Blogs

Quite an achievement for a TV show as normally anything that even mentions "footy" will drive me into a coma in a nanosecond, but the show was really engaging and luckily talked about a lot more than the dreaded "footy".  In fact Sunnie reminded me in an email last night that many of the issues raised were very very similar to those in The Broken Shore - not identical obviously, but similar.

Bright Air is the latest from well known writer Barry Maitland  It's a standalone - not part of the Brock and Kolla series. 

The synopsis:

Normally anything with "footy" in it would have me diving for cover, but I may manage to drag myself in front of the TV this Sunday for the screening of Valentine's Day - firstly because Rhys Muldoon's in it and secondly because the script is written by Peter Temple and, well, I love Peter Temple's sparse, funny, pointed writing style.  For more check out:

Valentine's Day on ABC 1

This is the second book from Leah - the first, Vodka Doesn't Freeze was a stunning debut to say the least!

Dodging the prologue again - the first chapter starts out:

"'Goddam it!"  Jill Jackson's toe caught the edge of a metal filing cabinet.  She hurled the half-packed archive box across the room, coloured manila folders and white sheets of paper trailing an arc through the air behind it.  'Ow, Shit.  OW!'  Clutching her bare foot, she hopped through the room, her face a warning."

The author of The Blood Detective - Dan Waddell is a journalist who has published ten non-fiction books, including Who Do You Think You Are? - tied in with the BBC TV series (which we've become quite firm fans of).

Dodging the prologue:

I tend not to read many books with historical settings, but this is a very different setting - 1867, Canada.  The story is set in a small settlement of, it seems, largely Scottish immigrants - at a time only about 20 years before my own Scottish ancestor arrived in Australia.  Should be interesting - I've read the first 40 or so pages so far, and it is really quite engaging.

"The last time I saw Laurent Jammer, he was in Scott's store with a dead wolf over his shoulder.  I had gone to get needles, and he had come in for the bounty."

I often maintain I'd read a grocery list written by Reginald Hill and I really am not joking.  I've been reading all of the reports about the latest Dalziel and Pascoe - A Cure for All Diseases and whilst I'm looking forward to it immensely I was also aware of a new Joe Sixsmith and I do like that series as well.  Given nobody much is talking about it, I thought I'd pick up The Roar of the Butterflies.

The opening line:

"Joe Sixsmith was adrift in space."

I confess I'm running a little late in recording my reading of this book as I've very nearly finished it - but on the better late then never principle, and as something a little extra than normal:

Opening Lines:

"I want you to steal something for me."

and page 123 - the first few sentences which by happy co-incidence is the start of chapter twenty:

THE BUILD UP  - Phillip Gwynne

Pan Macmillan - Scheduled for release  1 August, 2008

For Detective Dusty Buchanon, a female cop in the very male world of the Northern Territory Police Force, it always pays to expect the unexpected. When the body of a young Thai prostitute is found in a billabong near a camp of disaffected Vietnam Veterans, Dusty knows this is what she's been looking for – a spectacular case to get her back on top after the debacle of an infamous British backpacker murder trial that almost destroyed her career.

This is another from the Ned Nominees long list:

This is from Chapter 1 - skipping the prologue:

"There were seven of them.  Six Australian SAS and one Aussie spook on a line of Honda trail bikes slipping through the outback night."