reading

2016 reading picks

by Irma
7 January 201729 March 2017

It’s that time of the year where bookish types reflect on their year’s reading list, so I thought I might as well toss my faves into the ring. In 2016, I read 68 books*, which doesn’t seem nearly enough. Looking at the stats of childless friends, I’ve noticed that they tend to fit in well over 100. Perhaps this is because their reading is not limited to evening hours after children are in bed. Sigh. I look forward to the time when I’m able to dedicate whole weekends to nothing but books and drinking tea.

In the meantime, here are some of my 2016 faves, shuffled into slightly random categories.

Classic: Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. I’ve been meaning to read this slim novel for a long time and Radio National’s African Book Club prompted me to push it to the top of the pile. It is a poignant and heart-wrenching portrait of a country undergoing great upheaval.

Queer fiction: What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell. A sharply observed and beautifully written novel about desire and longing and love. An absolute cracker.

Debut: The Paper House by Anna Spargo-Ryan. A moving portrait of a family coming undone; it is a haunting and stylistically beautiful novel. I’ll be keenly awaiting Anna’s next book.

Short fiction collection: Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh. I found the biting and quirky satire of these stories refreshing. A gem of a book.

Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge wraps

by Irma
11 December 201629 March 2017

A celebratory event at the National Library saw the ACT Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge wrap for the year. It was wonderful to see so many students from so many schools in attendance, and for us ambassadors to celebrate our year of working to get kids hooked on books (not that it feels like work!).

And what a year it has been. 2016 was the most successful yet, with 31,000 kids from 90 schools reading at least 15 books between May and September. That’s an increase of an incredible 5,000 students from last year!

The challenge was launched back in 2004 as a way to encourage and develop a love of reading in students from preschool to Year 8. There is no set reading list which, in my view, is part of the program’s strength. I am a firm believer that if we want kids to fall in love with reading, then we need to allow them to choose the books that they are interested in. So the students participating can read pretty much anything, including books in languages other than English.

One little star read a phenomenal 240 novels during those five months (I feel quite jealous of all those reading hours!). He traced the spines of every book on a long sheet of paper, and it turns out that he read a whopping 4.8 metres worth of books! I’m betting he cracks five metres next year.

It’s been an honour and a pleasure to be an ambassador for the challenge alongside Virginia Hausengger, Tracey Hawkins, Jack Heath and Tania McCartney. Yay books!

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

by Irma
2 November 201620 May 2018

‘If you’re writing a book in Australia then you need to buy books by Australian authors from Australian bookshops. I’m really hardline on this.’ So said Deb Stevens, Allen & Unwin sales rep and literary dynamo, on a panel about bookselling, ‘The Bookshop Coalface’, at Hardcopy.*

I couldn’t agree more. The majority of readers are completely unaware of the tight margins in publishing and the woeful earnings authors make from book sales. (Read Annabel Smith’s honest account of her income for a good snapshot.) A couple of years ago, Jo Case tweeted a stark example of why buying locally makes a difference. Purchasing a copy of Case’s memoir, Boomer and Me, from an Australian bookshop meant she received $2.50 in royalties, but buying it via Book Depository UK meant only three cents in royalties.

So in the spirit of supporting Australian authors and booksellers, I asked my local booksellers for their pick of the year, giving the final word to Muse’s Nikki Anderson who makes some important observations about how readers can best support the writers they love.

Read More »Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

I didn’t specify any particular genre and, to my delight, these recommendations cover a broad range. So whether your interest lies in literary fiction, commercial fiction, crime, picture books, short stories, or biography there is something on this list for you.

I was also interested to note that the majority of books selected are by female authors. As many of you will no doubt be aware, despite the fact that women make up approximately two-thirds of Australian authors, all publications review more men than women (see the 2015 Stella Count for the stats). Women are also far less likely to win literary awards (hence the establishment of the Stella Prize), or appear on school curriculums, and so on. As a culture, we preference the white, male voice. And yet according to Canberra’s booksellers the majority of 2016’s best books are by women.

So, let’s dive in…

Deb Stevens, sales rep
Goodwood by Holly Throsby
I read this debut novel months before publication and have been singing its praises ever since.

In the space of a week two very different people go missing from the township of Goodwood. There is mystery and tension combined with a gentle coming of age story.

I fell in love with the book and the glorious characters living in the township of Goodwood. As a reader I cared for many of them, and long after finishing the book I genuinely missed them. Several other readers have told me they want to meet them again. Soon!

As I read there were times I wanted to grab a highlighter to save phrases that moved or thrilled or delighted me. Holly writes with a deceptively easy style that belies great depth. I’m sure her life as a singer/songwriter has prepared her well for the writing life. Goodwood is a novel that ‘nails’ Australia. And Goodwood the township will be a real place in the hearts and minds of its readers.

Sue Champion (Book Passion)
Slaughter Park by Barry Maitland
Barry Maitland’s conclusion to his Belltree Trilogy, Slaughter Park, has been the best book I’ve read this year by an Australian author. I was hoping so badly that it would be brilliant, that I was almost scared to open it. Silly me, I should have had more faith — Barry ties up all the loose ends satisfyingly, in a book of vicious intelligence. He writes with quiet power and a visual descriptiveness that has the scenes running through your head, complete with casting. Aaron Pedersen what are you doing now?

If the ABC don’t film this trilogy…

James Redden (Harry Hartog, Woden)
Snow Wombat by Sussanah Chambers
This gorgeously illustrated picture book captures the fun and playful experiences of a wombat that calls the Australian Snowy Mountains home. The rhymes are cute and fun and compliment the illustrations perfectly. It’s always great as a bookseller to have a book such as this on the shelf, as there are always parents looking for picture books with illustrations of the local area, and especially ones with native animals in a feature role.

Debbie Hackett (Dymocks Tuggeranong)
Beyond the Orchard by Anna Romer
Lucy Briar returns to her life in Australia after being overseas for several years. Her father begs her to go to the family guesthouse ‘Bitterwood’ to find a photo album for him. Not only does Lucy have to deal with her own haunting memories, but she must also piece together the family secrets and puzzles of a time long gone and finally put the ghosts to rest .

This is an absolutely beautiful read by one of my favourite Australian authors. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It’s my number one read for 2016 — 11 out of 10!

Alison Kay (Dymocks, Canberra)
I couldn’t decide on one book, there has been so much excellent Australian writing this year.

1) The Dry by Jane Harper. A brilliant debut thriller set in country Victoria. Her writing creates an atmosphere of heat, dust and tension that grips you from page one. I love reading crime and this book with its Australian setting made it so much more relevant and real for local readers.

2) Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley. Our wonderful Canberra author in a follow-up to The Rook has written an even better novel. His world of supernatural spies and espionage is brilliantly written, very imaginative and funny. This book is totally absorbing — we all loved it.

3) Sisters Saint-Claire by Carlie Gibson. A charming rhyming tale of five French mice. Again by a Canberra author, this book is beautifully presented and a perfect gift for little girls.

There are plenty of other books I have really enjoyed this year, including Goodwood by Holly Throsby, The Good People by Hannah Kent, Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barnes, Where the Trees Were by Inge Simpson, and Celeste by Roland Perry. As I said we are so lucky with our Australian authors and their excellent writing.

Nikki Anderson (Muse, Kingston)
Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh
A top pick of the year is a near impossibility which I think says good things about the local industry. It’s funny talking about the local industry, as I think non-publishing folk don’t necessarily take all that much notice of which authors are Australian or not, and then certainly not the importance of buying local from local. That is, buying Australian books from Australian stores. And fair enough in some ways — it’s ultimately about the quality of the read, and often the price. However (big intake of breath) it does matter. Supporting local booksellers in turn supports local authors, allowing them a bit of a wage (more of a wage if you buy books at full price!) and the ability to keep writing. And often what they write reflects our culture. Not in a ‘kangaroos and koalas’ kind of way (although that’s fine too of course!) but stories that have at their core our experience, place, culture and land.

Charlotte Wood put the relationships between bookseller and author really well in a speech at the Indie Book Awards in March this year, detailing the sustained, personal and generous support of local booksellers for her and other Australian writers’ works. She went on to compare independent, local booksellers with a Norwegian seed vault, collecting seed samples from across the world for posterity. ‘A few years ago, the outlook for our independent bookselling scene looked gloomy. But like those seeds packed into the cold mountain in Norway, you have survived, you are thriving and because of your noticing and care, your love of words and determination to flourish, you have kept Australian literature and our culture alive and thriving too.’

Anyway, onto my pick, if I have to narrow it down! A book I raced through with delight was Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh (UQP). I love a good short story — that capacity to create a world and deliver a punchy narrative in a short space. Julie Koh’s stories are deceptive, shadowy, like some of her characters — they set up worlds we feel we know, but startling differences creep in — ghosts and third eyes and murderous food culture, life and parenting as competitive sport. All to poke fun at and make us question our contemporary world. They are arch, satirical and very funny. It’s a slim volume to devour, and then read again slowly.

So now all you need to do is head into your local bookshop and pick up one or all of these books (or indeed any book by an Australian author).

* Having assessed manuscripts for the Hardcopy program — with Robyn Cadwallader, Craig Cormick and Mark Henshaw — I was invited to sit in on panel sessions. This one was a beauty, and showcased voices not usually heard at these kind of events. Understanding bookselling is so important for authors. Excellent programming from Nigel Featherstone.

On reading and the ACT Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge

by Irma
2 June 20166 June 2016

One of the cool things about being Ambassador for the ACT Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge is that you get an extra excuse to do school visits. Last week I headed out to Southern Cross Early Childhood School to meet a bunch of Kinder students. Let’s face it, Kinder is the most adorable school age, and these kids were so enthusiastic about books and reading that it made my heart sing.

Chatting to their executive teacher afterwards it was pretty clear why. The school’s approach to teaching their kids to read is to use as much ‘real literature’ as possible (as opposed to just home readers), and to let the kids choose whatever they want. No limits. The teacher shared that one child who is struggling to read, desperately wanted to borrow a chapter book and was then so thrilled with herself when she could correctly identify some of the words. She was reading a chapter book!

There are two things that I love about this. Firstly, mention home readers to any group of parents and teachers and a collective groan will erupt. The home readers most schools have are years old and deathly boring. They have no plot, two-dimensional characters, insipid illustrations and dull subject matter. Nothing to engage a child on any level. They send children the message that reading is boring, or worse, sheer hard work. For the children who have a home life that is rich in exciting reading experiences they will no doubt come out the other side of home readers. But for many children home readers, at that very crucial formative stage, come to define the reading experience.

The second thing that I love about Southern Cross’ approach is that they don’t tell the children what they can and can’t read. I am a firm believer that children should be allowed to read whatever interests them. If they only want to read comics or manga or books about zombies, that’s totally fine. As soon as you tell a child that they can’t or shouldn’t be reading what they are interested in, you run the risk of damaging their relationship with books.

There was a time when my daughter obsessively read the Geronimo Stilton series and another series about fairies (the name of which it seems I have deliberately blocked from my memory). This was at a time when I still read to her (now she is 12 and will not be read to, thank you very much), so this meant that I got to share in this never-ending stream of awfulness. But I never let on, because she loved them. She is still a voracious reader (witness the sign she recently posted on her bedroom door during a weekend session, with spelling corrected by her younger brother who clearly has the editor gene). Some of her book choices resonate with me, others don’t. But they are her choices. And that’s important.

When my son was in Year 3 he desperately wanted to borrow books from a shelf that was forbidden because it was for the senior students. The well-meaning school librarian told him that these books were above his comprehension level and tried to direct him to a range of other ‘more appropriate’ books, all of which he thought were ‘boring’. Every week he came home with ‘appropriate’ books that he didn’t read. The forbidden books were by authors like Andy Griffiths and Morris Gleitzman, and we had already read most of them at home. These books were most definitely not outside of his comprehension level, but even if they were that would have been okay. He would have made the choice himself to put that book down and move on to something else. As it was, after several emails he was granted access to these books, though the other children weren’t.

The worst thing we can do is to censor our children’s choices. When we tell children that they are only permitted to read a certain kind of book that doesn’t appeal to them, we run the risk of turning them off books completely. I liken it to me being prevented from reading anything but Dan Brown novels. Pure torture! If Dan Brown was the only thing on offer, I’d never read again. He is my version of a home reader.

Many schools are adopting the same kind of approach as Southern Cross, but there are still many more that aren’t. We need children to associate books with pleasure. And what we now know is that children who read for pleasure do significantly better at school than their peers who don’t (Melbourne University study, 2013). We also know that the single most important indicator of how well a child will do at school directly correlates to the number of hours that they were read to as a toddler. So books are absolutely fundamental. Thank goodness for initiatives like the Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge which puts a spotlight on books as fun and exciting places to be.

Kids need (good) books. They allow kids to dream big and make new discoveries and go on adventures and grow their imaginations. As adults we need to find ways to get books into kids’ hands as often as possible.

THE GOOD STUFF

by Irma
6 December 20151 July 2017

Working in publishing is full of ups and downs, and it can be easy to dwell on the ‘downs’, allowing them to taint, or even eclipse, the ‘ups’. So in the spirit of celebrating all the good stuff, I thought I’d put together a newsy post about the ups of the last couple of months.

First up, the big news. I recently signed a contract for my next picture book, Seree’s Story, with Walker Books (publisher of Megumi and the Bear). Getting the call from your editor to give you the thumbs up is The Best. Let’s just say there was much dancing around the house and celebratory mid-afternoon champagne.

As a self-confessed elephant nerd, this book is very close to my heart. The manuscript has emerged from the culmination of many experiences, beginning with a trip to the circus at age seven. I started writing the book at 3.30 one morning when, seemingly out of nowhere, the opening line popped into my head. By 5.30 I had a first draft. Then came an artsACT-funded trip to volunteer at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand, which saw a complete rewrite, and now a book contract. I’ll save the full story behind the book for another time since it won’t be out for two years, but the story itself is about a captured baby elephant, forced to work in the circus, who is eventually rescued and brought to a sanctuary.

Picture books take a long time to come together (painfully long for the author who can do nothing but wait). One thing most readers aren’t aware of is that the publisher, not the author, chooses the illustrator. At this stage an illustrator for Seree’s Story has not yet been finalised, but Walker has such an incredible stable of talented illustrators to draw upon that I am awaiting the decision with great anticipation.