Dymocks 2021 Book of the Year shortlist
10 November 2021
Australian book retailer Dymocks have unveiled the shortlist for their 2021 Book of the Year award. Titles to make the cut include Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty, Who Gets to be Smart by Bri Lee, and one of the inspirations behind the name of this very website, Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro. The winner will be announced later in November.
RELATED CONTENT
Bri Lee, Kazuo Ishiguro, Liane Moriarty, literature
Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
10 November 2021
Sometimes I find the synopsis of a book so intriguing I feel compelled to write about it for that reason alone. Cloud Cuckoo Land (published by Simon & Schuster, 2021), written by American author Anthony Doerr, is such a novel. The first point of interest are the settings. Constantinople, now Istanbul, in past times the capital of several large empires, is one.
Here a teenage girl called Anna lives, in the lead up to the fateful 1453 siege of the city, and final remnant of the Byzantine Empire. In her spare time, she reads a book, the story of Aethon, a man who yearned to become a bird, so he could fly to a better place. The next setting is five hundred years later, in Idaho, where Zona, a woman in her eighties, is preparing a group of children to take part in a play based on Aethon’s story. The final setting is somewhere in interstellar space, where Konstance, a resident born on a generational colony ship, is transcribing the story of Aethon, after he father recited it to her.
And here we come to the second point of interest, an ancient story that links people living centuries apart, people keeping – in their own way – Aethon and his story alive, many centuries after its original telling. While the nature of the story appeals to me, like any book, it’s not for everyone, if the comments of some GoodReads members are anything to go by.
RELATED CONTENT
Anthony Doerr, fiction, TBR list, writing
Burning, a documentary by Eva Orner
9 November 2021
Burning (trailer) is a documentary by Los Angeles based Australian filmmaker Eva Orner about the Black Summer bush fires that ravaged parts of Australia in 2019 and 2020. The two-minute trailer is shocking, but being in the path of the flames must have been terrifying. Burning is scheduled for release later this month.
RELATED CONTENT
climate change, Eva Orner, film, trailer
Andrew Pippos wins 2021 Readings Prize
9 November 2021
Sydney based Australian writer Andrew Pippos has been named winner of the 2021 Readings Prize for his debut novel Lucky’s. Congratulations.
As any book lover knows, walking into a bookshop and being confronted with hundreds (if not thousands) of books to choose from can be overwhelming. It is also one of the best feelings in the world. The Readings Prize shortlist is here to help narrow the field a little, to encourage readers to pick up a book by a first- or second-time author they don’t know and to give it a try.
The Readings is an award that focuses on newly published authors, a few more prizes like this are needed.
RELATED CONTENT
Andrew Pippos, Australian writing, literature
Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu
9 November 2021
Willis Wu imagines he is an extra in a TV crime show. But he aspires to be more than an insignificant figure lurking in the background, he has his eye on a lead role. Kung Fu Guy would be ideal, but he can’t seem to break out of the part he has become typecast in, that of Generic Asian Man. Is it possible his Taiwanese Chinese ancestry is working against him?
The TV show, named Black and White – the lead characters are police officers, one is black, the other white – plays out in a restaurant called Golden Palace, located in the Chinatown of an American city. It might be though Willis is actually a restaurant worker who imagines he is part of a TV show. But in Interior Chinatown (published by Allen & Unwin, January 2021), the fourth novel by American author Charles Yu, the distinction isn’t really relevant.
Behind the screenplay, or the would-be cop-show, is a story of immigration and assimilation. Of people who leave their homeland and relocate to a new country. A place where their appearance, and the language they speak, may set them apart. See them sometimes relegated to the fringes of society. This may not be a TV show many of us want to be cast in…
RELATED CONTENT
Charles Yu, fiction, TBR list, writing
For your to-be-read list, November 2021
8 November 2021
They’re making it easy on us this month, ABC literary writers and reviewers have suggested just five books for our reading consumption this month. Mind you, we’re already a week into the eleventh month, meaning we’ve lost eight reading days, so that might be a small problem. Anyway, I’m liking the look and sound of Byobu, by Ida Vitale, a 98 year old Uruguayan author, although Byobu was actually published in 2004 when she was eighty. Never let anyone say you’re too old to start a career as a writer.
RELATED CONTENT
books, Ida Vitale, literature, novels
Two Israeli bookshops withdraw Sally Rooney novel from sale
8 November 2021
Two major bookstores in Israel have taken Sally Rooney’s latest novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You, off its shelves following the Irish author’s recent decision not to permit the book to be translated into Hebrew.
Rooney’s novels were previously available from Steimatzky and Tzomet Sefarim, but the books have now been removed from their websites, and will be pulled from physical shops too. The retailers have more than 200 branches between them.
RELATED CONTENT
The Quiet at the End of the World, by Lauren James
8 November 2021
The title of The Quiet at the End of the World brings to mind the line here at the quiet limit of the world, from a poem called Tithonus, written by Alfred Tennyson in the nineteenth century. In my mind the words take me to any deserted stretch of coast bordering the Mediterranean, and carefree summers spent ambling around Europe.
Tennyson’s verse, on the other hand, is about an immortal man yearning for death. Go figure. Needless to say, I decided to learn more about The Quiet at the End of the World (published by Walker Books, March 2019), by British author Lauren James, before choosing an inclination inspired by the book’s poetic title. That turned out to be a good idea. A devastating virus has rendered the population of the planet infertile, and Lowrie and Shen are the last remaining teenagers in the world. They live with a small group of elderly survivors from across the globe congregating in London.
Aside from the fact humanity faces an inevitable extinction, Lowrie and Shen lead exceedingly comfortable lives. But that all changes one day, when a new mystery disease begins striking down the older people around them. The teenagers need to figure out what is happening, and find a way to save the remaining residents of their community, before there they are the only humans left on Earth.
RELATED CONTENT
fiction, Lauren James, TBR list, writing
Moonfall, by Roland Emmerich
6 November 2021
Apollo 11 was apparently out of contact with Earth for two minutes shortly before the Moon landing in July 1969. You can only imagine what happened during that period of radio silence. But if you didn’t, plenty of others have. One “explanation” (of many) posits mission controllers pulled the plug on the public broadcast of the Apollo transmissions because the crew had sighted a space ship of unknown alien origin “parked” on the Moon. So that’s it. Do you think the vessel is still sitting there? Hmm, might be a novel idea in that…
The “break” in Apollo 11’s transmission forms one of the threads running through the plot of Moonfall (trailer) the new film by Roland Emmerich. Also in the mix, by the looks of it, are echoes of the idea the Moon is hollow (I don’t think it is…) and a book called Who Built the Moon. To get back to Moonfall though, long story short, an unknown force or event has sent the Moon on a collision course with Earth. A small group of people think they know what’s caused it, and how to stop it – the Moon that is – from crashing into our planet.
RELATED CONTENT
film, Roland Emmerich, trailer
Low quantity harvests in NSW may force coffee prices up
5 November 2021
Last month I noted that severe frosts had affected coffee bean harvests in Brazil, which is likely to result in price rises as supply is reduced. Now some Australian coffee producers in northern NSW have run into harvest problems, a lack of available labour being one issue. I’d say this is partly occasioned by COVID lockdowns and travel restrictions, as many farm workers and fruit pickers are backpacking travellers. Long story short, be prepared to pay more for coffee imminently.
RELATED CONTENT