Some years back I heard about a project inspired by a found rock board with missing rocks. When I first heard of the project, I bought one of the books. Later, visiting the Melbourne Art Book Fair, I was thrilled to meet the A Published Event team behind the project and to add another book to my collection.
Photo is of “Petrified Wood” by Therese Keogh. The paperback book is resting on the edge of a wizened, grey tree stump. The cover is white with an abstract red shape on it which is a silhouette of a piece of petrified wood.
“Petrified Wood” by Therese Keogh is a fictionella told in first person perspective by someone who is visiting a forest in Germany. The narrative sways back and forth between ruminations on a 7,000 year old piece of petrified wood and modern day woodcutting.
This is a thoughtful book that experiments with form in a way that each page almost seems like a free verse poem, interspersed with black and white, low-resolution images of fossilised wood. Cutting wood is interpreted as a skill, an art form and a way to examine archeological findings from millennia gone by. Keogh presents each page as a distinct thought but they are all clearly linked together in the same way as the very tree rings Keogh considers.
I think it’s important to note that this is not a short piece of fiction in the conventional sense. There isn’t a strong sense of narrative but rather a feeling, or a knowing. There is little in the way of characters or even a sense of time, and Keogh focuses instead on place and connection. I was curious to see that there was an absence of moral judgment on woodcutting and, more broadly, deforestation. Instead of being a destructive force on nature, Keogh explores woodcutting as a participation with nature.
An original and thought-provoking interpretation of petrified wood.
Graphic novel adaptation of middle grade sci-fi series Animorphs
The novelty of my favourite series as a ten year old being adapted into graphic novels has not yet worn off, and I eagerly ordered the next one for my Short Stack Reading Challenge.
Photo is of “Animorphs the Graphic Novel: The Encounter” by K. A. Applegate and Michael Grant, and adapted by Chris Grine. The paperback book is standing in front of a gnarled tree trunk. Behind it is a small lake with trees and mountains reflected in the water. There is a white feather in the foreground. The cover is of a young blonde kid falling backwards into the eye of a bird of prey.
“Animorphs The Graphic Novel: The Encounter” adapted by Chris Grine is based on the science fiction middle grade novel of the same name: the third book in the “Animorphs” series by K. A. Applegate and Michael Grant. Trapped in the body of a red-tailed hawk, Tobias discovers a Yeerk ship while exploring the skies. He and the Animorphs develop a risky plan to disable it, however Tobias is struggling to grapple with his hawk instincts and the prospects of living the rest of his life this way.
This is an especially grim chapter in the Animorphs series which poses tough questions about what it is to be human and balancing risk against reward. Tobias struggles considerably with his mental health and his new identity, and it is his friends who are able to intervene and talk him off the proverbial ledge. Grine does a really good job capturing these challenging emotions through illustrations.
I didn’t have any clear memories of reading this book and revisiting the story, I’m not surprised. The setting and morphs were a bit unexciting, and the book is really more of a character study of Tobias after he is trapped in morph.
I definitely prefer the books with more interesting morphs, settings or aliens and I’m looking forward to how Grine interprets later books in the series.
Epic fantasy and science fiction graphic novel series
After quite a long hiatus, this series is back! If you haven’t read it before, my review of Volume 1 is here. I was quite excited to read it for my Short Stack Reading Challenge and ordered myself a copy to arrive just in time.
Photo is of “Saga Volume Ten” by Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan. The paperback book is resting on a black cymbal among other parts of an electronic drum kit. The backdrop is a colourful artwork with digital elements. The cover is of a brown-skinned woman with blonde hair, a white man with koala ears and a bionic arm holding an axe, and an olive-skinned girl in a blue suit with horns.
“Saga Volume Ten” by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Fiona Staples is a comic book that picks up some years after the events of the previous volume. Narrator Hazel is now ten years old and is living on the treehouse spaceship with her mother Alana, adopted brother Squire and newcomer Bombazine. Eking out a living on the fringes, Alana hopes to “go legit” but when they cross paths with a pirate ship with two kids who shouldn’t exist, things absolutely do not go to plan.
This series is back with a vengeance and the decision to place it on hiatus was an excellent one. This volume felt fresh and re-energised with familiar old characters, fun new characters and high stakes. The book continues on with the familiar themes of war and identity, while more deeply examining the complex ideas of family, home and grief. The artwork is as dynamic as ever and the story flowed really well from page to page.
I think the only thing that annoyed me a bit was that despite ten years having passed since the events of Volume 1, Alana just hasn’t seemed to have aged at all. There is one point where she bares her breasts at the beginning of the book in protest about patriarchy and breastfeeding, and there is nary a droop nor a stretch-mark to be seen. Sure Alana may have a “perfect” body as the mother of a ten year old, but I felt like as a series purporting to outrage and challenge stereotypes, it could have been a good opportunity to show a bit of vulnerability and reality rather than simply sexualising Alana further. Bizarrely, when Alana consults a wolf-woman later in the book about cosmetic surgery, the wolf-woman has much more realistic breasts (notwithstanding that there are six of them).
Anyway, a fun addition to a long-running series that maybe isn’t as radical as it is trying to be.
Children’s book series about three hapless orphans
It was time for my annual December Short Stack Reading Challenge and I was very behind in my reading goal last year. I decided to start with something easy and chose this book which is seventh in the series and watch the TV adaptation at the same time.
Photo is of “The Vile Village” by Lemony Snicket. The hardcover book is resting on bare sandy dirt, with four scraps of lined paper surrounding it. Each scrap has handwritten couplets on them. The cover is of a young boy with dark hair climbing a rope ladder surrounded by black birds.
“The Vile Village” by Lemony Snicket is the seventh book of 13 in the “A Series of Unfortunate Events” collection. The book picks up immediately after the events of the previous book, and the Baudelaire children are sent to live in a village where orphan children are ostensibly looked after by all the residents. However, what they find is a town full of outrageous and inflexible laws, ominous black crows and gruelling unpaid work. After being misreported as criminals, the Baudelaires find they are taken even less seriously when Count Olaf inevitably returns.
Throughout the series, the Baudelaires have been disappointed again and again by guardians they have been assigned by the incompetent Mr Poe and it is in this book that they find themselves completely on their own. The friends they do have remain as out of reach as the mysterious V.F.D. and it is only through their ingenuity and teamwork that they are able to survive. This book explores not only how absurd and unfair laws can be when they are not built on any logic or applied with any sense of reason, but also the impacts of unethical and inaccurate journalism.
While I thought that this book introduced an increasing level of sophistication in terms of themes explored, I found that the little puzzle introduced was a bit simplistic and the solution (and hiding place) was a bit unrealistic.
Again, an enjoyable read and well-adapted by the TV series.
Satirical novel about jealousy, plagiarism and Own Voices in the publishing industry
I know this author from her fantasy series which I first read some years back. She has recently made a stir in the book world with her foray into literary fiction, and I picked this book as my next gardening audiobook to read. By sheer coincidence, my sister bought me a paperback edition for Christmas thinking it would be the kind of thing I would like. She was correct, and it meant that I was able to take a photo rather than just share the audiobook cover.
Photo is of “Yellowface” by Rebecca F. Kuang. The paperback book is sitting to the right of a blue plate with a greenish pancake on it against a brown, woodgrain background. The pancake has a bite taken out of it. The cover is yellow with two eyes and eyebrows looking to the left.
“Yellowface” by Rebecca F. Kuang and narrated by Helen Laser is a satirical novel about a young white writer called June who is friends with Athena, a vastly more successful Asian-American writer. Although their friendship doesn’t appear much closer than acquaintance, after a night out together results in a fatal freak accident, June finds herself in possession of Athena’s next project. What follows is a morally fraught chain of events where June’s newfound success draws more and more criticism.
This is a clever and biting novel that tackles issues of cultural appropriation, plagiarism and how trials by public opinion play out through social media. The story is told in first person from June’s perspective and she is a delightful villain whose capacity for self-delusion is truly remarkable. June’s ambition combined with a lack of any special talent or originality set her up to seize an opportunity that most (but not all) writers would never consider taking. Kuang explores the conversations around these issues smoothly and as a reader, you find yourself filled with both schadenfreude and begrudging empathy as June’s actions snowball. Exactly how this plays out is supported with excerpts from emails and Twitter threads. I particularly enjoyed Kuang’s explorations of the common idea that someone’s success in the literary scene may be because of their ethnicity, rather than despite it. I also really liked how Kuang provided a behind-the-curtain understanding of how things work once you have an agent, a manuscript and a publisher and how much (and how little) authors are supported to sell their work.
A keenly insightful and thoroughly enjoyable book.
This was a set book for my fantasy book club. I hadn’t heard of this author before so I was keen to dip my toes into her work.
Image is of “The Tangleroot Palace & other stories” by Marjorie Liu. The eBook cover is of a gnarled tree and roots with no leaves save on only two small twigs against a midnight blue background.
“The Tangleroot Palace & other stories” by Marjorie Liu is a collection of six speculative fiction short stories and a novella. Sympathy for theBones examines the witch-apprentice dynamic and how much those who raise us own our futures. The Briar and the Rose is a reimagination of Sleeping Beauty. The Light and the Fury revisits colonialism in the Pacific with an alternative history. The Last Dignity of Man is a character study of Superman’s Lex Luthor. Where the Heart Lives draws inspiration from Irish folklore. After the Blood is a dystopian story about Amish vampires. Finally, the eponymous novella, Tangleroot Palace, is a take on the princess fairytale genre.
This is a well-written collection of stories that take on well-known themes and present them with a modern lens. Liu subverts the tropes of this genre through queer relationships, grey morality, feminist characters and alternative pasts and futures. Liu includes little author’s notes at the end of each story which help to contextualise them. My favourite was The Light and the Fury as it was the most original and had a really unique undersea setting.
Unfortunately, however, I just didn’t find any of the stories especially memorable, and even though I only read this book a couple of months ago, I was struggling to recall what they were about. Many of the stories are retellings; either of well-known stories like Sleeping Beauty and Superman, or of well-known fairy-tale archetypes like witches and princesses. I think because there isn’t much novelty in the stories, they blur a bit into the fantasy canon and fail to stand out.
A fun collection but one that apart from applying contemporary themes to familiar stories, doesn’t introduce anything groundbreaking.
Second novel in the Italian historical fiction series the “Neapolitan Novels”
I can’t believe it, but it has been over six years since I read the first book in this series. I remember being engaged but not enthralled, and even though I had the other books in the series on my shelf, I hadn’t gotten around to reading the next one. I recently saw that the very faithful TV adaptation was available to stream on SBS on Demand. Inspired, I decided to watch a few episodes of the first season, and pick up the second book which is the basis of the second season.
Photo is of “The Story of a New Name” by Elena Ferrante. The paperback book is resting on a black shoe and an open, blank lined notebook with a black pencil. The cover is of a young white woman in profile resting against a doorframe. She has long dark hair and a strong jaw and chin. The photograph is in black and white.
“The Story of a New Name” by Elena Ferrante is a historical fiction novel and the second book in the “Neapolitan Novels” series. The story picks up almost immediately after the events of the first book with Lila’s wedding. When she returns from her honeymoon with her new husband, it becomes clear that her new life is a terrible mistake. After an intense holiday together by the seaside, Lenù and Lila see less and less of each other. When Lenù is accepted to study at university in Pisa, the friendship and their two life trajectories become even more distant.
I’m not sure if it was because the characters were more adult, the setting less bleak, the story growing more compelling or the fact that I am now older, but I found myself enjoying this book much more than I did the first one. Against a backdrop of an increasingly liberal society, Ferrante explores themes of envy and comparison that naturally take place between two friends who are so similar in age, background and ability but whose lives have diverged so drastically. Even as Lenù finds success and fulfils her academic and professional potential while Lina is trapped in a patriarchal domestic nightmare, Lenù still envies Lina’s love affairs and is plagued with insecurity that she is not as smart or as beautiful as her best friend. Increasingly, as a reader you find yourself wondering how Lina views Lenù.
While I was extremely slow to read the second book in this series, I am now much more inspired to read the third.
Celebrity autobiography about TV fame, drug addiction and mental health
There have been a lot of celebrity biographies coming out recently, and I’ve listened to Jennette McCurdy‘s and Prince Harry‘s as audiobooks. When I saw that this one had been published, I was pretty interested. Just about everyone has watched the TV show “Friends” (enjoy the now retro Blu-ray trailer!), and the character Chandler was one of the most iconic of the series. When actor Matthew Perry died recently, almost a year after it was published, and it came up on my recommended list, I picked it as my next audiobook.
Image is of the audiobook cover of “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing” by Matthew Perry. The audiobook cover is a portrait photograph of a white man with blue eyes, stubble, ageing skin and greying styled hair. He is looking at the camera with an almost smile. The words ‘A Memoir’ are on the left.
“Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing” written and narrated by Matthew Perry is a frank memoir about his life and how he came to be one of the most famous actors on one of the most watched television shows of all time: “Friends”. Perry writes candidly about his experiences growing up in Canada, the child of two charismatic parents whose marriage ended, and his early forays into acting, alcohol and drug abuse. Perry charts his path to winning the role of Chandler on “Friends”, and how despite his immense professional success, he nevertheless continued to struggle with addiction and mental health issues.
I think one of the best things about this memoir that makes it stand out from others is that despite Perry’s fame, it isn’t ghostwritten. Perry has a humorous, self-deprecating way of writing and pulls the reader in with intimate revelations about himself and his life. One thing that has frequently frustrated me with the memoir genre is authors sharing either not enough or far too much, and I felt like Perry really struck the right balance. As challenging as he clearly was as a person (to others but mostly to himself), self-sabotaging constantly and pushing people away even when he was at his most lonely, he makes the reader feel like a confidante. I enjoyed his narration a lot, though I did find it less clear and articulate than his delivery of lines while he was on TV. I was impressed that despite his own frequent relapses, he nevertheless strove to inspire hope to other people struggling with addiction.
It was a bit of a strange experience listening to this book shortly after the news broke that Matthew Perry had died. It really made me read into what he wrote a lot more. While Perry doesn’t claim to have the answers to addiction, the end of the book certainly suggests he is on an up, and suggests that his own brand of spirituality has helped him. However, I think this book really underlines the message that addiction is a disease, often a lifelong one, and there is no easy cure. Perry wrote a lot about his parents, colleagues and former girlfriends, many of whom witnessed his struggles firsthand, and I did find myself wondering how honest those reflections were. Some seemed a bit rose tinted, some seemed a bit unfair and I found myself wondering how the celebrities mentioned would have received it. I think it’s difficult to criticise something so subjective as what causes a person pain and trauma, but as a reader it is a bit hard to accept things that seem relatively minor when that person enjoys enormous success and wealth and has access to the most expensive and cutting edge treatment available. Perry does come across as one of those people who spends an enormous amount of time self-reflecting, but who never seems to gain any real insight into their behaviours and motivations.
A forthright memoir about privilege, success and struggling with mental health.
Children’s book about secrets, community and libraries
I received a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher.
Image is of “The Lost Library” by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass. The eBook cover is of a street library with open doors. Behind the doors is are shelves with a young boy and a ghostly building. Sitting on top of the library is a ginger cat and some mice.
“The Lost Library” by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass is a children’s book about a young boy called Evan who discovers a street library that appears one day in his town with a large ginger cat watching over it. Intrigued by books that he discovers inside, Evan and his best friend Rafe try to uncover the mystery behind the library, the town’s history and a tragedy that happened many years ago.
This is a really sweet book that gently explores how a traumatic event can affect a small town, and how community can grow in its wake. I had my own street library for years before moving house, and it is absolutely lovely seeing how the community engages with it by taking and leaving books. I thought that Stead and Mass handled the tension between Evan’s curiosity and the town’s reluctance to discuss what happened to the town library really well. There were lots of nice touches throughout the book like the street library being added to, everyone calling the cat by a different name and Rafe good-naturedly adhering to his parents’ very strict rules.
I think the only part I wasn’t completely sold on was the story being told from three perspectives (Evan, the cat and the ghostly Al) and the addition of some supernatural elements like ghosts and sentient mice. Even though I usually do like a bit of magic realism, I felt like this story was strong and sweet enough without these additions and I think sticking to realism would have made it even more impactful.
A really nice story about small town communities and the power of libraries: no matter the size.
This is the third book in the “Long Price Quartet“, and I am still making a big effort to tackle my to-read piles (plural intended). Although the individual books of this series are out of print, I did manage to find a copy at the Lifeline Bookfair.
Photo is of “An Autumn War” by Daniel Abraham. The paperback book is resting among yellow autumn leaves. The cover is of a city full of soldiers in an autumn palette.
“An Autumn War” by Daniel Abraham is a fantasy novel and the third book in the “Long Price Quartet” series. If you haven’t read this series, I recommend you go to my review of the first book in the series. The story is set 14 years after the events of the second book. Otah is now the reluctant ruler of the city of Machi, and Maati, his friend and trained poet, serves him and the city as master of Machi’s library. Machi and the other cities of the Khaiem have enjoyed generations of prosperity due to the andat: ideas made corporeal that are controlled by poets. However, the enemy nation of Galt is determined to destroy the andat and wage war against the Khaiem. Otah and Maati must find a way to protect their city and the ones they love.
After the politics-heavy storyline of the previous book in the series, this one is faster paced with higher stakes. I’ve been enjoying how the characters are ageing and both developing and settling into their ways. Otah and Maati’s deep yet complex friendship is further complicated by people from their shared past. The book explores ideas of love and fatherhood, and the desire for connection and legacy that accompanies it. I also really enjoyed that it wasn’t a simple interpretation of war, and how Abraham examines the economic inequality that underpinned the conflict between the two nations. I also felt like this book brought the magic of the andat back to the forefront of the story, pushing the concept to its limits.
A strong installment in the series and I’m looking forward to reading the finale.
Tinted Edges 