First, I must direct you to the Vintage Classics competition. For the purchase of two stylishly covered Vintage Classics at the very reasonable price of $12.95, go in the draw for thirty Vintage Classics of your choice—bargain! A great way to fill any gaps in the library. This month with Labor continuing to fall in a big heap, I’m going to read Left Turn in the hope that some of these ‘left identified’ essayists have some practical suggestions on where to direct one’s actions in the hope of at least keeping even a modestly Left consciousness at play in the Australian parliament, at most keeping Tony Abbot from becoming PM with a landslide the equivalent of the 2011 NSW Labor trouncing—a landslide that may deservedly be a scream of frustration against the ALP machine, but not the ‘mandate’ for reactionary policy that I cringe to think of Tony Abbot claiming it as. The editors of this collection will be at Gleebooks in conversation with Left Flank blogger, Tad Tietze on Wednesday 14, and I’ve got it the diary as a must attend. For lighter reading I’ve got Pulitzer winner Richard Ford’s new book, Canada, on the list. For crime relaxation, Geoff McGeachin’s Blackwattle Creek is next—I read and enjoyed the previous book in his DS Charlie Berlin series. Looks like damaged WW2 vet Charlie is entering the cold war this time out, and there’s nothing I like more than a bit of 50s conspiracy. Janice has me leaning towards The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam for some comic crime, and perhaps it’s time that I, like Janice, picked up some Louise Welsh. Louise Pfanner has inspired me to have a look at Yvette van Boven’s Homemade—with all this defaulting going on in the Eurozone it’s probably time I embraced the self-sufficiency movement and started ‘putting up’ some seasonal produce for leaner times. I’m still waiting on my hard cover edition of Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies­ which I intend to take my time over. If you haven’t yet taken the plunge into Wolf Hall because of a set against historical fiction, I recommend James Wood’s review in the May 7 New Yorker—it will convince you to set that foolish prejudice aside. Viki