Event: 'Goodbye Lullaby' Launch

Jan Murray's Goodbye Lullaby was launched tonight by the National Secretary of the AWU Paul Howes and television presenter, model and author Susie Elelman at Shearer's Bookshop.  

Jan's son Christopher Brown introduced the author and the special guests, joking that his family has lived through the trials and tribulations of the novel's protagonists for the last twenty years. Talk-back radio host, regular television guest, controversial panellist on Channel Ten/Foxtel's Beauty & the Beast, and well seasoned writer - Jan perhaps most notably caused quite a scandal when she admitted on 60 Minutes seducing her cabinet minister husband on his parliamentary desk in Canberra.

Susie Elelman shared the story of her father who was a Holocaust survivor, as well as her brother who was conscripted into the Vietnam War, escaping by the skin of his teeth due to flat feet, and subsequently how close to her heart the story of Goodbye Lullaby is.

Paul Howes described his experience as being forcibly adopted and his political drive to rectify the related past wrongs throughout the British Commonwealth. He praised Jan and her novel for tackling the issue of state-sanctioned, widespread and largely undisclosed forceful adoptions. Paul also described with tremendous heartfelt emotion his first meeting with his birth mother - and in Shearer's Bookshop would you believe!

Goodbye Lullaby follows Miki, a young unmarried mother who is forced to give up her child in the 1950s. Two decades later she is a dangerous anti-war activist on the run. She is forced to find her son Dominic as he is conscripted to fight in Vietnam during the 1970s. Miki has his get out jail free card, but has to take on everyone in the process. Goodbye Lullaby is heartbreaking, yet warmly humorous. Murray writes with a fresh and captivating voice, her descriptions as tactile and crisp as a dewy grass knoll.  

Jan gracefully thanked her friends and family for their support and jokingly reminisced with Susie Elelman about their shared time hosting Beauty and the Beast. A special thanks was reserved for Paul Howes' intimate candour. The NSW Government are planning on issuing a formal apology on the 20th September for state-sanctioned forcible adoptions.

Signed copies of Goodbye Lullaby are available at Shearer's while stocks last.

Man Booker Prize 2012 Shortlist

Deborah Levy, Hilary Mantel, Alison Moore, Will Self, Tan Twan Eng and Jeet Thayil are the six shortlisted authors in contention for the Man Booker Prize 2012, which was announced overnight in London.

The judges praised the powerful language and artistry displayed in the six books, whose common themes include old age, memory and loss.

The six books, selected from the longlist of 12, are:

  The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

 Swimming Home by Deborah Levy

 Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

The Lighthouse by Alison Moore

Umbrella by Will Self

 Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil

Of the six authors, two have previously been linked to the prize. Hilary Mantel won the prize in 2009 with Wolf Hall, the first of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, and was longlisted in 2005 for Beyond Black. Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng was longlisted for the prize in 2007 with his debut novel, The Gift of Rain. Four novelists, including Will Self, appear on the list for the first time.

Which of these books are your pick for the 2012 Man Booker Prize? Which ones do you want to read?

Interview: Ambelin Kwaymullina

Ambelin Kwaymullina came to Shearer's to meet our kids book club and talk about her new book 'The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf'. She spoke to Megan about writing and the Australian elements in the book.

'Bradman's War' signed by Malcolm Knox and the last two Invincibles

Cricket fans will love this!

This is a fantastic opportunity to grab a copy of Bradman’s War by Malcolm Knox not only signed by the author, but also by the last two surviving Invincibles, cricket legends Neil Harvey and Arthur Morris. To order your signed copy please call Shearer's on (02) 9572 7766.

Also we have a great event coming up at Oatlands Gold Club, where Malcolm Knox will be speaking about one of the most successful cricketing teams in history. Under the wing of Sir Donald Bradman himself, ‘The Invincibles’ are the only Australians to complete a tour of England undefeated. But what went on behind the scenes during their record-breaking wins?

A three course dinner will be served on the night, followed by a discussion and very special question and answer session with one of the two Invincible team members, cricket icon Arthur Morris. 

The evening will be held at
Oatlands Golf Club, Bettington Road, Oatlands
Single Ticket $95, Family Double Ticket $155, Family of Three $215
(incl. 3 course dinner and 1 signed copy of Bradman’s War).

Bookings Essential. Please call Oatlands Golf Club 9630 1260 or Shearer’s Bookshop 9572 7766

Event: Patrick Gale 4th September

 Last night we had a return visit from the wonderful Patrick Gale to discuss his latest book A Perfectly Good Man. Patrick explained that it had been conceived as a companion piece to his earlier book Notes on an Exhibition. The central idea of that book was of the difficulty in growing up with a mother who was a mad genius, and in A Perfectly Good Man the madness is on the father’s side.

Barnaby Johnson, the central character, is not just a priest; he is a man who has devoted his life to being as good as he possibly can and inevitably that flows over onto his wife and children.

It’s a kind of moral thriller. At the beginning of the novel when Barnaby prays for the dying Lenny’s soul instead of calling an ambulance, it leads to his having to justify his actions as well as the power of prayer at the inquest, which shows bravery in an age where priests are considered as mere social workers. But Barnaby stands up for what it’s really about.

On another level it’s also a thriller because of a frightening stalker, Modest Carlsson who seems to be excited by death and whose main aim in life is to destroy the “good” Barnaby. Gale told us that he wanted to write about a person who doesn’t realise how his actions affect others.

Patrick regaled us with some humorous stories, saying that the character of Carlsson was based on a woman he had worked with and who displayed many of the traits described in Carlsson. He explained that he has become a spokesperson for the Quakers since Notes on an Exhibition was published, despite not being a Quaker himself, and that he had appeared twice on the cover of a church magazine, much to his very religious mother’s delight!

Patrick Gale described how he wanted to have the book spiralling backwards into Barnaby’s roots and troubled teens and childhood to find out what the answer to his need to be “good” might be. So the book moves in two directions at once (as did Notes on an Exhibition) and he wanted each chapter to feel as contained as a short story.

In the end the novel is about much more than religion. It’s really about family as most of Gale’s books are, and about the dynamics of the family. Gale revealed that his next novel would continue this theme of family in a more personal way since receiving some letters written between his mother and grandmother in the 1950’s concerning a family mystery.

We await his next offering with baited breath!

- Jane

September Books of the Month: 15% off the RRP!!

When Genres Attack!: 50 Shades of Chic Lit

When Genres Attack!: 50 Shades of Chic Lit : Thursday 7pm September 13 

When Genres Attack is back and it's going to be a hot night at Shearer's. Anita Heiss, Lisa Heidke and Susan Johnson, three writers with over 25 books between them, will be talking about the books women write, the books women read and the C word - Chick Lit, Choc Lit and Chook Lit.

To get the conversation flowing for the event Lisa Heidke is guest blogging today. If you think MWF just stands for Melbourne Writers Festival, then read on.

Chick lit does not mean dumb lit.

If you believe the criticism, chick lit is light and unimportant, with storylines routinely revolving around shoes, shopping and champagne. In other words, all fluff.

But that’s too simplistic. In the main, these books have great emotional depth. They are about relationships, not just romantic relationships, but about women and how they relate to friends, parents, siblings, children...about the friendships, crises and circumstances that challenge us every day.

Perhaps chick lit is a lazy term used to lump everything written by and for women together but it seems a consistent genre novels like mine get placed in.

Generally, the themes of well-written chick lit or modern women’s fiction centre on issues real people face every day. For example, I primarily write about women in their thirties triumphing over adversity. My books deal with real life issues like infidelity, divorce, teenage sexuality, flagging careers and aging parents, honestly, but with humour, and there’s always a hopeful ending.

The ending won’t be perfect because real life never is, but it’s generally hopeful. I like to think that my characters have learned something along the way and are better placed to face the future.

Other Australian authors exploring these themes include Anita Heiss, whose novels, Not Meeting Mr Right, Avoiding Mr Right, Manhattan Dreaming and Paris Dreaming have been called ‘Koori chick lit’ or as Anita’s friends say, ‘chock lit’.

Anita says, ‘I am strategically conscious of the audience I am writing for. I want to connect with Australian women readers of commercial fiction (which is what I prefer to call it), particularly those who have never engaged with Aboriginal women, arts, culture or society generally. I want them to connect through stories about relationships and the things we have in common as women, our shared human emotions of love, heartache, fear of rejection and so on. And I want to demonstrate the strength of women’s friendships across cultures.’

Authors like Anita, Susan Johnson, Dianne Blacklock, Liane Moriarty, Ilsa Evans and myself are covering similar territory according to our backgrounds and interests, albeit with our own particular brand or style. I write about themes that interest me and hope that my readers find them interesting too. If I choose wrongly, if a reader isn’t interested, or if my writing isn’t good enough, my sales will suffer. I totally accept that. But I don’t accept that women writers should constantly have to justify what they are writing about.

Because generally, we cop a beating from the critics. These novels, like novels written by men such as Nick Hornby and Nick Earls deal with similar issues...yet do we call their books lad lit or dick lit? Occasionally, I will if I’m trying to make a point, but generally, their books are just called fiction. Nick Earls gets a lot of print reviews, media coverage...mostly positive...would he get as much attention if his name was Nicola?

Maybe publishers don’t pigeonhole male writers because there’s perceived to be less of it written...or it’s classified as action or adventure ...or just fiction, but never men’s fiction and certainly not romance.
Maybe it’s all about marketing, but there doesn’t seem to be an existing stigma against a book written by a male about a guy trying to deal with a messy breakup, career struggles etc where there is one against a book written by a woman dealing with similar issues.

And I’m not sure why...

However, I believe women’s contemporary fiction and chick lit as a genre is constantly evolving. These books are now regularly dealing with meatier, weightier issues because as writers we like to push boundaries.  Also, readers are demanding more from these stories: more depth, more intrigue, and more humanity and writers are embracing and enjoying the challenge of dealing with compelling subjects within the confines of a good story, with realistic, likeable characters.

Trends will come and go. But regardless of the label  - chick lit, hen lit, chock lit, Koori lit, farm lit – women’s contemporary fiction or plain old fiction - people will always love a good story that addresses deep, universal themes – love, loss, family, and the meaning of life.

For me, writing chick lit is about keeping a balance between what I want to write, what readers want to read and what publishers believe will sell a novel. (Given the current popularity of rural romance and erotic fiction, I probably should be writing rural cliterature – it’s a thought!)

So, no. I don’t believe chick lit is an inferior form of fiction, nor is it dumb or unimportant. The majority of it is well-written, relevant and engaging, with storylines and characters that stay with me long after I have finished the last page.

When Genres Attack!: 50 Shades of Chic Lit : Thursday 7pm September 13 at Shearer's Bookshop, 99 Norton St, Leichhart

Tickets: $10 adults, $8 frequent shoppers. Bookings are essential for this event. Purchase your tickets in store, or by calling Shearer's on (02) 9572 7766.