FREE DECEMBER 2014 – JANUARY 2015

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THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR page 9

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GEORGES ALAN A.S. CHARLIE’S MIRIAM PEREC CUMMING KING COUNTRY HYDE $29.99 $35.00 $24.99 $39.95 $24.95

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READINGS MONTHLY DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 3

News & Events FABER WRITING ACADEMY the Alexandra Gardens and the 20th SPECIAL OFFER anniversary Pride March down Fitzroy Led by course directors, authors Toni Street in St Kilda on Sunday 1 February BOHEMIAN MELBOURNE Jordan and Paddy O’Reilly, Writing will be spectacular. Find out more (or sign EXHIBITION a Novel is a six-month novel-writing up to be a volunteer!) at midsumma.org.au. Bohemian Melbourne celebrates the course which provides the structure and free spirits whose creative outpouring support you need to write the first draft QUEER LITERARY SALON and bohemian legacies have shaped the of your novel. Faber Writing Academy at Allen&Unwin are giving a $200 book character of the city itself. Hosted by As part of Midsumma Festival, Readings pack to any Readings Monthly subscriber the State Library of Victoria, this free St Kilda is kicking off 2015 with a Queer who applies. To receive the book pack, exhibition shines a light on Melbourne’s Literary Salon. Come along for an evening mention ‘Readings newsletter’ in your cultural bohemians, from 1860 to today, of hearty discussion over drinks in application form. If you are accepted tracing individuals who have pushed celebration of select Queer fiction and before Friday 9 January, you will also against convention in their lives and art: non-fiction. To vote for your favourite be eligible for an early bird discount Marcus Clarke, Albert Tucker, Mirka titles to be featured on the night, ($300 off the full fee). The course Mora, Barry Humphries, Vali Myers, Nick email store manager Amy Vuleta itself starts on 10 March 2015. Find out Cave – to name a few. Come along and ([email protected]) more at faberwritingacademy.com.au/ venture into the backstreets and smoky 100 words about your chosen book coursedetailsMELB.htm#.VCM50BZ_3D8. salons of Melbourne’s history to discover (or books!) by 10 January 2015. the stories of poets, artists, visionaries, SO FRENCHY SO CHIC rebels and rock stars who changed Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events IN THE PARK Melbourne forever. Bohemian Melbourne Thursday 22 January, 7pm The charm of the French countryside will run from Friday 12 December to Readings St Kilda Sunday 22 February. Find out more at meets the sophistication of Paris when slv.vic.gov.au/bohemian-melbourne. everyone’s favourite day of music, food DON WATSON IN CONVERSATION Readings is a proud supporter of the State and joie de vivre returns to Melbourne WITH MARGARET SIMONS Library of Victoria. and Sydney in January 2015. So Frenchy So Chic In the Park is a tantalising Join us for our very last in-store event recipe of gourmet hampers, champagne, of the year! Margaret Simons will talk 2014 SUMMER READING LIST FOR picturesque surrounds and the catchy with Don Watson about his latest work. THE PRIME MINISTER tunes of five of France’s finest musical The Bush is an insightful journey through Every December the Grattan Institute exports – from the sultry chanteuse Émilie Australian landscape, history and culture. – an independent think-tank focused Simon to the sun-dappled pop of François on Australian public policy – releases & the Atlas Mountains via New Zealand- Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events a Summer Reading List for the Prime based Frenchman Franck Monnet. This Monday 1 December, 6.30pm Minister. The books on this list all family-friendly event (children under 12 present compelling ideas about Australia Readings Hawthorn and the world, and they make terrific are welcome for free!) will take place in gifts. Following the announcement, Melbourne on Sunday 11 January 2015, ADAM COHEN LIVE IN-STORE you’ll be able to find the full list of titles at Werribee Mansion. Find out more at at grattan.edu.au/home/australian- cartellmusic.com.au/sfsc. Readings is a Join Canadian singer songwriter, Adam perspectives. Public events for the proud supporter of So Frenchy So Chic In Cohen, as he performs from his recent discussion of the reading list will the Park. release, We Go Home, at Readings be held at the State Library of New St Kilda. We Go Home, Cohen's fifth South Wales on 9 December 2014, and album, is by all definitions homemade at the State Library of Victoria on 16 READINGS JAIPUR LITERARY and is a deep personal conversation December 2014. To register for an event FESTIVAL TOUR 2015 with one of his greatest musical Readings Monthly please go to grattan.edu.au/events. Now is your last chance to join the influences, his father Leonard Cohen. Free independent monthly newspaper Jaipur Literary Festival Tour in January published by Readings Books, Music & Film 2015. Experienced tour specialist Free, but please book at readings.com.au/events HUSH CELEBRATION CONCERT Marieke Brugman will lead the tour with Thursday 4 December, 6pm Join the Hush Music Foundation Editor Readings’ own Mark Rubbo from 19 to 26 Readings St Kilda for an evening of glorious music in Elke Power January, including five days at the Jaipur celebration of their latest release, Hush [email protected] Literary Festival as well as invitations PHILIP TAFFS ON THE EVIL 14: Live in Concert. The launch concert to exclusive dinners, writers’ salons, INSIDE will be presented by Emma Ayres Editorial Assistant special excursions and more. There’s and conducted by Benjamin Northey, Bronte Coates also the option of extending the tour Join us for the launch of Philip Taffs’s [email protected] featuring performances from among from 26 January to 1 February to include new thriller, The Evil Inside. Brace the musicians included in the last seven a Rajasthan Cultural Tour. To find out yourself for the story of an Australian Advertising Hush collections. This concert will more about bookings and costs, email advertising creative, Guy Russell, seeking Tate Jerrems take place on Saturday 6 December at Marieke at [email protected]. a fresh start in New York with his fragile [email protected] Monash University, Clayton. Performers Expressions of interested close on Friday wife and their young son following a (03) 9341 7739 include the Goldner String Quartet, 12 December. Please note that places are painful tragedy. When a sinister force Leonard Grigoryan, Diana Doherty, Paul from Guy's past comes back to haunt Graphic Design limited. Grabowsky, Andrea Keller, and many Cat Matteson him and his son's behaviour becomes more. The albums that form the Hush theartdept.com.au ever more disturbing, Guy's doubts collection perform the dual function of MIDSUMMA FESTIVAL about the source of the evil and his own producing recordings to soothe young Front Cover With over 140 events spanning performing sanity push him closer to the brink. Oslo Davis patients in hospital, while raising funds arts, visual arts and social activities across oslodavis.com for the Hush Music Foundation. Find three weeks, Melbourne will once again Free, no booking required ticket and booking information at come out and celebrate the diversity and Thursday 11 December, 6pm Readings donates 10% of its profits each hush.org.au/events/2014/12/hush-14-launch. talent of our LGBTI community with Bella Union Bar at Trades Hall, year to The Readings Foundation: Readings and the Readings Foundation are the return of the Midsumma Festival. 54 Victoria St, Carlton readings.com.au/the-readings-foundation proud supporters of the Hush Collection. Revels begin on Sunday 18 January at

Banish awkward silences with the in-laws, stop hearing the same old stories from your great uncle and give your teenagers a reason to switch off their screens. Available at Readings and all good book and games stores. RRP $19.95 www.taoc.com.au 4 READINGS MONTHLY DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 Mark’s From Say the Books

News and views from Readings’ Managing Director, Desk Martin Shaw, Mark Rubbo Readings Books Division Manager

It’s the time of year when The Readings Foundation allocates its grants for the following Suddenly, it's the end of the year and time for lots of bookish gift-giving! To help you in year. The Foundation raises money from 10% of Readings’ profits, individual donations that regard, we've created a number of top ten lists in various categories from a rather and our customers also contribute by making a small donation when they have an item wonderful year of new releases. gift-wrapped. It’s a lovely but also very difficult time as the requests we receive outstrip Of course, these lists are intended just as much to help you with gifts to yourself, our resources and each project is very deserving in its own way. The Foundation’s aims as the prospect of summer is, for many of us, a chance to tackle those books we didn't are to support literacy, the arts and the community and we are supporting some lovely quite get around to reading during the year. projects next year. For the fourth year in a row we are supporting the Wheeler Centre’s With that in mind, we've also chosen several literary series that might just be your Hot Desk Fellowships – 20 budding writers will receive a small stipend and the use of a fix for the holiday season: namely, those by Elena Ferrante, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Jeff desk at the Wheeler Centre for three months. We are also helping the Royal Children’s van der Meer, and Marilynne Robinson. The first customer to tell us they've read ALL Hospital’s HUSH Music Foundation, which has just released the 14th CD in their hugely of these volumes will win a special mention in our first newsletter of 2015! popular music-for-children series, to publish their first book. In addition, The Readings For my part, I of course spent a lot of this year in the company of the books Foundation will assist Reading Out of Poverty to provide early literacy support in nominated for our inaugural New Australian Writing Award. We haven't included any Melbourne’s south east; Somebody’s Daughter Theatre Company to work with children in of them in our top ten list for fiction simply to prevent overlap – but that we salute foster care; Mallee Family Care to work with marginalised families in the Mildura area; the them as well is a given. It's certainly been gratifying to see the huge response we've Migrant Information Centre to work with refugees; the Aboriginal Literacy Foundation to had to the award, and – as this is what it's all about – for lots of people to seek out and work with young indigenous girls; the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre to fund a schools’ discover these fine writers for themselves. I'm hearing whispers of new books in the program to educate young people about refugees; and Carlton’s Church of All Nations to works from at least a couple of our shortlistees too, so we’re all looking forward to provide homework and literacy support for the families and students from the Carlton those immensely in 2015. Housing Estates. I recently had cause to recall a conversation I had with an author at about the It’s been an interesting year for books and you’ll find lots of recommendations in these time that we first announced the New Australian Writing Award. She had (graciously) pages. This year I’ve enjoyed several new discoveries. Scribe published a wonderful first lamented the fact that her book was published a couple of months before the opening novel by Irish writer Mark Mulholland called A Mad and Wonderful Thing, a taut, moving timeframe for submissions, and thus her book was ineligible for consideration. I was novel about a sniper targeting British soldiers in Northern Island. Coincidentally, I also able to console her by telling her that this had happened to several other very worthy read an Irish crime thriller by Adrian McKinty called In the Morning I’ll Be Gone, which authors as well – it was indeed all rather sad! But it's a reminder just what a lottery all almost overlaps with Mulholland’s book. McKinty’s protagonist, Sean Duffy, is with the things of a prize nature can be. Royal Ulster Constabulary and on the hunt for an IRA terrorist – great stuff. I also found Needless to say then I was overjoyed to see the name of said author crop up Gravity, Mary Delahunty’s insider account of Julia Gillard’s days in office, fascinating recently on the shortlist for the ‘Most Underrated Book Award’, administered by the reading. And in new works from familiar favourites, I have always been a great admirer Small Press Network, for a book published in 2013 that might not have received its fair of Peter Carey’s work and his latest, Amnesia, is a very funny romp with a big sting in the due since then. That she went on to win the award is just like a fairytale, so I'm ever so tail. The subtext of the plot is that US agencies were complicit in the destabilisation and pleased for Jane Rawson and her debut work of fiction, A Wrong Turn at the Office of dismissal of the Whitlam government. I like it, too, because Readings gets a mention and Unmade Lists. Rawson has another book due next year, this time a non-fiction title. It no, no money changed hands! sounds fascinating, if not somewhat ominous: a survival guide for living in times of – This year also saw the presentation of the inaugural Readings New Australian Writing let's face it, even if Mr Abbott can't or won't – undeniable climate change. It’s another Award. I read many fine new Australian works as a result of this initiative. Our winner was one to add to the list of books we’re looking forward to in 2015. Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey, which was chosen from a fine shortlist among which In the meantime, wishing you all the best of summer reading ahead! I particularly enjoyed Christine Piper’s After Darkness. Piper won the Vogel Award for this novel about a Japanese doctor interned in Australia during the war and I found it very affecting and infinitely fascinating. It’s a perfect complement to another great book of the year, The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan.

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New Fiction there a link between the mysterious her son’s life begins to shift and change. disappearance of Cecil Polkinghorne, Hawaiian writer Kaui Hart Hemmings’s Book of the Month curator of archaeology, and the fetish? And second novel, The Possibilities, echoes how did Eric Sopwith, retired mollusks some of the themes and preoccupations expert, die in the museum’s storeroom? of her first, The Descendants. Both plots PORTRAIT OF A MAN With an introduction by Tim Flannery, focus on parents redefining themselves Georges Perec & David Bellos (trans.) The Mystery of the Venus Island Fetish is a after a personal tragedy in paradise. As MacLehose. HB. $29.99 delightfully risqué romp. Sarah chips awkwardly away at her new The works of the late Georges Perec are as difficult as identity as a childless mother, Hemmings they are sundry. Portrait of a Man was written several NEW PENGUIN delicately captures a certain grief- years before Perec’s first published novel, Things, a book AUSTRALIAN CLASSICS induced spikiness that feels very real. which also has the distinction of being one of its author’s Penguin. HB. $19.99 each Like The Descendants, place and family legacies are explored through most accessible works. Yet Portrait of a Man already Penguin’s Australian each character’s engagement with their displays the agitated, avant-garde impulse that would Classics are hardback landscape. The tiny snow village of characterise much of Perec’s literary output. Indeed, even editions of some of the Breckenridge becomes a tipping point David Bellos, in his introduction to this edition of his own finest books ever between aimlessness and direction. translation, calls the book ‘hard to follow’. published in Australia, The hiking tracks, ski runs and maze The story isn’t complicated, but Perec’s treatment of it is, as if even in his early each featuring a of resort-shopping strips reinforce the 20s the young literary mischief-maker couldn’t help but thwart the expectations of gorgeous illustrated novel’s interest in the myriad paths a a readership that, at that point, was still purely notional. cover. The second set person’s life might take. includes Robert Despite the narrative revolving ‘Portrait of a Man already displays the agitated, avant-garde impulse Drewe’s sun-drenched around the devastating loss of a child, evocation of suburban that would characterise much of Perec’s literary output.’ there are many bittersweet comic malaise, The Bodysurfers (pictured); Tim moments in this quirky family drama. Winton’s funny, sprawling saga of two Hemmings takes the blowtorch to Portrait of a Man centres on art forger Gaspard Winckler, a gifted craftsman families and one house, Cloudstreet; and A.B. women’s friendships with a wry who, after a string of lucrative years counterfeiting coins, jewellery and paintings, Facey’s simply written and inspirational ferocity, revealing what is most ugly accepts a commission to forge a minor ‘lost’ masterpiece by a second-tier autobiography, A Fortunate Life. Renaissance painter. He has his choice of artist provided it is someone sufficiently and beautiful about them. ‘Sometimes renowned to attract a handsome price without arousing suspicion. Winckler seals ALL THE BIRDS, SINGING another woman’s polished nails are enough to make you feel like a failure,’ his own fate by giving in to his frustrated ego: rather than mimic a known work, he Evie Wyld boldly decides to conceive a wholly new piece that will be accepted and acclaimed says Sarah. The relationship between Vintage. PB. $19.99 as a singular masterwork by a known great. Sarah and her conservative best friend, Told at first in a stream-of-consciousness outpouring that then slips between Jake Whyte is the sole Suzanne, is a cracker, unravelling narrative viewpoints to heady, vexing effect, Portrait of a Man gives way to resident of an old women’s simultaneous capacity for care a second half which unfolds entirely in speech and recapitulates events that farmhouse on an and cattiness. have already been covered, ultimately adding up to a wild consideration of the unnamed island, a As she gently teases out Sarah’s nature of art as intellectual theft. It’s a dizzying read, subtly sophisticated in place of ceaseless rains path to renewal, Hemmings includes its philosophies, and sure to appeal to readers who are happy to work for their and battering winds. a predictable but not fatal plot twist literature. It’s just her, her midway through the book. But just untamed companion as it seems the ending may tie things Gerard Elson is from Readings St Kilda Dog, and a flock of up too neatly, the novel leaves us on a sheep. But something satisfyingly open-ended note, allowing portable toilet, and their late night is coming for the sheep readers to contemplate, as the title Australian conversations cover the problematic – every few nights it picks one off, leaves it in suggests, the possibilities. rags. This haunting and lyrical novel is set politics of the issue. No stereotype is Sally Keighery is a freelance reviewer across Australia and England, and was named THE LAST PULSE spared here and while some of the satire is a little heavy-handed at times, the the winner of the 2014 Miles Franklin Award. Anson Cameron AN UNTAMED STATE novel does manage to brilliantly reflect Vintage. PB. $29.99 Roxane Gay the ludicrousness of environmental VOLCANO STREET Constable & Robinson. PB. $29.99 Just as the management in this country. Merv is David Rain Available 1 January current often eloquent on the subject but he is Atlantic. PB. $27.99 Roxane Gay has Environment Minister under no illusion that he has found a Available 1 January made her name consulted Wikipedia long term solution. The title of the novel Marlo puts her faith in her as a professor of to dismiss links comes from his reflection that ‘this flood hero, Germaine Greer, and creative writing, between climate is the last pulse ever coming down this twelve-year-old Skip trusts feminist essayist, and change and bushfire artery’. It’s great to read an Australian her big sister to know the commentator on intensity, I use it to novel that tackles climate change and right thing to do, but when politics and popular check the status of politics and as the novel’s fictional federal they’re forced to move to culture. She embodies Australia’s millennium Environment Minister wisely muses, ‘it their Auntie Noreen and the feminist precept, drought and find that it officially ended took the Middle East a thousand years Uncle Doug’s home in the ‘the personal is in 2012. This might explain why I haven’t and race and religion to tie a knot of hate backwater city of Crater Lakes not even political’. Her book of essays Bad heard as much about the poor health of that can’t be undone. We’ve done it in a Marlo can think of a solution. While they Feminist came out this year and has been the Murray Darling Basin as in years past. generation … using only water.’ dream of escape from Crater Lakes, they a bestseller. An Untamed State is her However, a quick internet search reveals begin to learn that their first impressions of Kara Nicholson is from Readings Carlton debut novel, a gruelling but necessary that disputes between irrigators, state the town may not be accurate. governments, environmental groups and read that incorporates the personal and the Murray Darling Basin Authority are THE MYSTERY OF THE political in abundance. still in full swing and, with the news that VENUS ISLAND FETISH International The novel introduces the reader to October was one of the driest months on Dido Butterworth the protagonist, Mireille Duval, a lawyer record for Eastern Australia, the largest Text. PB. $29.99 happily married to Michael, with a young river system in Australia may be set to It’s 1932, and the THE POSSIBILITIES baby, Christophe. The family lives in the make headlines again. This makes Anson Venus Island Fetish, a Kaui Hart Hemmings US but are in Haiti visiting Mireille’s Cameron’s hilarious but sobering satirical ceremonial mask Jonathan Cape. PB. $32.99 parents in the opulent home that her novel on the politics of water surrounded by Grieving, businessman father has worked hard management in Australia most timely. thirty-two human guilt-stricken, to attain despite growing up in poverty. The premise is farcical: Merv is a skulls, now resides in forty-something solo When Mireille and her husband leave the failed farmer from drought-stricken the museum in mum Sarah St John is gates of the home, however, she is pulled South Australia who steals a boat and Sydney. But young cleaning out her son’s from the car by kidnappers. And thus heads to Queensland. There, he blows up anthropologist Archie room after his death begins thirteen days of imprisonment. a dam to release a flood which he then Meek, recently in an avalanche. Mireille is a stubborn woman and rides back down the river to the applause returned from an Reflecting on the some readers will find her difficult to of all who have lived for decades in the extended field trip to Venus Island, has choices he made and understand or like. But it is impossible dry and dying Basin. Along the way he noticed a strange discoloration of some of on her own choices not to feel compassion as she experiences inadvertently rescues the Queensland the skulls of the fetish. Has someone been that led to his birth deprivation and degradations at the Environment Minister from a floating tampering with the primitive artefact? Is and untimely death, her perspective on hands of seven male kidnappers, and 6 READINGS MONTHLY DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015

the particularly vicious ‘Commander’. LIMONOV and becomes entrenched in the history of an The kidnappers are the product of a Emmanuel Carrère & John enigmatic Spanish writer who died decades lawless society and resent the imbalance Lambert (trans.) earlier. The more Blanca discovers about this of wealth in Haiti. Mireille defends man, the more she enthralled she becomes. Allen Lane. PB. $45 her father, who will not give in to their The crazed, reckless demand for one million dollars, telling RAW MATERIAL life of Eduard them that he’s not like the corrupt police Limonov is like a Jörg Fauser & Jamie Bulloch or politicians, that he’s worked hard for novel: compelling, (trans.) his achievements. black, wild, bitter, Clerkenwell Press. PB. $22.99 However, as the days go by and surprising. In this In the savagely funny what she endures becomes worse and extraordinary work, and razor-sharp Raw worse, she comes to question all that her novelist, journalist, Material, German father stands for. Thankfully, Mireille screenwriter and writer Jörg Fauser is released, but she is physically and filmmaker Emmanuel casts an eye over the psychologically traumatised. The next Carrère takes us into times he’s lived in and part of the book follows her equally the dark heart of a character who, whether the course of his own harrowing journey back from the point drugged on New York streets after taking a life: a junkie in of breakdown. beating by a mob boss, getting dragged into Istanbul; the move to a While some of characters are slightly grotesque Parisian salons, enlisting in the commune in Berlin one-dimensional, there is no doubt this army or being imprisoned in a labour camp, and a squat in is a powerful book. The dedication is is sometimes poignant, sometimes repulsive, Frankfurt; work on an underground simply ‘For women, the world over,’ sometimes a bastard, sometimes even magazine; and, unceasing efforts to get a but it is by no means a novel solely endearing. From arguably France’s greatest novel published. The autobiographical for women. living writer, Limonov is a great true story, testament of Fauser’s alter ego, Harry Gelb, is The nations of Annie Condon is from Readings Hawthorn one that explores the intersection of an unsparing and lovingly ironic portrait. individual psychology and wider politics. Scandinavia and SUMMERTIME Vanessa Lafaye THE END OF DAYS Literary Crime Finland, or Nordic Orion. PB. $29.99 Jenny Erpenbeck & Susan Available 13 January Bernofsky (trans.) SEE HOW SMALL Europe, continue The threat of Portobello. HB. $27.99 Scott Blackwood havoc to social From a daring voice in HarperCollins. PB. $24.99 order and a general to provide living European fiction, The Available 15 January sense of impending End of Days is a story of It’s late evening danger loom large in proof that eco- the 20th Century in a small town this novel, with traced through the in Texas. Three tensions building right nomic prosperity various possible lives teenage girls are from the opening of one woman: she is a finishing their shift at pages when an can be combined baby who barely a family-run ice cream alligator drags a baby survives beyond her store when two in a bassinet down to with social equality first breath, and strange men appear. the river. The terror of this experience suffocates in the cradle, The girls are stripped sets the novel’s theme: that of nature’s and environmental or perhaps not? Moving from a small Galician and bound, the store is power to devour and destroy. town at the turn of the century, through set alight, and the men Drawing on actual events, responsibility. This pre-war Vienna and Stalin’s Moscow to vanish. The title of Scott Blackwood’s latest Summertime is based on the Labor present-day Berlin, Jenny Erpenbeck homes novel, See How Small, was originally Day hurricane of 1935, one of the most book, written from in on the moments when life follows a intended for his debut, the acclaimed, true intense in US recorded history. The particular branch and ‘fate’ suddenly emerges crime inspired We Agreed to Meet Just hurricane hit the Florida coast with an Australian per- from the sly interplay between history, Here. Taken from a line in that slim volume, strong winds and sea surge, causing mass character and pure chance. ‘see how small a thing it is that keeps us destruction and claiming the lives of spective, explores apart,’ the staying power of this title more than 400 people. THE FIRES OF AUTUMN suggests Blackwood’s ongoing honing of In the novel, as the summer becomes previous outside Irène Némirovsky themes relating to intimacy, loss and sweltering, class and racial tensions Chatto & Windus. PB. $32.99 communal identity in his fiction. Especially also reach boiling point. An influx of policy interest in concerned with the interconnectedness of displaced WWI veterans move into First published traumatic memories, See How Small poses the area to take on contract work posthumously in the Nordic nations burning ethical questions about how we building bridges for the US Army. Their France in 1957, The remember the dead, particularly when they presence causes disruption for the local Fires of Autumn is the and outlines some are victims of a terrible crime. Why must community who fear the veterans’ wild prequel to Irène we speak on their behalf? How does and unkempt ways. The veterans are Némirovsky's lessons which the collective memory construct, and also encamped on the outskirts of town, living masterpiece, Suite obscure, the truth? in makeshift, squalid conditions and this Française and was English-speaking True-crime-inspired fiction navigates breeds ill-feeling among them. written in the last two unique authorial challenges to do with Segregation and entrenched prejudice years of her life, after world, in particular, who owns these stories, and also confronts also affects those even further down the she fled Paris in 1940. narrative expectations where sexual social hierarchy – the black community After four years of warfare Bernard can learn from the and violent crimes against women are – and they in turn harbour their own Jacquelain returns from the trenches a expected and even anticipated. Writers resentments. When a woman is left changed man, and embarks on a life of achievements of in this genre often respond to these close to death following a brutal beating, luxuriant delinquency supported by suspect challenges by unmooring the fiction from suspicion falls on everyone, and a group financial dealings and easy virtue. the four main its predictable patterns, and one of the of townspeople threaten to take justice standout innovations of See How Small is its into their own hands. THE HEART HAS ITS Nordic European voicing of the dead victims through the first It is against this backdrop that the REASONS person plural. These dreamy scenes weave hurricane approaches. Nature’s force María Dueñas nations. between the shifting perspectives of family, doesn’t discriminate and ruin threatens Macmillan. PB. $29.99 witnesses and suspects left reeling in the all. No greater equalising factor Blanca Perea is a aftermath of atrocity. There are echoes of could have brought this community college professor in Alice Sebold in parts, a sense of magical together than the desperate struggle to Madrid who seems to unreality that sometimes punctures, and OUT NOW survive. But in the wake of the storm have it all. But when sometimes accentuates, the thudding the disproportionate losses among her husband of twenty banality of violence. the community’s most disadvantaged years leaves her See How Small is a mercurial, members brings shame to the survivors. A unexpectedly for fractured and haunting novel, an inventive fast-paced, thrilling read! another woman, she is illumination of tragedy that breaks through Natalie Platten is from Readings Malvern forced to question the illusions of what keeps people apart. life she once had. On a | www.publishing.monash.edu Advancing knowledge whim, she leaves Madrid for San Francisco Lucy Van is a freelance reviewer

Northern Lights The Positive Policy Example of Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway By Andrew Scott

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr Andrew Scott is Associate Professor in Politics and Policy at Deakin University, Melbourne. He is the author of four previous books and numerous book chapters and articles on aspects of politics, policy and history; frequently involving international comparisons. For several years Andrew has been researching English-speaking nations’ past interest in – and achievable lessons which they can learn and apply today from – the policy achievements of the Nordic European nations.

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Monash University Publishing books are available from Footprint Books in Australia and New Zealand, International Specialized Book Services in the USA/Canada or directly from Monash University Publishing.

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New Crime Dead Write with Fiona Hardy

Crime Book of the Month

THE GIRL WHO WASN’T THERE Ferdinand von Schirach Little, Brown. PB. $29.99 Available 15 January Okay, let’s face it: I’m making The Girl Who Wasn’t There my book of the month so that some of you will read it and then we can talk about it. I’d also recommend you read Schirach’s first book, Crime, which turned some of the more bizarre criminal cases he knew as a German defence lawyer into a book and tested the limits of the number of times I could say, ‘No way!’ in a single afternoon. Schirach’s second novel opens with the life of Sebastian von Eschburg. The Eschburgs were once a prosperous family but those days have passed; now Sebastian requires a scholarship to attend the family’s traditional Swiss boarding school. In those early days, we learn that Sebastian’s mother is barely a presence in ‘we have to watch the man we’ve followed through life now defending himself against a challenging case of murder which involves a decent amount of evidence, but no body.’ his life, while his father is his idol. Then, during one visit home for the holidays, a tragedy ruins his already delicate connection with his family and catapults Sebastian onto the treacherous path towards adulthood. Over the years, Sebastian’s unusual perspective and disarming ideas shape him into a famous photographer and artist, one so famous that by the time he is accused of murder halfway through the book, Sebastian von Eschburg is a household name. It’s here, more than one hundred pages in, that we have to watch the man we’ve OUT followed through life, now defending himself against a challenging case of murder, which involves a decent amount of evidence, but no body. NOW Those who know Sebastian tell his lawyer, Konrad Biegler, that the renowned artist can’t be a murderer, and as a reader I was as unsure as Biegler himself. The Girl Who Wasn’t There is a slim book with a whole lot of character, a whole lot of cleverness and a finale that may just make you say, ‘No way!’ Get the whole story at hachette.com.au THE LION’S MOUTH REMEMBER ME THIS WAY Anne Holt Sabine Durrant Corvus. PB. $29.99 Hodder. PB. $29.99 Available 1 January A year after her The fourth book in the husband Zach is killed Hanne Wilhelmsen in a car accident, series (though Lizzie finally makes translated after some her way to the place of of the later books, as his death in an confusingly happens attempt to get the in publishing closure everyone sometimes), The Lion’s insists she needs. Mouth sees Hanne Unfortunately, a bunch working on a dramatic of flowers is waiting there already, signed crime: the death of the Norwegian Prime with a big heart from someone named Minister, just six months into her term. Xenia. This is the moment when Lizzie’s The case is a formidable one: a suspicious life starts to show cracks. Her loved ones security guard, decades-long secrets and think the grief is making her paranoid but the hunt for truth in a political world that with Zach’s own diary also being revealed thrives on dishonesty. alongside Lizzie’s narrative, it’s clear, to the reader at least, that nothing in this EDEN couple’s life was clear at all. Candice Fox Bantam. PB. $32.99 THE MARTINI SHOT AND Eden Archer is the OTHER STORIES product of an George Pelecanos unexpected youth. Orion. PB. $29.99 Left with her brother Available 13 January on the doorstop of Savvy author and notorious criminal writer from The Wire Hades Archer, who George Pelecanos was supposed to proves he delivers just dispose of the as well in gunfire- ‘problem’, Eden is now short bursts as he does a police officer, albeit an unconventional in novel-length form one. Ruthless and unfamiliar with with The Martini Shot. humanity, she’s preparing to go Some of the stories in undercover on a search for three missing this collection are girls. Meanwhile, her scarred partner excellent criminal mysteries – like the Detective Frank Bennett wants to know cable-TV-world-set novella of the title, or who’s stalking him. As a psychological the 1930s tale of Vasili – while others – thriller, Eden is a brutal delight, which is like the story ‘Chosen’ – enlarge our only to be expected given this story's understanding of Pelecanos’s recurring precursor, Hades, won the Ned Kelly detective, Spero Lucas, exploring his Award for Best First Fiction. roots in the world. 8 READINGS MONTHLY DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015

Staff favourites

NEAPOLITAN NOVELS Elena Ferrante & Ann Goldstein (trans.) Text. PB. $29.99 each There are four novels in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series (the last of which will be published in 2015) but together the works read like one long master take. Elena and Lila grow up in a neighbourhood ruled by the Camorra – where violence pervades every action and every word. I have yet to read a better work on the cycles of class and dysfunction. Both girls show early signs of being able to grasp for more: Lila through her charismatic and vicious mind, and Elena through her dedicated studiousness. Yet as the friends become young women, age and marry, it is never clear which one is the ‘brilliant friend’ of the first title. Like Karl Ove Knausgaard and Javier Marías, Ferrante is relentless in her questioning of the self. She writes with an intensity that is almost gothic, though her outlook and her feminism are radically contemporary. Jess Au is from Readings St Kilda

Literary series for summer Sometimes one book just isn’t enough! Readings staff share the series they love.

MY STRUGGLE SERIES Karl Ove Knausgaard & Don Bartlett (trans.) Vintage. PB. $19.99 each After reading the first volume in this series, Zadie Smith is reported to have said she needed ‘the next volume like crack’ and I wholeheartedly agree. I can’t think of anything else I have read in recent times that has been so utterly absorbing. Knausgaard has written six volumes about his life growing up in Norway and living as an adult in Sweden and the level of detail he goes into about his everyday experiences is masterfully written. This focus on small details is the genius of the series; it is a work of fiction (no one could remember that much detail) but it reads like an autobiography of an ordinary person going through the usual struggles of life. I recommend you start with volume one but buy volumes two and three as well, because you’ll want to start the next one as soon as you have finished the last. Kara Nicholson is from Readings Carlton

SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY Jeff VanderMeer 4th Estate. PB. $24.99 each This trilogy deals with the (almost) impenetrable Area X, an object of intense interest for the US Government. The first volume, Annihilation, follows the twelfth expedition into this troubling zone, while the second, Authority, moves inside the David Lynchian secret service HQ just outside the Area X border. Jeff VanderMeer has an amazing ability to make things that should be horrific seem merely curious, while at the same time making run-of-the-mill occurrences really unsettling – much like the way Area X turns logic inside out. This trilogy is not scary in a way you’d expect, but its confusingly twisted images and ideas will stick with you for days. I promise you will never look at mushrooms, rabbits or lighthouses the same way ever again. Chris Dite is from Readings Carlton

GILEAD NOVELS Marilynne Robinson Little, Brown. PB. $19.99, $18.95 & $29.99 Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead novels are exquisitely tender; her prose is so delicately crafted that I almost feel I have to whisper when describing her work. Also, unlike the other books in this feature, these novels aren’t a series but, rather, they are companion novels: the same events occur in the books but from different perspectives, and thus in an entirely new context. Unlike most Robinson fans, I’d started with Lila (2014) and read my way backwards through the two earlier novels, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead (2004) and the Orange Prize-winning Home (2008), and I’d recommend this reading order to anyone. Robinson’s portrayal of the town of Gilead and its inhabitants is infused with evocative imagery that is undeniably gorgeous, and her musings on theological and moral concerns are accessible and relevant. These novels are lovely, gentle reads, though, fair warning, they did break my heart repeatedly. Bronte Coates is the editorial assistant for Readings Monthly BEST OF GUIDE

DEMONS Wayne Macauley Text. PB. $29.99 BEST OF Demons was proof – if any more was needed – that Wayne Macauley is the real deal in terms of modern Oz FICTION 2014 BOOKS fiction: I was completely seduced by this book and its construct. This tale of a group of friends who go on a weekend retreat to slow down, eat WE ARE ALL THE PAYING GUESTS and drink, and entertain themselves not with TV or other COMPLETELY Sarah Waters devices but good old-fashioned yarn-telling was utterly BESIDE OURSELVES Virago. PB. $32.99 immersive, as entertaining as it was instructive about our contemporary cultural malaise. Karen Joy Fowler Sarah Waters takes on the English – Martin Shaw Serpent’s Tail. PB. $22.99 domestic novel of the interwar This Booker-shortlisted title period and mines its preoccupations with order, gentility, femininity deserves all the accolades it’s been HEAT AND LIGHT given in 2014. It has a feisty college and transgression to craft a student narrator and a secret that masterful thriller. Waters is never Ellen van Neerven is revealed a quarter of the way into the novel. This is a anachronistic, yet she always UQP. PB. $22.95 novel that is tender, funny and intellectual all at once. takes her period novels into territory that would never Ellen van Neerven’s Heat and Light Rosemary delves back into her childhood and is forced have been contemplated at the time. As the genteel and is an exceptional debut. This work to seek answers about her unusual upbringing and her recently impoverished Wrays are forced to open their of fiction could be called a short missing siblings. Topical and heartbreaking. house to paying guests of the ‘clerk’ class, Waters builds story collection, or a novel in three – Annie Condon a delicate claustrophobic tension that erupts into an parts – categorising these powerful unexpected and wonderfully wrought melodrama. portraits of Aboriginal women is – Marie Matteson irrelevant. With spare, controlled THE STRAYS language, emotional intelligence and wit, van Neerven effectively captures the strength of these women, Emily Bitto and their relationships with family and landscape. A Affirm Press. PB. $24.99 THE MINIATURIST Jessie Burton breathtaking read. I absolutely loved this book. Picador. PB. $29.99 – Stella Charls Beautifully written with strong characters that really inhabit your Set in Amsterdam in 1686, this is imagination, it focuses on an artistic a compelling, atmospheric and family who gather a group of young mysterious novel about an arranged NORA WEBSTER artists around them while benignly marriage between a 17-year-old girl Colm Tóibín neglecting their daughters. Written and a much older rich merchant Picador. PB. $29.99 from the perspective of a close friend of the children, The trader. As a wedding gift she For those who love the exquisite Strays brings the art world alive while never idolising it or receives a miniature replica of reading experience of immersion the sacrifices that can be made in the name of art. Emily her new home and commissions a craftsperson to help in a good book, Colm Tóibín's Nora Bitto is a local writer who deserves a wide audience. furnish it. What she receives is not always what she Webster will fulfil that need. With – Alexa Dretzke asks for and mirrors real life in prescient and unsettling masterful skill, Tóibín has created ways. There are many twists and turns, which keep the a work of beautiful prose, depth of narrative racing along. I absolutely loved it. character and intuitive intelligence. THE BLAZING – Desiree Boardman The book’s power comes from the deeply intimate WORLD portrayal of Nora and of her grief following the death of her husband. But this work is more than just a story about Siri Hustvedt GOLDEN BOYS grief, it is about self-discovery, hope and new possibility. Hodder. PB. $29.99 Sonya Hartnett – Natalie Platten Revisiting the setting and themes Hamish Hamilton. PB. $29.99 of her 2003 masterpiece What I The ‘Golden Boys’ are the Loved, Siri Hustvedt’s sixth novel impossibly handsome Jenson LIFE DRAWING takes the form of an anthology of family who move into Freya Kiley’s Robin Black writings about Harriet Burden – working-class neighbourhood. For Scribe. PB. $27.99 artist, widow, mother, patron and Freya and the other local kids, the self-styled ‘Virago mastermind’ intent on unmasking the Though this is Robin Black’s Jensons’ house is overflowing with inherent misogyny of the New York art scene. Loaded first novel, a follow-up to a short every toy a boy could desire, unlike with references to psychiatry, philosophy and art story collection, it’s a fantastically their own homes with too many children and too little criticism, The Blazing World is a powerful work about assured work. It follows an money. And, also unlike their homes with their angry, love, familial ties, self-obsession, the nature of art and older couple, writer Gus and her drinking fathers, the Jenson boys’ patriarch is insidiously the phenomenon of the artist as hero. husband Owen, after they move to – Virginia Maxwell friendly. The Kiley and the Jenson kids have to find a the countryside from Philadelphia, way to survive the pitfalls of both. and the impact that their new neighbour has on their – Susan Stevenson lives. What unfolds is both inevitable and surprising, and comes together as an incredibly moving work. – Chris Somerville BEST OF NON- 2014 FICTION

THIS HOUSE OF MY STORY THIS CHANGES GRIEF Julia Gillard EVERYTHING Helen Garner Knopf. HB. Was $49.99 Naomi Klein Text. PB. $32.99 $39.99 Allen Lane. PB. $29.99 Helen Garner turns her This is a fair account of If enough people read novelistic eye towards the Julia Gillard’s time as prime this book it really should Farquharson case, in which minister of our not so fair change everything. Naomi a divorced father stands country. Klein’s latest work tackles accused of driving his three Gillard takes a pragmatic the complexities of climate sons into a Winchelsea dam who, what, when, how and change, politics and the and leaving them to drown. why approach to her record economy. It is a fantastic This House of Grief is both and acknowledges those who (and incredibly sobering) a deeply-felt lament and an travelled with her. There will summary of academic expression of Garner’s own infatuation with the vagaries be many readers with whom her stories resonate, to the thought across a range of disciplines. As always her of the courts. extent that this feels like – and in many ways, is – our writing is straightforward and compelling and despite – Jess Au story. This is essential reading for anyone interested in some truly frightening new insights into capitalism journalism, politics, feminism, or our collective sense of versus the climate, the book is not without hope for a humanity. different future. THE BUSH – Chris Gordon – Kara Nicholson Don Watson Hamish Hamilton. HB. $45 I love this book; I love the ACUTE BAD FEMINIST writing, I love the language, MISFORTUNE Roxane Gay I love the breadth and the Erik Jensen Little, Brown. PB. $29.99 insights. It took Watson seven Black Inc. HB. $32.99 Roxane Gay is a rising literary years to write this book and Erik Jensen documents star in the US and Bad it’s been worth the wait. ‘I the final tortured years of Feminist is a collection of her hated it at times,’ Watson Archibald prize winner thought-provoking essays on confided in me, but if he did it and enfant terrible, Adam race, inequality and gender. doesn’t show. What does the Cullen, in this fascinating Gay is particularly brilliant bush and what we’ve done to character study. During the at writing about pop culture, it mean to us? Watson mines our history to explain our writing, Jensen and Cullen and many of her best pieces country in a most marvellous way. developed a relationship in the collection are on film – Mark Rubbo that veered sharply away and literature. From her love from the professional. Cullen, who counted Hunter S. letter to Sweet Valley High to her shockingly powerful Thompson as a hero, puts Jensen through the ringer. He and very personal essay on The Hunger Games, Gay’s DRESS, MEMORY throws him from a speeding motorbike and, after some work is intimate, honest and always entertaining. Lorelei Vashti heavy drinking, shoots Jensen in the leg. Despite these – Nina Kenwood A&U. PB. $27.99 trials – or perhaps because of them – Jensen manages to construct an elegant and touching portrait of a deeply Lorelei Vashti looks troubled man. back with humour and THE EMPATHY compassion, but also with – Joseph Rubbo EXAMS a kind of disbelieving Leslie Jamison wonder, at the moments Granta. PB. $29.99 of gravity and minutiae THE WIFE This generous, probing that have shaped her life. DROUGHT collection takes us from It might seem cliché, but Annabel Crabb clinical observation rooms I did laugh and cry at this Ebury. PB. Was $34.99 and disease support groups immensely self-aware and $29.99 to the streets of gangland LA, knowing memoir of that time when we grow from Don’t be bemused by the all the while offering the kind uncertain, awkward, precocious young adults into title: this is an essential and of pithy, uncomfortable and more certain versions of ourselves. Vashti’s beautiful, hilarious book for everyone. left-of-centre reflections on funny, complex memoir is earnest and ironic, dressed Journalist and Kitchen Cabinet society and human behaviour in costume and stripped completely bare. host Annabel Crabb takes a that typified Joan Didion’s early work. The essay ‘Grand – Amy Vuleta fresh and amusing approach Unified Theory of Female Pain’, on the image of the as she unravels the rusty ‘suffering woman’ throughout literary history, is a idiosyncrasies of Australia’s standout. Like the book itself, it is an illuminating mosaic WHERE SONG work–life systems and assumptions. Crabb’s vivid analysis of a humanity revealed as both raw-nerved and insidious. BEGAN and interviews with prominent career–family jugglers – Gerard Elson Tim Low of both sexes combine to make a page-turner rich with Viking. PB. $32.99 insight and ideas for giving everyone a better deal. If you Australian biologist Tim only read one book this summer, make it this one. Low has crafted a thrilling – Elke Power and utterly absorbing work of non-fiction that reveals how the story of our native birds is inexorably tied to the story of Australia itself. Brilliantly researched and highly addictive, Where Song Began presents a fresh, and somewhat provocative, understanding of evolution and our global history – all in relation to our feathered friends. – Emily Harms BEST OF BEST OF CRIME 2014 FICTION FOOD & 2014 GARDEN with Fiona Hardy with Chris Gordon BEAMS FALLING WHAT CAME BEFORE NONNA TO NANA HEIRLOOM VEGETABLES P.M. Newton Anna George Jacqueline & Jessie DiBlasi Simon Rickard Viking. PB. $29.99 Viking. PB. $29.99 HB. $59.99 Lantern. HB. $49.99 This crime novel feels so On Melbourne’s streets, Melbourne sisters Jessie If you have ever been real-life that it makes David Forrester drives and Jacqueline DiBlasi fortunate enough to eat at everything else seem away from the wife he has explore the connections the Annie Smithers unconvincing. Young cop left lifeless on the laundry between love and Bistrot or the Diggers Nhu ‘Ned’ Kelly is floor and contemplates nourishment, inspired by Club, then you have eaten stomping around how he will frame someone their grandmother, vegetables grown by this Cabramatta in the early for his crime. At home, Elle Nonna Giovanna. The great gardener and author. nineties when racial hovers above her body and book shares stories and recipes from the Heirloom Vegetables is a tension was thick in the air. Ned’s recovery relives the moments that led up to this one: a living culinary traditions of 15 Australian history book full of family feuds, love stories, from previous trauma – not dismissed, but life of wonder and success that, with the grandmothers across diverse cultural tales of trade and great mythology – and it all made into an intense part of her story – makes illusion of love, became infused with backgrounds. revolves around carrots. No, not really, but seeking the truth as difficult as it is necessary. domestic violence. this extraordinary book chronicles vegetables MR HONG old and new through the history of humanity. NORTH OF BOSTON DESERVING DEATH Dan Hong Elisabeth Elo Katherine Howell Murdoch. HB. $49.99 1-MINUTE GARDENER Headline. PB. $19.99 Pan Mac. PB. $29.99 This is my pick of the Mat Pember & Fabian Capomolla This is a book for all the After the brutal death of Australian cookbooks for Plum. PB. $45 senses: perfumer Pirio paramedic Alicia Bayliss the year: innovative, fun The boys are back with Kasparov is nearly killed in her own home, Sydney and delicious. If you are their third book and I in an incident at sea that Detective Ella Marconi is searching for a cookbook reckon it’s their best one claims the life of her old hunting down her for your friends, family, yet! Mat and Fabian have friend Ned and leaves her murderer. Fellow anyone – Mr Hong is the realised we are time- afloat in freezing paramedic Carly Martens one. This wonderful and space-poor and have temperatures for hours. is the one who was called collection of fusion recipes from all three of come up with 70 Considered a scientific wonder by the to the scene, and she is not willing to sit Dan Hong’s restaurants (Mr Wong, El Loco different solutions for growing food in no media and the navy, her ordeal back while the person who killed her friend and Ms G’s) is easy to follow with brilliant time. There are step-by-step lessons on fast, overshadows Ned’s death, which Pirio now is on the loose. Both women are tough, real graphics and not scared of being funny. edible gardening essentials, from preparing suspects was no accident. She is unwilling and determined, and this is an emotionally and caring for your veggie patch (or pot) to leave his son – her godson – not knowing captivating, tense read. PLENTY MORE through to harvesting the rewards – and the truth of who killed his father. Yotam Ottolenghi getting the kids involved along the way. THE TRUTH ABOUT THE Ebury. HB. Was $49.99 A MURDER UNMENTIONED HARRY QUEBERT AFFAIR $39.99 DIG DEEPER Sulari Gentill Joël Dicker & Sam Taylor (trans.) Fresh from his Australian Meredith Kirton Pantera. PB. $29.99 Quercus. PB. $32.99 tour, Mr Ottolenghi’s Murdoch. HB. $69.99 Gentill’s Rowland Sinclair As useful to knock someone cookbooks are a winner If you are after a gardening series is for fans of Kerry over the head with as it is to for inspiring end-of-year manual full of practical Greenwood’s exuberant read, this enjoyably hefty banquets and gatherings. advice then this is the historical crime fiction, as tome follows a young Honestly, what is there book for you. This book is well as lovers of cameo writer trying to avoid a not to love? What this literally full of down to appearances from the deadline by immersing bloke can do to a earth advice! Kirton has likes of badass pilot Nancy himself in a criminal vegetable is extraordinary. You too can turn spent her whole life Bird. The newest book investigation: that of his cauliflower into a meal so delicious that even teaching, designing, planting, guiding and sees Rowly and his boisterous artsy friends mentor, Harry Quebert, the kids will be asking for more. writing about all things gardening. In here back at his upperclass family homestead to accused of a decades-old murder. Small-town you’ll find projects for the amateur and the sort out a mystery from Rowly’s youth – the life is as much up for scrutiny as anything else HOME established gardener. death of his own father. and the final act of this is utterly thrilling. Karen Martini Plum. PB. Was $39.99 ADAM’S BIG POT BLOOD WILL OUT MALICE $34.99 Adam Liaw Walter Kirn Keigo Higashino Home is where the heart Hachette. PB. Was $39.99 Constable. PB. $29.99 Little, Brown. PB. $29.99 is and this book clearly $34.99 In 1998, author Walter Malice’s understated exemplifies ways to turn Liaw understands the Kirn drives a paralysed beginning in a suburban your mealtimes into a importance of gathering dog to her new owner, Japanese street led to the pleasurable experience around and digging in, Clark Rockefeller, a man as kind of ending that made for each and every together. I love a recipe connected as you can get me squirm with delight at member of your family. that not only enhances in America, and someone tricksy writers. Author Martini’s recipes are easy fresh ingredients but has who immediately Kunihiko Hidaka is and accessible. Home is filled with meal ideas just one pot to clean and captivates the curious murdered and his best for every day and some fancy-pants dinner is suitable for pretty much Kirn. Over the years, Kirn and Rockefeller friend Nonoguchi Osamu was one of the parties too. any occasion. I also like that Liaw has become close friends, despite the latter’s last people to see him alive. Along with the demystified many Asian-inspired dishes, oddness. Then, ten years later, the truth detective on the case, you’ll have your own SALAD DAYS making all his recipes accessible to comes out: Clark is no Rockefeller, but he is theories on the killer, but being wrong has Ronnie Scott supermarket shoppers. a conman – and a suspected murderer. never brought such glee. Penguin. PB. $9.99 WHAT KATIE ATE THE SILKWORM This is the perfect gift MORIARTY for your foodie friends. AT THE WEEKEND Robert Galbraith Anthony Horowitz Melbourne-based author Katie Quinn Davies Little, Brown. PB. $32.99 Orion. PB. $29.99 Ronnie Scott muses on Lantern. HB. $49.99 J.K. Rowling’s adult crime Not only does Anthony our general obsession The second gorgeous books are building in Horowitz capture the voice with food. This droll book from much-loved popularity with more and and tone of the original essay is vivid in its foodie blogger and more people scurrying Sherlock Holmes reckoning of inner- photographer Katie in-store to find out what characters perfectly, he also urban-Melbourne folk Quinn Davies gives happens next to the utterly seamlessly plugs careless and I beg each of you to thought to seasonal compelling and entertaining holes left by Conan Doyle read this glimpse into our time – if only to produce with popular detective pair of the and fleshes out secondary stop the food porn. and new recipes. You’ll imposing Cormoran Strike and his whip-smart characters beautifully. This is a Sherlock story find all the inspiration you need for assistant Robin. Here, author Owen Quine has written by someone who clearly loves weekend entertaining as well as delicious written a bizarre and gruesome book, Sherlock and I can’t recommend it enough. everyday meals. pointedly about everyone he knows – so when – Dani Solomon he goes missing, everyone’s a suspect. BEST OF BEST OF PICTURE 2014 BOOKS JUNIOR 2014 FICTION

A LION IN PARIS MIX IT UP! MY HEART IS LAUGHING RIVERTIME Beatrice Alemagna Hervé Tullet Rose Lagercrantz & Eva Eriksson (illus.) Trace Balla T&H. HB. $29.95 A&U. HB. $19.99 Gecko. PB. $15.99 A&U. HB. $24.99 A young lion with an A thematic sequel to the An irresistibly appealing When 10-year-old explorer’s heart divine Press Here, Mix It story, every page is alive Clancy’s Uncle Egg ventures forth from Up is a physically with wonderful line takes him on a boat the familiar compelling read! With illustrations. It’s journey on the grasslands of his his signature charm, impossible not to love Glenelg River, he is home to the bustling Tullet has once again our plucky little initially worried streets of Paris. There, he is mesmerised by created a modern classic that will appeal to protagonist, Dani, as she about missing his hi-tech toys but soon its wonders until he discovers a plinth all ages. From those just learning their navigates the challenges learns to tune in to ‘rivertime’. The simple where he can rest – and hold centre stage! colours through to adults, it’s impossible to of school life with line drawings are perfect for this delightful, Artfully produced in the style of montage resist his surprising experience of mixing wonderful optimism and resilience. Perfect gentle journey, which is uniquely this book will appeal to all. colours in paints! for children aged 5 and up who are ready to Australian. – Natalie Platten - Isobel Moore move on from first readers at school. AC – Angela Crocombe THE BUTTERFLY HOUSE WHALE IN THE BATH STUFF HAPPENS: JACK ELIZA BOOM’S DIARY: Sarah Smith Kylie Westaway & Tom Jellett (illus.) Tony Wilson MY EXPLOSIVE Tate. HB. $24.95 A&U. HB. $19.99 Puffin. PB. $9.99 ADVENTURE A charming story about It’s time for Bruno’s A favourite for young boys: Emily Gale & Joelle Dreidemy (illus.) two children and their bath, but uh oh! real life stories of school, Michael O’Mara. PB. $9.95 cat visiting Grandma for There’s a whale in the friends, family and sport A new heroine has the day. She has a bath! What is he to do? written with a deft touch arrived – Eliza Boom: delightful greenhouse This picture book is an and wonderful honesty. feisty, fearless spy and full of butterflies that absolute delight and When Jack is hurt in a inventor extraordinaire. prove irresistible to the the illustrations are beautiful. Children will lunchtime game that goes With her best friend and cat and chaotic fun love discovering Bruno’s dilemma with him horribly wrong, he is assistant, her dog ensues. Beautifully illustrated, this offbeat and find his frustration at his family’s lack suddenly faced with a dilemma. Highly Einstein, she has built story will bewitch children as they wonder at of belief sweet and engaging. IM recommended for boys aged 7 and up. AC 92 failed inventions, so Grandma’s mysterious transformation. For she must be close to her ages 3 and up. THE MEMORY OF AN FOXY TALES: THE Eureka moment. But – Alexa Dretzke ELEPHANT CUNNING PLAN first she must outwit her arch nemesis, the Sophie Strady & Jean-François Caryl Hart & Alex T. Smith (illus.) school bully. Funny, smart and full of GASTON Martin (illus.) Hachette. PB. $12.99 wonderful drawings and escapades, Eliza Kelly DiPucchio & Christian Chronicle. HB. $27.95 This is a crazy, laugh- will be enjoyed by both boys and girls. Robinson (illus.) Marcel is an old elephant out-loud adventure - Savannah Indigo S&S. HB. $19.99 who’s decided to list starring a fox, an Mrs Poodle loves her everything he’s learned alligator and the SPUD & CHARLI four puppies, Fi-Fi, throughout his life. The outlandish population of Samantha Wheeler Foo-Foo, Ooh-La-La and result is part-picture the town of Vaudeville. UQP. PB. $14.95 Gaston. Three are very book, part-encyclopedia, It’s a zany slap-stick For Charli, attending poodley but then there is with equal appeal to comedy with hare- riding camp is a dream sweet Gaston! Has there adults and children. brained schemes, come true – until she is been a mix up at birth? Marcel’s encyclopedia is fascinating and incredible chase scenes and quirky stuck with a horse ‘about Mrs Bulldog seems to whimsical, capturing the reality of the illustrations. Recommended for readers as useful as a sack of dirty have three pups who look like her and one random bits of information that individuals aged 6 and up. AC potatoes’. This is a story who looks suspiciously like a poodle. One day amass, and the key memories we return to in about growing up, solving they all meet at the park and, well, find out old age. A profound and beautiful oddball. THE PRINCESS IN BLACK mysteries, wild for yourselves and encounter one of the best – Emily Gale Shannon Hale & Dean Hale & imaginations and the way picture books for 2014! For ages 2 and up. AD LeUyen Pham (illus.) friends can be made in the most unlikely LOUISE LOVES ART Candlewick Press. HB. $19.95 circumstances. For ages 7 and up. SI HAVE YOU SEEN MY Kelly Light Princess Magnolia is DRAGON? HarperCollins. HB. $24.99 pretending to be a proper FIGGY IN THE WORLD Steve Light This will resonate with young lady, but she is Tamsin Janu Walker. HB. $24.95 a lot of families. Take actually a superhero in Scholastic. PB. $15.99 There’s so much to one confident eldest disguise. When the Figgy is my literary hero for discover in this child, add one adoring monster alarm rings, 2014, against very stiff elaborately drawn younger sibling, she politely makes her competition. She’s got a picture book with its complete the picture excuses so that she and touch of Pollyanna about gorgeous pen and with an expressive cat her pony can rescue Goat Boy. This gorgeous, her with the addition of a ink illustrations. and you have a story action-packed adventure delightfully fantastic sense of humour. Explore the city that can be enjoyed overturns the princess myth. Perfect for And she needs it, because with a small boy who’s searching for his through all three perspectives. Cute, funny aspiring adventurers aged 5 and up. the mission she’s set friend, a magnificent dragon. This is a and heart-warming. EG – Angela Crocombe herself – travelling from Ghana to America glorious, fun-filled expedition with much to buy vital medicine for her beloved to see, find and learn – all as you count STICKS AND STONES, TRULY TAN: FREAKED! grandmother – is truly impossible. EG from 1 to 20! ANIMAL HOMES Jen Storer & Claire Robertson (illus.) – Athina Clarke Tai Snaith ABC Books. PB. $16.99 PIGSTICKS AND HAROLD T&H. HB. $24.99 Tan is back with another AND THE INCREDIBLE TINY: THE INVISIBLE Melbourne author and mystery – this time in her JOURNEY WORLD OF MICROBES artist Tai Snaith has own family! Enlisting the Alex Milway Nicola Davies & Emily Sutton (illus.) created a delightful help of fellow detective Walker. PB. $14.95 Walker. HB. $27.95 and friend Gloria, narrative journey Pigsticks comes from a line together they try to crack To convey the true around the world of brave, accomplished the case of the tall, dark wonder of the scientific visiting unusual pigs. He’s determined to stranger in the backyard. world to younger children animals and their carry on the tradition by Hilarious, unique and a requires great skill and to unique homes. All are becoming an explorer, little quirky, as always Truly Tan doesn’t inform yet entertain lovingly drawn in their natural with help from his new disappoint. Ages 7 and up. demands art. This environment – with an added touch of assistant – Harold, the – Katherine Dretzke amazing book does both style, such as the muskrat who wears a suit nervy, loyal hamster. This and will inspire the scientist in every child. as he swims home to his modernist pad. terrifically funny new colour-illustrated Highly recommended for ages 5 and up. AC – Angela Crocombe series is ideal for children 6 and up. EG BEST OF BEST OF MIDDLE 2014 FICTION YOUNG 2014 ADULT

DO YOU DARE? TOUGH MY DOG DOESN’T LIKE ME FALLING INTO PLACE ENDGAME: THE CALLING TIMES Elizabeth Fensham Amy Zhang James Frey & Nils Johnson-Shelton Simon Mitchell UQP. PB. $14.95 HarperCollins. PB. $17.99 HarperCollins. PB. $24.99 Puffin. PB. $14.99 Eric is disappointed When an accident puts Endgame is a dystopian Each book in this series when his new dog, who the most popular girl at game of apocalyptic focuses on an era in he imagined would be his school in hospital, it’s as if proportions and the first Australian history. Tough loyal companion, clearly everyone has turned up to instalment in what Times is set in the 1930s prefers everyone else in find out if she will live or promises to be an epic depression. Tom’s dad the family. Eric and his die. But was it an series. Twelve highly has lost his job and now friends work out tricks to accident? Why would the trained assassins – the the family could lose win the dog over, but Eric girl who appeared to have Players – are called to their house too. Tom and has to learn how to look it all throw it all away? This is a fascinating, fight to the death to secure the genetic his friends unite in trying after a pet properly before the miracle beautifully written debut about the impact survival of their tribe. When alliances are to save the family from eviction. An starts to happen. of our actions upon one another. formed, some wonder whether a united action-packed yarn that champions loyalty – Kathy Kozlowski – Angela Crocombe front could ensure the survival of all and persistence, particularly good for boys tribes. NP aged 7–10. AD THE ADVENTURES OF WE WERE LIARS STUNT BOY AND HIS E. Lockhart THE STRANGE AND FRIDAY BARNES: GIRL AMAZING WONDER DOG A&U. PB. $17.99 BEAUTIFUL SORROWS DETECTIVE BLINDFOLD We Were Liars is many OF AVA LAVENDER R.A. Spratt Lollie Barr things, including an Leslye Walton Random House. PB. $15.99 Pan Mac. PB. $14.99 unflinching glimpse into a Walker. HB. $19.95 family fuelled by its own All Friday Barnes wants Stunt Boy is sure someone Love is beautiful but it self-destruction in a is a little peace and is trying to undermine the can also be tragic, as it is manner reminiscent of quiet to get on with her circus and that his father’s for the women in Ava’s King Lear, and a tale of studies, but when she accident was sabotage, but family. She carries the star-crossed lovers. starts at her new school, he, his friend Benny, and sorrowful burden of her Mostly, it is clever and she quickly realises that faithful, scruffy Blindfold family’s history and tries surprising. The brilliant plot twists and turns may not be an option. get into real danger trying to make a life for herself. and doesn’t stop. The school is rife with to prove it. I loved the This is an elegant, lyrical – Kushla Egan mysteries and crimes circus setting, motorcycle stunt-riding hero, and eccentrically mesmerising story that and Friday is the only one able to solve gripping plot and rich cast of characters. KK will linger long after the reader has them! A delight: captivating and very NINE OPEN ARMS finished it. A highlight in my reading funny. IM MR. AND MRS. BUNNY – Benny Lindelauf & John year. Ages 13 and up. AD DETECTIVES Nieuwenhuizen (trans.) TIMMY FAILURE: WE EXTRAORDINAIRE! A&U. PB. $16.99 WHY WE TOOK THE CAR It’s easy to miss gems MEET AGAIN Polly Horvath & Sophie Blackall (illus.) Wolfgang Herrndorf & Tim Mohr like this one. A massive Stephan Pastis Random House. PB. $14.99 (trans.) Walker. HB. $17.95 hit in the Netherlands Scribe. PB. $19.99 Madeline’s parents have and newly translated this Timmy Failure is an Two school misfits, a been kidnapped by foxes! year, the story switches entertaining character road trip with no mobile Not knowing what to do, between the 1860s and with a large vocabulary phones or maps, Madeline goes to her uncle 1930s, following an and a detective agency. eccentric characters and but finds him unwell. As he eccentric family of three He’s lovable, beautiful, refreshing can only help from his bed, girls and three boys, a dreamer father and reprehensible, friendships combine to Madeline enlists the help of the sort of brilliantly drawn grandmother adventurous, make Why We Took the Mr. and Mrs. Bunny – detectives who are you might find in a Dickens novel. misunderstood and Car a book all teenagers slightly lacking in sleuthing skills. Hilarious, Unique, sad and humorous. EG completely inept. Timmy witty and perfectly written. KD should read. Not only my favourite book of the year, but Failure will make you laugh so much you’ll RAZORHURST miss your tram stop! THE ADVENTURES OF possibly for all time. Ages 13 and up. KD – Kate Campbell SIR RODERICK, THE Justine Larbalestier A&U. PB. $18.99 THE WITCH OF SALT NOT-VERY BRAVE OPHELIA AND THE Elegant one minute and AND STORM James O’Loghlin MARVELLOUS BOY sinister the next, Justine Kendall Kulper Pan Mac. PB. $16.99 Larbalestier’s prose leads Karen Foxlee Hachette. PB. $14.99 Roderick enjoyed his quiet us confidently back to Hot Key. PB. $14.95 A beautiful exploration life as a herbalist before he Sydney in the 1930s, of love, power and the I was enchanted by this saved Queen Emily from a where the streets of Surry bonds that tie. Avery’s fabulous adventure – it poison dart. Then she Hills are ruled by destiny is to become the gets my vote for book of knighted him and sent him competing mob bosses. Sea Witch of the island the year! The story is a on a quest. But is there any Two girls are thrown where she was born, but delicious juxtaposition of time for him to complete it together when they discover a murder, and, her mother is intent magic and logic, a quest to between being stung on the as if things weren’t complicated enough, upon changing it. The save the world from an bum by a bee and having his ear talked off by they also have a ghost world to contend romance is very sweet, evil Snow Queen. I loved a very chatty bear? with. EG the courage of our heroes, – Dani Solomon but the relationships that really stand out Ophelia and the Marvellous Boy, and even THE CRACKS IN THE are those between Avery, her mother and her grandmother. IM shed a few tears when the going got tough. THE MAPMAKER KINGDOM – Angela Crocombe CHRONICLES: RACE TO Jaclyn Moriarty POPULAR THE END OF THE WORLD THE THICKETY: A PATH Pan Mac. PB. $19.99 Maya Van Wagenen A.L. Tait BEGINS In the second book of the Puffin. PB. $16.99 Hachette. PB. $14.99 Colours of Madeleine J.A. White & Andrea Offermann (illus.) The author, when at school, There’s fantasy and trilogy, Elliot has been HarperCollins. HB. $19.99 made the brave but mad high-seas adventure writing secret letters decision to try and break Be warned: this book is only aplenty in The Mapmaker from within the magical for those who adore being through the ‘popular cool Chronicles – think Deltora realm to Madeleine out kids’ barrier using advice scared witless. The Thickety Quest meets Robinson in the world. Could their is a deliciously sinister tale from a 1951 teenage Crusoe. Plucked from a life dangerous cross-realm popularity guide her father of sorcery. Until Thickety, of mediocrity, Quinn is communication help to only Neil Gaiman or the had bought as a joke. From handpicked to train as a save the Kingdom of Cello? For those after how to dress through to brothers Grimm had the mapmaker and accompany a crew of a charming escape into another world, ages power to keep me reading into the early deportment, she followed it all faithfully adventurers around the world. 14 and up. SI with hilarious and fascinating results. KK hours, terrified but unable to stop! AC – Holly Harper BEST OF BEST OF ART & 2014 DESIGN FILM 2014 & TV with Margaret Snowdon with Lou Fulco MID-CENTURY MODERN SUPERLIGHT FADING GIGOLO SHORT TERM 12 COMPLETE Phyllis Richardson Was $39.95 Was $29.95 Dominic Bradbury T&H. HB. $39.99 $19.95 $24.95 T&H. HB. $120 Superlight houses combine Fioravante (Jon Grace is a 20-something Following the excellent Art two strands of thinking: Turturro) decides to supervisor at a foster- Deco Complete and that lightweight buildings become a professional care facility for at-risk preceding Vintage Fashion have less impact on their Don Juan as a way of teenagers. 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PHOTOGRAPHY TODAY Frank is an offbeat MORDEN – THE Mark Durden MIES VAN DER ROHE comedy about Jon FJÄLLBACKA MURDERS: Phaidon. HB. $89.95 Carsten Krohn (Domhnall Gleeson), a SEASON 1 wannabe musician who This major new survey of Birkhäuser Verlag. HB. Was $162.95 Was $49.95 finds himself out of his contemporary photography $150 $34.95 depth when he joins an considers the work of This series draws This comprehensive Mies avant-garde pop band 80–100 photographers. It inspiration from the monograph focuses its led by the enigmatic traces the development of books of Swedish crime analysis on Mies’s design Frank (Michael photography as an art form writer Camilla Läckberg. intentions: it reconstructs Fassbender), a musical genius who hides in each of these genres individually and also Successful crime writer the buildings in their himself inside a large fake head, and his looks at the ties and links between them. Erica has returned to original state, examines terrifying bandmate Clara (Maggie Durden’s narrative reveals a complex story her beautiful fishing them from the present day Gyllenhaal). with numerous tangents – richly illustrated perspective and rediscovers the inspiring hometown of Fjällbacka, with 500 images, clearly and accessibly architecture of a great modern master. The where underneath the presented. book presents 80 of Mies’s works in pretty-as-a-postcard idyll lie dark secrets. chronological order. BEST OF BEST OF POPULAR 2014 MUSIC CLASSICAL 2014 MUSIC with Readings’ music specialists Kate Rockstrom’s Top 5 Alexandra Mathew’s Top 5 LOST IN THE DREAM DOWN WHERE THE PRAYER J.S. 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Zoe Randell’s dream-like voice Jasmine in 2010. Thankfully, Jarrett and is him just showing off! He will be evokes the splendour and is enough to melt the hardest of hearts. Haden recorded so much in those sessions considered one of the greatest pianists of beauty of St Mark’s that a second album followed this year, just the 21st Century. He has a clarity of style STAY GOLD Basilica in Venice where the Vespers were before the sad passing of Haden. Jazz with everything from Bach to Albeniz. It’ll first performed. The well-known ‘Beatus First Aid Kit standards can be a dime a dozen, but never give you goosebumps. Vir’ is a highlight, and is a lesson in fine $21.95 when they are played by these masters. consort singing. With Stay Gold, First Aid ESCAPE TO PARADISE: Kit – sisters Klara and MORNING PHASE THE HOLLYWOOD ALBUM MOZART & HAYDN: Johanna Söderberg – Beck Daniel Hope JEUNEHOMME have honed their lush $24.95 DG. 4792954. $24.95 Alexandre Tharaud, Les Violons du arrangements and Morning Phase represents Daniel Hope’s last few Roy & Bernard Labadie blossomed as vivid the long-awaited return of recordings have been Erato. 2564626268. $24.95 storytellers in creating this ambitious Beck. Armed with both spectacular. I’ve had his French pianist Alexandre 10-song collection of originals. Drawing voice and guitar, this is a Spheres on repeat since it Tharaud presents inspiration from sources as varied as personal, acoustic album came out in 2013, walking sparkling renditions of Spaghetti Westerns and Lee Hazlewood that evokes the Nashville the fine line between Mozart and Haydn piano productions, Stay Gold features the duo’s setting where the seeds of the songs were popularity and musical integrity. I’m so concertos alongside the most sophisticated songwriting and planted years before. The album soars with thrilled to have a new recording of Hope’s, concert aria ‘Ch’io mi arrangements to date. lush orchestral moments composed by Beck’s one featuring the works of some of the scordi di te?’, in which guest mezzo-soprano father, David Richard Campbell, as in the greatest film composers ever exiled from Joyce DiDonato dazzles. Tharaud captures BENJI swell of strings over ‘Wave’, while ’70s folk their homelands. The centrepiece is the Mozart’s precocity and brilliance particularly Sun Kil Moon classics sneak their way through echoing stunning, Hollywood-inspired Violin in Piano Concerto No. 9 (nicknamed $24.95 voices and electric guitar chords. Concerto by Korngold. ‘Jeunehomme’), which is considered one of Benji is Mark Kozelek’s Mozart’s greatest compositions. most autobiographical SINGLE MOTHERS MOSAIC: AUSTRALIAN and brutally honest Justin Townes Earle GUITAR CONCERTOS ROAD TRIP record to date. Spend $21.95 Karin Schaupp Aurora Orchestra enough time with this After several stints in ABC Classics. 4810961. $24.95 Warner Classics. 2564632791. $21.95 album and you’ll understand Kozelek’s love rehab, a newly sober and Karin Schaupp’s albums London’s Aurora for his family, his interest in serial killers married Justin Townes are like a breath of fresh Orchestra takes us on a and his obsession with mortality. ‘Carissa’ Earle seems to have air in the world of big, road trip across America, and ‘Truck Driver’ reveal that both his found contentment and a heavy classical music. No featuring offerings from uncle and second cousin died from aerosol clarity that permeates the Beethoven or Brahms for John Adams, Charles Ives, can explosions, and each song on Benji 10 tracks on his wonderful fifth album, her, rather the floral and Aaron Copland, and a special appearance reflects on death in one form or another. Single Mothers. The album was recorded world of Peter Sculthorpe and Ross from Paul Simon. The Ives is a particular Despite this fascination with death, Benji is live, without overdubs or session players to Edwards. I find that this music can transport standout, evoking the grandeur of New never a downer. accompany Earle’s four-piece touring band, you to a world of bright sunlight, wide England’s Housatonic River. in an effort to capture the moment and the landscapes and a riot of colours. honest, personal nature of this new batch of songs. Gifts

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VISIT US TO CHOOSE FROM OUR FANTASTIC RANGE OF CALENDARS AND DIARIES READINGS MONTHLY DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 17

New Young Adult Fiction See books for kids, junior and middle readers on page 20 Young Adult Book of the Month GLORY O’BRIEN’S HISTORY OF THE FUTURE A.S. King Little, Brown. HB. $24.99 A.S. King is practically a genius when it comes to writing YA fiction. Her characters are complicated,conflicted and faced with impossible situations – and yet they feel utterly real. Glory O’Brien is all this and more. A true story of murder, madness and Olympic In this brilliant and original book, James Wallman When Glory and her best friend, Darla, drink the dust gold... Billionaire John Du Pont lured America’s top identifies why Stuffocation is the most pressing wrestlers, the brothers Mark and Dave Schultz, to problem of our time – and then goes in search of from a petrified bat one strange night, they can suddenly see his Foxcatcher estate with the dream of building its solution. Through fascinating and brilliantly told the past and future of a whole family tree just by looking at a a world-class team. But as he grew paranoid and stories, he uncovers clues to how we will all be person. Glory sees a future of war, terror and death, and a past not too dissimilar. She controlling, the brothers realised they were trapped. living tomorrow. decides to document it in case it really happens, to write a ‘history of the future’. But this is merely a distraction from the drudgery of high school graduation and Glory’s lack of commitment to her own future. She’s still trying to cope with her mother’s suicide from 13 years before, her father’s refusal to leave the house ever since, and the strange relationship they have with Darla’s family in the commune next door. How Glory copes with it all is a crazy, life-affirming journey that is an utter delight to read. Highly recommended for readers aged 13 and up. Angela Crocombe is from Readings Carlton

EVIL LIBRARIAN ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES Michelle Knudsen Jennifer Niven Candlewick. HB. $19.95 Penguin. PB. $17.99 When the new Available 7 January librarian starts Theodore Finch An inspiring and engaging collection of all-new Money is always a tricky subject to broach, especially at Cyn’s school, he first meets Violet letters from some of Australia’s best-loved people. when you’re newly in love. But it’s never too early to initially seems perfect. Markey on the ledge of Ambassadors for correspondence Marieke Hardy have the talk. By agreeing on a financial plan, you and Michaela McGuire have lured some of our best will eliminate many money-related arguments and He’s young, hot, the school bell tower. and brightest to contribute missives of all kinds. build wealth together. An invaluable, practical guide. friendly, hot ... It’s Violet is up there worth mentioning grieving for her sister, twice! There’s only who was killed in a car one drawback: he’s accident. Theodore has evil. Literally. gone up to see what the penguin.com.au Cyn is the only one who can see that tower would be like to text_Readings_monthly_NOV2014_2pp 127.5mmW x 182.5mmH the new school librarian is actually a jump from. He discovers that it scares him. demon. With her best friend under his Neither is sure they want to keep living. thrall, teachers going ‘missing’ left, right Theodore believes he is ‘broken’ and ‘can’t be and centre, and the potential death and fixed,’ while Violet doesn’t know how to act destruction of the whole school ahead, now that she is a ‘survivor’. However, ELENA FERRANTE’S she knows she has to do something to together they make a team, creating stop him. memories and ‘perfect days’ that they hope A light-hearted take on the can last forever. But Theodore still has black NEAPOLITANNEAPOLITAN SERIESSERIES supernatural genre, Evil Librarian is a moments that he can’t escape and Violet laugh-out-loud adventure with a very doesn’t know what to do to help him. HAS EVERY BOOK LOVER likable protagonist. Its enthusiasm is All the Bright Places is about suicide and From Text, Small Publisher infectious and Knudsen does not take mental illness and for this reason should SWOONING of the Year 2012, 2013, 2014 herself or her characters too seriously. not be overlooked by parents. The writing is I’m already crossing my fingers for magnificent. The book is funny, sad, inspiring a sequel. and devastating – I could go on. I feel this is a really important book for young adults Isobel Moore is from Readings St Kilda because mental illness is still too hidden in THERE WILL BE LIES our society. Parents, read this and then talk with your teens about it, and young adults, Nick Lake read this, it’s brilliant. For ages 14 and up. Bloomsbury. PB. $19.99 Katherine Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn Available 1 January There are plot THE DISREPUTABLE twists aplenty in HISTORY OF FRANKIE Lake’s second novel. Shelby breaks her leg LANDAU-BANKS but is very quickly E. Lockhart dragged out of A&U. PB. $14.99 hospital and along on Available 1 January a road trip by her Here is another chance ‘The best thing I’ve read this year, far and normally reclusive to catch this popular away…She puts most other writing at the mother. Can they novel by the author of moment in the shade.’ Richard Flanagan drive faster than the lies threatening to this year’s big hit, We ‘The best angry woman writer ever.’ catch up with them? Were Liars. At 14, John Waters This is a very fast-paced and thrilling Frankie is a geeky girl at novel. Shelby is very easy to relate to a highly competitive ‘Tolstoyan in its sweep and ambition... and it’s lovely to read such a strong and boarding school. By 15, Ferrante’s series is building into one of the determined protagonist firmly dealing she has a sharp tongue, a great achievements of modern literature.’ with the very scary situations she finds chip on her shoulder, and a gorgeous new Independent herself in. The plot is layered with an senior boyfriend. No longer is she the kind of ‘Ferrante will blow you away.’ Alice Sebold interesting and rare look at both deaf girl to take ‘no’ for an answer, especially when culture and Native American folk tales she’s excluded from her boyfriend’s all-male and is richer for both of these aspects. secret society. Not when she’s smarter than textpublishing.com.au This novel is very hard to put down! any of them, Matthew is lying to her, and IM there are so many, many pranks to be played. 18 READINGS MONTHLY DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015

New Non-Fiction Australian Studies Politics

Biography and approaches to his ‘new’ family are full of tentative cravings. Boast’s unremitting AUSTRALIA UNDER DISCONTENT AND ITS style of writing allows the reader to be SURVEILLANCE CIVILIZATIONS NOT MY FATHER’S SON carried through his turmoil, and indeed his Frank Moorhouse Mohsin Hamid Alan Cumming resilience. Boast already has an excellent Vintage. PB. $32.99 Hamish Hamilton. PB. $29.99 Canongate. HB. $35 reputation as a writer, and this, his own This year ASIO has Mohsin Hamid presents Not My Father’s story, more than meets the expectations extended its an essential series of Son is really a raised by earlier praise and is receiving surveillance powers, dispatches from the tale of two fathers: applause from all over. made the issuing of East, the West and the Alan Cumming’s own Reminiscent of Morrison’s And When warrants easier and in-between. Unified by (forester Alex Did You Last See Your Father?, Epilogue is a limited the freedom of the author’s distinct Cumming) and his coming of age story full of the anguish and journalists. At a time voice, this book makes a maternal grandfather the hope of letting go and beginning again. when the government compelling case for (WWII veteran Chris Gordon is Readings’ Event Manager has raised the terrorist recognising our Tommy Darling). In alert level to ‘high’ we common humanity 2010, Alan is given an OTHER STATES OF MIND are facing the question: What degree of while relishing our diversity, and resisting the opportunity – through appearing in the Natasha Bernard (ed.) terrorist threat we are prepared to endure to artificial mono-identities of religion or BBC’s popular program Who Do You Think retain freedoms of expression? nationality or race. Rag & Bone Man Press. HB. $30 You Are? – to learn more about the latter’s Following on mysterious death in Malaysia in 1951. On from the success the eve of the commencement of filming, Cultural Studies Travel Writing of their first Cumming’s brother Tom delivers collections, Soup Van information that forces Alan to reconnect and Recipes & Refuge, THE DAVID FOSTER COOL GRAY CITY OF with his estranged father; a man who has Melbourne-based left both sons with childhood memories of WALLACE READER LOVE publisher, The Rag & fear, violence and manipulation. David Foster Wallace Gary Kamiya Bone Man Press has Alan Cumming grew up on the east Hamish Hamilton. PB. $39.99 Bloomsbury. PB. $19.99 brought together coast of Scotland and has become a The David Foster At once a rambling another moving respected and popular actor on both the Wallace Reader is the walking tour, a history collection of real-life stories. This time the stage (Cabaret, Macbeth) and screen (Circle perfect introduction to and a celebration of focus is on mental health, guided by editor of Friends, The Good Wife). Although his this undeniably place itself, Cool Gray Natasha Bernard. career is interwoven into the story (there brilliant and original City of Love is a love Mental health is poorly understood by are a few humorous anecdotes concerning writer. Alongside song to San Francisco, most members of our community, despite the spitting habit of Patti Smith and the essays, novel extracts taking 49 different sites the fact that almost half the population is author’s obsession with the Eurovision and stories, there’s also around the city as likely to experience a mental health issue song contest) the book is ultimately, as a mixture of Wallace’s points of entry and at some point in their life. You would have indicated in the subtitle, a family memoir work as a professor of inspiration – from a to be a hermit not to know someone who which is told with great honesty and writing, including seedy intersection in the Tenderloin to the has been affected by a mental health issue insight. Cleverly structured, I would have reading lists, grammar guides and the unique soaring sea cliffs at Lands End. of one kind or another, either directly to agree with the growing number of general guidelines he wrote for his students. or through someone about whom they reviewers that liken this to a thriller – it is A dozen writers and critics, including Hari care. However, it’s entirely possible gripping, page-turning stuff. Kunzru, Anne Fadiman and Nam Le, have History that you wouldn’t know about these One of the most notable things about also added afterwords to favourite pieces. experiences because mental health is still this book is how you go through the often considered such an uncomfortable SWANSONG 1945 experiences with the author. Cumming DATACLYSM topic. Consequently, the importance of Walter Kempowski & Shaun is able to recall physical and emotional Christian Rudder honest, generous books like this cannot be Whiteside (trans.) circumstances with such clarity and detail HarperCollins. PB. $35 overstated. Through these insightful stories Granta. HB. $49.99 that you really do feel you are sitting In Dataclysm, of courage, kindness, and everyday life, Swansong 1945 brings alongside him as each revelation occurs. Christian Rudder the abstract and misunderstood become together hundreds of He is a charming and engaging personality draws on terabytes of relatable. letters, diary extracts who thoughtfully weaves together the data from Twitter, Elke Power is the editor of Readings Monthly and autobiographical past and present, alongside a number of Facebook, Reddit, accounts to chronicle personal photos, all contributing to the OkCupid, and many four pivotal days in sense that the author is sharing the story other sites, to examine Science 1945. These first-hand with you, rather than merely retelling it. At the terrain of human accounts, which times funny, at other times very sad, this experience. Walter Kempowski memoir is ultimately moving and inspiring. Philosophers, LIFE ON THE EDGE painstakingly collected Amanda Rayner is from Readings Carlton psychologists, gene Jim Al-Khalili & Johnjoe McFadden and shaped for publication over twenty years, hunters and neuroscientists have tried to Bantam. PB. $35 provide the raw material of history EPILOGUE explain our flaws and foibles but Rudder Life on the Edge alters unmediated by a historian’s narrative; shows that in today’s era of social media, a Will Boast our understanding of through their many experiences, the zero powerful new approach is possible. Dataclysm Granta. PB. $27.99 life’s dynamics. hour of war is viscerally recreated. This autobiography Bringing together is a portrait of our essential selves. could have easily, first-hand experience RETRONAUT and forgivably, been filled of science at the KNOWLEDGE IS BEAUTIFUL Chris Wild with indulgent analyses cutting edge with National Geographic. PB. $39.99 of grief, loss and growing unparalleled gifts of David McCandless Unexpected images up. It opens with Boast’s exposition and HarperCollins. HB. $39.99 selected by the curator father dying, quietly and explanation, Jim In this mind-blowing of the popular blog The in isolation. Having Al-Khalili and Johnjoe McFadden reveal follow-up to the Retronaut take readers already lost his mother the hitherto missing ingredient to be bestselling Information on a visual odyssey and only brother, quantum mechanics and the strange is Beautiful, the king of through an unfamiliar twenty-four-year-old Boast finds himself phenomena that lie at the heart of this infographics David past; a place where absolutely alone. This family tragedy takes most mysterious of sciences. Guiding the McCandless uses crocodiles take children Boast on an excruciating journey, but it also reader through the maze of rapidly spectacular visuals to on walks and Queen Victoria is caught leads him to discover a secret that his father unfolding discovery, Al-Khalili and reveal unexpected smiling. Strap on your goggles and prepare to had intended to keep: his father had another McFadden communicate vividly the insights into how the time travel to the past as you’ve never seen it: family before Will’s – a wife and two sons in excitement of this explosive new field of world really works. Featuring input and a space suit for dogs; Munchkins enjoying a England. And so the story begins. quantum biology, with its potentially contributions from a range of online cigarette break on the set of the Wizard of Oz. Boast’s struggle to identify himself revolutionary applications, and also offer collaborators, this volume will provide within the newly discovered parameters insights into the biggest puzzle of all: knowledge about our world in a way you’ve set by his late father is extraordinarily what is life? never seen before. moving. Memories need to be adjusted READINGS MONTHLY DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 19

Art & Design 2014 Foodie Trends

with Margaret Snowdon with Chris Gordon COSMIGRAPHICS I QUIT SUGAR FOR LIFE Michael Benson Sarah Wilson Abrams. HB. $60 Pan Mac. PB. $34.99 Cosmigraphics explores It now seems that there the visual side of our are many people who greatest imaginative want to be free of pesky achievement as a sugar for the rest of species. Using their lives. In I Quit previously hidden Sugar for Life, Sarah illustrations and maps, Wilson has designed a Michael Benson program complete with chronicles more than 1,000 years of 148 sugar-free recipes, to show families and humanity’s understanding of space. individuals how to banish sweet cravings. Wilson explains how to maximise nutrition COMMUNE by eating more vegetables and good fats, Various how to exercise less for better results, how Abrams. PB. $80 to detox safely, how to make sustainable food choices and, importantly, how to deal Commune perfectly his beautifully illustrated with lapses. captures the spirit of Tbook celebrates the horse in Australia past and present. From this respected design BACKYARD BEES studio’s new California Cobb & Co to Black Caviar, from the style and layered, Doug Purdie Walers of World War I to The Man personal interiors. Murdoch. HB. $35 from Snowy River, Nicolas Brasch This first monograph 2014 showed how just shows why we love horses - how they have contributed to many of features domestic and about anyone can keep the great human feats in Australian commercial interiors as well as specially bees. All you need is a history and how they have been commissioned works. bit of space in your captured so strikingly by our backyard (or on your photographers and artists. SURREAL THINGS rooftop) and a dash of Ghislaine Wood (ed.) love for these busy V&A. PB. $49.99 creatures. Then, once introduced to the From the sensuality of charms of beekeeping and the taste of Dali’s Mae West Lips warm honeycomb direct from the hive, I sofa to Schiaparelli’s have no doubt you’ll be hooked. Doug dramatic Tear dress, Purdie’s Backyard Bees is the ultimate guide Surrealism has www.newsouthpublishing.com to installing and maintaining a hive through produced some of the the seasons. Learn how easy it is to keep most extraordinary happy, healthy bees that will pollinate the objects ever created. Now available in veggie patches of your neighbourhood. paperback, this book examines the movement’s impact on wider fields, and its MATT’S KITCHEN relationship with the commercial world. GARDEN COOKBOOK GEEK-ART Matt Moran Thomas Olivri Lantern. HB. $49.99 Chronicle. PB. $55 For many of us, 2014 This lavish anthology was all about growing showcases the work of our own food and nearly 100 illustrators, sharing the joys with graphic designers, our nearest and photographers and dearest. Inspired by the artists. Their inspiration market garden at his is the legion of movie, Sydney restaurant cartoon, video game Chiswick, as well as time spent visiting and comic figures whose inspired energy producers all around Australia for his TV drives pop culture. series Paddock to Plate, Matt Moran has created a mouth-watering selection of LINA BO BARDI 100 recipes. The acclaimed chef’s trademark deft touch and winning flavour Various combinations are all here – everything from Hatje Cantz. HB. $110 seared kingfish with radish and wasabi, to Italio-Brazilian architect apricot and rosemary tarts. Lina Bo Bardi forged a unique path with her NORTH bold designs. Spanning Gunnar Karl Gíslason & Jody Eddy architecture, stage sets, Ten Speed Press. HB. $69.99 fashion and furniture, her work drew upon You’ve watched the and newly translated the television series and International Style. This richly illustrated you’ve read the books, volume presents an overview of her oeuvre. and now you can eat the food of Scandinavia ED EMBERLEY as well. Equal parts recipe book and Todd Oldham & Caleb Neelon culinary odyssey, North Ammo. HB. $69.95 is a celebration of the starkly beautiful This gorgeous book foods and landscapes of Iceland. celebrates Ed Emberley’s Minnesota-born food adventurer Jody talented and prolific life Eddy travelled throughout this utterly and career. Now in his unique country with Chef Gunnar Karl eighties, he has been Gíslason to get the stories and recipes of creating original, award-winning children’s Iceland’s changing culinary tradition. books (more than 100) since the 1960s. 20 READINGS MONTHLY DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015

vanish from people’s memory – very handy in his line of work) and Marrill, a plucky young girl stranded in a magical world and desperate to return home. Fin and Marrill make unusual allies, but their fates become inextricably linked as they battle to save the Book of the Month world from a terrifying prophecy. At 420 pages this colourful and intricate first instalment is a book for ONE YEAR IN COAL HARBOR serious readers of fantasy fiction who will stay the Polly Horvath distance with the outlandish, eccentric characters Random House. PB. $14.99 exploding off every page. An exciting new adventure series for children aged 9 and up. Primrose Squarp is back! The too-cute girl from Everything On a Waffle (no need Athina Clarke is from Readings Malvern to read first) is relieved to have her parents back after they were lost at sea. Now she is ready to tackle new problems in her beloved town of Coal Harbor. Graphic Novel First, she has to help her Uncle Jack marry Miss Bowzer, the owner of the local eatery. His plans to open a rival restaurant across from Miss Bowzer’s restaurant, ANDERS AND THE COMET The Girl on a Red Swing, are making this very hard! Then there are the loggers who Gregory Mackay have moved in to tear down all the trees on beautiful Mendolay Mountain. There A&U. PB. $12.99 is also the need to save Ked, her new best friend, who is being fostered by the Available 1 January people who looked after Primrose while her parents were missing. Phew! This charming book describes a However, none of this deters Primrose who sets about making everything school holiday filled with dear to her right. Not only is this book ridiculously funny and slightly excitement as Anders and his friends eccentric, it’s thoughtful, poignant and beautifully written. Polly spend their days hanging out, building Horvath is my favourite middle-fiction author of all time! forts and having unexpected For ages 9 and up. encounters with the ‘green grabber’ in the nearby woods. The story cleverly includes fun details about space and Katherine Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn flying, and even ends with a daring rescue powered by a delightful glowing bug! It’s a sweet, funny and frequently peculiar graphic novel that champions friendship, creativity and imagination. It will be adored by kids aged 8 and up – perfect for comic fans or reluctant readers. Picture Books Kim Gruschow is from Readings Hawthorn A TALE OF TWO BEASTS Fiona Roberton Activity Hachette. HB. $24.99 New As the wise Mark Twain said: I COULD WEAR THAT HAT! ‘There are two sides to every Ben Sanders story and then there is the truth.’ A T&H. PB. $19.95 funny little creature is rescued by an This book is full of fun activities to enthusiastic girl who names him Fang, Kids’ help kids imagine what they might takes him home, cares for him, clothes like to be when they grow up. Each him and introduces him to her friends. job needs a very special hat, so try She makes quite the life for him and them all on! Which hat will fit best? then he runs away. Next, Fang tells his side of the events and Invent a hat of your own! There are his perspective is a little less flattering and quite indignant. activities for aspiring astronauts, However, on reflection, maybe the little girl wasn’t so bad Books veterinarians, architects, fashion after all. Children 3 and up will enjoy this fun story and will designers, chefs, lifesavers and more. see that most stories have more than one point of view. Middle Fiction Alexa Dretzke is from Readings Hawthorn EREN GOODNIGHT ALREADY! Simon P. Clark Classic of the Month Constable & Robinson. HB. $19.99 Jory John & Benji Davies LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI HarperCollins. HB. $24.99 This is a compelling story about the origins of storytelling itself. Melina Marchetta This is a tale that parents in Oli and his mother go to the country to Penguin. HB. $19.99 particular will identify with. stay with his aunt and uncle, who he’s Growing up is hard. In A very tired bear settles down for never met before. His mother explains Looking for Alibrandi, some serious sleeping but a pesky nothing but bursts into tears regularly. 17-year-old Josephine Alibrandi duck neighbour is very much awake The absence of Oli’s father is not to be struggles to accept her culture, and desirous of company. This is not a spoken of. Then Oli finds his very own abandonment by her father and her great combination, we know. Duck secret hiding in the attic – Eren. He’s social displacement at a wealthy attempts to engage bear in all manner not really sure what Eren is, but Oli keeps hearing his voice girls’ high school. In her final year of untimely pursuits and only succeeds in irritating him and his demands for stories. Their relationship deepens until she begins to accept herself for who further. It does sound familiar, doesn’t it? Bear loses his Oli is forced to make a choice that will change everything. she is. In letting go of rigid cool, duck retreats to home – finally weary – and guess who Eren has echoes of A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness or Skellig expectations, Josie learns that the best things in life can is now wide awake? Simple in the telling, fun in the by David Almond. It’s dark, poetic and feels as ancient as come from the most unlikely places. She deals with loss, depiction and hopefully sleep inducing for those 2 and up. first love and the realisation of the sacrifices her mother AD stories themselves. It’s for readers 10 and up who are interested in storytelling and not afraid of monsters. has made to give her a better life. Josie’s stubborn, BEARS DON’T READ! Angela Crocombe is from Readings Carlton outspoken nature gets her into trouble, but she begins to manage it in her search to do the right thing. Looking for Emma Chichester Clark THE MAP TO EVERYWHERE Alibrandi is a coming-of-age novel that deals with HarperCollins. HB. $24.99 Carrie Ryan & John Parke Davis difficulties of racial difference and what it means to be a More than anything, George wants Hachette. HB. $24.99 teenage girl. It reminded me of the power of a supportive to learn to read. But he soon family and how family can provide young people with the Carrie Ryan is the New York discovers that it’s not easy to be a opportunity to grow into strong and independent Times bestselling author of the bear at school! If only he could find individuals. I am only a few years past Josie’s age, but critically acclaimed Forest of Hands someone to teach him the alphabet truly wish I had read this book before I graduated. and Teeth trilogy. In collaboration and change his life forever ... Perhaps the best lesson to take away from this book is that Perhaps a little girl called with John Parke Davis, The Map to we should not focus on the terms that define us, but on Clementine can help? Bears Don’t Everywhere is their first title in the who we feel we are. For ages 14 and up. Read! is a feel-good story of epic new saga of Fin, the Master Thief Savannah Indigo is from Readings Malvern determination and friendship – from Khaznot Key (imagine Dicken’s sure to encourage a lifelong love of books. Artful Dodger with the power to READINGS MONTHLY DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 21

New Film & TV MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT DVD of the Month with Lou Fulco $39.95 Available 17 December CHARLIE’S COUNTRY LOCKE A romantic comedy about $39.95 $29.95 Stanley (Colin Firth), an Charlie (David Gulpilil) lives in a small community in Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) Englishman brought in to Arnhem Land. A sequence of events, funny yet sadly has worked diligently to help unmask a swindling moving, drive him to eschew the community and go bush. But craft the life he envisioned, spiritualist (Emma Stone). even he can’t survive in the bush anymore and he falls ill with dedicating himself to his Personal and professional pneumonia. Airlifted to Darwin hospital, he walks out before job and family, both of complications ensue as he’s fully recovered. It’s the time of the intervention and which he loves. On the eve the more time he spends with her the Charlie, who has money in his account, is vulnerable when he of the biggest challenge of more he comes to realise she may just be joins the people living and drinking in the long grass on Darwin’s fringe. his career, Ivan receives a phone call that the real deal. And it doesn’t help that he sets in motion a series of events that will may just be falling in love with her. unravel his family, job, and soul. All taking ‘This is the devastating story of a man who is no longer at home in his place over the course of one riveting car THE LEGACY country, and it is partly based on Gulpilil’s own experience.’ ride, Locke shows that one decision can $59.95 have disastrous consequences. Available 3 December This is the devastating story of a man who is no longer at home in his THE REAL HISTORY OF A brand new drama from country, and it is partly based on Gulpilil’s own experience. It is superbly shot the creators of Borgen and and the scenes in the bush are starkly beautiful. Yet it is Gulpilil’s presence in SCIENCE FICTION The Killing. This series is the film that really elevates it; he has a remarkable, quiet dignity and his craggy, $19.95 a modern family portrait expressive face and lithe body fill the screen. This is director Rolf de Heer’s third Some of science fiction’s and a vivid perspective on collaboration with Gulpilil and here the focus is on contemporary Australia, as greatest creative pioneers a generation and what opposed to the more historical themes in Tracker and Ten Canoes. The film is not tell the story of sci-fi in this they leave to their without its flaws – I felt that the European characters were too one dimensional, stunning series spanning children. The liberal artists of the 1968 for example – however, on the whole, it is a remarkable and powerful film that all its forms from time generation have amassed a small fortune is both entreating and disturbing. It’s no surprise that it has met with acclaim travel to artificial in assets. In 2014, the world has changed or that Gulpilil received the best actor award for his performance at this year’s intelligence and space significantly, and the transition between Cannes Festival. exploration to alien encounters. Featuring generations is wholly different. Mark Rubbo is Readings’ Managing Director filmmakers, writers, actors, and graphic artists whose obsession and imagination GRACEPOINT: SEASON 1 has taken them into the unknown and $39.95 whose creations have captivated audiences Available 10 December around the globe, this series explores the THE KEEPER OF LOST GIRLS: SEASON 3 When a young boy is future, the past, parallel universes and CAUSES $39.95 found dead on an idyllic galaxies far, far away. Available 10 December beach, a major police $29.95 investigation gets Available 3 December The third season of the cult HEALING underway in the small In the latest crime series created by and $34.95 California seaside town sensation from Denmark, starring Lena Dunham Available 3 December where the tragedy tough chief detective Carl delivers all the drama and After 18 years in prison, occurred. Soon deemed a homicide, the Morck heads up the newly comedy you’ve come to Viktor Khadem is a man case sparks a media frenzy, which established Department Q, expect. Hannah is still living who has almost given up throws the boy’s family into further a place where cold cases go with Adam, but for how on life. Near the end of his turmoil and upends the lives of all of the to die. Under explicit long? His Broadway debut and visiting sister sentence he is sent to Won town’s residents. Gracepoint is an orders only to read and sort through cases, are complicating matters. Meanwhile, things Wron, a low-security expansion of the original series, just a single day passes before Carl throws are anything but dull with Hannah’s friends. prison farm 200km outside Broadchurch, introducing new himself into investigating the mysterious Another great instalment. Melbourne, where senior characters, new suspects and threading case of a female politician who vanished case worker Matt Perry has established a new storylines through the gripping five years earlier. Carl and his new unique program to rehabilitate broken men original narrative. assistant, Assad, follow the clues and through giving them the responsibility for discover a crime of unimaginable horror. the rehabilitation of injured raptors.

A pulse-pounding thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly ‘Gyllenhaal's performance is so dedicated, of contemporary and Gilroy's world so determinedly realised Los Angeles. that it forces its way to originality’ The Observer ‘A fantastic, sleek and fun satire’ Film.com

November 27 Melbourne’s home of quality arthouse and contemporary cinema 380 Lygon Street Carlton Melbourne’s home of quality arthouse and contemporary cinema cinemanova.com.au 22 READINGS MONTHLY DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015

New Music THE MERRI SOUL and talented musicians. Combining intimate, SESSIONS complex narratives with haunting vocals to create unique contemporary roots music, Paul Kelly her voice and stories capture the full $21.95 Pop spectrum of human emotions. Available 12 December Following his HELLO LIKE BEFORE ROCK OR BUST groundbreaking song cycles, Shirley Bassey AC/DC Spring and Fall and $19.95 Was $26.95 Conversations with Ghosts, $21.95 Paul Kelly assembled his One of the most indelible touring band and an exciting group of voices in British music, Dame Shirley Bassey Australian hard rock band singers to record a set of new songs, as well returns with Hello Like AC/DC truly are musical as one old classic. All tracks were performed Before, her first album in royalty and Rock or Bust live in the studio and contributing artists five years and her most marks their first original include Clairy Browne, Vika and Linda Bull, personal one to date. Recorded at the recordings since 2008’s Dan Sultan and Kira Puru. The result is The legendary Abbey Road studios with Black Ice. This highly- Merri Soul Sessions – a glorious swag of producer and musical director Stuart Barr, anticipated release is also their first album soul-inspired songs. this stellar release brings together a without founding member and rhythm collection of some of the greatest songs of guitarist Malcolm Young, who left the band PLANES, TRAINS AND the 20th Century. These are all songs that in 2014 after being diagnosed with ERIC (DVD) Bassey has longed to record for years dementia. The album was recorded at Eric Clapton including Frank Sinatra’s ‘It Was a Very Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, Canada $19.95 Good Year’; Jimmy Webb’s ‘MacArthur with producer Brendan O’Brien and mixer Eric Clapton is one of the Park’; and ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Mike Fraser. most revered and Friend’, which is performed as a powerful influential guitarists of all duet with Paloma Faith. AVONMORE time. Planes, Trains and Bryan Ferry Eric follows him and his LOVE HAS MANY FACES: Was $26.95 band on the Far- and A QUARTET, A BALLET, $21.95 Middle-Eastern leg of his WAITING TO BE DANCED After his delightfully 2014 World Tour. The film features 13 Joni Mitchell beguiling detour into the performances, intercut with interviews Deluxe 4CDs with hardback book. $99.95 Jazz Age – during which he from Clapton and the band members, made a significant rehearsal and sound-check footage, travel Canadian singer, songwriter contribution to the by trains and planes, presentations and and painter Joni Mitchell has soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s The Great fly-on-the-wall filming. penned countless love songs Gatsby film adaptation – Bryan Ferry returns during her career and her to the present day. Avonmore is a collection ALPHA MIKE FOXTROT: latest project, Love Has Many of eight new compositions and two RARE TRACKS 1994–2014 Faces: A Quartet, a Ballet, Waiting to Be Danced, pays intriguing covers, including Ferry’s Wilco tribute to this passionate cinematic interpretation of Sondheim’s 4CDs. $49.95 ‘Send in the Clowns’. Johnny Marr, Nile outpouring, presenting a selection of This astonishing box set of Rodgers and Marcus Miller all feature Mitchell’s most romantic works from across rare studio and live throughout Avonmore, along with a shifting nearly 50 years. Each song is newly recordings collected from cast that includes Flea, Ronnie Spector, remastered for this release and the four-disc the band’s extensive audio Mark Knopfler and Maceo Parker. collection also comes with a beautiful archives is a must-have for hardback book containing 53 lyrical poems BROKEN BONES any Wilco fan. The set (one for each song), six new paintings from includes an 80-page booklet, featuring Mitchell herself and extensive liner notes. Guy Pearce extensive liner notes and track by track $24.95 recollections, as well as dozens of archival FAMILY Guy Pearce’s debut album and never seen before photographs. Both Thompson is a compelling collection this release and the following box set, Standard $24.95. Deluxe $34.95 of original tracks, all What’s Your 20? Essential Tracks 1994–2014, written and produced by are produced by Grammy-nominated Teddy Thompson, together Pearce himself. The album producer Cheryl Pawelski. with parents Richard and includes the single, ‘Storm’, which Tone Deaf Linda, brother Jack, sister said revealed ‘a suave, smokey set of pipes WHAT’S YOUR 20? Kami, brother-in-law that sound like a deeper, more matured Jeff ESSENTIAL TRACKS James Walbourne and nephew Zak Hobbs – together they are Buckley before soaring upward through his 1994–2014 registry to an (almost) Thom Yorke falsetto collectively dubbed Thompson – present a coo’. Other early reviews of the album have Wilco collaborative album of all new original songs also been overwhelmingly positive, with 2CD. Was $34.95 entitled Family. The songs share an aesthetic critics and fans eager to hear more from this $29.95 and emotional texture and the deluxe intriguing artist. As with the previous box edition (CD+DVD) features the beautifully set, Alpha Mike Foxtrot: rendered short film, Thompson: The Making LIVE IN DUBLIN Rare Tracks 1994–2014, of Family, which offers a rare glimpse into Leonard Cohen this release brings the recording process. 3CDs. Was $29.95 together a compilation of $24.95 essential tracks, and is released in conjunction with the influential Live in Dublin documents a Chicago band’s twentieth anniversary. This peak performance from box set gathers songs from their eight the musician’s studio albums as well as two tracks from monumental sold-out the Woody Guthrie-themed Mermaid 2012–2013 world tour and Sessions album, which was recorded with is the first and only release Billy Bragg. of a complete Leonard Cohen concert to be shot in high definition. An immersive LIVE AT THE YARRA Don't forget viewing and listening experience, Live in Dublin features three hours of music and Liz Stringer about our magic from an undeniably talented artist. $29.95 growing vinyl The release is available as a 3CD set (at the With a reputation for special price of $24.95), a DVD (at the utterly captivating live collections at special price of $19.95) and a combined set shows and a string of all Readings (at the special price of $49.95). albums already behind her, Liz Stringer has established shops. herself as one of Melbourne’s most exciting

November_ReadingsAd.indd 2 12/11/14 4:32 PM READINGS MONTHLY DECEMBER 2014 - JANUARY 2015 23

New Classical Music programme of chamber music that spans iconic baroque works: J.S. Bach’s Orchestral three centuries. Despite the group’s name, Suites. Each Suite begins with an Overture, a only three of its members are in fact French. tradition dating back to the ballet suites of Together, the five musicians offer playing 17th-century French opera; but then they that, in the words of International Record each follow their own pattern, creating a Classical Album of the Month Review, is ‘practically unbeatable’. This new unique spectrum of traditional dance forms 3CD collection offers a programme that spans and modern gallantry movements. Performed DANCING SHADOWS: THE MUSIC OF Classicism, Romanticism and Modernism, with single strings and at a low, ‘French’ MIRIAM HYDE FOR FLUTE & PIANO and France, Austro-Germany and Russia. pitch, this recording offers a unique, Bridget Bolliger & Andrew West chamber-like interpretation of Bach’s Cala. CACD77019. $24.95 FRENCH VIOLIN virtuosic Suites. This is a recording that will be revisited time and time again. If you haven’t heard of Miriam Hyde, you're missing a SONATAS big chunk of Australian musical history. One of the most Tasmin Little & Martin Roscoe Chandos. CHAN10812. $29.95 MESSAGES: CHAMBER successful Australian female composers of the 20th Century, she premiered with WORKS FOR STRINGS the London Symphony Orchestra at the ripe old age of 21, featuring as soloist in In this new album, her own Piano Concerto No. 1. violinist Tasmin Little and Brodsky Quartet Although she has produced a large body of work over her almost 92 years, her pianist Martin Roscoe Chandos. CHAN10839. $29.95 music is often relegated to the AMEB exam books for children or left to languish immerse themselves in the The Brodsky Quartet in the libraries. With this stunning new album, Australian–Swiss flautist Bridget music of three of the best celebrate the centenary of Bolliger is working hard to change people’s perceptions and bring Hyde’s music late-19th-century French Polish–British composer back into the limelight. From the very first notes you will be blown away, both composers: Gabriel Fauré, Guillaume Lekeu, Andrzej Panufnik with a by Bolliger’s glorious sound and West’s expert handling of the accompaniment. and Maurice Ravel. Among the works they new recoding of a However, what makes this album shine are the alternatively sweet, stormy and explore are Gabriel Fauré’s Sonata in A collection of pieces by overall delightful notes of Miriam Hyde’s composition. Major, often regarded as an early Andrzej and his daughter Roxanna Panufnik. I’ve had this recording on repeat for a week now and I’m still finding more to masterpiece. Guillaume Lekeu, in his Included among these are two string sextets. discover with each listening. On the surface, the music seems simple with clear 24-year life, wrote some 50 pieces of In the first, ‘Modlitwa’, both father and melodic lines and understated harmonic ideas. But with each return to the works ‘tremulous emotion’, of which the Violin daughter have composed sections, Roxanna I find there’s a hitch in the melody that makes it interesting, an odd seventh Sonata is by far the best known. The opening Panufnik having contributed to what was chord that defies the harmonic progression. You can really hear Hyde’s melding movement of an unfinished early violin originally a vocal work. The second is of the worlds of Romanticism, Impressionism and a good dollop of Modernism sonata by Ravel was not published until Andrzej Panufnik’s ‘Song to the Virgin in a way that is unique and impressive. Bolliger’s clear musical intentions have 1975, yet convincingly unites different styles. Mary’, which also began life in a vocal made Hyde’s music come alive for me in a way I’ve never heard before. I haven’t setting and was dedicated to his wife, even had a chance to get to the reading of Hyde’s poetry at the end of the CD, but TCHAIKOVSKY: Camilla. Andrzej Panufnik’s three string I’m very much looking forward to it. This album was a surprise and an absolute SERENADE & BARTÓK: quartets showcase his innovative and delight to discover. DIVERTIMENTO expressive musical language. Separating these quartets are the two movements of Kate Rockstrom is a friend of Readings Roman Simovic & LSO String Ensemble ‘Memories of My Father’, representing a highly personal reflection from Roxanna LSO Live. LSO0752. $29.95 The music of Boccherini and Cirri, both Panufnik on the life and music of her father. LUIGI BOCCHERINI & The LSO’s magnificent 18th-century Italian composers and cello GIOVANNI BATTISTA string sound is world virtuosi, bears the hallmarks of stile galante, KARAJAN 1980S: CIRRI: CELLO SONATAS renowned and this including song-like melodies and simple recording marks the LSO THE COMPLETE DG Catherine Jones harmonic vocabulary. Many will be familiar Live debut of the LSO RECORDINGS DHM. 88875013182. $21.95 with Boccherini’s larger cello works, such as String Ensemble, led by Roman Simovic. Herbert von Karajan Until recently I’d the Concerto in B Flat Major, and his sonatas Simovic directs a performance of DG. 4793448. 78CDs. $299.95 heard of neither on this recording are similar in their classical Tchaikovsky’s much loved ‘Serenade for Between 1980 and his Australian cellist Catherine beauty and sprightliness. The previously Strings’. The Serenade has proved to be one death in 1989, Herbert von Jones nor the composer unrecorded Cirri sonatas complement of Tchaikovsky’s most enduringly popular Karajan recorded an Giovanni Battista Cirri. the Boccherini with their simplicity and works, a piece he is described as being incredible 78 CDs worth of Jones’s recording of the Boccherini and Cirri elegance. This CD is a treasure and will ‘passionately in love with’. Also featured on orchestral and choral cello sonatas is, therefore, brimming with appeal to lovers of cello music. this release is Bartók’s ‘Divertimento’, a music for DGG. In the final decade of his treats and surprises for this happy listener. Alexandra Mathew is from Readings Carlton highly original work in its own idiom, one of creative life, Karajan once again revisited Jones was born in Western Australia the composer’s last works before his exile some of the keystones of his repertoire, such and studied at postgraduate level at the WINDS & PIANO from Europe to the US. as the Beethoven and Brahms symphonies, Royal Conservatorium in the Netherlands Les Vents Français but also made quintessential recordings of where she was among the top students. Warner Classics. 2564623185. 3CDs. $29.95 J.S. BACH: ORCHESTRAL major works he had never touched before. She now enjoys an international career Among the highpoints of Karajan’s late years as a soloist and chamber and orchestral Les Vents Français have SUITES is the major part of his collaboration with musician, and regularly performs with been described as ‘the Richard Egarr & The Academy of Anne-Sophie Mutter, the ‘wunderkind’ world-renowned baroque ensembles. wind-quintet equivalent of Ancient Music Karajan discovered in the late 1970s and Jones’s recording, accompanied by a supergroup’. The ABC Classics. 4811318. 2CDs. $24.95 mentored throughout the 1980s. These are harpsichord, demonstrates a fine ensemble’s five members – The Academy of Ancient almost complete recordings of Richard technique and warm timbre. Vibrato Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Music – ‘the finest period- Strauss’s great symphonic poems, radically is used sparingly, if at all, and her Meyer, Francois Leleux, Gilbert Audin and instrument orchestra in the re-thought and played like you have never thoughtful reading of the music oscillates Radovan Vlatkovi, all world-renowned world’ according to Classic heard them before. Pure musical magic, as between intimate and energetic, always soloists in their own right – are joined by FM UK – presents a powerful as it was 25 years ago! with finesse. pianist Eric Le Sage for a fascinating 3CD stunning new recording of one of the most

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