My bookshelf — Getting Out There

Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman world, by Mary Beard

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

by Mary Beard, rated 3 out of 5

The best-selling author of The Fires of Vesuvius presents a comprehensive history of the social and political world of the Roman emperors including Julius Caesar, Nero, Alexander Severus, Caligula, and Marcus Aurelius.

— the publisher’s blurb

The Ninth Life Of A Diamond Miner: A Memoir, by Grace Tame

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Content warning:

Grace Tame’s book deals with child sexual abuse, and thus this book review also discusses same.

by Grace Tame, rated 5 out of 5

I don’t know how to describe this book, or my experience of reading it. Grace is very funny, even whilst reliving and retelling the most horrific tale of her abuse at the hands of a cold-blooded monster.

I can’t believe this remarkable woman had the courage and grit to not only survive what she went through, but then to put all this down in writing (of course reliving it along the way), include her art and her photos of family and herself, and then publish it to the world. She quite literally bares her soul, and she does it mostly to educate people on how grooming works, how child abuse affects survivors, hoping she can prevent even one more child going through her pain. This is so inspiring in and of itself, and then you read her experiences and you’re inspired again, and again, and again.

Some parts are hard to get into. Many parts are very hard to read without gripping the book so tight you’ll bend the spine in half. But I found it immensely educational, entertaining, funny and tragic and authentic. I sincerely believe that every single male in this country needs to read this book. The women too, of course, but especially us fellas. I’ll be lending my copy to my son and I hope you read it too and then do the same for the blokes in your life.

Heart of Darkness and Other Stories, by Joseph Conrad

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

by Joseph Conrad, rated 4.5 out of 5

The horror! The horror!. These are Kurtz’s final words in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the story of a man who travels into the jungle to seek his fortune and who instead finds an all-consuming moral and spiritual wilderness. Conrad’s enduring tale served as a touchstone for many works of fiction inspired by its sombre theme. This collection also includes an additional five of Conrad’s best stories.

— the publisher’s blurb

Syria's Secret Library: The true story of how a besieged Syrian town found hope, by Mike Thomson

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

by Mike Thomson, rated 5 out of 5

I’ve never cried reading a book before. Sure, I’ve found many sad, gripping, infuriating books that have left their mark, but this remarkable story of a small town of rebels under siege by Syria’s government is something special.

A group of peaceful students decides that books — the knowledge they impart, the escape they provide from a life of horror and tragedy — are more important than anything else. They live and die by the old saying that the pen is mightier than the sword. So they set about collecting a town’s books together into a secure place, all the while being shot at, bombed, starved, denied medical treatment, for four years.

When one thinks of stories of fighting, and what it means to fight, one tends to think of picking up a weapon and facing an enemy. Some of these students do that, of course, and join the Free Syria Army, and hold back the regime’s soldiers against massive odds for many years. But the true fight is an ideological and psychological one, and in their literary sanctuary, filled with books that are banned and savouring knowledge and learning above all else, they stick it to the government and plan for a better future for their revolution.

Reading about children like fourteen-year-old Amjad, and his passion for the library where he becomes Chief Librarian and devotes himself to its operation before losing his enthusiasm and spirit (Spoiler hidden — read it on the site.), or twelve-year-old Islam, who teaches her mother to read and dives into books, but is similarly robbed of her spirit and dreams for the future by the daily horror of war, is so heartbreaking. Despite this, the biggest lesson I took from reading this book is that the Syrian people are remarkably resourceful, resilient and a (rightfully) proud people.

Hopefully one day that will be enough to help them return from the depths that their country now finds itself.

War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

by Leo Tolstoy

When Napoleon invades Russia in 1812, it forever changes those whose lives it engulfs. Although told on a panoramic scale Tolstoy’s epic novel focuses on the chaos of battle, the horror of death and bloodshed, and the expression of the noble virtues of love and valour through their impact on the lives of three principal characters: the courageous Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, the idealistic Pierre Bezukhov and the nobly born beauty Natasha Rostov.

— the publisher’s blurb

The Return: Fathers, sons and the land in between, by Hisham Matar

Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

by Hisham Matar

In 2012, after the overthrow of Qaddafi, the acclaimed novelist Hisham Matar journeys to his native Libya after an absence of thirty years. When he was twelve, Matar and his family went into political exile. Eight years later Matar’s father, a former diplomat and military man turned brave political dissident, was kidnapped from the streets of Cairo by the Libyan government and is believed to have been held in the regime’s most notorious prison. Now, the prisons are empty and little hope remains that Jaballah Matar will be found alive. Yet, as the author writes, hope is “persistent and cunning.” This book is a profoundly moving family memoir, a brilliant and affecting portrait of a country and a people on the cusp of immense change, and a disturbing and timeless depiction of the monstrous nature of absolute power.

— the publisher’s blurb

Batavia, by Peter FitzSimons

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

by Peter FitzSimons, rated 4.5 out of 5

With a prolonged period of bed-rest and boredom forced upon me, I’ve been reading a lot more. This is one of the positive consequences of my situation: more time for introverted activities like reading. In my youth I couldn’t read enough books. I always had my nose in a book and my imagination on some far-off exotic adventure. As an adult I’ve tended towards nonfiction, and particularly history, on the rare occasion I do get time to read.

I am fortunate enough to be presently enjoying all of these things concurrently; I have passed the last few rainy Ballarat days curled up in bed with Batavia, by Peter FitzSimons. Having thoroughly enjoyed FitzSimons’ Burke and Wills, of which I was lucky enough to have a hardcover copy signed by him when I met him at a function in Ballarat; following his journalism in the Sydney Morning Herald; interacting with him occasionally on Twitter; and being keenly supportive of the Australian Republican Movement, which Peter chairs, I guess you could say I’m a big fan of his work.

The author Peter FitzSimons (centre) with my son Declan (left) and daughter Anneliese (right) outside the now-defunct “Museum of Australian Democracy in Eureka (MADE)”.

So standing in Collins Bookshop in Ballarat, I was faced with the choice of either Batavia or Eureka, the history of the Eureka Stockade rebellion during the 19th-Century Victorian gold rush, which held some interest for me living here in Ballarat where it all happened. In the end though, Batavia’s promise of a bloody tale of historical tragedy, murder, treachery, mutiny and drama on the high seas, nearly four centuries ago, won me over. And boy was I not let down!

Batavia is the amazing true story of a treasure-laden flagship of a fleet owned by the Dutch East Indies Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC). The Batavia and its accompanying ships embarked on a nine month journey to Batavia (known today as Jakarta, in Indonesia) in 1628–29, on a mission to trade in the lucrative exotic spices that shaped that era of exploration and ultimately changed the world. Tragedy befalls the ship and its crew before they reach their port of destination, and mayhem quickly ensues amongst a crew of desperate misfits and malcontents. The events unfold during a fascinating historical period, full of seafaring adventurers, pirates, vast empires, colonial brutality, the birth of multinational corporate greed, you name it…

As I followed the Batavia’s journey from Amsterdam to the Indian Ocean I was equally appalled and enthralled by the characters that FitzSimons portrays very skilfully, remaining as historically accurate as possible whilst allowing himself the requisite artistic license to bring the characters to life after 400 years. One must remember these people — protagonists, antagonists, major and minor characters alike — really existed. The epoch itself was one of brutal and harsh reality, a world of strict social structures where disobedience could result in death. Where forgetting one’s station and rank was unthinkable and seriously punished. This makes the reckless actions taken by the crew that much more incredulous, but it happened!

Without spoiling the story for those like me who until reading this book had never heard it before, it’s actually quite difficult to read. The brutality, the disregard not only for human life but all shreds of decency, is stark. In the first chapters I was a bit uneasy about the way FitzSimons sets up the central characters, feeling perhaps he was being unfair to paint historical figures — people who actually existed, who had mothers — as evil incarnate; by the end of the book I was in total agreement and just staggered at the emotional toll I endured reading about events four centuries ago.

In the preface FitzSimons discusses the struggle of breathing life into a 400-year-old story and humbly hopes he is up to the task. I couldn’t put it down. I was totally transported back in time and could almost smell the salt air. A wonderfully written and researched book, appropriately embellished for readability’s sake without sacrificing historical accuracy, this is the best work of FitzSimons I’ve ever read.

I also found the details of the fateful island where the tragedy unfurled interesting from a personal point of view, as I have sailed those waters myself and gazed with the same wonder and awe at the forbidding coastline of Western Australia, or as the Dutch of the time called it, het Zuidland, ‘the Southland’. I also have seafaring ancestors from Geraldton, and in fact one of the small little islands that form part of the Abrolhos Islands chain is named Akerstrom Island, and I intend to find out if this island is named for a relation of my great-grandfather, Erik Albun Åkerstrom.

The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

by Alexandre Dumas, rated 5 out of 5

I adored this book. Absolutely relished reading every word and felt a definite sense of melancholy when I finished the book, simply because I’d finished the book. I loved the style of the prose as much as the story itself.

Of course the story is a long epic tale, but I found it thrilling, even in the slower sections. It was pretty obvious where some of the plot strands were winding, but others left me surprised, delighted and satisfied. Our hero sometimes has skills and powers that border on the supernatural, much like The Three Musketeers. However, in a story such as this I found those aspects fun, interesting and it made for some perfect escapism as I travelled back in time to early 19th century Paris to witness the villains get their comeuppance.

The Voyage of the Beagle, by Charles Darwin

Fri, 01 Jan 1937 00:00:00 +0000

by Charles Darwin

This is Charles Darwin’s chronicle of his five-year journey, beginning in 1831, around the world as a naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle

— the publisher’s blurb

The Poetical Works of Lord Byron, by Lord George G. Byron

Sun, 01 Jan 1882 00:00:00 +0000

by Lord George G. Byron, rated 5 out of 5