July 2011 1. Gorgeous books by Murdoch Books 2. Why we love our literary journals 3. What Sarah’s Wearing and Minxy Vintage 4. Avid’s Krissy Kneen has a new book out 5. New TV and Music columns
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
82 Modern Style Ideas
DVDs and CDs
Karen McCartney $34.99 For more than 10 years, Inside Out magazine has brought Australians contemporary craft and design solutions with personality and style — and this book is a carefully selected collection of some of the best, affordable ‘create- it-yourself’ projects. If you have an hour or a whole weekend to spare, these pages bring 82 inspiring ideas and step-by-step instructions. In addition, the queen of Australian craft, Tamara Maynes, has developed eight brand new projects for readers, making it a unique resource for creating and improving your ‘home with heart’.
Iconic Australian Houses 70/80/90 Karen McCartney $79.99 In this follow-up to the design classic 50/60/70 Iconic Australian Houses, Karen McCartney, founding editor of interiors magazine Inside Out has compiled a selection of significant examples of Australian houses of the 1970s, 80s and 90s, each brilliantly photographed and with a depth of coverage rarely seen before. Featured architects include Richard Leplastrier, Glenn Murcutt and Wood Marsh. The book’s introduction provides social, historical and architectural context. Each house features technical and practical aspects of the design and personal insights from homeowners and architects, as well as a section focusing on architectural details.
Freakonomics DVD $29.95 Freakonomics is the highly anticipated adaptation of the phenomenally bestselling book about incentives-based thinking by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. The film examines human behaviour through consistently provocative and often hilarious case studies, bringing together a dream team of filmmakers responsible for some of the most acclaimed and entertaining documentaries in recent years.
Nomad Sibella Court $59.99 Sibella Court sees the world differently. In her latest book, the stylist and bestselling author of Etcetera and The Stylist’s Guide to NYC shows us how to bring our travels home with us in twhe most unexpected of ways. The globetrotter and treasure hunter travelled to Syria, Mexico, Italy, India and Japan to be inspired by everything from door knobs and street signs to roadside shrines and household brooms — things that most of us wouldn’t even notice. In Nomad, the ideas, photographs and mementos she collected are used to inspire room settings, illustrating simple, practical and surprising ways to be reminded of your travel experiences. Sibella’s approach is not about recreating a whole look but about adding and subtracting, rearranging and recycling, transforming and rethinking to make interior spaces that reflect your personality, experiences and lifestyle. Nomad will help open your eyes to what’s around you and fuel your imagination long after the suitcase is unpacked.
Avid Reader would like to thank Murdoch Books for supporting our magazine.
Wilco — The Whole Love CD $24.95 Avid favourites Wilco are back as good as ever with their eighth studio album! The Whole Love is a veritable sonic stew, showcasing Wilco’s far-reaching musical prowess (multiple guitars, keyboards, synthesizers and percussion plus Mellotron, strings, loops and more) perfectly accompanying Jeff Tweedy’s provocative and insightful lyrics. Listen to the opening track Art of Almost and we guarantee you’ll be hooked.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Staff picks
Fiona Stager
Christopher Currie
Anna Hood
Krissy Kneen
All That I Am
What The Family Needed
Anna Funder $29.95
by Steven Amsterdam $24.95
Ruth Becker is an elderly retired German teacher living out the end of her life in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. After a lost manuscript unexpectedly lands on Ruth’s doorstep the ghosts of her past return to haunt her. The past is now more real than the present.
One of the problems in summing up a book is the immediate impression that it gives someone. As soon as I say to you What the Family Needed is about a family that receives superpowers, straight away you’re thinking The Incredibles or some other collection of lycra-clad heroines and heroes. This idea could not be further from the truth. Spanning numerous decades in the life of an extended family, this book is more about the repercussions of getting what you wish for.
We move seamlessly back to the time between WWI and WWII in Germany; a time when Ruth and her friends were active in peace and anti-Nazi political activities. Lead by Ernst Toller, the poet-leader and Dora, Ruth’s passionate and charismatic cousin, this group of students, artists, activists and dreamers will find themselves tested again and again. All That I Am is alive with the history of a time I knew little about but the great strength of this remarkable novel is the fully formed complex characters. It looks at the fate of people who find themselves challenged by love, hatred, philosophy and of history. Some will find themselves wanting. Neither the individual nor the world will be the same again. A story based on real people and events it’s a deeply moving and emotionally rich novel about people fighting for their beliefs against a tidal wave of hate, brutality and disbelief. I was deeply moved Anna Funder’s first novel. -reviewed by Fiona Stager
Obedience Jacqueline Yallop $29.99 Sister Bernard is one of the last nuns left in her convent, a relic of a different time. As progress comes to the small provincial French town the plan is to renovate the convent into a holiday house and the nuns are being moved to a home for the elderly. Yet Sister Bernard has a harder time coming to terms with her displacement than most. The darkest and most wonderful moments of her life played out within those walls after a bet between a group of Nazi soldiers resulted in an illicit affair between herself and one of the men. Sister Bernard falls for the mysterious Schwartz and she would go to any length to keep him, including betraying her fellow nuns. Told with beautiful, simple prose this heartbreaking novel leads you through the lives of people changed and ruined by one woman’s desire for the unattainable. This is Jacqueline Yallop’s second novel, the first being Kissing Alice which received an Honourable Mention from the 2010 Orange Prize judges. Read it if you loved Gilead by Marilynne Robinson or The Reader by Bernard Schlink. -reviewed by Anna Hood
It would spoil it to reveal all this book’s secrets, but, like Amsterdam’s first book Things We Didn’t See Coming, the linked stories add up to an intriguing and memorable whole. In turns funny, poignant, heartbreaking and real, this family’s stories will stay with you long after you turn the final page. -reviewed by Christopher Currie
The Marriage Plot Jeffrey Eugenides PB $26.95 I had been waiting for another book by Jeffrey Eugenides for ten years. His first novel, The Virgin Suicides is still in my top five novels of all time. He followed it up with Middlesex (after a ten year delay) and Middlesex became a run-away Avid bestseller and staff favourite. Then the ten year wait began. Eugenides does not rush his novels and you can tell in the careful way the books are constructed. The Marriage Plot was not at all a disappointment. The three central characters all meet at university, Madelaine is a beautiful young woman, highly intelligent and the object of Mitchell’s long term desire. Mitchell (my favourite of the three characters) is a religious studies major on a search for the meaning of life. Mitchell is so driven and committed to this goal that it seems that if anyone can answer the ultimate question then perhaps it will be Mitchell - unless of course his obsession with Madelaine distracts him from his higher purpose. Madelaine, however is in love with the brightest and most troubled young man Leonard. This is a classic love triangle but there is so much more to this book than just a love story. The book subtly and cleverly deconstructs the great classic love plots whilst engaging with philosophy and psychology and concepts of religious beliefs. I loved living with these characters for the duration of the story and I was convinced that the wonderful Mitchell should marry no one but me! This is a book that keeps you guessing to the very last page and rewards you with a conclusion that the authors of the great classics would be proud of. It is devastating to know that we will have to wait another ten years for another book by Eugenides, but it is heartening to know that there is enough in this book and his others, to keep re-reading them annually until we get another great work by my favourite living author of fiction. -reviewed by Krissy Kneen
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Trent Jamieson
Kev Guy
Verdi Guy
Helen Bernhagen
The Cold Commands
Minxy Vintage
Richard Morgan $29.99
Kelly Doust $45.00
The Cold Commands follows on from Richard Morgan’s grim and excellent sword and sorcery novel The Steel Remains. It’s been a long wait, but certainly worth it. The characters are just as dark and wounded in this tale — perhaps even more so — and once the story gets going it doesn’t let up.
In Minxy Vintage, Kelly Doust provides her take on fashion, style and all things vintage. Journalist, fashion lover and vintage vixen Doust delves through her wardrobe and scours flea markets to provide a beautiful collection of customized clothes. This is not just a book about loving vintage fashion: it’s about seeing the possibilities for updating old clothes and how to look fabulous doing so, no matter what your age or budget. If you’re a fan of scouring op shops or browsing flea markets to find unique clothes than this is the book for you. Doust shows us how to re-invent those old denim jackets, silk blouses, wedding dresses and jewels that have been collecting dust in your wardrobe. Whether you’re an old hand at vintage shopping, or have only just discovered the joys, the Minxy Vintage is sure to inspire as there are plenty of projects (and secrets) that will help to create a unique and stylish wardrobe. Doust proves that vintage pieces should be modern staples in every woman’s wardrobe. Dita Von Teese sums up the book perfectly by saying ‘Kelly Doust introduces readers to her wonderful world of reviving and customising vintage pieces, while bringing a modern and unique twist to wearing vintage clothes’. A beautiful book and perfect Christmas present for lovers of art and fashion.
In fact, it’s a great chainsaw of a book churning through the narrative forest faster than the Tunguska Meteor. It’s pitched as “Fantasy, harder, faster, bloodier.” But it’s also a lot more than that. Morgan has mastered a wonderful impressionistic style of writing that provides the action in great dramatic bursts that snatch your breath away. There’s a lot to be learned from the precision of his prose. Sword and Sorcery since Robert E Howard at least, has been about cultures clashing and crashing, filled with a great clattering and bloody joie de vivre. Richard Morgan has delivered that, and yet, made it at once intimate, human, and bleak. This is swords, mad emperors, cruel machines, dragons and gods given a shocking touch of realism. Highly recommended. -reviewed by Trent Jamieson
-reviewed by Verdi Guy
Blood Red Road Moira Young $18.99 Blood Red Road is a compelling read filled with rich themes and imagery. Set in a post-apocalyptic world a little like Bartertown from Mad Max III (sadly no sign of Tina Turner). Raven haired Saba has spent her entire eighteen years in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. Civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That’s fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba’s world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba and her younger sister Emmi embark on an epic quest to get him back. Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself. She is a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. Teamed up with her bird Nero, a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization. Blood Red Road has a searing pace, a poetically minimal writing style, violent action, and an epic love story. Saba is not an easy heroine to like at first, however during her journey through the desert wasteland she develops character and the book becomes a coming of age novel. Although this 492 page novel is the first in a trilogy the story itself does have a complete neat ending and can be read on its own. Definitely for fans of The Hunger Games. Ages 14+.
Blood Tony Birch $29.95 Blood was first conceived as a short story previously published in a collection Brothers and Sisters exploring the sibling experience. Since then Tony Birch has grown the story to give us a wonderfully rich and engaging novel about love, loss and hope. Blood takes us on a harrowing road trip through the back roads of Australia, navigated by Gwen, a neglectful and insecure mother looking for love but instead finding trouble. Narrated by thirteen old Jesse his job is to protect his younger sister Rachel. This is a task that tests him many times but they are bound by blood. With little schooling Jesse is street savvy, perceptive to Gwen’s moods and shrewd in difficult situations. He has also learnt her traits; lying and thieving to survive which he employs both to his advantage and detriment. For a young boy Jesse has done it tough. I hadn’t met a lot of nice people over the years. They weren’t the kind of people that Gwen hung out with. When Gwen brings Ray Crow home to the caravan Jesse knows life is about to get a whole lot tougher. Blood is a novel about what makes and what breaks a family. It is emotional. It is at turns tender and intense. It is a novel worth reading. -reviewed by Kev Guy
-reviewed by Helen Bernhagen 193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Staff Picks
Nellie Godwin-Welch
Sarah Deasy
Kasia Janczewski
James Butler
You Deserve Nothing
Riding the Trains in Japan
Alexander Maksik PB $29.99
Patrick Holland PB $29.95
Set at the International School of France for the wealthy in a beautifully vivid Paris, this is an absorbing read that can easily be devoured in a few sittings. Told from the different perspectives of three characters it retraces a year centred around a senior year English class. There is Will Silver, the inspiring teacher, the student Gilad who is profoundly affected by Mr Silver’s teachings and his view on life and Marie, young, innocent and too susceptible to the lure of illicit love. The prose is simple yet stylish and the philosophical themes that are taught in the English class and explored within the novel make it a fascinating read. It examines the subject of free choice in a society and setting where there are strict moral standards and behavioural codes produced by the limitations of belonging to the upper class, and how outside appearances are often deceiving of people’s true characters. As a debut You Deserve Nothing is an impressive read, and I eagerly await what comes next from this author.
‘Modern travel writing has always been created with a certain amount of gimmickry,’ Colin Thubron once said. With Riding the Trains in Japan, a collection of acutely sensitive meditations on Asia, Patrick Holland transcends the limitations of both the age and the genre, resisting the trend towards glib cleverness, to produce a kind-of post-religious Pilgrim’s Progress imbued with the spirits of Patrick Leigh-Fermor and Barry Lopez.
-reviewed by Nellie Godwin-Welch
It’s worth saying that Patrick Holland is also an extraordinary nature writer but the animating force of the book remains a spiritual one that recalls the best writing of Kerouac, particularly Desolation Angels and The Railroad Earth. Holland’s quest to discover the treasures of darkness and riches hidden in secret places leads him naturally to the aesthetic sensibility of Shintoism and the book’s penultimate essay, The Art of Simplicity is a humbling panacea for an age of excess.
1Q84 Haruki Murakami HB $32.95 Special price! The long awaited translation to Murakami’s latest novel (2 years people!) has finally found it’s way into my hands and it is a revelation. And at 1000 pages for the 3 volumes it’s a hefty revelation, but reading the minute care for detail with the beautiful prose I’m glad they took their time; 1Q84 does not disappoint. This mammoth of a book started a little slow, but similar to The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, this was to ground you and lay a foundation of the characters in the story, in preparation for the fantastical things which, being Murakami, inevitably must come. It switches from the banal to the supernatural with such ease you don’t notice until it’s too late, you have been transported to a world with two moons and reality is not what it seems. The story is told in alternating chapters by two people leading two separate lives, seemingly unrelated but intrinsically entwined, and delve into metafictional weirdness where their destines feel completely out of their control. Like Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder (another fantastic translated-to-English novel for anyone who hasn’t yet read it) the lines between fiction and reality are blurred and history is rewritten. Reading IQ84 your mind jumps ahead to solve the mystery like a good crime novel, but it is knocked back at every turn because Murakami is a literary genius and you are not, and next thing you know it’s 3am and you have to remind yourself to breathe. I am hesitant to reveal too much of the complex plot because unravelling it is for the joy of the reader. Murakami still seems to be a bit of a cult author in Australia, unlike Japan where he is a mainstream superstar, but this book could change that. Despite its sometimes slow pace (no detail is too small for Murakami) it reads like a thriller and crosses over multiple genres. The end of the second volume left on a cliffhanger worthy of Jack Bauer and I am left itching for the full publication to see how on Earth all the strings will tie together. - reviewed by Sarah Deasy
Much of Holland’s writing is concerned with how a discrete sense of place can persist in an age of globalisation and it is his insight into spirit of place, the subtle combination of culture, geography, language, religion, art, and history, that lends his writing such effortless power. What makes this book so special, though, is the way Holland makes all this feel personal, leading the reader through a wealth of knowledge with a gentle intimacy and quiet humour.
-reviewed by John Hunter
You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Dead Marieke Hardy PB $29.95 When Marieke came in to visit Avid on National Bookshop Day she signed my copy of You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Dead with “To the most handsome and popular man at Avid Reader.” As such, you must take this review with a grain of salt as I am now contractually obliged to love her forever. But I digress. Like the works of David Sedaris and Avid’s own Benjamin Law, Marieke Hardy’s You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Dead provided a series of hilarious, blush-inducing anecdotes that had me giggling and smiling stupidly on public transport and quoting lines in between fits of laughter to my housemates. (Namely, a scene where Marieke and her boyfriend refuse to wear paper underpants at a massage parlour thinking they were shower caps.) But as funny as these are, Marieke grounds them with a real sense of humanity — often afforded with a response from the friends, family and past lovers she writes about. What results is an unflinchingly honest and heartfelt homage to the people who make a person whole, all the while delivered in the same sharp-edged wit I grew to love after reading her blog Reasons You Will Hate Me. Superb holiday reading, and that’s not just the dedication on the inside cover of my copy talking. -reviewed by James Butler
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Lately the front counter of Avid Reader looks a tad like a news agency. Front and centre we have the cream of a new crop of very special magazines and journals. Frankie is the crowned princess of these. A smart fashionable, crafty and independently minded magazine, Frankie often sports the irreverent writing of Avid ex-staffer Benjamin Law who has done everything from reviewing soy products and fake meats to the use of the term ‘gay’ as a cool but not so cool insult by a whole generation of young folk. Benjamin is also a writer for Frankie’s younger brother, a new cool magazine for gentlemen folk called Smith Journal whose first issue features another Avid All-star, Christopher Currie and his brother Andrew. These journals join an ever-growing group of magazines aimed particularly at hip, young and discerning readers including Dumbo Feather and Peppermint. Slightly more ‘establishment’ perhaps but just as stimulating and interesting are The Monthly, a magazine of politics, society and culture, Griffith Review, whose annual fiction edition has included stories by Avid’s Krissy Kneen, and of course the ever intriguing Quarterly Essay. Just like our literary Salons, many journals concern themselves with the discovery of fresh new talent. The writers who work here at the shop or who read alongside the stars of our Salon events are often published in journals like The Lifted Brow, or Voiceworks for young writers or the Melbourne based journal Kill Your Darlings. At Avid we believe it is an important part of our job to introduce these emerging writers to their readers. So it is in this spirit that we load the front counter up with literary journals and continue to feature new writing in our extensive events programme. We have presented two new writers here for you today. The first was a recommended story from Voiceworks staff, and the second is a poem from our very own young events assistant James Butler. We hope you enjoy these and then come in and browse through the many magazines and journals that will lead you to the best young talent around.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Lemon Tree
by James Butler
When I was young I owned my neighbours’ lemon tree and filled it with secrets. I owned it the way children own their childhood until it’s a black eye or a broken voice and you realise it’s gone. Each day on the way to school I would write on scraps in scratchy childish cursive, writing words I would never say out loud. I leant the weight of my small body into the pen on paper and tightly folded these secrets onto themselves as I pushed them under the roots at the tree’s base. The thin wooden shell of the tree slowly began to fill with crumpled slips until it could take no more. My stories gave the tree digestive tracks, intestines, sweet breads and the sticky blood of my youth. And when its fruit ripened it ripened with the lisp and saliva of my stumbling speech; with the dirt under my fingernails, the plaque on my teeth and my hot breath through its branches. As I look back I feel the warm sour blood of those lemons dribbling down my chin with flesh in my stomach and sinew between my teeth. And my voice is breaking, and the ripening lemons have swollen to heavy dimpled stones, and the tree is mine.
A woman’s head once came into my care. It was very unexpected, and I would be lying if I said it was not met with a little apprehension, and a little bother at the extra burden. Yet, like most, I considered myself decent, respectable, virtuous, amiable – so I looked after this woman as best I could. She didn’t speak much, and preferred just to sit and listen. Her mouth was always tilted in a pleasant half-grin, but her evening-blue eyes were sad, it seemed. The woman often asked if I might take her to the spring and wash her in a waterfall. I would do so, always, and began to secretly enjoy running my hands through her hair to remove the knots. She sometimes asked if I might show her the blue quartz in the stream. So I would gingerly hold her above the water, and even spangled some of the smaller, smoother chips onto her cheeks. She would laugh, and I was sure she would shake her head if she could, so I shook it for her in a peculiar twirl, which made her laugh more as though it was a kind of game. At night I would swaddle her in my sheets and cover her ears with my palms. I could spend a long time gazing into her eyes, yet I wondered why each day they seemed always a little sadder, though her smile a little fuller.
One night, just when sleep had almost taken me, I noticed her eyes had become so sad that tears were ready to spill. She smiled, but I knew she would rather turn away. So I touched her hair and worked her temples with my thumbs. I kissed her brow. My dreams were often of blue quartz. Rivers of it. In places I knew to be forested valleys, or verdant fields between hills, great torrents of blue quartz flooded. They sounded like fingers rubbing, and like water they reflected the stars. She was never there though, and it saddened me. One morning I woke to feel the woman’s ears gone cold, her cheeks, blue as blue beneath her closed, quiet eyes. I clasped her to my neck and pressed my chin to her crown. I cradled her. The tears are only mine now. I can spend a long time watching their ripples spread through the spring’s gelid water. And now my dreams are only of blue quartz. Waterfalls, fountains, rain. From the peaks, I’m sure I can see an ocean of blue quartz, with great glistening waves tinkling in from the deep. By Peter Dawncy (22) – who lives in the Dandenong Ranges and is currently doing Honours in poetry writing at Monash University. This story first published in Voiceworks “V” issue.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Susanna had a talent for words. This fact came to her as a surprise because for the most part her life had been shrouded in silence. Her first language was Auslan, one of the hand-signal languages invented to communicate with the deaf. Her tiny baby’s hands pulled rhythmically on invisible teats when she was hungry, milking the air. Her mother, a silent beauty smelling of milk and lavender, responded to her call by lifting one swollen breast out of her floral dress. Spoken words were useless in Susanna’s home. Her parents’ hands could shout out commands, punish her naughtiness or soothe her into sleep with stories of little girls in the forest and big bad wolves made of hooked claw-fingers. Her name was a collection of letters spelled out on her fingertips. It was a difficult word for a little girl to pronounce without the benefit of sound. She could spell it clumsily at first, but her mother pointed to the framed painting hung above her bed, Susanna and the Elders by Artemisia Gentileschi. ‘Susanna,’ her mother spelled out, her fingers graceful. She pointed to her daughter, ‘Susanna.’ The painting and the girl. Later, Susanna peered at the painting, the naked young woman illuminated by the spill from the moon. The girl in the painting held a flimsy bed sheet to cover her nakedness. Two clothed men stared at her and, although they seemed more thoughtful than lustful, something about the way they looked at her was unsettling. Susanna held her own bed sheet up, covering one of her own small breasts. The other was exposed to the moonlight. She imagined the two men hiding in the shadows and a delicious thrill, half fear, half pleasure, began to warm her stomach. She pulled the blanket up over her naked skin and closed her eyes
tight, but whenever she peeked up at the painting, Susanna was always there. Naked, exposed. She entered the world of spoken words hesitantly, her silence often misinterpreted as shyness. While the other children screamed and shouted, Susanna sat quietly, watching. The world of school was a barrage of noise. She sat through each day longing for the silent relief of home. For her final assignment at university she made a silent film, a tribute to the older examples of the craft. In Susanna’s film the women expressed their passion with a fist held to the breast. The men responded with a widening of the eyes. Her assessors were confused. No words? they wrote beside her final grade. Perhaps you could have at least provided some emotive music. She left university for the last time stepping out into noisy peak-hour traffic, wondering what exactly she was meant to do. For a time she helped at a school for hearing-impaired children, breezing from one gloriously quiet classroom to another, distributing cartridge paper and pots of paint. The children were not silent, they clattered and thumped like any children, they grunted and screeched occasionally. But eventually they would settle into a comfortable hush, and Susanna settled with them, completely content. It was at this school that she met the man who would become her only lover, a deaf man, recently divorced. He had custody of his profoundly deaf son every second week and on the weeks in between Susanna would climb silently into his neatly turned-out bed. They would use their hands to break the silence, making words that were nothing but a dance of the fingers, a barely discernible sliding between the Auslan word for sex and the physical expression of the act itself. David was a good lover, expressive. His fingers demonstrated to her what he could not say. His mouth, passive through the day, was put to better use in the evenings. His lips formed shapes that spoke to her body as words could not. His tongue found ways to express his desire without the use of vowels and consonants. She learned from him a language of love that was as utterly different from the general machinations of sex as Auslan is different from English itself.
Sex between the pages a review of krissy kneen’s ‘triptych’ I’ve been keeping a dirty little secret. On the bus. Next to my bed. Sipping over coffee at cafes. In lecture theatres. Every spare moment has been spent devouring the sexual exploits of Lilly, Leda, Paul, Rachel and Aaron in the innocent presence of my partner, friend over my shoulder and strangers. I started getting nervous on the bus, worried that strangers might peer and discover the graphic scenes that were making me restless in my seat. I was embarrassed that I was reading about sex and finding that it was beautiful, even though it was confronting, explicit and strange. I trusted the words of Krissy Kneen to reveal experiences to me that I have never seen, find repugnant and would never do, because I believe there is worth in understanding corners of human behaviour that are unknown to me in my daily life. Sex is everywhere, all the time. It is a current that pulses under every moment of our existence. But the kind of sex depicted in Triptych is far from vanilla and in poetic, visceral detail. Many would dismiss this book of three novellas as pornography, but my perspective is that sex and confronting material are no strangers in the domain of art. The stories in Triptych are in fact inspired by three famously erotic paintings, Susanna and the Elders by Artemesia Gentileshi, A Dream of a Fisherman’s Wife by Hokusai and Romulus and Remus by Rubens. My perspective of art is that it is successful when it makes you feel or think something new by transgressing or subverting the accepted and ordinary so that in some way you have broadened your consciousness and knowledge of what it means to be
human. Triptych unveils taboo sexual practices that include internet sex, bestiality and incest in extreme detail through the stories of carefully drawn protagonists. However, its characters are not empty vehicles for these sexual practices. We are invited into their loneliness, hurt, desires and search for happiness that leads them to these acts. Krissy Kneen is not asking for her readers to condone or even enjoy the sexual scenes she paints so vividly but to witness them and consider the situation and inner life of the people in them. Just like all well-crafted stories. I have experienced a lot of art I don’t like, find shocking, disgusting or ugly but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t good, and it certainly doesn’t mean it wasn’t art. Krissy Kneen’s new book will probably upset a few people who will disparage Triptych for its content, pretending that such things do not occur if they do not read about them. Nabokov and Nin also let the world into the ‘secret’ domains of sex and relationships that were difficult to accept, but their words made it compelling and memorable to read, becoming great works of literature. Triptych was enthralling from the very first page, leading me through a reading experience that was simultaneously breathtaking, disturbing, romantic and lyrical. I had to contemplate things that were difficult for me to understand and made me feel uneasy. But the execution of the ideas was so intoxicating that I could not resist. Like all good art.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
This delicate silk piece was once a full-skirted frock made sometime in the early fifties. I found it in a flea market covered in tea-like stains, moth holes and with—sadly—a bodice that had been ripped to shreds. But it was far too small for me, anyway. This is how I reinvented it, brought it back to life, and made it fit. CUSTOMISATION AND RESTORATION My first step was to soak the silk in nappy cleaning solution overnight to diminish the stains. It worked, but the colour of the roses ran and made the rest of the fabric appear pink. I love this look—the fading and wishy-washy colour is part of its charm.
When applied in small doses, chintz can be so gorgeous—this skirt is a case in point. I love the faded wash of colour over the fabric’s rosy print, which puts me in mind of English bed & breakfasts, of being cosied up under a feather duvet with a tray of tea and toast on my lap— perhaps with a view of waves washing up against rocks in a seaside town …
Note Minxy Vintage by Kelly Doust is available from Avid Reader HB $45.00. For a limited time we will have some signed copies available. The perfect gift!
Next, I detached the bodice from the skirt by cutting across it, but I left the gathering in place. I also removed the original metal zipper completely, as it was coming away from the seams. Unpicking the too-long hem, I resewed it by hand after taking it up by a couple of inches. Before doing so, I ironed it flat so I knew exactly where to stitch. The worst moth hole damage in the skirt was mainly located down one panel, from top to bottom. With wrong sides facing each other, I folded the moth damage over on itself and sewed down the entire length of the skirt, before chopping off the leftover fabric (eradicating the most badly affected fabric). I then folded over the seam I had just sewn, and sewed along the other side to prevent fraying (creating a French seam). From the snipped-off fabric, I cut out small pieces to cover the remaining moth holes, and applied them to the skirt with iron-on bonding. Trying the skirt on over my head, I found she was still too small and gaped at the side where the zipper had been. Very gently, I ripped apart 193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QLD 4101 | (07) 3846 3422
Tip Re-purpose original metal zippers and buttons whenever you can, if they’re in decent condition. This gives the item a more authentic look and feel. To totally modernise, use nylon zippers and new buttons instead. The button on this skirt (unseen) is vintage, taken from another item. Source vintage buttons, beads and other bits and bobs from charity stores and flea markets, even removing them from otherwise-ruined pieces. Collect a stash for future sewing projects —they really come in handy.
some of the stitching in the gathered top seam, to widen the waist, and tried it on every so often until reaching the desired width. To create a new waistband, I cut a long strip of red cotton, folded it in half and ironed it flat. I then folded each raw edge under to meet the ironed crease. Taking the still-gathered skirt, I pinned the cotton strip in place before machine-sewing along the bottom of the waistband to secure the skirt, removing pins as I went. I then added a button, created a buttonhole by snipping the fabric and embroidering small, firm stitches around the edges, and sewed the zipper back in place after chopping it in half. BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Luke Nguyen and Adriano Zumbo will be visiting Avid Reader in an all star foodies extravaganza hosted by the delightful Paul Barclay. Here is a sample of the delights that you will be tasting when you join us for this event. Luke and Adriano will be demonstrating their techniques, cooking up a storm for you and discussing their careers and love of food. This will be a sell out event and Avid’s foodies are very very excited.
Indochine sees Red Lantern’s Luke Nguyen revisit his beloved Vietnam and seek out the food and cultural remnants of this former French colonial empire. On his regular visits to Vietnam today, Luke is often struck by the appearance of people wearing berets, speaking French and the aromas of coffee and butter emanating from cafes and patisseries. The recipes and accompanying stories in Indochine showcase the French influence upon Vietnamese history and cuisine. Against a backdrop of grand colonial hotels, bars, restaurants and terraces, to private estates dressed in antiques and textiles of the period, Luke talks to chefs, bakers and family members to extract the very essence of French-Vietnamese cuisine. From coffee and croissants at breakfast to high tea and supper, Luke unravels the origins of Vietnamese dishes such as pho, which began life as a ‘pot au feu’, and experiments with new versions of traditional Vietnamese food. Indochine will appeal to lovers of French and Vietnamese food and travel alike. Luke Nguyen was born in 1978 in Thailand, shortly after his parents and elder siblings fled Vietnam as boat people. After spending a year in a Thai refugee camp, his family eventually settled in Sydney. Luke is one of the chefs and owners of the award-winning Sydney Vietnamese restaurant, Red Lantern, and author of bestselling books, Secrets of the Red Lantern and The Songs of Sapa. His TV work includes Food Safari, Heat in the Kitchen and Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam on SBS, as well as appearances on Channel 10’s MasterChef. Indochine is his third book.
Join Adriano Zumbo on a trip through his whimsical world of sweet treats. His Willy Wonka style inventions and combinations of flavours are astonishingly bold, surprising and delicious. Whether you crave a multitude of melt-in-your-mouth macarons, an array of perfect pastries or the ultimate gateaux creation there is something to satisfy every sweet-tooth in this collection. Featuring desserts made famous on MasterChef Australia, challenge yourself to conquer the croquembouche, or take on the multilayered wonder of the V8 cake. Impossible to resist and a pleasure to make, take a journey beyond the chocolate factory with Zumbo. Adriano Zumbo is no ordinary patissier. His playful approach to food, far-ranging imagination and cheeky attitude have made him one of Australia’s best-known chefs. On his way to mastering the art of pastry, he has trained and worked in Australia and France with Australian culinary greats such as Neil Perry and international heavyweights Ramon Morato and Pierre Herme. Sydney discovered his magical macarons, pastries, cakes and chocolates when he opened his first patisserie in Balmain in 2007. His appearances on MasterChef have since won him a national following. Adriano has appeared in his own television series on SBS TV, has three Sydney locations with a fourth due to open in October, and is a popular presenter at food festivals. Zumbo is Adriano’s first book.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
What is Sarah wearing? In the lead up to our Minxy Vintage event with Kelly Doust we noticed just how wonderfully vintage and stylish our own Sarah Deasy is. We started a project on our facebook page called What Sarah’s Wearing, taking a photo of Sarah every time she came to work. The result has been a very popular collection of images liked and commented on by many. Here is a little sample of What Sarah’s Wearing. Remember you too can turn tired old vintage g into fresh new frocks so that you can be as stylish as our Sarah, and the Crafty Minx, Kelly Doust.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
! O H ! o H ! o H A very merr y season fo r all!
Grandma * Betty Churcher’s Notebook Deluxe Edition $50.00 * Australian Poetry Since 1788 $69.95 * The Street Sweeper by Elliot Perlman $26.95 * My Abuella’s Table by Germain Daniella $35.00
Grandpa * Fear Faith and Hope: The Long Wet Summer of 2010/2011 by Matthew Condon $29.95 * The Happy Life by David Malouf $19.95 * Modigliani: A Life by Meryle Secrest $45
Mum * Paris Underground by Mark Ovenden $29.95 * The Promise of Iceland by Kari Gislasson $24.95 * On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry $19.95 * Autumn Laing by Alex Miller $34.95
Here at Avid Reader we know that people do not fit neatly into boxes. Some mums find that music biographies rock their world. Some dads just love a good cookbook, some brothers are great at their knitting and some sisters like true crime. This said, we have to indulge in a little bit of stereotyping in our general Christmas recommendations. If your Grandma is the kind of woman who reads Lacan then come chat to us and we will match her up to the perfect gift. But for now, let us put together a general gender-biased list of our favourite gifts for a perfect Christmas with the folks:
Dad * Panic by David Marr $29.95 * A Sense of the Ending by Julian Barnes $29.95 * Hare with the Amber Eyes Illustrated Edition by Edmund de Waal $45 * The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins $39.95
Husband / Partner * 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami $32.95 * The Map and the Territory by Michel Houllebeque $32.95 * Prague Cemetry by Umberto Eco $29.95 * Triptych by Krissy Kneen $29.95
Wife / Partner * The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides $26.95 * Rose Petal Jam by Beata Zatorska $49.95 * Animal People by Charlotte Wood $26.95 * All that I am by Anna Funder $29.95
Big Sister * Minxy Vintage by Kelly Doust $45.00 * A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan $26.95 * Little Star by John Ajvide Lidqvist $32.95 * You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Dead by Marieke Hardy $30.00
Big Brother * The Ottoman Motel by Christopher Currie $32.95 * Sister’s Brother by Patrick de Witt $30.00 * Footprints by Powderfinger $45.00 * The Business of Death by Trent Jamieson $25.00
Little Sister * The Apothecary by Maile Meloy $19.95 * Billie B Brown The Big Book of Billie by Sally Rippin $24.95 * Wildwood by Colin Meloy $19.95
Little Brother * Heroes of Olympus by Rick Rhiordan $19.95 * Killer Koalas from Out of Space by Andy Griffiths $20.00 * Jewel Fish of Karnak by Graeme Base $29.95 * Star Wars The Jedi Path A Manual for Students of The Force $99.99
Littlest One * Lego Brickmaster packs: Ninjango $39.95 * The Cat Who is That? by Mo Willems $18.95 * Come Down, Cat! by Sonya Hartnett $24.95 193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Feel the pulse of its thriving tapas bars, watch the speed and grace of its wait staff, inhale the aroma of sizzling chorizo and savour the salty sweetness of crayfish straight off the grill… From its flagship restaurant in Melbourne’s Hosier Lane, to the opening of its latest venture Pulpo, MoVida has always embodied the heart and soul of Spanish cuisine. By fusing local and international flavours and pushing culinary boundaries, the MoVida restaurants have irrevocably changed the landscape of Australian dining. MoVida Cocina gives you a closer look at the people, venues and dishes that have made the MoVida bars and restaurants what they are today. Acclaimed chef and owner Frank Camorra takes us behind-the-scenes to reveal special techniques, signature dishes and the pure joy of cooking that infuses his life and work. He also reveals 70 stunning new recipes, including his chorizo-filled fried potato bombs, which featured in a nail-biting episode of MasterChef Australia in 2010. Special price $39.95
Richard Cornish asked co-author Frank Camorra some probing questions about their book, MoVida Cucina, his cooking and Spanish cuisine. Frank, this is your fourth book. How is this one different to your other titles? This is the book that really represents what MoVida is. The others books relate to traditional Spanish food, while this is definitely the cornerstone of our cuisine there are so many more elements and people that influence what we do. This is the perfect manual for those that may want to open a MoVida in Singapore or Hong Kong, or for those that just want to bring a few of the Movida flavours into their home. What’s your favourite recipe in MoVida Cocina and why? Tostadas con Sobrasada, toast with Majorcan sausage. Sobrasada is one of the great smallgoods of Spain. It is one of the dishes I miss most here in Australia. It’s often eaten for breakfast on toast. it has a texture between rillettes and pate and tastes porky, peppery and full of quality paprika. To be honest the Australian versions I have tried fall short of the real thing. In this recipe we set out to re-engineer the real flavour and texture of sobrasada for our breakfast menu at Terraza. To me its almost undistinguishable from the Majorcan original. Delicious and easy to make.
How do you find the time to write and produce cookbooks in between running four kitchens/restaurants? I have been blessed with great staff, we feature many of the people that make it all happen in the MoVida Cocina book. How has Spanish food changed in Australia in the last 5 –10 years? Firstly, the quality and breath of Spanish ingredients available has grow immensely. No longer is Spanish food restricted to over cooked paella with as many ingredients in it as pizza with the lot, or bad quality prawns drowned in garlic and oil. We now have chefs who have a real understanding of the regionality, subtlety and simplicity of Spanish food. What are 5 Spanish pantry essentials that everyone should have at home? Olive oil, La Vera smoked paprika, Bomba rice, Spanish anchovies, and aged sherry vinegar
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
FROM PAGE TO SCREEN AND BACK AGAIN BY CHRISTOPHER CURRIE Because I work in a bookstore here at Avid Reader, you’d think our conversations behind the counter would revolve around literature: waxing lyrical about our favourite authors, their best books, the power of their written narrative. And yes, that still does happen, but more often than not these days we’re talking about TV. For day-to-day conversations, the thing that links us more and more seems to be the latest episode of… rather than the latest book by… So has television replaced books as not only our favourite but also a better form of narrative? It wasn’t always like this. When I was cutting my teeth on television dramas in the late eighties/early nineties, the idea of a television series was nothing but a series of episodes linked together by nothing more than recurring characters and locations: any disruption to the world of the programme was repaired by the start of the next episode. The dramas I grew into were classis there-and-back-again programmes like The Bill, MacGyver and Murder She Wrote. These shows were conforming to a structure that hadn’t been changed for decades. See crime, solve crime, repeat. But then something happened. TV shows started borrowing devices from successful novels: they began to produce character arcs and long narratives that spanned not only episodes but seasons. The crime genre in particular borrowed heavily from that favourite trope of detective fiction: the antihero. Now it is commonplace for the action of a TV show to take a back seat to our main character’s personal journey. As our interest in characterization grew, the need to “tie-up” a case receded. Jimmy McGovern’s 1993 crime drama Cracker introduced us to Fitz, Robbie Coltrane’s foul-mouthed, obese, chain-smoking, alcoholic criminal psychologist, whose personality was just as important as whatever case he was solving. And this led to many more shows (often based on books themselves) such as Prime Suspect, The Shield and Homicide: Life on the Street where we began to understand how and why the cases impacted on those investigating them. Even my old favourite The Bill began to
explore the private lives of its characters (a decision, in my opinion, so ill-considered that it’s worth another article alone). These days, it seems impossible to imagine a crime series being made without the protagonist’s central personality trait being the main purpose of the show (think Lie to Me, Num3bers, or Castle), but it was in fact a major groundshift in thinking about what appealed to audiences. It meant that TV audiences were capable of keeping more than one hour of entertainment in their heads at once, and heralded the arrival of multilayered dramas such as The Sopranos, The Wire, and Breaking Bad. This, in turn, led to the idea of a television series as an immersive experience, with the entertainment no longer confined just to the half-hour or hour the programme screened, but rather continuing the narrative 24-7, with websites, extra episodes and interactive fangenerated content (think Lost as a great example). So where to now for television? Its rise in legitamacy both as a critical and financial success has led to better casts, better productions and, in turn, better content. HBO, perhaps the world’s best exponent of television, spent US$50 million alone on the pilot episode of prohibition-era drama Boardwalk Empire, and other networks are quickly following suit. Does this mean the end of books as our favourite narratives? Maybe not. HBO’s most recent success, Game of Thrones, is an epic fantasy serial based on George R R Martin’s five-novel series A Song of Fire and Ice, and the success of the TV show has meant a huge jump in sales for this already popular set of books. And anything that brings new readers into a bookshop is fine by me. In short, without great books there’d be no great TV. Without books, there’d be no Dexter, True Blood, Bones or The Walking Dead or Band of Brothers. And with a rumoured HBO adaptation of Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections in the pipeline, the trend is set to continue for a while yet. Anyway, I need to get back to work to discuss fine litererature. But before I do, Did you see last night’s episode of Breaking Bad? OH. MY. GOD
james’ music column In what is possibly the most cynical opening to an inaugural music column ever, I start with a broody question: are we at the end of the road for innovation in pop music? Musicians in the jazz age thought that music had nowhere else to go just before rock’n’roll came along to smush metaphorical pie all over their faces. (It would have taken a lot of pie to cover Dizzie Gillespie’s cheeks. What a waste of metaphorical pie.) However, after reading Retromania by Simon Reynolds, the depressing thought that we’ve exercised all possible innovation in music has certainly begun to creep into the back of my mind. Music critic Simon Reynold’s Retromania is a series of critical essays that argues the death of innovative music lies in our preoccupation with the past, and that we’ve started to confuse inspiration for innovation.
Think about arguably the most popular and successful music release of this year, Adele’s 21. The songs are well-written, her voice astounding and her success warranted — but stripped back piano ballads aren’t exactly new, right? The same goes for indie pop circles, as in the same year we’ve references to kraut rock, eighties synthesisers, lo-fi punk, and more. But can you at the same time be both referential and innovative, or is our obsession with the music of the past obscuring the music of the future? It’s a heated, albeit a little depressing, and exciting debate - I’m just not sure which side I stand on yet. I think I’ll start with putting Retromania down, listening to some new music, and preparing my face for an onslaught of metaphorical pie.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
Jason’s Film Column
Indie cinema Every year I make it a habit to attend film festivals so that I can see films that I wouldn’t normally be able to. This year I was lucky enough to attend the Revelation Perth International Film Festival and was exposed to an amazing selection of independent and alternative cinema. I was a little sad to leave and after being back in Brisbane for a few weeks I realised why. Brisbane has less and less venues for independent cinema. I have always had a soft spot for Dendy George Street as I worked there for a number of years before it closed and some great films came through that otherwise would not have made it to Brisbane. Trash Video was another local staple for anything outside the mainstream. In Dendy’s place came Tribal Theatre, a travel agent by day and alternative cinema by night. Sadly, this cinema is also on the way out. Their official statement is as follows: “Ladies, Gentlemen, Loyal Members, Fans, Film-freaks, Passers-by, Lovers and foes, We have adored every moment of the last 518 days with you. We have loved your company at the candy bar, your empty beer bottles under the seats, the many plastic spoons you have strewn across the floor and the politeness with which most of you have ignored the musty smell of cinema one.” Despite the elegiac tone of this column, this is not the end of independent cinema for Brisbane. There is still The Schonell and some independent
I Can Do That
films show at the Palace cinemas and Dendy Portside as well. But the low budget films that can barely scrape together a distribution deal now have less of a chance in Brisbane. Thankfully we have film festivals like Tropfest, Brisbane Underground Film Festival, Brisbane International Film Festival and of course the West End Film Festival, but these only happen once a year. And local film buff Kristian Fletcher does his part to ensure that cinema does not go unappreciated. So I guess this column is part love letter to independent films and part entreaty. We need independent cinema in the same way we need independent bookstores. Otherwise we end up saturated with the mainstream popular films that dominate the Hollywood landscape. This is not to say that those films are necessarily bad or unwelcome as they undoubtedly have their place, but like anything, we need variety. From my time working in cinemas, the people that attend independent, alternative cinema most of all is pensioners. You may not think it to look at them, but every Wednesday or Thursday morning at 10am, seniors and pensioners would line up on George Street to see some quality cinema with a cup of tea and a biscuit. So I urge you to follow their lead and go and see a film with subtitles or at least see something you wouldn’t normally see, maybe go to a film festival. You might be surprised how much you enjoy it.
by Kev Guy
In June the Federal Minister for Small Business, Senator Nick Sherry predicted that most bookshops in Australia are doomed to close their doors within five years due to the expanding online business environment. He was met with criticism from many within the bookselling industry and rightly so as he had no basis of fact on which to make this dire prediction. All booksellers in Australia are well aware of the two-speed economy, changing customer behaviour, the demands of online retailing and introduction of new technologies. Independent booksellers are constantly developing new business strategies to stay profitable and do not need the Minister predetermining our demise.
It is an interesting balancing act dealing with the creative energies of art designers to the methodical and mercurial demands of computer programmers. When faced with a number of ebook platform options it is difficult to determine one over another as they are relatively untested in Australia. The thinking behind the website is not only to meet the Minister’s challenge of having a competitive e-commerce strategy but also to develop a site which reflects the character and feel of the bricks and mortar Avid Reader. This is no easy task as you need to get in under the skin of the business, the staff, our customers and translate this online. Therefore, the thinking goes something like this:
Prior to the Minister’s comments we had been discussing our e-commerce strategies and the need for reform. From these discussions I agreed to spend the time and as yet unbudgeted resources to overhaul Avid Reader’s website (still a work in progress at the time of writing). My agreement reminded me of the character Helen Marsh from the very funny and popular Catherine Tate Show who says in response to any challenge ‘I Can Do That’ knowing full well she has no idea what she is doing.
• • • •
a website that is simple to navigate and use; an e-commerce system that provides surety about stock availability and security of your details; an engaging site that keeps you up to date with events, staff reviews and bookshop news; and a site that supports other small business and community groups we have relationships with.
Now, all this needs to be finalised in time for the launch of our Summer Reading Guide in November. Oh, I Can Do That.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU
November – December Events Fairfield Writer’s Group ‘Life’s a Rollercoaster’ Anthology
Marieke Hardy & Michaela Maguire Women of Letters
Tuesday 1 November 6pm for a 6.30pm start, Free event
Monday November 14th 6pm for a 6.30pm start, Tickets $5
The writers explore the roller coaster of life through flood waters in Yeronga, to police cells in Inala, to the beaches of Fiji; bomb-ravaged streets of war-torn Berlin and the back-alleys of Glasgow. Fairfield Writer’s Group members will read from their stories on the night and copies of the anthology will be available for sale.
Women of Letters is an institution. Women from all walks of life get together to read letters written to a specific subject. In the years that this very successful public reading series has been running we have heard letters from Noni Hazelhurst, Maxine McKew, Ita Buttrose and many many more. Now the Women of Letters team have put together a book containing their favourite letters and we are going to help launch it.
Gary Mehigan & George Calombaris Cook With Us Wednesday 2 November, 6pm for a 6.30pm start Greek Club 29 Edmonstone Street Sth Brisbane Tickets $20/$19 or bulk buy $15 for six or more Refreshments included. This is a Brisbane’s Better Bookshops event. In their second book together, Masterchef Australia’s much-loved judges Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris share their unique tricks of the trade and twenty popular cooking techniques, accompanied by eighty delicious recipes. Let Gary and George show you how to master some of the great cooking challenges. The next best thing to having George and Gary at your kitchen bench, Cook With Us is for anyone who wants to learn how to cook up a storm with confidence and flair.
Luke Nguyen and Adriano Zumbo Wednesday November 9th 6pm for a 6.30pm start, Tickets $10 Luke Nguyen & Adriano Zumbo the foodie dream team will be at Avid Reader in a very special double act facilitated by Radio National’s Paul Barclay. You must book early as this event will sell out!
Anna Funder special Salon event All that I am Thursday 10th November 6pm for a 6.30pm start, Tickets $5 Based on real people and events, All That I Am is a masterful and exhilarating exploration of bravery and betrayal, of the risks and sacrifices some people make for their beliefs, and of heroism hidden in the most unexpected places. Anna Funder confirms her place as one of our finest writers with this gripping, compassionate, inspiring first novel.
Bookclub Christmas Parties Crime book club — Saturday 3 December 2pm Australian book club — Tuesday 6 December 7pm First Wednesday book club — Wednesday 7 December 7pm Daylight bookclub — Thursday 8 December 9.30am RSVP essential
Kirk Marshall Carnivalesque, And: Other Stories Thursday November 17th 6pm for a 6.30 start, Free event Join us for an exciting night of the literary and the bizarre as staff favourite Kirk Marshall launches his new collection of short fiction.
Chris Maver Return to Forbitten Venus Friday 18th November 6pm for a 6.30pm start, Free event With local artist, writer and performer Chris Maver you never quite know what you get, but what you get is always good solid fun, artistic excellence and a tongue placed firmly in the cheek.
Avid Christmas Party Friday November 25 6pm start, RSVP essential.
Steven Amsterdam Salon event What the Family Needed Tuesday November 29th 6pm for a 6.30pm start, Tickets $5 Steven Amsterdam’s first novel Things We Didn’t See Coming was a run away staff favourite and romped home with The Age Book of the Year amongst other awards. We were graced by his presence during his book tour and fell completely in love with this humble, intelligent and generous author. Now is your chance to meet him again or for the first time as he discusses the art and craft of writing with three emerging writers and the Avid Reader crew.
Special Australian Bookclub event Meet the Publisher Tuesday 6 December 7pm We invite you to read Blood by Tony Birch and come along and hear a conversation with John Hunter, publisher, at University of Queensland Press. Find out how Tony’s novel came to be published and the process involved in getting a book into a reader’s hands.
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
Mailing List Keen for the latest news in books? Want to know which authors will be coming to town next? Interested in free movie passes and preview tickets? Then subscribe to Avid Reader’s e-newsletter mailing list. E-news subscribers are also invited to our famous, members-only 20%-offthe-entire-store sales (which include wine and cheese!), and the first to know about our special offers. Subscribe via our website www.avidreader.com.au Click subscribe and follow the prompts. Become our Facebook friend as well and you will get very special offers exclusive to Facebook friends.
Overlords Fiona Stager & Kevin Guy Bookish Underlings Krissy, Anna, Christopher, Kasia, Verdi, Trent, Emily, Nellie-Mae, Helen, Sarah, James, Darcy and Jack. Café Stuart, Verdi, Tara, Cass and Cindy.
193 BOUNDARY STREET, WEST END, QUEENSLAND 4101 | (07) 3846 3422 | BOOKS @ AVIDREADER.COM.AU | AVIDREADER.COM.AU