New Stairs on the way

Our new stairs from the street have started. Visitors either need to abseil in, or come via our other street entrance.

Stay tuned for the finished product.

Holiday Reading, and a bit each side

Firstly, I must 'fess up that these books were not all, strictly, read during the school holiday period but they did all overlap. Unusually, all books are going to get a good wrap, but for different reasons.

Carpentaria by Alexis Wright

A Gulf-country story of the intersection between Aboriginal and European Australia. Written, but not narrated, in the 'voice' of a male aboriginal elder. First 250 pages were excruciating to read. The Last 270 were amazing. I then returned and re-read most of the first 250 pages and declare this to be one of the most incredible books I've read for a long time. Its major fault is that it is not an accessible read for many due to its structure which verges on a magic realism-type style and YET it had to be written in this style to command the effect it does. Predict this to become a standard University-level English text (only because it is too long for an HSC text, I think).

9/10

March by Geraldine Brooks

A well thought through spin-off to the Little Women story. Tells the story of Captain March the father of Jo, Beth & Co and what he did during the Civil War. Geraldine's husband is a Civil War expert which is evident in its well-researched "feel".

7.5/10

Theft by Peter Carey

Brilliant account of the tension between creativity and commercialism played out in the art world. Narrated in turn by the artist and the artist's idiot-savant brother, who is able to provide the view of the silent observer.

8/10

Antony & Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough

The eighth, and possibly last, in the Masters of Rome series about the last years of the Roman Republic. Colleen is one of the world's great experts on the Roman Republic and her theories are always worth reading. The fact that she presents her theories in a fictionalised narrative makes them all the more palatable. With Colleen you know the story but still mourn the fate of your favourite characters.

8/10 for her extraordinarily in depth approach.

Sunnyside by Joanna Murray-Smith

A playwright by profession, this book reads like it should be showing at the The Ensemble Theatre. Tells the tale of families living in a fictionalised upper-middle class suburb of Melbourne (a barely disguised Mt Eliza). An excruciatingly accurate mirror to our lives that is written in a way that it can't be pigeon-holed with the likes of The Nanny Diaries, Gucci Mamas or any other Chick Lit. Read it if you dare.

7.5/10

How you can tell if I REALLY like a book. I mark my favourite passages.

Yep, way scary.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

This book could've been seriously booooorinng. I mean it's about a family who decided to eat whatever they could grow/raise on their farm for a year. Luckily, the author was the fabulous Barbara Kingsolver (Poisonwood Bible) and the family was her family. This book is worth reading just to soak up her words and revel in her dry humour.

The basic premise is that we should eat food that didn't cost 1000s of litres of petrol to get to our table and that fresh, in season food is cheaper and better for us. So, Barbara, her husband and two daughters move to their 40 acre farm in southern Appalachia, Virginia and resolve to take the "eat local" mantra to a whole new level. This book is billed as "part memoir, part journalistic investigation" and contains everything from how to work out whether a vegetable is likely to be in season, how to get Turkeys with the reproduction instinct bred out of them to produce baby turkeys and that too much Zucchini is not a good thing.

Barbara's husband and eldest daughter also contributed snippets to the book - I didn't really bother with these as compared with Barbara's writing they just seemed to get in the way.

How do I think it translates to Australia? My first thought is that with a highly urbanised society with farming land vastly removed from the population we need to re-consider the concept of "local". Local for us isn't going to be 100km. Perhaps more like 500km.

I highly recommend it.

Author Elizabeth Stead visited our Bookclub

On Monday we were fortunate to have Sydney-based author, Elizabeth Stead, visit our bookclub.

We discussed her latest book The Gospel of Gods and Crocodiles; a fictional story about life on a tropical island "just two degrees below the equator of our world". This book is a story in the truest sense of Once Upon A Time storytelling but draws upon the author's own experience living on a similar island in the 1950s.

For our review of the book and reactions to Ms Stead's visit check out our post about her visit here on our bookclub blog Books & Gossip

Read: "Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemirovsky

Are you a member of a book group? Are you looking for something to read? I suggest putting your name down at your local library for "Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemirovsky. However, you may need to wait awhile. In the mean time here is my brief synopsis (no spoilers):

• Well known pre-WWII writer Irene Nemirovsky pens draft novel about the experience of civilians in occupied France.



• Novel is written as the events are occurring around her.



• Plans to write the novel in 5 parts (Storm in June, Dolce, Captivity, Battles, Peace?) and intends it to be France's answer to War and Peace.



• Completes the first two parts before being arrested and sent to Auschwitz where she dies.



• Her young daughters escape being transported and are in hiding throughout the war. They have with them a suitcase containing the novels which they never read (they think they are war diaries)



• In the 1990s they realise that her diaries are in fact a fully formed novel. Published novel wins Prix de Renodout in 2004 (first ever given posthumously).



• Remarkably, despite being of Jewish heritage & forced to wear the Star of David the novels are in no way about the experiences of Jews during the war.

This is a beautiful book, the highest rated ever in my Sydney book group.