'Get Lit' with our Book Club!
Welcome to the book club that likes to read between the wines
Where better to discuss good books, meet good people and have a real-good time than at a local book club?
Join us for a chat about good books with good people as part of our Literature & Ideas program.
Each Book Club conversation will feature our Literature & Ideas curator Sisonke Msimang talking to a different local Perthonality about the finer points of each book.
By the time the Literature & Ideas weekend (21 – 23 Feb) you'll have done your homework and be all set to meet them in person.
So, get ready to Get Lit by checking out our Book Club picks!
Will we see you there?
Chessie Henry - We Can Make A Life
Michelle Johnston and Sisonke Msimang
City of Vincent Library
Tues 21 Jan 6pm
We Can Make A Life is a big-hearted memoir about Chessie's family journey of recovery after the Christchurch earthquake. It includes a memorable portrait of her father, a rural GP intent on saving everyone but himself.
'This sensitive memoir of an adventurous, rambunctious family of seven follows Henry’s parents across the South China Sea, through Africa, to the South Island of New Zealand, onto remote Tokelau, and then into the heart of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, where her father, a rural doctor, spent hours crawling through a collapsed building looking for survivors. Alongside Henry’s careful observation of her parents is her warm portrait of her brothers, from rugby-playing Matt and enormous Rocky to natural leader Rufus, whose disability becomes just another part of the complicated family dynamics in this warm-hearted book.' Dan Kois, www.slate.com
Tony Birch - The White Girl
Jo Trilling and Sisonke Msimang
Boffins Bookshop
Thurs 30 Jan 6pm | RSVPs required
In The White Girl, Miles Franklin-shortlisted author Tony Birch shines a spotlight on the 1960s and the devastating government policy of taking Indigenous children from their families.
Odette Brown has lived her whole life on the fringes of a small country town. After her daughter disappeared and left her with her granddaughter Sissy to raise on her own, she stays under the radar of the welfare authorities who are removing fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families. When a new policeman arrives in town, determined to enforce the law, Odette must ‘risk everything to save Sissy and protect everything she loves’ (Goodreads).
We’ve chosen The White Girl because it’s an important read that confronts history without ever losing its grip on great storytelling.
Come along for a conversation with Sisonke Msimang and Jo Trilling- the Host of The Culture Club
‘Birch is a writer with a profound gift for language and human insight. He writes with razor’s edge emotional clarity and empathy about people and place – especially on those Australian margins, rural and urban. The White Girl showcases his gift.’ Paul Daley, The Guardian
Tara June Winch - The Yield
Claudia Mancini chats with Sisonke Msimang
Victoria Park Library
Thurs 6 Feb 6pm
Narrated by three different voices, The Yield introduces various perspectives to life in Prosperous House, where the Gondiwindi family live in the fictional town of Massacre Plains. Dictionary maker and elder Albert Gondiwindi, his granddaughter August and 19th-century missionary Reverend Greenleaf unpack complex views of family, the future of the environment, native title and the use of contemporary language.
‘The Yield will appeal to many because of the way it unpacks complex themes in an accessible way. Australian rural novels are often humourless sketches with characters more like caricatures, grimly serious or full of despair. Refreshingly, the characters in The Yield are capable of communion, humour, and dignity despite tragedy, sexual violence, and substance abuse. In this deft novel of slow-moving water, they are borne by love, not pity.’ Australian Book Review