Pauline:
Spencer Quinn – Dog on it.
A detective story told by Chet the Dog, partner of a likeable gumshoe. There are three books in the series. Recommended. www.chetthedog.com Chet also has a Facebook page, but some of the contributions are a bit silly.
Howard Jacobson – The Finkler question. A novel about British Jews and their friends, exploring what it means to be Jewish. Recommended.
Ann:
Peter Singer – Pushing time away. His Viennese Jewish family and their immigration to Australia. Enlightening and encouraging.
Vicki:
June Loves – The Shelley Beach writers’ group. A very enjoyable “hen-lit” novel set in western Victoria.
Kevin Telfer – Peter Pan’s first XI. A true account of JM Barrie’s celebrity cricket team, with members such as Jerome K. Jerome, P. G. Wodehouse, Conan Doyle, etc. Recommended. Also recommended is A S Byatt – The Children’s Book, a novel covering roughly the same period in Britain.
Greg:
Anh Doh – The happiest refugee. An uplifting account of the voyage out and life in Australia.
David Lodge – Deaf sentence. A campus novel. Enjoyable. Also recommended – Nice work.
Kay:
Kay spoke about her Great-great grandmother, Amy Cail, who was on the goldfields selling groceries from a tent at the time of the Eureka rebellion. Her quick-thinking action saved Peter Lalor, who was wounded and fleeing from the authorities. She managed to hide him in her tent by lowering it to the ground with Lalor inside.( He later lost the wounded arm). Kay also recommended two excellent books on Eureka. Eureka Stockade; a pictorial history, and The Eureka Encyclopaedia, which has a detailed entry for Amy Cail. *This information will be passed on to our sister group in Milwaukee.
Pauline’s note:The group mentioned the poems of C. J. Dennis as possible entertainment for our sister-group, but we would need to provide a detailed glossary!
Mark Twain’s travels in Australia were also mentioned. I’ll do some research and bring the details to our next meeting. www.twainquotes.com
Nancy:
Robert Hillman – The boy in the green suit. A book of rather unpreposessing appearance, which Nancy had to read for her “real” book group. To her surprise, she found it utterly enchanting. Highly recommended. Also by him (jointly with Najaf Mazari) The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif
John Burdett – Bangkok 8 .Burdett is a former lawyer who is now a detective novelist. This is one of a series set in Bangkok, and features the Thai buddhist detective, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, an “honest cop”.
Allison:
Kingsolver – Lacuna
A novel, told posthumously from the journals of the central character, Harris William Shepherd, and set over 2 decades of his life, during times of revolution, war and fascism, and covering the McCarthy years. The boy proved to be an able asistant to the muralist Diego Rivera because he had learned how to mix dough for bread. A well-researched book. Recommended.
Pam:
Annie Proulx – Bird Cloud. An account of the building of her dream home in the wilds of Wyoming..
One critic is scathing about her lack of skill in project management! It’s not as good as her fiction, Pam says.
Alice Pung (ed) – Growing up Asian in Australia. Includes Ken Chau “The family tree”. His grandfather had possession of a family tree covering 28 generations, but only listing the men.
Barbara Nadel – A noble killing. Crime fiction featuring the detective Cetin Ikmen. Turkish honour killings. Recommended.
Jan:
Lisa Lang – Utopia man. A fictionalised biography of Cole of the Book Arcade. Not recommended.
McCall Smith – The Saturday big tent wedding. The latest in the Botswana series.
Charming. Recommended.
Jenny S.:
Kim Edwards – The memory-keeper’s daughter.
A novel about twins, separated at birth, with the mother believing that one has died. A very interesting and absorbing story. Recommended.
