Free october 2011 Readings Monthly

Ben Pobjie on Wayne Macauley • Elliot Perlman • Charlotte Wood ( see page 5) image from cover of 's new novel Autumn L a ing ( see page

Alex Miller’s new novel Autumn Laing p 5 Highlights of October book, CD & DVD new releases. More inside.

fiction aus fiction biography aus fiction ya DVD POp CD CLASSICAL $30 $24.95 $32.95 $29.95. ebook $29.99. ebook $19.99 $24.95. $29.95 $24.95 $24.95 >> p19 >> p7 $27.95>> p6 $14.96 >> p4 $17.99 >> p7 >> p9 Blu-ray>> p16 >> p17

All shops open 7 days, except State Library shop, which is open Monday - Saturday. Carlton 309 Lygon St 9347 6633 Hawthorn 701 Glenferrie Rd 9819 1917 Malvern 185 Glenferrie Rd 9509 1952 Port 253 Bay St 9681 9255 St Kilda 112 Acland St 9525 3852 Readings at the State Library of Victoria 328 Swanston St 8664 7540 email us at [email protected] Browse and buy online at www.readings.com.au and at ebooks.readings.com.au

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Schaubühne “A thoroughly modern TICKETS ON Hedda – with thrills.” The Guardian (UK) SALE NOW! Hedda Gabler the Arts Centre, Playhouse Wed 19 – Sun 23 Oct

Bookings Ticketmaster 1300 723 038 or the Arts Centre 1300 182 183 For the first time in Melbourne, a stylish modern Principal Partner Public Partner melbournefestival.com.au take on Ibsen’s iconic tale of entrapment and revenge. 2 Readings Monthly October 2011

From the Editor It seems to be a year for grim news in the ThisMan Booker Month’s(New South, HB, News $59.95), his biography of donate 10% of its overall profits to The publishing world, as we continue to worry Shortlist 2011 historian Keith Hancock. And the poetry Readings Foundation each year to support (with reason) about the decline of print, and The Man winner was John Tranter, for Starlight (UQP, Victorian individuals and organisations that what that means for the future of the book. shortlist for 2011 has been PB, $24.95). wish to further the development of Literacy, There’s been sad news in the past few weeks, announced! And while Community work and the Arts. A grant from with the announcement that the Australian frontrunner Julian Barnes fiction sale online The Readings Foundation is a wonderful Literary Review, The Australian’s monthly was on the final list, along We are holding a great opportunity for individuals, community and literary supplement, will be discontinued, with former longlisted fiction sale online only this arts organisations with Deductible Gift Re- after its university backers declined to con- author Carol Birch (Turn month so don’t miss out on cipient (DGR) status to be able to bring their tinue funding it. The ALR has had its ups Again Home, 2003), there stocking up on those creative or literacy-related projects to life. and downs (not least among them its status as are plenty of surprises and new discoveries must-reads you’ve never got Applications must be lodged by 5pm on Fri- one of the worst offenders regarding under- in there too, including two debut novelists, round to buying. Top picks day 28 October 2011. Final decisions about representation of women reviewers), but it has Stephen Kelman and A.D. Miller. The include: Fiona McGregor’s projects will be made by the Board of Trustees consistently been a home of substantial, in- winner will be announced on 18 October. Indelible Ink (Scribe, PB, by Wednesday 30 November 2011. For more depth reviews (often over 1000 words, which Normally $24.95, Now $19.95), Téa information or to download an application is rare) – and a significant home for discus- The shortlisted titles are: Snowdrops by Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife (Orion, PB, form please visit www.readings.com.au. sion of new books. Its demise means one A.E. Miller (Atlantic, PB, $27.99), Pigeon Normally $19.95, Now $15.95), Tim less place for odd-jobbing writers to scrape English by Stephen Kelman (Bloomsbury, Winton’s Cloudstreet (Normally $26.95, Global Atheist together a living, too. PB, $29.99), Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Now $19.95) and Jennifer Egan’s A Visit Convention: Birch (Text, PB, $32.95), The Sense of an from the Goon Squad (Anchor, PB, Was April 13–15, 2012 Another decision that’s sent shockwaves Ending by Julian Barnes (Jonathan Cape, through the literary world is the Tasmanian $19.99, Now $15.95). Visit www.readings. Featuring some of the brightest stars in the HB, Normally $29.95, Our special price com.au. Hurry! Only while stocks last! godless firmament, the 2012 Global Atheist government’s decision to no longer fund its Half Blood Blues $24.95), by Esi Edugyan Convention brings together a formidable only literary journal, Island, which has been The Sisters Brothers (Profile, PB, $27.99) and Long Story Shorts line-up of speakers and performers. Distin- running for 35 years. Tasmanian premier (and by Patrick Dewitt (Granta PB, $29.99). arts minister) Lara Giddings explained her Special Offer guished writers Richard Dawkins, Christo- decision as ‘based on a “trend” towards online Victorian Premier's Affirm Press’s Long Story pher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris rather than hard-copy publications for litera- Shorts series – six Australian and Ayaan Hirsi Ali will be among those ture’. It’s a great pity; new Island editor Sarah Literary Awards single-author short-story gathered in Melbourne for a celebration Kanowski had been making some interesting Winners collections – has now come to of reason in April 2012. Presented by the new moves, including a new website, an on- The winners of the Victorian a close, with its sixth and final Atheist Foundation of in partner- line supplement to the print journal, Islet, an Premier’s Literary Awards book, Two Steps Forward ship with official bookseller Readings, the ebook version, and an especially strong recent were announced last month, (Irma Gold, PB, $24.95). convention offers a unique opportunity for themed issue focusing on the new Hobart with the overall winner And to celebrate the series, book signings in the electric atmosphere of museum, MONA, that epitomised Kanows- taking out an additional Readings and Affirm Press are bringing you a this historic event. Tickets are on sale now ki’s approach of engaging with Tasmanian $100,000 prize for the first special offer. This month, Long Story Shorts at www.atheistconvention.org.au. writing and issues via a national platform. She time. won the are available at the special price of three for says Island ‘is the only Tasmanian publica- overall prize, plus the prize the price of two, or all six for $75 (value AACBT Workshop tion with a national profile; it allows us to for fiction (worth an additional $25,000) $149.70 for all six, or $24.95 each). Previous Dr Christine A. Padesky will present a tell our distinctive stories to the rest of the for That Deadman Dance (Picador, PB, titles are Under Stones by Bob Franklin, one-day workshop, Collaborative Case country’. The current issue of Island includes $22.99). Nineteen Seventysomething by Barry Divola, Conceptualisation: Incorporating Strengths Known Unknowns by Emmett Stinson, an interview with and a work- The non-fiction prize went to Build Resilience. The Australian Associa- Having Cried Wolf by Gretchen Shirm and in-progress from Vogel winner Rohan Wilson. to Mark McKenna for tion for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy Bearings by Leah Swann. Preserve your slice of An Eye for Eternity: The Life is pleased to present this one-day workshop In happier news, one national literary Australian publishing history by getting the of Manning Clark (MUP, for health professionals with Dr Padesky, one publication that’s going from strength to set, or fill in the gaps in your collection now. HB, Normally $54.99, Our of the leading cognitive therapy workshop strength is Australian Book Review, which presenters in the world. Monday 7 Novem- has been quietly assembling a growing suite special price $49.95). Readings Foundation: The young adult prize was ber 2011 at Sails on the Bay, Elwood. Visit of well-renumerated literary prizes. This year, Applications open! www.aacbtvic.org.au for more information it ran the Story Prize, with awarded to Cassandra Golds for The Three Loves of Persimmon (Penguin, Readings managing director Mark Rubbo and to register online. Visit Readings at our a first prize of $5000 for a winner and three conference bookshop on the day. prizes of $1000 each for shortlisted stories. All PB, $17.95). has recently announced that Readings will four stories are guaranteed publication. The Patricia Cornelius won the winner will be announced at a special event at drama prize for Do Not Go Readings Carlton on Wednesday 12 October, Gentle. The screenplay, with where the magazine will also launch its inau- another of her works, The gural special fiction edition. In other news, Berry Man, is available for ABR’s sixth Calibre Prize for an Outstanding sale (Currency Press, PB, Essay (worth $7000 for the winner, $2000 $24.95). And the multi- for a runner-up and $1000 for third place) is talented Cate Kennedy won now open: entries close 1 December. the poetry prize for The Taste of River Water And in more good news, local small press (Scribe, PB, $24.95). The inaugural venture Spineless Wonders, run by short People’s Choice Award went to Anna story fan Bronwyn Mehan, is publishing its Krien’s Into the Woods (Black Inc., PB, second collection this month. The Rattler $29.95). and Other Stories (Spineless Wonders, PB, $19.99), by Readings St Kilda staffer Alec Age Book of the Year Patric, shows us a surreal side of Melbourne Winners where anything can happen. Paddy O’Reilly The overall Age Book of the has called it, ‘Spare and taut, sometimes Year for 2011 was won by tricky, sometimes shocking, yet always one of Readings’ favourite deeply and satisfyingly tender. A great col- books from last year, Fiona lection.’ Spineless Wonders’ first book was McGregor’s Indelible Ink the collection Permission to Lie by Julie (Scribe, PB, $24.95), which Chevalier (PB, $19.99), warmly endorsed by also won the fiction prize. Fiona McGregor. The non-fiction winner was —Jo Case Jim Davidson for A Three-Cornered Life Oslo Davis www.oslodavis.com

CINEMA NOVA RECOMMENDS Visit the new Cinema Nova Bar NORWEGIAN WOOD WILLEM DAFOE SAM NEILL FRANCES O'CONNOR Based on the novel by Haruki Murakami, a Japanese businessman reminisces TTHEHE HHUNTERUNTER about the intense romances of his 380 LYGON ST CARLTON university days. www.cinemanova.com.au Daniel Nettheim adapts Julia Leigh’s Online bookings available thrillerthriller ofof aa hunter’shunter’s involvementinvolvement withwith “A visually striking movie about love and loss” a young family as he searches for the The Guardian UK Join our e-news for updates on the Met Opera, COMMENCES OCTOBER 6 National Theatre and other stage spectaculars. COMMENCES OCTOBER 6 lastlast remainingremaining TasmanianTasmanian Tiger.Tiger. Readings Monthly October 2011 3

Tanveer Ahmed 21 Tania McCartney Tim Soutphommasane will launch The Join the author of Riley and the Grumpy Exotic Rissole (New South, PB, $32.95), Wombat: A Journey Around Melbourne (An- a laugh-out-loud memoir of growing up. EventsAll our Readings book and music eventsin are OctoberThe lecture, Opening the Door: Discovering ness Publishing, PB, $16.95) as she reads Wednesday 12 October, 6.30pm, Readings entry by gold coin donation to The Readings the Intercultural through Literature, will be given her new story aloud. Friday 21 October, Hawthorn. Free, no need to book. 10.30am, Readings Carlton. Free, but Foundation, unless otherwise stated. Please by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, 2008 Nobel ABR Elizabeth Jolley note that bookings do not guarantee a seat, Laureate in Literature. It will explore the role of please book on 9347 6633. but rather indicate to us the number of people literature in increasing intercultural awareness Prize launch The winner of the Elizabeth Jolley Short to expect. To see more events or for updates on and exchanges, touching on the humanitarian 25 Our Australian new events please visit the events page at www. and environmental causes that have always Girl: Crafternoon! Story Prize will be announced and the Fic- readings.com.au. motivated Le Clezio’s work and life choices. tion Issue of Australian Book Review will be The Walter Mangold public lecture will be Back by popular demand! Join Jane, Davina launched. Wednesday 12 October, 6.30pm, Le Clezio's only public address in Australia and Katie for a fun afternoon of OAG craft. Readings Carlton. Free, no need to book. We’ll provide everything you need to make 1 Kay Bell in English. Wednesday, 12 October, 7pm– 8pm, Carrillo GantnerTheatre, Sidney Myer your own OAG journal. You just need to andee jones Kay Bell will be signing copies of her new bring a photo of yourself for the cover, and Barking Mad (PB, $27.95) is a tragicomic book, The Lornesleigh Legacy (Boolarong Asia Centre. Free,but please book on masu@ unimelb.edu.au or (03) 8344 7775. one of your family or pet, too. We might memoir. Friday 14 October, 6.30pm, Read- Press, PB, $24.95) — a story set against a even have a surprise visit from one of our ings Carlton. Free, no need to book. backdrop of Australia’s convict past, the gold authors! Book in fast, as places are limited. rush and boom years, and the depression 12 Krissy Kneen Tuesday 25 October, 4.30–5.30pm, Read- Alex Miller of the 1930s. Saturday 1 October, 11am, Krissy Kneen’s Triptych (Text, PB, $29.95) ings Hawthorn. $20 per person. Includes Alex Miller’s Autumn Laing (A&U, HB, Readings Hawthorn. Free, no need to book. is transgressive, sardonic, lyrical, comic; irre- all materials and a copy of an Our Australian Normally $40, Our special price $32.95) sistibly erotic yet also romantic. In this suite Girl book. Minimum age: seven years old. is an unflinchingly intimate portrait of a woman and her time. Saturday 15 October, 3 Fiona O’Loughlin of linked stories, she addresses taboos of all kinds with a subtle wit and an insistence 4.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. Free, no need Me of the Never Never (Orion, PB, Normally 26 Bill Granger to book. $35, Our special price $29.95), by comedian on sexual pleasure that will delight read- The loveliest man in the cookbook world Wednesday 12 October, Fiona O’Loughlin, is funny and poignant. ers. Adults only. will visit us, with Bill's Everyday Asian (Mur- Andrew Weldon & 6.30pm, Readings St Kilda. Monday 3 October, 6.30pm, Readings Carl- Free, but doch, PB, Normally $50, Our special price please book on 9525 3852. Mary Ellen Jordan ton. Free, but please book on 9347 6633. $39.95). Wednesday 26 October, 6.30pm, Illustrator Andrew Weldon teams with writer Readings Hawthorn. $20 per person. partner Mary Ellen Jordan for their very 13 Quarterly Includes a glass of wine and tastes from Bill’s first children’s book, Lazy Daisy, Busy Lizzie 4 Ken Haley Essay Event new book. Bookings essential: 9819 1917. in conversation (A&U, HB, $19.99). Sunday 16 October, Join Margaret Simons, Tim Soutphomma- 10.30am, Westgarth Theatre, High Street, with Andrew Rule sane and Anna Krien to discuss Robert 27 Junior Masterchef: Westgarth. Free, no need to book. Underbelly author Andrew Rule will chat Manne’s Quarterly Essay 43: Bad News: Mur- with Ken about his rip-roaring trip through doch’s Australian and the Shaping of the Na- bliss twins Wayne McCauley Europe in a wheelchair, chronicled in Europe tion (Black Inc., PB, $19.95, ebook $9.95), Come and meet twins Isabella and Sofia The deliciously satirical The Cook(Text, PB, @ 2.4 km/h (Wakefield, PB, $32.95).T ues- chaired by Sean O’Beirne. This is your Bliss, from last year’s Junior Masterchef. $29.95) skewers our culture of food worship. day 4 October, 6.30pm for a 7pm start, chance to discuss the content with three Their cookbook, A Little Bit of This, A Little Wednesday 19 October, 6.30pm, Readings Readings Carlton. Free, but please book on leading commentators. Our Say will also be Bit of That(with Sylvana Spina, Penguin, Carlton. Free, but please book on 9347 6633. 9347 6633. posting on their website: www.oursay.org. PB, $35) is a collection of Sicilian family Want to have coffee with Robert Manne? recipes. Thursday 27 October, 4.30pm, Alec Patric Post and promote a question through Our Readings Hawthorn. Free, but please book Join Readings St Kilda staffer Alec Patric to 4 & 20 Graeme Base Say, and if your question receives the most on 9819 1917. celebrate the launch of his short-story collec- Graeme Base takes us on a stunning journey votes it will be asked to a panel of experts tion, The Rattler & Other Stories (Spineless through the wonders of an ancient world Wonders, PB, $24.95). Friday 21 October, at the event AND you will also get to 27 Stephen Sewell in The Jewel Fish of Karnak (Penguin, HB, Readings St Kilda, 6:30pm. have a coffee with Robert Manne to get Well known for his film and theatre work, $29.95). Tuesday 4 October, 4.30pm, his thoughts on it. Thursday 13 October, Readings Hawthorn. Free, but please book including his AFI award-winning script Shirley Pitcher 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. Free event, of The Boys, Stephen Sewell's latest project on 9819 1917. Thursday 20 October, but please book on 9819 1917. Join the celebration of Shirley’s first book, 4.30pm, Readings St Kilda. Free, but please is his debut novel, Babylon (MUP, PB, Conversations with Teddy ($39.95). book on 9525 3852. $32.99). Thursday 27 October, 6.30pm, Tuesday 25 October, 6.30pm, Readings 13 Ken Haley Readings Carlton. Free, but please book Carlton. Free, no need to book. in conversation 9347 6633. 5 Chris Ryan in conversation with Sally Gibson Sally Gibson, former gonzo journalist and withJustin Clemens 27 Richard TV scriptwriter (The Dismissal), will discuss Hollingworth And in November Sex at Dawn (Scribe, PB, $27.95), a New Europe @ 2.4 km/h with Ken Haley (Wake- Steven Amsterdam York Times bestseller, explores the notion of field, PB, $32.95).T hursday 13 October, Richard Hollingworth's Smythe’s Theory of Ev- sexual monogamy. Co-author Christopher erything (Hybrid, PB, $24.95) is based on the Join us for the celebration of What the 6.30pm, Readings St Kilda. Free, but Family Needed (Sleepers, PB, $24.95). To be Ryan will be in conversation with Dr Justin please book on 9525 3852. found diary of a 62-year-old man. Thursday Clemens. Wednesday 5 October, 6.30pm, 27 October, 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. launched by Michael Williams, director of Readings Carlton. Free, but please book on Free, but please book on 9819 1917. The Wheeler Centre. Thursday 3 November 3, 6pm for a 6.30pm start, Bella Union Bar 9347 6633. 17 Michael Wesley (Level 1, Victorian Trades Hall Cnr Victo- Michael’s book, There Goes the Neighbour- ria & Lygon Sts, Carlton). Free, no need to hood: Australia and the Rise of Asia 27 Pip Lincolne 6 Mischa Merz (New book. in conversation South, PB, $32.95) has already created a Pip Lincolne, of Meet Me at Mike’s fame, with Tony Birch media storm. Monday 17 October, 6.30pm, is coming down to talk about her new book The Stillsons Readings Carlton. Free, but please book on Make Hey! (Hardie Grant, HB, Normally Playing tunes from their new , Earnest. Journalist and amateur boxer Mischa Merz 9347 6633. $45, Our special price $39.95) and to The Stillsons feature two singer–songwriters, The Sweetest Thing will discuss (Seven Stories, answer your crafty questions. Thursday 27 Englishman Justin Bernasconi () and PB, $29.95), which tells of her journey October, 6.30pm, Readings St Kilda. Free, Cat Canteri (drums). Thursday 3 Novem- across the US to compete in a series of 20 Katie Evans but please book on 9525 3852. ber, 6pm, Readings St Kilda. Thursday 6 amateur boxing tournaments. This author and crafter will take us through Free, but please book on 9525 3852. October, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, a cosy afternoon of craft activities in celebra- but please book on 9347 6633. tion of Little Things for Busy Hands: 16 Crafty Janet De Neefe Projects for Kids to Make without a Sewing Launches With her book Bali: The Food of My Island Machine (Penguin, PB, $24.95). Thursday Miles Vertigan Home (Pan, HB, $59.99). Tuesday 8 Novem- 10 Pages to Poetry 20 October, 4.30pm–5.30pm, Readings Emmett Stinson will launch Miles Vertigan’s ber, 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. $20 per Our last for the year, so tonight it’s red wine Hawthorn. $25 per person. Includes a copy first book, Life Kills (Sleepers Publishing, person. Includes wine and tastes from and champers! Kate Middleton is the first of the book and a craft project. Suitable for PB, $24.95, ebook $13.95), a dark, come- her cookbook. to be awarded the post of City Poet; 7–11 years old. Places limited. dic avant-garde literary fiction. Thursday her first book is Fire Season (Giramondo, PB, 6 October, 6pm, Bella Union bar: Level 1, Luke Nguyen $22). Lisa Gorton’s award-winning first book Victorian Trades Hall Cnr Victoria & Lygon & Adriano Zumbo of poetry is Press Release (Giramondo, PB, 20 Susan Mitchell Sts. Carlton. Free, no need to book. Fresh from TV appearances come two chefs $22) and Duncan Hose’s first book is Rathus in conversation with their new books, Indochine: Finding (PB, $22). Monday 10 October, 6.30pm, with Leslie Cannold Simon Biggs France in Vietnam (Murdoch, HB, Normally Readings Carlton. Free, no need to book. Tony Abbott takes a battering in Susan’s new Generational Intelligence (with Ariela Low- $70, Our special price $59.95) and Zumbo book, Tony Abbott: A Man’s Man (Scribe, PB, enstein) is a critical look at the question of (Murdoch, Normally $50, Our special price 12 Walter Mangold $32.95). Here she argues that Tony is at war, communication and understanding between $39.95). Friday 11 November, 6.30pm, Public Lecture: with himself and for government. Thursday different generations. Tuesday 11 October, Readings Hawthorn. $20 per person. In- Jean-Marie Gustave 20 October, 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free no need to cludes wine and tastes from their cookbooks. Free, but please book on 9819 1917. book. 4 Readings Monthly October 2011 New Australian Writing Feature

MasterBen Pobjie interviews Wayne Macauleyof aboutsatire The Cook(Text, PB, $29.95, ebook $14.96)

admires his creation, with all his flaws. And peaceful, almost idyllic setting, but with an the flaws are big, but there’s also much to re- unsettling sense of fear lurking somewhere in late to, and when Macauley talks about him, the background. There’s nothing supernatu- it’s not so much an author talking about a ral about Cook School, but the feeling of character, as one man speaking approvingly, dread grows, until the post-apocalyptic rural if critically, about another. Macauley clearly dystopia of the school gives way to gothic has a lot of affection for Zac, even while horror at the luxurious mansion where Zac noting how he has ‘closed down’ – he is, in a finds himself employed as cook. way, a broken human being. The lack of external context makes it all The narrow focus of Zac’s worldview is the more disconcerting when we are shown enhanced through Macauley’s idiosyncratic a glimpse – what the author refers to as a style – no commas, no quotation marks ‘long-shot of the outside world … only at – which creates a cascading stream-of- that point you realise you’re living in a tiny consciousness narrative where Zac’s thoughts circumscribed world’. Zac exists entirely tumble one after the other, interrupting in that tiny world – he doesn’t go out, he themselves, dialogue scurrying and jumbling doesn’t see movies, he doesn’t watch TV. It’s into sentences, rushing with that forward all cooking and preparation and recipes and momentum that epitomises both Zac’s at- chasing that dream; there is nothing else. titude to life and the industry he’s in. The We can all empathise with that aspiration to effect can jar at first, but quickly settles into something better, the drive to follow your a compelling rhythm, pushing the reader dream – we find ourselves applauding it, as forward as surely as it pushes the protago- Zac develops his skills and starts his road to nist. More than that, it makes for a decid- the top. It’s only later we realise the frightful edly unique authorial voice – there is no consequences of such a single-minded pas- doubt that it is always Zac we are hearing, as sion were always inevitable, even while we Wayne Macauley’s work object. To say The Cookexplores the dark he is and as he sees it. were cheering him on towards it. has been enthusiastically side of cooking would be an understatement. whispered about on the Here is where Macauley’s satire is sharpest Melbourne literary circuit The book begins with Zac, a poor teenager and most savage: Orwellian in its cautionary for some years now. His from a ‘shitkicking suburb’, finding himself ‘ nature, but more realistic – and more amus- books include last year’s at Cook School, a rural training facility set Macauley challenges ing. Macauley spins his story in extreme, much-acclaimed up to help disadvantaged youths. Cook us: how detached surreal, even absurd ways; but the events short-story collection, School is the brainchild of the ominously always remain disturbingly familiar, and Other Stories and the never-named Head Chef, a famous chef from the reality of distressingly close to the reality we know. novels Blueprints for a who is only rarely seen at his own school, Macauley states that his approach is ‘if some- Barbed Wire Canoe and Caravan Story, all but whose vision of ‘Power through service’ our lives do we want thing is possible, it can be actual in terms of published by small Fitzroy publisher Black Zac quickly latches on to. Zac completely fiction … if it’s possible, then it is, and I’ll Pepper Press. Macauley’s long-time fans have absorbs the message that by subjugating and to be? Just how far tell it’. It takes little imagination to feel that included Readings’ Martin Shaw and our humiliating himself, he can escape his under- the novel’s situations could be happening regular reviewer Emmett Stinson, among privileged past and achieve fame and fortune. would we be willing somewhere, and the book cuts deepest in its others. Now, he looks set to reach a far wider He decides to emulate Head Chef, and to go to reach the suggestion that the world of Zac is our own. readership, with his third novel, The Cook determines that nothing will stand in his way. (Text, PB, $29.95, ebook $14.96), his first ‘Not everyone understands the idea of Macauley fills his story with French phrases, top? And once there, with Text Publishing. Noted satirist Ben Pobjie provenance,’ says Zac. When he learns to discussions of cooking techniques and cuts spoke to Wayne about his dark, wickedly clever slaughter animals for food, he learns where of meat, yet it would be selling The Cook will we find what new satirical novel for Readings’ New Austra- food comes from, and what must be done short to say it’s ‘about cooking’. As the lian Writing series. we wanted?’ to provide it. Macauley wants us to question author attests, it’s a novel that examines the a society where most of us live several steps decadence that attends civilisations in their removed from the processes required for our o here I am and no going back. twilight years. In explaining the ideas behind Macauley bravely never breaks with this comfortable lives, processes we would rather Thus begins Wayne Macauley’s the book, Macauley references the Roman voice, carrying it through from beginning not think about. To get meat we must kill The Cook, and it lives up to that Empire and the Weimar Republic, the ‘end to end. He says it was an issue he wrestled something; to get a master chef we must promise: from that foreboding of times feeling in the air … the reaction is to with throughout the editorial process, mould a poor kid with a dream. Macauley opening line to the haunting final eat, drink and be merry’. He notes the irony but ultimately he needed to maintain the challenges us: how detached from the real- sentence, Macauley maintains a relentless of the ‘explosion in fine dining at a time when impression of ‘thoughts racing … quicksilver ity of our lives do we want to be? Just how forward momentum. The hero of the tale the economy is in turmoil’. It’s that Masque of thinking’. That kind of mindset, so typical far would we be willing to go to reach the S(if hero is the right word, which it is ... and the Red Death-style decadence that Zac seeks of a high-achiever in the culinary world, was top? And once there, will we find what we then again it isn’t) is Zac, a boy with no in- to exploit in his efforts to rise to the top of the essence of Zac, and Macauley wanted wanted? As Zac’s ‘Master’ says, getting rich terest in looking behind him. This obsessive his chosen profession, and it’s that decadence to show that the adrenalin-fuelled world of was easy – what’s hard is ‘staying as rich drive powers a narrative that resonates with Macauley skewers; his satirist’s senses finely cooking ‘would suit him’. as you’ve ever been’. Similarly, Zac cannot topicality, unsettles with dread, and provokes attuned to Western society’s excesses. The contemplate going backwards – he will be a black laughter and squirmy familiarity. Cook shows Macauley as an author particu- It’s the mark of a confident writer to be so famous chef. No matter what. This seductive larly concerned with the detachment from uncompromising, even in the knowledge can-do attitude sucks us in and then turns Wayne Macauley doesn’t have a foodie back- humanity that materialism can bring about. that by putting faith in his readers to buy on us, devastatingly, and we wonder: just ground, but he didn’t find this a handicap into this unusual style, he’s taking a risk, and what value is there in ambition after all? in researching for The Cook– ‘in a way the That detachment is personified in Zac, a it pays off, infusing the novel with an other- research was easy’ – because of what he calls young man Macauley sees in a ‘historical ness that turns superficially familiar and Macauley’s skill shines throughout The Cook– the ‘ubiquitous’ nature of the food industry vacuum’, who knows nothing but the urge mundane settings into sinister worlds. like a chef himself, he has a winning knack for in today’s society. And it’s true that these to follow his dream – to become, through turning seemingly ordinary ingredients into a days popular culture is infested with food, service, the guy on the telly. ‘Without telly For it’s not just Zac’s focus which is narrow masterpiece: in this case, a cracking story that cooking, recipes and celebrity chefs. ‘I think we are nothing,’ as Head Chef’s assistant – Macauley has, in his own words, devel- also demands the reader engage their brain for it’s a socio-cultural thing that’s going on, and says early on. oped a ‘self-contained world’. Cook School some tough questions. Hopefully that knack as a writer who has his antenna up, I’ve been may only be an hour and a half outside is about to bring him wide acclaim. alert to this for a while,’ says Macauley of the The most enjoyable part of speaking to Melbourne, but it’s an alien landscape. exalted place the chef now occupies. Yet fic- Wayne Macauley is just how enthusiastic he While Zac is there, there are few hints at Ben Pobjie is a regular satirical columnist tion dealing with the food industry has been is about his lead character. Perhaps not sur- what’s going on elsewhere in the world. The for The Age and the author of Superchef: relatively thin on the ground. This book may prising – after all, he has ‘lived with him for atmosphere is reminiscent of the early scenes A Parody (A&U, PB, $19.99) start a trend – although the industry may three years’ – but it’s striking how the author of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go – a Readings Monthly October 2011 5

Mark’s say Book of the Month News and views from Readings’ autumn laing Q&A with Alex Miller managing director Mark Rubbo Alex Miller Mark Rubbo interviews Alex Miller about Autumn Laing A&U. HB. Normally $40 Names like New Our special price $32.95 this book. Autumn’s examination of her Directions and City Ebook $17.99 life reinforces her understanding of how Lights may be familiar Loosely based on the life important friendships have been, particu- to you, but Melville of and her larly Freddy and Barnaby’s faith in her. House, Exact Change relationship with Sidney and Twisted Spoon Nolan, this surprising But the setting of her story is Australian may not. They are all small independent novel succeeds at many art and artists. Pat Donlon feels deeply presses committed to publishing levels and reaffirms inauthentic as an aspiring Australian artist interesting literature. Brooklyn-based Miller’s great skills and when confronted with the fact that all photo: E dwina hollick Melville House is committed to talent. It is probably his the major art movements in his country publishing ‘good, solid literature, most ambitious novel to date with a have their origins in Europe and that it is especially literary fiction, non-fiction structure that at first I found difficult You acknowledge that the book is loosely toward Europe that his contemporaries and poetry’ for the folks of Brooklyn but finished the novel in awe of his based on Sunday Reed and , aspire for their further studies and even and the rest of the world. One of its technique. It’s not often that you have and I notice that the cover of your novel, The their careers – the schools of Paris and specialities has been publishing beautiful an “aha!” moment when finishing a Sitters, features a work by Joy Hester, who London in particular. He rebels against novellas in its Art of the Novella series, book. It won’t be surprising to see was also part of the Heide circle and a great this but has no answer to it. Frustrated and which includes titles by Joyce, Melville, Sunday’s nephew, Ted Baiilieu, handing friend of Sunday Reed’s. Has this theme been depressed by the provincial and contemp- Chekhov, de Maupassant – 37 in all, out an award to Mr Miller next year. something you’ve wanted to write about for tuous response to his work of Melbourne’s including five all titled The Duel by Written partly as Edith’s journals and some time? senior art critic, he very nearly despairs Giacomo Casanove, Anton Chekhov, partly as narrative, the novel begins in I’ve had a lifelong interest in the life and of his ambition to become an artist. It is Joseph Conrad, Heinrich Von Kleist 1991 as Autumn’s journal; Autumn is art of Sidney Nolan and have found the Autumn’s recognition of Pat’s authenticity and Aleksandr Kuprin.. Other titles 83 and a chance sighting of Edith, the story of his success against the odds an that revives his hopes and helps him to include non-fiction such as Dead artist Pat Donlan’s first wife compels inspiration. When I set out to write this begin again to aspire. In this, Pat Donlon’s Funny: Humour in Hitler’s Germany by her to embark on a confessional to book I did not expect to be writing it in career closely parallels my own and his de- Rudoplh Herzog – it’s a killer. Twisted atone for what she has done. Autumn is the voice of a character initially based spair and new hope are events with which Spoon has been around since 1992 and bitter and angry with herself and these on Sunday Reed. In fact the character of I closely identify and feel a deep sympa- is an independent publisher based in emotions dominate. When Arthur Autumn Laing – as my wife Stephanie thy. It was my friend Max Blatt who, by Prague. It is focused on translating a Laing brings home the angry young pointed out to me almost as soon as I believing in me, revived my dreams of variety of writing from Central and artist Pat Donlan , there is an began working in Autumn’s voice – owes becoming a novelist at a time when I was Eastern Europe into English and immediate attraction. The naked desire more to Anne Neil, my first wife and a close to despair. In Pat Donlon’s case it making it available to a global reader- between Donlan and Autumn and their lifelong friend of our family, than she does is his lover, Autumn Laing, and her dear ship. It includes internationally recog- apparent disregard of their existing to Sunday Reed. I readily acknowledged friend Barnaby, who in the end provide nised names, as well as those being relationships is confronting. This desire this, and told Stephanie that the book the means for Donlon’s full realisation of translated into English for the first time. is not only sensual but reflects a sort of was privately an homage to Anne, though himself and his vision. Such moments of Why am I telling you all this? Well the mutual creative dependency. Donlan I doubted anyone would notice this – recognition are critical in the lives and space at our remodelled St Kilda shop has eschewed the traditional. The perhaps a few of Anne’s old friends from careers of nearly all artists and writers. – and a fascination for the arcane – has relationship leads to the end of her MLC days will see the likeness. These Few survive the demons of doubt alone. led two Readings St Kilda booksellers, Donlan’s marriage to his beautiful things are complicated and rather private Friendship, love and acknowledgement are Miles Allinson and Will Heyward, to young wife Edith and to a fundamental and not easily talked about; the sources, always a central theme in the life of any curate a lovely collection of the offerings change in Autumn’s marriage with I mean, of the characters in one’s books. artist or writer. Such debts are not always of these and other small presses. You Arthur. Autumn and Arthur have But, yes, this story owes much to the life acknowledged, however. should take a visit – the books are become supporters and patrons of a and times of Sunday Reed and her stormy housed in two shelves just inside the relationship with Sidney Nolan and I The way you bring the novel to its conclusion, group of young artists and intellectuals; with what, in effect, are two dénouements, window, opposite the beautiful Mirka Donlan despises the slavish reverence continue to find them both an inspiration. Mora mural. The picture you refer to on the cover of was particularly successful. Did you have this given to European techniques and the first edition of The Sitters was one that in sight at the beginning of the book? Speaking of south of the river, St Kilda movements. What is the alternative? I bought at Joels for Anne 40 years ago. bookseller, Alec Patric won the S.D. “Make it Australian.” How? “If I knew No. The end (which I won’t give away) it I’d be doing it.” For Autumn, this is It’s now in the National Portrait Gallery took me as much by surprise as it does Au- Harvey Short Story Award at the Ned in Canberra. My friend, the poet Bar- Kelly crime awards for his story, ‘Hemi- the fire of her attraction, the possibility tumn. I can give an example of this sort of that she somehow could be involved in rie Reid, told me it is one of Joy’s many thing from a previous novel, where I won’t sphere Travel Guides: Las Vegas For portraits of John and Sunday Reed – who, Vegans’. I got a thrill a few Sundays ago the process. It is here where Miller’s be giving anything away. In Lovesong there skills become apparent, where we the although they owe a debt to them, are not, is a rather mean character who always sits at Readings Carlton. Holly Harper, one of course, to be confused with my fictional of our children’s specialists, is the author reader are drawn in as accomplices to with the warm-hearted oud player, Nejib, their illicit affair, while not approving characters Arthur and Autumn Laing. in the café Chez Dom, where much of of an adventure series, Star League, with three more titles just published. Aimed at least understanding its power and its the action in that book takes place. I had potential. It is this shift that turns the There is a passage in the novel in which the no idea who this man was, except that he at younger readers, they are a great artist Pat Donlon is taunted by his contem- introduction to chapter books for kids novel on its head and leads it to its insisted on being there and was obviously dramatic denouement. When Donlan poraries for his rejection of the European tolerated by the nice oud player. It wasn’t aged eight and over. On this Sunday, tradition that is being taught at the small group of kids walked into the decides to go a friend’s station in the until John, the café’s Australian proprietor, highlands west of Rockhampton, School. Donlon’s response to this is to insist in a state of shock after the mean man has shop and spying Holly, they whispered that, ‘Our problem is not to make it new loudly, ‘There she is!’ And then, very Autumn insists on going against the murdered Bruno in front of them all, asks wishes both of Arthur and Pat. It is but to make it Australian.’ Is this for you the Nejib: ‘Who is he?’ that I realised who he respectfully, they lined up and asked her novel’s central theme? to sign their books. here in the so called outback that was. The identity of this man, so crucial to Donlan does learn to “make it The central theme of this novel is the outcome of this book, came to me as We established the Readings Founda- Australian”, and Autumn becomes an Autumn Laing’s attempt, as an old I wrote Nejib’s answer, ‘He is my brother.’ tion in 2008 to formalise a rather ad active collaborator in the new work. woman, to gain the forgiveness of Pat My God, so that’s who he was? I thought, hoc giving program we’d had for many Here there is a reference to the Donlon’s first wife, Edith, whom she and took a deep and relaxed. The years. Initially, my business partner, speculation that Sunday Reed actually deeply wronged when they were all young end of Autumn Laing came to me in this Steve Smith, and I determined that we painted some of the works in Nolan’s and driven by their passions and the fire way also, as I was writing it. It is one of the would give 2% of Readings’ profits to Ned Kelly series. Miller, here, returns of fierce ambition. The central theme great joys of being a writer whose stories the Foundation. That, together with to some of the notions he explored in of the book is Autumn Laing’s difficult are of necessity not subject to plots that some substantial private donations and Journey to the Stone Country – the moral search to clear her conscience before the story’s most critical moments often contributions from our customers for notion of country and its place in she dies. The theme is private morality. unfold in this way at the very instant gift-wrapping, meant that last year we European sensibility. “..the outback is It is because she is a woman who has a when the answer is required. The novelist gave away $80,000 to organisations not a place but is the Australian demanding conscience that seeing Edith, who writes in this way does so with the such as the Brotherhood of St Lawrence, imagination itself.” One of the initial who she had thought long dead and had requirement of faith. The unconscious, Sacred Heart Mission, The Wheeler temptations in embarking on this novel not seen for many years, makes Autumn from where it all emerges, I suppose, plays Centre fellowships and Aboriginal lit- is to fit Miller’s characters to the real feel the sting of the guilt of her past that with us, and makes us hold our breath eracy. Given the uncertainty of the book life characters of Sunday and John still clings to her in her old age. Edith, she and strains our faith with terrible suspense trade at present, Steve and I wanted to Reed’s world but it is to Miller’s credit realises, might have been her oldest friend sometimes, then at the very last it lets go try to make a stronger provision for the that this desire fades and it his instead of her oldest enemy. If she, Au- and hands over the precious gift of the future of the foundation. In order to do characters that truly matter. Autumn tumn, had her life again, she says to her- answer. I think if I knew all this when I this, we decided to increase Readings’ Laing is Miller’s most accomplished self, instead of wronging Edith she would began to write the book I would take to contribution to 10% of our profits. If and ambitious novel to date. put her arms around her and comfort her. gardening or some other pastime, for writ- you are involved in an organisation and That Autumn badly misreads Edith’s life ing would be the most boring thing to do. Mark Rubbo is managing director would like to apply for a grant, details are of Readings and her own part in it is one of the great on our website. Applications close soon! ironies of the story. Such is the theme of Full version at www.readings.com.au. 6 Readings Monthly October 2011 New Fiction exasperated attentions and expectations of his eternally disappointed mother and sister. Australian Fiction Yet, he’s an utterly lovable character – gauche The Street Sweeper and irritating, but big-hearted. The mystery Elliot Perlman at the core of this novel is why Stephen Vintage. PB. Normally $32.95 wants to break up with Fiona: their relation- Our special price $27.95 ship is imperfect, yes, but it’s also affection- Listen. Listen carefully. ate, genuine and touching. The answer seems Shlofmayn kind, shlofkeseyder to lie in Stephen’s palpably human insecuri- – for Perlman’s new book is ties. not a Yiddish lullaby, but one Animal People may centre on a pending Journey through India with Christine Manfield, From feral children to fairy-tale princesses, of the most compelling tracing the food, spices and culture of this secrets codes and invented languages, break-up, but it’s a romantic comedy of amazing country. Cook your way through more J.P. Davidson uncovers everything you need to Holocaust tales since sorts, with some wonderful observational than 250 traditional and contemporary recipes know about how language evolves. Discover Schindler’s Ark. It’s been eight humour – particularly at the children’s and plan your travels using the directory of all this and more in this gloriously, endlessly years since Seven Types of recommended places to stay, eat and shop. intriguing multi-lingual Planet Word. birthday party in the final third of the novel. Ambiguity – that grand epic rivaling The Cor- Thoroughly recommended; it made me rections in its dealings with the fissures laugh and cry. What more could you ask for? between morals and the ability to live – and Jo Case is editor of Readings Monthly now we have a new marathon of a book that is every bit as complicated and masterful. Blood Perlman ferries us between contemporary Tony Birch New York and 1950s Chicago, Melbourne UQP. PB. $29.95 and, of course – Auschwitz. But this is not Tony Birch’s debut novel, just a tale of Jewish genocide. Adam Zigne- Blood, will surely attract a lik, raised in Australia and recently sepa- lot of interest from the rated, faces imminent unemployment from many fans of his accom- his post as professor of history at Columbia plished short stories. He has University, following years of leaning on the published two acclaimed name of his father, a liberal Jew active in the collections, Shadowboxing civil rights movement. Meanwhile Lamont (2006) and Father’s Day Williams is on parole after serving six years (2009) – but this is first foray into the Michael Moore had an uncanny knack for showing Marion Flint lives alone on the wild west coast for unwittingly participating in an armed longer form. The move into an extended up just where history was being made. Here of New Zealand’s North Island. One day she robbery that separated him from his daugh- narrative can be tricky for short-story Comes Trouble takes readers on an unforgettable, meets a small boy, Ika, on the empty, rugged ter, and now works in a hospital where he writers, resulting in a sense of the story take-no-prisoners ride through his life. It might beach, and an unlikely friendship begins between befriends an Auschwitz survivor. These two being padded out. I’m happy to report no just be the most hilarious, provoking, poignant the Swedish doctor and the solemn child with and inspiring non-autobiography you ever read. webbed feet and a fear of being touched. narratives fold into an intricately connected such awkwardness here – in fact, I stayed universe of characters that culminates in the up late to finish Blood in one greedy gulp, work of an obscure psychologist who arrives so invested I was in the fate of its main in Europe, 1946, interviewing those who characters, brother and sister Jesse and penguin.com.au experienced a horror and tragedy yet to have Rachel. a name. Thirteen-year-old Jesse is unusually mature This – and a large part of the story – is for his age, with good reason: he’s been historically true. Anecdotes of real figures looking after younger sister Rachel since he THe CooK pivot between the narrative arc and fictive was five, in the face of indifferent neglect by Wayne Macauley characters, creating a haunting connection from their mother, Gwen. The siblings’ lon- between past and present across continents. gest stint in a stable-ish home is their time ‘Irresistible— Moral ambiguity sits at the core as each living in a rundown farmhouse near Mel- new from The Cook character grapples with history and that in- bourne airport with tattooed ex-con Jon. At reminds us just ternal tic that echoes, ‘the trick is not to hate first, they fear he’ll be ‘good with his fists’, Text Publishing how exciting yourself’. At once signifying an individual like so many of Gwen’s boyfriends, but it is to read a and collective struggle, this is gutsy and instead he turns out to be a rare stabilising wonderful and gruesome, and is Perlman at his best. More influences in their lives, baking cakes and original novel.’ than once we are told – Listen to This. sharing life-advice, until Gwen gets bored LLoyd Jones Luke May is from Readings St Kilda with his domestic ways and kicks him out. Later, an unexpected stay with Gwen’s fa- animal people ther, a reformed alcoholic, provides another Charlotte Wood aborted glimmer of hope. But before long, TRIPTyCH RAGnARoK A&U. PB. $29.99 Gwen, Jesse and Rachel are stuck with by Krissy Kneen by A.s. Byatt Charlotte Wood’s The another thoroughly bad character ‘good Children is among my with his fists’ – and Jesse takes an opportu- erotic fiction ‘A rare fusion of favourite Australian novels: nity to make a dash for a better life, taking from the author imagination and she’s just so good at the an audacious risk that brings seriously dark of Affection. intellect, sensual dynamics of relationships consequences. poetry and and minute social observa- ‘not many This is a fractured fairytale, a dark Austra- cerebral prose, tions that give worlds of self-confessed lian road story, but also an affecting tale youthful joy and information about the people perverts can about the bond between a brother and elderly wisdom.’ and places she captures. Woods’ writing write as well as sister, and how the most unexpected people GuARdiAn reminds me of ’s, in that it’s can transform lives. Birch delivers edge-of- Krissy Kneen.’ easy to read, but deceptively so: it’s rich with RAve your-seat suspense and engrossing charac- ideas and absolutely distinctive in its voice. terisation in equal measures. So, I was pretty excited to receive Animal Jo Case is editor of Readings Monthly LITTLe sTAR THe MAsK oF desTIny People, which follows one (monumentally by John Ajvide Lindqvist by Richard newsome bad) day in the life of middle-aged man- Life Kills child Stephen, as he prepares to break up Miles Vertigan A new novel from The secret is with his girlfriend. Stephen was a character Sleepers. PB. $24.95. ebook $13.95 the author of Let finally revealed in The Children, and others moonlight here One of TISM songs goes like the Right One in. in the nail-biting too, but you don’t need to have read that this: ‘Life’s a sentence, read conclusion to novel to thoroughly enjoy this one. This is at ‘A dangerously all about it. I’m dying.’ These the exciting once a novel about Stephen, and his relation- imaginative man.’ lyrics could easily sum up Billionaire ship with girlfriend Fiona and her two girls; HeRALd Sun both the style and the plot of Trilogy. and about urban life, with our relationships Miles Vertigan’s book, Life with animals (and all the absurdities those Kills. This extraordinary relationships often entail) as a recurrent novel follows the most theme. Stephen works at a zoo kiosk; he is personal thoughts of an unnamed terrorist determinedly unambitious and a bit hope- aboard a flight. His stream-of-consciousness less. He often says the wrong thing in social comes at the reader full belt. There is no situations, he unwittingly wears chef’s pants time for breath, no time to pause – reading textpublishing.com.au (because they’re comfy), and must duck the this book is a ‘one sit’ occasion. Readings Monthly October 2011 7

Vertigan manages to also intercede and inter- cept the thoughts of other people on the flight: the stewards, Bubbles and Sparkles, International the pilots, Brad and Chad, and a whole list of B-list celebrities. Certainly his scorn is Fiction with Charlotte Wood not limited to those personalities on board, The Marriage Plot QJo Case& interviewsA Charlotte Wood about Animal People (A&U, PB, $29.99) but he also manages to cover the in-flight Jeffrey Eugenides entertainment with fumes. The suspense of Fourth Estate. PB. Normally $30 strand. I saw that actually I had quite a few the plot lies in the slow-building anger and Our special price $24.95 animals scattered through my draft, but resolution of the so-called terrorist. The odes It’s been nine years since that I hadn’t explored what they meant – to to the other personalities on board become Eugenides’ Pulitzer Prize- Stephen, or to me. I live in an inner urban more frequent, more absurd and ultimately winning Middlesex hit the area – and this stuff about animals is pretty more heart-breaking. This is after all, a novel shelves, so his highly visible where I live. There seems to be a steeped in satire at its purest. anticipated new novel arrives gross denial of the creatures’ actual animal- Reading Life Kills is an unadulterated thrill. much-hyped and with ity, a sort of desperation to humanise them, Vertigan’s prose is delicious: taunt and pre- expectations set high. The that I find depressing and a bit sad. As well, cise; although not for everyone. Vertigan is Marriage Plot doesn’t possess though, the zoo setting particularly allowed obviously the master of the spoken word and Middlesex’s ambitious scope and gets off to me to explore some ideas about captivity one should read this novel with this in mind. a (somewhat) slow start, but Eugenides still and freedom where humans are concerned. Sentences can run into pages of words and knows how to write a gorgeous line and his I might have exaggerated for comic value could often stand in isolation to the overall characters are ridiculously appealing. here or there, and I certainly entirely in- plot. Life Kills is an original tirade against so- There’s an unrequited-love triangle at the vented the goings-on at Stephen’s particular ciety. Reading this torrent of apprehension heart of this story, and mental illness, and zoo. But in terms of our culture’s behaviour with animals I don’t think the stretch from is breathtaking, fun and creates a damning religious passion – as well as a love of In Animal People, you revisit the family reality is very long at all. portrait of our society. James Joyce: I reckon literature, and the kind of power that from The Children, concentrating on the results from characters awakening to their you have met your match. hapless (middle-aged man-child) brother, This novel is rich with comic observations Chris Gordon is events coordinator of Readings defects and their unique beauty. Eugenides’ Stephen. What drew you to revisit this fam- about the absurdities of contemporary life: characters navigate their trials, their ily and these characters? And why Stephen? nudie pictures on Facebook, pseudo-scientific elations, their disappointments and the Triptych beauty products and the ‘wellness’ industry, tricky entanglements of love and disap- It didn’t occur to me for quite some time Krissy Kneen ‘pretend book club’, corporate bonding exer- pointment with grace and resilience. after The Children was finished to revisit Text. PB. $29.95. ebook $14.96 cises. Was it fun collecting all these examples? Eugenides somehow manages to resolve Stephen. I knew I wanted to write a very Krissy Kneen, author of the How important are they to the book? acclaimed sexual memoir their triangle in a satisfactory and surpris- urban book, and while I was thinking Affection, delves into the ing way, while tying the thematic elements about what sort of a book it might be, I Urban life is so absurd much of the time world of erotic fiction in of the story together. kept being drawn back to thinking about that you couldn’t even use it in a book Stephen. I think this is probably because because it would be so implausible. I did Triptych, her first novel. In The ‘marriage plot’ in The Marriage Plot of all the characters in The Children, he have loads of fun collecting the examples, this world of linked stories, isn’t much like the ones found in the was the least resolved by the end. Or at occasionally giving them a tiny bit of she addresses taboos of all nineteenth-century novels Madeleine is be- least, he was the one I didn’t fully under- exaggeration, but a great deal of the kinds, with a subtle wit and sotted with, in which a heroine overcomes stand, when the others – Mandy especial- negotiating of an ordinary urban day is insistence on sexual pleasure that will delight obstacles to secure a fortune through mar- ly – I felt I knew, inside out. And in a way drawn directly from life. There is just so readers. A solitary young woman pursues riage; instead it’s 1982 and Mitchell loves – this will sound odd, for a person one much bullshit around us, which we can online adventure and finds a soul mate. Leda’s Madeleine, who loves Leonard, who’s up has invented – I still worried about him. I get drawn into, mainly involving spend- first love brings powerful sexual awakening at against manic depression. The story takes wanted to see him through the next stage ing money. I loved poking fun at some of the behest of two very different best friends. place within a tight timeline, as the char- of his life, and I wanted him not to be that kind of nonsense. Like the time I had And in some families, husband and wife start acters finish their undergraduate studies at so lonely. It is very strange how fictional a facial, and the young woman putting to become like brother and sister. In others it Brown University (where Eugenides took characters can sort of embed themselves the stuff on my skin spoke to me in detail is the other way around. For Aaron, it’s a bit his undergraduate degree) and take their in one’s consciousness almost as if they are about Skin Care Regimens with all the more complicated. Lyrical, comic, erotic and first tentative steps in the ‘real’ world. The real. I think of him as a kind of wayward confiding seriousness of an oncologist dis- romantic, these are engrossing stories from a novel is about romantic delusions and how cousin I’ve always loved, but who inexpli- cussing a diagnosis. And corporate motiva- consummate Australian storyteller. they operate, and about how reality comes cably finds life a bit of a struggle. tional team-building games – please. I find along and always has its own way. that sort of stuff hilarious, and I wanted to War and Peace Animal People follows one character, Eugenides loves his characters, with all their prick the balloon of its pomposity. and Sonya Stephen, over 24 hours as he plans to break flaws and their delusions. The Marriage Plot Judith Armstrong up with his girlfriend at her daughter’s Stephen infuriates the people he comes into joins them at a very important time in their Pier 9. PB. $29.99. ebook $19.99 birthday party that afternoon. What drew contact with, for various reasons. His mother lives, as they first waken to themselves and In 1862 Sonya Tolstoy you to that 24-hour structure? and sister are exasperated with his lifestyle to the world. It’s a brilliant journey, full of married one of the greatest choices; his girlfriend’s family look down on both anguish and light, and Mr Eugenides I have come to realise that in beginning authors the world has ever him for his lack of achievement. He wears has done a superb job making the reader a novel, I often need a kind of technical known. Sixteen years chef’s pants because they’re comfy, his house want to join them on their way. challenge to kick-start the writing for me, younger than her husband, is filthy, he works in a zoo kiosk and deter- Ed Moreno is from Readings Malvern and in this book the time frame was that she bore him 13 children and minedly has no ambition, and he is often clue- challenge. The challenge was to write my worked for years as his less about social niceties. Yet I liked him a lot. way through a thoroughly ordinary day copyist, rewriting countless Nightwoods How did you feel about Stephen? while hopefully making it an extraordi- drafts of his novels. Towards the end, Tolstoy Charles Frazier nary, life-changing one for Stephen. One I love him. I feel very fondly towards him. deserted her. In War & Peace and Sonya, Hachette. PB. Normally $33 of the challenges was to keep up a lively, And I feel sympathy for him even though Judith Armstrong tells Sonya’s own story, Our special price $27.95 naturalistic narrative that revealed things it’s completely obvious why he drives exploring her devotion and her immense A brilliant new novel from the about Stephen without lumping in too people crazy with his oblivion to social passion for great literature. ‘Like Hilary bestselling author of Cold much static flashback. But I also liked cues and ambition and so on. I think I Mantel ... Armstrong puts her scholarly Mountain, Nightwoods is what it offered, in terms of the pressure love him partly because he’s so defiantly imagination to work on a known period and haunting southern literary one could bring to bear. We have all had not what a successful contemporary man is a set of famous figures. At the heart of it is gothic. Luce is a solitary days from hell – those days where one supposed to look like. But yet he’s funny Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy’s best loved caretaker of an old lodge in catastrophe leads to another and another, and observant, I think he’s kind and smart, heroine, seen from the anguished vision of the mountains of North and I thought there was lots of dramatic his girlfriend truly loves him despite what Tolstoy’s wife Sonya.’ – Brenda Niall Carolina. She lives an isolated existence – until her beautiful, gentle sister is potential in that. her family thinks. One of the things I was interested in examining with this book is murdered, and Luce inherits Lily’s mute, Animal People illuminates many of the With my Body how ‘success’ and ‘failure’ are defined in traumatised twins. What follows is a saga of contradictions, blind spots and projected Nikki Gemmell contemporary urban life. Stephen most love, despair and danger as Luce struggles to fantasies inherent in our relationships with HarperCollins. PB. Normally $30 definitely fits the failure side where some Our special price $24.95 keep the children safe from the bleak animals. What made you want to explore landscape, as well as Lily’s violent husband, a people are concerned because he doesn’t The long-awaited follow-up to The Bride this theme – and how did you collect or killer who is after a horde of wealth he own anything, he has no career ambition, Stripped Bare, With My Body is an intensely invent all these examples? believes Luce and her family conceal. and he doesn’t seem to care enough about personal tale of sexual awakening as well Strangely the idea of exploring our weird what other people think of him. At the as one wife’s story about every woman’s behaviour towards animals didn’t occur to same time, I do think he’s holding himself marriage. Locked into an unending cycle The Night Circus Erin Morgenstern me until I had been writing the book for back – because of fear – from a full and of school runs, laundry and meal times, a well over a year. I just plucked the zoo set- rich experience of the important things in wife despairs of ever finding a way through Harvill. PB. Normally $32.95 Our special price $27.95 ting out of the air – an old flame of mine life. He’s afraid of life in the same way he’s her family to her own identity. Even her once worked at the zoo as a sandwich hand afraid of animals; he’s scared of mess and husband, whom she loves, has never reached As you close The Night Circus, the whiff of caramel and I thought it could have some good complication – of love, indeed – but the the core of her. In desperation, she flees her comic potential. But then later, after I’d way he deals with that fear is by deriding comfortable life to revisit an old love affair. popcorn disappears, the taste of mulled cider abandons had a break from the novel while editing society, and framing his fear instead as a Raw and emotionally bold, Nikki Gemmell the Brothers & Sisters collection, when I rejection of life’s ‘bullshit’. I think he’s the replicates the classic French erotic writings your mouth and the black- and-white marvels of Le went back to it the animal stuff began kind of man who is most wholly rescued of Colette, Anaïs Nin and Marguerite Duras, to emerge as a much more important by love, if he could only accept it. with a modern and provocative twist. Cirque des Rêves are torn 8 Readings Monthly October 2011 abruptly away, as reality crashes back. But Apricot Jam Jam, the times are always changing. People for a little while you’re there, looking Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn are forced to change with them, and that’s wide-eyed at the sea of tents on yesterday’s where life – and these stories – get messy. Translated Pick Text. PB. $24.95. ebook $19.95 empty field, exploring the endless winding Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn became and re- Luke Meinzen is a freelance reviewer of the Month pathways, gasping as the contortionist mained famous for The Gulag Archipelago by Emmett Stinson bends in ways no human body should. and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. You Deserve Nothing Finally, you stumble across a tent that Both made him – Old Believer beard and Alexander Maksik The Opportune reads: ‘Feats of Illustrious Illusion.’ all – a mascot in the struggle against the ir- Tonga Books. PB. $29.99 Moment, 1855 Curious, you enter. Behind you, the door resistible force of the state. His work details You Deserve Nothing is the first Patrick Ourednik disappears seamlessly into the wall. And systematic dehumanisation in Soviet labour title to be published by new Dalkey Archive Press. PB. $17.95 you wait for the magic to begin. camps, but Solzhenitsyn had carefully con- imprint Tonga Books. Each Czech author Patrick So the curtain raises on Le Cirque de Rêves, ceived bile for capitalists too. During his book published under this Ourednik’s newly trans- open only at night and clothed entirely in exile in the , he gave speeches imprint will be selected and lated novella, The Oppor- black and white. It’s the touring stage on as critical of Western-style freedom as of edited by a prominent writer tune Moment, 1855, tells which they display their magical prowess Soviet command and control. and this novel was the choice the story of a group of of Alice Sebold, author of The and their ever-expanding talents wow all In the stories collected in Apricot Jam, first expatriate Europeans who enter its gates. Marco and Celia are Lovely Bones. As stated on their website, attempting to start an published in the 90s in Russia, he had not ‘Tonga is unafraid of darker material, bound to a high-stakes game from which yet grown tired of playing conscience to his anarchist commune, called neither may escape until the ultimate vic- uninterested in cleverness for the sake of the Fraternitas Free Settlement, in Brazil. homeland and the world. Eight of the nine cleverness, and passionate about depth of tor is revealed. They create a garden made stories are binaries, distinct parts with only But from the very outset, the reader knows entirely of ice, a carousel whose animals character. Among other things, Tonga hopes that the settlement is doomed; the novel thematic or tangential connections. Setting to cultivate the sort of cutting edge voices that come to life and a maze of clouds. But their two things next to each other for compari- opens with a letter, dated March 1902, game has unwittingly captured others in often go overlooked by larger publishing written by the leader of this anarchist son is not a new or subtle trick, and there’s houses.’ I read this novel in two sittings and its grasp and the circus gradually begins to an unfashionable hint of moral convic- collective – a man affectionately referred to unravel as it draws to its seemingly inevi- am happy to say it lives up to this mission by his followers as ‘Older Brother’. While tion hanging around the form. The stories statement. table conclusion. work, however, like twins finishing each the letter is meant to serve as a sort of apologia pro sua vita, Older Brother’s Erin Morgenstern is a master of descrip- other’s sentences during an argument. They This is Alexander Maksik’s first novel and the feel more like independent war films than story follows high school teacher William self-important and grandiloquent expres- tion, who demands complete immersion sion of his lofty ideals spills over into from her readers. Her writing invokes all sermons. Characters appear out of personal Silver and two students, Gilad and Marie. histories of chance and compromise, and The setting is the International School of comic pastiche, and his laments about the the senses, entangling you in the feel, the failure of the commune emphasise his smell, the taste and the magic of the circus. slot into the rush of the story. Many wither France in Paris and the story is told from or die early deaths. Others continue into each of their points of view, with each own unwillingness to take any responsi- Her mouth-watering portrayal of Le Cirque bility for its collapse. While he bemoans des Rêves’ creator Chandresh’s midnight other stories, only to be shunted to a side- chapter alternating between characters. This track of history by Stalin or, more likely, is a technique that can be poorly executed, various problems with his plan’s execution dinners alone will have you racing for the – particularly his poor choice of volun- cupboards (knowing full well that you’ll swallowed and corrupted in the changing especially when one character is more interest- times. ing than another. However, Maksik has not teers for the first wave of settlers – he find nothing that remotely compares). The refuses to admit any error and stands by Night Circus is the finest form of escapism; only managed to make each character equally It might all be curmudgeonly, except that compelling, but his skilful handling of the his principles. in your mind’s eye you’re still watching the characters are vulnerable because they performing cats big and small, lighting a narrative means that the transition between But while Ourednik’s opening makes it are human. They love their families and each perspective is painless. candle on the wishing tree, and getting lost want to be loved. They want to be good clear that the colony has failed, the actual in the labyrinth, all illuminated by a bright soldiers and good scientists with their William teaches a subject that endeavours to events leading up to its failure remain white bonfire. fathers’ approval. They want to be part of introduce philosophy to his students through mysterious. Indeed, after the end of this Amy Roil blogs at The Book Witch: something. Solzhenitsyn celebrates his char- great works of literature; class discussions brief letter, the narrative jumps back in http://bookwitch1.blogspot.com. acters as human beings, even as he conveys centre on morality and freedom of the indi- time to 1855 in the form of a ship’s diary them toward the meat grinder. In Apricot vidual. When he allows himself to become kept by one of the future settlers currently sexually involved with Marie, his abstract voyaging to Brazil. The narrator’s naïve teachings become reality and just as he begins hopes for his future life in the commune to lose the respect of his students and peers, – a life in which there will be free love, he regains some sense of his own freedom. voluntary work, no hierarchical structures Moral judgement is left to the reader, but if and communal sharing of wealth – are you like the idea of escaping to Paris, drinking already undermined by the quarrelling Burgundy and discussing existentialism, then occurring onboard the ship. The passen- this is the perfect book to read in the spring gers have already factionalised, and are sunshine. A great book club book. separated by their nationalities (French, Kara Nicholson is from Readings Carlton Italian, German) and their political beliefs Fall under her spell... (the anarchists, the communists, and the the map and independents). While Ourednik success- the territory fully both conveys this disjuncture and exploits its comedic potential, at this Michel Houllebecq point in the novel, it appears that the Vintage. PB. Normally $32.95 book is a clever, if unoriginal, elaboration Our special price $27.95 of a familiar story: an impassioned but This biting satire from one of France’s con- naïve group of political radicals attempts temporary literary greats doubles as a literary to change the world, but falls miserably thriller, and a meditation on the nature of art, short with tragic results. the father-son relationship, death, work, and France’s transformation into a tourist para- But the novel’s final act underwrites the dise. Jed Martin, is an artist who stumbled seemingly simple narrative that the first into fame and fortune when gorgeous Russian two sections develop. Taking place in Olga, a marketing executive at Michelin, the new settlement itself, the narrative was attracted to his first project, a series of formally mimics the unfolding anarchy of photographs of Michelin maps – and to him. the colony; while it becomes clear that the We follow his career as it evolves into a series settlement is increasingly moving down a on ‘professions’, and his life as he is embroiled dangerous and possibly even violent path, in a crime investigation. Smart, cerebral and separating out events becomes more and engrossing, this novel won France’s national more difficult, and both narrative and literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, last year. historical hierarchies begin to deteriorate – with an ending that throws everything Reamde that came before into serious doubt. The Neal Stephenson result is a brilliant meditation on the link Atlantic. PB. Normally $35 between political agency and the way that Our special price $29.95 history is recorded and written down. A thriller to rival his cult classic Cryptonomi- Ourednik (who has lived in France for From the award-winningaward-winning author of Lovesongg and con, Neal Stephenson throws us right into the almost three decades) is regarded as one of heart of virtual crime with Reamde. T’Rain JourneyJourney to the Stone CountryCountryy comes an energeticenergetic the most important living Czech authors. – an internet role-playing game of fantasy and story of love, loyalty and creativity. Although he’s best known in the English- adventure – is a worldwide hit until hackers speaking world for his novel Europeana: An unfl inchingly intimate portrait of a woman manage to infect it with a lethal virus. Zula, A Brief History of the Twentieth Century, and her time, Autumn Laing is unforgettable. a talented young programmer, is sucked right which, as the title suggests, compresses 100 the thick of it when the disease lodges itself years of European history into 120 absurd in the computer of a powerful and dangerous and funny pages, The Opportune Moment, OUT NOW man, threatening to make the violence of the 1855 is another brilliant effort from this online world spill over into reality. essential European satirist. Readings Monthly October 2011 9

Q&A with New release Young AdultYA fiction titles. fiction Books for younger readers are on p16.

Elliot Perlman is a marvellously epic ode to otherworlds Readings St Kilda’s Luke May interviews the author of Three Dollars about YA Book of the Month and the outdoors. When Prue’s baby brother The Street Sweeper (Vintage, PB, Normally 32.95, Our special price $27.95) The Name of the Star is snatched up by a murder of crows and Maureen Johnson spirited away to the Impassable Wilderness where strange, sinister creatures live, she is hospital, people of all different back- Harper Collins. PB. $19.99 determined to get him back. Accompanied grounds forming an instant but transient As Aurora ‘Rory’ Deveaux by her less-than-brave classmate Curtis, our community, all of this is the gold that flies into London to start her plucky heroine encounters talking animals, sends you off in search of the goldmine. new life at boarding school, a witches and coyote soldiers on her quest to At the end of the goldmine is the answer Jack the Ripper-style murder reunite her family. to the question, ‘What if, between some takes place in the East End. of these people of disparate origins, an Maureen Johnson is one of The illustrations peppered throughout this unlikely friendship were to blossom?’ my favourite authors. I Narnia-esque book are charming, and, with This ‘unlikely’ friendship that begins the usually look forward to her its whimsical story and great cast of charac- novel is where we glimpse the possibil- books because I know that before long, I am ters, help make this one of the most original ity that in this story these two seminal going to be laughing out loud on the tram fantasy books I’ve read in some time. Lemony twentieth-century occurrences might and embarrassing myself. The Name of the Snicket fans aged nine and up will devour it! meet. Star is a little bit different. Rory Deveaux is Holly Harper is from Readings Carlton leaving small-town Louisiana for boarding In the epigraph to The Street Sweeper, Similarly to your previous novel, Seven school in London’s East End. She’s a bit Goliath: Leviathan we are presented with a quote from the Types of Ambiguity, your new book is a nervous about fitting in and keeping up with Book 3 Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. With her sprawling epic, with a narrative structure the work, but what she arrives to is a Scott Westerfeld that shifts between character, time and perennial themes of time and memory, we London unsettled, as reports of a brutal Penguin. HB. $29.95 place quite dramatically. Do you find that are immediately aware that this story is murder circulate. Goliath is the third and final this is the best way to capture the elusive essentially about history and remembering. book in the compelling essence of humanity, or is it simply a stylis- What works so well in this story is the Did you set out with a deliberate attempt steam punk trilogy, Levia- tic preference? palpable sense of mounting dread as Rory to write about this? settles into boarding school and the modern- than. The Leviathan of the series title – a genetically Yes, right from the outset, I saw this It’s probably both. Like many people, day ‘Ripper’ works its way through recreat- engineered mutant whale book as being about history, memory I look at the nineteenth century as ing the crimes of the world’s first infamous airship – is still on its and the inalienable dignity with which something of a ‘golden age’ for the serial killer. Rory is a completely believable round-the-world mission each of us are born, irrespective of novel, for literary fiction. Many of the and engaging protagonist. While she is with Alek (prince in hiding of the Austro- where we come from, irrespective of writers of that period who have been disturbed by the murders occurring nearby, Hungarian empire) and Midshipman Dylan our race, our ethnicity, our sex, our important to me try to deliver an entire what really worries her is making friends and Sharp (Deryn, a girl disguised as a boy). religion or our political views. In Anna world to the reader. I would like to be being forced to play field hockey – a strange Coming on board for the voyage towards Akhmatova, whose work I’ve long ad- able to do that, if I can. But it’s also a and unusual punishment to a non-athletic New York is Nikola Tesla, with the knowl- mired, I found someone who had writ- stylistic preference, not for all the stories American. Rory’s very funny adventures at edge of a weapon that could end the war. ten with great power and beauty in the I would want to tell but for some. It boarding school are interspersed with the This fantastic series successfully melds service of memory, history and dignity seems to me a good way to attempt to copycat killer’s increasingly violent murders speculative history and science into a in the face of tragedy and who had also capture the messiness of this business of and the tension ratchets up as the two narra- wonderfully realised historical world of written of hope. When the novel was being human with its conflicts, conun- tive strands move closer together. However, intrigue and adventure, beautifully illus- finished my mind alighted on her work drums and contradictions and always even as the murders move closer to Rory’s trated by Keith Thompson. MM and it seemed the perfect place to rest. the private internal anarchy of the mind life, the twist that comes halfway through running riot inside of you as you try to really kicks things up a gear. At what point did you realise that the live your life as best you can. The Shadow Girl events of the Holocaust and the civil rights The Name of the Star is a Gothic adventure John Larkin You manage to detour at great length with that I couldn’t put down. Yes, there are movement in America could intersect and Woolshed. PB. $18.95 tell the story you wanted to write? long illuminating passages of history. There boarding school hijinks. Yes, there is a boy. is a fine line between entertaining digres- Yes, there is a serial killer loose in the East It’s a rare teenage novel that affects me as The Shadow Girl One of the places I lived in Manhat- sions and essayistic outbursts that could End. What remains after the final page, profoundly as has done. tan was on the campus of Rockefeller disrupt the dramatisation of narrative – though, is an ode to London and the Gothic This book is a powerful and accomplished University, which is directly opposite and you tread it impressively. How do you novel. If you haven’t read Maureen Johnson piece of writing, based on a true story. It Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Cen- find a balance between what you ‘teach’ a before, then what are you waiting for? begins with an entry into the terrifying world ter, one of the most famous dedicated reader without sounding too didactic? Marie Matteson is from Readings Port Melbourne of a homeless girl who has found safety in cancer hospitals in the world. It was an abandoned house, and is celebrating her like a mini-city inside the much larger Thanks for saying this. It’s my guess that The Traitor and the birthday with a candlelit bath, but hears the borough of Manhattan. Patients came the success or otherwise of this strategy Tunnel: The Agency police enter through the back door. She is to the hospital from all over the city, all or device is in the eye of the reader. In an anonymous girl, living in an unnamed Book 3 city, who is telling her story to an unnamed over the world for treatment there. And the first instance I use myself as the Y.S. Lee as a consequence of this, visitors came guinea pig by asking myself when I read author. She is strong and spirited, modelling from all over the place to visit the pa- over a passage, ‘Does the reader need to Walker. PB. $16.95 herself on the Roald Dahl character, Matilda, tients. I used to catch the bus at a stop know more?’ or ‘Is this essential?’ I usu- The Agency series is my pick for the over- who has dreadful parents but determines to outside the hospital and see people of all ally like to keep one or more character looked young adult series of the last three surpass their poor example. The shadow girl different races, ethnicities and nationali- anchored not too far off the coast of the years. ‘Mary Quinn, orphan. Educated at is on the run from her uncle and aunt, who ties, all different ages, socio-economic apparent digression. Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls. Trained have been looking after her ever since her par- groups and educational levels all in very as an undercover agent.’ The agency books ents mysteriously disappeared. But her uncle close proximity to each other. In the last pages of Seven Types there is a are rich in detail of the everyday existence of is a gangster and a very dangerous man and line that reads, ‘The facts accumulate until the working classes of Victorian London. The if she is captured and returned to him, then Sometimes you could see the patients there are enough of them to constitute a cases Mary takes on are complex and a dash- her life is surely in danger. All this 15-year-old taken out on to the street in wheel- history. The history, like all histories, sup- ing young engineer doesn’t help. Following wants is to get an education so that she can chairs to get a breath of air, if not fresh ports conflicting views.’The Street Sweeper on from A Spy in the House and The Body at become a doctor and discover a cure for an air then at least different air, to feel adopts this as its key driver. Do you think The Tower, Mary Quinn is now on her third eye-eating African worm – but when you’re the wind on their faces, to see the real this moves it away from being a psychodra- assignment and we find her at the centre of homeless, just getting to school, let alone do- world, perhaps as part of keeping them ma, towards a more sociological work? Victorian England: Buckingham Palace. This ing your homework, can be a tough gig. feeling connected to the world, presum- series has it all – mystery, adventure, an in- I try to steer away from characteris- ably for their mental health. In addition trepid strong heroine and a dash of romance, The shadow girl is a wonderful protagonist ing my own work. My doing it won’t to these patients, there were exhausted, in an exceptionally researched historical – she’s smart, tough and never feels sorry for necessarily result in people sharing my over-worked stressed-out staff and the setting. It’s time to go back and discover the herself, despite the harrowing circumstances characterisation of one of my books and anxious visitors on the street too, just world of Mary Quinn and the Agency. MM of her life. She faces challenges with verve and outside the doors of the hospital. It al- it won’t stop people from labelling them vigour and I felt like I was holding my breath ways struck me as ironic that, so stressed as they choose. Once you send them the entire way, praying that she survive the out into the world you lose control over Wildwood were the visitors and many of the Colin Meloy next life-threatening moment. John Larkin staff as they communed in all sorts of how people view them. I understand has done a stunning job of bringing the shad- that, for all sorts of reasons, people need Text. HB. $19.95 ow girl’s story to us, with all the dignity and weather outside the doors of the cancer If the name Colin Meloy sounds familiar to hospital, that they would think nothing to characterise a book in one or other richness that it deserves. The book touches way but I think it’s possible for a book you, it’s probably because you’ve heard of on serious issues, including paedophila, so is of chain-smoking to alleviate their stress. him through his band, The Decemberists. It Now to a writer observing this scene, the to fit more than one category at a time. suitable for readers aged 15 and up. Why not? turns out that he’s not only a talented musi- Angela Crocombe is from Readings St Kilda multitude of smokers outside the cancer cian, but also quite the accomplished writer, since this first book in his Wildwood trilogy 10 Readings Monthly October 2011

New Crime Dead Write with Fiona Hardy Fife to track down the truth behind corrupt The Affair doned by her favourite people, she’s bored officer Detective Paul Carter, but the situa- Lee Child and restless. So when asked, Corinna takes Book of the Month tion becomes much trickier than expected Bantam. PB. Normally $32.95 up the offer to join the crew of a soap opera Feast Day of Fools and Fox’s team has no idea whose word to Our special price $27.95 as pastry chef, while dealing with assorted James Lee Burke trust. The only way to move forward on the Ever wanted to know what got Jack Reacher and entertaining melodrama – along with Orion. PB. Normally $33 case is to delve into the past, where political out of the army and into the hearts of crime weddings, pranks, nursery rhymes, tigers and Our special price $27.95 tensions between Scotland and England are lovers anywhere? Then have a stab at this other everyday holiday fare. Feast Day of Fools is James taut and the suicide of a politician can be Lee Child prequel, where military police- Lee Burke’s thirtieth novel, looked upon with fresh eyes. man Reacher is sent undercover as a civilian Burned featuring not Dave Robi- to an army base to find out who raped and Thomas Enger cheaux, but Sheriff Hack- The Potter’s Field killed a woman from a nearby town. With Faber. PB. $24.99 berry Holland. Holland has Andrea Camilleri the army hunting a civilian suspect different A debut novel picked up in a quit both the drink and the Penguin US. PB. $20 from Jack’s, he has to decide – the army, or flash by Norwegian publish- whores to police in small- Number 13 in Andrea the truth? ers Gyldendal (who excitedly town south-west Texas, Camilleri’s Inspector signed him for a whole where sociopaths and illegal immigrants Montalbano series is as smart Milkman in the Night series), Burned introduces have an uncanny need to congregate. Preach- and witty as ever. And it’s not Andrey Kurkov your new favourite protago- er Jack Collins (presumed dead at the end of a little deadly: in the Sicilian Harvill. PB. Normally $32.95 nist, crime journalist Rain Gods) has re-emerged to continue his town of Vigàta, a body is Our special price $27.95 Henning Juul. His young son killing ways; a Homeland Security scientist found in a remote field, cut Ukranian sometime-child- is dead, his wife lost to another man and his with valuable military information is into 30 pieces. Montalbano, rens’ author dives back into idiosyncrasies spiralling out of control. It missing; and a mysterious Chinese woman is seeing a connection between the death and crime. With enough absurdly takes a seemingly clear-cut case of Sharia- expediting Mexicans across the border. the bible story of Judas, works his way entertaining storylines to based murder to pique his interest and bring Confusing? You bet, and it doesn’t clear up through the crime while, elsewhere, a keep this particular reviewer him back fighting, into the world of justice easily. But the pay-off is huge, with Burke in beautiful woman reports her husband – a going for seven pages of the and journalistic integrity. stellar form. Texas is evoked beautifully, and man with mob ties – missing. Readings Monthly, Andrey the various characters are fleshed out with Kurkov populates Kiev with Cell 8 his usual aplomb. Where the plot goes Unusual Uses widows keeping dead husbands comfortable Anders Roslund haywire, it doesn’t matter. Just hang in there for Olive Oil on armchairs; wet nurses being milked for & Börge Hellström and you’ll get what Burke always delivers – Alexander McCall Smith cheap but sold to the rich; politicians, Quercus. PB. $27.99 simply the best American thriller writing Little, Brown. PB. Normally $33 airport guards – it’s quirky as hell, hard to The ex-con/crime journalist duo has teamed there is. Our special price $27.95 explain, but, happily, easier and much more up for another title that is both intriguing as Robbie Egan is from Readings Carlton Surely the man must not get any sleep, be- fun to read. a tale and interesting as a discussion topic. cause this month we have another Alexander A young man is on death row in Ohio for Impossible Dead McCall Smith release. It has been a long wait Cooking the Books murdering his girlfriend, but her relatives’ Ian Rankin for Von Igelfeld fans, but the delightfully ar- Kerry Greenwood thirst for revenge is left unquenched when Orion. PB. Normally $32.95 rogant professor is back, getting himself into A&U. PB. $22.99. ebook $13.80 he dies of a heart attack. Years later, a Swed- Our special price $27.95 a froth of rage about the ascension of fellow Charmingly local and full of recipes as well ish man is arrested for assault on a ferry – After his first Malcolm Fox book, The Com- professor Unterholzer and everyone’s attitudes as laughs, relentlessly sharp author Kerry but what is this man’s real identity, and what plaints, Ian Rankin has crafted another story to his own bachelordom. Not really a crime Greenwood shines again with her sixth is his connection to the American’s death? for the Internal Affairs department. Fox is in book – but it’s criminal if you don’t read it. Corinna Chapman book. On holiday, aban-

TONY ABBOTT THE TALIBAN Susan Mitchell SHUFFLE A blistering critique Kim Barker This story illustrates remarkable of opposition leader Swift, funny, and Tony Abbott from wholly original, this human resilience, unexpected one of Australia’s fascinating book kindness and astonishing best-known, and unforgettably captures most outspoken, the absurdities and heroism, reminding us that no feminist authors. tragedies of life in war-torn Afghanistan matter who we are, or where and Pakistan. we find ourselves, the past is always shadowing us. THE LIES OF DANIEL STEIN, SARAH PALIN INTERPRETER Geoffrey Dunn Ludmila Ulitskaya There’s so much more at randomhouse.com.au The first full-scale, Already seen by many in-depth political as the great Russian biography of one of novel of our time, this America’s most po- furious, funny, and larising figures — powerful book traverses set to become the decades and countries definitive account to tell of a life full of of the woman who contradictions and would be president. undaunted faith. Marriage Plot This Is A Call By Jeffrey By Paul WHEN MONEY DIES JERUSALEM, eugenides Brannigan Adam Fergusson JERUSALEM With brilliant wit dave’s feelings The classic account James Carroll and an incredible about these events of the year that the From the author of the understanding of and have never fully been Weimar Republic was bestselling Constan- all but reduced to a tine’s Sword comes a love for his characters, revealed to the public. barter economy, this richly layered story of the Pulitzer Prize winner never before has book is just as relevant city of Jerusalem and its Jeffrey eugenides an author had such in today’s perilous extraordinary impact on explores the original energies of intimate access to this extraordinary man. economic times. human history. the novel as an art form while creating a Paul Brannigan, his friend and confidant, story so contemporary that it reads like an now brings to light this unique intimate journal of our own lives. portrait of dave grohl. www.scribepublications.com.au Also available as eBooks Readings Monthly October 2011 11

a student at Trinity College, had graduated with a first-class degree and had actually re- ceived the best marks in the university. From Simon’s childhood ‘cake-layer’ multiplication tables at the age of four through to isosceles New Non-Fiction triangles wearing high heels, Masters guides New Avengers, and then as an outspoken us through the quagmire of mathemati- human rights activist for the Gurkha Justice cal theorems and language that preoccupy Campaign (for which she is now considered Australian Simon’s extraordinary (once-in-a-generation) a ‘national treasure’ in Nepal). With her brain. One of the most original and delight- distinctive voice and plummy vowels, this is Non-Fiction ful aspects to this book is the pictograms a truly entertaining look at the life of one of A Private Life that Masters constructs using photographs, Britain’s more recognisable stars. Michael Kirby childhood letters, notebooks, as well as his More ebooks A&U. HB. Normally $35 own line-drawings, which have the same Einstein on the Road Our special price $29.95 expressiveness and wickedness as a Ronald at special prices* Ebook $19.25 Josef Eisinger Searle schoolgirl. Michael Kirby is one of Prometheus. HB. $39.95 Australia’s most respected At the height of his fame, Usually a biographer doesn’t go to Sains- bury’s with their subject, but what results public figures, admired as Albert Einstein travelled the Autumn Laing is an unexpected intimacy peppered with much for his strength in world, from Japan to South Alex Miller frustrations: there are many words that dissent as for his intellect. America and many places in Paperback $32.95 Even those who disagree with between. During these Masters cannot use, ‘P- (six letters, oink, him have been moved by the voyages, between 1922 and oink.) My poor mother!’ and blanket refusal ebook $17.99 courage required of him to 1933, he kept numerous ‘I do not wish to commit myself to meeting come out as a high-profile gay man while travel diaries, in which he you because I now have less than 2 weeks to serving as one the justices on Australia’s recorded his impressions of people and use up 4 return train tickets’ (Simon is also High Court. In this new collection, he events, and his musings on everything from obsessed by public transport). Masters has speaks passionately and straightforwardly on music to politics and quantum mechanics. created a charming portrait of a modern-day eccentric. The stench of tinned sardines and the issues that are important to him – open- Through these fascinating records – never Animal People Quentin Crisp-style housekeeping will stay ing up about his early life, his 42-year before published in their entirety – Josef Charlotte Wood with you for a long time. relationship with Johan van Vloten, his Eisinger gives us an engaging portrait of Paperback $29.99 religious beliefs and even his youthful Einstein as he’s rarely been known. Justine Douglas is from Readings Port Melbourne infatuation with James Dean. Written in the ebook $17.99 reflective yet gently self-deprecating voice Seriously I’m Kidding Caravaggio: A Life that is so characteristic of him, this is a Ellen DeGeneres Sacred and Profane beautifully articulated book from one of HarperCollins. PB. Normally $33 Andrew Graham-Dixon Australia’s foremost thinkers. Our special price $27.95 Penguin. PB. $26.95 Comedian and entertainer Throughout the course of his How to Make Gravy Ellen DeGeneres opens up life, Caravaggio created some Paul Kelly about her life in stand-up, of the most dramatic Penguin. PB. $35 television and the silver paintings of his age. Here, Little Star Paul Kelly has written songs screen. With her humour Andrew Graham-Dixon John Ajvide about everything from love and trademark wit, DeGe- follows the master painter as Lindqvist and land rights to cricket and neres recalls her best roles, he travels through the cities Paperback $32.95 cooking, connecting from movies such as EDTV of Milan, Rome and generations of listeners across and Finding Nemo (where she provided the – a world of cardinals and sin, paupers and ebook $14.99 the country. In his immense- universally loved voice of Dory), as well as prayer – creating a biography that is as dark ly popular memoir, How to her many years hosting The Ellen DeGeneres and brooding and bloody as the paintings Make Gravy, Kelly tells the Show. Worth a look just for the tongue-in- themselves. ‘Conveys the force of Caravag- stories of his life through his lyrics, creating cheek blurb and endorsement quotes. gio’s personality and the consequences of his art with a brilliant grasp of detail.’ – The a ‘readable, ramshackle tome of essays, Life Kills Daily Telegraph memories, legends, journal entries, letters Tea with Arwa Miles Vertigan and lists’ (The Age). Some tell of Kelly’s Arwa El Masri Paperback $24.95 personal and family history, some take you Hachette. PB. Normally $35 Charles Dickens: A Life on a road tour with the band and some form Our special price $29.95 Claire Tomalin ebook $13.95 an idiosyncratic history of popular music, Born of Palestinian migrants, Penguin. HB. $39.95 but all are infinitely honest, lyrical and Arwa and her family arrived Charles Dickens: A Life is the deeply moving. in Australia just before her examination of Dickens as he ninth birthday. Growing up, really was – giving full Fog on the Hill it took her time to find her measure to his phenomenal Frank Sartor way, and to reconcile her legacy, as well as his failings. MUP. PB. $34.99. ebook $19.99 Muslim faith with her life as a Claire Tomalin follows up Once an independent young woman, but, gradually, The Invisible Woman, which A Private Life outsider, Frank Sartor Australia got under her skin. Then, at traced the relationship Michael Kirby became a NSW Labor twenty-three, after marrying legendary between Dickens and Nelly Ternan, with a Hardback $29.95 minister in 2003. For years, Australian rugby league player Hazem El full-scale biography of the writer himself. he was privy to the deepest Masri, Arwa decided to wear the veil. And so The man who emerges is one of extraordi- ebook $19.25 corners of party politics and begins a story of choices – of faith, freedom, nary contradictions, whose vices and virtues in Fog on a Hill, he pulls no and the importance of belonging. were intertwined as surely as his life and art. punches – dismantling not only the factionalism and frustrations within The Genius in the Labor government itself (which has been My Basement through four premiers in the last six years), Alexander Masters History The Cook but also the failings and often-risible hubris Harper Collins. PB. $27.99 The Better Angels Wayne Macauley of politicians as a whole. Alexander Masters has a of Our Nature: The Paperback $29.95 curious and enviable ability Decline of Violence in to recognise a great subject History and Its Causes ebook $14.96 when he meets one. I Steven Pinker Biography suppose that most of the Penguin. PB. $32.95 Absolutely time, other people are doing Steven Pinker’s riveting, Joanna Lumley their best to ignore the myth-destroying new book Hachette. HB. Normally $45 smelly, rude, maladjusted reveals how, contrary to popu- Our special price $39.95 people that Masters is hopelessly interested lar belief, humankind has Joanna Lumley is perhaps in. You may remember his first book, Stuart: become progressively less best known for her role as A Life Backwards, a biography of an alco- violent over millennia. Patsy Stone in the British holic, drug-addicted, knife-wielding Debunking both the Hobbes- ebooks.readings.com.au television series Absolutely homeless rogue, whom Masters had be- ian notion of a ‘nasty, brutish Fabulous, yet it is the sheer friended during a campaign to release two and short’ life, Pinker argues that modernity diversity of her life that charity workers from prison. and its cultural institutions are making us makes her so compelling a In his latest book, Masters’ subject is an better people. He ranges over everything from character today – early years unemployed mathematician, Simon Phil- art and religion to international trade and Note these ebook prices for a limited time only in Kashmir and Malaya, growing up in lips Norton, who lives in the flat beneath individual table manners, and shows how life * Kent, then working as a model before his making the following noises: ‘dhunk, has changed across the centuries through the becoming an actress. Here, she recounts her dhunk, dhunk, zwaap, ssschliissh’. Simon was extraordinary power of progressive ideas. many roles, from Bond Girl to Purdy in The 12 Readings Monthly October 2011

Love and Capital: became effectively worthless, with one US important community hub; the history of a Karl Marx and Jenny dollar to 4200 trillion marks, and the Wei- tough, poor neighborhood in a very wealthy Marx and the Birth mar Republic was all but reduced to a barter city. And lastly and most importantly, it’s a Great new titles economy. Since its first publication in 1975, love story between Doc and Louie, who of a Revolution When Money Dies has become the classic his- grew up a few doors from each other. From from Hachette Mary Gabriel tory of these bizarre and frightening times. their early childhood, their love for each Hachette. HB. Normally $40 And now, in years of acute economic strain, other was apparent. The book takes in the Our special price $34.95 it provides an urgent warning against the very beginnings of Collingwood entering the Love and Capital gives us the dangers of printing money, and soft options then-VFL at the end of the nineteenth story of Karl and Jenny Marx, for governments faced with growing unrest century, how important it was to the people following the couple as they and unemployment. of the suburb and an interesting social roam across Europe, on the history of what life was like for the people of run from governments and Here Comes Trouble ‘the flat’. The book also follows Doc and his secret networks in an age of Michael Moore best mate Percy Rowe (also a team mate at revolution. Biographer Mary Penguin. PB. $29.95 Collingwood) to Europe and World War I. Gabriel presents Karl not only Before Michael Moore The tragedy that follows is of course a very as an intellectual, but as a protective father became the Oscar-winning familiar one, as thousands of young Austra- and loving husband, a jokester and a man of filmmaker and general lians lost their lives miles from home. A tremendous passions, both political and thorn-in-the-side of corpo- touching tale, told very skillfully. BroaDcast wars personal, whose works would continue to rate and right-wing America, Dave Clarke is from Readings Carlton Michael Bodey redefine the world long after his death. he was a guy who had an One Way Road: An explosive look at a tumultuous That Woman: The Life uncanny knack of just period (2003-2011) in Australian showing up where history The Autobiography television as networks traded blows, of Wallis Simpson was being made. Here, Moore is his own of Robbie McEwen new technologies emerged and Anne Sebba meta-Forrest Gump – whether it be as an Robbie McEwen old personalities and management Hachette. PB. Normally $35 11-year-old boy stuck in an elevator with Random. PB. Normally $34.95 clung on for dear life. BROADCAST Our special price $29.95 Bobby Kennedy, or inside the Bitburg Our special price $29.95 WARS analyses the personalities and Wallis Simpson was one of cemetery with a dazed and confused Ronald machinations behind Australia’s TV Ebook $27.95 networks and programming. the most talked about women Reagan. Alternately funny and eye-opening, Over the last twenty years, of her generation – intensely this is a book Michael Moore has been cyclist Robbie McEwen has scrutinised and reviled as the writing, and living, for a very long time. won over 200 professional American divorcee who races and three Tour de allegedly ensnared a British France green jerseys, riding King from his throne. That with a determination and Woman (as Simpson was focus that has earned him a called by her sister-in-law Queen Elizabeth) is SHumourtuff Parisians Like: reputation as a ‘competitive the first serious yet sympathetic biography of Discovering the Quoi little bugger’ and ‘a bit of a hard bastard in Wallis as a woman and a style icon. in the Je Ne Sais Quoi the peloton’. In this candid memoir, he Olivier Magny reveals what it takes to make it as an elite When Money Dies: sprinter, and sets the record straight about his The nightmare Berkley. PB. $20.95 In the tradition of the controversial Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde persona. impossiBle DeaD of the Weimar bestselling Stuff White People hyper-inflation Like, Olivier Magny brings The Ox Is Slow But Ian Rankin Adam Fergusson us a tongue-in-cheek homage the Earth Is Patient Malcolm Fox and his team from Internal Scribe. PB. $29.95 to Parisians. What does it Affairs have been sent to investigate Mick Malthouse whether fellow cops covered up for a At the end of 1923, German currency take to capture that elusive je & David Buttifant corrupt colleague. But what should be ne sais quoi? From mastering A&U. HB. $29.99. Ebook $25.49 a simple job is soon complicated by the art of folding Le Monde Written by coach Mick intimations of conspiracy and a brutal to boldly crossing the street whenever murder committed with a weapon that New from Malthouse and Head of impulse strikes and standing with your collar Conditioning David should not even exist. casually popped at the edge of the Seine, this Buttifant – the two men at is the ultimate guide to Parisian über-chic. the helm of Collingwood’s recent success – The Ox is Slow but the Earth is Patient is much more than your aver- age sports book. It is a look at leadership, MySport Life in Shorts victory and life-changing moments; a study H.G. Nelson of the highs and lows of Melbourne’s Pan Macmillan. PB. $34.99 best-loved sport, and that mysterious process In My Life in Shorts, H.G. by which a collection of talented individuals Nelson – sports commentator can become a champion team. and loud-mouthed heckler NiGHtwooDs – takes a load off and looks Charles Frazier back. There’s his childhood in The new novel by the bestselling Seen around the world, John Carlos and Tommie the Barossa Valley and his Craft author of the classic Cold Mountain Smith’s Black Power salute on the 1968 Olympic time spent working as an Make Hey is a beautifully written, atmospheric podium sparked controversy and career fallout. apprentice jockey riding nags Pip Lincolne novel of love and suspense. Yet their show of defiance remains one of the saved from the abattoir, as well as a stint at Hardie Grant. PB. Normally $45 most iconic images throughout history. Here is the remarkable story of one of the men behind the famous Barossa Stuhl (one of the world’s Our special price $39.95 the salute, lifelong activist John Carlos. greatest whistling competitions). Frank and Pip Lincolne is back with $29.95 Pb, ISBN 9781608461271 funny, this is a loud and full account of living her third book of sweet Haymarket Books from one of the biggest personalities on and whimsical craft. Here, Australia’s small screen. she showcases 20 gorgeous projects in the lead up to Collingwood: summertime – bike seat cov- A Love Story ers made from vintage fabric, Paul Daley hand-printed gift bags and MUP. PB. Normally $35 decals to customise plates or mugs. There are Our special price $29.95 also five pull-out recipe cards with delicious Feast Day For Fools Ebook $14.99 goodies, to take on a picnic or just enjoy at James Lee Burke I was originally intrigued by home. Make Hey is perfect for anyone who Another violent and lyrical crime novel this book, as my own is interested in the art of making beautiful from the acclaimed master. Set in the grandparents had met at the things. harshly beautiful landscape of south Yarra Falls factory behind Texas, Sheriff Hackberry Holland is Collingwood’s spiritual facing more drug-fuelled murder and mayhem from across the home, Victoria Park in the Mexican border. In this enchanting work of scientific exploration, 1930s. Also, being a lifelong acclaimed science author Frank Ryan explains Science how metamorphosis - the intricate trick of Collingwood fan (passed on Genome Generation nature by which caterpillars transform into by my grandparents through my dad) drew Elizabeth Finkel butterflies - reveals secrets that are shaking the me to the book. Journalist Paul Daley has MUP. PB. $26.99 scientific world. written a personal and touching story based The year 2001 saw the completion of the $24.95 Pb, ISBN 9781851688463 on handed oral history and family tales. It Oneworld Publications human genome project and the culmination takes in the Collingwood Football Club as of a 14-year, $3 billion international race to Readings Monthly October 2011 13 read every letter of the code that makes up a human being. After years of study, Elizabeth Finkel travels from Botswana to Boston, Foodby Justine Douglas, & ReadingsWine Port Melbourne Singapore to Mexico, as well as laboratories all over Australia, to present the most vital Art of Pasta stories from the genetics frontier. Lucio Galletto & David Dale Penguin. PB. $59.95 I had dinner at Lucio’s in Sydney earlier this year and was charmed by Lucio BFinanceoomerang: Adven- himself, of course, and tures of a Financial entranced by the food. This Disaster Tourist is an extensive collection of pasta recipes – dried, fresh, FREE Michael Lewis MURDER MOUSE Penguin. HB. $39.95 filled and baked. There is a BLUES BAND ALBUM Boomerang is a tragi-comic wonderful chapter on soups and broths – the WITH EVERY BOOK romp across Europe as pasta in broth with meatballs is an inspired WHILE STOCKS LAST Michael Lewis charts the incantation of a childhood favourite. At the disastrous lead-up to the beginning of each recipe there is an explana- Ask for this offer at your world financial crisis. tion of the origins and etymology of each local Readings store PB • 9781921696985 Icelanders want to stop variety of pasta, but the recipes themselves www.readings.com.au eBook • 9781921696992 fishing and become invest- are exquisite. They manage to successfully ment bankers; the Greeks bridge that fine line between tradition and want to turn their country into a piñata innovation: rabbit cannelloni with Jerusalem stuffed with cash; and the Irish want to stop artichoke sauce or the luxurious buckwheat being Irish. Brilliantly told and sadly tagliatelle with oysters. Beautiful photo- hilarious, Lewis turns his merciless eye on graphs of the dishes (the beetroot ravioli is a world consumption in an attempt to make masterpiece) are complemented by original sense of what happened and the reckoning artworks by Luke Sciberras. that awaits us. New Middle Eastern Daring, dazzling The Great Crash Ahead Food and darkly funny Harry S. Dent Jr. Greg & Lucy Malouf Black Inc. PB. $29.95 Hardie Grant. HB. Normally $69.95 From the bestselling author of In The Great Depression Our special price $59.95 Ahead, Harry S. Dent Jr. The Maloufs’ most recent Snow Falling On Cedars comes a predicted the US debt crisis books have celebrated that classic of contemporary American life following the government’s intoxicating alliance of travel failed stimulus plan. Now, in and food: Saha Turquoise The Great Crash Ahead, he Saraban. Their latest offering forecasts a worldwide showcases a new kind of economic collapse and offers Middle Eastern food that practical advice on how to navigate it. Dent distils their favourite dishes offers no magical solutions or empty and reworks some of their earlier recipes into promises. Rather, he shows readers how they a fresher, lighter, modern cuisine. Imagine a can survive during this challenging period so stunning chicken terrine with dukkah rolled that they can thrive when the economy in flower petals, which has to be seen to be slowly returns to normal again. believed – it is so beautiful. There are some more substantial, traditional dishes like a twice-marinated and twice-cooked Portu- guese marinated quail that will challenge and Philosophy satiate the most adventurous cooks. A Little History of Philosophy Rockpool Bar and Grill Nigel Warburton Neil Perry Yale. HB. $29.95 Murdoch. HB. Normally $79.95 In A Little History of Philoso- Our special price $59.95 phy, Nigel Warburton takes This isn’t just a restaurant us on a chronological tour of cookbook, although all of our greatest thinkers, your favourite dishes are here. elegantly canvassing their This is the Rockpool story – a questions about this world manual for recreating that and how best to live in it. The exquisite immersive experi- book provides interesting and ence of dining at one of Neil often quirky stories of the lives and deaths of Perry’s iconic restaurants. philosophers – from Socrates, who chose to From the building blocks of a good bar, commit suicide by hemlock poisoning rather which includes a recipe for house-made tonic than live without freedom, to Peter Singer water, to profiles of favoured suppliers, you and his attempts to capture the most pressing will be able to decipher the extraordinary ethical dilemmas of our times. equation that makes Rockpool so extraordi- ‘I put some rissoles in sandwiches narily successful. As you would expect there The Happy Life: are classic steakhouse recipes, but there are for you two. Dig in.’ Lynchy also unexpected inclusions such as the grabbed two and handed me one. The Search for glorious lentil and ricotta eggplant moussaka Contentment in the and an essential house-chopped salad, which We bit into them while sipping Modern World is tossed tableside. our SodaStream-manufactured David Malouf Black Inc. PB. $19.95. ebook $9.95 Bill’s Everyday Asian soft drink. A rush came over me In this elegant treatise, David Bill Granger as I tasted the spice-free rissole Malouf returns to one of the Harper Collins. HB. Normally $50 most fundamental questions Our special price $39.95 bursting across my taste buds. It and gives it a modern twist: Bill Granger concedes he has was worth the wait.’ what makes for a happy life? emerged from the ‘phase of In considering what this is wanting to be authentic down In The Exotic Rissole cultures and what makes it possible, to the last detail’. While he collide and identities mix, Malouf revisits the ‘highest may have mellowed, his wisdom’ of the classics, and examines joy recipes still invigorate. I adore ‘I read this memoir with delight and all held together loosely with through Rubens and Rembr­andt. In a world his pumpkin, chilli and amusement. Tanveer Ahmed combines breadcrumbs and egg. becoming ever larger and impersonal, he coconut soup, and the cashew discovers happiness in the most unlikely of and chicken curry is just as quick, but tenfold great wisdom with skilful storytelling.’ places. This edition also includes responses nicer than a takeaway. For those evenings from leading commentators, such as Robert when only a bibimbap will satiate but you Dessaix, Anne Manne, Elizabeth Farrelly and don’t have the the energy for a full-scale Tim Soutphommasane. expedition to Chinatown – Bill delivers. www.newsouthbooks.com.au 14 Readings Monthly October 2011 Middle Readers Ruby Redfort: Look Into My Eyes Crafts Lauren Child KNewids Book of Kids’ the Booksbirthday and his best friend, the duck, is Harper. HB. $19.99 for Kids Month very excited about the fishing rod he is Lauren Child’s eponymous giving to Henry. But before Henry can even hero of the popular Clarice at Readings Hawthorn The Bippolo Seed and unwrap the duck’s present, his grandparents Bean series is a fan of the 701 Glenferrie Rd. Other Lost Stories arrive with a present that represents the literary character, superspy Dr Seuss duck’s worst nightmare – a dog. Henry Ruby Redfort. As the story Harper. HB. $19.99 forgets all about opening the duck’s present goes, Lauren Child received A brand new book of Dr in the excitement of finally having a dog, so many letters from keen Seuss stories! Hasn’t the man and the duck decides that it’s time to leave fans wanting to know how been dead for 20 years? – I home. What ensues is a dramatic and they could get hold of the Ruby Redfort hear you ask. Well, yes, but heart-warming escapade showing that there books, she decided to write them. The result Katie Evans avid Seuss scholar and is always room for friends, old and new. AC is a delightful story about a genius code- Activities with Katie Evans, collector Charles D. Cohen cracker and undercover agent who happens The Artist Who Painted to be a 12-year-old schoolgirl. Ruby looks author of Little Things For Busy recently revealed these seven individual stories, which a Blue Horse like a normal kid, but inside her small body Hands: 16 Crafty Projects For were initially published in Redbook magazine Eric Carle is the mind of a genius and a sassy come- Kids. Thursday 20 October, in the US during 1950 and 1951. They will Penguin. HB. $24.95 dian. She answers the phone with novelty greetings and wears t-shirts that say ‘bored 4.30pm–5.30pm. $25, includes finally appear for the first time together in This is a simple, colourful book format, with a global publication date picture book in the distinc- beyond belief’. Naturally, a secret govern- book and craft project. For of 27 September 2011. Being an avid Dr tive Eric Carle style, with a ment spy agency recruits Ruby to help them 7-11s. Bookings: 9819 1917. Seuss fan (my favourite childhood book was compelling historical crack a code and prevent a major theft. This The Lorax), I met these stories with both background. Carle spent his is such a fun book that you forgive Child the trepidation and excitement. Could they boyhood in Nazi Germany, occasional gap in the storyline. This is going possibly live up to the legend? which banned expressionis- to be the first of a series of six books about tic and abstract art, but his Ruby; young girls who enjoy the humour of All the characters in these early works seem subversive art teacher secretly showed the Clarice Bean will particularly love them. AC vaguely familiar and some do appear in later young Carle the work of banned artists, guises. ‘Gustav the Goldfish’ is an early, including Franz Marc, who painted animals Mask of Destiny rhymed version of A Fish Out of Water, Our Australian Girl in bright and unusual colours. Carle was Richard Newsome which was later published by Seuss’s wife, Make your own OAG journal! initially shocked by this radical style and Text. PB. $19.95. Helen Palmer Geisel; ‘Tadd and Todd’, a Bring a photo of yourself and use of colour, but was later inspired to use For those fans who have been pair of twins, one of whom is desperate to these methods in his own work. This book eagerly awaiting the third more. Details of what to bring at distinguish himself, have a physical resem- can be enjoyed simply as a vivid picture and final instalment of the blance to Thing One and Thing Two in The www.readings.com.au. Tuesday book for toddlers focusing on colour and brilliant Billionaire Trilogy, Cat in the Hat; and in ‘Steak for Supper’, 25 October, 4.30pm-5.30pm. $20, animals, but also as homage to the extraor- the wait is finally over! In The our protagonist happens to be walking down dinary talent of Franz Marc, who was one Mask of Destiny, Gerald and includes all materials and a copy Mulberry Street, the location of another of of the key figures in the German Expres- his friends have been tasked of an Our Australian Girl book. Seuss’s stories, when he gets in trouble with sionist movement. AC with retrieving a stolen ruby For 7-11s. Bookings: 9819 1917. some unusual creatures. key which will open a mysterious casket. The stories are just as you would expect Look! A Book! Even with his inherited billions and all the from Seuss – clever, witty and engaging, Libby Gleeson gadgets money can buy, this will not be an with pitch-perfect rhyming couplets and & Freya Blackwood easy mission for Gerald, Ruby and Sam, who his distinctive illustrations. I know that my HGE. HB. $24.95 will have to outwit devious foes as they race toddler will love them just as much as I do, Look, A Book! is the latest towards an ancient French castle. The Mask even if she has no idea she is reading buried collaboration from Libby of Destiny and its two prequels (The Billion- treasure. In an introduction to the collec- Gleeson and Freya Black- aire’s Curse; The Emerald Casket) are such a tion, Cohen explains the significance these wood. Set in an underprivi- perfect mix of adventure and humour, with a seven stories have as transitional stories in leged society, two children hint of nostalgia. Those looking for some- Seuss’s career. They will certainly add to our discover a book lying in the thing to move on to after Famous Five will understanding of one of the most beloved dust. Dreary surrounds love the exciting exploits, plot twists and children’s picture book authors, but they will become magical scenes of memorable characters in this series. also provide many readers with the sheer wonder, as the children’s imagination Holly Harper is from Readings Carlton delight of enjoying more Seuss-isms. transforms their reality. On their journey, Angela Crocombe is from Readings St Kilda they sail through dust, float in a teacup and Our Australian Girl: ride atop a plastic bottle. The minimal text Series 4 Picture Books set among the whimsical illustrations Letty’s Christmas Bumble-Ardy teaches younger readers about the magic of Lucia Masciullo & Alison Lloyd Maurice Sendak imagination that can stem from reading a A Home for Grace Harper. HB. $24.99 book. DP GRAEME This is a book about a very Novelty Poppy Comes Home mischievous pig! Bumble- Gabrielle Wang Ardy has just turned nine By the Pond Rose in Bloom BASE and has never had a Sonia Orchard birthday party. Determined Sheryl Clark DVD & Flashcard. $34.95 Puffin. PB. $14.95 each at Readings to mark the occasion, he After the success of In the sets about organising an event without This series will already be Garden comes the second familiar to a lot of our The author of Animalia and parental consent. Having invited all his instalment in the Life for The Sign of the Seahorse will friends, the party soon gets out of hand and readers, who will no doubt be Beginners series. Made for eagerly awaiting this new talk about his work and his lands poor Bumble-Ardy in trouble. Who children 0–4, By the Pond is batch. After we were intro- wonderful new book, then vows to never turn ten! This is the first a beautifully packaged DVD book to be written and illustrated by duced to Rose, Grace, Letty The Jewel Fish of Karnak. and flashcard box-set that acclaimed author Maurice Sendak since his and Poppy earlier this year, introduces children to the the Our Australian Girl series At two Readings shops: 1981 publication, Outside Over There. While life cycles and goings-on that take place in it’s dark in tone, readers will delight in the has just continued to get better and better. Readings Hawthorn Australian ponds. Entertaining and Each character is the star of her own set of rhyming text and the powerful illustrations educational, By the Pond has great anima- 701 Glenferrie Rd, that are signature styles of Sendak’s. books within the series, which spans across tion, a fantastic soundtrack and the different time periods from Australia’s history. Tuesday 4 October, 4.30pm, Daniela Perenaic is from Readings Malvern flashcards not only teach children, they also Book on 9819 1917. In this fourth collection, Grace is trying to be encourage interaction between parent and a good servant to her mistress in 1808 while Readings St Kilda The Perfect Present child. This series is a must-own for every Fiona Robertson caring for baby Alice; Letty’s time on a sheep 112 Acland St, small child. It is also the perfect gift idea run in 1841 is coming to an end due to Thurs 20 October, 4.30pm. Penguin. HB. $24.95 for newborns and toddlers. The DVD is drought; Poppy joins a travelling medicine This story about friendship compatible with foreign DVD players and show in 1864; and Rose gets ready to Book on 9525 3852. is the follow-up to the is therefore a great gift to send overseas. By Both events are free. celebrate Federation in 1901. The diverse delightful 2009 picture the Pond is Melbourne-made and specifi- characters are skilfully brought to life by some book, Wanted: The Perfect cally designed to introduce Aussie kids to of our best children’s authors writing today, Pet, in which young Henry the world around them. helping to make Our Australian Girl the was desperate for a dog, Nathan Reid is from Readings Malvern perfect introduction to Australian history for but ended up with a rather delightful (but readers eight and up. HH unusual) talking duck. Now, it’s Henry’s Readings Monthly October 2011 15 Readings Bargain Table Uncle Tungsten Catching Fire: A Mercy LOVE & Oliver Sacks How Cooking Toni Morrison PB. Was $21.95. Now $9.95 Made Us Human HB. Was $33.95. Now $14.95 In Uncle Tungsten, we meet Richard Wrangham A powerful tragedy distilled POLITICS Sacks’ extraordinary family, Was $22.95. Now $10.95 into a jewel of a masterpiece including his surgeon mother A renowned primatologist by the Nobel Prize-winning (who introduces 14-year-old argues that cooking created author of Beloved and, almost Oliver to human dissection) the human race. Catching like a prelude to that story, and his father, a family Fire offers a startlingly set two centuries earlier. doctor who imbues an early original argument about how enthusiasm for housecalls. we have come to be the social, intelligent and sexual 1001 Classical species we are today. The Philosophical Baby Recordings You Must Alison Gopnik Hear Before You Die Dead Hand HB. Was $22.95. Now $12.95 Steven Isserlis Paul Theroux Alison Gopnik, a leading HB. Was $29.95. Now $14.95 HB. $36.95. Now $13.95 psychologist, philosopher and Selected by a team of 22 Jerry Delfont leads an aimless a mother, explains the leading music critics from life in Calcutta, struggling groundbreaking new psycho- around the world, the 1001 in vain against his writer’s logical, neuroscientific and classical recordings featured block, or dead hand. Then philosophical developments here will delight discerning he receives a mysterious in our understanding of very music fans, and those just letter asking for his help, in young children. discovering the joy of classical this masterful novel. the Pleasures and music. 800 photographs. Sorrows of Work Annotated Hans Enchanted Hunters: Alain De Botton Christian Anderson The Power of Stories HB. Was $45.00. Now $15.95 Maria Tatar (transl. & ed.) in Childhood An exploration of the joys PB. Was $35.00. Now $16.95 Maria Tatar and perils of the modern workplace, beautifully Maria Tatar celebrates the HB. Was $37.95. Now $16.95 exploring what other people stories told by Denmark’s Maria Tatar challenges many wake up to do each day – ‘perfect wizard’, a writer who of our assumptions about A multi-generational saga of and night – to make our casts his spell on both childhood reading, examin- football, love, war, forgiveness frenzied world function. children and adults. Lushly ing the creative and cognitive and, most critically, identity. illustrated with more than benefits of reading from The latest book from Paul 150 rare images. infancy through adolescence. Psychiatric Power: Daley, author of the best-selling Lectures at the Beersheba and Armageddon: Two Best American Short College de France, men on an Anzac trail. The Glass Room Stories 2010 1973–74 AVAILABLE OCTOBER Richard Russo Simon Mawer Michel Foucault & Heidi Pitlor (eds) PB. Was $20.95. Now $12.95 HB. Was $42. Now $15.95 Honeymooners Viktor and PB. Was $20.95. Now $9.95 In this new addition to the Liesel Landauer are filled Russo (Empire Falls) and College de France lecture with the optimism and Pitlor (The Birthdays) deliver series, Michel Foucault’s cultural vibrancy of central an exceptional group of historical enquiry into the Europe of the 1920s when carefully crafted stories uses and techniques of power they meet modernist focusing on family, loss, and knowledge finds itself architect Rainer von Abt. self-discovery, aging, love, directed towards a study of and friendship. the birth of psychiatry. The Kindly Ones The Rest Is Noise Best American Jonathan Littell Alex Ross Comics 2009 HB. Was $35.95. Now $15.95 PB. Was $27.95. Now $13.95 Charles Burns (ed.) A former Nazi officer, Dr. Alex Ross, music critic for The HB. Was $34.95. Now $12.95 Maximilien Aue has rein- New Yorker, journeys from Best American Comics vented himself, many years Vienna before World War I to showcases the work of both after the war, as a middle- 1980s New York. The result is established and up-and- class family man and factory not so much a history of coming contributors. Burns owner in France. Intense and twentieth-century music as it has culled the best stories utterly original. is a history of the twentieth from graphic novels, century through its music. pamphlet comics, newspa- La Bella Lingua pers, magazines, and the web. Toward the Light Diane Hales of Liberty Bullfinch’s Mythology HB. Was $36.95. Now $14.95 A.C. Grayling Richard Martin In this charming love letter HB. Was $37.95. Now $14.95 to the language and culture PB. Was $34.95. Now $16.95 The epic story of the of Italy, journalist Diane The crisis in New South Wales The most complete compen- interlocking struggles to Hales recounts her inebria- Labor is so deep and has such dium of mythology ever achieve the individual rights tion with the sounds of significant ramifications that published includes the stories and freedoms that character- Italian and her lovesickness we need a massive dose of of: Apollo and Daphne, ise Western civilisation, by over its phrases. Pygmalion, Cupid and one of the world’s leading unadulterated, no-holds-barred Psyche, Hercules, The Trojan public intellectuals. honesty. The man who can deliver War, Ulysses, and more. Language for this honesty is Frank Sartor. a New Century Mistress of AVAILABLE OCTOBER The Lacuna Ravi Shankar, Tina Chang the Monarchy Barbara Kingsolver & Nathalie Handall (eds) Allison Weir HB. Was $37.95. Now $14.95 HB. Was $38.95. Now $14.95 HB. Was $39.95. Now $16.95 The story of Harrison An ambitious collection of Weir recounts one of history’s William Shepherd, an hundreds of poets from Asia, greatest love stories: Katherine unforgettable protagonist the Middle East, Africa, Swynford, who became the whose search for identity Europe, America, seeking a lover, mistress, and eventually takes readers to the heart of response to 9/11, and to share the wife of John of Gaunt, the twentieth century’s most an alternate vision of the new one of England’s most www.mup.com.au tumultuous events. century. powerful medieval princes. 16 Readings Monthly October 2011

trust is as precious as water. In the ongoing revival of the Western, Kelly Reichardt’s film, like Terence Malick in spurs, takes a beautifully austere and still approach to a story often told in loud dramatic flourishes, New Release DVDs with Mike Paterson using a subtle palate that almost leaves dust in the mouth – as well as a jackhammer in Water for sense of awe is never far away as – in breath- the heart. ‘An extraordinary experience.’ Elephants taking High Definition – we are led on a – Margaret Pomeranz DVD of the Month journey where the vast, combustive elements Released 12 October. $39.95 Jack Thompson Live Howard’s End Based on the acclaimed of the universe can also be found in our own $24.95 DVD. $29.95 Blu-ray bestseller by Sara Gruen and atomic make-up. Not since the great Carl at the Gearin Hotel: ‘Only connect ...’ The already developing a devoted Sagan has there been a communicator with Favourite Australian much-anticipated first following, Water for such charm, and the skill of turning complex- Poems Australian release of the Elephants presents an ity into a sense of wonder. $24.95 1992 Merchant Ivory unexpected romance in a Shot in the art deco splendor production of E.M. Forster’s uniquely compelling setting. The Lion King of Katoomba’s Gearin Hotel, masterpiece – starring Veterinary school student Released 12 October. $39.95 DVD. $49.95 Australian icon Jack Thomp- Anthony Hopkins and Jacob meets and falls in love with Marlena, Blu-ray son – face like granite and a Vanessa Redgrave – is a story a star performer in a circus of a bygone era. Disney’s last great animated voice like honey – reads ten of England at the cusp of social change. They discover beauty amidst the world of film before the advent of the classic poems in front of a Friendship, largesse and love connecting the Big Top, and come together through digital age of Pixar was the live audience. Beginning (and disconnecting) three sets of families, their compassion for a special elephant. phenomenon that is The Lion with Banjo Paterson’s The representing the social divide of Edwardian ‘The best circus movie since Greatest Show King. After years of being Man from Ironbark, Thompson performs a England, follow from the disputed owner- on Earth.’ – David Stratton. ‘I was totally unavailable in the ‘Disney loving and humorous tribute to the poets of ship of a country house, Howard’s End. entranced from the opening moment to the vault’ and acclaimed touring Australia and ends with a moving rendition Showered with awards and critical adula- end.’ – Margaret Pomeranz. performances of Julie of a poem written by his father John for his tion on its release, the film won three Taymor’s stage extravaganza, we can finally mother Patricia. Academy Awards, including Best Actress for The M.R. James experience again, for a limited time, the Emma Thompson and, with A Room with a Collection original majesty of the great coming-of-age The Crimson Petal View and Remains of the Day, formed the story in a beautifully restored print. The lion $69.95 and the White trilogy of genius in the Merchant Ivory is released from his cage. $29.95 series of beloved literary adaptations. This collection of masterly BBC adaptations of ghost Freakonomics: The streets of London in the Also available: The Merchant Ivory Collection stories, some of the most 1870s are anything but a safe Volume 1: 1963–1978 ($49.95). spine-chilling ever filmed, is The Movie place in this adaptation of finally available in Australia. $29.95 Michel Faber’s international In rural English settings, Freakonomics, the other bestselling novel, which Oranges and Sunshine familiar objects take sinister F-word bestseller, has been follows the story of Sugar $39.95 shape (a tree branch tapping adapted into a documentary (played by the ubiquitous An extraordinary true story, on a window, the sound of a gypsy accor- film, using a visual approach Romala Garai), an unconven- Oranges and Sunshine is a dion, scratches on a pantry wall) to create that matches the innovative, tional and strong-willed young prostitute, and powerful tale of courage and an atmosphere of ominous foreboding provocative ideas of the book. William Rackham, the reluctant heir to a compassion from the where scholarly reason gives way to primal Like chapters, a series of short perfume business. This is a story of love, lust, producers of The King‘s fear. M.R. James, a Cambridge academic films by a team of directors desire and revenge which shows Victorian Speech. Margaret Hum- and contemporary of Tolkien, used these examine human behaviour, statistics and London in a way never seen before on screen, phreys (Emily Watson) is an familiar elements to create the modern economic theory through corruption in Sumo exposing a hidden world seething with ordinary social worker from ghost story as we now know it, in much the wrestling, an unusual theory for the drop in vitality, sexuality, ambition and emotion. Nottingham who uncovered one of the way that Tolkien shaped the fantasy novel. the US crime rate, and how bribing children most significant social scandals of recent can lead to success in school. Super freaky. Donna Hay: times: the deportation of thousands of Fast, Fresh, Simple Wonders of Meek’s Cutoff children from the United Kingdom to the Universe $29.95 Australia. Almost single-handedly, against $34.95 $29.95 DVD. $34.95 Blu-ray Australia’s leading food editor overwhelming odds and with little regard Three families on the Oregon Professor Brian Cox, a stellar and bestselling author, for her own well-being, Margaret reunited Trail in 1840s America are attraction in his own right, Donna Hay, has redefined thousands of families, brought authorities separated from the convoy, expands his infectious food in this country. Her to account and drew worldwide attention finding themselves hopelessly enthusiasm from the solar simple and style-driven to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice. lost in a hostile landscape system to the furthest reaches approach to food is reflected and forced to dig into in her award-winning of the universe in this reserves of survival where majestic, spectacular series. A cookbooks, selling more than

CArtell musiC presents Join us for A piCniC, A dAnCe And A summer’s Afternoon of Joie de vivre it’s the ultimAte gArden pArty with A soundtrACk to mAtCh

from noon Sunday 15 JanuaRy 2012 WERRIBEE PaRK

Best of frenCh musiC eArly Bird tiX to 10.10 féfé, moriArty, AsA & tiCketmAster.Com.Au nouvelle vAgue CArtellmusiC.Com.Au BOOK nOW Readings Monthly October 2011 17

four million copies worldwide, setting the benchmark for food publishing and inspiring a whole new generation of cooks. This show captures Donna’s philosophy on cooking. It’s about sharing her secrets and showing you how to get all the flavour without the fuss, to New Release CDs create dishes that are achievable, look good and taste great. Mmm, coconut and maca- as ‘a multimedia exploration of the universe roon ice-cream sandwiches. and its physical forces — particularly those CD of the Month where music, nature and technology meet’. Pull Up Some Dust Quintessential Björk (the one who put and Sit Down together crazy genre-hopping classics like 1995’s Post, 1997’s Homogenic and 2001’s Coming later Vespertine) runs rampant in the track $24.95. Vinyl $44.95 Crystalline. It’s got everything a classic Björk this month From the opening burst of track should have, including xylophones, Cloudstreet funky mandolin, Ry had crazy-vowelled caterwauling about ‘inner Released 20 October. $59.95 DVD & Blu-ray me at hello. If you’re like nebulae’ and jungle break-beat science to ’s adored novel me and loved everything wrap things up. It’s incredibly weird and Ebooks about those early 70s LPs Information Evening has been lovingly adapted for remarkably thrilling, and contains all that ebooks.readings.com.au the screen. Set in and around Chicken Shin Music, Purple Björk has been obsessed with since her during the 1940s and Valley, , this one’s for you. landmark 1993 debut. This album has been Cooder has taken some interesting instru- Join Readings Managing Director 50s, Cloudstreet tells the story referred to as an ‘app album’ and was even of two rural families who ment musical detours over the years, partially recorded on an iPad. Each of the Mark Rubbo and Virginia particularly with the Cuban surf guitar of Murdoch from Booki.sh to talk suffer separate catastrophes album’s tracks will have an accompanying and flee to the city to pick up Mambo Sinuendo and the guitar raga app that will incorporate some sort of visual about Readings ebooks and how the pieces of their lives and start again. Meeting Across the River, but here he is again, and interactive component (the rumour is ebooks could develop in the future. Brought together in the same house at No.1 as he will probably be truly remembered. that the song Virus will have a gaming The spirit of Woody Guthrie pervades all Come along with your questions, Cloud Street, the Lambs and the Pickles share component, for instance, while another numerous tragedies and triumphs that draw these songs, but Cooder has written a track’s app is an interactive ebook about the feel free to bring any device them closer together – until the roof over beautiful set of subversively catchy tunes for solar system). This work of art is being with a browser (including their heads becomes a home for their hearts. the new Depression that is post-GFC, overseen by director Michel Gondry (Eternal your iPads, iPhones, Kindle3, war-in-Iraq America. As serious as some of Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the White these songs are just below the surface (check Mac and/or PC), and we’ll Stripes’ The Hardest Button to Button), so it’s Also released: out the chirpy Tex-Mex Christmas Time This likely just about everything attached to be happy to demonstrate Year, with its disturbing South Park-like list The Good Wife Season 2 Biophilia will be out of this universe. EH this new medium to you. ; of war injuries), there’s no getting over This is England 86; Inbe- Cooder’s lyrical wit and humour, as well as tweeners Series 2; Offspring Metals Thursday 13 October his sense of fun and joy. Although an okay Series 2; Rockwiz Series 1 singer, Cooder’s voice is full of character and Feist 6.30pm – 7.30pm, Carlton shop & 2; Shadow Play; Anton humanity and communicates perfectly and Normally $26.95 309 Lygon St. Free, but bookings Corbijn; A Tribute to Neil frequently in character. As with all those Our special price $21.95 Young. essential, please call 9341 7739 or early LPs, the unmistakable sound of Vinyl also available $tbc Feist’s new album Metals is email [email protected]. accordionist Flacco Jiminez is a big part of the sound. Cooder shows just what a great produced by long-time rhythm player he is in his usual magpie mix collaborators Chilly of blues, folk, Tex-Mex, reggae and rock ’n’ Gonzalez, Mocky and roll. Thanks for the album, Ry. Siggurdsson (who’s pro- Paul Barr is from Readings Carlton duced by Björk and Kate Nash). It’s the Canadian singer–song- Night of Hunters writer’s first release since The Reminder in Tori Amos 2007, which cleaned up four Grammy Looking for a bargain? nominations. Her hit single, 1234, helped sell $21.95. Deluxe CD & DVD edition $24.95 truckloads of iPod Nanos thanks to that Night of Hunters is a ubiquitous Apple commercial. Woe Be is the Book Offer twenty-first-century song key track here, with the potential to break big cycle inspired by classical like 1234. he Undiscovered First opens with music from the past 400 Feist singing and strumming an acoustic years. It begins with a “ LOS ANGELES guitar, but soon explodes into an uplifting rendition of the unmistake- chorus, with bright horn melodies, handclaps,

STORIES” able melody of Erik Satie and finds Tori and symphonic flourishes. Cicadas and Gulls drawing on themes from Granados, Chopin is a really chilled track featuring Feist’s lolling by and other great composers. Guests include lyrics over her own delicate strumming. Her such esteemed players as The Apollon track Comfort Me told me something that I Musagete Quartet and the Berlin Philhar- didn’t know about Feist: that she started out RY COODER monic clarinet soloist Andreas Ottensamer. as a punk, called herself Bitch Lap Lap and Night of Hunters tells a modern love story performed with Peaches. That kick-arse You’ll find one here. that is only unravelled after a journey to attitude is revived on this track. This new Ireland’s mythic past. Its central character is album, jam-packed with unashamedly poppy a woman ending a long relationship, tunes, strummy ballads and cinematic allowing the listener to follow her on a art-rock, is quintessential Feist that makes me journey over the course of one night to want to pack my bags and head on a summer explore complex musical and emotional holiday. Earlier this month, Feist announced a themes. Tori’s brilliant vocal range and tour of the UK, Europe and North America. whimsical lyrics pull on the heart strings, Here’s hoping she will make it all the way to but rather than it being an album to listen to Australia soon. EH while drowning your sorrows after a break-up, she transports you into feeling Deep Impressions intrinsically elated and invigorated. This is Katalyst an absolute must for all those Tori fans! Emily Harms is marketing manager of Readings $21.95 Katalyst is to my mind one You’ll find hundreds of fine A collection of stories, set Biophilia of – if not the – most bargain books at the new in post-World War II Björk interesting artist in Los Angeles — “a sunny Australian hip-hop today. Readings Bargains shop. Normally $26.95 place for shady people.” Our special price $21.95 Having said that, his sound goes well beyond what that We’re open 7 days Björk’s seventh album, PB. Only $22.95 label may conjure up, creating something Biophilia, is her first since truly original distilled through the lens of Opposite the Cinema Nova 2007’s Volta – but it’s been Published by City Lights. soul, funk, reggae, electro and jazz. His Box Office in Lygon Court, even longer since we’ve Available from all clever use of samples always keeps things heard the real Björk. A 380 Lygon St, Carlton. Readings shops and at fresh, as does his choice of collaborators. He regular collaborator with www.readings.com.au. knows what he’s doing, and it shows. the most diverse creative artists, this time Call us on 9347 9556 Limited stock only. Melissa Whebell is from Readings Hawthorn she’s handpicked a team of app developers [email protected] enabling those iPad users to get even more out of the experience. It has been described 18 Readings Monthly October 2011

Arches Over The Sun featuring the same 40 tracks as the deluxe the aforementioned owe more than a passing anniversary edition. This expanded two-CD Khancoban edition; and a DVD of their 1991 Hallow- debt. The fabulous Jayhawks are back in their set, which was overseen by the original $24.95 een concert at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre in original line-up for the first time since 1995’s producer T Bone Burnett, includes a Melbourne locals Khancoban released this, its entirety. sublime . It’s 14-track bonus disc featuring many tracks their second full-length album, to glowing re- Miranda La Fleur is from Readings Carlton difficult to describe how influential and which were recorded during original views recently. Gone is the banjo-laden sound revered this band – the original alt. country sessions for the film, yet never released. Fea- of their debut, replaced by a gentle folky-pop Strange Mercy pioneers – are among musicians and fans tured on this disc are artists who appeared sensibility, which they do well. Comparisons St Vincent alike. All of the trademark elements they so on the original album (Norman Blake, The to Arcade Fire, Augie March, Wilco etc. $21.95. Vinyl $31.95 effortlessly crafted on previous records are in Peasall Sisters, Fairfield Four), as well as abound, and if that’s your bag, you should From the theatrical place on Mockingbird Time: the elegant those previously unrepresented, including definitely check this one out. MW opening crescendo, the folk-rock, the soaring sunshine harmonies Van Dyke Parks, Colin Lynden and Ed indie-baroque-pop delight and near-perfect songwriting chops. Long- Lewis. MLF Bad As Me that is Strange Mercy plants time fans rejoice – and newcomers to this Tom Waits its feet in both old and new wonderful band, be sure to check out those recently reissued mid-90s classics. DM CD , Deluxe 2CD set with book and Vinyl LP musical worlds. Lead singer Annie Clark channels Björk, her voice an - prices to be confirmed. Released 21 October. DUETS II Jazz Tom Waits is an artist that instrument as much as any other on the BLUE NOTE SALE some – like me – adore with album. Sometimes so chilled you could pour Tony Bennett Selected titles $9.95 each or 3 for $25 almost religious fervour, and gin over yourself afterwards (Surgeon), Normally $26.95 For the month of October for whom a review is sometimes as raucous as the party drinking Our special price $21.95 we have a great sale on over pointless when nothing too much of said gin could cause (Northern In 2006, Tony Bennett 100 titles from the Blue short of global annihilation Lights), and infusing others with a haunting released the original Duets Note jazz label for $9.95 could stop them from purchasing any new melancholy (the incredible and emotional album in honour of his each or 3 for $25. Titles album. But to those who are unsure: Bad as Champagne), Strange Mercy is a blend of all eightieth birthday. It was include classic albums from Me has less raw rasp than other recent releases that is excellent about pop. FH an all-star collaboration Herbie Hancock, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, such as Real Gone. The titular lead track which went on to be his Art Blakey, Donald Byrd, Bill Evans, Dexter shows Waits at his more accessible, with Whole Love highest-selling album and won him three Gordon, Thelonious Monk, Jimmy Smith abundant rhythm and wit. Waits is his own Wilco Grammy Awards. Now, five years later, he and more. Stock is limited: once sold out, genre, with every song a self-contained story Standard $21.95. Deluxe 2CD version has followed up with Duets II. Once again, we will not get again at these prices. that is as captivating and gravelly as prison $26.95. Vinyl $34.95 it’s produced by Phil Ramone and again he escapees partying in a rock quarry. Whole Love is album is joined by some of the biggest names in Fiona Hardy is from Readings Carlton number eight for Chicago’s music, such as Lady Gaga, Aretha Franklin, Wilco. Having taken a Andrea Bocelli, k.d. Lang and most signifi- cantly, Amy Winehouse’s last ever recording DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: break for the latter half of PFolkurpose & and World Grace 2010 from 15 years of inces- – their version of Body & Soul. DC DELUXE RE-ISSUE Martin Simpson Pink Floyd sant touring, the band returned to the studio thoroughly energised High Country $24.95 4 separate releases from $21.95 to $159.95 and armed with enough songs for two Richmond Fontaine UK guitar master Martin Dark Side of the Moon is albums. It would seem the break has done $19.95 Simpson has more than a one of the biggest albums them good; the result is 12 stunning songs This concept album is the few similarities to Ry of all time. It was in the US which cement Jeff Tweedy and co.’s place as follow-up to Portland, Cooder. Simpson likes charts for 741 continuous the finest working American band today. The Oregon band Richmond working as a collaborator/ weeks from its release in record is bookended by two epics. Seven- Fontaine’s We Used to Think accompanist (after several 1974, up until 1988. To minute opener Art of Almost sets a driving the Freeway Sounded Like a albums and years of touring with June honour it, EMI have four great packages, pace, while the closing One Sunday Morning River. The album is set Tabor) and is a slide guitar virtuoso who depending on your budget. It is available as (Song for Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend) is 12 minutes against the backdrop of a mid-west logging has released a couple of defining acoustic a single disc ($21.95), a two-disc ‘Experience of Wilco at their most meditative. In between community. A love story between a young guitar instrumental albums (of the Celtic Edition’ ($34.95) which includes the album we are treated to acoustic balladry, rockers auto-parts salesgirl and a mechanic, both variety). Simpson is also a musical magpie recorded live at Wembley in 1974, on vinyl and pop, from a band at the peak of their already married, sets the scene for deception and excellent reinterpreter of Celtic songs ($45.95), or as a six-disc ‘Immersion Box powers. In a word …well, Wilco are the kind and tragedy. Richmond Fountaine Song- and tunes, American mountain music and Set’ ($159.95). This last version contains the of band who can frequently leave a listener writer Willy Vlautin is no stranger to this contemporary songwriters. Brothers under original album, the live at Wembley disc, speechless and grasping for superlatives. bleak terrain, where lost souls face emotional the Bridge is not a Bruce Springsteen song, I DVD audio version of the album in Declan Murphy is from Readings St Kilda and physical entanglements, usually with dire know, but Simpson’s extremely moving Surround Sound, a DVD featuring live consequences. The band’s catalogue is rendering of this tale of Vietnam veterans performances as well a documentary footage, enriched with such stories, which have seen living rough in California is an exceptional a Blu-ray audio & audio visual disc, and PRISONER Vlautin hailed as a great storyteller, of the ilk cover version. Elsewhere, old pals Dick finally a disc featuring unreleased demos. Jezabels of Elmore Leonard and Raymond Carver. Gaughan, Richard Thompson, June Tabor This set also includes memorabilia (scarf, $26.95 But Richmond Fountaine isn’t just about and members of Bellowhead make stirling marbles, replica ticket, coasters) and a The Jezabels are a Sydney Vlautin’s writing; he is well complemented by guitar, fiddle, accordion and vocal contri- booklet. It looks amazing! (Newtown) quartet who a great band, whose sound is of the alt-coun- butions. PB Dave Clarke is from Readings Carlton have been playing together try tradition: the likes of Uncle Tupelo and for some time. After Ragged Kingdom Nevermind: releasing three strong EPs Willard Grant Conspiracy; their previous th and playing huge support records have been hailed as masterpieces by June Tabor & Oysterband 20 Anniversary the influential UK rock mag, Uncut. The $24.95 Deluxe Edition slots in international acts, and their own sell-out shows, comes their debut album. High Country will serve to consolidate this After the serious business Nirvana Singer Hayley Mary reminds me of Natalie band’s solid reputation. MAS of making dramatic folk 1CD $14.95. 2CD deluxe $21.95. Merchant; she once had quite a shy stage albums like this year’s Vinyl 4LP set $84.95. Deluxe box $149.95 presence. That’s all changed – it’s hard to keep Ashore, every couple of In celebration of the twentieth anniversary a voice this amazing subdued. I’m struck by years June Tabor feels the of Nirvana’s pivotal album Nevermind, an al- the theatrical sound and wacky lyrics of this Soundtracks need to lighten up just a bum that can be regarded as one of the most band. This release will be huge; they already O Brother Where Art little bit and rock out, with occasional successful and influential albums of its (or have an amazingly dedicated following. Thou: 10th Anniversary partners in folk-rockdom, the Oysterband. any) era, comes a full spectrum of re-releases Thanks Eddie and Marie for your enthusiasm! Edition Album opener Bonny Bunch of Roses has which unearth dozens of previously unre- Michael Awosoga-Samuel is from Readings Various been tackled before by the likes of post leased recordings, obscure B-sides, alternate Carlton Richard-Thompson/Sandy Denny Fairport mixes, radio sessions, studio rarities and live $29.95 deluxe edition Convention, but has never sounded as good recordings. Available for the anniversary The soundtrack to the as this. This time round, June and the band Mockingbird Time Coen Brothers film O release are: a standard digital CD remaster of have leaned a bit more towards contempo- the original album; a two-CD deluxe edition Brother Where Art Thou is a rary writers, with a few left-field choices CD/DVD edition $24.95 featuring the remastered album and studio superb collection of blues, from folkies in rockers clothing, like P.J. I’ve been mighty fortunate and live B-sides; the Smart studio sessions, bluegrass, folk, country Harvey, Joy Division and Ralph Vaughan with my reviews – and as a boom-box rehearsals and BBC sessions; a and gospel tracks; rated as Williams. Don’t dismiss their cover of Love music fan in general – this limited, numbered super-deluxe edition one of the top ten selling soundtracks of all Will Tear Us Apart as folkies trying to be month. Hot on the heels of that features 4 CDs and a DVD; a 4-LP time. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of cool, as it’s a very good version that adds the new Wilco record is the 180 gram heavyweight vinyl box-set edition the soundtrack comes a special deluxe something. PB return of a band to whom

AT CARLTON, The Velvet Underground, The Rolling Stones, HAWTHORN & Miles Davis, Tom Waits, and more ! VINYL ST KILDA. Readings Monthly October 2011 19

Holst: In the Bleak music grabs your attention – and doesn’t let Midwinter (DVD) go until the final notes of the sixth sym- Tony Palmer phony. There are many moments over the three discs that will take your breath away. Tony Palmer Films TPDVD173. $29.95 Classical CDs Jiri Belohavek’s love of this music is obvious; Tony Palmer’s film about the life of Gustav as a result, the BBC Symphony deliver flaw- Holst is his most recent film in a long line a gentle warm sound, it is a beautiful record- less performances that will leave the listener of biographical documentaries about high ing of repertoire, slightly out of the norm, wanting to explore more of Martinu’s works. profile musicians. Although it is slow in nar- Classical CD but nonetheless very enjoyable. (Have a close Highly recommended. PR look at the front cover too.) KR rative style, there are long, beautifully filmed of the Month sections of performances of many of Holst’s Borodin: Steve Reich: WTC 9/11, Beethoven: compositions to introduce us to repertoire Symphonies Nos. 1–3 Sonatas other than his famous Planets. Fascinating Mallet Quartet, Dance film clips frame the story and with amazing Gerard Schwarz Patterns Alice Sara Ott insights into his life, like the fact that he & Seattle Symphony Kronos Quartet DG 4779291. $21.95 loathed the words to his most famous tune, I Naxos 8572786. $12.95 Nonesuch 7559796457. $24.95 This is Alice Sara Ott’s first Beethoven Vow to Thee My Country. This documentary Borodin, who was a chemist, essentially Written for string quartet, recording, after three other highly successful will entice you into the world of a composer composed part-time, which is why his first two pre-recorded string releases through Deutsche Grammophon in often sidelined. KR symphony took five years to complete. But quartets and pre-recorded the past few years. Aside from Piano sonatas as it is said, all good things come to those voices, WTC 9/11 is the No. 3 & 21 it also includes the work Rage Breathing Lessons: who wait. These are works full of beauti- new work written by Steve over a Lost Penny. (Don’t know what this is? Music for Saxophone ful melodies – and under Gerard Schwarz’s Reich. Commissioned and Check it out; it’s decidedly cute.) In every Quartet astute direction, the Seattle Symphony play recorded by the Kronos Quartet, it integrates work, her technique is exciting, without beautifully. I have long been an admirer of getting in the way of the sense of musicality. New Hudson recorded words about the event itself (9/11), Saxophone Quartet the recordings of Schwarz and the Se- from the air traffic controllers to people on This German–Japanese pianist is heading attle Symphony so when this title crossed Naxos 8559627. $12.95 the ground, over three continuous move- to the top and after constantly listening my desk I was curious to see how it was ments. The jarring harmonic ideas and off-set to her Tchaikovsky/Liszt recording on my Most people outside of conservatoriums performed. After the first few bars of the rhythms are disturbing and extremely iPod, I’m looking forward to adding a bit of don’t hear any sort of woodwind quartet first symphony, I knew that this would be a unsettling, to say the least. Magnificently put Beethoven to the mix. KR regularly, but recently a number of high recording to savour for quite a while. PR together, it is a work that reflects this tragedy quality saxophone quartet recordings have Breathing Lessons as accurately as music possibly can. It also Tenebrae Reflections: been released. is the next Rodrigo: Concierto includes the Mallet Quartet and Dance The Tenebrae one that, for any discerning listener of De Aranjuez, Patterns, which are more familiar to those Responsories of contemporary repertoire, is a must. With Invocacion y Danza who are Reich fans. This is a CD for people Tomas Luis de Victoria a dynamic contrast that is enviable and a musical integrity to rival any string quartet, Stephen Goss: The with an ear for contemporary music, who can Q appreciate challenging artwork in this form. the New Hudson Saxophone Quartet are Albeniz Concerto/ Veritas Records. $25.95 simply really good. At times mellow and Kate Rockstrom is from Readings Carlton Something out of the Albeniz: Espana Op. 165 jazz-inflected, with contrasting moments Xufei Yang & Eiji Oue ordinary landed on my that are more classical in tone, this ensemble Monologues EMI 6983612. $19.95 desk the other day. A group is a lot of fun to listen to. KR and Dialogues of four young male singers Over the years, there have been numerous Peter Sheridan from Perth have styled J.S. Bach: Motetten recordings of Rodrigo’s concerto – and many Move MD 3349. $29.95 themselves simply as ‘Q’ great performances of this work. This record- BWV 225–230 ing from Xufei Yang will sit comfortably This is the second full-length recording from and in this release from Veritas Records, they Philippe Herreweghe Melbourne-based low-flute specialist Peter are astounding, singing the Responsories by among them. Her playing is strong, with a Sheridan. As he branches out into more Tomas Luis de Victroria (1548–1611). This & Collegium Vocale Gent wonderful subtlety that only reinforces the evocative musical landscapes than on his recording will rival any of those from PHI LPH002. $24.95 fact that she is a technically brilliant guitar- previous album, I am again impressed by Europe. They have a warm blended tone, The beauty of Bach’s music is that over time, ist. Everything she does is quicker, crisper the different styles of repertoire tackled by with clear articulation and lovingly shaped the artists who play the music of Bach (and and more precise. I think this performance this musician, who is proving that there is musical phrases. This a new group that, like Philippe Herreweghe is widely known as will be the yardstick for this work for many no such thing as a forgotten instrument. He the Priests, has come out of nowhere but will one of the foremost authorities on Bach) years to come. The remainder of the disc fea- performs overlaid flutes, piano and electron- be going places very soon. KR feel the need to challenge themselves and to tures the premiere of Stephen Goss’s Albeniz ics. And hearing the alto, bass and contra- find new ways to interpret the music. In his Concerto and some solo pieces from Albeniz bass flutes in the hands of a master, you’ll Ravel: Piano Trio/ liner notes, Herreweghe speaks of continu- and Rodrigo. All are beautifully performed be pleasantly surprised how enjoyable this Brahms:Piano Trio ous research; this new recording was made and recorded. Exquisite. PR recording is. KR as a way of giving a progress report. Under Streeton Trio Herreweghe’s astute direction, the Colle- The Guitar $26.95 gium Vocale Gent deliver performances that Beethoven: Trio in B Have you ever heard of the Streeton Trio? I Milos Karadaglic Flat/Brahms: Trio are extremely beautiful and well balanced. DG. 4779693. Normally $26.95 hadn’t until I saw the line-up for the 2011 This new version is destined to become the in A minor/Bruch: Melbourne International Chamber Music Our speial price $21.95 benchmark performance of these works. Milos Karadaglic (pronounced: Mee-losh Eight Pieces Competition – and it turns out they’re the Phil Richards is from Readings Carlton Ensemble Liaison only Australians to make the cut this year. Kah-rah-dag-lich) is the new rising star of My attention was caught and I was very the classical guitar. His first CD is a mixture Tall Poppies TP 217. $29.95 Martinu: of pieces from Albeniz, Tarrega, Domeni- Ensemble Liaison have been around for a interested to hear their debut recording. The 6 Symphonies With a limited release, this is an album coni, Theodorakis, Llobet and Granados. few years now, but this is their premiere Jiri Belohlavek/BBC Symphony Many of these works have been performed recording. Featuring the interesting instru- worth seeking. Each musician is strong and independent in their style, with moments Orchestra before, but don’t let that deter you; his mentation of cello, piano and clarinet, they Onyx ONYX4061. $29.95 performance is of the highest calibre. His have recorded three works: Bruch Eight Pieces of great lyricism between the three of them. The music of Bohuslav Martinu is probably playing is a well-balanced combination of for Clarinet, Cello and Piano; Brahms Trio in Featuring the Ravel Piano Trio in A Minor not the first choice of many classical music strength, delicate touch and outstanding A Minor, Op 114 and Beethoven Trio in B flat and the Brahms Piano Trio in B Major, this lovers, but hopefully this new recording will musicality. This is a very assured recording Major, Op 11. All are lovely renditions of the shows three mature young musicians out to go a long way towards changing that. From for a debut. This musician with the movie- works, with distinct musicianship and good make their mark. KR the opening bars of the first symphony, the star good looks is here to stay – that I am sense of rapport between the ensemble. With sure of. PR

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State Library of Victoria The Readings Foundation AS MODERN applications open AS TOMORROW PhotograPhers in Postwar Melbourne The Readings Foundation supports individuals and organisations that wish to further the development of slv.vic.gov.au/modern literacy, community work and the arts. Applications must be lodged by 5pm on Friday 28 October 2011. Supported by:

Final decisions about projects will be made by the Discover the work of Melbourne’s leading postwar photographers. This free exhibition Board of Trustees by Wednesday 30 November 2011. of striking commercial images gives a unique insight into the changing cultural and social For more information, or to download an application fabric of mid-century Melbourne. form, please visit www.readings.com.au.

State Library of Victoria 328 Swanston Street Melbourne 1 July 2011–5 Feb 2012 Images, from top left: Wolfgang Sievers, Cotton ring spinning frame, Fibremakers, Bayswater 10am–5pm daily Helmut Newton, Crude distillation unit – tower sections and process (detail), 1966; Maggie Diaz, Detail of machinery photographed for (to 9pm Thursdays, pipelines (detail), c. 1953; Norman Ikin, Valerie Wittman Ikin at ‘The Nilsen Story’, c. 1960s; Athol Shmith, Julie Reiter modelling for the Caulfield Cup, 1950; Mark Strizic, (detail), 1970; Patons Bluebell Crepe (detail), c. 1960s, © the estate of Athol Shmith closed public holidays) Dacre Stubbs, Printing equipment, Kodak Australasia (detail), c. 1951; (all gelatin silver photographs)