California Dreamer
Distinguished Member
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2006
- Messages
- 6,814
- Reaction score
- 3,305
1. Andy Kaufman: The Truth, Finally, by Bob Zmuda and Lynne Margulies
2. Illustrado, by Miguel Syjuco
3. Kill 'Em All, by John Niven[
4. The Black Monday Murders, volume 1: All Hail God Mammon, by Jonathon Hickman
5. Bad News, by Edward St. Aubyn
6. Education, by Tara Westover
7. Europe: A Natural History, by Tim Flannery
8. No Tomorrow, by Luke Jennings
9. Scrublands, by Chris Hammer
10. The Kingdom, by Fuminori Nakamura
11. The White Darkness, by David Grann
12. Sacred Cesium Ground and Isa's Deluge, by Yusuke Kimura
13. The Black Monday Murders, Volume 2: The Scales, by Jonathon Hickman
14. Dark Echoes of the Past, by Roman Diaz Eterovic
15. Acute Misfortune, by Erik Jensen
16. The Low Road, by Chris Womersley
17. Steve Smith's Men: Behind Australian Cricket's Fall, by Geoff Lemon
18. River of Salt, by Dave Warner
19. City of a Million Dreams, by Jason Berry
20. Nagaland, by Ben Doherty
21. Queen of Kenosha, by Howard Shapiro
22. Daisy Jones and the Six, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
23. Saga, Volume One (Eps 1-3), by Brian
24. The Forest of Wool and Steel, by Natsu Miyashita
25. The Waiter, by Matias Faldbakken
26. Manchester Happened, by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
27. This body's Not Big Enough For Both of Us, by Edgar Cantero
28. The Erratics, by Vicki Laveau-Harvie
29. Saga Book 2, by Brian Vaughan
30. Murder in the Crooked House, by Soji Shimada
31. The Brewer of Preston, by Andrea Camilleri
32. Eight Lives, by Susan Hurley
33. Fu Ping, by Wang Anyi
34. N, by John A. Scott
35. Adele, by Leila Slimani
36. Gretchen, by Shannon Kirk
37. An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones
38. The White Girl, by Tony Birch
39. The Trauma Cleaner, by Sarah Krasnostein
2. Illustrado, by Miguel Syjuco
3. Kill 'Em All, by John Niven[
4. The Black Monday Murders, volume 1: All Hail God Mammon, by Jonathon Hickman
5. Bad News, by Edward St. Aubyn
6. Education, by Tara Westover
7. Europe: A Natural History, by Tim Flannery
8. No Tomorrow, by Luke Jennings
9. Scrublands, by Chris Hammer
10. The Kingdom, by Fuminori Nakamura
11. The White Darkness, by David Grann
12. Sacred Cesium Ground and Isa's Deluge, by Yusuke Kimura
13. The Black Monday Murders, Volume 2: The Scales, by Jonathon Hickman
14. Dark Echoes of the Past, by Roman Diaz Eterovic
15. Acute Misfortune, by Erik Jensen
16. The Low Road, by Chris Womersley
17. Steve Smith's Men: Behind Australian Cricket's Fall, by Geoff Lemon
18. River of Salt, by Dave Warner
19. City of a Million Dreams, by Jason Berry
20. Nagaland, by Ben Doherty
21. Queen of Kenosha, by Howard Shapiro
22. Daisy Jones and the Six, by Taylor Jenkins Reid
23. Saga, Volume One (Eps 1-3), by Brian
24. The Forest of Wool and Steel, by Natsu Miyashita
25. The Waiter, by Matias Faldbakken
26. Manchester Happened, by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
27. This body's Not Big Enough For Both of Us, by Edgar Cantero
28. The Erratics, by Vicki Laveau-Harvie
29. Saga Book 2, by Brian Vaughan
30. Murder in the Crooked House, by Soji Shimada
31. The Brewer of Preston, by Andrea Camilleri
32. Eight Lives, by Susan Hurley
33. Fu Ping, by Wang Anyi
34. N, by John A. Scott
35. Adele, by Leila Slimani
36. Gretchen, by Shannon Kirk
37. An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones
38. The White Girl, by Tony Birch
39. The Trauma Cleaner, by Sarah Krasnostein
40. The Ballad of Captain Kelly, by Jonathan Wicken
The Ballad of Captain Kelly re-imagines the Iliad as a tale set in the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign, where the ANZACs and the British invaded Turkey during the Great War. Captain Kelly, the leading soldier among the ANZACs, has a massive falling-out with the British General Agnew-Menning and refuses to take further part in the fighting. He, his deputy Captain Patricks and their troops are despatched to camp by the beach while the fighting is led by the bold Captain Ahia and the cunning Captain Seers. They and the other ANZACs wage a battle of attrition against the Turks, led by their champion Captain Hikmet. Unbeknownst to the fighters engaged in this battle, their fates are being determined by archangels moving behind the scenes, ensuring that the will of God is enacted.
Wicken has come up with an ingenious idea, considering that only about twenty kilometres separates the historical sites of ANZAC Cove and the city of Troy. It's diverting to try and identify the parallels between his characters and those of Homer. He also writes very convincing accounts of the horror and the grinding desperation of trench warfare. This is not a book for the squeamish.
Unfortunately the novel's execution is severely wanting. Wicken chooses to emulate Homeric style to an unfortunate degree, which I think will turn off many people. This also leads him to engage in some clumsy exposition where, at several points, he allows a character to reel off everything that's going to happen in future. That may be fine in terms of emulating the Iliad, but it does lead the reader to wonder why they should continue reading his stilted and archaic prose, when he has given away the entire plot. Finally, this book has some of the worst editing that I have ever encountered. There are spelling and usage mistakes galore, such as the repeated use of "exalt" when "exult" is meant, and the use of "assent" instead of "ascent". There are continuity errors such as, in one brief scene, a character going from being a Lieutenant at the start of the scene to being a Captain by the end. I really cannot recommend this book, and I wish it was otherwise, because this intriguing idea deserved better.
41. Grief is the Thing With Feathers, by Max Porter
A writer researching Ted Hughes is suddenly widowed and left as the single parent of two young boys. In the throes of their grief, this little family is visited by a Crow, who helps them deal with their loss.
There's really not much more to this little book. It's a very strange piece, sometimes funny, sometimes sad and mostly bizarre. I think it is likely to be very divisive; people are either going to hate it, or think it is genius. I genuinely can't make up my mind.
42. Dark Emu, by Bruce Pascoe
Bruce Pascoe's book is a much-needed exposition of the realities of indigenous society and economy at the outset of British colonisation. He presents incontrovertible evidence that the Aboriginals had sophisticated systems of agriculture, aquaculture and housing. For somebody such as myself, raised on the notion of Aboriginals as nomadic hunter-gatherers, this is a head-snapping and sobering correction to one's assumptions.
Some of Pascoe's most riveting examples involve the Brewarrina fish traps, which are arguably the oldest man-made structures on earth. A detail that left an indelible impression on me was a map showing the extent of Australia that early white explorers described as growing grain when they first encountered them, overlaid with the far smaller extent of grain farming today. The message is unmistakeable; indigenous agriculture was able to produce thriving grain crops in the areas that we now romanticise as the arid and inhospitable Outback, which was only made so by the rapid destruction of the soil caused by the exotic animals that the colonists introduced.
Pascoe makes a solid argument that Australia's economy can benefit greatly if we recognise this achievement instead of perpetuating the hunter-gatherer myth, and try to change our existing agricultural practices to re-introduce crops such as yam daisy, kangaroo grass and native rice, as well as growing a commercial kangaroo meat industry, drastically reducing the damage done by cattle and sheep. This is a both an entrepreneurial opportunity and a means of placing indigenous culture and knowledge at the centre of our economic planning, which should not be missed. This book is a must-read for any Australian.
43. A Keeper, by Graham Norton
Elizabeth Keane is an expat academic who has returned from New York to Ireland in the wake of her mother Patricia's death. When cleaning up her mother's effects, she stumbles on some letters that give an insight into the relationship her mother had with Edward Foley, the father that she never knew.
Elizabeth is intrigued, and tries to find out more about Edward. As Norton recounts her search into her past, he also tells the story of Edward and Patricia, and of Elizabeth's birth. This story is a lot less romantic than Elizabeth envisages. As she pursues her inquiries, Elizabeth is distracted by alarming news about the teenage son that she has left in the care of her ex-husband, which she must also deal with.
This is a pretty good melodrama from Norton, a darker novel than you might expect given his TV persona.
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