bean there, read that

what does the future hold?

2012-02-05T13:00:00.001+11:00

The Future of Us, Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

A mostly entertaining story about what some teenagers might do with the information given to them by a bizarre portal to the future through a strange website called Facebook. It has a familar, funny Back to the Hot Tub Time Machine Future take on the future, borrowing cheap jokes from Almost Famous (which were cringeworthy then), Mick Jagger still rocking as an old man, etc.

FB pops up on Emma's new computer when she first loads up the Internet and she's horrified to discover the picture of an older version of herself alongside a bunch of short inane comments about her life. How vapid it can be? This is what I personally hate about social media. Contemplating highlights, attention-seeking behaviour making pathetic comments about her husband - blurg. But the character of young Emma as she is presented, I was hardly surprised that she would grow up to be that kind of FB user.

Emma isn't nice, but perhaps that's what the book is about, it holds a fifteen-years-later mirror to her face and she has to rethink the way she acts. The message and the outcome are a bit confused though. She was manipulative to the end, selfish and shallow and there was little chemistry between the two leads. I just kept wanting to shout at Josh run! get out of there!

The book's story is a love story, but I would have liked some more about the world as a whole - what has changed since 1996? Death of Princess Diana, September 11, George W, Obama, another war in the Middle East, tsunamis and floods and earthquakes. But not even just political: reality TV, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman splitting, Madonna's weird arms and hands ... it could have been really fascinating to see the world through a FB feed, links to news articles and photographs of significant events.

I wanted to love this book. A quick read, funny in parts - possibly will entertain the yooths with the outdated technology. I pretty much agree with this NYTimes review.

But speaking of disappointing and vapid ... I saw Young Adult.

I forgave Diablo Cody for Juno because Ellen Page was so damn endearing and because Allison Janney is my queen. And Young Adult had such a brilliant poster, Charlize Theron is pretty amazing and I love a good return-to-your-hometown story. Unfortunately I don't think the film was funny, nor insightful, enough to be successful. Mavis was so sad, so alone, and she needed help. She was narcissistic and mean and desperate. But nobody learned anything, nobody changed at all. So what was the point?

Not only this, but it was generally accepted that Mavis wrote YA (even though I don't know that her Sweet Valley High-type books are really YA) because she had been unable to leave her teen years behind.

Now that's a depressing thought. And so, so wrong. It is such a special gift that YA writers have of being able to remember the wonder and the joy and the angst of being a teenager or young adult. I would never want to tell any of my favourite YA authors to grow up! For it isn't about living in the past, but being able to tap into it and tell a great story. That's what Young Adult lacked. A story.

and then it just grabbed me by my tearducts...

2012-01-22T16:30:00.004+11:00

And is it because cancer is such a horrific beast? Because of Esther Earl? Because John is amazing and that his book contains this phrase: "As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once." ? The Fault in our Stars is thoughtful, funny, poignant...all of those rawther empty blurbish words. And then some.

Hazel was the most wonderful narrator - dragging my weeping form through the pages with her sucky lungs and introducing me to Augustus and Isaac and all their spectacular and particular parents. And they were all so eloquent, and so wise. So eloquent and wise and honest.

I finished the book within the last hour and therefore am evangelical and red-eyed about it, with no distance or perspective - but isn't it fantastic when a book actually, literally moves you so much?* I shall celebrate it! I raise my stars to you!

*And I don't mean literally displaced me (har! in joke!), just literally moved my eyeballs to water. Melina Marchetta's On the Jellicoe Road is another, and JD Salinger's story For Esmé - With Love and Squalor.

a very happy christmas to you all

2011-12-25T09:31:00.003+11:00

in the tradition of fabulous, large and delightful families in fiction - here i'm thinking of natalie standiford's sullivan family, or the casson family by hilary mckay or even the radlett family from the fabulous nancy mitford - here is the most very best christmas video by the gorgeous and hilarious gladstone family. may all your christmases be as madcap as this!

go to charlie and caroline's blog here.

I'm a small town girl, get me out of here! (part one)

2011-12-08T16:00:00.003+11:00

Saving June, Hannah Harrington (Harlequin Teen)

In Saving June (which really ought to be called Saving Harper or Saving Jake, because poor old June is beyond saving) Harper isn't necessarily looking to expand her world view or escape her town - but rather she is trying to escape or assuage her grief after her seemingly perfect older sister kills herself for a reason that nobody can decipher.

Her divorced parents cope with their grief in their own ways – her dad and his new girlfriend don’t call and her mother drinks a lot. Harper's christian aunt is making it really difficult for her to grieve her own way.

Harper is a self-confessed bad/rebellious girl - though if she really were a bad girl the reader potentially wouldn't like her very much, so really we know from the start that she's just a bit sad and angry.

Scruffy rock music lover Jake, who turns up is the potential love interest, though we aren't sure what the relationship between Jake and June had been. An interest in music is a nice touch to any book, like Sarah Dessen's ace Just Listen, and it's just gorgeous (warning, condescension ahead) when young people "discover" old music and think it's revolutionary.*

To prevent her parents from dividing her sister’s ashes into his and hers urns, and to grant June’s wish to move to California, Harper and her friend Laney (of the vintage clothes , straight-talking and slightly odd plot arc**) and the aforementioned Jake (who, of course, has a secret) steal the ashes and roadtrip in Jake’s van to the West Coast, which is where the story really starts. Crazy antics, kooky sights to see, encounters in mosh pits, fights and some sexytimes.

A lot happens. And I think because so much is going on, so many different places and conversations there's a funny pacing and I lost momentum a little towards the end. The scene in which they farewell June somehow felt too short, or anti-climactic, though it was raw, physical, and original.

There were lot of issues crammed in, but Saving June was a very enjoyable read overall. This review on goodreads says all I wanted to say but better. And read the comments too.

Click here to read more reviews of books ~~with dead people in them~~ about grief.

*yes, i am a bitter old lady and i totally listened to that band before you. any band. all bands!

**which (spoiler) goes something along the lines of date rape, unwanted pregnancy, no talk of pressing charges or STDs and with one wholly unsatisfying conclusion.

some books i read

2011-11-29T10:00:00.002+11:00

Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet is a brave and intelligent coming-of-age story in the Cold War Era. Clem is a council flat boy. Frankie is the wild(ish) daughter of a wealthy local landowner. They shouldn't be together but can't keep apart. But meanwhile the shadow of nuclear warfare and the Cold War looms and threatens. Indeed, we spend chapters with JFK as he botches the Bay of Pigs and tries to decide what the heck to do about Russian nukes in Cuba. It might take you time to get into it, you may at times think come on come on, get back to Clem and Frankie, but by the explosive end you'll be left reeling and want to start again immediately. The aftershocks will continue for days.

The Montmaray books by Michelle Cooper, A Brief History of Montmaray and The FitzOsbornes In Exile. Oh joy! What a wonderful discovery, even if I wasn't the first to land upon these rocky, historical fictiony shores. Sophie lives on the island of Montmaray, a tiny sovereign nation not too far from the coast of Spain with her eccentric family - frighteningly intelligent cousin Veronica, uncle King John who has become increasingly loopy, cheeky tomboy sister Henry and a smattering of villagers. Her brother Tom is in England, being educated, and their Aunt Charlotte has summoned Sophie and Veronica to be debuted. But it is 1936 and the world is a-rumbling with changes: Spain is having a civil war and in Germany a man called Hitler is threatening to invade Poland and Czechoslovakia and both of these things will impact on Montmaray. This book is told through Sophie's journal entries, in her engaging, amusing, intelligent voice and with wonderful observation, humour and humanity. It's full of literary, historical and political references, and just a little bit of talk about frocks and froufrou. You must, must read both.

And Jasper Fforde's Song of the Quarkbeast - The magical, adventure-filled and hilarious sequel to The Last Dragonslayer. Kazam is being challenged by iMagic, their magic company competition and whoever wins will be favoured by the King and have the monopoly on magic. They might even be able to get the mobile phone network back up. Our non-magic, foundling heroine Jennifer Strange just knows there is something more devious going on with the Amazing Blix, the king of the unUnited Kingdom...and just where and when will Kazam's missing manager the Great Zambini appear next to give them all some much-needed advice? Plus, should she go on a date with Youthful Perkins? Surges of magic that can send oak trees flying. Trolls out to rid their homes of human vermin ("here person person person"). A sneaky Quarkbeast looking for its other half. Big Magic, small magic, flying carpets, old grudges, new possibilities. It's explosive. Literally. Just read it - your sides will split with laughter and magic.

here comes the sun

2011-11-24T10:34:00.006+11:00

'Kate!' I hear you saying. 'What are you doing? Why no blog?' And here's me, just a-shruggin' and mumbling, 'I dunno, stuff, work, reading, summer, I dunno whatevs. Anyway, you're not my real mum!'

Here are some of the things I've been reading and watching and listening to and being generally inspired by lately:

Forever YA posted a list of the top ten british shows you could be watching, which made me laugh and reminisce. And I pop Misfits on there as the eleventh show for being hilarious and badass...and in a large part due to this scene (warning: bad swears! and spoilers!) and also the brilliantly anachronistic Ashes to Ashes for DCI Gene Hunt and all the blue eyeshadow and amazing music.

Also, one of my favourite anonymous and inspiring bloggers - The Intern - has outed herself and, extra-excitingly, has a YA book on the way.

And I still can't stop looking at the ANIMALS TALKING IN ALL CAPS.

I've been secondhand book shopping at Lost and Found in Brunswick:

Read as much as you can, and write. Keep notebooks. Be open to everything in the world. Don't give up. Tenacity is the most valuable asset for a writer.

This is a quote from an interview with Joanne Horniman here. I keep it on the wall next to Kerouac's Rules for Spontaneous Prose. I may be failing NaNoWriMo but am practicing tenacity.

The George Harrison documentary Living in the Material World by Martin Scorsese was a four hour cinema experience (including interval) that I hope you didn't miss (though I think you have, but just get the DVD). It is a fabulous look into his life, the contradictions in his personality and his relationship to death and dying. The music, the drugs, the religion. His beautiful son...

Then watch this scene from A Hard Day's Night. It is a hilarious and curious little jibe...maybe even relevant to today's hipsters, hmm? I challenge you not to laugh at lines like "the new thing is to care passionately and be right-wing".

I am also trying to read Haruki Murakami's new book 1Q84. But I'm worried I will drop it on my face while I'm reading in bed and it will kill me with its weighty tome-ness.

Last, but not least, our favorite Witty Waiter down at A Minor Place recorded this song, Against the Grain, and a guy called Dropbear has made this incredible stopmotion video to go along with it. Pencils! What a mad dog. Enjoy.

Hudson - Against The Grain from Dropbear on Vimeo.

early harvest

2011-11-11T00:30:00.001+11:00

New from the kooky and brilliant brains behind the Pigeons Project (the very talented and good looking Jenna and Lachlann) comes early harvest. It's a literary magazine written and edited by kids. Kids! With the help of harvest's Davina Bell and community development worker Emma Hewitt, as well as Jenna and Lachlann, these kids spent the last few months learning all about calling for submissions, editing, publishing, marketing...and just look at what they've done!

I went in to have a chat with the editorial board fairly early on and we discussed things from a broad bookselling point of view: what makes a book look good (ie. how to judge a book by its cover), the process of getting a book from publisher to store, starting to think about the blurb and a good sales pitch - and pricing. I think the pricing might have been the most exciting part of our session...

The final product is in stores now and it looks a.m.a.z.i.n.g. And it reads e.x.c.e.l.l.e.n.t.l.y. I am so impressed and pleased and excited!

Come along to the launch tomorrow at the Sun Bookshop in Yarraville. It's all on at 11am in the foyer of the Sun Theatre. Come and meet the gang and hear some reading from the mag. It's going to be a gas - launched by Sally Rippin!

Visit the Pigeons Project website.

graffiti luna

2011-11-07T22:11:00.004+11:00

cath crowley's graffiti moon is now available in italy, all translated into the italian for italian YAs to read as they eat pizzas and gelato, riding on vespas and drinking caffe latte.

<-- here be the cover! (i love it)

and the blurb:

Cinque minuti¿ anche stasera l'ha mancato per soli cinque minuti. Da mesi Lucy insegue Shadow, il più originale, inventivo e misterioso writer di Melbourne. Nessuno lo ha mai visto, ma tutti parlano di lui. Nessuno sa chi sia, tranne Poet, l'amico che dà i titoli ai suoi murales. Lucy sa che Shadow è il ragazzo giusto: geniale, creativo e appassionato di arte come lei, ed è decisa a incontrarlo. Solo Ed sa dove si trova e, anche se è l'ultimo ragazzo con cui vorrebbe passare il suo tempo, Lucy accetta di seguirlo in una folle notte di scorribande, confidenze e rivelazioni sotto i cieli azzurri che ricoprono i muri della città.

i don't speak so much of the italian, and i'm procrastinating, so i put it through an online translator:

Five minutes ¿even tonight he missed just five minutes. For months, Lucy chases Shadow, the most original, inventive and mysterious writer in Melbourne. No one has ever seen, but everyone talks about him. No one knows who he is, except for Poet, the friend who gives the titles to his murals. Lucy knows that Shadow is the right guy: brilliant, creative and passionate about art as you, and is determined to meet him. And only he knows where he is and, even if it's the last guy you would want to spend his time, Lucy agrees to follow him into a crazy night of raids, secrets and revelations in the blue skies that cover the walls of the city.

if you want to buy an italian version you can do so here.
if you don't own the australian version then head on down to your local independent bookshop. preferably this one.

chapter by chapter

2011-11-05T10:00:00.001+11:00

The Mask of Destiny, Richard Newsome (Text) - The Billionaire's Curse Trilogy winds up in this third installment that hurls Gerald (and trusty sidekicks Sam and Ruby) from London to France, to Italy and Greece. Gerald's on the lam because that nefarious Sir Mason Greene DIES during his court case and our man Gerald is BLAMED. Ye gads! He can't access his billions! There's danger and action galore - including an excellent bike chase through Paris - and a lot of mayhem and mysteries and myths. The final showdown is set in the most remarkable place and I wish I could give it away to you all. Feast for the imagination. I loved this whole series to bits.

Darius Bell and the Crystal Bees, Odo Hirsch (A&U) - the sequel to the CBCA-Book-of-the-Year-winning Darius Bell and the Glitter Pool is a ripper. Are you as worried as I am about all the bees dying? I actually think about it a lot. Oh my, oh my. But in Darius' world the bees dying brings problems closer to home - if the plants in the kitchen garden are not pollinated then the gardener, Mr Fisher, and his family won't have any plants to garden and will have to leave. Also, there will be no honey! The Mayor doesn't give two hoots, but Darius just may be able to concoct a plan - so long as there's a great swarm of helper-outers at the ready. This is beautiful and fun and community minded. Top stuff for 9+.

coffee : truman

2011-10-26T11:00:00.002+11:00

on a leafy albert park street corner sits truman. i ate there once, a wee while ago now, but it was delicious and unexpected and i have since returned twice for coffee. the southside is growing on me, though for visiting only of course.

I had The Truman, which was delicious: potato and leek hash with avocado, relish and some scrambled eggs on delicious grainy bread. the old timey plate was a nice touch. and the hash brown was my favourite...om nom...

coffee, very good. nice and strong. fancy red glass saucer. i would recommend it.

i think my newfound affinity for the art deco south perhaps has something to do with the copious amount of inter-war period books i have been reading: nancy mitford, evelyn waugh, george orwell - as well as modern books that take place during this time: michelle cooper's montmaray books, amor towles' the rules of civility...

broadsheet reviewed it.

and so did the age.

a novel experience

2011-10-20T11:00:00.002+11:00

One Day, David Nicholls (Hodder)

This review is twofold.

First, the story itself. "The international bestseller" One Day by David Nicholls. I did not care for this novel. But I read it through to its end and below there will be spoilers.

Second, I read this book as a Flipback. Tiny book and an amusing, novel experience...an amusing novel experience? Oh for the love of a comma!

Printed on 'bible paper' it's pretty much necessary to employ the lick-your-thumb-to-turn-page method and, until your eyes adjust, sometimes being able to see the print on the other side so clearly is distracting.

Flipbacks are so delightfully tiny they fit in most small bags and are perfect for the tram. I think the idea is to just use one hand to hold the book, like an e-reader, but I persisted mostly with the two-handed approach.

Somehow I felt betrayed by this book. I feel like it was marketed as literary fiction, though to be honest and fair I don't believe it was. Somehow I had that perception though. Then all the "celebrities" were reading it in my trashy magazines. I thought - wonderful! Literary fiction to the masses! Then they made a film and I thought I had better read it before seeing the movie. It's definitely well written*, engaging and a good novel. I just think that if it'd had Maeve Binchy's name on the cover I might have gone into it with the appropriate expectations.**

Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew (get used to hearing their full names, Nicholls refers to them thus all the time) meet at college. She's young and idealistic, he's charismatic and arrogantly entitled. They've just graduated from Edinburgh university and drunkenly hook up one night, though they don't sleep together, and eventually decide to be best mates. The book then checks in with each of them on the same date each year, spanning the next twenty years. It's a great concept.

Emma is smart and enigmatic, but she sneers at Dexter's wish to travel the world and then she's relegated to failing regional theatre and a dead end job in a shitty London Mexican restaurant.*** Meanwhile Dexter travels, is charming, and then gets work in television. This apparently entitles him to be condescending to Emma whenever they meet because Emma is a dowdy, writing girl who "wonders why sex, even when so enjoyable, leaves her so ill-tempered."**** The reader's sympathy is nearly always with Dexter as he struggles with the rise of fame, the loss of fame, relationships, family and aging.

The characters are self-centred and on the clichéd (ok, ok "everyman") side. Their problems are annoying. Is this kind of novel designed to make me get myself out of a rut? Am I supposed to identify with the characters and their haplessness? Maybe this is why I enjoy young adult literature so much. Even when the characters wallow it isn't the same; there's the future to look forward to - there tends to be some kind of hope.

And what about the ending of One Day, I hear you ask. SPOILERS: So Dexter the cad finally gets the girl (fortunately Emma has become less dowdy in the intervening years) and, because of Emma's love and all, he gets back on track: becomes a better boyfriend, a better son, a better father, a better human being. So, her job done, David Nicholls kills the girl.

I know.

Let's not talk about it anymore.

At least I could imagine this as I read:

Go and watch him sing I've Just Seen A Face.

*Though, occasionally boring. On page 343 "Emma felt the hot tears of humiliation prick her eyes".
**This is not mean to sound disparaging. Yes, I am a MB fan. You knew that already.
***Don't get me started. This didn't make sense!
****Seriously, I don't want get started. Emma was "so very British" while Dexter was allowed to enjoy love and sex and it made me SO MAD.

give your son a thousand dollars a year for five years and tell him to go to the devil

2011-10-17T10:30:00.002+11:00

Go forth and listen to W. Somerset Maugham speak about writing. Here. This is a recording from 1951 and is just wonderful. The title of this post, as you will hear, is Maugham's advice to a well-to-do lady in Boston whose son is desirous of a career in literature and who wanted some advice from this esteemed gentleman. Maugham is amusing, honest, and deliciously cutting. But honestly! You must take a little part of your day to listen. You could even click here.

or here.

But I have included some of my choice favourite snippits to lure you to click here and listen:

It is in an author’s power to mould his personality. Of course life will to some extent mould it for him. We are all creatures of circumstance and we should none of us be what we are but for our environment and the happy accidents, chance encounters, trials, pains and pleasures which have befallen us.

Personality is the writer’s stock and trade.

All experience – even the most ordinary and insignificant – is grist to his mill.

Life is the novelist’s business and he can only know about it and write about it with truth and significance if he participates in it.

Without a great deal more than a nodding acquaintance to art and literature, science and philosophy his personality will remain incomplete

The only valid and sensible reason I know for adopting the profession of literature is that you have so strong and urgent a desire to write that you simply cannot resist it.

~W. Somerset Maugham

coffee : dr jekyll

2011-10-01T16:00:00.000+10:00

while southside i had a coffee at dr jekyll, on grey st in st kilda. the courtyard out the back was shadowy and cool and nicely atmospheric. it had a very good crema and though the coffee had a slightly thin taste and was teensy bit bitter, it was nice. very drinkable and a good strength - i had two. menu looked quite delicious and i think would make a really great breakfast-brunch destination.

bravo southside.

here's their website.

a weekend adventure southside

2011-09-28T10:00:00.002+10:00

Anchors away!
Granted one last summer's day
We watched the sunset silhouette
The western suburbs across the bay
And when the sky was monochrome
We drained our drinks and headed home
Past bright-eyed boys in business suits
Tourists, where once were prostitutes

And you proposed a promenade
Neither of us knows
Follow the yellow brick apartment blocks
The Californian bungalows

But remember when you're wandering alongside
The river has a right side and a wrong side
Remember when you're wandering alongside
The river has a right side and a wrong side

I confess it's been a year, or little less
Since last I sallied forth
From the friendly confines of the north
But a single seagull's cry hangs in the quiet suburban sky
And for a moment I'm amazed
I ever claimed to hate this place

But remember when you're wandering alongside
The river has a right side and a wrong side
Just remember when you're wandering alongside
The river has a right side and a wrong side

~ Transpontine, The Lucksmiths

review : beautiful days

2011-09-26T17:30:00.004+10:00

Beautiful Days, Anna Godbersen (Razorbill)

This sequel to Godbersen's Bright Young Things continues the story of Cordelia, Letty and Astrid. It's summer in Long Island and the three girls have been spending their days lazing about the pool and attending lovely parties. And wearing wonderful clothes!

Cordelia is still feeling guilty and sad about the death of her new-found father and starting to get used to living the life of a high-profile bootlegger's daughter and sister. When her brother Charlie asks her to open a family speakeasy she jumps at the chance. But what about the mysterious pilot Max, who doesn't approve of her lifestyle? And why does what he think matter so much to her? Excellent twist around this plot point.

Astrid might be engaged to Charlie but without a ring can she really trust that her arrangements will go ahead as planned? Especially when her fiance is always away... Is she just chasing a pipe dream? I worry about the relationship dynamics between Charlie and Astrid and hope that the next book might address the imbalance.

Letty is still trying to make her name on the stage. Cordelia is helping, but Letty still feels like she could make it on her own. There's a bit of a romance blossoming with scruffy writer Grady, but there's a chance Letty might mess it all up. Can this songbird create a glittering future for herself? I love Letty, she's such an underdog, just a little bit wet, but has a lot to gain.

Though this series is not as detailed or evocative as The Luxe - almost seems a bit dashed off somehow? - it is lovely and diverting. Tip top summer reading.

My review of Bright Young Things.

"i prefer stories about squalor"

2011-09-20T16:00:00.003+10:00

THERE WERE ninety-seven New York advertising men in the hotel, and, the way they were monopolizing the long-distance lines, the girl in 507 had to wait from noon till almost two-thirty to get her call through. She used the time, though. She read an article in a women's pocket-size magazine, called "Sex Is Fun - or Hell." She washed her comb and brush. She took the spot out of the skirt of her beige suit. She moved the button on her Saks blouse. She tweezed out two freshly surfaced hairs in her mole. When the operator finally rang her room, she was sitting on the window seat and had almost finished putting lacquer on the nails of her left hand.

She was a girl who for a ringing phone dropped exactly nothing. She looked as if her phone had been ringing continually ever since she had reached puberty.

With her little lacquer brush, while the phone was ringing, she went over the nail of her little finger, accentuating the line of the moon. She then replaced the cap on the bottle of lacquer and, standing up, passed her left - the wet - hand back and forth through the air. With her dry hand, she picked up a congested ashtray from the window seat and carried it with her over to the night table, on which the phone stood. She sat down on one of the made-up twin beds and - it was the fifth or sixth ring - picked up the phone.

~A Perfect Day for Bananafish, JD Salinger

At the risk of being a total cliché hipster doofus*, I hereby proclaim my love and awe and adoration for the short stories of Mr Salinger. He can create atmosphere and character like nobody's business, like in the piece above. He can write dialogue that leaps sprightly from the page, at once being mere banter while also ringing with subtext.

Salinger often wrote about young people, about teenagers and innocence and experience. His story For Esmé - With Love and Squalor breaks my heart every time. Like Sybil in Bananafish Esmé and her small brother Charles** are beautiful foils to the damaged adult to whom they speak and with whom they interact. Perhaps they can't save them, but sometimes they can.

You take a really sleepy man, Esmé, and he always stands a chance of again becoming a man with all his fac - with all his f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s intact.

I think I prefer his short stories to The Catcher in the Rye (eek! the Catcher cult will be after me!), possibly because there are more of them, and I adore the Glass family. Also because, taken as a whole, they give the reader such a fascinating peek at America in the 50s and the middle and upper classes as they existed post-war. He can make you laugh and break your heart all in the space of twelve or so pages. How's that for inspiration? And emotional squalor.

*See the film (500) Days of Summer - "just because someone likes the same bizarro crap you do doesn't mean you're soulmates." (This line even delivered by the film's own version of Holden Caulfield's kid sister Phoebe)
**The evil sister and I often recite to one another, with great amusement: HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO LOVE AND KISSES CHALES.

she's got sad machine gun eyes

2011-09-16T11:00:00.009+10:00

Simone Felice wooed the Northcote Social Club this Wednesday with his folksy, countryish, acoustic singer-songwriter-poet songs performed with all his heart* and a lot of dry humour and the glimmer of mischievous evil in his eyes. He's a showman, for sure, sitting up on stage on his stool in his motorcycle boots, interrupting himself mid-song to explain things (and even though I think these asides have just become part of the show he's so endearing you don't even care) and he's a little bit Dylan, a little bit Springsteen and makes the audience feel pretty darn special. He played all my faves: Don't Wake the Scarecrow, If You Ever Get Famous (prefaced by a little "fame, i'm gonna live forever" spoken word jibe), One More American Song, Radio Song...and more, and more, then finished with the best Springsteen/Dylan/Neil Young/Amazing Grace singalong bonanza.

Well, the man cries,
"Who gives a damn when a tramp dies?"
But I loved you there in the lamp light
With your bare thighs
And the halo of your hair alive

And all my lifelong
I'll never shake off your siren song
And all of your talk about dying young
With an iron lung and that crazy way

You said, "Simon,
I think I might stay here with Scarecrow tonight
Simon, I think I'm gonna stay here with Scarecrow tonight."

Simone's book Black Jesus is out now. "Amazing I can even read," he said before performing an excerpt, "considering the third world country I come from." It's the story of a young American marine returned, blinded, from the war in Iraq. Answering only to the nickname Black Jesus (because he was so white, or maybe because his surname was White) he's back home in his shitty upstate New York town with his mother, who has moved into the closed-down Dairy Queen after their trailer home burned up. Then there are chapters from a young woman riding across the country on her moped with pretty much only a broken leg and the last of her stripping money to get her anywhere. Am only a few chapters in and, like Simone's songs, this book is written with spare but loaded prose that evokes the sad tragedy of a strange new broken America.

Have a squiz at Shaky, a song he recorded with his band the Duke and the King. It's what he called a "put down your grenade launcher and shake your ass song". This film clip is just ace.

Simone's website.

I saw his bros in action earlier this year. I love them too. Remember?.

*the same wonky heart that prevented him visiting us last year.

coffee : 1000 £ bend

2011-09-12T10:37:00.005+10:00

I was late to this party. All the cool kids know about this place already.

I walked into 1000 £ Bend and felt instantly at home. Either that, or transported. It's like the Tardis version of that old gem St Jerome's - all the same stuff but bigger space. Is it owned by the same people? I don't know. I do know that all the kitch "art" from St Jerome's is on the walls and the squeezy bench seats are back (and now with more space!) and that I like it quite a lot.

It's a warehouse with a huge space out the back for all kinds of events, launches, exhibitions and an underground cinema.

The coffee is tasty but very milky (only full cream or soy on offer) and I would prefer a stronger coffee - shall order a double shot next time.

With lots of couches, chairs and tables (some communal), the affordable and tasty-looking food, great music, nice people and good beer on tap (they have their own St Jerome's Caledonian lager, I liked it) and longnecks too - plus free wifi...both times I've been here I've stayed for hours.

361 Little Lonsdale Street.
They have a website here.

reading

2011-09-09T08:16:00.002+10:00

My very good friend Arthur drew this picture on the weekend:

He's in Prep and did the drawing and writing all by himself. Last time I saw him he couldn't read or write. Now he can, and it is like a whole new world has opened up for him. He even had a crack at spelling hipop hipoppot hip - oh nevermind.

Quite incredible, the power that comes from being able to read and write, isn't it?

Yesterday was Indigenous Literacy Day. But you can still support the Indigenous Literacy Foundation today, and tomorrow, and next year. Go here to read all about it, and maybe donate so kids in remote communities can have access to books and words.

review : clara in washington

2011-09-06T13:30:00.000+10:00

Clara in Washington, Penny Tangey (UQP)

When Loving Richard Feynman was released in 2009 it was really exciting to discover a new, vibrant YA voice. LRF, shortlisted in the CBC older readers category, is about family, friendship and disillusionment. The protagonist Catherine was smart and set herself apart from the gang - she's aloof, kooky and hilariously, humanly flawed.

Clara in Washington is a fabulous follow-up. Clara has decided to spend the summer holidays after finishing Year 12 in wintery Washington DC with her mum - by way of escaping a certain someone back home and trying to avoid thinking and talking about her exam results and university choices.

Clara is terrified to leave the apartment at first, imagining muggings and terrorist attacks, people not understanding her. But faced with looking like she's not having a good time to friends back home, Clara soon finds herself volunteering with a number of organisations and charities (so she can post "put my name down to volunteer at a homeless women's shelter" on her facebook and feel a little bit superior) and visiting monuments and museums galore, as well as falling in with a group of anarchists. She's not a Rah-Rah-Rah do-gooder, but doing some good might do her good.

Clara is very smart, but she's book smart. Not savvy, not confident and not even very nice sometimes. She cuts herself off from her friends, stops replying to emails and, when results come out, refuses to look up her score. But in spite of her defences the reader can tell she wants to make connections. In discussions with friends about Clara it's been suggested she's "passive", that she just lets things happen to her. She's on the lazy size, with crippling anxiety about getting things wrong (to the extent that it is a little annoying) and a bit of a know-it-all. But! It didn't take me long to feel for Clara, or to sympathise with her and I think she comes across as a very realistic character - and, within her own parametres, pretty brave.

As well as being a personal journey, and something of a romance, Clara in Washington also explores politics, government and social justice. Learning to think for oneself, while also listening to what others have to say - is this the very definition of coming-of-age?

Penny Tangey has peopled her novel with a cast of interesting characters - the slightly crazy ladies at the shelter are just gorgous - and it was great to watch (read?) Clara interact with all the different people she meets and gets to know, and see how they help her settle into Washington, how they help her make the most of this opportunity. If you'd like to, you can imagine the anarchists Campbell and Eric like this:

Clara in Washington is laugh out loud funny. Clara's dry sense of humour and almost manic paranoia amused one greatly.

Read My Girl Friday's review.
Read the Fancy Goods review here.

review : black painted fingernails

2011-08-31T18:00:00.002+10:00

black painted fingernails, steven herrick (allen&unwin)

in steven herrick's newest book, published a couple of months ago now, student teacher james is heading to a country town for his very first teaching experience. ostensibly, james is ready - he's got the job, somewhere to stay (and all paid up), he's got the keys to a bmw and a healthy cut lunch for the drive.

luckily for the reader, who might be despairing at this point for james' lack of imagination and sense of adventure, he stops to fill up with petrol and is somehow conned into giving sophie a lift on his way.

sophie is older. she's hair, legs and black painted fingernails. and she's got james pegged immediately and she goes out of her way to encourage, entice and embarrass him out of his shell.

she brings out a tube of lipstick and elaborately applies it to her full lips , then kisses the hankie, leaving a big red pout above my name. she hands it back to me. 'don't wash it. leave it for your mum.'

it soon becomes clear that james is far from ready, and far from willing to enter into the teaching life. and sophie - so cocky and apparently self-assured - is hiding, or has masked, some painful secrets and sadness. the characters are all big-hearted, very real people. they talk, they're awkward.

sophie's third-person narrated chapters deal almost exclusively with her back story and the reader learns how she developed her tough exterior. the scenes with cardigan madrigal, the gentle hippie boy - the only boy in town who didn't like football - of sophie's teen years in her rough country hometown are such a highlight.

and in an unusual move, a number of the chapters are narrated from james' parents point of view. ok, so you don't really want to read about (spoiler) parents having sex, but at the same time it's kind of special to be privvy to angela and michael's experience of being left behind by their only son - coping with his absence and torn between trying to protect him from the world while also wanting him to discover it. complete pic of family and when the time comes, at the end of the novel, we are able to understand the parents' motivations and responses.

on one hand you think you have this story figured out: road trip, coming of age, boy meets a quirky girl and is bewitched. on the other hand...this is steven herrick and it's beautifully written and a truly lovely story.

allez viens je t'emmene au vent

2011-08-29T23:11:00.003+10:00

Feeling awfully lazy. I blame the blue skies and sunshine.

Went along to the Melbourne Writers Festy today and wandered in and out of a couple of sessions, slightly vaguely. Nick Earls is just great, funny and friendly and everything he says makes such sense and I really felt like writing a novel was achievable for about fifteen minutes there. Maggie Stiefvater was extremely energetic and spoke so fast sometimes I missed what she was saying but then she explained that she just wanted to write books that made people so emotional that they cried - the big snotty sobbing kind of crying - and this amused me. I was really impressed with the questions the audience asked.

I’ve been reading the blog Hyperbole and a Half quite obsessively because Allie is hilarious and self-deprecating and likes grammar and dogs. I like this blog alot.

In reading news, Kate Constable's Crow Country is amazing. I wrote a little thing about it on the Younger Sun blog. You can read Kate's blog here.

Rereading Mahalia and feeling a funny old feeling now that I have heard Jo Horniman pronounce it ma-HAY-lia when i’ve been pronouncing it ma-HAH-lia this whole time. It's a feeling sort of like an existential crisis plus foolishness.

A friend came home from Africa and brought back the DVD of Spud for us to watch. This is v exciting because this is one of the funniest books I have ever read. The funniest three books I've ever read.

And then I looked at some baby elephants thanks to my Marvellous friend's twitter link.

All these things made me feel better about the Chelsea Hotel closing down without me ever getting to stay there and how BHP is going to make ooh a roughly TWENTY BILLION DOLLAR profit this year and how the newspapers hardly ever publish any articles about young adult literature.

But anyway. Here you can watch and listen to Louise Attaque's song Je t'emmene au vent. It is a supremely daggy film clip but a top song.

review : yellowcake

2011-08-24T09:00:00.002+10:00

yellowcake, margo lanagan (allen & unwin)

forgive me.

i read this a long time ago and meant to write about it straight away, but the stories cased within this beautiful cover are not simple tales to read and flippantly comment on. they are convoluted and mysterious, beautiful and twistedly grotesque.

heads remains looming in my mind, the story in which a golden haired boy portrays innocence and busyness and a sense of purpose in a horrible world where something awful has happened and he's not sure why.

also ferryman, which broke my heart with its light and loving banter between father and daughter ("scowling sarah") combined with the grief and "the ragged crying all around us in the hole, that is me; these two are silent in their cleaving. i lean and howl against them and at last they take me in, lock me in with them."

a honest day's work is truly a stand-out as well, in which a townful of labourers working to butcher and make use of a beast washed up in their harbour, as told from the perspective of a young boy with a crippled foot participating in his first day of work. watching for the 'sizable' 'incoming' and the careful work they do, slicing here and oh watch out, a nerve has made the arm jolt. no - the beast awakens. when it stands, tries to put its skull back on - at once revolting and most certainly fascinating. and the guilt and the shame is evident, at the way they carry out their work, hardly considering the life form that once was. "it could be mistaken for a person, this one." fracks. i have shivers, and a sinking feeling in my stomach, even now.

and if i may borrow from my friend clare, whose review in bookseller+publisher was just...just so.

she wrote: each piece in this collection is truly elegant, and each possesses a haunting, often unnerving quality that leaves the innards of the story lingering long after the last page is turned...lanagan's masterful use of language continues to astonish, with turns of phrase so perfect that you want to roll them around in your mouth until all the goodness is sucked from them and her ability to create powerful stories that demand serious contemplation is unrivalled. the often dark subject matter varies greatly, as each story is wildly different, but the skill with which it is handled is never compromised. yellowcake should eked out over time, each story to be savoured.

what is truly impressive - and is evident in all of margo's work - is the way she can create a world, a community in her stories, no matter how short. she breathes life into her characters and her settings, using language in such a wonderful and inventive way. she explores the physical in a way not many writers do and every story will just blow you away. mindfuck, yes. comfortable, not always.

inspiring and overwhelming? yes, always.

read this review by raych of books i done read.

go and read margo's other books: white time, black juice, red spikes, tender morsels and the upcoming "selkie novel" now officially named sea hearts.
you can also read her blog: among amid while.
many thanks to margo for sending me a copy.

national bookshop day

2011-08-19T19:00:00.005+10:00

tomorrow you go to a bookshop. go directly to a bookshop.* do not pass go, do not collect $200.
national bookshop day. it's all part of making sure people remember how incredibly wonderful bookshops are and the job they do within the community. it's about sticking it to the man. you know that scene at the end of empire records? it's going to be pretty much exactly like that.**

the sun bookshop and the younger sun are having a 10am story time with our favourite local (man) william mcinnes for the kidlets and their swooning mums (and dads) and then at 1pm we are launching the rerelease of our favourite local (woman) kerry greenwood's novel medea.

we we we so excited, we so excited.***

and hannah's been making the shop all clean for you.

*though if you detour or deviate in the direction of coffee you will most likely be forgiven. especially if you bring me one. a skinny latte, thanks.

**it will probably be absolutely nothing like that. but awesome nonetheless.

***forgive me for THAT!

outside of a book...

2011-08-15T23:36:00.002+10:00

expression is the need of my soul

2011-08-13T15:30:00.006+10:00

talking about archies the other week put me in the mind to re-read the wonderfully hilarious poems of archy and mehitabel by don marquis. archy is the reincarnated spirit of a free verse poet, now a cockroach living in a new york newspaper office. at night he scurries out and types poems by jumping and slamming his wee cockroach head onto the typewriter keys - hence lack of capitalisation and most punctuation. the idea is that the newspaper men happen upon the poems in the morning and start printing them as a column.

and here's a piece, a selection, from right near the start:

"expression is the need of my soul
i was once a vers libre bard
but i died and my soul went into the body of a cockroach
it has given me a new outlook upon life
i see things from the under side now
thank you for the apple peelings in the wastepaper basket
but your paste is getting so stale i cant eat it
there is a cat here called mehitabel i wish you would have
removed she nearly ate me the other night why dont she
catch rats that is what she is supposed to be fore
there is a rat here she should get without delay"

archy's poems give a beautifully satirical view of life in nyc in the twenties and thirties, the excesses and toughness of those decades. the poem "certain maxims of archy" is particularly memorable and includes stanzas like this:

"don t cuss the climate
it probably doesn t like you
any better
than you like it"

and

"prohibition makes you
want to cry
into your beer and
denies you the beer
to cry into"

and

"boss the other day
i heard an
ant conversing
with a flea
small talk i said
disgustedly
and went away
from there"

and

"the bees got their
governmental system settled
millions of years ago
but the human race is still
groping"

alley cat mehitabel, in her many previous lives, once lived much more grandly than she does now (once she was cleopatra). but she's toujours gai, darlinks, toujours gai even when she's down on her luck and or burdened with kittens. mehitabel never intended a life of matrimony or motherhood:

"the life of a female
artist is continually
hampered what in hell
have i done to deserve
all these kittens"

archy interviews pharaohs in the museum, has a radio interview with mars and one time finds the shift lock (caps lock) key and experiences the JOY OF CAPITAL LETTERS. hilariously funny yet sometimes tragic and cynical, you must get a copy without delay. and what's more, the best of archy and mehitabel is going to be published in october! go, demand your local bookshop order it in! i am placing an order for at least twenty-three as i type this.

go to the don marquis website for more on archy.

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour

2011-08-09T21:26:00.007+10:00

started amy and roger's epic detour (by morgan matson published by simon and schuster) today and so far it's quite good. but the most exciting thing is the quote that opens chapter two:

yes! that's the luckies' song california in popular song from the final (amazing) album first frost.
read a review of first frost here. buy it here.
visit morgan matson's website here.

old wine is good wine

2011-08-08T17:30:00.000+10:00

burn down the disco / hang the blessed dj

2011-08-06T09:15:00.000+10:00

i thought you all, though especially aimee, might like this. i loved reading her desert island discs blog post the other day...and haven't really left youtube since...

here are the smiths, in 1986, and two guys in blue shirts near the front doing...

the. best. dancing. ever.

i discovered this through charlie and caroline's blog. they're trying to find out who the air guitar-playing schoolboy is. WHERE ARE YOU NOW, KID?

happy in seclusion

2011-08-03T12:59:00.002+10:00

coffee: skim latte from fresh in leura. very nice.

book: only ever always, penni russon (a&u). very nice also. (plus sad and beautiful).

book: on orchard road, elsbeth edgar (walker).

goes very well with sunshine and blue skies and lunch outdoors.

i make fire.

dear creative writing teacher. i am also doing work. i promise. have fun in class tomorrow nerds!

hey archie!

2011-08-01T21:50:00.004+10:00

the archibald prize finalists are on display at the tarrawarra museum of art out in the yarra valley.

there were some fabulous paintings/portraits there and a couple of truly wanky ones. it made me think of the evil sister (and here is a perfect example of her evility) who, at university, used to take evocative photographs and movies then once they were developed/edited she'd go back and read the assignment requirement and make up a meaningful story about what she'd done. and get high distinctions.

here was my personal favourite portrait - the luminous and fairytaleish cassandra golds, as painted by sonia kretschmar (visit her website here). nothing wanky about this! just beauty!

read more about it here

it is a spectacularly gorgeous painting. the words painted on the gold background come from the three loves of persimmon, cassandra's most recent book. the cage torso with the bird battering its wings just stole my heart and can you see the cat shadow?

sonia illustrated the museum of mary child (i still get shivers when i think about this very deliciously creepy book), clair de lune and the three loves of persimmon (all by cassandra) and she also illustrated the fabbity tensy farlow and the home for mislaid children, by jen storer (speaking of jen, she is celebrating the launch of the accidental princess today over at baxter street).

if you go and see the exhibition you can also go wine tasting and probably squeeze in a devonshire tea in healesville. what more could you ask for?!

though my coffee (a rare cappuccino) from the wattleseed cafe was pretty ordinary, the scones however! no time for photo! i et them straight away!

i will read you where i go

2011-07-31T22:50:00.003+10:00

oof.

my fingers are vair tired from using the shift key to Make Capital Letters So People Would Take Me Seriously at the #abaconf11. (but i do hear that not using capitals annoys people like a bee up the nose...i might decide to use them, maybe, at some point. on occasion.) there'll be a couple more ABA-themed posts over the next little while. but for now...

i've been reading like a reading machine. i can't tell you a lot about them just yet because i have to tell magpies first. you should subscribe. here.

two recent reads:

the accidental princess is the first cab off the rank.* the new book from jen storer and published by viking.

a gorgeous fairy story for girls (and boys) - good, adventurous feisty girls (and boys) - about matilda and her sister iris and the curious magical folk who live in the lilac hedge and the forest by their house.

this is no rainbow fairies.

only ever always, penni russon (a&u)

the real world meets a dystopian future. or does it? who is dreaming? are they dreaming? clara and claire come from very different places and extremely different paths but through this rather beautiful story their lives become intertwined. this is only a short novel and i owe it a second, more serious read this week.

but now: holiday. maybe here:

*this is an expression my dad uses. he was a taxi driver in sydney a long time ago. he still refers to any peak hour traffic as "busy as pitt street out here" and we - his very victorian children - look at him, blinking and wide-eyed.

Indigenous Literacy Foundation

2011-07-28T17:00:00.001+10:00

A truly interesting and moving session. The panel, made up of Debra Dank, Anne Shinkfield and program ambassador Andy Griffiths, discussed the projects and successes of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (newly upgraded from 'project'). This year Indigenous Literacy Day will be Wednesday 7 September.

They have started the wonderful Book Buzz program, aimed at getting small readers from remote and isolated communities access to books (and books that resonate with their lives and experiences) because it's reading from a young age that gives kids the greatest chance of becoming readers later in life and will assist them so much throughout their adulthood.

Anne Shinkfield is the Early Years Program Development Coordinator at Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku in Warburton, WA. Her playgroup centre received books from the ILF and has helped to provide translations. Since then, reading and story time have become popular and important with children and their parents alike. Women who have never learned to read themselves are enjoying the experience with their kids.

The continued supply of books to these communities, and their translation into local languages, helps to fuel the cycle of empowerment and participation of our indigenous population and help close the shameful literacy gap that has become so great in our country.

A number of books are now available in indigenous languages, including the Australian classic Grug, which has been translated into Karrawa, a language of the Top End.

The Naked Boy and the Crocodile is a soon-to-be-released collection of stories written by children from all around the country. We got to read the titular story and - oh lordy - it is hilarious. It could have come straight from the Bad Book and it may or may not have a crocodile that poops out a boy. Except not "may not", because it blatantly does. Andy, who collated the hilarious tales, believes that the kids he met have far more exciting, funny and harrowing stories than he could ever make up. Find out for yourself: The Naked Boy and the Crocodile is released by Pan Macmillan Australia in September 2011.

Click here to listen to an ABC Life Matters interview with Debra and Anne.

If you would like to donate to the ILF you can do so quite easily by clicking this link: DONATE NOW! YES YOU! pleasethankyou.

show off and share nicely

2011-07-27T12:00:00.010+10:00

Community Engagement in the Digital Age

They were the two most discussed topics of the ABA conference: "Community" and "How The Internet Can Make Or Break Books".

In this session they came together with altogether wonderful results. Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mike's fame joined Becky Anderson (who I talked about here), Kate Eltham and Suzy Wilson (the owner of Riverbend books) and each gave a presentation on the ways they are using and taking advantage of BlogTumblrTwitFace, blogging and the real world to cultivate vibrant communities around their businesses.

It is important to think "outside the shop"

What is important when starting to establish a community is not what we are retailing, but what we believe in.

When blogging (or tweeting or facebooking) engage with your followers in your own voice - a personal touch - and make sure you interact with people. If someone leaves a comment, make sure you reply. Pip cautioned us not to limit ouselves to just blogging about your product (ie. books) but to engage with the world and all kinds of topics that create a unique identity around your business.

Remember to link to other people and things that you talk about, that you find interesting. And if a competitor has done something good, give them a thumbs up - credit people who are doing great things. Share the love around.

If you don't know how to use all these strange internet tools - never fear! Suzy at Riverbend has been running social media classes from her shop so that people of all ages and interests can get connected.

A Community That Cares

Meet and get to know your customers (they are your people). Create events on- and offline where your customers can meet.

The Queensland Writers Centre supports around 30,000 writers local all over that massive northern state. Kate discussed how the Queensland floods were a real "coming of age" for social media and the disaster collapsed social and emotional distance. The writers centre, along with the Australia Council, has recently launched The Three Cs Project, which will support the development of arts and community projects in flood-ravaged towns like Rockhampton.

There are so many worthy community projects to be a part of. Meet Me At Mike's began Softies for Mirabel four years ago to support the Mirabel Foundation and they provide toys for children whose families have been affected by drugs and alcohol.

As well as their social media classes, Riverbend Books hosts incredibly popular, themed foodie nights and a knitting bookclub called Knits and Novels. They also offer great little "My First Book Bag" book starter kits for their smallest shoppers and local customers can even get their purchases delivered by bike!

Anderson's Bookshop hosts events, - such as blood drives to coincide with any vampire book release - supports local not-for-profits and involves the whole community, including local restaurants and other retailers.

Anderson's Bookshop hosted J.K. Rowling in 1998 to celebrate the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone* with around ninety local kids...but nine short years later thousands upon thousands of Harry Potter fans turned up for the street party. Isn't that the most wonderful thought? As a massive HP fan myself I just keep thinking: if only we could do it all again...for I don't think another series will ever match its wonderfulness.

Aren't these beautiful sentiments? Sharing, caring, being interesting and interested. All wonderful ingredients for a happy world and happier lives. And the internet can help!

What's important is to remember that it's more than retailing. As Pip said: "sincerity is the thing".

Pop on over to The Cultured Animal to read her post The Times They Are a-Changin'.

*Though of course they were reading the Sorcerer's Stone...

Clara in Washington BOOK LAUNCH TODAY

2011-07-26T14:58:00.005+10:00

Come on down to the Sun Bookshop tonight (Tuesday 26 July) to help us celebrate the launch of Clara in Washington - the new hilarious YA novel by Penny Tangey.

6pm for a 6.30 start

Have a drink and some nibbles and grab a copy of the book.

See you tonight!

Indie Bound and National Bookshop Day

2011-07-26T11:30:00.006+10:00

Two new community-minded bookshop innovations were discussed at #abaconf11:

Indie Bound

A new club is in town. Indie Bound has arrived on Australian shores after much success in the US and UK.

Indie Bound is a small business and bookshop collective that will encourage a "shop local" approach, opening the public's eyes to where their money goes when they buy things and hopefully making them realise that buying locally will help to create healthy local economies, which in turn will help communities thrive.

Membership to Indie Bound will be open to all members of the ABA, will cost $100 for the first year and $50 for subsequent years.

"Put your money where your heart is." - Becky Anderson.

www.indiebound.org.au

National Bookshop Day

August 20 2011 will be National Bookshop Day.

Like Record Store Day, National Bookshop Day will be a a party to celebrate how fantastic and essential and permanent our bookshop are. At the ABA Sunday practical session Fiona Stager from Avid Reader talked about how NBD will be a strategic campaign that will let people know the true facts of the book industry and correct any misinformation (CoughThanksNickSherryCough) that might have leaked out. There'll be lots of material available to booksellers who want to participate, but we're also free to take our own spin on the party.

Celebrations might include having authors working behind the counter at your local bookshop, book busking (speak to Jon at Pages and Pages for tips), hipster sit-ins (speak to Fiona) in your shop window, "double love" extra loyalty points, reading flashmobs...and the possibilities are endless. I. Can't. Wait.

Read more about National Bookshop day at the ABA website - more information will be available in the coming week or so.

Text Prize 2011

2011-07-25T13:27:00.006+10:00

The winner of the 2011 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's Writing is...

MYKE BARTLETT

...for his novel The Relic.

Set in Perth, The Relic is an adventure story, a fantasy, "that will make its readers smile but may also scare them under the bed" and sees mythological creatures invade and threaten to take over the world.

Myke - who was here at the ABA conference in person this morning and has a pair of excellent red boots and dapper fashion sense - is a Melbourne writer who started out his writing career with podcasting novels.

You can visit his website here.

Pictured is the 2010 winning title of the Text Prize The Bridge by Jane Higgins. It will be released very very soon and it is very very good.

We interrupt this broadcast...

2011-07-25T13:13:00.005+10:00

It was news ahoy at #abaconf11 this morning.*

Today in the eCommerce and eBooks: Options session it was announced that Collins Booksellers have signed an exclusive deal with Kobo to have eBook kiosks in their stores.

And!

Thorpe-Bowker announced their new joint venture with TitlePage. TP will be doing a total revamp of the system to incorporate eBooks, excitingly entitled TitlePagePlus.

Now that eBooks are on the horizon - hurtling towards us as though in speedboats or dune buggies - perhaps the whole prospect won't appear so frightening anymore and we can just accept the eBook as simply another edition of the original.

*and no, it has nothing to do with bacon or fighter planes.

A New (Digital) World Order

2011-07-24T17:34:00.018+10:00

Adjusting to the New Digital World Order

There was supposed to be a fancy video link and Skype session about digital books and bookselling but due to technical difficulties* we had a panel of industry professionals talking about this topic instead. And it was good.

L - R: Mark Rubbo (of Readings), Michael Heyward (Text Publishing), Kate Eltham (Queensland Writers Centre and founder of if:book) and Lucie Pepeyan (Collins Booksellers) and Jon Page (Pages & Pages and also president of the ABA).

~~~

Readings has already started selling eBooks on their platform Booki.sh, which launched in February and sales are up and up. It features predominantly local authors and local publishers, mostly from SPUNC, Allen & Unwin recently joined as well and soon other big players will also be a part.

~~~

Online bookselling, on sites such as Booktopia (and the bigger, slightly more despicable ones) is not a comparable experience to shopping in a "bricks and mortar" bookshop, because your search history will influence what you see on the screen and it is highly unlikely you will stumble on something strange and unexpected. Unlike in a bookshop, where you are free to wander and look and enjoy the experience and perhaps a misfiled tome will be just the thing you didn't know you wanted.

However, Kate quickly jumped on this point and suggested that while, yes, these online bookshops are like that, people who are online actually have the whole expanse of the World Wide Web on which to discover things accidentally - or serendipitously.

It's true. One person links to one thing, someone else links to another and BAM! I've found something I didn't even know I was looking for that brings me a lot of joy. For me this week it was this.** And there's even a book on the way!

~~~

Michael Heyward said that the digital book future is "intellectually fascinating but economically absolutely terrifying."

Australia is the only English-speaking region where independent booksellers are strong and influential (yes!). The RedGroup failed because it was, as Michael simply said, a "terrible retailer". He highlighted that we have to improve conversation between retailers and publishers because what we have going on is really worth hanging on to. And so far as Amazon goes, it's a company that isn't Australian, and that doesn't pay GST, and for it to have a stranglehold on book retailing is frightening. The idea of really knowing where your money goes became a very important topic over the course of the conference.

~~~

We must maintain diversity in publishing and it could be hard if retailers and publishers don't innovate now. But if the conference panel are anything to go by, booksellers, publishers, writers...they all have innovation coming out of their wazoos.

So the advent of online bookselling and eBooks has changed everything, but it's not all bad.

*I think this is the kind of irony that 90s indie popstars sing about. Like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.
**Ok, ok, the girl who gets hugged by authors I would like to be hugged by told me to look at it ages ago, but I didn't. Then I found the note saying: "look at this AWESOME site because you will LOVE it." And I thought: yes, I shall discover this for myself.

Aux Armes, Booksellers!

2011-07-24T17:10:00.005+10:00

The 2011 ABA conference (we've filled the Hilton On The Park with our raucous bookish enthusiasm) kicked off this morning with a keynote address by Becky Anderson, co-owner of Anderson's Bookshop in Illinois and the President of the American Bookseller's Association.

Becky talked about her family business, still in business five generations on. Initially just a drugstore, they soon started selling books (and other sundries). As such, she rawther hilariously pointed out that she comes from a long line of drug pushers - but that drug pushers are also book lovers.

As she spoke on, it felt like a wonderfully rousing call to arms. Things are changing, no doubt about it. Bookselling "can no longer be business as usual." Bookshops are creaking, groaning and we need new strategies and innovative business practices. We need to start with a clean slate.

Booksellers and publishers need to work together to a common goal. That goal being: sell more books. We need price protection on eBooks, engaged and collaborative booksellers, new and innovative business practices, e-commerce enabled websites. And passion. Lots of passion.

Becky gave us some SCARY FACTS. Such as:

Amazon are calling the big publishers in NYC to lure their best editors away. If they have their own imprints, and their own distribution, they have an enormous industry monopoly. We booksellers (and publishers) need to stand up to those "who treat books as a lost leader" who offer the great deals on books to lure people to buy other things.

But she also gave us some UPLIFITNG STORIES:

Macmillan publishers in the US decided that enough was enough and that Amazon's pricing of $9.99 for an eBook was unacceptably underpriced (highlighting the need for an agency model concerning eBook pricing). When Amazon didn't accept this, the publisher put them on stop - simply ceased to supply their titles to them. A powerful action, Macmillan has since been joined by other major publishers. Rawr!

In America last year, Amazon dominated, with 80% of the eBook market. But this year, after the introduction of Barnes and Noble's Nook, their numbers have dropped down to just over 50%. In Australia we're still at the starting out point when it comes to bookshops and eBooks. Readings has introduced Booki.sh and that is a fabulous start, but we need to enable all stores to access this kind of software (but that's a discussion for another session).

In the UK and Ireland this year World Book Night was a fabulous success and saw a million books given away to strangers in the street and to those who don't have easy access to books, such as those in hospitals and prisons. The US will be joining the party next year with their own World Book Night to take place on Shakespeare's birthday.

We need to acknowledge the need to do things differently, we need a new approach and to not be afraid of trying lots of different tactics in order to find the thing that works.

A marvellous start to the conference. Becky is a wonderful speaker and she reminded me why I love bookselling and puffed up my pride a little (or a lot) in regards to my employ, saying: "We are the tastemakers, the loudmouths. We put books on the map."

ABA Conference 2011

2011-07-23T12:10:00.005+10:00

Tomorrow (Sunday) and Monday I will be blogging from the ABA Conference "Through the Looking Glass", along with my friend The Cultured Animal. There'll be mucho tweeting happening too - look for the hashtag #ABAconf11.

It's been a tumultuous year for booksellers (a little bit scary if we're honest) and I am anticipating this conference to be extremely interesting and vibrant - a time to hear industry professionals discuss important issues - bookselling in a digital age, social media, eBooks and how to develop community relationships with a view to encourage people to shop local.

Visit the ABA website.
Check out the potential twitter highlights at the Fancy Goods blog.
Click here to read my response to Nick Sherry's remark that bookshops are not long for this world.

coffee : l'atelier de monsieur truffe

2011-07-22T19:15:00.000+10:00

l'atelier de monsieur truffe, lygon street in brunswick

new to lygon street and my local area is l'atelier de monsieur truffe (original monsieur truffe you'll find in collingwood) it's a big warehouse cafe and chocolate factory. i neglected to have any chocolate, however, and shall have to revisit. there's a really lovely rustic quality to the place and though it's big it isn't impersonal. kid and pram and bike-friendly. enter via the bright red door in the wall.

my toast and jam was good, served on a big wooden chopping board. my dining companion (the girl who gets hugged by authors i'd like to be hugged by) had a rhubarby crumble, which was served with a little cow jug filled with milk. it was very cute. but the coffee was only ok, with the crema more airy fluff than cream and a slightly gritty quality.

the staff were really nice and i think the cafe is still finding its feet - so i will definitely return, definitely to try some chocolate.

you can find their blog here.

daddy issues

2011-07-20T18:30:00.003+10:00

We've been sharing our work in writing class. A lot of our characters have dead and/or absent fathers. One classmate suggested we just don't want to have to write the dads in. Mmm, maybe. Our mothers aren't a happy bunch either, on the whole. It's curious. We laugh about how so many children's books get rid of the parents in the first chapter, leaving the main character free to have adventures and fun. We're writing young adult fiction - and I notice in the books I read that the teenage protagonists often play the role of the parent, or have loopy parents, or neglectful ones. And now I want to pop a dad back in, because I'm sad I took him away. Hey - maybe I should add step-parents and godparents and grandparents!

But this musing also came about because I've been listening to a lot of Wainwright lately. Rufus, Martha, Lucy and the great patriarch Loudon Wainwright III. What spectacular voices! What a fascinating family! Surviving Twin is a bittersweet song, by Loudon, about his relationship with his dad. It's from the album Last Man On Earth. He just gets right to the heart of the matter and it seems so honest.

Surviving Twin

Last week I attended a family affair
and a few remarked upon my recent growth of facial hair.
"You look just like your father did, with that beard," someone said.
I answered back "I am him" even though my old man's dead.
I didn't want to be him. Well, at first I did.
When I loved and looked up to him as a little kid.

He sent me to his old school, I was a numeral with his name.
And he gave me this gold signet ring and he wore one just the same.
And I guess that I believed him, and probably it was true,
when he told me I was just like him, that's what some fathers do.

But a father's always older and my dad was rather tall.
Who says size doesn't matter? He was big and I was small.
I needed to be big enough to be someone someday
and I learned I had to beat him and that was the only way

I learned I had to fight him, my own flesh, blood, bone and kin.
But I felt I was just like him - can a man's son be his twin?

First we fought for my mother, that afforded little joy.
When he left she was heart broken, and I was still their little boy.
But I started to get bigger and to win the ugly game,
when I made a little money and I got a bit of fame.

And I saw how this could wound him, yes this could do the trick
and if I made it big enough I could kill him off quick.
But how can you murder someone in a way that they don't die?
I didn't want to kill him...that would be suicide.

I got frightened and I backed off, I let up and i was through.
And in the end he did himself in, usually that's what we do.
A man becomes immortal through his daughter or his son.
But when he fears his legacy, a man can come undone.

And the beard is a reminder of a living part of him -
for though my father's dead and gone, I'm his surviving twin.

fairytale 2.0

2011-07-18T13:45:00.000+10:00

little red: a fizzingly good yarn, rapunzel: a groovy fairytale and cinderella: an art deco love story by david and lynn roberts (anova)

they've been unavailable for a little while, but i'm so glad to have these three kooky fairytales back in stock. they're so wonderful and offbeat: in little red the small boy, when confronted by the granny-swallowing wolf, offers his attacker some fizzy, burp-making drink. in cinderella a leek makes a limousine and the ugly sisters do the charlston. and in rapunzel (my favourite) our heroine is locked in a flat high in an apartment building where she listens to david bowie and the prince is in a band. if you've got any small people to shop for - these are brilliant.

review : beauty queens

2011-07-13T14:52:00.006+10:00

Beauty Queens, Libba Bray* (Allen & Unwin)

Isn't it the most riotous premise? It's brilliant: a plane full of teenage beauty queen contestants crash lands on a deserted (or, rather, not quite so deserted) tropical island. Libba Bray's latest novel is firmly tongue in cheek and just brilliant. It made me cry 100% less than Going Bovine but I loved it just as much. It's Drop Dead Gorgeous meets Lord of the Flies, via Lost.

It's way over the top, a delight from start to finish. A fun satire (subtle as a tsunami) and you fall in love with the girls as they are forced to fight for survival and reassess themselves as girls and as people. Adina (Miss New Hampshire) and Tiara (Miss Mississippi) were probably my faves, as well as Petra and Mary Lou. Shanti Singh (Miss California) and Nicole Ade (Miss Colorado) were hilarious and fierce as the two people of colour determined to stick it out in the whitewhite pageant world. And poor Miss New Mexico, who suffered greatly following the crash: "half of an airline serving tray was lodged in her forehead, forming a small blue canopy over her eyes."

Referencing all the action movie tropes, and just generally being very vocally aware of their own plot and devices, our beauty queens are faced with the presence of the nefarious Corporation who are involved in a terrible plans to secure American economic interests via a war with MoMo B. ChaCha aka The Peacock dictator of the Republic of ChaCha (oh! and my favourite character - General Good Times!!!) - and the girls' lives are in the balance...with exploding hair removal cream among the weapons.

You will like this book. The one-liners were brill, the footnotes and the short chapters introducing the girls, Corporation advertisements and movie "trailers" just hilarity - I especially loved the David L. Evithan bit - great way to honour your editor, as well as basing dashing young pirates on them.

On a last note, I have to give props to Taylor. She is also a brilliantly memorable character and I cast Mandy Moore (circa Saved!) as the insane, dedicated girl warrior. "Let's not get all down in the bummer basement where the creepy things live. There are people in heathen China who don't even have airline trays."

*i enjoyed the two youngish kids looking at this book's cover at the shop the other day, completely ignoring the boobs (well done boys) and instead saying "this almost says 'library'! libbabberry libraberry librabrary."

scholastic fantastic

2011-07-05T12:17:00.004+10:00

Marcelo in the Real World, Francisco X Stork (Scholastic)

As part of a compromise and deal, so he can go back to his special school for his final year and help look after the ponies he loves, Marcelo must spend the summer break working in the mailroom of his father's law firm. His father thinks that some time in the real world will help snap Marcelo out of his head - the same head in which Marcelo hears beautiful music and spends much of his time. Jasmine is in charge of him at work, and though at first she's frustrated by his slowness, she quickly learns how to interact with him and they become friends. When Marcelo finds a photograph of a girl whose face has been severely damaged as a result of the faulty windscreens made by one of the law firm's clients - and he learns that the whole debacle is just going to be swept under the rug - he has to decide what is the right and best thing to do.

With its wonderful characterisation and tight plot (softened by the poetic, meandery way it's written), this is a really beautiful novel about kindness and friendship, and about confronting the bad things in life as well as the good.

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters, Natalie Standiford (Scholastic)

It is Christmas and Lou Almighty is very upset with the Sullivans. One of them has offended her and if she does not receive a written confession and apology by New Year's Day they will all be removed from her will, and therefore cut off from her substantial inheritance. The family - Ginger, Daddy-o, St John, Sully, Norrie, Jane, Sassy and little Takey - get together and decide who it could have been to offend their fearsome grandmother so much. Unanimously, they decide it must be one of the girls:
"And so it was agreed that the three girls - Norrie, Jane, and Sassy - would spend their Christmas break writing out a full confession of their crimes, to be handed to Almighty by midnight on New Year's Eve. After that, they would have to hope for the best."
Was it Norrie's falling in love on the boy from her Speed Reading class that did it? Was it Jane's tell-all blog? Or was it that Sassy had murdered someone?

A wonderful, very funny and must-read book. Written with the same ease found in How to say goodbye in robot (my review here) - and perhaps even better dialogue - this one is an American, more grown-up, version of Hilary McKay's Casson family stories and also a little reminiscent of Nancy Mitford too.

my cover or yours - back again!

2011-07-02T20:58:00.005+10:00

i think that necro-sexpections might be against the law.

also, if you like it then you should have put a crow on it. *doing beyoncé dance*

july might be more productive

2011-06-30T23:34:00.005+10:00

dear june. i'm sorry i didn't bean or read much. here's a list of what i did do:

squandered uni hols
played with eleven wee puppies
maid of honoured
danced my legs down to the knees at wedding
read beauty queens and laughed the whole time
worked on some secret projects
ate some of this cake*:

*baked to perfection by betsy jane, 2010 royal melbourne show third-prize winner for her brownies.

Monroe and a Poem

2011-06-27T11:11:00.003+10:00

Marilyn Monroe reading Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Those Awesome people are at it again, with the blog Awesome People Reading.

Shut not your doors to me proud libraries,
For that which was lacking on all your well-fill'd shelves, yet
needed most, I bring,
Forth from the war emerging, a book I have made,
The words of my book nothing, the drift of it every thing,
A book separate, not link'd with the rest nor felt by the intellect,
But you ye untold latencies will thrill to every page.

Shut Not Your Doors - Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass, 1881)

You can read Leaves of Grass for free at Project Gutenberg or you could go to your local secondhand bookshop and find a musty, pre-loved version to keep forever.

review : a confederacy of dunces

2011-06-23T18:43:00.005+10:00

A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole

You probably read Joanne Horniman's post yesterday over at her blog Secret Scribbled about this wonderful book. This was one of the books I read during those delightful undergraduate years when my classmates took everything rawther seriously, and I reveled in it.

Ignatius, a college graduate, is entirely convinced of his superiority to pretty much everyone and everything in modern life (and much of history too). He's writing a great tome on big chief tablets in pencil. He knows an awful lot and spends his days philosophising and avoiding much of humanity. But when he and his mother (with whom he lives) need money, a new fate awaits Ignatius: "and what a vicious fate it was to be: now he was faced with the perversion of having to GO TO WORK."

As Jo said in her post:

It's a book that could manage to offend everyone, if they wanted to be offended: homosexuals, heterosexuals, blacks, Jews, overeducated fat white boys from New Orleans, little old ladies, mothers ... except that it is somehow one of those books that is so big and warm-hearted and inclusive that (if you read it right, just as you can't be offended by Mark Twain if you read him right) it is actually the most liberal, progressive and forward-looking of novels.

Yet I delight in Ignatius' self-righteous and almost repugnant observations and comments. You feel for the cretin: "I am forced to function in a century which I loathe." I love it because it's honest, but hyperbolic at the same time - yes, that's just how amazingly well written and clever this book is.

The dialogue is pitch-perfect and the descriptions superb. Toole captured all those little parts of human life and culture that just make the words leap from the page, whacking your funny bone on the way to your heart. The dialogues between Ignatius and his mother Mrs Reilly, in particular, are spectacular examples of characterisation and dialogue. Also, it amuses me how Ignatius holds a particular disdain for Mark Twain. Calls him a "dreary fraud".

Jo posted today about John Kennedy Toole's only other novel, The Neon Bible. We'll just have to wonder what other gems Toole would have given us.

just for the loveliness

2011-06-22T17:36:00.006+10:00

darren hanlon sings his song home (from album i will love you at all, which i reviewed here) on a beach. in spain. how wonderful.

DARREN HANLON - HOME from WAAAU.TV on Vimeo.

visit daz's website.

review : the taste of apple

2011-06-21T23:44:00.007+10:00

Pedro Jones is lost. Abandoned by his father and forced into commission housing with his Filipino immigrant mother, the future seems bleak. But when Pedro meets the 'mad' street busker, Johnny Lazzaro, and gets involved with the East Timor freedom movement, life takes an unexpected detour. James Laidler deftly crafts a cast of vivid characters in this gritty story of self discovery, justice and belonging.

the taste of apple is the story of Pedro. It opens to him standing on the roof of his council flat home in Richmond, looking out over the city, reminding himself to breathe.

‘I take my heart
…
and nail it
to the Southern Cross.’

It is a heartfelt novel, raw and painful. Pedro’s left to live with his Filipino-bride, devout Catholic, enigmatic mother, after his father leaves one Christmas, in a building full of down-and-outs, refugees and junkies. He’s a boy trying to become a man. the taste of apple travels a long path, covers a lot of terrain from Heidelberg to Richmond to Colac – and looks into the people and the events of East Timor, a country so close to Australia and so seldom in our collective consciousness. Pedro becomes involved in a local community group who work to raise awareness of what has happened in East Timor through the crazy busker Johnny, whose mother was killed in the 1991 Dili massacre and whose father remains imprisoned in a Timor gaol and who opens Pedro's eyes to the world around him.

the taste of apple lies somewhere between a traditional verse novel and a typical prose novel. The author, James, calls it ‘poetic prose’. More of the action and events are narrated than I would have expected, and perhaps some of the poems and scenes could have been tighter, but I think this kind of novel help to bridge a reader unused to a verse novel.

The CD, a collaboration between the author and Warrnambool musician Don Stewart, is great - many of the tracks quite beautiful and evocative and it definitely adds to the experience. However, I found it a little tricky, having to ensure I was at home or had my portable listening device* on me in order to read and listen at the same time, providing, or requiring, a different reading experience (ie. not snatching five minutes in the bank line, ten minutes over a sneaky mid-afternoon coffee) than usual.

I really enjoyed reading the taste of apple, primarily for its honesty and emotion. Pedro has such a distinctive voice and the reader is with him, fiercely so, right from the get-go. I love the exploration of social justice, and how – despite the things that come to pass – there’s hope.

the taste of apple is published by Interactive Press, a small independent Australian publisher. you can buy it here.

visit james' website.

Jess from The Tales Compendium has written a very thorough review, I'd really recommend you go have a read.

*iiiiiiiiiDidn't want this to be an advertisement for any fruit companies.

naked lunch/teen spirit

2011-06-20T23:56:00.005+10:00

here we have william s burroughs hanging out with kurt cobain. very cool.

photo from the fabulous website awesome people hanging out together. i came to this blog through sophie isobel at her library adventures. it's wonderful.

caution : bookseller on the warpath

2011-06-16T16:01:00.009+10:00

Nick Sherry has given bookshops just five years before they are obsolete.

You probably saw this article, or at least heard about it.

I was enraged, along with my coworkers and the wider bookselling public. While his intention was probably not to be so blunt, and probably didn't quite mean what it sounded like he meant, he should definitely have thought a little more about it before he spoke such dismal words.

Actually, I also think our feelings are hurt. Here's the Minister for Small Businesses practically throwing in the towel for us...and all the while we're also apparently still staring down the barrel of impending ebook doom. Nick Sherry's website says: "Small business is the backbone of the Australian economy. The Australian Government provides assistance ranging from expert advice to grants to help our small businesses succeed." This is not the way to talk to your backbone!

I'm not all that confident in this minister. Not only am I suspicious he hasn't been into a bookshop lately, I also wonder about his ability to lead and advise in a changing economy and a forward-thinking world. In an interview on ABC News 24 Sherry spoke about technology and the way its development is impacting on the way small businesses are run: "It's not something that necessarily I understand in the sense that I use it a great deal, because I don't." Maybe have a look into that one, Nick.

The way we read is changing, and the way some people buy books is changing. But I don't believe real bookshops will disappear. Real bookshops with real books in them, and real people to help customers choose a new read. People like coming into a bookshop - the amount of comments I get daily...oh what a lovely shop and it's so nice to come in and get advice and you are so lucky to work in a bookshop, it's my dream... And that's the other thing: everyone wants to be Bernard Black! And though modern bookselling requires a lot more dedication and sobriety (sadly) than Bernard's version, working in a bookshop is hella fun. I don't want to not be able to do it anymore.

So maybe, dear general public, just go and have a little visit of your local bookshop this weekend. Don't let Nick Sherry's negativity put you off. Meet the staff, have a chat, poke your nose into the Design section (the frankie Spaces book is awesome), or into History (Parisians, by Graham Robb, is in paperback now), or Classics (a Nancy Mitford book would warm your winter blues) or maybe even Young Adult (this list would go on).

Go visit a bookshop today. Otherwise, we booksellers will be sad:

In associated news: The Book Depository is really fortunate because it's subsidised by the British postal service and is able to offer free postage. Lucky bastards.

something old

2011-06-09T23:59:00.005+10:00

when one doesn't have anything nice to say, it's best not to say anything at all. apparently.

these days it isn't that i can't think of anything nice to say (quite the contrary) but blogging feels like a chore. so i shan't worry myself, but instead offer a little peep at some nice things, which may or may not interest, but what the heck.

wonderful classics*:

and my (and everyone else's) absolute favourite rereads:

and gorgeous wee stories like this one:

if only for tales that start like this:

"once upon a time milly-molly-mandy was going for a picnic.
it was a real, proper picnic. father and mother and uncle and aunty were all going too, and little-friend-susan and billy blunt (because it wouldn't seem quite like a real, proper picnic without little-friend-susan and billy blunt).
they were going to take the red bus from the cross-roads to a specially nice picnic place, where milly-molly-mandy hadn't ever been before because it was quite a long way off. (the nicest places often do seem to be a long way off, somehow.)"

and that include the little gang of picnickers tidying up the picnic ground, which had been ruined by terrible litterbugs, because "mother said: 'i think a place ought to look nicer because we've been there, not nastier!'"

also, i joined twitter and it makes me feel kinda dirty (but can't stop), so i'm taking refuge in worlds where tweets only happen between birds.

*a confederacy of dunces, john kennedy toole. tess of the d'urbervilles, thomas hardy (damn you angel!). little women and good wives, louisa may alcott. selected poems, ee cummings. the heart is a lonely hunter, carson mccullers. for esme with love and squalor, jd salinger. jane eyre and wuthering heights, charlotte bronte and emily bronte. the secret garden, frances hodgson burnett.

review : forgotten

2011-06-06T23:38:00.003+10:00

forgotten, cat patrick (hg egmont)

mesmerising cover, quirky premise. it feels like it's designed for marketing pitch meetings and booksellers' spiels: so there's this girl, right? she's called london. and london's memory resets every morning so she can't remember anything from her past. but get this: she can remember forwards - into her future. so yesterday? no no. tomorrow? yes yes.

first of all, this book is very confusing, certainly not an easy read*. other reviews have noted the inconsistencies in the story and what and why she can remember and i'd have to agree. is her future set in stone? can her memories change, you know, if a butterfly flapped its wings in front of her? i'm still not sure, and i've finished the book. and if the future can change, then is anything real? poor old london.

the twist towards the end of the book that shoots the story off in another direction - this is the point in the book that i actually got into it. the love story just didn't sustain my interest, like so many "romances" in so many young adult books at the moment there was attraction for no real reason - made even more unreasonable in this case, given that london had no idea who luke was each day and had to rely on her notes to know what had been going on in her life.
but yes - the twist. it was great. the book should have been about this mystery.

occasionally i blerg-ed at some lines, ie. "the wind sets flight to my bright auburn locks" (i know i go around talking about my hair like that) and also the bit where a car beeps its horn at london and her mum "politely". errrr? a beep is a beep is a beep.

however! forgotten was very interesting novel and for the most part i did actually like london - her voice was mostly fantastic and some lines were delightfully flippant and funny. some nice original observations, the intriguing premise and then the twist spurred me to read through to the end.

reviews here and here, and check out the latest issue of viewpoint.

* i agree with folks that this is not dissimilar (that is, it's similar) to the time traveller's wife which is also an awkwardly written novel. and no, i did not like that book at all. i do like this one better.

reading matters = raging success!

2011-06-01T22:15:00.006+10:00

congratulations to all the folk at cyl for a great conference. i wanted to thank them for letting me volunteer - it was nothing but top fun.*

markus zusak is clearly uber-human. the man has not aged since i first met him around the time the messenger came out nine years ago! he is also quite wonderful. it was rawther special to hear him read from the still-in-production bridge of clay and i can only imagine what it must feel like to have the world waiting, champing at the bit. plus, have you seen which book has been on the new york times bestsellers list for 193 weeks?! like everyone else at the conference, i was really moved by markus saying that he doesn't want for his book to be the best, or the worst - or better or worse than his last - but that he wants to write so like himself that it is the book that only he could have written.

it was a real joy to meet ursula dubosarsky. her presentation about the golden day was an illuminating look at the inspirations and influences behind a story. rebecca stead (in conversation with pam mcintyre) made me laugh, cry a little bit and yearn for a new york childhood - as well as reminding me to back up my computer frequently. finally getting to meet richard newsome, whose books i adore, was a highlight and his panel with thai-riffic! author oliver phommavanh was an absolute riot, irreverent and ace.

in other news: according to recent search stats bean there, read that has become a pirate blog. pirates obviously like coffee and books too: BEAN THERE READ THAR arrrrr. (i added the "arrrrr").

i finished my internship this week and made these to take on my last day (because i know the way to a publisher's heart):

i am reading meg rosoff's there is no dog. last night i watched hannah gadsby's show artscape and it. was. brilliant. (the first part last week was hilarity incarnate too).

*except when i had to be onstage. that bit was SCARY.

the bean enchiladas

2011-05-26T22:09:00.003+10:00

this is my kind of cookbook. a lovely cover, mexican food and a cute little chicken making a joke.

my abuela's table, daniella germain (hardie grant)

lovely new things to read...

2011-05-25T23:45:00.003+10:00

two newbies that arrived at the shop today, and one i borrowed from a friend:

cannot wait to start beauty queens because it has such a kickarse cover and because i loved going bovine so much. black painted fingernails i have already had a sneaky sneaky peek at, but can't wait to sit down and luxuriate in herrick's wordy words.

but first, reading matters. yes, my reading does matter, but no. it's the reading matters conference this week. be there, and be a square. a cool, hip, melbourne bookish square.

then i shall retreat to the hons cupboard and catch up on what darling fanny and her husband alfred are up to. this book is set in paris (!) but i hope there shall be at least one visit to alconleigh. "Life is sometimes sad and often dull, but there are currants in the cake, and here is one of them."

where's the buzz?

2011-05-24T09:56:00.004+10:00

after hardly any bloggery, tweeting buzz (i am very disappointed in everyone. did you not read loving richard feynman??) an advance copy of clara in washington by penny tangey (UQP) arrived at the shop and it is brilliant. very clever, funny and touching as clara (often anxiously) navigates the social and political streets of washington dc, while trying not to think about her year twelve results and wondering what the heck she wants to do when she grows up. and trying not to get mugged or murdered on the subway. and she makes friends with some anarchists.

plus, coffee.

this bit of the book was particularly fun for me. american coffee is really, really bad. this is me drinking it:

clara in washington is released (according to titlepage) on 27 june. that's not far away! i'll review it properly around then.

read about it at penguin books.
go see penny at the melbourne writers festival.

history, herstory, mystory

2011-05-23T22:18:00.002+10:00

Nanberry: Black Brother White, Jackie French (Harper Collins)

Shan't say much just yet. Handed in my review to B+P recently and I believe it has to be one of the best books I've read this year and is a top-notch example of excellent historical fiction.

from the HarperCollins website: It′s 1789, and as the new colony in Sydney Cove is established, Surgeon John White defies convention and adopts Nanberry, an Aboriginal boy, to raise as his son. Nanberry is clever and uses his unique gifts as an interpreter to bridge the two worlds he lives in. With his white brother, Andrew, he witnesses the struggles of the colonists to keep their precarious grip on a hostile wilderness. And yet he is haunted by the memories of the Cadigal warriors who will one day come to claim him as one of their own. This true story follows the brothers as they make their way in the world - one as a sailor, serving in the Royal Navy, the other a hero of the Battle of Waterloo. No less incredible is the enduring love between the gentleman surgeon and the convict girl, saved from the death penalty, to become a great lady in her own right.

The Ivory Rose, Belinda Murrell (Random House)

Conversely, I was disappointed with The Ivory Rose. It has a great premise and plot but lacks sophistication in its delivery.

Jemma has just landed her first job, babysitting Sammy. It's in Rosethorne, one of the famous witches' houses near where she lives. Sammy says the house is haunted by a sad little girl, but Jemma doesn't know what to believe.

One day when the two girls are playing hide and seek, Jemma discovers a rose charm made of ivory. As she touches the charm she sees a terrifying flashback. Is it the moment the ghost was murdered? Jemma runs for her life, falling down the stairs and tumbling into unconsciousness.

She wakes up in 1895, unable to get home. Jemma becomes an apprentice maidservant at Rosethorne - but all is not well in the grand house. Young heiress Georgiana is constantly sick. Jemma begins to suspect Georgiana is being poisoned, but who would poison her, and why? Jemma must find the proof in order to rescue her friend - before time runs out.

See? Great, exciting premise. But too much exposition in sometimes-stilted dialogue causes the story to drag. It's also a little bit prescriptive. There are slabs of text that describe the ways of life in 1885 that read as lessons, rather than woven in to enrich the world subtly. When Jemma runs into Henry Parkes at the apothecary shop she fortuitously is able to recollect her school history class and dictate the lesson to the reader and the father of federation himself.

The characters suffer from being cookie-cutter shapes and tending towards the one-dimensional. Particularly, I wasn't convinced by the mother in this tale and object to her being portrayed as a pushy, overbearing, workaholic mother who then when has to turn to baking and wearing 'softer' clothes to show her character reconnecting and starting to understand her child.

I would still recommend The Ivory Rose because a historical fiction timeslip novel is always interesting and it is still great to enter another world and learn more about our history.

an awfully exciting gift

2011-05-20T18:03:00.003+10:00

i haven't read it yet. just keep touching it. and looking at it. and reading the bit that says "for kate". i'm sure the rest of the book will be just as good as the bit that says "for kate".

thank you, thank you to our lovely walker rep, who is beautiful and stylish and kind.

review : just a girl

2011-05-18T21:17:00.008+10:00

Just a Girl, Jane Caro (UQP)

The girl destined to be queen sits in her chamber on the eve of her coronation and reflects on the tumultuous path of her life to this moment. Elizabeth recalls her childhood, declared illegitimate when her father King Henry VIII executes her mother Anne Boleyn for treason and adultery (but really for not begetting him a male heir), throughout her adolescence, her incarceration in the Tower of London and the deaths of her brother and sister, which led her to the throne.

Though disadvantaged by her sex, Elizabeth is extremely intelligent, has an incredible aptitude for Latin and Greek as well as a keen interest in politics and diplomacy.

Just a Girl illustrates the young Elizabeth’s sexuality in the playful scenes – and reputation-damaging scenes – of not-entirely-innocent games with Thomas Seymour, the younger man Catherine Parr (the last wife of King Henry) marries after the death of the king. These vivid scenes mark the point in the novel where Elizabeth realises how cautious she must be if she wants to keep her head.

Jane Caro’s created Elizabeth doesn’t suffer fools; she’s as hard on others as she is on herself. Although she does have empathy and is a very loving person, this is tempered by her ambition. Her arrogance makes her human, just as the way her enjoyment of people looking at her, and calling out to her, as she rides in the royal processions will be something the young adult readers of this book can identify with.

Just a Girl also works well as an introduction to the Tudor and Elizabethan eras, with the descriptions of life at the time: fabrics, living situations, sounds and smells (such awful smells) and the occasional glimpse into the lives of the poorer subjects of England who come out to watch the kings and queens pass by.

There is no way Elizabeth is ‘just a girl’. She is smart and ambitious enough to know that, for her “it has to be Queen of England or nothing.”

This review taken from the longer review I wrote for Magpies magazine, which appeared in their March 2011 issue.

be careful not to touch the wall, there's a brand new coat of paint

2011-05-17T15:20:00.009+10:00

there are many things i am supposed to be doing. lots of deadlines looming. so...here are some of my procrastinations:

i very much enjoyed watching the eurovision bong (?) contest on the weekend. wonderful costumes, interesting songs, it should have been moldova for the win! what hats they had! or romania! what a smile! head over to the joy of mediocrity, for la dashla certainly enjoyed her eurovision moments and will amuse you.

also look out for her list of 5 books never to read in the midst of a mid mid life crisis.

neither a borrower nor a lender be.

apparently i borrowed this book from my grandfather. i have no idea how long ago, but when he was moving all his books so he could sand down the bookshelf and revarnish it (yes, my very old grandparents get these wild ideas sometimes) he found this note. uh oh.

excellent graffiti that was near my house. apparently this artist gets around, as there is evidence of this elsewhere in melbourne. someone has scratched this one off now. it made me think of childhood, 52-card pickup, circuses and lily, rosemary and the jack of hearts (perhaps the woman with the axe is rosemary?? only with an axe rather than a penknife).

Lily was a princess, she was fair-skinned and precious as a child
She did whatever she had to do, she had that certain flash every time she smiled
She'd come away from a broken home, had lots of strange affairs
With men in every walk of life who took her everywhere
But she'd never met anyone quite like the Jack of Hearts -- Bob Dylan

i told you it was a great book...

2011-05-16T21:38:00.003+10:00

didn't i? well, the nsw premier's literary prize-givers of 2011 agree. congratulations cath!

my cover or yours? revisisted

2011-05-15T12:23:00.005+10:00

'tis a curious thing to have the same photo on multiple books. here are two (or is that one?) that came into the shop last week.

the memory of love, aminatta forna (bloomsbury, april 2011)
someone knows my name, lawrence hill (4th estate, october 2009 - pb ed)

on one hand i think it's kind of cheating, just taking photos from the interwebs. wouldn't it be better to have an original cover. i suppose one has to think of the $ and the time it takes, too. but i do love seeing how designers can be tricky though - taking away (or maybe adding?) a scar here or there, changing the brightness and light, the colours. it's very clever. one day at my interny home recently i was shown lots of different covers for one book to see how they came to the final choice. things like make up put on, make up removed, hair, skin, background design...it was really quite impressive.

think i shall away to master photoshop...

previous my cover or yours? here.

review : little sister

2011-05-11T13:24:00.004+10:00

Little Sister, Aimee Said (Walker Books)

Aimee Said's second book covers a lot of ground - there's the rampant use of social media and how it impacts on your life during high school, there's sibling rivalry, lusting after the hottest guy in school and a kickin' battle of the bands. When the rumour and the secret about Al's perfect, overachieving big sister Larry are revealed, everyone's prejudices come to the surface and tension runs high.

Little Sister is a very engaging story with a plethora of great characters - as well as multiple scenes in a cheese shop that will certainly get you drooling (if cheese be your thing...mmmm...cheese...). At times Al comes across as unsympathetic and a little bit blind to what her actions are doing to her friends, making her sometimes unlikable...but honestly, quite a true depiction of teenage behaviour. As a teenager it often is as though you're the one the world revolves around.* And in the end, you'll find yourself cheering for her.

I am the big sister in my family. The evil sister had a little bit more rage than I did when we were growing up. Perhaps she just has a lot to say. I hope she never felt overshadowed, because I was definitely not an over-achiever. Never have been, never intend to be. Just pleasantly average.

You can come to a Little Sister party this Saturday if you would like to. Information here.
You can read my review of Aimee's first book, Finding Freia Lockhart, here.
*only sometimes, and not everyone. but, on the other hand, often and lots of teens.

révolution, je t'aime

2011-05-10T14:52:00.007+10:00

Today is forty-three years since the Nuit des Barricades - the Night of the Barricades - when the student-turned-general protests in France, May 1968 came to a massively violent climax. The protesters dug up cobblestones in the Latin Quarter, threw Molotov Cocktails, set fire to cars and barricades themselves on the street. They were sick of a dated university curriculum, sick of not having a voice and ready (like youth all around the world) for a new government, a new outlook for their evolving post-war world.

The poetic rhetoric of the May ’68 movement captured the idealistic fervour of the protesting youth and has remained one of its greatest strengths. Influenced by the Situationists (in turn influenced by Dadaism and Surrealism) they pasted posters and graffiti all around Paris, writing memorable slogans that have been reused and pastiched in French protest ever since.

The evolution of the slogans is clear as the movement progressed from mere discontent on campus to a wider attack on society as a whole. At the suburban university campus of Nanterre (where the problems escalated around the time Daniel Cohn-Bendit compared the French government to Hitler Youth) the students cried ‘Professors, you are old!’ Also evident in the slogans is an awareness of language and the strength of language as a tool of dissent. The posters and newspapers provide a visual representation of the rhetoric and language of the 1968 uprisings.

Other images also use the creative distortion of French linguistic formations. This slogan is making fun of the verb conjugation exercises that would have been learnt at school, but adds a very cynical edge. Translated, it means: I participate, you (singular) participate, he participates, we participate, you (plural) participate, they profit.

Another favourite is: L’anarchie, c’est je (‘Anarchy is I’). The use of incorrect grammar symbolises the disregard for the conventions of even the most basic element of French culture.

The students, rebelling against the old – the conservative education and the old man who ran their country – were also rebelling against the old ideas of literature and poetry. Rather than in the old books in the library, la poésie est dans la rue – poetry is in the street! The slogans scrawled as graffiti around Paris “were full of popular wit, but also…had a surrealist tone, symbolised in the assertion that ‘imagination has seized power.’”*

Using words and phrases to fight against the old social order, the students created an atmosphere of possibility: Rêve + évolution = révolution (‘Dream + evolution = revolution’).

Given that it's also Australian Federal Budget Day today, it's the perfect time to get some enthusiastic idealism into you!

To write this post I just smooshed together notes I made while writing my honours thesis. Apologies for the undergraduate hyperbole.

*from Daniel Singer's excellent book Prelude to Revolution.

If you want to read about 1968 in general (because it was a very exciting year all around this globe), look no further than Mark Kurlansky's excellent book entitled 1968: The Year that Rocked the World.

review : surface tension

2011-05-09T19:57:00.008+10:00

Surface Tension, Meg McKinlay (Walker)

The day that I was born, they drowned my town.

The town of Old Lower Grange was flooded to become a catchment on the day that Cassie was born (like the old township of Glenmaggie in Gippsland). The town's Mayor pulled a lever, let the water in, and now all their houses are at the bottom of a lake and they all live in New Lower Grange in new houses that look just like the old ones.

Cassie is twelve now and she has to swim laps of the pool every day to help her lungs, which didn't develop properly on account of being born too early. One day, sick of swimming in the town pool (after a particularly disgusting "seven-bandaid swim") she goes down to the lake, to a spot that no one goes to - so she can swim in peace.

Liam, about the same age as Cassie and with a past that also distances him a little from people in their town, joins her at the lake and the two of them form a fast friendship and act as sounding boards for one another's theories when strange truths start to appear from the murky depths.

For the water level is dropping - revealing dead trees, forgotten objects and one humdinger of a mystery. Cassie is smart, she questions things, she has insight and listens to what isn't said - more so than any adult within these pages.

This is an eerie tale, a real page-turner and a wonderful read for anyone about ten and up. Dialogue, excellent. Story, brilliant. Pacing, perfect. The cover is gorgey. Admission? This book scared me a little bit more than I would have expected and I had très troubled sleep the night I tried to read it in bed. That fear of what lies beneath...I was a little bit like Anne that evening she had to run through the woods to Diana's and back.

Photograph of the Cowwarr Weir - there is no town underneath here, as far as I know.

p.s. Very exciting that Meg McKinlay is shortlisted for her book Duck for a Day in the CBCA awards. Visit her website here. And her blog here.

coffee : wide open road

2011-05-04T09:32:00.005+10:00

Wide Open Road
274 Barkly Street
Brunswick*

Newish, slightly posher, more put-together, little sibling cafe by the people who brought you A Minor Place. It's really beautifully set out with matchy-matchy salts and sugars (as you can see) and the decor is equally perfect.**

The coffees are perfect too - strong, no bitterness at all, and not too milky. They roast their own coffee out the back. Bliss. Their food is also delicious - a small menu but really really lovely food, complete with croissants and other doughy treats from Fitzroy's Loafer Bread.

Our favourite waiter from A Minor Place now works here so we have to go and visit from time to time, though the original cafe still holds top place in my heart.

Visit their website.

*I've heard whisperings of new slang "NoBRo" = "North of Brunswick Road". Please confirm.

**I feel like, in spite of my love of matching hairclips to socks and shoes to scarf, I'm not quite fancy enough for this place.

how do you choose your next book?

2011-05-01T13:13:00.003+10:00

it has a beautiful cover
the author's name is awesome, and includes an X
the blurb includes the following: he [that's marcelo] learns about competition and jealousy, anger and desire. but it's a picture he finds in a file - a picture of a girl with half a face - that truly connects him with the real world: its suffering, its injustice, and what he can do to fight.

ya? y not?

2011-05-01T12:18:00.002+10:00

Fall For Anything, Courtney Summers (St Martin's Griffin)

Don’t be misled by the cover or the quality of the paper, both of which suggest dire slit-your-wrists emo pulp. Fall For Anything is a really well-written young adult novel: smart and moving – with a bit of a mystery thrown in. Eddie is still reeling from her photographer father’s suicide two months earlier and her mum is not keeping it together at all. Milo is Eddie’s best friend and there’s perhaps, maybe, a frisson between the two, but the girl who was his girlfriend is back in town. Then Eddie falls in with a gorgeous young photographer, who was her dad’s protégé and who might hold the answer as to why Eddie’s dad killed himself. The dialogue is brilliant, especially between Eddie and Milo (sometimes I wonder about the guys in YA, they are always way too cool and unbelievable...Milo is very real, but still a little bit perfect) and the novel as a whole isn't too sentimental or cheesy, when you consider its premise.

(Oh, and we really like Courtney Summers, she’s a 22-year-old Canadian author who works as a cleaner to support herself so she can write.)

A Pocketful of Eyes, Lili Wilkinson (A&U)

A taxidermist-in-training, Bee works at the Natural History Museum and arrives at work one day to learn her boss and mentor has been found dead in the Red Rotunda room—an apparent suicide. Bee doesn’t believe it. In fact she is convinced it was murder. Like a teenage Agatha Christie, or an indie Nancy Drew, Bee is determined to find Gus’ killer. This book is a lark, immediately engaging and very, very funny... read the rest of my review at the Fancy Goods blog, or in the April edition of Bookseller+Publisher magazine.

The Dead I Know, Scot Gardner (A&U)

Aaron has left school and The Dead I Know opens on his very first day as assistant to funeral director John Barton; Aaron is uncommunicative, but willing to work. Though confronted by the dead bodies, he still takes to his new employ with little trouble and his capability surprises Mr Barton. But at home, Aaron’s life is fraught, to say the least. He lives at the caravan park and is the sole carer for his guardian Mam. But Mam is becoming confused, having accidents and forgetting how to do the simplest things. Aaron sleepwalks at night, waking up further and further from his bed and getting himself into trouble with the volatile and angry Westy, whose vulgarity and violence is very frightening. The descriptions of the dead bodies and preparations for the funerals are realistic to the point of being a little disturbing, but there’s nothing vulgar about the way Gardner has approached this story. The characters are very respectful of the dead. Scot Gardner, author of Gravity, Happy as Larry and the wonderful Burning Eddy, writes novels for teenagers that are always extremely accomplished and though dark, yet totally uplifting. The Dead I Know is no exception – it offers a special glimpse into a job, into an aspect of life that is very different and strange and, in Aaron, an inspirational character.

A version of this review also appeared in the April edition of Bookseller+Publisher magazine.

the dangers of reading

2011-04-29T11:41:00.003+10:00

yes. some books are very dangerous, as two blog posts have recently highlighted:

there was the post on the embarrassment of blubbering over a book on the tram, by Brand New Blogger pippy b, who some of you might remember from her review on this very blog of one of our thursdays is missing by jasper fforde (that wiley double ffer).*

here are some books not to read on the tram:

on the jellicoe road, melina marchetta
if i stay, gayle forman
looking for alaska, john green
of a boy, sonya hartnett

and the inkling, who has appeared to have rediscovered blogging with fervour, writes about the merit of mediocre-to-pretty-good books because really good books get in the way of working and sleeping.

here are some books that get in the way of regular day-to-day programming:

the knife of never letting go, patrick ness
his dark materials, philip pullman
the end of mr y, scarlett thomas
spud, john van de ruit (double whammy warning: also makes you weep like a footballer who loses a premiership, or roger federer whether he wins or loses)

and the mediocre-to-pretty-good books to read when you only have half a brain to spare but still want to be pleasantly entertained:

circle of friends, maeve binchy
all of sarah dessen's oeuvre, particularly just listen and lock and key

*"but," you're saying indignantly, "you said her name was arlene. is it arlene or pippy b? or is it BJ?" just go with it...her elusiveness adds to the allure.

she keeps a 38 smith and wesson at her side

2011-04-27T22:06:00.005+10:00

the felice brothers melbourne show at the prince of wales, st kilda

If Bob was far away, then The Felice Brothers were the opposite. In my face. Steppin' on my toes (literally. Ian jumped off the stage and cheered his own band from the crowd) and LOUD. Some of their enthusiastic singer-spit even flew at us and we didn't even mind, because everyone was having a good time...except that douchebag who was being an annoying douchy loser, but even he I forgot, once the guys came out and launched into Murder by Mistletoe - honestly, an interesting, slow choice for an opener, but we just went with it. And fracks, it was a great show.

These self-confessed "dirtbags from New York" looked a little, um...sleepy...when they first came onstage but distinguished themselves well and leapt around stage, talking to us, talking to one another in between the songs. James and his piano accordion were spectacular, in particular his solo song Got What I Need (I think many of us fell in love with him). And the bread thrown into the audience? Fabulously hilarious! 'Take this bread if you need it friend...'

The crowd were all fans (well, those at the. very. front. row. where we were, err were) and of all ages. They came back on for a rambunctious encore, including a great scrappy version of Frankie's Gun. Then, a second (and hard-earned, on our part) encore of Whiskey in my Whiskey. I could have stayed all night. And a friend pinched the set list.

Love 'em.

My baby told me, darling
If you can't get a pardon better get a parole
I told her I'd be out by morning
When the sun is dawning
With a money roll
Oh-wee that gal's the gal for me
She loves me tenderly
-- love me tenderly

review : first light

2011-04-26T14:34:00.002+10:00

First Light, Rebecca Stead (Text)

What was actually Rebecca Stead's first book, First Light has arrived to our Australian shores as the follow-up to her Newbery Medal-winning stunner When You Reach Me.

First Light is a dual-narrative novel for readers around 10 and up that explores environmentalism and politics through a cracking adventure - and slightly sci-fi/fantasy-ish - set in Greenland.

Peter has gone to Greenland with his parents, who are studying climate change. He begins to spend time with the sled dogs, exploring his new icy home. Having suffered from headaches in the past year or so, Peter also begins to have strange visions...

Thea lives at Gracehope, an underground city her ancestors built after they fled England, a people persecuted for 'gifts' and 'talents' they possessed. Gracehope is a model of sustainability, but its ruler is less than receptive to any questions or suggestions that young Thea puts forward.

Of course, these two curious, intelligent characters are destined to meet and it's when Thea and her cousin find a passage to the surface that the plot changes gear and pitches forward at an exciting pace. The themes are accessible and the language perfect. Highly recommended.

Political and cultural superbrain The Cultured Animal has written an excellent critique, which you can read here.

his bobness : live in melbourne

2011-04-23T18:24:00.003+10:00

the two men sitting behind me at rod laver arena discussed the furore that followed dylan going electric at newport in '65, but of course his tour in australia in '66, well there's just not a lot written on it...i love a dylan tragic. they were out in force at the rod laver arena last wednesday.

papa bear and i just hoped bob would sing something we could recognise. he did. in his own special way: a voice that sounds like he's gargling whiskey and gravel, a spiffy suit and hat and a couple of rockin' dance moves. i swear it's contrariness that sends his songs spinning in a new arrangement every year. highlights for me were tangled up in blue and simple twist of fate. they were closer to the originals and the band didn't bang on too loud or too long.

rod laver arena sucks though. bob was just too far away. so impersonal. and chilly. i don't think i shall go there again. it had none of the ambiance of other old rocker concerts i've been to.

did i say that bob was far away? (click to enlarge) though the lighting was fantastic, in the absence of screens (damn your contrariness bob!) his silhouette was uplit and projected large onto the back of the stage - i could philosophise on the many meanings behind this, and interpreted from this, larger-than-life, a false modesty, ...

he finished the evening with forever young. a beautiful song, which is now a fab children's book with great illustrations, full of references to his songs and his life. perfect for the offspring of dylan tragics.

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
May you stay forever young

trailer for the book:

reviews of the concert here and here.

remember that novel you wrote?

2011-04-19T21:21:00.004+10:00

~ the text prize ~

time to dust it off and polish it up, because submissions will soon be open for the annual text prize for young adult and children's writing!

never been published before? fabulous! you can enter.
published so many times it's getting a bit passé? that's fine too!

make sure you get your entry in between the dates may 2nd and june 3rd. it costs a little bit to enter, but the prize is well worth it.

just ask richard newsome, leanne hall and jane higgins...

check out all the details here.

murundak: songs of freedom

2011-04-15T11:51:00.004+10:00

murundak: songs of freedom is a fantastic new documentary that follows the Black Arm Band touring their murandak show around Australia and abroad; to the Opera House, the Womadelaide festival, Royal Festival Hall in London and to remote Aboriginal communities that hadn’t seen a concert before, let alone one so big and purposeful and about them.

The doco was filmed during end of the Howard years and the start of the Rudd government, including the wonderful and incredibly belated moment of apology to the Stolen Generations (Archie Roach speaks about being taken from his family as a child, how he came to write the song ‘Took the children away’) and uses archival documentary footage of historic moments – massive land rights protests, Whitlam pouring a ‘handful of sand’ through Vincent Lingiari’s fingers, the Rudd apology.

Like the filmmakers Natasha Gadd and Rhys Graham said, the film aims to bring the stories of Australian Aboriginals into everyday conversation, through the songs. It challenges the ignorance of these politicians (and others) who look back on Australia’s past and don’t, or refuse to, see the violence and mistakes. People like Howard, Keith Windschuttle and Andrew Bolt who say it’s just a biased, black armband view of Australian history. (the gorgeous) Dan Sultan put it so well in the Q&A when he said: ‘St Kilda lost the grand final last year. That’s not my opinion, it happened.’ He said we can’t look at the scoreboard of our history and say it’s just an interpretation, an opinion. It happened.

murundak is a protest film, there’s anger and hurt explored, but it’s also so upbeat and positive. It's so important to hear these stories - and the music is beautiful.

The film is full of hope. Go and see it.

black arm band website
daybreak film website
check out the cinema nova screening times

What can you CBC? A shortlist off the port bow!

2011-04-12T13:44:00.006+10:00

2011 CBCA Shortlist

What excitement! Ye gads!

About a Girl, Graffiti Moon, Six Impossible Things, The Midnight Zoo, The Piper's Son, The Life of a Teenage Body Snatcher (pic below, my copy has gone walkies). How often does the CBC get it so right?*

You can go to the CBCA website for all the other categories. They are all good, but none like the YA section.

And isn't it so wonderful to see so many lady novelists represented? All other literary prizes are always skewed firmly the other way. And so many lovely lady novelists to boot! Bring on the cake and champagne! (shortlisted mans can have cake and bubbles too).

*(err...though extremely disappointed that Lian Tanner's The Keepers isn't on the Younger Readers list...)

if The Smiths read Where She Went

2011-04-12T12:07:00.007+10:00

Where She Went, Gayle Forman (Doubleday)
spoilerish!
three years earlier:

Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know - it's serious. Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know - it's really serious.

now:

Re-issue! Re-package! Re-package! Re-evaluate the songs. Double-pack with a photograph, extra track (and a tacky badge). A-list, playlist, "Please them, please them!" "Please them!" (sadly, THIS was your life). But you could have said no, if you'd wanted to. You could have said no, if you'd wanted to.

Stop me oh oh oh stop me, stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before. [thought I for a moment as I read, but then got into the swing of the story]

Fifteen minutes with you, well, I wouldn't say no. Oh, people said that you were virtually dead and they were so wrong.

Nothing’s changed, I still love you. Oh I still love you only slightly, only slightly less than I used to, my love.

Everybody's got to live their life, and god knows I've got to live mine.

Tried living in the real world, instead of a shell, but before I began ... I was bored before I even began.

Two icy-cold hands conducting the way, it's the Eskimo blood in my veins. Amid concrete and clay and general decay, nature must still find a way. So ignore all the codes of the day, let your juvenile influences sway. This way and that way, this way, that way.

Hand in glove, the sun shines out of our behinds. No, it's not like any other love, this one is different, because it's us.

Taking lyrics from: Girlfriend in a Coma, Hand in Glove, Paint A Vulgar Picture, Reel Around the Fountain, Shoplifters of the World, Stop Me If You Think That You’ve Heard This One Before, Stretch out and Wait, William, it was really Nothing

If you'd like a slightly more conventional reaction to this book, try this review. Or this one. Or this one. They say pretty much what I'd say.

2480

2011-04-10T18:08:00.002+10:00

Jo Horniman, your books make Lismore seem so...exotic. But perhaps the Simpletons experienced it another way?

p.s. Do bass players in Lismore still dress like pyjama pirates?

wee jeanie - now open

2011-04-10T14:26:00.003+10:00

...and it's good.

nay, great!

a saturday lunch in yarraville yesterday. a visit to wee jeanie. i ate the beetroot salad and it was DELICIOUS and so speedy from order to plate to me - perfect for a half-hour lunch break nibble. my friend assured me her soy latte was delectable and we admired the (apparently very expensive) coffee machine with its sleek green bits and it's fancy wooden knobs.

with lots of diners and friendly staff, i'm very excited. it's more take-away vibe means it caters to a different crowd to cornershop and i think this means the two places can co-exist nicely. excellente.

anyone else been yet?

review : the hate list

2011-04-08T15:23:00.005+10:00

The Hate List, Jennifer Brown

Val wrote a list of people she hated, people she said she wanted dead.

Her boyfriend Nick brought a gun to school one day, and opened fire.

Told in the first person, with Valerie the narrator, the book starts with her on the first day she goes back to school after the shooting and over the course of the novel flashes back to events leading up to, on, and immediately following that day. It's certainly an emotional read, and one a reader quickly becomes engrossed in; pacy and well-plotted. Val loved Nick, thought she knew him, and is having to live with what he did (which includes killing students and a favourite teacher, and shooting Val - who ran at him to get him to stop - before killing himself) and try to reintegrate herself into school and her family, while living with the guilt and hurt.

I know morbid and taboo topics are popular and that one of the awesome things about young adult novels is the way a teenager can experience something without actually having to experience it. For that end, this is an interesting book.

For the most part the writing is good. Limited interiority sometimes weakens the story, even in spite of it being from Val's point of view. For example, when Val goes to see Dr Hieler for the first time and he suggests her mother leaves the room for the session, he asks: 'Are you comfortable with that?' The next line is 'I didn't respond.' But I want to know why didn't you respond? What were you thinking?

Characterisation and development was pretty good. Although, the characters were, rawther unsubtly, given names that are designed to manipulate the reader's perception of them: Nick, the killer, has the surname Levil; the bully, named Christy Bruter; and the stupid and unsympathetic principal called Mr Angerson. Some reviews have noted how Nick is given a more sympathetic rap than the father, but for me, I could see exactly why the father acted like he did (even though it was both cruel and weak) but Nick was more of an enigma - which made sense.

The end? Leetle bit disappointing and cliched, although it did explore forgiveness and hate enough to give readers closure. I read this book and wanted to hate it for being one of those books, an issues/torture porn type read. I thought I did hate it while I was reading, but...I guess I didn't.*

Visit Jennifer Brown's website.

*Though it makes me feel like a bad person, I couldn't help but giggle when I read this interview with the author and learned that a Nickelback song inspired the novel. Ye gads. Even worse, I can't get The Smiths out of my head, thinking about how people's words can get twisted if you take them seriously:

Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking
When I said I'd like to smash every tooth in your head
Oh ... sweetness, sweetness, I was only joking
When I said by rights you should be bludgeoned in your bed
Bigmouth, Bigmouth,
Bigmouth strikes again
I've got no right to take my place in the human race

coffee : each peach

2011-04-05T16:06:00.005+10:00

each peach...doesn't it just conjure delightful images of each peach pear plum by janet and allan ahlberg? 'each peach pear plum, i spy tom thumb, tom thumb in the cupboard, i spy mother hubbard...' all the way until the plum pie in the sun!

it's a very cute cafe up the - what i like to call - berlin end of lygon street (aka the poorer and increasingly hip end) that looks very homey and has a fantastical bathroom with fairy lights and a pink bath.

coffee was very good, a bit too hot but very tasty, and the omelette was decadently delicious (too eggy, said my vegetarian-egg-disliking inner self, but i knew what i was getting into) with cheese and spinach galore. plus, the bread was to die for.

the staff were friendly, but they did forget my coffee and my food and i had to go in and remind them. which is fine, except it's the third time i've been there and the second time they've forgotten us. so i certainly recommend it, but maybe not when you are in a rush, because you never know.

review : a beautiful lie

2011-04-05T11:13:00.005+10:00

A Beautiful Lie, Ifran Master (Bloomsbury*)

In the last week or so leading up to the 1947 partition of India (our good friend Wikipedia actually has a good entry about it), thirteen-year-old Bilal is not only facing the end of his country as he knows it but his father, his Babuji, is dying. His father loves India, his mother country, and Bilal devises a plan to hide the truth from him so he can die believing that India is at peace.**

It's a very lovely story and it's great to see such important historical moments written about. Bilal's friends - all of whom come from different backgrounds - are great, lively characters. The riot scenes, between the Muslims and Hindus are probably the strongest in the novel. On the whole, though, the book meanders along at the one pace and it was difficult to maintain interest. The language was unremarkable, and at times tipped into the cringy side of sentimental.

A Beautiful Lie would have been a stronger story if it gave more explanation about what the date signified. Without prior knowledge of the partition of India, the reader could be a bit lost and Bilal himself didn't seem to explain, or even truly understand, the events that were taking place.

Nevertheless - I love a little bit of historical fiction to open people's eyes just a little to the things that have come before. A nice read.

*Copy received for review from Bloomsbury
**If it sounds like you've heard this story before, you might be thinking of that gorgeous German film Goodbye Lenin starring the hunkahunka Daniel Brühl, in which a young man recreates the GDR in his apartment so his mother, who has been in a coma and could die if put under stress or shock, doesn't know that the Berlin wall has come down and the East Germany she knew and loved has crumbled.

may the force be with you, because you're worth it

2011-04-02T18:41:00.007+11:00

lots of lovely things to read this week:

where she went, gayle forman (doubleday)

the golden day, ursula dubosarsky (allen&unwin)

press here, hervé tullet (allen&unwin)

chenxi et l’éntrangère, sally rippin (mijade)

outside of reading, there are lots of other lovely things to do this week:

• a friend of mine sent me this link to a video of sarah kay, a spoken word poet. wonderful. wonderful. watch it.

• can't wait to see howl, the allen ginsberg biopic starring james franco. if you want to go to the cinema, i would heartily recommend the new peter weir film the way back (and not just for the gorgeous jim sturgess) which was a fascinating film about a group of prisoners who escaped from a siberian gulag and walked to india (ye gads, i know!) read a review over at the joy of mediocrity.

• my reading is suffering a little because i can't stop watching outnumbered, with karen being my absolute favourite character.

karen: i think the world is unfair to women.
mum: well absolutely. i think you're right.
karen: because women can't grow moustaches or beards.
mum: do you want to grow a beard?
karen: well...i might want to be a...a...tugboat captain, or a...an ayatollah.
mum: you'd make a good ayatollah.

this clip never fails to make me laugh:

brkich gives me things

2011-03-30T22:20:00.004+11:00

in a stroke of rare luck, i won a competition this week and just today i received my prize!

a gorgeous hand-printed cushion from burgeoning melbourne fashion label brkich (you say it "bur-kitch"). brkich's queen belinda does all the screen printing herself, from her own designs and then makes her fabric into tops, shorts and these wonderful wrap skirts that tuck up in seemingly random places - to fabulous effect. she also makes brooches and other accessories and i would highly recommend you have a little look-see.

i love my cushion. it makes my granny chair* and me very happy.

visit brkich's blog

*actually given to me by my little granny

OH HAPPY ASTRID LINDGREN-SHAUN TAN DAY!

2011-03-30T10:37:00.006+11:00

Congratulations Shaun Tan, it's certainly your year!

Today he is the winner of the prestigious (and lucrative) Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

what the jury had to say:

Shaun Tan is a masterly visual storyteller, pointing the way ahead to new possibilities for picture books. His pictorial worlds constitute a separate universe where nothing is self-evident and anything is possible. Memories of childhood and adolescence are fixed reference points, but the pictorial narrative is universal and touches everyone, regardless of age.

Behind a wealth of minutely detailed pictures, where civilization is criticized and history depicted through symbolism, there is a palpable warmth. People are always present, and Shaun Tan portrays both our searching and our alienation. He combines brilliant, magical narrative skill with deep humanism.

click here for more.

coffee : can't find a seat?

2011-03-27T15:29:00.003+11:00

because there just aren't enough cafes in yarraville, here's one more. from the people who brought you cornershop - wee jeanie. just down by the train line (where there ought to be an overpass but isn't - grrr) it's not quite finished, but looking pretty gorgey already with a potentially nice courtyard and beautiful wooden furniture.

yes yes yes.

reader, i can't say i liked it...

2011-03-24T18:12:00.006+11:00

blurb: Forced to drop out of an esteemed East Coast college after the sudden death of her parents, Jane Moore takes a nanny job at Thornfield Park, the estate of Nico Rathburn, a world-famous rock star on the brink of a huge comeback. Practical and independent, Jane reluctantly becomes entranced by her magnetic and brooding employer and finds herself in the midst of a forbidden romance.

But there’s a mystery at Thornfield, and Jane’s much-envied relationship with Nico is soon tested by an agonizing secret from his past. Torn between her feelings for Nico and his fateful secret, Jane must decide: Does being true to herself mean giving up on true love?

An irresistible romance interwoven with a darkly engrossing mystery, this contemporary retelling of the beloved classic Jane Eyre promises to enchant a new generation of readers.

reasons why jane eyre cannot be rewritten with a modern twist:

1. it's creepy when a 19-year-old nanny goes around falling in love with her 30-something employer
(with subclause 1.1 being that its particularly creepy when she insists on calling him "mr" and not his name)

2. when a grown man locks his schizophrenic wife in the attic, with only an alcoholic nurse to look after her, it's not pathetically, romantically tragic - it's effing criminal.

jane is a beautifully presented book: gorgeous, whimsical, mysterious cover and lovely rough-edged paper. but on the inside it's a horse of a completely different colour.

that colour is twilight.

i know that jane eyre is not everyone's cup of tea, but it's one of my favourite books for its simple but lyrical writing and for jane - the reserved, but strong-willed, independent woman. plus, it's rawther romantic.

april lindner's jane is an intensely boring character - an affront to feminism. in trying to portray jane as staid and introverted, the author has made her bland. her falling in love is unbelievable, her calling him mr rathburn the whole time is unrealistic and creepy, and she was forever going for a lie down on her bed to listen to his music which she had never been interested in before, but wow! listen to those lyrics! that voice! swoon! i think i'm in loooove! jane in this incarnation is...bella.

even bloody wikipedia gets it: [jane eyre] is a novel often considered ahead of its time due to its portrayal of the development of a thinking and passionate young woman who is both individualistic, desiring for a full life, while also highly moral. Jane evolves from her beginnings as a poor and plain woman without captivating charm to her mature stage as a compassionate and confident whole woman. As she matures, she comments much on the complexities of the human condition. Jane also has a deeply pious personal trust in God, but is also highly self-reliant. Although Jane suffers much, she is never portrayed as a damsel in distress who needs rescuing. For this reason, it is sometimes regarded as an important early feminist (or proto-feminist) novel.[1]

there is no such jane to be found within these pages.*

five-year-old maddie (whom jane is supposed to be nannying) is used merely as a prop, brought out when jane needs to speak to/be in the presence of mr rathburn. (and also, i don't know many five year olds who have a nap every day). nico rathburn is basically edward cullen but cooler (can i help picturing him as rufus humphrey? no i can not). any spark or attempt at love twixt the two characters falls flat. the dialogue is clunky and at times it feels like the characters are just play acting, trying to give the impression of being like jane and mr rochester.

i was intensely disappointed by this one.** it hurt my heart.

*i know there will be some who don't see jane eyre this way.
**and i couldn't help thinking: so much work goes in to producing a single book and in this case - why? what did someone see in this book? where did they envisage it going? who are its readers?

Finding Grace, by Alyssa Brugman

2011-03-22T12:12:00.012+11:00

Grace had a brain injury. That's just how she was.
She spent a lot of time sitting in her leather wing-backed chair just staring out the window. I didn't really know what was happening inside her head and I didn't really think about it.
I was eighteen and knew everything. Well, not everything, but I did know a great deal about a great many things. For example, I knew that time healed most woulds and those that it didn't you simply got used to.
That was before I met Grace or Mr Alistair Preston.

Rachel, just after finishing high school, gets a job as a live-in carer for a woman named Grace, who has an acquired brain injury. Grace can walk and eat, but Rachel has to make sure she goes to the loo, has to put her to bed and make sure she doesn't hurt herself.

At first Grace scares Rachel, with her blank stare, slack lips and drool, but soon Rachel comes to realise there is still someone in there, that Grace hasn't disappeared completely. It's so beautiful, every time I read this, to watch Rachel learn and question herself and her understanding of the world.

Mr Preston is Grace's lawyer, he's the one who picked Rachel. When he comes around he speaks to Grace lovingly, buys her shoes and very good wine - he doesn't treat her like everyone else does. His dedication and guilt and grief is heartbreaking.
Rachel is hilarious. She sings out loud as she walks down the street, uses a snorkel in her car because the windows hardly open and the radiator blows coolant in through the vents, she blushes horribly (frack - her attempts to hide the blush from the handsome boy she meets in her first uni lecture - I couldn't laugh enough!) and has an extremely unique perspective. I love her.

Mama Bear sent me this the year after I finished school, when I was working in Scotland, and it was so wonderful that I couldn't bear to part with it and it became part of the massive haul I brought with me when I came back. I don't remember when I met Alyssa Brugman, but I must have, and I also must have told her that story.

If you have not yet read this remarkable novel, then shame on you. Get thee to a library (or a bookshop). It has a very pretty new cover, which looks like this:

published by Allen&Unwin in 2001.

review : one of our thursdays is missing

2011-03-20T09:56:00.004+11:00

for your reading pleasure, a very special visitor review:

One of our Thursdays is Missing, Jasper Fforde (Hodder & Stoughton)

If a university literature lecturer and an absurdist personality came together for a night of sweet passion, the resulting baby would be novelist Jasper Fforde. Having established a reputation with The Eyre Affair as a ridiculously talented writer with two Fs beginning his surname, Fforde has given us the sixth book in the Thursday Next series.

Our story is a metafictional adventure set in the Bookworld, where all the written books live in an inverted sphere with flesh and blood characters. This is where we find our heroine, the fictional Thursday Next. Her namesake – the Real Thursday Next – is due to negotiate peace talks preventing a war between genres…however she is nowhere to be found. Fictional Thursday secretly pursues the case with her cocktail-making robot butler.

One of our Thursdays is Missing is peppered with literary references that would make any self-respecting Lit student pat themselves on the back on many pages. The many jokes for the sake of wordplay and literary reference could be found a bit wanky by some, but I couldn’t help but giggle at the jaded conspiracy theories placed in fiction instead of non-fiction, meeting the Great Gatsby’s younger brother Mediocre Gatsby, and when our heroine crash landed into a “mimefield” which was full of, well, men dressed in black slacks, striped shirts, white face paint and large hats who became silently murderous when not applauded.

Impossible to pinpoint one genre for One of Our Thursdays is Missing, I can only describe it as kind of like playing bingo with Dr Who and John Cleese, using a four dimensional piece of paper. Trust in Fforde’s creations as they navigate their world and relish the ride.

Now where’s my robot butler? I need a Tahiti Tingle.

If you like your books metafiction-fantastic this will be your cup of tea.

review by Arlene

why claude, what a lovely beret!

2011-03-19T14:09:00.006+11:00

Claude in the City, Alex T Smith* (Hodder)

Claude is a small, plump dog who wears a beret and a lovely red jumper.

He's a little bit Eloise. But a bit more canine. And instead of a Skipperdee and a Weenie he has a friend called Sir Bobblysock, who is 'both a sock and quite bobbly'.

Claude decides that today is the day to go and explore the City. Shopping (for berets), people-watching, a visit to the art gallery and oh perhaps just stopping a robbery. A visit to the hospital later in the story (poor old Sir Bobblysock doesn't feel too crash hot) gives Claude the opportunity to work on his doctoring skills and fix up some big wrestlers who have a mysterious sickness.

The black, white and red illustrations are wonderfully lively and incorporate the words right in there (and also add to the Eloiseishness), the humour is perfect for the kidlings and also for parents and aunties and nannies reading it to them. Delightfully lolish.

*I know I am going to accidentally tell customers it's written by Alex P Keaton. But he was way too conservative to write such a brilliant book all about time wasting and frivolity. Also, too fictional.

coffee folk

2011-03-15T11:30:00.005+11:00

as we ate a breakfast of warm and fluffy vegemite scrolls (and some of us had doughnuts, or even just one bite of someone else's doughnut) we ordered coffee at the barefoot barista up the street in port fairy. my skinny latte was delicious. the soy was perfecto too.

it was folk-a-licious.

the coffee line inside the festival grounds is always a massive wait (and the coffee there not as good as at barefoot barista), but it is a top place to meet and talk to some great people. to the lovely lady from mount gambier - i hope you had a wonderful weekend!

vis ink...in stores now

2011-03-09T15:45:00.005+11:00

it was quite remarkable to see this:

turn into this:

visible ink is a student-run literary anthology out of the RMIT professional writing and editing diploma. last year we received around 200 submissions for this edition. i wish i had a picture of the piles of submissions to show you, very unruly and wonderful. out of that 200 we had to select a tiny sample for the journal (there were only a few heated discussions). and with such a diverse bunch of editors and readers on the selection committee, we ended up with such a delightful mishmash of pieces: 16 stories. 11 poems. 12 images.

the editing process was probably my favourite part of being on the visible ink team. emailing and talking to the authors about their words and stories - perhaps seeing a little something that they could no longer see, knowing their piece as well as they did. learning a little something about inDesign (being thrown in the deep end a little) was horrible and fantastic at the same time. i felt just a touch proud of me when it was all over. i hope all 'our' authors are happy with the finished product - we are so grateful for their talent.

here's the first piece in the anthology (one of my absolute faves):

The Sniper on the State Library Dome
by Michael Crane

The man with madness
in his eye looked down
and aimed his high-powered rifle
at the many people on the street
below and fired and yelled
‘This is because I read Jewel's
a night without armour and she
did not love me.' He put another
bullet in the chamber and fired and said,
'I read Bukowski and I'm tougher
than him.' He moved his position
to the left of the dome, reloaded
and fired and hit a woman
on her way to work at the library
and he said, ‘This is for the Great Gatsby
because I loved Daisy.' He fired a few
more shots and hit a man reading Playboy
in a newsagency. He decided his killing spree
was too slow so he took out a submachine gun
and fired at the pedestrians on the street.
‘This is because of Hemingway,' he said,
'for running with the bulls and this one
is for James Joyce writing books
I could not understand and this
Is because Gertrude Stein was too fat
and this is because Truman Capote
was gay and take that Homer, Shakespeare
and Chaucer for rhyming with obscure words.'
He ran out of bullets and took out knives
and stared to hurl them down
as the policemen snuck up behind him
and wrestled him down to the ground
and a few weeks after his trial
he was led to the execution chamber
and the priest took out the Bible
and the man said, ‘Not another book!’
And he screamed all the way down
to the electric chair until the very end.

you can buy visible ink at readings bookstores, the sun bookshop in yarraville and by snail mail (contact the committee via the website). if you are of a writerly persuasion, submissions will surely open soon for this year's vis ink. keep your pens poised and your eyes peeled.

our australian girl

2011-03-08T10:23:00.008+11:00

in honour of international women's day today:

our australian girl is a new series (published by penguin books) about four girls from different points in australian history. each story is accompanied by little illustrations by lucia masciullo.

meet grace (written by sofie laguna) takes place in 1808 and like many children in crowded and poor london, grace is a mudlarker - she spends her days searching for things to sell in the foetid water and mud of the thames. until one day she steals some apples to feed a horse she loves and finds herself thrown into old bailey - destined for hanging or transportation to sydney cove. grace is a lovely character, sweet and caring, and i await her sea voyage (for this, spoiler alert, is what happens) eagerly in the next three books to follow.

alison lloyd's meet letty tells the tale of a young girl who accidentally accompanies her sister's trunk onto a ship bound for the colonies, her sister travelling there as a free settler. i was a bit frustrated with letty not recognising who she could trust on the ship, but she was so willing to help people that i couldn't not like her.

meet poppy (by gabrielle wang) is the story of a chinese-aboriginal girl who runs away from her mission school, disguised as a boy, to meet up with her brother on the gold fields. i think this one was my favourite of the three so far - poppy is such a great character and she gets to eat dinner with a bushranger, for crying out loud!

the last girl in the series, meet rose (sherryl clark), is set just before federation and as women are campaigning for the vote. (a topic close to my heart) rose's mother wants her to be a proper young lady, but rose has other ideas...and a very modern henrietta dugdale-esque aunty ready and willing to indulge them! i believe that the australian women actually called themselves suffragists, though, to distinguish themselves from the british suffragettes. but that's ok.

coffee : de clieu on gertrude street

2011-03-03T22:29:00.002+11:00

de clieu opened last year, by the people who brought us seven seeds (in carlton) and i popped in spur of the moment as i dashed out for lunch two rainy mondays ago with a broken shoe (so i actually was half-limping/half-shuffling) and spotted some nice nursing student friends of mine on their break.

the coffee was perfect and service quick.

the crockery the same as at the cornershop (so i felt at home immediately) and while the staff were grumpy and aloof (perhaps they were just looking down on my $10 broken shoe), i've kind of started to expect it...this is not a good thing, surely. but this current trend of service with a snarl is a debate for another day.

thumbs up.
187 gertrude st, fitzroy

broadsheet review here

Visible Ink Launch

2011-03-02T09:52:00.004+11:00

Tonight is the launch of VISIBLE INK, a literary anthology put together by first year students* of RMIT's Professional Writing and Editing course.

It's a really great edition if I do say so myself, with stories - about love and loss and possessed "bad" hands - and poems - about love and lust and snipers on the state library dome - as well as some fantastic illustrations and some lovely photographs.

The launch starts from 6.30 pm at the John Curtin Hotel on Lygon Street in Carlton. There'll be music by an excellent local band From Magnum and then readings from the book by a couple of the authors, as well as some great spot prizes (such as Readings vouchers and chocolate and copies of the book).

Go through to the website here and check out our awesome launch poster - can't get the darned thing to upload here.

See you there!

* we're launching it late, and are now second year students

yippee calloo callay!

2011-02-28T18:53:00.002+11:00

hooray for shaun tan - what a clever man to win an academy award for his film of
the lost thing
this makes me tres happy and proud.

when one is inbetween bookshelves...

2011-02-27T22:59:00.004+11:00

it gives one the excuse to get bugger-all work done.