company, Ronni Kahn Bushwalker Available now was seeing huge volumes From twirling in the of food thrown away ‘A splendid social history, one reflective glass of the TV daily. But when Kahn hit so entertaining and revealing as a child, to joining the midlife, she couldn’t ranks of The Australian justify the waste any that you wonder why it hasn’t Ballet, David McAllister longer. Now CEO of the food rescue been done before.’ has always belonged organisation OzHarvest, Ronni leads onstage. Fifty years since thousands of staff and volunteers with – Amanda Lohrey he stepped into his first the goal to nourish Australia. A ballet class, McAllister reflects on his Repurposed Life is the story of how Ronni dance journey, his relationships, found her voice, her heart and her embracing his sexuality, and the deepest calling. combination of talent, timing and sheer perseverance that gave rise to his To the End of the World: transformative career. Travels with Oscar Wilde Rupert Everett In Search of the Woman Who Little, Brown. PB. $34.99 Sailed the World Available 13 October Clode Danielle In his highly anticipated Picador. PB. $34.99 third memoir, Rupert Available now Everett tells the story of Jeanne Barret, an how he set out to make a impoverished peasant film of Oscar Wilde’s last from Burgundy, disguised days, and how that herself as a man and ten-year quest almost sailed on the 1766 destroyed him. ‘An important book that Bougainville voyage as Unflinchingly honest and hugely speaks to our time.’ the naturalist’s assistant. entertaining, To the End of the World For over two centuries, offers a unique insight into filmmaking. It – Tim Flannery the story of who this young woman was, is also a soulful and thought-provoking and why she left her home has been autobiography from one of our best-loved shrouded in uncertainty. Here, biologist and most talented actors and writers. AN IMPRINT OF UNSW PRESS 14 READINGS MONTHLY October 2020 NONFICTION

Healing Lives selected his favourite material, organised Sensoria: Thinkers for the The Gifts of Reading Sue Williams decade by decade. In page after hilarious Twenty-First Century Robert Macfarlane Macmillan. PB. $34.99 page, one brilliantly crafted observation McKenzie Wark W&N. PB. $32.99 Available 13 October after another, readers will witness the Verso. PB. $39.99 Available now In 1962, Mamitu Gashe evolution of one of the great comedians Available now In this cornucopia of an was close to death and of our time. As we face the anthology, inspired by horrifically injured compounded crises of Robert Macfarlane, you during childbirth at the late capitalism, will find essays by some age of just fourteen years Cultural environmental of the world’s most old. Dr Catherine Hamlin Studies catastrophe and beloved novelists, saved her life, so Gashe technological nonfiction writers, dedicated herself to transformation, who are essayists and poets. Hamlin’s mission, becoming one of the A Letter to Layla: Travels the thinkers and the Published to coincide with the twentieth most acclaimed fistula surgeons in the to Our Deep Past and Near ideas that will allow us to understand the anniversary of global literacy non-profit, world. This is the moving story of the Future world we live in? Here, McKenzie Wark Room to Read, The Gifts of Reading forms friendship that saved the lives of over Ramona Koval surveys three areas at the cutting edge of inspiring, unforgettable, irresistible 60,000 of the poorest women on earth. Text. PB. $34.99 current critical thinking: design, proof of the power and necessity of books Available now environment, and technology, and and reading. The Time of Our Lives Ramona Koval’s A introduces us to the thinking of nineteen Robert Dessaix Letter to Layla major writers. How to Stay Sane in an Age of Brio. HB. $32.99 examines what it means Division Available 7 October to be human. In an The Hype Machine: How Elif Shafak What’s the key to the art affectionate account of Social Media Disrupts Our Profile. PB. $12.99 of growing older well? Is Homo sapiens’ origins, Elections, Our Economy, and Available 20 October it an art that anyone can she explores what has Our Health – And How We It feels like the world is cultivate? What about given us our current Must Adapt falling apart. So how do loneliness? (And, for that dominance of the planet. All life may have Sinan Aral we keep hold of our matter, what about come from the same gene pool, but an HarperCollins. PB. $34.99 optimism? In this facelifts?) Here, Robert accident of evolution – our exceptional Available 7 October illuminating polemic, Dessaix addresses these brain – has set us apart. Human beings have Elif Shafak reflects on our questions and comes up with some Having examined the origins of always been a social age of pessimism, when surprising answers. The Time of Our Lives Homo sapiens, Koval then goes on to species. But today, misinformation and fear is a wise and timely exploration of not examine our future. The age-old quest for something is different. are the norm. A tender, uplifting plea for just the challenges but also the many immortality and search for answers to the Over the last decade, optimism, Shafak draws on her own possibilities of old age. afterlife take her from caves in Spain to we’ve doused the fire of memories and delves into the power of AI conferences in Los Angeles. She goes human interaction with stories to reveal how writing can nurture Hollywood Park down a science-fiction rabbit hole into the gasoline. Social media is democracy, tolerance and progress. Mikel Jollett world of cryogenics and transhumanism, injecting the influence of peers into our Sceptre. PB. $32.99 and into recently discovered cave systems daily decisions. Packed with original Available now to engage with existential questions from research The Hype Machine describes the Environmental Mikel Jollett was born in ice-age humans. impact of social media on statecraft, Studies an experimental Koval travelled extensively and politics, voting, business and public commune in California, spoke with a huge array of sources while health, and shows us how to adapt. which later morphed into researching A Letter to Layla, visiting A Life on Our Planet: the Church of Synanon, archaeological sites and computer labs, If Then: How One Data My Witness Statement and one of the most infamous and meeting with primates and their Company Invented the Future Vision for the Future cults in the US. Mikel handlers. The debates are vigorous and Jill Lepore David Attenborough escaped the cult, but life contradictory and the personalities John Murray. PB. $32.99 Ebury. Was $39.99 outside Synanon was still difficult. His powerful and often eccentric. Koval’s Available now $32.99 was a childhood filled with poverty, erudition carries the reader across many The Simulmatics Available now addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, disciplines and A Letter to Layla reminds Corporation, founded in This is a legacy-defining ultimately, this is a story of fierce love and us of our potential as a species. 1959, mined data, book from Sir David family loyalty told in a raw, poetic voice. Interwoven with this account targeted voters, Attenborough, reflecting are Koval’s observations of her accelerated news, on his life’s work, the Eat A Peach granddaughter Layla’s development. manipulated consumers, dramatic changes to the David Chang Through Layla, Koval demonstrates the destabilised politics, and planet he has witnessed, Square Peg. HB. $42.99 thought processes and social skills that disordered knowledge and what we can do to Available now gave us the edge over the rest of the great – decades before Facebook, Google, make a better future. See In 2004, Momofuku apes and earlier hominids. Koval and Amazon, and Cambridge Analytica. Jill the world. Then make it better. All we Noodle Bar opened in a Layla’s exchanges give an immediacy and Lepore, distinguished Harvard historian need to fulfill his vision for tomorrow is tiny space in Manhattan. connection to our evolutionary past, and and New Yorker staff writer, unearths the the will and drive to protect our home. Its young chef and also embed a personal memoir of Koval almost unbelievable story of this long- owner, David Chang, within the story of homo sapiens. Koval’s vanished corporation, and of the women Living with the Anthropocene: worked the line, warmth towards her immediate family hidden behind it. Love, Loss and Hope in the completely unaware that extends to our species as a whole. Face of Environmental Crisis he was about to become Susan Stevenson is from Readings Malvern Mantel Pieces: Cameron Muir, one of the most influential chefs of his Royal Bodies and Other Kirsten Wehner & generation. Eat a Peach is an intimate Bunker: Building for the End Writing from The London Jenny Newell (eds) account of the making of a chef, the Times Review of Books NewSouth.PB. $34.99 modern restaurant world that he helped Bradley Garrett Hilary Mantel Available now shape, and how success can be much Allen Lane. HB. $39.99 Harper Collins. HB. Was $39.99 Our world is changing. harder to understand than failure. Available 20 October $34.99 Through pollution, Since prehistory, bunkers Available 7 October destruction of nature Is This Anything? have been built as In 1987, when Hilary and unsustainable Jerry Seinfeld protection, and as places Mantel was first growth, human activity S&S. HB. Was $49.99 of power and published in the London is transforming the $39.99 transformation. Today, Review of Books, she wrote places we live in and Available 6 October the bunker has become to the editor, Karl Miller, love. In this Since his first the extreme expression of ‘I have no critical training extraordinarily powerful and moving performance as a our greatest fears: from whatsoever, so I am book, some of Australia’s best-known twenty-one-year-old pandemics to climate change and nuclear forced to be more brisk writers and thinkers – as well as student in 1975, Jerry war. In Bunker, acclaimed urban explorer and breezy than scholarly.’ This ecologists, walkers, farmers, historians, Seinfeld has written his and cultural geographer Bradley Garrett irresistible collection of twenty reviews, ornithologists, artists and community own material and saved explores the global and rapidly growing essays and pieces of memoir from the activists – come together to reflect on everything. For this movement of ‘prepping’ for social and next three decades, tells the story of what it is like to be alive during an book, Seinfeld has environmental collapse, or ‘Doomsday’. what happened next. ecological crisis. NONFICTION October 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 15

Tales of Two Planets: But in doing so he discovers a different Stories of Climate Change and and darker type of haunting: trauma, Inequality in a Divided World alienation, loss. With rigour, daring and John Freeman insight, Kate Summerscale shadows GROUP CHRISTIE TATE Penguin. PB $29.99 Fodor’s enquiry, delving into long- Available 20 October hidden archives to find the human story In the past five years, behind a very modern haunting. John Freeman, previously editor of Maiden Voyages: Granta, has compiled women and the Golden Age two acclaimed of transatlantic travel anthologies that deal Sian Evans with income inequality. Two Roads. PB. $32.99 In the course of this Available now work, one major theme has come up Before convenient air repeatedly: how climate crisis is travel, transatlantic amplifying inequality. Tales of Two travel was the province of “One of the most startingly hopeful books I have ever read.” Planets brings together works about the the great ocean liners LISA TADDEO, author of Three Women effects of climate crisis, bringing us and never more so than closer to the real, human truth of what is in the interwar years. happening to our world. While many women made this journey for Gardening work, leisure, marriage or in search of new opportunities, their stories have remained largely untold – until now. Plantopedia: Maiden Voyages is a fascinating portrait The Definitive Guide to House of these women’s lives as they sailed Four warrior dragons Plants between the old and the new worlds. Lauren Camilleri & Sophia Kaplan trapped by an ancient curse. Smith St Books Was $59.99 A Short History of the World $49.99 According to Sheep Available 7 October Sally Coulthard An epic battle played out House plants have the Head of Zeus. HB. $34.99 power to transform Available 7 October between good and evil. any room. With their From the plains of lush foliage and ancient Mesopotamia to structural beauty, the vast sheep farms of A summer that Billy and his they help bring a sense modern-day Australia, of tranquillity to our sheep have been central friends will never forget. busy lives. In to the human story. These Plantopedia, Lauren Camilleri and remarkable animals have Sophia Kaplan present the definitive fed us, clothed us, guide to keeping happy, healthy changed our diet and cultures. Sally houseplants in any space. This is a book Coulthard weaves the rich and for all indoor gardeners, from budding fascinating story of sheep into a vivid novices to green thumbs and beyond. and colourful tapestry, thickly threaded with engaging anecdotes and remarkable ovine facts. History JANE HARPER Stories We Tell Ourselves Even the deepest secrets rise to the surface... Behind the Enigma: Richard Holloway The compelling new novel from the New York Times The Authorised History Of A&U. HB. $29.99 bestselling author of The Dry. GCHQ, Britain’s Secret Cyber- Available now Intelligence Agency In this new book Richard John Ferris Holloway takes us on a Bloomsbury. PB. $34.99 personal, scientific and To Asia, ith Love Available 20 October philosophical journey to HETTY MCKINNON explore what he believes One hundred years after From the award-winning author of Community. GCHQ was established, the answers to the biggest this definitive account of questions are. He Everyday vegetarian recipes unlike anything you’ve experienced before. reveals the top-secret examines what we know organisation. Working about the universe, the stories we have closely with the told about where we come from, and the intelligence, security stories we tell to get through this and cyber agency, John muddling experience of life. Ferris was granted unprecedented access to classified records to trace the origins Ten Days In Harlem BORN THIS WAY FOUNDATION REPORTERS WITH LADY GAGA of GCHQ. With revelations on almost Simon Hall A collection of fifty-one stories of kindness, bravery every page, this book brings the most Faber. PB. $29.99 and resilience from young people all over the world. secretive of British agencies into the Available now public domain for the very first time. In September 1960, Fidel Castro visited New York The Haunting Of Alma City for the opening of COMING 27 OCT Fielding: A True Ghost Story the UN General PRE-ORDER

Kate Summerscale Assembly. These ten days NOW Bloomsbury Circus. PB. $29.99 were a crucial hinge point ANDREW PIPPOS Available now in the trajectory of the London, 1938. Alma Cold War. Encompassing A magical saga of love, family and second chances. Fielding, begins to international geopolitics, decolonisation, ‘One of the best Australian novels I’ve read in years’ experience supernatural the nascent Civil Rights and Black Power Emily Bitto events in her home. movements, and radical student Nandor Fodor – a counterculture, Ten Days in Harlem Love talking about books? Jewish-Hungarian revolutionises our understanding of the Find us online at Pan Macmillan Australia refugee and ghost hunter unique melting pot that was the Sixties. – begins to investigate. 16 READINGS MONTHLY October 2020 NONFICTION

(the box came later) as the starting point, friendship should look like, learn how to she puts the women of the Greek myths attract the best people, and become the on equal footing with the menfolk. best friend you can be yourself.

Channel Kindness: Stories of Photography Kindness and Community Born This Way Foundation Northside: A Time and Place Reporters with Lady Gaga Warren Kirk Macmillan. HB. $39.99 Scribe. HB. $35 Available now Available now Lady Gaga has always From West Brunswick believed in the to Reservoir, Fitzroy importance being kind to Hadfield, Warren to yourself and others. Kirk turns his keen With that sentiment in eye upon the streets, mind, she founded the buildings, and Born This Way inhabitants of Melbourne’s northern Foundation. Through suburbs. Both a tribute to the things we the years, they’ve collected stories of remember and a reminder to look anew at kindness, bravery, and resilience from the world around us, the photos in young people all over the world, proving that Northside are a triumph of craft from an kindness is the universal language. And artist who invites us to really see. now, they invite you to read these stories.

Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide Travel Writing to Happiness Bill Bailey Quercus. HB. $35 The Border Available 13 October Erika Fatland & Kari Dickson (trans.) In this beautiful and MacLehose Press. PB. $34.99 uplifting book, Bill Available 13 October Bailey explores what From former Soviet makes us happy, states and breakaway delving into the very republics in Asia, to nature of happiness in Europe and the Arctic his own, remarkable, Circle, Erika Fatland way. Packed with travels alone and wisdom and humour, and with delightful explores the rich, diverse illustrations by the comedian himself, and often dramatic this book examines the heart of pure joy histories and scarred landscapes of the and contentment, and seeks to find out nations that border Russia. The Border is how we can all achieve it the log of an unmatchable journey, and offers vivid portraits of cultures and Music Philosophy individuals living at the limits of this Nothing Much Happens dominant land mass. Kathryn Nicolai A&U. PB. $29.99 Available 7 October Kim Gordon: No Icon Life: A User’s Manual - Without Ever Reaching the Kim Gordon Philosophy For Every and Any Summit Already beloved by millions of podcast Rizzoli. HB. $80 Eventuality Paolo Cognetti listeners, the stories in Available 7 October Julian Baggini & Antonia Macaro Harvill Secker. HB. $24.99 Nothing Much Happens This personally Ebury. PB. $35 Available 20 October explore and expose curated scrapbook is Available now Paolo Cognetti marked his small sweet moments of an edgy and evocative Since the beginning of fortieth birthday with a joy and relaxation. portrait of Kim time, people have asked journey to Dolpo, a remote Using her decades of Gordon’s life, art, and questions about how Himalayan region where experience as a meditation and yoga style. Spanning her they should live and, Nepal meets Tibet. He teacher, Kathryn Nicolai creates a world Californian childhood from Ancient Greece to brought along a well-worn for you that quietly teaches mindfulness to New York’s Japan, philosophers copy of The Snow Leopard. and self-compassion, soothes frayed downtown art and music scene in the ’80s have attempted to solve Matthiessen’s 1978 classic nerves, and builds solid habits for and ’90s where Sonic Youth was born, this these questions. In this was also turning forty, and Cognetti set out nurturing sleep. book compiles photographs, song lyrics, insightful, engaging book, Antonia to walk in the footsteps of the great artworks and more to show why Gordon is Macaro and Julian Baggini cover topics adventurer. Part travel journal, part one of the most influential cultural such as bereavement, luck, free will and literary homage, Without Ever Reaching Politics figures of the modern era. relationships, and guide us through what the Summit is sublime mountain writing. the greatest thinkers to ever walk the Overpaid, Oversexed and Over earth have to say on these subjects, from Rage There: How a Few Skinny the Stoics to Sartre. Personal Bob Woodward Brits with Bad Teeth Rocked Development S&S. HB. Was $49.99 America Mythology $39.99 David Hepworth Available now Bantam. PB. $35 How to Break Up With Friends Bob Woodward’s new Available 20 October Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Hannah Korrel book is an unprecedented The Beatles landing in Greek Myths Impact Press. PB. $24.99 look at a global pandemic, New York in February Natalie Haynes Available 7 October economic disaster and 1964 kicked off an Picador. PB. $34.99 This is the essential racial unrest under the unexpected cultural Available now guide for anyone Trump regime. Rage revolution. Suddenly the The Greek myths have devoting their precious draws from hundreds of youth of the richest been retold many times, time and energy into hours of interviews as nation on earth were but rarely do they focus maintaining friendships well as participants’ notes, emails, obsessed with a rainy on the remarkable women with toxic friends. Using diaries, calendars and confidential island that had fallen on hard times. From at the heart of these activities, truth bombs, documents. This explosive book shows the Rolling Stones at Altamont to David ancient stories. Now, in and real-life examples, how Trump’s responses to the crises of Bowie touching down in the USA with Pandora’s Jar, Natalie neuropscyhologist Dr Hannah Korrel will 2020 were rooted in the instincts, habits gowns in his luggage, this book tells the Haynes redresses this help you to identify the bad friends in and style he developed during his first tale of how the Brits rocked America. imbalance. Taking Pandora and her jar your life, understand what true three years as president. NONFICTION October 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 17

The Tyranny of Merit: What’s disappeared, relationships soured. comes at a cost. In The Human Cosmos, Become of the Common Good? Twilight of Democracy mixes the personal Jo Marchant takes us on a tour through Michael J. Sandel and the political and brings a fresh the history of humanity’s relationship At Allen Lane. PB. $35 understanding to the dynamics of public with the heavens. Available now life in Europe and America, both now home These are dangerous times and in the past. Is the Moon Upside Down? with Chris Gordon for democracy. We live in Greg Quicke an age of winners and Ebury. PB. $29.99 losers, where the odds are Natural Available now To Asia, With Love stacked in favour of the History As a bush mechanic and Hetty McKinnon already fortunate. And the pearl diver in remote Plum. PB. Was $39.99 consequence is a brew of WA, Greg Quicke spent $34.99 anger, frustration and How Birds Behave countless nights lying in Available now populist protest. Michael J. Sandel argues Wenfei Tong a swag and staring at the This is what we love about that to overcome the polarised politics of our CSIRO. HB. $39.99 stars. That daily Hetty McKinnon’s recipes: time, we must rethink our attitudes toward Available now distraction grew into a uncomplicated, kind and success and failure. Birds are intelligent, passion that has seen generous dishes served sociable creatures that him become one of Australia’s most with a little twist here and Less Is More: How Degrowth exhibit a wide array of engaging astronomers. Whatever there. Her latest cookbook Will Save the World behaviours – from mysteries you’ve pondered about the is a riot of flavour and Jason Hickel mobbing and night sky, Greg has thought about them colour with family mealtime considered. If William Heinemann. PB. $29.99 mimicking to mating too, and the answers can be found in the you love a little spice in your life, this Available 20 October and joint nesting. Why pages of this book. cookbook is the complete package and will The world has finally do they behave as they very quickly become a favourite, even for awoken to the reality of do? Bringing to light the remarkable those who believe they can’t cook. Hetty climate breakdown and actions of birds through examples from Visual Arts makes everything easy, I promise. ecological collapse. Now we species around the world, How Birds See page 5 for a recipe from To Asia, With must face up to its primary Behave presents engaging vignettes Love: Nepalese ricotta and spinach momos cause. Capitalism demands about the private lives of birds, all Open Studio: Do-It-Yourself with chilli and tomato relish. perpetual expansion, which explained in an evolutionary context. Art Projects by Contemporary Artists is devastating the living Australian Food Hurowitz Sharon Coplan world. This book traces a clear pathway to a Bees and Their Keepers Bill Granger Phaidon. HB. $125 post-capitalist economy that enables human Lotte Möller & Murdoch. HB. Was $49.99 Available 13 October flourishing while reversing ecological Frank Perry (trans.) $44.99 Open Studio invites breakdown, and argues that by taking less, MacLehose Press. HB. $39.99 Available 13 October we can become more. you into the private Available now Hand over heart, I have studios of seventeen In this beautiful book, never had a recipe fail of the most How to Make the World Add Up beekeeper and garden with Bill Granger’s celebrated Tim Harford historian Lotte Möller guidance. Clearly, I’m not contemporary artists Bridge St Press. PB. $32.99 explores the activities the only one: his as they draw, paint, Available now inside and outside the television shows are sculpt, or design an Statistics are vital in hive while charting the viewed in over thirty original project for readers to recreate at helping us tell stories, yet bees’ natural order and countries and his books have sold over a home. This book demystifies the studio nowadays people doubt habits. With a light touch million copies. His new cookbook arrives practice through the fun, accessible their value and validity she uses her encyclopaedic knowledge of twenty years after the release of the format of DIY. Leading step-by-step more than ever. In How the subject to shed light on humanity’s bestselling Sydney Food, and invites you to through each artist’s project, it’s sure to to Make the World Add understanding of bees and bee lore from bask in all that is great about Australian inspire people everywhere to blaze their Up, Tim Harford takes us antiquity to the present. food with fresh, diverse, quick, relaxed and own creative trails. deep into the world of completely delicious recipes. disinformation and obfuscation, bad The Lives of Lucian Freud: research and misplaced motivation to Science Use it All find those priceless jewels of data and FAME 1968-2011 Alex Elliott-Howery & Jaimee analysis that make communicating with William Feaver Edwards numbers worthwhile. A Human’s Guide to the Future Bloomsbury. HB. $69.99 Murdoch. PB. Was $39.99 Jordan Nguyen Available now $34.99 The Climate Crisis and the Macmillan. PB. $34.99 This book follows Lucian Available now Global Green New Deal Available now Freud at the height of his Alex Elliott-Howery and Noam Chomsky & Robert Pollin Australian biomedical powers, painting the Jaimee Edwards have Verso. PB. $29.99 engineer, inventor and most iconic works of his created a kitchen-skills Available now visionary Dr Jordan career and just handbook to reduce food We live in an era of Nguyen believes that outrunning his gambling waste disguised as a unparalleled technology is a powerful debts and tailor’s bills. cookbook. It is genius, environmental crisis, and tool that we as humans An enfant terrible till the really. The recipes are those alive today will can choose to harness to end, even as he attended his own structured around weekly shopping and decide the fate of humanity. create a better tomorrow. retrospectives, what emerges is an artist include more than 230 recipes with But the world’s leaders are Here, Dr Jordan takes us on a journey wilfully oblivious to the glitter of the alternative flavour combinations so you dedicating themselves with through the big innovations being world around – and focussed instead on can adapt a recipe to whatever you have passion to destroying our developed around the world, along the painting first and last. on hand – and never get bored! future. At the same time, there is a solution fun and amazing rollercoaster of his own at hand: the Green New Deal. Here, Noam adventures, and to envisage where our Truth Bomb Chomsky and Robert Pollin examine how we collective future is headed. Abigail Crompton Vegan with Bite can build the political force to make a global Thames And Hudson. HB. $49.99 Shannon Martinez Green New Deal a reality. The Human Cosmos Available now Hardie Grant. HB. $34.99 Available 7 October Jo Marchant This compilation of Twilight of Democracy A&U. PB. $29.99 pioneering and Consider this cookbook a Anne Applebaum Available now established women delicious examination of Allen Lane. HB. $35 For most of human artists from around the direction we all need Available now history, we have led not the world will to be heading towards. In the years just before just an earthly existence motivate and empower There are over sixty and after the fall of the but a cosmic one. you. Truth Bomb offers thoughtful but easy meals Berlin Wall, conservative Celestial cycles drove the very best beyond meat-and-dairy- politicians and liberal every aspect of our daily commentary and insight into the incredible free predictability. It is all part of Smith & intellectuals across lives. But over the last few formation of diverse women artists while Daughters’ chef Shannon Martinez’s Europe and America felt a centuries we have uncovering the power of taking a chance, mission to show readers that generous, common purpose. But as separated ourselves from the universe pushing the envelope and ultimately not delicious and environmentally sustainable the common purpose that surrounds us. And that disconnect being shy when it comes to making a mark. food is entirely achievable. 18 READINGS MONTHLY October 2020 KIDS

It’s wonderful that Sam McBratney and Anita Back to Sleep Jeram collaborated again to create this new Zoë Foster Blake & Mike Jacobsen (illus.) Kids’ treasure with the same style of heartfelt words and Puffin. HB. $19.99 lush illustrations. Together, McBratney and Jeram Available now Books have given us a timeless and beautiful tale about Poor Finn is looking forward being brave and creating new friendships. A new to drifting off to sleep in his classic for ages 3+. cosy, warm bed, when Claire Atherfold is the manager of Readings State Library Mummy appears wanting a Victoria drink. Finn resettles her and has just fallen asleep, when What We’ll Build: Plans for Our he’s woken again, this time Together Future by Daddy, who’s had a bad dream. And so it goes. Just Oliver Jeffers when Finn has one parent back to sleep, the other wakes HarperCollins. HB. $24.99 up! When will these two sleep through the night? BOOK OF THE Available 7 October MONTH A companion to Here We Counting Creatures Picture Book Are, that gorgeous, wise Julia Donaldson & Sharon King-Chai book that introduced our world Two Hoots. HB. $29.99 and beyond to a young boy, What Available 13 October We’ll Build is a more collaborative With bright and beautiful artwork exploration of building a life and a fabulous array of animals and together between an adult and a their babies to marvel over, this is a girl. There is the physical gorgeous book to treasure by the building of a house etc., and then there is the creators of the award-winning Windows development of intangible perceptions and emotions Animalphabet. Every page draws Patrick Guest & that are fundamental to our very being. The latter you further into the vibrant animal Jonathan Bentley needs to be built with sagacity and sincerity, and the kingdom, inviting you to compare (illus.) nurturing of intrinsic values is a matter of trust and the animals, explore their habitats, and learn proper Hardie Grant. HB. $24.99 love as the child grows. animal baby names for each creature as you count. Available 8 October Here We Are was written for Jeffers’ son, and this Sharon King-Chai’s colourful illustrations and Julia new book is for his daughter. It’s a gentle, thoughtful and Donaldson’s signature rhymes make this book a loving tribute that we can all share in – aren’t we lucky? pleasure to share. No doubt, there will be a number of books Alexa Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn published in the wake of our year of lockdown, If You Come to Earth but none quite so beautiful or pitch perfect as this one. What Are Little Girls Made of? Sophie Blackall As a variety of solitary children in very different homes Chronicle. HB. $34.99 Jeanne Willis & Isabelle Follath stare out their windows, they see a world that seems so Available 6 October Nosy Crow. HB. $19.99 quiet, empty and different. They notice things that Inspired by the thousands of Available now they may have missed before. When a noise below the children she has met in her travels This is nursery rhyme window distracts the children, they see a grandfatherly around the word for Save the emancipation for the figure, dancing and being silly, reminding them that Children and UNICEF, two-time grandmother, mother, aunt, sister, soon they will be able to be together and hug again. Caldecott winner Sophie Blackall and daughter of our times! What Written by Melbourne author Patrick Guest, an has crafted an ambitious yet Are Little Girls Made of? is a essential worker who had to move out of the family child-accessible book of … well … gorgeous, wise and eloquent home during lockdown, and lovingly illustrated in everything. Simultaneously funny retelling of the rhyming classics. record time by Jonathan Bentley, this book speaks and touching, it is a call to each of us to take care of the One may well ask, ‘What are directly to children about our time of isolation. It’s a Earth and each other. gentle reflection on the challenges faced by families little girls made of?’ That’s obvious, isn’t it? Well, ‘sun this year and a reminder of the many joys to come. and rain and heart and brain’. And one may wonder Highly recommended for ages 3+. whatever became of Georgie Porgie who ‘kissed a girl who made him cry’, or Little Jade Horner ‘who made Angela Crocombe is the manager of Readings Kids little spaceships from saucepans and hair clips, and Junior Grade sent all her teddies to Mars’? And, so with trills, fanfare and precocious flair, a new rhyming collection is yours to share. This is Skunk and Badger (Skunk and Badger, a beautifully produced gift edition of re-imagined Book 1) rhymes featuring playful illustrations and gorgeous, textured dustjacket and endpapers. Amy Timberlake & Jon Klassen (illus.) Picture Books A&U. HB. $22.99 Natalie Platten is from Readings Doncaster Available now Funny yet wise, irresistibly Julián at the Wedding playful and infused with an Will You Be My Friend? Jessica Love offbeat charm, Skunk and Badger is Sam McBratney & Anita Jeram (illus.) Walker. HB. $27.99 a beautifully crafted, whimsical Walker. HB. $24.99 Available 7 October adventure that charmed me from Available 7 October Do you remember Julián the outset, recalling authors I’ve In the same year as the is a Mermaid? It’s one of loved since childhood, including publication of the the finest picture books of the E.B. White, A.A. Milne and twenty-fifth anniversary past few years and a staff Kenneth Grahame. edition of the adored classic favourite at Readings. Now, Skunk is gregarious, an outgoing philosopher and Guess How Much I Love You? Julián and Marisol are going to thinker who loves discussing Shakespeare and cooking. (and also, sadly, of Sam be in a wedding! Whereas Badger is a quiet, solitary soul who wants McBratney’s death in We meet the beautiful brides and their sweet dog, nothing more than to study rocks and play the ukulele September), we have been Gloria. Julián and Marisol are both wearing nice to calm his nerves. Circumstance forces this unlikely gifted with a gorgeous continuation of the story in outfits for the wedding and as the event progresses, pair together, with surprising results. But when a flock Will You Be My Friend? we see that their wardrobes are delightfully swapped of chickens and a stoat enter the mix, mayhem ensues! In this tale, Little Nutbrown Hare goes looking for and remixed. The text is sparse and much of the story This whimsical adventure explores the joys – and someone to play with. At first, he discovers another hare is told through illustrations that perfectly capture conundrums – of friendship, and the wonder of new in a puddle, only to realise that it’s his reflection. This is moments of a truly joyful occasion. horizons. Perfect for independent readers aged 7+, it begs followed by a game of chase with a shadow, but, again, it This is a radiant picture book that celebrates love to be read aloud; children will love its quirky humour, turns out to be another version of himself. Finally, atop and dancing and wearing whatever makes us feel adults will be transported back to their own childhood. Cloudy Mountain, he meets Tipps, a little snow hare. happiest! For ages 3+. It’s a classic in the making and I highly recommend it. She’s real, and is happy to play many games. Kim Gruschow is from Readings St Kilda Athina Clarke is from Readings Malvern KIDS October 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 19

be read independently without any problems at all. The Secret Life of Stars Middle Grade At a whopping 600 pages, this is a perfect series Lisa Harvey-Smith for voracious young readers who need something T&H. HB. $34.99 to really get stuck into. There are lots of fun Available now illustrations by Kelly Canby throughout, too. Highly I usually prefer fiction and Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan recommended for ages 9+. was delighted by how much Crow (Nevermoor, Book 3) Kim Gruschow is from Readings St Kilda I loved Lisa Harvey-Smith’s Jessica Townsend Under the Stars: Astrophysics for Hachette. PB. $17.99 Darwin’s Dragons Bedtime and looked forward to Available now Lindsay Galvin her next book, The Secret Life of Morrigan Crow returns in the Chicken House. PB. $16.99 Stars: Astrophysics for Everyone. long-awaited third book set in Available now To be honest, The Secret Life of the magical world of Nevermoor. Mog Syms Covington has landed the job Stars left me starstruck; not just is eager to get a handle on her of a lifetime: cabin boy and fiddler overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of it all, but by Wundersmith powers and to finally on Charles Darwin’s Beagle. But how much more there is to discover. Thanks to the start learning the Wretched Arts. when he is separated from the crew author’s chatty, breezy style, I now understand After what happened in her first year during a storm, his life takes a truly concepts that had previously eluded me; she talks at the Wundrous Society school, she extraordinary turn. Shipwrecked on about stars like old friends and now they’re mine, needs to be able to protect herself from the infamous a Galapagos island, he makes a too. The universe (while still above me) no longer Ezra Squall. discovery that could change the feels beyond me. But this year will be far from normal. Wunimals world – and make his fortune. But should he share It takes all types to make a cosmos – blue are succumbing to a strange new infection that turns his find, or will it lead to the extinction of a giants, red hypergiants and white dwarfs, pulsars, them into vicious unnimals. Wild and on the hunt, legendary species? There’s one person who could neutron stars and black holes that live, breathe, their uncontrolled actions inspire fear and intolerance. help, but he’s busy writing a book … grow and (even) die. Most stars live in pairs: some As more wunimals fall prey to the disease, Morrigan born as identical twins, others star-crossed lovers thrown together by fate, or odd couples that just becomes determined to help find a cure. Dragon Mountain Hollowpox sees new adventures with the Brolley somehow fell into each other’s orbits. And there are Katie & Kevin Tsang Rail and book-fighters of the Gobleian Library, and binaries within binaries within binaries, making me S&S. PB. $14.99 reveals the true purpose of the Wundrous Society. appreciate our solitary yellow dwarf star, The Sun. Available 7 October Get your umbrellas ready and fall into the pages of There are runaway stars careening across the When twelve-year-old Billy Chan Hollowpox. For ages 10+. galaxy and stars that burn like 10 million suns, finds out his parents are sending him and stars that bend space, time, light and (frankly) Cindy Morris is from Readings Carlton to a summer camp in middle-of- my mind with the darkest mystery of them all: nowhere China, he doesn’t know black holes. Roll with It what to expect. But there he meets If you’re interested in astronomy, this book’s Jamie Sumner fellow campers Dylan, Charlotte and for you. If you’re not, read it and you will be! But be Atheneum. PB. $14.99 Ling-Fei, and together they stumble warned: your worldview will never be the same. Available 7 October upon an age-old secret: four powerful Highly recommended for anyone with an open Ellie isn’t exactly looking warrior dragons, hidden deep within the mountain mind who reads at a secondary school level. forward to starting at a new behind the camp. They have been trapped since an school in a new town. Despite her epic battle with the Dragon of Death and need the Athina Clarke is from Readings Malvern doctors confirming that her brain children’s help to set them free before terrible evil is scans reveal ‘no abnormal activity’ unleashed on the earth. (yay! no more seizures!), Ellie’s mum is still insisting Ellie will need an Classic of the aide. It’s like Ellie says: you can work so hard to overcome all the challenges cerebral Nonfiction Month palsy throws at you, but one mention of ‘your history’ and you’re back to square one. Happily though, Ellie’s new school isn’t able to immediately provide an aide, so Ellie not only gets a chance to Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls: 100 Through The Looking Glass prove herself but she also makes friends for the very Immigrant Women Who Changed The Lewis Carroll & Sir John Tenniel (illus.) first time! World Macmillan Classics. HB. $19.99 I really enjoyed this educating and funny book. Elena Favilli Available now Ellie’s blunt responses to people’s reactions to her Timbuktu Labs. HB. $46 When I was younger, I was will not only make you laugh but they also form a Available 15 October obsessed with beautiful, handy mental ‘To NOT Do’ list! An easy to read and The first two Good Night old-looking books – you know the lighthearted story, Roll With It is perfect for fans of Stories for Rebel Girls books of type, hardcover with yellowing Wonder aged 8+. biographical stories of pages and that smell of dust and Dani Solomon is from Readings Kids extraordinary women, past and adventure. When I first met present, have been beloved Through the Looking Glass and The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst bestsellers around the world. Now, What Alice Found There by Lewis (Kingdoms and Empires, Book 3) we have a collection of stories about Carroll, it didn’t occur to me that it Jaclyn Moriarty & Kelly Canby (illus.) women who have immigrated from was a sequel to something I hadn’t yet read, all that A&U. HB. $22.99 one country to another, often through necessity. mattered was that it was the most beautiful, curious Available now It’s a diverse collection, including athletes, book I had ever seen. When Esther returns to scientists, activists, journalists and more. Primarily I would argue that most people know of Alice boarding school for another featuring contemporary women, many have had to Liddell and her adventures in Wonderland, however, year, she has a couple of very overcome hardship and all have displayed incredible not as many people know that not long after her interesting new classmates. There’s determination to excel at their chosen career. There first visit, she went back. When Alice decides to step an odd teacher who is possibly an are stories of well-known immigrants such as Anna through the mirror atop her fireplace, she returns ogre, and two of her best friends are Wintour, Rihanna and Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, as to Wonderland only to find that it has turned into missing. Esther hears talk of evil well as lesser-known women including Xiye Bastida a chessboard. As she moves from square to square, shadow mages and witches lurking Patrick, an Indigenous Mexican–Chilean who moved reality changes around her. One moment she is in the nearby mountains. Inexplicable things keep to New York and became a leader of the youth climate strolling through a forest and then with the next step happening in the ocean, too. This is all becoming movement. There are even two remarkable Australian she finds herself on a moving train, with absolutely quite confusing, and very stressful, for Esther. It women – Turia Pitt and Geraldine Cox. no explanation other than, well, it’s Wonderland. might be up to her to protect the whole school! Or These well-written, pint-sized biographies are An adventure in imagination, this unabridged even the whole world! perfect bedtime reading. This book can be read to a hardback edition, with the stunning original It’s a rare delight to read a truly imaginative child as young as 3 or enjoyed by ages 7+. Informative illustrations from Sir John Tenniel, feels as magical magical adventure that is also genuinely hilarious. and inspirational, it deserves a place on the shelf of as the story itself. Ideal for readers 10+. every book-loving home! This is the third book in Jaclyn Moriarty’s popular Sam Kelly is from Readings Doncaster Kingdoms and Empires series, but each book can Angela Crocombe is the manager of Readings Kids 20 READINGS MONTHLY October 2020 YOUNG ADULT

Grown is raw and unflinching. It quirks and insecurities that render them exposes the conflicting messages and unique. It is through these characters Young misogyny at the heart of rape culture, that Anna Morgan creates a remarkably which are further complicated by race authentic tribute to the modern high- Adult and privilege, and interrogates the school experience. This is exemplified in abuse of power and celebrity – a not- her thoughtful portrayal of the anxieties so-subtle nod to notable pop-culture that surround exams and the difficulties incidents. Jackson’s writing is lyrical and that every teen inevitably faces in compelling, and will be devoured by fans deciding what comes next. Flashbacks All southpaws can attest to our brilliance: take Albert of The Hate U Give. For ages 14+. throughout the book feel like small nods Einstein or Marie Curie – both brilliant lefties. See BOOK OF THE to fond moments in the school year that also, Leonardo da Vinci. I might be biased here, but combine Bec Kavanagh is from Readings Kids MONTH will likely resonate with many. that left-handed brilliance with bookselling and all manner Young Adult of awesome things can happen. Just take this new book Watch Over Me The novel features several sections, from Garth Nix! Nina LaCour each told from a different teen’s perspective, along with excerpts from In this rollicking novel, Susan Arkshaw – a quite Text. PB. $19.99 historical newspaper articles and a ordinary art student living in London, seeking her Available now dictionary of mythical sea beings that biological father – is swept up in an adventure to prevent Nina LaCour’s gives the plot a darker edge and pushes it the Old World beasties from meddling in the current plane. Watch Over Me is a forward. Morgan has ultimately crafted Allied with Merlin (later Vivien), and a member of a society work that sits an enjoyable read that is a comforting of left-handed booksellers with varying magical abilities to comfortably in a COVID hand reaching out to anyone who has combat said beasts and other supernatural hijinks, Susan’s world where life feels struggled to find their place in the world. own background and connections to the Old World raise disconnected and set Suitable for readers aged 13+. many questions. apart, and where isolation may be our best Xiao-Xiao Kingham is from Readings Kids This book is a real page-turner; chaos, hope for safe haven. This is a story about Mila. As a young woman, Mila is at a This One Is Ours The Left-Handed action and intrigue all combine in this fun junction in her life, taking the first Kate O’Donnell Booksellers of read. Set in the 1980s, there are some great tentative steps towards independence and London UQP. PB. $19.99 indicators that we find ourselves in an era into a life of her own making. Available now Garth Nix without technologies we rely on today. From the early pages, we learn that Sixteen-year-old Sofie is A&U. PB. $24.99 Mila has been offered a live-in role as a a dreamer, an artist and Available now This book is a real page-turner; chaos, action and teacher/carer of a young student whose a romantic. So, when she intrigue all combine in this fun read. Set in the 1980s, there home is a remote farm on an isolated goes on exchange to are some great indicators that we find ourselves in an era without technologies we rely part of the Californian coast. Mila was Paris, she is expecting on today. And as with all of Nix’s books, the characters are relatable and well-rounded. approached to take on this role by a magnificent adventures Unlike many organisations in the world, the Society is an inclusive one, so that’s good strangely attentive couple who seemed of the heart and mind. news for righties and those who are ambidextrous. After reading this book, I came more than naturally curious about Mila’s Yet France isn’t what she away wishing I had similar magical abilities. What a blast that would be! And while it past circumstances. imagined. It’s cold and grey, and is ostensibly aimed at young adults, fans of Garth Nix’s work from way back (yes, you!), Mila’s childhood experiences were speaking another language is will find this enjoyable. For ages 12+. characterised by loss, trauma and neglect. exhausting. Sofie’s more homesick than Even now, eruptions of memory arise Julia Jackson is from Readings Carlton lovesick. But then her host sister, unbidden, loaded with emotional pain. Delphine, and fellow artist Olivier show There is a fragility about Mila that is her a different side of Paris, and Sofie worrying, and it is with a heavy sense starts to question her ideas of art, beauty Future Girl to protest, with serious consequences. of trepidation that the reader becomes and meaning. Of everything. There’s Asphyxia This is an enthralling coming-of- invested in Mila’s welfare and alert to the truth in what her best friend, Crow, has risks she may be facing. A&U. PB. $24.99 age story about a young Deaf woman been saying all along – the world is in This story deals beautifully and Available now finding her voice in a challenging future. crisis and people need to take notice. symbolically with the pain one can carry Written by Deaf It is an insightful window into the Deaf And when a catastrophe strikes close to from childhood, and the irrepressible artist and writer community for hearing readers and a home, Sofie realises she needs to act. But capacity of the human soul to hope, find Asphyxia, Future Girl is a powerful voice for Deaf readers. It is what can one girl do? This One is Ours is a renewal and a new narrative to live by. If remarkable Own Voices also a beautiful artistic object. Utterly call to action for anyone who feels this book had a weather radar it would show story about a Deaf girl, wonderful! For readers aged 12+. helpless about the state of society, as well dark and foreboding storm clouds ahead, set in a near-future Angela Crocombe is the manager of Readings as an ode to all the tiny beautifuls that so, best to read it curled up in a blanket inner-city Melbourne Kids make our world worth saving. with a cup of hot chocolate. For ages 14+. where food security is under threat. Portrayed as the private art Grown Natalie Platten is from Readings Doncaster All This Time journal of sixteen-year-old Piper McBride, Tiffany D. Jackson Mikki Daughtry & Rachael the novel is a stunning object with every HarperCollins. PB. $19.99 Before the Beginning Lippincott single page decorated in full colour, Available 7 October Anna Morgan S&S. PB. $17.99 including full-page portraits, garden In Grown, a book Hachette. PB. $19.99 Available now maps and stencils. about a talented Available now Can you find true love Piper has been brought up by her young singer whose big Following the end of after losing everything? mother to hide her deafness and pass chance to succeed comes their VCE exams, Kyle and Kimberly have as ‘normal’. When she meets Marley, a at a price, Tiffany D. four teenagers embark on been the perfect couple charming CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) Jackson reminds readers Schoolies intent on all through high school, who teaches her Auslan and introduces that the conflicting celebrating the end of but when Kimberly her to his remarkable Deaf mother, her pressures we put on high school and the start breaks up with him on world changes dramatically. Piper starts teenage girls can have disastrous of their new-found the night of their rebelling against her previous life. consequences. adulthood. There, they graduation party, Kyle’s entire world The story is set against the backdrop Enchanted Jones is used to attention. find themselves inexplicably drawn upends – literally. Their car crashes and of a society where synthetic food, As one of the few black students at elite towards a mysterious guitarist named when he awakes, he has a brain injury. scientifically packed with nutrients and Parkwood High School, her presence Sierra, who persuades them into joining Kimberly is dead. And no one in his life anti-disease components, is distributed is ‘distracting’. Enchanted works hard her on a camping trip to Shearwater could possibly understand. Until Marley. by the government. Piper’s mother is chief at home and at school, but music is the Island, an uninhabited natural park Marley is suffering from her own loss, a food scientist, but when she is retrenched passion that drives her. When legendary known to the locals. Their leisurely loss she thinks was her fault. As Kyle and from her job, she and Piper are so poor R&B artist Korey Fields singles her out getaway, however, soon takes a turn as Marley work to heal each other’s wounds, they have to rent out their house and at an audition, she is flattered – more tensions ripple and secrets in the group their feelings for each other grow move into the backyard. Their rations are than flattered – by the attention and are slowly uncovered. stronger. But Kyle can’t shake the sense reduced and they are literally starving. validation. When Korey invites Enchanted At first glance, the protagonists of the that he’s headed for another crashing Piper learns from Marley’s mother to leave her chaotic family behind to join book feel in some sense familiar – there’s moment that will blow up his life as soon how to grow her own food and starts a him on tour, she jumps at the chance. But the artist, the responsible figure, the as he’s started to put it back together. community vegie patch on the nature life on the road is anything but a dream, activist and the overachiever. What the And he’s right. An unforgettable new strip of their street. The government and Enchanted’s happily-ever-after turns reader is treated to, however, is something novel from the authors behind Five Feet deem ‘wild food’ poisonous and want to out to be a horror story of control, abuse more than any conventional trope, with Apart, the number one New York Times shut it down, so Piper starts using her art and torment. each teen having their own distinct voice, bestseller and hit movie. DVDS October 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 21

part series unfolds, our mass experience a taste for a different type of memorial under the Covid cloud seems distilled into imagery: pictures of people in their death Film & TV this tale of the havoc wreaked by one tiny throes. As the body count escalates, toxin.’ – The Guardian Blennerhasset and his staff must stop a murderer intent on ruining not just their business, but their lives. Season two of the television adaptation of Elena Anne With An E DVD OF THE Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels picks up where the first Season 3 $39.95 | Available 7 October Monkey – The MONTH ended – at Lila’s wedding and its aftermath. Now sixteen, the brilliant friends’ lives are more complex, and Gaia Girace as In this third season, Anne Complete Series $99.95 | Available 7 October TV Lila and Margherita Mazzucco as Elena deliver performances turns sixteen and hungers that are psychologically richer and more satisfying. The Story to learn more about her Monkey was born of time, of of a New Name covers five years – as they leave childhood well birth parents. A Mi'kmaq nation camp Heaven and Earth, Sun and and truly behind – up to Elena’s university graduation and brings new ideas and friendships to Moon, out of a stone egg. After her first publishing success, and Lila’s changing fortunes in Avonlea – and new tensions. And as the being imprisoned under a mountain for 500 their burgeoning corner of Naples. twentieth century looms, some continue years to learn patience, Monkey was freed by the holy monk Tripitaka. Then, Monkey and I enjoyed the first season of this adaptation very much, to look forward while others cling to more his band of travellers set off on a pilgrimage but I really, really love this second one. Italy in the 1960s is traditional ways, but one thing is clear – filled with adventure. This is the complete in the grip of a huge economic boom. In the neighbourhood, nothing will ever be the same again. collection of the iconic series, which ran buildings go up, new shops open. The Story of a New Name from 1978–1980. evokes the glamour of this moment in Italian history – the White House Farm period production design and costumes are gorgeous; the $24.95 | Available now Italian pop music soundtrack inspired. Rapid development In the early hours of 7 August Documentary brings social change – in classrooms, at worksites, on the 1985, police in Chelmsford My Brilliant Friend, streets. And for Lila and Elena, too, everything personal is received a distressed phone Series 2: The Story also political. Both fight becoming like the neighbourhood’s call from local farmer, Laurel Canyon of a New Name women – with lives eaten up by men and their demands, their Jeremy Bamber. Five members of his family $29.95 | Available 7 October Was $49.95 violent sense of ownership. had been murdered. Originally thought This documentary pulls back $39.95 Series creator Saverio Costanzo directs six of the eight to be a murder–suicide, the doubts of one the curtain on the mythical Available 21 October episodes, but brilliant Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher officer turned the case on its head. White world of Laurel Canyon in (Happy as Lazzaro) directs two pivotal ones. She brings an House Farm is based on extensive research, Los Angeles, providing an immersive emotional realism to the material, offering new interviews and published accounts of the up-close look at the lives of the musicians insight into Lila and Elena’s loyal yet competitive bond. Each wants some of what the other has. true story of the Bamber family murders. who inhabited it. Through a wealth of rare I know a lot of Ferrante fans have avoided this series, nervous that any visual and newly unearthed footage and audio imagining can only fail to capture the intensity of the novels. I understand this The Accident recordings, the documentary features an trepidation, but this adaptation is its own entity, and quite a magnificent one. Please give $24.95 | Available 7 October intimate portrait of the artists who created it a go. I have a strong feeling, based on season two, that it will only get better and better. In a Welsh community that a music revolution that would change Joanna Di Mattia is from Readings Carlton has been left behind, a large popular culture. construction project offers hope for a better future. But Film an explosion, followed by a catastrophic TV expertise to use in keeping her family collapse, leaves many dead, children together and safe from harm. included, and the people who live in the area A White, White Day surrounding the site devastated. As grief $29.95 | Available 7 October Outlander Season 5 Salisbury Poisonings gives way to a torrent of anger and blame, ‘While the Nordic noir label $49.95 | Available now $24.95 | Available 7 October the community finds itself torn apart. is apposite here – writer The fifth season of Outlander ‘Those involved with the director Hlynur Palmason sees Claire and Jamie navigate making of The Salisbury Dead Still (Winter Brothers) leans on the trials and tribulations of Poisonings cannot have $34.95 | Available 7 October elements of crime drama to drive a narrative life in colonial America. The known that … they were Dublin, 1880. Ireland is that's as sparse as the film's remote setting – Frasers strive to flourish within a society making an allegory. This is, of course, flourishing with photographic it's also slightly misleading. Despite its which is unwittingly marching toward the story of the public health crisis and studios. As renowned genre signalling, A White, White Day is Revolution, and Jamie must now defend the criminal investigation that followed the 2018 memorial photographer Brock fundamentally a film about grief and the home they have built together while Claire poisoning of MI6 agent Sergei Skripal and Blennerhasset tries to revive his business tender relationship between a man and his seeks to put her own skills and medical his daughter Yulia … However, as this three- after an accident, a killer is developing granddaughter.’ – ABC Arts 22 READINGS MONTHLY October 2020 MUSIC

Piano Salt infectiously groovy new solo album. This is Angie McMahon What Happiness Looks Like is an enormously Popular fun record, filled with disco beats right out $14.95 | Also on vinyl Available now of the ’80s. For those missing the dancefloor, this album will help create the ideal Music In a search for a conditions for an at-home dance party. sense of connectedness amongst her band My Echo Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band go back a long and team, as well as Laura Veirs ALBUM OF way – they first played together almost five decades ago, creating new work, $19.95 | Also on vinyl THE MONTH in 1972. Springsteen selected the members of this band to back Angie McMahon Available 23 October him on his debut record, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J, and Pop/Rock collaborated with local creatives to film Of her new record, since then they’ve recorded and toured for a number of his and record an online solo piano concert. Laura Veirs says: ‘In albums. Letter To You is the first studio album that Springsteen Piano Salt takes McMahon’s sound back to this new batch of and the E Street Band have played together on since 2014, and basics. Recorded at The Perch Recording songs I imagine the magic between this group of musicians is still going strong. Studio in Castlemaine, this record features escaping from some Incredibly, this is Springsteen’s twentieth studio album. a mix of pared-back originals and covers. sort of prison or cage. The nine tracks on Letter To You convey the sweeping, Advancing age, the dramatic Americana that feature on all of Springsteen and Wildflowers (Reissue) confines of domesticity, our oppressive the E Street Band’s most beloved songs. They are not in any Tom Petty government and the threat of the way reinventing the wheel here, but why should they? There apocalypse permeate these songs. In these $26.95 2CD | Also on vinyl is a bit of the hi-octane vibe of ‘Born to Run’, some of the songs my heart craves certainty and Available 16 October Letter To You effortless jamming of ‘Blinded by the Light’, and a dash of permanence but none is to be found. It’s an The long-awaited Bruce Springsteen the lighters-in-the-air anthemic potential of ‘The Promised album about disintegration. It reveals my Land’. And while things are slightly toned down in this latest reissue of the late, $19.95 | Also on vinyl artist’s intuition at work.’ offering (understandably so – most of the band members are great Tom Petty’s Available 23 October in or approaching their seventies) the energy isn’t diluted, it’s Willdflowers has Fake it Flowers refined. A working relationship of forty-eight years is no quiet arrived. First released beabadoobee feat, and Letter To You is a wonderful example of experienced musicians working together in November 1994, $19.95 | Also on vinyl like a finely tuned machine but still having a great deal of fun with their craft. the album quickly Available 16 October If you are a fan of Springsteen and the E Street Band, wanting to relive the glory days (pun became a fan favourite. This reissued beabadoobee has absolutely intended), Letter To You will find a place in your heart and on your turntables. version contains lots of extra material, including previously unreleased material, navigated the world Ellen Cregan is the marketing coordinator for Readings home recordings, alternate and live of global touring, versions of songs, and much more. This is a viral fame and comprehensive tribute that will be loved by musical creation to Jazz/Blues recorded the career-spanning double-album Petty fans, new and old. work towards a in New Orleans. These twenty-four fresh dazzling debut reimagined takes from Smither’s vast career An Evening Of New York album. Fake It Flowers is a testament to Swirling feature some very special guests including Songs & Stories this. Bea adopts a mature sound, where her familiar warm, fuzzy lo-fi lies between Sun Ra Arkestra the legendary Allen Toussaint and Loudon Suzanne Vega Wainwright III. Smither effortlessly delivers strings & melodies, bringing the raw $24.95 | Also on vinyl $19.95 the back-porch feel of intricate acoustic honesty of her DIY roots into a new era. Available 9 October Available now blues picking, accompanied by his own The planets align as On An Evening of New boot-heel-on-wood rhythms. the mighty Sun Ra York Songs and Sign O’ the Times Arkestra, under the Stories, Suzanne Vega (2020 Reissue) Prince direction of the Pop/Rock revisits some of the maestro Marshall most iconic songs in $22.95 | Also on vinyl Allen, are releasing her repertoire as well Available now their first studio Looking Through A Glass as more hidden gems ‘While it was not his album in over twenty years, Swirling. This Onion: Beatles Psychedelic in a stunning live recording. Recorded at most commercially new recording represents the continuation Songbook 1966-72 New York City’s famed Café Carlyle in early successful album, of a heartfelt rebirth of the Arkestra under Various Artists 2019, An Evening of New York Songs and Prince’s 1987 Allen’s guidance since Sun Ra left the planet $44.95 Stories includes both familiar songs and double-set “Sign O’ deep cuts from her catalogue. in 1993, gaining new generations of followers Available now the Times” is widely from their regular touring across the globe. This electric recognized as the compilation brings Us & Them most diverse, creative and far-reaching This Dream of You together almost Roger Waters outing of his career … several albums’ Diana Krall seventy cover versions $21.95 (also on DVD) worth of songs from this era have long $22.95 of some of the Beatles Available now circulated on B-sides, bootlegs or compilations, they’ve never been served Available now most well-known Us + Them chronicles up in a single set — but they will on Sept. Superstar five-time songs. Featuring the acclaimed 25’ – Variety Grammy winner artists such as Deep Purple, Grand Union, 2017-2018 tour of the Diana Krall returns The Hollies covering classics ‘Strawberry iconic Pink Floyd with a new album, Fields Forever’, ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘Norwegian member Roger Folk/World years in the making. Wood’, ‘I Am The Walrus’ and many, many Waters. This album This Dream of You is more, this album is a magical mystery tour presents Waters’ music for right now, into the psychedelic sound pioneered by UK powerful music in stunning form and Falling Out Of Time but also feels like a classic. The album artists from the late ’60s onwards. highlights a message of human rights, Silk Road Ensemble liberty and love. It features classic songs features Krall working with artists John $24.95 from The Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Clayton, Jeff Hamilton, Anthony Wilson Serpentine Prison Available 9 October Animals, Wish You Were Here and his most Christian McBride, Russell Malone and more. Matt Berninger Osvaldo Golijov’s recent album Is This The Life We Really Want? The musical accompaniments to Krall’s $24.95 | Also on vinyl Falling Out of Time is inimitable jazz crooning are truly wonderful. Available 16 October performed by Matt Berninger spent This is What Happiness Looks long-time More From the Levee twenty years as Like collaborators, the Chris Smither vocalist and Kylie Auldist Silk Road Ensemble. $19.95 frontperson for The $25.95 | Also on vinyl This project is a Available now National. Now, with Available 9 October musical expression of stories of Israelis More From The Levee Serpentine Prison, he Kylie Auldist, the and Palestinians who have lost family is the eighteenth is making his mark as stunning vocalist members to ongoing political conflict. album from iconic a solo artist. Featuring a wide range of guest known for her work Golijov and the Silk Road Ensemble draw bluesman Chris artists and produced by famed Memphis with The Bamboos on the rich tapestry of traditions from Smither. multi-instrumentalist Booker T. Jones, this and Cookin’ on 3 around the world, weaving together the Reconnecting with record explores themes of sobriety, success Burners, brings foreign and familiar to create a new his roots, Smither and failure, and the state of the world today. listeners an musical language. MUSIC October 2020 READINGS MONTHLY 23

with perfection. Many people agree that Beethoven: Für Elise & the four of his symphonies that survived Bagatelles Opp. 33, 119 & 126 Classical are some of the most perfect works Paul Lewis ever written (in which case, I guess he Harmonia Mundi. HMM902416. Was $32.95 Music achieved his goal). Although the ACO are $26.95 (limited stock at this price) primarily a full-time string orchestra, ‘As you’d expect in my years reviewing their work I from such an have always loved their full orchestral experienced To visit Benjamin Britten’s home of Aldeburgh is to recordings. For these full orchestral Beethoven ALBUM OF enter the world of Peter Grimes. Standing on the works, the ACO invite players in the performer as Paul THE MONTH beach, listening to the waves roll in from the North Sea, is woodwind, brass and percussion sections Lewis, there’s a to hear the very sound that inspired the moving Sea of some of the best orchestras around, and confidence in every Classical Interludes; just as listening to a recording of Peter Grimes it shows in the warmth of the sound and track … What is also particularly telling is (1945) is to be transported to Aldeburgh, to hear those very easy ensemble playing. the way he creates the sense of a bigger This Brahms recording is the most same waves, to smell the fish, and to feel the pebbled beach structure over the course of an opus, even beneath one’s feet. luscious I’ve heard in years, and hopefully where that involves a study in contrasts … when concerts start up again we can have All told, another hugely impressive disc more of these live recordings to make up There are themes in Peter Grimes relevant from one of our greatest Beethovenians.’ for the missed time. – Gramophone to every time – oppression, loss of Kate Rockstrom is a friend of Readings innocence, and intolerance – but, for its Falla: The Three Cornered emphasis on social isolation, it does feel Respighi: Fontana di Roma, Hat, Nights in The Gardens of particularly pertinent to our time. Britten: Peter Pini di Roma & Feste Romane Spain Grimes John Wilson & Sinfonia of London Orchestra of the Americas & Chandos. CHSA5261. Was $32.95 Edward Gardner In many ways, Peter Grimes is about longing, belonging, Carlos Miguel Prieto & Bergen and place. Britten’s inspiration for the opera came when $26.95 (limited stock at this price) Linn. CKD625. Was $32.95 Philharmonic he was living in America, far from his English homeland, ‘Wilson takes an $26.95 (limited stock at this price) Orchestra and he happened upon E.M. Forster’s Listener article on altogether more ‘The Iberian George Crabbe’s narrative poem ‘The Borough’, in which Chandos. CHSA5250. balletic approach sunshine certainly 2CD. Was $64.95 Peter Grimes is a central figure. Britten, being a fellow East [than Tortelier]. But blazes brightly on $52.95 Anglian, found in the article both a purpose for his art there is no lack of this marvellously (limited stock at and a calling home. He and partner Peter Pears eventually wallop: the opening atmospheric second this price) returned to England, where his new opera based on Crabbe’s of ‘Circenses’ has album from Prieto poem would premiere at Sadler’s Wells in 1945. There are tremendous adrenaline … The Triton and his Mexican themes in Peter Grimes relevant to every time – oppression, Fountain sparkles with vitality … There orchestra – everything really dances, loss of innocence, and intolerance – but, for its emphasis on social isolation, it does feel are dozens of versions of Respighi’s textures are superbly balanced, and particularly pertinent to our time. ‘Roman Trilogy’ available, but I’ve heard there’s particularly fine work from the This new Chandos recording of Peter Grimes is as evocative as Britten’s 1948 none better than this. The orchestral punchy brass and raucous woodwinds as original. Australian tenor Stuart Skelton performs the title role, alongside a fabulous playing is magnificent, and its joy and well as the airy mezzo Alejandra Gómez line-up of singers. Canadian soprano Erin Wall is a standout as the widow and exuberance are a tonic at this anxious, Ordaz in El sombrero de tres picos.’ schoolmistress Ellen Orford – her performance of ‘Embroidery in childhood’ is truly isolated period.’ – BBC Music Magazine – Presto Classical spine-tingling – and baritone Roderick Williams is a lush-voiced and authoritative Captain Balstrode. However, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra – directed by Edward Alchemy – Works for two Gardner – gives the most affecting performance of all, summoning in the Interludes the guitars Classical Specials of tumult and danger of a storm on the North Sea. A landmark recording of Peter Grimes. Andrew Blanch & Ariel Alexandra Mathew is from Readings State Library Victoria Nurhadi the Month ABC Classics. 4819101. $22.95 Alchemy takes us on Plaisir d’amour a journey through interesting is that Frost uses a modified Angela Gheorghiu Vivaldi: Works for Clarinet and history and around chalumeau – a predecessor of the Decca. 4834999. Was $24.95 Orchestra the world, through modern clarinet – in these works. With $14.95 (limited stock at this price) Martin Frost & Concerto beloved works by extra key work added to facilitate the Koln Debussy, Rameau, Released in tricky passages, the interplay between Sony. 19075929912. $29.95 Piazzolla, Albeniz, December 2019 to Frost’s mellifluous clarinet sound and celebrate Gheorghiu’s Historians Falla and Granados. The album also the Concerto Köln’s bouncy Baroque twenty-five years as a believe that the features the acclaimed Three Duets by the accompaniment makes you wish Vivaldi Decca artist, this clarinet was first late Australian guitarist and composer had been afforded more opportunity to album features rare invented around Phillip Houghton – including Alchemy, write for the clarinet. and classic songs 1700. At the time, the first piece that Andrew and Ariel never before recorded by Gheorghiu composers were Kate Rockstrom is a friend of Readings performed as a duo and the piece after covering may nationalities and languages. demanding more which this album is named. This is a Accompanied by her compatriot Alexandra from their musicians, and trumpeters were Brahms: Symphonies 3 & 4 gorgeous album, full of classic pieces Dariescu the recital opens with Romanian not able to cope with the fast passages in Richard Tognetti & Australian beautifully performed. songs and includes such classics as ‘Après the ‘clarion’ register, so the clarinet was Chamber Orchestra un rêve’, Tosti’s ‘Ideale’, Strauss’ ‘Morgen!’ developed to help them out with the tricky ABC Classics. 4819892. $22.95 JS Bach: Goldberg Variations, and the Chopin ‘Tristesse’. fingerings. At its inception, it wasn’t yet a There is BWV988 great instrument. However, some nothing in the Lang Lang composers started writing for clarinet world quite like an DG. 4818971. $24.95 (2CD) New York Concert straight away, including Vivaldi with his electrifying live ‘Hearing Murray Evgeny Kissin & Emerson String Concerto Grosso of 1711. performance. I know Perahia, András Quartet Swedish clarinettist Martin Frost we have all been Schiff or Angela DG. 4836574. Was $24.95 wondered – what if the clarinet had been missing that feeling Hewitt in Bach’s $16.95 (limited stock at this price) a better instrument in its earliest days? of sitting in the middle of the music, Goldberg Variations ‘The set is launched What would Vivaldi have written? Maybe hearing the orchestra breathe together is akin to absorbing a with a striking something like his vocal works, allowing and create something new from substantial literary reading of Mozart’s the three registers of the clarinet to sing? centuries-old compositional work. Lang Lang, however, offers the G minor Piano With the help of instrument specialists masterpieces. There is a reason these musical equivalent of a cinematic epic Quartet, its already and the always brilliant Concerto Köln, works endure for so long, and while the directed by Robert Altman or Steven dramatic beginning Frost has created three new ‘Clarinet concert halls are still closed, this Spielberg … Although fans of the given an even more Concertos’ using Vivaldi’s operatic works. beautiful live recording from the aforementioned pianists may take issue chiselled profile thanks to the precision of The soaring beauty of the clarinet is Australian Chamber Orchestra might with Lang Lang’s affettuoso temperament, the Emerson and Kissin’s vehement perfect to bring new life to these arias allow you to close your eyes and imagine the consistency of his interpretative vision accentuation … The more effective piece and while maybe their Concerto elements you are there again. and his ability to carry it out with is the encore: the Scherzo from could be argued, it’s immediately Brahms is well known for having conviction and authenticity add up to an Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet, where all apparent that something truly charming destroyed a number of his works towards entertaining and fulfilling listening concerned let rip to bracingly dramatic has been created. What is particularly the end of his life, as he had an obsession experience.’ – Gramophone effect.’ – Gramophone