Wednesday 21 May 2014

Author Event ~ Ceridwen Dovey ~ Only The Animals

Ceridwen Dovey will be appearing at Abbey's on Thursday May 29.

Ceridwen Dovey

Ceridwen's new novel is titled Only the Animals and it contains beautiful and thought-provoking stories that explore the complex relationship mankind has with animals. Dovey has used cleverly used the device of speaking from the perspective of various animals as a means to approach some of the major conflicts of the past century in a fresh way.

The thoughtful and reflective tone of the novel is leavened with humour that comes from combining human understanding and expression with each animal's basic drives and behaviours.

Ceridwen will be appearing at Abbey's at 6pm on Thursday 29 May where she will be in conversation about her book and the ideas behind it. Light refreshments will be served and no animals will be harmed in the making of this event.



CERIDWEN DOVEY ~ ONLY THE ANIMALS
THURSDAY 29 MAY
6PM
131 YORK STREET
(Tucked safely behind the QVB)

FREE EVENT: If you would like to attend the event please RSVP to events@abbeys.com.au


One final note on pronunciation: Ceridwen is pronounced 'Keridwen'.

More about Ceridwen:

SMH interview

POP.EDIT.LIT interview


See you on the 29th!

Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey


Buy these books at Abbey's (131 York Street Sydney) ~ An Aladdin's cave for readers

Abbey's ~ An Aladdin's cave for readers

Tuesday 6 May 2014

Conversations in Crime Alley Wrap

On the evening of Thursday 10 April...
an incident occurred at the premises of Abbey's Bookshop located in downtown Sydney at 131 York Street.

Newton & Nunn at Abbey's Bookshop

Two individuals, identifying themselves as crime authors,...
entered the premises at approximately 6pm and proceeded to regale onlookers with tales of crime writing and other evil doings. This activity was observed to continue for a duration of approximately 1.5 hours, during which time the imbibing of alcohol was also seen to occur. The suspects then fled the scene. Current whereabouts unknown.

It was only due to the quick response of PC Jessica Slade that the following notes were taken down while the actions described above were being carried out.


CRIME EVENT NOTES

Suspect 1: P M Newton (PM)
Suspect 2: Malla Nunn (M)


On their own writing:

‘Place’ is important to both authors and plays a significant role in shaping their stories.
  • “Story comes out of place” (M)
  • “Embedded in place” (PM)
  • “I want to feel that they [characters] have some connection to the land”
Exploring a “fascinating setting” assists with character and plot development, at times explaining the actions and decisions of particular characters
  • “Sometimes it’s hard to tell who the good guys are” (PM on M Nunn’s books)

On true crime genre:
  • “Too sad”, “there is no resolution for the people the crime has happened to” (M)
  • “Not a huge fan; the resolution is missing” (PM)

On crime TV shows (in particular ‘True Detective’):
  • Cross-over between TV and books
  • Books are starting to replicate the complex nature of crime shows
  • True Detective – “embedded with literary clues” (PM)
  • The Wire – “the visual impact of having a cast that is so black” (M), communicates visually perhaps in a more successful way than through text


Newton & Nunn at Abbey's Bookshop

New crime readers:
  • Crime is such a broad genre
  • “I find what I like by reading… do I find it interesting, exciting, does it hook me in?” (M)
  • “Ask what’s out there” (PM)

Recommendations:

  • “Crime is ‘The Quiet American’” - the perfect crime novel (PM)
  • 10 books; more like a 10 part novel
  • Plays around with and questions the ideas of their genre
  • “They are the mama and the papa of Swedish crime during that period [they were writing in]”
Bony series (Upfield)
Anil’s Ghost (Ondaatje)
  • crime novel from a literary writer
  • “beautiful, breathtaking phrases”


What’s next?
  • Present Darkness by Malla Nunn coming out in June
  • “Some Ned and also non-Ned ideas” (PM) are being thrown around



Newton & Nunn at Abbey's Bookshop

Newton & Nunn at Abbey's Bookshop


Buy these books at Abbey's (131 York Street Sydney) ~ An Aladdin's cave for readers

Abbey's ~ An Aladdin's cave for readers

Notes from Eve Abbey ~ May 2014


It’s good to have the First Tuesday Book Club back on air.
The Quiet American by Graham Greene

It was especially good to hear those lovely people talk about David Marr’s choice, which was Graham Greene’s The Quiet American - a book which qualifies as a Little Gem. And you can almost always be certain to find such back-list titles at Abbey’s. I checked Abbey’s website after the programme and found sixteen Graham Greene titles available ex-stock and almost all of them at the excellent price of $12.95 or $12.99. What more can you ask? We even offer The Third Man in Persian or Short Stories / Nouvelles in French. Of course this means you must go upstairs to the First Floor but remember, if you are in a hurry or your legs are not so good, you can now go up in the lift from the lobby. Just ask one of the staff.

Also upstairs is GALAXY Bookshop. I read a nice piece of trivia about Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. This classic film was not initially met with great acclaim. For a year, while sales were hard in London, John Lennon bought two seats to every performance and gave them away. Is that called Bums on Seats or Word of Mouth? They both work.

The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin

10% OFF Claire Tomalin's The Invisible Woman during May when you use the Promotion Code EVESMAYBLOG when you order.

I went, with much expectation, to see a preview of Ralph Fiennes’ new film The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens, as this is one of my favourite books. It is a scholarly and exciting investigation into the rumour that Charles Dickens, that supreme icon of domestic bliss, had a young mistress for thirteen years before his death. Claire Tomalin, the author, is an excellent biographer and she makes a more than positive case. It is amusing that the male reviewers of the film find it hard to admit the rumour might be true! Just as the early biographers of Dickens, usually his friends, made no mention at all of Ellen Ternan, yet must have met her sometime, if not regularly. I was disappointed that the new edition of The Invisible Woman was not mentioned in the opening remarks. Some knowledge of the story would be very helpful as the film goes forwards and backwards often. The film wisely concentrates on the single story line of Ellen and Dickens but read the book for further stories. Ellen’s sister, Fanny, married Thomas Trollope, the brother of Anthony and thus became a second Fanny Trollope. To confuse you even further the second Fanny Trollope also wrote novels, not very good ones, but she was well-known, although nowhere near as famous as his mother.

Of course Dickens’ life is as entertaining as his famous novels and if you know a little of this you will enjoy the film even more. A recent addition to the list is by Claire Tomalin. It is called Charles Dickens: A Life. All Tomalin’s biographies are wonderfully readable. Jane Austen: A Life is a standard text. There is a new edition due of Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life
 while other titles are Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, or The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft and most importantly, Mrs. Jordan’s Profession: The Story of a Great Actress and a Future King. This is a terrific story. Mrs. Jordan was not only a hugely popular actress but also the mother of ten children to the son of George III. This is part of the story of how Victoria became Queen.

While I was thinking about how useful it is to read Invisible Woman when you see the film I remembered the film of The Go-Between. When this was showing, years ago, people were so puzzled about what was actually happening in the film that eventually Abbey’s took copies of the book by L.P. Hartley over to the cinema and people bought it on their way out! Very thankfully!   Some films are spoilt if you have read the book and some people really demand that you read the book. Have fun! I’ve heard from the shop that Invisible Woman is reprinting but stock is due next month. Maybe try your library.

Flash Boys: Cracking the Money Code
by Michael Lewis

10% OFF Michael Lewis' Flash Boys during May when you use the Promotion Code EVESMAYBLOG when you order.

It is surprising how exciting non-fiction can be. I was absolutely enthralled when I read the latest expose of the financial world from Michael Lewis. His first book Liar's Poker, published in 1989, about the deals on Wall Street, was an enormous bestseller and since then he has written many other books with an emphasis on the financial world. He has an Economics Degree and did once work on Wall Street, before he wrote Liar's Poker. His latest book, Flash Boys: Cracking the Money Code is really a thriller and it has caused a few important people to look again at the most recent improvements on Wall Street. The story concerns the effect of the activities of High Frequency Traders who are able to make enormous amounts of money buying and selling because they have first look at incoming trades. It all comes down to micro-seconds.

A manager with Royal Canadian Bank first began looking into this (and the “dark pools” where trades were kept hidden until the right moment) and gradually he gathered around him a team of exceedingly unusual (read that as nerds, crackpots and genius) but all interested in remaking the Exchange as a place of fairness for everyone. It won’t spoil the story to know that they did indeed succeed in this – by starting a new exchange called IEX which stands for Investor Exchange. Lewis admits this would not have been possible without last minute support from newly appointed managers at Goldman Sachs. The whole story is fascinating and the writing superb. Don’t miss it, even if you have never bought a share.

Keep well.

Eve


Buy these books at Abbey's (131 York Street Sydney) ~ An Aladdin's cave for readers

Abbey's ~ An Aladdin's cave for readers