Which children’s book are you
currently reading?
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey.
Can you tell us in two
sentences what the book is about?
Set
in a small Australian town, Jasper Jones is the story of a scholarly boy
who finds himself embroiled in a ghoulish mystery. It holds up a mirror to
prejudice that exists just below the surface (and often much more prominently)
in many Australian communities. The Monthly described it as Australia’s To
Kill a Mockingbird, which is a huge call and bang on point.
How much did you enjoy/are
enjoying this title?
It’s
pacey, it’s empathetic and it did for me the thing I look for most in a book;
it gave me a deeper insight into the human condition. Can you ask more from a
story than that? I don’t think so. At the same time, it is deliciously
Australian, so it feels a little like pulling on a familiar cardigan, that fits
and smells just right (even if you are little embarrassed to be seen in
it).
My
son read it as a text for school and came home wide-eyed and excited about the
story. I just HAD to know what was between the covers of a YA book that had my
teenage boy (who usually reads nothing but fantasy) so enthralled. I wanted to
better understand what interested him but found myself swiftly falling down the
rabbit hole too.
What other titles are on your
bedside table /To Read Pile?
The Testaments (which I confess to be deeply disappointed up to date, despite being a
HUGE Margaret Atwood fan.) Nine Perfect Strangers, by Liane Moriarty and
Berlin:
Portrait of a City Through the Centuries by Rory Maclean
How did you come by these
titles: personal choice/request, publisher’s review copy, or other?
Personal
choice and the recommendations of friends.
Do you have a favourite genre?
If so, what is it, and why do you prefer it?
Historical
fiction. I am a sucker for using personal narratives to travel through the worm
hole of time to understand what it might have been like in another era. The mix
of story and good old fashioned sleeves-rolled-up research, appeals to the
would-be journalist in me. Geraldine Brooks is a god! I am fascinated that she moved
from a career as a foreign correspondent, where she felt readers where unmoved
by the social injustices she uncovered, to historical fiction in a bid to
foster better understanding of the world around us.
Do you read from printed books
or some other medium? Please expand a little on the why of your choice.
A bit of everything. I still like print books, but when I travel I use an ereader
to minimise weight (and to sneakily make the text bigger to maintain the illusion
that I don’t REALLY need glasses! I am a huge consumer of audio books as well. There
never seems to be enough hours in the day and listening to a wonderful story
while doing something I would rather not do (like exercising or cleaning the
house) is a great guilt-free way to make more time for books.
