Free AUGUST 2010 Readings Monthly

Cate Kennedy on Jon Bauer • Emma Donoghue • Leanne Hall image from cover of emma Donoghue's new novel room (see our review P5)

Emma Donoghue casts a dark spell with Room p 5

Highlights of August book, CD & DVD new releases. More inside.

fiction aus fiction crime aus fiction Young Adult DVD POp CD CLASSICAL $32.99 $27.95 $32.95 $27.95 $32.99 $27.95 $32.95 $19.95 $49.99 $27.95 $19.95 $33.95 $19.95 >> p5 >> p4 >> p8 >> p10 >> p14 >> p16 >> p17 >> p19

August event highlights : James Halliday on wine ; Megan Washington at Readings Carlton ; Jessica Watson at Port ; Jon Faine. More events inside.

All shops open 7 days, except State Library shop, which is open Monday - Friday. Carlton 309 Lygon St 9347 6633 Hawthorn 701 Glenferrie Rd 9819 1917 Malvern 185 Glenferrie Rd 9509 1952 Port Melbourne 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 [email protected] Check opening hours, find event details, or browse and buy online at www.readings.com.au

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From the Editor The biggest event of the year for booklovers ThisPeter Temple wins Month’sthe Horses, by Alison News Lester (Viking, HB, Gordon on [email protected] has to be the Melbourne Writers' Festival. Miles Franklin $29.95); Star Jumps, by Lorraine Marwood by 31 August. I will be travelling with you And it’s festival season late this month (27 It’s old news now, of course, (Walker, PB, $14.95); Mannie and the Long and will be able to give you more information

August – 5 September). So, what to go to? but we can’t let it pass Brave Day, by Martine Murray and illustra- closer to the time. My bag is already packed! The speaker who has Melbourne abuzz with without a mention. Peter tor Sally Rippin (A&U, HB, $22.99); Tensy Is yours? excitement is Buffy creator Joss Whedon, Temple made headlines last Farlow and the Home for Mislaid Children, who’ll be delivering the second keynote ad- month when he won the by Jen Storer (Viking, HB, $19.95); and Independent dress. Warning though: tickets will likely be Miles Franklin for Truth Harry and Hopper, by Margaret Wild and Bookseller of the Year sold out by the time we go to print. If not – (Text, PB, $32.95), the illustrator Freya Blackwood (Scholastic, PB, The 2010 winner of the Independent let your fingers run, not walk, to the MWF long-awaited sequel-of-sorts $15.99). Bookseller of the Year is (drum roll please)… website and book your spot. The runner-up to his much-loved The Broken Shore. It’s the Readings Carlton! We are thrilled to have in terms of buzz is the 13 August pre-festival first time the Miles has been awarded to a Indigenous been named Independent Bookseller of event, (hosted by MWF, already sold out) crime writer – and Temple seemed accord- Literacy Day the Year 2010 for our Carlton shop at the with Bret Easton Ellis, talking about his ingly stunned by his win, even dropping the Everyone is invited to participate in the Australian Book Industry Awards. It’s the return to the world of the novel (Less Than ‘f’ word in his charming, self-deprecating fourth Indigenous Literacy Day (ILD), second year running that this shop has Zero) that made him a star, in the sequel, acceptance speech – as tech-savvy Australian Wednesday 1 September 2010. Indigenous won the award, so it must be pretty special. Imperial Bedrooms (Picador, PB, Normally Literary Review editor Stephen Romei Literacy Day aims to help raise funds to Congratulations to our Carlton shop staff, $32.95, Our special price $27.95). reported via Twitter. Text publisher Michael increase literacy levels and improve the lives and a special thank you to all our wonderful The first keynote address looks to be a Heyward said Truth has ‘changed the and opportunities of Indigenous Australians customers who also contribute to its success. cracker, too. Eight major writers will talk possibility of the crime novel’. living in remote and isolated regions. We about eight ways to be human, with readings need your support to help raise funds to buy CAL Scribe Fiction from their work. The chosen eight range Prime Minister’s books and literacy resources for these commu- Prize On Again across memoir, science, fiction and philoso- Literary Award nities. On the day, Readings will be donating The inaugural CAL Scribe Fiction Prize, phy: Cate Kennedy, Jostein Gaarder, Barry Shortlists Announced 5% of sales in our shops and online at www. open to writers aged 35 and over and worth Dickins, Norman Doidge, Fiona McGregor, The shortlists have been announced for readings.com.au. The Indigenous Literacy $10,000 in prize money, was a roaring success Alex Miller, Nadifa Mohamed and Brenda Australia’s richest and newest literary prize Project (ILP) aims to raise literacy levels in its first year, receiving over 500 entries. Not Walker. – with added categories for children’s and and improve the lives and opportunities of only were the judges thrilled with the calibre YA books this year. The fiction shortlist is: Indigenous Australians living in remote and of the winner, Maris Morton (whose book, Narrative history aficionados will be de- isolated regions. To find out more, visit www. A Darker Music, will be released this Octo- lighted to hear that Simon Winchester is Summertime by J.M. Coetzee (Knopf, HB, Normally $39.95, Limited stock at the indigenousliteracyproject.org.au. ber), but they also signed up both shortlisted returning to the festival, talking about his manuscripts. Meg Mundell’s Black Glass and The Atlantic: special price of $16.95); The Book of Emmett new, typically lively, history, SEPTEMBER Jane Sullivan’s Little People will be published Biography of an Ocean (HarperCollins, PB, by Deborah Forster (Vintage, PB, $23.95); The Lakewoman by Alan Gould (ASP, PB, READINGS MONTHLY by Scribe in 2011. Sounds like a great op- $35, September). Political commentator portunity? Well, as those television steak knife Peter Beinart describes Washington's arro- $29.95); Dog Boy by Eva Hornung (Text, The September issue of Readings Monthly PB, $32.95); Lovesong by Alex Miller (A&U, will be inserted into The AgeTuesday 31 salesmen say: wait, there’s more. This year, the gance on the eve of three wars – World War prize money has been increased to a whop- I, Vietnam and Iraq – in The Icarus Syndrome PB, Normally $39.95, Our special price August, in the Epicure section. Therefore, $33.95); As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison we will only be mailing out to regional and ping $15,000. Winners will also receive a (MUP, HB, $39.99). And the ever-popular book contract from Scribe. Submissions open The Brain Wong (Picador, PB, $32.99). interstate subscribers. Melbourne readers can Dr Norman Doidge, author of 1 August. So, get that almost-there novel that Changes Itself pick up their copy in one of our six shops or (Scribe, PB, $29.95) is The non-fiction shortlist is: polished up and send it in. Entry forms and also back. in The Age on Tuesday 31 August. We will The Water Dreamers: The also be inserting Readings Monthly in The information available at www.scribepublica- What am I personally looking forward to? Remarkable History of Our Age in December. Mark your calendars! tions.com.au/prize. I’ve said this on these pages before, but Bar- Dry Continent, by Michael bara Trapido is one of my top five favourite Cathcart (Text, PB, $34.95); Ubud Writers' MWF and Readings authors – her novels are smart, darkly funny, Strange Places: A Memoir of Shop at the Festival Mental Illness, by Will Elliott and Readers' Festival: beautifully crafted and compulsively read- A special opportunity Melbourne Writers’ Festival is on from 27 able – and I can’t wait to hear her talk about (ABC Books, PB, $24.99); August to 5 September. Peruse the program The Colony: A History of Early Sydney I know it’s cold and windy and a tad miser- her latest novel, Sex and Stravinsky (Blooms- , by and purchase tickets online at www.mwf. The Life able in Melbourne presently. I would like bury, PB, $32.99). Grace Karskens (A&U, PB, $45); com.au. Readings is the official festival and Death of Democracy you to imagine the warmth of Bali. Blue , by John Keane bookseller and once again we will be setting I was excited to note the involvement of The Blue skies above, gentle sweet-smelling breeze (Simon & Schuster, HB, $49.99); up shop in the Atrium at Federation Square. James P. Othmer, whose book Adland Plateau: A Landscape Memoir, by Mark and palm trees waving in the air, as you (UWA, PB, $24.95, reviewed p12) I had head towards a full program of intellectual Drop by and spend $50 in the Readings Tredinnick (UQP, PB, $26.95); and The MWF shop and you’ll receive a $10 Readings reluctantly put down to browse the MWF Ghost at the Wedding, by Shirley Walker vigour and fun at the Ubud Writers’ and gift cardand go in the draw to win a return program. No, I’d never heard of him before (Penguin, PB, $24.95). Readers’ Festival in October. Readings, with either, but was engrossed by his memoir of the festival organisers, are creating a special trip for two to the Ubud Writers and Readers his time at the top of a big US ad agency, his The young adult shortlist is: Stolen, by Lucy package – flights, accommodation, festival Festival in Bali, valued at more than $5000* eventual burn-out, and his fascinated investi- Christopher (Chicken House, PB, $17.99); pass, special author dinners and more, for a (*conditions apply). To find out more about gation into his massively changing industry, The Winds of Heaven, by Judith Clarke limited amount of people. this wonderful prize, visit www.readings.com. post-internet. Ever wondered how Mad Men (A&U, PB, $22.99); Confessions of a Liar, au. Prize courtesy of the Ubud Writers and would play out if set in 2000 and beyond? Thief and Failed Sex God, by Bill Condon Important things to consider: Readers Festival (www.ubudwritersfestival. Well, make Othmer’s acquaintance. (Woolshed Press, PB, $18.95); The Museum The dates: Sunday 3 October to Monday com) and Readings. of Mary Child, by Cassandra Golds (Puffin, 11 October, with the festival running from Joe Bageant’s witty, insightful reportage-style PB, $17.95); Swerve, by Phillip Gwynne 6–10 October. The cost: Up to $4000 per Correction book on America’s class war and politics, (Penguin, PB, $19.95); Jarvis 24, by David person including flights, taxes, travel insur- In the July edition of Readings Monthly we Deer Hunting with Jesus, was a worldwide Metzenthen (Penguin, PB, $19.95); and ance, transfers and accommodation includ- made a couple of errors in our news item (and Readings) bestseller. His follow-up, Beatle Meets Destiny, by Gabrielle Williams ing breakfast, a festival pass, an exclusive about the Essence of St Kilda 2010 Word Rainbow Pie (Scribe, PB, $35, September), (Penguin, PB, $19.95). author dinner and more.There is limited Prize. Firstly we stated that the postcode of is a coming-of-age memoir that looks at the accommodation available at http://www. St Kilda is 3128, when we know well that it The children’s shortlist is: Cicada Summer, evolution of America’s poor white under- casalunabali.com/honeymoon-guesthouses/. is in fact 3182; and secondly, anyone can en- by Kate Constable (A&U, PB, $15.99);The class following World War II, drawing on The program includes international authors ter the competition – being a resident of St Terrible Plop, by Ursula Dubosarsky and the experiences of his own family. It will be and Australian authors. Please check out the Kilda is not a condition of entry. Apologies illustrator Andrew Joyner (Viking, HB, fascinating to hear him in person. Ubud Writers’ and Readers’ Festival website for any confusion, visit www.stkildaessence. $24.95); Just Macbeth, by Andy Griffiths (http://ubudwritersfestival.com) for partici- To see the program in full, or book your com.au for full entry details. and illustrator Terry Denton (Pan, PB, pating authors and the program. tickets, visit www.mwf.com.au. $14.99); Mr Chicken goes to Paris, by Leigh Interested? Please send an email to Christine —Jo Case Hobbs (A&U, HB, $24.99); Running with

CINEMA NOVA RECOMMENDS Book now, online or at MICHAEL DENNIS the cinema box office. EWAN MCGREGOR PIERCE BROSNAN SHEEN QUAID The Special Relationship THE Tony Blair and Bill Clinton strike a deal to GHOSTWRITER change the world in Peter Morgan's drama. 380 LYGON ST CARLTON A ROMAN POLANSKI FILM www.cinemanova.com.au A writer finds his life in danger when he accepts a Join our e-news for updates on the Met Opera, STARTS AUGUST 5 National Theatre and other stage spectaculars. job to co-write the memoirs of the retired UK PM. STARTS AUGUST 12 Readings Monthly August 2010 3

EventsAll our Readings book and music eventsin are Augustso much of its hardship and horror as the was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s free, unless otherwise stated. Bookings do not crew of the cruiser HMAS Perth. Only 218 Literary Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript. guarantee a seat, but rather indicate to us the men, less than a third of her crew, survived Leah Kaminsky was the Eleanor Dark Flagship Launches number of people to expect. To see more events to return home at war’s end. Cruiser is their Fellow for Fiction in 2007 and is the author of Tim Costello, CEO of World or for updates on new events please visit the story. And the story of those who loved them three books and a practicing family physician. Vision, will launch Paul events page at www.readings.com.au. and waited for them. Monday 9 August, Serge Liberman works as a medical practitioner Ronalds’ important book, 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. Free, but and is the author of six collections of short sto- The Change Imperative(Ku - please book on 9819 1917. ries, three of which received the Alan Marshall marian Press, PB, $56.95). 2 Award in their manuscript form. Tuesday 17 Tuesday 3 August, 6.30pm, James Halliday August, 6.30-7.30pm, Readings Carlton.Free, Readings Carlton. Free, no Respected wine critic James 11 no need to book. need to book. Halliday has a career that Roland Perry spans over 40 years, and his Mike Fitzpatrick, AFL Kirsty Murray’s latest novel India Dark annual wine companion is Chairman and former 18 (A&U, PB, $16.99) will be launched by the number one bestselling Carlton captain, will launch Political books: Brenda Niall and followed by Kirsty in guide on wineries and wine Roland Perry’s The Changi The author, publisher, conversation with Kabita Dhara. Thursday in Australia. James Halliday Brownlow (Hachette, PB, bookseller 5 August, 6pm–7pm, Yasuko Myer Room, Wine Companion 2011 $35). After Singapore fell to & journalist Level 1, Sidney Myer Asia Centre, Swanston (Hardie Grant, PB, $34.95, Our special the Japanese early in 1942, St, University of Melbourne. Free, but please Why publish political books? book on 8344 3581. price $29.95) has been completely revised 70,000 prisoners (including Join us for a discussion with and updated to bring you up-to-the-minute 15,000 Australians) were held as POWs at all the key players involved in Katie Evans from Penguin will launch information. Join us for a taste of Scorpo the notorious Changi prison, Singapore. To producing timely political Mary Pershall’s Ruby Clair: A Ghost at School Wines and an opportunity to ask James any amuse themselves, a group of sportsmen – books: the author who writes (Puffin, PB, $14.95), the third book in Monday 2 wine-related question you like! led by popular Chicken Smallhorn – created them, the publisher who the series – and a perfect combination of August, 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. Free, an Australian Football League, complete publishes them, the political supernatural mystery and heartfelt storytell- but please book on 9819 1917. with tribunal, selection panel, umpires and journalist who talks about ing. Sunday 8 August at 2.30pm, Readings coaches. The final game attracted 10,000 them, and the bookseller who sells them. Join Hawthorn. Free, no need to book. spectators, and a unique Brownlow Medal Nicholas Stuart, Kevin Rudd’s biographer, Nic Frances, author of The End of Poverty, 3 was awarded. This incredible story highlights publisher Henry Rosenbloom (Scribe), will launch Australia’s newest web platform, Kylie Kwong not just the Australian love of sport, but its Crikey editor Sophie Black and Readings OurSay Australia – an independent website To celebrate the release of her power to offer consolation in times of managing director Mark Rubbo (chair) for a Wednesday 11 August, where the public can post questions, vote for new book, It Tastes Better extreme hardship. night of lively opinion. Nicholas Stuart joined 6pm for 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. questions, and watch their political leaders (Lantern, HB, $69.95, Our the ABC in 1985 and has written two Free, no need to book. respond to the questions which receive the special price $59.95), Kylie critically acclaimed books analysing Labor most votes (www.oursay.org.au). Monday 9 will present at a taste-and- and politics. The latest is Rudd's Way (Scribe, August, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, no share evening. With wine by PB, $35). Wednesday 18 August, 6.30pm, Scorpo Wines and tastes 12 Cinema Nova, Lygon Street Court, Carlton. need to book. from her new book, the Jon Faine Free, but please book on 9347 6633. Lili Wilkinson will launch evening is sure to delight. Tuesday 3 In June 2008, Jon Faine (of the debut novel of Readings’ August, 6.30pm–8pm, Readings Haw- ABC 774 fame) and son Jack own Leanne Hall. This is thorn. Bookings: 9819 1917. Bookings started a momentous journey, 23 Shyness (Text, PB, $19.95) essential – places limited. $20 per person. travelling for six months from Poets to Pages is a beautiful novel about Melbourne to London, all the with Emily Ballou the magic of darkness and way by car. Their overland Please note change of date: we are lucky those unpredictable times 5 adventure, covering 39,000 enough to have the very wonderful Emily when life grabs you by the kilometres and 20 countries, Megan Washington Ballou – poet and novelist – with us this heartstrings and takes you for one hell of is chronicled in From Here To There (ABC, We are lucky enough to have Megan Wash- evening. She won the Judith Wright Prize a ride. Thursday 12 August, 6.30pm, PB, Normally $39.99, Our special price ington in our shop! Unearthed by Triple J for Poetry for her poem ‘Enter’ and was Readings Carlton. Free, no need to book. $34.95). Thursday 12 August, 6.30pm, last summer, her band Washington played named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Readings Hawthorn. Free, but please book Hugh Dolan, a squadron leader in the Aus- their first gig at the Big Day Out and an The Darwin on 9819 1917. Best Young Novelists of 2003. tralian Air Force, tells how the Anzac forces almost surreal whirlwind of activity has fol- Poems (UWA, PB, $24.95) was awarded the planned a precise, complex and daunting lowed. Washington’s live show has a growing Wesley Michel Wright Poetry Prize in 2009 seaborne assault on a heavily fortified shore reputation as all-singing, all-dancing affairs, and highly commended in the Anne Elder in 36 Days: The Untold Story Behind The with costumes, cupcakes and some of Aus- 16 Raimond Gaita Award. Monday 23 August, 6.30pm, Read- Gallipoli Landings (Macmillan, PB, $34.99). tralia’s most wonderful new songwriting on ings Carlton. Free, no need to book. Wednesday 18 August, 6.30pm, Readings Thursday 5 August, 6pm, Readings display. in conversation Port Melbourne. Free, no need to book. Carlton. Free, no need to book. with Gerri Simpson & Louise Adler Melbourne Writers Treading the echoing streets Join us for the discussion of Gaza: Law, Festival: Friday 27 of history, the brisk boule- 5 Morality and Politics (UWA, PB, $29.95). vards of anatomical science, Jessica Watson August to Sunday and the intimate alleyways Here, Raimond Gaita brings together a 5 September. This extraordinary young thought-provoking collection of essays by of personal experience, woman is coming to meet public intellectuals on the subject of conflict. Maryrose Cuskelly reveals those who watched as she The book is a companion to a series of lec- the wonder of skin anew in sailed around the world. In tures of the same name held in 2009 at the Original Skin (Scribe, PB, True Spirit (Hachette, PB, Australian Catholic University. Following $35). Thursday 19 August, 6.30pm, $35, Our special price the Israeli Army invasion of the Gaza strip, and in September Readings Carlton. Free, no need to book. $27.95), she details the Australians are left with questions of law, Kerryn Pascoe and Elise Hurst’s My Boots in extensive preparation she and morality and politics; a minefield of ethical 1 Season (Windy Hollow Books, PB, $16.95) her team made for the big voyage, her journey dilemmas to challenge the moral code we Andy Griffiths is another wonderful, whimsical picture and the battles she fought along the way – live by. Contributors include Mark Baker, & Terry Denton book. Saturday 21 August, 2pm. Readings against sleep deprivation, gale-force winds, Gerri Simpson, Ghassan Hage, Geoffrey Port Melbourne. Free, no need to book. mountainous seas and solitude. Jessica Levey and Raimond Gaita. Monday 16 Au- One night only of free riotous entertainment modestly says she is ‘just an ordinary girl who gust, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, but based on their new book, The Very Bad Book Janet Etty-Leal’s practical new manual, had a dream and worked hard at it and please book on 9347 6633. (Pan, PB, $14.99). Come one, come all. Meditation Capsules: A Mindfulness Program proved that anything is possible’. Thursday 5 Wednesday 1 September, 6pm, Westgarth for Children is an imaginative, comprehen- August, 5.30pm, Readings Port Melbourne. Theatre, High Street, Westgarth. sive resource for adults who wish to teach Bookings essential: 9681 9255. 17 Bar (for parent’s drinks) opens at 5pm. children the life skills of mindful meditation. Authors and Victoria’s Free, but bookings essential: 9347 6633. Thursday 26 August, 6.30pm, Readings Doctors-in-Training Hawthorn. Free no need to book. 9 Come along for a discussion about what it 2 Race Mathews, former Victorian Arts Mike Carlton means to be a doctor and a writer, and the Damien Pignolet Minister, will launch Brian McFarlane’s Real Join us as Mike Carlton, journalist and relationship between these two identities. and Reel (SidHarta, PB, $29.95), his light- Join us for a glass of wine as Damien talks hearted, ironic account of a lifetime’s addic- broadcaster, talks through his research for Jacinta Halloran is a Melbourne GP and writer about his new cookbook, Salades (Penguin, his new book Cruiser (Heinemann, HB, who has written on medical topics for a wide tion. Tuesday 31 August, 6pm for 6.30pm, HB, $59.95). Thursday 2 September, Readings Hawthorn. Free, no need to book. Normally $55, Our special price $44.95). variety of publications, including the Sunday 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. Tickets $20. Of all the Australians who fought in World Age and Inside Story. In 2007 her novel, Dis- Incl. tastes from the cookbook and a glass War II, none saw more action nor endured section (PB, $27.95), later published by Scribe, of wine by Scorpo. Book on 9819 1917. 4 Readings Monthly August 2010 New Australian Writing Feature

TrueCate Kennedy interviews fiction Jon Bauer about Rocks in the Belly (Scribe, PB, Normally $32.95, Our price $27.95)

how much of your story is autobiographical. I also still believe it. We know a work is It’s ironic, he notes with amusement, how fiction. But then we still read it in search the years he spent creating a work of fic- of truth. And then, when our experience of tion – ‘translating true anecdotes I’d heard; it does feel true, we seek to turn the fiction researching fostering; examining my charac- round to fit our experience of it – we look ters ... translating truth into fiction’ – has to make it true. In short, we’re nuts! And resulted in people asking him whether it’s perhaps we look to unravel fiction, simply his own life he’s describing. ‘For me, writ- because we’re all a little amazed by it. Even ing is about applying my own authenticity those of us who write don’t quite know how to the given circumstances of the story. it happens.’ Readers are incredibly alert to authenticity, He’s also interested in which of his charac- why else would we bother reading some- ters readers ‘invest’ in, and why. I men- thing invented if we weren’t seduced into tion that while the child narrator’s mix of exploring our own inner realities through sociopathy and naivety gives a poignancy the characters and their narrative? As a to his behaviour and observations, his writer, I do exactly what a reader does. I adult protagonist is a different kettle of fish put myself in the fictitious circumstances altogether – manipulatively exploiting his as much as I can. I empathise. For that, I power over his dying mother and coldly need to tap into myself. I simply use some making efficient use of those around him, of my own pain in an attempt to seduce the flaring into temper tantrums when things reader into reaching for their own vulner- don’t go his way. ‘One of the things I love able bits. Sometimes my hands would be about the reader-response to the book so trembling as I wrote because even if the far,’ Bauer responds, ‘is that everyone seems events were fictional, they came from some to have their own sense of who the protago- true or experiential place in me.’ nist is. For some it’s a book about the boy. For some it’s about the man the boy grows up to be. Some relate much more to the Jon Bauer is well the dark, suspenseful reversals of power and mother’s story. A few even relate to Robert, established as a short- dominance that arise from this trauma. I think even the foster child the story orbits around. And story writer, but is on the ‘Power is a very captivating, if terrible, an “ordinary” everyone has their own take on the man in cusp of big things with currency,’ says Bauer. ‘Especially when it’s the story. Many are sympathetic to him, the release of his impres- being abused. I think even an “ordinary” childhood is a actually. As to what makes an unlikeable sive debut novel, Rocks childhood is a kind of profound wounding. character compelling, perhaps a sense there in the Belly (Scribe, In some ways we never fully transcend that kind of profound might be enough goodness in him to turn PB, Normally $32.95, process because it’s what shapes us. Our his nature around.’ Our special price very personality is made up of decisions de- $27.95), which has wounding.’ Once he took part in an acting class that rived from early experiences. The adult in- encouraged ‘anti-social’ behaviour within a already garnered praise from established carnation in the novel is still that wounded international and local talents such as literary set of clearly-defined boundaries. He cites child ... but he’s more comfortable express- He elaborates on those experiential places giant J.M. Coetzee and the much-loved Cate that experience as enabling him to both ing his woundedness as anger and blame.’ – both from his own childhood and, as an Kennedy. Readings' own Martin Shaw calls it explore parts of himself ‘not permissible or Bauer says he’s fascinated by the myriad adult, in the real-life caring for his ill mother. 'most affecting, extraordinarily well thought- attractive in society’, and to use this insight ways powerless children gain some sense ‘There are two clear parallels with my own out and structured, dark and at times disturb- in writing the novel. ‘I don’t care if you of control over their environments. He life and the lives of those in the book,’ he ex- ing.' Cate Kennedy spoke to Jon about Rocks like this character. I only care that you find describes the way his own niece discovered plains. ‘Firstly, the sense of neglect that I felt in the Belly for Readings' New Australian him compelling. Walking that line between accidentally, through sucking her fingers, during childhood. The boy in the story feels Writing Feature series. Rocks in the Belly repellent and compelling in the book is that her mother was discomfited by the profoundly neglected by his mother. This was is now available at all Readings shops. perhaps what I’m most proud of.’ gag reflex. ‘So what does my niece do now not exactly the case with me, since the mother when all other strategies have lapsed? She in the story is a fictionalised amalgamation It’s clear, too, that Bauer has tapped into makes herself gag and her mother, who has of both my own parents. But I did grow up areas of profound emotional hurt to sym- bolise the ‘rocks in the belly’ of the title of on Bauer’s Rocks in the Belly plunges a phobia for vomit, relents. All emotions lonely, and deeply frustrated by the family I this suspenseful and assured debut novel. into territory both uncomfortable need earthing.’ found myself in. The second parallel is my own mother’s long battle with brain cancer. ‘Feelings manifest in the body as burdens, and familiar for many readers: the Bauer has a keen eye for these familiar I was her predominant carer. But this book or sharp weights,’ he says. ‘Pain is cross-gen- hurt and dysfunction of a wounded arenas of everyday power struggles. ‘I’ve isn’t about her illness. The mother’s cancer is erational. Hurt people hurt. Arguably, one family. A nameless narrator alerts us long been an avid observer of the human there for the limitations and tension it places of the most defining features of a person’s to this from the very first sentence: condition,’ he says. After studying psychol- over the story. The way it removes her ability life is what form they gave their pain.’ ‘I used to tell people I was a foster child’. ogy at university in England, he went on to talk; the way it renders a once-powerful JAs we soon discover, though, it’s not him to work in marketing: ‘I was always told Cate Kennedy's latest novel is The World woman dependent on the son who feels so that’s the foster child, it’s a succession of I had the gift of the gab’. But he found Beneath (Scribe, PB, $24.95). She will wronged by her. It’s why the power reversal other children his parents take into their the work unfulfilling and the idea of the launch Rocks in the Belly on Wednesday happens in the story – a reversal that leads to home, much to his anxiety and resentment. liberation of fiction drew him to writing. 28 July at Trades Hall, cnr Lygon & brutal and beautiful outcomes. The rest is an Robert, the quiet foster child we meet in ‘You could say fiction allows more truth Victoria Streets, Carlton. authentic fictionalisation – that alchemy or this story, can’t help but be the target of the than non-fiction,’ he says. ‘Telling you that melding of myself with characters in other cir- narrator’s fuming animosity. ‘I hate him my novel has lies in it makes me bolder.’ cumstances.’ Bauer’s interest and background most of all,’ he says, ‘and I hate his parents While travelling in Australia after the death Special Offer in psychology are evident as he muses on for being bad because if they were good of his mother, he was intrigued by a fellow the fragile yet powerful connection between like my mum then I wouldn’t have to share traveller’s tendency to sit down at night and The first 100 customers to buy a copy of author and reader in terms of expectation and her.’ This submerged rage leads, with an write in his journal, and thought he’d give it Rocks in the Belly will not only get it at a response. Why does he think readers want to awful slow-motion sense of inevitability, to a go himself. ‘We would set up camp in the discounted price (Normally $32.95, Our find out how ‘real’ the book is? tragedy – unresolved, unacknowledged and evening and he’d be ensconced in his own price $27.95), but will also get a FREE unrepaired. When the narrator returns as writing. So in Adelaide I bought a book and ‘We look to a work of fiction to be au- copy of New Australian Stories (Scribe, an adult to care for his now terminally-ill wrote in it too. I was reading On The Road thentic,’ he says. ‘I sat back having read PB, $29.95), which features an enticing mother, he finds her helpless and unable on the road, so ...’ J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace believing that every mix of new and established Australian to speak, and the powerlessness which has touch-point in the story that moved me writers, including Amanda Lohrey, Chris Bauer has found, like many writers before always chafed at him rises inexorably to the were the true parts of the story – the mo- Womersely and Cate Kennedy. Get the him, that it’s difficult to tackle dark family surface again. The novel, which switches ments in which Coetzee himself felt moved. best of new Australian writing from secrets without readers wanting to know with beautifully orchestrated tension A bit of me can laugh at that now, and yet Readings this month, for just $27.95. between the past and the present, explores Readings Monthly August 2010 5

Book of the Month Q&A with Patrick Holland Room Jo Case speaks to Patrick gothic genre would be to deliberately cull Emma Donoghue Holland about his beautiful the light and amplify the dark to achieve a Picador. PB. $32.99. Special price $27.95 and arresting new novel, certain aesthetic effect. That wasn’t what I The Mary Smokes Boys intended. I think there is some wry humour (Transit Lounge, PB, in the book. And the majority of the events If this story had been Normally $29.95, Our narrated are real, hardly dressed up at all. All told by anyone else, special price $24.95). that’s made up is their chronology, their en- I wouldn’t have read actors and their relationship to each other. In it. The premise of the The town of Mary Smokes is a key character in that sense, the novel is the closest thing to a novel is horrific, but the novel – it’s infused with such a rich, evoca- personal revelation I’ve ever written. I mean, once I started reading tive sense of place. How important is place to I could drive you to the houses of illegal Room, I couldn’t put your writing, and to this book in particular? weapons dealers and cattle thieves out west. it down. I fell asleep thinking about it, and woke up itching to pick it up It’s absolutely essential. Mary Smokes Creek again. I read it on the tram to and is very real, though it’s 20 kilometres further ‘I’m interested in the from work, and attempted to read north, as the crow flies, than the book has it. it as I walked home. I cursed Mel- The town of the book is based on Esk in the effects that breaking the bourne’s streetlights for being too far Brisbane Valley and Roma, which is the town apart to comfortably read by while where I grew up. The creek in the novel is social contract has on walking down the street. based on about a half dozen streams that I’ve As paradoxical as it sounds, I have faith in built relationships with over the years. I was thrilled when I discovered decent people.’ uncertainty, in shadows and broken lights. Emma Donoghue had a new novel The landscape of the Brisbane Valley just The self-assured intellectual despotism of any coming out. She is one of my favou- triggered something in me. It seemed to exist And the book’s murder was drawn from the given Southern Baptist preacher proclaim- rite authors. She writes edgy historical independently of Brisbane, and indeed the murder of a little girl and friend of my sister ing hellfire for homosexuals, or Richard novels and compelling contemporary rest of the world, while being geographically in the town where we grew up, which event Dawkins proclaiming much the same thing fiction. Her historical fiction, such as very close to the city. By this I mean that has stayed with me, as it would stay with with different terminology for Christians Slammerkin, is loosely based on real there were no fast food chains, not even any anyone. The girl was killed in very similar and Muslims leaves me cold. I don’t know events, reimagined to tell stories from corporate petrol stations – all independents; circumstances to those in The Mary Smokes how my feelings on this relate to present- a different perspective. In her volume the night sky was untroubled by electric Boys – in the creek that ran at the back of day theology. I wouldn’t presume to speak of contemporary short stories, Touchy lights; and, even today, the water that runs my house, having walked home alone from for Catholicism on guilt, though to me, this Subjects, ordinary characters in every- through the country is crystal clear and school. I had been on that creek countless kind of Eastern Orthodox leaning spiritual- day situations are rendered fascinating perfectly fresh, unlike an hour’s drive further times in my life. Naturally, you wonder: ‘why ity is antidote to our age’s cult of personal through her wit and insight. Room is east. Also, like the country where I grew up, wasn’t I there to stop it?’ I think the artistic happiness and the ‘you deserve it’ marketing something else altogether. the Brisbane Valley is capable of profound impulse itself is the need to make sense of ap- we are subject to in the media. silence, empty space and darkness. These parently chaotic events that at times give hints Room is narrated by Jack. He is The city/country divide is central toMary beautiful negatives are things we consume of being meaningful. In a sense, writing is a energetic, bursting with curiosity, full kind of prayer. You offer it up saying, ‘Is this Smokes Boys. Small-town life is depicted as of questions about the world, and voraciously in cities, and I think we do so at in decline and offering few opportunities – but a great loss. what You meant? – Is this the truth?’ excited by his fifth birthday. Yet you also exerting the intrinsic lure of the natural know something is not quite right in The above qualities had me regard the Religion and belief are a running theme in The environment, of home. To Grey, the city, which Jack’s world by the second sentence, country of The Mary Smokes Boys as a kind Mary Smokes Boys, from the transplanted offers the promise of escape and reinvention, when he mentions going to sleep ‘in of island, both in space and time. From the Catholicism of Grey’s mother and sister Irene; to seems ‘an impossible place’. It’s also where ‘all Wardrobe’. Why is he sleeping in a beginning of literature, the isolated places the obscene new Christianity of Vanessa’s family young people’ inevitably move. How central wardrobe? What kind of five-year-old of the earth have been portrayed as crucibles church, with its ‘prosperous-looking travesty of is this divide to the book? Is it something that thinks that’s normal? for human emotions: we cannot deceive Christ: his hair as well-kept as a banker’s’; to interests you personally? ourselves when there is nothing to distract us the locally rooted beliefs of Eccleston’s mother’s Jack lives in ‘Room’ with his Ma, and My chief concerns are with ‘home’ and from the murmurings of our own souls and people, who baptised him in Mary Smokes knows nothing of the outside world. discrete place, and how we’re losing them in the silence of the cosmos. So in The Mary Creek. Do you see these themes as important to The objects in the 11-by-11-foot the twenty-first century. A commonly levied Smokes Boys the characters are always sitting the novel – if so, why? room they are locked in – Wardrobe, Biblical curse was that a man might die in by windows, looking up at the stars, staring Door, Skylight – are almost characters As you say, both the Irenes, elder and a foreign land. There are Aboriginal people across blowing grass and into the far hills. in the story, because of the smallness younger, are devoutly Catholic, and orthodox for whom this curse would make perfect of their world. With only his mother The Mary Smokes Boys is stalked by an often Christian spirituality certainly informs the sense. But I think it would not have the same for company, Jack thinks of cartoon abstract sense of menace. You expertly build novel. There is, I think, a pervasive sense of impact on many Australians. The trouble with characters on TV as friends, because an escalating sense of dread from the opening inherited guilt, a product of Original Sin. On the built environment of supermodernity, he has no concept of other children or pages, linked as much to the town, its landscape the night he visits Vanessa at her house, Grey with its proliferation of non-places as opposed real friends. His relationship with his and the circumstance of its characters as any suggests the possibility that we are meant to to anthropological places – deterritorialised, Ma is intensified because they have concrete threat. It reads as an impressive and suffer, that the sin is in us and it’s only a trick ahistorical structures like chain motels, fast only each other. engrossing exercise in Australian Gothic. Was of time that means we have to wait to commit food joints, cookie-cutter estates that are alike this what you had in mind when you wrote it? it. And when asked to declare his own faith, in California, Jerusalem and the outskirts of In some sense, Room is not so differ- he claims his God is present late at night, in Brisbane – is that we are less and less inclined ent to Donoghue’s earlier historical I’ve certainly read and enjoyed examples of running water and with people in pain. I can to feel at home anywhere. The very notion novels, because it is inspired by real what might be called American Gothic – only justify this characterisation by saying it of discrete place is compromised. So what events, turned around and retold Flannery O’Connor, Faulkner and Cormac reflects my own feelings. There is a darkness threatens Mary Smokes Creek is not so much from a different perspective. Room McCarthy, but to me, to write within the about his spirituality. the city as the outskirts, the urban sprawl: a is based on real women and their chaos, if I might express it so. children, confined under horrible circumstances. But the perspective of One intriguing aspect of the novel is the way lo- this story makes it unique – it is not cal entrepreneur Tanner is drawn to the put-on the sensationalistic story of a man glamour of the underworld and Queensland’s holding a female victim hostage, but ‘moonlight state men’, while the more street- the story of a child and his mother wise Grey and Eccleston see its banality. What in an incredibly difficult situation. interested you about this? Donoghue’s sensitivity and humour Organised crime is so often glamourised in make this story not only readable, but our media: in both journalistic reporting and beautiful and compelling. fictional treatment. There are certain kinds This would be a very different novel of crime that interest me. For example, when if it were told by Jack’s mother. The individuals who are not essentially criminals five-year-old acts as a buffer between commit crimes of passion, or do so for some the horrifying reality of her existence necessity, like the theft of horses in The Mary and the reader. We know what’s going Smokes Boys. I’m interested in the effects that on, but often Jack doesn’t grasp the breaking the social contract has on decent meaning of the events he describes. people. And I think there are times and places This isn’t a fictionalised ‘survivor when a decent human being is called upon to story’, but a story of the love between break laws: the modern examples of Nelson mother and child. Through Jack’s Mandela and Gandhi suffice as proof. But to voice, we understand what he can’t be in the crime business, I think, demands an – that his Ma would do anything for “ His ‘deceptively simple’ short stories could have been a whole lot more obviously readable.” infantile mind, else a sociopathic one. her son to get out of the room. Read the extended version of this interview at Edwina Kaye is from Readings Carlton Oslo Davis www.oslodavis.com www.readings.com.au. 6 Readings Monthly August 2010 Dazzling debuts New Fiction Guest Review Australian Fiction Equator ‘That rare thing—an original Special Price Wayne Ashton vision. This is a novel of wisdom The Mary Smokes Boys FACP. PB. $27.95 and beauty.’ GAIL JONES Reading Equator is like Patrick Holland immersing yourself in a Transit Lounge. PB. $29.95 performance of a butterfly Gallipoli 1915. A young Anzac Our special price $24.95 and a Turkish doctor meet in the dance while being mes- Patrick Holland’s beautiful, merised by history. The chaos of battle. Could a friendship beautiful second novel, The characters, Colonel David, make a soldier betray his country? Mary Smokes Boys, is a tale that Keep Left, Ellie-Isabela, the transports you through its Mendozas and the Glass- Traitor is a story of war, and realisation of place and its Darlingtons, begin their traversing of time love—how each changes genuinely affecting story of and place in 1947 Spain, but the story soon love (for brothers, sisters, exquisitely deviates into 2009 London, everything, forever. mothers, fathers). And yes, for 1930s India and passages on memory, love, a language as pure and magical as I have read luck, good and evil. Creating a contempo- in a long time. Grey North is aged just ten rary magic realism, Ashton establishes a when his mother dies in childbirth. Her baby unique voice, and while the reader does have daughter survives the tragic event and is given to trust the narrator about the story (as it her mother’s name in tribute: Irene. The bond doesn't become clear for quite some 100 between Grey and Irene is inseparable, and pages and after that diverts regularly), with a journeyman father (who is an alcoholic ‘One of the most irresistible Ashton's language is inventive and funny to boot), the siblings have by no means an easy and very engaging. Diasporas and deities. novels I’ve read in a long time.’ childhood. They also inhabit a community Oil and opium. Africa. London. India. The ALEX MILLER which the wider society all but ignores; it’s just shifting time and geography are relentless, a pitstop on Southern Queensland’s Western but fascinating. The novel is long and does A beautiful, brutal novel set in Highway: blink and you miss it. Through one feel as though it could have done with a Victoria’s winegrowing region, of the North’s neighbours, Eccleston, Grey further edit, but it is so distinctly unique soon joins the rough’n’ready ‘Mary Smokes and fresh that it is well worth the effort. The Vintage and the Gleaning is a Boys’. Their adventures – normal adolescent Ding-dong and how’s the time. mesmerising observation of men, larking-about as well as those of a darker, Pip Newling is Readings’ official blogger women and country. riskier hue – form the backbone of this novel. There are echoes of Jon Bauer (featured in this The Vintage And issue) here in Holland’s ability to inhabit these The Gleaning wonderfully realised young characters, and I also thought of Chris Womersley’s The Low Jeremy Chambers Road in that a sense of foreboding is never far Text. PB. $32.95 TEXTPUBLISHING.COM.AU away. But Holland is out on his own when it Shortlisted for the 2007 comes to his descriptions of the flora and fauna Vogel, this is a stunning, of the region’s natural world – this surely stands reflective debut – and as some of the best nature writing this country boasting early endorsements has produced. Finally, a larger theme Holland from Alex Miller and M.J. addresses is an existential one: namely, what is Hyland, among others. After the status of faith and hope in the vanishing an alcoholic adulthood, world of country Australia, as our metropolises Smithy has been forced into expand ever outwards, and small towns stay sobriety. Working in the vineyards of a only barely viable? A major work from a writer Victorian winemaking town, he contem- I had not known of before, but cannot help plates his surroundings and dwells on all the but think has a substantial career ahead of him! wasted years. As memories resurface, Smithy Martin Shaw is Books Division Manager of struggles with regret and nostalgia – he’s a Readings desperate old man, seeking beauty. Maybe he can find redemption in helping Char- lotte, a troubled young woman who he’s * Guest Review formed a shaky friendship with. Errol, Fidel and the The Fable of Cuban Rebel Girls: All Our Lives 165 )(<,9 A Novel Peter Kocan Boyd Anderson HarperCollins. PB. $32.99 ‘Anybody who reads this book and isn’t instantly a fan UQP. PB. $32.95 After an infamous shooting incident, Peter probably wasn’t paying close enough attention.’ It’s 1958. Hollywood star Errol Flynn is past Kocan was jailed for ten years. He also Bookseller & Publisher his prime, living out life in Jamaica propped discovered a passion for literature, and has up by vodka, morphine and his underage since become an internationally acclaimed ‘John Bauer excels in this exploration of the mind of a child.’ companion, Beverley Aadland. A young Fidel J.M. Coetzee author. This novel seems to draw inspiration Castro is on the verge of taking power in from his experiences. The protagonist, Tait, nearby Cuba, fighting the Batista regime with is 30 years old and has just been released his band of guerrilla rebels. Improbably, each after a decade of incarceration. He settles in RUDD’S WAY* SEX AT DAWN* has something to offer the other. Flynn seizes an idyllic community, writes with the help of Nicholas Stuart Christopher Ryan on the cinematic potential of the revolution a literary grant, and pursues love – but also to conceive a film – the hopelessly B-grade becomes entangled in a moral fable. The first definitive account & Cacilda Jethá Assault of the Rebel Girls, written and directed of what went wrong for This surprising, sure-to-be by Flynn and starring Beverley – and de- Kevin Rudd, and why controversial book explores the Labor decided he had origins of human sexuality, scends on the Cuban hills to shoot it among to go. questioning assumptions that real fighting and real rebels. Castro’s support many of us take for granted. is essential, and Castro in turn takes the op- International portunity to exploit Flynn and to learn how to come across as a national hero. Australian Fiction ORIGINAL SKIN* author Boyd Anderson’s novel is a fast-paced Holy Water Maryrose Cuskelly ARE WE NEARLY THERE YET? Alan Moir – though never facile – imagining of these James P. Othmer This grand and sweeping events; a self-aware exploration of artificial UWA. PB. $32.95 story of our largest The perfect guide to the last and genuine heroism. Anderson convincingly organ – the skin – is a three years of Australian politics The morally dubious captivating journey. from SMH cartoonist Alan Moir. captures the voice of a celluloid swashbuckler popularity of bottled water on the way out and the symmetry of the main lies at the heart of this characters’ trajectory is pleasing, but what quick-witted commentary on fascinates most about this novel are the events twenty-first-century values. it depicts – implausible, but true. Henry has a beautiful wife, a www.scribepublications.com.au *Also available as eBooks Ann Standish is a freelance reviewer new house, and a well-paid job. But his wife doesn’t love Readings Monthly August 2010 7 him, his company is outsourcing everything, and the desperate war around them is quite Mahmoud – a Sufi – tells David stories of to promoting Polish poems, and has and his mortgage is crippling. Then his boss astounding. There is not a word wasted, nor love, faith and fantasy. Gradually, David preserved their rhythms, rhymes and gives him a choice: head to the Kingdom of a phase that is not meaningful in this novel. becomes more loyal to his friend than his messages. Galado to promote bottled water, or become I found it almost impossible to put down country. unemployed. Henry takes the first option, and grieved when it ended. not realising that Galado is experiencing a Chris Gordon is events coordinator of Readings Saraswati Park terrible drought. Anjali Joseph Journals American Subversive Fourth Estate. PB. $32.99 Granta 111: Guest Review David Goodwillie Mohan dwells in a calm Going Back Simon & Schuster. PB. $32.99 pocket of chaotic Bombay. John Freeman (ed.) Anthropology of Aiden Cole is savvy but He’s a middle-aged letter an American Girl cynical, living it up as a New writer, who lives for the Granta. PB. $27.99 York blogger. When a bomb second-hand books he buys After 30 years of publishing Hilary Thayer Hamann incredible new writing by A&U. PB. $32.99 destroys a deserted office- from pavement sellers, building floor, frightened especially those with margin established writers like Originally self-published, Salman Rushdie, along with this ‘coming of age’ novel has New Yorkers suspect Middle notes. At the same time that Eastern terrorists. Four days the sellers are abruptly evicted, Mohan and the best new voices, Granta been picked up by main- is still going strong. This stream publishers and later, Aiden receives an anony- his wife take on a new responsibility – their mous email, with a photograph of a beautiful nephew joins them in their housing colony, issue is concerned with the promises to become a cult idea of return. Non-fiction classic. Narrator Eveline young white woman attached. ‘This is Paige Saraswati Park. As these three characters deal Roderick,’ it says. ‘She’s the one responsible.’ with yearnings, loves, relatives and each pieces explore a variety of viewpoints – in- Auerbach is in her final year cluding on Pol Pot’s chief executioner – and of high school in East Hamp- According to The New York Times, Goodwillie other, their lives are beautifully and poi- ‘excels at jet-black social satire in a style gnantly brought into focus. there’s fiction from Claire Watkins and ton, New York in 1979. Eveline is an artist, a Chimamanda Ngozi. thinker and a non-conformist, and one of reminiscent of Bret Easton Ellis’. the successes of this 600-page book is the Mud: Stories of Sex Griffith Review 29: complex and insightful way Eveline views The Changeling and Love the events and people around her. The novel Kenzaburo Oe Michèle Roberts Prosper Or Perish opens with the death of Eveline’s best Atlantic. HB. $39.99 Virago. PB. $32.99 Julianne Schultz (ed.) friend’s mother. When her best friend Kate A compelling yet meditative From nineteenth-century Text. PB. $24.95 comes to live with Eveline and her mother, novel from the 1994 Nobel Venice to 1970s England, While Kevin Rudd sup- Eveline must deal with the changing Prize for Literature winner. from Jane Eyre to Tristram ported population growth, dynamic of their friendship, as well as her Kogito Choko gets back in and Isolde – love is intimate so far our new prime own grief for a woman who was more a touch with an old, estranged and visceral, sensual and minister is taking the mother to her than her own. As the novel friend, Goro Hanawa. Their confronting. This invigorat- opposite view. According to moves into the early 1980s, Eveline’s correspondence goes well, ing collection is a subversive, the latest Griffith Review, experiences of romantic and sexual love are until an odd message plays witty take on women’s this is for the best. Julia explored. Her detachment from the ‘in on one of the cassette tapes Goro has sent: experiences with love, grief, betrayal and Gillard seems focused on crowd’ and lack of conformity makes her ‘I’m going to head over to the other side desire. The Guardian says that the short finding a sustainable solution, and so do desirable to men, and she must learn to sepa- now … But don’t worry … I’m not going story is ‘an intimate, subtle and enigmatic these insightful essays. The lead piece – rate her need from theirs, particularly when to stop communicating with you.’ Later form: Michèle Roberts reminds us in this from journalist Peter Mares – explores the it comes to Jack, her troubled high school that night, Kogito learns that Goro has virtuoso collection that she is one of our conflict between humanitarian and boyfriend. This is an extraordinary book, committed suicide. foremost practitioners of the art’. environmental viewpoints on population well written, fluid and always gripping. growth. There’s also astute commentary Annie Condon is a freelance reviewer The Complete Spies Of The Balkans from contributors including urban policy Cosmicomics professor Brendan Gleeson and feminist Alan Furst writer Sara Dowse. Special Price Italo Calvino Weidenfeld and Nicolson. PB. $32.99 Penguin UK. PB. $26.95 Accomplished spy novelist Matterhorn For the first time in English, Alan Furst has depicted the Karl Marlantes this is the complete edition salons of Western and Atlantic. PB. Normally $32.99 of Italo Calvino’s masterful Central Europe. Now he Our special price $24.95 short-story collection. shifts his focus to the more Intense, powerful, and Twenty-five years after his unstable Balkans, setting compelling, Matterhorn is an death, it’s clear he was ahead this suspenseful tale in the epic war novel in the of his time. Science and wild Macedonian countryside tradition of Norman Mailer’s imagination intertwine in and then Salonika, Greece. Turkish, Greek, The Naked and the Dead. It’s this epic, fanciful journey than spans from Serbian and Bulgarian operatives are all the timeless story of a young the big bang to the twentieth century. involved. According to The Washington Marine lieutenant, Waino Qfwfq, a ‘cosmic know-it-all’, has been here Times, ‘There is no current novelist who %22.12: Mellas, and his comrades in from the beginning, and we travel with him captures the turbulence, ambivalence, chaos Bravo Company, who are dropped into the as he metamorphoses from a dinosaur to a and turmoil of Europe in the years just :::0:)&20$8 mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and mollusc to a moon-milk gatherer, among before World War II as well as Alan Furst.’ forced to fight their way into manhood. other forms. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain Family Album and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and Penelope Lively malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns Penguin UK. PB. $24.95 Poetry out, are the obstacles they discover between The Art of Struggle Booker Prize-winner Penelope Michel Houellebecq each other: racial tension, competing Lively unravels the secrets of a ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. Alma Books. PB. $29.95 middle-class family. Six Michel Houellebecq started siblings, now grown to out in France as a poet. Like The Invisible Bridge childless adulthood, return to Julie Orringer his confronting, bestselling their family home, Allersmead novels – such as Atomised Viking. PB. $32.95 – a sprawling Victorian house – his poetry explores and The Invisible Bridge is Julie in the suburbs. At first it challenges the hollowness of Orringer’s first novel – and it seems like it must have been ideal childhood modern existence. Layered is brilliant. Her short-story home for a boisterous brood, raised by a with deep melancholy and collection, How to Breathe loving homemaker and an aloof writer. But despair at the inhumanity of our world, this Underwater, was celebrated there’s more to the family than meets the eye, collection showcases Houellebecq’s poignant for being ‘fiercely beautiful’ and a terrible secret that remains unspoken. prose and verse pieces, subtly weaving (The New York Times). The together a range of styles and tones. Invisible Bridge is also Traitor beautifully written, and despite the enor- Stephen Daisley The Word: mous length (over 600 pages) and the fact Text. PB. $32.95 that we know the premise of the story, it’s an Two Hundred Years Of In this profound, astonish- Polish Poetry inexorable read. Here is an epic novel of ing tale of Gallipoli, love three brothers, set in Hungary and Paris, and war are shown to both Marcel Weyland (trans.) from 1937 to the end of the war. Orringer bring inevitable, irrevocable Brandl & Schlesinger. PB. $34.95 tells with great clarity the effects of war on change. Mahmoud is a This is the first comprehen- families and landscape. The depiction of the Turkish doctor, fighting to sive bilingual edition of labour camps is brutal and heart-breaking. save a boy’s life; David is a Polish poetry. Its translator, The story of Andras Levi, a Hungarian New Zealand soldier who Marcel Weyland – a native Jewish architecture student, and his romance stops to help. After a shell bursts close by, Polish speaker who studied with wealthy young widow Klara, holds the the injured men are taken to a military English poetry – has heart of the story. The portrayal of their lives hospital, where they develop a close bond. successfully dedicated himself 8 Readings Monthly August 2010

JoAbout Case interviews Leanne one Hall about night This is Shyness (Text, PB, $19.95)

Young Adult and Children’s Writing – and stories, those other elements just creep in and Wolfboy and Wildgirl ride their bikes and a book contract with one of Australia’s most I almost don’t identify them as being unusual explore underground tunnels on their quest respected publishers. or magical or slightly odd elements,’ Leanne to recover a precious item of stolen property says. ‘Honestly, when I do write my stories, I from the sugar-crazed Kidds. ‘I thought it This is Shyness is dark, funny, joyful and feel like it’s just reality that I’m representing was pretty funny to set a couple of urban engrossing – the story of two teenagers from – which of course it isn’t. I don’t know what streetwise teenagers on a quite old-fashioned literally different worlds who spend one that says about my brain or what my everyday quest for an object,’ laughs Leanne. ‘To me long, crazy night together in the suburb of life is like.’ that was the biggest joke, to send these really Shyness, where the sun stopped rising three cool teenagers on a quest for an object, which years earlier. Once indistinguishable from the The book began with the names of Wildgirl is such a sort of dorky childhood thing.’ neighbouring suburb of Panwood, Shyness and Wolfboy, the two narrators, and think- has descended into a bleak chaos. ing about what kind of place they would Leanne drew on her own memories of being a inhabit led to the ‘suburb of darkness idea’. Adults have fled, leaving teenage children to teenager to create her characters. She person- From there, the central theme of the one long ally identifies more with the ‘quieter and fend for themselves in grotty sharehouses. night emerged. ‘I wanted to write about one Tribes of children – Kidds – live together in a more contained’ Wolfboy. But the girl-bully- of those really, really crazy magical nights – ing problems Wildgirl is escaping will strike a Leanne Hall arrives at the compound, and roam the streets with sinister probably one of the first really crazy magical State Library engulfed in a monkeys known as tarsiers, mugging people chord with any teenager. ‘Everyone’s had that nights you ever have as a teenager – and how incident at high school ... there’s always some- coat and scarf, a lavender for sweets and getting hopped up on sugar. A you never forget that kind of situation.’ beanie over her pixie haircut. sprinkling of darkened bars with pale-skinned thing where everyone turns against you some Her attention to detail when staff attract ‘tourists’ from nearby suburbs. day, or you have your dress tucked into your it comes to costumes – liter- When Wildgirl, running from intrinsically ‘If I try to write straight undies and you have to go up on stage at as- ally following my suggestion teenage-girl problems, is smitten by the sembly and receive a prize or something. And that she bring a coat and mysterious Wolfboy after a chance meeting stories, those other you really have that feeling of, That’s it for me, beanie so we can brave the cold on the at The Diabetic Hotel, she dares him to stay elements just creep I’m not going back. I can’t face those people ever, pavement tables outside Mr Tulk’s – makes up all night with her, to prove to her that I just don’t want to exist, and I’m going to move me laugh. It’s just what one of the two the sun never rises. Of course, Wolfboy has in and I almost don’t to a different city and have a different name and narrators of her debut novel, This is Shyness, major problems of his own, in the form of a identify them as no one will know who I am.’ Wildgirl gets to would do. But image-conscious Wildgirl fractured family – and together they find a live out that fantasy – but her adventures also (who pauses to fashion a turban out of a tee temporary release and the chance to be new being unusual.’ put her troubles in perspective and allow her shirt while underground tunnelling) would people with each other. to move forward. It’s a fantasy that teenage probably be wearing fake fur and glitter, The teenagers in the book are vividly drawn – readers will vicariously enjoy. This Is Shyness Like Leanne’s short stories, not just their youthful bravado and conscious rather than Leanne’s more practical get-up. They’ll also enjoy the chemistry between the treads a fine line between realism and fantasy. hipster cool, or the delicious, volatile fizz of leads. ‘They desperately want to connect but A children’s specialist at Readings Carlton, The psychology and dynamics of the charac- attraction at that time of life, but their tran- at the same time can’t let go of their mistrust Leanne has long been a bookseller by day, ters are palpably true, and the writing is crisp sitional state. They’re no longer children, but and insecurity, so they’re kind of coming to- writer by night (and days off). She’s been and stark – it makes you utterly believe in the not yet adults – and while they’re both on an gether and pulling apart,’ says Leanne. ‘I like slowly but surely building a publication place being described, seduces you into it. irreversible path away from childhood, they’re the fact that they lust from a distance. I think record and a reputation as a writer to watch, Like Haruki Murakami, who Leanne is a big young enough to relish a brief return to some The Sleepers it’s important to know that even if that hot with short stories appearing in fan of, her stories begin with a portrait of life of its forgotten pleasures, even (perhaps espe- Almanac Best Australian Stories Meanjin. boy at school is not jumping on you – he's , and as we know it, and then silkily veer into the cially) as their problems – and their feelings still thinking about it. Then last year, she won the Text Prize for eerie, the fantastical. ‘If I try to write straight for each other – are anything but childish.

New Crime Fiction Dead Write with Kate O'Mara Martin Walker’s first two hope for the new one, Bad Boy (Hodder & girls – is sufficiently creepy. It does use the Fans of Gerritsen often like Lisa Gardner, Bruno Courreges Investiga- Stoughton, PB, Normally $32.99, Our spe- formula of a slightly odd, older man paired so luckily for them, she has a new one this tions (as the series is now cial price $27.95). I was wrong – it’s bloody with a rather insular, difficult girl, which is month too. In Live to Tell (Orion, PB, called) were firm favourites brilliant! A fast-moving, heart-stopping chase getting a bit old (think Dragon Tattoo, The Da $32.99), the horrific murder of an entire fam- with Readings’ customers, to find Banks’s wayward daughter Tracy and Vinci Code), but this doesn’t stop the book ily triggers unpleasant memories for a nurse and the third, Black Diamond the handsome, violent thug she’s on the run from being a great read. in a children’s psych ward, herself the sole (Quercus, PB, Normally with that doesn’t let up from start to finish. survivor of an almost identical tragedy years $32.95, Our special price Robinson has injected the life into this series Imogen Robertson shot to earlier. Gardner herself highly recommends $27.95), will no doubt make an equally it badly needed – let’s hope he keeps it up and fame after winning The Chevy Steven’s debut Still Missing (A&U, PB, strong impression. Our intrepid hero Bruno sly old dog Banks has a few tricks left in him. Telegraph’s ‘first thousand $32.99), a psychological drama concerning a – called to investigate a scam in which French words of a novel’ competi- woman haunted (understandably) by the year truffles are replaced with inferior Chinese Two other British crime tion a few years back. Those she spent as the prisoner of a vicious sadist. ones – has his hands full when a murder masters have taken a break thousand words became her The past also comes back to haunt undercover threatens to erupt into a gang war. The from both their regular debut, Instruments of cop Frank Mackey in Tana French’s A Faithful second book in the series, The Dark Vineyard, characters and police Darkness, released to great Place (Hodder & Stoughton, PB, $32.99), goes into small format paperback this month procedurals this year and acclaim. Her new historical thriller, Anatomy when the case of his missing teenage sweet- (Quercus, PB, $24.95). opted for well-crafted of Murder (Headline, PB, $32.99), promises heart – gone for 20 years – comes crashing psychological thrillers instead. twists and intrigue when a body is dragged back into his life. I must confess that until A new Robicheaux from Reginald Hill – longlisted for from the filthy depths of the Thames. this I’d never read any of French’s books, James Lee Burke is always an the Lost Man Booker Award this year for his Peter James’s Roy Grace novels have not yet and I have no idea why because this one eagerly awaited treat – The first novel A Clubbable Woman – gives us The made him a household name, but perhaps is really good! Glass Rainbow (Orion, PB, Woodcutter (HarperCollins, PB, $32.99), in he should be. Dead Like You (Mantle, PB, Normally $32.99, Our special which a paroled prisoner tries to make sense So many books this month, $32.99) is the sixth in the series and con- price $27.95) finds him back of his difficult and mysterious life. The we’re running out of space! cerns the possible re-emergence of a fetishis- home in New Iberia, dealing prolific Ruth Rendell, still going strong 46 But I must make brief tic rapist – and eventually killer – who steals with a rash of grisly deaths years after the publication of her first book, mention of Lisa Houlihan’s his victims’ shoes. Peter Decker learns the and his daughter’s attraction to a perhaps offers up Tigerlily’s Orchids (Hutchinson, PB, Badlands: Australia’s 13 Most hard way about doing difficult favours for fatally charming new lover with the wonder- Normally $32.95, Our special price $27.95), Intriguing True Murders friends in Faye Kellerman’s Hangman (Har- ful name of Kermit Abelard. Things take an the tale of a mysterious woman with a (Victory, PB, $32.99). perCollins, PB, $32.99), when his friend even nastier turn when, during an investiga- dangerous hold over the occupants of her Delivering exactly what the vanishes and he and his wife, Rina Lazarus, tion into the death of a local teenager, apartment block. cover promises, this quirky collection has Robicheaux’s best friend Clete finds himself must track down her violent and unpredict- the approval of Mick Gatto, who declares the prime suspect in the bashing death of a The publishers have high hopes for Donato able husband. on the cover that ‘it makes Underbelly look notorious pimp and drug dealer. Carrisi’s The Whisperer (Abacus, PB, Normally With The Killing Place (Bantam, PB, like a kids’ tea party’. Lastly, we have a $32.99, Our special price $27.95), touting it pretty good crime special for August – Having faithfully read Peter Robinson’s Banks $32.95), Tess Gerritsen unleashes a (literally) as ‘Italy’s number one bestselling thriller sen- chilling thriller about a small town seeming- Phillip Kerr’s most recent Bernie Gunther novels since high school, I must confess that sation’, among other rhapsodic catchphrases. If the Dead Rise Not (Quercus, PB) will be aside from 2006’s excellent Piece of My Heart, ly abandoned following a snowstorm and a So is it any good, you ask? Well, actually, woman who vanishes into thin air after seek- reduced to $19.95 for this month only – I’ve been underwhelmed by them in recent it’s very good indeed and its premise – the it was $32.95. Hurrah! years. Almost ready to give up, I had little ing shelter there – several overseas reviewers discovery of the body parts of missing young have declared it one of her best. Readings Monthly August 2010 9 New Books Non-fiction family testimony, acclaimed biographer Selina Hastings compellingly reveals the troubled Biography man behind the wealth, literary acclaim and Guest Review lavish parties. While in love with a charming but dissolute man, Maugham made a disas- The Happiness Project trous marriage, and went on to endure the Gretchen Rubin anguish of an unrequited love affair. HarperCollins. PB. $35 One day while riding a New York city bus, Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany of sorts. ‘The days are long, but BestSport on Ground: the years are short,’ she Great Writers On The thought to herself. A successful writer, wife and Greatest Game mother, Rubin had no reason Peter Corris & John Dale (eds) to feel unhappy but decided to dedicate the Viking. PB. $32.95 next year of her life to focusing on the things Aussie Rules isn’t as global as that really matter. This became her Happi- soccer, but supporters know ness Project. This book is the compelling it’s the greatest game. In their account of the next year of her life. Each third anthology tackling month she focuses on changing and uniquely Australian topics, improving one area of her life – friendship, editors Peter Corris and John passion, money – and takes inspiration from Dale have brought together many sources from scientific research and work from 17 of our best philosophy, to the Dalai Lama and Oprah, writers, whose passion for Australia’s to see what works for her. Written in an favourite game is matched by their talent honest, diary style, the book also includes with words. Better still, there’s no bias – bar- input and inspiration from the many readers rackers for every team are represented. of Rubin’s blog, therefore avoiding any sense Anyone who loves their footy – and anyone of self-indulgence. In fact, it reads more like interested in top quality sports writing – a conversation between friends. But it’s should grab a copy. Contributors include Rubin’s self-deprecating, passionate writing Malcolm Knox, Tony Wilson, John Harms, that makes for a compelling read. Before you David Williamson and Don Watson. know it, you’ll be borrowing her techniques and, who knows, maybe even embarking on your very own happiness project. Steph Little is a freelance reviewer RAustralianudd’s Way Studies My Grandmother: Nicholas Stuart A Memoir Scribe. PB. $35 Fethiye Çetin Already, here’s a thought- penguin.com.au Spinifex Press. HB. $23.95 provoking, in-depth analysis For 60 years, Fethiye Çetin’s grandmother of Kevin Rudd’s downfall. Seher kept a disturbing secret. Seemingly a Nicholas Stuart, Rudd’s happy, respectable Turkish-Muslim house- biographer, has already wife, she began her life as Heranus, an Ar- written two critically lauded menian Christian. In 1915, most of the men books full of insights into the in Heranus’s village were slaughtered by Ot- Labor party since its dra- toman Turks, while the women and children matic 2007 win. Now Stuart turns his were sent on a death march – but Heranus attention to the apparently brutal end of was saved and raised by a Turkish gendarme Rudd’s leadership, chronicling the gripping captain. According to The Independent (UK), lead-up to the ‘bloodless coup’ that brought this is a ‘gripping and thought-provoking him down. This is true insider material, memoir’. based on extensive off-the-cuff interviews – a must-read before the showdown between Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. Special Price From Here to There: One Hundred Days Of A Father and Son Summer: How We Got Roadtrip From Mel- to Where We Are bourne To London Bob Ellis Jon Faine & Jack Faine Viking. PB. $32.95 ABC Books. PB. Normally $39.99 Self-styled ALP court jester Our special price $34.95 (and fringe dweller) Bob Ellis A father and his 19-year-old is back – just in time for son drive from Melbourne another election – with the to London – and they don’t latest in the series-of-sorts end up killing each other. that began with Goodbye Well-known radio presenter Jerusalem in 1997. His Jon Faine (of 774’s The no-holds-barred, diary-style Conversation Hour fame) narrative is highly addictive, ranging across and his son Jack took the Australian political, social and cultural life journey of a lifetime, leaving everything for and his itinerant work as a speechwriter, an adventurous six months in their trusty playwright and public figure. Once again, 4WD. The resulting tale is sometimes both his mordant, cutting wit and moving tender, sometimes hilarious, sometimes reflections on our life and times are on thrilling. ‘Somehow,’ Jon writes, ‘I con- display – spanning the period 12 November vinced myself it was a good idea … I would 2009 to 7 January 2010. do it again and I would not recommend it to anyone.’ The Tasman: Biography Of An Ocean The Secret Lives Of Neville Peat Somerset Maugham Penguin. PB. $49.95 Selina Hastings Many seafarers have fallen under the spell Hodder Headline. PB. $29.99 of the mighty Tasman Sea. The sea takes its A celebrated author from his lifetime until name from Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer today, Somerset Maugham was not the who came across New Zealand and his other bon vivant he appeared to be. With access namesake, Tasmania, more than one hundred to Maugham’s private letters and fascinating years before James Cook. In this entertaining, 10 Readings Monthly August 2010

beautifully presented book, notable natural ships returning with slaves. The operation New from history writer Neville Peat reveals the intrigu- soon broke down, plagued by mutiny, piracy ing story of the Tasman – from its origins, to and murder – and when the British govern- its strange marine life, to the human dramas ment looked for a new foreign prison, they GLOBES AND that played out across its waves. found our great southern land.

Guest Review Looking For Australia: Historical Essays GREENS When We Think About John Hirst Melbourne Black Inc. PB. $32.95 Jenny Sinclair Eminent historian John Hirst FOR FATHER’S DAY Affirm. PB. $34.95 explores Australian politics, Considering most Melburnians remain as history and society with steadfastly loyal to their city as they do their authority and vigour. A chosen AFL team, Jenny Sinclair is not alone companion to his bestselling in her love of Melbourne. When We Think Sense and Nonsense in Austra- Imagine a year without spending or even touching About Melbourne charts the geography of lian History, this is a fascinat- money. Former businessman Mark Boyle did just Melbourne by exploring the historical and ing collection of essays. With that and here is his extraordinary story. Going back to basics, Mark learned ingenious ways to eliminate cultural significance of its landmarks and sub- the best history books on hand, Hirst looks at his bills and flourish for free. Encountering seasonal urbs. Each section is accompanied with im- the possible origins of Aussie Rules in Aborigi- foods, solar panels, skill-swapping schemes, cuttlefish ages and maps, which make for an interactive nal pastimes; wonders whether Curtis was toothpaste, compost toilets, Boyle puts the fun into frugality and offers some great tips for economical reading experience. Sinclair’s interest lies in really our greatest prime minister; reflects on (and environmentally friendly) living. the way people make sense of their surround- our convict legacy and its contribution to our $29.95 Pb, 9781851687541 ings and come to call a particular area home. national character; and much more. Oneworld She does this through analysing the impor- tance of maps, whether they are grand-scale My Father’s Daughter: drawings, something found on Google, or Memories of an lines scrawled on notepaper. She also explores Australian Childhood the potent effects of Melbourne on its artists Sheila Fitzpatrick – from Paul Kelly to Helen Garner – and how MUP. PB. $27.99 their works shape our own view of this ever- The paternalistic saying evolving city. Sinclair’s book should resonate ‘father knows best’ is turned strongly with anyone who has ever spent time on its head when ‘father’ is a in the windy city, or needs reminding why controversial radical. Melbourne truly is marvellous. Journalist and historian Brian Emily Laidlaw is a guest reviewer Fitzpatrick taught his daughter to question For the last half century, the fundamental First People: The East- Beautifully illustrated, The West assumptions about America’s military policy have authority – and she took his remained unchanged: American security requires ern Kulin Of Mel- advice to heart by questioning him. When and the Map of the World the United States (and them alone) to maintain a bourne, Port Phillip her adoration turned to scepticism, she left presents the past as a single permanent armed presence around the globe to be ready to intervene anywhere at any time. Andrew And Central Victoria Melbourne to start a new life in Oxford, narrative in which European J. Bacevich presents the origins of this consensus, Gary Presland eventually becoming a distinguished Russian history is an offshoot of Asian forged at a moment when American power was at Museum Victoria. PB. $24.95 historian. But as this vivid, piercing memoir history. its height. shows, she doesn’t find it so easy to escape $35.00 Pb, 9780805091410 The history of the first AVAILABLE AUGUST Henry Holt and Company Australians is relevant to all being her father’s daughter. First people The Eastern Kulin of Melbourne, Port Phillip and Central Victoria of us. Even so, this is the only up-to-date book Are We Nearly There available about the Eastern Yet?: An Epic Saga Kulin peoples. Their nation of Courage lived in what we call the Great new titles Gary Presland Amidst Turmoil Yarra Valley and Port Phillip Alan Moir from Hachette Bay, with territory stretching up to Echuca. Scribe. PB. $29.95 Historian Dr Gary Presland presents a After the conservative fascinating, in-depth look at Kulin society Howard era, the 2007 before and after the European invasion – an CHANGI election seemed to bring an event which forever changed them, but by exciting change – of course, BROWNLOW no means put an end to their culture. Roland Perry we all know what happened

9780733624643 $35.00 next. A prize-winning, My Congenials: internationally-acclaimed This is the moving, Miles Franklin And cartoonist and two-time powerful and surprising story Friends In Letters Walkley Award recipient, Alan Moir has of a group of Jill Roe (ed.) come up with a volume of bitingly hilarious Australian POWs HarperCollins. PB. $29.99 cartoons. This is the perfect book for a who organise an Australian Rules Best known for her classic controversial election year, and it’s also a Football competition under the worst works of literature, Miles fantastic guide to contemporary politics, conditions imaginable – inside Franklin also kept up a witty taking a cleverly conceived journey from the Changi prison. correspondence. The first of conservativism of our former government to these brilliant letters were today’s slightly-less-conservative leaders. GLASS RAINBOW penned in 1887, more than a James Lee Burke decade before Franklin began Special Price 9781409116622 $32.99 My Brilliant Career, and she Robicheaux returns continued writing them as her career Bad Characters: Sex, on the trail of a progressed. She shared her experiences and Crime, Mutiny, Murder serial killer while memories with life-long friends – such as and the Australian Delves into the rich folklore of trying to protect Alice Henry and Vida Goldstein – and a Imperial Force his daughter from selection of their letters is also included. the world’s greatest game and a boyfriend with a Peter Stanley recounts inspirational life stories dark side. A Merciless Place: Pier 9. PB. Normally $34.95 from courses around the world. Our special price $29.95 The Lost Story Of No army has ever been AVAILABLE AUGUST BAD BOY Peter Robinson Britain’s Convict entirely virtuous. Our Disaster in Africa patriotic, idealised view of 9780340836965 $32.99 And How It Led To World War I ANZAC The latest book by The Settlement soldiers has made us forget bestselling author Of Australia those who malingered, Peter Robinson has deserted, and murdered and DCI Banks plunged Emma Christopher robbed their comrades; and into his most A&U. PB. $35 took part in riots, strikes and mutinies. The terrifying, personal For over two centuries, this disturbing tale army called disobedient men ‘bad charac- case yet. has been lost to history. Now, acclaimed ters’. Some were trying to avoid battle, while author and historian Emma Christopher has others were committing more serious crimes. pieced together one of the British Empire’s Peter Stanley takes a respectful look at these dirtiest secrets. After its crushing defeat in the men, recounting their often tragic stories hachette.com.au American War of Independence, the Empire www.mup.com.au with unflinching honesty. began shipping convicts to West Africa, many Readings Monthly August 2010 11 Brisbane seatbelts and shove your fist in your mouth Matthew Condon as you prepare to enjoy a heart-warming, New South. HB. $29.95 pants-wetting tale spanning a decade: a story Like many Australians, of honour, immaturity and one helluva Matthew Condon has lived water fight. A story of two men and how overseas. Born and raised in their refusal to grow up helped one of Brisbane, he’s spent time in Melbourne’s funniest comedians, Charlie Germany, the UK and Pickering, to do just that. Read on in awe as France. After returning, he the two take practical jokes to whole new rediscovers Brisbane in a levels, including five star restaurants, novelty unique and personal journey, ties, numerous visits to casualty, old toilets, while exploring its history and development. glitter and the SES. Yes that’s right ... the ‘I keep coming back to the light of Brisbane SES. There are none of your typical pull-my- … it is the first thing that tells you you’re finger dad jokes in this book. Impractical home.’ This lyrical book is the third in a Jokes will make you laugh. Out loud. For series in which prominent Australian authors those who have only seen him on Talking write about their home cities, by the ‘bout Your Generation or The 7PM Project, acclaimed author of The Trout Opera. this is your opportunity to witness Charlie’s comic genius unbound by the limitations of television and stand-up shows. Special Price Dani Solomon is from Readings Carlton Cruiser: The Life And Loss Of HMAS Perth and her Crew Mike Carlton Food & Wine Heinemann. HB. Normally $55 Special Price Our special price $44.95 James Halliday Wine World War II wasn’t easy for Companion 2011 any Australian soldiers – but James Halliday the crew of HMAS Perth Hardie Grant. PB. Normally $34.95 endured a particularly tragic Our special price $29.95 experience. They fought Wine enthusiasts, makers Germany, Italy and France, and collectors rejoice – the and then the Imperial new edition of this highly Japanese Navy. In the process, anticipated, authoritative they were nearly lost in a hurricane, bombed guide is finally on the shelves. for months on end, and finally sunk with a The number one bestselling loss of 353 men. The rest were taken prisoner guide to Australian wine has by Japan, and less than a third of the original been completely updated and crew survived the ravages of war. revised, bringing it up to date. Its extensive and entertaining contents include wine- tasting notes, winery histories, and facts on Humour alcohol content and prices. Special Price My Family Feast How Did You Get Sean Connolly Hardie Grant. PB. $59.95 This Number Everyone knows that the best Sloane Crosley recipes are passed down Portobello. PB. Normally $24.95 through families. When the Our special price $19.95 ingredients have been Compelling New I absolutely loved Sloane Crosley’s debut lovingly selected, and the collection of humorous essays, I Was Told Australian recipe has been perfected ‘Taut and pacey, a thriller for our times. There’d Be Cake – and I wasn’t alone. Not over many years, it just tastes Larkin starts at a frantic pace and doesn’t stop’ BUNTY AVIESON, AUTHOR OF APARTMENT 255, only did she get rave reviews from the likes He kickedbetter. the leather Sean chair awayConnolly and instantly has THE AFFAIR AND THE WRONG DOOR Fiction of Jonathan Lethem and David Sedaris (who the rope snapped tight. His lungs burned and the put togetherveins a incelebration his face felt close to of bursting. family His brown recipes suggests you wear a diaper for reading this from many eyesdifferent bulged as if in surprise.countries, But he knew including he had follow-up), but it was picked up by HBO to die. It was his only option. Cuba, China and Afghanistan – recipes One global corporation for a new, Larry-David-type, series. In her steeped in rich cultural traditions. Each second wisecracking, reflective, charmingly Human experiments in Zimbabwe. An Australian farmer’s death. manipulates everything we eat. chapter Atakes Sydney CEO’s us suicide.into Only a one family woman sees thehome, connection. where a self-deprecating collection, Crosley once Serena Swift is a ballsy advertising director with a guilty conscience delectablewho takesmeal on theis world’s being most powerfulprepared biotech company for – a Can one woman uncover the again explores the perils and pleasures of special occasion.Gene-Asis. Serena hooks up with a hacker and disguises herself to infiltrate truth behind their lies? suburban girlhood, eking out an existence Gene-Asis in an attempt to expose the company’s horrific genetic experiments. She little realises her investigations are being in New York while working entry-level watched. jobs (and living in apartments where your Suddenly, Swift’s informants disappear, she is hunted by a hired killer and framed for murder. Chased from Sydney to New York, bedroom is demarcated using bookshelves or she must face the man she fears most, on his own turf. ‘Exciting, compulsive reading’ If she fails, nothing can stop a global catastrophe. And nobody wooden screens as room dividers), and fum- Naturalcan help her – except a dead History man. Bookseller + Publisher Guest Review bling through budget overseas travels. She The Genesis Flaw is a fast-paced environmental thriller that is spine-chillingly pertinent for our times and will grip readers from attends a friend’s wedding in Alaska, which beginning to end. is characterised by 20-hour-long days, the Bonobo Handshake purest water ever, marauding bears, strange Vanessa Woods murders and – worst of all – Sarah Palin. She Black Inc. PB. $27.95 travels solo to Lisbon, after daring herself to After spending just three go wherever her finger landed on her world days with Brian while globe. And she unexpectedly revisits a high helping him count chimpan- school nemesis in a Chinese restaurant toilet. zees in a Ugandan jungle, a Sloane Crosley is laugh-out-loud funny and year later Vanessa accepts his Ethan’s searching for a utterly winning. If you haven’t already, make proposal of marriage and new job – and a life. her acquaintance now. joins him in his latest ‘Matt Howard has a deft, Jo Case is editor of Readings Monthly research adventure. Then she realises that they’ve only spent 31 days of wry, comic touch.’ face-to-face time together over a year and The Sun-Herald Staff Review wonders if leaving Australia was the right Impractical Jokes thing to do ... At first thinking that bonobos were a type of tree, Vanessa soon discovers ‘Ethan Grout is a heartfelt, Charlie Pickering that they are very rare apes that are our A&U. PB. $29.99 closest living relatives, found only in the easy-to-read novel’ It was the summer of 1986 Democratic Republic of Congo, which has when, at what appeared to be suffered the bloodiest violence since World Bookseller + Publisher a normal barbeque, Richard War II. Unlike the much more researched Opie pushed Ronald chimpanzees, bonobos are non-violent, the Pickering fully clothed into a females rule the roost, and sex is as common swimming pool. What as a handshake. Part education, part history happened next would change and hugely entertaining, this beautifully their lives forever. Fasten your 12 Readings Monthly August 2010

written memoir provides a generous view behind the decline of the big agencies in into an often-tragic part of the world with favour of smaller, flexible, tech-savvy ‘shops’. the saving of each bonobo a precious victory. Like so many of the best books, Adland is 9\\XV[T S\_ .b`a_NYVN Vanessa gradually falls in love with the a strange hybrid: entertaining, dark-witted strength of the people, the complexity of the confessional; cultural journey through the by J  H country, learning that the intelligent and history of advertising, from the 1950s to peaceful bonobos have more to teach us the present; and a fascinating collection “John Hirst is one of the nation’s about being human than we do for them. of reportage-style interviews on the state Kath Lockett is a freelance reviewer of the industry with various creatives, most indepen dent and original consultants, account executives, CEOs and historians” —4R\SS_Rf /YNV[Rf new millennium digital whizzes. Anecdotes include partying in a Normandy castle, “A powerful controver sialist fighting with KFC franchisees, and his love- … a brilliant historian” TFinancehe Happy Economist: hate relationship with an inspirational boss. —.b`a_NYVN[ /\\X ?RcVRd Happiness For The But at the heart of it is a passionate, thought- Hard-Headed provoking engagement with the relationship Ross Gittins between advertising and contemporary culture – and where it’s headed. A&U. PB. $26.99 Jo Case is editor of Readings Monthly As the old saying (and pop

 . song) goes, the best things in Out Now * www.blackincbooks.com life are free. Economists focus on increasing profits through financial measures History – but where does happiness The Ninth: Beethoven fit in? An award-winning And The World In 1824 financial journalist and Harvey Sachs economics editor for The Sydney Morning Faber. HB. $35 Herald, Ross Gittins goes against the grain in Beethoven’s last symphony premiered during e Readings Foundation this bold promotion of success through the flowering of High Romanticism. 1824 happiness. If we focus more on preserving Europe was marked by artworks and events our planet and social fabric, he argues, and which signalled a desire for freedom, such as less on economic growth and efficiency, our Delacroix’s painting of the Turkish massacre ‘national happiness’ will increase. of the Greeks, and Pushkin’s anti-tyrannical e Readings Foundation supports Victorian individuals and organisations that play Boris Godunov. A magisterial, human- wish to further the development of Literacy, Community work and the Arts. istic statement, the Ninth was emblematic is is a wonderful opportunity for individuals and arts organisations with of its time. By an eminent music historian, Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status to be able to bring their creative or this absorbing blend of biography, anecdote literacy-related projects to life. OCulturalriginal Sk Studiesin: and historical knowledge vibrantly places Exploring the Marvels Beethoven in context. Applications open Tuesday 31 August, 2010 and must be lodged by 5pm on Friday 29 of the Human Hide October 2010. Final decisions about projects will be made by the Board of Trustees Maryrose Cuskelly The West And The Map by Tuesday 30 November 2010. For more information or to download an Application Scribe. PB. $35 Of The World Form (available from 31 August) please visit www.readings.com.au. Last year in The Australian, Matthew Richardson Maryrose Cuskelly wrote of MUP. HB. $69.99 her research into books We think we know the story eSupporting Community, Literacy and theFoundation Arts. www.readings.com.au bound with human skin. of Western civilisation, but do ‘Such volumes,’ she said, ‘are we really? In this exciting the Hannibal Lectors of examination of our roots, cultural objects.’ In her debut Matthew Richardson presents book, Cuskelly takes a look a well-reasoned argument that at our largest organ in a variety of conditions European history has grown – from the dead, tanned skin used to bind out of Asian history. His books, to the living, sensitive, protective astute, surprising insights – accompanied by layer that reacts to tickling. She weaves lavish images – reappraise the historical roles together a fascinating discussion, involving of Chinese diplomats, Greek cities, Christian anatomical science, historical research and explorers and the Dieppe maps. It turns out intimate personal experience. we may owe more to Asian nomads than to classical Greece and Rome. Sex At Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins Of Modern Sexuality Christopher Ryan Psychology & Cacilda Jethá Why We Lie: The Source Scribe. PB. $35 Of Our Disasters If evolution has hardwired us Dorothy Rowe for monogamy, then why are HarperCollins. HB. $45 we unfaithful? And if men If we were all forced into and women have been paired total honesty, undoubtedly up as hunter and nurturer there would be drastic and since the dawn of time, then hilarious results. Ultimately, why do so many people expe- though, inconvenient truths rience same-sex desire? These might save us from the are just two of the many important ques- disasters our lies have bred – tions explored in this groundbreaking book. including climate change and Its authors – a married couple – build a the global financial crisis. From ‘little white convincing argument that humans evolved lies’ to the lies that propped up the Nazis, in egalitarian, sexual partner-sharing groups, psychologist Dorothy Rowe dissects our based on evidence from anthropology, dishonesty, and wonders if we will ever archaeology, primatology, anatomy and choose to change our ways. ‘Gripping, astute psychosexuality. and incisive’ – Financial Times Adland Last Child In The James P. Othmer Woods: Saving Our UWA. PB. $24.95 Children From Nature James P. Othmer worked in advertising Deficit-Disorder for twenty years, working his way from Richard Louv copywriter to creative director at agency Atlantic. PB. $24.99 giant Young & Rubicam, before leaving, Why are Australian children experienc- burnt-out, to become a novelist. But he was ing epidemic obesity, ADD, isolation and soon drawn back to research this engrossing depression? Our increasingly technology- memoir-of-sorts, fascinated by the ways driven society has given parents good reason in which the industry massively changed to be concerned about the way their children ZZZ3DQWHUD3UHVVFRP in the post-digital era – and the reasons play. In a world where people have murdered Readings Monthly August 2010 13 each other over computer games, children couldn’t get enough of in hardback – art are cloistered in indoor environments, sur- outlives politics and abundantly illustrates ESSENTIAL READING rounded by the latest gadgets. This timely, Music history. The Russian Revolution instigated FOR AN ELECTION YEAR practical book urges parents to teach their Vanda & Young: Inside some of the most startling advances in the children to enjoy the natural world, through Australia’s Hit Factory fields of art, photography and graphic design healthy pastimes like tree-climbing, bug- John Tait seen in the twentieth century. Through an collecting and bike-riding. New South. PB. $34.95 amazing array of material, including posters, When Harry Vanda and photographs, paintings, magazine covers, Doctoring The Mind: George Young met at advertisements, pamphlets and other rare Why Psychiatric Sydney’s Villawood Migrant ephemera, Red Star Over Russia captures Treatments Fail Hostel, it turned out to be events as they unfold. Richard P. Bentall one of the most important Penguin UK. PB. $26.95 moments in Australian music Wildflower Country We’re living in the ‘Prozac history. They soon formed Stan & Kaisa Breeden Age’ of psychiatric medicine, the Easybeats, putting Friday Fremantle Arts Centre Press. HB. $75 leaving behind the bad old on our minds – and the story doesn’t end There are few other places on days of frontal lobotomies. If there. The two men went on to produce and earth where flowers are so we take drugs, we’re told, we mentor Young’s brothers’ band – AC/DC all-pervasive, so varied and Griffith REVIEW 29: Prosper or Perish explores can manage mental illness. – and work with other chart-topping acts. sumptuous, as in southwest the human, environmental and social This is an inspirational inside look at Vanda, Western Australia. It is one of impacts of the population and immi- But recent WHO studies gration debate. Featuring major essays have suggested that psychiat- Young and the musicians they worked with, 39 special places in the world, featuring revelatory interviews. named International Biodi- by Peter Mares, Tom Griffiths, Brendan ric patients in developing nations have a Gleeson and many more. versity Hotspots, where there greater chance of recovery than our patients Julianne Schultz, Ed., $24.95 do. Richard P. Bentall reveals terrifying have been explosions of evolution – veritable truths about our dependence on profitable cauldrons of species-making. Award-winning pills, arguing that we need to focus on Art & Design photographers Stanley and Kaisa Breeden patients as individuals. 2010 mELBOURNE Art journey into this unique landscape. Part Fair Specials fine-art photography, part travelogue, this book will delight nature lovers everywhere. Exploring Happiness: To celebrate Australia’s pre-eminent art fair, From Aristotle To Readings presents some fabulous specials for Theodore Géricault Brain Science the art lover and book collector. Supplement Sissela Bok your library, buy a gift for Father’s Day, or Nina Athanassoglou-Kallmyer Phaidon. HB. $95 Yale University Press. HB. $34.95 shorten the Christmas shopping list early. This new monograph With the ongoing economic Art books give years of pleasure and knowl- explores the life and works of doldrums, Middle Eastern edge, and look great on your shelves. Theodore Géricault (1791– wars and major oil spill, these There are 13 Macmillan mini-art books to 1824, painter of the epic Raft aren’t exactly the happiest The Best Hated Man in Australia: Before he choose from – buy three and get your fourth of the Medusa), whose times. This is a timely, was fatally shot in 1921, Jack Brookfield choice free. Beautifully produced miniatures compelling career and legacy intelligent look at what happi- ‘rose like a meteor in public life’ to be the that range from the charming and iconic im- continue to captivate ness involves and how it can most extreme anti-politician ever elected ages of Charles Blackman to bad boy Adam audiences, artists and critics be pursued, by an interna- in Australia. Cullen, to the delightful portraits of Jim alike. In her comprehensive survey, Nina tionally recognised moral philosopher. Paul Robert Adams, $34.95 Pavlidis, featuring ‘Greeks who came to Mel- Athanassoglou-Kallmyer pays tribute to Diverse notions of happiness are explored – bourne’ and their stories. Lovely Australian established Géricault scholarship, but also SPUNC represents almost 80 small drawn from the Greek philosophers to Iris Australian publishers. Ask Readings art introductions and easy to transport. reassesses the career of an artist too easily SPUNC Murdoch, and from the Dalai Lama to today about these titles, and more. The Small miscast as the archetypal ‘tortured soul’ of modern neuroscientists. Sissela Bok chal- The Mirror of the World by Julian Bell, a spunc.com.au Press Network art-historical Romantic mythology. lenges us to think clearly and sensitively about highly readable account of the history of art how we should live and treat each other. with a thoroughly global perspective – buy the hardback at the paperback price. Mono- The Paradoxical graphs of some of Australia’s best-loved The definitive history of the The beautifully crafted, new painters (Ian Fairweather, Russell Drysdale Australian cruiser HMAS Perth and Legacy of psychological thriller from and Fred Williams) are at extra-special the brave men who sailed in her. Sigmund Freud prices, and there is also a special price for the Frances Moran new Brett Whiteley book, the erudite Ed- Karnac. PB. $52.95 mund Capon’s I Blame Duchamp: My Life’s ‘Paradoxically,’ Frances Moran writes in Adventures in Art, and Alasdair McGregor’s her introduction, ‘what many see as Freud’s Grand Obsessions: The Life and Work of Walter failure – to make psychoanalysis a science – Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. is nothing less than his greatest success.’ In this compelling new reading of The Complete Modern Women: Works of Sigmund Freud, she introduces the groundbreaking notion of a theory of Women Artists at practice to psychoanalysis, contending that the Museum of Freud’s most important legacy is the concept Modern Art of human subjectivity. The works of Paul Cornelia H. Butler Verhaeghe and Marie Cardinal are brought & Alexandra Schwartz The book Mike Carlton in to support Moran’s clearly presented MOMA. HB. $110 has always wanted to write. RUTH RENDELL framework for practitioners. This landmark survey represents the first effort by a Keep in touch with great book news by visiting major North American www.randomhouse.com.au museum to examine its collection by highlighting APhilosophylain Badiou: modern and contemporary Key Concepts women artists. Featuring THE BIG MO: essays by nearly 50 writers, Why Momentum Now Rules Our World A.J. Bartlett this groundbreaking publication presents a This book will change how & Justin Clemens (eds) variety of generational and cultural perspec- you think the world works. Acumen. PB. $42 tives, focusing on a diverse range of artists. Philosophers like Alain Subjects include women at the Bauhaus, | 9780733328367 | $29.99 Badiou are shaping our design collaborations, photographers culture more than we might between the wars, Latin American artists, think. The influential Badiou performance art, architecture, land art, Riot is one of our most eminent Grrrls, African American artists, collage and contemporary thinkers, assemblage in contemporary portraiture, as outshining others with his well as essays on individual artists such as breadth of argument and Lillian Gish, Diane Arbus and Ida Lupino. reference, and his aptitude at participating in critical debates. These accessible essays Red Star Over Russia: FROM HERE TO THERE: A Father provide an overview introducing the full A Visual History of range of Badiou’s five key concepts: truth, and Son Roadtrip from Melbourne to London being, ontology, the subject, and conditions. the Soviet Union An intelligent, humorous travel tale from ABC They also take a look at his engagement with David King Local Radio’s legendary broadcaster Jon Faine. thinkers from Plato to Deleuze. Tate. PB. $49.95 | 9780733323874 | $39.99 A paperback edition of a revolutionary Russian art and design bonanza that we harpercollins.com.au 14 Readings Monthly August 2010

M iddle Readers Good Oil The Adventures Laura Buzo Allen & Unwin. PB. $18.99 of Ook and Gluk, Kung-Fu Cavemen Finally, we’re back to publish- Kids’ Books ing first-love stories that don’t Book of the Month The Ink Garden of from the Future include vampires or women This is Shyness Brother Theophane Dav Pilkey needing to be saved by men! Leanne Hall C.M. Millen & Andrea Scholastic. PB. $14.99 Woo hoo! Good Oil is the Wisnewski (illus.) From the much-loved author oh-so-lovely, but somewhat Text. PB. $19.95 of Captain Underpants comes Wildgirl is looking to forget, Charlesbridge. HB. $27.95 heartbreaking, story of Amelia This beautiful picture book, a hilarious new adventure. and Chris. Amelia is 15 and so when she meets Wolfboy George Beard and Harold she asks him to take her to a illustrated from paper-cut has just started an after-school job at Wool- prints and watercolours, is a Hutchins are back, but this worths. Chris is 21, in his final year of uni, place where the sun never time in the roles of two silly rises: Shyness. The suburb of celebration of Medieval staff trainer and completely charming. Amelia Celtic illumination. A young cave boys, Ook and Gluk, is in love. But as she struggles with the Shyness isn’t a nice place to who have to stop an evil be after dark (not that you monk, Theophane, is thought that Chris could never fancy her and sometimes restless during corporation from the future. Dav Pilkey uses Chris contemplates life after uni, the reader have a choice) – gangs of a fun, accessible graphic-novel format, with Kidds hooked on sugar roam the streets and the long days bent over his can only wonder – could this relationship ‘flip-o-rama’ animations in each chapter. really ever work? A well-written, funny and will rough you up for your cough drops. But work, and loves above all to be out walking with Wolfboy and Wildgirl egging each in the open countryside. From nature, he true-to-life story for ages 14 plus. other on, they embark on a dangerous learns to make inks – yellow from the The Midnight Zoo Katherine Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn journey. It’s easy to see why This is Shyness crocus, blue from woad leaves, violet from Sonya Hartnett won the 2009 Text Prize. In a word, it’s bilberries – and early one morning his Viking. HB. $24.95 India Dark amazing. Its darkly magical world is both brother monks come in to find him asleep Two young Romany gypsy Kirsty Murray familiar and completely original. As Wolfboy over his work table, their work glowing brothers, escaping war, Allen & Unwin. PB. $16.99 and Wildgirl learn more and more about with new colour and life. Highly recom- find themselves in a zoo, Told in two voices – Tilly, each other over the course of the night, mended. Medieval life, the joy of colour, at night, amid a war-ravaged aged 15, worldly-wise and you’ll come to know them too. I found it and the beauty of nature all brought to life village. The starving, rebellious, and Poesy, aged hard to say goodbye to these surprising, for ages six to adult. woebegone animals tell 13, innocent but having to wonderful characters, but even in Shyness all Kathy Kozlowski is from Readings Carlton the boys what has happened, grow up fast – this story of a good nights must come to an end. and as the moon shines troupe of Australian child Holly Harper is from Readings Malvern The Vegetable Ark down on these motley survivors, their performers in India is quite Also see the interview with Leanne on p8. Kim Kane & Sue deGennaro stories, dreams and fears are set free fascinating. Especially (illus.) in this midnight refuge. As natural foes, because it’s based on a true story – that of the Picture Books Allen & Unwin. HB. $29.99 the animals’ inherent characteristics scare real Pollard’s Lilliputian Opera Company, Brothers Noah and Neil are the boys, but they also understand that which successfully toured the world from the There Are No Cats all creatures need their freedom – bars 1880s, with its tour to India in 1909 ending In This Book about as different as you can get. Noah is a show-off with should not imprison beast or man! Sonya in a walk-out and scandal. What was it like Viviane Schwarz lots of money, while Neil Hartnett’s parable highlights man’s greed for the young performers? How did they Walker. HB. $27.95 likes to sing about peace, and cruelty, and yet from these, hope cope with exotic places, stage-door admirers, Tiny, Moonpie and André are wear his hair long and chant and courage can prevail. Particularly tensions and friendships magnified by such back in this fun, charming to pot plants. So when it moving is older brother Andrej’s stoicism intimacy, and the inconsistent values of the sequel to There Are Cats in rains for 40 days and 40 and wisdom. As always, Hartnett’s prose adult world? A sprawling, engaging read for This Book. The three adorable nights, Neil and Noah take different weaves its magical, poignant spell. girls (and some boys) aged 12 and above. KK cats are feeling adventurous. approaches in their race to find land … Ages 12 and up. AD They want to set off from Halo their book and see the world Takeshita Demons Alexandra Adornetto – but they will need help. Looking Ahead Cristy Burns & Siku (illus.) Harper. HB. $24.99 Like the first book, this includes amazing to Father’s Day Frances Lincoln. PB. $14.95 This is another compelling pop-up features that will delight children. Terrifying enemy demons book from an acclaimed My Dad Thinks follow Miku Takeshita and young Australian. Three Special Price He’s Funny her family when they move angels – Ivy, Bethany and Katrina Germein from Japan to the UK. One Gabriel – are heaven-sent to Mirror & Tom Jellett (illus.) night, during a snowstorm, protect Venus Cove, which Jeannie Baker Black Dog Books. HB. $24.99 they kidnap Miku’s brother looks like a sleepy town but Walker. HB. Normally $39.95 With a ‘dad joke’ on nearly Kazu. Miku and her friend is threatened by gathering Our special price $34.95 every page, this is a Cait must race against time forces of evil. Then Bethany, the youngest, A new Jeannie hilarious look at a father’s to get him back. By an acclaimed new takes an interest in handsome school captain Baker is cause for sense of humour. Katrina author, this is the first in an exciting trilogy. Xavier Wood. To love him, she’ll need to excitement, and her Germein says that while defy the laws of Heaven. stunning latest writing the book, she Artemis Fowl and the picture book shows looked out for ‘jokes that fathers typically Atlantis Complex The FitzOsbornes In an artist and use; the kind of jokes that we’ve sometimes storyteller at her masterful best. You open up Eoin Colfer Exile (The Montmaray heard before, and even though they make us Puffin. PB. $22.95 Journals Book Two) the book to find two volumes that tell two roll our eyes, they still make us laugh’. contrasting stories, but ultimately the same In this latest adventure, Michelle Cooper story: families living vastly different lifestyles Special offer something terrible has Random. PB. $18.95 happened to Artemis – some- Finally, here’s the gripping but with similar needs and desires. The Buy a copy of My Dad Thinks He's Funny, Australian father and son are setting out for the how, he’s become nice. Too sequel to the NSW Premier’s and go into the draw to win Dad and his much dabbling in magic has Award-winning A Brief hardware store in heavy traffic. The Moroccan mates a table for eight at The Comic’s father and son are on a lone trek on a donkey damaged his brain, and the History of Montmaray. Sophie Lounge in North Melbourne. The winner fairies diagnose him with FitzOsborne and her oddball through mountains and deserts, with an arid will be able to select a night of his choice marketplace as their destination. The dual- Atlantis Complex. Captain family are forced from their from a great range of comedians appearing Holly Short, a fairy ally, needs to cure him island kingdom and find book format illustrates the two disparate over the next six months. Tickets are nor- worlds, but also highlights the universal themes so he can save the world from vicious robots, refuge in England. Despite mally $15 each. Prize value is $120. Write that are attacking subterranean volcanoes. the promise of balls and gorgeous dresses, of family, community and home. Baker’s your name and address on the back of your intricate collages are truly amazing, but the Sophie finds it hard to enjoy her new life – receipt and put it in the box provided or Young Adult her family’s lost so much. Can she keep cultural respect and humanity in this book hand it to staff at the counter. make it shine. Mirror is an important Austra- Linger them together, despite their eccentricities, when it seems like everything is falling apart? lian picture book for ages three and up. Adventures Maggie Stiefvater Alexa Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn Scholastic. HB. $29.99 with Grandpa Shiver gave Twilight a run for A Love Story Starring A Bit Lost Rosemary Mastnak its money in the elemental My Dead Best Friend Chris Haughton Hardie Grant Egmont. HB. $24.95 romance stakes. Now comes Emily Horner Walker. HB. $24.95 Although Grandpa hasn’t the highly anticipated sequel, Penguin. PB. $19.95 With heart-melting been a kid for a long time, Linger. Shiver delivered an This novel slipped in quietly under the radar illustrations – just look at playing with him is far atmospheric and believable and has left me feeling the effects for weeks. the cover! – this is a timeless from boring. His grandson werewolf love story set in the Cass’s best friend has died and left her adrift, story of separation and knows that every visit frigid cold of a small in a novel about friendship, grief and find- reunion. While Little Owl is means a new, fun and Minnesota town, and I can’t wait to see ing your footing that made me cry, but also sleeping, he rolls out of his imaginative adventure. They might build a where Linger takes it. Highly anticipated! laugh. What else can you do when faced nest. Now he’s not sure where his mummy is. racing car, battle a scary dragon, or drift off Marie Matteson is from Readings with the musical ‘Totally Sweet Ninja His new friend Squirrel helps him look, and in a hot-air balloon – Grandpa’s adventures Port Melbourne Death Squad’? MM they meet other animals on their journey. are full of surprises! Readings Monthly August 2010 15

Fred Williams 1927-1982 Patrick McCaughey ReadingsBargains on the web: New books are Bargai regularly added to our nwebsite. Table Click on the Bargains tab at www.readings.com.au. HB. Was $125. Now $79.95 This scholarly and highly illustrated study of Fred The Blue Moment: If The Dead Rise Not THE Art of the Italian Williams was originally Miles Davis’s Kind Philip Kerr Renaissance published in 1980. This third Of Blue And The PB. Was $32.95. Now $19.95 Rolf Toman (ed.) revised and updated edition Remaking Of If you haven’t read Philip PB. Was $39.95. Now $12.95 includes a new chapter which Modern Music Kerr, you must. Kerr’s central This book focuses on looks at Williams’s place in the Australian art scene and Richard Williams character is a cynical, yet impressive works from all honourable, German includes new insights into his life, as a man HB. Was $39.99 Now $14.95 fields of the visual arts, policeman-turned-private- and as an artist. A Kind of Blue is the explaining the various aspects eye, whose past has come bestselling piece of music in of Italian Renaissance art and back to haunt him. captivating the reader’s Russell Drysdale jazz history. Recorded in just Lou Klepac nine hours, it has become the attention with magnificent HB. Was $125. Now $79.95 epitome of melancholy illustrations. Vacant Possession This definitive work on coolness. Richard Williams Hilary Mantel Russell Drysdale, in print for expertly situates it within its tHE Great Painters of PB. Was $25.95. Now $10.95 26 years, has been redesigned wider cultural context. the Italian From a Booker prize-winner, with an elegant, spacious this brilliant novel explores Renaissance Great Rivals In History: Eberhgard Konig layout to make the paintings three tangled lives. Ten years come alive for a new When Politics Gets after her last tangle with HB. 2 vols. Slipcased. Was $125. Now $69.95 generation. Personal them, Muriel Axom is about This comprehensive, Joseph Cummins to re-encounter Colin Sidney two-volume work presents PB. Was $45. Now $14.95 and Isabel Field – and there’s the extraordinary panorama Grand Obsession Powerful political rivals have vengeance to be wreaked. of Italian painting, spanning Alasdair McGregor often changed the course of the period from 1300 to 1610, including all the great HB. Was $69.95. Now $47.95 history. This utterly compel- Wetlands In this definitive new ling, impeccably researched Charlotte Roche masters and their most famous works. biography of Griffin husband book vividly depicts the HB. Was $28.95. Now $14.95 and wife, Alasdair McGregor drama of history’s most With more than one million delineates the role each vicious political feuds, Manor Houses copies sold in Germany and in Normandy played in the production of through centuries and rights snapped up in 27 their greatest works – Can- around the world. countries, Wetlands is the Regis Faucon & Yves Lescroart berra, Castlecrag, Newman sexually and anatomically PB. Was $39.95. Now $9.95 College and the rest – and Homer And Langley explicit novel that is chang- In the middle of Pays d’Auge charts their lives, from their childhoods and E.L. Doctorow ing the conversation about in the heart of Normandy, meeting in Chicago in the employ of the PB. Was $29.99. Now $12.95 female identity and sexuality. embedded in gently rolling larger than life Frank Lloyd Wright, to their A brilliant, touching story hills covered with apple battles in Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney, that captures epic twentieth- Art and Architecture orchards and blooming and their swansong in India. century events. When Tuscany meadows, stand witnesses of Homer and Langley’s Anne von der Haegen a proud past. Norman manor I Blame Duchamp: My parents die of Spanish HB.Was $31.95. Now $14.95 houses are true architectural Life’s Adventures in Art flu, the brothers are left This delightful little hardback jewels: romantic half-timbered structures, Edmund Capon alone in their Fifth Avenue packs a great deal of informa- feudal country houses and defiant noble seats of stone, wood and brick. HB. Was $49.95. Now $33.95 townhouse. Then Homer tion about one of the most In this sweeping collection goes blind, and Langley is sent to fight evolved regions of the world. of essays, Edmund Capon in World War II. The Mirror of the It’s full of lovely illustrations, World: A New History describes his lifelong indispensible for either the fascination with art and the Speeches That Changed actual or armchair traveller. of art artists who, over centuries, The World: The Stories Julian Bell have enlightened us and and Recordings of the HB. Was $79.95. Now $39.95 challenged the way we see Moments that Made European Garden A vivid and compelling the world. History (With Audio CD) Design: from classical history of human artistic Simon Sebag Montefiore antiquity to the achievements, from the first Fairweather stone fashioned into a figure PB. Was $34.95. Now $14.95 present day Murray Bail by a hunter-gatherer, to the This is a fascinating history. Rolf Toman (ed.) HB. Was $125. Now $79.95 latest new media and The CD includes 20 With 233 reproductions, PB. Was $39.95. Now $14.95 installation work. With twentieth-century speeches, most in colour, many of This book gives a complete remarkable clarity, Julian Bell while the book contains the paintings and drawings never picture of the development tells the story of how art has evolved through transcripts of these and over seen in public, Fairweather is of the art of garden design the millennia and across the world. He 30 other world-changing the definitive account of the and its most important follows the changing trends in the making speeches, along with the life and art of this great periods and theories, along and significance of art in different cultures, stories behind the words. painter. with numerous examples of and explains why the art of the day looked representative gardens. and functioned as it did.

From the acclaimed author of Under a Tin-Grey Sari comes an intricate and expansive love story, and a powerful ode to the earth’s fragile oceans.

ISBN: 9781 921 361 890 Praise for Under a Tin-Grey Sari ‘… a stunning book.’ Book club notes – The Age available from www.fremantlepress.com.au ‘… a tour de force …’ – The Daily Star ‘… a remarkable debut novel …’ ISBN: 9781 921 696 138 – Weekend Australian 16 Readings Monthly August 2010 GREEN ZONE $39.99. 2 DVDs. $44.99. Blu-ray $44.99 Matt Damon stars as chief warrant officer Roy Miller, a New Release DVDs rogue US Army officer who is done following orders. He must hunt through covert DVD OF THE MONTH LITTLE DORRIT RETURN TO CRANFORD and faulty intelligence THE NO. 1 LADIES’ $59.99 Released 5 August. $29.99 hidden on foreign soil, When Arthur Clennam This two-part saga opens to a before war escalates in an DETECTIVE AGENCY returns to England, his struggling Cranford: a unstable region. With this, Paul (Bourne Released 5 August. $49.99 curiosity is piqued by a traditional English village franchise) Greengrass directs in this film, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective young seamstress, Amy that is airing the conflicts which is unbeatable for action and sus- Agency celebrates Botswana, Dorrit, who’s working in his that accompany progress. pense. ‘the finest place on God’s mother’s house. His quest to Miss Matty Jenkyns (Judi Earth’, as surely as a discover the truth about Dench), after having closed ENTOURAGE: SEASON 6 woman’s intuition. After her ‘Little Dorrit’ takes him to her business in the last series, $39.99. Blu-ray $49.99 father dies, Precious the Marshalsea Debtors Prison, where he is happily babysitting her maid Martha’s For Vince, Eric, Drama and Ramotswe (singer Jill Scott) discovers that the dark shadows of debt child. This gives the ladies in town some- Turtle, life in Hollywood’s sells his cows and opens a stretch far and wide. Filled with humorous thing to gossip about, as does every other fast lane can be an intoxicat- detective agency, because she ‘wants to do yet tragic characters, Little Dorrit is a small event occurring near the chatty group. ing rollercoaster ride. After good’. Cheered on by hyper-efficient stirring rags-to-riches-to-rags story, The same women from the original series hitting some speed bumps secretary Grace Makutsi, sassy hairdresser exposing the underbelly of nineteenth- populate this new Cranford – while the over the last couple of years, B.K. and smitten mechanic J.L.B. Mateko- century British society as only Charles addition of a few new men to the mix creates Vince’s career is once again ni, Mama Ramotswe becomes a combina- Dickens can. options for love interests. in high gear after his role in tion of detective and feminist icon, tackling a new Martin Scorsese film. But now that tricky cases involving missing persons, MARTIN CLUNES’ SOUTH AFRICA WALKS Vince is back on top, is it finally time for duplicitous daddies, dangerous dentists and WITH JULIA BRADBURY the entourage to step out of his shadow? unfaithful spouses. ISLANDS OF BRITAIN Released 11 August. $39.99 Released 12 August. $29.99 It is a startling fact that the In South Africa, Julia ANNA PihL: SERIES ONE CRAZY HEART UK is made up of about six Bradbury sets out on four Released 11 August. $39.99 very different walks – the $39.99. Blu-ray $44.99 thousand different islands, Anna Pihl is a divorced Garden Route, the Drakens- Danish cop who lives with Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) is a and this landmark series sets burg mountain range, the a young boy named Mikkel, broken-down, hard-living out to explore the most Kruger National Park and and her gay landlord, country music singer who’s fascinating, yet unfamiliar, the Augrabies Falls at the Jan. She’s joined the had way too many mar- ones. Martin Clunes (Doc edge of the Kalahari Desert Copenhagen police, but riages, far too many years on Martin) visits some of these – that will explore South Africa’s claim to be there’s no welcome mat the road and one too many beautiful but remote communities, shedding a world in one country. These are all walks for her. It’s a tough beat, drinks on a regular basis. new light on their history, culture, flora and that any reasonably adventurous person a tough squad, and Anna has to scrap for And yet, Bad can’t help but fauna, while guiding us through amazing could embark on, and they offer a fresh and everything she gets. In the tradition of reach for salvation with the help of Jean landscapes and seascapes, and meeting very personal perspective on a friendly and Unit One, The Eagle and The Killing. (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who colourful locals along the way. fascinating country that is so often misun- discovers the real man behind the musician. derstood. As the motto goes, ‘The harder the life, the BRING ME THE HEAD OF WHO DO YOU THINK sweeter the song.’ ALFREDO GARCIA YOU ARE? USA Released 11 August. $19.99 WELCOME Released 12 August. $39.99 BROTHERS A family scandal causes a Released 11 August. $34.99 Sarah Jessica Parker, Lisa $39.99. Blu-ray $49.99 wealthy Mexican rancher to Bial, 17, has travelled Kudrow, Matthew Broder- When a decorated marine pronounce: ‘Bring me the overland for months to ick, Brooke Shields, Susan goes missing overseas, his head of Alfredo Garcia!’ reach his girlfriend in Sarandon and Spike Lee. black-sheep younger brother Bounty hunters, and a piano England. At Calais, he Who Do You Think You Are? cares for his wife and player and his girlfriend, set realises he can’t legally make USA follows the journeys of children at home, with off to achieve this goal. Of it further. He turns to six well-known US person- consequences that will shake course, their quest only swimming instructor Simon, alities, as they explore their the foundation of the entire brings untold misery, in the form of who’s coping with a divorce, family trees, uncover their family histories, family ... This film stars trademark Sam Peckinpah violence. At last to teach him to swim across the English and discover surprising and enlightening Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie the only movie Peckinpah had final cut on is Channel. A story of compassion, new facts about their heritage that until now Portman. released in Australia. beginnings and the power of love. have been lost in time. LUC Journey into the wild BESSON imagination of Luc Besson.

Influential Cinema from Around the Globe

DIRECTORSSUITE.COM.AU Readings Monthly August 2010 17 DOC MARTIN: COMPLETE SERIES FOUR Released 11 August. $39.99 After the heart-wrenching COLLECT THE decision to call off his New CDs marriage to Louisa, life in the beautiful Cornish village of ULTIMATE ICON Portwenn has become even Maya more infuriating for Dr M.I.A. Martin Ellingham. CD of the Month $21.95 I BELIEVE YOU LIAR Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulpra- TALENT PACKS Washington gasam returns with her GRAND DESIGNS: Normally $27.95 much-anticipated third SERIES SEVEN Our special price $19.95 album Maya, and it’s her FOR HIM! Released 5 August. $39.99 Megan Washington’s debut most aggressive, confronta- Presented by design expert album is a series of sonic tional and passionate to Kevin McCloud, Grand polaroids – according to the date. The genre-bending continues with Designs charts the in-depth artist herself. Having begun elements of rock, dubstep, world beats and process of ambitious design her music career as a jazz hip-hop fused to form something so unique projects, from the initial singer, releasing the as to at times render the listener dazzled. intricacies of blueprints to wonderful EP Nightlight in 2007, she has These qualities make M.I.A. a fierce presence the long and often arduous enjoyed a remarkable 12 months. After on the musical landscape and so much more task of turning those designs winning Triple J’s Unearthed competition, than just a musician. Visual artist, style icon, into a practical living space. she formed her band, Washington, who revolutionary … you decide. What can’t be played their first gig together at the Big Day denied is that M.I.A. is an artist of huge and CHARLIE CHAPLIN TITLES Out in January. But probably the biggest breathtaking originality. DM Released 5 August. $14.99 each leg-up was her appearance on Spicks and Here are ten classic Charlie Specks in September last year. Within 24 The Suburbs Chaplin releases, including: hours she was well and truly on the radar, Arcade Fire The Kid, A Woman Of Paris, and her EPs shot into the iTunes Top Five. Normally $27.95 The Gold Rush, The Circus, At Readings we certainly experienced an Our special price $21.95 City Lights, Modern Times, exceptional reaction to her success, with The Suburbs sees this Montreal seven-piece The Great Dictator, Monsieur people flocking in looking for her music. in a more contemplative mood than their Verdoux, Limelight and A And now, finally, after three EPs, a full fans may be used to. This record is driven by King In New York. album emerges. Unashamedly pop, it themes of home and the changes both it and contains all of her hits: Clementine, How to the individual undergo. From the stripped- BRITAIN’S BEST DRIVES Tame Lions and Rich Kids. This album is back pop of Modern Man, to the epic No Released 11 August. $34.99 going to be huge! Celebration and the lush balladry of Suburban Popular comedy actor Dave Clarke is from Readings Carlton War, Arcade Fire has delivered another record Richard Wilson steers six brimming with breadth and beauty. DM classic cars around the twists Megan Washington will be performing songs and turns of the best drives from her album live at our Carlton store on SYMPHONICITIES of Britain. Following routes Thursday August 5 at 6pm. Sting from guidebooks of the Normally $27.95 1950s, Wilson takes in some How I Got Over Our special price $22.95 of Britain’s most scenic areas, The Roots An artist not afraid to blur while discovering how each route has $26.95 the lines between popular changed. Album number ten from and classical music, Sting is these Philadelphia-based currently on a world tour BLACK BOOKS DEFINITIVE hip-hop pioneers has been with The Royal Philhar- COLLECTORS EDITION eagerly awaited – and, yet monic Concert Orchestra Released 11 August $49.99 again, The Roots have (no word on an Australian leg yet), perform- Dylan Moran stars as a delivered. Named for the ing classic songs from his solo albums and bohemian, and frequently gospel song made famous by Mahalia work with The Police. This album includes 12 drunk, owner of a bookshop, Jackson, How I Got Over is a sometimes dark beautiful versions of his life’s work. who has one major problem and introspective, yet deeply reflective Sid Grane is from Readings Carlton with his line of work: he record. The Roots have always traded in a hates customers. Help is at brand of hip-hop infused with an uncom- MAKE ME A KING hand in the form of mild- mon intelligence – both lyrical and musical Paul Capsis mannered Manny (Bill – and all of these traits are evident on a Normally $27.95 Bailey) and the shop-next-door owner, record that finds the band reaching out to a Our special price $22.95 Fran (Tamsin Greig). This limited edition stellar list of guests to form a truly collabora- Paul Capsis’s much-antici- comes packaged in a book-style case, also tive piece of work. Monsters of Folk main pated new album is a containing a wine bottle-opener and stopper. men James, Oberst and Ward contribute to a project born from his reimagining of their Dear God. Elsewhere, performance at this year’s Joanna Newsom and John Legend, among Melbourne International MIFF SALE others, also drop by to lend a hand. This is a Jazz Festival. Festival $19.99 each fantastic record full of flow and finesse – a director (and ex-Readings employee) Sophie must for fans of thoughtful, well-crafted Brous commissioned Paul to perform a show hip-hop. comprising covers of classic standards – and Declan Murphy is from Readings St Kilda some contemporary pop classics – backed by a stellar jazz band. SG Dan Kelly’s Dream Dan Kelly Dark Night of the Soul $25.95 Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse It’s been a while between Normally $27.95 drinks for local favourite Our special price $21.95 Don’t forget our huge list of titles from last Dan Kelly. Having been a Ah, Danger Mouse – uber- year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, very busy man recently producer and collaborator all for only $19.99. Titles include Balibo, with other projects, the extraordinaire: will the The September Issue, Samson and Delilah, long-awaited solo effort magic ever stop? Unfortu- AVAILABLE Van Diemen’s Land, The Cove and White took some time to eventuate – but people, nately for Sparklehorse’s Lightning, among others. it’s worth the wait! Kelly has delivered Mark Linkous, the magic another set of beautifully crafted pop gems did stop, in March. Delayed from major ON DVD FROM overflowing with the off-kilter humour for release for about a year due to contractual CLASSIC MOVIE which he has become known and much- disputes and much talked about on the TRIPLE BILLS loved. One look at the track list, which internet, Dark Night of the Soul is a collec- Bindi Irwin Released 4 August. $14.99 each features such curiosities as tion of unique songs all tied together by AUGUST 4 Apocalypse Jam and A Classical DJ At More triple bills include Classic Stewart excellent production skills. A series of Dandenong Station, will give the listener an Granger, Classic Alec Guiness, Classic Jon Mills, musicians feature, ranging from Julian indication of exactly what’s in store. Skewed, Classic War, Classic Thriller and Classic Action. Casablancas to Suzanne Vega, to Black psychedelic brilliance. DM Francis to Iggy Pop, and rounding out with © 2010 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved. the gothic-sounding title track, performed by none other than director David Lynch. 18 Readings Monthly August 2010

Basement Birds Ford introduces us to her own sublimely both the start of a remarkable story and the Basement Birds interesting and quirky world. Clearly a little culmination of a dream. This one-time-only $24.95 rough around the edges, but with a sweet event elevated veteran Cuban performers like A kind of a young Austra- honey coating that binds the songs together, Ibrahim Ferrer, Ruben Gonzalez, Compay lian indie super-group, she rolls between bluegrass and gospel, folk Segundo and Omara Portuondo to long- Basement Birds is Josh and soul. Listeners will embrace this release overdue status as international stars, and it Pyke, Kevin Mitchell as with all TBGT albums. These little slices transformed the BVSC’s already critically (Jebediah, Bob Evans), Kav of everyday life sing to us all, from the open- acclaimed album into a commercial jug- Tamperley (Eskimo Joe) and ing bluegrass/folk gem Firecracker, to the gernaut. This live set, then, is the crucial Steve Parkin. The result is a pleasing, laidback, Dylan-penned One More Cup Of Coffee. A link to everything that happened before or folky alt-country sound with the strong knockout of a release! LF after the BVSC as a group of musicians and songwriting and vocal harmonies the as a brand – it’s the album fans have eagerly highlight. With over 750,000 album sales BUTCHER HOLLER: A awaited for a decade. DC between them, these guys have got the TRIBUTE TO LORETTA LYNN Also Available: pedigree and talent to make Basement Birds a Eilen Jewell massive success. $24.95 BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB Butcher Holler is a coal PRESENTS: TREATS mining community in Sleigh Bells Kentucky, where Loretta Omara Portuondo $21.95 Lynn grew up in the Normally $32.95 Signed to M.I.A.’s N.E.E.T. Recordings – 1940s. The contemporary Our special price $12.95 and careening musically down a similar vocal country singer Eileen Ibrahim Ferrer path, but via noise pop rowdiness instead Jewell pays tribute to Lynn on this new Normally $32.95 – the Sleigh Bells are a band that startle on album. Jewell has been greatly influenced Our special price $12.95 first listen, then quickly become addictive by Lynn’s singing style; but also by Billie Please note we have limited stock at these spe- and entertaining. Treats is a frenetic set of Holiday and Bessie Smith. Lynn was ahead cial prices – once sold they will revert to their tunes, with skilled melodies audible behind of her time, writing all her own songs and normal prices. the peppy, gritty commotion, and it’s almost taking on some risqué subjects. The sound cinematic in arrangement. Well, perhaps for on this record is authentic to Lynn’s era, a movie about zombie cheerleaders ... just as Jewell had been with her last few Fiona Hardy is from Readings Carlton records. This is a well conceived-tribute. Michael Awosoga-Samuel is from Folk & World Night Work Readings Carlton GOANNA DREAMING Scissor Sisters Shane Howard Normally $27.95 $29.95. Deluxe version $34.95 Our special price $19.95 Shane Howard’s latest Once again, it’s pure disco fun that the Jazz album is a broad, sweeping Scissor Sisters have dished up for their third ON A CLEAR DAY opus, covering his familiar studio album, Night Work. It’s not deep and Jamie Oehlers environmental and meaningful lyric-wise (or musically, for that indigenous concerns. matter), however it is super fun! With the & Paul Grabowsky Sonically, Goanna Dream- same high, Bee Gee’s style singing that has $29.95 ing references electrified full-band albums become the Scissor Sisters’ ever-popular This is the much-anticipated album of jazz like River and Time Will Tell, and especial- signature, every tune is catchy and suitably a standards from two of Australia’s most wide- ly Goanna’s reunion Spirit Returns, thanks little over-the-top. With a totally killer cover, ly recognised jazz exports, Jamie Oehlers and to producer, ex-Dingo and dobro player one thing is for sure: Night Work will get you Paul Grabowsky. Using their exceptionally Kerryn Tolhurst. This is a blend of history off the couch, shaking your bottom and wav- unique approaches, these highly esteemed book, travel diary, and personal and ing your hands around in true disco style. and creative voices create distinctively origi- political writings, set to some great Katherine Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn nal renditions of a ‘familiar standards’ reper- country/folk rock guitar work. Best track is toire, including tunes like I’ve Never Been in the magnificent narrative song Clancy and ADMIRAL FELL PROMISES Love Before, Soul Eyes and I Remember You. Dooley, with Don McLeod recalling the Sun Kil Moon On a Clear Day is an innovative collection events of the epic 1946 Western Australian $26.95 of stunning compositions performed by the Aboriginal Pastoral Workers’ strike, set Mark Kozalek, as Sun Kil Moon, usually acclaimed talents of Grabowsky (piano), Oe- to some driving acoustic guitars. Although gives us albums that speak to us. Rich in hlers (tenor saxophone), Sam Anning (bass) a lot of these songs deal with ‘struggle and vocal distinction, words that jump off the and Ben Vanderwal (drums). SG strife’ (also another song title), Howard can page or reach out of the speakers and attach always lighten the mood with glimpses of themselves to our soul. While still clearly hope and his delight in the beauty of our lyric-driven, this collection feels more like an landscape, of which the Stephen Pigram album – like they should be listened to as a co-written tune Kimberley Rain is a very whole, with beautiful instrumentation that Jazz Specials fine example. Another winner, Back in sits right alongside the words. It always feels of the Month Time, uses lots of melodic guitar work to like Kozalek is singing to himself, alone and GROUND tell the story of a long-absent father in a dark space – but introduce yourself to CHANGING PLACES returning to the Western District to the beauty of Half Moon Bay and Third And reconcile with his family. This is an Seneca, and make yourself comfortable right Tord Gustavsen incredible piece of work. next to him. Normally $32.95 each Paul Barr is from Readings Carlton Lou Fulco is from Readings Carlton Our special price $19.95 each Tord Gustavsen’s group is telling new stories EGYPT NOIR MANY COLORED KITE within the framework of the jazz tradition. Ali Hassan Kuban, Mark Olson This is music that sings, at once gentle and Mahmoud Fadl & others robust. The songs Gustavsen writes sound $20.95 $29.95 like standards-in-the-making: lyrical, im- After the beauty and melancholy of Olson’s mediately memorable songs of an appealing Although Nubia was flooded to make way Salvation Blues previous release, , he has clearly freshness, yet sophisticated in their involve- for the Aswan Dam, its musical heritage entered a happy place. Touring with fellow ment with the melodic line. And the trio lives on in the contemporary recordings of former Jayhawk Gary Louris has clearly been improvises, with flair and originality, inside the late Ali Hassan Kuban, thanks in part to a memorable and positive experience and their structures. DC the efforts of maverick German world music the result is a collection of songs written by Please note we have limited stock at these spe- label Piranha. Funky base, soulful vocals, someone viewing himself and the world as if cial prices – once sold they will revert to their saxophones and powerful percussion (cour- for the first time. Many Colored Kite is, as its normal prices. tesy of Piranha label mate Mahmoud Fadl) name insists, an album of air and space, of make this a very accessible slice of modern the wide open world, uncluttered and free. Egyptian music. PB Highlights include Wind and Rain, Morning Dove and the beautiful Blue Bell. LF ASSUME CRASH POSITION World Specials Konono No. 1 $29.95 of the Month This album is the latest collection of hyp- BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB notic, urban thumb piano rhythms from OCountryBADIAH AT CARNEGIE HALL these innovators from Kinshasa. Konono Frazey Ford Normally $32.95 No. 1 specialise in recycling used auto parts $26.95 Our special price $14.95 to construct their instruments and amplifi- Instantly recognisable as lead singer of Van- The landmark Buena Vista Social Club cation, and create joyful, trance-like party couver folk trio The Be Good Tanyas, Frazey concert at Carnegie Hall – 1 July 1998 – was music. This band also features as a collabora- tor on the latest Herbie Hancock album. PB Readings Monthly August 2010 19

Classical CDsLe Concert Spirituel: Au Temps de Louis XV Classical CD Classical CD Jordi Savall of the Month & Le Concert Des Nations Beethoven: Alia Vox. AVSA 9877. Normally $34.95 A A Special price for August $29.95 Piano Sonatas Vol. 3 Here we are, barely halfway Angela Hewitt through the year, and we Hyperion. CDA 67797. Normally $33.95 have another new release N.B. LimitedSpecials quantities on all titles at these special prices Our special price $19.95 (while stocks last) from Jordi Savall. Le Angela Hewitt has Concert Spirituel was a CPE Bach: Wagner: The Ring established herself as one series of performances Symphonies – an Orchestral of the great pianists in the (beginning in Paris in 1725, ending in 1790) and Concertos Adventure world of classical music. to provide entertainment during Lent and This is her third volume of on religious holidays. By programming these Raphael Neemi Jarvi Beethoven’s piano sonatas works, Savall is endeavouring to bring these Alpermann & RSNO and Hewitt displays the same qualities in magical evenings of music back to life. & Peter Bruns Chandos. this recording that made the first two Under his astute direction, Le Concert Des HM Gold. CHSA 5060. volumes such a listening pleasure. These Nations play magnificently and manage to HMG 501711. Was $34.95. sonatas come from three different periods transport the listener back in time. Jordi: Now $19.95 Was $29.95. Now $19.95 of Beethoven’s life: one famous sonata, in you’ve done it again. PR Haydn: Cello this case The Moonlight, and three lesser- Mozart: Complete known works. Each are played with Romantic Piano Con- Concertos & Hewitt’s trademark patience, intelligence certos Vol. 51: Works Works for Flute Symphony 104 and grace. An exquisite recording. by Wilhelm Taubert & & Orchestra Pieter Phil Richards is from Readings Carlton Jacob Rosenhain Sharon Wispelwey Bezaly Souvenirs of Russia Howard Shelley/Tasmanian & Florilegium Symphony Orchestra & Juha Channel Classics. The Czar’s Guitars Kangas CCS 7395. Dorian Sono Luminus. DSL 92112. $30.95 Hyperion. CDA67765. Normally $33.95 BIS. John Schneiderman and Was $29.95. Now $14.95 Special price for August $19.95 BISSACD 1539. Oleg Timofeyev (aka The Was $34.95 Now $19.95 Czar’s Guitars) have joined The Romantic Piano Beethoven: together to champion the Concerto series continues Rubinstein & Razoumovsky Russian guitar, hoping to to surprise and delight with a 51st disc of 19th-century Scharwenka: String Quartets garner it the respect and Piano Concertos (2 CDs) recognition it deserves. At the centre of pianistic splendour. This this recording is Fernando Sor’s magnifi- new release includes the Marc-Andre Tokyo cent Souvenir de Russie. This duet has been two piano concertos by Wilhelm Taubert, as Hamelin Quartet recorded before, but arguably not better well as one of the two works for piano and Hyperion. Harmonia Mundi. than the performance on this disc. In fact, orchestra by Jacob Rosenhain. Both compos- CDA 67508. HMU 90742324. all performances here are beautifully played ers were near exact contemporaries with Was $33.95 Was $34.95 and if you are, like I was, unfamiliar with Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, and Now $19.95 Now $19.95 A major Concerto these works, then you are in for a pleasant Liszt, with Taubert’s surprise. Hopefully there will be more to described by Schumann as ‘one of the best’. La Tarantella Delius & Ireland: come from this accomplished duo. PR The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra is (Includes 2010 Piano Concertos joined by brilliant pianist Howard Shelley, Alpha Records Piers Lane Sibelius: Complete who performed Mozart to great acclaim at Catalogue) the Melbourne Town Hall in June. Hyperion. Symphonies, Violin Christina CDA 67296. Concerto Mendelssohn Cello Pluhar & Was $34.95. Arvo Volmer & Adelaide Zoe Knighton & Amir Farid L’Arpeggiata Now $19.95 Alpha. Alpha 910. Symphony Orchestra Move Records. MD3338. $29.95 Was $24.95. Now $11.95 ABC Classics. 4763943. $42.95 Gentle and eloquent Pierne: Complete This new (bright blue) melodies are the feature in four-CD box-set from ABC Zoe Knighton and Amir Stravinsky: Music for Piano Classics features the Farid’s new recording Violin Concerto & Orchestra complete symphonies of through Move Records. Sibelius: Stephen Jean Sibelius. Including his Featuring the cello works Symphonies Coombs Violin Concerto, the Valse of Felix Mendelssohn, it highlights the 3 & 6 Hyperion. Triste and his ever-famous Finlandia, it is a exquisite musicianship of these two Thomas CDA 67348. charming recording. The Adelaide Symphony respected Melbourne musicians. Included Was $33.95 Orchestra performs under Arvo Volmer, with Zehetmair are the two Sonatas for Cello and Piano as & Northern Now $19.95 Adele Anthony as solo violinist. This record- well as the Variations concertantes and the ing is simple and yet evocative, which makes Song without Words for cello and piano. A Sinfonia These sale CDs are available from all it a perfect gift for any music lovers who wish beautiful album that will warm up those AVIE. AV 2150. Readings shops (except State Library) to immerse themselves in this fabulous winter days. KR sound world. KR Was $34.95 Now $19.95 and at www.readings.com.au.

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Melbourne Writers’ Festival Shop in the Atrium at Federation Square, 27 August - 5 September

Browse and find titles by your favourite festival authors

Author signings will be held here throughout the festival Please support Indigenous Literacy Day Wednesday 1 September 2010

On Indigenous Literacy Day, Readings will be donating 5% of profits from sales in our shops and online at www.readings.com.au.

Spend $50 and you’ll receive a $10 Readings Gift Card * e Indigenous Literacy Project (ILP) aims to raise literacy levels and go in the draw to win a trip to the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and improve the lives and opportunities of Indigenous Australians Spend over $50 at the Readings bookshop in the Atrium at Federation living in remote and isolated regions. is is done by providing Square during the Melbourne Writers’ Festival and go in the draw to win books and literacy resources to Indigenous communities and raising a trip for two to the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Bali, valued at broad community awareness of Indigenous literacy issues. more than $5000. To find out more, visit www.readings.com.au Find out more at www.indigenousliteracyproject.org.au. Prize courtesy of the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival www.ubudwritersfestival.com * Conditions apply. Illustrations by Oslo Davis ~ www.oslodavis.com