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BOOKS, Books, books
Reading a fascinating book, The Bone Man of Kokoda by Charles Happell. It depicts with understanding Kokichi Nishimura's mission to go back to the track, collect the bones of fellow soldiers and return them to relatives. After his father died, Nishimura studied with a frenzy that enabled him to complete a year's work in a few months. He left school early to help his mother bring up four children, but continued his education with the help of monks. A serious, solitary child, Nishimura "displayed signs of the obsessive, almost fanatical, behaviour that would later characterise his approach to any task he tackled". At 17 he became a technical draftsman of such high reputation that he was approached by a professor of the Tokyo Institute of Techology for advice.
The debacle that took place in Brigade Hill was harrowing for both Japanese and Australian soldiers. The only survivor,Nishimura, absolutely believing" in the Imperial Rescript "Being faithful and righteous implies keeping one's word and fulfilling one's duty", knew what that duty was. Despite rebuilding his career on his return, he had this in mind. Even when he married, his bride had to accept that when he reached retirement age, he had to fulfill his promise to his comrades. At 75, Nishimura, with"not a gram of fat on him" and weighing 55 kg, travels in his Honda Accord station wagon, in his mission to return the bones he had lovingly retrieved.
Not maudlin, not sentimental, but gives a glimpse into a psyche of an individual. Can't wait to continue reading.
True Spirit - Jessica Watson
Am so glad a friend lent me this book, the title truly captures the person and her undertaking. Enlarged from the blogs she posted during the journey, in the book she goes into the background: her family, early childhood, birth of the passion that got her started, and the myriad of people who helped her. This is one gutsy, honest, admirable, no ordinary teen-ager; despite her disclaimer at that speech with the then PM!
So appropriate that she is this year's Young Australian of the Year, and that she has undertaken various Ambassador roles.
An inspirational read. In my opinion, a must in the list of motivational literature in schools.
Nancy Wake
I am heartily uplifted reading "Nancy Wake - A Biography Of Our Greatest War Heroine " by Peter Fitzsimons. What a feisty lady, someone with a social conscience that brooked no obstacles to wrest justice against what seemed insurmountable odds. With so much doom and gloom just now, I find reading about this woman truly inspirational.
Slum life - revisited
Elsewhere in the site I talked about my admiration of human resilience and indomitable spirit, something absolutely crucial for survival. I referred to living conditions in slums as depicted in the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" and Kevin Mcloud's BBC tv program "Slumming It". I have just finished reading a book, which came highly recommended, and I think it deserves its high acclamations. SHANTARAM is a novel by Gregory David Roberts, whose account of life in and around present day Mumbai, has the immediacy of an autobiography. I just love his explanations on cultural traits, and he delves into philosophies of life, both western and eastern. One of the most fascinating of the former to me is the head waggling that Indians can do so effortlessly. Why so! Because this is one movement that my Bellydancing teacher can do so well, and me... not at all. I am now encouraged to continue to persevere. Because the author and his character continue their life of crime, there are also treatises on the nature of sin and crime, which I find absolutely fascinating. Wonder if anyone else has read the book!
Mumbai Slum dwelling
What an excellent review Rehanah. As you so aptly said it was not a book for enjoyment but overall, a fascinating read.
As I read it, Slumdog Millionaire, the movie came to mind.
Slumdog Millionaire - yet another look!
Hubby came across a gem of a little book in the local library: SLUMGIRL DREAMING - The real story of the girl who played Slumdog Millionaire's 'Latika'.
Amanuensed by Anne Berthod and Divya Dugar, the book opened with the arrival of Rubina Ali as she and co-stars returned to Mumbai after being feted at the Oscar Awards in America, traced the beginnings when the little stars were discovered, then recounted events post Slumdog. Recounts were faithful via the perceptions of the nine year old, and proceeds from the book will be shared by the writer and Medecins du Monde to look after abandoned children in Mumbai.
How does a child transported so suddenly between two dizzyingly different worlds settle back to "normal" life? Is that even possible? Indeed what IS normal life? This is a fascinating book, for me affirming the innate resilience of the indominatable human spirit. There is corruption and exploitation. There is humour that borders between a laugh and a sob response. To give one example. It wouldn't be India if there were no caste system, and so there is - even in the social stratifying of slums. Rubina matter-of-factly put her slum as being not as poor as ----!
Lovely word
The book sounds great and I must read it ... once I catch up with the several in waiting, plus my own writing schedule. BUT 'Amanuensed,' whacko! I haven't heard that word in years ... Great stuff! Rehanah, you not only read, but you r-e-a-d!
Cheers,
JC
Sounds good
Thanks Rehanah. I must try and read it.
Not yet
No Rehanna, I haven't yet, but I'll enquire at the library for it. Sounds interesting. I've got a list of books recommended on the book show on Radio National that I'd like to read as well.
Comics
Anyone keeping up with The Phantom in the Courier-Mail? (That's about all the rag is good for). Anyway, The Phantom has just tracked down Diana and is about to rescue her. Just thought you may like to know :)
Long range reply
Hullo John, (great name that), re your last year's enquiry regarding the Phantom. While I'm not a Courier-Mail reader (I read the Bulletin), and so only get two Aussies "Swamp" and "Insanity Streak", the latter is drawn by South Australian John Stoneham ("Stonie") with whom I once had a correspondence going regarding some cartoons an ablutions performing bear in a national park and two newspaper-reading birds who had trouble with F1 champ Nikki Lauder's name. Stonie did a wonderful series on the Bathurst 1000, when he was doing a lot of work for West End Brewing.
To get back to the point, have you been watching "Big Bang Theory?" These characters seem to have a thing for The Phantom ... even featuring the real current author/artist of the comic, Stan Lee, who signed their comics.
Cheers, JC
Reading books
I don't have time to read books with all these forums to reply to :)
And lawn bowls in this beautiful weather.
And how was your game this
And how was your game this week, John?
Thanks for asking Linda. On
Thanks for asking Linda. On Monday mufti pairs we narrowly scraped in for 2 game wins and on Thursday men's triples we took home the runners-up money. Today (Sat) is inter-club pennants so looking forward to that. But win or lose, it's just great to be out in the sunshine enjoying the on-green banter and beer after.
Maybe we should be talking
Maybe we should be talking about this on the sports, but wherever we talk about it, I'm lousy with any kind of ball! It's sure to go way off if my hamd touches it! It's a good interest for a huge number of people. My uncle spent ages describing his bowls games to me, though. And you're right, the drink ("shandy for me") in the clubhouse was great! We often visited the club for the Bingo, as well! The shandy was because he felt that was what his niece should have, even though she was all grown up by then!
Earth's Children series
I'm into these by Jean M Auel. There are 5 books in the series and I go through them repeatedly though people say I'm mad re-reading my favourites so often.
They are historical fiction set way back in the cro-magnon era when there are mammoths to hunt, etc, with a bit of fact thrown in, based on archeological finds.
The first is Clan of the Cave Bear
Happy reading.......Linda
The sixth book
The sixth book in this series, The Land of Painted Caves, was released last Wednesday, and I bought it as a treat for myself. I've had my nose in it ever since, during every spare moment that I could manage.
It's a long story, and finishes off the series nicely. Of course it has a happy ending for the main characters! The facts behind the story are very interesting, too, with the descriptions of the ancient cave paintings in Europe from that time, and the story woven around the archeological evidence of life in that era.
If you find this kind of story to your liking, the shops have the whole series reprinted at this time. Plenty of winter reading!!!!!!!!!
Cross stitch series
Hi Linda
I do the same with the Cross Stitch series by Diana Gabaldon- just love them - there are 7 books and am waiting for the new one to come out.
I enjoyed the clan of the cave bear series too but Cross stitch is my all and all out favourite.
Cross stitch series
Thanks for that, Tansie, I'll look out for them at the library. At the moment I'm reading Spies like Us by Hugh Lunn. He's a Brisbane author who's had an interesting life as a journalist and is now putting it all down on paper. I got a few books at Endo's op-shop last week. That will keep me going for a while.
Know much about 'e-books'??
If you don't, and you want to, then follow this link and research the topic to your heart's content! http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2010/08/20/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-ebooks-in-australia/
Advertisements, anyone?
They may be coming soon to a book near you!
Read more at: http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/20/eat-pay-love/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Techcrunch+(TechCrunch)
How Google Counted The World’s 129 Million Books
In a blog post published this week, search mammoth Google explained the deep and thoroughly elaborate algorithm used by its literary offshoot, Google Books, to count just how many books exist in the world, right now.
Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/08/how-google-counted-the-world%e2%80%99s-129-million-books/#ixzz0w4lvjygc
'The Death Of The Book Is Prophesied'
Making predictions about the end of this or that technology or institution must be a fun hobby — so many seem to have taken it up. It’s probably because you can’t lose: not only do such predictions promote discussion and visibility of the issue, but they are rarely proven wrong. After all, predicting something happening five years in the future allows for enough change to happen along the way that one can say “well, it was a reasonable hypothesis at the time.”Negroponte’s recent remarks at Techonomy concerning the death of printed books have the usual amount of wiggle room in them — which is not to say that they’re false, only that they’re an example of the usual futurist prestidigitation.
The death of printed books (and, by extension, magazines and such) is, of course, merely an ongoing process — a given. What is in the air is the timing. Negroponte says not ten years, but five. Either he has more faith than I do in consumers’ plasticity, or he’s talking about something completely different.
Read more at:http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/08/07/its-futurists-versus-consumers-as-the-death-of-the-book-is-prophesied/
BOOKS
Hi All, I am having a few days away in a couple of weeks and wondered if anyone knew of a great book(autobiography) that I would enjoy reading.I do not have too much spare time usually but like a good story. Hope there is someone who can give me information. Thanking you. Judy.
Good Books
Hello Judy..I believe that reading is one of life's greatest pleasures and I am always found with my head stuck in a book and my imagination running wild..I am currently reading some books by Monica McInerney..(Not autobiographical books,but nevertheless very enjoyable )
The Alphabet Sisters and Those Faraday Girls are 2 that I've read and really related to the to the simple,honest descriptions of family life..Makes you laugh one minute then the tears start welling up the next..
A good autobiography is The Broken Biscuit by John Cowell..Really inspiring..
Happy reading..Just lay back and smell the roses while you have your break.
Warm thoughts..Patricia
Good Books
Hello Patricia, I do agree that life without books would be extremely dull - for me anyway. My husband has never read a book in his life! I love reading all kinds of tales - murders, mysteries, light, heavy - I'm particularly fond of the light reading of Kerry Greenwood, and I adore Kate Morton, a local author - her books are really excellent and keep you glued to the pages.
I am also an avid Harry Potter fan :-) I can't remember a time when I didn't read a book, and my children and grandchildren are all the same.
Happy reading indeed.
The Bone Setter's Daughter
by Amy Tan. She writes about her mother's and grandmother's lives in China. Very readable and quite moving. Quite a popular book, I had to put a request for this at the library.
Two books by Patsy Adam-Smith
Two books by Patsy Adam-Smith are good to read. They are Hear the Train Blow, and Goodbye Girlie. Hear the train Blow recounts her childhood in a railway family in Victoria, moving about with her Dad a Fettler and her Mum a Station-master on the tiny outback stations that served the farming community. Goodbye Girlie tells of how she moved away to become a nurse during the war.
I found them in the library. Linda
A good read...
Hi Judy
I'm not sure if you read my post on 'Ken', below? If you did, and it appeals, then feel free to email me (through my blog, just click on my name to get there, then use the 'email GoodOldTalk' button) your address, and I can send it to you. I can recommend it as a good holiday read, as it was on holidays that I read it!
Yours,
Ceridwyn
Ken
The book 'Ken', previously published as 'An Adventurous Life', was written by Ken Barkla - one of our members here at GOT (see his intro to his love of beer drinking on page two of 'Hello!' at http://goodoldtalk.com/forum/hello-0#comment-1221 !) and it has been sitting on my to-read list for a while now (I get a LOT less reading time than I would like) but I got a chance to start it last week while on holidays. And a captivating start it has been! The stories he has captured of life at Reedy Creek Homestead drew me right into the scene. I'm very much looking forward to the chance to continue reading.
Oh, and for those who read last Saturday's The Courier Mail, Ken was the person staring back at you from page 44 - the article on the 10th Battalion during WWII. Ken is hoping to make contact with other fellow veterans from this Battalion.
And stay tuned to this thread for the review when I finish his book!
Ken - the final review
I have just finished this book, 'Ken', by Ken Barkla. Wow! What a read! I emailed him almost immediately, asking when the next instalment is coming out. I really enjoyed it. And as someone in my 30's, it really gave me a taste for what life must have been like for him, back in the 1940's. It was incredibly detailed, and the sights and sounds he describes really makes each situation so life-like. Thank you, Ken, for taking the time to write such an enjoyable book. And I meant it too, when I said 'When is the next part coming out?'I shall now be passing the copy I have just finished, onto leotwe when I next see her, as she also expressed interest in reading it. Anyone else? Just reply with your name, and we'll add your name to the list!
a soon-to-be-author among us...
I just wanted to introduce a colleague of mine, a counseller, who is in the final stages of completing a book. I suggested he post a few snippets onto goodoldtalk, so watch his personal blog for these, hopefully coming soon! Find him at: http://goodoldtalk.com/profile/paulnash
Ken
I meant to post this yesterday, but this, now, is my first opportunity. Yesterday, I spoke to an interested group of Seniors at the 'Older and Bolder' program at Kallangur Library. One person there, a lovely gentleman named Ken, signed up immediately and was quite enthusiastic about its possibilities. After the session, he also loaned me a self-titled book he had written, which I am looking forward to reading. So, stay tuned for the review! (Also, make sure you say "g'day" when he starts posting!!)
Common Sense Neural Science
Have just finished reading a fascinating little book by Dr Caroline Leaf, Who Switched Off My Brain?
You all have heard the oft quoted "It's all in the mind" and "mind over matter? and the corollary 'If you don't mind, then it doesn't matter' !!!
Well this little gem gives the very easy to follow neurological explanation to this very true saying. I would love to get a copy but I don't think it is available in Australia, but will try and ring up some book shops.
Books in the library
I have just discovered the large print books in the local library, and found many well known "popular" titles more easily because it's a smaller section.
"The Bone Setter's Daughter" I particularly enjoyed. It's written by a descendant of a Chinese immigrant lady in the USA, who found her Grandmother's memories written in her original Chinese language. Because the grand-daughter hadn't kept up the language she'd been taught by her grandmother, she had to have it translated. The result is a very fascinating account of a Chinese woman's journey from her childhood as the daughter of the district healer, her arranged marriage, the escape from that, then the visicitudes of her struggling through the Cultural Revolution and her life since then to her escape from China to the USA. I'm sorry I can't remember the name of the author.
At the moment I'm reading 'Jimmy Buffet - A Pirate looks at Fifty'. A really good read written by Jimmy Buffett, a country singer who has the wherewithall to be able to afford to buy an Albatross flying boat, learn to fly, and get himself around the Eastern coast of the USA and round the Carribbean Sea...his native land. He's a great storyteller with plenty of stories to tell. Very humorous, and a bit of a Wag. I love biographies.
The Bone Setter's Daughter
The author is Amy Tan and I have the book on reserve in the library. Look forward to reading it.
The Bone Setter's Daughter
Am intrigued reading about this book. I shall ring the library when I am through with this computer and see if they can trace the author. You might be interested to read Wild Swans by Jung Chang, again it is a generation story and fully absorbing. A bit more recent is Mao's Last Dancer .... the film is good but the book is more poignant I think.
Like you I am fascinated with biographies. BTW does anybody know if there is a biography about Judith Durham? Saw a snippet in Talking Heads and am intrigued to learn more about this very gifted lady.
A Judith Durham biography
Does exist. I found it while browsing at the local op-shop. It's called "Colours of my life - The Judith Durham Story" and published by Random House.
I wasn't a great fan of The Seekers sound, but was fascinated by Judith's jazz after she went solo. So it's nice to be able to get her real story. I'd love to get hold of some of her later music.
The "real" Seeker!
http://www.judithdurham.com/
An authorised biography of Judith Durham written by Graham Simpson is referred to on the above site.
She is also planning on a book of her own ghosted by Shelley Bovey.
If anyone is interested in seeing the Talking Heads episode, it can be downloaded from the BBC site as a video, but be aware, it is upwards of 80+ Mb
Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
A great read for anyone interested in our wonderful language. Like all of Bryson's travel stories, this one contains lots of information and lots of chuckles as well as the occasional belly-laugh. Australia and its dialect (?) get a pretty fair serve and Bryson treads lightly and while mentioning 'fair dinkum' doesn't try for any totally ridiculous explanations as to where the expression came from. He does mention one localism which I would question however. He says that Victorians refer to an ice-cream tub as a 'pixie'. I've never heard that one, even in the depths of Victoria, but I do stand corrected.
In a 50 year career in journalism, much of it involved in editing books, I find it amazing the amount of authors who fail to do basic home-work (as opposed to research), particularly when it comes to Australia and Australians. They will often spend a week in Sydney and think they know all about the country. And they will ask questions, to which the answers are diligently written down, only to be embarrassed, when on publication, the author finds that his erstwhile informant has taken a small lend of him/her.
But Bill really is a wonderfully entertaining writer and his books always informative be they his off the cuff travel notes, his personal history of growing up in mid-western US, or his journalist's love of our wonderful language.
Mother tongue
John ... it was 'Dixie' not pixie. A simple typo which escaped proof reading perhaps?
I well remember dixies when I was a kid in Melbourne. They were marketed by the Peters company (if memory serves me right) and, comprised a smallish coated cardboard cup with a tabbed lid. A small wooden paddle-shaped spoon came with each cup.
Mother tongue
You can still get them. (Very satisfying slurping the icecream off the thin wooden spoon). Never heard of them referred to as a 'dixie'. Maybe it's because I come from Queensland! Ever heard of 'peanut paste'?
dixie/pixie
Yes Rim I have been thinking along the same lines, though in NSW they were called 'buckets'. I actually have a real 'Dixie' kicking around somewhere. It is made from quite heavy gauge metal like a square shaped cooking pot and indeed could be used for that. There are two halves, with folding wire handles and the whole thing folds up with one pot inside the other. It is US issue, and came with a knife spoon and fork. My Father, who was stationed in Morotai with the RAAF during WWII brought it back with him (among other things).
As a suggestion, get hold of Bill Bryson's 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid'. It's about Bryson own childhood in the mid west, and though he's a little younger than me, I can relate to many of the things he did, growing up in a small country town. Cheers
I've only just come
I've only just come across this post....have to say I would recommend The Thunderbolt Kid too....one very funny book. I grew up in Melbourne in the 50's and I can remember going to the "pictures" with my older siblings and can relate to much of what happened to him there [ sneaking in without paying ...me ..terrified that we would be caught...my brothers being older had no such qualms lol]....some of the stories he tells could be about my two older brothers ...as I said ...very funny.
Sneaking
Hi Magswell, yeah I can relate. I grew up in a place with a similar climate ... Goulburn in NSW! Trouble was that my old town only had a population of about 20,000 (despite the grandiose title of Australia's first inland city), and with a father who was one of the town's golf club's Secretary-Managers, I was known by everyone! I mean I was known even by people who I didn't know! So I had to be careful just what hi-jinks I got up to.
Funny thing is, that the most 'exciting' pranks I got up to were at the instigation of a friend who was the number one son of a local clergyman (This bloke is now a clergyman himself). We used to hide in the old coach house and stable, which was adjacent to the tennis courts. This place had a stash of carbide, which used to be used in old-fashioned coach and buggy lanterns. Mixed with a little water, it explosively produces acetlene. We used to 'bomb' the tennis players when they were still on the court during a light shower of rain. It was like chucking 'invisible' crackers at them.
Yeah, being a writer, I may tell some stories some time. By the way, if you're a Bryson fan, you might try "Mother Tongue." It's a good read a great chuckle, and informative too.
Cheers,
JC
Dixie/pixie
Yes John ... I remember 'real' dixies as well. They were standard army issue too.
I vaguely recall the same name was applied to a quite large boiling pot in army kitchens. Can't be positive about the name, but clearly recall 'KP' stints and having to peel obscene numbers of spuds to fill the damn things!
spud peeling
Hey Rim ... that takes me back. I remember having been told that I would be peeling spuds in punnishment for pulling the trigger of someone else's Thompson ... the whole thing just went 'sproing!' into 100 or so component parts. A Tommy gun is held together by a metre long spring, which is murder to insert and locked into place by the pistol-grip and trigger guard, pull the trigger and you have to start over. They hauled me off to the kitchen and then to a back room which was half filled with potatoes and a device like a spin dryer ... you turned the water on and shovelled in some spuds and the spuds came out the other end already peeled ... I had a great day.
spud peeling
Lucky you. Don't remember any mechanised peeling equipment where I was. I think a split-bladed peeler each was the sum of technological progress offered to us. Actually, I fancy I just happened to win the short straw in an impromptu popularity contest rather than being a bad boy. So my experience in the cook-house wasn't that extensive, thankfully.
As to the Thompson ... I'm pretty certain OZ had cast aside that item long before I had the doubtful 'pleasure' of undergoing infantry training. Too complicated and prone to breakdown I suspect. My weapon of choice was the home-grown Owen ... lightweight, about three critical moving parts, not gas-operated and, you would virtually have to take to it with a 10lb hammer to cause terminal damage! 600 rounds a min. and unaffected by water, mud or reputedly, even wet sand. The foot-slogger's friend in my book. Coincidentally, the breech-block was operated by a simple coiled spring anchored to the back of the firing chamber. There was an 'old warry' story about a spring breaking whilst a bloke was in action in PNG during WW2. The spring was allegedly replaced by a roughly similar unit from the seat of an army vehicle ... and the engagement went on as if nothing untoward had happened! If even partly authentic, that is testimony in favour of not only the weapon's brilliant design, but also the ingenuity of the user.
But, enough of that. Don't want to un-necessarily upset the peaceful tenor of GOT.
Tommys
Hye Rim: The Owen was a nice little number, but under 25m the Thompson had a thump. I recently found out that one of my neighbours was in charge of targeting at the old jungle training camp at Canungra. He was telling stories about the nasties he used to pull on Nashos ... reckoned it was all good until those #&XX**% Air Force types with their bloody Thompsons and shot guns arrived ... "we had to build all new targets after they left." I hardly (not) had the heart to tell him that I was one of those (expletive deleted), RAAF types. A .45 or a 12 guage load of SGs hitting one of those metal cut-out targets, really does make a mess. Didn't do the up- country confrontationists the world of good either.
Tommys
OK John ... you sucked me in again. Another feature of the Owen was its 9mm cal. rimless ammo. No co-incidence that virtually all WW2 European enemy combatants and, certainly the Japanese, used the same cal. in their side arms and machine pistols. A case of 'plan B' ...if you run out of ammo ... no worries cobber, just grab some of theirs?
I felt our fellow GOT readers needed to know that(?)
Hello you two
It has been extremely interesting following this conversation, and I'm sure I speak for many other readers, too. So, rim, please don't be too worried. I shall only consider deleting your posts if they suddenly become offensive.
Happy Talking!