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.

At last...Spring

A little madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown
Who ponders this tremendous scene
This whole Experiment of Green
As if it were his own!
-Emily Dickenson

After a dry and drab winter which has left Gauteng and surroudings in a dreary and dusty state, Spring is finally here. The yellow and oatmeal frost stricken landscape is at last being penetrated by a touch of greenery. I took these photos of my neighbour's beautiful peach tree in bloom only days ago . Driving past it everyday I wonder if Spring was created with the sole purpose to delight and please?

There is so much to blog about and so many posts and as ever so little time. But for a moment lets put the books down and enjoy this beautiful Spring day.

Feeling European

The lack of post, as suspected, as been caused by the post holiday blues and the onslaught of assignments with impossible deadlines. I think TPH should do like the Europeans do and close down shop for the whole of August and only return in September when spring will have officially made its long awaited arrival and some new posts and ideas will have blossomed along with some free time to share the with you. Until then I leave you with this very curios post I found on Swiss Miss where Kurt Vonnegut explains storytelling through Cartesian graphs on a blackboard. Until Spring, happy reading.



Read his article here

image: Swiss Miss

Book Vending Machines

I love this innovative reclaimed use of these old cigarette vending machines from German publisher Hamburger Automatenverlag
Read the full article on this at Coolhunting

A is for...a place to sit

(images; swissmiss, Utrechtverplettert, Design*Sponge)

Cape Town Book Fair

TPH is counting down the days to Cape Town Book Fair as I get ready to meet up with Cam in the Mother City and after that a holiday in the fairest Cape. In the mean time while we get down to book business I have selected some eye candy book post to keep you busy until our return to the web waves. And for those of you who can't join us this weekend at the book fair, we will report back as soon as the post holiday blues ware off.

See the programme for the weekend here

We are taking the train down to Cape Town and this means ample hours of reading and my companion ...Girl who kicked the hornets nest.

Man Booker longlist and Sunday Times Literary Awards announced

As per the Man Booker website:

The longlist includes:

Peter Carey Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber and Faber)

Emma Donoghue Room (Pan MacMillan - Picador)

Helen Dunmore The Betrayal (Penguin - Fig Tree)

Damon Galgut In a Strange Room (Grove Atlantic - Atlantic Books)

Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury)

Andrea Levy The Long Song
(Headline Publishing Group - Headline Review)

Tom McCarthy C (Random House - Jonathan Cape)

David Mitchell The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Hodder & Stoughton - Sceptre)

Lisa Moore February (Random House - Chatto & Windus)

Paul Murray Skippy Dies (Penguin - Hamish Hamilton)

Rose Tremain Trespass (Random House - Chatto & Windus)

Christos Tsiolkas The Slap (Grove Atlantic - Tuskar Rock)

Alan Warner The Stars in the Bright Sky
(Random House - Jonathan Cape)


(image: The Guardian)
Click here to view the Booker longlist in pictures


Back on home soil the winners of the Sunday Times Fiction Award and the Alan Paton Literary Prize were announced. Congratulations to:

High Low In-Between by Imraan Coovadia (Fiction Award) &
The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law by Albie Sachs (Alan Paton Award)




The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199571796
RRP: R220












High Low In-Between
Publisher: Umuzi
ISBN: 9781415200704
RRP: R200