The Spare Room

Helen Garner. 2008. Text Publishing Melbourne Australia

Is this 'Monkey Grip' for ladies in their 60s? Instead of junky boyfriends and love, in this story the disturbance is by hippie friends with cancer and death. 

Helen cares for her bohemian friend with cancer. Nicola believes in all sorts of quasi medical miracles (vitamin c, cupping, electrode treatment). She refuses to face death, leaving that full sad knowledge to her carers. Carers become punitive mothers.

I really enjoy books set in Melbourne and look forward to the padding within the narrative for the scene descriptions. This story is set somewhere on the Broadmeadows line, near Moonee Ponds. The setting for clinic in Flinders Lane is so familiar. As is dinner at the Waiters Club.

Sparse elegant writing. Home life effortlessly described.

The morning was grey and gentle, with doves. p103

travels and holidays

Farm near Colac to see the heifers, skittish as deer. Sandy Point beach holiday with all the trimmings: sun, heat, water, sand, wilderness, friends and food.

Dry

Augusten Burroughs, Sydney, N.S.W. : Hodder Headline Australia, c2004

Semi non fiction tale of a soggy addiction mess, rehab and relapse. Honest, even about less that noble impulses. Augusten is really hard on himself, perhaps with good reason. 

The alcoholic haze is well described and the love Augusten feels for all the paraphernalia of drinking; the bars, the low lights, the pretty jeweled colours in sparkling bottles, and how he has just too much time when he is not drinking. 

The observations about new york city life, advertising, even office politics are all pithily captured. The rawness and mess was revolting at times. Easy to read, gossipy, like a extended magazine article. Strangely, sort of, a love story. 

The library copy was heavily annotated, and the comments were an amusing side story. Someone identified closely with the troubles. I'm looking forward to reading his other books.

comfort reading

Sometimes I like the pleasant company of a well resolved mystery where everyone gets just what they deserve. And Footscray's Kerry Greenwood is better than most and sets this series in St Kilda of the 1920's. 

Phryne Fisher is everything one could possibly desire in a lady detective: smart, beautiful, brave and so very bohemian. The cast she is surrounded by are gems in their own right; the charming adopted daughters, crafty well brought up lady's maid, cool butler, superb cook, magician Chinese lover, communist taxi drivers and socialist lesbian sister. (hope I have not left anyone out) Phryne uses the cast around her as able assistants, leaving her the serious business of being glamourous and fabulous in the course of good works. 

Alexander McCall Smith's writing has been criticised of being twee and trite, but I don't care, I love being around his characters' daily wisdom. 'La's Orchestra Saves the World' is set during WW2 in country England. A sweet grown up romance. Yes, a romance, shocking! There is even that elusive thing - a measured subtle maybe even happy ending. 

big fan of the angry chicken

I am a big fan of the angry chicken - a blog. look it up, I'm not sure how to link...yes I could know by now...Anyway I have been enjoying angry chicken's blog for a few months now. And tonight I made a batch of the 'dirty hippie' (in a good way) home-made deodorant. I'm so excited that I had to write to thank Amy while I'm waiting for goop to set in the fridge. I used jasmine and lemongrass, and orange and clove, made two batches (half size) just to see which one I would prefer, mainly because I could not smell the mix so well after a while of mixing as there were too many essential oil mixes on my fingers.

Singled Out

Virginia Nicholson. How Two Million Women Survived Without Men After the First World War. Viking 2007

I really enjoy how Virginia writes, and loved her earlier book - 'Amongst the Bohemians'.  

"...the surplus two million had much to wing their hands over, but if such women...had weakly submitted to being unjustly marginalised, we might still be living in a patriarchy...women might still lack the professional, political and social status that they have today...for them being denied marriage was a liberation and a launching pad." p235

Great to able to see the positives instead of concentrating on what is missing. Filled with personal stories of unusual and rich lives. Ladies with causes and drive. 

potatoes again

potato stamps this time, going for the view outside; plane tree with bird visitors.