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READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015 3

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READINGS ST KILDA’S WANGARATTA FESTIVAL OF MELBOURNE JEWISH COMEDY 10TH BIRTHDAY JAZZ & BLUES FESTIVAL It’s Readings St Kilda’s 10th birthday on 2015 is a year of change for the Wangaratta The Melbourne Jewish Comedy Festival Saturday 17 October! To celebrate, we are Festival of Jazz and Blues (30 October–2 (MJCF) offers a celebration of culture offering 20% off any full-price item in the November) with a new stage in the King through comedy. From 10–15 October, 44 St Kilda shop on the day, and we have two George Gardens and the festival precinct performers will appear in ten events, across special events. Join us at 10.30am for kids’ moving to the Riverside. Change too for six locations. As part of the festival, MJCF story time and a birthday party morning tea, the artistic program with the stellar jazz and Readings present ‘What’s so funny? or join us at 5pm for bubbles as comedian and blues line up complemented by ‘cross- A Literary L’Chaim’ with panel host Dr Greg Fleet talks about his new memoir, over’ acts to introduce a new generation Clare Wright and four fabulous writers: These Things Happen (please see our events to the festival and to the world of jazz Bram Presser, Eli Glasman, Lee Kofman page for bookings and further information). and blues. Readings is the official retailer and Leah Kaminsky at the Glen Eira Town at the festival and will be selling at all Hall at 7.30pm on Wednesday 14 October. events at the Wangaratta Performing Arts Visit melbournejewishcomedyfestival. com 25% OFF LONELY PLANET Centre and the Blues Marquee. Tickets for bookings and more information. Spring is upon us – what better time and full program details are available at to begin planning for your next travel wangarattajazz.com. THE READINGS FOUNDATION adventure? Luckily, the Readings’ Lonely GRANTS 2016 Planet sale is on once more, with 25% off all titles from now until 31 October. MELBOURNE FESTIVAL Applications for The Readings Foundation Whatever your travel style, Lonely This year marks the 30th anniversary of 2016 grants are now open. The Readings Planet is brimming with inspiration Melbourne Festival, an 18-day showcase Foundation was established in 2009 to support to help you prepare for your perfect of international acts and exhibitions. Victorian individuals and organisations that trip. The sale is on in all Readings Through cross-platform collaborations and wish to further the development of literacy, shops and online at readings.com.au. unique works, expect the city to explode community work and the arts. This year, with music, dance, theatre and visual The Readings Foundation grant funding arts. Highlight events include Headlong’s had a strong focus on those organisations 3 FOR 2 TEXT CLASSICS directly supporting disadvantaged PROMOTION adaptation of Orwell’s 1984, Opera Australia and Barking Gecko Theatre Company’s communities by way of literacy and Looking to complete your collection of co-production of The Rabbits (based on educational assistance programs, including Australian classics? Well, now is your the book written by John Marsden and Reading Out Of Poverty, Somebody’s Daughter chance with our special 3 for 2 Text illustrated by Shaun Tan), Laura Marling Theatre, Mallee Family Care, The Asylum Classics offer throughout October. The at Hamer Hall and Patti Smith’s Horses Seeker Resource Centre, Migrant Information Text Classics series is designed to unearth performed by Courtney Barnett, Jen Centre, Aboriginal Literacy Foundation, some of the lost marvels of Australian Cloher, Adalita and Gareth Liddiard. Church of All Nations Community Support literature. Including works by Elizabeth Readings is a proud partner of Melbourne and the HUSH Music Foundation. This focus Harrower, Madeleine St John, Helen Festival, which runs from 8–25 October. will continue in 2016. For more information Garner, Gerald Murnane and JM Coetzee, Visit melbournefestival.com.au for more visit readings.com.au/the-readings-foundation. Readings Monthly these classics are only $12.95 each. This information. Applications must be completed and lodged Free independent monthly newspaper offer is exclusively available in all Readings electronically by 5pm, Friday 30 October 2015. published by Readings Books, Music & Film shops and online.

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Front Cover Readings Monthly cover design by Cat Matteson using elements from the cover of Charlotte Wood’s novel The Natural Way of Things, courtesy of Allen & Unwin. The Natural Way of Things cover design and illustration by Lisa White, photographic elements Getty Images/iStockphoto.

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MELBOURNE JEWISH COMEDY FESTIVAL A celebration of culture 10 - 15 OCTOBER 2015 44 Performers 10 Events 6 Locations through comedy TICKETS & PROGRAM www.melbournejewishcomedyfestival.com 4 READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015

October Events MELBOURNE PETER GARRETT 14 JEWISH COMEDY 17 BOOK SIGNING SUSAN MIDALIA IN MARGI GIBB ON FESTIVAL We are delighted that well-known musician, 1 CONVERSATION KISSED BY A DEER 10 The Melbourne Jewish Comedy Festival activist and politician Peter Garrett will join WITH MARION Kissed by a Deer tells the story of Gibb’s and Readings present ‘What’s so funny? A us to sign copies of his new memoir, Big CAMPBELL search for meaning as she journeys through Literary L’Chaim’ with panel host Dr Clare Blue Sky, which reflects on his life so far, America, India and Tibet after the death of Wright and four fabulous writers: Bram including his time as a founding member of Susan Midalia and Marion Campbell her beloved father. Not afraid to bare her Presser, Eli Glasman, Lee Kofman and Leah Midnight Oil, as president of the Australian will discuss Midalia’s third short-story soul, this is a story of courage and honesty. Kaminsky. After the event there will be an Conservation Foundation and his years in the collection, Feet to the Stars. Subtly rendered opportunity to buy the books and have them ministry for the Rudd–Gillard governments. and emotionally engaging, this collection Free, no booking required signed by the authors. speaks of the transformative capacities of Saturday 10 October, 3pm Free, no booking required the heart and mind. Readings Hawthorn Ticket and program information available at Saturday 17 October, 2pm melbournejewishcomedyfestival.com.au Readings Hawthorn Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Wednesday 14 October, 7.30pm Thursday 1 October, 6.30pm JANE GODWIN Glen Eira Town Hall, corner Glen CELEBRATIONS AT Readings Carlton 11 AND ANNA WALKER Eira and Hawthorn Roads, Caulfield 17 READINGS ST KILDA Davina Bell will launch What Do You Wish BEN GOOK & For? by much-loved children’s author Jane TONY BIRCH IN It has been 10 years since Jack and Helen 7 ALISON LEWIS Godwin and illustrator Anna Walker. From Halliday retired and passed the bayside 15 CONVERSATION baton to Readings and Cosmos Books ON RE-UNIFIED GERMANY this fantastic creative partnership comes a sparkling and beautiful story, full of the Award-winning author Tony Birch will be & Music became Readings St Kilda. To This October marks the 25th anniversary of wonder of Christmas, the magic of wishing, in conversation about his new novel, Ghost celebrate Readings St Kilda’s 10th birthday, German re-unification. Join Professor Alison and the timeless dreams of a child. River. The river is a place of history and we are offering 20% off any full price item Lewis and Dr Ben Gook for the launch of secrets, offering different opportunities – for the day (St Kilda shop only), and we Divided Subjects, Invisible Borders, which Free, no booking required freedom, refuge and escape – to Birch’s have two special events. Join us at 10.30am details how the national unity of Germany Sunday 11 October, 3pm central characters as he asks questions about for kids’ story time and a birthday party after the fall of the Berlin Wall conceals Readings Hawthorn courage, survival and the cost of both. morning tea, or join us at 5pm for bubbles, persistent division in the lives of eastern and as funny man Greg Fleet talks about his new Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events western Germans. DRUSILLA memoir, These Things Happen. Or pop in and Thursday 15 October, 6.30pm browse our books anytime! Free, no booking required. 12 MODJESKA IN Readings Carlton Wednesday 7 October, 6.30pm CONVERSATION WITH Free, but please book for Greg Fleet at Readings Carlton readings.com.au/events MARK RUBBO MARGARET Saturday 17 October Join Mark Rubbo and Drusilla Modjeska as 15 SIMONS ON Readings St Kilda JANE CARO ON they celebrate the publication of Drusilla’s LIFE LESSONS FROM 7 ANXIETY memoir, Second Half First, with a chat THE GARDEN STEPHEN KNIGHT Jane Caro is known for saying what she about Drusilla’s lifetime of writing and A moving and heartfelt memoir, Six Square 19 IN CONVERSATION thinks. In her new memoir, Plain-Speaking the work of the organisation she founded, Metres is a thoughtful and beautifully Jane, she talks frankly about her battle SEAM (Sustain Education Art Melanesia) WITH STUART MACINTYRE observed book. Join journalist and with anxiety, offering hope to the one-in- to support community-based projects in gardening enthusiast Margaret Simons for Stephen Knight’s The Politics of Myth three Australian women affected by the Papua New Guinea. the launch of her book as she takes us on a explores key historical figures that have condition. Jane shows that anxiety is not a Tickets are $15 per person and all proceeds journey through the seasons, through her been idealised through time to suit our own life sentence. will be donated to SEAM Fund. Please book at life, and through the tiny patch of inner- purposes. Join Knight and Stuart Macintyre readings.com.au/events as they discuss how fact and fiction mix to Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events urban earth that is home to her garden. Monday 12 October, 6.30pm help us explore the complexities of our world. Wednesday 7 October, 6.30pm Readings Hawthorn Free, no booking required Readings Hawthorn Thursday 15 October, 6.30pm Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Readings Hawthorn Monday 19 October, 6.30pm EMILY POTTER, Readings Carlton 12 GAY HAWKINS AND KANE RACE ON OZYA HEROES PLASTIC WATER 19 YA author Nicole Hayes (One Join us for the launch of Plastic Water: The True Thing) together with David Burton Social and Material Life of Bottled Water. (How to Be Happy: A Memoir of Love, Sex Going beyond the usual political and and Teenage Confusion), bookTuber Chami environmental critiques of bottled water, (ReadLikeWildFire) and Chris Buur will the authors ask how water moved from a discuss what makes a character a hero, and common resource to a commercial product, whether all YA novels need a leader of sorts, a personal health resource, an object of with our own Isobel Moore. Come along and boycotts and a factor in waste accumulation. join the discussion.

Free, no booking required Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Monday 12 October, 6.30pm Monday 19 October, 6.30pm TIM WINTON IN Readings Carlton Readings St Kilda 9 CONVERSATION WITH TRACEE HUTCHISON CAROLE MELISSA MILES ON For one night only, Tim Winton will share 13 WILKINSON ON 20 THE LANGUAGE with the audience the inspiration for his CLIMATE CHANGE MEET CHRIS JUDD OF LIGHT AND DARK latest book. For over thirty years, Winton has 17 We are very excited to have AFL written novels in which the natural world is To celebrate the release of her new book, Myths of a distinctly Australian light have star Chris Judd joining us for a book signing. as much a living presence as any character. Atmospheric, join Carole Wilkinson for a shaped national identity and belonging, and Meet the recently retired Carlton captain Island Home, his memoir, is not just a panel discussion on the issues of living with the notion that photography is a language and have your copy of his new memoir, brilliant, moving insight into the life and art climate change. Atmospheric cuts through of light has particular significance for the Inside, signed. Inside is an insightful and of one of our finest writers, but a compelling the many voices raised around climate country’s photographic works. Join us to honest account of what it’s like to climb investigation into the way our country makes change to tell the story of our atmosphere, celebrate the release of The Language of Light to the highest levels in your sport, and to us who we are. what is putting our climate at risk and what and Dark by Associate Professor Melissa we can do about it. experience the full measure of heartache Miles. This is a beautifully illustrated study Tickets are $55 per person and and failure that inevitably accompanies more of how myths of light and place have been include a signed first edition Free, no booking required than a decade of playing at an elite level. reinvented, renewed, and challenged. of Island Home. Please book at Tuesday 13 October, 6pm readings.com.au/events Readings Carlton Free, no booking required Free, no booking required Friday 9 October, 7pm Saturday 17 October, 11am Tuesday 20 October, 6.30pm The Athenaeum, 188 Collins St, Melbourne Readings Carlton Readings Carlton READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015 5

ALEX MILLER ON GEORGE 21 THE SIMPLEST 26 MEGALOGENIS ON LIDO CINEMAS WORDS AUSTRALIA’S SECOND We are delighted to have award-winning CHANCE MEMBERSHIP author Alex Miller and his wife Stephanie Weaving history into a rollicking tale, joining us on the very day his latest work is George Megalogenis chronicles the waves of released. The Simplest Words is a selection of immigration from the First Fleet onwards, short pieces, both fiction and non-fiction. decoding economics and demography to Written by Alex over forty years and compiled advance this new insight into our history, and DEBRA ADELAIDE by Stephanie over the last two years, the pieces our future. Australia’s Second Chance explores 29 IN CONVERSATION comprise an insightful meditation on the life of how we shut the doors to immigration and WITH CHRISTINE GORDON a novelist and the culture of contemporary entered almost a hundred years of decline. Our $10 Australia. While you enjoy a two-course meal second chance is now – will we use it or lose it? Debra Adelaide’s new novel, The Women’s and matching wine, Alex will discuss his work Pages, is about the choices and compromises with Professor Raimond Gaita. Tickets are $5 per person, please book at women must make, their griefs and losses, readings.com.au/events and their need to fill in the absent spaces Tickets are $95 and include a signed Monday 26 October, 6.30pm where other women should have been. Join first edition of The Simplest Words, Readings Hawthorn two-course meal and matching wine. Debra and Christine Gordon as they discuss Please book at readings.com.au/events the power of reading and imagination. Wednesday 21 October, 6.30pm SPECIAL STORY TIME Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Crabapple Kitchen, 659 Glenferrie Road, MOVIES 28 WITH MEM FOX & Thursday 29 October, 6.30pm Hawthorn JUDY HORACEK Readings Hawthorn ARENA JOURNAL Join Mem Fox and Judy Horacek, the creators of the best-selling Where Is the KILL YOUR & ARENA 21 Green Sheep? and Good Night, Sleep Tight, as 29 DARLINGS’ FIRST MAGAZINE LAUNCH they introduce their charming new bedtime BOOK CLUB: SONJA tale, This & That. Parents, carers and kids are Come along to the launch of Arena Journal DECHIAN double issue no. 43/44, ‘From the Mashriq to invited to attend this very special story time FOR the Maghreb’, edited by Virginie Rey, Stephen with the iconic duo – listen to Mem read October’s Kill Your Darlings’ First Book Club Pascoe and Paul James, and issue no. 138 of stories, ask Mem and Judy questions, meet event features Sonja Dechian discussing Arena Magazine to get up-to-date with essays them and have your books signed! her profound and wry debut short-story on current events and new thinking. collection, An Astronaut’s Life. Sonja will be Free, but please book at in conversation with Kill Your Darlings’ online readings.com.au/events Free, no booking required editor, Veronica Sullivan. Drinks provided. Wednesday 28 October, 10.30am Wednesday 21 October, 6.30pm Readings Hawthorn Readings Carlton Free, but please RSVP to [email protected] MEM- CHARLOTTE WOOD Thursday 29 October, 6.30 for 7pm BARRY DICKINS: Readings Carlton 22 REMEMBER 28 IN CONVERSATION WITH PADDY O’REILLY RONALD RYAN READING THE LIFTED BROW Barry Dickins will read from his play, We are delighted to have the extraordinary 29 PANEL DISCUSSION Remember Ronald Ryan, the human and Charlotte Wood in to talk about her new novel, Together with The Lifted Brow, Readings political story of the last man to be executed The Natural Way of Things with Paddy O’Reilly. With echoes of The Handmaid’s Tale and is delighted to host a discussion on the BERS in Australia. Lord of the Flies, The Natural Way of Things question, What does it mean to be an Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events is a gripping, starkly imaginative exploration Australian writer? Join Gillian Terzis (an Thursday 22 October, 6.30pm of contemporary misogyny and corporate editor of The Lifted Brow), Alia Gabres Readings Carlton control, and of what it means to hunt and (Footscray Community Arts Centre) and be hunted. Most of all, it is the story of two Stephanie Convery (deputy editor, Overland) friends, their sisterly love and courage. and Readings’ own Amy Vuleta as they chat THE WAYWARD about identity and writing in Australia. 24 LEUNIG Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Wednesday 28 October, 6.30pm Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events The Wayward Leunig is a superb companion Readings Hawthorn Thursday 29 October, 6.30pm volume to Michael Leunig’s The Essential Readings St Kilda Leunig. Leunig found the process of selecting just 400 pieces for 2012’s The Essential Leunig so difficult that he set aside another 400 A peek at November for this new volume, which also spans five decades and includes pieces just as wide- ranging, potent and hilarious. FRANK 4 BONGIORNO IN BECOME A LIDO Free, no booking required November CONVERSATION Saturday 24 October MEMBER FOR Readings Hawthorn: 10.30am WITH CLARE WRIGHT Readings Carlton: 12pm MAGDA SZUBANSKI Frank Bongiorno’s The Eighties brings to life $10* & GET $10 28 IN CONVERSATION the most controversial decade in Australian GERALD MURNANE WITH JO CASE history, with high-flying entrepreneurs MOVIES FOR THE booming and busting, torrid debates over 26 IN CONVERSATION In her new memoir Reckoning, Magda land rights and immigration, the advent FIRST 3 MONTHS Szubanski, one of Australia’s most beloved WITH CRAIG SHERBORNE of AIDS, a harsh recession and the rise of performers, takes us from her suburban the New Right. Join us for a discussion of In Something for the Pain, Gerald Murnane childhood – haunted by the demons of her contemporary history at its best. tells the story of his life through the lens of father’s espionage activities in wartime Poland horse racing. His memoir is candid, droll and and by her secret awareness of her sexuality – Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events * For Memberships moving – a treat for lovers of literature and of to the complex dramas of adulthood. Join purchased before the turf. He will be joined in conversation by Wednesday 4 November, 6.30pm Magda and Melbourne Writers Festival Readings Carlton Dec 23, 2015 Craig Sherborne. program director Jo Case as they discuss Reckoning, the shadows we inherit, and the Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events gifts we pass on. Monday 26 October, 6.30pm For more information and updates, please visit the events page at readings.com.au/events. Readings Carlton Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events Please note bookings do not necessarily lidocinemas.com.au Wednesday 28 October, 6.30pm guarantee a seat and some events may be Readings St Kilda standing room only. 6 READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015

New Fiction Mark’s News and views from Readings’ Managing Director, Say Mark Rubbo Book of the Month GHOST RIVER Have you noticed those cool-looking books with the yellow spine and the Text Publishing colophon? Officially known as Text Classics, at only $12.95 they’re a chance for any of us to Tony Birch discover our literary history and some very good books as well. The series was launched in UQP. PB. $29.95 2012 with 30 titles and now has about 100 in print. I asked Text publisher Michael Heyward Ren is a bit of loner in his early teens. Not lonely, but a boy who where he got the idea from and he said it was actually back in 1995, in the very early days of makes the time go past without the help of others. Ren’s outlook Text: ‘I’d just read Tim Flannery’s seminal work, The Future Eaters, and he quoted extensively for summer takes a turn for the better when the new kid at school, from the writings of Watkin Tench.’ Heyward had never heard of Tench, so he went to the State Sonny, moves in next door. Sonny is all limbs and movement, a burst of Library and found a copy of a 1960 reprint of his 1792 book, Sydney’s First Four Years. He was so energy with a magical ability to find trouble anywhere he goes. Ren impressed that he knew he wanted to bring this book back to life and wrote to Flannery, asking can’t resist and the boys quickly become the closest of friends. him if he’d like to edit the book and write an introduction. Flannery agreed immediately. The When Ren takes Sonny to his favourite place – the Yarra River – Sonny then sales director of Penguin, Peter Blake, told Heyward that he was mad to publish a book that becomes smitten too, and the boys dedicate their summer to exploring the ancient, winding was over 200 years old and bet him that it wouldn’t sell more than 1,500 copies. Blake lost the bet, waterway. They seek out the highest bridges to jump off, search for WWII tunnels, and Heyward ‘learned that old books can become really new and that there is a hunger for them’ and befriend a crew of men who live by the river, drinking and story-telling themselves to an early the re-titled 1788 by Watkin Tench has now sold over 50,000 copies. Over the next 15 years, Text dabbled in reviving books that other publishers had allowed to go out of print but, ironically, it was Blake who provided the impetus for a carefully curated list of ‘This is a beautiful novel, part coming-of-age story, part great Australian writing when he brought out the Popular Penguins, quality backlist titles at a very history of inner Melbourne.’ sharp price of $9.95. That series was an immediate hit but it contained few Australian titles and it provided Heyward with the model. To create the first list Heyward and his team first looked at grave. The river is a source of endless adventure and delight to the boys, and is the centre- Australian books that had been made into films; they found The Odd Angry Shot by William Nagle point of the narrative, much as rivers are the spine that cities grow around. As inevitable as it – ‘the best book on Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam war.’ They became literary sleuths is that young boys will grow, cities will do the same, and when development threatens Ren and and scoured second-hand bookshops looking for Australian titles. They discovered Elizabeth Sonny’s sanctuary the boys are faced with a brutal reality and must make choices. Harrower and Madeleine St John and brought most of their books back into print – ‘there were This is a beautiful novel, part coming-of-age story, part history of inner Melbourne. Birch some great women writers writing here just after the war and their work is still vibrant and doesn’t lean on the location for authenticity, rather he builds it through character. The dialogue relevant.’ Harrower’s The Watchtower has sold over 15,000 copies as a Text Classic. had me laughing out loud, and working out the different sites on the river was a sneaky The list has now developed an impetus of its own; readers, agents and booksellers suggest pleasure. The two boys are captured well, with their localised longings and the way they view titles and Heyward revives the works if they are good. He’s also included great comic works such adults aslant. It piqued the nostalgic in me, but not too much. I was too interested in what Ren as Death in Brunswick, They’re a Weird Mob and Stiff. Heyward has publicly decried the scant and Sonny were up to, and what they were going to do to save their river. attention Australian writing is given in our schools and libraries, and he sees the Text Classics Robbie Egan is the operations manager for Readings as a way of introducing our cultural heritage to a younger generation of readers. ‘It’s the richest thing we’ve ever done,’ says a rightly proud Heyward. To celebrate Text Classics, Readings is offering you a great opportunity to savour them – buy two and you can select a third free – only quickly we recognise what we’re seeing – for October and while stocks last! Australian Fiction heads shaved, shapeless uniforms, violence and humiliation. The women are chained to THE NATURAL WAY OF each other and live in small, hot cells (old Dear Alison Huber, THINGS shearers’ quarters). While some parts of the Head Book Buyer prison seem makeshift, the electric fence Reader Charlotte Wood surrounding them is hi-tech and quietly A&U. PB. $29.99 terrifying. We almost know what this is, on You could be forgiven for having no idea where to start with the books of October 2015. I I read The a visceral level as well as intellectually, but mean, really – this is a bumper month. First, may I suggest you read the new work of Tony Natural Way of we don’t yet understand why. Birch? Ghost River is further testament that Melbourne has in Birch both its champion and its Things in one sitting Glimpses of the past lives of the two quintessential raconteur. It’s our book of the month. several weeks ago and brilliantly drawn women we form an Or perhaps you’d like to start as if it’s the end of the world? How about reading the new it kicked up a lot of allegiance with – Verla and Yolanda – give book from the godmother of dystopian fiction, Margaret Atwood, for starters. She’s back in full dust that is only now us the context we need. The relationship flight with The Heart Goes Last, a book that our reviewer read with compulsion until it was settling. It has been that develops between them is powerful finished: now that’s my kind of reading experience. You could follow that offering with a serve compared to The and unsentimental, the group dynamics of Charlotte Wood’s equally compelling – and truly terrifying – vision of misogyny’s endgame, Handmaid’s Tale, horribly plausible. What justice we The Natural Way of Things, a book I just know people will be talking about for the rest of the rightly so, and returning to that novel after eventually get is twisted and difficult to year and beyond. twenty years has gone some way in celebrate, but by then any sense of evil After that doom and gloom, you could perhaps visit Hope Farm, Peggy Frew’s lovely new helping me to understand what I loved punished is impossible to resist. novel set in the twilight of the hippy era, or meet Todd Alexander’s memorable character, Tom about Charlotte Wood’s contemporary, I was gripped by the full-bodied, Houghton, or immerse yourself in Geraldine Brooks’s consummate storytelling in The Secret Australian version. precise prose. Wood deftly shows us how Chord. But don’t stop there: Jesse Eisenberg’s short story collection, Bream Gives Me Hiccups, When writers create terrifying, unjust we are savage, revolting, tender, desperate, is nothing short of delightful; Jeanette Winterson’s fans will be happy that she’s the writer to situations for their characters – like the and especially how we survive. For me it is begin Hogarth Shakespeare’s new series of retellings (The Gap of Time is her reinvention of The forced imprisonment of a group of women the transformation of Yolanda that is the Winter’s Tale); Jane Smiley wraps up her simply stunning Hundred Year Trilogy with Golden in a desert prison compound, as occurs most affecting and thrilling. The ending of Age; and did anyone tell you that Steven Patrick Morrissey has written a novel? List of the Lost in The Natural Way of Things – they the novel is its own triumph. is its name, and it’s out this month too, along with too many other novels to mention. explain the wider situation to the reader Emily Gale is a friend of Readings But wait a minute: it’s also a huge month for non-fiction! Patti Smith fans assemble: her with world-building. Seeing the bigger new book, M Train, is a non-negotiable requirement for your library. Edmund de Waal, writer picture satisfies our curiosity and gives HOPE FARM us context; perhaps it also distances us of surprise bestseller, The Hare with Amber Eyes, has a new book this month: The White Road. Peggy Frew from the situation, if only falsely. But The Thomas Harding re-imagines the history of Germany through the prism of The House by the Scribe. PB. $29.99 Natural Way of Things doesn’t do this as Lake, while M.R. O’Connor tackles the ethical dimensions of so-called Resurrection Science. Those of us who Modern Love takes another look at those two hugely influential figures in the Australian art such. Rather than setting a new context, Wood presents to us a microcosm; a crude, encountered world, John and Sunday Reed. George Megalogenis exposes Australia’s Second Chance, and Peggy Frew’s Victorian David Marr turns his typically piercing gaze on Bill Shorten in the new Quarterly Essay, Faction intelligently formed physical manifestation of the way we torture and humiliate Premier’s Literary Man, an account that is sure to draw even more interest given recent events in Parliament. And Award-winning debut I can’t think of a month where we’ve seen more new Australian memoirs: Magda Szubanski, women for being what used to be quaintly called ‘fallen’. novel, House of Sticks, Tim Winton, Drusilla Modjeska, Gerald Murnane, Peter Garrett … goodness me! And that’s not in 2010 will have been all of them. This approach allows Wood to look more intensely (than, say, Atwood in The waiting with bated And finally, dear reader, I was slightly alarmed to discover that it is ten years this month breath for this, her since Readings took custodianship of the shop formerly called Cosmos in St Kilda – it doesn’t Handmaid’s Tale) at the transformation of several women under these brutal second book. Hope feel like that long ago to me that we announced that news, but then again, it’s hard to remember Farm does not disappoint. a time without our St Kilda store in the fold. The shop opened in 1960 and since then has had circumstances. We also witness the transformation of the two men and one When the novel opens it is 1985, a couple of different locations and three different owners before Readings bought the business and thirteen-year-old Silver and her in 2005. We recently signed a further ten-year lease on its premises, so 2025 here we come! To woman who are ostensibly in charge of the compound, although it becomes clear that mother Ishtar are living a nomadic life in celebrate this milestone, we are having a bit of a party: mark Saturday 17 October in your diary Brisbane. Ishtar dreams of getting away for 20% off all full-priced items (in St Kilda only), plus morning tea and storytime at 10.30am, something bigger and more mysterious is really in charge. The reader’s knowledge from Australia and their ashram dwelling followed by champers and chats with comedian and writer, Greg Fleet, at 5pm (bookings existence and fills Silver’s mind with required for Greg Fleet). Cheers and congrats Readings St Kilda: we love your work! is invited into the landscape of the novel: READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015 7 notions of eating chestnuts and spaghetti TOM HOUGHTON Meanwhile, the captives’ loved ones await more than 80 contemporary Australian in Italy. These dreams are short-lived, Todd Alexander their own fates, their love as dangerous a poets offer wisdom and consolation on however. Ishtar falls for the compelling liability as any political affiliation. In her today’s moral issues. They elaborate on Simon & Schuster. PB. Was $32.99 and roguish Miller, who comes into their stunning debut novel, award-winning everyday misgivings, the discovery and $27.99 lives and lures them down south to a hippy author Ceridwen Dovey reveals how re-discovery of mysterious, undeniable commune in Gippsland called Hope Farm. If you’re not humanity’s most atavistic impulses – vanity, and often irresistible forces, and offer Silver is hesitant about the move, having familiar with the vengeance and greed – seethe, relentlessly, forgiveness for the innate cruelty of been on the move since birth, but she soon tragic death of actress just beneath the surface of civilisation. human nature, our complicity in climate begins to feel a sense of security at Hope Katharine Hepburn’s change, and our everyday sins. Farm. At Hope she even gains a semblance brother Tom Houghton of the family life she so desperately craves. Hepburn, or can’t Australian Poetry She finds friendship with neighbour, visualise her in that Anthology amazing Walter schoolmate and fellow misfit, Ian, and they ON BUNYAH grow to cherish each other as they both Plunkett moth costume Les Murray THE SLEEPERS navigate the awkward in-between world of from the film Christopher Strong, I can almost adolescence. guarantee you will look these things up Black Inc. HB. Was $32.99 ALMANAC X Before long, her friendship with Ian while reading Tom Houghton. This story $27.99 Zoe Dattner & Lousie Swinn (eds) becomes ever more important as her and image form the background to the Bunyah has been Les Sleepers. PB. $24.95 newfound comfort and security at Hope tale of another Tom Houghton. This Tom, Murray’s refuge and Every year for the past starts to fray and disintegrate. The adults a forty-year-old actor in Sydney starring home place all his life. decade, the Sleepers directly in her orbit begin to clash as Miller as Martha in a gender reversal production This book concentrates editors have called for returns from a temporary absence that of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, on the smallest habitats stories from around coincides with the arrival of a newcomer, experiences flashbacks to his twelve- of community, the Australia. The result is the enigmatic and sweet-natured Dan. year-old self: a loner bullied at school, scattered village and the always a heartbreaking Hope Farm is peppered with Ishtar’s obsessed with films and movie stars and lone house, where space and hilarious notes and letters, giving the story an devoted to his mother. As the story makes the isolated combination of tales alternative voice and adding another progresses, the past and the present and dwelling into an illusory distant city ruled from established layer to this tale of the tense relationship fantasy and reality edge closer together to by its family and their laws. On Bunyah authors alongside between mother and daughter. It’s a study reveal a tale of tragedy, love, reinvention tells a story of rural Australia in verse and emerging and completely new authors. of memory, survival and the past, and and acceptance. photographs. From blood and fenceposts Many Sleepers Almanac stories have gone explores what happens when the ties that This is a novel that comes into its own to broadbeans and milk lorries, Les on to be selected for The Best Australian bind are pulled asunder. in the second half; it takes a little while Murray evokes the life and landscape of Stories, a testament to the high quality of Hope Farm is a gorgeously written gem to settle into a rhythm, but once it does, it his part of the country. the stories in the collection. This is the final of a novel. I have not come across another becomes easy to be absorbed into Tom’s Sleepers Almanac, and is sure to become a Australian novel yet this year that I have world – especially as a twelve year old. FALLING AND FLYING collector’s edition. enjoyed more. There are some wonderful characters and Judith Beveridge & Dr Susan Ogle relationships explored in Tom Houghton: Jason Austin is from Readings Carlton (eds) particularly between Tom and his mother Brandl & Schlesinger. PB. $29.95 International Fiction Lana and her boyfriend Mal (easily my THE SECRET CHORD favourite character in the book). The Falling and Flying Geraldine Brooks school scenes also stand out for their showcases a broad range THE HEART GOES LAST Available 6 October. Hachette. HB. Was $39.99 realism and the breakdown in friendship of Australian poems Margaret Atwood $34.99 between Tom and a fellow student is which explore the Bloomsbury. HB. Was $32.99 universal experience and Geraldine Brooks heartbreaking. This all moves towards an $27.99 effects of ageing. would have to be ending that while carrying a sense of hope, Once I started The Whether witnessing one of my all time doesn’t shy away from the complexities Heart Goes Last, I themselves or their favourite authors. I’ve of the relationships explored and raises couldn’t put it down parents and friends succumb to the years, read all four of her just as many questions as answers (much until I’d read the last the poets speak with great precision and previous novels and like real life!). This frankness and honesty word. When I did, I had insight into illness, frailty, death, grief and thoroughly enjoyed each drives the book and I look forward to a perverse smile on my retirement, as well as the joys and the of them. When I started future work from the author. face; Heart sent me gaga, wisdom that late maturity can bring. reading her latest novel, Amanda Rayner is from Readings Carlton over the moon, triggered There is humour as well as sadness in this The Secret Chord, however, I had an awful euphoria. I was ecstatic. fine and important collection, which feeling it wasn’t going to live up to my very It’s dark, yes – very dark – but it’s darkly THE MOUNTAIN includes the work of some of Australia’s high expectations. comic and sexy. For purposes of disclosure, SHADOW best loved poets. The Secret Chord is set in 1000 BC, the Gregory David Roberts you should know I’m an unabashed Second Iron Age. Brooks reimagines the story Atwood fan; for full disclosure, you should Available 13 October. Picador. HB. Was $46.99 HAPPINESS of King David, something she says she was know that my colleague (another $39.95 Martin Harrison able to piece together by rummaging through unabashed Atwood fan) was not-at-all several books of the bible. The tale is recited It has been two years UWA Publishing. PB. $24.99 on-board with Heart: ‘I just couldn’t buy by the prophet Natan, sometimes through since the events of Martin Harrison the whole conceit,’ she told me, ‘Why the prophecy, sometimes through his own Gregory David Roberts’ (1949–2014) prepared prison?’ eyewitness account and sometimes through epic novel Shantaram, and delivered this final Why the prison? Surprise! For years, his conversation with other characters. We and Australian fugitive manuscript at the end of private prison companies in the US have learn of David’s childhood, a boy unloved by Lin must find his way in a prolific creative life. been striking deals that contain clauses to his father and taunted by his older brothers. a Bombay that plays by With the vulnerability of guarantee high prison occupancy rates. We learn of his rise from a humble shepherd a different set of rules. a lover, the poet peels These prisons are private corporations boy to heir to a kingdom. We follow him on Many of his old friends back one cover of truth that profit from keeping their beds at his rise to power as he establishes an empire are long gone, the new mafia leadership has after another; reckless capacity. State officials scramble to meet and a dynasty. We see him in his old age, as become entangled in increasingly violent for the evidence of the senses, he sifts contractual lockup quotas to avoid using his sons run riot and vie for their own power. and dangerous intrigues, and a holy man light, sound and smell. Cosmopolitan and taxpayer money to pay for any empty beds. Finally, we see David name his youngest son, challenges everything Lin thought he knew. local, these triumphs of a ‘late style’ In Heart, a near-future dystopian prison Shlomo (Soloman) heir. The Mountain Shadow is a sublime, remind us what poetry is when its community serves as the perfect setting to I initially found reading The Secret Chord all-consuming novel of our extraordinary mastery allows the irony of existence to tackle topics such as surveillance, organ- heavy going. I’m not well versed in the stories human struggle for love and faith. walk naked and to exult. trafficking, and wealth inequality. The of the bible and have a scant knowledge of conceit of the novel is based on a disastrous ancient history. Once I got a handle on the BLOOD KIN PRAYERS OF A SECULAR global financial crisis which leaves millions characters though and the story moved from Ceridwen Dovey WORLD out of work, including our protagonists battle scenes to family and political intrigue, Penguin. PB. $22.99 Jordie Albiston & Kevin Brophy (eds) – Charmaine and Stan – who struggle to I enjoyed the story much more. It’s bloody A chef, a portraitist and a Inkerman & Blunt. PB. $24.99 survive while living out of their car. The and violent and I was often shocked by some glossy TV ad which promises them a life barber are taken hostage This exquisite book is a of the actions of David and his sons, with one of comfort and a proper home is too hard in a coup to overthrow collection of poems that particular scene making me feel physically ill. to refuse. The hitch is they must agree to their boss, the President. are prayers for our time. However, Brooks’ writing is so wonderful, I live in a prison half the time: one month in They are held captive in Rising from a fresh can fortunately end this review by saying she prison, one month in their home within the the mountains while far modern spirituality, has produced yet another literary gem. walled community. As the story progresses, below them, the capital these meditations and Atwood tackles other relevant topics Sharon Peterson is from Readings Carlton swelters as chaos reigns. contemplations from 8 READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015 such as the rise of artificial intelligence, moved to the state on the promise of its and thus the tug of his prose remains separated, whatever is lost shall be found. infidelity, identity, and the subjugation many riches – its gold mines, its promise intellectual and aesthetic. But brimming of women. Everyone is horrible, and this of celebrity, its agriculture – are now beneath is a firm belief that the world THE BOOK OF MEMORY is especially true of Charmaine, but in a trapped. A giant sand dune, the Dune is found wanting with its lack of magic. Petina Gappah sweet, apple-pie-and-gingham sort of way. Sea, is on the move and swallowing Rushdie is certainly making up for that. Faber. PB. $29.99 This is Atwood’s most powerful and everything in its path. It is the obstacle Luke May is a freelance reviewer Memory is an albino relevant work since The Handmaid’s Tale, that lies between this once-bountiful woman languishing in which shot her to worldwide fame in 1985. land and a version of hope. Luz and Ray WHERE MY HEART USED Chikurubi Maximum It portrays a near-future which is dark, are squatting in an abandoned mansion, TO BEAT Security Prison in believable and perversely cutthroat. As the living on pop and making use of the Sebastian Faulks Harare, Zimbabwe, title implies, this book is about sex and love, house’s now-absurd luxury amenities. where she has been but with a twist. The Heart Goes Last is On one of their excursions to commune Hutchinson. PB. $32.99 convicted of murder. compulsive, must-read fiction. and trade with other itinerant survivors, Like Alice down As part of her appeal they come across a child who is clearly the rabbit hole (if Eduardo Moreno is from Readings Carlton her lawyer insists that in precarious custody. In a split-second Alice was a 60-year- she write down what decision based on an old notion of family old man, and the THE DIVER’S CLOTHES happened as she remembers it. As her now seemingly out of place in this new rabbit hole was LIE EMPTY story unfolds, Memory reveals that she world, they take the child into their care. somehow New York Vendela Vida has been tried and convicted for the This guardianship becomes the impetus and London and a murder of Lloyd Hendricks, her adopted Atlantic Books. PB. $27.99 for them to follow whispers of a new remote island off the father. But who was Lloyd Hendricks? In Vendela Vida’s community and a water-divining prophet. coast of France), the Why does Memory feel no remorse for his latest novel, the But at what cost comes their faith in a new Sebastian Faulks death? And did everything happen unnamed protagonist way out? novel gets curiouser and curiouser the exactly as she remembers? leaves her life in Claire Vaye Watkins’s short story further we get in to it. Florida and arrives in collection, Battleborn (2013), won We open on Dr Robert Hendricks GOLDEN AGE Morocco. Almost significant acclaim and this debut novel waiting in a panic at Kennedy airport to Jane Smiley immediately she begins proves she is clearly a talent to watch. Gold board a plane back to London. ‘I had done to wonder if every Fame Citrus has an impressive confidence, a bad thing and wanted to leave the city,’ he Mantle. PB. $29.99 move she’s making is and is the work of an author with a wild writes. But when he elaborates, it appears A visit from a long- the wrong one; not only by spending three imagination and the writing chops to that the worst he’s done is hire a hooker, lost relative brings days in Casablanca – her guidebook advises realise its horizons. Watkins plays with and sit down with her afterwards for a the Langdons that it’s a place you leave – but tipping both style and substance, but always has cup of tea. Things gets curiouser when he together again on the using American money, and staying in the her characters firmly in mind and clearly arrives back in London to a message on family farm; a place wrong hotel when there were much more on the page. It’s a book that is full of his answering machine from a stranger, almost unrecognisable appealing options. surprises, and is one I’ll be recommending yelling, ‘We know what you did to that from the remote Choice, and the choices we make, is a lot in the coming months. poor woman. No wonder you ran out of Iowan farmland what’s important in The Diver’s Clothes New York.’ And curiouser still is the letter Walter and Rosanna Alison Huber is Readings’ head book buyer Lie Empty, and the protagonist has ample he has received from the mysterious Dr once owned. While a opportunity to fixate on her decisions. TWO YEARS EIGHT Pereira, inviting Hendricks to his island off few have stayed, most have spread wide When her backpack is stolen it sets in the coast of France, to talk about the war across the US, but all are facing social, motion a series of events that tips her life MONTHS AND TWENTY- and discuss what happened to his father. economic and political challenges unlike out of control. It’s stunning how rational EIGHT NIGHTS It’s only during his night-time talks with anything their ancestors encountered. and believable it seems for the young Salman Rushdie Dr Pereira that we – and Hendricks – find The final novel in the Last Hundred woman at the centre of this book to change Jonathan Cape. PB. $32.99 out what really happened in those years of Years trilogy brings to a magnificent and adapt her identity. Scheherazade, trench warfare. conclusion the century-long portrait of The real art here is how Vida never that greatest Revisiting the theme of war, Faulks’s one unforgettable family. allows the tension to lift, and, though the narrator of fiction, may new novel explores the emotional pleasures of the novel lie in the discovery squirm at the thought shut-down of soldiers after they come LIST OF THE LOST of the plot, which I won’t go on about of being so wistfully home from war. How do they reconcile Morrissey here, it’s the bizarre turns the narrative referenced in this new the events they witnessed? The things Penguin. PB. $19.99 takes as it moves from the disturbingly and sprawling tale of they did? How does a person look back High-octane, real into something much funnier, stranger magic and philosophy, on moments that are so traumatic they ferociously lyrical, and darker. but then what other lie ‘outside the healthy range of human List of the Lost shows Vida has also made use of the second writer today would dare challenge the experience’? The skill in the writing is a side of Morrissey person, the ‘You’ of the story is never master storyteller except Rushdie? apparent everywhere in this book. The never seen before. given her real name – though she offers Here, the two years eight months and creeping sense of unease that pervades Described by the up a number of aliases – and the details twenty-eight nights, or one thousand the pages; the misgivings the reader feels author as ‘an of her past are kept mostly in the dark. and one nights, refers to a time of about Hendricks, about Dr Pereira, about American tale where, While this can, and does, have a distancing Strangeness that has befallen the earth, Celine; the futility of war, the strangeness naturally, evil effect in some places, it helps to raise the where supernatural beings rule in a state of it, even the normalness of it. Faulks’s conquers good, and immediacy of what’s happening. The book of chaos. These are the jinn, or genies fans will happily tumble along after the none live happily ever after, for the flows quickly, as the protagonist’s past is who have returned after one of their white rabbit in this novel that explores complicated pangs of the empty slowly revealed. By the end, the story has own, a lightning princess, fell in love the wounds of war that we might not be experiences of flesh-and-blood human turned into something quite heartbreaking. with a mortal man in the 11th century and able to see, but are evident in how lives figures are the reason why nothing can Chris Somerville is from Readings Carlton populated the earth with her kin. Her are lived. ever be enough.’ List of the Lost is the lover is a philosopher without a god in a Gabrielle Williams is from Readings Malvern reality of what is true battling against GOLD FAME CITRUS world of magic and fantasy. What follows what is permitted to be true. Claire Vaye Watkins is a wild ride through the ages from THE GAP OF TIME: THE contemporary New York to old Bombay, Available 13 October. Maclehose. PB. $29.99 WINTER’S TALE RETOLD SUBMISSION where the worlds of reality and fantasy Speculative Jeanette Winterson Michel Houellebecq are at war through the words of dead imaginings of our Hogarth. PB. $29.99 Heinemann. PB. $32.99 philosophers. Amongst this conflict the world in the wake of In a near-future France, novel thrums with eroticism and reads like A black man finds a climate change are François, is watching a dystopian Aladdin. white baby abandoned providing many his life slowly dwindle The pyrotechnics of Rushdie’s prose in the night. It takes a authors with rich to nothing. In a dazzle in an intricately plotted and finely minute to change a material for late-capitalist society tuned narrative that traverses centuries lifetime, and a lifetime exploration. It’s fertile where consumerism and countries. There is no doubt that to understand the ground for some big has become the new Rushdie is out to entertain, however change. Jeanette questions that we religion, François is underneath the fantastical elements Winterson’s cover should probably all be thinking about: spiritually barren, but are those serious ideas about faith and version of The after capitalism has drained all the seeking to fill the reason that drive much of his fiction. The Winter’s Tale vibrates Earth’s resources dry, how are we going vacuum of his existence. And he is not brilliance of the book lies in his ability to with echoes of the original but tells a to survive; what will ‘society’ look like; alone – as the Presidential election blend old mythologies with pop culture contemporary story where Time itself is a how far will you go to stay alive? approaches, two parties emerge as and retain a compelling narrative arc. player in a game of high stakes that will For the residents of California, the favourites: the National Front and the However, the emotional range of his either end in tragedy or forgiveness. It water has run out, and the end-times are controversial Muslim Fraternity. A characters can be frustratingly narrow shows us that however far we have been at hand. Those whose ancestors once devastating satire and a profound READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015 9 meditation on isolation, faith and love by us to a world where the lines between reality one of the most provocative novelists today. and fantasy, tragedy and comedy, madness and sanity begin to dissolve. THE WALLCREEPER Nell Zink FEAR OF DYING HarperCollins. PB. $24.99 Erica Jong Interlaken, Berne, 21st Canongate. PB. $29.99 century. Several things Vanessa Wonderman is happen after the car a former actress in her hits the rock. Tiff 60s caught between ceases to be pregnant. her dying parents, her Stephen captures the ageing husband and most wonderful bird – her beloved, pregnant fleet, stealthy, and daughter. Although beautiful – a real ‘lifer’. happily married, the And the wallcreeper, lack of sex in Vanessa’s the wallcreeper says ‘twee’. The life makes her feel she’s Wallcreeper is nothing more than a losing something valuable. When she portrait of marriage, complete with all its places an online ad for sex, the life she requisite highs and lows: drugs, dubstep, knew begins to unravel. Hilarious and heart small chores, anal sex, eco-terrorism, wrenching, Fear of Dying is a daring and birding, breeding and feeding. delightful look at what it really takes to be human and female in the 21st century. KATHERINE CARLYLE Rupert Thomson DICTATOR Constable & Robinson. PB. $29.99 Robert Harris Katherine Carlyle is Hutchinson. PB. $32.99 created using IVF – but There was a time when by the age of 19, she has Cicero held Caesar’s lost her mother to life in the palm of his cancer, and her father hand. But now Caesar has become increasingly is the dominant figure distant. Instead of going and Cicero’s life is in to college, she decides ruins. Exiled and to disappear. What separated from his begins as an attempt to family, his comeback punish her father gradually becomes a test requires wit, skill and of his love for her, and a courageous leap courage – but politics is never static, and no towards true empowerment. A profound statesman, however cunning, can safeguard and moving novel about where we come against the ambition and corruption of from, what we make of ourselves, and how others. Riveting and tumultuous, Dictator we are loved. encompasses some of human history’s most epic events, but is also an intimate portrait BREAM GIVES ME of a brilliant, flawed man. HICCUPS Jesse Eisenberg STONE MATTRESS Atlantic Books. PB. $29.99 Margaret Atwood The fiction debut of Little, Brown. PB. $19.99 actor, writer and A collection of nine playwright Jesse short pieces that speak Eisenberg. In the title to our times with story, a nine-year-old deadly accuracy. A boy’s mother brings recently widowed him to expensive fantasy writer is restaurants so she can guided through a bill her ex-husband stormy winter evening for the meals. Other by the voice of her late stories imagine ancient Pompeii just husband. A woman One of Australia’s most highly acclaimed writers looks Discover the secrets behind more than 120 dishes back on the experiences of the past thirty years that from Yotam Ottolenghi’s London restaurant NOPI. before the volcanic eruption, explore born with a genetic abnormality is have shaped her writing, her reading and her life. It’s the Ottolenghi you know, but with an Asian twist. mistaken for a vampire. An elderly lady post-gender-normative dating, and Intellectually provocative and deeply honest, this is Each recipe has been adapted so you can recreate conjure up Alexander Graham Bell’s first sees little people everywhere, while a the memoir that lovers of Poppy, The Orchard and them at home. From the familiar to the fanciful, five phone calls. Written in the droll newly formed populist group gathers to Stravinsky’s Lunch have been waiting for. you’ll find food to inspire, challenge and delight. tradition of Woody Allen, Simon Rich burn down her retirement residence. In and David Sedaris, these short pieces Stone Mattress, Margaret Atwood is at the explore what it means to navigate the top of her darkly humorous and seriously modern world. playful game. THE TRAVELLERS AND AMONG THE TEN OTHER STORIES THOUSAND THINGS Carys Davies Julia Pierpont Text. PB. $29.99 Oneworld. HB. $32.99 In a remote Australian Jack Shanley is a settlement a young wife well-known New York with an untellable secret artist, charming and reluctantly invites her vain, who doesn’t neighbour into her mean to plunge his This contemporary reimagining of Shakespeare’s His 1995 travel memoir Notes from a Small Island home. On a red island in family into crisis. But The Winter’s Tale vibrates with echoes of the original. was an uproarious valentine to his adopted country a rose-coloured sea, an anonymously sent In Winterson’s telling, Time itself is a player in a of England. Two decades later, Bill Bryson returns russet-haired women package arrives in the high-stakes game that will either end in tragedy or with the sequel. An acute and perceptive insight into forgiveness. It shows that however far we’ve been the best and worst of Britain today, prepare yourself dream of a fisherman mail, chronicling separated, whatever is lost shall be found. for multiple episodes of unseemly laughter. with hair black as night. Jack’s secret life. The Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins visit a package is addressed to his wife, Deb, but women’s asylum, and the course of literary it’s delivered into the wrong hands: their history is changed forever. With these children’s. Writing with extraordinary award-winning stories, Carys Davies takes precision, humour, and beauty, Julia Pierpont has crafted a timeless debut 10 READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015 novel about the bonds of family life – their New Crime Dead Write THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL brittleness, and their resilience. Peter James with Fiona Hardy AFTER ALICE Macmillan. PB. $29.99 New Peter James book, Gregory Maguire Crime Book of the Month check. Story about a HarperCollins. PB. $29.99 crumbling English The author of Wicked THE DARK INSIDE mansion in the conjures an inventive Rod Reynolds countryside that’s new twist on Lewis Faber. PB. $29.99 haunted, check. Change Carroll’s classic tale. Ada, of underpants, check. As someone who’s never been to America’s south, I only a friend of Alice’s Moving to a place with know what I read in books: lots of diners, folks who don’t mentioned briefly in the alarming name like the look of you, and dirt tracks where any manner of thing Alice’s Adventures In ‘Cold Hill House’ can go wrong. And I love it, that southern tale: the heat, the Wonderland, is off to visit apparently didn’t ring any alarm bells for web secrets, something about the writing that is sweet and sour like her friend, but arrives a designer Ollie Harcourt, who has always ripe old candy. It surprised me to realise that Reynolds was moment too late and tumbles down the rabbit wanted to live in the country. Now his dream British, so accurate were the landscapes and characters; but I hole herself. Ada brings to Wonderland her has come true, in the sprawling property he didn’t really mind. How could I? I loved it. It’s set in 1946 but own imperfect apprehension of cause and shares with his wife and daughter. But soon it it could be set today: murders and shifty town politics and reporters out of a job and effect, as she embarks on an odyssey to find seems that there are more than three people red-headed dames – three of them no less. (I’m almost certain there are more red Alice and see her safely home from this there, as visions appear, one in the window of headed women in fiction than there are in reality.) surreal world below the world. a room that no one can find. Not one to read on a windy night when that tree outside NOW IS THE TIME ‘After a temper tantrum involving a typewriter through an office scratches insistently at your window, and the Melvyn Bragg window, reporter Charlie Yates is sent away from his beloved New air howls along your garden path, stopping Available 8 October. Hodder & Stoughton. only at the shadow by your back door … York to Texarkana on the Texas–Arkansas border, where a suspected PB. $29.99 In the summer of 1381, killer is on the loose.’ ROGUE LAWYER the plague had returned John Grisham Hodder & Stoughton. PB. to England, and the royal After a temper tantrum involving a typewriter through an office window, reporter Available 20 October. Was $32.99 coffers were empty. King Charlie Yates is sent away from his beloved New York to Texarkana on the Texas– Richard, just 14 years old Arkansas border, where a suspected killer is on the loose. His brief is: cover this or $27.99 and bolstered by his lose your job, but you’ll probably lose it anyway. And Yates’s reputation precedes him, It was only a matter of powerful mother, felt with no help from his fellow reporters apart from being threatened with a gun, and time until one of secure in his divine right the police with a stick up their collective ass about him too. But as Charlie’s priorities Grisham’s frequently to rule. Yet the change from keeping his job to solving a crime in a place where the authorities rogue lawyers went so unthinkable happened: a vast force of seem less than concerned about it, he’ll figure out who to trust – and that’s about rogue that it became a common people invaded London, no one beyond himself. Charlie comes from a place of unexpected emotional depth, book title. Sebastian demanding freedom, equality and the wounded from the loss of his wife, his sobriety, and his self-respect. Along with a Rudd is that man: complete uprooting of the church and state. gruesome and complex plot and the neat little quirks of language that shine the shoes unable to have a of the story, putting it in its historical place, the rediscovery of Charlie’s moral core is physical office because a journey worth taking with him. his last one was Science Fiction firebombed, and the list of suspects is as long as his mileage is high. He now works SORCERER TO THE JOURNEY UNDER THE office, Detective Sergeant Harry Belltree out of a bulletproof van equipped with an CROWN MIDNIGHT SUN is pointed away from Sydney, and the armed guard, Wi-Fi, and a fridge for beer. rampant corruption that nearly killed He defends even the most reprehensible of Zen Cho Keigo Higashino him, to the reportedly more sedate people, because he believes everyone Little Brown. PB. $29.99 Macmillan. PB. $29.99 Newcastle. Of course, it’s not sedate at all, deserves a fair trial – including the man In Regency London, Readings’ favourite and the first body found is just the accused of kidnapping the assistant chief of Zacharias Wythe must Keigo Higashino has beginning for Belltree, who is also police’s daughter, or the junkie accused of juggle the factional released another painfully aware of his new posting’s killing two young girls. I thought I would politics and bureaucracy book – hooray! It proximity to the car accident that just flick through this one, but I’d forgotten of being England’s first was first serialised in brought tragedy to his family – and which that Grisham is popular because he’s as African Sorcerer Royal, his home country of was possibly not an accident at all. addictive and entertaining as hell. Expect with the demands of a Japan in the late more from Rudd – and hope for it, too. British government at war ’90s, then released as WHAT REMAINS with France and deal with a TV show, and two Tim Weaver A BANQUET OF films, so don’t rumours that he murdered his predecessor Michael Joseph. PB. $32.99 CONSEQUENCES and guardian, Sir Stephen Wythe. This would Google it if you want Four years ago, Elizabeth George be easier if Sir Stephen’s ghost weren’t to stay in the dark – which you will with police detective Hodder & Stoughton. PB. following him around. Meanwhile, ambitious Higashino, whose work is clever enough Colm Healy was the Available 27 October. Was $29.99 orphan Prunella Gentleman has just stumbled to warrant a second read, to pick up the consummate $25.99 upon English magic’s greatest discovery in clues you missed the first time. A professional, the centuries – and she intends to make the most pawnbroker’s death haunts Junzo Elizabeth George’s best at what he did. of it. Sasagaki, the police officer on the case for gloriously giant crime When faced with a twenty years, as he follows two young novels are good for horrifying crime people who can never free themselves many things: to take on – the slaughter of a International Poetry from violence and suspicion: the son of the holidays, to read under mother and her two victim, and the daughter of the suspect. the covers on these young daughters warm spring nights, to – of course, he would solve it. But he did THE HOLLOW OF THE ASH ISLAND use as doorstops, not, and as the case wound down, so did HAND footstools, or maybe as Barry Maitland he, leaving him broken, distanced from PJ Harvey & Seamus Murphy a heavy weapon. But Text. PB. $29.99 his family, out of a career, and then Bloomsbury. PB. $35 don’t go coshing any intruders with this until Maitland’s first book homeless. Enter David Raker, finder of you’ve joined D.I. Lynley and D.S. Havers on Between 2011 and 2014 in the Belltree lost people, who has an outwardly loose another case. Barbara Havers, known (and PJ Harvey and Seamus Trilogy was but muscle-deep connection to Healy, loved) for her don’t-give-a-toss demeanour, is Murphy set out on a shortlisted for a Ned and who offers a helping hand to get on thin ice with the superintendent and is series of journeys Kelly Award, and no Healy back on track. That helping hand taking the warning seriously enough to together to Kosovo, one will be even comes with a caveat, to help find the actually change. This in turn leads to a Afghanistan, and slightly surprised if killer that left a family wiped from this connection to feminist writer Clare Abbott Washington DC. Harvey this turns up on earth, and a powerful man helpless in his and her assistant, Caroline Goldacre, a collected words, Murphy next year’s list. own body. The fairly rakish Raker is on woman everyone seems to find quite collected pictures. The Another protagonist the case – one that cleaves much closer alarming and overbearing. So how does this Hollow of the Hand marks the first on this month’s list to his chosen profession, when the next tie into a murder case? Ah, well, better pick publication of Harvey’s powerful poetry, in booted away from the comforts of home missing person he must find is Healy one of these up at the end of October, snuggle conversation with Murphy’s indelible images. to follow a lead somewhere far from his himself. up and find out for yourself. READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015 11

New Young Adult Fiction BREAKAWAY Kat Spears See books for kids, junior and middle readers on pages 18–19 Griffin. PB. $16.99 When Jason’s younger Young Adult Book of the Month sister passes away, he knows he can count on THE RIVER AND THE BOOK his three best friends Alison Croggon – Mario, Jordie, and Walker. PB. $16.95 Chick – to be there for him. With a grief- Not only did this book appeal to me from the get go with its crippled mother and beautiful cover, but the fact that it is endorsed by Amnesty an absent father, he International as a book that promotes awareness of human rights needs them more than issues meant it was made for me to read and I’m thrilled it is book of ever. But when Jason meets Raine, a girl the month. he thinks is out of his league but who sees Set in a small village, Simbala and her fellow villagers rely on him for everything he wants to be, he finds two things for their survival: the river, which runs through the himself pulled between building a village, and the Book, an oracle of sorts that guides the villagers with relationship, grieving for his sister, and answers to everyone’s individual questions. Simbala was born to become a Keeper of the trying to hold onto the friendships he has Book, a job passed down through generations. But as big corporations move in and start to always relied on. use the river to dispose of their chemicals, the villagers start to worry about the impact such polluting will have on their livelihoods. However, it’s not until a foreigner arrives, a journalist working on a story to help bring awareness to their plight, that the villagers are exposed to CARRY ON the biggest betrayal of all. Rainbow Rowell This novel does exactly what the endorsement from Amnesty International leads you Macmillan. PB. $16.99 to expect. When corporations pollute land or contaminate seed supplies, the exploitation Simon Snow just of the communities affected has only just begun. Human beings can no longer ignore these wants to relax and atrocities, and bringing this awareness to YA readers in the form of such a beautiful piece of savour his last year at literature is very exciting. Highly recommended for readers 13 and up. the Watford School of Katherine Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn Magicks, but no one will let him. His girlfriend broke up UNBECOMING just strangers. Resonant and authentic, with him, his best Jenny Downham this book is a rare gem that I don’t want to friend is a pest and his share but feel the duty to do so. In the mentor keeps trying to David Fickling. PB. $19.99 months leading up to me reading this book hide him away in the mountains. Plus I’m really loving I was beginning to grow tired of the there are ghosts. And vampires. And how YA fiction is constant stream of unoriginal YA books all actual evil things trying to shut Simon tackling so many claiming to be ‘masterpieces of their time’ down. When you’re the most powerful different issues at the and ‘the only young adult book you need to magician the world has ever known, you moment. Unbecoming, read’. I wasn’t enjoying them and they had never get to relax and savour anything. the new novel by nothing to offer in terms of originality. Jenny Downham, Then I was shown this book and the cycle INBETWEEN DAYS author of the brilliant was broken. Vikki Wakefield Before I Die, is no Everything about this novel demands Text. PB. $19.99 exception, with sexuality and family being attention, from the first page it grips you central topics. At 17, Jacklin Bates is by the shoulders and continues to hold you Katie has never met her grandmother living with her runaway days after the last line has been read. Our before. Understanding that her mother sister, Trudy, and she’s two main characters, Jack and Beatrix, and grandmother have not spoken in stuck in Mobius – a are instantly likeable and interesting, years, she is surprised when her mother, dying town with a both completely different but compatible albeit reluctantly, agrees to take her ageing suicide forest its only in a way that makes you envy them. As grandmother into their home until other attraction. A stranger you slowly fall more in love with these accommodation can be found. What then sets up camp in the characters, more twists, turns and secrets begins is the unravelling of Katie’s family forest and the boy next are woven perfectly into the plot keeping history and her grandmother’s spiral into door returns; Trudy’s you interested and not feeling like it will the ever distressing state of dementia. brilliant façade is cracking and Jack’s only be a chore to finish the book. It’s original, While family life is increasingly friend, Astrid, has done something funny, heart-felt and all out swoon-worthy turning into a circus, school and friends unforgivable. As Jack struggles to hold onto cute, leaving butterflies in your stomach are not much better. Katie’s decision to the life she thought she wanted, Jack learns for days. kiss her best friend has ended in constant that growing up is complicated – and love In the competitive world of writing ridicule about her sexuality from girls at might be the biggest mystery of all. there is so much to love and so much more school, while Katie struggles to work out to buy, but if you don’t do anything else whether she is gay or not. ZEROES today except buy this book you’ve done Unbecoming is a strong book which Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan something right. focuses on some very important topics, & Deborah Biancotti especially the confusion and worry Jemma Sbeghen is a friend of Readings A&U. PB. $19.99 teens can feel about their sexuality. The Don’t call them heroes homophobia portrayed is all too real, THE BOY AT THE TOP OF – but these six while the character of her grandmother THE MOUNTAIN Californian teens have and her impending memory loss are John Boyne powers that set them heartbreaking. This is a beautiful story for Corgi. PB. $19.99 apart. Ethan, aka Scam, teens interested in reality-based reading. When Pierrot becomes has a voice inside him Ages 13 and up. KD an orphan, he must that’ll say whatever leave his home in Paris people want to hear, NIGHT OWLS for a new life with his whether it’s true or not. Jenn Bennett Aunt Beatrix, a servant Which is handy, except S&S. PB. $19.99 in a wealthy household when it isn’t. When a bank robbery goes awry, Nate, aka Bellwether, pulls the scattered Night Owls at the top of the Zeroes back together. But when the rescue follows the German mountains. blows up in their faces, the Zeroes find adventures of two But it is 1935, and war themselves propelled into whirlwind teenage artists is fast approaching; and this is no ordinary encounters with ever more dangerous separately following house – it is the home of Adolf Hitler. criminals. Three powerhouse authors unite their dreams who meet Quickly, Pierrot is taken under Hitler’s for a thrilling new series. on a late night bus and wing, and is thrown into an increasingly soon become dangerous new world: a world of terror, something more than secrets and betrayal, from which he may never be able to escape. 12 READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015

Food & Gardening ADAM LIAW’S ASIAN cuisine. Along the way, he catches up with COOKERY SCHOOL long-distance relatives and meets locals who disclose decades-old secret family with Chris Gordon Adam Liaw recipes. In return, Luke shares his Hachette. HB. Was $49.99 WENDY WHITELEY AND knowledge of Vietnamese cooking and adds THE SECRET GARDEN $39.99 his own unique flourishes to some of these Janet Hawley Our household uses classic dishes. Liaw’s cookbooks Lantern. HB. $79.99 often. The recipes are THE NORDIC COOKBOOK I met Wendy Whiteley easy, delightful and once at a book launch. Magnus Nilsson accessible. This book, Phaidon. HB. $59.95 We sat on the steps of however, goes one step Scandinavian food is not an art gallery and further. More than just all about pickled talked about the weird a recipe book, it will herrings and smoked root systems of teach you about the ingredients and meats. There is more to Morton Bay fig trees. techniques of the Asian kitchen for a eating well in a cold When I next visited comprehensive grasp of how you can create climate and this Sydney, I dragged original Asian flavours. I like to believe this wonderful book myself up high above the harbour until I book is the next best thing to having Adam explores the dishes that found Wendy’s secret garden in Lavender in the kitchen with me: explaining, typify the food of this Bay. I cried a little there for a few reasons, describing, stirring … With his help, it won’t vast geographical region. The recipes are but mainly because I was immensely take long for homemade dumplings and influenced by the traditional ingredients affected by the Whiteleys’ impact on green tea ice cream to become your new that can be found from Sweden to Finland, Australia’s cultural identity and by Wendy’s commonplace family choices. If you fancy Norway and Denmark; recipes that big-heartedness to us, the visitors. Wendy Asian food, this is the cookbook you require concentrate on using the freshest of says about her gardening: ‘I’ve loved in your kitchen. making this garden. It’s been a great gift to ingredients and are simple to create. my life. It let me find myself again, and it’s CORNERSMITH Usefully, at the end of the book there is a my gift to share with the public.’ glossary explaining substitutes for hard-to- Alex Elliott-Howery & James Grant Hawley’s position on Wendy is, find ingredients – essential for us here on Murdoch. HB. $49.99 understandably, one of awe. Hawley the other side of the world. Think dinner- records the wretched story of how Brett This book is showing party gems like beetroot carpaccio with Whiteley’s death in 1992 forced Wendy the way forward to a goat’s cheese and minted pea relish, or into landscaping action. Her daughter’s utopian lifestyle, or venison cooked with coffee, honey parsnips death less than 10 years later compelled back to times past. This and rocket; as well as everyday treats like her to continue. This garden, so strikingly is how it goes: grow the Swedish meatballs, Danish smørrebrød, recorded here in this superb book, has food, share the food, and gooey cinnamon buns. This is a delight become part of the glory of Sydney and then open a café of a book for anyone who dreams of white harbour and includes sculptures, seating, where you trade the Christmases all year round. nature paths, plants selected for colour food. The owners and chefs of and for texture, as well as said Moreton Cornersmith are making this model work, PARTY GRUB Bay fig trees. For more than 20 years not only by providing classes on how to Thug Kitchen Wendy has worked to change the original make butter and jam and more, but also Little, Brown. HB. $39.99 showing how simple is often best. This railway rubbish dump into a landscaped Not necessarily for wonderful book shares the Sydney café’s wonderland. Hawley talks about Wendy serious wannabe chefs, recipes for bottling, fermenting and as an artist herself, with a fine sense of but rather for your creating perfect meals. Seriously, could it placement and style. Brett Whiteley’s average share-house be any more like a Portlandia episode? paintings are acknowledged and many good-time people, this are represented in the outstanding colour THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN is a cracker of a book pages of this book, alongside photos of suitable for any festive Wendy’s parkland, from all angles, by the COOKBOOK celebration, for very gifted photographer Jason Busch. Various reluctant cooks, and for difficult-to-buy- This is truly a glorious book about a Five Mile. HB. Was $49.95 for punters. Party Grub is full of more than woman’s elegy to her family and legacy for $39.95 100 never-before-seen recipes for her country. This is a ripper of an birthdays, holidays, sporting gigs, after idea: take 100 Australian hour gatherings and binge television THE MOROCCAN leaders in the food sessions. This collection of wild and wacky SOUP BAR industry, ask them what recipes will make sure you’re equipped Hana Assafiri they cook at home for with dishes to bring the flavour without a Melbourne Books. HB. Was $44.95 their family, and share. side of fat, calories, and guilt. Also $39.95 The list is impressive: included are cocktail recipes, because sometimes these parties need a pick-me- Over the last 17 years Perry, Wilkinson, Beer up of the liquid variety. the Moroccan Soup Bar and Alexander together with Solomon, has become a much- Calombaris and more. Each chef, cook or loved Melbourne food provedore has bestowed a couple of NEAR & FAR institution. It’s a unique family friendly recipes, and been Heidi Swanson dining experience with photographed in their own homes. This Hardie Grant. HB. $39.95 Hana, head chef and book becomes a moment in time in our Swanson is a treat of a owner, telling you Australian culinary history. Want to know cook and this gorgeous what’s what on the menu. She says: ‘At what we were eating in 2015? Read this! book reads like a travel the Moroccan Soup Bar we strive to journal, with photos rectify the imbalance where women in all LUKE NGUYEN’S FRANCE and sticky notes to societies and religions are among the Luke Nguyen accompany each of her most vulnerable and marginalised. Hardie Grant. HB. Was $59.95 vegetarian dishes. Modern cooking is underpinned by the $49.99 Beautifully presented, innovation and creativity of women, and I Hands up if you wish this is the type of book would like to pay homage to the you had Nguyen’s you may have casually sitting on your ingenious creativity of women’s cooking lifestyle? Honestly, the coffee table as well as in your kitchen. over the centuries.’ I love that, and this man’s job is to travel to Think Mexican tacos with mushrooms, or cookbook is a tribute to this much needed the most beautiful a paprika-spiked tomato soup from philosophy. All the favourite vegetarian parts of the world to Amsterdam with brown butter tortillas, dishes are included in this collection eat. No wonder he is made in Swanson’s very own Californian including the famed chickpea bake, and always smiling. In this kitchen. I adore that her recipes are there is even a recipe for the restaurant’s stunningly presented book, Luke embarks modest, using unassuming ingredients wall paint, passed down to Hana by her on a journey to absorb the mysteries of – no need to take an extra shopping list to father. This book is essential for all classic French dishes and how these the market for these recipes, all are vegetarians, and Melburnians. recipes have influenced Vietnamese practical, nutritious, delicious and easy.

8424_October_ReadingsAd.indd 2 17/09/15 4:26 PM READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015 13

New Nonfiction placed pumpkins (on the roof ) and RECKONING: A MEMOIR coriander (in the laneway), Simons’s garden Magda Szubanski allows her to feed her family with the Text. HB. $49.99 Was $49.99 Drusilla found herself in ‘a state of misery’ freshest of vegetables – sometimes. $39.99 Biography and couldn’t, didn’t want to, go on. With This is a considered and meticulously Ross gone, Drusilla gathered herself and observed book written by an author who is Magda Szubanski, one her friends together in ‘the house on the willing to share the tribulations and joys of of Australia’s most ISLAND HOME: A beloved performers, LANDSCAPE MEMOIR corner’. There they talked about lovers and a blended family, a fast-paced life and the the problem of men. When I mentioned to endless smell of French fries. By doing so, describes her journey Tim Winton Drusilla that this made me feel a bit of a she permits us to consider our own plot – from a suburban Viking. HB. Was $39.99 voyeur she replied, ‘I don’t like the sound of in life and in gardening. childhood, haunted by $31.95 you squirming and feeling a culpable her father’s espionage Chris Gordon is the events manager for Readings This book reveals voyeur. I certainly don’t mean to BLAME activities in wartime Poland, and by her two Tim Wintons. men. A lot of us – me included – behaved FURIOUSLY HAPPY There is the wordsmith very badly.’ secret awareness of Jenny Lawson we feel we already But it’s in this second half of her life her sexuality, to the complex dramas of know well through his that Drusilla, the writer, is most productive Picador. PB. $29.99 adulthood and her need to find out the renowned and and perhaps most thoughtful. She writes Furiously Happy truth about herself and her family. With evocative fiction, but her award-winning book about her mother, had me from the courage and compassion she addresses her this book also reveals a Poppy, Stravinsky’s Lunch and the novel title. Or, perhaps it was own frailties and fears, and asks the big person who thinks very The Mountain. She reflects on the books the stuffed raccoon on questions about life, the shadows we deeply about his, and our, relationship with and the people who have influenced her, the front cover? Hard inherit and the gifts we pass on. the land. In a series of essays, most of them made her think, made her change. There is call. But a happy read never published before, Winton muses on a very powerful, very moving section when was high among my INSIDE nature, on faith, on war and on identity. she goes back to England to be with her hopes. Following on Chris Judd The son of a copper, Winton grew up beloved, dying father. from the success of her A&U. HB. $39.99 on the outskirts of Perth. At the end of his Drusilla came to Australia from earlier book, Let’s Few people know street was a swamp, ‘a great wild nether- England via Papua New Guinea. Her first Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson Australian Rules land that drew everything down to it husband, an academic, got a position delivers again with a hilarious romp of a read football better than eventually: water, birds, frogs, snakes – and at PNG’s fledgling university and when that will have you curled over with laughter Chris Judd. He’s won kids of course.’ When he was about 12 he that marriage broke up she ended up and gasping for breath. Laughing must be the the Brownlow Medal moved to Albany and grew up exploring, in Australia. Those years in PNG had best exercise for the stomach muscles as twice, been a dual surfing and experiencing the wildly been special but after she left she’d had mine felt sore from laughing so much given Leigh Matthews beautiful coastal and bush areas that have little contact until in the early 2000s she the constant and unrelenting serves of Trophy winner and been immortalised in his books. started to re-engage, and in 2004 returned hilarity. Lawson has a way with the was selected as an All Although Winton was aware of being with a Sydney art dealer. Out of this new ridiculous, setting up outrageous scenarios Australian six times. vaguely attached to this country, it wasn’t engagement came her powerful novel set that grow in absurdity to such an extent that His autobiography is a unique journey until he spent an extended period living in PNG, The Mountain. She became more even your wildest imagination couldn’t into the game, describing with overseas that he began to think deeply and more drawn into PNG, and more and prepare you for where she’s going to take you. extraordinary candour what it’s like to about that relationship: ‘My physical more in love with the people there who Seriously, Lawson is so unpredictable that climb to the highest levels and achieve response to new places unsettled me.’ faced such tremendous challenges. Before I’m certain she even takes herself by surprise! the ultimate goal of your sport. It is a rare In that European landscape he felt a she knew it, she had set up SEAM (Sustain The comedic episodes in this book and intimate look inside the world of the complete stranger, ‘but acknowledging Education Art Melanesia), a foundation to deserve to be experienced fully in the elite sportsman. my strangeness made those years abroad support education in remote areas of PNG, context in which they are written so easier to digest and enjoy.’ and to her credit that idea is becoming there’ll be no spoilers from me. Suffice to INTERESTINGLY There’s anger in this book, anger at close to a reality. Second Half First is a say, this book is more than just a work of ENOUGH … THE LIFE OF comedy. Followers of Lawson’s blog The the ill-considered use of the land. To beautiful, sometimes profound, and always TOM KENEALLY Winton, business leaders ‘seem content to engaging memoir by a great writer. MR Bloggess will know of her life-long struggle bulldoze beauty and replace it with crap’. with depression and anxiety. Lawson is Stephany Evans Steggall Although essentially a very private person, SIX SQUARE METRES up-front about her mental health issues and Nero. HB. $49.99 Winton has been drawn to campaigns to Margaret Simons there is an honesty about her struggle that For five decades Tom is real and humanising. save our natural heritage, most famously Scribe. HB. $24.99 Keneally has been one For Lawson, it is the polarity of of Australia’s most loved becoming the public face for the campaign Margaret Simons experience that allows her to delve deep literary figures. to save Ningaloo Reef from inappropriate is an award- into her suffering and to scale the heights Celebrated as one of the development; to Winton’s surprise and winning freelance of ‘furiously happy’ too. In her manic state world’s finest writers, pleasure, the Ningaloo campaign was journalist and author. Lawson is outrageous, eccentric and very he is also respected for successful. She is also the director funny. But her down times, as she relates his humanitarianism Winton comes from a devoutly religious of the Centre for them in the book, are desperately sad. I and commitment to family and his chapter on the meaning of Advancing Journalism couldn’t help but feel joy and empathy for republicanism and other causes. The the sacred, ‘Paying Respect’, should be and coordinator of the her in equal measure. In the words of Ron breadth and richness of Keneally’s life and compulsory reading for every Australian; it Masters in Journalism at Weasley, when you read this book, ‘You’re work is brilliantly explored in this engaging will change the way you think about a lot the University of Melbourne. She writes on gonna suffer ... but you’re gonna be happy authorised biography. The result of deep of things. In Island Home we see a Winton media for numerous media outlets, and has about it.’ research and unique interviews with passionate about this land and with many published 11 books. She has always loved to Keneally himself, Interestingly Enough … is profound things to say about it – be ready garden, and this is not her first ode to Natalie Platten is from Readings Malvern the definitive account of the life of an to be challenged, fascinated and enthralled. horticulture. It is though, I believe, her most extraordinary Australian. Mark Rubbo is the managing director personable. She says in her opening page of BIG BLUE SKY of Readings Peter Garrett this beautiful little package of a book: THE LONG HAUL ‘Sometimes you reap what you sow. A&U. PB. Was $49.99 SECOND HALF FIRST Sometimes you reap what other people $39.99 John Brumby MUP. PB. $34.99 Drusilla Modjeska sowed. Sometimes you haven’t got a clue Peter Garrett’s life so far Alfred A Knopf. HB. Was $39.99 what you are sowing, and sometimes you has been deeply felt and John Brumby became $34.99 just get lucky, or unlucky. All these things fully and passionately leader of the Victorian Labor Party after the Most of us, I are true of life, as of gardening.’ lived. From his resignation of Steve imagine, reflect And so begins a seasonal diary of sorts childhood growing up in Bracks, and was premier only fleetingly on our about her tiny garden oasis in Melbourne, the northern suburbs of of Victoria from 2007 to lives, and few of us, situated behind a drive-through McDonald’s Sydney, to fronting 2010. The Long Haul thank god, do it in and a car park. Margaret shares gardening iconic Australian band distils a series of print, but when a tips, but also thinks about her friends Midnight Oil; from his practical lessons on writer of Drusilla and family. She reveals the state of her time as a galvanising leadership and public Modjeska’s skill does it complicated home life and how all the environmental activist to being a minister in life from Brumby’s thirty years in politics. It is something very will in the world cannot stop a turnip two Labor governments, Garrett has an offers insights into the challenges and special. Second Half from appearing. Here her writing, and extraordinary story to tell. He writes opportunities Australia currently faces and First starts as Modjeska enters her fortieth the cultivation of her garden, is about movingly about his lifelong mission to protect argues for real political reform, a different year; she is ending a relationship, one that the virtuosity of pondering, and becomes the environment and champion Indigenous future for our federation and strong was very close, very important. Her partner meditative in its approach. By using all the communities and issues, his love for his leadership in a world in transition. Ross had begun another relationship and available space, including eccentrically family and his passion for our country. 14 READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015

TRUTHS, HALF TRUTHS privileged backgrounds and a bohemian together in beauty contests, cookery, years and 300 kilometres apart, but their & LITTLE WHITE LIES existence marked by extraordinary handicraft lessons and baby contests. It paths to literary immortality took very achievements, intense heartbreak and reveals how Aboriginal assimilation policy different routes – indeed, at times, their Nick Frost enduring love – a remarkable partnership met everyday reality as these rural women lives were ones of savage and tragic Hodder & Stoughton. PB. Was $32.99 that altered the course of art in Australia. broke with the established segregation in an contrasts. Henry and Banjo delves into the $27.95 unprecedented fashion. lives and writings of two men who Nick Frost’s family life A MOTHER’S STORY influenced Australia. was difficult, blighted Rosie Batty QUARTERLY ESSAY 59: by alcoholism, illness HarperCollins. PB. Was $32.99 FACTION MAN – BILL SHORT BLACK 1: THE and a sudden $27.99 SHORTEN’S PATH TO misfortune which AUSTRALIAN DISEASE meant losing everything Rosie Batty knows pain POWER Richard Flanagan overnight. He left no woman should have David Marr Black Inc. PB. $6.99 school early and drifted to suffer. Her son was Black Inc. PB. $22.99 A new series from killed by his father in a from job to job, dogged How did Bill Shorten rise to Melbourne publisher violent incident in by his own personal demons. It’s something become Labor leader? And Black Inc., Short Blacks February 2014, a of a miracle that Nick survived, and even does he have what it takes are short pieces of horrendous event that more that he would achieve such success to beat Malcolm Turnbull Australian writing from shocked not only the with his writing, acting and comedy. In and lead the country? In the recent past designed nation, but the world. Truths, Half Truths and Little White Lies, this dramatic essay, David to quicken the pulse and Since the events of that Nick paints a brilliantly funny, moving and Marr traces the hidden stimulate the mind. February, Rosie has become an outspoken brutally candid portrait of childhood, career of a Labor warrior. He shows how a Richard Flanagan’s crusader against domestic violence, winning adolescence and eventual success. brilliant recruiter and formidable classic essay The Australian Disease is the hearts and minds all over Australia with her campaigner mastered first the unions and first of twelve Short Blacks simultaneously compassion, courage, grace and forgiveness. THE WHITE ROAD then the party. Marr presents a man willing published this month, including essays by Inspiring, heartfelt and profoundly moving, Edmund de Waal to deal with his enemies and shift his Karen Hitchcock, Noel Pearson, Helen this is Rosie’s story. A percentage of royalties Chatto & Windus. PB. $35 allegiances, whose ambition to lead has been Garner, John Birmingham, Anna Krien, from sales go to the Luke Batty Foundation. In The White Road, fixed since childhood. But does he stand for David Malouf, Simon Leys, Robert Manne, bestselling author and PLAIN-SPEAKING JANE anything? Is Shorten a defender of Labor Les Murray, Robyn Davidson and artist Edmund de Waal values in today’s Australia or a shape-shifter, Galarrwuy Yunupingu. Jane Caro travels the globe to tell driven entirely by politics? Available 13 October. Macmillan. PB. $34.99 the story of his JOURNEY TO obsession with Jane Caro is known for AUSTRALIA’S SECOND HORSESHOE BEND porcelain, or ‘white saying what she thinks, CHANCE TGH Strehlow across the news, and gold’, and the lure it George Megalogenis Giramondo. PB. $26.95 entertainment media. held for the Europeans Hamish Hamilton. PB. Was $34.99 First published in 1969, Unafraid to apply that who encountered it: $29.99 Ted Strehlow’s literary razor-sharp insight to from Jesuit missionaries in 17th-century classic describes the her own life, Jane For the best part of the China, via the palaces of Versailles and final days of his father, reveals her battle with nineteenth century, Dresden, to the chemist shops of 18th- Pastor Carl Strehlow, anxiety; that asking for Australia was the world’s century Plymouth, the settlements of the head of the Lutheran help is a skill worth mastering; and that in richest country, a pioneer Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, and the mission at her long and successful career in for democracy and a darkest moments of 20th-century history. Hermannsburg, as they advertising, she was bullied by some of the magnet for migrants. But Within all this is an intimate memoir of the travel with Aboriginal wittiest men in Australia. Written with then came a fifty-year author’s life as a potter, and his deepening companions along the dry riverbed of the panache and wit, Plain-Speaking Jane is an bust as we lost our luck, understanding of the material he has worked Finke River, in search of medical unflinchingly honest celebration of a our riches and our nerve. with for over 45 years. assistance. Strehlow combines a detailed perfectly imperfect life. Now we’re back on top – can we learn from our past and cement our place as one of the awareness of the landscape and its sacred WHY NOT ME? SOMETHING FOR THE PAIN world’s great nations? George Megalogenis places, the battles that have been fought Mindy Kaling crunches the numbers and brings fresh there, the lonely outposts of white Gerald Murnane Ebury Press. PB. $32.99 insight into the urgent question of who we settlement, with the Biblical resonances Text. PB. $29.99 In Why Not Me?, are, and what we can become. of their own journey through this desert Kaling shares her As a boy, Gerald setting. ongoing journey to find Murnane became AUSTRALIA AND THE contentment and obsessed with horse MONARCHY excitement in her adult racing, fascinated by Cultural Studies newspaper photos and David Hill life, whether it’s falling William Heinemann. PB. $34.99 in love at work, seeking the incantation of What is the magic the SPINSTER: MAKING A new friendships in horses’ names on the royals hold over LIFE OF ONE’S OWN lonely places, musing radio. Murnane Australians? From Kate Bolick on America’s fixation discovered in these Queen Victoria to with the weight of actresses, or most races more than he Constable & Robinson. PB. $27.99 Elizabeth, the 1990s importantly, believing that you have a place could find in religion or philosophy: they For me, there’s no Republican movement in Hollywood when you’re constantly were the gateway to a world of imagination. greater joy than to Prince William, Kate, reminded that no one looks like you. A In this unique and spellbinding memoir, he sitting alone in my living George and Charlotte, laugh-out-loud funny collection of essays tells the story of his life through the lens of room with a glass of the pulse of the nation that anyone who’s ever been at a turning horse racing. It is candid, droll and moving – wine, cat curled up at my can be measured by its level of attachment point in their life or career can relate to. a treat for lovers of literature and of the turf. side, and thinking about to an aristocratic bloodline from the other my feminist forebears MODERN LOVE side of the world. As the monarchy looks who’ve allowed me the Australian Studies set to enter a new generation of hearts and Lesley Harding & Kendrah Morgan freedom to be exactly minds, one of our most popular writers of right here. Equal parts biography, history MUP. PB. Was $45 Australian history, David Hill, guides us lesson, social commentary, and personal $39.99 COUNTRY WOMEN AND through this peculiar state of affairs. THE COLOUR BAR essay, Kate Bolick’s look at the unmarried A stunning double life in Spinster is a thoroughly engaging read; biography that lifts the Jennifer Jones HENRY AND BANJO it is also smart and affirming. veil on the Aboriginal Studies Press. PB. $39.95 James Knight The subtitle, ‘Making a Life of One’s unconventional In the 1950s and 1960s, Hachette. HB. $45 Own’, cuts to the heart of this book: how marriage of modernist in towns across New Most of us know Henry to be someone for whom the relationship pioneers John and South Wales, Aboriginal Lawson and Andrew with the self is primary, and, in fact, Sunday Reed, and their women joined specially ‘Banjo’ Paterson as enriches your relationships with other relationships with some created Aboriginal famous writers, but people – friends, family, lovers – and the of Australia’s most branches of the Country little else. Here, James world. Through presenting the life stories celebrated artists and writers, whose works Women’s Association. Knight brings Henry’s and works of five writers – poet Edna St. and personalities John and Sunday carefully Country Women and the and Banjo’s own stories Vincent Millay, essayist Maeve Brennan, curated to suit their artistic and sexual Colour Bar offers insights to life. Both were columnist Neith Boyce, novelist Edith tastes. It is a story of rebellion against their into the experience of ordinary Aboriginal country born, just three Wharton, and social visionary Charlotte and white rural women as they participated READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015 15

Perkins Gilman, all women whom Bolick writing. These journeys take the reader thanks for her own gradual awakening across the world, from meetings in Berlin to the vast potential and possibilities of a secret arctic explorers’ society – to of living an examined, solitary and rich which Smith belongs – to Frida Kahlo’s unmarried life – Spinster examines Casa Azul in Mexico, and a pilgrimage to the changing state of gender politics, Japan to trace the footsteps of legendary economic freedom, and professional and Japanese filmmakers that have inspired artistic success for women throughout her. Interlaced among these stories history who boldly chose to live, even are deeply personal reflections and if only for a short while, outside of the often heartbreaking memories of life in mould designed for them. Michigan with her late husband, guitarist A few years ago, I read The Easter Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith. Parade by Richard Yates: a brilliant, While some readers may find the devastating story of two sisters – one who lack of narrative thread a weakness, I marries and one who remains single. It left find it to be the beauty of the book. The me wrenched in two. Bolick’s ‘awakeners’ meandering, journal-like style between serve as an antidote to Yates’s Emily these stories mirrors the motions of train Grimes whose ‘spinster’ life leaves her travel – hopping on and off at stations, bereft, alone, unhappy, and utterly and and changing trains. It is also Smith’s spectacularly hopeless. For me, Spinster ruminations on everyday pleasures is a worthy homage to Bolick’s idols and a that make M Train such a delight: joyful manifesto for the single life for all her attachment to a familiar coat; the of us, no matter our gender or relationship morning ritual of black coffee and brown atrick and Meg’s story is one status. Crucially, it’s a life that is, even if bread with olive oil at the same table Pof adventure; a road trip with it hasn’t always been, overflowing with of a beloved West Village cafe; and her a difference. After building a infinite possibilities. addiction to gritty UK detective dramas, happy sustainable life in regional Victoria they set off with Zephyr which on one occasion resulted in an Amy Vuleta is the manager of Readings St Kilda (10), Woody (1) and Zero their unplanned stopover and stay in a London Jack Russell, on an epic 6,000km hotel purely to indulge in watching these UNFINISHED BUSINESS year-long cycling journey along shows uninterrupted. These details, while Anne Marie Slaughter Australia’s east coast. Their aim ordinary, are intimate and Smith’s delivery Viking. PB. Was $34.99 was to live as cheaply as possible – is elegant. $29.99 guerrilla camping, hunting, foraging When accepting the National and bartering their permaculture When Anne-Marie Book Award for Just Kids, Patti Smith skills, and living on a diet of free Slaughter accepted her implored, ‘Please, no matter how we food, bush tucker, and the occasional fresh road kill. They spent dream job at the US advance technologically, please don’t time in Aboriginal communities, joined an anti-fracking blockade, State Department in abandon the book. There is nothing in documented edible plants, and dodged speeding cars and trucks 2009, she was confident our material world more beautiful than on the country’s most dangerous highways. The Art of Free Travel she could juggle the the book.’ Hear, hear! Thank you Ms is the remarkable story of a rule-breaking year of ethical living. position with family Smith, your books are certainly deserving demands. But then life of that description. www.newsouthpublishing.com intervened – parenting Danielle Mirabella is from Readings Hawthorn needs caused her to leave the State Department. Now, in her refreshing and forthright voice, Anne-Marie Slaughter CONVERSATIONS WITH reveals her vision for what true equality MCCARTNEY Paul Du Noyer between women and men really means, and ‘This book is like a dream, a dream to enrich us.’ MIRKA MORA how we can get there; a common banner Hodder & Stoughton. PB. $32.99 under which both men and women can In June 1989, Paul Du advance and thrive. Noyer was contacted by Paul McCartney’s office in London and Music asked to interview the star. In the years that M TRAIN followed, Paul Du Noyer continued to Patti Smith meet, interview and Bloomsbury. PB. Was $32.99 work for Paul McCartney on a regular $27.99 basis. Conversations with McCartney is As a bookseller, the culmination of Du Noyer’s long not a week goes by association with McCartney and his where I am not asked music. It draws from their interview the question, ‘What is sessions across 35 years, coupling your favourite book?’ McCartney’s own, candid thoughts with Invariably, my answer is Du Noyer’s observations and analysis. Patti Smith’s memoir Just Kids. Just Kids is THE COMPLETE BEATLES Smith’s deeply affecting SONGS love letter to Robert Mapplethorpe, set Steve Turner against the backdrop of bohemian ’60s Hachette. HB. $49.99 and ’70s New York City. It is the intimate and honest story of their lives Who was ‘just seventeen’ together as roommates, soulmates, and made Paul’s heart friends, lovers and muses. Smith’s go ‘boom’? Who was uniquely lyrical prose makes Just Kids a ‘Lady Madonna’? Was there really an Eleanor Modern Love joy to come back to again and again. Needless to say, when the publication of Rigby? Why was Paul The Lives of John & Sunday Reed M Train was announced as a sequel to the ‘walrus’ and what LESLEY HARDING & KENDRAH MORGAN Just Kids I was more than somewhat inspired the lyrics to Ringo’s ‘Octopus’s Garden’? The Complete excited. ‘Here is one of Australia’s great ‘An engrossing, highly informed For fans and newcomers alike, M Train Beatles Songs shatters many well-worn stories: one of immense achievement portrait of a remarkable couple does not disappoint. Shifting between myths and adds a new dimension to the and loss in equal measure.’ and their times.’ Fab Four’s rich legacy by investigating the dreams and reality, past and present, it richard haese STEVEN C ARR OLL is a journey through the most significant events immortalised in The Beatles’ turning points in Smith’s life, stopping music. This beautifully packaged edition by eighteen ‘stations’. We learn about has been fully revised with a complete set Smith’s all consuming creative drive, and of printed lyrics to accompany each song. MUP.COM.AU her passion for and joy in the craft of

16 READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015

Mark Riebling uses a wealth of recently Karl Kraus, Walter Benjamin and Theodor captain, writer, broadcaster and Travel Writing uncovered documents to show that the W. Adorno, Jarosinski’s epigrammatic style philanthropist, but doesn’t shy away from Church’s wartime campaign against Hitler reinvents short-form philosophy for a the controversies that plagued his life or THE ART OF FREE TRAVEL was far more extensive than ever thought, world doomed to distraction. The result is the uncertainty surrounding his shocking Patrick Jones & Meg Ulman and that many actions that were intended a compelling and thought-provoking death. Cartledge and Lane’s interviews and to undermine the Nazi regime were translation of digital into print, theory into investigations uncover details previously NewSouth. PB. $29.99 approved by Pius XII himself. praxis, and tragedy into farce. unknown to the public, while some of the Patrick, Meg and their cricket world’s giants have volunteered due family found FASCINATING FOOTNOTES praise – and criticism – for this remarkable, themselves craving an Personal Development tragic figure. adventure, and in late FROM HISTORY 2013 set off on an epic Giles Milton 6,000 km year-long John Murray. HB. $35 BIG MAGIC Business cycling journey along Did you know that Elizabeth Gilbert Australia’s east coast, Hitler took cocaine? Bloomsbury. PB. $29.99 living on a diet of free That Stalin robbed a The author of Eat, Pray, LEADING food, bush tucker, and bank? That Charlie Love shares her wisdom Alex Ferguson & Michael Moritz the occasional fresh road kill. They spent Chaplin’s corpse was and unique understanding Hodder & Stoughton. HB. $39.99 time in Aboriginal communities, joined an filched and held to of creativity, shattering Sir Alex Ferguson is anti-fracking blockade, documented edible ransom? Fascinating the perceptions of one of the few leaders plants, and dodged speeding cars and Footnotes From History mystery and suffering who truly knows what trucks on the country’s most dangerous details 100 of the that surround the process it takes to lead a team highways. The Art of Free Travel is the quirkiest historical – and showing just how to world-class success. remarkable story of a rule-breaking year of nuggets; eye-stretching stories that read easy it can be. By sharing In 38 years in ethical living. like fiction but are 100 per cent fact. stories from her own life, as well as those management, Sir Alex Peopled with a gallery of spies, rogues, from her friends and people that have helped grow KISSED BY A DEER cannibals, adventurers and slaves, Giles inspired her, Big Magic challenges us to Manchester United Margi Gibb Milton’s impeccably researched footnotes embrace our curiosity, tackle what we most into one of the biggest Transit Lounge. PB. Was $29.95 shed light on some of the most infamous love and face down what we most fear. brands in the world. In this inspirational $24.99 stories and colourful characters from history. and straight-talking new book, Sir Alex reveals the secrets behind his record- After her much-loved THE HOUSE BY THE LAKE father dies, Margi Gibb Science breaking career. Whether you run a immerses herself in art Thomas Harding business, teach in a classroom, or work in and music, travelling to Heinemann. PB. $35 RESURRECTION SCIENCE a small team, Leading will help you The House by the Lake is become a better leader. America to study the M.R. O’Connor sacred art of the a groundbreaking and Affirm Press. PB. $29.99 mandala, exploring the revelatory new history of In a world dominated by traditions of Indigenous Germany over a Politics human interference and peoples in the process. tumultuous century, told rapid climate change, Margi’s underlying through the story of a species large and small are THE COURAGE TO ACT passion is to initiate guitar lessons for small wooden house. increasingly vulnerable to Ben S. Bernanke Tibetan refugees, and her developing bonds Harding’s grandmother’s extinction. Resurrection W.W. Norton. HB. Was $49.95 with two very different Tibetan men, beloved former holiday Science explores the $44.95 Tenzin and Yonten, change her life in home, on the outskirts of Berlin, now stands extreme measures complex and enduring ways. What follows derelict and shuttered. As he begins to piece In 2006, Ben Bernanke scientists are taking to try is a story that is intimate, true, and utterly together the lives of the five families who was appointed chairman and save them, from captive breeding and compelling. had lived there – all but one forced out – he of the Federal Reserve, examines his own family’s feelings towards translocating genetically rare individuals to capping a meteoric THE ROAD TO LITTLE their former homeland, and a hatred handed frozen zoos and de‑extinction. O’Connor trajectory from rural DRIBBLING down through the generations. takes the reader on an intrepid journey to South Carolina to the cutting edge of bio-technology. Washington. There Bill Bryson would be no time to Doubleday. HB. Was $39.99 Humour PACIFIC celebrate, however – $32.99 Simon Winchester the burst of the In Notes From a Small housing bubble in 2007 set off a domino GILLIAMESQUE HarperCollins. PB. Was $32.99 Island, Bill Bryson went $27.99 effect that would bring the global Terry Gilliam on a trip around Britain The Pacific is a world of financial system to its knees. In The Canongate. HB. $59.99 to celebrate the green tsunamis and Magellan, Courage to Act, Bernanke pulls back the and kindly island that From his no-frills of the Bounty mutiny curtain on the tireless efforts to prevent a had become his childhood in the icy and the Boeing mass economic failure, giving readers adopted country. Now, wastes of Minnesota, to Company. It is the stuff an unequalled perspective on the to mark the twentieth some of the hottest of Captain Cook, Robert American economy. anniversary of that water Hollywood had to Louis Stevenson and the modern classic, Bryson offer, via the cutting atomic bomb. It has an Reference makes a brand-new journey round Britain edge of ’60s and ’70s astonishing recent past, to see what has changed. Once again, with counter-culture, Terry an uncertain present and a hugely his unerring eye for the idiotic, the Gilliam’s life has been as vivid and important future. Travelling the MORE LETTERS OF NOTE endearing, the ridiculous and the unorthodox as his films. Packed with circumference of the truly gigantic Pacific, scandalous, Bryson gives us an acute and never-before-seen artwork, photographs Shaun Usher Simon Winchester tells the story of the Canongate. HB. $59.99 perceptive insight into Britain today. and commentary, Gilliamesque blends the world’s largest body of water, and – in More Letters of Note is visual and the verbal with scabrous wit and matters economic, political and military – another rich and fascinating insights – an unrestrained look the ocean of the future. History into a unique creative mind and an inspiring collection, incomparable portrait of late twentieth- which reminds us that century popular culture. Sport much of what matters CHURCH OF SPIES in our lives finds its Mark Riebling NEIN way into our letters. Scribe. PB. $35 Eric Jarosinski CHASING SHADOWS Discover Richard Pope Pius XII is Text. PB. $19.99 Elliott Cartledge & Tim Lane Burton’s farewell note perhaps the most hated to Elizabeth Taylor, An irreverent Hardie Grant. PB. $29.95 Pope in modern history. Helen Keller’s letter to The New York philosophical Part biography, part Pius XII and the Symphony Orchestra about ‘hearing’ investigation into the personal reflection and Vatican are thought to their concert through her fingers, and the everyday that sounds the part investigation, have appeased Hitler final missives from a doomed Japan call to rediscover its Chasing Shadows and betrayed Jews by Airlines flight in 1985. These letters strangeness. Inspired by celebrates Peter staying silent during the deliver a mix of the heartfelt, the the philosophical Roebuck’s immense Holocaust. But this is historically significant, the tragic, the aphorisms of Nietzsche, achievements as a player, not the complete story. Intelligence expert comic and the unexpected. READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015 17

Art & Design hardware (handles, door pulls, hinges, and more). Included are contributions from with Margaret Snowdon design journalist Pilar Viladas, gizmologist Phil Turner (responsible for elements such as VISIONARIES IN the giant opening door in the Chicken Point SUBURBIA Cabin), contractor and craftsman Jim Dow, Anne Watson & Adrienne Kabos and clients Shane Atkinson (Studhorse) and Walter Burley Griffin Society. PB. $59.95 Jack Anderson (Bigwood). In 1920, when Walter INDOOR GREEN Burley Griffin’s association with the Bree Claffey & Lauren Bamford design of Canberra was T&H. HB. $49.99 coming to a frustrating An inspirational guide to incorporating plants in end, he and his wife He once tried to put a dwarf, a nurse and a From the streets of Liverpool to the pubs of London, Marion Mahony Griffin small indoor spaces, as monkey in the same ad – Gruen Transfer regular from the punk explosion to his success with (a brilliant illustrator, houseplants experience a Russel Howcroft enjoys challenging how we look at The Attractions and a solo career spanning four America’s first professionally registered revival: an opportunity to the world. This is a celebration of powerful ideas, decades, Elvis Costello has left an indelible mark on swimming against the tide, and unlocking creativity the world of music. Drink, drugs, sex and brilliant female architect and head of the Chicago be healthy and creative at to make good things happen. songwriting – this is Costello’s story in his own words. design office of Frank Lloyd Wright), began the same time. The to refocus their creative energies on the Japanese say where there development of the Sydney harbour-side are plants, ki (or life energy) flows well and suburb that would become known as the plant-filled homes featured in this book Castlecrag. This new book explores the are definitely serotonin-inducing. From the Griffins’ 22 surviving Sydney houses as well ever-reliable peace lily to the elusive Chinese as their designs for many unbuilt projects. money plant, everyone will find inspiration to Visionaries in Suburbia charts the evolution start their own indoor oasis. of their domestic architecture in response to the Sydney landscape, but also brings to ILLUSIVE 4 life the far-sighted environmental, John Reilly, R. Klanten & Sven community, spiritual and creative ideas that Ehmann (eds) propelled their lives and careers. DGV. HB. $68.50 As the demand for work THE LAW OF CLOSURE Her article ‘Why Women Still Can’t Have it All’ went Most nations don’t get a first chance to prosper. in illustration continues viral after it was published in The Atlantic in 2012, Australia is on its second. How do we maintain our Daniel Boyd to grow, this medium is sparking a firestorm of debate and becoming the winning streak? George Megalogenis brilliantly Perimeter Editions. PB. $55 becoming a key most-read article in the magazine’s history. chronicles our history to bring fresh insight to the The majority of component in the fields This is Anne-Marie Slaughter’s powerful and most urgent questions facing this nation right now. of advertising, optimistic vision for how to finally achieve equality Can we learn from our past and cement our place discussions surrounding between women and men. as one of the world’s great nations? Sydney-based artist communication, and Daniel Boyd’s particular reporting. Showcasing iteration of postcolonialist established names and new talent from history painting, video around the globe, the latest volume in this and installation work excellent series demonstrates the technical have centred on the idea dynamism of current global trends. Featuring of the deletion of information and history, an impressive variety of illustration styles and especially in relation to Boyd’s Aboriginal and design approaches – spanning from luscious Vanuatuan heritage. But there is far more to fashion sketches to unapologetic protest his distinctive pointillist technique, in which images. Its scope makes Illusive 4 a rich Told with honesty and humour, he blackens much of the painted surface to source of ideas for illustrators, painters, and leave only a sea of ‘lenses’ which reveal the all visual artists, as well as for graphic and this is an Australian life lived large, information beneath, than a simple editorial designers. rumination on erasure. The work is discussed filled with passion and pain. in excellent essays by Dane Rule, Bergit BIO ART Arends and Jarrod Rawlins, and includes an William Myers artist interview with Djon Mundine. T&H. HB. $60 Bio Art is an emerging art THE BUTTERFLIES OF practice that responds to NORTH AMERICA the new and often Kenneth Haltman & Titian Peale distorting realitites Abrams. HB. $50 revealed by the advance of After languishing in the the sciences. Presenting Rare Book Collection of work by more than 60 the American Museum of contemporary artists who blend techniques Natural History in New from the laboratory with traditional York, evidence of the art-making, this book traces the roots of dedication of artist- bio-artistic practice and explores this scientist and lepidopterist expanding field. The results, both beautiful Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885) is and alarming, offer new meanings for our revealed, along with the story of his lives in the wake of scientific discovery. unlucky, fascinating life as a naturalist and explorer. Peale’s colour plates, lovingly RETREAT prepared for the printer by the artist more Ron Broadhurst than 100 years ago, will be published for Rizzoli. HB. $99 the first time in this beautiful volume. Across the globe, architects are creating ‘My favourite TOM KUNDIG: WORKS innovative houses for Tom Kundig country living, Australian actor’ PAP. HB. $112.50 reimagining the way we Kundig’s award-winning escape into the natural Quentin Tarantino houses, known for their world. Some combine rugged yet elegant and industrial materials like metal and concrete welcoming style, are with traditional wood. Others create showcased in lush sophisticated essays in off-grid living, photography with employing the most technologically ambitious green-living strategies. Still drawings and sketches in www.echopublishing.com.au this new book, as well as commercial projects others place discreet structures on remote, such as the Tacoma Art Museum and a line of almost-unbuildable locations.

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city is interesting and often quirky. The detail is delightful, bursting with energy. Danny is confident and has a wild Picture Books with landmarks frequently included as background imagination. His is a world of spiders, dog poo and illustration to compliment the aspects of each city that are winning races at all costs, and his humour really shines IMAGINARY FRED actually written about, allowing the reader to do their own when he writes a story in class about pony club girls Eoin Colfer & Oliver Jeffers exploring and information gathering inspired by the book getting a nasty scare. If there’s a message in this book it’s HarperCollins. HB. $27.99 as well as the array of information and interesting facts this: kids like having fun when they read. Let them. A Sam is pained by loneliness until the presented up front. Exquisite. daft, diverting new series for kids 7 and up. imaginary Fred enters his life. But Isobel Moore is from Readings St Kilda Emily Gale is a friend of Readings will Fred fade away as Sam fears when Sam befriends someone real who shares his love ATMOSPHERIC: THE BURNING MANGO AND BAMBANG: of comics, music and drama? We often STORY OF CLIMATE CHANGE THE NOT-A-PIG (BOOK 1) think of the ‘imaginary friend’ as a stage Carole Wilkinson Polly Faber & Clara Vulliamy that children will grow out of. But with the Black Dog. PB. $18.95 Walker. HB. $17.95 dream team pairing of Eoin Colfer and Oliver Jeffers, the imaginary world takes on a rich three-dimensional life of its This non-fiction book on climate Mango & Bambang: The Not-a- own. Colfer’s storytelling has a playful wit and charm, and science for readers aged ten and up is Pig is the most delightful leaves space for Jeffers to expand and improvise with simple well researched and highly readable. To celebration of an unlikely but but subtle design. Imaginary Fred is a keeper. engage readers more effectively, each beautiful relationship: the friendship chapter begins with a first person narrative between Mango Allsorts, a busy little Mike Shuttleworth is from Readings Hawthorn set in a key period in the past. These urbanite, and Bambang, a lost tapir narratives show readers how different life and definitely NOT a pig! JILL AND DRAGON has been for us throughout human history Mango is an irrepressible girl with Lesley Barnes and how young people often questioned the way things a wonderful optimism and a very Tate Gallery. HB. $24.99 were done. Complete with a timeline of key dates, a hectic schedule that includes karate, diving, playing chess Bold as can be, Jill astride a glossary and suggested websites, Atmopsheric effectively and the clarinet. Bambang is a stranger in a big city – dragon triumphantly greets the uses short accessible chapters to introduce young readers everything is large and scary, confusing and intimidating. reader and you just know she is a girl to the facts and urgency of the situation. The author, Carole But together they’re a remarkable duo, bringing a little who gets on with things, oh yes, she Wilkinson, is part of a climate action group in Melbourne magic and adventure into each other’s life. does! As Jill finishes reading her book and is obviously passionate about the topic. Her underlying Young readers will love the beautiful illustrations on that supposedly ends ‘happily ever after’ motivation is clearly to inspire young people to make a every page and I’m sure our irresistible protagonists will she notices that a dragon is not happy at difference and show them that they can be engaged in charm children and adults alike. And what’s most exciting all because the king is displeased with his fiery manner. Jill turning the climate crisis around. I really hope it succeeds. is this book of four stories is the first volume in a series! Highly recommended for independent readers aged 7 and sets about teaching him how to become accomplished at Angela Crocombe is from Readings Carlton more acceptable everyday ways, with not a lot of success up and perfect for sharing with the family. until she thinks laterally. The result is that the king is finally ALL ABOUT THEATRE Athina Clarke is from Readings Malvern happy with dragon’s dragony ways. Lesley Barnes has National Theatre created a brilliant book with bold and vibrant pictures and a Walker. HB. $27.95 character undaunted by challenges who children will love. Middle Fiction Ages 3 and up. This book is an exciting collaboration with the world-famous National Alexa Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn CLOSE TO THE WIND Theatre (UK) which explores how plays Jon Walter are staged, from first idea to final David Fickling. PB. $16.99 THIS & THAT curtain. Go backstage at the National Mem Fox & Judy Horacek Theatre and hear from experts on every Unfortunately for humanity this Scholastic HB. $19.99 aspect of stagecraft, from acting and isn’t an extraordinary story. And The brilliant team that brought you directing to set building, costume design and prop-making. even though I had no idea when and the best-selling Where is the Green Focusing on famous productions and packed with where this story takes place, there was Sheep? has a new adventure about interesting tricks of the trade and ideas to try at home, this no doubt in my mind about its stories and where they can take us for is the definitive guide for anyone interested in theatre. authenticity. What’s clear is that a everyone to enjoy. A story of this, and young boy and his grandfather are a story of that, This & That will be an under threat from an unnamed enemy. utterly delightful journey from one Junior Fiction They’re fleeing to safety under cover idea to the next for kids and parents to share and explore, of darkness, seeking refuge in an again and again! THE FAIRY DANCERS abandoned house while the grandfather plans his next Natalie Jane Prior move. Securing passage for them on a boat out of this ABC Books. PB. $19.99 war-torn country is his ultimate goal and he’ll do whatever it takes. Unfortunately, who to trust is an issue Nonfiction Beautiful illustrations in a great, in a country rife with profiteering. But all the boy wants is very gift-worthy hardback to find his mother. AUSTRALIAN KIDS THROUGH format, The Fairy Dancers contains The characters and setting in this novel are completely THE YEARS three adorable stories, perfect for believable. The power of the prose is its simplicity: the Tania McCartney & Andrew Joyner both young independent reading, or emotions are palpable – the characters’ fears and anxieties Frances Lincoln Children. HB Activity. $24.99 sharing at story time. The stories are prevalent and transferred to the reader. Close to the Australian Kids through the Years follow ballet-obsessed Mia, Emma and Wind is an incredibly moving story about the power of is a breezy social history that will Grace and the detail is just gorgeous. love, trust and betrayal and, ultimately, what matters spark many conversations within The illustrations add a humorous when everything familiar has been taken from you. Highly families and classrooms. This picture undertone to the sweet stories, and every single page has recommended for readers aged 10 and over. Athina book touches on changes in technology, clearly been carefully thought-out and designed. Lovely, food, fashion, work, lifestyle and more. although I admit that all of the beautiful pictures of food THE MARVELS The information is delivered with a made me very hungry! IM Brian Selznick light touch and feels quite playful. The book recognises the Scholastic. HB. $34.99 country’s Indigenous people then moves through decades DANNY BEST: FULL ON and eras up to today. Joyner’s retro-styled illustrations are Jen Storer Brian Selznick is an innovative a natural fit for the subject (he also illustrated The Terrible ABC Books. PB. $16.99 storyteller who uses both intricate hand drawings and text to tell his stories. Plop and Ed and Ted). Here’s a book that could just spark a Jen Storer’s brilliant Truly Tan His middle-grade novels, The Invention lifetime of curiosity about who we are and where we came series has all the child-led of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck, are from. For readers aged 7 to 12. MS outdoor adventure of Blyton but is contemporary classics. The Marvels is truly contemporary and truly perhaps even more extraordinary than CITY ATLAS Australian. New character Danny Best its predecessors, consisting of two linked Martin Haake & Georgia Cherry has all the high-jinx and confidence of stories, the first told entirely in beautiful Wide Eyed Editions. HB. $35 Dennis the Menace, but again it’s drawings. It begins with a shipwreck in 1766 and the sole Yet another stunning book from modern and set in the streets and survivor, Billy Marvel, is devastated by the death of his the always impeccable Wide Eyed backyards that Australian kids will recognise. For brother Marcus. In London, Billy joins the crew building the Editions, City Atlas explores 30 cities readers who’ve enjoyed series like Weirdo, this has Royal Theatre. Generations of Marvels then grow up in the around the world with each double page lengthier text and more complex visual stimulation. theatre and on stage. Tragically, a fire later destroys the a lavishly illustrated and very accurate Mitch Vane’s energetic illustrations are a real highlight, theatre, but do the Marvels escape? map of a city. The layout is beautiful and and with them being so plentiful and Storer’s text just as The second story begins in 1990 with young Joseph the information presented about each visual (mashed banana is ‘banana guts’!), the book is Jervis, who is running away from boarding school to find his READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015 19

Book of the Month TIMMY FAILURE: SANITIZED FOR WHAT DO YOU WISH FOR? YOUR PROTECTION Jane Godwin & Anna Walker Stephan Pastis Walker. HB. $17.95 Viking. HB. Was $24.99 $19.99 Shenanigans abound as Timmy Failure finds himself on a road trip with none other than notorious criminal Molly Magic is one way to describe the collaboration between Jane Godwin and Anna Walker. Moskins. Travelling halfway across the From their first picture book together, Little Cat and the Big Red Bus, to this seasonal latest they country to help your mother’s boyfriend have created charming, warm portrayals of childhood. We’ve previously joined them through a settle into his new job would be year, a week, starting school and now the anticipation and rituals of Christmas. inconvenient for any detective, let alone for the head of Total Failure Inc. Timmy Ruby is looking forward to Christmas and the street party in the local park, as well as many other has a case to solve – if he is to arrest happy customs. One of these is the neighbourhood children hanging a Christmas wish on the Corrina Corrina and solve the YIP YAP big tree in the park before they perform their yearly show. What will Ruby wish for this year? case, Timmy, his sidekick polar bear Total, and Molly She happily ponders on all the things she loves about the festive season and of course, most of Moskins must go on the run! the pleasure is sharing all the fun traditions with her family and friends. Baking, presents, Christmas lunch and the freedom of holidays all contribute to an enchanting time. This blithesome picture books depicts childhood in December as wholesome and safe and you wish this for all children. What does Ruby end up wishing for? Ages 2 and up. Classic

Alexa Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn THE SINGING BONES Shaun Tan A&U. HB. Was $35 $29.99 A unique and alluring art book showcasing Shaun Tan’s extraordinary sculptures based on the timeless and compelling fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Nameless princes, wicked stepsisters, greedy kings, honourable WEST OF THE MOON peasants and ruthless witches, tales of Margi Preus love, betrayal, adventure and magical Abrams. PB. $14.99 transformation – all are inspiration for this stunning Left in the care of their avaricious gallery of sculptural works. Introduced by Philip Pullman New aunt and uncle while their father and leading fairytale scholar Jack Zipes, The Singing settles in America and prepares to send Bones breathes new life into some of the world’s most for her and her younger sister, Astri is beloved fairy tales. sold to an old goat farmer as a servant. Life with him is one of deprivation and hard work and Astri plots to escape, Classic of the Month Kids’ find her sister and precariously make their way to America. She will stop at MOONDIAL virtually nothing to achieve this. Helen Cresswell I loved this beautifully written and evocative story that Faber. PB. $13.99 blends Scandinavian folklore with history and adventure. Helen Cresswell was one of my Astri is a flawed and courageous character who you will childhood favourites. I feel Books love for her honesty and mighty strength of character. I was nostalgic at the mere mention of Lizzie championing her on every step of the way. Dripping, The Secret World of Polly Flint uncle, who lives in London’s East End. What he uncovers at A replicated page from Margi Preus’s great great and, most especially, Moondial. This his uncle’s candlelit 18th century house is extraordinary and grandmother’s diary provides a fascinating insight into the 1987 classic combines Cresswell’s love links these two stories in an entirely unexpected way. inspiration for her story and the extra notes give added of historical, gothic and speculative This wonderful book is Selznick’s homage to Dennis depth and historical perspective. Highly recommended for fiction. Like the more famous Tom’s Severs’ house in London, a living museum that has recreated ages 10 to 13. AD life in the 18th century. Both adults and readers aged 10 and Midnight Garden, Moondial is a timeslip novel. I think it is a up will be captivated by the story, the stunning illustrations THE WOLF WILDER more exciting story and one that gives its main character – and the mystery encased within both. Angela Minty – a great deal of agency. Katherine Rundell What I recalled strongly from my childhood reading Bloomsbury. PB. $15.99 MAGNUS CHASE AND THE SWORD is that Minty is a determined girl on a mission to rescue OF SUMMER: GODS OF ASGARD In a remote location outside St two children from two different points in time: a hundred BOOK 1 Petersburg, twelve-year-old years before the present, and another hundred years before Feodora and her mother, Marina, teach that. She moves back and forth via a sundial – when the Rick Riordan tamed wolves to become wild again. This moon shines on it. One of those children is Tom: mistreated Puffin. PB. $22.99 idyllic existence as wolf wilders ends servant boy and orphan; the other is Sarah, tormented rich I waited for the latest Riordan when Marina is arrested. Determined to girl, ridiculed because of a facial birthmark. The sundial is with bated breath and I wasn’t rescue her beloved mother, Feodora and in the grounds of a great house, near which Minty is staying disappointed. Following the son of a her wild wolves set out on an incredible with her conservative but, fortunately, unobservant aunt. Norse god in his latest series, Magnus journey pursued by a terrifying villain What I hadn’t remembered was the reason for Minty’s Chase and the Sword of Summer is a through the cruel Russian winter. time away from home (indeed the reason she’s the perfect rip-roaring adventure through the nine The Wolf Wilder is an imaginative story, teeming with candidate for the mission): her mother is in a coma after a homeworlds, with enough action for unforgettable characters – both human and animal – and car accident. It’s funny what you filter out as a child reader. three whole books and an array of set against the background of a revolution. Katherine I was obviously far more interested in Minty’s mission, beautifully drawn characters, both new Rundell, the award-winning author of Rooftoppers, has which is very dramatic with a hint of horror and some and old. Riordan’s world is vastly populated and textured written an original story with a strong, tenacious female interesting – but not tediously explored – theories on time, with great detail, making it easy to step back in and be protagonist who’s courageous in the face of adversity. loneliness, and love. Highly recommended for readers aged carried along. The fast-paced plot is supported by an This book is not for everyone. Dedicated, serious 10 to 13 years. immensely relatable emotional through-line and humour readers who enjoy a descriptive atmospheric tale will relish Emily Gale is a friend of Readings aplenty. Bonus points for the Annabeth Chase cameo. I Feodora’s challenging journey. Recommended for readers always need more sassy teen-girl-warrior time. IM aged 10 and over. Athina 20 READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015

BETTER BORN IN A TENT INSPIRATION from Beijing to St Petersburg, explore 25 of the Atul Gawande Bill Garner DIOR world’s most beautiful opera houses. HB. Was $39.95 PB. Was $39.99 Florence Muller BOUNTIFUL Now $16.95 Now $15.95 HB. Was $160 Todd Porter & Atul Gawande explores Breathtakingly original, Now $49.95 Diane Cu how doctors strive to this book tells the history Inspiration Dior offers an HB. Was $45 Now $15.95 close the gap between of Australia through a history of camping. exclusive and comprehensive look into one best intentions and best performance in For more than 100 years, colonial settlers of the world’s most successful names in Todd Porter and Diane Cu the face of obstacles that sometimes seem lived under canvas. It gave them a feel for fashion. Showcasing works of art, archival of the popular food blog insurmountable. Gawande’s gripping the place, a wry can-do attitude, and a lasting photographs of the gowns and of fashion White on Rice Couple have photographed stories of diligence, ingenuity, and what taste for equality. Born in a Tent takes the shows, and unpublished images from and styled many cookbooks together, and it means to do right by people take us story from the campfire to the gas bottle, 1947 to the present day, this book defines now bring together 175 seasonal recipes to battlefield surgical tents, pregnancy revealing how our camping holidays connect the roots of Dior style, showcasing the of their own. Using vegetables and fruit as wards and malpractice courtrooms, us to the land, to the past, and to one another. distinctive lines, materials, and shapes that the star of the show, this cookbook is chock providing rare insight into the elements of have been loved throughout the decades. full of fresh ideas for healthy eating, with success, illuminating every area of human INSIDE THE an emphasis on local and organic as well as endeavour. HAWKE– WORLD TOUR Asian flavours. KEATING Francisca Matteoli THE SEASONAL GOVERNMENT HB. Was $70 FARE Now $24.95 FUNDAMENTAL Gareth Evans TECHNIQUES Susan Johnston HB. Was $49.99 Now From the early 20th HB. Was $34.95 $15.95 century to the 1950s, OF CLASSIC Now $14.95 As good as it gets in Australian politics – globetrotters would ITALIAN CUISINE Susan Johnston is that’s how the Hawke–Keating proudly affix hotel publicity stickers Cesare Casella, Mathew Septimus & passionate about food and her cooking is government is widely and labels to their luggage. Stephanie Lyness a marvelous amalgam of farm-gathered regarded. But how did this The labels’ graphic HB. Was $100 Now $29.95 ingredients and recipes inspired by her group work through its representations of the A comprehensive guide to traditional travels. In Seasonal Fare she emphasises crises and rivalries, hotels, their typography, Italian cooking, breaking down traditions the importance of the basic steps, the and achieve what it and their colours evoke and techniques in a way that will appeal necessity of fresh produce, and the need did? Gareth Evans’s an era when travel to home cooks as well as those more for meticulous preparation, while the 200 diary, written in the was synonymous advanced. Ranging from butchering to recipes link ingredients to time and place, mid-1980s, is the with an art of living. baking, the recipes provide a well-rounded Bargain Featuring over 800 of celebrating food for every season. consummate insider’s and complete overview of Italian cuisine, account. Perceptive these labels, a wealth helping readers to achieve not just a SEASONS AT and unvarnished in of period photographs, thorough vocabulary of techniques but also HOME its judgments, it is also Table and 10 vintage postcards, the understanding and expertise that turn a World Tour visits 21 stopovers Holly Kerr Forsyth highly entertaining. home cook into a master. around the globe. HB. Was $34.99 Now $12.95 NEW YORK CABINETS OF IN STYLE MALCOLM WONDER Divided into seasons and FRASER gorgeously illustrated, Seasons at Home Janelle McCulloch Christine Davenne & presents recipes using the freshest available PB. Was $34.99 Malcolm Fraser & Christine Fleurent produce for special meals that celebrate Now $13.95 Margaret Simons HB. Was $49.95 HB. Was $44.99 not just important events but daily family After more than a Now $16.95 Now $19.95 life too. With practical information about decade of visiting New A tradition that developed in Europe during Malcolm Fraser was one such household arts as flower arranging, York, writer and photographer Janelle the Renaissance, the curiosity cabinet is of Australia’s most interesting and possibly decorating the table to suit the occasion, McCulloch has built up an impressive list again in fashion. Cabinets of Wonder offers misunderstood prime ministers. In this and growing windowsill pots full of herbs of the finest places the city has to offer. book, part memoir and part authorised both a historical context and showcases and vegetables, Holly Kerr Forsyth shares Here she reveals the city’s most beautiful biography, Fraser talks about his time exceptional collections in homes and her unique style with you. and memorable design, style and fashion in public life, from the Dismissal to his museums, with more than 180 photographs destinations. With over 200 reviews, concern for refugees. The memoir traces of skulls, butterflies, trophies, the alleged SUNDAY’S gorgeous photography and maps, New York the story of a shy boy who was raised to skeletons of mythological creatures and GARDEN In Style is a must-have guide for travellers be seen and not heard, yet grew to become other mysterious oddities. Lesley Harding & seeking style and creative inspiration. one of the most persistent, insistent and Kendrah Morgan controversial political voices of our times. ELSIE DE HB. Was $34.95 THE BOY WHO WOLFE’S PARIS Now $14.95 FOLLOWED MOROCCAN Charlie Scheips When Sunday and John Reed purchased RIPLEY IDYLL HB. Was $55 Heide, it was a neglected former dairy farm. Patricia Highsmith Jeanette Hoorn Now $17.95 At the end of their lives, it was unique among PB. Was $27.95 PB. Was $39.99 The American decorator Now $15 Melbourne’s parklands, densely forested Now $13.95 Elsie de Wolfe was a preeminent hostess with exotic and native flora, the result of fifty The Boy Who Followed Hilda Rix Nicholas’s and tastemaker in the interwar years. Social years of vision, dedication and sheer hard Ripley, the fourth novel in the Ripley series, Moroccan oils are fascinating early historian Charlie Scheips tells the story work. Sunday’s Garden explores the growing is one of Patricia Highsmith’s darkest and experiments in the post impressionist of these glamorous and troubling years in of Heide, restoring the Heide garden into the most twisted creations. Tom Ripley meets technique learned by the Australian artist meticulous and vivid detail. He introduces literature surrounding his inspiring site, its a young American runaway who has a after spending time in Tangier in 1912 the large cast of aristocrats, politicians, creators and the makers of its myths. dark secret that he is desperate to hide. and 1914. Jeanette Hoorn draws upon the fashion designers, Hollywood luminaries, Soon this unlikely pair is drawn into the letters written from Tangier to illuminate business moguls, artists and writers that A SPY IN THE seamy underworld of Berlin and a shocking the artwork and adventures of these comprised society in those years, and ARCHIVES kidnapping. two Edwardian women, who came to explores the dense web of relationships that Sheila Fitzpatrick understand a place and a culture different held it together. PB. Was $32.99 THE from anything they’d previously known. Now $12.95 ENCHANTED THE MEN WHO THE MOST In 1968 historian Sheila WOOD UNITED THE BEAUTIFUL Fitzpatrick, working in Enid Blyton STATES Soviet archives for her doctoral thesis, HB. Was $19.95 OPERA Simon Winchester was ‘outed’ by a Russian newspaper as a Now $13.95 HOUSES IN HB. Was $29.99 Now $12 potential Western spy. Despite the KGB The first book in Enid Blyton’s Faraway THE WORLD In this monumental attention, Sheila felt at ease in Moscow, Tree series, first published in 1939, has Antoine Pecqueur & Guillaume de history, Simon Winchester and an affair with a young Communist become a true classic. When Joe, Beth Laubier introduces the fearless trailblazers whose activist pulled her further in. Punctuated and Frannie move to a new home, an HB. Was $80 Now $39.95 achievements forged and unified America. by diary entries and letters to her mother in Enchanted Wood is on their doorstep. And Whether baroque, romanesque, or minimalist, Winchester follows in the footsteps Melbourne, A Spy in the Archives captures when they discover the Faraway Tree, it is opera houses bear witness to the tides of of America’s most essential explorers, the life and times of Cold War Russia. the beginning of many magical adventures! history and to the ideals of those who built thinkers, and innovators, some familiar, them. Moving from Sydney to Covent Garden, some forgotten, some hardly known. READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015 21

New Film & TV INFINITELY UN VILLAGE POLAR BEAR FRANÇAIS: with Lou Fulco DVD of the Month $39.95 SERIES 2 ‘Mark Ruffalo [as Cam Stuart, Available 14 October. $49.95 a manic depressive] helps turn ‘A period drama about a village THE LEGACY: SERIES 2 this coming-of-age tale into a small miracle under Nazi occupation … It’s a subtle, Available 14 October. $44.95 … a hilarious and heartbreaking tale of a historically accurate but not unsympathetic If you’ve not yet watched the first season of The Legacy, and I family on the ropes.’ – Rolling Stone look at ordinary people suddenly tested by thoroughly recommend that you do, I would suggest you turn away war, defeat and enemy invasion.’ – The New now as there are spoilers coming. CLOUDS OF SILS York Times The legacy that gives this family drama its title refers to the estate MARIA of matriarch Veronika Gronnegaard, an internationally lauded artist $34.95 whose sudden death sparks a feud between her progeny regarding ‘A measured, intelligent and Documentary the inheritance of the beautiful and rambling, but ramshackle, family home. Veronika’s unpredictable affair … Juliette bohemian lifestyle had produced four children by three men and each of the children has Binoche and Kristen Stewart both impress. GOING CLEAR: their own plans for the property. Eldest daughter Gro wants to convert it into a gallery Multi-layered complexities and stand-out for their mother’s work; Frederik wants it, as it was his own father’s ancestral home. Emil SCIENTOLOGY performances make this a rich experience.’ AND THE PRISON just wants the money, as he owes debts to the Thai mafia. Things get more complicated as – The Daily Telegraph youngest daughter Signe receives Veronika’s deathbed will bequeathing the estate to her. OF BELIEF Up until this point she’d not known that she was the outcome of a tryst between Veronika Available 16 October. $29.95 and her father two decades before. TV ‘A sober investigation of something that This second season picks up twelve months after the events at the end of season beggars understanding – a billion-dollar one. Signe is concentrating on farming industrial hemp. Gro is dealing with the possible BOSCH: SEASON 1 cult that continues to attract the vulnerable, ramifications of forging her mother’s artwork. She needs money to release Emil from the especially the rich and famous ones like Available 8 October. $46.95 Thai prison that he is wasting in. Frederik is still battling with his emotions after learning Tom Cruise and John Travolta, neither of that his wife, Solveig, and Emil had shared an inappropriate moment with each other. ‘Bosch, based on the novels of whom comes out of this looking good.’ Produced by Denmark’s public service broadcaster DK, who are also responsible for the Michael Connelly, feels like – The Sydney Morning Herald superb Borgen, The Bridge and The Killing, this is exemplary TV. It’s everything you would a pleasant trip down police expect from the makers of the aforementioned series. As an aside, The Legacy has also been procedural lane … gripping, gritty and oddly BLACK PANTHER picked up for a US remake. This second season lives up to the reputation that was forged in old-fashioned – in a very good way.’ WOMAN the first and, personally, I think it has become better with each episode. Superbly acted and – San Francisco Chronicle Available 14 October. $19.95 ridiculously addictive, The Legacy is superior TV drama. ‘The documentary goes Jason Austin is from Readings Carlton BETTER CALL SAUL: SEASON 1 beyond [Aboriginal woman Marlene] Cummins’s time as a Black $44.95 KUMIKO, THE Panther, it goes beyond racism. It’s her Film ‘Like its predecessor [Breaking story and it’s about the abuse of women, TREASURE Bad], Better Call Saul has a from inside the movement as well as HUNTER mordant wit: it’s full of quotable put-downs outside.’ – Sydney Morning Herald CHILD 44 $29.95 and promising themes about the fuzzy line $24.95 ‘A haunting, funny, beautifully between legal and illegal skills.’ THE JINX: THE LIFE ‘Tom Hardy brings his robust, austere film about obsession, delusion and – The New Yorker AND DEATH OF muscular presence to the role of fantasy, all held together by the remarkable, Leo [Demidov] … an orphanage- OUTLANDER: ROBERT DURST and the remarkably still, performance by $39.95 raised Russian who rises without trace to Rinko Kikuchi.’ – 3AW SEASON 1, PART 2 ‘The Jinx is wickedly become a national hero.’ – The Guardian Available 1 October. $44.95 entertaining: funny, morbid, and sad, at A ROYAL NIGHT ‘Outlander’s first season has once exploitative and high-minded, a WOMAN IN GOLD been smart and radical, in OUT moral lasagna of questionable aesthetic Available 7 October. $39.95 small but powerful ways … Just as it’s too $29.95 choices (including reconstructions of ‘A film about an Austrian that smart and nuanced for clean-cut hero– ‘As frivolous and weightless ghastly events) and riveting interviews.’ – is set partly in LA and partly victim dynamics, this show is too smart and as a macaroon, A Royal Night The New Yorker in Vienna, but still feels like a Out is actually quite charming and sweet … nuanced for happy endings.’ – The AV Club thoroughly British affair … Mirren’s superlative If the war, the royals, or period frocks are performance gains in depth and pathos as the your game, this could be the right sweet film progresses.’ – The Independent (UK) confection for you.’ – ABC Radio

MACBETH Opens October 1 (M) THE LOBSTER Opens October 22 (MA15+ ) THE DRESSMAKER Opens October 29 (M) From the director of Snowtown, Australian director The English-language debut from idiosyncratic Greek director Based on the best-selling novel by Rosalie Ham, Jocelyn Justin Kurzel, comes the critically acclaimed adaptation of Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, Alps) sees the filmmaker taking his Moorhouse returns to direct a bittersweet comedy set in early William Shakespeare's Scottish Play starring obsession with insular, artificially constructed communities and 1950s Australia. Tilly Dunnage (Kate Winslet), after many years Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard. turning it into a wonderfully deadpan satire that takes aim at our working as a dressmaker in exclusive Parisian fashion houses, collective cultural obsession with coupling up. returns to the tiny middle-of-nowhere town of Dungatar to set “Fearsomely visceral and impeccably performed, it’s a brisk, bracing about righting the wrongs of the past. update, even as it remains exquisitely in period.” Variety “Elegant and eccentric" The Guardian Advance Preview Screening - Thursday October 22: 6.45pm Opening Night Special Event Q&A - Thursday October 29: 6.30pm with THE DRESSMAKER'S award-winning producer, Sue Maslin and Emmy Award-nominated costume designer, Marion Boyce. Book tickets online now.

380 Lygon Street Carlton Melbourne’s home of quality arthouse and contemporary cinema cinemanova.com.au 22 READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015

New Music from this infamous and enigmatic artist. SPIEL Featuring guest spots from Kim Gordon Paul Grabowsky & and Feist, Rub features Peaches’ trademark Niko Schäuble politically and sexually charged lyrics on Album of the Month $24.95 top of impressive, contemporary, genre- Spiel is the new duet bending songwriting and production. NASHVILLE OBSOLETE release from Paul Dave Rawlings Machine EVERY OPEN EYE Grabowsky (piano) and Niko Schäuble (drums), recorded during $24.95 Chvrches a single 3-hour session in Melbourne in Upon first listen, Nashville Obsolete gives the $21.95 September 2014. Over the course of the impression of a simpler, stripped back version of the The highly anticipated session, so many synchronous things duo. Listen again. Rich, layered rhythms are punctuated by second album by occurred – whole phrases played in unison, lush string arrangements that highlight the sheer beauty Scottish indie electro- shared decisions and simultaneous pauses and majesty of the seven cuts on offer here. In the past you pop trio, Chvrches and tempo adjustments – that they decided to could be excused for thinking there were a few too many follows on from the huge success of their include everything recorded that morning. flourishes of Rawlings’ trademark guitar playing and although he again engages in debut album, The Bones of What You some wonderful picking, you feel like the thought process was a little more, ‘OK! Believe, which saw them play 365 gigs LOST TIME Enough playing, let’s put some strings in here!’ In my opinion, his instincts were just across two years, including three visits to Dave & Phil Alvin right and clearly so from the opening track, ‘The Weekend’. The beautiful balance Australia and New Zealand. $24.95 between guitar and strings (and Gillian Welch’s occasional drumming) lends itself Over twelve tracks, perfectly to the rawness of Rawlings’ vocals mixed with the beautiful harmonies DIDN’T HE RAMBLE Dave and Phil Alvin created by Welch. In fact, the harmonies between these two have never sounded better. Glen Hansard pay homage to the Smooth as silk and as rich as syrup, this is as good as it gets. Tales of ordinary people $21.95 masters of the blues. living dramatic lives sometimes lean towards the epic with songs spanning up to eleven Acclaimed singer- The guitars are cranked up, as is the energy, minutes. No matter. These mythical tales of American life are best performed by those songwriter Glen establishing the brothers as true blues with an understanding of their timeless quality. Dare I say that this could be as good as Hansard, part of folk- artists, with a clear understanding and these two have ever been? rock duo The Swell appreciation of the genre and the talent Lou Fulco is from Readings Hawthorn Season, has cut a wide swathe in the music and skills to stand among the best artists community, and returns with his new solo recording the blues today. album Didn’t He Ramble. The intimate In the vernacular of folk tales, blues cants, and elegant album, which was recorded Pop & Rock and jazz exploration, Servant of Love creates THE SILVER LINING: in New York, Dublin, Chicago and France, from these seemingly disparate notions a SONGS OF JEROME KERN proves yet again why his soulful slow burn larger narrative of the human place in nature, Tony Bennett & Bill CROSSEYED HEART is one that many people revisit. in society, and in time. Charlap Keith Richards $19.95 $21.95 MOTHER’S NOT FEELING Tony Bennett’s Crosseyed Heart, a Jazz & Blues HERSELF TODAY celebration of The Great 15-track masterclass Suzannah Espie American Songbook encompassing VERTIGO continues with an appreciation of the everything that makes $24.95 The Necks genius of Jerome David Kern, one of the Keith Richards one of the 20th century’s Suzannah Espie’s new $24.95 20th century’s most important American most celebrated talents, is a musical journey album explores a time in Sydney-based cult composers of musical theatre and popular that takes in reggae, rock, country and the the singer-songwriter’s three-piece The Necks music. With his 90th birthday less than blues. Keith wrote or co-wrote the majority life when everything return with their 18th a year away, The Silver Lining defines of tracks, and plays electric and acoustic she knew to be true fractured into tiny LP, a 44-minute fully what makes Tony Bennett unique in the guitars, bass, piano and vocals on the album. pieces – the album seeks to voice her truth about motherhood. Espie’s sound is an improvised and truly original track that pantheon of great singers. SONGS TO PLAY intoxicating mix of country, folk, blues and shifts between the jagged and lyrical and soul – a gentle, sweet trill one moment, a reveals more on each listen. Chris Abrahams EVERYBODY LOVES Robert Forster hellcat belt that can raise the roof the next. (piano), Tony Buck (drums), and Lloyd SOMEBODY $21.95 Swanton (bass) conjure a chemistry together Monique diMattina Seven years after The B’LIEVE I’M GOIN that defies description in orthodox terms. Available 2 October. Evangelist, Robert DOWN ... $24.95 Forster returns with an THE STORY OF SONNY On her fifth album in album like nothing he’s Kurt Vile BOY SLIM seven years, Monique done before, although it retains many of the $24.95 diMattina has written qualities we know from his songwriting: B’lieve I’m Goin Down ... Gary Clark Jr six of the eleven songs and covers fast lust, highly melodic, with incisive, witty lyrics is Vile’s sixth album, $21.95 platonic pacts, star-crossed train wrecks attuned to real people and real lives. The and shows Kurt both Singer, songwriter, and parasitic attachments, collaborating years have brought a bolder, wilder approach deeply introspective and guitarist Gary Clark with producer Marty Brown and Melbourne to sound, more experimental production and briskly self-assured. Recorded and mixed in Jr returns with his musicians James Sherlock, Howard Cairns, a set of truly inspiring compositions. a number of locations, including Los Angeles anticipated new studio Eamon McNelis, and Paul Williamson. and Joshua Tree, the album is a handshake album. The young Texan has established DiMattina will perform at our Carlton shop NO ONE DESERVES YOU across the country, east to west coast; honest, himself as a sonic expressionist and guitar on 10 October, visit our website for details. Crayon Fields straight-talking and authentic, in the best virtuoso who has absorbed classic forms of tradition of singer–songwriter upcycling. $19.95 the past while forging his own path. The direction of The Story of Sonny Boy Slim Melbourne’s own Coming Soon CASS COUNTY takes Clark even further into his diverse euphoric pop icons Don Henley musical roots. Crayon Fields return Deluxe $24.95 with their third album No LIMIT OF Named for the FATHER’S DAY One Deserves You, their first since 2009’s All LOVE the Pleasures of the World. No One Deserves northeastern Texas Ronnie Earl & The Boy & Bear You presents all the classic Crayon Fields county in which he was Broadcasters trademarks in vibrant technicolour, full and raised, Cass County $26.95 Available 9 October free and self-assured, but also grown-up, is Don Henley’s fifth studio album, and Guitar master Ronnie knowing and with a slight swagger in their first solo album in 15 years. On it, Henley Earl is joined once again step. The result is a glorious pop record. continues the musical style of country, folk, by The Broadcasters, DIVERS rhythm and blues, rock, and pop that he his band of over 25 years, this time on Joanna Newsome SERVANT OF LOVE pioneered with The Eagles. Father’s Day. Featuring special guest Available 23 October Patty Griffin vocalists, the presence of a horn section RUB for the first time in decades and original $21.95 songs alongside classics from blues, rock Patty Griffin digs Peaches and gospel legends, Earl’s bright guitar deep into folk and $26.95 ETERNAL tones and patterns perfectly illustrate the roots tradition with Peaches returns with RETURN Rub, her first album west-side sound. its grounding in the Sarah Blasko in six years – a heavy- experience and rhythms of the everyday, but Available 6 November she also experiments with transcendentalism. hitting, fiery statement READINGS MONTHLY OCTOBER 2015 23

New Classical Music JOSEPH HAYDN: FRENCH REFLECTIONS SYMPHONIES NOs 31, Sivan Magen Classical Album of the Month 70 & 101 Linn. CKD473. $29.95 Robin Ticciati & ‘Magen uses every Scottish Chamber means at his disposal VIVALDI: I CONCERTI DELL’ADDIO – Orchestra to create a compelling THE FAREWELL CONCERTOS Linn. CKD500. $29.95 emotional narrative that Fabio Biondi & Europa Galante ‘Ticciati’s decision draws the ear irresistibly on.’ Glossa. GCD923402. $29.95 to programme three –BBC Music Magazine Sometimes music stops you in your tracks. The sound symphonies in D major from different is so beautiful that you forget about the books you stages of Haydn’s career is a clever and PRAETORIUS should be shelving and you just listen. That was my attractive one ... The SCO revel in the brio, Pablo Heras-Casado experience when I heard Fabio Biondi’s recording of dash and pathos of this life enhancing & Balthasar- Vivaldi’s ‘Farewell Concertos’. Flicking through the new-release classical CDs, I chose music.’ – The Sunday Times Neumann-Chor- this to play in-store, thinking it would be nice background music to relieve my mid- und-Ensemble afternoon blues. For many, the thought of Vivaldi conjures images of bad weddings, THE DONI LUTE BOOK Archiv. 4794522. $24.95 musicians huddling under marquees, trying to shelter their beloved instruments from the Sylvain Bergeron ‘Recorded in a spacious unexpected downpour whilst thundering out the hackneyed strains of The Four Seasons. Atma Classique. studio rather than an echoey church, the However, the music of Antonio Vivaldi is more than a wedding soundtrack, as this ACD22724. $30.95 precisely tuned voices resonate, but the The Doni Lute Book is harmonies are clean enough for each ‘Although bright and optimistic, this recording highlights the both an anthology and unexpected twist and crunch to register intelligence and delicacy behind Vivaldi’s lesser-known compositions a manual; it contains a beautifully ...’ –The Guardian from a dark period of his life.’ large number of unique and never recorded pieces, and it bears witness to the wealth of INSOMNIA Italian lute music from the beginning of the Aurora Orchestra recording reaffirms. Vivaldi’s genius lies not only in his ability to readapt one musical 17th century. Warner Classics. idea over many compositions (he penned in excess of 500 concertos), but also in his 2564608223. $21.95 ability to create tension and drama with small means. Towards the end of his life, facing BIBER, BAROQUE dire financial need, Vivaldi sold the rights to a number of his compositions to the count Insomnia is the second Vinciguerra Collalto. His renumeration – 12 Hungarian ducats – was considerably SPLENDOUR: MISSA Warner Classics album lower than his usual fee, demonstrating his impecuniousness. The catalogue, although SALISBURGENSIS from the innovative, incomplete, is a handsome selection of Vivaldi’s most elegant and mature works, Jordi Savall imaginative Aurora Orchestra and its principal conductor, Nicholas Collon. In performed here with great feeling by Biondi and Europa Galante. Alia Vox. AVSA9912. a typically colourful, themed programme Biondi argues that, in these pieces, Vivaldi’s attention to tempi and textural contrast $29.95 it explores the night, its thoughts and ‘avoids a uniformity of language which has often been the cause of criticism’. I agree. The Missa Salisburgensis dreams and the hazy space between Listen to the Largo movement of the concerto in C. The ensemble establishes a slow, is possibly the largest- waking and sleeping. almost funereal accompaniment, out of which the solo violin rises with a tenderness scale piece of extant sacred Baroque music. belying the flippant opening bars of the first movement. Although bright and optimistic, This stunning recording features Jordi this recording highlights the intelligence and delicacy behind Vivaldi’s lesser-known Savall’s ensembles at their best and fully compositions from a dark period of his life. reveals the splendour of this masterpiece. Alexandra Mathew is from Readings Carlton

INTIMATE VOICES: NEW SEASONS: GLASS, SIBELIUS STRING KANCHELI, PÄRT & QUARTETS UMEBAYASHI Flinders Quartet Gidon Kremer & Kremerata Baltica ABC Classics. 4811982. $21.95 DG. 4794817. $24.95 Everyone knows ‘We often look at Sibelius’s orchestral the scores of works – even if you don’t contemporary music think you do, you’ve with some scepticism. probably heard his Many people (including enormously famous musicians) are already Finlandia at least once – which are stirring turned off by the word “contemporary”. and sublime in character. I was delighted to They associate it with something purely discover that his string quartets are made of “intellectual” regarding it as music to be exactly the same stuff. With lush harmonies “understood” because of the excessive and delightful melodies peppering his String sophistication and demands of the scores Quartets No 2 and No 4, I’ve had this new and sounds. Other people (snobs?) album on repeat since it arrived on my consider most of the tonal scores created doorstep. in the 20th and 21st centuries to be a The other fantastic part of this recording betrayal of New Music.’ So says Gidon is that it’s performed by Melbourne’s own Kremer, the brains and genius behind this Flinders Quartet. Their other two albums recording, New Seasons. Which means, as have been rotated on and off the stereo since musicians, we can’t win! So what Kremer they were released, not only because of did was choose music that had meaning to their innovative style but also for their pure him, it didn’t matter what, it just had to musicianship. This comes through again evoke an emotional response in him and strongly in the recording of the Sibelius wow, did he choose some fabulous pieces. String Quartets. These four musicians Mostly minimalist in style, every single sound like they’ve been playing together note has thought behind it. There’s not for a lifetime – each by turn effortlessly a dud to be heard. Kremer has aimed for blending with the others and allowing them music that will resonate with everyone, their moments as soloists. The opening and I think he’s done a marvellous conversation between the violin and cello job. This recording will push, without is fantastic and it’s one of those sunshine insulting, the more traditional listeners moments when you first hear the four and entrance those with an ear to the more of them together. The only small sad modern sound: it’s there in the harmonies, thing about this recording is that I wish the rhythm and even the orchestration the other two string quartets were also itself, at times. Soulful without being included. We’ll just have to hope for a soppy, this is a true celebration of the companion album in the years to come. modern art of classical music. KR

Kate Rockstrom is a friend of Readings @WangarattaFestivalofJazz @WangarattaJazz