Newsletter

February 2012 at Jeffreys Books
I’m guessing that you receive this newsletter because you love to read. You probably seek information on books from many sources – newspapers, radio and friends, for example. And you probably read for pleasure, learning, research and work. I was surprised to read a statistic that there ‘…are 46% of Australians who can't read newspapers; follow a recipe; make sense of timetables, or understand the instructions on a medicine bottle’. To address thisNational Libraries and library associations have instigated the National Year of Reading. Log on to www.love2read.org.au for more information, competitions and events. This is a great chance to reflect on how lucky we are to read and to share this joy. I love it when a new generation of readers come through the store - those who are just learning to read and practice their skills on signs at the counter and then those children who rush to the back of the store throwing a comment over their shoulder to their parents ‘I’ll just  be looking at the books!’

What are you doing on Valentine's Day?
To launch the National Year of Reading, Jeffreys Books is inviting you on a date – That’s if you haven’t already been booked for Valentine’s Day. On 14 February, join us for a night of enjoying one of your favourite places. You never know who you’ll meet over a quiet time browsing in Fiction, stimulating your taste buds in Cooking or dreaming over our Travel books.   (Bring your partner if you must!)

Jeffreys Last Tuesday Book Club
The Marriage Plot – Jeffrey Eugenides
It's the early 1980s. In American colleges, the wised-up kids are inhaling Derrida and listening to Talking Heads. But Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English major, is writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot, purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the greatest English novels. As Madeleine studies the age-old motivations of the human heart, real life, in the form of two very different guys, intervenes. Leonard Bankhead -- charismatic loner and college Darwinist -- suddenly turns up in a seminar, and soon Madeleine finds herself in a highly charged erotic and intellectual relationship with him. At the same time, her old friend Mitchell Grammaticus -- who's been reading Christian mysticism and generally acting strange -- resurfaces, obsessed with the idea that Madeleine is destined to be his mate. With devastating wit and an abiding understanding of and affection for his characters, Jeffrey Eugenides revives the motivating energies of the novel, while creating a story so contemporary and fresh that it reads like the intimate journal of our own lives.
7pm Tuesday 28 February. Purchase the book to reserve your place.

Jeffreys Brain Food Book Club
Modigliani-A Life – Meryle Secrest
Amedeo ('Beloved of God') Modigliani was considered to be the quintessential bohemian artist, his legend almost as infamous as Van Gogh's. In Modigliani's time, his work was seen as an oddity: contemporary with the Cubists but not part of their movement. In this major new biography, Meryle Secrest, one of our most admired biographers, gives us a fully realized portrait of one of the twentieth century's master painters and sculptors: his upbringing, a Sephardic Jew from an impoverished but genteel Italian family; his going to Paris to make his fortune; his striking good looks…And throughout, we see the Paris that Modigliani lived in, a city in dynamic flux where art was still a noble cause; how Modigliani became part of a life in the streets and a world of art and artists then in a transforming revolution. Secrest's book, written with unprecedented access to letters, diaries, and photographs never before seen, is an extraordinary revelation of a life lived in art . . . Here is Modigliani, the man and the artist, seemingly shy, delicate, a man on a desperate mission, masquerading as an alcoholic, cheating death again and again, and calculating what he had to do in order to go on working.
11am Wednesday 15 February. Purchase the book to reserve your place.

Dear Uncle Jeffrey
I missed you over summer. Where have you been? Are you well?
Yours sincerely
Holiday Humdrum
 
Dear Hum-by
 
I yearn for the holidays – there’s a lot more drumming than humming on my breaks!
 
But I take it you’re back from a safe holiday refreshed and relaxed? And children have returned to school and are probably writing essays (as they were called in my day) about what wonderful holidays they had. So let me set the example and fill you in on my holidays – and please don’t be jealous.
 
I visited Sydney with Fiona McGregor where we had a very hot summer but managed to wonder down from her beachside family home to the bay and enjoy morning swims (Indelible Ink). I time-travelled with Paula McLain to Paris and visited with Hemingway and his buddies (The Paris Wife). From Paris I zipped across to The South where I found a delightful vintage dress store in Erin McKean’s The Secret Lives of Dresses. Not to mention a little visit down Wall Street to assess the latest in economic theory and recovery in Debunking Economics by Steve Keen.

And I did it all from the comfort of my favourite reading chair – sunny but cool on these Summer morns. (As I said, don’t be jealous that I’m a sittin’ an' a readin’)
And every writer seeks inspiration – allow me to credit mine to cheerful office banter and Annabel Pitcher’s My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece. Jamie, this poor fellow, didn’t have a very happy holiday and was saved by his desk-mate, Sunya, who suggested he ‘make it up’. (It’s a wonderful read and totally took me by surprise!)

Until then
Uncle Jeffrey

Fiction

The Chemistry of Tears – Peter Carey
The Chemistry of Tearsis both wildly entertaining and deeply moving, a portrait of love and loss that is simultaneously delicate and anarchic. At its heart is an image only the masterful Peter Carey could breathe such life into - an object made of equal parts magic, art and science, a delight that contains the seeds of our age's downfall.
When Catherine's lover dies suddenly, she has no one to turn to - their affair had been disguised from their colleagues and his family - except her work. A middle-aged curator in a London museum, Catherine is given a very particular project by the perceptive head of her department: a box of intricate clockwork parts that appear to be the remains of a nineteenth century automaton - a beautifully made mechanical bird. When she discovers that the box also contains the diary of the man who commissioned the machine, she is partially rescued from one obsession by another - who were Henry Brandling and the mysterious, visionary clockmaker he hired to make a gift for his absent son? And what was the end result that now sits in pieces in her studio?
 
The Soldier’s Wife – Joanna Trollope
Dan Riley is a major in the British Army. After a six month tour of duty in Afghanistan, he is coming home to the wife and young daughters he adores. The outside world sees those reunions as a taste of heaven after months of hell. But are they? Can a man trained to fight adjust again to family and domestic life? And how will the family cope, if he can't? How much, indeed, can Alexa, Dan's wife, sacrifice her own needs and fulfilment to serve his commitment to a way of life that demands everything not just of him, but of her and the children as well? This novel takes a keen look at the home lives of the modern Army. What happens, these days, when love and a vocation collide, head on?

Phantom – Jo Nesbo
Jo Nesbo has now picked up quite a few local fans. His latest translation is Phantom. A boy is lying on the floor of an Oslo apartment. He is bleeding and will soon die. In order to place his life and death in some kind of context he begins to tell his story. Former police inspector Harry Hole returns to Oslo after three years abroad. He seeks out his old boss at Police Headquarters to request permission to investigate a homicide. But the case is already closed: the young junkie was in all likelihood shot dead by a fellow addict. Yet, Harry is granted permission to visit the boy's alleged killer in jail. There, he meets himself and his own history. What follows is the solitary investigation of what appears to be the first impossible case in Harry Hole's career. And while Harry is searching, the murdered boy continues his story. A man walks the dark streets of Oslo. The streets are his and he has always been there. He is a phantom.
 
The Little Shadows – Marina Endicott
Here is the eagerly anticipated new novel from a brilliant writer whose last book, Good to a Fault, was shortlisted for the prestigious Giller Prize and won the Commonwealth Prize for Canada and the Caribbean. The Little Shadows revolves around three sisters in the world of vaudeville before and during the First World War. We follow the lives of all three in turn: Aurora, the eldest and most beautiful, who is sixteen when the book opens; thoughtful Clover, a year younger; and the youngest sister, joyous headstrong sprite Bella, who is thirteen. The girls, overseen by their fond but barely coping Mama, are forced to make their living as a singing act after the untimely death of their father. They begin with little besides youth and hope, but Marina Endicott's genius is to show how the three girls slowly and steadily evolve into true artists even as they navigate their way to adulthood among a cast of extraordinary characters. Using her gorgeous prose and extraordinary insight, Endicott lures us onto the brightly lit stage and then into the little shadows that lurk behind the curtain, and reveals how the art of vaudeville - in all its variety, madness, melodrama, hilarity and sorrow - echoes the art of life itself.
 
The Cartographer – Peter Twohig
Set in Melbourne in the 1950s, an 11-year-old boy witnesses a murder when he is spying through a window of a strange house. In the following weeks he comes to map out all the significant adventures he has in the labyrinthine city, trying to make sure he doesn’t cross the path of the murderer, who he believes wishes to silence and dispose of him. Comics and superheroes inform his strategies for avoiding the bogeyman, as does the memory of his twin brother, Tom, who recently died in a tragic accident. The Cartographer is a touching novel for readers captivated by the stories of Jonathan Safran Foer, Mark Haddon, Craig Silvey and Markus Zusak.
 
The Prodigal Son – Colleen McCullough
Holloman, Connecticut, 1969. A very rare and lethal toxin, extracted from the blowfish, is stolen from a laboratory at Chubb University. It kills within minutes and leaves no trace behind - unless a doctor knows what to look for - and worried biochemist Dr. Millie Hunter reports the theft at once to her father, Medical Examiner Dr. Patrick O'Donnell. Patrick's cousin Captain Carmine Delmonico is therefore quick off the mark when the bodies start to mount up. A sudden death at a dinner party followed by another at a gala black-tie event seem at first to be linked only by the poison and Dr. Jim Hunter, a scientist on the brink of greatness and husband to Millie. A black man married to a white woman, Dr. Jim has faced scandal and prejudice for most of his life. So what would cause him to risk it all now? Is he being framed for murder - and if so, by whom? Carmine and his team of detectives must navigate the competitive world of academic publishing, fraught with politics and prestige. The stakes are high: an amazing art collection, a large inheritance, old and upstanding local families, a gold-digging wife, jealous relatives and a young couple's future.

French Lessons – Ellen Sussman
Josie arrives in Paris in the hope of healing a broken heart. Riley, a lonely housewife, is struggling to feel connected to her husband, and her new country. Jeremy, a loyal, neglected husband of a famous actress, has accompanied his wife as she films on location, yet he feels increasingly isolated from her world.

Phryne Fisher novels by Kerry Greenwood
A 13 part series will commence screening on 24 February starring Essie Davis. Books are in-store now. For more information http://www.abc.net.au/tv/phrynefisher/

Non-Fiction

Rupert Murdoch: An Investigation of Political Power – David McKight
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is the most powerful media organisation in the world. Murdoch's commercial success is obvious, but less well understood is his successful pursuit of political goals, using News Corp as his vehicle. David McKnight uncovers Murdoch's crusade for his unique brand of conservatism over three decades. Drawing on extensive original research, McKnight tracks NewsCorp's pursuit of conservative ideas, from Reagan and Thatcher to the Tea Party and its war on Barack Obama. He shows how Murdoch's political connections underpinned the scandal of phone hacking in Britain and thwarted investigation. For all its power and influence, News Corporation is now in a profound crisis. News Corporation faces an uncertain future as digital technology eats into his newspaper empire which has been the basis of Murdoch's political power.

 

This Means This, This Means That – Sean Hall
If you’ve just been reading The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides you may like to extend your knowledge of semiotics and here is your answer. Semiotics is the theory of signs, and reading signs is a part of everyday life: from road signs that point to a destination, to smoke that warns of fire, to the symbols buried within art and literature. Semiotic theory can, however, appear mysterious and impenetrable. This book decodes that mystery using visual examples instead of abstract theory.

Religion for Athiests – Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton argues that the supernatural claims of religion are of course entirely false - and yet that religions still have important things to teach the secular world. This book proposes that we should look to religions for insights into how to build a sense of community, make our relationships last, overcome feelings of envy and inadequacy, and more.
The challenge that de Botton addresses in his book: how to separate ideas and practices from the religious institutions that have laid claim to them. In "Religion for Atheists "is an argument to free our soul-related needs from the particular influence of religions, even if it is, paradoxically, the study of religion that will allow us to rediscover and rearticulate those needs.

4-Week Energy Diet – Julie Maree Wood
Tired, listless, no enthusiasm or energy? Join the club. More and more people are suffering the effects of chronic stress, bad diets and busy lifestyles which, in turn, have a terrible impact on the way they look and feel; as well as their physical health. Julie Wood's 4-Week Energy Diet shows you how to turn your life around and transform yourself into the fit, energetic and vital person you have always wanted to be. In the first two weeks you will give your body a spring-clean, ridding yourself of toxins. Then learn how to fit exercise, meditation and enjoyable activities into your everyday life, no matter how pressed for time. In the second two weeks, you will rebuild your body's essential nutrients, restoring your balance, vitality and spirtual health, recharging those important energy reserves. Julie Wood's holistic approach harnesses the healing power of food, enabling you to shed kilos naturally; and restore and nourish your body and soul.

Paris versus New York: A Tally of Two Cities – Vahram Muratyan
When graphic designer Vahram Muratyan began his online travel journal, Paris versus New York, he had no idea how quickly it would become one of the most buzzed-about sites on the Internet. It garnered more than a million and a half page views in just a few months, and the attention of savvy online critics



 

Memoirs of an Addicted Brain – Marc Lewis
A gripping, triumphant memoir about the power of addiction and its effect on the brain. Marc Lewis knows addiction: that desperate ambition to get high accompanied him around the world for many years. In the 1960s, Lewis was a teenager in boarding school, experimenting with cough syrup and alcohol to assuage his depression. When he moved to Berkeley, California, the pulsing heart of the counter-cultural movement, he began using LSD and heroin. His spiralling journey of addiction eventually led him to Asia, where he sniffed nitrous oxide in the Malay jungle, took speed in Kuala Lumpur, and lost himself in the opium dens of Calcutta. This was the beginning of his descent into a moonlit world of crime, poverty, and desperation. Returning to Toronto, Lewis lived a double life: by day, he was a psychology student; and by night, he stole from homes and laboratories to get high. Thirty-four years on, Lewis is a neuroscientist, and he studies the brains of troubled children. But he never forgets that he was once one of those kids and that, no matter how many scientific conferences he attends, he always will be.

Reframe: How to Solve the World’s Trickiest Problems  – Eric Knight
In the tradition of Freakonomics by Stecen de Levitt and Stephen J Dubner and The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, Reframe brings a fresh perspective to our toughest political problems. This is a book by a young Australian thinker that turns conventional thinking on its head.

Margaret Olley – Barry Pearce
Margaret Hannah Olley AC (24 June 1923 26 July 2011) was an Australian painter. She was the subject of more than 90 solo exhibitions. Margaret Olley was born in Lismore, New South Wales. She attended Somerville House in Brisbane during her high school years. Olley was highly awarded – including a Member of the Order of Australia 'for service as an artist and to the promotion of art', the Companion of the Order, 'for service as one of Australia's most distinguished artists, for support and philanthropy to the visual and performing arts, and for encouragement of young and emerging artists',  the degree Doctor of Fine Arts honoris causa by the University of Newcastle. This book celebrates her life and work.

365 Days of Happiness – Lizzie Cornwall
This book is coloured like a little ray of sunshine and there are days when we all need a little help finding our happiness. 

Fallen in Love – Lauren Kate

Unexpected. Unrequited. Forbidden. Eternal. Everyone has their own love story. In this title, in a twist of fate, four extraordinary love stories combine over the course of a romantic Valentine's Day in Medieval England.

A Midsummer Tights Dream – Louise Rennison

It's the hotly anticipated sequel to the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, WITHERING TIGHTS. Laugh your tights off as Tallulah Casey and her bonkers mates return for a new term at Dother Hall performing arts college. Boys, snogging and bad acting guaranteed! Yaroooo! Tallulah's triumphant Heathcliff in 'Wuthering Heights' the comedy musical was enough to secure her place at Dother Hall performing arts college for another term. She can't wait to see her pals again, Charlie and the boys from Woolfe Academy and maybe even bad boy Cain! When an international visitor comes to stay could the bright lights of Broadway be calling? And for who? Find out in the next misadventures of Tallulah Casey.

Children's

Alice Miranda in New York – Jacqueline Harvey

Alice-Miranda is in bustling New York City. It's a blur of skyscrapers, hot dog carts, chats with zoo animals and classes at Mrs Kimmel's School for Girls, right next to glorious Central Park. Her family's glamorous department store, Highton's on Fifth, has just been renovated but plans for the fabulous re-opening party are going curiously wrong. Is that why Alice-Miranda's father Hugh seems so worried? And why is her new friend Lucinda so shy about inviting Alice-Miranda home?

So You Think You Know the Olympics – Clive Gifford
I distinctly remember being in school and needing to find out all the symbols for the different sports. I trawled magazines and newspapers and had all my family on high alert to help identify them. This book will help you be the champanion during the Olympics. Test your knowledge on the Olympic Games with this Olympic quiz book.
 
How to Train Your Dragon – Cressida Cowell
How to Train Your Dragon comes live to Melbourne in March. Make the most of the experience by revisiting the books.
 
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was an awesome sword-fighter, a dragon-whisperer and the greatest Viking Hero who ever lived. But it wasn't always like that. In fact, in the beginning, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was the most put upon Viking you'd ever seen. Not loud enough to make himself heard at dinner with his father, Stoick the Vast; not hard enough to beat his chief rival, Snotlout, at Bashyball, the number one school sport and certainly not stupid enough to go into a cave full of dragons to find a pet!
 

 

The Kid’s Book of Crosswords – Gareth Moore
A little book of crosswords that will test word power and keep boredom at bay. It contains over 150 crosswords to complete. For anyone struggling to get the final clue, all the answers are in the back of the book.1