Hello St Marks

"That was the secret of a happy marriage: step away from the rage." Liane Moriarty is really, really good at writing books that are both cracking stories and tartly acerbic commentaries on—well, whatever pocket of contemporary Australian life she turns her attention to. With 'Apples Never Fall' it's tennis. I don't care even a smidge about tennis but loved this rollicking, astutely observed book and its cast of very human beings. 

Laurie Graham's 'The Importance of Being Kennedy' reminded me of Jo Baker's 'Longbourn, The Servants' Story'. Both are re-imaginings of familiar stories from the help's perspective. 'Kennedy' is voiced by Nora Brennan, no-nonsense nursemaid to all nine Kennedy children— those Kennedys, American royalty, infamous and tragic. Both novels sound like trash and weren't. 'Longbourn' was lyrical, 'Kennedy' is acerbic; both are clever and thoughtful with the frisson of a familiar story told fresh. 

A year ago I started a record of every book I read in 2021. Thank heavens that's over; it was a dreaded burden writing about ever darned book I consumed, and often embarrassing (count the terrible books I read in 2021, or no, please don't). For the record, I read 101 books in 2021, or thereabouts. Plus a couple of dozen I started but didn't finish—too hard for my wooly head, or too awful even for my low standards. As the second COVID-19 year ground on, quality plummeted and non-fiction consumption declined to barely a garnish on a diet of calorie-rich, low-fibre fiction. I'm making no promises for 2022. 

1 Jan 2022 and I'm playing catch-up on my 2021 reading. Only four books to go and here they are, in a rush. 'Bridge Burning' by the lovely Kitty Flanagan; the friend you want for real. I'll try '488 Rules for Life' next for a mega-dose of funny/serious common sense. 'The Secret Lives of Dresses' by Erin McKean is a perfectly lovely romantic-ish story about a dozy zoomer finding herself thanks to a fabulous wardrobe of vintage clothes. 'An Absolutely Remarkable Thing'—about social media, fame, unearned power and aliens—is absolutely brilliant. Hank Green (podcaster, vlogger, entrepreneur) is a very clever writer with a big, bold brain, so I'm off to find his second novel. Ah, finally, 'Happy Hour' by Jacquie Byron. Francis' husband died 3 years ago and she's doing grief her own way. Franny is utterly furious, sometimes mean, often drunk. Also clever, creative, acerbic and kind, and Byron lets her be all those things without jud

So much reading, so little blogging. I've wolfed down a smorgasbord of books without even tasting them; all calories, little goodness. For the record, I note: The really dreadful 'Parting the Veil' by Paulette Kennedy—what a muddle. American heiress marries rich but psychotic English Lord in haunted mansion, with lashings of sex, grief, PTSD and Jungian psychology. 'Model Home' by Courtney Sullivan features universally awful people living in US home re-modelling reality TV-land. I felt mean and stupid reading it, but thankfully it was short. Matthew Fitzgibbon's 'Constance' is a near-future sci fi cloning thriller. 'A Day Like This' by Kelley McNeil has a solid premise: Annie wakes up from a car accident remembering a daughter who doesn't exist. 'The Colour of Law' is a wannabe John Grisham; perfect beach reading, thanks Mark Gimenez. James Patterson's 'The Noise' starts well—a very loud noise destroys a town, 2 kids survi

My happy place is with Lady Georgiana Rannoch. I visit her often and never get bored despite each novel following the exact same pattern as the prior. This past month or two I've returned to 'Her Royal Spyness' (in which we meet Georgie, 34th in the line of succession and dead broke, with a dead Frenchman in her bath), 'A Royal Pain' (in which Queen Mary asks Georgie to babysit a dodgy German Princess), 'Royal Flush' (in which our heroine spies on the Prince of Wales and the odious Mrs Simpson), 'Royal Blood' (in which Georgie encounters murderous vampires in Transylvania while attending a royal wedding), 'Naughty in Nice' (in which Lady Georgiana is an accident-prone model for Chanel; murder ensues) and—oh yes—'God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen', Rhys Bowen's 2021 release, long-awaited by Lady Georgie's avid followers, in which we catch up with her life since... but that would be telling. 

"We tell this story to point out that we all do stupid things as children, and most of us live through them."  'Dirt Town', Hayley Scrivenor's first novel, is bush noir of the best kind. A child goes missing and a methodical investigation begins. The police are diligent and the people of Durton are believably kind, blind or flawed. The drama here is low and steady, the tension builds slowly as the story leaks from the Greek chorus of kids whose voices elevate 'Dirt Town' into something very special. 'Dirt Town' was a magnificent gift from the street library gods, as this uncorrected bound proof copy arrived four months ahead of its planned publication date (April 2022). I hope Scrivenor has many more books in her; this one is fabulous. 

For readers, trauma memoirs are the literary equivalent of slowing down to gawk at a crash; the drama is magnetic but you can feel like a heel afterwards. Rachel Gotto's trauma memoir, 'Flying on the Inside', leads with a string of catastrophes—a dead husband, a dead brother, a brain tumour—then becomes an essay on addiction. Having survived radical surgery for her brain tumour, Gotto finds herself cured but physically addicted to benzodiazepines. Her approach to recovery challenged my preconceptions about medicine and made me uncomfortable; see what you think. 

I barely knew who Amy Schumer was before reading her memoir, 'Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo', as this was a random read delivered to me by Hello St Mark's whimsical magic. Amy Schumer is a very, very famous comedian, actor, writer, producer, director and social justice warrior (you knew that already), and quite fabulous. She was a joyful child, a happy teenager, miserable in her 20s and brilliantly herself in her 30s—and in this memoir she tells all of it. She's smart and sexy and savvy; very rude, very frank, quite fearless and an incredibly hard worker. It's exhilarating and exhausting spending time with Amy.