Events Upstairs @ 49 - Events                   July 2008 Sunday, July 06, 2008 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Free Event Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Pam Brown and Kate Lilley Poetry Reading Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe A special poetry reading with acclaimed US poet and critic Rachel Blau DuPlessis, who will be joined by award-winning Australian poets Pam Brown and Kate Lilley. Rachel Blau DuPlessis is a United States poet-critic, whose on-going long poem project, begun in 1986, is collected in several volumes including Torques: Drafts 58-76 as well as in Drafts 1-38, Toll. In 2006, two books of essays were published: Blue Studios:Poetry and Its Cultural Work, and a second edition of the ground-breaking The Pink Guitar: Writing as Feminist Practice. She teaches at Temple University, Philadelphia. Since 1971, Pam Brown has published many books and chapbooks including Dear Deliria which was awarded the NSW Premier’s Prize for Poetry in 2004. She has two books forthcoming - True Thoughts in 2008 and Authentic Local in 2009. She is the associate editor of Jacket magazine and a contributing editor for Fulcrum and How2. She keeps a blog - thedeletions.blogspot.com Kate Lilley's first book of poems, Versary won the Grace Leven Prize. Her second, Ladylike, is forthcoming from Salt. She teaches feminist and queer literary history and theory at the University of Sydney and has published widely on poetry and poetics. Her edition of Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World (1666) is published by Penguin Classics. Wednesday, July 02, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Don Tate The War Within To be launched by Paul Ham Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Trust me, I’m no philosopher. But in my fiftieth year, I had cause to seriously reflect on my life. I’d reached a point where there’s not a lot of light, or fight, left in a man. The darkness that followed me home from Vietnam had engulfed me completely. At the age of nineteen, Don Tate volunteered for duty in the Vietnam War, intent on proving his worth as a man and escaping the burdens of a troubled family and grinding poverty on the semi-rural outskirts of Brisbane. This is his story—of the trouble-strewn path to manhood in the shadow of his father, a violent petty criminal, surviving horrific war injuries and years of hospitalisation, and struggling to find a place in a society that did not want to recognise his military service for his country and seemed intent on excluding him. Ultimately, it’s a story of one man’s attempt to reconcile the vagaries of faith and circumstance as they are played out in life, and the love of a woman who stuck by him. Don Tate’s memoir is often confronting and at times deeply moving. His evocation of Australia in the fifties and sixties is raw and immediate, tinged with the great sense of irony. Don Tate was born in Brisbane, and raised in Caboolture, Inala and Cairns before the family purchased a couple of acres at Ellen Grove on the outskirts of Brisbane. The eldest of eight children, he joined the Australian Army, and volunteered to go to the Vietnam War where he fought as an infantryman. Badly wounded in action with the 9th Battalion in 1969, and repatriated to a Military Hospital in Brisbane, he met and married his wife, Carole. Moving to New South Wales in 1974, Don taught English and History across a number of schools in the Illawarra. He captain-coached a number of local cricket clubs, played representative cricket, and in 2000 was one of the first recipients of the Australian Sports Award. Active in community affairs, and an outspoken advocate for war veterans, Don lives in Shellharbour. He and Carole have raised five children. Tuesday, July 01, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Chloe Hooper The Tall Man Published by: Penguin In conversation with Suzanne Smith Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe 'Life springs from every page of this enthralling book. Australians will weep over it. It is first class reportage, meticulously researched, studded with superbly observed human detail - and all the more moving for its intense restraint.' - Helen Garner The Tall Man is the story of the death of Cameron Doomadgee, who one morning swore at a policeman and forty-five minutes later lay dead in a watch-house cell. It is the story of that policeman, the tall, enigmatic Christopher Hurley who chose to work in some of the toughest and wildest places in Australia, and of the struggle that brought him to trial. And it is the story of a place. To understand what happened, one needs to understand where it happened - Palm Island, in the far north. People there have a relationship with the land like no others, have a history and culture and catastrophic present like no others. It is Australia, but an Australia very few of us have seen. Chloe Hooper's reports from the inquest won her a Walkley Award and were published around the world. The Tall Man tells the full story of the subsequent trial and its repercussions through northern Australia. In the tradition of In Cold Blood, she follows Hurley's trail to some of the hard towns of the Gulf, uncovering the true story behind the trial. The Tall Man offers a brilliant insight into the clash of two worlds-and a haunting moral puzzle that no reader will forget. Chloe Hooper's first novel A Child's Book of True Crime was published in many languages. It was a New York Times Notable Book and short-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction (UK). She lives in Melbourne and is writing a novel to be published in 2009. Suzanne Smith is a senior reporter with ABC's Lateline with a special interest in indigenous affairs. She broke the story that led to the NT intervention.     June 2008 Sunday, June 29, 2008 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Special Event Sunday Book Club - June The Book Thief Published by: Pan Macmillan Marcus Zusak Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Sunday Book Club aims to promote and further appreciation of Australian fiction. Morgan Smith, gleebooks events manager, will host a discussion about a contemporary Australian novel on the last Sunday of every month. Morgan will choose the book and it is highly desirable (as in any reading group) for those attending to have read it in order to take part in the discussion. Register as a Sunday Book Club member and get 10% discount from gleebooks on the book of the month. Join Marcus Zusak and Morgan Smith in discussion about his remarkable bestseller, The Book Thief. It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. Liesel Meminger and her younger brother are being taken by their mother to live with a foster family outside Munich. Liesel's father was taken away on the breath of a single, unfamiliar word - Kommunist - and Liesel sees the fear of a similar fate in her mother's eyes. On the journey, Death visits the young boy, and notices Liesel. It will be the first of many near encounters. By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found. But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jewish fist-fighter in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down. The Book Thief is a story about the power of words to make worlds. In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time. Saturday, June 28, 2008 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Helen Lenskyj Olympic Industry Resistance To be launched by Beth Jewell & Prof. Jan Wright Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Scholar and activist Helen Jefferson Lenskyj continues her critique of the Olympic industry, looking specifically at developments in the post-9/11 and postbribery scandal era. Examining events and activism in host cities, as well as in several locations that bid unsuccessfully on the Olympics, Lenskyj shows how basic rights and freedoms, particularly of the press and of assembly, are compromised. Lenskyj investigates the pro-Olympic bias in media treatment of bids and preparations, the "fallen hero" phenomenon that includes doping and female athletes who pose nude in calendars, and takes issue with "Olympic education" curricular materials for schoolchildren. Also discussed are the problems of housing and homelessness created when the Olympics become a catalyst for urban redevelopment projects. "What are the Olympics really about? How to get behind the noise from boosters and speculators that dominate the media? Easy. Read Helen Lenskyj." - Andrew Jennings, author of FOUL! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging, and Ticket Scandals "Lenskyj presents an impassioned critique of the exploits and exploitations of successive Olympics, from rehousing scandals, to brainwashing of children into the secular theology of Olympism, to suppression of academic freedom, to the financial and decision-making culture of secrecy, to sellouts by women in sport of both feminist and nonfeminist persuasions. Very few escape her attention." - Celia Brackenridge, Brunel University Helen Jefferson Lenskyj is Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. She is the author of several books on the Olympic industry, including The Best Olympics Ever? Social Impacts of Sydney 2000 and Inside the Olympic Industry: Power, Politics, and Activism, both also published by SUNY Press. Friday, June 27, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Catherine McKinnon The Nearly Happy Family Published by: Viking Penguin Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Claire Delaney is an unsettled fifteen-year-old and her mother Jackie is in a freefall, throwing away long-held values like bits of cheap confetti. They both have a lot on their plates, trying to keep the younger children in their family together after the tragic death of Claire’s father and Jackie’s long-term partner. In the midst of these trying times, Claire and Jackie are driving each other crazy. Jackie can’t keep off the booze and has decided to marry a younger man, much to Claire’s disgust. Claire drops out of school and apprentices herself to a volatile Italian chef who teaches her the secrets of his kitchen. The secrets of their pasts and the shocking discoveries of their present threaten to shatter their already frail mother-daughter relationship. This tragic comedy is above all a mother-daughter love story. The Delaneys eventually learn, around the warmth of the kitchen table, that life – like all the best recipes – is both mysterious and mysteriously simple. Catherine McKinnon has written and directed many new Australian plays. Originally from Adelaide where she worked for the Red Shed Theatre Company and the State Theatre Company of SA, Catherine moved to Sydney to complete a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Technology Sydney. In 2006 she won the Penguin/Australian Women’s Weekly prize for short story writing for Haley and the Sea. She is currently working on her second novel and is completing a PhD at Flinders University of South Australia. Thursday, June 26, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Paul Collins Believers? Does Australian catholicism have a future? Published by: UNSW Press In conversation with Stephen Crittenden Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe World Youth Day 08 and the visit of Pope Benedict XVI provide an opportunity to analyse the state of the Catholic Church in Australia. Believers does just that, offering a comprehensive account of everything that is right and wrong with Catholicism in Australia and asking whether it is really in decline. Paul Collins doesn't shy away from the difficult questions that must be asked about the church: the lack of effective leadership, sexual abuse scandals, a drastic shortage of priests and declining mass attendance, particularly by young people. Believers delivers an optimistic message, bolstered by a clear program for reform and renewal and the realisation that the church has managed to recover from its mistakes in the past. Paul Collins is a historian, broadcaster and writer. A Catholic priest for thirty-three years serving in Australia and overseas, he resigned from active ministry due to a dispute with the Vatican over his book Papal Power. He is the author of ten books on religion, the environment and history. He lives in Canberra. Stephen Crittenden is the presenter of The Religion Report on ABC Radio National Friday, June 20, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Ingereth Macfarlane and Mark Hannah Transgressions : critical Australian Indigenous histories To be launched by Ann Curthoys Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This volume brings together an innovative set of readings of complex interactions between Australian Aboriginal people and colonisers. The underlying theme is that of 'transgression', and Michel Foucault's account of the necessary dynamic that exists between transgression and limit. We know what constitutes the limit, not by tracing or re-stating the boundaries, but by crossing over them. By exploring the mechanisms by which limits are set and maintained, unexamined cultural assumptions and dominant ideas are illuminated. We see the expectations and the structures that inform and support them revealed, often as they unravel. Such illuminations and revelations are at the core of the Australian Indigenous histories presented in this collection. The papers consider the relationship of a contemporary historian to an eighteenth century French ethnographic observer (Shino Konishi); the longings expressed in people's explorations of variant indigeneities (Jane Mulcock); in the politics of the establishment of the Tent Embassy (Kathy Lothian); in Indigenous leadership in various forms (Naomi Parry; Denis Foley); in the creation of iconic representations of Aboriginal identity (Jillian Barnes); in rethinking legal aspects of land tenure and the working relationships of the northern pastoral industry (Thalia Anthony); in tracing the patterns of missionary attitudes to Aboriginal male sexuality (Jessie Mitchell); in the emotional freight of religious conversion (Devin Bowles); in an emphasis on romance as a dynamic of identity (Jinki Trevillian); and in Indigenous ceremonial life played out within the structures of a built environment (Angelique Edmunds). Thursday, June 19, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Jane Caro, Catherine Fox The F Word: How we learned to swear by feminism In conversation with Catherine Lumby Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe When it comes to the work/life balance, modern women continually find themselves in a no-win situation where they are criticised regardless of the path they choose. The F Word: How we learned to swear by feminism argues that the pervasive idea that women will never be able to effectively combine work or interests outside the home with marriage, a social life and parenting is a furphy. In their lively and topical new book, Caro and Fox combine both personal experience and the stories of a range of women with the big picture, and provide practical suggestions for forgiving ourselves, having fun and not giving up while holding it all together. As part of the first generation of girls sent out into the world just as second wave feminism reached fever pitch, Jane Caro and Catherine Fox ask, has feminism lived up to its early promise? Through their honest, wry and personal account of the perils of the modern woman, Caro and Fox challenge the notion that feminism is past its use by date. They bring much needed perspective into the big debate, and demonstrate that the hype and negativity about feminism has little to do with the reality of women's lives. Catherine Fox is deputy editor of AFR Boss magazine and writes a weekly column, `Corporate Woman', for the Australian Financial Review. Jane Caro is an award-winning advertising writer with 25 years experience. She also writes on educational and other issues for a range of publications, and is a regular commentator on radio. Wednesday, June 18, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Fabian Society Event Housing Affordability Panel: Dr Patrice Derrington (Former Vice President of Corporate Development for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation), and Richard Spencer (CEO of the Benevolent Society). Others TBA Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Governments talk about finding solutions to Australia’s housing affordability crisis. Social and community organisations argue there’s much that can be done. Some action is being taken. But harder heads argue that the sheer commercial reality renders government intervention powerless. Is there really anything government policy can achieve? Tuesday, June 17, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Asa Wahlquist Thirsty Country: Options For Australians Published by: Allen & Unwin In conversation with Deborah Cameron Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Australia is the driest inhabited continent in the world and current global warming forecasts are for it to become drier still but what do we do about it? Schemes abound but will they work, can we afford them and are there hidden consequences? Few people know more about this issue than Asa Wahlquist, Rural Writer for The Australian. In Thirsty Country she lays the facts clearly before the reader. With no agenda other than to inform, Wahlquist explains how the various schemes work, or don't, their ramifications and their financial and environmental costs. She looks at ventures, small and large, that have worked, and ones that haven't. She exposes some of the stresses and strains between private water authorities and governments that can impede sensible development and she empowers the reader with useful practical advice that they can apply in the home, garden and on the land to reduce demand. Asa Wahlquist has been the Rural Business Writer for the Australian for the past decade. Before that she was a freelance journalist with the Bulletin, Sydney Morning Herald and The Land, among others. In 2005 she won the Peter Hunt Eureka Prize for Environmental Journalism and in 1996 she won a Walkley Award for a three-part series published in The Land. Deborah Cameron is the presenter of the Morning Show on 702 ABC local radio. Saturday, June 14, 2008 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Darren Assey * Between Borders and Buses Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe *This launch moved from April What happens when you take a clumsy Australian of Anglo Indian descent, a backpack, stick him on a bus in Europe and close the door? A good question, the answer to which Darren was eager to discover. After spending an eternity behind bars serving beer to red-faced Poms, Darren is allowed to escape and decides to make the most of it. Relying on nothing but his wits and a rough plan, he leaves the UK for an eye-opening, sometimes annoying, but always memorable experience around Europe. From space cakes in Amsterdam, motor scooter mishaps in the Greek Islands, a severe lack of direction in Sicily and a stubborn tent in Portugal, Darren realises he needs more than his wits to survive Europe-he needs a bloody miracle! Informative enough to make you go "Oh really? I didn't know that" and entertaining enough to make you sit up and giggle, Between Borders and Buses is guaranteed to ignite your desire to pack your bags, hop on the next flight out of the country and discover Europe for yourself. Friday, June 13, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Shaun Tan Tales from Outer Suburbia Published by: Allen & Unwin In conversation with Michael Yezerski Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe From the much-acclaimed creator of The Arrival, The Red Tree and The Lost Thing, fifteen intriguing illustrated stories about the mysteries that lurk below the surface of suburban life. In Tales from Outer Suburbia Shaun Tan reveals the quiet mysteries of everyday life: homemade pets, dangerous weddings, stranded sea mammals, tiny exchange students and secret rooms filled with darkness and delight. Shaun Tan has been illustrating young adult fiction and picture books since 1996 and is recognised as a leading creator of 'sophisticated picture books'. The Lost Thing, 2000, described as "Gary Larson meets Jeffrey Smart, contrasts the casual 'What I did on my holidays' narrative with bizarre, freakishly surreal scenes. In 2002 The Red Tree won Patricia Wrightson Award, NSW Premier's Literary Awards and was an Honour Book in the 2002 CBCA awards In 2007 Shaun's brilliant wordless book, The Arrival won The NSW Premier's Book of the Year and the Community Relations Commission Award, the 2007 CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award and achieved a Special Mention in the prestigious Bologna Ragazzi Award. Shaun's honours include the International Illustrators of the Future Contest (1992, the Spectrum Gold and Silver Awards, the Aurealis and Ditmar Awards for Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the 2001 World Fantasy Award as Best Artist. Michael Yezerski composed the music for the ACO production of 'The Red Tree' which will be showing in Sydney in July. Thursday, June 12, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Free Event UTS Writers' Anthology We All Need A Witness Guest speaker: Mark Mordue Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe From UTS comes the 2008 Writers' Anthology We All Need a Witness. This collection showcases new fiction and poetry from a diverse group of authors, all students at UTS. In unexpected love stories, everyday struggles and life's final moments, characters call out to be seen in an often unfriendly world. Now in its 3rd decade, the UTS anthology has helped launch many careers, and provides readers with some of the freshest ideas in Australian writing. Wednesday, June 11, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Anna Haebich Spinning the Dream: Assimilation in Australia 1950-1970 Published by: Fremantle Arts Centre Press In conversation with Julianne Schultz Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe “In the 1950s and 60s Australians were challenged by new visions of the nation. Assimilation was heralded as the mechanism to sweep away divisions and exclusions of the past and absorb Aboriginal and new Australians into a common shared way of life. The rhetoric and reality of assimilation was to have a profound and lasting effect on several generations of Australians before it was abandoned in the 70s for multiculturalism. Now in the new century, a form of ‘retro-assimilation’ has come to haunt public debate on national identity and nationhood, spilling over into related issue of race, ethnicity, Indigenous rights and immigration. ‘Retro-assimilation has strong appeal in today’s climate of social turmoil, transformation and global threats: we are irresistibly drawn to its retroscapes, its nostalgic memories of safer and simpler times. With Spinning the Dream, multi-award winning historian Anna Haebich re-evaluates the experience of assimilation in Australia, providing a meticulously researched and masterfully written assessment of its implications for Australia’s Indigenous and ethnic minorities and for immigration and refugee policy.” Anna Haebich's multi-award-winning book Broken Circles: Fragmenting Indigenous Families 1800-2000 was the first national history of Australia's Stolen Generations. Anna's career brings together university teaching and research, centre directorship, museum curatorship, visual arts practice, and work with Indigenous communities. Anna is a Professor specialising in interdisciplinary research at Griffith University and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Julianne Schultz is the editor of the Griffith REVIEW. Saturday, June 07, 2008 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Shane Homan, Tony Mitchell Sounds of then, sounds of now: Popular Music in Australia Published by: ACYS To be launched by Theo Van Leeuwin Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Sounds of then, sounds of now: Popular music in Australia charts recent innovations in music consumption and production and reflects upon the growth and diversity of Australian music genres, including jazz, rock, folk, metal, electronica, dance music, experimental music and hip hop. It also examines how popular music has expressed, reflected and influenced Australian society through debates about youth, nationalism, censorship, local identity, contested spaces and enduring mythologies about 'Australianness'. Chapters on Aboriginal, Islander and world music offer new perspectives on local and transnational relationships between music, geography and culture. Each chapter is informed by global debates and themes, including nationalism, cultural imperialism, globalisation, authenticity, appropriation, subcultures and the impact of new media. At a time when Australian popular music is enjoying increasing international critical and commercial success, this lively, wide-ranging collection offers a critical revision of popular music's place in Australian society. Sounds of then, sounds of now is an excellent reference for use in media, popular music, sociology, musicology and cultural studies courses. Thursday, June 05, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Judith Lucy The Lucy Family Alphabet Published by: Penguin In conversation with Jennifer Byrne Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Judith Lucy has been cracking jokes about her parents for years. But when a birth relative's casual comment implied that she despised them, Judith was shocked. Sure, she had been talking about Ann and Tony Lucy like they were one-dimensional Irish nut bags who'd ruined her life for years, but there was always more to them and her own feelings than that. So Judith decided it was time to try and write the full story of her parents and her childhood. And here it is, a reference book on all things Lucy from: A is for Adoption (she is) to C is for Cleaning (they didn't) and for Counselling (you'll find out why she had a lot of it) to D is for Diets (she was put on one at eight) to H is for Heart Attack (her father's) to M is for Make-up (her father's) to N is for Nuts (there was a falling out over testicles) to R is for Review (to do with the Nuts) to T is for Transcendental Meditation (it didn't work) to X is for Xmas (when a lot of this started) and beyond… In amongst the gags Judith explores the people her parents were and the impact of finding out - at twenty five - that she was adopted. We meet Judith's birth mother but learn that ultimately it was her very unusual parents who made her who she is today. The Lucy Family Alphabet is funny and ruthlessly honest but also a moving tribute to the lunatics who raised one of Australia's best-known comedians. Judith Lucy is probably best known as a stand-up comedian who has taken her eight one-woman shows around the country and overseas. She has also turned her hand to radio (Ladies Lounge, Foxy Ladies, The Friday Shout, The Arvo) until she was sacked; television (The Late Show, The Mick Molloy Show) until the last regular show she was on was axed; and movies (Crackerjack, Bad Eggs), although she has not been asked to appear in one of these for years. Wednesday, June 04, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Free Event Frances Linzee Gordon Our Travel Writers Do Go To Hell … And Back! Presented by Lonely Planet Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe You may have heard that former Lonely Planet guide author, Thomas Kohnstamm, has written a memoir of his time as a travel writer. Not all of Lonely Planet's 360 authors, spread across nearly 40 countries, can boast such distinguished careers! But many go to great extremes in their research - and can tell a truly amazing traveller's tale or two. Hailing from Britain, Frances has been writing for Lonely Planet for over twelve years and has travelled to nearly 100 countries. She's the first person ever to be granted a visa to visit Saudi Arabia as an independent tourist. She was marooned and fought for survival on an Ethiopian whitewater rafting trip gone wrong. She's been repeatedly arrested on suspicion of spying in Djibouti until requesting to see the Chief of Police, who became a great ally. She's been involved in a car chase through the Rif Mountains with kif (hashish) bandits in Morocco. She's sat to have her portrait painted by one of Africa's most famous artists. She has a zillion other amazing travel tales. (No one could ever accuse Frances of needing to get out more). She is resourceful, honest, determined, culturally sensitive, gutsy and gives writing our guidebooks her absolute all. In short, Frances is what Lonely Planet writers are all about. 20% off all Lonely Planet travel books for this one night. Tuesday, June 03, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Benjamin Gilmour Warrior Poets Published by: PIER 9 Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The corporal of the Pakistani army was visibly shocked when he peered at us. Here was an Afghan refugee, riding a motorbike no refugee could possibly afford, carrying a passenger who looked like a rugged insurgent accompanied by a Western man in disguise. Sher Alam, still wearing the turban of Costume 1, indeed appeared as fierce as any al-Qaeda militant stock photo. The soldier’s face dropped and his eyes widened in the clichéd look of a man who has just stumbled on his moment of truth. Almost in panic, he levelled his machine-gun and slipped a finger into the trigger position. On a journey through the remote North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, the stomping ground of Osama bin Laden, Australian paramedic Benjamin Gilmour discovered an astonishing culture. Here were strong Islamic beliefs and intense suspicion of foreigners, an obsession with guns and a huge arms manufacturing industry in the town of Darra Adam Khel. Soon after his visit, Ben wrote a screenplay and decided to return to Pakistan to make a movie about the Pashtun people of the tribal areas, despite the fact he had never actually made a film before and it was illegal and dangerous for him to do so. Tribal people were being killed daily in the hunt for al-Qaeda militants, and suspicious dealings with outsiders were punishable by death. In disguise and with a small digital camera, Ben was aided by locals who he also used as his actors. After eight months and with unstoppable determination, Ben shot enough footage to convince producer Carolyn Johnson and the Australian Film Commission to take him on. Now his feature film ‘Son of a Lion’ has garnered acclaim worldwide as a rare glimpse into the world of the Pashtuns. Warrior Poets is a riveting and compelling account of Ben’s travels to Pakistan and the making of this film. Benjamin Gilmour was born in 1975. Based in Sydney, he is an ambulance paramedic, a filmmaker, a freelance writer for magazines and newspapers, and a widely published poet. He is the director of the film ‘Son of a Lion’ which will screen at the Sydney Film Festival in June 2008. Sunday, June 01, 2008 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Special Event Sunday Book Club – May * Sorry by Gail Jones Published by: Vintage Australia Gail Jones and Morgan Smith Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe * Moved from the last Sunday in May due to the Sydney Writers’ Festival. The Sunday Book Club aims to promote and further appreciation of Australian fiction. Morgan Smith, gleebooks events manager, will host a discussion about a contemporary Australian novel on the last Sunday of every month. Morgan will choose the book and it is highly desirable (as in any reading group) for those attending to have read it in order to take part in the discussion. Register as a Sunday Book Club member and get 10% discount from gleebooks on the book of the month. This month join Gail Jones and Morgan Smith to discuss Gail’s widely praised novel Sorry, which has been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. In the remote outback of Western Australia during World War II, English anthropologist Nicholas Keene and his wife, Stella, raise a lonely child, Perdita. Her upbringing is far from ordinary: in a shack in the wilderness, with a distant father burying himself in books and an unstable mother whose knowledge of Shakespeare forms the backbone of the girl's limited education. Emotionally adrift, Perdita becomes friends with a deaf and mute boy, Billy, and an Aboriginal girl, Mary. Perdita and Mary come to call one another sister and to share a very special bond. They are content with life in this remote corner of the globe, until a terrible event lays waste to their lives. Through this exquisite story of Perdita's troubled childhood, Gail Jones explores the values of friendship, loyalty and sacrifice with a brilliance that has already earned her numerous accolades for her previous novels, DREAMS OF SPEAKING and SIXTY LIGHTS.     May 2008 Saturday, May 31, 2008 / 2.30 for 3pm Past Launch Dawn Bruce Sketching Light Published by: Gininderra press To be launched by Beverley George Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Dawn Bruce, a widely published Australian poet and teacher, has won numerous poetry awards and read her work on Sydney radio. She was co-ordinator of the award winning group Somerset Poets and is now the leader of Harbourside Poets. Many of her haiku and tanka have been published in international newspapers and journals. 'Stinging the Silence' published by Ginninderra Press was her first collection of free verse and haiku. Dawn's second collection of poetry, 'Tangible Shadows', was awarded First Prize in the recent NSW Society of Women Writers' Biennial Competition. She created the cover photo for this book as she has for her third collection. 'Sketching Light' contains examples of Dawn's new passion for tanka and haibun as well as her life long love of free verse and haiku. Beverley George, Editor of Eucalypt and President of Australian Haiku Society, says of 'Sketching Light'... 'Dawn Bruce's sustained engagement with Japanese poetic genres informs her free verse too, imbuing it with spare elegance and a keen sense of the immediate. This is disciplined writing that prunes the extraneous and allows us to see the clear images upon which this poet bases her commentary on human experience. Dawn's love of and commitment to poetry is evident in every line.' Thursday, May 29, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Andrew Riemer A Family History of Smoking Published by: Melbourne University Press In conversation with Susan Wyndham Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe A Family History of Smoking is a wonderfully compelling memoir about two European Jewish families living through the last gasps of the Austro-Humgarian Empire. Andrew Riemer begins his memoir with the story of his great-grandfather David, an inveterate cigar smoker, and his family's journey to becoming cosmopolitan Europeans thanks to the multicultural ideals of the Austro-Hungarian world. It follows the cruel disappointment of those dreams and ideals when a sense of Jewishness was forced on them and turned into the source of their persecution in the first half of the twentieth century.A Family History of Smoking is a humorous, engrossing account of family life. It is also a moving, beautifully written portrait of a world that literally went up in smoke. Andrew Riemer is the chief literary critic for The Sydney Morning Herald. His books include Inside Outside and Sandstone Gothic, The Habsburg Cafe and Hughes, his biography of art critic Robert Hughes. He taught at Sydney University for many years. Susan Wyndham is a journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald. Her book Life in His Hands has recently been published. Wednesday, May 28, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation George Megalogenis The Longest Decade ( revised and updated edition) Published by: Scribe In conversation with Barrie Cassidy and David Marr Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Join three major political journalists and members of the ABC's Insiders team as they discuss the legacy of Paul Keating and John Howard as analysed in George Megalogenis's bestselling book,The Longest Decade. Paul Keating and John Howard altered the nation's body-clock. Between them, they dominated 30 years of power, as both treasurers and prime ministers. Typically, they have been seen only as antagonists with competing visions of Australia and its place in the world. In The Longest Decade, however, George Megalogenis argues that they also deserve to be seen as the twin architects of the political, economic, and social revolution that took Australia through a period of trauma and recovery, and then on to an era of unprecedented affluence. Strangely, both men also had the opportunity to retire on top - Keating in 1994 and Howard in 2006 - yet both stayed too long. Based on exclusive interviews with both Keating and Howard, and on Megalogenis's many years' experience as a member of the Canberra press gallery, The Longest Decade is a brilliant, non-partisan analysis of the forces that shape Australia today - from the rise of working women to the triumph of the McMansion. This is the story of how an era came to be defined by Keating and Howard, but it is also the bigger story of how Australia became a more complex society, and forced each to adapt before dismissing them both. This substantially revised and updated edition includes several additional chapters dealing with the termination of the Keating-Howard era. George Megalogenis spent eleven years in the Canberra press gallery, from 1988 to 1999, before returning to Melbourne as a senior writer for The Australian. He has a degree in economics from the University of Melbourne, is the author of Faultlines (Scribe, 2003), and is a regular on ABC's Insiders. Barrie Cassidy is a Melbourne journalist and host of Insiders and its sporting equivalent, Outsiders on ABC1 on Sunday mornings. David Marr is a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald and author of several books, the most recent being QE 26: His Master's Voice, about the Howard government. Saturday, May 17, 2008 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Antigone Kefala Sydney Journals Published by: Giramondo To be launched by Anna Couani Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Written from her home in the Sydney suburb of Annandale over a period of thirty years, but ranging widely, to Broken Hill and Wilcannia, Paris, Venice, Prague and Athens, Kefala's Sydney Journals portrays the intellectual milieu of the writer and her circle, many of them emigrés, a world sustained by conversation and friendship, and by reflection, on books and paintings, plays and films, and literary fortune. At the same time the journals record, with a poet's eye, the domestic and public life of the period, the changing seasons, the ageing of the writer and her companions, and the dramatic beauty of the city and its landscapes. Antigone Kefala's writing is remarkable for its clarity, intensity and austerity. Intimate in its recollections, social in nature, the Journals establishes her as one of Australia's great diarists. Antigone Kefala has written four works of fiction, including The First Journey, The Island and Summer Visit, and four poetry collections, The Alien, Thirsty Weather, European Notebook and Absence: New and Selected Poems. Born in Romania of Greek parents, she lived in Greece and New Zealand before coming to Sydney. Friday, May 16, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch James Arvanitakis Cultural Commons of Hope Published by: Verlag To be launched by Dr Paul Brown Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Our world is confronted by a number of crises - global warming, entrenched poverty and military conflicts such as the 'war on terror'. While these crises appear disconnected, this study examines how they are both interrelated and dominate our experiences of modernity. As these crises are often aggravated by the very solutions proposed to solve them, this experience of modernity can be described as 'pathological'. Pathological modernity is driven by a frontier disposition that encloses and commodifies non-commercial spaces (or commons), and creates a crisis of scarcity. This commodification began with the natural world, moved through societal institutions and the human body, and is now commodifying the final frontier of the human experience: enclosing our hopes, trust and sense of safety. Despite its dominance, this logic of enclosure is being challenged by resistance movements which are producing alternative visions of society based on hope, trust and a sense of abundance. This book will appeal to those attempting to understand why many of today's challenges are so entrenched, as well as those involved in environmental and social justice struggles both locally and internationally. Dr. James Arvanitakis is a lecturer in the Humanities at the University of Western Sydney and a member of the University's Centre for Cultural Research. A former banker, he had an epiphany on the side of a mountain in Bolivia and has since held various positions with human rights based organisations including AID/WATCH and Oxfam Hong Kong, and also founded The Commons Institute. James has worked as a human rights activist throughout the Pacific, Indonesia and Europe and is also a research associate with the Centre for Policy Development. Dr Paul Brown is the Head of History and Philosophy at UNSW, a playwright, scriptwriter and academic activist. He is well known for his play Aftershocks about the Newcastle earthquake. He is also an environmentalist and was Greenpeace Australia's Campaign Manager. Wednesday, May 14, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Ali Abunimah One Country: a bold proposal to end the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse Published by: Henry Holt/Macmillan In conversation with Antony Lowenstein Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Israel and Palestine: one state or two? May 15 marks the birth of Israel 60 years ago but it also marks the partition of Palestine. The carve-up left the indigenous Palestinians with 22 percent of their homeland. Most Palestinians were forced out of their land and ended in UN refugee camps. In 1967, Israel occupied the 22 percent left for the Palestinians and have been building settlements every year since. Ali Abunimah, a Research Fellow at the Palestine Center in Washington DC, Editor of the famous Electronic Intifada website and now author of One Country: a bold proposal to end the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, argues only one solution remains: a secular, democratic state in which Israelis and Palestinians have equal human rights, including one person/one vote. Ali Abunimah will be in conversation with Antony Loewenstein, the author of the bestseller My Israel Question which dissected the role of the Zionist lobby and skewered the mainstream narrative of Israel/Palestine. He is also the co-founder of Independent Australian Jewish Voices. One Country It is by now a commonplace that the only way to end the Israeli-Palestinian violence is to divide the territory in two. All efforts at resolving the conflict have come down to haggling over who gets what: Will Israel hand over 90 percent of the West Bank or only 60 percent? Will a Palestinian state include any part of Jerusalem? Clear-eyed, sharply reasoned, and compassionate, One Country proposes a radical alternative: to revive the neglected idea of one state shared by two peoples. Ali Abunimah shows how the two are by now so intertwined-geographically and economically-that separation cannot lead to the security Israelis need or the rights Palestinians must have. Taking on the objections and taboos that stand in the way of a binational solution, he demonstrates that sharing the territory will bring benefits for all. The absence of other workable options has only led to ever- greater extremism. It is time, Abunimah argues, for Palestinians and Israelis to imagine a different future and a different relationship. Tuesday, May 13, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Naldo Rei Resistance Published by: UQP To be launched by Estanislau da Silva Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe I am by myself, a little boy squatting outside the cave where we are in hiding, looking up at the surrounding hama trees, their roots fiercely grabbing the earth, their trunks as solid as the ancestors ...East Timor has become a land of martyrs and warriors, growing like hama trees in the soil of resistance, and the stones and earth are the shoulders on which we stand. I am proud of those who give their lives for our land and people, and fight to defend our rights. Can I become like them, I ask myself, and follow in their footsteps? Naldo Rei was just six months old when Indonesia invaded East Timor in December 1975. He spent the first three years of his life in the jungle, where his family had fled for safety. After his father was murdered for his work in the resistance movement, nine-year-old Naldo joined the clandestine resistance and began his own extraordinary journey fighting for East Timor's freedom. Throughout his teenage years, Naldo was imprisoned and tortured regularly for his covert opposition to the brutal Indonesian regime. Eventually, in too much danger to remain in his homeland, he escaped to Indonesia and then Australia for several years. Now living in an independent East Timor, Naldo Rei can tell his incredible story. His life is proof that no amount of danger and loss can crush the human spirit. Estanislau da Silva is an East Timorese politician and a key member of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN). He was Prime Minister from May 2007 to August 2007. Sunday, May 11, 2008 / 5.30pm Past Event / Talk Tim Winton Breath Published by: Penguin Aus Presented by Gleebooks Venue: York Theatre Seymour Centre In his only Sydney appearance, Tim Winton talks about his new widely-acclaimed novel Breath. It’s funny, but you never think much about breathing. Until it’s all you ever think about. When paramedic Bruce Pike arrives too late to save a boy found hanged in his bedroom he senses immediately that this lonely death is an accident. Pike knows the difference between suicide and misadventure. He understands only too well the forces that can propel a kid toward oblivion. Not just because he’s an ambulance man but because of the life he’s lived, the boy he once was, addicted to extremes, flirting with death, pushing every boundary in the struggle to be extraordinary, barely knowing where or how to stop. So begins a story about the damage you do to yourself when you’re young and think you’re immortal. In his first novel for seven years, Tim Winton has achieved a new level of mastery. Breath confirms him as one of the world’s finest storytellers, whose work is both accessible and profound, relentlessly gripping and deeply moving. ‘His best to date. It is written with great tenderness and sympathy and rhythmic energy, and structured with immense skill.’ Colm Tóibín, Guardian Tim Winton has published twenty books for adults and children, and his work has been translated into sixteen languages. Since his first novel An Open Swimmer won the Australian/Vogel Award in 1981, he has won the Miles Franklin Award three times (for Shallows, Cloudstreet and Dirt Music) and twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize (for The Riders and Dirt Music). He lives in Western Australia. Tim's new book is featured on his website at breath.timwinton.com.au Friday, May 09, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Tony Jones (Ed) Best Australian Political Writing Published by: Melbourne University Press In conversation with Bill Leak Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In The Best Australian Political Writing 2008, Lateline's Tony Jones selects the most illuminating, provocative and incisive analysis of the past year in politics. Here some of our leading commentators and writers dissect Kevin Rudd's march to the Lodge and John Howard's historic defeat; travel to Afghanistan and a drought-stricken Mallee town; weigh in on the culture wars; and investigate the bungled cases of David Hicks and Mohamed Haneef. This collection brings together the names, events and ideas that shaped a remarkable year. Tony will talk to politcal cartoonist, Bill Leak about the overarching themes that the book covers, and about the role of journalists and the media in the making of the political landscape as revealed through these essays. Tony Jones is one of the ABC's most respected journalists, with more than twenty years' experience in radio and television news and current affairs. Tony began hosting the award-winning news and current affairs program Lateline on ABC Television in 1999. He has received four Walkley awards, including two for Best Broadcast Interviewing in 2004 and 2007. He is also the host of a new program called Q & A, which will be broadcast on ABC TV in May. Wednesday, May 07, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Seana Smith & Benison O'Reilly Australian Autism Handbook Published by: Jane Curry Publishing To be launched by TBA Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe At last - the essential one-stop resource guide written specifically for Australian parents whose children have just been diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. This book is a practical and comprehensive guide to every aspect of raising an ASD child including: o What is ASD? - Early signs and symptoms o Getting a Diagnosis o Early Intervention, and why it is so vital o The Medical Maze - explains the evidence based medical theories behind ASD - and why there is such controversy o Schools and Pre-Schools - the options available The second part of the book is an invaluable Resource Guide which lists each state system plus a comprehensive list of websites and booklists. The authors Benison O'Reilly and Seana Smith are professional writers and both have children with an ASD. Tuesday, May 06, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Georgia Clarke She's With The Band Published by: Allen & Unwin To be launched by Sarah Oakes Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Entertaining, fast-paced teen fiction from an exciting new voice in pop culture, Georgia Clark. She's With the Band is the third novel in the successful Girlfriend YA series, published by Allen & Unwin. "Life never starts when you think it will. When I turned 15, I figured I'd be tossed the keys to the city, make out with a hottie, and have a modest parade thrown in my honour. But all that happened was that I got out of doing the washing up. The day we moved to Sydney was supposed to be the start of the new Mia Mannix - confident, charming, taller. But so far, it sucked." Mia Mannix has made a deal: in return for moving from the social backwater of the Snowy Mountains to life in the fast lane in Sydney, she's promised her dad she'd give up music and concentrate on "real" art. But that was before she discovered new friends, a cool record store and a ridiculously hot rockstar. Monday, May 05, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Julianne Lynch (Ed.) Gender and I.T.: Ongoing Challenges for Computing and Information Technology Education in Australian Secondary Schools To be launched by the Hon. Daryl Melham, Federal member for Bankstown Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Gender and IT: Challenges for Computing and Information Technology education in Australian secondary schools brings together a diverse group of scholars to address critical questions about the decline in enrolments in Computing and Information Technology (CIT) subjects at the school level, and the long-standing problem of the under representation of girls in CIT education. Drawing on data from three Australian states, the authors analyse current curriculum structures, pedagogical practices, school contexts and student and teacher beliefs, in order to interrogate how CIT as a curriculum area is socially constructed, and how this construction is gendered. Going beyond questions of gender, the book contributes to our understanding more generally of a nascent discipline which holds a complex position in relation to other curriculum areas, cross-curricular initiatives, and a world outside of schools which is increasingly permeated with technology. This is an important book for teachers, curriculum designers and administrators with investments in CIT education. This book is a result of the work of UWS researchers Professor Margaret Vickers, Dr Carol Reid, Dr Susanne Gannon and Dr Kerry Robinson, in collaboration with researchers from Charles Sturt University and Deakin University. Sunday, May 04, 2008 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Special Event Sunday Book Club April Join Morgan Smith to discuss... The Good Parents by Joan London The author will not be at this meeting Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe *Please note this has moved from the last Sunday in April due to the long Anzac Day weekend. The Sunday Book Club aims to promote and further appreciation of Australian fiction. Morgan Smith, gleebooks events manager, will host a discussion about a contemporary Australian novel on the last Sunday of every month. Morgan will choose the book and it is highly desirable (as in any reading group) for those attending to have read it in order to take part in the discussion. Register as a Sunday Book Club member and get 10% discount from gleebooks on the book of the month. The Good Parents by Joan London The Good Parents - Maya de Jong, an eighteen-year-old country girl from the West, comes to live in Melbourne and starts an affair with her boss, the enigmatic Maynard Flynn, whose wife is dying of cancer. When Maya's parents, Toni and Jacob, arrive to stay with her, they are told by her housemate that Maya has gone away and no one knows where she is. As Toni and Jacob wait and search for Maya in Melbourne, everything in their lives is brought into question. They recall the yearning and dreams, the betrayals and choices of their pasts - choices with unexpected and irrevocable consequences. With Maya's disappearance, the lives of all those close to her come into focus, to reveal the complexity of the ties that bind us to one another, to parents, children, siblings, friends and lovers. Pacy and enthralling, The Good Parents is at once a vision of contemporary Australia and a story as old as fairytales: that of a runaway girl. Saturday, May 03, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Launch Lana Penrose To Hellas and Back Published by: Penguin Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe When Lana's gorgeous Greek-Australian boyfriend, Dion, is offered his dream job in Athens, it seems like the perfect opportunity to share an unforgettable experience abroad. But this is one travel adventure that doesn't go quite to plan. For an energetic Australian party girl, life in the sun-drenched cradle of civilisation turns out to be anything but idyllic. Lana struggles to learn Greek words past 'hello' and 'pencil', to articulate beyond giggling and pointing, and to find a hairdresser who doesn't leave her with a hairdo the size of a grand piano. Meanwhile, Dion is loving every minute of his new life, working long hours and seemingly moving further and further from her reach just when she needs him the most. At once hilariously funny and deeply moving, this is a cross-cultural love story with the whole catastrophe - a big fat Greek wedding, a sonworshipping mother-in-law, a fast-crumbling psyche, the best gay pal a girl could ever hope for, and an unexpected ending. This launch is part of The Greek Festival.     April 2008 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Salman Akhtar and Maria Teresa Savio Hooke (Editors) / Jadran Mimica (Editor) Geography of Meanings / Explorations in Psychoanalytic Ethnography Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Geography of Meanings Contributors: Salman Akhtar, Bain Attwood, Kate Grenville, Craig San Roque, Eve Steel, James Telfer, Maria Teresa Savio Hooke, Nicholas A. Twemlow, Stuart W. Twemlow, Thomas Wolman. This book is a multifaceted attempt to understand the psychological mysteries of land, space, native cultures, changing eras, and geographical dislocation. It shows us that many remote and seemingly peaceful areas of the world have their own dark and silent pasts in which their original inhabitants were often brutally decimated and those who remained were not allowed to voice their emotional and cultural legacy. Weaving history, geography, myth, philosophy, and psychoanalysis together, this book tries to understand why such atrocities were committed, how those subjected to these "crimes" might have perceived them, and what the long-term, transgenerational consequences of these historical events are. The value of this book, however, transcends meaningfully looking at the past. It reminds us that we are all increasingly faced with the "Other". By taking a reflective stance, The Geography of Meanings helps the reader to overcome apparently unbridgeable conflicts and to respond with empathy, curiosity, and awe to the many differences and similarities within the human race and its experience in this world! Explorations in Psychoanalytic Ethnography Whereas most anthropological research is grounded in social, cultural and biological analysis of the human condition, this volume opens up a different approach: its concerns are the psychic depths of human cultural life-worlds as explored through psycho-analytic practice and/or the psychoanalytically framed ethnographic project. In fact, some contributors here argue that the anthropological interpretation of human existence is not sustainable without psychoanalysis; others take a less extreme radical stance but still maintain that the unconscious matrix of the human psyche and of the intersubjective (social) reality of any given cultural life-world is a vital domain of anthropological and sociological inquiry and understanding. Jadran Mimica lectures in Anthropology at the University of Sydney. Tuesday, April 29, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch John Castles Big Stars To be launched by Prof. John Frow Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe John Castles was born in Canberra in 1963. After completing a BA at the Australian National University,his interest in philosophy and popular culture drew him naturally to the fledgling area of Cultural Studies, and in 1995 he completed one of the first recognised doctorates in the field at the University of Technology, Sydney. For the next five years he lived and taught in London and Japan, a country that fed his appetite for cultural experience and insight. Battling alcohol addiction, John returned to Canberra in 2000 and revisited his doctoral work, redrafting it into the form of this book. He committed suicide in 2002 at the age of just 39. From the Afterword by John Frow I examined John's doctoral thesis in 1994. I wrote of it at the time that it was one of the most brilliant theses I had ever read, one of the few which I found compelling reading and which I felt had clarified and expanded my own thinking about the topic. The thesis was on stardom, the phenomenon of superhuman celebrity which has been so central to twentieth-century popular culture, and in my view it is still the best analysis of this phenomenon there is. John managed to avoid the difficulties that beset the major accounts of stardom by situating it in the context of the technologies of repetition and replication which give it its specific temporality. Drawing on a rich array of theoretical and textual materials, he produced a complex argument which seems to me to give a definitive solution to the theoretical problems that make stardom and celebrity so hard to explain adequately. And in so doing he illuminated some of the central mechanisms of the mass culture of our time. I myself drew on the thesis as an indispensable source of argument when I began doing some work in this area, and I have been recommending it regularly to others who I thought would benefit from its insights. It has been a long journey getting it into print, and I hope that it will now at last receive the attention it deserves. At the beginning of 2002 John wrote to say that he had finished rewriting the thesis as a book, and sent me a copy. The manuscript I received had indeed turned an academic thesis into a lucid and often very personally written book, a mature and compelling piece of scholarship. The book was under consideration by publishers at the time John took his life. Much of John's writing was centrally concerned with death. He was fascinated by the apotheosis of the dead star, the presence of death within life. I don't know what drove him to take his life, but I feel bereft. In him we lost a brilliant and accomplished young man, a scholar of remarkable originality, one of those whom we could least afford to lose. Monday, April 28, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Tim Bonyhardy (Editor) and Andrew Macintosh (contributor) Climate Law in Australia Published by: Federation Press In conversation with Marian Wilkinson Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Climate Law in Australia provides the first extended account of Australia's new climate law. It examines key federal and state legislation and the main cases brought before Australian courts. It combines incisive legal analysis with a deep understanding of climate-related issues and policy. The book examines pivotal issues in Australian climate law and policy - the Kyoto Protocol and its alternatives, emissions targets, carbon trading, geosequestration, nuclear decision-making, adaptation to climate change and legal liability. It contains detailed analysis of the leading cases involving the Hazelwood power station, the Anvil Hill, Xstrata and Bowen Basin coal mines, and the Bald Hills and Taralga wind farms. Climate Law in Australia explores both the need for conventional legal regulation and the potential of economic responses to climate change. It shows how climate law has grown in Australia - and how far the law still has to go. Contributors include leading academics such as Professors Robyn Eckersley, David Farrier, Rob Fowler and Jan McDonald, and leading practitioners such as Charles Berger, Kirsty Ruddock, Chris McGrath, Allison Warburton and Martijn Wilder. The editors are Professor Tim Bonyhady, Director of the Australian Centre for Environmental Law at the Australian National University, and Dr Peter Christoff of the University of Melbourne and Vice President of the Australian Conservation Foundation. Climate Law in Australia: This book provides the first extended account of Australia's new climate laws. The book examines the pivotal issues in Australian climate law and policy: the Kyoto Protocol and its alternatives, emissions targets, carbon trading, geosequestration, nuclear decision-making, adaptation to climate change and legal liability. It examines the leading cases: Hazelwood power station, Anvil Hill, Xstrata and Bowen Basin coal mines, and the Bald Hills and Taralga wind farms. Climate Law in Australia shows how climate law has grown in Australia over the last few years - and how far the law still has to go. Wednesday, April 23, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Veronica Brady The God-Shaped Hole In conversation with Gail Jones Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe For many decades, Veronica Brady has been a gadfly to political and ecclesiastical princes and their entourages. For those parched for relief from straitening patterns of thinking and self-absorbed myopia she has been a refreshing breeze, bringing hope to the heart and vision to the imagination. This book brings together a selection of her addresses that dare to suggest that there is a mystery beckoning us into something new, that is not satisfied with the way things are and that dares to believe that novels and poetry bear witness to this ministry. She calls this mystery - God - not with any confident triumphalism but as an other (who speaks through others) that subverts such a corrosive vice seeping through contemporary society. For her, God leads to other places, even to that which is not God. So from Marcus Clarke to Judith Wright, from Primo Levi to Kim Scott, she drinks in the refreshment of new possibilities which sacred texts have often lost under a pall of imperial conventionality. She discovers in these early and contemporary writers a way into the potential of - The God Shaped Hole - where is found the call and narrative of the necessity of remembrance, of balm for suffering, and pathway hints into a respect for Aboriginal Australians and the land of their identity. Veronica Brady is a Roman Catholic nun and Honorary Senior Fellow in the Department of English, Communications and Cultural Studies in the University of Western Australia, where she taught for many years. She has also held visiting Fellowships at the Rockefeller Study Centre in Bellagio, Italy, the University of Oregon at Eugene and the Collodge Research Colloquium, at the Episcopal Divinity School, Harvard University. Her publications include South Of My Days: A Biography of Judith Wright(1998). Gail Jones is an award-winning novelist whose latest novel Sorry has just been longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Tuesday, April 22, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Susan Wyndham Life in His Hands: A true story of a neurosurgeon and a pianist Published by: Pan Macmillan In conversation with Ben Cheshire (Producer, Australian Story, ABC1) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In 2001 the brilliant young concert pianist Aaron McMillan was diagnosed with a rare type of brain tumour and given six weeks to live. He was just 24 years old. He underwent 12 hours of emergency surgery; days later he was back at the piano, preparing to perform. Years later, he was still performing. His doctor was Charlie Teo, one of Australia's most celebrated and controversial neurosurgeons. Charlie's specialty is inoperable brain tumours and his radical techniques have earned him praise around the world. But in his own country he is regarded by some as reckless and even dangerous. Aaron McMillan presented Charlie with his most challenging case yet. In return, Charlie Teo gave Aaron hope. Life In His Hands is the remarkable true story of a medical maverick and an artist who refused to be daunted by death. It is a book full of heartache and joy and scientific marvels, written by a journalist who found that with some stories, staying on the sidelines is the hardest thing to do. Susan Wyndham has been editor of Good Weekend magazine, New York correspondent for The Australian newspaper and literary editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. She is currently a senior writer for the Herald, covering mostly books and culture. She lives in Sydney with her husband, the writer and journalist, Paul Sheehan. Life In His Hands is her first book. Monday, April 21, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Susan Magarey and Kerrie Round Roma the First: A biography of Dame Roma Mitchell Published by: Wakefield To be launched by Hon. Susan Ryan AO, Chair of the Australian Human Rights Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Roma the First: a biography of Dame Roma Mitchell is the life story of Roma Flinders Mitchell (1913-2000), CVO, AC, DBE, Australia's first female Queen's Counsel, and the first woman in Australia to be appointed a judge in a superior court. She was the first woman invited to present the Boyer Lectures, and the first woman to be made chancellor of an Australian university. Her achievements were 'unprecedented', said Governor-General Sir William Deane, 'not only in the history of South Australia but also in the history of our country.' This insightful book depicts the sources of Dame Roma Mitchell's ambition and achievements, both in her personal life, and in her innovative career, and explores their complexities and contradictions. It provides a rich social historical context, focused on South Australia, but locating this society in the global world of the Common Law and post-imperial philanthropy. Roma the First: a biography of Dame Roma Mitchell also presents unprecedented analyses of South Australia's Dunstan Decade, the 1970s, including a new account of 'the Bray court' - the Supreme Court of South Australia when classical poet, John Jefferson Bray, was chief justice - and of the social and political uproar around the Dunstan government's dismissal of Police Commissioner Harold Salisbury. The book presents a new and controversial account of the ensuing Royal Commission, which Roma Mitchell chaired. It analyses the work of the inaugural Human Rights Commission (1980s), also chaired by Dame Roma, and it shows how her personal and public lives merged during her years as the first woman to be the governor of an Australian state (1990s). The Authors Susan Magarey AM, FASSA, PhD, is a graduate of the University of Adelaide and the Australian National University. She was Director of the Research Centre for Women's Studies at the University of Adelaide where she is now Adjunct-Professor in History. She is the author of two monographs - the prize-winning biography of Catherine Helen Spence, Unbridling the tongues of women (1986) and Passions of the first-wave feminists (2001) - and more than sixty articles and book chapters. She is currently writing a history of the Women's Liberation Movement in Australia. Susan edited and annotated Ever Yours, C. H. Spence: Catherine Helen Spence's 'An Autobiography' (1825-1910), Diary (1894) and Some Correspondence (1894-1910) published by Wakefield Press (2005). Kerrie Round received a BA (Hons) and PhD in history from the University of Adelaide. She has lectured in Australian history and heritage at the University of Adelaide and Vanderbilt University, USA, and applied historical studies at the University of Adelaide. She has written or edited books and articles on the history of South Australia and was managing editor of The Wakefield Companion to South Australian History published by Wakefield Press (2001). Kerrie now works as an editor and consultant historian. Sunday, April 20, 2008 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Alan Wearne Australian Popular Songbook Published by: Giramondo Publsihing To be launched by Pam Brown Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Alan Wearne's new collection is made up of three parts, 'The Australian Popular Songbook', a suite of poems inspired by popular songs from the 1880s through to the 1980s; 'The Metropolitan Poems', a group of stories in verse inspired by suburbs of great moment, like Hurstville, Ascot Vale and Chatswood; and the poetic monologue 'Breakfast with Darky', in which a Melbourne high-school teacher looks back twenty years to a time when he was both an up-and coming Social Realist writer and a Communist Party activist. Ever the master of the Australian vernacular, Wearne proves himself here in the shorter forms of song and story. Alan Wearne is the author of two poetry collections, Public Relations and New Devil, New Parish; a satire on Melbourne football Kicking in Danger; and the verse novels Out Here, The Nightmarkets, and The Lovemakers, which won the NSW Premier's Prize for Poetry, the Judith Wright Calanthe Award, and the Colin Roderick Award. 'With this collection Wearne has tapped deep into our musical culture, crafting pure magic from the back catalogue. These poems are testament to a fierce imagination, where the visual and the aural are dovetailed into a stunning, original whole.' ANThoNy LAWReNCe Thursday, April 17, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Najaf Mazari & Robert Hillman The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif In conversation with Morgan Smith Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe "I did not know that I could feel this much sorrow without a body to bury…We who are watched and guarded, we who are questioned, probed, doubted - we are all illegals"… Beautifully captured and penned by award-winning biographer Robert Hillman, this is a compelling story of an exceptional yet 'ordinary' man whose generous spirit, natural leadership and desire for peace, transcends enormous danger and heartbreak. Against a background of civil war and politics in Afghanistan, this extraordinary story follows the life of a twelve year old Hazari shepherd boy who forsakes his family wishes and becomes an apprentice rug maker. War is always in the background and the guns are never quiet. In 2001, Najif is captured and tortured by the Taliban and he is forced to flee Afghanistan, putting his life into the hands of a traditional enemy, a Pashtun, to escape. Surviving ten checkpoints, finally he is delivered safely into Pakistan. Aboard a small boat that is falling to pieces and which sinks alarmingly with the burden of its cargo, Najaf and 96 men, women and children take their chances to reach Australia. Najaf Mazari's compelling and inspiring story begins in Woomera Detention Centre in the remote Australian desert. The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif is an amazing story of courage, hope and determination. "After a few months back in the factory, I was weaving simple quality rugs without assistance…but then come the more difficult tasks - learning to repair rugs, to stretch rugs, to match colours, make colours, create a design that does justice to fine yarns. ..It was during my initiation into the deeper mysteries of my craft that I began to understand how a world can exist within a single room. For when my concentration was at its greatest, it felt that the world lived in the yarns, in the colours and in the skills of rugmaking. Melbourne-based writer Robert Hillman won the National Biography Award in 2005 for his autobiography The Boy in a Green Suit. His most recent biography, My Life as a Traitor, written with Zarha Gahhramani, has been sold in the US, Europe and the UK. Hillman says although he worked with Najaf for over nine months to write the book, Najaf "cried and cried when he finished reading the final story." Najaf Mazari was born in 1971 in a small village near Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghiastan. Najaf fled Afghanistan in 2001 and ended up in Woomera Detention Centre. After his release, he settled in Melbourne where he now owns a rug shop, selling traditional Afghan rugs. His wife and daughter were finally given permission by the Australian government to join him in 2006 after a six year separation. In April 2007 he became an Australian citizen. He says that he continually wonders why he has been so lucky; 'chosen to prosper'. He says: 'Why did my troubles catch the eye of God? It is a puzzle that can never be answered". "Australia." He says, "is a land that I love in the way that a man loves the friend who saved his life". $5 from the sale of each book on the evening will go to the UN Refugee Agency’s Afghan Shelter Appeal. For more information go to www.unrefugees.org.au. Leigh Sales has been called away on assignment. Wednesday, April 16, 2008 / 10.30 for 11am Past Special Event NSW Premiers' Literary Awards Shortlist announcement Hon Frank Sartor, Minister for the Arts Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Tuesday, April 15, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Les Irwig, Judy Irwig, Dr Lyndal Trevena, Melissa Sweet Smart Health Choices: Making sense of health advice (Second edition) To be launched by Sally Crossing and Dr Karl Kruszelnicki Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Every day we make decisions about our health - some big and some small. What we eat, how we live and even where we live can affect our health. But how can we be sure that the advice we are given about these important matters is right for us? Many treatments and tests - both mainstream and alternative - are not supported by good evidence and some widely used treatments are actually harmful.Whether you are considering having surgery or taking vitamin supplements, you need to know the effectiveness of the options and their side-effects. This fully revised and updated new edition of Smart Health Choices will provide you with the tools for assessing health advice, whether it comes from a specialist, general practitioner, naturopath, the media, the Internet, or a friend. It shows you how to take an active role in your health care, and to make the best decisions for you and your loved ones based on personal preferences and the best available evidence. About the authors: Professor Les Irwig is Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Sydney, Australia, and an internationally renowned authority on evidence-based medicine. Judy Irwig brings the perspective of the health care consumer. She devotes a large part of her career to writing and recording songs for children, conveying important messages about relationships, self-respect, and respect for the environment. Dr Lyndal Trevena is Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, Australia, and a member of the Sydney Health Decision Group as well as being an experienced General Practitioner. Melissa Sweet is a journalist who has been reporting on health and medical issues for more than 15 years. Sally Crossing AM, is vice-chair of the Consumers' Health Forum of Australia, and a tireless advocate for cancer patients. Diagnosed and treated for breast cancer in 1995 and 2004, Sally founded the Breast Cancer Action Group NSW (Australia) in 1997. Monday, April 14, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Meredith Jones Skintight: An Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery To be launched by Dr Zoë Sofouli Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Cosmetic surgery is everywhere: we are surrounded by altered, enhanced, skinny and stretched celebrities, in a hyped media culture that focuses increasingly on the body beautiful. Once only associated with the rich and famous, cosmetic surgery is now widely available, advertised in magazines, doctors' surgeries, and even on television. In some parts of the world it has become an aesthetic and cultural norm, yet remains deeply troubling for many. Skintight argues that cosmetic surgery is the most provocative and controversial aspect of a new 'makeover culture'. Shows such as Ten Years Younger and Extreme Makeover demonstrate that 'fixing' the body is a way to improve lifestyle and uncover true identity. Meanwhile, celebrities such as Michael Jackson and Jocelyn Wildenstein demonstrate the horrors of extreme surgical alteration. Presenting a multidisciplinary approach, and examining a wide range of popular culture case studies from women's magazines, television, architecture and the Internet amongst others, Skintight dissects the realities of cosmetic surgery and culture. Saturday, April 12, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Special Event Vrasidas Karalis Nikos Kazantzakis' Odyssey A modern sequel - are long poems read today? Kazantzakis Society Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In 1939, Nikos Kazantzakis published his long epic poem Odyssey of 33,333 verses. The poem caused a stir in Greek literature, and after its translation by Kimon Friar in 1956, throughout Western literary circles. This lecture examines briefly the "longest poem of the Western world" and explains its aesthetics, ideology and form. Through readings of some of its crucial parts the lecture explores the function of such a work within the modernist and postmodernist literary culture. Is Kazantzakis' poem an irrelevant fossil from the past or the "New Fifth Gospel" as the writer of Zorba the Greek wanted it to be? The lecture discusses the literary and the non-literary character of the poem which remains an unresolved enigma in the tradition of European and American poetry. Saturday, April 12, 2008 / 4.00 for 4.30pm Past Launch Babette Smith Australia's Birthstain Gleebooks' first Blackheath launch! Venue: Blackheath Public School Why is it that Australians are still misled by myths about their convict heritage? Why are so many family historians surprised to find a convict ancestor in their family trees? Why did an entire society collude to cover up its past? Babette Smith traces the stories of hundreds of convicts over the 80 years of convict transportation to Australia. Putting a human face on the convicts' experience, she paints a rich picture of their crimes in Britain and their lives in the colonies. We know about Port Arthur, Norfolk Island, chaingangs and floggings, but this was far from the experience of most. In fact, most convicts became good citizens and the backbone of the new nation. So why did we need to hide them away? Australia's Birthstain rewrites the story of Australia's convict foundations, revealing the involvement of British politicians and clergy in creating a birthstain that reached far beyond convict crimes. Its startling conclusion offers a fresh perspective on our past. Thursday, April 10, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Helen Garner The Spare Room Published by: Penguin In conversation with Claire Scobie Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In a rare Sydney appearance, acclaimed author Helen Garner will talk to Claire Scobie about her stunning new novel, The Spare Room. Helen lovingly prepares her spare room for her friend Nicola. She is coming to visit for three weeks, to receive treatment she believes will cure her cancer. From the moment Nicola staggers off the plane, gaunt and hoarse but still somehow grand, Helen becomes her nurse, her guardian angel and her stony judge. The Spare Room tells a story of compassion, humour and rage. The two women--one sceptical, one stubbornly serene--negotiate an unmapped path through Nicola's bizarre therapy, stumbling towards the novel's terrible and transcendent finale. 'A perfect novel, imbued with all Garner's usual clear-eyed grace but with some other magnificent dimension that hides between the lines of her simple conversational voice. How is it that she can enter this heart-breaking territory--the dying friend who comes to stay--and make it not only bearable, but glorious, and funny? There is no answer except: Helen Garner is a great writer; The Spare Room is a great book.' Peter Carey ' The Spare Room : Garner's first novel in fifteen years, a lean claustrophobic drama about a cancer sufferer and the friend she calls on for help, illuminates the big questions of what it means to be human, and makes me glad I am a reader.' Australian Literary Review Helen Garner was born in Geelong in 1942. Her award-winning books include novels, stories, screenplays and works of non-fiction, including The First Stone (1995) and Joe Cinque's Consolation (2004). The Spare Room is her first work of fiction in fifteen years. Claire Scobie is a Sydney journalist and author of Last Seen in Lhasa. Tuesday, April 08, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Babette Smith Australia's Birthstain In conversation with Tom Keneally Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Why is it that Australians are still misled by myths about their convict heritage? Why are so many family historians surprised to find a convict ancestor in their family trees? Why did an entire society collude to cover up its past? Babette Smith traces the stories of hundreds of convicts over the 80 years of convict transportation to Australia. Putting a human face on the convicts' experience, she paints a rich picture of their crimes in Britain and their lives in the colonies. We know about Port Arthur, Norfolk Island, chaingangs and floggings, but this was far from the experience of most. In fact, most convicts became good citizens and the backbone of the new nation. So why did we need to hide them away? Australia's Birthstain rewrites the story of Australia's convict foundations, revealing the involvement of British politicians and clergy in creating a birthstain that reached far beyond convict crimes. Its startling conclusion offers a fresh perspective on our past. 'Babette Smith's arguments will be hotly debated, but there is no doubting the fascination or drama of this study of the stain we pretend is not there.' Thomas Keneally, Booker prize winning novelist and author of The Commonwealth of Thieves. Monday, April 07, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Dr Robin Archer Why there is no Labor Party in the US Published by: Princeton University Press In conversation with Kim Beazley Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Why is the United States the only advanced capitalist country with no labor party? This question is one of the great enduring puzzles of American political development, and it lies at the heart of a fundamental debate about the nature of American society. Tackling this debate head-on, Robin Archer puts forward a new explanation for why there is no American labor party-an explanation that suggests that much of the conventional wisdom about "American exceptionalism" is untenable. Conventional explanations rely on comparison with Europe. Archer challenges these explanations by comparing the United States with its most similar New World counterpart - Australia. Archer examines each of the factors that could help explain the American outcome, and his systematic comparison yields unexpected conclusions. He argues that prosperity, democracy, liberalism, and racial hostility often promoted the very changes they are said to have obstructed. And he shows that it was not these characteristics that left the United States without a labor party, but, rather, the powerful impact of repression, religion, and political sectarianism. Robin Archer is director of the postgraduate program in political sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He was previously the fellow in politics at Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford. His first degree was in physics, mathematics and philosophy at Sydney University where he received the University Medal. Professor Kim Beazley is the former Leader of the ALP Opposition and is now in the Dept. of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Western Australia Saturday, April 05, 2008 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch J. Robert Maze Cassandra Peel and the Whispers from the Underground Published by: Booksurge To be launched by Rachael Henry Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Ancient Greek tales unfold in modern New South Wales in J. Robert Maze's Cassandra Peel and the Whispers from Underground. In this fourth novel of Maze's cheerfully irreverent series, Cassandra Peel is horrified when her favourite teacher, Sarah Beecham, is falsely accused of subversive activity by CIA spies incited by Dionysus. Past meets present as J. Robert Maze combines the timeless importance of the Greek myths with modern-day events, in order to entertainingly opine on family life, adolescence, and sex. What makes Maze's novel so different? He illustrates how the passions of the deities translate to human life-in particular, the lives of a spunky group of girls. A main theme in the latest novel is the threat of censorship to civil liberty and to international relations. Orpheus the magical singer appears in Persephone Hall disguised as a literature student, attracted by Cassandra's interest in the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. His identity and appearance are periodically invaded by Dionysus, who tricks Cassandra into staging the Hades myth in the school hall. In rehearsal Dionysus carries her off to Hades Hall and delivers her to war-god Ares. Sarah is threatened with rendition. Ares is seeking to instigate a Doomsday war by spreading cheap nuclear technology to poor nations. In time to prevent a pre-emptive strike by the USA, Eliza the robot shows the technology will not work. The intelligence agencies' fear of making mistakes makes them vulnerable to 'top-secret' hoax messages. The novels are appreciated by readers of different levels of maturity, and are especially for mature teenage and older readers, aged 15+ years. They can be read as adventure stories incorporating interesting characters from classical mythology, as parables of contemporary history and society, or as explorations of core psychological themes of conscious and unconscious origin. Readers find them to be well-written, and engrossing, with strong visual appeal, a fresh, original voice and powerful storytelling. J. Robert Maze J.R. Maze's Cassandra Peel novels have been likened to the writing of Margaret Atwood, as well as being recommended to "saturated Harry Potter fans to get your teeth into. And even if you're not, it's a great read, thoroughly recommended." SCIFI.UK.COM. He taught in the Department of Psychology at Sydney University for 35 years. His books and papers on political biography and literary analysis have been published internationally. Friday, April 04, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Luke Davies God of Speed Published by: Allen and Unwin To be launched by Jane Gleeson-White Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The new novel from one of Australia's most exciting literary talents is a vividly imagined and riveting portrait of one of the twentieth century's most extraordinary characters - aviator, film-maker, and billionaire, Howard Hughes. I will fly at last. I will unfold my wings. I will unpack my head. I will step back outside. One day I may even make love again. But one thing at a time. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Film mogul, aviator, addict, inventor, visionary, recluse, serial womanizer, political meddler: Howard Hughes was one of the strangest and most significant figures of the twentieth century. His obsessive-compulsive disorder would end up crippling and isolating him; in the end he self-medicated his way into oblivion. It's a summer night in 1973, and holed up in his hotel penthouse in London, Hughes can't sleep. Tomorrow he takes control of an airplane for the first time in more than fifteen years. As the reclusive, drug-addled billionaire waits for the dawn, the shape and preoccupations of the times emerge from his ruined psyche; a world of oil, flight, money, movies, drugs, sex, power, greed, fear, yearning America. Blackly funny, muscular and rhythmic, transcendent and debauched, God of Speed is a fever dream, a giant and extraordinary leap of the imagination into the fractured mind of a man who was both great, and greatly fallen. Luke Davies is the author of two novels, Isabelle the Navigator and the cult bestseller Candy. A film version, starring Heath Ledger, was released in 2006 and won the AFI for Best Adapted Screenplay. Davies was awarded the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal for Poetry in 2004. He has published five books of poetry, including Running With Light which was the winner of the Judith Wright Poetry Prize 2000, and Totem, which won the 2004 Age Book of the Year winner. Thursday, April 03, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Barbara Fawcett and Fran Waugh (Editors) Addressing Violence, Abuse and Oppression: Debates and Challenges Published by: Routledge To be launched by Anne Summers Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Everyone working in health and social care is at one point or another confronted by violent behaviour and its consequences. Addressing Violence, Abuse and Oppression provides a broad overview of violence in relation to a range of groups and areas that involve human service professionals. Adopting an international perspective, this book looks at the ways in which violence, abuse and oppression can be clearly associated with power imbalances which are often gendered and which are covertly or overtly manifested at a range of levels including the interpersonal as well as the organizational and the political. It explores debates and challenges with regard to theoretical orientations, policy frameworks and how power imbalances intersect with a range of influencing factors including gender, poverty, indigenous/ethnic issues, class and sexuality. Examining the implications for human service professionals, each chapter of Addressing Violence, Abuse and Oppression provides an historical overview, explores theoretical perspectives, examines specific policy and practice context, appraises the contribution from research and assesses the impact for individuals and groups. Wednesday, April 02, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation David Stratton I Peed on Fellini Published by: Random House Australia In conversation with Margaret Pomeranz Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Join popular sparring partners and film critics David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz as they discuss David’s wonderful memoir of his life in film. I Peed on Fellini, the long-awaited memoir from legendary film critic David Stratton, is an honest, funny and thoroughly entertaining journey through a remarkable life in film. Passionate since boyhood about the cinema, Stratton has reviewed thousands of movies, directed and adjudicated at international film festivals, and lectured in film history at the University of Sydney. His best-known role, however, has been as the co-host, with Margaret Pomeranz, of The Movie Show on SBS and -- more recently -- At the Movies on the ABC. Since 1986 the duo has entertained Australia with their honest and often controversial reviews and interviews; for many, they are the most influential film critics in the country. A recipient of both the Longford and Chauvel Awards for his contribution to the Australian film industry, Stratton's hallmarks are his incredible depth of cinematic knowledge, his passionate opposition to censorship and his lifelong commitment to quality film. In this outstanding memoir, he tells his story with candour and verve. Tuesday, April 01, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch John Conomos Mutant Media: Essays on Cinema, Video Art and New Media Published by: Artspace and Power Publications To be launched by George Alexander Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Mutant Media gathers together a selection of John Conomos’ essays across the years, tracking the trajectory of his cinephilia since the 1960s, his ongoing interests in film criticism and theory, as well as his deep involvement in video art and new media since the 1980s. On one hand a major contribution to the realm of moving image and new media theory, Mutant Media is also a kind of autobiography of someone whose eclectic life as an artist, writer and educator centres around cinema’s grand, unpredictable adventure spanning three centuries. John Conomos is a media artist, critic and writer, and Senior Lecturer in film and new media studies at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. A frequent contributor to local and overseas film, cultural and media journals for the past two decades, he was a founding editor of the time-based media arts journal Scan+ and editor, with Brad Buckley, of Republic of Ideas (Artspace/Pluto Press 2001). Conomos’ videotapes and installations have been widely exhibited throughout Australia, Europe, the United States and Latin America. His work received an honourable merit award at Berlin’s Transmediale Videofest ’98, and in 2000 he became a recipient of an Australia Council for the Arts New Media Fellowship.     March 2008 Sunday, March 30, 2008 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Special Event Sunday Book Club - March Addition by Toni Jordan Published by: Penguin Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Join Toni Jordan and Morgan Smith to discuss Toni’s outstanding debut novel which has already sold into 9 countries. The Sunday Book Club is a reading group, so read the novel before coming to enjoy full participation in this book club. Register as an SBC member and get 10% discount when you buy Addition from gleebooks. Addition Grace Vandenburg orders her world with numbers: how many bananas she buys, how many steps to the café, how many poppy seeds on her daily piece of orange cake. She always sits at the first available table, starting from the top left-hand corner and proceeding around the room and inwards in a clockwise direction. Every morning she brushes her hair 100 times, brushes her teeth with 160 strokes of her toothbrush. Grace used to be a teacher, but now she is living on sickness benefits; as the parent of one of her students put it, ‘she’s mad’. Only her niece can connect with her. And Grace can only connect with Nikola—Nikola Tesla, the turn-of-the-century inventor whose portrait sits on her bedside table and who rescues her in her dreams. Then one day all the tables at the café are full. As she hesitates in the doorway a stranger invites her to sit with him. Addition is a fabulous debut novel. Grace’s voice is unmistakable. She’s damaged and screwy, but she’s not a victim: she’s quick-witted, flirtatious and headstrong. She’s not the least bit sentimental but she may be about to lose count of the number of ways she can fall in love. Toni Jordan was born in Brisbane in 1966 and graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Science. She has worked as a sales assistant, molecular biologist, quality control chemist and marketing manager. Toni left her job and enrolled in RMIT’s Professional Writing and Editing course with the idea of starting her own writing business. She needed one more subject, so she picked Novel—and in 2006 won a Varuna Awards master class to develop her debut novel, Addition. Toni lives in Melbourne where she works as a freelance copywriter. Friday, March 28, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Eric Aarons Markets vs Nature: The Social Philosophy of Friedrich Hayek Published by: Australian Scholarly Press To be launched by Prof. Steve Keen Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe  In his path breaking report on global warming, Sir Nicholas Stern said that ‘climate change is the greatest market failure the world has ever seen’. This book argues that to meet the global warming crisis we need to radically change our economic ideas. The short term price of fossil fuel is cheap, according to the market, but we will pay an incalculable price in the long term. Free markets promise endless economic expansion, but this will cost the earth. This book challenges the influential prophet of free market theory, Friedrich Hayek, whose ideas have heavily influenced governments around the world for decades. Hayek’s economic theory is based on a social philosophy which is incapable of valuing the environment or social justice. He sees human well-being in material terms. This book recognizes the usefulness of markets, but argues that without some conscious human control they are unsustainable, and would ultimately destroy the conditions for human life on the planet. Thursday, March 27, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Launch Alyson Simpson (editor) Reading Under the Covers: Helping Children Choose Books To be launched by Libby Gleeson Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Author Alyson Simpson has combined years of experience as a teacher librarian and researcher, as well as interviews with children, authors and illustrators to help us, as teachers and parents, help children to choose books. According to the children interviewed, reading is something you can get very excited about. They follow the authors they’ve read, they vote for them in children’s choice awards. They love to get involved in what they’re reading. But they are also nervous in front of the bookshelves, not knowing how to choose the next book when they finish a series, or the book that matches their reading ability. Reading under the covers: helping children to choose books provides a range of responses to the child with an immediate need for a book (including booklists from authors and illustrators, and websites that list books that other children have chosen). It also addresses a wider picture – how do you get children interested in books, and keep them interested? How do you help children read for enjoyment as well as developing critical awareness? How do you help their imagination to flourish, to be the next Andy Griffiths or Jackie French? Alyson Simpson’s carefully chosen activities and teaching tips provide part of the answer: the activities are derived from what children themselves have requested, and each teaching tip corresponds to one of the 13 featured books. The authors and illustrators provide another part of the answer: let children become engaged in books from the earliest age. Children’s author Emily Rodda says “Reading stamina is the key to finding the treasure in books”. This book will help you to build that reading stamina. Each of the authors and illustrators interviewed has responded very generously, revealing what excites them to write or illustrate, telling how they got started in their career, and how important their audience – children – is to them. Many of the illustrators have also given generously of their drawing work, enriching the pages and making the book a delight to use. This is a book that can be used as a resource for students who are doing author studies; as a way of finding books for students to read; as a source of useful activities to encourage reading. But mainly, read it to feel the excitement that children have about books and reading. Alyson Simpson is a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney. Wednesday, March 26, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Fabian Society Event Union Control of the ALP? Panel: Mark Aarons, Doug Cameron Chair Dr Geoff Gallop Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe After almost 120 years is it time to cut the labour movement’s Gordian knot, that most intricate relationship between the fortunes of the political wing (the ALP) and the industrial wing (affiliated trade unions)? Many have argued that the main problem with the ALP’s current structure is the undemocratic power exercised by union secretaries over policy-making and the selection of members of parliament. Kevin Rudd’s election victory provides Labor with the opportunity to reform this antiquated power structure and transform itself into a modern, centre-left party that’s truly representative of those who vote for it. Doug Cameron has worked as a fitter in the steel, ship repair, vehicle and power industries. He was elected by manufacturing workers to represent them in various positions including National Secretary AMWU, Vice President ACTU and is now Senator elect for NSW. Mark Aarons is a journalist and author and will publish on March 3 an article in a book called ‘Dear Mr Rudd’ edited by Robert Manne. Mark has been an adviser to the NSW Labor government and has written extensively on East Timor. Thursday, March 20, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Geraldine Brooks People of the Book Published by: HarperCollins In conversation with Morgan Smith Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Australian journalist, Geraldine Brooks shot into the literary limelight with her first novel, Year of Wonders and cemented her reputation with the wonderful March for which she won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Literature. As meticulously researched as all of Brooks's previous work, People of the Book is an intricate, ambitious novel that traces the journey of a rare illuminated Hebrew manuscript from convivencia Spain to the ruins of Sarajevo, from the Silver Age of Venice to the sunburned rock faces of northern Australia. Inspired by the true story of a mysterious codex known as the Sarajevo Haggadah, People of the Book is a sweeping adventure through five centuries of history. From its creation in Muslim-ruled, medieval Spain, the illuminated manuscript makes a series of perilous journeys: through Inquisition-era Venice, fin-de-siecle Vienna, and the Nazi sacking of Sarajevo. In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed manuscript, which has been rescued once again from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with figurative paintings. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding-an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair-she becomes determined to unlock the book's mysteries. As she seeks the counsel of scientists and specialists, the reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book's journey from its creation to its salvation. In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim risks his life to protect it from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of Vienna in 1894, the book becomes a pawn in an emerging contest between the city's cultured cosmopolitanism and its rising anti-Semitism. In Venice in 1609, a Catholic priest saves it from Inquisition book burnings. In Tarragona in 1492, the scribe who wrote the text has his family destroyed amid the agonies of enforced exile. And in Seville in 1480, the reason for the Hggadah's extraordinary illuminations is finally disclosed. In Year of Wonders and March, Geraldine Brooks demonstrated an uncanny ability to hear and transmit the voices of a seventeenth century Derbyshire maid and an nineteenth century American abolitionist. People of the Book is filled with unforgettable voices from the past, but it is Hanna's voice-edgy, contemporary-that makes People of the Book a compulsively readable adventure story that transcends the usual boundaries of historical fiction. Geraldine will talk about her book to Morgan Smith, gleebooks events manager who has previously been a writer, script editor, book reviewer and literary columnist. Wednesday, March 19, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Anne Manne QE 29: Love and Money In conversation with David McKnight Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In Love & Money Anne Manne looks at the challenge of balancing love and economics, and the value our society places on both. Examining how paid work has become "sacred" for many, she argues that any true definition of equality has to take into account the fact of dependency and care for others. This is an essay that ranges widely and entertainingly across contemporary culture: it casts an inquisitive eye at the modern marriage of Kevin Rudd and Therese Rein, as well as the power couple of John and Janette Howard. It shows how the "shadow economy" of care is often disregarded, and how childhood is under threat. It also examines how current discussion of work/life balance is too narrowly focused on an elite part of society. Manne shows that the labour market is organised in a way that allows affl uent professionals to pay lowstatus, low-waged workers to take on their care needs. Controversially, Manne argues that neo-liberal economics and (one version of) feminism have conspired to create this situation. Ultimately, this powerful essay is an argument for a new form of equality and a must-read for every Australian. About the author: Anne Manne is a regular contributor to the Age and The Monthly. Her book Motherhood: How Should We Care for Our Children? was shortlisted for the 2006 Walkley non-fiction book prize. She has written widely on feminism, motherhood, childcare, family policy, fertility and related issues. Tuesday, March 18, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Uwe Timm In my Brother’s Shadow Published by: Bloomsbury In conversation with Jeremy Fisher Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Goethe-Institut Australien and gleebooks present: Uwe Timm is one of Germany's most successful contemporary authors. His writing comprises novels, short stories, essays, poetry and award-winning titles for children and young adults. This is a rare visit to Australia and the Goethe Institute and gleebooks invite you to discover this remarkable author as he talks to Jeremy Fisher about his memoir In My Brother’s Shadow. In My Brother's Shadow is a unique and profoundly moving memoir exploring a brother’s death fighting for the SS and one ordinary family’s relationship with Nazi rule. Uwe Timm was born in Germany in 1940. Just three years later his brother, Karl-Heinz, who was sixteen years his senior and a sapper in the elite SS Death’s Head Division, was killed. His notebook was returned to the family, and the last entry read: ‘I close my diary here because I don’t see any point in recording the cruel things that sometimes happen.’ When Timm decided to write this astonishing memoir, he feared the possibility that his brother’s unit had taken part in the shooting of civilians and Jews. Yet he wanted to piece together his brother’s experience, and also that of his nation, which once considered the qualities of an SS man so exemplary. As Timm unleashes his memories of this devastating time, he also pinpoints the questions that his parents’ generation seemed unable to face, and offers new insights into the impact of the war on ordinary Germans. ‘There is something of a nightmarish quality in Timm’s powerful memoir of the elder brother he lost in the war ... The tone throughout is tender but unsentimental. And in the hands of Timm, now a distinguished writer, this domestic drama serves as a microcosm of the German catastrophe’ Sunday Telegraph ‘This remarkable short book combines a poignant memoir of Timm’s upstanding, resourceful father and his loyal, peaceable mother with a perceptive analysis of the traditional values that helped to lead a nation to obey inhuman orders’ Sunday Times ‘This book is informed by a deep understanding of its horrors, anxieties and legacies’ Publishers Weekly ‘Uwe Timm, a well-known novelist in Germany, is determined “not to smooth it all out in the telling”, not to make it easy for us to understand and thereby to excuse’ Daily Telegraph Jeremy Fisher is Executive Director of the Australian Society of Authors. Jeremy has a doctorate in writing from UTS and has published four books and numerous articles and poems. Monday, March 17, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Riaz Hassan Inside Muslim Minds Published by: Melbourne University Press In conversation with Prof. Ahmad Shboul Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe A ground-breaking comparative study of contemporary Islamic consciousness, Inside Muslim Minds is an important insight into aspects of the Muslim faith, and its place in the twenty-first century. Using data gathered from more than six thousand Muslim respondents from Southeast, South and Central Asia and the Middle East, Raiz Hassan examines attitudes to issues such as religious commitment; the status of women; the concept of jihad and its alleged links to terrorism; Islamic philanthropy; attitudes towards blasphemy; and Muslim perceptions of the 'other'. Hassan offers a theory of Islamic consciousness by examining its evolution over several centuries. His findings demonstrate the diversity of the Muslim world: the many variations of social, political and religious views. Inside Muslim Minds argues for a new intellectual commitment that honours Islamic heritage yet simultaneously confronts Islamic reassertion and the sense of powerlessness felt by Muslims as they strive to reaffirm their faith in the twenty-first century. Friday, March 14, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Jonathan Marshall and Angela Thomas Living on Cybermind / Youth Online: Identity and Literacy in the Digital Age Published by: Peter Lang To be launched by Colin Lankshear (Series Ed) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Cybermind is an Internet mailing list, originally founded in 1994 to discuss the issues and problems of living online. It proved exceptionally fertile and is still going strong thirteen years later. This book is an ethnographic investigation which follows Cybermind members in their daily lives on the List, and explores the ways they look at the world, argue, relate online life to offline life, use gender, and build community. Perhaps the most comprehensive history of an Internet group ever published, it includes detailed analyses using List members' own words and commentary, and develops a unique theory of the relationship between culture, the problems of communication, and the ongoing processes of categorisation. Living on Cybermind illustrates how behaviour is affected by the organisation of communication, and how people deal with the paradoxes involved in resolving ambiguity and truth in a situation in which presence is always on the verge of slipping away. Jonathan Paul Marshall has an M.A. (Hons) and Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Sydney. He has been an Australian Research Council Research Fellow at the Transforming Cultures Research Centre at the University of Technology, Sydney, working on a project on online gender. Youth Online chronicles the stories of young people from several countries - the US, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, and Holland - and their interactions in online communities over a seven-year period. It examines how young people construct their identities in various social contexts: social, fantasy, role-playing; and for various social purposes: leadership, learning, power, rebellion and romance. It explores the ways youth are deploying both visual and literary cues to develop a full sense of presence online and to effectively communicate with their peers. Using methods of textual, visual, and socio-psychological analysis, this book illuminates the ways in which young people are making sense of their own identities and their place within broader communities. Angela Thomas is Lecturer in English Education at the University of Sydney. She specializes in teaching new media literacies and is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on fan fiction, online role-playing, blogging, digital fiction, cyberculture, identity, and learning in virtual worlds, and is co-author of Children's Literature and Computer-Based Teaching. Thursday, March 13, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Don Watson American Journeys Published by: Random House Australia Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe You loved author and historian, Don Watson on Keating and lapped up his Weasel Words. Now hear him talk about his experiences traveling through America - the most powerful democracy on earth, home to the best and worst of everything. In a series of journeys Don Watson set out to explore the nation that has influenced him more than any other. Travelling by rail gave Watson a unique and seductive means of peering into the United States, a way to experience life with its citizens: long days with the American landscape and American towns and American history unfolding on the outside, while inside a tiny particle of the American people talked among themselves. Watson's experiences are profoundly affecting: he witnesses the terrible aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast; explores the savage history of the Deep South, the heartland of the Civil War; and journeys to the remarkable wilderness of Yellowstone National Park. Yet it is through the people he meets that Watson discovers the incomparable genius of America, its optimism, sophistication and riches - and also its darker side, its disavowal of failure and uncertainty. Beautifully written, with gentle power and sly humour, American Journeys investigates the meaning of the United States: its confidence, its religion, its heroes, its violence, and its material obsessions. The things that make America great are also its greatest flaws. Thursday, March 13, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Germaine Greer Shakespeare’s Wife Venue: NSW Teachers Federation Conference Centre Reservoir St., Surry Hills Controversial commentator. Icon of the 70s ‘women’s lib’ movement. Admired academic and author. In a rare Sydney appearance, Germaine Greer will talk about her latest bestselling book, Shakespeare’s Wife, a ground-breaking study of Elizabethan England that rescues Ann Hathaway from the sidelines and reasserts her rightful place in history. Little is known of the wife of England's greatest playwright; a great deal, none of it complimentary, has been assumed. The omission of her name from Shakespeare's will has been interpreted as evidence that she was nothing more than an unfortunate mistake from which Shakespeare did well to distance himself. Yet Shakespeare is above all the poet of marriage. Before Shakespeare there were few comedies or tragedies of wooing and wedding. Here, Germaine Greer combines literary-historical techniques with documentary evidence about life in Stratford, striving to re-embed the story of Shakespeare's marriage in its social context. Part-biography, part-history, Shakespeare's Wife is fascinating in its reconstruction of Ann's life, and the daily lives of Elizabethan women. It offers an illuminating portrait of their working routines, the rituals of their courtship and the minutiae of married life. Germaine Greer gained her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1967 with a thesis on Shakespeare's Early Comedies and has taught Shakespeare at universities in Australia, Britain and the US. In 1986 she was invited to contribute the volume of Shakespeare to the prestigious Past Masters series. Wednesday, March 12, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel Bernadette Brennan Just Words: Australian Authors writing on Justice Panel: Bernadette Brennan, Frank Brennan, Peter Mannning Chair: Justice Michael Kirby Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe A distinguished panel will discuss: Can words make Australia a better place? Can writing help to inform a collective national consciousness? Over the past decade Australians have witnessed a significant shift to more insular and conservative economic, ethical and cultural norms. The problems of valuing and achieving justice seem more acute than ever, yet the solutions to those problems are not obvious nor are those in power taking the lead. In this powerful collection, Australian writers including Gail Jones, Eva Sallis and Frank Brennan explore the relationship between writing and justice, a relationship utterly dependent on informed, ethical readers. These essays - from poets, essayists, academics, playwrights, critics and novelists - demonstrate how it is possible for writing to articulate concerns of justice, enlighten the broader community and move citizens to action. These beautifully crafted essays unflinchingly provoke, upset, stimulate and propel us into action. The authors feel deeply about the big-picture questions that confront Australia as the traditional land of the 'fair go'. Their stories grow in 'lines on paper faded' for want of recent attention. Reading some of them causes goose bumps. Some, anger. Others, despair. Yet, so long as Australian writing can produce the compressed intelligence found in these pages, we will still be a 'Lucky Country' ...lucky because we still have authors able to prick our conscience and to make us think about causes that really matter. The Hon. Michael Kirby, AC, CMG Tuesday, March 11, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Alan McKee*, Kath Albury and Catherine Lumby The Porn Report In Conversation with Linda Jaivin Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe True or false? • Most porn users are uneducated, lonely and sad old men. • All porn is violent. • Pornography turns people into rapists and/or paedophiles. • Pornography uniformly portrays women as passive objects of men’s sexual urges. The Porn Report debunks these and many other misconceptions about porn consumers, producers and the industry at large. In this first book-length account on pornography in Australia, McKee, Albury and Lumby present a comprehensive never-before-seen picture of the adult-content industries and its consumers. If you’ve ever wondered what’s in Australia’s bestselling 50 porn videos and DVDs; what’s behind amateur or do-it-yourself porn; and how porn is produced and distributed, The Porn Report will not only answer your questions, but also surprise you. The authors also discuss feminist responses to pornography and provide important advice to parents on how they can protect their children from cyberstalkers and from viewing online porn. If pornography arouses, repels or simply piques your curiosity, you cannot afford to miss The Porn Report. Alan McKee is Associate Professor in the Film and Television Department at QUT and is the author of The Public Sphere; Australian Television; The Indigenous Public Sphere; Textual Analysis; and Beautiful Things in Popular Culture. *Alan will not be at this event Kath Albury is an ARC Postdoctoral Fellow at the centre for Social Research at UNSW. She is a member of the health Promotion Sub-committee, NSW Ministerial advisory committee on hIV/aIDS and STIs. Her first book, Yes Means Yes: Getting Explicit about Heterosex, was published in 2002. Catharine Lumby is the Director of the Centre for Social Research in Journalism and Communication at the University of NSW and also works for Rape Crisis New South Wales. She is the author of five books including Gotcha: Life in a Tabloid World and Bad Girls: The Media, Sex and Feminism in the 1990s. Monday, March 10, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds Drawing the Global Colour Line: White Men’s Countries and the International Challenge of Racial Equality Published by: Melbourne University Press In Conversation with Paul Kelly Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Whoever had created Australia, white men were certain that ‘this land of promise’ belonged to them … At last a history of Australia in its dynamic global context. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in response to the mobilizations and mobility of colonial and coloured peoples around the world, self-styled ‘white men’s countries’ in South Africa, North America and Australasia worked in solidarity to exclude those peoples they defined as not-white—including Africans, Chinese, Indians, Japanese and Pacific Islanders. Their policies provoked in turn a long international struggle for racial equality. Through a rich cast of characters that includes Alfred Deakin, WEB Du Bois, Mahatma Gandhi, Lowe Kong Meng, Tokutomi Soho, Jan Smuts and Theodore Roosevelt, leading Australian historians Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds tell a gripping story about the circulation of emotions and ideas, books and people in which Australia emerged as a pace-setter in the modern global politics of whiteness. The legacy of the White Australia policy still casts a shadow over relations with the peoples of Africa and Asia; but campaigns for racial equality have created new possibilities for a more just future. Remarkable for the breadth of its research and its engaging narrative, Drawing the Global Colour Line offers a new perspective on the history of human rights and provides compelling and original insight into the international political movements that shaped the twentieth century. Marilyn Lake holds a Personal Chair in the School of Historical and European Studies at LaTrobe University. Her publications include Getting Equal: The History of Australian Feminism, Faith: Faith Bandler, Gentle Activist and, as co-editor, Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective. Henry Reynolds holds a Personal Chair in History and Aboriginal Studies at the University of Tasmania. He is the author of many books on in Indigenous history and culture. Saturday, March 08, 2008 / 5.30 for 6pm Past Launch Steve Toltz A Fraction of the Whole Published by: Penguin Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe ‘The fact is, the whole of Australia despises my father more than any other man, just as they adore my uncle more than any other man. I might as well set the story straight about both of them.’ A Fraction of the Whole is the rampaging, exuberant story of one man, Jasper Dean, and his quest to understand his brilliant yet dysfunctional father.It’s a journey through memory that finds Jasper taken to the Australian bush, bohemian Paris and the jungles of Thailand, in strip clubs, mental hospitals, labyrinths, unequal love triangles and the criminal underworld. Along the way he learns the scandalous truth about his own origins, his infamous outlaw uncle, and his mysteriously absent mother, and perhaps a thing or two about the meaning of life and the human psyche. Endlessly surprising and scandalous, early US reviews have described A Fraction of the Whole as a ‘sprawling, dizzying debut from a quirky, assured Australian writer’ (Publishers Weekly), and a ‘hilarious, sneaky, smart first novel’ (Booklist). It’s an uproariously funny, philosophical novel about a father and son and the spiritual symmetry that binds them in a wholly ridiculous modern world. Steve Toltz lives in Sydney. This is his first novel. Friday, March 07, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation The New Yorkers: Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt In conversation with Ed Wright Venue: The Sydney Theatre 22 Hickson Rd Walsh Bay This event has moved to The Sydney Theatre 22 Hickson Rd Walsh Bay. Direct from Adelaide Writers’ Week, acclaimed, prize-winning authors, Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt (husband and wife) come to gleebooks to talk about their books and their writing lives. Paul Auster is the author of countless novels, plays, essays and film scripts including the best-selling New York Trilogy. Considered the best and most original contemporary chronicler of life in New York, his latest book is Travels in the Scriptorium. Siri Hustvedt was the author of two previous novels when she shot to fame with What I Loved. Like that novel, her recently released, The Sorrows of an American is set in New York and has a male narrator. A multi-layered novel that probes the mysteries of the heart and mind, The Sorrows of an American is richly thought-provoking and profoundly affecting. Paul and Siri will be in conversation with Ed Wright, a Sydney writer and book reviewer who wrote his thesis on Paul Auster’s work. Between 2001 and 2004, he was a lecturer in American Literature at Tottori University in Japan. Travels in the Scriptorium Who is he? What is he doing here? When did he arrive and how long will he remain? With any luck, time will tell us all ... An old man sits in a room, with a single door and window, a bed, a desk and a chair. Each day he awakes with no memory, unsure of whether or not he is locked into the room. Attached to the few objects around him are one-word, hand-written labels and on the desk is a series of vaguely familiar black and white photographs and four piles of paper. Then a middle-aged woman called Anna enters and talks of pills and treatment, but also of love and promises. Who is this Mr Blank and what is his fate? What does Anna represent from his past - and will he have enough time to ever make sense of the clues that arise. After the huge success of The Brooklyn Follies, in Travels in the Scriptorium Auster has come up with a dark puzzle, a game that implicates both reader and writer alike, an ingenious exploration of language, responsibility and the passage of time. Paul Auster was born in New Jersey in 1947. After attending Columbia University he lived in France for four years. Since 1974 he has published poems, essays, novels, screenplays and translations. Brooklyn Follies is his eleventh novel. The Sorrows of an American After their father's funeral, Erik and Inga Davidsen find a cryptic letter from a woman among his papers, dating from his adolescence in rural Minnesota during the Depression. Returning to his psychiatric practice in New York City, Erik sets about reading his father's memoir, hoping to discover the man he never fully knew. At the same time, another woman enters Erik's lonely, divorced life - a beautiful Jamaican who moves into his garden flat with her small daughter. As Erik gets drawn into the cat and mouse tactics of someone who appears to be stalking her, he finds out that his sister Inga is also being threatened, by a journalist in possession of a wounding secret from her past. A multi-layered novel that probes the mysteries of the heart and mind, The Sorrows of an American is breathtaking in its range, richly thought-provoking and profoundly affecting - a novel that resonates long beyond the last page. Siri Hustvedt was born and raised in Minnesota, and her work has been published in The Paris Review and Fiction, The Best American Short Stories. She is also the author of a book of poetry and three previous novels, The Blind Fold, The Enchantment of Lily Dahl and What I Loved. Thursday, March 06, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Anna Clark / Ilana Snyder History’s Children: History Wars in the Classroom / The Literacy Wars Published by: UNSW Press / Allen & Unwin In conversation with Jane Caro Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe History’s Children: History Wars in the Classroom What’s wrong with the way Australian history is being taught? Are students getting a fragmented understanding of their nation’s past? Why aren’t they engaging with indigenous history? Should learning their country’s history be mandatory? Would a national curriculum be the answer? Prominent young historian Anna Clark has written a timely and probing book that examines these and other questions raised by the ongoing debate about the teaching of history in Australian schools. Through interviews with around 250 Australian students, teachers and curriculum officials from around Australia, Anna Clark asks how teachers and students teach and learn Australian history, why the history debate in classrooms has become so heated, and where we might go in the future. Clark’s book is a lucid and passionate argument for putting students – who have long been excluded from public discussions of Australian history teaching – at the centre of the debate. “Despite eager teachers and engaging students, ‘Australian History’ seems to be regarded as one long yawn. The objections are not political: ‘Indigenous Studies’ is loathed equally with ‘Federation’. So what’s gone wrong? What is clear is that if we decide we want Australian history to be an obligatory school subject we will have to start again. When we do, Clark’s patient, lucid, lively research will be an essential source and reality check.” - Inga Clendinnen Anna Clark is an Australian Postdoctoral Fellow in history education at Monash University. She is the author of Teaching the Nation (Melbourne University Press, 2006); Convicted! (Hardie Grant Egmont, 2005), which was listed as a Children’s Book Council of Australia Notable Book in 2006; and The History Wars (Winner of the NSW Premier’s Prize for Australian History and the Queensland Premier’s Prize for Best Literary or Media Work Advancing Public Debate) with Stuart Macintyre (Melbourne University Press, 2003. The Literacy Wars Do we have a literacy crisis? Fierce debates in the media over how to teach children to read and write have reached new heights in recent years. The intensity of the debates is not surprising as literacy education matters to everyone, but there is collateral damage. Public confidence in literacy teachers has been undermined and many believe we have a literacy crisis in our schools. The Literacy Wars explains the reasons for the often bitter disagreements between the critics who want to reclaim old ways of teaching literacy and the educators who emphasise the possibilities for creative change. It is a story of strong beliefs and deep divisions. It is also a story of the politicisation of the debates, which has repercussions for policy decisions and funding. Drawing comparisons with the UK and the United States, The Literacy Wars shows how the debates in Australia resonate with similar battles in other parts of the world. The challenge facing literacy teachers everywhere is to find a balance between preserving the legacy of the past and preparing children for the literacy demands of the future. The Literacy Wars is essential reading for everyone who cares about literacy education: parents, teachers, students, academics, politicians and policy makers. Ilana Snyder is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education, Monash University. Jane Caro is a well-known speaker, broadcaster and writer on a range of issues including education. Her work features regularly on Education Review and New Matilda. She is also the co-author (with Chris Bonnor) of the 2007 book “The Stupid Country: How Australia is Dismantling Public Education.” Her latest book “The F Word: How We Learned to Swear by Feminism” co-authored with Catherine Fox is due from UNSW Press in June. Wednesday, March 05, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Jacqueline Kent An Exacting Heart: The Story of Hephzibah Menuhin Published by: Viking Penguin In conversation Penny Lomax Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe What makes a woman walk out on her children? What makes her turn her back on a brilliant artistic career? Hephzibah Menuhin had a musical gift most people only dream of - but her refusal to be defined by it led her to reinvent herself not once, but twice in her life. An Exacting Heart is the story of this fascinating woman and the choices she made. Hephzibah was, like her famous violinist brother Yehudi, a prodigy, simultaneously thrown into the spotlight at an early age and closeted by a controlling mother. But in 1938, celebrated as her brother's musical partner, and on the brink of greatness in her own right, she turned her back on performing and married Lindsay Nicholas, heir to the Aspro pharmaceuticals fortune, and moved to his sheep property in western Victoria. Far from playing the conventional wife, Hephzibah threw herself into humanitarian projects, raised two sons and eventually resumed performing to international acclaim. But after 16 years that seemed from the outside happy and fulfilled, she met a man who drew her to question what she thought she knew - and to abandon her established life a second time. An Exacting Heart is the extraordinary story of a complex and contradictory woman. In telling Hephzibah Menuhin's story, JK examines the consequences of possessing great talent, as well as the costs and rewards of gambling for high emotional stakes. Jacqueline Kent was born in Sydney and grew up there and in Adelaide. Originally trained as a journalist and radio broadcaster, she has worked as a book editor and reviewer and has a doctorate of Creative Arts from the University of Technology Sydney. She is the author of two general social histories and six books of fiction for young adults. Her biography A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, A Literary Life won the 2002 National Biography Award and the Nita B. Kibble Award. She lives in Sydney. Penny Lomax is the Producer of The Music Show ABC Radio National. Tuesday, March 04, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Merlinda Bobis The Solemn Lantern-Maker Published by: Pier 9 (Murdoch Books) To be launched by Wendy Bacon Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Ten-year-old Noland, a mute lantern maker, imagines that he sees an angel falling from the sky to the slums where he lives. But it's only an American tourist who is caught in a drive-by shooting of a political journalist. At a busy intersection in Manila, the magical and seedy collide: shimmering lanterns and poverty, Christmas carols and child prostitution, dreams of friendship and the global 'war on terror'. A hut in the slums becomes a cathedral and silence is an exchange of breaths.     February 2008 Thursday, February 28, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel Reviving Australian Radicalism Griffith REVIEW 19 - Re-imagining Australia Panel: George Williams, Geoff Gallop, Peter Cochrane, Tom Morton Chair: Julianne Schultz, Editor Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Australia of 1901 was a politically radical and progressive country with a Constitution which embodied a boldness of vision for its time. The Australia of today has one of the most static systems of government in the world, with an outdated political structure which wastes billions of dollars a year and prevents the delivery of critical services such as quality healthcare and education. Griffith REVIEW 19: Re-imagining Australia traces the roots of Australia's tradition of innovation and presents writers, leaders and thinkers who approach the pressing issues of the day with practical and symbolic actions. Join Julianne Schultz for a conversation with leading legal activist George Williams, former Premier of WA Geoff Gallop, award-winning author Peter Cochrane and ABC presenter and novelist Tom Morton to discuss the hidden progressive history of Australia, and the future of political radicalism. Wednesday, February 27, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Sydney PEN Fundraiser Maureen Freely Enlightenment Published by: Marion Boyars In conversation with Sally Blakeney Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Maureen Freely is a controversial writer who is not afraid to criticize the Turkey she loves. She defended Nobel Prize winner, Orhan Pamuk, two of whose novels she has translated, when he was prosecuted under Article 301 for un-Turkish behaviour, and has also assisted Turkish authors Perihan Magden and Elif Shafak who were prosecuted under similar articles. In her new, bestselling novel, Enlightenment, Maureen Freely uses her experience and knowledge of Turkey to paint a picture of a country in which 'free speech' is a fluid term at best and where nobody is who they say they are, and everyone is a suspect. An investigative journalist returns to Istanbul, the scene of her early love affair with the mysterious Turkish boy, Sinan. She is forced to overcome her personal feelings when she is asked by Jeannie, his wife, to help her regain her son, taken away when Sinan is arrested on entry into the US. A tense thriller involving a retired secret service informer, a mysterious 'trunk' murder, and a group of young students involved in subterfuge, but now tackling a real crisis. Maureen Freely is a guest of the Perth Writers' Festival. Ticket proceeds to Sydney PEN Sally Blakeney is a freelance journalist and a Vice President of Sydney PEN. Tuesday, February 26, 2008 / 6.30pm Past Sydney Ideas Event Tim Harford The Logic of Life Published by: Little Brown Pesented by Sydney Ideas and gleebooks Venue: Seymour Centre In The Undercover Economist, Tim Harford showed how ordinary economics could explain everyday curiosities, such as the price of a cup of coffee and the traffic jam on the way to the supermarket. The Logic Of Life shows how the new economics of rational choice theory explains much, much more. Drug addicts and teenage muggers can be rational. Suburban sprawl and inner city decay are rational. Endless meetings at the office and the injustices of working life? Rational. Economics explains why your boss is overpaid, whether we should build more prisons, and whether a city like New Orleans can recover from disaster. The Logic Of Life introduces you to engaging stories and characters linked together in a bold narrative sweep. The book starts with the most intimate decisions - to have sex, to take drugs, to lead an honest life - then zooms out to discuss the logic of the family, of neighbourhoods, large corporations, cities themselves. This is the new economics of everything you never thought was economics, and it will help you see the world in a new way. Monday, February 25, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Launch Journalism and Trauma: Why it Matters DVD Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe  “I sat down at two o’clock in the morning and there were teardrops falling on the keyboard” – Gary Tippet, Fairfax. “Banda Aceh was much easier for me to cope with than watching a young mother drag her dead baby from the river: - Jess Adamson, Seven Network. “If you’re dealing with something that is shocking, ghastly, heart-wrenching, don’t leave it inside you.” – Peter Harvey, Nine Network. “I knew I’d stepped over a line. This affected me more than I thought.” – Phillip Williams, ABC. Trauma – it’s what almost every journalist will have to report on at some time. Car crashes, murders, disasters, wars and the like are bread and butter for most media outlets. But what impact does reporting such stories have on the news-gatherers? How many reporters, photographers, editors, sound assistants and so on have an image or story that continues to haunt them? And what of what Fairfax’s Gary Tippet calls the “drip by drip by drip” impact of all the traumatic stories we’ve covered? A new DVD called “Journalism and Trauma: Why it Matters” provides a unique and candid insight into the difficulties of reporting traumatic stories. It features a range of news-gatherers from Commercial television networks, the ABC, newspapers and radio. The experience ranges from a cadet to one of the industry’s longest serving and most familiar reporters, Peter Harvey. The aim is to make reporters and the people who assign them aware of how some stories are going to take a bigger personal toll than others. Which stories? It may be a tsunami – or it may be yet another road fatality. It could be the story you cover tomorrow or the story that you send a colleague to cover tomorrow… The DVD was put together by the Nine Network’s Brett McLeod under the auspices of the Australasian Dart Centre for Journalism and Trauma (www.dartcenter.org), which is part of an international organisation working to help journalists and the media do a better job of understanding issues around violence and trauma. Sunday, February 24, 2008 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Special Event Sunday Book Club - February The Memory Room by Christopher Koch Published by: Vintage Australia With Morgan Smith Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Sunday Book Club aims to promote and further appreciation of Australian fiction. Morgan Smith, gleebooks events manager, will host a discussion about a contemporary Australian novel on the last Sunday of every month. Morgan will choose the book and it is highly desirable (as in any reading group) for those attending to have read it in order to take part in the discussion. Register as a Sunday Book Club member and get 10% discount from gleebooks on the book of the month. In February, join Morgan Smith to discuss Christopher Koch's seventh novel, The Memory Room. What is a spy? Are they born or are they made? With these words, Vincent Austin analyses his future occupation. Some spies are made, he says, but his kind is born — since he is devoted to secrecy for its own sake. Vincent's boyhood in Tasmania is spent with an elderly aunt. His fascination with secrecy and espionage — and much else besides — is shared by Erika Lange, the daughter of a post-World War German immigrant. They see themselves as twin spirits, inhabiting a shared, platonic world of fantasy and ritual. At university, Vincent aims to enter Foreign Affairs — as does his easygoing friend Derek Bradley. However, Vincent is recruited by ASIS — Australia’s overseas secret intelligence service. Erika — now an attractive and magnetic woman — becomes a journalist, eventually entering Foreign Affairs as a press officer. She, Vincent and Bradley meet again in 1982, when they are posted to the Australian Embassy in Beijing. Erika and Bradley begin an affair which is ultimately doomed to fail, while Vincent attempts an espionage coup which ends in disaster for himself and Bradley. Both men are expelled from China, and are relocated to Canberra, where Vincent is confined to the ASIS Registry. Erika, also returning to Australia, becomes a successful television journalist. The fantasies of youth have now become reality for Erika and Vincent, but they lead to a tragic climax. It is left to Bradley, who inherits Vincent’s diaries, to contemplate their story. The events in this absorbing novel take place in the final phase of the Cold War, but they are highly relevant to today, and Christopher Koch’s widely admired prose style gives them a contemporary freshness. The aims of The Memory Room go far beyond those of a thriller. A psychological portrait of a brilliant but eccentric spy, it is also an exploration of the mystical nature of secrecy. Christopher Koch was born and educated in Tasmania. For a good deal of his life he was a broadcasting producer, working for the ABC. He has lived and worked in London and elsewhere overseas. He has been a full-time writer since 1972, winning international praise and a number of awards for his six previous novels, many of which are translated in a number of European countries. One of his novels, The Year of Living Dangerously, was made into a film by Peter Weir and was nominated for an Academy Award. He has twice won the Miles Franklin award for fiction: for The Doubleman and Highways to a War. In 1995 Koch was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his contribution to Australian literature. Thursday, February 21, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Dr Wendy S. Shaw and Kurt Iveson Cities of Whiteness/Publics and the City Published by: Blackwell To be launched by TBA Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Author of Cities of Whiteness, Dr. Wendy S. Shaw, presents a foray into the range of the 'racialization' processes that have manifested with the re-colonization of inner Sydney. By challenging the existing notion of urban change, 'racialization' and cosmopolitan urbanism, she contends for better understanding of the power of whiteness. She argues that whiteness is a process of privileging rather than an ethnicity or race. Publics and the City explores the ways in which public spaces are used and produced in struggles to establish different styles of public address and sociability.Kurt Iveson, author of Publics and the City and a lecturer in Urban Geography at the University of Sydney, says "Public spaces should not just be defined as places where citizens get together but how publics are created within a collective action or discussion." Wednesday, February 20, 2008 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Fabian Event / Panel The economic challenges facing a Rudd Labor government Panel : John Edwards, Saul Eslake, Steve Keen Chair: Geoff Gallop Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The American economy is on the edge of an economic slowdown, recession is possible. Petrol prices are moving towards the threshold of US$100 dollars per barrel. The Rudd Government appears fatally committed to significant Australian tax cuts mid year while interest rates in Australia move ever upwards, inflation is moving, personal debt is skyrocketing. The NSW Fabian Society has invited three serious economic commentators to speak on the internal and external economic challenges facing a Rudd government. Saul Eslake is the Chief Economist for the ANZ Bank. Saul began his career in the Commonwealth Public Service. Prior to joining the ANZ he was Chief Economist at National Funds management (now part of AXA insurance group) and before that Chief Economist of the stock broking firm McIntosh Securities (now part of Merrill Lynch). Dr John Edwards is the Chief Economist at HSBC Australia. From 1991-1994 he was the Senior Adviser (Economic) to the Treasurer and then Prime Minister Paul Keating. Dr Edwards wrote a biography of Paul Keating, one of the best Australian biographies. He was a political journalist in Canberra and Washington. In another life Dr Edwards was the candidate in 1969 of the ALP Left for President of NSW Young Labor. The incumbent he challenged was Paul Keating. Dr Steve Keen is an Associate Professor in economics and finance at the University of Western Sydney. Dr Keen has published a book, Debunking Economics: The Naked Emperor of the Social Sciences. In recent times, Dr Keen has gained national prominence as a commentator on the crisis of Australian personal debt. Thursday, February 14, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel How We Met - A Valentine's Day Conversation with Sydney PEN Panel: Margaret Fink, Jessica Adams, Elizabeth Stead Chair: Kathy Bail Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe It's one of the life's classic storylines - how you met the person you fell in love with; how you met the person you should have fallen in love with; how you lost the person you thought you had fallen in love with. Join contributors to the Penguin anthology How We Met: True Confessions of Love, Lust and that Fateful First Meeting - including producer Margaret Fink (My Brilliant Career, Candy) and novelist Jessica Adams (Single White Email, The Summer Psychic) - in conversation with Australian Financial Review Magazine editor and Sydney PEN vice-president Kathy Bail as they remember finding, losing and escaping their own love stories, and their favourite encounters in literature and film. All royalties from this anthology go to the Sydney centre of International PEN, a worldwide association of writers that works to promote literature, to defend the freedom to write and read, and to campaign for writers around the world who are persecuted for expressing their views. Gleeclub and PEN members free Bookings essential Wednesday, February 13, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Cullen Murphy The New Rome? The fall of an empire and the fate of America Published by: Scribe Publications In conversation with Leigh Sales Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The rise and fall of ancient Rome has always been a metaphor for America, but here Cullen Murphy ventures past the obvious, bringing the brutal colours of Rome and the complexities of today’s USA together in this beautifully written, intelligent and hugely readable book. He explores how the two populations saw their political elites, and the insular cultures of Washington and Rome. He looks at the consequences of military overstretch and the widening gap between military and civilain society. Murphy sees both states weakened through ‘privatisation’ and vexed by the paradoxical issue of borders. Pressingly, he argues that America most resembles Rome in the burgeoning corruption of its government and arrogant ignorance of the world outside; in these conditions, idealism, however well meant, can too easily be a form of blindness. Lively and richly peppered with historical stories, Murphy’s book brings the ancient world to life, and casts today’s biggest superpower in a provocative new light. Cullen Murphy: As managing editor of the Atlantic Monthly for more than two decades, Cullen Murphy worked with many of today's most prominent writers and helped to define the magazine's editorial direction. He recently left to become the editor at large at Vanity Fair. He is the author of The Word According to Eve, about women and the Bible, and the essay collection Just Curious. For twenty-five years he wrote the comic strip Prince Valiant. Leigh Sales is the ABC’s national security reporter and author of Detainee 002: The Case of David Hicks Tuesday, February 05, 2008 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Free Event / Talk Dorothy Rowe My Dearest Enemy, My Dangerous Friend Published by: Routledge Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Stories about siblings abound in literature, drama, comedy, biography, and history. We rarely talk about our own siblings without emotion, whether with love and gratitude, or exasperation, bitterness, anger and hate. Nevertheless, the subject of what it is to be and to have a sibling is one that has been largely ignored by psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists. In My Dearest Enemy, My Dangerous Friend, Dorothy Rowe presents a radically new way of thinking about siblings that unites the many apparently contradictory aspects of these complex relationships. This helps us to recognise the various experiences involved in sibling relationships as a result of the fundamental drive for survival and validation, enabling us to reach a deeper understanding of our siblings and ourselves. If you have a sibling, or you are bringing up siblings, or, as an only child, you want to know what you're missing, this is the book for you. World renowned psychologist, Dorothy Rowe comes to gleebooks courtesy of Philo Agora, for the second year. Last year's event sold out so RSVP now. Dorothy Rowe is the author of 12 books, including the world-wide bestseller Depression: The Way Out of Your Prison. She is Australian, lives in London, and has a Big Sister. Donations at the door RSVP essential Saturday, February 02, 2008 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Free Event John Forbes Ars Poetica Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Raving against the space where the poem sounds like a revolving door that makes the noise a car makes bumping into the dole – that’s the target. John Forbes, ‘Ars Poetica’ On January 23rd, 2008, it will be 10 years since the death of the Australian poet, John Forbes, at the age of 47. To mark the anniversary John’s fellow poets, his family, friends and fans as well as anyone interested in poetry, is invited to come and celebrate his life and work. Speakers include: Award-winning poet Jaya Savige on the influence of Forbes’s work on the younger generation of poets and leading poet, Pam Brown’s memoir, Petersham Days. Readers include: Pam Brown, John Tranter, Alan Wearne, Steve Kelen and Rae Desmond Jones. “John Forbes (‘s)…insistences are always exciting, both intellectually and viscerally. He marries The Vulgar and the Elevated in a fashion no one else does, demonstrating the the true function of Popular Culture and Cultural Studies is as subject matter for poetry. His vision is constantly making the ordinary extraordinary. His always brilliant similes renew the world, and the word…” Don Anderson, cover note to Damaged Glamour (1998) Photo by John Tranter     December 2007 Monday, December 17, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Neville Symington Becoming a Person Through Psychoanalysis Published by: Karnac To be launched by Patrick Casement Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe What Neville Symington is attempting to do in this book is to trace the pathway along which he has travelled to become a person. This has run side by side with trying to become an analyst. The author has made landmark discoveries when reading philosophy, sociology, history, and literature. Learning to paint, learning to fly a plane, and also the study of art and of aviation theory have opened up new vistas. This account is only a sketch. The completed picture will never materialize. It is therefore autobiographical but only in a partial sense. It is always emphasized that one's own personal experience of being psychoanalysed is by far the most significant part of a psychoanalyst's education. 'With unusual openness, Symington invites the reader to follow his journey by which he struggled through the process of becoming his own person and becoming a psychoanalyst. He is frankly critical of any theory or clinical practice that falls short of what he believes is needed for analysis to fulfill its potential for enabling patients to enter into their own process of becoming a person, without which their core problems may remain untouched by analysis as it is often practised. Reading through this book in its entirety is to be deeply challenged. I warmly commend it to analysts and therapists and to anyone who is interested in understanding the inner depths of both mind and being.' - Patrick Casement, psychoanalyst and therapist Thursday, December 13, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Mungo MacCallum Poll Dancing In conversation with Annabel Crabb Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This election post-mortem will either be a riotous celebration as we joyfully pick over the entrails of a defeated Howard Government, or a non-event – literally. Join the highly respected, veteran political commentator, Mungo MacCallum as he talks with Annabel Crabb, the popular Herald columnist who brought both perspicacity and humourous relief to the reporting of the election campaign. Mungo MacCallum is no stranger to the madness of the campaign trail, and in Poll Dancing he tells the story of the 2007 election. When a god-botherer with a penchant for answering his own questions became the Labor leader in late 2006, it put the wind up the Coali­tion government. Australians, it seemed, were seriously contemplating turfing a jaded John Howard out of Kirribilli House, and the fresh-faced upstart, Kevin Rudd, was making the run­ning. What followed was the most exhilarating year in federal politics in more than a decade, as Howard tried desperately to reclaim the spotlight and Rudd to convince voters that he too could manage The Economy and wasn’t controlled by Faceless Union Bosses. Acerbic and very funny, Poll Dancing is a blow-by-blow account of the most hotly contested election in years – from the early days of water wars and education revolutions to territorial invasions and dirty campaigns on industrial relations, and the final, bitter battle of the nerds. Mungo MacCallum has been a journalist for forty years, and his books include the best-selling Run, Johnny, Run, How to Be a Megalomaniac and Political Anecdotes. Wednesday, December 12, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Katherine Cummings Katherine's Diary Published by: Beaujon Press To be launched by Dr Terry Dowling Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Transgender Woman strikes again! In 1986 John Cummings became Katherine Cummings and a whole world changed. After a lifetime of fantasising and cross-dressing behind locked doors, Katherine emerged into the light and sought gender reassignment. She broadcast monthly reports on Radio National's "Health Report" for two years, telling people what she was going through and how it felt. Then her autobiography, Katherine's Diary was published in 1992 and won the Australian Human Rights Award for Non-Fiction at the end of that year. Now Katherine has revised, updated, expanded and revamped Katherine's Diary. She has included a lot of previously omitted material and some tart rejoinders to negative criticism levelled at her. Katherine's Diary is as honest as her perception permits and she describes her own weaknesses and eccentricities without self-pity. She doesn't think you will find her book dull as you travel with her on her voyage of self-discovery, self-destruction and self-determination. Dr Terry Dowling is Australia's leading science fiction writer and one-time song-writer and performer for Mr Squiggle. Saturday, December 08, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Sylvia Petter Back Burning Published by: IP Interactive To be launched by Meg Stewart Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Sylvia Petter's collection flings the reader across the globe in its bold exploration of love, death, passion, relationship, and family. Echoing her own life experience, Sylvia Petter's award-winning stories explore universal themes through lenses of distance and separation. Back Burning spans continents, zooming in on snapshots of relationships from childhood and young love, through adulthood and career, political pursuits and history, to awakening in old age. Powerful stories of loss and rejuvenation emerge from this patchwork in unexpected ways. 'I want to tell them about timing, how a new fire can burn once an old one has died. I also want to tell them about back burning and fires that are lit to quell bigger flames.' Friday, December 07, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Mario Licon Cabrera YUXTAS (back & Forth) Published by: Cervantes Publishing To be launched by Peter Boyle Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe "These poems bear witness to a remarkable poetic grace. With wit and compassion Mario Licon Cabrera brings the history, culture and lexical skins of Indigenous and Hispanic Americanos to his adopted Australian home. Yuxtas (back & Forth) Mario Licón Cabrera was born in Chihuahua, México, but spent part of his younghood in S.F. California where he attended THE ASUC, for photography studies. A former puppetier, he came to Australia in 1992 and has lived in Sydney since then. Since 1980 he has been publishing poetry, short stories and interviews for Mexican and Spanish magazines and newspapers. In 1997 he coordinated the Tribute to Octavio Paz at the Sydney Parlament House. In 1999 he was invited to the Semana de la Poesía in Barcelona. In 2000 was part of the Homage to Pablo Neruda and César Vallejo with M.T.C. Cronin, Judith Beveridge and Peter Boyle. In 2003 Mario attended Horas de Junio, a crowded writers festival in Sonora, México. He has also translated many Australian poets into Spanish. Yuxtas (back & Forth) is his fourth collection of poetry and the first one to be publshed in Australia. In this book the poet goes back and forth across a bridge lifted over Space and Time between Sydney, México City, Tepoztlan, Hermosillo, Berkeley and some other places were he has spent part of his life. Memories, reflections and meditations on injustice, the natural elements, and all the joys and sorrows of life, love and death. This project was sponsored by The Australia Council for the Arts. Thursday, December 06, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Michael Leunig Hot Published by: Penguin Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The best of the past two years of Leunig, combining the bitingly satirical, the charmingly whimsical and the joyfully silly - a treasure house of original thinking. Wednesday, December 05, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel Fran Gale and Natalie Bolzan Spirited Practices: Spirituality and the Helping Professions To be launched by Anne Deveson Panel discussion: Fran Gale, Natalie Bolzan, Dorothy McRae-McMahon, Dr Michael Dudley and Nooria Mehraby Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe 'Spirited Practices' shows professionals how to think critically and be open to spirituality at the same time. Editors Fran Gale and Natalie Bolzan will be joined by a discussion panel of some of Spirited Practices' contributors: Dorothy McRae McMahon, internationally renowned for her work in healing rituals; Dr Michael Dudley, a psychiatrist who, in work with his patients draws on their diverse range of faith traditions, and, Nooria Mehraby, a practising Muslim, who integrates Islam in her counselling practice. Spirituality and religion are fundamental to all human cultures. Yet in the helping professions, whose shared objective is to promote human well being, questions of spirituality have often been avoided. Now we are increasingly realising that scientific materialism and individuality have failed to meet enduring human needs for meaning and connection. Evidence mounts for the importance of spirituality for prevention and intervention in times of crisis, distress and illness. Many professionals find themselves ill-prepared to respond to the spiritual needs of their clients, and to negotiate encounters with people from unfamiliar faith traditions. Spirited Practices shows how it is possible for professionals to think critically, and be open to spirituality at the same time. Professionals and teachers from diverse faiths and fields of work, including social work, health, psychology and ministry explain how they have integrated spirituality into their work. Spirited Practices is inspiring reading for anyone in the helping professions seeking to develop a spiritually aware practice. Fran Gale is Senior Research Fellow in the Social Justice Social Change Research Centre and lecturer at the University of Western Sydney. Natalie Bolzan is Associate Professor in Social Work at the University of Western Sydney. Dorothy McRae-McMahon has worked as National Director for Mission for the Uniting Church, as a staff member of the NSW Ecumenical Council and as a Parish Minister with the Pitt Street Uniting Church. Tuesday, December 04, 2007 / 7.00 for 7.30pm Past Dinner Dinner with Greg and Lucy Malouf Turquoise: A Chef’s Travels in Turkey Published by: Hardie Grant Venue: Hickson Road Bistro 20 Hickson Rd., Walsh Bay In their latest book, Turquoise, Greg (the chef) and Lucy Malouf (the writer) journey through a land where the rich diversity of climate, countryside and architecture provide a fitting background for an equal variety and richness of cuisine. Join gleebooks and Greg and Lucy for an exotic Turkish dinner and hear about their visits to spice markets and tiny soup kitchens, about eating fish sandwiches on the Bosphorus, enjoying Ottoman banquets in fine restaurants and drinking chay in ancient tea houses. Turquoise Following on from their success with Saha, Greg and Lucy Malouf delight us yet again, bringing their own inimitable blend of food and travel writing to the Turkish culinary landscape – one which remains curiously unexplored by many of us in the Western world. Inspired by the foods they discover along the way, some of the recipes in Turquoise are classics, such as Slow-cooked Lamb with Quince; Dumplings Filled with Cheese and Mint; and Sticky Pistachio Baklava. Many more spring from Greg’s unique talent and imagination, which combine here to create dishes like Spicy Red Pepper Soup with ‘Hamsi’ Toasts; Braised Wild Greens with Lemon; ‘Tulum’ Cheese Salad with Roasted Walnuts, Rocket and Mint; and Clotted Cream Ice Cream with Apricots and Fresh Honeycomb. Turkey is a fascinating land, teeming with memories of Sultans and harems, of Byzantine churches and Seljuk mosques, of ancient kingdoms and cities long gone to dust. Gorgeous photography brings the engaging stories and exciting cuisine to life. In Turquoise you will share the Malouf’s unforgettable journey and discover an extraordinary world that will surprise and delight. Greg Malouf has transformed the Australian restaurant scene with the flavours of his heritage. His dishes capture the essence of the Middle East, presented with exciting contemporary flair. Greg has worked extensively in Europe and Asia, and is executive chef at MoMo restaurant in Melbourne. Under his leadership the restaurant has won numerous awards and high respect from local and international critics. He travels widely for master classes and guest-chef appearances and also consults to Stones of the Yarra Valley near Melbourne, Soul Bar and Bistro in Auckland and to Hong Kong’s Olive restaurant. Lucy Malouf is a Melbourne-based writer with a particular interest in food and cooking. She works as a freelance editor and manuscript advisor for several leading Australian publishers, as well as contributing features and reviews to major Australian newspapers, restaurant guides and magazines. She is the author of the Food and Wine Lover’s Guide to Melbourne’s Bays and Peninsula and The Season’s Plate Cookbook. The Maloufs are the authors of the widely acclaimed and award-winning Saha, Arabesque and Moorish. Tuesday, December 04, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Fred Watson Why Is Uranus Upside Down? Published by: Allen & Unwin In conversation with Angela Catterns Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe How can you identify the constellations? Does the Earth wobble? Could you dump nuclear waste into the Sun? What makes planets round? Where's the nearest black hole? Are there other universes? Can we ever know everything? A highly entertaining and informative introduction to our planet and the universe we live in. Have you ever wondered what dark matter is or why galaxies collide? Or why the Moon is gradually drifting away from Earth? Space is really, really big, as Douglas Adams once pointed out, and there is no better guide to it than Fred Watson, astronomer to the stars. Fred Watson has taken the many, many questions that have been asked by listeners of his popular, long-running radio shows, and answered them in Why Is Uranus Upside Down? This highly entertaining and informative introduction to our planet and the Universe we live in is a must-read for enquiring minds of all ages. Saturday, December 01, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch River Road Poetry CD Launch To be launched by Peter Kirkpatrick Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The first of December will see the dam gates open for The River Road Poetry Series. This innovative venture into sound publishing creates an audio collection of Australian poets reading their work, available in digital format, delivered by CDs and MP3 downloads. E-savvy punters can listen into a free podcast hosted at RiverRoadPress.com to get a sample of the River Roadies state of flow. Off to a great start with dedicated collections by Judith Beveridge, Stephen Edgar, joanne burns, Michael Sharkey, Brook Emery, David Musgrave, Susan Hampton and many other vibrant new and established poets presented in three anthology CDs - New Felons, the Philosophy of Clothes and Fire, Scissors, Paper, Water, the 2007 series will be launched in Sydney on 1st December at Gleebooks.     November 2007 Friday, November 30, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Geoffrey Gray A Cautious Silence: The Politics Of Australian Anthropology Published by: Aboriginal Studies Press To be launched by Prof. Diane Bell Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe I expect that this book will generate considerable debate, round out opinions and add new interpretations…Let the stories be told. Diane Bell Professor Emerita, George Washington University, USA; Professor of Anthropology, University of Adelaide This is the first exploration of modern Australian social anthropology which examines the forces that helped shaped its formation. In his new work, Geoffrey Gray reveals the struggle to establish and consolidate anthropology in Australia as an academic discipline. He argues that to do so, anthropologists had to demonstrate that their discipline was the predominant interpreter of Indigenous life. Thus they were able, and called on, to assist government in the control, development and advancement of Indigenous peoples. Gray aims to help us understand the present organisational structures, and assist in the formulation of anthropology's future role in Australia; to provide a wider political and social context for Australian social anthropology, and to consider the importance of anthropology as a past definer of Indigenous people. Geoffrey Gray is Research Fellow, Tradition and Transformation at AIATSIS, and Honorary Research Associate at the School of Historical Studies, Monash University. Gray has published widely on topics including anthropology, academic freedom, race and racism, colonialism, citizenship and native title. Thursday, November 29, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Wanda Spathopoulos The Crag: Castlecrag 1924-1938 Published by: Brandl & Schlesinger To be launched by Alan Saunders Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This book tells a story of Castlecrag, the creation of Walter Burley Griffin, architect/landscape architect of Canberra fame, and his architect wife, Marion Mahony Griffin. Using her own recollections as a starting point, Wanda Spathopoulos gives an overall picture of life on Castlecrag during the first two formative decades. In drawing the various threads together she had attempted to present some kind of a coherent narrative, a chronicle of the events. The events and anecdotes themselves serve as the vehicle for conveying very simply some of the basic ideas of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, as the founders of Castlecrag. At the same time the reader becomes acquainted with the community, a vital and integral part of the experiment, which remained constant in concept but often changing in its composition. Wednesday, November 28, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Libby Gleeson Writing Like a Writer: Teaching Narrative Writing Published by: PETA To be launched by Lisa Shanahan Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Writing Like A Writer: Teaching Narrative Writing is a highly practical book for Primary school teachers looking for original ways to teach narrative writing in order to help their students' development into imaginative story-tellers. Written by one of Australia's most imaginative and best known story-tellers, Libby Gleeson, and published by the Primary English Teachers' Association (PETA) this book combines Libby's knowledge of the creative writing process, examples from literature and very useful examples of successful classroom practice to provide a valuable classroom resource. Libby Gleeson is one of Australia's best known writers, having written many of the books that are now essentials in school libraries and on children's bookshelves. She is also known to a wide audience for her books and teaching on creative writing. This year, Libby was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to literature and literacy learning. She has been shortlisted for or has won almost every major literary award for junior fiction in Australia, and is widely published overseas. Tuesday, November 27, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Alex Miller Landscape of Farewell Published by: Allen and Unwin In conversation with Anita Heiss Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe A profound and moving story about the land, the past, exile and acceptance, this deeply intelligent and thoughtful novel is a worthy successor to Miller's much-loved and critically admired Journey to the Stone Country. A hauntingly beautiful meditation on the land, the past, exile and friendship, Landscape of Farewell is the powerful new novel from acclaimed Australian author, Alex Miller. It is the story of Max Otto, an elderly German academic. After the death of his much-loved wife and his recognition that he will never write the great study of history that was to be his life's crowning work, Max believes his life is all but over. Everything changes, though, when his valedictory lecture is challenged by Professor Vita McLelland, a feisty young Australian Aboriginal academic visiting Germany. Their meeting and growing friendship sets Max on a journey that would have seemed unthinkable just a few short weeks earlier. When, at Vita's invitation, Max travels to Australia, he forms a deep friendship with her uncle, Aboriginal elder Dougald Gnapun. It is a friendship that not only gives new meaning and purpose to Max, but which teaches him the profound importance of truth-telling in reconciliation with his own and his country's past. Following Alex Miller's Miles Franklin-winning Journey to the Stone Country, Landscape of Farewell is a wise and grave novel of power, beauty and truth. Alex Miller is one of Australia's best loved writers. He is twice winner of the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia's premier literary prize, the first occasion in 1993 for The Ancestor Game, and again in 2003 for Journey to the Stone Country. Conditions of Faith, his fifth novel, was published in 2000 and won the Christina Stead Prize for fiction in the 2001 NSW Premiers Literary Awards. It was also nominated for the Dublin IMPAC International Literature Award, shortlisted for the Colin Roderick Award in 2000, the Age Book of the Year Award and the Miles Franklin Award in 2001. He is also an overall winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, for The Ancestor Game, in 1993. Miller's seventh novel, Prochownik's Dream, was published in 2005. Sunday, November 25, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Special Event Sunday Book Club - November The Fern Tattoo David Brooks Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Sunday Book Club aims to promote and further appreciation of Australian fiction. Morgan Smith, gleebooks events manager, will host a discussion about a contemporary Australian novel on the last Sunday of every month. Morgan will choose the book and it is highly desirable (as in any reading group) for those attending to have read it in order to take part in the discussion. Register as a Sunday Book Club member and get 10% discount from gleebooks on the book of the month. In November, join Morgan Smith and David Brooks to discuss his second novel, The Fern Tattoo. Set in the Blue Mountains, the NSW south coast, Sydney and the Hawkesbury, this beguiling and unusual novel is packed with vibrant and eccentric characters as it traces three families over several generations. * The Fern Tattoo will be available at the end of October. Saturday, November 24, 2007 / 2.30 for 3pm Past Launch Vera Newsom Gratia : New and Selected Poems Published by: Five Islands Press To be launched by Brooke Emery Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe  Vera Newsom came late to publishing poetry. Her first volume was published when she was 66. Before her death in July of 2006 at the age of 93, Vera Newsom published a further three collections. Gratia: New and Selected Poems contains work from her four volumes as well as a body of new work. She only ceased to write poetry during bouts of illness and during her last months when she became incapacitated. Vera Newsom is a finely accomplished poet whose insights into memory, ageing, illness and death are a source of pleasure and invigoration in Australian poetry. This volume will seat her firmly with those poets whose work deserves to be read long into the future. Her work glows with humanity, passion and precision. Friday, November 23, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Melissa Harper The Ways of the Bushwalker Published by: UNSW Press To be launched by Bob Carr Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Ways of the Bushwalker brings to life the rich stories of Australia’s recreational walkers, from the early eccentrics such as Henry Havelock Ellis and Percy Grainger to the self-declared ‘real bushwalkers’ of the 1920s, who had little time for the frivolous ‘hikers’ who were also then taking to the trails. Who walked and where did they go? What pleasures did they seek and what did they find? What meanings did they take away and what impact did they have on the landscape? The Ways of the Bushwalker explores the mystery hikes of the 1930s, organised by the railways, which reached craze-like proportions attracting walkers in their thousands, bushwalkers as environmental activists, four-wheel drivers as ‘modern day explorers’ making their own claims to the bush. A fascinating and often amusing read, The Ways of the Bushwalker reveals how bushwalking has given meaning and shape to the lives of those who have stepped out on foot into the Australian bush, and to the nation itself. Thursday, November 22, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Matthew Condon The Trout Opera Published by: Random House Australia Launch and in conversation with Murray Waldren Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The launch of this major new novel from Matt Condon will take the form of an in conversation. The Trout Opera - more than ten years in the writing - is a stunning epic novel that encompasses twentieth-century Australia. Opening with a Christmas pageant on the banks of the Snowy River in 1906 and ending with the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, it is the story of simple rabbiter and farmhand Wilfred Lampe who, at the end of his long life, is unwittingly swept up into an international spectacle. On the way he discovers a great-niece, the wild and troubled young Aurora, whom he never knew existed, and together they take an unlikely road trip that changes their lives. Wilfred, who has only ever left Dalgety once in almost a hundred years, comes face to face with contemporary Australia, and Aurora, enmeshed in the complex social problems of a modern nation, is taught how to repair her damaged life. This dazzling story - marvellously broad in its telling and superbly crafted - is about the changing nature of the Australian character, finding the source of human decency in a mad world, history, war, romance, murder, bushfires, drugs, the fragile and resilient nature of the environment and the art of fly fishing. It's the story of a man who has experienced the tumultuous reverberations of Australian history while never moving from his birthplace on the Snowy, and it asks, what constitutes a meaningful life? Wednesday, November 21, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel Meredith Burgmann & Yvette Andrews The Ernies Book: 1000 dreadful things Australian men have said about women Published by: Allen & Unwin Meredith and Yvette will be joined by Anne Summers and Ryan Heath to debate: Are Australian men still male chauvinist pigs? Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Inspired by the words of union official, Ernie Ecob, who stated that any woman who wanted to become a shearer was only interested in sex, The Ernie Awards have been exposing and ridiculing the sexist remarks made by Australian men for 15 hilarious years. Now condemned to immortality in print, all the quotes from your favourite nominees and winners of the past 15 years, have been bought together in one rollicking good read. Fifteen years of Australian male chauvinist piggery is faithfully chronicled with name, rank and serial number - from John Laws to John Howard, from David Oldfield to David Hookes, from Pat Cash to Paddy McGuinness and Australia's former favourite son-in-law, Tom Cruise. Chefs, archbishops, judges, footballers, shock jocks and politicians are all in our sights. Partners in crime against sex discrimination, Meredith Burgmann and Yvette Andrews devised The Ernie Awards for sexist remarks made against women in 1993. They have been simultaneously horrified and entertained by the nominees for the award ever since. I never turned away from Cathy. No matter how fat she was... -Nick Bideau, Cathy Freeman's ex-coach and ex-partner I bet she's now sorry she burnt her bra all those years ago (on Germaine Greer at 63). -Ray Hadley, broadcaster Meredith Burgmann is a writer, academic and powerhouse of Australian politics. She was president of the NSW Legislative Council for eight years. Yvette Andrews is a film maker, musician, community activist, AFL coach, Reg Reagan impersonator and senior bureaucrat. Tuesday, November 20, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Peter Moore Vroom by the Sea Published by: Random House Australia Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Peter Moore is back to what he does best. Indulging his heart's desire, alone, and on the road! Women wanted him. Men wanted to be him. And one hot summer he roamed the Italian seaside breaking hearts throughout Sardinia, Sicily and along the Amalfi coast. Racy, loud and an incorrigible show-off, he was the epitome of Italian machismo. He showed Peter, his less flamboyant companion, another side of Italy tourists rarely see. His name was Marcello and like Sophia from VROOM WITH A VIEW he was a Vespa. A Vespa the same shade of orange as Donatella Versace. Two years after riding from Milan to Rome in search of la dolce vita, Peter Moore's life has changed dramatically. He has married Sally and she is pregnant with their first child. With fatherhood only five months away Peter reacted the way some men facing nappies and travel systems do, he panicked. But man, Peter sure found an understanding wife. Sally gave him the opportunity to go off, just this once more, to be irresponsible. For Peter this was a wild, final, two-stroke powered fling - with permission - through some of the most beautiful coastal scenery in the world on a Vespa with white go-fast stripes that brought a smile to peoples' faces everywhere it went. From the wild, untouched corners of Sardinia and Sicily to the faded fifties glamour of the Amalfi coast, it is a journey that reveals Italy's obsession with the sea - and getting a great tan. Like VROOM WITH A VIEW this is another laugh-out-loud whilst grinding your teeth with jealousy travel memoir and they can sell its go-fast stripes off. Monday, November 19, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Raewyn Connell Southern Theory: The global dynamics of knowledge in social science Published by: Allen & Unwin Talk by Raewyn Connell to be launched by Prof. Stephen Garton Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Southern Theory presents the case for a radical re-thinking of social science and its relationships to knowledge, power and democracy on a world scale. Mainstream social science pictures the world as understood by the educated and affluent in Europe and North America. From Weber and Keynes to Friedman and Foucault, theorists from the global North dominate the imagination of social scientists, and the reading lists of students, all over the world. For most of modern history, the majority world has served social science only as a data mine. Yet the global South does produce knowledge and understanding of society. Through vivid accounts of critics and theorists, Raewyn Connell shows how social theory from the world periphery has power and relevance for understanding our changing world-from al-Afghani at the dawn of modern social science, to Raúl Prebisch in industrialising Latin America, Ali Shariati in revolutionary Iran, Paulin Hountondji in post-colonial Benin, Veena Das and Ashis Nandy in contemporary India, and many others. With clarity and verve, Southern Theory introduces readers to texts, ideas and debates that have emerged from Australia's Indigenous people, from Africa, Latin America, south and south-west Asia. It deals with modernisation, gender, race, class, cultural domination, neoliberalism, violence, trade, religion, identity, land, and the structure of knowledge itself. Southern Theory shows how this tremendous resource has been disregarded by mainstream social science. It explores the challenges of doing theory in the periphery, and considers the role Southern perspectives should have in a globally connected system of knowledge. Southern Theory draws on sociology, anthropology, history, psychology, economics, philosophy and cultural studies, with wide-ranging implications for social science in the 21st century. Raewyn Connell is University Professor at the University of Sydney. A leading Australian social scientist, her work is well known in sociology, education, gender studies and political science, and has been translated into thirteen languages. Her books include Masculinities, Schools and Social Justice, Gender and Power and Making the Difference. Sunday, November 18, 2007 / 9.30am to 12 noon Past Book Signing Dr Karl Kruszelnicki Please Explain Venue: gleebooks stall at the Glebe Fair Dr Karl will be chatting and signing his new book for his many fans (all ages gig) at the Glebe Fair. Please Explain is the latest in Dr Karl's mega–selling science series – Australia's favourite scientist answers more curly questions on Life, The Universe and Everything. No–one conveys the excitement and wonder of science quite like Dr Karl, and this, his twenty–sixth book, takes us on another thoroughly entertaining exploration of the world around us. If you like your science fun and unpredictable, don't miss this new addition to the Dr Karl library. Sunday, November 18, 2007 / 3.00 for 3.30pm Past Launch Allan Cope Faithful to Self Published by: A&A Publishing Grant Wolf, Screenwriter and Director of Yoga BC Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Damian Langtry, an Australian journalist, witnesses a road accident in Indonesia in which a fellow Australian is killed. It comes to light that this death in Indonesia was intended to be his, the death of both himself and his views on how to deal with the threat of Islam. He and two companions succeed in finding the killer and bringing him to the Australian police. Once the killer is extradited to Indonesia for trial, Australia erupts in a confusion of anger. The Indonesian courts are derided and Australian police are accused of incompetence for having citizens find their criminals. The Australian media’s ‘shock jocks’ have a field day, complicating this trial of an Australian killer before the Indonesian courts. The fractures in Australian society widen. Debates become divorced from facts and are all about fear and prejudice. Faithful to Self is a contemporary tale but is also an exploration of what happens when tables are turned, how beliefs about justice and fairness are turned on their heads, about the manipulation of the media and those who fight against it, and about perceived aggressors who are also victims. It is about the good and the damage that religions do, not only that of Islam. This is also a story of growth and the cost of living authentically in these fractious times. Not only is Faithful to Self a great read, it is also a timely book for all Australians concerned about their society. It has a ‘right now’ feel to it and a sense of urgency. It is not just for these times but this very day and the future this day is determining for our nation. Sunday, November 18, 2007 / 1.00pm Past Book Signing Max Solling Grit & Grandeur: A History of Glebe Venue: gleebooks stall at the Glebe Fair Come and meet Glebe historian Max Solling and get a signed copy of his definitive history of Glebe. Max Solling's new book explores the urban tapestry of Glebe, the archetypical inner city suburb. Charting Glebe's history between the 18th and 21st centuries, the book illustrates Glebe's division by stringent social, economic & religious stratification. Max writes engagingly about the iconic terrace house, pubs & churches, as well as local personalities & political debates. Saturday, November 17, 2007 / 2.30 for 3pm Past Launch 4W Eighteen Booranga Writers’ Centre Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe fourW is an annual anthology of new writing (poetry & prose) published by the Booranga Writers' Centre in Wagga. This years book is the eighteenth, and will feature work by Michael Crane, Pam Brown, Nathan Curnow, Les Wicks, Susan Hampton, Jill Jones, David Prater, Pat Skinner, Anthony Lawrence, Joanne Burns... plus many many more. Friday, November 16, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Ian Rankin Exit Music Published by: Hachette Livre Australia In conversation with Kate Fitzpatrick Venue: NSW Teachers Federation Auditorium Gleebooks and Sydney Writers Festival Present: Renowned crime writer Ian Rankin will talk about his newest Rebus novel Exit Music. Will it be the last in the best-selling Rebus series? The year 2007 marks Detective Inspector Rebus’s last year in the Scottish police. Forced to retire by both the law and his relieved superiors, Rebus knows that his time in the blue ranks must now come to an end. But a dissident Russian poet is found dead, and ‘Big Ger’ Cafferty, Rebus’s nemesis is brutally bashed, with Rebus in the frame… Exit Music It's late-autumn in Edinburgh and late-autumn in the career of DI John Rebus. As he tries to tie up some loose ends before retirement, a murder case intrudes. A dissident Russian poet has been found dead in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. By coincidence, a high-level delegation of Russian businessmen is in town, keen to bring business to Scotland. The politicians and bankers who run Edinburgh are determined that the case should be closed quickly and clinically, but the further they dig, the more Rebus and his colleague DS Siobhan Clarke become convinced that they are dealing with something more than a random attack – especially after a second killing. Meanwhile, a brutal and premeditated assault on local gangster ‘Big Ger’ Cafferty sees Rebus in the frame. Has the Inspector taken a step too far in tying up those loose ends? Only a few days shy of the end to his long, inglorious career, will Rebus even make it that far? Ian Rankin is the UK’s number one best-selling crime writer. He lives in Edinburgh and writes about the city in his award-winning ‘Inspector Rebus’ novels. The books have been dramatised for TV starring Ken Stott, and translated into 26 languages. Ian Rankin appears regularly on television, notably as a reviewer on BBC2’s Newsnight Review. His 3-part documentary series on the subject of evil was broadcast on the UK’s Channel 4 in 2002. Born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, Ian Rankin graduated from the University of Edinburgh and has since been employed as grape-picker, swineherd, taxman, alcohol researcher, hi-fi journalist and punk musician. He was a prize-winning poet and short-story writer before turning to novels with The Flood, followed in 1987 by Knots & Crosses, the first of his powerful Inspector Rebus novels. Kate Fitzpatrick is an actor, writer and Rebus/Rankin devotee. Friday, November 16, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Nicolette Stasko The Invention Of Everyday Life Published by: Black Pepper To be launched by Sally Blakeney Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Invention of Everyday Life is a sparkling novel of observation. There is no central character and barely any speech or dialogue. It is a group portrait with people, locales, fruits, creatures, vegetation and sand. The canvas shifts through the ravages of time in human life and its environs. The Invention of Everyday Life reveals a community: unpretentious, tinged with sadness and Stasko's great feel for beauty in the natural world. It inveigles us with a Cup-goer's fascinator. It dazzles because it floodlights the ordinary. Sally Blakeney is a journalist and a vice president of PEN International (Sydney) Friday, November 16, 2007 / 10.30am Past Special Event Richard Glover the no-minute noodler: the dag’s dictionary for kids Venue: gleebooks children's, 191 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Bookings essential, as numbers are limited. Gleebooks Children’s Bookshop invites you and your class to hear Richard Glover talk about his hilarious new book on the joys of language (suitable for middle to late primary school ages), the no-minute noodler: the dag’s dictionary for kids. A very funny book of words that should exist – but don’t. No-minute noodler — a kid who eats two-minute noodles straight from the packet without even cooking them! Dinobore — a kid who can’t talk about anything other than dinosaurs. Bumboozle — to confuse the issue of who it was that farted by blaming it all on the dog! RICHARD GLOVER is the author of several books for both adults and children, and is also the presenter of the Drive show on 702 ABC Radio Sydney. After the release of the bestselling The Dag's Dictionary in 2004 - based on the popular ABC radio segment - Richard was surprised by the continuing enthusiasm for both the book and competition among kids. Whether entering the competition themselves or yelling out suggestions for their parents to pass on, children have embraced the ability to pull words apart and put them back together again. Thursday, November 15, 2007 / 7.00 for 7.30pm Past Dinner Dinner with Maggie Beer Maggie’s Harvest Published by: Penguin Aus SOLD OUT Venue: Hickson Road Bistro - 20 Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay PLEASE NOTE: the time for this dinner has changed to 7 for 7.30pm (originally listed as 8 for 8.30pm) Join Maggie Beer and gleebooks as we celebrate the publication of her magnum opus, Maggie’s Harvest, a stunningly produced compendium which includes over 350 recipes as well as Maggie’s personal stories and philosophies on food and life. This will be a very special evening of wonderful food and fascinating talk from one of our best-loved foodies. The book: The recipes in Maggie’s Harvest highlight Maggie’s philosophy of using the freshest and best seasonal produce available in the Barossa Valley, South Australia, and treating it simply, allowing for the natural flavours to speak for themselves. Describing herself as a ‘country cook’, Maggie cooks from the heart and is passionate about instilling in others this same confidence – to use recipes as a starting point, and be guided by instinct and personal taste. This landmark book from one of Australia’s best-loved cooks is essential for anyone with an appreciation of the pleasures of sourcing, cooking and sharing food. Maggie Beer operated the Barossa Valley’s famous Pheasant Farm Restaurant with her husband, Colin, for fifteen years. Since closing the restaurant in 1993, she has established an export kitchen in Tanunda to develop and make products for domestic and international markets, and now devotes much of her time to researching and developing her range. Maggie is the author of four successful cookbooks, Maggie’s Farm, Maggie’s Orchard, Cooking with Verjuice and Maggie’s Table, and co-author of the bestselling Stephanie Alexander & Maggie Beer’s Tuscan Cookbook. She is also a longstanding contributor of food columns to newspapers and magazines, and is co-host of The Cook and The Chef on ABC TV. Thursday, November 15, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel Drusilla Modjeska and Robert Drewe Best Australian Essays/Stories 2007 Readings Readings by: David Malouf, Patrick Lenton (Stories) David Marr, Anna Funder, Kim Mahood (Essays) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Readings from these two annual collections are a popular mainstay of the gleebooks events calendar. Editors Drusilla Modjeska and Robert Drewe will talk about their choices for the collections and introduce contributors to Best Australian Essays 2007and Best Australian Stories 2007. Join some top Australian writers as they read from their work in a wonderful celebration of contemporary Australian writing. Wednesday, November 14, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Ashley Hay and Robyn Stacey Museum: The Macleays, their Collections and the Search for Order Published by: Cambridge University Press Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe From the author and photographer of the beautiful bestseller Herbarium, comes another stunningly illustrated and rigourously researched volume - Museum, the story of the Macleay Museum at Sydney University. Join Ashley Hay and Robyn Stacey as they discuss the making of this major new book, a book which will appeal to museum curators and workers, to collectors and all those interested in Australian botany and its history. When the first British visitors arrived on Australia's shores at the end of the eighteenth century, it was not only the potential of its space that tantalised them, but the extraordinary living things that they found there. Every European collector worth his salt desired a kangaroo, a parakeet, a waratah, and ship after ship sailed north loaded with Australia's remarkable natural history specimens. In 1826, the most serious collector to make his own trip to the antipodes arrived - his name was Alexander Macleay, and over 70 years he and his family accumulated an unbelievably rich and diverse collection of specimens from Australia itself and beyond. Museum throws open the doors of a historically rich and rare collection, stunningly captured in the images of Robyn Stacey. It reclaims the stories of those specimens, and those obsessions, revealing another chapter of Australia's own very particular, passionate and unique history. Tuesday, November 13, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Maria Strani-Potts The Cat of Portovecchio Published by: Brandl & Schlesinger To be launched by David Malouf Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe ‘It’s like eating a full 30-course dinner. It has everything!’ Demetrius Toteras, Greek American playwright, Sunday They’ll Make Me a Saint The Cat of Portovecchio takes readers directly into the lives of the inhabitants of a bustling Corfu fishing village. Every character has a story to tell, and very often their lives intersect. Zoë mourns her dead husband and young Louisa her mother. Father Anthony plots and schemes. Young lovers meet in secret. Feisty Joy is one of many strong women who take charge when circumstances look like getting out of hand. Her husband, Spiro, the best-looking man in the village, returns from the sea, scattering gifts. There are celebrations of Easter and Christmas, feasts for saints’ days and name days, births, marriages, deaths and funerals. Strani-Potts, a worldly insider, vividly captures the colour and texture of Corfu life post-World War II. She offers insights into traditions, customs and history. Through all these lives stalks the Cat of Portovecchio, Mamee, imperious and opportunistic, both loved and reviled by the villagers. She hunts for food as the aroma of cooking wafts through the air: fish stew, midnight soup, just-charred frigathelia. Readers can share with the characters the preparation of authentic food. Much of it is an integral part of festival days. Live lambs and turkeys disappear into roasts, stews and soups. Families enjoy just-picked summer vegetables in fresh tomato sauce; octopus dipped in vinegar; lobster; grilled snapper; ‘small, stout, dark red’ salami in which ‘the white fat stands out against the ruby red meat like rich spotted marble’. ‘I leave it to your imagination to savour the enticing and unforgettable smells of Portovecchio.’ Maria Strani-Potts was born in Corfu, Greece in 1946. She graduated from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of London, and worked in banks there and in Corfu. She has lived in Ethiopia, Kenya, England, Greece, Czechoslovakia, Sweden and Australia, where she spent seven years with her husband, Jim, based in Sydney. Monday, November 12, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Paul Ham Vietnam: The Australian War Published by: HarperCollins In conversation with Publisher, Richard Walsh Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Mike Kelly has had to withdraw from this event due to election campaign commitments. Paul Ham will now be in conversation with Publisher, Richard Walsh. A part of history you thought you knew…until now ‘About time —a comprehensive, compelling, illuminating, and thorough human story about our Australian Vietnam experience —told by a master of the art.’ — Brigadier John Essex-Clark DSM (retd), operations officer, 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, Vietnam, 1965 ‘A great read! The writing is excellent. The chapters on Long Tan offer the best details I have ever read.’ — Major Harry Smith MC (retd), commander, Delta Coy, during the battle of Long Tan, 1966 ‘Surely God weeps,’ an Australian Vietnam veteran wrote in despair of the Battle of Bribie, Vietnam. But no act of God intervened to stop the long years of carnage and devastation in this most controversial of wars. In his new book, Vietnam, Paul Ham narrates in compelling detail the full story of Australia’s involvement in its longest military campaign, in which 50,000 Australians participated. In this extraordinary, sweeping account — drawing on hundreds of freshly declassified documents, unpublished sources and interviews with soldiers, politicians, medics, protesters and Vietnamese participants — Ham reconstructs the epic history of a campaign that disfigured a country and divided nations, families and friends. This book is, at heart, the soldiers’ story — of deployment in an ideological war launched, and ultimately determined, by the politicians. Unlike any previous history of the war, Ham sets the Australian story in the context of both the American and Vietnamese experiences; only then can we glimpse the sheer scale of this tragedy. Sydney-born Paul Ham is the author of the highly acclaimed Kokoda, which was shortlisted for both the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and the Walkley Awards. He is also the Australia correspondent for the Sunday Times of London. Colonel Mike Kelly joined the Army in 1987 and has extensive military experience including deployments in Somalia (for which he was awarded the Chief of the General Staff Commendation and made a Member of the Order of Australia for his contributions); with the International Red Cross in Bosnia Herzegovina and Croatia; Kenya; East Timor; working with the SAS in Australia in the lead-up to the Sydney Olympics; and most recently, at the Headquarters Australian Theatre and in Iraq. He finished his military career as Director of Operations and International Law and Director of Army Legal Services in May 2007. Sunday, November 11, 2007 / 3.00 for 3.30pm Past Launch Susan Collingbourne My Grandma’s a Witch To be launched by Vicki Pogulis, Principal of Glebe Public School Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Will is shocked – and delighted – when he discovers his grandma is a witch. When Grandma lends Will her rose-coloured glasses all his fears disappear and everything seems possible. To earn his own glasses, Will must go on a quest to find the Keeper of the Secret of Life. He learns to conquer his fears as he journeys to the dreaded Ogre’s castle, Snake Valley, over Crocodile Lake to the Dragon’s cave. At the Ogre’s Castle, Will befriends Ferlando who has been captured and enslaved by the ugly monster. They outwit the ogre and escape only to be confronted with more danger until finally they face their greatest fear… This is a delightful fantasy that deals with real issues of peer pressure, bullying, fear and low self worth. Will’s quest is the journey we all must make, regardless of age, in order to believe in ourselves. Susan Collingbourne is a Victorian based author of children’s books. A teacher of English Language and Literature for over thirty years, Susan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Graduate Diploma of Education, a Professional Diploma of Children’s Writing and Master of Letters (Creative Writing), and the Royal Society of Arts Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language(Cambridge). Saturday, November 10, 2007 / 7.30pm Past Special Event Glebe Music Festival Venue: Glebe The 18th Annual Glebe Music Festival comes to gleebooks again! This extremely popular pre-Christmas music festival is a mainstay of the Glebe and the gleebooks calendar. Don’t miss it. And see www.glebemusicfestival.com for full details of the programme. Two expatriat doctors, David McIntosh and Rex Melville, will perform their new cabaret show. Their last performance at the Festival was in 2002 (some afficionados may remember this occasion). The new show has been tried out on audiences in Oxford and London. The cabaret will feature music by Lionel Bart, Rodgers and Hart, Kern and Hammerstein, Jerry Herman, Irving Berlin, Noel Coward, Dumont and Vaucaire, Satie and Pacory, Marve Fisher, Cole Porter and more. Tickets $15 (concessions $10) include refreshments. Tickets will be available at the door for all concerts but advance bookings can be made at www.glebemusicfestival.com or by emailing mcintosh@glebemusicfestival.com or by phoning 02-9416-6136. Friday, November 09, 2007 / 6pm to 7pm Past Book Signing John Clarke The 7.56 Report Published by: Text Publishing Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Drop into the shop at 6pm to have John Clarke sign a copy of the book of his and Brian Dawe's hysterical weekly appearances on the ABC's 7.30 Report. Then stay on for the Julian Burnside event. Friday, November 09, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Julian Burnside Watching Brief: reflections on human rights, law, and justice Published by: Scribe Publications In conversation with Anna Funder Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The first decade of the twenty-first century has seen an extraordinary decline in respect, even contempt, for human rights and the international rule of law throughout the West. Illegal wars, the secret rendition and illegal detention of terror suspects, the failure to honour the international refugee convention through the mandatory detention or forced return of asylum-seekers, anti-sedition legislation, and secretive and draconian anti-terror laws all seem to have become permanent features of the post 9/11 world. Just a few years ago such challenges to the post-World War II international system and the knee-jerk recourse to increasingly repressive domestic legislation would have been unimaginable. Watching Brief is a collection of essays and meditations on law, justice, human rights, ethics and, ultimately, on what constitutes a decent human society. It is also an impassioned and eloquent appeal for vigilance in an era in which ‘national security’ trumps democratic principle, where the legal conventions of the new realpolitik owe more to Guantanamo than Geneva, and where respect for law and the principle of respect owed to all human beings are being undermined. Julian Burnside illuminates many of our current concerns in thoughtful explorations of key historical episodes such as the Guy Fawkes’ plot to blow up the British Parliament in 1605 and the Dreyfus case in nineteenth-century France. He also takes us on a fascinating tour of some of the world’s most infamous trials, including Roger Casement’s trial for treason and the notorious Crippen case in Britain, and that of the Scottsboro Boys in the United States. Julian Burnside, QC, is an Australian barrister who specialises in commercial litigation and is also deeply involved in human rights work, in particular in relation to refugees. He is also passionately involved in the arts: he is the chair of Melbourne arts venue fortyfivedownstairs, chair of the Mietta Foundation, and president of Liberty Victoria. He has published a children's book, Matilda and the Dragon, and is also the author of From Nothing to Zero, a compilation of letters written by asylum-seekers held in Australia's detention camps. Thursday, November 08, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Christopher Koch The Memory Room Published by: Random House Australia Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe What is a spy? Are they born or are they made? With these words, Vincent Austin analyses his future occupation. Some spies are made, he says, but his kind is born — since he is devoted to secrecy for its own sake. Vincent's boyhood in Tasmania is spent with an elderly aunt. His fascination with secrecy and espionage — and much else besides — is shared by Erika Lange, the daughter of a post-World War German immigrant. They see themselves as twin spirits, inhabiting a shared, platonic world of fantasy and ritual. At university, Vincent aims to enter Foreign Affairs — as does his easygoing friend Derek Bradley. However, Vincent is recruited by ASIS — Australia’s overseas secret intelligence service. Erika — now an attractive and magnetic woman — becomes a journalist, eventually entering Foreign Affairs as a press officer. She, Vincent and Bradley meet again in 1982, when they are posted to the Australian Embassy in Beijing. Erika and Bradley begin an affair which is ultimately doomed to fail, while Vincent attempts an espionage coup which ends in disaster for himself and Bradley. Both men are expelled from China, and are relocated to Canberra, where Vincent is confined to the ASIS Registry. Erika, also returning to Australia, becomes a successful television journalist. The fantasies of youth have now become reality for Erika and Vincent, but they lead to a tragic climax. It is left to Bradley, who inherits Vincent’s diaries, to contemplate their story. The events in this absorbing novel take place in the final phase of the Cold War, but they are highly relevant to today, and Christopher Koch’s widely admired prose style gives them a contemporary freshness. The aims of The Memory Room go far beyond those of a thriller. A psychological portrait of a brilliant but eccentric spy, it is also an exploration of the mystical nature of secrecy. Christopher Koch was born and educated in Tasmania. For a good deal of his life he was a broadcasting producer, working for the ABC. He has lived and worked in London and elsewhere overseas. He has been a full-time writer since 1972, winning international praise and a number of awards for his six previous novels, many of which are translated in a number of European countries. One of his novels, The Year of Living Dangerously, was made into a film by Peter Weir and was nominated for an Academy Award. He has twice won the Miles Franklin award for fiction: for The Doubleman and Highways to a War. In 1995 Koch was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his contribution to Australian literature. Wednesday, November 07, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Jana Wendt A Matter of Principle Published by: Melbourne University Press Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In A Matter of Principle, Australia's most experienced and well- respected interviewer Jana Wendt engages an assortment of people in the worlds of politics, society, art, sport, music and architecture. Wendt gets under the skin of her subjects to discover that which is genuine and authentic about each. The elegant interviews reveal the thoughts of people such as art critic Robert Hughes, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty, former US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer, writer David Malouf, actor Charlotte Rampling, architect Frank Gehry, artist Bill Henson, swimmer Shane Gould, and others. Tuesday, November 06, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Joe Bageant Deer Hunting With Jesus Published by: Scribe Publications In conversation with Charles Firth Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Dispatches from America's Class War 'Dead serious and damn funny ... Bageant writes with the ghosts of Hunter S. Thompson, Will Rogers, and Frank Zappa kibitzing over his shoulder ... '(Mother Jones) 'Bageant mixes a reporter's keen analysis, a storyteller's color, and a native son's love of his roots in this absorbing dissection of America's working poor ... wise, tender, and acerbic.'(Booklist) When Joe Bageant returned to his hometown of Winchester, Virginia, he rediscovered his redneck roots: ‘the great beery, NASCAR-loving, church-going, gun-owning America that has never set foot in a Starbucks’. But he soon realised that these were the very people who had carried George W. Bush to victory. This seemed ironic, because Winchester, like countless American small towns, was fast becoming the bedrock of a permanent underclass — a white ghetto of the working poor in which two in five people do not finish high school, nearly everyone over fifty has serious health problems and little or no health care, and credit ratings are virtually nonexistent. What it adds up to, Bageant argues, is an unacknowledged, American class war from which alcohol, overeating, and Jesus are the preferred avenues of escape. Deer Hunting with Jesus is a raucous mix of storytelling and political commentary. Bageant delivers a dose of redneck reality, describing ‘white trashonomics’ (mortgage and credit-card rackets that saddle the working poor with debt), the ubiquitous gun culture, factory jobs that are constantly on the verge of being outsourced, and the heady blend of Scots Irish culture with the blinkered ‘magical thinking’ of the Christian right. By turns brutal, tender, incendiary, and seriously funny, Deer Hunting with Jesus is a potent antidote to what Bageant dubs ‘the American hologram’— the televised, corporatised, virtual reality that distracts us from the insidious realities of American life. Joe Bageant writes an online column (www.joebageant.com) that has made him a cult hero among gonzo-journalism junkies and progressives. He has been interviewed on Air America and comments on America’s long history of religious fundamentalism in the BBC/Owl documentary The Vision: Americans on America. Until recently he worked as a senior editor for the Primedia History Magazine Group. Charles Firth was a co-founder of The Chaser and now publishes Manic Times, a humourous paper and website. He is the author of American Hoax about the time he spent in the US. Monday, November 05, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Rebecca Blackburn Green is Good: Smart Ways to Live Well and Save the Planet Published by: HarperCollins TBA Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Let's face it, the environment is in trouble. Global warming and climate change are a reality and our Western lifestyle is largely to blame. The good news is that there are many simple ways to turn things around, even if you are a busy, car-driving, resource-guzzling city dweller. Over the next few years the choices you make will have an enormous impact. But out of the mountain of conflicting information, how do you know which choices are the right ones? In this practical, straight-talking book, environmental scientist Rebecca Blackburn targets three main areas - home, food and transport - and shows how small changes of habit can have a large effect. Timely, useful and beautifully packaged, 'Green is Good' is an essential book for every modern household - and a perfect gift for anyone who cares about the future. Thursday, November 01, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch David Brooks The Fern Tattoo Published by: UQP To be launched by Alan Gold Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Evidently she knew who I was, or thought she did, since I had apparently needed no introduction and certainly hadn't received one… She told stories. One could almost say she rushed into them, on the merest of pretexts, as if the world was ending very shortly and they had to be got through before it happened. A century of family secrets starts to unravel when Benedict Waters is summoned to an audience with an old friend of his mother. He is seduced by her storytelling and it takes time and an astonishing revelation before he realises that it is his own family he has been hearing about, his own life that is being undone. From the Blue Mountains to the Hawkesbury and from Sydney to the south coast of New South Wales, The Fern Tattoo takes us on a kaleidoscopic journey through several generations of three families. We meet a range of extraordinary characters including a bigamist bishop, a librarian tattooed from neck to knee, a young girl who kills her best friend in a tragic shooting accident and a pair of lovers who live each other's lives for years after they have separated. As with all families, there are lost loves, tragic passions and unspoken - sometimes unspeakable - histories. The Fern Tattoo is a beguiling novel about the certainty of fate and the randomness of love that announces David Brooks' return as one of Australia's most distinctive literary novelists.     October 2007 Wednesday, October 31, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Richard Fidler & Peter Hoysted The Insider's Guide to Power in Australia by Jack the Insider Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Finding a route in the corridors of power. Jack the Insider is a highly placed, dedicated servant of the nation with close ties to leading figures in politics, business and the union movement. Jack also maintains regular contact with his mates in the media and the military-industrial complex, but has little time for the wowsers, do-gooders and no-hopers who infest our parliaments these days. Jack has been present at crucial moments in world history, ready to grapple with huge events and give them a gentle nudge. On 11 November 1975, it was Jack who handed Gough the loudhailer. When Malcolm Fraser lost his strides in Memphis, Jack lent him a spare pair. The 1984 Fine Cotton Ring-in? Jack was there too. His real identity must remain unknown for obvious reasons. THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO POWER IN AUSTRALIA is Jack's 'access all areas' account of the dark recesses of power in our country, offering a unique insight into how Australia really works. As told to Richard Fidler and Peter Hoysted. A couple of sheilas did the typing. Monday, October 29, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Threads An Anthology of work from students of the University of Sydney. Published by: Sydney University Press In association with Sydney University Press Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe  The University of Sydney Masters in Publishing Program Contemporary young authors pick up the threads of human existence and weave them into a collection of moving short stories, poems and essays. Loose threads that are dropped on one journey are picked up on another and woven into the delicate fabric we each wrap around ourselves. To hold the threads together - to tell a yarn - suggests that we are all weavers of a kind. University of Sydney students contributed their work to this new anthology. In their unique ways, each writer has taken up a strand of human fibre and woven it into the resulting stories, poems and essays. Sunday, October 28, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Special Event Sunday Book Club - October Burning In: Mireille Juchau Mireille Juchau will be present Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Sunday Book Club aims to promote and further appreciation of Australian fiction. Morgan Smith, gleebooks events manager, will host a discussion about a contemporary Australian novel on the last Sunday of every month. Morgan will choose the book and it is highly desirable (as in any reading group) for those attending to have read it in order to take part in the discussion. By RSVP-ing you will automatically be registered as a Sunday Book Club member, and be eligible for 10% discount from gleebooks on the book of the month. (you will need to say that you are a Sunday Book Club member.) Burning In: Mireille Juchau In her late twenties, Martine Hartmann moves from Sydney to New York to pursue her career as a photographer, leaving behind her mother Lotte, a holocaust survivor. Nine years later, Martine's daughter Ruby goes missing in Central Park. Ruby's disappearance throws Martine into an emotional struggle which threatens to overwhelm her, but which also, in time, brings her to understand Lotte's anxieties and inhibitions, and to discover the act of abandonment at their heart. Burning In is a closely observed psychological novel with an extraordinary eye for detail, and an unerring instinct for the suppressed rhythms of thought and feeling. Structured around two mysteries and three generations of Jewish women, it is an extended meditation on loss and guilt, exploring the long shadows cast by the past on the present, and the relationship between parental love and the imperatives of survival. Mireille Juchau's first novel Machines for Feeling was shortlisted for the 1999 Vogel/Australian Literary Award. In 2002 her play, White Gifts, won the Perishable Theatre International Women's Playwriting Competition and was performed and published in the US. Known also for her arts essays and reviews, Juchau has received grants from the Ian Potter Foundation, Arts NSW and the Australia Council, and is a recipient of a Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship. Saturday, October 27, 2007 / 3.00 for 3.30pm Past Event / In Conversation Max Solling Grit and Grandeur In conversation with Shirley Fitzgerald (City of Sydney historian) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Max Solling's new book explores the urban tapestry of Glebe, the archetypical inner city suburb. Charting Glebe's history between the 18th and 21st centuries, the book illustrates Glebe's division by stringent social, economic & religious stratification. Max writes engagingly about the iconic terrace house, pubs & churches, as well as local personalities & political debates. He'll be talking about this ebb & flow of Glebe's identity with Shirley Fitzgerald, City of Sydney Historian. Friday, October 26, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Matthew Evans Never Order Chicken on a Monday: Kitchen Chronicles of an Undercover Food Critic Published by: Random House Australia Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe What is it really like to work in a restaurant? What do chefs do when they are running out of the night's most popular dish? Do they really serve food that is on the turn? And how do they make it seem fresh? What happens to a restaurant when it gets a bad review? Australians are renowned for our passion for eating out and our cities boast some of the best restaurants in the world. But how many of us really have a sense of what goes on behind the scenes? In this hilarious book Matthew Evans draws on his many years of experience as both chef and restaurant reviewer to ridicule and revere, expose and acclaim the secrets behind one of the most lucrative and risky businesses in Australia. Part memoir, part expose, NEVER ORDER CHICKEN ON A MONDAY is as brilliant as it is brave - an inspiration for anyone stuck for conversation over dinner. Thursday, October 25, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel Elizabeth Farrelly Blubberland: The dangers of happiness Published by: UNSW Press Panel: Elizabeth Farrelly, David Marr, Miranda Devine, Alan Saunders - Chair: Phillipa McGuiness (UNSW Press) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Why is western humanity, richer and safer than ever before, also fatter, sadder and more fearful? Blubberland is a witty and engaging critique of the way we live now. Leading architecture critic and writer Elizabeth Farrelly asks why we find it so hard to abandon habits we know to be destructive, from the five-car garages of the McMansion to the insatiable urge to shop, shop, shop. Ranging from architecture and city-planning to truth, beauty, nature and desire, Blubberland is a smart, thoughtful and stylish argument for turning things around. Wednesday, October 24, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Charlotte Wood The Children Published by: Allen & Unwin In conversation with Tegan Bennett Daylight Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In The Children, Charlotte Wood one of Australian fiction's rising stars, delivers a short, sharp shock of a novel that takes us into the heart of a family as normal, and as broken, as any other. When their father is critically injured, foreign correspondent Mandy and her siblings return home, bringing with them the remnants and patterns of childhood. Mandy has lived away from the country for many years. Her head is filled with images of terror and war, and her homecoming to the quiet country town - not to mention her family and marriage - only heightens her disconnection from ordinary life. Cathy, her younger sister, has stayed in regular contact with her parents, trying also to keep tabs on their brother Stephen who, for reasons nobody understands, has held himself apart from the family for years. In the intensive care unit the children sit, trapped between their bewildered mother and one another; between old wounds and forgiveness, struggling to connect with their emotions, their past and each other. But as they wait and watch over their father, there's someone else watching too: a young wardsman, Tony, who's been waiting for Mandy to come home. As he insinuates himself into the family, the pressure, and the threat, intensify and build to a climax of devastating force. This acutely observed novel exposes the tenacious grip of childhood, the way siblings seem to grow apart but never do, and explores the price paid for bearing witness to the suffering of others - whether far away or uncomfortably close to home. The Children marks Wood as one of our finest writers. About the Author: Charlotte Wood's first novel, Pieces of a Girl, was published in 1999, and won the 1998 Jim Hamilton Award for an unpublished ms. Both this and her second novel, The Submerged Cathedral (2004), were highly praised by reviewers and award judges, and the latter was shortlisted for the 2005 Miles Franklin Award and the 2005 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, SE Asia/Sth Pacific. She lives in Sydney. Friday, October 19, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Sara Knox The Orphan Gunner Published by: Giramondo Publishing To be launched by Elizabeth Knox Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Orphan Gunner is a romance between two young Australian women, set in Lincolnshire during the Second World War. Evelyn is one of the few female pilots in the Air Transport Auxiliary; her friend Olive enlists in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. They’re joined by Evelyn’s brother Duncan, a novice gunner flying bombing raids over Germany. The raids take their toll on the crew, and the two women are drawn into a plot involving disguise and mistaken identity. The Orphan Gunner explores the seductions of passing, the licence granted by risk, and the selflessness – and selfishness – of sacrifice. Sara Knox was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and now lives and writes in Australia. She is the author of Murder: a Tale of Modern American Life, and teaches cultural history and creative writing at the University of Western Sydney. Thursday, October 18, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Tom Keneally Searching for Schindler: A memoir Published by: Random House Australia Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe A memoir of Tom's journey around the world to discover the complete story of Oskar Schindler and that list. In 1980 Tom Keneally was in Beverley Hills returning from the Sorrento film festival where The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith had been showing. Looking for a new briefcase, Tom meets the Polish-Jewish Leopold Pfefferberg Page aka Poldek and his life for the next few years is taken over by this charismatic and driven man and the story he wants shared. "It's a story for you, I swear," he says to Tom. The story is of course that of "The all-drinking, all-screwing, all black-marketeering Nazi. But to me he was Jesus Christ, Oskar Schindler". And Poldek shared with Tom the story of Schindler’s Ark which went on to win the Booker Prize and ultimately to become the Oscar award-winning film Schindler’s List. Schindler, the ruined Catholic hedonist, had something ambiguous about him that appealled to the ex-seminarian Tom Keneally who still struggled with his own Catholicism and his humanist view of the world. Oskar showed that virtue, regardless of race, creed or religion, emerged where it would. Tom was a small child during WWII and these memories, along with the appeal of Schindler and Poldek's insistence, influenced him to write the book Schindler’s Ark. Oskar and his Jews reduced the Holocaust - an almost untellable story in its scope and devastation - to an understandable human scale. Searching for Schindler is very much Tom's journey, he reflects on his early days as a writer with quite a bit of success - but no confidence - and how this book, the people he met, and the film it became, changed his life. From his Sydney home, he tracked down the main player's in Poldek and Schindler's story. Tom and Poldek travelled across the US, Germany, Israel, Austria and Poland interviewing survivors and discovering extraordinary stories. Schindler’s Ark took a huge toll on Tom, and his family, he had never been so overwhelmed by the writing of a story. It forced him to think about Australians and their attitudes to the Holocaust, to think about the Israel / Palestine situation and about families. Not ready to give up the story of Schindler and his Jews after the enormous success of the book, Tom is there for the film adaptation and on set for the filming. Filled with stories of Steven Spielberg, Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes and many other well-known and strong characters Searching for Schindler gives Tom Keneally scope to show the wonderful, warm, thinking, compassionate and very funny man that he is. Wednesday, October 17, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Fabian Society Forum Labor Leader on Labor Leader Bob Hawke in conversation with Dr Geoff Gallup Fabian Society Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Bookings essential With eight years in office, Bob Hawke was Australia’s longest-serving Labor Prime Minister. He became Prime Minister after only two years in parliament, and only one month as Leader of the Opposition. Building on his success as trade union president, Hawke established consensus with unions and business to stabilise wage growth, improve the ability of business to compete in global markets and to deregulate the Australian economy and promote growth. Much loved for being a larrikin and a ‘good Aussie bloke’, his style could not have been more different than Kevin Rudd’s, the face of ‘new’ Labor. Dr Geoff Gallop, former premier of Western Australia and President of the NSW Australian Fabian Society, will talk to Bob Hawke about his Prime Ministership and about the challenges he sees for Kevin Rudd in the campaign for the 2007 federal election. Tuesday, October 16, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Margo Kingston Still Not Happy John, with you and your government Published by: Penguin Aus With Professor Catharine Lumby, Director of the Centre for Social Research in Journalism and Communication at the UNSW Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The book that launches campaigns We've had three more years of: * secrecy, cover-ups and scandals - think AWB * laws like WorkChoices eroding people's prosperity * an unpopular and deceitful war * blind allegiance to a foolhardy American president * draconian measures rushed through a hobbled Senate and applied with equal haste - witness the recent Haneef fiasco * the detention of hundreds of vulnerable people, including children and Australian citizens, and * above all, none of you listening when Australians say they want job, educational and housing security for themselves and their children, our soldiers out of Iraq - and a smart, fair, forward-looking country that finds new solutions for pressing problems like climate change. It's all nailed here, in Margo Kingston's updated, election edition of her gutsy, anecdotal bestseller: every reason why John Howard's government doesn't deserve your vote. Friday, October 12, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Joanne Burns an illustrated history of dairies Published by: Giramondo Publishing To be launched by Hazel Smith Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe with guest appearances by Melbourne Giramondo authors Antoni Jach, Napoleon's Double, and Alexis Wright, Carpentaria Joanne Burns is a poet noted for her laconic satirical style, which pokes fun at the pretensions of familiar Australian types, and their slavish allegiance to fashion and conformity. Her new collection offers an energetic mix of forms, perspectives and poetic strategies, which ensure that her subjects are always seen from an unexpected angle. It takes the reader to 'a dairy at the edge of the mind', which is quite unlike any dairy with real cows one is ever likely to encounter. A writer of poetry, prose poems, short fictions and monologues, Joanne Burns' most recent collection footnotes of a hammock, was joint winner of the 2005 ACT Arts Judith Wright Award. Her work has been widely published, taught in high schools, broadcast on radio and television, and performed for theatre. Thursday, October 11, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Jonathan Biggins The 700 Habits of Highly Ineffective People and How You can avoid Falling into them Published by: Melbourne University Press In conversation with John Doyle Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe At last, a self-help book for those people who can't be bothered to help themselves to free coffee. How many times have you wanted to unleash the power within but simply couldn't face even the thought of all that effort? The 700 Habits of Highly Ineffective People™ can make you a better person simply by telling you what not to do. You don't have to hack out a path through the jungle of modern life-someone else has already done that for you. All you need is a guide to point out the traps and the pitfalls, the poisonous plants and the fresh dung. Tread carefully and you can reach your goals! Beneath its humorous exterior, The 700 Habits of Highly Ineffective People™ is filled with common sense, showing you the wasteful and niggling habits that success-challenged people fall into in their personal, business and creative lives. Covering all aspects of modern life, from choosing a mobile phone plan to a life partner, this book pinpoints where the second-raters go wrong so you can go right! Don't go to all the tiresome effort of emulating the habits of winners-simply lose the habits of losers. Jonathan Biggins is a writer, theatre director and broadcaster. Jonathan hosted Critical Mass, a weekly arts review programme on ABC TV, is a columnist for The Age 's Good Weekend magazine. His first book, As it Were, has just been published. Jonathan will be sharing his trade marked self-help regime with John 'Rampaging Roy Slaven' Doyle. Wednesday, October 10, 2007 / 7.00 for 7.30pm Past Dinner Dinner with Rick Stein Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes Sold Out Venue: Hickson Rd Bistro, 20 Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay Join us for a fabulous 3 course dinner and a perfect Spring evening with Rick Stein. The chefs at Hickson Rd Bistro will cook a menu chosen by Rick and he will discuss his food and the new book full of wonderful mediterranean recipes. Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes Published to accompany Rick Stein's new ten-part television series for BBC2, this new book starts where FRENCH ODYSSEY left off - at the mouth of the Rhone in the port of Marseilles. Reluctantly abandoning his idyllic canal boat, the Anjodi, Rick takes to the public ferry system which plies between the islands and coastlines of the Mediterranean. The book contains over 100 recipes divided by types of ingredient or types of dish - from mezze and tapas to calamari and couscous. Although Mediterranean food is always considered to be very healthy, by virtue of its ingredients, Rick will not shy from luxurious ice creams and sticky pastries and the book will also include basic recipes, accompaniments and sauces. He introduces the book with a diary of his gastronomic journey, recounting the many interesting characters and interesting dishes he discovered en route. Mediterranean food is first and foremost the simple cooking of simple ingredients so it translates extremely well into everyday dishes that cooks of all levels will enjoy making, and above all, eating. Tuesday, October 09, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Margaret Reynolds Living Politics Published by: University Queensland Press In conversation with Susan Ryan Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Foreword by Dr Carmen Lawrence Living Politics is an intimate portrait of a life lived in politics Margaret Reynolds was a senator in the Australian Parliament for sixteen years, and was Queensland's first female senator. Follow Margaret's extraordinary journey from apolitical university student to young mother and teacher witnessing injustice in the schools of London's East End and in Tasmania's schools for mentally and physically handicapped children. Margaret's activism has been a natural part of her life, as she moved from the UK to Queensland, witnessing at first hand the treatment of the indigenous population and then becoming involved in women's rights. From local councillor through to the federal Senate, and now President of the United Nations in Australia, Margaret's life has been one of growing awareness and commitment to causes she feels passionately about. Friday, October 05, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch John Langmore To Firmer Ground: Restoring Hope in Australia To be launched by Julian Disney Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In To Firmer Ground John Langmore argues that Australia is at a tipping point, reflected in dissatisfaction with work/life imbalance and growing public debate about values. The quality of both personal and public life has been undermined by preoccupation with material prosperity and neglect of broader concerns in recent decades. To Firmer Ground proposes an alternative vision for this country that prioritises the well-being of all Australians, the common good of our society and a national contribution to global peace and justice. In order to reach these goals, strong leadership from government will be required and economic policies and ideology will have to change. To Firmer Ground offers sharp analysis of the critical issues confronting Australia that require immediate attention, and provides a persuasive, hopeful and practical set of solutions - an alternative vision for Australia that emphasises greater concern for the well-being of all Australians. Wednesday, October 03, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Peter Doherty A Light History of Hot Air Published by: Melbourne University Press In conversation with Bernie Hobbs Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Peter Doherty's A Light History of Hot Air is a wide-ranging meditation on the theme of heat and heating. From the hot air of language to the hot air that gives us steam trains, the Red Baron, fridges and illumination, this book will delight readers who enjoyed Bill Bryson's A Short History of Almost Everything. Part boys own adventure and part memoir, the book does nevertheless remind us that hot air - as in global warming - can have serious repercussions. Professor Peter Doherty AC was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine with Swiss colleague, Rolf Zinkernagel, in 1996 for discovering "the nature of the cellular immune defence", and was also recognised as Australian of the Year in 1997. He is the author of The Beginner's Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize (2005) which was nominated for a National Biography Award in 2007.     September 2007 Sunday, September 30, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Special Event Sunday Book Club - September Peter Temple: The Broken Shore Published by: Text Publishing Special Guest Peter Corris Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Peter Temple*: The Broken Shore The Sunday Book Club aims to promote and further appreciation of Australian fiction. Morgan Smith, gleebooks events manager, will host a discussion about a contemporary Australian novel on the last Sunday of every month. Morgan will choose the book and it is highly desirable (as in any reading group) for those attending to have read it in order to take part in the discussion. By RSVP-ing you will automatically be registered as a Sunday Book Club member, and be eligible for 10% discount from gleebooks on the book of the month. (you will need to say that you are a Sunday Book Club member.) The September book is The Broken Shore by Peter Temple. Peter Temple is the first Australian author to win the world's richest and most prestigious prize for crime writing - the £20,000 UK Crime Writers' Association Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award. Popularly known as the Gold Dagger, previous winners include Patricia Cornwell, Ian Rankin, Ruth Rendell, John Le Carre and Minette Walters-an esteemed rollcall of popular crime fiction. "A wounded cop recovering from life-threatening injuries in the Victorian coastal countryside gets drawn in to the investigation of a murder...The writing is tight, the plot gallops along, the atmosphere is intermittently spooky with truly chilling moments, the characterisation is masterful.' Kerryn Goldsworthy, Australian 'Books of the Year' 'Peter Temple has been described as one of Australia's best crime novelists, but he's far better than that. He's one of our best novelists full stop.' Sun-Herald *NB: Peter Temple will not be attending this session. Saturday, September 29, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Barbara Fisher Still Life, Other Life Published by: Ginninderra Press To be launched by Prof. Elizabeth Webby Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Barbara Fisher was born at Richmond, NSW, but spent part of her childhood in England. After studies at the National Art School in Sydney, she worked as an illustrator before marriage took her to London, where she and her architect husband lived for several years. She has had a variety of jobs - as a genealogical researcher, advertising copywriter, editor, art teacher and antiquarian bookseller. Since 1995 she has focused on writing poetry. In 1999 she was awarded a Varuna Mentorship with poet Kevin Brophy and in 2001 her first collection of poems, Archival Footwork (Indigo) was published. The book introduced a distinctive voice, with poems on a wide range of subjects yet unified in tone observant, thoughtful, revealing a keen wit and a 'sensuous precision' of language. In this second book the poet continues her interest in diverse topics - from the handmaidens of famous men to memories of family, reflections on travel, the natural world, and life in our times with its many curiosities, joys and sorrows. 'Life in all its variety is at the heart of this fine collection of poems. Barbara Fisher shows her mastery of the compressed narrative that is poetry at its best, evoking a world in a grain of sand.' - Professor Elizabeth Webby 'A sparkling collection. These poems are cut from life and from the mind with the sharpest imaginable scissors.' - Kevin Brophy Friday, September 28, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Chris Barker The Hearts of Men: Tales of Happiness and Despair Published by: UNSW Press To be launched by Prof. Gordon Parker (Black Dog Inst.) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Can men really talk about emotions? At a time when bookshelves are saturated with titles devoted to women's emotions, and the few titles that do address men's lives happen also to be written by women, Chris Barker's book is a fresh find. The book explores the emotional lives of men through 100 conversations conducted with a wide range of men; sportsmen, executives, retired Diggers, homeless drug users, Buddhists and men's movement activists. Their stories, told in their own words, are heart-breakingly honest and are at the core of Barker's exploration of links between men's emotions, happiness and society. Hearts of Men is a provocative discussion about men, their emotional and social lives-an important topic not just for men, but for anyone who's ever had to live with them. Professor Gordon Parker, Scienta Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales and Executive Director of the Black Dog Institute. He was awarded a Citation Laureate for being the most cited scientist in Australia. He was Head of Psychiatry at UNSW or 20 years and in former times he wrote for the Mavis Brampton Show, OZ magazine and was an ABC science broadcaster.He has also authored books and a play. Wednesday, September 26, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Phillip Adams Adams V God: The Rematch Published by: Melbourne University Press In conversation with Fr. Frank Brennan Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe "I don't see God as a great, huge overwhelming idea - I see him as a very small, nervous idea. A timid, pipsqueak of a notion against the immeasurable, preposterous, inexpressible vastness of what is and isn't" writes Phillip Adams. Come and hear what Father Frank Brennan has to say about that! Phillip Adams says he stopped believing in God at the age of six. At 68 he has gathered the best of his essays on God and godlessness into this bible-banging, irreverent book. Adams v God: The Rematch takes up where his 1985 book Adams v God left off, bringing us right up to date. From politics to prostitution, from the deep North of Queensland to the deep South of the USA, from Shiites to Jehovah's witnesses, Adams pulls no punches about the fictions of the faithful. Adams v God: The Rematch is a book for our times. It exposes the dangerous links between religion and politics, and the dogmatism of ideologies as a cause for conflict in the world. Phillip Adams is a prolific and sometimes controversial broadcaster, writer and film-maker. He is the author of over 20 books, including The Unspeakable Adams, Talkback, Retreat From Tolerance and A Billion Voices. His writing has appeared in many of Australia's most influential publications and he has been a contributor to The Times and The Financial Times in London, and to the New York Times and is a regular columnist for The Australian newspaper. For the last 15 years he's presented Late Night Live on Radio National and Radio Australia. As well as two Orders of Australia, Phillip was Australian Humanist of the Year (1987) and Republican of the Year 2005. Tuesday, September 25, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Nicki Greenberg The Great Gatsby: A graphic novel Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe A brilliant, innovative, reverently faithful graphic novel adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's jazz-age classic. Nicki Greenberg's adaptation of The Great Gatsby is breathtaking - a wonderful homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald's jazz-age classic that brings to life the glitter, the melancholy and the grand and crumpled dreams of Fitzgerald's unforgettable characters. In the exquisitely realised setting of 1920s New York, a throng of fantastical creatures play out the drama, the wry humour and the tragedy of the novel. At this event, Nicki will use projector and screen to take us through the process of creating a graphic novel. A must for artists and graphic novel devotees. 'Bizarre, absorbing and very funny ... a bold idea that works to great effect.' Shaun Tan Nicki Greenberg is a Melbourne-based comic artist, illustrator and lawyer. In 1990 she wrote and illustrated The Digits, a series of twelve children's books, selling 400,000 copies in Australia and New Zealand. Spin-off merchandise included greeting cards, giftwraps and stickers. More recently, in 2005, she wrote and illustrated It's True! Squids Suck for Allen & Unwin. It was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Aventis prize and the Australian Wilderness Society Awards in 2006. An active contributor to the Australian independent comic art scene, Nicki's comics have appeared in Silent Army, Pure Evil, Tango and other comic art anthologies in Australia, Canada and Spain. Her work has been included in exhibitions such as Comic Book Lifestyle (Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts) and Inside Out (Westspace Gallery) and featured in The Age newspaper. The Great Gatsby is her first graphic novel. Sunday, September 23, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Elizabeth Stanley Tyger! Tyger! Published by: UWA Press To be launched by Robin Morrow Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe From the award-winning author of Yardil and The Deliverance of Dancing Bears comes a moving fable that expresses a hope for harmony between the human and animal worlds. Tyger! Tyger! is inspired by an actual Buddhist monastery in Thailand that for years has been a sanctuary for the beautiful Indo-Chinese Tiger, one of the world's most endangered species. Beautifully illustrated. A little way into the darkness of the jungle, the young monk heard a stirring and held a light into the darkness. As foretold, two tiny cubs scrambled out from their hiding place and climbed into his arms. - From Tyger! Tyger! Children aged 8-14. Before turning her talents to picture books, Elizabeth Stanley worked as a teacher, an educational psychologist and Promotions and Development Director at Dromkeen Children's Literature Museum in Victoria. www.elizabethstanley.com.au Saturday, September 22, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Kathleen Mary Fallon Paydirt Published by: UWA Press Featuring Henry Phineasa, acclaimed didgeridoo player from Nature/Nature Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe When Kate, a white Australian foster mother, takes her 18-year-old Torres Strait Islander foster son back to Brisbane to meet his sick birth mother, Kate's own mother has a homecoming of a very different kind planned for her daughter. Paydirt paints a portrait of contemporary Australia that is anything but black versus white as the story unfolds via four dramatic monologues. 'I feel myself slipping into Amnesia. All the stories of my life slipping away. I am his guardian. I cannot leave my post. Sometimes I think if they just took Warren away I'd forget about him in a week... Every voice is saying, 'Give it away, girlie! After all these years, after all you know about him, don't let them do it to him!' - Kate in Paydirt A companion piece to Kate Fallon's AWGIE-nominated script or the acclaimed Australian film Call Me Mum - a provocative and highly poetic journey into the dark heart of Australian race relations. Kathleen Mary Fallon's work extends across a variety of media, including: the novel Working Hot; librettos for the opera Matricide - The Musical (composed by Elena Kats-Chernin and presented by Chamber Made Opera) as well as the song cycle Laquiem: Tales From the Mourning of the Lac Women (composed by Andrée Greenwell); as well as the 2007 AWGIE Award-nominate script for the film Call Me Mum (directed by Margot Nash and produced by Michael McMahon). Kathleen currently lectures in creative writing at The University of Melbourne. Friday, September 21, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Antonio Buti A Matter of Conscience: Sir Ronald Wilson Published by: UWA Press To be launched by Sir Anthony Mason Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe UWA Press is proud to publish the first comprehensive biography of former High Court Justice, President of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Chancellor of Murdoch University, W.A. Inc. Royal Commissioner and President of the Uniting Church of Australia, the late Sir Ronald Wilson. Orphaned early in life and brought up by a housekeeper, Sir Ronald left school at fourteen to earn a living as a messenger in the local Geraldton courthouse before subsequently enjoying a meteoric rise in the legal profession to become a Justice in the highest court in Australia. Best known for Bringing Them Home (his moving and controversial 1997 report on the 'Stolen Generations' of Aboriginal children), Sir Ronald was also Crown Prosecutor, Counsel and Solicitor-General in a number of high profile, important criminal, civil and constitutional cases, including the trials of Eric Cooke (the last man hanged in Western Australia), John Button and Darryl Beamish. A Matter of Conscience: Sir Ronald Wilson makes an important contribution to legal and political biography, one that will be of immense public significance and interest, containing, as it does, great insights into this highly complex, thoughtful and talented Australian. Sir Anthony Mason is a former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. Wednesday, September 19, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Waleed Aly People Like Us: how arrogance is dividing Islam and the West Published by: Macmillan Australia In conversation with Malcolm Knox Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe No two civilisations have spoken so many words about each other in recent years as those of Islam and the West. And no two seem to have communicated less. People Like Us confronts the themes that define this chasm head-on: women, jihad, secularism, terrorism, Reformation and modernity. Its piercing examination of these subjects reveals our thoughtless and destructive tendency to assume that the world's problems could be solved if only everyone became more like us. The result is deep mutual ignorance and animosity, reinforced by both Muslim and Western commentators. As a Muslim born and raised in Australia, Waleed Aly stands at the intersection of these two civilisations. In this book, he draws on his knowledge of Western and Islamic intellectual traditions to present an analysis that is surprising and challenging, but always enlightening. Waleed Aly was born in 1978. He is a lecturer in politics at Monash University, working primarily within the Global Terrorism Research Centre. Previously, he worked as a commercial lawyer, and he also has experience in human rights and family law. Waleed was a board member of the Islamic Council of Victoria for over four years, and is frequently sought for comment by media outlets across Australia on a broad range of issues relating to Islam and Western Muslims. He has contributed regularly to The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and he has been commended at both the Walkley awards and the Quill Awards for his commentary. In 2005, Waleed was appointed a White Ribbon Day Ambassador for the United Nations' International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Tuesday, September 18, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Special Event Michael Morpurgo Alone on a Wide Wide Sea Published by: HarperCollins Childrens Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This event has moved to gleebooks Cost: $15 adults/$10 conc and children. Family of 4 - $43 School groups x 10 – get 2 free! Bookings Essential - gleebooks: 02 9660 2333 Meet Award-Winning and Bestselling UK Children’s Author, Michael Morpurgo! Michael Morpurgo is the former UK Children’s Laureate and one of Britain’s most well-known and loved writers for children. His books include Private Peaceful, The Butterfly Lion and Wombat Goes Walkabout. Michael is visiting Australia for the first time in many years. Don’t miss this opportunity to listen to a master storyteller share the secrets of his inspiration and how he wove fact into fiction. Michael Morpurgo will be joined by his sailor friends, Alex Whitworth and PeterCrozier, who will share some amazing insight into the real journey that inspired part of Michael’s novel, Alone on a Wide Wide Sea. While completing this amazing sailing feat, Whitworth and Crozier experienced 30-metre waves, a man overboard incident, a lost lifeboat and festering socks! This talk will be followed by a book signing and books will be available for purchase. Suitable for ages 7 and up, school and family bookings welcome. Monday, September 17, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Richard Watson Future Files: A History of the next 50 years Published by: Scribe Publications Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe William Gibson meets Charles Handy in this lively, provocative, and witty look at our possible futures. Prediction is a dangerous game - the future is never a straight, linear extrapolation from the present. Unexpected innovations and events will conspire to trip up the best-laid plans - but it's better than not thinking about the future at all. And, as someone once said, even if my past is chequered with failed predictions, my future predictions and extrapolations will be spotless. Future Files is filled with provocative forecasts about how the world might change in the next half century. It examines emerging patterns and developments in society, technology, economy, and business, and makes educated speculations as to where they might take us. But Future Files is not primarily about prediction. Its goal is to liberate our collective and individual imaginations so that we can see the familiar in a new light and the unfamiliar with greater clarity, and to make individuals and organisations think about where we are going and to consider whether, when we get there, it will be worth staying. Future Files will prove indispensable to business analysts, strategists, and organisations who need to stay ahead of the game, as well as providing rich and fascinating material for water-cooler conversations. 'Provocative, entertaining, full of surprising facts - a book to help you decide whether the world is going mad or possibly becoming more intelligent.' Theodore Zeldin Richard Watson advises organisations on the future, focusing on innovation and scenario planning. He is the author and publisher of What's Next, a quarterly report on global trends, and is a columnist for a number of magazines including Fast Company (USA). Sunday, September 16, 2007 / 3.00 for 3.30pm Past Launch Gillian Deakin 101 Things your GP would tell you if only there was time Published by: Random House Australia To be launched by Monica Atttard Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Dr Gillian Deakin outlines the most common pitfalls in health care and details how patients can communicate effectively with medical professionals and get the treatment they need to be healthy and free themselves of worrying pain or life-threatening disease. Gillian Deakin has spent her career exploring different treatment methods and different ways of healing. She brings a scientific, evidence-based approach to all her medicine and is passionate about seeking proof of all treatments, whether medical or alternative. Dr Deakin is a strong supporter of a broad approach , using both orthodox and complementary methods, and a reassuringly practical understanding of health problems and how to heal effectively. 101 Things Your GP Would Tell You is an indispensable hands-on guide to negotiating the management of your health. From practical information on how to communicate with your doctor, to definitive outlines of evidence-based strategies in remaining disease-free, to a debunking of many common myths in medicine. "This book is like a wonderfully extended consultation with an empathetic, patient and knowledgeable GP. Full of practical tips that will help you as a patient move towards optimal health. And if you don't have a regular GP at present, it will make you want to get one!" Dr Caroline West, GP and media doctor Saturday, September 15, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Tony Harris Basket Weavers and True Believers: making and unmaking the Labor Left in Leichhardt Municipality, 1970-1991 Introduced by Bruce Scates To be launched by Meredith Burgmann Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of people sought membership of the ALP branches of the inner-Sydney municipality of Leichhardt. These were people whose politics had been shaped by the social movements of the times and by the hopes and disappointments associated with the Whitlam Government. The political clashes between this Left-leaning new membership and the conservative working class, and working-class-made-good, patriarchs of the local Labor Right have become legendary. Yet as the fruits of victory were in reach, the Left began to fall apart in often bitter conflict. By the beginning of the 1990s many of these participants, in what has sometimes been called the 'middle-classing' of Labor, had deserted the branches and switched their political allegiance to independents, Democrats and the Greens. This is the story of this turbulent transition told from the point of view of the members at the branch level, and the ALP political life they sought to construct. As the Australian Labor Party struggles with its identity and purpose at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Basket Weavers and True Believers provides a timely case study of the recent making, and unmaking, of the Labor Left. Tony Harris has written this history as a participant-observer. He was active in the ALP Left in Annandale until his expulsion from the party, along with others, in 1984. He then went on to be involved in the early foundations of the Greens in Sydney. He currently teaches in the School of History and Philosophy at The University of New South Wales and lives in Newtown. Friday, September 14, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Mireille Juchau Burning In Published by: Giramondo To be launched by Hannah Fink Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In her late twenties, Martine Hartmann moves from Sydney to New York to pursue her career as a photographer, leaving behind her mother Lotte, a holocaust survivor. Nine years later, Martine's daughter Ruby goes missing in Central Park. Ruby's disappearance throws Martine into an emotional struggle which threatens to overwhelm her, but which also, in time, brings her to understand Lotte's anxieties and inhibitions, and to discover the act of abandonment at their heart. Burning In is a closely observed psychological novel with an extraordinary eye for detail, and an unerring instinct for the suppressed rhythms of thought and feeling. Structured around two mysteries and three generations of Jewish women, it is an extended meditation on loss and guilt, exploring the long shadows cast by the past on the present, and the relationship between parental love and the imperatives of survival. Mireille Juchau's first novel Machines for Feeling was shortlisted for the 1999 Vogel/Australian Literary Award. In 2002 her play, White Gifts, won the Perishable Theatre International Women's Playwriting Competition and was performed and published in the US. Known also for her arts essays and reviews, Juchau has received grants from the Ian Potter Foundation, Arts NSW and the Australia Council, and is a recipient of a Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship. Thursday, September 13, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Ian Lowe Quarterly Essay 27 - Reaction Time: Climate Change and the Nuclear Option In conversation with Phillip Adams Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Australia is at a crossroads: do we need to embrace a nuclear future? In Reaction Time, Ian Lowe examines the science and the politics of nuclear power, as well as the feasible alternatives in an era of global warming. Lowe discusses his one-time belief in nuclear power and what led to the faltering of that belief. He engages with the leading environmentalists, like James Lovelock, who advocate going nuclear, as well as with the less savoury aspects of the Australian politicking. He discusses whether other countries might need to use nuclear power, even if Australia doesn't. He offers an authoritative survey of the leading alternatives for Australia - from 'hot rocks' to 'clean coal'. Above all, he explains why taking the nuclear option would be a decisive step in the wrong direction - economically, environmentally, politically and socially. Professor Ian Lowe AO is emeritus professor of science, technology and society at Griffith University in Brisbane, an adjunct professor at Sunshine Coast University and QUT, and an honorary research fellow at the University of Adelaide. Wednesday, September 12, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Raj Patel Stufffed & Starved: Markets, Power and the Battle for the World Food System Published by: Black Inc. In conversation with Rebecca Huntley Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Here's a book that takes Jamie's Dinners, Supersize Me, mangoes in the Arctic Circle and McFatties, and puts them in a blender to make an intoxicating cocktail. Stuffed and Starved takes us into the supermarket aisles and reveals the stories behind the products in our trolleys, some of them very dark indeed. Raj Patel's definitive account of the global food system ranges across GM crops, history and export issues, rising levels of obesity and other health crises. It's a mad world where we encounter Coca Cola "cosmeceuticals" that promise to improve complexion and breast size, where Nestlé owns Jenny Craig - and Unilever, home of Ben and Jerry's icecream, owns Slimfast. It is also a positive story of resistance in the paddy fields of India, the maize ejidos of Mexico and the Italian Slow Food kitchens, to name but a few. This is a groundbreaking look and the people and products of the New Food Order. Raj Patel is currently a visiting scholar in the Center for African Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, a Fellow at the Institute of Food and Development Policy and a Research Associate at the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He has just returned from two years working in South Africa, based out of the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Rebecca Huntley joined Ipsos in 2006, and has taken over from Hugh Mackay as Research Director for The Ipsos Mackay Report. Rebecca has a PhD in gender studies and also holds Law and Arts degrees. Rebecca is the author of the highly acclaimed book The World According to Y: inside the new adult generation and a regular contributor to national magazines and newspapers. Rebecca's next book is Republic of Food (Black Inc, forthcoming). Tuesday, September 11, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Hugh Mackay Advance Australia Where? Published by: Hachette Livre Australia Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe What will the next generation of children be like? Why have we lost interest in politics? Why are our houses getting bigger while our households are shrinking? How serious is the surge of interest in 'values' and 'spirituality'? Is multiculturalism dead? Has our egalitarian ideal collapsed under the weight of a more competitive, more divided society? Fifteen years ago, Hugh Mackay wrote the bestseller Reinventing Australia that analysed, with forensic skill, what was happening to our society. Now, in Advance Australia … Where? he takes another long, hard look at us. While we enjoy unprecedented levels of prosperity and the promise of more to come, we are still battling an epidemic of depression, taking on record levels of debt, and yearning for a deeper sense of meaning in our lives. While many Australians complain about feeling powerless and isolated, Mackay sees some encouraging signs that we are learning how to absorb the impact of the revolutionary changes that have reshaped us. Monday, September 10, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Margaret Simons and David Salter The Content Makers and The Media We Deserve Published by: Penguin Books / Melbourne University Press In conversation with Quentin Dempster Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Content Makers Margaret Simons In this new book, Margaret Simons explains the changes taking place in the Australian media. She analyses audiences, our major media organisations, the role of government - and the implications of all of these for our society and our democracy. Her examination leads her to the conclusion that the challenges facing the content providers in the modern world are part of a broader striving, a very old struggle - we might call it the search for meaning. The big media businesses may or may not survive into the future, but content certainly will, because we need it, and have always needed it. The Content Makers delivers a visceral understanding of how modern media works, gives a plain-language explanation of new media, and provides straightforward information on recent changes to ownership legislation and what they mean. But most importantly, it suggests a vision for the future - a. new way of looking at the role of the content makers and how they and their audiences might find new hope and purpose in the future. Margaret Simons is an award-winning freelance journalist and author with twenty-five years' experience in the media industry. She has written seven books before this one, including two novels. Margaret holds a doctorate in Creative Arts from the University of Technology Sydney, is a senior associate of RMIT University and in 2007 is a visiting fellow at the Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology. The Media We Deserve David Salter Australia is fortunate to have media that are generally competent and occasionally very good indeed. But the print and broadcast material we consume every day can also be perverse, shallow, illogical, infuriatingly opportunistic, crassly commercial, insufferably pretentious and rarely witty. We hold journalists in particular contempt and believe they deal in prefabricated versions of reality--false assumptions of habitual values rather than open-minded observation. It's a unique form of media-manufactured mediocrity. The public distrusts their media but continue to use them. They have little choice. We get The Media We Deserve. David Salter has been one of Australia's most prominent independent journalists and television producers. He was Executive Producer of ABC-TV's Media Watch program, and writes regularly on media affairs for The Australian. Sunday, September 09, 2007 / 2.30 for 3pm Past Special Event Worldwide Reading for Zimbabwe Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe On September 9 the world will be listening to the words of Chenjerai Hove, Dambudzo Marechera, and Chirikuré Chirikuré. Taking part in the Sydney reading organised by Sydney PEN and the Zimbabwe Information Centre, hosted by Gleebooks, are leading pro democracy activist, Sekai Holland and former General Secretary of the Zimbabwe National Union of Students, Tinashe Chimedza, as well as Australian poets Judith Beveridge, Stephen Edgar and Geoffrey Lehmann. Mrs Holland, who is the Secretary for Policy and Ideology in Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, is now recovering in Sydney from a brutal bashing by police in Harare on March 11, 2007. She made a major contribution to the anti-apartheid struggle and the struggle for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights in Australia when she lived, studied and worked here from 1964-1980. Tinashe Chimedza came to Australia from Zimbabwe in 2003, where he was General Secretary of the Zimbabwe National Union of Students, as part of the Oxfam Youth Parliament program. The appeal for a worldwide reading of Zimbabwean poetry on September 9 is the inspiration of the Peter Weiss Foundation for Art and Politics. It has been signed by more than 150 authors from fifty countries including Nadine Gordimer, J.M.Coetzee, Günter Grass, Don DeLillo, John Updike and Mario Vargas Llosa. Wednesday, September 05, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Fabian Society Forum Australia: Will it become a client state of China? Panel: Kim Beazley, Dr Chris Rahman, Allan Behm Chair: Dr Geoff Gallop Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Bookings Essential Despite the hype over Australia's supposed China-focused economic destiny and our closer political and security engagement with Beijing, there remains a bipartisan credibility gap in Australian China policy. That policy tends towards short-term trade goals, lacks strategic clarity and ignores the extent to which China is attempting to draw regional states, including Australia, into a new Sino-centric sphere of influence. As APEC draws nearer, this seminar will examine: Whether the Australian policy community is suffering a kind of "China blindness".Whether wishful thinking has supplanted objective views of the challenges to our interests, to regional security and to our freedoms and values, posed by a rapidly rising China. Whether Australia should embrace China's 'peaceful rise' and become a regional partner. Hon Kim Beazley MP, Member for Brand (WA). Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party from 1996 to 2001, and from 2005 to the end of 2006. Kim was educated at Oxford as a Rhode scholar where he studied international relations and politics. Kim Beazley was Defence Minister during the Hawke/Keating years and re-positioned Australia's security strategy. Kim Beazley has many decades of experience dealing with China. Dr. Chris Rahman is a Research Fellow at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) at the University of Wollongong. Chris wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the strategic implications of the rise of China as a maritime power. In 2001 he won third prize in the U.S. Naval War College's Hugh G. Nott Prize for articles published in the Naval War College Review for his essay "Defending Taiwan, and Why It Matters." Mr. Allan Behm has worked in the Australian diplomatic service, the Prime Minister's Department, the Department of Defence and the Attorney-General's Department. Specialising in international relations, defence strategy, counter-terrorism and law enforcement policy. From the mid 90s, as head of the International Policy and Strategy Divisions of the Department of Defence, he was responsible for the overall management of Australia's strategic intelligence relationship with the USA, defence relations with Indonesia and the broader Asia-Pacific security affairs. Tuesday, September 04, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation John Pomfret Chinese Lessons: five classmates and the story of the new China Published by: Scribe Publications In conversation with Linda Jaivin Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe As one of the first American students admitted to China after the communist revolution, John Pomfret was exposed to a country still emerging from the twin tragedies of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Crammed into a dorm room with seven Chinese men, Pomfret contended with all manner of cultural differences, from too-short beds and roommates intent on glimpsing a white man naked, to the need for cloak-and-dagger efforts to conceal his relationships with Chinese women. Amidst all this, he immersed himself in the remarkable lives of his classmates. Beginning with Pomfret’s first day in China, Chinese Lessons takes us down the often torturous paths that brought together the Nanjing University history class of 1982: Old Wu’s father was killed during the Cultural Revolution for the crime of being an intellectual; Book Idiot Zhou labored in the fields for years rather than agree to a Party-arranged marriage; and Little Guan was forced to publicly denounce and humiliate her father. As Pomfret follows his classmates from childhood to adulthood, he examines the effect of China’s transition from near-feudal communism to first-world capitalism. The result is an illuminating report from present-day China, and a moving portrait of its extraordinary people. John Pomfret Formerly The Washington Post’s bureau chief in Beijing and Los Angeles, John Pomfret was named editor of the Post’s Outlook Section in 2007. In 2003, he was awarded the Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Asian Journalism and in 2007 won the Shorenstein Prize for coverage of Asia. He lives near Washington, D.C., with his wife and family. Linda Jaivin is an novelist, translator, essayist and the author of seven books. After studying Chinese history at Brown University in the U.S., she spent nine years in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China as a student, editor and journalist. She speaks, reads and writes fluent Mandarin and has written extensively on Chinese society, culture and politics for a range of journals in Australia and overseas. The Monkey and the Dragon (Text 2001) is her China memoir cum biography of songwriter, defector and dissident Hou Dejian. She has translated the subtitles for many Chinese films including the Farewell My Concubine and Hero and was co-editor with Geremie Barmé of New Ghosts, Old Dreams: Chinese Rebel Voices (Times Books 1992); sinologist Perry Link of Princeton University wrote at the time that the co-editors' 'knowledge of contemporary Chinese urban culture is unmatched in the Western world.' Linda's most recent book was The Infernal Optimist (Fourth Estate 2006), which was short-listed for the 2007 ASL gold medal.' Monday, September 03, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Nancy Huston Fault Lines Published by: Text Publishing In conversation with Mireille Juchau Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Sol is a very special six year old. He learned to read in the cot and his mum believes he is destined for greatness. His only imperfection is the large birthmark on his temple. His Dad has one too. So does his Grandma. Sol's mum decides to have his birthmark removed, but, is this the right thing to do? A family trip to Germany to visit a dying relative uncovers a family secret about the Second World War which is more shocking than any of them could have imagined. It seems that birthmarks are not the only things that have been passed down the generations . . . A tale of four generations of one family, each told from the perspective of a six year old, Fault Lines is a funny, touching novel which examines how the decisions and upheavals of one generation can impact upon the lives of the next. A bestseller in France, where it won the prestigious Prix Femina in 2006, Fault Lines is currently being translated into eighteen languages. 'Explosive in its control and ambition' Le Figaro 'Nancy Huston is a beautiful, lyrical, unforgettable writer' Janette Turner Hospital Nancy Huston was born in Canada. She went to live in Paris in 1973. Her novels include The Goldberg Variations, Plainsong, Slow Emergencies, Instruments of Darkness. She received the Prix Femina in 2006 for Fault Lines. Nancy Huston lives in Paris with her husband Tzvetan Todorov and their two children. Nancy Huston is a guest at the Melbourne Writers' Festival Mireille Juchau's first novel, Machines for Feeling was shortlisted for the 1999 Vogel/Australian Award. Her second novel Burning In, has just been published by Giramondo Publishing. Saturday, September 01, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Bronwyn Davies (Ed) Judith Butler in Conversation: Analysing the texts and talk of everyday life Published by: Routledge To be launched by Professor Wayne McKenna, Executive Dean of the College of Arts, University of Western Sydney Guest speaker: Professor Johanna Wyn, Director of the Youth Research Centre, University of Melbourne Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe  How has Judith Butler's writing contributed to thought in the Social Sciences and the Humanities? The participants in this project draw on various aspects of Butler's conceptual work and they question how it has opened up the possibilities of thought in areas of study as diverse as Theater Studies, Education, and Narrative Therapy. In a format that demands careful listening and response, the scholars in this book interact with Butler and with her writing, and they interact with each other. Within this dynamic interactive space, they take up Butler's body of work and they carry it in new and exciting directions. Their conversations and writing are, in turn, funny, exciting, surprising and moving. "Recognition, narration, embodiment, identity, power, ethics, play: so many of the points of departure one associates with the work of Judith Butler flourish in this wonderfully interdisciplinary book. Professor Davies' ingenious editing captures what's beautiful about the best conversations: they are rigorous, focused, yet open to transformative thought. This book is a marvelous exemplum of intellectual collaboration, and a great introduction to and elaboration of key aspects of Judith Butler's work." -Lauren Berlant, George M. Pullman Professor of English and Director of the Lesbian and Gay Studies Project, University of Chicago Bronwyn Davies is Professor of Education at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. She is best known for her work on poststructuralist theory and gender.     August 2007 Friday, August 31, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Max Deutscher Judgment After Arendt Published by: Polity Press To be launched by Assoc. Prof John Sutton Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Judgment After Arendt is both the first full-length study of Hannah Arendt's The Life of the Mind and, at the same time, a philosophical work on the core concepts of thinking, willing and judging. In analysing Arendt's work Deutscher develops this theme of judgment and shows how, by drawing upon literature, history, myth and idiom, Arendt contributes significantly to contemporary philosophy. Thursday, August 30, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Christian Kerr (Ed) The Crikey Guide to the 2007 Federal Election Published by: Penguin In conversation with Antony Green Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The 2007 federal election is looming - but how will you vote if you don't understand the game? And how will you place your bets and impress friends at your election night party? In this event, Christian Kerr, editor of The Crikey Guide to the 2007 Federal Election, and ABC Election Analyst Antony Green, will take us through the major issues and the most important marginal seats. There will be maps. There will be a long white pointer stick! Come along and vote 1 for informed choice. The book: In The Crikey Guide to the 2007 Federal Election, the insiders from leading Australian independent media outlet Crikey explain how the system works and how the pollies are working the system. As Howard attempts a fifth successive term and Rudd hopes to lead a reinvigorated Labor back from the wilderness, Christian Kerr and the Crikey team identify the power players of the election campaign and explain the significance of polling, the press gallery and lobbyists. Crikey profiles the electorates which hold the key to winning government and provide a thumbnail guide to every seat for election night. Political luminaries Malcolm Fraser, Neal Blewett, Fred Chaney and Senator Barnaby Joyce join in to reverse the spin of modern electioneering. Other contributors include Peter Brent, Richard Farmer, Julian Fitzgerald, Mungo McCallum, Matthew Marks and Charles Richardson. The Crikey Guide to the 2007 Federal Election helps you see through the dog-whistling, pork-barrelling, mud-slinging, bub-wrangling, and choking smoke and highly polished mirrors of the Australian political process, with more than a few laughs along the way. Christian Kerr is the National Affairs Editor of Australia's most widely-read independent online news service, Crikey.com.au. He is a regular commentator on political and media issues for radio, television and in other publications, as well as a regular speaker at conferences and seminars. Christian is a former adviser to two federal cabinet ministers and a state premier and has worked as corporate relations manager to one of the nation's largest construction and infrastructure companies. Wednesday, August 29, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel Chris Bonnor - Jane Caro The Stupid Country: How Australia is Dismantling Public Education Published by: UNSW Press Panel: Lila Mularczyk, Principal of Merrylands High School and John Kaye, MLA in NSW Parliament and Greens spokesperson on education Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In this timely and provocative book, Chris Bonnor and Jane Caro cast a clear and uncompromising spotlight on what is really going on in our public and private schools. Drawing on a substantial body of knowledge, opinion and research on schooling in Australia and overseas, the authors argue that public education is being compromised by government policy, parents, the church and ideology, and that unless we find policy alternatives, Australia could indeed become 'the stupid country'. Chris Bonnor AM is an education writer with wide experience in teaching, consultancy and school leadership. His interests and research have spanned geography, gender education and education systems and he has presented at many conferences in Australia and overseas. He was most recently the president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council. He writes on educational issues for a number of publications, including New Matilda and Sydney newspapers. Jane Caro is an award winning advertising writer with 25 years experience. In recent years, she has broadened her experience into reviews, opinion pieces, regular columns, broadcasting and speaking. She also writes on educational and other issues for a range of publications, including newspapers and New Matilda. Jane is also a product of the NSW public education system, including a free university education. She is the parent of two teenage daughters, both educated in NSW public schools. Tuesday, August 28, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Andrew Darby Harpoon: Into the Heart of Whaling In conversation with Peter Garrett (Opposition spokesman on the Environment) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe How can it be that, 20 years after whaling was ‘banned’, whales continue to be harpooned? Why do some countries still refuse to give up whaling? What does this mean for the animals themselves? Harpoon demystifies the world’s longest-running conservation crisis. To many, the whale is a majestic mammal, the ‘mind in the ocean’. What were once whaling towns have become homes to hordes of devoted whale watchers and whaling, for most part, was thought to have been vanquished. Instead, the whalers came back. In 1987, the first full year after the worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling was agreed to, 100 whales were killed on the end of grenade-tipped harpoons. In 2005, the figure was around 2500. Harpoon is the first book in a decade to guide readers toward the truth at the heart of whaling. It reveals the deception and manipulation at the highest levels of international politics that have allowed some countries, particularly Japan, to continue hunting whales against the wishes of the world, with the International Whaling Commission powerless to stop the slaughter. About the author: No journalist anywhere is closer to the realities of modern whaling than Andrew Darby. Holding one of the few masters degrees in Antarctic politics, he also has an unrivalled understanding of the highly combative international politics of whaling. He writes for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. Monday, August 27, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Frank Stilwell, Kirrily Jordan Who Gets What?: Analysing Economic Inequality in Australia To be launched by Julian Disney Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The book addresses important contemporary concerns about social justice. It presents detailed economic evidence, but analyses it in a manner that is engaging and readily accessible to the non-specialist reader. Who Gets What? examines what has been happening to incomes and wealth in Australia, what causes increased economic inequality, and the possibility of creating a more egalitarian society. It looks at who is rich, which social groups are still in poverty, and the policies that could redistribute income and wealth more effectively. - The most thorough and up-to-date account of the distribution of wealth in Australia - Written by the country's leading expert on the economics and politics of inequality - Carefully examines the factors that underpin the recent trend towards inequality, and considers how this trend might be reversed. Sunday, August 26, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Special Event Sunday Book Club - August Feather Man by Rhyll McMaster Hosted by Morgan Smith Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Sunday Book Club aims to promote and further appreciation of Australian fiction. Morgan Smith, gleebooks events manager, will host a discussion about a contemporary Australian novel on the last Sunday of every month. Morgan will choose the book and it is highly desirable (as in any reading group) for those attending to have read it in order to take part in the discussion. By RSVP-ing you will automatically be registered as a Sunday Book Club member, and be eligible for 10% discount from gleebooks on the book of the month. (you will need to say that you are a Sunday Book Club member.) Of course, you may borrow the book from a library or buy the book elsewhere. If you have already bought and read the book, you will also need to RSVP. The first book we will be discussing is Feather Man by Rhyll McMaster - Rhyll will be coming along to talk with you about her highly praised first novel. But unlike an 'in conversation' where Q&A is restricted, the entire hour (or so) will be an inclusive conversation in which everyone is encouraged to participate. There will be a $5 donation on the day for those who want wine. Feather Man: Beginning in Brisbane during the stifling 1950s, this account of the betrayal of love throws us into the disordered world of a young artist as she transits warily to the bohemian London of the 70s. At the core of the novel is the image of the blackmailer, and of emotional rescue just to hand. In this twisted black comedy of the fictions of the heart live characters you will never forget. ‘Highly original… told within a brilliant and exact mise-en-scène… wrapped in finely ironic and analytically acute prose… the way it is organised is very much what the Balzacs and Updikes of this world use… I truly admire it.’ Peter Porter Thursday, August 23, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Robyn Williams Future Perfect Published by: ABC Books In conversation with Richard Neville Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe With his inimitable and entertaining mix of reportage and feigned indignation, Robyn Williams tackles the future of just about everything - from work and science to god and sex. Thinking about the future is not a normal human activity. Since we first came down out of the trees, most of our waking hours have been preoccupied with staying alive - life expectancy was so short, it was hard to seriously plan ahead. The religions we concocted taught us that the future was in the hands of our gods and we should concentrate mainly on the afterlife. Future Perfect is a book for those who believe we can shape the future of our earth, and that there is a moral responsibility for us to do just that. It's difficult to disembark once you're here, after all. Written in Robyn Williams' characteristically whimsical and provocative style, it conjures up the possibilities before us in our cities, our employment, our transport and even our sex lives. It confronts the challenges before us and does not shrink from the hard answers. Witty and immensely entertaining, informative and didactic, Future Perfect will fuel many an argument. Wednesday, August 22, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk A.C. Grayling Towards the Light: The Story of the Struggles for Liberty and Rights that made the Modern West Published by: Bloomsbury Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe An accessible and excitingly refreshing new perspective on how the rights we enjoy in the West were won, and at what personal cost. In Towards the Light, A.C. Grayling places the liberation of the individual at the centre of the story of Western development between the Reformation and the late 20th Century. The Modern West, he argues, was formed by a series of struggles leading to victories over arbitrary authority, slavery, and ignorance. Paying detailed attention to the dominance, and subsequent erosion, of religious hegemony, absolute rule, feudalism and slavery, Towards the Light focuses on the hard-won reforms in the three hundred years following the Reformation and the way in which they laid the foundations for education and modern democracy. In an eloquent, grandly epic narrative, Grayling describes how these struggles for liberation have made the Western world what it is today. This is an important story of the liberation of the individual. A.C. Grayling is one of Britain's leading intellectuals. Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a supernumerary fellow of St. Anne's College, Oxford, the multi-talented author of the best-selling The Meaning of Things, The Reason of Things and most recently The Mystery of Things, believes that philosophy should take an active, useful role in society, rather than withdrawing to the proverbial ivory tower. He is a regular contributor to The Times, the Financial Times, Observer, Independent on Sunday, Economist, Literary Review and New Statesman. He is also a frequent and popular contributor to radio and television, including CNN and News night. He was a Man Booker judge in 2003, is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum and an advisor on many committees ranging from Drug Testing at Work to human rights groups. Monday, August 20, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Peter Beinart The Good Fight: Why liberals - and Only Liberals - can Win the War on Terror Published by: Melbourne University Press In conversation with Phillip Adams Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Once upon a time, liberals knew what they believed. They believed America must lead the world by persuasion, not command. And they believed that by championing freedom overseas, America itself could become more free. That liberal spirit won America's trust at the dawn of the cold war. Then it collapsed in the wake of Vietnam. Now, after 9/11, and the failed presidency of George W. Bush, America needs it back. In this powerful and provocative book, Peter Beinart offers a new liberal vision, based on principles liberals too often forget: That America's greatness cannot simply be asserted; it must be proved. That to be good, America does not have to be pure. That American leadership is not American empire. And that liberalism cannot merely define itself against the right, but must fervently oppose the totalitarianism that blighted Europe a half century ago, and which stalks the Islamic world today. With liberals severed from their own history, conservatives have drawn on theirs—the principles of national chauvinism and moral complacency that America once rejected. The country will reject them again, and embrace the creed that brought it greatness before. But only if liberals remember what that means. It means an unyielding hostility to totalitarianism—and a recognition that defeating it requires bringing hope to the bleakest corners of the globe. And it means understanding that democracy begins at home, in a nation that does not merely preach about justice, but becomes more just itself. Peter Beinart's The Good Fight is a passionate rejoinder to the conservatives who have ruled Washington since 9/11. It is an intellectual lifeline for a Democratic Party lying flat on its back. And it is a call for liberals to revive the spirit that swept America, and inspired the world. Peter Beinart is editor-at-large at The New Republic. He is also a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Time contributor, and a monthly columnist for The Washington Post. His book, The Good Fight: Why Liberals--And Only Liberals--Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again, was published by HarperCollins in June 2006. Peter Beinart is a guest of the Melbourne Writers Festival Saturday, August 18, 2007 / 2.30 for 3pm Past Launch Elizabeth and Wandihnu Wymarra Wandihnu and the Old Dugong - Illustrated by Ben Hodges Published by: Magabala books To be launched by Joyce Wymarra Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Written by mother and daughter duo, Wandihnu and the old Dugong is a contemporary story about a young girl, who has grown up in the city and is about to return to Badu Island to stay with her Aka (grandmother). It is time for Wandihnu to learn about the customs and culture of her people who come from the Torres Strait. The night before she leaves, Wandihnu slowly drifts off to sleep, and she begins to dream about the journey, about her Aka, and about a very special friend. Joyce Wymarra is Elizabeth Wymarra's mother, Wandihnu's grandmother and a respected elder of the SydneyTorres Strait community. Friday, August 17, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel Bishop John Shelby Spong Jesus for the Non-Religious Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The crowds gather when Bishop John Shelby Spong comes to town, and this August, when the controversial, bestselling bishop arrives in Australia, it will be no different. Spong has been on a lifelong quest to rescue the Church from irrelevancy, and his new book, Jesus for the Non-Religious, is sure to draw attention from secular and non-secular communities alike. In Jesus for the Non-Religious Spong takes aim at the Church’s core belief, and boldly asks: who is Jesus Christ? First he separates the man from the myths surrounding him — from the tale of Jesus’ miraculous birth to the account of his cosmic ascension into the sky at the end of his life. Spong strips away traditional notions such as Jesus’ ability to perform miracles and the attempt to understand resurrection as the physical resuscitation of a deceased body, and explains that these traditions arose because the early disciples saw all that Jesus did through the lens of the Hebrew scriptures. With these new revelations we are then able to see the true Jesus, a hero for the modern world whose humanity revealed his divinity. In short, Spong radically breaks Jesus free from the idol religion has created. What remains is a Jesus through whom the presence of God flows, a Jesus who commands the attention of the religious and the non-religious alike. John Shelby Spong was the Episcopal Bishop of Newark before his retirement in 2000. As a visiting lecturer at Harvard and at universities and churches throughout the English-speaking world, he is one of the leading spokespersons for an open and scholarly Christianity. His books have sold over a million copies. Among his bestselling titles are Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin, Liberating the Gospels, Born of a Woman, Resurrection: Myth or Reality, This Hebrew Lord, Why Christianity Must Change or Die, A New Christianity for a New World, The Sins of Scripture and his autobiography, Here I Stand. He has initiated landmark discussions on controversies within the Church and has become an outspoken advocate for an inclusive church. Thursday, August 16, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Tanya Levin People in Glass Houses:An Insider's Story of a Life In and Out of Hillsong Published by: Black Inc. In conversation with Steve Cannane Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe People in Glass Houses is the first insider's account of what it's really like growing up inside the country's most ambitious, entrepreneurial and influential religious corporation. Tanya Levin grew up in the church that became Hillsong. Her story parallels that of the small Assemblies of God church in a suburban school hall that became a multi-million dollar tax-free enterprise, with a soaring membership - and which is now a powerful force in Australia today. Born in South Africa under apartheid and emigrating with her family to Australia in the 1970's, Levin describes herself as 'blessed with an Assembly of God Pentecostal born-again evangelical Jewish Australian upbringing and plagued by a Gen-X post-modern mind and middle-class education'. More than an examination of the phenomenon that is Hillsong, this book charts the growing pains of a young fundamentalist Pentecostal Christian - the passion, the pain and the eventual disillusionment. Opening up the world of Christian fundamentalism, this is a powerful, personal and at times very funny exploration of an all-singing, all-swaying mega church. Extract from People in Glass Houses: The eighties were my formative years, and while other teenagers were gyrating to rock'n'roll, we were praying for revival. We were taking communion, not cocaine. We treated virginity like a wedding present, not a cold sore. And why wouldn't we? We were told we could be, we already were, anything we wanted to be … We were armed and dangerous. Armed with the power of God and dangerous in the eyes of Satan. Tanya Levin is no longer welcome in the church. She lives in Sydney. Steve Cannane, formerly of Triple J won the 2006 Walkely Award for Broadcast Journalism. He is a current affairs journalist for JTV. Wednesday, August 15, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Diana Georgeff Delinquent Angel Published by: Random House Australia To be launched by Robert Adamson Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe A sweet life turns to anarchy... Shelton Lea was born secretly, and adopted in the most bizarre circumstances into a high profile family. Growing up he was told he would never inherit the family fortune; that he had been adopted as a playmate for the natural children. Here began a life of extremes and excesses. Family dynamics produced disastrous outcomes and his adoptive mother placed him in a psychiatric institution at the age of three. He escaped from boys' homes, lived with gypsies, Aborigines, in doorways, in parks and went to prisons along the east coast of Australia. But genetics propelled his ascendance. He was born with tremendous gifts and when, as a teenager in a putrid lock-up, he discovered the writings of Ezra Pound, he knew the path his life would take. Reports of the legendary Shelton Lea spread. He was a romantic, bohemian outlaw - charming, insolent and contemptuous of authority. He stepped far beyond the bounds of propriety, encouraging comparisons to Rimbaud and Villon. When he died he took his wizard words, his mesmerising performance, his rabble rousing, and he was hailed as a seer of our age. 'The heartbreaking story of a ruined child poet whose wounds never healed. Diana Georgeff's tireless research, and her calm insight and intelligence, make this a riveting biography that moves and horrifies in turn.' DIANA GRIBBLE Tuesday, August 14, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Chester Porter QC The Conviction of the Innocent: How the Law Can let Us Down Published by: Random House Australia Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe "The Smiling Funnelweb" is one of Australia's most illustrious advocates. Chester Porter QC clocked up countless courtroom triumphs during his long career and has been involved in changes to our legal system. Chester has long been passionate about notable cases of wrongful conviction - from the Dreyfus Affair to Lindy Chamberlain and the innocents on death row. As a senior member of the National Institute of Forensic Science, Chester is regularly invited to speak on the subject of wrongful convictions. As counsel assisting the Chamberlain Royal Commission, he was successful in exposing an extraordinary list of forensic blunders. He continues to advocate expenditure of government money on well equipped fully integrated laboratories to deal with forensic evidence "open to the defence as well as the Crown so the aim should be to get the right result, not to get convictions". About the Author: Chester Porter retired from the Bar on 30 June, 2000. The Bar Council of NSW made him an Honorary Life Member in August 2000 for his exceptional service to the Bar and the profession of law. As barrister Peter Clyne once commented: "I had the doubtful pleasure of being cross examined by Chester. That experience is rather like having your throat cut, quietly, courteously and swiftly" Monday, August 13, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Stuart McIntyre and Sheila Fitzpatrick (eds) Against the Grain: Brian Fitzpatrick and Manning Clark in Australian history and politics Published by: Melbourne University Press To be launched by Stephen Garton Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe  While Brian Fitzpatrick has today fallen into relative obscurity, efforts persist in discrediting Manning Clark's name. Against the Grain examines the dual careers of Fitzpatrick and Clark as activists and historians during the Cold War, and shows the political and personal difficulties that beset both men throughout their careers. Contributors Stuart Macintyre, James Waghorne, Ann Curthoys, Mark McKenna, Roger Douglas,Sheila Fitzpatrick, Mark Finnane, John Myrtle, Carolyn Rasmussen, Jill Roe and others critically observe the men's legacy and the value of their work to future generations. The collection also includes memoirs of Fitzpatrick and Clark by their daughters Sheila and Katerina, and Beverley Kingston and Nicholas Brown. Saturday, August 11, 2007 / 2.30 for 3pm Past Launch Brook Emery Uncommon Light Published by: Five Islands Press To be launched by Martin Langford Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Uncommon Light is a sustained challenge to the distinction St Augustine draws between the common light of everyday awareness and the uncommon light of God's omniscence: 'the Light that made me'. It probes the ambiguities of perception, thought, belief and unbelief seeking to locate the transcendent within material and Darwinian bounds and to preserve lyric possibilities despite pervasive injustice. Its restless speculations grow from sharply realised engagements with the phenomenal world. Brook Emery's poems are characteristically sophisticated meditations on the transformation of knowledge into wisdom. There is a strong narrative quality about many of the poems, and a philosophical temper embedded in a sense of the reality of the world . . . his poems have a polished elegance that combines love of nature and wonder at the artistic impulse that keeps us alive to the potential to behave in a civilised manner towards each other. He is a first-class craftsman whose rhythms, like the flow of his language, seem effortless. Judges' comments, Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize, 2004 Brook Emery has published two previous collections of poetry. and dug my fingers in the sand (FIP 2000) won the Judith Wright Calanthe Award at the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards and was short-listed for the Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Misplaced Heart (FIP 2003) was short-listed for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. He has also published a chapbook of selected shorter poems, At A Slight Angle (Picaro Press 2006). Individual poems have won the Newcastle Poetry Prize, the Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize and the Max Harris Literary Award. He lives in Sydney. Friday, August 10, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Antony Loewenstein My Israel Question: New Edition Published by: Melbourne University Press In conversation with Peter Manning Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The undeclared war in the Middle East is the abiding conflict of our era, with little apparent hope of resolution despite years of peace talks. The futile 2006 Lebanon war merely heightened this sense of hopelessness. On one side of the conflict, Israel asserts the right of the Jewish state to exist in Palestine. On the other, the Palestinian people struggle for survival. Far beyond Israel's disputed borders, the conflict is replayed in passionate public debate around the world. Written by an Australian Jew, Antony Loewenstein, My Israel Question was published in 2006 amidst a storm of controversy, critical praise and robust public debate. The Israel-Palestine conflict had rarely been discussed as frankly, an indication that decades-old silencing of dissenting views was coming to an end. Loewenstein's searching discussion continues here in this fully updated and expanded new edition. Loewenstein's is an important new voice in one of the most significant debates of our time. Hear Antony talk about the tumultuous events of the last year since his book has been published, with Peter Manning, author of Us and Them: A Journalist’s Investigation of Media, muslims and the middle East. Antony and Peter will also be talking about recent events in Gaza and the West Bank and the role of Hamas in the current crisis. How has the US behaved, and why? And what is our media not telling us about the real situation in Palestine? Thursday, August 09, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Michael Gawenda American Notebook: A Personal and Political Journey Published by: Melbourne University Press In conversation with Bob Carr Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe An extended essay on the United States under George W Bush, by one of Australia's most distinguished journalists and editors. “One of the rewards extended to former editors-if they are lucky and get to plan their departure-is that they can choose their next assignment. I had no doubt about what I wanted: to be Washington correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. There was no more important and interesting international story to cover than the United States at the beginning of George W. Bush's second term. The war in Iraq was going badly, and it was not at all clear that the war on terror was being won-or even if there was any agreement that it was, in fact, a war.” When veteran journalist Michael Gawenda was posted to the USA as a Washington correspondent in 2005, George W. Bush was beginning his second term, and the war in Iraq was showing signs of becoming a quagmire. Two years later, Bush is a lame duck president and most Americans want their troops out of Iraq. American Notebook is Gawenda's absorbing and insightful account of his American posting. Weaving the personal into the political, Gawenda takes the reader on his journey into a country he has always loved. Beyond daily life in Washington, he visits hurricane-ravaged New Orleans and the God-fearing states of the Midwest. His insightful analysis of politics and current events is interwoven with his reflections on his childhood as a post-war Jewish refugee, growing up in the sixties in a Melbourne steeped in American culture. In light of the increasingly evident failure of efforts in Iraq, he revisits his own controversial decision while Editor of The Age newspaper to support the Howard Government's decision in 2003 to join the coalition of the willing. American Notebook is a fascinating discussion of the role of journalism and the nature of public debate about war, politics and current events. About the Author: Michael Gawenda is a journalist and columnist and a former Washington correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is a former editor-in-chief of The Age and a former editor of Time (Australia). He is a multiple recipient of the Walkley Award, Australia's most prestigious award for journalism. Wednesday, August 08, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Judith Ajani The Forest Wars Published by: Melbourne University Press Judith Ajani and Henry Pens in conversation with Liz Jackson Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Australia's long-unresolved forest conflict has been the make-or-break factor in federal elections for the last few decades, with both parties often arguing that the four-decade-old forest conflict has no practical solution. They are wrong. Australia's existing plantations can meet virtually all the nation's wood needs and replace all native forest woodchipping. Australia can have a large, highly competitive and prosperous forest industry without logging native forests. Ajani suggests that Australia's forest conflict persists only because government has not let new, economically superior products displace environmentally inferior products in the market. Behind this failure lies silenced plantation processors, failing bureaucracies, government-created extraordinary native-forest-woodchipping profits and destructive union behaviour. She documents and examines each in detail, and proposes a new forest policy for Australia, calling on individuals in the power sector -- business people and politicians -- to commit themselves to breaking down the obstructions. Judth Ajani is Australia's foremost expert on the forestry industry and has 22 years of Australian forest industry research and policy experience. She managed Victoria's forest industry policy for the state's industry department in the second half of the 1980s; established an economic consultancy focussed on forestry in the early 1990s; and entered the Australian National University in the mid-1990s to concentrate on forest industry research. Henry Pens, former CEO of CSR Timber in the mid 1990s oversaw Australia' biggest sawmilling and wood panels business. Judith's discussions with Henry in his retirement were integral to the book. Liz Jackson is an award-winning ABC journalist currently working for 4 Corners. Tuesday, August 07, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Bob Burton Inside Spin :The dark underbelly of the PR Industry Published by: Allen & Unwin To be launched by Marian Wilkinson Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Public relations professionals invisibly influence just about every news story we read, see and hear. Even more significant is what they manage to keep out of the news altogether. Inside Spin is the first behind-the-scenes investigation of the billion dollar a year Australian PR industry. Using leaked internal documents, FoI searches, interviews and court records, Bob Burton lifts the lid on some of the most controversial campaigns run by leading Australian PR firms. He reveals how they create bogus community groups, smear critics, covertly mobilise think tanks and police to skew public debate in favour of their corporate and government clients. He also shows how they court journalists, government regulators and watchdog groups to smother dissenting voices. Inside Spin is a searing exposé of these powerful communications experts and the deep-pocketed organisations they serve. It also examines the role of journalists and the implications for our democracy. About the Author: Bob Burton is a Canberra-based freelance journalist and one of the few commentators with a deep knowledge of the PR industry. He is the editor of SourceWatch www.sourcewatch.org, an online wiki-based database on the global PR and lobbying industry for the US-based media non-profit group, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and has been a regular contributor to PR Watch. Monday, August 06, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Catriona Elder Being Australian: Narratives of National Identity Published by: Allen & Unwin To be launched by Assoc. Prof. Alison Bashford Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Catriona Elder explores the origins and meanings behind the many stories we tell ourselves about what it means to be 'Australian', and to be 'un-Australian' in this introduction to Australian culture, society and history. After a century of speculation by writers, filmmakers, travelers and scholars, being 'Australian' has become a recognisable shorthand for a group of national characteristics. Now, in an era of international terrorism, being seen as 'un-Australian' has become a potent rhetorical weapon for some, and a badge of honour for others. Catriona Elder explores the origins, meaning and effects of the many stories we tell about ourselves, and how they have changed over time. She outlines some of the traditional stories and their role in Australian nationalism, and she shows how concepts of egalitarianism, peaceful settlement and sporting prowess have been used to create a national identity. Elder also investigates the cultural and social perspectives that have been used to critique dominant accounts of Australian identity, including ideas of class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and race. She shows how these critiques have been, in turn, queried in recent years. Being Australian is an ideal introduction to studying Australia for anyone interested in understanding Australian society, culture and history. A clever work: incisive and original. At a time when Australian identities have never been more debated, Elder finds an open way through the closed doors which often restrict cultural representations of "Australian-ness".' Professor Adam Shoemaker, Dean of Arts, ANU This is a timely and significant new analysis essential reading on issues of identity and our own anxieties about national belonging and what it means to be Australian' in a globalising world.' Kate Darian-Smith, Professor of Australian Studies and History, University of Melbourne Sunday, August 05, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Jane Gibian Ardent: New Poems Published by: Giramondo Publishing To be launched by Adam Aitken Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Jane Gibian is one of Australia's most promising young poets, and Ardent is her first major collection. Gibian's poems exhibit a range of poetic forms, including haiku, tanka and the pantoum, all of which are designed to throw a sharp focus on, and draw maximum resonance from, the small or fleeting detail. Many engage with foreign places and cultures, particularly Vietnam, and with the experience of negotiating a world which is unfamiliar, fascinating, and strange. An important part of this negotiation with a world which hovers on the edge of strangeness, is the experience of language itself, and its uncertainties and hesitations. Gesture, particularly the gestures of intimacy and affection, are also traced with great concentration and delicacy. Gibian's poems have a certain shyness or reserve, but they are also hardhitting when you least expect it, with an irony which gives her voice a strong, earthy, realistic quality. Many poems explore the expression of emotion and desire, offering a keen sense of the expressiveness of the body as it carries itself in space and time, and of the natural environment, as it in turn influences and embodies human feelings. Jane Gibian is the author of two poetry books, The Body's Navigation (1998) and long shadows (2005). In 2002 she was awarded an Asialink Literature Residency in Hanoi. She works as a librarian and ESL teacher, and studies Vietnamese. She is an active participant in the contemporary poetry scene, with experience in publishing and in the performance of poetry. It is difficult to say why this book is so good. Every poem is luminous, exact, delicate, resonant; body, mind and feeling come together as insight. Every line, every word, every inflection is right. Every melancholy, irony and celebration is gentle. Compellingly beautiful. Noel Rowe Saturday, August 04, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Special Event Tibetan Friendship Society Special Fundraiser Special guest: Jenny Kee Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe $15 donation at the door We are very fortunate to have engaged Aussie icon and designer, Jenny Kee, to speak to us and sign copies of her book, A Big Life, in August. Jenny will talk, not only about swinging London and the heady days of Flamingo Park, but about the human struggle through suffering towards transformation and how Tibetan Buddhism has changed her life. She will also be available to answer questions. A Big Life 'Jenny Kee? Didn't she design that Koala jumper Princess Di wore when she was pregnant?', 'Wasn't she the Softly lady in all those TV ads?', 'Didn't she create that amazing frock salon, Flamingo Park?' Yes, but that's only part of the remarkable Jenny Kee story. With searing honesty she lays bare her private life: her dysfunctional family; her insecurities as a person and an artist; her love affairs and friendships; the highs and lows of motherhood and marriage to a gifted painter; her relationship with the younger man who became her soul mate, and its tragic end; the personal price she paid for the enormous success - and disastrous decline - of her business; and her road to spiritual and emotional fulfilment. Truly A BIG LIFE. Friday, August 03, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Peter Skrzynecki Old/New World: New & Selected Poems Published by: UQP To be launched by Les Murray Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Today, I stare for hours at the photograph and wonder who took it and why, of a mother standing with her son in her arms, in a Displaced Persons’ camp – in northern Germany after there’s been a World War – in a field of weeds and thistles, under a blank sky. For nearly 40 years Peter Skrzynecki’s poems have explored the lives of post-war immigrants in Australia, chronicling their struggle for identity and integration into society. His poems are elegiac, meditative and lyrical – intimately concerned with the Australian landscape, its fauna and flora, as well as family, human relationships and art. Old/New World brings together a generous selection of poems from his eight books – including the much-admired Immigrant Chronicle – and a superb new collection, Blood Plums. Thursday, August 02, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Peter Kirkwood The Quiet Revolution: The Emergence of Interfaith Consciousness Published by: ABC Books In conversation with Geraldine Doogue Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe An investigation into the global interfaith movement and companion volume to an important ABC TV documentary. Intolerance of different religions, miscommunication, and bigotry. It doesn't have to be this way. A global revolution is emerging - interfaith. In an increasingly politically and religiously fragmented world, a number of adherents of different faiths have realised the necessity of global interfaith connection and communication.Quiet Revolution investigates this important growing phenomenon. Over the last fifteen years or so there has been a worldwide mushrooming of organisations to promote international interfaith dialogue and understanding. Quiet Revolution introduces the basis for this developing interfaith movement - the desire for communication and understanding between different faiths, from Christian to Muslim to Buddhist and beyond. Travelling from the most multi-religious society in the world - and the home of many interfaith communities - New York, the ABC's Peter Kirkwood investigates this global movement and the communities and individuals that are driving its growth. Quiet Revolution is being written concurrently with the filming and production of an important three-part ABC Television documentary series of the same name to be screened as the book is being published. About the Author : Peter Kirkwood is a long-time producer on ABC Television's award-winning program Compass, and the author of Tomorrow's Islam (2005). Wednesday, August 01, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch James Jeffrey Paprika Paradise Published by: Hachette Livre Australia To be launched by Murray Waldren Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe James Jeffrey’s parents were an odd couple right from the start: his mother an impetuous Hungarian divorcee more flamboyant than Zsa Zsa Gabor, and his father a phlegmatic Englishman working in Hungary who made Geoff Boycott look vivacious. In the time it took him to buy some socks, she’d wooed and won her next husband. Following a brief and ill-conceived attempt to live in his father’s home town in the grey English midlands, James’s family moved to Australia’s ‘white bread’ heartland, where the incongruity of this bizarre love match became even more ap James began to ponder the imponderable: how did these disparate souls ever fall in love? And what mysterious force kept them together? Could Hungary, enigmatic land of stretched vowels, enthusiastic cheek-pinching and a stupendous disregard for calorific intake provide any clues? So with his wife Annabel and their two babies in tow, James embarked on a six-month mission to immerse himself in the land of his heritage and puzzle out the mystery of his parent’s marriage. Their travels revealed a beautiful, little-known jewel at the heart of Europe, a country with a rich history and a vivid, vibrant culture that is brought brilliantly to life in this, James’s account of their trip. Part hilarious Bill Bryson-style travel narrative, part nostalgic Gerald Durrell-style family memoir about a lost era, yet wholly engrossing, James Jeffrey gives the perfect guide to the land of his ‘almost birth’.     July 2007 Thursday, July 12, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Tony Kevin Walking the Camino: a modern pilgrimage to Santiago In conversation with Frank Brennan Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In May 2006, armed only with a small rucksack and a staff, Tony Kevin, an overweight, sedentary, 63-year-old former diplomat, set off on an eight-week trek across Spain. But this was not just a very long walk — it was a pilgrimage. From Granada, in the southeast, to Santiago de Compostela, in the far northwest, Tony followed the Via Mozarabe and the Via de la Plata, two of the many pilgrim trails that crisscross Spain and Portugal and that all lead to a single destination. In the Middle Ages, the cathedral city of Santiago de Compostela was Europe’s most famous centre of pilgrimage, and in recent years it has enjoyed a remarkable revival; every day towards noon, hundreds of hot, tired, and dusty pilgrims stream into Santiago Cathedral for the daily Pilgrim’s Mass. What, in our busy, materialistic 21st century, is this apparently anachronistic phenomenon all about? What drives tens of thousands of people of all nationalities and creeds to make long, exhausting walks across the cold mountains and hot tablelands of Spain, to take part finally in a mediaeval Christian liturgy of spiritual renewal and reconciliation with God? Walking the Camino beautifully captures the flavour of what it was like to walk the camino, and is filled with fascinating observations and anecdotes about the nature of contemporary Spain. And, unavoidably, because pilgrimage is such a deeply personal experience that has the potential to unlock the deepest recesses of hidden memory and conscience, it is also a profound personal meditation on the nature of modern life. It will be of interest to people who contemplate making, or who have made this walk; to those interested in the politics and culture of contemporary Spain; and indeed anyone who appreciates fine travel writing. About the Author: Tony Kevin retired from the Australian foreign service 1998, after a 30-year public service career during which he served in the Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister's departments, and was Australia's ambassador to Poland and Cambodia. He is currently an honorary visiting fellow at the Australian National University's Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies in Canberra. He has written extensively on Australian foreign, national security, and refugee policies in Australia's national print media, and is also the author of the award-winning book A Certain Maritime Incident: the sinking of SIEV X. Wednesday, July 11, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Andrew Charlton Ozonomics: Inside the Myth of Australia's Economic Superheroes Published by: Random House Australia In conversation with Don Russell (former Keating advisor) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe We're living through the second longest boom in Australian history. You can't move for talk of the budget surplus. The Liberals proclaim their impeccable economic record; Labor counterclaim that they sowed the seeds during their time in government. So who's right? Does it matter? And what does it all mean anyway? In this entertaining and incisive book, Australian economist Andrew Charlton looks behind the political smokescreen to reveal just how much of the rhetoric we should believe. He argues that while much of the economic headlines we read and see on TV are misleading and irrelevant, workers' rights, immigration, protectionism and investment in technology and education are all vital, in different ways, for the future of the nation -- and often have a direct impact on the world in which we live, from the size of our paypackets to the range of produce in our local stores. Forthright, compelling and extremely entertaining, this brilliant book shows ordinary readers why economics matters and why it is both more relevant and endlessly fascinating than they ever imagined... Tuesday, July 10, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Helen Townsend Above the Starry Frame Published by: Pan Macmillan In conversation with Tom Keneally* Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Tom Keneally will be in conversation with Helen Townsend about the Irish in Australia, with reference to Tom Keneally’s “The Great Shame” and “Above the Starry Frame” which provide a fascinating contrast in the experience of Protestant and Catholic migrants to Australia. Both books cover a similar period – from the great Famine to the end of the 19th century. Townsend’s book is the personal story of William Irwin, who left Ireland in 1849 and came to goldrush Ballarat, was caught up in the Eureka Stockade and settled as a publican in Ballarat. Keneally’s “Great Shame” looks at the fate of the political prisoners sent to Australia and their impact on Australian and American society. The impact of Irish migration and the question of Irish identity in Australia have great relevance to the questions of contemporary migration. The Irish Catholics were often seen as outsiders and troublemakers, whereas the Protestant Irish, although deeply influential, lost their identity as Irish within a few generations. The big questions of Irish politics, the Famine, the young Irelanders, the Fenians and Home Rule, resonated strongly in Australia, often revolving around questions of loyalty and religious bigotry, democracy and equality. Sunday, July 08, 2007 / 2.30 for 3pm Past Launch New Poets Publishing Program: Series 12 Published by: Five Islands Press Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Seventy-two poets have been published in the New Poets Program. Now, sadly, the Program is coming to a close. The new poets to be launched are: Craig Billingham: Storytelling Craig Billingham has been widely published in Australian literary journals. Nandi Chinna: our only guide is our homesickness Nandi Chinna was born in Adelaide in 1964. She spent seven years living in a yoga ashram in NSW before moving to Perth in 1990, where she studied media and writing. She has worked as a gardener, journalist, school teacher, actor and disability support worker. Her poetry has been widely published in journals and anthologies. She is currently writing a Master of Arts in poetry at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. Angela Costi: Honey and Salt Angela Costi received a travel grant from the Australian National Languages and Literacy Board in 1993, which enabled her to study classic theatre and perform in Ancient Greek plays in amphitheatres throughout Greece. She also visited her parent’s homeland, Cyprus. Since returning to Australia, she has been freelancing as a writer, playwright and dramaturg. Sarah French: Songs Orphans Sarah French ran away from the WA Conservatorium on Orientation Day. She spent five years as a full-time carer for her father, taught creative writing at Curtin University and co-edited the Young Writers Issue of Westerly. She currently teaches Japanese students English and writes poems on bus timetables on the way to work. Ella Holcombe: welcome/no vacancy Ella Holcombe was born in 1982 and spent the first year of her life in a caravan in the wilds of Kinglake. It snowed and her grandmother worried that Ella would perish. She didn’t. Ella now lives in Brunswick (VIC) with a bunch of stray boys and a very old dog. Poems in this collection have appeared in Above Water, Blurb, The New England Review, Poetrix, The Sleepers Almanac, Vivid and Voiceworks. A version of ‘The Storm’ won the John Marsden Award for Young Australian Writers in 2005. ‘Waiheke’ featured in The Cabinet of Lost and Found, a poetry installation at the 2006 Sydney Writers’ Festival. Adrian Robinson: The Slow Country Adrian Robinson was born in 1963 in the UK. He migrated to Australia with his family in 1970. He has published poetry and travel writing in a number of journals and newspapers including the Friendly St Anthologies, Meanjin. The Weekend Australian and Blue Dog. His poem ‘the invention of barbed wire’ was read on Radio National’s Poetica. Combined volume: Between Touch and Intent Features the work of all six poets in one volume. Saturday, July 07, 2007 / 3pm Past Special Event NAIDOC Natterings With Richard J Frankland Presented by The University of Western Sydney and Gadigal Information Services / Koori Radio Host: Anita Heiss Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Richard J Frankland discussing his new book Digger J. Jones. Followed by an open mike session, so bring a poem or short story. Richard J Frankland is a celebrated Indigenous activist, singer, performer, playwright, author and award-winning filmmaker. He regularly delivers cross-cultural awareness speeches and workshops to community groups. Richard has just completed writing his debut novel, a children's drama titled Digger J Jones. A moving and often funny story of a young Koorie boy growing up in 1967, the year of the referendum. I wanted to be a writer and write everything down that's happened so people'll know. Sometimes I feel invisible in the world. My dad says that every day brings something different and every year's new. He said sometimes life slaps you down but you gotta get up and slap it. Friday, July 06, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Richard Hil and Paul Wilson Dead Bodies Don't Count: Civilian Casualties and the Forgotten Costs of the Iraq Conflict Published by: Zeus Publishing In conversation with Mike Otterman Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The invasion of Iraq by US-led forces in March 2003 has resulted in a catastrophe of biblical proportions with estimates of civilian fatalities approaching three quarters of a million people or more, and widespread destruction to Iraq's infrastructure and environment. The announcement of the 'end of hostilities' by US President George W. Bush in May 2003 was followed by a massive upsurge in insurgency that has resulted in death and injury to tens of thousands of ordinary Iraqi people. As Iraq confronts the realities of civil war and the possible break-up of the country this book records the nature and scale of death and destruction that have engulfed the Iraqi nation. It invites readers to consider the actual costs of the conflict beyond the aggregated numbers of the dead and injured. Attention is drawn to the 'opportunity costs' of this war that has led to the diversion of much needed funds from international aid to a cruel investment in bombs, bullets and bloodshed. The war has impacted on many of the poorest nations on earth and its effects are likely to be played out well into this century, if not longer. Iraq will never be the same again, and its people may never recover from the catastrophe that has overtaken the nation. This book is an attempt to break the silence on the consequences of a war prosecuted for the most questionable of reasons, and to expose the self-promoting cant of its architects. The refusal by the 'coalition of the willing' to count the dead and injured, the media 'spin' designed to mask human suffering, and efforts to elevate the 'heroic' actions of the US military are a grim reminder of the techniques of contemporary warfare. Note: Paul McGeough has been called to the Middle East. Mike Otterman will take his place in conversation. Michael Otterman is the author of the recently published and widely acclaimed, American Torture and is an award-winning freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker. He was a recent visiting scholar at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) at the University of Sydney. Thursday, July 05, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event Robert Macklin Kevin Rudd: The Biography Published by: Viking Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe When Kevin Rudd became Labor leader in December 2006, many Australians had never heard of him. A few months later, his presence has galvanized the Labor party into an effective opposition, and he appears on the on the brink of becoming the leader of this country. But who is Kevin Rudd? What is his experience, both political and personal? What sort of man is he? What role does his religion play in his life? How has his wife’s multimillion-dollar business influenced him? In short, what sort of Prime Minister might he make? In this biography of Rudd, author, journalist and former Prime Ministerial press secretary Robert Macklin analyses the public and private record, including Rudd’s time as a diplomat in China and his role in Wayne Goss’s Queensland Government. Macklin has conducted exclusive interviews with Rudd’s former employers and colleagues to reveal the man away from the spotlight. And he has had full access to the Rudd family, and to Rudd himself, who talks about the enduring legacy of his childhood, through the tragedy of his early teens to the moment when he decided ‘to get determined’. This is a human story as much as a political one – sometimes funny, sometimes touching – written with great pace and drama. It is a timely book full of insights into the man who would be Prime Minister. About the Author: Robert Macklin began his journalistic career at the Courier-Mail. He worked in the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery for The Age and in 1967 joined Sir John McEwen as Press Secretary. Shortly afterward Prime Minister Harold Holt drowned and McEwen became Prime Minister. Macklin later joined The Canberra Times where he was associate editor until 2002. He is also the author of the political novel, The Paper Castle (1977), and Fire in the Blood – the epic tale of Frank Gardiner and Australia’s other bushrangers (2005); as well as non-fiction works, 100 Great Australians (1981), The Secret Life of Jesus (1990), War Babies (2005) and Jacka VC – Australian Hero (2006). With Peter Thompson he has written The Battle of Brisbane (2000), Kill The Tiger (2002), Keep Off the Skyline (2004) and The Man Who Died Twice – the life and adventures of Morrison of Peking (2004). Macklin lives in Canberra and divides his time between writing books, films and television. Note: Kevin Rudd will NOT be at this event. Wednesday, July 04, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Catherine Taylor Once Upon a Time in Beirut Published by: Random House Australia In conversation with Claire Scobie Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Lebanon, they say, is the gateway to the East, but for Catherine Taylor it would also become the gateway to an extraordinary new life. Beirut isn't an obvious home for a young Australian couple, but when the opportunity arose for journalist Catherine Taylor and her husband to move to Lebanon, they didn't think twice about leaving their comfortable life in Sydney. Catherine soon fell in love with the Paris of the Middle East and became fascinated by the complexity of its people: their exuberant and loving nature seemed to belie the many dark years of bloodshed and conflict they'd endured. She set about trying to understand the region, interviewing the wives of suicide bombers, Lebanese hashish farmers, stricken Palestinians on the West Bank, female boxing contestants in Cairo, Hezbollah fighters, and even Osama bin Laden's best friend. She also witnessed firsthand the impact of 9/11 on the region. Gradually she learnt to negotiate these very different cultures with humour and more than the occasional faux pas. When she reluctantly left after several years she vowed to return. In 2006, after the violence flared up again between Israel and Lebanon, she went back to see how her adopted country and friends had coped, and how, with their remarkable resilience, they saw the way forward. Tuesday, July 03, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Ruth Wajnryb Cheerio Tom, Dick and Harry Published by: Allen and Unwin In conversation with Sue Butler (Macquarie Dictionary) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Ruth Wajnryb embarks on a voyage of discovery among the words that once peppered the language of baby boomers and their parents to discover why they seem to be slipping from common use. Why is it that people don't say cheerio' any more, and, come to think of it, why did they in the first place? Do people still tinker with jalopies? And whatever happened to Tom, Dick and Harry, not to mention all those other folk who provided us with such excellent conversational shorthand? Filled with entertaining vignettes and intriguing etymology, Ruth has created an imaginary hospice that offers a caring refuge for pre-loved words that are in imminent danger of being dismissed as obs' (for obsolete') or arch' (for archaic') in English dictionaries. Written with Ruth Wajnryb's characteristic intelligence, sly wit and elan, Cheerio Tom, Dick and Harry examines the way in which our everyday language reflects and gives expression to the enormous changes that have taken place in our physical and social landscape over the last fifty years or so. Monday, July 02, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Ross Duncan All Those Bright Crosses Published by: Pan Macmillan To be launched by Malcolm Knox Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe "There were nights when I knew I would win. It was not a thing I could explain. But I felt it. As a firmness in my bones, tautness in my muscles. A tingle on the lips. Everything connected, flowing, my senses heightened. A confidence that I could do nothing wrong. On those nights I won obscene amounts of money. And there were nights when I knew nothing would go right, that I was destined to lose." Martin Flint has been hit hard. Two years ago his young daughter died in an accident, and while he and his wife are learning to cope with the tragedy, it doesn't look as if they're going to make it. More and more Martin turns to the only other friend he's got: the Pillars of Wisdom poker machine – until it lets him down one time too many. Using what's left of a small inheritance, Martin travels to Fiji. A little time-out from a life out of control is also an opportunity to research the story of a nineteenth-century treasure. From the realm of Sydney's poker machine parlours to the seedy bars and backstreets of Suva, Martin encounters conmen, criminals, drifters and dreamers. A young Fijian woman with troubles of her own provides heartache and hope – and the knowledge that life isn't always elsewhere. All Those Bright Crosses is a compelling insight into addiction, grief and the elusive nature of happiness. It is the first novel from an exciting new talent.     June 2007 Thursday, June 28, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Alison Broinowski Allied & Addicted This event has been cancelled Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In many respects, Australia behaves as if it were still a colonial dependency. Our policies on foreign affairs, trade, human rights, and the environment seem to be uncritically allied to those of the United States. In this provocative and timely book, Alison Broinowski argues that Australia’s development as an independent nation has stalled, and warns that behaving like the schoolyard bully’s errand-boy has earned Australia a reputation for being ready to ‘kiss up and kick down’. Broinowski shows how being so closely identified with current American policies harms Australia’s interests, and how the United States alliance actually endangers Australia more than it protects us. But she remains optimistic that Australia may at last be turning in the direction of genuine independence. Allied and Addicted challenges many of the assumptions of conservative policy-makers, and is an important and powerfully argued contribution to the continuing national debate about Australian identity and our place in the world. About the Author: Alison Broinowski is a visiting fellow in the Faculty of Asian Studies at the Australian National University. A former diplomat, she is the author of several books, including The Yellow Lady: Australian impressions of Asia, About Face: Asian accounts of Australia, and (with James Wilkinson) The Third Try: can the UN work?. She lives in Sydney. Alison Broinowski will be a guest of the SWF 2007. Wednesday, June 27, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Stephanie Dowrick Creative Journal Writing: The Art & Heart of Reflection Published by: Allen & Unwin Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe ‘We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand.' - C. Day Lewis Stephanie Dowrick’s Creative Journal Writing is the definitive guide to keeping a journal as spiritual practice and for personal growth. Journal writing is one of the most powerful and easily accessible tools we have to heal, expand and transform our lives. In this exceptionally positive and encouraging book, Stephanie frees the journal writer she believes is in virtually everyone, showing through stories and examples that a genuine sense of possibility can be revived on every page. Creative journal writing goes way beyond recording events. It can be the companion that supports but doesn't judge, a place of unparalleled discovery and a creative playground where the everyday rules no longer count. Combining a rich choice of ideas with wonderful stories, quotes and her refreshingly intimate thoughts gained through a lifetime of writing, Stephanie's insights and confidence make journal w riting irresistible - and your own life more enchanting. Tuesday, June 26, 2007 / 6.30pm Past Event / In Conversation Tariq Ali Latin America and the Arab World: Resistance and Occupation Presented by Sydney Ideas and gleebooks Venue: Seymour Theatre Centre A revolution is moving across Latin America. Since 1998, the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela has brought Hugo Chávez to world attention as the foremost challenger of the neoliberal consensus and American foreign policy. Tariq Ali shows how Chávez's views have polarized Latin America and examines the aggression directed against his administration. His lecture will guide us through a world divided between privilege and poverty, a continent that is once again on the march. The contrast with the Arab world could not be more striking. Here the resistance is divided and without the social vision required to unite a people. Tariq Ali is a novelist, historian and has been politically engaged since the Sixties. Monday, June 25, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Paul Cleary Shakedown: Australia’s Grab for Timor Oil Published by: Allen and Unwin in conversation with Aderito de Jesus Soares and Bruce Haigh Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In 2000 one of the poorest nations on earth began negotiations with Australia over rights to the lucrative oil and gas resources of the Timor Sea. With the revenue from the oil and gas fields, the young democracy of East Timor would have a chance to secure its economic future. If Australia would allow it. Shakedown is the inside story of Australia’s attempts to bully East Timor out of a promising future in the Timor Sea oil dispute. Paul Cleary gives a gripping insider’s account of the six years of bruising negotiations between Australia and East Timor that followed the independence ballot. He saw how the Timorese pulled off one of the great David and Goliath feats of the region but then were unable to lay the foundations for a peaceful future. He reveals the heroes AND the villains who emerged in this one-hundred-billion-dollar shakedown. Paul Cleary knows this subject better than most, and reveals vast inside material not previously reported. Appointed as advisor to the Prime Minister of East Timor by the World Bank, he took part in East Timor’s backroom strategy meetings and was involved in the negotiations as Australia and Alexander Downer stood over East Timor. He knows all the key players and provides a unique insider’s perspective into Australian foreign policy and how our government wields power internationally. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Paul Cleary began his career as an Australian journalist reporting on economic and social policy, and on Southeast Asia. After serving a decade in Australia’s national press gallery he was awarded a Chevening Fellowship by the UK Foreign Office, and after completing studies in London was appointed by the World Bank as an advisor to the Prime Minister of East Timor on the Timor Sea oil and gas negotiations. He now lives in Sydney. Bruce Haigh is a former diplomat whose postings included the Middle East, South Asia and South Africa – he was dramatised in the film Cry Freedom for his role in helping Donald Woods escape – and is the former head of DFAT’s Indonesia desk. Friday, June 22, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch UTS Anthology 2007:What You Do and Don’t Want Published by: Abc Bks To be launched by Frank Moorhouse Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The UTS Anthology has been continuously published for over twenty years and, with an anonymous selection process based on quality alone, consistently provides a taste of some of Australia’s best new writing talent. Former contibutors include Bernard Cohen, Nikki Gemmell, Beth Yahp, Margot Daly, Damien Lovelock, David Snell, Gillian Mears, Susan Temby, Pip Newling and plenty more. Selected, edited and managed by a committee of UTS students, the 2007 Anthology consists of 32 pieces culled from almost 300 submissions. Fiction and non-fiction are represented, along with poetry and experimental pieces which carve out their own territory. With subjects as varied as the bottled water industry, multiculturalism and a bungled murder investigation, and pieces that range from laugh-out-loud funny to deeply moving, What You Do and Don’t Want showcases the diversity of writing talent that UTS is renowned for. Students reading their work at this event include: Eleanor Limprecht, Zahid Gamieldien, Jaki Leigh, Tiffany Hambley, Jon Steiner, Lauren Finger, Sam Twyford-Moore. Thursday, June 21, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch J.S. Harry Not Finding Wittgenstein: Peter Henry Published by: Lepus Poems Giramondo To be launched by Kerry Leves and David Malouf Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The poems in Not Finding Wittgenstein feature Peter Henry Lepus, British-born, but of Creole origins, and moreover, a rabbit. 'Provoked into trying to use his mind', Peter Henry searches the world for philosophers, conversing with Wittgenstein in Antarctica and Bertrand Russell in Japan, and somewhat onesidedly, with 'Chairman Miaow' under moonlight. In the sequence 'Iraq, 2003', set during and after the invasion by coalition forces, he falls in with A.J. Ayer and J.L. Austin, story-hunting journalists, ancestor-seekers of various species, and a camel that looks after Number One. J.S. Harry's collections of poetry include The Life on Water and the Life Beneath, Selected Poems, which won the 1996 Kenneth Slessor Award for Poetry, and Sun Shadow, Moon Shadow. Notable for its intellect and wit, her poetry speaks with cool humour, and a humane and balanced candour. 'The further Harry seems from taking horror and extremity seriously, the more the poem insists that, while language can never intercept an incoming missile, it can light up a moral scene as nothing else canŠ For me she is the most arresting poet working in Australia today.' Peter Porter Wednesday, June 20, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Mary Zournazi Keywords to War: Reviving language in an age of terror Published by: Scribe Publications In conversation with Jake Lynch (Dir. Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Keywords to War is a groundbreaking exploration of the way that everyday language use in the post-9/11 world has instilled a state of fear and war in our minds and our communities. For Mary Zournazi, words are cultural artefacts fundamental not only to our political and philosophical tradition, but also to our sense of meaningful connection to the world. She shows how key words such as freedom, justice, and trust have been misused, abused, and misappropriated for narrow political ends — draining them of meaning and seriously diminishing public life in the process. Zournazi’s intent, however, is not simply to analyse language, but to revitalise it. By tracing the threads of historical meaning, and the competing values and ideas contained within words, she believes it is possible to replenish their deeper meaning, to restore the link between language and moral conscience, and to evoke a compassionate and hopeful alternative to the current political environment. Inspired by Raymond Williams’ Keywords (1983), and Don Watson’s Death Sentence (2003), Keywords to War is about the making and remaking of the world through language, and is itself a small step toward renewing that world and that language. Mary Zournazi teaches at the University of Wollongong. She is the author of several books including Hope — New Philosophies for Change (2002). She also works as a freelance radio producer and cultural commentator for ABC Radio National. She is preparing a radio series to accompany Keywords to War. Tuesday, June 19, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Fabian Society Event Bob Carr and Geoff Gallop Labor Leader on Labor Leader Moderator - Rodney Cavalier, a Minister in the Wran and Unsworth Governments. Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Have you wondered what it’s like to run a Government, to be the leader of a party as complex as the Australian Labor Party? This seminar is a new direction for the Fabians. It will be the first of several in the next few years when a Labor Leader will be interviewing another Labor Leader about their term in office, the challenges of leadership, how they managed their time and exercised control. Join the NSW Fabians and hear Bob Carr, Premier of New South Wales (1995-2005, Leader of the ALP 1988-2005) be interviewed by Dr. Geoff Gallop (Premier of Western Australia 2001-2006, Leader of the ALP 1996-2006). You will be hearing two leaders who, between them, led their parties for 27 years during which they won six elections. Both leaders led their parties out of Opposition, having taken over the leadership when ALP prospects were dim. Both achieved overwhelming re-election and handed the leadership of the party and government to men who led the ALP to victories at the subsequent election. The issue of succession management will be a part of the interview. Tuesday, June 19, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Event / Talk Clive James Cultural Amnesia: Notes In The Margin Of My Time Published by: Pan Macmillan Venue: NSW Teachers Federation Conference Centre 39-41 Reservoir St, Surry Hills ‘In this book can be heard the merest edge of an enormous conversation. As they never were in life, we can imagine the speakers all gathered in some vast room, wearing name tags in case they don’t recognize each other (although some recognize each other all too well, and avoid contact). My heroes and heroines are here. The reader will recognize some of their names, while other names will be more obscure. My intellectual betes noires are here too, and the same division might apply.’ Clive James An almanac combining a comprehensive survey of modern culture with an annotated index of who-was-who and what-was-what, Cultural Amnesia is Clive’s unique take on the places and the faces that shaped the twentieth-century. From Anna Akhmatova to Stefan Zweig, via Charles de Gaulle, Hitler, Thomas Mann and Wittgenstein, this varied and unfailingly absorbing book is both story and history, both public memoir and personal record – and provides an essential field-guide to the vast movements of taste, intellect, politics and delusion that helped to prepare the times we live in now. Monday, June 18, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Leigh Sales Detainee 002: The Case of David Hicks Published by: Melbourne University Press In conversation with Ray Martin Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In a remote American military base at Guantanamo Bay, 385 enemy combatants sit waiting for their day in court. Among them is David Hicks, who was detained for five years until the March 2007 hearing where he pleaded guilty to the charge of providing material support for terrorism. Detainee 002 reveals in unprecedented detail how an Australian citizen wound up in the War on Terror. Based on more than five years of reporting and dozens of interviews with insiders, Leigh Sales explains the intricacies of Hicks’s case, from his capture in Afghanistan, to life in Guantanamo Bay, to the behind-the-scene establishment and workings of the military commissions. Sales’ impeccable research takes us from top-secret negotiations at the White House and Pentagon to the domestic fallout Hicks’s incarceration has had on his family, to the campaign that Major Michael Mori, the marine who becomes his greatest advocate, waged on his behalf. David Hicks’s case is emblematic of some of the greatest challenges facing the world today: the rise of Islamic extremism, terrorism and the accountability of governments towards their citizens. It is a chilling reminder that, in a war with ever-changing rules and no end in sight, there are no limits. Leigh Sales is the ABC’s National Security Correspondent. She visited Guantanamo Bay twice during her recent four-year posting as the network’s Washington correspondent. In 2005, she won a prestigious Walkley Award for her coverage of the Guantanamo military commissions and was nominated again in 2006 for her reporting of Hurricane Katrina. Ray Martin writes: I don't care so much about David Hicks, the misfit. As Major Dan Mori said at one stage, " Mr.Hicks has made a few unfortunate life choices". What I care about is the injustice & indecency of what happened to Hicks, after he was vacuumed-up in Afghanistan & sold off to the CIA as a terrorist. As the elected government, John Howard & his team are culpable. But, then, so are the rest of us - including the silent voices of the ALP - for letting this immorality drag on for over five years. It's been a shameful episode. In her valuable book, Leigh Sales has joined the dots & painted a woeful picture of neglect. Saturday, June 16, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch E.F.C. Ludowyk & Ernest MacIntyre Jaffna and Colombo To be launched by TBA Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe For centuries the relationships between Jaffna and Colombo (like Belfast and London) have been determined by conflicting separate identities, comprising language, religion, the close proximity of Jaffna to the state of Tamil Nadu in India and physical separation of the two cities before rail and road. The three plays of this book comprise Ludowyk’s He Comes From Jaffna, Ernest Macintyre’s Rasanayagam’s Last Riot and He Still Comes from Jaffna. They tell some of the story of the last hundred years of this relationship, 1908 to 2002, the period of the British possession of both cities as part of the island colony of Ceylon and the following post independence period when this “little bit of England”, as the early Ceylonese elites liked to think, turned into an indigenous cockpit, even while it reverted to an ancient name, (Sri) Lanka. Friday, June 15, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Lindy Edwards How to Argue with an Economist: Reopening Political Debate in Australia 2nd Edition Published by: Cambridge University Press Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This fascinating book reflects on how economics has become central to our lives, and how the ‘economic rationalist’ perspective has become the lens through which all matters in Australian public life are viewed. It explains how this economic worldview systematically overlooks important social issues and how it transforms Australian culture. How to Argue with an Economist invites a broad general audience into debates that were once reserved for experts. Lindy Edwards, a former economic adviser in the Prime Minister’s Department, has a talent for expressing concepts simply. She distils economics’ key ideas into a lively and enjoyable read, explaining how economists think and then how you can argue with them. Thursday, June 14, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation David Hill Forgotten Children Published by: Random House Australia In conversation with Hugh Mackay Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In 1959 David Hill's mother was visited at her home in England by two ladies from the Fairbridge Society. They told her wonderful stories about Australia, and explained how the Fairbridge Farm School in New South Wales could benefit her sons. The Hills were poor and life was tough; David's mother, like so many other parents, felt that in sending David and his brothers to Australia she would be giving them an exceptional opportunity, a good education and a better life. The reality was vastly - and shockingly - different. During the 38 years the school in Molong was open, thousands of parents were persuaded to sign over legal guardianship of their children to Fairbridge to solve the problem of child poverty in the poor regions of Britain while populating the colony. Now many of those children have decided to speak out about the years of misery they experienced there. Physical and sexual abuse was not uncommon. Loneliness was rife. Food was often inedible. The standard of education was appalling. Here, for the first time, is the story of life as a Fairbridge child, from the bizarre luxury of the voyage out to Australia to the harsh reality of the first days there; from the crushing daily routine to stolen moments of freedom and the struggle that defined life after leaving the school. Part memoir, part investigation, this meticulously researched, moving book is both a tribute to the children who were betrayed by an ideal that went terribly awry and a compelling account of an extraordinary episode in Australian-British history. 'This book is a heartbreaker you can't put down, a calmly narrated and impeccably researched tale of children from poor British families transported to Australia not in the eighteenth but in the twentieth century; of their bewildered and graphic adventures under the emotional and physical parsimony of the Fairbridge Farm School ... The reader yearns to reach out to the children who, say, are given guns to shoot rabbits and use them to suicide instead. For Hill to be able to detail the story in such clinical detail is itself a triumph of spirit and craft and humane forgiveness.' TOM KENEALLY 'This is the story of upper-crust do-gooders who did bad: dreaming of Empire, they sent the children of the poor to a world without love. David Hill amasses evidence of the brutality and slavery to which they turned eyes blinded by their own righteousness. A compelling and moving account of how institutional cruelty was covered up by secrecy and wishful thinking.' GEOFFREY ROBERTSON QC Wednesday, June 13, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk David Malouf Typewriter Music Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe “David Malouf is arguably Australia’s leading contemporary novelist. But this achievement has for too long overshadowed the fact that he is also one of our finest poets.” Philip Neilsen Typewriter Music begins with a memory of new love – with ‘grace unasked for, urgencies that boom under the pocket of a shirt’ – and ends in the intimate territory of the long-familiar where there is no need for words. Some of the poems, like ‘Revolving Days’, are surprising and unexpected in their personal nature, while others echo Malouf’s ongoing interests in history and transformation. This long awaited volume is marked by an astonishing breadth of intelligence and erudition, yet steps lightly among the objects of our lives and the wonder of everyday replenishments. Everywhere the poems affirm the mystical delights of music, angels, and fields where ‘first to gather are the starlings in unquiet flocks’. The release of Typewriter Music, in an exquisite hardcover volume, is set to be a major event on the 2007 literary calendar. About the Author: David Malouf is internationally recognised as one of Australia’s finest writers. His previous volumes of poetry have received, among many distinctions, the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal and the Grace Leven Poetry Prize. He is also the author of eleven books of fiction and an autobiography. In 2000 he was the sixteenth Neustadt Laureate. Born and raised in Brisbane, he now lives in Sydney. Malouf’s previous literary awards include the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (1996); Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (1994); Christina Stead Prize for Fiction (1993); National Fiction Award (1992); Miles Franklin Literary Award (1991). Photo of David Malouf by Ð Conrad del Villar Tuesday, June 12, 2007 / 6.30pm Past Event / In Conversation John Carroll and Dr Peter Jensen (Anglican Archbishop of Sydney) in conversation. Existential Jesus Presented by Sydney Ideas and gleebooks Venue: Seymour Theatre Centre Jesus is the man who made the West. What kind of man was he? Is he relevant to a modern world shaken by crises of meaning? The churches have mainly projected him as Jesus the carer and comforter, Jesus meek and mild, friend of the weak. This is Jesus the Good Shepherd, who preaches on sin and forgiveness. He is Lord and Saviour.But this church Jesus is not remotely like the existential hero portrayed in the first and most potent telling of his life-story — that of Mark. Mark’s Jesus is a lonely and restless, mysterious stranger. His mission is dark and obscure. Everything he tries fails. By the end there is no God, no loyal followers — just torture by crucifixion, climaxing in a colossal death-scream. The story closes without a resurrection from the dead. There is just an empty tomb, and three women fleeing in terror. The existential Jesus speaks today. He does not spout doctrine; he has no interest in sin; his focus is not on some after-life. He gestures enigmatically from within his own gruelling experience, inviting the reader to walk in his shoes. He singles out everybody’s central question: ‘Who am I?’ The truth lies within individual identity, resounding in the depths of the inner self. The existential Jesus is the West’s great teacher on the nature of being. John Carroll is professor of sociology at La Trobe University in Melbourne. His recent books include Ego and Soul: the modern west in search of meaning (1998), The Western Dreaming (2001), Terror: a meditation on the meaning of September 11 Dr Peter Jensen has served in several positions in the Diocese, notably as Principal of Moore Theological College for 16 years, and has been a Recognised Teacher in Divinity at the University of Sydney. In 2001 he was elected as Archbishop of Sydney. Dr Jensen has written a number of books and many articles for academic and church journals. He is a widely acclaimed speaker on ecclesiastical and ethical issues, both nationally and internationally. In 2005 he delivered the annual Boyer Lectures on the ABC. Dr Jensen is only the second clergyman in over 40 years to receive this recognition. His 2005 Boyer Lectures have since been published by the ABC under the title "The Future of Jesus". Tuesday, June 12, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation David Marr Quarterly Essay 26: His Master's Voice: The Corruption of Public Debate Under Howard Published by: BLACK INC In conversation with Richard Ackland Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe John Howard has the loudest voice in Australia. He has cowed his critics, muffled the press, intimidated the ABC, gagged scientists, silenced NGOs, censored the arts, prosecuted leakers, criminalised protest and shut down parliamentary scrutiny. Though touted as a contest of values, this has been a party political assault on Australia's liberal culture. In the name of “balance” Howard's agenda has muscled its way into the intellectual life of the country. But this has happened because we let it happen. Once again, Howard has shown his superb grasp of Australia as it really is. In His Masters Voice, David Marr investigates both a decade of suppression and the strange willingness of Australians to watch, with such little angst, their liberties disappear. About the Author: David Marr is the multi-award winning author of Patrick White: a Life and The High Price of Heaven, and co-author with Marian Wilkinson of Dark Victory. In a career spanning over thirty years, he has written for The Bulletin and the Sydney Morning Herald, been editor the National Times, a reporter for Four Corners and until recently, presenter of ABC-TV's Media Watch. Friday, June 08, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Etchings 2 With selected author readings To be launched by Emily Ballou Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Etchings, from independent publisher Ilura Press, is a creative journal dedicated to showcasing new work by emerging and established writers and artists – a tri-annual publication with an international focus featuring fiction, essays, poetry, art and photography. Two issues have been released to date, exhibiting a great diversity of writing and art from Australia and overseas, making them lush collections for any reader to enjoy. Issue 2 features painter, sculptor and poet, Basil Eliades; an interview with John Tranter, founder of Jacket Magazine; essays from creative writing lecturer and novelist Dominique Hecq and translator Ton That Quynh Du; fiction and poetry by Jane Downing, Richard Lawson, Pham Thi Hoai, Christine Stanton, Emmett Stinson, Ouyang Yu, S. K. Kelen, and many more. Issue 2 brings together writing and art from Australia, England, Scotland, Canada, USA, Singapore, Vietnam, and China. In Issue 1, Melbourne stencil artist FORM, short stories by Meera Atkinson, Frank Burton, James Friel, Oga Cho, Subhash Jaireth, and others. Essays, poetry, art and photography to tickle the imagination. Issue 1 combines work from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA, UK, Kuwait, Greece, Austria, and Switzerland. Thursday, June 07, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Robert Bosnak Embodiment: Creative imagination in Medicine Art and Travel Published by: Routledge To be launched by John Bell Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Embodiment: Creative imagination in medicine, art and travel sets out Robert Bosnak’s practice of embodied imagination and demonstrates how he actually works with dreams and memories in groups. The book discusses various approaches to dreams, body and imagination, and combines this with a Jungian, neurobiological, relational and cultural analysis. The author’s fascination with dreams, the most absolute form of embodied imagination, has caused him to travel all over the world. From his research he concludes that while dreaming everyone everywhere experiences dreams as embodied events in time and space while the dreamer is convinced of being awake; it is after waking into our specific cultural stories about dreaming that the widely differing attitudes towards dreams arise. By taking dreaming reality, not our waking interpretation of it, as the model for imagination, this book creates a paradigm shock and produces methods which can be applied in a wide variety of cultural settings. This book discusses a variety of techniques which may be applied by health professionals to the work with their patients and clients. It will also be of particular interest to Jungian and relational psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and clinical psychologists, as well as to artists, actors, directors, writers and other individuals who wish to explore the creative imagination. Robert Bosnak is a Dutch Jungian Psychoanalyst who, after having been in private psychotherapy practice in Cambridge Massachusetts for 25 years, currently lives and works in Sydney Australia. Wednesday, June 06, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Linda Weiss, Elizabeth Thurbon and John Mathews National Insecurity :The Howard Government's Betrayal of Australia Published by: Allen & Unwin In conversation with Phillip Knightley Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe National Insecurity uncovers the truth behind the Howard Government's international trade treaties with the US and how crucial parts of Australia's domestic economy, international markets, defence and health security, research, energy policy and culture are being handed over to the US. It's the most arresting political story of the past decade: the reckless trampling of Australia's interests in one sector after another by a government that vigorously promotes itself as the guardian of national security. Pulled together for the first time in this meticulously researched book, this story is little known and scarcely believable. Seeking to tie its own political fortunes to its great and powerful friend, the Howard Government has contracted to transfer the farm, and much, much more to America Inc. Pursued with disturbing enthusiasm, the government's devious decisions have effectively undercut Australia's security, future prosperity, and cultural values. National Insecurity probes the extraordinary details of how Australia's national interests have been systematically undermined by its own Prime Minister, and offers a compelling explanation for this pattern of betrayal. Tuesday, June 05, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Matt Rubinstein A Little Rain on Thursday Published by: Text Publishing To be launched by Delia Falconer Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Jack lives in a world of words. His work is a search for the perfect translation, the phrase that will capture the poetry of an elusive idiom. His love for Beth is a thing of intimate word-play and half-told stories. So when he finds a fragile manuscript in the crypt of an old Sydney church, he is immediately fascinated. The language is like nothing he has ever seen, the aura of mystery intoxicating and dangerous. But are the manuscript’s deepening secrets to be trusted? Are there really sinister forces gathering around him? Or does Jack’s hunger for answers come from somewhere darker, more personal? A rich tapestry of ideas creates the backdrop for Matt Rubinstein’s dazzling new novel. A Little Rain on Thursday is a gripping thriller, a tender, bittersweet love story—and a compelling depiction of a life spinning into chaos.     May 2007 Friday, May 25, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Sue Woolfe The Mystery of the Cleaning Lady: A Writer looks at Obsession, Creativity,& Neuroscience Published by: UWA Press To be launched by Natasha Mitchell Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Bestselling author Sue Woolfe tracks the journey of her novel, The Secret Cure, through her interest in theories about creativity from the field of neuroscience. Woolfe explores the relationship between mind and body as well as how both inform the writing process. Designed to be a guide for emerging and student writers as well as readers interested in how the progress of an idea can develop in the hands of an acclaimed writer, this book continues the work Woolfe started with Kate Grenville of books about writing, this time with a particular case study of a novel-in-progress. Thursday, May 24, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel George Williams A Charter of Rights for Australia: 3rd Edition Published by: UNSW Press Panel: Susan Ryan AO, Richard Ackland, George Williams, Chair: Geoff Gallop Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Australia is the only democratic country in the world without a national charter of rights. Rights are assumed in Australia; but as anti-terror legislation, David Hicks and the push for ID cards demonstrate, civil assumptions are disposable. A charter could potentially nullify ID cards, temper the ballooning powers of ASIO, and fully protect freedom of speech. George Williams discusses his book, A Charter of Rights for Australia, with SMH columnist and Justinian editor Richard Ackland, and head of the New Matilda Human Rights Act Campaign, Susan Ryan. Wednesday, May 23, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Shane Maloney Sucked In Published by: Text Publishing In Conversation with Wendy Harmer Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Now pushing fifty, Murray Whelan is spinning his wheels in parliament, a toothless cog in a stalled political machine. The millennium is coming but the prospect of Labor regaining power is utterly remote. But when the remains of a long-dead union official are found in dried-up Lake Nillahcootie, Murray soon gets sucked into murky waters. For a start, it seems that his old mate Charlie Talbot was implicated. But Charlie has just dropped dead of a coronary occlusion in the dining room of the Mildura Grand Hotel, leaving a grieving widow and a lot of unanswered questions. The press is sniffing around and Labor's enemies are lining up for a free kick. And then there's the blackmail attempt. And as if that wasn’t enough there’s an ALP preselection brawl arcing up. Eagerly awaited by his legion of fans, Shane Maloney's sixth Murray Whelan mystery sees the clown prince of the true believers in vintage form. Monday, May 21, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Deborah Barit Impressive Interviews Published by: A&A Publishing To be launched by David Baumgarten Chief Executive Officer Business Enterprise Centre Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Will you land your dream job in 2007 or will you let someone else walk off with the prize? Impressive Interviews - your pocket-sized personal interview trainer, is not just a book, it is your secret weapon for interview success. 'Going into that interview thinking like an employer is what gives you, the candidate, the edge,' says Deborah Barit, author of Impressive Interviews. 'You are no longer thinking about what's in it for you, you're thinking about what's best for the organisation and that makes you the right person for the job." Packed with proven tips, tools and exercises yet refreshingly jargon-free, Impressive Interviews is an easy-to-read guide that teaches the candidate - regardless of age, educational level or ethnic background - the essential elements of winning a job. Typical interview questions, effective answers, role-play exercises and Skills Analysis Tools - everything required to ensure a confident, fluent presentation is packed into this pocket-sized personal interview trainer. Deborah Barit is a Sydney-based author, trainer and consultant who specialises in preparing individuals and groups in interview techniques. She has successfully placed clients from professions as diverse as Health, Law, IT, Senior Management and the Arts in their position of choice. She also works with new graduates, school leavers and long-term unemployed. Friday, May 18, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Gay McAuley (Ed) Unstable Ground: Performance and Politics of Space Published by: Peter Lang To be launched by Ross Gibson Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Theorists in the humanities and social sciences are increasingly aware of the need to account for the dynamic role played by spatial factors in nearly every domain of human experience. Theatre, as an art form that is utterly dependent on its own spatiality, has a major contribution to make to contemporary debates about space and place. In this book, academics from Australian departments of theatre and performance studies are joined by others from anthropology, cultural and environmental studies as well as site-based performance makers, in order to explore the nexus between place and performance in practices ranging from mainstream theatre and site-specific performance to political demonstrations, rituals of commemoration and social display. While the places and performances they describe are necessarily local, the issues raised are not peculiar to Australia and will resonate with people in many countries where incoming settlers have displaced indigenous populations, where large-scale migration has unsettled resident populations, where atrocities have been committed (in peacetime as well as war) and people have somehow to find ways to live in places marked by the memory of trauma. The book ends with a theoretical afterword by anthropologist Lowell Lewis, proposing some important refinements to ongoing critical discourse about space and place. Thursday, May 17, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Mira Crouch War Fare: Sustenance in Time of Fear and Want Published by: Gavemer To be launched by Prof. Clive Kessler Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Nazi racial policy in occupied Serbia exempted young Mira from persecution, but seven people dear to her were murdered by March 1942. Against a backdrop of death, it is the ordinary, everyday existence that is depicted in this book: getting through, somehow, the days, weeks and months; and when loved ones are no more, for those left behind, the business of enduring life, for four long years. Food was the main preoccupation. How to obtain it and what to do with it were pressing and ever-present questions for the extended family that surrounded Mira during the WWII years. An overwhelming concern with provisioning is reflected in many a page vividly describing the inventive ways of putting precious supplies to best use. But sustenance is more than food. Complex human relations constitute the core of this memoir. The effects of wartime conditions (danger from both enemy and friendly fire, grief and mourning, constant uncertainty) on personalities and their doings are explored through the eyes of a needy and vigilant child. The author's memories are recounted with insight, humility and humour. Gently but firmly, the reader's imagination is led toward compassion for vulnerability and respect for resilience under duress. Wednesday, May 16, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Tim Rowse and Murray Goot Divided Nation: Indigenous Australians in Australian Political Culture Published by: Melbourne University Press In conversation with Rebecca Huntley Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In May 1967, more than 90 per cent of Australians voted to strike parts of the Constitution that discriminated against Indigenous Australians. Divided Nation is the first book-length account of Australian public opinion about Aborigines, and the political uses of public opinion research. Rowse and Goot portray the changes and continuities in Australians' public opinions about indigenous Australians, including their claims for recognition and for social justice. The book examines four episodes in which the Australian public debated indigenous issues: the 1967 Referendum, the Hawke government's national land rights proposal in 1984-86, the Native Title debate, and the 2000 Reconciliation debate. Each episode was defined, in part, by intensified research on public opinion. Divided Nation is not only about the attitudes discovered by such research, but also about how public opinion research affects the political process. About the Authors: Murray Goot is Professor of Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University. He specialises in public opinion in Australian politics, especially political parties, voting behaviour and electoral systems, and the mass media. Tim Rowse is a Senior Research Fellow in History at the Research School of Social Sciences at ANU. He has published widely on twentieth-century Australian history, including government policies towards Aboriginal people, and is the author of, among others, After Mabo. Tuesday, May 15, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Alan Cholodenko Illusion of Life:2 Published by: Power Publications To be launched by Peter Hutchings Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Illusion of Life: Essays on Animation was the world's first book of scholarly essays theorizing animation. The Illusion of Life 2 continues and extends its pioneering work in the theory of animation. It provides an abundance of understandings, approaches, correctives and challenges to scholars not only in animation studies but in Film Studies, indeed to disciplines across the spectrum. It proceeds on the assumption that animation, in increasingly taking 'centre stage' thanks to computer animation and anime, calls ever more insistently for focused, rigorous theoretical attention. The sixteen essays engage with post-World War II film animation in Japan and the United States, as well as the relation of live action and animation; video and computer games, the electronic, digitally animated mediascape, the city, flight simulation, the military and war; and animation in the entertainment industry. In addition, it contains essays of a more general theoretical nature on animation, as well as an extended Introduction addressing the developments in animation and its theorizing since the first book. Monday, May 14, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Launch Anthony Burke Beyond Security, Ethics and Violence Published by: Routledge To be launched by Stuart Rees Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In a world plagued by war and terror, Beyond Security, Ethics and Violence sounds a warning: not only are global patterns of insecurity, violence and conflict getting ever more destructive and out of hand, but the ways we understand and respond to them will only prolong the crisis. When security is grounded in exclusion and alienation, ethics licenses killing and war, and freedom is a mask for imperial violence, how should we act? Anthony Burke offers a ground-breaking analysis of the historical roots of sovereignty and security, his critique of just war theory, and important new essays on strategy, the concept of freedom and US exceptionalism. He pursues critical engagements with thinkers such as Giorgio Agamben, Hardt & Negri, Emmanuel Levinas, Carl Von Clausewitz, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Michael Walzer, Michel Foucault and William Connolly. Combining a diversity of critical thought with analyses of the War on Terror, Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Vietnam War, the Indonesian crisis, globalization and the new drive for empire, Burke refuses easy answers, or to abandon hope. This innovative study will be of interest to students and researchers of politics and international relations, security studies, social and cultural theory and philosophy. Saturday, May 12, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Public Lecture Satish Kumar Lessons for a Small Planet: Leadership, Spirituality and Sustainability Pesented by The Institute of Sustainable Futures Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe International sustainability leader, Satish Kumar is editor of ecological living magazine, Resurgence, pioneer of the Human Scale Education movement and Program Director of Schumacher College, an international centre for the study of ecological studies and education. Friday, May 11, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Patti Miller The Memoir Book Published by: Allen and Unwin To be launched by Peter Bishop Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In The Memoir Book Patti Miller draws on her extensive teaching and writing experience to help both new and experienced writers explore the hugely popular memoir genre. She explores the art of memoir writing, from how to find your topic, ordering your memories, finding the right balance between life and fiction and identifying the best form for your writing. About the Author: Patti Miller has taught memoir and life writing at universities and writers' and community centres, and founded Life Stories Workshops. She lives in Sydney. Thursday, May 10, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Bridget McKern Living the Journey: Everyday Heroes tell Their Stories Published by: A & A Publishing To be launched by Dr Patricia Brennan Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Living the Journey - Everyday Heroes Tell their Story is a collection of fourteen real life stories of men and women who have faced their individual challenges with courage and determination. Coping daily with struggles as diverse as single parenthood, loss of faith, autism, post-natal depression, separation from birth mother and more, these are the Unsung Heroes whose names may never be in lights; nevertheless their quiet dignity shines through, affirming the resilience of the human spirit. The reader will not only find inspiration in these interviews but also a reflection of his nor her own struggles … in telling the stories of ordinary men and women, Bridget McKern pays tribute to the hero in every one of us. About the Author: Bridget McKern RN MN has practised the healing traditions for many years as a nurse, therapist, storyteller and poet. She finds her voice through writing about her greatest passion, the dynamics of healing and change in people's lives. Her first book, Seasons of My Soul - A Woman's Journey of Healing was published in 2004. Living the Journey - Everyday Heroes Tell their Story continues her theme of the extraordinary courage and resilience of human beings. Bridget lives in Sydney with her husband Don. Wednesday, May 09, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Dorothy Porter El Dorado In conversation with Andrea Stretton Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe There is a serial child killer stalking the streets of Melbourne. He kills his victims gently and places a gold mark on their head. The mark of El Dorado. He doesn't kill because he hates children, but because he loves them. He believes in Childhood Innocence, and he will kill to entomb them there... This is a book about a friendship under siege, and about how jealousy and betrayal cast very long shadows - which can stalk you to the grave. El Dorado is Dorothy Porter's finest verse novel to date. Unflinching and morally uncompromising, it is both a complex thriller and a completely unique, and compelling, reading experience from Australia's most maverick and versatile poet. dorothy Porter Talks About The Writing Of el Dorado Like many poets I am addicted to crime fiction, both plain and fancy. With El Dorado I wanted to write about a serial killer. There have been plenty of memorable serial killers in poetry, including Macbeth, Medea and Sweeney Todd. I've made mine a child serial killer - not the usual violently perverted paedophile, but a gentle and caring killer. My killer cherishes childhood innocence and does not defile the victims. I also wanted to write about friendship. In the shallow, hollow modern world friendships have become the most enduring and stable relationships many of us have. We are philosophical about the transience of romance, even marriage, but devastated if we lose our friends. At the heart of El Dorado is an unusual friendship between a man and a woman, who have known and loved each other since childhood. Bill is a Homicide detective while Cath works in Hollywood. I wanted to play out and test this old friendship against the backdrop of a gruelling murder investigation. El Dorado, as the title suggests, is finally about fantasy worlds, ones that enmesh adults as well as children. And longing. Is there such a thing as the real world? Are we all, like Shakespeare's lovers and faeries in A Midsummer Night's Dream, simply in the thrall of some unknowable, tyrannical enchantment? About the Author: Dorothy Porter is a poet, a lyricist and librettist who lives in Melbourne. She is the author of the bestselling The Monkey's Mask, What a Piece of Work and Wild Surmise, all of which have won numerous literary awards. She's been shortlisted twice for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Tuesday, May 08, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Rhyll McMaster Feather Man Published by: Brandl and Schlesinger To be launched by Peter Bishop, Executive Director, Varuna Writers’ Centre Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Beginning in Brisbane during the stifling 1950s, this account of the betrayal of love throws us into the disordered world of a young artist as she transits warily to the London of the Swinging 70s. She attracts four suitors. One wants to be her local hero, another is adept at sleight of hand, and the latest looks like a knight in fake armour. But the first had tried to hijack her soul. At the core of the novel is the image of the blackmailer, and of emotional rescue just to hand. In this twisted black comedy of the fictions of the heart live characters you will never forget. Rodney Hall writes of FEATHER MAN: ‘Brilliant, a fantastic achievement, full of the most terrific portraits… she joins a small group of writers who have created characters who are not necessarily sympathetic, but we are totally on their side… a book of lasting power and beauty.’ Says Peter Porter: ‘Highly original… told within a brilliant and exact mise-en-scène… wrapped in finely ironic and analytically acute prose… the way it is organised is very much what the Balzacs and Updikes of this world use… I truly admire it.’ About the author Rhyll McMaster’s poetry was published in The Bulletin while she was still a schoolgirl. Of her six books, Washing the Money won the Victorian Premier’s Prize, and On My Empty Feet was adapted as a radio play for the ABC, while her poems have been broadcast on national radio and television. When her first book, The Brineshrimp, came out, Patrick White is said to have phoned his friends and told them to go out and buy it. FEATHER MAN is her first novel. Monday, May 07, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Lincoln Hall Dead Lucky: Life after Death on Mount Everest Published by: Random House Australia Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe "The day I summitted Mount Everest was the day I died" Lincoln Hall set off for Everest in early May 2006. Five weeks after reaching Base Camp in Tibet, he began his push for the summit. After three days of climbing higher into the oxygenless air, he was blessed with a perfect summit day. For a few minutes, Hall was the highest man on the planet. His Sherpa companions arrived, photos were taken, and the climbers commenced their long descent. Then things began to go horribly wrong. Hall was struck by cerebral oedema - high altitude sickness - in the aptly named 'death zone'. Drowsiness quickly became overpowering lethargy, and he collapsed in the snow. Two Sherpas spent hours trying to revive him, but as darkness fell he was pronounced dead. The expedition's leader ordered the Sherpas to descend to save themselves. The news of Hall's death travelled rapidly from mountaineering websites to news media around the world, and by satellite phone to Hall's family in Australia. Early the next day, Dan Mazur, an American mountaineering guide with two clients and a Sherpa, was startled to find Hall sitting cross-legged on the knife-edged crest of the summit ridge. Hall's first words - 'I imagine you are surprised to see me here' - were a massive understatement. Much was reported in the press about Hall's resurrection, but only he has real insight into what happened, and how he survived that longest night. Dead Lucky is Lincoln Hall's own account of climbing Everest during a deadly season in which eleven people perished on the world's highest mountain. Thursday, May 03, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Katrina Blowers Tuning Out: One Woman's Quarter Life Crisis Published by: Murdoch Books To be launched by Paul Murray Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Katrina Blowers seemingly had everything in life that she'd ever wanted - a great husband, close family and friends, a job as a breakfast announcer on Nova 969 with Merrick and Rosso ('the best job in Sydney radio' according to one local newspaper) and a media celebrity lifestyle. But despite the apparent glamour of her life, she was left wondering: is this all there is? On the brink of 30, with no mortgage or children, she decided to check out of her status quo and try to regain some perspective on her life, dreams and ambitions. She wanted to rekindle the spark in her marriage and discover what she was really all about. So Katrina and her husband, Tom, left Australia and headed off on an around-the-world adventure for six months. She was told she was making the biggest mistake of her career, and for a time she believed it. In Tuning Out, Katrina writes engagingly about their wonderful travel experiences and honestly about her own inner journey. Katrina and Tom travelled along the prickly-pear-lined backroads of Sardinia, visited steamy Moroccan bathhouses and trekked up a glacial mountain pass in South America. But the best thing Katrina discovered on their trip was something that wasn't in any guidebook - it was herself. Wednesday, May 02, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Paul Gillen & Devleena Ghosh Colonialism & Modernity Published by: UNSW Press To be launched by Anne Curthoys Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Colonialism and modernity have left a profound mark on the world. This book provides a compelling overview of their intertwined histories, from Europe's rise to global dominance and the ways in which modernity has shaped and defined it. In the first section, Gillen and Ghosh demonstrate the close relationship between colonialism and modernity and situate the two phenomena in relation to technological, intellectual and social changes. They show how colonialism and modernity dramatically changed the lives of colonised peoples, invading settlers, those who remained in Europe, and the diasporas created by invasions, slavery, indentured labour and voluntary migration. The second section of the book examines in more detail the ethical debates about colonialism in the West, anti-colonial nationalisms outside it, the role of race, gender and culture, and the unique characteristics of modern understandings and uses of time. Drawing from a variety of disciplines and written in an accessible style, Colonialism and Modernity is suitable for undergraduate teaching as well as a wider readership, and offers a much-needed synthesis and integration of the rapidly expanding fields of world history and postcolonial studies. About the Authors: Paul Gillen and Devleena Ghosh both teach in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney. Most of Dr Gillen's publications have been about Australian history, literature and politics and include Faithful to the Earth: a Jack Lindsay Compendium. Dr Ghosh is currently involved in collaborative projects on culture and commerce in the Indian Ocean region, Muslim women's networks in NSW, and India-Australia connections in technologies, media and diasporas. She is the co-editor of the forthcoming books Indian Ocean Exchanges: Trade and Culture in the Indian Oceans and Water, Borders and Sovereignty in Asia and Oceania. Tuesday, May 01, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Caroline Overington Kickback Published by: Allen & Unwin To be launched by Kevin Rudd Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe When the Australian Wheat Board gave over $290 million to Saddam Hussein's brutal regime in order to secure wheat contracts, it was award-winning journalist Caroline Overington who told the world. Reading like a thriller, Kickback is a blow-by-blow account of what really happened. How did a former government agency, now stand-alone company, manage to climb into bed with a corrupt regime, with which we are at war? How did they defraud the United Nations and its aid program managers? It's hard to believe that no member of the Howard government, no departmental head or employee, no advisor to a minister, knew this corruption was happening. How high up did the knowledge travel? Where and when did the government and departmental oversight occur? A couple of brave whistleblowers and the rage of the Canadian and US wheat farmers eventually blew the lid off the scandal, but what on earth did the AWB executive think it was doing and for how long did they think they could keep on doing it? This is a tale of monumental proportion. Read Kickback and be appalled. About the Author : In November 2006, Caroline Overington was awarded the Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Journalism for her series of more than 100 articles uncovering the AWB Iraqi kickbacks scandal. She was Fairfax newspaper's New York correspondent when rumours of the AWB scandal first began circulating through the United Nations. With great tenacity, and in the face of accusations of ratbag journalism, she clung to the story until the truth was finally revealed. A former sports writer, Caroline won the Prime Ministerial Women and Sport Award for journalism in 1996. Along with Malcolm Knox she won the 2004 Walkley Award for Investigative Journalism for their report in the Sydney Morning-Herald the 'Norma Khouri Investigation'. She currently writes for The Australian, is the author of Only in New York, and lives in Sydney with her husband and two children.     April 2007 Thursday, April 26, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Murray Hogarth NOW Australia: The 3rd Degree Published by: Pluto Press In conversation with Marian Wilkinson Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The key battle for the 21st century is The 3rd Degree. We just haven't yet figured out how powerful and dangerous the enemy is or how ill-prepared we are. According to the CSIRO, we'll have lost the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu, our Alpine environments, much of our agricultural production and the majority of our animal and plant species at the 3rd Degree of warming. Murray Hogarth sees climate change as Australia's greatest challenge; and opportunity. He takes us inside big business, the government, the media and the environment movement and examines what measures have been taken so far. What has been done? What hasn't been done? What needs to be done? The 3rd Degree explores how the transition to Australia's future is starting to unfold. We get an incisive, up-to-date report card on what is happening and an action plan for our war on climate change. We've all been caught flat footed by the suddenness of the country's shift on climate change - we have under-invested in climate campaigning and action. As our climate war accelerates get ready for public cries of 'why weren't we told?' and 'Whose fault is it?' One thing is certain: our politics, the operating environment for our businesses, the way in which our communities function, and our individual lifestyles - will need to change dramatically. This is the war we have to fight and win, and we need to mobilize NOW. Marian Wilkinson is an investigative journalist with the Sydney Mornig Herald Tuesday, April 24, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Public Lecture Clive Hamilton Inside the Dirty Politics of Climate Change Published by: Black Inc Sydney Ideas and gleebooks present Venue: Seymour Centre Why has the Federal Government opposed the Kyoto Protocol so fiercely? What is the real influence of fossil-fuel lobby groups on our environmental policy? 2007 may be the year in which climate change has hit the headlines, but how much do we really know about the policy decision making process on such a crucial issue? Clive Hamilton has observed this area of government policy for many years and brings his authority on science and the politics of climate change to reveal the powerful people and players that influence Australian policy. Clive Hamilton is one of Australia's leading social commentators, and executive director of the Australia Institute, an independent think-tank based at the Australian National University. His book on the politics of climate change is Scorcher, published by Black Inc. Introduction by Professor Frank Stilwell, Political Economy, University of Sydney. Tuesday, April 24, 2007 / 10.30 for 11am Past Special Event NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Shortlist 2007 Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The shortlists for the 2007 NSW Premier's Literary Awards and Translation Prize will be announced by the NSW Minister for the Arts. The Awards are worth a total of $167,000 and include prizes for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, young people's literature, plays and scripts, including the gleebooks Prize for critical writing. All welcome. The Award winners will be announced at a dinner at the Art Gallery of NSW on 29 May. For bookings ($130 per person) ring Jean Moylan, (02) 9228 4351 Monday, April 23, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Louis Nowra and Warren Mundine, President, ALP and CEO Native Title Services Ltd Bad Dreaming: Aboriginal Men's Violence against Women and Children Published by: NOW Australia In conversation with Suzanne Smith Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Eminent playwright and author, Louis Nowra reveals a terrifying epidemic of male Aboriginal sexual and domestic violence against women and children. Is this violent behaviour a pathological extension of Aboriginal traditional customs or the failure of Governments at all levels to deal with the horrendous social and economic dysfunction of Aboriginal communities? By examining the observations of early settlers, explorers and anthropologists together with all that has been known for the last twenty years Nowra investigates the problem of male violence ranging right across the country, including urban communities. With a mountain of reports from governments, health professionals, pleas from Aboriginal women and investigations by the media being ignored we have to ask: why have we failed to act and stop the brutality that is fast becoming an issue of international shame for Australia? In shocking detail Nowra explores what’s going on and offers significant insight into what is really happening in Aboriginal communities. "The turning point for me was when I spent three days in Alice Springs hospital surrounded by bashed women and girls. Some women have written about this but not men. I have written about this out of a profound respect and concern for Aboriginal people." Louis Nowra Suzanne Smith is a Senior Reporter for ABC's Lateline covering social and political issues. She has a special interest in Indigenous issues. Thursday, April 19, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Malcolm Brown and David Bradford You're Leaving Tomorrow & The Gunners' Doctor: Vietnam Letters Published by: Random House Australia In Conversation with Paul Ham Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe You're Leaving Tomorrow: Conscripts & Correspondents caught up in the Vietnam War Stuart McGladrie, Candace Sutton, Malcolm Brown The Vietnam conflict was an event that bitterly divided Australian society. While many people supported the government's military response to the perceived threat posed by communism, many others violently opposed our participation in the war and took their opposition to the streets. The servicemen and conscripts who had to undertake active service and the members of the press corps who reported on the action found themselves caught up in the mess and mayhem. You're Leaving Tomorrow provides a fascinating insight into these turbulent times. It is full of striking images from the Fairfax archive that evoke the full emotional spectrum of a nation as much at war with itself as another country. Malcolm Brown shares his experiences of National Service as a young man who was deeply ambivalent both about the war and the peace movement in a moving piece that captures first-hand the confusion and upheaval of the moment. Stuart MacGladrie was a young photographer who spent a nervous three-month tour of duty stationed at Bien Hoa with 1RAR. His photographs record the daily realities for the troops, from showering to going out on patrol, and are published here for the first time. Candace Sutton describes the events of the war from the perspective of the correspondents of the AAP in the combat zones. She considers how the papers of the day presented these accounts and reported also on the turmoil at home. The Gunners' Doctor: Vietnam Letters David Bradford In 2005, David Bradford got the surprise of his life: his elderly mother found an old shoe-box at the back of her cupboard that contained a pristine record of one of the most turbulent times of his generation - and of his own personal life. Mrs Bradford had unearthed every letter that her twenty-six-year-old son had sent home from the Vietnam War. During his time there, from May 1967 to May 1968, David wrote home almost daily, documenting his experiences as an idealistic Army doctor with the officers and gunners of 4 Field Regiment in the Royal Australian Artillery, and the officers and troopers of a squadron of the 3 Cavalry Regiment. These selected and edited letters, which were written almost 40 years ago in the chaos of the Vietnam War, are not just detailed accounts of David's daily life, his medical work, and the stresses and pressures of life in a war-zone. They are also, as David admits, a deliberately inaccurate picture of what was a painful forging of his true identity. David was brought up in a very religious, loving home. He didn't drink, smoke, swear or dance - and he had never once kissed a girl. In his missives from Vietnam, there were deeply personal things he could never tell his family about. As well as protecting them from the worrying dangers and risks of a war-zone, he also shielded them from his doubts and fears about faith, war and communism. But even more painfully, David hid away what he had always known about himself - he was gay, and his tour of duty in Vietnam was to be a sublimation of what he considered was an unacceptable and reprehensible part of himself. The Gunners' Doctor is a snapshot of a short but powerfully meaningful time in his life, and is told through two distinct voices - David's letters of the time, and his reflections as a man 40 years older and wiser. Paul Ham is an historian and author of Kokoda and the forthcoming Vietnam. Wednesday, April 18, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Roberta Perkins, Frances Lovejoy Call Girls: Private Sex Workers in Australia Published by: UWA Press To be launched by Janelle Fawkes Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe A comprehensive study of women working in the Australian sex industry - usually outside of brothels and often via telephone from home (thus their name). Call Girls provides fascinating and frank accounts from women working in this shadowy, clandestine world: how they became sex workers and run their businesses; what frustrates and frightens them; how they maintain their health; who their customers are; and how their work affects their relationships with partners, lovers and/or families. Call Girls makes for surprising and challenging reading and, most importantly, places the world of the sex worker within political and legal contexts which will surprise and change the preconceived notions of many readers. About the authors: Roberta Perkins is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at The University of New South Wales. Her books include Being a Prostitute (with Garry Bennett, 1985) and Sex Work and Sex Workers in Australia (1994). Frances Lovejoy is also a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at The University of New South Wales and is a co-editor of Sex Work and Sex Workers. Tuesday, April 17, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk James Valentine The Form Guide Live Published by: ABC Books Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe For a decade, James Valentine has conducted 'The Form Guide' as a weekly forum on his popular 702 ABC Radio program. Listeners call in seeking advice on sticky social problems and others respond with solutions. Come along with questions and problems and/or bring your wisdom and give advice in what will be both a helpful and hilarious live version of the Form Guide. Engaging with the critical issues of modern life The Form Guide has suggestions for such social situations as: When you take a bottle of champagne to a dinner party, should the host serve it or keep it? What do you do when your neighbour's dog keeps pooping on your lawn? There is nothing here about curtseying to the Queen or seating people at weddings. There is, however, advice on public flossing, whether to comment on a colleague's breast enhancement and how to answer the perennial question: 'how are you?'. The Form Guide is not about good manners and etiquette or what we should do, it's about what we do do. James Valentine does not agree with those people who say that the world has become rude. As he sees it, most people are genuinely trying to be considerate and behave well. The Form Guide is a hilarious but useful book about all those important little social things that can send us right up the wall. Monday, April 16, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Robert Hackett, William Carroll Remaking Media: The Struggle to Democratize Public Communication (Routledge) Published by: Routledge To be launched by Jake Lynch (Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies, Uni. of Sydney) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe What is the political significance and potential of democratic media activism in the Western world today? Remaking Media rides on a wave of political and scholarly attention to oppositional communication, triggered by the rise in the 1990s of the Zapatistas, Internet activism, and IndyMedia. This attention has mostly focused on alternative media and the "media strategies" of social movements - i.e., "democratization through the media." This book concerns democratization of the media themselves, efforts to transform the "machinery of representation," as a distinctive field that is pivotal to other social struggles. Remaking Media takes as its premise the existence of a massive "democratic deficit" in the field of public communication. This deficit propels diverse struggles to reform and revitalize public communication in the North Atlantic heartland of globalization. It focuses on activism directed towards challenging and changing media content, practices, and structures, as well as state policies on media. Hackett & Carroll's approach is innovative in its attention to an emerging social movement that appears at the cutting edge of cultural and political contention. The book is grounded in three scholarly traditions that provide interpretive resources for a study of democratic media activism: political theories of democracy, critical media scholarship, and the sociology of social movements. By synthesizing insights from these sources they provide a unique and timely reading of the contemporary struggle to democratize communication. Robert A. Hackett is Professor of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Canada. William K. Carroll is Professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria in Canada. Saturday, April 14, 2007 / 2 for 2.30pm Past Launch Gordon Meggs Family Conflict To be launched by Judge Warwick Rourke Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This book aims to help couples and parents to understand and resolve conflicts between partners, between parents and children and between siblings. It will also be useful to professionals who try to help their clients and patients to deal with family conflict. The book has at least three claims to originality. Firstly, it uses a holistic perspective, so that, whereas most if not all previous accounts of family conflict deal separately with conflicts between the marital couple, between parents and children and between siblings, this book integrates the treatment of conflict among all family members. Secondly, it applies theories from the study of international and other kinds of conflicts and from the study of small group and divorce dynamics to families. Thirdly, it views conflicts as originating not only within the personalities of family members but also within the economic and political structures of their society. The author narrows the field of concern to serious and harmful family conflict, and examines its forms, causes, consequences, cycles, and suggests the means by which many kinds of harmful conflicts can be resolved and harmony restored. Thursday, April 12, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Adam Sutton & Neil McMahon Say it Out Loud Published by: Random House Australia Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Say It Out Loud is the moving story of Adam Sutton, the gay cowboy whose extraordinary life was first made public on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald and on the ABC’s Australian Story. When Heath Ledger finished reading the script for Brokeback Mountain – a triple Academy Award winning film about a relationship between two cowboys in the American West – he told his friend Adam Sutton. “Bushy, I’ve just read this script and it sounds a lot like you,” Heath said. Adam thought, “Gay cowboys? Who’d want to watch that?” Millions of people. Brokeback Mountain was a human story, not just a gay story, and viewers worldwide were captivated by the film. Similarly, when Adam’s story and photo appeared on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald, the response was phenomenal. “Meet Heath’s mate, the real gay cowboy,” the headline ran, and a five-year sales record was set. It prompted ABC TV’s Australian Story to devote an episode to Adam. Now, he tells his remarkable story in Say It Out Loud. Adam Sutton has led a truly amazing life. The 32-year-old horseman from Central Coast NSW comes from a world of cowboys and rodeos, where homosexuality is often not understood or accepted. But for the boisterous, masculine daredevil, the thing he wanted more than anything, also terrified him the most. His sexuality caused him fury, embarrassment, and fear, and he hid it from everyone. Say It Out Loud describes the many years of confusion and anguish Adam felt as he fought against, and slowly came to accept that he was gay. Only then did he truly find contentment. During this period, he rode in his first rodeo. The exhilaration was addictive, and Adam knew he’d found his calling. His next job was one working with horses and he eventually set up his own business, All-Round Horsemanship, breaking in and training horses. Say It Out Loud tells of the incredible work Adam landed on the film Ned Kelly, teaching Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom to ride. Professionally, he was happy, but in his personal life, he was still living a lie. He’d only had one real sexual experience with a man, on his 21st birthday. Say It Out Loud recounts the first traumatic time Adam confessed to a close friend the words he’d been unable to ever say: “I think I’m gay”. Adam Sutton has lived a life of passion and courage, and survived some incredibly dark times. Say It Out Loud is a poignant account of a remarkable and unlikely journey from the world of cowboys, rodeos and stereotypes, to Hollywood and, finally, to self-acceptance. This book is a powerful reminder that sometimes truth is even stranger than Hollywood fiction. Adam Sutton wrote Say It Out Loud in collaboration with the friend who first suggested that he tell his story publicly: Sydney Morning Herald journalist Neil McMahon. Wednesday, April 11, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Murray Lee Inventing Fear of Crime: Criminology & the Politics of Anxiety Published by: Willan To be launched by Quentin Dempster Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Over the past four decades the fear of crime has become an increasingly significant concern for criminologists, victimologists, policy makers, politicians, police, the media and the general public. For many practitioners reducing fear of crime has become almost as important an issue as reducing crime itself. The identification of fear of crime as a serious policy problem has given rise to a massive amount of research activity, political discussion and intellectual debate. Despite this activity, actually reducing levels of fear of crime has proved difficult. Even in recent years when many western nations have experienced reductions in the levels of reported crime, fear of crime has often proved intractable. The result has been the development of what amounts to a fear of crime industry. Previous studies have identified conceptual challenges, theoretical cul-de-sacs and methodological problems with the use of the concept fear of crime. Yet it has endured as both an organising principal for a body of research and a term to describe a social malady. This provocative, wide ranging book asks how and why fear of crime retains this cultural, political and social scientific currency despite concerted criticism of its utility? It subjects the concept to rigorous critical scrutiny taking examples from the UK, North America and Australia. Tuesday, April 10, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Rachael Kohn Curious Obsessions in the History of Science & Spirituality Published by: ABC Books In conversation with Robyn Williams Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Over the centuries, naughty nuns, the keepers of secret libraries, stargazers and spirtual healers have been among the individuals who have pushed forward the frontiers of religion and science. The developments of the modern world don't look so groundbreaking when weighed against the bold speculations and risky actions taken by some of the extraordinary people from our past - people such as John Dee, Ozario Morandi, Thomas More, Giordano Bruno, Helena Blavatsky and Rudolf Steiner. People whose actions drove the enormous strides in astronomy and medicine and exploration when Europe was the centre of the universe and the New World of the Americas was just that. But if the discoveries of these one-track obsessives helped shape the modern world of ideas, so have others driven our history, sometimes with disastorous consequences. The search for the lost tribes of Israel, a lost race of giants, and a paradise on earth have all had their human cost. Curious Obsessions in the History of Science & Spirituality reveals a fascinating past that remains influential today, from medicine to the new age. Rachael Kohn, Ph.D. LLD, produces and presents 'The Ark' and 'The Spirit of Things' on ABC Radio National. Her previous book is The New Believers: Re-imagining God. Robyn Williams presents the Science Show on ABC Radio National. He is the author of "Untintelligent Design'. Wednesday, April 04, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch George Morgan, Scott Poynting Outrageous! Moral Panics in Australia To be launched by Richard Ackland Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Was Cronulla a moral panic? Or was it just a blip on a continuum of media and politically-manipulated terror panic? For the first time in Australia, a distinguished group of experts demystifies the social processes of moral panic in Australia. The 17 chapters explore not only the salience of the notion of moral panic in contemporary Australia, but also the relevance of moral panics in Australian history, the impact of new communication technologies and the demonisation of social categories, such as cultural minorities. From media-driven moral outrage about larrikins and gang rape in the 1890s to recent panics about "ethnic" youth gangs, from police beatings during the Great Depression to the recent riots at Macquarie Fields, this collection reveals that the more moral panics stay the same, the more they change. Tuesday, April 03, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Gillian Nicholson This Way to the Sea Published by: Murdoch Books To be launched by Sandra Yates Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe 'How do you like the view?' the real estate agent asks. As if he doesn't know. Horses grazing on flat land below, hillsides of tall trees, uninterrupted ocean views, plumes of sea spray smashing against Grassy Head's north face. My heart is pounding. I'm elated, not just because it's so beautiful but because I sense this might, just might, be the alp by the sea Christo and I have always dreamt about. Having long thought of making a new life away from the city, Gillian Nicholson and her husband, Christo, impulsively buy a 20-acre banana farm at Grassy Head on the stunning NSW mid-North Coast. Then they have to figure out how they are going to make this heart-over-head seachange decision work. Their knowledge of banana farming? Zero. Their knowledge of how to work the land in general? Minuscule. Their irrational joy and confidence that things will work out? Total. This is Gillian's funny, involving and moving account of their journey from being city slickers to finding contentment on their piece of paradise. Along the way it chronicles a husband and wife who are closer than ever after 25 years together. Monday, April 02, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Peter Hartcher Quarterly Essay 25: Bipolar Nation - How to win the 2007 election Published by: Black Inc In conversation with Maxine McKew Sold Out Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Australians are more economically secure, yet existentially as anxious as ever. On the one hand we see a more prosperous, confident and ‘aspirational’ society, and on the other the continuation of a well-cultivated sense of fear, xenophobia and insecurity. This dazzling essay analyses today’s ‘bipolar nation’. It revisits Donald Horne’s Lucky Country, looks at the legacy of Paul Keating, and discusses how John Howard will set out to craft an election-winning strategy. It explains how the Lucky Country and the Frightened Country will be the two grand themes of the election, and in doing so sets the political agenda for 2007’s election year.     March 2007 Friday, March 30, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Jane Messer Provenance To be launched by Georgia Blain Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Following rave reviews for Night by Night and Bedlam, comes Provenance, the much awaited novel from accomplished author Jane Messer. Provenance explores love and longing, set against a backdrop of cultural and personal identity, in a world in the midst of profound social change. Growing up in an Italian family in 1950's Queensland, Rafaela longs to move to Melbourne and start her own life. When she finally seizes her chance, floodwaters halt her train's progress south and a beautiful young Sikh scientist named Chanchal captures her heart. While both families search for their wayward children, Rafi and Chanchal forge ahead with their life together, living briefly in isolation and bliss on a farm, unaware that their story is travelling…. Set against the stifling heat of the Queensland cane fields, the lush farmland of northern New South Wales and the bustle of Melbourne in the early 1960's Chanchal's and Rafi's stories unfold and intersect over the following years, as their chance encounter becomes a story of two countries on the cusp of modernity. Provenance is a rich and original love story that explores colour and cultural difference at a moment when the West was keen and as one character puts it, to get on with the sexy part of the twentieth century. Wednesday, March 28, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Georgina Murray, Mike Donaldson & Scott Poynting Capitalist Networks & Social Power in Aust & NZ - Ruling Class Men: Money, Sex, Power To be launched by Raewyn Connell Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Capitalist Networks & Social Power in Aust & NZ Georgina Murray It is often asserted that the ruling elite in Western capitalist economies now consists of liberal intellectuals and their media sympathisers. By contrast this book looks at the real elite in Australian and New Zealand society and shows that there is still a ruling class based upon economic dominance. From an analysis of corporate and public records, interviews, and other primary and secondary data, it develops a picture of networks of power that are changing but are as real as any network in the past. Ruling Class men: Money, Sex, Power Mike Donaldson, Scott Poynting What is it like to be a master of the universe? The authors have researched the desires and fears of the world's most powerful men. The Murdochs, Packers, Kennedys, Agnellis and other men like them, directly determine the fates of thousands and influence the future of the world like no other people. Described as 'sacred monsters' by one of their own, they are carefully created to be what they are and to enjoy shaping the world in their own likeness. To learn about these often reclusive men, the authors extended the lifehistory technique to interrogate autobiographies, diaries and biographies and have created a composite picture, a collective portrait, of tycoons over three generations. The book carefully explores the childhoods, schooling, work and play, sexual activities, marriages and deaths of the wealthiest men who have ever lived. It exposes the nature of ruling-class masculinity itself. The Authors: Mike Donaldson convenes the Sociology Programme at the University of Wollongong. He has written many books and articles on contemporary life, including Male Trouble, Looking at Australian Masculinities (2003), Taking Our Time (1996) and Time of Our Lives, Labour and Love in the Working Class (1991). He has worked as a consultant with UNESCO and has taught at universities in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Australia. Scott Poynting is Associate Professor in the School of Humanities and Languages at the University of Western Sydney, where he teaches Cultural and Social Analysis. His recently co-authored books include Bin Laden in the Suburbs: Criminalising the Arab Other (2004), and Kebabs, Kids, Cops and Crime: Youth, Ethnicity and Crime (2000). Tuesday, March 27, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Jeff Sparrow Communism: A Love Story Published by: Melbourne Uni Press In conversation with Hall Greenland Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Meet Guido Baracchi, the playboy communist who lived a life as vivid as any soap opera. The only son of a famous astronomer, Guido Baracchi helped launch Australia's Communist Party and served, for a time, as its leading intellectual. The Sun dubbed him 'Melbourne's Lenin', while ASIO classified him 'a person of bad moral character and violent and unstable political views'. He battled Robert Menzies at university, worked as a professional revolutionary in Weimar Berlin, survived Stalin's Russia and went to gaol in Melbourne. He romanced—and broke the hearts of—many beautiful, intelligent women, including the novelist Katharine Susannah Prichard, the poet Lesbia Harford and the playwright Betty Roland. Stylish, wealthy, with a taste for literature and the arts, Guido Baracchi was never a typical fellow traveller, and the Communist Party expelled him twice. But long after many more orthodox radicals gave up the struggle Guido continued to fight. For more than seventy years, romantics and rebels of all stripes saw in the Communist Party the best hope for a world remade. Here is also the story of those who dedicated themselves to that beautiful dream, their experience of its shimmering promise—and of its shattering collapse. Impassioned, witty and moving, Communism: A Love Story rediscovers a fascinating life—and makes a provocative argument about the history and the future of politics in Australia. About the Author: Jeff Sparrow has been a bookseller, health worker and political activist. He is the co-author of Radical Melbourne: A Secret History and Radical Melbourne 2: The Enemy Within, and the reviews editor of Overland magazine. Saturday, March 24, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Jane Gillespie Journey to Me Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Jane Gillespie nearly didn't make time for her first ever mammogram. After all, she had recently had her annual physical, which included a breast examination, and been given the All Clear. So imagine her shock when she was told a malignant tumour had been found! This inspiring and informative book offers hope to people living with cancer. The author provides a road map to those forced to explore the alien and therefore often frightening territory of medical options. "Journey to Me" is based on a journal Jane kept while undergoing treatment. It tells the warts and all story of her cancer journey, as she shares with us her desperate attempts to make sense of her life while facing the possibility of her death. You will laugh, cry, be outraged, informed and inspired. Jane's story continues beyond her cancer treatment to the difficulties of surviving survival and you will rejoice with her as she emerges from the shadows into the sunlight of a new fulfilling and joyful life. Fifty percent of the profits from sales made at the launch of "Journey to Me" will go to the Life Force Cancer Foundation. Gleebooks will provide staff for free. Donations to Life Force at the launch are welcome. Life Force is the key organisation in Sydney delivering community based emotional and psychosocial support to people dealing with the experience of cancer. Jane believes that the support she received from other Life Force members restored her courage and confidence and gave her the will to live. Thursday, March 22, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Brenda Niall Life Class: the Education of a Biographer Published by: Melbourne Uni Press In Conversation with Debra Adelaide Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Brenda Niall is one of Australia's foremost biographers, the author of four award-winning books including The Boyds: A Family Biography. In Life Class: The Education of a Biographer she describes her own life-journey, from childhood in the Melbourne suburb of Kew; her convent education; her brilliantly promising university studies cut short by family tragedy. Her first job, as editor of B.A. Santamaria's Catholic Action journal Rural Life, brought her suddenly and unexpectedly close to the dramatic events of 1954 when ALP leader Dr Evatt attacked Santamaria's Movement and the Australian Labor Party split disastrously. Later, her interviews at Raheen, Kew, with 95-year-old Daniel Mannix, for Santamaria's biography of the Archbishop, were her introduction to life-writing. She resumed her academic career at ANU and at Monash University in the thriving intellectual climate of the 1960s. Niall also retraces her literary footsteps to discuss the pleasures of biographical discovery and the pitfalls—technical, personal and moral—of entering other people's lives. Her biographical adventures include travels in England, Scotland and Italy, Austria and Hungary as well as scenes closer to home—in Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsula, Sydney and the Shoalhaven region of NSW. About the Author: Brenda Niall is the author of four award-winning biographies. She has an AO (Order of Australia) for services to Australian literature, and an honorary D.Litt. from Monash as well as degrees from The University of Melbourne, the Australian National University and Monash University. As Reader in English at Monash University, she gave courses in Australian literature, American literature, biography and autobiography. She now writes full-time, and is a frequent reviewer for The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Book Review. Wednesday, March 21, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel Griffith REVIEW 15 - Divided Nation - Inequality in Action Panel discussion: Invisible casualties of the boom Published by: Abc Bks Panel: David Burchell, Meera Atkinson, peter Meredith, Charlie Stansfield. Chaired by Julianne Schultz, Editor Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The growing wealth of the past decade has not reached everyone – many are left struggling by new the divisions of geography, work, religion, health and ethnicity. Griffith REVIEW 15 – Divided Nation throws the spot light on the invisible fractures of boom time Australia. As the federal election campaign swings into full gear, Divided Nation explores the political policies, prejudices and rhetoric which widen the gaps in Australian society. Join Julianne Schultz for a conversation with David Burchell, Meera Atkinson, Peter Meredith and Charlie Stansfield to discuss the temperament and tensions of those on the wrong side of the divides. Divided Nation explores the social, economic, racial, political and cultural divides that lurk beneath the surface of this country at a time of apparent complacency and unprecedented affluence. The important lead essay by David Burchell examines the pressure on those living in areas of economic and social disadvantage in western Sydney. His provocative analysis will challenge long held assumptions about the causes and consequences of disadvantage. The examination of disadvantage will be juxtaposed with an analysis of life in the boom time states, a reconsideration of assimilation and multiculturalism, and a series of essays by new voices exploring the character and tensions in each of the major capitals. Monday, March 19, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Peter Spearritt The Sydney Harbour Bridge: A Life To be launched by Paul Cave Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe On 19 March 1932, after nine years planning and building, more than a million Australians crossed the newly opened Sydney Harbour Bridge, the largest arch bridge in the world. This lavishly illustrated book celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It tells the extraordinary story of its design and construction and how it became a much-loved feature of the city, from the time of De Groot cutting the official ribbon when it opened, to spectacular fireworks and bridge-climbers today. The superb selection of bridge images in the book shows the unexpected range and variety of responses that its 'coat-hanger' shape has elicited from painters, photographers, cartoonists and other artists. Like the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and the Great Wall of China, the Sydney Harbour Bridge became a symbol not only of the city and its people but for the aspirations of the nation. Paul Cave is the founder of BridgeClimb Saturday, March 17, 2007 / 5.30 for 6pm Past Special Event The Meaning of Life: Nikos Katzantzakis and St. Francis of Assisi Presented by the International Society of Friends of Nikos Kazantzakis under the aegis of the 25th Greek Festival of Sydney Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) is famous as the author of Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation. But these form a tiny part of the output of this passionate thinker and writer. Less well known, but no less topical, is his novel on St Francis, God's Pauper. But why St Francis? And what did the Cretan writer, with his Orthodox background, make of the Saint of Assisi? Kazantzakis' own quest for wisdom is echoed in the life of this great poet, communicator, philosopher and leader. In true Cretan fashion the novelist makes a bridge across ideological, spatial and temporal boundaries. The search for the meaning of life burdens the human spirit as much today as in St Francis' time. Kazantzakis projects his story through vivid descriptions of the splendour and misery of early capitalism, of petty warfare and grandiose crusades, of Francis' spiritual awakening, his rejection of privileges, his embracing of poverty, and his construction of a movement to return his Church to its roots. It is a story of what we most need today: communication across cultural divides, a holistic appreciation of life on earth, and a love for all our partners in the universe. God's Pauper rounds off the great gift that Nikos Kazantzakis left for us, inviting us to share in his passionate struggle. It is the right book with which to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his departure. The program includes: short, illustrated talks (in English, with Greek summaries) by Alfred Vincent and Walter Lalich; readings (in English, with some repeated in Greek and Italian) by Mary Kostakidis and members of the Society; songs of the troubadours, which suggest Francis' feeling for the physical world. For info on the Society, please contact the President of the Sydney Branch, Adrian Kazas, on 9344 6054. Friday, March 16, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Max Barry Company Published by: Scribe To be launched by Wil Anderson Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe A bitingly funny take on corporate life by the author of acclaimed bestseller Jennifer Government. Like The Office filtered through the mind of William Gibson. At Zephyr Holdings, no one has ever seen the CEO. The beautiful receptionist is paid twice as much as anybody else, but does no work. One of the sales reps uses relationship books as sales manuals, and another is on the warpath because somebody stole his donut. In other words, it's an ordinary big company. Or at least, that's what everyone thinks. Until fresh-faced employee Jones-too new to understand that you just don't ask some questions at Zephyr-starts investigating. Soon Jones uncovers the company's secret: the answer to everything, what Zephyr Holdings really does, and why every manager has a copy of the Omega Management System. It plunges him into a maelstrom of love, loyalty, management, and corporate immorality-and whether he can get out again. Now that's a good question. About the Author Max Barry is an Australian who pretended to sell high-end computer systems for Hewlett-Packard while secretly writing his first novel, Syrup. In fact, he still has the laptop he wrote it on because HP forgot to ask for it back, but keep that to yourself. He put an extra X in his name for Syrup because he thought it was a funny joke about marketing and failed to realize everyone would assume he was a pretentious asshole. Jennifer Government, his second novel, was published without any superfluous Xs and sold much better. To help promote his novels, Max wrote the online political game NationStates, which has been played by over half a million people and is currently causing him to drown in e-mail from people who want new features. Max was born March 18, 1973, and lives in Melbourne, Australia. He writes full-time, but enforces a strict dress policy, requires that his desk be kept tidy at all times, and asks that he limit personal calls to less than two minutes. Thursday, March 15, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Anni Gethin & Beth Macgregor Helping Your Baby to Sleep To be launched by Louise Newman Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe New parents are confronted with many questions when a baby enters their lives. For many, one of the most challenging is: how should I help my baby settle and sleep? Helping Your Baby to Sleep offers parents practical advice and gentle sleep techniques to ensure their child feels loved, happy and secure. This type of parenting also helps build a powerful bond between child and parent - a bond that lays the foundation for healthy emotional and psychological development. Bringing together research into early childhood development, babies' emotions, sleep habits and their brain development, and illustrated with stories from parents, this important book also gives parents realistic expectations of their babies' sleep patterns. Both health professionals and mothers, authors Beth Macgregor and Anni Gethin clearly contrast gentle sleep techniques with those of sleep training, otherwise known as 'controlled crying', where parents ignore their babies' distress for increasing amounts of time. They argue that the controlled crying approach creates anxiety in both parent and child, causes distress and creates a burden of stress on babies with which their immature brains and emotions are ill-equipped to cope. The authors state, 'We expose the common myths that parents are presented with about babies and sleep. We recommend a gentler approach to sleep by which parents sensitively respond to their babies' needs and fears at bedtime. This early investment will reward both parents and children for the rest of their lives.' About the authors: Anni Gethin, a parent to three boys, is a researcher and lecturer in health social science. She has been concerned for over 14 years (since her first son was born) about the widespread practice of forcing babies to sleep by leaving them to cry. Anni has completed a PhD in population health and is director of a health and social research consultancy. She also writes on health and parenting issues. Beth Macgregor, a mother of one young child, is a psychologist who trains health and welfare workers in infant mental health, child development and child protection. Her work as a specialist educator is devoted to creating happier children, families and societies. Formerly a child protection worker, she understands the needs of parents in crisis, and has written for parenting magazines. Wednesday, March 14, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Mike Otterman & Ian Bickerton American Torture - Unintended Consequences: The Unites States at War In conversation with Stuart Rees Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe American Torture Electric shocks. Sleep deprivation. Forced standing. Water boarding. George W. Bush calls them an 'alternative set of procedures', vital tools needed 'to protect the American people and our allies'. By any definition, these techniques are torture. In American Torture Michael Otterman reveals how torture became standard practice in today's War on Terror and how it was refined, spread and kept legal. Long before Abu Ghraib became a household name, the US military and CIA used torture with impunity at home and abroad. Billions of dollars were spent during the Cold War studying, refining, then teaching these techniques to American interrogators and to foreign officers charged with keeping Communism at bay. As the Cold War ended, these tortures were legalised using the very laws designed to eradicate their use. After 9/11, they were revived again for use on 'enemy combatants' detained in America's vast gulag of prisons across the globe, from secret CIA black sites in Thailand to the detention centre at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. American Torture shows how the road to Abu Ghraib leads back through US military survival schools, Latin American military assistance programs, Vietnamese counter-terror operations and, finally, to the USSR and Communist China. Torture violates more than international law and fundamental human rights-it radicalises enemies, undermines credibility and yields unreliable intelligence. Above all, the practice does not make the world a safer place. About the Author: Michael Otterman is an award-winning freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker. He was a recent visiting scholar at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) at the University of Sydney. He has covered crime and culture for an array of publications, including Melbourne's Is Not magazine, the Sydney City Hub newspaper, and Boston's Weekly Dig. He lives in New York City. American Torture is his first book. Unintended Consequences: The United States at War Ian Bickerton, Kenneth Hagan Reaktion Books "The United States does not do nation building," claimed Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld three years ago. Yet what are we to make of the American military bases in Korea? Why do American warships patrol the Somali coastline? And perhaps most significantly, why are fourteen "enduring bases" being built in Iraq? In every major foreign war fought by United States in the last century, the repercussions of the American presence have been felt long after the last Marine has left. Kenneth J. Hagan and Ian J. Bickerton argue here that, despite adamant protests from the military and government alike, nation building and occupation are indeed hallmarks-and unintended consequences-of American warmaking. In this timely, groundbreaking study, the authors examine ten major wars fought by the United States, from the Revolutionary War to the ongoing Iraq War, and analyze the conflicts' unintended consequences. These unexpected outcomes, Unintended Consequences persuasively demonstrates, stemmed from ill-informed decisions made at critical junctures and the surprisingly similar crises that emerged at the end of formal fighting. As a result, war did not end with treaties or withdrawn troops. Instead, time after time, the United States became inextricably involved in the issues of the defeated country, committing itself to the chaotic aftermath that often completely subverted the intended purposes of war. Stunningly, Unintended Consequences contends that the vast majority of wars launched by the United States were unnecessary, avoidable, and catastrophically unpredictable. In a stark challenge to accepted scholarship, the authors show that the wars' unintended consequences far outweighed the initial calculated goals, and thus forced cataclysmic shifts in American domestic and foreign policy. A must-read for anyone concerned with the past, present, or future of American defense, Unintended Consequences offers a provocative perspective on the current predicament in Iraq and the conflicts sure to loom ahead of us. Tuesday, March 13, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Ross Gittins Gittinomics Published by: Allen & Unwin In Conversation with Richard Glover Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Ross Gittins - the economics guru of Australia - is a man on a mission. He wants to help us understand just how the economy around us works, and more importantly, to help us take control of our lives, do less of what doesn't satisfy us and more of what does. Sound simple? Sound appealing? You bet. While the very word 'economics' strikes fear in the hearts of many, as the great English economist Alfred Marshall puts it, economics is simply 'the study of mankind in the ordinary business of life'. And it's this ordinary business of life that Ross Gittins wants to explain to us: be it to do with work, leisure and the shortage of time; homes and housework; buying and saving; parents and their kids; kids and their education; not to mention our happiness and the things that may threaten it - crime, taxation, health and ageing. Economics is the stuff of life, our life, and we need to understand it. Written in his trademark friendly and accessible style, Gittinomics sums up all the things Ross wants to share with us after more than 30 years as an acclaimed economic journalist on the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Monday, March 12, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Jad el Hage The Myrtle Tree: A Novel of love and Dreams in War-Torn Lebanon Published by: Banipal Books To be launched by Ahmad Shboul Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe 'Better than any political analysis, this remarkable novel, set in a Lebanese mountain village, conveys with razor-sharp accuracy the sights, sounds, tastes and tragic dilemmas of Lebanon's fratricidal civil war. A must read .' Patrick Seale Young Adam Awad, his wife and daughter live in the remote village of his family, in the Lebanese countryside where his uncle maintains there are no "vendettas and bloody feuds like in the North, no history of arms and bloodshed". He wants to restore his father's olive press house and live an idyllic life farming in peace, but it is 1976 and the civil war is closing in. The village becomes divided, but still Adam is determined to find a way to stop the escalation . . . Jad El Hage comments: "The most recent of our wars began in the 1970s and ended by stages in the early 1990s, depending on how one defines 'beginning' and 'end'. This uncertainty characterised the entire conflict. The only certainty is that we killed each other for more than fifteen years." Jad el Hage was born and grew up in Beirut. He has worked as a journalist since he was sixteen - with the Arab press, the BBC World Service in London, Radio Monte Carlo (Paris) and Harlequin Arab World in Athens. In 1985 he emigrated to Australia with his family. He has one novel, The Last Migration, written in English like The Myrtle Tree, and in Arabic, a novel and collections of poetry and of short stories, as well as two plays staged, with selected works translated into French, German Spanish and Dutch. He divides his time between Melbourne and a small village in north Lebanon. Friday, March 09, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Joy Aimee So Where's My Happy Ever After? To be launched by 'The Man with the Playful Heart' Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Is this your story too ..? is Joy Aimée's very personal account of her quest to find the happiness that has always eluded her. When a magical new life beckons with its enticing promise of a lover she calls "The Man with the Playful Heart", Joy begins a journey that takes her to new countries, new relationships and to those deep places within her own heart and soul that she has long denied. By healing the wounds of her past and understanding how her relationship with her mother and "two fathers" influenced her choices in love, Joy finds her own authenticity at last. And, for readers on their own journey, or stuck at a cross roads, Joy offers excerpts from her follow-up book, The Constant Companion, a collection of weekly readings that provide gentle, encouraging guidance towards achieving authenticity, intimacy and love. About the author: Joy Aimée is a Sydney-based writer, teacher and public speaker and the author of So, What's Today's Brilliant Excuse and The Constant Companion. Inspiring, fun-loving and occasionally outrageous, Joy offers a liberating and contemporary message for men and women searching for more depth and truth to their relationships. www.happyeverafterclub.com Thursday, March 08, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Anita Heiss Not Meeting Mr Right Published by: Bantam Australia In Conversation with Andrea Stretton Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe NOT MEETING MR RIGHT opens with 28 year old Alice at her school reunion. All the girls seem to be married with children and to any outsider looking in, are with Mr Right. Alice Aigner is successful in every aspect of her life except her love life. She is Head of the History Department at an exclusive girls school, she lives in a fabulous beachside apartment and drives a flash car but she can't find a man that she wants to stay with and 'settle down' or that wants the same from her. In a drunken moment she promises her girlfriends that she will meet and marry Mr Right before she turns 30. The challenge is set and throughout this novel we meet her prospective husbands! What Alice learns of course is that sometimes happiness is right under our noses and that unless we're happy in ourselves, we can't find happiness and love with someone else. Who could not fall in love with our Aboriginal heroine as she dates, amongst others: Renan- whose career plan is to be one of the world's best moonwalkers and male hula dancers; Tufu the commitment phobic Samoan football player; scary Simon the one night stand and Paul - Mr Dreamboat with the inept criminal past. And she skilfully avoids dating Cliff, son of her mum's friend , who is a 42 year old bachelor hairdresser who isn't likely to settle down with a woman anytime soon. Anita Heiss is a fresh new local voice in the genre of chicklit. Wednesday, March 07, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Tom Keneally The Widow and her Hero Published by: Doubleday Australia In converstion with Geraldine Doogue Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe 'I knew in general terms I was marrying a hero. The burden lay lightly on Leo, and to be a hero's wife in times supposedly suited to the heroic caused a woman to swallow doubt . The Japanese had barely been turned away. It was heresy and unlucky to undermine young men at such a supreme hour.' When Grace married the genial and handsome Captain Leo Waterhouse in Australia in 1943, they were young, in love - and at war. Like many other young men and women, they were ready, willing and able to put the war effort first. They never seriously doubted that they would come through unscathed. But Leo never returned from a commando mission masterminded by his own hero figure, an eccentric and charismatic man who inspired total loyalty from those under his command. The world moved on to new alliances, leaving Grace, like so many widows, to bear the pain of losing the love of her life and wonder what it had all been for. Sixty years on, Grace is still haunted by the tragedy of her doomed hero when the real story of his ill-fated secret mission is at last unearthed. As new fragments of her hero's story emerge, Grace is forced to keep revising her picture of what happened to Leo and his fellow commandoes - until she learns about the final piece in the jigsaw, and the ultimate betrayal. Tuesday, March 06, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Nicolas Rothwell Another Country In conversation with Murray Waldren Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe 'One of the images of Northern and Central Australia that most often comes to me is … that of mosaic, a dance of broken, gleaming fragments: the landscape that varies in its unending, subtle rhythms: the human presences within the country that glint and catch the eye like metallic rooftops shining in the late sun.' - Nicolas Rothwell, Another Country For several years now, Nicolas Rothwell has travelled the length and breadth of Northern and Central Australia. Another Country collects sketches and portraits written over this time - 'a time of great transformations' - and combines them into a book that reveals another Australia. This book tells the story of desert journeys and encounters with mystics and artists, explorers and healers. It gathers together groundbreaking pieces on Aboriginal art and society, and on Darwin and the lure of the North. This fascinating book also includes the work that won him the 2006 Walkley Award for coverage of Indigenous Affairs. There is both artful storytelling and fearless and reliable reporting - on what life is like in troubled Aboriginal communities and on what is wrong with the Aboriginal art market. Rothwell takes us to an Australia that few know well. Another Country is a portrait of people and places. It is also a literary achievement - a mesmerising, many-faceted journey into the landscape, and beyond. About the Author Nicolas Rothwell is the author of the award-winning Wings of the Kite-Hawk and the novel Heaven and Earth. He is the northern correspondent for The Australian. In 2006, he won the Walkley Award for coverage of Indigenous Affairs. Saturday, March 03, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Eileen Haley Full Circle Published by: Gininderra Press To be launched by Jacqueline Buswell Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Here the daytime of the year is ending the dry cold time approaching But there the crone rejoices at her child's return and all is young again I feel the tug of springtime and take flight along the ancestral path ... Full Circle is a poem sequence which takes a novice grandmother around the world, seeking out magic places and connections as she summons up courage for a task she must accomplish before she comes back home. Friday, March 02, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Noel Olive Enough is Enough: A History of the Pilbara Mob To be launched by Larissa Behrendt Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe A history of blackfella, whitefella relations in the Pilbara since settlement in 1863. 'Listen to these voices. I want the reader to think about what they have to say, and what they say about their history, so different from whitefellas. I want the reader to think about how the blackfellas live today, and how the reader would cope with such a life. I present these stories, or part stories, so we may consider whether any difference we hear about is simply one of culture, or whether the things that have happened to blackfellas, which whitefellas have never experienced, have had an important influence in shaping their lives. This book is a product of a whitefella's desire to see justice brought to those whom Australia's formal justice system has so far failed: the blackfellas. It is an attempt to present a history that embraces the Aboriginal side of the Pilbara story.' Author Noel Olive worked as a lawyer in the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody until the early 1990s. Thursday, March 01, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Jennifer Deger Shimmering Screens: Making Media in an Aboriginal Community Published by: University of Minnesota Press To be launched by Speedy McGinness Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Shimmering Screens reconsiders the interplay between Aboriginal communities and media. How does the introduction of modern media influence a community? How does technology coexist with tradition? How do reality and imagination converge in the creation of documentary? Jennifer Deger addresses these questions in her compelling study of one Aboriginal community's relationship with media. Deger spent several years working with the Yolngu community in Gapuwiyak, a remote Aboriginal community in Australia, both as an ethnographic researcher and as a collaborator in the production of media. Shimmering Screens explores the place of technology in Gapuwiyak through discussions about the influence of mainstream television, the changing role of photography in mortuary ceremonies, and the making of local radio and video. A rich ethnographic study, this book examines the productive, and sometimes problematic, conjunctions of technology, culture, and imagination in contemporary Yolngu life. Deger offers a new perspective to ongoing debates regarding "media imperialism." Reconsidering established assumptions about the links between representation, power, and "the gaze," she proposes the possibility of a more culturally specific and, ultimately, a more mutual relationship between subject, image, and viewer. Jennifer Deger is a research fellow in anthropology, Macquarie University, Australia. Speedy McGinness is the current chairman of the Top End Aboriginal Bush Broadcasting Association (TEABBA), a Kungarakan-Gurindji elder and a well-known activist from the Northern Territory.     February 2007 Wednesday, February 28, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Jane Dixon and Dorothy H Broom The 7 Deadly Sins of Obesity To be launched by Prof. Stephen Leeder (Dir. Australian Health Policy Institute) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Over half of adult Australians are overweight or obese - a proportion that has risen sharply in the last twenty years. While there is an overall consensus that fighting obesity is a high public health priority, The Seven Deadly Sins of Obesity begins with the premise that it is unhelpful to blame obese individuals for their predicament. Instead, it argues that it is possible to recast seven social and economic trends, nominated by Australian experts as responsible for obesity, as the seven sins of modern environments: · dominance of the market · time shortage · pressured parenting · modern technologies · car-reliance · strategic product promotion · competing experts Using sociological and epidemiologic methods, the contributing authors of The Seven Deadly Sins of Obesity provide a timely and provocative discussion of the social causes and consequences of the 'seven deadly sins' and the ways in which we might be able to challenge them. The book is also an indispensable text for students and professionals in public health, sociology, anthropology and public policy. EDITORS Jane Dixon is a sociologist and author whose research focuses on the social and cultural factors that impact on public health. She is an international authority on changing food systems. Her previous books include The Changing Chicken: Chooks, Cooks and Culinary Culture (UNSW Press, 2002). Jane is a fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University, Canberra. Dorothy Broom AM, also at the ANU, has a distinguished academic record of more than 30 years, studying the sociology of gender and health and illness. Her 1991 book Damned if we do was listed as one of the ten most influential Australian sociological titles by the Australian Sociological Association. In 1994 she was awarded an Order of Australia for her services to women and women's health. Tuesday, February 27, 2007 / 6.30pm Past Public Lecture Philippe Legrain Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them Presented by Sydney Ideas Venue: Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre Immigration divides our globalising world like no other issue. We are being swamped by bogus asylum-seekers and infiltrated by terrorists, our jobs stolen, our benefit system abused, our way of life destroyed - or so we are told. As dishevelled Africans land on Spanish tourist beaches and the death-toll on the US-Mexican border rises above 9/11's, Philippe Legrain, author of the critically acclaimed Open World, has written the first book that looks beyond the headlines. Why are ever-rising numbers of people from poor countries arriving in Europe, North America and Australasia? Can we keep them out? Should we even be trying? Combining compelling first-hand reporting from around the world, incisive socio-economic analysis and a broad understanding of what's at stake politically and culturally, Immigrants is a passionate, but lucid book. In our open world, more people will inevitably move across borders, Legrain says - and we should generally welcome them. Left and right; free-marketeers and campaigners for global justice; enlightened patriots - all should rally behind the cause of freer migration, because They need Us and We need Them. Philippe Legrain is a guest of the Perth International Arts Festival Friday, February 09, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Bill Bryson The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid Venue: Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre There are many theories on how the Thunderbolt Kid came to attain his fantastic powers, and turned the world into a dangerous place for morons. Some say that the first hints that Bill Bryson was not of Planet Earth came from his discovery, at the age of six, of a woollen jersey of rare fineness. Across the moth-holed chest was a golden thunderbolt. It may have looked like an old college football sweater, but young Bryson knew better. It was obviously the Sacred Jersey of Zap, and proved that he had been placed with this innocuous family in the middle of America to fly, become invisible, shoot guns out of people’s hands from a distance, and wear his underpants over his jeans in the manner of Superman. Bill Bryson’s first travel book opened with the immortal line, ‘I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.’ In this hilarious new memoir, he travels back to explore the kid he once was and the weird and wonderful world of 1950s America. He modestly claims that this is a book about not very much: about being small and getting much larger slowly. But for the rest of us, it is a laugh-out-loud book that will speak volumes – especially to anyone who has ever been young. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. He settled in England in 1977, and lived for many years with his English wife and four children in North Yorkshire. He and his family now live in America. He is the bestselling author of The Lost Continent, Mother Tongue,Neither Here Nor There, Made in America, Notes From a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods, Notes From a Big Country, Down Under and A Short History of Nearly Everything. Thursday, February 08, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Gabiann Marin & Jacqui Grantford A True Person Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The most fundamental of all rights is an asylum seekers right to freedom. Zallah and her mother have escaped their war torn country and are looking for safety in Australia. Instead of freedom they find themselves in a refugee detention centre. Zallah struggles with the reason for this punishment. A True Person is a moving story which highlights the bond between Mother and Daughter in times of adversity. For Zallah there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we celebrate with her as she realises what it means to be A True Person. For children 5 +. Wednesday, February 07, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Dorothy Rowe What is the Truth About Depression? Hosted by Philo Agora Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This evening's event is hosted by Philo Agora (a new philosophy café group).Dorothy Rowe’s books Depression: the Way Out of Your Prison and Beyond Fear have provided many thousands of Australians with an understanding of their mental distress which allows them to take charge of their life and bring their suffering to an end. However, she finds that many Australian psychiatrists are hostile to her ideas and many members of the media very unhelpful. When Dorothy’s books were first published in the UK in the 1980s her ideas were considered revolutionary but now they are mainstream, with most British psychiatrists regarding depression as something which arises out of the individual’s personal circumstances. Anti-depressant drugs are considered to be helpful in certain cases but they are not regarded as a cure. In treatment the emphasis is on the talking therapies, not on drugs. This difference in the views of British and Australian psychiatrists cannot be based on science. It is a matter of politics. This is a FREE EVENT, but bookings are essential. Wednesday, February 07, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Public Lecture John Pilger Freedom Next Time Published by: Bantam Venue: Venue: NSW Teachers Federation Auditorium John Pilger is one of the world's pre-eminent investigative journalists and documentary film-makers. His best-selling books of reportage, which include Heroes and Hidden Voices, have in the words of Noam Chomsky 'been a beacon of light in often dark times'. In Freedom Next Time he looks at five countries, in each of which a long struggle for freedom has taken place; in each the people, having shed blood and dreams, are still waiting. In Afghanistan, Iraq and South Africa there has been the promise of hope, and even an 'official' freedom, but the reality of these divided societies is that they are still waiting for real freedom. In Palestine, the cycle of violence continues with no resolution in sight. And the island of Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, is a microcosm of the ruthlessness of great powers. The island was sold by the British to the American military in the 1960s. The indigenous population, descended from slaves, were forcibly removed to the slums of Port Louis in Mauritius. They have continued to fight for the return of their homeland ever since - three years ago the High Court granted them the right of return, but this has subsequently been blocked. The island remains the US's third biggest military base; a base from which they are able to launch attacks against the Middle East. Once again John Pilger gives a voice to the people living through these momentous times and, in gripping detail, shows us the lives behind the headlines. Tuesday, February 06, 2007 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Clive Hamilton, Sarah Maddison (eds) Silencing Dissent: How the Australian government is controlling public opinion and stifling debate Published by: Allen & Unwin Australia Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe ‘A frightening analysis of the tactics used by the Howard government to silence independent experts and commentators as well as public servants and organisations which criticise its policies. Silencing Dissent is a timely, disturbing and unnerving book' from the foreword by Robert Manne For over a decade, the Howard government has found ways to silence its critics, one by one. Like the proverbial frog in boiling water, Australians have become accustomed to repeated attacks on respected individuals and organisations. For a government which claims to support freedom of speech and freedom of choice, only certain kinds of speech and choices appear to be acceptable. Silencing Dissent uncovers the tactics used by John Howard and his colleagues to undermine dissenting and independent opinion. Bullying, intimidation, public denigration, threats of withdrawal of funding, personal harassment, increased government red tape and manipulation of the rules are all tools of trade for a government that wants to keep a lid on public debate. The victims are charities, academics, researchers, journalists, judges, public sector organisations, even parliament itself. Deeply disturbing, Silencing Dissent raises serious questions about the state of democracy in Australia. Contributors include: Stuart Macintyre, Ian Lowe, Geoffrey Barker, Andrew Wilkie About the Authors : Clive Hamilton is the executive director of the Australia Institute and author of the bestsellers Growth Fetish and Affluenza. Sarah Maddison lectures in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of NSW and is author of Activist Wisdom. Saturday, February 03, 2007 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Sue Whiting - Illus. Nina Rycroft Elephant Dances Launcher TBA Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Hugo and Millie were the best of mates. They did everything together. They kicked up dirt. They tramped through trees. They played water fights. And showery fountains. Then one day a funky beat came drifting in on the breeze. Hugo's hips began to sway. His middle jiggled. And soon Hugo wanted to do nothing but ... DANCE! Dancing is fun, but dancing by yourself can be lonely. A story about friendship, about sharing and caring and compromise for children 4+.     January 2007 Wednesday, January 31, 2007 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Jessica White A Curious Intimacy Published by: Viking to be launched by Alan Wearne Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Reeling from the loss of her lover who has been forced to marry another, Ingrid Markham forsakes the gentle affection of her father and quiet solitude of her greenhouse to set sail from Adelaide for Albany. Equipped with a shotgun, some of the natives' languages and her own resilience, Ingrid rides through the drought-stricken bush of Western Australia distracting herself with the discovery of native wildflowers, collecting and illustrating precious specimens. On her way north to view the spectacular displays of everlasting daises, Ingrid stumbles across a dishevelled, sunburnt woman in the midst of a wilting English garden. Ellyn Ives has been driven close to madness after the sudden death of her daughter. Abandoned by her husband who's gone north droving, Ellyn's apparent depravity has become a topic of rancour and gossip amongst the local townsfolk. Intrigued by Ellyn's obsession with her foreign garden Ingrid chooses to stay awhile, but as she begins to untangle the mystery of Ellyn's bitter vulnerability, a new desire flourishes… Set in the 1870s and featuring the beautiful spirited Ingrid Markham, a fiercly independent young woman, A Curious Intimacy is the perfect summer read; intriguing, sexy and unconventional.     December 2006 Tuesday, December 12, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Deborah Brennan, Louise Chappell 'No fit place for women'?: Women in New South Wales Politics, 1856-2006 Published by: UNSW Press This event has been cancelled Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe No Fit Place for Women? is the first book to focus on women in NSW politics. It includes analyses of women's role in the NSW parliament, political parties and the public service, as well as their participation in advocacy and lobby groups. The book offers fresh perspectives on familiar topics such as the achievement of women's suffrage and women's reasons for entering the parliament. It also examines some of the innovative ways that young women participate in politics. Monday, December 11, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Launch New University of Sydney East Asian Series Titles Japanese Prose Poetry by Yasuko Claremont and Eight Contemporary Chinese Poets by Naikan Tao and Tony Prince Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Wild Peony Book Publishers invites you to a double celebration Launch of two new titles in The University of Sydney East Asian Series Japanese Prose Poetry by Yasuko Claremont University of Sydney East Asian Series Number 16 This critical study examines the evolution of prose poetry in Japan during the twentieth century and demonstrates how from small French-inspired beginnings the form has risen to become part of the national poetic tradition. The nine chapters concentrate selectively on key poets, key movements and the progressive impact of the times in shaping themes. Many of the poems discussed have not been accessible to English-speaking readers in translation, and the poets – particularly the poets of today – remain unknown. The book includes contemporary Japanese criticism, and topics range from the early romanticism of Hagiwara Sakutarô to the modernist preoccupation with language as a subject for poetry in its own right. Of interest is the persistence of Zen Buddhist philosophy underpinning themes throughout the decades. Eight Contemporary Chinese Poets by Naikan Tao and Tony Prince University of Sydney East Asian Series Number 17 This is an anthology of poems written by Yang Lian, Jiang He, Han Dong, Yu Jian, Zhai Yongming, Zhang Zhen, Xi Chuan and Hai Zi. These eight poets initiated the trends of élitist poetry, neo-realist poetry, women’s poetry and cosmopolitan poetry that dominated Chinese poetry from the mid-1980s for almost two decades and remain a continuing presence even today. This anthology documents the force of this body of powerful and innovative poetry that influenced not only the development of China’s contemporary poetry but also gave rise to the development of the “root-seeking”, “neo-realist”, “feminine” and “cosmopolitan” (or “intellectual”) schools of fiction. This unique selection of poems has been determined, not by the suitability of the poems for translation into English or by what they reveal about the personal backgrounds of the poets, but by the poetic, aesthetic, and human qualities of the poems themselves. Sunday, December 10, 2006 / 2.30 for 3pm Past Launch Jeremy Nelson Winter Crow Published by: IB Publications To be launched by Robin Marsden Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Winter Crow is in three sections. The first section is on the Shoah, that horrific destruction of the Jews by the Nazis and their allies before and during the Second World War. The second is about other acts of state terror during the same war. In the final section, the first poem shows how suffering continues and continues, and the last is a comment on our times. Jeremy Nelson lives in Braidwood NSW. His work has appeared in literary journals since the 1950s. Among his publications are the collections City of Man, Diaagrams of Paradise and Visions and Revisions. Only three poems in Winter Crow have been published before. Winter Crow is illustrated by John R Walker, inspired by the poems. Thursday, December 07, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Shelley Gare The Triumph of the Airheads: and The Retreat From Common Sense Published by: ACP In Conversation with Hugh Mackay Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The airheads are winning and so are airhead values. We live in a world where ignorance is not just bliss, it's celebrated. Celebrities are multiplying like tadpoles; millionaires are breeding even faster; values have gone out the window, and commonsense has run off with the pool-boy. Soon we'll be talking about Paris Hilton for US president. Even the current president doesn't know the difference between Sweden and Switzerland. Shelley Gare has written an insightful, sharp and funny book about how our society is losing the plot. In a series of snapshots covering everything from the rise of the jargon-speaking HR manager to our obsession with cushions, cafes and lifestyle, from the rise of the empty-headed It-girls to the multi-million dollar payouts to failed CEOs, The Triumph of the Airheads looks at how our society has been turned upside-down. She also tells us why. Wednesday, December 06, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Suzanne Leal and Claire Scobie Border Street and Last Seen in Lhasa Published by: Scribe In Conversation with Simone Whetton (ABC 702) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe At this event Simone Whetton will talk to Suzanne and Claire about their writing, and the themes of otherness and displacement which their quite different books share. Border Street When Kate and Cameron rent a house on Border Street, they cannot possibly imagine how involved they will become with their elderly Czech-Australian landlords, Frank and Vera, who live next door. Kate’s inquisitiveness about her new neighbours soon gets the better of her and, before long, the young woman and the older man have forged a strong bond. The more time Kate spends with Frank, the more she wants to find out about his earlier life. As Frank gradually opens up to Kate, she is compelled to understand a dark European history that she’d never known or cared about — and is forever changed by the encounter. When her own tragedy occurs, Kate is forced to accept that not everything in life is within our control. Border Street is a beautifully crafted novel whose vivid and authentic characters will stay with readers long after the book is finished. Last Seen in Lhasa When pioneering Claire Scobie left London for Tibet in search of arare flower, she was one of the first Westerners to set foot in Pemako in the Himalayas – ‘land of the heavenly lotus’ where the myth of Shangri-la was born. It was here that she became friends with Ani a wandering Tibetan nun and the last of a generation, a woman who was to change her life. Last Seen in Lhasa chronicles Claire’s seven journeys to Tibet over the past nine years. She falls in and out of love with a Tibetan, she meets the Dalai Lama in exile. She grows from a somewhat naïve traveller into a person deeply in touch with the reality of life in Tibet today, a place where monks talk on mobiles and Lhasa’s sex industry thrives. But it is Ani who leaves an indelible impression. Together, in a culture where freedom of expression is forbidden, they risk arrest. Yet they forge an abiding friendship, based on intuition and deep respect.This is an honest and courageous portrayal of a changing Tibet, and a unique story of friendship and adventure. Tuesday, December 05, 2006 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Scott Thornbury and Diana Slade Conversation: From Description to Pedagogy Published by: CUP Dr Hermine Scheeres UTS Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This book provides a comprehensive account of conversation in English and its implications for the ELT classroom. After a general overview and definition of conversation it provides the reader with a systematic description of conversational English, from the vocabulary of conversation, to grammar, discourse and genre. This is followed by an informed account of the development of conversation in both first and second language acquisition. It then describes a range of methodological approaches, procedures and techniques for teaching conversation in English. On this basis, an integrated approach to the teaching of conversation is provided, along with practical classroom applications. Monday, December 04, 2006 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch The Sinking of the SIEV X: A Case Study for Secondary Schools Don Maclurcan (Project co-ordinator) Launcher : Paul Kiem- Past President , NSW History teachers' Assn & publisher Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe On October 19, 2001, an Indonesian fishing vessel carrying over 400 asylum seekers sank en route to Christmas Island, resulting in 353 deaths. Five years later, an independent committee of citizens developed a Case Study for secondary schools that allows student analysis of sources and perspectives relating to the series of events surrounding the sinking. The 36-page Case Study builds students knowledge and skills through a series of key questions, ultimately working towards a final essay question 'Was the sinking of the SIEV X and subsequent loss of life preventable?' Don Maclurcan, who compiled the Case Study and chaired the project committee, will respond to the charge by the Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop that the Case Study is 'politically motivated' and 'a bizarre mix of unfounded allegations and rumour presented as fact'. He will explain the true rationale behind the Case Study and the broader challenges it raises for Australian educationalists wishing to present non-partisan materials on controversial topics. Saturday, December 02, 2006 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Newcastle Poetry Prize Poets appearing include: Robert Adamson, David Musgrave, Judith Beveridge, Marcelle Freiman, Mark Tredinnick, Catherine Doherty, Liz MacNamara and John Waters. Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Newcastle Poetry Prize this year celebrates its 25th anniversary with its first ever 'off site' event at Gleebooks. Winners from the 2004, 2005 and 2006 prize - as well as contributors to the anthology that is printed each year from the judges' selection - will be joined by judges and staff for poetry readings by some of Australia's most respected names in poetry. All welcome to come along and see where Australian poetry is at in 2006, and copies of anthologies will be on sale on the day. Formerly known as the Mattara Prize, the Newcastle Poetry Prize is Australia's most valuable poetry purse ($12,500) and has a long list of distinguished names amongst its past winners and judges. Hundreds of entries from around the country are anonymously judged each year, making the prize an acknowledged springboard for emerging poets. Friday, December 01, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Shane Homan Access All Eras: Tribute Bands & Global Pop Culture Published by: Open University Press To be launched by Peter Doyle Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe From Björn Again to the Illegal Eagles, from Black Stabbath to the Essex Pistols and the Bootleg Beatles, tribute bands comprise a significant sector of many national music scenes. Access All Eras is the first book to examine the tribute and cover band phenomenon and its place within the global popular music industry. The ability of tributes to reinforce or challenge the very idea of stardom is explored through studies of imitations of various iconic pop and rock performers, including Elvis, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, ABBA and the Beach Boys. Analysis of such tribute acts can tell us much about how the meanings of performers and performance circulate globally, and are resisted or accommodated by local music cultures in the commercialisation of live and recorded memories. The book also looks at music industry attitudes towards imitation, including copyright issues and the use of multimedia performance techniques to deliver the `authentic' tribute experience. It offers an insight into how understandings of nostalgia and celebrity circulate within contemporary society and are connected with other media and leisure industries. Access All Eras is key reading for students in popular music, media studies, cultural studies, arts, music, sociology, performing arts and popular culture studies. Shane Homan is Lecturer in Media and Popular Music at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. A former musician and performer, his first book, 'The Mayor's a Square', about live music in Australia, was published last year.     November 2006 Wednesday, November 29, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Edward Gordon Turned Skyward Published by: Edward Myles Gordon (self) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Ten years after a car accident stole his wife away, Tony Vivaldi's only remaining hope in the drought-stricken town of Elura is his beautiful artistic daughter Isabel, who is ready to discover her world. She's sixteen and set to flourish, flirting with ideas of love and deeper understandings. And for Tony, she's a sweet torment, as was her mother. The past has trapped Tony. Left so far from Italy, his dreams have dissolved like the clouds that pass empty over the endless plains of the Outback. The sweltering days besiege him as he waits for Ethan Edwards' return. Ethan Edwards is lured by Isabel's raw and emotive qualities. He wants to tell her the truth behind her mother's death, while she's searching for something more. Isabel's trying to see things differently. In this memorable debut novel, Edward Gordon captures with insight the inspirations of an artistic teenage girl, as well as the hopes and frustrations of a range of varied characters. He invites us to experience the confines of a small town and of those who seek out love and identity within it. Monday, November 27, 2006 / 7.00 for 7.30pm Past Dinner Dinner with Bill Granger Every Day Published by: Murdoch Books Venue: Hickson Rd Bistro (at the Sydney Theatre) Enjoy a fabulous 3 course meal and hear Bill Granger speak about his new book Every Day. Every Day by Bill Granger Bill Granger’s new book applies his straightforward yet stylish approach to cooking behind the scenes in his home kitchen. Every Day takes you through a typical week in the Granger household, from packed school lunches on Tuesday, to a Friday night dinner for friends and on to a relaxed big breakfast on Sunday. Every Day has a fresh and dynamic feel, with stunning reportage-style photographs of food being prepared, cooked and enjoyed in Bill’s Sydney beachside home kitchen. Sunday, November 26, 2006 / 2.30 for 3pm Past Launch Wagga Wagga Writers Writers FourWSeventeen 2006 Published by: Booranga Writers' Centre Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Now into its seventeenth year fourW is one of Australia’s longest running annual anthologies. Brimming with previously unpublished work fourWseventeen is an exciting anthology of new writing and graphics from around Australia - the cities and the regions - and from overseas. Established writers such as Susan Hampton, i.j. oog, Michael Crane, Jane Downing, David Gilbey and Pat Skinner are represented, as well as new work from emerging writers of the Riverina region. Launching this seventeenth edition will be Mr Graham Wood, Manager of the Higher Education Directorate, NSW Department of Education and Training, Sydney. Over the years Wood has regularly contributed to fourW and been an active participant and supporter of Booranga activities, with his interest in literature and experience in the education sector, Wood’s launch is sure to focus on the educational benefits of Booranga and its publications, and writers included in fourWseventeen will be invited to read their work. Winners of the Booranga prizes for the best poem and short story submitted, $250 each, donated by the Charles Sturt University, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, will also be announced. Saturday, November 25, 2006 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Michelle Cahill The Accidental Cage Published by: Interactive Press To be launched by Adam Aitken Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Accidental Cage explores the theme of freedom and entrapment, political and personal, and the resistance to this through language, the natural world and the imagination. Cahill writes from an autobiographical perspective as a migrant and a mother but her poems engage with current events like asylum, detention and rendition. Her Anglo-Indian background takes as its identity the diaspora. At the same time motherhood and domestic relations become realistic and valid subjects for her poetry. These poems are lyrical, imagistic and sensual. Michelle Cahill studied Medicine at Sydney University and has an Arts degree with a Major in Literature and Creative Writing from Macquarie University. Her first collection of poetry The Accidental Cage is winner of Best First Book 2006 with Interactive Press. Friday, November 24, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event The Chaser Team The Chaser Annual 2006 Published by: Text Publishing The Year That Was Venue: Live at Manning, Sydney University Come and join the Chaser team in a relaxed event at Manning, where the boys will talk about The Year That Was, the ups and downs of producing their ABC show 'The Chaser's War on Everything' as well as the Chaser Annual 2006. Includes video, satire and lots of laughs. Seating is limited so be early. The Chaser Annual 2006 Sit back and get ready to be offended this Christmas! The Logie award-winning Chaser team is back to stamp the highs and lows of 2006 with their subversive brand of humour in the seventh Chaser Annual. Following the extraordinary success of their Friday night ABC series ‘The Chaser’s War on Everything’, the team has compiled the best satirical articles from chaser.com.au and created an indespensible guide to the year that was. But the Annual isn’t all gloom, doom and bagging Naomi Robson. Test your skills with the ‘Beaconsfield Fun Page’! Target your neighbours with 4WD Bumper Stickers! Try one of the delicious recipes from the ‘Cannibal’s Celebrity Cookbook’, such as Judi Dench with Peas. The boundaries of good taste are there to be crossed—why not crucify them completely with The Chaser Annual 2006. Thursday, November 23, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel Andrew Lynch and George Williams What Price Security?: Taking Stock of Australia’s Anti-terror Laws Andrew Lynch and George Williams Published by: UNSW Press Panel: Andrew Lynch, George Williams, Frank Moorhouse Chair, Julianne Schultz (editor griffith REVIEW) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This event features the writers of What Price Security? and Frank Moorhouse, author of the essay ‘The Writer in the Time of Terror’ which appears in Griffith REVIEW:14 The Trouble with Paradise. (see below) What Price Security?: Taking Stock of Australia’s Anti-terror Laws Andrew Lynch and George Williams Over the past five years Australia has enacted 37 separate pieces of legislation dealing directly with terrorism. These laws limit freedom of speech and create new categories of crime and new ways of dealing with suspects. In this timely and important book, Andrew Lynch and George Williams provide a clear and accessible guide to the major components of Australia’s anti-terrorism laws and their effects. They show readers: • what constitutes a crime of terrorism in Australia • what powers our main intelligence agency has to question and detain members of the community • what happens when the authorities seek a control order or an order of preventative detention over an individual • what speech risks making a person liable for the crime of sedition • how judicial processes have been modified for the trial of people charged with terrorism offences Lynch and Williams have contributed vigorously to the public debate since September 11. In What Price Security? they examine whether Australia has gone too far in limiting civil rights in the name of anti-terrorism. “In fighting the ‘war on terror’,” they write, “it is vital that we do not allow ourselves to become the victim of our own fears.” Andrew Lynch is the Director of the Terrorism and Law Project at the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law and a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales. George Williams is the Anthony Mason Professor and Director of the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law at the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales. About: The Trouble with Paradise In his ground-breaking 20,000 word essay, Frank Moorhouse examines the challenges to freedom of expression in a time of terror and documents a troubling pattern of attacks on freedom of expression in recent years. He asks if the idea was only suited times of peace, or is it an enduring element of an ideal society? He considers the consequences of closing down debates, whether it is even possible in a networked world, and argues for a new way of defining and defending freedom of expression in times like these. Tuesday, November 21, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Frank Brennan Acting on Conscience: When Personal Beliefs and Public Life Collide Published by: Uni. Of Queensland Press In Conversation with Danny Gilbert, Gilbert & Tobin Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Is there a place for personal beliefs in public life? Is a Catholic Health Minister in a fit position to legislate on women's issues such as the right to an abortion pill? When the Prime Minister invokes church leaders' support in going to war with Iraq - and those church leaders tacitly approve this - is there a moral issue at stake? In Acting on Conscience Jesuit priest, human rights lawyer and academic Frank Brennan tackles these issues head on. He explores some of the legal, moral and ethical issues currently capturing the public imagination - and critically examines the figures in public life who pass judgment on them. Issues covered include: the war in Iraq; same-sex marriage and parenting; late-term abortion; politics and the judiciary. Through detailed analysis of examples from both Australia and the US, Brennan asks: Is there a place for personal beliefs in public life? As citizens and voters, how can we responsibly mix law, religion and politics? How can we ensure that in the future, our leaders will speak for us - but not out of turn? Monday, November 20, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Chris Masters Jonestown: The Power & the Myth of Alan Jones Published by: Allen & Unwin In Conversation with HG Nelson - Sold Out Venue: York Theatre, Seymour Centre (New Venue) Note: This event has been moved to the Seymour Centre. The most eagerly anticipated book of the year - the compelling and probing, Jonestown takes us to the hazardous intersection of populism and politics, reaching deep into a powerful industry and exposing the myth and the magic of a very powerful man. How do we rank a man who raises millions for people in need but whose actions waste millions in support of unworthy mates and poor public policy? How do we define someone who on his own finds jobs for the out of work but who routinely trashes the careers of others? These are some of the many paradoxes of Alan Jones. Why is he adored? Why is he reviled? Why does this talk radio host have the power to dine with presidents, lecture prime ministers and premiers, and influence government ministers? And how is it that he could not only survive a scandal such as the 'cash for comment' affair, but go on to greater reward? Chris Masters seeks the answers to these questions and in doing so reveals a complex individual and the potent relationships he has with both Struggle Street and the big end of town. About the Author: Chris Masters is Australia's best-known investigative reporter. In 1985, he won Australia's most prestigious award in journalism, the Gold Walkely, for his Four Corners report on the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior. His reports 'The Big League' and 'The Moonlight State' both led to royal commissions that helped transform the nation. Chris is also Adjunct Professor in Journalism at Melbourne's RMIT. In 2006, he was awarded the degree Doctor of Communications Honoris Causa. Sports broadcaster and funnyman, HG Nelson is credited with coining the phrase 'the parrot' to describe Alan Jones. Saturday, November 18, 2006 / 3 for 3.30pm Past Launch Michael Fine A Caring Society? Care and the Dilemmas of Human Service in the 21st Century Published by: Palgrave Macmillan To be launched by Carmel Tebbut, NSW Minister for Education Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe With a performance by Solidarity Choir. Care is no longer a private concern. In the twenty-first century, characterized by population aging, family fragmentation and the entry of women into the paid workforce, it has become a major public issue. This important text offers a systematic, comparative analysis of the sociology, philosophy and emergent practices of care in the context of the political economy of post-industrial societies. MICHAEL FINE is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Deputy Director, Centre for Research on Social Inclusion at Macquarie University, Sydney,Australia. Friday, November 17, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Martin Edmond Luca Antara: Passages in Search of Australia Published by: East Street Publications To be launched by Roger McDonald Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe 'Luca Antara is a book-lover's book, a graceful and mesmerizing blend of history, autobiography, travel and romance.' JM Coetzee New to Sydney, impoverished and displaced, Martin Edmond ekes out a living as a taxi driver and in his spare time, scours second hand bookshops in search of Australia's history. The people he encounters in the bohemian fringes of the city are unconventional, offering a voyeuristic glimpse into Sydney's subculture of heroin weddings, drugs and casual sex. Amidst the rare books he savours, Edmond stumbles upon the extraordinary tale of a seventeenth century Portuguese servant, António da Nova, sent to find the mysterious Luca Antara. When da Nova is abandoned by his mutinous crew on the West Australian coast, he is rescued from dehydration and certain death by an Aborigine who takes him on an epic walk across northern Australia, in search of Chinese fishermen, who could take him back to Malacca. The lives of Edmond and da Nova and the strange customs and unique social mores of each man's culture and time intertwine in this quest for a history of Australia; a quest that takes the reader to the far Marquesas, Paris at the time of the Commune, the Portugal of the Fátima revelations, seventeenth century Dutch fatalities on the Houtman Abrolhos and the mysterious first Portuguese voyages into northern Australia. 'Combining elements of a detective story with the laconic unwinding of a campfire yarn, Luca Antara is a thoroughly original, real and fantastical account of a continent that is, in the hands of Martin Edmond, vividly discovered, and discovered again.' Roger McDonald Thursday, November 16, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel Robert Drewe, Drusilla Modjeska The Best Australian Essays 2006, The Best Australian Stories 2006 Published by: Black Inc Frank Moorhouse, Mandy Sayer David Malouf, Robyn Davidson, Rowanne Couch Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe It has been a good year for essays. The Best Australian Essays 2006 contains life and travel stories, explorations of art and politics, that will illuminate and divert. Not only does each essay stand alone as one of the best of 2006, new editor, Drusilla Modjeska has created a collection that maps '...something of the rhythm of our concerns and thinking at this moment in time'. In Best Australian Stories 2006, one of Australia's most acclaimed authors, Robert Drewe, edits this best-selling series for the first time.This is the perfect book for catching up with the best short work that our fiction writers have to offer. In Drewe's own words, 'Far from being dead on its feet, the Australian short story ...is alive and kicking.' This year's Best Australians Stories is not to be missed. Wednesday, November 15, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Don Watson The Wayward Tourist: Mark Twain's Adventures in Australia Published by: Melbourne Uni Press Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Introduction by Don Watson 'It has always been the way and a great sadness to Australians of several generations: whenever celebrated writers, or celebrated anything, come to Australia they seem to be less interested in the people and their achievements than they are in the animals. It is surprising that Mark Twain was not photographed holding a koala...' Don Watson At the height of his fame, Mark Twain, the rambunctious writer and humorist from Missouri, was facing financial ruin from one of his failed business ventures. Broke but much loved he embarked on a money-raising lecture tour around the equator, making a stop in Australia. The Wayward Tourist republishes Mark Twain's Australian adventures in which he recounts his impressions of Sydney ('the creation of Satan') and his view of Australian history ('it reads like the most beautiful lies'), with much lamenting of his carbuncle along the way. In his introduction, Don Watson brilliantly animates this unforgettable encounter between Mark Twain and Australia. He pays homage to America's great writer and describes this wayward tourist who brought his American swagger, love of language and wicked talent for observation to our shores. This significant encounter with America's 'funny man' is wonderful entertainment and great summer reading. Monday, November 13, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch John Potts & Edward Scheer Technologies of Magic: A cultural study of ghosts, machines & the uncanny To be launched by Charles Merewether Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Technologies of Magic charts curious territory - a place occupied by both machines and magic. This collection of essays investigates the co-existence of very old forms of thought-belief in ghosts, magic, spirits - and contemporary culture. Refracted through highly technologised societies, magic manifests itself in surprising ways and through a diverse range of practices. This distinctive collection frames ghosts and magic as fundamentally performative - performing new kinds of cultural work in the world. Contemporary ghosts are not asked to identify themselves or show their credentials, but are made to account for the work they do. Apprehension of the magical-in the world of machines - can give rise to a feeling of uncanny unease. These essays show that ultimately this produces another way of thinking about technology in contemporary culture. Sunday, November 12, 2006 / 4.30 for 5pm Past Event / Panel International PEN, Day of the Imprisoned Writer Silence Please: Censorship in Australia Anne Deveson, Michael Harvey, George Williams, Chair Denise Leith Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Silence Please: Censorship in Australia $10/$5 conc. (students/unwaged) with proceeds to PEN. Panel: Anne Deveson, writer, broadcaster and documentary filmmaker; Michael Harvey, the Herald Sun journalist charged with contempt for failing to reveal the name of a source; George Williams, Professor of Law at UNSW and co-author of What Price Security?: Taking Stock of Australia's Anti-terror Laws. Chair: Denise Leith. A fourth panelist will be announced shortly (watch www.pen.org.au) Our Day of the Imprisoned Writer this year features a tribute to ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA The inaugural Sydney PEN Award will be awarded to writer and former Sydney PEN committee member, ROSIE SCOTT. Saturday, November 11, 2006 / 3 for 3.30pm Past Launch Bronwyn Davies, Suzanne Gannon Doing Collective Biography To be launched by Prof. Jane Ussher Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This book introduces the reader to collective biography, an innovative research methodology for use in education and the social sciences. The methodology of collective biography overcomes the theory/practice divide, by putting theory to use in everyday life, and using everyday life to understand and to extend theory. Doing Collective Biography provides guidelines for developing a collective biography project and demonstrates how these guidelines emerged from and were shaped by projects on such topics as subjectivity, power, agency, reflexivity, literacy, gender, and neoliberalism at work. Each chapter gives a detailed example of collective biography in practice, showing how a group of students and/or scholars can work collaboratively to investigate aspects of the production of subjectivity, and clearly demonstrates how poststructural theory can be elaborated and refracted through the experiences of ordinary everyday life. This is key reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students on Education and social science courses with a research element, as well as for academics and professionals undertaking research projects. Friday, November 10, 2006 / 7.00 for 7.30pm Past Event / Concert The Glebe Music Festival Goes to the Opera The Tall Poppeas Concert 1 Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe See www.glebemusicfestival.com for bookings. Gleebooks concert: Voices with Harpsichord: The Tall Poppeas. Described by one Sydney critic as "possible up and coming female rivals of the Song Company", The Tall Poppeas, established in 2001, has rapidly proved itself as one of Sydney's more adventurous and entertaining vocal ensembles. The group's name, based on the heroine of Monteverdi's opera The Coronation of Poppea, encapsulates its essence and aims - the performance of baroque repertoire, with a focus on music composed for three women; exploration of music by rarely performed composers, especially female; and our Australian origin, in playing on the expression "tall poppy syndrome". Thursday, November 09, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Niall Lucy and Steve Mickler War On Democracy: Conservative Opinion in the Australian Press Published by: Uni. Of Western Australia To be launched by Judith Lucy Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In The War on Democracy, authors Niall Lucy and Steve Mickler ride the roller coaster of recent changes in Australian political and cultural life and demonstrate how long-cherished democratic ideals in this country have been eroded and/or co-opted by various interest groups. If current conservative opinion writers are to be believed, Australian politics and culture continue to be infiltrated and dominated by left-wing ideologues, 'Marxists' and 'extremists' who are at odds with the gaggle of honest conservatives - or 'hon cons' - who represent the interests of 'ordinary' Australians. But as Lucy and Mickler reveal in their informed and engaging critique, the hon cons' discursive slight of hand is exactly that - a self-serving trick protecting the interests of a powerful and privileged few. The War on Democracy is must-read for Australians of all persuasions interested in media, politics and the fate of democratic ideals. A savage journey to the heart of the conservative dream, this topical new title from UWA Press makes for compelling reading and is guaranteed to spark national media debate. About the Authors: Niall Lucy is a Fellow of the Australian Research Institute at Curtin University. His previous books include A Derrida Dictionary and Beyond Semiotics: Text, Culture and Technology. Steve Mickler is Head of Media and Information at Curtin University and is the author of The Myth of Privilege: Aboriginal Status, Media Visions, Public Ideas and Gambling on the First Race: Racism and Talkback Radio. Wednesday, November 08, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Robert Hughes Things I Didn’t Know Published by: Knopf Australia In Conversation with Margaret Throsby Venue: Verbrugghen Hall, Conservatory of Music There have been, in the past 20 years or so, several memoirs that have struck a crucial intellectual and emotional chord. William Styron's DARKNESS VISIBLE is one. Frank McCourt's ANGELA'S ASHES is another. In many ways, this book belongs on the same shelf. The opening lengthy chapter is a brutal and briliant description of the terrible WA car accident several years ago that nearly took his life and left him physically and mentally shattered. In this beautifully written and searingly honest opening, that could be a small book in itself, Hughes makes you understand the trauma of devastating physical damage - and most important, he shows us the thought processes that one goes through when confronting death and a reemergence towards life. Using the experience of the accident to justify the need to explore his past, Hughes then takes us through his childhood. What makes this book extraordinary is that it is not one bit self-indulgent. He writes of intimately personal details, but he uses every aspect of his life to expound on broader, universal subjects. he uses his fractured and incomplete relationship with his father to explore family relationships. He uses his father's heroic deeds as a WW1 pilot to explain the history of modern warfare, which then turns into an eloquent anti-war tract. Hughes' years at Jesuit Riverview, a Catholic boys boarding school in Sydney, makes for an entertaining and often hilarious chapter - but it also lets him present us with a history of the Jesuits and leads to a virulently anti-religious point of view. His constant, razor-like examination of Catholicism will defintely be one of the most controversail elements of the book. Hughes then takes us through his development as an artist and writer, and then shows us his beginnings as an art critic, as well as giving us a history and analysis of art criticism and its important to our culture. We share his growing appreciation for art and we share his exhilaration as he leaves confining Australia in the 60s and finds a new life in Italy and London. In each instance, Hughes doesn't just take us on a tour of his life, he takes us on a tour of his mind - and like the perfect tour, it is educational, expansive, entertaining and compelling. He does a magnificent job taking us back to the culture of the 60s in swinging London, never veering into sentiment and always looking back with a critical eye to examine a revolutionary period in art, sex and politics. Wednesday, November 08, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Bill O'Hanlon Change 101: A Practical Guide to Creating Change in Life or Therapy To be launched by Brian Cade Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Drawing on thirty years of clinical experience, Bill O'Hanlon -one of psychotherapy's most innovative practitioners and teachers -examines this simple yet elusive aspect of successful therapy: change. With his characteristic wit and style, O'Hanlon presents the key concepts and powerful methods for achieving personal transformation. Examining various effective methods to change - from taking small steps and breaking patterns, to getting a mentor or model or finding change through crisis - a rich menu of do-it-yourself change-inducing behaviours is presented, along with plenty of insightful clinical anecdotes that make the notion of personal transformation all the more accessible. By distilling an often difficult to implement concept into simple life lessons, Change 101 equips readers with the perspective and inspiration necessary to embrace the risk and reward of change. Bill O'Hanlon is in Sydney running workshops. Saturday, November 04, 2006 / 3.30 for 4pm Past Launch Rudi Krausmann News Published by: Macmillan Australia To be launched by Nicholas Pounder Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This is a bilingual English and German publication with haiku-style poems with topics ranging from Germaine Greer to the MCA. Salzberg-born Sydney poet, Rudi Krausmann muses upon fellow poets - both Australian and International - and famous writers, philosophers and artists in a series of 60 short verses which are accompanied by equally succinct and pithy drawings by noted Sydney artist, Garry Shead. Together, poet and artist explore the idiosyncrasies and vicissitudes of human nature and of creative lives through the medium of this elegantly produced book. This launch was moved from it's original date in August. Friday, November 03, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Elizabeth Porter & Baden Offord Activating Human Rights To be launched by Michael Kirby Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This book is based on papers originally presented at the international conference 'Activating Human Rights and Diversity' held in Byron Bay in 2003. It advances a powerful and convincing affirmation of the importance of human rights in the twenty-first century and explores the vital connections between the theory and practice of human rights. It asks what kind of vision for humanity is necessary, given the harsh realities and challenges of the twenty-first century. Through a range of perspectives - reconciliation, refugees, women, indigenous issues, same-sex sexualities, conflict resolution, environmental degradation, political freedoms and disability - this collection highlights the fact that the survival of humanity depends on our ability to connect a vision with the reality of activating human rights. A Special Discounted Price will be available at the launch. http://www.scu.edu.au/research/cpsj/ Thursday, November 02, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Martin Crotty & David Roberts Great Mistakes of Australian History Published by: UNSW Press To be launched by Bob Carr Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The denial of indigenous rights, the stolen generations, the introduction of cane toads, the naïve militarism of World War I, the Whitlam dismissal – all of these events have gone down as some of the greatest mistakes in Australian history. But why did these mistakes happen and what can we learn from them? While there have been many books celebrating the triumphs and merits of our history, The Great Mistakes of Australian History is the first to take a thematic look at its errors in judgement, omissions and outright tragedies. Australian history has never been more topical. In the last two decades, the Australian past has been central to numerous public debates – the republic, the Stolen Generations, the so-called History Wars. At a time when a shallow, triumphant historical narrative is being drafted into the service of contemporary politics, the authors of this provocative book try to restore a balance to our understanding of the past. They remind us that our history is also characterised by mistakes and poor outcomes, and that by contemplating those errors and acknowledging their legacies, we are better placed to understand ourselves and apply the benefits of experience to the future.     October 2006 Tuesday, October 31, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Clinton Fernandes Reluctant Indonesians: Australia, Indonesia and West Papua Published by: Scribe In Conversation with Peter Cronau (ABC, 4 Corners) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe _In 1999 East Timor emerged victorious as an independent nation after a long struggle for liberation from Indonesia. But East Timor's hard-won independence also created a major crisis in Australia's relationship with Indonesia and jeopardised the stability of South-East Asia. Now the movement for independence has shifted to another part of the Indonesian archipelago, and once again they are looking to Australia for support. As the strength of West Papuan nationalism grows, so does the pressure on our diplomatic relations with Indonesia - when the Department of Immigration issued temporary protection visas to forty-two West Papuans who sought asylum in Australia, Indonesia withdrew its ambassador in protest. As the West Papuan cause wins the hearts of the Australian public and media, fears are growing within Indonesian military and diplomatic circles that West Papua will become the next East Timor. Clinton Fernandes surveys the rise of the West Papuan independence movement, its potential to succeed, and its likely impact on Australia, Indonesia, and the region. He looks to the lessons that can be learnt from East Timor, and offers tactical insights into the challenges that Australia faces as it negotiates its future in the region. Reluctant Indonesians is a timely and thoughtful look at the changing face of Australia's neighbours. Peter Cronau is a journalist who has reported on West Papua and the Australia-Indonesia relationship. He works for ABC TV's Four Corners program. Monday, October 30, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Charles Firth American Hoax Published by: Macmillan Australia Andrew O'Keefe Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Direct from ABC-TV's The Chaser's War on Everything, Charles Firth, co-founder of The Chaser is set to confound us all again with his new book, American Hoax. Inspired while at a particularly poignant Donald Rumsfeld press conference, Charles Firth, budding 'serious' author promptly scraps his yet-to-be-published-but-extremely-earnest tome on America, and instead decides to get an insider's glimpse of the empire, a glimpse he could never hope to attain as an outsider. By inventing five American characters, each representing a different segment of American life, Firth spends six months undercover (sort of) in the USA coming to grips with the American dream, confronting real Americans with their own rhetoric. One of his made-up characters is a right-wing economist, another is a national security consultant, another is a bleeding-heart advertising executive, another is a working class American gambling addict. Plus, of course, there's the token deaf mute Muslim woman poet (who also happens to be blind). These five characters (all with really bad American accents) come complete with CVs and back stories to allow them to seep seamlessly into the background noise of American commentary. The result is a compelling, hilarious and at times astonishing tale of an Australian 'outsider' (with dubious acting skills) on his quest to discover which one of his characters will flourish in the land of opportunity. If you believe in the American Dream, then you probably won't get any of the irony in American Hoax. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Charles Firth is a co-founder of The Chaser, Australia's longest running fortnightly satirical newspaper. His TV credits include The Election Chaser (2001), CNNNN: Chaser Non-stop News Network (2002-3), The Chaser Decides (2004) and The Chaser's War on Everything (2006). Charles has also worked as a writer/presenter on Australia's Triple M network, and co-written and edited five comedy books in The Chaser Annual series. Oh, and he's won a couple of Logies as well. Wednesday, October 25, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel Fabian Forum Two Years Down and One to Go: Can Labor Win in 2007? Panel: Phillip Adams, Hugh Mackay, TBA Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe With 12 months to the next Federal election this Fabian Society Forum will consider the themes, issues and policies that will decide the result. Will the election give Johnn Howard 14 years of power? Or can Kim Beazley lead the ALP to government? Panelists include Phillip Adams, broadcaster and commentator, and Hugh Mackay, social researcher and writer. A third panelist will be announced soon Tuesday, October 24, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Geoffrey A Oddie Imagined Hinduism: British Protestant Missionary Constructions of Hinduism 1793-1900 Published by: Sage To be launched by Deryck Schreuder Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This important book explores the emergence and subsequent refinement of the idea of Hinduism as it developed among British protestant missionaries in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The author demonstrates how the missionaries' construction of Hinduism grew out of their own roots in post-enlightenment Europe, their Christian conception of religion, the colonial reality of India, and their need to 'know the enemy' in order to spread Christianity more effectively. Drawing upon missionary writings, Geoffrey Oddie shows how the early view of Hinduism as pagan or heathen settled into the dominant paradigm of Hinduism as a unitary, Brahman-controlled 'system', ridden with idolatry, ritualism, superstition and sexual licence. This 'other' was compared with evangelical Christianity, in which inward devotion counted for more than outward ritual, and where the individual was free from oppression and 'priestcraft'. Issues of topical interest discussed in this book include the nature of knowledge, notions of religion, concepts of Hinduism, the orientalism debate, and the relationship between missionaries and empire. This fascinating and thorough work of scholarship will appeal to all those interested in South Asian history, religion and society, as well as to students and scholars of anthropology, theology, philosophy, intellectual history and political science." Friday, October 20, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Helena Cornelius & Shoshanna Faire Everyone Can Win: Responding to Conflict Constructively Published by: Simon & Schuster To be launched by John Pace Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Everyone Can Win has become one of the most recognised handbooks of practical Conflict Resolution skills.. It is the "how to" of emotional intelligence. Following the success of the first edition -released in 1989 - a completely revised and updated second edition has been written. This is an invaluable life skills book - full of practical skills to use - at work, at home, socially - everywhere you deal with people. Throughout the book there are stories, exercises, sayings, and tips on how to use conflict resolving language and questions to take thinking forward. The book is based on wanting the best for all concerned and being committed to examining our own motives whenever we fall out of compassion. It guides the reader on a personal journey of self-discovery, finding the path with heart. These guidelines are compatible with all the great spiritual and philosophical theories. These are the skills needed for a peaceful world. Thursday, October 19, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Shaun Tan The Arrival Published by: Lothian In Conversation with Nick Staphopoulos Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Childrens author, Shaun Tan's latest book The Arrival is a 128 page book of illustrations without words, a silent graphic novel. 'Through a series of connecting images, The Arrival tells the story of an anonymous migrant leaving unfortunate circumstances in his home country, crossing an ocean to a strange new city, and learning how to live here. The story may be set some time around 1900, coinciding with great waves of migration from out of Europe and into countries such as Australia and the United States, and much of my initial research has been based on autobiographical stories recorded by migrants around this period, as well as more recently. However, the world of the book is ultimately removed from any direct references: my interest as an artist has been to dislocate the reader in order to better explore the idea of being an immigrant within a foreign culture. The city where most events are illustrated is imaginary, where fundamental things like language, transportation, food, housing and work are all quite strange, and often surreal. One of the key reasons behind removing all text from the book is to underline this principle - the main character cannot read or understand everything, so neither should the reader. Yet there is an internal logic within all of the details which can be discerned as the story progresses - how things work and so on - and the absence of written narrative seems to invite a closer visual reading, and a much slower one too. The mystery of the world is also preserved by the absence of explanation, and suggests a dreamlike journey, which is my attempt to find a fictional equivalent to the reality faced by many immigrants - both our ancestors and contemporaries.' Shaun Tan Nick Staphopoulos is an artist and illustrator. Wednesday, October 18, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Kate Crawford Adult Themes: Rewriting the Rules of Adulthood Published by: Pan Macmillan In Conversation with Jenny Brockie Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Is adulthood in crisis? Why are so many people rejecting the traditional path of marriage, mortgage and a fast-track career? Are we facing an immaturity epidemic? In this provocative, humorous and persuasive book, Kate Crawford takes a close look at the conventional packaging of adulthood. The idealised picture of the wedding ring, picket fence and career-for-life no longer reflects how a growing number of Australians live. Commentators wring their hands over commitment-phobic, apolitical "adultescents" permanently plugged into iPods, and decry the loss of values. But they're missing the larger picture. The way we work, find homes, form families and engage in politics and culture has radically transformed. Crawford argues that it's time the debates on social values recognised the variety of ways that we choose to live. Equal parts media critique and manifesto, Adult Themes is an inspiring call to arms for those who know that being "adult" goes beyond home renovation, getting hitched and a gold watch on retirement. This book explodes the generational stereotypes and myths of perpetual adolescence to reveal the economic and cultural shifts that affect us all. About the Author: Kate Crawford is a commentator, journalist and academic. She has worked extensively as a journalist in the US and Australia (including The Sydney Morning Herald and New York-based The 451), is the presenter of ABC-TV series SET (2006) and is a regular cultural commentator for ABC radio. She is a lecturer in the Media and Communications Department at the University of Sydney. She's also an internationally recognised electronic musician, and is known for her work in groups such as Biftek and Clone. Jenny Brockie is an award winning journalist with SBS TV Friday, October 13, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Andrew West NOW Australia 1: Lifestyles of the Rich and Tasteful Published by: Pluto Australia In conversation with Stephen Crittenden Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In this book, journalist and author Andrew West exposes the great Australian myth of egalitarianism by going inside the class that dare not speak its name - the upper middle class. With wry humour and cutting irony, West observes the customs, the privileges, the spending and preoccupations of Australia's well-to-do. West finds an upper middle class riven down the middle between those driven by money and those obsessed with cultural attainments. He writes of a new elite class conflict that secretly shapes Australian politics: the Materialists versus the Culturalists. This book is the first in the new series NOW Australia - new journalism about contemporary issues - by leading journalists and writers - published 5 times a year. Stephen Crittenden is the Presenter of The Religion Report, ABC Radio National Thursday, October 12, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Ingla Clendinnen QE23: The History Question Published by: Black Inc In Conversation with Mark McKenna Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe ‘Some people think history is useless because change is so swift. It is precisely because change is so swift that we need history.’ – Inga Clendinnen, The History Question In the third Quarterly Essay for 2006, acclaimed writer and thinker Inga Clendinnen looks past the skirmishes and pitched battles of the history wars and asks what’s at stake – what kind of history do we want and need? Should our historians be producing the “objective record of achievement” that the Prime Minister has called for? Throwing her net wide, Clendinnen considers how Australians remember the past and create a national identity. For Clendinnen, historians cannot be the midwives of national identity and also be true to their profession: history cannot do the work of myth. She illuminates the ways in which history, myth and fiction differ from one another, and why the differences are important. Clendinnen offers a spirited critique of Kate Grenville’s The Secret River and discusses the Stolen Generations and the role of morality in history-writing. She celebrates the human need for storytelling but distinguishes this from the discipline of history. Above all, in The History Question, Clendinnen discusses what good history looks like and, more specifically, what good Australian history looks like. This is an eloquent, engaging and thought-provoking essay that looks anew at one of the most divisive topics of recent times: how we as a nation remember the past. Written on the eve of the History Summit, The History Question offers real insight into this complex, controversial and integral issue. Author Details Inga Clendinnen is a distinguished historian of the Spanish encounters with Aztec and Maya indians of sixteenth-century America. Her Reading the Holocaust was named a New York Times best book of the year and awarded the NSW Premier’s General History Award in 1999. Clendinnen’s ABC Boyer Lectures, True Stories, were published in 2000, as was her awardwinning memoir, Tiger’s Eye. In 2003 Dancing With Strangers attracted wide critical acclaim. Her latest book is Agamemnon’s Kiss: Selected Essays. Mark McKenna is a Senior Research fellow in the Department of History at Sydney University. He is the author of several books on Australian history including Looking for Blackfellas' Point: an Australian History of Place, winner of the NSW Premier's Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction and the Book of the Year in 2003. Mark is currently working on a biogrpahy of the Australian historian Manning Clark Wednesday, October 11, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Sonja Goernitz Tagebuch 1 Tagebuch 1 Tagebuch 1 To be launched by Peter FitzSimons Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Sonja Goernitz completed her studies in Librarianship at University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg, Germany and a Master of Arts in International Communication at Macquarie University in Sydney. She received scholarships, e.g. from Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Sonja worked with media in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, New York, Philadelphia, Sydney, Melbourne and Tokyo. Now she is publishing her journals (German/English) as a series. This first book is from 1994 when she travelled to the USA for the first time, worked in New York and met a rich man (a bit of a Cinderella story). Sonja's journal entries show what a woman feels, thinks and does. It also reflects the Zeitgeist, being driven by the search for an education, the wish to travel and the longing for a partner. This book is about woman-man, German-Jewish, 9 to 5 (40-hour-week) and other life-forms, written from the heart by a woman at 22 who likes to gather life experience and trying to organise life in a way so that every year counts. "She is an extraordinary woman, this is an extraordinary book." Peter FitzSimons Peter FitzSimons has written the foreword for this book. Sonja has worked as a researcher for Peter on his latest book Tobruk. Tuesday, October 10, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk David Malouf Every Move You Make Published by: Chatto & Windus Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe A brilliant collection by a great international writer - Malouf's range is dazzling and his canvas is the vast Australian continent, with unsettling glimpses of a world beyond. Bookish boys and taciturn men, strong women and wayward sons, fathers and daughters, lovers and husbands, a composer and his muse, a builder-architect and his legacy – here are their stories, whole lives brought vividly into focus and so powerfully rooted in the landscape that you can almost feel the heat and the dust. His canvas is the vast Australian continent from the mysterious, glittering Valley of Lagoons behind the Great Divide in Far North Queensland, to bohemian Balmain and the Centre at Uluru, but always there are enticing glimpses of a world beyond, and the stories are tender, subtle, unsettlingly intimate. A young man going off to war tries to make sense of his place in the world he is leaving; a composer’s life plays itself out as a complex domestic cantata; an accident on a hunting trip speaks volumes, which its inarticulate victim never could; and, in the funniest, most surprising story of all, a down-to-earth woman stubbornly tries to keep her feet on the ground at Ayers Rock. Malouf’s men and women are together but curiously alone, looking for something they seem to have missed, or missed out on, in life, puzzling over the space they’ll leave behind when the waters close over them… This is a heartbreakingly beautiful, richly satisfying collection by a master storyteller, one of the great writers of our time. DAVID MALOUF is the author of DREAM STUFF (‘These stories are pearls,’ - Spectator) and of acclaimed novels including THE GREAT WORLD (winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize) and REMEMBERING BABYLON (shortlisted for the Booker Prize and winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award). Born and brought up in Brisbane, he lives in Sydney. Monday, October 09, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation William J. Lines Patriots: Defending Australia's Natural Heritage 1946-2004 Published by: Uni. Of Queensland Press In Conversation with Peter Thompson Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe For more than sixty years a small group of dedicated people have been fighting to defend Australia's unique wildlife. Those conservationists battle indifference and hostility from government and developers, whose actions are responsible for the decimation of spectacular natural beauty. Although much has been lost, the conservation movement has won great victories and secured the preservation of some of the world's most pristine, and ecologically important landscapes. Patriots is the powerful and provocative account of this nation-defining struggle. William J. Lines charts the emergence of a national movement whose campaigners and members are forging a new Australian identity enmeshed in nature and committed to its survival. Peter Thompson is a broadcaster with ABC TV and Radio and is an adjunct Professor at Macquarie University's Department of International Communication. Sunday, October 08, 2006 / 3 for 3.30pm Past Launch Martin Flanagan & Tom Uren The Fight Published by: One Day Hill Pub To be launched by Richard Le Plastrier Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This book is an answer to the despair of Mark Latham's Diaries. Tom Uren is a child of the Great Depression whose politics were forged by his experience of the Burma Railway where he served under Weary Dunlop and saw how engendering a collective spirit saved lives. From 1976-77, Tom Uren was deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party. He was Labor's first environment spokesman, is a long-time activist for world peace and in 1998 was voted a National Living Treasure. The Fight is an intimate but unsparing portrait of Uren by author and journalist Martin Flanagan. It is also Uren's view of the spirit that needs to be re-awakened for Australia to move forward in a balanced and positive way. Martin Flanagan has written this book on his long time friend and labor icon, Tom Uren, to find out why Uren's generation thought they could shape the world. The purpose of the inquiry was to try and find the ingredients that enable people to stand up to the political challenges of their times. Friday, October 06, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Eileen Naseby Ursula Published by: Murdoch Books To be launched by Lucinda Holdforth (author, 'True Pleasures') Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Beautiful, smart, talented. Impatient, dissatisfied, critical. Ursula was many things to many people. In a life filled with love and drama, hope and disappointment, she had to reinvent herself again and again. Her pampered childhood in Germany ended abruptly in flight from the coming Nazi terror. Suddenly she and her mother were living hand-to-mouth in Palestine where her dreams seemed to be blowing away in the dust.Then came the men, drawn by her movie-star looks and surprised by her gifted mind. Adventurers, officers and gentlemen, including the dashing and famous Laurens Van Der Post, wooed her. She had her choice, but her choice would lead to painand scandal and see Ursula risking everything to follow love, first to England then to Australia. Would love be enough?This exquisitely written book is the true story of a beautiful and resilientwoman who lived through extraordinary times. Its author, Eileen Naseby, is Ursula’s daughter, and in seeking the truth about her mother’s life she has rediscovered the woman she thought was lost to her. Her story is vivid, moving and unforgettable. Author Profile Eileen Naseby was born in Haifa, in 1943, and is the eldest of Ursula’s six children. Eileen has been awarded two writer’s fellowships and Ursulais her first book. Eileen now lives in Sydney. Wednesday, October 04, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Barry Jones A Thinking Reed Published by: Allen & Unwin In Conversation with Jennifer Byrne Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In his long-awaited autobiography A Thinking Reed, Barry Jones looks back at his remarkable life and career. From quiz kid to Federal Minister for Science, from frustrated school teacher to National President of the ALP, from the suburbs of Melbourne to UNESCO, Barry Jones has had a prodigious public life. Unlike most politicians, Barry Jones is regarded with great affection by the public and respected on both sides of politics. A Thinking Reed reveals many insights into the political process, as well as Barry's passionate and witty musings on history, philosophy, music and literature Tuesday, October 03, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Meaghan Morris Identity Anecdotes: Translation and Media Culture Published by: Sage To be Launched by Ien Ang Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Written with the razor-sharp precision, arresting wit and erudite acumen that are quintessential Meaghan Morris, Identity Anecdotes is an awesomely satisfying and enlightening read. It is also testimony to a fearless generosity of spirit that we need more than ever in our increasingly fraught and fractious world' - Ien Ang, University of Western Sydney How is identity produced in global `textual environments'? What forms of narrative generate solidarity in a world in which globalization and trans-nationality can often appear to be a fait accompli? This brilliant, coruscating book, written by one of the most formidable and original thinkers in cultural studies, examines questions of nationality, identity, the use of anecdote to build solidarity and the role of institutions in shaping culture. Ranging across many fields, including film and media, gender, nationality, globalization and popular culture, it provides a mind-clearing exercise in recognizing what culture is, and how it works, today. Illustrated with a fund of relevant and insightful examples, it addresses the central questions in cultural studies today: identity, post-identity, the uses of narrative and textual analysis, the industrial organization of solidarity and the opportunities and dilemmas of globalization. Penetrating, arresting and inimitable, the book is a major contribution to the field of cultural studies. It is of interest to students of cultural studies, media, film and cultural sociology.     September 2006 Friday, September 29, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Jo Gardiner The Concerto Inn Published by: Uni. Of Western Australia To be launched By Anna Gibbs Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Concerto Inn threads the stories of two sisters, two betrayals and the two acts of violence—years apart—that lead Isabelle and Madeleine to Ravello, Italy, the mythical place of their childhood. From Hong Kong to the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, from the wild peat country of southern Victoria to Paris, the sisters’ past and present become a haunting narrative of longing and unfulfilled desire. Thursday, September 28, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Judith Brett Ordinary People's Politics Published by: Pluto Australia In Conversation with Hugh Mackay Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Judith Brett and Anthony Moran reveal for the first time what ordinary Australians think about politics and politicians and what they consider are the key issues facing Australia today. 'Ordinary people' and 'ordinary Australians' have become standbys of contemporary political journalism in stories in which 'the elites' have lost touch with the experience of the rest of the population. Twenty- two 'ordinary Australians' talk about politics and its place in their lives and about the issues facing Australia. Based on interviews done in the 1950s, the 1980s and the early 2000s, the experiences in this book span the twentieth century: the oldest respondent was born in 1898, the youngest in 1980. Australian and overseas born, country and city dwellers, young and old, comfortable and struggling, men and women, each draws on their experiences to make sense of the country in which they live and the times they have seen. Beautifully written, the sharply etched portraits read like political short stories. And the concluding chapter traverses the big questions of the ways of being interested and not interested in politics, the changing experience of class and why Australians love their country. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Judith Brett is an award - winning author and leading Australian political scientist and media commentator. She is Professor of Politics at La Trobe University. Her major books, both of which have won prizes, have both been about the non-labour side of Australian politics - Robert Menzies Forgotten People (Macmillan, 1992) and Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: From Alfred Deakin to John Howard (Cambridge University Press, 2003). Her Quarterly Essay: Relaxed and Comfortable: The Liberal Party's Australia. (Black Inc, August 05) attracted considerable attention. Anthony Moran is a political sociologist who specializes in the areas of Australian nationalism, Aboriginal politics and multiculturalism. He is a Research Fellow in Politics, La Trobe University. Wednesday, September 27, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Event / In Conversation Patricia Edgar Bloodbath: A Memoir of Australian Television Published by: Melbourne Uni Press In Conversation with Phillip Adams Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Patricia Edgar has been named one of the ten most influential people in the development of Australian television production. Her candid memoir offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at the television industry and its politics. It also tells her own story: how a young secondary school teacher from Mildura became a leading innovator in Australian children's television production, and a voice to be reckoned with in a tough business. In the early 1980s she joined with other concerned Australians to create the Australian Children's Television Foundation. As its founding director, she led the ACTF for twenty years, creating some of the most celebrated television ever produced for Australian children, including the Round the Twist series, which sold into more than 100 countries, and established Australia as a leading international producer. Bloodbath sets its author's own triumphs and setbacks in the television industry into the wider perspective of political and economic change, the destructive forces of consumerism and the global marketplace. Dr Edgar casts a veteran insider's eye over the development of television, tracing its decline from a medium with huge social potential to one now languishing for lack of champions, lack of cultural focus and a failure to adapt to the new media challenge. Phillip Adams once described Patricia Edgar as a human tank. This memoir reveals Dr Edgar as she really is-a sensitive, thoughtful, determined woman, bloodied but unbowed, still working to make the media environment one of quality not pap, a force for learning as well as entertainment, where children are served rather than exploited for financial gain. Bloodbath is a must-read book for every Australian in the media industry, every parent raising a child, every woman who ever strove for career success, and anyone interested in how leadership works. Friday, September 22, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Gillian Cowlishaw, Tess Lea, Emma Kowal Moving Anthropology: Critical Indigenous Studies Published by: Charles Darwin Uni. Press To be launched by Frank Brennan Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Distinguished legal scholar, priest and leading activist in Indigenous Affairs, Frank Brennan will launch "Moving Anthropology: critical Indigenous studies". Those who are baffled by the scandals about Aboriginal communities and irritated by the posturing of politicians will enjoy the launch and the book. The editors and authors of this collection of essays either have experience in Indigenous communities or first hand knowledge of the conditions and confusions of Indigenous policy and practices of governance.. Many have worked in remote or rural Aboriginal communities and some in health or education policy. They break through some of the pieties and platitudes about culture, tradition and governance that bedevil public debate. Besides Frank Brennan, Indigenous scholar at UTS, Heidi Norman, will comment on the collection and Gillian Cowlishaw and Tess Lea, two of the editors and authors, will speak briefly on their work. Wednesday, September 20, 2006 / 6pm Past Fabian Society Forum Are Factions Killing the ALP? Fabians at LHMU Senator Robert Ray, Dr Carmen Lawrence, Evan Thornley and Senator John Faulkner Venue: LHMU Auditorium 187 Thomas Street Haymarket With: * Senator Robert Ray * Dr Carmen Lawrence MP * Evan Thornley, National Secretary Australian Fabians Chair: Senator John Faulkner, President NSW Fabian Society Members of the Fabian Society please show your membership card on the night to obtain free entry. No bookings for this Forum. Wednesday, September 20, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Giorgio Riello/ Peter McNeil Shoes: A History from Sandals to Sneakers Published by: Berg To be launched by Niccole Warren ( The Collectors, ABC ) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe What do your shoes say about you? Shoes are now much more than just things to walk in. From kids on the block to models on the catwalk, we use them to signal how fashionable we are. But, beyond style, this most intimate object communicates much more . . . our sexual desires, aesthetic sense, social status and personality. And, before they became supreme objects of desire, shoes had a history. From ancient times to the present, shoes have had a cultural as well as a practical purpose. Within these pages is pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about shoes - the tiny crushing shoes of China, the infamous chopine with its 23-inch heel, how dandies made men's shoes beautiful in the eighteenth century, and how the powers of conservatism made them dull again, war and the wellington boot, sex and the high heel, the codes of the "gay shoe," shoes in fairytales and in art, the irresistible rise of the sneaker, and the cult of shoe designers. About the author(s) Giorgio Riello was born in Italy and is now living in London. He has a degree in economics and a doctorate in history and has researched and taught in several British and Italian institutions including the Royal College of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Open University and the University of Padua. He has widely published on fashion, textiles, product innovation and design in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Peter McNeil trained in the history of art with a focus on design history. His MA 'Designing Women' examined inter-war women and interior design, and his PhD 'Fashion Victims' explored Enlightenment menswear, caricature and identity around the figure of the 18th-century London macaroni, a stylish fop. Another current interest is the relationship between fashion, furniture and interior architecture. He is Chair of Design History in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology, Sydney. Tuesday, September 19, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Sebastian Barry A Long Long Way Published by: Faber & Faber In Conversation with Peter Lalor Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Shortlisted for the 2005 Man Booker Prize Barely eighteen years old, Willie Dunne leaves Dublin in 1914 to fight for the Allied cause, largely unaware of the growing political and religious tensions festering back home. A Long Long Way evokes the camaraderie of Willie’s regiment, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, but also the cruelty and sadness of war, and the divided loyalties that tore at many Irish soldiers. Tracing their experiences through the course of the war, the narrative vividly dramatises the events of the Easter Rising within Ireland, and explores how such a seminal political moment came to affect those boys who were fighting for the King of England on foreign fields. The novel also charts Willie’s coming of age, his leaving behind of his sweetheart Gretta, and the effect the war has on his relationship with his father, a member of the Dublin Military Police and fervent loyalist. Running throughout is the question of how such young men came to be fighting in a war, and how they struggled with the events that raged around them. Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955, and now lives in County Wicklow. His play The Steward of Christendom (1995) won many awards, and A Long Long Way is his third novel. His two previous novels were The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998), and Annie Dunne (2002). Peter Lalor is a sports writer at The Australian, and has previously worked for The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Age. He is the author of two books, The Bridge and Blood Stain (Allen & Unwin) Monday, September 18, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Michael Gurr Days Like These Published by: Melbourne Uni Press In Conversation with Richard Ackland Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This memoir by a leading Australian playwright casts a shrewd eye over Australian culture and politics. Michael Gurr has written, directed and acted. He's also been a political activist, for causes such as asylum seekers in Australia. He's worked with the Australian Labor Party as a speech writer. He has won a number of awards, including four state Literary Awards for Drama. The diary meshes the personal with the political -- from the Dismissal in 1975, through the rise of economic rationalism, net culture, and globalisation to the transformed Australia of 2006. As a playwright and activist, Michael Gurr has been a close observer of Australian politics and culture for more than twenty years. Days Like These is his personal account of a writer's evolution against the backdrop of a changing nation: a clear-eyed, often darkly humorous riff on how the times have come to be out of joint. About the Author Michael Gurr is the recipient of four State Literary Awards for Drama in NSW and Victoria. His work has been produced Australia-wide and in the UK and USA. He was speechwriter for Steve Bracks in the campaign that returned the ALP to power in Victoria in 1999. Monday, September 18, 2006 / 5pm Past Event / Talk David J Smith If the World Were a Village Published by: Kids Can Press Presented by Sydney Ideas Venue: Seymour Theatre Centre At this moment there are more than 6 billion people on this planet. Picturing so many people at one time is hard - but what if we imagine the whole world as a village of just 100 people? In this village: • 22 people speak a Chinese dialect • 20 earn less than a dollar a day • 17 cannot read or write • 50 are often hungry • 24 have a television in their homes David J Smith is a US geography teacher and the author of the multi-award-winner and international bestseller If the World Were a Village: A book about the world’s people. By imagining the world as a village of 100 people the book motivates children to ask not only where we are, but where everybody else is, who our neighbors are, where people live, why, and how? For teachers, librarians, parents and teaching students, David Smith’s presentation will examine how he came up with the idea of the global village, and some of the surprising and interesting ways that the book has been used. Friday, September 15, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Liz Gallois India Vik Published by: Transit Lounge To be launched by Safina Uberoi, filmmaker, My Mother India Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Unlike many who write of India, Liz Gallois is not interested in nostalgia, even if some of her characters suffer from that condition. The India she offers us in India Vik speaks in many voices, is acutely observed and deeply felt. This highly evocative collection of interlinked stories is a wonderful introduction to the work of a new writer and the unexpected worlds that await the modern traveller." - Sophie Cunningham, author of Geography. Travel to India and be changed forever. Delicately spiced with humour this is an intriguing work of fiction, by an exciting new talent, where sexuality, loss and yearning are always simmering just beneath the surface. From Chennai to Sydney Liz Gallois captures both Indians and Westerners in new and unexpected guises, their relationships teetering on the edge, or caught at odds by the allure and the chaos of the subcontinent. Wednesday, September 13, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Peter Manning Us and Them Published by: Random House Australia In conversation with Tim Palmer (2006 Gold Walkely Winner and Former Middle-East Correspondent) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Since 9/11 the Australian media has been filled with bad news stories. Gang rapes in Sydney, asylum seekers, the Tampa federal election, the war in Afghanistan, the first year of the Palestinian intifada, the Cronulla riots - all hit the headlines on a regular basis. One factor ran through all of these: Arabs and Muslims. After the terrible anti-Muslim feeling after 9/11, Manning had the shocking realization that he hadn't fairly portrayed Muslims in the media, and had even used Australia's fear of Islam to sell stories. His reaction to the media firestorm about one ethnicity and one religion was to prepare a fully-refereed academic study on how both had been portrayed in two newspapers - Sydney's two major dailies - in the year before and the year after September 11, 2001. The results horrified him, and he set out to redress the balance any way he could. Now Professor of Media Studies at the University of Technology, he launched himself into an undergraduate degree in Arabic studies, and immersed himself in the Arab world. His subsequent trip to the Middle East was one of the best times of his life. US AND THEM is an attempt by a respected journalist and media commentator to address the public, government-led and media-driven hysteria about the group of Australians now known as 'people of Middle Eastern appearance'. A combination of memoir, travel, culture, history and religion, US AND THEM tells the story of one man's passionate quest to see justice done: to humanise rather than demonise the people our media - and us - tend to get so wrong. Tuesday, September 12, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Jasper Fford The Fourth Bear Published by: Hodder & Stoughton Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Did you ever question. . . Why Mummy Bear and Daddy Bear slept in separate beds? The real reason goldilocks was in the Bear’s house that morning? The thermodynamic impossibility of simultaneous porridge pouring? You did? Then hold onto your porridge spoon . . . DI Jack Spratt and DS Mary Mary are back from The Big Over Easy to solve these and other mysteries another Nursery Crimes instalment, The Fourth Bear. The Gingerbreadman: Psychopath, sadist, genius, convicted murderer and biscuit is loose in the streets of Reading. It isn’t Jack Spratt’s case. He and Mary Mary have been reassigned due to falling levels of nursery crime, and the Nursery Crimes Division is once more in jeopardy. But a chance encounter during the Armitage Shanks literary awards at the oddly familiar Deja-Vu Club lead Jack and Mary on the hunt for missing journalist Henrietta ‘Goldilocks’ Hatchett, star reporter for The Daily Mole. She had been about to break a story involving unexplained explosions in Herefordshire, Pasadena and the Nullabor Plain; The last witnesses to see her alive were The Three Bears, comfortably living out a life of rural solitude in Andersen’s wood. Of course, all is not what it seems. How could the bear’s porridge be at such disparate temperatures when they were poured at the same time? Was there a fourth bear? And if there was, who was he and why did he try to disguise Goldy’s death in the World War One theme park of Sommeworld as a freak accident? And is it merely chance that the Gingerbreadman pops up at awkward moments? What does a missing scientist with a terrifying discovery in subatomic physics, a secret weapon of devastating power, a reclusive industrialist known only as the Quangle Wangle and Colonel Danvers of the National Security all have in common? Monday, September 11, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Avi Peled and Debbie Brand Optimizers 2050 Published by: Saga Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Optimizers 2050, the shape of thinks to come.This is not science fiction. The future is based on current testable data and predictions. Written as a narrative, The story takes place at a hospital and follows three patients with different mental disorders - schizophrenia, traumatic brain injury and depression. They are taken through the three phases of treatment - Investigation, Validation and Intervention - to achieve optimization of brain functions, enabling them to resume their lives. The book scientifically and scholastically evaluates important peer-reviewed psychiatric and neuroscience literature. Past, current and future research, findings, treatments and developments are woven into the story making it interesting and more easily readable. Friday, September 08, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel Griffith REVIEW 13: The Next Big Thing Where to from here? Published by: Abc Books Panel: Marni Cordell, Emily Maguire, Tara June Winch, Miriam Lyons and more. Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Triple J's Ronan Sharkey leads the panel of contributors to Griffith REVIEW 13: The Next Big Thing, as they go beyond blame and put a convincing case for how things can and will change in their lifetimes. Young people today: apathetic, disengaged, materialistic. We've all heard the clichés, but is it really that simple? Or has the cultural industry itself fallen prey to these conservative, commercially driven times? Where to from here? New voices with big things to say including Eve Vincent, Miriam Lyons, Ben Cubby, Marni Cordell, Emily Maguire, Hazel Dooney, and Tara June Winch. Thursday, September 07, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Panel My Israel Question Antony Loewenstein Published by: Melbourne Uni Press Panel: Stuart Rees, Prof Ahmad Shboul, Elisabeth Wynhausen and Antony Loewenstein Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Panel: Stuart Rees (participating Chair) Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Prof Ahmad Shboul (Dept. of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Uni of Sydney), Antony Loewenstein, Elisabeth Wynhausen (Senior Writer, The Australian, author of 'Dirt Cheap') Following the enormous interest in My Israel Question by Antony Loewenstein, this panel will discuss Antony’s book in light of the current conflict in the Middle East. Whose story will prevail? Will the ceasefire hold? Where to now for the Lebanese, the Palestinians & the Israelis? The undeclared war in the Middle East is the abiding conflict of our era, with little apparent hope of resolution despite years of peace talks. On one side of the conflict, in the face of suicide bombings and international criticism over its military aggression, Israel asserts the right of the Jewish state to exist in Palestine. On the other, the Palestinian people struggle, some peacefully, some violently, for survival In My Israel Question, a young Australian Jew, Antony Loewenstein, asks how much Zionism—the ideology of Jewish nationalism—is to blame for this intractable conflict. He fearlessly investigates the ways in which the Jewish diaspora in Australia and elsewhere have campaigned on Israel’s behalf, in the media and in political and business spheres. He also considers the historical rationale for Zionism—including the centuries of virulent European anti-Semitism from which it grew—and asks how relevant and sustainable Zionism is today. A searching discussion from a significant new voice in one of the most important debates of our times. Wednesday, September 06, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk James Morrison Blowing My Own Trumpet Published by: Pier 9 Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe As well as being one of Australia’s best-known and best-loved musicians, jazz virtuoso James Morrison is a great storyteller, as this rollicking memoir shows. His adventures will delight, surprise and amuse you. They include getting feedback on his haircut from Ray Charles (think about it…), living on a derelict sailboat in freezing New York in justified hopes of making it big there, sneaking over the wall of Government House with his girlfriend, who turns out to be the Governor’s daughter, and much, much more. James has packed about three lifetimes’worth into his 43 years and this book is an action-packed and entertaining ride through the highlights. Author profile James Morrison’s musical talent was obvious early. He was just 16 when he firstplayed the world-famous Monterey Jazz Festival in the US. James is a multi-instrumentalist, playing the trumpet, trombone, euphonium, flugelhorn, alto sax and piano. He has played with and been acclaimed by all-time greats including Dizzy Gillespie, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, B.B. King and WyntonMarsalis. He has recorded with the London SymphonyOrchestra and played by invitation for the Queen and US presidents. In 1997, James was awarded the Orderof Australia for his service to the arts. An avid car enthusiast, sailor and pilot, he lives in Sydney with his formerMiss Australia wife Judi (née Green) and their three sons. Tuesday, September 05, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation David Suzuki - The Ultimate Tour David Suzuki - The Autobiography Published by: Allen & Unwin Sold Out Venue: The Great Hall, Sydney University Sold Out David will be talking about his autobiography on his FINAL tour of Australia & New Zealand ‘The greatest environmentalist of our age…’ Tim Flannery This is the story of one man's passion for the planet; a passion that for several decades he has brought to the world through his research, his writings, his broadcasting and above all through his life and the way he lives it. One of the first and strongest influences on David Suzuki was the racism he encountered when he and his family were detained in an internment camp in Canada during World War II. His early experiences as an outsider informed his understanding and empathy with minority groups, and particularly with first nation and indigenous people around the world. David writes compellingly of the environmental crises, challenges and opportunities he has seen throughout the world in his travels as writer and broadcaster. Several chapters of the book are devoted to his work to help save the way of life of tribes in the Amazon, and with that the vital ecosystem of the Amazon basin. His meeting and his friendship with Kaiapo chief Paiakan makes compelling reading, as do his numerous meetings with world leaders from Nelson Mandela to the Dalai Lama. Friday, September 01, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Dennis Altman The 51st State? Published by: Scribe In conversation with Bob Carr Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Australian prime ministers since Harold Holt have all fostered close relationships with the United States, but John Howard has initiated economic and military policies that have bound the two countries even tighter. As a result, many Australians now believe that not only our sovereignty but also our very identity as a nation is under threat, and that we are fast becoming America's 51st state. If this view is correct, it should be reflected not only in our foreign policy but also in our domestic policies. Indeed, the weakening of social safety nets, the privatisation of areas long seen as government responsibilities, and the signing of the Free Trade Agreement all point to the triumph of US-style neo-liberalism. Yet, as Dennis Altman shows, the story is not so simple. Even as official rhetoric immerses us ever deeper into the US worldview, the resilience of the Australian social contract is imposing real limits on the application of neo-liberal principles. And, despite his enthusiastic membership of the coalition of the willing, Howard has assiduously cultivated economic and political ties within our region which, as the global balance of power shifts, will become increasingly relevant. In this elegant and sophisticated meditation on Australian identity, Altman suggests that the tendency to attribute malign American influence to everything we dislike about the contemporary world is the flipside of seeing the US as the only model worthy of emulation, and serves to conceal the deeper questions we face - namely, how does Australia imagine its future? about the author Dennis Altman is Professor of Politics at La Trobe University. He is the author of eleven books, most recently Gore Vidal's America, Global Sex and the memoir Defying Gravity. He was Professor of Australian Studies at Harvard (2005), and held visiting fellowships at New York University (2002) and University of Chicago (1997). He has served on a range of international committees on HIV/AIDS, and served as President of the AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific between 2001 and 2005.     August 2006 Wednesday, August 30, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Ken Inglis Whose ABC? The Australian Broadcasting Corporation 1983-2006 Published by: Black Inc In Conversation with Quentin Dempster Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe As controversy continues to swirl around Australia's national broadcaster, Whose ABC? provides much needed insight and background to the current debates. This book is the long-awaited definitive history of the ABC since 1983. It includes intricate and never-before-published detail of the reigns of David Hill and Jonathan Shier and the stormy politics of the ABC's relations with the government over the last two decades. Whose ABC? is independent and eminently readable. Like its predecessor, This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation 1932-1983, Inglis's latest work is the product of many years' careful research. This much-anticipated account of the ABC's last twenty years sheds light on some of the most controversial and difficult years to date, providing an invaluable perspective on the challenges currently facing the ABC. Author Details: Ken Inglis is Emeritus Professor of History at Australian National University. Whose ABC? is the long awaited follow up to his history, This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission 1932-1983, which will be re-released in August 2006. Tuesday, August 29, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Robert Goddard Never Go Back Published by: Bantam In Conversation with Peter Corris Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe I once said that if I ever wrote a book as good as Robert Goddard's 'Painting the Darkness' (his third) I'd stop because I knew I'd never do anything better. Well, I didn't stop and neither did Goddard who has produced a string of remarkable mystery stories, often with an historical depth, and with an unusual charm and sophistication. Goddard's books draw you in and seduce you - you are there in the time and the place, facing the dangers and deceptions. Range - tremendous; tension - tight; reading pleasure - unbeatable. Peter Corris Never Go Back Harry Barnett is leading a contented life in Vancouver with his wife and daughter when he is brought back to England by the death of his mother. He intends to spend just a few days sorting out her affairs when a chance meeting he will regret for the rest of his life makes him change his plans. Two old acquaintances from his National Service days track Harry down to his mother's house - the last address they had for him. A lavish reunion has been organised to mark the fiftieth anniversary of their RAF days. Harry decides to go. During the war Harry and his fellow RAF conscripts spent three months in a Scottish castle where they acted as guinea pigs in a psychological experiment. The reunion is to take place in the same castle. It will be a chance to see friends, settle old scores and lay a few ghosts to rest. The party begins on the train up to Aberdeen, until the apparent suicide of one of their number shatters the holiday atmosphere. Their arrival in Scotland seems under a cloud. And when another comrade dies soon after their arrival, Harry is gripped by a sense of foreboding. The recollections of the old comrades of their time in the castle are frighteningly different and unexplained events from 1955 still haunt them. As Harry tries to solve the mystery of what really happened fifty years ago, he uncovers an extraordinary secret that convinces him he will never leave the castle alive. Peter Corris is the author of the bestselling Cliff Hardy novels. Monday, August 28, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Ken Haley Emails from the Edge: A Journey Through Troubled Times Published by: Transit Lounge Pub In Conversation with Bob Carr Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In the space of a year, Ken Haley went from sub-editing on the foreign desk of The Times in London to being an inmate in an asylum in the Middle East- and then became a paraplegic. In Emails from the Edge: A Journey Through Troubled Times he tells the extraordinary story of his life as a journalist, the unsettling experience of working in Bahrain at the time of the invasion of Kuwait, and the experiences that spiralled into a life that left him paralysed from the waist down. His return from a near-death experience impels him to embark on an amazing two year journey by wheelchair across the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe. This journey embraces a succession of experiences, including a meeting with 'Osama Bin Laden' and the Editor of Al Jazeera, that illuminate and place in perspective the events of September 11. The theme of war and disaster, and their effects on individual lives, is a recurring one in Emails from the Edge. The author's own experience of mental breakdown informs his compassionate understanding of suffering humanity in what is ultimately a story of hope and optimism. Ken's message is that far from cocooning ourselves in these times of terrorism, we should get out and see the world while it is still there. Emails From the Edge is as improbable but true as Shantaram, as entertaining as Michael Palin, as deep as Janet Frame. It is a truly compelling story of how our inner and outward journeys connect. This is one man's hell of a travel story … with a difference. Saturday, August 26, 2006 / 3 for 3.30pm Past Launch Robert Adamson The Goldfinches of Baghdad Published by: Flood Editions To be launched by Luke Davies Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Robert Adamson has long been recognized as one of Australia's major poets, from his early writing as a poet maudit in Sydney through twenty books of verse and prose. In more recent work, he has explored the landscape of the Hawkesbury River, sounding its waters and wildlife for psychological resonances. The Goldfinches of Baghdad, Adamson's first book published in North America, teems with cockatoos, kookaburras, lyrebirds, dollarbirds, and a host of waders from his native region. At once real presences and sly emissaries of the poetic imagination, these birds perform aspects of ourselves just as we assume their weird attributes. Coming from elsewhere, they transgress human boundaries, ignoring sign posts and political borders. As birds and words exchange places, Adamson charts their migration. His poems arrive as epistles from the other side of the world. Thursday, August 24, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation George Megalogenis The Longest Decade Published by: Scribe In Conversation with Lindsay Tanner Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Before 1990s, the decades in Australia used to run to a predictable script of bust, boom, and bust. They'd commence with the economy in the pits, assume the personality of the good times that followed, and conclude with another collapse. Conveniently, this cycle took about ten years to play out. Paul Keating and John Howard altered the nation's body-clock. Between them, they have dominated the past 30 years of power, as both treasurers and prime ministers. Typically, they are seen only as antagonists with competing visions of Australia and its place in the world. In The Longest Decade, George Megalogenis argues that they also deserve to be seen as the twin architects of the political, economic and social revolution that took Australia through a period of trauma and recovery, and then on to an era of unprecedented affluence. Based on exclusive interviews with both Keating and Howard, and on Megalogenis's many years experience as a member of the Canberra press gallery, The Longest Decade is a brilliant, non-partisan analysis of the forces that shape Australia today - from the rise of working women to the triumph of the McMansion. This is the story of how an era came to be defined by Keating and Howard, but it is also the bigger story of how Australia became a more complex society, and how the nation's evolution, in turn, forced its leaders to adapt. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Australia in the 21st century. George Megalogenis spent eleven years in the Canberra press gallery, from 1988 to 1999, before returning to Melbourne as a senior feature writer for The Australian. He has a degree in economics from the University of Melbourne, and is the author of Faultlines (Scribe, 2003). Wednesday, August 23, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Stella Rimington Secret Asset Published by: Hutchinson In Conversation with Brian Toohey Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Stella Rimington joined the Security Service (MI5) in 1965 and was appointed Director-General in 1992. She was the first woman to hold the post and the first Director-General whose name was publicly announced on appointment. Following her retirement from MI5 in 1996, she published her autobiography, Open Secret. Stella has since written two thrillers - At Risk and Secret Asset - based on her time with MI5 and featuring Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle. She wil be in conversation with Brian Toohey, a renowned Sydney journalist specialising in security issues. Secret Asset MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle feels marginalised when her boss Charles Wetherby pulls her out of the Counter Terrorist Committee and tasks her to investigate a tip that years ago the IRA planted a sleeper in one of the branches of British Intelligence. To Liz, who had been involved in tracking terror cells posing a major threat to the security of the nation, the danger posed by an IRA sleeper seems minimal. But Liz is proven wrong. The sleeper is no longer working for the IRA; his fanatical hatred of the British has led him to team up with Britsh born Al Qaeda supporters. He is their planner, their Mr Big. And they have a plot to destroy a major British establishment. It is essential that Liz discovers who this sleeper is and gets inside his mind, to figure out the target and the terrorists' ingenius plan to circumvent the tight security. The lives of British youth are at stake. Tuesday, August 22, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk Dava Sobel The Planets Published by: Harper Collins Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This groundbreaking new work from Dava Sobel, author of the bestselling Longitude, tells the story of each member of our solar family, from myth and history, astrology and science fiction, to the latest data from the modern era's robotic space probes. Whether revealing what hides behind Venus's cocoon of acid clouds, describing Neptune's 'complex beauty in subtle stripes and spots of royal to navy blue, azure, turquoise, and aquamarine', or capturing first hand the excitement at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the first pictures from Cassini at Saturn were recently beamed to Earth, Dava Sobel's unique tour of the Solar is filled with fascination and beauty.. In lyrical prose interspersed with poems by Tennyson, Blake and others, The Planets gives a breathtaking, intimate view of those heavenly bodies that have captured the imagination since humanity's first glimpse of night skies. This extraordinary book of science, history and biography and storytelling will engage and delight. It is at once timely and timeless, and of infinite relevance to this age in which new planets are being discovered elsewhere in our galaxy, around stars other than the sun. About the author: Dava Sobel, a former New York Times science reporter, is the author of Longitude, a prize-winning international bestseller, and Galileo''s Daughter, which was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. She has co-authored six books, including Is Anyone Out There? with astronomer Frank Drake, and The Illustrated Longitude with William J.H. Andrewes. Dava Sobel has won a number of awards for her outstanding contribution towards public understanding of science. She lives in East Hampton, New York. Monday, August 21, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Robyn Williams Unintelligent Design: Why God Isn't as Smart as She Thinks She Is Published by: Allen & Unwin In conversation with John Doyle (AKA Roy Slaven) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This is a book to infuriate the forces of darkness, and anger and amuse the rest of us. Robyn Williams (The Science Show, ABC Radio National) takes on the stalking monster of fundamentalist religion and creationism in a short, wicked and witty debunk of the nonsense that is intelligent design. Intelligent Design has found its way into the headlines, has been spruiked in the Parliament and is now trying to slink into our schools. So where did this wilfully ignorant sibling of creationism and its anti-scientific arguments spring from? And why is it refusing to go away? Using all the richness of the scientific and natural worlds, Robyn Williams takes on the stalking monster in a short, wicked and witty debunk of ID. Why make the earth, the solar system, our galaxy and all the rest, he asks, when the Garden of Eden was all that was needed? And then there's lifespan. During long periods of human history, the life expectancy of men was a mere 22 years and children were lucky to toddle, let alone grow up. Why the waste? And shouldn't we sue God for sinus blockages, hernias, appendix flare-ups and piles, not to mention bad backs? About the Author: Robyn Williams has presented science programs on ABC radio and television since 1972. He is the first journalist to be elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, was a visiting fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, and is a visiting professor at the University of New South Wales. In March 2006, a star in the constellation Catrina was named after him. He is planning a visit. Monday, August 21, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Public Lecture Tim Flannery We are the Weather Makers: everything you need to know about global warming. Published by: Text Pub Sydney Ideas Present a gleebooks RIHSS Lecture Venue: Seymour Centre Writer, scientist and explorer Tim Flannery's groundbreaking books on climate change have changed minds and hearts. Hear him discuss the crisis at both a global and local level, and learn what you can do about it. Tim's best-selling book on global warming, The Weather Makers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change , was published in Australia in 2005. Winner of the 2006 NSW Premier's Gleebooks Prize and Book of the Year Award, it is to be released in over 20 countries in 2006 and has played a key role in international discussion of the issue. Tim will release the concise edition, called We Are the Weather Makers in August 2006. Friday, August 18, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Solveig Rees-Power Just a Little Bit of Death Published by: Solveig Rees-Power Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe A debut novel, Just a Little Bit of Death is a heart-wrenching portrayal of a woman's struggle to find her place in a world in which she is completely alone. It traverses the full spectrum of human emotion, exposing the paradoxes, vulnerability and power struggles that exist in relationships and the lengths we go to in order to control both ourselves and others. The novel traces the life of its heroine Anne, from her lonely childhood to her first sexual experience which leaves her pregnant, disillusioned and single. In Paris to study languages, Anne meets Henry, who carries his own contradictions: a wife, two children, an abundance of money and a growing obsession to win Anne's love at any cost. Her decision to marry Henry has disastrous repercussions as his obsession with her takes a deadly turn. His evil nature wickedly targets his own children and Anne must act to save the children, herself and her sanity. Wednesday, August 16, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Fabian Society Forum What Makes a Good School? Beyond the public/private debate Panel : Joanna Mendelsohnn, Jane Caro, Rodney Cavalier (Chair) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe We hear constantly about problems confronting our primary and secondary schools. The buildings are under funded and teachers under resourced. Private schools are hiking fees and facing strikes yet there is a drift of students away from public high schools. The values and curricula our kids learn is accused of being dumbed down by 'postmodernism' and political correctness, yet NSW teachers continue to achieve stunning results in selective and comprehensive schools. Private schools share of federal money increases with few strings attached. Perhaps its time to move beyond the public/private confrontation and consider what works across systems? Joanna Mendelssohn is writing a book on the changing nature of Australian schools and how to reform them. She teaches art history at the University of NSW Jane Caro is a public education activist and writes on schools, women, and family for New Matilda Tuesday, August 15, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Angela Bennie Creme de la Phlegm : Unforgettable Australian Reviews Published by: Miegunyah Press To be launched by Justin Fleming Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Crème de la Phlegm is a landmark collection of famous and infamous Australian reviews of literature, theatre, music, film, architecture and the visual arts. In her eloquent essay Angela Bennie surveys some of Australian criticism's most biting reviews and looks at why the critic is so much out of favour with Australian artists. She argues for the return of criticism as a literary art in its own right. Beginning with A. D. Hope's seminal drubbing of Patrick White in 1956, Crème de la Phlegm chronicles the colourful practice of critical invective over the past fifty years, some of which is couched in superb argument, but most of which comes trailing clouds of self-glory and dull censure. This collection reviews the state of Australian criticism and, from the Female Eunuch to Dead White Males, gives a vivid and incisive snapshot of our culture. About the Author Angela Bennie is a former Sydney Morning Herald literary editor, arts editor and theatre critic. She is now a senior journalist with the paper, writing about all aspects of the arts and literature. This is her first book. Justin Fleming is an author, playwright and screen writer. Sunday, August 13, 2006 / 2.30 for 3pm Past Launch Marjorie Pizer A Poet's Life Published by: Pinchgut Press Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe A Poet's Life is Marjorie Pizer's 16th book of poems and contains the best of her work since 1963. For Marjorie, at 86, this book is a personal and political autobiography of the last 40 years of her life. She is a prolific poet whose work is known both here and overseas. More than 35,000 copies of her books have been sold and her poems have been published in newspapers, magazines and in a number of anthologies in the UK. Marjorie Pizer is a rarity in today's literary world, as few contemporary poets can claim such a wide appeal, especially to people who ordinarily do not read poetry. Marjorie has worked as a psychotherapist in Sydney for many years. The poetry and the psychotherapy go hand in hand, for her contact with people's emotions and struggles enriches her deep repsonse in the poetry. The appeal of Marjorie's work lies in its simplicity, directness and emotional honesty. Saturday, August 12, 2006 / 2.30 for 3pm Past Launch Pat Skinner Brolga Published by: Ginninderra Press To be launched by Debra Adelaide Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Brolga tells the story of Jared Kahler, a senior artist with the Australian Ballet, who disappears from Melbourne in early 1996, driven both by a need to rediscover why he dances classical ballet and by the memory of a painting of brolgas he saw years earlier, Sydney Long’s The Spirit of the Plains. Jared’s travels lead him to far north Queensland and western Canada, to a fifty-year-old mystery and, gradually, to a new understanding of himself and his place as a dancer within the Australian landscape. Pat Skinner’s two short fiction collections, Bonding with Boofy and Spirit of the Rose, were published by Ginninderra Press in 2000 and 2002. She has won numerous awards for her short fiction. Brolga is her first novel. Friday, August 11, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Mark Ragg The Dickinson Papers Published by: Vintage Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe A priceless exhibition of the papers of poet Emily Dickinson goes missing on arrivial in Sydney. Jock, a lonely single father who loves poems, books and stories of all kinds, starts to follow the newspaper articles about the theft, and finds himself increasingly drawn to the mysterious and brilliant Lola, the curator of the exhibition. Both nursing wounded hearts and damaged lives, they slowly begin to reach out to each other through letters, emails and occasional encounters. When the police start receiving clues from the thief - marked on Sydney road maps - Jock find himself drawn into the hunt. But in a city with a story on every street corner, can he tell the hints from the red herrings in time to find the exhibition and win Lola's heart? A quirky and engaging novel, The Dickinson Papers is at once a modern love story, a tribute to a great poet and a love letter to the city of Sydney. Thursday, August 10, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / In Conversation Claire Scobie Last Seen in Lhasa Published by: Rider In conversation with Stephanie Dowrick Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe When pioneering Claire Scobie left London for Tibet in search of a rare flower, she was one of the first Westerners to set foot in Pemako in the Himalayas – ‘land of the heavenly lotus’ where the myth of Shangri-la was born. It was here that she became friends with Ani a wandering Tibetan nun and the last of a generation, a woman who was to change her life. Last Seen in Lhasa chronicles Claire’s seven journeys to Tibet over the past nine years. She falls in and out of love with a Tibetan, she meets the Dalai Lama in exile. She grows from a somewhat naïve traveller into a person deeply in touch with the reality of life in Tibet today, a place where monks talk on mobiles and Lhasa’s sex industry thrives. But it is Ani who leaves an indelible impression. Together, in a culture where freedom of expression is forbidden, they risk arrest. Yet they forge an abiding friendship, based on intuition and deep respect. This is an honest and courageous portrayal of a changing Tibet, and a unique story of friendship and adventure. Wednesday, August 09, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event / Talk James Halliday James Halliday's Wine Atlas Of Australia Published by: Hardie Grant Includes Penfold Wine Tasting Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Wine Tasting and Talk Wine provided by Penfolds From deep, supple and mouth-filling Shiraz to golden botrytised Riesling, from delicious gooseberry and grass-driven Sauvignon Blanc to the generosity of sunkissed Chardonnay, the ancient continent of Australia produces wines that equal the best in the world. The enormous geographic variations in Australian landscapes and soils ensure that every variety of wine grape flourishes in its optimum growing environment somewhere in the continent, whether it be the cool climate of Tasmania for Pinot Noir, or the Mediterranean summers of Margaret River in Western Australia for Cabernet Sauvignon. James Halliday, one of Australia's foremost wine writers and for many years a vineyard owner and vigneron in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, has written about every wine region in Australia - over seventy of them - in this definitive Atlas. Each region has a superb map, specially created using innovative digital cartography - more accurate than any so far published - showing both geographic features and the position of many wineries. Drawing on his inimitable way with words, Halliday describes the types of grapes grown in each region, the soil, the climate and the wine-growing history of the area, as well as giving an introduction to the most famous and respected wineries, and naming their signature wines. The Atlas is lavishly illustrated, the photographs bringing to life the individual regions, the vineyards themselves, and the dedicated people who make the wine. For wine lovers who want to know more about the wine-growing regions of Australia, and the background to the wines they enjoy, James Halliday's Wine Atlas of Australia is an indispensable volume. Author Details Respected wine critic and vigneron James Halliday has been wine writer for The Weekend Australian since 1984 and regularly writes for food and wine magazines such as Decanter, Gourmet, and Epicurean, and has won numerous awards for his journalism including Australia's most prestigious wine trophy, The 2005 Saltram Australia Wine Communicator Award. He was one of the founders of BrokenWood winery in the Hunter Valley and established Coldstream Hills winery in the Yarra Valley, where he ramains chief winemaker and consultant. Tuesday, August 08, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Antony Loewenstein My Israel Question Published by: Melbourne Uni Press To be launched by David Marr Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The undeclared war in the Middle East is the abiding conflict of our era, with little apparent hope of resolution despite years of peace talks. On one side of the conflict, in the face of suicide bombings and international criticism over its military aggression, Israel asserts the right of the Jewish state to exist in Palestine. On the other, the Palestinian people struggle, some peacefully, some violently, for survival. Far beyond Israel's disputed borders, in New York and Washington, London and Paris, Sydney and Melbourne, the conflict is replayed in passionate public debate by Holocaust survivors, Zionist organisations, Arab advocates, the anti-war movement, newspaper columnists, presidents and prime ministers, and politicians and activists of all shades. In My Israel Question, a young Australian Jew, Antony Loewenstein, asks how much Zionism-the ideology of Jewish nationalism-is to blame for this intractable conflict. He fearlessly investigates the ways in which the Jewish diaspora in Australia and elsewhere have campaigned on Israel's behalf, in the media and in political and business spheres. He also considers the historical rationale for Zionism-including the centuries of virulent European anti-Semitism from which it grew-and asks how relevant and sustainable twentieth-century Zionism is today. A searching discussion from a significant new voice in one of the most important debates of our times.     July 2006 Thursday, July 20, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Event Satyajit Das and Jade Novakovic In Search of the Pangolin: The Accidental Eco-Tourist Published by: New Holland Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe In the rainforest of the Amazon, you wear a hat. 'You might be chased by a Bushmaster (a large, aggressive, very poisonous snake). You throw your hat to the snake,' our guide advised. 'It uses up some of its venom in biting the hat that smells of you. When it bites you, there is less venom. You might survive.' The assembled tourists looked uneasy. We are in Alaska. The American ER surgeon has three cameras and even more lenses. There is a Grizzly Bear nearby. The surgeon and the German are comparing lenses. Nikon and Canon feature a lot, zoom lens, doublers, image stabilizers, type of film. The bear is so close that the surgeon finds it impossible to focus with his massive 500-millimetre (20-inch) lens. 'It's too close, I can't focus,' he complains. 'How big is your lens?' one asks the other. 'My lens is bigger than your lens.' This is the world of lens envy. From In Search of the Pangolin "Glimpses of a dying world" A Pangolin is a rarely seen, nocturnal species of anteater indigenous to South East Asia and parts of Africa. In the late 1990s, this small, unassuming creature became a metaphor for the aspirations and attitudes of two dedicated eco-travellers. Not content with the usual big cats and elephants, the couple embarked on a quest to seek out the more exotic and camera-shy animals that few people have seen, and those that might not be around for much longer. Authors Satyajit Das is a banker and consultant in finance. He is the author of a number of key reference works in the area of derivatives and risk management. Jade Novakovic is an Organisational Psychologist and consultant in human resources. Das and Jade live in Sydney, Australia and have traveled extensively to eco-tourist destinations in East and Southern Africa, South America, Alaska, Canada, India and Antarctica. Wednesday, July 19, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Fabian Society Forum Uranium: Should Australia Go Nuclear? Anthony Albanese, Ian Hore-Lacy, Sean Kidney (Chair), Paul Gilding Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Members of the Fabian Society: Free - please show your membership card on the night to obtain free entry. With the Howard Government actively considering Australia's future energy options, this forum will consider Australia's role in the nuclear fuel cycle. Is the nuclear option the right response to global warming? With: · Anthony Albanese MP, Shadow Environment Minister · Ian Hore-Lacy, World Nuclear Association · Paul Gilding Future Fabian Forums August: Are Factions Killing the ALP?     May 2006 Friday, May 19, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch John Tranter Urban Myths: 210 poems Published by: Uni. Of Queensland Press To be Launched by Pam Brown Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Urban Myths: 210 poems collects the best work to date from a poet considered one of the most original of his generation in Australia. A generous selection of new work is also included. Smart, wry and very stylish, John Tranter's poems investigate the vagaries of perception and the ability of language to converge life, imagination and art so that we arrive, unexpectedly, at the deepest human mysteries. 'Tranter may now be Australia's most important poet.' -- Publishers Weekly 'Tranter gives us … new, unpredictableways to describe the world - by turns energetic, exuberant, exasperated; hip, antipathetic, pathetic; attentive, fantastic, fed-up, ridiculous, serious ...' -- Times Literary Supplement John Tranter is an award-winning poet and editor of the online Jacket Magazine (see link below) Pam Brown is a renowned poet and contributing editor to the U.S.based poetics annual, Fulcrum, a member of the editorial advisory board of the online journal HOW2 and associate editor of Jacket magazine. www.jacketmagazine.com Thursday, May 18, 2006 / TBC Past In Conversation Brendan Gleeson Australian Heartlands: Making Space For Hope In The Suburbs Published by: Allen & Unwin In Conversation with Peter Garrett, MP Venue: TBC Australia is one of the world’s most urbanised nations, belying our image as a nation of hard-living outback heroes and sea-changers. In Australian Heartlands, Brendan Gleeson, Professor of Urban Policy at Griffith University, argues our future welfare is closely tied to the wellbeing of our cities and even more importantly, our suburbs. Australian Heartlands is his provocative exploration of urbanised Australia and a passionate plea for the suburbs to be given their rightful place in Australia’s public consciousness. Australian Heartlands examines topics such as: the simultaneous rise of gated communities and urban poverty sinkholes in Australia’s cities; the loss of the public domain through the privatisation of services such as roads, parks and community facilities; the Commonwealth’s reduced support for public education, healthcare, childcare and progressive abandonment of labour market fairness; the experience of childhood in contemporary suburbs in the face of declining quality and quantity of residential space, and an obdurate culture of fear amongst parents; environmental degradation including the effects of climate change on cities and everyday life and, the challenges of migration and urban cultural tensions. Gleeson goes right to the core of the social and environmental challenges facing Australian society and outlines a vision for a hopeful future, arguing forcefully for the need to stop the forces of fear and segregation and for the reinstatement of Australia’s cities, and their suburbs, as Australia’s ‘national heartlands’. Brendan Gleeson is the Professor of Urban Policy at Griffith University. He has authored, co-authored or co-edited seven books and has written numerous opinion pieces for the Sydney Morning Herald, the Courier Mail and the Canberra Times. He lives in Brisbane. Wednesday, May 17, 2006 / 5.30 for 6pm Past Fabian Society Forum Iraq: Quagmire or Cut and Run? Kevin Rudd MP, Marian Wilkinson, Jim Nolan, Rebecca Huntley Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Kevin Rudd MP, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister; Marian Wilkinson, Sydney Morning Herald Journalist; and Jim Nolan, Barrister and Fabian Society Member When: Wednesday 17 May from 6.00pm to 7.30pm Chair: Rebecca Huntley, Vice President of the NSW Fabian Society Tuesday, May 16, 2006 / TBC Past Launch Maria Prendergast Understanding Depression Published by: Penguin To be Launched by John Conrad Venue: TBC In her new book, Understanding Depression, acclaimed health writer Maria Prendergast takes us on a compelling journey through the world of depression. She examines in detail the definition, diagnosis, types and effects of depression, as well as exploring the many treatment and recovery options, including a chapter on food and chemical intolerance. Through a series of moving and intimate interviews with people from all walks of life who have survived the illness, Maria humanises the experience of depression. Significantly, this collection also gives voice to the personal stories of those who have lived with, or cared for, a person with depression. Maria Prendergast also tackles the bigger picture; examining the information (and misinformation) available in the public arena; including perspectives from mental health professionals; and revealing the painfully inadequate state of our mental health services. Understanding Depression is an extremely accessible book that will undoubtedly further our understanding of this pervasive illness and, it is to be hoped, inspire a more enlightened approach to those who suffer from it. Maria Prendergast is a freelance writer and broadcaster. She has written many books, including Understanding Asthma, Understanding Migraine, Stroke and Heart Attack Rehabilitation and Banks Behaving Badly. She was a feature writer for Australian Consolidated Press for many years and currently contributes to newspapers in Australia and the United Kingdom. She is on a number of boards and committees, including the board of DepressioNet, and has a strong interest in social and environmental issues. Friday, May 12, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch J. Robert Maze Cassandra Peel and the Curse of the Black Swan's Daughter Published by: John Maze To be launched by Dr R.M. Henry Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe  Harry Potter saturated children will leap at the controversial Cassandra Peel series, and the unfolding adventures of four Australian boarding school students when Cassandra accidentally accesses Greek goddess Athena in cyberspace. The characters from Homer's The Iliad and from Indian mythology live riotously in cyberspace in present time, treasuring up loves and hates that began three thousand or so years ago. Each of the gods represents some universal human passion. These passions are alive still, operating in present day affairs. One of the premises of Maze's novel series is that the ancient deities' interactions offer an analogue for today's social and international undercurrents. Specifically, he holds that since the deities possess mythical being, and the myths are extant in mass entertainment, it is imaginable those old gods still exist and follow their favourite amusement of interfering in mortal affairs. In the third novel of the series, Cassandra Peel and the Curse of the Black Swan's Daughter, Cassandra finds that her ancient namesake, the prophetess, could see into the past as well as the future. She cybertravels to Apollo's shrine hoping to be given the same power, to penetrate the mystery of her mother's death. When she rejects Apollo's sexual advances Cassandra gets frightening disclosures of his opinions on family and sexual relations as he imprisons and terrorises her. The novels can be appreciated by readers of different levels of maturity, being read as adventure stories incorporating interesting characters from classical mythology, as parables of contemporary history and society, or as explorations of core psychological themes of conscious and unconscious origin. J.R. Maze spent years as lecturer, senior lecturer, and associate professor in psychology at the University of Sydney and has published books of political biography and literary analysis, as well as many papers on psychological theory and psychoanalytic studies of works of literature. He is the also author of Cassandra Peel and the Wild Gods of Cyberspace and Cassandra Peel and the Slave Girls of Xanadu. Thursday, May 11, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Richard James Allen The Kamikaze Mind Published by: Brandl & Schlesinger To be Launched by Judith Beveridge Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe The Kamikaze Mind is the story of an astronaut who launched himself into a black hole. The recovered fragments of his mind have been organized alphabetically into a witty, whimsical, surprisingly touching and laugh-out-loud funny dictionary of a floating mind. “an accumulation of broken meanings and definitions, moments of insight, panic, wisdom and longing… a fierce and luminous examination of identity in a floating and disintegrated world…an astonishing lexicon…an edgy read…- open both to pleasure and surrender.” Judith Beveridge Wednesday, May 10, 2006 / 6 for 6.30pm Past Launch Dr Brenton Prosser ADHD: Who's failing who? Published by: Finch Pub. Sydney Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe 'We should not only be asking how our kids with ADHD are failing society, but also how society is failing these kids.' So writes Dr Brenton Prosser,a research fellow in education and author of this significant new book on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. ADHD: Who's failing who? aims to help parents, teachers, educational advisers and health professionals make informed decisions about how they can support children with ADHD. Dr Prosser investigates the recent boom in ADHD diagnosis and the rise in drug treatments to ponder how an obscure medical diagnosis has become a well-known popular phenomenon. He proposes that if we ask only medical questions about ADHD, we will get only medical answers - and more drug treatment. Dr Prosser therefore examines the educational and social dimensions of ADHD as well. In this way, the book offers a compassionate, balanced and holistic approach to understanding the disorder and helps us comprehend the impact of ADHD on our young people, our schools and society. This ground-breaking book provides a new view of ADHD as well as a wealth of advice and practical ideas. This book includes: an examination of myths and facts about ADHD; first-hand comments from teenagers with ADHD about their experiences at school; practical advice for parents; and a valuable section outlining 100 handy hints for teachers. About The Author: Dr Brenton Prosser, a specialist in ADHD for more than 10 years, broke new ground with his doctoral project by interviewing secondary students with ADHD about their school experiences. Previously he worked as a coordinator of a respite program for children with challenging behaviours (including ADHD), a secondary school teacher and a media/policy adviser. He is now a lecturer and research fellow with the Education Faculty of the University of South Australia, where he supports teachers working with students in Adelaide's northern urban fringe. His research on ADHD has been published internationally and won several national awards.     April 2006 Friday, April 28, 2006 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Marilyn Dodkin Goodnight Bobbie: One Family's War Published by: Nsw Uni. Press To be launched by Bob Carr Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Goodnight Bobbie is the moving story of the Puflett family told through their letters to each other during the Second World War. Their son Bobbie, a medical graduate and University Blue in swimming and boxing, enlisted as an army doctor and sailed for Malaya with the 8th Division. From there he wrote letters to his family describing life in Malacca, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore before the Japanese invasion. When the British in Singapore surrendered to the Japanese army, Bobbie was one of fifteen thousand Australian troops who disappeared into captivity. At home, the family became desperate for news and were devastated to find that Bobbie was listed as missing. Eventually they learned that he was a prisoner of war. Throughout this ordeal, the family continued to write to Bobbie, although at first their letters were returned as being 'unable to be delivered'. When the Japanese eventually allowed prisoners to write and receive mail, they were restricted to twenty five words on a postcard. As a result, the family received only two cards from Bobbie during three and a half years of imprisonment. There have been many books written about the Malayan campaign in the Second World War and the Australians who were taken as prisoners by the Japanese, but few have been written about army life in Malaya before the Japanese invasion and even fewer about the families in Australia whose loved ones disappeared at the Fall of Singapore. Goodnight Bobbie fills this historical gap and offers a unique epistolary account of life on the home front and the faith, courage and humour that sustained a family during the war years. Marilyn Dodkin is a political historian. She is the author of Brothers: Eight Leaders of the Labor Council of New South Wales (2001) and Bob Carr: The Reluctant Leader (2003). Caroline Puflett, the daughter of Dr Bobbie Puflett, approached the author with a box of the family letters to see if they could be published. Marilyn took some months to transcribe them and soon began researching the Malayan campaign. The emotional story of a family living with the anxiety of not knowing whether their loved one was alive had a special resonance for the author as a member of her family was killed at the fall of Singapore. Thursday, April 27, 2006 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Nicholas Kyriacos Billy's Tree Published by: Scribe To be launched by Peter Garrett, MP Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Set in the working-class suburb of Redfern in Sydney, Billy's Tree is a powerful novel that deals with the impossibility of escaping your past andS the need to confront longstanding injustices. On the eve of the local rugby league club (the 'Rabbitohs') being expelled from thenational competition, Johnnie Butler arrives in Redfern with his mother and is soon befriended by some elderly neighbours. There's Major Bob and his mate Old Tom who are obsessive supporters of the Rabbitohs, and there's the Greek woman, Yaya Zoe, who brings Johnnie homemade baklava and toys bought more than fifty years earlier but never opened. On the day that the Rabbitohs are kicked out of the league, Billy returns, bringing with him the accumulated sufferings of an entire family. Johnnie disappears. When he is found, he is profoundly disturbed and has lost the power of speech. What has caused Johnnie to descend into silence? And why has his mother despised Major Bob from the moment she laid eyes on him? Played out against the backdrop of the struggle to have the Rabbitohs reinstated into the national competition, this novel traverses the twentieth century, interweaving the experiences of Greek and Lebanese immigrants, Aboriginal stolen children, World War II prisoners of war, and sporting fanatics whose lifelong devotion to their local footy club is essential to their identity. Billy's Tree is about the importance of friendship; the need to exorcise ghosts; and the devastating ways in which families can be torn apart. It is a deeply moving and unforgettable story. About the author: Nicholas Kyriacos was born in 1950 in Sydney. The son of parents from the Greek island of Kastellorizo, Nicholas received a very strong traditional upbringing, and barely spoke English when he started school. He began writing in his mid to late twenties, became a secondary-school English teacher in 1980, and was appointed headmaster in 1987. Nicholas resigned in 2000 to concentrate on his writing. He now teaches part-time. Billy's Tree is his first novel. Wednesday, April 26, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past In Conversation Patrice Newell Ten Thousand Acres Published by: Penguin In Conversation with Julie Biggs (Executive Publisher, Penguin Books) Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Twenty years ago Patrice Newell left her tiny flat in Sydney and turned her back on the bright lights of a successful media career to embrace a new life in the country. Within a year Patrice was running a ten thousand acre cattle property, and committed to creating and nurturing a sustainable eco-friendly farm. Ten Thousand Acres is a unique and inspiring exploration of one woman’s passion for the living land. It reflects Patrice's involvement in the agricultural and environmental debates as she attempts to understand and heal some of the wounds caused by past farming practices. Most of all, it celebrates her love affair with the farm, its produce and the wild landscape that embraces it all. Beyond the olive groves, the river, the crops and cattle, Ten Thousand Acres reveals the stories surrounding Elmswood, the old homestead and the colourful characters who’ve contributed to the place. The seasonal rhythms of life are distilled into evocatively written vignettes which pay homage to the land as a source of life and food, community and culture - as a living mantle rather than real estate. Illustrated with beautiful photographs, notebook entries and pictures of plant specimens, this stunning book pleads for a more personal knowledge of Australia’s ancient, fragile landscape - a re-evaluation of one of the oldest relationships of all. Patrice Newell is also the author of The Olive Grove, her bestselling account of leaving the city for life on the land, and The River, a critically acclaimed examination of water-management issues facing rural communities. Patrice now manages Elmswood, a certified biodynamic farm in the Hunter Valley, in New South Wales, which produces beef, olive oil and honey. She lives there with her partner Phillip Adams and their daughter Aurora. Friday, April 21, 2006 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Libby Southwell with Josephine Brouard Monsoon Rains and Icicle Drops Published by: Pier 9 Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe “The inspiring true story of a woman who lost everything only to discover a whole new world” – Sarah Macdonald, author of Holy Cow! Every now and then a book comes along that really touches your heart and mind – this is one of those books. From a Mongolian nomad tent to a hedonistic party, complete with igloo, in a Nepalese jungle, Libby Southwell has been to some amazing places and has had some extraordinary experiences. But they are experiences she would never have had if tragedy hadn’t struck.Libby was a young and successful advertising executive in Sydney when her beloved fiancé died in a mountaineering accident. When close friends died tragically soon after, Libby was plunged into a numbing grief so strong that it led her to run from everything she knew. In a search to end her sorrow Libby went to Sri Lanka, where she became a chef for an eccentric British millionaire, then headed off to trek in Nepal and Tibet. She stayed with herdsmen in Mongolia and travelled to France for a silent Buddhist retreat. But Monsoon Rains & Icicle Drops is more than just a physical journey, it is a moving and hopeful story of the search to rediscover joy. Back in Sri Lanka and working at a luxury eco-resort, Libby survived dengue fever only to be caught up inthe tsunami on 26 December 2004. She survived, but then, in a bizarre turn of events, developed acuteappendicitis the very same day – could the timing have been any worse? Libby made it through this aswell, as she has done with everything life has thrown at her, and emerged with her characteristic good humour and energy intact. She still lives in Sri Lanka where she was instrumental in establishing a charityto help rebuild the lives of those devastated by the tsunami. Monsoon Rains & Icicle Drops is her colourful and astonishing story. Author profiles Libby Southwell was born in Sydney. She has worked as an advertising executive and trained as a cordon bleu chef. She is currently working in Sri Lanka running businesses in up-market tourism, and continues to contribute to the life-changing work being done by AdoptSriLanka, which has so far raised more than $US 3 million. Josephine Brouard is a Sydney-based freelance writer and editor. Thursday, April 20, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Panel Clive Hamilton QE21: What's Left? The Death of Social Democracy Published by: Black Inc Panel: Clive Hamilton, Bob Carr , Dr Meredith Burgmann MLC Chair: David McKnight Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This first Quarterly Essay of 2006 is an original and provocative account of our present political juncture by a man of the Left who accuses the Left of irrelevance. Clive Hamilton throws out a challenge to Australia’s party of social democracy andconfronts both the true believers and the right-wing machine men will it be business-as-usual and creeping atrophy, or will the Labor Party find a new way of talking to individualistic, affluent Australia? Building on his influential books Growth Fetish and Affluenza, Hamilton argues that Labor and the Left must acknowledge that the social democracy of old with its strong unions, public ownership and distinct social classes is dead. Prosperity, more than poverty, is the dominant characteristic of Australia today. The Left’s historical vision and its ideas are thus begging for an overhaul. As Hamilton says, The party that evolved to represent the interests of trade unionists and their families cannot survive in a world where union membership has shrunk to less than a quarter of the workforce and where those who remain have been depoliticised.Labor’s poor leadership and stifling factionalism are only part of the problem; most significant is the Left’s inability to understand Australia today. So where to next? Is there room for a political program that embodies new ideals and can withstand economic scare tactics? Hamilton envisages a new progressive politics which taps into the anxieties and aspirations of the nation, finds new ways to talk about morality, and thereby addresses deeper human needs. Author Details Clive Hamilton’s book Growth Fetish was published in 2003, and his most recent book is Affluenza, co-authored with Richard Denniss. Hamilton is executive director of the Australia Institute, an independent think-tank based at the Australian National University. Wednesday, April 19, 2006 / 6pm sharp Past Fabian Society Forum Is Racism the New Nationalism? Panel Discussion Panel: Paula Abood - writer and community worker form Western Sydney Michael Duffy - writer and broadcaster George Megalogenis: author of ‘Faultlines: Race, Work and the Politics of a Changing Australia’ Chair: John Russell: Fabian Society member Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Since the Cronulla riots debate has raged about ethnic tension, the compatability of Islam and 'Australian' values and the future of multiculturalism. Is deformed nationalism or the policy of multiculturalism threatening social cohesion? Does Australia have a problem with racial conflict and what part have politicians, media and the community leaders played in this malaise? Thursday, April 13, 2006 / 10.30 for 11am Past Launch NSW Literary Awards Shortlist Announcement Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe 2006 New South Wales Literary Awards Shortlists The Hon Bob Debus, NSW Minister for the Arts, will announce the shortlists in ten Awards' categories. Now in their twenty-seventh year, the Awards, worth $167,000, highlight the best in Australian writing. The winners will be presented with their prizes by the Minister on Tuesday 23 May at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Dinner tickets ($120) for 23 May available from Jean Moylan ph (02) 9228 4351. Wednesday, April 12, 2006 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Adrian Mitchell Drawing the Crow Published by: Wakefield To be launched by Kate Grenville Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Drawing the Crow is a collection of perceptive essays on growing up in 1950s and ‘60s Adelaide. They convey what being South Australian meant, and what it was like. The author teases out his early memories of particular sounds, smells, events and emotions, some haunting, some joyous. They are evocative of the times – when Australia was only beginning to recover from the war and develop its own iconography. According to Mitchell: ‘It is axiomatic that nothing happened in Adelaide in the comfortably apolitical years of the Playford era, and these essays testify to that. There was nothing much to write home about; and we hadn’t gone anywhere anyway’. Mitchell’s literary portrait harnesses the richness of ordinary life in the suburbs pitched in relation to the patterns of experience that provide both meaning and value. ‘Drawing the crow? G.A.Wilkes (A Dictionary of Australian Colloquialisms) explains the other meaning of the phrase as “to come off worst in any allocation”. It is not quite the same as drawing the short straw, or having Buckley’s. But is better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick, probably.’ – from the introduction by Adrian Mitchell From the foreword by Sue Wolfe: ‘…Mitchell's marvellous panoply of characters including himself as narrator, whether they delight, amuse or appall, all engage me in the way that the creations of the finest novelists do. But the characters are not fiction, they're real-life people from Mitchell's poignant, wry, vivacious memories of the passage between adolescence and youth in his home country. In his unflinching honesty, he allows himself, and us, to be baffled, astounded, demolished and in the end, to some extent, made a little wiser. In a way this book gives you what the best travel does. I wanted him to keep talking long after I closed the book, because he'd made my own past more precious, more actual. I believe his memoirs will do that for every reader.’ About the author Adrian Mitchell is Associate Professor of English and Director of Postgraduate Programs, Faculty of Arts, at the University of Sydney. Among many projects, he edited with Brian Elliott, Bards in the Wilderness: Australian Colonial Poetry to 1920 and with Leonie Kramer edited the Oxford Anthology of Australian Literature. Tuesday, April 11, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past In Conversation Neil Chenoweth Packer's Lunch Published by: Allen & Unwin In Conversation with David Marr Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe It is a truth universally acknowledged that an Australian in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a Swiss banker. The dark channels of money and power that flow beneath the surface of Australian society are perilous places. Behind the gossip columns and headlines, the famous names and celebrity makeovers, life is a precarious business. One wrong move spells disaster. For this is the world of the networkers. The games they play, the restaurants they frequent and the social circles they inhabit determine who is in and who is out. Who ends up very rich and who is bankrupt. Everyone is a diner, but who gets to share the crumbs and who ends up on the menu? For years Graham Richardson, Trevor Kennedy and Rene Rivkin navigated these waters deftly with a little secret help from their offshore advisor. The exposure of their Swiss accounts uncovered a world of secret share trading going back decades by a much wider group of players. This is a story of more than just three clever swimmers. It's a lifestyle. In Packer's Lunch Neil Chenoweth plots the twists and turns of the 1990s network wars with a deadly eye. His cutting account ranges from the culinary carnage of DIMIA hit teams to the table settings at Machiavelli restaurant; from rebirthing One.Tel's Jodee Rich to Richo's Excellent Adventure. It moves from the stories behind the AMP power struggle to the secrets of the Fairfax takeover. There is inept manoeuvering in the shrubbery, unpleasantness at The Toaster, Macquarie Bankers rampant, and private detectives behaving badly. It's not pretty. For Chenoweth's sweeping narrative tells the wider story of a network and a generation fighting for its very survival. It pits the ageing street fighters of the 1980s against a new breed of uber-fund managers and McKinsey management consultants. This is a story of how power works in Australia and of the power players who have dominated our past and continue to shape our future. Monday, April 10, 2006 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch John Rasko, Gabrielle O'Sullivan, Rachel Ankeny (EDS) The Ethics of Inheritable Genetic Modification Published by: Cambridge Uni. Press To be launched by Bryce Courtenay Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Is inheritable genetic modification the new dividing line in gene therapy? The editors of this searching investigation, representing clinical medicine, public health and biomedical ethics, have established a distinguished team of scientists and scholars to address the issues from the perspectives of biological and social science, law and ethics, including an intriguing Foreword from Peter Singer. Their purpose is to consider how society might deal with the ethical concerns raised by inheritable genetic modification, and to re-examine prevailing views about whether these procedures will ever be ethically and socially justifiable. The book also provides background to define the field, and discusses the biological and technological potential for inheritable genetic modification, its limitations, and its connection with gene therapy, cloning, and other reproductive interventions. For scientists, bioethicists, clinicians, counsellors and public commentators, this is an essential contribution to one of the critical debates in current genetics. Sunday, April 09, 2006 / 10am-12noon Past Event Duncan Ball Dog's Breakfast Venue: Federal Park in Glebe. Dogs allowed with owners on leash. Come to the Gleebooks Dog's Breakfast to celebrate 20 years of Selby, and you will get the opportunity to hear Duncan Ball, funny and delightful author of all the Selby books, read, talk and answer questions. Meet Selby, and enjoy a light breakfast for both you and your pet. And enter the wonderful doggy competitions - either with your very own beautiful mutt or with a stuffed toy for those who prefer inanimate pets. Imagine yourself having a barking good time and meet other Selby- and dog-lovers. Saturday, April 08, 2006 / 4pm for 4.30pm Past Event Kazantzakis and Islam Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957), the author of Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ, had a personal knowledge of Islam, from his childhood in Crete under Ottoman rule to his many travels in eastern countries. He draws upon these experiences in his travel books and fiction, and in his autobiographical masterpiece, Report to Greco. His approach to Islam is the fruit of an active interest and a sensitive engagement with this major world religion and its philosophical and mystical traditions. Kazantzakis’ openness to widely different ideas and cultures in his search for meaning in life can be an example for our times. The event includes a brief introduction to Islam by Professor Ahmad Shboul, and a presentation by Dr Alfred Vincent of some of Kazantzakis’ writings relating to Islam, with readings of passages from his works by Anastasia Anastasiadis, Litsa Diakovasili and our special guest Mary Kostakidis. Talks will be in English with brief Greek summaries; readings will be in English translation with some passages also in Greek. The event is organised by the International Society of Friends of Nikos Kazantzakis (Sydney Branch), as part of the program of the Greek Festival of Sydney 2006. Buy The Last Temptation of Christ Friday, April 07, 2006 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Gay Hawkins The Ethics of Waste Published by: NSW Uni. Press To be launched by Stephen Muecke Venue: Waste plays a vital role in everyday life. Getting rid of things is central to how we care for ourselves and impose order on the world. No matter how insignificant putting out the garbage may seem, the way we do it reflects a distinct ethos or way of being. While much has been written about the catastrophic effects of waste matter and wasteful consumption on the environment, we know little about how we actually live with waste. How do we decide something has reached the end of its value? What is the relationship between over-consumption and disposability? How did the rise of streamlined waste removal technologies, like the sewer, impact on our sense of disgust and privacy? How has the rise of ‘new’ habits, from recycling to composting, made us think differently about waste and the claims it can make on us? In this innovative and engaging book, Gay Hawkins explores our complex relationship to rubbish and argues that waste itself, rather than nature, might be the impetus for change. Using insights from cultural studies, philosophy and political theory, Hawkins shows us how we can change ecologically destructive practices without recourse to guilt, moralism or despair, and how we can master the art of transience and live differently with the things we reject. Gay Hawkins is an Associate Professor in the School of Media, Film and Theatre at the University of NSW. She researches and writes in the area of cultural and political theory. She has written books and papers on arts policy, television policy and waste. Her particular interest in waste involves investigations of the creation and destruction of value and the ways in which managing what we want to get rid of can become a site of ethical practice and experimentation. Buy The Ethics of Waste Thursday, April 06, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Talk Peter Carey Theft: A Love Story Published by: Knopf Australia Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe 'I don't know if my story is grand enough to be a tragedy, although a lot of shitty stuff did happen. It is certainly a love story but that did not begin until midway through the shitty stuff, by which time I had not only lost my 8-year-old son, but also my house and studio in Sydney where I had once been as famous as a painter could expect in his own backyard.' So begins Peter Carey's highly charged, recklessly funny new novel. Narrated by artist Butcher Bones and his 'damaged 220 lb brother' Hugh, it recounts their adventures and troubles after Butcher's plummeting prices and spiralling drink problem force them to retreat from Sydney to northern New South Wales. Here the formerly famous artist is reduced to acting as caretaker for his patron and nurse to his idiot-savant brother. Then mysterious American beauty Marlene turns up one stormy night, clad in a pair of Manolo Blahniks. Claiming that the brothers' neighbour owns an original Jacques Liebovitz, she sets in motion a chain of events that could be the making or ruin of them all. A truly brilliant novel - an act of fantastic writing bravura from Peter Carey, in which he once again displays his extraordinary flair for language - Theft is a love poem of a completely unexpected kind. Ranging from the rural wilds of Australia to Manhattan via Sydney and Tokyo and exploring the ideas of art, fraud, responsibility and redemption, this is a dark, thought-provoking and stirring story that will also make you laugh out loud. Wednesday, April 05, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Panel Rebecca Huntley World According to Y Published by: Allen & Unwin Panel: Rebecca Huntley, Ryan Heath, Hugh Mackay Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe This is the most comprehensive and provocative look at the Y generation’s attitudes towards key issues; from sex to politics to work, and everything in between. Just who is Generation Y and why do they bother Generation X and the Boomers so much? Through a personal, funny and thought-provoking analysis, Rebecca Huntley offers a unique insight into the new adult generation. By investigating their attitudes towards sex, relationships and marriage; the importance of friendship; consumerism and celebrity; body image; work, politics and religion, she asks how this generation defines happiness, and what they envisage for the future. In a world changing faster than ever before, will this new generation be able to face all the challenges these changes entail? Ryan Heath is the author of Please Just F* Off It’s Our Turn Hugh Mackay is a social commentator and author of Right & Wrong: How to Decide for Yourself. Tuesday, April 04, 2006 / 6.00 for 6.30pm Past Launch Pia Santaklaus/Tony Flowers Crime of the Agent-Mariner Published by: Bitter Beat one man - one mermaid - one kiss It’s mer-der! Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Written in verse, this a morality tale about the horrors of greed and exploitation. A work of fantasy, fiction, poetry, morality and humour. An Agent-Mariner sets out on his ship and incredibly comes across a real mermaid. He captures her and though at first he seems to be nice to her, his true intentions become apparent when he reveals his plans to exploit her. She is critical to his success and yet he keeps her caged until she is in a critical condition. Regardless, the mermaid holds no hatred and kisses the Agent-Mariner. This sets off a chain of events. She dissolves away and he becomes the victim of a cosmic curse. He dives off his vessel into the sea as he becomes a fish. There, his time is soon up as he gets caught and eaten. Pia Santaklaus (1964-) is an author of many unique works that often have the appearance of children's stories, but are usually much more ominous, even sinister and yet oddly humorous. The CRiME Of The Agent-Mariner is his first published work. Tony Flowers (1969-) is a multi-talented illustrator. Tony Flowers’ book The Nine Lives of Oliver won the Bronze Award in the Oshima World Handmade Picture Book Contest 2003. He is also the creator and illustrator of the Dizzy and Friends series published by Steve Parrish in 2005. Now a 2 time prize winner of the Japanese hand made picture book contest, he continues his amazing run with his beautiful rendering of The CRiME Of The Agent-Mariner. Buy The CRiME Of The Agent-Mariner Monday, April 03, 2006 / 6.30pm Past Public Lecture Frank Furedi Sydney Ideas Inaugural Lecture co-presented By Gleebooks Published by: Continuum Can our belief in humanity survive the 21st century? Venue: Seymour Centre Sydney Ideas is new series of public lectures, hosted by University of Sydney, bringing prominent international academics, thinkers and writers to the public. Vice–Chancellor Professor Gavin Brown will launch the series. Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, UK, will officially launch the Sydney Ideas lecture series. Always controversial and timely, Furedi has provoked much public debate with his commentary in the media on attitudes to risk and our society’s obsession with safety. His well known books include Paranoid Parenting, The Culture of Fear, Therapy Culture and Where have all the Intellectuals Gone? Furedi’s most recent book Politics of Fear: Beyond Left and Right looks at the impoverished state of politics today, and the pervasiveness of fear. See www.usyd.edu.au/sydneyideas/ for further information. Politics Of Fear: Beyond Left and Right Buy The Culture of Fear Buy Therapy Culture Buy Where have all the Intellectuals Gone? Buy     March 2006 Friday, March 31, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Talk James Bradley The Resurrectionists Published by: UNSW Press Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe London, 1826. Gabriel Swift has left behind his father's failures to study with Edwin Poll, the greatest of the city's anatomists. It is his chance to find advancement by making a name for himself. But instead he finds himself drawn to his master's nemesis, Lucan, the most powerful of the city's resurrectionists and ruler of its trade in stolen bodies. Dismissed by his master, Gabriel descends into the violence and corruption of London's underworld, a place where everything and everyone is for sale, and where - as Gabriel discovers - the taking of a life is easier than it might seem. Ten years later, another man teaches art in the penal colony of New South Wales, his spare time spent trapping and painting birds. But as becomes clear when he falls in love with one of his pupils, no one may escape their past forever, and the worst prisons are often those we make for ourselves. Dark, sinister and compelling, The Resurrectionist confirms James Bradley as one of the most exciting and ambitious novelists working in Australia today. James Bradley was born in 1967 and lives in Sydney. Twice one of The Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian Novelists, he is the author of two novels, Wrack and The Deep Field, and a book of poetry, Paper Nautilus. Wrack won the Fellowship of Australian Writers Literature Award and the Kathleen Mitchell Literary Award, and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. The Deep Field won The Age Fiction Book of the Year Award. Both novels have been published overseas and have been widely translated. The Resurrectionist will be published by Faber and Faber in the UK in 2007. Buy The Resurrectionists Thursday, March 30, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past Panel Sarah Maddison and Sean Scalmer Activist Wisdom: Practical Knowledge and Creative tension in Social Movements Published by: UNSW Press Panel includes: Sean Scalmer, Sally McManus, Verity Burgmann, Danny Kennedy Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Peace marches, protest demonstrations and campaigns have long been part of the Australian social and political landscape. In Activist Wisdom, Sarah Maddison and Sean Scalmer blend the voices and experiences of prominent activists – from Mick Dodson to Anne Summers - to examine the successes, failures and political impact of social movements in Australia. It features fascinating interviews with some of Australia’s best-known activists from the environmental, women’s, peace, student, refugee and Aboriginal movements. With passion and insight, these people articulate their unique form of ‘practical knowledge’ and connect it to key social movement histories and theories, providing an insight into the world of activism and the tensions that are an inevitable part of most social movements. Accessible and passionately-written, Activist Wisdom is a landmark contribution to our understanding of contemporary social movements in Australia and the world. ‘The authors of this powerful book (political activists, as well as scholars) have listened carefully to the activists they interviewed, learning a lot about how they use their knowledge to get things done. They write about Australian movements, but uncover strategic dilemmas faced by all those who want to change the world around them. These are worldwide movements, addressing existential issues that affect us all.’ – James M. Jasper, author of The Art of Moral Protest Sarah Maddison is a lecturer in Australian Politics at UNSW. A passionate believer in the possibility of social justice and social change, she has been politically active since she was a teenager. For the last 10 years Sarah has been active in the Australian women’s movement and is currently a national media spokesperson for the Women’s Electoral Lobby. Sean Scalmer is a lecturer in Sociology at Macquarie University. He has been researching class, social movements, non-violence and intellectuals in Britain and Australia for more than ten years. UNSW Press published his book on protest and the media, Dissent Events, in 2002. Since 1996, Sean has worked on the radical magazine of culture and politics, Overland. Buy Activist Wisdom Wednesday, March 29, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past In Conversation Carolyn Burke Lee Miller Published by: Bloomsbury Publishing In conversation with Drusilla Modjeska Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Lee Miller was one of the most extraordinary photographers of the twentieth century, famous for her portraits and her devastating photographs of World War Two. She was also a legendary beauty, Man Ray’s muse, and a close friend of artists and writers like Picasso, Cocteau, Max Ernst, Eileen Agar and Paul Eluard. Miller was born in 1907 in Poughkeepsie, New York. Restless and artistic, she left for Manhattan to attend art school and was later discovered by Condé Nast and became one of Vogue’s favourite models. In 1932 she started her own studio, taking photographs for magazines and portraits of renowned cultural figures, and in the forties married the surrealist Roland Penrose, Picasso’s great friend. She was one of the few women covering the Second World War: the first photographer to access Hitler’s Munich home and among the first to document the liberation of the concentration camps. But there is another side to her story. At the age of seven, she was raped and contracted gonorrhoea, an experience that left a legacy of darkness and self-doubt. ‘I looked like an angel, but I was a fiend inside,’ she said much later of her youthful self. In this, the first full-length biography of Lee Miller, Carolyn Burke perfectly captures her glamour and complexity – and the glittering worlds in which she moved. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, this is an absorbing account of a fascinating woman. About Carolyn Burke: Carolyn Burke was born in Australia. A biographer, translator and art critic, she met and interviewed Lee Miller while conducting research for her previous biography, Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy. Her many articles and translations from the French have appeared in such magazines as Art in America, The New Yorker, PN Review, Pink, Hemispheres and Poetry Flash. She lives in Santa Cruz, California, and spends as much time as she can in Paris. Drusilla Modjeska is a Sydney writer. Her latest book is Stravinsky’s Lunch. Buy Buy Lee Miller Search site for: Lee Miller Monday, March 27, 2006 / 6.30 for 7pm Past In Conversation Tegan Bennett Daylight Safety Published by: Random House In conversation with Charlotte Wood Venue: gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Elizabeth has fallen in love in her early adulthood, but with a lack of conviction and disturbing results. A little damaged, in her late twenties she embarks on a new affair with Ross, a fellow academic at her university. Their relationship blooms and offers her protection and security, for which she's been searching since she stopped being a child. She moves into his big, old, rambling family home by the Parramatta River and becomes pregnant. Then Ross's father, who deserted the family as a child and for whom Ross only seems to feel hatred and bitterness, resurfaces. He is living in Spain, but he is dying. Elizabeth persuades Ross that the family should make a journey to see him, to make peace with him and to show him Anna - their new daughter. But their holiday lays bare discomfitting truths and frailties, both in their relationship and each other. Bennett Daylight unfolds Ross and Elizabeth's love affair, and the joy and pain of motherhood, with wonderful sensitivity in a captivating story written in her characteristically spare, limpid prose.           © 1996-2009 gleebooks & MetaForm.   All rights reserved.