{"id":4461,"date":"2018-08-12T11:16:44","date_gmt":"2018-08-12T01:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/veritysparks.com\/?p=4461"},"modified":"2018-08-12T20:32:51","modified_gmt":"2018-08-12T10:32:51","slug":"greens-guide-to-good-books-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/?p=4461","title":{"rendered":"GREEN’S GUIDE TO GOOD BOOKS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Bendigo Writer’s Festival this week. I spent all day there Friday and yesterday –\u00a0 listening, talking, meeting people. My brain is buzzing with ideas. A real winter boost for the soul, and so very, very enjoyable! I haven’t had time to muster my thoughts about all the sessions I attended, but I’ll do something I promised I would.
\nWhich is to post my complete book list for ‘Green’s Guide to Good Books’. Wearing my (invisible) bookseller’s hat, I presented this session at the Friday schools’ day, called Text Marks the Spot, which is coordinated by La Trobe University Bendigo’s Sarah Mayor Cox. It was a full house in the Bendigo Bank Theatre at the Capital; attentive kids, excellent questions, a great host in Georgie Eberbach from Bendigo Secondary College (we’re pictured here in the portico of the Capital) and lots of fun.
\nI always madly over-prepare, so here’s the long version of what turned out to be a fast-moving and fun session.<\/p>\n

Text Marks the Spot 2018 Green\u2019s Guide to Good Books.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s a good book? Everyone\u2019s got their own opinion. One you start? One you finish? Anything that interests you? Quality writing? Gripping story-telling? Gets on with it? Slow burn and takes its time? Cinematic and visual? Streamlined, quick and easy? Challenging? A book that you \u201cget\u201d? A book that \u201cgets\u201d you?<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I was pretty snotty about what made a good book and would have excluded a lot of great reads. Because they were genre fiction, mainly. I\u2019ve changed a whole lot. I think all sorts of books are \u201cgood\u201d for all sorts of reasons. I\u2019ve chosen (with help from Kathryn at Stonemans Bookroom where I work) 16 good books. Not all of them are exactly my cup of tea. Some I never would have read unless prodded into it. Some of them were really memorable, and have made we want to read more of that author. I\u2019ve tried to vary the genre and style of book but I\u2019m only one reader with one set of eyes. My aim is for you get some ideas from this selection. Maybe you\u2019ll give something you wouldn\u2019t normally read a try. I hope so!<\/p>\n

We\u2019re starting with the younger end of YA here. And I\u2019d just like to say something about \u201creading down\u201d \u2013 as in, reading books for a younger age group. I do it all the time. I read a lot of junior fiction, not just because I\u2019m a bookseller and a writer, but because I genuinely enjoy reading it.<\/p>\n

The plus for me is often that they are shorter! I think that a lot of books published now are just too long. They don\u2019t always need to be. While sometimes I love to wallow in a long, long book, with beautifully realised time and place, exploring fully the characters past and present \u2013 not always. Sometimes I don\u2019t have the time or more importantly, the concentration. I\u2019m tired. I\u2019m stressed. I\u2019m busy. But I want to read! Many junior fiction or YA titles just get on with it. And sometimes, that\u2019s what I need. I encourage you to occasionally look at junior titles \u2013 books that are down from your age group – and give them a go.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L\u2019Engle.
    \n<\/strong>A Wrinkle in Time<\/em> has recently been made into a movie. I haven\u2019t seen it, so I can\u2019t comment. But I know that re-reading this time, I actually want to keep my version of it in my head. Meg Murry\u2019s scientist father is missing and Meg is having a hard time fitting in at school. The other children tease her about her father and her \u201cdumb baby brother\u201d and she can\u2019t help lashing out. Everything seems dark and hopeless to Meg \u2013 until one stormy night, everything begins to change. Into her life comes a trio of odd guardian angels – Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which \u2013 and her new friend Calvin. Together with her brother Charles Wallace, they travel through a wrinkle in time to find her father.<\/li>\n
  2. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula le Guin<\/strong>
    \nThis is an absolutely spell-binding fantasy novel. I hadn\u2019t read it since I was about 12 or 13, and it\u2019s even better than I remembered. It\u2019s the classic story of young wizard Sparrowhawk. Through pride and ambition, he lets an evil shadow into the world\u2026and it\u2019s up to him to hunt it down and destroy it. An almost perfect book.<\/li>\n
  3. A Drowned Maiden\u2019s Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz
    \n<\/strong>This title includes all the kinds of story elements that I love. Orphans, secrets, gaslamps, s\u00e9ances\u2026It\u2019s 1909, and Maud Flynn is an inmate of the Barbary Asylum for Female Orphans which is somewhere near Boston in the USA. She\u2019s eleven years old, small for her age, clever and defiant and\u00a0 \u2013 according to the Superintendent, Miss Kitteridge, not the sort of little girl that anyone would want to adopt. But she\u2019s wrong. She\u2019s exactly what Miss Hyancinth Hawthorne is looking for. Maud loses her heart to the enchanting Hyacinth, and she\u2019s overjoyed when she goes to live with her, her sisters and their rough but kindly servant, Muffet. But\u00a0 \u2013 of course \u2013 all is not as it seems. (How I love those words!)
    \nMaud is a feisty, complex character; Miss Hyacinth is fascinating and the unfamiliar (to me) setting in 1900s America added a bit of extra interest to the \u2018gaslight\u2019 scene.<\/li>\n
  4. How to Bee by Bren McDibble<\/strong>
    \nI was completely bowled over by How to Bee<\/em>. It\u2019s the voice. And it\u2019s almost always the voice. Peony is brave, funny, straightforward. Listen.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Today! It\u2019s here! Bright and real and waiting. The knowing of it bursts into my head, so big and sudden, like the crack of morning sun bursting through the gap at the top of the door. I fall out of my bunk and hit the packing-box floor. I scramble up, right into Gramps asleep in his chair in front of the potbelly stove.<\/em>
    \n\u2018Cha!\u2019 he growls.<\/em>
    \n\u2018Sorry Gramps,\u2019 I say. \u2018It\u2019s bee day.\u2019 I pull on my pest vest and try to squeeze past him, but he puts out his foot.<\/em>
    \n\u2018First eat, then bee,\u2019 he says, real firm. He cuts a wedge from the oatcake on top of the stove.<\/em>
    \nCockies screech loud from the tree over our shack. They know it\u2019s time to get moving. \u2018I can\u2019t,\u2019 I say and try to squeeze past again. \u2018Foreman\u2019s waiting.\u2019<\/em>
    \nMy sister, Magnolia, sticks her fluffy head out from the top bunk. \u2018Stomp yourself, Peony-pest,\u2019 she groans.<\/em>
    \n\u2018You won\u2019t diz me when I\u2019m a bee,\u2019 I say.<\/em><\/p>\n

    This is a world where all the bees have died.\u00a0 Brave and nimble children have to climb the fruit trees to pollinate the flowers by hand. Pests are picked by hand, too \u2013 that\u2019s why Peony is wearing a pest vest \u2013 but Peony has set her heart on being a bee. However, her mother, who works in the city, has other plans for her daughter. Big themes and ideas, deceptively simple writing. It so deserves to be on the CBCA shortlist.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Marsh and Me by Martine Murray<\/strong>
      \nAs I\u2019ve said, I really, really like books that aren\u2019t too long! It\u2019s great to find a satisfying read that isn\u2019t a marathon. Short doesn\u2019t have to mean simple, just as simple language can tell a complex story. How to Bee<\/em> is one example. So is Martine Murray\u2019s Marsh and Me<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Joey Green is a good kid. He\u2019s kind and smart and funny, but just not the sort of boy who gets noticed. He\u2019s kind of hesitant. He lacks confidence. He\u2019s so scared of failure that he doesn\u2019t try. He plays guitar and would love to take part in The Battle of the Bands \u2013 he\u2019d like to be friends with some of the kids at his school – but his doubts are holding him back.<\/p>\n

      At school, there\u2019s a footy match on at lunchtime. The guys are all playing, except for me and Digby. Digby is watching a trail of ants. So he isn\u2019t talking. I am sitting in the sun, half watching the guys, half wishing I was one of them, half glad to be just sitting there and not showing how bad I am at ball stuff. I know that\u2019s a lot of halves, but that\u2019s what it\u2019s like inside my mind. It doesn\u2019t add up neatly.<\/em><\/p>\n

      When he meets Marsh – a most unusual girl in a tree house – Joey\u2019s life begins to change. This is a gentle, thoughtful book about friendship, music, taking chances, risking failure – and above all, how you can enter into the mysterious inner lives of other human beings.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Take Three Girls by Fiona Wood, Simmone Howell and Cath Crowley<\/strong>
        \nMoving in to a different age group now \u2013 this is older YA, perhaps from 14 onwards. Take Three Girls<\/em> is a collaboration between 3 well-known YA writers, Simmone Howell, Fiona Wood and Cath Crowely. They take three very different girls and combine their stories.
        \nWe have Ady. She’s the cool girl from a rich family, but neither the cool or the family are quite as they appear to be. Then there’s Kate, the academic over-achiever, expected to be a doctor, whose passion is for experimental music. And Clem, the swimming star who\u2019s lost heart for her sport.
        \nThe girls are in year 10, and they\u2019re taking part in a Wellness Program at their posh private school, St Hilda\u2019s. They\u2019ve all been smeared by PSST, a misogynistic cyber-bullying website. The Wellness Program and what flows on from it \u2013 and what they do about PSST \u2013 forms the story. This is really, really good YA fiction, just as you\u2019d expect from three such expert authors. It\u2019s compelling, funny, raw, romantic, sexy, occasionally disturbing (Note: language, sexual content!). It\u2019s narrated by each girl in a variety of ways, including through their wellness journals. I love the device of the Wellness Program, because it allows for jolts of introspection without slowing the story down. So many questions get to be raised\u2026 Who am I? Am I happy? How well do we really know each other? How might we change our thinking about others? What I want to be? Is belonging the same as fitting in? Do I have to do what I\u2019m expected to do? What is being true to yourself? What is being brave?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Dear Journal,
        \nI like the idea of this but I\u2019m not calling it a Wellness journal. That makes it sound like I\u2019m in some kind of formal therapy, which I fully support if you need it, but I\u2019d rather think of it as a kind of diary.
        \nAm I happy with my identity?
        \nIf you\u2019d have asked me before I came to St Hilda\u2019s I would have said pretty much. Now I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t know a lot of things since I moved to the city. My life plan\u2019s gone out of whack\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

        My life plan had been in place for a while. Study hard. Convince mum and dad to send me to St Hilda\u2019s, where I would study even harder\u2026work like crazy to get into medicine. Become a doctor. Pay mum and day back. Look after them and the farm\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

        It\u2019s as though, on the day I heard Frances Carter (musician) my self changed. A part of me that I didn\u2019t know existed spoke for the first time. It makes me wonder what else is there waiting to appear<\/em><\/p>\n

        Expect to explore issues of friendship, honesty, courage, love & sexuality. Empathize, sympathize, laugh – even cry – as well.<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Lifespan of Starlight by Thalia Kalkipsakis<\/strong>
          \nLifespan of Starlight<\/em> is #1 in a trilogy by Thalia Kalkipsakis. It was first published in 2015, and actually slipped by me then. It\u2019s speculative fiction, Sci-Fi \u2013 and deals with time travel \u2013 the ability to move around into the future. As we begin the book, the future is now – it\u2019s 2084, Melbourne. Unequal, surveilled, grimy and run-down, with food and water rationed, and every citizen is supposed to be chipped so that each aspect of their lives \u2013 where they go, what they do, how much they spend \u2013 is monitored. One day, in a park in Footscray, an unchipped, illegal teenager called Scout makes a shocking and gruesome discovery. Soon, she and two friends are pushing the limits of what\u2019s possible. The authorities are closing in. Are they desperate enough to risk everything they know? This novel is speedy and exciting, with superior world-building. #2 is Split Infinity <\/em>and the 3rd<\/sup> instalment, Edge of<\/em> Time<\/em>, has just been released. This is for you, if you you\u2019re into dystopian fiction and would like to hear a distinctly Australian voice.<\/li>\n
        2. White Nights by Ellie Marney<\/strong>
          \nFrom the future to now. World building usually is used in reference to fantasy or sci fi titles, but in this case, I\u2019ll use it in reference to Ellie Marney\u2019s White Nights<\/em>. Ellie\u2019s the author of the best-selling Every trilogy, which reimagined Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson as a couple of Australian teenagers. Here, Ellie has created a realistic and believable small country town as the setting for this novel. Teenager Bo Mitchell is a good kid. He\u2019s into sport, he loves his family and friends. So far, so ordinary. Then Bo\u2019s family life starts to get seriously messy. And he befriends the new girl in his class, \u201cferal\u201d Rory, who comes from an alternative, secretive, off the grid community called The Garden of Eden. Secrets, lies and obsessions can have devastating consequences. This has Ellie Marney\u2019s trademark suspenseful plotting and gritty characterisation.<\/li>\n
        3. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyami.
          \n<\/strong>Into fantasy now. This one has been talked about so much! The author, Tomi Adeyami, is a Nigerian American, and this is her debut novel. And wow. A six-figure advance, movie rights sold to Fox 2000, amazing reviews. A great deal of the fantasy you see around is based on Western medieval history \u2013 like Game of Thrones. Or, as in Lord of the Rings, on Celtic, Norse or other Scandinavian mythologies. Basically, it\u2019s European. Children of Blood and Bone<\/em>, a bit like the superhero movie Black Panther, takes us somewhere else. This book delves into the rich world of African – in this case, Nigerian – history, culture and myth. The story is told through two characters; a young girl, Zelie, whose family is Maji (magical). The maji are feared, oppressed and brutalised by the ruling clan of Orisha. The second character is Inan, the crown prince, who is determined to stamp out magic for good. This is prime fantasy material \u2013 magic, a journey, a chase, a quest\u2026 The writing is vivid, engaging all the senses so you can not only see and hear but almost smell and taste. The action is roller-coaster and exhilarating and actually violent, the emotional lives of the characters have real punch, the world-building is intricate and believable. Un-put-downable!<\/li>\n
        4. Bonesland by Brendan Lawley
          \n<\/strong>Bonesland<\/em> won\u2019t be for everyone. It\u2019s the author\u2019s debut novel, was shortlisted for the Text prize, very accomplished and hard hitting and impressive. It\u2019s small town Victoria again. Bones Carter is almost permanently down. The occasional trips to Melbourne with his mates make him dream of a more exciting future, where there\u2019s colour and energy and anticipation. He\u2019s just suffering out his existence in Banarang, feeling like a failure. Then Naya, a black American exchanges student, comes into his life. She\u2019s not only beautiful, she\u2019s clever and funny and passionate about making the world a better place. And she believes that Bones has a load of untapped potential. But potential doesn\u2019t do anything unless it\u2019s activated\u2026
          \nI thought this was a fantastic read. Raw, at time disturbing and even upsetting. There\u2019s quite a bit of sexual content, which includes things like the sexual\/romantic feelings of the protagonist to the misogynistic conversation and attitudes of some of the characters. There\u2019s drug and alcohol use. There\u2019s language \u2013 including hip-hop lyrics – that some might find offensive, including racist language. Just a side issue; when I looked up reviews of this title on Goodreads, there are obviously some readers who get a bit confused when a novel, a work of fiction, has a first person narrator (as in \u201cI went\u201d, \u201cI said\u201d etc instead of \u201cShe went\u201d, \u201cShe said\u201d). There were readers who assumed it was autobiographical, a real person in a real town, and were outraged at some of the language, attitudes etc. As an author myself, I know that it\u2019s easy for people to assume that first person is ME. Using sexist and racist characters and language doesn\u2019t mean you approve. It means you want to show this stuff.<\/li>\n
        5. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert.
          \n<\/strong>This novel begins in New York. Alice and her mother, Ella, have spent years trying to outrun bad luck.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          My mother was raised on fairy tales, but I was raised on highways. My first memory is the smell of hot pavement and the sky through the sunroof, whipping by in a river of blue. My mom tells me that\u2019s impossible- our car doesn\u2019t have a sunroof. But I can still close my eyes and see it, so I\u2019m holding on to it.<\/em><\/p>\n

          But now, with Ella married to a rich husband, and Alice enrolled in a posh private school, everything seems set for an almost-happy ever after. But no. <\/em>Alice\u2019s grandmother is the author of a cult book, a collection of fairy tales called Tales from the Hinterland. <\/em>She\u2019s a recluse, living on an isolated country estate called The Hazel Wood. When news comes that she\u2019s died, Alice\u2019s life gets strange, and then frighteningly out of control. With the help of her friend Finch, she sets out to find the secret of the Hazel Wood.
          \nI loved this. I\u2019m not sure what genre it fits in to. If it was a film, it would be made by Tim Burton. Strong elements of fantasy, but it would almost fit into horror as well. It\u2019s loaded with suspense and mystery, stylishly written, dark, creepy, twisty, fascinating. Again, not for every reader. The beginning is slow burn \u2013 Melissa Albert takes her time to build up the characters and the atmosphere of foreboding. I found the pacing delicious and immersive; the writing calls attention to the words (by that I mean, it\u2019s beautiful writing) which I but I realise that\u2019s not everyone\u2019s cup of tea. But for those of you who love this sort of thing \u2013 highly recommended. And (no spoilers) the ending really \u2026 well. For me, this is a one-sitting read.<\/p>\n

          \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

            \n
          1. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo<\/strong>
            \nA shout out to Kathryn McAllister at Stonemans Bookroom in Castlemaine, where I work. She reads a lot more YA fiction than I do, and she pushed this one into my hands. I thought I would hate this book \u2013 it\u2019s told entirely in poetry – and yet I loved it. Xiomara (I think that\u2019s how you say it – sounds like a Z but starts with an X) is a fifteen year old Dominican girl (Dominican Republic is in the Caribbean) living with her twin brother and parents in Harlem in NYC. It\u2019s a rough environment, with crime, sexual harassment and violence never too far away. Her mum is a very, very religious Catholic woman, obsessed with keeping Xiomara away from bad influences. That means, mainly, boys. She\u2019d love to have a daughter like Xiomara\u2019s friend Caridad. Caridad is quiet, respects her parents, she can recite the Bible, she wants to wait to have sex till she\u2019s married\u2026 But Xiomara is different. Fiesty, clever, rebellious, she fights back against the street harassment, the groping, the comments; she uses her fists to protect her brother; she defies her parents. There\u2019s a secret and more sensitive side to this girl as well \u2013 she keeps it hidden, but she\u2019s a poet and she wants to take part in a slam poetry competition. She also wants to get to know a boy in her class. This novel is her story\u2026X\u2019s voice is finally heard. I was pretty sceptical, but it\u2019s brilliant. It says everything it needs to say, and it\u2019s short!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            I am un-hideable
            \nTaller even than my father, with what Mami always said
            \nwas \u201c a little too much body for such a young girl\u201d.
            \nI am the baby fat that settled into D\u2013cups and swinging hips
            \nSo that the boys who called me a whale in middle school
            \nNow ask me to send them pictures of myself in a thong.
            \nThe other girls call me conceited. Ho\u2026Fast.
            \nWhen your body takes up more room than your voice
            \nyou are always the target of well aimed rumours,
            \nwhich is why I let my knuckles talk for me\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

            \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

              \n
            1. A Thousand Perfect Notes by C G Drews<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              This one is also about parental expectations\u2026 X\u2019s mother wanted her to be a certain way; she put pressure on; she made it difficult for X to be herself, express herself, live life as herself. A Thousand Perfect Notes<\/em> ramps that idea up many, many notches. 15-year-old Beck is a talented musician, but his mother \u2013 the Maestro – demands that he be a genius, a prodigy, a star performer who will carry on her shattered legacy in the musical world. No longer able to play, she teaches music at a university and forces her son to practice until his hands bleed while almost ignoring her youngest child, daughter Joey. Failing at school, Beck is paired with the unconventional August in a project. August is a sunny, kind, smart hippie-ish girl but Beck doesn\u2019t need a friend. Because of the Maestro, he can\u2019t afford to have a friend. But August makes Beck into the project\u2026 This is an intense, emotional, claustrophobic book, mirroring Beck\u2019s closed-off world; the tension and drama are pumped up high almost into melodrama. It\u2019s easy to read, absorbing, involving. C G Drews is a young Australian author.<\/p>\n

                \n
              1. All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                I hadn\u2019t read anything by Maggie Stiefvater, though over the years I\u2019ve seen plenty of her novels in the shop \u2013 the Raven Boys cycle, and the Shiver books. This is a stand-alone novel.
                \nI\u2019m going for big contrasts here. While A Thousand Perfect Notes<\/em> is claustrophobic and locked-in, with a small cast of characters, almost like a play, All the Crooked Saints<\/em> is expansive.
                \n
                \nA desert is a lot like an ocean, if you replace all of the water with air. It stretches out and out in unfathomable distance, and, in the absence of sunlight, turns to pure black. Sounds become secrets, impossible to verify as true until the light returns. It is not merely empty because we cannot see all of it. And you know in your heart that it isn\u2019t \u2013 that it is the opposite of empty once it is dark, because things that do not like to be watched emerge when the light is gone. There is no way to know the shape of them, though, until your hand is on them.
                \nSomething was there in the desert.
                \nThe creature was moving slowly among the distant brush, dark against the night-purple horizon, nearly human-shaped. There was a rattling or hissing as it moved, like dry beans shaken gently in a pan.<\/em><\/p>\n

                This novel extends from the savage but beautiful desert setting, to the soundwaves in the air, up into the huge night sky\u2026 And another journey, into the strangeness of human beings and their hearts.<\/p>\n

                We\u2019re in the tiny settlement of Bicho Raro in an arid area of outback Colorado, USA, in the early 1960\u2019s. The Sorio family, originally from Mexico, are saints. Miracle workers. Pilgrims in need of a miracle turn up here and lately, have been staying around. The miracles are not quite what you\u2019d expect. There\u2019s a man covered in moss. A young woman who carries the weather around with her. A priest with a coyote\u2019s head. We\u2019re in magical realism country, with three young Soria cousins. Beatriz, Daniel and Joaquin, trying to work out their destinies. Beautiful characters, reads like a strange fairytale, gorgeous lush language. Expect music, radio, classic cars, science, roses, love, longing, despair, happiness and owls (lots of owls!)<\/p>\n

                  \n
                1. The Goose Road by Rowena House<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                  World War 1, 1914-18. The Great War or the War to End All Wars. A hundred years, this November since it ended. If you think about this war \u2013 as an Australian, you might just think about Anzac Day, about the Gallipoli campaign. Or, you might think of the Western Front and the battlefields of France, where my own grandfather served. You might think of months, years of pointless-seeming protracted trench warfare, of mud, explosions, shattered minds and bodies. Red poppies, which bloomed in their millions over the buried corpses. I have to admit that, I\u2019d not given much thought to the civilian population of France.
                  \nThis novel starts on a beautiful summer\u2019s day in 1916. 14-year-old Angelique, living on a farm in rural France, sees the postman coming. It\u2019s the news that her father has been killed fighting for his country. Now the farm belongs to her brother, Pascal. Is he still alive? They don\u2019t know. She and her mother have to struggle on, keeping the farm going for Pascal\u2019s return, selling produce at the market, looking after the animals, harvesting. Bad weather, family disagreements, unpaid debts and illness all intervene, but disaster really strikes when the army requisitions (that means, simply takes) their farm animals. It seems as if they will lose everything. So Angelique decides to raise money by selling the only animals they have left \u2013 a flock of geese. To get the best price, she makes a long and difficult journey right across France. It\u2019s a quest story. Angelique sees first hand the horrors of war. She sees the best and worst of people. She\u2019s brave and persistent and kind. Simply told, through Angelique\u2019s eyes \u2013 she\u2019s an unsophisticated country girl, a peasant \u2013 this is an inspiring story. And \u2013 who knew? \u2013 geese turn out to be intelligent, affectionate and fiercely protective animals. You might even fall just a little bit in love with them. I was going to read you a very dramatic scene of an attempted goose-theft by starving peasants, involving a very angry Angelique and a rifle, but this is dramatic in another way. A goose egg\u2026<\/p>\n

                  Finally, the struggle begins again. I watch the poor little thing, slimy and dark, wiggling and twitching, constricted in the shell, too weak to break it apart.
                  \n\u201cCome on little one. Don\u2019t give up!\u201d
                  \nAt last, giving in to temptation, I prise open the top of the shell but I\u2019m frightened of hurting the fragile creature inside. It seems to be nothing but a beak and two blind, bulging eyes. Then there\u2019s another spasm of effort, a desperate convulsion, and its head flops into my lap. Instantly it seems impossible that such a big head, such a long scrawny neck, could ever have fitted inside the shell.
                  \n\u201cJust your feet and body to go,\u201d I whisper.
                  \nJust? The battle is too hard, the thrashing ceases. I look to the hen, but she\u2019s fallen asleep. Clumsily I peel away fragments of the shell, chipping them off with my fingernails.
                  \nThe gosling appears to be glued to the egg, to be part of it still \u2013 half born\u2026
                  \nTremors shake it like death throes, until one outsized webbed foot sticks up out of the shell\u2026 The bird doesn\u2019t have the strength to push free. I breathe warm air onto it, stroking the neck with infinite tenderness.
                  \n\u201cFight,\u201d I whisper. \u201cIt\u2019s your life. Fight for it, please.\u201d
                  \nMinutes pass, the tremors increase, then the gosling jerks, arches, the foot paddles, expands and breaks free.
                  \n\u201cCome on!\u201d
                  \nA claw-like wing jabs up and out. The body spills onto me, a wet bedraggled ball attached to two gigantic feet. It is the sweetest, silliest, ugliest, most beautiful thing in the world.
                  \n<\/em><\/p>\n

                    \n
                  1. Lifel1k3 by Jay Kristoff<\/strong>
                    \nKristoff is a Melbourne writer. Apparently he\u2019s 6\u20197\u201d \u2013 which is around 201 cm\u2026 Anyway, he\u2019s the author of a number of best selling titles, including The Nevernight Chronicles<\/em> and The Illuminae Files<\/em>. I\u2019d never been attracted to any of these books, and thought reading this would be a bit of a chore. How wrong! This is fantastic. Fast moving, inventive, dramatic, and very, very violent! This has been such a fun read, and I\u2019m going to go back and try his other titles.
                    \nWe\u2019re post-apocalypse which is partly environmental – the whole west coast of America has been divided by a massive shift in the San Andreas fault \u2013 and partly human made \u2013 climate change and wars between rival corporations which have trashed the country. Most of the population lives in what amounts to a megacities turned junkyards of decaying 20th<\/sup> century buildings, machines and technology. Everything\u2019s rusty, dirty, gritty, greasy, wrecked, dangerous and (did I already say this?) extremely violent.
                    \nThe heroine of this novel is 17-year-old Eve. Tough, funny, persistent, she lives with her grandfather; she suffers recurring nightmares of a deadly massacre which wiped out her family; and she spends her time fabricating and piloting giant robotic gladiators which battle in the WarDome arena. Which is where the novel begins. She\u2019s \u201chunched on the shoulder of a metal giant\u201d, screwdriver between her teeth, welding torch in hand, grease on her face.
                    \n\u201cA black metal sphere sat in the socket where her right eye should\u2019ve been. Six silcon chips were plugged behind her right ear, and a long oval of artificial flesh ran from her temple to the base of her skull. The implant obviously wasn\u2019t made for her \u2013 the skin tone was a little too pale to match her complexion. It was just about the right shape for a nasty exit wound.\u201d<\/em>
                    \nThat day in the WarDome, she loses her bout and life changes for the more interesting. Her gladiator machine is destroyed, she loses the money she needs for her grandfather\u2019s medicine, and after she manifests the power to destroy machines with her mind, a bunch of vicious religious fanatics come after her.
                    \nWhat to do? Desperate for money for her grandfather, she tries a spot of scavenging when an aircraft comes down. Soon she, her “bestest” Lemon Fresh, her blitzhund Kaiser and little robot Cricket find themselves on the run with the handsome android, Ezekial that they rescued from the craft.
                    \nThere\u2019s something about Ezekial \u2013 a human-like non-human so perfect he\u2019s called a \u2018lifelike\u2019 \u2013 that tugs at Eve\u2019s memory. That memory that\u2019s on the cybernetic implant. What about those nightmares? What\u2019s real? What\u2019s just a dream? Soon Eve doesn\u2019t know. And she needs to find out if she\u2019s going to survive. This is part 1; the next instalment will come out next year. Read this one now!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                     <\/p>\n

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                     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                    Bendigo Writer’s Festival this week. I spent all day there Friday and yesterday –\u00a0 listening, talking, meeting people. My brain is buzzing with ideas. A real winter boost for the soul, and so very, very enjoyable! I haven’t had time … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4461"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4474,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4461\/revisions\/4474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}