Poolside Reading

With a major holiday on the horizon, it has got me thinking about holiday reading. Kate recently mentioned two books that she read whilst lying poolside in her latest #6degrees meme; one was a good choice, one not so much.

We've all done it.
In the excitement of planning a holiday; we forget one of the most important elements. What will we read on the plane? at the end of each day? on a rainy day? or by the pool?

As an avid reader, I have rarely been caught without a book and I usually go home with more books than I originally packed! My ability to pick the right book for each holiday has almost become an art form in and of itself. But I have got it wrong occasionally.

Reading Stephen King's Pet Semetary in a quiet, dark caravan park on the north coast of NSW surrounded by rustling trees was one of those not so inspired choices. Attempting a reread of The Odyssey as I was travelling around Europe in 1991 seemed like a good idea at the time, but Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs was the more practical (& social) thing to do. After reading it, I simply passed it on the next person on the bus - it gave us all something to talk about and scare each other with for the rest of the trip. With The Odyssey I was on my own!

My holiday reading depends on the reason for the travel in the first place and the choice of destination. If I'm heading off to a beachside resort or bungalow with a pool for a relaxing break, then my book selection is very different than if I'm planning a major overseas jaunt to somewhere new and exciting. Poolside reads often have nothing to do with my location, but major overseas holidays are definite candidates for book matching.

My first trip skiing saw me travel with Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow by Peter Hoeg - perfect!

My first trip to England saw me read so many books (I was in London for 6 months) it's hard to recall all of them, but the highlights were Forever Amber by Kathleen Windsor, discovering Monica Dickens and binge watching Police Rescue when I felt homesick!

On my second trip to the UK, I read On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, on Chesil Beach.

We also visited Lyme Regis in honour of Persuasion and The French Lieutenant's Woman and we watched a performance of The Merchant of Venice in The Globe Theatre. And thanks to a little library in a B&B near Hadrian's Wall, I discovered Daphne du Maurier's Mary Anne. Curiously I had taken my much loved copy of Brideshead Revisited on the holiday with me, but couldn't read it at all. The tone and atmosphere was all wrong. It was too hard to be ironic and satirical whilst in happy holiday mode.

In Adelaide I read Kerry Goldsworthy's Adelaide and on a soccer trip to Canberra I read The Misogyny Factor by Anne Summers. In New Zealand, many years ago, I made myself read Once Were Warriors by Alan Duff.

My first time in WA was with Salmon Rushdie oddly enough. Midnight's Children had nothing to do what I was seeing and experiencing, yet the book was so powerful that it will now forever be linked with WA and WA with Midnight's Children. My second time in WA seemed the perfect opportunity to reread Cloudstreet by Tim Winton. It was. My third time in WA revisited some of the same ground that I had explored in the first. It was really weird having memories of India pop into my head in certain places! The book I actually took on this trip, though, was a disaster. It was my CCspin book The Brother's Karamazov - most definitely NOT a holiday read.

My first time in Bali saw me pack Inspector Singh Investigates: A Bali Conspiracy Most Foul which was a great choice. But even better was the book I found in a local Seminyak bookshop, Love and Death in Bali by Vicki Baum.

Our trip to Vietnam was busy and tiring and I didn't have much time for reading, so a book of short stories was the right choice in the end. The Frangipani Hotel by Violet Kupersmith was beautifully written and slightly creepy at the same time. The stories were set in the USA and Vietnam and they were full of fascinating characters both real and spectral.

In Cuba I read Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana - the descriptions of Havana and Santiago de Cuba were so spot on thanks to the time-stood-still feel in much of this country.

Our honeymoon in Hawaii was a Kiana Davenport-fest. Song of Exile was a vivid, memorable story whilst House of Many Gods didn't leave as big an impression. Whilst in Honolulu, at the end of our trip, I picked up a copy of Moloka'i and Honolulu by Alan Brennert. Not the cheeriest of topics, but if you're ever going to read a book about leprosy (then Korean brides), then Hawaii is the place to do it.

In Hong Kong I found a copy of Amy Tan's The Hundred Secret Senses to see me home from my adventures in China.

My fast approaching trip to Japan has been filled with oodles of travel guides and preparatory reading but going with me on the trip is Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (light and easy for the plane and when I'm tired & weary), The Narrow Road to the Interior by Basho for the train trip to our overnight stop in Yamadera and Kafka on the Shore by Murakami for a more modern version of Japan. All three are relative slim, B-format books - another factor to consider when packing holiday reading - when you refuse to embrace e-readers!

What have been your best (& worst) holiday reads?

Top Ten Tuesday - Summer Here We Come!

The Broke and the Bookish host a weekly meme called Top Ten Tuesday.

Each week they nominate a topic to encourage those of us who love a good list to get all listy.

This week it's all about summer (in Australia).
Wahoo!

There's only three more calendar days until the start of the Australian Summer, but it feels like its here already. Muggy days, over 26°C with the incessant sound of cicadas, warm nights buzzing with mosquitoes. It could a long, hot summer!

I love summer dresses, evening walks after dinner, cold beers and trips to the beach.
And I love lazing around on a hot, hot day, under the fan, with a good book or two. 

Rose Bay, Sydney

My Top Ten Books to Read Over the Australian Summer

1.

Pompeii by Robert Harris

This is my new book club read for the summer. 

I've always wanted to read one of Harris' historical fiction books as they are popular with our customers at work.
Erupting volcanoes are on my mind lately too.

A sweltering week in late August. Where better to enjoy the last days of summer than on the beautiful Bay of Naples? But even as Rome's richest citizens relax in their villas around Pompeii and Herculaneum, there are ominous warnings that something is going wrong. Wells and springs are failing, a man has disappeared, and now the greatest aqueduct in the world - the mighty Aqua Augusta - has suddenly ceased to flow. Through the eyes of four characters - a young engineer, an adolescent girl, a corrupt millionaire and an elderly scientist - Robert Harris brilliantly recreates a luxurious world on the brink of destruction.

2.
The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E M Delafield

My Classics Club spin for the summer.
Happy dance!

3.

Dyschronia by Jennifer Mills

A February 2018 new release from Picador.

One of my reps gave it a HUGE rap, and that's all I need to give this one a go.

One morning, the residents of a coastal small town wake to discover the sea has disappeared, leaving them 'landlocked'. However, the narrator has been seeing visions of this cataclysm for years. Is she a prophet? Does she have a disorder that skews her perception of time (the 'Dyschronia' of the title). Or is she just a liar?

Mills' novel takes contemporary issues of resource depletion and climate change and welds them to one young woman's migraine-inducing nightmares. Her narrator's prevision anticipates a world where entire communities are left to fend for themselves: economically drained, socially fractured, trapped between a hardscrabble past and an uncertain future.

4.

Let Go My Hand by Edward Docx

Highly recommended by one of my colleagues.

And I like the cover :-)

Louis Lasker loves his family dearly – apart from when he doesn’t. There’s a lot of history. His father’s marriages, his mother’s death; one brother in exile, another in denial; everything said, everything unsaid. And now his father (the best of men, the worst of men) has taken a decision which will affect them all and has asked his three sons to join him on one final journey across Europe.

But Louis is far from sure that this trip is a good idea. His older half-brothers are wonderful, terrible, troublesome people. And they’re as suspicious as they are supportive . . . because the truth is that they’ve never forgiven their father for the damaging secrets and corrosive lies of his past. So how much does Louis love his dad – to death? Or can this flawed family’s bond prove powerful enough to keep a dying man alive?

Let Go My Hand is a darkly comic and deeply moving twenty-first-century love story between a son, his brothers and their father. Through these vividly realized characters, it asks elemental questions about how we love, how we live, and what really matters in the end. Frequently funny, sometimes profound, always beautifully written, this intimate and life-affirming novel shows the Booker-longlisted author of Self Helpat his brilliant best, and confirms his reputation as one of Britain’s most intelligent and powerful writers.

5.

Maybe by Morris Gleitzman

I've read the previous five books in this series.

They're fabulous junior fiction about the Holocaust.

Despite the tragic subject matter, Gleitzman brings a sense of humanity to this difficult to understand topic.

Every time he thinks he is finished with Felix's story for good, he finds out later that Felix still has more to say.

A powerfully moving addition to Morris Gleitzman's bestselling series about Felix and Zelda which takes place in 1945, following directly on from the story told in Soon. 

This intensely affecting story will move readers of all ages. It will be welcomed by the many Holocaust educators who use Once, Now, Then, After and Soon to teach upper primary and lower secondary children and embraced by any reader who loves passionate, moving and brilliant stories.

6.

A Long Way From Home by Peter Carey

My relationship with Carey is a bit hit or miss.
The reviews are suggesting that this one could be a hit.
Only one way to find out....

Irene Bobs loves fast driving. Her husband is the best car salesman in rural south eastern Australia. Together with Willie, their lanky navigator, they embark upon the Redex Trial, a brutal race around the continent, over roads no car will ever quite survive.

A Long Way from Home is Peter Carey's late style masterpiece; a thrilling high speed story that starts in one way, then takes you to another place altogether. Set in the 1950s in the embers of the British Empire, painting a picture of Queen and subject, black, white and those in-between, this brilliantly vivid novel illustrates how the possession of an ancient culture spirals through history - and the love made and hurt caused along the way.

7.

Every Third Thought by Robert McCrum

Like McCrum, I'm getting to an age when losing people seems to be happening more and more. Certainly far more than I would like!
And like McCrum I share a preoccupation with all things life and death.
Be prepared is my motto; or perhaps forewarned is forearmed is closer to the heart of the matter.

In 1995, at the age of forty two, Robert McCrum suffered a dramatic and near-fatal stroke, the subject of his acclaimed memoir My Year Off. Ever since that life-changing event, McCrum has lived in the shadow of death, unavoidably aware of his own mortality. And now, twenty-one years on, he is noticing a change: his friends are joining him there. Death has become his contemporaries’ every third thought. The question is no longer ‘who am I?’ but ‘how long have I got?’ and ‘what happens next?’

With the words of McCrum’s favourite authors as travel companions, Every Third Thought, takes us on a journey through a year and towards death itself. As he acknowledges his own and his friends’ ageing, McCrum confronts an existential question: in a world where we have learnt to live well at all costs, can we make peace with what Freud calls 'the necessity of dying'? Searching for answers leads him to others for advice and wisdom, and Every Third Thought is populated by the voices of brain surgeons, psychologists, cancer patients, hospice workers, writers and poets.

Witty, lucid and provocative, Every Third Thought is an enthralling exploration of what it means to approach the ‘end game’, and begin to recognize, perhaps reluctantly, that we are not immortal. Deeply personal and yet always universal, this is a book for anyone who finds themselves preoccupied by matters of life and death. It is both guide and companion.

8.
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

I've really embraced my inner creative in recent years; it's time to let it out more!

Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. 

With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. 

Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.

9.

Landscape With Invisible Hand by M T Anderson

Another book that has come highly recommended to me via one of my reps.

Outside my comfort zone, but intriguing nonetheless.

National Book Award winner M. T. Anderson returns to future Earth in a sharply wrought satire of art and truth in the midst of colonization.

When the vuvv first landed, it came as a surprise to aspiring artist Adam and the rest of planet Earth - but not necessarily an unwelcome one. Can it really be called an invasion when the vuvv generously offered free advanced technology and cures for every illness imaginable? As it turns out, yes. With his parents' jobs replaced by alien tech and no money for food, clean water, or the vuvv's miraculous medicine, Adam and his girlfriend, Chloe, have to get creative to survive. And since the vuvv crave anything they deem "classic" Earth culture (doo-wop music, still-life paintings of fruit, true love), recording 1950s-style dates for the vuvv to watch in a pay-per-minute format seems like a brilliant idea. But it's hard for Adam and Chloe to sell true love when they hate each other more with every passing episode. Soon enough, Adam must decide how far he's willing to go - and what he's willing to sacrifice - to give the vuvv what they want.

10.

Basho: The Complete Haiku by Matsuo Basho

In preparation for my BIG 5-0 trip to Japan next year, there will be many more Japanese writers and stories appearing on these pages. 

I've loved Basho's haiku's for years now, so when I spotted this beautifully illustrated complete volume of his work, I knew I had to have it. 

Last night I booked our onsen accommodation for Yamagata so that the unsuspecting Mr Books can share my passion for Basho by visiting the region made famous by Basho in his pilgrimage classic, The Narrow Road to the Deep North (1689) - also on my TBR yama!

Basho stands today as Japans most renowned writer, and one of the most revered. Wherever Japanese literature, poetry or Zen are studied, his oeuvre carries weight. Every new student of haiku quickly learns that Basho was the greatest of the Old Japanese Masters.

Yet despite his stature, Bashos complete haiku have not been collected into a single volume. Until now.

To render the writers full body of work into English, Jane Reichhold, an American haiku poet and translator, dedicated over ten years of work. In Basho: The Complete Haiku, she accomplishes the feat with distinction. Dividing his creative output into seven periods of development, Reichhold frames each period with a decisive biographical sketch of the poets travels, creative influences and personal triumphs and defeats. Scrupulously annotated notes accompany each poem; and a glossary and two indexes fill out the volume.

Reichhold notes that, Basho was a genius with words. He obsessively sought out the right word for each phrase of the succinct seventeen-syllable haiku, seeking the very essence of experience and expression. With equal dedication, Reichhold sought the ideal translations. As a result, Basho: The Complete Haiku is likely to become the essential work on this brilliant poet and will stand as the most authoritative book on the subject for many years to come. Original sumi-e ink drawings by artist Shiro Tsujimura complement the haiku throughout the book.

First Book of the Year

Happy New Year!

May 2016 be a year of great books, wonderful stories and blogging bliss.

Every year Sheila @Book Journey hosts First Book of the Year.

The link above takes you to her sign up post with a collage of pictures of all us reading from last new year's day.

I love planning what will be my first book of the new year.
I want it to be something memorable. Something that will start my new reading year off with a bang!

This year I'm in beautiful Mornington, in the state of Victoria, visiting family.
Nearby Mills Beach is one of the local beaches famous for it's colourful old bathing sheds.

We're being very lazy - lying by the pool, strolling along the beach, drinking and eating too much fine food and wine.

And the book that starts the New Year with me is:

Book Two of Elena Ferrante's Neopolatana series, The Story of a New Name.

I read My Brilliant Friend way back in October and somehow I've managed to save the next three books for my summer holidays. The anticipation has been delightful.

What's your first book of 2016?
And where on earth are you reading it?

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

December was such a busy, hectic, tiring month that some easy, comfort reads were much needed to keep me going.

Not reading anything is simply not an option!

Therefore, during the crazy times, I turn to those books I know I can enjoy even when I can barely keep my eyes open!

Liane Moriarty is one of those authors for me. Like an old friend, I know I can return to her trusty, friendly arms for a good story, great characters and a fun time.

The Last Anniversary (2005) is one of her earlier novels.
It may not be as satisfyingly realised as her two latest books The Husband's Secret and Big Little Lies, but nonetheless, it is an enjoyable, friendly, easy-going romp around a fictional island near Sydney.

The mystery is fairly easy to work out, but that's not why you read Moriarty's books. You read them because of her characters. Liane has a happy knack of writing about the people you know. Every character feels authentic, real and very very human.

With every one of Moriarty's books I get to a point where I simply cannot bare to put the book down. I want to stay in this new world with my new friends forever. Yet, at the same time, I dread finishing the book and losing my 'in' to this wonderful new found world of her creation.

All her books have a theme or a women's issue upon which the story hangs. In this case it is depression, in particular, post-natal depression. The mother-daughter dynamic is also explored in all its various guises.

Highly recommended holiday read.

This book is part of my Australian Women Writers challenge and #XmasinSummer

Summer in Sydney

Summer holidays can be very distracting.

Even though Mr Books & have been back at work 2 weeks, the kids are still on holidays, hanging around the house, looking to be amused and occasionally refereed!

Thankfully Mr Books works from home. But it does mean that his work schedule is regularly interrupted and our family life is far from normal and routine.

Which is a good thing right?








We all need a break from our day to day routine.
It's good to shake things up, do things differently & have new experiences (Sydney in January is Festival month - shows, events, exhibitions that provide 4 weeks of non-stop experiences if you so wish! Check out my other blog to get a taste of The Sydney Festival).

However all of these new experiences and breaks from routine have left me very little time for blogging.

I have several half-baked reviews sitting in the wings, waiting to be finalised. I've trolled some of your sites during the quieter moments, but I haven't had the time or inspiration to leave thoughtful comments.

School goes back next week.

We have new uniforms, bags, books, pencil cases, shoes and haircuts!
Routine, everyday life is just around the corner.

And, just quietly, between you and me, I'm ready for it.

I've missed writing and I've missed all of you.

P.S. Please remind me of this sentiment when we're in the middle of HSC hysteria with our eldest later on in the year!

Holiday Reading - Bali

I like to read a book set in the country or region I go to on my holidays.

When we decided to go to Bali for Easter, I researched books set in Bali. There were lots of crime, true crime, drug stories and biographies available, but none of them sounded appealing as a holiday read - way too heavy and serious!

Then I discovered Inspector Singh.

The Bali book is the second book in the series, but I decided it was lightweight enough that it wouldn't matter. And it didn't.

But this was the perfect choice for poolside holiday reading.

It's set in the immediate post Bali bombing era, so the descriptions of landscapes, streetscapes and experiences felt very familiar.

And the lead female character from the Australian Police was named Bronwyn - only the second book I've ever come across with my name in it!

I finished Inspector Singh in 2 days.

Sunset in Seminyak

I had packed other books to read, but a fortuitous visit to Periplus Books in Seminyak revealed a copy of the book I had really wanted to read for this holiday.

Love and Death in Bali by Vicki Baum is set in the early 1900's and is based on real events. But it was out of print in Australia.

It was originally published in German in 1937.

Love and Death in Bali tells the story of a clash of cultures as the Dutch gradually assert control over the wayward island of Bali.

Both sides of the story are told with empathy, objectivity and just a little romance. There are elements of bumbling bureaucrats and superstitious barbarians but none of that takes away from the compelling story of a culture on the brink of colonisation.

Both holiday reads were so grounded in their Bali setting that to read them outside of Bali would have meant missing out on many of the nuances, scents, sights and sensations.

To quote Baum's raja Alit,

I have looked about me and I cannot believe there is a country on earth as beautiful as Bali. I cannot give it away to foreigners or sell it.... 

They do not know our gods and they do not understand the laws by which mankind must live. They would pull down the temples, and the gods would forsake our island, and soon it would become as barren and ugly as the deserts of China.

They would grow sugar-cane, not as our peasants do, just enough to sweeten their food and for the children to enjoy; they would cover the whole country with sugar-cane....they would lay the sawahs waste and cut down the beautiful palms and fruit trees to make room for their towns.

They would turn our peasants into slaves and brutes, and leave them no time for cockfights and festivals and music and dancing. And our women would have to cover their breasts...an no-one would wear flowers in their hair anymore or make offerings to the temples.
And they would squeeze the joy from the hearts of our children...and make them bitter and unkind and discontented, as the white men are themselves.

Fortunately, these dire predictions did not come to pass.

Rice paddies of Ubud

Bali is an incredibly beautiful island full of colour, traditions and contrasts, its people are friendly, spiritual and courteous to a fault.

It is an island that holds to its traditional beliefs and ways of life even as it allows modern conveniences and modern ways to infiltrate. The Balinese take on new ideas and adjust them to fit in with what they know and feel comfortable with.

An offering to the gods

Our time in Bali was a magical experience from start to finish.

My understanding of the place was enriched by my two reading choices.

We will return one day and I will search out Colin McPhee's book A House in Bali for that trip!

Have you had a perfect holiday/book matching experience too?

On Chesil Beach

Saturday Snapshots is a non-book related meme hosted by Alyce. I wanted to see what it would be like to participate in my very first meme and this looked like the most appealing option for this particular Saturday. I have, of course, managed to find some pics that relate back to my favourite topic - books!

Five years ago my husband and I travelled to the UK for 3 weeks to follow the Wallabies in the Rugby World Cup.

In between games we visited many wonderful places and revisited favourite haunts from previous trips.

One of our new adventures was to Chesil Beach in the south of England. I had started reading Ian McEwan's 'On Chesil Beach' on the flight over in anticipation.

So I was prepared for the long strip of pebble beach with water in front and back! And I should have been prepared for the freezing cold southerly buster blowing in across the water the day we were there, but it still took my breath away!

The pebbles were huge and smooth from weathering, but still very hard and uncomfortable to walk and sit on.

Curiously the inclement conditions did not hinder the many fisher folk...or my determination to have a photo op, with book in hand, overlooking Chesil Beach.

I couldn't imagine how any couple (book couple or real-life couple) could manage a romantic walk along this beach! I spent my time trying to picture where the book couple would have strolled as I caressed the different sized, shaped & coloured pebbles between my fingers.

As it turned out, 'On Chesil Beach' was not to be one of my favourite McEwan books - perhaps it wasn't a book that travelled well. I couldn't really give it the undivided attention it probably deserved.

When I finished it, I swapped it in a B & B in Northumbria for a wonderful old copy of 'Mary Jane' by Daphne du Maurier instead. Too bad I can't travel back in time to ye olde London to visit Mary Jane's world!