Category: Book reviews

Listening to read

For most of us, the first way we experienced the written word of was listening to someone read aloud to us. By the time we were ‘reading for ourselves’ we were experienced language users – we knew how to tell a story, we knew how to tell a lie, and we even knew how jokes worked, even if we weren’t very good at them yet. But the joy of listening to someone read to us never disappears. The skilful narrator provides a pathway into our imagination that allows us to ‘see’ the text in different ways, picking out subtleties by their tone of voice, intonation and pausing.

These days, over the course of any year, I read as many books by listening to audiobooks as by reading them for myself. On those occasions when I can’t bear to stop reading to do some less-than-exciting task, I’ll switch to the audiobook version, e.g., when driving or ironing thanks to the ability to sync between devices, and then happily switch back again when the task is done.

Another layer to reading is provided by listening to dramatised versions. If you grew up before the age of television then you’ll remember listening to radio plays such as the Blue Hills by Gwen Meredith, which ran for 5,795 episodes in Australia.  Radio plays were as vivid as if played out film (so vivid that apparently in 1938, the Orson Welles’ dramatic adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds caused considerable panic in USA).

As much as I enjoyed radio plays, I usually avoid dramatised versions of audiobooks, mainly because often they have abridged or edited the original text to make the play ‘work’.  This meant that I was not enthused when I heard that Audible were releasing full-cast dramatisations of the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. After all, I thought, how could they beat the stellar narration of Stephen Fry (my go-to audiobooks when life needs a lift)?

Well, I was wrong. I am thoroughly enjoying the dramatised versions. Hearing child voices in the Harry, Ron and Hermoine parts has been delightful, and it is clear there was a queue of fabulous British actors vying for the opportunity to read the adult characters. For example, Hugh Laurie is Dumbledore, Mark Addy is Hagrid, Kit Harington is a spot-on Gilderoy Lockhart, Iwan Rheon is Remus Lupin, and Matthew MacFadden is Voldemort – just to name a few.

Underpinning their voices is the narration of Cush Jumbo, with it all produced so that it is a seamless audio experience. In the accompanying interview in Audible, she describes how her narration is intentionally neutral in providing the scaffold for the dialogue. I confess I do miss the hint of J.K. Rowling’s authorial voice that Stephen Fry lets slip into his audible version and the way it provides that sly wink to the reader. I know this feature will draw me back to the original versions. In the meantime, however I’m enjoying the full-cast dramatisations.

These versions are being released monthly, so the first three books (Philosopher’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban) are already available, and this month (February) will bring Goblet of Fire, and the child voice roles will be taken by older voice actors from here on. The rest of the year’s fix for Harry Potter looks to be taken care of, and then of course there will be the new Harry Potter TV series due to begin on HBO/Max in 2027.  Not that I’m a fan or anything ….

Jane Austen – Never out of fashion

In case you missed it, last year was 250 years since Jane Austen was born and yet her novels continue to be a source of delight. Most readers of Austen have a favourite novel. In my twenties, my favourite was Pride and Prejudice, but later I grew to love the spoof quality of Northanger Abbey. Now I’d have to say my favourite is Persuasion for its glimpse into her writing process – we have both her draft ‘sensible’ ending and the final published ending and can only applaud the high romantic drama of the ending she chose.

Which novel is the best is always contested but not as fiercely as which screen adaptation. The 2022 movie of Persuasion had Austen fans outraged by its anachronistic dialogue, for example. More commonly, the fashion choices in adaptations can be challenging. Who can forget the wardrobe of the 1940 Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier movie of Pride and Prejudice which could have come directly from the set of Gone with the Wind?

My interest in fashion in Austen’s time was piqued by a small collection of Austen family heirlooms and Regency fashion which were displayed at a picnic co-hosted by the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation and the National Trust of Australia (Victoria), held at historic home of ‘Invergowrie’ in Hawthorn, Melbourne. The display was fascinating for its homespun quality of breakfast crockery and hand sewn garments. The items were provided by the special guest at the event, Caroline Jane Knight, 5th great-niece of Austen, who grew up at Chawton House where Jane lived and wrote. Caroline has written about her Austen connection in her book ‘Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage’ (available in paperback and ebook versions from all major online retailers).

To get a more detailed look at the fashion of the era I’m heading to an event at the National Gallery of Victoria, ‘Dress in the age of Jane Austen with Hilary Davidson’ to be held this coming Saturday 10th January. Although live tickets are sold out, apparently there are still online tickets available.

Hilary Davidson is described as a leading fashion historian and author whose work looks how fashion influences and expresses social and cultural changes. Her most recent book is ‘A Guide to Regency Dress from Corsets and Breaches to Bonnets and Muslins’ was published in December 2025 – illustrated and available in hardcover from online retailers.

We can only hope that the latest screen adaptations have consulted similar experts. There’s a new production of Pride and Prejudice underway as a six-part Netflix series with Emma Corin as Elizabeth Bennet, Jack Lowden as Mr Darcy, and Olivia Colman as Mrs Bennet, and Rufus Sewell as Mr Bennet. I confess that Rufus Sewell as Mr Bennet strikes me as a bit of a stretch, but at least the early photographs of the female cast look hopeful.

There’s no word on when that series will be completed but, in the meantime, we can look forward to a new movie of Sense and Sensibility due for release in September 2026. The cast includes Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor Dashwood, Esme Creed-Miles as Marianne Dashwood, Caitriona Balfe (of Outlander fame) as Mrs Dashwood, Herbert Nordrum as Colonel Brandon, and Frank Dillane as that cad John Willoughby. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing what actress Fiona Shaw will do with the wonderful gossipy character of Mrs Jennings.

Only nine months to wait …

Reading not writing

2024 has been a year of way more reading than writing (hence the year lag in making this post!). However, as my head turns back to writing, I thought I’d give you a taster of the reading that piqued my interest over the last twelve months. Here are three recommendations if you’re interested in fiction. (I’ve also picked three non-fiction ones to talk about in my next post.)

In no particular order, they are … (drum roll) …

  1. Here one moment by Liane Moriarty, Macmillan Australia, 2024

The premise of Liane Moriarty’s book was so interesting I was prompted to make an impulse purchase. The story opens on a plane flight as a seemingly ordinary older woman moves along the aisle, telling passengers at random how and when they’ll die.

Unusually for a  mystery by this author, this isn’t an interconnected series of threads that culminates with an ‘aha’ ending. Instead, the novel asks how hearing these revelations will shape the future decisions of the characters, including their effect on the life of the woman who found herself making the predictions. It took me a little while to let go wanting a whodunnit but, once I did, I enjoyed the explorations of each character as a reality-bound way to think about deeper philosophical questions (‘who am I?’, ‘why are we here?’).

Of course, as you’d expect from Liane Moriarty, the prose writing is crisp and a pleasure to read. If you’re prepared for something on the more reflective side, I can recommend it.

I’ve recommended the Slow Horses series by Mick Herron before, and it’s great to see so many people enjoying the television adaptation. Herron’s latest book is ‘The Secret Hours’ and the press associated with it spent a lot of time trying to tell us that it was a standalone publication. Don’t believe a word of it. I don’t want to spoil the plot twists but perhaps knowing that the story is set in Berlin before the wall came down might point to the two Slow Horses characters you’ve always wanted to know more about. The writing is tight yet poetically evocative (as is always the case with Herron), and the audiobook is read by Sean Barrett, whose dry gravelly voice catches every nuance.

Yes, I’m obsessed with Philip Pullman’s two series about the nature of ‘Dust’, i.e., the development of human consciousness. I’ve read the three volumes of ‘His Dark Materials’ in paperback, ebook, and listened to the audio book recordings read by the author.

However, as much as I enjoy his writing, I don’t think Pullman’s reading stands up to the wonderful reading of his ‘Book of Dust’ by the actor Michael Sheen on the first two volumes currently available in that series (‘La Belle Sauvage’, ‘The Secret Commonwealth’). I’d secretly wished that Michael Sheen might be asked to do another audiobook version of ‘His Dark Materials’.

Lucky for me, Audible have gone one further with a fresh audiobook version of ‘His Dark Materials’ by the inimitable Ruth Wilson, whose acting as the evil Mrs Coulter in the television series was outstanding. So far only ‘Northern Lights’ is available for purchase (which the other two volumes expected in 2025).  Ruth Wilson’s reading breathes life into Lyra’s character and provides a layered performance of all the other characters, including the fascinating Mrs Coulter.

Reading ‘Emergency Skin’

My favourite reading experience of 2023 was catching up with Emergency Skin (a ‘novelette’) by N.K. Jemsin (audiobook narrated by Jason Isaacs), published by Amazon Original Stories, 2019

Jemsin is an award-winning science fiction writer and this story (only one hour’s listening in audiobook form) shows her at her most skilful. Most stories are written in either the third person (he, she, they, it etc) or the first person (I, we, us), however Jemsin has tackled this story in the second person (you). Unlike other attempts I’ve read doing this, she’s got it to work brilliantly for the purposes of this tale.

We are following a man from another planet who has been sent back to Earth to collect the cell cultures that are needed to keep manufacturing the synthetic skin used to protect the humans on the other planet. However, the story unfolds as the AI implanted in the man’s brain tells him what to do as he goes about fulfilling the mission.

‘We should begin with a briefing, since you’re now authorized for Information Level Secret. On its face, this mission is simple: return to the ruined planet Tellus, from which mankind originates. When the Founders realised the world was dying, they …. Fled to a new world circling another sun, so that something of it – the best of it – would survive. …How brave you are to walk in your forefathers’ footsteps!

No, there’s no one left alive on Tellus. The planet was in full environmental collapse …when our people left. There were just too many people, and too many of those were unfit, infirm, too old, or too young. …so we did the only merciful thing we could: we left them behind.

Of course that was mercy. Do you think your ancestors wanted to leave billions of people to starve and suffocate and drown? It was simply that our new home could support only a few.”

N.K. Jemsin, ‘Emergency skin’, p.5 (… indicates ellipted words)

And so the story progresses. We never hear what the man thinks or says but, by the AI’s responses, we know what he is communicating. The AI responses also let us understand what the new world that the man has come from is like – a world where there is only one gender (people now being manufactured), and where a disposable man (like the man in the story) doesn’t have a ‘skin’, he has a ‘composite’ covering and his reward for making this journey to collect skin samples, is to have skin made for him – in the new world only those in power have skin.

My favourite quote is the protest from the AI to the man:

‘Only a few can have everything, don’t you see? What these people believe isn’t feasible. They want everything for everyone, and look at where it’s gotten them! Half of them aren’t even men.”

At one level, we see how the man’s views radically change through the increasingly petulant hysteria of his AI. At a deeper level, Jemsin invites us to realise that to care for each other and the world is not an impossible challenge.

My Favorite Books of 2022

1.

Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St John Mandel (narrated by Arthur Morey, Dylan Moore, John Lee, Kirsten Potter) – Picador, 2022

If you liked her ‘Station Eleven’ (now also a TV miniseries) then you’re going love this. Her beautifully lyrical writing weaves a number of seemingly separate events from the past, present and future together to a cosmic conclusion.

2.

The Island of Sea Women, by Lisa See – Simon & Schuster, 2020

I came to this story with woefully little knowledge about Korea during World War II and in the years that followed. Neither did I know much about the women free divers of the island of Jeju, so this story of the lives of two young girls growing up and working in their diving collection was both gripping and illuminating.

And as a bonus,

3.

Exiles, by Jane Harper (narrated by Steve Shanahan) – Macmillan Australia, 2022

It was such a delight to follow the detective we’ve met in her earlier novels in this cold case mystery.

Listening to books

The best of 2021

The books I read in print form last year were a disappointment so I won’t share the pain. On the other hand, 2021 brought me some fabulous listening pleasure with the following audio books. As usual, I flit between genres so it’s hard to present them in any particular order. Let me know if you enjoyed any of these too!

Top favourite of 2021

Slow Horses: Slough House, book 1 (2010, John Murray Publishers) by Mick Herron

(audio book narrated by Sean Barrett)

In the first book of the series, we meet British MI5 agent River as he is bungling an important training mission. For this, he gets sent to the sad and miserable dumping ground for failed spies, Slough House.  However, it is River’s boss, Jackson Lamb, who captures our attention for the series. Fat, farting, swearing, smoking, and without a politically correct bone in his body, Lamb torments River and his fellow failures. The plot is intriguing and the writing witty. Best of all, the BBC is currently filming some of the series, with the wonderful Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, in a cast that includes Kristen Scott-Thomas and Jonathan Pryce.

Best light fare for 2021—two contenders

  1. The Thursday Murder Club (2020, Viking Press) by Richard Osman

(audiobook narrated by Lesley Manville, Richard Osman, Marian Keyes)

Having seen Richard Osman being amusingly knowledgeable on British television game shows, I was intrigued to hear that he’d written a few cosy crime novels. The setting is a retirement village where (shock and horror) the residents are anything but sweet senior citizens. With a ‘Midsomer Murders’ sort of plot, this novel was very much in the style of the author’s personality: clever, warm, with a few unexpected twists and turns.

(audiobook narrated by Zara Ramm)

This is a continuation of a consistently amusing series that is among my favourites. The Time Police were the bad guys in the original ‘Chronicles of St Mary’s’ Series, which is all about historians who ‘investigate major historical events in contemporary time’ (i.e., time travel, but don’t let our heroes hear you say that). In the Time Police series, we follow three raw recruits who don’t fit the usual tough guy Time Police mold.  In this book, they’ve graduated and are doing things in their own hilarious way.

Best Young Adult fiction for 2021

The Rest of Us Just Live Here (2015, Quill Tree Books) by Patrick Ness

(audiobook narrated by James Fouhey)

What happens if you’re the teenagers in the background while the superhero kids go head to head with zombie monsters and mysterious blue lights? This novel uses this fun premise to explore sadder themes that are all too real for adolescents. The writing is tight and the characters are compelling—definitely worth a look.

Best dystopia for 2021

Metro 2033 (2005, English edition Gollancz) by Dmitry Glukhovsky

(audiobook narrated by Rupert Degas)

The novel, originally written in Russian, inspired a widely popular video game. Translated into English, I loved how ‘Russian’ it still felt. Basically, the world above ground has been destroyed and contaminated by nuclear fallout. Our hero, Artyom, lives in the Moscow Metro system where every train station has evolved into its own State while subjected to the ever present threat of the mutant monsters that lurk above. Artyom is entrusted with a quest to deliver an important message. His journey is a post-apocalyptic odyssey where new characters emerge to help or hinder the battles he must fight as he navigates his way through the underground. Warning: it is long, but then—it is Russian!

Best non-fiction for 2021

Educated (Windmill Books, 2018) by Tara Westover

(audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan)

This memoir tells how the author grew up in the back blocks of Idaho, raised in a Mormon family which was dominated by her father whose survivalist ideology became increasingly bizarre and damaging to his wife and children. It’s a grim tale, but written evocatively in a way that allows us to sense the inner resilience that burned within the author who eventually found her way out to engage with formal education and a wider world view.

And finally,

Best re-read for 2021

The Lord of the Rings (1955, Allen & Unwin) by J.R.R. Tolkien

(audiobook narrated by Andy Serkis)

Really, what is there to say? I’ve listened to a couple of versions of Lord of the Rings, but I think Andy Serkis (aka Gollum) is the best narrator. My only complaint is the songs….I confess I skip these when reading LoTR, but I can’t do that in an audiobook very successfully, and Serkis’ singing isn’t up to his voice acting level. Still, good on him for being authentic, I guess!

Quaint old age?

I blame book clubs. If you belong to a library-run book club, you may have noticed a predilection for your reading list to comprise novels with older protagonists. The age range for ‘older’ can be anything from 50 to 80 or more, which is frightening from wherever you are standing on the timeline. These characters are considered remarkable by the miracle of being both older and yet interested and active participants in the world around them. The protagonists are (pick as many as apply):

  • Feisty
  • Quirky
  • Characters (as in ‘she’s a real character’)
  • Eccentric
  • Outspoken (but with a timid sidekick)
  • Timid (but with an outspoken sidekick)

And, almost universally,

  • Stuck in their ways (but will become adventurous by the end).

This is not to say that such books don’t make an entertaining read. They are a pleasant way to spend an effortless afternoon. Amongst my fellow book club members, the consensus ratings of these books were 3/5. Such books are usually well-written and well-edited to achieve that magic page turning quality. However, it’s the underlying characterisation of age that strikes me as open to question.

Here’s a summary of 2018’s teeth-gritting reading, including their publishers’ blurbs (in no particular order):

Hester and Harriet by Hilary Spiers (2015, Allen & Unwin) – genre mystery/’domestic fiction’

‘Hold on to your tea cups – you’re about to fall head over heels for Hester and Harriet, whose quiet and ordered Christmas celebrations are turned upside down with the arrival of their runaway teenage nephew and a young refugee woman and her baby.’

It wasn’t until I was about half-way into this book that I realised the ‘elderly’ sisters were in their early 60s.

The Fence by Meredith Jaffe (2016, Macmillan)

 ‘Gwen Hill has lived on Green Valley Avenue all her adult life. Here she brought her babies home, nurtured her garden and shared life’s ups and downs with her best friend and neighbour, Babs. So when Babs dies and the house next door is sold, Gwen wonders how the new family will settle into the quiet life of this cosy community. …Soon the neighbours are in an escalating battle that becomes about more than just council approvals, and boundaries aren’t the only things at stake.’

Jaffe teeters between a savage and insightful recognition of the realities of ageing (for example, the care of a dementing husband) and satirical farce as events compound as the older characters behave in increasingly irrational ways.

Lost & Found by Brooke Davis (2015, Hachette)

‘At seven years old, Millie Bird realises that everything is dying around her. She wasn’t to know that after she had recorded twenty-seven assorted creatures in her Book of Dead Things her dad would be a Dead Thing, too. Agatha Pantha is eighty-two and has not left her house since her husband died. She sits behind her front window, hidden by the curtains and ivy, and shouts at passers-by, roaring her anger at complete strangers. Until the day Agatha spies a young girl across the street. Karl the Touch Typist is eighty-seven when his son kisses him on the cheek before leaving him at the nursing home. As he watches his son leave, Karl has a moment of clarity. He escapes the home and takes off in search of something different. Three lost people needing to be found. But they don’t know it yet. Millie, Agatha and Karl are about to break the rules and discover what living is all about.’

This book distinguishes itself from the others by attempting to embrace the sexuality of the older person. However, when Agatha and Karl fall to their knees and make passionate love in the sandy desert, our book club members were unanimous in shrieking: not on the ground!!

The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree by Susan Wittig Albert (2010, Berkley)

 ‘The good old ladies of Darling, Alabama, are determined to keep their town beautiful. The Darling Dahlias garden club is off to a good start until rumors of trouble at a bank, an escaped convict, and a ghost digging around their tree surface. If anyone can get to the root of these mysteries, it’s the Darling Dahlias.’

Be warned – it’s a series.

This tendency to view older people as ‘cute’ or ‘dear things’ is the reverse side to the more serious ageist coin where older people are absent, invisible, or fragile/disabled/unwell/burdensome. There has been academic scholarship and debate exploring the perpetuation of ageist stereotypes in literature that is highly relevant to the dark side of this issue. I’d suggest that the lighter side is potentially just as damaging.

Looking at the novels I have endured this year in my book club, I have developed a maxim:

“The younger the author, the quainter the older protagonist.”

The portrayal of older protagonists by older authors is strikingly different. For example, this year we also read 86-year-old John Le Carré’s brilliant return to the world of Smiley and Guillam, ‘A Legacy of Spies (2018, Penguin).

Peter Guillam may be getting hard-of-hearing and he’s not above exploiting perceptions of failing aged memory, but he remains as sharp as his mentor.

If I’m fortunate enough to live as long as Le Carré, I’d love to read the novels that quaint-ifiers write in twenty or more years’ time and see if their characterisation of their protagonists has changed.

Hunt for treasure no more

I’ve been going through a writing lull, so that means that I’ve been making the most of my subscription to Audible. Here’s a brief review my latest find.

‘Treasure Island’ by Robert Louis Stevenson, An Audible Original Drama, adapted by Marty Ross. Length 6 hrs and 26 mins. Performance release date: 17-08-2017 Publisher: Audible Studios

I’d tried reading ‘Treasure Island’ as a child, of course, but never got past the first few chapters. With my writer’s hat on, I can see now why I struggled. The story initially came out in serial form in 1882, so perhaps that explains the long first six chapters to finally get into the heart of the story to set sail for Treasure Island. Even though this dramatised version is an adaptation, I was well and truly over the rum-swilling Billy Bones by the time we heard the sound of Blind Pew’s stick approaching with the doom-laden ‘black spot’. However, this time I stuck with it, largely held by the broad accents of Catherine Tate as Jim’s mother. Her talents alerted me to the usefulness of minor characters in providing humorous commentary on the dramatic action. Another favourite minor character, old Tom Redruth—faithful retainer to the foolish Squire Trelawney—provided a similar commentary on his master in this version.

Catherine Tate

Despite my failure to finish the book in my youth, the rest of the story was familiar through movies and television. However, none of those versions had illuminated the central theme of the story. Typically, the story is told as a coming-of-age journey for Jim who sails as cabin boy on the Hispaniola commissioned by Squire Trelawny, to find the treasure on the map uncovered by Jim and Dr Livesey (played by another very recognisable actor, Philip Glenister). However, just as pivotally, the story unpicks the threads of greed through the portrayal of both the pirates and the more socially-condoned actions of the characters who represent the higher classes (the Squire and the Doctor).

Philip Glenister

Throughout this audio adaptation by Marty Ross, it is this social commentary that is emphasised. It is, of course, very much a 21st century ‘reading’ of the text, but I think it gives the story an intensity that illuminates why Jim’s allegiances shift so often by suggesting something beyond simple adolescent uncertainty or gullibility. In this version, the character of Long John Silver is not only frighteningly charismatic in his machiavellian strategies but also the sower of doubt in Jim’s understanding of right and wrong. For example, it is Silver who points out to Jim that the castaway Ben Gunn won’t receive a fair share of the treasure despite finding it and safeguarding it from others because the Squire and the Doctor will take it from him, under the guise of paternalistic benevolence. By the end of the tale, through his relationship with Silver and his experiences, Jim’s moral compass flickers with questing indeterminacy—he has become his own man.

 

Added note: A version of this appeared in the June newsletter for members of my writing group: Lake Macquarie branch, Fellowship of Australian Writers, NSW.

History Fun

What is it about history that insists on slipping out of your mind (or out of my mind, at least)? History at school was never fun because of the stubborn way that only the most trivial information presented itself at times of crisis, such as during exams.  As a child, I consoled myself with the observation of Sellar (Aegrot: Oxon) and Yeatman (Failed M.A., etc. Oxon) that:

“History is not what you thought. It is what you can remember.”*

Perhaps this is why we enjoy historical fiction so much—it helps bring the past alive in stories that stick. Some writers of historical fiction are so proud of their research that they desiccate their tales to the point where we might just as well read non-fiction (not mentioning any names).  Thankfully, some writers mix and bake their tales with the lightness of a soufflé and Jodi Taylor, author of the Chronicles of St Mary’s, is one such writer.

 

The St Mary’s series (nine novels and numerous short stories by 2018 and still going) is sometimes located within the science fiction genre but it has only one sci-fi premise: that time-travel is possible.  The only other general assumption is that, if anyone is going to do time-travel responsibly, then it’s an historian. The fun comes when we learn that the historians employed at St Mary’s Institute of Historical Research are entirely irresponsible in their all-consuming passion to find out what really happened. They specialise in exploring times that involve historical controversy, anywhere from the time of the dinosaur to recent World Wars. With just a soupçon of romance and sadness, these novels provide an easy way to become absorbed in the past.

They are available in hard and paperback as well as ebook and audiobook (which is how I became acquainted with them—great narration by Zara Ramm). The first of the series is titled, Just One Damned Thing After Another, although there is a short story prequel available, The Very First Damned Thing.

 

______________

*If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading ‘1066 and all that: A memorable history of England, comprising all the parts you can remember, including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings and 2 Genuine Dates’ then I recommend the experience. Amazon has it available very cheaply and there are some free pdfs floating about the internet too.