The Stella Prize Shortlist 2018

The shortlist for the 2018 Stella Prize was announced on International Women's Day, 8 March 2018. The six titles vying for the prize this year are:

• Shokoofeh Azar - The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree
• Claire G Coleman - Terra Nullius
• Michelle de Krester - The Life to Come
• Kristy Kneen - An Uncertain Grace
• Mirandi Riwoe - The Fish Girl
• Alexis Wright - Tracker

I was not surprised that past winners Michelle de Krester and Alexis Wright made the shortlist, but I did not expect Sophie Laguna to be dropped from the competition with her novel The Choke.

It is nice to see debut novelists - Azar, Coleman and Riwoe - in competition for their works. I described these books in a previous post about the Longlist. Of the books still in contention, the one I am most keen to read is de Krester.

The winner will be revealed on 12 April 2018.

Listening and Learning (11/03/18)

I continue to love finding new podcasts to enjoy on my commute to/from work each day.

I have previously written about S-Town, Trace, Revisionist History, Slate's Political Gabfest and Chat 10 Looks 3 as well as Dirty John, In The Dark and Missing Richard Simmons.

So here (hear!) are some of the podcasts I have been listening to lately.

Slow Burn

In June 1972 five men broke in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate building in Washington, DC. The crime and its coverup is collectively known as the Watergate scandal (and the reason why -gate is a suffix of every political scandal since). The investigation revealed a link to the Nixon administration and subsequently led to the President's downfall.

Journalist Leon Neyfakh's eight episode podcast Slow Burn is a fascinating look at Watergate with some powerful parallels to modern times. Indeed each episode made me think of the Mueller investigation and what is happening in the Trump administration.

My knowledge of Watergate had been pretty much restricted to the 1976 film All the President's Men about Washington Post journalists Woodward and Bernstein. But through Slow Burn I learned so much more. For example, the first episode is about Martha Mitchell, the fun-loving socialite wife of Nixon's Attorney General, who had a habit of calling up the tabloids to dish the dirt. She was essentially kidnaped by an FBI agent and then discredited by Nixon's staff as delusional in a gripping 'I can't believe they did that' episode.

This is a smart, addictive podcast which reveals many aspects of the Watergate scandal through painstaking research and interviews with many of the key people involved.

By The Book
I came across the By The Book podcast from listening to Slate's Double X podcast when they interviewed comedian Jolenta Greenberg, who hosts By The Book with Kristen Meinzer.

The premise is simple: select one popular self-help book, follow its teachings to the letter for two weeks, then catch up and see if your life has improved.

The two women (and their life partners) have experimented with The Secret, French Women Don't Get Fat, The Memory Book, Men are from Mars..., The Little Book of Hygge and many more. When they read America's Cheapest Family, they spent two weeks living thriftily. After The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, they chucked out a lot of their belongings but one reverted back to her untidy ways as her husband did not find joy in continually searching for the soap.

What makes this podcast such fun is that the hosts have different personalities and are pretty much game for anything. This podcast is great for anyone who has tried and failed to live the Marie Kondo way.

Literary Disco

I am a sucker for books and disco - so a podcast called Literary Disco was right up my alley!

Hosted by three writers - Tod Golberg, Julia Pistell and Rider Strong - who dig deep into some terrific novels every three or four weeks. Their episode on George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo was the first one I tried. I found the hosts erudite and witty, with a way of dissecting the book to make its' reading more enjoyable. They demonstrate a passion for writing and a deep respect for writers.

Recent episodes include My Brilliant Friend, Manhattan Beach, Norse Mythology. My only criticism is that sometimes the audio quality is uneven and one of the hosts sounds a bit too loud in contrast to the others. But the content makes me look past that.

So those are my latest podcast obsessions. Stay tuned for more Listening and Learning.

The Truth About Ruth

Ever since it was published in 2015, I have been keen to get my hands on a copy of Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik. I couldn't find it in the bookshops I browsed but my local library came to the rescue and I have just enjoyed a week of reading.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) has been a feminist hero of mine for three decades. During my undergraduate studies of American Constitutional Law and my thesis on the undermining of Roe v Wade, I repeatedly relied on the wisdom of RBG, the cases she argued and the opinions she gave. She was also the inspiration that lead me to law school.

RBG was appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1993. During her 25 years on the bench she has written opinions and dissents on some of the most important civil rights cases to come before the court. In Ledbetter v Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co 550 US 618 (2007), the plaintiff was paid significantly less then her male colleagues working in comparable roles. RBG's dissent was read from the bench, arguing that with each pay check the company was reinforcing pay discrimination. In Gonzales v Carhart 550 US 124 (2007) and Burwell v Hobby Lobby 573 US __ (2014) , Ginsberg's dissents focussed on women's personal autonomy and equal rights to control fertility.

But long before she joined the Supreme Court, RBG had developed a solid reputation as a diligent, progressive litigator, committed to equality and human rights. Raised in Brooklyn, New York,  and educated at Cornell University, RBG's early career was marred by discrimination, in an age where women with young children did not work. She went on to be a professor at Rutgers Law School and later Columbia where she was the first woman to receive tenure. She co-founded the Women's Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union and took six gender discrimination to the Supreme Court. In 1980 she was appointed to the US Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia.

Co-author Shana Knizhnik was a law student when she began the 'Notorious RBG' Tumblr blog as a tribute to the Supreme Court justice who routinely defended the rights of minorities and women. Journalist Irin Carmon interviewed RBG, and came together with Knizhnik to produce this wonderfully unique biography. While the book follows some elements of conventional biography, what makes the Notorious RBG so delightful is the inclusion of fan art, photos of RBG tattoos, even a recipe from RBG's devoted husband, the late Marty Ginsburg. The authors interviewed RBG's children, her clerks, her colleagues and even her personal trainer.

Each chapter is named after lyrics by the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. (Biggie Smalls), a homage to a hip-hop music trailblazer who has influenced all who came after him. While pop culture permeates this book, it doesn't detract from the seriousness of the subject and the message it is trying to convey.

At 84 years of age RBG has no plans to retire. She is fit and healthy, her mind is sharp. Given the increasingly conservative make up of the court, she still has a lot of work to do. Long may she reign.

Sliding Doors

Mohsin Hamid's novel Exit West (2017) was shortlisted for last year's Booker Prize. It is the story of Nadia and Saeed, two young lovers who seek to escape the war in their homeland.

Nadia is independent and open-minded, living on her own in a country where women's rights are becoming increasingly curtailed. She meets Saeed at night school and they begin a relationship. As the violence escalates and parts of their city become uninhabitable, Nadia moves in with Saeed and his family. Rumours start to form about secret doors which will take you away, to a new location and a new life.

Saeed and Nadia find a broker who will help them to a door. Leaving behind all they know and love, with just a small bag of provisions and their memories, they venture into the unknown. But the world is not always welcoming to strangers seeking shelter...

I really loved Hamid's eloquent writing in this novel. It has a fable-like quality to it, while providing gems like "their phones rested screens-down between them, like the weapons of desperadoes at a parley" and "when we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind". I was curious about Hamid's long, meandering sentences in some parts, such as when Saeed's father encourages them to leave and the string of words rolls on. But he is an expert storyteller, and I was mesmerised by his writing from beginning to end.

About the magical realism... I must admit I was really skeptical about the magical, transporting doors device. Doors could appear in wardrobes and cupboards anywhere and one might take you to Sydney or San Francisco, another to Kabul. I kept thinking about how the tourism industry would respond to these doors - would the airlines collapse or would they capitalise? But these portals aren't the point, the people are. This novel comes about when doors are closing to refugees worldwide, and people are so desperate to survive they will do anything they can to find safety.

This is a timely, urgent book. It is very short and can be read quite quickly, but the impact will linger long after you have finished reading.

The Stella Prize Longlist 2018

The Stella Prize longlist has been announced! The annual literary award celebrating women writers of both fiction and non-fiction is named after Australian author Stella Miles Franklin. Past winners include:

Carrie Tiffany for Mateship with Birds (2013)

Claire Wright for The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka (2014)

Emily Bitto for The Strays (2015)

Charlotte Wood for The Natural Way of Things (2016)

Heather Rose for The Museum of Modern Love (2017)

I love the Stella Prize and generally find that the winning book ends up being my favourite read of the year and the book I most often recommend or give as gifts to friends and family.

On 8 February 2018, the longlist for this year's Stella Prize was announced with 12 nominees from over 170 entries. Unsurprisingly, I have not read any of the books, and many of the authors are unknown to me. Part of the excitement of these prizes is finding new writers and new titles to read.

The 2018 longlist is as follows:

Shokoofeh Azar - The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree
Writer Shokoofeh Azar was born in Iran and came to Australia as a refugee. Set in Iran in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, this novel tells the story of five family members who deal with the loss of a son and daughter. The novel draws on Persian folklore and lyrical magical realism and sounds like Azar is a unique and refreshing voice.

Bernadette Brennan - A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work
Readers of this blog will know how much I love Helen Garner's writing. Academic and researcher Brennan accessed Garner's journals and correspondence in preparing this study of the author and her work. It is neither a biography or a literary critique, but rather an exploration of the influences of Garner's work. Sounds like a book to add to the queue.

Kate Cole-Adams - Anaesthesia: The Gift of Oblivion and the Mystery of Consciousness
Journalist Cole-Adams has written this  non-fiction account of what happens when people use anaesthesia. Most people having surgery are 'put under' but have no knowledge of what happens to their mind and consciousness while they are out. I am sure this is an interesting book for some people, but I don't think I will be reading it.


Claire G Coleman - Terra Nullius
Western Australia-based Coleman won the SLQ black&write! Fellowship for this manuscript. It is a novel about Australia's colonial history and the inevitable conflict between Natives and Settlers.  The judges describe the book as 'a novel for our times, one whose tone is as impassioned as its message is necessary.'





Michelle de Krester - The Life to Come
I have already heard so many great things about Michelle de Kretser's latest novel, that I am keen to track it down. Set in Sydney, Paris and Sri Lanka, the satirical story explores themes of intimacy, friendship and loneliness. De Krester won the Miles Franklin Award in 2013 for Questions of Travel.

Beverley Farmer - This Water: Five Tales
This is a collection of novellas focused on women and common concerns of love and loss. The judges praised Farmer's writing, stating 'Her euphonious prose fuses the fluency and gravitas of ancient storytelling traditions to the concentrated clarity of the greatest modern writers. She writes prose with the attentiveness of a poet, achieving much of her lyrical effect by means of a plainspoken vocabulary utilised with a perfectly attuned sense of rhythm.' Sounds fantastic!


Paula Keogh - The Green Bell: A Memoir of Love, Madness and Poetry

This memoir begins in a Canberra Hospital psychiatric ward in 1972.  Young Paula Keogh is being treated and meets Michael Dransfield a drug addicted poet, and they fall in love. Over the next year Paula begins to rebuild her life and Michael writes the poems later published as The Second Month of Spring. While they plan for the future together, will their love survive once they leave the hospital?

Kristy Kneen - An Uncertain Grace
Judges decribe this as 'a formally ingenious and often amusing novel that combines eroticism and science fiction with a playful spirit of intellectual inquisitiveness.' Made up of individual, loosely-tied, short stories this novel is set in the near future where technology alters our relationships with out own bodies and with those around us.

Sofie Laguna - The Choke
Laguna won the Miles Franklin Award in 2015 for her novel The Eye of the Sheep. The Choke centres on young Justine, abandoned by her parents and raised by her Pop in country Victoria. Neglected and left to make her way in the world, Justine has to navigate a world of violence. I reckon this novel is a real contender.

Joyce Morgan - Martin Sharp: His Life and Times
This is a biography of Australian artist Martin Sharp, best known as an illustrator for OZ magazine. Moving to London in the swinging sixties, Sharp lived with Eric Clapton, Germain Greer, Anthony Hayden-Guest and other creatives. Joyce Morgan has thoroughly researched her subject to create an account of a fascinating life.



Mirandi Riwoe - The Fish Girl

This novella was inspired by Somerset Maugham's story 'The Four Dutchman'. Riwoe's story is about an Indonesian girl who leaves her fishing village to work in the house of a Dutch merchant. The judges describe it as a 'subversive postcolonial work of fiction.'

Alexis Wright - Tracker
Tracker Tilmouth was an Aboriginal leader and entrepreneur who died in 2015 at 62 years of age. Part of the Stolen Generation, Tilmouth was raised on a mission on Croker Island, and went on to become a well regarded activist who established the Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Council. Alexis Wright, the Miles Franklin Award winning novelist for Carpenteria,  knew Tracker and wrote this memoir.



The Shortlist will be announced on 8 March - International Women's Day - with the winner revealed on 12 April 2018. Better get reading!

Mansplaining and More

A couple of years ago I read Rebecca Solnit's essay 'Men Explain Things to Me' (2012). It was a wonderful exposé on the way women are silenced, and the effects this loss of voice has.  Solnit wrote the essay following an exchange with a man who patronisingly tells her all about a book he had not read, but which Solnit had actually written. This essay inspired the 'mansplaining' concept, which has become a common expression for anytime women are spoken at with condescension by men.

Recently I revisited Solnit's essay, and continued on to read her collection Men Explain Things to Me (2014). Beyond the title essay, Solnit explores a number of issues that affect women, from a feminist perspective.

'The Longest War' is about rape. It opens with the gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh on a bus in Delhi in December 2012, moves on to other examples like the teenager assaulted by the Steubenville High football team and the eleven-year old in Texas raped by twenty men. Solnit writes that gang rape is everywhere and that there is 'a pattern of violence against women thats broad and deep and horrific and incessantly overlooked'.  The phenomenon of violence against women is not new. Solnit argues  that continuing to treat each act of violence as an isolated issue is part of the problem, and that the broader culture of toxic masculinity needs to be addressed as a civil/human rights issue.

In 'Worlds Collide in a Luxury Suite' Solnit takes on the International Monetary Fund and Dominique Strauss-Kahn's exploitation of women. 'Grandmother Spider' explores the disappearance of women giving examples like genealogy, in which women historically have taken on their husband's name and  been erased from the patriarchal family tree. 'In Praise of the Threat: What Marriage Equality Really Means' is about traditional marital roles and how it can be redefined. While the other essays look at hysteria and not taking women seriously ('Cassandra Among the Creeps'), denying women their voice ('#YesAllWomen Feminists Rewrite the Story), and about how women are kept in place by trolls and social norms ('Pandora's Box and the Volunteer Police Force').

While the title essay is the one that has received the most attention, I greatly enjoyed her essay on Virginia Woolf - 'Woolf's Darkness: Embracing the Inexplicable'. Woolf, Solnit writes, 'is celebrating getting lost, not literally lost as in not knowing how to find your way, but lost as in open to the unknown, and the way that physical space can provide psychic space.' Her admiration of Woolf oozes from this essay, and made me want to rush out and reread Woolf again.

I greatly enjoyed my time with Solnit's collection. However, the cumulative effect of these essays, read one after another, is a bit of a repetitive blur. I wish I had taken more time to read, leaving a gap between each one, as they were meant to be read. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in contemporary feminist thought.

Cat Person

We are never meeting in real life (2017) is a collection of essays by Chicago-based writer Samantha Irby, which appeared on countless 'best books' lists. The reviews intrigued me, so I chose to begin my reading year with her book.

From the opening essay "My Bachelorette Application" I was hooked. Irby describes herself as 'passably female', '35ish (but could pass for 46 to 52 easily; sixtysomething if I stay up all night)', looking for 'someone too lazy to cheat' and 'who will leave me the hell alone for extended periods of time without getting all weird about it'.

Irby is hilarious, snarky, bitter and fun. She has no filter, is prone to over-sharing, and wildly self-depreciating. She talks openly about her weight, her Crohn's disease and other health complaints, her love-hate relationship with her cat, her sex life, and her job as a client services director at a veterinary practice.

Beneath this hilarity are dark truths that need to be told. She writes about being raised in poverty by an ill mother and an absent father, homelessness, health, race, and other real-world problems.  There is a cynical, sharp edge behind the humour, such as her fear of dying without tidying her home and deleting her browser history.

This book is not for everyone. The language is colourful and explicit, the subject matter is often uncomfortable. Indeed, while I enjoyed the bulk of the essays, there were times I felt like her confessional style was veering towards too much over-sharing. But it is up to her what aspects of her private self she chooses to protect.

I am glad I learned about Irby and I look forward to reading her Bitches Gotta Eat blog. On the strength of this book, Irby now has a TV deal so I will be interested to see what she comes up with next.

Planning for 2018

Each year I like to set aside some time to reflect on my reading habits and prioritise my reading for the coming year.

Two books a month is what I can reasonably achieve given my workload, but to stretch myself I will set a target of 30 books in 2018. And of course I will continue to blog about my reading here.

There are a number of books I have on my bedside and want to read in 2018 including:

• Manhattan Beach (2017) by Jennifer Egan
• First Person (2017) by Richard Flanagan 
• Theft By Finding (2017) by David Sedaris
• Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) by George Saunders
• The Book of Dust (2017) by Philip Pullman

Several books I will need to source from libraries and bookstores include:

• Stories: Collected Short Fiction (2017) by Helen Garner
• True Stories: Complete Short Non-Fiction (2017) by Helen Garner
• The Power (2017) by Naomi Alderman
• Little Fires Everywhere (2017) by Celeste Ng
• We Are Never Meeting in Real Life (2017) by Samantha Irby (update: read review)
• Conversations with Friends (2017) by Sally Rooney
• The Life to Come (2017) by Michelle de Krester

I need to leave room in my reading schedule for new books to be published in 2018, like former Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs' book Speaking Up (due October), Asne Seierstad's Two Sisters (due February), Michael Ondaatje's Warlight (due May), Feel Free: Essays by Zadie Smith (due February), Beautiful Days by Joyce Carol Oates (due February), Tangerine by Christine Mangan (due March) and Meg Wolitzer's The Female Persuasion (due April).

To diversify my reading and to have a bit of fun, I thought I might try some Book Reading Bingo. I made the following Bingo board with the view to expanding my reading horizons. I wonder how many times I can get Bingo before the year is out. Feel free to join in!

B	I	N	G	O
Adapted into a Film/TV Show	Biography  or Memoir	New York Times Bestseller	Booker Prize Shortlister	Poetry Collection
Current Affairs / Politics	Set in Space or at Sea	Pre-20th Century Classic	Fiction Based on a True Story	New-To-Me Author
Short Story Collection	Published in 2018	Free Choice	Set in the Future	First Novel in a Series
Written by a Nobel Laureate	Mystery or Crime Novel	Stella Prize Shortlister	Banned Book	20th Century Classic
Set during Wartime	New-To-Me Genre	Lesser-known Book by a Famous Author	Essay Collection	Book on the 1001 List

Plenty to sink my teeth into here. Let the adventures in reading begin...

My Reading Year - 2017

I have had a wonderful 2017 in books. Each year I set reading goals which usually consist of a number and a list. My challenge in 2017 was 24 books - two a month – which I exceeded by reading 26 titles this year. Not too bad considering my heavy workload and the stress of changing jobs mid-year.

My list included a number of books which I wrote about in my Planning for 2017 post. I managed to get through a many of these books, including:

• Not My Father's Son (2015) by Alan Cumming
• The Good People (2016) by Hannah Kent
• The Dry (2016) by Jane Harper
• Fantastic Beasts (2016) by JK Rowling
• The Princess Diarist (2016) by Carrie Fisher
• The North Water (2016) by Ian McGuire

Alas, several of my planned reads did not eventuate as I got distracted by other books.

Throughout the year I decided to chuck a few titles off my towering 'To Be Read' pile as it is clear that they are never going to get read. I made a second and third attempt to read Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend in 2017, and even tried listening to the audio book version. I made it to the halfway mark but was not enjoying it. Life is too short to read a book I cannot get into... Clearly I have not caught the Ferrante Fever!

Other books that I started and put down in 2017 include: Paul Beatty's The Sellout, Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies, and Marlon James' A Brief History of Seven Killings. I may return to these some day, but was not in the right mood when I started them.

Well, enough about the books I didn't read! I had an enjoyable 2017 in reading, and this is why:

Fiction

When looking back over the novels I read in 2017 it is hard to discern a pattern or theme. I read several mysteries this year, which was a bit unusual for me. With one exception, all were written by women. Most were written in the last few years.

Several novels were on my list at the start of the year, and I am so pleased to have read Australian Jane Harper's remarkable debut The Dry (2016) and her follow up Force of Nature (2017). While I was reluctant to begin Hannah Kent's second novel The Good People (2016), I quickly became engrossed in the story. Ian McGuire's vivid The North Water (2016) was a pleasure to read for his lush and descriptive writing. 

Many of the titles that I read this year came about because I suddenly found myself without something to read. For example, I found Penelope Mortimer's The Pumpkin Eater (1962) in a discount book shop while waiting for a meeting I had arrived too early for. Likewise I found Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (1979) while tidying my book shelves. I read both Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) and Gillian Flynn's Dark Places (2009) as I had suddenly finished other books and went scrounging through my e-reader to find something else to occupy my time. 

Wherever possible, I like to read a novel before I see the film adaptation. That was my impetus for reading JK Rowling's screenplay Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) and Daphne Du Maurier's My Cousin Rachel (1951). Rediscovering Daphne Du Maurier and Agatha Christie, after a long absence, was a wonderful delight.

Of all the novels I read this year the ones I would most recommend to others are Jane Harper's The Dry,  Ian McGuire's The North Water, and my favourite novel from the past year - Heather Rose's The Museum of Modern Love (2016). Rose's Stella Prize winning novel, inspired by the work of performance artist Marina Abramovic, lingered with me long after I finished reading. It is magnificently crafted, taking a real event and adding a fictional twist to the tale. 

Non-Fiction

My non-fiction reads this year were a mixed bag of memoir, long-form journalism, and essays.

I continued to be delighted by my subscription to the Quarterly Essay and greatly enjoyed Benjamin Law's Moral Panic 101 and David Marr's The White Queen. I also subscribe to Australian Foreign Affairs and The New York Times which have provided much food for thought and many of my Random Reads columns.

Carol Dweck's Mindset (2006) had long been on my reading list, and I finally read it this year. This book made me think a lot about my own mindset, how I problem solve, how I communicate and about my relationships with others. It is such a simple concept - how a fixed or growth mindset will determine how you approach life -  but one with deep ramifications. 

On the recommendation of my mother, I read Mark Tedeschi's Murder at Myall Creek (2016) about a brutal massacre of Aboriginal Australians in 1838 and the NSW Attorney General's determination to see justice. Another horrific crime took place in 1996 at Port Arthur, where a man killed 35 people. Sonia Voumard wrote an interesting book, The Media and The Massacre (2016), on journalism and ethics, which I heard about when it was longlisted for the Stella Prize.

I read a number of books which tackled serious subject matters. Richard Flanagan's brief but impactful Notes on an Exodus (2016) explores the refugee crisis by telling the harrowing stories of individual asylum seekers. Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between The World and Me (2015) explores race in America in the form of a letter to his teenage son. Feminist journalist Lindy West's essays are compiled in Shrill - Notes from a Loud Woman (2016) where she explores misogyny, fat shaming, and other subjects.

I read some interesting memoirs this year. I had been holding on to Alan Cumming's Not My Father's Son (2014) since the 2015 Sydney Writers' Festival where he was promoting the book. I really enjoyed Cumming's conversational style. I also read Carrie Fisher's The Princess Diarist (2016) about her affair with Harrison Ford on the set of the original Star Wars film. This was a bittersweet book, read in the months after her sudden death.

JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (2016) was an incredible read about the disenfranchised working class in America, and goes a long way to explaining why populist politics were able to take hold in the 2016 Presidential election.  The vivid characters in the Vance family, their struggles and triumphs, lingered with me long after I finished reading.

I greatly enjoyed Hillary Rodham Clinton's What Happened (2017), her dissection of the Presidential campaign and the factors which lead to her loss. Her reflection is witty, passionate and sincere. She takes responsibility for her own actions and mistakes, and points the finger at those who share the blame.

The best non-fiction book I read this year was Mark Colvin's Light and Shadow: Memoirs of a Spy's Son (2016). Colvin was an old-school reporter and his memoir of learning on the job, covering major stories, and reporting from far-flung regions of the world was fascinating. So too was his early life as the child of a British diplomat/spy living in Austria, Malaysia and elsewhere. I have always admired Colvin as a journalist and his memoir was a delightful read. 

Poetry

I have always loved poetry but often to forget to include it in my reading diet. This year I really enjoyed Clive James' Collected Poems (1958-2015), especially how he expressed his longing for Australia in many of his verses. Rupi Kaur's bestselling Milk and Honey was an underwhelming disappointment. I will not be rushing out to read her latest collection. 

Best of 2017
Of all the books I read this year the two works I regard most highly are Mark Colvin's memoir Light and Shadow and Heather Rose's novel The Museum of Modern Love. Honourable mentions go to Hillary Rodham Clinton's What Happened, JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy, Jane Harper's debut The Dry and Ian McGuire's The North Water.

2017 was another great year in reading - enjoying new authors (Harper, Rose) along with old favourites (Rowling, Christie, Du Maurier). Plus, I managed to clear some books that have been on my 'To Be Read' list for way too long (Cumming, Dweck). Looking forward to a new year and new reading adventures in 2018.

End of 2017 Book Lists

'Tis the season for the lists of the "Best Books of 2017" to be released by various media outlets. As a general rule, the lists contain books I haven't read and in some cases haven't heard of, so it is an opportunity to be introduced to new titles and authors. At the end of each year I compile my own list of what I enjoyed this year and my plans for the year ahead in reading. Before I share my own 'Best of' let's look at what others have to say...

Last Christmas I treated myself a subscription to the New York Times, and its section on books has provided me with much inspiration throughout the year.

The New York Times has two lists of recommended reads: the 10 best and the 100 notable books. The shorter lists contains fiction from Booker prize nominees Autumn by Ali Smith, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, along with Naomi Alderman's The Power, Min Jin Lee's Pachinko, Jesmyn Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing. For non-fiction it cites Richard O Prum's The Evolution of Beauty, Ron Chernow's Grant, James Formean Jr's Locking Up Our Own, Patricia Lockwood's Priestdaddy, and Prairie Fires, Caroline Fraser's biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Well, I have read exactly none of these books!

I thought I might do better on the longer list, but alas no. The fiction side contains lots that I want to read: Rachel Cusk's Transit, Jennifer Egan's Manhattan Beach, George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo, John Banville's Mrs Osmond, and Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout. Of the fifty non-fiction titles I have only read Hillary Rodham Clinton's What Happened.

The Guardian invited publishers to nominate their favourite books of the year. Unsurprisingly, George Saunders makes the list, as does Sebastian Barry's Days Without End, Jon McGregor's Reservoir 13, and Maggie O'Farrell's I Am, I Am, I Am. Of the listed titles, I want to read Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere and have read Jane Harper's magnificent debut The Dry.

Esquire magazine named 50 Best Books of 2017. Among the titles that made the cut which interest me are: Jesmyn Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing; Hanif Abdurraqib's They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us; Jennifer Egan's Manhattan Beach; Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere; Samantha Irby's We Are Never Meeting In Real Life.

The Boston Globe's list of The Best Books of 2017, contains a diverse mix of books. Of those listed, the ones which appeal to me are: Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie; House of Names by Colm Toibin; The novels by George Saunders, Naomi Alderman, Jesmyn Ward, Mohsin Hamid, Arundhati Roy, and Min Jin Lee are among the Globe's best. Again, the only one I read off this list is Hillary Rodham Clinton's What Happened.




NPR's Book Concierge compiled a treasure trove - a massive list with a diverse range of titles. The non-fiction list includes: Scaachi Koul's essays One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter; Ariel Levy's memoir The Rules Do Not Apply; David Sedaris' diaries Theft by Finding; Angela Nagle's Kill All Normies; Reni Eddo-Lodge's Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race; Rebecca Solnit's The Mother of All Questions; and Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib's They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us. Loads of great books here!

NPR's fiction list features familiar names: Hamid, Toibin, Ward, Roy, Ali Smith, Saunders and Strout. Other titles include Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust, Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine; and Mike McCormack's Solar Bones.


Slate's Book Review writers Laura Miller and Katy Waldman each identified 10 books worth reading. Laura Miller's list includes Ali Smith's Autumn, Jennifer Egan's Manhattan Beach, Hari Kunzru's White Tears, and a number of non-fiction titles. Katy Waldman's lists always appeal to me more. Of the ones she has listed, I am attracted to Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends, Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust, and the novels by Saunders and Egan.

Time magazine names 10 works of fiction including Danzy Senna's New People, Sebastian Barry's Days Without End, Rachel Cusk's Transit, and novels by Ward, Saunders, Hamid, Egan. Time's non-fiction list includes Ariel Levy's memoir, Roxane Gay's Hunger, Ta-Nahisi Coates We Were Eight Years in Power, and Hillary Rodham Clinton's What Happened.

Many of the lists contain predictable titles, but a few have hidden gems that I would not have heard of otherwise. After my exploration of these "Best Of" lists I have whittled it down to a handful of titles I would like to read in 2018, including:

• Exit West by Mohsin Hamid 
• Sung, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
• Conversation with Friends by Sally Rooney
• Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Sanders
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• The Power by Naomi Alderman
• Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
• They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib
• We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby
• The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman

So it's off to the library for me!

Notes on 'A Novel'
Finally, I am perplexed by the number of books I have come across on these lists which are subtitled 'A Novel'. What's that about? I could understand if it was part of a series like 'A Hercule Poirot Novel' or 'A Stephanie Plum novel' but not just 'A Novel'.

Is it done to help the reader find works of fiction? Is it to help shop keepers know which section to place the book in? Is it to ensure the reader knows that it is an invented tale? I reckon it is a either pretentious ('I am literature') or laziness (for those who don't read the back cover). Just saying...

Rachel, my torment

Yesterday I finished reading Daphne Du Maurier's classic, My Cousin Rachel (1951), and last night I watched the 2017 film adaptation. Rarely do I find that film adaptations do justice to the novel, but I was pleasantly surprised this time.

Set in Cornwall, the novel is told in first-person by 24 year old Philip Ashley. Orphaned as a child, young Philip was taken in by his cousin Ambrose, a twenty-something bachelor, and raised on a large country estate. The two bond as father and son, and live in a world devoid of women. Philip returns from school and commits himself to remaining a stay-at-home bachelor like Ambrose.

When Ambrose takes ill, he is prescribed a treatment of good weather... so off to Italy he goes to take in the winter sunshine. Ambrose and Philip correspond and one day Ambrose mentions in a letter that he has met their cousin Rachel, a widow. As one season moves into the next, Philip learns that Ambrose has given up his bachelor ways and married Rachel.  Ambrose's health worsens and his letters become more erratic. Then one day he writes:

'For God's sake come to me quickly. She has done for me at last, Rachel my torment. If you delay it may be too late.'

Philip takes off for the continent only to arrive after Ambrose has died and the widow has left town. He returns home in a red-hot rage about Rachel, convinced that she has done wrong by Ambrose. But did she? Throughout the rest of the novel the reader contemplates whether Rachel is a mischievous gold digger who killed her husband, or a grieving widow who has lost the love of her life.

The challenge is that we only see Rachel through our unreliable narrator, Philip. His loathing soon becomes obsession as he finally realises that women have a place in the world. He has been so socially isolated that he cannot understand his desire and shows his affection in a number of ill-conceived romantic gestures. As Philip's love for Rachel grows, he resists gossip from the townsfolk and the warnings from his godfather and his long-suffering, would-be girlfriend Louisa.

I greatly enjoyed My Cousin Rachel for the way in which we readers are compelled to oscillate between Rachel's guilt and innocence. This is the torment, the not-knowing. Often times I get annoyed by books which leave me hanging, but with Du Maurier I loved the ambiguity.

The recent film version does the same. Rachel Weisz stars in the title role, with Sam Claflin as Philip. Incredibly talented, Weisz is so mysterious and bewitching, that the audience can see why Philip is enthralled by her.

I enjoyed the feminist undercurrent in Rachel's character, her desire to lead an independent life, free of any man, in a time in which women had few options. The acting was fine by all concerned (I especially loved the portrayal of Seecombe, Philip's ancient manservant). The scenery, sets and costumes were also superb.

If the film had a fault, it was in the heavy-handedness of the foreshadowing: Rachel brewing her herbal tisanas, the pruning of the laburnum, and so on. The film opens with Philip's voiceover asking 'Did she? Didn't she?' and ends with the audience left wondering. I will be pondering that for some time.

I would highly recommend reading Du Maurier's novel first for her incredibly sharp writing, her subtle wit and the way she draws the reader in. While the film is enjoyable, the book is more so.

My review of Du Maurier's Rebecca (1938) can also be found on this blog.

Ms Rodham Regrets

Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoir What Happened (2017) is her attempt to come to terms with her surprise defeat in the 2016 American Presidential election. Despite winning the popular vote by almost three million votes, she lost in the electoral college, handing the Presidency to Donald Trump.

The book begins on what was perhaps the most difficult day of Clinton's life - the inauguration of Donald Trump. She could have been forgiven for staying away, but instead she steeled her nerves, smacked on a smile and raised her head. Her reason for attending was to secure 'the peaceful transfer of power' and to signal a need to bring the country together again after a bitterly divisive campaign. Trump's inaugural address as 'dark and dystopian... a howl straight from the white nationalist gut', and a sign of things to come.

In this memoir of life on the campaign trail, Clinton is searching for the answer to why she lost, especially to such an unqualified, odious person. She writes:

'How could sixty-two million people vote for someone they heard on tape bragging about repeated sexual assault? How could he attack women, immigrants, Muslims, Mexican Americans, prisoners of war and people with disabilities - and as a business man, be accused of scamming countless small businesses, contractors, students and seniors - and still be elected to the most important and powerful job in the world?'

What Happened is a statement not a question. Clinton ponders the range of factors that lead to her loss: the desire for change, the disenfranchisement of large swathes of the population, the interference in the election by Russia and Wikileaks, the sensationalist media, the lingering of Bernie Sanders, the rise of third party candidates, her lack of 'likability' and 'those darn emails'.

Since reading the book I have seen a number of reviews which decry What Happened, stating that she doesn't take responsibility for her loss. I disagree. Clinton owns up to her own mistakes, but rightly points the finger at those who deserve to share some of the blame. This notion that she should curl up in a ball and never speak again is ridiculous.


Aside from life on the campaign trail, Clinton is also deeply personal in this book and spends a lot of time sharing stories of her family, her faith and her daily life. I enjoyed the 'at home with Hillary' insights and wish she had shown more of this side of herself in the campaign.

The chapter on women in politics reminded me of Julia Gillard's memoir, My Story (2014) and the misogyny she endured on a daily basis. Neither woman could get a break, and had to work doubly hard to be heard. As I watched this election from afar, I desperately wanted Clinton to smash the glass ceiling and take office. As she recounts her experience on the day of the election, preparing for victory and then switching to a concession speech, my heart ached for her. Like Gillard, Clinton has a deep reservoir of resilience.

I have read some of Clinton's earlier books like It Takes a Village (1996) and Living History (2003). They were smart but left me somewhat cold. What Happened is all together different, like she has found her voice and is free from the shackles of giving a crap about what the trolls say. She is witty and sharp. Reading this felt like sitting down with her over a cup of tea and listening to her tell stories. She is warm, quippy, and doesn't hold back.

I would recommend What Happened to anyone interested in politics. As she writes during the first year of the Trump presidency, her policies and positions on a range of issues stand in stark contrast to his self-serving and divisive initiatives.Given the events of the past year, the outing of high profile sexual predators (including many Clinton supporters), and the winding back of policies to protect those at the margins, the world needs the leadership she would have offered.

The Law of the Land

Benjamin Law's Quarterly Essay (QE67) arrived in my mailbox this September, just before my same sex marriage survey did. The timing was prescient as Law's Essay, Moral Panic 101, was subtitled 'equality, acceptance and the safe schools scandal' and we were heading into a panic over the simple proposition that all people should have equal rights under the law to marry. 

Throughout September, October and November the hysteria around same sex marriage has been overwhelming. Those opposed have campaigned on fear and loathing, with slippery slope arguments which will bring about the end of days. While those in favour have argued for equality from a place of love and human rights. It has been a horridly difficult time for many in the LBGTIQ community and their supporters. Fortunately the result was a clear victory for the Yes! camp and the legislation to bring about this change has just passed in the Australian Senate. 

Law's essay is not about same sex marriage, but rather about the controversy surrounding the Safe Schools program. Essentially, Safe Schools was designed to address the problem of high youth suicide, particularly among LBGTIQ young people. The optional program would help schools be supportive and inclusive of LBGTIQ students, families and staff. The program was controversial largely because it was swept up in a moral panic by right wing media and conservative politicians.

Law explores the journey of the Safe Schools program from its origins to the hysteria surrounding it, and the eventual withdrawal of support from many states. Law deep dived into all the media reports about Safe Schools and from this was able to write with clarity about how the panic unfurled.

This was an emotional read: the tragedy of young Tyrone Unsworth who was driven to suicide at age 13 after relentless bullying; the bravery of  Caleb Nichols-Mansell who grew up gay in a small Tasmanian town; the passion of John Albiston, principal of a Victorian high school which adopted the Safe Schools program; and Law's own experiences as a young gay man growing up in conservative Queensland. These stories anchor the essay and make the reader ride waves of anger, grief and pride.

Law's writing is clear, frank, funny and packs a punch. This is an important essay and one that should be mandatory reading for parents, principals and politicians. Safe Schools has been pilloried when it should have been praised and funded. My hope is that now that the same sex marriage debate is drawing to a close, that young LGBTIQ people will feel supported by the overwhelming affirmation of equal marriage and that our nation will become more inclusive.