What to read this week: a guide to managing your share portfolio, perfumes in Paris and more
Got questions about your investments? Missing Robert Ludlum? Here’s our guide to what to read this week.
A stockmarket investment guide, a book for Robert Ludlum fans, and perfumes in Paris are among this week’s choices.
Built to Move
By Juliet Starrett, Kelly Starrett
Hachette, Health and Fitness
336pp, $34.99
Kelly Starrett consults and coaches Olympic athletes – and elite armed forces personnel. He’s the co-author of the bestseller Becoming a Supple Leopard, and has now partnered with his wife, Juliet Starrett, a world champion white-water paddler, to write Built to Move, a fitness book for mere mortals. They explain that it is “our lifejacket, handed to you, with instructions on how to prepare your body for whatever comes its way, be it ageing, injury, or just the physical aches and pains that can come from living in this chairbound, technology-loving, caffeine-fuelled world of ours.” The premise is simple: 10 tests, each paired with a physical practice that are designed to make your body move a little better.
Tall Stories
By Michael Duffy
Orphan Rock, Nonfiction
304ppm $35
Michael Duffy was formerly a director of the BAD Sydney Crime Festival. He has turned his attention to a new venture, writing and publishing books set in the NSW Blue Mountains, where he lives. In a sweet twist, they are available only from local bookshops, meaning you either have to visit, or maybe give them a call and see if they will send you one. This book, Tall Stories, contains local history, with chapters like: “Not mountains, or especially blue” and “Grumps” and “the Glenbrook Serial Killer.” There are stories about the Scenic Railway and Jenolan Caves, too. Bravo.
Robert Ludlum’s The Treadstone Rendition
Readers were first introduced to Treadstone through Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series. After Ludlum died in 2001, the world of Treadstone continued with other authors. This is Joshua Hood’s fourth entry into the series. It revolves around former Treadstone agent Adam Hayes. Hood was in the US military, with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s done a fine job of keeping the explosive world of Treadstone alive, maintaining all the elements that made Ludlum so popular, while giving the series a fresh voice and unique characters. In The Treadstone Rendition, Hayes has promised his wife that he will retire, but you just know that there is one more debt to be repaid.
The Half Brother
Christine Keighery is the best-selling author of more than 35 novels for children and young adults. The Half Brother is her first adult novel and examines nature versus nurture and family bonds. Sisters Hannah and Stef have always been incredibly close, but that bond is tested when they discover they have a half-brother, Alex. The novel is told from the alternating perspectives of Hannah and Stef, allowing you to see how Alex manipulates and affects them in different ways. The dual perspective is unsettling as the enigmatic Alex’s chilling agenda unfolds. This book is no slow burn. The suspense and tension grab hold from the few first pages, with skilful twists and turns.
The Perfumist of Paris
Alka Joshi enchanted readers with the Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club pick, The Henna Artist and the follow-up, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur. Now The Perfumist of Paris ushers readers back into Radha’s world as a master perfumer in mid-70s Paris. Radha has a gift of intuiting the scents (and hopes) of her customers and clients. She is also navigating her way through a disintegrating marriage, a love lost to the rules of family, domestication, and a forthright French mother-in-law. In her evocative finale to the Jaipur trilogy, Joshi has again succeeded in filling our senses with her richly detailed world, perfectly winding up this well-loved series.
The Fancies
The Fancies is a delightful story of comeuppance. It’s told from three distinct points of view: there’s Abigail Fancy; her grandfather, Old Dick, who has dementia; then, the third perspective is, cleverly, “Them”, the Fancy family and the other inhabitants of this small town’s secretive community where crimes, cover-ups and secrets lay as low as craypots. Kim Lock’s stunning breakout debut was The Other Side of Beautiful. With this book, she establishes herself as an author to watch. With a voice that is unabashedly Australian, this is an extraordinarily fun read, filled with irony and dry humour and total lack of pretension. The descriptions of the townsfolk – and the excellent dialogue – will have you laughing out loud.
The Ulysses Contract
The Ulysses Contract describes itself as “basically a promise you make now that will stop you doing something stupid later on”. The advice applies to financial decisions and, specifically, investing in the stockmarket. This book shows you where your limitations may lie, and how to work with them to become a competent investor. Michael Kemp worked as the chief investment analyst for Scott Pape’s Barefoot Blueprint newsletter. In fact, Pape writes the foreword, stating: “This book will show you how to never worry about the sharemarket again.” A big claim, but from a trusted source. For anyone who has invested in the sharemarket, or plans to, this is an excellent read.
Call Me Marlowe
French-Australian writer Catherine de Saint Phalle’s memoir about her parents, Poum and Alexandre, was shortlisted for the Stella Prize in 2017. In this, her third novel in English, she centres much of the story in Prague and inner-city Melbourne. It follows Harold Vanek, who is estranged from his mother, and tentative about committing to Mary Lou, the woman he loves. He visits Prague hoping to discover what happened in his mother’s past and to better understand his cultural background. The people he meets provide unexpected answers and the promise of a new family. Call Me Marlowe captures the way in which we sometimes crave closeness with friends, family and partners – and why we sometimes hold back.
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