Home wins Orange Prize, praise and prattle

June 6, 2009
Home by Marilynne Robinson

Marilynne Robinson’s Home has just been awarded the Orange Prize for Literature. It is however well worth having a squiz at the announcement over at the Guardian Books website as the response to the news raises some interesting questions about whether the awarding of special prizes for women writers adds much needed focus and attention [...]

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On Sight and Insight by John M Hull

May 27, 2009
On Sight and Insight by John M Hull

I’m sure you’ve wondered what it must be like to be blind – you may even have even spent a few minutes trying to get around with your eyes closed, or you may have team-built with a blindfold on. It is not the same. John M Hull was born fully sighted but started to loose [...]

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The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross

May 19, 2009
The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross

Writing about music isn’t always easy. Writing about “difficult” abstract modern music may be even harder. And weaving a book about it together in such a way as to retain the interest of the common man, the musical luddite, for well over 600 pages might appear a Herculean task indeed. But Alex Ross seems to [...]

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Stiff – The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

May 9, 2009
stiff by mary roach

If you’ve ever wondered what happens to you after you die (and to be honest, if you haven’t then you’re a bit odd) then Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach is the book with the answers you need. Well, some of them. Stiff examines quite specifically at what happens to your [...]

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The Accidental Guerrilla by David Kilcullen

May 5, 2009
The Accidental Guerrilla by David Kilcullen

Former Australia army officer, anthropologist and all-round sharp mind David Kilcullen is an interesting fellow. Bestride the worlds of government, military and academia and equally at home in each, he is one of the world’s foremost experts on counter-insurgency, was a rare dissenting voice within the 2nd Bush administration, one of the architects of The [...]

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Art Without Borders by Ben-Ami Scharfstein

April 28, 2009
Art Without Borders by Ben-Ami Scharfstien

Another delve into ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live archives, this time for a fairly heavyweight talk with author and distinguished philosopher Ben-Ami Scharfstein about his latest book “Art Without Borders: A Philosophical Exploration of Art and Humanity“. One of the most engaging things about this elightening interview is how pleasingly lively this 90 year [...]

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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

April 22, 2009
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Picked as a rank outsider dark-horse not least because it had nothing to do with our stated aims of either classics or science fiction, the next book you will be reading is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. According to our good friends at wikipedia, Markus Zusak is the son of an Austrian father (who [...]

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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley on IOT

April 20, 2009
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

For those of you still hankering for a bit of classic sci-fi, long-term UK arts scene fixture, author, and general all-round smart guy Melvyn Bragg currently presents a show on BBC radio 4 called “In Our Time” which examines what basically amounts to the history of ideas. Each week, Melvyn will grill 2 or 3 [...]

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Book For June

April 17, 2009

At the last meeting there was some general enthusiasm for “a classic” book, one of the great big meaty greats of literature. But when we knuckled down to it, no one really fancied anything massively dense. The choices boiled down to two plus NC’s enthusiastic contribution below. So fellow semiliterati, your choices are: George Orwell’s [...]

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Arnold Zable on the wonders of Story-Telling

March 27, 2009

Arnold Zable, in his career as a writer, journalist, novelist, essayist, educator, advocate and globe-trotter, and in his life as an author and human being, has always been passionate about the human story. Arnold has carefully listened to and faithfully retold countless stories from a full spectrum of humanity: friends, family, survivors, asylum seekers, refugees, journeymen [...]

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