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Anna Funder, Lindsay Tanner, Alice Pung and more share their best books of 2011 5DVD set. see page 16 for d etails. 16 see page image: from the adventures of tintin remastered 5DVD set.

Best of 2011 and new release books, music, film Just some of our favourite books, CDs & DVDs of 2011. See more favourites inside.

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From the Editor Mark My Words News and views from Readings’ News & Events Many of my favourite books managing director Mark Rubbo new Readings valued at $4999 (conditions apply). Amble this year were Australian. I through historic cities, visit the exquisite Taj I wandered into Dick Smith at University of waited all year for Frank Mahal, one of the new seven wonders of the (part of Woolworths) the Melbourne Brain Moorhouse’s final instalment world. Explore the pink city of Jaipur, relax in other day and noticed a big of his trilogy starring the Centre in 2012 ancient palaces and arrive in Sultan-like splen- display of Amazon Kindles. fabulous Edith Campbell Stay tuned for Readings Neuroscience shop dour, atop a beautiful elephant, at the The Kindle is not just a Berry – and wasn’t disap- opening early next year at the Melbourne mesmerising Amber Fort. Search for the device on which to read pointed by Cold Light Brain Centre. The new centre is at: Ken- elusive tiger on the early morning game drive and purchase ebooks; it’s a way of avoiding (Vintage, PB, Normally $32.95, Our special neth Myer Building, The University of in Ranthambore national park. Top this off GST on those purchases. It reminded me a price $27.95). Set in Canberra, in the early Melbourne, Genetics Lane off Royal Parade, with a fascinating train ride and your Indian bit of the 80s bottom-of-the-harbour tax days of its existence, it sees the formidable Melbourne. For more information visit adventure is complete. On the Go Tours is a schemes. Woolworths appears to have gone Edith – now middle-aged – struggling to find http://www.florey.edu.au/about-florey/ fully bonded tour operator and specialises in into the tax avoidance business, selling a a foothold (and a decent position) in post-war about-us/melbourne-brain-centre. flexible group tours, tailor-made holidays, device that is designed to compel people to Australia, where smart, experienced, opinion- private journeys, family holidays and exotic purchase books tax-free. Now, lots of people ated women are not exactly in demand. Moriarty festivals and events. www.onthegotours.com. buy things over the net tax-free, but that is There’s family drama (Edith’s brother is a at Readings St Kilda Pick up an entry form at any Readings shop. their individual choice – Kindle and Communist), adventures in romance and French group Moriarty will be at Readings Woolworths doesn’t give them that choice. friendships, and real-life characters like St Kilda on Wednesday 18 January, 5.30pm. Menzies, Whitlam and Frank Hardy mixing This acoustic ensemble sounds less French This, of course, is one of the issues indirectly it with Moorhouse’s creations. And as always, and more Depression-era American folk/ addressed in the Book Industry Strategy there is sparkling wit, sharp and poignant cabaret made cool. Fronted by the heartfelt Group’s (BISG) very sensible report to observations, and a winning blend of political vocals of the enigmatic Rosemary, the band NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr. The and personal intrigue. Hugely rewarding. performs in English with a sound that’s BISG was set up by Senator Carr to examine Established in 1950, the been described as early Neil Young and even how emerging digital technologies might National Book Award is an Another writer I adore is Americana. If you can’t make it to our in- impact on the way books are produced and American literary prize given Malcolm Knox, whose novels store event that day, Moriarty are returning delivered. The BISG acknowledged that to writers by writers and are engrossing journeys into to Melbourne as part of So Frenchy So Chic publishing is Australia’s most successful administered by a nonprofit contemporary Australian in the Park at Werribee Mansion on Sunday cultural industry. It sees the industry’s organisation, the National class and masculinity. Kerryn 15 January 2012, along with other superb primary role as developing Australian Book Foundation. The Goldsworthy once wrote that French muso’s Nouvelle Vague, ASA and Féfé creators and creative works. The BISG made extensive list of previous he’s a satirist who also excels to name a few. For tickets and more informa- 23 recommendations to government under winners reads like the who’s who of at characterisation: spot-on. tion visit http://cartellmusic.com.au/sfsc/. The Life (A&U, PB, Normally $32.95, Our six broad headings (for a copy of the full American literature including the likes of , , Katherine Anne special price $27.95) is a virtuoso perfor- report, go to www.innovation.gov.au). Kids’ Story Time mance, taking the reader deep inside the Porter, , Saul Bellow, Alice head of world champion Gold Coast surfer The aspects that interested me most were at Readings Walker and E. Annie Proulx. Judges are DK, as a way of exploring ambition, the those that addressed the issues of Australian There will be no kids’ story time at any of published writers who are known to be lures and pitfalls of fame, and the commer- publishers and retailers competing in our shops throughout December and Janu- doing great work in their genre or field, and cialisation of surfing culture. There’s a a global marketplace, and support for ary – but please visit www.readings.com.au in some cases, are past finalists or previous murder mystery at its heart, too. Australian culture. To me, the two seem in the new year for dates and times in 2012. winners. And the best part is that unlike joined. If Australian retailers and publishers other awards of this calibre, NO ONE, not I loved Charlotte Wood’s The Children, so can’t compete globally and are replaced by Tintin competition: even the Foundation staff, learns who the was excited to discover that Animal People external retailers and publishers, then the win an indian holiday winners are until the Awards dinner. (A&U, PB, Normally $29.99, Our special scope for Australian creators to find readers Buy a copy of the The Art and price $26.95) revisits hapless man-child and to be effectively published is much the Adventures of Tintin or The The winners, who were recently announced Stephen, following him over 24 hours in more limited. On the face of it, offshore Adventures of Tintin Remas- in New York City were Salvage the Bones which he plans to break up with his much- retailers have no interest in promoting tered at Readings throughout by Jesmyn Ward for fiction, The Swerve: loved girlfriend – out of insecurity rather Australian works above others – and it’s December and go in the draw How the World Became Modern by Stephen than any real desire to. Though it centres on hard to see why they ever would. The BISG to win an exhilarating trip for Greenblatt for non-fiction, for poetry Head a pending break-up, it’s a romantic comedy tried to address the Woolworths/Kindle two through the vibrant Off & Splitby Nikky Finney and for Young of sorts, with some wonderful observational issue by recommending that books be made landscapes of North India People’s Literature Inside Out & Back Again humour and many deeply moving moments. GST exempt, or that overseas retailers be with On the Go Tours and Air Mauritius by Thanhha Lai. I’d always meant to read compelled to collect GST on purchases by Stasiland and never got Australian residents. With other retailers around to it – until the complaining about the tax exempt status lead-up to Anna Funder’s of purchases below $1000, I imagine they debut novel, All That I Am wouldn’t be too happy about books getting (Viking, PB, $29.95). Of special treatment. However, the unique course, I was riveted by both characteristics of ebooks, in addition to their books. Sparked by real events, cultural importance, do seem to warrant it. All That I Am follows four friends who risk Why does the same ebook file purchased their lives to alert the world to the menace from Woolworths/Amazon have no GST – posed by Hitler in the years before World War whereas, if purchased from Readings ebooks II, from Berlin and then from exile in it does? No logic there!! , where their visas prohibit them from political activity. It’s a literary thriller with Another key recommendation was that wonderful characters and a serious message. Australia Council Grants to authors be An astonishing achievement. increased to a minimum of $3.5 million per annum and that a National Book Council And Peggy Frew’s House of Sticks (Scribe, PB, be established, a principal function of which $29.95) was, to my mind, the debut of the would be to provide funds to writers to year. It’s a riveting (Garner-esque) domestic create new works. A good report ... and best drama about juggling a creative career, kids wishes for the holiday season. and a relationship – stalked by a sense of menace that comes from a friend of the pro- tagonist’s husband, who insinuates himself too closely in their lives. Oslo Davis www.oslodavis.com — Jo Case THIS CHRISTMAS CINEMA NOVA RECOMMENDS Visit the new Cinema Nova Bar From filmmakers Steven JAMIE BELL ANDY SERKIS DANIEL CRAIG ANTONIO BANDERAS Spielberg & Peter Jackson ★THE ADVENTURES OF★ comes the highly SECRET anticipated adaptation OF THE Pedro Almodovar's dark, sexual thriller of an of Herge's UNICORN unscrupulous plastic surgeon with a wicked vendetta. classic comic. ★★★★ 380 LYGON ST CARLTON www.cinemanova.com.au “Action-packed, gorgeous, Online bookings available “A scary, sexy and terrifically and faithfully whimsical” Join our e-news for updates on the Met Opera, twisted horror film” DECEMBER 25 Empire National Theatre and other stage spectaculars. Rolling Stone DECEMBER 25 Readings Monthly Dec 11 - Jan 12 3 Gifts & Stationery Rick Amor Wooden Charley Harper: Book Buddies Belt Drive USB Bookrest Mystery of the Large & small sizes. Both $9.95 Turntable bags now at $55 Missing Migrants $199 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle. $26.95 Readings

Brilliant Book Buddies by Izzi Inc. Made from Canadian Alder, the are bookmarks handmade in This brilliant new gadget allows Wooden Book Rest adjusts to hold Puzzle enthusiasts will relish the Melbourne, using fabrics sourced you to transfer your vinyl records all sizes of books and folds flat for challenge of this gorgeous jigsaw, from around the world. We love directly to your iPod or computer. Rick Amor is a renowned easy storage and transportation. based on the stylised Americana of that every bookmark is unique. Perfect for the vinyl lover in your artist and he has kindly Ideal for holding cookbooks, and celebrated artist Charley Harper. These whimsical little beauties are life, especially if their iPod is allowed us to use one can sit on your bookshelf as a Forty-five birds are presented in sure to delight the young and permanently attached to their ear display unit. Charley Harper’s own unique young at heart. when away from the turntable. of his images of the ‘minimal realism’ style. Other The belt drive has auto return and ‘Running Man’ on Bali Bike Bell puzzles are available, featuring Ollie Wise auto shut off, with 2 rated speed: the next bag in our 33 rpm and 45 rpm. $8.95 images by M.C. Escher, Chuck Bookends wonderful series of Close, van Gogh and more. Comes as a pair. $49.95 Postcards from artists’ calico bags. Sew Bag Penguin Modern $39.95 Classics: 100 Writ- A limited edition of 500 ers in One Box bags has been produced Penguin. $35 and we are incredibly proud to have Rick’s work available to you at The sound of paradise! Shaped like a miniature Hindu stupa, finished Looking for bookends that will sit such an accessible price. in gold and black, the Bali Bike as handsomely on your shelves as Bell gives off a sonorous and SEW is a development project that your books do? These adorable distinctive sound that gently yet employs HIV+ women in Arusha, Ollie the Owl weighted bookends firmly alerts pedestrians and traffic Tanzania. In Africa it is almost are full of character – great fun, Only $5.00 alike to your presence. Ride more impossible to find a job once with a practical application. Made This collection of 100 postcards is, happily and safely with the infected with HIV/AIDS, due to from grey linen, with black faux well, something to write home delightful Bali Bike Bell. Installs in the stigma associated with the leather trim, they measure 17cm about. Each features an iconic an instant with a Phillips head disease. As such, SEW acts as a in height. image of a different author from screwdriver. Get one for each side. stepping stone for financial the Penguin Modern Classics independence. While making Moleskine series – from Beckett to Camus, Dharma Door these carry-bags, the women learn 12 month Updike to Woolf. Book Bags valuable business skills. The bags Twin Set 2012 are made from a mix of recycled Large (33.5 x 26cm). $32.95. and environmentally friendly Diary plus notebook. Red. HB. Keep Cups Small (28 x 20cm). $27.95 materials. The women are paid a $36.95 Small $12. Medium $14. fair wage and all profits are Large $16 re-invested into the project.

Lamy Al-Star Ruby fountain Pen Was $69. Now $59 Ballpoint and rollerball Literary also available T-shirts. This stylish, pocket-sized diary and notebook set is your perfect You can drink take-away coffees Our Eco Book Bags are the perfect companion for 2012. The Weekly and be kind to the environment Readings has a gift for a book lover. The small Planner gives you a week-at-a- with lightweight, stylish Keep fine range of size is great for protecting novels, glance and the 48-page notebook Cups. Keep Cups are made from literary journals or iPads and the large is there for you to record your plastic, so they’re easy to carry and t-shirts for size works well for A4 documents, thoughts or to-do list at any time. very environmentally friendly magazines or slim laptops. Comes with 24-page archive and (BPA free and non-toxic). Keep men and women 225 adhesive labels to mark Cups are barista standard: they in a variety Snow Dome This gorgeous ruby red fountain important dates and deadlines. replicate standard take-away sizes pen is the perfect gift (to family, of sizes. Gift-boxed, removable insert.$16.95 and fit under the group heads of friends or even yourself) for Vintage espresso machines. anyone with a weakness for beauti- Featuring iconic ful stationery – and in particular, Postcards from pens that just beg you to write : Nietzsche and often out with them. Designed by Wolfgang 100 Classic Covers watch of print book Fabian, the Lamy Al-Star range Penguin. $39.95 $49.95 covers such combines incredibly high quality Moby Dick, materials with modern, edgy as design principles. The ergonomic, Catch-22, The moulded grip section ‘forces’ the Great Gatsby, Looking for the perfect gift or a writer to grip the pen for opti- fun way to display one of your 1984, On The mum writing and comfort and is Road Pride favourite pics? Look no further! made from smoky, transparent and The ultra cute O-CHECK Snow ABS plastic – and the rounded and Predjudice Dome comes gift-boxed, with a . body (with clever, subtle flattening Iconic magazine Vanity Fair is removable insert you can custom- on its sides) prevents the Al-star known for its impeccable good ise to show one of your favourite rolling off the table. Also features a looks. Compiled by Vanity Fair A wristwatch that sums up At all shops photos. large wire-spring clip, secure editor Graydon Carter, this elegant Nietzsche’s hopeless view of the Only $29.95 ‘click-on’ cap and an ink window collection of postcards includes world, featuring a photograph of to keep track of levels. 100 groundbreaking and beautiful Friedrich himself on the face. 1 Vanity Fair magazine covers. year warranty. Japanese made, quartz movement. 4 Readings Monthly Dec 11 – Jan 12 Best books of 2011: by Australian authors We ask some of our favourite authors to share their best fiction and non-fiction books of 2011.

Anna Funder Visitation malcolm knox (both fiction) The Origins of OPEN CITY Jenny Erpenbeck LORD OF MISRULE Political Order Teju Cole New Directions. PB. $21.95 Jaimy Gordon Francis Fukuyama Faber. PB. $29.99 Jenny Erpenbeck’s stellar Vintage. PB. $22.95 Profile. HB. $59.99 This book is a mesmerising novel Visitation is a ‘story of A tight-packed, muscular I am a longstanding fan of contemplation on New York, a house’ and its inhabitants American story about people Fukuyama, and this book is and on modern life. A young over decades. In the small and racehorses on the another outstanding example psychiatrist walks the streets details, it evokes the history bottom rung of the Balti- of why he should be consid- of New York City to lose and of Germany in the twentieth more racetrack scene in the ered the world’s leading to find himself, to escape and century and in the cumula- early 1970s. Tough young public intellectual. He takes to see. Highly original and tive details, it offers a Maggie Koederer and ancient on an incredible task – ex- beautiful. humbling meditation on impermanence. It horseman ‘Medicine Ed’ plaining how modern also happens to be a real house that once walk on a shifting ledge between hope and political organisation evolved in human AFTER ROMULUS belonged to her family. disaster, surrounded by malevolent and societies – and discharges it with his Raimond Gaita Steven Amsterdam’s latest book is What the desperate forces. Soaked in Baltimore slang, customary diligence and élan. If you want to Text. PB. $32.95. Ebook $19.95 Family Needed (Sleepers, PB, $24.95). it won the National Book Award above understand the very deep forces that drive This is the kind of writing many bigger names. political behaviour, this book is essential. that is so brave it makes you Tony Birch Lindsay Tanner’s latest book is Sideshow flinch, so profound it makes Worse Things Foal’s Bread (Scribe, PB, $32.95). you examine yourself, and so Happen At Sea Gillian Mears moving it makes you see life Sarah Watts & A&U. Ebook $19.79. PB Normally $32.95 Peggy Frew afresh. I was entranced as William McInnes Our special price $29.95 YOU’LL BE SORRY usual by Rai Gaita’s limpid Very different but of equal Hachette. HB. $35 WHEN I’M DEAD style, and his signature quality is Gillian Mears’s first While reading this beautiful Marieke Hardy combination of philosophical intellect novel in 16 years. Centred on book, and pausing with the A&U. PB. $29.99. Ebook $13.99 and warm heart. the country show-jumping wonderful photographs of Hardy covers football, Bob Anna Funder’s latest book is All That I Am circuit of northern NSW in family and places visited, I Ellis, letter-writing and life as (Viking, PB, $29.95). the mid-twentieth century, felt I’d been generously a child actor in these collected recreating the grain of that transported to the backyard writings. Unafraid to mine Kirsten Tranter place and time, this novel and kitchen table of Sarah, the more tawdry aspects of tapped straight into my emotional well. Embassytown William and their children, personal experience – encoun- You’d have to have a hard heart not to be China Miéville Clem and Stella. It is a story of love, courage ters with prostitutes; a night moved by it. These are both novels of rare Tor. PB. $32.99. Ebook $19.99 and a celebration of life. at a swingers’ club – for power and beauty. Embassytown, the latest book humour, she is also fearless in her examina- from the absurdly prolific and Malcolm Knox’s latest book is The Life (A&U, Blue Monday PB, Normally $32.95, Our special price $27.95). tion of the emotional side of things. Funny, imaginative China Miéville, is Nicci French honest, surprisingly moving. perhaps his most literary yet, Michael Joseph. PB. $29.95 Tim Flannery (both non-fiction) and at times the most Blue Monday introduces The Sound of a Wild CARGO intimate and moving: a classic readers to psychotherapist Jessica Au sci-fi genre novel that is also Frieda Klein, who suspects Snail Eating Picador. PB. $19.99. Ebook $14.99 an obsessive meditation on that one of her own patients Elizabeth Tova Bailey Cargo follows three charac- language, trauma, metaphor and narrative. may be involved in the Text. PB. $22.95. Ebook $19.95 ters moving into adulthood abduction of a five-year-old After a devastating illness, in a small New South Wales Florence Broadhurst: Bailey finds out what life in Her Secret and boy, and perhaps a haunt- coastal town during the 90s.. ingly similar crime from the slow lane is really like. She Au’s writing has a decisive Extraordinary Lives London’s past. This is a terrific, riveting discovers companionship in a beauty, and this book lives (deluxe edition) read. The shock twist in the tale was truly snail that arrives with a bunch and breathes within the Helen O’Neill heart-thumping. of violets. A fantastic cradle of its harbour setting, Hardie Grant. HB. $69.95 Tony Birch’s latest book is Blood investigation into both snails where ever-present waves by turns comfort, I’m more and more in love (UQP, PB, $29.95). and the human condition. smother and liberate. with the spectacularly Peggy Frew’s latest book is House of Sticks gorgeous, big new edition of Benjamin Law The Corpse Walker (Scribe, PB, $29.95). Helen O’Neill’s Florence Liao Yiwu You’ll Be Sorry When Text. PB. $34.95. Ebook $19.95 Broadhurst: Her Secret and I’m Dead Alice Pung Extraordinary Lives. It’s a To Westerners, China is a The Monsoon Bride fascinating biography of this Marieke Hardy mysterious place. The Corpse A&U. PB. $29.99. Ebook $13.99 Walker brings to life so many Michelle Aung Thin brilliant, extroverted woman Text. PB. $29.95. Ebook $19.95 artist and is itself an object of extraordinary Marieke Hardy’s debut book bizarre professions and is as ripsnortingly funny as practices that it reads like A beautiful, dark and beauty, filled with reproductions of Broad- psychologically complex love hurst’s bold, visionary wallpaper designs. her columns, blog and TV fiction. It is the only book I’ve shows. But in between all the read in recent years that keeps story set in Burma where the Kirsten Tranter’s new novel, A Common Loss characters unfold layer by (Fourth Estate, PB, $29.99) is out in January. killer jokes – and there are me reading late into the enough to permanently night. I have given away more copies of this layer as a result of not only Steven Amsterdam damage your spleen – the than there are courses at a yum cha restaurant. their individual pasts but the past of a colonised country. The Best American book is also a goddamned Tim Flannery’s latest book is Among the song to everyone Hardy has ever loved: Islands (Text, PB, $32.95). Nonrequired friends, parents, lovers and, of course, Bob Reading 2011 Ellis. Exceptional. Lindsay Tanner The Psychopath Test Dave Eggers (ed.) Before the Poison Jon Ronson Mariner Books. PB. $21.95 Triptych Peter Robinson Picador. PB. $32.99. Ebook $19.99 This annual collection of Krissy Kneen Headline. PB. $32.99 I read it, as most people did, fiction, non-fiction and Text. PB. $29.95. Ebook $19.95 It feels odd to read a Peter to affirm my deep-seated amusing lists always spurs If you plan to read only one Robinson book with no Alan suspicions that some people me forward (and isn’t book in which a woman has Banks or Annie Cabot, but I knew were psychopaths by completely America-centric). sex with a dog, pony and his most recent work, based checking them off against The anthology is edgy and octopus, make it Triptych. in the familiar setting of the the Hare Psychopathy heartfelt, with tendersmart Kneen’s interconnected Yorkshire Dales, is just as Checklist. Instead I discov- stories from Neil Gaiman, erotic stories happily good as his previous books. ered that the line between Anthony Doerr and Henrietta Rose-Innes, transgress every sexual Chris Lowndes, a Yorkshire sanity and insanity is a very fine one, and and even sharper articles about a teenager’s taboo, but Triptych doesn’t native who has spent a couple of decades writ- Ronson treats his subjects with good-heart- detention in America, a compulsive’s art just intend to shock. It’s also unexpectedly ing music scores in Hollywood, moves into a ed curiosity and humour. heist in Vienna, a people finder in Baja, a tender, funny, disturbingly relatable and remote, bleak mansion that has a history: the Alice Pung’s latest book is Her Father’s volunteer’s report of genocide in Burma, very, very readable. wife of the local doctor who lived there Daughter (Black Inc., PB, $29.95). and a deported family’s look back at Benjamin Law’s latest book is The Family murdered him, and was hanged for the crime. America as a still-shining dream. Law (Black Inc., PB, $22.95). Chris, fascinated, resolves to find out more. Readings Monthly Dec 11 - Jan 12 5 Best books of 2011: by Readings staff Readings staff share their best books of 2011. Choices range across fiction, finance, gardening, memoirs & more. Kate Rockstrom Jessica Au Danielle Mirabella Martin Shaw the Language What the World Will Franklin & Eleanor: What the Family of Flowers Look Like When All the An Extraordinary Needed Vanessa Diffenbaugh Water Leaves Us Marriage Steven Amsterdam Picador. Ebook $19.99. PB Normally $33 Laura van den Berg Hazel Rowley Sleepers. PB. $24.95. Ebook $13.95 Our special price $27.95 Scribe. PB. $24.95. Ebook $16.99 MUP. PB. $36.99 It’s been a particular pleasure Victoria is lost. Lost to the The stories in this debut Hazel Rowley’s compelling of mine of late to meet world and lost to herself. Her collection all feature women biography reveals a remark- people who’ve read Steven distrust of people is a poison narrators – their thoughts and ably progressive partnership Amsterdam’s wonderful new that is eating her, but there is disappointments pitted in what is considered to be novel, What the Family a ray of hope in the language perfectly against the some- one of the greatest political Needed. They involuntarily of flowers. Through serendip- times mythic and isolated marriages of modern times. start to smile, their cheeks ity she discovers intuitive natural worlds in which they Rowley vividly portrays the take on an extra glow... Yes, skills as a florist – and there, find themselves. Laura van 40-year Roosevelt marriage as it’s a wonder of a book! One that you hold she meets a man who can match her, flower den Berg’s writing is anything but formulaic; a partnership that, while considered close, and desperately want to share with for flower. This broken character will break the title story by far the best I’ve read all year. unconventional for the time, was built on your closest. your heart and still give you hope. friendship, respect and independence. A Mark Rubbo Jason Austin Edwina Kay thoroughly researched and simply fascinat- Women’s Stuff ing read ... what a couple! Autumn Laing House of Sticks Kaz Cooke Peggy Frew Viking. HB. $59.95 Dani Solomon A&U. Ebook $17.99. HB Normally $40 Scribe. PB. $29.95. Ebook $17.59 Women’s Stuff is brilliant. the House of Silk Our special price $34.95 The cast of characters are so Kaz Cooke has spent years Anthony Horowitz A chance encounter forces an well realised that House of researching this book and Orion. PB. Normally $33 elderly woman to look back Sticks could easily be about surveyed 7000 women. She Our special price $29.95 on her life in an attempt to the family next door, or your presents a wide range of When an agitated art dealer atone for a profound and own. Dealing with the issues views on everything a woman begs Holmes to investigate a selfish act of betrayal. Loosely of parenting and domestic needs to know – from health, scar-faced stalker, Holmes based on the lives of John tension in a setting that is sex and relationships to work agrees out of boredom more and Sunday Reed and Sidney typically Melbourne, it brings and finances. With quotes from thousands than anything – but when Nolan, the novel brims with to mind the work of such local authors as of women, and Kaz’s humour, this entertain- their inquiries lead to the creative and erotic tension. Miller uses all his Helen Garner and Christos Tsiolkas. ing guidebook is a must for all women. disappearance of one of the considerable skills to bring this powerful Baker Street Irregulars, it story to a dramatic end. Gerard Elson Emily Harms becomes personal. In The House of Silk, the 1001 Australian Nights The little veggie game is most definitely afoot! Fiona Hardy Dave Graney patch co. Andrew McDonald Bearings Affirm. PB. $29.95. Ebook $14.95 Fabian Capomolla Leah Swann Forget Steve Jobs and Julian Bossypants & Mat Pember Affirm. PB. $24.95. Ebook $11.95 Assange: Dave Graney is the Tina Fey Plum. PB. Normally $45 Local (and lovely) author Leah iconoclast whose life story Little, Brown. PB. $32.99 Our special price $39.95 Swann adds to the wonderful should be stuffing stockings Tina Fey’s first foray into Whether you have a balcony Long Story Shorts series with this Christmas. Penned with publishing is a true highlight or small backyard, this Bearings, a collection of stories all the wit, poetry and of the year. It’s one-part the easy-to-use guide demon- and one novella all laced with panache fans would expect, Tina Fey of 30 Rock (self- strates how to create edible the parched beauty of the this towers nattily-hatted head deprecating, comedian gardens in any space. There Australian landscape and those and leather-clad shoulders above most dopey extraordinaire), one-part the are also some fun weekend – human and animal – who rock ’n’ roll memoirs. Like Patti Smith’s Just Tina Fey of Mean Girls activities for kids, including reside within. Heartbreaking, honest, but Kids from last year, it’s a ‘must-read’. (world-wise feminist) and making a scarecrow and ultimately hopeful, you may lose yourself in thankfully no-parts the Tina Fey of Baby growing beans in a bean can. This book is an Swann’s engaging reality. Kara Nicholson Mama (no stars). A book that says to every absolute gem! Boomerang other entertainer and/or comedian writing a Bruno Moro Michael Lewis Tom Hoskins memoir: this is how. Penguin. HB. $39.95 The Hypnotist Steve Jobs: The Luke May Lars Kepler Of the many books published Exclusive Biography this year to analyse the GFC The Street Sweeper Blue Door. PB. Normally $29.95 and its fallout, Boomerang is Walter Isaacson Our special price $24.95 Hachette. HB. Normally $45 Elliot Perlman I picked this up because of its one of the latest and also most Vintage. Ebook $23.16. PB Normally $32.95 readable. Michael Lewis Our special price $34.95 chilling cover (cover of the Unlike the products Jobs Our special price $29.95 year?) and I am so glad I did. entertains with his usual Fiction at its most momen- humour as he heads around created, Issacson’s portrait is This is an in-depth psycho- far from simple and glossy. tous. An utterly humane and logical thriller that had me the world to Greece, Iceland, compelling portrait of Ireland and Germany, before returning to the Compiled over two years and completely hooked and even a with unprecedented access to perhaps the most significant little obsessed. The plot has US. I particularly liked his focus on the role historical periods of the last of human nature – of individuals and entire Jobs himself, Isaacson everything: murder, abduc- provides an exhaustive look at century: black American civil tion and of course, hypnotism. Brilliant! nations taking what they can, without regard rights and the Holocaust. to the larger social consequences. a man who was as psychotic as he was brilliant. Luckily, such a compelling Easily the best book written Chris Gordon character makes for compelling reading. by an Australian author this year, this will no Miles Allinson doubt be championed for decades to come. Why Be Happy When I Curse the Margaret Snowdon You Could Be Normal? River of time Robbie Egan Jeanette Winterson The Hare With Per Petterson Art in the Streets Vintage. PB. Normally $29.95 Amber Eyes Our special price $24.95 Vintage. PB. $24.95 Rizzoli. PB $55. HB $75 Edmund de Waal If, like me, you have been Per Petterson is, I suppose, Art in the Streets is a beautiful reading Jeanette Winterson’s what they call an existential Vintage. PB. $19.95 companion to the LA novels since the 80s then this, writer, and in his latest work, This wonderful book is Museum of Contemporary her first autobiographical I Curse the River of Time, he memorable to me for its Art’s blockbuster exhibition really rubs it in. The title, fascinating combination of art book, is for you. Why be of the same name. It is the Happy When You Could be which comes from a quote by and history – a personal most complete survey of graf- Normal? is Winterson’s search Mao Zedong, says it all, viewpoint that eloquently fiti ever published, tracing though it’s perhaps the most evokes place and time. for identity, love, and the evolution of street art contentment when, quite frankly, given her gregarious phrase of the entire book: a novel Multi-layered, it is also a from New York to Los Angeles and across childhood she should still be in psychoanaly- of such restrained Norwegian despair and moving reminder of the evils the world with interviews, essays and over sis. This book is a gift for both fans and for beauty that I called out time and again in my of war and anti-semitism, through the history 300 amazing images. own living room and wept. of the author’s family. anyone who has taken the road less travelled. 6 Readings Monthly Dec 11 – Jan 12 Best Poetry Best Food & Best Art & STORIES Books 2011 Wine Books 2011 Design Books 2011 FOR by Luke Beesley by Christine Gordon by Margaret Snowdon Here are five excellent, diverse Australian Zumbo The New Artisans poetry collections I’ve particularly enjoyed Adriano Zumbo Olivier Dupon SUMMER this year ... Murdoch. PB. Normally $50 Thames & Hudson. HB. $49.95 Our special price $39.95 The re-emergence of the Sly Mongoose Roll up ladies and gentle- hand-made as an important Ken Bolton men, roll up! It’s Zumbo and desirable element in Puncher & Wattmann. PB. $25 time. Adriano Zumbo’s book design is celebrated in this Ken Bolton writes like free is Willy Wonka meets mad gorgeous book, featuring jazz. In Sly Mongoose he floats scientist meets inner child: over 70 artisans from the this style through Cy divine pictures, easy (if four corners of the globe who Twombly, art history and lengthy) recipes and all the use craft techniques to weave domesticity. It’s uniquely glamour one needs in a their magic. A brilliant sourcebook. visual, a clever romp, and cookbook. Your kids will be delighted to includes my favourite lines of have a little MasterChef wizardry in your Forty-Six Square the year: there were / biros. kitchen. Spellbind their teacher by produc- Metres of Land Everywhere! eating the passionfruit (that had, / ing popcorn macaroons! Spellbind yourself! Doesn’t Normally meanwhile, ripened). Home Made Become A House Knuckled Yvette Van Bowen Stuart Harrison Fiona Wright Murdoch. HB. Normally $50 Thames & Hudson. HB. $70 Giramondo. PB. $24 Our special price $39.95 Celebrating smallness in scale The clear, smooth lines of If you are heading down the for livable and stylish emerging Sydney poet Fiona home-made gift avenue for contemporary dwellings of Wright’s poems in Knuckled Christmas this year, there are Australia and New Zealand, are a delight. The poems are some great ideas in Home this excellent new book from sensual, humorous and Made, especially if you’re the author of the very popular Houses in the Sun accessible. They begin, looking further afield than is a winner. often, as anecdote – and strawberry jam and short- Down with the McMansion! thicken with juicy phrasing, bread. No need to visit a gaining complexity. chemist for these recipes. By all accounts, Second Skin Ray Martin has interviewed you only need to stroll to the nearest food India Flint Murdoch Books. HB. $49.99 thousands of people over his Surface to Air market – or indeed, out to your very own I’m a fan of this and of the successful career in journalism. Jaya Savige garden. There’s everything from tea to spicy UQP. PB. $24.95 jams, all ready to awaken the creative in you. author’s first book Eco Ray Martin’s Favourites brings Colour In Surface to Air, the second . They combine a together the most remarkable of Bill’s Everyday Asian heartfelt eco-aesthetic that these interviews, offering insight book from ’s Jaya Savige, there’s the texture and Bill Granger is both personal and into some extraordinary people— range of his first collection, HarperCollins. HB. Normally $50 practical, instructions on Our special price $39.95 from celebrities to ordinary folks, but his voice is increasingly natural dying and repurposing of textiles and all with stories to tell. his own. Moving from the Talking of painless-to-make clothing, beautiful illustrations and fascinat- ing stories. formal to the stylised, he tests and simple-to-please recipes, PERFECT PRESENT! language and technology, and Bill’s Everyday Asian gives you places it in the context of beauty. all the tricks for producing Colour Moves: mouth-watering Asian tastes Art and Fashion New and Selected in your kitchen. There are by Sonia Delaunay Poems recipes here that would work Matteo de Leeuw-de well on a Tuesday night after Monti et al Gig Ryan the school concert round-up meeting, but Thames & Hudson. PB. $44.95 Giramondo. PB. $26.95 also recipes for presenting to friends and Sonia Delaunay’s art and Melbourne’s influential Gig family on 23 December, when you need designs could easily step Ryan launched her long- something impressive and have only 30 spare from the pages of this book awaited New and Selected minutes to make it. Poems late this year. They’re and be thoroughly contem- so tight and fast and Movida Cocina porary: they were avant- complete, her poems. The Richard Cornish garde in the early twentieth collection holds surprising & Frank Camorra century. Her inventive and fresh sense of colour and language, humanism, politics Murdoch. HB. Normally $49.95 and energy, and she brings all this into Our special price $39.95 design – and her multi-faceted practice – are illustrated by over 250 images. careful, intelligent shape. However, if Asian tastes are not your thing, look to the Australian Poetry latest book by Richard Ai WeiWei Speaks Journal Cornish and Frank Camorra. with Hans Ulrich Obrist Bronwyn Lea These two formidable blokes Penguin. PB. $12.95 Australian Poetry Inc. PB. $25 have been busy this year, both Artist, activist, curator, Sensitively edited by travelling and writing. Their architect. Coverage of his Bronwyn Lea, issue one of book, MoVida Cocina, gives arrest and eventual release Australian Poetry Journal you the inside gossip on signature dishes from by the Chinese authorities includes a strong collection the MoVida restaurants, as well as Spanish even made it into our In this gorgeously illustrated of poems; long, considered techniques for getting the most out of your media. Conducted over book, join Betty Churcher on a critique; and a surprise tapas. Terrific if you cannot ever seem to get a several years, these discussions are an essential personal tour of her most beloved highlight – poems by the seat at MoVida Next Door. Knock the tinsel reminder of the need for personal, political works, including masterpieces visionary Canadian poet, off the kitchen bench and produce potato and artistic freedom. by Rembrandt, Goya, Manet, Christian Bok, whose latest project is to bombs that go a treat with a cold glass of Velázquez, Courbet, Vermeer and inject his poems into genetic sequences, sherry. The Redstone Book of Cézanne. allowing bacteria and proteins to assist him the Eye: A Compendium to generate further poems. Cooking with Beer of Visual Surprise SPECIAL GIFT EDITION! Paul Mercurio Julian Rothenstein Luke Beesley is a Melbourne Murdoch. PB. $34.99 Square Peg. PB. $39.95 poet, and the curator of Pages On the topic of booze, This wonderful visual to Poetry, Readings Carlton’s Cooking with Beer is a seasonal anthology will amuse, monthly poetry night. His stand-out. It’s not only the bemuse, entertain, befuddle, latest book is Lemon Shark perfect gift for the beer inform, intrigue and con- (Paper Tiger, PB, $20.95) guzzler in your family, but found. Redstone have the and his second book is gives instructions on incred- visual at their fingertips – forthcoming in 2012. ibly easy-to-do meals, the reliably non-obvious, from majority made standing Russian constructivism to a www.mup.com.au around the BBQ (and not all include meat.) young Elizabeth Taylor painting a landscape. Readings Monthly Dec 11 - Jan 12 7

AsBest chosen by Kids’Readings’ staff Books of children’s specialists of 2011 Picture Books Junior The Apothecary The Shadow Girl I Want My Hat Back Lights, Camera, Maile Meloy John Larkin Jon Klassen Action Hero! Text. PB. $19.95. Ebook $14.95 Woolshed Press. PB. $18.95. Ebook $18.95 Walker. HB. $24.95 H. J. Harper This is such an exciting story, This book is a powerful and Bear has lost his hat and he Random. PB. $9.95. Ebook $9.95 about settling into a new accomplished piece of wants it back! Desperate to Jay is a hardworking child school, mysterious shops, writing, based on a true story. find it, he interrogates all movie-star who is excited to Russian spies, British agents The Shadow Girl is a the animals he encounters audition for his favourite film and, at the centre of it all wonderful protagonist – she’s along the way but none of director. But after a highly the Chelsea Physic Garden. smart, tough and never feels them have seen his hat. Or unorthodox ‘audition’, he It is also about a book called sorry for herself, despite the have they? It is the deer who finds himself heading up a ‘The Pharmacopoeia’ which harrowing circumstances of reminds Bear that he has crack team of crime-fighting must remain hidden from both sides at all her life. John Larkin has done a stunning job seen Rabbit wearing his hat. So Bear youngsters that include a costs – and the three children who know its of bringing her story to us, with all the desperately retraces his steps until he finds ninja, zombie, werewolf, robot and an whereabouts. A good adventure story in a dignity and richness that it deserves. The Rabbit ... and his hat. There have been animancer. The first in a series, this book sets richly imagined setting. book touches on serious issues, including some wonderful picture books released this up a clever, action-packed story for young Kathy Kozlowski is from Readings Carlton paedophilia, so is suitable for readers aged 15 year but this one is by far my favourite. readers, with equal parts quirky fantasy, and up. From the quirky illustrations to the real-life friendship and teamwork. Young Adult Angela Crocombe is from Readings St Kilda humorous text, this is sure to be a favourite Leanne Hall is from Readings Carlton Daughter of Smoke among children and adults. and Bone The Fear Daniela Perinac is from Readings Malvern Boris Laini Taylor Charlie Higson Andrew Joyner Hachette. PB. $24.99 Puffin. PB. $19.95 Grandpa Green Puffin. PB. $9.95 Blue-haired Karou is a The zombie book to end all Lane Smith Writing really simple books 17-year-old art student in zombie books! This is the third Roaring Brook Press. HB. $25.95 for beginner readers is never Prague who has been raised in the Enemy series, but as the A young boy lovingly easy, but Andrew Joyner is a by a family of chimaera, or books follow the lives of recounts his grandfather’s natural. The Boris stories beasts. Karou is adept at different characters, you can life in a delightfully (there are four so far) are flitting between the human read them in any order. horticultural way. funny and easily identified world and Elsewhere, but A spectacular cast of characters Captivatingly illustrated. with, and his lively illustra- knows very little of her real and heart-pounding action. Alexa Dretzke is from tions bring Boris and his history, which involves war, love and Holly Harper is from Readings Carlton Readings Hawthorn family to life. If you can tell exactly what a betrayal. Taylor uses poetic language to tell a character is feeling by seeing his back view, compelling fantasy story that is one of the novelty something’s working! strangest, most wonderful and most Charlie and the Pip and Posy: Kathy Kozlowski is from Readings Carlton romantic books I have ever read. Chocolate Factory The Super Scooter Leanne Hall is from Readings Carlton Pop-Up Book Axel Scheffler Sophie and the Shadow Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake Nosy Crow. HB. $19.99 Woods Book 1: The Name of the Star Puffin. HB. $24.95 This story of playing in the The Goblin King Maureen Johnson This very gold, very choco- park and drama over a Linda Chapman Harper. PB. $19.99 latey pop-up book does much-desired scooter is so Rippermania has taken over complete justice to Roald perfectly focused on the & Lee Weatherly Harper. PB. $4.99 London! Upon moving to Dahl’s original story and world of the toddler and London from Louisiana, Rory Quentin Blake’s fantastic preschooler. It’s bright and Sophie Smith loves action and adventure, but she has no idea Deveaux’s arrival is marred by kinetic illustrations. There cheerful, full of lovely details a series of murders believed to are pop-ups, lift-the-flaps, and with a good simple plot. that on her tenth birthday she is going to become the be inspired by Jack the wheels and tabs and, most All very satisfying. Ripper. While the premise of importantly, an honest-to-goodness golden Kathy Kozlowski is from Readings Carlton guardian of the shadow gate that protects our world from the story appears dark and ticket inside a chocolate bar. A surprising the mischievous and grue- gory, Maureen Johnson’s effortless writing, and entertaining telling of the Charlie and Me ... Jane employing both humour and wit, makes this the Chocolate Factory story. Patrick McDonnell some shadow creatures. This is a fun short chapter book that manages to an enjoyable (and at times fairly light) read. Leanne Hall is from Readings Carlton Hachette. HB. $28.99 make some salient points about what we Daniela Perinac is from Readings Malvern As an avid admirer of expect from girls, while also delivering on the Non-fiction primatologist and conserva- simply-written but fun adventure. Red Glove 21st Century Art tionist Jane Goodall, I fell in Marie Matteson is from Readings Port Melbourne Holly Black for Kids love with this picture book Orion. PB. $22.99 about her childhood. It Queensland Art Gallery. HB. $35 Middle It’s been called The Sopranos For the budding artist in the shows her early exploration with magic, and Holly and fascination with the Chitty Chitty Bang family, this book is full of Bang Flies Again Black’s Curse Workers wonderful insights into some natural world, using whimsi- Trilogy is all that and more. cal, evocative illustrations. The inclusion of Frank Cottrell Boyce of the world’s most fascinat- If you haven’t read Book ing artists. The colourful childhood drawings from Goodall herself, Macmillan. PB. $14.99 One, White Cat (Orion, PB, along with an inspiring afterword, only add Fans of the original Chitty pages are filled with photo- $16.99), go do that now graphs of the artists as to the pleasures of this delightful book. Chitty Bang Bang will enjoy – and then come back for Angela Crocombe is from Readings St Kilda this rather quirky and children and snippets of their Red Glove, because the stakes are getting lives, including what they liked to do when hilarious sequel. The Tooting higher for Cassel, born into a family of family are off on an adven- they were kids, what their art is about, and A Sick Day curse workers but trying to go straight. what they would like to create next. Each for Amos McGee ture around the world. Once you delve into Cassel Sharpe’s Having repaired a rundown artist has also devised a unique creative Phillip Stead & Erin Stead morally ambiguous world, you won’t be project to do at home. Inspiring and great van and fitted it with a able to leave it behind. A wonderfully dark, A&U. HB. $19.99 powerful engine, the family are taken for fun! The winner of the 2011 twisty and subtle coming-of-age story. Angela Crocombe is from Readings St Kilda quite a journey as they discover this isn’t Marie Matteson is from Readings Port Melbourne Caldecott Medal for illustra- your ordinary engine. It was once a part of tion, A Sick Day for Amos the original Chitty and would do anything Surrealism For Kids McGee is a quiet treasure. Mockingbird Queensland Art Gallery. HB. $25 to reassemble the vehicle piece-by-piece ... Kathryn Erskine Amos McGee is a zookeeper even if it means dragging the Tooting family Produced in conjunction who each day makes time to along for a ride! Puffin. PB. $9.95 with the fantastic Surrealism visit his good friends. One Daniela Perinac is from Readings Malvern A wonderful story about a exhibition at the Queensland day he is sick and this young girl dealing with her Gallery of Modern Art, this provides the impetus for his friends to leave Moon Over Manifest brother’s death as well as is a smart, fun and good- the zoo and visit him – led by the very shy Asperger’s Syndrome. looking book that alternates penguin. This is a simple, quiet tale of Clare Vanderpool Caitlin’s voice is fresh and Delta Dell. PB. $11.95 ‘Meet the Artist’ spreads friendship, and of taking the time to appreci- funny, and will challenge about all the major surreal- ate the differences and needs of one’s friends. A young girl discovers her father’s past and how you look at the world. is nurtured by the town she grew up in. A ists, with games and activities for kids to Marie Matteson is from Readings Port Melbourne Alexa Dretzke is from make their very own surrealist works. ripper yarn! Readings Hawthorn Alexa Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn Leanne Hall is from Readings Carlton 8 Readings Monthly Dec 11 – Jan 12 New Fiction New releases for December 11 and January 12

Spring.’ Poor Man’s Wealth harks vaguely back to Louis de Berniere’s magic realist Australian Fiction period, if only because of its setting in a A Common Loss Spanish-speaking country ruled by a military Kirsten Tranter junta. But the violent undercurrent that Fourth Estate. PB. $29.99 underpins much of de Berniere’s work is Many women hoped that absent in Usher’s novel (the junta is a rather Kirsten Tranter’s debut pushy background annoyance rather than an Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone showcases Karl Chandler is a funny bugger and so are his evil regime). the evolution of a writer through his work at the mates. Lucky for us, these comics have worked novel The Legacy would magazine that he helped to put on the map. Jann around their hectic schedules – setting their alarm make it to the shortlist of As the title suggests, we’re told that riches S. Wenner, Hunter Thompson’s editor and friend clocks for before midday and logging off Twitter the 2011 Miles Franklin for nearly thirty-five years, has chosen the pieces, – to cough up some of the most pants-wettingly come not from money but human relation- including many never collected before. funny stuff you’ll read all year. Award, but alas the shortlist ships – and all is not as it seems. Like the was a bloke-fest again; even fool in Shakespeare’s King Lear, village mad though the selections were man Bartolomeo is the only one who sees top-notch books. A Common Loss has only clearly and it is he who is responsible for two similarities to The Legacy – one, the US Higot’s ultimate salvation. Poor Man’s Wealth setting, and two, some clever literary and is a non-taxing, pleasant read, ideal for laz- poetic twists and references. ing with by the water this summer. The ‘common loss’ of the title is the death of Amy Roil blogs at Book Witch: www.book- Dylan – one of five male friends who meet witch1.blogspot.com at university and have remained in touch for the ten ensuing years. The group holiday The Dark Wet annually in Vegas, indulging in the excesses Jess Huon of that town and reliving stories from their Giramondo. PB. $26.95. Ebook $12.60. past. This year though – the first without The Dark Wet is Jess Huon’s Dylan – problems arise even in the organisa- first collection of short tion of the trip. Dates are squabbled over; stories. Each story explores one of the group members, Brian, breaks what it means to be human Cool – AND – Seductive. Popsicle will have The United States is gone, along with its flooded an unspoken rule and brings his girlfriend in this complex world and you filling your freezer with sophisticated and coasts. North America’s two warring nations, the Cynthia along; and it appears that Brian and the various struggles people fun frozen treats. Easy-to-follow instruction for western Republic and the eastern Colonies, have making sorbets and ice creams, and tempting reached a breaking point. In the midst of this Cameron – never the best of friends in the experience in remarkably flavour combinations mean summer has never broken continent and dark new world are two group – have increased tension that reaches different circumstances. The tasted so good. teenagers who will go down in history... boiling point in Vegas. Elliot, a professor of first of three self-contained stories follows a literature, is the narrator of the story. He is young artist called Jed who has an inexplica- the most naïve member of the group and the bly strong yearning for his childhood friend, one who idealised Dylan the most. We see Danny Hess. The second story centres on penguin.com.au through his eyes the gradual diminishment the indefinable bond between Isabelle and of Dylan’s memory as each of the remain- Oliver. No doubt the third story draws on ing friends is forced to confront a secret Jess’s personal experiences living and from their past involving Dylan, in a most working in India. Here, she follows a young dramatic way. Australian woman to India from a Buddhist monastery to a Christian ashram. ‘An elegant stylist, a riveting Tranter’s metaphoric use of the facades and glitz of Vegas is beautifully done. As each Jess Huon is a beautiful writer with a unique and e cient storyteller, a friend is forced to reveal what lies beneath turn of phrase. The Dark Wet traipses across their everyday self, so the dirty and depraved the emotional landscapes of love, desire, sex writer who can bring the side of Vegas is revealed. Although this novel and intimacy. It is well worth the wild, and dustiest of subjects to takes a little time to gain momentum, the joyous journey. dynamics of male friendship and the fine Emily Harms is marketing manager of Readings full-blooded life’ line between friendships solidifying and New York Times shattering are analysed expertly. For Love Alone Annie Condon is convenor of a Readings Aus- Christina Stead tralian Book Group. From the bestselling author of Miegunyah. PB. $25 Teresa Hawkins believes in Longitude comes the story of Poor Man’s Wealth passionate love, and the Copernicus and the revolution in Rod Usher object of her ardour is the astronomy that changed the world. HarperCollins. PB. $27.99 arrogant and unlikeable In a dust-filled heat haze Jonathan Crow. It is Sydney somewhere in Latin America in the 1930s and, after four lies Higot, a tobacco town long years of working in a with not even a bus service factory, she leaves her to its nearest neighbour. It’s loveless family and follows Crow to London. difficult to fool gossip- But once there, she begins to realise that starved locals in a place maybe he is not worthy of her affections where ‘the smallest break in after all. With a foreword from Drusilla sameness is a call to village eyes’. But the Modjeska, this is a must-read Australian clas- ‘Marisol Committee’, instigated by poetry- sic. ‘A remarkable book. I feel elated to think loving mayor El Gordo (‘fat one’) manages to it is there.’— create a hoax in which even the most A Common Loss Poor Man’s Wealth suspicious of residents unknowingly partakes. Sleepers Almanac 7 By Kirsten By rod Usher Narrated in endearing English gleaned from Louise Swinn tranter & Zoe Dattner (eds) a delightfully wise the 23,000 books left to him by a generous benefactor, El Gordo is a man of contrasts. Sleepers. PB. $24.95. Ebook $12.95. the dazzling new novel and witty tale of Bitten by the ‘black dog’ inside, but with a Lovers of Australian short a hoax perpetuated from the internationally jolly exterior, solitary but craving company, stories, rejoice! There’s a new acclaimed author of by a group of Higot’s mayor embarks on a series of decep- edition of one of the the Legacy. narcoleptic villagers tions and secrets that will soon attract the country’s leading homes of they were originally — led by their mayor, interest of a far more dangerous audience. In short fiction, The Sleepers five. Five close friends el Gordo — to rescue what is primarily a love story, Rod Usher has Almanac. Once again there’s still coming together for their their town from ruin, abandon their created a delightfully light-hearted fable that a mix of the known (Brad Bryant, Pierz Newton-John, annual trip to Las Vegas. this year they are inhibitions and unite two lonely hearts. politely wags its finger at meddlers. Usher’s Sian Prior) and unknown, as well as a vast four. Four friends, sharing a common loss. style is enchantingly simple, consistently poking fun at the bizarre turns of phrase range of styles and subjects. This is where we English speakers employ: ‘Marisol Ruiz writers like Kalinda Ashton, Jon Bauer and is not what you … call a chicken of the Karen Hitchcock appeared before they were big names – so have a read and you’re bound Readings Monthly Dec 11 - Jan 12 9 to find the next generation of major fiction and his father has just won the Pulitzer Prize talents here. This edition features a special for Fiction. Now he’s decided to do some- focus on new and emerging talents, as well thing about it! A darkly comic family drama. Poetry Journals as long-form fiction, so your chances of a Across the Land and 117: Horror new discovery are high! It’s Fine by Me the Water: Selected John Freeman (ed.) Per Petterson Poems 1964–2001 Granta. PB. $27.99 Harvill. PB. $32.95 W.G. Sebald Literary luminaries abound Norway’s Per Petterson has Hamish Hamilton. HB. $29.95 in this stunning issue of International long been a Readings For the first time, the full Granta. Includes Paul Auster favourite – and this some- breadth of Sebald’s poetry is on the death of his mother; Fiction times tender, sometimes available in English. This Will Self on his own rare An Honourable Man brutal, coming-of-age novel volume brings together the blood-disease; and fiction Gillian Slovo set in 1970s Norway will poems published in W.G. from Don DeLillo, Stephen Virago. PB. $29.99 stay with you long after Sebald’s lifetime, as well as King (what’s a horror issue Opening with an excerpt you’ve finished it. On his those found in his literary without Stephen King?) and Sarah Hall. from a newspaper article first day of school, Audun insists on keeping archives after his death. from 1884, this book is his sunglasses on and refuses to talk about Translated by Iain Galbraith, the collection Meanjin Vol 70, No. 4 based on real events, though his past life in the country. Five years later, is chronologically arranged and touches on Sally Heath (ed.) somewhat reshaped to fit the he is the only one of his siblings still living at the themes closest to Sebald: nature and MUP. PB. $24.95 narrative. We have a number home, and finds himself unsure that school history; forgetting and remembering; The December issue of the of main characters who are is the right place for him. borders, journeys and landscapes. much-loved Meanjin is, as introduced to us early on: usual, packed with good John, the doctor going to war; Mary, his Madame Bovary The Penguin writing and intriguing wife, bereft and now alone; Gordon, the Gustave Flaubert Anthology of discussion. Rachael Weaver general they go to save; and Will, his trusty Vintage. HB. $39.95 Twentieth Century draws on a lurid murder sidekick/unofficial adopted son. From these This new translation by the American Poetry case from nineteenth-centu- four perspectives – set in London, Kharto- novelist Adam Thorpe ry Sydney to discuss the rum (Sudan) and everywhere in between – delicately and meticulously Rita Dove (ed.) birth of society’s fascination with ‘sensation’. Gillian Slovo looks at the psychology of transposes the rhythms, tone Penguin. PB. $32.95 Alex Miller writes on fiction, Marcus warfare for the individual. A soldier who and poetry of Flaubert’s Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Westbury files from China and there’s new must live with the lives he has taken, a doctor exquisite novel. Beautifully and former US poet laureate fiction from Tom Cho and Michael McGirr. who fights to save the very lives the soldiers presented in a hardcover Rita Dove presents the best throw away, a wife who has been left at home edition, this could quite of American poetry from the Kill Your Darlings 8 in safety, but finds that life as it stands is no possibly become the definitive English twentieth century. Selecting Rebecca Starford (ed.) the most significant and longer enough for her, and a young boy, no translation of our time. PB. $18 compelling poems from the more than a child, who gets caught up Maria Tumarkin has published a series of fine canon of American poetry, warfare through no fault of his own. Summer essays this year, in some of Australia’s best Dove has created an anthology that not only literary journals. In the lead essay here, she Each of the characters is very human, with Tom Darling reflects the dynamism of modern American asks why our culture is so obsessed with food. believable thoughts and actions, especially Abacus. PB. $29.99 poetry, but outlines its trajectory over the Tracy Crisp reflects on parting ways with for the era in which it is set. Although the At the start of a long, hot past century. scenes set in the war zones are evocative and summer, Grace Hooper and the ALP, Mardi O’Connor remembers her interesting, what I found most compelling her nine-year-old brother Young Poets: Catholic school adolescence and how it influ- was the story of the wife left behind. This Billy are orphaned by a freak An Australian enced her sexual awakening, Georgia Gowing is before women’s liberation, before women accident. Sent to live with explores Dead Paris, Triple R’s Clementine had a life outside of the home. What does their estranged grandfather Anthology Ford writes about her adventures in phone sex she do, how does she cope – or not? Flawed on a remote farmstead, they John Leonard (ed.) work, and KYD interviews Malcolm Knox. as she is, watching her plummet, fall and get struggle to understand their John Leonard. PB. $27.95 back up again is both sad and exhilarating. place in this new world. As the bond between Featuring Elizabeth Campbell, Bonny Although the other characters are also engag- brother and sister unravels, Grace discovers Cassidy, Sarah Holland-Batt, L.K. Holt, New from ing, for me they were only a framework the farm’s tragic past and uncertain future. Graeme Miles, Simon West and Petra White, around the main story of this woman who Exploring loss and regeneration, this is a this anthology showcases seven poets for tries to find herself. Gillian Slovo is one of compelling, deeply atmospheric novel. whom ‘fluidity and multiplicity of contem- the UK’s major writers: Ice Road was short- porary experience has a ready and confident listed for the Orange Prize and Red Dust was Tinker Tailor home in their art’. filmed with Hilary Swank. Soldier Spy Kate Rockstrom is from Readings Carlton John Le Carre Knuckled Sceptre. PB. Normally $23 Fiona Wright The Beautiful Our special price $19.95 Giramondo. PB. $24 Indifference This new edition of one of This is the first collection Sarah Hall John Le Carre’s most from award-winning poet, Faber. PB. $29.99 enduring novels – featuring writer and editor Fiona From the Booker-shortlisted the spy George Smiley – co- Wright. There is a strong author of The Electric incides with the release of a sense of the social in her Michelangelo comes this major new film version, focus and place plays an collection of erotic, unset- starring Gary Oldman and important part in her tling and disarming stories. Colin Firth. Set against the poetry, with her poems Spanning centuries, backdrop of the Cold War, it’s a thrilling tale taking the reader from the flooded towns of What is love? What is it to be loved? Can we trust love? Is it overrated? These are just some contemporary life and the of moles and lamplighters, scalp-hunters and the Snowy Mountains to the burnt-out landscape of Victoria, from the holiday of the questions Tony Milligan pursues in his future, and evoking pavement artists, in a world where men are novel exploration of a subject that has occupied landscapes as diverse as the Cumbrian turned, burned or bought for stock. beaches of coastal NSW to Sri Lanka, philosophers since the time of Plato. lowlands, the metropolis of London and the Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia, as well $19.95 Pb, ISBN 9781844655069 Finnish wilderness, these are tales of as the suburbs of western Sydney where Acumen survivors – a frustrated housewife seeking Wright grew up. extreme experience, a young woman Science Fiction contemplating the death of her lover – and of the flawed and visceral human body. and Fantasy Blue Remembered Letters Domestic Violets: Earth Instead of a Book A Novel Alastair Reynolds Diana Athill Matthew Norman Orion. PB. Normally $33 Granta. HB. $39.99 HarperCollins. PB. $24.99 Our special price $27.95 Famed editor Diana Athill A marvellous satire about This is the first instalment in worked with some of the life, literature and stalled a planned sc-fi trilogy, most important writers of the ambition, in the vein of Poseidon’s Children, to be twentieth century, including Tom Perotta or Jonathan set over 11,000 years of Philip Roth and Simone de Tropper. Tom Violet future history. Blue Remem- Beauvoir. Instead of a Book thought he’d have every- bered Earth focuses on an collects her letters to World-class novelists envision the terrors of thing going for him by the industrialised Africa 150 American poet Edward Field impending climate change. With contributions years from now, which has over 30 years, covering her final years as an by , Paolo Bacigalupi, T.C. Boyle, time he turned 35. Fame. Toby Litt, Lydia Millet, David Mitchell, Nathaniel Fortune. A beautiful wife. A satisfying career become the dominant technological and editor at André Deutsch, her retirement and immersion in her own writing, her growing Rich, Kim Stanley Robinson, Helen Simpson, and as a successful novelist. A happy dog to greet economic power, and where crime, war, Wu Ming 1. him at the end of the day. Instead, Tom’s life disease and poverty have been eradicated. fame and encroaching old age. $19.95 Pb, ISBN 9781844677443 Verso is crushing his soul – his marriage is in trouble, his manuscript languishes in a drawer 10 Readings Monthly Dec 11 – Jan 12 Young Adult Fiction The Extraordinaires Infernal Devices 2: Michael Pryor Clockwork Prince Random. PB. $18.95 Cassandra Clare If I was to tell you that there Walker. PB. $24.95 was a book that contained an In the magical underworld of escapologist raised by wolves, Victorian London, Tessa Gray a beautiful albino juggler has at last found safety with (who also happens to be a the Shadowhunters. But if her mechanical genius), ancient protector, Charlotte, is malevolent sorcerers who replaced as head of the inhabit the bodies of children, Institute, she will be out on and Neanderthals who exhibit no small the street – and vulnerable to measure of inventing prowess, you would the mysterious Magister, who wants to use probably say, ‘Where is this book, and can Tessa’s powers for his own dark ends. When you give it to me now, please?’ I know that Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the was my reaction – and the moment I had Shadowhunters is personal, she embarks on a Michael Pryor’s remarkable The Extraordi- journey to discover past secrets, accompanied naires in my hands, I was lost in a world that by handsome, self-destructive Will and contained all of the above and more. fiercely devoted Jem. But they soon realise Kingsley has a hard time keeping the wild that the Magister knows their every move – part of himself in check – the side of him and that one of their own has betrayed them. that is pure animal, that longs to drop to all-fours and hunt with the pack. But for Steampunk!: a proper gentleman in 1908, this is hardly An Anthology of he transit of Venus across the sun in June the correct behaviour, so he works hard to Fantastically Rich and bury that side of himself. However, when he 2012 will be the last chance in our lifetime Strange Stories T meets white-haired and pink-eyed Evadne, Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant (eds) to see this extraordinary astronomical event. he has a harder time than usual remaining in Including stories of adventure and exploration Candlewick. HB. $24.95 control. Perhaps it’s because she has intro- This first major YA steam- from 1631 to now, and rarely seen archival duced him to a world he never knew existed: punk anthology brings pictures of earlier transits, along with practical that of the Demimonde, a place of magic, together the work of 14 information on how best to view the transit, darkness and danger that exists alongside leading writers and artists Transit of Venus is the complete companion to the mundane world. After his father is such as Cassandra Clare, this rare planetary alignment. kidnapped, Kingsley must delve into this Libba Bray, Cory Doctorow strange new world in order to get him back. and Garth Nix. The storytell- This is a tale of many threads woven skilfully ers embrace the established www.newsouthbooks.com.au into one amazing saga. Pryor’s first entry in themes of steampunk, while pushing the the Extinction Gambit series is world-build- boundaries of the genre’s mix of sci-fi, fantasy, ing at its finest, and once you’ve settled into history and adventure in fascinating new the world of the Demimonde, you’ll find directions. The stories are set in places as you have a hard time dragging yourself away. diverse as Appalachia, Ancient Rome, future Holly Harper is from Readings Carlton Australia and alternate California, where scientists and schoolgirls, fair folk and Legend Romans, intergalactic bandits, utopian Marie Lu revolutionaries, and intrepid orphans solve crimes, escape from monstrous predicaments, Razorbill. PB. $19.99 consult oracles, and hover over volcanoes in Marie Lu was born in 1984 steam-powered airships. – and for those of us who love our dystopian fiction, Undead this is of course an extremely Kirsty McKay Readings ebook Sale significant year. Along with Chicken House. PB. $16.99 a boom in a certain genre of There have been a lot of zom- Begins Boxing Day and lasts until Australia Day 2012 fiction always comes an bie books out in the past year answering fatigue. I really do or so: enough to make a mean it though when I say that if you horde. Most of them are nice enjoyed The Hunger Games, you will enjoy and bloodthirsty, but few try You’ll be Sorry Melbourne Legend. When I’m Dead Sophie Cunningham to see the funny side of the Marieke Hardy RRP $16.99 Legend presents us with a nightmarish zombie apocalypse. An RRP $19.99 Sale $9.99 future America. The states have split in two, exception to that rule is Sale $4.99 with the totalitarian Republic (California Undead by Kirsty McKay, which manages to and other western states) locked in a seem- pack in the humour along with the carnage. ingly endless war with the Colonies (the Bobby has just moved to Scotland, where at middle and eastern states). The setting is a school the curse of the new kid is upon her. futuristic Los Angeles: a decimated urban She’s teased mercilessly by her classmates for Her Father’s Sarah Thornhill shell full of half-destroyed office blocks, her American accent, so when the class goes Daughter Kate Grenville high-rise car parks and giant TV screens on a skiing trip, Bobby isn’t exactly looking Alice Pung RRP $19.99 blaring a never-ending stream of propa- forward to it. During a rest stop, she stays RRP $14.99 Sale $9.99 ganda. An evocative portrait of a dirty, on the bus so she can get a bit of peace and Sale $7.95 decaying city rife with poverty, violence quiet until the others come back. Except the and militarism is the setting for a game of only person who comes back is Alice – the cat and mouse between the two 15-year- annoying princess whose goal is to make old protagonists: Day, the Republic’s most Bobby’s life a living hell. Alice explains that wanted fugitive and June, a child prodigy everyone is dead (apart from those who The Happiest Jasper Jones and military cadet sent to hunt Day down. have risen from the grave, that is), which Refugee Craig Silvey Anh Do RRP $23.99 The dystopian world of Legend is reminis- Bobby has a hard time accepting. But when RRP $29.99 cent of Orwell’s 1984, which is the blue- their teacher arrives with a distinct thirst for Sale $4.99 print for totalitarian dystopias. What makes brains, Bobby realises she’s got a full-blown Sale $9.99 this book stand out is the immediacy of the case of zombies on her hands. Now Bobby voices of Day and June. The first-person and a couple of other classmates are trying to narratives told in alternating chapters carry outrun the undead – but in a snowstorm in a gritty immediacy that is enthralling. Lu the middle of nowhere, that’s not easy. is a former game designer and her ability While this isn’t the most brain-blowingly to realise the physical world of this night- original zombie novel I’ve ever read, it will ebooks.readings.com.au marish America and deliver well-staged definitely whet the appetite of those hungry action sequences mean this world feels very for more zombie action, as well as serve up Buy at ebooks.readings.com.au and access your library at http://booki.sh possible. plenty of laughs. HH Marie Matteson is from Readings Port Melbourne Readings Monthly Dec 11 – Jan 12 11

Best crime books of 2011 with Fiona Hardy & Readings staff fiona hardy seedy) doctor giving him hair transplants De Luxe novel and I wasn’t disappointed as one-third The Impossible Dead is abducted. To Colfer’s eternal credit, it’s Lenny Bartulin of the way in, the plot kicks into gear. A amazingly funny and entertaining, while also Scribe. PB. $24.95. Ebook $16.99. highly readable story set in the world of gyp- Ian Rankin being quite emotionally wrenching – both sies in 80s UK. I was thoroughly intrigued Orion. PB. Normally $32.95 Channelling Raymond in the protagonist’s traumatised head and Chandler is Sydney book- and entertained. Our special price $27.95 the characters around him – and downright Known as ‘The Complaints’, shop owner Jack Susko, who unexpected and gritty. – six days out of seven – will Devotion of Suspect X policemen Fox, Kaye and Keigo Higashino Naysmith are the force’s least accidentally find himself in Crime the middle of a crime and Hachette. PB. Normally $29.95 loved members: as Internal Ferdinand von Schirach Our special price $24.95 Affairs officers, everything wisecracking for Australia. Text. PB. $29.95. Ebook $19.95 Called up and manipulated A cat-and-mouse tale between they do is met with resis- Borrowing from von old friends. Ishigami is a tance. It’s no different – but a by a previous boss to deal with a compli- Schirach’s life as one of cated family situation Jack’s already mathematics genius and Dr typically fantastic Rankin Germany’s leading prosecu- Yukawa, a physicist and police read – in the Scottish town of Kirkcaldy, extracted himself from once, it’s a rollicking tors, Crime is a fascinating, adventure from start to end. consultant. Ishigami has where they’re sent to tackle the case of an fictionalised look at why helped his next-door neigh- officer whose own uncle turned him in. people commit the crimes Prohibited Zone bour dispose of her husband’s they do. If you’ve ever Alastair Sarre body after a domestic Cut wanted to know how the Wakefield. PB. $24.95. Ebook $16.95 altercation. Will they get away with murder? George Pelecanos law sides with someone who cut their In Woomera, a mining Intelligently written and with a fantastic twist, Orion. Normally $33 victim up and buried them in a garden, engineer is about to head off I can’t recommend this highly enough. Our special price $27.95 prepare to be floored – and sympathetic on holiday when instead he The Wire scribe George – when you read these tales. finds himself smuggling a Jo Case Pelecanos delivers another beautiful refugee into the city Crooked Letter, story of America’s seedy Sorry – and away from the underbelly, following Spero Crooked Letter Zoran Drvenkar detention centre she’s escaped Tom Franklin Lucas, ex-military turned HarperCollins. PB. $29.99 from. It’s a wild ride for poor Macmillan. PB. $19.99. Ebook $12.99 semi-private-eye – a man A group of friends start up a ex-football player Steve West to suddenly This gem, set in America’s who finds things. Set on the business apologising on behalf become a different (and unpopular) type of South, is gripping, moving originally mellow tail of of companies, but when hero in this gritty and politically charged and will keep you guessing drugs gone astray during a transaction, he someone more sinister uses novel, but it’s a ride worth joining him on. throughout. The past inadvertently gets those close to him mixed their skills – and manipulates resurfaces for Silas, the sole up in what becomes a brutal situation. them into covering up a crime Jason Austin law officer in small-town Punchy, satisfying and involving. – the lives of the group and The Invisible Ones Amos, Mississippi, when those around them are at Stef Penney Plugged stake. Plumbing the depths of all the someone tries to kill his Quercus. PB. Normally $32.95 childhood friend Larry, widely suspected of a Eoin Colfer characters’ motivations, Sorry is brilliantly Our special price $27.95 local girl’s murder 20 years ago. Nothing is at Headline. PB. $29.99 written, genuinely chilling, and another After Penney’s amazing debut The Tenderness it seems – least of all the connection between A balding ex-Irish ex-soldier traverses the German on this list. of Wolves I was expecting big things for this seedy side of New Jersey after the (equally Silas and Larry.

New Crime Dead Write with Fiona Hardy crime can be, while maintaining a respectable landslide reveals more than cans of Pepsi both wrong: they’ve been taken by bandits grittiness, discarding clothes and feelings all and cigarette butts in the ensuing mud. The operating on the border, who will steal any- Book of the Months over the place. George is the perfect crime bodies uncovered are not the only drama, thing and anyone, including Elvis himself. Believing The Lie writer. She heads up a great list of female- however, with Serallier’s sister Cat struggling Elizabeth George dominated authors for the New Year picks. to keep the hospice she works at afloat, and Down the Darkest Road Hachette. PB. Normally $32.95 death and illness twining the two together. Tami Hoag Our special price $27.95 Orion. PB. $29.99 Elizabeth George’s utterly December In the small town of Oak British Inspector Lynley V is for Vengeance January Knoll in the early 90s, books are what beach reading Sue Grafton Breakdown forensic investigation is is made for. As big as your trying to find its feet (clearly Mantle. PB. Normally $29.99 Sara Paretsky not realising the impact it head and as comforting as Our special price $24.95 Hodder Headline. PB. $29.99 the niche you’ve just dug for will have on all media 20 Grafton’s multitude of fans In a rain-soaked cemetery years later). At the same yourself in the sand, Believing must be getting nervous as one night, VI Warshawski is the Lie gets right into the time, Lauren Lawton and her each book gets closer to the about to ruin a party: an daughter Leah are in Oak Knoll to find their details of every moment of a crime, its inevitable (the English occult-like initiation beginning, the investigation and everyone own feet in a new life, four years after alphabet has never seemed so ceremony held by a bunch of Lauren’s teenage daughter Leslie vanished, involved – but is not for a second anything short!), especially as she just preteen girls. But not far other than engaging. Lynley is still reeling and her husband committed suicide in the keeps getting better. It’s from them lies the body of a aftermath. The investigation into Leslie’s from the death of his wife, but has found 1988, and Kinsey Millhone grown man, stabbed through respite in occasional dalliances with his disappearance is now over, with no leads – has just busted two people shoplifting, but the heart and lying on a slab of marble. but Lauren knows who did it. Then she superintendent; his offsider Barbara Havers only manages to nab one. Shortly after her Some of the girls are relatives of those in hopes idly for his attention but gets nothing. realises this man is in Oak Knoll too ... arrest, however, the woman commits suicide quite high positions of power, and whose possibly, the only place he can be stopped. They are separated when Lynley is sent to – though Kinsey isn’t so sure. With an past connections lead Warshawski down a picturesque Cumbria to discreetly investigate intricate string of relationships and a villain bleak path where it’s humans – and not She’s Never the possibly suspicious death of toilet you may find yourself uncomfortably siding vampires, alas – who are truly evil. Coming Back magnate Lord Fairclough’s nephew, hiding with, the wonderful Kinsey, though physi- behind the facade of needing a break from Taken Hans Koppel cally stuck in the past, is as modern a Sphere. PB. $19.99 detective work to recuperate. A young man’s character as you could want to follow. Robert Crais newspaper investigation into the Fairclough In case you were worried the Orion. PB. Normally $32.99 Scandinavians had taken their family, originally aiming to be a happy story Betrayal of Trust Our special price $27.95 of triumph over adversity, is sent to make Susan Hill winter off, never fear! When The hideous world of human trafficking is Mike Zetterberg gets home the most of the ‘death is sex’ route; the Chatto & Windus. PB. $32.95 brought to the fore as Elvis Cole and Joe Pike from work and finds his wife friends Lynley takes to Cumbria as his cover As an author with a delicate touch on deeper – in their thirteenth and fourth Robert Crais missing, he brushes it off as try to overcome an impasse in their relation- issues around death, Susan Hill doesn’t skirt adventures respectively – are set on the trail post-work drinks – until she ship; DS Havers conducts her own investiga- around topics that need discussing, like of a young couple, taken by kidnappers. The doesn’t come home at all. The tion into the crime – if there is one. dementia and motor neurone disease. It may girl’s rich mother is told by police that she police accuse the husband, but Ylva is not as hit too close to home for many, but makes The multiple threads of the characters’ lives, faked her own disappearance, the mother her- far away as they suspect. Held against her will, for interesting reading as Simon Serallier interesting for emotional reasons as well as self believes her daughter has run off with her she watches her house and old life helplessly makes his sixth literary outing – after a bloodthirsty ones, make this as soothing as untrustworthy boyfriend. It turns out they’re as the past comes back to haunt her. 12 Readings Monthly Dec 11 - Jan 12

Q&A with Kirsten Tranter There’s a book Jo Case speaks to Miles Franklin longlisted author Kirsten Tranter about her second novel, A Common Loss (Fourth Estate, PB, $29.99).

to recognise it, how we perform it (and the question of whether this can acquire its own authenticity). This theme is mirrored in the setting of Las Vegas and the character of Cynthia, who is researching a thesis on authenticity and replicas. What attracted you to this idea? On the one hand Vegas is a giant Disney- land of fakes, and on the other it is ob- for everyone sessed with authenticity: the Bellagio is one instance, with its gallery of fabulously valu- A Common Loss is mostly able, original fine art. I’m fascinated by the set in the somehow unreal interplay of the fake and the real, surface setting of Las Vegas. As your and depth, truth and falsehood, the way characters often muse in the they exist in complex interdependence. For book, it’s a place you think me these issues reflect fundamental dilem- of people holidaying in mas and questions about selfhood and sub- (as your four old friends do) jectivity and how we exist to ourselves and rather than living. It seems others as complex emotional beings who at a remove from ordinary life. What drew communicate through the limited medium you to that setting? of language. Elliot’s constantly being struck by this sense of performing something, this Christmas ... I liked the idea of taking this city that consciously lying, or mouthing clichés, has the reputation of being really shal- and then finding that there is something low, soulless, devoid of sophistication and truthful in there, something real, that he’s subtlety, and making it the backdrop for a actually telling the truth almost in spite story that involves complex, dark emo- of himself – especially when he’s trying to tional dynamics. We think we know this cope with the unpredictable, confusing place because it’s been filmed and photo- emotions of grief. This is a story in which graphed so often, so it’s challenging to see all the characters are quite often dishonest it fresh, a bit like New York. In fact, my with themselves and one another to greater interest is in the way it’s impossible to see and lesser degrees. Not all of them are as it fresh – the way we see it is always medi- angst-ridden as Elliot about questions of ated by its representations. My characters truth or authenticity. know this place as a vacation site, yes, but it soon emerges that one of them, Dylan, Dylan loves secrets. Uncovering the mysteries actually had a very complicated relation- of a friend’s secret life were also intrinsic to ship with the city that he kept hidden your debut, The Legacy. Do you love secrets? from his friends. And they have a disturb- ing confrontation with the ‘real’ Vegas, in Well, yes – doesn’t everyone? I don’t mean the person of Colin. I visited Vegas when I to suggest that I’m an obsessively secretive was writing the book and I found it really person – maybe I am! – but as a writer, fascinating and complicated. It’s troubling secrets are compelling, dramatic, power- in so many ways, but also interesting, ful stuff. We all have secrets we want to d full of eccentric characters and surprising protect, vulnerabilities that put us at risk. beauty – and its own forms of ordinary, I think that what Dylan loves – and, to complicated life. a lesser extent, Ingrid from The Legacy – is power, the power that knowledge of Elliot says, ‘Most people expressed admiration other people’s secrets brings him. I’m very and envy at the way we had managed to stay interested in the power dynamics at work friends and meet up together every year. The in all relationships, and Dylan is a master loyalty, the commitment, the affection for one power-broker, a role inseparable from his another, the fact that we did what everyone status as keeper of secrets. else said they would like to but never got around to doing.’ What is it that appealed to A Common Loss is about the friendship of you about taking that ideal-seeming friend- five old college friends, all male, and much ship and exposing a darker underbelly? of it takes place on an annual bonding trip in Las Vegas. Were there any challenges in I like exploring ambivalence and the getting inside the heads of your characters and existence of conflicting feelings, especially imagining the dynamics between them – and as they relate to friendship – the way love what would go on during an all-male trip to and affection and loyalty can exist side by Vegas? side with resentment, envy, even hate. The complex passions of friendship are often It wasn’t quite as challenging as I thought underestimated, especially in comparison it might be. I knew that the novel would with romantic love. What really interested succeed or fail to a large extent depending me here was the idea of this character who on how much I could make this voice con- not only has a conflicted, sort of grumpy vincing, and I did worry about being able relationship with these old friends, but to get a male voice right. But ultimately who over the course of the story becomes unless you are writing the most simplisti- progressively disillusioned about these cally autobiographical stuff, all fiction friendships that have actually meant involves getting inside other people’s heads; everything to him. He’s always thought of when you write first-person narration, himself as the smart one, but he realises you are assuming a character and using he’s been wrong about a lot of things, your imagination. And it wasn’t all that he’s been betrayed and manipulated. And different writing Elliot than it was writing so a lot of the motion of the story is this Julia in The Legacy. Neither of them is me, kind of vertigo for Elliot, where he has to although both of them have some of me reinterpret the past, and what it means for in them. They were both voices that spoke the present and the future, in the light of to me very strongly in their own terms as always evolving, new knowledge about his individual characters. As for imagining friends and what they have really meant to what goes on in Vegas – you could say that each other. wrote itself. Actually, some readers will be disappointed by how few naked girls there really are in my story, I’m sure. There is much inA Common Loss about the idea of the authentic: what is real, how Full interview at www.readings.com.au. Readings Monthly Dec 11 - Jan 12 13

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you agree or disagree with what Bageant has to say on Great new titles politics and society. What’s important is that you read it and have something to say. from Hachette New Non-fiction For all Bagaent’s devil-may-care attitude to political correctness, he is most angered by New releases for December 11 and January 12 the level of political apathy spreading among the citizenry. As he grimly concludes, ‘How els the near 400km distance to and fro be- can we solve the problem when we are the tween Kyoto and Tokyo through the nights problem, other than by self-extinction?’ Biography & and days for the duration of the religious Emily Laidlaw is a freelance reviewer holiday. Patrick’s intrepid spirit makes for Memoir some marvellous travel tales, which are also Blue Nights humble reflections on how to live and what Joan Didion place there is for faith in the modern world. Fourth Estate. PB. $27.99 The fascinating rendering of the traditional Australian In the last chapter of The Year juxtaposed with the modern in the first story continues throughout the collection. of Magical Thinking, Joan HNon-Fictionome: Evolution of BReakdown Didion observes: ‘I realize as The fact that it is non-fiction and travel writ- I write this that I do not the Australian Dream by Sara Paretsky ing might discourage, but Riding the Trains want to finish this account’. Philip Cox, Philip Graus Sara Paretsky’s new bestseller pits in Japan is far more remarkable than either Blue Nights is a kind of & Bob Meyer V.I. Warshawski against a right- of these genres might suggest – and it is not continuation of this memoir Jane Curry. HB. $45 wing political pundit with powerful just for Japanophiles like myself. Reading – and while the first ad- Home explores the past and connections in a riveting novel that Riding the Trains in Japan is a meditative combines contemporary issues and dressed the death of her husband, this future of our cities and experience, and I found much more to con- suspense in Paretsky’s unique way. second memoir is about the death of their housing. It examines the shift template once I put the book down. daughter Quintana and Didion’s own from houses to apartment Ingrid Josephine is marketing & events increasing frailty as she approached her buildings, the development assistant at Readings. eighties. While The Year of Magical Thinking of suburbia from Australian was completed within a year of her hus- urban and dwelling proto- band’s death, Blue Nights was written five It Chooses You types to the contemporary years after the death of Quintana. This Miranda July city, and looks at the choices we have before greater distance from the event provides a Text. HB. $32.95 us. The authors also discuss the cultural and different perspective on the effects of grief, The latest creative work from community impact of migration and look at but both memoirs explore Western attitudes hipster fave Miranda July is what planning and housing models should towards death and bereavement and the always an event. Artists of all be considered as a matter of urgency by complexity of what Didion calls the kinds will identify with the those responsible for planning our cities. ‘question of self-pity’. battle she fights against the SHe’S neveR lure of internet procrastina- The Penguin Book cominG Back Quintana was still alive when The Year of tion, as she struggles to push of Australian Bush by Hans Koppel Magical Thinkingwas finished, but had died through writer’s block and Writing by the time it was published. A play was finish the screenplay for her second film. Swedish psychological thriller adapted from the memoir; Didion com- Along the way, she is drawn to the classified John Ross (ed.) dark enough to rival Stieg Larsson. ments in Blue Nights that she loves seeing it booklet PennySaver, wondering about the Penguin. PB. $32.95 She’s Never Coming Back delivers performed, as Quintana remains alive for the The Australian bush and its the best of Scandinavian crime, people who own items like deer hooves or a taut, dark and confronting. duration of the play. Blue Nights is filled with large leather jacket, and somehow finds varied landscapes have often fragments of memories of Quintana, often herself meeting and interviewing them. This inspired writers, all the way triggered by old photographs and scraps of quirky, witty little book is an enticing blend back to the first settlers. This writing from her childhood. of memoir, interviews, photographs and volume brings together some of these rich and evocative The style here is a little more unconventional reflections on the creative process, all steeped in July’s unique perspective. tales of the bush. Richard than The Year of Magical Thinking. Con- Flanagan pays homage to the stantly repeated words and phrases disrupt waltzing at the ‘golden wood’ industry of Huon pine in the narrative and Didion directly addresses , Henry Lawson journeys by train the reader, urging us to ‘please note’ or ‘think doomsday ball: the from Sydney to Bourke, A.B. Facey works the that over’. Blue Nights is at its best when best of joe bageant land on the Western Australian frontier, and observing our inability to grasp the pas- Kevin Smith (ed.) Miles Franklin describes the menace of the sage of time and comprehend the process Scribe. PB. $32.95. Ebook $19.35. fauna in the countryside of her childhood. tHe leGacy of of ageing. The acknowledgment of her own Joe Bageant’s posthumous HaRtlepool Hall increasing fragility is beautifully conveyed in collection of essays, Waltzing by Paul Torday her distinctive measured, yet restless, style of at the Doomsday Ball, is exact- Ed Hartlepool has been living in prose. ly the kind of straight-talking, Kara Nicholson is from Readings Carlton self-imposed exile for five years, tequila-slamming political CitiesHistory of the but with a settlement regarding his commentary you’d expect Classical World inheritance looming, he must return to Riding The Trains from a man who regards his his ancestral seat. Hartlepool Hall has In Japan fellow Americans as ‘genuine Colin McEvedy been in Ed’s family for generations – Patrick Holland and intellectual moral snobs whose conscious- Allen Lane. HB. $39.95 but that’s about to change and who For 20 years, as he travelled to Transit Lounge. PB. $29.95 ness is pretty much glued onto an armature is the mysterious Lady Alice? all the major sites from This collection of travel essays of noise, sports, sex, sugar, and saturated Babylon to Pompeii, is Patrick Holland’s first fats’. Bageant, however, is hard to pigeonhole McEvedy compiled a detailed non-fiction work. His second politically. Devout cynic that he was, it’s hard atlas and gazetteer that novel The Mary Smokes Boys to tell if Bageant would have applauded or mapped the cities of the was long-listed for the 2011 dismissed the Occupy anti-capitalist move- classical world and told their Miles Franklin, shortlisted for ment currently sweeping the globe. While fascinating stories. This labour TheAge Book of the Year steadfastly critical of the corporate elite, he’s of love offers a compelling imaginative guide (Fiction) and highly recom- equally scornful of the so-called ‘thinking to the centres of ancient civilisation, elegantly mended by Readings’ Martin Shaw. A devotee classes’, who he views as out of touch with presented and with over 120 unique hand- of minimalism, Holland’s prose is sparse yet the common man, or common ‘redneck’– a drawn maps that trace the thoroughfares and evocative and very beautiful; his writing leaves rather politically incorrect term he gets away defences of these legendary cities, as well as space for the reader to fill in their own with using by proudly owning it. Blue RememBeRed eaRtH their monuments and mistakes. imagining of a scene or a place. While Bageant is heavy on the criticism, by Alastair Reynolds Holland’s ten years experience travelling and one criticism which could fairly be leveled December 1941 Blue Remembered Earth is the first volume in a monumental trilogy, tracing studying in the East inform his essays and he against him is that he is light on offering any Evan Mawdsley solutions. Perhaps this is why he gained such the Akinya family across more than ten takes us through Japan, Vietnam and China, Yale. HB. $36.95 thousand years of future history. Beyond as well as many metaphysical places in- a huge online following – riled up readers On 1 December, the Japanese the solar system, into interstellar space between. The first essay (which takes its were able to interact with Bageant through made their final decision to and the dawn of galactic society. name from the title of the collection) sees email and forums, something the offline attack Britain and the US. Patrick in a predicament: he’s arrived in paperback cannot provide. Thankfully, Bag- The Red Army launched a Kyoto at the start of a three-day Buddhist eant’s essays avoid a preachiness commonly counterthrust in Moscow festival which honours the spirits of one’s an- associated with those other angry white men, while the Japanese bombed cestors and thus there is no room at any inn Michael Moore and Glenn , who seem Pearl Harbour and invaded in town. Unperturbed, he checks his luggage to lack his self-denigrating touch (a ‘moral- Malaya. By 12 December, into a coin locker, buys a ticket for the izing, preachy, and essentially lazy bastard Hitler had declared war on the US, the shinkansen (300 km/h bullet train) and trav- who likes to drink’ is one of the gentler self- collapse of British forces in Malaya had descriptions he offers his readers). 14 Readings Monthly Dec 11 - Jan 12 begun, and Hitler had secretly laid out his If you were in an 80s cover band, what band culture. Jeffrey Sachs advocates for a new locations in which Shakespeare set those policy of genocide. Churchill left London to would you cover?; Would you buy the follow- co-operative, commonsense political plays. The result is a narrative that will meet Roosevelt as Anthony Eden arrived in ing if Apple made a version: condom, gun, economy that values practical partnerships enable you to picture what the Bard saw Russia to meet Stalin. Mawdsley examines switchblade, or shovel?; and What year do between government and the private sector. and experienced as he wrote. Includes more these momentous events from a variety of you think Wes Anderson’s movies exist in? He believes that we need to abandon parti- than 150 full-colour images. perspectives and shows how, in combination, sanship and solve our problems together in they changed the world forever. a clinical and holistic manner. Travel: A Literary History The Jewish Dark Science Peter Whitfield Continent: Life and A More Perfect Heaven Bodleian Library. HB. $54.95 Death in the Russian Dava Sobel This is the first broad survey Bloomsbury. HB. Normally $35 WFinanceho Repo’d My Jet Pale of Settlement Robert Frank of the whole history of travel Nathaniel Deutsch Our special price $29.95 writing, highlighting more Ebook $29.99 Scribe. PB. $32.95. Ebook $19.35. Harvard. HB. $44.95 than 100 texts, including Longitude Robert Frank chronicles the Just before World War I, From the author of works by Marco Polo, T. E. and Galileo’s Daughter comes decline of the newly Lawrence, Christopher socialist revolutionary and moneyed class – their aspiring ethnographer An-sky this fascinating narrative Columbus, Daniel Defoe, about Copernicus and how mortgaged mansions, Joseph Conrad and Captain explored the Russian Pale of blown-up balance sheets, Settlement, the home of over his theory that the sun, not Cook. The selection encompasses writing the earth, was at the centre of repossessed Bentleys and by those who were not always simply 40 percent of the world’s Gulfstreams, and wrecked Jews, to produce what he the cosmos changed forever writers and travellers, but also soldiers and the way we looked at – and lives and relationships – traders. It sits alongside numerous illustra- called an Oral Torah of the through intimate portraits of people who common people. This included jokes, songs, came to understand – the heavens. Afraid of tions from manuscripts and books in the ridicule, Copernicus almost didn’t publish his have been named and are on the record. He collections of the Bodleian Library. photographs, and a massive questionnaire explains the effects of their losses on the that would reveal shtetl life in all its wonder theory, until a young German mathematician, Georg Joachim Rheticus, persuaded him to economy, and how their increasing vulner- and complexity. Nathaniel Deutsch has ability to the stockmarket impacts on our produced the first complete translation of this do so. ‘A refreshingly fast-paced account of A More communities, employment opportunities questionnaire and tells the story of An-sky’s the life of Nicolaus Copernicus. Perfect Heaven does a good job of giving the and government finances. Sport efforts to create a Jewish ethnography in an The Footy Almanac 2011 era of revolutionary change. flavor of life in Reformation-era Europe ... an excellent book.’ – The Economist John Harms & Paul Daffey (eds) Viking. PB. $32.95 Of the People, By the The season’s over, but you People: A New History theTravel Shakespeare can still get your footy fix of Democracy Guide to Italy with The Footy Almanac Roger Osborne CulturalLives of the Studies Novelists Richard Paul Roe 2011. Now in its fifth year, Jonathan Cape. HB. $45 John Sutherland HarperCollins. PB. $29.99 the almanac is practically an Using the text from Shake- institution, and will tide you Roger Osborne goes beyond defining democ- Profile. HB. $59.99 speare’s ten ‘Italian Plays’, over till next year, as it helps racy as a political theory to tell the stories of Acclaimed critic and scholar and after 20 years of you relive every game, round the different democracies born during the John Sutherland selects 294 travelling all over Italy, by round. ‘I like these writers – I love these past two-and-a-half millennia. From Athens writers whose works represent Richard Paul Roe has put stories. Accounts of folks who see this game to Delhi, Osborne shows how democratic the best of every kind of together this illuminating for the beautiful, freakish theatre that it is.’ systems are a reflection of the culture and fiction, spanning the seven- book that will enhance the – Tim Rogers history of their birthplaces, and can only be teenth century to the present, way you experience Shake- understood through the stories of those who combining an informative speare. Part detective story, part travelogue, seized the opportunity to bring it about. biographical sketch of each this is a chronicle of his journey to find the with an assessment of their work. A great introduction to some lesser-known writers whose works deserve to be more widely read, and a fascinating re-introduction to some VArticto &rian Design Modern favourite and familiar novelists. Robin Boyd Robin Boyd Foundation. HB. $99 Unpacking My Library:

One hundred and eleven years of modern architecture in Victoria, Australia On the fortieth anniversary Writers & Their Books of Robin Boyd’s death, the Leah Price Robin Boyd Foundation has Yale. HB. $39.95 published a commemorative Thirteen novelists, including edition of Victorian Modern: Junot Díaz, Sophie Gee, 111 Years of Modern Architec- Jonathan Lethem, Claire Mes- ture in Victoria, a facsimile of sud and James Wood, Philip the original from 1947. The Pullman and Edmund White book reviews the history and development of – open up their personal architectural design in Victoria and proposes libraries and discuss writing an approach for the next generation of and reading, and the collect- houses, to be designed in the 1950s. A ing and arranging of books. Leah Price’s beautiful book, illustrated with photographs interviews with these writers are accompanied and Boyd’s own sketches, there are limited, with stunning photographs of the libraries numbered, editions of this treasure. and each writer’s list of top ten favourite titles and suggestions for bibliophiles. Pilgrimage Annie Leibovitz How the World Works Jonathan Cape. HB. Normally $69.95 Noam Chomsky Our special price $59.95 Hamish Hamilton. PB. $24.95 In Pilgrimage, Annie Leibovitz eschews an Originally published only in agenda or assignment and chooses her sub- the US as individual short jects simply because they mean something to books, the four sections in her. The resulting is an eclectic – if somewhat How the World Works are eccentric – collection of photographs. Some ‘What Uncle Sam Really of the subjects included are Emily Dickinson’s Wants’, ‘The Prosperous Few house in Massachusetts; the site of Thoreau’s and the Restless Many’, Walden Pond cabin; and the Yosemite Valley, ‘Secrets, Lies and Democracy’ where Ansel Adams worked for 50 years. and ‘The Common Good’. This is the essential introduction to Chomsky’s thoughts and ideas on contemporary geopolitics, articulated with exceptional clarity and power. SHumourtuff White People Like The Price of Civilization (To Talk About) Jeffrey Sachs Christian Lander Bodley Head. PB. $35 Quirk. PB. $19.95 The world economy remains in a precarious Christian Lander breaks out his best satire state after the recent global recession. In for a game guaranteed to ‘start conversations this bold and provocative book, one of the with Caucasians’. This deck of cards contains world’s most brilliant economists argues 50 topics with original questions, including: that we must change our entire economic Readings Monthly Dec 11 - Jan 12 15

New releases DecemberKids’ 2011 Books and January 2012

Picture Books himself in his house and ventures out again only when the smell of young spring grass BOM! Went the Bear blows through his window. He meets a Nikki Greenberg wildcat and finally feels understood. As the A&U. HB. $19.99 cat plays on her violin, the bear remembers A vibrant picture book all the beauty that he has experienced with from the acclaimed creator the little bird. Now he can bury his friend, of the graphic novel because he knows he’ll always have his interpretations of The Great memories. Gatsby and Hamlet. Bear loves to play his big bass Middle fiction drum. On his own. Making as much noise as he can, marching around like he’s king of War Horse: all the land. It looks like so much fun that Film tie-in edition soon he’s joined by all manner of enthusias- Michael Morpurgo tic musicians. But with so many animals HGE. PB. $16.95 determined to deliver a command perfor- This is an incredibly moving mance, is there room for Bear to march to story about one horse’s State Library the beat of his own drum? experience in the deadly chaos of the First World War. of Victoria The Third Gift In 1914, Joey, a young farm Free holiday activities for kids Linda Sue Park horse, is sold to the army and & Bagram Ibatoulline (illus.) thrust into the midst of the UQP. HB. $24.95 war on the Western Front. A boy is learning his father’s With his officer, he charges towards the Christmas week storytime – Wed 21 Dec, 11–11.45am craft, recognising the trees enemy, witnessing the horror of the front- Ned Kelly for kids – Tue 10 & Thu 12 Jan, 11am–12 noon Pyjama storytime – Tue 10 Jan, 5.30–6.30pm that release valuable resin and line. But even in the desolation of the State Library trenches, Joey’s courage touches the soldiers of Victoria Front-yard fun – Tue 17 Jan, 1.30–3pm gathering the round drops, 328 Swanston Make a book – Mon 23, Tue 24 & Wed 25 Jan, 1.30–3pm around him. Street, Melbourne Once upon a time – Tue 24 Jan, 1.30–3pm which look almost like pearls, 03 8664 7000 or tears. Today they have found a ‘tear’ of unusual size. Monsieur Cadichon: slv.vic.gov.au For details, visit slv.vic.gov.au/whats-on And in the marketplace, three Memoirs of a Donkey Bookings not strangers have their own surprising reason for Comtesse De Segur required, except for ‘Make a book’. wishing to buy the day’s harvest. A moving & Stephanie Smee tale about ordinary people involved in an S&S. PB. $16.99 extraordinary event, providing a window into Monsieur Cadichon is a a time some 2000 years ago. lively and intelligent donkey Lloyd Andrew who wants you to know that Thanks For Looking although he was naughty in After Our Pets his youth and punished Tim Hopgood severely, he is now reformed. S&S. PB. $14.99 Through his stories, the true, It’s very kind of you to look gentle and wise nature of after our pets while we’re donkeys will be revealed, and Cadichon’s away, including Cuddles the antics are guaranteed to make you laugh! Crocodile, Elsie and Edna Written in French in the 1860s, this is one the Elephants, and Orlando of France’s most popular children’s stories, the Octopus! And watch out and this version has been lovingly translated for the penguins on the stairs by Australian Stephanie Smee. … Looking after pets has never been quite so fun, or as surprising! Non-Fiction Play Valley Kids children’s booKs Wildflower: The Life Poo Bum and Art of Ellis Rowan Stephanie Blake Kick it to me Cassy Liberman Jack plays soccer Gecko. PB. $16.99 Brolly Books. HB. $29.95 Once there was a little rabbit I’m not sure that words can W

who could only say one thing ildfloweR do the beautiful waterco- The life and Art of ellis Rowan Æ – ‘Poo Bum’. Whenever his TH e Wildflower life AN d lours in Wildflower justice,

loving family asked him a ART of elli S R ow AN so let me start by saying that question this was his rude you should make an effort to Ellis Rowan was a superbly talented and highly skilled Australian artist of the late 19th and early 20th century. In a time when women had little

independence and few opportunities to explore the world around them, Ellis showed great courage and travelled through Australia and New Cassy l answer. One day, heGuinea on her own.meets Her mission was to record the exotic beauty of the a native plants, flowers and birds which she saw around her. come in and see a copy for is an introduction to the inspirational life and exquisite

artwork of Ellis Rowan. iberman hungry wolf. Will theWildflower little C ASSy l ibeR m AN yourself. Ellis Rowan was a Australian rabbit learn his lesson once botanical illustrator of the and for all? late nineteenth and early twentieth centu- ries, and as remarkable as her paintings are, Play Valley Kids brings the joy of reading to People it was how she came to paint them that is the fun of playing sport. Blexbolex truly impressive. Rowan shunned the Gecko. HB. $29.99. January release traditional lifestyle of a woman of her Playing sport is a great way for kids to learn A fisherman and a fishmon- standing in the 1800s and instead travelled new skills, keep active, and make new friends. ger, a slave and a goddess, a to places like New Guinea in pursuit of her The Play Valley Kids stories follow the fun of princess and a werewolf – passion, all of which is recounted in this discovering sport with learning new skills real, mythical and imaginary beautifully presented picture book for people come together in this readers seven and up. along the way. stunning picture book. Holly Harper is from Readings Carlton At Play Valley Kids, learning and fun doesn’t Winner of the Goldene end when you close your book. When visiting Letter for Best Book Design D.E.S.I.G.N. in the World at the Leipzig Bookfair. Ewa Solarz www.playvalleykids.com you will find skills and Gecko. HB. $34.99 drills, as well as free colour-in pictures to The Bear and D.E.S.I.G.N. is a fascinat- download and videos of skills in action to enjoy. the Wildcat ing review of 69 of the Available now at Readings. Kaumi Yamoto & Komako most innovative household items from the past 150 Sakai (illus.) These books contain Gecko. HB. $24.99. January release years – from the classic to QR Codes. Scan Me One morning the bear is crying. His friend, the crazy. The story of to find out more. the little bird, is dead. Full of grief, he locks design in a nutshell! 16 Readings Monthly Dec 11 – Jan 12 Senna THE Pillars of the $29.95 Earth This exhilarating award- Normally $49.95. Our special price $29.95

with Mike Paterson winning film on the charis- Ken Follett’s novel is brought matic Formula One racing to life in a star-studded, DVDs driver Ayrton Senna is more critically acclaimed eight-part chariot race than documen- miniseries. Epic historical tary. With a full-throttle drama is well served here by December Upstairs Downstairs momentum, the rivalry with cable TV’s lavish production Alain Prost is depicted with values and intelligent writing. $39.95 DVD of the Month dramatic excitement that leads headlong into Regicide, religion and Ian Red Dog The return of an adored tragedy. McShane; what more could we want? $39.95 television series brought Based on the legendary true back to life over three Mr Nice Cosmos story of the charismatic hour-long special episodes, Released 14 December. $29.95 with a fresh cast and Normally $69.95 kelpie who united a disparate Rhys Ifans is mesmerising as Our special price $39.95 WA mining community in sumptuous production Howard Marks, the Oxford- values. Jean Marsh reprises Carl Sagan’s monumental the 1970s and 80s – while educated Welshman who series is a celebration of roaming the Australian her role as Rose, returned as became, like a stoner housekeeper to the Bellamy home after six humanity and a glorious outback in search of his Scarface, the unlikeliest of primer in astronomy, told long-lost master – Red Dog years’ absence. 1936 England is a different drug kingpins. Based on the place with a new king and changing society, with the infectious enthusi- has already become one of the most loved memoir of the same name. asm of one of the greatest films in Australia. but drama still unfolds amongst the two Perhaps to be taken with a families, both above and below stairs. science communicators of pinch of salt, rather than white powder. our time. The adventures THE Tree of Life The West Wing: of tintin: remastered $39.95 just for kids One of the most beautiful Seasons 1 to 7 5 DVD Set. $49.95 and visually poetic evoca- Octonauts Normally $49.95 ea. Our special price $24.95 Hergé’s eccentric and lovable tions of childhood memory To the Gups each (from 21 December) characters appeared in stories All seven seasons of Aaron ever filmed. Terence Malick’s Octonauts that were both politically serene meditation on family Sorkin’s all-walking, all- topical and thrilling, tran- and our place in the universe Meet the Octonauts talking political drama for scending barriers of language is more of an impressionis- $19.95 each people who watch TV and and culture. This boxed set tic, fragmented memory Here come the Octonauts: think at the same time will be includes 39 classic animated stream than a conventional narrative (like explore, rescue, protect! at the reduced price of $24.95 adventures of the boy film streamed directly from our conscious- Discover the world of each for a limited period only. reporter and his dog Snowy, all remastered ness). It requires a setting aside of our undersea creatures with into opulent glory. expectations in storytelling. Not since Captain Barnacles and his See page 2 and back page ad of this edition january Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey has a film crew as they explore the DVD of the Month for details of our Tintin competition – win of such awe-inspiring beauty and grand deep. Charming aquatic a trip to India with Tintin! reach provoked such polarised debate. adventures for pre-schoolers. Submarine Released 11 January. $34.95 Page One: Inside The Clive James Oliver Tate is determined to the New York Times Collection Bargains of the Month lose his virginity before he Released 14 December. $29.95 $39.95 Lawrence of Arabia turns 16 – and save his With unprecedented access Clive James, the spiritual Normally $39.95 parents’ marriage. But he to The New York Times father of Louis Theroux and Our special price $9.95 (from 26 December) finds love in an unexpected newsroom, Page One Jon Ronson, is at his acerbic David Lean’s sweeping epic place. Richard Ayoade has chronicles the transformation best in these travelogues and starring Peter O’Toole as T.E hit the ground running with of the media industry at its documentaries. Over ten Lawrence is the glorious his first film, an adaptation time of greatest turmoil. In television specials, he visits epitome of big screen cinema. of Joe Dunthorne’s wickedly funny Welsh an era where amateur the Playboy Mansion, Also starring Donald Wolfit, coming-of-age story that is one part Catcher bloggers and the ravenous follows Hemingway’s Claude Rains, Alec Guinness, in the Rye to two parts Gavin and Stacy, by demand for instant gratification in the footsteps on safari in Africa, interviews Omar Sharif, Anthony way of Truffaut and Wes Anderson. 24-hour news cycle have devalued news to a Katherine Hepburn at home in New York Quayle, Anthony Quinn and “An idiosyncratic tone is far easier to churn of PR product, what place does an and coaxes a remarkable confessional from Jack Hawkins. “As shockingly beautiful and sparingly strike than too maintain for the institution like The New York Times have Roman Polanski. hugely intelligent as any film ever made.” length of a feature. Richard Ayoade keeps it today – and can journalism still have — Total Film steady, all the way through.” integrity and professional quality? — Craig Mathieson

ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER’S

Features a cast and orchestra of over 200 plus special guest appearances Own it or give as the perfect gift this ChristmaS

Available on Blu-rayTM or DVD at

2010 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS Readings Monthly Dec 11 - Jan 12 17

Also released the spectrum like a knight in shining skinny in January jeans. Smell of Reeves Only In Dreams. Dum Dum Girls. $24.95 & Mortimer If time went awry and Chrissie Hynde and $29.95 Best Music of 2011 the Beach Boys ended up in a studio in Bang Bang it’s as chosen by Readings staff 2011, this is what they would come up with. Reeves & Mortimer Bubbly German surf-punk without a bad track to be heard. Released 11 January. $24.95 Declan Murphy’s with the best ‘band’ of the year. Every Silly comedy, like whisky, is Top Ten song needs to be heard and appreciated for Gimme Some. Peter Bjorn and John. $25.95 an acquired taste. Vic and its brilliance. Enough said! If Berocca was an album, it would sound like Bob, the Morecombe & this: a shot of vitality in your ears, alt-pop Wise of the twisted mind, The Harrow and the Harvest. determined to put you into a good mood. haven’t matured since the 90s Gillian Welch. $24.95 Peter Bjorn and John are probably excellent – but still go down a treat for An eight-year wait comes to an end. It is people to have at a party; failing getting those with a taste for it. Now everything we expected and more. A return to them in person, put this on and watch Australia can delight in the the style of Welch and Rawlings’ early everyone get along. surreal silliness of the flatulent Frenchmen Gentle Spirit. Jonathan Wilson. $14.95 with stories we love to hear them perform. A stellar debut from Wilson, who brilliantly Le Corbusier & Papin, folk singers Mulligan Self-titled. Noel Gallagher And His High & O’Hare (with songs such as Frustrated by channels the sound of Laurel Canyon circa 1970. Epic stuff. Flying Birds. $24.95 Weeds) and an episode of Masterchef that will He waited till he was ready and released an require hospitalisation from rib-ache. The Whole Love. Wilco. $21.95 album of songs which remind us why he has Another brilliant effort from the band that Boardwalk Empire written some of the greatest anthems of the continues to set the standards. It would seem past 20 years. Submarine Soundtrack. Alex Turner. $14.95 Released 11 January. $59.95 Tweedy and co. can do no wrong. The Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner writes an HBO’s grand, vital drama A Creature I Don’t Know. Bad As Me. Tom Waits. Laura Marling. $21.95 entire film’s emotions into twenty minutes of tells the story of prohibition, alt-folk loveliness. Happiness, sadness, teen politics and power in 1920s Standard $22.95. Deluxe $29.95 For someone so young, she sings with the The great man returns with his first album of style of the great English folkies of the 60s angst and gorgeous music mean the only Atlantic City. Created by the complaint is that it doesn’t go for seven hours. makers of The Sopranos, new material in seven years – and no prizes and 70s and throws a dash of Joni Mitchell directed by Martin Scorsese for guessing it’s an absolute peach. into the pot. Is there anything more we can Wounded Rhymes. Lykke Li. $21.95 and starring Steve Buscemi as Last of the Country Gentlemen. say? Grungy Scandinavian pop has never been a criminal entrepreneur at Josh T. Pearson. $21.95 King of Limbs. Radiohead. $19.95 quite so danceable as Lykke Li’s 2011 release. the dawn of America’s gangster era, this is Stunning, withering confessional from an From the outset, it’s modern, brash, rhyth- Dark and exciting stand-out tracks Get Some television of the highest quality, boasting the artist who seemed washed up after ten years mically intoxicating ... all the while messing and I Follow Rivers deserve high repeat. most cinematic of production values. in the wilderness. Not for the faint-hearted. with your head and putting you slightly off- To The Horses. Lanie Lane. $24.95 The Trip Helplessness Blues. Fleet Foxes. $19.95 kilter. Brilliant! With a voice full of old school sounds and Hard to top a stone-cold classic debut, but a band to match, this countrified rockabilly Released 11 January. $39.95 singer – also Australian! – rocks the hell out The original six-part Steve with Helplessness Blues they’ve damn near done it. Quite sublime. of this album, and your stereo. Crack out the Coogan series from which quiff and your pointy shoes for this one. the edited theatrical version 100 Acres of Sycamore. Fionn Regan. $21.95 was taken is now available in Gorgeous return to form for this young Cannibal Courtship. Dengue Fever. $24.95 its entirety. Irish singer/songwriter whose 2007 debut Cambodian surf pop: the genre you didn’t The End of History was, for me, one of the Helplessness Blues. Fleet Foxes. $19.95 know you were lacking. Dengue Fever have records of the decade. Harmonies so rich you find it hard to take in a sound as sultry and full of saltwater as you on first listen. The album that makes you sit could want during the upcoming twilight and listen and take in every sound and word nights ahead: sexy and poppy all at once and Mabo: Life of you hear. cooler than the ice in your drink. an Island Man II. Mariachi El Bronx. $24.95 Take Care Take Care Take Care. Released 4 January. $24.95 The sound of mariachi music played by Explosions in the Sky. $21.95 Director Trevor Graham says punks from LA. Yes, it is as good as it On the more instrumental side of these musi- of this essential documentary: sounds. Old and new sounds marry and cal suggestions is Explosions in the Sky. The ‘I don’t believe art, literature Long Player Late Bloomer. have really smart kids! beauty of post-rock is that no matter what or film-making create social Ron Sexsmith. $19.95 you’ve got going on, it feels like someone has change. People like Eddie Another masterclass in melody-driven song- The King is Dead. The Decemberists. $24.95 scored a soundtrack just for your day, even if Mabo do that. But I like to writing from this wonderful Canadian artist The evolution of this band continues as all you did was play your PS3 with occasional think that this film, finished who just gets better with time. Colin Meloy makes his shift from British jaunts to the bathroom. in 1997, has made a positive James Blake. James Blake. $19.95 influences to American ones. Stripped back, contribution towards the broad debate about A mesmerising full-length debut from the yet giving us lush, grand stories in three- indigenous rights, native title and Australian precociously talented UK dub-step experi- minute songs. Michael Awosoga- history by personalising the story. Now, more mentalist. Not usually my thing, but Blake’s Bon Iver. Bon Iver. $21.95 Samuel’s Top Ten than ever, we need documentaries to open voice makes this record a thing of rare and Their gentle sound has been given a dose of their hearts to these untold stories.’ genuine, minimalist beauty. jazz – and just believe me when I say it’s a Federation Early In the Morning. marriage of beauty. Released 4 January. $24.95 James Vincent McMorrow. $19.95 The classic, award-winning Sticking with the debuts, this record marked Fiona Hardy’s Top Ten the arrival of a major young talent. Entirely ABC series detailing Austra- Our Blood $23.95 self played and recorded in a coastal cottage . Richard Buckner. lia’s road to nationhood, A touching collection of emotionally-themed narrated by John Doyle and over five months, this Irishman is one to watch. songs from one of alt-country’s greatest voices. featuring the voice of Leo Not to be overlooked. McKern, is now available on Bon Iver. Bon Iver. $21.95 Gentle Spirit. $14.95 DVD. Justin Vernon was in similar territory to the Jonathon Wilson. Fleet Foxes in having to produce a second Bad As Me. Tom Waits. Channelling the sound of CSN and 1970s album buckling under the weight of expecta- Standard $22.95. Deluxe $29.95 Laurel Canyon, Jonathon Wilson’s debut also Des- Matador tion from an acclaimed debut. He produced My number one album of the year (admit- throws in a little Pink Floyd on the track ert Raven Released 4 January. $19.95 a beauty. tedly, even before it was released). Waits . Not bad for the sometime producer Pedro Almodovar’s flamboy- didn’t disappoint with this near-perfect of Jackson Brown and Will Oldham. ant drama from 1986, blend of sounds old and new and a voice full Lou Fulco’s Top Ten Last Night on Earth. Noah & the Whale. $19.95 starring a young Antonio of rusted rustic charm. The original UK new-folk darlings turn an- Banderas, is a tale of sex, Let England Shake. P.J. Harvey. $19.95 themic rockers. Heartfelt, uplifting songs such death, lust and murder. After L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.ON Just Me Before we Met A close second to Mr Waits, P.J. Harvey’s and being gored in the ring, a are to die for. former matador teaches politically charged and musically breathtak- students, but misses the thrill ing new album had the highest rotation on Vanity is Forever. of drawing blood. A serial killer is at loose in my CD player this year. Ostensibly rock, but Geoffrey O’Connor $24.95 Madrid, killing by plunging a needle between Ashes & Fire. Ryan Adams $21.95 she’s been around too long to be categorised The Crayon Fields frontman’s homage to their victims’ shoulder blades. Into this palate Great songs, but at the forefront are great as anything but ‘awesome’ in my iTunes list. Prince’s 80s sound. The hushed vocals are well of passions comes a man who, confused by lyrics and a wonderful relaxed performance. complemented by beautiful synth backing. He may be difficult, but he is good! The best The Rip Tide. Beirut. $21.95 his sexuality, attempts an act that will plunge Ex Tropical. Lost Animal. $24.95 him into an underworld of vice. Almodovar, singer/songwriter album of 2011. Zach Condon continues to be the ridicu- lously talented brain behind perennial favou- This great new release from Jarrod Quarrell (aka the prince of romantic kitsch, turned virtuoso The Whole Love. Wilco. $21.95 Lost Animal) is weird and beautiful. Joe Henry with this film of operatic voluptuousness. rite Beirut, brandishing ukuleles, accordions The best band in the world at the moment, and other instruments from the folk end of meets Berlin-era Bowie. 18 Readings Monthly Dec 11 – Jan 12

Best Music of 2011 as chosen by Readings staff (continued) NewDecember 2011 &CDs January 2012 So Frenchy So Chic 2012 Various artists $29.95 Ooh la la summer fun is here! So Frenchy So Chic 2012 has arrived, CDs from Bon Iver, Wilco, Tom Waits and Gillian Welch — the best of our staff’s best of 2011 with a new double- disc compilation of the best music to Mockingbird Time. The JayHawks.$24.95 Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down. Tex Perkins & the Dark Horses. come out of France over the past 12 The first original Olson & Louris line-up Ry Cooder. $24.95 Tex Perkins & the Dark Horses. $21.95 months. This is the unofficial since the mid-90s sees the alt-country origi- Cooder really comes into his own as a song- These days Tex is a little more laidback, but soundtrack of the Alliance Française nators at their best, playing and harmonising writer on this one. A very witty and political he’s still got the voice and the swagger. French Film Festival, complete with the as well as ever look at contemporary America, with some pick of French chanteurs and fantastic grooves and blues and Tex-Mex chanteuses. CD 1 features superb Demolished Thoughts. textures. Alice Bisits’ Not-quite tracks from Moriarty, The DØ and . $21.95 top ten Claire Denamur, while CD 2 kicks off The frontman shows his softer Time. Sarah Tindley. $29.95 with a trés cool song by the sultry- side. Reminiscent of John Cale’s Paris 1919 I found myself listening to this one a lot in sounding Camille called Mars Is No and the much underrated Felt, Tranquil and the shop. Boasts beautiful laidback vocals, Fun. Other highlights include Walker Beautiful. folky and country stylings, and wonderful from Cascadeur and Rise in the Sun by guitar work. High Atmosphere. Diana Jones. $26.95 FM Laiti. So Frenchy So Chic 2012 is The third release from this amazing song- Road to Damascus. Syriana $26.95 It was the year of the soundtrack for me, superbe! writer is in the vein of Gillian Welch and Iris An intriguing blend of Middle Eastern with three that have been on repeat in the player for weeks at a time: And if you are in for some more French De Ment. Moody, gothic and unforgettable. sounds, samples and surf guitar that really fun, don’t miss hearing Moriarty, works. Days. Real Estate. $21.95 Pina Soundtrack. Various artists. $24.95 Féfé and Nouvelle Vague in concert Great, jangly 80s-influenced guitar pop. Firstly Pina, the amazing 3D movie tribute at So Frenchy So Chic in the Park Think Aztec Camera and Orange Juice. Dave Clarke’s Top Ten to Pina Bausch, an incredible German chore- at Werribee Mansion on Sunday 15 ographer. January. Visit cartellmusic.com.au for Small Source of Comfort. details. Mad Bastards. Bruce Cockburn $24.95 Emily Harms is from Readings Carlton Canada’s premiere guitar player returns with Alex Lloyd & The Pigram Brothers. $29.95 a great selection of socio-political songs, Next the compilation of songs featured in A Very She & Him some instrumental, such as Lois on the Auto- the Australian film Mad Bastards. Featuring Christmas bahn. These instrumentals highlight Cock- Alex Lloyd with the Pigram Brothers, it’s just She & Him burn’s deft touch. He is producing some of A Creature I Don’t Know. wonderful. $21.95 his best work in recent years. Laura Marling. $21.95 This young English singer/songwriter – O Brother, Where Art Thou. It can’t be that time of incredibly – gets better with each album. Various artists. Deluxe $29.95 year already, can it? Paul Barr’s Top Ten And she’s still only 21. The tenth anniversary reissue of music from With the days getting O Brother, Where Art Thou? Comes with a longer and the sun . , Sally bonus CD of rarities and unreleased gems to getting warmer, the $21.95 Seltmann & . match the original collection. countdown to 25 A thoroughly enjoyable album from Holly December begins. She & Him (the Throsby, & Sarah Blasko: Bon Iver. Bon Iver. $21.95 Away from the soundtracks, the latest Bon adorable duo of Zooey Deschanel and three fine Australian performers who take M. Ward) aren’t immune to the festive turns singing each other’s songs. Iver album tops my favourites. Just sublime. Barn Doors and Concrete Floors. bug. Between busy solo careers, they’ve Nash Israel Gripka. $31.95 The Harrow & the Harvest. Smile Sessions. The Beach Boys. $21.95 found time during 2011 to record a An extremely loose, enjoyable mix of Ameri- Gillian Welch. $24.95 Lastly, The Beach Boys Smile Sessions is Christmas album. In contrast to the cana and country rock. Sounds like early 70s It took me a little while to really ‘hear’ this. finally available after all these years. Summer layered aesthetic of their previous Rolling Stones. But when I did I fell in love with it. is looking good. album, A Very She & Him Christmas sees the duo strip back traditional favourites Behold the Spirit. William Tyler. $24.95 Gentle Spirit. Jonathan Wilson. $14.95 such as Elvis’s Blue Christmas and Baby Super fine acoustic finger-picking: think An incredibly ambitious album, possibly a Melissa Whebell’s Top Ten It’s Cold Outside and rework them with John Fahey, with very subtle touches of brass song too long. Otherwise: a stunning paean Ward’s acoustic guitar and Deschanel’s and sound effects. to the 70s. breathy vocals. Inspired by Christmas Asleep on the Floodplain. Mad Rush. Sally Whitwell. $21.95 albums by The Beach Boys, Phil Spector Six Organs of Admittance. $23.95 This Australian pianist tackled the solo and the Carpenters, A Very She & Him Features an impressive acoustic guitar with pianoworks of my favourite American com- Christmas is bound to become a classic East/West influences, drones, and occasion- poser, Philip Glass. She’s created a beautiful, soundtrack to the festive season. 2011 saw a lot of fantastic releases and Belle Katavatis is from Readings St Kilda ally deranged lengthy instrumental passages, meditative work. re-issues. My list is in no particular order containing bleak ruminations on life. Forever the Moon. and a fair chunk are re-issues worthy of a GRACELAND Guidewires 2. Guidewires. $27.95 Heirlooms of August. $21.95 mention. Paul Simon A late addition to my list. This new Ameri- The second album for this Irish traditional West. Wooden Shjips. $22.95 $14.95 band, with all stops out. cana act is very much in the current vein of Paul Simon’s classic ‘pastoral’ works. He is ex-Red House Paint- Smile Sessions. The Beach Boys. $21.95 world music cross- Dark Magic. Sand Pebbles. $21.95 ers – a beautiful album Guitar-based psyche merchants, with a few Life Stories. Ebo Taylor. $21.95 over album Graceland more folky acoustic references this time turned 25 this year. Tago Mago 40th Anniversary Edition. round. And after being out of Can. $21.95 print for a couple of Agadez. Bombino. $19.95 The Kink Kontroversy Deluxe Edition. years, it has now been reissued and An exciting new release from the latest The Kinks. $39.95 remastered, with extra tracks. When it North African guitar hero, who likes to ex- Time. Sara Tindley. $29.95 was released in 1986 it caused a stir in periment with amplifier tones. Also features This Australian roots artist recorded her Tassili. Tinariwen. $21.95 a number of ways. Firstly, recording the some stunning acoustic guitar and hand third album with Adelaide outfit The Year- album in South Africa with local group percussion tracks. No Buts No Maybes. lings. A beautiful album to enjoy over the Professor Longhair. $22.95 Ladysmith Black Mambazo in the time In Trance. summer. of apartheid was seen as insensitive, but The Legendary Studio One Records. the more positive outcome was the new JuJu Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara. $24.95 Bonfires in Silver City. Lucie Thorne. $29.95 A wild, freewheeling and noisy collabora- Various Artists. $29.95 audience who discovered world music Her previous album Black Across The Fields because of the huge success of this tion with Robert Plant’s guitarist and African was my favourite of 2009. Her follow-up People Take Warning: Murder Ballads & fiddle player. Reminiscent in places of John Disaster Songs 1913-38. album. It sounds as fresh and joyful is even better. The best female artist in the today as it did 25 years ago. Also McLaughlin and Jean Lucy Ponty. Guitar country. Various Artists. $31.95 fiddle freak-outs with a pronounced African reissued are these other classic Paul Blues flavor. So Beautiful or So What. Paul Simon. $21.95 Bad As Me. Tom Waits. Standard $22.95. Simon albums: Hearts & Bones, Rhythm At the ripe old age of 70, Paul Simon shows Deluxe $29.95 of the Saints and One Trick Pony. he still has the songs and the voice. Readings Monthly Dec 11 - Jan 12 19 Echoes of Time premier conductors still alive. What do you Lisa Batiashvili get when you mix them? Why, just about DG. 4779299. Normally $26.95 perfect Gershwin of course! Full of joy and Our special price $21.95 the cheekiness inherent in Gershwin’s This brilliant violinist’s music, this blend of jazz and classical has Best Classical 2011 never been so beautiful. as chosen by Readings staff debut for DG collects works affected in one way Phil Richards Tchaikovsky & Higdon: or another by Soviet rule. A Worcester readings carlton Violin Concertos The highlight is the Ladymass Hilary Hahn, Shostakovich Violin Trio Medieavel John Adams: Son of Concerto No. 1, which may be about the ECM New Series. ECM2166. $24.95 Chamber Symphony Vasily Petrenko & RLPO DG. 4778777. Normally $26.95 best performance available of this work. Three women from the & String Quartet ends of the earth gather John Adams Our special price $21.95 This disc from violinist Per La Vergine Maria together in a sacred place & St. Lawrence String Quartet Hilary Hahn will only Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo to create something Nonesuch. NNS523014.2. $24.95 enhance her position as Alessandrini devilishly beautiful. This new disc from John one of the great classical Naïve. OP30505. $29.95 Sounds almost witchlike, Adams, arguably America’s violinists in the world Predominantly featuring doesn’t it? This music will capture you from greatest living composer, is today. The two works here Italian Baroque composers, the very opening, with a purity of tone that a fine example of his – Jennifer Higdon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning this collection of works is unrivaled and a quality to the musician- compositional style. All violin concerto and Tchaikovsky’s violin dedicated to the Virgin ship that allows you to listen to this works on this disc will concerto – are the perfect vehicles for Hahn Mary is perfect territory for recording on repeat. please lovers of Adams – and convert a few to display her command of classical music, Alessandrini and his ensem- non-believers. no matter what style or era it comes from. ble, who deliver in their characteristically Hispania intimate and compelling style. & Japan Dialogues Fiesta Criolla: Jordi Savall Latin American Evan Meagher Alia Vox. AVSA9883. $19.95 readings hawthorn Kate Rockstrom Orchestral Works readings carlton With the devastation of Gabriel Castagna & Wurttem- Vivaldi: The French Japan earlier this year, bergische Philharmonie Connection 2 Philippe Gaubert: Jordi Savall decided he Reutlingen La Serenissima Orchestral Works wanted to do something to Chandos. CHAN10675. $19.95 & Adrian Chandler Vol 3 raise money for the relief This feast of classical music Marc Soustrot & fund. So he brought Avie. AV2218. $29.95 together traditional Japanese music with from the early to mid- The second volume in this Orchestre Philharmonique twentieth century, that of Spain to create what should be a series is as good as the first du Luxembourg discordant blend of cultures. Instead, it featuring composers from (AV2178). Again a Timpani. 1C1186. $24.95 Argentina, Peru, Brazil and shows that if you have two beautiful styles, collection of various Philippe Gaubert’s orches- you’ll simply create extraordinary music. Columbia, is an excellent concertos for winds or tral works have been jumping-off point for classical music from Characterised by a sense of space, this strings, La Serenissima seriously neglected since music will allow for reflection. As a bonus, this diverse continent. All works are deliver tight performances full of warmth their original performance beautifully performed and the Chandos you’ll know you are doing something good and lively energy. dates. I find it criminal that for Japan by buying the CD. sound is excellent. this series from the Orches- Rachmaninov: tre Philharmonique du Luxembourg are Tchaikovsky Piano Sonatas 1, 2 world premiere recordings. The first work, & Kissine: Piano Trios Leslie Howard Au pays basque (or In the Basque Country) Gidon Kremer, Giedre Dirvana- starts off quiet with muted strings – and New Release Classical Melba. MR301127. $29.95 in December 2011 uskaite & Khatia Buniatishvili Leslie Howard brings his then suddenly, it’s like the world is in ECM New Series. ECM2202. $24.95 singular gifts to Rachmani- colour and you’d never before realised it was usually black and white. Every work Mladi: Works by This is a dazzling example nov, including the rarely Janácek, Reicha of the old and new in performed (and extremely is romantic without being mushy, elastic Russian chamber music. difficult) original version without losing the underlying musical & Martinu The performances from all of the Second Sonata, structure. Berlin Philharmonic concerned are note-perfect. exposing its rich and complex textures. The orchestration is stunning – and the use Wind Quintet Coupled with the pristine of solo instruments interwoven with lush BISCD1802. $29.95 ECM sound, this is music that will resonate Poulenc: Concerto full orchestra movements is simply heav- There’s a niche of long after you have finished listening. for Two Pianos, enly. classical repertoire that, unless you perform in Concert Champêtre, Gershwin: Rhapsody Rameau: Suites Suite Française one of these ensembles, D’Orchestra in Blue & Piano this wealth of beautiful Anima Eterna Brugge, Concerto music gets left by the Jordi Savall, L’Orchestra Jos van Immerseel de Louis XV Riccardo Chailly wayside. The Wind Quintet is one of the Zigzag. ZZT110403. $30.95 & Stefano Bolani hardest types of ensembles to perform in & Les Concerts Des Nations With his wit and stylistic Decca. 4782739. Normally $26.95 and on this new release from BIS the Alia Vox. AVSA9882. $19.95 caprice, Poulenc’s music Our special price $21.95 Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet makes Jean-Philippe Rameau said, can be difficult to catego- You either love him or hate it seem easy. With stunning blended tone ‘A good musician must rise, but it is brilliant and him: and before we go and enviable rhythmic precision they abandon himself to all the often lovely music that further, I will admit to feature some of the best Quintet and characters he sets out to demands listening. These adoring Gershwin’s music. Sextet music available. Don’t miss out on depict ... but the music performances respond sensitively to both Stefano Bollani has been this rare chance to hear this music must speak to the soul.’ the cerebral and the emotional in Poulenc’s called a ‘jazz star’, while performed by the masters. This is Rameau played perfectly; Jordi Savall music. does indeed let the music speak to your soul. Riccardo Chailly is considered one of the Kate Rockstrom is from Readings Carlton

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