• [...] responsibility and unpaid care work. Tara Moss has written an excellent piece over at The Hoopla, The Most Important Job In The World, that explores some of these nuances, including the societal and financial expectations that women [...] - Judging mothers | Australian Feminist Reader
  • We have had several children over a timespan which has seen support for mothers increased, so I agree with Not That Bad in that things are much better now than the were even when we had our first child 20 years ago, however, that doesn't mean that "things" are as they should be! I am slightly shattered that even after all of these years of struggle and work, that the role of men and women is not more equal, and that the gender difference is still so debated. All parents deserve society's support: single parents, fathers, mothers. We should be working towards a society where men and women feel supported whatever their choices, and this doesn't necessarily mean financially. Access to services, education, self-finance. We should all be being encouraged to fulfil our potential as human beings. We have the brains, we have the capacity (economics is, after all, a human invention---not a creature with a life of its own) to make the changes. Attitudes need to change. Colour, race, marital status, having children, not having children.... Children are precious and deserve out attention, and parents deserve society's support. If that is given, then we may get the society we deserve! - Dodieh
  • @Robyn. You're the one with the attitude. Over it! - metoo
  • Yah pronking & smiling - Jay
  • Tony Abbott thinks Superannuation is a confidence trick? So what would he think of the national savings that would have been if this had been allowed to remain Australian Law. At the 1937 federal election, the United Australia Party had promised to introduce a system of national insurance that would provide medical cover and pensions for working people. The scheme was to be funded by contributions from government, employers and employees. Menzies, who had helped draft the policy, was an enthusiastic supporter of the scheme. For him it constituted good social policy and, once adequate superannuation funds had been accumulated, promised to relieve taxpayers of what was likely to become an intolerable burden in the future. Unfortunately the United Australia Party’s coalition partners were not nearly so keen about the proposal. Although a National Insurance Bill was passed, Country Party ministers continued to resist its implementation, arguing that the money was needed elsewhere, particularly to provide for ‘adequate defence’. After a series of stormy meetings, Cabinet succumbed to Country Party threats and decided to repeal the pension provisions of the Bill. Menzies immediately resigned from the ministry. - johnward154
  • Never have and never will purposefully buy a celebrity endorsed product. Make my own choices according to years of experience. I don't watch or listen to commercial tv or radio or read mainstream media . Abc, Sbs plus community radio (bay fm 99.9) are my choice. Find very vacuous the current obsession with all things celebrity! - Robyn
  • Maybe hard to be honest ..... but I think probably most of us are little influenced by advertising especially with gorgeous hot men and sexy women, we would probably all look beautiful even though we get older ..... as Dolly Parton said in an interview, you have no idea how expensive it is to look so cheap.. ;-) - Tone May
  • I have honestly never purchased anything because of a celebrity endorsement. After all, they are being paid to promote the product even if they don't actually use it. If I want to make a decision about a product purchase, I do my research on consumer review sites on the web and then decide whether to purchase or not. - Aeron Winters
  • Nicole a great actress??? I do not agree and she has put me off buying Swisse products - Shani
  • Excellent reporting. - Lorraine
 
9
Categories:  Books, Entertainment, Must see, The Book Shelf

THE HOOPLA LITERARY SOCIETY

By Meredith Jaffe
September 21, 2012


“A little madness in the Spring / Is wholesome even for the King.”
~Emily Dickinson

 

This weekend is the spring equinox, which means Spring really, really has sprung.

Perhaps that’s why I’ve been reading in all sorts of strange ways this week. Do you ever do that? Last night it was whilst I was cooking the kids’ dinner, flicking the pages with a damp wooden spoon. The day before it was whilst waiting for a doctor’s appointment.

Snatching moments to immerse myself in an alternative reality is always a guilty pleasure but let’s face it, the characters in books are usually doing something far more interesting than making spag bol or hanging around doctor’s surgeries!

Escaping into a book is a wonderful way to deal with life when it’s stressful and busy. I’ve picked books this week that fit that bill to a tee.

 

Before I Met You, by Lisa Jewell

“Betty had chosen to do an Art diploma here in Guernsey rather than a degree in London. And she had chosen to stay on in this big cold unwelcoming house with a ninety-four-year-old woman rather than find herself a room in a shared house with her friends. She had made these choices willingly and freely, in spite of the seventy-odd years that divided them, in spite of Arlette’s irascibility and her misanthropy and her unshakeable grey-tinted view of the world, because she loved her.

“Arlette had lived in this house for seventy years, had given birth in this house, grown old in this house, and Betty was determined that she would die in this house, surrounded by all her lovely things.”

When Betty’s grandmother Arlette dies and her will is read, everyone is surprised at the bequest made to a person none of them have ever heard of, Clara Pickle. Ms Pickle’s last known address is in London, which is unexpected, since as far as anyone knows, Arlette had never left Guernsey in her life.

With little information to go on, and using a small bequest of her own, twenty two year old Betty sets off the London determined to secure a place to live in Soho, find a job and somehow locate the mysterious Ms Pickle. Unwittingly, Betty is also traversing a parallel journey her grandmother had made at the same age, to a 1920s London blossoming in a post war glow and filled with people determined to make the most of new opportunities.

Slowly gathering clues, Betty uncovers her grandmother’s secret past, filled with nights in glamorous clubs where bands played the new style jazz music and life was just one big party.

As Betty builds her own life, nannying for a rock star and falling in love, she discovers the whereabouts of Ms Pickle and perhaps why her grandmother fled London never to return.

Lisa Jewell has a swag of bestselling books to her name, of which Before I Meet You is the latest. Carefully crafting the foundations of this mystery/ romance, Jewell leads the reader into the fascinating 1920s London of the Bloomsbury set and Bright Young Things placing it alongside Soho in the 1990s when it was reinventing itself as a London hot spot.

It’s the mystery that keeps you turning the pages through the complicated relationships and musings of young women on the cusp of life. You too will want to know who Clara Pickle is and why she meant so much to Arlette that the old woman left her a small fortune.

 

Where’s Wally?

Is it possible that the nerd in the red and white striped top is still around after all these years?

Today, Friday 21st September, Wally celebrates his 25th birthday.

Since the first book was released in 1987, Where’s Wally? has gone on to sell 56 million copies and until Harry Potter came along, was the fastest selling children’s book of all time.

He has been number 1 on the New York Times bestsellers list three times and in this new digital age where your social media presence is everything, Wally has almost 4 million facebook likes and has sold 5.9 million apps. That’s quite phenomenal, isn’t it?

Happy Birthday Wally!

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9 Responses to this article

  1. sarah September 21, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Well, clearly it’s a good omen that today is Wally’s birthday because he obviously barracks for the Swans in that outfit – which means they should beat Collingwood in tonight’s prelim final…and I suggest all Swans fans acknowledge Wally’s birthday by going to the game dressed like Wally. Oh…you already are…Cool!!!!

     
    • Meredith September 21, 2012 Reply
       
       

      Ha! Ha! Sarah but a very good point :-)

       
  2. JessB September 21, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Just wanted to say that I love the variety of these book posts. I have always loved Young Adults books, and continue to read them in preference to most other genres, so there isn’t much here for me personally, but I love seeing what else is out there and having books I can point others towards. Great work Meredith, and thanks Hoopla for hosting.

     
    • Meredith September 25, 2012 Reply
       
       

      Thanks Jess!

       
  3. sue bell September 21, 2012 Reply
     
     

    I have just read a book, lent to me by a friend, for my opinion and it has completely ripped off the story line and characters of an earlier much better book, written by another friend, two years ago.
    What can be done?
    This second book got good reviews although the characters were barely fleshed out and it was more the style of ‘Boy’s Own Annual’ Dan Brown rubbish.
    Our friend the author, is writing her second book now and I wonder how soon before this new one will be stolen.

     
    • Meredith September 25, 2012 Reply
       
       

      Do you think that it might be that two authors have had the same idea, written about it entirely separately and been published only to find their ideas are almost identical? They say every story has already been written and maybe what you read proves exactly that? I’m sure the authors, if aware of this, would be mortified.
      The one that makes me laugh is when two books have identical covers or the same title, which is really common in these days of stock images. Did you know there are two books called Freedom? I bet the guy who wrote his book Freedom was mightily peed off that that Franzen fellow nabbed his title!

       
  4. MoniqueN September 22, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Some very interesting reads there that I’ll be checking out. I had no idea Wally was so old, or that there was an app.

    I picked up Snugglepot and Cuddlepie recently, haven’t read it in years, but I still remember how the Big Bad Banksia Men used to terrify me.

    As for the plagiarism question, I think there are very few plots that haven’t already been done, so the question becomes not how original the storyline is, but how well has it been written?

     
  5. Catherine September 22, 2012 Reply
     
     

    In the US Wally is called WALDO, which is even a more nerdy name that Wally I think, though perhaps doesn’t have the connotations of a being a ‘wally’. So all the little American kids call out ‘Where’s Waldo?’. It’s a wonderful book puzzle innovation and a publishing success story.

     
    • Meredith September 25, 2012 Reply
       
       

      And in France, Wally is Ou est Charlie? (apologies if my French is wrong- it’s been a few years!

       

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  • Dodieh: We have had several children over a timespan which has seen support for mothers increased, so I agree with Not That Bad ...

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