Overland 204

If the Australian is centre right, then Overland is overboard to port.

Thrill Seekers (Edwina Shaw 2011)

My eldest niece's first novel – a 'gritty YA' story about really terrible stuff. It's bumped to the front of my reading queue. I got a free copy from my niece because I guessed closest to the arrival of comps copies from the English publisher.

Submarine (Richard Ayoade 2010)

Not really a laugh-out-loud comedy, though I did. Everybody is depressed and incompetent. Possibly the most hopeful line is, 'You say this won't matter when I'm thirty-eight. It will.' The final moments, in which the boy does bot regain the love of the girl, manage to carry something off that reminds me, idiosyncratically no doubt, of the final moments of the Balinese Kecak dance, where the battle continues, presumably forever.

Bad News (Robert Manne 2011)

There are so many things I want to be reading but if I don't read this RIGHT NOW it will be too late. Subtitled Murdoch's Australian and the Shaping of the Nation it's Quarterly Essay Nº 43, ye classic liberal believer in rationality taking on the polemicist bully.

STC: The Threepenny Opera (Bertolt Brecht 1928)

As we emerged from the theatre, one of my companions said, 'Boy, Brecht was depressed,' and another said, 'The inside of Brecht's head was really messed up.' Both of them might have added, ' ... but in a good way.' I just read Alison Croggon's review of the original Malthouse (Melbourne) staging of this Michael Kantor production, and she is pretty much spot on.

Sydney Fringe Festival: Chronic (Luke Escombe)

We live just around the corner from the Factory Theatre, but go there rarely. Last night we ventured out for a taste of the Fringe. Apart from a couple of edgy songs (where edgy pretty much equals sexist) this was an excellent show, charmingly unslick in the way it lurched from comments on terrorism and global security to stories about Escombe's chronic illness (too soon for humour, but an enjoyable effort?) to stuff about sex and whatever else prompted him to write a song. Probably my favourite song proposed parachuting golden retrievers into Iran to cheer everyone up and bring peace to the Middle East. 

Descartes (A C Grayling 2005)

Our chosen read-aloud for an impending car trip. I was dubious, but the introduction is surprisingly engaging: the biography of a retiring philosopher promises to include much cloak-and-dagger.

The Good Book (A C Grayling 2010)

A serious attempt to assemble a secular bible from a host of writers, most known by one name only. I'm reading a chapter or two aloud while P is cooking dinner every now and then. This will be a long read.

The Life (Malcolm Knox 2011)

I'm reading this for the book club. I finally gave up on the library yesterday and bought a copy – a week to go and 400 pages to read. Those other books will just have to wait

Stand By Me (Rob Reiner 1986)

I watched this with a young friend for school purposes. I enjoyed it just as much as in 1986, though this time I took the generalising final question (does anyone ever have friends as good as the ones they had when they were 12) seriously and answered, 'Of course.'

STC: Blood Wedding (Federico Garcia Lorca 1932)

The program notes say it's very hard to translate Lorca's poetic drama for Australian audiences. Well, this translation/production does a pretty fine job - family drama in the first part, all-stops-out weirdness in the second.

Beginners (Mike Mills 2010)

Just when I was beginning to think that romantic comedy and I had reached the parting of the ways, along comes this sweet movie about recognisable human beings. Christopher Plummer is magnificent, but Ewan McGregor and Mélanie Laurent definitely hold their own

Amphora (Joanne Burns 2011)

Poetry from the Book Club.

Watch Out for Me (Sylvia Johnson 2011)

This arrived on my doorstep as I was about to get on a plane. It's coming with me.

After Romulus (Raimond Gaita 2011)

I heard Raimond Gaita talk about this on the book show and had to bump it to the front of the queue.