FuschiaReads. ....and sometimes watches.

Ancient Egyptian Love Poetry Friday

2006-05-19T12:34:00.000+10:00

mr.wt (pronounced mer wet)
love (noun)

How well She Knows to Cast the Noose

How well she knows to cast the noose,
And yet not pay the cattle tax!
She casts the noose on me with her hair,
She captures me with her eye;
She curbs me with her necklace,
She brands me with her seal ring.

Third Stanza, from The Nakht-Sobak Cycle of Papyrus Chester Beatty I

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

2006-04-07T11:02:00.000+10:00

Dai Sijie Anchor 2001 PB 184pp

“The village headman, a man of about fifty, sat cross-legged in the centre of the room, close to the coals burning in a hearth that was hollowed out of the floor: he was inspecting my violin.”

I went home from work early again last Friday with a bad headache – but not so bad that I didn’t stop off at my tiny local op-shop. It has only been open a couple of months and have only recently begun stocking books. Although it was a mistake to try to deal with the noise of the little shopping centre it is located in, I did pick up this little gem for 20c – the cover is so beautiful, I would love a print of it on my wall.

I had just enough time for a bath before I would had to pick up the kids and at a slim 184pages, I was able to read all this in my window of opportunity as well.

2 boys, sons of intellectuals are sent to the country side of China to be ‘re-educated’ during the Cultural Revolution. There they discover – no secret from the book’s title - a hidden cache of forbidden Western classics and the beautiful seamstress. It is told in a series of vignettes and is so fine and light that I imagine the recently made movie must involve a lot of beautiful scenery and music and close ups of the lovely Xun Zhou.
It is very sweet but it just ends without any real resolution. I presume this is a comment on life and its pesky way of not providing closure, but I did feel I came down to earth with a bit of bump.

Also a word of warning from this little experience – if you are sick and sooky do not try - through any kind of mistaken thriftiness - to put half of a bath bomb into your bath. Not only will a third of it end up in fragments all over the room, your hair and your toothbrush, but you will only have to get back out of the bath again to put the other half in, when you finally realise that it smells so lovely and you are sick and sooky and so what are these things for if not to make you happy on days like that.

The Player of Games

2006-04-05T12:21:00.000+10:00

Iain M Banks Orbit 1988 this ed:1997 309pp

“This is the story of a man who went far away for a long time, just o play a game”

Ian M Banks is one of my favourite SF authors. ‘The Algebraist’ was abit weird but his other novels in this genre are stunning. I had not read this book for a long time and so sneakily purloined it from my visiting sister’s bag (well, swapped it for ‘Pecked to Death by Ducks’) and have really enjoyed revisiting it.

Note to young players – the use of a middle initial in Mr Bank’s name denotes the GOOD books as even though he still writes well, I don’t really like any of the stories that he publishes without this ‘M’. ‘Dead Air’ was frankly crap – I really hated the main character and all that he stood for – I only finished it out of some misguided loyalty. ‘The Business’ is okay – ending abit lame though. The first book by Iain Banks that I ever read – many many years ago - was ‘The Wasp Factory’ – which I remember was very disturbing and upset me greatly at time – and so I have never re-read it.

The ‘m’ however rocks!! Most of the books – as is this one – are set in a universe with the ‘Culture’ as the main society. Imagine fully sentient computers, amazing technology, unlimited wealth and freedom for its citizens and the ability to not grow old, to change gender and to gland all the mind-altering substances that you want – whenever you want. It’s a Utopia, but every once in a while someone suffers ennui and a strange sense of dissatisfaction and then Mr Banks writes a book about them.

The characters are all very engaging and the situations believable. I always develop a bit of a crush of whoever the main character is and always find these books to ‘haunt’ me for along time after I have read them. ‘Consider Phelabas’, ‘Against a Dark Background’ and ‘Inversion’ are so very good and so very sad – not a weepy kind of sad, just a lingering melancholy of the good ending unhappily and the bad ending unluckily kind that sticks to my skin and to my thoughts and won’t leave me alone.

‘Haunting’ is a good word – I always continue to think about these books long after I have finished reading them. A continuing theme that runs through his novels is that of human nature and suffering – similar to that explored more visually in Von Trier’s ‘Dogville’. Are humans inherently bad or is it their circumstances that make them so? Is freedom the answer to all our woes, or does happiness and peace always come down to something internal – however much we search for the external panacea? All this and robots and lasers and spaceships and aliens

Highly Highly recommended - but you can’t borrow mine – I am only just now building up the set again

The Shadow of the Wind

2006-03-31T10:59:00.000+11:00

Carlos Ruiz Zafon 2001 Text Publishing PB 521pp

“I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time.”

This was a birthday present from Beloved Sister C and the perfect thing to take to the bath after sleeping half of Monday last through with a horrible headache. Yummy Lush thing, sore head and a charming book involving people much worse off than me.

Daniel’s dad is a bookseller in Barcelona just after World War 2. The city has suffered greatly and there are many dark and dreadful secrets out there. Daniel stumbles upon just one – a tragic tale of love, lust, betrayal, regret and loyalty across the generations - and with an eccentric circle of friends, is determined to solve the mystery of the author Julian Carax and his incedinary back catalogue.

The language is so evocative – all depth and shadows and adjectives and melancholy walks in the twilight. I love this style – like Garcia Marquez without the ‘magic’ – the story just wraps around you like a snuggy warm blanket and draws you in completely.
The only time Mr Ruiz Zafon stumbles in his writing I feel is when he tries to put the same richness into the mouths of his characters, which results in a sense of melodrama and falseness.

Lots of love and heartbreak in this rich romantic tale
Recommended with a good glass of red and a sooky heart

Studio Ghilbi

2006-03-24T14:34:00.000+11:00

I should premise this post by saying that I am a huge fan of Studio Ghibli and their wonderful stunning completely hand-drawn animation. They leave Disney for dead in every category you care to name. The movies are so good for children and for adults. Even after watching ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ a dozen times in the first fortnight we had it, I was still happy to have it on in the background.

Spirited Away
The very first one that we watched. And watched and watched. Chihoro’s parents are turned into pigs when they greedily eat food meant for the Gods and Chihiro must rescue them. Chihiro is a wonderful character, scared to begin with but then becoming braver and more confident. Tender, funny, loving – full of friendship and cool monsters. The bathhouse is amazing and that train going over the water…sigh, it is so beautiful......

My Neighbour Totoro
This film has to win some kind of award for best kid’s film ever. My 11yr old son still loves it - I still love it. Great for the little ones too. Two sisters (I want a ‘Mei’ for my own!) move with their Dad to the country side to be closer to their mother who is in hospital and very sick. The girls discover Totoro: a tree spirit and met CatBus and other wonderful characters and have adventures and fly and everything. So Very Good

Nausicaa The Valley of the Winds
My son’s favourite. Includes voices by Patrick Stewart and Edward James Olmos. Nausicaa is a young princess living in a world ravaged by war and environmental destruction. Her father is murdered by an invading army and Nausicaa must rescue them all. Strong Environmental message. Gorgous pictures. Quite nail biting in places. Maybe not for the very small

Laputa Castle in the Sky
A princess falls from the sky holding the key to an ancient mystery. Cool Pirates and Scary Robots. I find this a very poignant film with the lost floating kingdoms and once again the animation is gorgeous.

Kiki’s Delivery Service
Kiki is a young witch who must leave home and find her own town to a witch in. Phil Hartman does the voice of her black cat. No messages here other than ‘believe in yourself’. Very sweet

Princess Mononoke
Not for the littlies. Demons and monsters and evil men with a powerful be-good-to-the forests message. It is quite scary and graphic in places. Strong main characters and stunning animation. Does anyone anywhere do better water and sunlight and trees. The kids and I watched it twice on the day we first bought it. A big fave with my son

Howls Moving Castle
Last night, my daughter and I went halves in the new 2 disc set of this film that had a theatrical release last year. It is an adaptation of the book by Dianna Wynne Jones, a book which completely rocks. The movie strays from the plotline of the book but stays true to the spirit. Sophie Hatter is turned into an old woman by the Witch of the Waste and having nothing to lose, has the courage to leave her home town and have some adventures. She moves in as cleaning lady to the castle of Howl, evil heart-eating wizard, who is really a big spunk. Calcifer the fire Demon is so very funny and there is a subtle anit-war message. Once again, the animation is gorgeous. Read the book too

These are all the movies we own and having them all is just a matter of time, just as saving up to go the Studio Ghibli in Japan is. I hear they are doing ‘Wizard of Earthsea’ next, so that will be interesting. Well, we can garentee that is will have strong female characters, super cute sidekicks, humour, kindness and the most beautiful scenery in the history of....history

Alias Grace

2006-03-24T09:18:00.000+11:00

Margaret Atwood Virago Books 1996 PB 545pp

“Out of the gravel there are peonies growing”

I finished this book a couple of days ago and continue in two minds about this “extraordinarily potent tale of sexuality, cruelty and mystery”.
This is the first book by Margaret Atwood that I have read, having been so disturbed by the movie version of ‘The Handmaidens Tale’ all those years ago. I do not dispute that she writes well, but I hesitate to say that she writes what I want to read.

True Crime History – icky double murder in the mid 1850’s Canada. Young Grace Marks and surly James McDermott tried, found guilty and James swings for his crimes. Pretty little Grace spends 30 years in the gaol before being released and disappearing off the face of recorded history. There is so little known about this pair and their story that is could easily be construed as a authorial blank canvas. The voice of the author is heard strongly and the constant stories of abuse and mistrust and betrayal of women and children at the hands of men seem to be the point for the whole book rather than an examination of politics or the judicial system or an interesting story about a young girl or any of the many spins that could be been taken.

‘Alias Grace’ tells the imagined story of Grace’s life, from poverty in Ireland to Domestic Servant in Canada. The crime is recounted towards the end in flashback. Then there is a happy ending. Miss Atwood does write well – I was quite disturbed by this book - I would read it for a while and then lie there thinking ‘Are all my relationships based on greed and selfishness and weird sexual intrigue? Is there nothing honest and kind and true about any of the people that I know? Are my children doomed to unhappiness and loneliness and cruel manipulation?’

While there is not a female character in this book that you would happily invite for cake and gossip, I would not hesitate – even for a second – to send every single man in a rocket ship straight into the sun. No-one could ever accuse me of not being a card-carrying Feminist and supporter of Girls Who Write, but I do not see that all the men in such a genre have to be so very very very awful. It reads to me like whatever the girl equivalant of Misogyny is and is equally as distasteful.

The happy ending just feels tacked on and there really is no resolution of the ‘mystery’.

Back to St Vinnies for you, my dear

The New World Order

2006-03-16T10:14:00.000+11:00

Ben Jeapes Random House 2004 PB 441pp

“The castle stood alone and aloof at the top of a hill, surrounded by a hostile army.”

There are some days when you visit the library and you feel the best, the very best that you can hope for is a book NOT part of a trilogy.

With a cool front cover and a decidedly dodgy back cover – boys looking as uncomfortable in Cav as only boys uncomfortable with their sexuality can – somedays readers cannot be choosers.

Surprisingly this book was good – not great, not great by any means, but as brain candy goes, enjoyable enough.

Lumpy ol’ Cromwell and stuttering Charles are battling over Britian and in comes an invading force from another dimension. Looking like us – a bit stronger, better hearing etc – they are advanced enough to have zepphilins and machine guns which is enough to conquer the land, but not such a gap in technology there is no chance they will ever lose. They are lead by Dhon Do which is a stupid name but he is quite cool and I had the teeniest crush on him. Which then meant I wanted the invading force to win. It is left open for the sequel, but I am not sure if there is one.

Also fun is saying ‘jeapes’ - Try it – ‘jeeeeapes’ . I have included the picture of him with a cyberman ‘cause I have always held true to the tenet that if you are going to look like a nerd, then look like a nerd with a large silver robot by your side.

Orley Farm

2006-03-14T10:07:00.000+11:00

Anthony Trollope 1st Pub:1862 This ed: (a replica reprint )Dover 1981 320pp
Illustrations by John Everett Millais

“It is not true that a rose by any other name will smell as sweet”

Ha Ha – all my esteemed literary readers will laugh along with me I am sure. I read this book because a) I do so love a good Victorian melodrama and b) I thought it was by one on my favourite authors – you know, that guy who wrote ‘Vanity Fair’ one of my favourite all time books. *Ha Ha* I can hear you all laughing now – imagine getting Trollope mixed up with Thackeray. Anthony with William Makepeace – I chortle still.

This was still a very enjoyable read – despite it having come to my bedside table under false pretences. A dense courtroom drama – perhaps not for the nervous beginner - revenge, love, retribution, lawyers, goodness and badness and several sweet romantic sub plots.

I think there is a vision of Victorian England as being very moralistic and hypocritical – fundamentalist even – in its views of right and wrong. I am sure that was true in the majority of cases, but books such as this delve deeply into the complex human psyche and no one is allowed to be simply all good and all bad. Our heroine, Lady Emily Mason should be a criminal but many work to save her from this fate – feelings of lawyerly professional pride or friendship or an innate sense of justice inspire them but in the end, Trollope asks us, who can be said to be good and who bad? Who should judge? And who decides the standards that we judge by?

Sitting somewhere between the serious social commentary of Elizabeth Gaskell and the more sugar-coated Dickens, despite not being by Thackeray, this novel is definitely worth the effort.

Sandman Vols 1-4

2006-03-06T10:13:00.000+11:00

Preludes and Nocturnes
The Doll’s House
Dream Country
Season of Mists

Neil Gaiman and a highly talented group of artists, DC Comics early 1990’s

Now, I once owned a number in this series, but alas they went the way of many ‘negatively charged’ items during those bright & shiny days before my son was born. I of course now regret this – if only because they are so expensive to replace and I have to borrow them from my sister. And then when I do borrow them, I am so polite that I only take the first four – and then of course I read them all quickly and now have to wait a long time before I have a chance to borrow the rest.

Dream takes the centre stage in these stories and is so very cool – all dark and brooding – as he charts the hero’s journey from his imprisonment and the subsequent path through freedom, loss, retribution and eventual forgiveness. He is not alone – the rest of his family ‘The Endless’: Death, Destiny, Despair and Desire do what siblings do best – help or hinder according to their nature. Of course, they all look stunning at the same time. Especially Death – I want to grow up to be her!

They are called graphic novels for a reason – Book 2 ‘The Doll’s House’ has ‘adult themes’ that have haunted me for the last 15 years. The art is amazing, from the traditional cartoon line drawings to the eerie/creepy/spooky/seriously weird-me-out photomontages at the beginning of each story. Definitely not for kids!

Grown up fairy stories – the old fashioned kind where Red Riding Hood gets eaten and the Prince slips on all the blood after stepsisters chop off their heels to fit the glass slipper.

Highly Recommended

Pecked to Death by Ducks

2006-03-01T09:21:00.000+11:00

Tim Cahill Vintage 1993 PB 375pp

“During the occupation of Kuwait, Iraqi soldiers often defecated in the finest rooms of the finest houses they could find”

This collection of 42 articles by the esteemed author of such classics as ‘A Wolverine is eating my leg’ and ‘Jaguars ripped my flesh’ originally appeared in such magazines as ‘National Geographic’ ‘Rolling Stone’ and ‘GEO’. An edgier more adventurous Bill Bryson – same humour value.

If I was richer and had some kind of fitness, it would be very cool to work my way through this book – sea kayaking off Southern California, rescuing giant sea clams in Tonga, being laughed at by apes on Mount Karisimbi, discovering the pristine gypsum caves of Lechuguilla – it just goes on and on.

Very funny, very enviable. Inspiring to keep me saving so I can trek that Inca Trail in 2009!

Three Men in a Boat

2006-02-23T14:26:00.000+11:00

Jerome K Jerome Wordsworth First Published:1889. This Ed: 1993 185pp

“There were four of us – George and William Samuel Harris, and myself, and Montmorency”

In the days before we relied on ‘The Simpsons’ or ‘Seinfield’ to show us the great truths of our age given life in comic form, there was ‘Three Men in a Boat’. It will outlast them all

I could quote some of the funny bits, but that would involve typing out the whole book and it would hard on your eyes at work to read it all. Buy it – it’s only slim, and if you thought Mr Pratchett was perfect for annoying a whole carriage full of commuters with your incessant snorting and guffawing, you ain’t seen nothing with this little beauty.

Also good on snowy Tasmanian camping trips

Time of Trial

2006-02-23T14:24:00.000+11:00

Hester Burton Oxford University Press first Published 1963. This ed: 1973 PB215pp

“On that unlucky Monday late in the summer of 1801, Margaret Pargeter awoke to the chimes of the City churches striking six.’

This book from the condition of the lovely thick pages was read once and then put away on a dark shelf somewhere It was the winner of the 1963 Carnegie Medal, which in 2001 Terry Pratchett won for ‘The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents’. As award for children’s literature, I think ‘Time of ‘Trial’ book must represents a kinder gentler age in books for kids as even I was abit scared reading the Mr Pratchett’s scenes with those rats with their tales joined together.

Margaret lives with her naïve, scholarly father and her rebellious brother above the family bookshop in London. Her father, after a nearby tenament fire, publishes a pamphlet about the terrible conditions of the poor and this being English – land of the free – is promptly thrown in jail. The sullen brother has just run off the army and she is left without home or income. Luckily, the spunky medical student boarder is able to help, but I don’t think for a second Miss Burton forgets what a dangerous place the world has become for our heroine. She has little money, few connections or prospects and being female can hardly work. Although Mag’s is quite stoic about being sent to the country as a charity case, it also makes her very cross and sad at times, but luckily she never gives up hope and it has a very pretty ending and I cried, but once again that was probably because I was very tired at the time. (and not because I am a big sook)

Rats and Gargoyles

2006-02-15T16:37:00.000+11:00

Mary Gentle Corgi 1990 PB 510pp

“In the raucous Cathedral Square the crowd prepared to hang a pig”

This was my light reading alternative as I am currently attempting to work my way through a book on ‘time’ which has lots about neutron stars and quantum physics and which I can read for about 30mins at a time before a)my head is done in and/or b) I drift off thinking about a cool SF plot time.

I was sure that I had read this before. Had not bought it in 2nd hand shops before as I was sure I had read it. It’s the cover and that big spooky bird. Anyway, I had not read it. Not even vaguely.

A book in which adjectives far outweigh both nouns and verbs (and all those other little joining words) combined.

A world in which all those funky medieval type woodcuts with gods and demons and Egyptian headdresses and Templar style glowing eyes on pyramids hermetic magia thingies are Real. Magic is Real. Humans at the bottom of the social ladder. Aristocrats, those with big houses and the good jobs are RATS (which freak me out even when they are walking upright, cool & funky and well dressed) and above them all are the Decan. The Decan are Gods, Gods on Earth. Gods that have gotten bored and grumpy and the plot is basically trying to save the world from a God with a Death wish.

It has a bibliography at the back, which is cool and although I didn’t always understand what was going on, I did enjoy the ride.

Human Stock

2006-02-10T11:40:00.000+11:00

Vaughan Whitlock Temple
House PB 2001 396pp

“Eight years into the third millennium, the Australian Government, increasingly alarmed by recent escalations in world conflict, had not yet conceded there was nay real ganger to itself of Darwin, - a self-sufficient, but relatively small city with a population of just over one hundred thousand.”

I read this book last Friday night, after having bought in on the last day of my local Red Shield’s ‘All books 10c’ sale. I was ripped off

I am a girl very into ‘suspension of disbelief’. I love my unicorns and space ships and time travel and true love. All I ask is a well written story and cool characters. All we ever ask Mr Whitlock, is a well written story and cool
characters!!! What we have in ‘Human Stock’ is neither, and only makes the following all the more horrible

An apologist prologue by the editor explaining the bizarre contention of a world ruled by women
An underground city would be built in which to house people to outlive the coming Armageddon
It would house only about 200 hundred people
It would be in Darwin
It would be called ‘Bunkertown’
Family groups would be split up into mens, womens and childrens dormitories
Couples would be split up because there were not the medical facilities in ‘Bunkertown’ to deal with births and so everyone has to be celibate whilst living in ‘Bunkertown’
Not one women in ‘Bunkertown’ (ie chosen to be humanities last best hope) has any kind of skill or profession or indeed personality (oh, apart from the grumpy frigid ones who later grab power)
Uranuium having a half life of a year means people came come out of ‘Bunkertown’ after two years
A new town site is chosen after a conversation with the ‘town planner’, the ‘doctor’, the ‘builder’ and the ‘waste disposal engineer’
Because everyone was celibate for 2 years, anarchy and selfishness run riot in the new settlement. Families break down and what with all that rape and gratuitous coupling, babies are born that put pressure on the medical supplies
China survived nuclear war and refugees bring cloning technology to Darwin
We care about any of these horrible characters or the stupid society they build.

This is all in less than the first 100 pages. It gets so much worse. There are ‘plot’ devices that boggle the imagination. Maybe it made sense somewhere. It was just so icky and so very silly. If it hadn’t already been done, I would cheerfully say ‘nuke the site from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure’ and try and get on with
my life

I did not understand *and* I did not care!

ps the cover art is also truly horrible

The Foundling

2006-02-07T13:48:00.000+11:00

Georgette Heyer 10th printing 1974 Pan Books PB 350pp

“When the young gentleman strolling through the park with his gun on his shoulder and an elderly spaniel at his heels cam within sight of the house it occurred to him that the hour must be farther advanced that her had supposed, for the sun had sunk below the great stone pile, and an autumnal mist was already creeping over the ground.”

Mmm, after having seen a thousand books by Miss Heyer and never having read one, I admit my interest was piqued by her novels being a category on the ABC’s Einstein Factor last year. However, I was mindful of the time several years ago when I was burnt badly by reading a Barbara Cartland omnibus. One ‘Duke’ book; kind of cute, two a little twee, and three…..well I remember I had to read some China Meiville to recover.

I think a single novel is a much more civilised way to approach this type of fiction. I admit Miss Heyer is cleverer and considerably more sly than Miss Cartland. Not so saccharine and maybe even alittle ‘unpredictable’. I found the habit of her characters to suddenly break into unintelligible Regency slang a little disconcerting and nobody went to the ‘Pump room’, but as this genre goes, I thought it quite sweet.

Good for train trips or those lazy days when you have enough of a cold not to go to work but are still to be able to justify not doing any housework.

NeverWhere

2006-02-02T16:33:00.000+11:00

Neil Gaiman Avon 1999 PB 390pp

"The night before he went to London, Richard Mayhew was not enjoying himself"

Gaiman is such a classic storyteller. This is a true rise-of-the-hero tale - Richard the weak to Richard the Brave. Set in/under the London Underground, a strange,spooky low level horror world co-existing with ours, populated by those who have fallen through the cracks of our society - literally. Richard saves a girl with 'powers' who is seeking those who murdered her family. Extra points for Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar. And the Marquis

Why is this not a film?!

Books I have Read since my Last Post

2006-01-30T09:24:00.000+11:00

in between the sleeping and the cleaning and the playing and the working and the sleeping and the laundry and the cleaning and the unpacking and the napping

1. Harry Potter & The ½ Blood Prince
J.K.Rowling Bloomsbury 2005 HB 608p

“It was nearing midnight and the Prime Minister was sitting alone in his office, reading a long memo that was slipping through his brain without leaving the slightest trace of meaning behind”

Don’t.Believe.The.Hype.

2. A Talent for War
Jack McDevitt Ace PB 1986 310pp

“The air was heavy with incense and the sweet odour of hot wax”

This was a surprisingly cool book. I am sure that I have read Mr. McDevitt’s work before and not been that impressed. Can’t tell you what or when tho’, but this book was 10c and I ask you again, what’s the girl to do.
A big space war 200 years ago against freaky aliens and a series of legends build up around the final days – hero’s such have Christopher Sim that now have planets named after them. Our unlikely – but quite likeable hero – Alex Benedict is thrown into the search for a legacy – ooooh is it a conspiracy???? – by the death of his uncle.
Lots about the stupidity of war and the myths that are created to support stupid wars. Lots of spaceships and lasers and mystery.

Cool.

3.The Autograph Man
Zadie Smith Hamish Hamilton 2002 PB 419p

“He has the ability to imagine himself a minor incident in the lives ofothers.”
Alex the Jew, the collector, the dysfunctional. It’s like “Black Books” with lots of mad mad characters in a contemporary setting that do and say mad mad things that are funny ‘cause you are protected from them by a glass screen, or in this case ‘cause they are flat, black squiggles.
I bought this – it might have been 50c – as I had read an article on Zadie Smith in an ‘Oprah’ magazine. She’s one of those beautiful black women who look stunning with lots of plaits and a bit of cloth wrapped around her head. There’s a fabbo first book, followed by some indifferences, and then a great third or maybe fourth book. I am not sure which one this is, but it was quite funny and enjoyable.
Anyone who collects stuff, or lives with someone who collects stuff or knows someone who collects stuff will either be very frightened or pleased to know they are not alone in the world (personally I was the latter)

4.Thud
Terry Pratchett Doubleday HB 2005 362pp

“The first thing Tak did, he wrote himself”

A Vimes novel. I think I prefered ‘Going Postal’ but that is like saying I preferred one wonderful flavour of ice-cream over another flavour of wonderful ice-cream.
Once again, if you have read his work, read this one! If you haven’t, then GET.A.LIFE and read him. But don’t start here. Ask around. Someone you know WILL have the set.

PS - I was going to buy ‘Where’s My Cow” in hard back from Angus &Robertson for Cozaxcoatl; it featured lovely drawings of Vimes looking like a messed up cross between Pete Postlethwaite and Jim Carey. I kid you not. But it was $33, for about 20 pages. Lucky we don’t need materiality to know we care do we?

5.Saint Peter’s Fair
Ellis Peters Futura 1981 PB 268pp

“It began at the normal daily chapter in the Benedictine monastery of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, of Shrewsbury in the thirtieth day of July, in the year of Our Lord 1139”

Derek Jacobi rocks. Even a stupid wampirish God Father. We Still Love You.

Once again, if you have read her work, read this one! If you haven’t, then GET.A.LIFE and read her. But don’t start here. Ask around. Someone you know WILL have the set.
I read this in one evening this week as I was sick and the children were away and I knew I was not going to work the next day. Like a panacea it was, like a panacea

6.Arrows of the Queen
Mercedes Lackey 1988 Legend 320pp PB

“A gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the trees, but the young girl seated beneath it did not seem to notice”

In a catalogue, this would definitely have a unicorn next to it, and maybe some other kind of symbol – a heart or a rose around the unicorn – signifying teenage wish fulfilment. Perhaps baby unicorns - lots of big eyed baby unicorns...

I really like Mercedes Lackey, sometimes, othertimes she is not so good. Worth a risk tho’ and this is quite sweet.
If it was written 10 years later this would be the first in the 5part trilogy of a young girls epic journey in a world of swords and sorcery and magic gone bad and telepathic white horses and political intrigue and good queens and bad kings. Thankfully we have only this sweet tome; great for a summer’s Sunday afternoon while your children battle each other in Tekken and the laundry remains very silent and sulky in the corner (where all naughty laundry that rudely falls over just because it hasn’t been put away should live)

7.The Salmon of Doubt
Douglas Adams 2003 Macmillan PB 284pp

“Dear Editor”

Douglas Adams as every decent human being knows ROCKS. The Hitchhikers trilogy changed my early teen life – that and the Earthsea trilogy. The classic underplayed Brit humour that was THE highly quotable text choice for the uber-geek before the Simpson emerged.
This is bits that they found on his computer after his untimely death. The favourite bits of those closest to him – apparently there was heaps. Lovely, funny, sad

Very Very Cool

8.Anansi Boys
Neil Gaiman 2005 Headline Books PB 350pp

“It begins, as most things begin, with a song.”

Mr Gaiman is one of my favourite authors. I did NOT like ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ and gave the book away but this is more that made up for by such classics as NeverWhere and American Gods. And the Sandman series (which I only gave away ‘cause I was pregnant with my first child and wanted a nice clean pure atmosphere for him. I gave away a lot of CD’s as well, so Neil is in the company of vintage Christian Death, and I really miss them both)

More Classic story telling. Poor Fat Charlie, engaged to a lovely not-before-marriage girl. His father dies and THEN he finds out he is the son of a god. Lots of great dialogue and characters and myth and generally a romp of a story that never lets up.

The book comes ‘packaged’ with several extras. I am in two minds about these – although it is cool to read ‘deleted scenes’ or see copies of his handwritten notes books. I find that when I read a fine story such as this upon finishing all I want to do is close my eyes and let the last waves of the story continue to wash over me. A gentle re-entry. Especially with characters who were very cool, I want to keep them as long as I can. ‘Reading Group Discussion Questions’ such as “What does Anansi Boys say about today’s multicultural society? How are the characters influenced by their varied backgrounds? Do traditional attitudes conflict with or inform new ideas?” are a bit of a hard landing.

Great story tho’. Of course

The Harp and the Grey Rose

2006-01-05T15:47:00.000+11:00

Charles deLint 1985 Firebird 272pp PB

“Once a year at midsummer, Tess’s brother Finnan came to stay with us for a day or three”

I finished this coming home from Sydney on the train last week – and the last chapter a day or two later. It is Mr deLint’s first completed work and apparently – according to the blurb on the back – quite a favourite with the public still.
Mmmm well – let me say – as I have said before that I really love the work of this author. The genre may be ‘fantasy’ in the bookshops, but they are usually so well written with characters and plots that stay with you long after bathtime is over. This is…. well – fantasy with a unicorn on top. Dwarves and treks through the snow, a balance between good and evil broken, harpers, beautiful girls that you can never have (‘cause you know, they are like immortal or fairy kind or something) etc etc. I am ashamed to say that I was bored – sigh.

But he got better – so read those.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

2006-01-05T15:45:00.000+11:00

Alexander McCall Smith Anchor Books 2002 235pp PB

“Mma Ramotswe had a detective agency in Africa, at the foot of Kgale Hill.”

This was lent to me by the lovely book-lending sister and it was given to her by her American Grandmother-in-law. I had heard much of the series – very famous by now and was interested to read it.
It really is quite charming, I can’t say that it has a lot new to say about the world, but our heroine Mma Ramotswe is strong and resourceful and solves crimes in a highly satisfactory manner.
Always good to read some fiction without dragons in it, I say.

It was stupidly hot here on Monday so I took the children to the pool. I read this book while I was there – in between the ‘ma look at me do this double back flip tricky with a flying squirrel move’. I had to take something entertaining to read because my heart just STOPs – STOPS I tell you – every time one of them puts their head under the water. Every.Time.

It was lovely. Enjoy

The Earthsea Quartet

2006-01-05T15:21:00.000+11:00

Ursula Le Guin
1993 Puffin books 691pp

The Wizard of Earthsea 1968
“The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast sea, is a land famous for wizards.”

The Tombs of Atuan 1970
“ ‘Come home, Tenar! Come home!’ “

The Furthest Shore 1972
“In the court of the Fountain, the sun of March shone through young leaves of ash and elm, and water leapt and fell through shadows and clear light.”

Tehanu 2000
“After Farmer Flint of the Middle Valley had died, his widow stayed on at the farmhouse.”

This is a wonderful series of books and the 20 year gap brings not only a real development of character for Ged our hero, but in the writing style of Miss LeGuin. The first books are beautifully written, full of compact description and heroic legends. As the series continues, as the author’s skills grow her focus narrows. The last book ‘Tehanu’ whilst there are dragons and kings, is really about family and love and acceptance and both the evil and good in the world are seen on a more personal level. “Tehanu’ is definitely my favourite book, I love both Ged and Tenar as characters and I cried again last night reading this story. It is soo well written, her descriptions take my breath away.

I can’t convey this properly as I don’t seem to be able to write very well anymore. It feels as though I can’t express what is in my head properly. Too long away from conversations I guess, I even had trouble talking to people face to face in Sydney last week. All my words stumbling and unfunny.

So you will have to trust me and read these books. Don’t be fooled into thinking they are for children, that would be like thinking ‘harry potter’ is for grownups. These books are increasingly sophisticated in theme and ‘tehanu’ has much of what would be called ‘adult concepts’. There are certainly sections I would have to edit out if I read to my children. There are two more books after this that I am keen to find. Anyone out there with a copy?

So very very beautiful.

In Ya Face, Harry

2006-01-03T13:54:00.000+11:00

http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/before-harry-potter-there-was---/2006/01/02/1136050375705.html

This woman rocks. Without a doubt.

I was given 'Wizard of Earthsea' in yr 7 english and had to read the first chapter by the end of a fortnight. I read the whole book in a night. "Tehanu" makes me cry - everytime.

'Left Hand of Darkness' is THE book quoted against the tsunami of 12-volume-1000-pages-each-epic-sagas.

There is only economy and tight storytelling in all of her writing - she lets her characters speak first and foremost and NEVER attempts to shift the focus onto the author and the misplaced sense of authorial cleverness

People like K.Dick and Heinlein should clean her shoes and bake her nice cakes.

Thats it! - now I have drunk the last of the christmas alcohol I have come to my senses - that Gene Wolfe collection of short stories - 'innocents abroad' is weird and stupid and I don't want to finish it. I am starting the earthsea trilogy again tonight. YAY!

Banner of Souls

2006-01-02T15:27:00.000+11:00

Liz Williams Tor 2004 PB 427pp

“Dreams-of-War was hunting the remnants of men on the slopes of the Martian Olympus when she came across the herd of ghosts.”

This excellent novel – Miss William’s fifth apperently – is a world (ha ha) away from the writing style of Richard Morgan. While he is very straight forward, this novel is very gothic – all blood and shadows and thousand year old bones.

Very very far in the future – Earth a series of islands after the Drowning and Mars run by a matriach of warriors. There are mysterious aliens, and genetically manipulated babies grown in bags in green houses, and many many ghosts. The world imagined is very cool and the story really does move along at a cracking pace. Kind of like China Mieveille if he stopt before the complete and utter ickiness. Poetic and Spooky.

recommended

WOKEN FURIES

2006-01-02T15:23:00.000+11:00

Richard Morgan Gollancz 2005 PB436pp

“The place they woke me in would have been carefully prepared.”

Despite the front cover recommendation from Peter. F Hamilton, i borrowed this book from the library – good move on my part, i say.
Setin a distant future – far from earth. humans now have ‘cortical stacks’ - chips in the back of our necks which upload memories, feelings, experience etc. so in the event of death, these can be removed and put in a new ‘sleeve’ - a vat grown body coming with various enhancements etc. much murder and mayhem can occur when you can carry around the personality of someone in your pocket. And it does.
Ourhero takeshi kovacs – ex uber-soldier – is on a one man mission of revenge when old ties/old friends/old enemies resurface. he is quite a cool character and this book is very well written – the world mr. Morgan creates is very detailed and believable, and there are a number of very sympathetic characters that i enjoying going on adventures with. even a number of surprisingly poignant moments amidst all the battling and betrayal.

it was a book that I didn’t want to end with characters that i didn’t want to say goodbye to.
well done, Mr Morgan. well done.

The Eyre Affair

2006-01-02T15:18:00.000+11:00

Jasper Fforde Hodder PB 2001 373pp

“My father had a face that could stop a clock”

A book for a Christmas present, a dying breed it would seem in the brave new world of DVD. I only received 4 books this year and this the only fictional work (although the jury is still out on that book on the Templers).

I finished this on the train home from Sydney last Thursday (ironic really) –but ahhh public transport – the only time I can read without the pressing guilt of chores awaiting.

Our heroine Thursday Next lives in a wonderful parallel universe. Instead of foolish sport arousing the passions of the masses, it is abstract expressionism vs. the pre-Raphaelites, Keats vs. Milton. I want to live here.

Young Thursday works as a LiteraTec, investigating hoaxes and frauds of the literary kind. Acheron Hades is her time-shifting arch-nemesis and Landon Parke-Laine her lost love. She also has a mad professor uncle who invents a machine that allows characters in and out of novels – which is cool as we get to met Edward Rochester. Its written in that fast-paced jokey noir style – so KissKissBangBang and is very clever in parts. I am assured by the giver/s that this is the best of the series – yes, my friends Thursday’s adventures continue. It is very cute.
Enjoy

Things I Did on My Holidays Part 1

2005-12-30T09:41:00.000+11:00

Christmas is A Hoot! What can I say.
They came, we ate, we drank, we slept.
Then the cool bit - my darling children visit their Dad (bless his cotton socks) for a couple of days and I can go to Sydney to shop.

Stuff I Do When I Don't Have To Do Laundry (In no particular order)

1. World of Warcraft
This comes under the heading of 'FuschiaWatches'. Watch my character fall off the jetty AGAIN into the deep water 'cause the whole right/left mouse button thing is beyond me. Watch for my partner Chardo disappear over the hill to the next adventure while I am still trying to loot a body. Watch me try to cast 'heal' only to Watch us all die 'cause I was casting 'wrath' instead (well, they should make fighting spells RED icons, its only confusing!) But I am a bear now so that is kind of cool. It is a pretty game and I can see why it is so playable for 37 days straight.

But the fighting spells should be red.

2. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Coz and I saw this because the cinema was airconditioned. And it was on in 5 minutes. And we had heard it was good. And it was not 'Cheaper by the Dozen 2'.
It is a hoot. You - all of you but no children - should go an see it cause it is soooo very wrong and yet funny and so very very wrong and yet sooo very funny. Robert 'he's-so-sute-when-not-in-rehab' Downey Jnr and Val Kilmer take on Hollywood and bad guys and a dog and car chases and pretty girls and electrocution and all that cool raymond-chandler noirish patter with a cool narration and snappy dialogue and much general cleverness.
My newly reawakened feeling for Robert are nw being tested but its still almost Christmas, so I will be kind and wait.

3. Kinokuniya
It appears that many of you don't know this shop. It God has put me on this earth for a reason (apart from letting you know that your shirt REALLY doesn't match those jeans) it is to bring news of good bookshops to the masses. (my purpose also apparently involves Hello Kitty, but I have to find out the tax implications of non-profit-startup-religions before I can reveal my plans there).
This my friends, is not a good bookshop. It is THE bookshop. All other bookshops bow before it, they go there thinking they are so smart because they actually stock a couple of Austens and a Waugh biography in the bargain bin, but step through the doors and all pretensions are quickly stripped away before the bibliotechnical greatness that is this store. Yes, you are just a franchise, now go away and let me browse in peace.
Or as Coz and I did - with much noise and merriment.

I bought a couple of magazines - that I can't show you as my scanner is not working and this kitty cataloguue - there was actually a choice of issues - my god I am in heaven. There are many japanese books and magazines but mostly english and just every topic - all the dover books etc, and as we discovered halve the price of those other stores.
And as we we leaving 2 buddhist monks where up to $388 at the register, so I think you should all go there.

3. Black Books
This was a christmas gift but I watched it when I got home from sydney yesterday. It still comes under the heading on 'no children' so I can put it here. Ahhh, just me and Mr Strongbow. And the christmas chocolate I hid so there would be post-christmas chocolate.
This british tv series (of which I now have the WHOLE series) involves dysfunctional characters AND a book shop. For anyone who has ever had the slightest amount of retail/customer contact will also find it very wonderful. It is full of such clever dialogue and such cringeworthy situations. I watched 4 episodes in a row and felt a much better person afterwards.

4. Avalon
I went to the video store when I got home and borrowed lots of MA rated movies 'cause I generally am unable to. After the sillyness of BlackBooks, I thought I would watch this as it promised VR wargames and a futuristic setting.

What is delivers is an ABSOLUTELY gorgeous look and visual effects and the lamest story line in the world. Play it at a party with the sound down (it had subtitles anyway) 'cause it does look great but really has a silly plot. I would like the words 'PACE and JEOPARDY' tattoed into the foreheads of the makers, please.
And anyway, I thought the big VR game looked abit dull- and you couldn't be an elf.

5. Anazapta
Mmmmm, this was actaully kind of cool and I think that the look of the time was quite accurate. No posh Keira Knightleys just coming back from the posh french finishing school in time to be captured by clean King Arthur here. Or the amazingly unspotted Tristan and Isolde.
The title is abit silly but the story certainly rollicks along in this tale of icky people who come to icky ends and revenge and something that could be mistaken (quite easily) for love and there is much gore and spookiness along the way. A good video night in story - but not for the little'es.

6. Party
Now, I don't do many of these anymore, what with my advanced years and the trouble my walker makes on polished floor boards, but the lovely Zoe was in town and it was great to meet her. My memories of the night after the wonderful dinner are a bit blurry, I think it was all that shopping in the extreme Sydney heat that has clouded my memories.
But I seem to recall we played cribbage and 'the minister's cat' and discussed eloquently and sanely the current sorry state of the UN and there may have been some quiet background music and much patient tolerance of the variations of musical taste the makes the world such an interesting place to be in. There may also have been some sedate dancing of the type usually found in a fred astaire movie.

Now, these are my memories - so I am sure you are as confused as I by the photo's I found on my camera - perhaps it was stolen while I was in the Elegant Gothic Lolita shop just off George STr. There are many other photos - most to blurry to accurately ID the cast members. So I shall save those. For another dayt.

What a wonderful time to be alive

Surely you’re joking Mr Feynman

2005-12-23T09:27:00.000+11:00

Richard P. Feynman Unwin Hyman Ltd 1986 PB 350pp

“When I was about eleven or twelve I set up a lab in my house.”

This wonderful book consists of a series of anecdotes either gathered especially or adapted from speeches or publications. They are very candid and funny and interesting and I have to say this man blows my mind.

I would love to be so clever that physics makes sense to me. It is something that I have always been interested in and all the ongoing quantum research is just amazing. I however have this brain – self fulfilling prophecy type brain or no – that switches off when things get ‘technical’ – it’s a physical feeling like falling asleep or getting really cold - I can feel my eyes glaze over and my brain get mooshy and even tho’ I am really interested, I don’t understand anything else other than the introductory paragraph – the one in bold type – in any New Scientist magazine.

This combined with a lack of memory for detail – oh yes I can tell you what you were wearing 4 halloweens back and I never get lost driving, but give me a really cool article about anything and it’s like “ um there’s like this percentage um 25% or 50% but its like really high and that’s how many protons spin off when you do this thing – and they only thought that it would be like um this really low number maybe even zero in number – and they thought in a different direction – maybe left - , but that was based on an incorrect experiment done by someone – I think he was European – and no-one checked that data – isn’t that cool!”
You get the idea…..

So, you will understand that reading this book for me was quite an experience. One moment its picking up airhostess’s in Brazil and the next it’s something to do with tau’s and co-sines and I feeling like one of those movies when they hit g-force-mach-8-i-canna-hold-it-cap’in and all the skin on my face is flying back and my eyes have gone all bulgy and funky hyperspace stars are flying in front of my eyes.

He worked at Los Alamos, he learnt Japanese and Portuguese and the drums and how to draw and to crack safes and had many girlfriends (some great pickup tips for you boys!), and won a nobel prize and basically spent his entire life learning and learning and never accepting any limits for himself. He writes with such a deprecating sense of humour and comes across as such an approachable cool guy.

This book cost me 10c at a local op-shop and I think you should all read it! When I am was God-Empress it will be mandatory – so go get a copy and avoid the rush.

Wolf Moon

2005-12-18T09:57:00.000+11:00

Charles deLint Firebird 1988 PB 245pp

"The music stopped."

Charles De Lint is an amazing author. He can be relied on to consistently deliver the goods.

This is a little story of a good werewolf and a bad harper. Great characters and a believable setting. An occasional misstep can be forgiven for this early work and in light of all the other epic and wonderful books.

Lent by my sister to my mum and given to me to return to my sister. But read first.

read in the light of the last several months of moving house and starting - for the first time in a looong time - full time work. I actually read nothing but my endless 'to do' lists for quite a while. the posts below were all read in the last week and a half - not quite immediate but now there are less boxes to upback, maybe the return to something more regular.

Joyeaux Noel!

From the Dust Returned

2005-12-18T09:51:00.000+11:00

Ray Bradbury Earthlight 2001 HC 204pp

“In the attic where the rain touched the roof softly on spring days and where you could feel the mantle of snow outside, a few inches way, on December nights, A Thousand Times Great Grandmere existed.”

Ray Bradbury rocks. He has had, I will admit, his less that great moments, but overall he Rocks!

This book is very lovely. A house with a family, who may or may not be vampires. Various adventures. I can't say that heaps happens or that the characters are always very clear, but Mr Bradbury writes with such a lyrical haunting quality that you are led breathless – and oh so very willingly – through this slight book. His language never misses a beat, it is so very beautiful and fine and all of us who worship the thesaurus and struggle for the right word

must worship this effortless and poetic author.

Recommended for all of us. It can only make the world a better place.

The Quilters Apprentice

2005-12-18T09:46:00.000+11:00

Jennifer Chiaverini 1998 Simon&Schuster HC 271pp

“Sarah leaned against the brick wall and tried to look comfortable, hoping that no one walking by would notice her or wonder why she was standing around in a suit on such a hot day.”

This women has a number of books on the shelves of my local library, there are apparently sequels to this novel.

It had a pretty cover and I was feeling in quite a soppy mood but even I felt the first stirring of concern when this – her FIRST novel – comes with a page of acknowledgements at the beginning, of the 'chicken soup for the soul' kind.

It all went down hill from there.

Sarah and her husband Matt move all of 3 hours away from their home town so Matt can take up a new job. Obviously it takes longer to get places in the US, because this means that Soppy-Sarah is now isolated and alone and looking for work in a new town. She mopes and sulks and honestly there wasn’t a page I read that I just didn’t want to slap her.

Linear I believe the plot would most kindly be described as. Linear in a Mills&Boonian kind of way. Sooky-sarah mets the crotchety mysterious old lady Matt works for who OF COURSE offers sulky-sarah a job in her wonderful old house. OF COURSE there is some kind of mystery spanning the generations OF COURSE Sarah solves it and fixes everything and gets to live in the old house with the lady who really was very nice.

I admit I cried but that had EVERYTHING to do with the thoughts of quilts and grandmothers and time that passes and doesn’t come back and NOTHING to do with this book.

Recommended for a soppy older relative whose literary taste runs to the extreme end of soppiness.

Kingdom River

2005-12-18T09:42:00.000+11:00

Mitchell Smith 2003 Forge HC 400pp

“The ravens had come to This’ll Do.”

Despite only telling you in little writing several pages in that this is ‘Book 2 of the Snowfall Trilogy’ and DESPITE the very lame cover (is that a chick in a chainmail bikini with a cross bow I see before me?) this is a very cool book.

Set in a Earth future several hundred years after a rapid and devastating drop in temperature that left the world a cold and lonely place, North America has splintered into several – aggressive – tribes. ‘Warm-time’ culture is prized and there are much copied books, words and phrases and a knowledge of this time is seen as a mark of culture and learning.

Not being north american myself puts me at a severe disadvantage when it comes to these types of books as really, a march from Virginia to Texas means nothing to me. Is it far? Is it near? Do I care? Also not really caring about the minutiae of planning an epic battle campaign made for some skimmed pages. That said, the characterisation is very strong and the world Mr Smith has built is quite believable – even with all the weird mind powers and teeth-sharpened cannibal princesses.

Apparently the first book is set a generation before which is what probably allowed me to read this one and understand most of it.

Recommended for a lazy Sunday when you have all three books

very silly meme

2005-10-18T20:38:00.001+10:00

Meme’d by the ever charming and erudite Fyodor. Thanks for not forgetting me.

I don’t know who still reads for me to tag. Where has Brownie’s site gone – is she picked? Coz? Random visitor by conincidental use of the ‘Next Blog’ Button??

So - In no particular order - we have

7 things I want to do before I die

1. See my granddaughter as a Star Ship Captain (although I am quite happy for Alien Intervention to bring this forward a generation – or two)
2. Travel…….and then travel some more
3. Hear someone quote Pablo Neruda to me in Spanish – and mean it
4. See my children grow up healthy and happy – and Star Ship Captains
5. Learn to Swim – I’d accept cyberpunkian gills on this one
6. Sell a Doll I have made
7. Have enough bookshelves so no book need ever live in a box again

7 things I can't do

1. Accept that there can ever be a choice between shareholder return and a human life
2. Eat Brussel Sprouts – despite their legendary anti-carcinogenic properties
3. Not love Hello Kitty
4. Get enough Sleep
5. Walk past an Op Shop or a Second Hand Book Shop
6. Get over my severe disappointment that it is 2005 (forgodsake!) and we are not all wearing cool black leather in a post apocalyptic wasteland or atleast ‘jacking’ in to cyberspace ala’ Gibson. Ahh those heady dreams of 1982 – where are you now
7. Keep up with Coz where red wine (or anything with the word ‘daiquiri’ in the title) is concerned

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex

1. Hands and strong fingers. Wrists. A good Back
2. Sense of Humour
3. Enjoyment of Shopping – the fine art of the Casual Browse
4. A Good Library
5. Competence
6. Russian/Foreign Accent
7. Washing up/Household Chores – just because it needs to be done not because you’ve had to be asked. A man putting laundry in the linen-hamper – sooooo very sexy!!!

7 things I say most often

1. Both Hands!!
2. Coz darling, can I borrow $20?
3. Next Pay!
4. I’m putting that on a T-Shirt!
5. One more chocolate can’t hurt
6. Does that come in pink?
7. Just 5 more minutes – and then I’ll get up

7 Celebrity Crushes

1. Richard Armitage – in ‘North and South’
2. Vin Diesel – I WILL never believe the internet is a cesspit of corruption while there remain NO nude photo’s of him ‘out there’
3. Paul Darrow as Avon
4. Takeshi Kaneshiro
5. Humphrey Bogart – I’ll whistle for ya baby!
6. Robbie Williams - no really I could make you soo happy - ignore the conservative camoflage in which I have so successfully hidden in - I could so easily revert to the bad girl days of my youth - soooo happy Robbie, so very happy
7. Patrick Stewart

NORTH AND SOUTH

2005-10-18T20:14:00.000+10:00

Elizabath Gaskell
Penguin 1855 This Ed-2003 PB 450pp with lots of notes

“ ’Edith!’ said Margaret gently, ‘Edith!’ “

I read this book a few weeks ago but have been slack and full of real life and spending a lot of work computer time which makes play computer time less appealing. Maybe I was just sulking because I cannot play ‘World of Warcraft’ online. That’s it – all apologies done. And I’ve read more books that I thought I did in the last month. Sorry again

I read this book last year and loved it – when the series was the AB C I discovered my own copy was in a box (a fate too familiar for so many of my books) and that I was unable to reread it. I had the most amazing run of people ringing me on Sunday evenings and so was able to only SEE not Hear the vast majority of the series. Luckily Penguin have done a re-release and despite a rather aggressively critical introduction - I can say that the story is very close to the TV show and Well Worth The Read. Besides Richard Armitage as John Thornton was To Die For and gives ol’ Darcy a serious run for his money.

Our Heroine – Margaret (who is very lovely and brave)– having a father who undergoes one of those religious crises that are so hard for me to understand – moves from the long standing and most beloved rectory in the South (Cue light saturation and lots of roses) to the North (Cue cold grey light and TB). She finds herself out of her ‘class’ and out of her depth socially and emotionally as there is much injustice, many Dickensian deaths and new political ideas to face. And the very Lovely John (sigh) Thornton to be so confusing what with his dark good looks and ardent longings.

It is very interesting to see that while some things have changed in 150 years – the standing of women (maybe) – there is much conversation about workers vs employers that is soo very relevant today. The power of money, the abuse of those who create the wealth but do not own the machinery, the rights of the worker to safety and security etc, the responsibility of the factory owner to his shareholder over his employee – these are all questions that are examined in great detail in this book – and that no answer is provided should not be so surprising – as we have no answer to this day. Better political bloggers that I have raised these issues, and it seems we have made no head way at all in finding solutions even part way – the poverty and pain have just moved continents.

Its great. Read It.

Marrow

2005-10-18T18:02:00.000+10:00

Robert Reed
Orbit Books 2001 PB 502pp

“…a sleep, sweet as Death…time traversed, and an incalculable distance…and then a splash of light emerged from the dark and the cold, its warming touch slowly explaining itself to me, showing suns and little worlds and great swirls of colored gas and angry, roaring dust…”

My delightful sister – the other delighful sister – lent this to me – as a book she bought on spec from an auther she knew nothing about.

Well, near distant future and a huge, huge, like really really big spaceship is found and Earthlings (yay) find it and colonise it and kill off every one else who wants it and turn it into a merchant passenger vessel. Humans with long, long like really really long life spans and lots of genetic enhancement so that if you die as long as your head is okay you can be rebuilt. This secret at the core of the spaceship is found and theres betrayal and lots of time passes and then theres a war and its all okay. These people live for 10’s and 10’s of thousands of years with these time frames and without pace and jeopardy a plot can quickly lag. And this plot quickly lags – not that the story is badly written or anything, but the plot suffers from being too linear and events drag out when they should be short and snappy and other interesting things are glossed over.

Read it when travelling, or sick or hung over

Going Postal

2005-10-18T17:49:00.000+10:00

Terry Pratchett
Doubleday 2004 HC 352pp

“The flotillas of the dead sailed around the world on underwater rivers”

What can I say – it’s a Cack. Read it. If you have never read Pratchett then trust me as I can make your life a better place with this recommendation (I can also make you really well dressed but so few people take me up on that offer). If you have read Pratchett then you are a fan and you will read this book.

More of the Same. So Wonderful!

Read it.

Orlando

2005-10-18T17:27:00.001+10:00

Virginia Woolf
Penguin 1928 This Ed-1993 272pp with lots of notes, PB

“He – for there could be no doubt of his sex – though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it – was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters.”

This book – directed by Sally Potter – stars my favoritist actor Tilda Swinton and while I have watched the movie hundreds of times I have only just now read the book. It is lovely and subtley and although I often felt as though I was intruding on a private conversation between close friends, I enjoyed every minute of it. So full of sly observant wit and comments on the place of women in the world – and the world of the previous 500 years.

Queen Elizabeth 1 ordered the delightful young Orlando (he of the spunkiest legs in Christendom) to never age, never grow old. And he obeys – through revolution, poetry, broken hearts and lawsuits and a change of gender, parenthood and marriage – Orlando remains his/her beautiful ageless self. But not without some hard won truths along the way

She remembered how, as a young man, she had insisted that women must be obedient, chaste, scented, and exquisitely apparelled. ‘Now I shall have to pay in my own person for those desires,’ she reflected; ‘for woman are not (judging by my own short experience of the sex) obedient, chase, scented, and exquisitely apparelled by nature, They can only attain these graces, without which they may enjoy none of the delights of life, by the most tedious discipline. There’s the hairdressing…that alone will take an hour of my morning…

Full of quotable quotes. Read it.

MaBoogies

2005-09-13T16:59:00.000+10:00

Top 100 Hits of 1964

The top 100 from about when I left high school, I recognise most of them although not sure if I remember them from the time or from the endless repetition on easy listenin’ radio. They even built music to last in those days! Mind you, my record collection was mainly classical and brass bands, still love those brass bands, I was sooo a boring girl nerd.
PS and all you folks who know the-usually-salacious meaning of songs that still completely pass me by-I do no need to know-OK

1. I Want To Hold Your Hand, The Beatles
2. She Loves You, The Beatles
3. Where Did Our Love Go, Supremes
4. Oh, Pretty Woman, Roy Orbison
lived on the become a favourite of a certain flop eared mule many years later
5. I Get Around, Beach Boys
6. Everybody Loves Somebody, Dean Martin
7. My Guy, Mary Wells
8. People, Barbara Streissand
9. Last Kiss, J. Frank Wilson and The Cavaliers1
0. Hello, Dolly!, Louis Armstrong
11. We'll Sing In The Sunshine, Gale Garnett
12. Java, Al Hirt
13. A Hard Day's Night, The Beatles
14. Love Me Do, The Beatles
15. Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Manfred Mann
16. Under The Boardwalk, Drifters
had this one on a single record, you know those round black things, not the round silver things
17. Dancing In The Street, Martha and The Vandellas
18. Little Children, Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas
19. Love Me With All Your Heart, Ray Charles Singers
20. Please Please Me, The Beatles
21. Chapel Of Love, Dixie Cups
22. Suspicion, Terry Stafford
23. Glad All Over, Dave Clark Five
24. Rag Doll, Four Seasons
25. Dawn (Go Away), Four Seasons
26. Bread And Butter, Newbeats
27. It Hurts To Be In Love, Gene Pitney
28. Dead Man's Curve, Jan and Dean
29. Come A Little Bit Closer, Jay and The Americans
30. A World Without Love, Peter and Gordon
31. Have I The Right?, Honeycombs
32. Don't Let The Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man), Serendipity Singers
33. Baby Love, Supremes
34. Let It Be Me, Betty Everett and Jerry Butler
35. Wishin' And Hopin', Dusty Springfield
36. You Don't Own Me, Lesley Gore
37. Walk On By, Dionne Warwick
38. The House Of The Rising Sun, Animals
39. G.T.O., Ronny and The Daytona
40. Twist And Shout, The Beatles
41. Memphis, Johnny Rivers
42. White On White, Danny Williams
43. Hey Little Cobra, Rip Chords
44. The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss), Betty Everett
45. Bits And Pieces, Dave Clark Five
46. My Boy Lollipop, Millie Small
did I hate this then or just think I did, soooo annoying
47. Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Major Lance
48. The Little Old Lady, Jan and Dean
49. Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying, Gerry and The Pacemakers
50. A Summer Song, Chad and Jeremy
51. The Girl From Ipanema, Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto
52. Can't Buy Me Love, The Beatles
53. Remember (Walkin' In The Sand), Shangri-Las
54. C'mon And Swim, Bobby Freeman
55. Do You Want To Know A Secret, The Beatles
56. Keep On Pushing, Impressions
57. Baby I Need Your Loving, Four Tops
58. Navy Blue, Diane Renay
59. Diane, Bachelors
60. Out Of Limits, Marketts
61. Little Honda, Hondells
62. See The Funny Little Clown, Bobby Goldsboro
63. Because, Dave Clark Five
64. (Just Like) Romeo And Juliet, Reflections
65. For You, Rick Nelson
66. Today, New Christy Minstrels
67. Can't You See That She's Mine, Dave Clark Five
68. Leader Of The Pack, Shangri-Las
oops, thought this was cool back then
69. Funny, Joe Hinton
70. The Way You Do The Things You Do, Temptations
71. Anyone Who Had A Heart, Dionne Warwick
72. I Love You More And More Every Day, Al Martino
73. It's Over, Roy Orbison
74. Ronnie, Four Seasons
75. Surfin' Bird, Trashmen
76. What Kind Of Fool (Do You Think I Am), Tams
77. The Door Is Still Open To My Heart, Dean Martin
78. You Really Got Me, Kinks
79. The Shelter Of Your Arms, Sammy Davis Jr.
80. I'm So Proud, Impressions
81. Money, Kingsmen
82. Haunted Houses, Gene Simmons
83. Dang Me, Roger Miller
84. Do You Love Me, Dave Clark Five
85. (You Don't Know) How Glad I Am, Nancy Wilson
86. I Wanna Love Him So Bad, Jelly Beans
87. Don't Throw Your Love Away, Searchers
88. Hi-heel Sneakers, Tommy Tucker
89. How Do You Do It, Gerry and The Pacemakers
90. Walk, Don't Run '6491. Cotton Candy, Al Hirt
92. Shangri-La, Robert Maxwell, His Harp and Orchestra
93. Chug-a-lug, Roger Miller
94. Steal Away, Jimmy Hughes
95. Louie Louie, The Kingsmen
96. A Fool Never Learns, Andy Williams
97. Bad To Me, Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas
98. There! I've Said It Again, Bobby Vinton99. I Saw Her Standing There, The Beatles
100. Needles And Pins, Searchers

FyodorBoogies

2005-09-09T13:23:00.000+10:00

what a kind and generous soul to a damsel in distress.

Here as follows is Fyodor's dance classics:

"Fyodor’s graduation year billboard

1990 for me. I am 32 this year, Boatylicious. Who loves ya, baby? I’ve only commented on the songs that weren’t mediocre shite, and focused on the songs I particularly like or dislike. If I say I hate an artist, assume that I hate the rest of their songs from that year that I haven’t commented on. My good opinion, once lost, is lost forever.

I’ve named my favourite, but you’ll have to read on to find out. Don’t get your hopes up for some obscure choice: I’m no rock snob, and I *like* pop music.

Hold On, Wilson Phillips Nauseatingly wet “break-through” single by nepotistically gifted trio, comprising “hot blonde”, “boring brunette” and “nice fat chick”. Forever redeemed by Harold and Kumar’s performance. Now makes me laugh insanely whenever I hear it. Mwahahaha.

2. It Must Have Been Love, Roxette
Pretty Woman Soundtrack. The film turned shite into gold and made prostitution look glamorous to teenage girls around the world, but particularly West Beverly Hills High. Created Julia Roberts™.

3. Nothing Compares 2 U, Sinead O'Connor
FANTASTIC film-clip. You know Mother Sinead is a nutter ‘cos she really feels this song. Incredibly powerful performance from an emotional fruitcake, and one of the few son

3. Nothing Compares 2 U, Sinead O'Connor
FANTASTIC film-clip. You know Mother Sinead is a nutter ‘cos she really feels this song. Incredibly powerful performance from an emotional fruitcake, and one of the few songs that works much better with the video clip than without.

5. Vogue, Madonna
Anthem for a new “dance” craze that lasted about a nanosecond. Peak of Madonna’s hedonistic self-absorption, before she got all religious ‘n’ shit, when she became religiously self-absorbed. I like Madonna, but hate this song.

6. Vision Of Love, Mariah Carey
Hate Mariah Carey.

7. Another Day In Paradise, Phil Collins
Hate Phil Collins.

9. Cradle Of Love, Billy Idol
Attempt to restart career killed off by his motorbike crash. I like Billy Idol. A lot.

10. Blaze Of Glory, Jon Bon Jovi
Hate Bon Jovi. The girls’ choice in metal, a musical genre which by this stage had morphed into fluoro cock-rock [see Poison at #33].

12. How Am I Supposed To Live Without You, Michael Bolton
Hate Michael Bolton.

13. Pump Up The Jam, Technotronic
First major “house” music success in America. I much prefer “Paid in Full”, by Eric B. and Rakim, but that came out earlier, and wasn’t as successful in backward USA.

14. Opposites Attract, Paula Abdul
Innovative film clip, fusing cartoon animation and live action. Hate the song and the artist.

15. Escapade, Janet Jackson
A huge year for Janet Jackson [see #39, #45, #50, #60]. Hate her.

16. All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You, Heart
Sperm thieves! Ask your sisters to explain.

17. Close To You, Maxi Priest
My favourite on this list. It’s fromage frais, but I really love this song.

18. Black Velvet, Alannah Myles
Canadian two-hit wonder. OK song, but I prefer her other single from the same album, “Love is”, which was far better, and she much raunchier. Her video had the predictable effect on this 17-year old.

20. Don't Know Much, Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville
Most over-played song of the year. Hate it and them.

21. All Around The World, Lisa Stansfield
Great voice, but she wasn’t black enough to carry it off in America. Like her and the song.

25. She Ain't Worth It, Glenn Medeiros Featuring Bobby Brown
V. cheesy one-hit-wonder, but real up-tempo dance beat. Great video clip, too, with many athletic nubile female dancers…

33. Unskinny Bop, Poison
Fluoro cock-rock, from the epitome of skinny, made-up ponces that would have been torn apart by the likes of Lemmy from Motörhead. An utter abomination of the “metal” genre. Hate them, needless to say.

36. We Didn't Start The Fire, Billy Joel
A mate of mine in high school asserted to me that this song teaches you everything you need to know about history. I don’t know much, but I know he knows less. Crap song.

38. Downtown Train, Rod Stewart
One of the Rod’s earlier cheesy ripoffs of classic songs.

41. Roam, B-52's
Not Rock Lobster. ‘Nuff said.

43. Back To Life, Soul II Soul
Cool Brit soul.

46. Ice Ice Baby, Vanilla Ice
This man’s real name is Robert Van Winkle. I think Vanilla Ice was an improvement, although I reckon Hip Van Winkle would have been a kewl handle. The song is so tragic and nostalgic I can’t help but like it.

47. Blame It On The Rain, Milli Vanilli
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA * cough * HAHAHAHAHA
The ugly side of globalization: a black Guadeloupian and black German lip-synch the performance of some black Americans, singing songs written by a white German. Hate it and them.

56. U Can't Touch This, M.C. Hammer
STOP! HAMMER TIME!!! “Hammer” pants, running man dance and, best of all, Superfreak sampling. This song IS 1990.

62. Janie's Got A Gun, Aerosmith
Angsty abused teenager song from over-the-hill drug fiends. Cool.

75. Epic, Faith No More
Their best song, IMO, apart from their take on Lionel Richie’s ”Easy”.

81. Everybody Everybody, Black Box
Sung by a fat black American woman, “performed” on video by a skinny black French model, with production by a bunch of clever but ugly Italian blokes. Gotta love globalisation.

85. C'mon and Get My Love, D-Mob With Cathy Dennis
A real “UP” song. Great dance track.

89. Make You Sweat, Keith Sweat
Really sleazy RnB. This is a good thing, BTW.

=======================

Conclusion: not too bad a year, all up, but not great either.

Unless they’ve been boinged! already, I tag The Obmeister2000, Liam “Haiku” Hogan and Pipsqueak.

Meme Me Up, Baby

2005-09-07T19:20:00.000+10:00

Received a Music Meme from Beloved Baby Sister.... where you enter your Year 12 YEAR here

Bold the songs you loved
~~strike through the ones you HATED -~~
and underline your favourite.
Ignore the ones you don't remember (or don't care about).

Above is what I am meant to do although now I realise that I don't know how to underline or strike through. I will just bold the songs I liked.

Okay - so Fuschia listens. When I was still a child (rather than the owner of a few) I listened to music all the Time. Had to have the Noise. I went out dancing all the time too. This is apparently the US charts and I would have been heavily leaning towards the UK/Aus charts.
Seems so long ago - I wore green stockings

Mmmm, don't seen any of my faves from then actually made it past the end of the decade. And No Blue Nile, no Damned, no Iggy Pop, no Cure, no Hoodoo Gurus, no Siouxsie and the Banshees etc etc
No Leonard Cohen.

TOP 100 OF 1986

1. That's What Friends Are For, Dionne Warwick, Elton John, and Gladys Knight
2. Say You, Say Me, Lionel Richie
3. I Miss You, Klymaxx
4. On My Own , Patti Labelle and Michael McDonald
5. Broken Wings, Mr. Mister
6. How Will I Know, Whitney Houston
7. Party All The Time, Eddie Murphy
8. Burning Heart, Survivor
9. Kyrie, Mr. Mister
10. Addicted To Love, Robert Palmer
11. Greatest Love Of All, Whitney Houston
12. Secret Lovers, Atlantic Starr
13. Friends And Lovers, Carl Anderson and Gloria Loring
14. Glory Of Love, Peter Cetera
15. West End Girls, Pet Shop Boys
16. There'll Be Sad Songs, Billy Ocean
17. Alive And Kicking, Simple Minds
18. Never, Heart
19. Kiss, Prince and The Revolution
20. Higher Love, Steve Winwood
21. Stuck With You, Huey Lewis and The News
22. Holding Back The Years, Simply Red
23. Sledgehammer, Peter Gabriel
24. Sara, Starship
25. Human, Human League
26. I Can't Wait, Nu Shooz
27. Take My Breath Away, Berlin
28. Rock Me Amadeus, Falco
29. Papa Don't Preach, Madonna
30. You Give Love A Bad Name, Bon Jovi
31. When The Going Gets Tough, Billy Ocean
32. When I Think Of You, Janet Jackson
33. These Dreams, Heart
34. Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone), Glass Tiger
35. Live To Tell, Madonna
36. Mad About You, Belinda Carlisle
37. Something About You, Level 42
38. Venus, Bananarama
39. Dancing On The Ceiling, Lionel Richie
40. Conga, Miami Sound Machine
41. True Colors, Cyndi Lauper
42. Danger Zone, Kenny Loggins
43. What Have You Done For Me Lately, Janet Jackson
44. No One Is To Blame, Howard Jones
45. Let's Go All The Way, Sly Fox
46. I Didn't Mean To Turn You On, Robert Palmer
47. Words Get In The Way, Miami Sound Machine
48. Manic Monday, Bangles
49. Walk Of Life, Dire Straits
50. Amanda, Boston
51. Two Of Hearts, Stacey Q
52. Crush On You, Jets
53. If You Leave, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
54. Invisible Touch, Genesis
55. The Sweetest Taboo, Sade
56. What You Need, INXS
57. Talk To Me, Stevie Nicks
58. Nasty, Janet Jackson
59. Take Me Home Tonight, Eddie Money
60. We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off, Jermaine Stewart
61. All Cried Out, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam With Full Force
62. Your Love, Outfield
63. I'm Your Man, Wham!
64. Perfect Way, Scritti Politti
65. Living In America, James Brown
66. R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A., John Cougar Mellencamp
67. Who's Johnny, El Debarge
68. Word Up, Cameo
69. Why Can't This Be Love, Van Halen
70. Silent Running, Mike and The Mechanics
71. Typical Male, Tina Turner
72. Small Town, John Cougar Mellencamp
73. Tarzan Boy, Baltimora
74. All I Need Is A Miracle, Mike and The Mechanics
75. Sweet Freedom, Michael McDonald
76. True Blue, Madonna
77. Rumors, Timex Social Club
78. Life In A Northern Town, Dream Academy
79. Bad Boy, Miami Sound Machine
80. Sleeping Bag, ZZ Top
81. Tonight She Comes, Cars
82. Love Touch, Rod Stewart
83. A Love Bizarre, Sheila E.
84. Throwing It All Away, Genesis
85. Baby Love, Regina
86. Election Day, Arcadia
87. Nikita, Elton John
88. Take Me Home, Phil Collins
89. Walk This Way, Run-D.M.C.
90. Sweet Love, Anita Baker
91. Your Wildest Dreams, Moody Blues
92. Spies Like Us, Paul McCartney
93. Object Of My Desire, Starpoint
94. Dreamtime, Daryl Hall
95. Tender Love, Force M.D.'s
96. King For A Day, Thompson Twins
97. Love Will Conquer All, Lionel Richie
98. A Different Corner, George Michael
99. I'll Be Over You, Toto
100. Go Home, Stevie Wonder

mmmm I am all new and girlie at this blogging game and don't know who to tag. Does that Fyodor boy have a site? Who would like to volunteer? I can offer chocolate to be my friend

CULÚA

2005-09-07T16:21:00.000+10:00

Samantha Wood Bantam 2003 SC 305pp

“Seven years ago I made a decision that would change my life, although I didn’t know it at the time”

This book is a true story of Melbourne-born Samantha whose dad is English and Mother Mexican, returning to Mexico to discover her roots, met family, learn the language etc etc.

I read it as my sister was not long back from Mexico and I am keen on that whole pre-hispanic historical thing. It starts off slowly - Samantha is at first horrified by the noise/dirt/poverty of Mexico City and it is not until a second visit a year later that she starts to see past of all that to the culture/food etc. The writing is not always the smoothest - she is no Bill Bryson - but by the end of the book I was really enjoying it. Worth a read if you are going there. As a bonus there are some recipes in the back. Here is my favorite

"Mojitos"

12 fresh spearmint leaves
1/2 lime, juiced
l teaspoon sugar
45ml rum
soda water

Before placing mint leaves in a glass, crush the stems with a teaspoon to release the flavour. completely cover with lime and sugar before adding rum and soda water. Stir well and serve with a garnish of lime.

Blue Light

2005-09-03T17:13:00.000+10:00

Walter Mosley

1998 Five-Star 296pp SC

“I didn’t use a tape recorder back then, but I remember every word.”

This is an odd book, I started to read it last night and almost did not pick it back up again this afternoon, but it was Mr Mosley or vacuuming…

This strange blue light hits America in the 1960’s changing people in strange and unpredictable ways. The narrator Chance is not hit directly put falls in with a group of people who are and later gains some of their powers through some blood drinking. I am not sure whether this book is sci-fi or fantasy or some kind of social commentary or some kind of horror or some kind of spiritualism as it is an uneasy mix of all of the above and never sits comfortably with any.

The horror bits are very vivid and gross and what with that and the unlike-ability of the characters and the meanderings of the plot I was hesitant to finish the book. The plot gets stranger towards the end and to my untutored mind is completely unresolved.

He has written several other books that seem to be more in the race/social commentary field and they might be worth a look but I am not racing out to buy myself a copy of this one.

A Scanner Darkly

2005-09-02T15:57:00.000+10:00

Philip K Dick
First Published 1977 This Panther Ed: 1985 SC 253pp

"Once a guy stoood all day shaking bugs from his hair."

Philip.K.Dick is a reverential figure in modern Sci-Fi and I can only say that 'I'm just not that into him'.

Look, I've tried - for about the last 20years. Every so often I pick up a volume - and they are only slim - and I try, but each time I fall down. I have a number of friends for whom this man is 'my favorite writer ever', but then they also tend to be able to read Asimov and C.Clarke as well. It must be a guy thing.

I can admire his technique, I can admire his imagination, I can admire Rutger Hueur in tight black pants but I care so little about any of Mr Dick's characters that I don't think that I have ever finished even one of his books. Although he has great ideas etc but he writes in that distant way of the 1950's sci-fi authors - I can't connect with any of his people and it is all so 'dry' to me that it is an effort to read.
(Yes, I know I explain it in such technical literary terms but I hope still accessible to the lay-blog-reader)

This story involves Bob Arctor who is an undercover Narc in a surveillience heavy police state where due to the anonymity of his police role he is directed to surveill himself. An emotional afterword tells us this book is about addiction and is kind of cool as Mr Dick talks about his own life and all his addict friends who are now dead.

A cautionary tale - don't do drugs and sometimes I have to accept that being a legend doesn't mean I have to like him.

The Coronation Cookery Book

2005-08-31T20:15:00.000+10:00

Compiled by the Country Women's Association fo N.S.W
1947 HB 300pp

"I take great pleasure on commending the Coronation Cookery Book to you for here are a wealth of valuable and attractive recipes which will prove an asset to every housewife."

So types Winifred (unreadable surname) on her Goverment House Sydney letterhead. I know I am going abit domestic goddess on you but I picked this book up yesterday and it is sooo lovely that I know you would like to share.

This book is indeed an asset - not only do you have more recipes for offal than you could every need in one (or indeed many) lifetime/s, you can find directions for making a wool mattress (wool weights included), home curing bacon (simple directions by an expert), household hints including 'repairing iron tanks','good deodorant powder','hints for washing day', as well as many recipes for invalids and the various uses for aspic.

I have a number of these books, precious to me for many reasons not the least being that while we all know what the men where doing during these years, what women went through is such an undiscovered country. People are stunned that I feed my family without a microwave and for many years did without a TV (both voluntarily) but my paternal grandmother raised 13 children without RUNNING WATER in the house.

When the world goes to hell in a handbasket who is going to know how to make candles, or giblet soup or how to prepare suet for use. Me! and well all my friends in the SCA - in theory atleast.

And with that cheery thought I will share with you the recipe inscribed on the inside front cover (do all grandma's write in the same hand??) - not in the handy memorandum provided at the back of the book, oh no but right at the very front. A woman after my own heart.
Words verbatim, formatting my own

Chocolate Fudge

1lb sugar
1 cup cream
2oz milk chocolate
vanilla

- Boil, add 2oz butter, boil and stir constantly for about 20 mins, add walnuts and pour into lamington tin that has been buttered, when nearly set, cut into squares and when quite cold wrap in paper.

Vintage-Style Quilts

2005-08-30T17:18:00.000+10:00

Flora Roberts
2004 Cico Books 128pp HB

"I've been interested intextiles and sewing for almost as long as I can remember, and vintage fabrics have always fascinated me"

Any book written by someone called Flora Roberts is a winner in my world. This book is lovely.

If you are like me (and I know that you secretly are) then you have many sewing books that you have bought for one or two projects that now languish on shelves next to your granny's hobby-tex pens.

Languish no more. The 25 patterns in this book are all useful and charming, and because they are designed for vintage fabrics can incorporate any fabric that may be torn or stained in places but holds sentimental value. There are quilts, throws, runners, small bags, cushions etc all with very clear step-by-step instructions - lots of photographs! You have to photocopy & scale up the pattern pieces but I always think this gives you more freedom as to final project size.

This book is delightful and I really must clean my desk and organise my scanner as even the front cover is charming.

A book with great re-use value and if anyone out there is short of Christmas ideas here is the ISBN:1 903 116 89 9

Mortal Engines / Predators Gold

2005-08-29T15:56:00.000+10:00

Philip Reeve
2002/2003 Scholastic SC 293/316pp

"It was a dark/blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea."

"Freya woke early and lay for a while in the dark, felling her city shiver and sway beneath her as its powerful engines sent it skimming across the ice."

I am reviewing both these books together as really they are not meant/able to be read seperately. There is a third "Infernal Devices", but my library did not have it in at the time.

I borrowed these to check out as I have a long standing tradition of reading books aloud to my children - but beware, despite groovy covers and the Blue Peter Award for 'Book I Couldn't Put Down" 2003, I would recommend these only for mid teenagers and beyond.

They are set in a far far future, with an Earth ravaged by the Sixty Minute War and mobile cities that travel across the ruined landscape of Europe. They seem to be on great tank-like wheels and hunt smaller cities for food, fuel and slaves.

"it was natural that cities ate towns, just as the towns ate smaller towns, and smaller towns snapped up the miserable static settlements. That was Municipal Darwinism, as it was the way the workd had worked for a thousand years...."

In Chapter 1, Our hero Tom is cast adrift from his city London and from then on the adventures never stop. There are air pirates, cyborgs, 'old-tech', nasty weapons, nasty people, rescues, betrayals, love gained/lost/spurned/recaptured, imprisionments, torture, cool heroines with dark secrets, thiefs, mad people, bad people all mixed in with lots of witty one-liners and cultural references for the grown ups. But as I said, there really are some dark parts in these books - unpleasent deaths of major characters and lots of what I suppost are called 'grown up themes'. In a curious twist, we have no descriptions of nooky - although a major character is pregnant at the end of book 2 - but lots of detail of torture etc.

They are very well written and the world Mr Reeve has invented is fascinating, and are definately worth a read - just not for the little'uns.

Pashazade

2005-08-27T10:53:00.000+10:00

Jon Courtney Grimwood
2001 Earthlight 328pp HB

"The sound of fountains came in stereo."

I have to admit to slight trepidation when initially picking up this book. Despite a funky cover, 'The Bookseller' raved about "Vivid gore, sex and high-octane adventure" on the back cover and in the author photo was classic China Mieville, all baldness and brooding black leather. But it was a slow week at my local library and sometimes a girl just has to take a risk.

Well, I can only say that Mr Bookseller was taking some serious drugs and maybe Mr Grimwood always dresses like this, but 'Perdido Street Station' this is not. Not that I have anything against the powerful imagination and fine penmanship of Mr Mieville, but sometimes he is abit 'icky' for me. (Not very scientific I know, but think 'vivid gore and sex' and psychotropics and just a great deal of 'ick'.)

Regardless of crinolines or monastorys or laser pistols, what we are NEED is a really good story and an interesting setting should be secondary to a good plot, I always think. And that is what we have here, in Mr "Surprisingly-Good" Grimwood.

Near future, The Nazis won the First World War and the Ottoman Empire rules the East. El Iskandryia is a North African city (Alexandria??) and our hero Ashref Bey is broken out of a North American Prison and sent to marry the daughter of a rich industrialist. Turns out he is the son of the Emir of Tunis or somesuch. Ashref also has lots of cool 'augmentations' - little AI in his head, night vision, nictating - lets say that word again shall we - Nictating eyelids etc. There is a messy murder in which he is implicated, lots of conspiraries, a 9 year old cousin to look after and the girl he was meant to marry to fall in love with.

So - a very interesting murder mystery, a VERY interesting alternative world, cool complex characters and a VERY charmingly understated ending.

I think I already regret my library only having one of his other novels.

The Telling

2005-08-24T17:15:00.000+10:00

Ursula le Guin
2000 HC Harcourt Inc, 264pp

"When Sutty went back to Earth in the daytime, it was always to the village."

Miss LeGuin is one of my favorite authors and I will read whatever she writes, as at her most uneven she is many authors best. She is also the author so often quoted by my collegues and I as someone who can write an excellent story in under 200 pages - as opposed to the seeming compulsion for trilogies full of drivvell that fill the sci-fi/fantasy shelves of modern bookstores.

This novel is set in the same universe as the wonderful 'Left Hand of Darkness' and 'Rocannon's World' - both of which come highly highly recommended and will no doubt have posts of their own soon as I read them both on a yearly basis. I sat in the sun yesterday afternoon and read most of this book and cried because some of it is so sad and cried because all of it is so very beautifully written that it makes my heart ache. The loveliest and most evocative poetry in prose - with space travel and aliens and lasers!

Sutty is an Observer on the planet Aka, a new member of the Ekumen and a planet fearsomely embracing a Corporation style government - citizens are 'producer-consumers' etc. All history, literature etc has been ruthlessly suppressed but linguist/historian and allround gorgeous girl Sutty is unexpectedly allowed to travel to a small country town where she discovered all sorts of wonderful things have been preserved.

This novel is quite similar to 'Always Coming Home', where you have the strong sense that Miss LeGuin is testing out political and social theories, and there is certainly no doubt which ones she hates. Sutty comes from an Earth governed by a totalitarian, militant theology :

"In late March, a squadron of planes from the Host of God flew from Colorado to the District of Washington and bombed the Library there, plane after plane, four hours of bombing that turned centuries of history and millions of books into dirt......The Commander-General of the Hosts of the Lord announced the bombing while it was in progress, as an educational action. Only one Word, only one Book. All other words, all other books were darkness, error. They were dirt. Let the Lord Shine Out! cried the pilots in their white uniforms and mirror-masks, back at the chuch at Colorado Base, facelessly facing the cameras and the singing, swaying crowds in ectasy. Wipe Away the Filth and Let the Lord Shine Out!"

Anykind of dictatorship or system that denies individual faith or hope or sexuality or abilility to make decisions etc is out in the book. I say Vote Miss LeGuin for GodEmperess and the world will be a better place. And there would definately be more poetry - which is a good thing in any book!

Notes fron A Small Island

2005-08-21T18:31:00.000+10:00

Bill Bryson
1996 Cox&Wynam 352pp SC

"My first sight of England was on a foggy March night in 1973 when I arrived on the midnight ferry from Calais."

This is one funny book. This is one funny man.

I started this on Thurs night after a phone call to friend that ended at about 10pm. 'Mmm, not quite tired yet" and as I am in that delightful situation at the moment of being in a SURFEIT of unread books to read (God bless the Salvo's and their 10c book sale!), I thought a chapter of Bill will be a nice nightcap.

Warning - don't fall into the same trap as I did. This is one of those books where I kept thinking 'oh just one more chapter' - this at say Chapter 9 - I would then look up and notice Chapter 12 and think 'oh just one more chapter' and then I would then look up and notice Chapter 15 and think 'oh just one more chapter' and then....

After nearly 20 years in Britain, Bill and his family are moving back to the States, and he is taking one last nostalgic trip around this 'small island'. He comments on all and everything with that wonderful mix of fact (lots of mad Englishman, mad I tell you mad!!) and humour and keen observation of the more ridiculous vagueries of human nature. I laughed out loud about every second page and read aloud many chapters to a friend visiting from Sydney. "Yes, yes, carn the mighty Tigers. Whatever! Listen to This.....!!!!!!!"

I have read his book on Australia and the smaller tome on Africa and even tho' I have not been to Britian this really is a wonderful read.

I would reprint humourous sections here but there is lots of rude words and it would be a shame to dilute it.

Just read it!

Blake's 7 - Afterlife

2005-08-17T13:01:00.000+10:00

Tony Attwood
Target Books 1984 217pp SC

"In the beginning there were six men and women."

I actually finished this on Sunday - but pesky real-life socalising has delayed this posting.
My verdict - walk away quickly and keep the dream alive.

"The ending was the worst part?!!What about the fracking start?!! You know, the part where they get around that inconvenient piece of plotting involving the DEATH of the entire Scorpio crew [N.B. anorak-wearers: I know we don't see Avon die. Don't even start that #$%^^##$%^ with me] at the end of the TV series. Sheesh, this #$^#%^# makes my blood boil. I shall avoid these books like leprosy, or #$%^^% music."
A more direct gentleman than me tells it like it actually is - I try to see the sunny side of life but really this is the more accurate 20/8/05

This is set after the end of the series. Avon (sigh) and Vila have survived the final, fatal shootout and imbark on a cliche-ridden galactic journey with Korell - attractive blonde double agent type. Avon has some kind of plan to get ORAC back and other stuff happens and not much makes sense. My favorite bit was Servalan's use of black holes - going through one into an alternate universe, building machines & weapons there and then coming back and selling them to the Federation. You see - because these items were built in an alternate universe their molecular structure breaks down in a month or two in THIS universe, which means Servalan can get on with her plan of complete domination- no one can resist her armed takeover - You see.
It all makes thatmuch sense.
Tarrant (Boo!Hiss!) makes a brief and confusing appearance before being eaten by a snow tiger and I guess you sort of find out why Avon kills Blake, but once again its all abit silly and cliched.
The ending Makes No Sense at all - I read the last line and then my eyes kept looking for the non-existant text on the rest of the blank page. An epilogue? No - nothing, maybe they thought there would be an enormous franchise of novels - ala Star Trek.
What Guff I tell you! What Guff!

Blake’s Seven

2005-08-14T11:16:00.000+10:00

Terry Nation
1977 Sphere SC 204pp

"The concrete chamber was dank and bare."

I read this in one sitting last night – aahh Saturday nights in the country. Please don’t ask me to tell you if this is a good book or if I read it through the rose coloured glasses of a Complete Fan – I can’t do it. I should warn you that I was a major Fan – started an official fan club – and in the days of the dinosaurs – before VCR - used to sit with my tape deck next to the television and audio-record the story, then the next day TYPE out the script! My original copy of this is in a box somewhere – complete with all lines by Avon underlined in red.

What a hoot! – Poor Blake, once a political activist now mind wiped by the evil Earth Administration- is just one of billions kept docile by suppressants in the food and water – and lots of reality TV and football I suppose. He witnesses a terrible massacre and is immediately set up on false charges and sent to Cynus Alpha – Prison Planet. Whilst on board the transport ship he meets our heroes:

Jenna – smuggler “quite tall, slim, with dark hair, and even in the dim light Blake could see that she was extraordinarily beautiful”
Vila Restal – thief “small agile man, doing a little dance, and spreading his arms wide like a conjuror”
Kerr Avon – big spunk “seemed to regard himself as a cut above the others, no doubt thinking them all small fry in the criminal stakes”
Olag Gan – gentle giant “a tall powerfully built young man”

Through a series of wonderfully amazing (and to the best of my memory never quite explained) coincidences they find themselves in control of the Liberator – alien technology far in advance of the Federation. Yeah Blake’s Seven is born.
Well not quite, they have to go and knock out a communication centre on Saurian Major where they meet:
Cally – telepath “tall, slim, athletically supple and ..incredibly beautiful into the bargain”

(Well, girls we know now that it wasn’t only daleks that got Mr Nation going.)

Its not the greatest story, but that is like saying that teleporting bracelets that always seemed to fall off at the vital moment is a foolish invention. I will suspend all disbelief for my heroes.

To my great joy, my local library also had to novel set after the end of the tv series - ooh who knows what mysteries will be revealed?

This Island Earth

2005-08-14T11:12:00.000+10:00

Raymond E. Jones
First Published 1954 This Ed:1991 Grafton Books SC 191pp

“The offices of Joe Wilson, purchasing agent for Ryberg Instrument Corporation, looked out over the company’s private landing field.”

‘The Sci-fi classic that inspired the world-famous movie’

When I first started to read this groovy little book, I immediately had the thought that it reads like one of those 1950’s sci-fi stories – the sort in an anthology edited by Isaac Asimov. I looked at the dates – an there it was – 1954 – my keen literary detective nose justified. What I then had lots of problems with was exactly ‘WHY’ it read like a novel from that era – and this long before factory sabotage was blamed on “those red commies”. Maybe it’s a clear straightforward narrative that doesn’t actually read like a proposed screen play, there are no scenes that scream “CGI me now baby”, no cussin’, no sex, no sequel. I am too long away from my uni essay days to be able to pin it down.

Cal Meachem was a soldier in WW2 and now wants to use his engineering expertise to do only good, not evil. He is intrigued by some astoundingly advanced machinery that comes his way and is quickly recruited into the ‘Peace Engineers’. Well, from here it all goes to hell in a handbasket for poor old Cal – the factory he works in is a front for aliens – the Llanna – who are fighting a epic space war – for generations our people have fought the implacable evil enemy etc etc – and are using planets like Earth to manufacture vital equipment. Cal is forced to face the moral consequences of his decision to stay in this fight – arguments handled well by Mr Jones, you really get the sense of the dilemma Cal is in. There is danger, excitement, space travel, good aliens and gross slimy aliens – who are bad. The main plot really does creep up on you and there were a number of twists and turns that I did not expect.

I wish I could say that the treatment of Dr Ruth Adams – MD, PhD is what clued me in to the age of this book. She is the psychiatrist where Cal is working – and over the course of several months discreetly and no doubt in 2 single beds becomes his wife. Post grad degrees asides, she listens, she cooks, she waits, she puts up with Cal being a utter pig while he saves the universe, she puts up with Cal completely ignoring her when she warns him about a double agent. I guess if it was a modern day story, she would have been an exotic dancer. That’s progress for you.

A great story under 200 pages !! – Read it!

The Years with Laura Diaz

2005-08-12T20:19:00.000+10:00

Carlos Fuentes
Farrar, Strauss & Giroux 2000 HB 520pp

" I knew the story. What I didn't know was the truth."

Wow – what a book!
Laura Diaz is the heroine of this epic tome – her parents, life, marriage, love and death – growing up and old in Mexico during a turbulent century that saw more than one member of her family killed by the Government. Laura and those characters – including the wonderful Frida Kahlo - that surround her in this densely populated novel are rich and complex, flawed and often unredeemed. That marvellous ‘South American’ style of writing - the words more like poetry than prose, so descriptive and evocative, so very very sexy – the sights and sounds – and the cooking, mmmm the cooking….

”rice, beans, plantain, and pork, shredding the meat and adding lemon juice for the dish called ropa vieja, “old clothes”, marinating octopus in its ink, and reserving for the end the meringues, the custards, the jocoques of clotted creama nd the tocino del cielo – the sweetest sweet in the world, which had gone from Barcelona to Havana and from Cuba to Veracruz as if to stifle with sweetness all the bitterness of those lands of revolution, conquest, and tyranny…”

There is a great deal of political commentary – for all her life Laura is involved in ‘movements’- she marries a union activist, her lover and his friends are fleeing from the Spanish Civil War, later friends are victims of McCarthyism. The political turmoil of Mexico constantly in the background – which to my unlearned ears makes me even more glad that however much I disagree with those currently in power atleast they got there without bloodshed. And forget those ‘family’ picnics protesting IR changes, think murders and corruption and great rolling waves of protest and unrest that make no distinction between ‘good people’ and ‘bad people’.

It is not a book to browse, or read while distracted or filling in time. It is a book to saviour; language rich enought to swim in – kept me warm on these wintery nights.

An education.
A joy.

That’s Life- Issue 33

2005-08-12T20:08:00.000+10:00

My name as the winner of a $50 bottle of the Avon perfume ‘Today’. Miracles do happen!
As the spokesperson for this person is Selma Hayek (Not that I ever read Avon catalogues, oh no – it was just on in the room when I walked past) – I shall imagine that I am her when I wear it – perhaps from that first time you see her in Dogma!

Mmm maybe not

The Hermit of Eyton Forest

2005-08-10T13:31:00.000+10:00

Ellis Peters
Futura 1987 224pp SC slightly foxed

"It was on the eighteenth day of October of that year 1142 that Richard Ludel, hereditary tenant of the manor of Eaton, died of a debilitating weakness, left after wounds received at the battle of Lincoln, the the service of King Stephen."

There are things in life that are stereotypes or platitudes simply because they are so good and so helpful that we fall back to using or saying the same things in times of great joy or great sorrow. There are also a select band of authors for whom reading is always a great pleasure - there is never a disappointmant, a missed step or a last chocolate in the box.

This was a book that I had in the car as my Waiting Book. It is usually a magazine - something I can pick up and put down when I am waiting for things to start or for things to finish. In retrospect, it was very silly for it to be this book because after 3 days of reading a few pages in that window between parking and bells ringing I have had to bring it inside to finish it. The weather was even so charming as to rain today - Perfect.

This is the Fourteenth chronicle in the Brother Cadfael series. There is - not neccessarily in this order - a murder or two, a love story (sigh), great injustice, political intrigue, great wrongs righted, justice in the spirit if not the letter of the law and a final page that brings - Every Time Without Fail - such a feeling of peace and completeness and A Great Good sense of Rightness about the world.

As stated earlier, you could say they are formuliac and sometimes predictable, but that would be like saying the first morning smile on your childs face is predictable or that lemon gelati is dull because you know beforehand it is going to be just sooooo good every time.

Here is an author who can WRITE right, boys and girls. Buy These Books. They will stand you in good stead for years to come. Miss Peters deserves your royalties! Go on - Get out there and Posssess!

The Liar

2005-08-09T18:49:00.000+10:00

Stephen Fry
Heinemann Ltd 1991 277pp HB

"A Fame t-shirt stopped otside the house where Mozart was born."

The only thing I am glad of regarding this novel is that it is not my first introduction to Stephen Fry. I am so glad of Blackadders Melchett, Lord Snot in the Young Ones, the look on his sweet faced when Emma Thompson pleaded with him to ‘fill her with little babies. If I had only ever read this book, I would have the impression that Mr Fry is, if you will excuse the expression (and you’ll have to as I am going to use it lots) a complete tosser.

I hope the autobiographical feeling of this book is fake, as that would in fact make Mr Fry a complete tosser. That’s what his ‘hero’ Adrian does. Spanking the monkey, spasms of pleasure, Milk Shake Clubs, rent boys,etc etc. It seems all a good english Public School education teaches you.

“…I never really wanted to be a train driver, you know. I mean, they told me while at school, if I got two CSEs, when I left school I'd be head of British Steel. That's a lot of nonsense, ennit? I mean, you look at statistics, right. 83% of top British management have been to a public school and Oxbridge, right? 93% of the BBC have been to a public school and Oxbridge, right? 98% of the KGB have been to a public school and Oxbridge. All you get from a public school, right -- one, you get a top job, right, and two, you get an interest in perverse sexual practices. I mean, that's why British management's so inefficient. As soon as they get in the boardroom, they're all shutting each others' dicks in the door! "Go on, give it another slam, Sir Michael!" BAM! OW OW OW! "Come on, Sir Geoffrey, let's play the Panzer commander and the millkmaid, EW EW EW EW! YOO HOO!"…”

Alexei Sayle ‘Bambi’ The Young Ones

Dormitories of young spunky (sorry!) boy flesh doing that gross soggy biscuit routine. By Chapter 2 all I could think was ‘too much information’. It was like a mantra I had to repeat so I would not be able to remember too much else of the text. It stood me in good stead until page 160 when I just gave up.

There is lots of witty dialogue but Adrian is such a complete wanker - even when he go to univeristy - that the effect is more laboured than humorous. There also seems to be some kind on spy plot but once again I stopt reading before it really developed.

Lets all be glad Mr Fry didn’t give up his day job.

The Love Song of J.Edgar Hoover

2005-08-09T18:44:00.000+10:00

Kinky Friedman

Simon&Schuster 1996 238pp HB

"It was New Year's Day."

Well, T.S Eliot this may not be, but very funny nonetheless. I had this feeling that my sisters had discussed Mr Friedman but could not remember whether it was good or bad – had they read him, heard him, dated him? The reality of listening to him play at the Basement last year probably did not match my more lurid imaginings, but atleast I know that one of his personas from this novel is real.

Mr Friedman writes here in the first person – the Kinkstah is a Private Investigator who takes on the case of a Missing Husband at the same time as attempting to solve the mystery of a good friend supposedly being followed/bugged/stalked.

Deshell Hammet mixing bad country-western lyrics and a wicked sense of humour – lots of snappy dialogue, gratuitous name-dropping and foolish puns plus a surprisingly cool mystery that keeps you turnin’ those pages. Ooh, and conspiracy theories…Recommended

Australasian Science Vol 25/No. 9 Oct 2004

2005-08-07T10:57:00.000+10:00

This is a slim magazine of the type that fascinate me despite my inability to understand more that the opening paragraph of the majority of articles. I suppose I must be a ‘big picture’ kind of girl.

“The government stages one annual bash with scientists, a black-tie dinner in Parliament House for the Prime Minister’s Science Prizes. In previous years John Howard delivered essentially the same speech – how he didn’t study science at school but, through his Science & Engineering Council came to realise the value of science and wanted its public esteem to be as high as sport…[Despite the federal election], departmental advisors [confirmed] that Howard would still be attending and speaking.

Six hundred people turned up, only to find that the great man was nowhere to be seen. The Prizes were promoted in the PM’s name, so where was he? Education & Science Minister Brendan Nelson sad he was “in Sydney”.

Howard materialised in the Harbour city at a rugby league awards dinner, where he posed for photographers alongside Miss Universe, Jennifer Hawkins…..”

Thank you to Pockleys Razor, who I am sure would have given me permission to reprint this article had he been asked. I am only disappointed that he chose to see Mr Howards choice of dinner venue as a cynical vote buying exercise. When has our PM ever been guilty of such a thing?

The Man Who was Thursday – A Nightmare

2005-08-07T10:47:00.000+10:00

G.K. Chesterton
First Published 1908
This Ed. 1986 Penguin 187pp SC

‘The suburb of Saffron Park lay on the sunset side of London, as red and ragged as a cloud of sunset.’

Gabriel Syme is a Poet. An occupation that makes me adore him. He is also an undercover police detective – infiltrating a dangerous ‘cell’ of anarchists in London his mission.

“He was one of those who are driven early in life into too conservative an attitude by the bewildering folly of most revolutionists…His father cultivated art and self-realization; his mother went in for simplicity and hygiene. Hence the child, during his tenderer years, was wholly unacquainted with any drink between the extremes of absinthe and cocoa…The more his mother preached a more than Puritan abstinence the more did his father expand into a more than pagan latitude; and by the time the former had come to enforcing vegetarianism, the latter had pretty well reached the point of defending cannibalism…’

Gabriel becomes ‘Thursday’ – each of the seven members of the Central Anarchist Council for reasons of security calling themselves a day of the week. This non-stop tale of action, betrayal and adventure folows Gabriel as he seeks to bring down Sunday - the leader of the group before plannng to blow up the Czar and the President of the French Republic in Paris.

Mr Chesterton writes with that depth of vocabulary that makes you realise how limited modern English is becoming. He is able to discuss the philosophies and motivations of men who will kill for their beliefs whilst maintaining a lovely ironic tone that keeps the story moving forward. There is no let up in plot and the ending is only confusing if you forget that this story is in fact ‘a nightmare’.

It was kind of quaint for me to read about the terrible ‘Anarchists’ – a word that conjured up for me images of Doc Martens and safety pins rather than dynamite and assassination. But as Kingsley Amis reminds up in his enthusiastic introduction, at the time of writing they were a real and potent threat - as quaint as any modern terrorists.

Bravo Mr Chesterton, what a hoot of a story! I am story that I have neglected you all these years.

‘Howl's Moving Castle’

2005-08-04T21:46:00.000+10:00

Diana Wynne Jones

1992 Metheun 212pp SB

‘In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three.”

This is the book that proves that J.K.Rowling is the luckiest woman alive. Originally published in 1986, the version I have is at least the 5^th edition and Why Ms Wynne Jones is not richer that the queen is a Complete Mystery. Ms Wynne Jones has an impressive list of titles and a visit to her web site is evidence of her high appeal.

Now, I have to admit that while I may have read her books before, I only found ‘Howls Moving Castle’ in a second hand store last week and is the first one I owned. I knew of the title as the new movie by (sigh) Hayao Miyazaki. The esteemed Japanese director of the glorious ‘Spirited Away’ and ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ completed the animated version last year and apparently Madman might release it here later this year. It has great reviews, but I did not know that it was based on an English book. I feel Shame.

Sophie is the Heroine of this story – eldest of three thus doomed to an unlucky/unexciting life “..she was not even the child of a poor woodcutter, which might have given her some chance of success..” , she is trimming hats when a misunderstanding with a wicked witch changes her life. There is humour, adventure, good guys, bad guys, bad guys who turn out good, good guys who turn out bad, magic and such a sweet, sweet ending that more that one tear was shed, let me tell you.

It is just so well written – I read it in one evening and thoroughly enjoyed every moment. The writing is so rich and descriptive and the world so charmingly and artfully created – it is a book to thoroughly immerse yourself in. Ideal to read to children; whilst simple enough for the little ones, there is more than enough depth and subtlety in the strongly drawn characters and situations to satisfy the adult imagination. Miyazaki does a wonderful line in strong female characters and I can see why young Sophie Hatter caught his eye.

I now own two other books (in 1992 there were at least 12 others) by this wonderful author – Stay tuned!

‘Holes’ Soundtrack

2005-08-04T21:34:00.000+10:00

2003 Walt Disney Records

okay okay – and sometimes listens......

This is the soundtrack to the Disney (don’t Freak – its really cool!!!)film that is based on the book by Louis Sachar (on the list). The soundtrack is Very Funky – and my first international ebay purchase. There are 15 tracks that I am not really qualified to comment on – I am so out of the loop that I have only heard of Moby ‘Honey’ and Shaggy ‘Keep’n it Real’. There are several songs obviously written for the movie – Fiction Plane’s ‘If Only’ and D-tent Boys ‘Dig it’, Very Fine tracks. Other stand outs are Stephanie Bentley ‘I will Survive and Therese James & The Rhythm Tramps ‘I’m gonna be a Wheel Someday’. Please don’t disturb my fragile ego and tell me these people are some kind of terrible commercial Brittany clone – unless its Brittany from an alternate universe where she makes groovy music. The CD is highly recommended and the first new music purchase I have made in several years. Have a Listen – Hey it makes me Dance!

“The Journal of Anotonio Montoya”

2005-08-03T21:01:00.000+10:00

Rick Colligan
1996 Fourth Estate HB 217pp

“..José Montoya’s mother and Father were killed early one warm August morning by a cow…”

This slim book written in my beloved magic realist style is apparently the first novel by Mr Colligan, and I can only presume that being a professional roofer for 20 years gives one a special perspective.

Ramona fled her small Mexican town to be a painter in big city America and after her parents death has returned to the tumbling down house she grew up in. She paints. She watches the sunset. She keeps to herself.

Brother Flavio and sister-in-law Loretta are killed and Loretta appears to Ramona just after the funeral asking her to look after young José. At home Romana’s parents are in the kitchen – her mother cooking tamales and her father grumbling about the irrigation of the fields

Charmingly understated vignette that while covering a space of only several days stays true to its genre with hundred year old journals, time travel and discoveries of the past which impact importantly and richly on the present. Love, letting go, family and place – all covered here. Like an early Garcia Maquez short story. Sweet - hope he publishes the recipes next time

“The Legend that was Earth”

2005-08-03T20:47:00.000+10:00

James P. Hogan
2000 Baen Books HB 346pp

“Sunday was cloudy but warm in Washington, D.C…”

Mr Hogan, a ‘..science fiction writer in the grand tradition..’ is a man with a message. No chance of missing that.

A Near Future Earth visited by the Hyadeans, - aliens who luckily look much like us but have advanced technology and Spock-like emotions. (Although those that go native seem to appreciate greatly the ‘sensuality’ of Earth Girls). This results in a few private concerns trading cheap earth labour/recourses/land for lots of cash – and bombing those ‘guerrillas’ who disagree out of existence.

This is an interesting premise with the potential to be a cool political/sci-fi novel showing the ways a government invents enemies as a method of increasing profitable arms dealing and by manipulating the media maintain control over a frightened population etc etc. With space travel and blue-skinned aliens.

Unfortunately, Mr Hogan prefers rhetoric and includes very little story of actual interest. About 20 pages in I got thoroughly bored, and proceeded to skim the rest. No spoilers here - the book fails to retrieve itself.

The characters are completely interchangeable – especially after the aliens learn proper English and drop that “..things there our publics are not telled….” rubbish. There is much financial dealing done by rich people gone bad – that pork belly buy low sell high lingo that quickly becomes dull & irrelevant (after the 8^th time any way) and even the characters themselves get confused.

In over 300 pages of stilted jargon and repetitive description (potted history of Bolivia any one?), not once does Mr Hogan let the story or his characters tell their own story. A double agent (picked that one up a chapter before its ‘announcement’) is not shown to be one – we are told she is one. Then told Again. And Again. The Hyadeans invented spaceflight as they base their science on facts rather than the Earthman process of inventing a theory and then attempting to squish reality into that theory. This is spelt out for us very clearly. In case we missed it we are told again. And again. We even have whole italicised chapters reiterating these details.

The story rushes through a series of increasingly complicated manoeuvres on the parts of our heroes Roland – a previous high flying friend of the aliens – and his ex-wife Maria – an operative in the resistance – whilst the world goes promptly to hell in a hand basket when the truth of the now alien-controlled government comes to light. The USA splits apart, Nuclear Attack in the Andes etc etc.

Luckily Australia has a history of minding its own affairs in regional issues and Cairns becomes a haven of utopian hippies, living a free life with the more sexed-up aliens and without government control.

It only takes two pages for Mr Hogan to get us out of the pretty mess those fascist capitalists got us into. Like I cared by this point. I was cheering for anyone able to nuke the site from orbit.

We have Aliens, Conspiracy Theories by the bucket, James Bond, Marxism 101. How could this be boring? Well, it is. Trust Me. Don’t waste your time - go plant a tree or take up pottery. That way we can all live Mr Hogans dream and not actually have to read this book.

Still Coding For Coke

2005-07-28T18:47:00.000+10:00

I should pause here and give thanks
When a gal is all alone and the night is long and the code don't work and its all a good world gone wrong, somewhere out there in this dirty city is one person you can rely on
you know who you are
Marv
For such a Young Person, You so Rock