January 2012 – Aussie Reviews

Autumn Laing, by Alex Miller

Pat was never deep. He was intuitive, but he was not deep. It was I who was deep. I who was left on my own to struggle with the fearful knots and tangles of our vicious web, while he sailed on on clean air, free of self-doubt, painting his pictures as if they were his alone to paint.

As Autumn Laing reaches the final months of her long life, she thinks back to the man she loved fifty-three years ago. From her first meeting with struggling artist Pat Donlon, Autumn was determined to make a difference to his life – but at the same time turned both of their lives upside down. Falling into an affair, Autumn not only tarnishes her previous stable, happy marriage, but Pat, too, destroys his new marriage, losing his wife and unborn child. As she waits to die, Autumn remembers her time with Pat. Now a cantankerous d woman, she seeks some sort of redemption in writing down the story.

Told using a blend of first person narrative (both present and past tense) and third person narrative (with Autumn recounting events as she imagines they may have happened in her absence) this is much more than a story of an affair, being more an examination of truth, and how it is constructed. Autumn may be cranky and downright unpleasant, but there is something very likeable about her, making you want to know more about her both as she was and is she is now, an old woman trying to tell her tale before she dies.

Inspired by, but only partly based on, artist Sidney Nolan and his muse Sunday Reed, Autumn Laing is a rich, intense tale.

Autumn Laing, by Alex Miller
Allen & Unwin, 2011
ISBN 9781742378510

This book can be purchased in good bookstores, or online from Fishpond.

For All Creatures, by Glenda Millard & Rebecca Cool

For weavers and wisps.
Fr silk spinners and spiderlings,
lace and loveliness
and for webs, we are thankful.

There are some picture books which are so beautiful, so complete, that one wants to hug them and to read and reread, even without the audience of a young child. For All Creaturesis one of those. The text is almost a prayer (though certainly not for any denomination or specific belief set) – expressing ‘our’ gratitude for the wonders of nature – creatures big and small, from around the world, before offering, finally, thanks for babies and all people.

Millard’s text is a lyrical delight, with alliteration abounding and word choice surprising and delightful – on a night filled with images of night animals, she gives thanks not just for nocturne, night and nectar but also for upsidedownness. Cool’s illustrations are superb. Using a mix of acrylic paint and fabric collage, she fills every page with rich, wonderful colour, patterns and textures. Young readers will enjoy exploring both the animals and plants on each page, and the details of the collage embellishments. Especially intriguing (and clever) is the use of strips of measuring tape for the stripes of the tiger.

Just perfect.

For All Creatures, by Glenda Millard & Rebecca Cool
Walker Books, 2011
ISBN 9781921529818

This book can be purchased in good bookstores, or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Selby Sprung, by Duncan Ball

I want to warn you that something terrible happens, and you’ll see when you get to the end. I’m not dead or anything, so don’t worry, but after all these years and so many close calls about keeping it a secret that I know ho to talk –
I better not tell you any more or I’ll spoil it.

How many adventures can one little dog have? Lots, especially if that dog is Selby the talking dog, back in this the sixteenth Selby book. This time Selby falls out of a plane, almost gets eaten by a savage Shark Man on death Island, and has to stop a runaway train. But, worst of all, he is being pursued by the Evil Genius Morrie Artie, who is desperately combing Australia to prove that the talking dog really exists – and to use him in all sorts of ways. Is Selby’s secret about to be revealed to the world?

Selby Sprung offers all the fun and adventure that young readers have come to expect from the series, with humorous adventures, twists and turns and all round silliness. Illustrations (by Allan Stomann) scattered throughout the book add visual appeal, and some chapters are written in diary format by Selby himself.

As with previous titles, this one stands alone, but will encourage readers new to the series to seek the others out.

Doggone good stuff.

Selby Sprung, by Duncan Ball
Angus & Robertson, 2011
ISBN 0780732292638

This book is available from good bookstores, or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

The Biggest Estate on Earth, by Bill Gammage

Somewhere on mainland Australia people used every farm process. Climate, land, labour, plants and knowledge were there. Example was there, in the north and after 1788. Templates and tending made farmers without fences…

Since 1788 the assumption that the Australian continent was an untamed wilderness has been prevalent. We are told that it was the settlers who tamed the land – clearing the land and developing agriculture. But historian Bill Gammage disputes this assumption. Up until – and beyond – 1788 Aboriginal people managed the land in complex systems which preserved food stocks, encouraged vegetation to grow in patterns which suited not just the people who lived there, but also the animals and plants which shared the land. These systems and strategies were used throughout Australia, adapted to location and managed by custodians who each knew their land intimately.

Gammage’s work is thorough and groundbreaking. He has spent more than ten years examining the land, early records, and visual evidence to put together his argument that Australia was a single, large estate operated by many managers with common purpose. He makes particular use in the book of early paintings, which he contrasts with modern photographs to show how the land has changed without regular burning and shaping, as well as quoting extensively from diaries, journals and other early colonial records to show that the land was carefully managed prior to colonisation.

This is not a light bedtime read. It is a mix of history and science, more suited to the academic than the layman – as Gammage says in his appendix, arguments from fellow academics have ‘forced this book into more detail than a general reader might prefer’ – but it is as important as it is enlightening, and fascinating, too

With extensive back of book notes and bibliography,The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia is a truly valuable book.

The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia, by Bill Gammage
Allen & Unwin, 2011
ISBN 9781742377483

This book can be purchased in good bookstores or online from
Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Bilby Secrets, by Edel Wignell & Mark Jackson

Traces the life of a young bilby from its birth in a burrow beneath the ground, to being fully grown and living alone, ready to mate. Using the picture book format, the text focuses on one specific bilby, but recounts this is a typical bilby’s life rather than a fictional story. Each page also includes facts about bilbies, printed in italics.

In the moonlight, Mother Bilby canters – tail aloft like a banner – across the spinifex and enters a steeply sloping, spiral tunnel. She flings the dirt back, hind feet together, closing the entrance to her burrow.
It’s time for the birth of her baby.

Bilby Secrets traces the life of a young bilby from its birth in a burrow beneath the ground, to being fully grown and living alone, ready to mate. Using the picture book format, the text focuses on one specific bilby, but recounts this is a typical bilby’s life rather than a fictional story. Each page also includes facts about bilbies, printed in italics.

Mark Jackson’s mixed media illustrations bring not just the cute bilby, but also other desert residents – from predators such as the fox, to insects and spiders, little details which can be found on most spreads. the colours are the colours of the West Australian Pilbara region – orange and red dirts, blue and dusky skies (the bilby is nocturnal) and, of course, the greys of the bilbies.

This hardcover offering is part of Walker’s wonderful new <>Nature Storybook series, set to be a wonderful educational tool but equally suitable for home reading.

Bilby Secrets, by Edel Wignell & Mark Jackson
Walker Books, 2011
ISBN 9781921529320

This book is available in good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

City of Lies, by Lian Tanner

Six months have passed since the Great Storm. Since then, Goldie has been asked repeatedly to take up her position as the Fifth Keeper at the Museum. But she can’t – because her parents need her.

Goldie was dreaming. She knew it was a dream because Blessed Guardian Hope was there, a plump figure in a black cloak and black boxy hat, with the punishment chains coiled like pythons around her waist.
‘Your’e supposed to be dead,’ whispered Goldie. ‘You died in the Great Storm.’
Guardian Hope smiled and pulled a thin silver chain from the pocket of her robes. She held it up to the light. Then She began to thread it, bit by bit, between Goldie’s ribs and around her heart…

Six months have passed since the Great Storm. Since then, Goldie has been asked repeatedly to take up her position as the Fifth Keeper at the Museum. But she can’t – because her parents need her. Goldie is on the way to the museum to tell them that she can’t be a Keeper, when Toadspit’s sister Bonnie is kidnapped. Instead of going to the Museum, Goldie is soon aboard a ship, hiding from Bonnie’s captors as she tries to figure out how to rescue her.

When they land in the city of Spoke, Goldie must use all her wits – and the help of friends old and new – to rescue Bonnie and Toadspit, and stop the Fugleman returning to Jewel.

City of Lies, the second in The Keepers series is an exciting adventure fantasy forchildren, best read having read the first, Museum of Thieves. Goldie is resourceful and feisty, facing her enemies with courage, whilst also facing insecurities. The opponents she faces are often horrible, but there is light relief from some bumbling. and pleasure from the friends she makes along the way.

Fans will eagerly await the final installment in this trilogy.

City of Lies, by Lian Tanner
Allen & Unwin, 2011
ISBN 9781742371962

This book can be purchased in good bookstores or online from Fishpond.

Flood, by Jackie French & Bruce Whatley

In January 2011 much of Queensland and parts of NSW were subjected to terrible flooding. the rest of Australia – and the world – watched in horror at the destruction and loss of life. In Floodthe team of Jackie French and Bruce Whatley capture those times in words and pictures accessible to children.

The rain stopped, but the wall of water surged into the river. Hour by hour the river rose. In some places water only nibbled at the bank, but in others it burst across the river bends…up into the streets. It sounded like a helicopter.
It sounded like a flood.

The text explains the flood – its origins, its sights and sounds – and specific instances of heroism, such as the tugboat driver who stopped the boardwalk from doing further harm. The illustrations highlight the damage and desolation with watery browns and blues, as well as the courage and heroism of volunteers working int he midst of the floods. The image of a dog as a watcher, and participant, in many spreads gives youngsters a character to empathise with.

French and Whatley have teamed together on brighter subjects before – most famously the. Exploration of such a serious topic required a different approach, and Wahtley’s use of different drawing and painting techniques helped here. Whatley has used his non-dominant hand for the images and his use of acrylic washes highlights the feeling of wetness.

Profits from the sale of Flood are being donated to the Qld Premier’s Disaster Relief appeal.

Flood, by Jackie French & Bruce Whatley
Scholastic, 2011
ISBN 9781742830728

This book is avaialable in good bookstores or through Fishpond.

Note on the Door, by Lorraine Marwood

Perfect both for the classroom and for private reading, this is a volume which will gladden every poetry lover’s heart – and switch others on to the sheer pleasure which poetry can bring.

This is just to tell you
that your bedroom
rotted away
at 9.15 am
this morning.

Thus begins the title poem of this wonderful collection, a poem pleasantly reminiscent of William Carlos Williams This is Just to Say, which young readers may be unfamiliar with, but one which this modern poem could be used to introduce and compare. And that’s the wonderful appeal of this collection – it can be read and enjoyed cover to cover, but can also be used to explore poetry well beyond its pages, as well as to open discussion and exploration of a wide range of themes.

From fun poems about messy bedrooms or getting out of chores, to acute observations about everyday things such as spilling milk, spinning like an acrobat to land
all over
the most extensive area,
of my mother’s
newly washed
kitchen floor.
and to explorations of truly sad events – a boy burying his dead cat, with blisters, a kind of hand weeping,Marwood shows her poetic dexterity time and again. The use of line drawings, photos and, of course, in keeping with the title, pieces of notepaper, adds visual appeal.

Perfect both for the classroom and for private reading, this is a volume which will gladden every poetry lover’s heart – and switch others on to the sheer pleasure which poetry can bring.

Note on the Door and Other Poems About Family Life, by Lorraine Marwood
Walker Books, 2011
ISBN 9781921720611

This book is available in good bookstores or online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

According to Luke, by Rosanne Dingli

The problem sometimes with stories that have fast paced action is it can often be at the expense of character. That is not the case with According to Luke. The characters are well drawn and fully developed.

The problem sometimes with stories that have fast paced action is it can often be at the expense of character. That is not the case with According to Luke. The characters are well drawn and fully developed. Jana is meticulous in her research and patience in authenticating historical artefacts. She also encounters a fellow Australian sent along to oversee the handling and authentication of this artefact. The Roman Catholic Priest, Rob Anderson, has his own share of problems, some of which are medical and which challenge his vocation. The two become closely involved as they set out to uncover the truth of the portrait she uncovers. Of course this is not as easy as it sounds. There are those who want to prevent this at any cost. One woman, Jana’s assistant, has already lost her life because of it.This portrait Jana finds could have significant implications if her suspicions are correct and they are certainly not the only ones who desperately want the portrait. Each group wants the portrait for different reasons.

The characters and their quest quickly draw the reader into the lives and problems they find themselves in. The relationship between Jana and her wealthy, domineering mother provides further depth and insight into the character of Jana and underscores the reasons behind some of her life decisions,

It is obvious from the writing that a great deal of research has gone on prior to the writing of this novel. Place is so effectively evoked, it is almost a character, with the scenes of Venice. Other places in Italy, as well as Malta and Syria are brought to life. Many of the artefacts and historic events revealed add an authenticity to the novel and the sleep disorder that plagues Rob is suitably unusual but also one would suggest soundly researched. Such titbits will have the reader longing to explore these tangents further but without ever taking away from the story and the problems of the main characters. All of these factors and more make this a thoroughly engaging read. The sign of good book is one that stays in the mind after the last page has been turned. That is what Rosanne Dingli has managed to do withAccording to Luke.

According to Luke, by Rosanne Dingli

BeWrite Books

RRP $21.99

Reviewed by Dale Harcombe

This book is available from Amazon or Fishpond. Buying through these links supports Aussiereviews.

Cooking the Books, by Kerry Greenwood

Corinna Chapman is supposed to be on holidays. She has closed the bakery for January, sent her apprentice Jason off on holidays and is supposed to be relaxing.

He smiled at me. My heart did a complete flip-flop with pike. Beautiful Daniel, my Sabra turned private detective, who out of all the women in the city picked me, an ample size 20 who worked too hard making bread at my bakery, Eartly Delights. Since the advent of Daniel I have become susceptible to the idea that miracles might really happen.

Corinna Chapman is supposed to be on holidays. She has closed the bakery for January, sent her apprentice Jason off on holidays and is supposed to be relaxing. But when an old friend asks – nay, demands – that Corinna help her with the baking for the set of a soap opera, she finds herself back at work baking. And, of course, wherever Corinna goes there is a mystery or two to solve.

On the set of ‘Kis the Bride’, where Corinna’s two bakery assistants have scored roles, a diva is searching for clues to the fate of her long-lost son, and someone is busy sabotaging the soapie. Meanwhile, elsewhere in town, a young accounting intern is being harassed by her employers. Along the way she’s managed to lose a stack of valuable bonds. Daniel, Corinna’s beautiful boyfriend, and a private eye, has been hired to find the bonds and restore the girl’s name.

Cooking the Books is the sixth title featuring the divine Corinna Chapman, baker, ex-accountant and part time sleuth. As a reader you can’t help loving Corinna – and she is surrounded by people who find her similarly pleasing – Daniel, Jason, the grils, and most of the eclectic residents of her apartment building. The other problem the readers strikes is battling hunger pangs. Corinna loves food, and the reader is taken on a culinary journey. Fortunately author Kerry Greenwood provides some recipes at the back of the book.

Wonderful stuff.

Cooking the Books, by Kerry Greenwood
Allen & Unwin, 2011
ISBN 9781742370217

This book is available in good bookstores or online from Fishpond.