Kids who read stay out of jail

Quote of the day:

. . . Kids who read stay out of jail (unless they grow up to be financial investment directors). Reading gives them words. Words give them the ability to express and clarify themselves to others. How many young guys end up in strife because they don’t have the vocab to explain what they’re doing, and so they move from incoherence to frustration to violence?

Reading helps young people come to terms with themselves and their issues. . . David Hill

Tom Sharpe 1928 – 2013

English author Tom Sharpe has died.

The BBC has an obituary here.

Last Shepherd

Roger Buchanan begins Last Shepherd at the end with a brief summary of the wool industry’s recent history.

He then goes back in time, setting the scene for his life-long interest in wool from his childhood on the family farm, Aratika, 16 kilometres from Fielding. He traverses his school days and career and ends back where he began looking at the industry today and where it might go.

Buchanan began his working life with a wool merchant and tutored at Massey  before his career took him to various statutory organisations. He was the Wool Board’s final chief executive and oversaw its winding down.

The book combines history, analysis, marketing, trade, policy  and politics with  personal anecdotes to give a comprehensive story of the wool industry, the people  involved in it and the challenges they faced.

Not all of the latter were business ones. The book includes tales of travel misadventures, attempted bribery and unusual culinary encounters.

The Last Shepherd will be of most interest to farmers and others who are, or have been, involved in the industry. The politics, marketing, travel and trade tales could appeal to a wider readership.

Last Shepherd: Anecdotes and observations from five decades in the wool industry by Roger Buchanan.

Published by Mahico.

Paperback 312 pages, $45.

Links for ebooks at Last Shepherd.

Books, maps and super heroes’ alphabet

Discussion with Jim Mora on Critical Mass today was sparked by:

* The 30 best places to be if you love books.

* 38 maps you didn’t know you needed.

* And a phonetic alphabet based on superheroes (only some of whom I recognised).

Critical Mass

Discussion with Jim Mora on Critical Mass today was sparked by:

* A sign that civilisation as we know it is crumbling – Anne of Green Gables has been changed from a skinny red-head to a buxom blonde with come hither eyes. Hat tip: Beattie’s Book Blog.,

* Plain English explanations of 18 scientific occupations.

* 40 things to say before you die (hat tip: Amanda Morrall).

Dull men & problem solving books

Discussion with Jim Mora on Critical Mass today was sparked by:

* A celebration of ordinary, everyday things at the Dull Men’s Club.

* 10 Novels to solve all your problems supports my contention that you learn about real life by reading fiction. (Hat tip: Beattie’s Book Blog).

A reader alerted me to Dull Men’s Club which I appreciate.

I welcome any other suggestions of websites which might be on interest for Critical Mass.

Getting the book invented

Hat tip: Open Parachute

Greg McGee 2013 Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellow

Greg McGee has been awarded the 2013 Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship.

 . . .McGee plans to work on his fourth novel, set in New Zealand and Italy, during his Menton residency.  “I am honoured to be following in the footsteps of many of New Zealand’s finest writers as the Menton Fellow and, like them, I deeply appreciate the time and space the fellowship gives me to concentrate on a major project, particularly since my project requires research in Europe,” he says.

McGee’s first play, Foreskin’s Lament (1981), is one of New Zealand’s most successful and drew on rugby culture of the time to comment on national values. As crime writer Alix Bosco, McKee is the author of the award-winning novel Cut and Run (2009) and Slaughter Falls (2010). He has won several TV awards, including Best Drama Writer for two of his political documentary dramas:  Erebus: the Aftermath (1987), and Fallout (1994).  This year he has produced two new books: a biography of All Black Captain Ritchie McCaw – The Open Side and a novel, Love & Money (2012). . .

McGee was born and brought up in Oamaru.

I was intrigued to read in his memoir Tall Tales (Some True) Memoirs of an Unlikely Writer his reference to social class and the difference between his family and those of his friends who lived on the hill.

He’s a few years older than me but we had very similar upbringings.

Our mothers nursed together and my mother was bridesmaid for his. Our fathers were both tradesmen – his a painter and decorator who owned his own business, mine a carpenter at the freezing works.

Yet he looks back with what appears to be a strong perception of social class and I grew up with no perception of it at all.

That is irrelevant to his writing, which is very good.

He’s a versatile writer and this award is well deserved recognition for a long and accomplished career.

Armistice Day – 11.11@11

Today is Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of World War 1, at 11 am on the 11th day of the 11th month 1918.

The facts are well known, a recently novel puts the human side of the horror and heroism.

Lives We leave Behind by Maxine Alterio tells the story of New Zealand nurses Addie Harrington and Meg Dutton who serve in Egypt and France.

Historical details and the inclusion of some real names among the fictional characters helps adds to the feeling of authenticity.

The characters, what happens to them and how they react feel real and true to the time.

This is a herstory,  concentrating on the women, telling their stories in their words and helping us see what happened through their eyes.

It is a story of ordinary people dealing with extraordinary conditions and events without being either maudlin or saccharine.

Lives We leave Behind by Maxine Alterio, Penguin 2012: The author’s website is here.

 

For international Book Week

A post on Facebook from the bloke behind Quote Unquote tells me it’s International Book Week and there’s a rule:

 Grab the book nearest you, turn to page 52nd post the 5th sentence as your status. Don’t post the title.

It’s such a good idea I thought I’d borrow it for this post.

The nearest book to me was The Big Red Book of Spanish Verbs  which doesn’t have sentences so I grabbed the closest one from the bookshelf in front of me instead.

The 5th sentence on the 52nd page was: Confession was not as easy for Georgie Wi as it was for the white people.

I look forward to reading yours.

It might be a good story . . .

Paper Plus is promoting this book as one of Kerre’s choices:

This Way Of   Life Sumner   Burstyn This is the book of the multi award winning documentary of the same name.   It’s the tale of the Ottley-Karena family and their incredible life living in   and around the Ruahine Ranges. Mum, Colleen, dad, Peter and their seven kids   have absolutely nothing – in terms of material possessions – but they are   rich beyond belief – in terms of life skills, love and appreciation for what   is truly important… read more 9781869509644 RRP$34.99

It might be a good book, well written with an interesting story and stunning photos but I think the author’s recent rant and subsequent publicity will be a strong deterrent for many who might otherwise have bought it.

L♥ve Our Kiwi Bees!

It’s National Bee Week when we’re encouraged to L♥ve Our Kiwi Bees!

Bee Week is a major campaign designed to educate New Zealanders about the importance of the humble, often overlooked, honey bee. Bees are critically important to New Zealand and to the New Zealand economy – much more so than you might think!

Without bees, two thirds of our everyday food would disappear, our gardens would be without many of their plants and flowers, and our major agri-export industries (worth around $5 billion) would be in severe trouble.

Bee Week has been established to highlight the value of honey bees and beekeeping in New Zealand.

This year’s Bee Week will highlight that while bees in New Zealand are not under immediate threat, as in some overseas countries, they do face challenges and they do need to be actively protected and preserved.

A good source of bee friendly information is Raymond Huber’s blog.

He’s a bee keeper and the author of two books for children in which the main character is a bee – Sting and the sequel Wings.

Maeve Binchy 1940 – 2012

 

Irish author Maeve Binchy has died.

She had the gift of creating believable characters and making interesting stories from ordinary lives.

Her website is here.

Margaret Mahy 21.3.1936 – 23.7.2012

Friends gave our daughter a copy of The Man Whose Mother Was A Pirate for her first birthday.

It was the first Margaret Mahy book I’d read and I was hooked from the first page.

Her wonderful way with words, her quirky use of language and unique view of the world made her books firm favourites in our household.

I read of her death yesterday, with great sadness.

The New Zealand Book Council details her achievements and contributions to literature here.

Storylines profiles her here.

A Kate De Goldi tribute in the Listener is here.

Her essay A Dissolving Ghost, Possible Operations of Truth in Children’s Books and the Lives of Children is here.

At NZ On Screen is  the documentary Made in New Zealand – Margaret Mahy. (Hat Tip for those link to Toby Manhire who writes: Weaver of magic, wearer of wigs, Mahy lives on in thousands of homes in New Zealand and elsewhere, her pages wrinkled from reading after reading.

Beattie’s Book Blog has a story which sums up her reputation and influence:

. . . One little story from a visit I made to an American library back in the late 1980′s. I was in the public library in the
small Connecticut town of Westport with the pre-school son of a friend. At one stage I took a photograph of him sitting looking at a picture book and was immediately reprimanded by the librarian who tersely asked “had I not seen the sign saying no photography?”. I apologised and upon noticing my accent she asked me where I was from. New Zealand I said. Oh my she said I don’t suppose you know
Margaret Mahy? Indeed I do I said, I know Margaret very well. Oh in that case she said please feel free to take as many photographs as you like! She then gave me a guided tour of the library which included two large full colour posters featuring Margaret and her books. And she talked endlessly and enthusiastically about Margaret’s genius and about listening her speak at a librarian’s conference.And then insisted on making me a cup of coffee. . .

She was a treasure, her books will continue to be so.

In memory of a great story person I offer these words of comfort from Brian Andreas at Story People  to those who knew and lover her:

It is still so new & all we see is the empty space, but that is not how it
is in the landscape of the heart. There, there is no empty space & she still
laughs & grapples with ideas & plans & nods wisely with each of us
in turn. We are proud to have known her. We are proud to have called her friend.

Writing on books

Do/can you write on the pages of books you’re reading?

I don’t mean other people’s books, that is graffiti if not desecration.

I mean your own books.

The thought occurred to me while reading Quiet, the Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain.*

There are so many good lines, paragraphs, sometimes whole pages I want to remember that I’m itching to underline them or make notes in the margins.

But I can’t do it.

Blame it on my upbringing by parents who instilled in me a love of reading and such respect for books that I can’t deliberately mark a page.

* Published by  Viking 2012.

Riverstone Cuisine finalist again

North  Otago’s Riverstone Kitchen is a finalist in Cuisine’s restaurant of the year again.

It won the supreme award two years ago and was the regional winner last year.

The food and service are equal to any I’ve had anywhere in the world and it’s continuing success in these awards show it’s not justparochial people like me who thinks so.

It specialises in simple, fresh food, much of which is grown on the property or near by.

If you can’t get there in person, you could get a taste of what they serve via chef Bevan Smith’s recipe books.

The 50 finalists are:

Northland
Á Deco

Auckland
Antoine’s RestauranT, Café HanoI, Cibo, Clooney, Cocoro, Coco’s Cantina, Depot! District Dining, Ebisu, Kitchen at Hotel De Brett, Merediths, MooChowChow, O’Connell Street Bistro, Ponsonby Road Bistro, Roxy, Sidart, Soul Bar and Bistro, The Engine Room, The French Café, The Grill, The Grove, TriBeCa, Vinnie

Waikato/BOP
Palate, Chim-Choo-Ree, Victoria Street Bistro

Hawkes Bay
Black Barn Bistro, Elephant Hill Estate & Winery, Terroir at Craggy Range

Wellington
Ambeli, Arbitrageur, Capitol, Hippopotamus, Logan Brown, Martin Bosley’s! Matterhorn, Ortega Fish Shack & Bar, The Larder, The White House

Marlborough/ Nelson
Hopgood

Canterbury/ Christchurch
Edesia, Pegasus Bay Winery Restaurant,  Pestacore

South Canterbury/ Oamaru *
Riverstone Kitchen

Central Otago
Amisfield Bistro, Wai, Wakatipu Grill

Dunedin
Pier 24, Two Chefs Bistro

Cuisine profiles them all here.

* I think South Canterbury/Oamaru is a category not a geographical mistake.

Books by the box load

The Rotary Club of Oamaru’s annual Booakrama opened at 9 this morning.

For the past few weeks members and friends have been sorting books donated by the public.

It’s a fascinating exercise which shows there are a few too many people with a Presbyterian approach to books – they’ve been kept where they’ve got damp or just kept too long so they’re dirty and musty and have to be taken to the recycling centre or dumped.

However while there are lots of those there are many more good books which will be snapped up by people whose search for a bargain contributes to the club’s main fundraising effort.

How good a book is and what it’s worth exercises the sorters. Is a signed, first edition of a Wilbur Smith hard back a treasure or just another quick read? Are these old books precious or well past their read-by dates?

We usually take the approach that the books have been given to us to be sold and it’s better to price them low and miss the odd windfall profit than to price them too high and have them left on the tables.

Too many books?

Every now and then my farmer suggests we have too many books.

I tell him there’s no such thing as too many books.

Even though I spent three hours last night culling out 14 bags (about the size of ones from the supermarket) of books for the Rotary Bookarama and there are no gaps on the book shelves I’m not prepared to concede he has a point.

The problem, if there is one, is too few shelves not too many books.

Chick-lit like chocolate without calories

The doctor who was looking after my son noticed the book I was reading and said, it was good to see a mother who read something other than Mills and Boon.

I took it as a compliment but could see why women in hospital with a sick child might choose to read such books – they’re light, you can keep track of what’s happening if your reading is interrupted and you’re guaranteed a happy ending.

They’re also entertaining and reading them is a bit like eating chocolate, without the calories. The same applies to chick-lit which is often seen as being only a step of so above Mills and Boon.

But why the snobbery? Can’t a good book be a good book regardless of its genre if it’s well written and what’s wrong with reading about relationships and for entertainment?

In the only problem with chick-lit is the name, Jenny Geras asks:

 Why do I so often hear intelligent, educated women admitting that they read commercial women’s fiction, but only as a “guilty pleasure”? Are there millions of clever men out there feeling guilty about reading John Grisham? Why are Jane Eyre, Kate Reddy and Becky Bloomwood even being discussed together in the same paragraph? They have nothing at all in common apart from being female characters created by female authors.

She also has the answer:

. . . let everyone read what they enjoy reading and stop sneering about others’ literary choices.

To which I say, hear, hear, pass the chick lit but don’t worry about the chocolates.

Hat tip: Beattie’s Book Blog

Yes

Marty Morgan, M&M, to his friends has the usual teenage problems plus a brain that doesn’t work the same way others’ do.

He finds it hard to read people and understand figures of speech; his fine motor and organisational skills are poor; and while he’s good at maths he struggles with all other subjects at school.

He has only one real friend, Luke – known as Legless though he does have one and a half legs. Then there’s Francessca with whom he’d like to be more than friends and his mother who’s going for a three month trip overseas without reservations and without his father’s whole-hearted support.

Luke ropes Marty into his team for the Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) where his ability to crochet becomes not only handy but a necessary part of the resulting business venture.

I was hooked from the first page and put the book down with great reluctance when I absolutely had to.

The characters are believable and the plot is entertaining with several serious threads woven through it.

The book is aimed at teenagers but like all good young-adult fiction will be enjoyed by older readers too. It could be of particular interest to anyone with experience of people with autistic spectrum disorders.

 

Yes by Deborah Burnside, published by Harper Collins.