Sunday Salon 2009-10-18: Week in Review

Books Then and Now

The two books I finished this week were The Unorthodox Murder of Rabbi Wahl by Joseph Telushkin and Ann Cleeves’ White Nights. Both were above average reads and each offered something unique.

My current reads are all thanks to you, my fellow book bloggers. Last week I asked for audio book recommendations and all the suggestions I hadn’t already read are now waiting patiently in my audible wishlist (I have an account which allows me two downloads per month). Belle of Ms Bookish was so passionate about Chris Grabenstein’s John Ceepack novels narrated by Jeff Woodman that I started listening to the first in the series, Tilt-a-Whirl, immediately.  My current print book, Åke Edwardson’s Frozen Tracks was also recommended by a book blogger: Maxine from Petrona whose review is at Euro Crime. I wouldn’t have chosen either book for myself based on the blurbs alone but I’ve grown to trust my favourite book bloggers and so have been rewarded with two very different but thoroughly enjoyable reading experiences. Lucky me.

I’m not sure what I’ll read next. There are more than a hundred books on my TBR pile but none are screaming at me especially loudly just yet although I suspect it’s time for something Australian.

Arrivals and Departures

Rarely for me this week I have maintained the status quo. I didn’t acquire any books or dispose of any. But before you all congratulate me for my restraint I should declare that I did do some online shopping this week and expect my orders to start trickling in soon. I blame the global financial crisis which has done terrible things to everyone’s economy but ours which means that our little Aussie dollar buys a heck of a lot more than it used to and I’m making hay while the sun shines. Oh and I’m very (very) weak.

Link Fest

I haven’t spend much time online this week but a couple of reports about the multitude of awards handed out at the annual Bouchercon caught my eye:

• I’m sure it’s lovely for the authors and publishers to have so many chances to win something but some of the categories have baffled me. The Barry Awards gave an award for Best British Novel which was won by Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (written by a Swede, set in Sweden) from a field of equally non-British novels. What’s the point?
• I also noticed that there was an Anthony Award for Best Cover Art, which was also won by The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I don’t find the US cover art (which won the award) nearly as striking as the UK/Aust cover sitting on my shelves. What about you?

US TGWTDT

UK TGWTDT

Just so you know The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo also picked up Best First Mystery (Macavity Awards voted on by members of Mystery Readers International) and Best First Novel (Anthony Awards which are voted on by the convention’s attendees).

…and one more thing

Nothing to rant about this week but I would like to announce that I finally did the draw for winners of the Aussie Author Giveaway #2 (yes I know I’m slack). Margot Kinberg and Maggie Mason have won copies of PD Martin’s Body Count while Ann in Ottowa will be receiving a copy of Brian Kavanagh’s The Embroidered Corpse. I have more signed copies of PD Martin’s books for next month’s give away as well as some other titles so please come back on the first of November to enter.

 

Aussie Author Give Away #2

It’s time for me to give away some more crime fiction by Australian authors. This month I’m offering pre-loved (but fully functional) copies of

P D Martin’s Body Count. It’s the first in a series of 4 books featuring transplanted Aussie Sophie Anderson who works for the FBI as a profiler. Sophie is an interesting character, not least because she has some psychic abilities. I read the book before I started keeping review notes but I did rate it a 4.

Update 4 Oct: Thanks to the generous Ms Martin I have an extra copy of Body Count to give away (and a couple of her other books too which will feature in coming months).

Brian Kavanagh’s The Embroidered Corpse. It’s set in present day England but has a historical theme and is quite charming (click on the link for my review).

Rules of entry

1. To be in the running leave a comment below containing:

• your favourite thing to spread on toast/bread (we Aussies are known for our vegemite which is undergoing something of a revamp and marketing mess-up as I write)
• which book you’d like to win (it’s fine to say both)
• your email address (de-spam bot identifiable like this bsquaredinoz [at] gmail [dot] com is fine)

2. Everyone who manages to follow rule number one will have their name slotted onto spinning wheel of death which will be spun to select a random winner on the evening of 10 October 2009 (local time which is GMT +9.5) (you’ll know you’re too late to enter by the presence of a WINNERS ANNOUNCED comment below). There will be two separate draws in September and you may enter either or both. You may even win both.

3. The favourite spread thing has nothing to do with the outcome (I promise I’ll still include you in the draw even if you declare a life-long hatred of Vegemite).

4. I will contact the winner(s) via email to ask for a snail mail address to which I can send the book(s). I will happily post the book(s) to whatever far away part of the globe you inhabit BUT I will only use surface mail for those outside Australia. This is slow (takes up to 12 weeks) but cheap. As am I

***Please be careful typing your email address as one of last month’s winners doesn’t seem to be at their address so I’ve got a prize with no home***

 

Winners Announced of Aussie Author Give Away #1

Thanks to all those who entered my first give away. I’ll get to the winners in a moment but first I thought I’d share entrants’ answers to the question that had nothing to do with the outcome of the competition. I asked people to tell me the first word or phrase that came into their minds when they thought of Australia. The common themes from those outside the country are certainly exotic animals (a.k.a pests if you’re an Aussie farmer) and the outback (which very few of us live in but most of us have driven through)(in my case these are mostly known as road trips from hell).

The list in its entirety (with my thoughts in red)…

• Outback x 2
• The Ashes (one the world’s greatest sporting events for the uninitiated amongst you)
• Crikey
• Fosters (sorry Mack but I don’t know any true blue Aussie who drinks it, you should look for Coopers Pale Ale which is from my home state and is available in the US) (well in Trader Joe’s in California anyway)
• G’day Mate
• Oy (only we’d spell it Oi and sing it as part of a chant that goes Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi)
• very far away
• beautiful
• scenic
• Koala (you people know they only sleep, eat and pee right?, they might be cute but they’re dull)
• down under (or on top if you use this map)
• Cape Tribulation
• Sunburn
• “the shits” (can mean many things depending on your inflection or state of inebriation)
• Kangaroo x 2
• Duck-billed platypus
• Emu
• Wallaby
• Home x 3 (2 residents and an ex-pat)
• Shrimp on the barbie (clearly a better tourism slogan than the more recent one which was “Where the bloody hell are you” – I think it lost something in the translation)
• rugged, individual or rugged individual (we certainly like to see ourselves and our country this way)

Thanks for playing along everyone.

For the record the first thing that comes to mind whenever I think of Australia is “The Lucky Country”. It’s the title of a 1964 book by Donald Horne in which he argued that Australia was kind of lazy and lacking in motivation. He said that other countries were inventing things and innovating and all that neat stuff while Australia just took advantage of timing. But I say ‘nuts’ to Horne. We’ve invented things, we’ve had social innovations (my home state was the first in the world to grant women universal suffrage concurrently with the right to stand for election in 1894) (New Zealand only did the first half of that one year earlier). And if we haven’t been quite so motivated as some countries perhaps that’s what has spared us all out war on home soil. I’ve visited a good many parts of the world and loved every minute of it but I feel pretty lucky to be an Aussie and always enjoy coming home.

But enough of all that. What you really what to know is who the spinning wheel of death selected to win the books. So, the winners are:

• BJ (who won Garry Disher’s The Dragon Man)
• Dorte of D J’s Krimiblog (who won Clare Langley-Hawthorne’s The Consequences of Sin) and
• Kerrie of Mysteries in Paradise (who also won Clare Langley-Hawthorne’s The Consequences of Sin)

There’s an extra copy of The Consequences of Sin thanks to the delightful Clare Langley-Hawthorne who signed and sent it to me before heading to the wilds of Oregon for a camping trip.

All of the winners have been notified by email and as soon as they send me their postal address I’ll put the books on a boat (or not, in the case of Kerrie who lives right here).

Congratulations to the winners, thanks to all the rest of you and there’ll be more great Aussie books to give away on 1 October so do come back then.

 

Aussie Author Give Away #1

Technically that title is misleading as I don’t actually have any Australian authors to give away (would that it were true, who wouldn’t want an erudite Aussie all of their very own?).

But in an attempt to divest myself of some books and to help spread the word about the great writers my country produces I am giving away books authored by Aussies. Every month I’ll offer up one or two books by Australian authors and there will be a ludicrously easy way for you to go in the running to win them.

For the inaugural Aussie Author Give Away there are two books up for grabs:

The Consequences of Sin by Clare Langley-Hawthorne [2007]: a crime fiction tale set in Edwardian England

Condition: Near new (acquired new, read once, didn’t drop it in the bath).

UPDATE: Clare Langley-Hawthorne has kindly offered to supply a signed copy of her book to give away. So, the first person who has entered for this book will win that copy, the second name drawn will win the pre-loved copy that was originally offered

And

The Dragon Man by Garry Disher [1999]: the first in a series of police procedurals featuring detectives Challis and Destry and set in rural Victoria. I read this before I started blogging so don’t have a full review but reading notes tell me that at the time “I loved this book. I loved its Australian-ness, its cast of imperfect yet credible characters, its delicately inter-twined plots. From the opening pages, which beautifully and accurately reflect the average Aussie summer, to the concluding chapter in which the stories are satisfyingly, if surprisingly, resolved this is a great read”.

Condition: Near new (acquired new, read once, didn’t drop it in the bath).

Rules of entry

1. To be in the running leave a comment below containing:

• the word or phrase that first enters your mind when you think of Australia
• which book you’d like to win (it’s fine to say both)
• your email address (de-spam bot identifiable like this bsquaredinoz [at] gmail [dot] com is fine)

2. Everyone who manages to follow rule number one will have their name slotted onto spinning wheel of death which will be spun to select a random winner on the evening of 15 September 2009 (local time which is GMT +9.5) (you’ll know you’re too late to enter by the presence of a WINNERS ANNOUNCED comment below). There will be two separate draws in September and you may enter either or both. You may even win both.

3. The word association game has no bearing on the outcome of the competition. I am just curious.

4. I will contact the winner(s) via email to ask for a snail mail address to which I can send the book(s). I will happily post the book(s) to whatever far away part of the globe you inhabit BUT I will only use surface mail for those outside Australia. This is slow (takes up to 12 weeks) but cheap. As am I.

Post updated 04 Sept