Free february 2012 Readings Monthly

Gregory Day on Carrie Tiffany • Mark Rubbo on Peter Carey image adapted from cover of Leonard cohen's new CD Old ideas . S ee p18 Leonard Cohen is back with some Old Ideas February book, CD & DVD new-releases. More new-releases inside.

aus. fiction Aus. Fiction young adult aus crime philosophy DVD POp CD CLASSICAL $39.95 $29.95 $19.95. e $16.99 $16.95 $29.95 $35.00 $29.95 $39.95 $26.95 $21.95 $36.95 >> p5 >> p4 >> p9 >> p10 >> p13 >> p17 >> p18 >> p19

February event highlights : George Megalogenis with Barrie Cassidy, Kirsten Tranter, Elliot Perlman and Arnold Zable. More events inside.

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

Programme one Bookings n ow oPen

With 200+ events per year, there is something for everyone. The majority of events are free and book out quickly. Don’t miss out go to wheelercentre.com 2 Readings Monthly February 2012

to Australian literature as well as a single work. Open to Victorian residents, all writing genres are eligible. The $5000 From the Editor Civic Choice Award 2012 will be offered during the finalist exhibition at Federa- a long goodbye Thisreadings exc lusiveMonth’s most importantly News from Readings custom- tion Square in November 2012. To register ers. All donations to The Readings Founda- your interest to receive information (when When I first arrived in Melbourne, aged Love and Devotion tion over $2 are tax deductible. The 2012 it becomes available), please visit 21, it was my weekly ritual to stop in at guided tour at State grant committee included author Helen www.melbourneprizetrust.org, or call Readings on Lygon Street, on my way Library of Victoria Garner, Readings staff, Peter Donoghue the Prize on 9696 4410. home from work, and buy a book. Having (ex-managing director of publisher John moved from Adelaide [go on – insert your Wiley Australia) and Gerald Smith (Phase Readings favourite Adelaide joke here], I was awed by III Accounting). For all enquiries, or to Contemporary my good fortune at having such an eclectic make a donation to The Readings Founda- Book Club local bookshop, one where the new release tion email Ingrid Josephine at foundation@ fiction shelves would regularly reveal authors The Readings Contemporary readings.com.au. I was about to love. I was also, I confess, Book Club will read and a little awed by the staff, who seemed way discuss contemporary fiction more sophisticated than me (I had recently National Year – generally new release worked at a bookshop in Adelaide, but one of Reading books or books released within the last year, with a where we wore uniforms with navy polyester Celebrate the beauty of Persian manuscripts The National Year of Reading 2012 will be floral shirts, where reading literature meant launched on 14 February. This initiative is, balance of both Australian and the stories of human and divine love that and international fic- you were semi-secretly seen as ‘up yourself’ they tell in this captivating landmark exhibi- most of all, about Australia becoming a na- by management). I longed to hang around at tion of readers. Nearly half the population tion. The meetings are held at the Readings tion of works from the Bodleian Libraries of office in Drummond Street, Carlton from the counter and talk books, but could never the University of Oxford. State Library of struggles without the literacy skills to meet think of anything to say. the most basic demands of everyday life and 6.30 – 8pm in the second week of each Victoria, 328 Swanston Street, Melbourne. month. The first pick for 2012 will be 9 March – 1 July 2012, 10am – 5pm daily work. There are 46% of Australians who can’t Later, after I’d worked for two publishers, had read newspapers, follow a recipe, make sense Steven Amsterdam’s What the Family a child, and worked part-time at the ISBN (to 9pm Thursday), closed Good Friday. Free Needed (Sleepers, PB, $24.95) and it will be entry. www.love-and-devotion.com of timetables, or understand the instruc- Agency, matching rogue numbers with book tions on a medicine bottle. It is a particular discussed at the first meeting in March. titles (yes, that was an actual place and job), Readings invites you to an exclusive viewing concern among indigenous communities. I became a bookseller again. It was a good We currently have vacancies for 2012. The of the Love and Devotion exhibition at the The inability to read puts people at a serious year is split into two terms, each consisting bookshop, but quite a few of us staff members State Library of Victoria on Wednesday disadvantage in our society. People from low aspired to work at Readings instead, where, of five sessions per term. The first term runs 14 March 2012, from 6–8pm. The cost is socio-economic backgrounds are less likely to from March – July 2012 and the second we mused, we would have a wealth of litera- only $25 per person, includes drinks and complete secondary education and under- ture-and-politics-loving customers, enabling from August – December 2012. The cost is canapés in Mr Tulk cafe before an inspiring take further education and more likely to be $250 per member for five facilitated sessions, us to order and sell the books we really loved. guided tour. For bookings and enquiries, unemployed and face long-term economic (And where we would, at last, get to ditch our wine and snacks. The cost includes a $150 please call Emily Harms at Readings on disadvantage. Typically, 60% of offenders Readings gift card, which members can use to embarrassing uniforms.) We used to read the 9341 7726 or email emily.harms@readings. in prison cannot read or have low levels of Readings newsletter at the counter together to purchase books. Membership of a Readings com.au with ‘SLV’s Love and Devotion’ in literacy. If we can improve the level of literacy Book Club will also entitle you to a discount preview new releases and I decided editor of it the subject line to book a place – but hurry, in our society, we can help to break the cycle would be my perfect job – being paid to write of 20% off the recommended retail price of limited spaces available. The beautifully of disadvantage. all full-priced fiction books at any Readings about new books and working at Readings. illustrated book of the exhibition, Love and I had a couple more career moves next, but In July 2011 the Federal Government an- shop (except online) in 2012, on presentation Devotion: From Persia and Beyond, will be of your Book Club Membership Card. Please when I read a job ad for newsletter editor available at the special Readings pop-up nounced funding of $1.3 million to support one day, I knew my time had come. this campaign. Sign up to receive the monthly contact Ingrid Josephine by emailing ingrid. shop in the foyer of the Library, and at [email protected] by Monday 13 I was working at a PR agency then and my www.readings.com.au, for $69.95. newsletter, if you haven’t already, by visiting colleagues were puzzled to hear me enthuse www.love2read.org.au. The subscription form February 2012 for more information, or to that this bookshop newsletter was my dream is on every page. express interest in joining the Carlton Book 2012 Readings Club. (Please specify whether you would job. (‘It’s the bookshop newsletter,’ I told Foundation Grants them. Then I politely harassed Mark Rubbo Melbourne Prize like to attend on a Tuesday, Wednesday or The Readings Foundation was established until I got the job.) for Literature Thursday evening.) When organising each by Readings managing director Mark Rub- night’s book club, we work on a first-come, The $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Lit- That was seven years ago. Since then, I’ve bo in 2009 to support Victorian individuals first-serve basis. erature 2012 and $30,000 Best Writing had countless entertaining bookish (and oth- and organisations that wish to further the Award 2012 will be open for entry in May. er) conversations with my fellow Readings development of literacy, community work Kids' StoryTime The prize and awards will recognise and staff (who are still way more sophisticated and the arts. Money is raised from 10% of reward both an outstanding contribution Bring the kids down to – and far better dressed – than me, but I can Readings profits, individual donations and Readings St Kilda for Story cope with that now). I’ve read hundreds of Time every Thursday, from new release books; made the acquaintance of 10.30 to 11am. Story Time so many brilliant, personable authors – par- is for all children aged two ticularly the Australian ones whose support to five. Readings Carlton helps make Readings what it is; slipped in hosts Story Time every free to countless literary events; befriended Thursday at 10.30am, customers and my fantastic guest reviewers; starting on Thursday 2 February 2012. tried (and unexpectedly loved) new music It’s a free event at both shops – no need to after reading reviews by Readings staff, and book, just turn up and take a seat! had the enormous privilege of being at the helm of Readings Monthly, with the freedom 3 for 2 Vintage Classics to experiment with it and the wonderful im- perative to read and review new books, and interview their authors. (Okay, yes, I have also enjoyed an amazing staff discount that has helped make my home into a library.) And now – sniff– I am moving on, return- ing to being a Readings customer. I’ll be at The Wheeler Centre, as their writer and editor. Thankfully, it’s just metres from Buy three Vintage Classics for the price of a Readings shop, at the State Library of two (still only $12.95 each) and receive a Victoria. Where I plan to hang around the free Vintage Classic Hessian Bag, exclusive counter and talk books, at least once a week. to Readings throughout February – only —Jo Case Oslo Davis www.oslodavis.com while stocks last. See page 14 for details.

CINEMA NOVA RECOMMENDS Visit the Cinema Nova Bar Sound ruins the career of a Hollywood silent movie star TOM HANKS SANDRA BULLOCK VIOLA DAVIS (Jean Dujardin) in Michel Hazanavicius’ disarming comedy. An young boy searches the five boroughs of New York to solve a mystery and find a final message left by his late father. Winner 3 Golden Globes inc. Best Film & Best Actor EXTREMELY INCREDIBLY (Comedy) 380 LYGON ST CARLTON www.cinemanova.com.au + Winner: Online bookings available LOUD CLOSE Best Actor From the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. A film by Stephen Daldry Cannes Film Festival Join our e-news for updates on the Met Opera, FEBRUARY 2 National Theatre and other stage spectaculars. director of The Reader, The Hours & Billy Elliot. FEBRUARY 23 Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 3

for discussion will be Decolonising 29 International Law (CUP, HB, $120) with George Megalogenis Sundhya Pahuja. Thursday 1 March, in conversation 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. Free, but with Barrie Cassidy please book on 9347 6633. FebruaryAll our Readings book and music events are EventsEric Knight In a major new work, George Megalogenis, entry by gold coin donation to The Readings In Reframe: How to Solve the World's Trickiest one of Australia’s most respected economic 5 Foundation, unless otherwise stated. Please Problems (Black Inc., PB Normally $29.95. and political commentators asks: why, Melbourne’s note that bookings do not guarantee a seat, our special price $24.95, Ebook $12.95) alone among developed economies, did but rather indicate to us the number of people Eric Knight explains how a change of focus Australia avoid the worst of 2008’s GFC? Buildings series to expect. To see more events or for updates can reveal a solution that was lying just In The Australian Moment (Viking, PB, This year will mark the 150th anniversary of the first occupation of the Old Treasury on new events please visit the events page at outside your frame of vision. From terror- Normally $32.95, our special price $29.95), Building. To commemorate this important www.readings.com.au. ism to global warming, from border security he interviews five former PMs in his search to high finance, he brings a new perspective for an answer. Wednesday 29 February, anniversary in Melbourne’s political, social that is both exhilarating and useful. Tuesday 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. Free, but and architectural history, a major exhibi- 21 February, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. please book on 9819 1917. tion Gold & Governors: 150 years of the Old 7 Free, but please book on 9347 6633. Treasury Building will be installed in the Old St Kilda Festival Treasury Building. We are marking the occa- Tristen Bird sion by presenting a series of talks about the Tristen Bird deals in subtle, intimate, mood- 23 impact of buildings on our collective psyche. driven storytelling. Born to a country-folk CaLaunchesrrie Tiffany Monday 5 March, 6.30pm, Readings Carl- The Stetson Family ton. Free, but please book on 9347 6633. musician father, he turned to his craft early, The author of Everyman’s developing a style that utilises textured The Stetson Family are proud to release their brand spankin’ new album, The Devil Rules for Scientific Living is finger-style guitar and stringed soundscapes. back with her much-awaited Tuesday 7 February, 7pm, Readings St in His Sunday Best. The new album brings a 7 second novel, Mateship with Kilda. Free, but please book on 9525 3852. rootsy and original edge to the familiar and Ron Rash timeless sounds of bluegrass and alt-coun- Birds (Picador, PB, $19.99). in conversation try, with songs that are at times dark and Thursday 2 February, 6pm, Bella Union Bar, Trades Hall, with Peter Pierce 8 dusty, lovelorn and heartbreaking, or just downright tongue-in-cheek. Guests on the Free, no need to book. Ron Rash has long been a critically ac- Kirsten Tranter album include some of Melbourne’s finest claimed writer, but Serena catapulted him to in conversation singer/songwriters, Tracy McNeil, Anitra Nelson new heights, garnering rave reviews across with blanche clark Liz Stringer and Marni Sheehan. & Frans Timmerman Australia and becoming a New York Times Kirsten’s second book, A Thursday 23 February, 6pm, Readings Overland editor Jeff Sparrow will launch Life bestseller. The New Yorker said, ‘Rash’s evoca- Common Loss (Fourth Estate St Kilda. Free, no need to book. without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable tive rendering of the blighted landscape and PB, $29.99) is the story of Economies (Pluto Press, PB, $39.95), a book the tough characters that inhabit it recalls four college friends coming that brings together diverse voices arguing both John Steinbeck and Cormac McCar- to terms with the loss of one Couldn’t quite get to Perth for the Writers against our money-based system’s ability to thy.’ Join us as he talks about his new novel, of their own. As their Festival? Never fear: we have two of the improve lives and prevent environmental di- The Cove(Text, PB, $29.95). Set during collective memories emerge, festival’s hippest writers with us right here saster. Friday 3 February, 6.30pm, Readings World War I, The Coveis a novel that speaks it becomes clear that each in Carlton … Carlton. Free, no need to book. intimately to today’s politics. Wednesday 7 man in the group has his own issues from March, 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. Free, the past. Another brilliant novel from the Dr Christopher Waters but please book on 9819 1917. author of The Legacy. Wednesday 8 28 Professor David Lowe, the director of the February, 6.30pm, Readings Hawthorn. Glen Duncan Alfred Deakin Research Institute, will Free, but please book on 9819 1917. 8 in conversation launch Australia and Appeasement: Imperial International with Chris Flynn Foreign Policy and the Origins of World War Two (IB Tauris, HB, $39.95). Wednesday 15 Women’s Day event: English writer Glen Duncan 9 February, 6pm, Readings Hawthorn. Free, Is Women’s Writing is the author of The Last St Kilda Festival no need to book. different to Men’s? The Triangle Wars: Werewolf (Text, PB, $22.95), released to rave reviews in No right answer here, but certainly room for Screening 2011. Straight from the Bruce Sheidow plenty of discussion. Join us in celebration An inspirational story for our Perth Writers Festival, Glen Join us for the launch of The Rhythm of Mur- of 101 years of IWD and in support of The times, The Triangle Wars is will be talking about horror, der, a novel of obsession, crime, police and Stella Prize, with Monica Dux, Sophie Cun- the story of the battle being werewolves and mystic genres court corruption. Saturday 25 February, 4pm, ningham, Chris Flynn and Rebecca Starford. waged between local – and of his first impressions of Australia. Readings Hawthorn. Free, no need to book. Thursday 8 March, 6.30pm, Readings Carl- government, big business and This is an ideal opportunity to meet an ton. Free, but please book on 9347 6633. the community over the author who is putting the horror back into Mark Hewson development of a tiny sliver werewolf stories. No sparkly vampires here! Mark Hewson’s Blanchot and Literary Criti- of crown land on the Tuesday 28 February, 8pm, Readings cism (Continuum, PB, $30) offers a highly 14 foreshore of St Kilda. Thursday 9 February, Carlton. Free, please book on 9347 6633. lucid introduction to the literary criticism of Special viewing: 6.30pm, Readings St Kilda. Free, but please Blanchot – and an exceptional introduction love and devotion book on 9525 3852. to a certain Western European modernism. Wednesday 29 February, 6.30pm, Readings Please join us for an exclusive viewing of 28 the State Library of Victoria’s latest exhibi- Johan Harstad Carlton. Free, no need to book. tion, Love and Devotion: From Persia and 15 This Norwegian author has got the world Beyond. This celebrates the beauty of Persian arnold zable talking with Buzz Aldrin, What Happened manuscripts, featuring rare Persian, Mu- in conversation to You in all the Confusion? Set against the ghal Indian and Ottoman Turkish works with Michael McGirr background of artists like Radiohead and Coming in March from the thirteenth to eighteenth centuries, Join one of Melbourne’s favourite writers, Beck, and in contrast to Buzz, the second 1 including many from the Bodleian Librar- author of Café Scheherazade, Sea of Many man to walk the moon, the main protago- Carrie Tiffany ies of the University of Oxford. Wednesday Returns and most recently, Violin Lessons nist of the book – a thirtysomething gar- in conversation 14 March, 6pm, State Library of Victoria. (Text, PB, $29.95), for a glass of wine. dener/musician who moves to a sharehouse with Angela Meyer Free, but please book on 8664 7540. Arnold is president of International PEN, after losing his job and his girlfriend – tries Mateship with Birds (Picador, PB, $19.99) is Melbourne, and a human rights advocate. to do good work without being noticed. a hymn to Australian country life. Joining Tuesday 28 February, 6.30pm, Readings Wednesday 15 February, 6.30pm, Readings Carrie will be blogger and literary com- 26 Carlton. Carlton. Free, but please book on 9347 6633. Free, please book on 9347 6633. mentator Angela Meyer. Thursday 1 March, Andy Griffiths 6pm, Readings St Kilda. Free, but please Join Andy to talk about his latest comic book on 9525 3852. novel for kids, Just Doomed! (Pan Macmillan, 16 PB, $14.99) Monday 26 March, 5.30pm, Elliot Perlman 28 Westgarth Theatre. Free, but bookings in conversation Donovan Hohn 1 essential on 9347 6633. with matthia dempsey In conversation Law School series The highly acclaimed local with Ben Birchall In 2012, Readings Carlton will host a joint author of Three Dollars and Hear Donovan talk about his new book Melbourne Law School/Readings series of Seven Types of Ambiguity will Moby-Duck (Scribe, PB, $35), the strange conversations around international legal Launch join us to talk about his latest but true story of 28,000 bath toys lost at issues, from war crimes trials to empire, to Merlinda Bobis book, The Street Sweeper sea, and those who strove to find them. the problem of fishing stocks and free trade. Fish-Hair Woman (Spinifex, PB, $29.95) (Vintage, PB, Normally Tonight’s conversation will cover ducks, These conversations will be built around explores the themes of love and pain. How $32.95, our special price environmental issues and what motivates books written by Melbourne Law School much can the heart accommodate? Death and $29.95). Thursday 16 someone to find answers. Ben Birchall is authors and will take place in the first week love, an enemy and a sweetheart, war and an February, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. one of Triple R’s Breakfasters. Tuesday 28 of each month, starting in March. We look impassioned serenade, and more. Tuesday 6 Free, but please book on 9347 6633. February, 6.30pm, Readings State Library forward to seeing you there. Our first book March, 6.30pm, Readings Carlton. of Victoria. Free, book on 8664 7540. Free, no need to book. 4 Readings Monthly February 2012 New Australian Writing Feature

FlaubertGregory Day interviews Carrie Tiffany in about Mateship the with Birdsbush (Picador, PB, $19.99)

book which had prompted this somewhat to me that the really good farmers know feted return to her country of origin was and respect that in some intrinsic way, they not about white swans gliding through the understand that they’re not ever actually just Yorkshire rain, but rather the parsimonious dealing with an individual animal, they’re dry soils and vast blue skies of the Mallee in dealing with a herd, with a family.’ northwestern Victoria, in the faraway conti- This touching interrelation between animal nent that had jolted her so much as a child. and human behaviour, and the positive co- As anyone who has lived in the Mallee will dependent nature of communities, lies at the tell you, it can hit you quickly in the eye and heart of Mateship with Birds. Tiffany expresses then slowly break your heart. In her debut this in many ways, including through the novel, Tiffany explored with great panache written notes Harry makes on the kookaburra the comic possibilities inherent in gung-ho family, which, because of the narrow columns nationalisation programs which throw data of the milk ledger he writes them into, are at dust storms, and ideas of ‘moving forward’ condensed into short poem-like lines: ‘The sky on a visually astonishing landscape ­– one has sufficient depth / to give each bird / its own that is in many ways unsuited to monocul- strata / its precise allocation of air. / Yet, like us, / tural concepts or linear time. they find it difficult / to live in peace’. Often the best historical writing offers us Through the agency of Betty’s young daugh- unexpected insights into our own era, and ter Little Hazel, Tiffany shows how the per- given Everyman’s Rules’ clever dovetailing of sonal foibles of a remote farming community contemporary environmental issues with the are often impossible to rein in or censor. The historical materialism of the Better Farm- idiosyncracies that play themselves out in ing Train, many readers have been waiting the sheds of farms take on some hair-raising eagerly for the next offering from Tiffany forms, but in Mateship with Birds, the prose to appear. She’s taken her time, but finally that depicts this is exquisitely without judge- – with the slim Flaubertian miniature, Mate- ment. As well as having its roots in Flaubert’s ship with Birds – they get their wish. famous credo – of the author being always Carrie Tiffany made her embroidery on the government sponsored mark on the Australian This time we’ve moved slightly east on the present but never visible in the text – this Better Farming Train as it snakes its way map of northern Victoria to a squelchy dairy stylistic approach may also be a reaction to literary scene with her through the Mallee in the 1930s) suggests to first novel,Everyman’s farm on the Gunbower Creek at Cohuna. the difficulty Tiffany had when employed to the countrywomen that they simply ‘sew the Mateship with Birds Rules for Scientific documents the lives write a government report on biodiversity. things they see around them’. Jean’s advice, of a single mother, Betty, her two children Living, which was ‘In the writing of that paper everything like Harry’s, is both Virgilian and vernacular. Michael and Little Hazel, and the bachelor shortlisted for The about biodiversity had to be scientific. And there is something of those two quali- dairyman on the next-door farm, Harry. It is Orange Prize, the Miles There’s a lot of information now being col- ties in the vivid clarity of this author’s work. a bowerbird of a book, constructed through Franklin Literary lected about biodiversity through the obser- the accumulation of closely regarded details Award, The Guardian Interestingly, when Carrie Tiffany arrived vations of individual farmers and landhold- and objects, and it’s also a moving inquiry First Book Award and the Commonwealth in Australia as a six-year-old from England, ers, but the committees overseeing the report into the similarities between the lives, and Writers’ Prize. It won the Dobbie Award and she was utterly shocked by what she saw. didn’t want to have any of this information particularly the sex lives, of people and the West Australian Premier’s Award for ‘We had a colouring book we were given on in it, because it didn’t meet their rigorous animals. More so than the first novel, where Fiction. Novelist Gregory Day spoke to Carrie the plane. There were gum trees in it and I scientific standards. So all the stuff based on human culture was painted as vainglorious for Readings’ New Australian Writing Feature thought they would be pink like my gums, experiencing the landscape because you live in the face of circadian realities, in Mateship series, about her eagerly awaited second novel, salmon pink. And when I found that the on it was all just pushed out and we had to with Birds Tiffany brings a deep sympathy Mateship with Birds (Picador, PB, $19.99). swans were black, I thought this was outra- have these appalling facts and figures and all to her characters’ life on the land, showing geous. I thought they’d been painted by the this language that meant nothing and didn’t the way mortal loneliness abides at the very government to match the washed-out look try to describe or honour in any way the eep in the middle of Carrie of everything else. It seemed hellish.’ heart of our deepest connections. Tiffany’s new novel, Mateship thing it was talking about.’ In composing the novel, Tiffany spent a lot with Birds, is perhaps a clue And unlike her family’s former house in As well as helping to fund her simultaneous of time reading the case studies of Freud and to the brilliant surface of her Halifax Yorkshire, whose front door opened writing of this novel, the exclusion of every- of the British sex-psychologist Havelock Ellis. prose: straight out onto the street, the new house thing that wasn’t considered to be ‘hard sci- A remarkable feature of the novel is how she in suburban Perth had a nature strip out the ence’ for the government report – in favour At school number 2502, Cohuna, Little has transposed the pathological exactitude front, complete with its own straggly gum of a dry acronym-laden document which Hazel’s teacher sets aside fifteen minutes on a tree. Tiffany remembers not only being fas- of such documents into a series of intensely DFriday afternoon for the class to write up their talked never of beauty but frequently of ‘ame- local tableaux rich with poignancy and wit. cinated by the extra space of the nature strip, nity’ – helped further crystallise her approach nature diaries … Little Hazel brings pressed These are people without pretensions. Betty but looking up the street at all the others to writing about people on the land. leaves and flowers from home and traces and imagining that they all must lead some- works as a nurse at the local hospital and so is around them on the page, but they break where, most probably to the much-fabled under no illusions about the physical realities As a result, Mateship with Birds is a highly apart and it takes too long to colour in the ‘bush’, a mythical subject now being inserted of existence. In one memorable vignette, she aesthetic experience, which in itself is some- outlines. She takes some advice from Harry into her consciousness at school. watches a crow hopping on the bonnet of her thing of a juxtaposition with the stereotypi- and she tries to write what she sees. car through the ward window as she holds cally ad hoc nature of the backblocks culture Years later, when as an excruciatingly shy Harry, in this case, is the bachelor dairy the cheeks of an old man’s arse apart during a it presents. But in the heightened pastoral 18-year-old she became the first member faecal impaction. Likewise, Harry is made real realities of Carrie Tiffany, nothing is taken farmer who lives next door to Little Hazel. of her family to attend university, Tiffany He is good with his cows and a gentle chap, by the basic necessities of those around him. for granted. We are invited to look again didn’t last long, preferring to take up a job as In his case, those necessities are largely to do at the country around us, and the ordinary a bird watcher who writes observations a ranger in central Australia rather than try about a family of kookaburras in an old milk with cows. people who know it best. In doing so, we are to fit in with ‘the sea of private schoolgirls treated to a refreshed understanding of our ledger. He is also instructing Little Hazel’s ‘I spent a lot of time sitting on roadsides sipping milkshakes on the lawn’. Was she fundamental condition, living as we do like elder brother Michael in the rather DIY looking into paddocks of cows,’ Tiffany says, following that childhood nature strip trail to all other creatures of the earth. expertise he has gained about sex, not only its inevitable destination? Perhaps, though ‘looking at a particular herd of cows and from his own personal stirrings, but from his looking at how they were 20 individual cows this was not to be the end of the story. Gregory Day is a writer, poet and musician, clear-eyed observations of the animal world standing in a paddock but they weren’t, they whose three novels so far share the setting of around him. In 2005, 20 or so years after she fled were something more than this. And the the the fictional Victorian coastal town of university for the bush, Tiffany’s first novel relationship between animals that happens Harry’s instruction to write what you see Mangowak. His latest is The Grand Hotel was published to such acclaim that it took without speech in a herd, that happens in seems simple advice, but in Carrie Tiffany’s (Vintage, PB, $32.95). In 2011, Day and her full circle back to England. Everyman’s some other way, some bodily way that’s hands it takes on a layered meaning. In her Carrie Tiffany shared first prize inthe Rules was shortlisted for the high profile transferred between them and sort of plugs first novel, Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Australian Book Review’s Elizabeth Jolley Orange Prize for women writers and the them together, seemed to me very similar Living, the main character Jean (who teaches Short Story Prize. prestigious Guardian First Book Award. The to how families operate. It was fascinating Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 5

Mark’s say Book of the Month News and views from Readings’ the chemistry of tears managing director Mark Rubbo Peter Carey with Penguin. HB. Normally $39.95 Q&AReadings’ Martin Shaw interviews Michael Michael Sala about his Salaimpressive debut One of the enjoyable Our special price $29.95 novel The Last Thread (Affirm, PB $27.95, ebook $11.95). things I did before In 1738 French inventor Christmas was to help Jacques de Vaucanson built a events, stories of the past that have accreted decide the recipients of robotic duck that ate grain, new layers over the years. Did you return to the 2011 grants from which went through a Holland for your research for this book? Or is the Readings Founda- ‘digestive’ system and it written entirely from your own memories tion. Because of our decision to produced faeces at the other of that time, with some imaginary excava- increase the percentage of Readings’ end. Peter Carey uses tions of events you were too little to compre- profits going to the foundation (from meticulous research in this hend fully? two to ten percent) and an increase in story about love and devotion, set in contemporary London and the nineteenth- I haven’t been back to Holland since I private donations, we had a lot more was 13. So, in a sense, the Holland that money to distribute. Without, you, our century German clock-making town of Furtwangen. The idea of de Vaucanson’s I came from is a product of memory customers, we’d have nothing to give, coupled with imagination. It’s more of an so thank you! duck is a starting point for this wonderful and poignant novel. More than any other emotional place than a physical one. But The Foundation was largely inspired novelist, Carey has the ability to refashion The Last Threadis not a book about the by Peter Singer’s book The Life You Can bits of reality to create a truly original and past; it’s about how the past relates to the present. It’s about what I live with now Save. In that book Singer writes about compelling work. As a reader, I derive great Michael, I loved your book the importance of giving. While Singer pleasure from hunting out those clues. as an adult. I like your idea of imaginary – congratulations on a fine excavations. At the best of times, memory was particularly talking about helping debut. But love’s a loaded communities in undeveloped nations, For 13 years, Catherine Gehrig, horological is not precise, and how can I remember conservator at the Swinburne Museum, and word in the context of this precisely things that were said, when they our Foundation has so far concentrated novel, isn’t it? We hang on on the local community. her colleague, Matthew Tindall, Curator occurred in a language with which I am of Metals, had conducted a secret affair of to it in our kin and other no longer that competent? But I have care- The panel this year was struck by the snatched weekends in Suffolk and secret close relationships – some- fully attempted to brush back the muck, number of applications from organisa- emails (‘I kiss your toes’). Their affair was times as a ‘last thread’ – to capture what happened as I remember tions helping refugees and immigrants; known only to Catherine’s boss, Eric Croft, but there can be a whole history of it. One scene that I struggled with in this it was obviously an area of great need, the Head Curator of Horology, who encour- devastations under its veneer. I loved the way was a visit to an aunt when I was probably exacerbated by the political aged it. When Matthew dies suddenly, steadfastness you exhibit in your examina- nine, just before we left Holland for the demonisation of refugees and asylum Catherine is denied the public rituals of tion of a sometimes quite gut-wrenching second time. She literally spoke as if I seekers. death, and Eric organises for her to work on family history. Did you struggle with wasn’t there and decided to summarise the trying to retain some critical distance? We made the following grants: a project in an annex of the museum away whole scandalous past of my family for from public view. Love is a loaded word in The Last Thread, my mother. It was horrible but fascinat- Save the Children ($20,000): To deliver ing, my grandmother’s involvement with The project is the restoration of an ancient and I think that one of the themes of this a new weekly literacy and play session the Nazis, her intense anti-Semitism, the automaton, its parts packed randomly in old book is the idea of love, what it means for refugee and migrant children aged callous way that she’d treated some of her tea chests. In one of the chests she finds some to different people and how it gets cor- zero to six living in Fitzroy, Colling- children. I’ll never forget how dramatically old journals that give her a key to the nature rupted. I’m not just talking about love wood and North Richmond. my view of the whole world changed in of their contents. The journals belonged to between people, but about the way people just a couple of hours, just through listen- Asylum Seeker Resource Centre Henry Brandling, an heir to the Brandling see themselves. I made many false starts The Last Thread ing to someone talk. I never looked at my ($14,267): To support a program to railway company. Henry’s first-born had died before I wrote . For a long grandmother in the same way again. foster attitudinal change by providing and when his second son also appeared sickly, time, the material was too confronting – students and their teachers with facts his wife had ‘dared not love the little chap’. too painful, too raw. It amazed me how, when I started writing about what I re- Towards the end you describe a pair of about asylum seekers. Henry would not abandon his little Percy and nineteenth-century brass candleholders from embraced all manner of treatments enthusi- membered, my childhood returned to me The Social Studio ($18,000): To sup- a ship, that the mother gifts to Michael. astically; when the London Illustrated News in such a visceral way. For a while, when I port a specialised ESL literacy and ‘They’re designed with hinges so that the reproduced the plans for de Vaucanson’s duck, began writing about the difficult events in training initiative aimed at refugee candles always stay level. The ship might be it aroused such delight in young Percy that my life (my father’s abuse of my brother, youths working in fashion and design. going down, but at least you’ll be able to see Henry determined that he should have one, my stepfather’s violence, my younger brother’s disappearance), I became more the look on people’s faces, the water coming Concern Australia ($10,000): To pro- travelling to Germany with the plans to com- depressed and felt far more vulnerable, in.’ You’ve been prepared to stare down some vide a focus on literacy and numeracy mission the finest clockmaker to build him but gradually I started to find my feet. really strong themes, and the candleholders, skills for young children who live on the Digesting Duck. In Karlsruhe, he meets Critical distance to the material in my like Michael, are still around to tell the tale. the Collingwood estate. a mysterious stranger, Herr Sumper, who childhood was a massive challenge, but it Michael has the occasional nightmares, but speaks English with an East London accent he also has love, a child of his own to care for The River Nile Learning Centre and agrees to make the duck for him. But was a crucial one too. On the one hand, feel ... an equilibrium, of sorts? ($9670): To support a tutor program Sumper, the former apprentice to the English you have to the material that you are that improves literacy and numeracy inventor Albert Cruickshank, who had been writing about in order to really bring it to There’s a kind of question in that image skills of young African refugee women commissioned by Prince Albert to build a life. On the other, you can’t let that raw of the candleholders for me. If the ship is in the inner west. machine that could calculate and reproduce feeling dominate you or the story. going down, if you’re stuck down there and heading towards the bottom of the We’ve also been able to put away some Admiralty tables, had other things in mind. Almost a character in its own right is the ocean, is there a point in seeing the looks money to help secure the Foundation’s He would use Henry’s money to produce a city of Newcastle. In one passage, the mother on people’s faces, the water coming in? future. silver swan, so cleverly and ingeniously made character, Nici, says ‘the city just becomes There were definitely times, while writing that it would be a fitting tribute to Cruick- the memories you have of it’. You reside there On a disappointing note, our lease at shank’s legacy. this book, that I wondered if illuminating Port Melbourne is coming to an end. still. Does the city have a pull all of its own, all of this experience was worth it. I didn’t For those of you who haven’t seen the As Catherine reads through these journals, or is it so constitutive of your identity that want to get consumed by it, and that’s shop, it is in a beautiful heritage-listed Henry’s obsession and his arguments with you cannot imagine living anywhere else? always the risk, and it’s probably inevitable former post office. The interior was Sumper become her obsession as she and her I did intend Newcastle to become a kind that it happens for a while, but somehow designed for us by Edmond and Corri- assistant, Amanda, a young graduate planted of character in this book that changes you have to find a way of pulling yourself gan; with Corrigan’s bright colours and by Eric to keep an eye on her, painstakingly and grows over time. I think what my free enough to be able to tell the story a flying mezzanine, the space has an restore the swan. For Eric, the beauty and mother says at that stage of the book is an without becoming damaged by it all over airy nautical feel to it. The shop, when ingenuity of the swan will seduce the ‘loots interesting idea, but I don’t agree with the again. Because in the end, the story isn’t we opened, was full of promise, but and suits’ to give money to support the mu- underlying sentiment, or maybe I think about the damage, it’s about the interest- with rising rent, it has been difficult to seum in the new philistine age. As the work the idea should be carried through to its ing perspectives and experiences of the sustain. We are still trying to come to progresses, Catherine’s grief becomes more natural conclusion. Yes, the city you live people involved. an arrangement with the landlord to real and more manageable. Carey’s tortured in is partly a product of your memories, I didn’t want to become that figure of my continue Port Melbourne as a Readings Catherine is one his greatest characters. but you are constantly adding new layers aunt towards the end of the book who is Bargains shop – our Readings Bar- The Chemistry of Tears has all of Carey’s of memory to the picture. The more time consumed by the bitterness of her experi- gains Shop in Lygon Court, opposite fabulist trademarks, while at the same time that you spend there, the more your expe- ences, but at the same time, I think the Readings Carlton, has been very well examining the nature of love and grief in a rience of the place diversifies and changes. past matters. I don’t think that you can received. One of my favourite authors, unique and compassionate way: Catherine’s I guess it’s about how you live your life: bury it indefinitely. You need to be able to Alex Miller, used to live in Port Mel- secret relationship with Matthew consumed whether you repeat the past or build from look at it with a steady eye and that takes bourne and when I told him we were her, but when he died her love could not it, and perhaps that’s reflected in your practice; it helps if you can find a good opening in Port Melbourne, he said, be acknowledged; Henry’s love for his son view of wherever you find yourself. balance in your life as a whole. My daugh- ‘Oh, we’re moving to Castlemaine!’. blinded him to other relationships and The ‘Michael’ character in this novel visits ter, towards the end, is a really important Our St Kilda shop will service those experiences. It’s a deeply satisfying book on part of the book for me. Becoming a of you in the bayside area. Holland, the country of his birth, for the many levels. last time as a 13 year old. Several of your father really put me in a position to write this book. Mark Rubbo is managing director of Readings characters are reckoning with versions of 6 Readings Monthly February 2012

Meet the bookseller with … New Fiction Jason Austin, Readings Carlton drainage system and the underground railway, illegally riding trams and stumbling upon grenades left over from the war. TAustralianhe Last Thread Fiction Michael Sala Like young Harriet in Donna Tartt’s The Little Friend and nine-year-old Oskar in Affirm. PB. $27.95 Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and ‘Australia Fair Lookout. Incredibly Close, our narrator is on a quest, Introspection strictly having suffered the death of a close fam- forbidden,’ reads a favourite ily member (his twin brother Tom). But Leunig cartoon of mine. I unlike the characters in those novels, whose thought of this when reading missions are explicit (however misguided), Michael Sala’s fine debut our boy’s only purpose is to map his sur- novel, The Last Thread, for in roundings. Along the way, he stumbles upon it he summons a degree of adventure after adventure, which, rather Why do you work in books? self-examination which our culture is unbelievably, all connect. We’re constantly I have always loved stories and although certainly not noted for, and (until J.M. left with the frustrating feeling that we’re I love film too, books offer something Coetzee arrived on our shores, perhaps) is looking through the eyes of an unreliable very different. You create the author’s likewise none too common in Australian witness. First he’s scared of dogs, then he world in your head and that version of letters. Sala, for whom the move to loves them. Names of people and streets sub- that world can differ greatly from that Australia in the 1980s – as a young boy tly change (Kipling Lane becomes Kipling created by another person who has read only on the cusp of understanding – was a Street, Mollie becomes Molly.) It’s a com- the same book. For that reason, I feel significant and traumatic upheaval, clearly ment on all first-person narratives and the that bookselling is about the exchange experienced a turn within almost from the trust we as readers must place in them. of opinions and ideas, and finding that beginning. This book, all these years later, is someone likes or dislikes a book as perhaps the reckoning (one can’t say ‘work- We’re left to try to ponder this while the much as I did is interesting to me. ing out’) he had to have. novel moves at a pace that would prompt smart loss of driver’s licence, were it a car. The book’s narrative arc is straightforward What’s the best book you’ve read lately The tone is almost manic and becomes enough: the dimly remembered early and why? exhausting after a time. This is perhaps the childhood in 1970s Holland of Michaelis/ point, as the Cartographer (the narrator’s Late last year I read Alexander Maksik’s Michael, from whose perspective the story is You Deserve Nothing, superhero alter-ego) attempts to suppress his debut novel, told, and his older brother Con; their emi- guilt and grief. In places, Twohig’s writing is and loved it. The story of a charming gration to Oz with their mum and stepdad; overdone and clichéd, but the depth of plot English teacher behaving badly at the a return visit, maybe for good; but then back saves it. It’s a fascinating debut that leaves International School of France plays to Australia, and a hardscrabble upbringing Dead Poet’s Society the reader with myriad questions to muse out like a mix of and literally at the hands of their stepdad, Dirk, The Secret History. upon, long after the last page is turned. Donna Tartt’s I seem and their Holocaust-obsessed (and in her Amy Roil blogs as The Book Witch to love novels where the characters, like life-choices seemingly masochistic!) mother the teacher in this one, are flawed and Nici. morally ambiguous. I also loved that the The Longing novel is told from three different points But I would caution against reading The Candice Bruce of view, so we get differing angles on Last Thread too much in the autobiographi- Vintage. PB $32.95. Ebook $28.01. what is unfolding and how the teacher’s cal vein. For all we know, everything that The indomitable Martin actions effect and affect his students and happens in the book (and be warned, there Shaw handed me this book colleagues. are some squeamish moments) happened saying, ‘You should review ‘in reality’, exactly as described; but the this. It’s right up your alley.’ What’s the strangest experience you’ve had fashioning of a self is always about perspec- With this recommendation, in a bookshop? tives, about the stories that we tell ourselves he was spot on. Those in art I was working at the Borders’ South and those that are told to us. And it is here historical and gallery/ Yarra store about 11 years ago and we where Sala’s storytelling gifts are everywhere museum circles will surely had a slightly unhinged guy come in. on display: from his astonishingly sensi- recognise the name. Now based in Sydney, On his first visit to the store he asked tive, steady gaze as young Michaelis tries to Candice Bruce is a well-respected art me, ‘Where are ya books on murder and process and understand his fissured world, to historian and curator, specialising in death?’ I gingerly directed him to the the vivid tableaux he conjures of the misty nineteenth century Australian Art. She is true crime section. A couple of weeks Dutch countryside, or the wild lonely seas of particularly well known in my other later, management had to kick him out Australia’s east coast, or the many and varied workplace (the NGV) as an expert on of the store as he was reading through faces of the city of Newcastle. Eugene von Guerard. the true crime section with such relish By the end I almost wanted to look away. that he was literally chewing his nails As a first novel, The Longing is an impres- But as W.G. Sebald has written, ‘the descrip- sive foray into literary fiction. Bruce deftly down to the quick and bleeding all over tion of misfortune contains within itself the books. weaves concurrent narratives crossing time, the possibility of its overcoming’. This tale culture and history around the central What’s the best experience you’ve had in a could never be written dispassionately – theme of loss. Isolated and struggling in her bookshop? the emotions are too raw, the sadness too situation as housewife to a wealthy pastoral- heavy – but the filaments of hope that bind There have been lots, but to cut it ist she does not love, Ellis MacRorie is sent and sustain are also everywhere present. The a young Gundtjimara woman, Leerpeen down to a recent event, a customer Last Thread is a gutsy, moving, beautifully came up to me last year and asked if Weelan, as a housemaid. Leerpeen, witness wrought and utterly compelling work by to unspeakable acts of violence from colo- we had a copy of Three Day Road by Jo- Sala – a hymn to love that I don’t think will seph Boyden. We didn’t have it in stock nialists, grapples with the loss of her family, be forgotten by any reader. tribal group and place. Ellis and Leerpeen, at the time but he said that if I ever Martin Shaw is from Readings Carlton had a chance to read it, to do so. He or Louisa as she is known throughout the continued to praise the book so much book, gradually bond, and give strength THE CARTOGRAPHER to one another over their common grief. and with such passion that I ordered Peter Twohig a copy and read it. It would now have Both women stand out with strong writing to be one of my favourite novels of all Harper Collins. PB Normally $30 from Bruce. The arrival of the American Our special price $24.95. Ebook $13.99. time. So I just would like to send my landscape painter Sandford P. Hart to the thanks out there to that man who gave Peter Twohig’s Melbourne is rural Victorian estate offers both women a me an awesome recommendation. a sinister city of laneways, distraction from their ennui, with the out- hideouts, secrets, and comes of their interactions with Hart leav- Name a book that has changed the way deserted tram yards crammed ing legacies which are separately devastating you think – in ways small or large. with adventure. From his and exciting. More than a century later, it protagonist’s home in 1950s is NGV curatorial assistant Cornelia who I’m cheating a bit but, Philip Pullman’s Richmond, to South brings one of these to light! His Dark Materials trilogy and Patrick Melbourne, Windsor, Ness’s Chaos Walking trilogy have both If you’re an aficionado of Australian art Moonee Valley and Caulfield, he harnesses taught me not to underestimate the history or a keen gallery goer, or just simply the city’s pulsating energy and turns it from strength of young adult fiction. Kids’ on the lookout for a decent read with good mere setting into main character. His grasp books are some of the best that I have writing and plot, then this is the book for of the place is beyond spectacular. Our read as an adult and I think more you. I’m sure we’ll be reading more by journey comes via the 11-year-old narrator adults should take the time to read Candice Bruce in the near future. (enigmatically known to the reader as ‘T’). young adult fiction. Julia Jackson is from Readings Carlton He takes us the back way, through the Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 7 CURRAWALLI STREET THE LITTLE SHADOWS Christopher Morgan Marina Endicott Allen & Unwin. PB. $27.99. Ebook $17.49 Allen & Unwin. PB. $29.99 Locations are steeped in a Award-winning writer history very few of us turn Marina Endicott returns with our minds to, but as we busily her eagerly anticipated new move about the place, our novel The Little Shadows, a narratives interweave to tell portrait of three sisters in the the overarching story of our world of vaudeville, before homes. Currawali Street is less and during World War I. A a singular tale of humans than rumination on the uncertain- it is the evocative history of one ordinary ties and surprises of life, Endicott’s three street and the lives lived within it. From the sisters travel from the slapstick vaudeville of early innocence of pre-war 1914 to the childhood to be delivered into adulthood as painful and grim consequences of the true artists. The assortment of eccentrics, Vietnam War, it celebrates the essentials of artisans and charming charlatans who humanity; our capacity to hold secrets, to accompany them are all brought to life desire connection and to love deeply. through Endicott’s luscious prose and extraordinary insight. WHAT REMAINS Denise Leith the SNOW CHILD Allen & Unwin. PB. $29.99. Ebook $17.49 Eowyn Ivey At its core a love story Headline. HB. $29.99 spanning the breadth of the Exactly a year ago, I discov- world and the interior of the ered a novel that would be heart, What Remains among my favourites of 2012 examines that divide between – David Vann’s Caribou our lives before and after Island, about a marriage put change. Kate Price begins her under the microscope by the journalism career as a naïve isolation and intensity of the and idealistic young correspondent in Alaskan wilderness. Coinci- Riyadh in 1991, and moves to embittered dentally, this month I was captivated by cynic in Baghdad, 2004. As she treks Alaskan author/bookseller Eowyn Ivey’s through war zones around the world, she debut novel, The Snow Child, a very different pays the price of bearing witness to unspeak- book that nevertheless resonates with some able cruelty and devastation. Yet she finds significant echoes – namely, that recurring comfort in the smallest and most tender central theme, but also the way it simultane- moments, and it’s these experiences that ously evokes and debunks the romance of come to represent value in her life. A story Alaska, an exotic location for most readers. about love, friendship and the hope that La Fille The Snow Child is a contemporary riff on a Mal Gardée springs from fearsome war, Denise Leith has CANCELLED crafted a book to confront the things we Russian fairytale about an old couple unable suspect about love but lack the words to say. to have a child. One day, they create a snow child, who comes to life, but is as elusive and fragile as snow, with predictably tragic results. Ivey’s fiftysomething couple, Jack and Mabel, have moved to Alaska as ‘home- International steaders’ (farming pioneers) to flee the grief of a miscarriage, but their idealised dreams Fiction of a clean slate and a benign, yielding wilder- AMERICAN DERVISH ness meet with a ‘different truth’, as Jack Ayad Akhtar observes. (‘Alaska gave up nothing easily.’) Orion. PB. $29.99 When they report seeing a child in the snow, American Dervish is the first the couple’s sceptical neighbour Esther warns novel from Ayad Akhtar, a them that the harsh environment can make THE LAST THREAD Pakistani-American screen- people ‘start seeing things you’re afraid of ... writer and actor. Akhtar tells or things you’ve always wished for’. A NOVEL BY MICHAEL SALA the story of Hayat, a young Like all the best stories with a magical or boy from a culturally Muslim supernatural element, Ivey keeps the reader family growing up in guessing throughout as to what is real and Wisconsin in the 1980s. what is imagined, or projected. And one of When the beautiful and intelligent Mina the aspects that makes the novel so absorb- comes to live with them, Hayat’s world is ing is the blend of stark realism and enchant- dramatically changed. While neither of his ment in her prose. Early on, the weather parents are devoutly religious, the family is described as ‘so cold the dirty dishwater ‘MICHAEL SALA identifies culturally with Islam. Mina gives turned to ice in the air when you tossed it HAS A RARE GIFT. Hayat his first Quran and they begin to out’. Later, the child is ‘dusted in crystals HIS DEBUT AS study the text together. He experiences a reli- of ice as if she had just walked through a A NOVELIST IS gious awakening of sorts which will have snowstorm or spent a brilliantly cold night both wondrous and disastrous consequences ONE TO CELEBRATE.’ outdoors’. Best of all, though, the charac- for him and his family. ters are beautifully realised and satisfyingly RAIMOND GAITA The novel is set in the 1980s because Akhtar nuanced, making us care desperately about was interested in depicting ‘a time before the what happens to them. This book kept me world had politicised being Muslim’. This up all night until I finished it. is an interesting approach and I think quite Jo Case is outgoing editor of Readings Monthly ‘A CONFRONTING AND successful up to a point. Disappointingly however some of the characters will only Jack Holmes COMPELLING STORY reinforce Western stereotypes, particularly and His Friend OF A FAMILY.’ of Muslim men. Akhtar’s writing is clearly Edmund White DEBRA ADELAIDE inspired by his filmmaking background; Bloomsbury. PB. $29.99. Ebook $22.99 he cites Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese Jack Holmes arrives in New as influences. The prose is very visual and York at the beginning of the the pace and structure of the novel have a 1960s, having studied certain filmic quality. Unfortunately, the Chinese art at college. He characters can also feel like actors at times, manages to land a plumb job more caricatures than real people. at a mid-level art magazine, Can we free ourselves from In the preface, Akthar writes that he ‘wanted allowing him to rapidly set to write a book that gave the American audi- himself up to participate in the dark pull of the past? ence a felt sense of what it was like to grow up one of my favourite periods in modern times Muslim in America’. American Dervish is cer- (mid-twentieth century New York life). He tainly interesting in this regard, and Hayat’s helps Will Wright to get a job at the same story vividly addresses the question of what it publishing firm and they become fast friends. Also available as an eBook at www.affirmpress.com.au means to be both Muslim and Western. So begins Edmund White’s latest offering of Kara Nicholson is from Readings Carlton fiction, filled with his signature observations 8 Readings Monthly February 2012

of the human condition and some the most just like that – and as such, doesn’t invite exquisite prose I’ve read in quite a while. continuous reading. Read a few, put it down, Told in two halves, the first being from go experience the real world and then come Jack’s perspective and the second, nine years back. You will be rewarded. later, from Will’s, this really is a fascinating Scott Noble is manager of Readings St Kilda We all have secret lives. look into the differences and similarities between straight and gay men and the gulf THE WORLD WE FOUND And we are all prettyp yg good in attitudes between privileged and average Thrity Umrigar Joes, White manages to be both scathing and Harper Collins. PB. $24.99 at keeping them secret. sympathetic; never once really taking sides Described by The New York and giving fully-fleshed characters a chance Times as ‘perceptive and to speak for themselves. Very satisfying! often piercing’, Thrity Kevin Clark is from Readings Carlton Umrigar has returned with a breathtaking new novel Me and You about the friendship four Niccolo Ammaniti women share. From Bombay Text. PB. $17.95. Ebook $16.16 in the late 1970s to an Me and You is a gem of a unforgettable portrait of modern India, the novel. Lorenzo is 14 years old four women navigated their way through a and has no friends, which he changing culture, only to find themselves knows concerns his parents. scattered apart. Now, Armaiti is gravely ill in He devises the means to fit her new home country of America and she into social situations, but wants to see the friends she left behind. Each knows he is not part of the returns to the quartet bearing their own adolescent scene. This is not motives and secrets, but each will be forced a concern to him: he likes being by himself. to confront the truth about their own lives. To pacify his parents, he tells them he has been invited away with friends for a week, PURE but instead spends the week in the cellar of Andrew Miller his parents’ apartment block. Happy there Sceptre. PB. $22.99 with his novels, comics and Playstation, his Andrew Miller returns to the calm is disrupted by his estranged stepsister, Currawalliurrawalli Street is the storystory ofof one ordinaryordinary street anda historical landscape that who uses the cellar and himself as a base, as characterised his first two itss families, from the pre-war innocence of earlearlyy 1914191 to she overcomes heroin withdrawal. Desper- novels with this visceral thee painfulpainful and ggrimrim conseconsequencesquences ofof the Vietnam War.W ately enclosed in their chosen environment, portrait of late eighteenth- A modern classic in the making that will stay with both young people learn more about their century Paris. By 1785, the you long after the last page is turned. father and their own relationship with him. city’s oldest cemetery is Ammaniti writes with deliberate sparseness overflowing, tainting the OUT NOW and is able to capture the angst of being dif- breath of those who live nearby. A young ferent, being tired of societal constructions provincial engineer is charged by the king and the nature of family without fanfare. with demolishing it, and sees it first as a Me and You is a pared down coming-of-age chance to clear the burden of history. But story. Italian writer Ammaniti has the ability Jean-Baptiste Baratte soon finds his modern to draw you in from the first page and not stance on reason challenged, as he begins to let you go until completion. suspect the destruction of the cemetery might be a foreshadowing of his own. A LoveThis to novel’sread story is bittersweet, subtle and crackling gothic horror, Miller brings a city wonderfully entertaining. Ammaniti has teeming with rot and muck to life, while been described as one of the best novelists juxtaposing modes of human thought with of our time and has won many awards. the impulse of the human condition. His previous novel, I’m Not Scared, has been New in store and @booki.sh translated into 35 different languages. THE SOLDIER’S WIFE Thank you to Text Publishing for bringing Joanna Trollope his words to Australia. I’ll be seeking out Doubleday. PB. Normally $32.95 his other works immediately. Our special price $27.95 Christine Gordon is events coordinator of The prolific Joanna Trollope NOT DROWNING, READING Readings returns with her latest novel, For the National Year of Reading, The Soldier’s Wife, exploring suddenly a knock the conflicting nature of here is a book that, in Phillip at the door Adams’s words, brings ‘a new domesticity and familial love Etgar Keret for a post-combat soldier. perspective’ to the art of reading Vintage. PB. $19.95 Dan Riley returns from a and which Robert Dessaix calls a Declared a genius by the New six-month tour of duty in conversation about literature ‘few York Times, Israeli author Afghanistan only to face the shock of the readers will be able to resist’. Etgar Keret has a new, familiar becoming suddenly unfamiliar. How long-awaited collection of does a person trained to fight adjust to the short stories, Suddenly a gentle quietness of family living? Exploring Knock on the Door. He’s been the domestic lives of Britain’s modern army a hit at the Adelaide and and the people they leave behind, Trollope Ubud (Bali) writers’ festivals takes a keen look at the kind of world we in recent years, had a story in a recent live in today – and those who find they no edition of The New Yorker – and he will be longer fit into it. visiting our shores this month. If you haven’t familiarised yourself with Keret’s snappy,

9781921696800 PB / eBook 9781921696817 often darkly funny stories, now is the perfect time to make his acquaintance. Journals Keret serves up short sharp treats, over- SURVIVING: flowing with satire, absurdity and realism GRIFFITH REVIEW 35 WOMEN OF NOTE – which are dark, funny, strange and even Julianne Schultz (ed.) The allure of writing music occasionally cruel. He is more interested in Text. PB. $27.95 enticed women from all walks his situations than his characters, who are The world has been plagued of life – from the convent to often flat and functional – but with human- by natural disasters in recent the nappy-change table. Music ity that is at times familiar, then completely years, and it’s easy to think of journalist Rosalind Appleby foreign. Keret’s surreal stories encompass the society being on the brink of uncovers startling discoveries living and the dead, talking animals, and collapse. But behind the more. This collection includes an extraor- devastation lie many stories about the contribution of women dinary tale of a woman who finds a zip in of renewal and hope, of to Australian classical music. her boyfriend’s mouth; and in the superb survivors who pick up the opening story, a request for a story – from pieces and rebuild their lives and their

9781921888762 HB / eBook 9781921888854 an author suffering writers’ block – takes a communities. With writing by Matthew dark twist. Condon, Sophie Cunningham, David Francis, Michael Gawenda, Lloyd Jones Keret began writing stories to find ‘a place to fremantlepress.com.au and Ian Lowe. hide from life itself’ and this collection feels Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 9

New release Young AdultYoung fiction titles. See picture Adult books and books for youngerFiction and middle readers on page 15. DIARIES & Henderson’s Boys 5: crazed king popularised throughout history: When Peony falls ill with the deadly The Prisoner Hal is a boy living in the shadow of his older letumosis illness, on the very day that ESSAYS Robert Muchamore brother. He is not cherished by his father, Cinder comes into contact with heir to the but feared and despised. Throughout his life, throne Prince Kai, Cinder is drawn into the Hodder. PB. $17.99 Hal is tormented by the spectre of a blonde- dangerous world of palace history, interplan- The many fans of the latest haired boy who appears to him, normally etary politics and potential romance. series from the creator of the at moments of trouble. He is there when bestselling Cherub books will Hal learns of his mother’s death, and again Meyer does a fabulous job of mashing be thrilled to see this in his later years when he loses yet another together and twisting the fairytale elements instalment finally on our son. We see an athletic young man with with the futuristic setting. The elaborate shelves, delivering a heady principles and dreams slowly deteriorate into setting of the New Beijing metropolis, the dose of action and adventure. a suspicious tyrant who cannot trust anyone unfamiliar technology, and the politics of It is June 1943 and one of around him. an imagined new world order, are presented Henderson’s best agents, Marc Kilgour, is effortlessly to the reader, who is left to enjoy being held captive in a brutal German This is a dark and gripping account which this absorbing and strange story. labour camp. A set of forged record cards will provide you with a different take on Leanne Hall is from Readings Carlton could be his ticket to freedom, but might such a well-known figure. VIII is perfect just as easily become his death warrant. A fare for readers with an interest in history, The Fault In Our Stars vital mission awaits him in France and though the strength of the writing means it John Green Kilgour plots a daring escape with three will appeal equally to anyone. Penguin. PB. $19.95 other prisoners. But the plan goes horribly Holly Harper is from Readings Carlton John Green is one of those wrong. authors embraced by readers Why We Broke Up and critics alike, with titles Fallen in Love Daniel Handler like Looking for Alaska and Lauren Kate HGE. PB. $24.95 Will Grayson, Will Grayson. Doubleday. HB. $22.95 Daniel Handler (aka Lemony His latest has attracted In a twist of fate, four Snicket) is one of those accolades from authors as extraordinary love stories writers who is puzzled by the diverse as Markus ‘The Book combine over the course of ‘YA’ category; he writes his Thief’ Zusak (‘John Green at his best. You one Valentine’s Day in novels about teenagers for laugh, you cry, and then you come back for medieval England. Miles and both adult and teen readers. more.’) and Jodi Picoult (‘An electric portrait Shelby find love where they This moving and funny love of young people who learn to live life with Memoirs of a Young Bastard least expect it. Roland learns story is a collaboration one foot in the grave.’) Despite the tumour- ‘Tim Burstall set himself the a painful lesson about between novelist Handler and illustrator shrinking medical miracle that bought her a discipline of writing every day... finding and losing love. Arianne pays the Maira Kalman, who Handler was keen to few years, 16-year-old Hazel’s cancer has observing “the sexual madhouse” price for a love so fierce it burns. And for the work with; the focus of the book was chosen never been anything but terminal. When she of Eltham in the 1950’s, reflecting first and last time, Daniel and Luce will partly to enable this collaboration. (Kalman meets the gorgeous Augustus Waters at on his role in it and producing one spend a night together like none other. These wanted to paint small objects, so Handler Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel falls in of the most evocative Australian are the much talked about but never revealed devised a story in which small, meaningful love with this kindred spirit. This is an diaries of modern times’ stories of characters from Fallen. objects would be central.) ambitious and heartbreaking work that - Hilary McPhee. brilliantly explores the funny, thrilling, and When Ed Slaterton, the high school basket- Sea Hearts tragic business of being alive and in love. AVAILABLE FEBRUARY ball hero, and the thoughtful, film-obsessed Margo Lanagan Min Green fall in love, they shock their Allen & Unwin. PB $19.99. Ebook $17.99 classmates. Their relationship lasts one Switched Hurrah! Another darkly month and seven days;Why We Broke Up is Amanda Hocking fantastical novel from the Min’s heartbroken letter to Ed explaining Macmillan. PB $16.99. Ebook $11.99 wonderful Margo Lanagan, why they are breaking up. She is leaving it Move over, vampires: the one of Australia's most on Ed’s doorstep, along with a box contain- trolls have arrived. Amanda exciting and challenging YA ing the debris of their relationship. The Hocking, author of the Trylle talents. The author of Tender LA Times raved: ‘Few male writers could Trilogy, is already a publish- Morsels explores another make a teenage-girl narrator in the throes of ing phenomenon, selling twisted, fairytale-like world romantic desire and despair seem so credible, millions of copies of her in this, her ‘selkie novel’. On remote but Handler ... [has] convincingly mined books and becoming one of Rollrock Island, the sea-witch Misskaella the psyche of the love struck, presenting the biggest-selling names in discovers she can draw a girl from the heart the story in an elegant and humorous style ebooks. Yet she’s only 26 and in 2012, her of a seal. So, for a price, any man might buy that borrows some of the tricks he honed as books are being published in print for the himself a bride; an irresistibly enchanting Lemony Snicket.’ very first time. Hocking’s character-driven sea-wife. But what cost will be borne by the books feature trolls, but not as we think of people of Rollrock once Misskaella sets her Lunar Chronicles: them. These trolls may be a little shorter heart on doing such a thing? An extraordi- than the rest of us, but they look like nary tale of desire and revenge, of loyalty, Cinder humans, just a little more beautiful. And heartache and human weakness, and of the Marissa Meyer they are living amongst us … unforeseen consequences of all-consuming Puffin. PB. $16.95 love. For Lanagan fans – and any reader who A teenage cyborg mechanic In Switched, the first book in the series, loves immersing themselves in beautiful called Cinder. A robotic 17-year-old Wendy has already had an language and wholly absorbing fantasy sidekick cuter than R2-D2. unusual life after her mother tried to kill her worlds. Lanagan's followers include both The future city of New when she was six, claiming she was a monster. teenage and adult readers. Beijing. A strange new world She now lives with her brother and aunt but where the humans must ally has trouble making friends, and they move VIII against an untrustworthy regularly due to her authority issues. When H.M. Castor lunar race. A handsome dark stranger Finn arrives at her new school, Demanding the Impossible events escalate and Wendy soon discovers asks what has become of the ideal Puffin. PB.$17.95 prince. A dangerous plague. A missing Lunar the truth – she is a troll who was switched at and myth of resistance. Henry VIII is a figure whose royal heir. And yes, a glamorous ball, a glass slipper (of sorts) and an evil stepmother and birth for a human child. She must now return From the award-winning author reputation precedes him – a to her true family, the Trylle, where she is man best known for chop- stepsister. Cinder is a bewitching and of The Archibald Paradox and destined to inherit the throne. How Simone de Beauvoir Died in ping off heads. I didn’t know engrossing sci-fi retelling of the familiar Australia. much about Henry’s rise to Cinderella fairytale, and hands-down one of The plot may not sound extraordinary, but power, and so when I first the best books I will read this year (an early the story is so well paced, the characters AVAILABLE FEBRUARY picked up H.M. Castor’s call, I know). just the perfect blend of dark and light, the novel VIII I had no idea Sixteen-year-old Cinder works as a mechanic dialogue pitch-perfect, and the action so what to expect, though by the end I was in the busy market area of New Beijing, thrilling that it is almost impossible to put impressed by this fascinating and original toiling over other people’s robots, and trying down. Thank goodness the books will all glimpse into the mind of the king. to keep her own cyborg identity hidden. Her be published by March, so there won’t be long to wait between sessions of devouring The novel opens with young Henry (or Hal, home life is an unhappy one; her stepmother takes the money she earns, and does nothing the Trylle. Amanda Hocking is definitely an to those close to him) being spirited away in author to watch and, like the Twilight series, the middle of the night to the Tower of Lon- to hide her distaste for her adopted daugh- ter. Comfort comes in the form of Iko, her her books will be enjoyed late into the night don, scared and confused. And as he grows, by fantasy readers of all ages. we get a picture that is far from the power- robotic companion, and Linh Peony, the www.mup.com.au younger and nicer of her two stepsisters. Angela Crocombe is from Readings St Kilda 10 Readings Monthly February 2012

Dead Write with Fiona Hardy New Crimewithout revelling in the gore of crime, and What It Was honest about what can happen; not all George Pelecanos Crime Book criminals are prosecuted and justice isn’t Orion. PB Normally $32.95. always fair in the real world. His concise and Our special price $27.95. of the Month revealing writing style makes for enthralling A writer on The Wire and the After the Darkness tales; Guilt is a highlight of the month. author of The Cut, one of my Honey Brown favourite novels from 2011, Viking. PB. $29.95 Easy Money Pelecanos goes back to Trudy and Bruce take a Jens Lapidus Private Investigator Derek deserved holiday by the Macmillan. PB $27.99. Ebook $16.99 Strange, star of his earlier Victorian ocean: time for Less Steig Larsson and more crime novels. In the 1970s, them to relax, their children the punchy style of James Strange is in his late twenties left behind. Of course, a Ellroy, this is a jarring look and has just left the police force, but finds detour on the way home to a at Stockholm’s less white- the first case he encounters afterwards leads cliff-top gallery seems like the and-shiny side. JW is a him right back to his partner’s area of right, spontaneous thing to student living beyond his expertise. A hunt for a ring becomes a much do. However, their misgivings when they means, whose secretive job darker state of affairs when drugs, murder enter the cold, glass-filled home are proven at a taxi company leads him – and Pelecanos’ riveting, gritty writing right and the following attack leaves them to something much more lucrative – a – become involved. battered mentally and physically, with more career in the drug trade. This entangles him to hide than to reveal –­ and someone out with two other criminals: Jorge, out of Raylan there knows about it. This vivid, taut story of prison and ready to get back at those who Elmore Leonard the aftermath of Trudy and Bruce’s experience sent him there, and Mrado, high up in the Orion. PB. $29.99 left me short of breath, as anxious as they Yugoslavian mafia, but not quite high US Marshal Raylan Givens were about every moment that followed. After enough. And they’re all out for the easy wears an oversized hat and the Darkness, told from Trudy’s point of view, money. doesn’t mess around (unless takes many of the male/female clichés of it’s with beautiful women). crime and turns them on their head, as she THE Cold, Cold Ground And such women are in abun- toughs it out through Bruce’s shackling, both Adrian McKinty dance in Leonard’s three- The Cartographer literally and metaphorically, during the book’s Profile. PB. $29.99 tiered story of coal mines, BY PETER TWOHIG progress. A story as psychologically chilling as Set during one of Ireland’s their vicious executives, it is physically frightening, it is a dark look more notorious historical professional poker players, dim-witted In a dangerous world there’s into the trauma of violence changing an moments, the hunger strike marijuana dealers and the organ theft no greater power than everyday happy couple into one wracked of the early 1980s, McK- industry. It could almost seem too much for with paranoia, regret and simmering inty creates a world as real, Raylan, but he’s not the kind of person to imagination. The Cartographer violence of their own. raw and entertaining as you mind having a lot on his plate – at least, not is a bold, captivating and Fiona Hardy is from Readings Carlton could hope for in your until it’s his own various body parts in danger. outrageously funny novel. criminally-based literary Miles Off Course pursuits. The first in a new series follow- Phryne Fisher Sulari Gentill ing fallible Detective Sergeant Sean Duffy, TV tie-ins Simon & Schuster. PB. $29.99 this sees him following the trail of a serial Cocaine Blues, Murder on the Ballarat Train, Another terrific local release killer (who, like Duffy himself, has a Green Hill Murder, Raisins and Almonds, to pick up is Miles Off penchant for the opera) and investigating Ruddy Gore, Death at Victoria Dock. Course, the third Rowland the death of a hunger striker’s wife. All from Allen & Unwin. Sinclair book in Sulari Tangling real history into the threads of PB $22.99 each. Ebooks $17.44 each. Gentill’s 1930s-set crime the story, this is one atmospheric and With the upcoming release series. An artist with the enjoyable read. of the television series made uncanny knack of being in from Kerry Greenwood’s the same place as drama, he Phantom witty, popular and delicious- is surrounded by opulence and his favourite Jo Nesbo ly local 1920s-set Phryne people at the Blue Mountains’ Hydro Random. Normally $32.95 Fisher series, the first six Majestic resort when one Harry Simpson Our special price $27.95 books will be re-released goes missing. Giving up the luxurious One of my favourite with new covers. If you pastimes of the hotel to delve into New protagonists, Harry Hole, haven’t discovered these already, now is South Wales’ High Country to find him, it has made his sardonic return definitely the time. becomes not just a vanishing but something to Oslo after years away much more contentious – and attracts quite from the city, and is now the audience. involved in something that no one – not the police, not Silent Fear the criminal underbelly – Katherine Howell wants looked into: the death of Gusto, a Pan Macmillan. PB $29.99. Ebook $17.99 young junkie. Gusto recounts what brought When paramedic Holly him to his bloody end while Hole sets off The Memory Wall Garland arrives at the scene on his own investigation. No longer in the Exclusive Tour of a shooting, she doesn’t police force, with the case firmly closed, BY ANTHONY DOERR Hole seemingly poses no threat – but expect to find her estranged Readings invites you to an Set on four continents, brother Seth at the crime, people are watching. declaring he’s friends with exclusive guided tour of the Anthony Doerr’s new collection Death and the victim. Detective Ella Love and Devotion exhibition, of stories is about memory: Marconi has her doubts too the Olive Grove the source of meaning and – but he’s not the only aspect of the crime Marco Vichi at the State Library of Victoria, coherence in our lives, the she wants to shine her torch over. Holly’s im- Hodder Headline. Normally $32.99 Wednesday 14 March 2012, mediate fear of what Seth could reveal about Our special price $29.95 fragile thread that connects her to those she is closest to, along with Ella’s In beautiful (but cold) 6pm–8pm. Cost : only $25 per realisation about the dangerous path her us to ourselves and to others. 1960s Florence, vengeance person—includes drinks and investigation could take, make this addictive and the simmering rage of reading from the first page. World War II is not far canapés in Mr Tulk café. away. Inspector Bordelli’s Guilt friend discovers a body that Bookings : Emily Harms on Ferdinand von Schirach is no longer there when they Text. PB $22.95, Ebook $19.74. go to fetch it – and is 9341 7726 or please email In the new collection of promptly killed. In the meantime, the [email protected] stories from the defense grimly signed-off murder of two young girls attorney writer of the has the town in a panic; one that the and put ‘SLV’s Love and Inspector can’t keep from spiralling out of extraordinary book Crime, Devotion’ in the subject line. von Schirach recounts – with control. Bordelli is the real fabric of the details changed, of course – story; a man with enchanting friends and tales from Germany’s gritty personality, whose shenanigans you would criminal backlog. He is vivid follow anywhere. Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 11 New Non-Fiction by Robert Dessaix as a ‘conversation about literature that few readers will be able to Biography & resist joining’, Not Drowning, Reading is a marvellous ode to the powers of literature, Memoir and the friends we make within who truly THERE STANDS MY HOUSE mark our lives. Hans Keilson Scribe. PB $24.95. Ebook $14.95 MEMOIRS OF AN One of Europe’s most ADDICTED BRAIN: masterful and remarkable A NEUROSCIENTIST LOVE AND writers, Hans Keilson’s EXAMINES HIS FORMER DEVOTION memoirs have been trans- LIFE ON DRUGS From Persia and Bey ond lated to bring this unique Marc Lewis work to an English audi- Scribe. PB $29.95. Ebook $19.95 ence. Composed in the 1990s and only recently From dabbling in cough rediscovered, Keilson recalls his life in syrup as a teenager in the stunning detail. From his youth in Bran- 1960s to sniffing nitrous oxide in the Malay jungle denburg, to life as a fast-living student in In partnership with: Berlin, his exile in Holland and the loss of and losing himself in the his parents, Keilson relives it all against a opium dens of Calcutta, LOVE A ND backdrop of economic crisis and anti-Semi- Mark Lewis has walked the tism, but also friendship and hope. Hailed gauntlet of drug addiction DEVOTION and lived to tell the tale. Now a neuroscien- FrStateom P ersiaLibrary and Bey ond by The New York Times as ‘one of the 9 March – 1 July 2012 world’s very greatest writers’, There Stands tist studying the brains of troubled chil- 10am–5pm daily (to 9pm Thursday), of Victoria dren, Lewis recounts his relationship with closed Good Friday My House is an intimate portrait of a man Free entry drugs from the inside out in this gripping and a century’s worth of living and writing. State Library of Victoria memoir. Described by The Globe and Mail 328 Swanston Street, Melbourne as ‘a picture of addiction as an unavoidable Inquiries: 8664 7000 LOVE AND POSER Image: The marriage of Yusuf and Zulaykha urge of human nature’, Memoirs of an (detail), from Jami, Yusuf u Zulaykha, 1595, Claire Dederer Addicted Brain examines the chemical Bodleian Library, University of Oxford DEVOTION Bloomsbury. PB. $19.99 From Persia a nd Beyond changes of the brain that help sustain Major sponsors: After putting her back out addiction, and the psychological patterns breastfeeding her daughter Celebrate the beauty of Persian manuscripts that lead us there. This is by turns a and their stories of human and divine love in ten years ago, Claire Dederer memoir of self-destruction, rebirth and this captivating landmark exhibition. took up yoga on the advice recognition. of practically everyone who LOVE AND crossed her path and fell Gay Life Stories Conference partner: Supported by: love-and-devotion.com instantly in love. As her DEVOTION Robert Aldrich From Persia and Bey ond relationship with the Indemnified by the T&H. HB. $39.95 Victorian Government spiritual pretzelling of her body grew, she through Arts Victoria found herself confronting the forces that This intriguing, alternate shaped her generation – the idea of what it biographical history is a means to be a good mother, daughter, page turner – Robert friend and wife. The deeper she fell, the Aldrich’s style is comfortably erudite and his subject is more Dederer realised she craved something LOVE AND less tidy and organic. Part memoir and part fascinating way beyond what instructional guide to life, Poser is the story might be conjectured. The DEVOTION very dynamism of the of one woman’s journey to stand on her From Persia and Bey ond head while keeping both feet on the subjects’ lives (e.g. Sappho, Hadrian, ground. Michelangelo, Walt Whitman, Radclyffe Hall) indicates what influence gay lives have had on society and culture, and there NOT DROWNING, are others not so well known that indicate a READING far greater social tolerance than is seen Andrew Relph today – Chen Weisong, a seventeenth- FACP. PB. $24.95 century Chinese poet, and his lover Xu Andrew Relph overcame a Ziyun, lived together in Chen’s household, childhood reading disability which included a wife, some concubines to become a psychoanalyst and various children. Christian saints, and professional conversa- medieval monastics, nuns, poets, socialites, tionalist. In this captivating rulers and spies, activists and artists – diver- memoir, he explores how sity, difference and strength are celebrated our relationships with in this excellent book. Illustrated with authors and characters can paintings, drawings, photographs and be as vital to our development and healing archival documents. as any we may discover in ‘real life’. Praised

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National Archive – 793 boxes of banned books, prohibited from the 1920s to the Australian 1980s – Nicole Moore launched this fascinating examination into the state of Non-Fiction Australia’s moral literary watchdogs, and the MEMOIRS OF A YOUNG largely secret activity that resulted in the BASTARD: THE DIARIES deliberate withholding of knowledge from the OF TIM BURSTALL NOV public. Provocative and daring, Moore 1953 TO DEC 1954 combines scholarship with thrilling narrative Hilary McPhee tension to expose this scandalous history. & Ann Standish (eds) MUP. PB. $59.99 Prior to establishing himself as a key figure in Australian Politics post-war cinema, Tim QUIET: THE POWER Burstall began keeping a OF INTROVERTS IN diary. Set with the task of A WORLD THAT CAN’T writing 500 words a day, STOP TALKING Burstall documented life Susan Cain with his family and the Viking. PB. $29.95 progressive community of early 1950s Introverts make up at least apanese World War II Eltham, near Melbourne. Enriched by one third of the world and POW camps conjure reflections on domesticity, art, films, J are responsible for many of intellectual discussions and promiscuity, up a notorious picture of the most valued contribu- Burstall’s life provides rich fodder for the deprivation and brutality. tions to society – yet they diaries that dealt mercilessly with the cast are often labeled ‘quiet’ and The idea that sport, of all of characters surrounding him. Memoirs of thought of as shrinking things, flourished in such a Young Bastard is one of the most evocative violets. In this meditation hellish conditions is hard portraits of mid-twentieth-century bohe- on the power of introverts, Susan Cain mian Australia of our times, and contrasts to envisage – but the truth shows how dramatically we undervalue deliciously with the Australia present in is, it did. The Sportsmen of these unassuming creatures and how much historical memory. Changi tells the story everyone we lose in doing so. From anecdotal forgot – of how sport became RUPERT MURDOCH: evidence to cutting-edge research in a lifeline for POWs after the psychology and neuroscience, Cain reveals AN INVESTIGATION OF the surprising differences between intro- fall of Singapore, when 50 POLITICAL POWER verts and their more ostentatious counter- 000 Australian and British David McKnight parts. She offers practical advice on issues soldiers became prisoners of Allen & Unwin. PB $32.99. Ebook $19.79 such as empowering an introverted child the Japanese. In this searing expose, David and how to negotiate better relationships McKnight documents with extroverts. Quiet has the power to Rupert Murdoch’s influence change the way the world values these silent over world politics, from his contributors. support for Reagan and Thatcher in the 1980s to his REFRAME: HOW TO SOLVE www.newsouthbooks.com.au attacks on the US Democrat THE WORLD’S TRICKIEST and Australian Labor-held PROBLEMS governments of the late 2000s. Praised as ‘a Eric Knight study of dangerous media abuse of power Black Inc. PB Normally $29.95. and of abject government weakness in Our special price $24.95. Ebook $12.95. regard to it’ in Robert Manne’s foreword, In this insightful new book Rupert Murdoch examines the secretive from one of Australia’s corporate culture of News Corp, and its brightest young thinkers, ever expanding political reach around the readers are asked to look for world. As Manne puts it, this is a disturb- the solution just outside the ing book – but essential reading for anyone frame of vision. Why can’t interested in the construction of news and we eliminate terrorism by power in a Murdoch-run world. killing terrorists? Why can’t we learn anything about climate change by DEMANDING THE talking about the weather? Hailed as ‘an IMPOSSIBLE original and vital contribution to under- Sylvia Lawson standing politics’ by Matt Ridley, author of MUP. PB. $34.95 The Rational Optimist, Eric Knight’s One of Australia’s most Reframe explains how a change of focus can acute and eloquent essayists, reveal a solution that was there all the time Sylvia Lawson has turned but for the lack of vision. A vivid, fast-paced, and compassionate A gripping, triumphant memoir about the her hand to questioning the account of the beginnings of Occupy power of addiction and its effect on the ideal and myth of resistance. Wall Street — the protest movement brain from someone who knows the story An examination of the spirit that some predict will change political from the inside out — as a neuroscientist, of insurrection, Lawson explores historical moments THistoryhe GREAT DIVIDE discussion in America forever. and as a former addict. of resistance, from the Paris riots of 1968 to the Arab Spring and Occupy movement, Peter Watson and from the Northern Territory Interven- Orion. HB. Normally $49.99 Our special price $39.95 tion and Aboriginal dispossession to the East Timorese and West Papuan resistance This fascinating portrait of to Indonesian domination. Lawson the ancient world investi- chronicles the various means of resistance, gates the environmental and the ways in which people use art, patterns that led to the protest and the simple drive to keep going separation of humans across to try and reinvigorate their place in the the globe. In 15,000 BC, world. early humankind arrived in Siberia during the Ice Age. In this beguiling memoir In an age where people From best-selling business THE CENSOR'S LIBRARY The vast swathes of ice present across the Hans Keilson, one of Europe’s hesitate to talk about dying, writer Kazuyo Katsuma, these Nicole Moore Bering Strait created a land bridge, enabling most masterful and remarkable Seize the Day lends us the seven frameworks are the keys people to literally walk to the Americas. UQR. PB. $39.95 Thus, a division occurred between the writers, has produced an strength to confront the to achieving success, acquiring Perhaps surprisingly, Australia peoples of the world. In The Great Divide, unforgettable portrait of his mysteries of death, gives us inspiration, and finding a was responsible for more Peter Watson compares the development life and times. hope, and celebrates the healthy work-life balance. book bannings than most of humankind in the ‘Old World’ and the other English-speaking or courage of the human spirit. ‘New’, from this seminal crossing all the Western countries, from the way up to 1500 AD and the discovery of Kama Sutra to Aldous America. It is a sterling examination of Huxley’s Brave New World and history, civilisation and what it means to James Joyce’s Ulysses. After be human. discovering the secret ‘censor’s library’ in the Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 13

debate in France, The Conflict posits that the reader on a journey into a cinema and the modern motherhood has come full circle to realisation of our deepest wishes. One of the Philosophy re-embody a more conservative vision of most unusual books about film ever written, RELIGION FOR ATHEISTS Woman With Child. Having previously argued Zona explores the ability of art to shape the Alain de Botton against the existence of the maternal instinct, way we journey through the world. Hamish Hamilton. Badinter’s latest offering continues to question PB. Normally $35 why our ideas of motherhood have been Our special price $29.95 skewed by unachievable expectations that Alain de Botton turns his compromise notions of self and womanhood. unique philosophical WOMENMusic OF NOTE: THE viewpoint to the role of TOGETHER: THE RITUALS, RISE OF AUSTRALIAN religion in an atheist’s world. PLEASURES AND POLITICS WOMEN COMPOSERS Moving on from the stagnant OF COOPERATION Rosalind Appleby checkmate between the Richard Sennett FACP. PB. $35 vehemently religious and the Yale UP. PB. $42 It might not seem plausible fundamentally atheist, de In this thought-provoking today, but in the early Botton charismatically argues that while the book, Richard Sennett twentieth century, it was supernatural claims of religion may be entirely explores the politics of the risky business for women to false, religion still has some very important tribe rather than that of the enter the field of composing. things to teach the secular world. A non- city. He contends that One such woman was believer himself, de Botton believes a secular cooperation is a craft, and diagnosed as mentally insane society can gain much from looking to our path to success as a by her psychiatrist husband, religion for insights into how to get more out community is to learn how while several others achieved success only of art, architecture and music, overcoming to discuss rather than debate. Three parts after divorce. Others still were forced to lie feelings of envy and inadequacy, and building combine to address the nature of coopera- about their genders. Rosalind Appleby looks a sense of community. This philosophical tion, why it has become weak and how it can at Australia’s composing history and makes triumph at last gives rise to room for atheists be strengthened. Inspired by hope, Sennett some startling discoveries about the contri- grown tired of the blinkered view of their urges us to tap into our natural capacity for bution of women to Australian classical fundamentalist counterparts. cooperation in order to further our society. music. Profiling 20 women, spanning the twentieth century to the present-day, this is a fascinating insight into the battles women fought to be allowed into an industry that Environment didn’t want to have them. THE BIG THIRST: ZONAFilm: A BOOK ABOUT THE SECRET LIFE AND A FILM ABOUT A TURBULENT FUTURE OF JOURNEY TO A ROOM WATER Geoff Dyer Science Charles Fishman Text. PB. $22.95 THE SCIENCE DELUSION Free Press. PB $23.95. Ebook $19.74 Obsessed by the film Stalker, Rupert Sheldrake Despite countries facing water Geoff Dyer finally takes to Hodder Headline. PB. $32.99 crises the world over, Earth has the page to try to unlock the Sure to excite science boffins everywhere, more than enough water to mysteries within that have The Science Delusion posits that science is continue to sustain us all. But haunted him all his adult life. being constricted by assumptions that have just as we’ve begun to re-imag- Hailed as ‘possibly the best hardened into dogmas, turning the ‘scientific ine our relationship to food, we living writer in Britain’ by the worldview’ into a belief system. Dr Rupert must also rethink how we Daily Telegraph, Dyer takes Sheldrake details hardened beliefs such as approach and use water. After all, most of the planet’s water isn’t found on the Earth’s surface, but fused into rock 400 miles deep. It’s the most vital substance in our lives, but also far more amazing and mysterious than we realise. Charles Fishman explores the New ebooks awe-inspiring ways water runs our world in his fascinating portrait of our most necessary Mateship with Birds element. The Big Thirst will forever change the Carrie Tiffany way we think about water: how we use it, Paperback $19.99 how we find it and how we respect it. ebook $16.99 OUTSIDE THE MAGIC SQUARE: A HANDBOOK FOR FOOD SECURITY e Lolo Houbein Wakefield. PB. $45 In the next four decades, we’ll The Last Thread need as much food as during Michael Sala the last 500 years. In this call Paperback $27.95 to arms, Houbein considers issues of food security, ebook $11.95 offering solutions on a three-tiered level – the street, the neighbourhood and the Silent Fear global community. Houbein provides Katherine Howell practical advice for growing your own food, Paperback $29.99 discussions on dwindling oil supplies and the impact of GM foods. A must-have for anyone ebook $17.99 concerned about the future of the world’s food supply.

Cultural Studies The Cartographer THE CONFLICT: Peter Twohig WOMAN AND MOTHER Paperback $24.95 Elisabeth Badinter Text. PB. $24.95. Ebook $21.46 ebook $13.99 France’s most prominent voice on feminist topics, Elisabeth Badinter, has launched a scathing polemic on the unrealistic ideals foisted upon ebooks.readings.com.auBrand identity usage modern mothers and the inability of women to live up to them. Met with fierce

Inventive Labs: Bookish Brand Identity 14 Readings Monthly February 2012 consciousness being nothing more than pom-pom necklaces and angle poise lamps the physical activity of the brain, all reality made with jars. Craft has inspired a whole being material or physical and the world Food & Wine Art & Design generation of hipsters, and has come a long occupying the state of little more than by Chris Gordon, Readings Carlton by Margaret Snowdon, Readings Carlton way in the past ten years. State of Craft a machine made up of dead matter. His Let’s be honest; the world is changing quickly brings it all up to date. challenge to such views has been declared and our only elements in common with our French Flair by The Independent to be ‘a matter of ur- ancestors are love and the need to eat. It seems Sebastien Siraudeau The Renaissance gency’, because beyond these fiercely held food trends are heading in two directions: Flammarion. HB. Normally $60 Portrait: From scientific viewpoints, science is free to be chefs who look back in time for inspiration Our special price $49.95 Donatello to Bellini a lot more expressive, interesting and a lot and those who have been watching science While modern design often Keith Christiansen more fun. fiction movies and believe all food can be neglects cultural and artistic heritage in favour of Yale. HB. $79.95 made into foam. Given that the majority of This book accompanies a THE END OF ILLNESS us, here in our very own kitchens, do not have minimalism, Siraudeau demonstrates that it isn’t landmark exhibition at the David Agus a chemistry degree, I favour cookbooks that Bode-Museum, Berlin, and Simon & Schuster. PB. $29.99 look backwards. February is a quiet time for necessary to forgo tradition to create a fashionable The Metropolitan Museum David Agus is one of the cookbooks, but two books about food, with a of Art, New York. It world’s leading cancer French flavour, caught my fancy this month. home. Vintage pieces and antiques invoke nostalgia and tradition, provides new research and doctors and technology insight into the early history innovators, and The End of French Children while styles and periods don’t need to match – because French design is about of portraiture in Italy, Illness is his personal Don’t throw Food examining in detail how its major art exploration of the human Pamela Druckerman integrating the unexpected alongside unconventional details to make a modern centres – Florence, the princely courts, and body and all the ways it Random. HB. $32.95 home unique. One hundred properties are Venice – saw the rapid development of works – and fails. Here, It’s not strictly a cookbook, featured in this fabulous value 800+ page portraiture as closely linked to Renaissance Agus argues for the adoption of a systemic but does fit into my plan of book – covering delightful rural guesthous- society and politics, ideas of the individual, way of honouring our bodies as complex, making 2012 the year of es, urban dwellings, seaside retreats and and concepts of beauty. Essays by leading whole systems. He charges us to take reflection. British mother of antique shops. scholars provide a thorough introduction to control of our individual health in previ- three Pamela Druckerman is Renaissance portraiture, while individual ously unimagined ways so that we may using her many years of living catalogue entries illustrate and extensively achieve the suddenly reachable goal of a in France to compare the How to Architect Doug Patt discuss more than 160 magnificent long, vigorous life. This is essential reading behaviour of French children examples of painting, drawing, manuscript for those who want to revolutionise the way to that of visiting children. She argues – rightly MIT Press. PB. $19.95 illumination, sculpture, and medallic we live, and discover the single most impor- so, I believe – that French children are raised How to Architect will guide portraiture by such artists as Donatello, tant thing we can do today to preserve our on the food their parents eat and not ‘white’ you on the road to architec- Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Verrocchio, health and happiness. food or ‘fast’ food or food that has been created ture. If you are just starting Ghirlandaio, Pisanello, Mantegna, Antonel- to look like a face on a plate. This book is a on that journey or thinking lo da Messina and Giovanni Bellini. sensible response to the craziness of parents about becoming an archi- who cook two meals every night – one for tect, it is a place to begin. If Alice in Wonderland them and one for their children. Read this little you are already an architect Food & Wine and want to remind yourself through the book and rethink the joys of eating out, or at visual arts Lentil As Anything home with our children. I’m pretty sure our of what drew you to the profession, it is a HB. $54.99 grandmothers didn’t cut food into shapes for book of affirmation. And if you are just Delahunty & Schulz This unique coffee their children. Ah, the old is new ... curious about what goes into the design Tate. PB. $49.95 table book with a and construction of buildings, this book The catalogue for an difference comes Secrets of a Lazy tells you how architects think. exhibition that explores how straight from the French Cook Lewis Carroll’s stories have community (and Marie-Morgane Le Moël State of Craft influenced the visual arts, kitchen) behind the inspiring generations of HarperCollins. PB. $29.99 Victoria Woodcock (ed.) iconic Lentil as artists – ideas such as the French cook and writer Marie Morgane Le Cicada. PB. $33.95 Anything restau- journey from childhood Moël arrived in Sydney ready to become a Victoria Woodcock shakes rants. Included within its sumptuous pages to adulthood; language, hard-bitten journalist. Things didn’t work out things up, offering a fully are the stories and mouth-watering recipes meaning and nonsense; scale and quite as she imagined – and she had not quite illustrated how-to guide for of key chefs, interviews with staff members perspective; and perception and reality reckoned on feeling so homesick – so, she making everything from and those affiliated with the Lentil as are explored. Artists include Balthus, cooked up classic French food every night. mobiles to lampshades. State Anything community, and writing from Tim Burton, Peter Blake, Max Ernst, This book, which includes recipes such as of Craft features interviews established Australian authors Arnold Nan Goldin, Grayson Perry, Pierre & galette des rois (think puff pastry filled with and contributions from all Zable, Alice Pung, and Tara June Winch. Gilles, Annie Leibovitz, Rene Magritte, delicious creams) is also Marie’s diary of the hottest international Sigmar Polke, Paula Rego, Anna Gaskell, thoughts, fears and desires for her adopted craft megastars, including Tatty Devine, Annelies Strba and Torsten Lauschmann. country. Think Julia Child’s time in France, Urban Cross Stitch and DIY Couture. but in reverse. A truly delightful book. Clearly explained, step-by-step craft ideas range from homemade underwear to

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that pays homage to nineteenth-century fantasists such as Conan Doyle and Verne, while delivering an action-packed adven- Q&A with H. J. Harper ture in which the reader and George race to author of Bureau of Mysteries (Random, PB, $15.95) New Kids’ Books save the day. Enjoy the rollicking adventure word games, doodles, riddles, matching and look out for the Barbarian Librarians games and more. Help Wally find his along the way. misplaced key, Wendy find her camera, Marie Matteson is from Readings Port Melbourne Woof dig up his bone, Wizard Whitebeard locate his scroll and Odlaw hunt for his Grimstones 1: binoculars, completing all the activities on Hatched H.J Harper's Bureau of Mysteries the way. Asphyxia A&U. PB. $14.99 Junior Picture Books The Grimstones aren’t your Your book has been described by Bookseller THE Little Old Man Who Hey Jack!: average family: Grandpa and Publisher magazine as ‘a little like Looked Up at the Moon The Crazy Cousins Grimstone runs his own James Bond meets Oliver Twist’. What do Pamela Allen Sally Rippin magical apothecary, Mama you think about that description? Were you HGE. PB $7.95 Ebook $3.99 Grimstone shuts herself influenced by either of these kinds of tales? Viking. HB. $24.95. away to make dresses and Billie B. Brown has amassed Pamela Allen is one weep rivers of tears for her Perhaps not directly, though I did make a rather large following of of Australia’s most departed husband, and a conscious decision to set Bureau of fans, who will no doubt be loved picture book young Martha Grimstone is left alone to Mysteries in a Steampunk world – the familiar with her best friend, creators, responsible explore her sprawling Gothic home. This alternate Victorian-era genre which owes Jack. Now Jack has his very for such classics as usually means teaching her quails tricks and a lot to tales like Oliver Twist. I love the own series of books, starting Who Sank the Boat? inventing bread hats to attract crows. Life is marvellous gadgetry and larger-than-life with The Crazy Cousins, The and the Mr McGee fine for Martha (apart from the boring characters you can explore in Steam- Robot Blues, The Scary Solo books. Her latest Latin lessons Aunt Gertrude teaches her), punk, so you’ve got regular kids like the and The Winning Goal. In The Crazy outing, The Little Old Man Who Looked Up but she can’t help noticing how sad her main character George going up against Cousins, Jack is in a moochy mood. He’d at the Moon, touches on universal themes in mama is. Is there some way Martha can one-armed mechanical geniuses and mad much rather stay in his pyjamas and play a playful yet thought-provoking way. A little help cheer her up? scientists in underwater lairs. with his Lego. But when his dad reminds old man looks up at the moon. ‘Does the As for the James Bond influence, I must him that his cousins are coming to play, Based on the successful puppet show by sky go on forever and ever?’ he asks. ‘Where admit I am a fan of a good explosion, so Jack knows his dreams for a quiet day are Asphyxia, Hatched is a wonderfully quirky do we come from? Where do we go? Why I always put in some over-the-top action over. Without even his best friend Billie by book full of memorable characters. Colour are we here?’ This gorgeous, warm-hearted scenes because they’re so much fun to his side, what is Jack going to do? The Hey photographs of the puppets illustrate a book will spark many a conversation write. Really, it’s just an excuse to spend Jack series takes on a similar format to charming story of a girl whose family may between young and old about life’s big a long time thinking about fights that Billie B. Brown: short, illustrated stories seem odd to others, but is perfectly normal questions. take place on the backs of steam-powered that won’t scare off beginner readers. And to her. HH Demolition while these have been targeted mainly at dragons. Sally Sutton boys, they are such fun there’s no reason Tunnels of Tarcoola Bureau of Mysteries is interwoven with & Brian Lovelock (illus.) they won’t appeal to everyone. Jennifer Walsh codes that the main character, George – Walker. HB. $27.95 Holly Harper is from Readings Carlton A&U. PB. $14.99 and the reader – must crack along the This book describes the A mysterious abandoned way. How important are these codes to the demolition of an old Billie B. Brown: house and garden, a beach story? And how much work was it to set building to make way for a Cutest Pet Ever cave leading into a great these codes for your readers? new playground. Full of Sally Rippin maze of tunnels, and four When I was nine some friends and I had fun rhymes, it includes a HGE. PB $7.95. Ebook $3.99 young teens who start explor- our own detective agency, complete with pictorial glossary of all the Billie B. Brown has found ing. Ah, adventure! What is a secret code book, which was a precur- machines with short captions about what the most adorable guinea pig the mystery revealed by an sor to the Cryptographer’s Compendium each machine does. A great book for in the pet shop. She is going old lady who once lived in that George inherits in BoM. Still, all machine-mad boys and girls! to love it forever! If only she the house? Why is she agitated about that practice didn’t make me a brilliant can convince her mum and keeping something important hidden, and cryptographer, so I’ll admit some of the Jonathan and Martha dad ... from whom? And what really happened the codes were hard to write (and I’m forever Petr Horacek night the Japanese submarines entered indebted to my wonderful editors for Phaidon. HB. $16.95 Sydney Harbour in World War II? correcting my mistakes). Jonathan and Martha are two Middle All the delicious ingredients for a good old- I love a good code, and I hope the urge lonely worms that live on fashioned adventure story are here, but the to crack them is something BoM’s read- opposite sides of a tree. One Bureau of Mysteries pace and setting are contemporary. Mobile ers will share, but if your brain is feeling day, a big juicy pear lands on H.J. Harper phones help in the discovery of an important a bit tired, you can always skip ahead to the ground between them. Random. PB. $15.95. Ebook $13.56 tunnel exit, for example, and the pressures of the next chapter where the answer to the Jonathan nibbles from the Let me introduce you to home and school life are very now. code is revealed. But then what are you left, and Martha from the George Feather, chimney going to do when a group like the villain- right … and soon they are sweep and assistant cryptog- Recommended for 10 to 13 year olds, for the fascinating blend of past and present sto- ous Clockwork Octopus Society strikes? caught in a tangle. A classic story that rapher. While sweeping Probably feel really confused. teaches children (and adults) about the chimneys in the city of Little ries, for the authentic portrayal of the four importance of sharing. Obscurity, George literally resourceful kids and for its exciting plot. Bureau of Mysteries is (as falls upon a mystery, or more Kathy Kozlowski is from Readings Carlton our Readings reviewer Oh No, George! rightly falls into the Bureau points out) rich in humour Chris Haughton of Mysteries. Quickly recruited into the THE One and Only Ivan and wordplay. Was it fun Walker. HB. $24.95 Bureau, George sets out to save the city from Katherine Applegate to write? Do you enjoy Harris is off to do some a gang of criminals bent on mayhem. And Harper. PB. $14.99. Ebook $7.99 humour and wordplay in shopping. ‘Will you be he is taking us with him. Armed with the Ivan, the mighty silverback the books you read, too? good, George?’ he asks. Cryptographer’s Compendium (code-break- gorilla, spends his days BoM was a lot of fun to write, especially George hopes he can. He ing book), George and the reader decode watching TV, painting and when you have a completely hopeless really wants to ... but increasingly tricky clues in the quest to foil talking to his best friends character like Imp who is so assured of chocolate cake is just so the plans of The Clockwork Octopus Stella the elephant and Bob his own brilliance (even if everybody else very delicious and he does love to chase cats Society. As George learns a code and how to the dog. Not a terrible life, is not). I love puns in particular, so BoM ... It’s hard work being good all the time. break it, so do we. Try it: they’re tricky, but but their domain is a cage is packed full of them, and a lot of them And it’s especially hard for a dog like George! fun to crack. and they can never leave. are really groan-worthy, which everyone The world of Little Obscurity in 1886 much The story is beautifully told from Ivan’s knows is the sign of a good pun. Novelty resembles Dickensian England except that in perspective and at its core are the relation- Since I write books that I hope will the best tradition of Steampunk many things ships he has with his friends and the young Where’s Wally?: appeal particularly to reluctant readers have developed very differently. There are girl who visits him every day. When a baby The Search for who might be struggling to find the right clockroaches and markets with mechanical elephant arrives, Ivan makes a promise to the Lost Things book, I have tried to make them funny. chickens and flying vehicles. But there are Stella that forces him to risk a courageous Martin Handford There are some hilarious kids’ books out also the orphanages that supply child labour plan for a better life. Walker. PB. $19.95 there, from The Strange Case of Origami (such as George, a seasoned chimney sweep Everyone loves Wally and the Based on the true story of a great ape who Yoda and Diary of a Wimpy Kid for at the age of 12). This highly stylised ste- familiar hunt for his red-and- spent 27 years as an attraction in an Ameri- older readers, to picture books like I ampunk world is wonderfully illustrated in white striped beanie. This can mall, this story is heartbreaking, but Want My Hat Back, and it’s the books Nahum Ziersch’s panels depicting characters terrific activity book com- ultimately inspiring, and is highly recom- that make you laugh that you remem- and scenes in the unfolding adventure. bines the fun of searching for mended for 8–12 year-old animal lovers and ber for a long time afterwards, so I Wally with over a hundred In Bureau of Mysteries, H.J. Harper creates a budding activists. hope that BoM can make some people pages of searches, puzzles, fantastic world rich in humour and wordplay Angela Crocombe is from Readings St Kilda laugh. Or at least groan. spot-the-differences, mazes, (evil Doctor Morrie Artery springs to mind) 16 Readings Monthly February 2012 The Tudors: The Complete Story of England’s Most Notorious Dynasty BargainsReadings on the web: New books are Bargai regularly added to our website.n Table Click on the Bargains tab at www.readings.com.au. G.J. Meyer HB. Was $45. Now $15 Bird The Art of Happiness: Reading My Father G.J. Meyer’s fresh storytelling ability breathes new life into Colin Tudge A Handbook for Living Alexandra Styron the history of the Tudor HB. Was $45. Now $12.95 Dalai Lama HB. Was $35. Now $14.95 family and Tudor England’s In this fascinating PB. Was $25. Now $10 The youngest daughter of the precarious place in world exploration of the avian class, In this unique and important late novelist William Styron politics, the critical role Colin Tudge considers the book, one of the world’s great fashions a conflicted, religion played in creatures of the air. From spiritual leaders offers his guarded, ultimately government, and the their evolutionary roots to practical wisdom and advice reverential portrait of a blossoming of English theatre and literature. their flying, feeding, fighting, on how we can overcome deeply troubled artist. mating, nesting and everyday human problems Dogged all his life by On Architecture communicating, Tudge and achieve lasting depression, which was not Ada Louise Huxtable provocatively ponders what birds actually do happiness. diagnosed properly until the devastating – as well as why they do it and how. 1985 episode that later prompted Darkness HB. Was $49.95. Now $15 the Importance of Visible. Pulitzer prize-winner England’s Mistress: Being Seven: Huxtable (Frank Lloyd SAVING THE DAYLIGHT Wright) presents her The Infamous Life 44 Scotland Street penetrating and tough- of Emma Hamilton Alexander McCall Smith David Prerau minded criticism spanning Kate Williams HB. Was $34.95. Now $15.95 HB. Was $39.95. Now $14.95 half a century, including HB. Was $39.95. Now $14.95 Will Bertie ever get away Daylight savings. Benjamin several pieces never before In this absorbing, well-crafted from his overbearing mother? Franklin conceived of it. published. Centring largely biography, British historian, And will we say goodbye to a Conan Doyle endorsed it. on modernism, the volume opens with an lecturer and TV consultant, Scotland Street resident – Winston Churchill overview of the past four decades, including Kate Williams charts the rise Angus Lordie and his gold- campaigned for it. Kaiser startlingly powerful pieces on the late 60s of eighteenth-century toothed dog Cyril – as the Wilhelm first employed it. urban decay and the 90s reinvention of England’s most celebrated sex hills of Tuscany beckon? Woodrow Wilson and architecture by Alvaro Siza, Frank Gehry and symbol, best known as With his customary charm Roosevelt went to war with it. Christian de Portzamparc. Admiral Nelson’s mistress. and deftness, Alexander McCall Smith gives us another instalment to this popular series. the Siege of Krishnapur the State of Africa Nothing to J.G. Farrell Martin Meredith be Frightened Of Lost English: Words HB. Was $35. Now $14.95 PB. Was $29.95. Now $12.95 Julian Barnes and Phrases That Have A winner of the Booker Prize Fully revised and updated, HB. Was $37.95. Now $12.95 Vanished From Our in a special limited edition, weaving the key stories and A memoir on mortality as Language it’s ‘a novel of ideas’, but one characters of the last 60 years only Julian Barnes can write that can be read ‘as an into a stunningly compelling Chris Roberts adventure story’. The book is it, one that touches on faith, HB. Was $25. Now $10 and coherent narrative, gripping, not to mention Martin Meredith has science and family, as well as Takes a look at how our hilarious. Jokes fly as thick produced the definitive a rich array of exemplary language changes and and fast as the musket balls history of how European figures who, over the explores the influence of aimed at the defenders of Krishnapur, but ideas on organising 10,000 different ethnic centuries, have confronted other cultures on our own. hit their target far more regularly. groups has led to what Tony Blair described the same questions he now This work includes such as the ‘scar on the conscience of the world’. poses about the most basic fact of life: its entries as: ‘dekko’ (take a VENICE Authoritative, provocative and consistently inevitable extinction. quick look), ‘brilliantine’ Peter Ackroyd fascinating, this is the updated edition of the (men’s hairdressing product) HB. Was $69.95. Now $16.95 seminal book on one of the most important On Chesil Beach and ‘Nippy’ (the name given to waitresses in Leads us through the history issues facing the West today. Ian McEwan Lyons Corner Houses). For anyone HB. Was $33. Now $12.95 of the Venice city, from the interested in history and the English first refugees arriving in the In a novel of remarkable language. The Times depth and poignancy, Ian mists of the lagoon in the Comprehensive Atlas McEwan has caught with fourth century to the rise of a of the World NOCTURNES great mercantile state and a understanding and HB. Was $295. Now $99.95 Kazuo Ishiguro trading empire, the wars compassion the innocence of The 2008 edition is the HB. Was $50. Now $12 against Napoleon and the a newly married couple – world’s most prestigious and Explores ideas of love, music tourist invasions of today. both virgins – in 1962, when and the passing of time. From authoritative reference atlas. marriage was presumed to be the piazzas of Italy to the WHITE KING AND Surely the finest atlas in the the outward sign of maturity and Malvern Hills, a London flat world, its detailed and independence. RED QUEEN beautifully created mapping to the ‘hush-hush floor’ of an Daniel Johnson exclusive Hollywood hotel, represents the perfect blend HB. Was $39. Now $12.95 Painters of Provence this title features characters of tradition, authority and Daniel Johnson – journalist, Phillippe Cros that range from young style which set it apart. editor, scholar, and a chess HB. Was $67.95. Now $15.95 dreamers to cafe musicians to faded stars, all enthusiast who once played In this book, art historian of them at some moment of reckoning. What the Dog Saw and Philippe Cros takes us on a Garry Kasparov to a draw in Other Adventures tour across Provence from One Day in the Life of a simultaneous exhibition – Malcolm Gladwell is the perfect guide to one of west to east, stopping at HB. Was $40. Now $12 Ivan Denisovich history’s most remarkable villages, towns and sites Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn In the past decade, Malcolm which have featured so periods, when chess matches HB. Was $35. Now $12.95 Gladwell has written three prominently in the region’s were front-page news and captured the This brutal, shattering books that have radically artistic history. Focusing on world’s imagination. glimpse of the fate of changed how we understand painters of the nineteenth and early millions of Russians under our world and ourselves: The twentieth centuries, the author looks at The Artist, the Stalin shook Russia and Tipping Point, Blink and works by local artists, including Cezanne, a Philosopher, and shocked the world when it Outliers. Now, in What the native of Aix-en-Provence, but also at the the Warrior first appeared. A special Dog Saw, he brings together, paintings of van Gogh, Picabia, Picasso, limited-edition hardback. Paul Strathern for the first time, the best of his writing from Signac, Cross, Braque and Matisse. HB. Was $45. Now $15 The New Yorker over the same period. Da Vinci, Machiavelli, Semantic Antics PHILOSOPHY: Borgia: Three Italian Organic Gardening Sol Steimetz 100 ESSENTIAL THINKERS Renaissance icons are Christine & Michael Lavelle HB. Was $22.95. Now $12.95 Philip Stokes considered for the first time HB. Was $39.95. Now $19.95 Lexicographer Sol Steinmetz HB. Was $29.95. Now $15.95 ‘Despite the convoluted title, An essential reference to conducts an in-depth, This book takes a thematic this latest from award- natural gardening, showing fascinating journey to learn and then chronological winning British novelist and how to apply organic how hundreds of words have approach to its subject. historian Strathern (Napoleon principles to all aspects of evolved from their first Readers are given a summary in Italy) is simply a good, straightforward garden planning, design and meaning to the meanings of each individual’s history of Renaissance Italy during the maintenance. used today. contribution to the ‘science’ turbulent decade around 1500.’ of philosophy. —Publishers Weekly Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 17 The Tall Man The Hunter $29.95 $34.95 New Release DVDs Based on Chloe Hooper’s Willem Dafoe plays Martin, award-winning book and a mercenary employed by a from the makers of the faceless biotech company to DVD Of the Month Joanna Lumley’s Nile stunning documentary series hunt the extinct tiger The Hour $29.95 First Australians, The Tall believed to still reside deep $39.95 Peter Ustinov on Man is the story of Palm within the Tasmanian London in 1956 is a city of the Orient Express Island, the tropical paradise wilderness. Based on Julia shadows where covert spies where one morning Cam- Leigh’s novel, The Hunter is $19.95 infiltrate and influence with eron Doomadgee swore at a policeman and possibly the greatest filmed showcase for Two epic trips from two of a pin-stripe diction. Into 40 minutes later lay dead in a watch-house the breathtaking beauty of Tasmania’s television’s best-loved this world comes an jail. It is the story of the policeman, the tall landscape. ‘Compelling and beautifully personalities provide contrast- idealistic team of young enigmatic Christopher Hurley, who chose made.’ – David Stratton ing stories of romance, history reporters on a cutting-edge to work in some of the toughest and wildest and struggle. On a 400-mile news program. With places in Australia and of the struggle to Love Never Dies journey down the River Nile, pioneering women tilting the axis of bring him to trial. $29.95 Joanna Lumley revisits the journalistic power and youthful passion Andrew Lloyd Webber’s romantic history of the shaking the BBC corridors, a political The Extraordinary blockbusting sequel to longest river in the world, from sea to source. conspiracy at the heart of Britain’s Suez Adventures of Phantom has been immor- As she travels past pyramids and ancient crisis is slowly revealed. Who can they trust Adele Blanc Sec talised on DVD with the cast temples, through desert, jungle and war-torn and what is the meaning of the cryptic of the acclaimed Australian landscapes, her charm, enthusiasm and $29.95 message, ‘return to Brightstone’, found staged version. Filmed at graceful fortitude carry us along a fascinating Adele Blanc Sec, turn-of- with a murdered academic? With a daz- Melbourne’s Regent Theatre and epic journey. ‘Waiters, porters, camels; no the-century investigative zlingly charismatic Dominic West and an and featuring the perfor- citizen of the Nile could resist Joanna Lumley’ journalist and Parisian icily cool Romala Garai, this is a gold-foiled mances of stars Ben Lewis and Anna – The Guardian. The pinnacle of luxury train society beauty, brings her luxury chocolate box of BBC drama. O’Byrne, this is the first, only and exclusive travel, the Orient Express is renowned for its knowledge of the arcane to ‘Almost absurdly gratifying, The Hour hits filmed performance to be released anywhere history and beauty, as well as the mystery the aid of the police when a every pleasure centre.’ – The New Yorker in the world. provided by Agatha Christie’s famous crime hatched pterodactyl escapes from the museum, summon- Lost Highway & novel. Providing his unique humour and The Help intelligent observation, Peter Ustinov (Poirot ing ancient forces that threaten the survival $39.95 Twin Peaks: Fire Walk himself) is a first-class fellow-traveller as we of Paris. Luc Besson, the director of such Katherine Stockett’s popular with Me meet passengers who undertook the same thrilling style in Leon and La Femme Nikita, novel about one woman’s $19.95 each journey as Mata Hari, the Duke and Duchess gives an exhilarating look through the belle fight to subvert injustice in Re-released in special of Windsor and Ernest Hemingway. Tickets époque looking-glass in a Steampunk the American South’s Civil anniversary editions on the please. adventure that is equal parts Indiana Jones Director’s Suite premier and Amelie, with the thrills and chic style of Rights era is brought to vivid label are two of David New York: both. life in this moving and Lynch’s most assured works emotionally engaging drama. A Documentary Film Wallander: Series 2 of creeping unease. Lost $79.95 $29.95 Highway is an enigma Over eight epic, Emmy- The BAFTA award-winning Spirited: Series 2 wrapped in a mystery winning episodes, featuring adaptations of Henning $39.95 hidden in a gangster film. After cryptic artists, historians and Mankell’s Swedish crime The cult comedy drama messages are left at his door, jazz musician residents responsible for novels starring Kenneth grows in popularity with the Fred Madison is drawn into a world of fear shaping our vision of the Branagh return for a second release from subscription and warped identity where being framed world’s most dramatic city, series of three films. After channel purgatory to DVD. for murder is just the beginning of his documentary filmmaker Ric an elderly couple is found The wit and charm of bizarre journey: ‘We’ve met before. At your Burns tells the story of New dead, mistrust and igno- Claudia Karvan as single house remember. In fact I’m there right York from seventeenth-century foundation to rance turn to violence against the local mum Suzy and Matt King as now. Call me.’ The town of Twin Peaks is a twenty-first-century rubble and rebirth. No migrant community. Kurt Wallander, a the kohl-eyed ghost of rock beautiful apple rotting from the inside. other city in the world has given us so much detective with chaos in his personal life star Henry Mallett combine to make an Laura Palmer will die in seven days, found seminal culture, music and art over the past and order in his professional, must find unlikely romantic partnership in this wrapped in plastic, but what horrors will hundred years. Think of the Ellington jazz of justice while fighting his own demons. delicious subversion of flat-sharing dramas. she experience leading up to then? Never the Cotton Club, the funk, soul and rap of Like Ingmar Bergman making Inspector before has the territory between madness, Harlem, and the films of Coppola, Scorsese Morse, the BBC Wallander is a puzzle dream and reality been so seductively and Allen, or the cosmopolis Gotham of the amongst the angst. depicted: a simple velvet curtain or dark Empire State, Grand Central Station and corridor can take on a hair-raising, slow- Chrysler Building. The sound and image of burning menace in David Lynch land. New York is embedded in our consciousness.

LEARN FRENCH  www.afmelbourne.com.au 18 Readings Monthly September 2011 CHIMES OF FREEDOM: SONGS OF BOB DYLAN Soul Various Soul Time New Release CDs 4 CD set. $34.95 Commemorating 50 years of Amnesty Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings guitars in This Old Routine, then enchant with International, Chimes of Freedom features 73 $24.95 the simple, vocally rich To a Poet, all made tracks on 4 CDs by artists such as Adele, Patti This fifth release from Miss Jones, the First CD of the Month to leave you swinging happily on your front Smith, Jackson Browne, Michael Franti, Lu- Lady of soul revivalism, is more than just Old Ideas porch. FH cinda Williams – and one from Bob himself. soul. Okay, yes, it’s not a new album. In fact, Leonard Cohen All of the artists donated their time and the it’s a collection of rarities previously only available as download tracks – but that should Normally $26.95. Our special price $21.95 Blues Funeral funds obviously go towards the good work in no way detract from its importance. The A few years ago, a former Mark Lanegan Band Amnesty do. It is also a(nother) reminder of woman has such a powerhouse voice and the manager stole most of Leon- $21.95 the genius of Bob Dylan. This many great band is so tight; it knows how to not only ard Cohen’s retirement It’s been almost eight years since we’ve seen songs by such a diverse range of artists proves be soulful, but also get funky and all the way fund. Pragmatically, he a solo album from former Screaming Trees yet again what an amazing songwriter he is. back again. When I Come Home is an obvi- undertook a world tour to frontman Mark Lanegan – which is not to ous stand-out track. Whether you’re a Jones recoup his fortune – so say that he’s been quiet. Since 2004’s fantastic Loom devotee (and let’s face it, if you love soul and successful it led to a second tour and new (deceptively named) Bubblegum, Lanegan has Orbweavers you’ve seen her live, you know what I mean) songs began creeping into his repertoire. Very been involved in a host of projects, including $24.95 or a new fan, this is an excellent way to collect good songs. Now, some of those songs have three acclaimed albums with Belle & Sebas- Melbourne band Orbweavers was formed in hard-to-find tracks, while perhaps acting as been collected, with a few other things the tian’s Isobel Campbell, a frankly awesome 2006, by Marita Dyson and Stuart Flanagan. a stop-gap for those of us anxiously awaiting world hasn’t yet heard, on Old Ideas. From stint with Queens of the Stone Age and mak- Their new CD Loom follows the release of their next soulful odyssey. MW what we’ve been allowed to hear, all the ing up one half of the Gutter Twins with the 2010’s Graphite & Diamonds. Loom sees Cohen hallmarks are there: both musically Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli. Many of these il- the band continue to grow as songwriters and lyrically. He’s still pretty much peerless as lustrious former cohorts pop up to return the and musicians; their sound is reminiscent a songwriter and his voice has aged into a favour on the welcome return to form that is of Mazzy Star, with a touch of David Lynch softer, slightly ominous husk that works well the blistering Blues Funeral. The epic opener soundtrack thrown in. Mountain Man is an- Folk & World with his meditations on religion, sex, love and Gravedigger’s Song sets the scene for a record other band who springs to mind. If you like Toumastin death and the sparse, slightly claustrophobic drenched with the Lanegan trademarks: the folk storytelling – not unlike the handsome Tamikrest production that seems most reminiscent of whiskey-soaked voice, lyrics that generate an Family or Luluc – you will like this band. $29.95 Songs of Love and Hate. He probably didn’t air of looming menace, etc. Fans will not be Michael Awosoga-Samuel is from Readings Tamikrest are one of the newer bands who intend to release a new album at the age of disappointed. DM Carlton play in the style tagged by westerners as 77, yet he’s now announced there are ‘Desert Blues’ – and by ‘blues’, we mean what unfinished songs left for the ‘next album’. THE VALLEY WIND LE VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE the songs are about rather than the actual Perhaps he didn’t need that retirement money Tyler Ramsey Air sound of the music, which is mostly played after all, but his misfortune has been our gain, Normally $26.95. Our special price $21.95 Normally $26.95. Our special price $21.95 on electric guitars. Like the well-known band as we now enjoy a surprisingly late-in-life It has been four years since Band Of Horses Le Voyage Dans La Lune (‘A Tinariwen, these nomadic West African burst of artistry and creativity. guitarist Tyler Ramsey caught our atten- Trip to the Moon’) is a Saharan musicians are concerned with politi- Kate O’Mara is from Readings Carlton tion with the beautiful A Long Dream About classic black-and-white cal struggles, a cultural life seriously under Swimming Across the Sea. His third solo album silent film, the very first to threat and the battle to survive in a very harsh Forever So continues his song-writing journey. Laidback use science fiction as its environment. Probably the main difference Husky and dreamlike, the album mixes his plaintive, theme. This album is between these two bands is that Tamikrest Normally $24.95. Our special price $19.95 calming vocals with his honest, story-like inspired by the film. Expanding the original is more raucous and inclined to add tasty Local indie-folkers Husky have been generating lyrics. His guitar playing is expressive, yet un- musical themes beyond cinematic instru- layers of distortion (like on the attention- waves about town for some time now – and obtrusive and unique. The production hints mentals, the album also features the vocal grabbing opening number, with its wah wah with their official full-length debut Forever So, at a bigger sound, but somehow the album talents of Au Revoir Simone and Victoria pedal workout). This is African music with a one can clearly see what all the fuss is about. remains stripped-back and sparse. Truly a Legrand (Beach House). rock attitude – and it’s not merely for World Lead singer/songwriter Husky Gawenda and beautiful release. Highlights include The Valley Music or African music listeners. A big help his jazz-trained pianist cousin Gideon Preiss Wind and The Nightbird. BORN TO DIE here is the stewardship of Chris Eckman, have assembled a record awash with gor- Lou Fulco is a friend of Readings Lana Del Ray from American indie Americana rockers the geous melody and dreamy atmosphere, their Normally $26.95. Our special price $21.95 Walkabouts. Eckman befriended the band exceptional musical partnership and meticu- MARIACHI EL BRONX II Sometimes stars emerge. And sometimes they a few years ago at the annual Festival of the lously arranged tunes colouring this album Mariachi El Bronx simply slip into the atmosphere as if propelled Desert cultural event and along with a few beautifully. Tracks such as History’s Door and $24.95 by something otherworldly. It is into this last like-minded musicians, he steered the very Dark Sea display a rare depth of narrative and WARNING! This is neither category that the astonishing presence, voice, interesting Dirt Music project of last year, harmony which set Husky apart from so many a punk album nor a rap look and feel of Lana Del Rey falls. She calls a hugely enjoyable crossover album, where of their peers, a maturity which peeks on the album. The cover is not an herself the ‘gangsta Nancy Sinatra’ and defines desert blues met rocking guitars and the odd otherworldly How Do You Feel. Recorded in indication of the music you her genre as ‘Hollywood pop/sadcore’, a Velvet Undergound cover. Toumastin also Gawenda’s backyard bungalow in Northcote, are about to hear. Immedi- dramatic new loop for pop music. features a beautiful and all too brief acoustic Forever So is a glorious piece of homespun ately the black Charro interlude, with some wonderful acoustic majesty that puts Husky firmly on the map. clothing makes you stand up and take notice. guitar-picking. Declan Murphy is from Readings St Kilda But this is no ordinary mariachi band. LA Paul Barr is from Readings Carlton punk darlings The Bronx have created an alter Baby Caught the Bus ego that could outstrip their original perso- Jazz Mindset Lucy Wise and Clairy Browne nas. The music is wonderful: exuberant, filled the B'Gollies & the Banging Rackettes with passion and fire. You cannot help but be The Necks $29.95 $25.95 swept up in its emotive storytelling, ranging $24.95 This is an extremely good debut from Lucy The sassiest, most powerful new release of from joy to lament. The band has taken its After more than 20 years Wise. Lucy’s parents are well known on the 2012 so far, Clairy Browne and her Bang- naivety in this art form and learned from improvising together, The Australian folk scene and her father is a re- ing Rackettes rock a huge rhythm-and-blues artists like Mariachi Reyna De Los Angeles. Necks’ musical world of nowned instrument builder. She has relocated sound, filling your speakers with dark jazz and Please listen to this album. I promise you will intuitive interaction and from the Margaret River region in Western generally being so distractingly catchy that love it! The brilliant 48 Roses and Revolution minimal, organic musical Australian and is a welcome addition to the it’s about impossible to write a review and Girls are highlights. LF development continue to Melbourne acoustic scene. Not only is Wise listen at the same time. There are piano-laden transfix this listener. Mindset, their sixteenth a really expressive singer, but she writes fantas- doo-wop tracks like Aeroplane; rootsy tracks The Black Keys record, unveils two extended improvisations. tic, memorable songs about the moments of like the green-eyed She Plays Up to You; spicy El Camino Unlike The Necks’ other albums, which beauty in everyday life, some of which draw saxophone over thick vocals in jazz-hands-in- Normally $27.95. Our special price $21.95 usually present hour-long improvisations, the upon her Margaret River heritage, like the ducing Frankie … ultimately, an entire album Backing vocals and keyboards are not neces- shorter lengths of the two tracks on Mindset homesick Have a Swim for Me. Lucy also of ballsy classics and soulful beauties. sarily something I immediately associate with were likely guided by their decision to release plays guitar and ukelele – and her use of Ap- Fiona Hardy is from Readings Carlton a Black Keys record. Admittedly, it took me not only on CD, but also vinyl. Rum Jungle palachan dulcimer certainly brings to mind a few listens to get past that and hear what develops from Swanton’s pedalling bass tones early Joni Mitchell. Lucy’s role in reviving The Lion’s Roar they’re really doing. El Camino is possibly and Buck’s juxtaposed bass drum pulses into a interest in the local folk scene resembles Kate their most commercial-sounding and hook- thick soundworld, full with low piano First Aid Kit Rusby’s in the UK; she has a very bright laden album to date, with Dangermouse on rumblings and organ chords from Abrahams. Normally $26.95. Our special price $21.95 future ahead. The B’Gollies add lots to the production duties again. Lyrically heavy on Daylights begins like a musical mobile – high- Mining the current, much-loved countrified songs, with fully realised arrangements that the ‘love and loss’ theme, musically it sounds pitch electronic frequencies, muted piano folk genre of contemporaries Swell Season, feature Graham McLeod on guitar, Chris like they’ve been listening to a lot of 70s glam melodies and occasional guitar riffs that all Fleet Foxes and Bright Eyes, adorable Swedish Stone on violin, Holly Downes on double rock à la T-Rex. Yes, it’s perhaps a million seemingly float around an axis point – and sisters Johanna and Klara release their second bass and Mischa Herman on accordion. miles from their earlier albums, but surely gradually builds to a spellbinding climax. album, The Lion’s Roar, adding an ethereal Herman also recorded and mixed this very that is something to be applauded. After ten Although The Necks continue to utilise their Nordic quality to the genre with their haunt- fine-sounding recording and has worked on years together they aren’t just making the well-established processes, Mindset proves to ing voices and storyteller’s lyrics. From their recordings by some other promising bands, same record over and over again – they con- be a thoroughly engaging record and a fine melancholy ode to Emmylou Harris and love, like the String Theory (also featuring Lucy tinue to evolve and try new things. addition to their substantial body of work. to the gorgeous, perfectly pitched, bubbly Wise) and the String Contingent. PB track Blue, the sisters harmonise over slide Melissa Whebell is from Readings Hawthorn Michael Wallace is from Readings Carlton Readings Monthly Febraury 2012 19

in March this year. You will not regret it! There is also a 38 CD box set (4779464), Meanwhile, have a listen to this recording to which includes a book detailing Mutter’s whet your appetite. KR musical career to date. (There are limited Classical CDs copies of this set available, reduced from Chopin/Liszt/Ravel: $372.95 to $299.95) Mahler: Piano Music Benjamin Grosvenor Schubert: Symphony No. 6 Schwangengesang Classical CD Antonio Pappano & Orchestra Decca. 4783206 dell’ Accademia Nazionale di Our special price $21.95 Mark Padmore & Paul Lewis of the Month Santa Cecilia, Roma Watch out: there’s a new Harmonia Mundi. HMU907520. $29.95 Havergal Brian: kid on the block. Teenage With two award-winning EMI. 0844132. $26.95 pianist Benjamin Grosve- recordings under their belt Symphony No. 1 Antonio Pappano applies The Gothic nor has just become the already, Mark Padmore and his considerable talent to a youngest opening soloist Paul Lewis conclude their Martyn Brabbins, BBC Nation- beautiful reading of for the Proms, ever. Being Schubert song cycles with al Orchestra of Wales, Eltham Mahler’s Sixth Symphony the counter to Lang Lang’s performance on the magnificent College Boys Choir et. al on this new recording from the last night of the Proms, he had a lot to Schwanengesang. While listening to this, I Hyperion. CDA 679712. 2 CDs. $36.95 EMI. This is the first live up to. My curiously was piqued – and was struck with the independence of each On 17 July 2011, over 800 recording of Mahler that Pappano has done when I got my hands on his debut disc, I musician; while they dance around each performers gathered in with his Roman orchestra. Whatever he soon discovered that this is not a musician to other musically, they keep separate identities London’s Royal Albert conducts, Pappano brings something new to be trifled with. There is feeling and a that evoke more than simply a singer and Hall to give a rare perfor- the table. While it may not be to every delicacy of touch that I often miss in other pianist. This is a recording of master mance of Havergal Brian’s listener’s taste, this performance will recordings; this recital recording will send musicians – three of them to be precise: a Symphony No 1 in D definitely find a place on most music lovers’ delightful shivers up and down your spine. consummate composer in Schubert, a crisply minor – The Gothic. And thanks to the shelves. The Times’ music critic wrote: Grosvenor is proving to be not just a pianist, delightful singer in Padmore and a virtuosic, foresight of Hyperion Records, those who ‘Everything [Pappano] conducts is character- but a stunning musician who will delight the musical pianist in Lewis. KR couldn’t attend are able to enjoy a stunning ised by fiery drama, soaring lyricism, and world. KR performance of one of the great works from bold projection as if through a proscenium the symphonic repertoire. This new arch … in this uplifting, operatic perfor- Berlioz: Beatrice & recording is definitely the best; I imagine it mance the endgame matters less than the Benedict Overture/ will be the benchmark for all future music’s heroic fight for life. Buy this CD and Harold in Italy recordings and performances. Martyn marvel.’ Enough said really. PR Classical Specials Brabbins does an extraordinary job Paganini: Sonata for bringing this work to life, but his contribu- The Flute King Viola and Orchestra of the Month tion is a result of the wonderful perfor- Emmanuel Pahud Vladimir Ashkenazy & David mances from the orchestras and choruses EMI. 0842302. 2 CDs. $19.95 Aaron Carpenter involved. At around 106 minutes, it’s not Emmanuel Pahud is Ondine. ODE11882. $19.95 for the faint-hearted. But if you are willing generally considered among I know I’m biased, having to take the chance, then you will rewarded the best flautists in the had to listen to the many times over. Superb. world (if not the best). Overture to Beatrice et Phil Richards is from Readings Carlton Employing a honeyed tone Benedict by Berlioz on with technical capabilities repeat recently for an envied around the world, his recording audition – but it’s such a Haydn: Violin catalogue is becoming quite extensive. This fun work. Although it’s not the key work on Concertos new release on EMI, with Trevor Pinnock at the new recording from maestro Vladimir Giuliano Carmignola, Orches- the harpsichord, looks at the repertoire from Ashkenazy, it’s well worth the price of the tre des Champs-Élysées the court of Fredrick the Great. Four record just for this upbeat and exciting ABC Classics is a label that constantly strives for excellence in the recording world. DG Archiv 4778774. Normally $26.95 concertos grace the CD, each by a different rendition. However, Harold in Italy follows, Featuring Australian musicians and compos- Our special price $21.95 composer: CPE Bach, Quantz, Franz Benda with the violin obbligato expertly performed ers in performances of all sorts, it provides Specialising in baroque and Fredrick himself. Each are beautiful and by David Aaron Carpenter. Rounding it all the world with a way of experiencing our music, Giuliano Carmi- very ‘of the time’, but have a listen to the up is the exquisite Sonata for the Grand Viola contemporary culture. This month, ABC gnola has won great opening of Franz Benda’s concerto for and Orchestra, which could have only ever Classics are featuring a number of classic acclaim for his numerous something a little more gutsy. been written by Paganini. KR titles from their catalogue at special prices. recordings on Archiv. This Kate Rockstrom is from Readings Carlton If you don’t own them already, this is your time, his period-sensitive ASM35-Complete chance to discover this amazing music once approach is brought to bear on music of Live at the Musician: Highlights more. Limited stock at these prices. the early classical period – the violin Metropolitan Opera Anne-Sophie Mutter concertos of Haydn. These concertos, Anna Netrebko DG. 4779730. 2 CDs Graeme Koehne: Orchestral Works dating from the 1760s – relatively early in DG. 4779903 Our special price $21.95 4423492. Was $26.95. Now $9.95 the composer’s career – are not all that Our special price $21.95 Anne-Sophie Mutter has often heard, and these recordings might be Anna Netrebko has been had one of the longest Peter Sculthorpe: Music for Strings their perfect advocate. The Orchestre des making waves around the careers as a soloist, starting 4545042. Was $26.95. Now $9.95 Champs-Élysées, too, are renowned for world with her stunning with her debut perfor- Nigel Westlake: Out of the Blue and their performances on period instruments performances in the mance with the Berlin Other Works – and the ensemble’s transparent sound is Metropolitan Opera Philharmonic at the age 4620172. Was $26.95. Now $9.95 a perfect accompaniment to Carmignola’s productions broadcast in of 13. She was a protégé of Karajan, and in wonderful, clear tone. The sound is bold, cinemas. I saw her recently in the 2011/12 2011 she celebrated her thirty-fifth year on Peter Sculthorpe: The Fifth Continent clear and bursting with vitality. Highly season premiere of Anna Bolena and was stage. She is not only unsurpassed in her 4563632. Was $26.95. Now $9.95 recommended. blown away. This singer has power, drama, virtuosity, but is also known for her musical- The Bach Album. Evan Meagher is from Readings Hawthorn control, style, beauty and above all – charac- ity and support of contemporary works. Diana Doherty ter. This compilation CD just confirms what This 2CD highlights edition is well worth CD/DVD. 4763673. a versatile musician she is. If you missed the owning, to have your own slice of this Was $26.95. Now $14.95 Donizetti, simply do not miss her in Manon beautiful person and musician. KR

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