As I write this I’m escaping with a batch of holiday reading, and just wanted to say on behalf of Gleebooks, welcome to 2010 and our first Gleaner. We’re proud of the efforts we take to communicate and stay in the touch with our Gleeclub members and the broader reading community—and, for me, nothing illustrates this better than the excellent work Viki, our editor, puts into the Gleaner, now in its 16th year. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we do. Undoubtedly 2010 brings us closer yet to a realised world of the e-book and e-reader, and our challenge, as a retailer already embedded in the e-commerce of websites and email customer service, is to reshape ourselves so that we can be relevant in this brave new world, and yet continue to sell lots of books to stay alive as a traditional bookseller. An increasingly big challenge, but watch this space, and the Gleaner will keep you in touch with everything.

Meanwhile, I finished last year’s review of books by commenting on how unusually dominant fiction was in 2009. I’ve only just caught up with Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk’s The Museum of Innocence, and it reinforces the point. When you look at just four of our literary fiction best sellers last year (Wolf Hall, The Lacuna, Ransom and The Museum of Innocence) you’ll find four very different works, but all use history and fact (and myth) to weave their magic. I confess that I’ve not been a fan of Pamuk until now (I even struggled reading Istanbul in Istanbul), but I finally understand his brilliance. The book is a strange, twisted and affecting love story set mostly in the 1700s, but the real centre of the book is Istanbul itself—the seething centre of the East/West divide at a time of tremendous social and political upheaval. It makes for a compelling, sometimes eerie exploration of a society willing itself into the habits of a liberated West, while reluctant to surrender its own traditions. And in a curious style, the author at times seems as much anthropologist or curator, as narrator. I found it really fascinating and absorbing. David

Small publishers have been working hard over Christmas to bring you these standout titles. Affirm Press releases Under Stones ($24.95), the new book by comedian Bob Franklin. Dip into Bob’s fiction at your own risk. Not traditional horror stories—they are more unsettling than that—they are tales of unease, set in familiar surrounds & whispered in your ear by a friendly & charismatic stranger. Also from Affirm Press, Advice to Young People on Leaving Home: Social, Etiquettal and Homing Tips ($24.95) by world-famous knowist, Grace Lax OBE. If you or your spawn are looking for guidance about how to leave the family home, find ‘digs’, make friends, influence people, eat, drink and procreate and, finally, die, then this compendium is for you. From YA specialists Ford Street: f2m by Hazel Edwards and Ryan Kennedy ($19.95).

For guitarist and school-leaver Skye, making your name in the punk/indie scene is easier than FTM (female to male) transitioning. Uncovering genetic mysteries tears the family apart. Transgender identity is more than injections and surgery; it’s about acceptance. From Hybrid Publishers, A Thousand Nights at the Ritz by Alan Collins ($29.95). Critically acclaimed stories of life in the suburbs. “Collins’s stories indicate the presence of a sharp-eyed social observer, a keen-eared listener, a writer with a lively grasp of the physical world, & a rich sense of humour.”—Faye Zwicky. And from Transit Lounge, Keeping Faith by Roger Averill ($29. 95) is a remarkable debut novel about the beauty and disappointments of childhood, family and belief, about losing faith and finding love. “Subtle and finely crafted. A novel of intellectual and emotional intensity.’— Steven Carroll.

For more see www.spunc.com.au. Zoe

There have been three books that I have really enjoyed lately.

Firstly, Audrey Niffenegger’s Her Fearful Symmetry. I loved The Time Traveller’s Wife, and was rather dreading reading this one, as I knew it couldn’t possibly be as inventive and surprising as TTW, and indeed, it isn’t. It is, however, a highly enjoyable and satisfyingly creepy ghost story, and a chilling account of several types of obsession. I must admit I do love a twins story, and this book is about two sets of twins—twin sisters and their mother and aunt (also twins). Set mainly in and around Highgate Cemetery in London, there is a tremendous sense of atmosphere and place in the book, and while the plot is undoubtedly most unlikely (as was the central premise in The Time Traveller’s Wife) it was quite easy to suspend belief and go along with the story. The ending is predictable, but still, very, very eerie.

Sue Townsend’s ninth, and latest book about her unlikely hero, Adrian Mole, is also an entertaining, and surprisingly touching episode in this saga that started in the 1980s, when he (Adrian) was nearly 14. We find Adrian married to yet another unlikely partner. He is living in a converted pigsty in the Leicestershire country side, with his mother and fairly pathetic father living next door. He is about to turn 40, his oldest child is in the army—fighting in Afghanistan, and his youngest child is about to start school. The true love of his life, Pandora Braithwaite, is really the only person he knows who truly prevails, with everyone else seeming to flounder along—much like real life. The title The Prostrate Years really says it all, and lots of bad things happen to Adrian. In the face of much adversity he seems to not exactly prosper, but survive, and with a surprising amount of good grace. A. Mole is not an Everyman, he is too gormless for that, but, he is like an old friend now, and I look forward to the next book, just to see how he is.

Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry by Leanne Shapton. What a title! And what a extraordinary book. Written like an auction catalogue, in photographs with captions, Important Artifacts etc chronicles a four year relationship between food writer Lenore Doolan and photographer Hal Morris. Photographs of themselves, their belongings, hand written menus and correspondence, are all presented in black and white, and in chronological order. It’s like looking at the deceased estate of a failed relationship (this is clear from the first page), a visual litany of keepsakes, a record of sentimental regard, and most fun of all, a list of things that people with good taste and money buy themselves, and give to each other. Hal and Lenore come from the world of first editions, Smythson of Bond Street diaries, Marimekko sunhats and vintage swimwear. The hints are all there in the books they read and give to each other... F Scott Fitzgerald, Robert Lowell, Edna O'Brien, Nancy Mitford, Jane Bowles etc. And if you feel put off by this specific kind of signposting, and branding, don’t, because there is so much more to this book than just the symbolism of things. It is like an archaeological dig through a relationship, and a completely original way of describing a love affair in the 21st century. Louise

Every now and then I can’t face any more killings, muggings, kidnappings and the like, but then I get over it—so, after a holiday from crime, I’ve been on a little binge. This time it was the Scandinavians who got me involved again. I read the new Arnaldur Indridason, Hypothermia, the new Mankell, Italian Shoes, and I was away.

In Hypothermia, Maria is found hanging from a beam in her summer cottage. At first it is assumed to be a suicide, as she has never recovered from the death of her mother, but when a tape is found of a séance Maria attended, a friend gives it to inspector Erlendur Sveinsson, and his curiosity is aroused. Erlendur starts an informal investigation into the woman’s death, while at the same time he is haunted by the unresolved cases of two young people who disappeared thirty years earlier. How the wonderful Erlendur discovers the truth behind Maria’s death & the missing young people is a haunting story—unsentimental yet imbued throughout with Erlendur’s extraordinary empathy with human suffering. I loved this book & I was pleased to read in an interview with Indridason that there will be more of Erlendur, as he feels he hasn’t come to the end of the depths of his character.

Henning Mankell’s Italian Shoes may not be a crime novel in the classic sense, and it doesn’t feature his Swedish detective Kurt Wallander, but the story is still told in Mankell’s unique style. Set on an island in the Swedish archipelago, it features Frederick Welin, a disgraced surgeon, living in self-imposed exile. Nearly forty years have past since the tragic mishap on the operating table, & Welin is now an old man. One morning he sees a figure struggling across the ice towards his house. He realises that it is Harriet, the woman he abandonded years ago. She is there in the hope that he will honour a promise he made to her many years before, to take her to a beautiful pool hidden deep in the forest. How Welin & Harriet leave the island & what happens to them on the way makes for engrossing reading. This is a complex story, with many layers, and an ending that will surprise you. Some of Mankell’s non-Wallander books aren’t very satisfying, but this one is different & I found it most enjoyable.

A new translation of a Andrea Camilleri is always a joyful occasion. His latest, The Wings of the Sphinx, was first published in 2006 but only translated last year, & it doesn’t disappoint—with Camilleri continuing his stand for what is right in a corrupt & dishonest society. I must admit to having a tiny crush on Inspector Montalbano. He is a man after my own heart, loving food & wine as he does. I love the way that, in the middle of a murder investigation, he always stops for lunch, describing what he eat & drinks in mouthwatering detail. Also, loving Italy & all things Italian, I feel at home in the stories. My second favourite character is the wonderful Catarello, who, for his sins, has to answer the phone at the station. Cat speaks in an Italian version of strine, & of course, gets everything wrong, but gets there in the end. The story revolves around the death of a Russian prostitute, the Catholic Church &, of course—being set in Sicily—the mafia. The on again / off again affair between Montalbano & his girlfriend Livia, threatens to come to a head, but as usual solving crime comes between them & again nothing is resolved. I’m fond of the TV series, Il commissario Montalbano shown on SBS, as Luca Zingaretti, who plays the lead, is exactly how I imagined Montalbano to be.

A new find is Christopher Fowler, author of the Bryant & May series. I have always believed that sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, & this is one of them. In The Victoria Vanishes, Arthur Bryant & John May are two octogenerians who work for the Peculier Crimes Unit in London. This unit was set up to handle crimes that don’t fall under the jurisdiction of other branches of the Metropolitian Police Force—which tries its best to shut Peculiar Crimes down, despite the unit’s record in solving strange & unusual cases. The latest case involves the deaths of several women in famous London pubs & Bryant & May are determined to see to the end what might be their last case. What follows is a great romp through the pubs of London, including The Victoria—which is there one night, gone the next day. Of course, the government is involved & people in high places try to stop their secrets being revealed. This book won the Last Laugh Award for the best humorous crime novel, so if you like a bit of fun with your crime, then this is definitely for you. As a bonus, in an appendix, the author lists all the London pubs consulted during the course of his investigation. Highly reccommended! Janice

Although the year is well under way as you read this issue of the Gleaner, our copy deadline was long ago while we were all still in post-Christmas hazy lazy summer mode so we are easing from reading to thinking about books again, hence the slightly different format. But first, Gleebooks Children’s debut event of 2010! 3–4.30pm, Sat. 6th March St Johns little church hall, opposite St Johns Church, St Johns Road, Glebe. We invite you to join us in celebrating the release of the third collection of Nanny Piggins’ exploits: Nanny Piggins and the Runaway Lion. Rachel Spratt, creator of this sassy runaway circus star, will bring her to life & have you longing for your own idiosyncratic family help. Along with laughter, book readings and chatting with the author, there’ll be refreshments and diversions such as a chocolate treasure hunt. As a launch special, you can buy all three books for just $29.95 (that’s three for the price of two!) Come along for a snorting good time. NB: RSVP essential! Please email louise@gleebooks.com.au

Lynndy Bennett

NOVELTY BOOK: There Was an Old Lady by Jeremy Holmes ($27.95, HB)

Holmes’ version of the cumulative story has polarised reader opinion, so it’s one you definitely need to see for yourself. While looking again at this edition I started to wonder what dastardly misogynist would have this poor elderly woman shovelling increasingly larger creatures into her mouth until she expired. Unlike most nursery rhymes, which reflect historical events from olden times, this one was written in the first half of the C20th by Alan Mills, a Canadian. (Discovering that, I took it as humour rather than sadism.) Jeremy Holmes has taken a very designerly approach: there is a removable outer casing which forms both the title and the old lady’s textured overcoat (with astrakhan trim); then the book itself is divided into thirds with the top showing her face and the bottom her feet with the frivolous background of a recipe for Shoe Fly Pie. It is the middle section (her stomach) which opens, revealing both the text and quirky little detailed illustrations reminiscent of the Victorian era. I shan’t spoil Holmes’ surprises by telling you more; it’s up to you to come in and play. Lynndy Bennett

CRAFT: Origami for Children by Mari Ono & Roshin Ono

Enter the world of origami with Origami for Children. On every page there is a new creation, from animals to space ships, food to ties and helmets to instruments. The instructions are simple with beautifully taken photographs to help you on the way, and origami paper is included! Highly recommended and not to be missed, guaranteed to blow you away every time ($35, Pack) Siena Cole (13)

PICTURE BOOK: How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham

Good news! Winner of the 2009 CBC Award for Early Childhood, Bob Graham’s most recent book is now in paperback. Additional good news is that it won the Picture Book Fiction category of the 2008–2009 Cybils Award, which is nominated and judged by international bloggers of youth literature, most of them in the industry themselves. I’ve included the judging comments: “This deceptively simple book achieves so much more than telling the story of a boy who notices a wounded bird in a busy city. By alternating single and double-page spreads with clusters of small panels, Graham creates almost a film strip of time passing. The artistic technique lends both intimacy and urgency to the boy and his family’s precarious mission to save the injured pigeon. The text is commendably lean, supporting the strong visual narrative and keeping a lighter touch to the theme. The cartoon-style, watercolour illustrations provide the perfect tone, and the accessible story offers connections for picture book readers of all ages. For all of these reasons, How to Heal a Broken Wing distinguishes itself as the rare picture book that speaks quietly, yet has volumes to say about courage, kindness, and hope.” All Bob Graham’s books are memorable, crafted perfectly for his target (mostly very young) audience, lovingly depicting families of all types, and it’s a thrill to see him garnering more international recognition to add to his fanbase here in Australia. Congratulations Bob! ($15.95, PB) Lynndy Bennett

FOR PRIMARY LEVEL READERS:

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Wow! On reaching the unexpected conclusion of this novel I wanted to start again immediately to pick up on all those clues I missed or guessed wrongly. Twelve-year-old narrator Miranda weaves her intriguing story with three distinct threads of note: Miranda’s mother’s obsession with being a contestant on a game show, Miranda’s friend Sal being punched by a new boy at school, and the unpredictable homeless man who lurks on the corner near Miranda and Sal’s apartment block. Cut adrift by Sal from whom she was previously inseparable after the punching incident, Miranda finds everything is suddenly different. Not only does she need to find her own friends and lifestyle, but also enigmatic notes start appearing, challenging her perceptions. Meanwhile other things mysteriously disappear, and Miranda’s best conversations are with Marcus, the strangely knowledgeable nerdy boy who hit Sal. As homage to Miranda’s favourite book—Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time—the construct of time becomes a playful character too, adding to the complexity of the novel. Baffling, mysterious, innocent and humorous, with a protagonist whose voice rings true plus plenty of satisfying twists, When You Reach Me is utterly compelling. I loved it! ($16.95, PB) Lynndy Bennett

Saffy’s Angel, Indigo’s Star, Permanent Rose, Forever Rose, Caddy Ever After by Hilary McKay ($15.95—$17, PB)

The first of this five book series is Saffy’s Angel, an introduction to the Casson family. The Casson family are four highly individual children: Cadmium, Saffron, Indigo and Permanent Rose (each named after a colour), their artist father Bill, and their mother Eve, also an artist but “not a serious one”, who paints in the back shed. With their father Bill absent most of the time (he is a serious artist, so he needs his own space in London), and their mother in the shed whenever possible, the Casson children are left to their own devices quite a lot. When Saffy (Saffron) realises that her name is not an actual colour on the paint chart, the true story of her birth is slowly revealed, and a highly entertaining adventure ensues. This is the central plot in the first book, but there are several subplots, all equally engrossing, which reveal themselves as the series develops. I didn’t read the books in order, although I did start with Saffy’s Angel, and it’s probably best to be introduced to the family with this book. Also, I have not yet finished the series, and I am so pleased I still have something to look forward to, because these stories are great—light hearted and funny, intelligent and surprising. It’s so refreshing to read books that aren’t tricky or clever, but full of good humour and engrossing detail. They remind me of Noel Streatfield’s books—family books with strong characters who are decent and funny, and although these are definitely not books from the ‘issues’ genre, all the children, and their parents, have various problems, or difficulties, that are dealt with and resolved positively. I also like the fact that the secondary characters, mainly the friends of the children, are all fully formed individuals who aren’t written about in a marginal way, and are just as strong and original as the main characters. These books are great fun, and very memorable. Louise Pfanner

Wilma Tenderfoot and the Case of the Frozen Hearts by Emma Kennedy, ill. by Sylvain Marc ($15, PB)

“A man discovers the greatest jewel ever found. The man is killed. Why is the man killed? To get him out of the way. It’s standard evil procedure. But who is this killer? It wasn’t me.” Barbu D’Anvers (devoted member of Criminal element fraternity).

Cooper Island is full of mischief, murder and thieves. Though Wilma is not a murderer or thief, she does get into quite a lot of mischief. Lowside Institute for Woeful Children had caged Wilma’s intention of being a great detective, however Wilma is very determined and keeps pushing the limits, solving crimes in a doleful environment, like who stole the large gristle pie? And the shocking case of the missing socks! It might seem that Wilma has gone too far when she is sent as punishment to the Farside to be a housekeeper. Her new employer, Mrs Waldock, treats Wilma poorly and sends her to the cellar which is to be her room. But things can’t always be dank and gloomy: Wilma makes fast friends with Pickle Waldock, a beagle, and when Wilma realises they live next door to the Island’s greatest detective Theodore P. Goodman, nothing but adventure could be in store for this troublesome two. Wilma Tenderfoot & the Case of the Frozen Hearts is an absolute delight! The twisting plotlines, red hot clues and lovable and hilarious characters made this story one I couldn’t put down. Though I sheepishly admit it may be for slightly younger readers, I would steal this book from them any day. It was so enticing to read especially when I began to make my own list of suspects (which in the end, and in every aspect, I was completely wrong!) Sylvain Marc, the illustrator of the book, certainly brings the characters alive, especially (my favourite) when Wilma and trusty beagle Pickle disguise themselves as plumbers to sneak (undetected) into a forensic lab. I loved the story and illustrations so much I decided to do a little research. The next adventure in line for Wilma and Pickle is Wilma Tenderfoot and the Case of Putrid Poison, which is to be released in July and if you would like to see more of Sylvain Marc’s work check out Polyminthe.blogspot.com. Meaghan Gregory (15)

FOR TEEN READERS:

Inside the Shadow City 1: Kiki Strike by Kirsten Miller ($14, PB)

Ananka is your average teenage girl, until she meets the vesper writing, black-clad coffee drinking Kiki Strike. Suddenly Ananka is pulled into a whole different world, a world of mystery, crime and secrets! Together with disguises, explosives, computer hacking and a whole lot of adventure Kiki, Ananka and their ‘irregular’ friends must save Manhattan before too late. And is Kiki hiding something? Something that could put them all in danger? One of the best books I’ve ever read, I couldn’t put it down. (Follow up with Kiki’s later exploits in The Empress’s Tomb.) Siena Cole (13)

Ten Things I Hate About Me by Randa Abdel-Fattah ($16.95, PB)

Jamie has spent years hiding her true identity from everyone at school by dyeing her hair and distancing herself from her friends. She can’t confide in anyone, except John, her email friend who she’s never met. While Jamie’s trying to keep up with the important things, like boys, her dyed hair and her strict, curfew loving dad, she’s about to find out some secrets can’t be kept in the dark, while others should stay hidden. Siena Cole (13)

REFERENCE BOOK: What the World Eats by Faith D’Aluisio, Peter Menzel (photographer)

Did you know that for the first time in history, despite famine, poverty and war, more people are overfed than underfed? In a fascinating examination of trends in 21 countries, based on 25 very diverse families, D’Aluisio shows that the worldwide tradition of sitting down together for a family meal is vanishing. With photographer Peter Menzel, D’Aluisio spent a week with each of these families to observe shopping, cooking and mealtimes, adding to this data a wealth of detail about causes and effects of changing food consumption. Global events have a huge impact on our food choices and availability regardless of cultural differences, and in this book we see the correlation between corporate expansion and health, finance and disease. Family recipes from each country accompany the abundant photographs and charts, allowing both personal insights and an overview of related factors such as life expectancy, access to safe water, expenditure, consumption and literacy rates. It would have been interesting to also see comparative food wastage per country. In humanitarian and social terms this is surely one of the most valuable books you can give a child. ($39.95, HB) Lynndy Bennett

CHILDREN'S BOOKS TOP 10 FOR 2009

1. Don’t Leave Childhood Without… by the Specialist Children’s Booksellers Group
2. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
3. Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T S Eliot, ill. by Axel Scheffler
4. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
5. Baby Wombat’s Week by Jackie French, ill. by Bruce Whatley
6. The Amazing Tashi Activity Book by Anna & Barbara Fienberg, ill. by Kim Gamble
7. Remarkable Animals by Tony Meeuwissen
8. Dog Days: Book 4 of Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
9. Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
10. My Place by Nadia Wheatley, ill. by Donna Rawlins

WHAT'S NEXT: What to read next? For readers of any age this is a perennial question. Whether you want more of the same, or a complete change of genre, this website is definitely worth consulting: http://www.literature-map.com/ Simply enter an author’s name into the search window and the website shows suggestions—from styles most like to least like that of your chosen writer. Spiral into new worlds of reading.

FEED BACK WANTED: Long before the Gleeclub drew customers to our events and special offers, I had in mind a similar idea for our customers at Gleebooks Children’s. In 2010 we hope to finally undertake a scheme of loyalty benefits for young readers up to 18, including frequent rewards, recognition of their birthdays, and maybe free advance copies of books. For the scheme to work we want it to be as desirable as possible to our customers, so before we finalise the structure we want to hear from you. What would you like us to offer? What would appeal to you? Would in-store or online competitions interest you? Would you contribute to online discussions? Please send any ideas and feedback to lynndy@gleebooks.com.au so we can accommodate as many of your wishes as is practicable. Lynndy

Time Magazine in 2006 called it “The boldest and most contemporary musical on Broadway”. Entertainment Weekly said, “The most gorgeous Broadway score this decade”. The New York Times waxed, “This gutsy new musical has a shivery sensual allure unmatched by anything in the theatre right now”. It went on to win eight 2007 Tony awards including Best Score, Best Book and Best Musical. Spring Awakening opens at the Sydney Theatre on 4th February with a brilliant cast of young newcomers, cast last year at open auditions —a rare and exciting move by the STC. The musical is based on Franz Wedekind’s, at the time (1891), scandalous play, dealing with puberty and sexual awakening, masterbation, abortion and suicide. Not quite the traditional “beautiful morning . . . let’s all get married” material for a musical! I gather from the US notices and general comment that it’s the sort of show people go to without expectations, and leave wanting to see again . . .and again. Ticketing information at www.sydneytheatre.com.au.

Gleebooks stocks the original Broadway cast CD, 19 tracks and an hour of music $34.95. Stephen Sater’s play book, $25. Vocal Selections—17 numbers with piano accompaniment, by Duncan Sheik, $38. Plus we have a beautifully illustrated hardcover book of the original production which includes the complete play book, plus chapters on the development of the entire project—Spring Awakening: In the Flesh, $72. And we also have Wedekind’s original play—translated by Edward Bond, $26.95—the play was amazingly not performed complete in the UK until 1974 at the National Theatre.

A couple of musicals from the DVD shelf

A Little Night Music. This 1977 film of Stephen Sondheim’s charming adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night is actually not the clanger it’s made out to be. Directed by its original Broadway director Harold Prince, with a strong cast including Dianna Rigg, Hermione Gingold and Len Cariou (who went on to be the original Sweeney Todd), it should be in the collection of any Sondheim lover. Elizabeth Taylor’s performance is actually very lovely, including fine singing in her first duet with Cariou.

Unfortunately she is intimidated by the “big song” in Act 2 (Send in the Clowns) which isn’t a success, but that moment aside, there is a great deal to enjoy here. Region 1, DVD $45.

Carmen Jones. A cracker of a film. A great adaptation (which was just quietly a great surprise to an opera lover like me). Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, Pearl Bailey, directed by Otto Preminger, glorious 50s colour in cinemascope . . . a great experience. DVD, $24.95. Alan

Brian Sewell is the art critic for the Evening Standard. He is in his early 70s, and at times can look like Derek Jacobi. He is pompous and a snob, but has created two of the best TV shows I have seen. The first is The Naked Pilgrim: The Road To Santiago, 2004. Region 2, $32.95. Sewell takes the viewer on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. At the start of the journey he confesses to being a lapsed catholic, and that there will be a lot of churches visited, but it soon stops being a simple “Travel” show and becomes, in the true meaning of the pilgramage, a deeply personal journey. At one point he asks, can one become a lapsed sceptic? My only criticism of the show is that it is not long enough. In 2006 he made Brian Sewell’s Grand Tour, in which he takes his car & his white umbrella on The Grand Tour of Europe that young English boys took in the 18th century to improve & educate themselves on their way to becoming gentlemen. His extraordinary journey takes him around Florence, Rome, Venice, and all the other major cities of 18th century Italy. Also a great program! Region 2, $69.95

Big River Man ($14.95)

This is without any doubt one of the best films I have ever seen. Martin Strel is a 52 year old Slovakian endurance swimmer. Despite all logic he is a hard drinker (two bottles of wine a day, more when he is swimming) and overweight. He has already swum the Danube, The Mississippi & the diseased, polluted Yangtze. This documentary is about him swimming the Amazon. It combines the obsession of Fitzcaraldo & the insanity of Apocalypse Now. A great movie, and a bargain at $14.95.

Bronson—Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn ($37.95)

Michael Peterson, a.k.a. Bronson, has taken the term ‘career criminal’ to new heights. Tom Hardy plays one of the UK’s most notorious criminals in this testosterone pumped biopic. Bronson, decided he wanted to be famous so he took a sawn-off shotgun and attempted to rob a post office. For this bungled robbery he was sentenced to 7 years in prison, but he has since spent over 34 years in prison due to his violent outbursts—30 of those 34 years spent in solitary confinement. During that time his alter ego Charles Bronson has taken centre stage, and he has now achieved the fame that he was seeking.

Departures—Dir. Yojiro Takita ($37.95)

At the absolute opposite end of the film spectrum to Bronson, Departures won the Oscar for the Best Foreign Film in 2009. Daigo Kobayashi is a cellist whose orchestra is dissolved. Unemployed he moves back to his hometown where he applies for a job at “Departures”. He thinks he is going for a job in a travel agency, but finds himself working in a funeral parlour where they prepare the bodies for departure to the next life. This is a feel good movie in the vein of As It Is In Heaven.

Silver Screen Collection V. 2: Operation Amsterdam, A Town Like Alice & The Silver Fleet ($17.95)

Over the Christmas period I travelled back to the 50s to watch two British war movies, both starring Peter Finch. Operation Amsterdam (1959) is about a commando raid on Amsterdam that thwarts the invading Nazis’ plan to seize all the industrial diamonds in the city. An exciting film. The other was A Town Like Alice (1956), which also starred Virginia McKenna. Despite the years this is still a great movie. Based on Neville Shute’s novel, the film is set in WW2 and follows the trials of a group of European women & children who are left to fend for themselves against the notoriously sadistic Japanese army after the Japanese invasion of Malaya. Both films are available on the Silver Screeen Collection Vol. 2—which also includes The Silver Fleet (1953).

Lake Mungo—Dir. Joel Anderson ($37.95)

This is a great Australian ghost story. A young girl dies—drowned in the local dam. She keeps returning to her home, (or does she). Does she have secrets to tell? What is it about her trip to Lake Mungo and her lost mobile phone? There is an American remake in the works due for release in 2011, but it will have to be pretty good to beat this.

Beautiful Kate—Dir. Rachel Ward ($39.95)

Ben Mendelsohn, Bryan Brown, Rachel Griffiths star in Rachel Ward’s highly acclaimed 2009 film. Writer Ned Kendall returns, at his sister’s request, to the isolated family farm in the Flinders to attempt reconciliation with his estranged and dying father, but memories of the past keep surfacing to haunt him.

Smart Street Films is a small film company based in Sydney that distributes a range of interesting and unusual Australian films on DVD. One such title is Golden Sandals: The Art Of Reg Mombassa (2006, $24.95). This is a half hour documentary about Reg’s early painting life, focusing on the House Paintings. These are paintings of houses where Reg lived in New Zealand. There are some clever animations of his works, particularly Australian Jesus. This is a great companion to the recent book by Murray Waldren, The Mind & Times Of Reg Mombassa.

Other films from Smart Street include:

27A (1974, $29.95)—This Australian film is based on the true story of an alcoholic committed to a hospital for the criminally insane

Ningla-A’Na (1972, $29.95)—this documentary records the events surrounding the establishment of the Aboriginal tent embassy on the lawns of Parliament House.


TOP TEN DVD'S FOR 20009

1. Keating the Musical
2. Wake in Fright
3. First Australians
4. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
5. Around the World in 80 Gardens
6. Samson and Delilah
7. Leonard Cohen Live in London
8. As it is in Heaven
9. Horse Boy
10. I’ve Loved You So Long

Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis by Lisa Sanders ($32.95, PB)

Isn't it pleasant to enjoy a book when you’re not expecting to? Put off by the cover or the author’s last book or a bad review, I labour through the first few pages, unfairly moaning about every little thing. But slowly, slowly, I start to see past my prejudice and recognise the book’s merit.

The extraneous matter, in this case, was the author’s connection with the television series House. Lisa Sanders writes a column in the New York Times Magazine which was, in part, the inspiration for the hit series; she is also one of its medical advisors. The cover trumpets these connections: Hugh Laurie (who plays the role of Dr House) is quoted at the top; Sanders is identified as ‘Technical Advisor to House, M.D.’ at the bottom.

I didn’t get on with House. I tried – really, I did. I watched four or five episodes but eventually had to abandon it lest I throw something at the television. The main guy’s arrogance was almost too much to bear, and his fawning acolytes were the final straw. Hence my prejudice against the book.

But Lisa Sanders has an interesting history. She worked in the news media (specialising in medical issues) before studying medicine. This valuable pre-medical experience has provided her with a fine lens through which to examine current medical practice. Not brainwashed at an impressionable age, she is capable of thinking about what she has learnt and what she does as a doctor, rather than just doing it. And she makes some alarming claims: that the skill of physical examination is at serious risk of becoming extinct; that some components of the physical examination have been found to be almost useless, yet they are taught along with the valuable; that technology is causing a decline in doctors’ clinical skills even as it increases their capacity to diagnose and treat illness.

With the aid of extensive clinical vignettes (those who like the technical aspects of House will like these bits), Sanders pursues her theme in the order clinicians are taught (history, physical examination, tests and further investigations, diagnosis and, finally, management), explaining how a doctor, like a detective, goes about making a diagnosis. Sherlock Holmes looms over the narrative: no one ever thinks so highly of Holmes after he has explained his reasoning (‘it is simplicity itself,’ they say) and, similarly, Sanders tells us that the clues to the diagnosis are there for all to see. It’s a question of what you’re looking for and how you’re looking.

In each chapter, though, she comes back to the same issue. Over millennia of mainly disorganised medical education, a mass of detritus has accumulated. Systematic teaching slowly evolved from the eighteenth century and we believe it is now entrenched, stable, evidence based. But with science and technology breaking through new barriers by the nanosecond, the question is what of the old should be retained and valued, and what tossed out. In exploring this question (and a few others), Dr Sanders offers an enthralling series of medical narratives, interspersed with careful, accessible analysis of the issues. It’s a riveting read.

And now, perhaps it’s time for another look at House. Daniel Brass

Heroes And Villains: Essays on Music, Movies, Comics, and Culture by David Hajdu

Writing about popular culture within an historical context comes easily to David Hajdu. His previous book The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America fearlessly documented the panic felt by authorities as a result of the association of comic books and juvenile delinquency and the punishment meted out to the comics’ publishers and creators. In Heroes & Villains, referring to comics as “the rock ’n’ roll of literature”, Hadju documents their development over thirty years into the form we know of today as the graphic novel, and the change in audience from impressionable children to discriminating adults. Comics creators cited include Will Eisner, Joe Sacco, Daniel Clowes, Jules Feiffer, Marjane Satrapi and Art Spiegelman. The impact of Eisner’s seminal work of 1978, and first to be labeled a graphic novel, A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories is described, as is Sacco’s reportage style graphic works of the ethnic conflict zones of Palestine (Palestine) and Serbia (Safe Area Gorazde) and Satrapi’s autobiographical story Persepolis, that unfolded during the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

It would be misleading to say that the essays are mostly about comics. They are not. Whilst the main focus of the book is popular culture it is the musical form that Hajdu favours. He reflects on the work of many musicians including Ray Charles, Alan Lomax, Billy Eckstine, Dinah Washington, Elvis Costello, Bobby Darin, Anita O’Day, Brian Wilson, Sting, Rodgers and Hart, The White Stripes, Mos Def, Joni Mitchell, Woody Guthrie, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Wynton Marsalis, Kanye West, Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen. By contrast he makes only passing references to movies such as Citizen Kane and It’s A Wonderful Life and some television shows such as American Idol, Father Knows Best, I Love Lucy, Mission Impossible, Star Trek and the Tonight Show.
Throughout the book Hajdu presents a knowledgeable and critical reading of his cultural subject.

“Hot Potatoe” by Marc Bell.

Canadian artist and comics creator Marc Bell draws “cahtoon strups” and makes “fine aht” as he labels these expressive forms. This book collects contributions of his comics to avant-garde publications such as Kramers Ergot, The Ganzfeld and An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, & True Stories plus reproductions of art pieces and mixed media constructions such as “George Lucas Carried Me Throo The Muck”. His comics and artworks are presented along with some commercial design work such as posters, T-shirts, and CD, book and magazine cover design.

Approaching his work as a form of “psychedoolia” he collects and collages pieces of torn cardboard, discarded cards and envelopes, paper cups, matchboxes, pieces of string and wallpaper, ticket stubs (such as for an Acid Mothers Temple concert), photocopies, tax invoices and pages from magazines. These materials are assembled and shaped into flat two(and sometimes three)-dimensional format then subjected to an intensive drawing process-lots and lots of drawing, that is part abstract, part figurative, totally playful and largely anthropomorphic. Characters that Bell has created such as Ray the Brick Snake, Chunky Floors, Mr. Tacky Halo(to whom the book is dedicated), Cosmic Teacher Dude, and The All-Star Schnauzer Band amongst others are inserted, along with accompanying text, in and around the drawings. The text proclaims things such as “Ladies are difficult to draw”, “Don’t spit please”, and “Life is O.K. other than this board nailed to my nose”. The result is a series of large, intensely cluttered drawings. Amusement and humour flow through the work and messages of re-use and creativity with the world’s rubbish and detritus are perhaps implied. Bell even requests that his own art be recycled. Ideas and techniques developed in his comics flow into his art works and art concepts conversely cross back into his comics. His work is inventive, innovative, imaginative, even industrial, yet more handcrafted than normal industrial production. “I am not a factory” his art seems to be saying and many of his works feature figures struggling to progress through urban-industrial environments.

This is a fabulous book, one of the best graphic novels of the year and one that pushes the rubbery paradigm of that genre still further being part prose narrative, part comic book, part catalogue of art works, part bio, part chronology(that includes Bell’s death in 2075), part conversation and part free-form experiment in visual communication. It’s a largish tome, too, almost coffee table book in proportions and is another exquisite example of putting graphics into print from the Canadian publisher Drawn & Quarterly.

“Mechademia Volume 1: Emerging Worlds of Anime and Manga”, Edited by Frenchy Lunning

This scholarly text examines some aspects of the cultural impact of the global spread of the Japanese media forms anime (animation) and manga (comics) in Eastern and Western popular culture. The scope of the study begins with fandom and the behaviour of fans, the notion of the obsessive fan or ‘otaku’, and the phenomenon of cosplay that involves fans dressing up as their favourite character and acting out moves and scenes from anime episodes. Non-Japanese fans preferences for subtitled rather than dubbed anime are discussed and there are studies of selected animated films and comics including Dragon Ball, Naruto, Princess Mononoke, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell and Galaxy Express999 as well as the application of anime techniques in computer game design and interactive technology. The diverse genres available in manga are mentioned and these include shonen (boys), shojo (girls), josei (women), seinen (men), gekiga (dramatic pictures), maho shojo (magical girl), shojo-ai (lesbian romance) and shonen-ai (gay romance). Influences from Japanese Fine Art including reference to the ‘superflat’ work of Takashi Murakami are described, as is the Japanese tradition of flatness in painting. This ‘superflat’ style connects calligraphic scrolls of funny animal characters of the 12th Century with woodblock prints of the Edo period, early cartoons by Hokusai and modern manga about mecha (giant robot technology). Levels of complexity are reached in the analysis of multiplanar imagery and in the concept of the ‘werewolf in a kimono’, the Eastern modification of a classic European horror character. This is an academic text that has been well researched and presented and one that easily exceeds the depth and scope of basic introductory texts available on the subject.

Christopher Milne continues to reflect on a life after Winnie-the-Pooh in his second memoir, The Path Through The Trees: It is the story of a young man who left home, and in one of his pockets he had a handful of talents given him by his mother and in the other a handful of talents given him by his father. What did he do with them? Where did they take him?

Christopher Milne was drawn into WW2, like others spurred by Hitler’s imminent invasion of France, even though he came from a pacifist background. He joined the Sappers (Engineers) and his division left Kirkuk in March. Four weeks and 3200 miles later, it was engaged in the final battle against the Germans in Tunisia. Although Christopher didn’t see much fighting himself, he managed to catch malaria, get stung by a scorpion, discover a new type of land mine and qualify to receive the Africa Star—all of which reaffirmed his horror of war, and his musings on the nature of the experience are to be treasured for their thoughtfulness. On his return to England he completed a degree in English Literature and following a difficult period in his life he realised that….There were two things that were then overshadowing my life and that I needed to escape from: my father’s fame and ‘Christopher Robin’. Yet here I was apparently deliberately seeking out his shadow so as to work beneath it, choosing a trade that would put me on public exhibition as Christopher Robin, wrapping up the books he had written—to the shock of his parents, he had opened the Harbour Bookshop in Dartmouth, Devon with his wife, Lesley. They had a daughter, Clare, who suffered from cerebral palsy, with whom they shared the life of this community for 21 happy years & Milne’s tales of eccentric and beloved staff and customers are a joy. Whilst Milne acknowledges openly that his memoirs were written as a kind of therapy to deal with his famous father and distant mother and, of course, Christopher Robin, his philsophical reflections on life and its pains and pleasures are very moving. A classic memoir.

Out of all the books I’ve managed to read while the Gleaner has had a break, Tolkien’s Gown & Other Stories of Great Authors and Rare Books by Rick Gekoski is a stand out. Not only is he an accomplished academic of literature but also a rare book collector and dealer with an irreverent take on an industry he loves. Tolkien’s Gown is a concise yet revealing and entertaining collection of stories about the political and financial wheeling and dealing surrounding twenty well-known literary works. There’s Gekoski bargaining with Graham Green over a personally inscribed copy of Nabokov’s Lolita. And Tolkien offers some material on the true nature of a hobbit: I am in fact a hobbit in all but size. I like gardens, trees, and unmechanised farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unfridgerised)…I like and even dare to wear in these dull days ornamental waistcoats. I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field); have a very simple sense of humour; I got to bed late and get up late (when possible). I do not travel very much. Here’s Gikoski working with the truculent William Golding on a bibliography of his works. Golding had consented unwillingly to the project stating that: “It will be like drinking my own bathwater”. Gikoski reveals the astonishing purchase of a 120-foot roll of manuscript of Kerouac’s On The Road at auction for $2,430,000 (US) in 2001 by a James Isray—the then owner of the Indianapolis Colts football team. Isray comments “I look on it as a stewardship. I don’t believe you own anything. In this world, it’s dust to dust”. D.H.Lawrence, who cared little for first editions, swaps his manuscript of Sons And Lovers for a farm in Mexico owned by his friend and patron. In an introduction to a bibliography of his own work, Lawrence comments “To every man who struggles with his own soul in mystery, a book that is a book flowers once, and seeds, and is gone. First editions or forty-first are only the husks of it.” I have barely touched the surface of the gems Gikoski shares in Tolkien’s Gown—I also really loved the autobiographical bits and pieces that he intersperses throughout. Some have criticised this tendency as narcissistic. I on the other hand, a self-confessed memoir lover, cannot get enough. Helen Lowe

Henry David Thoreau, author, philosopher and naturalist once wrote: Books are the treasured wealth of the world, and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. So, what better way to begin a New Year of reading with the following miscellany of books I’ve enjoyed reading over the Christmas hibernation:

FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD!

For those of you, who—like me—have overindulged in holiday feasting, console yourselves by reading about The Banquet of Trimalchio, described by the Roman author Petronius in his novel Satyricon ($17.95, Penguin classic)—written soon after the reign of Nero. It’s either an accurate account of ancient Roman feasting or a wonderful parody: The top of our dish is removed and inside: fat fowls and sow’s bellies and a hare decked out with wings like Pegasus. A little later a huge boar is brought in with buckets of dates hanging from the tusks—When the side of the boar was pierced, thrushes flew out. Next an enormous pig is brought in, which when cut open poured out sausages and black puddings!! Feel better now?


MURDER MOST ROYAL

I heartly endorse my colleagues’ praise of Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel’s historical novel of the life of Henry VIII’s Master Secretary Thomas Cromwell. May I suggest two other titles of interest for readers now hooked on Tudor history and until Ms. Mantel’s sequel appears? Eric Ives’ The Life & Death of Anne Boleyn ($37.95, PB) and Alison Weir’s The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn ($34.95, PB). On 2 May 1536 Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII was arrested and charged with adultery—the claim was that she had slept with five men; incest—one of these ‘five men’ being her brother George; and treason—plotting the King’s death. She was found guilty on 15 May and executed at Tower Green four days later. Eric Ives’ lively work is not merely the best biography of the Queen Consort; it also brilliantly recreates the glittering jungle that was Henry VIII’s court. Alison Weir’s extremely detailed study reads like a thriller and focuses on the first five months of 1536—beginning with the Queen miscarrying a stillborn male child and ending with Anne on the block. Both Ives and Weir contend she was the victim of a Cromwellian plot, although there is still debate amongst historians over the lack of any real proof of the Queen’s guilt and particularly of Henry’s role in the whole affair. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, when he heard of the charges, wrote a lengthy letter attempting to both defend Queen Anne and not risk Henry’s displeasure. His heartfelt, confused plea still speaks to us across the centuries: And I am in such a perplexity, that my mind is clean amazed: for I never had better opinion in woman than I had in her; which maketh me to think that she should not be culpable. And again, I think your highness would not have gone so far, except she had surely been culpable. Now I think that your Grace best knoweth, that, next unto your Grace, I was most bound unto her of all creatures living.

THE JOY OF SECONDHAND BOOK BROWSING

This goes without saying, yet it is always entertaining to be reminded of it. The master of the nineteenth century ‘sensation novels’, Wilkie Collins (1824–1889) recalled a chance purchase in the 1850s: I was in Paris wandering about the streets with Charles Dickens amusing ourselves by looking into the shops. We came to an old bookstall—half shop and half store—and I found some dilapidated volumes with records of French crime. I said to Dickens, “Here is a prize!”, and so it turned out to be. In them I found some of my best plots. They may have supplied the plots to such classics as The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868). His novels had gloriously complicated plots usually featuring murder, abduction, bigamy, seduction and insanity set in ordinary, middle class surroundings. My idiosyncratic choice would be Armadale (1866) (Penguin Classics, paperback. $24.95). A fiendishly complex story (one contemporary critic called it ‘a lurid labyrinth of improbabilities’) involving double identity, forgery, murder, adultery, drug addiction, and bigamy all overseen by the main character, the red-haired temptress and femme fatale, Lydia Gwilt. As his biographer Catherine Peters concludes in The King of Inventors: ‘There are greater Victorian writers; but none who are quite like Wilkie Collins.’ Enjoy! Stephen

I’ve just been to the latest George Clooney film, Up in the Air and was suitably über-primed for Clooney’s motivational speaker come professional down-sizer, having just finished Barbara Ehrenreich’s new book—which I have to call by two names. The US edition is titled Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America, but in UK-speak it’s Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America & the World. These two different ‘translations’ within the same language give me hope that, although America may seem to have ideologically overwhelmed the rest of the Western world, in fact, across the Atlantic, there is not only a healthy skepticism levelled at American ‘optimism’, but a barely disguised fear of it. Fair enough, given the direct correlation between the global financial crisis and American ‘optimism’ as acted out by hugely overpaid CEOs functioning in a delusional ‘woo’ corporate culture ‘that has abandonned the dreary rationality of professional management for the emotional thrills of mysticism, charisma and sudden intuitions.’

Ehrenreich’s last book Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy is a history of public and communal displays of ecstacy—so she’s no wowser, or negative, whining nay-sayer as those in the motivation and happiness industries are sure to call her. Indeed, I must go back to Dancing in the Streets as I think it makes sense that Ehrenreich would write about public joy as an antidote to the endless, self-involved self-examination and blind acceptance demanded of those trapped in a corporate culture of positivity. Ehrenreich begins her search into this culture of positivity at a low point in her life—as she puts it, ‘the first attempt to recruit me into positive thinking’ was when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her description of being confronted with the pink, be-ribboned, teddy bear cuteness of the mammogram change room is really very funny—despite the fact that the end result of these sentimental attempts at comfort was her conviction that ‘feminity is death’. Ever the investigator, Ehrenreich takes to the websites and support groups in an attempt to understand the current conviction that positivity and happiness give you a better chance of surviving any illness. What she unearths is pseudo-science, a wilful refusal to look at socio-economic factors, and an awful lot of people struggling not to feel guilty because they lacked the ‘honesty’ to achieve enough self-awareness to beat their cancer into remission. She then traces the history of America’s positive thinking philosophy from a severe Calvinism to a Calvinistic self-obsession. The language of the huge positivity and happiness industry is cringingly entertaining, and makes Up in the Air’s Ryan and his motivational talk about the backpack seem positively benign. ‘Pastorpreneurs’, ‘prosperity gospel’, websites packed with ‘successories’: Think big. Think increase. Think abundance. Think more than enough. Blindfolded captains of industry are crooned to by an ‘urban shaman’ so they can retrieve their ‘power animals’ to guide their companies to 21st century success. And incredibly, very little of this has changed post sub-prime collapse—because after all, ‘what is recession but a mass outbreak of pessimism?’ Whereas I prefer Eric Dezenhall’s (dissenter to cracked corporate-think) mantra: ‘I’m going to tell you something you’re not going to like—a crisis is not an opportunity.’ Winton

John—In Nine Dragons by Michael Connolly, LAPD homicide cop Harry Bosch finds himself as the lead investigator on a hold up gone bad. A triad standover man is the prime suspect, reinforced when Bosch’s daughter is snatched in Hong Kong. Harry is on a flight to Hong Kong to face an adversary he doesn’t know in a land he doesn’t understand. But even on his home ground Harry discovers that things are not as they seem… A riveting read from a master crime writer.

Viki—I’m reading Hilary Mantel’s French Revolution novel, A Place of Greater Safety ($32, PB). It follows Camille Desmoulins, George Jacques Danton and Maximilien Robespièrre from birth, through the build-up to revolution, the Terror, and their own appointments with the guillotine. It has a Tolstoyan size cast of characters—fortunately, as I sometimes have to refresh my memory as to who belongs where, there is a detailed cast list of 6 (!) pages at the front of the book. It is not as warm a novel as Wolf Hall, but I’m finding its detached, almost clinical, style very appropriate to the subject.

Jack—Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower ($33, PB) Everything Ravaged: “Do you ever think about all the ones who you didn’t let them have you? I wish I could take a do-over on all of them, even the nastiest. Even the worst.” Everything Burned: “My daughter, the very first night I was in her house, she wanted right off to put me in a state of fear.” The violent bear it away in the pages of Tower’s debut short story collection. A late entry for best book of 2009—I could say everything that rises must converge but, no, I’ll refrain…..because a good book is hard to find.

Judy—I’m looking forward to seeing the real Geoff Dyer at Gleebooks on March 3rd. Very curious to hear his tone of voice—he of the mercurial persona, so now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t in his fictive non-fiction and beyond.
I really enjoyed Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi. For all the deprecation and playfulness, the seeker after wisdom and truth is alive and alert here. The wisdom might be something like—how to live bemused, anxious, sometimes ecstatic, and with the very real sense of having no clue what it’s all about. ($32.95, PB)

Jonathon—I saw the film-version of Starting Out in the Evening a few months back. The film works up its characters from small detail-work. I tracked down Brian Morton’s novel, his second, published in 1998, hoping it would have that same quality. It does. It tells the story of an out-of-print American novelist, Leonard Schiller, trying to complete his final novel as age begins to catch up with him; his relationship with his daughter, who was once a dancer but is now an aerobics instructor (‘where dancers go when they die’); and his relationship with a young masters student researching her thesis on the ageing novelist. Morton’s beautiful sentences make this not simply a good book, but a great read. Read the book, watch the film. ($28, PB)

1. Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel—466
2. Ransom, David Malouf—440
3. The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas—429
4. Breath, Tim Winton—361
5. The Brain That Changes Itself, Norman Doidge—308
6. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Stieg Larsson—302
7. A Guide to Ethical Supermarket Shopping—301
8. The Boat, Nam Le—268
9. Truth, Peter Temple—268
10. The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver—261
11. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson—228
12. Dreams from my Father, Barack Obama—227
13. The Children’s Book, A. S. Byatt—204
14. The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson—194
15. Brooklyn, Colm Toibin—188
16. Back on the Block, Bill Simon—168
17. The Lost Mother, Anne Summers—162
18. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, Seth Graeme-Smith & Jane Austen—158
19. Battlelines: A Conservative’s Manifesto, Tony Abbott—157
20. Too Much Happiness, Alice Munro—154
21. Nocturnes, Kazuo Ishiguro—144
22. God is not Great, Christopher Hitchens—142
23. The Museum of Innocence, Orhan Pamuk—141
24. The Secret Scripture, Sebastian Barry—135
25. A Matter of Opinion, Alan Ramsey—132
26. Love Song, Alex Miller—130
27. The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery—129
28. Black Politics: Inside the Complexity of Aboriginal Political Culture, Sarah Maddison—128
29. The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty, Peter Singer—123
30. The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood—118