A Smorgasbord of Literature

The giveaway is a copy of Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser

Dear Readers,

I spent the weekend in Tathra for the Headland Writers Festival and holy smokes it was such a great shot in the arm. The whales go past the coast there on their way down to Antarctica (relevant to my interests!) and the crowds at the literary events were so thoughtful.

I know I did a ‘round-up’ of new releases last week, but there’s more here now—one I I saw at the festival and some gems from my PO box. October is the biggest month in the publishing calendar, so it’s natural to feel a bit of overwhelm. Start thinking of which of these you might like to take to the beach? Which might make great gifts? I, for one, am particularly proud of and excited about how much strong Australian writing is being published this month.

My ‘bad review’ is critical essay. It’s paywalled just to prevent any possibility of the old bad-faith-actors screenshot-and-tag bullshit. That means the giveaways are there below the paywall too. (Nudge nudge.) You got what you voted for last week—hooray!

Best wishes and happy reading,

Bri

Next Week’s Livestream! Spoiler Alert is Happening!

I don’t know exactly how it’s going to unfold—we’re on this journey together—but I’ve got a great feeling about it.

Here are the basics:

• We’re going live at 6.30pm Sydney time. Wednesday 30 October.

• I’ll send the Zoom link out in next week’s edition and also drop it in the ‘Livestreams’ chat room on the day.

• When we’ve wrapped up, producer Sam is going to edit and package it so that it’s nice to listen to for those who couldn’t make it.

• We’ll talk about both Rapture and Intermezzo. And I’m asking you all the question: what do you actually want out of a novel?

• It’s called Spoiler Alert because we will talk about the whole books—including the endings! (Perhaps, dare I say it, especially the endings.)

• If you’ve got a question about Rapture you’d like Emily Maguire to answer via voice memo, please drop it in the Google form here.

• If you can’t attend the livestream, or you feel too nervous to put your hand up live, please leave me a voice memo here. (It’s super easy—especially on mobile.) Just say ‘Hi Bri, my name is xxx and…’ Then a question for me, or a comment about either novel, or the answer to what you’re looking for in a novel. Or anything!

All of this is for paying subscribers. Paying subscribers are automatically considered Five Star Nerds, obviously. Spoiler Alert group chat livestream community time zone is special. We’re going to get feedback from you about what you love and tweak it for round two. Thank you to those of you who make this space possible.

Good News

1. The World Health Organization has declared that Egypt is officially malaria free. So huge! I’m going to leave it to Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General to contextualise and celebrate: ‘Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilization itself, but the disease that plagued pharaohs now belongs to its history and not its future. This certification of Egypt as malaria-free is truly historic, and a testament to the commitment of the people and government of Egypt to rid themselves of this ancient scourge. I congratulate Egypt on this achievement, which is an inspiration to other countries in the region, and shows what’s possible with the right resources and the right tools.’ Did you know that genetic evidence of malaria was found in Tutankhamun? We love science!

2. A sulphur-crested cockatoo named Mickey that had been ‘living on brioche’ inside Coles in Campbelltown for a month has been captured by wildlife services and will now be set free. My favourite part of this story is that they brought in another cockatoo named Old Lady Doris, hoping Mickey ‘would be reassured by her presence’.

3. The producers of Blade Runner 2049 are suing Elon Musk (and associated companies) for using their IP. As the BBC report, they had ‘specifically denied a request from Warner Bros to use material from the film at the launch event for Tesla’s long-awaited robotaxi,’ and so the Tesla people just whipped up an AI version and tried to get away with it. A step-by-step repeat of OpenAI using a Scarlett Johansson sound-alike voice after she refused. I normally don’t like how litigious America is, but I’m glad the creatives are suing these assholes. Also, re: Musk loving Blade Runner 2049, I am reminded of how Christian Porter had a tattoo of an Xwing Starfighter from Star Wars—a symbol of the rebel alliance. The supreme irony these men are incapable of understanding is that they are not the ‘good guys’. Main character energy off the fucking charts. You just know that Musk fancies himself a Gosling-esque hero against a decaying horizon line.

   

Bad News

1. In a combination of the two biggest conflicts currently raging, Putin is preventing aid getting to Gaza. As the Guardian reports, British intelligence suggested Russia had ‘stepped up its attacks on Ukrainian ports’ and that Putin was ‘willing to gamble on global food security’ after several grain ships en route to developing countries were damaged by Russian strikes. And now Israel are saying they’re considering hiring private contractors to deliver aid to Gaza? As Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International told the Guardian, ‘The US, during the peak “war on terror” era, occasionally experimented with military contractors and this kind of militarised aid delivery, and it was always a disaster.’

2. Bruce Lehrmann gets a step closer to an actual appeal. As reported in the SMH, ‘Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson had asked the Federal Court to order Lehrmann, now an unemployed law student, to pay [$200,000] to ensure he would cover some of their legal costs if his [appeal] failed.’ But the Court wouldn’t make that order. I’m not sure why, considering that when Lehrmann lost his defamation trial it came with a $2 million bill and he hasn’t paid any of it yet. We’re still awaiting the verdict from Linda Reynold’s lawsuit against Brittany Higgins too. Fingers crossed these things resolve—and stay resolved—before the end of the year.

3. This is a little shout-out to my Five Star Nerd Katie from Townsville, who alerted me—back in April—to the Mayor they’ve got up there. As the Guardian Australia report, this guy ‘won office in March with the backing of conspiracy theory group My Place Townsville, has admitted to embellishing his military record, and also that he “never completed” university as he had claimed during the campaign.’ The Queensland government took steps to try to remove him three weeks ago but he’s fighting to stay. This is a friendly reminder for any Australians who think a Trump-style obvious liar ‘couldn’t happen here’. He already did!

Good Reviews

1. The highlight of the Headland Writers Festival for me was getting to hear nature writing legend Inga Simpson speak about her new novel, The Thinning. Set in a near-and-likely alternative future right here in Australia, astrophotographers and astronomers are now living ‘off the grid, always on amber alert and always ready to run’. I am so so keen for all things eco-thriller. The book is officially released this coming weekend, so put in your pre-orders and your name on your library’s waitlist. Simpson spoke about one of the catalysts for the novel being this interview on the On Being podcast with naturalist and journalist Michael McCarthy. The ‘thinning’ of the title refers to the gradual-yet-rapid loss of biodiversity we’re seeing across the planet right now, in our lifetimes.

   

2. Two of my dear friends have new books out and are touring right now. Lech Blaine’s memoir, Australian Gospel, is finally here. And Rick Morton’s coverage of robodebt is called Mean Streak: A moral vacuum, a dodgy debt generator and a multi-billion-dollar government shake down - the powerful story of robodebt. Blaine’s appearances are listed on his website here, and in true Morton style he hasn’t done anything as organised as that, but you can google ‘Rick Morton event’ plus [your city] and you’ll see the results.

3. Waiting for the results of the 2024 Booker prize feels like, maybe, the way lots of people feel watching the Olympics? Togetherness? Competition? The judges said this about Stone Yard Devotional and I was shooketh in agreement: ‘The novel is set in a claustrophobic environment and reveals the vastness of human minds: the juxtaposition is so artfully done that a reader feels trusted by the author to be an intellectual partner in this exchange, rather than a passive recipient of stories and messages.’ (Maybe that’s what your voice memo could be about? Whether something you want from fiction is to feel like an ‘intellectual partner’?) Anyways, the Booker Prize have employed a bunch of famous excellent actors to make little films out of excerpts of the books, and you can watch them all here. The one for Stone Yard Devotional gave me goosebumps:

Bad Review

First of all, let’s get this straight: I read a lot of books I don’t like and a lot of books I think are flawed or simply ‘not for me’, and most of them don’t get a ‘bad review’. Why? Because I don’t want to punch down. Even when I think there’s a lesson to be learned or a fascinating point to discuss, if a book is only an author’s first or second work, and if they don’t have the kind of platform I have, then I find it difficult to pull the trigger. This has been a pain point for me in making News & Reviews for about two years now, and it’s why I’m so willing to go hard on a big title by a big author. The most recent example was the new Lionel Shriver.

I Read the New Lionel Shriver So You Don't Have To

This week, it’s the new Zoë Foster Blake novel, Things Will Calm Down Soon. I’m not critiquing the book because Foster Blake is so successful. (That’s called being a petty idiot and a bad feminist.) Foster Blake is a millionaire with almost twenty books and at least one TV adaptation. That makes this a rare opportunity for me to engage critically with a novel without any possible risk of punching down, and I’m going to take it to ask some difficult questions.