Water for Elephants

by Sara Gruen. Allen & Unwin, 2006.

Water for Elephants is a novel, told in flashback by nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski, and recounts the wild and wonderful period he spent with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a traveling circus he joined during the Great Depression. When 23-year-old Jankowski learns that his parents have been killed in a car crash, leaving him penniless. He drops out of veterinary school and joins the circus, where he cares for a menagerie of exotic creatures. Naturally he also falls in love with Marlena, one of the show's star performers.

Throughout the book is the intelligence of the elephant Rosie. But the beauty for me, was more the insight into the thoughts of an old man living in a nursing home; his view of those around him, and the often incorrect perceptions others have of him. It certainly makes you think.

- Wendy

Inside Little Britain

By Boyd Hilton. Random House Australia, 2006.
Manly call number: 791.45/LIT

The talents behind the ground-breaking BBC comedy show Little Britain, David Walliams and Matt Lucas let writer Boyd Hilton spend nearly a year in their company as they prepared to take a stage version of the programme on tour around the UK. The writer describes in detail the stresses on the pair as the tour progresses. It turns out to be a huge year for Lucas and Walliams – they win numerous awards, the tour and Live DVD of the tour are enormous successes, and, while Matt proposes marriage to his partner Kevin, David goes out and swims the English Channel in a ridiculously fast time. Hilton takes us the reader through all these highs, and records the low points as well – newspaper criticism of the third series of Little Britain, and Walliams’ disappointment in love.

Hilton’s book shows signs of being speedily published, and could really have done with being edited down: almost 400 pages is too long. However, he does succeed in making the reader feel a part of the inner circle getting the show on the road, and he captures plenty of funny remarks for posterity. The stars come across as a genuinely likeable and generous pair. The occasional grossness is only to be expected by fans of this high-gross comedy.

- John

PostSecret

by Frank Warren. Orion Publishing, 2007.
Designed by Richard Ljoenes.

In 2004 Frank Warren printed 3000 postcards inviting people to share a secret with him – something that was true, something they had never told anyone. He handed these cards out at train stations, left them in art galleries and in between the pages of library books. Then, slowly, secrets began to find their way to his mailbox. This book is a presentation of those post-card secrets. The secrets are sometimes shocking, a little sad, optimistic, thought-provoking, funny, and/or romantic. The cards themselves are works of art too. I found the book impossible to put down and read the whole thing from front cover to back in one night.

The PostSecret blog is updated regularly with new contributions.

Google Maps Australia

Google has finally launched Google Maps Australia. You type in a location and a detailed map appears. You can choose from a street map version or a satellite image! Check out the roof of Manly Library here (we're the building with the rounded front).

Special Topics in Calamity Physics

by Marisha Pessl. Penguin Books, 2006.

... is presented as a very 'literary' fiction. Each chapter is the title of a book. The novel is a richly plotted suspense tale told through the distinctive voice of its heroine, Blue van Meer. Blue is constantly quoting from books and referring to texts and It reads a little like a university assignment! Most of the books and authors she refers to don't exist -- though quite a few do.

Blue, [named after the butterfly her dead mother collected] spends her childhood moving from one academic outpost to another with her father. In her final year of high school she finds herself in with a charismatic group of friends and their teacher, Hannah Schneider. But when the drowning of one of Hannah's friends and the shocking death of Hannah herself lead to the mysteries coming together, Blue is left to make sense of it all with only her instincts and those references to guide—or misguide—her.

Arranged around a syllabus for a Great Works of Literature class and containing visual aids (drawn by the author) – you’ll love it or you’ll hate it!

See Marisha Pessl's website here: http://calamityphysics.com/main.htm

- Wendy

The Coroner's lunch

By Colin Cotterill. Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2004.
Illustration by Petra Nevistic. Design by Chong.

A detective series set in Laos in the late 70s – Laos’ new Communist regime has just taken over. Most of the former ruling class and public servants have fled across the Mekong. Here is Colin Cotterill’s description of his book. He describes it best:
His entertaining website is here: http://www.colincotterill.com/

- Ines