Jessica Rudd, author of Campaign Ruby and now, Ruby Blues, answers Ten Terrifying Questions

Posted on October 27, 2011 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru

The Booktopia Book Guru asks

Jessica Rudd

author of  Campaign Ruby
and now, Ruby Blues

Ten Terrifying Questions

 —————————

1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?

I was born in Canberra and moved to China when I was twelve days old. I went to Morningside State School in Brisbane and then Girls’ Grammar. My house colours were always ugly—yellow and maroon.

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?

When I was twelve I wanted to be a mediator because I felt smart for knowing what it meant. When I was eighteen I liked writing but thought I was pretty average at it so I enrolled in law school. I’m not thirty yet.

3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you do not have now?

That I would be the last of my school friends to marry. I think I was the first.

4. What were three works of art – book or painting or piece of music, etc – you can now say, had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?

Winnie-the-Pooh is my favourite character. As a reader, I know him as well as I know my best friend. I’d kill to write dialogue like A.A. Milne. Eric Satie is my favourite composer to write to and Miles Davis is the soulful sound I turn to after dark.

5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a novel?

I’m a storyteller and a perfectionist. The written word is more controllable than the spoken. It’s like the perfect dinner party—you can script it. If your jokes fall flat you just delete them and start again.

6. Please tell us about your latest novel…

Don’t mind if I do. Ruby Blues, the sequel to Campaign Ruby, is about Ruby morphing into a political cynic. Her relationship is disintegrating, her boss (the PM) is bombing in the polls, she has no balance and her life is devoid of colour. In the book Ruby rediscovers herself—her sense of purpose—with a little help from a glittery, peppy, idealistic intern, Bettina Chu.

(BBGuru: From the publisher: 

Ruby Blues by Jessica Rudd

In Campaign Ruby, Ruby managed to get:

1. drunk
2. the leader of the Opposition elected
3. Luke

Now that the balloons from the election night party have sagged, as well as the electorate’s enthusiasm for the new PM, Ruby is battling political and personal spot fires.

She has a whole new To Do list scrunched up at the bottom of her Prada handbag.

1. Screw things up with Luke
2. Turn 30
3. Deal with hormonal pregnant lesbian aunt
4. And an imploding government
5. Avoid killing peppy intern
6. Attend party after waxing accident
7. Cosy up to Pretty Boy
7a. Complicate things with Luke
8. Save the government from itself
9. Figure out who the hell she is
10. And who she wants.

Pre-order your copy of Ruby Blues

7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?

I hope that my readers have as much fun reading Ruby as I do writing her. I want them to laugh with and at Ruby’s foibles, befriend her, and also to learn something more about politics.

8. Whom do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?

There are loads of authors I admire, but the people often overlooked in the book world are editors. My editor lives and breathes Ruby as much as I do. She strives to get the best out of me and tells me when I’m letting my characters down. She’s patient, kind, diligent and completely behind the scenes. That job requires tremendous personal strength.

9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?

Because the cost of living in Beijing is lower than it is in Oz, I have the luxury of being able to write fulltime. My promise to myself is that I produce a book a year while I have that luxury–I don’t want to waste it.

10. What advice do you give aspiring writers?

Listen to your character’s voice. Don’t get hung up on the idea that it’s writing—it’s just like any other form of communication. Finally, have fun with it.

Jessica, thank you for playing.

Filed under: Australian Author, Author Interview, Contemporary Women's Fiction, Humour, Writing Style, Writing tips | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

Only the coolest of cats read Catch 22… Need proof? Watch this…

Posted on October 24, 2011 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru

What Joseph Heller’s Masterpiece, Catch 22, Means to Me

My reading life began when I was handed a copy of Joseph Heller’s Catch 22. I was eighteen. Till then I had read for others. I had read because I had been asked to. I read Catch 22 for myself, because I wanted to. From then on, my life was different. I looked for and read books which promised to enhance my life as Catch 22 had.

Why did it have such an effect on me? I think it was because the book finds humour in dark places, which was reassuring to my teen mind. I think it is because the book is like life: beautiful, sombre, ugly, frightening, absurd, dangerous, silly, mad, short, hilarious, long and sane and not like life in the books I had been asked to read, which was phony. I also think it is because Catch 22 captures life in the way a sketch artist might capture a likeness using squiggly, messy lines. It is life, recognisably so, unbearably so, life as I had never seen it before, life filtered through the unique mind of Heller.

My life was pretty crazy when I was eighteen and I was finding many things difficult to understand. Heller gave me confidence. He encouraged me to continue my awkward attempts to understand life. He encouraged me to make the most of my life.

The life-affirming madness of Catch 22 appealed to me, then, and it appeals to me now. I re-read Catch 22 recently and found all of the things I remembered and much, much more.

The copy of Catch 22 I originally read, is long gone. It was battered before I read it and terminally ill by the time I had finished. Even so, I wish I had it now. I’m a bit sentimental about such things. In fact, I wish I had been handed a hardcover copy way back when. I like to own the actual book I read. Especially a book that meant as much to me as Catch 22 did and still does. Catch 22 was my first big literary love.

The 50th Anniversary Limited, Hardcover Edition of Catch 22 would have been the perfect thing for me back then, but as I have missed my chance I intend to ensure my nephew doesn’t and will introduce him to Catch 22 this Christmas.

About the 50th Anniversary Limited, Hardcover Edition of Catch 22:

This fiftieth-anniversary edition celebrates Heller’s masterpiece with an introduction by Howard Jacobson, rare images from Heller’s personal archive and essays by the likes of Norman Mailer, Anthony Burgess and Christopher Hitchens.

Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.

10 million copies sold in 21 languages: Yossarian lives!

This is the perfect gift for any lover of literature.

Order a copy of The 50th Anniversary Limited, Hardcover Edition of Catch 22 from Booktopia, Australia’s No. 1 Online Book Shop: Click Here

Filed under: Book Trailer, Humour, Literary Classic | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Snuff: A Discworld Novel : Book 39 by Terry Pratchett

Posted on October 13, 2011 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru

I used to live with a woman who became seriously addicted to the Discworld novels. I used to come home with a new one and she would bound to the door, then circle about my legs until I extracted it from my bag. Once it was in my hands I always felt a little nervous, as she would try to snatch it from me, leaping about like a madwoman. I would hold it aloft, out of her reach and squeeze past her until I got to the door of the lounge room. By this time she would be drooling and grunting. Then I would toss it across the room onto the couch and she would dash over, seize it and scurry off to her room. A few hours later she would re-emerge, burp, and then behave in a manner more befitting an adult with a degree in literature.

About: Snuff

The new Discworld novel from the master sees Sam Vimes investigating a countryhouse murder, and is Terry Pratchett’s fiftieth book.

According to the writer of the best-selling crime novel ever to have been published in the city of Ankh-Morpork, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse.

And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder.

He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, and occasionally snookered and out of his mind, but never out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment.

They say that in the end all sins are forgiven.

But not quite all…

Order your copy here

About The Author

Terry Pratchett is the acclaimed creator of the global bestselling Discworld series, the first of which, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983. In all, he is the author of fifty bestselling books. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he is the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, as well as being awarded a knighthood for services to literature. Worldwide sales of his books now stand at 70 million, and they have been translated into thirty-seven languages.

Filed under: Fantasy, Humour | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Misery Bear’s Guide to Love and Heartbreak (Ever tried to write a book? WATCH THE TRAILER!)

Posted on September 10, 2011 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru

Misery Bear is the world’s loneliest, most depressed and pathetic teddy bear (with a million online hits), just looking for love.

Misery bear is a depressed and pathetic teddy bear (a bit borderline alcoholic with some anger issues). He has made people laugh and cry all over the world since he first appeared on the BBC Comedy website.

Here is MISERY BEAR’S GUIDE TO LOVE & HEARTBREAK (guaranteed to make you feel better about yourself) told in story and picture form from his own tear (and occasionally whisky) soaked paw.

Misery Bear’s life in love is the sorry tale of a loser. Friendless, except for Nat Saunders and Chris Hayward, who are helping him type properly on his iPad, Misery Bear’s collection of thoughts, stories, poems, photographs, cartoons, diary entries, top 10 lists, recipes, ruminations and illustrations from the plush paw of this loveable little critter, probably won’t help anyone succeed in love, but will make a lovely gift.

MISERY BEAR’S GUIDE TO LOVE & HEARTBREAK will be sad, funny, cute, caustic and constantly on the verge of a breakdown, much like its author.

Order the book here

About the Author

Misery Bear is the loneliest, saddest and drunkest bear in the world. He drinks too much, hates his job and can’t get a girlfriend. He lives in London and has just two friends, Nat Saunders and Chris Hayward. Follow Misery bear on Twitter

Filed under: Humour | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Ruby Blues by Jessica Rudd follows on from the much loved Campaign Ruby

Posted on July 28, 2011 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru

Jessica Rudd is back with a sequel to her popular and revealing novel, Campaign Ruby… which has been described as Bridget Jones goes to Canberra… Ruby Blues will be released 31st October 2011 but you may pre-order your copy here…

Ruby Blues by Jessica Rudd

In Campaign Ruby, Ruby managed to get:

1. drunk
2. the leader of the Opposition elected
3. Luke

Now that the balloons from the election night party have sagged, as well as the electorate’s enthusiasm for the new PM, Ruby is battling political and personal spot fires. She has a whole new To Do list scrunched up at the bottom of her Prada handbag.

1. Screw things up with Luke
2. Turn 30
3. Deal with hormonal pregnant lesbian aunt
4. And an imploding government
5. Avoid killing peppy intern
6. Attend party after waxing accident
7. Cosy up to Pretty Boy
7a. Complicate things with Luke
8. Save the government from itself
9. Figure out who the hell she is
10. And who she wants.

Pre-order your copy of Ruby Blues

Campaign Ruby

written by Jessica Rudd, published by The Text Publishing Company

When she gets the email announcing her redundancy, Ruby Stanhope hopes to maintain the composure expected of your average London investment banker.

Instead, the next day’s hangover brings two unfortunate discoveries. First, her impromptu reply to the bosses has gone viral, published everywhere from Facebook to the Financial Times. Second, she has a non-refundable, same-day ticket to Melbourne thanks to a dangerous cocktail of Victorian pinot noir, broadband internet and a dash of melancholy.

Landing in Australia, Ruby plans a quiet stay with her aunt in the Yarra Valley—but a party at the local winery results in an unexpected job offer: financial policy adviser to the Federal Leader of the Opposition.

Intrigued, Ruby heads to Melbourne for morning coffee with the Chief of Staff—and finds herself in the middle of the Treasurer’s overthrow of the Prime Minister and the announcement of an early election.

Rookie Ruby, dubbed ‘Roo’ by her Aussie colleagues, is thrown into the campaign and spends four weeks circumnavigating Australia while trying to stay afloat in the deep end of politics. Through trial and plenty of error (including wardrobe malfunctions, media mishaps and a palate for unsavoury men) she finds passion, not just a flair, for her new career.

With its light touch and deft comic instincts, Campaign Ruby is a delightful combination of fashion, faux pas and the unexpected fun of federal politics.

Order your copy here

Filed under: Australian Author, Contemporary Literature, Contemporary Women's Fiction, Humour | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

FILM: The Pirates! Band of Misfits (from the makers of Wallace & Gromit)

Posted on July 20, 2011 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru

In The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Hugh Grant stars in his first animated role as the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain — a boundlessly enthusiastic, if somewhat less-than-successful, terror of the High Seas. With a rag-tag crew at his side (Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, and Ashley Jensen), and seemingly blind to the impossible odds stacked against him, the Captain has one dream: to beat his bitter rivals Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) to the much coveted Pirate Of The Year Award.

It’s a quest that takes our heroes from the shores of exotic Blood Island to the foggy streets of Victorian London. Along the way they battle a diabolical queen (Imelda Staunton) and team up with a haplessly smitten young scientist (David Tennant), but never lose sight of what a pirate loves best: adventure!

The film is based on Gideon Defoe’s book The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists.

All The Pirates! books will be reissued before the film’s release.

Filed under: Book Trailer, Humour | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Text Publishing offers a cheaper Australian edition of Go the F**k to Sleep (and a foul mouthed Noni Hazlehurst, too)

Posted on July 13, 2011 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru

Australian publisher, Text Publishing, has released a cheaper local edition of the worldwide hit Go the F**k to Sleep.

Though this book caused controversy where ever it went the massive sales show that the general populace cannot be as precious as the moral police would have us believe. TV wants us all to be shocked and alarmed. But our first reaction is to giggle.

Buy it here

If you know anyone with young children and want to see their tired faces break into a smile, then give them a copy of Go the F**k to Sleep.

Pub Details: Go the F**k to Sleep is a bedtime book for (more…)

Filed under: Gift Books, Humour | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, returns in Smokin’ Seventeen by Janet Evanovich

Posted on May 10, 2011 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru

Around this time last year we sent out a newsletter promoting Janet Evanovich’s Sizzling Sixteen. Back then there was talk in the publishing and bookselling world  that the Stephanie Plum novels had done their dash. We didn’t agree with this assessment. And neither did readers. Sizzling Sixteen sold and sold and sold becoming one of the biggest hits of the year.

That’s why we thought we would let you know early that Evanovich is back with another instalment in the life and crimes of Stephanie Plum… Smokin’ Seventeen.

As a friend once said to me: Anyone who says they don’t like Stephanie Plum is either lying or hasn’t read one…

About Smokin’ Seventeen:

Where there’s smoke there’s fire, and no one knows this better than New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum.

Dead bodies are showing up in shallow graves on the empty construction lot of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. No one is sure who the killer is, or why the victims have been offed, but what is clear is that Stephanie’s name is on the killer’s list.

Short on time to find evidence proving the killer’s identity, Stephanie faces further complications when her family and friends decide that it’s time for her to choose between her longtime off-again-on-again boyfriend, Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and the bad boy in her life, security expert Ranger.

Stephanie’s mom is encouraging Stephanie to dump them both and choose a former high school football star who’s just returned to town. Stephanie’s sidekick, Lula, is encouraging Stephanie to have a red-hot boudoir “bake-off.” And Grandma Bella, Morelli’s old-world grandmother, is encouraging Stephanie to move to a new state when she puts “the eye” on Stephanie.

With a cold-blooded killer after her, a handful of hot men, and a capture list that includes a dancing bear and a senior citizen vampire, Stephanie’s life looks like it’s about to go up in smoke.

Click Here To PRE-ORDER Smokin’ Seventeen

Read an Excerpt -

Smokin’ Seventeen: Chapter One

My Grandma Mazur called me early this morning.”I had a dream,” Grandma said. “There was this big horse, and it could fly. It didn’t have wings. It just could fly. And the horse flew over top of you, and started dropping road apples, and you were running around trying to get out of the way of the road apples. And the funny thing was you didn’t have any clothes on except a red lace thong kind of underpants. Anyways, next thing a rhinoceros flew over you, and he was sort of hovering over top your head. And then I woke up. I got a feeling it means something.”"What?” I asked.”I don’t know, but it can’t be good.” And she disconnected.

So that’s how my day started. And to tell you the truth the dream pretty much summed up my life.

My name is Stephanie Plum. I work as a bond enforcer for my cousin Vinnie’s bail bonds office, and I live in an uninspired, low-rent, three-story, brick-faced chunk of an apartment building on the edge of Trenton, New Jersey. My second-floor apartment is furnished with my relatives’ cast-offs. I’m average height. I have an okay shape. I’m pretty sure I’m averagely intelligent. And I know for sure I have a crummy job. My shoulder-length curly brown hair is inherited from the Italian side of the family, my blue eyes from the Hungarian side of the family, and I have an excellent nose that’s a gift from God. Good thing he gave me the nose before he found out I wasn’t the world’s best Catholic. Read more here…

There is a very good reason why Janet Evanovich has sold so many copies of her books featuring Stephanie Plum: They are great fun.

Click here to see the full series of Stephanie Plum: Australian Editions & American Editions

The first book in the series – One for the Money – is being filmed now, staring Katherine Heigl and will be released in 1212


Filed under: Crime/Thriller, Humour | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Smut: Two Unseemly Stories by Alan Bennett

Posted on May 3, 2011 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru

Unexpected tales from the master of short fiction.

Composed of two new stories, The Greening of Mrs Donaldson (first published in the London Review of Books) and The Shielding of Mrs Forbes, Smut is as funny and moving as all Bennett’s work, and brings his subversive side once more to the fore.

The Shielding of Mrs Forbes

Graham Forbes is a disappointment to his mother, who thinks that if he must have a wife, he should have done better. Though her own husband isn’t all that satisfactory either. Still, this is Alan Bennett, so what is happening in the bedroom (and in lots of other places too) is altogether more startling, perhaps shocking, and ultimately more true to people’s predilections.

The Greening of Mrs Donaldson

Mrs Donaldson is a conventional middle-class woman beached on the shores of widowhood after a marriage that had been much like many others: happy to begin with, then satisfactory and finally dull. But when she decides to take in two lodgers, her mundane life becomes much more stimulating …

Praise for Alan Bennett:

‘Never mawkish, Bennett’s droll wit has you laughing as well as mopping your eyes. Utter genius’ Val Hennessy, Daily Mail

‘Marvellous, ludicrous and touching situation comedy’ Tobias Hill, Observer

About The Author

Alan Bennett is one of the UK’s most celebrated figures. He is the author of Untold Stories, and numerous works of fiction including The Uncommon Reader. His play The History Boys was the National Theatre’s most successful production ever.

Smut: Two Unseemly Stories by Alan Bennett: A review by Sarah Churchwell in The Guardian

Alan Bennett’s witty, sly stories are a delight

Alan Bennett once remarked that his stage adaptation of The Wind in the Willows was partly about “keeping it under”, in which Toad doesn’t actually change his ways, but instead simply learns to “counterfeit” socially acceptable virtues in order to be accepted by his society. The phrase could serve as an equally apt description of Bennett’s latest book, Smut: Two Unseemly Stories: both tales are about keeping it under, people counterfeiting ideal selves in order to be accepted. Read full review here…

Smut By Alan Bennett: Reviewed by Arifa Akbar in The Independant

Smut is a curious mix of the Alan Bennett we know of old, whose clucking, mid-life Northern treasures – Thora Hird and the like – divulge their secrets in gently subversive sotto voce, and the Alan Bennett we are coming to know, post-cancer scare, who might one day be seen as late, uncloseted Bennett, with sex increasingly on the brain.

Thankfully, Bennett takes the subject beyond the uncomfortably repressed homosexual bottom-groping of The History Boys. Here, there is all manner of sex, wholesome and joyous, and not just the smutty variety of its title: there is straight marital, gay extra-marital, virtual, voyeuristic and bedroom farce. The result is not half as shocking as it may sound: neither straightforwardly comical nor sexually-charged, just amusingly peculiar. Read full review here…

Alan Bennett reads from his new book Smut:

Filed under: Book Trailer, Contemporary Literature, Fiction, Gift Books, Humour | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

SuperChef AUSTRALIA: A Parody by Ben Pobjie

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Booktopia

A hilarious parody of Australia’s most successful tv cooking phenomenon

From the cooking show to end all cooking shows, comes the book of the show that makes all other books of shows look feeble and pointless. Finally fans of the worldwide ultra-smash SuperChef can take the essence of the program home in handy book form, preserving the experience of history’s greatest-ever televised cooking competition for all eternity. (buy a copy here)

SEE the backstage secrets behind the making of the most successful television show in the history of the universe.

DISCOVER what makes a cooking show judge tick-is it greed, or just anger?

GET TO KNOW the contestants in terrifyingly intimate detail.

LEARN how to cook like a SuperChef, if that’s really what you want.

Packed with helpful kitchen hints, signature recipes from the stars of the program, and fun activities for the whole family, SuperChef: The Book is perfect for foodies, aspiring chefs, and obsessive reality-show fans alike. Catch the kitchen-fever today!*

‘SuperChef is the one show I make all my apprentices watch-it’s the only way they’ll learn’ – Marco Zatapathique, head chef, L’Oiseau Deprime

‘SuperChef is so good that every time I watch it I am crushed beneath the weight of my own inadequacy’ – Helen O’Gortigan, host of Heating it Up with Helen

‘Superchef is the only valid reason to live’ – Charlie Stanwick, inventor of the chicken parmigiana

* Book does not actually cause fever (buy a copy here)

About Ben Pobjie:

During Masterchef series 2, journalist Ben Pobjie built up quite a following as he vented his thoughts via Twitter during each episode each night. Starting out as an uninterested outsider, he soon found himself deeply immersed in the world of Masterchef and has now become, not only a fan but also a well-respected commentator.

Order your copy today –
click here to go through to the Booktopia online bookshop


Filed under: Australian Author, Humour, Humour | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

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