Oooh! A Special Guest Reviewer! Kimberley Blyth has been doing a library placement with us in Cairns*, and she has chipped in this week with a review for the Reading Challenge.
This week's challenge involves finding a book set somewhere you'll be visiting this year. Did you find a book set in your chosen destination? Did it make you more or less keen to visit?
Kimberley Blyth read Gap Year in Ghost Town by Michael Pryor.
Somewhere I
hope to visit this year is Melbourne. According to the Global Liveability Report for 2017, it’s one of the world’s
most liveable cities, vibrant and full of culture, so I’d love to experience it
for myself. Michael Pryor’s Gap Year in Ghost Town (820.94 PRY in
the Curriculum Collection) showcases inner city Melbourne through the eyes of
the narrator, Anton Marin. From the first scene, the reader is transported to
the lively back alleys and attractions of Melbourne, and you can tell
it's the author's hometown because the little details made the setting more
realistic, and therefore, believable.
I hope to
get to Japan this year. It’s really easy to get to from Cairns and I used to
live there so I’m always interested in catching up with friends. This week I’ve
been reading another author who was was Japanese born and received the Nobel
Prize for Literature (see last week’s blog to for a review on Kazuo Ishiguro).
Back in the
days before the internet, computers and blogs, I used to go on annual holidays
with my family to the Blue Mountains in NSW. The Blue Mountains have remained a
favourite haunt of mine and I will be enjoying its icy delights again this
year. Given that you may short of time
for reading for pleasure at the moment, The Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves: A Camera Study by Frank Hurley could be just the thing. This gem
was published in Sydney in 1952 (“Also Obtainable Overseas”). Although
originally a guide for tourists, it is now a fascinating historical record with
over 60 full-page prints by Hurley and articles written by Frank Walford, Paddy Pallin (of the adventure store fame) and Andrew Mayne.
This week's challenge involves finding a book set somewhere you'll be visiting this year. Did you find a book set in your chosen destination? Did it make you more or less keen to visit?
Kimberley Blyth read Gap Year in Ghost Town by Michael Pryor.
Anton is
experimenting with the family business for his gap year, which, as the title
suggests, is ghost hunting. Ghost stories and paranormal literature are not my
favourite genres, but this book surprised me. Anton can see ghosts, making him
a perfect fit for the family business, but he isn’t so sure he wants to spend
his life chasing down ghosts. However, as a surge in ghost sightings and crime
hits the streets of Melbourne, Anton meets Rani, a visiting hunter from
England, who disagrees with Anton’s peaceful methods of ghost hunting. Despite
their differences, the two must work together to keep supernatural forces at
bay.
Full
of witty and sarcastic banter, the story is complemented by undertones of strong
friendships and violence versus compassion. While the stakes never really rise
to an alarming level, the story itself flows well, with a great mix of
characters and a setting that adds to the lively atmosphere of the story.
This is a
collection of stories that say a lot in a small space. Each story is small enough
to fit into the palm of your hand. Yes, yes, I know. Most stories can fit into
the palm of our hands these days, regardless of how many pages they have (you
could probably read something terribly long like Don Quixote on your phone
these days if you were brave/silly enough). But then, with our modern
ways of being quick to click and fast to scroll and swipe, these palm of the
hand stories might be the perfect form of literature for today.
While perhaps better known for his novels, Kawabata
always returned to this unique form of storytelling, the Palm-of-the-Hand-Stories (895.6 KAW 2B TEN). If we use the obvious
comparison and say that these stories are to the novel what the haiku is to the
longer form of the poem, we are probably just being lazy. Although, like haiku,
these stories do give us a strong sense of season. We know that the action is
taking place on a warm summer evening, a rainy autumn day, or a snow covered
night.
These stories take you to what feels like very regular,
everyday places. It's like going on a holiday to Japan and avoiding the tourist
haunts. Whether they are set on a bridge over a stream, in a bath house, a
mountain town, or by the sea, the stories have a way of transporting you to
that place. For all their brevity, these stories are unhurried and offer glimpses
of ordinary life in Japan across many decades before and after the Second World
War.
In his
Foreword, Hurley writes:
For those lusty of limb who have a yearning for
distant horizons, there are hundreds of miles of bushwalks and tracks…Unless
you are an experienced bushwalker don’t wander off the tracks. If you do, don’t
panic; stay where you are and wait for the rescue party, which will turn up
sooner or later…
I have done my best with my camera to give you some glimpses of Blue
Mountains grandeur and Jenolan’s wonders. My colleagues with their pens have
joined me, in the hope that…you may be one who,
exempt from public
haunt,
Finds tongues in
trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
The Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves: A Camera Study is a
literary and historical treat, whether you have visited the Blue Mountains or
not. You can find it on the shelves at 919.44500222 HUR C. A.
*Yes, librarians have to do placements as part of their degrees. Yes, librarians have degrees in library sciences. Yes, "library sciences" is a real thing.
*Yes, librarians have to do placements as part of their degrees. Yes, librarians have degrees in library sciences. Yes, "library sciences" is a real thing.
Comments