October Book: Carpentaria by Alexis Wright

Our book for October is the Miles Franklin Award-winning novel Carpentaria by Alexis Wright.

This is LJ's choice and the discussion will be held at KM's house on Monday 15 October at 8pm

Man Booker Prize Shortlist Announced

The Man Booker Prize shortlist was announced in London today. For more details check out the press release.

The Shortlist:

Darkmans by Nicola Barker (Fourth Estate)
The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)
Animal’s People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster)

The Worry Tree

Does your child come home from school with "big issues" from the playground? Is your child a natural born worrier?

Sharyn from Pretty Essential recently bought The Worry Tree by Marianne Musgrove for her 8yo daughter and she loved it. It sounds like a beautiful book.

Read her review here.

UPDATE 4 September 2007: I bought this for my 9yo daughter yesterday. She couldn't put it down (reading during dinner, late at night, during breakfast) and has declared it her favourite ever book.

September book: The Time Traveller's Wife

Our September book, chosen by KM, will be The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

Date: Monday, September 10 2007
Place: JH's Place

Links:

SMH Review
Amazon entry

Review: Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin

Thank you to book host Elle for this review (update: rating added below):

Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin was reviewed by our bookgroup on Monday, 13th August at LJ's house.

Li Cunxin grew up on a commune in northern China in the 1960s when Mao Zedong ruled the country. Such was the poverty of a peasant's life in Mao's China that starvation was a daily fact of life and villagers in Li's commune were forced to eat the bark of trees.

But Li Cunxin's life changed dramatically the day a delegation from Madame Mao's Beijing Dance Academy arrived at his school searching for potential ballet students. As fate would have it, they overlooked the 10-year-old Li, but just as they were leaving, a teacher tapped one man on the shoulder, saying, "What about that boy?" That boy was Li and that was the beginning of a glorious dance career. But first came years of harsh training and an absolute hatred of dancing. He was desperately homesick and was only allowed to see his family once a year. But he had food in his stomach and thanks to one teacher, he discovered a passion for ballet and eventually real talent.

Li was 18 years old when a cultural delegation from the US offered him a scholarship to the Houston Ballet Academy. His first taste of freedom was life changing and on his second trip to America he fell in love with a fellow dancer. With the help of Barbara Bush and then-vice-president George Bush Snr, Li successfully defected to the West. The marriage later foundered, but in 1987 Li Cunxin married fellow dancer Mary McKendry, a Queenslander.

In 1995, they moved to Melbourne to dance with the Australian Ballet. According to The Australian's dance critic Lee Christofis, Li was one of the best ballet dancers ever seen in this country. "There were moments when I felt it was like being at a rock concert", says Christofis of Li's appearances with the Australian Ballet. "The audience would gasp at something spectacular he would do and he would just keep on dancing like an ordinary dancer again and at the end of the solo there would be eruptions all around the theatre."

But a dancer's career must always come to an end and in this Li was more prepared than most. He'd studied at the Australian Securities Institute and is now a well-regarded stockbroker.
Never one to stay still for long, Li Cunxin decided to write an autobiography, urged on by his friend and children's author Graeme Base. "It had everything, it had drama, political intrigue, it had this cultural divide, it was a love story," says Base.

Penguin Books took a gamble and made the first print run of Mao's Last Dancer 16,000 copies. Eighteen months later, the book is in its twenty-sixth reprint and has sold more than 160,000 copies. And the story doesn't end there, as film producer Jane Scott (who produced Shine) has bought the rights to Li Cunxin's story. Production is scheduled to start next year.

We had a small group this month only L.J, K.M, J.H M.O and myself. We all seemed moved my Li Cunxin's story. I have not got all the rating those I do have are quite high. People liked the style of writing and the fables throughout. The mango was a great Metaphor for life" savour every bit!!

Li Cunxin writes in a fluid, moving manner, one would never guess that English is not his native tongue. The book is engrossing and brings both tears and smiles to the reader. We cheer his hard won accolades as he falls in love with the ballet and ascends its international ladder. At the same time we share his grief and love for those he leaves behind.

This is not the usual famine to fortune tale. It is a story of determination over great odds, strokes of luck and relentless love. Ballet lovers will find the description of his early training horrifying. His first teachers have little concept how to safely train a young body. It's a wonder the children survived the “if 8 is good then 108 must better” mentality or if it's good to train in a studio then it is even better to train outside in the snow. But then, one beloved teacher changed Cunxin's hatred toward his forced study of the ballet into a love affair.

This book is well worth reading for many reasons. In the end one need not be a lover of dance to be enriched by this human story.

Gossip.

We had a bit of a laugh as I asked if I could "see" another book club whom asked me to join. M.O gave me a few ground rules. Ha ha. You are my number 1 book club. We also talked about having a weekend away sometime next year.!!!!!


Average Rating: 7.8
Highest Score: 8.5 Lowest Score 7

Book Review: Infidel by Ayaan Ali Hirsi

Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Image from here.

Review by book host LV:

A lively discussion was had by all as we explored the very controversial and extraordinary Ayaan Hirsi Ali's autobiography (although it would have been even more lively if FL had been there; she will go to all sorts of lengths to avoid book group!).

In the Infidel Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West. We all agreed, regardless of how much we enjoyed the book, that Hirsi Ali has an amazing story to tell.

The book was thought provoking and raised very topical issues for discussion. Reactions to the book were varied across the group. Some book group members were not looking forward to reading the book as they had preconceived ideas about Hirsi Ali and had been suffering overload of books themed around Muslim issues (particularly ones about Muslim women); some of these members ended up being pleasantly surprised by the book. Others found that the book did not raise anything they had not already thought about/considered. A number of us looked forward to reading the autobiography and found the story riveting, the themes compelling and it gave us much to think about.

Following are some of the themes we discussed on the night:

Human rights
Human rights is a key issue running through the book. We noted some parallels with our own aboriginal situation (particularly given the recent interventions in the NT) and discussed the conflicting needs to respect cultural values/beliefs/rituals of different ethnic/religious groups while also protecting their human rights. Many of us voiced our agreement that human rights override the cultural/religious. Multiculturalism was also lightly touched upon. These issues were not solved on the night (surprise, surprise).

Impact on Dutch society
We are lucky to have two bookgroup members with the Dutch connection. One member, WP, was living in Holland during the Theo van Gogh murder and she gave some fascinating insights. She explained the enormous impact that Hirsi Ali has had on Dutch culture - to some extent shifting the traditionally very open and liberal attitude towards immigrants. WP commented that her negative attitude towards Hirsi Ali, before she read the book, has now changed substantially; while she doesn't agree with all Hirsi Ali opinions she has a greater appreciation of why these opinions have been formed. To WP's great surprise she really enjoyed the book.

Islam
Islam, of course, was a hot topic of conversation. Some of us even voiced a desire to read the Qur'an (well one of us anyway - me) as we were keen to get to the bottom of Hirsi Ali's claims. The Muslim faith (as with most religions) is highly interpreted and spans a wide spectrum across different countries.

Many of us commented that Hirsi Ali's highly controversial statements about Islam are not helping her achieve one of her key objectives - to emancipate Muslim women. We also commented that while we admire Hirsi Ali's courage to speak out, she could perhaps be a little less inflammatory (e.g. calling Muhammad a pedophile).

Since reading the book my ear has been more highly tuned to discussion around Islam; I attended an Malaysian export forum last week and was mesmerised by the Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry, Rafidah Aziz. She spoke about the Muslim religion as one that is tolerant and caring and discussed in detail her relationship with her God (I would love to see a debate between Rafidah Aziz and Hirsi Ali).

Freedom of speech
The issue of freedom of speech was also raised by MM. MM's reading of Infidel has made her more acutely aware of how difficult it can be to speak out. Once a general consensus of opinion is out in the public arena, it can be difficult to move against that powerful tide.


Rating:

Avg: 7.6/10

Lowest score: 6.5, Highest score: 8

Butterfly Man: Lord Lucan just keeps fluttering by - or does he?

"On 7th November, 1974 a young English nanny named Sandra Rivett was murdered in London's West End. Her employer, Lord Lucan, was named as her attacker. It was widely assumed he had mistaken her for his wife. Lord Lucan disappeared the night Sandra Rivett died and has never been seen since." source: UQP

In February 2006 our bookgroup discussed a lovely novel by Heather Rose called The Butterfly Man. This fiction, which won the 2006 Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Novel, was based on the premis that Lord Lucan fled the UK and is now living a quiet life in rural Tasmania as Henry Kennedy.

Heather Rose makes no attempt to claim that this story is anything other than fiction. However, there have been plenty of "sightings" of Lord Lucan over the past three decades. He has been "sighted" in Africa, Australia and now New Zealand.

Today's news suggests that the locals in Marton, New Zealand believe that a man living in a Land Rover with a cat and pet possum has the bearing and accent of an upper-class British gentleman and fits the description of Lord Lucan who would now be 72. See here for the full story.