Join experts from Booktopia at The 2013 Sydney Writer’s Festival

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Andrew Cattanach

Looking for things to see at The Sydney Writer’s Festival?

Come along and hear some experts from Booktopia chat about the wonderful world of books…

Caroline Baum

Lost and Found

What: Writers Ailsa Piper (Sinning Across Spain) and Cheryl Strayed (Wild) have both turned to travel in a bid to find redemption and connection. They talk with Caroline Baum about the call of the road and the journeys which led them to become who they are today. Ailsa trekked 1300 kilometres across Spain from Granada to Galicia in a bid to walk off the sins of others, while Cheryl trekked 1770 kilometres along the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada in order to save herself.

When: Thursday, May 23,  10:00 AM - 11:00 AM.

Where: Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay, 22 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay, $20/$14.

The 21st Century Author

What: Digital sharing and collaborative consumption are disrupting traditional economic models and reinventing not just what people consume, but how they consume. In this new environment how, can an author monetise their work and how will books transform as they compete for space in the digital world? Social innovator Rachel Botsman, (What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption), who says we are ‘wired to share’, shows how technology will change the role of authors and looks at the potential impact on their ideas. She talks to journalist Caroline Baum.

When: Thursday, May 23,  2:30 PM - 3:30 PM.

Where: Wharf Theatre 2, Pier 4/5, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay, $20/$14.

Claire Messud: The Woman Upstairs

What: The New York Times bestselling author Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs is one of the most exhilarating reads of the year – the confession of a woman awakened, transformed and betrayed by desire for a world beyond her own. Messud speaks to Caroline Baum about this ‘scorching social anatomy, red-hot psychology, galvanising story’. Claire has been awarded both an Addison Metcalf Award and a Strauss Living Award by the American Academy of Arts.

When: Friday, May 24,  2:30 PM - 3:30 PM.

Where: Pier 2/3 Main Stage, Pier 2/3, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay, $20/$14.

Rachael Treasure and Rural Romance

What: Author, mother, regenerative agriculturalist and ‘lover of life’, Rachael Treasure, talks to Caroline Baum about her latest novel, The Farmer’s Wife, and the phenomenon of rural romance that she kick-started with her first novel, Jillaroo. Her other bestselling books include The Stockman, based on her experience with working dog education, The Rouseabout, inspired by her wild times at Australia’s Bachelor and Spinster (B&S) Balls and The Cattleman’s Daughter.

When: Saturday, May 25,  1:00 PM - 2:00 PM.

Where: Pier 2/3 The Loft, Pier 2/3, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay, Free, no bookings.

Kate Atkinson: Life After Life

What: What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you finally got it right? Life After Life follows Ursula Todd as she lives through the turbulent events of the last century, over and over. Kate Atkinson, at her most profound and inventive, speaks to Caroline Baum. ‘Kate Atkinson’s new novel is a box of delights. Ingenious in construction, indefatigably entertaining . . . If you wish to be moved and astonished, read it’ (Hilary Mantel).

When: Saturday, May 25,  4:00 PM - 5:00 PM.

Where: Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay, 22 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay, $20/$14.

John Purcell

Books to Live By

What: A great book recommendation is indeed a wonderful thing. Booksellers, with their wealth of knowledge and eyes on the most exciting new books, are often the best people to tell us what to read. Getting the right books to the right people is their special skill.

Three of Sydney’s most in-the-know booksellers and tastemakers, John Purcell, Morgan Smith and Barbara Horgan, share some of their secrets with Walter Mason and recommend their favourite books.

When: Thursday, May 23, 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM.

Where: Sydney Dance 2, Pier 4/5, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay, Free, no bookings

Haylee Nash

Forest for the Trees: Writers & Publishing in 2013

What: A one-day seminar looking at the current state of publishing for Australian writers. The seminar brings together writers, publishers, marketers and agents to discuss what is happening in 2013. The conversation includes digital and independent publishing, as well as the challenges the industry is now facing.

Self-published authors share how they manage being a writer, a publisher and a promoter of their own work. The day concludes with a case study looking at the creative approach one publisher is taking to promote a debut author. Hear from the writer, agent and author about their unconventional strategy.

When: Thursday, May 23, 10:00 AM - 4:30 PM.

Where: State Library of NSW, Metcalfe Auditorium, Macquarie Street Wing, Macquarie Street, Sydney, $45/$35.

For more details on these or any other events go to www.swf.org.au

Filed under: Australian Author, Book Recommendations, Coming Soon, Literary Classic, Literary Festivals, Thriller, Writing Style, Writing tips | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The 2013 Sydney Writer’s Festival In Focus – Part 2

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Andrew Cattanach

In the lead up to the 2013 Sydney Writer’s Festival we’ll be featuring a few of the key events we’re really looking forward to.

We’ve also highlighted some great books to prepare you before basking in the warm glow of the festival.

Here’s a couple of events that caught our eye…

Obama: The Digital Campaign

Who: Joe Rospars, Michael Brissenden, Stephen Muller

What: Who can forget Barack Obama’s historic 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, with their groundbreaking use of social media as a powerful political tool and its record-setting online fundraising successes. Barack Obama’s Chief Digital Strategist, Joe Rospars, and Stephen Muller, the Obama campaign’s Video Director, offer an overview of how the campaign managed to unite and mobilise 13 million online supporters toward a single goal of electing President Obama. Following the talk, they will speak to Michael Brissenden, who was the ABC’s Washington correspondent leading up to the 2012 election, and is the author of American Stories.

Why: There are two types of people in the western world. Those who embrace digital media, and those who don’t realise they’ve embraced digital media. Digital media now acts not only as the catalyst towards world events, but also the source of news reported, and the manner in which they are reported. Get the full story from people responsible for all three.

When: Thursday, May 23,  8:30 PM - 10:00 PM.

Where: City Recital Hall Angel Place, Angel Place, Sydney, $32/$25.

More Reading: Barack Obama: The Making of the Man, The New Digital Age.

Sane New World

Who: Ruby Wax

What: Ruby Wax – comedian, writer and mental health campaigner – shows us how our minds can jeopardise our sanity. With her own periods of depression and now a Masters from Oxford in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy to draw from, she explains how our busy, chattering, self-critical thoughts drive us to anxiety and stress. If we are to break the cycle, we need to understand how our brains work, rewire our thinking and find calm in a frenetic world. Helping you become the master, not the slave, of your mind, here is Ruby Wax’s guidance to saner living. Followed by a conversation with Jude Kelly, Southbank Centre’s Artistic Director.

Why: Ruby Wax has been an award-winning writer and performer for over 30 years all over the world. Her past events in Australia have been met with sweeping acclaim and her honest and endearing style have made her a household name to millions.

When: Wednesday, May 22, 8:30 PM - 10:00 PM.

Where: Sydney Opera House, Joan Sutherland Theatre, Bennelong Point, Sydney, $45/$35

More Reading: Sane New World

Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks as we look at more events that have caught our eye. To pick up tickets to any events featured or for more info go to www.swf.org.au

Filed under: Australian Author, Book Recommendations, Coming Soon, Literary Festivals, Non Fiction, Writing Style, Writing tips | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Bling Ring: How a Gang of Fame-Obsessed Teens Ripped Off Hollywood and Shocked the World

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Andrew Cattanach

Sofia Coppola only deals in great stories. The daughter of immortal director Francis Ford Coppola, her eye for simmering trauma underneath otherwise perfect lives has redefined contemporary film making. From the whimsical mystery of her 1999 debut The Virgin Suicides (adapted from the Jeffrey Eugenides novel of the same same) to her award-winning film masterpiece Lost In Translation, the tragically under appreciated Marie Antoinette and the charming Somewhere.

But her new film presents her greatest challenge. Making a film about being famous, with no characters in the film being famous. Rather, a group of fame-obsessed teens steal more than $3 million in clothing, jewelry, shoes, and handbags from targets like Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Orlando Bloom.

Oh yeah, and it’s a true story. Did I forget to mention that?

And like any good movie, it’s foundations lie in a great book. Vanity Fair contributing editor Nancy Jo Sales does a brilliant job of telling the extraordinary true tale of crime, obsession and tragedy. Pre-order a copy today and know more about this incredible story.

The Bling Ring

by Nancy Jo Sales

Meet the Bling Ring: a band of club-hopping teenagers from the Valley with everything to lose.

Over the course of a year, the members of the now infamous Bling Ring allegedly burglarized some of the biggest names in young Hollywood. Driven by celebrity worship, vanity, and the desire to look and dress like the rich and famous, these seven teenagers made headlines for using Google maps, Facebook, and TMZ to track the comings and goings of their targets. Many of the houses were unlocked. Alarms disabled. A “perfect” crime–celebrities already had so much, why shouldn’t the Bling Ring take their share?

As the unprecedented case unfolded in the news, the world asked: How did our obsession with celebrities get so out of hand? Why would a group of teens who already had so much, take such a risk?

Acclaimed Vanity Fair writer Nancy Jo Sales found the answer: they did it because each stolen T-shirt or watch brought them closer to living the Hollywood dream . . . and because it was terrifyingly easy. For the Bling Ring the motivation was something deeper than money–they were compelled by a compulsion to be famous. Gaining unprecedented access to the group of teens, Sales traces the crimes minute by minute and details the key players’ stories in a shocking look at the seedy, and troubling, world of the real young Hollywood.

Click here to buy The Bling Ring from Booktopia,
Australia’s Local Bookstore

Filed under: Book Recommendations, Coming Soon, Non Fiction | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

The 2013 Sydney Writer’s Festival In Focus – Part 1

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Andrew Cattanach

In the lead up to the 2013 Sydney Writer’s Festival we’ll be featuring a few of the key events we’re really looking forward to.

We’ve also highlighted some great books to prepare you before basking in the warm glow of the festival.

Here’s a couple of events that caught our eye…

Opening Address

Who: Daniel Morden

What: Daniel Morden is one of Europe’s greatest storytellers. For 23 years he has made his living telling traditional stories: from gypsy tales to the Iliad. He has collected and told stories all over the world, from the Arctic to Haiti, performing at London’s National Theatre, the Getty Villa and on Broadway. For the 2013 Opening Address, Daniel will blend traditional tale, anecdote and insight, while examining the place of story in our lives.

Why: To visit a time where the bard reigned, where stories where told as well as read. Daniel Morden is slowly taking over the world of storytelling with his passionate, colourful and evocative performances of classic tales. Widely tipped to be the water-cooler event of the Festival, don’t miss your chance to catch a performer at the peak of his powers.

‘To experience Daniel Morden in full flight is an amazing thing. He combines the skills of the Troubadour, the actor, the bard, the standup comedian and the preacher in the pulpit’ (BBC)

When: Tuesday May 21,  6:30 PM - 8:00 PM.

Where: Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay, 22 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay, $30/$25.

More Reading: The Adventures of Odysseus, Tree of Leaf and Flame, The Adventures of Achilles.

Women On The Run

Who: Michael Robotham, Tara Moss, and Lauren Beukes

What: Australian authors Michael Robotham and Tara Moss, and South Africa’s Lauren Beukes all have one thing in common: they have put their female protagonists in grave danger. Do these feisty femmes manage to outwit their pursuers and escape from their novels alive? Find out in this compelling session with Matthew Condon, speaking to three of the best thriller writers in the business.

Why: An all-star panel look at a welcome new trend in contemporary thrillers. Matthew Condon is a fine author in his own right and an old hand at these events and should keep the pace moving beautifully as three wonderful writers share their thoughts and philosophies on novels today.

When: Friday, May 24 2013, 4-5pm.

Where: Pier 2/3 Main Stage, Pier 2/3, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay, $20/$14

More Reading: The Shining Girls (Beukes), Assassin (Moss), Say You’re Sorry (Robotham).

Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks as we look at more events that have caught our eye. To pick up tickets to any events featured or for more info go to www.swf.org.au

Filed under: Australian Author, Book Recommendations, Coming Soon, Literary Classic, Literary Festivals, Thriller, Writing Style, Writing tips | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Books with Bite – Kylie Ladd offers up Five Great Uncomfortable Reads

Posted on April 22, 2013 by hayleys2013

One of Booktopia’s favourite authors, Kylie Ladd, has proven to be a deft hand at exploring uncomfortable terrain. Her wonderful upcoming novel Into My Arms is no exception.

In keeping with the theme of challenging yet brilliant reads, (and on the birthday of Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita) Kylie was kind enough to share her five favourite books that make us explore the darker corners around us.

__________________________

Sunnyside-9780143005360Sunnyside

by Joanna Murray-Smith

Murray-Smith is better known as a playwright, but her novel Sunnyside was long-listed for the 2006 Miles Franklin award. In it, Murray-Smith deploys her scalpel-sharp wit and insight on the moneyed middle classes, on those aspirational Australians we all know (or, wince, are). There’s Molly, who wants to find inner peace by visiting the local swami (“It was a hell of an improvement on Pilates, that was for sure”) but panics when she’s asked to leave her new Gucci handbag in the change room; there’s the couple who’ve got rich from manufacturing heritage paint colours that they joke to each other should be re-named ‘Frowsy Suburbanites’, or ‘Gruesome Affluence’. There are BMWs and breakdowns, there are “forty-something yummy-mummies at Dunes by the Beach making cynical asides about their husbands. What a salad-fest that would be- rocket coming out of their diamond- studded ears. How many decades had it been since grown women ate something cooked?”  For all this, Sunnsyide isn’t a cruel book, but rather a deeply knowing one, and laugh-out-loud funny in parts. I re-read it often for a reality check, and for the frisson of the flinch.

Click here to see more books from Joanna Murray-Smith from Booktopia,
Australia’s Local Bookstore

another countryAnother Country

by Nicholas Rothwell

This one isn’t funny, and is far, far more sobering.  Nicholas Rothwell has long been the Northern Australia correspondent for The Australian, and Another Country is a collection of his essays for the newspaper. In it, Rothwell details the realities and inequities of life in the top end, an Australia that is so different to the one most of us inhabit that it may as well be another country. In eloquent and moving prose Rothwell documents the effect white settlement has had on the native inhabitants of this land: the massively increased rates of suicide and violent death, the dramatically lowered life span, the loss of language and identity, the endemic kidney failure, the systematic sexual and physical abuse of young children in remote communities, the alcohol abuse, the petrol sniffing, the financial exploitation of desert painters. Rothwell never lectures, just observes, which makes this book all the more harrowing. Read it alongside The Tall Man (Chloe Hooper) and Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence (Doris Pilkington) for an Australia that you don’t see in the Lara Bingle commercials.

lolita-popular-penguinsLolita

by Vladimir Nabokov

Is this the creepiest novel ever written? Its protagonist, Humbert Humbert, initially comes across as a cultured and sophisticated man, a doyenne of taste and refinement, but turns out to be the most unreliable narrator of them all. Humbert is a middle-aged literary professor who becomes obsessed with the 12 year old daughter of his land-lady, who he in turn kidnaps, sedates and eventually molests over and over for a number of years. The girl’s name is Dolores, but Humbert calls her Lolita, stripping of her of her identity along with her innocence and her childhood: ““Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.” Lolita was banned in France and the UK for its erotic content, but really isn’t an erotic book at all- just a very sad one. I am glad I have read it, for its power and its prose, and I will never open it again.

Click here to buy Lolita from Booktopia,
Australia’s Local Bookstore

the-winter-of-our-disconnectThe Winter of Our Disconnect

by Susan Maushart

And now for something completely different. Maushart is an academic living in Western Australia who became concerned when she began realising the effect that ever-proliferating technology- mobile phones, the internet, iPods and iPads- was having on her and her three teenage children; that, to use her words, the lounge room was morphing into a docking station, that we can have five or six hundred “friends” and no idea who our neighbours are. Taking matters into her own hands, she put the whole family on a digital diet: six months with no television, computers, MP3 players or mobile phones. Her diary of this time- interspersed with literature reviews covering, for example, the effects of our obsession with connection on our sleep patterns, socialising and sex lives- make fascinating and thought-provoking reading. We have plenty of computers in our house, but thanks to me reading this book we don’t have wi-fi: anyone who wants to get online has to do so in a public space where every other member of the family can see what they are doing and yell at them to hurry up. My kids think we are living in the stone age, but I’m grateful to Maushart for encouraging me to think about controlling technology, not letting it control us.

Click here to buy The Winter of Our Disconnect from Booktopia,
Australia’s Local Bookstore

never-let-me-goNever Let Me Go

by Kazuo Ishiguro

I tossed up the number five spot between Sophie’s Choice and Never Let Me Go, but chose the latter because really, if a Holocaust novel doesn’t make you squirm, what will? Too easy. Never Let Me Go, in contrast, is set at Halisham, a boarding school in England. At first the novel unfolds as a standard, though lyrical, coming of age story. Gradually, however, the reader begins to realise that there’s something else going on here… why are the teachers called ‘guardians’? Why is it so important that the students keep themselves healthy?  I’m absolutely not going to give anything further away other than to say that even once you’ve twigged as to what’s going on, you can’t stop reading, and the ending has stayed with me for many, many years. A bewitching and horrifying novel.

Click here to buy Never Let Me Go from Booktopia,
Australia’s Local Bookstore

Honourable mentions by category… read these to make you feel uncomfortable about

Motherhood: A Life’s Work (Cusk)
Marriage: Caribou Island (Vann)
Friendship: The Myth Of You And Me (Stewart)
Parenting: We Need To Talk About Kevin (Shriver)
National security: The Unknown Terrorist (Flanagan)
Sending your kids to uni: I am Charlotte Simmons (Wolfe)
Wanting it all: The Bitch in the House (Hanauer)
The family pet: Dog Boy (Hornung)

Into My Arms

By Kylie Ladd

When Skye meets Ben their attraction is instantaneous and intense. Neither of them has ever felt more in synch – or in love – with anyone in their lives. What happens next will tear them both apart. Into My Arms is a searing love story and a gripping family drama – a shocking, haunting novel in the tradition of Jodi Picoult and Caroline Overington.

The kiss ignited something, blew it into being, and afterwards, all Skye could think about was Ben. One day a woman meets a man and falls instantly and irrevocably in love with him. It hits her like a thunderbolt, and she has to have him, has to be with him, regardless of the cost, of the pain of breaking up her existing relationship. She has never felt more in synch-or in love-with anyone in her whole life. So this is how it feels, she thinks to herself, this is what real love feels like.

It’s like that for him too; he wants her in a way he’s never wanted anything or anyone before: obsessively, passionately, all-consumingly.

She has found her one true love, her soulmate, and he has found his. What happens next will tear them apart and unleash havoc onto their worlds.

This brave, brilliant, electrifying novel from the acclaimed author of After the Fall and Last Summer, will move you deeply and shock you to your core. Love, lust and longing have rarely wielded such power, nor family secrets triggered such devastation.

Click here to buy Into My Arms from Booktopia,
Australia’s Local Bookstore

John Purcell, my two cents:  I just finished Into My Arms and I can’t recommend it enough. Anyone who has read and enjoyed Caroline Overington’s novels or Jodi Picoult’s will love it. Kylie Ladd engages the reader from the first page to the very last. One of the most interesting and moving books of 2013.

This book will get people talking – great for book clubs and reading groups. Order it today.

Filed under: Australian Author, Book Recommendations, Coming Soon, Fiction | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Star Trek: Into Darkness trailer keeps fans guessing

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Andrew Cattanach

Star Trek fans have been treated to a gossip extravaganza this week, with the release of the second trailer for Star Trek: Into Darkness, the second installment in the J.J. Abrams reboot.

Check it out below.

And for those not familiar with the old Star Trek movies, the villain Khan has long been rumoured to feature in the reboot. And with the appearance of the so-hot-right-now Benedict Cumberbatch as “unnamed sinister ultra-villian”, many in the know think this might be the battle of Kirk v Khan.

The original battle gave birth to perhaps the greatest 13 seconds in movie history.

Stay tuned for more, and if you haven’t seen the first installment in the reboot don’t miss out. It won a whole new legion of fans, and kept the old fans very very happy. Which as George Lucas will tell you, can sometimes be hard to do.

Click here to buy Star Trek (2009) from Booktopia,
Australia’s Local Bookstore

Filed under: Coming Soon, Movies, Science Fiction | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Fairytales For Wilde Girls by Allyse Near – A review by Isabel Blackmore (age twelve)

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Andrew Cattanach

There’s nothing like a kid’s review for a kids book.

One of Booktopia’s younger friends, Isabel Blackmore, shares her thoughts on the upcoming Fairytales For Wilde Girls by Allyse Near.

Fairytales for Wilde Girls has taken me on a journey that no other book has before.

It puts you on a wondrous rollercoaster, taking you on unexpected twists and turns. Even a simple sentence has stupendous meaning behind it.

The story is about a girl – Isola Wilde – who is a Child of Nimue, allowing her to see the dead.

Her life changes forever once she sees the dead girl In the forest.

She then appears at Isola’s window that night, her every word a threat.

Her six brother princes must do everything they can to help Isola, before it’s too late.

Fairytales for Wilde Girls is unbelievably well written, it becomes indescribable.

This amazing ride never stops, even when the book is finished, and it never will.

Click here to pre-order Fairytales for Wilde Girls from Booktopia,
Australia’s Local Bookstore

_________________

Thanks to Isabel for her wonderful review, hopefully a promise of more to come. You can find her on twitter when her parents give her permission.
_________________

Click to buy Fairytales for Wilde GirlsFairytales For Wilde Girls

by Allyse Near

A deliciously dark bubblegum-gothic fairytale from a stunning new Australian talent.

‘He’s gone the same way as those little birds that bothered me with their awful songs! And you will too, you and your horrible heart-music, because you won’t stay out of my woods!’

There’s a dead girl in a birdcage in the woods. That’s not unusual.

Isola Wilde sees a lot of things other people don’t. But when the girl appears at Isola’s window, her every word a threat, Isola needs help.

Her real-life friends – Grape, James and new boy Edgar – make her forget for a while. And her brother-princes – the mermaids, faeries and magical creatures seemingly lifted from the pages of the French fairytales Isola idolises – will protect her with all the fierce love they possess.

It may not be enough. Isola needs to uncover the truth behind the dead girl’s demise and appease her enraged spirit, before the ghost steals Isola’s last breath.

About the Author

Born in 1989, Allyse Near counts Neil Gaiman, Angela Carter, Francesca Lia Block and the Brothers Grimm among her biggest literary influences. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Deakin University, majoring in Professional and Creative Writing, and won Deakin’s inaugural Judith Rodriguez Prize for Fiction for her short story Venus In The Twelfth House while in her second year. Throughout 2010 she was mentored by multiple-Aurealis Award-winning author Jane Routley, and published short stories in a number of literary journals, including Verandah, Short and Twisted, and Etchings. Allyse writes deconstructed pulp-fairytales that almost always revolve around women, the wilderness and witchcraft. Her debut novel is Fairytales for Wilde Girls. She is currently studying at Ballarat University and working on a YA novel she describes as Snow White-meets-Rosemary’s Baby.

Click here to pre-order Fairytales for Wilde Girls from Booktopia,
Australia’s Local Bookstore

Filed under: Australian Author, Book Recommendations, Book Talk, Children's Books, Coming Soon, Fiction | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

New Tim Winton novel due in October 2013.

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Andrew Cattanach

Huge news this afternoon with the announcement that a new novel by Tim Winton will be published on 14 October 2013.

“I’m delighted to be able to announce that on October 14 this year we will be publishing a new novel by Tim Winton, his first since the Miles Franklin Award-winning Breath, ” Ben Ball, Publishing Director, Penguin Books Australia revealed today.

“Each new work from Tim is a major event in Australian publishing and a privilege to be involved with. Eyrie is one of the very few books I’ve ever read that can genuinely be said to change the way you look at the world. It goes straight at the big questions, and like the greatest contemporary novels, expands its readers’ understanding of what it’s like to be alive now.”

Eyrie tells the story of Tom Keely, a man who’s lost his bearings in middle age and is now holed up in a flat at the top of a grim highrise, looking down on the world he’s fallen out of love with. He’s cut himself off, until one day he runs into some neighbours: a woman he used to know when they were kids, and her introverted young boy. The encounter shakes him up in a way he doesn’t understand. Despite himself, Keely lets them in.

What follows is a heart-stopping, groundbreaking novel for our times – funny, confronting, exhilarating and haunting – populated by unforgettable characters. It asks how, in an impossibly compromised world, we can ever hope to do the right thing.

Tim Winton continues to cast a huge shadow across the Australian literary landscape. Earlier this year he was voted runner up in Booktopia’s search for Australia’s Favourite Novelist. The results can be seen here.

His novel Cloudstreet was voted Australia’s Favourite Novel in a poll run by Booktopia in 2010, click here for all the details.

You can also see Tim Winton’s author page at Booktopia, with all his books, bibliography and a profile of the celebrated novelist.

Filed under: Australian Author, Book Recommendations, Book Talk, Book Trailer, Booktopia, Coming Soon, Fiction, Literature, Publishing | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

THE GOOD LIFE: What makes a life worth living? (Guest Blogger – Hugh Mackay)

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Andrew Cattanach

Hugh Mackay, psychologist, social researcher and writer, blogs about the basis of his wonderful new book The Good Life.

What comes to mind when someone says ‘the good life’? Comfort and prosperity? A chance to cash in your chips, retire to the coast and put your feet up? A life enriched by the love of your family and friends? A life where dreams come true?

How about a life lived for others, a life devoted to serving the neediest members of society, or a life of self-sacrifice? Those are equally valid ways of interpreting ‘good’ – giving it a moral spin rather than an economic or emotional one.

Given our society’s current obsession with feel-good definitions of happiness, and the damage we’re inflicting on our kids by teaching them that self-esteem is their most precious possession, it’s not surprising that our minds tend to leap to self-serving interpretations of ‘good’. This, after all, is the Age of Me – an ugly blip in our cultural history where competition usually gets more marks than co-operation, and self-interest is rated more highly than self-sacrifice. Look after Number One! – that’s the slogan we like to chant. Winners are grinners! and ‘loser’ the ultimate insult.

But that’s not the whole Story of Us. In a civil society, where most people are quite interested in upping the goodness quotient in their lives, we can learn to tame (not slay, just tame) the savage beast of self-interest. Yes, we humans can be ruthlessly competitive, aggressive and violent, but we have nobler impulses as well: we’re also the kind of people who fight off a shark to save a mate; jump off a river bank to rescue a stranger; return a wallet full of cash, anonymously; help a frail person cross a busy street; defend the victims of prejudice; volunteer to take refugees into our homes.

Deep within us, we know the survival of our communities – the survival of the species itself – depends on paying more attention to that insistent message that comes to us from every religious and moral tradition of East and West: treat other people the way you’d like to be treated. (Some people find the so-called Golden Rule makes more sense in the negative: never treat others in ways you would not like to be treated.)

If we fall for the idea that the good life is only about having a good time, or ‘doing well’, or even being ‘happy’ (in the superficial emotional sense), our moral compass is bound to wobble. As I say at the end of the book: ‘No one can promise you that a life lived for others will bring you a deep sense of satisfaction, but it’s certain that nothing else will.’

Click here to buy The Good Life from Booktopia,
Australia’s Local Bookstore

Hugh Mackay is a prolific and well-known social researcher, writer and commentator in Australia. A newspaper columnist for over 25 years, he is now an honorary professor of social science at the University of Wollongong, the author of nine books in the field of social psychology and philosophy and five novels.

Filed under: Australian Author, Book Talk, Coming Soon, Cutural Studies, Guest Blog, Non Fiction, Philosophy, Psychology | Tagged: , | 3 Comments »

Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St John by Helen Trinca

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Andrew Cattanach

In one of the most exciting releases of the year, Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St John, Helen Trinca explores the life of one of Australia’s greatest writers, the reclusive Madeline St John.

Trinca, currently the Managing Director of The Australian, has tackled other weighty topics in the past with her acclaimed books Waterfront: The Battle that Changed Australia and Better than Sex: How a Whole Generation Got Hooked on Work. But these were public stories with public figures. Madeline St John on the other hand was a mysterious soul, a near hermit at the peak of her powers despite her celebrated works altering the Australian literary landscape forever. Little is known of her struggles with fame and fortune, which didn’t come until she was in her fifties with the release of The Women in Black in 1993.

At the age of fifteen Madeleine saw herself as a painter and pianist, but Ms Medway peered down at Madeleine during her entrance interview in 1957 and announced: ‘You know dear, I think you might write.’

Helen Trinca has captured the troubled life of Madeleine St John in this moving account of a remarkable writer. After the death of her mother when Madeleine was just twelve, she struggled to find her place in the world. Estranging herself from her family, and from Australia, she lived for a time in the US before moving to London where Robert Hughes, Germaine Greer, Bruce Beresford, Barry Humphries and Clive James were making their mark. When The Women in Black was published, it became clear what a marvellous writer Madeleine St John was.

Click here to by Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St John from Booktopia,
Australia’s Local Bookstore

Don’t miss Bruce Beresford talking to Helen Trinca about trying to turn his friend Madeleine St John’s novel The Women in Black into a film.

Click here to see the video.

Praise for Madeline St John:

‘Seductive, hilarious, brilliantly observed, this novel shimmers with wit and tenderness.’
Helen Garner on The Women in Black

‘This book is like the perfect, vintage little black dress. It’s beautifully constructed, it evokes another time while being mysteriously classic and up-to-date, and it makes you feel happy. I love it.’
Kaz Cooke on The Women in Black

‘A major minor masterpiece, a witty and poignant snapshot of Sydney the year before yesterday.’
Barry Humphries on The Women in Black

‘It is a deliciously spare piece of prose that deftly and sympathetically mines the psychology of a break-up.’
Adelaide Advertiser on The Essence of the Thing

The Women In Black
by Madeline St John

At the very end of the Ladies’ Frocks Departments, past Cocktail Frocks, there was something very special, something quite, quite wonderful; but it wasn’t for everybody: that was the point. Because there, at the very end, there was a lovely arch, on which was written in curly letters Model Gowns.

In the famous F.G. Goode department store, Lisa is the new Sales Assistant (Temporary) in Ladies’ Cocktail Frocks. She is about to meet Magda, the glamorous Continental refugee and guardian of the rose-pink cave of Model Gowns.

Click here to buy The Women In Black from Booktopia, Australia’s Local Bookstore

The Essence of the Thing
by Madeline St John

Nicola should never have stepped out to buy that pack of cigarettes because the man she discovers in her living room when she returns is not the adorable, straightforward, devoted Jonathan with whom she has been sharing her life and flat for the past six years. That Jonathan would never have simply, unilaterally, decided that she should, as he abruptly put it, ‘move out.’

So a shocked, grief-stricken Nicola packs her bags and sets out bravely on the bumpy course that will take her fro the hellish end of an affair to the essence of the thing. With her comic timing and tender vision the brilliant Madeleine St John, author of The Women in Black, takes us into the changing nature of the human heart.

Click here to buy The Essence of the Thing from Booktopia, Australia’s Local Bookstore

Filed under: Australian Author, Book Talk, Coming Soon, Literature | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

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