As a follow on from my recent post about there being more to life than chit chat, I thought I would start a new feature where I post about some of the great people that I do chat with regularly, especially the authors that I have had the opportunity to talk with.

Rather than post a transcript of my interviews, I thought I would include a few quotes and then some random thoughts on what we discussed. Recently I’ve talked with Marina Lewycka, Gabrielle Wang and Anita Heiss, so I should have plenty to get started with from those conversations.

Stay tuned.

Title: To A Distant Land
Author: Julianne Jones
Publisher: Ark House Press, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-92158-914-0
Genre: Christian Historical Fiction

Summary (from author website)

Wrongly accused and sentenced to seven years transportation, Katie Donovan is not the only one leaving behind everything familiar to travel to a distant land …
On the journey Katie finds friends and a new faith but it is in a distant land that her faith will face its greatest challenge. Will she stand the test?

Samuel McKinnon accepts a position as spiritual advisor on a convict ship, intending to return home once the journey is complete but he soon discovers that God’s plans are contrary to his own. Will he have the courage to step into the unknown and trust God to direct his steps?

Rhiannon Sanford immigrates with her family to Australia after a rift between her grandfather and father forces the family to leave everything behind. Her father’s dream of a new life will require sacrifice and challenge. Will the price be too great?

Comments

I discovered To A Distant Land thanks to a friend, who knows the author Julianne Jones. I’m always keen to promote Australian authors so I borrowed a copy of the novel to read and review for Suite101.

I will admit to being a little nervous when I started reading. My friend raved about the book, but I’ve found some Christian fiction a little too cloying and forced in the past, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this novel.

I really enjoyed reading To A Distant Land, which I did quite quickly. For me it falls into a YA genre style, although I think that the veiled references to sexual indiscretions and illegitimate children may have led the publisher to promote it as general fiction. The Christian message is quite strongly presented in the book, but this is done very naturally through the character of the preacher Samuel McKinnon in a way that fits well with the plot.

The central characters of Katie, Samuel and Rhiannon are quite likeable and engaging and I found the historical setting also very interesting. I think for teen readers particularly it offers some general insight into the limited choices available for lower class women in the early 1800s.

The novel is complete, however there is a definite opening to extend the story and I think that there are at least two further books in the planning stages for the series.  I’m looking forward to reading more about both the characters and the experience of living in Australia in the 1830s, so I’m hoping that the next book is available sooner rather than later.

Related links

• Review of To A Distant Land at Suite101.com
• Julianne Jones blog

Title: Let’s Talk About Sex (15th Anniversary Edition)
Author: Robie H Harris
Illustrator: Michael Emberley
Publisher: Walker Books, 2010
Topic: Sex Education, Sexual Health, Physical Development

Summary (from publisher website)

An updated, 15th anniversary edition of the definitive book on kids’ sexual health brings this trusted resource into the twenty-first century.
Now with a brand-new chapter focusing on safe internet use, one of parents’ key concerns, this universally acclaimed classic by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley is a cutting-edge resource for kids, parents, teachers, librarians, and anyone else who cares about the well-being of tweens and teens. Providing accurate and up-to-date answers to nearly every imaginable question, from conception and puberty to birth control and AIDS, it offers young people the information they need, now more than ever, to make responsible decisions and stay healthy.

• Completely updated and thoroughly vetted by experts
• A great book… All the facts are there without reservation, but it has a gentle approach that is very reassuring. – The Times Educational Supplement
• THE definitive book on kids’ sexual health

Comments

With children approaching puberty, I’ve been casting my eye about for a book that they can read to help them understand the changes that are about to start occurring in their bodies.

I’ve always been the kind of person to call a spade a spade (or a penis a penis for that matter). I like that Let’s Talk about Sex is a straightforward in the way it presents information using proper terms and facts rather than talking around the edges. The format, with numerous illustrations, keeps the book very approachable though, which is important.

The age range offered by the publisher is 9 – 12, but I don’t think that I will be handing this book over to my children at 9 to read from cover to cover. Topics such as abortion and sexually transmitted diseases are concerns that I’m not sure my 9 year old daughter needs to worry about quite yet.

I like the inclusion of information about staying safe on the internet and the regular encouragement for kids reading the book to take any questions or concerns to a trusted adult. I also like that there is information about both male and female development in the one book.

The Bird and Bee characters throughout the book are amusing and help to acknowledge that discussing sexual health subjects can be embarrassing while reminding kids that it is important to make sure that they understand what is happening as their body is changing and developing.

Related links
Let’s Talk About Sex review at Suite101.com

Title: Manhattan Dreaming
Author: Anita Heiss
Publisher: Bantam, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-74166-892-6
Genre: Chick Lit

Summary (from author website)

Lauren is a curator at the National Aboriginal Gallery in Canberra. She’s good at her job, passionate about the Arts, and takes work seriously. It’s easy for Lauren to focus on work, that is, when she’s not focussing on Adam.

Lauren is smitten with, or as her friends say, obsessed with Adam – the star forward for the Canberra Cockatoos. But Adam is a player, on and off the field. To everyone other than Lauren, it is clear that Adam doesn’t want to be in a relationship at all, even though he likes being with Lauren. In a few short months Adam is involved in one too many scandals that make the press. She is shattered and breaks it off though she can’t quite let go…

When she tries to convince her friends that she is waiting for Adam to have his epiphany and realise they are meant to be together, her friends decide to do an intervention on her. Under pressure from them, Lauren successfully applies for her dream job at the Smithsonian in New York. She leaves for the Big Apple, telling herself, that Adam will miss her so much he will see the light and eventually come begging.

Once landing in NYC, Lauren’s life goes into overdrive with the preparation of the exhibition, finding her way around the city and marvelling at the city that never sleeps.
There are a lot of men in New York who flirt with Lauren, in fact, there are men everywhere. In the street, on the subway, in cafes and galleries, even in her workplace. They really like her, and they love her accent. They fuss over her and just like being around her. Adam had never really been like that with her at all.

But when Adam appears on her doorstep some months later, having apparently had the epiphany she was waiting for, Lauren is confused. He catches Lauren at a weak moment – the exhibition she has been working is almost complete and she has to make some big decisions: The Man or Manhattan?

Comments

I don’t generally read a lot of chick lit, possibly because I have so little in common with the upwardly mobile urban professionals that often feature as the central character. I realise that the escapism factor is a large part of the appeal of these stories, but I tend more towards historical fiction when I’m looking for a break from my everyday life.

Having said that, I did enjoy Manhattan Dreaming. The story is light-hearted and fun and the central character Lauren is an appealing combination of intelligent competence professionally and ditzy clinginess in her personal life. I liked the setting in Canberra and New York and enjoyed the references to the Indigenous art world in both countries.

I think it was the art references that particularly drew me in. While the plot itself was light enough that I could relax and simply enjoy, the mention of several Indigenous artists and their work as well as some discussions about the role and promotion of Indigenous art added a more thoughtful element to the story. I loved that even while I was filing away a comment on how “our material culture is often considered artefact rather than art and displayed in museums rather than galleries” for further thought, I could be smiling with amusement at Lauren’s ability to find both friends and delicious pastries wherever she went.

I think that it is fantastic to read Indigenous characters written by an author with an obvious passion for and connection with the Australian Indigenous community. I had the opportunity to chat with Anita Heiss and her intelligent discussion of the perception of Aboriginal culture in modern Australian society gave me plenty to consider while her positive outlook was very inspiring.

Since chatting with Anita, I have ordered a copy of her YA novel Who Am I? The Diary of Mary Talence, Sydney 1937, a story highlighting the impact of the Stolen Generation, and I am looking to get involved in the local activities to support the Indigenous Literacy Project, an initiative with which she is involved as an ambassador. Hopefully we will be able to organise a Great Book Swap event locally to support Indigenous Literacy Day in September.

This is review is part of my contribution to the Literary Road Trip hosted by GalleySmith. I am highlighting authors from New South Wales, Australia.

Related Links

• Review of Manhattan Dreaming at Suite101
• Anita Heiss website and blog

Ever wish your life was Bigger! Greater! More Amazing!

I know how you feel.

After declaring 2009 “The Year Best Forgotten”, I am determined that 2010 is going to be a much better year – a time for new beginnings, achieving goals and aspiring to greater things.

The trouble is, I’m having some difficulty defining exactly what my goals are and finding time in my schedule of everyday life commitments to fit in activities that are inspiring, uplifting and encouraging.

After almost 11 years as a full-time stay-at-home mum I’m starting to feel a little type-cast. Not that I regret my choice. I’ve loved every minute of being at home with my kids – well, not the toilet training bit, but most of the rest of it. I have worked from home over the years, initially as a contract specialist medical typist and more recently as a freelance writer, but generally I have simply spent each day keeping my family and friends motoring along.

My youngest child started school this year and I’m starting to feel like I’ve been painted into a corner socially. A corner labelled “loves to chat about her kids, cooking, cleaning and the supermarket” where I’m likely to be listening to someone extol the virtues of the latest cookbook giving advice on how to hide artichokes and pumpkin in chocolate chip cookies so that kids get their daily vegetable intake.

I have recently ventured back to uni in an attempt to once again broaden my horizons, although this seems to have backfired a little with the textbook apparently the result of an English to Academic Psychobabble Google translator. I’m starting to wonder whether I’ve spent too long in the don’t-think-too-hard wilderness and my brain is no longer capable of intelligent thought.

So, I’m wondering how to balance focusing on everyday life and social chit-chat with establishing connections with people who enjoy thinking about things more deeply. I do have friends that enjoy the kind of conversations that I do, so perhaps it is more an issue of adjusting the balance to allow for more time talking with these friends.

Maybe my problem is that I’m a little bit too much ‘jack of all trades, master of none’. I know a little bit about a lot of things – books, music, science, politics, social issues, education, religion, photography, history. Eclectic tastes ensure a wide and diverse range of interests, but don’t necessarily result in a passion to pursue any one interest in particular. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that I want to passionately pursue all these interests, so I end up trying to go in 10 different directions at once and therefore don’t go anywhere.

Anyone else out there feeling the same? Wanting more from life, but not quite sure how to get more without losing some of the great things that you already have? I’m open to advice, sympathy and even gentle constructive criticism, so feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks to Cindy at Cindy’s Love of Books for this Book Meme.

Keeping with my promise to limit my book purchases until I whittle down my TBR pile to a more respectable size, I didn’t buy many books in February. I side-stepped my self-imposed restriction by mostly buying books for my university studies and the kids.

Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice (3rd edition) by Chris Barker – The text for my first uni subject is proving to be far more pretentious and overworked that I would like. The subject matter is quite interesting thought, so I’m hoping I can get past the convoluted sentence structure, stressed grammar and hyperactive vocabulary.

The Greatest Blogger in the World by Andrew McDonald – after finding Andrew’s blog thanks to a link to this very amusing post on how to make sure you never lose your digital camera, I hunted down a copy of his novel. I enjoyed it and my 10-year-old son loved it. A great book for kids aged 10+ and one that boys will enjoy as well as girls.

To A Distant Land by Julianne Jones – I was loaned a copy of this book by a friend who knows the author. When Julianne came to Newcastle and held a book-signing at our local Koorong store, I went along and bought a copy of her book for myself and one for my niece. A really great historical fiction book for teens.

Boy Overboard and Once & Then by Morris Gleitzman – My son was reading (and enjoying) Boy Overboard at school, so I picked up a copy so that I could read it as well and the other book, a 2-in-1 edition, just came along for the ride.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman – purchased thanks to a very enthusiastic recommendation by Meredith at Oh, The Thinks you can Think.

Choose Your Own Magic: Ruby the Red Fairy by Daisy Meadows – A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style edition of the ever popular Rainbow Magic fairy books.