What to read this week

Naked ladies and law reform feature in this week’s list of Notable Books.

Naked ladies and law reform feature in this week’s list of Notable Books.

If you’ve been to Melbourne, you’ve probably been to Young & Jackson, and you’ve probably also seen Chloe. She’s glorious. I didn’t know until I read the blurb for this new book that she was painted in Paris in 1875 and brought to Melbourne in 1909. Author Katrina Kell has reimagined Chloe’s life, trying to “unlock the riddle” of the young woman’s journey – how did she end up so beautifully nude in a pub on the corner of Flinders Street? I’m told the book launch was at the pub, which is also an excellent idea. Bravo.

 

 

How cute is this cover? So cute! That’s obviously deliberate since the book is about cuteness. The author is fascinated by all things cute, and he takes the reader from Disneyland to Pokemon and back to Hello Kitty (which is not a cat). He’s a professor in the department of English literature and culture at Chuo University in Tokyo and something of a pioneer in cuteness studies, where he examines why some things are cute (cartoon kittens) while others (any other kind of cat) absolutely are not.

Speaking of cute, how cute is this? It’s a book for children aged four and older about a pea that feels a little constrained by its pod. It aims to teach children the value of striking out on one’s own while acknowledging that strength is sometimes in numbers. It’s got a million lovely things in it, including 31 tiny ants, hidden across the pages, which your kids can go searching for. I can’t get over the colour used on the cover. It also contains reciPEAS (get it) for peacakes, and pea-spotted eggs and quite a bit more. Just glorious.

 

 

This story is extraordinary and the book – a hardcover, filled with glorious, short sentences – is beautiful, too. It’s Caroline Laner Breure’s story – she was a young woman living in Sydney when she met a boy called Bryon; they travelled overseas, where she was hit by a speeding police car and suffered a terrible brain injury – but Bradley Trevor Greive has written it and I think he’s one of the best writers this country has produced. He’s the author of The Blue Day Book, which you almost certainly own. He also co-wrote Penguin Bloom, the true story about the magpie that healed a family. Buy this and money goes to brain recovery research. Can’t recommend it enough.

This is a very disturbing book. It starts like this: “I am a sociopath. I am a passionate mother and wife. I am extremely charming and well-liked. I have lots of friends. I live in a nice house. Your friends would probably describe me as nice. But guess what? I can’t stand your friends. I am a liar. I am a thief. I am emotionally shallow, and highly manipulative …” Who would want to read such a thing? The author says it’s important for all of us to understand that sociopaths live among us, easily disguised as good folk. I don’t think I wanted to know that, but over to you.

  

Dancers on the Sea by Gabrielle Samson

This is Gabrielle Samson’s memoir of her time as a young Australian educator working for an Indonesian university, posted to a remote island, Atauro, in present-day East Timor. She was supposed to be there for a six-week project but stayed for eight years, including through the difficulties on the road to East Timor’s independence. Gabrielle is going to launch the book in Dili soon and there’s some interest in Dancers being translated into Indonesian.

This is lovely story about a family migrating from Kenya and India to England. It’s told across three days and six decades. It begins with an arranged marriage between Bedi and Sushma who, when they first meet, agree to search for “happiness and hope” together. The author is a music journalist who has scattered his grandmother’s ashes in the Ganges (something similar happens in the book). Lovely.

 

 

This is a memoir by a participant in one of the many dynamic law reforms in this country. Terry Purcell was director of the Law Foundation of NSW from 1973 to 1995 and he was there for many reform initiatives including the digitisation of legal data. The Law Foundation supported the NSW College of Law, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, legal studies in schools, and Community Justice Centres, all of which are of incalculable value today. Recently retired, the author lives with his wife Pat on Sydney’s Northern Beaches and has five children – among them well-known author John Purcell – and 11 grandchildren. I’m so pleased he found time to tell his professional story.