131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:31 AM Page 2

WIN GREAT PRIZES GUARANTEE You can win a library of books worth more If, on inspection, you’re not happy with a than $5000 or a $100 gift voucher by book selected through this guide, you can selected by Australia’s best booksellers correctly answering the questions scattered return it (in saleable condition) within 14 days throughout this guide – see the back cover of purchase and we’ll exchange it for another for details. book of equivalent value or for a book voucher – the choice is yours. ART, DESIGN AND PHOTOGRAPHY 12–13 GIFT 21 CAN’T DECIDE? BIOGRAPHY 9–12 HISTORY 14–15 If you’re not 100% sure about what book will FREE ORDER SERVICE suit, why not give one of our gift vouchers? CDS – CLASSICAL 26 HUMOUR 20 Our special order service is free, fast and efficient – if we don’t have it, we’ll CDS – POP AND JAZZ 24–25 KIDS 22–23 DELIVERY SERVICE get it for you! CRIME AND THRILLERS 6–7 LANGUAGE, POETRY AND ESSAYS 7–8 Your books can be delivered anywhere in DVDS 27 ORDER FORM BACK COVER Australia for a small charge. See the back STOP PRESS! FICTION 2–6 POLITICS AND SOCIETY 15 cover for details. Express and overseas rates All details were correct at the time of FOOD AND TRAVEL 16–18 SCIENCE AND NATURE 19 are available on request. printing, and we will make every effort to maintain advertised prices. However, FREE GIFTWRAP prices of imported items may change We’ll giftwrap all books on request when you without notice due to the recent volatility organise delivery through us! of the Australian dollar. fiction A LION AMONG MEN A WHISPERED NAME COOEE Gregory Maguire William Brodrick Vivienne Kelly William Morrow Little, Brown. PB. $33. Scribe. PB. $32.95. Harper. PB. $33. This absolutely wonderful novel is written by Cooee is a dysfunctional family drama The third volume of Gregory Maguire’s William Brodrick, a former Augustinian friar who with a difference. Thoroughly unreliable remarkably successful ‘Wicked’ series, A gave up his vocation to train and work as a narrator Isabel reluctantly reflects on her Lion Among Men takes us back to Oz, barrister before turning to writing. Brodrick’s life so far, at the episodic urging of the where Brr the Cowardly Lion has three books to date all feature the character of Father Anselm, a monk one family member she can’t bear to accepted a plea bargain in order to avoid living in a religious community called Larkwood Priory. Anselm is often disappoint: her clever granddaughter jail. In return, he has been forced to work asked by the Prior to research incidents in the past that have impacted Sophie. She remembers her pedestrian as a spy for the emperor of Oz. While on the work of the priory or the lives of its members. In A Whispered marriage to Steve, father of her two questioning an aged oracle about matters concerning the late Wicked Name, Anselm relives the horror and futility of Passchendaele in 1917, children – and its controversial end, when she left him for Witch of the West, the lion tells his own sorry story and in doing so is investigating the court-martial for desertion of a young Irish soldier, charismatic client Max, her adored second husband. Meanwhile, she forced to face his questionable past. Set against a background of Joseph Flanagan, and the involvement of Father Herbert, a recently navigates her irritated indifference to her placid daughter Kate impending civil war between the Munchkinland guerrillas and the deceased Larkwood resident. Flanagan’s story is recounted in elegant (Sophie’s mother) and meek grandson, Liam, and her unrequited emperor of Oz’s Emerald City soldiers, Maguire weaves a mythic tale prose and with a depth of emotional engagement, historical accuracy passion for her ever-estranged son Dominic. Beneath Cooee’s spiky, of self-discovery filled with teasing subplots and colourful characters, and philosophical questioning reminiscent of Sebastian Faulks’ wry, coolly analytic tone, as embodied by Isabel, lies a deep affection told with his trademark razor-sharp wit. masterpiece, Birdsong (Vintage. PB $24.95). for its characters, and a compassionate, conflicted heart. This darkly imaginative novel succeeds magnificently in fully inhabiting the THE BELIEVERS broken family at its core. A MERCY Zoë Heller Toni Morrison Fig Tree. PB. $32.95. DECEPTION Chatto & Windus. HB. Michael Meehan Was $39.95, now $34.95. The sharp eye for detail and facility for satire that characterised Zoë Heller’s first novel, Allen & Unwin. PB. $32.95. Toni Morrison revisits the scene of Everything You Know, is once again on show in Intensely introspective in tone, this earthy American slavery for the first time since this, her highly anticipated third novel. While very historical novel moves between the her best known work, Beloved (Vintage. different from her previous work, Notes on a Australian bush and New Caledonia in PB. $24.95), this time focusing on the Scandal (which Richard Eyres made into a highly successful film the 1870s, to 1968 Paris and its student trade in its infancy. She explores the starring Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett in 2006), The Believers once riots. Narrator Nicholas follows the trail of foundations of American slavery and of again showcases Heller’s acute observation of flawed human nature his shadowy family history from dusty America itself – a New World composed of and presents a cast of compellingly misanthropic characters. Chief rural South Australia, where his French misfits seeking a new life. Race is a central ingredient, of course, but among these is Audrey, the abrasive wife of radical lawyer Joel grandmother Agnes was left behind by it’s only one in a heady mix of religious and class distinctions that Litvinoff. When Joel has a stroke and Audrey finds out that he has a her fleeing family, to France and the aging remnants of those who left. underpin a hierarchy of power. The historical setting and its issues child by another woman, her smug, impeccably leftist life is Agnes’s sisters welcome Nicholas, but evasively skirt the truth about are subtly sketched, but the emphasis is on the characters: young challenged and her own children – unhappy but worthy Karla, brilliant why they left Australia and why Agnes stayed. Meanwhile, Nicholas is slave Florens and her mother, who abandons her in order to save her; but unpredictable Rosa and drug-addicted Lenny – suffer the fall-out. bent on unlocking the mysteries of something else left behind on the compassionate white farmer Jacob; his wife Rebekka, a victim of Set in New York, where the British-born Heller now lives, this is an family property – the manuscript of writer Sebastian Jouvenal. religious persecution; and Native American Lina, whose tribe was addictively acerbic read. Michael Meehan’s third novel is quietly accomplished, intricately decimated by smallpox. Another masterpiece. evoking a shifting cycle of disparate settings and times, while keeping its steady focus on the family mystery at its core. THE ANNOTATED PRIDE AND PREJUDICE THE ELEGANCE Jane Austen & OF THE HEDGEHOG David M Shapard (ed.) BUY 2 AUDIOBOOKS Buy any two of these Muriel Barbery Scribe. PB. $35. unabridged Australian Gallic Books. PB. $19.95. AND GET 1 FREE! classics on audiobook and It is a truth universally acknowledged BREATH you can choose a third title Renée is the concierge of a grand Parisian that diehard Austen fans can never read Tim Winton (read by Dan Wylie) free! From the Miles apartment building. Over the years she has Pride and Prejudice too many times – Bolinda. 5-disc set. $39.95. Franklin–winning Carpentaria maintained a carefully constructed persona and this first-ever fully annotated CARPENTARIA to the newly published The as someone reliable but totally edition of one of the most beloved Alexis Wright (read by Isaac Drandich) Lieutenant, these Bolinda uncultivated. But beneath this façade lies Bolinda. 16-disc set. $49.95. novels in the world will reinforce that titles are perfect for those the real Renée: passionate about culture fact. The complete text of Austen’s most famous work is reproduced THE LIEUTENANT who like to listen to books as and the arts, and more knowledgeable in many ways than her Kate Grenville (read by Nicholas Bell) here with over 2000 annotations on facing pages, including employers with their outwardly successful but emotionally void lives. Bolinda. 6-disc set. $49.95. well as read them. Stock up explanations of the historical context and citations from the author’s for summer road trips, or for Meanwhile, several floors up, 12-year-old Paloma Josse is determined life, letters and other writings. There are definitions and clarifications PEOPLE OF THE BOOK Geraldine Brooks (read by Edwina Wren) listening while cooking to avoid the pampered and vacuous future laid out for her, and decides of archaic words and obscure passages, as well as literary comments Bolinda. 12-disc set. $49.95. Christmas feasts for the to end her life on her 13th birthday. Then the sudden death of one of and analyses. Maps and illustrations of places and objects mentioned THE SPARE ROOM family. Note that the title with their privileged neighbours dramatically alters their lives forever. By in the novel are also included, along with an introduction, bibliography Helen Garner (read by Heather Bolton) the lowest RRP will be the turns moving and hilarious, this unusual novel became the top-selling and detailed chronology of events. Bolinda. 4-disc set. $24.95. one given free. book in France in 2007, with sales of over one million copies. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:31 AM Page 3 fiction 3 EVERYTHING I KNEW GOLDENGROVE GUERNICA Peter Goldsworthy Francine Prose Dave Boling Hamish Hamilton. PB. $32.95. HarperCollins. PB. $28. Picador. PB. $33. This bittersweet coming-of-age tale Francine Prose has been a ‘name’ in Dave Boling’s debut novel promises to be effortlessly transports the reader to small- American literature for decades, but has one of this summer’s most compelling town South Australia in the 1960s. Robert only recently crept onto the local radar reads. In the tradition of classic historical Burns is the policeman’s son – and a courtesy of her much-lauded book on fiction (Love in the Time of Cholera), mischief-maker, despite (or perhaps creative writing, Reading Like a Writer Boling’s ambitious offering is brought sparked by) his intelligence. His much- (HarperCollins. PB. $25). This lyrical, alive by brilliant characterisation and vivid anticipated first year of high school marks atmospheric novel is knowingly infused writing. Spanning several decades and a new awkwardness with his Aboriginal best friend Billy. Not only are with all the heightened emotions and generations, his characters inexorably they separated into streams, but each reacts passionately to the confused perceptions of adolescence – magnified by intense grief. In its converge towards the day in April 1937 when the tiny Basque village arrival of improbably named new teacher Miss Peach, a sophisticated opening pages, calculatedly glamorous teenager Margaret drowns in of Guernica was fire-bombed by the Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil Audrey Hepburn look-alike who, with her Vespa and love of beatnik the family lake, leaving behind an adoring sister, Nico; two devastated War. Boling blurs the lines between fact and fiction, with historical culture, casts a spell over Penola – and Robert. As Billy takes against parents; and an Adonis-like boyfriend, Aaron, who her parents figures including Pablo Picasso making an appearance, but it is his her for his own reasons, the differences between the lifelong friends mistrusted. While Nico’s father and mother respectively retreat into domestic narrative that’s most successful, producing an increasing grow from a fracture to a chasm. With sparkling, complex characters novel-writing and prescription drugs, Nico – who looks more like her sense of identification with the innocent victims of war. Like Picasso’s and a densely evocative atmosphere, this is a virtuoso performance sister every day – forms a secret alliance with Aaron. With self- work of the same name, Guernica strives to ensure that wartime from one of Australia’s leading writers. conscious echoes of Hitchcock’s Vertigo, this exquisite, subtly disturbing atrocities involving the slaughter of civilians remain in our memory. novel transcends its coming-of-age genre to enchant the reader. FAMILIES: MODERN HERDING KITES: AUSTRALIAN SHORT STORIES THE GOOD MAYOR A CELEBRATION OF Barry Oakley (ed.) Andrew Nicoll AUSTRALIAN WRITING Five Mile Press. PB. $24.95. Fourth Estate. PB. $28. Michael Williams (ed.) In the imaginary Baltic town of Dot, on Affirm Press. PB. $27.95. Some of Australia’s best-loved writers are the river Ampersand near the town of represented in this collection of short The annual National Young Writers Festival Umlaut, the good lord mayor Tibo Krovic stories centring around one of the most has spawned a wealth of new and gazes longingly at his secretary, the popular and enduring literary themes: exciting literary talent for a decade. unhappily married Agathe Stopak. So family. There is a lively variety of style and Herding Kites brings together 75 begins first-time Scottish novelist approach among these offerings, which are contributions highlighting the diversity of Andrew Nicoll’s kaleidoscopic swirl loosely divided into broad umbrella topics work generated by the festival. There are of magic-realism, The Good Mayor. such as parenting, siblings, bonding and battling. Laurie Clancy’s short stories, poetry, plays, scripts, memoirs and comics, with In the tradition of all good fables, this engaging novel about yearning surprisingly moving ‘Loyalties’ subtly subverts a stereotype about seasoned writers rubbing shoulders with fresh faces and young up- and friendship is ‘much more about the telling than the things that separated fathers. Lily Brett brings her customary sharp-eyed wit to and-comers to give us a glimpse of what the future of the Australian happen in it’. Told from the perspective of the town’s patron saint, the bear in ‘A Family Portrait’. Brian Matthews evokes the crowded St literary landscape might look like. Compiled by Michael Williams, this bearded virgin martyr Walpurthia, it’s a truly fabulous tale that Kilda multi-family house of his late 1940s childhood and the move to anthology is a joint initiative of the NYWF and Affirm Press, a new embraces the beautiful and the absurd, capturing the backwards and a place of their own in ‘Not One of Your Prime Sites’. And writers such publishing company launched in 2007 with a focus on emerging forwards dance of love – but with a very unexpected twist – and as Janette Turner Hospital, Tim Winton, Cate Kennedy and Gerald writers and the diversity of Australian writing. brilliantly evoking the aromas, misunderstandings and minutiae of Murnane all explore the topic in their distinctive ways. daily life. Magical summer reading. HOME THE GIVEN DAY Marilynne Robinson GOOD TO BE GOD Dennis Lehane Virago. HB. Tibor Fischer Doubleday. PB. $32.95. Was $45, now $39.95. Alma Books. PB. $30. Like John Le Carré and Richard Price, Following on from her Pulitzer Dennis Lehane’s novels completely When Tynedale Corbett loses his job and Prize–winning Gilead (Virago. PB. $25), transcend their genre. This epic, sprawling his marriage falls to pieces, the failed light- Marilynne Robinson returns to the same novel takes place against the backdrop of bulb salesman comes up with a sneaky time and place in her new novel, Home. the 1919 Boston police strike, and features plan to swap identities with his Taking the form of a letter written by an impressive cast of real-life historical businessman buddy, taking the reins on an small-town Iowa preacher John Ames to characters, from Babe Ruth (who starts an all-expenses-paid business trip to Miami. his son, Gilead introduced the character impulsive baseball game with black and white bystanders in the So begins Good to be God, Tibor Fischer’s Jack Broughton, the not-so-holy son of Ames’ closest friend, the novel’s prologue) to a young J Edgar Hoover. At its heart, though, are whacked-out tale of a middle-aged failure and his misadventures in Reverend Robert Broughton. Home continues the story of Jack on his the twin trajectories of its two protagonists. Beat cop Danny Coughlin Florida. Fuelled by his escape from South London and the flush of return home after an absence of 20 years. This time around, the story comes into conflict with his politically connected police captain father success his new identity has given him, our hero devises an even is told through the eyes of Glory, Jack’s youngest sister, who has also after he goes undercover to spy on Bolsheviks fomenting labour more devilish plan: to play God. Can Tynedale Corbett convince the returned home to look after her ailing father. Robinson’s prose, richly unrest, and ends up sympathising with their cause. And Luther congregation of his adopted church of misfits that he really is God? textured with religious and spiritual overtones, shines in both novels Lawrence, suspected of a drug-related shooting in Tulsa, ends up What follows is a riotously funny series of events as fantastical as his and her portrait of family and small town life is beautifully observed. working for the Coughlins while he plans his return. plan is absurd.

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO SOMEONE KNOWS MY NAME Junot Díaz. Faber. PB. $32.95. Lawrence Hill. Fourth Estate. PB. $33. A ghetto nerd living with his Dominican This is the captivating story of Aminata Diallo, who THE TIME WE HAVE TAKEN family in New Jersey, Oscar Wao dreams of aids the Abolitionist cause by revealing the realities Steven Carroll. Fourth Estate. PB. $25. being the next J R R Tolkien, but fears he may of slavery – through her personal story – to the Carroll’s luminous meditation on the rhythms of 1970s not get what he wants thanks to an ancient British public. Winner of the 2008 Commonwealth suburban life won this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award. A family curse. Winner of this year’s Pulitzer Writers’ Prize. worthy follow-up to the much-admired The Art of the Engine Prize in Fiction. Driver and The Gift of Speed (HarperCollins. PB. $25 each). TREE OF SMOKE DE NIRO’S GAME Denis Johnson. Picador. PB. $23. THE WHITE TIGER Rawi Hage. Picador. PB. $22.95. Set in South-East Asia and the US, and Aravind Adiga. Atlantic. PB. $32.95. Winner of the 2008 International IMPAC Dublin spanning two decades, the winner of the 2007 Adiga’s excoriating debut novel was a deserving winner of this Literary Award, De Niro’s Game is about National Book Award takes the reader on a surreal year’s Man Booker Prize. It’s about Balram Halwai – servant, childhood friends who grow to adulthood in yet vivid journey, dipping in and out of characters’ philosopher, entrepreneur, murderer – and is a savage and war-torn Beirut and must choose between lives to reveal fundamental truths at the heart of the brilliant work dealing with India and the modern world. very different future paths. human condition. THE ZOOKEEPER’S WAR THE ROAD HOME UNACCUSTOMED EARTH Steven Conte. HarperCollins. PB. $28. Rose Tremain. Chatto & Windus. PB. $24.95. Jhumpa Lahiri. Bloomsbury. PB. $29.95. 1943. Vera, an Australian woman, and Axel, her German The plight of the economic migrant is Winner of this year’s Frank O’Connor Award, husband, struggle to look after the animals at the Berlin Zoo touchingly examined in Tremain’s latest novel, Unaccustomed Earth is a collection of eight through the air raids and food shortages. This powerful novel of winner of this year’s Orange Prize for Fiction. luminous stories exploring the heart of family life a marriage and of a city collapsing won the 2008 Prime In it we meet Lev, who has come from Eastern and the migrant experience. Minister’s Literary Prize (Fiction). Europe to find work in London. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:31 AM Page 4 4 fiction THE HOUR I FIRST BELIEVED INDIGNATION LINES OF WISDOM Wally Lamb Philip Roth Affirm Press. PB. $39.95. Harper. PB. $35. Jonathan Cape. HB. Conceived as a series of intimate Wally Lamb’s third novel has been 10 Was $45, now $39.95. conversations with remarkable yet years in the making – and no wonder. He may be in his mid-70s, but Philip Roth everyday elderly Australians, Lines of This sweeping book is epic in both shows no sign of slowing down when it Wisdom marries a group of young ambition and size (over 700 pages), comes to adding to his already huge literary Australian writers with the subjects of their choice. Each writer’s approach is covering the American Civil War, Iraq, oeuvre. Indignation is set in America during different, in both style and structure, Hurricane Katrina, prison culture, family the Korean War and its central theme will be and their subjects are just as diverse in secrets and struggles, and much more. It familiar to Roth’s many devoted readers – the idealistic and clever range. The Housewife, the Writer, the Survivor, the Farmer, the Footy is firmly anchored, though, in Denver, American son unsuccessfully attempting to distance himself from his Player – behind these teasingly simple titles lie complex character Colorado, where creative writing teacher Caeleb Quirk and his wife Jewish heritage (specifically his father), and forge his own identity studies evoking a range of different emotions. Lines of Wisdom shines Maureen, a nurse, both work at the local high school, Columbine. The and future. Determining to escape from Newark, New Jersey, and the the spotlight on some fine young writers in their tributes to just a few events of the 1999 school shooting are central to the novel, and overbearing love of his father, Marcus Messner enrols at Ohio’s of the unsung Australians who make up our national character. Each Lamb explores the incident from the point of view of the community Winesberg College, a Christian institution embodying what he piece is accompanied by evocative black-and-white photographs of who survived it – one survivor in particular. But the question of what believes to be the American dream. But his year here – which its subject. drove the school shooters and the effects of their actions is just one encompasses his intellectual and sexual awakening – disabuses him element of this riveting, character-rich patchwork novel of ideas. of this belief in the most shocking manner imaginable. THE LUMINOUS LIFE OF HOW TO BREAK LATE NIGHTS ON AIR LILLY APHRODITE YOUR OWN HEART Elizabeth Hay Beatrice Colin Maggie Alderson Maclehose Press. PB. $29.95. Headline. PB. $33. Penguin Australia. PB. $32.95. Elizabeth Hay’s novels are popular in her This richly and sensitively imagined native Canada, but haven’t until now historical novel follows the trajectory of Amelia Bradlow seems to have registered on the international literary Lilly Aphrodite’s journey from the everything she needs to be happy: a scene. Late Nights on Air, which won the orphanage to a doomed spell as a handsome husband, a beautiful home, country’s major literary prize in 2007, is ladies’ maid, a starving sojourn on money, good looks and a glamour job. going to change all that. Its wonderful cast Berlin’s streets and life as a nightclub Everything, that is, except the thing she of characters, exquisitely evoked settings girl and script typist, before eventually wants most – a baby. Ed, her husband, is and elegiac prose make it one of the becoming one of the leading silent film funny, affectionate and sophisticated but simply not interested in knock-out titles on the shelves this summer. Set in the small town of stars of her age. The daughter of a cabaret singer shot dead by her parenthood. He likes his life neat and tidy. And he likes having a wife Yellowknife, nestled on the edge of the immense and pristine northern husband (who discovered her with a lover, and was then shot who attends solely to his needs. As she approaches 37, Amelia is wilderness and presided over by the Northern Lights, it’s the story of a himself), her early days were both glamorous and tragic, prefiguring faced with a life-changing decision, aided and abetted by Kiki, her group of people working at the town’s small radio station in the 1970s the mixed fortunes of her life. Moving without being sentimental, this hopelessly disorganised but ridiculously rich friend. Should Amelia and a trip that four of them make into the wilderness, following the chaotic, eventful book brings early-20th-century Berlin wonderfully to stay in her nearly happy marriage, or expose herself to the vagaries journey of a doomed 1926 expedition. Hay presents us with a motley life, capturing the suffering of Germany between the wars in a way of single life and the distant possibility of meeting someone who assortment of flawed, vulnerable and totally believable characters – that is rarely attempted in contemporary literature. wants to start a family? comparisons to the work of Annie Proulx are well deserved.

ICE THE LIEUTENANT OINK, OINK, OINK: Louis Nowra Kate Grenville A SAVAGE MODERN FABLE Allen & Unwin. PB. $32.95. Text. HB. Eric Yoshiaki Dando Was $45, now $39.95. Hunter. PB. $29.95. Author, screenwriter and playwright Louis Nowra has written a challenging and After her spectacularly successful 2006 book Dando’s second novel throws together prolific body of work that has made him The Secret River (Text. PB. $32.95), Kate sci-fantasy, dysfunctional family drama one of Australia’s most respected Grenville must have deliberated long and hard and the madness of consumerism to writers. Ice, his new novel, spans time, about what to write next. It was courageous to create a darkly humorous tale from the cultures and continents in a dazzlingly stick to a similar subject matter and setting, other side of Alice’s looking glass. The acrobatic work of fantastical fiction. It’s and fortunate that The Lieutenant manages to carve a distinctive niche result of a hopelessly failed marriage, the late 19th century and with much alongside its predecessor. The novel’s main character is Daniel Rooke, Squirly Fern is brought up in Japan by his acclaim an iceberg is towed into Sydney Harbour. The ice melts to a soldier and astronomer based on the real-life William Dawes, a Japanese mother, who works in the local fish cannery. One day he reveal a perfectly preserved body. So begins the peculiar story of the lieutenant of marines who came to Sydney with the First Fleet in 1788 receives a letter from the Australian father he’s never known, telling troubled Malcolm McEacharn, an imagined historical figure whose and compiled a record of the languages of the Indigenous people of the him it’s time he came to live in Australia. Falling into an existence entrepreneurial success makes him a national celebrity. Running in Sydney area. Grenville imagines a scenario in which Rooke forges a fuelled by a concoction of pulp TV, soft drinks and drugs, our multi- tandem, and set in contemporary Sydney, is the story of McEacharn’s friendship with a young Aboriginal girl named Tagaran and eventually racial anti-hero watches on as his father’s bizarre genetic biographer, who mysteriously lies in a coma. Nowra skilfully weaves must choose between loyalty to her and her people, and loyalty to the experiments with pigs and cloning unfold. As the experiments spin the two threads together to create an imaginative, moving drama marines. With understated but beautiful prose, perfect narrative pace out of control, Squirly begins to suspect that his father and porcine about love, life and the spectre of death. and a satisfying ending, The Lieutenant well and truly passes muster. new wife are up to no good...

A DEATH IN TUSCANY ANATHEM Michele Giuttari. Abacus. PB. $30. Neal Stephenson. Atlantic. PB. $35. A FRACTION OF THE WHOLE Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara, head of Another sci-fi delight from the author of the Baroque Steve Toltz. Penguin. PB. $24.95. Florence’s elite Squadra Mobile, knows that Italy’s Cycle. Anathem is about Erasmas, a young avout living Another debut novel that made the shortlist of this most beautiful region isn’t always idyllic – and he has in the Concent, a sanctuary for mathematicians, year’s Man Booker Prize, Steve Toltz’s riotously funny the caseload to prove it. Another cleverly plotted scientists and philosophers that is about to be and moving family saga is reminiscent of Dickens or mystery from the author of the bestselling A Florentine threatened by cataclysmic change. John Kennedy Toole. Death (Abacus. PB. $23). AND THE HIPPOS WERE BOILED IN THEIR TANKS DISSECTION ALFRED AND EMILY William S Burroughs & Jack Kerouac. Jacinta Halloran. Scribe. PB. $27.95. Doris Lessing. Fourth Estate. PB. $28. Penguin Classics. HB. $35. Doctor Anna McBride’s life is starting to unravel. She Here, 2007’s Nobel Laureate explores the lives of her In 1944, William S Burroughs and Jack Kerouac were is being sued for medical negligence and her husband parents, both of them irrevocably damaged by the taken into police custody for questioning following the seems to be preoccupied with a younger colleague. Great War. The first half is an imagining of the lives murder of their friend David Kammerer by another Halloran has written an original and confronting they might have enjoyed had there been no war; the friend, Lucien Carr. This is their fictionalised account of portrayal of a woman in crisis. second half looks at the sad reality. the lead-up to the murder, published for the first time. FROM A TO X: A STORY IN LETTERS AMERICAN WIFE BLOODLETTING & MIRACULOUS CURES John Berger. Verso. HB. $39.95. Curtis Sittenfeld. Doubleday. PB. $32.95. Vincent Lam. Fourth Estate. PB. $28. A’ida’s insurgent lover Xavier has been imprisoned. Based closely on the life of a contemporary first lady, This award-winning Canadian novel follows four Her resolute, tender and sensuous letters to the man this compelling novel is about librarian Alice Blackwell. medical students from different backgrounds as their she loves become life-affirming acts of resistance Scarred by a tragic accident at 17, she is the wife of stories intertwine, their illusions shatter and as the against the forces that might otherwise extinguish wealthy Republican and aspiring politician Charlie meanings of many lives expand around them. them and their community. Blackwell a decade later. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:31 AM Page 5 fiction 5 PAST IMPERFECT THE SEAMSTRESS TAKING PICTURES Julian Fellowes Frances de Pontes Peebles Anne Enright Orion. PB. $33. Bloomsbury. PB. $32.95. Jonathan Cape. PB. The bestselling writer of Snobs (Phoenix. In Brazil in the 1930s, Emilia and Luzia Was $32.95, now $16.95. PB. $23) and the Gosford Park dos Santos, orphaned at 12 and 14 but From the winner of last year’s Man screenplay is known for his sharp-eyed, now women in their 20s, grapple with life Booker Prize comes this volume of dryly affectionate dissections of the in their primitive and unenlightened stories about humanity in trouble: in British aristocracy. Past Imperfect evokes community. Like their aunt, who raised denial, in extremis, in love. Mapping the Brideshead Revisited and Alan them, they are seamstresses; but Emilia, messy connections between people – Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty, in particular, wants more. When her and their failures to connect – Enright’s similarly chronicling the last days of a husband dies in a suspicious car accident characters are captured in the grainy golden era for the upper classes. His time is the late 1960s but his that was almost certainly suicide, and her sister Luzia is abducted by texture of real life: freshly palpable, sensuous and deeply flawed. Set characters are more concerned with preserving the rituals and a gang of rebels and taken away to the wilds of Brazil, she seizes her in locations as diverse as Dublin, Venice, an American college dorm privileges of their parents’ generation than rebellion and rock’n’roll. opportunity for escape. But even in the city Emilia is unable to and a holiday caravan in France, these are sharp, vivid stories of loss Dying nouveau riche Damian Parks is looking for his rumoured heir in completely shed her past and, when new danger threatens Luzia, and yearning, of surrender to responsibilities or to unexpected delight. order to pass on his considerable fortune, and he enlists an old she is drawn back to a final reckoning with the world from which All share the unsettling, dislocated reality, the subversive wit and the friend-turned-enemy to find out which of his former ‘toff’ lovers sired she once fled. awkward tenderness that have marked Anne Enright as one of his secret child. The combination of flashbacks and present-day visits Ireland’s most highly regarded contemporary writers. with these mostly faded socialites brilliantly brings home the changed status of the post-war aristocracy. THE SLAP Christos Tsiolkas Allen & Unwin. PB. $32.95. THEFT: A LOVE STORY THE RIP Peter Carey Robert Drewe In this confronting and compelling novel, the author of Loaded and Dead Europe Random House. HB. Penguin. HB. $35. (Vintage. PB. $23.95 each) turns his Was $45, now $19.95. Acclaimed author Robert Drewe returns unflinching eye onto the modern This darkly funny, brilliantly original novel to the short story format with 13 stories Australian family and domestic life in the from Peter Carey is narrated by artist sharing the theme of water, in particular 21st century. At a suburban barbecue, a Butcher Bones and his ‘damaged 220 lb the beautiful yet often malign ocean man slaps a child who is not his own. brother’ Hugh. It recounts their lapping Australia’s coastline. The Tsiolkas uses this event as the pivot of adventures and troubles after Butcher’s collection is a mixed bag, the witty and his novel, which is told from the points of view of eight people who plummeting income and spiralling drink wry observations revealing glimpses of were present at the barbecue. The slap and its consequences force problem force them to retreat from other lives, marital discord and the distance between loved ones. them all to question the way they live – their expectations, Sydney to northern New South Wales. Here the formerly famous artist Standouts include ‘The Lap Pool’, a languid story with a hidden sting, relationships, beliefs and desires. About the nature of loyalty and is reduced to acting as caretaker for his patron and nurse to his idiot- and ‘How to Kill a Cane Toad’, a deliciously dark tale about the happiness, compromise and truth, The Slap is also about our ever- savant brother. Then mysterious American beauty Marlene turns up downsides of making a tree change. ‘The Rip’ captures the barely growing middle class and its aspirations and fears. A stimulating read. one stormy night, clad in a pair of Manolo Blahniks. Claiming that the submerged violence of the sea, with its dangerous currents and brothers’ neighbour owns an original Jacques Liebovitz, she sets in sharks, while ‘The Life Alignment of the Coffee Grower’ is a perfectly motion a chain of events that could be the making or ruin of them all. tuned piece about New Age madness. What is mysophobia? This bravura effort from Peter Carey is offered at a bargain price for our customers this summer. ROSEWATER & SODA BREAD Marsha Mehran HarperCollins. PB. $28. SONATA FOR MIRIAM THEN CAME OCTOBER Linda Olsson L E Usher Returning to the sleepy Irish town of Harbour Books. PB. $28. Ballinacroagh, the setting for her first Penguin. PB. $32.95. novel, Marsha Mehran reacquaints us This haunting novel of love, loss and family In 1934, alcoholic Mardie searches for the with the role-call of odd characters, secrets travels between a secluded New truth about her estranged mother, Edith, obsession with food and charming lyrical Zealand island and Krakow, Poland. Miriam’s by smuggling away a stack of diaries she style that made her first book, last words to her father were ‘Get out, Dad. discovers amid a pile of old books. It’s Pomegranate Soup (HarperCollins. PB. Have an adventure. It’s Sunday!’ That fateful rumoured that her mother may have $23), such a success. At the heart of her day, Adam’s dutiful ‘adventure’ to a killed her father. But did she? The wilful, story is the Babylon Café, a Middle Eastern oasis in the centre of Holocaust Museum in Auckland led him to a eccentric Edith of her diaries is devoted Ballinacroagh, run by three sisters who fled Iran during the revolution. shocking discovery about himself – one that was almost immediately to her ‘sensitive’ mother, wary of her Mehran explores themes of loneliness, love and alienation, scented eclipsed. A year later, he emerges from his grief to pick up the trail that strict father and psychically gifted. As a child, she sees visions of King with the spice and flavour of the sisters’ Persian past. With touches of will lead him across the world and to a secret about his parentage that Arthur and communes with her deceased younger brother. After magical realism, the tale unfolds when a young woman is washed up eerily mirrors the story of his own relationship with his daughter. suffering an adolescent breakdown, she is sent to recover with a on the beach, and subsequent events see each of the sisters come to Olsson’s crisp, understated prose works in careful contrast to the Welsh family and forms a doomed bond with the family’s idiot-savant terms with the challenges of their life as strangers in a strange land. reservoir of emotion buried within the narrative. The result is a tightly son. This eerie Victorian-era tale of family scandal, love and the crafted, perfectly paced journey of discovery. supernatural is based on the real-life story of Edith Carew, who murdered her husband in 1897.

BURNING IN Mireille Juchau. Giramondo. PB. $27.95. THE GARGOYLE THE BOAT Martine moves from Sydney to New York to pursue her Andrew Davidson. Text. PB. $32.95. Nam Le. Hamish Hamilton. PB. $29.95. career as a photographer, leaving behind her mother This brilliant love story sweeps across centuries and The runaway literary success of 2008. Lottie, a Holocaust survivor. Nine years later Martine’s continents, telling the story of a sculptor of gargoyles and Nam Le’s diverse collection of stories daughter Ruby goes missing in Central Park – and she the beauty and love she brings into the life of a scarred man. is characterised by powerful writing and starts to understand her own mother’s anxieties and raw emotion. inhibitions. THE GOOD PARENTS Joan London. Vintage. PB. $32.95. BREATH CHICAGO From the author of Gilgamesh comes this story of country Tim Winton. Hamish Hamilton. HB. $45. Alaa al Aswany. Fourth Estate. PB. $33. girl Maya de Jong, who leaves her home in Western In his first novel for seven years, Winton tells After the phenomenal success of The Yacoubian Australia to live in Melbourne and is seduced by her boss, a story about youths addicted to extremes, Building (Fourth Estate. PB. $25), Egyptian writer al the enigmatic Maynard Flynn. Then Maya disappears and pushing every boundary and flirting with Aswany has followed up with this tale of Egyptian and her parents must try to find her. death in the struggle to be extraordinary. American lives colliding on the campus of a university in post-9/11 Chicago. THE GUERNSEY LITERARY & POTATO BRIGHT AIR PEEL PIE SOCIETY Barry Maitland. Allen & Unwin. PB. $32.95. THE CLOTHES ON THEIR BACKS Mary Ann Shaffer. Allen & Unwin. HB. $29.95. On a cliff-face in New Zealand, two men Linda Grant. Virago. PB. $33. This captivating story of post-war friendship, love and books fall to their deaths. Four years before, Shortlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize, this wise is about newspaper columnist Juliet Ashton and her another friend died in a climbing accident – and tender novel set against the backdrop of 1970s correspondence with the extraordinary members of a book this time on Lord Howe Island. Are the London is narrated by the character of Vivien, a club on the island of Guernsey. deaths related? sensitive, bookish daughter of timid refugee parents. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:31 AM Page 6 6 fiction TO LOVE, HONOUR VERTIGO THE WASTED VIGIL AND BETRAY Amanda Lohrey Nadeem Aslam Kathy Lette Black Inc. HB. $27.95. Faber. PB. $32.95. Bantam. PB. $29.95. Accompanied by the atmospheric black- Nadeem Aslam’s previous novel, Maps Lucy, a 40-something English woman and-white photography of Lorraine Biggs, for Lost Lovers (Faber. PB. $23.95), was married to an Australian, is going through this taut novella explores the darkness longlisted for the Booker Prize and richly a more-than-usually-severe mid-life crisis beneath the apparent beauty of Australia’s praised by fellow writers such as Andrew – and it’s entirely her husband Jasper’s landscapes. Luke and Anna leave the Hagan and David Mitchell. Here, the fault. When he moved their family back to pollution and stress of inner-city Glebe for Pakistan-born, English-based writer turns his hometown of Sydney, it seemed the a Federation weatherboard in a remote his considerable talent and empathy to start of a new beginning until he coastal village. Away from the noise of the the subject of post-9/11 Afghanistan. In abandoned Lucy in order to move in with his mistress – Lucy’s best city, their idyll soon takes on an increasing sense of unease. Eccentric an old perfume factory in the Tora Bora mountains, a group of friend. Trapped in a house in Cronulla with her two daughters, Lucy neighbours, incessant drought and the threat of bushfires impinge on strangers gather, their collective experiences meshing to create an begins to adjust to life post-Jasper, helped along by that salvation of the dream, but more than these tangible difficulties is the realisation intricate and varied patchwork that represents the terrible story of the wronged wife: female friendship. Not to mention Lockie, a bronzed that past traumas can’t be left behind. Vertigo explores the effects of contemporary Afghanistan. There is a widowed English doctor; two Aussie lifeguard who might just have what it takes to heal her loss and change, and the ‘dizzying sense of disorientation’ that results Americans who have spent their lives in the area; a young Afghan betrayed heart, and help her get a little revenge along the way… from disconnection. By the award-winning author of Camille’s Bread teacher; Russian Lara, searching for her missing brother; and a and The Philosopher’s Doll, Vertigo is essential reading if you’re radicalised young local. Haunting and evocative, this novel illustrates thinking of making a sea change (or maybe not…). how Afghanistan has been caught in a web of international interests, THE VARIOUS FLAVOURS much to its detriment. OF COFFEE WANTING Anthony Capella Richard Flanagan WUTHERING HEIGHTS Sphere. PB. $30. Knopf. HB. Emily Brontë Let’s be honest. When we’re on holiday, Was $35, now $29.95. Cameron House. PB. $19.95. many of us enjoy books with exotic This imaginative work of historical fiction settings, a hint (or more) of sex and a Following last year’s release of its popular by the author of the award-winning Death fast-paced plot – the type of book that is Austen classics, Cameron House has of a River Guide (Picador. PB. $24.95) more likely to have an Oprah’s Book Club followed up with the first of a series of the brings together a varied cast of real-life endorsement on its cover than a New Brontë sisters’ works. It includes the novel protagonists: Charles Dickens; his spring- York Times Review of Books one. Such itself, an introduction, a rethink essay, a autumn love, Ellen Ternan; the governor of Van Diemen’s Land, Sir was Anthony Capella’s previous bestseller, The Food of Love, and so piece about a particular aspect of the John Franklin, and his wife Lady Jane; and the Aboriginal child too is this latest and more ambitious offering. Set in London, Ethiopia Brontës’ world and an essay about the Methhina, who symbolises the plight of the original Tasmanians. and Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it follows the landscape of the book. Bound to become a Wanting is a moving dramatisation of the destruction of Tasmania’s fortunes of Robert Wallace, would-be poet, incorrigible dandy and collectors’ edition, this volume is both a wonderful introduction to Emily Aboriginal population in the 19th century. At the same time, it is a reluctant if talented conscript into Samuel Pinker’s coffee empire. Brontë’s novel and a fascinating work of literary analysis. study of desire – of the powerful role it plays in our lives and the price With a moving subplot concerning Pinker’s suffragette daughter, that’s paid when it is denied. Loosely based on actual events, Emily, and loads of information about the growth of the international Flanagan’s narrative flows backwards and forwards, from the moment Who nearly burnt down the coffee trade and its disastrous impact in Africa and South America, of death to the moment of downfall, across the globe and across time. The Various Flavours of Coffee is a rollicking good read. Smithsonian Institute? A limited number of signed copies are available – get in quick!

A MOST WANTED MAN crime thrillers John Le Carré Hodder & Stoughton. PB. A SIMPLE ACT OF VIOLENCE DOORS OPEN Was $33, now $27.95. R J Ellory Ian Rankin The great John Le Carré has 21 novels to his Orion. PB. $33. Orion. PB. $33. credit, all featuring meticulously plotted This summer’s impressive batch of Ian Rankin may have written Rebus’ storylines, memorable characterisations and thrillers takes the global ‘War on Terror’ as swansong last year, but fortunately he exemplary prose. It would be clever but silly to a theme, and each book gives it a very hasn’t laid down the pen (or left the describe A Most Wanted Man as his coming-of-age novel (that different treatment. In this hefty offering computer) totally. Doors Open lacks the accolade must surely be bestowed upon The Spy Who Came in From (it’s a satisfying 600 pages), British writer maverick DI, but it has all the other Rankin the Cold, published way back in 1963). Instead, it can rightfully be R J Ellory melds the crime and thriller hallmarks: an evocative Edinburgh setting; seen as the major triumph of his later career, a book that proves genres to page-turning effect. Washington an exploration of the gritty underbelly of beyond any doubt that he is the greatest of all thriller writers, a cop Detective Robert Miller is assigned to the case of four seemingly that postcard-perfect city; characters who master at depicting in fiction the morally bankrupt espionage game unrelated women murdered by a serial offender dubbed the ‘Ribbon are flawed but honest; and a healthy dose of venality (both civic and that he once worked within. Le Carré has always had a knack for Killer’. To track the culprit down, Miller must try and identify how the individual). This is the classic heist novel, with an arty theme and creating likable but flawed characters, and this story, set in Hamburg victims are related, and what the killer’s motivation could be. His plenty of clever twists along the way. The central characters of Mike and dealing with how the West has demonised the Muslim world and investigation leads him to a particularly inglorious episode in Mackenzie and Chib Calloway are boldly drawn and undeniably its people through the ‘War on Terror’, is no exception. About love, American history: the CIA’s involvement in Nicaragua in the 1980s, a endearing – we wouldn’t be at all surprised if they made their way to geopolitics and the thin line between compassion and deception, it’s scenario that could be said to have much in common with the current the big screen at some stage in the future. Doors Open is a cracker of a thought-provoking and immensely enjoyable read. situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. a read from one of the world’s great crime writers.

ARCTIC CHILL DIE A LITTLE THE LAST SUPPER Arnaldur Indridason Megan Abbott Charles McCarry Harvill Secker. PB. $32.95. Pocket Books. PB. $22.95. Scribe. PB. $32.95. Indridason fans rejoice – the latest Reykjavik The garish cover of Die a Little resembles a On a rainy night in Paris, Molly Benson Murder Mystery is the best yet! Erlendur, trash-and-slash novel from the ’50s, but its falls victim to a vehicular homicide Elinborg and Óli are called to a city housing story is reminiscent of Raymond Chandler, minutes after her lover Paul Christopher estate, where a young boy has been James M Cain and Jim Thompson at their boards a jet bound for Vietnam. To explain murdered. The victim is half-Thai, very best. Schoolteacher Lora King finds this seemingly senseless murder, and their investigation soon her quiet suburban life disrupted when her McClarry takes his readers back not only uncovers an undercurrent of racial tension simmering in their brother Bill, a junior investigator with the to the earliest days of Christopher’s life, outwardly liberal, multicultural society. Is the culprit the outspoken DA’s office, marries beautiful Alice Steele, a but also to the origins of the CIA in the woodwork teacher who is against immigration, the paedophile who Hollywood wardrobe assistant. Fearing that Alice isn’t everything she clandestine operations of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) during they suspect is living nearby, or someone else? And why has the purports to be, Lora investigates her new sister-in-law, venturing into WWII. Moving seamlessly from tales of refugee smuggling in Nazi young boy’s brother been whisked into hiding – does he know the Hollywood’s seedy underbelly to do so. It soon becomes clear that Alice Germany to OSS-coordinated guerrilla warfare against the Japanese truth about what happened? The complex character of Erlendur is is involved in a shadowy world of drugs, prostitution and murder – a in Burma and then to the confused violence of the Vietnam War, what makes this crime series so exceptional, and in Arctic Chill world that Lora finds herself drawn into as a result of her investigation. The Last Supper is an epic re-creation of the history of an Indridason skilfully intertwines the story of the young Thai victim with This story of femme fatales and Hollywood corruption is bound to be a organisation ensnared by a culture of conspiracy, subterfuge events in Erlendur’s own past, making for riveting reading. hit with all aficionados of noir fiction. and senseless violence. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:32 AM Page 7

7 crime thrillers THE MURDER STONE MY SISTER, MY LOVE: THE PRIVATE PATIENT Louise Penny THE INTIMATE STORY P D James Headline. PB. $33. OF SKYLER RAMPIKE Faber. PB. When Louise Penny’s debut novel Still Life Joyce Carol Oates Was $32.95, now $27.95. was released in 2004, she won a clutch of Fourth Estate. PB. $33. Dalgleish hasn’t had an outing since 2005’s awards and many reviewers described her as The 1996 murder of child beauty queen The Lighthouse (Faber. PB. $29.95), so fans the new Agatha Christie. Her protagonist, the JonBenet Ramsey is the springboard for the of P D James’ poet-detective will be chuffed genial, gentlemanly and highly intuitive latest and most controversial novel by the to hear that there’s a new instalment in his Detective Amand Gamache of the Sûreté du prolific US author Joyce Carol Oates. Her fictional reworking of the still career to be savoured this summer. When Québec, was even given the title of the new Hercule Poirot. While we unsolved tragedy makes for compelling, if at times uncomfortable, investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn is found dead in her room at an won’t go so far as to agree wholeheartedly with these assertions, we’re reading. Ten years after the brutal murder of Bliss Rampike, a six-year- exclusive plastic surgery clinic in Dorset, it is immediately apparent happy to report that her village whodunits make perfect beach reading old ice-skating star, her brother Skyler narrates his account of the story. that her medical treatment wasn’t the cause. Dalgleish, Kate Miskin for this summer. The Murder Stone is the fourth in the series and has a Now aged 19, Skyler suffers from a repetitive compulsive syndrome. and Francis Benton are sent to investigate, and encounter a typically textbook Christie setup: Gamache and his wife Reine-Marie are Combined with his psychological and educational problems, his James-ish scenario featuring well-connected suspects, a splendid spending a holiday at the Manoir Bellechasse, an exclusive and isolated idiosyncratic narration reads like a fast-paced, wildly satirical house setting and innumerable twists and turns. Carefully and cleverly lodge. Their fellow guests are members of the wealthy Finney family, confessional. Oates’ choice of story and in-your-face style are sure to plotted, with a clutch of believable suspects and a background plot who have been summonsed by the family matriarch. When one of them polarise readers as she explores the theme of tabloid madness and its that sees Dalgleish and Emma Lavenham finally tying the knot, The is murdered, Gamache has no choice but to take on the case… effect on a monstrously dysfunctional middle-class American family. Private Patient is a vintage offering from the baroness.

THE MUSEUM OF DR MOSES TETHERED Joyce Carol Oates NO. 1 LADIES’ DETECTIVE Amy MacKinnon Quercus. PB. AGENCY BARGAIN! Orion. PB. $33. Was $29.95, now $16.95. Alexander McCall Smith Polygon. HB. $14.95 each. When she was a child Clara Marsh survived a The 10 stories in this collection range from the car accident in which her mother died, and she disturbing to the bizarre. In ‘Suicide Watch’, a If you haven’t yet discovered the delights of was intrigued by the serene visage her corpse grandfather agonises over the disappearance of Alexander McCall Smith’s quirky series featuring presented at her funeral. Now grown up, she his grandson: are his drug-addicted, spaced- the exploits of Precious Ramotse, a cheerful works as an undertaker, restoring humanity to out son and his girlfriend responsible for the missing child’s death? In Botswanan PI of ‘traditional build’, this is the the dead. One case in particular haunts her: ‘Bad Habits’, the children of a serial killer grapple with the business of perfect opportunity to do so. Our handsome hard- several years before, an unidentified young girl was found murdered and trying to live a normal life after their world has been turned upside cover editions of In the Company of Cheerful dismembered. When Clara finds another girl, Trecie, playing outside the down. In ‘Feral’, a mother becomes increasingly concerned by strange Ladies, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive and funeral parlour where she works, old wounds are reopened – particularly changes in her son, which only emerged after he survived an accident Blue Shoes and Happiness cost a bargain- when a paedophile is murdered, and evidence emerges that Trecie has in which he nearly drowned: has the animal in him taken over from the basement $14.95 each, and are guaranteed somehow been drawn into his web. Had the dead girl been exploited and human? Traversing the darker side of human nature, these stories take to both charm and entertain you over these abused too – and could this be the motive for her dismal end? Before the reader on a wild ride to the depths of the human psyche. summer holidays. other young lives are put at risk, Clara must find the answer.

What was mysterious American language beauty Marlene wearing? AD NAUSEAM: THE BEST AUSTRALIAN BRYSON’S DICTIONARY FOR A MISCELLANY OF LATIN ESSAYS 2008 WRITERS AND EDITORS WORDS & PHRASES David Marr (ed.) Bill Bryson Lorna Robinson Black Inc. PB. $29.95. Doubleday. HB. Simon & Schuster Australia. THE BEST AUSTRALIAN Was $45, now $19.95. HB. $24.95. POEMS 2008 Do you know the difference between Join Lorna Robinson as she introduces us Peter Rose (ed.) assume and presume? If quizzed, can you to the fascinating and often humorous Black Inc. PB. $24.95. define a fandango? What’s the new name world of the Latin language. Scholars and for Calcutta? How do you spell supersede? plebeii (common people) alike will THE BEST AUSTRALIAN Is it hippy or hippie? These questions have appreciate her informative and succinct definitions of familiar and STORIES 2008 mattered to Bill Bryson ever since his days as a rookie subeditor on not-so-familiar words and concepts. If you’ve always wanted to know Delia Falconer (ed.) The Times back in the 1970s, and as a result he has taken on the the derivation of terms such as carpe diem, deus ex machina, non challenge of completely revising and updating The Penguin Dictionary sequitur and quid pro quo, this compact and accessible book will Black Inc. PB. $29.95. for Writers and Editors for the 21st century. Bryson’s dictionary This popular series from Black Inc has become a mainstay of the provide the answers. Robinson gives us the literary sources of many features his very personal selection of spellings and usages, covering Summer Reading Guide and of many holiday reading lists. David Marr famous aphorisms, including Quintilian’s vestis virum reddit (the such head-scratchers as capitalisation, plurals, abbreviations and and Delia Falconer take the reins of Essays and Stories this year, clothes make the man) and Seneca’s non scholae sed vitae discimus foreign names and phrases. An indispensable companion for all those joining Peter Rose, editor of the Australian Book Review, who is once (we learn not for school, but for life), and her impeccable scholarship who write or work with the written word, or who just enjoy getting again at the helm of Poems. Falconer delivers stories from names means that you can trust what she says rather than following Pliny things right. the Elder’s lead and taking it cum grano salis (with a grain of salt). such as Nam Le, Robert Drewe, Nicholas Shakespeare and Marion Halligan; Marr showcases pieces from Christos Tsiolkas, Don Watson, Kate Jennings, Les Carlyon and other great writers; and Rose AUSTRALIAN GREATS presents work from our top poets, including Dorothy Porter, Chris THE CONSOLATION Wallace-Crabbe, Les Murray, Robert Adamson and Fay Zwicky. Peter Cochrane (ed.) OF PHILOSOPHY William Heinemann BIRD BY BIRD: SOME INSTRUCTIONS Boethius Australia. HB. ON WRITING AND LIFE Harvard University Press. HB. Was $59.95, now $49.95. Anne Lamott $36.95. Scribe. PB. $27.95. This book of essays covering everything In 524, Boethius, an Italian aristocrat at the from the kelpie to Nick Cave, the milk bar Thirty years ago, Anne Lamott’s brother, who Court of the Emperor Theodoric, was to Ned Kelly, provides 53 examples of was 10 years old at the time, was trying to denounced, imprisoned and executed. While what makes Australia and Australians write a school report on birds. He’d imprisoned, he undertook his last work as a great. With a sweep as wide as the great brown land itself, the had three months to complete the scholar, writing The Consolation of Philosophy, a combination of idiosyncratic collection manages to steer clear of any nationalistic task, which was due the next day, poetry and philosophy filled with shrewd insights into the fortunes of swagger thanks to the clever choice of contributors, their wide-ranging and had done very little. Sitting at the kitchen table close to tears, mankind and the transitory nature of earthly splendours. Most of themes and the quality of the writing. Tom Keneally, Rolf de Heer, surrounded by unopened books on birds, he was immobilised by the these have lost nothing of their relevance today – ‘As fierce as the Geoffrey Robertson, Stephen Martin, Chester Porter QC, Lincoln Hall, huge task ahead. Then his father sat down beside him and said, ‘Bird fires of Etna / is the lust of men for plunder. / Shame, shame on the Barry Jones, Hetti Perkins and Akira Isogawa are just a handful of the by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird’. Here, for the first time, is a man / who first dug gold from the earth / and brought the bright essayists you may or may not be familiar with. Dame Nellie Melba, local edition of the bible of writing guides, written by the bestselling baubles of jewelers / into the light of the sun’ – and are as pertinent Lake Mungo, the backyard barbie and the mighty meat pie all make novelist and memoirist. Beautifully written, wise and immensely as they were 1500 years ago. An amusing and enlightening diversion the grade, providing plenty of inspiration. practical, this is a book for both serious writers and writers-to-be. for lovers of poetry, philosophy and satire. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:32 AM Page 8 poetry 8 essays language

THE GREAT MODERN POETS ON INDIGNATION READING THE OED Michael Schmidt (ed.) Don Watson Ammon Shea Quercus. PB. MUP. HB. $20. Viking. HB. $29.95. Was $34.95, now $16.95. Can indignation be a good thing? Or is it Have you ever considered reading the Oxford A wonderful introduction to over a something that makes a grown-up behave English Dictionary? It’s 20 volumes and century of poetry, The Great Modern like a two-year-old? Don Watson covers weighs 62 kg – so perhaps not. But now Poets pulls together an inspiring body of an awful lot of ground in his thought- there is no need, since veteran dictionary work from 50 of the 20th- and 21st- provoking 10,000-word essay, displaying reader Ammon Shea has read it for you, and century’s most famous poets. Edited by his distinctive eloquence and wit. Touching ferreted out the best of it. You can now Michael Schmidt, Professor of English on the biblical, familial, historic and pop discover the meaning of ‘mysophobia’ (an Literature at Glasgow University, the anthology is aimed at both lovers cultural, he raises the honourable indignation of Paulie from The irrational fear of being dirty), ‘sesquihoral’ (something that lasts an hour of poetry and those who may be reading verse for the first time. The Sopranos, the collective indignation incited by Hitler and Stalin, the and a half), and congratulate chefs on their ‘gramaungere’ (a superb or work of such luminaries as W B Yeats, T S Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia affronted indignation of George W Bush that led to war in Iraq – and great meal). Do you ‘balter’? (dance clumsily). Are you ready for Plath and Allen Ginsberg, to name but a few, is accompanied with a his own affronted indignation at Bush’s actions. Part of the second set anything? (you’re ‘panurgic’). If so, you won’t need a ‘salvo’ – an historical overview of each poet and their work. A brief but of MUP’s ‘little books on big things’ series by acclaimed Australian intentionally bad excuse – for what you might otherwise have wanted enlightening introduction offers pointers for readers on how best to writers and thinkers, Don Watson’s On Indignation is accompanied by to get out of! Filled with arcane and undeservedly forgotten words, this approach and appreciate the selection on offer. Malcolm Knox’s On Obsession (HB. $20), Gay Bilson’s On Digestion will delight enthusiasts for the English language. (HB. $20) and Anne Summers’ On Luck (HB. $20).

GIFT VOUCHERS If you’re not 100% sure about what book will suit, why not give one of our gift vouchers?

THE LITTLE GREEN OTHER COLOURS: SPEAKING OUR LANGUAGE: THE GRAMMAR BOOK ESSAYS AND A STORY STORY OF AUSTRALIAN ENGLISH Mark Tredinnick Orhan Pamuk Bruce Moore UNSW Press. PB. $29.95. Faber. HB. OUP. PB. $29.95. Written by a writer for writers, The Little Green Was $45, now $19.95. Language buffs will find a satisfying trove of local trivia – and the answers to many niggling Grammar Book takes an ‘intelligent informal’ Other Colours is a personal selection of questions – in this fascinating book on the approach to this often confounding subject. autobiographical fragments – essays, word origins and development of Australian English. Rather than a list of rules and don’ts, this thoughtful yet practical book sketches, thoughts – by Nobel Laureate Orhan Author Bruce Moore is the director of the Australian National reads like a shared conversation, reassuring us that grammar is logical, Pamuk. More of an afterword than a Dictionary Centre, which conducts ongoing research into the use of not pedantic; a constraint, not an encumbrance. The companion to retrospective of his 25-year writing career, this intriguing potpourri Australian words. He lives and breathes his topic, which translates Tredinnick’s equally engaging Little Red Writing Book (UNSW Press, PB, provides a revealing glimpse into the life and mind of Turkey’s most into an easy, engaging style and an ability to cleverly cherry-pick the $29.95), the book focuses on the sentence and its dramatis personae famous, often controversial literary export. Whether discussing Istanbul, most interesting examples to illustrate his points. Moore recounts (subject, verb, object, modifier). It also includes a section on the East–West dilemma or his favourite books in such chapters as many fascinating facts (did you know that ‘kangaroo’ was the first punctuation and how to use it. Perhaps the most valuable discussion is ‘Living and Worrying’ and ‘Politics, Europe and the Problems of Being Indigenous word adopted into our speech, followed by others such as about the 21 grammar gaffes and how to avoid them. Along the way Oneself’, the facts of Pamuk’s life are never far removed from the ‘billabong’ and ‘cooee’?) and goes on to enlighten those curious there are plenty of useful examples to help writers get to grips with subject at hand. To provide context, Pamuk’s interview with the Paris about how our distinctive accent and its regional variants evolved. dangling modifiers and those devilish which/that dilemmas. Review is reproduced, along with an autobiographical tale of childhood.

MY GRAMMAR AND I (OR THE SUPERIOR PERSON’S SHOULD THAT BE ‘ME’?) THE PENGUIN BOOK OF THE ROAD FIELD GUIDE TO DECEITFUL, Caroline Taggart & J A Wines Delia Falconer (ed.) DECEPTIVE & DOWNRIGHT Michael O’Mara. HB. $24.95. Viking. PB. $35. DANGEROUS LANGUAGE Freelance writers and editors Caroline Taggart Peter Bowler The best known tradition of road stories – and J A Wines take a light-hearted and often journeys of freedom, adventure, rebellion and UNSW. HB. $29.95. irreverent look at spelling, parts of speech, bonding – is quintessentially American. But sentence structure, punctuation and elements Did you enjoy The Superior Person’s Book of Australia has its own take on the legend of the of style in their refreshingly down-to-earth Words (Bloomsbury. HB. $29.95)? Well here is its counterpart, in which road. Instead of a path to freedom, it’s more guide to grammar. They provide succinct and plain-speaking Peter Bowler renders intelligible the euphemisms that pepper the often a scene of anxiety, a gauntlet to be run on the way home, or from explanations, directing readers to more in-depth sections if a subject contemporary media. Though superior-sounding, they may conceal less- one safe place to another. Delia Falconer has assembled a savvy and appears to be gobbledegook and supplying the list of auxiliary verbs than-pleasant meanings – as those who have heard of the ‘collateral diverse collection here, encompassing a range of approaches to to be sung to the tune of ‘Jingle Bells’. There are entertaining damage’ that ‘friendly fire’ can cause well know. Or perhaps you have Australian road culture, from American freedom to Australians’ fraught examples to illustrate grammatical points from a range of sources, found yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time, and been taken off relationship with our landscape. The stories range from the night-time including the obligatory George W Bushisms. And the answer to the for a little ‘extraordinary rendition’? An ‘All-Out Strategic Exchange’ has horrors evoked by Darcy Niland and Barbara Baynton to Robert thorny issue posed by the book’s title? ‘Grammar and I’ form a nothing to do with the stock market – it’s a polite term for nuclear war! Hughes’ account of the Kimberly car accident that nearly killed him, compound subject, and if it was good enough for Withnail, it’s good If you have ever been bewildered by any of the above or lost your job as Malcolm Knox’s nostalgic paeon to adolescent beach holidays and enough for them. Fair enough too. a result of vague threats like ‘cost reductions’ and want to be prepared Helen Garner’s joyful drive through the streets of Melbourne. for the next time, this book is heartily recommended.

LANDSCAPE OF FAREWELL THE COMFORT OF SATURDAYS DIARY OF A BAD YEAR Alex Miller. Allen & Unwin. PB. $23.95. Alexander McCall Smith. Little, Brown. PB. $33. J M Coetzee. Text. PB. $22.95. A new paperback edition of Miller’s powerful novel The latest Isabel Dalhousie novel sees the Now in paperback, Coetzee’s most recent work was about the importance of truth-telling, both for philosophically inclined sleuth drawn into the case of a described by Justin Cartwright in the Independent as a individuals and for nations. doctor whose career has been ruined, perhaps due to ‘…subtle and touching near-love story…an a miscarriage of justice. extraordinary account of Coetzee’s deepest THE LAST SKY preoccupations and beliefs’ Alice Nelson. FAP. PB. $29.95. COMPLETE STORIES Set in contemporary Hong Kong and wartime David Malouf. Knopf. PB. $25. THE HOUSEHOLD GUIDE TO DYING Shanghai, this is a moving meditation on exile, Now out in paperback, this volume pulls together Debra Adelaide. Picador. PB. $29.95. memory and the ways in which we reconcile stories and novellas written over 25 years by one of Delia Bennet is diagnosed with cancer, and knows it’s ourselves with loss. Australia’s most highly respected authors. time to get her house in order. As she writes lists and makes plans she is forced to confront her past – and MAN IN THE DARK DEAF SENTENCE realises that the art of dying is all about truly living. Paul Auster. Faber. PB. $29.95. David Lodge. Harvill Secker. PB. $32.95. Seventy-two-year-old August Brill is recovering from a A funny and moving account of one man’s effort to THE ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE car accident. When sleep refuses to come, he lies in come to terms with deafness and death, ageing and Salman Rushdie. Jonathan Cape. PB. $32.95. bed and imagines a parallel world in which America is mortality, and the comedy and tragedy of human life. Set in the hedonistic Mughal court of the Emperor not at war with Iraq, but with itself. A novel of our Akbar and in sensual Renaissance Florence, Rushdie’s moment by one of the world’s great writers. fabulist fable is about a woman trying to command her own destiny in a man’s world. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:32 AM Page 9 biography 9 A FIGURE OF SPEECH CANDY GIRL DOG MAN Graham Freudenberg Diablo Cody Martha Sherrill Wiley. HB. Nero. PB. $24.95. Scribe. PB. $32.95. Was $44.95, now $14.95. Imagine that Juno meets a guy on a Former Washington Post staff writer Martha In this fascinating memoir, Graham Beach Boys fansite, moves to Sherrill tells the inspirational story of Morie Freudenberg follows his journey from deeply Minneapolis to live with him after a Sawataishi, the renowned breeder and conservative beginnings through a lifelong whirlwind courtship, then decides, on a saviour of the Akita hunting dog. The breed career at the highest levels of Australian whim, to become a stripper. Okay, Diablo came close to extinction in Japan during Labor politics. Growing up in Brisbane, he Cody did all this (and wrote the book) WWII, when its flesh was eaten and the went on to have a stellar 40-year career as a speechwriter for many of before her Oscar-winning screenplay for thick pelt used to line coats for the military. the country’s political heavyweights. Among the many important Juno, but the wry, laid-back cool voice is Sawataishi put his career to one side and moved his family to speeches he crafted were Arthur Calwell’s 1965 denunciation of the the same as her character’s. This is not your average hooker-lit. Japan’s beautiful but remote snow country, where he has since war in Vietnam, Gough Whitlam’s historic ‘It’s Time’ speech of 1972 There’s no fall from grace and no redemption. There’s just an dedicated much of his life to the singular vision of perfecting the and Bob Carr’s powerful defence of reconciliation in 2000. This everyday self-described nerd living a dull-ish if satisfying life who Akita breed. Dog lovers are sure to relish the tale of this noble and landmark book traces the political and social history of post-war decides to take a walk on the wild side, pretty much for kicks. Cody loyal dog, which is closely related to the wolf, but the story is as Australia through the words of our most prolific political wordsmith and enters stripping in search of glamour, but she doesn’t glamorise the much about a time and place where following your own peculiar is written with the passion, eloquence and wit that are his hallmark. work, her colleagues or her customers. Instead, it’s a wisecracking, dream was frowned upon. whip-smart exposé of the reality behind the Hollywood image of these ‘ladies of the night’. ANDREW FISHER: DOING LIFE: A BIOGRAPHY PRIME MINISTER DEAR FATTY OF ELIZABETH JOLLEY OF AUSTRALIA Dawn French Brian Dibble David Day Century. PB. UWA Press. PB. $34.95. HarperCollins. HB. Was $34.95, now $29.95. Was $49.95, now $39.95. There is more than one reason to read this Autobiography, writes British comedian biography of one of Australia’s literary Though prime minister for three terms, Dawn French, means you have to be greats. Yes, Elizabeth Jolley had an Andrew Fisher has nonetheless been chronologically precise and touch on all enviable career – but she also lived an overshadowed by his more famous aspects of your life, even the dull parts. extraordinary life. As in her novels, which contemporaries. David Day’s biography brings him firmly to the Opting for memoir instead, Dear Fatty is draw heavily on her experience, at first it foreground, and shows the vital role he played in the development of written as a series of letters to the people was behind closed doors that her life differed from the norm. Her the Australian nation. Born in 1862 to impoverished Ayrshire who have in different degrees played a mother was a narcissist who relished the attention of men; her father coalminers, Fisher, like so many young men of his generation, saw part in her life. Through letters to her mother, her father (who took his a committed pacifist and religious man who regularly gave away their little future for himself in Scotland. Pressured to emigrate and better own life when she was 19), her husband Lenny Henry and ‘Fatty’ money and belongings. The third person in their unhappy marriage himself for the sake of his family, he left for Queensland in 1885, (Jennifer Saunders), French candidly traces the outline of her life from was her mother’s gentleman friend, Mr Berrington, a personage moving from Brisbane to the goldmines of Gympie, where he happy childhood to alternative comedy star and half of the much-loved familiar from Jolley’s fiction. Brian Dibble, a former colleague of his became involved in Labor politics and trade unionism. His political TV comedy duo French and Saunders. While there are plenty of laughs subject at the University of Western Australia, has conducted career stretched from humble beginnings to that of Labor MP and scattered throughout, much of this finely written memoir is a extensive research and interviews, with Jolley’s early assistance. This ultimately prime minister, where his harsh early experiences made thoughtful and reflective meditation on life, love, friendship and family. is an excellent and illuminating book. him a fervent advocate for socialism and social justice. ENTIRELY UP TO BERT AND NED DIARIES 1969–1979: YOU, DARLING Patrick McCaughey THE PYTHON YEARS Richard Attenborough & Miegunyah. HB. Michael Palin Diana Hawkins Was $49.95, now $16.95. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. PB. Hutchinson. PB. Was $34.95, now $29.95. This riveting and historically important Was $35, now $14.95. exchange of letters between two of In this first volume of his diaries, Michael Diana Hawkins has known and worked with Australia’s greatest artists, Albert Tucker and Palin tells us how Monty Python emerged Richard Attenborough for nigh on 50 years, Sidney Nolan, makes fascinating reading. and triumphed, changing the face of starting off as his publicist to become his Each man deeply valued the friendship and strove to preserve it British comedy. But this is only part of business partner and eventually co-producer. This jointly written through this remarkable correspondence. Covering a period of over 30 Palin’s story. There’s also his growing memoir is told as a series of anecdotes charting the two friends’ years, the letters throw refreshing new light on their expatriate years family; his home in a north London Victorian terrace; his acting (Three lives, careers, friendship and working relationship. Attenborough’s in the 1950s and mark their changing and changeable attitude to Men and a Boat); and his writing (often in partnership with Terry recollections of directing and producing movies including Ghandi, Cry Australia, both as place and culture. Art critic and gallery director Jones) that produces Ripping Yarns, a pantomime and other theatrical Freedom and Chaplin portray a driven, hard-working personality with Patrick McCaughey knew both artists, and he has written an plays. Meanwhile Monty Python refuses to go away: hugely a steely resolve to make movies that meant something to him. Of introduction to the book that explores the various themes running successful movies follow the TV show (his account of the making of course, you’d expect a who’s who of the movie world to feature in through these letters. The text is accompanied by reproductions of The Holy Grail is a real page-turner) and the powerful personalities these reminiscences, and everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Stephen some of Nolan and Tucker’s most important and early works, as well who coalesced to form the Python team and then went on their Spielberg make an appearance. It’s a rollicking and often funny tale, as hitherto unpublished photographs of the Heide set. separate – always extraordinary – ways are ever present. coupled with tragedy when Attenborough lost his daughter and granddaughter in the 2004 Tsunami.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO FINE JUST THE WAY IT IS MURDER ON A MIDSUMMER NIGHT Stieg Larsson. Quercus. PB. $32.95. Annie Proulx. Fourth Estate. PB. $28. Kerry Greenwood. Allen & Unwin. PB. $22.95. This Swedish bestseller is a violent and bloody thriller, a A stunning new collection of stories marking Melbourne, 1929. Phryne Fisher starts the new year sinister family saga, a mystery of massive financial fraud Proulx’s return to the Wyoming of ‘Brokeback with two cases, but is forced to put up with the vile and an ambiguous and haunting love story all at once. Mountain’ and her familiar cast of hardy, company of a group of Bright Young Things along the Larsson’s eagerly anticipated follow-up volume, The Girl unsentimental prairie folk. way. Even this can’t dampen the glamorous flapper’s who Played with Fire (Quercus. PB. $32.95), will be enthusiasm for sleuthing. available on December 19 – reserve your copy now! HIS ILLEGAL SELF Peter Carey. Knopf. PB. $32.95. NETHERLAND THE LOST DOG With his trademark narrative skill and penchant Joseph O’Neill. Fourth Estate. PB. $28. Michelle de Kretser. Allen & Unwin. PB. $23.95. for grotesquery, Carey tells the life story of The anxieties and uncertainties of our new century are A new paperback edition of de Kretser’s mystery-novel- Che, the precocious abandoned son of radical mirrored in the story of Chuck Ramkissoon and Hans cum-love-story set in Melbourne and India. Winner of student activists at Harvard in the late ’60s. van den Broek, who forge an unlikely friendship over this year’s Christina Stead Prize for Fiction. cricket in New York of 9/11 and the Iraq War. LIFE IN SEVEN MISTAKES SEA OF POPPIES Susan Johnson. Bantam. PB. $32.95. THE NORTHERN CLEMENCY Amitav Ghosh. John Murray. PB. $33. A black family comedy set on the Gold Coast, Philip Hensher. Fourth Estate. PB. $35. This epic saga, set just before the Opium Wars, is about Life in Seven Mistakes has a wonderfully ironic Set in Sheffield in the 1970s, this expansive Booker- an old slaving-ship, the Ibis, and its tumultuous voyage tone and an unexpected and deeply moving shortlisted novel charts the relationship between two across the Indian Ocean with a motley array of sailors climax. Great beach reading. families, while also charting the development of and stowaways, coolies and convicts. contemporary England. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:32 AM Page 10 10 biography THE GODS OF FREUD JOURNAL MANNING CLARK Janine Burke Hélène Berr Brian Matthews Knopf. HB. Maclehose. PB. $29.95. Allen & Unwin. HB. Was $49.95, now $24.95. Early in 1942, Hélène Berr, a privileged Was $59.95, now $49.95. Award-winning author and art historian young Frenchwoman of Jewish Acclaimed biographer Brian Matthews tackles Janine Burke reveals an intriguing new extraction, began keeping a diary, the controversial figure of Manning Clark – one perspective on Sigmund Freud – as an perhaps with the intention of writing a of Australia’s most influential intellectuals of obsessive art collector. Freud’s collection book about the persecution of French the past half-century. As well as covering his of Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities Jews during WWII. Now made public by considerable literary and intellectual achievements, Matthews delves must be one of the world’s best-kept her niece, it serves as a remarkable document of a dark chapter into the heart of a man wracked by self-doubt and flayed by personal secrets. Over a 40-year period he amassed an extraordinary array of in French history. With an almost unnervingly cool eye, Berr weakness. The first biographer to use Clark’s diaries, he presents an nearly 3000 statues, vases, reliefs, busts, fragments of papyrus, narrates the appalling realities of life for Jews in Occupied Paris: illuminating portrait of the man and his complex psychology. The jewel rings, precious stones and prints. For Freud, psychoanalysis and his the Star of David they were forced to wear; the arrest, of Clark’s achievement was his magnificent, highly ambitious six- art collection developed together in a symbiotic relationship, each interrogation and deportation of her father; and the gradual volume History of Australia, which mapped the defining milestones of informing and enriching the other. To create a portrait of Freud the art denunciation and deportation of their friends and neighbours. the Australian story for the first time. Matthews, who spent more than collector, Janine Burke builds a vibrant, richly detailed and intimate But even as she awaits a near-inevitable fate, her love of poetry, a decade on this major work, is a ‘natural writer’ (says Peter Craven) image of his life and times, set against the glittering, decadent literature and philosophy and her shrewd insights into all that is and it shows. Clark’s story is central to Australian cultural life, and background of fin-de-siècle Vienna. best and worst in humanity remain unimpaired. here it’s in the hands of a consummate storyteller.

GOUGH WHITLAM: LED ZEPPELIN: WHEN ME CHEETA: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY A MOMENT IN HISTORY GIANTS WALKED THE EARTH Cheeta Jenny Hocking Mick Wall Fourth Estate. PB. $33. Miegunyah. HB. $59.95. Orion. PB. $35. The (ghost-written) autobiographical account of This authoritative, illuminating biography Written by respected metal journalist Mick the life and times of Tarzan’s chimp sidekick takes an original approach to the life of one of Wall, When Giants Walked the Earth is the Cheeta is actually a rollicking exposé of our best-remembered prime ministers – and definitive biography of rock gods Led Hollywood’s golden years, seen through the a resounding Australian icon. There have been Zeppelin. Wall is an insider, on friendly eyes of a wise-cracking, world-weary, foul- many books about the Whitlam legacy over the years, most of them terms with Jimmy Page for more than 20 mouthed primate. From jungle capture to focusing on the events of his short prime ministership and his years, and he brings personal and musical celluloid star, problems with substance abuse, early retirement and his controversial dismissal, but few have placed his life in the perspective insights to the tale. Imaginative flashbacks provide vital background new-found career as an abstract painter, Cheeta pulls no punches in it deserves. Jenny Hocking traces Whitlam’s life from his parents’ to the musicians’ lives, getting under the skin of each player, in this Hollywood Babylon–style behind-the-scenes account. No animal marriage and his bookish Methodist Canberra childhood, surrounded particular Page. In-depth analyses take us through the recording of has ever been sued for libel and Cheeta doesn’t hold back when it by the children of politicians and public servants and the atmosphere each album, track by track, and the excesses of each tour, not comes to dishing the dirt on the film industry, his co-stars Johnny of government, to Whitlam’s euphoric election in 1972 (and yes, she omitting Bonzo’s legendary hotel-trashing exploits. Told from a muso’s Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan, and the surrounding coterie of plans a second volume). Gough Whitlam is a rewarding read for perspective, this rock bio goes beyond the drink, drugs and human bit players. Now happily ensconced in Palm Springs, Cheeta anyone interested in the evolution of a formidable politician and the debauchery, revealing the true extent of Page’s occult dabblings and (aged 76) is the oldest recorded living chimp and star of perhaps the shaping of his innovative, often groundbreaking policies. Robert Plant’s increasing desire to find solo success outside the band. quirkiest celebrity autobiography of our time.

HOPE ENDURES LEO ‘RUMPOLE’ MCKERN: MIRACLES OF LIFE: Colette Livermore THE ACCIDENTAL ACTOR SHANGHAI TO SHEPPERTON William Heinemann Australia. George Whaley J G Ballard PB. $34.95. UNSWP. PB. $39.95. Fourth Estate. PB. $25. This memoir is by an extraordinary woman To many, Leo McKern was the quintessential Even those who haven’t read J G Ballard’s 19 who served for 11 years as a nun in Mother English actor who became a household novels and 22 collections of short stories tend Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity order. In name with his portrayal of Horace Rumpole to know something about his life as a result of 1972, aged 18, Colette Livermore left home in the hugely popular long-running TV series Steven Spielberg’s magnificent 1987 to work with the world’s poor in the Rumpole of the Bailey. The problem with this adaptation of his semi-autobiographical novel, sprawling, fetid garbage dump of Manila, the jungle of Papua New scenario? He was Australian, not English. So entrenched was this Empire of the Sun (1987). Many have also been introduced to his Guinea and the crowded slums of urban India. She writes about these belief that even HM the Queen believed McKern to be a product of trademark fascination with the concept of dystopia through David experiences in an enormously compassionate but unflinchingly honest Old Blighty. George Whaley’s biography documents McKern’s early Cronenberg’s 1996 film, Crash. In this autobiography, Ballard takes an fashion. Ultimately, Colette became disillusioned with the rigid, often life, from his working-class Sydney upbringing to his departure for the almost clinical but always compelling look at his fascinating life. The psychologically abusive, administrative culture of the order and UK and subsequent career as one of his adopted country’s most book begins in Shanghai, where his early childhood was spent, and underwent a crisis of faith. Despite pressure from Mother Teresa and successful stage actors. From the early 1950s, McKern moved recounts his years spent interned in Lunghua POW Camp. It then other superiors, she decided to leave the order and returned to effortlessly between the stage, screen and television but it was on the follows him to Cambridge (where he drops out of medical school to Australia to become a GP and an atheist. Livermore delivers a searing box, between 1978 and 1992, that this much-loved and unassuming pursue a career as a writer) and to Canada, where he served with the exposé of blind faith and submission, and a compelling argument for Australian actor became a national treasure, both here and in the UK. RAF. Returning to London, he marries, has three children, tragically discovering personal paths to practising goodness in life. loses his wife, acts as a sole parent, drinks with the literati (Amis et al) and develops a singular career as a science-fiction writer.

THE GOLDEN BIRD NOVEL ABOUT MY WIFE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK Robert Adamson. Black Inc. PB. $27.95. Emily Perkins. Bloomsbury. PB. $29.95. Geraldine Brooks. Fourth Estate. PB. $33. This collection brings together the best of Robert Tom Stone, skinnyish, fortyish, English, is madly in Set in Sydney and in the ruins of war-torn Sarajevo, Adamson’s work from the last four decades, as well as love with his wife Ann, an Australian in self-imposed this gripping and moving novel is about war, art, many superb new poems. exile in London. But Ann’s pregnancy and strange love and survival. Another triumph from the behaviour, their new house and Tom’s stalling career Australian-born, Pulitzer-winning writer of March TURTLE threaten their happiness and relationship. (Fourth Estate. PB. $25). Gary Bryson. Allen & Unwin. PB. $27.95. Set in a bleak and rain-bedrizzled Glasgow, this debut ON CHESIL BEACH PERSEPOLIS novel tells the story of Donald Pinelli, an unhappy child Ian McEwan. Vintage. PB. $23.95. Marjane Satrapi. Vintage. PB. $27.95. whose unexpected encounter with a cantankerous July 1962. Newlyweds Edward and Florence arrive at This graphic novel paints an unforgettable portrait of turtle in a run-down zoo abruptly sets him on a crash a hotel on the Dorset coast for their honeymoon, daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions course in survival. struggling to suppress their private fears of the between home life and public life. Raw, honest and wedding night. McEwan at his subtle and elegant best. incredibly illuminating. WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS? Kate Atkinson. Doubleday. PB. $32.95. THE PAGES THE SECRET SCRIPTURE Detective chief inspector Louise Monroe is looking for Murray Bail. Text. HB. $34.95. Sebastian Barry. Faber. PB. $32.95. a missing person and encounters her old friend, From the author of Eucalyptus (Text. PB. $24.95), This lyrical novel was shortlisted for this year’s Man former PI Jackson Brodie, who is on a journey that is comes this beguiling meditation on friendship and love. Booker prize. It’s about Roseanne McNulty, born a about to be fatally interrupted. Set on a family sheep station in western NSW, it’s century ago in Sligo, whose shocking but beautiful about men and women, landscape and the difficulties story mirrors the secret history of Ireland itself. of thought. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:32 AM Page 11 biography 11 STELLA MILES FRANKLIN MY JUDY GARLAND LIFE REAL DIRT Jill Roe Susie Boyt James Woodford HarperCollins. HB. Virago. PB. $30. Text. PB. $34.95. Was $59.95, now $49.95. Growing up as the only square in a family James Woodford, the award-winning author Jill Roe’s long-awaited biography of one of of cool bohemians, novelist Susie Boyt of Wollemi Pine and The Secret Life of Australia’s leading literary lights is finally here (whose father is Lucian Freud) always felt Wombats (Text. PB. $24.95 each), takes us – and it’s as meticulously researched and like the odd one out – that is until, aged on a sea change of monumental proportions absorbing as one could possibly hope. Miles Franklin is, of course, three, she had her first on-screen in his inspiring memoir, Real Dirt. Woodford’s best known for the generous ongoing literary award she bequeathed encounter with Judy Garland. She passionately identified with demanding journalistic career, marriage to the nation – and for her breakout, internationally successful book Garland’s obsession with her weight and her refusal to hide her true break-up and fraught emotional state came to a head while he was My Brilliant Career (HarperCollins. PB. $24.95). Roe paints a picture of feelings – an emotionalism that Boyt shares. Ali Smith exuberantly covering the 1997 Thredbo disaster, forcing him to reflect on his life. a fascinating woman, deeply connected to the Australian bush and a praised this book (and Boyt) in The Times, calling it ‘a self- His subsequent decision to purchase a five-acre block on the NSW passionate advocate of women’s rights. She was a journalist and deprecating, funny, moving, entertaining read…a mad love letter’. This south coast set in motion a chain of events that led to a dramatic playwright (often published under pseudonyms), a nationalist, feminist is a no-holds-barred, seductively open journey deep into the realm of scaling back of his career, a new wife, children and the eventual and larrikin, whose independent success and overseas adventures contemporary fandom. Yes, it is studded with Judy trivia (including purchase of a 120-acre property. Slowly, with a lot of blood, sweat made hers an unusual life for her times. This book looks deep into the Boyt’s slightly mad interview with Liza Minnelli and duet with Mickey and tears, the family’s vision of living a sustainable, self-sufficient life heart and mind of this remarkable woman, as well as detailing her Rooney), but you don’t have to love Judy to love Susie Boyt. becomes a reality in this warts-and-all account of life on the land. literary friendships, achievements and adventures. DELIVERY SERVICE Your books can be delivered anywhere in Australia for a small charge – see the back cover for details.

ONE FLEW INTO THE ROBERT HELPMANN: CUCKOO’S EGG THE SUM OF OUR DAYS A SERVANT OF ART Isabel Allende Bill Oddie Anna Bemrose Headline. PB. $35. Fourth Estate. PB. UQP. HB. $49.95. Was $33, now $13.95. Fans of the Goodies, rejoice! Bill Oddie, one It’s hard to imagine that Robert Isabel Allende, bestselling author of over of the trio, has bowed to popular demand Helpmann, a giant in the world of ballet, 10 books, has written a memoir to her and written his memoirs. It’s all here: his theatre and opera, hailed from the sleepy daughter Paula, who died young after a life rambunctious childhood in Lancashire; the town of Mount Gambier. Anna Bemrose’s of drama, chaos and drug addiction. Yet mystery of his missing mother, who he biography is an engaging and thorough Paula’s story is not one of hopelessness or gradually realised was in a mental home; the Swinging ’60s, in which account of the life of Helpmann the artist, unmitigated tragedy. She left behind a he swung with the best of them; and the Cambridge years, when he from his early years in Australia and great stage successes in the UK daughter, Sabrina, and Allende relates to Paula her memories of joined comic forces with fellows by the names of John Cleese, Tim to his eventual return to Australia, where in 1965 he was appointed Sabrina’s premature birth, her struggle for survival, and her battle to Brooke-Taylor and Graham Chapman. He also talks about his first co-director of the Australian Ballet. Helpmann’s relationship with the retain custody of Sabrina when Social Services thought she would be marriage, which started to go wrong in the mid-70s, just as the Australian arts establishment was often rocky, particularly in 1970 better off elsewhere. She also delves into her less tragic but no less Goodies were achieving ‘near rock and roll status’, thereby placing when he was director of the Adelaide Festival. Bemrose reveals the heartfelt relationship with her son, daughter-in-law and their three Oddie in a position to belatedly sow his wild oats. singular vision of the often controversial artist, whose contribution to children, as well as the circle of friends and relations who helped her the Australian arts was recognised by his knighthood in 1968 and the survive, and come to terms with, the loss of her only daughter. PARIS TO THE MOON state funeral he was accorded on his death in 1998. THROUGH THE CHILDREN’S GATE Adam Gopnik THE SAME MAN: GEORGE Quercus. PB. $13.95 each ORWELL AND EVELYN THINGS I DIDN’T KNOW or 2 for $20 WAUGH IN LOVE AND WAR Robert Hughes New Yorker essayist Adam Gopnik links Paris and David Lebedoff Random House. HB. New York in these transatlantic memoirs, serving Scribe. PB. $29.95. Was $55, now $18.95. up a feast of thought-provoking observations on It’s a tasty idea to take what appear to be Robert Hughes’ powerful memoir opens life, family and the world about us. Originally two very disparate characters (born the with a brutal description of the terrible WA published in 2001, Paris to the Moon is a same year, 1903) and hypothesise that they car accident that left him physically and collection of ‘letters from abroad’, detailing the might just be more like peas from the same mentally shattered. Using the experience of challenges and joys Gopnik experienced while pod. On the surface, Waugh was the party the accident to justify the need to explore fulfilling his lifelong dream of living in Paris. His animal and social butterfly turned devout Catholic who penned classics his past, Hughes then takes us through his more-recent memoir, Through the Children’s Gate, picks up the story in such as Vile Bodies and Brideshead Revisited, while Orwell raged childhood. He writes of intimately personal details, but he uses every 2000, when Gopnik and his family returned to live in New York, until against the class system, fought fascism and created a nightmarish aspect of his life to expound on broader, universal subjects. From his 9/11 a seemingly safer place. Whether discussing French cuisine, vision of the future in his novel 1984. What both men had in common, development as an artist and writer to his beginnings as an art critic, intellectual life and cafés or big picture politics, deceased pets and Lebedoff asserts, was a vision of a crumbling future, a dumbed-down Hughes writes of his growing appreciation for art and we share his psychotherapy, Gopnik’s writing is wonderfully evocative. Throughout world consumed by wealth and power at the expense of all else. The exhilaration as he leaves confining Australia in the ’60s and finds a both memoirs, the recurring motifs of Christmas and Thanksgiving Same Man is a compelling study of two of the 20th-century’s greatest new life in Italy and London. Never veering into sentiment and always underscore the topic Gopnik holds most dear: family life. writers who only ever met once, on Orwell’s deathbed in 1950. looking back with a critical eye, this is a truly fascinating read.

SOMETHING TO TELL YOU STRAY DOG WINTER Hanif Kureishi. Faber. PB. $32.95. David Francis. Allen & Unwin. PB. $32.95. Kureishi follows the fortunes of a successful An unconventional Cold War thriller and an BOMB, BOOK & COMPASS psychoanalyst who, as the book opens, is original, unforgettable love story set in 1980s Simon Winchester. Viking. PB. $32.95. reflecting on his coming-of-age in 1970s Britain, Moscow, this novel by the Australian-born, US- The seminal work Science and Civilization in China was on his first love and on a brutal act of violence based writer is reminiscent of the work of written by Joseph Needham, a Cambridge-educated from which he can never escape. Graham Greene. biochemist who was fascinated with the country’s language and history. Here, Winchester tells the story of the THE SORROWS OF AN AMERICAN THE TWIN man, his book and the passion that inspired it. Siri Hustvedt. Sceptre. PB. $33. Gerbrand Bakker. Scribe. PB. $29.95. From the author of the extraordinarily moving What This prize-winning novel is about the bleak Dutch KIPLING SAHIB I Loved (Sceptre. PB. $25) comes this tale of Erik countryside, as seen through the eyes of reluctant Charles Allen. Little, Brown. PB. $28. Davidsen, a psychiatrist who discovers a cryptic farmer Helmer, and about the possibility – or An account of the first part of Rudyard Kipling’s life, letter from an unknown woman among the papers impossibility – of taking life into one’s own hands. between 1865 and 1900. It reveals the ‘real’ Kipling: the of his dead father – a man he never fully admirer of the underdog who went on to rediscover the understood. THE GOOSE BATH POEMS child in himself and write the Jungle Books and Kim. Janet Frame. Wilkins Farago. PB. $32.95. THE SPARE ROOM When the acclaimed author of An Angel at My THE LOT: IN WORDS Helen Garner. Text. HB. $29.95. Table died, she left behind hundreds of Michael Leunig. Viking. PB. $29.95. Describing Garner’s latest novel, Peter Carey unpublished poems, over 100 of which have These musings from the much-loved cartoonist are about wrote: ‘How is it that she can enter this heart- been included in this collection. Winner of the everything under the sun and many things over the moon. breaking territory – the dying friend who comes to poetry section of the 2007 Montana New Zealand Leunig’s particular brand of journalism – part parable, stay – and make it not only bearable, but glorious, Book Awards. part memoir, part soliloquy – is original and uplifting. and funny?’ 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:32 AM Page 12 12 art design THE TWO KINDS OF DECAY A BRUSH WITH BIRDS: CURRENT: CONTEMPORARY Sarah Manguso AUSTRALIAN BIRD ART ART FROM AUSTRALIA AND Hunter. HB. $27.95. FROM THE NATIONAL NEW ZEALAND At the age of 21, Sarah Manguso awoke LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA Art & Australia (ed.) one morning to find her feet still asleep NLA. PB. $34.95. Dott Publishing. HB. $120. and her hands tingling. These symptoms Avian art in Australia began with the This survey of Australasian art profiles 80 were the first signs of an extremely rare voyages of James Cook. By the time of artists from Australia and New Zealand form of Guillain-Barr syndrome, a British settlement, Australian avian art was whose work reflects the vibrancy of the neurological condition that would plague at the height of its notoriety for curious Europeans new to the contemporary art scene. Charged with the dynamic between her for the next nine years of her life. Her wonders of the lyrebird, the kookaburra, the emu and the black swan. Indigenous, Western and Asian cultures, the art of our region is both memoir is a short, sharp-as-a-diamond This exquisitely illustrated book showcases the National Library’s complex and progressive. Showcased here are local artists including and often darkly humorous account of her years of hospitalisation, extensive collection and clearly demonstrates the progression of this Destiny Deacon, Rosemary Laing, Dale Frank, Bill Henson, Callum medication, prescription drug addiction and depression. Manguso specialised art form over the years, as the birds are gradually Morton, Jan Nelson, Andrew Brook, Shaun Gladwell and Patricia writes with an analytical and poetic eye, as she catalogues in portrayed in their natural habitat rather than against Europeanised Piccinini, as well as many up-and-coming names from both sides of medically precise detail her battle with an autoimmune disease that backdrops. Artists include Edward Lear (he of The Nonsense Book the Tasman. Including six contextual essays from influential curators, sees her body waging war against itself. From the shadows of a fame), Sarah Stone (who had to work from stuffed taxidermists’ 80 artist profiles and over 200 colour reproductions, this lavishly nightmare, she shines a brilliant light on what it is like to suffer from specimens), Betty Temple Watts (the first to show Australian birds in produced title will be a fabulous addition to every serious art library. crippling disease and pain. familiar settings and dynamic poses) and William Cooper. HOLLYWOOD FOTO-RHETORIC TWO LIVES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF Bob Dylan & Barry Feinstein GERTRUDE AND ALICE GRAPHIC FICTION, Simon & Schuster. HB. $32.95. Janet Malcolm CARTOONS, AND TRUE Digging through his archives last year, MUP. HB. STORIES VOL 2 renowned rock’n’roll photographer Barry Was $32.95, now $14.95. Ivan Brunetti (ed.) Feinstein came across a long-forgotten cache of dark, moody snapshots of Much has been written about the pitfalls of Yale University Press. HB. Hollywood in the early 1960s. Next to the photographs was a set of biographical writing, the search for $59.95. prose poems, written around the same time by his old friend, Bob accuracy and avoidance of bias and Comic art is a vital, highly personal art Dylan. Hollywood Foto-Rhetoric features these rediscovered portraits hearsay. In fact, Gertrude Stein played with form in which change – rapid and of Tinseltown and the 23 thought-provoking and witty poems that the formula herself in her mock- unpredictable – is the norm. In this exciting follow-up to his were inspired by them. Images such as those of Judy Garland, autobiography of Alice B Toklas. Janet Malcolm – biographer of Sylvia internationally acclaimed 2006 anthology, comic artist Ivan Brunetti Marlene Dietrich and Steve McQueen resonate within our collective Plath, Chekhov and Freud – adds a dose of psychology and focuses on very recent works by contemporary artists engaged in this memory, while photographs of hopeful starlets, movie studio backlots investigative journalism to tease out her portrait of the often volatile world of change. These outstanding cartoonists, selected by Brunetti and sunny, palm-treed boulevards evoke the timeless allure of all relationship between Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas. Provocatively, for their graphic sophistication and literary style, are both expanding things Hollywood. A lyrical and unexpected addition to Dylan’s she wonders how the two women, both Jewish and lesbian, managed and transforming the vocabulary of their genre. The book presents seemingly never-ending body of work. to survive life in Vichy France during WWII, and she dwells on Toklas’ contemporary art comics produced by 75 artists, along with some dogged protection of Stein’s legacy after the writer’s death in 1946. classic comic strips and other related fine art and historical materials. Malcolm’s elegant little book includes classic photographs of Stein Who committed the Marquis Brunetti has arranged the book to reflect the creative process itself, and Toklas, and liberally quotes from Stein’s works. de Sade to prison? connecting stories and art to each other in surprising ways: nonlinear, elliptical, sometimes whimsical, even poetic. WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I THE LANGUAGE OF THINGS ANNIE LEIBOVITZ AT WORK TALK ABOUT RUNNING Deyan Sudjic Annie Leibovitz Haruki Murakami Allen Lane. HB. $39.95. Jonathan Cape. HB. $69.95. Harvill. HB. $29.95. We live in a world drowning in objects. But Here, the celebrated photographer what do they tell us about ourselves? Here, ‘Cult’ novelist Haruki Murakami attracts a provides the stories and technical architectural journalist and cultural following approaching the dimensions of description behind many of her most commentator Deyan Sudjic charts our a religion – and with good cause. Quite famous images. Starting in 1974, with her relationship – both innocent and simply, he possesses a fascinating mind. coverage of Nixon’s resignation, and knowing – with all things designed. Any opportunity to glimpse its inner culminating with her controversial From the opulent excesses of the workings is a welcome one. This unusual portraits of Queen Elizabeth II early in 2007, Leibovitz discusses catwalk to the technical brilliance of a laptop computer or the subtle book, told in an instantly winning, approximately 90 images in detail, including the famous nude session refinement of a desk lamp, he shows how we can be manipulated conversational style, will delight Murakami’s many followers, as well as with John Lennon and Yoko Ono hours before Lennon was killed, and and seduced by our possessions. Sudjic delivers an exhilarating anyone interested in its twin topics of running and writing. He tells the Demi Moore pregnant and naked on the cover of Vanity Fair. She insider’s history of design as he introduces us to the world’s most story of how he became a writer (the idea just occurred to him in the describes the circumstances under which they were taken, and gives original innovators and reveals the hidden meanings in their work. In middle of watching a baseball game), how he became a runner, and specific technical information (what camera, what settings, what an age when the word ‘designer’ has become synonymous with the how the discipline of running every day has influenced and enhanced lighting, where the images appeared). Leibovitz’s fans and lovers of cynical and manipulative, The Language of Things examines the his craft. There is a grand literary tradition of writers on sport (think great photography will find her stories of how one learns to see – and qualities behind successful design and explores the conflicting Norman Mailer’s The Fight) and Murakami’s book slots perfectly into it. then how to photograph – truly inspiring. tensions between high art and mass production. Impress your clients by giving them a book instead of a hamper this Christmas! CORPORATE GIFTS Contact us for our corporate rates on bulk purchases.

THE WIDOW CLICQUOT ART OF AUSTRALIA LITTLE PEOPLE IN THE CITY: Tilar J Mazzeo John McDonald THE STREET ART OF HarperCollins. PB. $33. Macmillan. HB. SLINKACHU Was $125, now $99. Historians claim that ‘no business in the world Slinkachu has been influenced by the female sex as In this stunning first volume in a new Boxtree. HB. $33. much as champagne’. And no woman was series, well-known Sydney Morning Herald more influential than the pioneering Barbe- art critic John McDonald takes a lively, in- British street artist Slinkachu sculpts handmade plastic figures at Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, whose name still depth look at Australian art from the First Fleet to the Australian 1/87th scale, like toy figures from a model railway. After setting them graces champagne bottles today. Widowed at Impressionists. He writes vividly about the artists and artworks he has up in an urban street scene, he photographs them and then leaves 27, this determined entrepreneur seized the reins of the fledgling chosen to highlight, reassessing their reputations and placing them them to fend for themselves. Dwarfed by their surroundings, the little family business and steered it confidently through the tumultuous firmly within the context of their movements and milieu, sharing their people and the urban scenarios they inhabit are at once comical, years of the French Revolution. Her winemaking inventions and original critical reception as well as providing a contemporary poignant and unsettling. Originally conceived as a Tiny Street Art experiments not only founded a champagne house, but made this perspective. The text teems with characters and anecdotes; take, for Project, this little book brings together 53 of the photographically distinctive sparkling wine – the world’s foremost luxury item – instance, Portuguese artist Arthur Loureiro (‘overdue for recorded works. Each scene is photographed both as a long shot, accessible beyond the super rich. This elegantly written, obsessively reassessment’, writes McDonald), who arrived in Melbourne a virtual where the figures are barely visible, and close up, revealing the researched biography traces the history of champagne and ‘the invalid but was restored by the Australian air – and was ‘discovered’ drama Slinkachu has created. The artist’s vision is reminiscent of that widow’s’ role in it, and also looks at the fascinating, contradictory life while painting in the Fitzroy Gardens by art critic James Smith. Surely of David Lynch, where behind the apparent normality a new and of this groundbreaking woman, who was staunchly conservative and this is destined to become the ultimate reference to Australian art. strange world is revealed. operated outside the emerging first wave of feminism. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:32 AM Page 13 design art photography13 LIVES OF THE PAPUNYA SELF PORTRAIT VANITY FAIR TULA ARTISTS Anthony Blond & PORTRAITS Vivien Johnson Joanna Woodall Graydon Carter (ed.) IAD Press. HB. $100. AGNSW. PB. Hardie Grant. HB. This book is impressive on many levels. Was $45, now $16.95. Was $120, now $99.95. Open it anywhere and the remarkable As Edmund Capon notes in his introduction With its origins stretching back to 1913, portrait photos, opposite reproductions of to this exhibition catalogue, the act of Vanity Fair danced a Charleston through the paintings, draw the viewer towards a looking in the mirror is one that reinforces the Jazz Age with its heady mix of deeper appreciation of the artists, their families, their culture and the our consciousness of how we see ourselves. How fascinating, then, to fashion, fine arts and culture. Top-notch works themselves. The text follows: succinctly written, it relies on see how artists from the Renaissance to the early 21st century have contributions from writers and lengthy interviews and decades of accumulated data, depicted themselves in self-portraits. The catalogue to an exhibition photographers were trademark features, ensuring the magazine’s comprehensively revealing important biographical information on all that was staged at London’s National Portrait Gallery in 2005 and the enormous success. The Depression forced the magazine’s closure in of the artists associated with this remarkable Western Desert Art Gallery of NSW in 2006, Self Portrait: Renaissance to Contemporary 1936 but after a 47-year lay-off it hit the stands again with a not community. One may wonder how this new book could expand on is a handsomely illustrated production featuring 140 such works. dissimilar formula and as much success. Vanity Fair Portraits is a Geoffrey Bardon’s wonderful book on Papunya, which won the 2005 Artists include Van Eyck, Caravaggio, Velázquez, Van Gogh, Kahlo, celebration of the portraiture that has graced the magazine’s two Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for Non-fiction. But Vivien Hopper, Bacon and Warhol. There are also five essays by experts from incarnations spanning almost 100 years. Graydon Carter’s selection of Johnson’s book adds another dimension, revealing the depth and the AGNSW, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of California, Berkeley over 300 photographs is a beautiful and fascinating cultural who’s consistency of Papunya Tula art. The result of more than 20 years of and Cambridge University. A great gift for art lovers, and a total steal who, where iconic images from some of photography’s greats are dedicated research, this very beautiful book brilliantly showcases one at this price. playfully juxtaposed with no regard to chronology. A book any coffee of the most important art movements in recent Australian history. table will cry out for.

LOST BUILDINGS SITELESS: VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY Jonathan Glancey 1001 BUILDING FORMS Tony Rice Cameron House. HB. $49.95. François Blanciak Allen & Unwin. HB. $49.95. Lost Buildings is a survey of buildings long MIT Press. PB. $29.95. If you’ve always longed to visit the vanished as well as those demolished within Siteless is a new kind of design book. Its Natural History Museum in London, save living history, some by dim politicians (Penn author, a young French architect practising in yourself the expense of an airfare and buy Station in New York, Euston Arch in London) Tokyo, describes it as a compulsive reaction to this magnificent volume instead. Granted and soulless developers (Richard Neutra’s his profound boredom with the discipline of access to the museum’s collections, Tony Maslon House in California, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel in architecture. What would happen, he asks, if architects liberated their Rice has compiled a stunning book Tokyo, Eric Mendolsohn’s Shocken department store in Stuttgart); minds from the constraints of site, program and budget? The result is highlighting the illustrative material garnered on 10 scientific others by war, fire, earthquake or other acts of God (the citadel of Bam a book that is saturated with building forms, and almost totally free of expeditions, from Sloane’s journey to Jamaica in 1687 to James in Iran, London’s Crystal Palace). Author Jonathan Glancey is the words. Forms featured include structural parasites, chain-link towers, Cook’s South Seas voyages and Flinders’ surveying expedition up architecture and design editor at Britain’s Guardian newspaper, and ball-bearing floors, corrugated corners, exponential balconies, radial Australia’s east coast. Botanical artists’ Indian-ink sketches, maps and here he writes about the many losses that our built environment has façades, crawling frames, forensic housing – and other architectural hand-painted colour plates evoke that era of discovery and scientific suffered over the centuries. With loads of photographs and illustrations, ideas that may require construction techniques not yet developed and enquiry, and capture the botanical and zoological curios of then-new and a compellingly written and impeccably researched text, Lost a relation to gravity not yet achieved. It’s an open-ended compendium continents. For dipping into, or a systematic reading, Voyages of Buildings is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining. of visual ideas for the architectural imagination to draw from. Discovery reveals a wealth of scientific and artistic treasures.

THE PHAIDON ATLAS OF 21ST SURF-O-RAMA: TREASURES THE WOODBLOCK PAINTING CENTURY WORLD ARCHITECTURE OF AUSTRALIAN SURFING OF CRESSIDA CAMPBELL Phaidon. HB. $275. Murray Walding Peter Crayford (ed.) Explore the best architecture of the 21st Miegunyah. PB. $45. Public Pictures. HB. $120. century in this collection of over 1000 Surfing enthusiasts will long for this Now in her late 50s, Cressida Campbell buildings sited all over the world. Divided into beautifully produced book – a true labour has been exhibiting her colourful images six world regions (Oceania, Asia, Europe, of love by one of their own – but it will of domestic interiors, plants, gum trees, Africa, North America and South America), this also draw anyone nostalgic for the surfing days of their past. Popular harbour scenes and still-lifes since she was 19. This large-format, authoritative atlas provides an important overview of global and local culture writer Murray Walding was responsible for another smash-hit 360-page volume concentrates on her multi-coloured wood block trends in architecture. Each region is introduced by an analysis of book that combined collectible art with the evolution of Australian ‘paintings’, which bring to mind artists such as Bonnard or Matisse urban and architectural issues, and the work of an emerging culture: Plastered. His passion and affinity for his subject are evident and are beautifully reproduced on off-white paper resembling a generation of architectural stars is placed alongside buildings by once again here, as he traces the trajectory of local surfing culture printmaker’s art paper. Apart from a foreword by Edmund Capon internationally acclaimed architects, all accompanied by drawings, from the 1914 surfing demonstration by Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku (Director of the Art Gallery of NSW), an introduction by John photographs and a short essay. Every type of building is included, that popularised the sport, to the 1980s (the dating of the last McDonald (art critic for the Sydney Morning Herald) and a very brief from the smallest single houses, studios and kiosks to the largest art collectible items). The story of surfing is told by its relics, all description of the artist’s technique, the entire book is devoted to the galleries, airports and stadia. This is a sumptuously produced photographed and presented in lush full-colour spreads: surfboards, artworks themselves. Some of these are foldouts and some include resource that will perfectly adorn both home libraries and those of poster art from surf movies, rare surf magazines, surf music and an accompanying detail of the image. Masterfully reproduced, they architectural practices. beach-inspired souvenirs and kitsch. offer a comprehensive survey of the last 24 years of this Sydney- based artist’s oeuvre.

FEMME FATALE: THE FEMALE CRIMINAL GREAT SPEECHES: WORDS THAT MADE HISTORY PENGUIN’S POEMS FOR LIFE Nerida Campbell. Historic Houses Trust. HB. $19.95. Viking. HB. $29.95. Laura Barber (ed.). Penguin. PB. $26.95. Published to accompany the exhibition at Sydney’s Justice This collection of ancient and modern speeches includes The perfect book of verse to inspire, comfort & Police Museum, this fascinating book contrasts popular the words of activists, politicians, philosophers and scores and delight you for a lifetime. It includes culture representations of female criminals with of others who have borne witness to significant moments poems celebrating birth and love, pondering photographs of real women imprisoned in Sydney’s Long from the 1st century to the 21st. ageing and confronting death. Bay Gaol from 1914 to 1930. MY READING LIFE PROUST AND THE SQUID OCHRE AND RUST Bob Carr. Viking. PB. $35. Maryanne Wolf. Icon. PB. $23.95. Philip Jones. Wakefield. HB. $49.95. The great Harold Bloom says that Bob Carr is one of the How does the brain learn to read? Cognitive Jones won this year’s Prime Minister’s Literary Award most erudite men he has ever met – encomiums don’t neuroscientist Wolf looks at the evolving (Non-Fiction) for this work, in which he takes Aboriginal come much better than that. Here, Carr shares his human brain, discussing the impact that the artefacts off the shelves and traces their stories, revealing profound love of books and reading. proliferation of digital, rather than written, hitherto undocumented nuances underpinning moments of culture is having. She also looks at challenges encounter in Australia’s frontier history. OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY such as dyslexia. THE TALL MAN OUP. HB. Was $2500, now $1300. QUARTERLY ESSAY 32: ON THE US Chloe Hooper. Hamish Hamilton. PB. $32.95. Version with CD-ROM was $2999, now $1500. ELECTION One morning, on the tropical paradise of Palm Island, Widely acknowledged as the most authoritative and Kate Jennings. Black Inc. PB. $15.95. Cameron Doomadgee swore at a policeman; 40 minutes comprehensive dictionary of English in the world, this 20- On the heels of the US election comes the later he lay dead in a watch-house cell. This is the story of volume set is now offered at an amazing price! Wow latest QE, looking at Bush’s last days in office, that policeman, and of the struggle to bring him to trial for someone special or treat yourself with a set sub-prime meltdowns, the saga of Sarah Palin Doomadgee’s death. this Christmas. and the meaning of Obama. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:32 AM Page 14 14 history 1788: THE BRUTAL FIRST AUSTRALIANS THE LANDMARK TRUTH OF THE FIRST FLEET Rachel Perkins (ed.) HERODOTUS: THE HISTORIES David Hill Miegunyah. HB. $89.95. Robert B Strassler (ed.) Random House. PB. Up until the 1960s, the history of the Quercus. HB. Was $34.95, now $29.95. Australian Aborigine was generally Was $69.95, now $59.95. presented in a light that was neither By the late 1770s, England’s prisons were Reminding us that the clash between East and positive nor historically accurate. The overflowing and their populations set to West is nothing new, Herodotus’ The Histories ‘Progress of the White Man’ was lauded, increase. With the American colonies cut off recounts the Persian Wars of the fifth century BC. This, his life’s work, while the remarkable achievements of Indigenous Australians were as a convenient repository for convicts, is regarded as the first-ever work of narrative non-fiction and earned either ignored, or not understood. Such is the background to the First citizens concerned by the chaos and disease of overcrowded prisons him the moniker of ‘father of history’. Travelling extensively from Egypt Australians project. This book’s seven chapters cover a remarkable began to campaign for the reintroduction of transportation. The result to Phoenicia and the Black Sea, he fleshed out his work with lively breadth and range, from the story of Bennelong, a powerful man of the was the bold experiment of sending a convoy of ships to the other side digressions detailing ancient dress, language and customs, Babylonian Wangal clan who matched wits with Governor Phillip in the early years of the world, with enough supplies to last two years. The First Fleet, marriage markets, boar hunts in ancient Lydia and Persians devoted to of Botany Bay, to the recent, occasionally successful, attempts by which set off under Captain Phillip in 1787, contained a motley drinking wine (oh, the irony). This lavish edition, comprehensively Indigenous men and women to obtain justice and recognition of their collection of the good and the bad, and a colourful cast of characters. annotated and mapped, will delight Classicists or anyone who wants to right to ancestral lands. This is Indigenous history as it should be David Hill’s lively book re-creates their backgrounds and personalities, dip in periodically to savour lucid accounts of a world long since lost. written: lively, factual and unmarred by prejudice. and shows how they fared when those who survived the journey crashed into the harsh reality of what awaited them at Sydney Cove. THE FORSAKEN: AN AMERICAN LYGON ST. TRAGEDY IN STALIN’S RUSSIA Michael Harden CHURCHILL AND AUSTRALIA Tim Tzouliadis Murdoch. HB. Graham Freudenberg Little, Brown. PB. $35. Was $59.95, now $49.95. Macmillan. HB. $55. We hazard a guess that every Melburnian It seems unbelievable now, but Depression-era has joined the weekend passeggiata along As prime minister during WWII, Winston America was the scene of one of Carlton’s most famous street at some point Churchill’s involvement with Australia was history’s least-heralded migrations. in time. The home of great coffee, delizioso gelato and the city’s best greater than that of any British prime Desperate unemployed family men and idealistic socialists alike saw bookshop (ahem), Lygon Street is etched into our consciousness as minister before or since. At first, his need for Stalin’s Soviet Union as a potential Promised Land – a worker’s Melbourne’s Little Italy, but many older Victorians remember it as the Australian troops made the relationship a paradise offering employment, health care and housing for all. Initially, centre of the city’s Jewish and Greek communities in the decades largely positive one; but after Darwin was they founded English-language schools and newspapers and baseball spanning 1880–1960, as well as the home of an exciting alternative bombed and Australia turned to the US as an teams, and enjoyed heightened status among their new countrymen. arts scene in the 1970s. This book traces the street’s cultural and ally in the Pacific, the honeymoon was over. Acting as if Australia had But by the mid-1930s, the dream was becoming a nightmare. As their culinary history, recounting the stories of many of its notable snubbed the British Empire to which he was so passionately attached, passports were revoked and they were banished from their factories to characters and providing recipes sourced from restaurants past and Churchill’s attitude hardened. Graham Freudenberg argues that this the gulags, American ambassador Joseph Davies drank vodka on present, including those run by Stephanie Alexander and Tony Bilson. brought out all that was worst in Churchill’s character, causing him to Stalin’s yacht and New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty wrote With loads of visual va-va-voom (the paper and colour reproductions overlook the assistance Australians had provided in the Boer War and glowing false reports. Documentary-maker Tzouliadis has produced a are gorgeous), Lygon St. is the perfect Christmas gift for ex- WWI, and doing them less than justice in his history of WWII. In an epic thoroughly researched, accessibly written narrative history bohemians and current coffee-addicts alike. and groundbreaking book, he at last sets the record straight. commemorating a dark episode that history would rather forget. If, on inspection, you’re not happy with a book selected through this guide, you can return it (in saleable condition) within 14 GUARANTEE days of purchase and we’ll exchange it for another book of equivalent value or for a book voucher – the choice is yours.

ELIZABETH IN THE GARDEN MILLENNIUM: THE END OF FRIENDLY MISSION Trea Martyn THE WORLD AND THE N J B Plomley (ed.) Faber. HB. $49.95. FORGING OF CHRISTENDOM Quintus. HB. $99. The Elizabeth in this ‘story of love, rivalry and Tom Holland spectacular design’ is Good Queen Bess, Friendly Mission: the Tasmanian Journals and Little, Brown. PB. $35. Elizabeth I. Garden historian Trea Martyn Papers of George Augustus Robinson, combines well-researched history and a 1829–1834 was first published in 1966. This The author of the bestselling Rubicon (Little, sprinkling of imaginative storytelling to explore the political and monumental and controversial work continues Brown. PB. $28) has produced a study of horticultural rivalry between Elizabeth’s two famous courtiers – to be in great demand as a key source another epoch-defining crisis in European Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and William Cecil, Lord Burghley – document of Australian colonial history. Its republication contains history. For centuries after the fall of Rome, and the extravagant gardens they created to impress Her Majesty. material omitted from the first edition and has an extensive new there survived the concept – and practice – of a global emperor, who Martyn’s entertaining, narrative approach to history brings the index. The huge work records Robinson’s conciliation attempts with held the reins of Christendom in his hands. All that changed in 1076, Elizabethan era to life, with its extravagant pageants and masques, the Tasmanian Aborigines and their subsequent relocation to Flinders when Pope Gregory excommunicated the Emperor Henry IV, roused banquets, fireworks and theatrical performances. Her book is also a Island in Bass Strait. It includes journals he kept during his Bruny his enemies against him and forced him to do penance as the price very clever discourse on the changing face of England’s grand Island mission and his later expeditions throughout Tasmania in of keeping his crown. From this, Holland argues, sprang the hitherto gardens, as she traces their development from intricate knot gardens search of all extant tribes. Robinson’s daily accounts of what he did unknown practice of a division between church and state. But what to the trick fountains, mazes, grottoes, long walks and other Italianate and saw are an important record of the Tasmanian Aboriginal tribes, made this revolution possible? The ending of the first millennium, and designs of the Elizabethan era. Tasmanian history and Aboriginal policy. a belief in the Second Coming and the imminent end of the world? In another majestic work of history, Holland attempts to find the answer.

THE DISCOVERY OF FRANCE BLOOD & TINSEL THE HOUSE OF WITTGENSTEIN Graham Robb. Picador. PB. $27. Jim Sharman. Miegunyah. HB. $50. Alexander Waugh. Bloomsbury. HB. $49.95. Written by the much-admired biographer of Balzac, Jim Sharman made Australian creativity hip, original In this much-praised biography, Alexander Waugh Rimbaud and Victor Hugo, this journey through the and international when it really mattered. This tells the fascinating story of the moneyed Austrian historical landscape of France features an abundance fascinating memoir looks at his colourful childhood clan. Philosopher Ludwig is probably the best known of literary references and quirky anecdotes. and high-profile international theatrical career. today, but Waugh’s primary focus is pianist Paul, Ludwig’s brother. INDIA AFTER GANDHI: THE HISTORY OF FRED WILLIAMS 1927–1982 THE WORLD’S LARGEST DEMOCRACY Patrick McCaughey. Murdoch. HB. $125. JENNIE CHURCHILL: Ramachandra Guha. Pan. PB. $30. A fully updated and lavishly illustrated edition of WINSTON’S AMERICAN MOTHER This comprehensive study of the world’s most McCaughey’s monumental study of the great Anne Sebba. John Murray. PB. $30. populous democracy explores every facet of Australian artist, which was first published in 1980. After a three-day romance, Brooklyn-born Jennie contemporary India, from political, religious and It includes a new chapter: ‘Fred Williams in a Jerome married into the British aristocracy, becoming linguistic issues through to the class system. New Century’. Lady Randolph Churchill and a behind-the-scenes political dynamo. A vivid and frank biography. VAN DIEMEN’S LAND GOD’S ARCHITECT James Boyce. Black Inc. HB. $49.95. Rosemary Hill. Penguin. PB. $29.95. JOHN STUART MILL: VICTORIAN FIREBRAND Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan describes this Hill’s study of Pugin and the building of Romantic Richard Reeves. Atlantic. PB. $29.95. new history so: ‘The most significant colonial history Britain was awarded this year’s Wolfson Prize for Now in paperback, Richard Reeves’ beautifully written since The Fatal Shore…In re-imaging Australia’s past, History. She uncovers Pugin’s passionate life in full, book is the definitive life of the author of On Liberty. it invents a new future’. showing the rough, emotional and magnetic genius he was. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:32 AM Page 15 politics 15 THE OXFORD COMPANION THE AMERICAN FUTURE THE HENSON CASE TO AUSTRALIAN MILITARY Simon Schama David Marr HISTORY Random House. PB. $35. Text. PB. $24.95. Peter Dennis & Jeffrey Grey The new release from the world’s most The Henson Case centres on Melbourne OUP. HB. $79.95. popular historian shines a light on America photographer Bill Henson, whose work The second edition of this important as the country prepares for the most depicting naked children was shown in a publication has been significantly important election in a generation. Longtime Sydney gallery in May this year. The exhibition revised, once again drawing on the US resident Simon Schama explores the started a media frenzy about child abuse, expertise of Australia’s foremost military scholars. War is one of the nation’s self-examination that began with paedophilia and censorship, resulting in a defining experiences in Australian history – with a significant 9/11, when its public image morphed from seizure by police and comments from politicians including Mr Rudd’s proportion of the federal budget allocated to defence and Anzac Day global cop to the country much of the world loved to hate. In ‘absolutely revolting’. Marr’s investigative style covers the entire affair rivalling Australia Day for our most important national holiday. discussing the names, dates and conflicts of history, he puts the and includes the Art Monthly magazine feature on the subject, which Therefore, this comprehensive guide to our military history is also present in context and notes the implications for the future. sparked a new round of debate. While it’s clear Marr regards the whole very much a guide to our development as a nation. It provides up-to- Determinedly optimistic, Schama looks at America’s often paradoxical affair as a witch hunt, his reportage stays with the facts and only date information on Australia’s many military matters, both past and make-up and belief systems, its dwindling natural resources and high occasionally does he offer a personal view: ‘Whether we enjoy such present, ranging from the early colonial days to the present. stakes politics. Timely, illuminating and essential reading from the pictures has always been a matter of taste’. But is ‘taste’ all there is to Illustrated with 30 specially commissioned maps and arranged in a much-awarded author of Citizens, Rembrandt’s Eyes and The History it? Readers can make up their own mind – this well-written book handy A–Z format, this is a must-have reference item for anyone of Britain trilogy, The American Future is also a four-part BBC TV series. includes the images in question and gives all the details one needs. interested in our military history. BELCHING OUT THE DEVIL: LEISUREVILLE GLOBAL ADVENTURES WITH Andrew D Blechman SEA OF DANGERS: CAPTAIN UQP. PB. $32.95. COOK AND HIS RIVALS COCA-COLA Geoffrey Blainey Mark Thomas When his neighbours decided to sell up and Ebury Press. PB. $34.95. move to a gated community for retirees, author Viking. HB. $49.95. Andrew Blechman questioned their motivation. Mark Thomas is one of Britain’s leading The latest work by eminent Australian Why move from a perfectly political comedy writers. He’s the European historian Geoffrey Blainey focuses on a harmonious community to a Michael Moore, only with a smaller ego and critical but little-known area of maritime Disneyland for seniors where an affinity for getting his facts straight. In this history, when rivals France and England children aren’t allowed and the entry age is 55 plus? In Leisureville, political travel adventure (a new genre?), he were each attempting to locate the ‘missing’ Blechman enters the at times unbelievable world of The Villages, a takes on the world’s leading corporate brand, visiting its operations in continent of Australia. The discovery of Tahiti gated community larger than Manhattan with close to 100,000 international hotspots and cut-price labour hubs including Colombia, El in 1767 offered the British a base from which the Pacific Ocean could residents, its own newspaper, local TV station and magazines. It’s the Salvador, Mexico and India, and reporting back for us, the consumers. be explored, and after that it was only a matter of time before they Truman Show in reverse – you know it’s not real and you actually want Thomas’s self-deprecating prose is sprinkled with spot-on satire and began to search intently for Terra Australis Incognita. In 1769, Captain to stay there. Blechman examines how such leisure-filled utopias laugh-out-loud wisecracks, but its central message is deadly serious. Cook set out to locate it, while at the same time, the St Jean-Baptiste affect the fabric of our society, and what it means for the future if more He interviews the remnants of Colombia’s Coca-Cola trade union, which set out under the command of Jean de Surville on that very same of our seniors drop out, turn on and tune in to a life in Leisureville. was decimated by paramilitaries, who killed and kidnapped some of its quest. But due to a series of chances the two were fated never to members. He talks to Indian farmers battling drought in an area where meet, and to literally pass one another like ships in the night. What novel won Canada’s Coke has bought much of their water for next to nothing. And he argues major literary prize in 2007? that corporations are inarguably responsible for the actions of those TRAVELLING HEROES: who produce their goods – contractors or not. GREEKS AND THEIR MYTHS OUTLIERS: IN THE EPIC AGE OF HOMER BEST AUSTRALIAN THE STORY OF SUCCESS Robin Lane Fox POLITICAL CARTOONS 2008 Malcolm Gladwell Viking. HB. $59.95. Russ Radcliffe (ed.) Allen Lane. PB. $32.95. Scribe. PB. $27.95. Robin Lane Fox, author of such historical Why are people successful? For centuries, works as The Classical World (Penguin. After more than a decade of John Howard humankind has grappled with this question, PB. $9.95), has written in Travelling and the divisive politics that defined his searching for the secret to Heroes an excellent introduction to the era, how have Australia’s political accomplishing great things. In his world of Ancient Greek civilisation and its cartoonists been adjusting to Kevin Rudd? new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an invigorating intellectual Homeric legends. Through a combination of archaeological sources One thing is sure, Labor’s honeymoon didn’t last long – Australia’s journey to show us what makes an extreme overachiever. He reveals and literature, he builds a picture of a long-vanished world: the funniest and most perceptive political cartoonists have been on the job, that we pay far too much attention to what successful people are like, precariousness of life in a world of high infant mortality and short life pencils sharpened and eager to draw fresh blood. The sixth edition of and too little attention to where successful people are from: their expectancy; the burial customs of Ancient Greece; and objects of this bestselling series features the work of editorial cartoonists from culture, their family and their generation. Gladwell examines how the everyday life unearthed by excavations of royal tombs. He also looks around Australia including Alston, Brown, Davidson, Dyson, Katauskas, careers of Bill Gates and the performance of world-class football at the travels to western Italy that were incorporated into Homer’s Knight, Kudelka, Leahy, Leak, Moir, Nicholson, O’Farrell, Petty, Pope, players are alike; what top fighter pilots and the Beatles have in Odyssey, and how the campaigns of Alexander the Great helped Rowe, Spooner, Tandberg, Weldon and many more. Not just a collection, common; why so many top lawyers are Jewish; and why Asians are spread Greek culture throughout the East. A must-read for anyone more a subversive first draft of history, Best Australian Political good at maths. In doing so, he overturns many of our conventional with a serious interest in the literature and history of Ancient Greece. Cartoons 2008 is the essential guide to the new Labor era. notions and creates an entirely new model for seeing the world. FREE ORDER SERVICE Our special order service is free, fast and efficient – if we don’t have it, we’ll get it for you!

TURNING POINTS IN BLIND CONSCIENCE AUSTRALIAN HISTORY WHAT SHOULD I BELIEVE? Margot O’Neill Martin Crotty & David Dorothy Rowe UNSW. PB. $34.95. Andrew Roberts Routledge. PB. $34.95. UNSWP. PB. $34.95. Australia’s appalling treatment of asylum In the post-9/11 world, militant atheism has seekers has sparked its own publishing followed hot on the heels of religious Following on from 2006’s Great Mistakes in genre over the past decade. So, what’s fanaticism. Doubters ask how people can Australian History (UNSWP. PB. $34.95), Martin different about this book? The story of subscribe to belief systems they disagree Crotty and David Andrew Roberts study events Australia’s ever-worsening policies in this with, and Dorothy Rowe treats their that have had a critical impact upon the area, the political battles over them, and questions as genuine, ‘requiring an answer development of the Australian nation. From the rising sea levels that, the plight of Australia’s asylum seekers that I shall supply’. Religious 14,000 years ago, separated Indigenous Tasmanians from their relations have been thoroughly explored in print. But while ABC Lateline fundamentalism requires an enemy, in order to maintain the myth of a on the mainland, to the watershed effect the discovery of gold had upon journalist Margot O’Neill explores all these issues, she does so from a battle against evil: ‘No enemy, and the myth fails.’ The result is pioneer Australian society, Crotty and Roberts unearth moments that new and valuable angle, telling the stories of the many Australians movements such as the ‘War on Terror’, which are unable to be ended pinpoint the divide between past and present. These include both known who fought to overturn these policies (including the ‘rebel’ Liberal with a treaty, and can be waged interminably. Fortunately, Rowe and little-known events: the momentous but now-forgotten Maritime politicians led by Petro Georgiou who lobbied John Howard, human believes that there is room for hope – provided we seek to understand Strike of 1890, which still stands as the largest strike in Australian rights lawyer Julian Burnside and socialist activist Ian Rintoul). Told in what motivates and sustains such beliefs. A fascinating study of an history; the Premiers’ Plan, unveiled in 1931 to tackle the Great an instantly engaging narrative style, with extensive interview age, this is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the Depression; and more prominent epoch-defining events, from Federation material from the main players, this book will appeal to experts and psychological motives behind the most critical events of our times. and the Gallipoli landing through to the recent Tampa scandal and 9/11. novices on the topic alike. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:32 AM Page 16 16 food travel A DAY AT ELBULLI ARABESQUES: THE BIG TRIP Ferran Adrià A TALE OF DOUBLE LIVES George Dunford (ed.) Phaidon. HB. Robert Dessaix Lonely Planet. PB. $30. Was $75, now $65.95. Picador. HB. $50. Who else but Lonely Planet can provide the Regularly named the best restaurant in the You can count on Robert Dessaix’s books fledgling traveller with everything they world by the international gastronomic to be perfectly weighted mixes of need to know before heading off on their press, elBulli receives a mind-boggling one travelogue, lively storytelling, reminiscing coming-of-age overseas million requests for reservations per year. and contemplation. With Arabesques he adventure? Aimed squarely at first- Sadly, only 8000 are available. Foodie doesn’t let us down. Ambling from North timers, The Big Trip covers it all, pilgrims travel to Spain’s Costa Brava to sample the restaurant’s Africa to the Cévennes, to Naples and Oporto, Dessaix ponders from getting started, travel safety and volunteering, to the biggest famed molecular cuisine, created and executed by über-chef Ferran parallels between his own life and that of André Gide, another great question of all: where on earth to go. Parents beware though – there’s Adrià and his huge team of chefs. More than 100 new dishes grace literary traveller and thinker. Dessaix’s concise prose brilliantly evokes also a section on how best to persuade you into going along with the menu every year and, as this fascinating book explains, innovation the lesser-known landscapes and cityscapes of the Mediterranean junior’s plan for global exploration, and coughing up the airfare to and excellence are the restaurant’s two mantras. A Day at elBulli littoral; he has an eye for minute and telling detail and an ear for boot. Written with bucket-loads of enthusiasm and packed with pics documents every aspect of the restaurant in colour photographs and conversation. Continually chancing upon the wraith of Gide, and of exotic destinations to get you into the mood for travelling the succinct captions: the reservation system, the choice and selection of parleying with old friends and new, Dessaix gives shape to his world, there’s also a wealth of invaluable travel advice gleaned from produce, wine selection and storage, the workings of the front-of- thoughts on love, religion and the very nature of travel. over 30 years’ experience of accompanying travellers on the road. house team and the all-important creation and delivery of the food. Accompanied by recipes representing a typical August menu, this book is essential reading for all serious foodies. COOKING: THE AUSTRALIA: QUINTESSENTIAL ART 42 GREAT LANDSCAPE Hervé This & AMERICAN JOURNEYS EXPERIENCES Pierre Gagnaire Don Watson Richard I’Anson University of California Knopf. HB. Lonely Planet. HB. Press. HB. $49.95. Was $69.95, now $24.95. Was $49.95, now $29.95. This exuberant and intensely thoughtful Richard I’Anson is one of Lonely Planet’s best known travel book is both a labour of love and a bold In this profound and deeply personal book, Don photographers – and with good reason. In this breathtakingly experiment in intellectual food writing. Watson sets out to explore America. Travelling by beautiful book, he shares his favourite Australian landscapes, each Hervé This, co-founder of the idea of cooking as ‘molecular rail gives him a unique and seductive means of perfectly captured in lush colour photographs. Paging through region gastronomy’, teams with visionary chef Pierre Gagnaire to explore the peering into this ever-contradictory land: long by region, the stark diversity of Australia becomes strikingly evident. idea of food as art (or, as the modest Gagnaire prefers to put it, ‘food days with the American landscape and American towns and American There are red rock deserts bathed in golden light; verdant mountain as storytelling’). Written as a series of freewheeling conversations – history unfolding on the outside, while inside the train a tiny particle of ranges; powder-encrusted alps; white sands cradling azure seas; lush with the reader, each other and assorted foodie friends – this book the American people talk among themselves. Watson’s experiences are emerald forests and sprawling, scrubby plains – all beautiful, often looks at the interaction of cooking with science, the question of profoundly affecting: he witnesses the terrible aftermath of Hurricane harsh or somehow haughty in their allure. The photographs are culinary beauty and culinary art (which must reject repetition) and the Katrina on the Gulf Coast; explores the savage history of the Deep South; accompanied by a brief history and overview of each beauty spot present and future of cooking. Satisfyingly, Gagnaire’s innovative and journeys to the remarkable wilderness of Yellowstone National Park. (including native animals and birdlife), but this never overwhelms the recipes (including scallops and foie gras in walnut oil; tarragon- Yet it is through the people he meets that Watson discovers both the central message of the images. flavoured marshmallows; duck breasts with barberry mousseline in incomparable genius of America – its optimism, sophistication and sake-flavoured broth) illustrate the ideas discussed. riches – and its darker disavowal of failure and uncertainty.

BALANCE & HARMONY: Who is famous for his ASIAN FOOD hotel-trashing exploits? THE ANCIENT SHORE Neil Perry Shirley Hazzard & Murdoch. HB. Francis Steegmuller Was $125, now $99.95. DEATH IN THE MOUNTAINS University of Chicago Press. Lisa Clifford HB. $34.95. Balance & Harmony is the next best thing to taking a one-on-one cookery course with the Pan Macmillan. PB. $33. Shirley Hazzard first moved to Naples as a master of Modern Asian cooking, Neil Perry. Accompanied by gorgeous Today, Tuscany is a glamorous tourist young woman in the 1950s to take up a job vintage Chinese prints and Earl Carter’s mouth-watering food destination; however, a century ago life for with the United Nations. It was the beginning photography, this must-have addition to the kitchen library explores rural Tuscans was anything but glamorous. of a long love affair with the city. Though battered by WWII, Naples Chinese recipes and techniques, spiced with the flavours of Thailand, Life was hard, cheap and often without retained the passion, vivacity and beauty that had attracted Goethe, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and Korea. The book begins with the basics justice. Lisa Clifford became intrigued by Byron and other literary travellers over the centuries. This volume of good Asian cookery, from dressings and salads to stir-frying and the story of her husband’s great- collects the best of Hazzard’s writings on Naples, along with a classic tea-smoking, plus shared-table menus for beginners. Having learnt and grandfather, Artemio Bruni, a Tuscan New Yorker essay by her late husband, Francis Steegmuller. With practised the various techniques, we’re ready for the more advanced farmer who was murdered in 1907. His Hazzard as our guide, we encounter Henry James, Oscar Wilde and banquet menus, where several techniques and ingredients come killer was never brought to justice; his widow never even reported his Goethe, but her concern is primarily with the Naples of our own time together. According to Perry, harmony comes when we learn how to death to the police. Why not? The desire for an answer to this question – often violently unforgiving to innocent tourists, but able to transport balance the often intense flavours of Asian cooking. And the key to set the author on a quest to unearth the secrets of a vanished world. A the visitor who attends patiently to its rhythms and history. success? Being well organised. fascinating mixture of true crime, biography, history and travel.

DISTRACTION: A PHILOSOPHER’S GUIDE THE LAND I CAME THROUGH LAST MOTHER LAND TO BEING FREE Robert Gray. Giramondo. PB. $34.95. Dmetri Kakmi. Giramondo. PB. $29.95. Damon Young. MUP. PB. $26.95. One of Australia’s best-known poets gives Melbourne-based Dmetri Kakmi was born on the What does it mean to be distracted, and why do we a lyrical account of his parents’ painful marriage Aegean island of Bozcaada. At the age of eight, he become so? Melbourne-based philosopher Damon Young and his childhood growing up on the north coast was forced to confront the political realities that shows that patient, sensitive and thoughtful attention to of NSW. spelled the end of the Greeks of Anatolia – years later, the world can offer genuine freedom. he returns as an adult to make peace with his past. THE LONGEST TRIP HOME: A MEMOIR EGO & SOUL John Grogan. Hachette. PB. $35. THE ORANGE TREES OF BAGHDAD John Carroll. Scribe. PB. $35. If you enjoyed Grogan’s Marley & Me (Hodder. Leilah Nadir. Scribe. PB. $32.95. This substantially revised edition of Carroll’s important PB. $25), you’ll be equally amused and moved Though she is half Iraqi, the distance of immigration work argues that much of what people do today disguises by this story of the often fraught but always and realities of war mean that Leilah Nadir has never a desperate search for meaning, the result of the crisis of loving relationship between the young Grogan set foot in Baghdad. Using her father’s memories, she belief that has become the West’s major problem. and his parents. recounts her family’s Iraqi story. GHOST TRAIN TO THE EASTERN STAR THE LUCY FAMILY ALPHABET PARKY: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY Paul Theroux. Hamish Hamilton. PB. $35. Judith Lucy. Penguin. PB. $29.95. Michael Parkinson. Hodder & Stoughton. HB. $50. This absorbing and beautifully written follow-up to Local comedienne Judith Lucy has been cracking Prize-winning journalist and chat show king Michael Theroux’s 1975 travel literature classic, The Great Railway jokes about her parents for decades. Now she’s Parkinson here reveals his own story, discussing his Bazaar (Penguin. PB. $24.95), once again sees the master decided that it’s time to write their full story, at career, jazz, film, football and cricket with the wit and of travel writing journeying overland through Eastern the same time as writing her own. A funny and humour that are his trademark. Europe, India and Asia. ruthlessly honest memoir. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:33 AM Page 17 food travel 17 EAT ATE FROM RUSSIA WITH LUNCH: LONELY PLANET’S BEST Guy Mirabella A LITHUANIAN ODYSSEY IN TRAVEL 2009 Hardie Grant. HB. David Smiedt Lonely Planet. PB. $34.95. Was $49.95, now $29.95. UQP. PB. $24.95. This information-packed guide to the best Melbourne author and book designer Guy When his mother-in-law asks him who his travel experiences for the year ahead will Mirabella celebrates his Italian heritage people are, local stand-up comedian and keep even the most armchair-bound and much more in this lavishly produced writer David Smiedt sets out for Lithuania, traveller browsing for hours on end. Lonely cookbook. Rather than the usual starters, from where his maternal grandfather departed Planet prides itself on its idiosyncratic, mains and desserts, the various chapters in 1925. Smiedt never knew his grandfather adventurous approach to travel, and this explore the themes of Extravagance, but he attributes his hairline and sense of humour to his wisecracking generously illustrated guide doesn’t disappoint. The top 10 countries of Generosity, Love, Tradition, Life and Food. The result is a rich, many- Jewish forebear. So begins an agreeable and enlightening ramble 2009, for instance, include Sierra Leone, Georgia and Bangladesh. layered confection, combining lush photography, Italian-inspired around the Lithuanian countryside. Smiedt delights in the ridiculous (There are also top 10 lists of regions and cities, as well as quirky tips recipes and thought-provoking autobiographical musings on the and has a keen eye for social idiosyncrasies; he is equally at home on saltiest sites and best places to have a midlife crisis.) A well-timed book’s resonant themes. Recipes range from family-friendly risottos scrutinising buck’s party goings-on as recounting the horrors that special on water travel combines tips for amazing boat journeys (such and pastas to impressive special-occasion feasts. Extravagance can befell Lithuania under the Soviets and its Jews under the Nazis. as Canada’s newly opened Northwest Passage) and icy experiences mean a four-mushroom risotto; Love leads us to a wealth of pasta Moments of pathos, some lyrical descriptions and plenty of schtick (such as Alaska’s famous Northern Lights), as well as serious messages recipes; Tradition reprises the Sicilian dishes Mirabella grew up create a portrait of a little-known country on the edge of Europe. about water-wise travel. Colourful, practical and inspiring. loving, such as battered cardoons and sweet cassateddi; while Life includes the essential dishes he can’t do without, including his mum’s What famous magazine was minestrone, his sister’s almond biscotti and other family favourites. first published in 1913? LUCIO’S LIGURIAN KITCHEN Lucio Galletto & David Dale THE EUROPE BOOK IN THE KITCHEN Allen & Unwin. HB. $65. Lonely Planet. HB. Alan Campion & Was $59.95, now $49.95. Liguria is the birthplace of ravioli, pesto Michele Curtis and focaccia – three of the great staples Explore a continent, country by country, Hardie Grant. HB. of Italian cuisine. And one of the greatest with this stunning, densely informative Was $69.95, now $59.95. proponents of Ligurian cuisine in coffee-table book. Illustrated with Australia is Lucio Galletto, owner of evocative full-colour photography Alan Campion and Michele Curtis are Sydney’s much-loved Lucio’s restaurant. This year, Galletto teamed up throughout, this fantastic guide is the two of Australia’s most trusted food with journalist David Dale and photographer Paul Green to travel the perfect place to start thinking about your writers. Not only do they have a knack for length of the Riviera di Levante (Coast of the Rising Sun) in Italy’s next trip. The really appealing aspect of fine recipes – and for sniffing out the best ingredients – they also north-west to document its extraordinary cuisine – this book is the The Europe Book is the way that it places each country within the have an excellent feel for the sorts of recipes and hints that will suit result. Chapters on finger food, soups, pies, pasta & risotto, seafood, wider context of the continent at large, enabling the reader to the average home cook. Although this book is sumptuously meat, vegetables & salad and dessert contain 180 delicious recipes construct a vast, interlinked mental landscape. Like its predecessors photographed, it’s not one of those cookbooks destined to be pulled that are fun to cook, beautiful to look at, a pleasure to share and kind in the series, The Africa Book and The Asia Book, it gives an overview out, vicariously admired and carefully reshelved. Its place is, like the to the body. of each country, covering language, landscape, history, cuisine, title, in the kitchen, where its pages will be stained and smudged culture (films, books, music), myths and legends and more. Written with frequent use. The more than 1000 recipes here cover every meal SPECIAL OFFER: BUY A COPY OF LUCIO’S and presented in the practical, accessible, wit-spiked Lonely Planet and occasion, from brunch and roasts to barbecues and children’s LIGURIAN KITCHEN AND YOU WILL RECEIVE style, this book promises an enticing imaginary journey – and an lunch boxes (plus curries and tagines, pastries, biscuits and slices, A FREE COPY OF AN UMBRIAN LOVE STORY excellent basis for planning a real one. soups, pasta, slow cooking and more). (MARLENA DE BLASI. HB. RRP $29.95).

FIRE: A WORLD OF FLAVOUR KOTO: A CULINARY JOURNEY MAGGIE’S KITCHEN Christine Manfield THROUGH VIETNAM Maggie Beer Lantern. HB. $99.95. Tracey Lister & Andreas Pohl Lantern. HB. $59.95. Open this book and we guarantee that Hardie Grant. PB. $45. Whether you be a cook or a chef, you’re you’ll be wowed in the first few minutes, bound to be tempted by Maggie Beer’s There’s a lot more to Vietnamese cuisine cooking an hour or two later and travelling latest offering. From her home kitchen than the spring roll. This lavishly somewhere interesting before too long. A come 120 favourite recipes she has shared illustrated book is divided into seven main seductive mix of cookbook and travel with her television audience, as well as the food regions, each featuring deliciously guide, Fire takes us on a journey in everyday basics that Maggie believes form different recipes. From the north’s duck soup with jujubes and nuts to Christine Manfield’s well-travelled and ever-adventurous footsteps, the foundations of a good food life. With her trademark warmth and Hanoi’s beef noodle soup and the coast’s coconut prawns, Koto is a serving culinary inspiration and instruction in equal portions. Chapters finely honed knowledge, this classic cook shows us how to get the celebration of the aromatic ingredients, full flavours and simple cover destinations as diverse as China and Catalonia, and the recipes best out of our ingredients so that every meal is as memorable as it is execution that make this cuisine so distinctive. There’s plenty of featured are uniformly mouth-watering. There’s an extremely useful simple to prepare. Recipes such as roast chook with preserved lemon cultural information to enrich the cooking experience, as well as a appendix with recipes for staples such as stocks, sauces and spice and tarragon butter fall into what Maggie calls ‘Beer family comfort guide to the ingredients of the Vietnamese pantry. Best of all is the pastes, and a handy slipcase to protect the book’s opulent cover. All food’ and there are plenty of others – including asparagus and leek fact that all profits from the book go to a grass-roots charity in Hanoi this plus loads of colour photographs means that Fire is bound to be tart, beef pies, rhubarb crumble – that fit this bill. Buy it, and you’re that trains street kids to be hospitality professionals and take control one of our top-sellers this festive season. bound to enjoy spending time in your own kitchen this summer. of their lives.

THE RUGMAKER OF MAZIR-E-SHARIF THE FREEDOM PARADOX: Najaf Mazari & Robert Hillman. Insight. PB. $24.95. TOWARDS A POST-SECULAR ETHICS This poignant and powerful story traces an Afghani Clive Hamilton. Allen & Unwin. PB. $35. CLOSE FRIENDS & RELATIVES refugee’s extraordinary journey from the mountains of Hamilton argues that the paradox of modern consumer Bob Elsdale. Hachette. HB. $27. Northern Afghanistan to incarceration in an Australian life is that we are deprived of our inner freedom by our detention centre and finally to freedom. pursuit of our own desires. He believes that we cannot A heartwarming and thought-provoking portrait of truly be free unless we commit ourselves to a moral life. primates from multi-award-winning photographer, SPILLING THE BEANS Bob Elsdale. Clarissa Dickson Wright. Hodder. PB. $25. STARING AT THE SUN Irvin D Yalom. Scribe. PB. $29.95. TRAVELS WITH HERODOTUS Dickson Wright’s mother was an Australian heiress; Ryszard Kapuscinski.´´ Penguin. PB. $24.95. her father was a brilliant British surgeon who was Yalom’s profoundly encouraging approach to the issue also a tyrannical and violent drunk. This story of the of mortality has been praised by writer Christopher The great writer recounts his beginnings as an life of one half of the much-loved TV partnership Two Hitchens as ‘…a thoughtful reinforcement of the inexperienced young Polish journalist and his life Fat Ladies makes fascinating reading. stoicism that we all need in a time when babble and as a traveller-reporter with Herodotus’ The denial are all the rage’. Histories as his constant companion. BOOK OF DEAD PHILOSOPHERS Simon Critchley. MUP. PB. $29.95. THERE IS A GOD THE WRITING CLASS Antony Flew & Roy Abraham Varghese. Jincy Willett. Scribe. PB. $32.95. Critchley, a professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York, chronicles HarperOne. PB. $23. This darkly comic novel is about a writing class the deaths of almost 200 philosophers – recounting Here, one of the world’s pre-eminent atheists discloses with a killer in its midst. Perfect holiday reading! tales of weirdness, madness, suicide, murder, pathos how his commitment to ‘follow the argument wherever and bad luck. it leads’ led him to change his mind and come to a belief in God as Creator. A fascinating addition to the atheism debate. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:33 AM Page 18

18 food travel

MY AMALFI COAST RIPAILLES: TRADITIONAL THE TRAVEL BOOK Amanda Tabberer FRENCH CUISINE Lonely Planet. PB. $39.95. Lantern. HB. $69.95. Stéphane Reynaud With an A–Z listing format and a This lavishly illustrated book is a loving Murdoch. HB. wealth of wonderful images, Lonely memoir of the part of Italy that Amanda Was $79.95, now $67.95. Planet’s The Travel Book is a full- colour peek into every country in the Tabberer (Maggie’s daughter) called home After building a cult following with the world (plus a few extra destinations for many years. Full of photographs by quirky and utterly irresistible Pork & Sons Aussie expat photographer Carla Coulson, not included the UN’s list of defined (Phaidon. HB. $59.95), Stéphane Reynaud it is packed with insider’s tips on where to countries). This brick-sized version of the enormously successful has followed up with Ripailles (Feasts), a eat, stay, shop and visit. Amanda takes us coffee-table book of the same name reads like a world according to homage to the types of dishes served at the traditional Sunday to the very heart of one of the country’s most beautiful regions and Lonely Planet. Punchy introductory overviews are accompanied by lunches of his French childhood. Like its predecessor, this book is along the way invites us to share her personal story: the holiday that factual information, listings of essential experiences and cultural both gorgeous to look at and very practical to use. Users will love the led to a love affair, which in turn inspired her to trade a glamorous pointers on books to read, movies to watch and music to listen to for twin indexes – one by ingredient and one by type – and appreciate fashion career in Florence for bare feet, a bikini and a beautiful man each featured destination. Compact and comprehensive, The Travel the useful charts throughout (how best to cook particular cuts of in the jewel-like town of Positano. She becomes a mother, business Book is an inspirational snapshot of the cultures and countries that meat, how to open oysters, how to recognise types of mushrooms owner and bona fide local before finally making the decision to return make up our world. etc). Forget fussy dishes that take hours to prepare; this book is full to Australia with her son, Marco. of terrines, tarts, stews, salads and roasts that are as easy on the eye and the palate as they are to cook. Bon appétit! MY FAVOURITE INGREDIENTS UNFORGETTABLE WALKS Skye Gyngell TO TAKE BEFORE YOU DIE Quadrille. HB. $49.95. SRI OWEN’S INDONESIAN FOOD Steve Watkins & Sri Owen Clare Jones The cooking of acclaimed Australian-born, BBC. PB. UK-based chef and food writer Skye Pavilion. HB. $60. Gyngell follows the ebb and flow of the Was $49.95, now $19.95. Sri Owen is one of the world’s foremost seasons, taking advantage of local, ripe and authorities on Indonesian cookery. Her book In this attractive book, much-travelled sustainably produced ingredients. Her Indonesian Food and Cookery was first photojournalists Steve Watkins and extraordinary ability to bring out the published in 1976 and has long been Clare Jones have identified the walks freshness and flavour in dishes is made clear in this handsome book, acknowledged as an essential resource for lovers of this mouth- they consider to be the world’s most which highlights her favourite ingredients, giving practical information watering cuisine. This updated and expanded version of that book spectacular, inspirational and beautiful. Their choice of walks to about varieties and usage. Chapters on asparagus, cherries, fish & provides a valuable insight into the ancient, exotic and varied cuisine embark upon before shuffling off this mortal coil include both urban shellfish, garlic, apples, chocolate and many other staples are filled of the Indonesian archipelago. Organised into recipe-laden chapters tours and open-country tramps. Boston’s Freedom Trail, Amsterdam’s with recipes within every cook’s ability. And once you’ve encountered covering staples and methods, it offers plenty of colour photographs canals and the stunning temples of Kyoto are featured, as are Italy’s produce-driven recipes such as raw white asparagus with porcini, and a handy two-way glossary of Indonesian ingredients. Though Amalfi Coast, South Africa’s Garden Route, the USA’s Yellowstone roasted hazelnuts and aged parmesan there will be no going back to born in Indonesia, Owen has spent the past 40 years living in Britain, National Park and Peru’s Inca Trail. Richly illustrated throughout, those expensive out-of-season imports available in our supermarket and here she gives useful tips about substituting hard-to-access Unforgettable Walks to Take Before You Die is aimed at anyone chains – something that Gyngell would wholeheartedly celebrate. Indonesian ingredients and accommodating non-Indonesian palates. looking for ideas for an inspirational trip of a lifetime. Buy this and you’ll be able to wow your friends with satays on the barbecue this summer instead of snags! Where does Precious Ramotse live? VENEZIA; FOOD & DREAMS STEPHEN FRY IN AMERICA Tessa Kiros PARIS TANGO Stephen Fry Murdoch. HB. Carla Coulson HarperCollins. PB. Was $59.95, now $49.95. Was $40, now $33.95. Lantern. HB. $59.95. There’s a veritable banquet of gorgeous- When photographer Carla Coulson decided How could you not love Stephen Fry? The looking cookbooks on offer this Christmas, to give up her life in Sydney, she did what ‘quintessential Englishman’ is a brilliant but Venezia is perhaps the most gorgeous every sensible person would do – went to comic (A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Blackadder), of them all. If you’re familiar with Kiros’ live in Italy. After five years, Carla was on a sensitive actor (Wilde) and a previous books (Twelve, Falling the move again, this time motivated by her bestselling novelist. He is also a Cloudberries, Apples for Jam and Piri Piri Starfish) you will have Italian partner’s need to spend a year charming, affable person who is already been wowed by their wonderful production values – studying in Lyon. Paris Tango is in essence very much interested in looking for the good in people. It’s in this photography and design are exquisite. There’s no style over the companion book to her first book, Italian Joy (Lantern. HB. generous spirit that he sets out to explore America – a country that substance issues here, though. Kiros has included plenty of easy-to- $59.95), as Coulson documents in snappy text, sassy photography deeply fascinates him – for a television series that goes beyond the cook but delicious recipes that are authentically Venetian. Fish and lavish design the blossoming of her love affair with Paris, its gun-toting, Bible-bashing, Twinkie-scoffing stereotype. He goes carpaccio with pink peppercorns, sweet and sour sardines, seafood culture, its people and its special places. Coulson’s richly atmospheric lobster trawling in Maine, hangs out with gangsters and deer hunters lasagne and a wicked tiramisu are just a few of the many dishes tribute to the perennial romance, style and glamour of Paris will (and yes, the latter reminds him of Michael Cimino’s classic film, too) featured. Kiros lives in Italy, and her love for the country – and sweep even the most seasoned traveller off their feet, encouraging in New York State and marches with Zulus in New Orleans’ Mardi particularly for La Serenissima – shines through the pages of this them to book a ticket to the City of Light tout de suite. Gras. The result is reminiscent of a big-budget, on-screen version of wonderful book. Don Watson’s American Journeys (p16).

THE DEATH OF SIGMUND FREUD THE DIVIDED HEART: ART AND MOTHERHOOD Mark Edmundson. Bloomsbury. PB. $26.95. Rachel Power. Red Dog. PB. $30. Subtitled ‘Fascism, Psychoanalysis and the Rise of Power interviews some of Australia’s most respected THE BRAIN THAT CHANGES ITSELF Fundamentalism’, this account of the intersecting artists, writers and actors (Rachel Griffiths, Clare Norman Doidge. Scribe. PB. $35. stories of Freud and Hitler in the days before WWII Bowditch, Davida Allen, Joanna Murray-Smith et al) Doidge profiles the astonishing new scientific sheds fresh light on the allure of fundamentalist politics. about the wrench between motherhood and artistic life. discovery of neuroplasticity, which is proving that the brain is able to change its own structure and function, TOP PRICE: THE AUSTRALIAN’S MATT PRICE ON DON’T GET TOO COMFORTABLE even into old age. SPORT, POLITICS, MUSIC AND LIFE David Rakoff. Scribe. PB. $24.95. Matt Price. HarperCollins. PB. $25. Both a Wildean satire and a plea for a little human PARADISE LOST This collection showcases some of the liveliest decency, Rakoff’s book reveals the extremes to which a Giles Milton. Sceptre. PB. $35. columns filed over the last decade by late reporter devotion to consumer culture – as evidenced in today’s Milton recounts the powerful story of what happened Matt Price. In them, he tackles issues both big and America – can lead. when the victorious Turkish cavalry rode into Smyrna, small with the flair that made him one of the country’s the richest and most cosmopolitan city in the Ottoman best journalists. WATCHING BRIEF Empire, on 9 September 1922. A tale of destruction, Julian Burnside. Scribe. PB. $26.95. heroism and survival. COMMON WEALTH: ECONOMICS FOR A Noted lawyer and human-rights advocate Julian CROWDED PLANET Burnside articulates a sensitive and intelligent defence Jeffrey Sachs. Allen Lane. PB. $32.95. THE UNLIKELY VOYAGE OF JACK DE CROW of the rights of asylum-seekers and refugees, and the A J Mackinnon. Black Inc. PB. $32.95. One of the world’s leading economists (and author of the importance of protecting human rights and maintaining Equipped with cheerful optimism and a pith helmet, an bestselling The End of Poverty, Penguin, $24.95) here the rule of law. eccentric Australian Odysseus sets out in a dinghy to analyses and addresses the great, and interconnected, travel 4900 kilometres over salt and fresh water from global challenges of the 21st century, including North Wales to the Black Sea – experiencing hilarious environmental degradation and rapid population growth. adventures along the way. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:33 AM Page 19 science 19 AUSTRALIAN GARDENS FOR DRY STORE ROOM NO. 1: SEX SLEEP EAT A CHANGING CLIMATE THE SECRET LIFE OF THE DRINK DREAM Jenna Reed Burns NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM Jennifer Ackerman Lantern. HB. $49.95. Richard Fortey Scribe. PB. $32.95. Climate change and water restrictions are HarperPress. PB. $25. You could say that this book was prompted now part of our everyday life, so it makes Fortey, the former senior palaeontologist at by a nasty bout of flu – the trigger for sense that we remodel our gardens and London’s renowned Natural History Museum, science writer Jennifer Ackerman’s interest green spaces to make them more water- takes us behind the scenes to discover the in how the human body works. A decade’s wise. To provide inspiration, Jenna Reed Burns takes us on a day-to-day workings of one of the world’s enthusiastic research later, she shares her beautifully illustrated tour of 25 dry-climate gardens from around great museums. Out of view of the public’s gaze, in an area much knowledge with the rest of us, taking the Australia. With detailed accounts of the landscaping, plant selection, larger than the gallery space, lies a rabbit warren of corridors, offices, reader through a typical day in the life of the body, from waking up to love and hard graft involved, she describes how these water-wise galleries and, of course, the collection itself. With a flair for going to bed. She combines scientific fact with real-life examples, gardens have developed and evolved to suit their particular climate. storytelling, the author (who admits to having almost burnt down the both observed and experienced, making this curiously engrossing Divided into city, native, coastal, succulent and country categories, Smithsonian Institute with ash from his pipe) delves into the lives and book not just accessible, but intimately relevant to the average the book also features informative sections on soil, plants, times of the museum, and the brilliant and sometimes eccentric reader. Nuggets of knowledge include new research that proves the microclimates and water. If you’re looking for an alternative to tired characters who have worked there. Compelling, witty and utterly value of the siesta; good-sense advice for warding off illness and and thirsty plants wilting in the hot summer sun, you’ll find plenty of fascinating, his book is a must for anyone who has ever wanted to depression; and explanations for why people see, taste and hear useful water-wise pointers here. know what lies behind those intriguing ‘no entry to the public’ signs. things differently.

THE BOOK OF ELEPHANTS ON ACID AND THE SUPER-ORGANISM: ANIMAL IGNORANCE OTHER BIZARRE EXPERIMENTS THE BEAUTY, ELEGANCE, John Mitchinson & Alex Boese AND STRANGENESS OF John Lloyd Pan Macmillan. PB. $30. INSECT SOCIETIES Granta. HB. ‘This is definitely a work of nonfiction’, Alex Bert Hölldobler & Was $29.95, now $14.95. Boese assures us in his introduction, with E O Wilson good reason – for he has collected accounts Animals, Stephen Fry declares in his Norton. HB. $72.95. of incredibly strange scientific experiments forward, ‘have this in common with each such as that conducted by Luigi Galvani in A whole book devoted to insects? Fear other: unlike humans they appear to spend 1780, when he accidentally electrocuted and reanimated a dead frog, not, for this new work from the authors every minute of every hour of every day of their lives being sparking a craze among 18th-century scientists for sparking ‘life’ of The Ants is filled with fascinating tidbits about these most complex themselves’. We humans have a lot to learn about ourselves from back into the dead (and helping to inspire Mary Shelley’s and highly organised of species. Did you know, for instance, that their laid-back, guilt-free existence – and how much it differs from Frankenstein). Stranger still was the two-headed dog Soviet scientists colonies of social insects are divided into castes where a few our own! Not that they’re all laid back and happy-go-lucky: the proudly unveiled in 1954. Then there was the remarkable experiment reproduce and the rest work in an altruistic manner? In the most badger is a stubborn creature of habit, and can use the same tunnels carried out by Giulio Camillo in which, while operating on the brains advanced forms, conflict within colonies is so minimal as to be for generation after generation. Cane toads are busy taking over as of epileptics, he allegedly discovered a ‘memory library’ that played almost non-existent (a feat which might be envied by many a much of Australia as they possibly can, while fleas are ever-ready to long-forgotten memories like a tape-recorder. Filled with weird and conflict-weary human being). The way societies of ants, bees, wasps ‘bite any mammal within striking distance’. Filled with bizarre and wonderful stuff, this book is one guaranteed to be hard to put down. and termites are structured also has a lot to tell us about human unexpected facts about both well-known and little-known creatures, evolution, and why such non-‘selfish gene’ traits as altruism came to this book will ensure your ‘animal ignorance’ significantly decreases. exist in the first place. Unexpectedly un-putdownable! THE LAST WHALE Chris Pash SUPERSTITION: BELIEF CONSIDER THE BIRDS FAP. PB. $29.95. IN THE AGE OF SCIENCE Colin Tudge Not so many decades ago, whaling was Robert L Park Allen Lane. HB. $49.95. legal, alive and flourishing in Australia, Princeton University Press. All animals are equal – but some, as though few knew it was still going on. All HB. $44.95. George Orwell said, are more equal than that began to change in the late 1970s. others. Birds, most people would surely Project Jonah, the brainchild of a group of Has superstition become pervasive in agree, are in the very first rank. They can Australians passionately committed to contemporary culture? Robert L Park, the do almost everything that mammals can ending whaling, joined forces with Jean- bestselling author of Voodoo Science, do – and more besides. By mastering Paul Fortom-Gouin, a wealthy Frenchman believes that it has. In Superstition,he flight, they have a way of living who had received a call to end the barbaric treatment of creatures asks why people persist in holding that encompasses the whole with whom he believed he had a mystical relationship. Through a superstitious convictions long after science has shown them to be ill- world. In Consider the Birds, Colin combination of media exposure and political activism, Fortom-Gouin founded. Park takes on supernatural beliefs from religion and the Tudge explores the life of birds, all around the globe. From the secrets and his followers – who included both Australians and international afterlife to New Age spiritualism and faith-based medical claims. He of migration to their complicated family lives, their differing habitats activists – campaigned for years to end whaling in the last English- examines recent controversies and concludes that science is the only and survival techniques to the secrets of flight, this fascinating speaking country that still allowed it. In the end, their determination way we have of understanding the world. Chapter by chapter, he account by the author of the much-admired The Secret Life of Trees bore fruit, and local and international awareness – and outrage – explains how people too easily mistake pseudoscience for science. (Penguin. PB. $26.95) shows how birds live and why they matter. brought about whaling’s long-overdue abolishment in Australia. He discusses parapsychology, homeopathy, and acupuncture; he questions the existence of souls, the foundations of intelligent design and the power of prayer; he asks for evidence of reincarnation and In which year was the largest THE NOBLE LIE: astral projections; and he challenges the idea of heaven. strike in Australia’s history staged? WHEN SCIENTISTS GIVE THE RIGHT ANSWERS FOR THE WISDOM OF BIRDS THE WRONG REASONS Tim Birkhead CONTEMPORARY Gary Greenberg Bloomsbury. HB. $65. AUSTRALIAN Wiley. HB. $34.95. You’ll never look on our feathered friends in GARDEN DESIGN How much of the findings of science is the same way again after reading Tim John Patrick & Jenny Wade really science, and how much is official- Birkhead’s enormously enjoyable and ABC. HB. $69.95. sounding propaganda? Before you sneer beautifully illustrated book. Ornithologists, at the latter possibility, Gary Greenberg bird-watchers or the person on the street If you’re keen to don the gardening would have you consider: research grants are only made for ‘official’ who wonders why birds sing their songs gloves and get stuck into a bit of diseases; and insurance providers only reimburse ‘official’ tests and will be fascinated by this study of the lives of birds. Like the popular landscaping this summer, Contemporary treatments, and medications for specific, diagnosed illnesses. Is it writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks, Birkhead has the ability to imbue Australian Garden Design is the book for possible, then, that doctors, misled by self-serving scientists, might the more scientific elements of his work with such lively enthusiasm you. John Patrick and Jenny Wade from Gardening Australia take you be over-diagnosing people with illnesses they don’t really have? And and colourful anecdotes that even apparently obscure subject matter on a tour of some of Australia’s most beautiful gardens, ranging from what part does the media play in convincing people they may have an such as hermaphroditism in birds is made fascinating and accessible. courtyards to country estates. Along the way, they explain how to ‘under-reported illness’ and that the newest drug on the market is As well as covering everything from conception to egg, mating and assess a site, put together a design brief, select plantings and solve just the cure? A disturbing study of the realities of thriving in the cut- sexual habits, migration and intelligence, Birkhead also explores the potential design problems. Featuring inspirational projects by leading throat world of modern medicine, this riveting book will have you history of ornithology, and discusses the great thinkers and designers including Jamie Durie, Paul Bangay, Peter Fudge, Janine questioning an awful lot you previously took for granted. researchers in the field. Mendel and Rick Eckersley, this lovely volume is equally at home on a coffee table, next to a drawing board or in a potting shed. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:33 AM Page 20

20 humour

ALL THAT HAPPENED THE CATASTROPHE I WAS TOLD AT NUMBER 26 CONTINUES THERE’D BE CAKE Denise Scott John Clarke Sloane Crosley Hardie Grant Books. PB. Text. PB. $32.95. Penguin. PB. $24.95. $29.95. John Clarke and Bryan Dawe’s political Comic insights into the eccentricities of Stand-up comedian and TV regular Denise satire has helped us laugh our way modern life abound in Sloane Crosley’s Scott’s laugh-a-minute memoir revolves through a couple of decades of the collection of humorous essays on life in around number 26, a falling-apart house- Australian political landscape. The contemporary New York. Have you ever cum-home in a suburb she swore she’d Catastrophe Continues takes the best of dreamed of landing a glamorous job in never live in. Denise and husband John decide to get out of the rental their weekly mock interviews from the publishing? ‘The Ursula Cookie’, in which the author relates her less- market but life as new home owners proves to be less than rosy. ABC’s 7.30 Report, where Dawe as the than-glamorous, downright disastrous first job in publishing, might They’re broke, number 26 is close to being a knockdown job and their honest journo tries to make sense of Clarke’s double talking and make you reconsider. Volunteering at the Museum of Natural History’s two small children have seen to it that sleep is virtually a thing of the slippery portrayal of political figures of the day. In an oftentimes butterfly exhibit sounded like a good idea, too – until a run-in with a past. In a tale that gives a whole new meaning to the term Aussie frustrating and trying political atmosphere, Clarke and Dawe aren’t rogue butterfly. And then there’s Francine, who emerges as a blast battlers, Denise and Co roll with the punches life throws their way. afraid to take the mickey out of our political figures over contentious from her long-forgotten high school past, and proceeds to turn into With good humour, skin-of-their-teeth resourcefulness and bags of issues such as refugees overboard, climate change and the economy. the Bridezilla from hell: ‘I came to understand that the “maid” in love and affection, number 26 is proof that home is where the heart is. These transcripts of the interviews are a real belly laugh, with “bridesmaid” no longer stood for “maiden” – it instead bore the everyone from Sir Joh Bjelke-Peterson, Alan Bond, Alexander Downer, stench of Pine-Sol and dirty dishes’. Fun stuff! John Howard and Kevin Rudd walking Clarke’s political satire plank. THE BEST OF PUNCH PLAYING POKER WITH THE THE CHASER ANNUAL 2008 CARTOONS SAS: A COMEDY TOUR OF The Chaser Helen Walasek (ed.) IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN Text. PB. $29.95. Prion. HB. $79.95. Tom Gleeson For over 150 years, dating back to 1841, You’ve seen them cover the election; UNSWP. PB. $29.95. the hugely successful Punch magazine you’ve watched the TV show; you may ‘When you do stand-up there is always a was synonymous with wit, satirical even have scored a ticket to their hugely perverse desire to perform in weird places.’ writing and, of course, the cartoon. The successful all-singing, all-dancing variety Thus, when he was offered a gig Best of Punch Cartoons is a hefty tome show. But you still want more of the entertaining Aussie troops in Iraq, stand-up containing over 2000 cartoons, spanning the Edwardian and Victorian Chaser. Which is why you need The comic Tom Gleeson said ‘yes’ despite the fact that he didn’t support eras, the two world wars, the post-war world of the 1950s and the Chaser Annual 2008. In these pages, you the war. After an embarrassing run-in with a slightly deaf John heady 1960s through to 1992, when the magazine closed its doors. can delight in the unique comedy that has made this insightful and Howard at the airport, it was off to the enlightening experience of Edited by Helen Walasek of the Punch Cartoon Library, this selection outrageous comedy team a national institution. Relive all the big news cheering up troops, many of whom were not too eager to be there in is a laugh-out-loud bonanza from the wealth of cartoonists who stories and hot issues of 2008 in this fully illustrated bumper annual, the first place. But the job came with its perks: viewing the bombed- contributed to this quintessentially British magazine. Amongst the which includes some of the best political cartoons of the year by out palace that had belonged to Saddam Hussein’s son; adjusting to gems in this impressive cartoon collection are drawings by E H Andrew Weldon and Fiona Katauskas. You’ll be shocked, amused, the quirks of life in a war zone; and putting his comedian’s skills to Shepherd, Ronald Searle and Norman Thelwell. educated, shocked again – most of all, you’ll be thoroughly entertained. the test during a potentially volatile game of poker with the SAS.

FREE GIFTWRAP We’ll giftwrap all books on request when you organise delivery through us!

BOGAN PRIDE: HOLIDAYS ON ICE SARTRE’S SINK BOONELG HIGH YEARBOOK David Sedaris Mark Crick Rebel Wilson Little, Brown. PB. $25. Granta. HB. $24.95. Hardie Grant. HB. $29.95. Just when you thought he’d given it his Mark Crick thoroughly tickled the ‘Who would’ve thought I have talent after best shot, David Sedaris is back with a funnybone of literary types with Kafka’s watching The Wedge, season two?’ joked repackaged and extended collection of his Soup (Wakefield. HB. $16.95), his clever Rebel Wilson, promoting Australia’s first hilariously caustic Christmas stories. This pastiche of both the contemporary craze ever bogan musical. It’s the in-your-face edition features six stories, including one for food writing and, well...literary types. In comedy that everyone’s talking about – a never before published, that continue the that book he composed a series of recipes, kind of ruder, cruder Summer Heights High. Rebel stars as Jennie theme of throwing Molotov-laced snowballs each in the style of a famous writer, Cragg, the outcast fat girl trying to raise money for her even fatter in the general direction of the holiday season. In the hard-to-beat complemented by illustrations in the style of famous artists (also by mother’s stomach-stapling operation. And that’s about as PC as it classic ‘SantaLand Diaries’, Sedaris documents in side-splitting Crick). In Sartre’s Sink, he does it again – this time choosing DIY as gets. This companion book to the SBS series celebrates the history fashion his time as a Macy’s elf; and you’ll laugh yourself in knots at his genre. So, a crack in his windowpane is a striking metaphor for teacher who fathered three children to students in the past year, the ‘Dinah the Christmas Whore’. Sedaris extends the theme in the new Milan Kundera’s womaniser Tomas, signifying his unwelcome lesbian Christian PE teacher, Asian maths nerd Amy Lee Lee and the additions with stories including ‘Us and Them’, a childhood vulnerability. Haruki Murakami’s hero paints a room with his crush, ‘slurrylicious’ Three Tease (Tracy Hooker, Tizzneen Hurl and Tessa reminiscence of a Halloween gone wrong, and ‘Jesus Shaves’, an Aoko, listening to jazz. And Anais Nin describes a painter ‘as he prised O’Plutt). There’s even a sealed section – for hot and popular people attempt to explain the concept of the Easter bunny to the French. A the lid from the paint, revealing the moonlike circle of white, into only, of course. collection just made for the Christmas stocking. which he thrust the stiff animal bristle of his brush’.

LAND OF PLENTY: AUSTRALIA IN THE 2000S SMALL WONDERS: Mark Davis. MUP. PB. $36.95. HOW MICROBES RULE OUR WORLD MOBY DICK: A POP-UP BOOK Davis, author of the bestselling Gangland (Allen Idan Ben-Barak. Scribe. PB. $26.95. Sam Ita. Sterling. Was $35, now $14.95. & Unwin. PB. $24.95), presents a devastating record A fantastic voyage to the microscopic but massively The epic saga of Captain Ahab’s obsessive quest for of the changes that have taken place in Australian influential word of microbiology. Learn about the lives the white whale comes vividly to life in this three- society since the 1980s, as well as a goldmine of and workings of genes, proteins, bacteria and viruses, dimensional graphic novel, the first of its kind. ideas for change. and the myriad ways in which they interact to shape life on Earth. PETTY’S PARALLEL WORLDS CLIMATE CODE RED: Bruce Petty. High Horse. HB. $39.95. THE CASE FOR EMERGENCY ACTION UNKNOWN QUANTITY This compilation of Bruce Petty’s anarchic and David Spratt & Philip Sutton. Scribe. PB. $27.95. John Derbyshire. Atlantic. PB. $26.95. brilliantly incisive art – much of it previously This meticulously documented call to action reveals In stylish and accessible prose, Derbyshire shows how unpublished – showcases his ability to observe extensive scientific evidence that the global warming the invention of algebra altered forever the ways in Australian society’s ambitions and follies. crisis is far worse than officially indicated – and that which we see and understand our world. we’re almost at the point of no return. WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES THE WEATHER MAKERS David Sedaris. Little, Brown. PB. $33. LAMARCK’S EVOLUTION Tim Flannery. Text. PB. $24.95. In this collection of stories, the American humorist Ross Honeywill. Pier 9. PB. $29.95. A new edition of Flannery’s important work about the covers everything from the bizarre conundrums of Before Darwin, Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck created the history and future impact of climate change, with a daily life to the most deeply resonant human truths. first theory of evolution. For 200 years, Lamarck’s new introduction by the author. ‘Laconic, slightly warped and extremely funny’ grand idea polarised the scientific establishment and (Sunday Times). became a byword for discredited belief before he was eventually proved right. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:33 AM Page 21 gift 21 1,000 RECORDINGS TO A DICTIONARY OF LIKE I GIVE A FROCK HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE: SEA QUOTATIONS Michi A LISTENER’S LIFE LIST Edward Duyker Viking. HB. $29.95. Tom Moon Miegunyah. HB. Discerning fashionistas with a slightly Workman. PB. $29.95. Was $65, now $24.95. off-beat style will get a kick out of Michi. This lovingly assembled book is a true Drawn from 4000 years of literature and Straight-talking, wisecracking and connoisseur’s guide to music – without a song, from The Iliad and The Odyssey original, the mysterious Michi is a shopping queen and advice-giver skerrick of musical snobbery in it. Former through to Shakespeare, James Joyce, extraordinaire. Like all the cool kids professional musician Tom Moon has been Winston Churchill and Bob Dylan, A these days, she even comes with an writing about music for 20 years (including for Rolling Stone, Spin and Dictionary of Sea Quotations gathers together the rich cultural legacy impeccable internet-based pedigree. Vibe). His mission here is simply to share his passion for the music he of humankind’s interaction with the waves. Written by an Australian Here you’ll find the answer to questions such as ‘Does wearing loves – and perhaps save some great marginal works from obscurity descended from a long line of sailors, who grew up with a father who fishnets to work make me a stripper?’ (pretty much: yes) and sample by highlighting them for a wide audience. Unlike most compilations had worked in the Dutch shipbuilding industry and spent 37 years as sage wisdom like ‘Never date a guy who wears a leather jacket. like this, the artists are organised from A–Z without being divided into a stevedore in Melbourne, it provides an A–Z guide of poems, novel Unless he’s the Fonz.’ Pet hates include skirts over trousers, tracksuit genre – so jazz pianist Cecil Taylor sits next to singer/songwriter extracts, songs and quotations from works of history. Everything you pants (anytime, anywhere), lycra (unless you’re a superhero) and James Taylor, who sits next to classical composer Tchaikovsky, could want to know about sea lore is here: anonymous sailors’ songs, playsuits. One of the best things about this book, though, is its ‘underscoring the notion that it’s all good’. A marvellously well- accounts of battles, and stories of hardship and exhilaration from fantastically quirky design and line-drawing illustrations. If only it informed and researched book that wears its considerable knowledge both the modern and the ancient world. came with a companion outfit... lightly – and its passion for its subject with flamboyant pride.

A COLLECTOR’S YEAR ENIGMA LOVE LETTERS OF GREAT MEN Adrian Franklin Ursula Doyle (ed) UNSWP. PB. $29.95. Fabrice Mazza & Sylvian Lhullier Macmillan. HB. $30. You’re probably familiar with Adrian Murdoch. HB. Editor Ursula Doyle has placed a magnifying Franklin as the bookish professor with the glass over a couple of thousand years of collecting bug who appears on our TV Was $39.95, now $34.95. love letters at her disposal, and narrowed screens every Friday night on the ABC’s Enigma: The Big Book of Brain-Teasers and the selection to just under 50 contributions Collectors. Having previously authored a Games of Logic is a stimulating collection of from her list of great men. From handful of academic titles, Franklin has over 170 brain-teasers, games of logic, Pliny the Younger, way back in AD gone mainstream with this light-hearted guide to a year in his life as puzzles, conundrums, riddles and paradoxes 79, to letters from the Great War in a collector. Packed with tips, trivia and colour pics, A Collector’s Year to be solved by yourself, or with friends and 1917, kings, philosophers, writers and artists lay their hearts and provides a month-by-month account of Franklin’s quirky and family. It is the perfect book to provoke conversation, debate and souls bare. Brief contextual descriptions of her protagonists and the voracious collecting forays through op-shops, markets and garage creative thinking. The puzzles inside range from simple riddles to situations they found themselves in set the background for letters by sales. From Christmas paraphernalia and Valentine’s Day memorabilia highly challenging logic puzzles that will have you scratching your such luminaries as Mozart, Napoleon, Flaubert, Victor Hugo and Lord to wintertime snow domes, this entertaining and practical guide to head for hours! More than just a book of puzzles, it’s a visual and Byron. From the achingly tragic (Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas) the weird and the wonderful also delves a little deeper to discuss cerebral feast to treasure and will add something unique to your to the wonderfully humorous (G K Chesterton to his future wife), this what motivates collectors to amass such things as bottles, ducks, book collection. unassuming little book shoots that poison arrow straight to the heart. lava lamps, frogs and dirt from around the world.

THE COMPLETE BOOK Who decided to become a writer REMEMBER, REMEMBER: OF MOTHERS IN LAW while watching a baseball game? Luisa Dillner LEARN THE STUFF YOU Faber. HB. $29.95. NEVER THOUGHT YOU COULD Ed Cooke Most women will be – or endure – a KICK! Viking. HB. $29.95. mother-in-law at some point in their Rufus Butler Seder lives, but how many varieties do they Workman. HB. $19.95. Kings and queens, British prime ministers, come in? Luisa Dillner has provided this American presidents, countries of helpful guide. The literature on the After last year’s runaway success of Europe…We should all know these things, subject stretches a long way, from Gallop! (Workman, HB, $19.95) comes but most of us don’t. Now, Grandmaster Biblical and Roman specimens through to the 21st-century. Edgar Kick!, another showcase of the amazing of Memory Ed Cooke offers up his Allen Poe worshipped his mother-in-law; Eleanor Roosevelt clashed technology of Scanimation, developed by memory secrets with a fun, quick and completely unforgettable with hers. Thackeray developed such a pathological hatred of his inventor, artist and filmmaker Rufus way to remember the things you thought you never could. Cooke mother-in-law that he channelled it into his writing, while the Marquis Butler Seder. Kick! does for kids and leads the way on unlikely adventures through people and places – de Sade was committed to prison by his. Virginia Woolf also sport what Gallop! does for animals – a you’ll soon find yourself rattling off the prime ministers to a rapt mercilessly satirised her husband’s mother, while Queen Victoria, far boy rides a bike, a girl kicks her soccer audience and adding, in a knowing tone, ‘Ah yes, Marquess of from being a domestic tyrant, adored the future Queen Alexandra ball, a swimmer cuts through the water, and a skater pirouettes on Rockingham, Whig I believe?’. Impress your friends (and amaze (who so cheerfully endured her husband’s infidelities). This book is a ice. The effect is joyous, magical and mesmerising. What’s all the yourself) with the knowledge you’ll be able to retain after reading delight to read, being both entertaining and informative. commotion? It’s kids in motion! this entertaining volume.

FROM LITTLE THINGS BIG THINGS GROW ONE MAGIC SQUARE Paul Kelly, Kev Carmody et al. Affirm. PB. $19.95. Lolo Houbein. Wakefield. PB. $45. EVIL PENGUINS The iconic Australian song appears in print for the first Subtitled ‘Food Plot Designs for all Seasons in Elia Anie. Simon Spotlight. PB. $14.95. time, accompanied by the paintings of Peter Hudson, Temperate Climates’, this inspirational and practical What’s black-and-white and evil all over? You’ll find the artwork of Gurindji schoolchildren and an book shows you how to grow the best and cheapest out the terrifying truth about those cute little birds with introduction by Martin Flanagan. All profits benefit arts food in your own backyard, however small it is. the happy feet in this hilarious book of cartoons… and literacy projects for Gurindji children in the NT. THE SICILIAN KITCHEN JUKURRPA CALENDAR 2009 OUTSIDERS Michele Di’Bartolo. Lantern. HB. $49.95. IAD Press. $24.95. Various. Century. PB. $45. Brisbane-born Di’Bartolo grew up with her Sicilian JUKURRPA DIARY 2009 Here, Steve Lazaridis (manager of street artist grandmother’s evocative stories and kitchen rituals. IAD Press. HB $34.95, PB $24.95. Banksy), has gathered together the work of a group of This memoir, accompanied by her nonna’s recipes, This beautiful calendar and diary are published by the a group of subversive and attention-grabbing artists, follows Michele as she travels to Sicily to discover the Institute for Aboriginal Development Inc, a not-for- including Jamie Hewlett, Antony Micalleff, Faile and joys of the island herself. profit Aboriginal community-controlled organisation. Conor Harrington. STUFF WHITE PEOPLE LIKE LIVING BLACK CALENDAR 2009 IN DEFENCE OF FOOD Christian Lander. Hardie Grant. PB. $24.95. AGNSW. $27. Michael Pollan. Allen Lane. PB. $32.95. This book is a spin-off from a cult blog that takes the This handsome 2009 calendar from the Art Gallery of The author of the bestselling The Omnivore’s Dilemma piss out of all the things that cultured ‘white people’ NSW features a selection of paintings from the (Bloomsbury. PB. $23.95) argues here that the like (‘The presence of an improper apostrophe on a gallery’s permanent collection, all of which reflect the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down menu can ruin an otherwise delicious meal for a white experience of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres through the generations have become confused, person’). Very funny stuff. Strait Islander artists ‘living black’ in Australia. complicated and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists and journalists. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:33 AM Page 22

Most reviews on these pages were written 22 by Mark Macleod, the only exceptions being The Enemy, Moon Rock, Not a Box, Pippi kids Longstocking and Iggy Peck Architect. A BUSH CHRISTMAS THE CLOUDCHASERS: I LOVE BIRTHDAYS C J Dennis (illus. Dee BOOK ONE I LOVE HOLIDAYS Huxley). Black Dog. HB. $25. Steven Hunt & David I LOVE TO DANCE When it appeared in 1931, C J Dennis’ Richardson. ABC. HB. $39.95. I LOVE TO SING poem was the perfect counterpoint to In Bankertown it’s illegal to use your Anna Walker. Scholastic. HB. yuletide clichés of holly berries and imagination. But Alice loves to draw the $11 each. mistletoe. Christmas had never been so creatures she sees in the clouds, which Olly the stuffed zebra loves dancing, singing, dry and dusty, and so it is with this edition, exuberantly illustrated by leads to her being suspended from school Dee Huxley. Gum trees wilt in the heat and the roast dinner served – holidays and birthdays. He particularly likes under the Creative Conformity Act. Pursued by a repulsive, vermin- it when he dances like jelly and shakes his ‘full bite and sup’ – makes everyone’s waistline expand. A perfect gift infested agent called the Catcher, she escapes in a hot-air balloon, for Aussies, at home or abroad. Ages 5+ wobbly belly. He also loves to sing in his bed accompanied by a fairground boy called Spinner and her goody-two- with his good friend Fred, and he loves green shoes brother, Thomas. Beyond the clouds lies the possibility of balloons and party tunes. These small-format restoring imagination and freedom to Bankertown – something Alice ANGELINA BALLERINA’S books are a perfect size for little hands and is determined to do. With stunning illustrations, this first instalment of their rhyming verse and cute illustrations POP-UP AND PLAY a two-volume set is perfect for readers aged 8+, particularly those make them sure-fire hits for bedtime MUSICAL THEATRE who are a bit overwhelmed by big chapter books. reading. Ages 1+ Katharine Holabird (illus. Helen Craig). EMILY AND THE BIG Puffin. HB. $34.95. BAD BUNYIP INKDEATH This wonderful book stands up to become a three-dimensional Jackie French (illus. Bruce Cornelia Funke. Chicken musical theatre that will delight ballerinas-in-waiting and stage Whatley). Angus & House. HB. $29.95. managers-to-be. Young readers can lift the flaps and pull the tabs to Robertson. HB. $25. participate as the mousey chorus line rehearses, sets are built and Life in the Inkworld has been far from easy Angelina chooses her costume. And when the final call comes it’s Everybody loves Christmas and nobody likes a party pooper. So when since the story of Inkheart (Chicken House. time to raise the curtain, strike up the orchestra and set Angelina the Bunyip is grumpy on Christmas Day, the animals of Shaggy Gully, PB. $20) magically drew Meggie, Mo and pirouetting on centre stage. Ages 3+ led by Emily Emu, set out to cheer him up. A Christmas tree, presents Dustfinger back into its pages. With and dinner don’t do the trick, but Emily eventually finds a way to Dustfinger dead and the evil Adderhead make him smile. But was it really worth it? Another engaging tale now in control, the story in which they are from the team behind Diary of a Wombat (HarperCollins. New boxed all caught has taken an unhappy turn. But as winter comes there is A REALLY SHORT HISTORY set of book and toy wombat $25). Ages 4+ reason to hope – if only Meggie and Mo can rewrite the wrongs of the OF NEARLY EVERYTHING past and make a dangerous deal with death. This final instalment of Bill Bryson. Doubleday. HB. the popular fantasy trilogy is being released just before the film Was $39.95, now $33.95. EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL version of Inkheart hits our screens in 2009. Ages 11+ Simmone Howell. Pan. PB. This new edition of Bill Bryson’s $17. worldwide bestseller has been abridged KASPAR: PRINCE OF CATS and adapted especially for children. The many fans of Simmone Howell’s debut Michael Morpurgo Bryson’s storytelling skill makes both the teen novel Notes from the Teenage (illus. Michael Foreman). ‘How?’ and the ‘Who?’ of scientific Underground (Pan Macmillan. PB. $17) are discovery entertaining and accessible for sure to be happy with this follow-up title. HarperCollins. PB. $19.95. all ages. He covers the wonder and mysteries of time and space; Sixteen-year-old Riley Rose is coming to Kaspar the cat first came to the Savoy gives a rundown of crackpot theories that held sway for too long; terms with the death of her mother two Hotel in a basket – Johnny Trott knows, documents extraordinary accidental discoveries that suddenly years before. Riley is overweight, she’s because he was the one who carried him advanced whole areas of science; and ponders the mind-boggling struggling with her schoolwork and her in. Johnny was a bell-boy, you see, and he fact that the universe exists at all. Includes full-colour illustrations dad has a new girlfriend called Norma. When her dad and Norma carried all of Countess Kandinsky’s things and photographs. Ages 9+ decide that she must spend part of the holidays at Spirit Ranch to her room. Johnny didn’t expect to end up with Kaspar on his hands Holiday Camp rather than hanging with her best friend Chloe, Riley forever, and nor did he count on making friends with Lizziebeth, a thinks things couldn’t possibly get worse…Melbourne-based Howell spirited American heiress. Pretty soon, events are set in motion that has written a wonderfully engaging book that manages to be uplifting will take Johnny – and Kaspar – all around the world, surviving BAMBERT’S BOOK OF without being moralistic or clichéd. Ages 14+ rooftop rescues and the sinking of the Titanic along the way. Ages 8+ MISSING STORIES THE GRAVEYARD BOOK Reinhardt Jung (illus. Emma KENNY & THE DRAGON Chichester Clark). Egmont. Neil Gaiman. Bloomsbury. HB. $27.95. Tony DiTerlizzi. Simon & HB. $24.95. Schuster. PB. $19.95. Neil Gaiman is one of those writers who Bambert lives alone in an attic apartment Kenny is a little rabbit with a very big he rarely leaves. His body is deformed, comfortably straddles the worlds of children’s and adult literature. Perhaps it’s problem. His two best friends are heading but he has a rich and wonderful for a battle of legendary proportions – with imagination, which he uses to write because his imagination is still as limber and surprising as a child’s. This deliciously each other! George, a former knight and stories. One day, Bambert attaches 11 of his precious stories to dragon-slayer, is encouraged out of Japanese tissue-paper hot-air balloons powered by tea-lights, and macabre tale is about a child raised by the resident ghosts, ghouls and spectres of a retirement by the residents of Kenny’s casts them into the wind. With them is a letter asking the finder to sleepy village to hunt down Graham, a well- send the stories back to him. Slowly the stories return, bearing local graveyard. Magical, whimsical and darkly funny, it will delight fans of Coraline (Bloomsbury. PB. $14.95) read and cultured dragon with sophisticated tastes and no stomach postmarks from all over the world, including one from the past. And for battle. It’s up to Kenny to avert disaster and protect both of his finally, the only one left is the story that has to write itself. A poignant and Stardust, (Headline. PB. $22.95), as well as newcomers to Gaiman’s work. Ages 14+ friends. This fun-filled tale by the co-creator of The Spiderwick tale about the power of imagination and the importance of empathy. Chronicles is sure to be a hit with middle readers aged 7+ Ages 8+

BUBBLE TROUBLE THE GREAT PAPER CAPER LOVE YOU TWO Margaret Mahy (illus. Polly Oliver Jeffers. HarperCollins. Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli. Dunbar). Frances Lincoln. HB. $25. Random House. PB. $18.95. HB. $27.95. In the forest, trees are mysteriously losing Pina’s friends think that she’s lucky. How their branches and whole tree trunks are many families get along the way hers does Little Mabel blew a bubble, and has disappearing. The animals that live in the and how many parents are as free-spirited caused a lot of trouble. The bubble forest begin a full-scale investigation. and happy as hers? Then a chance bobbed across the table, bobbled over Alibis must be proved, clues must be glimpse at an email unravels what Pina Baby and wafted him away! Teaming up found, and witnesses must be thought she knew about life, love and her again after their collaboration on the marvellous Down the Back of interviewed. Who is the perpetrator of this crime? And does it have parents. Can her family survive what she the Chair (Frances Lincoln. PB. $15.95), Margaret Mahy and Polly anything to do with the upcoming 112th Biennial Paper Airplane has discovered? And what does it all mean Dunbar here tell the story of the frantic efforts of Mabel, her mother Competition? A quirky and gorgeously illustrated picture book from for Pina’s own life? With similarities to Melina Marchetta’s Looking for and her neighbours to save Baby. With loads of alliteration and rhyme, the author of The Incredible Book Eating Boy (HarperCollins. PB. $15). Alibrandi (Penguin. PB. $22.95), this powerful Australian coming-of- this is a wonderful story to read aloud to toddlers. Its exciting story is Ages 3+ age novel is about difference, diversity and defining oneself in what perfectly complemented by Dunbar’s amusing and attractive can sometimes be a very confusing world. Ages 16+ illustrations. Ages 2+ 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:33 AM Page 23 kids 23 THE MAGIC THIEF SPYOLOGY: THE COMPLETE Sarah Prineas. Quercus. PB. BOOK OF SPYCRAFT $16.95. Spencer Blake. Connwaer is a thief working the Twilight Five Mile Press. HB. $34.95. THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY LIVES OF THE GREAT ARTISTS district of the city of Wellmet. On the run OF A PART-TIME INDIAN Charlie Ayres. Thames & Hudson. Aspiring James Bonds need look no from the city’s Underlord, he steals a power Sherman Alexie. Andersen Press. HB. $29.95. further for an authoritative guide to the PB. $19.95. stone, or locus magicalicus, from a banished This stunning picture book history and practice of espionage. The wizard called Nevery. When the stone has Junior is a Native American who introduces young readers to 20 of latest instalment in Five Mile Press’ wildly successful series moves from the rez to a rich white the greatest artists of all time, little effect on Conn – it should have killed (Egyptology, Dragonology, Wizardology etc), this handsome volume is school where he must prove including Giotto, Van Gogh, Da Vinci him – the intrigued wizard takes Conn on as an apprentice, involving filled with loads of cool information about the history of secret himself. This diary of how he and Monet. It includes reproductions him in a plan to save the city from the death of magic. The first book survives was a worthy winner of the intelligence organisations, spying operations and great spies of their most famous works, as well in a captivating fantasy trilogy of wizardry and adventure, The Magic National Book Award in 2007. Ages as entertaining accounts of how throughout the ages. There are handy tips for surveillance (parents Thief has its own website (www.magicthief.co.uk) and comes with a 12+ they worked. Ages 7+ beware!), a guide to codes and ciphers, and loads of tricks of the free gift of a locus magicalicus to wear. Ages 9+ trade – if junior wants to spot a forgery or beat a lie detector, ALISON JAY’S NURSERY MAC SLATER, COOL HUNTER: COLLECTION THE RULES OF COOL Spyology will help. A clever – though hardly covert – guide for Alison Jay. Hardie Grant Egmont. Tristan Bancks. Random House. THE MOST STUPENDOUS operatives aged 8+ Board books boxed set. $24.95. PB. $16.95. ATLAS OF THE WHOLE ALISON JAY’S WALL FRIEZE When the creators of Coolhunters – STOP IN THE Alison Jay. Hardie Grant Egmont. a massive online space dedicated to WIDE WORLD $9.95. NAME OF PANTS the coolest things on Earth – ask Simon Adams (illus. Lisa Two books – A Child’s First 123 and Mac to work with them, he thinks Swerling & Ralph Lazar). Louise Rennison. A Child’s First ABC – are included in they’re crazy. But they realise that HarperCollins. HB. $20. this board-book set. Their beautiful Mac is so uncool he’s, like, cool. And Dorling Kindersley. HB. $35. illustrations are also featured in the he realises that hunting cool ain’t Teen drama queen Georgia Nicolson has clever wall frieze, which is split into easy. Ages 9+ Forget old-fashioned school atlases – kids finally won over gorgey-porgey Massimo seven sections so you can create these days need atlases like this one! It takes readers on a world tour MONSIEUR RAT ‘the Italian Stallion’, but her old friend posters or one continuous frieze. Federica Mossetti. Black Dog. filled with fun, facts and full-colour illustrations. There are gatefolds Ages birth+ and lip-nibbling partner Dave the Laugh HB. $15. focusing on six continents – Oceania, North America, South America, has resurfaced. Will she go to pizza-a-go- AUDREY GOES TO TOWN This little rodent has a big problem! Africa, Asia and Europe – as well as special features about a go land to visit dreamy Massimo or could Christine Harris (illus. Ann When his moustache experiment comprehensive range of subjects, including the Earth’s structure and James). Little Hare. PB. $15. her perfect boy – and a number five snog – be closer than she goes horribly wrong, he is forced to surface, weather and climate and the world’s people. Do you know set off on a journey that leads to an thinks? These fab new confessions from the endearing sex kitty are The much-loved character from what percentage of the world’s population is aged 14 or under? Or Audrey of the Outback (Little Hare. unexpected destination. A mega- bound to have readers in stitches. Ages 13+ which European river is the longest? Read this book and you’ll learn PB. $15) is back. When her Mum cute tale about dealing with difference. Age 4+ the answers to these and many other questions! Ages 8+ gets sick, Audrey’s indomitable bounce helps her cope. Ages 7+ THE PENCIL TEN LITTLE FINGERS CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG: Allan Ahlberg (illus. Bruce THE MAGICAL CAR Ingman). Walker. HB. $27.95. NIGHT FRIGHT AND TEN LITTLE TOES Ian Fleming (illus. John From the award-winning team that Rod Green (illus. Rob Mem Fox Burningham). Puffin. HB. $29.95. created The Runaway Dinner Biddulph). Hardie Grant (illus. Helen Oxenbury). Written by the creator of James comes this charming picture book Bond for his young son, this famous about what happens when a lonely Egmont. HB. $29.95. Viking. HB. $24.95. story follows the adventures of the little pencil decides to draw a world most magical racing car ever to to live in. Ages 4+ There’s a good reason why this wonderful Are your dreams occasionally invaded by grace the skies. A new edition ghoulish creatures? Fear not – Octavius picture book will immediately remind readers of the universally loved SHORT STUFFS accompanied by its original, Chicken Socks. Klutz. Kit. $20. Grimwood has investigated vampires, ghosts, grave robbers, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (Walker Books. Board. $12.95) – both timeless, artwork. Ages 8+ skeletons, haunted houses, werewolves, witches, zombies and books feature gorgeous illustrations by Helen Oxenbury and both are This clever kit helps kids make their DRAGON DAWN own snuggly friend without sewing a delightful to read aloud to babies and toddlers. Here, Mem Fox has mummies, and here imparts the facts about these creatures of Carole Wilkinson. Black Dog. PB. $13. single stitch. All they need to do is written a perfectly paced story about the tiny baby fingers and nightmares and scary movies, giving background to the myths, loads Danzi is not yet 1000 years old, stuff the two soft fabric bodies with of gruesome facts and a graveyard full of atmospheric illustrations. chubby baby toes that delight parents the world over. This essential which means he’s a youngster in the squishy inserts supplied and Read it and you’ll know how to kill a vampire, spot a werewolf, hunt addition to every new arrival’s library is bound to become a children’s dragon terms. And it’s a dangerous choose from the ready-made felt for ghosts or take spooky stuff with a grain of salt! Ages 9+. classic. Ages birth+ time for a dragon to be without a features. Ages 4+ keeper…In this volume, Carole SWORDS: AN ARTIST’S DEVOTION Wilkinson tells the story that comes Ben Boos. Candlewick. HB. $29.95. PAPER TOYS before the prize-winning François Chetcuti. Ullman. Set. THE THREE ROBBERS Dragonkeeper (Black Dog. PB. $20). This visual celebration of swords Tomi Ungerer. Phaidon. HB. Ages 10+ and swordsmen spans time and $39.95. place – from ancient warriors such $24.95. ENIGMA: A MAGICAL MYSTERY as Beowulf, to medieval knights, This stunning retro-style tin box contains Graeme Base. Viking. HB. $29.95. stealthy ninja and powerful samurai. Art publisher Phaidon has launched a eight different custom-designed paper Bertie loves to visit the Retirement The intricate illustrations reflect the models for kids to build. There’s a duck- republishing project of the work of Home for Elderly Magicians and passion of a true devotee. Ages 9+ piloted plane with propeller, rolling dog with acclaimed writer and artist Tomi Ungerer, watch his grandpa perform magic THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX ball, racing car, rhino robot, swinging clown, who published a number of classic books tricks. But one day all the Kate Di Camillo (illus. Timothy magicians’ props go missing, so monster-in-a-box, dancing doll and bunny for children, among them The Three Basil Ering). Walker. PB. $16.95. chef. The models all come with a special motion feature and can be Robbers (1962). This much-loved book is Bertie sets off to investigate. Another picture-book triumph from the Before seeing the film, we suggest about a trio of robbers reformed by the built using a detailed step-by-step instruction manual and materials creator of the bestselling Animalia reading the charming novel that including coloured construction sheets, wooden sticks and rubber innocent affection of a young orphan who they steal in lieu of riches (Puffin. PB. $19.95). Ages 4+ inspired it. Despereaux is a tiny, bands (all supplied). It’s the perfect activity to keep kids occupied for one day. (And yes, she proves to be their most precious haul of all.) sickly mouse with unusually large hours, but be warned: some children may have trouble wresting the The stark and arresting illustration and design is as affecting and THE KINGS OF CLONMEL: ears who takes his fate into his own hands, so proving that old-fashioned models off their fascinated parents! Ages 9+ alluring as ever – as is the enduring message of the deceptively RANGER’S APPRENTICE 8 John Flanagan. Random House. courage and love can never be simple story. Ages 4+ PB. $16.95. defeated. Ages 8+ Will is at the annual Ranger TALES FROM OUTER SUBURBIA Gathering when he hears about the Shaun Tan. Allen & Unwin. HB. $35. false religious cult calling itself the SOMEBODY’S CRYING WHERE THE STREETS From the creator of The Arrival Outsiders. Its sedition has caused Maureen McCarthy. Allen & HAD A NAME (Hachette. HB. $39.95) comes this five of the six Hibernian kingdoms to revelation about the quiet mysteries Unwin. PB. $22.95. Randa Abdel-Fattah. Pan be undermined and now threatens of everyday suburban life. But hang the sixth, Clonmel. Will, Halt and Macmillan. PB. $20. on…do water buffalo at the end of Three years have passed since the murder of Horace set out to restore order. Ages the street, deep-sea divers near the Alice’s mother in a Victorian country town, 10+ From the author of Does My Head Look underpass, DIY pets and tiny but the killer is still unknown. Alice, her Big in This? (Pan Macmillan. PB. $16.95) exchange students sound like the cousin Jonty and his friend Tom are drawn and 10 Things I Hate About Me (Pan THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO types of things encountered in your Patrick Ness. Walker. HB. $29.95. together by the mystery, but they also Macmillan. PB. $16.95) comes this novel suburb? Ages 10+ Todd Hewitt is the last boy in mistrust each other’s possible involvement in set in the Palestinian Territories. It follows TOP GEAR ANNUAL 2009 Lillian’s death. Will their secrets bind them tighter or tear everything Prentisstown, a strange place where the quest of 13-year-old Hayaat, who everyone can hear everyone else’s BBC. HB. $19.95. apart? Novels such as Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life travels through her occupied country and over the wall that divides thoughts and there are no secrets. Join the original British line-up – (Penguin. PB. $19.95) and Rose By Any Other Name (Allen & Unwin. the West Bank from Jerusalem to retrieve a handful of soil from her Or are there? This exciting and Jeremy, Richard, James and the Stig PB. $16.95) have showcased Maureen McCarthy’s ability to create grandmother’s ancestral home. This earnest and uplifting tale wears powerful novel is about dangerous – in this gift book inspired by the characters that teenagers strongly relate to, and Somebody’s Crying its politics on its sleeve, but is no less moving or compelling for this choices when growing up. Winner of popular TV show. Full of quizzes, the 2008 Guardian Award. Ages 12+ tests, games and puzzles. Ages 9+ is no exception. It skilfully draws the reader deep into a world of fact. Ages 12+ suspicion, betrayal, desire and redemption. Ages 15+ 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:33 AM Page 24 24 music

À L’AVEUGLETTE (AT RANDOM) BOOTLEG SERIES VOL 8: DAY AFTER TOMORROW HARPS AND ANGELS Françoiz Breut. $24.95. TELL TALE SIGNS Joan Baez. $29.95. Randy Newman. $29.95. Our favourite French indie chanteuse returns with Bob Dylan. 2-CD set. $34.95. In this album timed to celebrate her 50 years as a Newman is one of the sharpest, funniest and her exquisite fourth album, which presents as a More has been written about Bob Dylan than any recording artist, Baez has teamed up with Steve most scathingly satirical songwriters alive. With a sort of love-child of Serge Gainsbourg, Leonard other music artist. He has been lionised, Earle (as producer) and a band of top musicians warm delivery in his trademark half-speaking half- Cohen, Nick Cave, Cat Power and Françoise Hardy. demonised and canonised. On this latest volume to create a wonderful collection. It includes songs singing style, he has once again come up with With it, the tortured artist has delivered a French of his authorised bootleg series he revisits by some of today’s finest songwriters, including the goods, ably backed by his piano-led, New album for non-French speakers. Lie back, listen recordings from 1986–2006, including the classic Patty Griffin, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and Steve Orleans–influenced band. It’s been a while and dream of Paris… Oh Mercy, Time Out of Mind and Modern Times. Earle himself. between albums, but this one was well worth The best volume yet of a fantastic series. the wait.

ALL TOGETHER NOW DVD BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB FLEET FOXES HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 The Beatles. $29.95. AT CARNEGIE HALL Fleet Foxes. $24.95. Soundtrack. $29.95. This DVD documents the Love project, a Buena Vista Social Club. This troupe of hairy 20-somethings describe their The incredible phenomenon that is Disney’s High collaboration between the Beatles and Cirque Du 2-CD set + 32pp booklet. $29.95. music as ‘baroque-folk’. It’s an apt assessment, School Musical series continues! The new film Soleil, from its beginning through to the show’s but ignores the ’60s psych-rock influences, full follows all the characters through to their final A decade ago, Ry Cooder, Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay successful launch and the release of the band harmonising and well-rounded, epic tunes on year of school, and once again features the talents Segundo, Omara Portuondo, Ruben Gonzalez and accompanying Love remix album. In it, George show here – the result is a mature, stunning debut of Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron, Corbin Bleu and company smashed the glass ceiling for world music Martin and his son Giles discuss how they pieced album that belies the youth of Fleet Foxes’ Ashley Tisdale. Sure to be on every tween or early and ignited a cultural phenomenon. All the songs from together the Love album from the original master members. A very strong contender for album of teen Christmas list. the original BVSC album and many more are tapes. Bound to fascinate all Beatles fans. the year. presented here in the full music version of the concert that filmmaker Wim Wenders only partly documented.

AND WINTER CAME CHIMNEYS AFIRE GOOD IN THE FACE OF A STRANGER HUSH COLLECTION VOLUME 8: Enya. $29.95. Josh Pyke. $29.95. Alex Lloyd. $24.95. A CASTLE FOR ALL This album began life as a Christmas project, but Josh Pyke has become a big deal in the Australian This album sees Alex Lloyd returning to the form Andrea Keller et al. $24.95. morphed into a record exploring a more general music scene very quickly. A great songwriter with that made him Australia’s leading male artist in $16 from each purchase goes to winter theme – a world away from the long hot a fine voice, he has produced two albums that are the mid-’90s. This gifted musician has obviously children’s hospitals throughout summer we are about to enjoy! As you would reminiscent of early Paul Kelly in their ability to rediscovered his muse and it’s great to hear him expect, Enya’s hauntingly dreamy voice is the distil everyday life into hum-able tunes. A new star sounding free and creative again, producing some Australia. highlight, backed by her customary ethereal in Australian music. of the most interesting pop music in this country. An album of beautiful music devoted to comforting sound. Includes her much sought-after version of our sick children. Jazz pianist Andrea Keller’s 12 ‘Silent Night’. new compositions mix sensuous jazz with a classic lyrical line. There’s a liquid sax and piano conversation, recorder and percussion in a wistful duet, guitar and piano in meditation, and percussion like a heartbeat.

BLACKBIRD COMME SI DE RIEN NÉTAIT GURRUMUL I KNOW YOU’RE MARRIED Katie Noonan. (AS IF NOTHING HAD HAPPENED) Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. BUT I’VE GOT FEELINGS TOO Was $29.95, now $21.95. Carla Bruni. $29.95. $29.95. Martha Wainwright. Multi-award-winning artist Katie Noonan (from Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has come a long way in the Gurrumul is the Australian album of the year and Was $25.95, now $21.95. George) returns with a new album featuring 15 last three years, which makes a lie of this album Readings’ bestselling Australian CD of all time. Our favourite Wainwright finally released her classic songs from the Lennon-McCartney title. Here, the leading exponent of the French Yunupingu sings the simple but powerful songs of second album earlier this year. And what a great songbook. A group of the world’s leading jazz chanteuse tradition presents 13 beautiful the Gumatj people and their land. His unusual but album (and title) it is! A powerful performer, she musicians (Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Ron Carter contemporary French classics as well as an beautiful voice and distinctive guitar technique writes and performs raw, sexy and soulful songs and Melburnian Sam Keevers) join Noonan as she English cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘You Belong to Me’. make this a classic album. that are as good as any by other members of her breathes new life into some Beatles standards. much-lauded family. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:33 AM Page 25 music 25

JUNGLE BLUES LITTLE HONEY SOME PEOPLE HAVE THEN AND NOW: C W Stoneking. $25.95. Lucinda Williams. REAL PROBLEMS THE DEFINITIVE HERBIE HANCOCK Wildly out of step with modern times, CW’s new Was $29.95, now $19.95. Sia. $24.95. Herbie Hancock. album is another brilliant escape into his weird Ms Williams’ recent releases have tended to be Adelaide-born Sia Furler has become a global star Was $29.95, now $19.95. world of early blues, ragtime, swing and calypso. entirely dependent upon the highs and lows of her while still being largely unknown in her own Hancock is a true legend of American music, and Playing guitar and tenor banjo, and ably supported love life – few contemporary artists wear their country. This is her fourth solo release and her this collection gives us a taste of his career from by the Primitive Horn Orchestra, the songs he hearts on their sleeves like she does. Here, she strongest yet. Fans of quirky pop such as that the ’60s through to the present. It’s a great plays here tell of his hair-raising journey surviving manages to neatly fit in blues, rock and country delivered by Feist or Regina Spektor should seek introduction to the work of a man who helped a shipwreck on the West African coast in 1998. with her band backing her wonderfully on every this release out. shape the sound of jazz in the second half of the song. A gem. 20th century.

KIND OF BLUE 50TH ANNIVERSARY LIVE IN AUSTRALIA SOMEWHERE TIME THE CONQUERER COLLECTOR’S EDITION Chris Isaak. $29.95. Eva Cassidy. $29.95. Jackson Browne. $25.95. Miles Davis. 2-CD set + The ultra-cool Chris Isaak offers a polished live Unknown to all but a few ardent fans until her Jackson Browne has helped to define the genre of DVD + vinyl edition + performance from his recent Australian tour. death from cancer at the tragically young age political songwriting over the past 36 years and 60pp booklet. $84.95. Definitely attaining sexy crooner status on this of 33, Eva Cassidy has become one of the this, his first collection of new songs in six years, recording, Isaak oozes charm and humour whilst most popular female artists of the past decade. proves what a great songman he still is. The The most famous and highest-selling jazz album hitting a whole lotta high notes. Excellent sound Here she sings everything from country folk to warm, easy voice remains and he is still fired up of all time is about to turn 50! The record that quality and minimal crowd noise make this an western swing and popular ballads in her beautiful by the state of US politics. Another classic album. made Miles Davis’ career was recorded with an excellent Greatest Hits companion album. pure voice. all-star band, including John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans. To celebrate this milestone, Sony has produced a truly amazing set.

KITTY, DAISY & LEWIS LIVE IN LONDON DVD SONGS FROM THE SOUTH 1 & 2 TWO MEN WITH THE BLUES Kitty, Daisy & Lewis. $25.95. k d Lang. $29.95. Paul Kelly 2-CD set. $29.95. Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis. These teen siblings are fast becoming a Earlier this year k d undertook a month-long tour Kelly is a living national treasure and finally $29.95. phenomenon in the UK. This debut album to promote her album Watershed. If you didn’t get there’s an anthology befitting his 25-year Recorded live over two nights in New York last showcases their unique brand of R&B, swing and the chance to see her perform live, this wonderful recording career. Songs from the South has all year, this is quite simply one of the best records early rock’n’roll with a classic authentic feel – DVD release (recorded with the BBC Concert of the classics, as well as a couple of tracks either man has produced. An inspired collaboration amazing for three teenagers in 2008! A great Orchestra) is a fabulous way to experience the not previously available on disc – the cult live featuring some great playing from one of the choice for your next summer gathering. smooth-as-silk singer live in your lounge-room. classic ‘Every *ucking City’ and his recent ode to hottest bands around, these classic tracks are Warnie. Also available as an extremely limited- given new life by the extraordinary dual talents of edition deluxe boxed set ($149.95). Nelson and Marsalis.

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED: ME AND ARMINI SONGS TO MAKE YOU SMILE WATCH ME DISAPPEAR DELUXE EDITION Emillian Torrini. $25.95. Justine Clarke. $14.95. Augie March. Gabriella Cilmi. Deluxe 2-CD set. There is something instantly appealing about the Kids who have grown up listening to Justine’s Was $29.95, now $24.95. $29.95. lovely clear voice and easy languid style of the hugely successful album I Like to Sing will enjoy Augie March finally hit the big time in 2006 with Icelandic/Italian Ms Torrini. Notching up her indie this next chapter of music, and parents who have The 17-year-old Cilmi cleaned up at this year’s the excellent Moo You Bloody Choir and the single credibility, this excellent collection of finely crafted had that disc in the car for years will be grateful ARIA awards, taking six gongs including single of ‘One Crowded Hour’. Now the band has delivered songs often features plucked guitar – at times they can finally listen to something else! Wiggles the year and female artist of the year. Her voice is another fabulous album that’s sure to keep old urgent and longing, at others jaunty then moving beware – this Play School presenter is poised to strong and soulful (à la Amy Winehouse and fans happy and win over plenty of new ones. on to seduction and danger. take over the mantle as the most popular Duffy), and after listening to this album you’ll Definitely one of the most exciting Aussie bands of entertainer for kids. understand why she can rightfully claim the title of the moment. Australia’s Queen of Pop. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:33 AM Page 26 26 classical

A TRIBUTE TO JOHN CARGHER DAVID OISTRAKH: THE COMPLETE J S BACH: SACRED MASTERWORKS O THOU TRANSCENDENT: THE LIFE Various Artists. 3-CD set. $33.95. EMI RECORDINGS Bach Collegium Japan/ Masaaki OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS ABC Classics has put together this set to 17-CD set. $54.95. Suzuki. 10-CD set. $97.95. Tony Palmer. DVD. $36.95. commemorate the late radio personality, John This excellent set covers most of the great works The performances in this luxurious limited-edition 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Cargher. Included are two complete programs of of the violin repertoire (solo and concerto), and box set have received an astonishing number of Vaughan Williams, and this timely DVD is an Singers of Renown, as well as highlights from also includes some fine examples of Oistrakh’s distinctions from classical music critics the world affectionate, though often disturbing, portrait of Music for Pleasure and bonus tracks from chamber music performances. What set Oistrakh over. They include the Mass in B Minor, St John’s the great man. Palmer is well known for his films Cargher’s personal collection of historic 78rpms apart from many violinists was his sound, which Passion (the Gramophone guide’s pick for most about music and musicians, as well as his opera and LPs. A set to remember and treasure. was both unmistakable and unique. A wonderful outstanding interpretation of this work), St direction. Here, he has directed a fascinating work recorded legacy from a great musician. Matthew’s Passion and Christmas Oratorio. Great about the great British composer. performances at a bargain price!

BEETHOVEN: COMPLETE WORKS HANDEL: MESSIAH KARAJAN: SYMPHONY EDITION PAVAROTTI: THE DUETS Various Artists. 87-CD set. John Butt/Dunedin Consort. 2-CD Herbert von Karajan/Berliner Various. $29.95. $119.95. set. $64.95. Philharmoniker. 38-CD set. $94.95. The great singer’s legacy lives on in this CD of Recordings from 1987 onwards have been used in This version of the Messiah, premiered in Dublin A limited-edition set bringing together eight great highlights from the Pavarotti and Friends charity this set, ensuring that it delivers the best-possible in 1742, sees the soloists also performing the symphonic cycles, including the complete concert series. Pavarotti sings duets with an sound quality. It features performances by artists choruses. Here, the remarkable and refreshingly symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, extraordinary variety of singers, including Celine and orchestras including the ASMF, the Bach- intimate performance exudes youth, freshness Mendelssohn, Schumann and Tchaikovsky. Dion, Elton John, Mariah Carey, Andrea Bocelli, Collegium Stuttgart, the Gewandhausorchester and joy. The sound and performance are first rate. Also included are the Paris and London Sting, Bono and Eric Clapton. This CD is Leipzig, Yehudi Menuhin, Ian Partridge, Hermann Winner of the 2007 Gramophone Magazine Award symphonies of Joseph Haydn and the late guaranteed to appeal to all ages and to lovers of Prey, Sviatoslav Richter and Andreas Schiff. Note for Best Choral Performance. symphonies of Mozart. Sound quality and classical and popular music alike. the amazing price point! performances are of the highest order.

BELLINI: LA SONNAMBULA JÉRUSALEM MAHLER: COMPLETE SOUVENIRS Cecilia Bartoli & Juan Diego Jordi Savall, Monserrat Figueras SYMPHONIES AND SONGS Anna Netrebko. $29.95. Florez. 2-CD set. $29.95. et al. 2-CD set + glossy hardback Sir Simon Rattle. 14-CD set. $39.95. Russian soprano Anna Netrebko is acclaimed for Featuring the world’s two leading bel canto book. $74.95. This fantastic collection is conducted by arguably the sheer richness and beauty of her voice. For this disc, she has chosen 18 tracks to form a singers, this eagerly anticipated release is the This exquisitely packaged set comprises a glossy the greatest conductor of recent times. souvenir of her life. Classics featured include most complete and authentic studio recording of hardback book and two hybrid Super Audio CDs. It Symphonies 5 and 10 are with the Berlin Charpentier’s Depuis Le Jour, Grieg’s Solveig’s Bellini’s La Sonnambula. Not only is it the first documents a once-in-a-lifetime concert dedicated Philharmonic, No. 9 is with the Vienna Song, Lloyd Webber’s Pie Jesu and the traditional recording to feature a mezzo in the lead role, it’s to Jerusalem, with Jewish, Arab and Christian Philharmonic and the remaining seven (including Jewish song Schof Sche, Mein Vogele. also the first-ever recording to employ a period- musicians boldly threading together musical his legendary performance of No. 2) are with the instrument orchestra. traditions under the direction of Jordi Savall, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. world’s leading early music performer. Both the music and words are moving beyond description.

THE CLASSIC 100 JOSEPH HAYDN: COMPLETE MSTISLAV ROSTROPOVICH: THE VIENNA, CITY OF MY DREAMS CHAMBER MUSIC MUSIC FOR SOLO KEYBOARD COMPLETE EMI RECORDINGS Yvonne Kenny. $29.95. Various. 8-CD set. $85.95. Ronald Brautigam. $92.95 Box set: 25 CDs + 2 DVDs. $75.95. Australia’s favourite soprano conveys the passion This is the most recent addition to the popular (a 15-CD set for the price of 3!). Rostropovich was the leading cellist of the second and romance of the Viennese ballroom in this well- chosen collection of 18 operetta arias. Enjoy ‘Classic 100’ series from ABC Classics. Featuring This collection is truly unique. Brautigam’s half of the 20th century. Discs 1 and 2 and both classic favourites such as ‘Villa’ and ‘Love performances from the some of the great chamber attention to detail is unsurpassed – he plays all of DVDs feature the Bach Cello Suites; other Unspoken’ from The Merry Widow or ‘My Love groups and soloists in the classical music world, it this music, even the early divertimento-sonatas, highlights include both EMI versions of the Brahms Song Must Be a Waltz’ from The Gypsy Princess. should appeal to anyone who loves good music. If with excitement and real style. An unusual Double Concerto, the Dvorákˇ Cello Concerto and Sumptuously accompanied by the Melbourne you haven’t yet delved into the world of chamber keyboard arrangement of The Seven Last Words the Bach Cello Suites. Symphony Orchestra, led by Richard Bonynge. music, this is a great place to start! of Our Saviour on the Cross, published in 1787 with the composer’s approval, is included. 131496 readings_catalogue VIC.art 10/11/08 10:34 AM Page 27 DVDs 27

AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MISS MARPLE: HAROLD LLOYD: THE DEFINITIVE THE MIGHTY BOOSH LIVE $29.95 PATTI SMITH: DREAM OF LIFE COLLECTION ONE $39.95 COLLECTION $79.95 Enter the world of the Boosh! This surreal and $34.95 Three episodes from the much-loved BBC series Contains 16 features and 12 short films featuring hilarious stand-up from the cult comedy duo Julian Smith is a legendary figure: rocker, poet and starring Joan Hickson as Miss Marple, the the greatly admired silent-film comedian, Harold Barratt and Noel Fielding delivers typically bizarre elusive artist. The ‘godmother of punk rock’ is unassuming sleuth who uses her razor-sharp mind Lloyd. This contemporary of Chaplin and Keaton Boosh humour and is packed with characters from documented in this intimate portrait compiled to unravel mysteries (and more than a few red was famed for his role as the bespectacled optimist the show, including Naboo the enigma, Bollo and, of over an 11-year period by fashion photographer, herrings!) in her close-knit village. Presented in in films such as Safety Last! and The Freshman. course, Howard Moon and Vince Noir. Steven Sebring. their original formats. Both films are included in this bumper collection.

THE BAND’S VISIT/ AS IT IS IN HITCHCOCK: THE MASTERPIECE MONGOL $39.95 REPRISE $29.95 HEAVEN Was $65, now $44.95 COLLECTION Was $99.95, now $89.95 This spectacular film – the first in a trilogy – is the Norwegian writer-director Joachim Trier’s film is Jam-packed with films made by the all-time tale of the survival and triumphant rise of the about two lifelong friends, both aspiring writers, An exclusive offer for Readings customers! This great Mongolian conqueror of Asia, Genghis Khan. who post the manuscripts of their first novels elegant double pack includes the uplifting and master of suspense, this collection well and truly lives up to its name. Includes The Birds, Family A sweeping epic reminiscent of The Godfather. together – one has almost instant publishing engaging Swedish film As It Is in Heaven and the success followed by a breakdown, the other’s story award-winning Israeli film The Band’s Visit Plot, Frenzy, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Marnie, Psycho, Rear Window, Rope, Saboteur, almost forms a counter-narrative. A film to be (Cannes International Critics Prize, 2007). A discussed and watched over and over again. Christmas gift full of intelligence and charm. Shadow of a Doubt, Topaz, Torn Curtain, The Trouble with Harry and Vertigo.

DAVID LYNCH COLLECTION NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD $34.95 THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII Was $149.95, now $139.95 This unique documentary reveals the untold story $49.95 of Australian cinema, celebrating the Oz-ploitation Lynch is a cinematic innovator who celebrates all KEATING! THE MUSICAL $24.95 These six plays retelling the lives of England’s classics that thrilled, chilled and spilled onto our that is surreal and bizarre. This outstanding This devilishly edgy and clever musical charting the most famous king and his many wives were first screens in the late ’70s and through the ’80s. collection spans the legendary filmmaker’s 40- life and times of ex–Prime Minister Paul Keating aired on the BBC in 1970. The legendary BAFTA- Quentin Tarantino is one of the many luminaries year career, from his debut 1977 feature burst onto the scene at the 2005 Melbourne winning drama starred Annette Crosbie, who won who are interviewed about why they love these Eraserhead through three decades of experimental International Comedy Festival. The stage show a Best Actress Award for her role, and the rude and crude B-grade Aussie films. shorts, feature films and macabre animations. snapped to the beat of swinging music and brilliant definitive Henry VIII, Keith Michell. Finally on DVD!!! Includes a full-length documentary that follows the lyrics, and can now be enjoyed on DVD. dynamic artist while he creates his 2006 film Inland Empire.

OZ-PLOITATION COLLECTIONS 1 & 2 $49.95 each LIONEL: LIMITED EDITION $34.95 YO GABBA GABBA – IT’S TIME Blood, brutality and bounce!! The most shocking TO DANCE! $19.95 A critically acclaimed feature about one of of the Oz-ploitation flicks have been packaged into FIRST AUSTRALIANS $39.95 Australia’s greatest unsung heroes, Lionel Rose. two eye-catching volumes. Collection 1 includes Put on your dancing shoes! This psychedelic The untold story of Australia as told from the Combining archival footage with observations from The Adventures of Barry McKenzie, Turkey Shoot, preschoolers’ hit is pretty wild, mixing musical perspective of its first people, First Australians the present day, Lionel explores Rose’s mythic rise The Naked Bunyip, Roadgames, Harlequin, Night of sketches to hip cartoon segments. Host DJ Lance chronicles the birth of contemporary Australia and and his struggle to hold onto the things he Fear and Inn of the Damned. Collection 2 includes Rock lets five costumed creatures out of his explores what unfolded when the oldest living race cherished in his everyday life. This collector’s Stone, Razorback, The True Story of Eskimo Nell, ghettoblaster: Muno the red cyclops, Foopa the in the world was overrun. A documentary that all edition contains a bonus disc with four historical The Long Weekend, Fantasm, Fantasm Comes pink flower, Brobee the green bubble, Toodee the Australians should see. fights shown in their entirety. Again and The Chain Reaction. blue cat dragon and Plex the robot.