THE AMBIDEXTROUS LIBRARIAN

NORWEGIAN WOOD (Haruki Murakami) Murakami is a strange reading experience.  If you like solid, fast-paced realism with a clear, satisfying ending - Murakami is probably not for you.  If you like something a little more gossamer and ethereal.  Something that floats around the edges of magical realism, or perhaps dips its toes lightly in a pond of peculiar every now and then - you will love Murakami. Having said that, Norwegian Wood has no magical realism in it at all (sorry about that), but it still embodies that floaty, misty, breathy (how many adjectives can I insert here?) mood of his writing.   Norwegian Wood is a tale of a boy and a girl making their way gradually into adulthood.  One tragic event from their past keeps them joined, yet also keeps them apart.  Set in the late 60's amidst the urban mass of Tokyo, Murakami still manages to take this landscape and puff wistful. lonely tendrils down it's back alleys and dormitories.  And yet the ...

THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS (M.R. CAREY) This book was totally worth every last cent of the $12.00 I paid for it.  Wandering the isles of Big W in an attempt to kill some time, I (naturally) gravitated towards the book section and was overcome by the psychology of the retail displays.  10 minutes later I had parted with my money.  Kudos to the marketing psychologists for a job well done! I was sucked in by the bright yellow cover, and the fact that it was crowded with glowing reviews, one of which was by Joss Whedon and I thoroughly respect anything that man has to say.  I didn't even really know what the book was about, as the jacket was so crammed with praise the actual blurb was very brief.  Perhaps that helped in the end - I'm not sure I would have picked it up if I knew the story was about zombies. That's not to say that I don't enjoy a good fantasy / sci-fi.  And I do really enjoy the current popularity of zombie apocalypse tales; they are ...

THE SINGING BONES (SHAUN TAN) This book is extraordinary. I have written on Shaun Tan before, but in case you missed it, he has an uncanny ability to inject a subtle sense of unease and disquiet into his works - both written and visual.  There is something that is simplistic and mesmerising about his art.  I find myself staring at the tiniest detail with a furrowed brow, all the while wondering how the simple curve of a line, or detail of shadow, can make me feel like I should look over my shoulder; like there is something waiting for me just beyond that dark corner. When I discovered that Shaun Tan had published a book of Grimm's Fairytales, and had created artworks to depict each narrative - I dived on it like a seagull on a chip.  And I haven't been disappointed.  The book does not seek to retell each tale in its entirety - each double page spread presents a small but flavoursome morsel of the tale, which is then enriched by Tan's sculptural interpretation...

THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO (PATRICK NESS) This book has been on my "to read" list for ages .  I finally read it.  Sweet hallelujah.  For other Librarians out there who may be reading this, you know what I'm talking about; the sheer pleasure of managing to ACTUALLY FINISH A BOOK from the ever growing pile.  I feel like I should have a drink to celebrate. And so, the talented Patrick Ness.  We recently acquired The Rest of Us Just Live Here  for the collection (another for the "to read" list), but I thought I would start with The Knife of Never Letting Go  because it has awards slapped all over it, and it's been around for ages and y'know, people generally rave.  Published back in 2008, it's been around a while now.  And it's a sort of near-future sci-fi dystopian tale.  Interestingly it was dystopian before  The Hunger Games  opened the floodgates. Todd Hewitt is a boy about to become a man.  He was born into the...

TALES FROM OUTER SUBURBIA (SHAUN TAN) When I was at high school, I drew a picture of the shopping centre that was across the road from the school. It was one of those 80's-designed affairs with an empty open-air square in the middle; furnished with uncomfortable metal seats painted in faded primary colours, uneven cheap pavers and geometric planters full of thin, sandy soil, cigarette butts and the stringy brown remains of palm trees.  And of course there were empty shops. That's a given.  When I drew the shopping centre, I made the shop-front display windows completely black.  The colours I used were all dark, there was no people or movement.  I didn't think of it at the time, but my Art Teacher said it was a creepy drawing, there was no life to it, and there should be because it's a picture of a bloody shopping centre.  I don't know why I drew it like that, but that's how that place felt to me; it made me uneasy.  Shaun Tan's pictures and narratives ...

Sandy Feet (Nikki Buick) This bright little number caught my eye a few months back, as it subconsciously spoke to my longing for some sort of beachy, sandy, tropically, salty, breezy, sunny, happy respite (I love a good adjective list to emphasis a point) to the misery that is a Melbourne winter in the perpetually sodden Dandenong Ranges .  The cover of the book is yellow with a palm tree... it says "sandy".  That was enough for me. So I read the book and it was OK.  Perhaps not as sunny and sandy on the inside as the cover would have you believe (if you judge books by their cover - which I do), but it certainly kept me coming back despite being a bit slow to get off the ground.  Basically, the protagonist, Hunter, is a guy who has a few issues in life; his mum suffers from depression, his stepdad (endearing called "Step"), is a bit of a toss, and his sister is a pain.  And he is stuck on a loooooooong family car trip up north to "getaway" and "f...

Blankets (Craig Thompson) What can I say about this graphic novel?!?!?! READ IT.  NOW. I was never a huge fan of the graphic novel until recently.  In fact, the moment I was converted was a quiet afternoon at work; my colleague and I were randomly browsing the Junior Fiction.  Enter Jane, the Fox and Me by Fanny Britt.  Suddenly I realised that graphic novels weren't all science fiction, fantasy and reluctant male readers.  The illustrations in Jane, the Fox and Me are beautiful, as is the story.  I have a colour photocopy of one of the illustrations on my fridge, which involves Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre caressing a swim-suited sausage.  Graphic novels, why had I forsaken you???? So fast-forward to Blankets.   It's a hefty read at 600+ pages.  But it's a graphic novel so it's not a dense or taxing read.  But it still takes time.  There were moments when I would stop and just gaze upon one certain picture, or ...