Bookoccino

THE SURRENDERED BY CHANG-RAE LEE

bookoccino — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:31:58 +0000

In 2004 Lee wrote one of the year’s best books, Aloft. If you haven’t read it, try to get a copy, because it’s one of my top ten books of all time. His new book arrived yesterday, The Surrendered. It’s another breathtaking book. The story starts in Korea at the end of the Korean War. Three children have jumped on a train to head south and escape the fighting. Tragedy strikes, and June, the oldest sister, is left to continue her journey alone. She is placed in an orphanage run by American missionaries - she’s a very agressive, angry child but becomes friends with an American ex serviceman who arranges for her to migrate to America. The woman in the middle of this relationship is Sylvie, the beautiful, damaged missionary wife. Then thirty six years on we meet June, who is dying, and who wants to return to confront her past. This is a must read.

THE LONG SONG

bookoccino — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 06:22:00 +0000

I’ve really enjoyed Andrea Levy’s new novel, The Long Song, set in Jamaica in the early 1800s. Kitty is a slave on a sugar plantation, she is rather gently assaulted while she is working by the overseer, and her daughter July is the result. This is really July’s story, from her childhood, her separation from her mother because the plantation owner’s sister thought she would be a cute companion, her time in the big house, the slaves’ revolt and finally the freedom granted begrudgingly by England. Levy makes this whole period come alive - at times I laughed out loud at the tricks July got up to. Andrea will be in Sydney shortly and she’ll be interesting to listen to. This book is loosely based on her family history.

THE UNNAMED - JOSHUA FERRIS

bookoccino — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 02:50:09 +0000

Tim Farnsworth is a very successful corporate lawyer with a high profile New York company. He has a typical teenage daughter and a wife who has survived a bout with cancer. Tim’s problem is that he has been struck twice before with a mystifying illness that makes him leave everything - job, family, corporate life - and walk until his body gives out. Then he sleeps wherever he falls down. He’s been four years free of this until one day Tim rings his wife and says ”It’s back’. The tragic thing is that Tim has no option - he has to obey his body and walk. And this raises the question - how long does his wife have to keep supporting him emotionally, and how long does he have to keep trying to fight this illness. A book that gives you much to think about.

KIRSTEN TRANTER’S DEBUT FICTION

bookoccino — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:12:13 +0000

I’ve just read Kirsten Tranter’s first book, The Legacy. It’s one of those extraordinary first novels that pop up now and then - it’s very accomplished, very lyrical, about a young woman who falls in love with a wealthy New Yorker, leaves Australia and her friends for his life, and then a few years later, on September 11, 2001, disappears. Her best friend from her Australian years decides to find out what happened. It’s a book definitely worth reading.

JONATHAN LETHEM’S CHRONIC CITY

bookoccino — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 06:04:11 +0000

If you enjoyed Motherless Brooklyn, Lethem’s romp through Brooklyn as Lionel, a young adolescent with Tourette’s, becomes a real detective investigating his friend’s murder, you’ll be delighted with this new book. It’s difficult to talk about as the themes are many. Chase is a Manhatten fixture on the social circuit, famous for two things - his childhood film years, and his fiancee who is marooned on the International Space Station. And there is an escaped tiger rumoured to be free on the Upper East Side. It’s been picked as one of the great books for this year.

LUNCH WITH SUSAN DUNCAN

bookoccino — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:42:10 +0000

On tuesday we had our final Literary Lunch for the year. Susan Duncan gave such an inspiring talk about the importance of community and how it brings us all together. A community project that feels overwheming when you are on your own becomes very achievable when you have the support of people around you. It’s certainly food for thought, especially when you consider Susan decided to start a choir and thought perhaps four or five people would turn up for the first rehersal. Forty five arrived, and the choir will have their first performance shortly on a barge in Pittwater. Her beautiful pictorial book, Life on Pittwater, reinforces just how lucky we are to live in this area. Do look at it next time you are in store.

NEW BOOK FROM NIGEL SLATER

bookoccino — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 07:04:02 +0000

One of my favourite food writers is Nigel Slater and his new book for Christmas is called Tender, a book about vegetables — how to grow them, and how to cook them. You can grow them in pots on your balcony, on your window ledge, and in Nigel’s case, he dug up his lawn as well. As he says, he’s put in this book everything he knows about vegetables. So after you’ve grown them, he gives you lots and lots of recipes on how to cook them. In the Chinese Greens section is a brilliant recipe for Prawn, Leaves and Limes. And his pumpkin scone looks fabulous. There is even a fragrant supper for one using eggplant, yoghurt and lots of herbs. This is one book I will definitely be taking home and using.

GABRIELLE LORD WRITES FOR TEENAGERS

bookoccino — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:45:00 +0000

Gabrielle Lord is writing a gripping series for boys eleven and older. It’s called Conspiracy 365 and one book will be published each month. January, the beginning, is out now and it’s a book virtually guaranteed to get you hooked. The series starts on New Year’s Eve when Cal, a 15 year old boy, is chased by a sick, staggering man who warns him ‘They killed your father, they’ll kill you’. Cal is not sure what to believe, but as events unfold, he finds himself on his own, on the run, with not even his mother believing in him. It’s a great first book. Unfortunately, I’ve got to wait until February to read the second book.

Bookshelf - Manly Daily

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:39:04 +0000

Margaret Atwood’s new book, The Year of the Flood, is a companion book to Oryx and Crake published 2003. Atwood doesn’t like these books being described as science fiction, she prefers the phrase speculative fiction, and perhaps we really are already on the path of The Year of the Flood. The flood is waterless, a genetically engineered pandemic. Humanity has almost been wiped out, apart from a few groups — the Corporations who control governments and their security arm, CorpSeCorps who control what is left; God’s Gardeners, a cult maintaining gardens on top of buildings away from the marauders and bioengineered animals, living a very ecological life. And two women, Ren and Toby who struggle through this awful world, a world destroyed by experiments in genetic splicing. Their friendship is the bedrock of this novel. It’s thought provoking, especially when you realise some of Atwood’s gene splicing creations have already been researched

I think I mentioned a couple of months ago Michelle Paver’s wonderful series of books, the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness. They are for teenagers, but I have found them unputdownable. They are set six thousand years ago, after the ice age but before the spread of farming in north west Europe, where the land was one vast forest. We follow Torak, a 12 year old boy and his quest to rid the lands of evil spirits. I’ve just read the sixth and final book, Ghost Hunter. Torak’s pack brother is a wolf and his friend Renn is learning to be a mage and we follow the three of them over three years. Paver has done a brilliant job in bringing this world to life, a world of people who live in small clans in the forest or up in the icelands, living by hunting and gathering. It’s such a great series of books, I cant recommending it highly enough. The first book is Wolf Brother, where Torak rescues a baby wolf and they become pack brothers, a bond which will last until the end.