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Take a. You. Inside the book. Take a look.
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Hello, and welcome to you This. I'm Francis Kelland and you're listening to the Vision Australia Library Radio Show. We'll be talking about books in the collection. On today's show, we've got quite a variety of books, so sit back and I hope you enjoy the show. Let's start off the show today with a tribute to the late Michael Parkinson, who passed away very recently. I didn't get a sample for this, but we do have his autobiography, Parky in the Library Par Why From prize winning journalist to chat show King on a show voted one of the top ten British TV programs of all time. Michael Parkinson's career spans four decades, over four decades. Now, an international celebrity himself, the man from a humble but colourful Yorkshire mining family who can tease out the secrets of even the most reticent star guest at last reveals his own story. His distinguished career has involved working on highly acclaimed current affairs and film programmes, and his wide interests and expertise include jazz, film, football and cricket. That book is written by him, but it's narrated, not by him. It's narrated by Ian Redford. And there's a couple of books by him as well on sports. There's Michael Parkinson on golf. Again, not narrated by him, but that's Michael Parkinson on Golf and Cricket Crisis. Bodyline and other Lines by Michael Parkinson, again are not narrated by him, so he's very recognisable. Voice won't be in those, but still full of information and full of his warmth and gentle humour. I'm sure our valet, Michael Parkinson, also today is Vietnam Veterans Day. There are a lot of books in the Vision Australia collection written by veterans of the Vietnam War. There's Hugh Lun, Vietnam. A reporter's war is one here called The Tiger Man of Vietnam by Frank Walker, which starts back in 1963. Before Australia's involvement, 28 year old Australian captain Barry Peterson was sent to Vietnam as part of the 30 man Australian training team. And this was two years before the first official Australian troops arrived. Seconded to the CIA, he was sent to the remote Central Highlands to build an anti communist guerrilla force among the indigenous people there. That's Tiger Man of Vietnam by Frank Walker Tears on My Pillow Australian Nurses in Vietnam. And that's by Narelle Bitterman, chronicling the experiences of Australian nurses working in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. There's also another book about the Tiger men. Like any war, the echoes of what happened during that war are still being felt today through the mental health issues often faced by return veterans and coming to terms with how young they were and what they had to go through. There's also Barry Hird and I interviewed him a few years ago about his experiences in Vietnam and he wrote Well done those men, and that's Barry Hird and talks about not only his conscription and life in Vietnam as a soldier, but also what it was like to return from Vietnam to an Australia that wasn't always welcoming of returned soldiers and the post-traumatic stress he experienced a couple of years after he'd returned for a few years, even just cropped up and left him incapacitated and his journey through that. And that's just some of the books that are written by people who returned from Vietnam. And this is August the 18th, Vietnam Veterans Day. Today we have a recommendation from Phyllis in WA. Hello, Phyllis. I hope everything's okay over there. Phyllis would like to recommend maybe the horse will talk. This is by Elliot Pearlman. Phyllis writes, I have just finished listening to Maybe The Horse Will Talk by Elliot Pearlman. It was so terrific. And I think would gender a lot of discussion for a book club. I could never have listened to this book for my nighttime reading as it made me really focus on the story. And Phyllis adds, I'm still wondering about the ending. And Phyllis also wanted to thank the library for sending her so many great books. So in Maybe The Horse Will Talk, Stephen Meserve has problems. A one time teacher married to fellow teacher Eleanor, he is retrained and is now a second year lawyer working at a mega firm freely savage carte blanche. I love that name. Freely savage carte blanche. Despite toiling around the clock to make budget, he's in imminent danger of being downsized. And to make things worse, Eleanor sick of single parenting their two young children, thanks to Stephen's relentless work schedule, has asked him to move out to keep the job he hates, pay the mortgage and salvage his marriage. He will have to do something strikingly daring, something he never thought himself capable of. But if he's not careful, it might be the last job he ever has. Let's hear a sample of Maybe The Horse Will Talk by Elliot Pearlman. It's narrated by David Tredinnick.
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I am absolutely terrified of losing a job I absolutely hate. This realization came to Steven Nazarov when he woke suddenly at around 331 Wednesday morning. He wondered whether any of the other second tier lawyers who also worked at the prestigious commercial law firm Frehley Savage, cut up lunch, felt this way. If they didn't. How was it that he, an English literature major, former high school teacher and now a law graduate, did. In any event, lying there in his rented one bedroom apartment, he found this unspoken articulation of his lose lose predicament, perversely liberating. Among the equity partners of the vast legal empire that was freely savage cutter Blanche. The most feared was Mike Crispin Crispy Hamilton Mercer of had heard the name even before he'd joined the firm. Hamilton set in a corner office so high above the ground that a prolonged and studied stare out of either of the floor to ceiling glass windows would never permit identification by the naked eye of even the species way, way down on the street, let alone its individual members, hurrying to work for what would never, not ever come within a light year of the annual salary. Much less the partnership dividends, much less the private, extra legal entitlements and the trust fund accruals of Hamilton, who sat in the corner office. No more inclined to imagine the lives of the people on the street. Then he was inclined to imagine the inner life of a bat.
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And that was Maybe the Horse Will Talk by Elliott Pearlman. Elliott is spelled Elliott. Elliott. Pearlman is Pearlman. Pearlman. And that book goes for 12 hours. Elliott Pearlman has written quite a few books. We've got about four in the library collection. One was one of the most famous books was The Seven Types of Ambiguity, which was made into an ABC program, a serial program starring the wonderful Hugo Weaving, as well as an outstanding cast of other Australian actors. Seven Types of Ambiguity. He's a writer that has a lot of insight but doesn't very often do the rounds of writers talks or book festivals. But his books are always welcomed by the critics and the public. Thanks once again, Phyllis, for that recommendation. The next novel is Shooting Straight in the Dark. This is by Rick Blackadder. 30 year old Kit Mason has been blind for six years, and she still hasn't accepted what has happened to her. Not only is her career as a songwriter guitarist stalled, but her personal life is the pits. When one of her friends is brutally murdered, Kit and her other friends investigate. Let's hear a sample of Shooting Straight in the Dark by Rick Collector. It's narrated by Harriet Lampert.
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Attractive single white female, five foot seven inches slender, dirty blonde hair, heavily into music, baseball. And what really matters in life needs help with some things. Looking for a regular guy between 30 and 45 who's sensitive, sensible and unattached. Let's arrange to meet and talk. Photo Definitely not necessary. What do we put down for a phone number? I asked. I don't want any of these bozos calling here. After almost an hour of hysterically funny and incredibly ribald ripper tea. My friends had refined the wording of the companion ad to something that made me only slightly uncomfortable. Put it down to too much beer that they talked me into this in the first place. It was Susan who had brought up the subject. She thought that I was spending too much time on my own, brooding about my problems, that I needed to get out more, meet new people. In short, that I needed a steady guy. Everything had started off playfully enough, but now that we'd produced hard copy, the project was rapidly losing whatever meager luster it had held for me. Heavens, Kitt, they're not bozos, Susan corrected. One of them could be Mr. Right. That's no problem, Carolina said, actually answering my question. We'll use the voice mail service the newspaper offers. Anybody whose interests you pique could leave a message. All you have to do is call in and play it back. If you don't like the sound of the guy, erase him. You never have to come into contact with anyone you don't want to.
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So that's shooting Straight in the Dark by Rick Blake. Rick is spelled r i c k. That's our. But Lecter is b l e to be electa. And that book goes for 11 hours. There is another book by Rick Collector in the collection, and it's set also in the music world. But in the world of opera. And Rick Lecter is a musician. He's a Canadian teacher born in 1951, teacher, columnist, musician, also a well known and award winning crime writer. And there's quite a lot of his books out there. But yet we have the two in the collection. Now let's take a bit of a walk on the wild side with this one. It's called Parachute Women, and it's by Elizabeth Winder. So more hip to the times than the rockers themselves. For women in inspired styled, wrote for, remixed, and ultimately helped create The Legend of the Rolling Stones. The four women are Marianne Faithfull, Marsha Hunt, Bianca Jagger, Anita Pallenberg. Let's hear a sample of Parachute Women by Elizabeth Winder. It's narrated by Angela Rocca. And in this sample, the Stones get to meet the amazing Anita Pallenberg.
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September 14th, 1965. Munich. You could tell she was different from the other stones groupies in her beige fur jacket, skintight sweater and Ozzy Clark Mini. She looked nothing like Carnaby Street's trendy dolly birds with their knee socks and babydoll dresses. Their saucer stares of white liner, gobs of mascara and strips of glorying. Everything about her suggested experience from her hard to place accent to the gladiator sandals she'd had handmade in Rome. She was overtly sensual, sexual even, but exuded an almost masculine energy. Even Mick was intimidated by this German Italian actress who pounced backstage with the stealth of a cat. Was she just another fan girl or Jack the Ripper in disguise? She hovered in the door of the dressing room. Her gaze sharp, her smile cocky, revealing flashes of fang like teeth. She dug around in her pockets for a vial of amyl nitrate. Man to smoke a joint. Mick and Keith eyed her suspiciously. They never done drugs before. The only coke they had was mixed with rum.
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And that was a sample of Parachute Women by Elizabeth Winder. Elizabeth is pleased about Elisabet. H w. I. N d e. R w. I and e r. And that book goes for eight hours. I'm looking here at the Hachette publishing website and they say it's lush in detail and insight and long overdue. Parachute Women is a group portrait of the four audacious women who transformed the Stones into international stars but who were themselves marginalized by the male dominated rock world of the late 60s and early 70s. It's a story of lust and rivalries, friendships and betrayals, hope and degradation and the birth of rock and roll. And that's a new addition to the library as well. Parachute Women and does come with a warning of language, sex and drug use. Now to another new release in the library. And this one is a lot different. The title is Toffee Apples and Quail Feathers by Jennifer Wirth following the death of her beloved mother, Jennifer Worth, in 2011. Susanna Worth discovered amongst her manuscripts a folder simply labeled fifth Book. Imagine her excitement when she sat down to read and her mother's distinctive voice came flooding back. She found herself once again, immersed in the world of the 1950s East End London. The voices of much loved, familiar characters spoke loud and clear, particularly that of Fred, the Boiler man who features extensively in this joyful collection from Fred and Maisie's romance to Fred's little earners, including boat tours on the Thames, a fledgling singing career, and raising pigs on the allotment. These new stories are as heartwarming and funny as the originals, published here for the first time and accompanied by a selection of Susanna's favorite chapters from the original memoirs featuring Chummy and Sister Monica. Joan. This is a very special edition to the Call The Midwife family. Let's hear a sample of toffee apples and quail Feathers by Jennifer Worth. It's narrated by Charlotte Stevens.
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A convent is essentially a female establishment. However, of necessity, the male of the species cannot be excluded entirely. Fred was the boiler man and odd jobber of Nonnatus house. He was typical of the Cockney of his day and age stunted growth, short bowed legs, powerful, hairy arms, pugnacious, obstinate, resourceful. All these attributes were combined with endless chat and irrepressible good humour. His most striking characteristic was a spectacular squint. One eye was permanently directed north, whilst the other roved in a southwesterly direction. If you add to this the single yellow tooth jutting from his upper jaw, which he generally held over his lower lip and sucked, you would not say he was a beautiful specimen of manhood. However, so delightful was his optimism, good humour and artless self confidence that the sisters held him in great affection and leaned on him heavily for all practical matters. Sister Julienne had a particularly strong line in helpless feminine appeal. Oh, Fred.
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The window in.
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The upper bathroom won't close. I've tried and tried, but it's no use. Do you think if you can find time, that is.
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And that was toffee apples and quail feathers by Jennifer Worth. Jennifer is g double n i. F. E. R g double n. If e r worth is w o r t h w o r t h. And that book goes for 6.5 hours. It's considered part five in the Call The Midwife series and all of the other books from the beginning are available in the library to borrow. If you'd like to start with, call the Midwife. The next book is by Sarah Weinman. It was published in 2011, and it's called When God Was a Rabbit, 1968, The Year Paris Takes to the Streets, the year Martin Luther King loses his life for a dream. The year Eleanor Maud Portman is born, young, Ellie's world is shaped by those who inhabit it. Her loving but maddeningly distractible parents, a best friend who smells of chips and knows exotic words like slag, an aging fop who tap dances his way into her home, a Shirley Bassey impersonator who trails close behind. Lastly, of course, a rabbit called God in a childhood peppered with moments both ordinary and extraordinary. Ellie's one constant is her brother Joe. 20 years on, Ellie and Joe are fully grown and as close as they ever were. Until that is one bright morning when a single earth shattering event threatens to destroy their bond forever spanning four decades and moving between suburban Essex, the wild coast of Cornwall and the streets of New York. This is a story about childhood eccentricity, the darker side of love and sex, the pool and power of family ties, loss and life. More than anything, it's a story about love in all its forms. Laodicea A sample of When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Weinman. It's narrated by Rachel Atkins.
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1968. I decided to enter this world just as my mother got off the bus after an unproductive shopping trip to Ilford. She'd gone to change a pair of trousers and distracted by my shifting position, found it impossible to choose between patched denims or velvet flares, and fearful that my place of birth would be a department store, she made a staggered journey back to the safe confines of her postcode, where her waters broke just as the heavens opened. And during the 70 yard walk back down to our house, her amniotic fluid mixed with the December rain and spiraled down the gutter until the cycle of life was momentous and, one might say poetically complete. I was delivered by an off duty nurse in my parents bedroom on an eiderdown that had been won in a raffle, and after a swift labour of 22 minutes my head appeared and the nurse shouted, Push on. My father shouted, Push! And my mother pushed and I slipped out effortlessly into that fabled year, the year Paris took to the streets, the year of the Tet Offensive, the year Martin Luther King lost his life for a dream. For months I lived in a quiet world of a filled need, cherished and doted on until the day that is my mother's milk dried up to make way for the flood of grief that suddenly engulfed her when she learnt her parents had died on a walking holiday in Austria.
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That was when God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Wineman. Sarah is srh. SRH wingman is w i n m a n w i n m a n. And that book goes for 8.5 hours when God Was a Rabbit won various awards, including New Writer of the Year in the Galaxy National Book Awards and was one of the books chosen by Richard and Judy, that famous English book club people in their 2011 Summer Book Club. It won the Waterstones Award in 2011. The Times called it a gloriously off beat book. Women's narrative voice is beautifully true with a child's unsentimental clarity, a superb debut. And then The Daily Mail called it beguiling. You can't quite get the voice out of your head. And there is also still Life by Sarah Wineman in the library set in Italy during a Second World War. There's some good news for the Braille readers in the library. You can get a list of the books that are available in Braille. And I'm just looking at the list here. The latest one, Cooking Food and Wine by Liz Heartful. It's in four volumes bringing together and Liz Harford brings together 70 tried and true recipes. Mystery and thrillers include The Furies by John Connelly in three volumes of Braille Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs, part of the Temperance Brennan series. That's in six volumes. Also, Lee Child no plan B in five volumes Science Fiction and Fantasy. There's fairy tale by Stephen King that was released last year. So that's in the library in Braille. There is a ceremony by Adam good sets for children and wonderful Adam Goodes that's ceremony somebody's land also by Adam Goodes. There's books by John Grisham and this is for teens Young Adults, The Accused by John Grisham in three volumes, the activist by John Grisham. Also three volumes. If you need any assistance in downloading that list or finding out more about Braille, it's added to the collection, including any requests you have to be added. You can call the library. The the library has 8000 plus Braille and Braille titles. And the magazine list has been growing amazingly over the past couple of years. So you can subscribe to these under subscriptions, to these magazines. The ABC and SBS audio described programs, ABC Organic Gardener Magazine, Art Almanac, which is a monthly Daisy Magazine, Australia Men's Fitness, Australian Football Weekly, Australian Geographic, which we've had for a long time. And there's really niche magazines as well as Australian Model Railway magazine. There's the BBC, History magazine. So some of these are monthly, some are weekly. And again, you can call the library choice, which we've always had. Cosmopolitan comes out monthly. Delicious is another one by monthly, a diabetic Living Australia bi monthly. So as you can see, we may have noticed I'm running through the alphabetical list of magazine that magazines that are available in the library now. Um, so there's just so many now. I'm amazed. I think I remember the days when there was only about 20 to list, so please call the library if you're interested in getting some magazines as part of your subscription. They don't count as loans. You can have up to 20 books on loan at a time, but with magazines and podcasts, you can have as many as you want. They don't count as part of that. 20. Thank you so much for joining us on here this today. Thank you to Phyllis for your reader recommended and if you would like to join the library the number to call is one (300) 654-6566 1300 654 656. Or you can email a library at Vision Australia. Org that's library at Vision Australia. Org. Also, any requests that you might have, you can always email or call the library any recommendations of books that you've really enjoyed. As you can see with Phyllis today, just, you know, discover, rediscovering rather the wonderful author, Elliot Pearlman. And even if you think, oh gee, look, people will know this book and they will have loved it anyway and somebody would have mentioned it. Never assume always just put forward your recommendations for things that you've enjoyed reading. And remember, there are other really interesting parts of the library. There's the Biblio therapy podcasts and that's wellbeing through stories. Those podcasts are called. This has been added to the library collection. It was produced by Vision Australia Library in collaboration with Dr. Susan McLean, an international leader in practice of bibliography. It's a practice of using texts to support wellbeing. They're all available up there, but I'm actually just reading here you can't actually subscribe to them, so you'll need to contact the library and get them to put them onto your bookshelf. That's the Biblio Therapy podcasts. Another bit of news with the library. The Young People focus group and invitation has been sent out to the active library members aged 12 to 17, inviting them to apply to join the new library Young People Focus Group. But if you are interested, you can go online and check that out. But that's all I have time for. I do hope you have a lovely week and we'll be back next week with more here this. You.
