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Chloe Townson
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Chloe Townson
Bookish Words from Suzy Wilson

Elsie's Book Club

From Rebecca Sparrow’s Facebook Post (Thank you Bec!):

I want to tell you a story.

Let me warn you though -- this story is desperately sad.

But it's also a story that is full of hope and love and light.

It's a story about a mum called Kate and a baby called Elsie who died in August. And about the power of stories and healing and connection. And hope. And reading.

I hope you're still reading. And if you're up to it -- I hope you'll stay with me.

This year, Kate, who is a 31yo primary school teacher from Morningside, fell pregnant with her first baby.

When Kate fell pregnant she was ALL IN.

She played music to her tummy and Elsie kicked and kicked. And she also read stories.

"I read to my tummy while I was pregnant and it was one of the things I was most looking forward to as a mum - reading stories to my baby."

Beautiful Elsie was born this past August at 39 weeks. Kate was elated but whilst they were in hospital Elsie suddenly became very very sick. She was taken to NICU (neonatal intensive care unit).

Kate told me, "They took me into theatre at the same time to remove retained placenta as I started to feel unwell but I thought it was my heart breaking. I also had a postpartum haemorrhage and received many blood transfusions.

"I was wheeled down to NICU disoriented and broken. There were teams of people around Elsie all the time but when I was wheeled close to her I leaned over and said, 'Mummy is here. I love you darling girl' and she lifted her arm! I know she responded to my voice."

Devastatingly, Elsie passed away the next day -- just seven days after she'd been born.

I'm not sure how you describe the feelings of any parent who has suddenly lost a child. Devastated doesn't seem big enough a word to cover the vast, all encompassing pain and darkness which descends upon you. Your heart shatters into a million little pieces. It as though your soul is ripped like cloth.

Kate in the midst of her raw grief and pain is determined to honour Elsie and make her life and her death mean something.

She has launched a BEAUTIFUL initiative in Elsie's name - ELSIE'S BOOK CLUB - whereby she donates children's picture books to Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Units.

"After being in my tummy for 9 months all Elsie knew was my love and the sound of my voice - so I think reading is a powerful thing to do when you feel helpless."

Kate explained to me that premature babies and babies born full term that become unwell, have complex medical needs. So parents may not be able to hold their baby for days or even weeks.

Her hope is that she can gift a children's book to these families so they can read stories to their babies. And it can bring a bit of normalcy to what is an extraordinarily stressful and distressing time.

The book is donated in Elsie's name and it can be read over and over to the baby during their NICU stay and taken home as a special book to keep and remember. It can also be taken home by those parents who leave the hospital with empty arms who are trying to survive inconceivable pain.

I can tell you, as a mother who left a hospital with empty arms myself -- I wish more than anything that I'd read a book to Georgie. We were given just a few hours with her and I cuddled her and sang to her and spoke to her but looking back I wish I'd thought to read her a story. It would be a memory that I would cherish.

So I think this initiative by Kate and Elsie is really, really special and healing. And I'm so glad Elsie is weaving her magic and using her life to bring meaning and peace to other parents and babies.

This is where all of you come in.

Kate has partnered with Riverbend Books and she is hoping that people will choose a picture book for Elsie's Book Club. The picture book will be donated to the NICU in Elsie's name.

Choose one of the books on the special page created by Riverbend OR you can ask them to order a particular picture book in.

******* The most important thing is when you get to DELIVERY OPTIONS: select PICK-UP ELSIE'S BOOKS - NICU DONATION -- that way you won't be charged for delivery. Kate will head into the bookstore to collect all the donated books. She then adds a little card about Elsie and takes them to the Hospital NICU.

This Christmas there are parents who are sitting in NICU unable to cuddle and kiss their babies. And there are parents who are in shock having lost their babies. This is a nightmare at any time but especially brutal at Christmas.

I am really hoping you will join me in donating a picture book this Christmas to honour Elsie and her short but powerful life.

I also love that we're supporting an independent bookstore -- as we want our kids to grow up in a world where there are still physical bookstores!

Search for a children's book here and lets help Elsie shine her beautiful, brilliant light:

Vote for your Favourite Book and Win!

Vote for your favourite book of 2022 and go in the draw to win a $100 Riverbend Voucher

Suzy Recommends...

THE SUN WALKS DOWN

BY FIONA MCFARLANE

Denny, a six-year-old boy, is missing in the harsh South Australian desert. His parents (a hard of hearing mother and stockman father), his many sisters and the rest of their small, fictional town of Fairly are all involved in the search, whether it be on horseback, on foot or by proxy.

The novel presents a cast of characters, fleshed out and familiar. Even though there are many points of view from which this story is told, McFarlane brings each and every one of her characters to life. Among them, we have two young newlyweds, a First Nations man who is a force with a cricket ball, a vicar who is a bit of a mess, a Swedish painter and his British wife, a German sex worker, a sergeant who wants to write, and a teenage girl who knows better than everyone else. Their stories are cleverly, almost poetically, interwoven and contain some perspectives that are often omitted from the Australian colonial narrative. 

Then there is the sun – a character in its own right – symbolic of gods, of life, death and art.

In The Sun Walks Down, Fiona McFarlane doesn’t just describe the landscape of 1880s rural, colonial Australia, she slices it open and dissects it. The effect is visceral. 

The author makes it glaringly obvious that no coloniser has full understanding or ownership of this land. McFarlane should be celebrated for this book; it is excellent.

ALL THAT’S LEFT UNSAID

BY TRACEY LIEN

This is a page turning story about a part of Australia’s recent history that I don’t think we have heard before. 

In a Vietnamese immigrant community in Cabramatta, a woman investigates her teenage brother's murder.

The troubles in 1990s Cabramatta are many. The North and South Vietnamese people who came to the area as refugees after the war are deeply marked by the horrors they experienced, and they are inflicting their damage on the first-generation Australians who are their children. Lien's debut covers the specific operation of generational trauma with nuance and insight. The psychological predicament of the families she writes about is exacerbated by Cabramatta's heroin epidemic and institutionalized anti-Asian racism among the "blondies" of White Australia. Between these two factors, when 17-year-old Denny Tran (who is a studious and highly intelligent boy)  is beaten to death after Cabramatta High School's senior formal, the police show little interest in finding the murderer. Denny must have been a junkie or in a gang, they assume. And since everyone who was at the popular banquet hall where it happened - including the boy's best friends and one of his teachers - claim to have seen nothing, there's no reason for them to think otherwise. His older sister, Ky, returns from her newspaper job in Melbourne to attend the funeral and ends up staying on in shock and outrage to find the truth of what happened. 

This fictional tragedy is also part murder mystery. It is written  with such clarity and specificity that it will linger in your memory as if it really happened.

Reminded me of Helen Garner’s Joe CInque’s Consolation

LESSONS

BY IAN MCEWAN

Embracing the years from the Blitz to Brexit, McEwan’s latest finds Roland Baines, a single father,  who scrapes out a living as a lounge pianist and sometime journalist, worrying about his infant son, Lawrence. 

When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. Two thousand miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade.

Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life.

Haunted by lost opportunities, Roland seeks solace through every possible means—music, literature, friends, sex, politics, and, finally, love cut tragically short, then love ultimately redeemed. His journey raises important questions for us all. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without causing damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past?

Epic, mesmerizing, and deeply humane, Lessons is a chronicle for our times—a powerful meditation on history and humanity through the prism of one man's lifetime.”

LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY

BY BONNIE GARMUS

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.

But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.

Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.

A WALK IN THE DARK

BY JANE GODWIN

Five teenagers are on a night walk in the Otway Ranges. With no adults supervising, this is their chance to prove their capabilities to themselves. After all, as their principal says, it’s just a walk in the dark, what’s there to worry about? As it turns out, rather a lot.

On top of unexpected storms and unpleasant strangers, the teens each have their own separate battles to fight.

Like all the best wilderness survival stories, A Walk in the Dark is a book where the protagonists emerge from the wild as changed people. As the reader, you follow them through life-and-death situations, cheering their personal growth as much as you’re cheering for their survival. 
Fantastically tense in places, A Walk in the Dark is a great read for all kids ages 11+.

Chloe's Christmas Challenge

Sometime in August, I challenged myself to read a book a week up to Christmas. Why? So that I can be confident in my recommendations — and because the sheer number of new books I’m excited for this year far exceeds previous years.

So far, I have not been disappointed.

What I have Read So Far:

A Taste of Iron and Gold

by Alexandra Rowland

For anyone who loves A Taste of Iron and Gold I would also recommend A Strange and Stubborn Endurance and vice versa. If you’re looking for some fun, something light with some high emotional stakes but ultimate good-feels, then this is for you. The characters are complex and lovable and the world is easy to slip into — think medieval fantasy with modern sentiments.

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance

by Foz Meadows

Foz Meadows is an Australian author to watch. A Strange and Stubborn Endurance was a delight to read, and again is for those wanting something fun and frivolous to escape reality. The political intrigue and action will have you turning the pages faster than you want to, and keeping you awake until the godforsaken hours of the morning to finish it.

Wolfsong

by TJ Klune

Alright so apparently I was in the mood for romance? Wolfsong is a re-release from TJ Klune who shot to fame with his House on the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door. Think … the werewolves from Twilight but better.

Of course, Wolfsong isn’t JUST romance. It wouldn’t be a TJ Klune without some wholesome found-family and character growth — a plot driven by character as well as by plot. Don’t be put off by the size. This won’t take you long to devour.

Star Eater

by Kerstin Hall

Star Eater is perfect for anyone 16+. I took a break from romance for a second with this one; this is a world unlike any I’ve read in fantasy before. There’s a little of the ‘chosen one’ trope with a heavy dose of reluctant heroism. Think witches and sisterhoods, strong women and feisty men. There’s magic and politics and adventure, with a few twists and turns along the way.

moon sugar

by Angela Meyer

Angela Meyer is a genius. I read A Superior Spectre when it was first released and could not wait to get my hands on Moon Sugar.

Moon Sugar is for those who prefer a little magical realism with their literary fiction; there’s a mystery that our main characters are trying to solve, two people who are an unlikely pairing but who compliment each other in ways they hadn’t expected.

Read our interview with Angela Meyer here.

A Dowry of Blood

by S.T. Gibson

A Dowry of Blood is Dracula, written from the point of view of one of his wives. It does not touch upon Dracula’s story as we know it, but instead what came before and what came after. Short, quick, very easy to read. A little bit sexy — but this is no romance, not really. It’s about loss of agency and the slow journey to reclamation. It’s a love story to female independence, to breaking free from emotionally abusive relationships.

THE ATLAS PARADOX

by Olivie Blake

This is the anticipated follow on from The Atlas Six — dark academia with some time travel and plenty of intrigue. I think what I like most about these books are the rapport between the characters, of which there are many. The Atlas Paradox explores these relationships in greater depth while also developing character arcs so that the reader cares more for the characters than they did before.

THE BRANDED

by Jo Riccioni

The Branded has a Mad Max feel to it, but with less graphic violence, more greenery, and a bit of Celtic-sque magic thrown in for good measure. A perfect morsel for fantasy fans who love adventure and plot over romance; there’s a hint of romance, sure, but it doesn’t commandeer or control the plot. This was one of my favourites this year. Plus, the cover is so pretty!

What I’m Currently Reading:

To Finish Before Christmas:

Ten Minutes with Diana Reid...

 Do you have any writing rituals?

It’s not really a ritual, more addiction-management, but I am quite particular about my internet access. I try not to write in the same room as my phone (and always turn it on Do Not Disturb). I also use an app on my laptop that blocks the internet, ironically called ‘Self Control’.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

 Both! I dispute that it’s binary! Once I’ve got the core idea, I like to write as many scenarios as I can think of so I can work out who the characters are and how they behave. Then I go back and delete a lot of those scenes and start to build a plot out of the ones that survive the cull. 

How do you feel about the book now it’s out of your hands?

 It’s such a relief. And it’s very special when people start reading it and these characters, who have been real to you for so many months during the drafting process, now exist in other peoples’ imaginations too.

 As you were writing, who did you have in mind as the ideal reader?

 It sounds counterintuitive but when I’m drafting I try to trick myself into thinking that nobody will ever read it. That way I don’t second-guess myself. But I suppose my ideal reader is someone who will take the book on its own terms; someone open-minded and curious enough to work out what you are trying to say and whether you’ve said it in a way that resonates—not someone looking for a prop or an accessory to their own intellect. 

 If Seeing Other People was made into a movie, who would you see playing the main characters?

 A girl can dream! I’m not sure about all three of the main characters but Angourie Rice is an Australian actress I’ve admired for a long time, especially for her comic timing. I can see her as Eleanor. 

  What is your number one rule for writing?

 Just do it! At the first instance, it doesn’t matter whether it’s good or not—you just have to turn up to the desk and put some words on the page. 

 What element of your writing brings out the grammar police in your editor?

 I’m extremely liberal with commas.

 Do you have a favourite writing place?

 I’m pretty flexible but my local café Veneziano in Surry Hills has a lovely communal table and they’re very chill about people sitting for several hours over the same empty cup of coffee. 

 Are you reading anything at the moment?

 I just read The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst and was floored by it.

 What are you working on next?

 I’m working on another novel for Ultimo Press.

Ten Minutes with Fiona McFarlane

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

I am somewhere in between a plotter and a pantser. I have learnt my lesson that I can’t be entirely a plotter because then I would never write a book, I would just plot and plot and plot. I definitely reach a point in the book where I need to step back and start doing some plotting. So I’ve sort of pantsed the opening, and then I begin to plot and it becomes a combination of the two as I finish.

Do you have a favourite place to write?

I don’t think I do. I think I have spent so much time writing about Australia from overseas that it’s almost like I create this little Australia overseas when I’m writing so it’s sort of… writing becomes it’s own space. Anywhere that’s quiet and solitary suits me. I don’t like writing in cafes and things like that, I find it too distracting. So wherever I have a table or desk set up and time to write away from my job.

What is your number one rule for writing?

I teach creative writing so this is the kind of thing we talk about a lot. If there’s a rule that means you write then follow it, and if there’s a rule that means you don’t write, don’t follow it. Writing advice is only helpful if it means you actually sit down and write.

Do you know what you’re working on next?

I’m working on a collection of linked short stories around an Australian serial killer, so it’s quite different to this one!

Are you reading anything at the moment?

Right now I’m reading Charles Dickens! I’m reading Bleak House right now, partly because it’s a very long audio book and I’m on the plane a lot this week, so I thought ‘what’s a book that’s going to keep me occupied?’ And it was Bleak House. And it’s very enjoyable! But I also have just re-read Lauren Groff’s Matrix, because she is coming to visit the university that I teach at next week, so I have just re-read most of her stuff to prepare for that.

Riverbend Bookclub Reads - October

RIVERBEND READERS + KNITS & NOVELS

THE EULOGY

by Jackie Bailey

It’s winter in Logan, south-east Queensland, and still warm enough to sleep in a car at night if you have nowhere else to go. But Kathy can’t sleep. Her husband is on her blocked caller list and she’s running from a kidnapping charge, a Tupperware container of 300 sleeping pills in her glovebox. She has driven from Sydney to plan a funeral with her five surviving siblings (most of whom she hardly speaks to) because their sister Annie is finally, blessedly, inconceivably dead from the brain tumour she was diagnosed with twenty-five years ago, the year everything changed.

Kathy wonders – she has always wondered – did Annie get sick to protect her? And if so, from what?

In writing Annie’s eulogy, Kathy attempts to understand the tangled story of the Bradley family: from their mother’s childhood during the Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War Two and their father’s experiences in the Malayan conflict and the Vietnam War, to Annie’s cancer and disability, and the events that have shaped the person that Kathy is today. Ultimately, Kathy needs Annie to help her decide whether she will allow herself to love and be loved.

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

BABEL

by R.F. KUANG

 Oxford, 1836.

The city of dreaming spires.

It is the centre of all knowledge and progress in the world.

And at its centre is Babel, the Royal Institute of Translation. The tower from which all the power of the Empire flows.

Orphaned in Canton and brought to England by a mysterious guardian, Babel seemed like paradise to Robin Swift.

Until it became a prison…

But can a student stand against an empire?

An incendiary new novel from award-winning author R.F. Kuang about the power of language, the violence of colonialism, and the sacrifices of resistance.

THE TEACHER LIBRARIAN BOOKCLUB

PICTURE BOOK

TWO DOGS

by Ian Falconer

Dachshund brothers Perry and Augie are home alone and desperately want to get outside and have a good time. Augie is the cautious one, the worrier; Perry is pure joy and excitement. When they finally manage to open the back door, mischievous adventures begin! Soon they're diving into the swimming pool, digging an enormous hole, and more! Will all return to normal before their owners come home?

This witty and utterly heartwarming story plays perfectly off the exquisite illustrations. These are Ian Falconer's first all-new characters since Olivia, and Two Dogs is sure to equally capture the hearts of readers everywhere.

Perfect for fans of imaginative dog books like Bark, George and A Ball for Daisy!

JUNIOR FICTION BOOK

HOW TO BE… THE NEW PERSON

by Anna Bradford

Delightful and insightful story from the author of the Violet Mackerel series Hazel Morrison has a secret habit – pretending to make videos about everyday things. Eight important tips for successfully buttering toast! Putting your hair in a ponytail: a step-by-step guide! But when her family move to the outer suburbs, Hazel has to cope with starting at a new school where she doesn’t exactly feel welcomed. A school project inspires her to create a real video – a how-to guide for being “the new person” . . . because everyone, sometime, will meet one, or be one!

MIDDLE FICTION BOOK

A WALK IN THE DARK

by Jane Godwin

A gripping and suspenseful rite-of-passage novel about five teenagers and one night that will change them all, from award-winning author Jane Godwin. 'It's just a walk in the dark. What is there to worry about?' That's what the head teacher, Johan, says. And so the Year Nines from Otway Community School set out on an overnight hike, with no adults. But doesn't Johan know that a storm is coming? When five teenagers head in to the forest that late afternoon, none of them is aware what the night will bring. Each will have to draw on their particular strengths to survive. Each will have to face the unknown, battling the elements, events beyond their control, and their own demons. It's a night that will change everything. Set in the lush rainforest of Victoria's Otway Ranges, A Walk in the Dark is about friendship, trust, identity and family, consent and boundaries, wrapped in a compulsively readable, suspense-filled adventure. Five head into the forest, but will all five make it out?

Staff Review - The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding by Holly Ringland

by Jessie Kinivan

It has been a year since Esther Wilding’s sister Aura was last seen, walking towards the sea. In an attempt to make sense of her sister’s life, Esther travels from lutruwita, Tasmania to Copenhagen and then the Faroe Islands, following a trail of stories Aura left behind; seven stories of swans and seals, loss, violence and the strength of women, told through cryptic verses Aura had tattooed on her body.

 

Rich in fairy tales and folklore, the stories of the women in this book will certainly get under your skin. Holly manages to weave magic into her descriptions of nature, with gorgeously lush imagery of the sea, and of the Tasmanian and Faroese landscapes. Esther holds grief, joy and discovery within her at all times and you know you are in safe hands with Holly when it comes to leaning into the fullness of emotion. It is about finding the courage to heal as well as to live with the wounds that stay with us forever.

 

Fans of The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert or The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams will love this novel about sisterly bonds, fairy tales and forgiveness.

 

I have the most colourful soundtrack running through my head after reading this and immediately started planning an ‘80s party (you’re all invited!). 

Ten Minutes with Angela Meyer...

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

A little of both. I don’t start a novel project until I have a decent idea of the character motivations and where the story might be going. As I write, I think a few steps ahead, though I often don’t know how it will end until I’m halfway through. I tidy up the foreshadowing and other plot elements on the second draft.

How do you feel about the book now it’s out of your hands?

Like it’s a bit miraculous it even exists. The past few years have been a blur – the pandemic and the lockdowns, of course, but also family care, a whole lot of work and deadlines… I’m proud of Moon Sugar; I think I allowed myself to play in a way that was a bit scary. It’s possible the book may date, but if it captures the moment it certainly has been an interesting moment to catch. And books that ‘date’ can still become a part of some readers’ nostalgic landscape.

As you were writing, who did you have in mind as the ideal reader?

The ideal reader for Moon Sugar is probably in the range of the age of the characters – 20s to 40s – any gender, and I hope it will be enjoyed by queer readers. When I was writing, I was thinking about growing up in a very specific age (or two very specific, close together generations, and the similarities and differences between them). That said, some people outside those demographics have got in touch with me and said they really enjoyed it!

If Moon Sugar was made into a movie, who would you see playing the main characters?

This is such a fun question and not one I’ve put much thought to yet, other than that Josh could be Timothee Chalamet? Kyle could perhaps be played by Alberto Rosende. It would really suit Mia as a character if she was played by someone who had been underrated so far, but who could shine in the role. Of course, they should probably all be Australian, if this was a real fantasy… (Could Chalamet do an Aussie accent?)

Are you reading anything at the moment?

Very much enjoying Claire G. Coleman’s latest literary sci-fi, Enclave.

Ten Minutes with Sophie Cunningham

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

I’m a bit of both. A plotter and a pantser. I plot, and then the plot doesn’t work out and I end up pantsing it.

 

Do you have any writing rituals?

No. I tend to write obsessively for several weeks and just get behind on all my work. Or then I ignore the whole thing for a while. So the opposite of ritual, really.

 

How do you feel about the book now that it’s out of your hands?

Relieved.

 

What is your number one rule for writing?

I really want to connect with readers. And I want it to feel real. By real I mean sincere or true – I don’t mean that everything that happened in it is true, but I want it to feel real.

 

Do you have a favourite place to write?

In bed. With pillows behind me.

 

Are you reading anything at the moment?

I have just bought Peggy Frew’s Wildlowers, which I have not started yet but am very keen to get to.

THIS DEVASTATING FEVER

By Sophie Cunningham

Alice had not expected to spend most of the twenty-first century writing about Leonard Woolf. When she stood on Morell Bridge watching fireworks explode from the rooftops of Melbourne at the start of a new millennium, she had only two thoughts. One was: the fireworks are better in Sydney. The other was: is Y2K going to be a thing? Y2K was not a thing. But there were worse disasters to come: Environmental collapse. The return of fascism. Wars. A sexual reckoning. A plague.

Uncertain of what to do she picks up an unfinished project and finds herself trapped with the ghosts of writers past. What began as a novel about a member of the Bloomsbury Set, colonial administrator, publisher and husband of one the most famous English writers of the last hundred years becomes something else altogether.

Why I Love My Bookshop

by Chloe Townson

August, 2012

Ten years ago, I submitted my sixth resume to Riverbend Books. At the time I was working a couple of other jobs as well as studying Writing, Editing, and Publishing at the University of Queensland. I’ve always been a reader; I’d completed a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and had written a fifteen thousand word Honours thesis on the importance of Fairy Tale — for children and adults alike.

I did not know then just how important books were to me or just how passionate I would become about the industry. Back then, all I knew was that I’d come from North Queensland where bookstores were scarce, and I’d moved to Brisbane and discovered Riverbend Books. Before I’d even thought to apply for the job, the bookstore had become my second home. Following the advice of my father, I persisted. Every year, I handed in another resume. Eventually my persistence paid off.

As a customer, I discovered what a real bookshop should be. I knew which staff members read the same kind of books I did. I knew which staff members to ask for recommendations. Every time I asked for recommendations I could trust that the book given to me was one that I would like, and the staff were always happy to help. I knew that these people loved their job. And I came to understand that my applications were unsuccessful because none of them wanted to leave their job.

Now, I know what it feels like to be on the other side of the counter; I understand the pressure of handing someone a book and hoping that they love it. There is an art form to it, I think — to know the exact questions to ask in order to understand a reader’s tastes in order to offer suggestions on what they ought to read next. Sometimes I forget what a privilege it is. This is my job. I get to talk to people about books all day.

At least, that’s how it started. Ten years ago, I was purely customer service. Within those ten years I have learned every nook and cranny of what it means to run a bookshop; the stress of knowing what books to order and how many, the physical exercise of unpacking the books that have been ordered and finding somewhere to shelve them, the grief when those books do not sell and need to be returned to the supplier.

Not only am I surrounded by books on a daily basis, I am surrounded by like minds. The people I work with are — as cliche as it sounds — like family. They are now some of my closest and dearest friends. I can’t wait for conferences, or for roadshows and other bookseller gatherings because my little introverted soul appears to have zero issue spending time in a room full of people if those people are also booksellers.

It’s not only my coworkers that I have come to love. In my ten years at Riverbend I have met plenty of customers that I have come to call friends, too. When they walk through the doors I can immediately put my hand on a new release I think they’ll like.

In the ten years that I have worked for Riverbend Books, I have developed a passion for books and for independent bookstores that I never knew I had. Why do I love my bookshop? Because it is like home to me. Because there’s not one morning that I wake up and complain about having to come to work. Because this is my life, and will always be my life — whether here or somewhere else in the industry, I will always be a champion of independent bookstores and the people who devote their time and care to making those bookstores as warm and welcoming as they can be.

Why do you love your bookshop?

Fill out the form below and be featured on the Riverbend Blog on October 8th — Love Your Bookshop Day! (If you’d like to include a photo, please email a copy to accounts@riverbendbooks.com.au with your name and the title of your entry).

Ten Minutes with Karen Martini

Do you have any processes or habits leading up to writing a cookbook?

I do. When I’m writing a cookbook I tend to – when I’m thinking about writing a cookbook – there’s a lot of scribbling and notes on pretty much anything I can get my hands on. Sometimes I have a little book on me, sometimes it’s the back of a bill – usually it’s about key ingredients I’m using in a dish for a creativity point of view or it’s about ‘this must go in’ these recipes, or it might even just be a bullet point of ‘got to cover a kitchen essentials’. For instance, it dawned on me that we needed a more expansive thought process around a glossary, that there needed to be a key. 

Essentially, with this particular book, it was a cook’s brain dump. Like I literally wrote and wrote and wrote and I had someone help me compile into chapters that a sensible organised person would then utilise to cook.

 

Talking about ingredients, what is your all time favourite ingredient to use?

Fennel. Fennel seed, fennel flour, fennel pollen. Fennel, when it’s in season, is great – it’s sweeter, it’s plump, it’s juicy, it’s great roasted, it’s very lovely raw. There is a story about fresh fennel as a kid - I didn’t really realise what the fennel was. I just thought it was this anise-y flavoured water with chunks of white crunchy vegetable on the table and I didn’t realise that everyone else didn’t eat it. And we all used to drink the water as well from the fennel.

 

This might be a little like asking who your favourite child is – what is your favourite recipe from this cookbook?

My favourite child is always the one sitting on my knee – and my favoruite recipe is whatever I’m feeling like eating. I’m driven by my curiosity and I’m eager to learn all the time but it’s usually my hunger. So it’s whatever I’m feeling like at the time. Quite often when I’m travelling it’ll be the broths and stocks with simple noodles or poached chicken or something quite soothing because I get a bit of travel sickness sometimes. That is quite often what I love, and I love that chapter of the book because it really extends people if they haven’t made their own stock before. Even though there are a lot on sale these days I think it’s a great place to start, and to understand the fundamental flavours.

 

What is your favourite meal of the day?

Dinner. Cheeky lunch is great too, but I think by the time I get organised – quite often my husband will say to me ‘let’s just throw one thing on the barbecue and maybe have a salad’ and by the time I’m finished we’ve got – by the time it’s the end of the day, if I’m committed and I’m not working – there is whatever’s going on the barbecue but it might have been the chicken that’s been marinaded, and then there’s a separate sauce that goes with it, and then there might be some peppers that have been grilled that get dressed as well and then it becomes an elaborate meal to share, if you like. Very convivial.

 

What’s your favourite cooking hack?

Actually it’s one I saw just recently – it was on Instagram or TikTok, but I haven’t tried it yet so I don’t know if it works!

The other one I saw that I will be doing from now on to peel potatoes – because when you boil a potato and it’s really hot, especially a larger one, it’s really hard to peel all the skin for a great potato salad. But if you score the potato evenly all the way around quite deeply, then boil them – once they’re boiled you can literally just pull the two ends off the potato, and you don’t end up with little bits of starchy skin all over you.

The other hack – the one that I saw that I haven’t tried yet – was again peeling something. Being able to peel a tomato without blanching it and it was one of those supermarket tomatoes, quite hard. Where you get a chopstick and you rub either side of the edge of the tomato, and then turn it over and poke the chopstick through the middle, and the skin just slips off.

The potato one is definitely one I do.

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Staff Review - Cautionary Tales for Excitable Girls

by Jessie Kinivan

A new mother escapes into a dream world; two young girls steal a baby; friends reunite years after a terrible event; a camping trip goes horribly wrong…

The stories in Anne Casey-Hardy’s debut are all about girls and women behaving badly – a theme I relish! This is a forceful collection, filled with characters who act on base instincts and push societal boundaries. They share a sense of mischief, irreverent humour and a longing for freedom that is undercut by an ever-present sense of danger.

I particularly enjoyed the stories with teen narrators, as Casey-Hardy captures the reckless energy of the young so well. Often though, the transient borders of childhood, adolescence and womanhood blur, such as in ‘My Beautiful Dollhouse’, in which a woman’s childhood toys have taken hold in her adult life, or ‘Being the Mother’ where two girls crave the experience of motherhood. Many of the stories read like fractured fairy tales with a lulling and, at times, sinister effect. In each of them though, there is an urgency that is very much rooted in the modern world.

Cautionary Tales for Excitable Girls thrums with life, energy and desire and I sped through the eighteen stories despite (admittedly half-hearted) attempts to savour them and will eagerly await anything Anne Casey-Hardy does next. 

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LUCY BY THE SEA
by Elizabeth Strout

In March 2020 Lucy's ex-husband William pleads with her to leave New York and escape to a coastal house he has rented in Maine. Lucy reluctantly agrees, leaving the washing-up in the sink, expecting to be back in a week or two. Weeks turn into months, and it's just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the sea.

Rich with empathy and a searing clarity, Lucy by the Sea evokes the fragility and uncertainty of the recent past, as well as the possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire. At the heart of this miraculous novel are the deep human connections that sustain us, even as the world seems to be falling apart.

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Staff Review - The Stardust Thief

by Chloe Townson

There are a few points of view scattered throughout The Stardust Thief but the most prominent voices are Loulie Al-Nazari – The Midnight Merchant – and Prince Mazen. The former is a scavenger, of sorts, who travels the desert in search of magical relics. The latter is a younger Prince who is kept cooped up in the royal household but who wants only to be free to wander the market and listen to stories – and who is a magnificent storyteller himself. The paths of the Merchant and the Prince are entangled through no choice of their own – the Merchant swept up into the King’s plots and the Prince sent with her by a brother who cares for naught but his own intrigues.

The Jinn and their relics are the crux of the story, however; the Merchant travels with Qadir, a Jinn who controls fire and can shift into a lizard. The Prince travels with Aisha, who is sworn to the band of forty thieves and their mission to eradicate Jinn from he face of the Earth. The four are an unlikely travelling troupe, though they learn to trust each other through the trials and tribulations of their quest across the desert – they are forced to question their own beliefs and the stories that led them to those beliefs.

The Stardust Thief is a refreshing Middle Eastern fantasy inspired by One Thousand and One Nights. The art of storytelling is revered in the pages of this book, the chapters interspersed by the stories of myth and legend. Though there’s potential for romance between the characters, it’s not something that takes precedence; what takes precedence are the relationships between travelling companions, the dips and highs of familial relationships that are affected by secrets and things left unsaid. The character arcs are dictated by the things that happen to them rather than by the people they fall in love with. There’s nothing wrong with fantasy romances; they’re like the fast food of the fantasy genre, easy to read and tasty to boot. The Stardust Thief is more like a home cooked meal; wholesome and warm, and when asked if you want another serving you say ‘yes, please’ even if you’re already full.

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