November 2010 1. Original Fiction by Karen Hitchcock and Chris Somerville 2. Essay by Kelly Doust 3. Special design section 4. Interview with Steph Bowe 5. Interviews with major book designers 193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
DVDs and CDs
Quay: Food Inspired By Nature
One: Living as One and Loving It
Peter Gilmore HB $95.00
Victoria Alexander HB $59.95 One is a celebration of individuality and life. Author Victoria Alexander writes with humour and wisdom about the importance of believing in and valuing ourselves. She reminds us to trust in ourselves, try things on for size, take risks and ask for what we want — after all, we might just get it. At its heart, this beautifully layered collection of stories, quotes, reflections and evocative images is about the power of choice and about enjoying life, with all its shifts and changes. Its message is universal: accept who you are and who you can be, whether you live alone, or whether you are one of many. From Victoria Alexander: ‘One is an affirmation of self. A book about living as one and loving it. My photographs are from everywhere, all over, and mixed up to remind you and me that we are all one. Wherever we’re from. Wherever we may be going. We all share a desire to find contentment. My hope is that you too know we have one thing in common: a need to be able to count on ourselves.’
From the culinary genius Peter Gilmore, one of the top 50 chefs in the world, comes this eagerlyanticipated, ground-breaking book. Quay’s stunning design and photography perfectly echoes Peter’s nature-based philosophy and the organic presentation that is synonymous with the fine dining experience at Quay. Peter’s recipes, including the irresistible eight-textured chocolate cake and his signature iridescent sea pearls, will take you on an inspirational adventure, exploring flavour, texture and technique. start with a single component, build to a showstopping dish, or simply enjoy the visual and culinary journey. ‘I am inspired by nature and have coined the term nature-based cuisine to describe my food. Nature offers us so much diversity —a natural elegance and beauty—and it is the organic nature of food, its textures and flavours that is at the heart of my cooking’ Peter Gilmore
Still Life: Inside the Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton Jane Ussher and Nigel Watson HB $79.95 Still Life is a unique and hauntingly beautiful photographic study of the Antarctic huts that served as expedition bases for explorations led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton. At the turn of the twentieth century Antarctica was the focus of one of the last great races of exploration and discovery. Known as the ‘heroic age’, from 1895 to 1917 Antarctic explorers set off from their huts in search of adventure, science and glory but some, such as Scott, were never to return. The World Wars intervened and the huts were left as time capsules of Edwardian life; a portrait of King Edward VII hangs amid seal blubber, sides of mutton, a jar of gherkins, penguin eggs, cufflinks and darned trousers.
Life DVD RRP $89.95 AVID PRICE DURING NOVEMBER: $79.95 More than 4 years in the making, filmed over 3000 days, across every continent and in every habitat, this is Life—as you’ve never seen it before. Includes special feature Life Diaries. As seen on ABC1.
Work of Fiction Chris Pickering CD RRP $24.95 AVID PRICE DURING NOVEMBER $19.95 We are very proud to announce that friend of Avid and Brisbaneboy Chris Pickering has released his brilliant new album Work Of Fiction his third album after 2004’s A Safer Place and 2008s Excuses Excuses. The album was recorded at the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis, with Stax Hall Of Famer Don Nix producing, and it features an elite of Memphis and Muscle Shoals session players. For fans of rootsy melodic pop (think Wilco, Big Star, The Jayhawks) this is a must.
Our Favourite Murdoch Books 1. Really Wild Tea Cosies Loani Prior 2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson 3. Falling Cloudberries Tessa Kiros 4. Movida Frank Camorra 5. Zombie Cupcakes Zilly Rosen 6. The Girl Who Played with Fire Stieg Larsson 7. The Crafty Kid Kelly Doust
8. The Real Food Companion Matthew Evans 9. Etcetera Sibella Court 10. 50 Physics Ideas You Really Need to Know Joanne Baker 11. 50 Philosophy Ideas You Really Should Know Ben Dupre 12. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest Stieg Larsson 13. Show Me How: 500 Things You Should Know 14. Harvest Meredith Kirton
15. Dry Gardening Australia Jonathan Garner 16. Good Girls Don’t Make History Jan Stradling 17. Speeches That Changed the World Simon Sebag Montefiore 18. The Atlas of Legendary Lands Judyth A. McLeod 19. Cast Away Joseph Cummins 20. History’s Greatest Scandals Ed Wright
Reviews
Trent Jamieson
Nellie Godwin-Welch
Christopher Currie
Kasia Janczewski
Australia Imaginarium
Girl Saves Boy
The Convalescent
Great House
Steph Bowe PB $19.95
Jessica Anthony PB $29.95
Nicole Krauss PB $32.95
Tehani Wessely (ed) PB $24.95
It is no small feat to have a book published at the young age of sixteen, but this is exactly what this new, promising author has done. Steph Bowe, with a writing maturity beyond her age has crafted a simple but sweet story of teenage drama, loss and love.
Released by McSweeney’s in the US and cannily picked up by Hunter Publishing in Australia, The Convalescent is the deceptively touching story of Rovar Pfliegman, a sicknessridden homunculus HungarianAmerican who sells meat from a broken school bus in rural Virginia.
I was so filled with excitement and relief when I received the news that Nicole Krauss, the author of one of my most loved books The History of Love, had a new story to share that I almost couldn’t bring myself to delve into its pages. Reading the first few pages was wonderful and sad at the same time as I knew the beautiful path she was taking me on would inevitably end and then I would again have to wait. But my strange feelings of wonder, joy, anxiety and sadness where simply reflective of the poetry she weaves so eloquently into the lives of her characters and the words she uses to draw them.
Worlds Next Door Fablecroft Publishing Tehani Wessely (ed) PB $19.95 There is a real boom in Australian SF publishing at the moment. Orbit and Harper Collins among others are publishing a lot of novels by Australian Science Fiction writers. It’s great to see the major publishers supporting Australian writing, but most of these writers, Sean Williams, Marianne de Pierres and Trudi Canavan among them, had their start in the small press in magazines like Eidolon and Aurealis. It’s the small presses that have kept the Spec Fic flame alive in Australia, and have published, and keep publishing, some great new talents. Two anthologies by Fablecroft Publishing are doing just that. Australis Imaginarium is a reprint anthology featuring some of the best writing by talents such as Margo Lanagan, Thoraiya Dyer, and Michael Pryor. The stories within explore ‘alternate mythologies’ of Australia and all are compelling, and a great primer in the best of Australian Spec Fic. Worlds Next Door is a collection of Spec Fic aimed at younger readers and you’d be hard pressed to find a better introduction. With stories concerning dragons, and Space Dogs and an author named Death. Younger (and older) readers will find much to enjoy here. Editor Tehani Wessley is a school librarian and lesson plans are available at the Worlds Next Door website.
Set in Melbourne, Steph’s own hometown, it tells the story of two teenage protagonists, Jewel and Sacha. We learn how their lives have been altered by death and tragedy, but that they can still manage to find friendship and love in each other. This story starts off strongly with true to life meditations on dying and feeling lost and alone. True to the title of the book, Girl Saves Boy, the novel revolves around the beginning events of Jewel saving Sacha from taking his own life by drowning in a local lake. Interestingly though, roles have been reversed in this typical scenario, with the hero role being left to the female, Jewel. Stereotypes are defied all through the book, with Sacha being portrayed as the weaker character, foremost being burdened with a terminal disease. I found this change refreshing, signifying that this writing is indeed coming from a writer of a new generation. Although I found the end a little patchy and the conclusion not completely satisfying I stand in awe and jealously congratulate an author who has achieved what must only be a dream for thousands of budding young writers around Australia.
Through Rovar’s eyes, we begin to understand his unique view of humanity, and how he has ended up where he has. Woven cleverly through Rovar’s story is that of his ancestors, the Pfliegmans, who have contributed in their own hopeless way to every stage of Hungarian history. The Convalescent is like nothing else you have ever read: in equal parts wickedly funny, strangely touching and universally true. Combining elements literary mystery, Kafkaesque surrealism and folkloric charm, Jessica Anthony—who has worked as an English teacher, a maid, a meat cutter and a singing telegram gal—has also proven herself as this year’s most original writer. Highly recommended.
The heart of Great House is a desk laden with many drawers that pulses with the history and sorrows of its many former owners. It threads together the stories of Nadia, a lonely American novelist, Daniel, a Chilean poet, Lotte, a secretive woman who takes refuge in her writing, Dovek, an Israeli lawyer who flees to London, Isabel, a New Yorker studying literature at Oxford University, and finally Weisz, a man painfully reconstructing his father’s study in Budapest that was destroyed in 1944. Krauss simultaneously explores the intimate corners of private experiences and the unfathomable connections that bring seemingly disparate lives together into one picture. This story bears the heaviness of nostalgia, the sadness of its beauty and the poignant relevance of every individual life. Great House is a finalist for the National Book Award in the USA.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Reviews
Stuart Carrier
Verdi Guy
Helen Bernhagen
Krissy Kneen
Mice
A Life in Frocks
An Object Of Beauty
The Romantic
Gordon Reece $20.00
Kelly Doust PB $29.95
Steve Martin PB $35.00
Kate Holden PB $32.95
What is your limit and how much are you willing to take before you snap? Mice explores this theme with Shelley a teenage girl and her mother who are systematically bullied at both school and in the workplace. After a particularly brutal attack on Shelley at school, the pair escape their harrowing and often gut-wrenching existence in the city and move to the solitude of the countryside where they think that their troubles are over. How wrong they are.
‘For as long as I can remember, I have been passionate about clothes. They are my first, and most enduring, love affair to date.’ The opening lines of this memoir sum up Kelly Doust’s relationship with clothes well. Like many women, Doust is a fanatical lover of all things fashion. She loves the drama and excitement that clothes can bring to one’s life. She loves the playfulness of fashion and the joy of discovering new pieces. She also believes that clothes are hugely important and intrinsic to our everyday selves and say a lot about a person. To many people this view may seem superficial and the book as a whole may sound like it lacks depth. However, Doust brings a lot more to the plate than just her love of clothes.
An Object of Beauty focuses on the ambitious and charming Lacey Yeager who inhabits New York’s art scene, working her way from the back rooms at Sotheby’s to eventually owning her own Chelsea gallery. Her rise and subsequent fall after a controversial scandal are narrated through the eyes of her college friend and writer, Daniel Franks. Daniel chronicles the rise and fall of the art market from the ‘90s through spiralling prices, globalization and the present day Global Financial Crisis.
Kate Holden’s first memoir, In My Skin, was a bit of a touchstone for me. Thinking about writing my own sexual memoir, I had been reading everything written on the subject. There was so much dross it was difficult to drag myself to read the next sexy tell-all.
One fateful night when a bumbling burglar breaks into their house the women are driven to the brink and what ensues is a thrilling mix of murder, blackmail and deceit Mice is categorized as young adult and while I welcomed the fact that it was devoid of vampires and zombies, the hyper-violence reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange. I do question its appropriateness for a younger market. I think Mice is perfect for an adult audience or those who are 16+
Sydney, Hong Kong, London and New York are just a few cities that Doust has called home. She is a worldly woman with a wealth of experience in the fashion and book publishing industries. She writes intelligently and looks at the global appeal of fashion and the social significance of clothing. Doust also reflects on her fashion memories from childhood and reveals many of her favourite and not so favourite outfits. This memoir is refreshing, funny and most of all inspiring. It’s for anyone who loves looking through other people’s wardrobes or just those who love clothes.
Steve Martin’s fascinating story weaves in real life elements like a fictional train journey with John Updike and the $500 million dollar theft at a Boston Museum. The book also includes reproductions of artwork referenced in the story. Surprisingly An Object of Beauty did not completely consume me as much as his previous novel Shopgirl though as always I am drawn towards Steve Martin’s wonderful storytelling.
Holden’s book was refreshing. It was well-written, honest and provided a window into a fascinating world as she took us into her heroin addiction and her subsequent job as a prostitute. The best thing about Holden’s book was its complete lack of sentimentality. Her follow-up memoir The Romantic is equally as good as her first. Holden travelled to Rome to escape the troubles of her past and to recover in the world’s most romantic city whilst indulging in her love of romantic poets. Written in the third person, we follow Kate as she attempts to negotiate her way through sexual relationships where no money changes hands. She does not go easy on herself. She confronts her own mistakes, insecurities and fears as she falls in lust and then in love. There is certainly a frankness about her sexual encounters, but there is also a subtlety of style that can only be achieved by a fine writer. This book stands on its own but is only augmented and enriched by a foray into In My Skin. Highly recommended.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Staff Picks
Kevin Guy
Paul Landymore
Fiona Stager
Rainbow Pie: a Redneck Memoir
The 1000 Hour Day
Joe Bageant PB $35.00 Country roads, take me home To the place I belong West Virginia, Mountain Mama Take me home, country roads.
Chris Bray has adventure in his blood. At the age of 5 his parents took him and his younger sister on a 5-year sailing trip around the world in a homemade yacht. That’ll do it. Retuning ‘home’ he had to grow accustomed to what everyone else called normal life – staying in one spot. However for Chris this never sat well an whilst at university studying for an engineering degree he engaged on a 30 day trek in the Tasmanian wilderness which earned him the title ‘Young Adventurer of the Year’ in 2004. He was soon contacted by Clark, a young man of similar bent, proposing they do something together. Clearly, being nuts, they decide on a 1000km walk across Victoria Island in the Canadian Arctic – a feat the locals cheerfully tell them on arrival will result in their deaths. We follow Chris and Clark as they plan their trip: from woefully underbudgeting, through seeking sponsorship to the design and construction of homemade wheeled kayaks. As with all good expeditions disasters strike along the way including truckers strikes, union lawyers and inexperience. Not to mention wolves, 24 hour daylight and polar bears. If you like tales of derring-do in the company of charming, enthusiastic companions then this is for you. To borrow from Noel Coward: Mad Dogs and Australians go out in the midnight sun.
From Here to There: Room a Curious Collection Emma Donoghue PB $33.00 from the Hand Drawn Try to imagine this: you are 19, you are leading a normal life, Map Association you are abducted by a complete
Joe Bageant’s rustic home in Rainbow Pie: a Redneck Memoir is in the Appalachia at Winchester, Virginia and the bumpy road we take there is his polemic on America’s class system, the marginalisation of rural America and the growth of the white underclass—the biggest class in America today. There is much to like about Joe, Maw, Pap and Ony Mae among a cast of characters in this mountains region of mystery and myth. Appalachian culture is steeped in god-fearing ScotsIrish-German Protestant influence; anti-authoritarian, independent, defiant, belligerent, but malleable to conservative patriotic politic. And here lies the rub. Bageant continues to illustrate a theme from his first book, Deer Hunting with Jesus of the elites’ manipulation of the rural working class on a range of issues be it, education, environment or healthcare. While the cultural differences are stark you can clearly draw similarities between rural America and what has happened over the past 50 years and continues to happen to Australia’s rural communities today. There is no gloss to Bageant’s writing that showcases the Appalachian vernacular. Clearly opinionated and to the point, in a stream of consciousness that combines recollection, stories and diatribes. At its heart Rainbow Pie is a call to arms to reclaim rural America.
Chris Bray PB $34.95
Kris Harzinski PB $28.50 Need to get to a friend’s house in Woolloongabba? Where IS that new Vietnamese café? How do I get from here to Orleigh Park to catch the ferry? Answer: Let me draw you a map. We’ve all done it; scrawled and scratched out a mud map to follow or to lead. But in 2008, artist and designer Kris Harzinski was inspired enough to form the Hand Drawn Map Association in order to collect such simple drawings of the everyday. Fascinated by their form and beauty he soon amassed a wide variety of maps. From Here to There celebrates these ephemeral documents, usually forgotten and discarded, and gives then their due as important artefacts. The book includes more than 140 maps often with a story attached and features found maps, fictional maps and maps of unusual places. You can’t help but be enchanted by the whimsy and beauty of this book. A perfect gift.
Stuart Carrier
stranger, you bear your captor’s child and you raise him. For five years, two of you are locked in a tiny room, your world contained within. Room tells the story through the eyes of Jack, a bright inquisitive five year old boy who, totally oblivious to the horrendous events that lead to his birth, has never had contact with anyone other than his mother and the occasional visit from the man who abducted her. With their captor becoming more erratic and increasingly violent his mother knows their only option is to escape, but how? What ensues is a fascinating, thrilling and often times disturbing tale of innocence lost and then reclaimed. I don’t want to give anything else away about Room because it is truly a nail-biting experience. Room is less about abduction and more about maternal love and what a parent is prepared to do to protect their child. The narrative, driven through the eyes of a five year old was interesting, a little tricky to start with but once you fell into the rhythm, you were led through a pretty satisfying tale. This book has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2010.
I did not read this as a redneck memoir as I hail from white trash so I felt pleasantly at home with Rainbow Pie. 193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Do you want to buy an e-book? Well, maybe. I certainly have an envy of my husband’s brand new iPad. I can see how useful it would be reading my friends’ manuscripts, or new books from publishers that are too fresh for pretty book-like covers. E-books never forget where you are up to and sometimes you can make notes in the margins without damaging the book. But there is something delectable about a gorgeous bound book. It is all in the design. The jackets can be as covetable as lollies as they gleam gorgeously from their proud face-out position on the shelf. There are some that feel so good you just want to stroke them. Then, or course you have classic designs, like the Popular Penguins with their orange striped jackets that have such an emotional connection with us from all those old Penguin paperbacks we remember from our youth.
e From the Editor Krissy Kneen
This edition of the Avid Magazine is devoted to the fine art of design. We take a sneaky look into the world of book design, hanging out with some designers, taking a big long look at some books we think are so beautiful that we would never recommend you replace the paper version with an e-book. This is just a taste of the books we love to touch and to take home. There are so many more. Take a short stroll around our shelves and you will see what I mean.
A little bit of Italy
by Verdi Guy
I’ve realised that I am a bit of a slow traveller. I have been on the road for over three months now and have only been to eight countries in Europe. A lot of people do this in a couple of weeks. On one of the Contiki tours you can go to France, Czech Republic, Italy and everywhere in between in just 12 days. This is sure to be exciting and thrilling but I much prefer a slower pace. This may have its downside though because after three months in Europe I realised I’d hardly seen any of Italy – a must for most travellers. With one week left before my visa expired I decided that a trip to the land of pizza, pasta and gelati was in order. I kicked in off my trip in the North of Italy in Milan. This city is filled with fashion, art, music, great food, street life and events. While I was there the Milan Fashion Week and Milan Food Festival were both in full swing, so the city was certainly alive. The real joy of Milan is wondering the streets, sampling gelati and watching the incredibly fashionable locals go about their daily lives. But for those who want cultural sights there is also the Duomo, the Scala Theatre and Da Vinci’s Last Supper to check out. After Milan I headed off to spend a few nights in Venice. It may be overrun by tourists but there is no denying the beauty of Venice. Getting lost in the back streets, sitting by the water reading a book and visiting the wonderful food market were some daily activities I enjoyed. Listening to bands in a lit up Piazza San Marco and watching the sun set from the board walk are just two reasons to visit this unique city. After three hours of sitting on the floor of an overbooked train, I was very excited to arrive in Florence. The capital of Tuscany is known worldwide for its amazing art and architecture. Many of the world’s top museums and art galleries are here. I only had time to see a few but they were certainly amazing. Academia, Bargello, Duomo and Michaelangelo Hill all made a lasting impression. Florence is also a real hit for those who love shopping with a myriad of markets selling everything from clothes, food, souvenirs and of course leather goods. My last stop in Italy was the capital, an incredibly fascinating city with sights that are nothing short of breath taking. The cultural significance of Rome is seen in the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Palatine Hill, the Vatican City and the many fountains and churches in the city centre. The streets of Rome are colourful, exciting and chaotic. There is an overwhelming amount to do and see. Whether you want cultural wonders, vibrant streets, delicious food or historic sights, Italy is sure to satisfy.
Well Designed Books
Krissy Kneen
Kasia Janczewski
The Art of McSweeney’s
Censoring An Iranian Map as Art Katherine Harmon Love Story
Editors of McSweeney’s HB $65.00
Shahriar Mandanipour. Jacket by Nathan Burton PB $30.00
When is a book not actually a book? Well, when it is a McSweeney’s book. Sometimes it is a deck of cards, sometimes it is a series of magnetised notepads, a bundle of junk mail, a furry readable creature. McSweeney’s is a brand begun by author Dave Eggers, quality contemporary writing presented in a hyperdesigned manner. We have been fans of the McSweeney’s library for years. You can buy editions of the quarterly journal, The McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern from Avid, but now there is a book dedicated to amazing artwork from the publishing house. Some of our favourite artists, designers and graphic novelists have all worked for McSweeney’s including Chris Ware and Art Spiegelman. This magnificent volume takes you behind the scenes in the journey of some of the most well known McSweeney’s books. Interviews with designers and editors tell the real story behind the world’s most covetable books. In true McSweeney’s style the jacket of the book folds out to become a double sided-poster. The interviews are enlightening, but the full-colour images are what you will come back to time after time. This is a great reference book for any artists or crafts people. It is packed full of ideas to help you look outside the square when planning your next project.
Hundreds of books pour onto our new release fiction table all year round vying to win our attention with the perfect combination of colour, image and font. There are so many beautifully jacketed stories that come into our hands but only a few manage to stay in our memory. This is usually because the story inside fulfills and exceeds the expectations set up by the cover. Censoring An Iranian Story is definitely a book that is gorgeous inside out . The title is bold in black capital letters embedded in a shimmering Islamic pattern of gold printed on a translucent white paper that wraps around the book. While I was first admiring the gold geometric pattern up close I could see that an image lay just beneath the dust jacket. I gently slipped off the glittering paper and discovered a haunting black and white photograph inhabiting the front and back covers. I met the gaze of a young Iranian women seated on an ornate wooden chair with a newspaper opened before her that had blocks of text blacked out. It was the perfect introduction to this stunning layered narrative about the youthful romance of Sara and Dara in modern Iran told through the eyes of the author who desperately aches to write a love story. Mandanipour incorporates sections of text that have been ruled out as he interweaves the agony of the lovers’ struggle with his own as a writer as they all navigate the strict social codes, censorship and merciless interrogations that constrain their country. A beautiful visual and narrative experience.
Fiona Stager
HB $49.50 In Map as Art, Harmon collects 360 colourful, map-related artistic visions by artists for whom maps are the inspiration for creating art. It’s a beguiling and inspiring collection of maps which have such intrinsic beauty. Find within, Seattle’s changing neighborhoods on woodblock prints. Here is a map of a London subway in red cotton thread stitched on rice paper. Here’s the Caspian Sea in plywood. Map as Art invites you to daydream and fall within the maps into such different worlds.
Other Books About Maps You Are Here: Personal Geographies and other Maps of the Imagination Katherine Harmon $40.00 Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited and Never Will Judith Schalansky HB $39.95
Krissy Kneen
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth Chris Ware PB $32.95 This book blew my mind. Not only is it the most beautiful graphic novel you are likely to ever see, but it has a way of getting into your head and changing the way you think. It is a story about intergenerational mistakes. The mistakes of the father, or indeed, the grandfather are often the mistakes of the child. Jimmy lives this and learns this the hard way. It is quite a bleak little book but it is so powerful that it won the National Book Award — the equivalent of the USA Man Booker Prize. Recently, the panel of the First Tuesday Bookclub (ABC TV) raved about this little gem of a book. This is definitely not a kid’s book, it is full of longing and loneliness and regret. If you want a gentler introduction to the wonders of Chris Ware we keep his Acme Novelty Datebooks in stock. Chris Ware is also often featured on the cover of the New Yorker. Jimmy Corrigan is the most amazing work of art and literature and we urge you to take a look at it. If you read it cover to cover your brain may never be the same.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Avid Reader’s youngest bookseller is 16yr old NellieMae Godwin-Welch. She recently read Girl Saves Boy by Steph Bowe a 16 yr old author whose book was published through Text Publishing. Steph took some time out from her whirlwind author tour to answer some questions about her work. When did you start to write? Have you always had a dream of becoming an author? I started writing as a five-year-old, and began writing seriously at fourteen (I wrote Girl Saves Boy the year I was fifteen – which feels like a long time ago, but which was only last year!) – I’ve always really enjoyed writing fiction, and dreamt of becoming an author since I was seven. How often do you write? Is it hard managing it alongside your schooling, friends and family commitments? I try and write every evening, but I don’t force myself to write – sometimes other things come up, or I’ve written a lot in the past few days, and I’ll be totally uninspired. It’s very tricky to stay on track with my schoolwork and have time to relax with friends and family as well as keep up with my writing, but I’m a lot happier when I do make that time to write. What other authors or books do you gain inspiration from? I get a little bit of inspiration from everything I read – as well as movies I see, and experiences I have, and conversations – so I don’t really have specific literary influences. I try more to capture real life rather than imitate another author’s work, because it’s a lot easier and more fun to write in your own voice.
of little bits of many people I know. So I don’t think any of the characters have a big resemblance to myself, but I can relate to a lot of the emotions they experience. I think that’s the most important thing if you want to write realistic characters – being able to empathise with them. What advice would you give to teenagers, like yourself, who have dreams of publishing a book? I’ve got three pieces of advice for teenage aspiring authors: one, just write! Don’t worry about talking about writing, or reading about writing, or blogging about writing – the only real way to become a better writer is to write, and write a lot! Two, don’t let other people discourage you! Don’t get caught up in negativity, and don’t doubt yourself too much – if you’re passionate and motivated, you can achieve your dreams, at least when it comes to writing. And, finally, three: Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. There’s no race, and you don’t have to be published as a teenager – enjoying writing is the most important part. What do you plan to do next? Is there another book along the way already? I am at work on a second book, but I’m still keeping the details under wraps. I’m still writing contemporary YA, but I’m also still studying, so I’m focusing a bit on schoolwork as well.
A Food Lover’s Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela Dee Nolan HB $100.00 ‘A constant on my Camino was the powerful sensation of a message across time, a guiding hand reaching out to me from those who had passed this way before.’ A thousand-year-old pilgrimage route and food traditions stretching back de toda la vida – since forever. These are what Dee Nolan set out to experience on her pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela – through the rich farming lands of southern France and northern Spain, green Spain. The monks who came here in the Middle Ages to look after the first pilgrims planted grapevines from their homelands far away. Now food lovers come seeking the magnificent wines made using grapes grown in those same ancient vineyards, along with sublime cooking and fresh, luscious produce. Dee’s own emotional journey along the Way of St James – el camino de Santiago – took her back to the very heart of things: why we should care about what we eat and how it is produced, why we need escape valves like the pilgrimage in our busy modern lives, and why she found herself, after a long career in publishing, back on her grandfather’s farm and connecting with the soil. This joyful book tells the story of Dee’s camino, of the pilgrimage itself and of the food traditions that sustain us all. Following the route of those first pilgrims, Dee met wise cooks and farmers who are finding that the future lies in the past. And she realised why, in our secular age, we are so captivated by this medieval Christian pilgrimage.
I know that many author’s traits and characteristics are often woven into their fictional characters. Does your protagonist of the novel, Jewel, bear any resemblance to yourself? I think there’s a little bit of me in all of the characters in my novel – same as there are lots 193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Reuben Crossman, designer of Quay by Peter Gilmore: I’ve been extremely fortunate to have designed a book for one of the country’s best and most respected chefs. Peter Gilmore’s vision for ‘nature-based cuisine’ is, to say the least, one of a kind. His passion for seeking out beauty in rare and unusual produce has led him to become a pioneer in the Australian food scene and elevate Sydney’s Quay to one of the worlds top 50 restaurants in 2010. It quickly became evident to me I had to really begin to understand Peter’s thought process and the ideas behind his finished dishes to have any chance of communicating this visually to a wider audience. No small task. I began to see that for Peter, texture was as important as flavour and that many of his dishes consisted of subtle layers of harmonious flavours creating a sublime balance and ultimately a sensual feast for the diner. My ideas then became concentrated in extending this theory into the book and allowing the reader to explore and experience this in a physical object. I wanted to create a journey that takes the food and produce out of a formal restaurant setting and become a more abstract representation of Peter’s art. The concept behind the Quay cover came about through spending a year developing and photographing the internal pages. Over this period I was able to really understand Peter’s food philosophy which became fundamental in establishing the direction of the final result. I needed to create a visual that was unique, something that utilised similar principles to his dishes by exploring layers and textures and a solution that was suggestive of what lies inside without being obvious. I decided to paint a series of abstract images which added a creative and organic element to the overall concept. I liked the idea of building a very textured representation of the blind varnish I included in the internal design and enhanced this by adding a multi-level embossing plate to really bring this finish to life. The colour palette needed to be calm and neutral, it had to reflect the warm metallic platinum I have used throughout. This colour range also works to enhance the vibrancy of the internal photography once you open the book. My next challenge was to then include another layer that helped marry the ‘nature based’ imagery of the internal pages and create a real sense of depth and intrigue. There were variations of this idea presented but I thought the flowers and the shell portrayed Peter’s vision most accurately. My approach to the typography was to keep it elegant and clean which I think works in harmony with the overall design. My aim was to create a book that stands apart from the usual food publications on a shelf. A book that conveys Peter’s passion for nature, for creating beautiful dishes and inspiring the reader as to the possibilities of working with and appreciating the diversity of produce we have in Australia.
Emily Gregory is half of the design company Em&Jon Design. She works as a freelance book designer. We talked to her about her work. How long do you get to design a book? Usually the time given for a book cover is about 3 weeks for rough sketches and then anything from another couple of weeks up to many months by the time final covers are finished. Internals of books can take up to 2-3 months from start to finish. What is your role in the process? Our role in the process varies depending on the publisher and the kinds of books the publishing house specialise in. We usually work alongside the editor and art director of the publishing company. Sometimes it will be to just do a front cover, spine and back cover and sometimes it will be an entire book either typeset or if non-fiction designed throughout. For non-fiction books we often will be asked to first design a small presentation book consisting of a cover and 6-8 spreads. This is used by the sales team to pitch the book to foreign rights buyers. Designing this snapshot is a really fun part of the project and seeing the book sold off the design feels like a great achievement. What are the most difficult bits in the process — is it easy to get it wrong? It can be a challenge when there is little or no image budget for a cover - but then again that can be an exciting challenge also. Often in the process from concept to final of a cover there can be many revisions made which of course means it can take up a great deal of time (which makes time management tricky) - though again this in some ways makes the final product more rewarding. What are your favourite parts? My favourite part of the process is the satisfaction that comes from designing a book that marketing, author and publisher is 100% happy with. The initial concept brainstorming stage is exciting as the possibilities of what direction it could go are at your fingertips. But the most satisfying is designing internal spreads as well as the cover - to have created the entire package is a great feeling! Where did you learn about book design? How long have you been doing it? I have always been interested in books and the design of books as objects for as long as I can remember. I focused on this field during my university studies and I was lucky enough to get a job at a non-fiction book book publisher in the UK following that, where I worked for a few years. I now work freelance with my husband and have been for the past year, which is hugely rewarding and always fresh and interesting. Do you have any suggestions for emerging designers who want to get into the business? My suggestion for emerging designers would be to practice at the development of cover designs in your own time and aim to work within a publishing company at least to begin with. Working within the clockwork of the company teaches you so much about the industry and the skills to set you up forever. I’d really recommend it to anyone as a profession... to be paid to help create great books and to help tell stories makes me pinch myself daily!
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Do you get out much? An interview with a man who designs some of our favourite books. by Zoë Strout David Pearson is one of my deisgn heros. He designs books for Penguin. I summoned the courage to email him recently and was rewarded with some insigthful and witty answers to the BURNING questions of GRAPHIC DESIGN. What do you like about designing covers for books? Many things really. I like to think that what I do could promote reading. I like creating tangible, intimate objects and I like that every job brings with it a fresh set of challenges (and a clean slate!).
What other jobs have you had in the past? I was once a window cleaner and have also worked in a fish processing factory.
Do you read the book before you design its cover? A: 80% of the time I do. I don’t speak French but design a lot of abstract book covers for the French market. Their inception relies on a collaborative process with the publisher (and lots of rejected visuals).
Sweet or savoury? Savoury.
Do you prefer fact or fiction? Fact.
Do you have any pets? Do they feature in your work? None at the moment, although a bigger house would certainly come with a dog.
Do your family understand what it is you do all day? Do you describe yourself as a ‘book designer’ I think so. I can communicate much more easily what goes or ‘graphic designer’? Perhaps rather unwisely, I refer to myself as a print designer. This should mean I have around into a cover design than a typesetting job (my first role within publishing). And the fact that my name is on the cover proves two years’ income left before I have to retire. to them that I’m not lying. What do you want to be when you grow up? Once Do you work 9–5?: It’s more like 11am–2am. books are replaced by robots I’ll probably revert to being a window cleaner. I enjoyed doing that. Do you choose the typeface? I do. ‘I chose the typeface’ is going to be my epitaph. How many books do you have on your bookcase that you have actually read? I have hundreds of books Do you prefer Illustration or typography? Illustration and I’d be lying if I said that I’d read them all. In fact, most when I’m drunk; typography when I’m not. are purely decorative or file copies. I’m very shallow that way. Most of the books that I read and enjoy, I give away to friends. Do you get out much? No. I have an archive tan. What are three words to describe your first ever book design for a major publisher? A: Ill-informed, ill-conceived and pretentious. I think they were humouring me because I was new. What are you reading right now? Is it for work or fun? I’m reading a lot of books about Russian culture in the Stalinist period by means of research for a book I’m writing. So ... both! Which work would you like to be remembered for? Something amazing that I haven’t quite got round to yet. Do you draw much? I draw mostly when I’m drunk. I force friends to participate in ten second drawing competitions (which we often ask unsuspecting strangers to judge).
Favourite author? I feel very privileged to have worked for Cormac McCarthy recently. Obviously book designers don’t often get to choose what they read and so the quality of the writing can vary wildly but I really hit the jackpot there. Without thinking -- top 3 books and why. Watership Down, Treasure Island and The Count of Monte Cristo: all of which cater brilliantly for my stunted attention span (and are written in a way that children can understand). Zoë Strout is a graphic designer who lives in Brisbane, who one day aspires to be just like David Pearson. She and David are also fans of Jenny Grigg (a Brisbane-based book designer). Zoë has a cat called Monty who often secretly features in her work.
Book covers & logo courtesy of David Pearson, with Sherlock Holmes detail in the form of a t-shirt, illustrated by Michael Kirkham.
Something old, something new. Kelly Doust, author of recycled craft books, The Crafty Minx and The Crafty Kid shares her passion for reinventing old designs into something new to love. A Life in Frocks by Kelly Doust will be launched at Avid Reader on November 24th at 6pm for a 6.30pm start.
Several years ago, my husband and I found our first home together. A small Victorian-era cottage, it had the period features to make us swoon, a modest garden, and an original fifties kitchen and bathroom we planned to update immediately. Surrounded by quiet streets, parks, and within easy access to the city, public transport and a thriving local community in the form of great delis, cafes and a couple of excellent butchers, it was perfect. Naturally, a number of other young couples also found our first home as well, ensuring a lengthy bidding war at auction which saw us extending ourselves to the absolute limit when we finally secured our beloved house, tens of thousands of dollars over budget. Six weeks later we moved in, with our meagre possessions bought to suit previously rented accommodation, and bursting with sunny optimism. But not only did our IKEA furniture look out of place in our atmospheric cottage; it all fit snugly in the one room. That left us with several bare rooms still to furnish, and numerous blank walls to fill — but not a bean to do it with. I have always preferred the home which appears to be filled with an accumulation of several decades’ (even centuries’) worth of prized possessions, and tells a rich and complex story. Being the daughter of a builder, I lived in countless forgotten homes and attended many schools as a child, with rarely an opportunity to grow attached to my surroundings. Then as an adult I moved often—to Melbourne, Hong Kong and London—before settling back in Sydney with my husband (himself smuggled home from the last city) after the better part of a decade. Having lived in England for years, I’d had the opportunity to visit many urban and rural homes laden with the weight of history in the form of exquisite antique furniture, artworks and floor coverings. But also in the architecture, gardens, brickwork and plaster,
lovingly patched up and added to by numerous generations of inhabitants. I’m not just talking about stately country piles, but the tiny terraces and modest apartments which wore their advanced age with grace and charm, and burst with an eclectic collection of possessions picked up on their owners’ travels. This is what I longed for—a real sense of history—when looking for a place of our own. Adrift on the one sofa in our old/new cottage, which felt like a life raft bobbing in the empty sea, we set to planning what we needed. Ideally, this would necessitate a trip to a designer showroom and several antiques stores. In reality, it meant buying bits and bobs from local charity stores, flea markets and auction houses instead; reinventing them to look less like other people’s cast-offs and more like something we had deliberately chosen to live with. First up came the wardrobes to store all our clothes and shoes in; easily comprising the biggest portion of our belongings (or at least on a par with our collection of books). We took room measurements along with us to an auction house, wandering through the huge, musty warehouse and edging our way along the little floor space not filled with so much discarded furniture. I admired several attractively carved and authentically distressed armoires, the likes of which you might find in a Provençal farmhouse. But when it came time to bid, prices soared well into the thousands, pushed up by dealers who knew how hotly coveted they were. Eventually we worked out that the antiques which didn’t sell were the hulking, outmoded items stained to various shades of dark brown. Pieces that put me in mind of grandfather clocks, twirly moustaches, cigars and woodpanelled gentlemen’s clubs. It occurred to me that, given the right treatment, the massive art deco cedar wardrobe I eventually found could look almost as good as the French country house antiques I pined for. Forget about preservation, I was going to paint it white!
I almost lost my nerve when the auctioneer/ delivery man baulked at my plans, which I shared with an expectation of similar enthusiasm. I believe the words travesty and sacrilege were involved—he looked as if he wanted to rescind his offer of selling it to us at the reserve price (a paltry amount when compared to those final armoire bids) so we didn’t have to attend the following week’s auction. But with our ’robe passed in for several weeks, and already awkwardly angled around the doorframe into our second bedroom, he needed to free up space on the auction house floor for new items and shook his head. And there the massive, imposing piece stood for several months, sucking up all the light in the room and making it appear even smaller than it actually was. Until eventually, I had a dental operation which necessitated two weeks’ recovery at home while the swelling and bruising on my face went down. Unable to speak without excruciating pain, dosed up on drugs, and yet climbing the walls with boredom, I started my reinvention project; stripping back layer upon layer of lacquer with sandpaper and a brush. Next up, I applied an undercoat. Several applications of undercoat, in fact, to cover up the morbid black-brown, before painstakingly layering on numerous coats of Porter’s milk paint—a traditional French surface treatment which looks beautifully soft and chalky when done, but can be a nightmare to mix and apply. When it finally dried (around the same time my poor mouth had healed) I rubbed in some sweet-smelling beeswax to seal the chalkiness of the paint. I had never reworked a piece of furniture quite so successfully before, and was thrilled with the results. It still remains, to this day, one of the most treasured items of furniture in our home. During that year, I started making many more things for our home from recycled materials: sofa cushions out of fifties tablecloths and silk scarves, patchwork curtains from charity-store
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
clothes, collage paintings from old postcards and magazines, re-upholstered mid-century chairs, and throws from damaged, dated knitwear (to name just a few), which I fancied look anything but old and fusty, or the kind of thing you’d find in your grandmother’s house— most of them whipped up on the seventies-era Janome I also bought second-hand. I refashioned items to resemble the pieces I so lusted after in interior design magazines—always with my own twist on an idea—and came up with new ways to create the basic utilitarian items we were in need of. In doing so, I followed the lead of trained designers who trawled the annals of vintage pieces also for quality craftsmanship and inspiration. I developed a knack for homing in on the best and finest second-hand objects to transform into something new from market and charity store finds, learning first-hand that necessity is indeed the mother of invention. And when friends commented upon one thing or another that they liked or asked where I had purchased it, I made them something similar for a birthday, wedding or baby shower gift. This also felt much more meaningful and personal than buying something new, and appeared to be received with sincere appreciation. I applied the same instinct to the clothes I wore, resurrecting an earlier love of trawling the second-hand dealers for vintage pieces as a teenager (again, out of necessity and a desire for high quality pieces), overhauling well-made-butbadly-dated frocks I found in beguiling fabrics. I turned them into chic, fitted pieces instead, and repaired or dyed countless tops and skirts and cardigans damaged by moths and age and lack of care to look, somehow, more timeless. I knew my new-found skills were not really new — countless generations before me had followed the wise old adage; make do and mend. And not just to be frugal, but out of a real sense of respect for the items created by earlier generations and those talented craftspeople who made them. But it’s just not something my
own generation has a great affinity for. Children of the affluent eighties, we’re used to mass-production and ever-faster cycles of changing fashions, and those stores (veritable monuments to desire) which cater to updating our homes and our wardrobes on a whim, just because we’ve grown bored with what we already own—however well it still functions, and however capable it might be of reinvention. I couldn’t claim to know a great deal about pedigree, but I was always on the lookout for well-designed, well-made pieces which had survived the test of time for a reason. I daydreamed about their multiple purposes, and the things they had witnessed over time. And I wasn’t precious about what I would eventually do with them; approaching each with a real sense of adventure, safe in the knowledge that a careful facelift could inject those tired pieces with brand new life. To me, it was precisely the layers of history — the sense of something being pre-loved and cherished –and the multiple approaches to designing and re-designing a piece for use that I adored—brand new, on-trend items actually started to feel characterless by comparison. If each reinvented item was the beginning of a long and illuminating conversation, many of the brand new pieces I saw—or at least the ones I could afford—seemed only capable of small talk. When my husband and I started collecting these pre-loved objects, we fully intended to upgrade at a later date. But here’s the thing: we’ve decided that, despite the fact they cost us next to nix, we love those pieces we had to reinvent in the early days. So much so, I doubt we’ll get rid of them for some time yet. To us, they represent the very best features of design from earlier eras (or at least the features we most admire, and that’s what counts), but with uniquely modern makeovers to suit our home and our lifestyles. And, above all, they work absolutely perfectly—I’m not about to
discard them in favour of something new overnight. If we do replace them eventually, it will be with the new-found objects we fell in love with and simply had to have, or pieces we admire and carefully save up for, like the Eames chair and footstool we’ve had our eye on for years, or the clear Perspex Louis Ghost chairs by Philippe Starck to go around our yet-to-find French farmhouse table. Or the 2.55 bag for myself; that classic purse designed by Coco Chanel herself in February, 1955. And I have continued to reinvent old pieces purely for the love of it: it’s where I found the inspiration to write two books specialising in recycled crafts, and another book I’m currently working on, which will be published around this time next year. From little things, big things grow. This is how beautifully unique and discerning style evolves. Over the years I’ve visited so many houses designed to within an inch of their lives and with the benefit of very deep pockets, which appear to have no little or no character. The more modest homes which positively thrum with the personality and energy of their owners are the ones that stick in my memory—they are the places I would far prefer to live in, any day. Ditto for the people who seem to garner their own personal style from a blend of many influences, rather than just purchasing the latest fad on the rack—it’s a quality which is far more appealing, and reveals an enviable amount of selfassurance. I’m not against buying new things which are well-made, and I have nothing but the deepest respect and admiration for the artists, designers and craftspeople who make new items afresh every day. But I can’t go past the clever design of bygone eras in my own home and wardrobe, or cease to take advantage of the amazing things other people throw away every day. To me, it just seems to make more sense—ethically, environmentally, economically, and for my own sense of unique personal style.
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fat arse
by Karen Hitchcock, from ‘Little White Slips’
(excerpt)
Tina approaches me from behind, the way that she does, addicted as she is to checking out my arse. Hoping it’s still bigger than hers. And it is! And her smile is genuinely happy. How are you! she says, gripping my arm, You look great! she lies.
It had happened the way that it does, gradually, over a year or three, no time to jog, more reasons to bake cake, more money to eat out, to buy ingredients hand-snipped and shipped from Spain. Not to mention bad genes. And notice how everyone’s an amateur chef now? And that hideous word foodie? Nigella drools and licks and suddenly hedonism’s legitimate. I simply stop saying no. Cream? Indiscriminate. Butter? Make mine thick and Danish. Cheese? Unmitigated. Chocolate? Let it pour where it will. Suddenly you have a midnight argument for the eating of cake: you’re not fat, they’re your sexy, luscious lines and if you had a cooking show you’d wear Nigella’s jewel-coloured twin-sets over extra-strength control garments toogarments that kick your gut to your tits and your thighs to your arse, giving you a waist just like hers. You can barely breathe with them on, and your sweat stings your chaffing skin, but you’d wear them were you hefting your body around a set. But you’re not, you’re just going to work as the ward nurse on Respiratory and you have to wear a navy blue and white uniform and so you don’t wear control garments. You let it pour where it will. And it will, it will pour. As a rule all of my friends met me at eateries. And for a bunch of skinny girls, they would eat a surprising quantity of sausage rolls, lasagne with extra cheese and fries. They would stuff their bony faces with food dripping in fat, as if my fat presence somehow liberated them. I would eat something small and watch them groan with pleasure and lick their knife and stuff their face. Oh how I love these extra large flaky pastry sausage rolls, I’m so addicted to them, I might be naughty and get another! I knew the next day, the next seven days, there’d be celery and carrots in penitence, but it seemed they had to pretend they could eat what they wanted. Or that with my fat eyes watching they were temporarily free to eat what they wanted? Try it some time as an experiment, eat lunch with a fat friend. I bet you order dessert. As for me, I was always sitting next to some bingeing skinny friend, at some eatery, conscious of the double chin sliding down my neck, and trying to eat healthy, normal-sized food. Because contrary to popular imagination, once you are fat you only need to eat a normal amount of food to stay that way. Fat people don’t eat five hundred pizzas and a trolley load of M & Ms each night, oh no they don’t, once they have become fat, they eat
just like you. Once grown, the fat is perfectly content to stay there in its soft rolls, untended, sworn at, despised. It has very few needs.
But then my fat starts to melt away- quite quickly it turns out- and I haven’t seen Tina for six months until one Saturday we meet again in the spot that we meet, out the front of Seamstress Restaurant. I’m leaning against the door frame, hands in the front pockets of my (new) (small) (tight) jeans and she comes up behind me, and she’s not sure it’s me- I know she hopes it’s not me by the way she says Hello? Mandy? and peeks round me like I’m a (small) corner and there might be a murderer on the other sidebecause guess what! I lost 32 kilos- enough fat to fill a wheelbarrow my doctor said and then laughed- and guess what! My arse is not big! In fact my arse is now definitely, unmistakably smaller than her arse! And she’s not smiling when she makes it round the corner-that-is-me, and there is that fear look in her eyes as if my arse is a murderer and I wonder: why would my arse make my friend Tina afraid? So we’re sitting in the restaurant and the conversation’s stiff as a corpse and she doesn’t mention my skinny at all until a guy I haven’t seen for years walks over from the bar and says Jesus Christ Mand, look at ya’! I hardly recognized ya’, you’re so skinny! And after he and I finish our little talk, during which he keeps checking out my biceps- eyes to biceps, eyes to biceps- as if he has to keep confirming that they’re really there and during which Tina sighs loud enough that I can hear her over the re-remixed Blondie- after all that Tina goes Yeah, so what happened to you? As if my answer is going to be I have cancer or I have leukaemia or I developed multiple serious food intolerances and chronic diphtheria. It’s incredible how invigorating it is to sit in front of your friend and to no longer be sitting in front of her as her-fat-friend. She will have the fear-in-the-eyes thing, alternating with the don’t-quite-know-where-to-look thing, alternating with the I-no-longer-quite-know-who-I am thing. Your friend will be shaken. As if the world has suddenly revealed itself to be a science-fiction novel, rather than Sex and The City. And she’ll be shocked and in grief because- let’s face it — a fat friend is a good friend! Ideal to take shopping! As in, (look of excitement!), Let’s try on dresses! What an ideal audience you will be. How could you not admire her not-thin-butthinner-than-yours ankles?! How could you not notice her not-skinny-but-skinnier-than-yours stomach?! How could she not feel terrific and reassured throwing open your change-room door to ask your opinion on her midriff and finding you bent over, your bare lumpy arse to
the door, stuck like sausage meat in a limegreen chiffon shift that’s doubled up over your head and actually tearing? And she thinks you should be grateful, after all she has such an expert eye. Man, aint’ that the truth. Clothes on or off she has you sized up in a second. Her sweeping look, laser-sharp, peels your skin. So what happened? She was fiddling with her chopsticks, not eating her pork belly while I hoed into my crispy snapper. Chew chew chew, gesture gesture, fish pinned between my sticks, as if I eat like this every day. I told her I’d had full body lipo, that I had to wear a compression suit head to toe for 6 weeks, I told her they vacuumed 20 kilos of fat out from under my skin, just hoovered it all off in one afternoon, and it only cost 16 grand and although I needed 7 litres of blood transfused during the op and three weeks of intravenous antibiotics and a week in ICU because of staphylococcal septicaemia it was definitely worth it and after all, I said, chopsticks around a nut, it’s just the facial of the 21st century. You should have seen her face: self-righteous horror mixed with glee mixed with relief mixed with gloating. Then I laughed and said As if, Tina. I had, of course, looked into it. I’d studied before and after photos, made and cancelled a few dozen appointments. It seemed so quick, so simple. And it’s not even expensive when you consider the widely available interest-freerepayment-plans. But jeez, the potential for stuff ups is immense. Allowing someone to remodel your flesh… well how do you ensure that your surgeon is a decent sculptor? The boys at my high-school who became doctors all hated art. What if my fat arse came out thin, but shaped like a turnip or a brick or a volcano. What if it was lumpy or lopsided. There are limits to the amount of poly-filler you can use to plug up holes in the human body. These surgeons with their weekend diplomas from the Institute De Cosmetique et Beaute, International wereright up until that weekend course- performing appendectomies, tonsillectomies and polopectomies, they were ripping out clearly defined, clearly diseased bits. Suddenly I’m supposed to trust them to re-create me into an after picture I won’t regret? And the detail about the blood loss and infections? That was straight from google. There’s at least one woman walking around Nth America with a cannon-ball sized lipo dent in her outer thigh. And one woman’s skin became so scarred and tight after her below chin lipo got infected that her head is fixed in a pardon-me-I’m-just-looking-forsomething-I-dropped-on-the-floor position. One minute you want a thin chin, the next minute you can’t look up. Starvation seemed a safer option.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Drowning Man by Chris Somerville
We all watched the drowning man from the side of the lake. Someone said that one of us should swim out and save him, but we were apprehensive. The drowning man, in his panic, could pull us down with him. We all knew the drowning man but none of us liked him and he had no desire to be liked. Did that still mean he deserved to drown? We discussed it amongst ourselves on the side of the lake. Brom had an excellent idea for retrieving the body; we all tie our boats together and then sink hooks into the water and trawl the bottom of the lake. The problem with this was that the drowning man was still drowning and not a drowned body ready to be recovered. We waited on the side of the lake. I tell my students that we waited, but they seem neither impressed nor horrified. They yawn and draw pictures on their desks, which won’t last. The drawings will be wiped away by the cleaning staff. I don’t view it as a means of artistic expression; these are not the Buddhists that destroy their artwork to show us the importance of the world. My students are just vandals. I don’t believe that my students hate me, it just seems that whatever it is they need to learn, I am not the one to teach them. My mind is elsewhere when I talk to them, or when I write on the blackboard in chalk. I can’t stand the feeling of that though, so I try to avoid it. There’ll be lots of dictation and hand outs until the faculty gives me a white board and some felt pens. I don’t know how drowning feels, though it could hardly be pleasant. I was once pulled out into the ocean and for a second I panicked and felt the cool rush of water over my head and a knotting in my chest. I managed to swim out of it, but for a while it was terrifying. When we pulled the drowned man’s body from the water someone relieved him of his wrist watch and held it to their ear to see if it was still ticking. Water spills under the classroom door. I first notice it when I drop a stick of chalk on the ground and it lands in a puddle. When I pick the chalk up it leaves a white cloud in the water. I sigh and tell everyone that perhaps going home would be the best idea. ‘Should I call your parents?’ I say. ‘We are too old for that kind of thing,’ my class says.
But outside there is too much water. It fills the car park and comes down the corridors in small waves, no more than a golden line moving across the linoleum. I think it’s strange because it isn’t raining. The water seems to be rising, gradually. ‘Well it seems none that of us are going anywhere,’ I tell my students and they all groan together like a goddamned choir. I knew the drowning man’s wife; I was sleeping with her. I turned up at her house to tell her the bad news and also, maybe, to sleep with her. She was more upset than I thought she’d be, even though no one liked her husband, including herself. When we were together she would lie against me and complain about him. Her head rising up and down on my chest as I breathed. The drowning man’s wife asked me if I had anything to do with it. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ I said in my best hurt voice, but I could tell it wasn’t enough. My students call me ‘Teach’ or ‘Teacher’ or ‘Sir’, but never by my name, which is Richard. None of them has ever brought an apple to class and placed it on the corner of my desk. The other teachers in the staff lounge are well liked. Between classes they are usually chewing on apples. Water falls from the ceiling. I tell my class that we need to get higher up and they scrape their chairs across the floor and fill their backpacks with their pencils. Outside it begins to rain, but the flooding preceded it, I’m sure. I make a mental note of it because it seems important. I lead my students up the stairs, which has become a gentle stream, towards the roof. I tell them that the elevator, in this kind of weather, would be unsafe. It seems like the wrong idea, I know, to head towards the roof if water is cascading down from there, but my students need leadership and there isn’t anywhere else to go. I once conducted a study on drowning and the effects of drowning upon people. This was after the drowning man’s wife had decided never to see me again. I interviewed people who had come close to drowning. One man told me that after he had not drowned he decided to join a somewhat popular religion. A lot of people, after they had almost drowned, had made life decisions of varying importance. They ranged
from asking people to marry them, to simply changing the carpeting in their living rooms. I wrote that being that close to death makes you more decisive. I did experiments on myself, in the bathtub, but I don’t think it works that way. The drowning study was for a regional university. Afterwards people began to offer me teaching jobs, because of the success of the study. The door to the roof is locked. I try to kick it down, but that sort of thing is much harder than it looks. My legs hurt and I have no plan. I sit down on the stairs, water streaming gently past me. I prop up my head with my hands. A lot of the students start to make jokes, mean jokes, about me. I can’t hear the jokes specifically, but I can tell enough about them by the way the students are laughing and by the way they look at me. I tell them all to go back down to the classroom, while I feel like weeping. My study on drowning won an award and for a while people were interested in it. It became a bit much. I got sick of going on interview shows to talk about drowning, I am well versed on many other subjects. I spoke on a panel, to a half full auditorium. The other members of the panel were all experts on drowning. They were a pretty gloomy bunch. Ten minutes after the panel finished I called and accepted one of the teaching jobs. In the classroom we wade through water that’s waist deep. I open the door outside and more water rushes in. It rises to just below our armpits all of a sudden and then continues to rise gradually. I tell my students to find anything that floats and leave the building. They stay still and I try to think of anything in the classroom that could be used to float upon. I tell the students to swim for it. Outside the world is water. Benches and fence posts and picnic tables float past and I tell my students to find something that floats and never let go. This will have to be where we all go our separate ways, I think to myself. I climb on top of a blackboard and manage to catch my breath, because water is no longer filling my mouth.
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Kasia’s art column
The designer behind the artist An Interview with Exhibition Designer Carolyne Jackson
When you visit a major art institution or museum that is packed with levels of art or artifacts and regularly presents large scale exhibitions, surveys and retrospectives have you ever wondered how it all comes together to be coherent for us to experience? Of course there are curators who research, choose and group the work, but there are also exhibition designers who must be sensitive to the nature of the work and then physically co-ordinate its position and installation in the space; an immense and detailed task. Temporary walls, fixtures, supporting structures, pathways, colour concepts and lighting and are just a few of the considerations. Carolyne Jackson currently works as the Exhibition and Design Manager for The Museum of Brisbane having recently designed the exhibit, Prejudice & Pride. She previously worked as an exhibition designer for the Gallery of Modern Art and the Queensland Art Gallery having contributed (just to name a few) to the 5th Asia Pacific Triennial, Someone’s Universe: The Art of Eugene Carchesio, Optimism, Andy Warhol and fashion exhibition, Easton Pearson. She kindly answered some questions for Avid Reader about what it means to be the designer behind the artist. What is your starting point when approaching the design of an art exhibition? Each exhibition is different. Typically I would meet with the curator to discuss both the content and curatorial thematics of the exhibition. I start with a conceptual idea that explores these themes. I am particularly interested in the poetry of an exhibition and or artist and abstracting the concept to explore how the aesthetics best reflect this and influence how one engages with the exhibition.
How is the design process influenced by your reaction to the work? I would say that it is explicitly influenced by my reaction to the work; I do however try to refrain from making any aesthetic judgment of the work and investigate the conceptual idea or influences of the work and artist. Although I must confess it definitely helps if I feel I have an affinity with the work. I have been fortunate to work with a number of artists whose work I admire. Do you work collaboratively with the artist or artists on the show? Absolutely. The primary motive of my job is to best represent the artist and provide informative, engaging and yes, at times, challenging exhibitions for the community to engage with. If the artist is no longer alive I collaborate with the curator/agent to ensure that the artist is best represented. Currently, I am working with both emerging artists and the community; I find it very rewarding to assist them to achieve their vision and tell their stories. Has working as an exhibition designer altered your understanding and interaction with art? Yes. I have a better theoretical understanding of art and as a consequence I may never be able to engage with art with the innocence I once did. I have been fortunate to visit many ‘well known’ galleries and museums and found myself more engaged with the display methods, lighting or way in which the didactic information was presented than the priceless works of art. Has your experience of art institutions and museums changed your relationship with these spaces as frameworks for viewing art? Absolutely. Although I think that the way art is being presented is evolving I often ask if the
work is being presented as the artist intended. I have found myself viewing artworks in storage on wire racks and thinking ‘is this more appropriate?’ It takes a lot to create the ‘magic’ of a museum. It is often not about what is revealed, but what is concealed. How different is the design process when the show is a museum exhibition that relays factual/ historical information as opposed to a visual art exhibition? Great question and quite contentious! Design can re-enforce the narrative of an exhibition so surprisingly the process for both social history and visual art exhibitions is not that different, the principles remain the same. The main difference is the amount of text required for an exhibition that addresses historical content. One of course could be more explicit with the design of a social history exhibition, however I like to explore less explicit, subtle displays that are sympathetic to the content and avoid looking like a set design or stage prop. Have there been exhibitions that you found particularly rewarding to work on? It is not as one might expect, Andy Warhol or Picasso, although I enjoyed them I particular found working with local designers Easton Pearson and local artist, Eugene Carchesio particularly rewarding; I admire their work. I also enjoyed working with the LGBT community on Prejudice and Pride which was recently on display at the Museum of Brisbane. Hopefully the exhibition will dispel myths and challenge some of the prejudices that the community have faced. What show are you designing next? I am currently designing ‘The Stoke; Skateboarding in Brisbane’ exhibition and about to embark on the design of a visual art exhibition by Alice Lang.
Film News
Theatre
Jason Reed
Kate Lee
The Best Films Go Underground
Thoughts on Design and The Theatre
Have you ever lamented that all of the best, hard to see films with a limited release don’t come to Brisbane? The kind of arthouse, genre, horror or just plain weird and unusual films that so often will screen in Melbourne or Sydney for a week or two, only to slip off the radar. If you are one of these people, then you’re not alone. Thanks to local film enthusiast Nina Riddel, Brisbane was in for a treat.
Artificial Life
Inspired by the likes of The Sitges Film Festival in Spain (“the Cannes of genre cinema”), FrightFest in London and of course, Fantastic Fest in Texas, Brisbane was lucky enough to host the first ever Brisbane Underground Film Festival or BUFF for short. The festival ran over three days at the end of September, hosted by the Brisbane Powerhouse Theatre in New Farm. The festival offered rarities such as Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields, the shocking North Korean inspired Yodok Stories, Dogtooth, a black comedy about a disturbed family and Primal, a terrifying and frenzied trip into the woods with a group of youths. Nina revealed that the her passion for these kind of films and the frustration at being unable to see them was the catalyst for the festival, “It started, like many things do, with me getting angry. I was fed up with reading about films at festivals overseas, waiting months to see them in cinemas, and then having to go to Sydney or Melbourne to get that chance. We deserve better.” Selecting the right films for a festival is perhaps both an enviable task, yet also one of the most important. In choosing the films to show at BUFF, Nina had a “huge list of movies I wanted to see, and it started there, so my own taste was the major criteria. They also had to be Brisbane premieres - nothing that had screened here, been on TV or had DVD release yet. And from there it came down to what I was able to get at the right time.” With this kind of festival, there is always the chance of coming across something too underground or too extreme to show. However, something else occurred while Nina was sifting through the film selections, “I actually requested a DVD screener of a new film by a quite prominent indie director, and had to switch it off after 20 minutes. Not because it was too controversial or extreme, but because it was unwatchably awful. I could see people leaving the cinema in droves.”
Light, sound and action fill an empty performance space, artificially infusing it with life. A place where the unreal accentuates the real. It transforms multiple times before the eye into a vivid, phantasmagorical and dramatic world. The set is a space where the audience is manipulated into ideas and stories, where we wait in a quiet moment reading its signs for the imaginary world to come. Stage design is the blank black canvas of space where a performer carves their work in the air through the textures of their bodies. Light and sound cast intimate shadows sculpting dark pictures in the imagination. Their manipulation seduces the body, wrapping themselves like snakes around each other. This design is light, sound, the body. It may liberate or lock its audience into a suffocating relationship. Strangling, blinding, tangled like lovers. The mutable black set, alone, her light tender, waits like a predator for the life of the performance.
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Nina comes from a film background and has taken on various roles within the industry, such as working at “Dendy George Street for many years, and then at BIFF and the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. I have worked on a few film productions and did film theory at uni.” Behind the industry work she has done, there is a deeper passion that attracted her to film in the first place and keeps her coming back, “For me it’s about sitting in the dark, forgetting about everything except what’s happening on the screen - it’s engrossing. But it’s also a combination of most other art forms in one package.” If you missed BUFF this year, keep your eyes peeled for future offerings, as BUFF looks set to become an annual event, “depending on how the first one goes, bigger and better next year!” Nina is also scheming to try and “have a one-off screening of a certain gay zombie porn film which is otherwise hard to access.” To find out more, go to the Brisbane Underground Film Festival’s Facebook page. 193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
November & December Events Peter Carnavas The Last Tree in the City
Hugh McKay What Makes Us Tick
Kelly Doust A Life In Frocks
Avid Reader Bookshop, Sunday 31st October, 9.30am for a 10.00am start. Free.
A BBB event
Wednesday 24th November, Avid Reader Bookshop, 6pm for a 6.30pm start, $5.00
The Important Things is a very timely book about the importance of trees and how communities can work towards making our world a better place. A great event for the kids.
Kate Morton The Distant Hours A BBB event Tuesday 2nd November, The Irish Club 6pm for a 6.30pm start, Tickets $15/$12/ $10 for a group booking Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst Castle, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in the distant hours has been waiting a long time for someone to find it.
Toni Jordan The Fall Girl Thursday 4th November, Avid Reader Bookshop, 6pm for a 6.30pm start $5.00 Our special salon events are for people interested in writing and the craft of writing. Toni Jordan’s first book, Addition was a run-away best seller. Now Toni Jordan will chat to us about the whirl-wind book tour for her first book, and the writing of her second.
Mei Yen Chua Brisbane’s Budget Bites 2011 Friday 5th November Avid Reader Bookshop 6pm for a 6.30 start Free event Join us for the launch of the 2011 edition of “Brisbane’s Budget Bites”. A wonderful local production for foodies on a budget
Friday 5th November, The Irish Club 6pm for a 6.30pm start, Tickets $15/$12/ $10 for a group booking In his previous books Hugh has documented the trends that have been reshaping our society. Now the focus is on us as individuals, and Mackay’s conclusions go to the heart of some of life’s big questions.
A Life in Frocks is about the ‘divine obsession’ — a woman’s love for clothes. In particular, it is a personal, entertaining, joyous and seductive exploration of the significance of clothes, filtered through one woman’s life-long sartorial infatuation.
Shaun Micallef Preincarnate
Ramona Koval Speaking Volumes And the launch of our Summer Reading Guide.
Monday 8th November, The Hi-Hi 125 Boundary Street West End 5pm for a 6.30pm start Tickets $10
Thursday 25th November, Avid Reader Bookshop, 6pm for a 6.30pm start, Free event.
Australia’s pre-eminent comic Renaissance man turns his genius to novel writing. Having conquered television, radio, theatre and film, Shaun Micallef smashes his mighty fist onto the keyboard of his soul and produces a novel of such breathtaking brilliance that if Patrick White were alive today he’d hurl his own typewriter into the sea and start a lawn-mowing business.
Ramona Koval is our preeminent literary journalist. Here she gathers together her favourite interviews in a celebration of writing and writers. This is also the launch of our Summer Reading Guide, so join us for a glass of wine and a celebration of all things literary.
John Howard (politician, not actor) Lazarus Rising A BBB event Tuesday 16th November, The Irish Club, 6pm for a 6.30 start Tickets $25/$20/ $18 for group bookings Call Avid for more details. Our former Prime Minister saw Australia through some good times and some harsh times. His memoir details his personal and political life.
Tim ‘Rosso’ Ross Mum Had a Kingswood Friday 19th November, Avid Reader Bookshop, 6pm for a 6.30pm start, $5.00 Wonderful stuff from the mind of Tim ‘Rosso’ Ross. This is his book. It’s part memoir, part brain dump. And he’s written it just for you.
Mark Tredinnick Fire Diary Monday 29th November, Avid Reader Bookshop, 6pm for a 6.30pm start, $5.00 Mark Tredinnick recently won the Qld Premier’s Literary Award for Non Fiction and now presents us with this collection of Poetry. A wonderful work by a wonderful writer.
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Tom Bramble “Labor’s Conflict” Thursday 2nd December Avid Reader Bookshop 6pm for a 6.30pm start $5.00 Once widely regarded as the workers greatest hope for a better world, the ALP today would rather project itself as a responsible manager of Australian capitalism. Labor’s Conflict provides an insightful account of the transformations in the Party’s policies, performance and structures since its formation.
Overlords Fiona Stager & Kevin Guy Bookish Underlings Krissy, Anna, Christopher, Kasia, Verdi, Paul, Trent, Emily, Nellie-Mae, Helen, Sarah and Jordan Café Stuart, Sophie, Melina, Verdi, Lucy and Kate
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU