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gleaner Vol. 27 No. 7 November 2020
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Out this month: Tanya Plibersek gathers ideas for better possible futures in
UPTURN
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2020
Of course it’s customary in the last Gleaner of the year to wish all of our valued and loyal customers the very best for the festive and holiday season, and I’ll do so again, on behalf of Gleebooks, for the umpteenth year in a row. And with great pleasure, as I really worried that the umpteenth might be the last. And worried that COVID might wreak havoc, not just on our business, but on some of you. Fortunately. with some tragic exceptions, we’ve weathered the perils, at least in NSW. But what of all those in the writing and broader arts community. Chaos and difficulties aplenty, well-documented. It doesn’t take a pandemic to highlight how fragile the financial framework of the ‘arts house’ is. Crash and burn for many, with zero or scandalously poor support from Government, but not, by and large, for those in the book industry. In fact, if the pandemic has proved anything, it’s that people will stick with, and even rediscover, books. And while that means it’s the emperors of online sellers who have cleaned up, it seems as though at least the the rest of us will come through the annus horribilis ok. I’m relieved to say that thanks to you, and a brilliantly dedicated crew of Gleebooksellers, we’re still here, with fingers and toes crossed for a drought/flood/bushfire/COVID ‘free’ Christmas. We’ve a bumper crop of books to recommend, and our well-read staff are keen to get you even better-read with their own ‘books of the year’, and of course you’ll all be seeing our annual Summer Reading Guide soon. I’ve a head full of books, always, and not great at singling out my own ‘best of’, but please make sure you read the fourth of Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead quartet, Jack, which is part of a strange, beautiful moral exploration of American history, and race, and small town life. Utterly original. And for what it’s worth, two Australian books. The best first novel of the year (easily) for me was The Last Migration by Charlotte Mcconaghy. And in late November, a handsome chunky collection of Don Watson’s prose, Watsonia including manypreviously unseen and unpublished pieces. Watson is a treasure: wisdom, whimsy, satire, history, and ‘wordsmithery’ of the highest order Thanks to you all, thanks to the teams of wonderful booksellers at our shops, thanks to Andrew who has worked his pants off to finally be able to unveil a splendid website that we are proud of, and thanks to Viki, who has managed to produce a year’s worth of Gleaners in the most trying of circumstances, to the same high standard.
2021
David Gaunt
Lucky’s by Andrew Pippos ($33, PB)
Lucky’s is a story of family. A story about migration. It is also about a man called Lucky. His restaurant chain. A fire that changed everything. A New Yorker article which might save a career. The mystery of a missing father. An impostor who got the girl. An unthinkable tragedy. A roll of the dice. And a story of love—lost, sought and won again (at last). ‘Andrew Pippos has written an unforgettable epic with Australian humour and Greek tragedian turns on every page.
special price $29.99
Where The Fruit Falls by Karen Wyld
Brigid Devlin, a young Aboriginal woman, and her twin daughters navigate a troubled nation of First Peoples, settlers & refugees—all determined to shape a future on stolen land. Leaving the sanctuary of her family’s apple orchard, Brigid sets off with no destination & a willy wagtail for company. As she moves through an everchanging landscape, Brigid unravels family secrets to recover what she’d lost—and by facing the past, she finally accepts herself. Her twin daughters continue her journey with their own search for self-acceptance, truth & justice. Spanning four generations, with a focus on the 1960s and 70s, an era of rapid social change and burgeoning Aboriginal rights, Karen Wyld reimagines the epic Australian novel. ($28, PB) (December release)
Out in December Meanjin Vol 79 No 4 (ed) Jonathan Green ($25, PB)
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Australian Literature Literature The Collected Stories of Shirley Hazzard ($40, HB)
This book includes both volumes of Shirley Hazzard’s short story collections—Cliffs of Fall and People in Glass Houses—alongside uncollected works and two previously unpublished stories. Taken together, these 28 short stories are masterworks in telescoping focus, ‘at once surgical and symphonic’ (New Yorker), ranging from quotidian struggles between beauty & pragmatism to satirical sendups of international bureaucracy, from the Italian countryside to suburban Connecticut. Her stories themselves are a supreme evocation of writing at its very best: probing, uncompromising and deeply felt.
The Great Escape from Woodlands Nursing Home by Joanna Nell ($33, PB)
At nearly 90, retired nature writer Hattie Bloom prefers the company of birds to people, but when a fall lands her in a nursing home she struggles to cope with the loss of independence & privacy. From the confines of her ‘room with a view’ of the carpark, she dreams of escape. Fellow ‘inmate’, the gregarious, would-be comedian Walter Clements also plans on returning home as soon as he is fit & able to take charge of his mobility scooter. When Hattie & Walter officially meet at The Night Owls, a clandestine club run by Sister Bronwyn & her dog, Queenie, they seem at odds. But when Sister Bronwyn is dismissed over her unconventional approach to aged care, they must join forces—and very slowly an unlikely, unexpected friendship begins to grow.
The Queen’s Captain: Colonial Series Book 3 by Peter Watt ($33, PB)
In October 1863, Ian Steele, having taken on the identity of Captain Samuel Forbes, is fighting the Pashtun on the north-west frontier in India. Half a world away, the real Samuel Forbes is a lieutenant in the 3rd New York Volunteers & is facing the Confederates at the Battle of Mission Ridge in Tennessee. Neither is aware their lives will change beyond recognition in the year to come. In London, Ella, the love of Ian’s life, is unhappily married to Count Nikolai Kasatkin. As their relationship sours further, she tries to reclaim the son she & Ian share, but Nikolai makes a move that sees the boy sent far from Ella’s reach. As 1864 dawns, Ian is posted to the battlefields of the Waikato in NZ, where he comes face to face with an old nemesis. As the ten-year agreement between Steele & Forbes nears its end, their foe is desperate to catch them out & cruel all their hopes for the future.
The Fifth Season by Philip Salom ($30, PB)
Writer, Jack retreats to an Airbnb cottage in a small coastal town—preoccupied with the phenomenon of found people: the Somerton Man, the Gippsland Man, the Isdal Woman, people who are found dead—their identities unknown or erased—and the mysterious pull this has on the public mind. In Blue Bay, as well as encountering the town’s colourful inhabitants, Jack befriends Sarah, whose sister Alice is one of the many thousands of people who go missing every year. Sarah has been painting her sister’s likeness in murals throughout the country, hoping that Alice will be found. Then Jack discovers a book about the people of the town, and about Sarah, which was written by a man who called himself Simon. Who once lived in the same cottage & created a backyard garden comprised of crazy mosaics. Until he too disappeared. While Sarah’s life seems beholden to an ambiguous grief, Jack’s own condition is unclear. Is he writing or dying?
maar bidi: next generation black writing (eds) Elfie Shiosaki & Linda Martin ($25, PB)
maar bidi is a journey into what it is to be young, a person of colour and a minority in divergent and conflicting worlds. All talk to what is meaningful to them, whilst connecting the old and the new, the ancient and the contemporary in a variety of ways. The young essayists, critics, novelists, poets, authors in this collection tell an individual story, but if you map them they are telling a story of young black Australia— and that makes it profound—because unlike other writers, Indigenous writers speak of country and kin. The Champagne War by Fiona McIntosh ($33, PB) The summer of 1914, vigneron Jerome Mea heads off to war. His new bride Sophie, a 5th generation champenoise, is determined to ensure the forthcoming vintages will be testament to their love & the power of the people of pernay, especially its strong women. When poison gas is first used in Belgium by the Germans, British chemist Charles Nash jumps to enlist. After he is injured, he is brought to Reims, where Sophie has helped to set up an underground hospital to care for the wounded. A critical sugar shortage forces Sophie to strike a dangerous bargain—but nothing will test her courage more than the news that filters through to her about the fate of her heroic Jerome.
Collisions: Fictions Of The Future ($30, PB)
A tense dinner party is held amid an impending climate catastrophe. A father leases his backyard out to a cemetery. Activists plan an attack on ASIO drones in a shock-jock run government. A voyeur finds herself caught in time. Featuring both emerging and established writers of colour, this collection showcases some of the best work that Australian literature has to offer.
On D’Hill I predict almost every wrap-up-the-year column and article this year, no matter the subject matter, will comment on this ‘annus horribilis’, so take it as a given here. What I like to do at this time of year when all the big books are out, is to alert you to lesser known titles, those that may get buried under the Flanagans, Daltons, Garners et al. Murmurations by Adelaide author, Carol Lefevre, is a beautiful novella—a collection of inter-related stories about a group of women, all of whom are affected by the possibly mysterious death of the local doctor’s wife, Ellis Cleary. As Debra Adelaide notes on the back cover ‘There is not a false note here, not a single word out of place, not one detail that is irrelevant.’ This is a gentle, lovely book to be savoured by those who love good writing. Another short, wondrous book is Help Yourself— three longish stories by the fabulous Curtis Sittenfeld (Rodham, Eligible). Sittenfeld’s unique humour shines through as does her deep insight into the human condition. The first story White Women LOL is a story about a woman who makes a terrible mistake with some black people which goes viral. You cringe and laugh at the same time.
Infinite Splendours by Sofie Laguna ($33, PB)
Lawrence Loman is a bright, caring, curious boy with a gift for painting. He lives at home with his mother & younger brother, and the future is laid out before him, full of promise. But when he is ten, an experience of betrayal takes it all away, and Lawrence is left to deal with the devastating aftermath. As he grows into a man, how will he make sense of what he has suffered? He cannot rewrite history, but must he be condemned to repeat it? Lawrence finds meaning in the best way he knows. By surrendering himself to art and nature, he creates beauty—beauty made all the more astonishing and soulful for the deprivation that gives rise to it.
Factory 19 by Dennis Glover ($33, PB)
special price $29.99
Hobart, 2022—a city with declining population, in the grip of a dark recession. A rusty ship sails into the harbour & begins to unload its cargo on the site of the once famous but now abandoned Gallery of Future Art, known to the world as GoFA. One day the city’s residents are awoken by a high-pitched sound no one has heard for two generations—a factory whistle. GoFA’s owner, world-famous tycoon Dundas Faussett, is creating his most ambitious installation yet. He’s going to defeat the internet’s dominance over our lives by establishing a new Year Zero—1948. Those whose jobs & lives have been destroyed by Amazon & Uber & Airbnb are invited to fight back in the only way that can possibly succeed—by living as if the internet & the smartphone had never been invented.
special price $29.99
Life After Truth by Ceridwen Dovey ($33, PB)
15 years after graduating from Harvard, 5 close friends on the cusp of middle age meet at their Harvard reunion. Actor, Jules won’t share what is haunting her; Mariam & Rowan, who married young, struggle with the demands of family life regret prioritising meaning over wealth in their careers. Eloise, now a professor who studies the psychology of happiness, is troubled by her younger wife’s radical politics. Jomo, founder of a luxury jewellery company, has been carrying an engagement ring around for months, unsure whether his girlfriend is the one. The soul searching begins in earnest when the most infamous member of their class, Frederick— senior advisor & son of the recently elected & loathed US president—turns up dead.
I’m reading the most gorgeous book by American writer, Valerie Martin, who won the Women’s Prize for Fiction for her earlier book Property. Set in a villa in Tuscany (sigh!) and America over different time spans, this is (partly) about the role and responsibility of the writer as the title, I Give it To You, relates to what the Italian Beatrice says to her guest, the writer Jan, about the story of her family’s tragic experiences during WWII. Engrossing and beautifully written. And just to include a bloke, Doom Creek, Alan Carter’s second crime novel set in the Marlborough country of NZ and featuring the rather attractive Nick Chester, is another superbly plotted page-turner with excellent characterisation and stunning scenery. To be honest, things get slightly confusing towards the end, with overlapping crimes and too many characters...but still, well worth the ride. See you on D’hill, but if not, have a wonderful festive season and summer. And a big Thank-you to my wonderful staff, Louise, Olivia, Isabel, Sofia and Dasha. Morgan
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline ($30, PB)
Naive Evangeline lost her position as a governess & her grip on her destiny when she found herself pregnant out of wedlock. Transferred from Newgate prison to a prison ship, her child will almost certainly be born during the journey to Australia. On board, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with Hazel, practically a child herself, sentenced to 7 years transport for stealing a silver spoon. Great Britain may consider Australia an unpeopled colony, but Mathinna is the orphaned daughter of the chief of the Lowreenne tribe, one of a number of peoples whose lands have been seized and their way of life subject to criticism, study, and missionary zeal. Adopted by the new governor of Tasmania and brought to Hobart to live with his family, Mathinna is treated more like a curiosity than a child. Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna will become part of the story of the creation of a new society in the land beyond the seas.
The Dressmaker’s Secret by Rosalie Ham ($33, PB)
It is 1953 and Melbourne society is looking forward to coronation season, the grand balls and celebrations for the young queen-to-be. Tilly Dunnage is, however, working for a pittance in a second-rate Collins Street salon. Her talents go unappreciated, and the madame is a bully and a cheat, but Tilly has a past she is desperate to escape and good reason to prefer anonymity. Meanwhile, Sergeant Farrat and the McSwiney clan have been searching for their resident dressmaker The Chaser and Shovel Annual 2020 ever since she left Dungatar in flames. And they aren’t the only ones. Free tear-out Barnaby Joyce R-rated children’s books, tips on avoiding all those The inhabitants of the town are still out for revenge (or at least someinvisible African gangs in Melbourne—described by critics as ‘the best Chaser Anone to foot the bill for the new high street). So when Tilly’s name starts nual of 2020 so far’—the perfect gift for anyone in your life that you know absolutely to feature in the fashion pages, the jig is up. Along with Tilly’s hopes of keeping her nothing about. ($29.95, PB) secrets hidden.
special price $29.99
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International Inte rnational Literature
Toto Among the Murderers by Sally J. Morgan Rosalie Ham’s dressmaker returns in the sequel to the beloved #1 bestseller and the box office sensation, The Dressmaker. ‘A true original. Astringently unsentimental … memorably eccentric … and mischievous.’ Sydney Morning Herald
The 130 -STOREY
Xstabeth by David Keenan ($33, PB)
TREE HOUS E
The brand new adventure from bestselling team Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton. Andy and Terry have added 13 new levels to their treehouse and it’s more out of this world than ever before!
The GO0D
Sister
‘No one writes domestic suspense like Sally Hepworth. The Good Sister is the perfect blend of suspense and heart – a book that’s sure to get everyone talking!’ Kelly Rimmer
Love talking about books? Find us online at Pan Macmillan Australia
Funny Ha, Ha (ed) Paul Merton ($35, PB)
From Anton Chekhov to Ali Smith, from P.G. Wodehouse to Nora Ephron, award-winning comedian & broadcaster Paul Merton brings together 80 of his favourite funny stories of all time. Whether it’s the silly, surreal, slap-stick or satirical that makes you smile, there’s a story here to tickle every funny bone. From prize-winners and literary giants, to stand-up comedians and the rising stars of funny literature, this anthology is guaranteed to cheer your day.
Missionaries by Phil Klay ($30, PB)
Neither Mason, a US Special Forces medic, nor Lisette, a foreign correspondent, has emerged from America’s long wars in Iraq & Afghanistan unscathed. Yet, for them, war still exerts a terrible draw—the noble calling, the camaraderie, the life-anddeath stakes. Where else in the world can such a person go? All roads lead to Colombia, where the US has partnered with the local government to stamp out a vicious civil war and keep the predatory narco gangs at bay. Mason is ready for the good war, and Lisette is more than ready to cover it.
Reality, and Other Stories by John Lanchester
Selfie-sticks with demonic powers. Cold calls from the dead. And that creeping suspicion, as you sit there with your flat white, that none of this is real. John Lanchester’s first book of shorter fictions, is a gathering of deliciously chilling entertainments, to be read as the evenings draw in and the days are haunted by all the ghastly schlock, uncanny technologies and absurd horrors of modern life. ($25, HB)
Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline ($33, PB)
Days after winning OASIS founder James Halliday’s contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything. Hidden within Halliday’s vaults, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the OASIS a thousand times more wondrous—and addictive—than even Wade dreamed possible. With it comes a new riddle, and a new quest—a last Easter egg from Halliday, hinting at a mysterious prize. And an unexpected, impossibly powerful, and dangerous new rival awaits, one who’ll kill millions to get what he wants. Wade’s life and the future of the OASIS are again at stake, but this time the fate of humanity also hangs in the balance. The follow up to Ready Player One is an action-packed adventure through Cline’s virtual universe, jolting you once again into the future. (December)
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It is 1973 & Jude—known to her friends as Toto—has just graduated from art school & moves into a house in a run-down part of Leeds. A wild child, her restlessness takes her on hitchhiking jaunts up & down the country. Reports of attacks on women punctuate the news and Jude takes off again, suffocated by an affair she has been having with a married woman. But what she doesn’t realise is that the violence is moving ever closer to home: there is Janice across the road who lives in fear of being beaten up again by her pimp & her best friend Nel, whose perfect life is coming undone at her boyfriend’s hands. And infamous murderers, Fred & Rosemary West, are stalking the country, on the lookout for girls like Jude. ($33, PB) In St Petersburg, Russia, Aneliya is torn between the love of her father & her father’s best friend. Her father dreams of becoming a great musician but suffers with a naivete that means he will never be taken seriously. Her father’s best friend has a penchant for vodka, strip clubs & moral philosophy. When an angelic presence named Xstabeth enters their lives—a presence who simultaneously fulfils & disappears those she touches—Aneliya & her father’s world is transformed. Moving from Russia to St Andrews, Scotland, Xstabeth tackles the metaphysics of golf, the mindset of classic Russian novels & the power of art & music to re-wire reality.
Mother for Dinner by Shalom Auslander ($33, PB)
Seventh Seltzer has done everything he can to break from the past, but in his overbearing, narcissistic mother’s last moments she whispers in his ear the two words he always knew she would: ‘Eat me’. This is not unusual, as the Seltzers are Cannibal-Americans, a once proud & thriving ethnic group—but for Seventh, of practical concern, his dead mother is six-foot-two & weighs about 450 pounds. Even divided up between Seventh & his eleven brothers, that’s a lot of red meat. Plus Second keeps kosher, Ninth is vegan, First hated her, and Sixth is dead. To make matters worse, even if he can wrangle his brothers together for a feast, the Can-Am people have assimilated, and the only living Cannibal who knows how to perform the ancient ritual is their Uncle Ishmael, whose erratic understanding of their traditions is going to lead to conflict. A novel of identity, tribalism, and mothers: an outrageously tasty comedy.
Help Yourself by Curtis Sittenfeld ($20, HB)
Suburban friends fall out after a racist encounter at a birthday party is caught on video and posted on Facebook; an illustrious Manhattan film crew are victims of their own snobbery when they underestimate a preschool teacher from the Mid-West; and a group of young writers fight about love and narrative style as they compete for a prestigious bursary. Connecting each of these three stories is Curtis Sittenfeld’s truthful yet merciless eye.
Memorial by Bryan Washington ($30, PB)
Benson & Mike are two young guys who live together in Houston. Mike is a Japanese-American chef at a Mexican restaurant & Benson’s a Black day care teacher, and they’ve been together for a few rood years— but now they’re not sure why they’re still a couple. There’s the sex, sure, & the meals Mike cooks for Benson, and, well, they love each other. But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying is Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives in Texas for a visit, Mike picks up & flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past. Back home, Mitsuko & Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted.
To Be a Man by Nicole Krauss ($30, PB)
With sons & lovers, seducers & friends, husbands lost & regained, or husbands who were never husbands at all, how many men does can a woman’s lifetime hold? What does it mean to be a man & a woman together; or a man & a woman, once together & now apart? Spinning across the world, from Switzerland, Japan & New York to Tel Aviv, Los Angeles & South America, Nicole Krauss’s stories delve into questions of masculinity & violence, regret & regeneration, control & desire— shining a fierce light onto men and women, and into the uncharted gulfs that lie between them.
Mr Cadmus by Peter Ackroyd ($25, HB)
The arrival of an enigmatic stranger wreaks havoc on the denizens of the idyllic English village of Little Camborne; most notably two apparently harmless women. Miss Finch & Miss Swallow, cousins, have put their pasts behind them and settled into conventional country life. But when Theodore Cadmus—from Caldera, a Mediterranean island nobody has heard of—moves into the middle cottage, the safe monotony of their lives is shattered. The fates of the two cousins and Mr Cadmus, and those of Little Camborne and Caldera, become inextricably enmeshed. Long-hidden secrets and long-held grudges threaten to surface, drawing all into a vortex of subterfuge, theft, violence, mayhem...and murder..
Jeeves and the Leap of Faith by Ben Schott ($33, PB)
The Drones club’s in peril. Gussie’s in love. Spode’s on the war-path. Oh, and His Majesty’s Government needs a favour. I say—it’s a good thing Bertie’s back! One man—and his Gentleman’s Personal Gentleman—valiantly set out to save the Drones, thwart Spode & nobly assist His Majesty’s Government. From the mean streets of Mayfair to the scheming spires of Cambridge meet a joyous cast of chiselling painters & criminal bookies, eccentric philosophers & dodgy clairvoyantes, appalling poets & pocket dictators, vexatious aunts & their vicious hounds. Replete with a Times crossword, and classic Schottian endnotes. (December)
The Strays of Paris by Jane Smiley ($33, PB)
Paras is a spirited young racehorse living in a stable in the French countryside. But one afternoon, she pushes open the gate of her stall and, travelling through the night, arrives quite by chance in the dazzling streets of Paris. She soon meets a German shorthaired pointer named Frida, two irrepressible ducks & an opinionated crow. Life amongst the animals in the city’s lush green spaces is enjoyable for a time, but then Paras meets a human boy, Étienne, and discovers a new, otherworldly part of Paris: the secluded, ivy-walled house where the boy & his nearly-100-year-old great grandmother live quietly unto themselves. As the cold weather of Christmas nears, the unlikeliest of friendships bloom among humans & animals alike. But how long can a runaway horse live undiscovered in Paris? And how long can one boy keep her all to himself? (December)
There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura ($30, PB) (December)
A young woman walks into an employment agency & requests a job that requires no reading, no writing & ideally, very little thinking. She is sent to a nondescript office building where she is tasked with watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods. But how will she stay awake? When can she take delivery of her favourite brand of tea? And, perhaps more importantly how did she find herself in this situation? As she moves from job to job, writing bus adverts for shops that mysteriously disappear & composing advice for rice cracker wrappers that generate thousands of devoted followers, it becomes increasingly apparent that she’s not searching for the easiest job at all, but something altogether more meaningful.
The Last Good Man by Thomas McMullan ($30, PB)
Duncan Peck has travelled alone to Dartmoor in search of his cousin. He has come from the city, where the fires are always burning. In his cousin’s village, Peck finds a place with tea rooms & barley fields, a church & a schoolhouse. People live an honest life & if there’s any trouble, they have a way to settle it. They sit in the shadow of a vast wall, inscribed with strange messages. Anyone can write on the wall, anonymously, about their neighbours, about any wrongdoing that might hurt the community. But Duncan has not been there long before the village wakes up to the most unspeakable accusation; sentences daubed on the wall that will detonate the darkest of secrets. A troubling, uncanny book about the violence of writing in public spaces, asking what hope can we place in words once extinction is in the air? (December)
Shelter in Place by David Leavitt ($30, PB) (December)
It is the Saturday after the 2016 presidential election, and in a plush weekend house in Connecticut, a group of New Yorkers has gathered to recover from what they consider the greatest political catastrophe of their lives. Liberal & like-minded, the friends have come to the countryside in the hope of restoring the bubble in which they have grown used to living. Moving through her days accompanied by a carefully curated salon, Eva Lindquist is a generous hostess with an obsession for decorating. Yet when, in her avidity to secure shelter for herself, she persuades her husband to buy a grand if dilapidated apartment in Venice, she unwittingly sets off the chain of events that will propel him to venture outside the bubble & embark on an unexpected love affair.
Ordinary Hazards by Anna Bruno ($33, PB)
Emma has settled into her hometown bar for the evening. It was in this very room that she met Lucas a few years back, on a blind date. Nine months ago, in unimaginable circumstances, they divorced. As Emma listens to the locals’ banter, key facts about her life story begin to emerge and the past comes bearing down on her like a freight train. A powerhouse in the business world, why has she ended up here, now a regular in the last bar on the edge of a small town? What is she running away from? And what is she willing to give up in order to recapture the love she has lost? As Emma teeters on the edge of oblivion, becoming more booze-soaked by the hour, her night begins to spin out of control with shocking results..
Released this month, in the Summer Reading Guide The Silence by Don DeLillo ($30, PB) Olga by Bernhard Schlink special price $29.99 Mr Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe ($33, PB) Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa ($30, PB)
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Crime Fiction
The Searcher by Tana French ($33, PB)
Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a remote Irish village would be the perfect escape. After 25 years in the Chicago police force, and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But then a local kid comes looking for his help. His brother has gone missing, and no one, least of all the police, seems to care. Despite his reluctance to get involved, Cal can’t make himself walk away, and will soon discover that even in the most idyllic small town, secrets lie hidden, people aren’t always what they seem, and trouble can come calling at his door.
Deacon King Kong by James McBride ($33, PB)
1969. In a housing project in south Brooklyn, a shambling old church deacon called Sportscoat shoots—for no apparent reason—the local drug-dealer who used to be part of the church’s baseball team. The repercussions of that moment draw in the whole community, from Sportscoat’s best friend—Hot Sausage—to the local Italian mobsters, the police (corrupt and otherwise), and the stalwart ladies of the Five Ends Baptist Church.
The Sentinel by Lee Child ($33, PB)
Jack Reacher gets off the bus in a sleepy no-name town outside Nashville, Tennessee. He plans to grab a cup of coffee and move right along. Not going to happen. The town has been shut down by a cyber attack. At the centre of it all, whether he likes it or not, is Rusty Rutherford. He’s an average IT guy, but he knows more than he thinks. As the bad guys move in on Rusty, Reacher moves in on them—and now Rusty knows he’s protected, he’s never going to leave the big man’s side.
The Readers’ Room by Antoine Laurain ($30, PB)
When the manuscript of a debut crime novel arrives at a Parisian publishing house, everyone in the readers’ room is convinced it’s something special. And the committee for the Prix Goncourt, agrees. But when the shortlist is announced, there’s a problem for editor Violaine Lepage: she has no idea of the author’s identity. As the police begin to investigate a series of murders strangely reminiscent of those recounted in the book, Violaine is not the only one looking for answers. And, suffering memory blanks following an aeroplane accident, she’s beginning to wonder what role she might play in the story. (Dec.)
Three-Fifths by John Vercher ($28, PB) (December)
Pittsburgh, 1995. 22 year old Bobby Saraceno is a biracial man, passing for white. Bobby has hidden his identity from everyone, even his best friend & fellow comic-book geek, Aaron, who has just returned from prison a newly radicalized white supremacist. During the night of their reunion, Bobby witnesses Aaron mercilessly assault a young black man with a brick. In the wake of this horrifying act of violence, Bobby must conceal his unwitting involvement in the crime from the police, as well as battle with his own personal demons.
A Necessary Death by Anne Holt ($30, PB) (December)
Selma Falck is trapped in a burning cabin on a freezing snow-covered mountain—she has no idea where she is or how she got there. Bruised, bleeding and naked, she barely makes it out in time as the flames engulf the cabin. With no signs of human habitation nearby, the temperature rapidly dropping, and a blizzard approaching, how will she survive? As Selma fights the cold, the hunger and her own wounds, she eventually forms a frightening picture of the past six months. Not only does she have to find a way to stay alive, she needs to make it back to civilisation, quickly. Murder has been committed, and a great injustice must be stopped. The very future of the nation itself is at stake.
White Throat by Sarah Thornton ($33, PB)
Disgraced former lawyer Clementine Jones is on the shores of paradise—Queensland’s Great Sandy Straits—trying to outrun her past. Bored with her house-sitting gig, she becomes a reluctant recruit to the local environmental group, campaigning to save an endangered turtle as developers close in. Then a body is found at the base of a quarry, and Clem’s world is turned upside down. The police say suicide. Clem’s convinced it was murder. She’s also knows she’s the only one interested in tracking down the killer. Well, the only one apart from her friend Torrens, ex-con and reformed standover man. And he’s got his own fight on his hands. (December)
Fortune Favours the Dead by Stephen Spotswood
1946. Lillian Pentecost is New York’s most successful PI, but her health is failing. She hires an assistant to help with the investigative legwork. Circus runaway Willowjean Parker can pick locks blindfolded, wrestle men twice her size, and throw knives with deadly precision. After a Halloween party seance, wealthy young widow Abigail Collins is found bludgeoned to death in her late husband’s office. Problem is, the door to the office was locked from the inside. There was no-one else in the room, and the murder weapon was beside the victim; the fortune teller’s crystal ball. The police are making no progress, Pentecost and Parker are hired by the family to track down the culprit. ($33, PB)
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Consolation by Garry Disher ($33, PB)
Some is stealing ladies undies, and Constable Paul Hirschhausen knows how this kind of crime can escalate. But the more immediate concern is a teacher worried about a student who may be in danger at home, a man enraged about the principal’s treatment of his daughter. A little girl in harm’s way and an elderly woman in danger. An absent father and another who flees to the back country armed with a rifle. Families under pressure. And the cold, seeping feeling that something is very, very wrong.
special price $26.99
The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly
When defence attorney Mickey Haller is pulled over by police, the body of a client is discovered in the trunk of his Lincoln. Charged with murder be elects to defend himself. But it isn’t easy to build a murder defence from a cell in the Twin Towers Jail in downtown Los Angeles. With the help of a team, including his half-brother Harry Bosch, Mickey races time to figure out who has plotted to destroy his life & why. And then he must go before a judge & jury to prove his own innocence. ($33, PB)
Death in Daylesford by Kerry Greenwood
Phryne Fisher receives a mysterious invitation from a Captain Herbert Spencer—he runs a retreat in Victoria’s spa country for shell-shocked soldiers of WW1, a cause after Phryne’s own heart. Phryne & the faithful Dot view their spa sojourn as a short holiday but are quickly thrown in the midst of disturbing Highland gatherings, disappearing women, murder & the mystery of the Temperance Hotel. Meanwhile, Cec, Bert & Tinker find a young woman floating face down in the harbour, & with Jane & Ruth, Phryne’s adopted daughters, they decide to solve what appears to be a heinous crime. ($30, PB)
Doom Creek by Alan Carter ($33, PB)
Sergeant Nick Chester has dodged the Geordie gangsters he once feared, is out of hiding & looking forward to a quiet life. But gold fever is creating ill-feeling between prospectors, and a new threat lurks in the form of trigger-happy Americans preparing for doomsday by building a bolthole at the top of the South Island. As tensions simmer in the Wakamarina Valley, Nick finds himself working on a cold-case murder & investigating a scandal-plagued religious sect. When local and international events reach fever pitch, Chester finds himself up against an evil that knows no borders.
The Lost & the Damned by Olivier Norek
There is little by the way of violent crime & petty theft that Capt Victor Coste has not encountered in his 15 years on the St Denis patch—but something unusual is afoot. A corpse waking on the mortuary slab, a case of spontaneous human combustion, and now anonymous letters addressed to him personally have begun to arrive, highlighting the fates of two women, invisible victims whose deaths were never explained. Writer of TV’s Spiral, Olivier Norek’s first novel draws on all his experience as un flic in one of France’s toughest suburbs. ($33, PB)
Daylight by David Baldacci ($33, PB)
In the gripping third title in Baldacci’s FBI special agent Atlee Pine series, Atlee joins forces with old friend and military investigator, John Puller, in her search for the truth about her sister.
Play The Red Queen by Juris Jurjevics ($18, PB)
Vietnam, 1963. A female Viet Cong assassin is trawling the boulevards of Saigon, catching US Army officers off-guard with a single pistol shot, then riding off on the back of a scooter. Although the US military is not officially in combat, sixteen thousand American servicemen are stationed in Vietnam ‘advising’ the military and government. Among them are Ellsworth Miser and Clovis Robeson, two army investigators who have been tasked with tracking down the daring killer.
Take Me Apart by Sara Sligar ($33, PB)
Journalist Kate Aitken leaves NY for California & a new jobas an archivist for the estate of famed photographer Miranda Brand, who died mysteriously some decades earlier. Miranda’s son, Theo, has returned to the family home after his father’s death, and needs Kate to organise his mother’s work and the mess of her personal effects. As she digs into the material, a picture emerges of an artist buckling under the pressures of ambition, motherhood & marriage—when she stumbles across Miranda’s diary, her curiosity spirals into a dangerous obsession.
Fortune & Glory by Janet Evanovich ($30, PB)
When Stephanie’s Grandma Mazur’s new husband died on their wedding night, the only thing he left her was a beat-up old easy chair—and the keys to a life-changing fortune. But Stephanie & Grandma Mazur aren’t the only ones looking for Jimmy Rosolli’s treasure—two old enemies & the formidable Gabriela Rose, a beauty from Little Havana with a taste for designer clothes.
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‘Crime writing at its apex.’ Australian Book Review
‘A master of hard-boiled crime.’ Emma Viskic
Straight from the deep freeze and snappy as ever, Sherlock Holmes is back.
The US Navy is in port and Frank Swann’s home town is awash with trouble.
‘Highly entertaining new voice.’ Books+Publishing
‘Crime fiction at its best.’ The Australian
A vanishing corpse, an orphaned girl, a hidden past: Golden Age crime with an outback twist.
A cold-case murder leads Nick Chester to a scandal-plagued religious sect.
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Biography
The Book Collectors of Darayaby Delphine Minoui
In 2012 the rebel suburb of Daraya in Damascus was brutally besieged by Syrian government forces. 4 years of suffering ensued, punctuated by shelling, barrel bombs & chemical gas attacks. People’s homes were destroyed & their food supplies cut off; disease was rife. Yet in this manmade hell, 40 young Syrian revolutionaries embarked on an extraordinary project, rescuing all the books they could find in the bombed-out ruins of their home town. They used them to create a secret library, in a safe place, deep underground. It became their school, their university, their refuge. It was a place to learn, to exchange ideas, to dream & to hope. ($35, PB)
The Naked Farmer by Ben Brooks by ($30, PB)
The brilliant new novel from the acclaimed Miles Franklin Awardwinning author of The Eye of the Sheep and The Choke.
Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller is back in the heart-stopping new thriller from #1 bestselling author Michael Connelly.
A warm and fascinating memoir of the extraordinary life of one of Australia’s most significant public figures.
The Assassin’s Cloak: An Anthology of the World’s Greatest Diarists (December) (eds) Irene & Alan Taylor ($50, HB)
‘A diary is an assassin’s cloak which we wear when we stab a comrade in the back with a pen’, wrote William Soutar in 1934. But a diary is also a place for recording everyday thoughts & special occasions, private fears & hopeful dreams. This volume gathers together some of the most entertaining & inspiring entries for each day of the year, as writers ranging from Queen Victoria to Andy Warhol, Samuel Pepys to Adrian Mole, pen their musings on the historic & the mundane. Spanning centuries & international in scope, this anthology pays tribute to a genre that is at once the most intimate & public of all literary forms.
How We Live Now: Scenes from the Pandemic by Bill Hayes ($33, HB) (December)
A bookstore where readers shout their orders from the street. A neighbourhood restaurant turned to-go place where one has a shared drink—on either end of a bar—with the owner. Author & photographer Bill Hayes offers an ode to our shared humanity— capturing in real time this strange new world we’re now in. As he wanders the increasingly empty streets of Manhattan, Hayes meets fellow New Yorkers & discovers stories to tell, but he also shares the unexpected moments of gratitude he finds from within his apartment, where he lives alone and—like everyone else—is staying home, trying to keep busy & not bored as he adjusts to enforced solitude with reading, cooking, reconnecting with loved ones, reflecting on the past—and writing.
Girl with a Sniper Rifle: An Eastern Front Memoir by Yulia Zhukova ($30, PB)
In this vivid first-hand account you gain unique access to the inner workings of Stalin’s Central Women’s Sniper School, near Podolsk in Western Russia. Luliia was a dedicated member of the Komsomol (the Soviet communist youth organisation) and her parents worked for the NKVD. She started at the sniper school and eventually became a valued member of her battalion during operations against Prussia. She went through eight months of training before leaving for the Front on 24th November 1944 just days after qualifying. Joining the third Belorussian Front her battalion endured rounds of German mortar as well as loudspeaker announcements beckoning them to come over to the German side. Luliia recounts how they would be in the field for days, regularly facing the enemy in terrifying one-on-one encounters. She sets down the euphoria of her first hit & starting her ‘battle count’ but also her reflections on the ending of a life.
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Ben Brooksby is a 5th-generation farmer from St Helens Plains in western Victoria. When he was younger, he struggled with anxiety & other mental health issues, as do so many others in rural communities. After he shared a photo on Instagram showing himself naked in a truck full of lentils, he received a huge response, with other farmers wanting to share their own photos—and their stories. As the Naked Farmer movement grew, Brooksby met people from all around the country who wanted to get naked for mental health. As they got their kits off, they also opened up about their struggles—this is a moving & candid collection of stories of the challenges our farmers are facing, and the way these communities are banding together in response.
Searching for Charlotte: The Fascinating Story of Australia’s First Children’s Author by Kate Forsyth & Belinda Murrell ($34.95, PB)
For almost 140 years, the author of Australia’s first book for children was a mystery. Known only by the descriptor ‘a Lady Long Resident in New South Wales’, she was the subject of much speculation. It was not until 1980, after a decade of sleuthing, that bibliographer Marcie Muir gave her a name: Charlotte Waring Atkinson, and a family history, connecting her to 2 contemporary Australian children’s writers, Kate Forsyth & Belinda Murrell. After spending half her life educating the children of the wellto-do in England, in 1826, the 30-year-old, Waring accepted a job in Australia to teach the children of Maria Macarthur, daughter of former NSW governor Philip Gidley King. But on the voyage over she married James Atkinson—what followed were years of hardship in the NSW bush, including the death of Atkinson & her subsequent marriage to an abusive drunk, a brutal attack by bushrangers, penury & the threat of having her children taken away. Forsyth and Murrell tell Waring’s story along with that of their own journey to discover her.
Stalin: Passage to Revolution by Ronald Grigor Suny
In this monumental book, Ronald Grigor Suny sheds light on the least understood years of Stalin’s career, bringing to life the turbulent world in which he lived & the extraordinary historical events that shaped him. Drawing on a wealth of new archival evidence from Stalin’s early years in the Caucasus Suny charts the psychological metamorphosis of the young Stalin, taking readers from his boyhood as a Georgian nationalist & romantic poet, through his harsh years of schooling, to his commitment to violent engagement in the underground movement to topple the tsarist autocracy. Stalin emerges as an ambitious climber within the Bolshevik ranks, a resourceful leader of a small terrorist band, and a writer & thinker who was deeply engaged with some of the most incendiary debates of his time. Suny paints an unforgettable portrait of a driven young man who abandoned his religious faith to become a skilled political operative & a single-minded & ruthless rebel. ($60, HB)
Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee ($60, HB)
With unprecedented access to private papers, diaries & letters & countless interviews, Hermione Lee tracks Tom Stoppard from his Czech origins & childhood in India to every school & home he’s ever lived in, every piece of writing he’s ever done, and every play & film he’s ever worked on. From his family’s wartime escape from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, to his English upbringing & lifelong love of his adopted country, Lee evokes his youth as a Bristol reporter & would-be playwright & his leap to fame in the 1960s with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Alongside his 3 marriages, 4 children, constant writing, casting, rehearsing, lecture tours, interviews, first nights & transatlantic travel, Lee looks at the complexities of Stoppard’s political involvements, from his reputation for conservatism & disengagement, to his long years of work on behalf of Eastern Europe, Soviet ‘prisoners of conscience’, PEN & the Free Belarus Theatre, and his close friendship with the playwright, dissident & Czech President Vaclav Havel.
Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark ($65, HB) (December)
Determined not to read Plath’s work as if her every act, from childhood on, was a harbinger of her tragic fate, Heather Clark presents new materials about Plath’s scientist father, her juvenile writings, and her psychiatric treatment, and evokes a culture in transition in the mid-20th century, in the shadow of the atom bomb & the Holocaust, as she explores Sylvia’s world—her early relationships & determination not to become a conventional woman & wife; her conflicted ties to her wellmeaning, widowed mother; her troubles at the hands of an unenlightened mental-health industry; and her Cambridge years & thunderclap meeting with Ted Hughes. Sympathetic to Hughes, his lover Assia Wevill, and other demonized players in the arena of Plath’s suicide Clarke promotes a deeper understanding of her final days, with their outpouring of first-rate poems.
Travel Writing
Silences So Deep: Music, Solitude, Alaska by John Luther Adams ($45, HB)
‘Inspiring and insightful, this book blends familiar and new voices into a powerful call to action.’
In the summer of 1975, the composer John Luther Adams, then a 22-year-old graduate of CalArts, boarded a flight to Alaska. So began a journey into the mountains and forests of the far north—and across distinctive mental and aural terrain—that would last for the next 40 years. Silences So Deep is Adams’s account of these formative decades—and of what it’s like to live alone in the frozen woods, composing music by day and spending one’s evenings with a raucous crew of poets, philosophers, and fishermen.
Wanderers: A History of Women Walking by Kerri Andrews ($35, HB)
Kerri Andrews follows ten women over the past 300 years who have found walking essential to their sense of themselves, as people and as writers. She traces their footsteps, from 18th century parson’s daughter Elizabeth Carter—who desired nothing more than to be taken for a vagabond in the wilds of southern England—to modern walkerwriters such as Nan Shepherd & Cheryl Strayed. For each, walking was integral, whether it was rambling for miles across the Highlands, like Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt, or pacing novels into being, as Virginia Woolf did around Bloomsbury.
Great Pilgrimage Sites of Europe by Derry Brabbs ($60, HB)
This spectacular photographic tour of the greatest European pilgrimage sites, from Canterbury to Santiago de Compostela, covers all the key pilgrimage sites across Europe, as well the lesser known ones such as La Salette in the French Alps which, despite its remoteness still attracts almost 1.5 million visitors each year, many of whom are pilgrims on retreat. En route the reader will see some of the world’s most impressive examples of medieval art and architecture set amidst historic townscapes or spectacular landscapes.
– Julia Gillard
‘An engrossing social history – a bloody beauty – from one of our leading experts on Australian English.’ – Frank Bongiorno
Great Sites of the Ancient World by Paul G. Bahn ($50, HB)
Archaeological sites tell a story spanning thousands of years, & the ones in this book range from the well-known to hidden gems— from the Abu Simbel twin temples in Egypt that commemorate Pharaoh Ramesses II & his queen Nefertari to the Nazca Lines in Peru that feature large geoglyphs in the desert soil. Each site features stunning photographs accompanied by essential information & a lively, expert text that brings each location to life—perfect for armchair travellers and world adventurers alike.
‘This is a brilliant book. If I were to recommend a book about Sydney to anyone, it would be this one.’
Clanlands by Sam Heughan & Graham McTavish
From their faithful camper van to boats, kayaks, bicycles & motorbikes, join stars of Outlander Sam Heughan & Graham McTavish on a road trip with a difference, as two Scotsmen explore a land of raw beauty, poetry, feuding, music, history & warfare. They begin their journey in the heart of Scotland at Glencoe—the site of a great massacre & major clan feud—and travel from there all the way to Inverness & Culloden battlefield, where along the way they experience adventure & a cast of highland characters. In this story of friendship, finding themselves & whisky, they discover the complexity, rich history & culture of their native country. ($33, PB)
– Louis Nowra
Mountains According to G by Geraint Thomas
This is Geraint Thomas’s inside guide to 25 of the greatest cycling climbs in the world. Elite GC winner, Geraint takes you inside what these climbs really feel like, where the attacks come, where the pain kicks in. From best-known big-hitters, via pro-peloton favourites, to the secret climbs Geraint has come to love, and featuring Australia, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Mallorca and Wales, this is the cyclist’s secret manual. ($35, HB)
‘A defining account of those who served in the Vietnam War and their challenges in its aftermath.’ – General Sir Peter Cosgrove
Now available in paperback: Australian City Series - $30 each Sydney by Delia Falconer; Melbourne by Sophie Cunningham Brisbane by Matthew Condon; Perth by David Whish-Wilson Adelaide by Kerryn Goldsworthy; Hobart by Peter Timms Canberra by Paul Daley; Darwin by Tess Lea
A N I M P R I N T O F U N SW P R E SS
My Gaza: A City in Photographs by Jehad Saftawi
This is a startling contemporary perspective on photographer Jehad Saftawi’s homeland. Saftawi’s eye is drawn to moments of humanity and tenderness that redefine this place, outside of propaganda, outside of all we know. The modern reality in Gaza leaves no room for further escalation, as these photographs testify. A gun to the head. An interrogation. A family in strife. In vivid images Saftawi’s photographs tell an authentic new story with dignity and resolve. ($60, HB)
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books for kids to young adults
It’s Only Stanley by Jon Agee ($25, HB)
picture books
Gustavo, The Shy Ghost by Flavia Z. Drago ($25, HB)
Whoever heard of a dog who can sing, cook and do DIY around the house? Unfortunately Stanley’s handy-dog activities go crash, bang, smash all through the night, and even if he does mend the TV, the hapless Wimbledon family & cat cannot get to sleep. It’s a real hoot when you find out exactly what Stanley has been up to.
Gustavo is great at walking through walls, glowing in the dark, and he loves to play his violin. But Gustavo is shy, and some things are harder for him to do, like getting in a line to buy eye scream or making friends with other monsters. Whenever he tries getting close to them—they just can’t see him. With the Day of the Dead fast approaching, how can he share with them something he loves?
It’s a fairy tale revolution!!! $28, HB each Blueblood by Malorie Blackman (ill) Laura Barrett Cinderella Liberator by Rebecca Solnit (ill) Arthur Rackham Duckling by Kamila Shamsie (ill) Laura Barrett Hansel and Greta by Jeanette Winterson (ill) Laura Barrett
The Little War Cat by Hiba Noor Khan
A little grey cat who is caught up in the BANGS and CRASHES of the humans in boots, who have changed the city of Aleppo she knew so well into something unrecognisable. Roaming the streets looking for food & shelter, an unlikely friend appears. His kindness gives the little grey cat the strength to make a difference herself. ($25, HB)
A man unlocks the forbidden door—can a woman never have a room of her own. Cinderella leaves the glass slipper behind and looks for life beyond the kitchen cinders. The ugly duckling finds the right to be different, and vegetarian environmentalists Hansel & Greta battle consumer society in these retellings.
The Wolf’s Secret ($25, HB) by Nicolas Digard & Myriam Dahman
non fiction
Wolf is a hunter, feared by every creature. But he has a secret: in the middle of the forest lives a girl whose beautiful voice has entranced him—is he prepared to sacrifice his own true nature in order for the friendship he longs for? A beautiful and lyrical contemporary fairy tale sumptuously packaged with gold foil detail, illustrated by Greenaway Medal nominee Julia Sarda.
Tree Beings ($35, HB) by Raymond Huber
Cities—Then & Now ($25, HB) Lonely Planet
Lift the flaps and step back in time. This fun and colourful lift-the-flap book with full-page gatefolds gives a unique insight into how cities looked in the past, compared to how they look now. With ancient cities & ruins including Pompeii, Great Zimbabwe & Babylon, discover how history has shaped our planet’s urban areas & changed them over time.
This beautifully illustrated book takes you inside the incredible world of trees. Learn how they talk to each other, how forests enrich the whole planet and about the amazing people who have made friends with trees: a woman who lived up a giant tree for two years, a scientist who discovered trees have their own internet, a 9-year-old boy who found a way to plant a trillion trees. And much more.
Plurals can be Weird by Keg de Souza & Lucas Abela
During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Sydney artists Keg de Souza & Lucas Abela, decided to write a book for their 3-year-old, Ernie. Inspired by the sudden isolation & a song titled ‘foot-feet’ they made up to explain English pluralisation to Ernie, they assembled some paper cut-outs to illustrate the point and have made the explanation of plurals into a counting book—plurals can be weird (you see), and this book can teach both plurals and numbers to your kids. ($15, PB)
Skunk and Badger 1 by Amy Timberlake (ill) Jon Klassen ($23, HB)
fiction
Everything you need to ace Geometry in One Big Fat Notebook ($25, HB)
Geometry? No problem. This big fat notebook covers everything you need to know during a year of high school geometry class, breaking down on big bad subject into accessible units. Including: Logic & reasoning; parallel lines; triangles & congruence; trapezoids & kites; ratio & proportion; the Pythagorean theorem; the fundamentals oif circle; area; volume of prisms & cylinders - and more. Also in the Everything your need to Ace series: Chemistry; Computer Science; English Language; Maths; Science & World History—perfect for lockdown.
6 to 8
No one wants a skunk. They are unwelcome on front stoops. They should not linger in Rock Rooms. Skunks should never, ever be allowed to move in. But Skunk is Badger’s new roommate, and there is nothing Badger, who prefers to be left alone to do Important Rock Work, can do about it. Skunk ploughs into Badger’s life, and Badger’s life is upended. Tails are flipped. The wrong animal is sprayed. And why-oh-why are there so many chickens? Winnie-the-Pooh meets Wallace & Gromit in a fresh take on a classic odd-couple friendship.
Timmy the Ticked off Pony #2: Bite Me! by Magda Szubanski (ill) Dean Rankine ($17, PB)
If you thought pooing on everyone was bad, then STICK AROUND! Coz things are about to get WAAAAAY worse for TIMMY. Now he’s the MOST HATED thing in the world-people hate him more than brussels sprouts and stinky cheese... even more than wedgies! And now he’s ON THE RUN! Find out why in the second instalment of Magda Szubanski’s hilarious new series.
The Naughtiest Unicorn & the Spooky Surprise by Pip Bird (ill) David O’Connell ($13, PB)
It’s the SPOOKIEST time of the year at Unicorn School! Mira & Dave the naughtiest unicorn are looking forward to dressing up for trick-or-treating, pumpkin carving & apple bobbing (well, doughnut bobbing for Dave). But when a strange new teacher arrives at school & the other teachers start to DISAPPEAR, Mira & her friends suspect that something SPOOKY is going on. Can they get to the bottom of what’s going on, or are they in for a SERIOUSLY SPOOKY SURPRISE?
The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart ($15, PB)
12-year-old Coyote & her dad, River, have been on the road in an old school bus for 5 years—since Coyote lost her mom & two sisters. When she learns that the park in her old neighbourhood is being demolished—where she, her mom, & her sisters buried a treasured memory box—she tricks her dad into driving 3,600 miles back to Washington state. On the way, they pick up Lester has a lady love to meet, Salvador & his mom looking to start over & Val who needs a safe place to be herself. Going home can sometimes be the hardest journey of all, but with friends, Coyote might be able to turn her ‘once upon a time’ into a ‘happily ever after.’
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8 to 12
A Clock of Stars: The Shadow Moth by Francesca Gibbons
Imogen should be nice to her little sister Marie. She should be nice to her mum’s boyfriend too. And she certainly shouldn’t follow a strange silver moth through a door in a tree. But then who does what they’re told? Followed by Marie, Imogen finds herself falling into a magical kingdom where the 2 sisters are swept up in a thrilling race against time—helped by the spoiled prince of the kingdom, a dancing bear, a very grumpy hunter—even the stars above them. ($23, PB)
The Tower of Nero by Rick Riordan ($23, PB)
In the fifth & final book in the Trials of Apollo series, the battle for Camp Jupiter is over. New Rome is safe. Tarquin & his army of the undead have been defeated. Apollo has made it out alive, with a little bit of help from the Hunters of Artemis. But though the battle may have been won, the war is far from over. Now Apollo and Meg must get ready for the final—and probably fatal—adventure. They must face the last emperor, the terrifying Nero, and destroy him once and for all. Can Apollo find his godly form again? Will Meg be able to face up to her troubled past? Destiny awaits.
The Wizards of Once: Never & Forever by Cressida Cowell ($20, PB) In the 4th and final book in the Never & Forever series Xar and Wish have found the ingredients for the Spell-to-get-rid-of-Witches. Now the Kingwitch is calling them to the lake of the lost. But first they must mix the potion in the Cup of Second Chances. Can they defeat the hungry Tatzelwurm monster & escape with the cup? And will the spell be strong enough to lift the curse of the Wildwoods, or will Witches reign forever?
november events for Kids
We have lots of bookish mischief lined up for November with a few special visitors to bookclub as well. Saturday, 7th at 3:30pm we have Mick Elliott (who has been our October illustrator-in-residence) will be talking to our year 3/4 book clubbers about writing great stories and drawing cool pictures, and we will be doing a little bit of drawing of our own too. All materials supplied. We also welcome the fabulous Beck Feiner author and designer extraordinaire who will be our artist in residence for November. Beck will be working her creative magic in the window in early November and she will be back to talk to our year 1/2 bookclub on Saturday the 14th of November at 2pm. She will be showing us her latest picture book The Polar Bear In Sydney Harbour and chatting about life as a designer. We will also be doing a little creative project too. This session is free, open to all ages and all materials will be supplied. Spots are limited so don’t forget to book early. We are also super excited to have Beck during November as she is one of the official ambassadors for Australia Reads month and has done an awesome job on all the fabulous artwork for it too.
bookclub calendar Saturday 7.11 Years 3/4, 3.30 Saturday 14.11 Years 5/6, 3.30 Saturday 21.11 Years 7/8, 3.30 Saturday 28.11 Years 9/10, 4.30
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You are most welcome to join our book clubs for popcorn and a chat about what we are reading. Each session is free and is categorised by school years. To book a spot in one of our sessions or if you fancy some more information: contact Rachel Robson at rachel@gleebooks.com.au
Rachel’s Faves for 2020
Finding Francois by Gus Gordon ($25, HB)
This picture book is a heartwarming tale about loneliness, saying goodbye and the healing power of friendship. I find something new in Gus’ gorgeous illustrations every time I read it. I have bought this book for both kids and adults and have been known to sit quietly reading it myself with a glass of wine too. Just beautiful!
This is a pacy, middle grade mystery/crime for the tweens who want something meaty, but are too young for the dark & angsty teen stuff. Sue is the master of this genre, always using innovative narrative structures too. This book came out just as we were heading into lockdown & was the book that really captured & distracted the 10-14yr old market. Everyone who bought a copy came back to buy 3 more for their friends. We all loved it! ($18, PB)
Fox & Rabbit Make Believe by Beth Ferry (ill) Gergely Dudás
Fox and Rabbit are the very best of friends. They do everything together. Good things like getting ice cream and not so good things like getting bad haircuts. But when they meet a new friend, Owl, Fox isn’t so sure if there’s enough friendship to go around. 6-8 yrs. ($18, HB)
Could a cat-headed cop replace Dog Man? Dog Man has a new problem to pound, and he’s going to need his entire pack to help him. Can he outsmart this outlaw? Or will he go barking up the wrong tree? 6 to 8 yrs ($18, HB)
Wind Walker The Montague Twins: The Witch’s Hand by Nathan Page
Pete & Alastair Montague are just a couple of mystery-solving twins, living an ordinary life—but their guardian, David Faber has been keeping secrets about their parents & what the boys are truly capable of. Three girls go missing after casting a mysterious spell, which sets in motion a chain of events that takes their small town down an unexpected path. ($30, PB)
Kerry and the Knight of the Forest by Andi Watson
After a spirit leads Kerry astray, he finds himself in an enchanted forest filled with mysterious creatures & dark dead ends. The further Kerry travels, the more hopeless his quest seems—and he really needs to get home; his parents are sick. When a spirit in the forest lets him know of a shortcut, Kerry finds himself on a quest filled with magic, self-discovery & new friends who may or may not help him on his journey. Will he make it through the forest and get home in time to save his parents? 8 to 12 ($22, PB)
teen fiction
toys
No electricity or batteries help power this beautiful creature & you can spend time exploring the design while you build it ($29.95)
Birds of Australia Puzzle Animals of Australia Puzzle
252 (57cm x 81cm) piece puzzles with a collection of birds or animals from every corner of Australia. Art by Tania McCartney ($25 each)
Moon Puzzle; Mars Puzzle
These die-cut, photographic 100-piece puzzles (spanning 2.5 feet/76 centimetres in diameter) will delight both NASA fans space crazy kids. ($40 each)
MiMicro ($29.95)
This is pocket sized magnifier is perfect for the budding biologist or coleopterist. Explore the world invisible to the naked eye. Examine skin & hair, see how images and text are printed. With 60x magnification & built in light. Takes 3 x LR43 batteries.
Future Girl by Asphyxia
Piper’s mum wants her to be ‘normal’, to pass as hearing and get a good job. But when peak oil hits and Melbourne lurches towards environmental catastrophe, Piper has more important things to worry about, such as how to get food. When she meets Marley, a CODA (child of Deaf adult), a door opens into a new world—where Deafness is something to celebrate rather than hide, and where resilience is created through growing your own food rather than it being delivered on a truck. As she dives into learning Auslan, Piper finds herself falling hard for Marley. But Marley, who has grown up in the Deaf community yet is not Deaf, is struggling to find his place in the hearing world. Written as the art journal of 16-year-old Piper, this is a visual extravaganza of text, paint, collage and drawings, woven into a deeply engaging coming-of-age story set in nearfuture Melbourne. ($25, PB)
So much great Aussie YA in 2020 but the stand out for me is fellow bookseller Kate O’Donnell’s This One Is Ours. Set in France, it follows the exciting adventure of 16 yr old Sophie on exchange to Paris. It is full of art, culture, angst about the world and identity. You can’t help but crave croissants whilst reading this beautifully crafted tale too. As a fellow bookseller, it seems she has completely listened to what it is kids want in their stories and she has totally nailed it. I completely loved it and can’t wait to read it again. ($20, PB)
The Book of Chance by Sue Whiting
graphic fiction
Dog Man #9: Grime and Punishment by Dav Pilkey
This One Is Ours by Kate O’Donnell
The Memory of Babel by Christelle Dabos
In The Mirror Visitor, Book 3, it has been almost three years since Thorn disappeared. Encouraged by revelations from Farouk’s Book, our feisty heroine Orphelia decides to act—and continue to challenge authority in her quest for truth & freedom. Under a false identity, she travels to the ark of Babel, a joyful, modern & cosmopolitan territory. Hidden in the heart of Babel is an elusive secret, which is at once the key to the past & to an uncertain future. Will Ophelia’s talents as a reader be enough to avoid the traps of her increasingly formidable enemies? Does she have even the slightest chance of finding Thorn again? ($23, PB)
Breathless by Jennifer Niven ($18, PB)
For her last summer before college, Claudine Henry and her mother head to a remote island off the Georgia coast. There, amidst the wild beauty of the place, she meets the free spirited Jeremiah Crew. Their chemistry is immediate and irresistible, and even though they both know that whatever they have can only last the summer, maybe one summer is enough
Seven Endless Forests by April Tucholke ($17, PB)
In a world devastated by plague, Torvi and her sister Morgunn can only rely on each other. So when Morgunn is captured by a pack of terrifying wolfpriests, Torvi knows she’ll do whatever it takes to get her back—or die trying. Torvi will face dark magic & danger on her quest to save her sister. She’ll encounter sea witches, magical night markets & a mythical sword with untold powers. And she might discover a life of adventure & wild freedom that’s more glorious than she ever dreamed of. Rich, thrilling fantasy inspired by Arthurian legend, from the author of the acclaimed The Boneless Mercies.
11
Food, Health & Garden
A Woman’s Heart: Why female heart health really matters by Angela Maas ($23, PB)
Coronary heart disease remains the single biggest killer of women worldwide, yet it is still not seen as a woman’s problem. Every day the female heart patient is measured by male standards, which leads to confusion, unclear diagnosis & often the wrong treatment. When it comes to medical science, cardiology is the most prominent example in which gender matters. Professor Maas explores how the female heart works & provides practical advice for women, including: the biology of the female heart—how it works & ages differently to a male’s; the effects of female-specific issues, such as menopause; heart attacks in women; and lifestyle tips to prevent heart disease.
The Food Mood Connection by Uma Naidoo
When it comes to diet, most people’s concerns involve weight loss, fitness, cardiac health & longevity. But what we eat also affects our brains. Did you know that blueberries can help you cope with the after-effects of trauma? That salami can cause depression, or that boosting Vitamin D intake can help treat anxiety? Recent studies have shown that diet can have a profound impact on mental health conditions ranging from ADHD to depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, OCD, dementia & beyond. Dr Uma Naidoo draws on cutting-edge research to explain the many ways in which food contributes to our mental health, and shows how a sound diet can help treat & prevent a wide range of psychological & cognitive health issues. ($33, PB)
Bush Remedies by Cheryll Williams ($39.95, PB)
This is an introduction to the huge variety of native plants in Australia with medicinal properties. The Aboriginal people exploited this diversity & harvested the bounty of the land with ingenuity. The colonists found the strange flora almost incomprehensible. A long process of experimentation began. The astringent, antibacterial qualities of Eucalypt kino & the wattle trees were accepted. The fragrant oils of Eucalypts, Tea-trees, Native Myrtles & Mintbushes were utilised. The records of early pioneers, the European medical men & Aboriginal experience have given us valuable bush remedies.
American Gardens by Monty Don & Derry Moore ($90, HB)
Monty Don & photographer Derry Moore look at a huge variety of gardens & outdoor spaces at the centre of American history from the White House Kitchen Garden & the garden at the British Embassy in DC, to the slave garden at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate & Middleton Place in South Carolina. On the West coast, he visits verdant oases designed by Richard Neutra, Charles Eames & Frank Lloyd Wright. Don delves into contemporary interpretations of outdoor space, looking at how urban gardens such as New York City’s High Line feed our souls, and how some can even feed our bodies—such as the Edible Schoolyard in San Francisco and guerrilla gardeners’ urban farm in inner-city Detroit.
Red Sands by Caroline Eden ($50, HB)
Caroline Eden uses food as the jumping-off point to explore Central Asia—navigating a course from the shores of the Caspian Sea to the sun-ripened orchards of the Fergana Valley. A book filled with human stories, forgotten histories and tales of adventure, lit up by emblematic recipes, Caroline uses food as her passport to enter lives, cities and landscapes rarely written about—delving into ‘the last blank on the map’ & riffing on the themes of hope, hunger, longing, love and the joys of eating well on the road.
Vegan Christmas by Audrey Fitzjohn ($30, HB)
Start your guests with a round of blinis & faux caviar. Then, when they’re getting snacky, bring out the arancini & dairy-free aioli. When you’re laying out the big dinner spread, you can offer your vegan guests tempeh & mashed sweet potatoes, stuffed pumpkin & many more devilishly starchy options. Then, for dessert, roll out the chocolate truffles, a black forest cake, fruit pies & more! Plus, who even needs meat or animal products when you’re surrounded by your friends and family?
Barbecue This! by Luke Hines ($40, PB)
Luke Hines shares his absolute favourite BBQ recipes, with more than 80 quick, vibrant & flavour-packed dishes for weeknights, entertaining or any time—simple skewers, an abundance of plants, moreish burgers, flavour-packed salads & hearty roasts, as well as zingy marinades & rubs to mix and match with your favourite proteins & veggies. Try Cajun Corn on the Cob, Teriyaki Salmon Skewers, Indian-spiced Prawns, Charred Chicken Burgers with Luke’s Hot Sauce, Texan Wings, Spicy Pork Sausages with Garlic Aioli, Lemony Lamb Cutlets, Chilli Lime Beef Tacos, Magnificent Mango & Macadamia Salad
The Vegucated Family Table ($38, PB) by Marisa Miller Wolfson & Laura Delhauer
The Vegucated Family Table focuses on raising vegans ‘from scratch’, from five months through elementary school. A Q&A section focuses on nutrition, with advice by pediatric nutritionist Reed Mangels. With more than 50 rigorously tested recipes for classics like Baby Mac-o-Lantern and Cheeze, Chickpea Sweet Potato Croquettes, PBJ Smoothie Bowl, Tempeh Tacos, Rustic Chocolate Cake, and more, this book will become your go-to reference for raising vegan kids.
Behind Bars: High Class Cocktails Inspired by Low Life Gangsters by Vincent Pollard ($27, HB)
There’s Tommy Shelby, who likes his Irish whiskey strong & stiff with just a splash of sweet vermouth & bitters. Billie Frechette mixes gin with honey & lemon, making the drink almost as sweet as her love for John Dillinger. There’s also Mia Wallace, who gets a boozy take on a classic milkshake. It’s been a century since the prohibition sent Americans scurrying to speakeasies and decades since the movie industry turned mobsters into celebrities. Now the two worlds collide in this highly original collection that creates signature cocktails for gangsters of every stripe.
Thrifty Household by Country Women’s Association of Victoria Inc. ($25, PB)
Sourdough Mania by Anita Sumer ($55, HB)
Native by Kate Herd & Ivankovic-Waters
On the Menu by Nicholas Lander ($33, PB)
Red wine on the carpet? Coffee stain on your white t-shirt? Candlewax on the tablecloth? Tissue in the laundry? Summer flies in your kitchen, mozzies at your outdoor dining table or moths in your wardrobe? Over 1000 hints & tips for the kitchen, bathroom, laundry, car, Christmas, clothing, craft, creepy crawlies, DIY, gardening, floors, food, cleaning EVERYTHING, hair care, health & beauty remedies, ironing, home decorating, jewellery, knitting, pets, sewing, shoes, silver, storage & stain-removing. Native give the Australian native a complete makeover. It surveys the ways native trees, shrubs, flowers & foliage can be put to surprising & beautiful uses by some of the most creative people working with plants today. Interviews with celebrated landscape designers, artists and gardeners—including Fiona Brockhoff, Janet Laurence & Tracey Deep—this richly illustrated book is the ideal source when seeking the perfect feature plant for a space of any size. ($35, PB)
Stonefields by the Seasons by Paul Bangay
Paul Bangay’s celebrated Victorian property, Stonefields, has now been under his expert care for 15 years. In this book, Paul takes the reader through the garden at different times of year to highlight the design principles he has applied to various parts of it, and the wide-ranging inspirations for his choices. Along the way, he gives practical advice on seasonal planting and outlines essential quarterly tasks. More than just an intimate tour, the book invites you to contemplate the essence of gardening & the intense rewards to be gained 12 from its practice. ($60, HB)
Anita Sumer is a passionate, self-taught, 100% sourdough baker and teacher, based in Slovenia. Her book features both simple-to-make recipes & more ambitious recipes for festive occasions—rye bread, simple white bread, corn bread, buckwheat bread, fruit bread, donuts, brioches & much more. Sourdough Mania contains chapters on types of grain, making a sourdough leven, the baking process, ingredients & useful tools. Every stage is fully illustrated with step-by-step photography on weighing, mixing, kneading, shaping, scoring & baking, to take you on a journey to the healthy world of sourdough baking made easy.
Nicholas Lander presents a collection of menus, from those at the cutting edge of contemporary culinary innovation, like Copenhagen’s Noma, to those that are relics from another time: a 1970s menu from L’Escargot on which all main courses cost less than one pound; the last menu from The French House Dining Room before Fergus Henderson departed for St John; a Christmas feast of zoo animals served during the Siege of Paris in 1870. Throughout, Lander examines the principles of menu design and layout; the different rules that govern separate menus for breakfast, afternoon tea and dessert; the evolution of wine & cocktail lists; and how menus can act as records of the past.
Florentine by Emiko Davies ($40, HB)
From her torta di mele—a reassuringly nonna-esque apple cake—to ravioli pera e ricotta—mouthwateringly buttery pear & ricotta ravioloni—Emiko Davies shares an enchanting culinary tour of Florence. Visit pastry shops, hole-in-the-wall wine bars, busy food vans & lunchtime trattorias, and learn how and why the people of Florence remain so proudly attached to their unchanging cuisine.
Psychology & Personal Development How You Feel: The Story of the Mind as Told by the Body by James Tresilian ($33, PB)
What if it’s not just the mind, but also the body itself that feels? And not merely physical sensations, but other feelings that seem to have nothing to do with bodies. Things like ‘emotions’ & ‘intuitions’—joy or rage, anxiety or optimism, or the feeling of being hard done by or misunderstood? Drawing on the latest research & a range of classic & contemporary thought, James Tresilian shows you that your brain & your body are 2 parts of a single system that creates your mind & mental life. You will discover that you don’t have feelings, thoughts & emotions inside your body, you have them with your body. There can be no mind without the body. Psychology is no longer about the brain, or about ‘mind & body’, it is about the whole that is you.
BOOKS
IN
FOCUS
The beguiling new novel from the bestselling author of The Binding
The icon and legend at last tells his story his way -without the boring bits
A hilarious and heart-filled graphic novel series about identity, imagination and discovering who you are.
Our Wild Calling by Richard Louv ($25, PB)
Richard Louv interviews researchers, theologians, wildlife experts, indigenous healers & psychologist to show how people are connecting with animals in ancient & new ways, and how this serves as an antidote to the growing epidemic of human loneliness; how dogs can teach children ethical behavior; how animal-assisted therapy may yet transform the mental health field; and what role the human-animal relationship plays in our spiritual health. He reports on wildlife relocation & on how the growing populations of wild species in urban areas are blurring the lines between domestic & wild animals, and makes the case for protecting, promoting & creating a sustainable & shared habitat for all creatures.
Heal your Relationship with Food ($28, PB) by J. Rosewall, Amy Chisholm & Maureen Moerbeck
Perhaps you’ve been trying to diet for years, or only feel in control if you’re on a diet. Perhaps you binge or comfort eat when you’re feeling low. With clear steps, and practical advice, this book will help you sustain positive changes to overcome your issues around food, and repair unhealthy eating habits and mindsets. Whether it be strict dieting, out of control eating, a fixation with your body, or managing emotions with food, this book gives you the tools you need to heal your relationship with food. This book brings together the authors’ expertise in evidence-based treatment, arming you with clinically proven strategies to address issues with food, eating, emotions & your body.
The Rag and Bone Shop: How We Make Memories and Memories Make Us by Veronica O’Keane
A twinge of sadness, a rush of love, a knot of loss, a whiff of regret. Memories have the power to move us, often when we least expect it, a sign of the complex neural process that continues in the background of our everyday lives. A process that shapes us—filtering the world around us, informing our behaviour & feeding our imagination. How do our brains store—and then conjure up—past experiences? As a practising psychiatrist, Veronica O’Keane has spent many years observing what happens when this process is disrupted by mental illness & the experiences of her patients have provided startling insights into how memory determines how we function in the world. Drawing on her cases, from literature & fairy tales, O’Keane uses the latest neuroscientific research to illuminate the role of psychiatry today & the extraordinary puzzle that is our human brain. ($40, HB)
When the World Feels Like a Scary Place by Abigail Gewirtz ($30, PB)
To say we live in an age of anxiety is an understatement. The myriad problems in the world are almost impossible to tune out. The problem is, most children can’t put these issues in perspective, and parents (who are often anxious themselves) can have a hard time talking to their kids without making it worse. Child psychologist Dr Abi Gewirtz offers clear & practical advice for having the kind of tough conversation with your kids that really helps. Through conversation scripts, talking points, prompts & insightful asides, Gewirtz offers an indispensable guide to talking to kids about the big things that worry them—making calmer parents & resilient children.
In Defence of Shame by Tanveer Ahmed ($24.95, PB)
Psychiatrist Dr Tanveer Ahmed looks at the history and contemporary rise of shame and its overlap with group identity and mental health. Dr Ahmed argues that the stigmatisation of shame is part of a wider ‘tyranny of the positive’. This stigmatisation of negative emotions limits human flourishing and contributes to the growth in disorders such as anxiety and self-harm, aspects of which are often grounded in unnamed and tamed shame. ‘A thoughtful and beautifully-researched exploration of shame, and the modern permutations of this ancient and uniquely human emotion. Fascinating. Ahmed brings clinical expertise and a journalist’s curiosity to this eminently readable exploration of shame, and its surprising contemporary uses. —Annabel Crabb.
New this month Practicing Mindfulness: Finding Calm and Focus in Your Everyday Life by Jerry Braza ($20, PB)
Recovering Boarding School Trauma Narratives by Christine Jack ($63, PB)
Christine Jack takes the reader on a journey into her childhood in Australian boarding school convents in the 1950s & 1960s. Comparing her experience with Christopher Robin Milne’s, she interrogates his memoirs, illustrating that boarding school trauma knows no boundaries of time & place. She investigates their emerging individuality before being sent to live an institutional life & traces their feelings of longing & loneliness as well as the impact of the abuse each endured there. As an educational historian, Jack writes from the perspective of an insider & outsider, revealing how trauma remains in the unconscious, wielding power over the life of the adult, until the traumatic memories are recovered, emotions released & associated dysfunctional behaviour changed, restoring well-being. Engaging the lenses of history, life-span & Jungian psychology, feminist & trauma theory & boarding school trauma research, he book positions narrative writing as a way of reducing the power of trauma over the lives of survivors.
Mental Health in the Times of the Pandemic by Paul Valent ($14.95, PB)
‘The pandemic threw our world up in the air. We deal with the immediacy of survival. We try to orientate ourselves, but our minds are in a fog. We are captured by many feelings and sensations ...’ The purpose of this book is to help us make sense of the very wide mental health effects of this pandemic, and thereby to relieve distress & fashion a better future.
My Sh*t Therapist & Other Mental Health Stories by Michelle Thomas ($20, PB)
When Michelle Thomas suffered her first major depressive episode six years ago, she read and watched and listened to everything about mental health she could get her hands on in an effort to fix herself. God, it was tedious. And, quite frankly, depressing. Which is the last thing she needed. What she did need was a therapist who would listen and offer a wellness strategy catered to her specific needs. What she got was advice to watch a few YouTube videos and a cheerful reminder that ‘it could be worse’. This is an honest, hilarious and heart-rending account of living with mental illness, Thomas’s book will help you navigate the world, care for your mind & get through sh*t diagnoses, jobs, medications, boyfriends, habits, homes & therapists. You’ll find no scented candles or matcha tea ‘cures’ for mental illness here. Instead, learn how a modern woman and her friends and followers navigate life with their brilliant but unpredictably sh*t brains.
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A MAGICAL SAGA OF LOVE, FAMILY AND SECOND CHANCES
graphic - fiction & Non
Mysteries Of The Quantum Universe by Thibault Damour & Mathieu Burniat ($25, PB)
Famous explorer Bob & his dog Rick have been around the world & even to the Moon, but their travels through the quantum universe show them the greatest wonders they’ve ever seen. As they follow their tour guide, the giddy letter h (also known as the Planck constant), Bob & Rick discover that the universe is bouncy, have crèpes with Max Planck, talk to Einstein about atoms, visit Louis de Broglie in his castle, and hang out with Heisenberg on Heligoland. On the way, we find out that a dog—much like a cat—can be both dead & alive, the gaze of a mouse can change the universe, and a comic book can actually make quantum physics fun, easy to understand & downright enchanting.
Welcome to the New World by Jake Halpern
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. On the eve of the US elections, a Syrian family leave their world behind for a chance at the American dream. But as the first day of their new life dawns, they are greeted by the news of Donald Trump’s victory. It’s as if they arrived in one country, and woke up in another. What does that mean for their past, their future... their home? This books began as a ground-breaking comic strip in the New York Times. Every week, the Aldabaan family’s experiences were retold as a cartoon strip keeping step as events unfolded in real life. Jake Halpern’s graphic novel fills in the gaps, gradually revealing an America which is full of contradictions, and it’s also an intimate portrait of family dynamics & everyday fortitude, from the first day at a new school to getting a new job (any job!) against the clock. ($33, PB)
Paying the Land by Joe Sacco ($40, HB) ‘One of the best Australian novels I’ve read in years’ EMILY BITTO
Palimpsest: Documents From a Korean Adoption by Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom
Thousands of South Korean children were adopted around the world in the 1970s & 1980s. More than 9000 found their new home in Sweden, including the cartoonist Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom. Throughout her childhood she struggled to fit into the homogenous Swedish culture and was continually told to suppress the innate desire to know her origins, and like many adoptees, Sjöblom learned to bury the feeling of abandonment. These unaddressed feelings about her adoption come to a head when she was pregnant with her first child, and discovered a document containing the names of her biological parents. As she digs deeper into her own backstory, returning to Korea and the orphanage, she finds that the truth is much more complicated than the story she was told and struggled to believe. The sacred image of adoption as a humanitarian act that gives parents to orphans begins to unravel. ($40, PB)
Uncertain Manifesto: Volume I by Frédéric Pajak ($40, PB)
The writer and artist Frâedâeric Pajak was ten when he began to ‘dream of a work that would mingle words and images...bits of adventure, collected memories, sentences, phantoms, forgotten heroes, trees, the stormy sea,’ The utterly original book that he produced is a memoir born of reading and a meditation on the lives and ideas, the motivations, feelings, and fates of some of Pajak’s heroes: Samuel Beckett and the artist Bram van Velde, and, especially, Walter Benjamin, whose travels to Moscow, Naples, and Ibiza, whose experiences with hashish, whose faltering marriage and love affairs and critique of modern experience Pajak re-creates and reflects on in word and image. Pajak’s moody black-andwhite drawings accompany the text throughout, though their bearing on it is often indirect and all the more absorbing for that.
If We All Spat at Once They’d Drown Drawings about Class ($15, PB)
A collection of comics, cartoons, and illustrations, focussing on the topic of class. Edited by Sam Wallman, toonist author of Australian history comic anthology, Fluid Prejudice.
14
The Dene have lived in the vast Mackenzie River Valley since time immemorial, by their account. To the Dene, the land owns them, not the other way around—it is central to their livelihood & their very way of being. But the subarctic Canadian Northwest Territories are also home to valuable natural resources, including oil, gas & diamonds. With mining came jobs & investment—but also road-building, pipelines & toxic waste, which scarred the landscape; and alcohol, drugs & debt, which deformed a way of life. Graphic journalist extraordinaire, Joe Sacco, travels the frozen North to reveal a people in conflict over the costs and benefits of development.
Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf
On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard gunned down unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University. In a deadly barrage of 67 shots, 4 students were killed & 9 shot & wounded. It was the day America turned guns on its own children—a shocking event burned into the national memory. A few days prior, 10-year-old Derf Backderf saw those same Guardsmen patrolling his nearby hometown, sent in by the governor to crush a trucker strike. Using the journalism skills he employed on My Friend Dahmer and Trashed, Backderf has conducted extensive interviews & research to explore the lives of these 4 young people & the events of those 4 days in May, when the country seemed on the brink of tearing apart. ($35, HB)
The Complete Works of Fante Bukowski by Noah Van Sciver ($65.95, HB)
Living in a beat-up motel and consorting with the downtrodden as well as the mid-level literati, Fante Bukowski must overcome great obstacles—a love interest turned rival, ghostwriting a teen celebrity’s memoirs, no actual talent—to gain the respect & adoration from critics and, more importantly, his father. Noah Van Sciver has created a scathing, hilarious, and empathetic character study of a self-styled author determined that he’s just one more poem (or drink) away from success. All now bound together in a beautiful play on the American Library style.
Apsara Engine by Bishakh Som ($35, PB)
The 8 delightfully eerie graphic short stories in Apsara Engine are a subtle intervention into everyday reality: a woman drowns herself in a past affair, a tourist chases another guest into an unforeseen past, and a non-binary academic researches postcolonial cartography. Imagining diverse futures & rewriting old mythologies, Bishakh Som’s debut work of fiction delves into strange architectures, fetishism & heartbreak. Painted in rich sepia-toned watercolours, Som captures the weight of 21st century life as we hurl ourselves forward into the unknown.
The Best American Comics 2019 (ed) Jillian Tamaki ($45, HB)
This volume features an eclectic mix of stories & excerpts drawn from sources ranging from self-published zines to internationally renowned graphic novels—Lale Westvind pays tribute to hardworking women in a wildly kinetic, wordless story. E.A. Bethea’s (All Killer No Filler) illustrated stream of consciousness essay Bit Rot is a jagged exploration of legacy and authenticity in a digital world. Joe Sacco meditates on global warming during a road trip to Alberta in Bitumen or Bust! And John Porcellino’s King-Cat #78 finds the cartoonist seeking comfort in pets, plant life, and Zen. An eerie selection from Nick Drnaso’s Man Booker Prize long-listed Sabrina proves a highlight, as does Ben Passmore’s Martin Luther King Jr. Was More Radical Than You Think and Hurt or Fuck, an examination of artistic inspiration by Eleanor Davis.
Performing Arts How to Play the Piano by James Rhodes ($20, HB)
For James Rhodes, after the inevitable ‘How many hours a day do you practice?’ & ‘Show me your hands’, the most common thing people say to him when they hear he’s a pianist is ‘I used to play the piano as a kid. I really regret giving it up’. For Rhodes, mourned & misplaced creativity is still there to be tapped at any point. In this book he breaks up Bach’s seminal Prelude No. 1 from the Well-Tempered Clavier into manageable segments, teaching the basics of piano playing—how to read music, the difference between the treble & the bass clef, sharp & flat notes, how to practice etc—and encouraging personal interpretation in a way that is guaranteed to soothe the mind, feed the soul & unleash creative powers we didn’t know we still had.
Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces by Laura Tunbridge ($40, HB)
Ludwig van Beethoven’s life remains shrouded in myths, and the image persists of him as an eccentric genius shaking his fist at heaven. In this biography Laura Tunbridge cuts through the noise in a refreshing way. Each chapter focuses on a period of Beethoven’s life, a piece of music and a revealing theme, from family to friends, from heroism to liberty. It’s a fascinating combination of rich biographical detail, insight into the music and some surprising new angles, all of which can transform how you listen to his works. For example, Beethoven’s oddly modern talent for self-promotion, how he was influenced by factors from European wars to instrument building, and how he was heard by contemporaries.
I’ll Be Gone: Mike Rudd, Spectrum and how one song captured a generation by Craig Horne
Craig Horne traces Mike Rudd’s musical origins from Chants R&B, a quirky counter-cultural band from Christchurch, to Australian & 2 Ross Wilson led outfits, Party Machine & Sons of the Vegetal Mother, and then, Spectrum. This was an era when Dylan wrote symbolist lyrics such as those of Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, & Pink Floyd’s 1970 Atom Earth Mother LP presented side 1 as a suite, almost a symphony. In Australia hundreds of thousands of young people all over the country were marching in protest of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War, and challenging society’s social & sexual inequalities, rampant materialism & environmental destruction. It was in this tumultuous context that Rudd wrote his seminal song I’ll Be Gone— a song that encouraged a generation of young people to embrace a spirit of hope over violence, naturalism over avarice & freedom over servitude. ($33, PB)
John Lennon: The Complete Songs ($50, HB)
In John Lennon’s life after the Beatles he moved from stardom in the world’s biggest pop group to global peace campaigner & figurehead for radical causes. He left England for a new life in the USA with Yoko Ono, and later abandoned public life & retired to his New York apartment to raise their son & live the life of a recluse. In 1980 he re-emerged with a new album, but the plan to resume his career was cruelly curtailed on a fateful night outside the Dakota Building when he was murdered. This updated edition includes lyrics and is released on the 40th anniversary of his death and the 80th anniversary of his birth.
Events r Calenda
events
Well here we are, at the end of the longest year ever. I’m sure I’m not the only one in the magazine who will be reflecting on the weirdness of pandemic life while working in a bookshop, so I wanted to make sure I was taking this time to thank each and every one of you who has stuck it out with us this year. Thank you for bearing with us as we rejigged our events platform so that it could be online, as we shifted to a new website, and then negotiated the various traps and pitfalls that came along with both of those things. Zoom has not been without its challenges, so I sincerely appreciate everyone who has jumped that hurdle in order to be part of our virtual audience. If you’ve missed any of our talks don’t forget we’ve uploaded most of them to our Youtube channel. (Google: Gleebooks Author Talks to find it.) Next year we’ll be working on finessing our online presentation, and we’ll keep you informed about live events as restrictions wax and wane depending on community transmission.
In the meantime, I want to wish you all a lovely holiday season, and hope that you’re able to spend some quality time recuperating from all the craziness with your families. Thank you for making this year more normal, I’m looking forward to seeing you all in the new year, where hopefully things will simmer down somewhat! James Ross
S S
to watch out for
November 5, 6.30 Robert Dessaix with Susan Wyndham The Time of Our Lives November 10, 6.30 Alana Lentin with Angela Saini & Gavan Titley —Why Race Still Matters November 17, 6.30 Cathy McGowan with Van Badham & Kerryn Phelps— Cathy Goes to Canberra: Doing Politics Differently November 20, 6.30 Barry Jones with the Hon. Michael Kirby — What Is to Be Done November 24, 6.30 Geoff Raby with Richard McGregor —China’s Grand Strategy and Australia’s Future in the New Global Order November 25, 6.30 Paul Kelly & Troy Bramston —The Truth of the Palace Letters
New 33 1/3 - $20 each Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ Murder Ballads by Santi Elijah Holley Elvis Presley’s From Elvis in Memphis by Eric Wolfson 24-Carat Black’s Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth by Zach Schonfeld Sweet Dreams by Dylan Joness ($40, HB)
Deylan Jones charts the rise of the New Romantics, a scene that grew out of the remnants of post-punk and developed quickly alongside club culture, ska, electronica & goth. Not only did it visually define the decade, it was the catalyst for the Second British Invasion, when the US charts would be colonised by British pop music—Depeche Mode, Culture Club, Wham!, Soft Cell, Ultravox, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, the Eurythmics, Sade— making it one of the most powerful cultural exports since the Beatles.
December 2, 6.30 Bruce Pascoe & Vicky Shukuroglou —Loving Country December 3, 6.30—IN THE SHOP!! Panel: Peter Cronau, Dr Lissa Johnson, John Keane, Antony Loewenstein —A Secret Australia December 4, 6.30 Sarah Luke—Like a Wicked Noah’s Ark December 6, 3.30 Laura Tingle— Quarterly Essay 80: On Australia and New Zealand
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Granny’s Good Reads
with Sonia Lee
I never thought that my favourite book for 2020 would be a book about eels, but it is—The Gospel of the Eels by Patrik Svensson, translated from the Swedish by Agnes Broomé. In my whole life I have never given more than a passing thought to eels, yet I was utterly entranced by this book about the world’s most enigmatic fish—enigmatic because even now we don’t know everything about its life cycle. Johannes Schmidt, a 20th century scientist, spent two decades of his life determining that the European eel, Anguilla anguilla, reproduces in the Sargasso Sea. The larvae, with bodies like willow leaves, float away on the Gulf Stream towards the coasts of Europe. Here they turn into the small glass eels which travel up brooks or rivers and are then transformed into yellow eels. Many years later they become silver eels and set off towards the Sargasso Sea, developing reproductive organs on the way. No one has yet found a mature eel in the Sargasso Sea, only the leaf-like larvae. Aristotle thought eels originated from mud and water. Pliny the Elder thought eels broke off bits of their bodies on rocks, where the pieces turned into new eels. Sigmund Freud began his illustrious career as a dissectionist trying to find eel generative organs—a hopeless quest which Svensson illustrates with a comical sketch of Freud as marine biologist. Interesting as all this is, the most beguiling parts of the book are the chapters describing Svensson’s close bond with his father and their early morning eel-catching episodes, especially the arcane methods they used for trapping eels. As you might expect, eel numbers are dramatically declining, and attempts to produce eels commercially, especially by the Japanese, have had no success. Svensson’s book is not quite a memoir, not quite an ecological treatise, but a mixture of both, with some meditations from the author on themes like resurrection, based on how ‘dead’ eels revive when placed in rivers. The book begins with a quote from Seamus Heaney: ‘Later in the same fields/He stood at night when eels/moved through the grass like hatched fears.’ And Svensson quotes freely from Waterland, Graham Swift’s first novel, with its many references to eels. This book is a masterpiece for which one reading is manifestly not enough. It is always a joy when a new Ancient Rome mystery by Lindsey Davis appears, and The Grove of the Caesars is a bottler! I have long been a Falco fan, and Flavia Albia, a street kid adopted by Falco and wife Helena when they were on a job in Londinium, has now taken Falco’s place as a very smart investigatrix into the crimes that explode into her life. Flavia’s husband tells her when he leaves on family business not go to Caesars’ Grove, so of course she does—and finds some papyrus scrolls which provide the novel’s subplot. The main plot hinges on a birthday party in the Grove where a woman goes missing, while on the same night two dancing-boy slaves wished on Flavia’s family by Emperor Domitian also disappear, leading Flavia to discover that a serial killer has been busy in the Grove for years, right under the eyes of the lazy and corrupt cops of the Seventh Vigiles. Davis is brilliant at immersing the reader in Roman life while making sharp social comments about slavery and women’s place in Roman society. Her wit sparkles and I always get a kick out of reading her Cast of Characters. If you haven’t yet come across Falco or Flavia Albia The Grove of the Caesars would be a good place to start. I liked very much The Trials of Portnoy by Patrick Mullins. When I was young, almost every book that anyone wanted to read seemed to be banned: Ulysses, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, The Catcher in the Rye, even Childbirth Without Pain. When Philip Roth’s novel Portnoy’s Complaint was published, Don Chipp, the Minister for Banning Books, couldn’t wait to banish it from our shores, lest any innocent Aussie be depraved and corrupted by such filth. Then along came Portnoy’s champion, John Michie, the head of Penguin Australia, who printed and sold a hundred thousand copies, telling Mr Chipp (who would later head the Australian Democrats) to take him to court if he must. This Mr Chipp did, telling John Michie that he would see him in gaol. Luminaries like Patrick White and James Macauley appeared in court arguing for the literary qualities of the book. When Patrick White was asked what he knew about English literature, he replied, ‘Well, I have been reading it all my life.’ Penguin Australia were fined $100 plus $4.50 in court costs, so there was no gaol for Michie this time. There were, however, more prosecutions—all great publicity for the novel. A Communist bookshop in Perth made enough money out of Portnoy to renovate its premises. Another champion, Bill (later Sir William) Deane, acted for Penguin at the Sydney trial. I laughed my head off at many incidents in this book and the ‘Raskolnikov moment’ made me fall off my chair. Do read this entertaining book, it will cheer you up no end. If you want a beautiful book to give to a very dear friend, have a look at Ellis Rowan: A Life in Pictures by Christine Morton-Evans. Rowan’s life story (1848–1922) is fascinating: at age 70, for instance, she spent a considerable time in the wilds of New Guinea searching for botanical specimens. Her flower paintings which Morton-Evans uses to illustrate this biography are to die for! Sonia
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Australian Studies
2020: The Year That Changed Us (ed) Molly Glassey ($22, PB)
The year 2020 began with fire-fuelled orange skies over Australia and parts of New Zealand, before nations prepared for COVID-19 to hit their shores. What ensued was crisis: a pandemic, political upheaval, an international human rights movement, global recession and localised emergencies dwarfed by a world spinning on an axis of turmoil. These 50 essays from leading thinkers and contributors to The Conversation (including Michelle Grattan, Peter Martin, Raina MacIntyre, Joëlle Gergis, Peter Greste, Thalia Anthony, Shino Konishi & Fiona Stanley) examine what will be one of the most significant and punishing years in the 21st century.
Breaker Morant by Peter FitzSimons ($50, HB)
Born in England and immigrating to Queensland in 1883, he established a reputation as a rider, polo player and poet who submitted ballads to The Bulletin and counted Banjo Paterson as a friend. Travelling on his wits and the goodwill of others, Morant was quick to act when appeals were made for horsemen to serve in the war in South Africa. But in October 1901 he & 2 other Australians were arrested for the murder of Boer prisoners. Morant & Handcock were court-martialled & executed in February 1902 as the Boer War was in its closing stages, but the debate over their convictions continues to this day. Peter FitzSimons enters into the harsh landscape of southern Africa & the bloody action of war against an unpredictable force using modern commando tactics. Was he a hero, a cad, a scapegoat or a criminal—the truths FitzSimons uncovers about the Breaker will help you decide.
Upturn: A better normal after COVID-19 (ed) Tanya Plibersek ($33, PB)
If you had asked most people a year ago, they would have told you there was no way that school children could shift overnight to online learning; that it was impossible for banks to offer mortgage holidays; impossible to double unemployment benefits; impossible to house rough sleepers or put a hold on evictions; impossible to offer wages subsidies & definitely impossible to get Australians to stay home from the beach & the pub. But we did it. Tanya Plibersek brings together some of the country’s most interesting thinkers who are ready to imagine a better Australia, and to fight for it.
The Long Shadow: Australia’s Vietnam Veterans since the War by Peter Yule ($50, HB)
The medical and psychological legacies of the Vietnam War are major & continuing issues for veterans, their families & the community, yet the facts about the impact of Agent Orange, post-traumatic stress disorder & other long-term health aspects are little understood. Peter Yule sets the record straight about the health of Vietnam veterans & reveals a more detailed & complex picture. Profiling the stories of the veterans themselves, this comprehensive book is a pioneering work of history on the aftermath of war. It takes a broad approach to the medical legacies, exploring the post-war experiences of Vietnam veterans, the evolution and development of the repatriation system in the post-Vietnam decades & the evolving medical understanding of veterans’ health issues..
Biting the Clouds by Fiona Foley ($35, PB)
Visual artist Fiona Foley addresses the inherent silences, errors & injustices from the perspective of her people, the Badtjala of K’gari (Fraser Island), shining a critical light on the littleknown colonial-era practice of paying Indigenous workers in opium & the ‘solution’ of then displacing them to K’gari. Biting the Clouds—a euphemism for being stoned on opium—combines historical, personal & cultural imagery to reclaim the Badtjala story from the colonisation narrative. With full-colour images of Foley’s artwork.
Clever Man: The Life of Paddy Compass Namadbara as told by Big Bill Neidjie et al ($39.95, PB)
Born at the end of the 19th Century when the Western world had scarcely touched Arnhem Land, Paddy Compass Namadbara acted as a healer for his countrymen & became a powerful & revered leader. Using his clever abilities & wisdom to nurture his community, he enabled the community to deal with the cultural & social changes of the encroaching Western world. He achieved the reputation of being one of the most powerful & clever of traditional marrkidjbu described as ‘a proper number one champion!’ Based on stories told by the people he helped, some profoundly & in extraordinary ways. This unique biography looks at his life through the eyes of his Western Arnhem countrymen who witnessed his extraordinary abilities.
New this month: Best Australian Political Cartoons 2020 (ed) Russ Radcliffe ($33, PB) Behind the Lines: The Year’s Best Political Cartoons 2020 ($19.95, PB)
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What the Colonists Never Knew: A History of Aboriginal Sydney by Dennis Foley & Peter Read
At Narrabeen camp in the 1950s we meet Uncle Willie de Serve, a man who wore the scarifications of his ritual life & mentored the young Dennis Foley. Foley also introduces us to Nanna Watson, who lived in a little humpy at Car-rang gel (North Head). ‘On a hot summer’s afternoon, she would hitch her dress up round her knees & wriggle around in the sand to get a couple of ugaries (pipis), chew one up and spit it into the water and put the other one on the line, and before you knew it she’d have a big whiting or a bream.’ This book paints a vivid picture of what it was like to grow up Aboriginal in Sydney, alongside the colonists, from 1788 to the present. Foley, the grandson of Clarice Malinda Lougher, the last practising matriarch of the Gai-mariagal clan, was immersed in cultural knowledge & lore from an early age. Through his eyes we see a Sydney of totemic landscapes resonating with ceremonial sites & ancestral activity, song-lines & walking tracks, habitat caves & middens, and shared memories of what has been lost. ($35, PB)
Released this month, in the Summer Reading Guide The Palace Letters: The Queen, the governor-general, and the plot to dismiss Gough Whitlam by Jenny Hocking ($33, PB) Truth Is Trouble: The strange case of Israel Folau, or How Free Speech Became So Complicated by Malcolm Knox ($33, PB) China’s Grand Strategy and Australia’s Future in the New Global Order by Geoff Raby ($35, PB) Watsonia: A Writing Life by Don Watson special price $39.99, HB
Hazelwood by Tom Doig ($35, PB)
Early in the afternoon of 9 February 2014, during the worst drought and heatwave south-eastern Australia had experienced in over a century, two separate bushfires raged towards the massive Hazelwood open-pit brown-coal mine, near Morwell in the Latrobe Valley. The fires overwhelmed local fire-fighting efforts and sent a skyful of embers sailing onto millions of square metres of exposed, highly flammable brown coal. 12 hours later, the mine was ablaze. The Hazelwood mine fire burned out of control for 45 days. As the air filled with toxic smoke & ash, residents of the Latrobe Valley became ill, afraid—and angry. Up against an unresponsive corporation & an indifferent government, the community banded together, turning tragedy into a political fight. Tom Doig reveals the decades of decisions that led to the fire, and gives an intimate account of the first moments of the blaze and the dark months that followed.
Many Maps: Charting Two Cultures by Bill & Jenny Bunbury ($30, PB)
Maps can be drawn & interpreted in different ways. It is possible to map a path through life, find a way through a forest, traverse a desert or chart a sense of self & guide one’s relationship to the natural world. Australia’s First Nations mapped their world in terms of a spiritual & environmental relationship to country & an animate sense of being. The maps in European heads often explored ways to obtain wealth from the Australian earth. Many Maps looks at the way 2 contrasting societies often misunderstood each other in the western third of Australia—tracing both misunderstandings, and sometimes sensitive understandings of land & culture in a continent that we both inhabit.
Out in December: Quarterly Essay 80: Separated at Birth—Australia & New Zealand by Laura Tingle: What can we learn from our Trans-Tasman neigh-
bours? why, despite being so close, do we know so little about each other? And is there such a thing as national character? ($25, PB)
A Secret Australia: Revealed by the WikiLeaks Exposés (eds) Felicity Ruby & Peter Cronau
However Australians may perceive their nation’s place in the world —as battling sports stars, dependable ally or good international citizen—WikiLeaks has shown us a different story. This is an Australia that officials do not want us to see, where the Australian Defence Force’s ‘information operations’ are deployed to maintain public support for our foreign war contributions, where media-wide super injunctions are issued by the government to keep politicians’ & major corporations’ corruption scandals secret, where the US Embassy prepares profiles of Australian politicians to fine-tune its lobbying & ensure support for the ‘right’ policies. 19 prominent Australians discuss what Australia has learnt about itself from the WikiLeaks revelations. (December) ($29.95, PB)
Politics
AZADI: Freedom. Fascism. Fiction. by Arundhati Roy ($15, PB)
‘Azadi!’—Urdu for ‘freedom’—is the iconic chant of the Kashmiri freedom struggle. And now, while Kashmir’s streets have been silenced, the irony is that this same anthem echoes round the streets of the country that most Kashmiris view as their coloniser. What lies between the silence of one street & the sound of the other? Is it a chasm, or could it become a bridge? In this series of penetrating essays on politics & literature, Arundhati Roy examines this question, reflecting on the meaning of freedom in a world of growing authoritarianism. Azadi, she warns, hangs in the balance for us all.
Good Economics for Hard Times by Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo ($23, PB)
Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo show how traditional western-centric thinking has failed to explain what is happening to people in a newly globalized world—in short Good Economics has been done badly. They cover the most essential issues, including why migration doesn’t follow the law of supply & demand, why trade liberalization can drive unemployment up & wages down & why nobody can really explain why & when growth happens. They seek to reclaim this essential terrain, and offer readers an economist’s view of the most pressing political issues, one that is candid about the obstacles we face but optimistic that we can find better ways to overcome them.
Red Line: The Unravelling of Syria and the Race to Destroy the Most Dangerous Arsenal in the World by Joby Warrick ($35, PB)
In August 2012, when Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was clinging to power the international community warned that the use of chemical weapons would cross ‘a red line’, warranting a military response. A year later Assad bombed the Damascus suburb of Ghouta with sarin gas & global leaders were torn between living up to their word & becoming mired in another unpopular Middle Eastern war. So when Russia offered to store Syria’s chemical weapons, the world leaped at the solution—and the race to find, remove & destroy 1,300 tons of chemical weapons in the middle of Syria’s civil war began. The initial effort is a tactical triumph for the West, but soon Russia’s long game becomes clear—it has UN cover to assist Assad’s regime. Meanwhile, the territory gains of ISIS further destabilise the country, and the terrorist organisation seeks to secure Syria’s chemical arsenals for itself, with horrifying consequences. A true-life thriller with a cast of heroes and villains, including weapons hunters, politicians, commandos, diplomats & spies.
A Cry From The Far Middle by P. J. O’Rourke
This uproarious look at the current state of the US includes essays like The New Puritanism—and Welcome to It, about the upside of being ‘woke’ (and unable to get back to sleep); Sympathy vs. Empathy, which considers whether it’s better to have an idea of how people feel or to bust their skulls to get inside their heads; A Brief Digression on the Additional Hell of the Internet of Things because your juicer is sending fake news to your FitBit about what’s in your refrigerator. Plus a quiz to determine where you stand on the spectrum of ‘Coastals vs. Heartlanders’ and a An Inauguration Speech I’d Like To Hear, and featuring extensive coverage from the 2020 campaign trail, this is P.J. at his acerbic best. ($30, PB)
The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move by Sonia Shah
The news today is full of stories of dislocated people on the move. Wild species, too, are escaping warming seas and desiccated lands, creeping, swimming, and flying in a mass exodus from their past habitats—eliciting the election of anti-immigration leaders who slam closed borders that were historically porous. But far from being a disruptive behaviour to be quelled at any cost, migration is an ancient & lifesaving response to environmental change, a biological imperative as necessary as breathing. Climate changes triggered the first human migrations out of Africa. Falling sea levels allowed our passage across the Bering Sea. Tracking the history of misinformation from the 18th century through today’s anti-immigration policies, Sonia Shah makes the case for a future in which migration is not a source of fear, but of hope. ($30, PB)
The War on the Uyghurs by Sean R. Roberts
Within weeks of the September 11 attacks, the Chinese government announced that it faced a serious terrorist threat from its largely Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority. 2 decades later, of the 11 million Uyghurs living in China today, more than 1 million have been detained in ‘re-education camps’, victims of what has become the largest program of mass incarceration & surveillance in the world. Drawing on extensive interviews with Uyghurs in Xinjiang, as well as refugee communities & exiles, Sean Roberts tells a story that is not just about state policies, but about Uyghur responses to these devastating government programs. ($40, HB)
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History
Gladius: Living, Fighting and Dying in the Roman Army by Guy de la Bedoyere ($35, PB)
The Roman Empire depended on soldiers not just to win its wars, defend its frontiers and control the seas but also to act as the engine of the state. Roman legionaries and auxiliaries came from across the Roman world and beyond. They served as tax collectors, policemen, surveyors, civil engineers and, if they survived, in retirement as civic worthies, craftsmen and politicians. Some even rose to become emperors. Gladius takes the reader right into the heart of what it meant to be a part of the Roman army through the words of Roman historians, and those of the men themselves through their religious dedications, tombstones, and even private letters and graffiti.
Hitler and Stalin: The Tyrants and the Second World War by Laurence Rees ($35, PB)
In the culmination of thirty years’ work Laurence Rees examines the two tyrants during WW2. Despite the fact they were bitter opponents, Rees shows that Hitler & Stalin were, to a large extent, different sides of the same coin. Hitler’s charismatic leadership may contrast with Stalin’s regimented rule by fear; and his intransigence later in the war may contrast with Stalin’s change in behaviour in response to events. But at a macro level, both were prepared to create undreamt of suffering, destroy individual liberty & twist facts in order to build the Utopia they wanted. Rees—one of the last people alive to have met Germans who worked for Hitler & Russians who worked for Stalin—uses previously unpublished eyewitness testimony from soldiers of the Red Army & Wehrmacht, civilians who suffered during the conflict, and those who knew both men personally.
Himalaya: A Human History by Ed Douglas
The Himalaya has throughout the ages been home to an astonishing diversity of indigenous & local cultures, as well as a crossroads for trade, and a meeting point & conflict zone for the world’s superpowers. Here Jesuit missionaries exchanged technologies with Tibetan Lamas, Mongol Khans employed Nepali craftsmen, Armenian merchants exchanged musk & gold with Mughals. Here too the East India Company grappled for dominance with China’s emperors, independent India has been locked in conflict with Mao’s Communists & their successors, and the ideological confrontation of the Cold War is now being buried beneath mass tourism & ecological transformation. Featuring scholars & tyrants, bandits & CIA agents, go-betweens & revolutionaries, Himalaya is a panoramic history on a grand but also most human scale. ($35, PB)
Trial of the Chicago 7: The Official Transcript by Mark L. Levine ($30, PB)
In the fall of 1969 eight prominent anti-Vietnam War activists were put on trial for conspiring to riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. One of the 8, Black Panther cofounder Bobby Seale, was literally bound & gagged in court by order of the judge, Julius Hoffman, and his case was separated from that of the others. The activists, who included Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin & Tom Hayden, and their attorneys, William Kunstler & Leonard Weinglass, insisted that the First Amendment was on trial. The convictions that resulted were subsequently overturned on appeal, but the trial remained a political and cultural touchstone, a mirror of the deep divisions in the country. This book consists of the highlights from trial testimony with a brief epilogue describing what later happened to the principal figures.
War: How Conflict Shaped Us by Margaret MacMillan ($40, HB) (December)
The time since WW2 has been seen by some as the longest uninterrupted period of harmony in human history: the ‘long peace’, as Stephen Pinker called it. But despite this, there has been a military conflict ongoing every year since 1945. The same can be said for every century of recorded history. Is war, therefore, an essential part of being human? Margaret MacMillan explores the deep links between society & war & the questions they raise. Economies, science, technology, medicine, culture: all are instrumental in war & have been shaped by it—without conflict it we might not have had penicillin, female emancipation, radar or rockets. Throughout history, writers, artists, film-makers, playwrights & composers have been inspired by war—whether to condemn, exalt or simply puzzle about it. If we are never to be rid of war, how should we think about it and what does that mean for peace?
Voices From the Past by W.B. Marsh ($50, HB)
366 quotations—one for every day of the (leap) year—each with a fascinating historical story. In a treasure trove for history buffs, W.B. Marsh fleshes out the context behind famous quotations associated with each day of the year, sending us back and forth in history from the time of the Ancient Egyptians to the world we live in today.
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Released this month: Troy: Our Greatest Story Retold by Stephen Fry ($35, PB) special price $29.99
Science & Nature
Beneath the Night by Stuart Clark ($30, PB)
This is a history of humanity, told through humanity’s relationship with the night sky. From prehistoric cave art & Ancient Egyptian zodiacs to the modern era of satellites & space exploration, Stuart Clark explores a fascination shared across the world & throughout millennia. It is one that has shaped our scientific understanding; helped us navigate the terrestrial world; provided inspiration for our poets, artists & philosophers; and it has given us a place to project our hopes and fears. In the stars, we can see our past—and ultimately, our fate.
A Brush with Birds by Richard Weatherly
A skilled falconer & artist, Richard Weatherly has spent more than 50 years observing birds & their natural habitats around the world, from Antarctica to Zimbabwe to New Guinea, Australia & America. In this volume Weatherly accompanies his paintings & sketches with fascinating insights, anecdotes & knowledge gathered throughout his career. ($60, HB)
Animals Make Us Human by Leah Kaminsky and Meg Keneally
Through words and images, writers, photographers & researchers reflect on their connection with animals & nature, sharing moments of wonder & revelation such as seeing a wild platypus at play, an echidna dawdling across a bush track, or the inexplicable leap of a thresher shark; watching bats take flight at dusk, or birds making a home in the backyard; or following possums, gliders and owls into the dark. Contributors include Tony Birch, Geraldine Brooks, Melanie Cheng, Ceridwen Dovey, Ashley Hay, Paul Kelly, Favel Parrett, Bruce Pascoe, Graeme Simsion, Tracy Sorensen, Shaun Tan, Lucy Treloar, Karen Viggers, Emma Viskic, John Woinarski, Clare Wright. ($30, PB)
Exercised: The Science of Physical Activity, Rest and Health by Daniel Lieberman ($40, HB)
In industrialized nations, our sedentary lifestyles have contributed to skyrocketing rates of obesity & diseases like diabetes. A key remedy, we are told, is exercise—voluntary physical activity for the sake of health. However, most of us struggle to stay fit, and our attitudes to exercise are plagued by misconceptions, finger-pointing & anxiety. But, as Daniel Lieberman show, we never evolved to exercise. We are hardwired for moderate exertion throughout each day, not triathlons or treadmills. Drawing on over a decade of high-level scientific research insights from evolutionary biology & anthropology, Lieberman explains how exercise can promote health; debunks persistent myths about sitting, speed, strength & endurance; and points the way towards more enjoyable & physically active living in the modern world.
99th Koala: Rescue and resilience on Kangaroo Island by Kailas Wild ($33, HB)
In last summer’s devastating fires, Kangaroo Island lost half of its koala population, with many more left injured & starving. When Kailas Wild—arborist by trade & conservationist at heart—heard that there were injured koalas on Kangaroo Island who could only be reached by a tree climber, he drove 1500 kms to volunteer. 7 weeks later, he had crowd-funded 65,000 thousand dollars, participated in the rescue of over 100 koalas & had formed a special bond with a baby koala—Joey Kai. Wild shares that experience, in words and pictures, and introduces you to some of the koalas of Kangaroo Island. What Cats Want by Yuki Hattori ($25, HB) Cats may seem low-maintenance but thoughtfulness about where you put their water, how warm or cool they like to be, what name to choose & how to groom them properly will make a life-changing difference. Dr Yuki Hattori is Japan’s leading cat doctor, and to him cats are the most beautiful animals in the world. His advice comes with little illustrations showing exactly what to look for as a cat owner— including charts showing how to interpret their different meows, the direction of their whiskers and the way their tail is pointing!
The Vinyl Frontier: The Story of the Voyager Golden Record by Jonathan Scott ($23, PB)
In 1977 NASA sent Voyager 1 & 2 on a Grand Tour of the outer planets. Knowing that these probes would eventually leave our solar system to drift forever in the void of interstellar space, Carl Sagan was commissioned to create a message to be fixed to the side of Voyager 1 & 2—a handshake to any passing alien that might chance upon them. The resulting Voyager Golden Record, was a genre-hopping multi-media metal LP—a 90-minute playlist of music from across the globe, a sound essay of life on Earth, spoken greetings in multiple languages & more than 100 photographs & diagrams, all painstakingly chosen by Sagan & his team to create an aliens’ guide to Earthlings.
New this month: Seven Pillars of Science: The Incredible Lightness of Ice, and Other Scientific Surprises by John Gribbin ($23, PB)
It starts with science.
Philosophy & Religion
Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life by John Gray ($40, HB)
‘When I play with my cat, how do I know she is not passing time with me rather than I with her?’—Montaigne. There is no real evidence that humans ever ‘domesticated’ cats. Rather it seems that at some point cats saw the potential value to themselves of humans. John Gray’s wonderful new book is an attempt to get to grips with the philosophical & moral issues around the uniquely strange relationship between ourselves & these remarkable animals. Gray draws on his own wide reading to give fascinating examples of the complex & intimate links that have defined how we react to & behave with this most unlikely ‘pet’. At the heart of the book is a sense of gratitude towards cats as perhaps the species that more than any other—in the essential loneliness of our position in the world—gives us a sense of our own animal nature.
The Penguin Book of Exorcisms (ed) Joseph P. Laycock
The belief in invisible, malevolent demons that haunt & possess human beings dates back thousands of years—as far as religion itself. And for just as long, exorcists have performed elaborate rituals to cast out the devil & other evil spirits. This book brings together accounts of demonic banishments through the ages & throughout the world, including newly translated primary sources & testimonies that have until now been hidden away in library vaults. From the exorcism of an Egyptian princess to a previously unpublished account that calls into question the famous Anna Ecklund case to a 19th century account of a Russian man possessed by a ‘werewolf demon’, these texts reveal the messy & ambiguous nature of exorcisms & show how our beliefs have evolved over time. ($30, PB)
The Murder of Professor Schlick: The Rise and Fall of the Vienna Circle by David Edmonds ($45, HB)
Visit the CSIRO Publishing website for more quality science books, journals and magazines
publish.csiro.au In the Summer Reading Guide The Climate Cure: Solving the Climate Emergency in the Era of COVID-19 by Tim Flannery ($25, PB) The Invention of Medicine: From Homer to Hippocrates by Robin Lane Fox ($50, HB) There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness by Carlo Rovelli ($35, HB)
On June 22, 1936, the philosopher Moritz Schlick was on his way to deliver a lecture at the University of Vienna when Johann Nelböck, a deranged former student of Schlick’s, shot him dead on the university steps. Some Austrian newspapers defended the madman, while Nelböck himself argued in court that his onetime teacher had promoted a treacherous Jewish philosophy. David Edmonds traces the rise & fall of the Vienna Circle—an influential group of thinkers led by Schlick—and of a philosophical movement that sought to do away with metaphysics & pseudoscience in a city darkened by fascism, anti-Semitism & unreason. The Circle’s members included Otto Neurath, Rudolf Carnap & the eccentric logician Kurt Gödel. On its fringes were 2 other philosophical titans of the 20th century, Ludwig Wittgenstein & Karl Popper. For a time, it was the most fashionable movement in philosophy. Yet by the outbreak of WW2, Schlick’s group had disbanded & almost all its members had fled. Edmonds reveals why the Austro-fascists & the Nazis saw their philosophy as such a threat. (December)
How to Give: An Ancient Guide to Giving & Receiving by Seneca ($30, HB)
To give & receive well may be the most human thing you can do—but argues the great Roman Stoic thinker, Seneca, it is also the closest you can come to divinity. James Romm’s splendid new translation of essential Great Adaptations by Kenneth Catania selections from On Benefits (De Beneficiis)conveys the heart of Seneca’s Kenneth Catania presents an engaging look at some of argument that generosity & gratitude are among the most important of nature’s most remarkable creatures. Beginning with the all virtues. For Seneca, the impulse to give to others lies at the very founstar-nosed mole, Catania reveals what the creature’s nadation of society; without it, we are helpless creatures, worse than wild sal star is actually for, and what this tells us about how beasts. But generosity did not arise randomly or by chance. Seneca sees it brains work. He explores how the deceptive hunting strategy of tentacled snakes leads prey straight to their mouths, how as part of our desire to emulate the gods, whose creation of the earth & heavens eels use electricity to control other animals, and why emerald jewel stands as the greatest gift of all. (December) wasps make zombies out of cockroaches. He also solves the enigma How to Be Content: An Ancient Poet’s Guide of worm grunting—a traditional technique in which earthworms are for an Age of Excess by Horace ($30, HB) enticed out of the ground-by teaming up with professional worm Living during the reign of Rome’s first emperor, Horace grunters. Catania also demonstrates the merits of approaching science with an open mind, drew on Greek & Roman philosophy, especially Stoicism & considers the role played by citizen scientists, and shows that most animals have incred- Epicureanism, to write poems that reflect on how to live a ible, hidden abilities that defy our imagination. ($30, PB) thoughtful & moderate life amid mindless over-consumption,
What Is Life? by Sir Paul Nurse ($25, PB)
After a lifetime of studying life, Nobel Prize-winner Sir Paul Nurse, one of the world’s leading scientists, has taken on the challenge of defining it. Written with great personality and charm, his accessible guide takes readers on a journey to discover biology’s five great building blocks, demonstrates how biology has changed and is changing the world, and reveals where research is headed next. To survive all the challenges that face the human race today - population growth, pandemics, food shortages, climate change - it is vital that we first understand what life is. Never before has the question ‘What is life?’ been answered with such insight, clarity, and humanity, and never at a time more urgent than now.
Plants of Subtropical Eastern Australia by Andrew Benwell ($50, PB)
This book describes the rich flora of the region that covers the north coast of NSW & SE QLD. The guide presents a selection of common, threatened & ecologically significant plants found in the region’s major vegetation habitats including rainforest, heathland, grassy forest, wetlands & rock outcrops. More than 500 plants are featured, with photographs & descriptive features, biological, cultural & historical characteristics & a map of its distribution.
how to achieve & maintain true love & friendship, and how to face disaster & death with patience & courage. Stephen Harrison provides fresh, contemporary translations of poems from across Horace’s works that continue to offer important lessons about the good life, friendship, love & death. From memorable counsel on the pointlessness of worrying about the future to valuable advice about living in the moment, these poems, by the man who famously advised us to carpe diem or ‘harvest the day,’ continue to provide brilliant meditations on perennial human problems. (December)
The Godless Gospel by Julian Baggini ($30, PB)
An atheist from a Catholic background, Julian Baggini introduces a more radical Jesus than popular culture depicts, challenging our assumptions about Christian values—and about Jesus—by focusing on Jesus’s teachings in the Gospels, stripping away the religious elements such as the accounts of miracles or the resurrection of Christ. Reading closely this new ‘godless’ Gospel, included as an appendix, Baggini asks how we should understand Jesus’s attitude to the renunciation of the self, to politics, or to sexuality, as expressed in Jesus’s often elusive words. (December)
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Cultural Studies & Criticism Griffith Review 70 by Ashley Hay ($28, PB)
Is empathy, like water, in increasingly short supply? Now more than ever we need empathy, and Griffith Review 70 explores and celebrates generosities and kindnesses, those uplifting and memorable experiences that illuminate our lives. Featuring inspiring despatches from the frontlines of generosity—stories that delve into the transformative power of the positive in our everyday world—this edition also presents the winners of the Novella Project VIII, alongside exciting new short fiction and non-fiction, and a collection of new Australian poetry.
This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality by Peter Pomerantsev ($23, PB)
We live in a world of influence operations run amok, a world of dark ads, psy-ops, hacks, bots, soft facts, ISIS, Putin, trolls, Trump. We’ve lost not only our sense of peace and democracy—but our sense of what those words even mean. As Peter Pomerantsev seeks to make sense of the disinformation age, he meets Twitter revolutionaries & pop-up populists, ‘behavioural change’ salesmen, Jihadi fan-boys, Identitarians, truth cops & much more. 40 years after his dissident parents were pursued by the KGB, he finds the Kremlin re-emerging as a great propaganda power. His research takes him back to Russia—but the answers he finds there are surprising. ‘The world’s most powerful people are lying like never before, and no one understands the art of their lies like Peter Pomerantsev.’—Oliver Bullough
The Weirdest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar & Particularly Prosperous by Joseph Henrich ($40, HB)
Unlike most who have ever lived, weird people are highly individualistic, nonconformist, analytical & control-oriented. How did weird populations become so psychologically peculiar? What part did these differences play in the industrial revolution & the expansion of European power? And what do they mean for our collective identity? Joseph Henrich uses leading-edge research in anthropology, psychology, economics & evolutionary biology to explore how changing family structures, marriage practices & religious beliefs in the Middle Ages shaped the Western mind, laying the foundations for the world we know today.
Shakespearean: On Life & Language in Times of Disruption by Robert McCrum ($35, HB)
‘Max has always spoken his mind, and it comes as little surprise that his memoirs are so engaging... Never one to seek the limelight, Max has spent a lifetime making things happen.’ Stuart MacIntyre, Ernest Scott Professor of History at Melbourne University
A Long View From the Left is a memoir by Max Odgen, a longtime Australian Communist Party member, Unionist and, from 1985, ALP member. The memoir traces Max’s 60 years as a union and political activist, as well as the changing social and cultural values of Australian society over this time, and reveals many rich lessons that will be invaluable to our current and future generations of leaders. A Long View From the Left is not only a terrific record of recent cultural and political ideas within the broad left of Australia, but an intriguing and valuable contribution to our social history. ‘Max introduced me to the ideas and potential of radically different forms of work organisation and industrial democracy ... his story gives great insight into an important part of our Australian working class and union history.’ Michele O’Neil, ACTU President www.badapplepress.com.au
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When Robert McCrum began his recovery from a life-changing stroke he discovered that the only words that made sense to him were snatches of Shakespeare. Unable to travel or move as he used to, McCrum found the First Folio became his ‘book of life’, an endless source of inspiration through which he could embark on ‘journeys of the mind’, and see a reflection of our own disrupted times. Shakespearean is a superbly drawn portrait of an extraordinary artist—McCrum ranges widely in time and space, seeking to understand Shakespeare within his historical context while also exploring the secrets of literary inspiration, and examining the nature of creativity itself. Witty and insightful, he makes a passionate and deeply personal case that Shakespeare’s words and ideas are not just enduring in their relevance—they are nothing less than the eternal key to our shared humanity.
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine ($50, HB)
At home & in government, contemporary America finds itself riven by a culture war in which aggression & defensiveness alike are on the rise. Taking the study of whiteness & white supremacy as a guiding light, Claudia Rankine explores a series of real encounters with friends & strangers—each disrupting the false comfort of spaces where our public & private lives intersect, like the airport, the theatre, the dinner party & the voting booth—and urges us to enter into the conversations which could offer the only humane pathways through this moment of division. Arranging essays, images & poems along with the voices & rebuttals of others, it counterpoints Rankine’s own text with facing-page notes & commentary, and closes with a bravura study of women confronting the political & cultural implications of dyeing their hair blonde.
The Bookseller’s Tale by Martin Latham ($35, HB)
Martin Latham, the longest-serving Waterstones manager (‘It’s not a career, it’s a philosophic path’) uncovers the history of our collective book-obsession, and introduces us to the Canterbury bookshop that has been his working home for 3 decades, complete at various points with two rocking horses, a hammock for staff naps & an excavated Roman bath-house floor. Along the way, we encounter itinerant book pedlars, smugglers, obsessive collectors, librarians, miners, Rabelaisian monks & the Rolling Stones. Part cultural history, part literary love letter & part reluctant memoir, this is the tale of one bookseller & many, many books.
Out this month The Happy Reader - Issue 15, $9 Now in B format: The Scandal of the Century and Other Writings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, $23
A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster by Rebecca Solnit
The most startling thing about disasters, according to award-winning author Rebecca Solnit, is not merely that so many people rise to the occasion, but that they do so with joy. That joy reveals an ordinarily unmet yearning for community, purposefulness & meaningful work that disaster often provides. This book is an investigation of the moments of altruism, resourcefulness & generosity that arise amid disaster’s grief & disruption & considers their implications for everyday life. It points to a new vision of what society could become—one that is less authoritarian & fearful, more collaborative & local. ($35, PB)
Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told? Essays by Jenny Diski ($37, HB)
Jenny Diski was a fearless writer, for whom no subject was too difficult, even her own diagnosis with cancer. Her columns in the London Review of Books selected here by her editor and friend Mary-Kay Wilmers, ranged from subjects as various as happiness, social psychology, self-absorption and cats have been described as ‘virtuoso performances’, and ‘small masterpieces’. Original, opinionated & well ahead of her time, this collection allows readers old & new to ‘read Diski for the pleasures of Diski, but also read Diski to learn what we may think, in the future, about how, were we possessed by foresight, we might have better performed our humanity in the now’—New Yorker
In the Land of the Cyclops: Essays by Karl Ove Knausgaard ($40, HB) December
This is Karl Ove Knausgaard’s first collection of essays to be published in English, and these wide-ranging pieces meditate on themes familiar from his groundbreaking fiction. Knausgaard discusses Swedish anger, Madame Bovary, the Northern Lights, Ingmar Bergman, and the work of an array of writers & visual artists, including Knut Hamsun, Michel Houellebecq, Anselm Kiefer & Cindy Sherman. These essays beautifully capture Knausgaard’s ability to mediate between the deeply personal & the universal, demonstrating his trademark self-scrutiny & his deep longing to authentically see, understand & experience the world.
Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom ($45, HB) December
There are books out there, some shelved unwittingly next to ordinary texts, that are bound in human skin. Dozens of these books still sit on the shelves of the world’s most famous libraries and museums. What are their stories? Medical librarian, Megan Rosenbloom, exhumes their origins & brings to life the doctors, murderers, mental patients, beautiful women & indigents whose lives are bound together in this rare, scattered & disquieting collection. She also tells the story of the scientists, curators & librarians—interested in the full complicated histories behind these dark artifacts of 19th-century medicine—who are developing tests to discover these books & sorting through the ethics of custodianship.
Not a Novel: Collected Writings and Reflections by Jenny Erpenbeck ($30, HB) December
This book gathers together the best of Jenny Erpenbeck’s non-fiction. Drawing from her 25 years of thinking & writing, the book plots a journey through the works & subjects that have inspired & influenced her. The pieces range from literary criticism & reflections on Germany’s history, to the autobiographical essays where Erpenbeck forgoes the literary cloak to write from a deeply personal perspective about life & politics, hope & despair, and the role of the writer in grappling with these forces.
The Momentous, Uneventful Day: A requiem for the office by Gideon Haigh ($25, PB) December
For decades, futurologists have prophesied a boundaryless working world, freed from the cramped confines of the office. During the COVID-19 crisis, employees around the globe got a taste of it. At length, they returned to something approaching normality. Or had they glimpsed the normal to come? Gideon Haigh reflects on our ambivalent relationship to office work & office life, how we ended up with the offices we have, how they have reflected our best & worst instincts, and how these might be affected by a world in a time of contagion. Like the factory in the 19th century, the office was the characteristic building form of the 20th, reshaping our cities, redirecting our lives. We all have a stake in how it will change in the 21st.
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho ($35, PB) December
Not forgotten
Gabrielle Carey has just written a book about Elizabeth von Arnim, Only Happiness Here, in Search of Elizabeth von Arnim. Von Arnim was born in Australia, but set sail to England with her family when she was a very small child; we might claim her as an Australian author, but she wasn’t really. She married a German count, with whom she had five children, and then a member of the English aristocracy. Neither of these marriages seem to have roaring successes, but as Gabrielle Carey notes, she seems to have had a talent for being extremely happy. In her lifetime, von Arnim enjoyed a great deal of success, and I have to say, in my lifetime too—Elizabeth von Arnim’s books were extremely popular about 30 years ago, thanks to the inimitable Virago Press. She simply is not a ‘forgotten writer, as Carey and the publisher suggest. But she was a most notable person, she was prolific, and imaginative, vivacious and compelling. It is fascinating to read about her many friendships, mainly with men it must be said, and her quite amazing ability to be very happy, in really difficult circumstances. Gabrielle Carey has really given her subject a lot of oxygen, brought Elizabeth von Arnim to life and created a fully formed picture of this most singular person. Louise
Language & Writing
A Word for Every Day of the Year by Steven Poole ($23, PB)
A weird & wonderful word & its meaning for every day of the year. Who knew that to dringle is to ‘waste time in a lazy lingering manner’? Or that a sudden happy ending could be termed a eucotastrophe? Looking for an alternative word to ‘bullshit’? Then try taradiddle. This is a fascinating collection of 366 words & their definitions, perfect for anyone who loves the richness of the English language, its diversity & wants to expand their vocabulary. Each day offers a rare & remarkable word with its history & definition & occasionally a challenge to include it in our lives..
How to Grow Your Own Poem by Kate Clanchy
Kate Clanchy has been teaching people to write poetry for more than 20 years. Some old, some young; some fluent English speakers, some not—A surprising number went to win prizes & every one finished up with a poem they were proud of, a poem that only they could have written—their own poem. Clanchy believes poetry is like singing or dancing & the best way to learn is to follow someone else. In this book, she shares the poems she has found provoke the richest responses, the exercises that help to shape those responses into new poems, and the advice that most often helps new writers build their own writing practice. Clanchy doesn’t ask you to set out on your own, but to join in. ($35, PB)
Aussie Slang Dictionary by Lolla Stewart
The ever popular & thoroughly entertaining, Aussie Slang Dictionary is back to help you decipher & speak the true local language. Full of dazzling definitions from true-blue Aussies, you’ll never be lost for words with this collection of colourful sayings. From ‘aerial ping-pong’ (AFL) to ‘on the wrong tram’ (to be following the wrong train of thought) and finishing up with some ‘verbal diarrhoea’ (never-ending blather), your mind will be brimming with useful (and not so useful!) sayings for your next run-in with a true Aussie character. This updated edition has 500 new entries. ($18, PB)
Émigrés: French Words That Turned English by Richard Scholar ($30, PB) December
English has borrowed more words from French than from any other modern foreign language. French words & phrases, such as à la mode, ennui, naiveté and caprice, lend English a certain je-ne-sais-quoi that would otherwise elude the language. From the 17th century polymath John Evelyn’s complaint that English lacks ‘words that do so fully express’ the French ennui, to George W. Bush’s purported claim that ‘the French don’t have a word for entrepreneur,’ this unique history of English argues that French words have offered more than the mere seasoning of the occasional mot juste. They have established themselves as ‘creolizing keywords’ that both connect English speakers to—and separate them from—French.
In the Summer Reading Guide:
Emmanuel Acho takes on all the questions, large & small, insensiRooted: An Australian history of bad language tive & taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask—yet which all by Amanda Laugesen ($33, PB) Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same Australians have an international reputation for using bad open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a phenomlanguage—from the defiant curses of the convicts to the huenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and ‘reverse racism’. In his own words, he provides a mour of Kath & Kim, Amanda Laugesen, Chief Editor of the Australian National Dictionary, takes an engrossing journey space of compassion & understanding in a discussion that can lack both. through the tumultuous history of Australia’s bad language.
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The Arts Tiny Hotels by Florian Siebeck ($53, HB)
Tainaron Blue, a stone tower in the Peloponnesian Islands. Ottantotto Frienze in Florence, the Trunk House in Tokyo, edge-of- theworld experiences like Deplar Farm in Iceland & Sheldon Chalet in Alaska; peaceful desert solitude at Amangiri in Utah & Namibia’s Shipwreck Lodge. This volume also features architectural splendours such as the cedar & adobe huts of Punta Caliza in Isla Holbox, Mexico, and Free Spirit Spheres, a group of circular treehouses in a forest on Vancouver Island. A valuable resource for the discriminating traveller, as well as a source book for designers & architects, this collection of one-of-a-kind hotels offers relief to anyone overwhelmed by our busy & currently isolation/quarantine world.
Painting with Demons: The Art of Gerolamo Savoldo by Michael Fried ($80, HB)
The achievements of Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Gerolamo Savoldo were, even during a period of unprecedented artistry, out of the ordinary. Born in Brescia around 1480, he radically reimagined Christian subjects. His surviving oeuvre of roughly 50 paintings—from the intensely poetic Tobias and the Angel to sober self-portraits—represents some of the most profound work of the period. In this beautifully illustrated book & the first in English devoted to Savoldo, Michael Fried brings his skills of looking & thinking to bear on Savoldo’s art, providing a further understanding both of the early modern European imagination & of the achievement of this under appreciated artist.
The Art of Ruskin and the Spirit of Place by John Dixon Hunt ($85, HB)
English art critic John Ruskin was one of the great visionaries of his time, and his influential books & letters on the power of art challenged the foundations of Victorian life. He loved looking. Sometimes it informed the things he wrote, but often it provided access to the many topographical & cultural topics he explored—rocks, plants, birds, Turner, Venice, the Alps. John Dixon Hunt focuses on what Ruskin drew, rather than wrote, offering a new perspective on Ruskin’s visual imagination. Through analysis of more than 150 drawings & sketches, many reproduced here, he shows how Ruskin’s art shaped his writings, his thoughts, and his sense of place.
Gordon Bennett: Selected Writings ($45, HB)
Bringing together nearly 40 of published & unpublished essays, artist’s statements, letters & interviews from across Australian artist, Gordon Bennett’s nearly 30-year career, this volume profiles the importance of the written word within his art & broader intellectual practice. Bennett’s written voice, which shifts between scholarly debate, political argument and personal reflections, reveals that he considered art & life to be just as entangled as words & images. The book also provides glimpses into Bennett’s personal archive via the reproduction of previously unseen notebooks, correspondence, sketches, preparatory compositions, and more.
The Age of Collage Vol. 3 (eds) Dennis Busch & Francesca Gavin ($95, HB)
With its foundations in Surrealism & Dadaism, what was once a convention-defying practice has maintained a voice for generations. Equipped with a craft knife, paintbrush, stylus, or scissors, a collage artist’s toolkit is as varied as their output & this title brings their work back to the paper page. Investigating the varied aesthetic cues & cultural tropes that inspire their interdisciplinary approach, this comprehensive volume details more than 70 artists discovering new ways of elevating the genre.
Transparencies: Small Camera Works 1971– 1979 by Stephen Shore ($125, HB)
On the cross-country journeys that produced Stephen Shore’s new vision of the American landscape, Uncommon Places Shore also brought a 35mm Leica. The images made with it, on colour slide film, are intimate, spontaneous & personal. In these entirely unseen photographs, a parallel iteration of an iconic vision emerges like a piece of music played in a new key. The vocabulary is familiar: highways and homes, phone boxes, fast food & sun-strewn parking lots. But the alternative format unmistakably re-envisions these subjects through distinct experiments with composition, attitude & colour.
Ceramics Masterclass by Louisa Taylor ($40, PB)
For thousands of years humans have exploited the versatile qualities of clay as a material to produce items ranging from humble utilitarian vessels integral to family living, right through to exquisite works of art. Louisa Taylor explores this diverse discipline by showcasing 100 of the most innovative & inspiring artists past & present, analysing the techniques & methods used to create the works, and the concepts which underpin their creative process. She shows how to recreate intricate still-life dioramas like 15th century artist Bernard Palissy, explore narrative like Grayson Perry & convey sensitivity to material like Phoebe Cummings.
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Van Eyck by Maximiliaan Martens ($120, HB)
Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck (c. 1390-1441) towered above his contemporaries. With his unprecedented technique, scientific knowledge and unparalleled powers of observation, Van Eyck lifted oil painting to previously unseen heights and helped determine the course of Western art. This exhibition catalogue, featuring several pieces from his studio & international masterpieces from the late Middle Ages, plus the eight restored exterior panels of the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, unravels some of the myths that surround Van Eyck and his technique while showing his complete oeuvre and his influence in a new perspective.
The Hats that Made Britain by David Long
The world’s most famous hats have their origins in Britain—many of them were designed by James Lock & Co, the world’s oldest hatters, whose history can be traced back to 1676. Their shop at 6 St James’s Street, London, their headquarters since 1765, has played host to an extraordinary clientele over the years. Iconic hats such as the bowler, Nelson’s bicorn, Oscar Wilde’s fedora, Queen Elizabeth’s coronation crown & Winston Churchill’s homburg were created here, and British Tommies in WW1 were even fitted for their Mark 1 tin helmets at Lock & Co before travelling to the Western Front. David Long looks at these as well as hats that have graced the screen, such as Oddjob’s razor-rimmed Sandringham in Goldfinger and, more recently, the flat cap worn by the infamous Shelby clan in Peaky Blinders. ($50, HB)
Streeton by Wayne Tunnicliffe ($70, HB)
With his remarkable evocations of light & the landscape, Australian artist Arthur Streeton (1867–1943) remains one of the most enduring & popular painters in Australian art. His sundrenched impressionist landscapes from the 1880s, joyful depictions of Sydney beaches & harbour in the 1890s, and pastoral paintings from the 1920s & 30s continue to define an image of our unique environment for many Australians. This richly illustrated tome features over 275 paintings, including his much-loved Australian paintings as well as works from Streeton’s international career painting in Egypt, Venice, England, Italy & the battlefields of First World War France.
MMXX: Two decades of architecture in Australia by Cameron Bruhn ($80, PB)
Showcasing 59 acclaimed projects completed between 2000 and 2019, the book features work by more than 100 practices. Turn the pages to experience the urban generosity of Harry Seidler & Associates’ Riparian Plaza in Brisbane, visit the irreverent and culture-shaping Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart by Fender Katsalidis, and explore ARM Architecture’s iconic Shrine of Remembrance on Melbourne’s grand axis. Highlighting the impact of the buildings, each is paired with a number that tells a story of occupation: capacity concert audiences, the number of babies born and large crowds gathered to witness moments in history. Alongside the key projects, ten essays by leading thinkers document the cultures and ideas that have shaped architecture today..
Knitting from Fair Isle : 15 contemporary designs inspired by tradition by Mati Ventrillon ($40, PB)
Mati Ventrillon’s inspiration comes from the technique of creating patterns with multiple colours that was first used by the women of Fair Isle, one of the Shetland Islands, more than 2 centuries ago. Her designs, which have featured on the Chanel catwalk, are inspired by tradition but use her own modern interpretation of colour and pattern arrangement. The book includes fisherman jumpers with high, crew and slash necks, a poncho, neck warmer, cowl and long scarf, fingerless gloves and hand and wrist warmers, as well as the traditional fisherman’s hats known as keps.
Knit Step by Step ($30, HB) by Frederica Patmore & Vikki Haffenden
Taking you through simple skills, including how to knit, purl, and cast on and off, this simple handbook will soon help you decode knitting patterns and build intricate designs with eye-catching rib and cable stitches, structural effects, and multi-coloured Fair Isle and intarsia patterns. Alongside more than 150 clearly photographed stitch patterns and techniques, including using circular needles and creating structural effects, Knit Step by Step features eight fun knitting projects to give you the chance to put your new-found skills into practice.
Make, Stitch & Knit for Baby by Emilie Guelpa
From simple cotton bibs, shorts & soft toys, to a basic cushion & straightforward knitted blanket, these projects are clearly explained & easy-to-follow. Other crafty step-by-steps include a hanging mobile, finger puppets, soft rattles & sensory toys. Whether you’re expecting a baby & want to add a personal touch to their bedroom, or you’d like to make something special for your grandchild or friends’ babies this book is packed with easy, affordable projects to help you make unique baby gifts with a French-chic twist. ($28, PB)
2nd2nd2ndHand Hand HandRows Rows Rows
Oceana by J. A. Froude James Anthony Froude (1818–1894) was one of the foremost historians in Victorian England, though he was often controversial and opinionated, especially towards Catholicism. In 1886 he spent six months travelling in South Africa, Australasia and America, and published Oceana on his return. He was very impressed by what he saw, and regretted popular indifference to the Empire at home. He believed that settlers from British colonies would reinvigorate and renew Britain itself as well as the Empire, since historically empires have a pattern of expansion and decay. His fears of the decline of Britain as a world power if she lost her Empire proved prophetic. Here he describes the Australian magpie: ...a magpie,certainly, with the same green, cunning eye, the same thievish nature, the same mottled coat; the difference between him & our magpie being that he has no long tail, that he is rather larger, and that, instead of the harsh cry of his European relation he has the sweetest voice of all Australian birds, a low crooning but exquisitely melodious gurgle, which he intensely enjoys. The book is illustrated with charming black & white sketches made by his companion on the trip, Lord Elphinstone. $35, boards, no dust jacket.
What is Remembered by Alice B. Toklas First edition, 1963. Perhaps the most famous literary ‘friendship’ of this century ... So the dust flap goes. In 1963 it was obviously still necessary to be cagey about just what sort of ‘friendship’ Alice B. Toklas and her ‘friend’ Gertrude Stein shared. In 1933 supreme egoist Stein wrote The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas which is basically all about her, so here’s Alice B. 30 years later giving her version—full to the brim of celebrities, literary and otherwise from the mid-20th century: Picasso, Matisse, Marie Laurencin, Guillaume Apollinaire, Henri Rousseau, Lytton Strachey, Roger Fry, Clive Bell, Hemingway, Sylvia Beach & James Joyce. ‘Yet its distinction derives not from names, but from the author’s quiet perceptions & her ability to convey the delicate emotions she felt’. $30, HB Wars I Have Seen by Gertrude Stein This book is not an experiment in the use of words; it is the experiences & reflections of a brilliant & resourceful woman, who remained in France during the four years of the German occupation, and wrote it in longhand under the noses of the Nazis who were often quartered in her house. When France was liberated, the manuscript was taken to America by a war correspondent with the US Seventh Army, while Gertrude Stein, with her lifelong friend, Miss Toklas, and her poodle, Basket, returned quietly, as is recorded in a supplementary chapter to Paris...crammed with first-hand anecdotes, human, humorous or tragic, of what the common people of France endured during the dark days of the Occupation. A feat indeed that two Jewish lesbians (I mean ‘friends) survived the occupation! There were rumours of collaboration, but Stein’s typically circular opening sentence ‘I do not know whether to put in the things I do not remember as well as the things I do remember.’ suggests she’s probably not about to tell. $55, HB All on One Good Dancing Leg by Joan Clarke 1994, signed with dedication by the author. Joan Clarke vividly describes her childhood during the Great Depression & her endeavours to break free of the restrictions imposed by childhood polio & loving but overprotective parents. Determined to become part of the wider world—a world now at war—she found a job in a Sydney radio station & soon encountered such legends as John Dease, Charles Cousens & Jack Davey. She tells of the impact of American servicemen—and her involvement with the Booker T. Washington Club, which provided recreation & entertainment for black US servicemen who were routinely excluded from ‘whites only’ facilities, of the Japanese submarine attack on Sydney, and the growth of a radical youth movement. $30, PB Ballads of the Kimberley & Other Wild Places by Geoff Allen 1991, signed with dedication by the author. Geoff Allen’s ballads offer a real depth of feeling that plumbs the relationship between aboriginal and white stockmen working side-by-side in the Kimberley Underworld. His is the writing of a man who has lived on the frontier and who has come out of it with a resounding empathy not just for the land itself, but the people who populated its vast distances. $20, PB
SHARK! SHARK! The Thirty-Year Odyssey of a Pioneer Shark Hunter. by Captain William E. Young (Gotham House, New York. NY. 1933) As told to Horace S. Mazet. With a Foreword by Count Felix von Luckner. Unstated First Edition. Endpapers: illustration of world map with Sharks and Rays, 287pp., 8 plates with 23 drawings of sharks and rays by Helen Sewell, 30 b/w photographic reproductions, deckle edge. Frontispiece: Shark captured. Quarter bound, chipped and worn, cloth boards, decoration in blind on front cover, gilt title on spine. Hinge of front cover/spine worn and fragile. Front endpaper split at fold. Age toned text block, light browning to edges. Condition: Good. $50.00. Truly, the oddest book I have come across. The spine we are informed, is ‘Bound by the J.C. Tapley Company in Shark Leather from the Ocean Leather Co.’ ‘No one can tell just what a shark will do. Until there is blood in the water. Then watch out!’ California-born Captain William Young (1875–1962), lived in Hawaii and recounts with brio his lifelong obsession of capturing sharks of all kinds in all the world’s oceans. Young’s quest takes him to—among other places—Australia (1926), the Caribbean, French Somaliland and the Red Sea. He chose his ghost-writer well. Lt. Horace S. Mazet (1903–2002), aviator, world traveller, adventurer, photographer. Young’s good friend Count Felix von Luckner (1881–1966) writes the admiring Foreword. Von Luckner was the famed Captain of the World War I German Raider Sea Eagle. He visited Australia to great fanfare in 1938 where he was viewed either as a seafaring hero or an apologist for the Nazi regime. The black and white illustrations were created by Helen Sewell (1897–1960) illustrator of over 60 children’s books—the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House on the Prairie series among them. An appendix to the book features details on Shark types and the uses of Shark ‘leather’—Shagreen. Stephen.
People Under the Skin: An Irish Immigrant’s Experience of Aboriginal Australia by Clare Dunne 1988, Signed with dedication by the author. Born in Dublin, Clare Dunne migrated to Melbourne with her family when she was twenty. Her idiosyncratic career took her from SP betting to Qantas air hostess, TV personality to lead film actress in They’re a Weird Mob before becoming writer/ producer/interviewer in radio, TV & educational media with subjects ranging from Freud to Irish music & poetry to Australia’s probable first Saint. This journal of her research of Aboriginal Australia takes journeys into parts of the country that in the 1980s were little known—from outback to inner city—recording the drama, humanity, colour, humour & depth in the lives of aboriginal people. $15, PB On the Beach by Neville Shute A classic of 1950s A Bomb paranoia, Shute’s book sees a group of Antipodeans hanging out at the bottom of the world waiting for the cloud of radiation from a nuclear war in the Northern Hemisphere to poison our southern skies. This 1957 edition’s jacket sports Gregory Peck & Ava Gardner in a last embrace from the Stanley Kramer movie. According to the jacket this is the complete & unabridged edition, so watch out—things can get pretty racy in end times. $30, HB The General Strike by Julian Symons According to British politician Duff Cooper the unprecedented General Strike of 1926 ‘threatened the survival of parliamentary government, and brought the country nearer to revolution than it has ever been. Symon’s 1957 book gives a full account of the nine days during which volunteers drove buses & railway trains, teams of undergraduates worked in the docks and special constables were enrolled in tens of thousands; when the Government ran its own newspaper the British Gazette (unofficially edited by Winston Churchill) and the trade unionists produced their British Worker; when the BBC, under threat of being commandeered by the Government refused to allow the Archbishop of Canterbury to broadcast the churches’ appeal for a negotiated peace. Symons was allowed by the TUC to use the previously unexamined records in their archives which, as he says, contain the heart of the matter from the trade union standpoint. He talked to and corresponded with many of the people most directly involved in the Government preparations, and used some hundreds of letters from correspondents describing their personal experiences during the strike, as well as extracts from contemporary letters & diaries—resulting in an exciting narrative, and a notable contribution to the history of industrial relations. $20, HB
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Stephen’s Notables for 2020
Robert B. Parker—The Spenser Novels. ‘Spenser…S.P.E.N.S.E.R....like the English poet. Robert B. Parker wrote 40 novels from 1973 to 2010, featuring his cultivated, wise cracking Boston private investigator, Spenser. The dialogue is a pure delight. Our protagonist out quipping—and, when necessary, out punching—his adversaries. A critic once noted that Parker’s wordplay was so entertaining that he could sometimes get away without including a plot for his hero. Spenser is often aided by both his Harvard psychologist partner, Susan Silverman and his long-time friend, shady associate and gun-for-hire, Hawk. The Spenser novels contain equal measures of hard-boiled action, good natured cynicism, reflections on human foibles and well thought out—but not too complicated—whodunits. Perfect self-isolation reading throughout this blighted year Here are three of Spenser’s outings: The Godwulf Manuscript ($18): Spenser’s first case. A Boston University hires him to recover a rare, stolen manuscript. His only clue - a radical student with four bullets in his chest. Hugger Mugger. ($22): Someone’s making death threats in Dixie—against a thoroughbred horse destined to be the next Secretariat. At the owner’s request, Spenser hoofs it down South—where the lies are buzzing…and the dying is easy. Widow’s Walk ($23) When fifty-one-year-old Nathan Smith, a prominent Boston banker and millionaire, is murdered, Spenser is called in to investigate. Nathan’s young wife, Mary Smith, has a weak alibi, is despised by her peers and has multi million reasons to kill her husband. She needs the best defence money can buy. Spenser soon discovers that Mary’s mysterious past has put his own life in danger.
Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA by Amy Shira Teitel ($30) I started on this book after I binge watched the TV series AWAY in which Space Commander Emma Green (Hillary Swank—excellent as always), leads a multinational crew on our first journey to Mars. Amy Teitel, science journalist and selfdescribed ‘lifelong space history nerd’ (like me), in a smoothly written narrative, reminds us that humankind’s space exploration dreams did not start with either Russia’s Sputnik satellite (1957) or Neil Armstrong’s ‘one small step’ on lunar soil (1969). From German rocket enthusiasts of the 1920s, to the advent of Wernher von Braun, a young engineer who developed the Nazi wartime V2 rocket. After 1945, von Braun (and colleagues) having crossed to the victors, were at the forefront of American spaceflight endeavours—see the Chapter entitled, Nazi Rockets in New Mexico. Decades of bureaucratic in-fighting and personal rivalries between various branches of the US government get their detailed due. The most memorable sections of this book are the vivid, exciting descriptions highlighting lesser known aspects of the early space race. Among these are Chuck Yeager’s breaking the sound barrier in 1947 and Joseph Kittinger’s ascent to the stratosphere in the high-altitude balloon programme, Project Manhigh (1955–58). A fascinating book on the history of the preeminent achievement of the 20th Century. Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand ($35) Yes. Alright. Read it in a day. It chronicles Harry and Meghan’s relationship from a blind date in July 2016—Meghan was the one, ‘the very first time we met’ says Harry—to the present circumstances of their separation as senior Royals. Written with the couple’s tacit agreement (I presume), as a counterblast to the aggressive ‘media hunting’ of Meghan Markle—ongoing since her and Harry’s relationship became public in October 2016. It follows the course of their relationship, wedding (2018) and birth of son, Archie (2019). Throughout, the unrelenting race baiting and increasingly toxic media environment serves as background noise to whispered questions made by various Palace ‘insiders’ among others, of the suitability of a biracial, divorced American actress and ‘woman of colour’, as part of the hereditary-bound, Windsor ‘firm’. This book presents Harry and Meghan in an unwaveringly positive light; however, it also serves a serious purpose, especially for those among us who remember the tragic events in Paris on 31 August 1997. Crucible: The Long End of the Great War and the Birth of a New World 19171924 by Charles Emmerson ($30) A chronological, kaleidoscopic, anecdotal history of what the author sees as the 20th Century’s truly transformative years and the origin of our Modern Age. Written in the present tense, it is a vast representation of history as chance, contingency and unforeseeable consequences. The opening Chapter – 1917 - begins with descriptions of: The distraught Russian Romanov Royal family, laying to rest the mutilated body of murdered holy man, Rasputin. In Zurich, would-be revolutionary, Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin), applying for a residency permit, gives his profession as ‘lawyer and writer’. His income from ‘journalistic work for a Petrograd publisher’. In America, Lev Bronstein (Trotsky) in exile from Europe, lives in the Bronx, New York. He writes for the Russian socialist magazine (Novy Mir—New World). He frequents a local Jewish restaurant. He does not tip. Pope Benedict XV sends a birthday card to the German Kaiser Wilhelm II, enclosing suggestions for a peace proposal. ‘First, we have to win!’ the Warlord scribbles on the Vatican letter. In Berlin, a young physicist, Albert Einstein writes to a friend: ‘Would it not be good for the world if degenerate Europe were to wreck itself totally? All of our exalted technological progress is comparable to an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal. The Chinese would do a better job.’ A large list of individuals are followed throughout the next seven years. Among
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numerous others: Freud, Rosa Luxemburg, Hitler, Stalin, Woodrow Wilson, Emmeline Pankhurst, André Breton, Henry Ford, Hemingway, Mussolini and Clara Zetkin. A mass of material—the endnotes and sources alone cover 115 pages—is skilfully curated by Australian author Emmerson. A big plum pudding of a book. Start right from the beginning or just dip in. It’s informative and enjoyable reading either way. Stephen Reid
Poetry
Dearly: Poems by Margaret Atwood ($28, HB)
Margaret Atwood’s first collection of poetry in over a decade brings together many of her most recognisable themes, but distilled—from minutely perfect descriptions of the natural world to startlingly witty encounters with aliens, from pressing political issues to myth & legend. The poems explore bodies & minds in flux, as well as the everyday objects & rituals that embed us in the present. Werewolves, sirens and dreams make their appearance, as do various forms of animal life & fragments of our damaged environment.
Useless Magic: Lyrics and Poetry by Florence Welch ($35, HB)
The complete lyrics by the iconic vocalist of Florence + the Machine, beautifully interwoven with poems, sketches and jottings from her never-before-seen scrapbooks. This is a glimpse into the work and creative processes of a fearlessly unique musician - packed full of Florence’s on-thepage musings and reproductions of the art that has inspired her dramatic, genre-defying music.
Arelhekenhe Angkentye: Women’s Talk— Poems of Lyapirtneme from Arrernte Women in Central Australia ($25, PB)
This anthology of poems was written by 21 Arrernte women from the heart of the continent in Mparntwe Alice Springs around the theme of the NT Writers Festival 2019, Lyapirtneme—an Arrernte word that means growing back, returning. It’s like if a bushfire went through the land, and all the trees burnt down, and the roots underground are still alive. When the rain comes you see little shoots growing out of the bottom of the tree, growing back again.
The Weave by John Kinsella & Thurston Moore ($20, PB)
This is the 2nd book collaboration between Thurston Moore & John Kinsella—‘dubbed a work in progress by the two poets, the book guides readers through a world in decay, crafting an invigo rating language of spontaneity & survival out of the destruction. Moore & Kinsella aren’t just observing—they implicate us all in the harms of global capitalism & environmental disaster, charting a back & forth between the individual and the crowd. Gas Deities by Ed Wright ($25, PB) The result of a quest for meaning that negates the big ticket items of ego, intellectual fashion & salvation, leaving behind the generative joys of doubt, using dramatic monologues & the slipperiness of the lyrical I, Ed Wright takes a journey through suburban Australia, with the odd overseas excursion, finding magic in the ordinary, and understanding the creativity of erring at the same time as mining the foibles of pretension.
Plague Animals by Rebecca Edwards ($25, PB)
Rebecca Edwards distills the experience of physical & mental trauma; the breakdown of her relationship with her eldest daughter & the attrition of mental illness. An artist throws his pots into the Brisbane River. 4 dementia patients plot their escape from a nursing home. A woman mourns the end of a relationship at its conception. A man sees an ultrasound of his daughter and falls in love. Pain is forced to sing.
Know Your Country by Kerri Shying ($25, PB) Kerri Shying’s volume opus hides a question in the title— who’s the you? Whose country is it anyway? Who needs to know? Who’s asking? Who gets to ask what? And what about when the questions are accusations? This is a book wise to little tricks for painting people into corners.
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The Temptation of Forgiveness Donna Leon, HB
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Rocks, Ice and Dirty Stones: Diamond Histories Marcia Pointon, HB
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The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union Serhii Plokhy, HB
The Angel of History Rabih Alameddine, HB
Beyond Words: What Animals Think & Feel Carl Safina, HB
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Now $18.95 The Eureka Factor: AHA Moments, Creative Insight and the Brain Kounios & Beeman, HB
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Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us Sam Kean, HB
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The Sultan & the Queen: The Untold Story of Elizabeth & Islam Jerry Brotton, HB
Moments in Time: A Book of Australian Postcards Jim Davidson, PB
Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion Susan Jacoby, HB
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Judas: The troubling history Avedon: of the renegade apostle Something Personal Peter Stanford, HB Steven M. L. Aronson, HB
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Brenda Colvin: A Career in Landscape Trish Gibson, HB
Vegan Vegetarian Omnivore: Pok Pok The Drinking Food Dinner for Everyone at the Table Of Thailand: A Cookbook Anna Thomas, HB Andy Ricker & JJ Goode, HB
All or Nothing: One Chef’s Appetite for the Extreme Jesse Schenker, HB
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The Gluten-Free Revolution Jax Peters Lowell, PB
The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Italian Cuisine Cesare Casella et al , HB
Jewish Soul Food by Janna Gur, HB
Adventures in Chicken Eva Kosmas Flores, HB
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Stephen: For fiction, I choose the final insta lment of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, which focuses on the last four years of Thomas Cromwell’s life, from 1536–40. From his apogee at Anne Boleyn’s exec ution to his own beheading—‘Most gracious prynce I crye for mercye mercye merc ye.’ In sweep, historical power and lyrical prose a true masterpiece. I see The Booker Prize judges did not include it on this year’ s shortlist. Off with their heads, say I. For non-fiction it’s Mary Trump’s Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerou s Man—All happy families are alike ; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. ’ Leo Tolstoy wrote truer than he knew when it comes to the nightmarish Family Trump. As I write, Trump is uttering his strongman fantasies and threatening to stay in office if the results of a ‘rigged’ Presi dential election do not suit him. After nearl y four years all of Trump’s various pathologies have been viewed by the world. Wha t you see is truly what you get. The mystery of Donald Trump is that there is no myst ery. This merciless memoir by his niece , clinical psychologist Dr Mary Trump, show s how he got that way.
was tossHeadcheese by Jess Hegemann—I erfully wond s fegh’ Mosh sa Ottes and title ing up between this Headyear. the of book my eerie Death in Her Hands for confronting and ge, stran so is it use beca out win to cheese had the novel you would read bizarrely compelling. It’s pitched as several characters with nts prese It ser. brow nito incog an on fragmented style, ocly erful wond a in kinks self-amputation Hagemann interjects as on, casionally jumping into meta-ficti enging the reader to chall point one r—at reade the directly to and excerpts real — book the gh choose their own way throu . It can get very stopstory the out flesh to ors -horr body d worl also shift into genuinely ping-reading-in-horror graphic, but and connection. It’s kind ation sublime moments of self-realis yourself compelling. dareck, -wre train of kind r... of horro rated. Illust y tifull beau And it’s
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spoole ores them ht ery, Doshi expl y. It’s not a lig and vivid imag nt and memor se re , ns le, this io at ho it lig bb ob ra al e ili th m n ness, fa dive dow u’re willing to , The Morbids read, but if yo and linger. Also in sk ur yo ly funny r unde ts, this is a dark book will get the title sugges (Love! as ts en y— em se el am m R by Ewa s classic rom co ve xiety ea an w It of h. ns at honest depictio book about de een menngs!) with very tw di be ed e W ! lin ip e sh th Friend versed Ramsay has tra l that sparkles and depression. creating a nove ly, nt ia ill br y ed com our. tal illness and with black hum
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rew: O’Hagan An easy choice fo r me this floored m year. Mayfl e rather always fi ie surreptiti nely turn ously. O’H s by Andre ed; I didn this elegan ’t think th ag an’s pro t diptych e lives of of it did. Hil the young se ary Mante a novel would mo men i v l and The e second; fu Mirror an me so profoundly, ll m d the Lig bu and Summ arks for living up ht runs a to er close beautiful, water by Sarah M my overwhelming oss is a st expectati and threat ons, ro ening, M nous, and oss has cr ng third place; at profound once ea te d ly beautifu an exquis ite, omil nightmar e of a nov el. .
Jonathon:
es ker danc hetypal jo uropean rc a e h T lmann— tive periods in E niel Keh c yll by Da rrible and destru en now. Brilliant. T : M David ne of the most te posed by him, ev o d ex through e all stan history. W
Scott: The Collected Poems of Bertolt Brecht—This hand-
some door-stopper of a book contains more than 1200 poems written between 1913 and 1956 of which more than 450 appear here for the first time in English. Brecht’s unsentimental language, acerbic wit and profound humanism won over this most reluctant reader of poetry and I found myself dipping in and out of this collection with relish to be shocked, amused and challenged anew. Fellow poet Paul Muldoon has suggested we need Brecht now more than ever, ‘no less for his capacity to so movingly take pleasure also/ in the song of every blackbird after me than for the power of his political poems and songs to take on demagogues and dickheads.’ Amen to that!
Our Favourite Books 2020
rapher 78 Italian photog 70 - 1978—In 19 phy. A 19 ra e og m ot ro ph ch to da n e, a paea Ghirri: Ko Tatjana: Luigipublished his first book Kodachromand soon began taking photolf 70 se 19 rri in hi a G subject, i en Luig b in Mod ouped around a or he took a jo themes (some gr streets, d e an th ts trained survey ed ec oj am pr ro nds devising inciple) as he ke pr ee g w sin on nds of ni sa hs ga ou or ap th gr poetic accumulating around a more rstated wn. Eventually de to un e e some gathered tiv es op Th ad e. s Kodachrom burbs of hi le he produces piazzas and su ith images of e juxtaposed w ping a unique sty ar lo s ve en de rd d ga an y os tin production phot palms, een real and re hes, windows, g the line betw d there is rin an ur photos of beac bl ch oa ds pr ar als and postc s a deadpan ap ha e H . es ost banal ag m e im billboards, mur e ved that even th how we consum pinpoint sthetic. He belie ae tly and questioning ac te ex isi t qu n’ ex t also an nd glance. I ca co se ly been a , ite ok fin a dry humour bu lo de ed lling but I have thy of a sustain pe or m w co as so w d ew fin vi that I t. t these photos in this book a lo what it is abou looking at them
Viki:
Of course Mirror and the Light (and the previous two books in Mantel’s trilogy which I re-read in preparation for Mirror’s release) is my favourite for the year—as far as I’m concerned Hilary Mantel is George Elliot reincarnate. But, if you’re as fascinated/frightened as I am about the implosion of the USA’s ‘leader of the free world’ status, I can highly recommend my equal best read of the year—Jill Lepore’s history of the US: These Truths. Rather than entering into the argument of a divided nation represented by the tiny but enormous difference between Jefferson’s first draft Declaration ‘truths’—held to be ‘sacred and undeniable’ and Franklin’s tweak ‘self-evident’—Lepore takes her frame as the question of does American history prove ‘these truths’ or belie them. A fantastic read!
by Elizabeth is Olive, Again, ar ye is th insight ok vourite bo rself, but full of Louise: My faan h like Olive he ted to uc ec m nn p, ar co sh ns d ai m t lowed, but re el Strout. It’s shor m tly ed in ar ac pe ex ’t ap live hasn of whom have and incident. O unity—several the book, m of m d co en r e he th in ed many people I particularly lik t ’s other novels. ion to her mos Elizabeth Strout th and compass m ar w t ea gr ed ow sh ut ter. Stro Tiff: Truganini by Ca singular charac ssandra Pybus—A tifully written biogra fascinating and be auphy that vividly bri ngs to life the real behind the myth. De woman stroying the long-h eld representations as a tragic icon an of her d ‘the last of her rac e’, we meet a formi and remarkable wo dable man not just navig ating the rugged lan of her country, but dscape a time that irrevoc ably altered the fut ure of her culture and her pe ople.
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Jack
Anna: The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili—A family saga set
in Georgia pre, during and past the Russian revolution and beyond. The waxing and waning of the family fortune and the relationship complications through the eyes of the women. I loved it so much and gave copies to eight friends. One who just reported ‘I had to spend the day on the couch yesterday, I had to stay with the story.’ And another who ‘...did not want it to finish’.
been ts, books have rre estrangemen za ch a bi su & is o ns ist tio ar ra of sepa adine Ev Judy: In this yeniarons. Girl, Woman, Other by Bern k, British women across blac surtreasured compa group of mostly anist life’ and to the lives of this to live ‘a wom es sir y. one. Following de jo g d on an e of energy they pursue str with such a sens flies by many years as rted, I was left the spirit: May ea t, -h ar le he ho e w th ve d, vi in m agan, I e ’H th O r fo by s e companion ad Be Near M re y ad re Hilary al Other beloved t by t n’ d The Ligh an (if you have , The Mirror an tobise au Andrew O’Hag r ur he co s, of , ce d ie an rp end it); writer of maste is th t highly recomm ou ab ). us ht l insig become curio st is a wonderfu Mantel (if you g Up The Gho ography, Givin
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Emma:
Will & Testament by Vidgis Hjorth, translated from Norwegian to English by Charlotte Bardslun—A property dispute over a family cabin is the flashpoint for Bergljot, the exiled middle child, to bring suppressed family tensions to the fore. I love how Hjorth illustrates the effects of trauma on the mind through the book’s structure, utilising repetition and unexpected chapter breaks. Bergljot discovers what justice looks like in the context of broken family. A meticulous translation by Charlotte Bardslund gave me fantastic insight into the importance of cabins for Norwegian families as a warm, shared, intergenerational space—an ideal that is far from Bergljot’s reality.
conJack—a xbinson’s e o g R in e n rd n a is Marily his is a rich, rew e idic o m h t c is y T Sally: Mof her Gilead series. predestination in ralcson in a a d n n ig o a tinuati d , grace the prod n of love a. It focuses on nged and trouble aminatio c ri ra o e d st e m to A ly tury ation is a deep 20th cen family— whose only aspir that t s is se in li a lv a re , d close C us Jack oman an tifully rich eponymo young w . A beau man, the to a fine fe in li s r n e h ru He ruin no harm. ulse, love, could ul novel. p ghtf u o th d n his best im a
Tilda:
Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez—This book is equally frustrating as it is liberating: an astonishing exercise in collating the data and scientific literature of a world of gender divides. Criado-Perez reveals the intricacies, fallacies, and implications of a world where man is default and woman is other. The depth of research lets the author be both unequivocal and sensitive in tone, with a delightful scattering of humour in the depths of this weighty and sordid history. Highly recommend, both to educate and empower.
the end of rk of Garth Greenwell at I first encountered the wo story The rt sho us ino introduced me to his lum trol of the con 2018, when a colleague g tlin star a h wit ter t, was a wri Frog King. Here, I though in a way that felt who could write the erotic language of sensuality, one —a spiritual sucess ann Cle el nov ond his sec urgent, even revelatory. In s to You, and set once ded debut What Belong cessor to his critically lau ge to extraordinary enwell wields this langua again in Bulgaria—Gre macy, vulnerability, inti ut abo w to think ane effect, inciting the reader Cleanness was, for ng, s tender and eviscerati shame, and desire. By turn s. ring offe te uisi exq st mo me, one of 2020’s
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: Ancillary J late to th e game, b ustice/The Imper ial Radch ut my fav rial Radch ourite bo tr ok(s) of th Trilogy by Ann L to explore ilogy. It’s a space eckie—I’ e yea opera at h ideas abo m eart, but A r was the acclaim ut gender betrayed ed Impe, artificial nn Leckie AI, a con intelligen quering em u se s a simple ce, and cl pire in stas plot ass is—a hap py reader to great effect. A at the end of it all. ut been a lot of talk abo vey—I know there has Sil vey aig Sil Cr ig by Cra k. bee Rachel: Honey l really loved this boo éd’ characters, but I stil heart, humour ‘own voices’ and ‘clich of dialogue. He brings r ste ma te olu abs the is that it is not and ue nt arg tale is an immense even though people even long t is truly harrowing, tha go, ry me sto let a to not e did hop and and hooked from page 1 is a huge me s thi had t It tha . ng tell thi to his story it can only be a good nk thi I e. out some pag k t see las t to after I finished tha inspires publishers ease, and hopefully it loved it! rel lly s rea ma I rist r. Ch yea t am nex tre mains seller for Christmas big t nex our as s hor great trans aut
Victoria
: fering An I join Andrew and dre many of m y nominate w O’Hagan’s May flies as m colleagues in ofmy 2nd fa y favourite vourit—V more—a , but also alentine powerful by E boo and more . This boo k about justice, su lizabeth Wetk will mak rvival, frie e you ang ndship ry, sad an d proud.
: In a memorable year for fiction (Shuggie The Vanishing Ha Bain, A Burning, lf, Mayflies), comb ined with an urge (lik to be sitting in a tin e everyone) can, far above the world, it was Terry tobiographical ess Castle’s auays, The Professo r: A Sentimental Ed had me floating in ucation, that the most peculiar way: ‘It’s really ab it’s really about Ca out music… lifornia….it’s really ab about car trips….it’ out addiction….it’ s really s really about lesbia nism….it’s really ing up wild stories,’ about makCastle explains. A few pages later she groove, it takes a ’s so into her few moments to rea lise you are cheer strawberry with a fully eating a needle in it: ‘Whil e straining to appe a vertiginous dread ar normal, I felt soar and frolic withi n me, like an evil bip loose. I was not bra lane on the ve, it seemed, as me n were, or even sem struggled with hyste i-stoical. I rical girlishness. It was an archaic and problem. I was fem humiliating ale—and a wretche d poltroon.’ Shrew and very funny—be d, reckless st to remove your face mask before rea ding.
M
organ: Hamnet by M aggie O’Farrell— A very worthy winn tion this year is Ma er of the Women’s ggie O’Farrell’s ex Prize for Fictraordinary story ab family. Shakespear out the domestic wo e is primarily off-st rld of Shakespeare’s age, while the cen as Ann) and her ch tral characters are ildren and in-laws. Agnes (often know So often dismissed O’Farrell brings Ag n and maligned by Sh nes to life as an int akespeare scholars, elligent, warm-heart wife and mother. W ed woman—a herba illiam and Agnes’ son Hamnet died 4 list, a farmer, a ably of the plague. years before he wr O’Farrell remarks ote Hamlet, presum in her author’s no his plays all through te tha t Shakespeare wrote the time of The Black and produced Death but never on strange absence, she ce mentioned it in says, which led he his work. It is this r to wrote the book book and of cours . It is a wonderful, e, an appropriate sub beautifully written ject for this plague-r idden year of 2020 .
Tim: My pick for the year is The Abstainer. Ian Mcguire’s follow up to The North Water does not disappoint. In the same way he lead me into the icy arctic waters, I was transported to the dank streets of the 19th century Mancurian underworld. Heart racing and heartbreaking.
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Editor & desktop publisher Viki Dun vikid@gleebooks.com.au Printed by Access Print Solutions
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The gleebooks gleaner is published monthly from February to November with contributions by staff, invited readers & writers. ISSSN: 1325 - 9288 Feedback & book reviews are welcome
Registered by Australia Post Print Post Approved
Bestsellers—Non-Fiction 1. Flavour
Yotam Ottolenghi
2. Phosphorescence
Julia Baird
3. Dark Emu
Bruce Pascoe
4. Use it All: The Cornersmith guide to a more
sustainable kitchen
Alex Elliot-Howery & Jaimee Edwards
5. The Golden Maze: A Biography of Prague
Richard Fidler
6. To Asia, With Love 7. A Life on Our Planet
Hetty McKinnon David Attenborough
8. Intimations
Zadie Smith
9. People of the River: Lost Worlds of Early Australia
Grace Karskens
10. The Carbon Club
Marian Wilkinson
Bestsellers—Fiction 1. All Our Shimmering Skies
Trent Dalton
2. The Survivors
Jane Harper
3. The Living Sea of Waking Dreams
Richard Flanagan
4. Honeybee
Craig Silvey
5. The Lying Life of Adults 6. Troubled Blood
Elena Ferrante Robert Galbraith
7. The Dictionary of Lost Words 8. Girl, Woman, Other
Pip Williams Bernardine Evaristo
9. A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing 10. The Thursday Murder Club
28
Jessie Tu Richard Osman
and another thing.....
This time last year I was just about to get on a plane to head off for an expansive couple of months vacation around Europe, my first holiday in 12 years—how fortunate was my timing! Gleebooks has managed to weather the first COVID-19 storms and I’d like to thank you, our loyal reading customers. I’d also like to thank Gleebooks staff who have ‘leaned in’ and ‘pivoted’ with grace— James taking over the roster at the same time as getting the Zoom events cooking, Andrew launching the new website—always a nerve-wracking endeavour, and everyone walking and driving across the inner-west and city of Sydney hand delivering books to those in lockdown. As the magazine year closes I can’t help thinking about how lucky we’ve been, and pause to think about all those who have been less fortunate in this difficult year. Let’s hope the Australian bushfires hold off in summer so we can catch a breath. It’s times like these books come into their own—not just as entertainment and diversion (perfectly valid in isolation)—and I look forward to reading Tania Plibersek’s collection, Upturn, to see if any of the contributors can help me work out how to put my time away from Gleebooks to good use. It feels like time to organise! In the mean time I have a heap of books by the bed. I’m taking Jill Lepore’s history of the US, These Truths, a chapter a day to both savour it, and to let it sink in (I’m still having trouble with the fact that cherry-tree chopping, truth-telling George Washington’s dentures were made of ivory and teeth from 9 of his slaves). I’m thinking of reading Robert Galbraith/JK Rowling’s latest Cormoran Strike offering, Troubled Blood, to see whether the book is indeed transphobic, or just too long—that woman needs an editor. After this indulgence I’ve got a copy of Bryan Washington’s Memorial on order (P.4)—it’s had some great reviews. And Silences So Deep by John Luther Adams looks like it will be ideal for a trip to icy regions and states of mind in a potentially hot summer. A reminder—next year there will be 8 issues of the Gleaner: 2 double issues at the beginning of the year—Feb/March and April/May, then one a month until November. Happy festivus, keep well and keep masked. Viki
For more November new releases go to:
Main shop—49 Glebe Pt Rd; Ph: (02) 9660 2333, Fax: (02) 9660 9842. Open 7 days, 9am to 9m Thur–Sat; 9am to 7pm Sun–Wed Sydney Theatre Shop—22 Hickson Rd Walsh Bay; Open two hours before and until after every performance Blackheath—Shop 1 Collier’s Arcade, Govetts Leap Rd; Ph: (02) 4787 6340. Open 7 days, 9am to 6pm Blackheath Oldbooks—Collier’s Arcade, Govetts Leap Rd: Open 7 days 10am to 5pm Dulwich Hill—536 Marrickville Rd Dulwich Hill; Ph: (02) 9560 0660. Open 7 days, Tue–Sat 9am to 7pm; Sun–Mon 9 to 5 www.gleebooks.com.au. Email: books@gleebooks.com.au; oldbooks@gleebooks.com.au