August 2012 e Queensland Literary Awards e New Original Fiction e Staff reviews e Kari Gislason Talks Travel e Music To Read By
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CTION TITLES great non-fiction titles great non-fict reveal the surprising differences between extroverts and introverts.
and experimental psychologists, Buddhists and terrorism experts, New Age dreamers and hard-headed business consultants—Burkeman Why is there more chance we’ll believe uncovers some common ground. They all something if it’s in a bold type face? believe that there is an alternative ‘negative Why are judges more likely to deny parole before path’ to happiness and success that involves lunch? Why do we assume a good-looking person coming face-to-face with, even embracing, will be more competent? The answer lies in the precisely the things we spend our lives trying to two ways we make choices: fast, intuitive avoid. Burkeman concedes that in our personal thinking, and slow, rational thinking. This book lives and the world at large, it’s our constant reveals how our minds are tripped up by error efforts to eliminate the negative—uncertainty, and prejudice (even when we think we are being unhappiness, failure—that cause us to feel so logical), and gives you practical techniques for anxious, insecure and unhappy. Hilarious and slower, smarter thinking. It will enable you to compulsively readable, The Antidote will have make better decisions at work, at home, and in you on the road to happiness in no time. everything you do.
Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman, $22.95
The Antidote: Happiness for People Quiet: The Power of Introverts in who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking a World That Can’t Stop Talking Oliver Burkeman , $32.99 In an approach that turns decades of self-help advice on its head, Oliver Burkeman explains why positive thinking serves only to make us more miserable, and why ‘getting motivated’ can exacerbate procrastination. Comparing the personal philosophies of dozens of ‘happy’ people—among them philosophers
Also, don’t miss Blink by Malcolm Gladwell — This book shows us how we can hone our instinctive ability to become better decisionmakers in our homes, offices and in everyday life. From the author of The Tipping Point. $24.95
Susan Cain, $29.95
Passionately argued, impressively researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet shows how dramatically we undervalue introverts, and how much we lose in doing so. Taking the reader on a journey from Dale Carnegie’s birthplace to Harvard Business School, from a Tony Robbins seminar to an evangelical megachurch, Susan Cain charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal in the twentieth century and explores its far-reaching effects. She talks to Asian-American students who feel alienated from the brash, backslapping atmosphere of American schools. She questions the dominant values of American business culture, where forced collaboration can stand in the way of innovation, and where the leadership potential of introverts is often overlooked. And she draws on cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience to
Perhaps most inspiring, she introduces us to successful introverts — from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Finally, she offers invaluable advice on everything from how to better negotiate differences in introvertextrovert relationships to how to empower an introverted child to when it makes sense to be a “pretend extrovert.” This extraordinary book has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how introverts see themselves.
The Woman who Changed her Brain and Other Inspiring Stories of Pioneering Brain Transformation Barbara Arrowsmith-Young, $29.99 Barbara Arrowsmith-Young was born with severe learning disabilities that caused teachers to label her slow, stubborn — or worse. As a child, she read and wrote everything backward, struggled to process concepts in language, continually got lost, and was physically uncoordinated. She could make no sense of an analogue clock. But by relying on her formidable memory and iron will, she made her way to graduate school, where she chanced upon research that inspired her to invent cognitive exercises to “fix” her ownxbrain. The Woman Who Changed Her Brain interweaves her personal tale with riveting case histories from her more than thirty years of working with both children and adults. The Woman Who Changed Her Brain powerfully and poignantly illustrates how the lives of children and adults struggling with learning disorders can be dramatically transformed. This remarkable book by a brilliant path-breaker deepens our understanding of how the brain works and of the brain′s profound impact on how we participate in the world. Our brains shape us, but this book offers clear and hopeful evidence of the corollary: we can shape our brains.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Staff picks
Fiona Stager
Christopher Currie
Anna Sheen
Krissy Kneen
My Hundred Lovers
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
Susan Johnson, $27.99
Ben Fountain, $26.95
What makes a book erotic? For some people it is the presence of flesh, for some it is the descriptions of sex, and if you are one of these readers, then My Hundred Lovers will not disappoint. But for me a truly erotic book is one which can seduce you with language, and Susan Johnson is the queen of literary seduction. This is a book which tracks one very rich and full life. A woman who is turning 50 looks back on the years she has lived and the ‘lovers’ she has had. She does this in extremely short poetic chapters that show us that a ‘lover’ does not necessarily mean a sexual partner. From the love of a parent, to the touch of the wind, from a woman who falls in love with objects to a full blown physical love between people, the ‘lovers’ in her life receive equal treatment whether they are human, animal or intangible. Each one is beautifully described and the small individual moments add up to a life that is full, sensual, poignant and wonderful.
Ben Fountain’s debut, Brief Encounters with Che Guevara is one of my favourite ever short story collections, and five years later I’m very pleased to report Fountain’s first novel is just as good as I hoped. Billy Lynn is a 19 year-old US soldier brought home from the first Iraq war for a cross-country PR tour after his Bravo squad is captured by a Fox News crew in a suicidal but successful firefight with insurgents. The story takes place over the length of a single game of NFL football, where Billy and his squad have been roped in to take part in an extravagant halftime show. Through the course of the game, Billy is ushered into capitalism’s dark heart, has his heart filled and broken, and is forced to confront the hypocrisy deeply embedded in his psyche. Fountain’s narrative brilliantly skewers America’s fickle infatuation with its military, showing us the delicate balance of uncertainty and swagger a young man must walk to remain a True American Hero. This is the best piece of satire I’ve read in many, many years. Highly recommended.
If you are at all tempted to pick up the terribly written 50 Shades of Grey that seems to be infecting Australia like a plague and if you are brave enough to read the hideous thing, then clear your palate here with a sensual and erotic journey that is both beautifully written and endlessly thought provoking (instead of mind-numbing which is what the alternative E. L. James book will offer). Reviewed by Krissy Kneen
Closer to Stone Simon Cleary $29.95 The Adams family from the Lockyer family is a fighting family. They have served in many conflicts from the Somme to Vietnam and there has never been a deserter. So when Jack is reported missing from his peacekeeping mission in the Western Sahara, his younger brother puts down his sculpting tools and goes looking for him. For Bas this is a transformational journey. He ventures into and across the desert in a quest that will challenge his understanding of his family, religion and life itself. Cleary is brave to create a character that is not always easy to like even though we understand why. There are some very evocative passages such as: At some point in the night I woke. It was the rising moon…I rolled over and saw Sophe curled like a crescent into the night beside me, her cheek glistening with minute flecks of quartz and moonlight, her day’s sweat transformed. She was the stuff of stars and of sand.
Reviewed by Christopher Currie
A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar Suzanne Joinson, $27.99 While travelling along the Silk Road during 1923, Eva English along with her sister Lizzie and their companion Millicent, come across a young girl giving birth by the side of the road. They are Christian missionaries on-route to the ancient city of Kashgar and their actions, noble yet misguided, change the course of their travels and, ultimately, their lives. Present day London, Frida, the daughter of a carefree hippie who abandoned her and her father when she was quite young, spends her life travelling the globe then returns to a cramped unit and a casual relationship with a married man. She feels no ties with her city or her life. Yet a chance meeting with a Tayeb, a young Yemeni man with a mysterious past, puts her life on a journey she never expected. Eva and Frida are intriguing characters who breathe life into this novel about the love of travel, culture, kinship, loss and cycling. A wonderful debut from Suzanne Joinson and a must- read for your winter holidays. Read it if you enjoy the work of Ann Patchett and Barbara Kingsolver. Reviewed by Anna Sheen
I was hooked from the very first page. Reviewed by Fiona Stager
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Trent Jamieson
Verdi Guy
James Butler
Helen Bernhagen
Batman — The Black Mirror
In One Person
Scott Snyder, $45.00
John Irving, $32.95
People often look at the late eighties and early nineties as the Halcyon years of comics, such as Watchmen, the Sandman comics, and the Return of the Dark Knight. But right now we’re experiencing a real renaissance in the form with comics like Joe Hill’s Locke and Key and Scott Snyder’s American Vampire bringing real narrative brio to the form.
When I talk about John Irving’s In One Person, I often jokingly sum it up in one sentence: “Everyone hates bisexuals.” In One Person’s main character Billy Abbott is a proclaimed ‘sexual suspect’—a term Irving first coined in The World According to Garp. To heterosexuals, he is no different than gay while to homosexuals, he just needs to drag the rest of himself out of the closet. At one point in the story, Billy is left by a female lover “not because I know you are going to leave me, but just because I don’t know who you’ll leave me for.”
Snyder in particular, has been doing some great stuff. And now that he’s been given Batman to remodel, he provides a stark and horror-filled story in Black Mirror. Batman’s city, Gotham, has always been half modern metropolis and half gothic nightmare. And it’s those gothic elements that come to the fore in a tale of a city filled with dark secrets and a history that might just devour Batman whole. This time it’s not the Joker or any of the other colourful members of Batman’s Rogue’s Gallery that plays the villain, but the city itself. With the last Christopher Nolan’s Batman film Dark Knight Rises about to be released, maybe it’s time to reacquaint yourself with the source material. The Batman comics may be nearly 73 years old, but the character and the storylines are still capable of dark surprises. Reviewed by Trent Jamieson
The Boy Under the Table Nicole Trope, $29.99 When Sarah and Doug’s son goes missing at a fair, their lives change dramatically. Their happy family soon falls apart and their lives are racked with guilt, frustration and sadness. They struggle as each day goes by without any word of their son’s whereabouts. Meanwhile, Tina is a young woman hiding from her grief, living in squats in Sydney’s Kings Cross. The Cross is rife with poverty, drugs and violence. Tina is desperate, poor and finding it hard to get by. On a cold winter night on the streets, she breaks her rules and agrees to go home with a customer. What she finds there changes her life. Without giving too much away, the book involves the mystery of a missing boy and the harshness of life on the streets. You get a real sense of the character’s lives and the emotion of losing someone close to you. It also gives an insight into life in the Cross, where many are fighting for their next meal and survival. It is told from alternating viewpoints of Sarah, Doug, Tina and Pete – the local policeman. As the novel progresses, you become involved with all of the characters making it hard to put down. The relationships developed throughout the story are fascinating and the journey the characters go on is thrilling. Whilst being gritty and disturbing, it’s also moving and filled with hope. Read if you enjoy mystery novels or something a bit darker. The book comes out in June 2012. Reviewed by Verdi Guy
The novel starts at Billy’s first moments of sexual discovery. Billy has a crush on his stepfather, an admiration for his cross-dressing grandfather, and an infatuation with the town librarian he meets when asking for books about “having crushes on the wrong people.” What ensues is an engrossing drama as epic as any other Irving novel, full of so many loose narrative threads that you think they can’t possibly be all resolved. But they are, and then you start shouting things like “OH MY GOSH THAT IS BECAUSE OF THAT THING AT THE WRESTLING MATCH” at the end of each sentence or giggling maniacally at how clever John Irving is. Admittedly, In One Person is a little slow to start—too much about Isben for my taste—but the payoff is really worth the while. Ultimately, In One Person is a celebration of sexuality, of how it defines us and how we can seek to break those definitions down. Reviewed by James Butler
2312 Kim Stanley Robinson, $29.99 If you only read one Science Fiction novel this year I’d encourage you to make it this one. 2312 is pure unadulterated Science Fiction with a character at its heart so vibrant and alive you’ll miss her(him) when you are finished. The book, set (yep, you guessed it) in the year 2312, explores a solar system teeming with humanity and the raw politics that result. People are becoming something not quite human at the same time as machines are becoming something almost human like. It’s a future as messy and vibrant as now. It’s a mystery story, a vivid poetic exploration of the Solar System and the psyche of a future humanity. It’s a generous and sly depiction of humanity - our current period in history is looked back upon as the Dithering. Most importantly, it’s joyous, loud and clever, and a tonic to the dystopian fictions that have become almost the default setting of science fiction. 2312 is eyes-wide-open fiction that knows the solar system is a dark cold place until you turn your faceplate and see the sun that burns so defiantly at its heart. Now stop dithering, and buy yourself a bit of the future: it’ll fill your dreams with wonder. Reviewed by Trent Jamieson
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Staff Picks
Michelle Law
Kev Guy
Sarah Deasy
Jack Vening
Until Further Notice, I Am Alive
A Tiger in Eden
Tom Lubbock, $24.99
Chris Flynn, $22.99
When Tom Lubbock, the chief art critic of The Independent, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour in 2008, he began keeping a private journal documenting his experience of dying. Until Further Notice, I Am Alive is a memoir comprising of this journal and excerpts from his article When Words Failed Me, published by the Observer on the same subject.
From Irish born, Australian-based author Chris Flynn comes a brief, eclectic story about a fish out of water who seems to always be right where he’s needed.
Lubbock’s tumour was located in the left temporal lobe, the area of the brain responsible for speech and language. The prognosis was that he would have two years to live. With lucidity and frankness, Until Further Notice, I Am Alive documents Lubbock’s fits, surgeries, treatments, and private moments of fear and elation during his final years. It was fascinating and heartbreaking to read the account of a dying man whose very business—that of language and speech—was slowly being robbed from him. But Lubbock regarded his dying with courage and endurance; the last entries of the book were written months before Lubbock’s death with the help of his wife, through improvisation and guesswork, while he was in palliative care. Lubbock’s writing was elegant, fluctuating between moments of rationality in solitude and emotionally charged scenes with his family. In many ways, this book was a guide to dying and gave a voice to the dying. However it was far from depressing. When Lubbock strayed into moments of existentialism there was fear, but there was also liberation. When he reflected on the physical world—namely his wife Marion and their son Eugene, still a toddler when Lubbock died—there was sadness, but also elation and an appreciation for the beauty of the world. More than anything, this memoir is a celebration of what it means to be alive.
Billy Montgomery is a brash, ballsy, Northern-Irish fugitive escaping the Troubles to the murky reaches of South East Asia in the mid-nineties. His exact motivations are only hinted at, though it’s made clear that he won’t be returning home any time soon. His travels take him across the beaches, into the gutters and through the jungles of Thailand, often in the presence of criminals, more often in the presence of beautiful women. But what we’re reading isn’t a trip into the heart of darkness so much as it’s a trip out. Billy tells his own story in a rambling, unconventional monologue. Think Roddy Doyle’s phonetic Irish inflection, or even a toned down take on the rambling colloquialism of A Clockwork Orange. With such a vocallydriven work, reading can be problematic—consistency is certainly an issue that seems ready to drop at any moment from the almost precarious readernarrator understanding that such a voice requires. Fortunately, Flynn appears talented enough to never betray the style he created, and while we may miss some depth in the potential for an unreliable narrator (despite his “dumb-thug” persona, Billy seems pretty aware in any situation, sometimes overly so), we’re never really left thinking that we’re being spoken to by anyone other than the narrator himself. Billy Montgomery is a funny, exhausted soul at the centre of a smart little story. He’s in search of peace and redemption and, even a short way into the book, don’t be surprised by how much you’re wanting it for him too. Reviewed by Jack Vening
Reviewed by Michelle Law
Shadows: Rephaim Book 1 Tell The Wolves I’m Home Carol Rifka Brunt, $27.99 Tell The Wolves I’m Home is an enchanting story about June, a young girl from New York struggling to find her place in the modern (1987) world. Dressed in her best boots, her favourite pastime is going to the woods and pretending to be in Medieval England. The one person who truly understands her is her uncle, godfather and worldly confidant Finn, but when he dies of AIDS, June feels lost and alone. In the months leading up to his death, Finn painted a portrait of June and her sister but now Finn is gone, the painting only seems to raise more questions about the uncle she thought she knew, and there is only one person who might be able to answer them.
Paula Weston, $19.99 Following a car accident in which she is severely injured and her brother killed, Gaby relocates to the quiet beach-side town of Pandanus Beach to build a new life for herself. However, every night she experiences the same violent dream in which a good-looking young man helps her fight off a nightclub full of monsters. Gaby’s quiet life changes dramatically when this young man, Rafa, arrives in Pandanus Beach and informs her that these dreams are real, and that her memory has been dramatically altered. She is not Gaby but Gabrielle, an immortal being descended from fallen angels, charged with fighting demons and hell-beasts. Gaby soon discovers that she is wanted by her fellow descendants (and former friends) for information they believe she has, and that they are determined to retrieve this information by any means necessary. When Gaby’s best friend Maggie is taken hostage, Gaby must quickly determine who she can trust, and in the ensuing fight to secure Maggie’s safety she must find a way to become the warrior she once was.
Carol Rifka Brunt has written June’s young voice beautifully and believably, as a naive girl living in a fantasy world suddenly thrust into adult reality, where her family’s relationships and motivations are more complex than she could have ever imagined and all the while discovering that there is always more to the story.
Shadows is Brisbane author Paula Weston’s debut novel. It is engaging and witty, and sure to be enjoyed by fans of YA paranormal fiction.
Reviewed by Sarah Deasy
Reviewed by Hannah Andrews
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
PRIZE WINNERS The Qld writing community has been busy mobilising to save the Qld Literary Awards from extinction. Meanwhile we have been enjoying the award winners across the globe. We have decided to feature the big award winners this year. You might want to check them out and see why they have been nominated as the best in the world. Miles Franklin Award Australia’s most prestigious literary award was established through the will of the writer Stella Miles Franklin, best known for her novel My Brilliant Career. The Award is presented each year to a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases. The Miles Franklin was first awarded in 1957. Since then, the annual announcement of the winner has become an event anticipated and discussed throughout Australia and around the world. And the winner is Anna Funder’s All That I Am heading a shortlist that included Blood by Tony Birch, Foal’s Bread by Gillian Mears, Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett and Cold Light by Frank Moorehouse From the Judges: All that I Am: The gripping first novel by Anna Funder, the acclaimed author of Stasiland, based on a true story, All That I Am is moving and beautifully written, equal parts a love story, thriller and testament to individual heroism. It evokes books like Irene Nemirovsky’s Suite Francaise, Bernard Schlink’s The Reader and William Boyd’s Restless.
The Man Booker Prize 2012 The Man Booker Prize promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year. The prize is the world’s most important literary award and has the power to transform the fortunes of authors and even publishers. And the winner is: The Sense of An Ending by Julian Barnes. From the Judges: A truly wonderful novel that will have the reader immersed in the story from the very first page, and all the while marvelling at the precision of Barnes’ prose. Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is in middle age. He’s had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He’s certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer’s letter is about to prove. The Sense of an Ending is the story of one man coming to terms with the mutable past. Laced with trademark precision, dexterity and insight, it is the work of one of the world’s most distinguished writers.
The Orange Prize for Fiction Launched in 1996, the prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world. The winner receives a cheque for £30,000 and a limited edition bronze known as a ‘Bessie’, created by the artist Grizel Niven. And the Winner is: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.
The Song of Achilles: Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to Phthia to live in the shadow of King Peleus and his strong, beautiful son, Achilles. By all rights their paths should never cross, but Achilles takes the shamed prince as his friend, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something far deeper — despite the displeasure of Achilles’s mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess. But then word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus journeys with Achilles to Troy, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.
The National Book Award On March 15, 1950, a consortium of book publishing groups sponsored the first annual National Book Awards Ceremony and Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. Their goal was to enhance the public’s awareness of exceptional books written by fellow Americans, and to increase the popularity of reading in general. Since then, The National Book Awards have become the nation’s preeminent literary prizes, and The National Book Awards Ceremony and Dinner the most important event on our literary calendar. Today, the Awards are given to recognize achievements in four genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature. The Winners, selected by five-member, independent judging panels for each genre, receive a $10,000 cash award and a crystal sculpture. And the winner is: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward Salvage the Bones A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch’s father is growing concerned. A hard drinker largely absent, he doesn’t show interest in much else. Esch and her three brothers are stocking food, but there isn’t much to save. Lately, Esch can’t keep down what food she gets; she’s fifteen and pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is sneaking scraps for his prized pit bull’s new litter, dying one by one in the dirt. Meanwhile, brothers Randall and Junior try to stake their claim in a family long on child’s play and short on parenting. As the twelve days that make up the novel’s framework yield to a dramatic conclusion, the unforgettable family at the novel’s core— motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce — pulls itself up to face another day.
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction In a controversial move the judging panel at the Pulizer Prize did not award a winner from the shortlist of three books in 20012 Nominated as finalists in this category were: Train Dreams, by Denis Johnson, a novella about a day laborer in the old American West, bearing witness to terrors and glories with compassionate, heartbreaking calm; Swamplandia! by Karen Russell, an adventure tale about an eccentric family adrift in its failing alligator-wrestling theme park, told by a 13-year-old heroine wise beyond her years; and The Pale King, by the late David Foster Wallace, a posthumously completed novel, animated by grand ambition, that explores boredom and bureaucracy in the American workplace. Avid Reader staff were shocked by the decision not to award a prize this year but we are divided between Train Dreams and Swamplandia!. As a result we have awarded the Avid Imaginary Pulitzer to both these books. Two winners is better than none.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
THE QUEENSLAND LITERARY AWARDS
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| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| The Queensland Literary Awards (QLA) was established on 4th April 2012 in response to Queensland Premier Campbell Newman’s decision to scrap the 2012 Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. There was a public outcry and disbelief that literature was the first budget item to be scrapped by the new government. Bloggers ranted, journalists roared and volunteers rallied. A small group from the literary and arts community quickly formed and decided to run the 2012 Queensland Literary Awards to ensure continued recognition of our writers and encouragement for readers. Harnessing technology and the power of social media, the group created a website almost overnight while the Facebook page attracted 1000 fans in less than a week. Calls for volunteers went out, and the project attracted people who knew what they were doing and got on with doing it. More than 600 fabulous books and manuscripts were submitted, logged, distributed and are now in the hands of 42 unpaid and highly appreciated judges. Shortlisted entries will be announced in the week commencing 20 August 2012 and an awards event to honour writers in the 14 categories is scheduled for 5 September 2012.
The Committee The Queensland Literary Awards is currently registered as a not-forprofit association. It is driven and coordinated by a Committee from the literary and arts community. The QLA Committee is chaired by academic, Dr Stuart Glover and comprises of Dr Benjamin Law, Krissy Kneen, Matthew Condon, Greg Bain, Susan Johnson, Claire Booth, Alex Adsett and Elizabeth Reynolds.
Long Term Strategy The QLA Committee’s primary aim is to ensure the sustainability of a literary awards program beyond 2012. The Committee will be actively seeking public and private support to ensure the Awards have a future beyond 2012.
The Pozible Campaign You have asked us how you can support the Qld Literary Awards and we have listened. Our Pozible campaign is now live and we are raising funds for prizes in all 14 categories. Visit http://pozible.com/qla to view the video and hear about the great rewards on offer. We would like to say a BIG thank you to the Copyright Agency Limited’s Cultural Fund for their support of the Queensland Literary Awards–a $20,000 injection of funds to enable the band of volunteers to administer and deliver the inaugural awards in September. We would also like to mention and individually thank the people who donated their hard-earned dollars to our Pozible campaign. But seeing as how there are over 75 of you (and the number rises each hour) we might just paste this comment from the instigator of the revamped awards, Matthew Condon: “Can I say I am absolutely astonished already at the response to the Queensland Literary Awards fundraising Pozible campaign, organised by the QLA’s brilliant army of volunteers, and in particular Claire Booth. Over $5000 in less than 24 hours? Are you kidding me? The love, goodwill and generosity of readers, writers, publishers, booksellers and ordinary citizens who value writing in this country are absolutely extraordinary. It’s what makes, on one of many levels, us a great country. Feel so proud of so many people I know, and don’t know, in relation to the QLAs that I’m just happy to be speechless.”
Contact For any enquiries regarding interviews and corporate sponsorship, please contact Claire Booth at phone: 0409 597 007 or email: booth.claire@gmail.com
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
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KATHERINE-LYAL WATSON, Playwright 1. Why did you volunteer for QLA? I was appalled about the Premier’s decision to axe the Awards and wanted to do anything I could to help them continue. 2. What was your role? I’m an editor so I took on an editorial role for media releases, guidelines and entry forms. I’ve also volunteered to be a judge if I’m needed. 3. What did you get out of it? This is a tricky question. Late nights, crazy deadlines, a headache? All of those but also a sense of achievement because I was doing a little bit to help something I believed in to continue. 4. Why is it important to you to continue to have these awards? Literacy and stories are vital to us as a nation and for Australia to continue developing its sense of identity. We need to celebrate the achievements of our writers and storytellers and show that we appreciate their work. It’s a little thing but it has big repercussions. BENJAMIN LAW, Writer 1. Why did you volunteer for QLA? Anyone who’s made a career from writing knows how instrumental awards are in ensuring a sustainable career. The old Queensland Premier Awards didn’t just strengthen Queensland’s reading culture and literary community, but were fundamental to its survival. They supported existing careers and unearthed new literary voices we now take for granted. For those awards—which were relatively cheap to run, but made such a massive contribution to Queensland—to simply disappear isn’t acceptable. So I wanted to play any part I could in creating a new similar award. 2. What was your role? I’m secretary of the QLA committee. If you would like to know what I do during meetings, you may want to watch the film Secretary, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal.
3. What did you get out of it? Besides being surrounded by the best brains in the business—Krissy Kneen, Stuart Glover, Claire Booth, Matthew Condon, Alex Adsett, Greg Bain—it’s a good feeling knowing we’re making something that will last. Plus, I get to hang out at Avid Reader more. It’s nice to be around the smell of Stuart’s soups. It’s also nice to be around the smell of Stuart. 4. Why is it important to you to continue to have these awards? You mean besides the money? ANNE-MAREE BRITTON, Organiser of Pozible Campaign 1. Who is she? What is her job? And why is she interested in volunteering? A few months ago I chose to move to warm Brisbane from cold Canberra where I had been the Director of the ACT Writers Centre for 16 years. I’ve always done what I can to support and promote writers. When I read on Facebook that Matt and Krissy from Avid were going to proceed with the QLD Literary Awards, I offered to help as I’d had experience in administering book awards and attracting sponsorship. 2. What does she think of Newman’s decision to drop the awards and why does it matter? Artists and writers need all the help they can get to continue to work in such a low-paying field. I believe that literary awards help raise the profile of the writer and the sales of the books, leading to further opportunities for the writers, so I am pleased that the Committee has managed to make the Awards happen for 2012. 3. Has she had fun volunteering? What has she been doing? I’ve loved coming to Avid Reader and feeling part of a welcoming literate community and feeling like I’m doing something constructive while I’m looking for work. I’ve been opening boxes from publishers, entering titles and author details into the relevant databases, labelling books, filing entry forms and re-packing books into genres then lugging those boxes off to the State Library for storage before they get distributed to the judges. Next week, I’ll help Claire with drafting some sponsorship proposals.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
This year our book of the month club has featured:
January
March
Cutting for Stone Abraham Verghese
A Perfectly Good Man Patrick Gale
Marion and Shiva Stone, born in a mission hospital in Ethiopia in the 1950s, are twin sons of an illicit union between an Indian nun and British doctor. Bound by birth but with widely different temperaments they grow up together, in a country on the brink of revolution, until a betrayal splits them apart. But fate has not finished with them - they will be brought together once more, in the sterile surroundings of a hospital theatre. From the 1940s to the present, from a convent in India to a cargo ship bound for the Yemen, from a tiny operating theatre in Ethiopia to a hospital in the Bronx, this is both a richly visceral epic and a riveting family story.
In what is more an echo-chamber than a sequel, Patrick Gale returns us to the landscape of ′Notes from an Exhibition′, unfurling the complex web of a Cornish community with an empathy that touches clairvoyance and a sure eye for significant mundanity. ′Good People′ is the faithful register of a community′s fortunes, its gentle malignance, and one priest′s struggle to live virtuously.
February: Chemistry of Tears Peter Carey The Chemistry of Tears is a portrait of love and loss that is both wildly entertaining and profoundly moving, simultaneously delicate and anarchic.
April: Light Between Oceans L M Stedman 1926. Tom Sherbourne is a young lighthouse keeper on a remote island off Western Australia. The only inhabitants of Janus Rock, he and his wife Isabel live a quiet life, cocooned from the rest of the world. One April morning a boat washes ashore carrying a dead man and a crying infant - and the path of the couple’s lives hits an unthinkable crossroads.
At its heart is an image only the masterful Peter Carey could breathe such life into - an object made of equal parts magic, love, madness and science, a delight that contains the seeds of our age’s downfall.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Join our book of the month club! Avid reader has a Book of the Month Club. This is a great gift idea for a person who loves to read or a gift for yourself. We have a 12 month club where for $300 you receive the Book of the Month every month, which is 12 books a year. we also have a 6 month club for $150 and for this you get the Book of the month every month for six months, six books in all. We also have a version of our Book of the Month clubs for slower readers. For $150 you get every second book of the month for the whole year, six books in all. For $75 you get a half year version of the slow reading club, Name:
one every two months for six months which is 3 of our well chosen books. There is indeed something for everyone and it is great to have your reading list picked for you by our expert staff. If you would like more information about the Book of the Month club email Sarah: specialorders@avidreader.com.au or just fill in the details below and send it with your cheque or money order to Avid Reader Bookshop 193 Boundary Street West End.
Phone:
Address: email: Tick one:
Full year BOTM club (12 books) $300
Full year for slower readers (6 books) $150/ half year
BOTM club (6 books) $150
Half year for slower readers (3 books) $75
May
July
In One Person John Irving
The Oldest Song in the World Sue Woolfe
His most political novel since The Cider House Rules and A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving’s In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billy’s friends and lovers - a theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. Not least, In One Person is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself ‘worthwhile.’
Sensitively portrayed, lyrical, and filled with powerful insights about different people′s sense of home and belonging and family, THE OLDEST SONG IN THE WORLD is a brave and controversial story about discovering the power of one′s own voice and taking care to pay attention to the voice of others.
June The Commandant and any other Text Classic The visionary Diana Gribble founded Text in 1990. She wanted to create an independent publishing house that would find books to enlighten, challenge and entertain us. In keeping with this vision, Text Classics are iconic books by Australia’s most loved writers. Some of these books have been out of print for years. Some of these great Australian authors have been lost. Now we have rediscovered them in this great series.
August The Dinner Herman Koch ‘Herman Koch’s The Dinner is a riveting, compelling and a deliciously uncomfortable read. Like all great satire it is both lacerating and so very funny. The Dinner got under my skin and punctured all my safe liberal smugness and pieties. Intelligent and complex, this novel is both a punch to the guts and also a tonic. It clears the air. A wonderful book.’ Christos Tsiolkas
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
a short story by Katia Pace
Under the Stilts
James talks to Stilts Journal’s Bronte Coates and Katia Pase about writing in Brisbane, and what it means to run a Brisbane-centred literary journal.
THERE’S WORK TO BE DONE When Dad opens the front door he says I’m glad you’re here, there’s work to be done. He turns and walks back through the corridor. I follow him out the back door, and down the sloping yard to the back fence. He’s built three vegetable plots here, one by two metre frames of untreated pine, that he says will be full and ready to harvest by the time summer rolls in. At the foot of the middle plot are little punnets of parsley, silverbeet, spring onion, thyme. We’ll have a feast, he says. At the start of summer we’ll have a feast. We’ll get Tom and your sister to come back for it too, he says, and we’ll all eat together. He pushes up his sleeves, lowers himself to his knees, and leans over the first plot. What do you want me to do, I say, and he says, just hold your horses a minute. I walk the length of back fence while Dad makes narrow holes in the soil with an old, rusted trowel. I tell him he should be wearing gloves, and he says there aren’t any. The rest of the yard has turned to shit. Mum’s plot of roses along the side fence is nothing more than a row of stakes. I think it’s not the right time to be planting anything new, that he’s left it too late, but I don’t say anything. Dad gently squeezes the budding plants out of the punnets, places them in the hole, and presses down on the soil around it with just the pads of his first and second finger. He calls me over. It’s my job to place the little plastic tags at the top of each ruler-straight row, so he won’t forget what’s what. When the plots are finished we sit side by side along the wooden frame and Dad picks the dirt from under his nails. Our breath comes out in clouds, but Dad doesn’t even pull down his sleeves to keep out the cold. By summer it will be full, he says, by summer, it will be ready to harvest. I nod. Dad sits picking at the splinters in his palms, then says, these bastards don’t want to come out. I look at his hands, then I get up and say, c’mon, it’s freezing. In the kitchen I fill the kettle. When Dad says, these bloody bastards really don’t want to budge, I leave him sitting at the head of the table and go to find a needle to lift the splinters out of his skin. I know Mum has a sewing tin on a shelf in the wardrobe. In their bedroom there’s a pile of cardboard boxes, flat and unused. I don’t know whether they’re for his stuff or her stuff because she didn’t tell me her plan when she called from up North asking me to check on him. When I hear Dad rummaging for something in the kitchen I remember what I’m there for, and I take the sewing tin down from the shelf and look out the window, down the dirt slope to the vegetable plots, and later, after I’ve sanitised the needle and removed the pieces of trowel from Dad’s palms he’ll ask me not to tell Mum about the garden just yet because he wants to wait until it’s grown a little, he wants surprise her when she gets back. I tell him don’t worry, but I know he’s left it too late.
What is Stilts? Stilts is a bunch of writing buddies who all met in Brisbane. We run a website for writers and readers, we publish a bi-annual themed journal, and we host reading parties that often end with a box of ‘Seriously Large’ chips from the Fortitude Valley Nando’s. What is it about Brisbane that made you want to focus on this place to make a journal? When we first started talking about this project about two years ago, we felt there was a lack of publishing opportunities for young and emerging writers in Brisbane. We knew a lot of people who were producing amazing work, but weren’t getting it out there. Also, our degrees in Fine Arts/Creative Writing weren’t helping us get real jobs, so we created this project and gave ourselves titles, and now we get emails from people asking if they can visit our ‘office’. What was the process? We came up with the project one Sunday morning on the back deck of our house in Red Hill. We just started talking about it while waiting for the plumber to come fix the toilet the landlord had warned us about clogging. We weren’t sure whether anyone else was serious about actually following through on the idea, but nobody said otherwise so it just happened. However, the process of getting it off the ground was very slow. We decided we needed a website if we wanted to build a following, so we roped two web-savvy friends in, and every Wednesday night for about a year we enticed them over for dinner, and then watched Arrested Development while they did the work for us. They did an incredible job, and the whole scope of the Stilts project wouldn’t be possible if not for their generosity. We’ve been entirely self-funded from day one; we all work other jobs, and we put our own money from these toward the project and hope to break even. What is Brisbane’s creative culture – how would you describe the literary scene? We think the strength of the Brisbane writing scene is in its relatively smaller size, and in the perception that Brisbane is a backward or bogan place. Perhaps this means that our writers get noticed more, because they go against the grain of the common (mis)perception. The Brisbane writing community is also extremely supportive and enthusiastic. We’ve had a great reception with people submitting work, buying the journal, and offering to help out. How can we find out more about Stilts? Buy our journal (stocked at Avid Reader). Read our website (www.underthestilts.com) Like us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/underthestilts) Follow us on Twitter (@underthestilts) Subscribe to our Newsletter. Shout us a beer (any time/all the time)
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
FiftyShades As many readers will no doubt know, the Queensland Literary Awards have decided to crowd source funds to help support their project. Thanks to the support from fans of literature in the community, the awards raised over a quarter of their goal in just one day. At the time of writing, they have doubled that amount to just over $12,000. By the time you read this column, I expect this project will be fully funded with a little to spare. The Literary Awards are using the crowd-funding platform known as Pozible, an Australian version of the American Kickstarter. But before Pozible was around, a group of Sydney filmmakers came up with a crowd-funding model to fund their independent film. They called it the 135K project, with the aim of raising $135,000 by selling each frame of their film for one dollar. The film this group created was called The Tunnel, a horror movie set in the abandoned train tunnels underneath the streets of Sydney. A large amount of water had been trapped there, resulting in a huge underground lake, which the government intended to recycle and utilise throughout New South Wales. The project was abandoned suddenly, which lead a journalist and her crew to investigate the tunnels and attempt to discover why. While they were underground they managed to get lost in the network of tunnels, but also came across more than they bargained for. Writers and producers Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey worked alongside director Carlo Ledesma and executive producers Ahmed Salama and Valeria Petrenko to bring this project to life. One of the key elements to their plan was the unique method of distribution. Once the film was completed, the movie was made available to download for free via a peer-to-peer network, which would ordinarily be an illegal way to obtain a film. Rather than fighting against something that much of the film industry bemoans, they embraced this technology and achieved success. Over one million people downloaded the film, which ended up gaining just over $50,000 of support from backers. Not content to leave their project there, the filmmakers also brokered a traditional theatrical release, showing The Tunnel on over 3,600 screens. They also sold 25,000 copies of the DVD version of the film and have gained a massive audience via a number of services such as online streaming, pay television and inflight entertainment. So despite not achieving the amount they set out to, they were still able to take advantage of the funding they did receive in an innovative way. Crowd-funded projects achieve far more than creative people achieving their artistic goals. They demonstrate that artists can find support outside of traditional funding models and grants, but also reveal the passion of the supporters that pledge their money, usually before they are able to see the end result. The hundreds and thousands of people who support these projects display a faith in the creativity of the artists who present their ideas. It is an endearment to the Australian arts and to the artists.
HOLY CRAP! Sex column by Krissy Kneen.
Yes, if I were to ignore the phenomenon that is “50 Shades of Grey” by E. L. James this wouldn’t be a sex column. It is and therefore I must approach this big awkward elephant-in-the-room warily.
Some people like this book. I will say this up front. I will also say, having read it, I have absolutely no idea why they like this book. I am told it is the thrill of reading something dangerous, illicit, sexy. I certainly understand this thrill, it was what brought me to erotica in the first place, the problem I have with it is that I don’t think 50 Shades is dangerous, illicit, or sexy. Originally written as Twilight Fan-fiction (the characters were once called Bella and Edward and there was some mention of fangs) the borrowed elements were eliminated before E.L. James published it as her own original work. I really don’t have any problem with borrowing ideas, structure or even character traits from other books. How many versions of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy are in contemporary novels I wonder? How many nods to classic texts like War and Peace, Lolita, the Iliad? I am doing this myself at the moment. I have been contracted by Text Publishing to write a book that references the classic erotic novels and have spent the entirety of 2012 so far reading nothing but sex. In the context of this I read 50 Shades and it was a little like being tied to a chair and having my fingernails removed. Almost every page contains the phrase ‘Holy Crap!’ Maybe it is just me, but the constant repetition of this highly excitable phrase was a bit like someone scraping their fingers down a chalk board at a high school. I do apologise if you have read AND enjoyed this book but I am afraid I am confused by your pleasure. But if you are one of those people who wants to be challenged and titillated whilst also reading something that will stimulate both your body and your mind, try My Hundred Lovers by Susan Johnson, and Delta of Venus by Anais Nin, or for a bit of the slap as well as the tickle, the literary visual feast that is The Story of O by Pauline Regae.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Reading Past
Road Rage
By Sher Li Teo
Kári Gíslason
Imagine yourself on a self-drive in America, trying to navigate the complicated highways with your GPS and headlights. The lanes are narrow, there are no street lamps and the next exit is a 20 minute drive away. Not exactly enjoying it? Well, try doing it at 3a.m, throw in some road bullies, and the task seems more formidable now.
One of the few specific details that I remember from my gap year travels – now more than twenty years ago – is what I read. A Scottish friend and I made our way, half by thumb and half by trains and ferries, from London to Corfu. In my backpack I kept the following: an anthology of Tennyson’s poems, Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (of course), and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. I sometimes had to fight my friend for Wuthering Heights, which we read at the same time in early winter in northern Corfu, just when the first rains came and the black market work dried up. He more or less left me alone with Marx, didn’t interrupt my reading of Tennyson at all, and only when we’d read through all the pulp fiction left in our villa room did the Pirsig catch his eye. I think he still has my copy. Our problem, which in a way was a good one, was that we’d become stuck. We didn’t have enough money to keep travelling, and there didn’t seem to be any way of earning more. Our solution, which I suppose in most ways was a bad one, was to read: it rained and we read. Marx was very little help. Some days we did punctuate our routine with long walks up a winding hill road, past olive farms and goat pens and very old shepherdesses. Tennyson, I knew, had something to say about pastoral life, but not this kind. The old women moaned terribly, more I suspect from rheumatism than lovesickness. We would make it to the hilltop village of Karoussades, where late each morning we ate our only meal for the day at a place known locally as the Pirate’s Taverna. The owner was a genuine pirate, insomuch as he spent his winters making boat trips to South America. One morning he offered us positions as crew on one of these trips, on condition that we ‘get along with the other crew.’ We were a little worried about what this meant, and declined. Instead of sailing for America, we walked back down the hill, past the old women in the shadows and their Gothic groans, and resumed our reading. Pirsig, I discovered, had a point to make about revisiting places, and looking for the ghosts of your former self that inhabited the roads you’d once travelled. The feeling that Motorcycle Maintenance produces, and which I didn’t really understand at the time, is akin to Freud’s idea of the uncanny. That is, you experience something that is simultaneously familiar and strange: your former self as you find them in the places of your past, but also as a phantom presence that to some extent escapes definition. I suppose, inevitably, that is the nature of all return journeys, those undertaken physically or in the remembering. With luck, we can be reasonably sure about what we were reading at the time.
My friend, Eric, is brave enough to do just that. And I become his ears and eyes while fighting fatigue in the passenger seat. My 18 hour flight from Singapore had sucked up most of my energy. I wonder why I bothered but the invitation to explore America is too tempting. Since I only have a two-week break from work, we will be driving across Arizona, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco and San Diego. Our journey starts at noon, so we got a few hours of sleep and left after a light breakfast. As far as I’m aware, fatigue-related and drink-driving are the worst case scenarios for most drivers. I’ve never given much thought to road rage until our journey from Arizona to Los Angeles. “You ok?” I ask. “I’m ok. Just making sure I’m seeing the real stuff.” Eric grips the steering wheel and reduces the speed from 120 km to 80 km per hour. Arizona’s highways are challenging even during the day. The hot noon sun created highway mirages – optical illusions which may become lethal for drivers. Soon, I noticed a white Ford Mustang tailgating our car. “He’s too close.” I squint at the mirror, trying to look at the driver’s face. Eric shrugs and continues to stare at the cars in front. 15 minutes later, I got worried. “He’s still there.” “Alright, I’ll move.” He checks the mirrors, blind spots and switches lanes. The Mustang drives up beside us and starts to honk. A man with hazel eyes and brown sideburns, gestures angrily through his half-opened window. His female companion, a blonde with bright red lips, looks at us in disdain. “Think this is your father’s road!?” A muscle in Eric’s jaw twitches and I place a hand on his arm, shaking my head. “Being a pussy now?” the man taunts. Eric clenches his teeth and increases the speed. The car jerk forward but the Mustang caught up. “Go back home you Chinese dogs!” Eric let out an expletive while I felt like slapping the man. The Mustang drives dangerously close and nearly ram into my door. Luckily, Eric reacts immediately and swerves sharply, narrowly missing an oncoming car. The man laughs hysterically. “Sit tight.” Eric said and steps hard on the pedal. The power reverberates through the car and I grab the door handle. Cars zip past and landscapes blurred. The Mustang fought to keep up, but soon we lost sight of it as we took an exit. It is only day two and our next leg is Las Vegas. But I got wary of road trips. Next time, I would opt for domestic flights.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
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Have you ever dreamt of meeting a woman you could talk to for hours about art, comics, conversations and coffee? Well, I found her around the corner from my house in the heart of Highgate Hill at Lucky Duck Espresso, but her work can be found in galleries, the walls of local cafes, on the street, and adorning the T-shirts from her label Donnie Danger. Emma Bertoldi is a young local artist who has been developing, creating and displaying her work in Brisbane and interstate, for several years and now she’s taking on Europe! Her trademark bold and graphic style depicting slightly sinister and odd mash-up reincarnations of everyday objects, pop culture images and personal observations of friends reflects her history, world and enduring fascinations. Needless to say we had plenty to talk about when I interviewed her for Avid Reader. The range of art-making and design produced by Emma begged the question of how she defines herself as a creative person which was met with the humble and chuckled response, “If someone asked me what I do, I’d say I make coffee”. This revealed the potential difficulty and awkwardness of making the claim of being an ‘artist’ in Brisbane due to the expectations or assumptions that can ensue once it’s made, but also how personal art-making is for Emma. Although she stated “it’s my passion, it’s my life” in words, the enthusiasm and dedication of this artist to her practice and the importance of maintaining a life filled with people and experiences that support it was so loud and clear through her jubilance and openness. Despite her humility, Emma’s passion compels her to share her artwork, which explains the breadth of her making and display across different arenas from the street to gallery wall. Last year she experienced her first solo exhibition Cigarettes & Soda Pop at The Shooting Gallery and was part of Outpost, a major festival of street art staged on Cockatoo Island, Sydney. This year she was part of The New Scum Show at The Jam Jar, West End and you can see her work emblazoned on the alleyway wall of Incognito Café, South Bank. Emma also said ‘goodbye’ to Brisbane in May with a T-Shirt launch for her label Donnie Danger at The Rabbit Hole
Ideation Café, West End. Reflecting upon her creative work, motivations and move overseas she revealed “I don’t necessarily care about the dollar sign on it, in all honesty, I just love what I do and I love being able to do it and showing people what I can do.” Conversations with her former patrons and co-workers at Lucky Duck Espresso, friends and local artists have all been vibrant and essential aspects of her creative life. She cited so many Brisbane artists as “phenomenal” and “talented”, naming Lucks, Mikey, Stephen Gregory, Kieran McMaster, Roms (Bradley Laughren), Ben Reeve and Cormac Moore as those she greatly admires as artists and people. Alternative art events that showcase a spectrum of the arts and platform Brisbane artists, like Spoken, all contribute to the local art scene that motivated and excited this local talent. Her other inspirations include her father’s Mad magazines she discovered as a girl which sparked an on-going love of comic books and graphic novels leading to her own comic book illustration and current work. You can’t help but conjure images of old school comic heroes like Felix the Cat and Popeye when you see the bold and brash work of Emma Bertoldi. These references also point to another source of interest, as Emma exclaimed that she “passionately loves animation”, which she studied at QUT. But it wasn’t until she organised a skateboard exhibition two years after graduating “because I wanted to display my work and I wanted to display my friends’ work” that her life as an artist gained focus and direction. Emma Bertoldi’s current stint is in one of the worlds’ culture capitals and mecca for young aspiring artists, Berlin. She expressed the desire to immerse herself in the art and culture of the city, hoping to “be surrounded by all these extraordinary like-minded people and culture that’s just very accepting of art and that way of life” to push her work further on a new frontier. Emma has already made her mark in Mauerpark and is about to start work on illustrations for an upcoming show. We await her return!
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
james’ music column
I can’t listen to music when I read. If I do, if must be at such a low volume I can barely hear what it is, used like white noise to drown out the sound of my housemates watching Seventh Heaven in the next room. I don’t, however, keep music and books separate. I clenched my fists with excitement when I saw that lyrics from the Talking Heads song ‘Once in a Lifetime’ were one of the epigraphs in Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot. I loved Peggy Frew’s debut novel House of Sticks which cast a musician-turned-mother as its protagonist. I enjoyed the Jennifer Egan’s wry comments on the recording industry in A Visit From the Goon Squad. I often find myself describing my favourite prose-writers as lyrical and full of musicality. But I don’t only love finding music in books, but also finding books in music. Around September of last year I started a blogging project to compile a playlist for each book I read. I called it ‘A Book: a Playlist’, and began finding songs that reflected the sentimentality of each book I had read. I was not looking for songs that held significance in each book, but more songs that held the same feeling. For Patti Smith’s Just Kids, the songs ranged from Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits to multi-
instrumentalist Kaki King. For Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad, Joy Division’s ‘Disorder’ followed Iggy Pop’s ‘The Passenger’ with The Doors and Beck for good measure. For Anais Nin’s Delta of Venus, Bjork ran on to Nick Cave, on to Feist which gave way to Grizzly Bear. Even Avid’s Krissy Kneen got my treatment, with a ‘Triptych’ playlist full of The Velvet Underground, Jesus and Mary Chain, and Stereolab. Without sounding like I’ve spent too long in the spirituality section, my reading experiences are often defined by certain vibes. Posting a playlist on my blog (which, I have to admit, is more seldom than I’d like) helps me capture each book’s vibe and allows me to use music to tell other people how a book made me feel. It also gives me something to do while my housemates watch Seventh Heaven. If you’d like to see my blog (if yes, I think you are terrific!) the url is www.abookaplaylist.blogspot.com
Music Reviews Sharon Von Etten – Tramp. $24.95
Beach House – Bloom $19.95
Standout tracks: ‘Give Out’, ‘Ask’, ‘Serpents’, ‘We Are Fine’ (featuring Beirut front man Zach Conden). Sounds like: Well-crafted pop songs with a slight gritty edge. I would recommend if you enjoy Beck’s album, Sea Change.
Standout tracks: ‘Lazuli’, ‘Wishes’, ‘Wild’. Sounds like: If the Cocteau Twins were raised on a steady diet of folk music. If you enjoy this album, I would thoroughly recommend Beach House’s previous, Teen Dream.
Perfume Genius — Put Your Back N 2 It. $24.95
Patti Smith – Banga. $29.95
Standout tracks: ‘No Tear’, ‘Take Me Home’, ‘Hood’. Sounds like: James Blake and Rufus Wainwright’s love child, but perhaps less post-dubstep and more post-trauma . However, the first song ‘Awol Marine’ sounds like its from the Beaches soundtrack. I usually skip it, and would recommend you do the same. Listen when: you want to lie on your bed and mope like a sissy. (In the most sissy-positive sense possible.)
(Special book edition featuring photography, lyrics and prose) Standout tracks: ‘Banga’, ‘Constantine’s Dream’. Sounds like: Patti Smith’s old terrific self, but a little more polished.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Reviews
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats: A Novel Jan-Philipp Sendker, $26.95 A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats spans between the 1950s and the present. When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be...until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never heard of. Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father’s past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion that will reaffirm the reader’s belief in the power of love to move mountains.
The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World Lewis Hyde, $24.99 The Gift has come to be regarded as a modern classic. This inspiring examination of the “gift economy” is even more relevant now than when it originally appeared - a brilliantly argued defence of the place of creativity in our increasingly market-orientated society. The Gift takes as its opening premise the idea that a work of art is a gift and not a commodity. Hyde proceeds to show how “the commerce of the creative spirit” functions in the lives of artists and within culture as a whole, backing up his radical thesis with illuminating examples from economics, literature, anthropology and psychology. Whether discussing the circulations of gifts in tribal societies, the ethics of usury, the woman given in marriage or Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, this wide-ranging book is as entertaining as it is ground-breaking, a masterful analysis of the creative act in all its manifestations. It is in itself an extraordinary gift to all who discover it.
My Cool Shed: An Inspirational Guide to Stylish Hideaways and Workspaces Jane Field-Lewis, $29.99 Building on the success of My Cool Caravan and My Cool Campervan in 2010 and 2011, this follow-up book celebrates the humble and not so humble shed, from studios to beach huts, and the diverse ways in which owners are styling them. My Cool Shed features 35 sheds, small cabins, garden rooms, beach huts, modern architectural mini masterpieces and other small spaces given purpose by their owners to pursue their hobbies, careers, creative endeavours or just to find some peace and solitude. The book includes high-quality stylish photography to show a wide range of well styled and elegant sheds, cabins, dens and hidewaways in attractive locations. The stories and accompanying style notes offer insight as well as inspiration. This is not a how-to book, although a sourcebook will be included, but more of a feel good book and source of inspiration.
What a Plant Knows Daniel Chamovitz, $27.95 A captivating journey into the inner lives of plants — from the colours they see to the schedules they keep. How does a Venus flytrap know when to snap shut? Can a fern get jet lag? Do roses remember the romance springtime? In What a Plant Knows, renowned biologist Daniel Chamovitz presents a beguiling exploration of how plants experience our shared Earth — in terms of sight, smell, touch, hearing, memory, and even awareness. Combining cutting-edge research with lively storytelling, he explains the
intimate details of plant behaviour, from how a willow tree knows when its neighbours have been commandeered by an army of ravenous beetles, and why an avocado ripens when you give it the company of a banana in a bag (it’s the pheromones). And he settles the debate over whether the beloved basil on your kitchen windowsill cares whether you play Led Zeppelin or Bach. Whether you are a green thumb, a science buff, a vegetarian, or simply a nature lover, this rare, inside look at the life of plants will surprise and delight you.
Steal Like an Artist Austin Kleon, $19.95 When asked to talk to students at Broome Community College in upstate New York in the spring of 2011, Austin Kleon wrote a simple list of ten things he wished he’d heard when he was their age: Steal like an artist. Don’t wait until you know who you are to start making things. Write the book you want to read. Use your hands. Side projects are important. Do good work and put it where people can see it. Geography is no longer our master. Be nice (the world is a small town). Be boring (it’s the only way to get work done). Creativity is subtraction. After giving the speech, he posted the text and slides to his popular blog, where it quickly went viral. Now Kleon has expanded his original manifesto into an illustrated guide to the creative life for writers, artists, entrepreneurs, designers, photographers, musicians, and anyone attempting to make things-art, a career, a life-in the digital age. Brief, direct, and visually interactive, the book includes illustrative anecdotes and mini-exercise sections calling out practical actions readers can take to unleash their own creative spirits.
Main Street Vegan: Everything You Need to Know to Eat Healthfully and Live Compassionately in the Real World Victoria Moran, $19.95 Hollywood celebrities are doing it. Corporate moguls are doing it. But what about those of us living in the real world—and on a real budget? Author and holistic health practitioner Victoria Moran started eating only plants nearly thirty years ago, raised her daughter, Adair, vegan from birth, and maintains a sixty-pound weight loss. In Main Street Vegan, Moran offers a complete guide to making this dietary and lifestyle shift with an emphasis on practical ‘baby steps,’ proving that you don’t have to have a personal chef or lifestyle coach on speed dial to experience the physical and spiritual benefits of being a vegan. This book provides practical advice and inspiration for everyone—from Main Street to Wall Street, and everywhere between.
The Source of the Sound Patrick Holland, $19.95 From medieval Europe to outback Queensland, from war-torn Bosnia to China and on to the shores of the Aral Sea, The Source of the Sound traces the journeys of exiles in search of home. In subtle, understated prose, Patrick Holland charts a world of belonging and loss, lingering in its silence to capture the light that penetrates its deepest shadows. Sparse yet evocative, intimate yet powerful, these stories will resonate with readers long after they are finished.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
August Events RSVP essential for all events ph 3846 3422 events@avidreader.com.au or on our website at www.avidreader.com.au Josephine Rowe Salon Event Tarcutta Wake Wednesday 8th August, 6pm for a 6.30pm start Tickets $5 RSVP essential events@avidreader.com.au Join three emerging writers who will read in the warm up to a conversation with Josephine Rowe, author of “Tarcutta Wake” a gorgeous collection of short stories through UQP. Josephine charmed Avid Readers with her debut collection “When a Moth Becomes a Boat”. Now her first full length collection will win your heart forever.
Jason Narung Salvage Friday 10th August, 6pm for a 6.30pm start Free event RSVP essential events@avidreader.com. au 38463422 Seeking to salvage their foundering marriage, Melanie and Richard retreat to an isolated beach house on a remote Queensland island. Intrigued by a chance encounter with a stranger, Melanie begins to drift away from her husband and towards Helena, only to discover that Helena has her own demons, ageless and steeped in blood. As Richard’s world and Helena’s collide, Melanie must choose which future she wants, before the dark tide pulls her under … forever.
Venero Armano Black Mountain Thursday 16th August, 6pm for a 6.30pm start Free event RSVP essential
stranger, who raises the boy as his own. Renamed Cesare Montenero after Sicily’s own ‘black mountain’, Mount Etna, the boy grows up to discover that his rescue was no accident, that his physical strength is unnatural, and that he has more in common with his saviour than he could have imagined. And when he meets the enigmatic Celeste, he suspects for the first time that he many not be alone.
LA Larkin Salon Event Thirst Friday 17th August, 6pm for a 6.30pm start Tickets $5 RSVP essential Antarctica is the coldest, most isolated place on earth. Luke Searle, maverick glaciologist, has made it his home. But soon his survival skills will be tested to the limit by a ruthless mercenary who must
win at any cost. The white continent is under
attack. The Australian team is being hunted down. Can Luke stay alive long enough to raise the alarm? Can he avert a global catastrophe? The countdown has begun.
Stella Rimmington Salon Event The Geneva Trap Tuesday 21st August, 6pm for a 6.30pm start Tickets $5 RSVP Essential Geneva, 2012. When a Russian intelligence officer approaches MI5 with vital information about the imminent cyber-sabotage of an Anglo-American Defence programme, he refuses to talk to anyone but Liz Carlyle. But who is he, and what is his connection to the British agent?
When a boy sold into slavery finds the courage to escape his brutal life, he is saved by a mysterious
The Indigenous Literacy Foundation Can you imagine not being able to read a newspaper, a road sign or directions on a bottle of medication? Sadly, this is a reality faced by many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders living in remote communities today. The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) aims to raise literacy levels and improve the lives and opportunities of Indigenous Australians living in remote and isolated regions.
Opening Hours Monday 8:30 am – 8:30 pm Tuesday 8:30 am – 8:30 pm Wednesday 8:30 am – 8:30 pm Thursday 8:30 am – 8:30 pm Friday 8:30 am – 8:30 pm Saturday 8:30 am – 6:00 pm Sunday 8:30 am – 5:00 pm Open most public holidays
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This is done by providing books and literacy resources to Indigenous communities and raising broad community awareness of Indigenous literacy issues.
For the month of August, Avid Reader will be featuring the Indigenous Literacy Foundation at every one of our events and we hope you will give generously and put some money in our ILF jar. Many other bookshops charge $10 for their events. Ours are either free or only $5 and we provide you with as many glasses of wine as you like. During the month of August, think about donating that extra $5 to Indigenous literacy every time you attend an Avid Reader event. Every bit helps.
Overlords Fiona Stager & Kevin Guy Bookish Underlings Krissy, Anna, Christopher, Kasia, Verdi, Trent, Emily, Nellie-Mae, Helen, Sarah, James, Darcy, Jack, Hannah and Michelle. Café Stuart, Verdi, Tara, Cass and Kate.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU