124510 readings_cover VIC.art

A selection of the best
CDs and DVDs for
summer
Fabulous deals and
exclusive offers on a
great range of titles
Win a library of books
worth at least $5000,
or one of five $100
book vouchers
The best books for
summer reading
Plenty of book, CD and
DVD gift ideas to make
Christmas special
selected by Australia’s best booksellers
ART AND ARCHITECTURE
LITERATURE
BIOGRAPHY
CRIME FICTION
LANGUAGE, POETRY & ESSAYS
FOOD AND WINE
GIFT
HISTORY
14–15
2–6
9–11
7
7–8
17–18
20–21
11–12
HUMOUR
KIDS’ BOOKS
MUSIC BOOKS
ORDER FORM
PHILOSOPHY
PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM
POLITICS AND SOCIETY
SCIENCE AND NATURE
TRAVEL WRITING
20
21–23
16
BACK COVER
18
16
12–13
13–14
19
WIN GREAT PRIZES
AT YOUR SERVICE
You can win a library of books worth more than
$5000 or a $100 gift voucher by correctly
answering the questions scattered throughout
this guide. See the back cover for details.
You can phone, fax or email your orders using
the form on the back cover of this guide.
CAN’T DECIDE?
If you’re not 100% sure about which book will
suit, why not give one of our gift vouchers?
DELIVERY SERVICE
Your books can be delivered anywhere in
Australia for a small charge. See the back
cover for details. Express and overseas rates
are available on request.
FREE GIFTWRAP
We’ll giftwrap all books on request when you
organise delivery through us!
CORPORATE GIFTS
Impress your clients with a book for Christmas.
Contact us for our corporate rates on bulk
purchases.
FREE ORDER SERVICE
Our special order service is free, fast and efficient
– if we don’t have it, we’ll get it for you!
GUARANTEE
If, on inspection, you’re not happy with a book
selected through this guide, you can return it (in
saleable condition) within 14 days of purchase
and we’ll exchange it for another book of
equivalent value or for a book voucher – the
choice is yours.
literature
THE ALMOST MOON
Alice Sebold
Picador. PB.
Was $32.95, now $27.95.
‘When all is said and done, killing my
mother came easily.’ From this
sledgehammer first line, the muchacclaimed author of The Lovely Bones
and Lucky sets the scene for another
journey into murder and madness. The
narrative ripples backwards and
forwards over time, hinting at and then
describing the shattered family history that brings Helen Knightly to
kill her 88-year-old, always-difficult mother. There are traumatic
events from Helen’s childhood, glimpses of her long-suffering father
who eventually suicides, the facts of her broken marriage and
estranged children. As the layers are peeled away, the realisation
comes that Helen is as dysfunctional as her mother, and that the
intergenerational pattern is fixed.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Colleen McCullough
HarperCollins. HB.
Was $49.95, now $39.95.
The latest instalment in McCullough’s
‘Masters of Rome’ series packs the
bestselling novelist’s usual punch. When
Caesar is murdered, his 18-year-old
nephew Octavian is named as his heir.
No-one, least of all ambitious Mark
Antony, expects Octavian to last, but the
young man’s slight frame conceals a
remarkable determination and a sharp strategic mind. Under
Octavian’s rule, the empire is divided, with Antony responsible for the
fabulously rich East. There he meets Cleopatra, who is still mourning
Caesar, her lover and the father of her only son. Drawn together by
grief, ambition, passion and politics, Antony and Cleopatra begin a
very public love affair, and the tension between Antony and Octavian,
already simmering, soon threatens to erupt into war...
AWAY
Amy Bloom
Granta. PB. $29.95.
Away is the extraordinary story of young
Lillian Leyb. Her family destroyed in a
Russian pogrom, Lillian arrives in 1920s
New York determined to make a new life
for herself and is taken under the wing
of Reuben Burstein, the famous
impresario, and his matinee-idol son
Meyer. But then her wily cousin Raisele
arrives, with some unexpected news
about Lillian’s young daughter Sophie. Driven by a wild hope, Lillian
sets off on an odyssey across America, travelling from New York’s
Lower East Side to Seattle’s Skid Row and up to Alaska, before
embarking along the fabled Telegraph Trail towards Siberia. This is
storytelling at its finest – Bloom balances the epic sweep of the
story with an intimate and psychologically acute style, and the result
is a triumph.
BLOOD KIN
Ceridwen Dovey
Atlantic Books. PB. $29.95.
A bloody coup has brought down a
government and installed a new leader,
who holds the former president captive.
Three men who attended the president
have also been captured: his chef, his
barber and his portraitist. What follows
isn’t a political thriller in the vein of
Clancy or Grisham, and no clue is given
as to the story’s location. Instead, this
tautly drawn debut takes us into the minds and motives of the three
men – and of their women – held captive while the old regime
tumbles and the equally violent usurpers take control. Cliché and
shadowy characterisation abound, and the plot is of course highly
contrived, but there’s something more exciting here, promising
extraordinary things in the future from this gifted young writer.
THE BOOK OF
OTHER PEOPLE
Zadie Smith (ed.)
Hamish Hamilton. HB. $45.
The Book of Other People is just that: a
book of other people. Open its covers
and you’ll make a whole host of new
acquaintances. Nick Hornby and Posy
Simmonds present the ever-diverging
writing life of Jamie Johnson; Hari
Kunzru twitches open his net curtains to
reveal the irrepressible Magda Mandela
(at 4.30am, in her lime-green thong); Jonathan Safran Foer’s
grandmother offers cookies to sweeten the tale of her heart scan; and
Dave Eggers, George Saunders, David Mitchell, Colm Tóibín, AM
Homes, Chris Ware and many more each have someone to introduce
to you, too. Includes an introduction by Zadie Smith and brand-new
stories from over 20 of the best writers of their generation from both
sides of the Atlantic.
BRIDGE OF SIGHS
Richard Russo
Chatto & Windus. PB.
$32.95.
This page-turning, brilliantly evocative
novel about contemporary America is by
the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of
Empire Falls. The unfortunately
nicknamed ‘Lucy’ (Lou C) Lynch is a
simple man of simple tastes, comfortably
semi-retired from running the local
family chain of stores built up by his
father. The only worry in his life is an upcoming trip to Venice with his
much-loved wife, where they hope to meet up with their childhood
friend Bobby Marconi, now a famous artist. Lou looks back over his
life and the past 50 years in his small town – a place built on the
now-defunct local tannery and rigidly divided by social class and
neighbourhood. Russo’s deep affection for his characters is clear and
his skill as a storyteller is proven once again. A truly great read.
THE CHILDREN
Charlotte Wood
Allen & Unwin. PB. $29.95.
The promise of death brings a family
together in The Children, only to tear it
apart. Foreign correspondent Mandy
Connolly is called back to her childhood
home from the bloodshed of Iraq to
watch her father die, swapping a foreign
combat zone for the hidden traps and
skirmishes of family life. The sharply
perceptive Charlotte Wood, whose 2004 novel The Submerged
Cathedral was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin award, captures the
emotionally charged fallout when tragedy touches a family and old
wounds are opened. Mandy and her siblings must deal not only with
the loss of their father and their mother’s grief, but also with their
own disconnected familial relationships and the life growing up in a
small country town that each has sought to escape.
THE COMPLETE STORIES
David Malouf
Random House USA. HB.
$45.
Brought together for the first time, these
31 stories were written over a period of
25 years by the prodigiously talented
David Malouf. The stories have appeared
in previous collections – Every Move You
Make (2006), Dream Stuff (2000),
Antipodes (1985) and Child’s Play (1982)
– but their publication in one volume
provides us with everything we need to know about the fine art of the
short story. Malouf writes about Australia, its shadows and sunlight,
and about the ghosts and memories we share as Australians. He
touches on country childhoods and adult friendships, the binding ties
of family, and the random and often tragic twists of fate by which our
lives are mapped. At times unsettling and sobering, the stories
explore the different voices and experiences of the human condition.
THE DIRTY BEAT
Venero Armanno
UQP. PB. $32.95.
The Dirty Beat opens with the thoughts
of the narrator, Max, as his skull is sawn
open and his brain is removed. It’s a bit
discomfiting, but it’s no big deal – he is,
after all, dead. As Max lies in his coffin at
the funeral home watching old friends
and new acquaintances gather to say
goodbye, he remembers his life: his
family, his music and, most of all, his women. It’s the women who
drive the litany of memories that unfolds, from his first sexual
encounter with a ‘pretty hippy’ to the soundtrack of ’70s rock, to the
20-something knockout he is dancing with when he dies at 50 – and
in between, the love of his life. A raw, bittersweet novel about love,
betrayal and damaged lives from the acclaimed author of Candle Life.
selected by Australia’s best booksellers
ART AND ARCHITECTURE
LITERATURE
BIOGRAPHY
CLASSICAL MUSIC CDS
CRIME FICTION
DVDS
LANGUAGE, POETRY & ESSAYS
FOOD AND WINE
GIFT
HISTORY
14–15
2–6
9–11
26
7
27
7–8
17–18
20–21
11–12
HUMOUR
KIDS’ BOOKS
MUSIC BOOKS
MUSIC CDS
ORDER FORM
PHILOSOPHY
PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM
POLITICS AND SOCIETY
SCIENCE AND NATURE
TRAVEL WRITING
20
21–23
16
24–25
BACK COVER
18
16
12–13
13–14
19
WIN GREAT PRIZES
AT YOUR SERVICE
You can win a library of books worth more than
$5000 or a $100 gift voucher by correctly
answering the questions scattered throughout
this guide. See the back cover for details.
You can phone, fax or email your orders using
the form on the back cover of this guide.
CAN’T DECIDE?
If you’re not 100% sure about which book will
suit, why not give one of our gift vouchers?
DELIVERY SERVICE
Your books can be delivered anywhere in
Australia for a small charge. See the back
cover for details. Express and overseas rates
are available on request.
FREE GIFTWRAP
We’ll giftwrap all books on request when you
organise delivery through us!
CORPORATE GIFTS
Impress your clients with a book for Christmas.
Contact us for our corporate rates on bulk
purchases.
FREE ORDER SERVICE
Our special order service is free, fast and efficient
– if we don’t have it, we’ll get it for you!
GUARANTEE
If, on inspection, you’re not happy with a book
selected through this guide, you can return it (in
saleable condition) within 14 days of purchase
and we’ll exchange it for another book of
equivalent value or for a book voucher – the
choice is yours.
literature
THE ALMOST MOON
Alice Sebold
Picador. PB.
Was $32.95, now $27.95.
‘When all is said and done, killing my
mother came easily.’ From this
sledgehammer first line, the muchacclaimed author of The Lovely Bones
and Lucky sets the scene for another
journey into murder and madness. The
narrative ripples backwards and
forwards over time, hinting at and then
describing the shattered family history that brings Helen Knightly to
kill her 88-year-old, always-difficult mother. There are traumatic
events from Helen’s childhood, glimpses of her long-suffering father
who eventually suicides, the facts of her broken marriage and
estranged children. As the layers are peeled away, the realisation
comes that Helen is as dysfunctional as her mother, and that the
intergenerational pattern is fixed.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
Colleen McCullough
HarperCollins. HB.
Was $49.95, now $39.95.
The latest instalment in McCullough’s
‘Masters of Rome’ series packs the
bestselling novelist’s usual punch. When
Caesar is murdered, his 18-year-old
nephew Octavian is named as his heir.
No-one, least of all ambitious Mark
Antony, expects Octavian to last, but the
young man’s slight frame conceals a
remarkable determination and a sharp strategic mind. Under
Octavian’s rule, the empire is divided, with Antony responsible for the
fabulously rich East. There he meets Cleopatra, who is still mourning
Caesar, her lover and the father of her only son. Drawn together by
grief, ambition, passion and politics, Antony and Cleopatra begin a
very public love affair, and the tension between Antony and Octavian,
already simmering, soon threatens to erupt into war...
AWAY
Amy Bloom
Granta. PB. $29.95.
Away is the extraordinary story of young
Lillian Leyb. Her family destroyed in a
Russian pogrom, Lillian arrives in 1920s
New York determined to make a new life
for herself and is taken under the wing
of Reuben Burstein, the famous
impresario, and his matinee-idol son
Meyer. But then her wily cousin Raisele
arrives, with some unexpected news
about Lillian’s young daughter Sophie. Driven by a wild hope, Lillian
sets off on an odyssey across America, travelling from New York’s
Lower East Side to Seattle’s Skid Row and up to Alaska, before
embarking along the fabled Telegraph Trail towards Siberia. This is
storytelling at its finest – Bloom balances the epic sweep of the
story with an intimate and psychologically acute style, and the result
is a triumph.
BLOOD KIN
Ceridwen Dovey
Atlantic Books. PB. $29.95.
A bloody coup has brought down a
government and installed a new leader,
who holds the former president captive.
Three men who attended the president
have also been captured: his chef, his
barber and his portraitist. What follows
isn’t a political thriller in the vein of
Clancy or Grisham, and no clue is given
as to the story’s location. Instead, this
tautly drawn debut takes us into the minds and motives of the three
men – and of their women – held captive while the old regime
tumbles and the equally violent usurpers take control. Cliché and
shadowy characterisation abound, and the plot is of course highly
contrived, but there’s something more exciting here, promising
extraordinary things in the future from this gifted young writer.
THE BOOK OF
OTHER PEOPLE
Zadie Smith (ed.)
Hamish Hamilton. HB. $45.
The Book of Other People is just that: a
book of other people. Open its covers
and you’ll make a whole host of new
acquaintances. Nick Hornby and Posy
Simmonds present the ever-diverging
writing life of Jamie Johnson; Hari
Kunzru twitches open his net curtains to
reveal the irrepressible Magda Mandela
(at 4.30am, in her lime-green thong); Jonathan Safran Foer’s
grandmother offers cookies to sweeten the tale of her heart scan; and
Dave Eggers, George Saunders, David Mitchell, Colm Tóibín, AM
Homes, Chris Ware and many more each have someone to introduce
to you, too. Includes an introduction by Zadie Smith and brand-new
stories from over 20 of the best writers of their generation from both
sides of the Atlantic.
BRIDGE OF SIGHS
Richard Russo
Chatto & Windus. PB.
$32.95.
This page-turning, brilliantly evocative
novel about contemporary America is by
the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of
Empire Falls. The unfortunately
nicknamed ‘Lucy’ (Lou C) Lynch is a
simple man of simple tastes, comfortably
semi-retired from running the local
family chain of stores built up by his
father. The only worry in his life is an upcoming trip to Venice with his
much-loved wife, where they hope to meet up with their childhood
friend Bobby Marconi, now a famous artist. Lou looks back over his
life and the past 50 years in his small town – a place built on the
now-defunct local tannery and rigidly divided by social class and
neighbourhood. Russo’s deep affection for his characters is clear and
his skill as a storyteller is proven once again. A truly great read.
THE CHILDREN
Charlotte Wood
Allen & Unwin. PB. $29.95.
The promise of death brings a family
together in The Children, only to tear it
apart. Foreign correspondent Mandy
Connolly is called back to her childhood
home from the bloodshed of Iraq to
watch her father die, swapping a foreign
combat zone for the hidden traps and
skirmishes of family life. The sharply
perceptive Charlotte Wood, whose 2004 novel The Submerged
Cathedral was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin award, captures the
emotionally charged fallout when tragedy touches a family and old
wounds are opened. Mandy and her siblings must deal not only with
the loss of their father and their mother’s grief, but also with their
own disconnected familial relationships and the life growing up in a
small country town that each has sought to escape.
THE COMPLETE STORIES
David Malouf
Random House USA. HB.
$45.
Brought together for the first time, these
31 stories were written over a period of
25 years by the prodigiously talented
David Malouf. The stories have appeared
in previous collections – Every Move You
Make (2006), Dream Stuff (2000),
Antipodes (1985) and Child’s Play (1982)
– but their publication in one volume
provides us with everything we need to know about the fine art of the
short story. Malouf writes about Australia, its shadows and sunlight,
and about the ghosts and memories we share as Australians. He
touches on country childhoods and adult friendships, the binding ties
of family, and the random and often tragic twists of fate by which our
lives are mapped. At times unsettling and sobering, the stories
explore the different voices and experiences of the human condition.
THE DIRTY BEAT
Venero Armanno
UQP. PB. $32.95.
The Dirty Beat opens with the thoughts
of the narrator, Max, as his skull is sawn
open and his brain is removed. It’s a bit
discomfiting, but it’s no big deal – he is,
after all, dead. As Max lies in his coffin at
the funeral home watching old friends
and new acquaintances gather to say
goodbye, he remembers his life: his
family, his music and, most of all, his women. It’s the women who
drive the litany of memories that unfolds, from his first sexual
encounter with a ‘pretty hippy’ to the soundtrack of ’70s rock, to the
20-something knockout he is dancing with when he dies at 50 – and
in between, the love of his life. A raw, bittersweet novel about love,
betrayal and damaged lives from the acclaimed author of Candle Life.
literature
DIVISADERO
Michael Ondaatje
Bloomsbury. HB.
Was $45, now $24.95.
Ondaatje’s spellbinding story begins in
the 1970s, on a farm in northern
California near to what had been Gold
Rush country, and moves on to Nevada
and then France. His characters are a
father; a daughter, Anna; an adopted
sister, Claire; and an enigmatic young
man named Coop. A traumatic event
unexpectedly shatters their makeshift family and sets each of them
on a separate course, until, years later, the past once again enters
their lives. This simple, almost mythical, tale is about what it is to be
a family and what it is to be alone. Featuring Ondaatje’s masterful
prose, it has been described by some critics as his best work to date.
EXIT GHOST
Philip Roth
Jonathan Cape. HB.
Was $49.95, now $39.95.
He may have missed out on the Nobel
Prize yet again, but America’s greatest
living novelist is still writing novels
deserving of the highest accolades. In
Exit Ghost, we are introduced to writer
Nathan Zuckerman on his return to New
York, the city he left 11 years before.
Nathan has been living an isolated life on
a New England mountain, and back in New York he finds himself
erotically drawn to a young woman, Jamie. He also reconnects with
an acquaintance of his youth – Amy Bellette, companion and muse to
Zuckerman’s first literary hero, EI Lonoff. Through Amy, he encounters
a young literary hound who will do and say nearly anything to
uncover Lonoff’s ‘great secret’. Suddenly involved again with love,
mourning, desire and animosity, Zuckerman plays out an interior
drama of vivid and poignant possibilities.
There are two tried and true ways to put
together the perfect summer reading
programme. The first is to read the
clutch of novels that walked away with
the year’s major literary prizes – this
way you get to sample the very best in
literary fiction from Australia and both
sides of the Atlantic, as well as indulging
in a bit of backlist reading courtesy of
the Nobel winner. The alternative, which
is much loved by book-groups across
the globe, is to read the titles shortlisted
for the Man Booker Prize.
The award-winners package for this
year is wonderfully diverse. The headline
Australian title on the list is Alexis
Wright’s Carpentaria (Giramondo, PB,
$26.95), which was awarded the Miles
Franklin Literary Award. Wright is only
the second Aboriginal writer to win the
award; it took her six years to shape her
powerful story about the people, land
and spirit of Desperance, a fictional
town near the Gulf of Carpentaria.
The other Australian title on this year’s
list is Peter Temple’s The Broken Shore
(Text, PB, $22.95), which was awarded
the Duncan Lawrie Dagger (formerly
known as the CWA Gold Dagger), the
biggest crime-writing prize in the world.
ENLIGHTENMENT
Maureen Freely
Marion Boyars Publishers.
PB. $32.95.
Though best known as Orhan Pamuk’s
English translator, Maureen Freely is also
a novelist in her own right.
Enlightenment is about M, a journalist
who grew up in Turkey and returns to
Istanbul to investigate why her former
Turkish boyfriend and his young son
have been detained by the authorities in
the US. Soon, she is drawn into an investigation of events in Turkey’s
Cold War past involving a retired CIA operative, a murder and the
involvement of a group of young political activists in said murder.
Freely’s complex political thriller is about the provisional nature of
truth and about important human rights issues in Turkey’s past and
present – it’s particularly timely and thought-provoking in the context
of the recent prosecutions of Turkish writers Orhan Pamuk, Perihan
Magden and Elif Shafak on charges of ‘insulting Turkishness’.
THE FERN TATTOO
David Brooks
UQP. PB. $32.95.
Ten years after his mother’s death in an
accident on the Hume Highway near
Canberra, Benedict Waters is contacted
by Mrs Darling, who claims to be an old
friend of his mother’s. Several years
later, he at last agrees to meet her, and
she tells him that she has things of his
mother’s to pass onto him. Only when
Mrs Darling dies a few years later does
Benedict uncover, in her possessions, a hidden world of family
secrets he knew nothing about. Through his mother’s diaries, he
learns of family scandals and crimes that have played out over the
course of the previous century, the consequences of which haunt his
family still. Meticulously plotted, The Fern Tattoo carefully unveils a
story of the inescapable burden of ancestry and family heritage.
GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD
Michael Chabon
Sceptre. PB.
Was $32.95, now $29.95.
JANE AUSTEN CLASSICS
Cameron. PB. $19.95.
These handsome new editions of six
Austen classics – Emma, Mansfield Park,
Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Pride and
Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility –
include the novel itself, an introduction, a
rethink essay, a piece about a particular
aspect of Austen’s world (ie, fashion in
the Mansfield Park edition) and an essay
about the landscape of the book. Bound
to become collectors’ editions, these
volumes are both wonderful introductions to Austen’s novels and
fascinating works of literary analysis.
Who abandoned Queen
Dido in Carthage?
3
Chabon’s most celebrated previous work,
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier &
Clay, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in
2001. In his latest amazing adventure,
which was serialised in the New York
Times earlier in 2007, Chabon gives us a
swashbuckling historical adventure novel
set in the 10th-century Kingdom of
Arran. This fun-filled boys’-own romp stars the Frankish Zelikman
and his sidekick the giant Abyssinian Amram. The two amiable horse
thieves and sword masters pool their talents to restore order to
Khazaria, the fabled kingdom of wild red-haired Jews on the western
shore of the Caspian Sea. The book epitomises Chabon’s skilful recreation of historical settings and explores his fascination with Jewish
history, in particular the fabled medieval Jewish empire of the
Khazars. The atmospheric line drawings by Gary Gianni emphasise
the book’s comic-book feel.
On learning of his success Temple said.
‘It’s a huge thrill to win the Duncan
Lawrie Dagger for The Broken Shore.
You’re up against some of the world’s
best crime writers in English. I was
proud enough just to be the first Aussie
to make the shortlist, let alone win.’
newcomer. Cormac McCarthy won the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel
The Road (Picador, PB, $22.95), a
profoundly moving work that boldly
imagines a future in which no hope
remains, but in which a father and son
are sustained by love.
Close to home, New-Zealander Lloyd
Jones won the Commonwealth Writers’
Prize Best Book Award for his muchlauded novel Mister Pip (Text, PB,
$29.95). Jones was the first New
Zealand writer to win the prize since
Janet Frame in 1989. The judges
described his novel as a ‘…mesmerising
story [showing] how books can change
lives in utterly surprising ways’.
Richard Powers won the National Book
Foundation’s National Book Prize and
was shortlisted for the Pulitzer for his
novel The Echo Maker (Vintage, PB,
$24.95). Set in Nebraska during the
Platte River’s massive spring migrations,
it explores how memory, instinct and
relationships make us who we are.
the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for
his novel Out Stealing Horses (Vintage,
PB, $27.95), an intensely lyrical and
evocative novel about the transition of
the past into memory. In it, 67-year-old
Trond Sander recalls his young
adulthood against the shadowy
aftermath of WWII.
The world’s most-hyped literary award,
the Man Booker Prize, didn’t go to Mr
Pip, as most critics and bookmakers had
expected. Instead, it was awarded to
Irish writer Ann Enright for The
Gathering (Jonathan Cape, PB, $32.95).
The judges described the novel as a
‘…powerful, uncomfortable and even at
times angry book…[that is also] a very
readable and satisfying novel’.
Canadian-born author Nancy Huston,
who lives and works in France, won the
Prix Femina, one of Europe’s most
prestigious literary prizes, for her novel
Fault Lines (Text, PB, $32.95), written
and first published in French as Lignes
de Faille. The book examines how the
decisions and political upheavals of
one generation affect the lives of the
next; its story sweeps from a young
German girl in 1940 to a Californian of
the 21st century.
The winner of the Orange Broadband
Prize for Fiction was Half of a Yellow Sun
(Harper Perennial, PB, $25) by Nigerian
writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Set in
Nigeria during the 1960s, the novel is
about Africa, moral responsibility, the
end of colonialism, ethnic allegiances,
class and race – and about how love
can complicate all these things.
The two big prizes in the USA went to
one well-known name and one relative
Norwegian Per Petterson won both the
International IMPAC Dublin Award and
This year’s Nobel Prize in Literature was
awarded to the English writer Doris
Lessing, described by the Swedish
academy as ‘that epicist of the female
experience, who with scepticism, fire
and visionary power has subjected a
divided civilisation to scrutiny’. The 87year-old writer’s initial response to
winning the prize was breathtaking in its
lack of grace: ‘Look, I’ve won all the
prizes in Europe, every bloody one, so
I’m delighted to win them all. It’s a
royal flush.’ Lessing is best known
for The Golden Notebook (1962, Harper
Perennial, PB, $23); her most recent
work is The Cleft (Fourth Estate,
PB, $28).
And finally, if you decide to get stuck
into the Man Booker shortlist, this year’s
finalists were: Darkmans (Nicola Barker,
Fourth Estate, PB, $35); The Reluctant
Fundamentalist (Mohsin Hamid, Hamish
Hamilton, PB, $29.95); Mister Pip (Lloyd
Jones, Text, PB, $29.95); On Chesil
Beach (Ian McEwan, Jonathan Cape, HB,
$29.95); and Animal’s People (Indra
Sinha, Simon & Schuster, PB, $32.95).
4
literature
THE GHOST
Robert Harris
Hutchinson. PB.
Was $32.95, now $27.95.
Robert Harris writes political intrigue like
no-one else in the thriller game: before he
was a novelist, he was a political
journalist, and, for a time, a key supporter
of Tony Blair and New Labour. He once
said that his time on the campaign trail
with the Blairs (with whom he later bitterly
broke) had given him ‘invaluable material’. Here, he seems to be
working it through. A ghostwriter mysteriously dies while working on
the ‘tell-all’ memoirs of a British PM who was forced to retire after an
ill-advised war in the Middle East. His replacement quickly realises the
mistake he has made in taking on the job, as he uncovers secrets with
the power to change world politics. This is the UK’s answer to Primary
Colours – a great holiday read.
THE GIFT OF RAIN
Tan Twan Eng
Scribe. PB. $32.95.
Set in the Malaysian state of Penang in
the early stages of WWII, this is the story
of two people suddenly caught up in a
tumultuous period. Young Philip Hutton is
half Chinese, half English, but feels
neither. He meets Japanese diplomat
Hayato Endo and the two develop a
special friendship, Philip showing Endo
around Penang and Endo teaching Philip
the discipline of the Japanese martial art Aikado. But later, when the
Japanese invade Penang, new truths and secrets are forced into the
open and Philip must discover who he really is, risking everything to
save those he loves. In his debut novel, Eng has written a deeply
moving account of family, friendship, betrayal and enduring courage.
GIFTED
Nikita Lalwani
Viking. PB. $32.95.
Born in Rajasthan, raised in Cardiff and
now living in London, Nikita Lalwani has
written a heartfelt, acutely drawn and
often funny first novel. A brilliant addition
to the genre of next-generation writing,
Gifted captures the parental
expectations, hopes and fears imposed
on the children of immigrants. In Rumi
Vasi’s case there is the added pressure
of being a supremely gifted mathematician since the age of five. She
is relentlessly tested by her academic father and criticised for her
gawky gait, Coke-bottle glasses and lack of grace by her mother.
Lalwani’s writing is sometimes gauche but always fresh, vividly
capturing Rumi’s dysfunctional family, her confused identity as
prodigy and teenager, and the irrational and obsessive behaviour that
results. This is captivating writing, holding the reader spellbound as
Rumi’s life unravels.
THE LAST CHINESE CHEF
Nicole Mones
Fourth Estate. PB. $28.
Food writer Maggie is tired of food (and life)
when she receives the news that a paternity
suit has been filed against her recently
deceased husband by a woman in China.
Maggie travels to find out what happened,
conveniently taking on an assignment to
interview a Chinese-American chef while
she’s there. In a new place, sampling a new and surprising cuisine and
making an unexpected new friend, Maggie rediscovers her appetite for
life – and makes a few discoveries about her husband. Affectionate and
life-affirming, this novel by the author of Lost in Translation is similarly
surprising. Steeped in Chinese history and bursting with passion for its
food and culture, it provides a window onto a new world and a way of
life that is threatened by the encroaching tide of the West.
LANDSCAPE OF FAREWELL
Alex Miller
Allen & Unwin. HB.
Was $35, now $29.95.
A retiring German professor delivers his
last lecture – one he knows to be rather
lacklustre – planning to go home and kill
himself afterwards. An angry Aboriginal
woman, a Sydney professor,
unexpectedly interrupts his speech with
an impassioned dissection of his argument and a demand for
recognition of her people’s place in the history of human suffering. It
is a wake-up call that changes – and prolongs – his life. In examining
the importance of truth-telling and reconciliation in another culture,
he comes closer to dealing with his own and his country’s past. Alex
Miller resembles JM Coetzee in the way in which he blends the
political and the literary to explore the big questions, and Landscape
of Farewell contains echoes of Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello in its use
of an ageing narrator to guide the reader on an intellectual quest.
GIRL MEETS BOY
Ali Smith
Text. PB. $22.95.
The acclaimed author of The Accidental
is the latest in a distinguished line-up to
contribute to Canongate’s ‘The Myths’
series, which is published in Australia by
Text. Smith chooses a myth with a happy
ending: the transgender story of Iphis,
the infant girl raised as a boy who faces
a big problem on the eve of her wedding.
In a rare moment of mercy, the gods
solve her dilemma by changing her into a real boy. Smith’s Iphis is an
androgynous graffiti activist targeting an amoral advertising agency;
her lover, a woman in search of meaning and identity. This poetic,
astonishingly inventive treatment explores the myths we grow up with
and what we do about them – as well as the myths that society
constructs for us in order to get us to behave.
THE LAY OF THE LAND
Richard Ford
Bloomsbury. PB.
Was $32.95, now $19.95.
The Lay of the Land begins and ends with a
shooting and the question ‘Are you ready to
meet your maker?’ For middle-aged but
still ornery Frank Bascombe, the answer is
no. Completing the trilogy of Frank
Bascombe novels that began 20 years ago
with The Sportswriter and continued with Independence Day, the
Pulitzer Prize–winning Richard Ford takes us to the New Jersey
suburbs in the year 2000. Over the course of three days, Frank
contemplates an awkward Thanksgiving with his first wife, the failure
of his second marriage, his treatment for prostate cancer and the
ongoing saga of the contested presidential election. Ford continues to
contemplate the big questions, the comedy and pathos of life; his
uplifting, energetic style hasn’t diminished one iota with the years.
LIFE ON THE
REFRIGERATOR DOOR
Alice Kuipers
Pan Macmillan. PB. $24.95.
Alice Kuipers wrote her affecting debut
novel, told entirely in fridge notes, after
being inspired by a random note her
boyfriend had left her. ‘If someone else had
seen his six words, they would have known
so much about us and our relationship.’ This
inventive little book sketches the relationship between a single working
mother and her teenage daughter over the course of a year. Both of
them are so busy that they barely see each other and communicate
mainly through notes. It’s amazing how much ground is covered:
dinners, schoolwork, boys, boundaries and weekend access. When
Claire’s mother finds a lump in her breast, the notes take a poignant
tone, and trace the pair’s discovery that their time together is precious
– especially when it can no longer be taken for granted.
THE LOST DOG
Michelle de Kretser
Allen & Unwin. HB. $35.
This eagerly awaited third novel is at once
a vital addition to the canon of Melbourne
literature and a sharply observed
depiction of the immigrant’s dual identity.
Having taken us to Revolutionary France
in The Rose Grower and post-colonial Sri
Lanka in The Hamilton Case, Michelle de
Kretser writes about subjects close to her
heart: Melbourne (Richmond in particular) and the subtropical Sri
Lanka of her birth. The lost dog of the title belongs to Tom, whose
search for his pet is juxtaposed with the problem of his ageing
mother and his new-found love for the enigmatic Nelly. Trams,
Camberwell market, the Skipping Girl Vinegar sign and other
familiar icons flash through this novel, which never underestimates
the intelligence of its reader and promises that nothing in life
is straightforward.
THE MEMORY ROOM
Christopher Koch
Vintage Australia. PB. $32.95.
This accomplished espionage thriller in the
tradition of John Le Carré is from the
award-winning author of The Year of Living
Dangerously and Highways to a War.
Brilliantly eccentric Vincent and beautiful,
neglected Erika share a passion for
secrecy, vintage comics and play-acting.
Easygoing Derek is drawn into Vincent’s circle at university, and the
pair of them aim to enter the Foreign Affairs department – until
Vincent’s greatest fantasy is unexpectedly fulfilled when he is
recruited for the ASIS. Erika, now a successful journalist, Vincent and
Bradley are reunited in Beijing in their 30s, where things begin to go
horribly wrong. Koch writes thrillers in the same way that Peter
Temple writes crime novels: this book is richly characterised and
deftly drawn, with the espionage plot naturally unfolding from the
characters’ obsessions and foibles. Also available in HB ($49.95).
MORAL DISORDER
Margaret Atwood
Bloomsbury. HB.
Was $39.95, now $16.95.
Memories, dreams and fears collide in
these fractured stories about ageing,
illness, family ties and the distance that
separates us even from the ones we love.
The story of Nell and her family subtly
evolves through a succession of
interconnected stories spanning the
1930s to the present – stories that touch on childhood, adolescence,
marriage, motherhood, parental decline and ageing. One of the pivotal
stories gives the collection its name; it’s an often disturbing tale of
life on the land gone wrong, where a succession of doomed animals
– pets, strays and farm animals – pass from life to death due to an
array of natural and unnatural causes. This bargain buy is a great
introduction to the work of Margaret Atwood, author of more than 30
books including the Booker-winning The Blind Assassin.
OCEAN ROAD
Glyn Parry
Fremantle Press. PB. $29.95.
It’s the summer of 1976, and 17-year-old
Toby is holidaying with his parents on the
south-west coast of Western Australia.
His father Frank, an American, is a hardworking but far-from-successful novelist;
his mother Laura is a housewife who is
beginning to tire of her marriage. When
his father is suddenly called to the United
States to be with his sister, whose son is
dying, Toby and his mother are left alone. Freed from her husband’s
supervision, Laura falls under the sway of Myron Abbott, an old flame
of hers, and becomes determined to put an end to her failing
marriage. When Frank returns she demands a divorce, and Toby is
forced to learn hard truths about life and love.
literature
PONTOON
Garrison Keillor
Faber. PB. $29.95.
Garrison Keillor fans can rejoice, because
there’s a new Lake Wobegon novel just
in time for the summer holidays! In it, the
Detmer girl returns from California,
where she has made a killing in
veterinary aromatherapy, to marry her
boyfriend Brent aboard Wally’s pontoon
boat, presided over by her minister Misty
Naylor of the Sisterhood of the Sacred
Spirit. At the same time, a delegation of renegade Lutheran pastors
from Denmark come to town on their tour of America, their
punishment for having denied the divinity of Jesus. All is in readiness
for the wedding – the giant shrimp shish-kebabs, the French
champagne, the wheels of imported cheese, the pate with whole
peppercorns, the hot-air balloon, the flying Elvis, the pontoon boat
and the giant duck decoys – and then something else happens…
THE QUIET GIRL
Peter Hoeg
Harvill Secker. PB.
Was $32.95, now $27.95.
Kasper Krone, a Danish circus performer,
finds himself in trouble for tax fraud. On
the brink of being extradited to Spain,
where he has stashed money offshore,
he receives a proposal from an order of
nuns. They will have their patriarch put
in a good word for him with the Spanish
government – if he donates most of his
defrauded funds to them. And there is another task. One of their
novices has been abducted and questioned about a group of children
their order takes an interest in. These children have a special gift ‘for
coming close to God faster than the others’, and the nuns think that
they need a man to keep an eye on them. Then two of the children go
missing – and Kasper finds himself compelled to help find them. A
new novel from the author of Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow.
Most people have a list of books that
they’ve wanted to read during the year
but haven’t managed to buy, let alone
enjoy. The Christmas holidays are the
perfect time to make good these
intentions, so we’ve put together a list of
some of the ‘Must Read’ fiction and
poetry highlights of 2007 that we’re
intending to take to the beach, and we
thought it might be useful to include
it here as a guide for other, similarminded readers.
Top of the list is Khaled Hosseini’s A
Thousand Splendid Suns (Bloomsbury,
PB, $32.95). The second novel by the
author of The Kite Runner is also set in
Afghanistan and has been getting word
of mouth that’s even more positive
than its predecessor – which is really
saying something!
Hosseini himself gave a glowing
recommendation to Dave Egger’s What
is the What (Hamish Hamilton, PB,
$29.95), saying: ‘I cannot recall the last
time I was this moved by a novel…It is
impossible to read this book and not be
humbled, enlightened, transformed’. Set
in Sudan and Ethiopia, What is the What
is the true story of Valentino Achak
Deng’s courage and endurance in the
REMEDY
Anne Marsella
Portobello Books. PB.
$32.95.
All the ingredients for a fabulous chick-lit
soufflé are here. The heroine has a
fanciful name, Remedy. The romantic
location is Paris. Remedy’s forte is
fashion and she works at À La Mode
Online. There’s plenty of love interest,
including hi-jinks with cowboy Jeromino,
workouts with trapeze artist Johannes and poetry from pizza-delivery
boy Mouktar. And the diary format is quirky, each day being dedicated
to a succession of minor saints whose tragic ends provide Remedy
with salutary lessons in love, life and faith. The author’s tendency to
parrot Austen phrasing is cloying at times, but the soufflé is kept light
as air by Remedy’s bubbling exuberance in her quest to find her ‘man
o’ the moon’ and make the world a better place through the
democratisation of fine shoes.
Scapegallows tells the true story of
Margaret Catchpole, a girl growing up in
late-18th-century England. Brought up in
a poor but respectable family, her life
takes a wrong turn when she falls for
Will Laud, a sailor and smuggler. After
Will shoots an excise man in the course
of a raid and becomes a wanted man
with a price on his head, Margaret
attempts to disassociate herself from him by taking a job as a
children’s nursemaid. But when Will by chance comes back into her
life, and Margaret recklessly steals a horse in order to sell it and buy
him his way out of prison, she finds herself thrown into a series of
vicissitudes that will end in her escaping the gallows and being
transported to Australia.
After these two reads, it might be time
for some light relief, and what better
than Sucked In (Text, PB, $32.95), the
latest Murray Whelan thriller from Shane
Maloney. Apparently Whelan is now
spinning his wheels in parliament, a
toothless cog in Labor’s stalled political
machine. But then the remains of a
long-lost union official are found, and he
gets sucked into some murky waters.
It’s sure to provide a few chuckles.
We’re not alone in being devotees of
Maloney’s Whelan novels. Bestselling
Scottish crime fiction writer Ian Rankin
is on record as being a fan, and we’re
sure that Maloney returns the favour.
Rankin’s latest, Exit Music (Orion, PB,
$32.95), has been marketed as the last
DI Rebus novel (noooooo!), and sees
the Scottish detective investigating
the murder of a Russian poet. It’s
amazing how grimy Edinburgh’s
underbelly is, really. Not as grimy as
Chris Womersley’s local settings in
The Low Road (Scribe, PB, $32.95),
though. Part classic film-noir crime-
SHADOW IN THE RIVER
Frode Grytten
Abacus. PB. $29.95.
Robert Bell, a journalist in contemporary
Norway, is suffering personal and
professional crises: his affair with his
sister-in-law is spiralling out of control,
and his career as a journalist has hit the
skids. A way out of his impasse arises
when Guttorm Pedersen, a local boy, is
drowned in a mysterious accident. The
town of Odda is filled with Serbian
immigrants and riven with ethnic tensions, and the Serbians seem
convenient scapegoats for the inexplicable death of a Norwegian. But
are they really responsible? Or are they being blamed for someone
else’s cold-blooded crime? Drawn further and further into the case he
has become obsessed with, Bell finds himself immersed in a murky
world of racial tensions, paranoia and blackmail.
SOUL CATCHER
Michael White
Quercus. PB. $29.95.
SCAPEGALLOWS
Carol Birch
Virago. PB. $29.95.
face of Sudan’s civil war. If it’s anywhere
near as good as the author’s previous
novel, A Heartbreaking Work of
Staggering Genius, we’ll be happy.
5
After a drunken night’s gambling,
Augustus Cain, a slave-catcher in
pre–Civil War America, finds himself in
debt to Eberly, a wealthy slave owner.
Unable to pay, a deal is struck whereby
the debt will be cancelled if Cain catches
two of Eberly’s runaway slaves. He sets
out on his dangerous journey, and
becomes gradually more intrigued by the
story of Rosetta, one of the two slaves. A knockabout soldier of
fortune, Cain is at first unrepentant about his profession, but as his
journey progresses he is forced to question whether the job of ‘soul
catcher’ is one he can continue to do. A rattling adventure story, Soul
Catcher is set against the jittery background of the abolition
movement, and of two very different societies about to come to blows.
Who smoked 20 cigars per day?
thriller, part modern tale of despair and
desperation, this first novel has been
compared to the work of Cormac
McCarthy, so is undoubtedly going to be
a great read.
After these dark landscapes, a total
change of pace will be in order. We’re
keen to dip into Miranda July’s offbeat
and apparently startlingly original
collection of short stories No One
Belongs Here More than You (Text, PB,
$23.95), and can’t wait to curl up with
Ann Patchett’s Run (Bloomsbury, PB,
$29.95), which promises to offer the
same singing prose, warmth and
humanity as her wonderful Bel Canto. It
will also be great to re-read Yann
Martel’s Life of Pi (Text, HB, $59.95),
which has just been released in a new
edition accompanied by striking
illustrations by Tomislav Torjanac.
One title on the list that we’re
particularly looking forward to is The
Bastard of Istanbul (Viking, PB, $32.95),
which has been a cause célèbre in
Turkey, the country in which it is set.
Shafak was charged with ‘Insulting
Turkishness’ by raising the issue of the
Armenian genocide in the novel and
faced a hefty time in prison if found
guilty. Fortunately, both she and fellow
novelist Orhan Pamuk, who had been
charged with the same crime, had
charges against them dismissed for lack
of evidence.
As huge fans of Pat Barker’s
Regeneration trilogy, we can’t wait to
get our teeth into her latest novel Life
Class (Hamish Hamilton, PB, $32.95),
which is about a group of students from
London’s Slade School of Art during
WWI. We’re sure that her restrained,
elegant prose will once again be on
offer. And talking about elegant prose –
this holiday is when we’re going to
savour JM Coetzee’s Diary of a Bad Year
(Text, HB, $35), with its meditations on
loneliness, friendship and the possibility
of love.
We’re also huge fans of Alice Munro’s
writing, and can’t wait to read her
fictionalised family history, The View
from Castle Rock (Vintage, PB, $24.95).
And to conclude our reading binge?
We’ll deliberate on whether we think Les
Murray has the potential to join Coetzee
as a Nobel laureate after reading his
Selected Poems (Black Inc, PB, $27.95)
and then we’re going to dip into some
more poetry with Leonard Cohen’s
playful and profound The Book of
Longing (Penguin, PB, $24.95). And
finally, to the greatest poet of them all –
and the biggest book: The RSC William
Shakespeare: Complete Works (ed.
Jonathan Bate & Eric Rasmussen,
Macmillan, PB, $95). If we start now, we
might just be finished in time for next
Christmas…
6
literature
THE SPECTACLE
SALESMAN’S FAMILY
Viola Roggenkamp
Virago. PB. $32.95.
The Spectacle Salesman’s Family tells the
story of Fania, a 13-year-old girl growing
up in post-WWII Germany. Fania’s world
is one of confusion, novelty and
unfinished business. Her part-Jewish
mother is eagerly pursuing a claim for
reparations payments for wrongful
imprisonment during the war, while her wanton, wayward elder sister
Vera is busy discovering men. The ’60s are beginning to swing,
Vietnam is being invaded and all the while old wounds from Nazi
Germany continue to embitter and divide her community. Her loving,
eccentric but somewhat cloying extended family provide her with
affection, if not always understanding, as she grapples with the trials
of impending adolescence. Charming and sentimental, this book
creates a touching picture of bewildered youth beginning to slowly
but surely come of age.
THE STONE GODS
Jeanette Winterson
Hamish Hamilton. PB.
Was $32.95, now $27.95.
Jeanette Winterson plays with time
travel, interplanetary expeditions and love
in this thought-provoking collection of
interconnecting tales that target the
bugbears of our society: technology,
consumerism, celebrity, bureaucracy,
environmental disaster, political nitwits
and nuclear war. Satire blossoms into something more serious and
moving as the unthinkable future Winterson imagines for the human
race takes hold. Constant throughout, though in a variety of forms,
are Billie Crusoe and the Robo sapiens Spike, and the doomed love
they share. There’s plenty of polemic, passion and word mischief,
whose lyrical beauty resonates long after the page has been turned.
The Stone Gods is Winterson’s heartfelt message in a bottle to save
the planet – while we can.
THE TENDERNESS
OF WOLVES
Stef Penney
Quercus. PB.
Was $29.95, now $14.95.
In a remote Canadian settlement at the
turn of the 19th century, a French trader
is found dead in his cabin: scalped. It’s
the first murder the small community has
seen, and they are both shocked and
privately titillated. Nearby, a troubled 17year-old has disappeared. His mother, one of the community’s original
settlers, must trek into the desolate landscape beyond in order to find
him and clear his name. Penney brilliantly evokes the icy wilderness
of her setting using cool, measured, spiky prose. The rough-hewn
frontier characters are complex and nuanced, unfolding for the reader
layer by layer as the novel progresses. This striking debut novel is a
journey of discovery in more ways than one, with an epic adventure
driving its narrative and a murder mystery at its core.
If you haven’t yet read this powerful
novel, you really should. And if you read
it and loved it, why not buy a few copies
at this special price and give them as
Christmas presents? Suite Française
offers astounding insight into the moral
complexities of the human condition. It
comprises two parts of what might have
been a four or five-part work had its author not died in Auschwitz. In
the first part, Storm in June, Nemirovsky tells of the exodus from
Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion. In part two, Dolce, we witness
Lucille’s story unfold as she tries to resist the attractions of a
sensitive German officer and takes the risk of defending a young
farmer who joins the Resistance. Unforgettable.
THE TEARS OF AUTUMN
Charles McCarry
Scribe. PB. $32.95.
In November 1968, CIA agent Paul
Christopher is as shocked as the rest of
the world by President Kennedy’s
assassination. But once the first shock
subsides, his gifted, logical mind
connects the dots, and he is convinced
that he knows who orchestrated the
murder. It’s not the Mafia, it’s not the FBI,
it’s not the Cubans – it’s not even the
Russians. It’s a group of people in a country where rumblings of
future conflict are already beginning to be heard: Vietnam. To prove
his theory he will travel the world, risking life and limb to uncover the
truth behind the most controversial political assassination of the
century. First published in 1974, it’s not hard to see why Charles
McCarry’s taut, gripping novel is being reissued.
Arguably Matthew Condon’s best novel to
date, this is an original Australian story
spanning the entire 20th century. Wilfred
Lampe, a simple rabbiter and farmhand,
believes he has seen it all without once
in his long life leaving his home town of
Dalgety: war, romance, tragedy, the
Australian bush-life and fly-fishing on the
mighty Snowy River. Then comes the discovery of his great-niece,
Aurora, whom he never knew existed. Aurora is young, wild and
thoroughly modern and has her own set of contemporary social
problems. Together the two find themselves on an unlikely road-trip
that changes both their lives. This compelling story delves into the
changing character of the Australian psyche and discloses some
home truths about what constitutes a meaningful life.
THOSE FARADAY GIRLS
Monica McInerney
Viking Australia. PB. $32.95.
Juliet, Miranda, Eliza, Sadie and
Clementine Faraday all live together in
Hobart with Leo, their widowed father.
Theirs is a rambunctious household, full
of laughter, chaos and joy. So when 16year-old Clementine announces she is
pregnant, it’s not the disaster it could
have been. Over two decades later, in
2006, Clementine’s daughter Maggie is
living in New York, fleeing from personal and professional crises in
London. Leo wants the whole Faraday family to reunite for Christmas
in Ireland. But with Clementine’s mother and four aunts scattered
across the globe, will such a reunion be possible? Spanning three
decades, Those Faraday Girls tells a heart-warming story of family
togetherness and of the enduring bond that unites five very different
sisters from childhood to middle age.
ORDERING MADE SIMPLE
SUITE FRANÇAISE
Irene Nemirovsky
Chatto & Windus. PB.
Was $32.95, now $15.95.
THE TROUT OPERA
Matthew Condon
Vintage Australia. PB.
Was $32.95, now $27.95.
THE UNCOMMON READER
Alan Bennett
Faber. PB.
Was $24.95, now $19.95.
A chance encounter with a travelling
library introduces the seriously underread HM the Queen to the delights of
books and reading, an interest that
becomes an obsession when she picks
up a copy of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit
of Love. So besotted with reading does she become that her regal
responsibilities begin to falter. Steps must be taken when instead of
sharing regal chitchat with the president of France, the queen probes
the president on the merits or otherwise of Jean Genet. This
gorgeously written subversive little tale celebrating the benefits of
reading is penned by one of writing’s greatest exponents, the very
funny dramatist and writer Alan Bennett.
You can phone, fax or email your orders by using the form on the back cover of this guide.
TOWARDS ANOTHER
SUMMER
Janet Frame
Vintage. PB. $23.95.
Homesick for New Zealand, 30-year-old
writer Grace Cleave is enduring another
London winter. She misses the warmth of
the southern hemisphere, and realises she
is a migratory bird that has misplaced its
home. So begins this highly personal
novella by the extraordinary Janet Frame,
written in 1963 and posthumously published because of its
tantalisingly autobiographical content. Grace’s sense of alienation is
compounded when she accepts an invitation to spend a weekend
with virtual strangers, the strain of keeping her flying thoughts to
herself almost bringing her undone. The raw depiction of Grace’s daily
struggle with life is in sharp contrast to the hallucinatory poetry of
childhood and imagination that courses through the narrative.
Troubling but curiously uplifting, Towards Another Summer is a
welcome reminder of Janet Frame’s genius.
TRAVELLER
Ron McLarty
Sphere. PB. $32.95.
Ron McLarty is famous as the author who
was rejected by every publisher in town
before his spectacular discovery by
Stephen King, who trumpeted The
Memory of Running as ‘the best book you
can’t read’. Before that, he was semifamous as a bit-part actor, including
appearances on Sex and the City and
Law & Order. His second novel, Traveller,
is about an ageing, unsuccessful actor who makes his living as a
bartender. A letter from the past breaks the news that Jono’s first love
has died as a delayed result of a stray bullet that hit her as a child
when they were growing up on Rhode Island. The news sparks a
series of reminiscences about the old neighbourhood, and reflections
on how both he and others have been shaped by past experiences.
WHERE THREE ROADS MEET
Salley Vickers
Text. PB. $22.95.
Another volume in Canongate’s
wonderful ‘The Myths’ series. In 1923,
Sigmund Freud, smoker of some 20
cigars per day, was diagnosed with a
malignant growth in his mouth. The
growth was removed, but eventually he
was forced to undergo radical surgery
that left him with difficulty speaking. In
1938 the Nazis invaded Austria, and
Freud fled to England with his family, where he died in 1939. Where
Three Roads Meet is set in the last year of his life, and tells a
haunting tale in the form of an imaginary conversation between the
dying Freud and a mysterious stranger. Still devastated by the death
of his favourite grandson, Freud and his companion ruminate on life
and death, and on the great tragedy that formed the basis of so much
of Freud’s work: that of Oedipus and his mother.
THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING
Alaa Al Aswany
Fourth Estate. PB. $25.
Finally published in English, this 2002
Arabic blockbuster is a bleak but utterly
compelling snapshot of contemporary
Egypt seen through the stories of the
occupants of a building in Downtown Cairo.
It’s no exaggeration to say that by reading
this novel, Westerners can gain some
degree of insight into the complex issues
that have prompted the radicalisation of
some parts of the Middle East. The main storyline is about devout Taha
el Shazli, son of the doorkeeper of the Yacoubian Building. Taha has set
his ambitions on joining the Cairo Police Force to escape his life of
poverty, only to have his hopes dashed by social prejudice. Angry at the
injustice of the process, he joins a radical cell of the Muslim Brotherhood
and becomes a terrorist/martyr. A thought-provoking and unexpectedly
affectionate novel that is as instructive as it is enjoyable.
crime
BENEATH THE BLEEDING
Val McDermid
HarperCollins. PB. $33.
Tony Hill and Carol Jordan are back, and
they’re in particularly fine form this time
around. McDermid’s Tony Hill novels
have always been a cut above her Kate
Brannigan and Lindsay Gordon outings,
and Beneath the Bleeding is every bit as
good as The Mermaids Singing and Wire
in the Blood. McDermid has chosen to
work with a topical subject – a bomb
attack at Bradfield’s soccer stadium – and has constructed a tight
and thought-provoking plot around this event, as well as a second
plot line about the puzzling poisoning of soccer star Robbie Bishop.
With Tony confined to a hospital bed after an attack by a patient and
Carol still not able to determine whether her feelings for him are
purely those of a friend or something more, their sleuthing
partnership must adapt to the new circumstances. Another cracking
read from the queen of ‘Tartan Noir’.
CLEAN CUT
Lynda La Plante
Simon & Schuster. PB.
Was $29.95, now $24.95.
It’s a bad day for DI Anna Travis when
her partner, James Langton, doesn’t
come home for dinner; it’s an even
worse one when it turns out that this is
because he’s been stabbed in the course
of duty. As she helps him through his
slow recovery, Anna becomes immersed
in the case of Ilene Phelps, a librarian
who has been murdered although she doesn’t appear to have had an
enemy in the world. Anna’s investigation uncovers an almost
unfathomable world of paroled criminals, repeat offenders and illegal
immigrants all escaping justice. With its themes of lenient sentencing,
prison systems bursting at the seams and the struggles of police to
keep violent criminals behind bars, Clean Cut is a timely and
compulsively readable study of good and evil in the modern world.
HAVANA BLACK
HAVANA BLUE
HAVANA RED
Leonardo Padura
Bitter Lemon. PB. $24.95 each.
We often notice crime-fiction aficionados
casting their eyes over our shelves
anxiously looking for a new author’s
name and whole a new series to get
stuck into – the edgier the better.
Fortunately, The Havana Quartet is
exactly what they’re looking for. Three of the four novels in this Cuban
series are now available in English translation, and they’re
remarkably more-ish. Padura has a decidedly literary style and his
plots are tight, credible and oozing with atmosphere. Lead character
Lieutenant Mario Conde is an aspiring novelist and extraordinarily
intuitive police detective who feels displaced and disillusioned in
modern-day Havana. He knows that the simplicity and innocence of
his barrio childhood can never be recaptured, but that doesn’t stop
him yearning for it, particularly when he is forced to encounter the
worst of humanity in the course of his profession.
AD INFINITUM: A
BIOGRAPHY OF LATIN
Nicholas Ostler
HarperCollins. HB. $60.
The Latin language has been a constant
in the cultural history of the West for
over two millennia. It has shaped the
way we think of ourselves and has been
the foundation of our education for
centuries. And yet Latin began life as the
cumbersome dialect of a small southern
Italian city-state. Its active use lasted
three times as long as Rome’s Empire and lives on in the law codes
of half the world and in terminologies of biology and medicine. In Ad
Infinitum, the author of Empires of the Word: A Language History of
the World examines the reasons why Latin made such a long-lasting
impact on language, and how it managed to stay alive for two
millennia despite the cultural superiority of Greek.
7
THE DRAINING LAKE
Arnaldur Indridason
Harvill Secker. PB. $35.
Fans of Indridason’s Reykjavík Murder
Mysteries can breathe a sigh of relief,
because Erlendur Sveinsson has returned
to investigate his favourite type of case –
that of a missing person. When low
water levels reveal a skeleton in an
Icelandic lake, the crumpled detective
sets out in his typically obsessive and
unorthodox style to discover its identity.
The hole in its skull indicates that there’s a murder to solve, too, but
what does the Russian radio device with which it was weighed down
indicate? Erlendur’s investigation takes us back to the Cold War era in
East Germany and Iceland, telling a tale of political disillusionment
and abandoned dreams. The Draining Lake is atmospheric, characterdriven crime fiction of the highest order.
KENNEDY’S BRAIN
Henning Mankell
Harvill Secker. PB.
Was $32.95, now $27.95.
Louise Cantor, a Swedish archaeologist,
returns from a Greek excavation to find
her son Hendrik dead in his Stockholm
flat. Circumstances point to suicide, but
Louise is certain Hendrik did not kill
himself. As she begins sifting through his
possessions, Louise uncovers evidence
of enquiries he had been making into President Kennedy’s death and
the legend that Kennedy’s brain mysteriously disappeared after his
port-mortem. When Louise then discovers that Hendrik had also been
investigating the potentially illegal activities of drug companies in
Africa, she is all the more convinced that he has been murdered –
and sets out on a crusade to uncover his assassins. A fast-paced and
gripping read, Kennedy’s Brain is a top-notch thriller that holds the
reader’s attention from first page to last.
THE ONE FROM THE OTHER
Philip Kerr
Quercus. PB.
Was $29.95, now $14.95.
In 1949, Bernie Gunther, former policeman
and detective, finds himself in Munich
rebuilding his practice as a PI. Germany is
still a dangerous place, where murder is
commonplace and life is cheap. When
Bernie is approached by Frau Warzok, her
case seems unremarkable. She wants to
remarry, but needs confirmation that her husband, a sadistic war
criminal who has disappeared, is really dead. Gunther takes the case,
but finds that it involves more than he bargained for – and that his very
life is now in danger. Gritty, hard-boiled and with a rough, unpretentious
charm, this is one spectacular work of crime fiction. And you’ll love the
shocking, impossible-to-foresee plot twist three-quarters of the way
through, which will have you hooked right through to the very last
page. A worthy successor to Kerr’s masterful Berlin Noir trilogy.
THE AENEID
Virgil (trans. Robert Fagles)
Penguin. PB. $29.95.
Following on from his translations of
Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad, Robert Fagles
has translated into English another
classic of ancient literature. The Aeneid
tells the story of Aeneas, his flight after
the fall of Troy and the epic journey that
follows as he wanders the
Mediterranean. His adventures take him
from Troy, through Greece and Sicily, and
to Carthage, where he abandons Queen Dido to fulfil his destiny in
Italy – to build the city that will become Rome. With an extensive
introduction by Bernard Knox, a pronunciation guide and suggestions
for further reading, this Penguin Classics edition serves as both an
excellent introduction to Virgil and an attractive collector’s edition.
THE SILVER SWAN
Benjamin Black
Picador. PB. $32.95.
Another Dublin-based crime outing for
Black (aka John Banville), author of last
year’s Christine Falls. This time, pathologist
Quirke is approached by Billy Hunt, an old
and forgotten friend whose wife, Deidre,
has just been found dead in an apparent
suicide by drowning. Hunt wants a favour:
he loathes the idea of a post-mortem being
performed on his wife, and wants Quirke to pull strings to prevent it.
Quirke agrees, but then performs the post-mortem himself, and
discovers that Deidre did not die by drowning. Convinced that she died
of an overdose, Quirke suspects that Hunt staged her death as a
suicide for reasons best known to himself – but when he discovers
that Deidre had been having an affair, doubts begin to assail him. As
the plot thickens, Quirke finds himself drawn into a murky world of
infidelity, dubious motives and suspicious death.
UP IN HONEY’S ROOM
Elmore Leonard
Weidenfeld & Nicolson. PB.
Was $32.95, now $29.95.
Blonde knockout Honey married her
wannabee Nazi husband Walter to try to
change him. It didn’t work, so she took off.
That was before America entered the war.
Five years later, a hotshot federal marshal is
on Honey’s tail, looking for information about
Walter and two escaped Nazi prisoners of war. This WWII mystery is as
kooky and smart-mouthed as you’d expect from Elmore Leonard,
featuring his signature cast of slightly twisted characters. There’s the
SS officer who runs off with a nice Jewish girl, the German American
who looks uncannily like Himmler (and was born in the same hospital
on the same day) and, of course, Honey: the sassy, smart-as-a-whip
pin-up girl at the axis of it all.
ZUGZWANG
Ronan Bennett
Bloomsbury. PB. $29.95.
In March 1914, Dr Otto Spethmann, a
psychoanalyst, finds himself drawn into a
web of danger and deceit. St Petersburg is
a jittery town, hysterical over threats from
Germans without and terrorists within.
Yastrebov, a suspected terrorist, has been
murdered, and the police want answers –
and seem to think that Spethmann can
help them. As Spethmann is drawn into the case, he discovers that he
is closer to it than he thinks, and that his daughter Catherine has
been romantically involved with Yastrebov. Not only that, but her affair
has linked him to revolutionaries, and compromised him with the
dreaded secret police. Unwittingly, Spethmann finds himself lured into
a diabolical game as precarious as a game of chess – where one
false move could cost him his life.
Who is Orhan Pamuk’s
English translator?
AT LARGE AND AT SMALL:
CONFESSIONS OF A
LITERARY HEDONIST
Anne Fadiman
Allen Lane. HB. $29.95.
With her wonderful combination of wit
and erudition, Fadiman draws us into 12
of her personal obsessions: from her
slightly sinister childhood enthusiasm for
catching butterflies to her monumental
crush on Charles Lamb; from her wistfulness for the days of letterwriting to the challenges and rewards of moving from the city to the
country. Many of these essays were composed ‘under the influence’
of the subject at hand. Fadiman sustains a terrific caffeine buzz while
recounting Balzac’s coffee addiction; and she stays up till dawn to
write about being a night owl, examining the rhythms of our circadian
clocks and sharing such insomnia cures as her father’s nocturnal
word games and Lewis Carroll’s mathematical puzzles. This is a
perfect book for life’s passionate obsessives.
poetry
8
essays
AUSTRALIAN CLASSICS: 50
GREAT WRITERS AND THEIR
CELEBRATED WORKS
Jane Gleeson-White
Allen & Unwin. PB. $29.95.
Gleeson-White’s selection of the 50 most
important Australian stories, novels, poems and
non-fiction titles aims to provide a broad
overview of Australian writing and bring key authors to a wider
audience. In doing so, she has created a remarkable literary portrait
of Australia over the past 140 years. Each essay introduces both the
work of literature discussed and the author, providing a brief
biographical background, a rundown on the effect and intention of the
work, and the response to its publication. In addition, a selection of
contemporary writers nominate their 10 favourite Australian books.
This is a welcome spur to reread some classics, with authors
including Marcus Clarke, Barbara Baynton, Henry Lawson, Kenneth
Slessor, Christina Stead, Patrick White, David Malouf, Robert Hughes,
Helen Garner, Peter Carey, Sally Morgan and Tim Winton.
THE BOOK IS DEAD: LONG LIVE
THE BOOK
Sherman Young
UNSW Press. HB. $29.95.
‘Nobody reads books anymore.’ Booklovers
are offended by such attention-grabbing
catchphrases. We like to think that the
majority of people do still read books, that not
every publishing list is driven by the bottom
line, that reading words on a screen will never replace reading the
real thing. Young is a new-media guru, but he remains a booklover at
heart. Behind his multimedia smokescreen, he writes to ensure a
future for readers of books, whether that future involves paper or
Sony technology. In fact, his book is a call to arms to publishers to
protect and defend book culture by embracing ebook technology.
Engagingly written, this is no dry academic tome. It will certainly get
booklovers thinking about the future of book publishing and ‘book
culture’ – and also get publishers’ hackles rising!
DELIVERY SERVICE
BEOWULF:
AN ILLUSTRATED EDITION
Seamus Heaney (trans.)
& John D Niles (illus.)
Norton. PB. $33.95.
The Nobel Prize–winning poet Seamus
Heaney (translator) and John D Niles
(illustrator) have come together to produce an evocative
contemporary presentation of the Old English heroic elegy, Beowulf.
This ancient narrative poem of anonymous authorship tells the story
of the heroic Beowulf, who does battle with three antagonists to save
the people of Denmark: the monster Grendel, Grendel’s mother and
the dragon. In this volume the legendary story is richly illustrated with
Niles’ collection of black and white images, reproducing such things
as the objects, armour and paintings of the period – each
accompanied by useful explanatory texts.
THE BEST AUSTRALIAN
ESSAYS 2007
Drusilla Modjeska (ed.)
Black Inc. PB. $27.95.
THE BEST AUSTRALIAN
POEMS 2007
Peter Rose (ed.)
Black Inc. PB. $24.95.
THE BEST AUSTRALIAN
STORIES 2007
Robert Drewe (ed.)
Black Inc. PB. $27.95.
This popular series from Black Inc has become
a mainstay of the Summer Reading Guide and
of many holiday reading lists. Drusilla Modjeska
and Robert Drewe follow up their editing debuts
in 2006 and are joined by Peter Rose, editor of
the Australian Book Review, who is at the helm
of Poems this year. Drewe delivers sparkling stories from established
favourites, alongside exciting new work from a younger generation;
Modjeska showcases some of Australia’s best non-fiction writers in a
selection highlighting the wonderful versatility and beauty of the essay
form; and Rose presents work from some of the abiding luminaries of
Australian poetry, along with some impressive if unfamiliar new voices.
THE BEST POEMS OF THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Harold Bloom
Harper Perennial. PB. $30.
Subtitled ‘From Chaucer Through Robert Frost’,
this comprehensive anthology attempts to give
the reader an overview of six centuries of great
British and American poetry. The book features
a large introductory essay by Harold Bloom called ‘The Art of Reading
Poetry’, which presents his critical reflections of more than half a
century devoted to reading, teaching and writing about poetry. It
offers either the entire range of what is most valuable in the major
poets’ oeuvres, or vital selections that illuminate each figure’s
contribution. Bloom has also supplied headnotes to every poet in the
volume as well as to the most important individual poems.
language
ROTTEN ENGLISH:
A LITERARY ANTHOLOGY
Dohra Ahmad
Norton. PB. $21.95.
This book celebrates what was once termed
‘dialect literature’ – works written not in
standard English, but in vernacular language.
It’s a genre that was dismissed by the
establishment in the past, but which has
recently gone mainstream: as Dohra Ahmad points out in her
introduction, half the winners of the Man Booker Prize in the past 12
years have been written in non-standard English. Divided into
sections that cover poetry, short stories, essays and extracts from
novels, it includes a medley of vernacular literature from the 18th to
the 21st centuries. From Scottish and Jamaican poets, to Maori
writers and the short stories of Irvine Welsh, Rotten English provides a
breathtaking journey through the cultural heritage of the vast and
varied English-speaking world.
Your books can be delivered anywhere in Australia for a small charge – see the back cover for details.
THE CAT’S PYJAMAS: THE
PENGUIN BOOK OF CLICHÉS
Julia Cresswell
Penguin. PB. $24.95.
From centuries-old sayings (‘beggars can’t
be choosers’; ‘a friend in need’; ‘at the end
of the day’; ‘it’s not rocket science’), the
English language seems so full of clichés
that sometimes it’s hard to see the wood for
the trees (ha ha). Here eagle-eyed word
detective Julia Cresswell takes a long hard look at the history of
some of the worst (and best) culprits and spills the beans (whoops)
on their curious, often surprising origins. Who would have thought, for
example, that ‘a finger in every pie’ originates with Shakespeare or
that ‘lie back and think of England’ comes from an Edwardian lady’s
diary? This volume presents us with the low-down on those
expressions we’re all a bit guilty of using too much.
THE COMPLETE
POLYSYLLABIC SPREE
Nick Hornby
Viking. HB.
Was $35, now $14.95.
We could all put together a ‘stuff I’ve
been reading’ column, but there’s no
doubt Nick Hornby’s would be the most
entertaining. His musings on books (and
many other things) ran in the US Believer
magazine for three years and are
published here for everyone’s enjoyment. Hornby got around the
magazine’s proviso that no writer’s work be slagged off by choosing
books he thought he would like, hence his avoidance of contemporary
literary fiction. Each monthly essay begins with a list of books bought
and books read, and there are occasional excerpts from some of them.
The result is a discursive insight into Hornby’s life, mind and love of
Arsenal. His best words of advice? If you’re finding the book you’re
reading hard-going, put it down and start another.
Who was the mistress, then
wife, of the Duke of Lancaster?
OTHER PEOPLE’S THOUGHTS
Simon Leys
Black Inc. PB. $19.95.
This entertaining collection of quotations
has been ‘idiosyncratically compiled for
the amusement of idle readers’ by the
much-lauded writer Simon Leys, author of
The Wreck of the Batavia and The Death of
Napoleon. Idiosyncratic is indeed the word,
for as Leys notes in the book’s foreword,
the best compilations are those whose
content reflects the mind and character of the compiler. Leys’ witty
and thought-provoking assortment of quotes and bons mots ranges
alphabetically from Adventure and Ambition to Youth and Zhuang Zi.
Simone Weil, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, CS Lewis,
GK Chesterton, Léon Bloy and Joseph Conrad evidently have a lot to
say to Leys and are frequently quoted in this erudite little book.
SHORTER OXFORD ENGLISH
DICTIONARY: SIXTH EDITION
OUP. HB.
Was $299, now $250.
SHORTER OXFORD ENGLISH
DICTIONARY: DELUXE SIXTH
EDITION WITH CD-ROM
OUP. HB & CD.
Was $399, now $350.
The latest edition of the Shorter Oxford is finally
available, with the latest updated terms,
definitions and standard spellings. This
comprehensive, authoritative two-volume work
is a cornerstone of every literate library, containing one-third of the
entries found in the vast Oxford English Dictionary, the world’s most
authoritative English language reference. New terms include ‘blogroll’
and ‘declutter’; new spellings include ‘neocon’ and ‘cafe’. Keep up-todate and informed by upgrading your reference library – and your
computer. The Shorter Oxford is also available with an accompanying
CD-Rom for easy (and easily portable!) reference. The CD-Rom
includes in-built spelling and typo correction and automatic look-up
from other applications – handy for bypassing Microsoft spell-checker.
SPEECHES THAT
CHANGED THE WORLD
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Murdoch. PB & CD. $34.95.
This publication collects together dozens of
speeches that have had a dramatic impact
upon the course of world history. Beginning
with some of the earliest recorded speeches
(Moses, Jesus and Mohammed), the book moves through to
momentous orations made by such figures as Elizabeth I, George
Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Of particular interest are some less
well-known speeches, such as one Marie Curie made at Vassar
College in 1921 about her discovery of radium; and Woodrow Wilson’s
address to Congress in 1917, which cemented the United States’
decision to enter WWI. The 20th century is amply covered, with a
bonus CD that includes recordings of speeches made by 14 famous
orators – some of them illustrious, and some ignominious.
THE STUFF OF THOUGHT
Steven Pinker
Allen Lane. PB. $35.
The Stuff of Thought is about language – and
thankfully, it’s as far from being a dry,
pseudo-highbrow tome as you could hope
for. It’s about the sort of linguistic quirks that
affect us every day, such as the odd but
predictable patterns that determine children’s
names, and the invented words that do or don’t take off. Did you
know, for instance, that the email term ‘spam’ comes from Monty
Python? (That’s right, the Spam Sketch.) And that George Bush’s
1988 campaign slogan ‘Read my lips: No new taxes’ led to the term
‘bushlips’, meaning ‘insincere political rhetoric’ – which somehow
didn’t catch on? For anyone bewildered and fascinated by the English
language, its certainties and its absurdities, this book is a goldmine.
biography
ARTHUR BOYD: A LIFE
Darleen Bungey
Allen & Unwin. HB. $65.
Although much has been written about
the Boyd family, there has never been a
biography devoted exclusively to Arthur
Boyd. This memoir is an absorbing and
ultimately very moving piece. Instead of
the typical image of Boyd as a creative
genius from a grand artistic family,
Bungey reveals a social misfit whose
eccentric relatives caused him to be the brunt of schoolyard taunts.
We find a man whose apparently gentle demeanour caused as
much harm as good, whose affairs of the heart led to enormous
personal angst, and whose life was dogged by a succession of
forceful characters such as fellow artist John Perceval.
What is 344 km long?
BAD FAITH
Carmen Callil
Vintage. PB.
Was $29.95, now $12.95.
A study of powerlessness, hatred and the
role of remembrance, Bad Faith is the
story of Louis Darquier, one of history’s
most despicable villains and conmen. A
Nazi collaborator and ‘Commissioner for
Jewish Affairs’, Darquier dissembled his
way to power in the Vichy government
and was responsible for sending
thousands of children to the gas chambers. After the war he left
France, never to be brought to justice. Early on in his career Louis
had married the alcoholic Myrtle Jones from Tasmania, who was
equally practised in the arts of fantasy and deception. Together they
had a child, Anne, whom they abandoned in England – her tragic
story is woven through the narrative.
This summer’s array of non-fiction
releases truly has something for
everyone. Those readers who are keen
on both poetry and history will swoon
over Charlotte Higgins’ Latin Love
Lessons: Put a Little Ovid in Your Life
(Short Books. HB. $29.95). It has
everything from Ovid’s tips on picking up
girls to Catallus’ advice on dealing with
a broken heart and Virgil’s textbook case
of how not to dump a girlfriend. Equally
entertaining is How to Talk about Books
You Haven’t Read (Granta, PB, $29.95),
in which literature professor Pierre
Bayard argues that in this age of infinite
publication, the truly cultivated person is
not the one who has read a book, but
the one who understands the book’s
place in our culture.
Top biographies include the paperback
release of Barry Jones’ A Thinking Reed
(Allen & Unwin, $35), in which the
former politician and quiz-show master
gives insights into his richly interesting
public and private life. Gonzo: The Life of
Hunter S. Thompson (Jan Wenner &
Corey Seymour, Little Brown, PB, $35) is
sure to be a great overview of a brilliant
and mad life – it includes introductions
by Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner
and actor Johnny Depp. And Fidel
COMMITTED: A RABBLEROUSER’S MEMOIR
Dan Mathews
Atria Books. PB. $29.95.
People for Ethical Treatment of Animals
(PETA) campaigns chief Dan Mathews
has written a hugely entertaining
autobiography. Mathews masterminded
PETA’s provocative assaults on fast-food
chains and fur-wielding fashion icons in
the ’90s, cannily bringing a clutch of
celebs onboard to promote the cause.
With an effortlessly light touch and upbeat attitude, Mathews reveals
what led a former party animal to devote his life to animal rights. He
doesn’t stint when describing what happens to animals in labs, fur
farms and abattoirs. Curiously, though, what is usually unreadable
can be digested here, thanks to Mathews’ almost deadpan delivery
when describing the darker side to PETA’s campaigns. Without
preaching, his message is that looking away is what keeps us
compliant. It’s thought-provoking stuff.
BORN STANDING UP
Steve Martin
Simon and Schuster. HB.
Was $34.95, now $29.95.
BERNARD SHAW: A LIFE
AM Gibbs
UNSWP. HB.
Was $59.95, now $16.95.
Bernard Shaw was, more than most, the
architect of his own life story. The prolific
writer not only produced many
autobiographical works, but also fed
biographers with a wealth of material to
work from. However, it is becoming
increasingly obvious that he didn’t
confine his inventive, often fanciful,
storytelling to his technically fictional works of literature. This
revealing biography by noted Shavian scholar AM Gibbs pieces
together the truth of Shaw’s life from a patchwork of sources,
including unpublished letters and other material from relatives and
close acquaintances. The myths challenged here include his loveless
childhood, his sexual relationships, his marriages and his politics.
Authoritative and enquiring, this fascinating biography is certain to
endure as an important source on this leading 20th-century figure.
9
Steve Martin hasn’t done stand-up since
1981. In Born Standing Up, the
celebrated actor, writer and comedy
genius muses on his early career,
revealing the tricks and techniques that
took him from vaudeville to fame on
Saturday Night Live. This thoughtprovoking and honest autobiography
captures the changing mood of the ’60s and ’70s, and doesn’t avoid
the bad reviews and broken hearts that accompanied the career
highs and life in Laurel Canyon and Aspen. It also reveals the source
of Martin’s trademark poignancy: his frosty and long-unresolved
relationship with his father. The book ends with the beginning of
Steve Martin’s life in movies, his stand-up years brought to a close by
the exhaustion and loneliness of a crazy working schedule promoting
not ‘just your ordinary banjo magic act’.
Castro: My Life (Fidel Castro & Ignacio
Ramonet, Allen Lane, HB, $59.95) is sure
to be just as meaty, if not quite so much
of a roller-coaster of a read.
Bill Bryson’s many fans will be
interested to see him swapping genres
to write Shakespeare: The Word as a
Stage (Harper Press, HB, $30), the latest
installment in the excellent Eminent
Lives series. And thriller readers will be
on the edge of their seats when reading
Ben Macintyre’s Agent Zigzag
(Bloomsbury, PB, $23.95), a true-life
ripping yarn about Eddie Chapman, a
dashing and louche British WWII double
agent dubbed ‘Agent Zigzag’ by MI5.
History titles include the paperback
release of Les Carlyon’s magnificent The
Great War (Picador, $39.95); as well as
Paul Johnson’s Creators: From Chaucer
to Walt Disney (Phoenix, PB, $27), which
seeks to answer the question of whether
there is such a thing as a typical creator
by profiling such well-known names as
Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Viollet-leDuc, Picasso and Christian Dior. Also
worth looking out for is John Man’s
fascinating The Terracotta Army: China’s
First Emperor and the Birth of a Nation
(Bantam Press, PB, $35), an account of
DAUGHTER OF THE DESERT:
THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF
GERTRUDE BELL
Georgina Howell
Picador. PB. $24.95.
The intrepid Gertrude Bell would delight
the heart of any biographer. What a
woman, and what a life! Born to
immense wealth and privilege, she
jettisoned a life of leisure to tread her
own path. The first woman to take a first
in modern history at Oxford, she went on
to become a famous Alpine mountaineer. By her 30s, she was an
expert on Arabian desert travel and politics, had worked with TE
Lawrence and had became a founder of modern Iraq. In the context
of current events, her story is particularly fascinating. The British
invaded the region to secure oil supplies and found themselves
running a weakened colonial empire. Bell was instrumental in cutting
‘the enormous cost of policing in Iraq’ to install an Arab king. An
amazing story, grippingly told.
the discovery and excavation of the
terracotta warriors in Xian.
There are also two award-winning
histories to savor over the holidays. Iron
Kingdom: the Rise and Downfall of
Prussia 1600–1947 (Christopher Clark,
Penguin, PB, $29.95) won the 2006
Wolfson Prize for History in the UK; it
looks at the history of Prussia from
medieval backwater to major European
power and the force behind the creation
of the German Empire. Locally, Colonial
Ambition: Foundations of Australian
Democracy (Peter Cochrane, MUP, PB,
$39.95) featured on many awards lists,
and won the 2007 Prime Minister’s Prize
for Australian History. It tells the story of
the agitators and politicians of New
South Wales – WC Wentworth, Sir
George Gipps, Henry Parkes, Robert
Lowe, Earl Grey and many more – and
their fight for parliamentary liberty.
Political titles aren’t in short supply,
either. Some of our book-buyers think
that Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine:
the Rise of Disaster Capitalism (Allen
Lane, PB, $32.95) is going to prove even
more popular and influential than her
previous bestseller, No Logo. In it, Klein
exposes the gripping story of how
America’s ‘free market’ policies have
come to dominate the world – through
the exploitation of disaster-shocked
people and countries.
Local titles include Graeme M Clark’s
Boyer Lectures 2007: the Return of the
Senses (ABC Books, PB, $24.95); and
Advance Australia…Where? (Hachette
Australia, PB, $35) by Hugh Mackay,
bestselling author of Reinventing
Australia. In his latest work, Mackay
investigates big questions such as ‘What
will our next generation of children be
like?’, ‘Why are we losing interest in
politics?’ and ‘Is multiculturalism dead?’.
Other timely local publications are
Waleed Aly’s People Like Us: Bridging
the Cultural Chasm between Islam and
the West (Picador, PB, $32.95); and
Nicolas Rothwell’s Another Country
(Black Inc, PB, $24.95), a many-faceted
journey into the landscape, people and
places of Central Australia.
Some of the big names in philosophy
and cultural theory also have titles this
summer. Umberto Eco is back with On
Ugliness (Harvill Secker, HB, $95), an
exploration of the monstrous and the
repellant in visual culture and the arts.
He investigates the voyeuristic impulse
behind our attraction to the gruesome
and the horrible and raises the question
of whether ugliness is merely in the eye
of the beholder. Topics range from
Milton’s Satan to Goethe’s
Mephistopheles; from Decadentism and
picturesque ugliness to the aesthetics of
excess and vice. Also of note is the
paperback release of Alain de Botton’s
The Architecture of Happiness: The
Secret Art of Furnishing Your Life
(Penguin, PB, $26.95), the French
philosopher’s rumination on society’s
love affair with its houses and their
furnishings.
biography
10
FAR FROM A STILL LIFE:
MARGARET OLLEY
Meg Stewart
Knopf Australia. HB.
Was $49.95, now $23.95.
This intimate biography of artist Margaret
Olley begins in the 1920s in North
Queensland, where Margaret’s early
childhood was spent on a cane farm and
dairy. The story unfolds to tell of her lifelong love affair with painting, which started at boarding school and
went on to blossom at East Sydney Technical College. The book
includes intriguing revelations about her friendships with well-known
figures such as Donald Friend, William Dobel and Russell Drysdale, as
well as accounts of her bohemian adventures in Europe. We learn of
her struggles with alcoholism in the late 1950s in Brisbane and her
subsequent joyous return to life and painting. As Barry Humphries
sums up: ‘A great painter, a great woman, a great story’.
PETER SCULTHORPE:
THE MAKING OF AN
AUSTRALIAN COMPOSER
Graeme Skinner
UNSWP. HB. $59.95.
Skinner’s biography chronicles the first half
of Sculthorpe’s career, from his birth in
1929 through to his 45th birthday in 1974.
It looks at Sculthorpe’s childhood in
Depression-era Tasmania, his years at the
Conservatorium of Music in Melbourne, and his departure, in 1958,
for a programme of study at Oxford University. Upon his return to
Australia in 1960 there followed years of professional development
during which Sculthorpe pioneered an identifiably Australian style of
music, and became one of the most prominent of Australian
composers – a position he still holds at the age of 78. Ultimately, this
is the story of a man who wished not just to compose, but to write
distinctively ‘Australian music’ – and who succeeded magnificently.
CORPORATE GIFTS
GRAHAM GREENE:
A LIFE IN LETTERS
Richard Greene (ed.)
Little Brown. PB.
Was $59.95, now $54.95.
Until now, the greater part of Graham
Greene’s writings – his letters – have
remained unpublished. This marvellously
edited collection of missives penned by
the master novelist reveals much that
has been missed by his biographers.
Written with the wit and liveliness that made him a great novelist, the
letters reveal Greene’s personal, literary, religious and political
concerns over a period of 70 years. They discuss the craft of writing;
describe dealings with publishers, editors and agents; and praise or
dismiss fellow authors. The letters disclose the intention and
inspiration behind Greene’s work, as well as providing delightful littleknown insights into Greene the family man. The entertaining
introduction includes a short biographical essay; and useful and often
amusing explanatory notes and references are provided throughout.
LAST NIGHT I DREAMED
OF PEACE
Dang Thuy Tram
Rider. PB. $32.95.
This extraordinary document is, like Irene
Nemirovsky’s Suite Française, a rare onthe-spot account of the experience of war,
rediscovered and published decades after
the author’s death. Last Night I Dreamed of
Peace is the diary of a young Vietnamese
doctor killed by an American soldier in 1970. Dang Thuy Tram was a
member of the Communist party (something she fought to achieve,
hampered by her ‘bourgeois’ background), and was fiercely opposed
to the interference of US troops, whom she decries as ‘bloodthirsty
devils, sinking their fangs into our bodies’. Devoted to the ideal of a
united Vietnam and to saving as many of her compatriots as she can,
she writes passionately from the ‘other side’ of the conflict as it
unfolds. Simply written and infused with the hopeful idealism of
youth, this book is both touching and important.
A LIFE OF PICASSO VOLUME 3:
THE TRIUMPHANT YEARS,
1917–1932
John Richardson
Jonathan Cape. HB. $69.95.
Drawing on exhaustive research from
interviews and unpublished archival material,
John Richardson has produced the longawaited third volume of his definitive
biography. Full of original and groundbreaking insights, the Triumphant
Years reveals Picasso at the height of his powers, producing the
costumes and sets for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes productions as well
as some of his most important sculpture and paintings. Though
married to Olga, the Russian ballerina, he begins a long affair with
Marie-Therese and travels to Rome and Naples, inspiring the
classicism in his work of the early 1920s. It’s fascinating to read of
how the mercurial, witty Cocteau introduced Picasso to the aristocratic
and artistic world of Paris – Picasso was amused by Tristan Tzara and
the Dadaists but resisted the advances of André Breton and the
Surrealists. Biography doesn’t get any better than this.
LOOK ME IN THE EYE
John Elder Robison
Random. PB. $34.95.
John Elder Robison spent his childhood
being tormented by family and teachers
for refusing to look them in the eye.
Words like ‘sociopath’ and ‘psycho’ were
bandied about until he grew up and was
diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome.
Only then did he discover the explanation
for his extraordinary mathematical,
mechanical and musical gifts. There was also an explanation for his
odd social skills – or lack thereof. His memoir provides a touching,
painful and exquisitely honest account of a brilliant, awkward child’s
struggle to grapple with his differences in a world that understood
neither him nor his condition. He also reveals how he used people’s
reactions to his condition to learn to mimic normal behaviour, and
tells us much about our own ‘normal’ world in the process.
THE MITFORDS: LETTERS
BETWEEN SIX SISTERS
Charlotte Mosley (ed.)
Fourth Estate. HB. $60.
Nancy, the scalding wit who parlayed her
family life into bestselling novels. Diana,
the fascist jailed with her husband,
Oswald Mosley, during WWII. Unity, a
suicide, torn by her worship of Hitler and
her loyalty to home. Debo, who adored
pleasure and fun, and found herself
Duchess of Devonshire. Pamela, who craved nothing more than a
quiet country life. Jessica, a runaway, communist and fighter for
social change. The Mitfords became myth in their own time: the great
wits and beauties of their age, they were immoderate in their
passions for ideas and people. For this volume, Charlotte Mosley,
Diana’s niece, has selected letters from an archive of 18,000 to which
she has exclusive access. Virtually spanning the century, these letters
between the sisters constitute a superb social chronicle, and explore
with disarming intimacy their shifting relationships.
MUCK
Craig Sherborne
Black Inc. PB. $27.95.
Poet and journalist Craig Sherborne made
a big splash with his first memoir Hoi
Polloi in 2005, collecting admiring
accolades from the likes of Helen Garner
and Peter Craven. The same idiosyncratic
storytelling – shot through with pathos,
black humour and wicked social
observation – is on display in Muck. We
follow the story of young Craig and his perfectly awful parents, Winks
(now ‘Duke’) and Heels (now ‘Feet’), as they buy a dairy farm in New
Zealand: the beginnings of a family ‘dynasty’. Thanks to the highly
eccentric Duke and Feet and their breathtakingly skewed view of the
world and their place in it, this is another highly entertaining (if deeply
weird) memoir by one of Australia’s finest writing talents.
Impress your clients by giving them a book instead of a hamper this Christmas! Contact us for our corporate rates on bulk purchases.
A LOVER OF UNREASON
Yehuda Koren & Eliat Negev
Robson Books. HB.
Was $50, now $12.95.
The third player in the Sylvia Plath/Ted
Hughes story has long been airbrushed
out of history in favour of the two literary
geniuses. This detailed, thoroughly
researched book finally tells the story of
the dramatically beautiful Assia Wevill, the
woman Ted left Sylvia for. Assia gassed
herself (and their young daughter) seven
years after Plath had killed herself, and for the same reasons – she
could no longer live with Hughes’ infidelities. A Russian Jew born in
Berlin, she moved between cultures several times in her short life:
moving with her family to Palestine as a child, then with her first
husband to England, her second to Canada and her fourth back to
London in time for the Swinging Sixties, where she would become a
tragic part of its literary legacy.
MEMORIES, DREAMS &
REFLECTIONS
Marianne Faithfull
Harper. PB. $35.
Marianne Faithfull’s wonderfully
conversational new memoir picks up
where her acclaimed 1994 autobiography
Faithfull finished. With its potpourri
structure, the book is indeed a collection
of memories and reflections, dropping
back to the ’60s, which seem as fresh as yesterday, and zooming
forwards to the noughties and the amazing array of modern artists
she’s worked with – Polly Harvey, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Damon
Albarn and Beck. She reflects on exchanging life with Mick Jagger for
life as a homeless junkie, her mismatched enigmatic parents, her
‘Weimar’ years, and playing Maria Teresa in Sofia Coppola’s Marie
Antoinette. It’s all thoroughly entertaining – who wouldn’t want to
read about Marianne sitting around drinking champagne and talking
about death with Kate Moss, Donatella Versace and Cher?
FULL BLOOM: THE ART AND
LIFE OF GEORGIA O’KEEFFE
Hunter Drohojowska-Philp
Norton. HB.
Was $52.95, now $16.95.
Georgia O’Keeffe may be the best known
and least understood artist of the 20th
century. Art critic and journalist Hunter
Drohojowska-Philp sets out to address
the situation by delving behind the myths
surrounding the artist. Rather than discovering a fiercely independent
creative spirit who was supported by her mentor, the much older
photographer Alfred Stieglitz, the biographer discovers a woman
whose childhood was not charmed and whose adult life was marked
by betrayal and emotional collapse. The focus is, of course, on the
New York years and the artist’s personal and creative renewal in New
Mexico. This meticulously researched biography is accompanied by a
marvellous full-colour survey of O’Keeffe’s work and fascinating
biographical snapshots that ultimately tell the artist’s story more
cogently than the recitation of facts.
POINT TO POINT
NAVIGATION
Gore Vidal
Abacus. PB. $27.95.
Here, Gore Vidal ranges freely over his
remarkable life with his signature wit and
literary elegance. ‘Point to Point
Navigation’ refers to a form of navigation
Vidal resorted to as a first mate in the
navy during WWII. As he says, ‘As I was
writing this account of my life and times
since Palimpsest, I felt as if I were again dealing with those capes
and rocks in the Bering Sea that we had to navigate so often with a
compass made inoperable by weather’. It is a beautifully apt analogy
for the hazards eluded (mostly) during his eventful life. Here, Vidal
travels in memory through the arenas of literature, television, film,
theatre, politics and international society, recounting achievements
and defeats, (famous) friends and (equally famous) enemies made.
history
SEARCHING FOR
SCHINDLER
Tom Keneally
Random House. HB.
Was $45, now $39.95.
One afternoon in 1980, Tom Keneally, in
search of a briefcase, stepped into an
unassuming little shop in Beverly Hills.
Making polite conversation with the
owner, the topic soon turned to what
Keneally was doing in California. When the
owner discovered that he was an author, he took him aside. ‘I know a
wonderful story,’ he informed him, ‘it is not a story for Jews but for
everyone.’ Intrigued by the life of the paradoxical saint and sinner
Oskar Schindler, Keneally set out on a quest to tell his tale. Witty,
conversational and filled with interesting characters, Searching for
Schindler is the best sort of memoir: a detailed account of its author’s
pursuits, and an amusing, anecdotal account of life’s twists and turns.
SHANGHAI TANGO:
A MEMOIR
Jin Xing
Atlantic. PB.
Was $32.95, now $27.95.
Jin Xing had two passions as a little boy:
to dance and to be female. Born in the
middle of the Cultural Revolution, the
talented dancer was selected to join the
People’s Army Dance Corps at the age of
nine. Ballet eventually took Jin Xing to Paris, New York, Rome and
Brussels, where the idea of having a sex change gradually took hold.
After a five-year absence, he returned to China to be reborn as a
woman in the country of her birth. This extraordinary autobiography
by this strong-willed and determined dancer reveals the hard-working
life of a prima ballerina and the life experiences that led to her selfdiscovery and renewal – she is now the choreographer of the
Shanghai Opera House and director of her own troupe.
THE BOOK OF LOVE: IN
SEARCH OF THE
KAMASUTRA
James McConnachie
Atlantic. HB. $45.
If you’ve ever wondered how a 3rdcentury guide to Indian social mores and
relationships became a byword for sex,
this is the book for you. McConnachie
takes a fascinating meander through the
Kamasutra’s creation, its rediscovery and publication by the
swashbuckling Orientalist Richard Burton, and the rush to publish it in
the post-Chatterley glow of the early 1960s. You won’t find a
rundown of the 64 modes and moods of lovemaking that lie at the
heart of the Kamasutra’s erotic wisdom. Ultimately, McConnachie’s
book is less about the Kamasutra itself than about the society it
reflects, from 3rd-century India to Victorian Europe and today, where
books like The Pop-up Kamasutra and The Kamasutra for Cats
attest to the continued popularity of the myth, if not the content, of
the original.
BYZANTIUM
Judith Herrin
Allen Lane. HB. $49.95.
Byzantium paints a picture of the empire
that for a thousand years stood between
Western Europe and the East, one that
held back the Ottoman Turks until the fall
of Constantinople in 1453. Eschewing a
standard chronological approach, Judith
Herrin’s book is concerned with what life
was like under this highly sophisticated
culture. Zooming in on defining aspects
of Byzantium, she tells the story of the origins of the city of
Constantinople, the Cyrillic and Slavonic alphabets, Greek Fire, and
the Church of Hagia Sophia. She also fills in more intimate details of
Byzantium, such as the origin of the fork, and the function of eunuchs
at the Imperial Court. Author Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials) was
so taken with this title that he said: ‘It’s the best introduction to
Byzantine history I’ve seen. I can say with absolute certainty that I
shall steal from it several times.’
THINGS I OVERHEARD
WHILE TALKING TO MYSELF
Alan Alda
Hutchinson. PB.
Was $32.95, now $27.95.
Alan Alda is the first to admit that he
likes hearing himself talk, whether to
himself or as a guest speaker. In the
follow-up to his bestselling memoir
Never Have Your Dog Stuffed, he ponders
the big question: what constitutes a
meaningful life? The insights he has to share are drawn from the
speeches he’s given over the years since he found fame as Hawkeye
Pierce in M*A*S*H. Recalling the values he’s endorsed as a public
speaker and testing them on his own experience provides an
interesting means of looking back on life. At the heart of his inspiring
message is the futility of looking for meaning in life, for the meaning
of life according to Alan Alda is…well, you’ll just have to read the
book, won’t you?!
CITRUS: A HISTORY
Pierre Laszlo
University of Chicago Press.
HB. $38.95.
This fascinating history traces the
spectacular rise and spread of citrus
across the globe. The book starts in
Southeast Asia in 4000 BC and follows
citrus’ journey through North Africa and
the Roman Empire to early modern Spain
and Portugal, whose explorers introduced
the fruits to the Americas during the
1500s. Blending scientific rigour with personal curiosity, Laszlo
ransacks over two millennia of world history, exploring the numerous
roles that citrus has played in agriculture, horticulture, cooking,
nutrition, religion and art – from the Jewish feast of the Tabernacles
through the gardens and courts of Versailles to the canvases of
Vincent van Gogh to the huge orange groves of southern California. A
wide-ranging but remarkably pithy popular science book.
GIFT VOUCHERS
TWO LIVES:
GERTRUDE AND ALICE
Janet Malcolm
MUP. HB. $32.95.
Much has been written about the pitfalls
of biographical writing, the search for
accuracy and avoidance of bias and
hearsay. In fact, Gertrude Stein played
with the formula herself in her mockautobiography of Alice B Toklas. Janet
Malcolm – biographer of Sylvia Plath,
Chekhov and Freud – adds a dose of psychology and investigative
journalism to tease out her portrait of Gertrude Stein and Alice B
Toklas, and the often volatile relationship they shared. Provocatively,
she wonders how the two women, both Jewish and lesbian, managed
to survive life in Vichy France during WWII, and dwells on Toklas’
dogged protection of Stein’s legacy after the writer’s death in 1946.
Malcolm’s elegant little book includes classic photographs of Stein
and Toklas, and liberally quotes from Stein’s works.
11
THE DISCOVERY OF FRANCE
Graham Robb
Picador. HB. $59.95.
This is, quite simply, one of the best and
most original works of French history
you’re ever likely to read. Rather than
focusing on the French Court and the
Parisians, it instead tells the story of the
people glossed over in conventional
histories. Throughout the 18th and 19th
centuries, up to four-fifths of France’s
population lived in rural communities, some of them so isolated that
they didn’t even understand one another’s languages. France was a
ramshackle conglomeration of peoples, with such differing customs,
laws and dialects that they amounted to virtually separate nations.
Graham Robb’s meticulously detailed work tells their stories, and
also clearly explains why the French Revolution failed to rouse
much enthusiasm amongst so many of these autonomous, selfgoverning communities.
FROMELLES
Patrick Lindsay
Hardie Grant. HB. $45.
On 19 July 1916, a battle took place on the
Somme in which 2000 members of the
Fifth Australian Division, many of them
survivors of Gallipoli, were killed. It was the
greatest single loss of life in Australian
history – yet until now, the fate of many of
the missing diggers has been unknown.
Fromelles rescues from oblivion the story of one of the darkest days
in Australian history. Patrick Lindsay shows how the arrogance and
recklessness of the battle’s architect, Sir Richard Haking, doomed the
campaign to failure before it commenced. He also shows how the
obsession of a Melbourne teacher led him on a five-year quest to
discover the fate of 170 of the missing diggers who had broken
through the German lines and then vanished.
Who established the
concept of extinction?
HM BARK ENDEAVOUR:
HER PLACE IN AUSTRALIAN
HISTORY
Ray Parkin
MUP. PB.
Was $45, now $16.95.
HM Bark Endeavour recreates Captain
Cook’s 1768 voyage, and the human story
of the people who sailed with him. It was
a voyage not of conquest, but of discovery; of knowledge, geography
and navigation. The people who sailed left diaries, logs and other
detailed records of the journey and the ship’s specifications, and Ray
Parkin uses these original records to build a picture of the physical
intricacies of the Endeavour, its rigging and sails, the dangers of life
onboard, and the effort that went into manning it and attending to its
every need. He also provides interesting insights into Captain Cook’s
character, his ‘enquiring and calculating mind’, and the depth and
beauty of his observations on the world he traversed.
If you’re not 100% sure about which book will suit, why not give one of our gift vouchers?
DEATH OF A
REVOLUTIONARY
Richard L Harris
Norton. PB. $21.95.
Che Guevara is an icon the world over,
representing the spirit of revolution as
much as anything more concrete. But
many of those who wear his portrait on
their chest know very little about who he
was, what he stood for, and the ideals he
fought and died for. Californian professor
of global studies Richard Harris first published this accessible,
authoritative look at Guevara the revolutionary (and particularly the
Bolivian mission that was his downfall) in 1970. This revised and
updated edition comes at a time when genuine interest in the man is
growing again, with a major film (starring Benicio Del Toro) being well
received and several documentaries being scheduled for release in
the near future.
KATHERINE SWYNFORD
Alison Weir
Jonathan Cape. HB. $59.95.
Alison Weir is the author of a slew of
bestselling popular histories, most of
them firmly focused on women and
royalty. Her heroines are typically feisty,
intelligent and headstrong – and
Katherine Swynford, mistress and then
wife of the Duke of Lancaster, is no
exception. Renowned for her beauty, the
enigmatic Katherine enjoyed a passionate romance with one of the
most powerful princes of the 14th century. She knew most of the
great figures of her time and lived through the Hundred Years War, the
Black Death and the Peasants’ Revolt, as well as personal loss and
heartache. An important person in her own right, and a woman who
made her own decisions and shaped her own destiny, Katherine was
a woman well ahead of her time.
history
12
THAMES: SACRED RIVER
Peter Ackroyd
Chatto & Windus. HB.
Was $59.95, now $49.95.
This companion volume to Ackroyd’s London:
The Biography places the River Thames at the
very centre of British cultural, political, social,
economic and sacred life and at the heart of the
English imagination. Forgoing a chronological or linear narrative,
Ackroyd uses the metaphor of water with its runs, swirls, eddies,
undercurrents and dark places to structure his homage to ‘Father
Thames’ as the archetypal global river and the most celebrated
waterway of its length (215 miles/344 km from source to sea) on the
planet. In the Thames, Ackroyd has found the perfect subject, at once
both temporal and psychological: kings and traitors, gods and nymphs,
artists and writers, stevedores and loch-keepers, murderers, thieves
and suicides populate the 45 exhaustively researched chapters. There
are chapters on the working river; trade; pollution; fish; riverboats; river
law; river light; the river as ‘a stream of pleasure and sex’; Thames
literature and bridges; and the age-old association of the Thames with
healing, grace, rebirth and death.
SQUARE RIGGER DAYS:
AUTOBIOGRAPHIES OF SAIL
Charles W Domville-Fife
UNSWP. PB. $39.95.
The rise of the steamship in the mid-19th
century didn’t spell the immediate demise of
the sailing ship. From 1850 to 1910, these
magnificent vessels were used to carry bulky
cargoes such as wool, grain and coal all over the world. In those last
great days, the ships were manned by a dying breed of old-fashioned
sailing men who endured hardships and adventures that seem more
suited to the world of storytellers than the industrial age. In 1938,
Charles Domville-Fife published Square Rigger Days, a collection of
the experiences and adventures of these men, some of whom were by
then in their 90s. This reissue makes for enthralling reading, providing
a first-hand glimpse into their lives of danger and adventure.
NEMESIS: THE BATTLE FOR
JAPAN 1944–45
Max Hastings
Harper Press. PB. $40.
Eminent military historian Max Hastings has
written a gripping, evocative account of the
final year of the Pacific arm of WWII. The battle
with Japan, he argues, was remarkably
separate from the battle with Germany: the two countries were only
nominally allies, drawn together by common enemies. It is fitting,
therefore, that Nemesis runs parallel to Armageddon, his bestselling
book on the war in Europe. Hastings has not only pored over existing
writing and resources on the subject – he also travelled to Asia and
collected his own eyewitness accounts, which are woven into the
narrative. His approach is similar to that of Australia’s Les Carlyon
(The Great War), with similar effect: the people and events in Nemesis
are captured with such detail, such immediacy, that they fairly leap
from the page. This is narrative history at its best.
WHATEVER HAPPENED
TO TANGANYIKA?
Harry Campbell
Portico. HB. $20.
‘Harry Campbell has achieved something that
most scholars would give anything to achieve.
He has created a whole new discipline – one
which we may perhaps call nostalgic
geography.’ In his introduction, Alexander McCall Smith rightly
celebrates Campbell’s achievement in researching and writing
Whatever Happened to Tanganyika?: The Place Names that History
Left Behind. Dozens of countries, cities and counties have changed
their identity over the years. Some of the names we remember from
our schooldays or from news headlines just a few years ago are now
gone. Here, Campbell trawls through the place names that history left
behind: the stories about where they came from, what happened to
them and what they were replaced by.
society
BEST AUSTRALIAN
POLITICAL CARTOONS
Russ Radcliffe (ed.)
Scribe. PB. $27.95.
MAN OF STEEL
Russ Radcliffe (ed.)
Scribe. PB. $29.95.
Scribe’s ever-popular Best Australian Political
Cartoons series is becoming one of our essential
annual publishing events. Cartoons have the
unique ability to capture telling political moments
in a single image with a few well-chosen words – gaffes, scandals and
occasional triumphs alike. An election year is always extra-busy for our
top cartoonists, and it’s reflected here, with contributions from Bill
Leak, Peter Nicholson, Andrew Weldon and others. Man of Steel looks
back at the decade spent at the top by a prime minister who is surely
every caricaturist’s dream (those eyebrows! that bottom lip!). This
razor-sharp collection brilliantly captures the radical changes wrought
by 10 years of the Howard government, accompanied by telling quotes
from Howard, his colleagues and his opponents as they manipulate the
media, the voters…and each other.
NEMESIS: THE LAST DAYS OF
THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC
Chalmers Johnson
Scribe. PB. $35.
There will never be any shortage of books on
the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq,
but Nemesis is undoubtedly one of the best to
date. In the concluding volume of a trilogy,
Chalmers Johnson posits that the attacks were not ideologically
motivated assaults on Western democracy or Christianity. Instead, he
argues that they were repayment – ‘blowback’ – for a half-century of
secret, illegal US operations around the world that have had a
devastating impact upon poorer and less powerful nations. He unveils
how US military bases are more prolific than official figures state, and
how the trillion-dollar-a-year US military is being partly funded by
overseas credit. The result is the threat of national bankruptcy, and
the death of the American republic as we know it.
VIETNAM: THE AUSTRALIAN WAR
Paul Ham
HarperCollins. HB.
Was $55, now $46.95.
THE OXFORD COMPANION TO
AUSTRALIAN POLITICS
Brian Galligan & Winsome
Roberts (eds.)
OUP. HB. $99.95.
‘Surely God weeps’, an Australian Vietnam
veteran wrote in despair at the memory of the
Vietnam War. But no act of God intervened to
stop the long years of carnage and devastation
in this most controversial of wars. Here, Paul Ham (author of the
bestselling Kokoda) narrates in compelling detail the full story of
Australia’s involvement in our longest military campaign, in which
50,000 Australians participated. He draws on hundreds of
unpublished sources, as well as interviews with soldiers, politicians,
medical practitioners, aid providers, entertainers and the Vietnamese
people, to reconstruct the epic history of a campaign that disfigured a
country and divided the world, nations, families and friends.
THE TIMES COMPLETE HISTORY
OF THE WORLD: 5TH EDITION
Richard Overy
HarperCollins. HB. $185.
THE TIMES COMPREHENSIVE ATLAS
OF THE WORLD: 12TH EDITION
HarperCollins. HB. $295.
New editions are now available of two of the most
comprehensive, authoritative reference works in print,
both of them fully updated to include recent developments in world
politics and geography. The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World
includes a new map of Alaska and Canada, updated national and socioeconomic statistics, cutting-edge information on climate change and
major revisions to the Middle East region. New nations and capitals
have also been incorporated. The Times Complete History of the World
is internet-linked for the first time, allowing the reader to further explore
subjects of interest using a reputable and respected source. New
spreads cover warfare in the modern age, state tyranny and migration
– all current hot topics of enduring historical significance. Beautifully
produced and intricately illustrated with maps and photographs, these
books will make a valuable addition to any reference library.
politics
This comprehensive reference is the latest
Australian addition to Oxford’s esteemed series of Companions. ‘Every
Australian has a significant stake in our political system’, writes the
editors. Politics shapes not just our government, but our society and
the rules and ‘norms’ that govern it. A basic understanding of our
political system, how it operates and how it evolved is invaluable –
and is expertly delivered here. The Companion provides an accessible,
authoritative introduction to Australian politics in the form of thematic
essays by over 200 contributors on topics ranging from Aboriginal
politics and the Accord, to globalisation and the Vietnam War. All the
state premiers and prime ministers are covered, as well as the
political theories and global organisations and events that have shaped
us. This is a major contribution to Australian publishing, and a
reference that will endure for years to come.
BLUBBERLAND: THE DANGERS
OF HAPPINESS
Elizabeth Farrelly
UNSWP. PB. $29.95.
Renowned architecture writer and former
NSW City Councillor Elizabeth Farrelly
broadens her scope to examine Western
society’s addiction to acquiring ‘stuff’.
‘Blubber’, by her definition, is anything spare
or surplus. It can be good (spare time in the day, a birdsong for the
sake of it) or it can be destructive: McMansions, silicone body parts,
junk food–fuelled obesity. This is an intelligent, incisive examination
of why we can’t seem to stop overdoing everything in our quest for
happiness – even though we now know that overconsumption is not
only not making us happy, but is fast destroying the earth. Along the
way, Farrelly looks at how and why we attribute value to things
(including our definitions of beauty and desirability) and concludes
that it all stems from a desire to impress or outdo our peers.
WATCHING BRIEF:
REFLECTIONS ON HUMAN
RIGHTS, LAW AND JUSTICE
Julian Burnside
Scribe. PB. $32.95.
Julian Burnside QC is best known for his
impassioned and devastatingly articulate work
on behalf of asylum seekers in Australia. He represented the Tampa
refugees, as well as many others imprisoned in Australian detention
centres, and helped to raise the profile of their plight with a gruelling
schedule of public speaking engagements. His contribution to the
asylum-seeker debate forms a significant section of this book of
essays, the first to collect his writings on the subject. Burnside’s
talents and interests are wide-ranging: he is a noted patron of the
arts and is devoted to the intricacies of the English language (as
demonstrated in his previous book Wordwatching). All of these
interests are reflected in this considered, persuasive and endlessly
fascinating collection of essays, which also cover the law, human
rights, and justice and injustice in Australia.
COURAGE
Maria Tumarkin
MUP. PB. $32.95.
Courage is a quality this author holds dear.
Rippling across the page in marvellously
meditative style, the loosely connected
chapters combine philosophy, memoir,
history and anecdote to explore the concept
of courage and the many forms it can take.
Tumarkin’s vision of courage concerns the
spontaneous actions of everyday people.
She explores the courage we need to get by in our daily lives and to
stand up to the bullies of this world, focusing on her own experiences
as a migrant from the former Soviet Union and a wide-ranging palette
of cultural and intellectual touchstones – from the Holocaust to Dave
Eggers to Love Actually. Ultimately, she writes about the writers,
experiences and events that interest her. Because of her intelligence,
skill and passion, they interest us too. An impressive follow-up to
Traumascapes (2006).
science
CULTURAL AMNESIA
Clive James
Picador. PB. $32.95.
This is a sprawling, divergent intellectual
adventure that’s both thought-provoking
and entertaining. It’s an unsurprising
combination from James, the
consummate intellectual entertainer. This
vast project, a collection of short
biographical essays on some of the
20th-century’s most influential cultural
figures, evolved from James’s habit of
making notes in the margins of his home library. (Some figures from
previous ages who have significantly influenced 20th century thought
are also included.) Cultural Amnesia reflects those beginnings: the
essays here are an intoxicating mix of personal engagement,
measured reflection, telling detail and unusual anecdote. James
writes: ‘In this book can be heard the merest outside edge of an
enormous conversation.’ Taken together as a whole, these carefully
selected portraits form a nuanced picture of the achievements and
legacy of the last century.
THE ELEPHANT, THE TIGER,
AND THE CELL PHONE
Shashi Tharoor
Arcade. PB. $32.95.
Thoughtful, incisive and engrossing, this
book about contemporary India doesn’t fit
firmly into any particular category –
which is often a good sign. Shashi
Tharoor, a journalist and former undersecretary-general of the UN, employs a
cocktail of memoir, reportage, history and
political commentary to encapsulate India
as it is, was and will be. The diversity of style and tone, ranging from
whimsy to serious commentary, reflects the cacophony of voices,
religions and lifestyles of India itself. He writes with wit and authority
on a number of topics, including Indian identity, the demise of the sari,
the legacy of Gandhi and Nehru, the myth of the Indian middle class
and the implications of India’s growing importance as a source of
labour and expertise for Western companies – particularly IT.
A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE
Jana Wendt
MUP. HB.
Was $35, now $29.95.
The ‘perfumed steamroller’ makes the
transition from the screen to print in this
classy collection of profiles. One of
Australia’s most respected journalists,
Jana Wendt has interviewed some of the
world’s most intriguing people during her
long career. Here, she meets with several
subjects who have piqued her interest –
some of them for the first time, others revisited from earlier
interviews. The common thread running through this diverse group of
people, including Robert Hughes, Camille Paglia, Rove McManus and
Frank Gehry, is a focus on a single value fundamental to each. A
Matter of Principle delves below the surface of its famous subjects,
ranging beyond the usual territory of the ‘celebrity profile’ to discuss
what drives, challenges and confronts them.
WOULD IT KILL YOU
TO SAY PLEASE?
Alice Williams
Text. PB. $24.95.
Have you ever wondered about the finer
points of contemporary etiquette? If so,
this is the book for you. From winning
friends and influencing people, to the
gentle art of getting away with dabbling
in drugs and alcohol, this is the allencompassing guide to modern
manners. Alice Williams’ book takes a
half-serious, half-humorous look at the things old-fashioned etiquette
books just won’t tell you: when it is acceptable to text message; what
to do when you accidentally send a private email to your whole
address book; and how to survive a McJob in a call centre. Know
someone whose etiquette is below par? This is the perfect present.
And if by chance they take offence, you can always pretend it’s to
help them reform other people’s etiquette rather than their own!
ABOUT THE SIZE OF IT
Warwick Cairns
Macmillan. HB. $35.
About the Size of It takes an amusing yet
incisive look at one of those things that
affects us all, but that we rarely think
about: the art of measuring things. Why,
for instance, was it so difficult to wean
people away from using old-fashioned
pounds and feet as units of
measurement? So difficult that it could
only be accomplished through the
introduction of laws – even criminal laws? Warwick Cairns shows
how standard units of measurement evolved from the immutable
mathematical formulae that govern the relationships in size between
our hands, feet and thumbs. He also exposes the battle that raged,
and still rages, between those who support the imperial system and
the metric system, and how national prejudices and changes of
government have determined who follows which.
ANORAKS TO ZITTING
CISTICOLA
Sean Dooley
Allen & Unwin. PB. $24.95.
Sean Dooley’s first book The Big Twitch
was a significant achievement. It
recorded his successful attempt to see
the most bird species in one year,
breaking the Australian birdwatching
record. But it also made that most nerdy
of hobbies seem, well, kinda cool. In this
idiosyncratic A–Z guide, comedy writer
and ‘bird nerd’ Dooley delivers his response to all those curious
punters who sidle up to him with questions about just what a birder
is and does. Once again, he infuses his subject with a blend of
sardonic, self-deprecating humour and bursting-at-the-seams
enthusiasm, covering everything from binoculars as a fashion
accessory (silly but amusing) to how to use field guides (useful to the
novice), ethical birdwatching (useful to just about anyone) and various
entries on specific bird species and birding terms.
THE BEDSIDE BOOK OF
BIRDS: AN AVIAN
COMPENDIUM
Graeme Gibson
Bloomsbury. PB. $35.
Birdlovers won’t be alone in enjoying this
anthology of poems, pictures and tales
about our enigmatic feathered friends.
Canadian writer Graeme Gibson
discovered the magic of birds when he
saw his first albatross at sea, and it’s a
passion he shares with his wife, writer Margaret Atwood. His
delightfully illustrated compilation pays tribute to the ways we engage
with birds – in nature, art, poetry and literature. Birds enrich our lives
and touch the human spirit, but they’ve also been exploited; the
15,000 hummingbirds sent weekly from Trinidad to the hatters of
Victorian Europe are just one example. Chapters range from birds
observed, birds in folk tales and birds as companions, to birds as
omens and birds commodified. Diverse contributors include Italo
Calvino, Bruce Chatwin, Redmond O’Hanlon, Peter Matthiessen and
Judith Wright.
BIG HISTORY: FROM THE
BIG BANG TO THE PRESENT
Cynthia Stokes Brown
New Press. HB. $49.95.
Question: what is ‘big history’? Answer:
not just history, science or religion, but
the whole story, from the big bang to
now. Taking the reader through the
development of the universe, the earth
and the gradual emergence of life,
Brown then turns to the development of
Homo sapiens, and their transformation
from hunter-gatherers to the domestic creatures of today. With
domestication came the start of a far-from-harmonious relationship
with nature – the results of which we are now facing in the form of
environmental damage, pollution, increased radiation and global
warming. Will human beings stop their suicidal treatment of the only
planet they have? Or are we headed for a collision with nature – and
certain disaster? Succinct, relevant and unputdownable, this is one of
the top non-fiction picks of the year.
13
THE CANON: A WHIRLIGIG
TOUR OF THE BEAUTIFUL
BASICS OF SCIENCE
Natalie Angier
Scribe. PB. $32.95.
The Canon provides a readable and
accessible means to fill the gap in even
the greatest vacuum of scientific
illiteracy. ‘Science is fun’ Angier
proclaims in her introduction – and in
her hands, astonishingly, it is! Her
undogmatic and elegantly written book
takes the reader through the basics of the scientific canon, including
the laws of statistics, mathematics, probabilities and coincidences
(which turn out to be not nearly so coincidental after all, and can
usually be reduced to simple equations). She also looks at physics,
chemistry and the highly contentious subject of evolutionary biology,
and provides interesting insights into the battle that still rages
between evolutionists and creationists. If you’ve ever wanted to start
reading popular science and not known where to begin, this is the
perfect place to start.
THE CONSTANT GARDENER:
A BOTANICAL BIBLE
Holly Kerr Forsyth
Miegunyah. HB. $75.
Cooks have Stephanie Alexander’s
Cook’s Companion as their kitchen bible;
now gardeners have their botanical bible
in this truly comprehensive, passionate
and beautifully illustrated specimen. Kerr
Forsyth is the author of four books on
gardening and has been the Weekend
Australian garden columnist for a
decade; here she presents gardeners with everything they need, from
tips for beginners to inspiration for the green-thumbed. You’ll find an
A to Z of Holly’s favourite plants; a discussion of specific elements in
a garden, such as climbers, hedges and lawns; the prime tenets of
garden maintenance: soil, mulch, pruning, propagation, pests and
weeds; garden construction, including water features and lighting;
and a chapter on the plants and places that particularly inspire
gardeners. The author’s stunning garden photography is
featured throughout.
A STUBBORNLY
PERSISTENT ILLUSION
Stephen Hawking
Running Press. HB. $49.95.
Bestselling author and physicist Stephen
Hawking presents the ‘Best of’ Albert
Einstein, from the writings that revealed
the famous Theory of Relativity, which
has been called the most important
scientific discovery of the 20th century,
to the great man’s important works on
quantum theory, statistical mechanics
and the photoelectric effect. Also included are many of Einstein’s
philosophical essays, including ‘About Zionism and Cosmic Religion’.
Who deplores the difficulty
of eating Toblerone?
AN EXPLORER’S NOTEBOOK
Tim Flannery
Text. PB. $34.95.
Tim Flannery will need no introduction to
his army of avid readers. An Explorer’s
Notebook collects together dozens of his
unpublished reviews and essays from the
past two decades. Covering diverse
topics, they range from essays on his
adventures in Australia, New Guinea and
the Solomon Islands, to an account of the
ill-fated French exploration of Australia,
which met disaster in 1801. In two fascinating essays, Flannery
informs us how humans are prisoners of their biological imperative
and how our genes make us fall in love; and how Australia, one of the
most ‘underpopulated’ countries on the planet, is actually supporting a
population above what its environment can sustain. Filled with timely
and intelligent debate, this volume also includes a transcription of
Flannery’s magnificent 2002 Australia Day Address.
science
14
A FRAGILE BALANCE: THE
EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF
AUSTRALIAN MARSUPIALS
Christopher Dickman (illus.
Rosemary Woodford Grant)
Craftsman House. HB. $85.
Christopher Dickman has been fascinated
by marsupials since he was a boy. That
fascination is evident in this beautiful, eminently readable book, with its
loving attention to detail, its blending of occasional anecdote with fact
and its stunning wildlife illustrations. Dickman provides up-to-date
information to a general readership on the extraordinary diversity of
mammals, their intriguing behaviours, their evolutionary framework and
their interactions with other living things and the wider environment.
The tangled interactions between humans and marsupials are
examined, and the contradictory status of some species as pests and
targets for conservation is considered. This remarkable achievement
and valuable reference will delight and inform in equal measure.
THE GREAT NATURALISTS
Robert Huxley (ed.)
Thames & Hudson. HB. $75.
The great naturalists described,
experimented, collected and gave us the
means to order and understand the natural
world – to exploit it, but also to conserve it
and ensure its future survival. The stories of
nearly 40 of these great pioneers – including
Aristotle, Carl Linnaeus, Joseph Banks, Georges Cuvier (who established
the concept of extinction), Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin
– take us from Classical times to the end of the 19th century, when
natural history changed from an amateur pursuit to the specialised
profession we know today. The book is illustrated with beautiful and
precise paintings and drawings of birds, animals, fossils, fish, shells and
geology, the majority of which have been selected from the picture
archives and collections of the Natural History Museum, London.
A LIGHT HISTORY OF HOT AIR
Peter Doherty
MUP. HB.
Was $32.95, now $29.95.
In this series of essays, Nobel Prize–winner
Peter Doherty covers the history of hot air,
in every possible sense of the expression.
For most of us, the terrible reality of global
warming is only just becoming apparent,
but its roots go back to the technical
wizardry that commenced less than 300 years ago with the Industrial
Revolution. A Light History of Hot Air looks at every facet of human
activity that has contributed to our present dilemma: coal, methane,
oil, natural gas and the desire for the comforts of the modern world,
coupled with an inability to understand the attendant environmental
consequences. It also looks at how our sun-seeking lifestyles have
further imperilled our well-being, particularly amongst those who are
genetically ill-equipped to deal with large doses of radiation.
What’s a riad?
ON DEEP HISTORY
AND THE BRAIN
Lord Daniel Smail
University of California
Press. HB. $39.95.
Until the 1860s, the question of where
history began was a comfortable certainty:
with the story of the Garden of Eden, and
the creation of man. The revolution that
Darwin’s theories brought about ushered in
a new era, in which history was generally taken to begin with the rise
of civilisation. But what if it is possible to go much further back than
that, even in the absence of written records? ‘Deep history’ involves
the study of the neuro-physiological legacy that is a part of all human
beings, and investigates how much human behaviour is determined
by genetic traits that were developed long ago. What does the
development of these traits have to say about how humans lived in
the past? On Deep History and the Brain seeks the answer.
PIGEONS
Andrew D Blechman
UQP. PB. $32.95.
Did you know that pigeons and doves are
the same bird? That they were
domesticated 10,000 years ago, at
around the same time as dogs? And that
a million of them served in WWI and
WWII? And this is only the start of their
story. Where human civilisation has gone,
pigeons have followed, and the bad rep
these creatures currently have obscures a long, positive relationship
with human beings. After a chance run-in with a New York pigeonracing enthusiast, Andrew D Blechman set out to investigate the
history of this remarkable bird. Filled with fascinating tidbits of
information, his book provides an insight into the way humans and
pigeons have served one another for thousands of years, and makes
one wonder how human civilisation would have fared without them!
REMEMBERED GARDENS
Holly Kerr Forsyth
Miegunyah. HB.
Was $49.95, now $24.95.
Elizabeth Macarthur sailed into the
fledgling settlement of New South Wales
in 1790, after a horrific voyage from
England. As a comfort and a way to evoke
home in this distant and foreign land, she set about creating her
remembered garden, filling it with roses and oak trees. Edna Walling
came to gardening in the 1920s, 150 years after Elizabeth’s first
encounter with the Australian ‘wilderness’. Immediately captivated by
the natural landscape and indigenous plants, she became a leading
proponent of the Australian native garden. In Remembered Gardens,
Holly Kerr Forsyth brings to life the stories of Elizabeth, Edna and six
other women whose passions for their gardens and for garden
making have shaped our relationship with the Australian landscape.
Beautifully illustrated, the book also includes more than 200
photographs of some of Australia’s foremost gardens.
SUPER CRUNCHERS
Ian Ayres
Sceptre. PB. $35.
Just what is Super Crunching? Answer:
statistical analysis that impacts real-world
decisions. Ian Ayres’ intriguing book
provides a remarkable eye-opener into
how simple mathematical formulae can
be used to predict just about anything.
Want to know which years are going to
produce the best Bordeaux wines? Details
of the rainfall and average summer temperatures will give you the
answer, raising the ire of traditionalists when the results prove to be
spot on (as happened to the system’s inventor). Ayres also shows
how Big Brother–style Super Crunching is being used to assess
insurance risks, sports performance, aeroplane travel, people’s
spending patterns – in fact, every aspect of our daily lives. More a
study of our times than of maths, this is a fascinating, disturbing and
never-less-than-enthralling read.
VERY SPECIAL RELATIVITY:
AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE
Sander Bais
Harvard University Press.
HB. $36.95.
Who fully understands the beauty of
Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity?
What do the scientific terms and concepts that constitute our reality
really mean? This wonderful little book offers an illustrated guide to
these world-changing ideas and attendant implications. Through the
use of geometric diagrams, analogy and clear text, Bais offers insight
into such mystifying concepts as Causality, Spacetime, Momentum
and the Doppler Effect. Printed on toned paper, the text is concise and
easy to read and the subtle colorations of the opposing illustrations
are a work of art in themselves. If you have an interest in maths and
physics, this attractive little hardback will be a special treat,
summarised by the Einstein quote on the first page: ‘What I value in
life is quality rather than quantity…’.
WILDWOOD: A JOURNEY
THROUGH TREES
Roger Deakin
Hamish Hamilton. HB.
$59.95.
Wildwood reads like a travel diary; its
relaxed, easy-to-follow narrative takes the
reader around the world gathering intimate
knowledge of humanity’s profound
connection to wood and trees. Deakin
travels from Suffolk to Khazakhstan, from the Spanish Pyrenees to
Utopia in outback Australia. He details his observances of trees both
wild and cultivated, and at the same time relays his evocative daily
experiences that include a rich cast of friends and colleagues
(including Australians Ramona Koval and John Wolseley). With a keen
sense of fun and irony, the author uses his evocative storytelling
technique to take us on an unusual and informative world journey. If
you loved The Secret Life of Trees by Colin Tudge, you’ll be just as
enamoured of this title.
architecture
1001 BUILDINGS YOU MUST
SEE BEFORE YOU DIE
Mark Irving
Cameron House. HB. $65.
We cringed when we saw the title, but it
only took 30 minutes or so to fully get
into the swing of this architectural ‘best
of’ world tour and put together our
shortlist of the places we want to see
before shuffling off this mortal coil.
Organised in chronological chapters (Ancient World to the
Renaissance, Empire to Revolution, Modernism Goes Global, Fast into
the Future etc), most entries have pictures and all have architect,
location, style and materials recorded. Citations are written by a large
cast of architects and architectural historians and are extremely
accessible – if you come across a technical term that you don’t know
there’s a handy glossary at the back of the book, too. There’s also a
handy location index for those keen to plan their next travel itinerary
around some architectural ogling.
101 THINGS I LEARNED IN
ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL
Matthew Frederick
MIT Press. HB. $21.95.
Frederick, lecturer and architect, knows
his potential readership well. Slick
design with colour restraint and engaging illustrations make this a
seductive yet instructional book. It brims with simple advice on
drawing techniques; theories from the notables (Mies, Kahn, Venturi);
analysis of places (Fallingwater, Guggenheim Bilbao); and distilling
meaning (zeitgeist, genius loci). There’s no computer-aided drafting
here, and the book will bring joy to all who appreciate design,
whether they are architects (even those who struggled in the studio)
or laypeople. Packed with tips, it will be most appreciated by
practitioners and architecture students who can keep it close to help
demystify the jargon and inspire answers to universal architectural
questions. Perfect for those who line and letter, but still have the
promise of being late bloomers.
50/60/70: ICONIC
AUSTRALIAN HOUSES
Karen McCartney
Murdoch Books. HB. $69.95.
Subtitled ‘Three Decades of Domestic
Architecture’, this book is bound to
feature on Christmas wishlists around
the country. Karen McCartney, editor of
interiors magazine Inside Out, presents 15 homes built in the period
from the 1950s to the 1970s. Designed by different architects, these
homes combine outstanding architecture with gorgeous interior
design – showcased here in excellent colour photographs. A detailed
introduction places the period in a social, historical and architectural
context, and each of the selected homes is individually reviewed in an
informed and engaging style.
art
architecture
15
CORRUGATED IRON:
BUILDING ON THE FRONTIER
Adam Mornement
& Simon Holloway
Frances Lincoln. HB.
$89.95.
It can be said that Australia has
corrugated iron at the core of its psyche;
in fact, it’s almost impossible to think of
our built environment without it. This comprehensive work offers
wonderful insight into the product’s invention and development; its
employment as a global frontier material; and its use in boats, bomb
shelters, churches, housing in underdeveloped countries and many
other projects. There are chapters on the product’s current use in
contemporary architecture, including a detailed look at the work of
prize-winning Australian architect Glen Murcutt, and while the book
offers a global perspective, Australia is well represented. This
volume is much more than an attractive pictorial exposé: through
corrugated iron, it offers insight into an aspect of global culture rarely
explored. For the student or researcher, the book also includes a
useful bibliography.
GAUDÍ: COMPLETE WORKS
Isabel Artigas
Evergreen. Boxed set. $75.
This two-volume, 600-page slip-cased
set will get serious devotees of the great
Spanish architect very excited. Gaudí’s
complete works are presented in
photographs, plans and drawings,
accompanied by authoritative essays by
Isabel Artigas. A lavish number of colour
photographs are used throughout,
particularly for major works such as the Sagrada Família, Casa Milà
and Casa Batlló, and these highlight both interior and exterior detail.
Evergreen is one of Taschen’s imprints, so there’s no surprise that
the production values of this publication are incredibly high in relation
to its price.
GUARANTEE
DESIGN: INTELLIGENCE
MADE VISIBLE
Stephen Bayley
& Terence Conran
Conran Octopus. HB.
$99.95.
Some books are works of love, and this
is clearly one of them. In the past,
leading interior designer and restaurateur Terence Conran has
funnelled some of the profits from his chain of Habitat stores and raft
of influential London restaurants into projects such as the Design
Museum on London’s Thames – we suspect that the publication of
this sumptuously illustrated and beautifully designed book is another
such quasi-charitable enterprise. Opening with eight essays
introducing how design has forged its place in modern cultural
history, the book moves onto 200+ pages of A–Z listings summarising
the highlights of 20th-century design organised by name of designers
and design movements. Mackintosh and Miyake, Eames and
Ergonomics, Ikea and International Style – this book has them all.
Give this as a Christmas gift and you’ll be as popular as Jacobsen’s
1952 Series 7 stacking chair (p182).
HOT…AND BOTHERED
Michael Leunig
Penguin. PB. $24.95.
We’re obviously fans of the great Mr
Leunig (check out our cover), so were
thrilled to see that Penguin is publishing
his latest collection just in time for
Christmas. It collects the cartoons he’s done since the last volume (A
New Penguin Leunig, 2005), and presents biting political pieces
alongside his trademark whimsical numbers. There are a few paintings
and roughly half a dozen older, unpublished pieces of pure silliness. A
quality stocking-stuffer.
KLIMT
Alfred Weidinger
Prestel. HB. $295.
This exhaustive survey of the leading
artist of the Viennese Art Nouveau style
offers art lovers an irresistible
opportunity: page after page of Klimt’s
paintings and frescoes along with
illuminating commentary about his life
and career. Weidinger, an associate
director at Vienna’s Albertina Museum,
presents Klimt’s entire painted oeuvre on an unprecedented scale. His
commentary reflects the latest academic findings in chapters
featuring a wide range of topics, including Klimt and women, the
Viennese Secession, landscapes, portraits and allegories. The book’s
large format and sumptuous production values allow close
examination of the exquisite detail and luminescent quality of the
work for which Klimt is renowned, making it a perfect gift or
collector’s item. Best of all, it provides viewers with an allencompassing perspective on one of history’s greatest painters.
MUSEUM
Robyn Stacey & Ashley Hay
CUP. HB. $79.95.
From the first, European settlers were
fascinated by the flora and fauna they
found in Australia, which was so different
from that in Europe. Among a host of
collectors who soon emerged, one of the
most dedicated was Alexander Macleay,
who in 1826 arrived to collect specimens
of natural history. Museum showcases the collection he and his family
amassed over the next three-quarters of a century, now held in
Sydney’s Macleay Museum. In a series of essays, Ashley Hay details the
life of Macleay, his relationships with the great naturalists of his age
(including the young Charles Darwin), and the part played by his
remarkable family in the fulfilment of his life’s work. Robyn Stacey’s
astonishingly beautiful and vivid photographs do full justice to the
wonders contained in this magnificent collection.
NEXT WAVE: EMERGING
TALENTS IN AUSTRALIAN
ARCHITECTURE
Davina Jackson
Thames & Hudson. HB. $65.
This book profiles the 16 most exciting
young architectural studios in Australia,
and the projects that are winning them
global attention. Davina Jackson, former editor of Architecture
Australia and an associate professor of architecture at the University
of NSW, has nominated the ‘Next Wave’ of architectural talents: M3;
Richard Kirk; Bark; David Boyle; Marsh Cashman Koolloos; Adam
Haddow; Turner; Clinton Murray; Cassandra Complex; Elenburg
Fraser; Neil + Idle; Minifie Nixon; Staughton; BKK; Terroir; and Iredale
Pederson Hook. Jackson’s magazine-style profiles are accompanied
by a generous number of Shannon McGrath’s colour photographs,
making this a particularly attractive Christmas gift for those in – or
about to embark upon – an architectural or design career.
PAPUNYA: A PLACE MADE
AFTER THE STORY
Geoffrey Bardon
& James Bardon
MUP. HB.
Was $120, now $59.95.
First published in 2004, this important
work has now been republished three
times. Geoffrey Bardon’s excursion to the desert outpost of Papunya
to teach Aboriginal children in the early 1970s, and the subsequent
formation of the Papunya Tula Artists company, is well known. From
this extraordinary well of knowledge and deep understanding of the
people and their art, Bardon has produced this remarkable labour of
love: a detailed account of the artists, their country and their culture.
Numerous top-quality reproductions are accompanied by detailed
diagrams revealing the artistic and cultural meaning of the works.
This volume of more than 500 pages offers the deeper
understandings of Aboriginal culture and community that indigenous
Australians deserve. Also available in PB for the same price.
If, on inspection, you’re not happy with a book selected through this Guide, you can return it (in saleable condition) within 14
days of purchase and we’ll exchange it for another book of equivalent value or for a book voucher – the choice is yours.
NATIONAL TREASURES
FROM AUSTRALIA’S
GREAT LIBRARIES
NLA. PB.
Was $34.95, now $12.95.
National Treasures showcases dozens of
rare artefacts of Australian history that are
held in Australian libraries. Not just a
chronicle of books, it unveils a catalogue
of priceless diaries, manuscripts, maps, drawings and paintings.
Included are Andrea Corsali’s 16th-century book Lettera, which contains
the first European depiction of the Southern Cross; the journal that
Captain Cook kept on the Endeavour from 1768 to 1771; and one of the
six known copies of John Lewin’s Birds of New Holland with Their
Natural Histories, the first book on Australian birds, published in 1808.
There are also Walter Burley Griffin’s concept drawings for Canberra (the
winner amongst 137 entries in an international competition), the Mabo
Papers, Ned Kelly’s famed helmet, and a host of other fascinating
sidelights on Australian history.
THE NEW 100 HOUSES
Robin Beaver (ed.)
Images Publishing. HB. $85.
Get ready for some serious envy factor
kicking in when you flip through this
handsome edition. Most of the houses
featured here are the products of major
spending on the part of the client. Some
are truly extraordinary – wait until you see the Garcia Residence by
Ibarra Ross Design Architects and Javier Artadi’s Beach House in Las
Arenas – and some are just plain awful (Casa Renacimiento and Hawn
Residence, step on down). What’s fascinating here is the array of
architectural styles on show and the relationships between the houses
and their sites, all of which are captured beautifully in the lavish colour
photographs. There are plenty of examples from Australia and New
Zealand among a truly international line-up.
SEVEN HUNDRED PENGUINS
Penguin. HB. $49.95.
Design aficionados and book fetishists
alike will savour this decidedly quirky little
book: a kind of time capsule of book
design history. This beautifully produced
collection includes 700 memorable cover
designs that have been selected by
Penguin staff based in offices all over the
world, and represents local publishing
across the Penguin empire, from its birth
in 1935 to the beginnings of the 20th
century. Most of the covers here (displayed one-to-a-page, in full colour)
are Penguin paperbacks – designed not so much to endure as to
immediately grab the reader’s eye. Always striking, often eccentric,
occasionally hilarious in retrospect, these cover images, taken together,
reflect the spirit and flavour of Penguin over the past 70-plus years. A
definite collector’s item.
30,000 YEARS OF ART
Phaidon editors
Phaidon. HB. $69.95.
This impressively bulky book traces the
history of world art, from the beginnings
of human creativity to today. Crisp colour
reproductions of more than 1000 original
masterpieces are accompanied by
concise commentaries written by leading academics, curators and
archaeologists. An incredible variety of pieces are showcased here,
drawn from all over the world. There are Spanish cave paintings; an
ancient Egyptian ibis coffin; Donatello’s bronze David; an intricately
decorated Ottoman basin from Turkey; and Jeff Koons’ Puppy, a
sculpture in live flowers, wood and steel. The chronological
arrangement makes for easy browsing and reference, and allows the
reader to compare artistic creations from around the world at
different times in history. Infinitely collectable, this celebration of
visual creativity in all its forms can be savoured and admired by art
lovers and historians alike.
16
music
1001 CLASSICAL
RECORDINGS YOU MUST
HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE
Matthew Rye (ed.)
ABC Books. HB. $65.
Among all of the lists it seems we now
have to work through before moving on
to the great bookshop in the sky, this one
could well be the most pleasurable.
Marketed as ‘the key to understanding and appreciating the entire
body of classical music’, 1001 Classical Recordings includes sonatas,
arias and operas, choral works and symphonies – each described in a
review that also explains why certain recordings are the most
inspiring, artistically successful and satisfying. Handy features include
recommended releases, quotations that shed light on the composers
and their works, and in-depth biographical information on composers.
An indispensable companion to the best of classical music.
MUSICOPHILIA
Oliver Sacks
Picador. PB. Was $32.95,
now $27.95.
What is it that causes ordinary, unmusical
people to develop a sudden obsession
with music? Causes someone with no
musical talent to become a composer of
genius? Musicophilia seeks an
explanation for this gift, which can strike
seemingly out of nowhere. Take the case
of Tony Cicoria, a surgeon who in 1994 was struck by lightning.
Within two months, he developed a passion for Chopin, taught himself
to play the piano, and was then suddenly overwhelmed by his own
compositions in his head. Are such cases the result of brain lesions,
or temporal lobe seizures? Or do they defy scientific explanation?
Oliver Sacks (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and
Awakenings) has written a truly remarkable book, one that also
investigates the curative effect that music can have on people
suffering disorders such as amnesia, autism and depression.
THE PENGUIN GUIDE
TO RECORDED CLASSICAL
MUSIC 2008
Ivan March et al (ed.)
Penguin. PB. $59.95.
The new, completely revised edition of
this popular reference title surveys the
major classical recordings issued and
reissued over the past five decades,
many of which have dominated the
catalogue because of their sheer excellence, irrespective of their
recording dates. The most comprehensive edition to date, it indicates
key recordings on CD, DVD and enhanced SACD, including those in
surround sound. If you want the finest available version of any major
classical work (including DVDs of opera and ballet) you will find it
listed and acutely assessed in these pages. Ranging from longestablished recordings to the latest releases, this new edition
represents the cream of the international repertoire and has all the
information you need to select the finest classical music available.
ROCKWIZ: VOLUME 2
Brian Nankervis (ed.)
Hardie Grant. PB. $29.95.
1001 SONGS:
ROCKWIZ EDITION
Toby Creswell
Hardie Grant. PB. $39.95.
True aficionados of rock gravitate
towards SBS’s Rockwiz like, well, beer
drinkers towards a pub. Hosts Julia
Zemiro and Brian Nankervis truly love music, and their knowledge of
rock is encyclopaedic, enabling them to effortlessly ad-lib and riff off
their contestants. Rockwiz Volume 2, edited by Nankervis himself,
brings together all the questions from this year’s season so you can
indulge in music trivia in the comfort of your own lounge room. It
includes a bonus DVD of the first episode ever filmed (never
screened), featuring Ella Hooper and Stephen Cummings. In 1001
Songs: Rockwiz Edition, respected music critic Toby Creswell tells the
story of some of the most legendary songs ever written, from
Gershwin and Sinatra, to Leonard Cohen to Pulp. Used as a resource
for Rockwiz, this is the ultimate in music appreciation.
film
photography
ALFRED GREGORY:
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM
EVEREST TO AFRICA
Lantern. HB.
Was $100, now $89.95.
Mountaineer and amateur photographer
Alfred Gregory took the iconic shot of
Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing returning triumphantly to camp,
having made the first ascent of Everest. Gregory went on to became a
photography professional, and this collection celebrates the muchtravelled photographer’s lifetime of work. The highlight remains
Everest’s gelato landscapes, and the sheer exhaustion etched on the
faces of the men who climbed them. These are classics of mountain
photography. Gregory’s photojournalism portrait of 1960s Blackpool
and its holidaying hordes is also memorable. In his accompanying
notes, the photographer poignantly observes that the Peruvian
villagers he’d photographed would now be wearing jeans and
baseball caps, that the glacier he’d captured on Everest has now
disappeared. ‘In 1953 I photographed the silence on Everest,’ he
writes. ‘It is no longer there.’
A CENTURY OF COLOUR
PHOTOGRAPHY
Pamela Roberts
Viking. HB. $59.95.
It’s not necessary to have an interest in
photography to appreciate this
remarkable book; each page turned
reveals a little more of this extraordinary
art form that we now take for granted.
Beginning with cyanotypes in the 1840s and the first exquisitely
hand-coloured images, and progressing to an image of a bullet
travelling through a banana and 21st-century digital projections, this
collection is a wonderful portfolio of images. The text that
accompanies the photographs is fascinating to the lay reader and is
an excellent reference for scholars – particularly as there’s also a
comprehensive index of the 160 or so photographers that also
includes Web links. There’s little concern for photography’s
commercial use here; rather, the book focuses on the form as a
creative medium milked and manipulated by a broad range of
practitioners to achieve their own imaginative ends.
CINEMA NOW
Andrew Bailey
Taschen. Flexi. $90.
American film writer Andrew Bailey
examines the work and key themes of
60 filmmakers working around the world
today, from the best of young Hollywood
to the new wave of Asian mavericks to
burgeoning auteurs from Europe and
Latin America. Watch Pedro Almodóvar at work. Immerse yourself in
the stunning imagery of Wong Kar-Wai. Feel the emotional impact of
the films of Alejandro González Iñárritu and Carlos Reygadas. Live in
the strange worlds of Guy Maddin, Matthew Barney and Tsai MingLiang. Cinema Now is packed with stunning full-colour photos and
exclusive on-set photography supplied by the filmmakers. Includes a
supplementary DVD containing exclusive short films, extracts, trailers
and much more.
DONALD THOMSON
IN ARNHEM LAND
Donald Thomson
Miegunyah. PB.
Was $29.95, now $12.95.
Donald Thomson was a man ahead of his
time – an early advocate for Australia’s
Aboriginal people and a groundbreaking
anthropologist. This book is a record of
his travels in Arnhem Land in the 1930s,
told in his own words and illustrated with the many superb
photographs he took on his travels. His highly personal style of
writing (even in government reports) reflects his passionate
engagement with his work and makes for a gripping narrative
journey, akin to the travel journals of the early explorers. His words
and images provide a valuable snapshot of the Yolungu people’s way
of life during this period, covering everything from house types and
fishing methods, to food sources and ceremonial life. This book
includes a comprehensive biographical sketch of this significant
historical figure.
E.O. HOPPÉ’S AUSTRALIA
Graham Howe & Erika Esau
Norton. HB. $54.95.
EO Hoppé was once the most famous
photographer in the world. He snapped
celebrities and royalty in Britain, and
chronicled America over two years of
travel. In 1930, he travelled around
Australia, spending 10 months intrepidly
trekking between Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, tropical Queensland,
central Australia, Sydney (where the Harbour Bridge was being
constructed) and newly built capital Canberra (where his photographs
captured the irony of a few grand buildings emerging from paddocks
and bush). The wonderful images here have been buried in archives
for more than 60 years. Browsing them now, the reader is struck by
the relics of the past (Depression-era tin shanties, horses and carts
on city streets), the exotic (a camel train in the outback, Aborigines in
ceremonial dress) and the familiar (Flinders Street station, Penfolds
vineyards).
NEPAL
Richard I’Anson
Lonely Planet. HB. $79.95.
World-renowned landscape photographer
Richard I’Anson captures the remote
beauty of one of the last remaining
places still relatively untouched by the
West. The crisp peaks of the Himalayas
rise majestically above feathery clouds. Classic temples and tiered
fields squat below the peaks. Monks in richly coloured robes perform
elaborate rituals and celebrations. Market bazaars and narrow village
streets pulse with life. All of these images and more spill from the
pages of Nepal. Readers will wonder at the expert composition of
I’Anson’s photographs, as well as the many and varied attractions of
this fascinating country. An absolutely stunning book.
What’s the name of the latest novel
by the author of Lost in Translation?
THE THEATRE OF THE FACE:
A HISTORY OF MODERN
PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY
Max Kozloff
Phaidon. HB. $99.95.
This superlative volume is an intelligent,
informed and lively retrospective of
portrait photography over the past
century. Author Max Kozloff, one of the
world’s leading photography critics, has selected over 300 arresting
colour and black-and-white images to represent the genre. He
examines the personalities and temperaments behind and before the
camera, and the curious relationship between photographer and
subject. The role of the photographer as historian and witness is also
explored – the ability to store a moment in time as evidence for
future audiences, or to explore a new way of seeing things via the
photographer’s vision. A range of styles and movements are featured
and discussed, including works by Diane Arbus, Dorothea Lange,
Cindy Sherman, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa. An
outstanding achievement.
UNTITLED: PORTRAITS OF
AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS
Sonia Payes
Macmillan. HB. $150.
Photographer Sonia Payes has travelled
extensively to produce this luxurious and
hefty volume on Australian art and artists.
Sixty artists have been photographed in
their studios so that each profile becomes a photo-document of the
artist’s life and working methods. Each photographic profile is
accompanied by a straight-talking explanatory text by a recognised
writer. Payes’ photographs seem flawless and include some wonderful
interiors, such as the studios of Jeffrey Smart and William Robinson. In
other photos the environment in which the artists live or work is
emphasised and images such as Kim Westcott by a reedy dam or
Robert Jacks by a red park bench seem to make subtle allusions to
the art practice itself. A valuable addition to any arts library.
wine
food
1080 RECIPES
Simone and Inés Ortega
Phaidon. HB. $69.95.
Spanish cuisine is hot – and we’re not
talking about its use of chilli. The list of
new cookbooks being released this
Christmas is overwhelmingly dominated
by titles with an Iberian inclination, and
of all of these 1080 Recipes is the most
impressive. Even the Spaniards agree –
Simone Ortega wrote this hefty tome 30
years ago, and it has been a bestseller in Spain ever since, with
millions of copies gracing kitchens around the country. Now Simone’s
daughter Inés has joined her to update the book for a modern kitchen
and introduce it to a new generation of cooks. You may not end up
stealing Michelin stars from El Bulli’s Ferran Adrià, but after dipping
into these 1080 traditional recipes a few times you’ll certainly be
popular with family and friends. From tapas to ternera (veal) and from
crema catalana to calamares en su tinta (squid in its ink), this book is
sure to help you click those culinary castanets.
EATING FOR ENGLAND:
THE DELIGHTS &
ECCENTRICITES OF THE
BRITISH AT TABLE
Nigel Slater
Fourth Estate. HB. $35.
Nigel Slater is a marvellously witty writer,
as evidenced in his acclaimed food
memoir Toast. Eating for England is
Slater’s glorious portrait of Britain’s often
contrary and eccentric culinary culture, where a cream tea may be
celebrated as being quintessentially British but is harder to find in the
high street than an all-American blueberry muffin. Rather than a
narrative, the book is a smorgasbord of bite-sized ruminations on a
rich stew of topics, from the Seinfeldian obscure (the difficulty of
eating Toblerone) to the profound (the beauty of English churches
dressed up for harvest festival) and the profane (Starbucks and
McDonald’s). Far from being a gourmet snob, Slater reminds us of the
existence of Murray Mints, Jaffa Cakes, Dairylea cheese, Fray Bentos
and Tunnocks Teacakes. The perfect book to snack on.
There’s a great array of science and
nature titles on this summer’s newrelease shelves, including Bob Beale’s If
Trees Could Speak: Stories of Australia’s
Greatest Trees (Allen & Unwin, PB,
$39.95), an evocative portrait of
Australia – its history, culture and people
– through the stories of its amazing
trees. On the other side of the planet,
Barbara Kingsolver, author of The
Poisonwood Bible, resolved that for a
year, she and her family would buy only
food raised locally, grow it themselves or
learn to live without it. Animal,
Vegetable, Miracle: Our Year of Seasonal
Eating (Faber, PB, $29.95) is her
fascinating account of this undertaking.
Talking of eating prompts us to mention
Marco Pierre White’s The Devil in the
Kitchen (Orion, PB, $27). The überchef
may have made cooking look sexy in the
late ’80s and ’90s, but his legendary
temper made him more enemies than
fans – something he recounts in this
unputdownable memoir.
There’s no doubt that White is a great
chef, but does he know how to make
traditional Italian preserves? Peter
Demaio does, and he has produced a
handy collection of preserving recipes
based on knowledge passed to him by
his Calabrian parents in Preserving the
Italian Way (Memoirs Foundation,
PB, $39.95).
FRENCH LESSONS
Justin North
Hardie Grant. HB. $59.95.
Serious foodies the world over
acknowledge that French cooking forms
the basis of most modern cuisines.
Witness the Iron Chef’s main categories
for its gladiatorial cooking tournaments:
Japanese, Chinese and, yes, French. But
many of us are untrained in the
techniques that underpin this cuisine, be they making a good stock,
whipping up a velouté or vinaigrette, concocting a confit or mastering
the dreaded soufflé. New Zealander Justin North worked for Raymond
Blanc in England before moving to Sydney and eventually opening his
own restaurant, Bécasse. Here, he demystifies classic French dishes,
explaining the techniques and providing easy-to-follow recipes that
all of us should be able to master. The book’s photographs are a feast
unto themselves.
MEDIEVAL CUISINE OF THE
ISLAMIC WORLD
Lilia Zaouali
University of California
Press. HB. $44.95.
Part history and part cookbook, Lilia
Zaouali’s investigation into the development
and spread of classic Arab cuisine makes
absolutely fascinating reading. In his
foreword, Charles Perry, author of Medieval Arab Cookery, notes that
there are more cookbooks in Arabic from before 1400 than in the rest
of the world’s languages put together – which explains the Islamic
world’s incredibly refined and elegant cuisines. The first half of the
book gives cultural background and culinary context; the second half
gathers a selection of original recipes drawn from medieval culinary
sources along with 31 contemporary North African recipes that evoke
the flavours of the Middle Ages. Impress your friends by whipping up
Moroccan bestilla (pigeon pie) – it and other recipes are easy to make
and oh-so-delicious!
MAGGIE’S HARVEST
Maggie Beer
Lantern. HB.
Was $125, now $99.95.
We hazard a guess that Stephanie
Alexander might be just a wee bit
nervous about the publication of this
encyclopaedic and sumptuously
presented book by her friend and fellow
high-profile cook, Maggie Beer. And
that’s because this publication could
well give The Cook’s Companion a run for its money in the ‘kitchen
bible’ stakes. Maggie’s Harvest has an even more attractive
presentation than the Companion (is this the most gorgeous cover
ever?) and an equally intuitive organization (first by season and then
by alphabetised ingredient). These are the recipes your mum or
grandma might have cooked, albeit sometimes refined by artisan and
imported ingredients. Maggie’s enthusiasm for fresh produce and
unfussy recipes shines through the pages, and her writing is both
engaging and authoritative. Fabulous.
Geeks everywhere will rejoice at the
publication of Geekspeak: Why Life +
Mathematics = Happiness by Graham
Tattersall (Fourth Estate, PB, $28). Being
marketed as the quirky offspring of
Steven Levitt’s Freakonomics, it melds
ingenious statistical analysis with
edifying trivia to explain away some
curious facts of life.
The summer holidays are always a great
time to enjoy some travel writing, and
this year there are loads of new titles to
choose from. After his writing debut
Kitchen Confidential, gonzo chef Anthony
Bourdain went on to write more foodrelated books and host a travel
programme on the Discovery Channel.
The entertaining book of the television
series, No Reservations: Around the
World on an Empty Stomach
(Bloomsbury, PB, $35), sees him
travelling through Asia, Africa,
Europe and the Americas in search
of great meals.
Equally entertaining is Peter Moore’s
Vroom by the Sea (Bantam, PB, $24.95),
his follow-up to the bestselling Vroom
with a View. In it, Moore takes a trip
along the Italian coast on Marcello, a
Vespa that’s the same shade of orange
as Donatella Versace. He catches up
with some of the characters from the
first book and meets plenty of new ones
along the way.Moore loves Italy like
Australian Ellie Nielsen loves Paris –
17
MODERN ITALIAN FOOD
Stefano de Pieri
Hardie Grant. PB.
Was $39.95, now $14.95.
Stefano de Pieri loves food – particularly
of the Italian variety. And this attractive
book features his modern takes on
classic dishes such as yellow polenta
with braised tripe, baccalà mantecato
(creamed cod) and tortellini with
prosciutto and chicken. Earl Carter’s wonderful photographs convey
the simple allure of these dishes perfectly, and simple really is the
operative word here – you won’t need to slave for hours over a hot
stove or needlessly fuss with presentation to impress people with
these dishes. There are interesting chapters on Italian wine and
cheese, as well as a chapter dedicated to preserves. Quite possibly
the greatest bargain in this year’s catalogue – grab a copy while
stocks last.
that is, with a passion. Nielsen’s Buying
a Piece of Paris: Finding a Key to the
City of Love (Scribe, PB, $29.95) is
both a love song to Paris and an
entertaining account of buying some
of its real estate.
For some travel tales from the world’s
finest writers, grab a copy of The Conde
Nast Traveler Book of Unforgettable
Journeys, edited by Klara Glowczewska
(Penguin, PB, $24.95). It includes Russell
Banks writing on the Everglades,
Francine Prose exploring the secrets of
Prague and Robert Hughes taking us on
a tour of Italy. It’s a perfect gift for the
armchair travellers in your life.
After reading Tony Kevin’s Walking the
Camino: A Modern Pilgrimage to
Santiago (Scribe, PB, $32.95), armchair
travellers may well be inspired to set off
on this historic pilgrimage route
themselves. Kevin beautifully captures
the flavour of what it was like to walk
the Camino, and includes observations
and anecdotes about the nature of
contemporary Spain. His book is also a
profound personal meditation on the
nature of modern life.
Uncommissioned Art: An A–Z of
Australian Graffiti (Miegunyah, HB,
$39.95) is Christine Dew’s
comprehensive documentation of
Australian graffiti since the 1970s.
Lavishly illustrated and very reasonably
priced, it will make a perfect Christmas
gift for anyone interested in art and
popular culture.
Do Ants Have Arseholes? (Sphere, PB,
$19.95) by Jon Butler and Bruno Vincent
is bloody ridiculous – but very funny. A
silly collection of questions taken from
the popular letters page of the fictional
Old Git magazine, it tackles questions
we’ve all wanted to have answered at
some stage or another (eg, where
exactly is the middle of nowhere?).
Equally silly is Nosepicking for Pleasure
(Roland Flicket, Simon & Schuster, PB,
$14.95). It’s sure to be a major hit with
adolescent boys (or those with their
adolescent boy still trapped inside).
What Pets Do While You’re at Work (Bev
West, Scribner, PB, $14.95), an album
of caught-in-the-act photos your
beloved furry ones never meant you to
see, will appeal to animal lovers with a
sense of humour.
AJ Jacob describes himself as Jewish
by birth but not by inclination and The
Year of Living Biblically (Heinemann,
PB, $35) is his hilarious account of a
year spent trying to live up to exactly
what the Good Book says. Avoiding
shellfish was easy, but stoning
adulterers proved a little more difficult –
and potentially controversial…
The Reverend Guppy’s Aquarium (Philip
Dodd, Random House, HB, $39.95) is
one of the cleverest titles we’ve seen in
the shop for a while. It explores the lives
of an astonishingly diverse range of
people who happen to have one thing in
common: for better or worse, they have
left their names deeply embedded in
the language and consciousness of
future generations.
And finally: humour, a love of adventure
and a lavish application of nostalgia
made The Dangerous Book for Boys a
bestseller last Christmas, and we’re
pleased to see a dedicated Australian
edition (Conn & Hal Iggulden,
HarperCollins, HB, $45) hitting the
shelves this Christmas.
food
18
MOVIDA: SPANISH
CULINARY ADVENTURES
Frank Camorra &
Richard Cornish
Murdoch. PB. $45.
Frank Camorra runs Melbourne’s most
popular Spanish restaurant, and has
titled this book in its honour. Like the
food served up at MoVida, there’s an
emphasis here on simplicity; Camorra
encourages home cooks to buy the best local produce available, be
led by the season and enjoy the cooking process. There’s a huge
array of tapas dishes to prepare as well as loads of mains, including
a chapter on rice (if you’ve ever wanted to cook paella, this book
will show you how to do it properly) and one on smallgoods (you can
even impress guests with some home-made chorizo). With plenty
of information about Spanish ingredients, cooking methods and
culinary traditions, MoVida captures the essence and exuberance
of Spanish cuisine.
MY CHINA: A FEAST
FOR ALL THE SENSES
Kylie Kwong
Lantern. HB. $79.95.
As much a travelogue as a cookbook, My
China recounts Kylie Kwong’s trip
through China exploring its food and
culture. Here, the popular Australian chef
really hits her cookbook-writing stride,
eschewing the occasionally infelicitous
flirtations with other cuisines in her previous books and concentrating
on what she cooks best – truly great Chinese dishes. She travels
around eight provinces of China, pops into Tibet and Hong Kong and
samples many extraordinary meals along the way. There are loads of
recipes here as well as a banquet of photographs and cultural tidbits.
Truly delicious.
SECRETS OF THE
RED LANTERN
Pauline Nguyen
Murdoch. HB.
Was $59.95, now $49.95.
With Secrets of the Red Lantern: Stories
and Vietnamese Recipes from the Heart,
Sydney chef Pauline Nguyen has written
an unusual and very moving
cookbook/memoir. Nguyen’s family came to Australia as refugees
from Vietnam in the late 1970s, and here she recounts the story of
forging her new life in Cabramatta. Growing up with emotionally
distant restaurateur parents was clearly difficult, but Nguyen
acknowledges the influence her mother and father have had on her
life and career, and in many ways this book is a tribute to them. If
you’re a devotee of Vietnamese cuisine and are keen to emulate
some of the classic dishes in your own kitchen, this richly designed
book will show you how. A delight.
TURQUOISE: A CHEF’S
TRAVELS IN TURKEY
Greg & Lucy Malouf
Hardie Grant. HB. $69.95.
Greg Malouf is one of Australia’s best
known chefs, celebrated for his ‘modern
Middle Eastern’ style, which draws on
his Lebanese heritage. He and Lucy Malouf have co-authored three
bestselling food books; here, they travel to Turkey to explore an
exciting yet under-appreciated cuisine, while immersing themselves
in a great culture. This gorgeous book combines two of life’s greatest
pleasures – travel and food – blending travelogue and recipes with
inspiring photographs. Some of the recipes are authentic, collected
from locals along their travels, but many more are Greg’s original
interpretations of classic recipes, inspired by his experiences.
Turquoise proves that Turkish food is so much more than the
ubiquitous eggplant or lamb kebabs – it’s a rich and varied seasonal
cuisine with an inherent reverence for its ingredients.
What’s wrong with Tinker Bell?
MY FRENCH VUE:
BISTRO COOKING AT HOME
Shannon Bennett
Simon & Schuster. HB.
$49.95.
Melbourne-based chef Shannon Bennett
follows up his bestselling tour of French
cuisine, My Vue, with this exquisitely
presented, seductively simple guide to French cooking at home. The
owner of Vue de Monde presents easy-to-cook modern French food for
the home. The secret of this book (and the recipes within) lies in the
details. Simon Griffiths’ sumptuous photography illustrates the enticing
elegance of the perfect sardines on toast, duck salad, green peppercorn
sauce and warm pistachio cupcakes. The ingredients here are easy to
obtain, the techniques familiar, the instructions easy to follow; this is
one beautiful cookbook that won’t linger on the bookshelves – it’s sure
to find its place on the kitchen bench, to be used over and over again.
NIGELLA EXPRESS
Nigella Lawson
Chatto & Windus. HB.
Was $69.95, now $59.95.
It’s a truism to say that most of us lead
busy lives and don’t have time to fuss
around in the kitchen. Here, the kitchen
goddess helps us all by showing how to
whip up delicious meals in a hurry. The
number of photographs of Nigella is
annoying, but the recipes themselves are varied and universally
pleasing – they are particularly good for children or inexperienced
cooks to try as the instructions are clear and simple and each recipe
is accompanied by a full-page colour photograph showing
presentation. There are chapters on giving parties, cooking Mexican
food, zooming through Christmas preparations and concocting
comfort food. With its short-cuts, tips on time-saving and guide to
hitting the kitchen running, Nigella Express gives the term ‘fast food’
an alluringly different meaning.
THE WEEKEND COOK
Matthew Evans
Random House. PB. $34.95.
NEVER ORDER CHICKEN
ON A MONDAY
Matthew Evans
Random House. PB. $34.95.
It seems only yesterday that Matthew Evans began his recipe column
in the Good Weekend. In fact, he’s been delighting us with his simple
but tasty recipes for a decade. The Weekend Cook is a diminutive but
useful ‘best of’ collection from the GW column. There are loads of
breakfast and brunch ideas (he’s clearly a late riser) and a melange of
predominantly Italian and traditional Anglo recipes (everything from
soft polenta with braised mushroom ragout to shepherd’s pie). Evans
is as good at writing about food as he is at cooking it, something
that’s clear in Never Order Chicken on a Monday, his just-published
kitchen memoir. Clearly aspiring to be the Antipodean Anthony
Bourdain, he writes compellingly about his apprentice days in the
kitchens of two Canberra restaurants and his five-year tenure as the
chief restaurant reviewer with the Sydney Morning Herald.
THE WORLD ATLAS OF
WINE: 6TH EDITION
Hugh Johnson
& Jancis Robinson
Michell Beazley. HB. $79.95.
Written by the world’s most authoritative
wine duo, the new edition of this
essential reference reflects current
realities in the world of wine. Each of its
200 detailed maps has been thoroughly
researched and updated, with pages devoted to the New World
showing a lot of changes – three new maps have been added to
California (Rutherford, Oakville, Stags Leap), three to Australia
(Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Limestone Coast), two to New Zealand
(Central Otago, Martinborough) and one to South Africa (Constantia).
In addition, the South American section receives a complete revamp.
In Europe the dynamism of the new Old World is in evidence, with
Sicily, the Douro, Greece and Germany all receiving extra pages.
philosophy
THE ATHEIST’S BIBLE
Joan Konner
Hardie Grant. HB. $24.95.
In the wake of a recent deluge of books
propounding and promoting atheism,
there now comes The Atheist’s Bible – a
nifty little number that collects together
the atheistic thoughts of a host of dead
and living thinkers. From ancients such
as Aristotle, through to 18th-century
luminaries such as Voltaire, Benjamin
Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, and on
to 20th-century figures from Woodrow Wilson to Frank Sinatra, Joan
Konner’s book provides hundreds of quotes from those who have not
only questioned religion, but dared to speak their minds. Whether you
agree with them, or think that they come across as being as arrogant
and intolerant as the religious folk they deride, their thoughts make
for very interesting reading.
THE HUMAN TOUCH
Michael Frayn
Faber. HB.
Was $59.95, now $19.95.
Would the universe really exist if we
weren’t here to perceive it? Well,
perhaps it would – but we can help give
it meaning. In a work of philosophy on a
grand scale, Michael Frayn looks at the
part humans have played in shaping an
understanding of the universe. From the
Renaissance to Isaac Newton and Albert
Einstein, he covers every aspect of the human experience. If the big
bang was the beginning of the universe, what was there before it?
What about cause and effect – is everything linked to everything?
And what about space, time and numbers – if we humans didn’t
know about them, would they matter? Ruminating and speculating on
everything under the sun, The Human Touch will be welcomed by all
lovers of in-depth, heavy-duty philosophy.
THE PORTABLE ATHEIST
Christopher Hitchens (ed.)
Da Capo. PB. $35.
The fiercely opinionated, prodigiously
talented Christopher Hitchens is famous
for his passionate opposition to religion
in all its forms. In 2007, he joined fellow
atheist Richard Dawkins on the
bestseller lists with God is Not Great.
Here, he continues his argument with the
help of fellow travellers, old and new. He
presents a selection of almost 50
writings on the subject – many of them excerpts from longer texts –
designed to inspire the interested reader to follow the most intriguing
trains of thought further, while benefiting from a varied, holistic
approach to the topic. Hitchens himself is in fine form in his
lacerating introduction; other contributors include John Stuart Mill,
Karl Marx, Philip Larkin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Salman Rushdie.
A SECULAR AGE
Charles Taylor
Harvard University Press.
HB. $69.95
It’s common now, at least in the West, to
think of society as secular: we no longer
belong to a single faith, but have wildly
different views about meaning, religion,
spirituality and materiality. What are the
implications for our communities? How
has secularism changed us? How did it
all come about? Philosopher Charles
Taylor offers a detailed historical perspective and gradually unearths a
fresh and insightful understanding of the many-faceted ideas and
beliefs we harbour. His chapter headings say it all: The Impersonal
Order; The Dark Abyss of Time; The Expanding Universe of Unbelief;
Religion Today; Cross Pressures; Dilemmas. This is a substantial,
absorbing work that will inspire readers to examine their own ideas
about what it means to live in this radical new era.
travel
THE ASIA BOOK
Lonely Planet. HB. Was $55,
now $49.95.
THE AFRICA BOOK
Lonely Planet. HB. Was $55,
now $49.95.
These stunning books each showcase a
continent – region by region, country by
country – using lavish full-colour
photography accompanied by informed and
fascinating text. The entries cover
landscape, potted histories, myths and
legends, random facts, film and writing set
in or about the place, trademarks, wildlife,
marketplace, and the urban scene. The
reader discovers information as diverse as
where exactly the famous phrase ‘Dr
Livingstone, I presume?’ was uttered, when and where the dodos
lived, the best ecotourism spots and how to read a newspaper while
floating in the Dead Sea. These books promise hours of browsing
pleasure, whether it’s planning your next trip or simply taking in the
wonders of some of the most exotic places on earth from the comfort
of your own armchair.
BRINGING TUSCANY HOME
Frances Mayes &
Edward Mayes
Random House. HB.
Was $49.95, now $14.95.
After Frances Mayes fell in love with
Tuscany and Bramasole, millions of
readers read of the experience through
her three bestselling memoirs. Here,
Frances and her husband Edward share the essence of Tuscan life as
they have lived it, offering specific ideas and inspiration to bring the
beauty and spirit of Tuscany into everyone’s home decor, meals,
gardens and entertaining. This sumptuously illustrated book will help
you do everything from cultivating a Tuscan garden to selecting the
best Italian vino and baking delicious biscotti. In addition, it will help to
make the most of a trip to Tuscany, as Frances also writes about her
favourite hill towns, restaurants, small museums and other places.
CHASING BOHEMIA
Carmen Michael
Scribe. PB. $32.95.
Travel industry executive Carmen
Michael landed in Rio de Janeiro with a
jaded ‘seen everything’ air. South
America was the only continent she
hadn’t ‘done’ and she planned to stay
only a few days; instead, she stayed for
four years, shedding her cynicism and
rediscovering the passionate traveller
within. This is a sparkling, charismatic,
unpredictable ride through a wildly disparate Brazil, led by a writer as
likely to travel alone to a macho-fuelled out-of-town rodeo as to turn
up at the door of a fabulous mansion and wheedle her way into living
there. Chasing Bohemia brings alive the beaches and slums, the
decadent bohemian district, the frivolous high-society gatherings and
the hedonistic culture of Brazil.
DEER HUNTING WITH JESUS
Joe Bageant
Scribe. PB. $32.95.
This marvellous blend of reportage,
political commentary and storytelling
attempts to articulate the experience of
white working-class Americans, and to
explain why their vote has been so
successfully captured by the Republican
party – against their own interests. Joe
Bageant writes about his home town of
Winchester, Virginia, using it as a
microcosm to represent small towns like it across America:
fundamentalist Christian, beer swilling, gun loving, television addicted,
hard-working and perilously deep in debt. He sits in the local pub,
visits gun shows, chats to his preacher brother and old friends who
still work at the local Rubbermaid factory, and talks frankly with one of
the town’s mortgage brokers. Bageant is like a cross between Michael
Moore (with less ego), Studs Terkel and Barbara Ehrenreich, and this
masterful book is affectionate and angry all at once.
A HOUSE IN FEZ
Suzanna Clarke
Viking Australia. HB.
$49.95.
When Suzanna Clarke, current arts editor
of the Brisbane Courier, and her husband
Sandy McCutcheon, formerly of ABC
Radio National, first travelled to Morocco
in 2002, little did they think they would
end up buying and painstakingly
restoring a house there. The idea was preposterously 19th century, as
one of their friends dismissively commented, and their lives were well
and truly based in Brisbane, not in the Maghreb. But the medieval
medina in Fez, Morocco’s most historically important city, worked its
magic on them and soon they were the proud owners of a 300-yearold, architecturally significant riad (traditional courtyard house). This
book tells the story of their painstaking restoration of the house, and
of Suzanna and Sandy’s growing understanding of the Moroccan
people and their wonderfully rich culture.
LONELY PLANET
BLUELIST 2008
Lonely Planet. PB. $34.95.
Now in its third year, Lonely Planet’s
Bluelist annual offers a smattering of
‘go-to’ destinations for 2008. The editors
have searched the world for the most
intriguing destinations: some of them
timeless in their attractions (Bologna,
Italy; Fez, Morocco), others off the beaten
track (Papua New Guinea, Yemen). But
don’t go looking for London, Sydney or New York – the idea of this
travel taster is to offer experiences you might not have thought of
yourself, not to go over the most obvious traveller pitstops. The
feature on travel through the world’s Islamic countries (by noted
Muslim writer Waleed Aly) goes beyond the stereotypes to reveal a
diverse, culturally rich range of possibilities. And the excellent lists of
risky pursuits, travel fads, green travel experiences and mythic
journeys will whet anyone’s travel appetite.
NEW EUROPE
Michael Palin
Weidenfeld & Nicolson. PB.
$49.95.
The ever-affable Michael Palin is now
almost as well known for his BBC travel
documentaries as for his Monty Python
work. This beautifully produced,
copiously illustrated book is the
companion to his most recent BBC
adventure. Palin’s latest itinerary is both
exotic and familiar – a journey through Europe’s former Communist
countries, from the newly fashionable Croatian coast to the Ukraine to
East Germany. He talks to locals, government officials, celebrities and
tour guides, capturing both centuries-old and recent history, as well
as the vibrant contemporary culture that characterises each
destination. The shadows of the Iron Curtain, the Holocaust and the
often-fraught transition to capitalism are ever-present, but this is also
a journey of discovery and celebration as the new millennium dawns
on a new, united Europe. Intriguing and engaging.
RHYTHMS OF THE
KIMBERLEY
Russell Guého
Fremantle Press. PB. $35.
This gorgeous book takes the reader on
a journey through the breathtaking
contrasts of Western Australia’s
Kimberley. The beautiful illustrations
pulse with colour: rich red sands,
shocking blue skies, the luscious pastels of underwater anemones.
Guého records the seasonal events that measure the march of time
through the region, including massive tides, cataclysmic cyclones, the
flowering plants and the impact of exotics on the environment. Tim
Winton provides the foreword, and praises the book for ‘its sense of
intimacy and its gentle guidance’. A homage to the natural beauty of
this dramatic place.
19
SOFFRITTO
Lucio Galletto & David Dale
Allen & Unwin. HB.
Was $49.95, now $44.95.
In Italy in 1938, 16-year-old Anna
Galletto ran away with Gino Guelfi, a
charming gelato-maker she had met at a
local dance. Thirty-seven years later,
their nephew Lucio arrived to work at the
restaurant his father, Anna and Gino ran
near Rome. In what was becoming a family trait, he met a beautiful
girl in the restaurant bar and ended up running away to Australia with
her and becoming a successful restaurateur. In Soffrito (the term for
the core ingredients from which a great dish is built), David Dale
traces Lucio’s journey back to his birthplace Lunigiana, in northwest
Italy, on a mission to understand the Ligurian family, food and culture
that are at the core of both his career and his identity.
THROUGH THE
CHILDREN’S GATE
Adam Gopnik
Quercus. PB. $29.95.
Early in Through the Children’s Gate,
Adam Gopnik writes that his young
daughter Olivia, when riding in New York
cabs, always demanded to sit before the
schematic map of Manhattan on the
back of the cab’s front seat, while the
city sped by beside her. ‘This book is like
that map’, he tells us. ‘New York is
always somewhere else, across the river or on the back of the front
seat.’ In a serious of beautifully written sketches, he captures the
essence of a city so diverse that it can only be understood piece by
piece: through the intricacies and absurdities of apartment-hunting;
the decline and fall of psychoanalysis; and the certainties of daily life
that remain, and always will remain, in the post-9/11 world.
TO HELLAS AND BACK
Lana Penrose
Viking. PB. $29.95.
This Australian 30-something’s memoir
about living in the sun-soaked
Mediterranean has more than a whiff of
‘Almost French in Greece’ about it. Lana
Penrose was working for MTV and living
in an apartment with harbour views
when her boyfriend was offered his
dream job in Athens. She was more than
happy to follow him, imagining a
glamorous life of leisure. Obstacles are to be expected in this genre:
language barriers, culture shock, encounters with eccentric locals. All
those ingredients are here, but there’s more than that, too. Lana tells
it like it is, rather than filter her experiences through rose-coloured
glasses. To Hellas and Back: My Modern-Day Greek Tragedy is raw,
darkly funny and often poignant, likeably capturing the realities of
adjusting to life in a new country.
TRADING IN MEMORIES:
TRAVELS THROUGH A
SCAVENGER’S FAVOURITE
PLACES
Barbara Hodgson
Chronicle. HB. $29.95.
Sometimes the flimsiest souvenirs
provide us with the richest memories of our travels. Canadian author
Barbara Hodgson collects fragments of people’s material lives when
she travels: lost animal posters, bundles of letters and photographs,
bills and receipts. Her favourite cities for collecting ephemera are
Brussels over Amsterdam, Naples over Rome, Los Angeles rather than
New York. The result of her foraging in dusty bookshops and flea
markets is this sumptuous little book of curiosities. She guides us
through London’s cemeteries, the markets of Paris, Budapest’s
bookstores, the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul and the souqs of Damascus
and Aleppo – and she also reminds us that scavenging for cast-offs
closer to home can be the best experience of all.
humour
20
BORAT’S GUIDE TO THE
U, S AND A
Borat Sagdiyev
Boxtree. HB.
Was $35, now $29.95.
Sacha Baron-Cohen’s satirical superstar
creation is now an author – despite his
attachment to a form of English that is
not so much broken as obliterated. This
dangerously funny book doubles as a
guide to the US and to Borat’s Kazakhstan. Did you know that the
Americans have stolen the Eiffel Tower and the cities of London, Paris
and Venice and moved them to Las Vegas? Or that Mount Rushmore
was created when ‘four terrible sex criminals were punished by being
turned into stone by gypsy curse’? Of course, in Kazakhstan, sex
criminals are celebrated...and brothers and sisters play sex games,
persecution of Jews is a national sport and women are ‘milked’ to
make cheese. Not recommended for those with weak stomachs.
THE CHASER ANNUAL 2007
The Chaser
Text. PB. $27.
George W Bush waged a war on terror,
but only The Chaser has had the vision
and courage to wage a War On
Everything. This year, no target has been
spared in The Chaser Annual 2007: The
Other Secret. The hit list is
comprehensive: John Howard, Telstra,
the Pope, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Kim Beazley, Simone
Warne and – most of all – those annoying people who write feeble
hyperbole in TV press kits. Here, the team behind CNNNN and The
Chaser Decides have done what they do best – confronted and
lampooned key players from the world of politics, business, religion,
media and culture.
THE RIDDLES
OF THE SPHINX
David Bodycombe
Penguin. PB. $26.95.
The full title of this book is The Riddles
of the Sphinx…and the puzzles, word
games, brainteasers, conundrums, maps,
mysteries, codes and ciphers that have
baffled, entertained and confused the
world over the last 100 years. It’s a
grandiose title for a very clever idea –
examining the most fascinating stories
behind the world’s most popular varieties of brainteasers. Why are
they so popular, who are the people that have developed them, and
where have they come from? Skipping from Lewis Carroll’s word
ladders to how the Times crossword won WWII, The Riddles of the
Sphinx is the bible for anyone who likes a brain teaser.
SIGNSPOTTING 2
Doug Lansky
Lonely Planet. PB.
$19.95.
After even the most cursory
flick through this laugh-outloud little book, it’s clear why
the first Signspotting deserved this sequel. World traveller Doug
Lansky has a quirky hobby: he collects inadvertently funny signs. For
many, the humour comes from mistranslation from other languages
(‘soft fried crap’ instead of ‘crab’) or instances where the author is
obviously unaware of double entendres (the ‘Fat Ho Elderly Center’).
However, the funniest – and most numerous – examples here come
from cultural oddities in English-speaking countries. A sign in Idaho
reads ‘Warning to Tourists: Do Not Laugh at the Natives’. A crisis
counselling phone at a suicide spot on the Golden Gate Bridge is out
of order. In Venice Beach, a notice implores ‘Host & Dishwasher
Needed: Live the Dream’. Wonderful.
FREE ORDER SERVICE
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THE BAREFOOT INVESTOR
Scott Pape
Pluto. PB. $25.95.
A refreshingly no-bullshit guide to
finance, for people who are more
concerned about living the life they want
than getting rich quick. This is the
revised and updated version of the
original bestseller that launched the
career of author Scott Pape, now a
respected national media commentator
on financial affairs. The Barefoot Investor is written in direct, straighttalking language, and its message is as gimmick-free as its prose.
Don’t borrow to buy things you can’t afford and don’t need. Make
sure you put aside money to pay your bills and expenses, plus a little
bit extra for investing – then go and enjoy yourself with what’s left
over. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Invest in what you
know. Simple, sensible and eminently logical.
THE DARING BOOK
FOR GIRLS
Andrea J. Buchanan
& Miriam Peskowitz
Harper. HB.
Was $45, now $37.95.
Why should boys have all the fun? Hot
on the heels of the bestselling The
Dangerous Book for Boys comes this
manual for everything that girls need to know. Female heroes in
history, secret note-passing skills, science projects, friendship
bracelets, double dutch, cats cradle, the perfect cartwheel or the
eternal mystery of what boys are thinking – this book has it all, even
a guide to giggling at sleepovers! Whether readers consider
themselves tomboys, girly-girls or a little bit of both, this book is
every girl’s invitation to adventure.
TIGGER ON THE COUCH
Laura James
HarperCollins. PB. $23.
‘The more she read, the more she realised
that Neverland was indeed a dysfunctional
community.’ These are the words of Laura
James, author of Tigger on the Couch. A
lover of fairytales as a child, she grew up
to wonder why there was so much
suffering amongst these characters – and
with her interest in psychology, she
suspected there could be a psychological reason. Viewed from the
therapist’s couch, it is clear that Tinker Bell has Borderline Personality
Disorder, Eeyore is dysphoric, and that Tigger could do with a good
dose of Ritalin. With short, snappy segments on mental and personality
disorders, this book provides interesting insights into the reasons
behind these characters’ oddities – and might help you diagnose a
few individuals suffering similar problems in the real world!
WHEN WE WERE FIFTY
Christopher Matthew
John Murray. HB. $29.95.
‘At 50 the world can suddenly seem
everyone’s oyster. One is still young
enough to rediscover long-forgotten
pleasures.’ So says Christopher Matthew
in his introduction to When We Were Fifty
– and he has written a book of witty and
irreverent poems to prove it. Not for him
the business of encouraging 50somethings to become dull, responsible, respectable citizens who
spend their days making money and finally finding time to read the
Iliad. As one poem puts it: ‘I’ve better things to do all week/Than
waste my time on some old Greek’. In his hands, 50 becomes a time
to run off to France, indulge in plastic surgery, take up flamenco
dancing or make a humiliating spectacle at one’s birthday bash…the
possibilities are endless!
Our special order service is free, fast and efficient – if we don’t have it, we’ll get it for you!
BEING ELIZABETH BENNET
Emma Campbell Webster
Atlantic. HB. $29.95.
Witty, wisecracking and infectiously
alluring: that describes Elizabeth Bennet,
one of the most admired literary heroines
ever. It also describes this beautifully
presented little book, which gives
readers the chance to dwell in an
alternate universe (at least, for a while)
and imagine themselves into the shoes of Elizabeth herself. This
choose-your-own adventure for grown-ups invites you to enter the
world of Pride and Prejudice and make your own decisions at various
crossroads along the way – which will, of course, affect the
development of the story and your chances of landing the delectable
Mr Darcy (surely every thinking woman’s dream husband!). As you go,
you can earn and lose points in the categories of Accomplishments,
Intelligence, Confidence, Connections and Fortune. Great fun for
Austen fans!
GALLOP!
Rufus Butler Seder
Workman. HB. $19.95.
This quirky picture book combines retro
appeal with state-of-the-art animation
technology to create the feel of an oldfashioned kinetoscope within its pages.
Each page is adorned with a seemingly
simple black-and-white illustration of an
animal or object behind a vertical screen.
As the reader moves the opposite page, the illustration comes to life,
making a horse gallop, a rooster strut, a chimp swing and one shining
star sparkle. The illustrations in Gallop! are each accompanied by a
chirpy, sing-song line of text aimed at the young reader (‘Can you
gallop like a horse?’), but the book is equally likely to appeal to
admirers of all ages, who will be seduced by its magical inner
workings.
SIDNEY NOLAN
CALENDAR & CD
Art Gallery of NSW, Special
Price $49.95.
LITTLE THINGS SUSTAINABLE
LIVING DIARY 2008
Andrew Cooper
Text. PB. $24.95.
Two of our most popular Christmas
products from last year are available in
2008 editions! The annual calendar
released by the Art Gallery of NSW is
always gorgeous, but this year’s effort is
the most striking to date. It accompanies
the Sidney Nolan retrospective that recently
opened at the gallery, and features topquality reproductions of 12 major works.
There’s also a CD titled Sidney Nolan: A
Painter’s Journey in Music. Sold separately, the calendar costs $27.95
and the CD costs $30. We’re also pleased to welcome back The Little
Things Sustainable Living Diary, every page of which suggests little
things you can do at home and in the office to become more
sustainable. Both products make great gifts, but be warned: once
you’ve taken them home to wrap, you’re going to want to keep them
for yourself!
DOGS
Catherine Johnson
Phaidon. HB. $24.95.
This charming collection features
anonymous snapshots of dogs from the
turn of the century to the early 1950s.
See hundreds of dogs in all kinds of
settings: under the Christmas table or in
the sea; posing for the family portrait or
being squeezed tightly by an overenthusiastic toddler; a Chihuahua in a tea cup or a Great Dane
standing as tall as its young owner. With its charming days-gone-by
aesthetic and its cute-but-never-cloying subject matter, Dogs is sure
to be judged best in show by dog lovers this Christmas.
gift
SOCK AND GLOVE
MIYAKO KANAMORI
WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON.
PB. $19.95.
This highly original craft book embraces
the art of recycling: it’s all about using
cast-off socks and gloves to create
gorgeous soft toys. It’s not surprising
that something this endearingly off-beat
originated in Tokyo, home of ‘cute’. A
menagerie of 16 soft friends, including a dog, a bear, a rabbit and a
mouse, tell the story of their creation in a bright, attractive photo
montage, followed by step-by-step instructions on how the reader
can create their own sock-and-glove gang. Adorable, practical and
easy to recreate at home, this is an ideal craft book for beginners, as
well as for enthusiasts looking for something a bit different.
THE 700 HABITS OF HIGHLY
INEFFECTIVE PEOPLE
Jonathan Biggins
MUP. PB. $24.95.
So you’ve always meant to master the
seven habits of highly effective people,
but never got around to it? Jonathan
Biggins has come up with an easy
answer – and provided you with 700 tips
on what not to do. It’s a system he calls
Passive Improvement: ‘a lifestyle
enhancement program specifically
designed for those who simply cannot be bothered’. Not only does
Biggins show that ineffectiveness isn’t nearly as bad as it’s made out
to be, he goes further, showing how truly dangerous effective people
can be (they’ve been responsible for lead petrol, CFCs, military
disasters etc). Sensible, serious people who believe in hard work will
be mortified by this book – but everyone else will love it!
FREE GIFTWRAP
21
THE SECRET PULSE OF TIME
Stefan Klein
Scribe. PB. $30.
Science journalist Stefan Klein is expert
at making seemingly arcane subjects
endlessly fascinating. His bestselling The
Science of Happiness was a nononsense guide to leading a happier life,
based on sound scientific evidence. The
Secret Pulse of Time examines how time
works – both as a natural phenomenon
and as a human concept. By answering
questions like ‘why does time fly when we’re happy?’ and by looking
at how we make use of our time, he subtly carries on the work he
began in the first book. His goal is not simply to share interesting
facts, or even to lead us to a greater understanding of how time
works – it’s to give us insights into how we can master time in our
daily lives, enabling us to survive the often hectic pace of
contemporary life.
SOFTIES
Viking. PB. $29.95.
Experienced crafters and curious
newcomers alike will be entranced by
this gorgeous book of patterns and
instructions for making plush toys. This
is new-millennium craft: the 22 patterns
have been drawn from bloggers around
the world, and their blog addresses are included at the top of each
entry. This makes the book more than just 22 patterns – it’s a starting
point for exploring the world of craft. Perhaps it also contributes to
the delightfully individual and quirky nature of the toys here, made
using a variety of materials, from op-shop retro fabrics to oldfashioned felt. Softies combines colourful, inviting photographs, easyto-follow instructions and straightforward patterns to create a
winning – and impressive – package.
We’ll giftwrap all books on request when you organise delivery through us!
THE WAYS OF THE
BUSHWALKER
Melissa Harper
UNSWP. PB. $32.95.
This endearingly quirky history of
bushwalking in Australia traces the
pastime of trekking for leisure in the
bush back to the early days of
settlement. The enthusiastic letters home
from First Fleet surgeon George Worgan
describing the pleasures of his ‘rambles’ in the ‘Woods’ are at odds
with the usual (and, we’re sure, more common) experience of settlers
enduring rather than enjoying a hostile and alien landscape. Melissa
Harper has uncovered a series of often eccentric characters
throughout the past 200 years who carried on the English tradition of
‘rambling’ in the new environment of the Australian outdoors, often
driven by a love of adventure and exploration as much as an
appreciation of the natural beauty of the bush. A delightful, beautifully
presented book that celebrates one of life’s simpler pleasures.
THE BALL IS ROUND:
A GLOBAL HISTORY
OF FOOTBALL
David Goldblatt
Penguin. PB. $35.
Here, David Goldblatt describes the rise
of football (soccer to us) from a chaotic
folk ritual to a sector of the globalentertainment industry. This is the story
of players and managers, fans and
owners, clubs and national teams. But
it’s also a history of states and markets,
money and power. And, above all, how all these forces interact. The
book looks at the careers of Pele and Maradona, Puskas and George
Best; as well as the histories of the Wunderteam and the
incomparable Hungarians, the anti-futbol of Estudiantes de la Plata
and the futbol arte of Brazil 1970. It also explores the cultural
meanings and political uses of football in Peron’s Argentina,
Adenauer’s West Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Union and Mussolini’s Italy.
A BOOK OF
UNCOMMON PRAYER
Theo Dorgan (ed.)
Penguin. HB. $29.95.
This collection of spiritual and devotional
texts is drawn from both inside and
outside the limits of the world’s religious
traditions. It is organised with attention
to the occasions of prayer, prayerful
thought and meditation. In an age
marked at once by religious violence and the falling away of orthodox
religious observance in the West, here is a book that recognises –
and demonstrates – the universality of prayer.
THE GREEN AND
GOLDEN AGE
Gideon Haigh
Black Inc. PB. $32.
Gideon Haigh is one of Australia’s finest
journalists, full stop. He writes ably and
engagingly about a range of subjects,
from business to books. But his passion,
and the area in which he truly shines, is
cricket. This selection gathers together
his most memorable cricket writing over
the past 10 years, drawn from a range of
original sources, including The Age, The Guardian, The Bulletin and
Wisden. Fans of both cricket and good writing are in for a treat: this
book showcases Haigh’s wealth of knowledge, experience and insight
about the game, and his formidable talent in capturing it on the page.
The Green and Golden Age reports on the great players, the big
matches, the seedy scandals and the great rivalries of international
cricket – and on Australia’s continuing dominance of the game. As a
special Summer Reading Guide offer, you’ll receive a free copy of the
same author’s All Out: The Ashes 2006–2007 (Black Inc, PB, usually
$26.95) when you purchase this title.
There are loads of great kids’ titles on offer this summer. Many
are reviewed on the following two pages, but there are plenty of
other titles worthy of a mention.
New readers will love looking at, chewing on and playing with
Baby ABC: A Very First Book for the Baby You Love (Priddy Board,
$16.95, age 0+). For preschoolers, we recommend Margaret
Wild and Kerry Argent’s Ruby Roars (Allen & Unwin, HB, $24.95,
age 3+), with brightly coloured illustrations and an exuberant
story that will have them roaring with approval. The 4+ brigade
will love to be read Kveta Pacovska’s The Little Flower King
(Minedition, $24.95, age 4+), which has funky illustrations to
accompany its charming tale of the little king seeking a princess
and happiness. All ages will appreciate the message of Whole
World Mini (Fred Penner & Christopher Corr, Barefoot, HB,
$16.99, age 5+), a cute little book that comes with a CD to get
little ones singing along to the message that we’ve got the
whole world in our hands, and need to protect it
Kids who like to know weird and gross stuff (isn’t that all kids?)
will be thrilled to receive a copy of Simon Eliot’s Everything You
Need to Know from your Backyard to the Galaxies (Allen &
Unwin, PB, $14.95, age 8+), a compendium of facts both
fascinating and frightening.
Boys and girls aged 9+ will love Stephen Biesty’s Quest for the
Lost City of Gold (Dorling Kindersley, HB, $39.95), with its
spreads on the world’s great buildings (the Parthenon, Sydney
Opera House, Colosseum, Temple of Karnak etc). There are
riddles to answer before completing the quest, a drawing to
colour in, a tunnel viewer to construct and lots of stickers, too
Harry Potter devotees will find themselves charmed by Hocus
Pocus: A Tale of Magnificent Magicians and their Amazing Feats
(Paul Kieve, Bloomsbury, HB, $24.95, age 11+). Kieve was the
magic consultant for the film of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban – here he writes about the great magicians, explaining
their secrets and showing aspiring Houdinis how to perform
some of their tricks.
Readers around the same age will be equally fascinated by
George’s Secret Key to the Universe (Doubleday, PB, $27.95, age
10+), which is about how George, his next-door neighbour Annie
and Annie’s scientist father Eric discover a way to travel through
the vastness of space. Written by eminent scientist Stephen
Hawking and his daughter Lucy, it includes loads of facts about
our universe, the planets and black holes.
Junior readers of a literary bent will adore Tales from
Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb (Thames & Hudson,
boxed set, $29.95, age 12+), which includes stunning
illustrations by Joelle Joliver. And they’ll be excited to realise that
there’s a new book out this summer by Sally Gardner, the author
of I, Coriander. The Red Necklace (Orion, HB, $30, age 12+) is a
dramatic story set in the French Revolution with lots of plot
twists and turns to keep the reader enthralled.
One of the local publishing highlights this summer is Joel and
Cat Set the Story Straight by Nick Earls and Rebecca Sparrow
(Penguin, PB, $19.95, age 14+). This hilarious story is about Joel
and Cat, schoolmates who hate each other. When Cat’s dad and
Joel’s mum start dating, Joel and Cat finally agree on something
– this terrible situation has got to stop!
And finally, we want to mention the books on which the
upcoming film The Golden Compass is set. Philip Pullman’s His
Dark Materials trilogy (Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The
Amber Spyglass) is an absolute masterpiece and we’re thrilled
that new collectors’ editions of the books with woodblock
engraving covers by John Lawrence have been released – start
by reading Northern Lights (Scholastic, PB with flaps, $24.95,
13+) and we guarantee you’ll be hooked!
22
kids
AMELIA DEE AND THE
PEACOCK LAMP
Odo Hirsch
Allen & Unwin. PB. $15.95.
Amelia thinks that her neighbour Mr
Vishwanath, the yoga teacher, must be a
failure, because he never seems to have any
students – except for a cranky old Princess in
exile. And from the moment the Princess and
Amelia meet, they dislike one another. However, when the Princess sees
the peacock lamp in Amelia’s house, a mysterious connection becomes
clear. Older girls will love this quirky Australian novel about defining
yourself, rather than depending on others to do it for you. Age 10+
ARAMINTA SPOOK:
VAMPIRE BRAT
Angie Sage
(illus. Jimmy Pickering)
Bloomsbury. HB. $14.95.
‘Why can’t authors write about nice things?’
Well, the more safe, predictable and middle
class we make children’s lives, the more they
want to walk on the wild side, however briefly, in their books. So horror’s
back. Mind you, it’s pretty tame – and funny. There’s so much bat poo in
the dank basement at Spook House that they shovel it out the poo
hatch, bag it up and sell it at the front gate. There’s still a disgusting
smell, though. At first Araminta thinks it’s a werewolf, but she soon
realises she needs to get her Vampire Trapping Kit together. Age 8+
THE ART BOOK FOR CHILDREN 2
Amanda Renshaw
Phaidon. HB. $29.95.
If you love art, don’t always understand it, but
hate gallery bores, this is the perfect book. The
first volume was such a huge hit that readers
wanted a second. So here’s another
fascinating walk through contemporary and classical works by 30
artists including Dürer, Matisse, Dali and Hockney, with gentle
questions about the ways we see and process a world of changing
imagery. Age 8+
DO NOT OPEN
John Farndon
Dorling Kindersley. HB. $49.95.
Here’s an author who knows how to get kids
to read: use reverse psychology in the title
and then make the first test whether they
can actually get the book out of its slip case!
Inside there’s a multicoloured stash of secret
stuff about UFOs, safecracking, what’s in your food, what’s in the
Vatican and whatever happened to Elvis. There are also a couple of
spreads that will make parents nostalgic for the old Magic Eye pictures
– if you once cracked the code, you can probably still do it. Age 10+
THE DRAGON COMPANION
Carole Wilkinson (ed.)
& Dean Jones (illus.)
Black Dog Books. HB. $27.
No more Harry Potter (or Tolkien)? Illustrated
in brilliant colour like a medieval illuminated
manuscript, here’s everything you’ve ever
wanted to know about dragons in ancient
myth and more recent fiction – and some that you didn’t! The stories
are often gross and sexist, like the men who imagined them. But the
author of the Dragonkeeper trilogy has a writer’s eye for the kind of
tale young readers will love, like the dragon that everyone in the
village has to bare their backsides to whenever it appears, or the
many dragons that can only live on the blood of maidens. Strong stuff
– but it’s classic, right? Age 8+
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
IMMATURITY
Klutz. HB. $30.
Tribal knowledge here for seven- to tenyear-olds. Clearly, adults have forgotten to
pass this learning on, so the publishers have
put it into a book: how to make rude noises
with your armpit, how to whistle with your
hands or a blade of grass, how to walk the
dog with your yoyo – and, in case all that seems too frivolous, how to
hurl Shakespearean insults. It might be a boy thing, but the title’s
catchy. Age 7+
Most reviews on these pages were written
by Mark Macleod, the only exceptions being
The Enemy, Moon Rock, Not a Box, Pippi
Longstocking and Iggy Peck Architect.
ELEPHANTS: A BOOK
FOR CHILDREN
Steve Bloom
Thames & Hudson. HB. $29.95.
Although there’s minimal text here, the
subtitle is misleading. The photographs alone
will make readers of any age want to protect
these wonderful, long-suffering animals. You’ll love learning that just
as we are right- or left-handed, elephants are right- or left-tusked,
that elephant mothers breastfeed their babies till they’re 10, and that
an African elephant has two ‘fingers’ on the tip of its trunk, while an
Asian elephant has one. Age 7+
GIRL STUFF
Kaz Cooke
Penguin. PB. $39.95.
Eeeks – 550 pages of ‘Your Full-on Guide to
the Teen Years’! Just as well you’ve got a few
years to get through it. Teens would never take
this much advice from a parent or grandparent,
but they’ll dip into a book because they can shut it again when they
need to. The good news for parents is that the advice is good and
there’s lots of fun along the way. Not just about the usual body parts
and how they fit together, it covers mobile phone addiction, budgeting,
bullying, voting and the ‘F-word’ – Feminism (with a belated thanks to
our foremothers). Age 11+
THE ENEMY: A FABLE OF PEACE
& UNDERSTANDING
Davide Cali
(illus. Serge Bloch)
Wilkins Farago. HB. $29.95.
A moving and poetic meditation on the big
questions in life in the tradition of The Little
Prince, this contemporary picture book speaks
to both adults and older children. Set in a war that could be any war, a
soldier tells of his loneliness, fears and deprivation. The wonderful
artwork features photographic collage and simple line drawings. Age 8+
THE FLOODS: FAMILY FILES
AND THE FLOODS 1:
NEIGHBOURS
Colin Thompson
Random House. Set.
Was $39.95, now $29.95.
THE FLOODS 5: PRIME SUSPECT
Colin Thompson
Random House. PB. $14.95.
The Floods are the Addams Family for the
noughties and in Prime Suspect, their latest
adventure at Transylvania Waters, there’s been
a murder at the children’s school, Quicklime
College. Then, in The Floods Family Files, you
can meet the ghoulish lot of them in full
colour. There’s Valla with a martini glass
hooked up to a whole rack of bags at the
blood bank – including one from a family pet
and one with the author’s name on it. Packed with hundreds of visual
gags and word games, this book will make your kids want to take a
bath, or run out and play in the fresh air. Could be useful. Our special
Christmas offer includes a copy of the first book in the series with
every copy of Family Files sold. Age 8+
THE GHOST’S CHILD
Sonya Hartnett
Penguin. HB. $24.95.
A strange boy suddenly appears in a lonely
old woman’s lounge room. As she serves him
tea, Hartnett observes that the milk turns the
tea ‘a pressed-rose brown’ and immediately
we are in a world where language makes
exhilarating leaps with apparently no effort at
all. Conversation with the boy sends the woman back to a troubled
childhood and another ghost of a boy, whom she once thought the
most beautiful thing in the world. This deceptively simple fable about
love is full of wisdom and beauty for young adults who enjoy literary
fiction. Age 12+
GO GIRL! ANGELS SET
Various authors
Hardie Grant Egmont.
Gift Set. $39.95.
MY FAVOURITE GO GIRL!
GIFT SET
Various authors
Hardie Grant Egmont.
Gift Set. $29.95.
Don’t be put off by the glittery covers and the
big heads with animé eyes. (The kids won’t
be!) There’s more to this internationally
successful Australian series than you might
think. A girl can have a friend who’s a boy,
can’t she, without him being her boyfriend?
Someone with a broken arm can still be a useful member of the
team. And divorce is not the end of family life. Challenges important
to young readers are worked through with a light and optimistic
touch. The Angels set includes six books and a charm bracelet; the
My Favourite Go Girls! set includes four books and a GoGirls! watch.
There’s a fun website, too. Age 7+
IGGY PECK ARCHITECT
Andrea Beaty
(illus. David Roberts)
Thames & Hudson. HB. $24.95.
‘Young Iggy Peck is an architect and has been
since he was two, when he built a great tower
– in only an hour – with nothing but diapers
and glue.’ This utterly charming picture book is
about young Iggy, who builds a mud Sphinx in the back garden, a
Renaissance-style tower out of glue and (sadly dirty) nappies, and
temples and towers from piles of fruit. And then he saves the day on a
school excursion using his genius for design and construction. Perfect
for Duplo devotees. Age 5+.
JUST SHOCKING
Andy Griffiths
(illus. Terry Denton)
Pan Macmillan. PB. $14.95.
WHAT BUMOSAUR IS THAT?
(LIMITED FULL-COLOUR EDITION)
Andy Griffiths
(illus. Terry Denton)
Pan Macmillan. HB. $19.95.
Those adults who were outraged at The Bad
Book by these two naughty boys didn’t read that
book carefully enough. It was surprisingly
conventional in its moral values. And, similarly,
the title Just Shocking here is a bit of a con, because the most
shocking subject in this sixth collection of short stories is the theme
of climate change that lurks behind many of the gags. On the other
hand if you never read the word ‘bum’ again it’ll be too soon! A fullcolour guide to the fundamentals of ancient beings such as the
Tyrannosore-arse, What Bumosaur is That? surely is the end of it all –
but probably isn’t. Age 8+
THE KEY TO RONDO
Emily Rodda
Scholastic. HB. $29.95.
DELTORA QUEST:
THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION
Emily Rodda
Scholastic. Boxed Set. $79.95.
Stubborn Mimi breaks one of the rules when she
winds the key of a music box covered in painted
miniatures four times instead of three, and this
leads to consequences. One minute there is a
baby in the paintings; the next a wolf comes out
of the forest and the baby disappears. Then
Emily Rodda’s fantasy novel definitely has your
attention! Exciting and surprisingly funny, with
fairy-tale references dropped like a trail of
crumbs, this is a terrific story in which nothing is quite as it seems.
And if your young reader hasn’t yet been introduced to the Deltora
Quest books, he or she will be thrilled to receive The Ultimate Quest
boxed set, which includes the 15 novels of the first three series in
three handsome volumes. Age 10+
kids
THE LEGEND OF LITTLE FUR
Isobelle Carmody
Penguin. HB. $24.95.
THE LEGEND OF LITTLE FUR:
A FOX CALLED SORROW
Isobelle Carmody
Penguin. HB. $24.95.
THE LEGEND OF LITTLE FUR:
A MYSTERY OF WOLVES
Isobelle Carmody
Penguin. HB. $24.95.
At their best, Books 1, 2 and 3 of the legend of
the elf-troll Little Fur capture the tone of
shamanistic storytelling. Patricia Wrightson may
have a stronger sense of the forces that any tiny
spirit is up against when its quest is nothing less
than the healing of the earth, but Carmody’s spacey and beautifully
poetic new-age fantasy will charm many younger readers. Age 8+
THE MOON ROCK
Boriana & Vladimir Todorov
Simply Read Books. HB.
$29.95.
When Elliot steals his grandfather’s Moon
Rock, he finds himself at the centre of a
civil war on the Far Side of the Moon –
and he’s the only one who can help the
Librarian to defeat the marauding Defiers.
The illustrations give birth to a dark,
surrealist Wonderland and the gripping narrative evokes the greatest
quest stories: a brave child defeats a host of death-defying obstacles
to save a fantasy world, discovering himself in the process. Age 9+
CHARLIE AND LOLA:
MY COMPLETELY BEST
AND VERY BUSY BOOK
Lauren Child
Penguin. HB. $16.95.
CHARLIE AND LOLA: THIS
IS ACTUALLY MY PARTY
Lauren Child
Penguin. Boxed Kit. $35.
As the titles suggest, there’s a slight risk that your six-year-old will
start talking like a time-warped Sloane Ranger after reading these
books, but Lauren Child gives young readers so much to do! This is
Actually My Party offers a complete boxed kit of recipes, biscuit
cutters, masks and board games to make – there’ll be no crying at
this party. And when it’s all over, Charlie and his little sister Lola keep
the ideas coming in the Busy Book. Two great alternatives to
slumping in front of a screen. Age 5+
NICHOLAS AND THE GANG
René Goscinny (illus. JeanJacques Sempé)
Phaidon. HB. $29.95.
Who wouldn’t love any book illustrated by
Sempé? Here he is with the author of
Asterix in a collection of short stories first
published in French 45 years ago. Nothing
against PlayStation, but there’s a very
appealing energy in these adventures of
kids who play marbles or chess after
school and worry that the school doctor might be coming to take their
appendix out – rather than give them therapy. And when a new
bookshop opens, the whole gang goes along to check it out! Scat-free,
fast-paced and funny, Nicholas and the Gang is absolutely charming
from its stylish cover in. Age 8+
NOT A BOX
Antoinette Portis
Harper Collins. HB. $20.
Inspired by the memory of sitting in a
box on her driveway with her brother,
Antoinette Portis captures the thrill of
when pretend feels so real that it
actually becomes reality. Her wonderfully
simple, spare text and illustrations show that seeing truly depends on
the ability to believe in the possibilities. Age 1+
23
OLIVIA HELPS WITH
CHRISTMAS
Ian Falconer
Simon & Schuster. HB.
$26.95.
With all that snowy white space on the
page, everyone’s favourite pig had to do
Christmas, and here she is – as helpful as
ever – feeding blueberry pie to the baby,
lopping the top off the Christmas tree so she has a perfect centrepiece
for the table, and presenting the family with a lovely self-portrait for
the lounge-room wall that is simply too big to hide. A wonderful
celebration of family memories. Age 4+
PIPPI LONGSTOCKING
Astrid Lindgren (illus.
Lauren Child) Oxford
University Press. HB. $34.95.
This children’s classic is presented here
in a gorgeous full-colour gift edition
illustrated by Lauren Child (of Clarice
Bean fame). Pippi Longstocking is nine
years old. She has just moved into Villa
Villekulla where she lives all by herself with a horse, a monkey and a
big suitcase full of gold coins. And though the grown-ups in the
village try to make Pippi behave in ways that they think a little girl
should, she has other ideas. She’d much rather wrestle a circus
strongman, dance a polka with burglars or tug on a bull’s tail.
Enormous fun for girls and boys aged 8+.
SLAM
Nick Hornby
Penguin. PB. $29.95.
It won’t surprise Nick Hornby’s fans that
he’s written his first book for teens. Sam, a
16-year-old skater (as in board, not
blades), drifts into having sex with Alicia
and suddenly she’s pregnant. He says that
the difference between having a baby and
an iPod is that no one’s going to mug you
for your baby. Hornby’s understanding of the paper-thin bravado of men
is as sharp as ever here. And the only person Sam can talk to is a
poster of his hero, skater Tony Hawk – a risky idea that the writer only
just pulls off. It’s as if Judy Blume had written her controversial 1980s
novel Forever a generation on. Expect this novel to be read and passed
around by teenage boys and – if we’re lucky – the girls who want to
understand them. Age 14+
THE SECRET GARDEN
Frances Hodgson Burnett
(illus. Inga Moore)
Walker Books. HB. $34.95.
The smaller our suburban gardens are in
the future, the more attractive this classic
tale of the rebirth of an orphaned girl and
her secret garden is likely to become. In a new gift edition, the
strange ghostliness of Inga Moore’s lavishly detailed illustrations will
draw many older readers in and delight their mothers and
grandmothers with memories of a book they themselves cherished
when they were children. Age 8+
THE SHAGGY GULLY TIMES
Jackie French
(illus. Bruce Whatley)
Angus & Robertson. HB. $25.
Who knew that the famous wombat
diarist, Josephine the ballet-dancing
kangaroo and hairdresser Pete the Sheep
all lived in the same country town? Here’s
the town’s newspaper, demonstrating that if Australia’s short on
water, it’s happily still long on shaggy stories. Packed with news, ads,
puns, jokes, a ‘horror scope’ and letters to an agony aunt who’s a
parrot, this is a breathless romp through the bush that will leave you
gasping for ‘mouse-to-mouse resuscitation’. Age 7+
ONE CITY, TWO BROTHERS
Chris Smith
(illus. Aurelia Fronty)
Barefoot Books. HB. $29.95.
The love of two brothers is so great
that each keeps trying to surprise the
other with a gift, only to find that his
generosity has already been reciprocated. Just as Daniel Barenboim
uses music to bring together the warring sides in the Middle East,
Smith and Fronty retell Solomon’s ancient story in glorious colour to
remind us that the city of Jerusalem is a symbol of reconciliation and
love. An inspiring counterpoint to the daily news of destruction and
hate. Age 8+
PUFF, THE MAGIC DRAGON
Peter Yarrow, Lenny Lipton,
Eric Puybaret
Koala Books. HB. $27.
This beautiful gift package includes gently
fey illustrations and a CD so that today’s kids can enjoy their
grandparents’ favourite classic song, free of the 1960s speculation
that it might all have been about a voyage on wacky baccy. Puff the
magic dragon is the eternal child, who frolics in the world of the
imagination long after boys and girls like Jackie Paper grow up and
leave it behind. Age 4+
SNAKEHEAD
Anthony Horowitz
Walker Books. PB. $16.95.
The snakeheads make other criminal
organisations such as the mafia and the
triads look like amateurs. They’re involved
with people smuggling and a threat to
bomb an international conference, so 14year-old agent Alex Rider has been
recruited by both MI6 and Australian
intelligence to help foil their plans. While
the G8 summit is being held in Rome, there’s an alternative summit in
Australia to ‘make poverty history’ and every delegate is marked for
death. Topical and gripping, this seventh Alex Rider novel demonstrates
once again why Horowitz is so far ahead of the game. Age 10+
WHAT I WAS
Meg Rosoff
Penguin. PB. $17.95.
The 16-year-old narrator of this dreamy
and beguiling novel has been sent to a
remote boarding school where they
practise ‘torture by nutrition’. On a crosscountry run one day he meets a young
hermit called Finn. Finn’s birth was never
registered, so, as he says, he doesn’t exist.
And that’s the attraction. The narrator is not
just drawn to him as a solitary friend in this barren place; he wants to
be him. Through their unlikely friendship, the narrator begins to
understand what he calls ‘the riveting nature of my self-pity’. Written
with an insight that’s rare in young adult fiction. Age 14+
ZAC POWER: ZAC ATTACK! THE
FIRST MISSIONS BOXED SET
HI Larry (illus. Ash Oswald)
Hardie Grant Egmont. Boxed
Set. $29.95.
ZAC POWER: ZAC ATTACK!
2 THE NEXT MISSIONS
BOXED SET
HI Larry (illus. Ash Oswald)
Hardie Grant Egmont. Boxed
Set. $29.95.
The subtitle captures the Zac Power series
perfectly: ‘24 Hours to Save the World – and
Get Home for Dinner!’ They’re basically
computer games on the page – the pace is exhausting, they’re
inventive and not to be taken too seriously. Unlike the Go Girl! series
from the same publisher, these stories are about physical scrapes
rather than moral dilemmas. Some girls will read Zac Power and you
could try Go Girl! on the boys – but don’t be too disappointed. For
younger readers it’s still a sexist world. Each set includes four books
and a bonus watch. Age 7+
24
music
A BOOK LIKE THIS
Angus & Julia Stone. $29.95.
CHROME DREAMS II
Neil Young. $29.95.
Angus and Julia Stone, siblings from the northern
beaches of Sydney, seem impossibly talented and
accomplished on this, their debut album. Still only
in their 20s, the duo’s songs, written separately,
have an assured, grounded feel. And while their
sound is essentially acoustic, with guitar and piano
backed by a rhythm section from fellow northern
beaches act The Beautiful Girls, they’re confident
enough to make some interesting choices in the
arrangements; ‘Horse and Cart’ features a clarinet
solo followed by a chorus of whistling, for
instance. Julia Stone’s voice is a notable
instrument on its own, a sort of Björk/Joanna
Newsom blend. Frequently beautiful, this album
showcases a major new Australian act. Also
available as a limited-edition CD/DVD in book
cover ($34.95).
The numerous tragics of the great Canadian singer
will instinctively know all about the first Chrome
Dreams album, recorded in 1977 but pulled before
release and subsequently widely bootlegged. For
the 21st-century version of the album, Young has
held on to three older songs and reworked them,
while coming up with seven new cuts. Ten tracks,
with one coming in at 13 minutes and the other,
the ‘Cortez the Killer’–like ‘Ordinary People’,
extending beyond 18 minutes, means that this
album resembles 1989’s Freedom in its widely
diverging styles. Performed with pedal steel
guitarist Ben Keith, bassist Rick Rosas and Crazy
Horse drummer Ralph Molina, there are soft
ballads and rave-ups as well. One more brilliant
addition to a stunning body of work. Also available
in a CD/DVD audio edition ($32.95).
ALL THE LOST SOULS
James Blunt. $30.95.
CIVILIANS
Joe Henry. $29.95.
Poor old former squaddie James Blunt, he of the
high-pitched voice and an existence plagued by
loneliness, can’t get a break from the critics. His
debut album sold a truckload and this follow-up
has already done very well, but the cultural
gatekeepers aren’t keen. Really, they should cut
Blunt some slack. He’s part of a musical
movement that, whether the critics like it or not,
will help to define the popular music of this
decade – one spearheaded by Coldplay, with its
soaring, wounded balladeering. The idea on All the
Lost Souls is to recreate the sort of sensitive
troubadour albums that were being made back
when Blunt was born in 1974. In fact, he carries
the project off with aplomb, helped by former Beck
producer Tom Rothrock, who gives the songs a
good deal of rhythmic oomph.
Few artists are able to attract talented performers
to their side in quite the way Joe Henry can.
Having produced Mavis Staples, Aimee Mann, Ani
DiFranco, and Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint in
the recent past, he’s got music legends Bill Frisell
and Van Dyke Parks helping him out on this new
album. For this effort, Henry has opted for a
minimalist sound. There are no horns and the
essential sonic motif of the album is David Piltch’s
exquisite upright bass. Henry is getting wordier
with every album; the 12 songs here are loaded
with long-form poems more than lyrics, as he
finds more and more to say. He’s roaming in the
stylistic territory inhabited in recent years by Tom
Waits, with songs such as ‘Civil War’ reflecting a
provocatively bleak take on the human condition.
BLOOM
Lou Rhodes. $29.95.
DEDICATED
Renée Geyer. $29.95.
The former Lamb singer took an unexpected turn
when that duo broke up. Having made a major
contribution to the trip-hop genre, Lou Rhodes
reinvented herself as a folk singer and her first
album Beloved One was nominated for the
prestigious Mercury Prize. Bloom builds on Rhodes’
achievements with that impressive debut. But here
she injects little bits of Lamb into her sound. Songs
build to dramatic climaxes, and are then subjected
to strange twists or abrupt endings. Rhodes’
throaty vocal technique has never sounded this
good; her singing is restrained but highly evocative
and sensual, and the arrangements are
immaculate. Although lyrically less dark than its
predecessor, Bloom continues Rhodes’ examination
of the junction between pleasure and pain in a
relationship. A powerful album.
It’s hard to believe, but Renée Geyer’s solo
recording career began 34 years ago, and while
her big-voiced soul vocals have gone in and out of
style in that time, the quality of her singing and
her unique ability to interpret material has never
changed. The beauty of this, her 22nd album, is
the range of approaches she pursues across the
11 tracks. Eschewing the lushness that can
sometimes gum up modern rhythm and blues,
Geyer opted not to include strings on Dedicated;
it’s an organ-dominated band sound, topped up
with horns. And some old songs get a stunning
makeover. The Mamas and the Papas’ ‘Dedicated
to the One I Love’ is done as a reggae piece, so
that it sounds like the Wailers with James Brown
out front. What else is there to say – she’s still
got it!
Reviews by Shaun Carney of The Age
DYLAN
Bob Dylan. 3 CD Set.
Was $59.95, now $51.95.
The problem with Bob Dylan is this: how can
anybody agree on what constitutes his best work?
This retrospective comes as a three-CD set sliced
into three distinct periods of his career. Disc 1
covers 1962–1967, from Bob Dylan to John
Wesley Harding; disc 2 covers 1967–1985, from
The Basement Tapes to Empire Burlesque; and
disc 3 covers 1986–2006, from Knocked Out
Loaded to Modern Times. All up there are 51
tracks with liner notes by American music
journalist Bill Flanagan. Dylan is the giant of
modern music, the most influential artist of them
all, and the span of the songs here, from his
troubadour days to his rock material to his latterday persona as a sort of archivist of American
song, is breathtaking.
FEVER ITALIA 2
Various artists. $30.95.
GRAND NATIONAL
The John Butler Trio. $29.95
In recent years, the great Australian musical
success story of this decade was veering
perilously close to becoming a caricature of
himself with his mercury-fast guitar solos and
what seemed like a single pace through most of
his songs. But on Grand National, John Butler
takes some risks and does a terrific job of
refreshing his music by extending the trio’s
rhythmic palette. Some of the credit for this
presumably must go to Mario Caldato Jr, best
known for his work with the Beastie Boys, but
there’s also a wonderful new maturity in every
aspect of Butler’s writing, singing and playing.
The sound has moved beyond the live-in-thestudio ways of the past, the Bull sisters add some
vocals, Money Mark plays keys and there are
some real surprises, including the string-soaked
ballad ‘Caroline’.
IN OUR NATURE
José González. $25.95.
As many as 50,000 people attend the Italian Film
Festival each year, but even if you didn’t make it in
2007, that doesn’t mean that the soundtrack to
the event doesn’t stand up pretty well as an album
in its own right. The music from previous festivals
has tended to reflect a tendency towards
contemporary folk and pop sounds, including hiphop and dance. There are still elements of those
styles here, particularly the lo-fi ‘Io So’ by Roberto
Kunstler and the moody but spirited ‘Il Mondo’ by
Milan’s Cristina Dona. But the bias on the new
collection favours a sort of rough cabaret style
embodied by Radio Cuba’s ‘Stanco’ and Giorgio
Conte’s ‘Cannelloni’ – a pleasing exercise in
musical and filmic nostalgia.
It’s difficult to think of a soloist who can so artfully
blend his own songs with inspired covers as well
as Sweden’s José González. He’s already done
Kylie Minogue and Joy Division. Here, the cover is
of Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrop’, performed with
González’s trademark lo-fi folkie vocalising, mixed
back to blend with his high-powered fingerpicking guitar work. Interestingly, his own material
is the best stuff. This is a better album than his
debut, Veneer. He seems to have put more
thought into its construction and to have refined
the sense of melancholy that informs pretty much
everything he performs. The overall effect is to
blend the austere sound of John Martyn with the
seductive vocal phrasing of James Taylor – a
beguiling combination.
GOIN’ HOME: A TRIBUTE TO
FATS DOMINO
Various Artists. 2 CD Set. $29.95.
JOURNEY
Archie Roach. DVD & CD Set.
$29.95.
How often have you listened to a tribute album
and wished a law had been passed to prevent
cruelty to songs? There’s no need to worry with
this two-CD tribute to Antoine ‘Fats’ Domino, the
79-year-old slightly displaced resident of New
Orleans (he lost his home in Hurricane Katrina but
still lives in the city). The line-up of artists here is
mind-boggling: BB King, Randy Newman, Willie
Nelson, Neil Young, Elton John, Lucinda Williams,
Los Lobos, Norah Jones. There’s Paul McCartney
doing a killer Domino impersonation on ‘I Want to
Walk You Home’ with New Orleans hero Allen
Toussaint, and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
teaming up with young British soulster Joss Stone
and Buddy Guy on ‘Every Night About This Time’.
Brilliant stuff.
This is not so much a CD as a visual and musical
package that embraces and exposes the pain,
injustice and social isolation felt by generations of
native Australians. Accompanying the 10-track CD
of new Archie Roach songs is a DVD of the
acclaimed documentary Liyarn Ngarn, in which the
British actor Pete Postlethwaite recounts stories
told to him by Patrick Dodson and Bill Johnson.
Roach made his own magnificent contribution to
the film, but listening to these songs, produced by
Shane Howard and engineered and co-produced
by Nash Chambers, is a stunning experience in
itself. Featuring guest appearances by Paul Kelly,
David Bridie, Troy Cassar-Daley, Shane Howard
and The Pigram Brothers, Journey could well be
Roach’s masterwork.
music
THE MOON LOOKED ON
Clare Bowditch & The Feeding Set.
$29.95.
RAISING SAND
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss.
$29.95.
From its opening moments, The Moon Looked On
signals a new sort of Clare Bowditch, one whose
music contains a greater sense of urgency. Electric
guitars noodle about and the drums propel the
opening song ‘You Looked So Good’ into territory
that the Melbourne singer has never before
inhabited. Having gone as far as she could
deploying a bent, slightly jazz-tinged feel to her
folk-pop songs, Bowditch and her husband,
collaborator and band member Marty Brown, have
come up with a big, compelling record full of
hooks and varied musical approaches. Bowditch’s
voice has never sounded this good before. It’s
deeper, more direct and no longer reliant on irony
or novelty. Here, it’s matched with the best songs
of her career.
25
SHINE
Joni Mitchell. $29.95.
SUNDIRTWATER
The Waifs. $29.95.
This is the sort of team-up that, if you’d suggested
it was a likelihood, could well have caused you to
be placed in a straitjacket and locked up. The
queen of bluegrass and the Led Zeppelin frontman
doing an album together? Well, they have and it’s
great. Producer T-Bone Burnett has overseen a
record that defies categorisation. Sometimes it’s
country, sometimes it’s Texas blues that’s beamed
in via gamma rays, sometimes it’s a sort of folk
hybrid. A lot of Raising Sand has a shimmering,
haunting effect. Every note in the gothic break-up
ballad ‘Please Read the Letter’ sounds disturbing,
from Marc Ribot’s electric guitar to Krauss’s fiddle
playing. The musical surprise packet of 2007.
Five years ago, Joni Mitchell declared that it was
all over: no more new records; music and the
music industry were rubbish. So what’s changed?
It seems that the way in which the world changed,
especially as the so-called War on Terror was
pursued, got Mitchell worried. All through Shine,
there’s a sense of foreboding, of unease. Over
banks of synthesised woodwind, piano, Greg
Leisz’s pedal steel and West Coast jazz-style
horns, Mitchell pokes and prods at the egos and
preening religiosity of the men who’ve prosecuted
the invasion of Iraq. For good measure she
reworks ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ almost 40 years on just
to show that she was right all along. Rich,
immensely rewarding music from one of the
giants of popular music; a very welcome return.
Is it unpatriotic to feel grateful that a big-selling
Australian group took itself over to Nashville to
record an album and that the trip took some of
that act’s annoying Australian-ness out of its
sound? The nasal twang that characterised some
of The Waifs’ best-known songs is thankfully
nowhere to be found here, and the band is much
better for it. In fact, the trio plays to all of its
strengths on Sundirtwater, with the arrangements
sounding agreeably rootsy and the songs being
much moodier than the band’s previous work.
Donna Simpson’s ‘Vermillion’, for example, is
utterly chilling and expertly performed, as is the
lilting title track, sung and written by Vikki Thorn.
More country than folk, Sundirtwater displays a
band making a big, confident artistic leap.
MOTHERSHIP
Led Zeppelin. 2 CD Set. $32.95.
RIPE
Ben Lee. $29.95.
SO MANY NIGHTS
The Cat Empire. $29.95.
WE’LL NEVER TURN BACK
Mavis Staples. $29.95.
Does any band represent the ambitions of rock
music as the ’60s segued into the ’70s better than
Led Zeppelin? This 24-track, two-CD collection
would seem to be just about the last word on the
quartet’s output during its 12-year life. And what a
catalogue of songs the three surviving members,
Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones,
had to choose from. There are cuts from all eight
of the band’s studio albums, including the obvious
ones – ‘Kashmir’, ‘Stairway to Heaven’, ‘Whole
Lotta Love’ and ‘Immigrant Song’ – as well as a
few less predictable tracks such as the reggae
spoof ‘D’YerMaker’. Although often viewed as the
proto-metal band, there’s far more subtlety and
musical reach than you’ll ever hear from most of
those acts who regard themselves as Zep’s
modern-day standard-bearers.
No-one would dare to suggest that Ben Lee has
ever lacked self-confidence, but it could be said
that for part of his musical journey he lacked the
songwriting and singing chops to back up his
boastfulness. Fortunately, his previous album
Awake is the New Sleep pointed to a Lee who had
grown into his talents, with a pared-back vocal
style and a comfortable way of writing pop. Ripe
continues the process. Lee is the current king of
the playful tune, so much so that large slabs of
this come off like Crowded House on Prozac.
Ringing chords, big choruses, optimistic lyrics,
even a stylistic doff of the cap to Bon Jovi on ‘Sex
Without Love’ means that it’s all a lot of fun.
The question that’s always hovered over
Melbourne’s The Cat Empire was whether they
could manage to hold on to the energy and
irrepressible enthusiasm that has made them such
a live drawcard while also making an enduring
album. Until So Many Nights, hitting that sweet
spot had proved to be elusive. But happily, it can
be reported that this is the breakthrough album;
the one you can listen to without thinking ‘This
would probably sound more engaging at a show’.
Singer Felix Reibl has sent out a strong signal
about the band’s broadening artistic horizons with
the first single ‘No Longer There’, a straight but
lovely mid-tempo ballad. The sense of fun and
mashing together of Afro, Cuban and soul
rhythms is still there, but so too is a welcome
new maturity.
Well, it’s just magnificent. At 66, Mavis Staples
has found the songs – and the idea – to take her
to a truly great level. By choosing to record a
series of classic freedom songs and by teaming up
with Ry Cooder, who produced, played guitar and
helped with some writing chores, Staples has
found the gold. It all could have been pretty awful,
of course. The straightforward piece ‘Eyes on the
Prize’ is not really much more than a gospel
chant, but here it’s transformed into something
eerie and ethereal, with Jim Keltner’s drums
pounding out a tattoo while Cooder’s slide guitar
sounds as smooth as molasses. The other 11
tracks are just as wonderful.
NO PROMISES
Carla Bruni. $30.95.
RIVER: THE JONI LETTERS
Herbie Hancock. $29.95.
STOLEN APPLES
Paul Kelly. $29.95.
WASHINGTON SQUARE SERENADE
Steve Earle. $25.95.
This could have been a nightmare: wealthy,
gorgeous model picks up guitar and sets 11
poems by writers including Dorothy Parker, Emily
Dickinson, WB Yeats, WH Auden, Walter de la Mare
and Christina Rossetti to music. But we already
know from Carla Bruni’s previous album, the
wonderful Quelqu’un m’a dit, which sold two
million copies around the world, that she’s a
seriously talented musical performer. And there’s
no falling away of standards here. Witness the
country lilt in the rendition of Yeats’ ‘Before the
World was Made’ courtesy of producer Louis
Bertignac’s precise guitar figures, and the swamprock treatment accorded Dickinson’s ‘I Felt My Life
with Both My Hands’. Bruni is no flighty folky
chanteuse; this is good, full-bodied stuff.
After having in the late 1990s conducted an
album-long – and only partly successful – musical
tour of the works of George Gershwin, Herbie
Hancock now turns his acute artistic eye towards
one of the truly unique writers of the rock era, Joni
Mitchell. His choices shouldn’t surprise, given that
they mirror Hancock’s own dual sensibilities; he’s
a jazz artist with a real pop sense, while both
Gershwin and Mitchell could be classed as pop
artists with an innate feel for jazz. A crack fivepiece band featuring saxophonist Wayne Shorter
re-examines 10 Mitchell songs, helped by Leonard
Cohen, Tina Turner, Norah Jones and Mitchell
herself. A standout is a seven-minute instrumental
deconstruction of ‘Both Sides Now’. The song will
never be the same again.
After his forays into bluegrass, soundtracks and
stripped-back balladeering, it’s somehow
comforting to hear Paul Kelly return to rock, the
style in which he first imprinted himself on the
public consciousness. Stolen Apples has a brash,
swaggering feel throughout. The songs fairly roll
along, driven by Melbourne’s best rhythm section
of Peter Luscombe on drums and Bill McDonald on
bass. And Kelly’s delivery is relaxed, mixed back
into the band sound, suggesting that everything
with this material was just so, from writing to
arranging to recording. It’s one of Kelly’s easiest
sounding albums, typified by the only slightly
tongue-in-cheek love song ‘You’re 39, You’re
Beautiful and You’re Mine’.
On the first song of this wonderful record, Steve
Earle signs off on his past persona as a good ol’
boy from Nashville as he drawls: ‘Goodbye, Guitar
Town’. This album is the singer’s love letter to his
new home in New York’s Greenwich Village, and its
brash, acoustic tones highlight the crafting of a
sort of urban folk, underpinned throughout by hiphop beats overseen by producer and Dust Brother,
John King. Earle is clearly inspired by the polyglot
nature of Manhattan; the Brazilian group Forro in
the Dark provides rollicking Brazilian rhythms on
‘City of Immigrants’ and his wife Alison Moorer
helps out on the Beatle-y ‘Days Aren’t Long
Enough’. Direct and self-assured, Washington
Square Serenade extends Earles’ run of great
albums through the decade.
classical
26
Most reviews by Tony Way of The Age.
ANDRÉ RIEU ON HOLIDAY
2 DVD set. $39.95.
THE CLASSIC 100 CONCERTO
Various artists. 8 CD Set. $87.95.
Just in time for the holiday season! This doubleDVD set of André Rieu features a Christmas
concert (Christmas with André Rieu) and a New
Year’s Eve concert (New Year’s Eve Punch). Neither
DVD has been released in Australia until now and
to have them in a twin pack will be a welcome
space-saver for the many Rieu mavens around. If
this is your Christmas pudding, it’s got all the right
ingredients – a healthy round of Christmas carols
and plenty of tinsel and glitter. The New Year’s Eve
concert was filmed in Hanover, and features Bond
and Russell Watson. Rieu and his orchestra have
the time of their lives, making music that’s both
romantic and scintillating and being silly and
merry while doing so.
The concerto is the highlight of any orchestral
concert. But with thousands of them, which ones
are the absolute favourites? The concertos in this
collection were voted for by the general public,
so there’s no surprise that they include the regular
suspects – Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Prokofiev,
Dvorak and Schumann – and everything from cello
soothers to piano knuckle-breakers. The artists
here are a real ‘who’s who’ of names, including
Ashkenazy, Schiff, Ortiz and Belkin, as well as
ensembles of repute such as I Musici and The
English Concert. The great thing about sets like
these is that the further you drop in the list, the
more unique are the concertos you get. Who’d
have thought Glazunov’s Saxophone Concerto, for
instance, might have made the cut? Plenty of
surprises are contained in this generous
package, and each of the eight CDs is brimful
with good music.
BEETHOVEN COMPLETE WORKS
Various artists. 85 CD Set.
Was $289.95, now $209.95.
Beethoven is brilliant! And here’s the proof – his
complete compositions in one volume, newly
released by Brilliant Classics. This 85-CD set
literally contains the works – symphonic, chamber
and solo, folk songs and canons – with
distinguished conductors and world-famous artists
giving significant performances. Includes the nine
symphonies by Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and
Masur; the Borodin’s string trios; the Guarnieri’s
quartets; and Haskill, Grumiaux and Szeryng’s
sonatas. Also features Brendel, Gulda, the LSO and
the VPO – what we have here is the legendary
performing the finest. Extensive sleeve notes plus
librettos to accompany all vocal pieces show that
this set leaves nothing to be desired. Amazing
quality at a very special price. Note: stock is
limited at this price.
HARMONIA MUNDI: THE FIFTIETH
ANNIVERSARY BOXED SET
Various artists. 30 CD Set.
Was $250, now $149.95.
Prestigious French label Harmonia Mundi was
hailed by Gramophone magazine as its label of the
year in 2006. This was a well-deserved accolade
because Harmonia Mundi has been at the forefront
of musical exploration for 50 years. This is one
label that has remained a stylish presenter of
interesting music interestingly performed, and the
breadth of this 30-disc set is testimony to the
label’s wonderful sense of adventure. From early
organ and vocal music, through to the glories of
the baroque era and to new ways of performing
classical and romantic works, Harmonia Mundi
has attracted an impressive roster of artists. Alfred
Deller, Philippe Herreweghe, Fretwork, Les Arts
Florissants, Andreas Scholl, René Jacobs and the
Jerusalem String Quartet are but a few of the
featured artists here. This exciting voyage of
musical discovery even includes the music of our
own time, and is not to be missed.
THE CAMBRIDGE
BUSKERS COLLECTION
Cambridge Buskers. 4 CD Set. $49.95.
JACQUELINE DU PRÉ –
A CELEBRATION DVD
Was $54.95, now $49.95.
The Cambridge Buskers were a step ahead of the
office revolution, having condensed five CDs full of
Beethoven’s nine symphonies onto a single fourminute track before the rest of us migrated from
typewriters and squeezed our filing cabinets full of
documents into computer kilobytes. Here’s the
ultimate fun CD-set for Christmas. Where else
would you be able to fit 130 tracks with very
nearly the complete Cambridge Buskers
recordings in clean-as-a-whistle remasters from
the original Deutsche Grammophon tapes onto
four CDs? Nothing’s sacred here. You’ll laugh,
you’ll cry, you’ll shake your head in amazement.
But most of all, you’ll enjoy classical music like
you’ve never heard it before.
One of the greatest cellists of the 20th century,
Jacqueline du Pré’s life was in every way as
inspiring as her music. Robbed of the ability to
perform by multiple sclerosis while still in her 20s,
du Pré continued to lead a remarkable life until her
death in 1987. Veteran filmmaker Christopher
Nupen, a longstanding friend of the cellist, brings
together previously unreleased material to offer us
an absorbing portrait of this wonderful human
being. Of particular interest is an interview with du
Pré recorded in 1980 that reveals much about her
approach to music and life, as well as a cheeky
sense of humour. Extensive interviews with friends
and fellow artists also attempt to answer the
fascinating question ‘Who was Jacqueline du Pré?’
Now that we can no longer experience the
euphoria of a live Pavarotti performance, we need
more than ever to rely on the great tenor’s audiovisual legacy. The Pavarotti Forever DVD relives the
unique atmosphere of the tenor’s spectacular
outdoor concerts in Hyde Park and Central Park
and includes such operatic favourites as ‘E
lucevan le stelle’ from Tosca and ‘Nessun dorma’
from Turandot, as well as Italian evergreens ‘Torna
a Sorriento’ and ‘O sole mio’. The Pavarotti Forever
two-CD set showcases a generous selection of
Pavarotti’s varied repertoire and includes guest
appearances with Cecilia Bartoli, Andrea Bocelli
and even Frank Sinatra! An excellent tribute to an
unforgettable performer.
BACH: SONATAS FOR VIOLIN
AND KEYBOARD
Richard Tognetti. 2 CD Set. $38.95.
HANDEL ARIAS
Danielle de Niese. $29.95.
Born in Australia but raised in Los Angeles, Danielle
de Niese has taken the opera world by storm and
is now acclaimed as one of its bright new stars,
having already triumphed on such famous stages
as Glyndebourne and New York’s Metropolitan
Opera. In this accomplished first recording she
sings 12 Handel arias accompanied by Les Arts
Florissants under the deft direction of William
Christie. A vivacious personality shines through the
various moods of the music, which includes such
beloved works as ‘Lascia ch’io pianga’ from
Rinaldo and ‘Da tempeste’ and ‘Piangerò’ from
Julius Caesar. With her extreme versatility and
agility, de Niese is definitely a talent to enjoy now
and to watch for future developments.
PAVAROTTI FOREVER
Luciano Pavarotti. DVD $29.95.
2 CD Set. $29.95.
MARIA
Cecilia Bartoli. $29.95.
Cecilia Bartoli has become more than a little
fascinated with one of the 19th century’s most
amazing singers, Maria Malibran; and not without
good reason. Malibran was dead at the age of 28,
but in her short career she had captivated
audiences in both Europe and America and had
inspired such important composers as Rossini,
Bellini and Paganini. Bartoli’s musical
reincarnation of Malibran will leave you fascinated
as well. In addition to some of the famous bel
canto arias with which Malibran was associated
(such as ‘Casta diva’ from Norma), Bartoli also
offers eight world premiere recordings in this
recital with the Orchestra La Scintilla under Adam
Fischer. Accompanied by a lavish hardcover
booklet, this disc is a splendid tribute to an
unjustly neglected talent.
MARIA CALLAS – THE COMPLETE
STUDIO RECORDINGS
Maria Callas. 70 CD Set. $139.95.
Thirty years after her death, the powerful
magnetism of Maria Callas is still as strong as ever.
EMI has found the perfect way to perpetuate the
diva’s memory and introduce another generation to
her astounding achievements – a 70-disc set
containing all her studio recordings made in the
epic years spanning 1949 to 1969. In addition to
26 operas (including four studio remakes), there
are a dozen discs of recital material as well as a
CD-ROM that contains complete song texts and a
picture gallery of this extraordinary artist. Offered
at an irresistibly low price, this set is essential
listening for all opera lovers.
Richard Tognetti’s recording of Bach’s sonatas for
violin and keyboard brings to a glorious conclusion
a distinguished trilogy of Bach recordings that also
includes the concertos and solo partitas and
sonatas. With the sensitive collaboration of Neal
Peres Da Costa on organ and harpsichord and
Daniel Yeadon on gamba and cello, Tognetti amply
demonstrates that he is equally at home in the
intimate sound world of these sonatas as he is in
the more extrovert world of the concertos. As ever,
the lustrous tone of Tognetti’s Gaudagnini violin
beguiles the listener. This two-disc set is available
separately and as part of a boxed set of all
Tognetti’s Bach recordings ($89.95).
VIVALDI MASTERWORKS
Various artists. 40 CD Set. $69.95.
Venice’s flamboyant ‘red priest’, Antonio Vivaldi
wrote a great deal more than The Four Seasons.
Here’s the perfect opportunity to explore the
prolific output of this clever and colourful giant of
baroque music. This 40-disc set not only covers all
the major instrumental works, but includes an
extended survey of the vocal music including such
famous masterworks as the Gloria and the Stabat
Mater as well as other church music and the
superb dramatic oratorio Juditha triumphans.
Amongst the excellent artists represented are
Salvatore Accardo, Felix Ayo, Felicity Lott, Elly
Ameling and Heinz Holliger. This quality set is
brilliant value for money, giving the listener some
40 hours of music and fine accounts of some 200
works. Can you afford not to buy it?
DVDs
AFTER THE WEDDING $24.95.
Available from 5 December 2007.
GODARD NOUVELLE VAGUE
COLLECTION $69.95.
THE EAGLE VOLUME THREE $44.95.
Available from 5 December 2007.
A festival hit and one of the best foreign films of
2007 – this unrelenting drama features Danish
man-of-the-moment Mads Mikkelsen as
humanitarian Jacob Petersen. Attending a
wedding, Jacob finds himself at a critical juncture
between past and future and experiences the most
intense dilemma of his life.
Specially created for our discerning customers!
We’ve pooled a varied selection of Godard’s films
to form this recherché collection just in time for
Christmas. Breathless, Alphaville, Pierrot le Fou,
Woman is a Woman and Passion – encompassing
the French auteur’s deft versatility in genres
throughout his career.
This hard-hitting Danish series has garnered
legions of fans with its gripping storylines and
outstanding cast. Its psychological drama reels you
in and leaves you with a chill that lingers longer
than a Scandinavian winter. Crime buffs can
complete their collections with The Eagle Volume
One ($39.95) and The Eagle Volume Two ($44.95).
THE CAMOMILE LAWN $34.95.
UNFOLDING FLORENCE $29.95.
A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME
$64.95.
Introducing two superb series from Acorn Films.
Celebrating the nostalgic years of upper-class
British life spanning the 1920s to the 1960s, The
Camomile Lawn and A Dance to the Music of Time
will satisfy lovers of scintillating drama!
Design enthusiasts will love this documentary
directed by Gillian Armstrong about one of
Australia’s most enigmatic characters. A flair for
self-promotion ensured that wallpaper designer
extraordinaire Florence Broadhurst was a
flamboyant figure on the Sydney social scene
before her brutal murder. Yet this is just a small
part of her story...
DEATH IN BRUNSWICK:
COLLECTOR’S EDITION $29.95.
THE JOHN CASSAVETES
COLLECTION – DISTINCTION
SERIES $79.95.
A riotous roller-coaster of murder and mayhem,
this hit Australian comedy-thriller stars Sam Neill
as Carl, a no-hoper cook. After his dalliance with
barmaid Sophie sparks a gangland feud, Carl turns
to best mate Dave (John Clarke) to be his
protector. Extras include commentaries, interviews
and a featurette.
Roll in for the local premiere of this collection by
the father of the American indie movement.
Includes Shadows, Faces, A Woman Under the
Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and
Opening Night in stunning transfers. With extra
docos and alternative cuts, this is a must-have for
true fans of cinema.
PLANET EARTH: THE COMPLETE
SERIES $99.95.
The epic story of life on earth – an unforgettable
journey of rare action and intimate moments with
our planet’s best-loved, wildest and most elusive
creatures in the earth’s most extreme habitats.
This spectacular collection also includes
accompanying ‘making of’ shorts and three extra
episodes of Planet Earth: The Future.
LITTLE PRINCESS PRETTY
PURSE BUNDLE
The Little Princess is insatiably curious about how
the world works and has many adventures and
discoveries. Buy any two of the Little Princess
DVDs – Castle Adventures, Spring and Summer
(available 5 December 2007) – at just $19.95
each and flit away with a free pretty purse perfect
for your inner princess!
27
I LOVE PARIS – SPECIAL GIVEAWAY
We love Paris every moment of the year, but
especially this gift season…mais oui! Sink your
teeth into these three dishy French offerings: Paris
Je t’Aime, The Valet and Paris Vu Par. Buy two of
these and receive either The Dinner Game or The
Closet free! Bon appétit, mes amis!
THOMAS AND FRIENDS LIMITED
EDITION ACTIVITY BOX SET $79.95.
PRIME SUSPECT: THE COMPLETE
COLLECTION $99.95.
Available from 1 December 2007.
Available for the first time in its entirety, this
bumper nine-disc box set of the TV series includes
a bonus disc of ‘behind the scenes’ footage with
over 26 hours of hard-hitting entertainment – who
could resist the mesmerising Helen Mirren and an
amazing cast including David Thewlis, Tom
Wilkinson and Ralph Fiennes?
ROMULUS, MY FATHER $34.95.
Lovers of Australian literature and cinema will
enjoy this adaptation based on Raimond Gaita’s
critically acclaimed memoir. It celebrates the
unbreakable bond between Romulus and son
Raimond, who tries to balance a universe
described by his deeply moral father against the
experience of heartbreaking absence and neglect
from a depressive mother.
THE SISSI COLLECTION $49.95.
Romy Schneider stars in four captivating films
based on the tumultuous life of the beloved
Austrian Empress, Sissi. The story of the early
years of Empress Elisabeth of Austria and her
beloved Franz Joseph, the Sissi films (released
1955–57) continue to exert a romantic and
nostalgic spell on audiences worldwide.
All aboard for this special gift edition of Thomas &
Friends! There are over 11 hours of classic Thomas
& Friends to enjoy on five DVDs, as well as an
activity booklet, fridge magnets, a bedroom
nameplate and sticker sheets. This limited edition
gift box is only available while stocks last!
THE STANLEY KUBRICK
COLLECTION $79.95.
Available from 5 December 2007.
The most anticipated boxed-set release for the
year is here – a 10-disc remastered collection of
Kubrick’s most iconic films: 2001: A Space
Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut,
The Shining and Full Metal Jacket. Includes bonus
featurettes and interviews that give a rare look
into the mind of the master filmmaker.
VOLVER $29.95.
Here, Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar presents us
with a rich tale of three generations of women
who survive by means of occasional lies and
boundless vitality. The plot has Raimunda visited
by the ghost of her mother, who wants to revisit
some unresolved family issues. Perfect for the
caliente mujeres in your life, Volver exudes
warmth, humour and genuine emotion.
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WIN AN INSTANT LIBRARY!
First Prize
To win an instant library worth more than $5000, or
one of five $100 gift book vouchers:
• pay close attention as you read the reviews in
this guide
• answer the ten questions scattered throughout
the guide
• fill in the form below with your answers
• attach the form to a receipt from a purchase of
an item from this catalogue (NB: your purchase
must be from one of our shops)
• return to one of our shops in your state by
MONDAY 4 FEBRUARY 2008
A selection of the titles featured in this catalogue –
the very best of this summer’s fiction, travel,
history, politics, biography and much more. Total
value more than $5000!
Second Prizes
One of five $100 book gift vouchers.
I’d like to enter the competition to win more than $5000 worth of great books. My answers are:
1.
The Readings gift card is the
perfect gift for friends, family or work colleagues.
It's also a great corporate gift. Cards can be used to purchase books,
CDs or DVDs at all Readings shops.
2.
3.
4.
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6.
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9.
Entries must be received by 5pm on Monday 4 February 2008. The prize will be drawn at Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
NSW at 5pm on Wednesday 13 February 2008. To be eligible to enter, you must purchase an item from this catalogue at a Readings
shop, attach the proof of your purchase to your completed entry form and return it to a Readings shop. The winners will be notified
by post and announced in The Australian newspaper on Friday 15 February 2008. Prizes are not transferable and may not be
exchanged for cash. Titles are selected for first prize at the discretion of the promoter. Employees (and their immediate families) of
participating bookshops are not permitted to enter the competition. Promoter: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe NSW Tel: (02)
9660 2333. NSW Permit No.TPL 06/10616.
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10.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT: VIRGINIA MAXWELL. TITLE SELECTION: DAVID GAUNT, KATHY KOZLOWSKI, MARK RUBBO, CATHERINE SCHULZ &
MARTIN SHAW. REVIEWS: JANET AUSTIN, JO CASE, PETER HANDSAKER, ROBERT HOLLINGWORTH, HELEN LARDNER, JUDITH LORIENTE,
MARK MACLEOD, DAVID MCCLYMONT & VIRGINIA MAXWELL. EDITING: VIRGINIA MAXWELL. PROOFREADING: JANET AUSTIN. COVER
ILLUSTRATION & LETTERING: MICHAEL LEUNIG. DESIGN: ALTCREATIVE. PRINTING: HANNANPRINT NSW.