International Women’s Day Event

Kirsten Tranter

Every year on International Women’s Day (IWD) thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. A global web of rich and diverse local activity connects women from all around the world ranging from political rallies, business conferences, local theatrical performances, fashion parades though to a literary panel at your local Leichhardt bookstore.

Jane Gleeson-White

On the eve of International Women’s Day, Shearer’s Bookshop will host a conversation about the role of gender in the literary world. The event is one way Shearer’s participates in IWD’s aim of 'thinking globally and acting locally'. The panel, which includes the crime writer Lenny Bartulin (De Luxe), author and editor Jane Gleeson-White (Australian Classics), literary agent Sophie Hamley and author and critic Emily Maguire (Smoke in the Room), will be chaired by the author Kirsten Tranter (The Legacy and Common Loss) who is also co-founder of the Stella Prize, an annual literary award that promotes and recognises women’s writing in Australia.

Lenny Bartulin

Supporting women writers is still an important and relevant action in the new millennium. As the IWD website points out, “(m)any from a younger generation feel that 'all the battles have been won for women' [however, the] unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women's education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.”

Emily Maguire

In light of this, the International Women's Day event at Shearer's will talk about whether gender disparities influence the world of literature; and if so, how? The evening will also be a celebration of women and writing - just looking at the list of speakers on our panel and their work it is clear that Australia has a lot to be proud of. 

International Women's Day Event

Shearer's Bookshop - 99 Norton St, Leichhardt

Wednesday, March 7 from 7.30 – 8.30

Free refreshments

10% of all book purchases on the night

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

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Everyday Kindness - An Evening with Stephanie Dowrick

“… it’s in your power to increase other people’s joy … through random acts of kindness.”

Stephanie Dowrick has been Shearer’s Bookshop’s first author event for each of the last three years. As the New Year ticks over, we are more reflective, have more aspirations and are more inspired – qualities that are enriched and encouraged by Stephanie’s writing and her words. As expected, the evening held to discuss her new book, Everyday Kindness, was full of insights that were delivered with Stephanie’s innate warmth, openness and generosity.

Everyday Kindness explores the nature of kindness and the role it can play in creating happiness within your life and the lives of others. Stephanie explained that there has been a consistent theme vividly emerging in her work over the last seven years which is how the quality of your connections with other people, arising from the way you see yourself, determines your happiness. For her, and I’m sure many other, it is a timely theme - often we don’t know quite what we’re hungry for until we receive it.

As with all Stephanie’s books, Everyday Kindness does not preach or instruct. Stephanie wants to avoid giving the public advice and instead sees her writing balancing on a precipice between sharing wealth, knowledge and her vast life experience (a life that includes 30 years of writing, being a minister, retreat leader and psycho analyst). This unique approach is expressed in Stephanie’s choice to use narrative to share her ideas. By bringing to life the substantial ideas of kindness, the reader can more readily envision a how to reach a kinder life. Through story and reflection she hopes to waken up a depth of possibility that our everyday encounters don’t quite match and don’t quite meet.

The encouragement that Stephanie’s books give the reader are necessary to evaluate and possibly change habits of thinking that get in the way of our goals. After all, Stephanie explains, kindness is both a concept and a value that only comes to life when it is activated by us. Such activation requires us to recognise that we can choose the paths our life follows and that these choices are highly relevant to our relationships and who we become.

We all know we must make significant choices in our life, but it is less easy to know how to we cultivate the confidence to make choices that in turn cultivate happiness and others. It seems simple, but often we need the courage to do what is going well and to do more of it; and similarly, to make choices about things that haven’t been going well in the past and unlikely to get better in the future.

Stephanie pointed out that we all share a condition – human life. From that, we can try to understand each other and learn to show our appreciation for one another more overtly. Stephanie believes that much of the sorrow over the agonies of loss of self and loss of self confidence stems from the need for appreciation and the inability to appreciate the gift of one’s own life. When we express happiness we lift our spirit and the spirits of others. Appreciation through kindness is the most valuable form of currency. Stephanie ended the evening with a reminder that kindness is strength, not weakness – it takes absolutely no strength at all to be nasty. 

Written by Natalie

 

  

Other books by Stephanie Dowrick :

Video Interview: Eva Katzler

Today British musician-turned-Picture book author Eva Katzler stopped by to have a chat with us! Here she is discussing her upcoming book, Florentine and Pig Have a Very Lovely Picnic.

Florentine and Pig will be released in Australia in July. The book is full of recipes and crafts for children to create and there are tons of these on the website!
http://www.florentineandpig.com/

A Brief Chat With Peter Griffen

With the launch of his new book upon us, we posed artist Peter Griffen these questions about his process.

Further celebrating In And Out of Abstraction, Peter will be hosting an event on Tuesday February 28th at 7pm, at his studio in Emma St, Leichhardt. Peter will open his studio and demonstrate what goes in to creating a piece of art, with wine and nibbles for the audience.

Tickets are $18 (or $15 for Frequent Shoppers) and available by calling Shearer's on 9572 7766.

How would you describe your work?
I work in an abstract “dreaming” way in my studio. When on location, en plein air, I respond directly to the landscape in front of me. I see the latter activity as serious painting, and also “note taking” for my studio abstract work.
My work is usually colourful and energetic, reflecting my buoyant positive approach to life. At times it is quite non-representational, at other times recognisable symbols and shapes appear. The en plein air work is of a more traditional format.

Where is it that you find your inspiration?
Mainly in the landscape; Central Australia, The Kimberley, opal mining sites, farm yards and estuaries are most important.
I am slowly becoming more interested in the human figure and still life subjects. You’ve spent some time on the land and working with Indigenous artists.

Did this influence your recent works in any way?
All art influences me in some way. Australian Indigenous art does influence me in terms of its “look” but more in it’s “message”. Also I do like to include a feeling in my work that there is a group of people living in this land that are very close to the land, so much so, that they seem part of it. I use symbols and marks that appear to have their influence to do this.

You exhibit all over Australia and the world. How do Australian patrons compare to the rest of the world?
I find a similarity in people throughout the world in most ways and when it comes to buying art. Abstract art challenges people throughout the world just as it challenges Australians. People seem to buy more readily if they have heard of you or are well promoted, and so on. The one consistent thing throughout the world is diversity of taste.
I have heard that Australians generally speaking only buy Australian art. Perhaps this is a difference then, because I have sold quite a lot of paintings to the French and the English. Perhaps in Europe people are more open to, or more fascinated by, artwork "foreign"?

We are holding an event in your studio at the end of February. What will people find
when they visit your studio? Do they have access to all areas of your workspace?
People will surprisingly find a large exciting space and will feel free to investigate it once they are over the initial impact. There will be lots of paintings to see, including our own collection of other artist’s work. My wife, Denise, is a textile artist and her work will be on display as will her studio too.
Our workspace is our home. This will be quite apparent and we welcome all.

Is there an etiquette for visiting an artist’s studio? Like, don’t touch and don’t run?
Relax, enjoy and just say nice things, please.....
What do you want people to take away from the experience?
Happiness mainly and something learnt. I hope that some will have more idea of what goes on in an artist’s head, how decisions are made, what drives them, etc.; why someone like me writes a book about my art, why not just paint?

Currawalli Street by Christopher Morgan

Christopher Morgan’s first novel, The Island of Four Rivers, is characterised by a distinct humour and inherent sense of hope - qualities that carry through to Morgan’s second novel, Currawalli Street.


Following three generations of families living along Currawalli Street from 1914 – 1972, Morgan creates a touching and engaging story about friendship, secrets and love through characters whose lives are punctuated and shaped by war. It is a modern classic that gently draws you in on the first page and stays with you well after the last.

To celebrate and support Currawalli Street’s  release, Allen and Unwin are donating 50 cents from every copy sold to charities selected by various bookstores. We at Shearer’s have chosen Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect) - a not-for-profit organisation committed to helping people on the autism spectrum achieve their potential. Aspect builds confidence and capacity with people on the autism spectrum, their families and their communities by providing services such as educational outreach, a parent support network and family and information services.

 

Currawalli Street is available now and thanks to Allen & Unwin, 50 cents from every copy sold in Shearer's Bookshop will go to Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect).

The Chemistry of Tears: Review

Despite Peter Carey winning two Man Booker Prizes (The History of the Kelly Gang and Oscar and Lucinda), I can’t help but notice the trepidation with which many people approach his novels. Since the release of The Chemistry of Tears I have had several conversations about this in which people admit to having extremely varied reactions to Carey’s writing - loving some books but failing to find a way in with others. Similarly, I admit that I was curious but wary of The Chemistry of Tears. However, two days after starting the book I had finished it and many days after that I was still thinking about it. So to any of you that are hesitating over, or flat out resisting, The Chemistry of Tears, stop. This book is good. Really good.

Catherine, an horologist (expert in timepieces) who works at London’s Swinburne Museum, discovers that her secret lover of almost ten years has died. She falls into a reckless and self-destructive grief from which Eric, Catherine’s colleague and only person who knows of her affair, tries to save her. He gives her a project to restore a 19^th century automaton through which she finds a series of notebooks amongst the boxes of mechanical parts. They are the journals of Henry Brandling. Henry is a wealthy gentleman who embarks on a journey to have an automaton duck built for his sick son. He travels to a foreign land where he meets the opportunistic and eccentric Sumper and a mysterious mother and child who take Henry’s money and faith in order to service their own visions; and so the second part of Chemistry of Tears falls into place. Carey weaves together two seemingly disparate stories into one cohesive narrative on the nature of grief and love. It is in this structure that I have my one criticism of the book. The danger of a narrative alternating between stories is that the reader will prefer one story to the other. Indeed, I found myself looking forward to Catherine’s story more.

Chemistry of Tears is a confronting commentary on the high place that machines occupy in everyday life. Carey is making the point that machines, whether it be cars, automatons, “frankenpods” (smartphones), the internet and computers, are the new gods in today’s society; it is in them that we place our faith and emotions, it is through them that we express how we feel. Brandling tries to save his son through a mechanical duck and Catherine’s affair is represented by emails trapped on a work laptop and a second-hand car that the two lovers restored together. On a more dire level, the BP Gulf of Mexico spill is ominously present in the later half of the book - a tragic and insistent reminder of the destruction that can occur when technology becomes too powerful and too trusted. If machines are our gods, then the oil spill is a plague that has been inflicted on the earth; the price we have to pay.

The pace and tension of the novel is heightened by Amanda, a beautiful assistant who is placed on the project to monitor Catherine’s behaviour, yet who also proves to be unstable herself. She is an important addition to the book, taking it beyond Catherine and Henry’s grief and yearning to into the realm of a thought-provoking perspective on the relationship between technology and society, and technology and the individual. 

Carey’s novels hooked me on two levels. I was drawn to the raw emotion of Catherine’s grief and the subtler version of loss in Henry; yet I was also engaged by the larger arguments swirling around in the background - many of which I have yet to put together, but will attempt to do so on a second reading. 

Reviewed by Nat

The Chemistry of Tears is available now and one of our Shearer's Books of the Month.