Nothing To Do But Read by Poppy Gee

You get to go on a trip of a lifetime. What books do you bring along?

I've just come back from a trip of a lifetime so I can answer this question honestly. I took three books - Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray by Anita Heiss because I was halfway through and finished it on the plane, Don't Ask The Trees for Their Names edited by Oula Ghannoum which I had read but wanted to review in my free time, and a slim volume of poetry called The Rot by Evelyn Araluen because its light and fitted in my bag. I like poetry because you can dip in and out of it. We were catching trains between European cities, sleeping in tiny apartments above cobblestone streets, and cramming every day with museums, cafes, markets, architecture and galleries. In the end, I actually did more writing than reading. 

I wrote about some of those books in my last blog. So I'm going to interpret this question as 'you're locked in a stone tower in a remote forest for a week with nothing but books. What do you take?'  

A favourite author whose new book I haven't read:

Fox by Joyce Carol Oates

I think JCO is a macabrely seductive and deliciously dark writer. This new one is about a charming mercurial teacher who disappears from an elite New Jersey boarding school. Victim v predator, revenge v restitution, crime v complicity. Sounds fabulous.

An intriguing author I only just heard about:

Carved in Blood by Michael Bennett 

The New Zealand (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) author and filmmaker's latest book, Carved In Blood, is about retired Māori investigator Hana Westerman. I heard of Michael Bennett recently because he's coming to Australia for the Sydney Writer's Festival. 

Set in the depths of the New Zealand winter comes the rising of Matariki – a sacred constellation in Māori culture. But this Matariki brings unwelcome change when a shooting sends Hana on a dark and suspenseful journey. 

That premise has me hooked. 

A 'comfort read' / the book I've read the most times:

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

This was published in 2005. I remember seeing it on the bookshop counter at Mary Ryan's Bookstore on Park Road. It looked pink and pretty, it was set in a boarding school, and I read it three times in a row, then once every year for about ten years. I don't know why I kept reading this book. It was a comfort read, but I was endlessly fascinated by the characters. It's about a middleclass white person who feels like a fish out of water at her elite boarding school. The characterisation is strong, the people feel real, and they're odd, too. The protagonist is uncomfortably relatable in her weird awkwardness. I haven't read it for a few years now. But I might like to.

The book I DNF fifteen years ago and feel bad about not finishing:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

I love history and this story imagines a particularly interesting time. It's about Thomas Cromwell and his machinations in the Tudor court of King Henry VIII. Cromwell was a lowly blacksmith's son who rose in the king's favour and became powerful enough to work out how to make the king the head of the church in England (instead of the Pope). In my remote tower, with nothing to distract, I would persevere with this book. Everyone I know who loves literature, loves this book.

An intriguing new release

The Bookshop of Buried Pasts by Sarah Clutton

Set in an antiquarian bookshop in the Southern Highlands (a charming farming hinterland of heritage villages, boutique wineries and stunning waterfalls) this story is about an abandoned boy and the woman who never forgets him. I'll be interviewing Sarah at Avid Reader next month so it's top of my reading pile. Early readers are describing it as an enchanting story about secrets, love, loss and relationships.