lea thinks aloud

Legend of a Suicide, David Vann (book review)

2011-11-21T21:02:00.000+11:00

I chose David Vann as my V author for The Great Library Challenge, and I wasn't disappointed.

Legend of a Suicide is a collection of a novella and four short stories... but I wish someone had told me that before I started. I read it as a single long novel, and the fact that the characters are the same in all the stories didn't help with the confusion.

The book is semi-autobiographical, as it's about a boy named Roy and his suicidal divorcee father Jim who's a retired dentist who fails at fishing and eventually buys a house in the middle of nowhere, Alaska, and asks his son to stay with him for a year and then commits suicide. In real life, David Vann had a ex-dentist suicidal divorcee father who failed at fishing, bought a house in the middle of nowhere, Alaska, asked David to stay with him, and then committed suicide shortly thereafter.

The short stories are lovely to read in themselves - beautifully written, poetic in their descriptions and Vann manages to capture the many micro-subtleties of human emotion - but it's the novella that's a breathtaker. The novella is the part that describes Roy and his father's adventure in remote Alaska, doing the Bear Grylls survival-thing: hunting, fishing and building things. In the book, Roy accompanies his father in a desperate attempt to keep him alive, as he's sure that left to his own devices, his father will commit suicide. In real life, David turned down his father's offer of going to Alaska with him, and soon after, his father committed suicide. The novella is like a kind of emotional and/or spiritual purging for Vann, imagining what might have happened had his decision been different.

The raw emotions and truly pathetic weakness of Roy's father is simply infuriating. He sobs himself to sleep every night (with his 13 year old son sleeping in the same room), makes emotional confessions to a boy not old enough to process them, attempts to kill himself by stepping over a ledge in the middle of nowhere (how on earth did he expect his son to survive if he'd died?) and tries to emotionally blackmail his second wife into taking him back by saying he'll shoot himself through the head right there on the phone with her if he doesn't. All this leads to tragic and shocking consequences that you simply don't expect, a sudden twist from the author that simultaneously brings (one imagines) release and revenge at the same time.

Legend of a Suicide is a truly intriguing read that continued to haunt me for a few days after.

A new review of Northanger Abbey (part 1 of The Austen Series)

2011-11-16T16:51:00.001+11:00

I'm an unashamed fan of Jane Austen and my only regret is that she didn't write more than the six novels she left behind as a legacy.

For the past 20 or so years, I've read and re-read Pride and Prejudice the most (I estimate I probably read it over 35 times), followed fairly closely by Emma, then Persuasion, then Sense and Sensibility. I read Mansfield Park perhaps twice, and Northanger Abbey only once, because the two heroines Fanny Price and Catherine Morland annoyed me with their passivity and lack of wit - so unlike my favourite Elizabeth Bennett!

Anyway, having done a re-read of all her six works in recent months, I've decided to review them all through fresh eyes. Let's start with the one least travelled by.

Northanger Abbey

Perhaps more than any of her other books, re-reading this one surprised me the most because I realised my memory of it was so imperfect and prejudiced. I probably read it for the first time at around age 16, so coming back to it two decades later gave me an entirely new perspective.

I realised that Austen was doing something completely different with this book than her others. It's not just a straightforward novel - it's in fact a tongue-in-cheek parody of the gothic novels that were so popular at the time. It pokes fun of gothic sensibilities - the expectation of dark horrors in every empty wing of a large estate - through the very virginal and supremely innocent eyes of Catherine (Kitty) Morland. So influenced is she by these novels, that she makes a fool of herself in front of Henry Tilney, the love interest in the book.

The interesting thing about Northanger Abbey is how the tone is so different from her usual slightly detached but affectionate and wry narrative voice. There's something almost comedic in her tone, and this really saves the book from becoming insipid. I have to admit I missed it the first time and found it quite unlikeable. Because Kitty is so witless and innocent, it's easy to mistake Northanger Abbey as the same, but I found a new enjoyment of it this time and was much more charmed by it than before.

What they don't tell you about pregnancy

2011-11-16T15:58:00.001+11:00

I know I've been a total slacker in terms of blogging, but my excuse is that I'm pregnant and I took early maternity leave. Very early. I've been a slacker in many aspects, but now that I'm well and truly in the second trimester (past 5 months now) I'm feeling heaps better and more up to all the things I was avoiding before... like work. Fortunately for me, I work at home at my own pace, and even more fortunately, I have an understanding hubby who makes most of the money so I can relax and watch The Golden Girls at 4pm every afternoon with a clear conscience.

Anyway, I thought before I forget, I should write a list of all the things I had to discover for myself about pregnancy. Everyone talks about how wonderful it is and all the stuff about glowing and blah blah blah, but they don't tell you about the flatulence and discomfort. So this is my review on pregnancy for my own records.

First of all, it's an unending list of annoying discomforts. Especially early on (in the first trimester), there's a lot of uncontrollable flatulence. One time I was in a supermarket and in the middle of a sentence I let one out accidentally... okay it wasn't that much of an accident but I thought it would be silent and it wasn't. Anyway, I thought I'd just keep talking and noone would notice, but would hubby take my lead? No way. He says to me, 'uh, excuse me?' and laughs. Thank you very much.

Also in the first trimester is the general feeling of being unwell ALL THE BLOODY TIME. I just never felt quite right, quite myself, because all those hormones that are developing your baby are also totally messing with your body.

One thing that wasn't too bad for me though was throwing up. I've always been proud of my throw up history (only once in 1984 then again in 2004), but each occasion was just awful and I dreaded the possibility of throwing up during pregnancy. I did throw up a handful of times between weeks 12-14, but I found that it was a completely different experience: this time, it wasn't accompanied by hours of nausea followed by a day of illness. Each throw up was clean and efficient - just heave, heave, blow her out, then I felt fine afterwards.

Something that I'm so glad is over now is taste bud sensitivity. It wasn't so much with food, but I couldn't stand the taste of my own mouth, so I had to constantly chew gum or suck a mint or lolly. Brushing and Listerine only helped so much, and actually, most of the throwing up I did was thanks to the taste of my own morning breath.

A lesson learnt in the last month or so was that I can't eat to the same extent as I used to in a single sitting, because eating too much now causes reflux and it's so disgusting it ruins a perfectly delicious meal. I thought I could be clever and eat as much as I want then just take Gaviscon to avoid the reflux, but the cure is almost worse than the sickness. Yuck! So now I'm exercising self control to eat smaller portions but more regularly.

Thankfully, most of the worst discomforts disappeared by week 18, and I'm told many women suffer far worse than I did so I'm grateful really. But what happened to the glow I'm supposed to have right now? What I have instead of a glow is pimples all down my back (never happened before so I'm blaming it on the pregnancy) and tiredness. But I guess what I'll get in the end - a hopefully healthy and happy baby boy (we found out, couldn't resist) - will be worth it in the end. At least that's what they tell you, right? :)

The Lonely Polygamist, Bradley Udall

2011-11-16T15:32:00.001+11:00

Bradley Udall was my 'U' author for the Great Library Challenge, but since I've been so slack with blogging, it's been ages since I read this book so my review will be very brief and probably not very accurate.

The Lonely Polygamist is about Golden Richards, a polygamist in Utah with 27 kids spread across four wives (he's made up a song to remember all their names)... but as the title suggests, he's still lonely. It's hard to imagine that someone just wakes up to find themselves the centre of a great big family, but that's almost exactly what's happened to Golden - his life is barely of his own choosing, but somehow as he's ambled along, he's managed to pick up wives and children like other people pick up stamps or rocks.

Making the family seem normal is one of Udall's great achievements in this book. Although Golden is in a situation most of us would never find ourselves in, it's hard not to sympathise with him as he tackles his inner emptiness, or with his wives who want him to 'man up' and take charge instead of ducking for cover all the time, or with his kids who just want a piece of him. Their emotions and underlying tensions are the same as any dysfunctional family in any country in the world, which makes the whole polygamy thing barely even an issue, despite it being central to the novel.

I guess the main point of the book is seeing Golden's character develop from a passive bystander to an active participant in the life he's created, and the ripple effect it has on the other characters of the novel. Apart from Golden's own story, we're also afforded glimpses into the lives of Trish, the neglected fourth wife, and Rusty, the most troublesome and neglected of all the kids. Like Golden, they're lonely also, and they all drift along in their own individual worlds rubbing against each other but never quite connecting.

The Lonely Polygamist is a lovely book in its own way and written really well, but if I had to criticise, I'd say it was just a tad too long at over 600 pages.

Dr De Marr, Paul Theroux

2011-07-28T16:30:00.000+10:00

I chose Paul Theroux for The Great Library Challenge T author because he's one of those authors you hear about but (in my case anyway) have never read.

Dr De Marr is an eerie novella with a very creepy cover and several even more creepy illustrations throughout.

The story is about very short identical twins, George and Gerold De Marr, who are bound to each other by intense hatred and a desire for the other's death. When their parents pass away, they finally sever the invisible umbilical cord between them and live their lives free of each other for decades, until one day, George suddenly appears on Gerald's doorstep out of the blue.

Shortly after, Gerald finds George dead in a chair upstairs and soon begins to unravel the seams of his mysterious secret life. He finds that George has been posing as a wealthy doctor, and soon enough, he assumes this false identity to enjoy its benefits. But of course, the very things that George was running from catch up with Gerald and he finds himself very quickly out of his depth.

Theroux writes with an eerie absence of emotion that casts shadows on every page. The handful of characters that appear in the pantomime are hard to read as they all seem to have their own agenda, of which you're constantly left in the dark.

It's quite a horrid story, adeptly told, with the punchy circular logic of a good short story. But personally, I like my stories with a little more light.

The Modern Austen Adaptations

2011-07-20T16:59:00.000+10:00

Jane Austen sure knew how to write a great story, as evidenced in the multiple modern-day film adaptations of her work. So I've decided to do a bit of a comparison to see who's done it best, going in chronological order.

Clueless (1995)

This was a really smart adaptation of Emma, transported into LA's superficial Beverly Hills high school scene. Didn't we all fall in love with Alicia Silverstone's irresistably clueless Cher and Paul Rudd as her dorky ex-step-brother?

They got the ingredients just right because although Emma is a privileged meddler who thinks a little too well of herself, at heart, she's a well-meaning and kind person who gets things wrong. It's a nice bit of narcissism for the reader/viewer to be more astute and insightful than the girl who knows everything but her own heart, and it's nice to see her humbled a little.

Amy Heckerling did a great job of injecting absurdist humour, poking fun of modern teenagers (like the bumful of underwear showing under low-slung jeans) while also making them endearing and even quite delightful to watch.

Just as it's easy for people to overlook Austen as a bit of fluff about women's obsession with marriage and climbing the social ladder, it's easy to write off rich kids as spoilt brats. But instead, with both Emma and Clueless, we get a reminder that people are people no matter what social culture you belong to, and that we're really not that different at heart.

Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)

A simply superb adaptation of Pride and Prejudice with Elizabeth Bennett as a modern, slightly chubby Londoner in the form of Bridget Jones, played to perfection by Renee Zellwegger. While it isn't strictly true to Elizabeth's character (she's witty and intelligent whereas Bridget is kind-hearted and perceptive but very much accident and embarrassment prone), she's just as endearing.

What they do really well in Bridget Jones is bring the fiery love/hate sexual tension between Elizabeth and Darcy to life while making it really funny rather than dramatic and intense. The foibles of the modern independent woman are humorously portrayed and the common theme of people just wanting love, no matter what era you live in, plays out nicely in what is essentially a love story.

Helen Fielding's humour translates well into film, and the characters are modernised scrupulously well. Even Daniel (the wicked Wickham) is someone you love to hate rather than just hate.

This is my favourite adaptation so far.

Bride and Prejudice (2004)

This is Pride and Prejudice with all the colour, verve, drama and music of Bollywood. Instead of Elizabeth we have gorgeous Aishwarya Rai as Lalita, in Darcy's place we have wealthy American hotelier Will, and instead of starched British manners we get people breaking into song and dance, like the memorable 'no wife no life'.

Gurinda Chadha does a great job bringing this story to life, focusing on the common themes of Austen's England and modern day India - like Mrs Bakshi's obsession to marry off her daughters (if only Mrs Bennett had had the resources of IndianMatchmaker.com) and the idea of arranged marriage versus love marriage.

There are a few times when it slips into a little bit of cringe, like the love scenes of Lalita and Will looking into the sunset, playing in the fountain and walking on the beach, which perhaps were deliberately OTT to poke gentle fun at Bollywood films, but overall it's a good girlie film and quite true to the original novel.

From Prada to Nada (2011)

I watched this a little reluctantly as I had a feeling I might regret it, but as an adaptation of Sense and Sensibility I felt a certain responsibility to watch and report. It's a Latina version that's tried to do a cross between a cultural Bride and Prejudice type thing on an obviously smaller budget, and a playful Clueless thing without the witty script.

The Dominguez sisters fall from great heights when their wealthy father passes away and they're relegated to the very modest East LA home of their very Mexican Aunt - a culture they've had almost nothing to do with and in fact seem quite ashamed of at first.

Almost from the first scene the characters are more like caricatures and the level of predictability is breathtaking. But it's not all bad. I liked that Nora (the ever-responsible Elinor) is re-envisioned as a law student fighting for the underprivileged, but I wasn't so crash hot about the stereotyped Mexican cleaners whose case she takes up and, through the process, falls in love with her boss Edward Ferris. Colonel Brandon is reinvented as a thug-looking tattooed handyman/artist with a heart of gold (a very surprising turn by an unrecognisable Wilmer Valderrama, The 70s show's Fez), which isn't too bad, but the very passionate Marianne is turned into a spoilt shallow rich girl who totters around on high heels in constant miniskirts and just wants to marry up to go back to Beverly Hills. In the end she bears almost no resemblance at all to Austen's original character.

I wouldn't recommend this movie unless you want to pass an hour and a half with Latina cliches and some vague semblance of Austen's plot. In my opinion, this is probably the worst adaptation.

Have I missed any movies that have moved Austen's novels into the modern day? And which is your favourite?

Really great season finales

2011-07-18T15:48:00.000+10:00

On the back of the terrible season ending for Downton Abbey season one, I watched The Mentalist finale (which ironically I missed last night to watch Downton Abbey... bad bet) and I wanted to say to Julian Fellows: this sir, is how to end a season.

Patrick Jayne has been hunting Red John for ages, so getting some closure while at the same time creating huge suspense for the next season is extremely satisfying while leaving you wanting more (I'm deliberately not including spoilers here). This is just as a season finale should be.

Similarly, Dexter had a great season finale last year when the Trinity Killer left Rita in a literal bloodbath and Dexter's baby on the floor in an eerie deja vu. You're left shivering because there's a sense of resolution accompanied by huge anticipation for what's going to happen next. You're not left feeling cheated.

So take notes Mr Fellowes, and may season two be better.

The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower series, book 1), Stephen King

2011-07-18T12:08:00.000+10:00

I wanted to like this book. I knew it was Stephen King's magnum opus that he'd invested 12 years into, and I liked the idea of a western-style gunslinger in a sci-fi story.

I'm really disappointed to say it just doesn't deliver. The writing is unnecessarily windy and poetic... but not the good kind of poetic, the clunky type you write in college in the early morning that you think is really good until you read it sober the next day.

There isn't too much to say about it because there really isn't too much to the book. The gunslinger is on the trail of the man in black for purposes to do with his past and presumably the destruction of the world he knew and grew up in. Not everything is revealed to us in the first book.

From the reviews I've read (to figure out whether to persevere with the rest of the series), I figure it does actually get better, then it gets kinda bad.

You can read the New York Times review in its entirety if you want, but here's an excerpt:

"That's not to say there is nothing to enjoy about ''The Dark Tower.'' For starters, there is the sheer absurdity of its existence. You're left astonished at the devotion of the readers who will follow King down his labyrinthine pathways of plot, through the thickets of ALL CAPS paragraphs, only to emerge from a story within a story...

The revelation of the penultimate book was that King had put himself into the book as a character. Roland shows up in Maine in 1977 and hypnotizes a young horror writer, telling him he must finish the ''Dark Tower'' story because the fate of the world depends upon it."

Egotistical much?

Which is weird because King doesn't really seem like an egomaniac - at least not from my reading of On Writing, which I really liked.

Anyway, not planning to continue with the series. But if you've read it and think it's worthwhile, please let me know.

What the hell Downton Abbey?

2011-07-17T22:49:00.003+10:00

Downton Abbey has just finished airing on Aussie TV and I am pissed off. After investing so much time in this series, looking forward to it, persevering through the drawn out ads (don't think we didn't notice channel 7) and wanting the best for the characters, we're rewarded with a piss-poor ending where nothing is resolved and there isn't even the pretense of an effort to satisfy the viewers that have made this series such a success.

Everything's been leading to this last episode... will Mary accept Matthew's proposal when we all know they're just made for each other? Will Bates and Anna finally get it on? And will the bitchy Miss O'Brien and the bastard Thomas finally get their comeuppance?

There's absolutely no satisfaction to be had from any of these storylines that we've invested so much into. The only satisfaction we're afforded is in the minor things: Gwen gets a secretarial job, Bates is vindicated and Miss O'Brien is humbled. But these were not the storylines we kept coming back for week after week.

What a seriously crappity crap end. Honestly Julian Fellowes, what were you smoking when you wrote this? Too busy counting the cash of the second series to give this one a decent ending?

And it's not just the crap non-resolutions to the storylines that have been building for weeks, it's the character development too - or rather, lack thereof. I mean, why do the sisters have to be so bitchy to each other? We wanted either Mary or Edith to rise and be their better selves in the end but what we get is such vindictiveness it almost takes your breath away.

Apparently there's a series two underway, but after this effort I was outraged enough to consider (briefly) boycotting it. But I want to give it another chance. I want to see the characters develop and I really want to get some closure. So Mr Fellowes, please don't blow it.

Bridesmaids: 2 minute movie review

2011-07-06T16:46:00.000+10:00

Two words: totally hilarious.

I won't say too much because there's already been so much written about how great and truly funny this movie is, and how supremely hilarious Kristen Wiig is in it. Suffice to say: it's about time! Women are funny and this totally proves it (as if Tina Fey hadn't already done that) - they just need a good vehicle.

I read an article about how the time for women's gross-out comedy had finally arrived, and how previous punters like Cameron Diaz's The Sweetest Thing were just ahead of the market, but I say pooh pooh. That movie was just plain crap with a terrible script and cliched storyline. This one is just flat out funny with no dull bits.

If you haven't already seen it, I highly recommend it.

God bless the Queen

2011-06-13T15:42:00.000+10:00

Yay! It's the Queen's Birthday - hooray for a long weekend!

After an extended 'freelance' holiday all my weekends were bleeding into one, then the work started rolling in in earnest. Now I'm freelancing at Ogilvy for around a month 9-5, plus writing 40+ articles for a major new finance website after hours and on weekends. Leaving me with almost zero time for myself... except for the odd movie and dinner out with hubby and/or friends of course. (Turning into a total recluse wouldn't help anyone, let alone the creative process :p)

So thank goodness we're still part of the Commonwealth. We get to take a legitimate interest in the Royal Wedding like a distant cousin with an obligatory invite, plus we still get to celebrate the Queen's birthday with a day off. A lovely, well-deserved, long-in-coming day off work.

This morning hubby made pancakes while I watched last night's recorded episode of Downton Abbey (what a scandalous episode! awesome.) and then two episodes of Golden Girls on TV (husband to me, seriously concerned: 'Why are you so obsessed with shows about old people?' because I'm also a big fan of As Time Goes By, Keeping Up Appearances and all those BBC shows aimed at the over 50s).

Great morning. But now it's back to the grind. Argh, my aim: write at least 2-3 articles then treat myself by going out to watch Super 8. Let's get started.

In praise of: Lost in Austen (mini series)

2011-05-26T00:07:00.000+10:00

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Austen fans clamour for more from their long-dead favourite author, so new variations of her work will always be acceptable if they're done well. And what a corker this one is. It's not perfect but it's a charming homage about a modern day Austenite who swaps places with her favourite character and literally gets lost in the world of Pride and Prejudice.

The first time I watched this four-part mini series was on TV, each episode doled out weekly while I waited with bated breath. The twists and turns had me utterly enthralled. (Spoiler alert) What, Jane marries Collins? Lydia runs away with Bingley? Wickham turns out to be the good guy??? With all these plot differentials, the time travelling portal isn't hard to swallow.

The second time I watched it all at once and became more aware of the gaping holes. Nonetheless, I think a little suspension in belief is good for the imagination. Anyway, what can you expect when you've got time travelling heroines and a huge plot to deal with in just four 46 minutes episodes? I would have been happy for them to have doubled that number. Despite glossing over some major inconsistencies, Lost in Austen does a great job creating an escape for those who, like Amanda, love the world that Jane Austen creates.

The casting was great: Jemima Rooper as Amanda, the modern-day Elizabeth with her witticisms and love-hate relationship with Darcy, was perfect, as was the smouldering Elliot Cowan as Mr Darcy and the luminous Gemma Arterton at Elizabeth Bennet.

And it's funny too. There's a scene where Amanda says to Mr Darcy, 'Will you do something for me...' and next thing you know, he's coming out of the lake, his wet shirt clinging to his considerably-more-buff-than-his-predecessor body.

The biggest treat is how wayward the characters go as Amanda tries desperately to keep the plot together. Any self-respecting Austen fan knows the book practically by heart, so it's wonderful to see the characters come to life without the boundaries of Jane Austen's pen. We as the audience also find ourselves going wayward. I mean, what is the world coming to when we don't want Lizzie and Darcy to get together?

Ah the romance.

It's been at least two years since I've read P&P (it always takes willpower not to pull it off the shelf, but I know that the next reading will be the better for having waited), so I think now it's time to get a little lost myself.

The Case of the Missing Books, Ian Sansom: book review

2011-05-25T22:57:00.000+10:00

The Case of the Missing Books is the first of a comedy/mystery series involving reluctant hero Israel Armstrong: a chubby, bumbling, Jewish, not-entirely-inept librarian.

The plot begins when Israel lands in the middle of nowhere, Tumdrum Ireland, having accepted a librarian position only to discover that it's for a mobile library (apparently the bottom rung of libraridom). To add insult to injury, he's forced to live in a barely-converted chicken coop with a quirky family of brother, sister and their grandfather, he doesn't have enough money to return home without receiving his first paycheck, and all the library books have gone missing and the council won't let him out of his contract until he finds them.

I was led by the back cover and many reviews to believe that it's a funny and delightful book, but as much as I wanted to like it, it just wasn't the hilarious comic caper I'd hoped for.

The characters are drawn a little too hard like "quirky locals" and they end up as single dimensions of a big farce, like the overweight Linda Wei who constantly crams junk food in her mouth at every opportunity and punctures her scenes by passing gas.

It's gentle humour that attempts to please, but ultimately failed to engage this reader.

Reviewed as part of the Great Library Challenge, author S.

Prospect Park West, Amy Sohn: book review

2011-05-25T22:20:00.000+10:00

I have to apologise for the brevity and vagueness of this review, but I read this book around two months ago and just haven't had the chance to blog about it. However I'm resolved to review all the books I read as part of the Great Library Challenge so I'll try to dig into the recesses of my memory and give a quick review.

Prospect Park West is about first-time moms in a particularly yuppie area of Brooklyn that seems overly populated with young at-home mothers. There's bored and sex-starved Rebecca who laments her glamorous old life, 'hasbian' Lizzie whose lesbian tendencies begin to return as her husband's work-related absences increase, freakily intense Karen who will stop at nothing to get a Prospect Park West postcode for her son, and beautiful but insecure movie star Melora, whose entire life, including her adopted child, seems to be a public relations exercise.

The story is fast-paced and laced with a dark wit that's not exactly mean-spirited, but far from kind in its portrayal of at-home mums. The characters swing between the type that's obsessed by their kids (Karen) to the mum who almost seems to fear being in the same room alone with their child (Melora), but in every case there's some type of self-destructive behaviour linked to a sense of lost personal identity stemming from the birth (or adoption) of their child.

It's a theme that appears almost despite itself, as Sohn busies herself with witty observations and poking fun at her characters. The book seems to be in a rush to end, and certain storylines are left hanging and unresolved, so there's a sense of unfinished business at the end. Apparently Sohn is writing a sequel, but I doubt I'll be coming back for seconds.

Murder at the Academy Awards, Joan Rivers

2011-04-05T11:50:00.000+10:00

Author R for the Great Library Challenge.

I've been somewhat fascinated by Joan Rivers since reading all the profiles and reviews that came in the wake of the documentary, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. What's most fascinating is that she's so candid about her desperation to be the centre of attention in Hollywood and her shameless antics for staying there.

With a career that literally spans decades in front of the camera, Ms Rivers has turned her hand to writing and along with Jerrilyn Farmer (the author of the Madeline Bean culinary mystery series) penned this novel, which I vaguely understand may be turned into a series.

In Murder at the Academy Awards, the protagonist Maxine Taylor is the extremely-thin veiled literary doppelganger of Rivers herself. She and her daughter Drew do what Rivers and her daughter Melissa do in real life: stalk celebrities on the red carpet for interviews as they head into the Academy Awards ceremony.

The mystery begins when one of Hollywood's brightest young starlets, who also happens to have been a close school friend of Drew's, drops dead on the red carpet mid-interview with Max Taylor. Very soon, Max is on the chase, using her wiles to enter rehab under false pretences and crash glamorous parties to find the murderer and clear her daughter's name.

It's an easy to read, light-hearted romp that basically expounds the cleverness of Max Taylor and her love for her daughter Drew. However, Rivers' sharp wit doesn't translate that well in written form, and many of the gags seem rather belaboured. It's all in the name of fun though, and if you can wade through the heavy name dropping and you don't mind the re-imagining of Hollywood with Rivers and her daughter as the nucleus, you may enjoy it.

Here's an interview with Rivers from Amazon editorial:

Q: What kinds of books do you enjoy?
A: At my age, anything in large print.

Q: Is it true when they say that you should “write what you know”?
A: Absolutely, which is why my next book is about having thighs that are visible from outer space.

Q: What is it like having a novel published at the age of 75?
A: I am so old, even the spine of my book has osteoporosis.

Q: Computer, typewriter or pen and paper. What tools did you use to write your first book?
A: Chisel and stone.

Q: Are you one of those writers who work at home in a dirty old bathrobe without showering for days?
A: Yes, except for the part about working at home.

Q: What’s the first step in getting a publisher interested in your book?
A: A check for fifty grand made out to “cash”.

Battle Los Angeles: 2 minute movie review

2011-04-05T11:19:00.000+10:00

I really didn't know what to expect with this movie as I hadn't seen any shorts, and we decided to watch it on a whim influenced by cheap tickets. Based on the poster I decided it was your typical disaster movie with usual bad script, ham acting and no plot, so imagine my surprise to see Aaron Eckhart front and centre.

As it turns out, Battle Los Angeles is actually an alien invasion movie. It's kind of like what you'd get if you crossed Men in Black with Black Hawk Down, because apart from the main storyline of aliens trying to take over Earth, there was a sub-plot involving battle-worn Marine Sargeant Michael Nantz (Eckhart) having to win the trust of a new crew, and a theme of heroes versus heroics.

All in all I thought it was a decent movie. Nothing spectacular apart from the effects, but still there was actually a plot, which is a step up from many of these big flicks.

Verdict: a great date movie for teenagers.

IN PRAISE OF: The Rock

2011-04-01T17:01:00.003+11:00

I've decided to start a new Friday meme (because there aren't enough memes in the world) called 'in praise of', and every week I'm going to praise something new. I think we - generally, collectively - are more inclined to complain than praise, and it's time to turn the tables.

So my first praiseworthy subject: The Rock. I know right! Strange first choice. But listen.

The general and noteworthy stats are that his name is Dwayne Douglas Johnson, he was born in 1972 from a Samoan background, and he was a professional wrestler (hence the name) before becoming an actor. You might know him from such movies as The Scorpion King, Welcome to the Jungle and most recently, the ads for Fast Five, the latest instalment of the interminable Fast and the Furious series starring Vin Diesel, who I consider a kind of poor man's Rock.

I chose him mostly because I watched Welcome to the Jungle on TV the other night and was very highly entertained - it's a funny movie, and while most of the humour comes from Seann William Scott (another praiseworthy subject based on his roles in this and Role Models), it was really great to see The Rock quite happily make fun of himself.

It got me thinking how clever it is of him (and/or his agent) to do that, as it jumps the punchline of anyone who would dismiss him as simply a meathead by parodying that image of himself in movies like Get Smart and his cameo on The Other Guys.

His movie choices are usually quite safe - either major action or comedy, even dabbling in some Schwarzenegger-esque kids movies like The Tooth Fairy - but he seems to know his limitations and I like how he doesn't try to be someone he isn't, like a serious dramatic actor.

He's even released a New York Times bestseller called The Rock Says. Don't expect a review anytime soon, but hey, respect.

I love people who don't take themselves too seriously, and he certainly fits the bill. He's big enough to bash anyone who would be so stupid as to question his masculinity, so he can prance around in a tutu and people will laugh with him, not at him.

So Mr Rock, I praise you.

Dog On It, Spencer Quinn: book review

2011-03-30T18:38:00.000+11:00

Meet Chet, the canine partner of the crime-smashing duo of Spencer Quinn's series Chet and Bernie. Dog On It (forgive the terrible pun) is the first of the series and is narrated entirely from the point of view of Chet, whose keen intelligence and olfactory sense is easily matched by his affinity for scarfing down old scraps and sniffing bottoms.

Bernie Little, the principle of the Little Detective Agency, is the human owner of crime-sniffing canine Chet and comes across as a most affable fellow thanks to Chet's interpretation. Like most other detectives you've ever heard of, he's 'hard bitten' and 'steely', but from Chet's point of view we get to also see his vulnerable side. As a character he's not as fleshed out as Chet, but we like him enormously anyway.

The plot of Dog On It revolves around a missing teenage girl and the dirt Chet and Bernie discover when they're hired to find her. Her disappearance somehow seems to involve a Russian crime gang and a lot of money.

During the course of their investigations, Chet manages to get into a number of scrapes coming this close to being put down at a dog pound. It's heart-thrilling stuff. And it's heartwarming too, as we get to see the foibles of human relations through his eyes and his utterly endearing loyalty to Bernie.

Dog On It is a wonderfully funny book which I was so glad to discover is a series, because it's something I'd love to come back to again and again.

How to Catch a Star (Oliver Jeffers) at Kiddie Book Club

2011-03-30T17:45:00.000+11:00

The major benefit of working as a freelance copywriter is having a flexible schedule that allows me to attend events as illustrious as the Kiddie Book Club, where today I had the honour of being a Guest Reader.

Kiddie Book Club is run by my good friend Haej Wolfson, who also happens to have the biggest heart and largest capacity of just about anyone I know. By 'capacity' I mean the sheer number of events, people, jobs and children she can juggle without breaking a sweat.

So with four little members aged from almost-two to four eager to hear a story (the book club is only in its infancy), I opened and read How to Catch a Star, written by one of my favourite artists and children's book author/illustrators Oliver Jeffers.

How to Catch a Star is a beautiful story about a young boy who dreams of having a star as a friend, and schemes ways of catching one from the sky. While reading it today, I learnt a major lesson about reading to children: keep their focus on the story.

Children can be truly enigmatic in their ability to swing from ADD-like shoutiness to autismic focus in a millisecond. I made the mistake very early on of asking, 'how many stars can you count on this page?', which of course caused them to shout out loud the number of stars on every page I turned, completely ignoring the unfolding storyline.

I'd like to think they got something out of it though, as they switched from fighting over a headband to fighting over a little confetti star afterwards.

Thanks for the honour Kiddie Book Club! Call on me anytime.

The Adjustment Bureau: 2 minute movie review

2011-03-26T23:08:00.001+11:00

How could I fail to love a movie with two of my favourite stars: Matt Damon and Emily Blunt? PLUS it's been advertised as a cross between Bourne and Inception, two fantastic movies (well, one is a series). I wouldn't say it quite hits all those highs: it's not as action-driven as Bourne or as clever and complicated as Inception, but it's still damn good.

If you've seen any of the ads you'll know it's a conceptual film about a bureau that 'adjusts' the fate of humans in keeping with an overall Plan with a capital P. Damon and Blunt play two lovers who are proverbially star-crossed, trying to stay together despite the best attempts of the bureau to separate them. It's quite classically Philip K Dick (in that you're pretty sure the idea was drug-induced). On the whole, the film is really quite good, although there are a few clunky obvious bits, but just suspend your cynicism and go for the ride. It's a good one.

My Favourite Wife, Bill Parsons (book review)

2011-03-26T22:47:00.001+11:00

Apparently Tony Parsons (my 'P' author for the Great Library Challenge) has sold a ton of books so I decided to give this one a go. The short verdict: failed to grab me.

The protagonist is Bill Holden, a 'good' man and ambitious lawyer who, in his drive to make partner, moves to Shanghai with his beautiful and intelligent wife Becca and their adorable four year old daughter Holly. If they sound typical, it's because they are. The family is a walking, talking, one-dimensional modern cliche of the Western world.

Becca, who initiated the move, finds the craziness of Shanghai overwhelming (a major factor being the discarded baby she finds in the trash of their luxury highrise apartment, populated largely by the 'second wives' (a.k.a. mistresses) of rich men) and takes Holly back to London for a while. During her absence, Bill takes up with JinJin, a local leggy second wife who is lonely during the long absences of her married partner.

Parsons paints Bill as a man caught between two worlds: troubled by the corruption he finds in the dizzying economic growth of Shanghai and trapped between two loves. Although most of the ingredients are there (Bill is genuinely interested in the plight of second wives and feels more keenly for the Chinese locals than his Western counterparts), his character never quite reaches the complexity required to engage our empathy. Parsons' attempt to keep Bill high-minded backfires quite badly too, as it smacks of Western elitism and hypocrisy, because when you strip away the facade, the basic fact is that he is cheating on his wife with a local, just like many other men before him. The layers of supposed complexity are simply that: contrived to make his affair with JinJin appear more a matter of the heart than the other major male organ.

Normally I quite like hearing the male perspective in modern fiction (Nick Hornby and Jonathan Tropper for example), but I just couldn't find the connection point with this novel, so it totally failed to engage me. Sorry Mr Parsons.

David Nicholl's One Day becomes a movie

2011-02-16T14:54:00.004+11:00

Hey remember the book One Day by David Nicholls? It's been turned into a movie with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess. This is the lovely poster for it:

I love the implied motion in the image, like he's going in one direction and she's going in another, but they clash in the kiss. The sepia colouring is gorgeous too.

Jim Sturgess looks much as I'd imagined Dexter while reading the book (cocky, a bit rumpled but charming - a little something like Dylan Moran), but I'm not so sure about Anne Hathaway as Emma. For some reason I imagined Emma as a blonde (I can't remember how the book describes her) or a bit smaller or whatever. But I like Anna Hathaway. She can do the gorgeous-loser insecurity thing well (like a girl who doesn't know how pretty she is) but I hope her British accent's up to scratch.

If you haven't read it yet, get yourself over to the library/bookstore/Book Depository and get onto it. It's hefty but a good one.

How Do You Know: 2 minute movie review

2011-02-14T17:11:00.000+11:00

This movie has copped a fair bit of flack by reviewers, quite possibly because it's not your typical romantic comedy. Directing producing legend James L Brooks (Broadcast News, Jerry Maguire, As Good As It Gets, etc) has created a more grown-up type of rom-com, where we meet two of the main characters at their lowest points.

While most rom-coms have the metaphorical neon 'they get together' arrows pointing to the love interests throughout the movie, this one's not so sure-footed with the characters, which makes for an interesting film even if it isn't bursting your sides with laughter.

Jack Nicholson overplays his part a bit, but Reese Witherspoon is quite charming in a totally non-Legally Blonde way. Most of the comedy comes through Owen Wilson, and Paul Rudd is... well Paul Rudd. A little bit of a bumbling nice-guy who you root for.

I have two free tickets to the movie at any cinema if anyone wants them. Up for grabs. Anyone? Leave a comment or email me by Friday 18th Feb and they're yours.

2010 Reading List

2011-02-14T16:55:00.002+11:00

A Tiny Bit Marvellous, Dawn French
Air Kisses, Zoe Foster
Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
Light Boxes, Shane Jones
Shopaholic Ties the Knot, Sophic Kinsella
Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, Sophie Kinsella
The Family Man, Elinor Lipman
Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris
Asterix and the Black Gold, Goscinny and Uderzo
The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
Confessions of a Shopaholic, Sophie Kinsella
Squirrel Meets Chipmunk, David Sedaris
Sleep No More, Greg Iles
The Radleys, Matt Haig
The Third Twin, Ken Follett
Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
GTO volume 23, Tohru Fujisawa
The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
Ramona's World, Beverly Cleary
The Sandman (Endless Nights), Neil Gaiman
Becoming Strangers, Louise Dean
The News Where You Are, Catherine Flynn
Breakfast at Tiffany's, Truman Capote
Beat the Reaper, Josh Bazell
Turkish Gambit, Boris Akunin
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
The Bride Stripped Bare, Nikki Gemmell
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, MA Shaffer & A Burrows
Daddy Long Legs, Jean Webster
The Diary of Anne Frank
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
Spellmans Strike Again, Lisa Lutz
Chart Throb, Ben Elton
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Paul Torday
You Don't Have to be Evil to Work Here But it Helps, Tom Holt
Eric, Shaun Tan
Two Caravans, Marina Lewycka
The Truth About Melody Browne, Lisa Jewell
Thanks for the Memories, Cecelia Ahern
Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, Alexander McCall Smith
The Monday Night Cooking Club, Erica Bauermeister
A Friend of the Family, Lisa Jewell
31 Dream Street, Lisa Jewell
Just Courage, Gary Haugen
The Lives of Christopher Chant, Diana Wynne-Jones,
Mister Pip, Lloyd Jones
Isabel's Bed, Elinor Lipman
Les Miserables (volume 1), Victor Hugo
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
My Latest Grievance, Elinor Lipman
The Girl who Stirred the Hornet's Nest
Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
Revenge of the Spellmans, Lisa Lutz
Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
This is Where I Leave You, Jonathan Tropper
The Case of the Imaginery Detective, Karen Joy Fowler
Fly Me to the Moon, Alyson Noel
The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas
The Glorious Nosebleed, Edward Gorey
Finger Lickin' Fifteen, Janet Evanovich
The Book of a Thousand Days, Shannon Hale
People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
Stardust, Neil Gaiman (re-read)

Standouts: Light Boxes (Shane Jones), The Millennium Series (Stieg Larsson), The Sandman (Endless Nights, graphic novel), Neil Gaiman, Confederacy of Dunces re-read (John Kennedy Toole), Family Man (Elinor Lipman), Les Miserable (Victor Hugo), Cat's Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut)

Bombs: Fly Me to the Moon (Alison Noel), Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte), The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (MA Shaffer & A Burrows), The Case of the Imaginery Detective (Karen Joy Fowler), Air Kisses (Zoe Foster)

... which begs the question: why do I keep going back to chicklit?

Special Mentions: The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Muriel Barbery), Beat the Reaper (Josh Bazell), anything by Alexander McCall Smith.

Hmm, there's very little in the way of non-fiction, or even self-improvement type books or the ones that expand your mind. Shame on me.

Total: 69

City of Tiny Lights, Patrick Neate: book review

2011-02-14T16:35:00.002+11:00

I'm back on The Great Library Challenge after a bit of a break, and for my N author I chose Patrick Neate's book City of Tiny Lights, mainly because of the cool cover art and Frank Zappa reference.

The protagonist is 'Paki-immigrant Ugandan Indian English' hard-boiled detective, Tommy Akhtar. The story starts with such a corker of a private eye cliche (his client is a hooker who's looking for her hooker flatmate who's been missing since her johnny, a prominent politician, was murdered in a fleabag motel) that at first I thought the book was taking the piss out of the genre.

It wasn't. But neither does it take itself so seriously that you can't enjoy the ride.

In the way of good detective novels, the story starts with a simple premise that becomes increasingly complex as the Akhtar digs deeper into the case. What's unique about this particular detective novel is that the hero is an immigrant with a complicated background and completely dysfunctional relationship with his father and brother, which is actually kinda explored (though not fully) and not just glossed over.

I have to admit I got lost a few times as the plot increasingly moves forward at a frenetic pace, and there are a lot of minor characters that are easy to lose track of, as well as a host of MI5 and CIA agents, terrorists and 'thug-lites' who pop their heads in. But overall it was an enjoyable read, quite witty and patched together with a light touch.

True Grit: 2 minute movie review

2011-02-10T10:38:00.001+11:00

Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld and Matt Damon are an unlikely avenging trio in this remake of a John Wayne classic.

I loved this movie for so many reasons:

the idea of a strong-headed 14 year old girl in the old west seeking to avenge her father's death is unique
the characters are really well drawn and they were beautifully acted
the Coen brothers did a great job handling the story, which is great because frankly I think they've had some hits and misses recently.

It really stands out against a lot of the movies being made at the moment too (which is something the Coens do well) because Hollywood tends to make a lot of me-toos. There's never just one disaster movie, there are three all being made at the same time by rival studios, or two similar animated films or several romantic comedies all starring Reese Witherspoon.

In that environment, it's a refreshing change to see a major film genre (the wild west) being represented by a single film, and one that portrays some complex relationships with such understated simplicity. I say it deserves a liberal sprinkling of Oscars all round.

What a lovely story

2011-02-10T10:23:00.000+11:00

Check out this incredible story from the ever-reliable UK tabloid The Sun (I know that sounds sarcastic but it really is a fantastic story):

STUNNED Richard Morwood has discovered his missus is the same girl whose message in a bottle he answered 30 years ago.
Mandy English was just 13 when she hurled the note requesting a penpal into the sea during a 1979 school trip to Scotland.

Two years later Richard, then just six, spotted the glass bottle on the beach and sent a reply by postcard.

Mandy never wrote back because of the age difference.

But while sorting through keepsakes last week, she found the 1981 card and realised its schoolboy sender had the same name as Richard, her boyfriend since last June.

She asked the road maintenance worker, now 36, if he remembered the message in the bottle - and it suddenly dawned on them that they had "met" before.

Mandy, now a 44-year-old mum of three, said: "It was amazing. I then realised he was the little lad who sent me that lovely postcard all those years ago. I was so shocked I nearly passed out."

Now for Hollywood to The Notebook it. You can see the couple's picture at The Sun, but what's the bet that when the movie poster comes out, brunette Mandy will become pouty blonde Scarlett Johanson and Richard will look like Ashton Kutcher?

The Fighter: 2 minute movie review

2011-02-04T16:00:00.002+11:00

Christian Bale steals the show but Mark Wahlberg delivers the final KO.

Inspiring in the way you'd expect but still don't mind watching, The Fighter is a true underdog story. Christian Bale is fantastic as Dickie Eklund, a washed up junkie ex-boxer whose lost opportunities are now conferred to half-brother Micky Ward, played by Wahlberg (Bale's come a long way since Laurie in Little Woman).

The ladies are particularly confronting (Amy Adams as Micky's girlfriend versus his manager-mother and tough lot of half-bred sisters) but all the performances are solid and it's a very rewarding small-town-boy to champion-of-the-world story.

I Am Legend, Richard Matheson (graphic novel) book review

2011-02-04T11:24:00.001+11:00

The graphic novel version of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend borrows heavily from the original novel and follows the plot practically scene for scene. It's a little wordier than your average graphic novel, but that's understandable considering there isn't a lot of conversation, and most of the story is told by a third person narrator.

The text sounded to me like a dumbed-down version of the book, although I discovered rather to my surprise that apparently most of it is taken word for word from the novel. It sounds like they only took the most obvious sentences though: 'Robert Neville is inside the house. The zombies are outside moaning for him to come out.' (Okay, this is my interpretation and not a direct quote, but seriously the narration was just like that).

What's particularly disappointing about the graphic novel is that the images, which I think have a responsibility to add to the drama and read between the lines of the text, do nothing of the sort. If the text says, 'Robert Neville drinks a whole bottle of whiskey', the image shows him actually drinking a bottle of whiskey. Come on.

The best graphic novels, like the best children's books, have illustrations that add a new dimension to the story using layers and sub-text, but there's no attempt to do that here. There's nothing slick or sophisticated in the illustrations, and Ruth, the only other seemingly proper human being apart from the protagonist, is drawn very differently in different scenes. The first time they meet she's quite attractive, but when they meet a second time, she looks like a completely different person with a bulging forehead and bloated face, and there's no reasonable explanation for this fact. Did she suddenly contract down syndrome?

I think the only people who would really enjoy this are the ones who can't be bothered to read the original novel and want the story told in a simple format or young teenage boys. Actually scratch that last one, I think I may not be giving young teenage guys enough credit.

Black Swan: 2 minute movie review

2011-02-03T11:31:00.001+11:00

Natalie Portman goes mad, but does so very beautifully.

It's no wonder this is an Oscar contender - it's a beautiful movie and so tightly wound you can't relax for a moment. All the performances are eerily great, and the much-touted lesbian sex scene between Portman and Mila Kunis is anything but gratuitous.

It leaves you with a lot of questions, which I imagine is exactly what director Darren Aranofsky intended. I'd classify it as a psycho-thriller with a little bit of horror, but it's so beautifully made it doesn't look like it belongs in that kind of cheesy genre.

Freedom, Jonathan Franzen book review

2011-02-02T15:50:00.004+11:00

You'll have to forgive me because I'm about to gush. I LOVED this book. I loved the way Franzen manages to get so far inside a character's head it's hard to believe they're not really in your world. I loved the way the relationships between the characters dip and dive in a rhythmic pattern much like a dance. And I particularly loved Franzen's writing. It's seemingly simple but layered with complexity and insight in a way that makes you catch your breath at just how exquisitely one can wield the English language.

On the surface it's about a suburban New York couple, Patty and Walter Berglund, and the course of their marriage. They're ordinary people - so terribly ordinary - Walter the earnest nice guy and Patty smiling-so-hard-it-hurts to be the person she believes she should be but is falling short of. But it's in their very ordinariness that the novel becomes quite extraordinary.

In a way I think Freedom is about our need for particular people in our lives, and how it can inhibit our desire to pursue our individual liberties (our 'freedom') when what we want and what they want don't align. The way relationships tie people together, so when we pull at our end of the string, it can't help but affect those attached to us. Action and consequence are no better highlighted than in Patty's desire for Richard Katz, Walter's best friend and weathered rock star.

Katz, oddly, becomes one of the most intriguing characters for me. His love for Walter seems at odds with his image, yet when he hurts him, it's almost like he's doing it more for Walter's sake than to betray him. In the end you wonder if Katz, despite not really knowing himself, is actually the best judge of the human heart in clearly seeing what Patty and Walter's marriage really was (which neither of them were able to do or at least admit to), and then smashing it in order to put it together as intended. Or was he just a selfish bastard? There's that too.

All the main characters are complex and completely three-dimensional. There are even instances where things are set up so you expect a certain outcome, but the character's thoughts and feelings defy your expectations of what-should-happen-in-a-book with the realness of their instinctive response. It is simply marvellous. For example, when Richard goes back to see Patty and is full of coolly hesitant anticipation, but when he sees her he realises she's a pain in the butt and she's gotten kinda old. But it still doesn't stop him from wanting her.

The reversal of expectations extends through to the plot, where Patty and Walter's relationships with their kids crossover at a point when they're at their worst and in most greatest need. Patty basks in the glow of Joey's confidence and success while Jessica is an image of her responsible dad. Yet when the shit hits the fan, all the allegiances change and they find strength in the opposite parent/sibling. There's a certain elegance to this, as it shows just how much Patty and Walter need the influence of the other in their lives.

Despite how much I enjoyed Freedom, I'm ready to admit it's not a perfect book and it's not for everyone (if you get easily frustrated, don't even bother). There are a few things that, in my mind, weren't quite resolved. Like Connie's weirdness. Okay, we do begin to like her better by the end of the book, especially as she rises in Walter's estimation. But still - are we supposed to forget that she's a complete kook? Ultimately I thought she must have a mental disability (causing her unhealthy obsession with Joey), but I guess that's pretty true to life. From my time working with The Salvation Army and their clients, I realised there are a LOT of mentally unbalanced people out there somehow managing to function in the world, so I guess it's a reflection of reality.

If we're talking themes I think it's about human nature: our raw motivations, our inability to quash unhealthy desires even in the face of the purest love, the influence of the family on the individual, and the difficulty (but not impossibility) of changing our base and often selfish nature. But there is still hope.

It's easy to see why Jonathan Franzen is touted so hugely in America as a rising literary force (what a cliche, but in this case true). He could write the back of a cereal box and it would very likely win the Pulitzer Prize. I'm giving this 10/10.

Word coinage: pubic perm

2011-01-25T12:21:00.005+11:00

Here's a fairly well-known tidbit among the Korean circle: Korean women of a certain age (late 40s usually, maybe early 50s) tend to cut and perm their hair in a kind of Asian-Afro 'do. Here's what the blog Stuff Korean Moms Like says about it:

At a certain juncture in a Korean mother's life...she feels the undeniable urge to rock the Little Orphan Annie look. The perm is supposed to enhance fullness in her hair...but usually results in a frizzy halo that ushers in another era in a Korean mother's life (see 'Ahjumah'). This is a rite of passage and cannot be stopped. One will often hear young Korean women saying to each other "I'm never going to get that perm thing", but they all know deep in their hearts they will eventually succumb to the undeniable pull of the Perm. As a Korean mom ages, the perm will never change or deteriorate...although her face might.

Many years ago (around 8-10 years I'd say), I coined the word pubic perm to best describe it. I remember this very clearly, because it sprang to mind shortly after the springing of actual pubic hair through the fabric of a tight skirt of a friend of mine who liked to go commando.

Anyway, that's another story.

So shortly after the commando-pubic-hair incident, I was with some Korean girlfriends and we were talking about ahjumahs and why they inevitably go the way of the frizzy perm (all our mums had the same head of hair). And ding suddenly the phrase came to me: pubic perm.

See, other nationalities will see a shower drain full of short dark curly hair and shrink back in disgust. Koreans see the same hair in our shower drain and think 'mum's just had a shower'.

This is essentially what the pubic perm looks like (when it's still attached to the carrier's head):

This post is mainly for posterity because I'm claiming credit now before the phrase goes into the vernacular. Mwahaha!

Although on second thoughts, I'm not sure that I want my name associated with the pubic perm ...

Now THIS is a fashion show I can appreciate!

2011-01-19T16:36:00.001+11:00

I've never been a freak for fashion - it moves too fast and covers too little.

So imagine my surprise to discover the Salon du Chocolat, a magical celebration of all things chocolate, including a chocolate fashion show. Who woulda thunk it?

Check it out:

I'd gladly strip the models with my bare teeth! That sounds so wrong but feels so right...

See more mouthwatering pics at the Dessert Girl blog.

Book art

2011-01-18T13:42:00.000+11:00

I love books. Not just reading books, but books themselves. The weight and smell of the paper, the stitching, the binding... all the details that go into the craft of making a book.

I also love the things people make from books. Check out this book origami by artist Isaac Salazar:

He says:

“I see my work as a way to display a meaningful piece of art onto a book that would otherwise sit on a shelf and collect dust; it’s also my way of recycling a book that might otherwise end up in a landfill. The words or symbols I use are drawn from anything that invokes inspiration or encouragement, such as “Read”, “Dream” and the Recycle symbol. If my work also makes people look at a book and even art in a new light then the piece has done its job“
See his Book of Art on FlickR

Awesome, eh?

Over Christmas, I also espied (I don't think I've ever used that word before! What a first) a Christmas tree made from books at one of my favourite stationery stores in Surry Hils, Paper2. I took this photo on my phone:

I don't know why the image is appearing on its side, but just imagine the tree upright.

Gorgeous.

Can Kindle do any of that? I don't think so.

The Three Incestuous Sisters, Audrey Niffeneger

2011-01-14T15:21:00.002+11:00

This offering from Audrey Niffenegger of The Time Traveller's Wife fame is an adult picture book that, unfortunately, is not about a lesbian love affair between sisters. That might have been interesting.

Not to say that this book isn't. It's just... less interesting than the title would have you believe.

The Three Incestuous Sisters (why 'incestuous'? Where are they incestuous? And is my obsession with this unnerving? I just want to know what led her to choose this word, apart from the fact that it's so loaded) is a surreal tale about three orphaned sisters (Bettine, Clothilde and Ophile) who basically bust up over a guy. The writing is sparse and accompanied by Gorey-esque images of mostly grey hues (this is Edward Gorey who wrote and illustrated the tongue-in-cheek The Recently Deflowered Girl. Come to think of it, aren't our tongues always in our cheeks? I don't get this phrase at all).

Niffenegger has called The Three Incestuous Sisters 'the book of my heart, a fourteen-year labor of love' in the afterword, and describes the laborious process of creating the aquatint images. The book was meant to be a work of art, with only 10 limited leather-bound editions including almost 100 hand-coloured, individually printed, aquatint etchings on hand-made paper (a ha! That explains why Claire in The Time Traveller's Wife has that same obsession. Clearly Niffenegger is married to a time traveller!), accompanied by hand-set type.

The library copy simply couldn't live up to the textures and depth the original artwork was created to convey, so what we have left is very sparse prose and haunting images on flat glossy paper. The problem with this is that the book promises too much. The size alone (9½" x 12½") juts out of the shelf, demanding attention, and then the title causes your eyes to pop.

Then you open it up and in a snapshot, the story is this: The three girls were happy together until the late lighthouse keeper's son, Paris, comes along and falls in love with Bettine, the youngest sister who's a pretty blonde. The eldest, Ophile with the dark blue hair, becomes jealous and mistreats Bettine, forcing Paris and Bettine out of the house. It leads to tragedy, death, regret and reconciliation which I won't go into for fear of spoiling the ending.

The book has fairytale elements: the pretty blonde gets the guy, the ugly older sister acts like a shrew (actually it doesn't say she's ugly - I'm just guessing) with an undercurrent of tragedy, but the story never goes beyond itself to create something really magical. The strength of the book is in the illustrations (do I have to keep calling them 'aquatints'?) that provide the macabre, dark gothic feel that the storytelling seems to lack.

What's interesting is that Niffenegger wrote The Time Traveller's Wife in between creating this book, so essentially it was like her way of procrastinating. Yet the side project eclipsed her main one, and probably also had a lot to do with getting it published too.

Nothing Serious, Justine Lèvy

2011-01-07T15:30:00.001+11:00

Justine Lèvy was my chosen author L for the Great Library Challenge.

I admit I chose the book based on the cover and the limited options in the library's L section. I had no idea that it was a literary sensation when first published in France in 2004 under the title Rien de Grave. It won the Prix Littéraire Le Vaudeville and overtook The Da Vinci Code in sales.

Having read the book, it's hard to fathom how the work in itself could achieve such a feat. It's a very intimate stream-of-consciousness story told from the point of view of Louise, the author of a well-received novel, daughter of a dizzyingly famous father, and whose husband has recently left her for his father's model girlfriend.

But couple the plot with the background of the author and you understand the sensation. Justine Lèvy's first work, Le Rendezvous, was published in the mid-90s to rave reviews, her father is France's most famous superstar philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, and her husband famously left her for his father's girlfriend, model and singer Carla Bruni (now France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy).

Her real life public scandal has been turned ingeniously into a novel, which at best is beautifully poetic, and at worst is mind-blowingly self-indulgent.

Nothing Serious starts at Louise's grandmother's funeral, where she finds herself in jeans and unable to cry. Both points are significant. She's in jeans because she feels like an 'ex-woman' since her husband's defection and can't bring herself to wear dresses anymore, and she can't cry because she's become incapable of emotion, an 'empty shell'.

The novel interweaves the events of the past (the unravelling of her marriage with Adrien) with her current life (in a relationship with new lover Pablo), revealing slowly the narcissism of her husband and her own severe insecurities. Both are overwhelming, so it's hard not to see the end of the marriage coming a mile away, even if you're as severely myopic as Louise is.

Her myopia acts metaphorically for her inability to see beyond herself, beyond her own state of loss and devastation, choosing to see and be seen as 'fuzzy, without outlines'.

What we see in the novel is the internal processing of loss. She writes most often about, and addresses passages, to Adrien. Some of these are transcendent prose:

He drags frantically on his cigarette, runs his hand through his hair, looks at himself in his watchface, and starts up again better than before, why he hesitates between Marxism and ultra-liberalism, his infallible painful memory, his memories that are poisoning him, his sadness, his melancholy, it's devouring me do you understand, it's consuming me.

At other times, her musings are terribly immature:

I tell myself I'll never love him, whatever he does, whatever he says, because love is atrocious, because love always stops one day and I never want to experience the death of love again.'

In a way, it's a novel about learning how to cope with life - or rather, how not to. Louise loses herself in her love for Adrien, turns to drugs to become the woman she thinks he wants in a desperate bid not to lose him, then dives into relationship after relationship to fill the void after he leaves.

*SPOILER ALERT BELOW:*

Ultimately, the author's... let's say 'youth' rather than 'immaturity' comes through rather strongly, though it's disguised as wisdom. It's a bit like Blues Clues - the paw prints aren't particularly subtle. She can't wear a dress because she's an ex-woman = at the end, Pablo buys her a dress. She hasn't had her periods in 7 years since the termination of her child with Adrien = in the end her periods come back. She's myopic and doesn't want to see = in the end she decides to have eye surgery so she can see clearly. Also in the end, there's a sad acceptance that life is about loss, and shouldn't be taken seriously. Ironically, that's exactly what the novel does: it takes itself very seriously indeed.

*SPOILERS END*

You know how there's that theory that gay actors shouldn't receive the same accolades for a gay role as straight actors playing a gay role, because they're really playing real-to-life? I kinda feel that way about this novel. On first glance it seems like a searing and raw insight into a woman's post-divorce brokenness, crafted cleverly between the past and present to show her emotional state. But knowing that this was actually the author's own story makes me think it's really more a series of glorified diary entries, milked to create a thin plot.

It's kind of like Jennifer Aniston writing a book about an actress whose famous husband leaves her for another actress who adopts kids from all over the world. Now that would knock The Da Vinci Code and Twilight off the bestseller lists all over America, regardless of her writing talent.

Fortunately for Lèvy, she does have literary talent. However, both her books, for which she's received acclaim, have been bordering on diary-pilfering. I understand that people are best at writing what they know about, but I'd like to see how she goes writing a novel that's not based so closely on her own life.

The Happiest Refugee, Anh Do

2011-01-05T14:47:00.000+11:00

I honestly can't remember the last time a book had such an emotional impact on me. The Happiest Refugee constantly had me alternating between laughing out loud and being on the verge of tears.

I almost didn't read it. I'd seen Anh Do on TV occasionally, but never particularly followed his comedy or had any particular interest in him. Also, I don't do memoirs. I tried to read The Long Way Home once upon a time but even the embiggening story of Nelson Mandela couldn't catch my fiction fancy. However, one day I read a positive book review about The Happiest Refugee, so with a Borders gift card in hand, I toddled over and bought it. Little did I know it would be the best $34 I would spend on a book in all of 2010.

It's not exactly a literary tour de force - sometimes there are awkward turns of phrases that highlight the fact that the author is a comedian, not a writer by nature - but it's an absolutely compelling read. Through anecdotes and smaller bite-sized stories of a larger whole, Do tells us about his family's harrowing escape from Vietnam, the struggles of their early arrival in Australia and the career that took him into the loungerooms of families across the country.

When you read the book, you understand the reason for his success. Do is revealed through every word and every page as someone with good sense, keen humour, high intelligence, a lot of determination and even more gratitude. It's an uplifting and positive read that celebrates the richness of life, rather than dwelling on the poor-me aspect that many memoirs tend to do.

Through the funny stories and anecdotes, we're told about the enormity of his love and respect for his mother, his struggles with and ultimate forgiveness for an absent and alcohol-abusive father, and the mark they left on this young Vietnamese boy who would grow up with a never-say-die outlook on the world interpreted through a humorous eye.

Not only is The Happiest Refugee funny and touching, it's also full of (dare I say it) immigrant wisdom. It reminded me of moments when I was growing up, like my dad looking sadly at the vandalism of a public train and telling me, 'Why destroy public properly? It's there for our benefit, so destroying it only destroys ourselves'. I could identify with Do not only in the physical things (both being Asian and growing up in western Sydney), but also in the non-tangibles, like the instilled gratitude towards our adopted country and the desire to give back.

Regardless of whether you can identify with him or not, I guarantee you'll enjoy this book. It's the sort of book I wanted to buy as a gift for everybody I know, but three bookstores I went to had already sold out of them. I'm not surprised. Get your hands on it if you can, however you can. You won't regret it.

2010 in review

2010-12-24T12:48:00.001+11:00

2010 seems to be one of those years that was completely packed with stuff, even though I don't even remember most of it. I was about it say 'it flew by' because most years feel like that, but I feel like 2010 went at the pace it should have - no faster or slower.

In a snapshot:

second year of marriage
big year for Bloom (my volunteer job)
location move for moneytime (my day job)
launch of www.thegracioushost.com.au
lots and lots of books.

For Bloom it was the year we launched proper. Bloom cakes made it into the public consciousness of the Khmer population in Phnom Penh, with a front cover feature story in the Cambodian Daily, huge orders from Cambodia's richest families and Cambodia's largest wedding cake at Phnom Penh's first International Food Fair. There's so much the girls can rightly be proud of, and I'm about to burst because I'm so proud of everything they've achieved and how far they've come.

Second year of marriage is extremely comfortable, though we're still growing and learning from each other. For me, maybe I'm a little too comfortable because I snap a lot faster. Thankfully I have a human mirror to show me how ugly my behaviour can be sometimes, and how I need to improve. No matter what they say about how you get stuck in your ways as you get older, I think it's impossible to do that in a relationship. I'm constantly challenged to grow, even in little things like the fact that N needs to plan things whereas I tend to fly by the seat of my pants, so I'm learning to be a little more circumspect. Just a little.

It's great to have someone whose opinion you trust to bounce things off, and it's also really lovely to have someone who thinks really well of you all (or at least most of) the time. It may only be a matter of time before that image cracks, but N really seems to think I'm something good, which is very nice of him :)

In terms of travel, we had a most excellent holiday to Bali in January with a bunch of friends, which was a lot more fun and lot less hassle than expected for such a large number of people and kids to boot! It'll now be a bi-annual (every second year) occurrence, which I'm looking forward to for 2012.

In September I also went to Cambodia for Bloom business. It was a whirlwind busy week including graduation, which was moving and beautiful. We played games with the girls every morning and one of the things that sticks in my mind is the Vaseline incident. We organised that Minute to Win It game where you dip your nose in vaseline, attach a cotton ball, then run across the room and deposit the cotton ball into a bowl all without using your hands. The vaseline tub was big so we just opened the lid and put it on the table, and suddenly Ruth whisked in and picked it up, dumped the vaseline out on a plate and hid the tub. She explained later that one of the girls has a panic attack when she sees a Vaseline tub because of the trauma associated with it. It was a horrific reminder of the innocence that was so brutally stolen from them, so even the smallest thing can have terrible associations. Sigh. We also had another game with balloons, and we had to be really careful with them because another student had been shot at once, so was afraid of popping balloons. I was trying to be so careful when letting the air out of them afterwards, but I popped 3 of them in a row!! Fortunately she wasn't in the room at the time. Whew.

2010 was probably the best for my eyes though. I am now the proud owner of 20/20 vision eyes, which were formerly around -5.5. Laser eye surgery rocks. And doing it in Korea meant I saved thousands of dollars, so I'm pretty pleased about that too.

Last month I launched The Gracious Host, a website dedicated to entertaining at home. It seemed like a good idea one day, and by the next it was launched. Actually, probably the next hour. Like I said, I fly by the seat of my pants. I love having people over and I guess I wanted to show how easy and enjoyable it could be, and hopefully I'll find ways to monetise it in 2011 and reduce my work hours. Woo hoo - the dream of everyone in cyberspace!

At the beginning of the year I marked 2010 as a year for being FEARLESS: facing things head on and doing things that might formerly have scared me. I have to say though, there weren't any massive challenges that I had to consciously psyche myself up to face. It was a pretty cruisy year - very blessed and very full in ways I couldn't have foreseen. I'm so grateful for my generous friends, extended family, being able-bodied and able to help others, living in Australia (and Sydney specifically), having a functioning brain, enjoying food, being able to travel and appreciate new experiences, a home I love... I could go on but I'll sign off here.

Merry Christmas!! I hope your 2010 was full and cheers to an even better 2011.

A Tiny Bit Marvellous, Dawn French

2010-12-22T15:35:00.002+11:00

I have to admit I'm a BBC-nerd. I love those old-timey English shows like Keeping Up Appearances, As Time Goes By and The Vicar of Dibley. Would you like a spot of tea? Oh yes please!

So when this novel by the Vicar herself, Dawn French, appeared on my horizon, I grasped and read it eagerly. Like the title, the book itself is a tiny bit marvellous.

The novel is about a fairly typical, middle-class, suburban British family. Chapter by chapter, the perspective changes across the members of the family. The main voice is child psychologist mum Mo, who is pre-menopausal and about to turn 50. She's an intelligent, insightful woman... except when it comes to her kids.

First there's Dippy Dora, a teen who embodies the worst of all the insecure yet supremely narcissistic and rude Brit teens you see on X-Factor cringe moments, and eccentric, Oscar Wilde-channeling gay son Peter (but call him Oscar). Their father, referred to as Husband, is somewhere in the background.

It's written in first person, diary-like monologues, which allow us to get to know each character more intimately than they know each other (and sometimes themselves). French takes a little too long to let us get used to them before anything of significance in the storyline actually happens. About half the book, in fact.

But it does pick up pace as each character makes mistakes (Oscar's is the funniest, Dora's rather sad and Mo's... well, slightly predictable) and learns and grows. Like normal families, there's a lot of bickering, and like TV families, there's a nice tidy end that brings them all together.

The writing is good. Mo has several French-esque moments when she goes off at something with funny observational humour, and Oscar's over-the-top dandyism is very amusing, but Dora's angsty entries can get, like, really tired like really fast. I hope that was intentional (do British teenagers still really talk like that?). French also manages to make this motley crew of characters very endearing despite - or rather because of - their many flaws.

I enjoyed reading A Tiny Bit Marvellous. I doubt it'll win any prizes, but it's a nice family drama-type book with wisdom and humour.

PS - thanks to the Ongs for gifting me with this book!

Air Kisses, Zoe Foster

2010-12-22T15:34:00.013+11:00

This is a hard review to write, because I really like Zoe Foster. She's the type of person I'd like to have as a friend.

I know she can write, because I follow her beauty blog at primped and I'm not even keen on beauty products. I read it because her posts are funny and informative. From what I can tell, she's funny, self-deprecating and rather charming, so I had high expectations for this book.

Air Kisses is about unlikely beauty editor Hannah Atkins, who works at Gloss magazine and is a thoroughly modern young woman. Like the best chicklit heroines, she's not too highly polished. She's a little klutzy, well grounded and pretty-despite-herself (we know this because of the number of times she spills food on her clothes, and is informed by other characters how adorable she is).

The book starts with Hannah getting dumped by her hunky newsreader boyfriend, but we don't feel anything particularly about this because we (the readers) haven't met him. She then blunders through a number of unnecessary and unfulfilling relationships before ending up in the arms of the guy we knew she should be with all along, causing agonising tedium and predictability along the way.

Parts of the novel have Foster's own brand of charm (the little humorous asides and observations), but much of it is cluttered with unnecessary details that don't progress the plot, increase our understanding of the heroine or even act as a humorous anecdote. Case in point: something about toenail polish in a taxi and wearing strange slippers. Wha...?? It's like one of those times your friend tells you something HILARIOUS that happened to them and falls over laughing, but it's a you-had-to-be-there moment that loses its humour in the telling.

As a result, the book is way too long and meandering. The most satisfying bit, the part you wait for the entire book, is then shuffled into the last few paragraphs on the last page. The guy she ends up with is the only one she has practically no meaningful contact with throughout the book, which again leads to us not caring very much instead of oohing and aahing like we're supposed to.

Hannah as a heroine is mostly likeable but too weak to admire or aspire to, and every single stereotype you could possibly imagine in chicklit is represented here: the one-dimensional glossy working girls, the supportive best friend, the gay pal who gives bitchy advice, the good-looking guy who falls in love with the heroine, the second good-looking guy who falls in love with the heroine... you've seen them all and you've seen them better.

The best part of the book are the little beauty editorial bits that begin each chapter. For example, did you know that you can kill a cold sore with nail polish remover?

As I've said, I know Zoe Foster can write. What I think she needs is a good editor to bounce the plot, pacing and characters off. It's like this book came straight from her computer without the necessary shuffling and editing and re-editing that a good book needs. There are lots of examples but the one I can think of off the top of my head is where Hannah wryly mentions that her best friend's word of the month is 'fierce', but she only uses it once, then Hannah uses it several times throughout the book herself in the narrative. I know it's a little thing, but it's these sorts of inconsistencies repeated that the editor is meant to pick up on. Someone needs to be ruthless with the manuscript to turn it into good reading material.

With Air Kisses, the bare bones are there but they haven't been sculpted into anything worthwhile. Just, unfortunately, more blah in a genre overloaded with it already.

Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice

2010-12-20T15:35:00.001+11:00

The third book in my Vampire Fiction series:

Interview with the Vampire begins with an intriguing and gripping premise: Louis, a 200 year old vampire from New Orleans, permits an interview with a young journalist, retelling the story of his life. The nerves and fascination of the reporter fuel our own, as we hear Louis's story of his 'making' by Lestat, the vampire who created him in order to share his wealth and plantation.

Despite his newfound vampire status and appetite, Louis never quite lets go of his human nature, which makes for a fascination and haunting tale of internal struggle and external strife. Louis and Lestat, locked in an unsatisfying relationship of co-dependency, mutually create Claudia (against Louis's desire to inflict vampirism on anyone), a young girl who grows into a deadly and intelligent young woman trapped in a little girl's body, and eventually incites Louis's betrayal of Lestat.

Claudia and Louis travel the world to find others of their kind, discovering them finally in Paris at the Theatre des Vampire. Louis finds his soul mate in Armand, and from this point, the novel becomes extremely homo-erotic despite the absence of actual physical sex (except when he feels the 'hard sex' of Armand's slave boy press against his body as he offers himself to Louis. For bloodsucking, not for sex - get your mind out of the gutter).

Partway through the book, the story starts to lose steam and Louis's philosophical who-am-I becomes quite tedious, as I'm sure it must have been for him after 200 years. Rice poses a lot of big questions (Is there a God? Who created vampires? Are they inherently evil?) that are never really answered (except the last question, where Rice tends toward no - they've just grown bored and detached through the years and lose the human ability to empathise or love), and in the end we become even more confused about the whys and wheres and hows of vampirism.

The website annerice.com explains that Interview with the Vampire started as a short story which Rice turned later into a full novel. That explains a bit for me, because the pace of the novel is certainly not as good as it could have or should have been, considering the calibre of the writing. Well, most of it anyway. At times it becomes all too flowery and dramatic, but for the most part, it's quite beautifully penned.

Back to the pacing issues: Rice spends way too long dwelling on the early years in New Orleans with Lestat, which in the scheme of things was not as important a chapter in Louis's life as the latter years, when he meets Armand and goes through what appears to be the vampire equivalent of a nervous breakdown. Also, she never answers the obvious question of whether his family has noticed his vampirism (pale skin, aversion to sunlight, sleeping in a coffin... any of it ring a bell?) and the sudden addition of another pale-skinned, sunlight-averse, coffin-sleeping male in the household.

The revelation of what sets Louis apart from other vampires comes late in the book, and Lestat's degeneration leads only to more questions. Why did he set himself apart from the other vampires, when he obviously knew of their existence? Why does he follow them to Paris and desperately ask to talk to Louis and then say nothing of significance to him? And why do I keep imagining him as a badly made-up Tom Cruise?

Overall, I found the book a very intriguing read, but certainly flawed. I'm told the second and third books (The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned are better, but I'm not sure whether I'll read them yet. I only planned my Vampire Fiction series to be a three-part thing, but I'm of two minds whether to read Dracula as well... anyone out there read it yet? Is it better than Interview?

The Shopaholic Series - 3-in-1 review, Sophie Kinsella (The Great Library Challenge author K)

2010-12-13T11:57:00.006+11:00

When I got to K in my great library challenge, I decided to go with Sophie Kinsella because her novels are so hugely popular and I wanted to know what the big deal was.

I have to admit that my expectations were low. So very sadly low, reflecting the state of chicklit, in my opinion. Good ones are very few and far between. But Kinsella delivers on every count: slightly dizzy but very endearing character? Check. Romance? Check. Funny-slash-disastrous situations that make you laugh? Double and triple check. And this is where the books really win out: Kinsella has masterful comic timing and uses it to great effect.

The heroine is the shopaholic herself: disaster-prone Becky Bloomwood, who starts off in the first book (The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic (also published as Confessions of a Shopaholic)) as a bored journalist at a money magazine who is unable to curtail her love of shopping, despite threatening letters from the bank and maxed out store cards. She's irresponsible and a bit ostriche-head-in-sand when it comes to finances, leading her into impending disaster, which of course she'll bounce out of better than ever, and with a super-hot boyfriend to boot.

What did you expect? I told you it was chicklit, right?

In the second novel, Shopaholic Takes Manhattan, her adventures take her to the Big Apple, where super-hot boyfriend Luke Brandon is starting a new branch of his super-successful business. But her super-spending (amongst other things) takes their relationship to the brink of disaster, which she deftly handles in the end, learning a little something along the way.

In the third novel, Shopaholic Ties the Knot, Becky digs herself further and further into a hole with her dithering as Luke comes to terms with his feelings for his birth mother, and two weddings are organised in different continents on the same day.

I have to admit, if Becky was my friend I'd give her a good shake and a talking to, because common sense seems to elude her until she's forced into a position to make good, but it does make for great comic fodder. And despite her dithering and disaster-proneness, she has a good heart. By the end of each novel she seems to grow and develop in character, but at the start of the next novel, she stumbles again, which is probably actually very realistic but could be frustrating if you cared too much.

There are classic chicklit elements that could get tiresome awfully fast (like the impossibly good looking and successful boyfriend, the ability to fall head over ass into good fortune), but Kinsella reinforces Becky's underdog status, ensuring that she remains endearing and flawed, and thus relatable.

In certain respects, Shopaholic reminded me of Bridget Jones's Diary, as Sophie Kinsella and Helen Fielding appear to have very similar comic sensibilities. Personally I think they're both really good writers (which shows in their books), and thankfully they redeem the overwhelming hovel of crap that chicklit tends to attract. Their heroines are larger than life versions of ourselves, and their adventures have a bigger arc with greater romantic rewards than you'd find in reality, which make them a great escape.

I'd highly recommend the Shopaholic series for light reading, suitable for holidays, on the beach, in-flight and when you're feeling down and need a pick up. I only meant to read one but ended up reading three!

There are three more books out now (Shopaholic and Sister, Shopaholic and Baby and Mini-Shopaholic) but I think I'll space them out to avoid overdosing. Thank goodness for Christmas holidays!

Light Boxes, Shane Jones (The Great Library Challenge author J)

2010-12-10T12:52:00.001+11:00

Okay okay, I know you're thinking, 'I thought you were going to read James Joyce for your J author!' (because, of course, you care so incredibly much about my Great Library Challenge). But, I've been defeated. Round one: Ulysses.

At first I was determined to conquer it at some point, even if not now, but I've thrown in the towel and have to admit: I don't care about two drunkards who ramble around Dublin making no sense. I just don't care. So there, literary gods.

Moving on.

Perhaps from the trauma of trying to read such a hefty book, I found the smallest alternative possible in Light Boxes. It's literally a small book, around A5 in size, but the content... oh the content. Thank God I put down Ulysses or I might never have found Shane Jones.

Light Boxes is a heartbreakingly beautiful book, a melancholic fable about a town afflicted by eternal winter as 'February' refuses to loosen its grip. At the centre of the story is a simple family: Thaddeus, Selah and their daughter Bianca.

The townspeople look to Thaddeus, a balloonist, to lead their revolt against February as they attempt all manner of acts of war: using tall poles to forcibly move the dark clouds, wearing shorts and pretending that June has arrived, pouring boiling water to melt the snow and trick winter into leaving. But no dice.

February is not your average one-dimensional bad guy either. He's a complicated figure - one you can't quite work out because his issues are so deep ranging. And he's arbitrary, like using the priests to ban flight, and then one by one, kidnapping the children, including Bianca.

The prose is as close to poetry as you can get, and is richly imaginative and impossibly tender. Typography is put to good use and various other tools, like lists and changing perspectives, add layers to the story.

Light Boxes evokes so many feelings, a bit of whimsy but mostly sadness. I constantly felt like I had that expression that I hated on Gwyneth Paltrow when she won the Oscar - eyebrows contracted and lifted in the middle, mouth in a small O, like you're half in pain and half in pleasure.

It's a beautiful read and I highly highly recommend it.

PS - I just did a google search on it and found out that apparently it's now officially achieved cult status. Well, as officially as you can get with cult status. From the original independent print run of 500, it got picked up by Penguin Books and distributed globally. The original pints are now worth $200!

The Family Man, Elinor Lipman

2010-11-24T15:59:00.001+11:00

The Family Man is funny and charming and witty and sweet. What I love about Elinor Lipman is that her stories don't need to be dramatised or heightened to be interesting, and she doesn't dumb down the narrative for mass appeal. Her writing is just gorgeous, like dipping a big red luscious strawberry into melted Belgian chocolate and letting it set.

At the core of the story is Henry, a single recently-retired divorcee, who has since come to terms with his homosexuality. The catalyst is the funeral of his ex-wife's third husband, which in a roundabout way re-connects Henry with his long-lost but still beloved stepdaughter Thalia, embroiling him in her media-spun romance with a horror director, and the arrival of a new love interest. Sound convoluted? You'd think so, but it's not. Lipman makes everything sound like a natural string of events.

She's often compared to Jane Austen in a lot of her reviews: my two cents worth is that the similarities in the two authors are their wonderful wit, insight into human behaviour and gently mocking social commentary. Austen is a sparklier writer though - her dialogue zings, while Lipman shines more when it comes to internal monologue.

I closed the last page on this book with some wistfulness. I would've loved for it to last longer - I needed this dose of literary medication after reading the last dud.

Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris

2010-11-22T17:20:00.004+11:00

My vampire fiction journey began well with The Radleys, but it's taken a real nosedive with this clunker.

Dead Until Dark is the first of the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris, which spawned the True Blood television series. Apparently True Blood is masterful. Having read this book, I can say that must have been quite a feat for the producers.

Okay, let's overlook the ridiculous names. Sookie is a telepathic barmaid who sees her mind-reading powers as a disability and acts like a deer in headlights when others treat her as odd. Bill (Bill! Has there ever been a less sexy name?) is a vampire who's just returned to the small town of Bon Temps to integrate with the humans. Sookie saves his life and promptly falls in love with him. It seems his only attraction is the fact that she can't read his mind, because otherwise he's pretty boring. Laconic, no appreciable sense of humour and not particularly high up in the vampire hierarchy.

The story is told from Sookie's perspective but one can't help but hear a middle-aged author indulging herself a little too much. Sookie is beautiful, has big boobs, is tough but soft, and is desirable to everyone (humans, vampires and everything in between). Oh and did I mention she has an orgasm every time? Like every time.

The plot itself is surprisingly decent, which leads me to believe that Charlaine Harris is a good story-creator, but not a particularly good storyteller or author. The writing is clumsy and cringe-inducing and the climax is left so far into the plot that when you get to it, you don't care too much. I actually put the book down to do something right in the middle of the climax and didn't pick it up again for another two days. That's unheard of for me; usually I have to know what's going to happen next, but all the eyeball rolling and cringing left me rather untouched by the end. Particularly cringe-inducing was the appearance of an extremely famous now-dead singer incarnated as the vampire Bubba. Seriously.

The characters were one-dimensional and never develop very much, but presumably this is because Ms Harris is busy setting up the following books that have since built her Southern Vampire empire.

If you're a fan, don't hate me. Obviously I'm voicing the opinions of a minority, because this book has received glowing reviews, and not even just from the publishers.

If you want a bit of a thriller with human-vampire sexy scenes thrown in, this might be for you. If you want something you won't be embarrassed to read on the train, then maybe give this a miss.

Sinking my teeth into vampire fiction: a beginner's journey

2010-11-19T15:12:00.003+11:00

I started my foray into vampire fiction with Matt Haig's The Radleys, which I really enjoyed. I think that, combined with the fact that I'm stalled on J in my Great Library Challenge (shakes fist at James Joyce), have contributed to my new challenge: read and compare vampire fiction.

Someone in my book club mentioned that the True Blood TV series is based on a book series that wasn't too bad, so I've borrowed book one from that series (Dead after Dark by Charlaine Harris). Someone else suggested the classic Dracula (hang on, is dracula a vampire? are they the same things?) or maybe it was Interview with a Vampire. Yeah that sounds more like it. But my dracula question remains.

Maybe... just maybe I might even give Stephanie Meyers a go. Maybe.

Knowing my luck

2010-11-17T13:08:00.001+11:00

Anytime there's an easy competition to enter, I'm in. And I've had pretty good luck; I've won countless movie double passes, Jerry Seinfeld's CD, a Rent musical pack (2 t-shirts, the soundtrack and a double pass), a number of DVDs including The Bounty Hunter (which turned out to be more a punishment than a reward), tickets to a Coldplay concert... nothing huge like a holiday (I'm still waiting), but an assortment of little things that keep me going back for more.

Normally they're just a matter of entering your name. Sometimes they take more work, like writing a 25-word-or-less entry about why or how or who or whatever, which you can usually knock out in less than 60 seconds because I bet they're not reading all the entries anyway.

Sometimes, the competition requires a little more. Like writing about it in your blog.

So here it is: to win a new Tamron AF18-270 camera lens, just head to Nothing but Bonfires and leave a comment as to which celebrity you'd want to get up close and personal with. I've just discovered it but it's a really cool blog that I think you'll enjoy. Good luck!

The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger (a second look)

2010-11-16T14:49:00.002+11:00

This isn't my first time reading The Catcher in the Rye but I have to say it affected me more this time than any other, which is ironic considering that I read it for the first time as an angsty teen and now I'm in my thirties.

The protagonist is 16 year old Holden Caulfield, who's just been expelled from his latest school for poor performance. He's not dumb though, he's just not interested. Still suffering from the effects of his brother Allie's death and in a state of... I guess you could call it depression, he leaves school early and wanders around New York like a self-professed 'madman' for a couple of days before returning home to face the music.

When I was all set to go, when I had my bags and all, I stood for a while next to the stairs and took a last look down that goddam corridor. I was sort of crying. I don't know why. I put my red hunting hat on, and turned the peak around to the back, the way I liked it, and then I yelled at the top of my goddam voice, "Sleep tight, ya morons!" I'll bet I woke up every bastard on the whole floor. Then I got the hell out. Some stupid guy had thrown peanut shells all over the stairs, and I damn near broke my crazy neck. (Chapter 7)

I never noticed before just how funny the book is. It's really a riot and I could barely stop myself chuckling out loud on the bus.

I was half in love with her by the time we sat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can drive you crazy. They really can. (Chapter 10)

Salinger writes in one of the strongest narrative voices I've ever read. It's completely absorbing and sucks you right into the character of Holden, whether you like him or not (many find him annoying). He's lonely and isolated and horny and angsty and all the things you could expect of a 16 year old, just more heightened. He's at the bottom end of a downward spiral which comes crashing down at the end of his 48 hours of wandering.

There's an underlying tone of tragedy beneath it all, and through his erratic behaviour we sense an impending doom. A review published in 1951, when the book was still fresh, said:

It’s a sort of lost week end; it’s a boy who can’t go home again; he belongs to a lost generation and lives in a world he never made.... but besides that, and despite your hoots of laughter at Holden’s indomitable speech, this is in essence the tragic story of a problem child, unless indeed it’s an indictment of a problem world. Month in, month out, novels don’t come much better. (source)

Rather than it being an indictment of a problem world, I would suggest that it's just a tale of someone trying to find their place in one. It would explain why so many people are drawn to it, and why others identify themselves with it. It offers no solutions but beautifully captures the troubled thoughts of someone navigating their way.

From my current perspective, I think the breakdown was the obvious conclusion to his not having dealt with Allie's death and possibly even the sexual abuse that he hints at ('perverty stuff' has happened to him around 20 times). When he hits rock bottom, we find that he's telling his story from a psychiatric hospital, possibly the best thing that could've happened to him. Although the novel ends on a bittersweet note, we feel that he is on the way to healing.

A note on the title

I love how the title is explained in the book. Although other members of my book club didn't have patience for Holden, I have a soft spot for him because he has such a tender heart.

I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. (Chapter 22)

A note on the author

What really knocks me out is a book, when you're all done reading it, you wished the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. (Chapter 3)

I found this bit quite ironic because although I don't know much about JD Salinger, I do know that he was a recluse. Actually, that's probably why I don't know much about him.

In all honesty though, I probably wouldn't call him up to talk about The Catcher in the Rye because I'd be intimated by his genius.

A sucker for punishment

2010-11-02T10:51:00.001+11:00

So I've come to J of the Great Library Challenge and I've chosen the most obvious and the most (apparently) painful of all possible reads: James Joyce's Ulysses.

It tops almost all the 'top read' lists so I thought, why not?

The comment I've most often come across regarding this book is "Ulysses was rated the greatest novel of all time, and most of the people who voted it had never read it," so I thought I'd check out a few reviews from people who have read it to see what I'm getting myself in for:

In spite of its very numerous qualities, 'Ulysses' is one of the dullest books ever written, and one of the least significant. This is due to the total absence from the book of any sort of conflict.
Aldous Huxley

OK, I never read Ulysses from beginning to end, but then again, neither, I believe, has anybody else, including most of the writers and scholars who declared it the greatest English-language book of the century in that Modern Library list last year. I have read the first one hundred pages at least three times, and then, longing for a story, I never got further.
Richard Bernstein, The New York Times book critic

I knew I wouldn't be able to read this beast--I've tried & failed three or four times. But last night I had an epiphany. It occurred to me that Ulysses is the greatest hoax of the century, ranking with Conan Doyle's Piltdown Man. Surely, Joyce must have realized that Ulysses was the inevitable & fitting conclusion to the Romantic Age. Art, cut loose from the mooring of God, had steadily drifted away from the universal & towards the personal. Ulysses is the culmination of this trend--a novel that could only be read, understood or enjoyed by its author. Spare yourself.
brothersjudd.com

Oh my god. Oh my god. Just where do I begin? I stopped walking to work as a result of this book. I stopped enjoying the act of reading. I stopped enjoying the very fact of my existence, knowing that the same God who created me also created James Joyce and this pile of pages.

[A friend] asked how the book was going. Without pausing, I said, "It is like having a rib ripped out of my body, being beaten with it, raped with it, and then being forced to eat it."

I'm sorry that this review is so long, rambling, and at times incoherent. But it could be worse. You could be reading Ulysses.

Here's the quick version of my review: Ulysses was clearly written by a clever guy. I was not smart enough to understand it. I had a horrible time reading it, and will never read it again.
DougShaw.com, Ph.D (currently reviewing all Top 100 books)

At least I can't complain since I'm going into this with my eyes wide open. See you when I resurface... hopefully before Christmas.

Sleep No More, Greg Iles (The Great Library Challenge author I)

2010-10-29T11:33:00.003+11:00

I had a hard time choosing an I author for my Great Library Challenge because I'd read most of the ones suggested to me (thanks for the suggestions LO and FB) and my local library had only a single shelf of I authored books. So I simply chose the author most represented in that section (with 4 books, Greg Iles had 30% of the shelf space market at Surry Hills Library) and chose the book that sounded most interesting.

Although it's not the sort of book I'd normally choose, the case for Sleep No More was strengthened by Stephen King's recommendation on the cover: 'a thriller that really thrills, a shocker that really shocks'.

Was it really? I tentatively read the first few chapters, prepared to swap the book for another I author if I didn't enjoy it, but the next thing you know, I was halfway into the story with no intention of stopping. It really was a thriller that thrilled.

The premise is that John Waters, an oil well driller with a good business and generally happy family, is suddenly approached by a strange woman who purports to be imbued with the spirit of his ex-lover, an obsessed fatal-attraction type who was raped and murdered 10 years ago. She claims that through the act of sex, a portal is created whereby she can overtake the use of her 'host's' body through orgasm (I know the temptation to laugh is strong, but resist. It gets chilling.).

His incredulousness turns to fear when she starts to prove that it's really her - it took her 10 years to make her way to him (like a game of 6 degrees to Kevin Bacon) from the man who raped and murdered her all the way into the body of an attractive young woman in his hometown in Mississippi, but now she's back and she still wants him all to herself.

Sleep No More combines horror and suspense with elements of supernatural fantasy to make a very compelling read. There were only two points in the book when I fell out of the spell, through an overused cliché or lame turn of phrase, but otherwise I was pretty engrossed.

It's a shame that the climax was rather unsatisfactory and lets down the build up that Iles achieves, but a plot like this is understandably difficult to resolve. It's just unfortunate that the final pages (which still manage to elicit a certain number of chills) takes it from a cinema-worthy psycho-sexual thriller (of the chilling rather than titillating kind) to a midday movie.

The Radleys, Matt Haig (The Great Library Challenge author H)

2010-10-25T16:53:00.005+11:00

The Radleys appear to be a very normal family living a white picket fence life: Peter the doctor, Helen the artist and their two kids Rowan and Clara, who are rather average if a little intolerant to sunlight, quite pale and somewhat sickly.

Noone suspects that the members of this suburban family are actually vampires - especially not the kids, who don't know themselves, until one night, Clara defends herself against a bully and bites his hand. With her first taste of blood, the Radley secret comes spilling out.

This was my first foray into vampire fiction, and like Clara, I liked it. Matt Haig writes deliberately sparse prose that is free from unnecessary flourish, excess drama or gratuitous violence. There's a certain elegance to the writing, which I imagine is something that sets it apart from modern vampire fiction (think Stephanie Myer).

Peter and Helen are abstainers (vampires who choose not to drink blood), who have turned away from their blood-soaked past for the sake of their children. After seventeen years of cover ups and lies, they are forced to deal with their identity to help their children navigate their way around the background of who they really are. It's a family drama in which vampirism is a suppressed form of life, that once unleashed can't be contained. But more than that, it's about learning to accept oneself, and in a strange way, the acceptance of their vampire identities make them more human.

Though it's not a comedy, there is some humour in the novel, which mostly comes from the account of prominent vampires in the past: Lord Byron, Jimi Hendrix (one vampire school of thought says they're one and the same, Lord Byron simply having adopted a new identity for a new generation), David Bowie, and more obviously, Bram Stoker. Peter's brother Will (an unashamed practising vampire whose entry into the household wreaks havoc) says Prince's musical decline happened when he chose to become an abstainer. LOL

The Radleys is an enjoyable novel, not in the sense that it's fun or funny, but because it's a well written story that, at its core, is about being empowered by being yourself. It's a story that, ironically unlike vampires, has a soul.

The Third Twin, Ken Follett (The Great Library Challenge author F)

2010-10-22T14:23:00.002+11:00

With around 20 books under his belt, Ken Follett is one heck of a prolific writer, so I thought I'd see what the bother was all about.

The Third Twin is a thriller about the genetic cloning debate and the dangerous mystery that its feisty (and of course attractive) protagonist, university researcher Dr Jeannie Ferrami, stumbles upon.

At the risk of sounding like a pretentious literary wanker, based on this novel alone I have to say that Ken Follett is a great storyteller but not a great writer. The Third Twin is a very fast-paced and absorbing novel, but the narrative voice isn't always believable, and is at times downright awkward.

Firstly, the good bits. It's a hefty book but easy to read, and I couldn't put it down. The story races very quickly (and not at all believably) in the course of a single week or so, in which Dr Jeanne discovers a major cover-up, gets her life threatened several times and takes down the big powerful bad guys.

But the bad bit is that the characters are extremely one-dimensional and while it has a whip-cracking pace, it has no emotional depth whatsoever. The story of Jeannie's raped friend was particularly unmoving and unconvincing. The dialogue is sparse at best and awkward at worst, and the narrative has some major holes and employs a lot of cliches.

To be kind, I'd say it's probably a story for its time. Being published in 1996, it was possibly even ahead of its time. But now, in light of all the more sophisticated and polished stories of a similar vein, it smacks of amateurishness. We've become accustomed to authors who research their topics in depth to maintain narrative integrity, but it feels like this book was written in a hurry with nothing but the broadest ideas about the complex topic it's based on.

Ken Follett paved the story for writers like John Grisham – great airport novelists, but Pulitzer Prize material they ain't. As long you know what to expect, I think you can enjoy his extensive range of published novels, because after all, we all need a good airport novel sometimes.

Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert: book and movie review (also the Great Library Challenge author G)

2010-10-19T11:13:00.001+11:00

Eat Pray Love the book

It wasn't the easiest thing to get into and I must admit I would've left it only half-finished if the movie wasn't coming out so soon. However, I'm glad I finished it because the latter half was better than the first.

It's as though Elizabeth Gilbert distilled her personal diary to write this book – it has the intimacy and warmth of someone not holding anything back, but it's also very beautifully written so you know she's crafted her words and stories carefully to bring the best of her experience to paper.

I started off skeptical – after all, it's about a privileged New Yorker running out on her marriage and real life to spend a year in exotic locations 'finding herself' – but I ended up won over. It's not just about her running away, but also running towards. She's seeking something more than herself (God) while seeking to find herself, and it becomes a spiritual journey where, by the end, she discovers contentment and a self-identity that she seems not to have had before. Who can argue with that?

Eat Pray Love the movie

Despite the presence of Julia Roberts and the lush international scenery, Eat Pray Love doesn't really work as a movie because ultimately the story is boring to watch on screen. It's such an intimate spiritual journey that most of the action happens in the interior, which doesn't translate well to an audience who expects a climactic movie experience.

Apart from the breakdown of her marriage in the beginning, there are no major highs or lows – it's all a very linear journey of self-discovery. At times, especially the beginning, the movie felt like a string of 'this is a re-enactment' scenes from a reality TV show – especially the use of that hazy filter and backlighting the first time she goes to Bali. Then the showdown scene between her and Felipe (Javier Bardem) at the end just didn't ring true to me at all. Maybe it's because it didn't happen in the book, but I was totally prepared for them to deviate from the plot of the book (in fact I expected it), but even then the whole scene seemed rather a false attempt to create some dynamic in an otherwise flat movie plot.

My conclusion

I thought that the critics were unduly harsh about the story when the first movie reviews came out, but I can see why they would have come to that conclusion now. In the movie, you don't get the full in-depth experience that you do with the book, so it's easy to overlook the whole thing as the self-indulgent whims of a Western woman.

In fact to be honest, that's how I first felt when the book topped all the bestseller lists and caused such a scene in the book-reading world. I avoided it for a long time and only decided to read it finally because I watched Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk and thought she sounded awfully wise and well-grounded.

After reading her book, I'm more convinced of that assessment. It is a wise book, full of lessons learned and lots of humour too. She has a great writing voice, and there were a lot of moments that resonated with me as a reader, which I'm sure is why the book was so popular.

Now onto H of my Great Library Challenge. I decided on Matt Haig and wanted to read The Radleys, but the library didn't have it so I'm now waiting for my book to arrive from the Book Depository. Any suggestions for an author beginning with 'I' would be appreciated because Surry Hills library only has a single short shelf for I, which consists of approximately 11 books only. Help!

The Great Library Challenge: Fforde, Jasper The Eyre Affair

2010-10-12T16:06:00.005+11:00

'Ingenious - I'll watch Jasper Fforde nervously'

Terry Pratchett

After reading this quote by Terry Pratchett, I couldn't resist picking this book for my F author in the Great Library Challenge. I can see why Fforde has been likened to Pratchett - he creates a nonsensical world of parallel reality, injects a good dose of humour and drives the plot at a furious pace.

The protagonist, Thursday Next, is a SpecOps agent in the LiteraTec department, who quickly becomes embroiled in the chase for the evil Acheron Hades. Hades is hellbent on wreaking havoc in the literary world - by which Fforde means the real literary world of fiction - and enters Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre manuscript with an intent to sabotage.

Next's chase leads her to Swindon, where she manages to cross time barriers, parry with her ex- for whom she still harbours a flame, incur the wrath of the powerful Jack Schitt (yes that's really his name) and follow Hades into Jane Eyre to change the course of the story.

Next is a protagonist you can really grow to like. She's tough, self-deprecating and smart, even though she doesn't have it altogether. The fact that she's flawed is a lot of her charm, and returning to her Swindon hometown throws her square into the path of her ex-, Landon Parke-Laine, and her quirky family (time-crossing father, absent-minded mother, multi-religious brother, Aunt Polly and brilliant Uncle Mycroft - whose name was apparently borrowed from Sherlock Holmes' genius brother).

Any literary snob (or anyone with pretensions to literary snobbery) with some smarts and a sense of humour will love this book. There are some very funny ideas that often stretch the bounds of belief, woven through with enough intelligence and classic literary knowledge to make them believable. (Who really wrote Shakespeare's plays? How many John Miltons can one town contain?) I'm sure I missed or only half-got some of the references, because my literary perch is not that lofty.

It's an enjoyable romp that manages to suspend your belief and throw a smile on your face. Apparently this is the first of a series of novels about Thursday Next, but I'm not sure if I'll continue with it right now. I get my good dose of silly and witty and Pratchett, Gaiman and Holt.

Onto my G author: I've chosen Elizabeth Gilbert, because I've been halfway through her book for ages now, but haven't been able to finish. I'm taking this opportunity to finish the book before the movie comes out and knock down my G author with one stone.

On a side note, I've found myself really embarrassed to carry Eat Pray Love around because I fear I'll be mistaken for 'one of those women'. However, I was totally won over by her TED talk on creativity, which spurred me to read her book, and I want to finish it now so I can make up my own mind whether it deserves its early acclaim or, more recently, the disdain that the movie has been receiving.

2010 third quarter reading round up

2010-10-11T13:56:00.000+11:00

Brief review of books read between July-September 2010:

The Diary of Anne Frank
This is a particularly moving read because we know the author's fate before we begin (for anyone who's lived under a rock for the last 50 years, Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl who died in a concentration camp during WWII), but even without allowing for the fact that it was written by a 13-15 year old, it's a really well-written account of her life in hiding during the war, and it's an oddly intimate experience reading someone else's diary. She was a really lovely person, honest and refreshing and hopeful even against all hope - no wonder it's such a classic.

Daddy Longlegs, Jean Webster
This is a lovely book (written in 1912) in the form of letters from an orphan to her benefactor, who sends her to college. It's a coming-of-age story and a love story in one, which I remembered reading and loving at around 13 years old. It was just as good as I remembered. You can read it for free on project gutenberg.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, MA Shaffer & A Burrows
Whilst I love the idea that this book was the first published work of 70-year old first time author, I'm afraid I didn't find it as charming as the rest of the world appears to have. It was quite predictable, and the letter-writing method of storytelling didn't quite work because many of the letters sounded contrived. It would've worked better told in straight narrative.

The Bride Stripped Bare, Nikki Gemmell
I'm trying not to re-read books on my bookshelf, but while I'm waiting for my new purchases from the Book Depository, I picked this one up because I remember it being a quick read. Second time round, the device used to sandwich the narrative (the bride is missing, the manuscript was found by her mother) is even flimsier than ever, but kudos to Nikki Gemmell for the second person present tense narrative, which is difficult and at times sounds pretentious, but she manages to make it quite lyrical and create a unsettling tone for the book.

East of Eden, John Steinbeck
East of Eden is a fascinating book full of character studies, most of them one-dimensional, but fascinating nonetheless.

Wutherng Heights, Emily Bronte
The fact that my review is titled 'Wuthering Heights sucks big time' kinda gives away how I feel about this book. It's seriously atrocious - the characters suck, the plot sucks and the writing sucks.

Turkish Gambit, Boris Akunin
(The Great Library Challenge: Author A)
I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy historic Russian crime fiction, but Boris Akunin kinda made it fun. Set during the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, this is one of a series of books about Erast Fandorin, a modest gentleman sleuth. It seems to be written a bit tongue-in-cheek and that's just the way I like it.

Beat the Reaper, Josh Bazell
(The Great Library Challenge: Author B)
With its punchy, fast-paced narrative, Beat the Reaper is a great holiday (or anytime) novel about a one-time wiseguy turned doctor who's under witness protection. It'll make a great movie when it comes out too - apparently starring Leonardo Di Caprio.

Breakfast at Tiffanys, Truman Capote
(The Great Library Challenge: Author C)
The fact that this appears to be one of the defining novels for American literature (or am I making this up?) says something about the disenfranchised state of a generation who loved it and allowed it to define them. Holly is a seriously emotionally troubled young woman and I couldn't help but finish the book thinking it would be far better for her if she could just get some professional help.

The News Where You Are, Catherine Flynn
On the whole, I have to say that the book doesn't live up to the blurb about Frank Allcroft, a local news anchor and the 'unfunniest man on Earth'. It does have some depth and a message about growing older, but it's such a bland read that I just couldn't get into it.

Becoming Strangers, Louise Dean
(The Great Library Challenge: Author D)
This is a 'character study' novel about two couples who meet on holidays, one party from each couple being seriously ill in some way. It's about life and growing older and... yet another bland book I couldn't get into.

The Sandman: Endless Nights, Neil Gaiman and graphic artists
Really amazing graphic novel about a family of siblings who are Dream, Death, Desire, Destruction, Delirium, Despair and Destiny. Each chapter is drawn by a different artist, and each has a uniquely stylised feel. It really creates a whole different world that's really easy to immerse yourself in. Highly recommended.

Ramona's World, Beverly Cleary
I was stoked to find that Beverly Cleary had added a new volume to her Ramona series, which I LOVED as a kid. Although it was written around 15 years after the last one, it's a seamless and timeless addition.

Wow - I can't believe three quarters of 2010 is already over!!!!

The Great Library Challenge: Eco, Umberto The Name of the Rose

2010-09-30T14:40:00.001+10:00

Wow - finishing this book was quite a feat. This very dense and complex mystery is set in a Benedictine monastery in the 14th century before the complete power separation of state and church. The main protagonists are William of Baskerville, a Sherlock Holmes-esque character who is sent with his sidekick novice Adso (the narrator) to investigate some mysterious deaths occurring in the abbey.

The narrative is filled with gothic religious imagery, set in the confines of a cloistered and esoteric sect, and backgrounded by the religious power struggle that defined the church of the day.

The book is dense and multi-faceted - laid simply, these layers are:

the mystery that William attempts to unravel with every clue: how and why are the monks dying in such strange circumstances;
the theme of the danger of seeking and/or suppressing knowledge. All the clues lead to the mysterious and closely guarded library - the centre of knowledge;
social commentary on the atmosphere of the 14th century, the power struggle between the emperor and the pope, and the thinly veiled political machinations that joust in the sphere of religious theology.

In one respect, this is like a high-brow literary version of Sherlock Holmes, although I'm not impressed by the fact that Umberto Eco has apparently never even acknowledged the debt of inspiration (or straight out plagiarism) he owes to Arthur Conan Doyle for the characters and the plot. William and Adso have great chemistry - one the sage, learned and experienced detective, and the other a naiive and innocent novice. There are some great moments of humour in the way Adso faithfully recaptures William's speech, sometimes unaware of the sarcasm or wit it accompanies:

I never understood when he was jesting. In my country, when you joke you say something and then you laugh very noisily, so everyone shares in the joke. But William laughed only when he said serious things, and remained very serious when he was presumably joking.
(The Name of the Rose: Sixth Day; Prime)

Whilst the events of the novel take place within a single week, the plot moves at a snail's pace. Entire chapters are taken up describing things that have no bearing to the plot (like the carvings on a door), and there are more red herrings than a fisherman's basket.

When you finally get to the end, it comes quite quickly and is rather climactic and powerful. However, I do have a bone to pick with Mr Eco. I won't spoil the plot, but suffice (though confusing) to say that the basis of the mystery boiled down to the belief by a single and powerful monk that humour and laughter were a blight on the honour of the church, and that fear is the basis of Godly faith:

But laughter is weakness, corruption, the foolishness of our flesh... but law is imposed by fear, whose true name is fear of God.
(The Name of the Rose: Seventh Day; Night)

But anyone who knows their Bible will know that it preaches the complete opposite of that:

He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. (Job 8: 21)

A merry heart does good like medicine (Proverbs 17:22)

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but love, power and a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)

So how is it that so pious a monk believes in a completely opposite doctrine to the Bible? Christian dogma may have changed throughout the ages but the Bible hasn't. Are you telling me that this monk, who knows even the most mysterious books inside out, hasn't read it yet? This kinda ruined the mystery for me because all the work Eco put into making the story so believable unwinds on the hinge of such a trivial detail - much like the apple business at the end of the Da Vinci Code (so wrong of me to even mention that book in this post). Lame.

I know this book is considered a major classic, but I'd only recommend it to the hardcore because it's quite a slog to read, although it is ultimately rewarding. I'd write more about the whole theme on knowledge because it's a fascinating topic, but I've got to mull over it a bit more first, and it's time to move on to F in my Great Library Challenge.

Off the library's F section I go!

The universe is conspiring to make me happy...

2010-09-28T13:14:00.002+10:00

It's the little things... like beautiful summer weather, having a public holiday to look forward to (hooray for Labour Day!) and the return of excellent TV shows that make me happy.

So that's the topic of my post today: 5 things that make me happy.

The sky
No matter what mood I'm in, I just have to glance upward and (as corny as this sounds) I can literally feel my heart soar with happiness. The wide expanse of open sky, whether it's scattered with clouds, hued with the colours of dusk or inky black with pinholes of light, reminds me that there's more to the universe than just me - just us. And that makes me happy.

Hubster
Crank up the cringe factor, but this is true. Those who know me will know that I never planned to get married, so when it happened it was a 180 degree reversal of all my best laid plans. However, it was the best decision I've ever made because whether we're lounging in front of the TV, joking in the car or getting (ahem) more affectionate, I love every minute with hubster because he makes me incredibly happy.

Reading a good book
Nerd alert. Nothing compares to the feeling of reading a really really good book, and then coming to the end and closing it with a massive smile on your face and wishing you could start all over again. Especially when that reading is happening on a beach or somewhere super comfy.

PS - speaking of reading, my Great Library Challenge is stalled on E right now - Umberto Eco is killing me with The Name of the Rose!! It's already consumed 2.5 weeks of my life and the end is only now in sight.

Good humour
Whether it's hanging with good friends or appreciating a genuinely funny TV show - like Seinfeld, Flight of the Conchords and Arrested Development, three now defunct series which I LURVE - nothing makes me happier than laughing with (or at) something or someone. Right now I'm celebrating the return of the following shows that make me laugh: Modern Family, Glee, 30 Rock, Big Bang Theory and Community.

Being able to see clearly
Sounds like a funny one, but this refers to my recent laser eye surgery. It's not so much being able to see clearly, which I could do before with contact lenses or glasses, but remembering that I NO LONGER NEED THEM TO SEE!! Goodbye fogged up glasses anytime I enter a warm room or try to eat a bowl of hot noodles. Goodbye painstaking cleaning of contact lenses that eats up my toiletry time and disposable income. Hello being able to see the clock first thing in the morning. Hello new 20/20 life!

What makes you happy?

My life in 10 dishes

2010-09-17T15:19:00.004+10:00

A few weeks ago, Jill Dupleix did a piece in the Sydney Morning Herald about a food biography. I liked the idea so I've decided to make it the topic for my post today, tracing my history through the foods that defined certain periods of my life.

#10: Sherbet straws and coffin candy
Sweets were a staple part of my diet as a kid, and half my pocket money used to go to feeding my sugar frenzy. I particularly loved those really big sherbet straws that would clog up from saliva halfway through, and the candy shaped like skulls and bones that came in a small plastic coffin.

#9 Canned spag bol
It's a poor start to my food biography, but I used to be addicted to Leggos bolognese in a can. As hungry kids, when the parents weren't around (they were often at work), we'd just pop open a can of spag bol and nuke it for sustenance. This was actually a treat amongst the other rubbish I used to eat, like tomato sauce spread on bread, mayo spread on bread, tomato sauce and mayo spread together on bread...

#8 Fried sashimi
I know, it's an oxymoron... but so was I (har har). When I was a teenager, on special occasions, my parents would go to the fish markets early in the morning and bring home a fresh kingfish or salmon and slice it into thin sashimi pieces (long before sashimi bars became the popular urban choice they are today) that they, my brother and sister would devour with wasabi and soy sauce. But me: raw fish? Yuck. I would fill my plate with sashimi, dip them in egg and flour and then fry them, much to the chagrin of my family.

#7 Proper spag bol
I think this was the first dish I learned to make properly when I moved out of home. What a revelation to discover that if you threw in garlic, sundried tomatoes and red wine, it tasted even better than the canned stuff! Needless to say, this dish ended up on rotation almost every week for the next 10 years.

#6 Vietnamese chicken rolls
I fell in LOVE with these simple rolls that you can buy at any Vietnamese bakery many many years ago, and the love affair hasn't ended yet. These rolls are AWESOME and come with the added bonus of being cheap. My favourite was from the bakery on Burwood Rd - just down the street from where I used to live in Burwood in our little flat with diarrhea-brown 70s carpet. Even now they remind me of those days of youthful poverty and make me smile.

#4 Roast beef
I felt like a 'real' cook when I conquered roast beef and three veg. It was so delicious I decided to follow up with an encore presentation, which flopped because I wrongly bought silverside, being on a budget and knowing nothing about beef cuts back then. Things haven't changed THAT much, but I do know now that silverside tastes like salty spam on steroids.

#5 Maccas french fries
Not only do I love these little strips of deep-fried deliciousness for the taste, but they also have a good connotation for me because I shared my first kiss with my now-husband over a pack of these. Was it the fries that made the kiss so delicious or the other way around? It's a matter of the chicken or the egg, really. Both were great :)

#4 Sticky-date pudding
The first time I tried it (the Sarah Lee version), I thought I'd died and ended up on a different astral plane. I have very strict ideas about vegetables sticking their nose in where they don't belong (carrot cake, I'm looking at you), and although dates aren't a vegetable, I hated them with an intensity that even celery can't muster in me. Yet, in a pudding... it was transformed. And so was I. I mark this as the occasion that my palate grew up.

#3 Koshary
Imagine this: two girls in the busy city of Cairo, wander into a local restaurant a day before their adventure tour begins and order a bowl of who-knows-what. What we ended up with was a delicious lesson in cultural discovery. A combination of macaroni, lentils, rice, fried onion and a mouth-watering, tangy tomato-based sauce, koshary introduced me to the delight that is Egyptian cooking, and now has a special place in my heart and my recipe folder.

#2 Dragonfruit
I love dragonfruit not only because they look so pretty, but I love their subtle-sweet taste, especially the red-flesh variety. It always reminds me of Cambodia, where I tried it for the first time, and I remember sitting in the tuk tuk with Jinah coming back from the Russian markets, each holding a big red dragonfruit and devouring it like a banana with their skins peeled and hanging off the side, with red juice dripping down our arms in the sweltering heat.

#1 Vietnamese rice paper rolls... Korean-style
The epitome of awesome, these rice paper rolls are healthy and delicious. Slam dunk.They're easy to make too, just time consuming because of all the vegetables you have to wash and cut up (Korean-style means you add vegetables of every colour plus a variety of meats and a kick-ass sauce). The crowning glory is the sauce - the best I've ever tasted and now continue to make goes like this: in a food processor, blend together coriander roots, raw garlic, small hot red chillis and canned pineapple. Once blended, add fish sauce, the juice from the canned pineapple and a good squeeze of lemon juice. It. Is. Di. Vine.

Do you have food that defines your life? Is this topic as fascinating as I think it is or am I just obsessed with food?

Bloom in Cambodia

2010-09-10T19:46:00.002+10:00

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd been away, and that I'd write 'more about it later'. Well later is here now, so I thought I'd do a quick post about my trip.

The majority of my time was spent in Cambodia, where I volunteer in the Communications dept for Bloom Asia. Bloom was set up to help victims of trafficking in Cambodia, and currently runs a vocational training centre in the heart of Phnom Penh. Girls who have been rescued from trafficking are taught a vocational skill to help them create a new life, because without an alternative source of income, a huge majority of them will end up being re-trafficked within months, or even weeks of being rescued.

Sex trafficking is a very troubling issue in Cambodia, and is the result of a number of factors, the greatest of which is the crushing poverty of the country after the Khmer Rouge genocide of the 1970s. Today, it is fueled by a highly sexualised, male-dominated society and a massive international sex tourism market.

I'm not going to go into all the figures and case studies of the victims - there's a lot of material out there already and suffice to say, it is horrific, soul-destroying stuff.

Instead, I'm going to talk about Bloom, because it's a place of hope, a place where students are taught the skills they need to create a better future. Girls who enter the program unable to even meet their trainer in the eye end up graduating with their heads held high. And rightly so. Their work is simply amazing.

Bloom's Hospitality Course, taught by Director Ruth Larwill, teaches the girls all the basics of hospitality (hygiene, service, etc) at an Australian Cert II level, and provides hands-on training working in a cafe, dealing with customers, baking a large variety of different cake recipes, and creating staggeringly beautiful sugar art. There is a large market for celebration cakes in Phnom Penh, and Bloom has managed to create a niche for itself with a cult following in just a few short months.

Here are a few images that will leave your jaw on the ground:

What is more amazing is that the majority of the students are not literate in their own language. This means that all classes are taught verbally, using flash cards, games and role play. For girls who have had little to no education, they are able to recite and recreate recipes on demand, and create sugar art that Ruth herself says exceeds her own abilities - and she's had over 20 years experience.

It is a privilege for me to be part of the Bloom team - people who are truly passionate about seeing these girls freed from a life of captivity, and creating a future full of promise and hope. The centre has such a great vibe - every morning all the students (and graduates, who are now full-time employees of the Cafe and Cakes business) sit around to plan their day, hear a short life-affirming message and play a game... speaking of which, you would NOT want to get caught between the girls and their games! They LOVE to play (evidence of their missing childhood?) and the shrieking and laughter (and competitiveness!) are a total buzz.

The girls are loved, appreciated, cared for and looked after by the Bloom staff, and are supported through their trials (literal legal trials against their traffickers and the punishing trials of daily life) like no other place I've ever seen.

While I was there, we had the privilege of being part of Bloom's third graduation. When the girls appeared in their gowns and caps to receive their certificates, the pride and emotion in the room were palpable. Parents who had experienced the deepest agony of seeing their child sold into a brothel now witnessed them being honoured, and the way they presented them with flowers and huddled around to take photos at the end was just beautiful.

A previous graduate had said that she'd been shunned by her community after she had been rescued, because they knew she'd been sold to a brothel, but when she graduated from Bloom and showed them the cake art she'd created, 'they told me that I had my value back.'

And that's what Bloom is about. It's about restoring worth and dignity upon girls from whom they have been unrightfully stolen. It's about bringing God's daughters back to a safe place where they can be nurtured to flourish. It's about doing what we can to stop injustice, which I think is part of our moral duty as a human being, let alone as a Christian who believes in a just and loving God. As Nike puts it so succinctly, we just gotta do it.

There are heaps of places on the internet where you can get more information about trafficking, but here's a good place to start: www.stopthetraffik.org

For more about Bloom, go to www.bloomasia.org

The Great Library Challenge: Dean, Louise Becoming Strangers

2010-09-10T13:03:00.000+10:00

My D author for the Great Library Challenge, Louise Dean, was the Winner of the Butty Trask Prize and this particular novel, Becoming Strangers, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Do literary prizes mean much? I'm not so sure. I'd be more inclined to pick up a book that's won something, but as in this case, it won't always be a rewarding read.

I'm not saying this book sucked, just that it... didn't capture me. At all. It was a hard read because I couldn't identify with any of the characters and didn't particularly like any of them - in fact, I quite detested one of them, but that's not the emotion I would've liked to carry away.

The plot revolves around two couples on their last holidays in the Caribbean - in both cases, one party is suffering from illness (cancer and alzheimers). Another review described this book as 'an examination of the human condition' and I couldn't have put it better. I wanted something to happen, for there to be a build up or a climax or SOMETHING... but nothing much really happens except some detailed insight into some very well-worn marriages. Even so, it manages in its own way to be quite thought provoking.

Dean, through her protagonists and observations of peripheral characters, questions your ideas of marriage and loyalty. It's like taking one of those blue lights from CSI and flashing it into a real marriage, so you can see all the stains and crap that aren't normally visible. The marriages in her novel are way too real and rather depressing.

Halfway through the novel, I found myself turning to hubster and saying in a fit of passion, 'When we grow old, let's never become like those couples who grow apart, and let things get in the way of their relationship and never deal with issues.' And he was like, 'What the...? Okay.'

For now, this is my least favourite book from the Challenge, but with 22 more to go, I'm bound to hit some duds.

So onto my 'E' author... I chose Umberto Eco and originally I was going to read The Island of the Day Before, but a quick search found that there's an almost unanimous agreement that The Name of the Rose is his best work, so I'm going to wait until I can get my hands on that. In the meantime, I've borrowed Neil Gaiman's The Sandman graphic novel to keep me busy.

The great library challenge: Capote, Truman Breakfast at Tiffany's

2010-09-06T16:25:00.001+10:00

I chose this book for my 'C' author because:

Truman Capote has a big reputation and I wanted to know if his writing lived up to it;
I never really got why people loved the movie so much, and thought maybe the literary version would enlighten me;
I was travelling overseas (more in my next post) and wanted something short and quick that I could finish before I left.

I didn't have time to post my review before I left, so it's been two very long weeks and lots of experience since finishing this book, but to the best of my recollection, it was pretty good.

I still don't get why people love it so much - or more to the point, love 'her' so much. Holly Golightly. Quite a refreshing character in some ways, but totally flighty (not necessarily a bad thing), selfish, social-climbing, racist and immature in so many others. It's easy to love Audrey Hepburn in her very stylish portrayal of Holly, but as a literary character, she doesn't quite pass muster. One can't really understand why so many other characters in the book are obsessed with her, and personally, I think that Capote actually manages to portray a rather emotionally disturbed young lady who can't (or doesn't want to) connect with reality.

However, Capote's narrative style is impressive. He immerses you immediately in the 1950s New York social scene (for some reason I kept imagining everything in black and white) and his writing is like a confident hand in the small of your back pushing you along.

As for the next books in the challenge, I had a hard time picking my D author and easy time picking my E author. The only stipulation for this challenge is that I mustn't have read any of the author's books before.

So D is Becoming Strangers by Louise Dean, and E is The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco. Yes, shame on me for having never read him before.

The great library challenge: Bazell, Josh Beat the Reaper

2010-08-20T15:02:00.001+10:00

You're right, there have been a lot of 'greats' in the titles of my blog posts recently. Hopefully the content will one day catch up to the overuse of the word.

But back to my great library challenge. Author 'B' (Josh Bazell) is now down and out for the count. So was it the 'ice cold and ferocious read' we'd been promised? Yes, yes and more yes!

The plot begins like a whip held overhead, ready to crack. When it comes down, it takes you with it on a heartpounding ride that races back and forth from his past to the present. It's enough to give you whiplash.

The hero of the book is Dr. Peter Brown, a seriously tough guy in witness protection with a mafia background who is now a doctor. His first person narrative is punchy, informative (complete with footers for the detail-minded) and intelligent. He's a man who's got it all: the smarts, the toughs and a history worth hiding from. But when a patient from the past intrudes into his present, he finds himself in a race to... you guessed it: beat the reaper.

When I googled it for the cover image, pictures of Leonardo Di Caprio abounded, being apparently it's being turned into a movie with Leo playing the main role. Woot woot!

So onto author C of the great library challenge: I chose C for Classic, C for Capote, Truman Breakfast at Tiffany's.

The great Quorn experiment

2010-08-19T11:36:00.000+10:00

So lately, the treatment of animals prior to their death in order to nourish our bodies, has been weighing on my mind. I read a book that described the treatment of chickens on a UK battery farm and it was very disturbing. I haven't (and don't plan to) read Jonathan Safran Foer's apparently very excellent book Eating Animals because I know it will haunt me and quite frankly, affect my meat-loving self.

My position is that I would be happy to pay more to know that the animals whose flesh I'm eating had been treated well before their death. It's the least we could do, right? (The most we could do is to NOT EAT THEM but I'm not a freaky vegetable-lover thank you). To this end, I've weighed in on the comments sections of articles discussing this issue and also tried to reduce the meat intake in our house as a small protest against the mean meat factories (goodbye Steak Sundays).

... then along came QUORN, a British meat substitute that was apparently created by scientists in response to potential future food shortage. It's high in protein, consists mainly of fermented fungus and is much lower in fat than actual meat. I was excited to hear about it and finally tracked down Quorn mince at our local supermarket on the weekend.

At $6 for 300g, it's almost double the average price of mince, but it could simply be that it's much lighter than real mince, because quantity-wise, 300g seemed much like the mince meat equivalent of 500g or possibly even a little more.

Hubster had flatly refused to eat it previously, but since he was out at the pub last night for after-work drinks, I thought I had a pretty good chance of sneaking it past him. First, he'd be hungry from the delayed dinner, and secondly he'd probably be slightly fuddled by alcohol.

When he walked in the door, there I was like a good wife stirring a pot on the stove top.

What evil lurks beneath that smile?

Him: Hey, that smells great!

Me: Yep, it's spag bol.

Him: (suspicious face) That's not....

Me: Don't worry, it's just mince (technically not a lie, since it's called 'Quorn mince'), I found it in the freezer (which is where I put it after shopping... ha ha).

Him: Okay cool.

Skip to after dinner...

Me: (Looking at his empty bowl which has practically been licked clean) So tell me honestly... did you even notice the difference?

Him: What? (looks in his bowl, looks at me slightly aghast) You lied to me!

Me: I didn't lie! It is called mince and it was in the freezer. But could you tell?

Him: (after an ardent meat-eater's hesitant pause) No, it was actually really nice...

Verdict: WIN FOR THE QUORN

The great library challenge: Akunin, Boris Turkish Gambit

2010-08-17T16:02:00.000+10:00

The first author of the alphabet is now down, with Boris Akunin's Turkish Gambit complete and under my belt. Actually, I just found out his real name is Grigory Chkhartishvili, so perhaps he should've been my 'C' author.

I mentioned previously that Akunin had been compared with other Russian literary greats like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. The similarity for me as a reader was in that I wanted to skip all the war bits and get down to the human drama. I'm not sure if T or D would have written political crime fiction if they'd been alive today, but if they did, I'm guessing there would have been less swashbuckling action and more human tragedy.

Instead, what we get in Turkish Gambit is Erast Fandorin, a 'gentleman sleuth' in the epicentre of war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, surrounded by intrigue, espionage, and a strong-willed and spirited young Russian woman, Varvara Suvorova. In fact, there's so much political intrigue that it's sometimes hard to follow.

Turkish Gambit is part three of a series of Erast Fandorin novels by Akunin, and knowing this, I now wish he'd intruded more in the narrative than he does. I like what I've glimpsed of him so far – super-cluey, intelligent, modest to a fault and highly respected – sounds like my kind of guy. In this book, he's the modest hero who does the grunt work, while the story is told from the point of view of Varvara, who has journeyed to the Balkan front to reunite with her fiance, a war telegrapher who is wrongly jailed.

The ending is a little... unsatisfying, but the story resolves of its own volition, thanks to the hero. Also thanks to the hero, Russian crime lit has just gone up in my radar.

Now, onto B. I've chosen Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell, apparently an 'ice cold and ferocious read'. Is it really? I'll let you know.

Boy is kiwi magic

2010-08-17T15:07:00.000+10:00

Boy is a charming Kiwi film about 11 year old Boy growing up in Waihau Bay, New Zealand. Boy and his younger brother Rocky live with their grandmother, since their father has been jailed and their mother died during childbirth. He loves Michael Jackson, dreams of his heroic father, and drools over local pretty girl Chardonnay.

Boy's life takes a turn when his father, played by actor and director Taika Waititi, shows up with his Crazy Horse gang (two fairly incompetent friends) to find his buried cash. A humorous and heartwarming film, Boy's best assets are the beautifully understated performances of the two main kid actors, James Rolleston (Boy) and Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu (Rocky).

The script is full of humour, mostly quirky with an occasional broad streak, and the drama is downplayed. The Kiwis, like the British, have a hard time expressing their emotions, but they don't disguise it with a stuff upper lip. Instead you get great human moments of raw awkwardness that are touching and warm.

My only criticism would be that perhaps the story is too underplayed, which could potentially leave a lack of emotional connection. The single crux of the film is that Boy's dreams of his father are crumbled when he sees his fallibility (hilariously portrayed in Michael Jackon-esque scenes), but it's a slow journey and the climax lacks the oomph that we expect in great cinema. However, on the whole, Boy is a lovely film and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Great Library Challenge

2010-08-13T11:58:00.001+10:00

I was almost giddy with excitement yesterday when I discovered how close my new office location is to the Surry Hills library, of which I am a member through my City of Sydney libraries membership.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE LIBRARIES?!!!?

Where else can you get a smorgasbord of books, dvds and cds that you can borrow for FREE? Where else can you discover new authors and lose yourself in different worlds in the comfort of a quiet air-conditioned space solely dedicated to readers?

Ah, library memories... in primary school, my friends and I used to get regularly ejected from our local Ashfield Library for being noisy, then I used to sneak back, sans friends, to borrow books and tapes (yes cassette tapes. I am that old.). During high school, the library foyer was primarily the location for my friends and I to hang out and play card games. I think for pretty much most of my life, I've never been without at least one library card on my person.

Anyway, back to my Great Library Challenge. The background to this is that there are SO MANY BOOKS in the world, and my exposure to them is limited. I tend to re-read books I love, read the same authors or in the same genres, and don't often read books unless they've been recommended by trusted sources or received a good public review. So I've decided to go through the alphabet and borrow from amongst authors that I've never read, starting with A.

Beginning the Great Library Challenge is Boris Akunin. According to the back of his books, he's a Russian crime writer who's been compared to Tolstoy and Dostoesvky - let's hope that comparison isn't just based on his nationality. Fingers crossed... let's go!

Wuthering Heights sucks big time

2010-08-11T13:57:00.000+10:00

I will never understand how Wuthering Heights achieved such cult status. The characters are awful, the situation ridiculous and the writing absolutely bog-sewer atrocious.

Let's start with the main characters. Heathcliff and Cathy are the most vile, melodramatic, selfish and unnecessary creations in literary history. There isn't a single appealing aspect of their characters, and their so-called 'love' is shallow and self-torturing. Heathcliff, cried up by the author as such a dark and tortured character, is simply one-dimensional and boring as hell (except when he's being domestically violent). He's an immature stamp-footy cry-baby who never gets over his forced separation with Cathy, won't stay away and let her be happy with her choice of husband, and then interferes with their offspring for his own dastardly delight. Bastardly, more like. He is simply pathetic, and not in the good literary 'pathos' kind of way.

Their offspring are almost as bad. The second Cathy is more forgivable, but by God how many times did you want to slap Linton across his weak-willed, self-pitying face? The trashy schoolgirl ending with the ghosts of Heathcliff and Cathy undo the goodwill of Heathcliff's redemption in allowing Hareton and Cathy II to get together.

It's my understanding that Emily Bronte gained publication of her manuscript off the back of her sisters' successes, and in the early days, there was a widespread belief that Wuthering Heights was in fact an earlier, more immature work of her sister Charlotte. This is no wonder, because her attempt at writing in Wuthering Heights is abysmal. Case in point: the original narrator is the self-proclaimed hermit Mr Lockwood, whose heightened curiosity about Wuthering Heights and its inhabitants is unlikely from the first. He re-tells the story as told to him by the servant Nelly Dean, and at points of the narration, Nelly Dean re-tells someone else's version of the story, so you have a narration-within-a-narration-within-a-narration situation, yet the style of writing never changes. When Joseph speaks in this thick almost-unintelligible brogue, every storyteller reproduces it faithfully. This stretches the imagination of even the most gullible.

The entire story is suffocatingly small both in scope and nature, and the fact that it was even published is astonishing, let alone its success in the past 150 years and the number of people who defend its 'complexity and depth'. For me, it was a waste of time and even the $3.50 I bought it for.

How much do we really need?

2010-08-05T17:00:00.002+10:00

The media is buzzing with the news that over 40 US billionaires have pledged to give away half their fortunes to charity in their lifetime. I'm stoked - good on them!

Here's the goss:

Dozens of U.S. billionaires pledged on Wednesday to give at least half their fortunes to charity as part of a philanthropic campaign by two of the world's richest men -- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

Based on Forbes magazine's estimates of the billionaires' wealth, at least $150 billion could be given away. Among the rich joining The Giving Pledge campaign are New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, media moguls Barry Diller and Ted Turner, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, "Star Wars" movie maker George Lucas and energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens.

The campaign asks U.S. billionaires to give away at least half their wealth during their lifetime or after their death, and to publicly state their intention with a letter explaining their decision.

"I've long stated that I enjoy making money, and I enjoy giving it away," energy tycoon Pickens, who is worth about $1 billion, said in his Giving Pledge letter. "I'm not a big fan of inherited wealth. It generally does more harm than good."

Source: Reuters

I'm thrilled to hear about this, because giving is something I've been thinking about a lot lately- not on the billionaire level, but on the average person's level. How much do we really need before need turns to want turns to excess?

It's easy to say, 'Oh they're billionaires - they can afford to give away that much'. But like the story of the widow and the two mites*, it's all relative. They can afford to give away BILLIONS of dollars and we can't, but surely we can still afford to give away tens of dollars... maybe hundreds even, and you're in a very good position if you can afford to give away thousands.

It's great too to hear that it's happening in the secular field of business, because for too long, charity has been the domain of churches and religion. Say what you will, but religious people are givers. A review from Stanford University showed that the average religious person is 25% more likely to give financially and 23% more likely to volunteer their time than a demographically identical nonreligious person - and this includes giving to nonreligious causes (source: Hoover Institution Publications).

Much of this can be attributed to exposure and opportunity: churches regularly focus on needs and causes from around the world and give opportunities to the congregation to give towards them. It can also be attributed to the widespread religious belief that it is our duty to help our fellow man, which is based in the root of most religions: love. This is what caused Mother Teresa to go into the slums of Calcutta, and what an example she is.

Not everyone can be a Mother Teresa, and not everyone will be motivated by love. I'd find it hard to believe that most of these billionaires are giving their money out of love. I'd believe that many of them are giving out of compassion and generosity, but in most likelihood, I imagine most will do it just because they can. And frankly, that's not a bad motivation.

How much do we really need, apart from shelter and clothing and some luxuries that give us enjoyment? How much before our wealth becomes a burden and not a joy? I don't advocate giving out of guilt - if you work hard for your money, you should be able to spend it however you want. BUT it's worth remembering, before we buy the latest model of the gadget we already have, that a single dollar can feed a hungry person in another part of the world, and that a few dollars more can prevent a child from being sold to a pedophile.

Okay, enough preaching. If you don't know enough charities to give to, try TEAR's gift-a-month, which allows you to give to a different charity every month. Great idea.

* Mark 12:41-44 in the Bible - a wealthy man and a poor widow give money, and the wealthy man is pleased with himself because he gave so much more than the widow, however in God's eyes, what the widow gave was worth far more because she gave from her lack, while he gave only a tiny portion of his wealth. This is Einstein's theory of relativity at work.

That Guy Sebastian

2010-08-03T14:41:00.001+10:00

The other night, Nat loaded me in the car and headed out towards Bankstown, under the guise of going to Habib's for dinner (a great Lebanese charcoal chicken place with to-die-for garlic sauce). When we got there, he parked the car in the Bankstown Sport Centre carpark and lo and behold, whose poster did I see but the one and only Guy Sebastian performing for one night only?!

It wasn't a coincidence, but a lovely planned surprise because I love hearing Guy sing live (or on cd, or radio, or anywhere at all) - he's a superb singer and a really great entertainer. And don't underestimate these local sports clubs - those pensioners must be spending bucketloads on the pokies because they're pretty impressive even in all their tackiness. It had state of the art ID check-in stands, around 4 or 5 restaurants (including a fine dining one) and more lights than Christmas, not to mention that the showroom was actually really similar to the one at Star City.

Guy did a great set with a mix of old and new favourites from his albums (Elevator Love, Art of Love and of course, Angels Brought Me Here), plus a few cool renditions from other artists thrown in. Before I knew it, my feet were tapping, my head was bopping and there was a massive smile on my face, which was mirrored by just about everyone there (lots of youngish and older couples, families and women). He really is a great performer, and his funny stories set everyone at ease and segued his songs perfectly. Particularly memorable was his anecdote about the poor plumbing in his current apartment in LA, which once housed John Lennon. A flush of the toilet led to around 30 years worth of sewage to come gushing out of the bathroom pipes, so having already been familiar with John Lennon's sh*t, he proceeded to sing his song Jealous Guy.

There was also a really interesting part of the concert using a recording device, into which he used a combination of beatbox, ukelele and vocals (recorded live on the spot) to accompany a medley of songs including Jason Mraz's I'm Yours, Alicia Key's Noone and Travie McCoy's currently ubiquitous Billionaire, amongst others.

But I think the best part of the night was just his personality. He came back to Australia off the back of an American tour along the west coast with Jordin Sparks, and bounced into the concert after a day of filming the X Factor, a show in which he's one of the judges, but his pleasure at playing to a westie crowd in Bankstown was totally genuine. His charming and disarming nature is simply impossible to dislike, and add to that the heart, energy and talent of himself and his great band, and you have one heck of show.

What tickles my funny bone

2010-07-23T15:14:00.002+10:00

Engrish mistakes really tickle my funny bone. I love these real-life marketing slogans that got totally lost in translation:

Pepsi slogan: Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation
Taiwanese: "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead."

KFC: Finger Lickin' Good
Chinese: "Eat your fingers off."

Electrolux: something in Swedish
English: "Nothing sucks like Electrolux."

A cafe sign in Chinese: Welcome foreigners
In English: Welcome big nose friends

Speaking of things that make me laugh, these are a few websites I love to visit for a dose of serotonin:

Crazy Things Parents Say

Examples:

My Grandma on hooking a bowling ball on Wii Bowling:
Grandma: "I’ve always been a hooker. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t a hooker."
Grandpa: "You know, when I met your grandma, she was a hooker."

Mom: “Okay, go get the electric broom and sweep in here.”
Me: “Electric broom? We have an electric broom?”
Mom: “Yes.”
Me: “And where is it?”
Mom: “Right there.”
Me: “…that’s a vacuum, Mom.”
Mom: “…be quiet and get to work.”

My mom when my dad sent her a two page long text message:
“One of Two? Two of Two? What is he trying to say? Is it a secret code?”

Clients from hell:

Examples:

Client: A contact has a friend thats tight with Google so he’ll get us to the top ranking.
Me: I don’t think it works like that.
Client: Don’t worry, we have it covered. My friend’s friend is tight with that Zakenburger kid from Myspace.

Client: “We don’t want people to think that everyone using our service is black. Can you make most of the people white?”
Me: “They are stick figures, I don’t think there’s going to be any racial profiling.”
Client: “Well you’re using black lines for all of them. We want to see most of them as white.”
Me: “Don’t you think that would look even more racist? Besides, it’s a white background, the white stick figures would disappear.”
Client: “Then change it to a black background and make the black people disappear. I don’t know, just figure it out.”

Client: ”I love the job you did! Thanks so much!”
Me: ”Great! Best of luck with it! I sent you the invoice. We did more than what we had agreed to and did not charge you for it.”
Client: ”Yes, and as soon as I get your expenses, I will pay you.”
Me: ”What do you mean by our expenses?”
Client: ”Well, I need to get what you paid for materials, etc. so I know if what you are charging me is fair.”
Me: ”But we agreed to a price and you agreed to it and thought it was fair, we delivered more than the price we agreed to and you love it? I’m not going to give you what we paid for materials, printing, etc? When you go to a restaurant and order a meal and eat it, do you ask for the price of the lobster and ingredients when the bill comes before you’ll pay?”
Client: ”What I do or do not do in restaurants is not relevant. First of all, I never order lobster. Second, you don’t understand how business works. You really need to understand business better. I won’t pay until I see what your costs were.”

Apart from these ones, I also love the fail blog, occasionally check in on Wedinator (hilarious wedding photos - see above) and Probably Bad News. Got a better site I should be checking out?

2010 second quarter reading round up

2010-07-06T12:03:00.005+10:00

Brief review of books read between April-June 2010:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
Quite a fascinating account of a woman whose 'immortal' cells led to countless breakthroughs in medical science, and the family she left behind, who still feel cheated at having not seen a single cent from her multi-billion dollar legacy (as her cells were taken without her knowledge).

Les Miserables (volume 1), Victor Hugo
That Victor Hugo sure can write. It's a long trek of a book but well worth it, with characters fleshed out and weaving storylines that will break your heart and leave you a sobbing mess on public transport.

Isabel's Bed, Elinor Lipman
A re-read from my bookshelf of a great modern writer who manages to evoke the atmosphere of an indie film.

Mister Pip, Lloyd Jones
I was moved. but didn't love this book as much as I knew I was supposed to. Maybe because it was written from the perspective of a young adolescent girl, but the voice just didn't ring true to me. Lovely story though, in the Dead Poets Society sort of vein, set in an Indigenous community in Papua New Guinea.

The Lives of Christopher Chant, Diana Wynne-Jones
Diana Wynne-Jones did magic with words way before Harry Potter, and most of her books are, as they are now labelled on the cover, 'hotter than Potter', but this wasn't one of them.

Just Courage, Gary Haugen
A truly inspiring book by the founder of the International Justice Mission, an organisation that fights human trafficking around the globe. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in finding out more about trafficking and what we can do to prevent it.

31 Dream Street, Lisa Jewell
Another re-read from my bookshelf - I really like this book because the protagonists (Leah and Toby) are so ordinary but lovely, and their story is gentle and romantic and feel-good.

A Friend of the Family, Lisa Jewell
... so I decided to read another Lisa Jewell book, but it didn't prove to be quite as rewarding. Pretty good, but not great.

The Monday Night Cooking Club, Erica Bauermeister
... but not as bad as this dud of a book. About a third of the way through, I had to start skimming because the eyeball-rolling and head-shaking was getting distracting.

Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, Alexander McCall Smith
Now this is a book I knew I could rely on (from the Number One Ladies' Detective Agency series), and it didn't disappoint. I love Precious Ramotswe and her band of patriotic Botswanians (is that right?). It's like hot chocolate on a freezing cold day.

Thanks for the Memories, Cecelia Ahern
Where do I start with this stinker of a book? Firstly, the idea that you can transfer memories from a blood transfusion was just ridiculous. Organ donation, okay I understand, but blood?? It was a cheap ruse to keep the two connected parties alive long enough to fall in love. Terribly contrived.

The Truth About Melody Browne, Lisa Jewell
Boy was I on a chicklit roll this quarter. I think I was feeling a little down or PMS-y and wanted a lift. This is quite a nice read about a woman who loses her memory after a fire during childhood, but starts unravelling the mystery years later. In Lisa Jewell's style, it's a gentle and comforting read.

Two Caravans, Marina Lewycka
A comical on-the-road story about a mixed group of European travellers in the UK, making money from strawberry-picking and working on a poultry farm (it's enough to turn you off chickens for good). There doesn't seem to be a fixed central storyline, but we follow the characters in their adventures (and misadventures) and hear from each of them in first person, which is an interesting technique, and one from which much of the humour is derived.

Eric, Shaun Tan
Just gorgeous. Shaun Tan is an incredible artist whose illustrations evoke so much atmosphere and emotion. I challenge you not to go 'awwwww' when you reach the end.

You Don't Have to be Evil to Work Here But it Helps, Tom Holt
Magical comic fantasy, but not as good as his previous work. It's set in London in an organisation that deals with magical business, and as usual, a not-too-bright but kind-hearted young twenty-something English lad gets thrown into it without his knowledge or consent, and has to fumble about trying to make things right. The ideas are intriguing and really quite smart, but I preferred Holt's previous characters.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Paul Torday
Another re-read from my bookshelf (please suggest some new reading material!), but I found it a little more depressing this time round. It's a funny and easy read, but it does provide some food for thought.

A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
This is one of my favourites - the account of its obese and arrogant hero, Ignatius O'Reilly, is hilarious and intelligently written. The first time I read it, I was completely diverted (the Austen definition - entertained) by his antics, but this time around I couldn't help but feel the tragedy behind some of the secondary characters, especially those affected by his actions, like the overlooked and much maligned police officer Mancuso, and the relationship between the wealthy but unhappy Levys. It's a witty and humorous book, but you do feel the despair that no doubt caused the author to commit suicide. Although he manages to find humour in almost every situation, it's a bleak view of the world, with no beauty or wisdom, and only folly to laugh at.

Chart Throb, Ben Elton
Chart Throb is the culmination of Ben Elton's sharp observations of the talent quest phenomenon (think [insert country] Idol), a good modern read.

Spellmans Strike Again, Lisa Lutz
Too much of a good thing is still too much. This is part four of Lisa Lutz's Spellman series, and although it's probably just as funny and well-written as the first book, after a certain point you just don't enjoy it as much anymore.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
Slow to start, but much like the central character, once you pass the surface there is much to like about this book. It's not an easy read as it requires at least 90% of your functioning brain to understand, but it's a good insight into the French class system (despite their protests of egalitarianism) set alongside the story of the burgeoning relationships between Renee (the lowly concierge in a rich people's building), the young, intelligent and privileged Paloma, and Mr Ozu, the Japanese newcomer to the building. I wasn't happy with the ending though, not because it's not a 'happy ending', but because it's a cheap way to reward readers who invest so much into the book.

When was the last time a song made you cry?

2010-06-18T16:01:00.003+10:00

In around 1976 (when I was two years old), Billy Nicholls wrote a song called Can't Stop Loving You, which was sung by Leo Sayer in 1977 and reached #7 in the UK singles chart.

In 1980 it was covered by the Outlaws, then again in 2002 by Phil Collins and then in 2008 by Keith Urban.

I mention this because although I'm sure I've heard at least one of those variations in my lifetime, I heard it afresh on the radio a while ago and it brought me to tears. Not the sobbing kind, but the wipe-away-a-tear kind. It's so beautiful and sad... especially the verses. Not so crazy about the chorus.

Call me a dag, but I'm providing the Phil Collins version because that's the one that reduced me to tears, and although Keith Urban's version is fresher, this one has that slow steady build up that kicks you in the guts. If you really listen to the lyrics and you're still not moved, you're made of stone.

What's the last song to make you cry? In fact, has a song ever made you shed a tear?

Lyrics:

Can't Stop Loving You

Verse 1
So you're leaving in the morning
On the early train
Well I could say everything's alright
And I could pretend to say goodbye

Got your ticket
Got your suitcase
Got your leaving smile
Oh I could say that's the way it goes
And I could pretend and you won't know
That I was lying

Chorus
Cos I can't stop loving you
No I can't stop loving you
No I won't stop loving you
Why should I (even try)

Verse 2
We took a taxi to the station
Not a word was said
And I saw you walk across the room
For maybe the last time I don't know

Feeling humble
Heard the rumble on the railroad track
Oh when I hear the whistle blow
You'll walk away and you won't know
That I'll be crying

Bridge
I'll always be here by your side
I never wanted to say goodbye
I'll always be here if you change, change your mind

So you're leaving in the morning
On the early train
Well I could say everything's alright
And I could pretend to say goodbye
But that would be lying

A throwback to childhood

2010-06-15T14:23:00.003+10:00

I can't begin to tell you the feelings of overwhelming nostalgia and excitement that ripped through me when I stumbled across the trailer for the new Ramona and Beezus movie. Ramona was not just a staple part of my literary diet when I was growing up, she was my IT girl, the one who represented the clumsy, imaginative and misunderstood younger me.

I read all her books repeatedly, and even wrote to Beverly Cleary (the author) to tell her how much I loved her books and how they made me decide I wanted to become a writer too. It was the first of only two fan letters I ever wrote in my life (the second, embarrassingly, was to Michael Jordan). Imagine my thrill when I received a reply from her in her spidery calligraphic handwriting on that old-style onionskin notepaper! It's one of my prized possessions hidden in a box somewhere so safely I can't remember where I've put it.

It brings back to mind the days of rollerskating outside the house, borrowing six library books in a day (the maximum back then) and going home to devour them through the night, skipping piano lessons to go skateboarding in the park (and finding $50 on the path - SCORE!), grazed knees, forced Korean language lessons on Saturdays and an endless supply of sweets from the cornerstore on the way to school in the mornings. Those blissful, innocent, childhood days.

I think everyone's got a Ramona - some book or movie or trigger that brings back all the memories of childhood. What's yours?

Ramona and Beezus trailer:

Plots that cycle without resolution

2010-06-09T15:23:00.002+10:00

I just finished re-reading Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (it's been a few years since my first read so I didn't remember the ending when I picked it up again), and it reminded me, for some reason, of the George Clooney movie Up in the Air.

I enjoyed both stories, and the characters and plot trajectories are similar insofar as the main protagonists are comfortable in the somewhat semi-detached rut of their lives, and then something comes along to disturb that equilibrium, and they suddenly realise there's so much they're missing out on in life. Their characters awaken to the possibilities of new relationships and then just as they're about to make the inevitable life-changing decision, the situations reverse on them and suddenly they're back to where they started, but just that little bit worse off because now they're aware of what they're missing out on.

Both storytellers (Paul Torday, author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Jason Reitman, writer and director of Up in the Air) do a great job of setting up the story and developing the characters, but it's such a shame that just as you're ready to see them off in the next phase of their journeys, there's a sudden stall and they go nowhere. It's disappointing because you enjoy the ride so far, and you want to see them make the leap, but through no fault of their own, the climax they've been building up to suddenly implodes. Then the story ends, and where does that leave us readers/viewers?

I know this is more true to life sometimes than we might want to admit, but that's why we watch movies. I want resolution. I want the baddie to be caught, the good guy freed, the stuck-in-a-rut hero to be liberated. I want character growth. I want a happy ending (if it's appropriate). I want a good story. Don't build my hopes only to dash them. I can't make head or tail then as to whether I really like the movie/book or not.

I'm not asking for a Cinderella resolution to every story, but I hate getting emotionally invested only to see that investment go nowhere. Do plots without resolution bother you? Or is it just me that wants the tidy finish?

A history of unfortunate misadventures

2010-05-25T17:44:00.003+10:00

I cracked my toe on a metal bar and fractured it on Saturday. Result: strange grey sausagey looking toe and a lot of difficulty walking. Secondary result: a sore butt from sitting too long in one position with my foot elevated. Tertiary result: a strange desire to exercise. Hmm, perhaps I should fracture my toe more often. Who knew this would be a motivation for exercise?

So anyway I thought it might be a good opportunity to list my history of misadventures. My close friends have heard these stories many times but they've never been documented, so here goes:

At around age 3-4, still in Korea, I fell over onto broken glass and cut my chin, requiring three stitches. I still have the scars to prove it.

Age 6: as the younger sister I was forced to sleep in the bottom bunk, as usual. Somehow the double bunk wasn't as sturdy as my parents thoughts (Ikea, anyone?) and my sister's top bunk fell on top of me during the night. She proceeded to STAY ON THE BED ON TOP OF ME and wail at the top of her lungs while I politely asked her to get off me. At least that's how I remember it. I still have the staple scar on my forehead to prove it.

Age 7-8: We attended an engagement party at someone's house and all the kids were climbing up to the half-storey balcony. I was the youngest and wanted to fit in, so I climbed up too... then cheered for victory when I got to the top by raising my arms. Big mistake. I fell splat on my face on the concrete below, split my lip and and dislodged my two front teeth.

The next day: My dad was taking me to the dentist and I was in the backseat next to my siblings. I was next to the door, which I evidently hadn't closed properly. We turned a sharp corner, the door flew open and I fell out of the car. To this day I remember being dragged along the ground by my face, the bottom half of my body still in the car until my dad slammed on the brakes.

Age 11: Rollerskates! Yay! Result: fractured wrist.

Also age 11: Learned to play newcomball (is that how you spell it? I've never heard of it since primary school), except my hand-eye-coordination is average at best. Result: fractured finger. Middle finger. I still remember the kids going 'Eerr, guess what you've been doing!' and it took me YEARS (until my twenties in fact) to understand what they were going on about. Dirty kids.

Age 13: We never had a bicycle so I never learned to ride as a child (to this day I still can't turn right on a bike). When my sister's friend got a new bike for Christmas, we inherited her old one, with its broken rusty spoke and all. How hard could it be to learn to ride, right? So I took it up to the top of our steep street, straddled the seat, held my legs out stiffly on either side and rode that sucker. All the way down. Until I got the end of the cul de sac. At which point I realised I didn't know how to stop. Result: face plant and rusty spoke in my calf, lots of blood and visible bone. Gross.

Age 26: Running down the steps at a church camp, I fell over and twisted my foot. Turned out that I'd actually fractured two bones. I couldn't walk on it, so two friends on either side of me were helping me down some other steps the next day, when I slipped on some water and fractured the other foot. Lots of fun, especially trying to get into the apartment - my flatmate and I had to accost a perfect stranger off the street to carry me from the car to our apartment.

It's been a relatively event-free past few years aside from some minor spills, grazed knees and cut fingers (oh the joy of learning to cook).

So let me put forth this post as my official case for upgrading my status to urgent should science finally work out how to morph human bones with adamantium. I figure if it worked for Wolverine, it could work for me.

Creativity - innate or divine?

2010-05-19T17:13:00.006+10:00

Wow. Where have I been for the past year? Elizabeth Gilbert, of Eat, Pray, Love fame delivered this amazing speech about creativity at a TED conference last year (a non-profit organisation for Technology, Entertainment and Design).

I haven't read her book(s) and I haven't heard her speak before, but I found this speech profoundly impacting. Whether you're a creative person or not, it's inspirational and moving, and as an added bonus, it's funny too. She's suddenly shot into the list of people I admire.

In short, if you don't have 18 minutes to devote to the clip (which is well worth the investment of your time), she talks about the historical shift in human thinking about creativity. In ancient Greek and Roman times, genius was like a genie - coming from somewhere external to the self to express itself through you. Then in the industrial age, there was a change and humans began to believe that creativity came from within, as an intrinsic part of self.

As a result, motivation became internalised and fear-based: how to top your last success, how to be the best in your field, etc. The focus, being solely on self and feeding directly into the sense of identity, led to the anxiety, depression and 'darkness' that creative geniuses now have a reputation for.

It's a liberating speech because it frees us from the idea that we ARE (or at least should be) genius incarnate, and that if everything we produce doesn't express that inner genius, then we've failed. As someone who experienced phenomenal worldwide success with her book, Eat, Pray, Love, she speaks candidly and with self-deprecating honesty about trying to follow up something as scary as that kind of success. For her, it just means continuing to do what she's always done, which is to write, and hope that that incredible creative force will come and do its part, but that it's something outside of her control.

She even goes so far as to name that force in certain circles as Allah, God, and provides an historical anecdote: at times when a person was obviously in the throes of genius (for example, dancing as part of a tribe), the people around them would recognise it and respond by calling out 'Allah Allah Allah', as in God God God. This practice still continues today, but it has been adapted in Spain and other cultures into Ole Ole Ole. Don't you just love learning new things?

Elizabeth Gilbert's speech resonated with me, because I do believe that God is the ultimate creative force. Being made in his image, we all have the ability to create, but sometimes we need that external inspiration to do be able to do it. Leonardo had his paintbrush, Mozart had his piano. Heck, Kurt Cobain (if you believe he's a genius) had an electric guitar.

What do we have that we can start using to tap into this divine creative force? Whether it's a pen or a ukelele, it's amazing to think that we can do something that transcends ourselves.

Miss Cranky Pants turns to junk food

2010-05-13T16:50:00.000+10:00

In the spirit of over-sharing, allow me to say that I'm totally pre-menstrual right now, and with the imminent onslaught of the mean reds, I've turned to junk food and junk reading for comfort. In the last two days I've eaten:

fast food for two consecutive lunches (maccas and oportos)
Haigh's chocolates (I need to find a cheaper chocolate escape)
chips (including Red Rock's vintage cheddar and red onion, possibly the stinkiest chips made by man)
Sara Lee's ultra-choc ice cream

But I'll claim a small victory in having been tempted by a chocolate sundae and withstanding... mostly because I didn't pass another maccas on the way back to the office. Whew for little blessings.

Is it just me? Surely other people also become mean and moody at these very special times of the month. I'm pretty sure this is what led to my arsehole outburst last month.

And why junk food cravings? Is it medical? If so, who am I to stand in the way of modern health. If the chips and chocolate and crap that I shovel in my mouth stop me from putting my foot in it instead, I'll take the zits that will no doubt appear on the near horizon (of my forehead).

Loving Mean Cards

2010-05-10T13:00:00.003+10:00

I'm loving these mean cards - they're hilarious, and the stick figures render them impossible to offend.

Inside: my patience for your condition is beginning to wane

Inside: you best maintain our friendship

Inside: it doesn't love you back (there's just no app for that)

Inside: you know why.

Inside: ask around

Inside: refrain, and seek instruction

It brings to mind the episode from Seinfeld where Kramer throws up on Susan and there's a suggestion of cards for awkward situations like 'Sorry I threw up on you'.

The mean cards artist also has a great blog called stories of daily peril filled with her wonderfully winsome stick images.

What mean cards or awkward-situation cards would you think up? My suggestions:

(outside): you annoy me

(inside): but I find you oddly endearing

(outside): you make me sick

(inside): you're too talented for your own good

(outside): stop chucking sickies

(inside): they make mine look suspicious too

Gleeful pleasures

2010-05-07T12:32:00.004+10:00

I've been sick for half a week, down with spousal flu (caught from hubster), so yesterday after leaving work early, I dropped by Haigh's and treated myself to an expensive pack of chocolate-covered hazelnuts and went home to watch my guilty pleasure: GLEE! It's camped up high school musical at its best. Last night was the Madonna special, full of girl power, a surprising turn by Sue Sylvester and the special Glee treatment on an assortment of Madonna songs that have never sounded better. I particularly loved their treatment of Open Your Heart and What it Feels Like for a Girl - the videos will probably be restricted by the time I hit 'publish' but you can look up another version on youtube if you're so inclined:

Open Your Heart - mash up of Borderline and Open Your Heart with Rachel and Finn

What it Feels Like for Girl - awesome harmonies by the Glee boys

It's an infectiously fun and hilarious show! How can you hate a show that has lines like:

Cheerios Coach Sue Sylvester to her nemesis Glee Club Director Will Shuester after being told to 'bring it': 'Oh, I will bring it, William. You know what else I'm going to bring? I'm going to bring some Asian cookery to rub your hair with, because right now you have enough product in your hair to season a wok.'

Blonde Cheerio Brittany: 'I had a cold and I took all my antibiotics at the same time and I forgot how to leave.' And 'When I pulled my hamstring, I went to a misogynist.'

Bad boy Puck to his impregnated girlfriend: 'Please stop super-sizing because I don't dig on fat chicks.'

Principal Figgins: 'I need those parents happy! They found out we've been serving the children prison food.'

If you're a fan of the show, here's a secret: you can watch the latest episode loaded at the same time it airs in the US on casttv.

My comfort list

It's at times like this when you're feeling a little sorry for yourself that you turn to comfort eating, comfort reading and comfort watching.

Movies: I turn to romantic comedies, like old favourites Bridget Jones's Diary, Love Actually, While You Were Sleeping, and The Jane Austen Book Club. If I'm really sick, I go the whole hog with the Andrew Davies' BBC 6 hour version of Pride and Prejudice.

TV: Things that make me laugh like The IT Crowd, Arrested Development, 30 Rock... also some old BBC stuff like As Time Goes By, Black Books and The Vicar of Dibley.

Reading: I love a sick-visit to the library to get comedic chicklit, Alexander McCall-Smith books from the Number One Ladies' Detective Agency series, and some random stuff.

Food: chocolate (the good stuff), chocolate-covered strawberries, dragonfruit, mandarines, anything I don't have to cook or prepare myself.

Got any comfort secrets?

How old is too old to change your name?

2010-04-29T23:05:00.003+10:00

I realised a few days ago, with utter clarity, during a conversation in which my friend repeated my name several times in the span of a few sentences, that I don't like my name.

Leanne. Leanne. Leanne. Leanne. Leanne. Leanne! Weird isn't it?
When I think of Leanne, I think of a plump, white, middle aged woman from middle-America with permed hair and a nice smile. None of which is me.

So I wondered, how old is too old to change one's name? Is it weird to suddenly say, 'Oh by the way, my name is so-and-so now.'?

The whole history of my name is a bit unorthodox anyway. My birth name was Jae-Sun, apparently bestowed by a traditional Korean name-giver (imagine that as a job!), but my mum didn't like it so she decided to call me Hyun Joo. So until I was around 6 years old, I was called Hyun Joo at home and Jae Sun at school (often 'Jason' in sing-song by some uncreative teasing types). Then my parents decided we should assimilate at school with Anglo names and told us we could choose our own. My brother picked a sensible Simon. My sister chose Leanne. I chose to be named after my favourite flower of the time, Rosie.

Then suddenly there was a last minute change.

My sister had a girl-crush on her teacher Glenda Bell, and decided to make herself her namesake... but she didn't want to relinquish Leanne. As both of us already had two Korean names apiece, a fourth name would be a bit ostentatious, so she decided to do me a favour, and bestowed Leanne on her poor unsuspecting little sister. Goodbye Rosie, hello Leanne. Leanne. Leanne. Leanne. Leanne. Leanne!

So if I were to tell you that I've changed my name, would you think I was weird? Is it too late to make you call me something else? Because remember, in the words of Shakespeare, 'a rose by any other name would smell as sweet'. Even if that rose was called Leanne.

Niemann and three-thirty-itis

2010-04-27T17:08:00.001+10:00

Note to self: WAKE UP!!!!

Great cartoon by NY Times artist Christopher Niemann

I know it's not just me - lots of us get that drowsy mid-afternoon sensation. Head nodding. Bobbing. Closer and closer to the desk, the shoulder of the person next to us, to whatever surface will pillow our suddenly boulder-weight head. In the words of that iconic Victoria Bitter ad: 'As a matter of fact, I've got it now.'

How much do you love that Niemann cartoon? Here's another one that I think sums up love in a very cold place:

He says:

Winter is coming, and slipping into a cold bed is tough. But believe it or not, sometimes when I go to bed before my wife does, I will offer her the half that I have just warmed up.

I obviously love her very, very much.

I can't say my husband has ever done that for me (nor I for him!) but we've certainly been here:

Who hasn't right?

To see more of his cartoons, check out his blog Abstract City on the NY Times website. To see the whole gorgeous story from which I've borrowed these images, check it out this particularly charming post.

So I called my husband an arsehole today...

2010-04-18T00:50:00.002+10:00

It was mean of me. He had just apologised after an argument in which neither of us were very much in the right, and throughout which I had been liberally dropping the f-bomb, which is kind of a new thing for me. Then I proceeded to give him a bit of the silent treatment. You know, just to show how very hurt I was. I knew I should apologise too, but instead, I simply said, 'arsehole'. And he became quite upset. Not just because I called him an arsehole, but because of the way I said it. Not fun, like the American 'asshole'. I said it with feeling. Emphatically, like 'arsehole'.

He gave me a bit of a dressing down, which I deserved, and basically told me in no uncertain terms to grow up. I've been swearing a bit lately and it's his opinion that the f-word is a novelty for me. I must admit that it's true. I didn't swear much growing up. Sure, after the odd volleyball game that our team lost, I would lose it even more and say every bad word I knew under the sun, which mostly revolved around 'shitty', but when I became almost puritanical (a phase in my Christian journey), I abstained from any swearing apart from the odd 'crap'. Now, since I feel so very grown up and believe in a more liberal doctrine, when I lose my temper I say f. As in fuck. Then, to my lovely husband who puts up with a lot of my crap, I called arsehole.

As it transpires, my husband used to swear a lot. No surprise to those who know him - he came into Christianity a lot later than I did and was a bit rough around the edges growing up, but he's put in a lot of effort to change. Even now he wears a metaphorical nicotine patch for swearing, much to my benefit, and then suddenly I'm all f-this and f-that - like blowing smoke in his face.

I think he's worried that if I keep going like this, it's going to coarsen my nature. And I agree, it probably will. So now I'm going to stop. No more f-s. No more calling people I love very unflattering body parts.

This post is purely cathartic - to confess my wrongdoing and announce my determination to stop swearing. Except for shit, which I will continue to use because I feel it expresses things so beautifully.

And to my husband, who occasionally reads my blog, let me lay another very emphatic word on you. Sorry.

Chalkboard table: my weekend project

2010-04-15T15:18:00.006+10:00

Yay I finished my chalkboard table! I said I'd do it and finally I put aside a weekend and did it. Make sure you give yourself enough time for the paint to dry between layers, and open the windows because the paint fumes are pretty strong.

Start with a table and and a can of chalkboard paint. I used a 500mL can for my 8-seater table and it was plenty for 2 coats. If the surface of the table is smooth, it's recommended that you prime the surface first. Personally, I skipped the primer but it seems to have worked fine.

Precautions first. Before you start painting, lay newspaper on the ground along the edges of the table to catch the drips. Also, place masking tape on any parts of the table you don't want painted over.

This is the fun bit. Grab a paintbrush and paint on the first layer. Afterwards, wrap the brush in plastic wrap and tie it securely inside a plastic bag. This way, you won't have to clean it between painting layers. I used a pretty cheap brush deliberately so I could throw it out afterwards, rather than trying to clean it out later. Not only is it hard work trying to clean paint out of brushes, but all the excess paint goes into the waterways and is damaging to the environment. Pollution = bad.

Looks pretty good, eh? Once you've completed the second layer and the surface is dry to the touch, remove the protective masking tape and enjoy your handiwork.

Start writing. Use chalk or liquid chalk pen (dust-free) to write on the surface. It's the perfect surface for drawing kids' pictures, writing out difficult equations or making diabolical plans to take over the world. Or, of course, the more mundane things like writing memos to family members or drawing out place settings for dinner.

With your leftover chalkboard paint, you can turn old picture frames into framed chalkboards, an old baking tray into a magnetic drawing surface for youngsters, or paint chalkboard labels on the canisters in your kitchen. The ideas are endless and it's heaps of fun.

Also, liquid-chalk pens come in a variety of colours and they're perfect not only for chalkboards, but I love using them to write my monthly goals on the mirrored doors of our wardrobe. Easy to write, easy to wipe off. Grab one and go nuts!

Kick-Ass, movie review

2010-04-12T21:40:00.003+10:00

I should not be this giddy about a film so chock full of extreme violence and an 11-year old girl with a potty mouth. I should not, by rights, be so enamoured with this film about a teen geek superhero-wannabe who wears a wetsuit to save the neighbourhood. But I LOVED it. Enough to see it twice in the opening weekend. It, quite simply, kicked ass.

The script is funny, clever and very current. It's full of one-liners and hilarious teen moments that pepper the film and balance the violence and mayhem that escalate as the story goes on. The action, although violent, is never particularly realistic enough to be disturbing. It's stylised in the brand of Hong Kong super-director John Woo (it bugs me the number of reviews that refer to it as 'Tarantino-esque' – Woo is the original), and brings to mind the early movies starring Chow Yun Fat. But the graceful balletic violence is transferred to a comic book setting, which works brilliantly, and delivers most of its lethal blows through an 11 year old girl. This move has seen some major controversy in the media lately. Considering my belief system (Christian, and usually predictably conservative), I should've been joining in the ranks of the outraged, but frankly this movie got me from the premise and delivered everything it promised. It's become one of my favourite movies of the last few years at the very least.

In a short summary (no spoilers), the story is about a teen geek, Dave Lizewski (played by British Aaron Johnson) who wonders aloud why noone's tried being a superhero in real life. Armed with his newly-purchased green wetsuit, a mask, baton and MySpace page for for his alter-ego Kick-Ass, he goes out to save the neighbourhood. 11 year old, purple-wigged Hit-Girl bursts into the scene during a rescue mission gone wrong, saving his life and delivering the devastatingly funny line to his attackers, 'Okay you cunts, let's see what you've got,' and then wastes no time laying into them with a flurry of bloody knife-action. Turns out Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz, 11-year old action prodigy) and her father Big-Daddy (Nicolas Cage in a career-reviving role) are pseudo-superheroes who are going after the bad guys to avenge the death of their wife/mother. The 'bad guys' are Frank D'Amico (the wonderful Mark Strong), the local mob boss with an artillery of goofy gang members, and increasingly also his teenage son Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, McLovin' from Superbad and Role Models), who creates his own superhero alter-ego, Red Mist.

Due to the controversial nature of the film, apparently no film studio wanted to touch it unless Hit-Girl metamorphosed into a 28-year old crime-fighting machine, but creators Matthew Vaughn and Mark Millar refused to budge. As a result, it was privately funded (largely by Brad Pitt, no less) so the directors had absolute control over the film.

While the plot is quite simple, not unlike most superhero movies, there are layers in this film that take it beyond simple entertainment to potential cult status. Kick-Ass satirises the superhero genre (the heroes don't have any superpowers, Big Daddy's costume is a rip off of Batman and the hero at the centre of the action is a geek in a wetsuit), while genuflecting before its altar thematically and otherwise (good versus evil, Hit Girl's super-agile abilities and the incredibly choreographed fight scenes), all the while offering a smorgasbord of humour from light (the quips and banter of Dave and his friends) to dark (the comic book violence). Its irreverence is bound to resonate with teenagers while the cleverness of the script and brilliant action sequences will appeal to anyone who likes a good laugh and doesn't mind a bit of violence. Okay, a lot of violence, but slick and brilliantly choreographed.

Most reviews that pan the film seem to focus on the irresponsibility of placing central focus on a violent and foul-mouthed preteen, and while I agree it's not healthy by any means, in this case it does what it's meant to: be shocking and entertaining and awe-inspiring all at once. Once in her costume, Hit Girl's charisma, casual swearing and violence become something of legend, and I, for one, would have been very sorry to miss it, had she been turned into the 28 year-old studio doll most likely with a big pout and sexualised leather costume. I'll take Hit Girl dropping the f-bomb any day.

2010 first quarter reading round up

2010-04-08T11:12:00.002+10:00

Brief review of books read between January and March, 2010:

Stardust, Neil Gaimain
Wonderful imaginative story of Tristan Thorn, who travels to another realm to find a star. It's fantasy with heart and head - Gaiman is a great author.

People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
Brooks is Australian, so there's a great Aussie no-nonsense about the heroine Dr Hannah Heath, a skilled conservator, who travels far and wide to trace the history of the fictitious Sarajevo Haggadah and the people who sheltered it. It's a story with great richness and history.

The Book of a Thousand Days, Shannon Hale
Cross between fairytale, chicklit and young teen fiction. Not a standout.

Finger-Lickin' Fifteen, Janet Evanovich
Fifteen novels so far and Stephanie Plum is just as trouble-prone but no closer to settling down with Joe Morelli or Ranger. Still funny, but the shine wears off after a while.

The Glorious Nosebleed, Edward Gorey
Interesting. Very strange and interesting.

The Slap, Christos Tsiolkas
An interesting insight into the intimate lives of a group of Melbourne friends after one parent slaps the child of another person at a BBQ. Tsiolkas is a talented Australian writer but his characters aren't very likable.

Fly Me to the Moon, Alyson Noel
Why do I allow myself to read such terrible chicklit? Awful, awful stuff and total waste of time. Infuriated me so much I wrote a post on badly cobbled fiction.

The Case of the Imaginery Detective, Karen Joy Fowler
Slow, gentle, forgettable. Not as good as her previous novel, The Jane Austen Book Club.

This is Where I Leave You, Jonathan Tropper
I think Jonathan Tropper is a really talented and humorous writer, but his angst-ridden heroes tend to blend into one another after a while. Author review here.

Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
Why hadn't I read this before? Fascinating and weird stuff. Left me with a similar feeling as Catch-22 - something about futility and questioning human existence.

Revenge of the Spellmans, Lisa Lutz
Funny! I love all the characters in the Spellman books and Lisa Lutz is my new favourite humorous author.

The Road, Cormac McCarthy
Bleak but beautiful. Sparse writing but it fills your reading world with a haunting sense of the apocalypse that this father and son walk through.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Stieg Larsson
Absolutely gripping books with a truly unique and fascinating heroine, Lisbeth Salander. Loved them. Review here.

Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett rarely fails to deliver. This one took me a little while to get into but once you're in his world, he's got you by the funny bone.

My Latest Grievance, Elinor Lipman
Elinor Lipman is a great writer with a razor-sharp wit.This story about precocious 16 year old Frederica, child of two kindly hippy professors at a college campus, is intelligent, funny and quirky.

Getting naked

2010-03-31T16:32:00.005+11:00

So everyone's talking about the video clip for the new Erykah Badu single Window Seat. In it, she walks down Elm Street in Dallas where JFK was shot, shedding one article of clothing after another until she's finally naked. The clip begins and ends with references to JFK, from a grainy film image of Badu rolling up in a 1960s Lincoln at the start, to falling down naked at the end, at the sound of a gunshot. It's sparked off huge controversy in America about whether her clip is disrespectful to the memory of JFK, which is still very emotionally charged.

In a society where nudity is so prevalent, especially in the music industry with people like Lady Gaga and Britney Spears exposing themselves in their music videos, and where every so-called music artist tries to outdo each other in controversy, why has Erykah Badu's clip made such a splash?

Where Spears strips down to titillate and Gaga strips down for... well, who knows why she does the things she does, Badu actually uses nudity to make a point about personal vulnerability. Her body is not glorified or digitally altered (except to pixilate the rudie bits) or made up and made over. She's not a spring chicken either. She's a mother of three with a real woman's body who, terrified (although you can't tell in the clip), stripped down in public for a single shot to make a point. About the shooting, she tweeted:

[S]hot guerilla style, no crew, one take, no closed set, no warning, two minutes, in downtown Dallas, then ran like hell... I was afraid. But I was ready.

After the 'assassination' of her character in the clip, words like blue blood drip from her head: GROUPTHINK. This term was coined by William H Whyte in 1952 who wrote in Fortune magazine:

Groupthink being a coinage—and, admittedly, a loaded one—a working definition is in order. We are not talking about mere instinctive conformity—it is, after all, a perennial failing of mankind. What we are talking about is a rationalized conformity—an open, articulate philosophy which holds that group values are not only expedient but right and good as well.

That is to say, that individual thought, creativity and uniqueness are lost in the attempt to reach a public consensus or state of 'peace'. The Window Seat film clip, says Badu, connects to the idea of groupthink in that:

[It] compared the assassination to the character assassination one would go through after showing his or her self completely. That's exactly the action I wanted to display.

Although I'm not a fan of public nudity and I HATE its graphic and gratuitous use in film clips and movies, I have to say that I really dig this film clip. I love the grainy filming and the guts it took for her to do it. Nothing could have demonstrated the courage of being vulnerable in the face of groupthink more than this woman stripping down in the middle of the street. The fact that she tied it to the assassination of JFK makes the message that much more loaded and impactful.

Check it out for yourself

5 things to do on the Easter long weekend

2010-03-29T11:58:00.001+11:00

I'm exhausted. I've been organising and ordering and counting and sending and packing and moving and cutting and writing for what seems like months (but is actually weeks). As a result of all this busy-ness, I'd forgotten that we have a LONG WEEKEND COMING UP!!!! Yay!! Thank God for Jesus and Easter chocolate and a government sanctioned leave from work.

From this Friday through to Monday inclusive, I'm going to put up my feet and enjoy the long weekend. Apart from a wedding on Saturday and an Easter service at church, I plan to seriously chill with these 5 things:

Lie on the sofa on the verandah and read
Lie on the sofa in the lounge and watch DVDs
Lie on my bed in the mornings just because I can
Stay in my pyjamas all day
Order pizza and eat takeaway so there's no cooking and no washing up to be done

Long weekend, here I come!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Swedish movie)

2010-03-25T16:59:00.005+11:00

From the first shot of middle aged, saggy jowled, pockmark-faced Mikael Blomqvist, I was disabused of my idea of Swedes as healthy looking, shiny-haired blondes twinkling in the sun. The great thing about this movie is that it's so devoid of Hollywood gloss. The Swedish film industry dares to hire actors for their abilities over their looks, and they certainly don't pull the punches when depicting the violent and often sexual episodes which are key to the story, but not dwelt on in the book. It makes for a gripping movie but not necessarily an aesthetic one. I mean, I really could have lived without watching the scene of Lisbeth forced to give head to her 'guardian', and the image of his naked 60 year old body (minus the rudie bits) is now forever burned into my retina. Yuck.

The movie was bound to be violent because the story is so very gritty, but bringing these scenes to the screen is far more in-your-face than reading them on the page. It's a well made movie for its genre (the music was only jarring in one scene for me) and generally well-casted, but I couldn't help but be disappointed by Noomi Rapace's depiction of the enigmatic Lisbeth Salander. The essence of Lisbeth, and her very strangeness, is in the fact that she doesn't react to situations like normal people. She's not emotional and seems to border on the edges of autism. Rapace's Salander is more sullen and volatile – more human, so to speak. This is a shame because ironically, the magic of Larsson's creation is in her very inhumanness. They kept the gothic look and tattoos, but lost a vital part of her core. Rapace is a fine actor and I'm certain it was more a directorial decision than her own, but personally I think they missed out on something key here.

Watching the story play out on screen, I was aware of some holes in the novel that I hadn't noticed while reading it. SPOILER ALERT: For example, when Harriet Vanger is restored, I couldn't help but wonder why the hell she didn't tell someone – anyone – about the abuse her brother put her through, instead allowing him to continue playing out his homicidal fantasies on dozens of other victims. Reading the book, you're so caught up in the action you don't really question the story. Well I didn't anyway. You might.

Book vs Movie: the verdict

The book. It's always the book, isn't it? Except for Mansfield Park, with Frances O'Connor's charming depiction of a much more feisty Fanny that Austen's wimpy creation. Books always give you more than a movie can squeeze into the usual two hours, and allow your imagination to dwell or flit from scene to scene at will, and not remain captive to another person's vision of the story. In my imagination, Mikael Blomqvist was a bit better looking (perhaps this is borne from years of Hollywood leading men, also the fact that he's sex on legs in the book version) and Lisbeth is more in control. The only one who really fit the bill is her hacker friend Plague, who is meant to be as fat and ugly as portrayed (my apologies to the actor). I loved the scene where he's trying to get her attention while sitting on the toilet.

Word has it that George Clooney is being considered for the role of the American Blomqvist. He fits the right age group and certainly fits the sex on legs bit, but I'm not sold on that idea. Do you have an opinion?

Read the book review

The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson - the girl who gripped me

2010-03-17T10:20:00.009+11:00

It's been a long time since I've come across a story so gripping that every time I open the page, I end up so absorbed that I miss my bus stop, come in late for work bleary-eyed from reading late into the night, or miss dinner completely because I just can't put the book down. With The Millennium Trilogy, Stieg Larsson has written a literary version of crack cocaine. It's absolutely un-put-downable.

Starting with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we're introduced to Mikael Blomqvist, a crusading journalist, and Lisbeth Salander, a possibly mildly autistic, brilliant researcher whose deep-seated mistrust of authorities has very good basis. Blomqvist has been disgraced in the media and is now privately hired to look into the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, an heiress to the wealthy Vanger dynasty. During the course of his investigations, he recruits Lisbeth Salander, who proves to be far more resourceful than her strange gothic-punk image would betray.

Parts two (The Girl who Played with Fire) and three (The Girl who Stirred the Hornet's Nest) are not self-contained stories, but an ongoing mystery that places Lisbeth firmly in the centre of an unfolding criminal cover-up of the highest order among Sweden's secret police. While intrigue and vested interests aim to put her away as a menace to society, Blomqvist is convinced of her innocence and begins digging to uncover the truth of her tragic background.

The Millennium Trilogy contains all the elements of a great crime mystery (violence, power, thrills and vengeance, to name a few) but it's in no way formulaic. These books are bestsellers with good reason: they're unique, incredibly interesting, absorbing and utterly utterly compelling. Unlike other best-seller The Da Vinci Code, Larsson's writing doesn't get in the way of telling a good story, and predictability is kept to a minimum. You're kept so busy in the action of the now that you have no time to guess what will happen next. Besides, Lisbeth Salander is anything if predictable.

Larsson gets the most from the whip-cracking storylines by the evenness of his writing, never trying to show off his literary abilities but letting the story tell itself. His journalistic background is evident, as is the depth of his research, in the ability to make such a sensational story seem so realistic. His characters are also fleshed-out so there's nothing one-dimensional about them - we get to know everything from their sexual preferences down to the groceries they buy. Apparently Lisbeth's character was partially inspired by the children's classic Pippi Longstocking. A colleague of Larsson's said in an interview that they were discussing how characters from children's books might behave had they grown up, and Larsson was influenced by the idea of dysfunctional adult Pippi Longstocking in the real world. It's a truly fascinating notion.

Over 22 million copies have been sold worldwide in just over two years, a Swedish version of the film has grossed over $100 million before even being released in the States, and an American adaptation has just been picked up by Sony. It's an absolute tragedy that the author died before the books were published and never saw the phenomenon they would become.

When was the last time you stayed up late to read a great book? If it's been too long, try this series. You won't regret it.

The write surface

2010-03-08T16:17:00.008+11:00

I am utterly in love with chalkboard paint right now. Actually have been for several months, but I hadn't found the right surface to test this new love of mine, until I found this link.

We're currently using a big desk as a dining table that I bought for $10 at a second-hand office furniture sellout with my friend Jenny. Transporting this big table in the back of her small car was no mean feat, and now I can't seem to let it go, so it follows me wherever I move. Now it's about to get a makeover - BIG TIME. It's going to become my very own chalkboard table!! I can't wait! But I have to :( because I won't have enough chalkboard paint for the whole desk until I make another Bunnings trip.

Just imagine - writing ideas and sketching directly onto the table. Drawing place markers for guests at dinnertime. Writing up shopping lists. So much fun! I'd love to turn everything into a chalkboard now - the cupboard doors, random parts of the wall, food containers... the possibilities are endless.

To take things one step further, check this out:

They look like ordinary white walls... but wait! It's actually whiteboard paint!! How awesome is that. But it's quite expensive at the moment, so one thing at a time.

Chalkboard and whiteboard paint are great ways to get creative around the home, and you can mix up and change the artwork with the wipe of a rag and start all over again.

Easy delicious pasta with prawns

2010-03-04T12:18:00.015+11:00

I made this the other night when some friends came over and it was a hit. It's doubly great cos it's easy too. To serve 4-6, you'll need:

500g prawns (beheaded and deveined)
3-5 cloves of crushed garlic (my level keeps vampires away for good)
2-4 chopped hot red chillis (adjust for heat)
2 tomatoes, de-seeded and cubed
a handful of basil
1/2 cup of good quality olive oil
sea salt and pepper to taste
1 pack of spaghetti

Method:

Boil water and cook spaghetti according to directions. While that's happening:
Heat the olive oil in a pan (heavy-base is best)
Add the garlic and chillis and allow to brown but not burn
Add the prawns and let them cook till they go from translucent to opaque and red
Add the chopped tomatoes and tear in the basil
Add salt and pepper to taste, then turn off the heat and mix the sauce into the freshly cooked spaghetti.
Serve, sit back and receive your accolades.

I guarantee you it's tasty and it'll take less than 30 minutes to make. If you have any leftover (not likely) you can eat it cold the next day and it's just as great.

Optional: if you don't want to use that much olive oil, you could always use a few tablespoons to cook the garlic, chilli and prawns, then add 1/2 cup of white wine instead, and cook until it's heated through and the alcohol has evaporated. If you like a bit of texture, add 2 handfuls of breadcrumbs to the oil when the prawns have cooked, and they'll go crispy and delish!

Other food favourites:

Books that changed my life

2010-03-01T16:35:00.007+11:00

Inspired by Jack Marx's post on Books that popped my cork, I decided to list the top five books that have influenced me in some way since I started my love affair with books. I'll try to go chronologically.

The Ramona Series, by Beverley Cleary

Ramony Quimby is a well-intentioned but often misunderstood little girl - a little clumsy, loud and tomboyish, adventurous, imaginative, shy but strongly opinionated. Ramona, in my young mind, was me! Starting from Beezus and Ramona, when Ramona is just 4 years old, this series grew with me and I loved Ramona! I read the books almost as though they were stories about myself in a parallel universe. Her parents weren't wealthy but they made do with what they had, and even her relationship with older and more responsible sister Beezus was similar to mine with my older sister Glenda. Most of all, I think Ramona taught me it was okay to be me, because if I loved Ramona, and she was just like me, then I must be okay too.

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
I LOVE everything about this book. Using the point of view of young Scout was a stroke of genius, and the way Harper Lee pulls it off is nothing short of extraordinary. She manages to capture the nuances and prejudices of a small Southern town during segregation with an unjudgmental innocence that makes the story all the more poignant. Atticus, particularly, is one of the dearest literary characters for me ever.

Persuasion, Jane Austen

While Pride and Prejudice has always been my favourite Jane Austen, Persuasion is the one that taught me the meaning of real love and second chances. It's a more mature take on love, the risks it engenders and the pride that we sometimes have to swallow to let it be.

Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis

This is C.S. Lewis's retelling of the myth of Psyche and Cupid as told through narrator Oruel, Psyche's ugly sister. On closing the last page, my heart was pounding because the story was so wonderfully told and smacked of a deeper truth than I had come across before. I'm still not certain that I've digested it all, but I think it has to do with the idea that when we come before God, our maker, we cannot stand with veils on our faces covering our real selves, whether they be defence mechanisms, insecurities, lies or half-truths. We can only expect an honest answer when we face him with our honest selves.

The Bible
I almost overlooked this one, but it is a book and it's definitely had the profoundest impact on my life. From my two years of theological studies, I discovered that this book is much, much more that it appears on the surface. Say what you will, it is truly a masterpiece. The original texts in ancient Hebrew and Greek were largely told in stories or letters and they have a poetry and symmetry to them that get lost in translation.

It's a sad thing, I think, that many miss the profound truths in the Bible because of long-held prejudices and idealogies. The Bible has some of the greatest lessons you could learn in life, but we have to learn to take the message without being bogged down with the arguments that arise from context. Yes, the Bible is largely patriarchal and often seems irrelevant because of the stories that make sense only in the context of society at the time, but dig deeper and there are truths that go beyond gender and the boundaries that limit human thinking. It is an amazing text - the most printed book in the world several times over, and the one text that people have risked their lives for and been killed over. Well worth another look.

What books have changed your life or worldview?

Juggling Books

2010-02-18T18:03:00.013+11:00

Do you find yourself juggling several books at a time? Unless I'm reading something I just can't put down or I've run out of books at hand, I'm usually always juggling several books at a time. It's like a fine art, balancing the different books that suit your various moods: there's the serious literary work that's a bit too intense to take in all at once, the light pulp fiction that alleviates the intensity of the aforementioned literary book, the non-fiction self-improvement book you're reading but can only take in small doses, and maybe lastly the classic that you're re-reading in bits and pieces before you go to bed, because if you read a new book before bed you'll never put it down to go to sleep.

My current book juggles are:

Creating a World Without Poverty, Muhammad Yunus
Written by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning professor who founded the concept of micro-financing, this book is both inspiring and challenging. And serious. This is my non-fiction, read-in-doses book.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
Normally I steer clear of books that are practically thrown in your face as soon as you walk into a bookstore (like Eat, Love, Pray, which I still haven't read), so it took a while to get round to this one. I'm not normally a book snob, which you'll know if you've seen some of the awful contributions to literature I've read in the past, but I don't like to be told what to read either. What changed my mind was that a member of my book club recommended it as a good read, so here I am. I've only just started it, but already it's riveting. What a shame the author died before seeing his works in print.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
This is my read-at-night classic. It's interesting enough that I want to pick it up before bed, but not so absorbing that I can't put it down to go to sleep (or engage in other nocturnal activities that might present themselves :p). I've been reading it for around a week in small increments and I haven't even been introduced to Captain Corelli yet, so I'm in this for the long haul.

What books are you juggling?

Literary Lust: Mr Darcy

2010-02-15T11:40:00.003+11:00

Okay, it doesn't get more obvious than this - especially after Colin Firth's coming-out-of-the-lake scene which is indelibly burned in the retinas of women the world over. But Pride and Prejudice has been a favourite of mine for 20 years so I won't be deterred by the obviousness of it all. It's plain and simple: Darcy is hot. The arrogance. The intelligence. The refusal to bow to society's expectations and his smoldering lust for our feisty heroine Eliza Bennett.

Re-live the magic:

Literary Lusts was started by Elena at With Extra Pulp

Google made me cry

2010-02-09T13:11:00.004+11:00

This is the Google ad called 'Parisian Love' which aired during the 2010 Super Bowl. If for some reason you can't see it (apparently it doesn't load on some machines), just click here to view on youtube.

I thought it was sweet <3

Author Review: Jonathan Tropper

2010-02-03T10:24:00.005+11:00

I"m getting the sense that Jonathan Tropper is the authorial version of the Hugh Grant-kind of actor - the one who never really sheds his skin so the character he plays is always the same, just different situations for different movies. Don't get me wrong, he's great at what he does. It's just that, having read three of his five books, I'm starting to get to know his protagonist all too well.

There are certain parallels that run through his books: they're all written from the perspective of 30-something, middle-class, moderately successful young men who find themselves suddenly at a juncture in their lives not of their own choosing. They all have beautiful wives/partners whose astonishing good looks add to their neuroses, and their dysfunctional families are complicated but blessed by intelligence and beauty. Every single female character in his books is incredibly beautiful (slim, sexy, smart), from partners to sisters and mothers, and the protagonists are unwaveringly witty, self-deprecating, wry and generally a good-guy, albeit with flaws.

I loved the first book I read, How to Talk to a Widower because the voice was fresh, the narrative honest and banter so witty. I loved the larger-than-life characters and got really involved in the grief and recovery of Doug Parker, after the death of his wife Hailey. It was moving and exhilarating. Then came Everything Changes. 'Hang on a minute,' I thought. 'Zach King sounds exactly like Doug Parker but now he's potentially got cancer.' Then I read This is Where I Leave You. Deja Vu.

“There is an element in all my books of people at an age when they should be established suddenly questioning the fundamental tenets on which they base their lives,”says Jonathan Tropper in an interview. “I am not sure exactly what draws me to that theme, but it may be that it is a very middle-class thing. I grew up in an upper-middle-class home and live in an upper-middle-class suburb. I think there the dangers are not so much external, because we are all pretty insulated, the dangers are internal.”

He is the master at 'internal danger' - the writer of angst-ridden monologue for intelligent young men everywhere... but I really wish he'd try something different because he is definitely a good writer and I'd love to see him stretch his craft further. There are three words lurking in the back of my head that I'm loathe to commit to paper (figuratively): one trick pony.

But even Hugh Grant broke out of the mould with his characters in About a Boy and Bridget Jones's Diary. There's hope. So please Mr Tropper, prove me wrong.