Man Booker shortlist announced

The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize has been announced and here they are:

Peter Carey Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber and Faber)
Emma Donoghue Room (Picador - Pan Macmillan)
Damon Galgut In a Strange Room (Atlantic Books - Grove Atlantic)
Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury)
Andrea Levy The Long Song (Headline Review - Headline Publishing Group)
Tom McCarthy C (Jonathan Cape - Random House)



This is the one I am dying to read, C by Tom McCarthy which also has one of the best covers of the year. It opens in England at the turn of the twentieth century, and is the story of a boy named Serge Carrefax, whose father spends his time experimenting with wireless communication while running a school for deaf children. Serge grows up amid the noise and silence with his brilliant but troubled older sister, Sophie: an intense sibling relationship that stays with him as he heads off into an equally troubled larger world.

After a fling with a nurse at a Bohemian spa, Serge serves in World War I as a radio operator for reconnaissance planes. When his plane is shot down, Serge is taken to a German prison camp, from which he escapes. Back in London, he’s recruited for a mission to Cairo on behalf of the shadowy Empire Wireless Chain. All of which eventually carries Serge to a fitful—and perhaps fateful—climax at the bottom of an Egyptian tomb . . .

I have to get my hands on it.
The winner will be announced on the 12th of October.

See pictures and information on the nominees on The Guardian's website as well their review of C

(image; The Man Booker Prize)

Arbor Month: Save a tree, buy only good or secondhand books this month

Arbor month started on the 1st of September 2010 and I have planted no less than 5 trees in my yard. My husband and I are trying to offset our huge carbon emission from last year and has committed to only traveling locally this year (though I must confess this is partly due to the double recession of our own finances). But apart from the obvious climate related reasons I think every self confessed bibliophile needs to plant at least one tree this month. You only need to walk into the likes of Exclusive Books or CNA to realise who many of our precious resources and trees are being sacrificed to publish ,quite frankly, rubbish.

So I urge you to do one of the following: plant a tree as a thank you to the paper and its source that has brought you many hours of reading pleasure and shop locally or secondhand. Buying books from a local independent bookseller not only supports your own community instead of the big corporates but makes a lot more carbon sense. And the best and worth while has probably been separated from the masses to enhance your browsing experience. See a previous post explaining this offset here

Pick n Pay and Woolworths will be selling young potted indigenous trees in their flower aisles, perfect for balconies or consider these green starter packs from Eco Living Gifts


More on the bookshop above in my next post.

5 minutes with Ian McEwan

Here is a short but very interesting 5 minute interview by BBC reporter Matt Stadlen with my favourite British author, Ian McEwan. They talk briefly about Amsterdam's Booker Prize value, his approach to writing and his love for music. Click here to view the interview on BBC.

Oh Sweden how do I love thee, let me count the ways...

1...Stieg Larsson



In my previous post I recommended that some light reading should be acquired for this the first month of spring so that we can reconnect with nature and spend some time enjoying the warm and beautiful African sun. And if you still haven't heard of (where have you been?) or made an attempt to start reading Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy then there is no better time then now. I started my last installment a month ago and because I know that after The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest there will be no more Lisbeth Salander, I am taking my time to finish it and restricting myself to only a few pages a day. I am not usually one that buys into hype or consider books for their ratings on bestsellers lists, so when a friend of mine insisted in lending me a copy I transferred it to my my husband's nightstand for him to test it out for us. Well the rest in history and the trilogy has become a welcomed guilty pleasure and indulgement which has kept us thoroughly entertained.


Not since ABBA has the Swedes been able to grab the world's attention with such intensity. On holiday in Koh Lanta, Thailand we found the beach strewn with people, cocktail in hand and in their hammock's (myself included), each and everyone with a copy of one of the three Stieg Larsson's in every possible language and cover you could imagine. We realised later that Koh Lanta was home to rather sizeable amount of Swedes and that it even had a Swedish school. It might quite be possible that they were giving copies of the book out on the plane on their way there.The copy you see in the picture above is one that I purchase from a women with a bicycle driven stall, umbrella and all, outside our hotel in Shanghai...for R20. I think it fell of one of those mass production trucks somewhere in China...I hope.

2...Ikea

Sweden and their Scandinavian counterparts are renowned for their impeccable style and Larrson does this birth right proud by producing a very stylish if not some what promiscuous series of crime novels. In the second novel, The Girl Who Played With Fire, the heroin of the trilogy kits out her apartment with furniture from Ikea. I found this quirky post on Apartment Therapy on what her apartment in Stockholm would have looked like.



3...H&M
Just because I love it so and miss it so :)

Spring kicks off in Joburg

September not only signifies the start of spring but it is also the month filled with great events happening all around Joburg.



This weekend the Mail & Guardian JHB Literary Festival will be taking place at my favourite spot in Joburg, 44 Stanley Ave from 3-5 September. Click on the link to view the programme. Boekehuis wil be selling books at the event which aims to 'revivify Jo'burg's cultural landscape'. While you are there don't forget to sample what is undeniably the best cup of coffee in Joburg which you can find at Bean There Coffee Roastery .



Arts Alive is starting on the 2nd of September and promises a month full of memorable events. This weekend''s programme makes it hard to choose between the Soweto Wine Festival and the Jazz in the park concert at Zoo lake. Later this month sees an exhibition of William Kentridge at Arts on Main and two poetry sessions in Newtown. See the full programme here



The Kentridge Exhibition coincides with the ARCHITECTURE.ZA.2010 event which takes place from the 21-27th of September.

I propose you take on some light reading this September (of which we will provide you with some suggestions) because it is going to be a busy month.