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From the Bedside Books Club quarterly meet this evening, here's my list of table reads, which was available there in hard copy. Here, of course, it comes with links to reviews and other descriptive noises, where available.

And my totally personal categories for this rather idiosyncratic list are - recent good reads, anticipated good 'uns, and desired rereading.

It was important to me at the time of writing the talk a couple of weeks ago to include rereading. It remains important, not just as the component of a talk, but also as a practice. It won't happen overnight, but by gum, it's going to happen.

Recently delighted by:

Adamson, Robert. The Goldfinches of Baghdad (poetry)

Carey, Peter. Theft: A Love Story

Cheever, John. The World of Apples

Cunningham, Sophie. Bird

Elliott, Will. The Pilo Family Circus (most of the reviews for this contain spoilers, though I'm delighted to see it was published in the UK in 2007, after release in Australia in 2006. Just read it.)

Falconer, Delia. The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers

Ford, Richard. The Lay Of The Land (third of Ford's Bascombe trilogy - all three come recommended)

Gray, Robert. Afterimages (poetry)

­__________. The Land I Came Through Last (memoir)

HEAT magazine

Hollinghurst, Alan. The Line Of Beauty

Hyland, M.J. How The Light Gets In

__________. Carry Me Down

Island - 'a magazine of excellence and variety'.

Jach, Antoni. Napoleon’s Double

Johnson, A. Frances. Eugene’s Falls

Knox, Sara. The Orphan Gunner

Kureishi, Hanif. Something To Talk About

___________. The Buddha Of Suburbia

___________. Midnight All Day (stories)

Malouf, David. The Great World

Miller, Alex. Conditions of Faith

Mitchell, David, Number9 Dream

(Cloud Atlas is also magnificent).

Moore, Lisa. Alligator

O’Connor, Andrew. Tuvalu

Stow, Randolph. Visitants

Van Loon, Julienne. Road Story.

Wright, Alexis. Carpentaria

Looking forward to:

Ballard, J.G. Complete Short Stories

Conrad, Joseph. Youth

Some more Pynchon

Jackson, Shirley.The Lottery

­_____________.We Have Always Lived In The Castle

Jach, Antoni. The Layers Of The City

Mann, Thomas. The Magic Mountain (recommencing and FINISHING)

O’Toole, John Kennedy. A Confederacy of Dunces

Sacks, Oliver. Musicophilia

Yates, Richard. Revolutionary Road

Want to reread:

Ashton-Warner, Sylvia. Spinster

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre

Hazzard, Shirley. The Great Fire

De Kretser, Michelle. The Lost Dog
(Conflicted about this one and need to understand if its mannered style was a problem, and if so, why.)

Maguire, Emily. The Gospel According To Luke
(rereading is in order, to reconsider the judgments I made about it in a review in 2006.)

The first half of The Magic Mountain

Toibin, Colm. The Master

Winton, Tim. The Riders

Wordsworth’s early edition of The Prelude of 1799, in only two books rather than twelve -raw, brief and arresting, and still available from Norton along with the 1805 and 1850 versions.

What I am also looking forward to  if I can handle the suspense:

Bei Dao – poetry and fiction. (Prominent Chinese poet who visited Australia in 2007).

Enright, Anne. What Are You Like
(reviewed by James Wood in 2000.)

R.F. Foster, Luck and the Irish: A brief history of change, 1970-2000

Harmon, Joshua. Quinnehtukqut
A debut novel by a teacher of writing from  Vassar.

McCann, A.L. The White Body of Evening
Recommended somewhere by Ian Syson.

Murnane, Gerald. The Plains

Grace Paley and Ann Patchett – anything! I need to catch up with them.

Portis, Charles. True Grit
A 1968 classic ‘comic Western’ which was reissued with an afterword by Donna Tartt recently

Silvey, Craig. Rhubarb (shortlisted for the Vogel around 2003)

‘Silvey shows amazing maturity and confidence for such a young writer. This offbeat love story about a blind girl and reclusive cello maker has a strong affection for its eccentric cast of characters and a ripe Australian sense of humour.’ That’s what the Vogel judges said. James Ley saw it differently at the time.

Zagajewski, Adam. Another Beauty
Colm Toibin describes Zagajewski as 'the best prose essayist alive'.(Critical Mass blog)

Read ‘em all already? Then have a sticky here sometime, and
don’t forget to check out Donald Barthelme’s suggestions while you are there…

Fizzy Train is coming, coming down the track,
you gonna ride that fizzy train and it won't bring you back.

Ahem. My daughter's show in the Fringe festival opens next week, All Aboard The Fizzy Train; it's a revamped and expanded Deakin final-year piece that grew wings and flew off into these modest beginnings of the big time. Which is pretty exciting stuff, and all mothers must blog such things.

This engaging, whimsical three-hander stars Mr Confetti, a jewel-encrusted butler, a family (well, a father and son) of irons, and a range of other surprising characters, songs and props.

Which reminds me, I must pop down to the drygoods deli in Blackburn - I'm on fig supply this season.

Apologies to Woody Guthrie, of course, are in order.

A new version of The Time is not yet Ripe by Louis Esson is currently playing
at the Carlton Courthouse from 27th August to 13th September.
The press release recommends buying tickets early to beat the VCE crowd - so I'm a bit slow off the mark here.

Set in Melbourne on the eve of a federal election, this acerbic satire tells the story of Doris, daughter of the Prime Minister, and her fiancée, Sydney, socialist candidate for the seat of Wombat, as they are forced to choose between love and political ideals.  This crisp version of Esson’s rarely produced 1912 classic sparkles with Wildean themes of surprising contemporary relevance.  Practical politics, sedition laws, politicians and the national identity are satirised by the father of Australian theatre. ‘The Time is not yet Ripe’ is a witty landmark in the story of Australian playwriting. It is a play that continues to connect with audiences and theatre makers. It is beguiling and smart, and surprisingly prescient.

Apparently rarely performed, it finishes next weekend, showing Wednesdays to Sundays only. Bookings 9347 6142, or at lamama.com.au

At fortyfive downstairs, until June 21, the latest works of Dena Kahan.
(45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne).

Dena Kahan’s recent work uses the glass case of the museum to explore the desire for order and perfection, and its impossibility. To quote the filmmaker Pedro Almodovar: “glass is very optimistic. It holds possibilities in its beauty, a kind of hopefulness that is as fragile as the glass”.
In these paintings single objects multiplied and distorted by reflection, threaten to dissolve into abstraction. Catalogue numbers float uncertainly; glass shelves, tilted away from the horizontal, appear unstable and precarious. A strong internal tension is created, lurking beneath the luscious colour and smooth, seductive surfaces. Perfection, as always, proves elusive.

Today’s goal setting tip for 2008 is simply this:

Don’t load yourself down with a dozen or more goals for the year. Stick to ONLY three goals right now.

Who says you have to set goals only once a year?

Whenever you mark off a goal from your list because you’ve reached it, set a new goal.

If you set too many goals at once, you’ll never be able to focus on ALL of them at once.

Make it easier on yourself by setting no more than three goals at the start of the year.

Then, at the end of the month, look at your progress.

If you’ve reached any of these three goals, mark them off the list, and set a new goal to take the place of each goal you’ve already reached.

Try it!

Suzanne Lieurance
The Working Writer’s Coach