Boomerang Blog

You wouldn’t imagine what’s behind the smiling faces of some successful people on television. Trisha Goddard has been on the 7:30 Report, and Everybody in Australia, and now hosts a talk show in England. She was brought up in Tanzania and Surrey, and has had her fair share of difficulties, from childhood abuse, drug-use, depression and grief, to marriages that have fallen apart. But her autobiography is titled Trisha: As I Am (Pan, October), and currently she is about family, communication, and promoting understanding of mental health problems.

John Grogan is already known for Marley & Me, and now he brings us a follow-up memoir The Longest Trip Home (Hachette, November). It continues on themes of growing up, and getting to know your parents as an adult. It’s sure to have the universal appeal of his former story, which is being made into a film with Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston.

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

Pulitzer prize-winner Marilynne Robinson follows up Gilead with Home (Virago,October). It looks as though the author is not finished with the people and places in Gilead as this novel continues on with them. Jack, the wayward son, returns home after decades away. The family hope that their love will be enough to make him stay, that he is capable of change. Of course, there will be further complexities.

Set two centuries earlier than Beloved, another novel that promises to be a powerful tale of tragedy and displacement is Toni Morrison’s A Mercy (Chatto & Windus, November). Florens, a young girl, is taken in by an Anglo-Dutch trader despite his distaste for dealing in ‘flesh’. There are also the voices of Florens’ mother, a sea captain’s daughter, a native American woman, and a tribe mistress Rebekka. Toni Morrison’s first novel in five years is sure to be a powerful one.

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

Which star had sexual relations with a frozen chook? What did Kurt Cobain say when the DJ played Pearl Jam? How did ACDC Lane in Melbourne get its name? Find out in Underneath the Riffs: A Rock Reader, Vol 1 (ed. Jeff Jenkins and Miranda Young, Wilkinson Publishing, October). This book takes you behind the music, with conversational tales from all sorts of people who have floated in the heady atmosphere of rock-backstage, front of stage, or behind the lyrics. The editors want to get this book out not just to readers, but to listeners. They say its appeal is wide and it’s hugely accessible, like having a conversation with a bunch of interesting people who’ve seen and heard some hardcore things! Contributors include Tim Rogers, Dylan Lewis, Ed Nimmervoll, Francis Leach, Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum, Sarah Morgan and Wally Meanie.

Rock on with Radio Days (Peter Sheridan & Ritchie Singer, Bakelite, October), a photographic history of 1930s to 1950s glorious-coloured Bakelite radios, innovative in their time, nostalgic pieces of art in ours. This is apparently the first photographic history of this object. No doubt it will become a reference for collectors, and invoke memories of an era, including the cultural spirit of progress.

Get intimate with the world’s most legendary rock band in Led Zeppelin: When Giants Walked the Earth (Mick Wall, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, October). Wall knew both Page and Plant in their heyday and is a respected rock writer. He blows the cover on backstage excess, band member backgrounds, and musical magnificence.

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

Fans of Australian literature would certainly be grateful for the new biography of Elizabeth Jolley Doing Life (UWA Press, October), by her close friend and colleague Brian Dibble. The ‘lyrical’ biography, as described by the publisher, looks back not only at the array of wild characters in her fiction, but also those in her life, and of the publishing climate that allowed a woman in her 50s to exert a new voice, honed by experiences in England, Scotland and Australia.

Peter Luck’s stunning photographs accompany one of Australia’s most famous poems in Dorothea Mackellar’s My Country: A Centenary Celebration 1908-2008 (Pier 9, October). This beautiful giftbook is an homage to the poet, her iconic words, and her country.

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

David Marr has decided to explore the controversy surrounding Bill Henson’s photographs in great detail. The Henson Case is released by Text in October and is sure to reawaken the art/porn debate. Marr includes detailed interviews with Henson himself, giving him a chance to express the motivations of his work. It will also be the first detailed account of the events surrounding the removal of pictures from Henson’s exhibition, and the investigation of the artist for child pornography. The important and complex debate tells us about who we are culturally as a nation, what is acceptable for broad public viewing, questions of consent, censorship, and if lines can or should be drawn. Sure to be an interesting and important book.

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

Brisingr by the young Christopher Paolini has come up trumps in the Bestsellers and the Fastest Movers charts this week. Top spot in the Highest New Entries goes to footballers Nathan Buckley and Ben Collins with All I Can Be. CSIRO Publishing could be hoping The CSIRO Healthy Heart Program will hit heady (and hearty) heights as it sneaks in at number two in the Highest New Entries. And the interminable Guinness World Records 2009 makes its pre-Christmas debut at number three in the Bestsellers–WBN.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2008/10/09755/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

The winners of this year’s New Zealand Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement have been announced.

Receiving $60,000 each for their contribution to New Zealand Literature were Lloyd Jones (for fiction), WH (Bill) Oliver (for nonfiction), and Elizabeth Smither (for poetry).

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said the work of the winners ‘reflects the nuances and subtleties of what it is to be a New Zealand writer’. ‘From the uniqueness of this country and the people who live here to worlds beyond these shores, their work adds depth and richness to our literary traditions.’

The awards are administered by Creative New Zealand. Established in 2003, with previous recipients including Janet Frame, Maurice Gee, Margaret Mahy, Vincent O’Sullivan, Bill Manhire, and Philip Temple, the awards are nominated by New Zealanders and then assessed by a panel of literary experts and forwarded on for approval to the Council of Creative New Zealand.

Souorce: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2008/10/09766/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

Earth, the new out-sized atlas from Millennium House, has been printed in Hong Kong to avoid a possible embargo by China, Millennium House managing director Gordon Cheers told WBN.

Cheers said he could not risk the new title being embargoed by the Chinese government because of objections to the way the title treated certain regions. ‘We had published some books in China last year that were embargoed,’ said Cheers. ‘We know what the problems are but as a publisher we choose to treat Tibet and Taiwan in the way we do.’

Instead of publishing in China, Cheers had Earth published in Hong Kong, where he admits the costs were 20% higher. But, given that he estimates the atlas as representing 90% of his company’s income for the year, Cheers said he had no other choice.

We had a book printed [in China] and there were fifteen maps spread in different sections. Each were marked up by the Chinese government to be changed, and that was a book on geology, so you can imagine the impact it would have on an atlas,’ he said.

Cheers said objections to certain print jobs in China was ‘only recent–the last 18 months’.

Putting Queensland on the Map by Felicity Jack (UNSW Press) was turned down by a Chinese printer earlier this year for the way it addressed Tibet.

source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2008/10/09769/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

The Australian Book Review (ABR) has announced the details of a new prize to commemorate John Button.

The most popular article published in ABR in the previous year will be awarded with $1000 in a new annual prize commemorating the life of ABR contributor and board member John Button, who passed away in April 2008.

The prize will be chosen by ABR readers through a simple vote. One reader will also be in the running to win a copy of The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 6th edition (OUP, worth $399) if their reasons for choosing the contributor and article are included with the vote.

For more information visit the ABR website. Voting closes on Monday, November 17, and the winner will be announced in December.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2008/10/09736/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

Independent booksellers of Australia have voted Tim Winton’s Breath (Hamish Hamilton) their inaugural ‘Indie’ Award winner for 2008.

The author of the ‘Best Australian Book’ receives $19,000, as donated by over 120 independent booksellers. Winton said he was ‘honoured to have won the inaugural award and wanted to thank all those booksellers who still take books as personally as they take their business’.

‘We’d be buggered without you,’ he said.

The award for Debut Fiction went to Toni Jordan’s Addition (Text); Nonfiction went to Don Watson’s American Journeys (Vintage); and the Children’s Book award went to Shaun Tan’s Tales From Outer Suburbia (A&U).

Winton not only acknowledged the support of independent booksellers, but the uniqueness of ‘grass roots’ literature, publishing, and bookselling in Australia. ‘People don’t always realise that independent bookselling has become endangered elsewhere in the English-speaking world while here at home independents are a significant slice of the trade. Faced, as we are, with yet another blundering assault on the book industry, it’s worth remembering that a vibrant book culture has flowered here despite immense geographical, logistical and historical challenges,’ he said.

Leading Edge Books manages the ‘Indie’ award through its large membership of both metropolitan and regional bookstores in Australia. General manager Chris Burgess said ‘Independent bookstores hold a special place in the hearts of their customers as havens of enjoyment, stimulation and relaxation in an ever-busier world…Their incredible passion and knowledge of books makes them uniquely placed to judge and recommend the best Australian books of the past year to their customers and the general reading public’.

Source: http://www.booksellerandpublisher.com.au/articles/2008/10/09735/

This article from Thorpe Bowker’s Weekly Book Newsletter and Media Extra is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker