"The Dirty Chef" by Matthew Evans

This book "The Dirty Chef" is an autobiographical account by Matthew Evans (From the "Gourmet Farmer" TV series on SBS) of his journey from being a food and restaurant critic in Sydney to setting up a small farm in Tasmania. He is really into eating locally produced, seasonal, organic, free-range, sustainable food, and also loves preparing, cooking and eating good quality and delicious food. His book is full of anecdotes of lovely, interesting and quirky characters, adventures and misadventures of essentially setting up a hobby farm from scratch with no real prior knowledge of what that might involve, and interspersed with delicious-sounding recipes. I read this book in kindle format, but I really wish I had bought it as a hard copy, as I'm sure I would keep referring back to it and looking up recipes etc which is a lot harder to do with an e-book I find. I found this book to be entertaining (humourous in parts), interesting and inspiring...over the last year I have personally been attempting to eat more local and seasonal food, shop at places like the Adelaide Central Markets for organic local delicious food, grow my own herbs in pots in the garden, and just enjoy cooking and eating clean healthy gluten-free food that tastes good and isn't pumped full of chemicals or shipped halfway around the globe and sold by big companies. It's not always possible on a tight budget, but I am enjoying trying to follow these ideas as much as I can. Additionally, I have been dreaming of a gourmet food holiday in Tasmania, taking a road trip down the east coast eating lots of local cheeses, berries, seafood and drinking wine... Given that I am already starting to get interested in this sort of lifestyle, I really loved this book and the insight it gave me into various aspects of organic, free range and local farming compared to what we are offered through big chain supermarkets. However if your a vegetarian you might not be as enthusiastic about many of the themes in the book.

I have only seen a handful of episodes of "The Gourmet Farmer" on SBS over the years, but now I have read this book I am quite keen to try to get a hold of the shows on DVD, and to look out for a copy of the author's other book "The Real Food Companion". 

Started reading on my kindle: 28th February 2014
Finished: 8th March 2014
My score: 9/10

Aussie Author Challenge criteria: Male author, New to me, Non-Fiction, Autobiography genre, foodie, first published in 2013.

"The Lieutenant" by Kate Grenville

I went into the Rundle Mall Dymocks bookshop last weekend, and asked a staff member there if they had a section for Australian fiction books. The helpful woman said that although they didn't have a section dedicated to Australian fiction, she could suggest a few authors that she thought were great Aussie authors. She recommended a few that I have already read and loved (such as Hannah Kent's "Burial Rites" and ML Stedman's "Light between oceans"), but she also suggested a few that were new to me (perfect for the Aussie Author Challenge), including Kate Grenville's "The Lieutenant" and Gail Jones' "Sorry".

I decided to try her suggestion of "The Lieutenant" by Kate Grenville first. The book is an historical novel (one of my favourite genres) set mainly in Sydney during the late 1700s. The main character, Lieutenant Daniel Rooke, is an astronomer with the First Fleet. He establishes a make-shift observatory just outside the convict settlement in order to look out for and record Halley's comet. The main focus of the book becomes the relationship that forms between David and a small group of native Aboriginals he befriends - in particular a child called Tagaran. While initially he is most interested in learning their language, a strong bond develops between them which has quite powerful effects on the path his life takes, contrasting starkly with the attitudes of the military/convict settlement of the time.

I really enjoyed this book. It was really beautifully written, the words seem to capture the essence of the wild landscape, the slice of history and the nature of humans. Kate Grenville has written several other books (both fiction and non-fiction) and I definitely will be reading more of her books in the future! Thank you to the helpful woman at the Dymocks bookstore for recommending this author to me! :-)

Started reading: 22nd February 2014.
Finished: 28th February 2014
My score: 8.5/10

Aussie Author Challange 2014: The author is Female, New to me, Genre: Historical novel.

"The Brain That Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge

Last night when I felt like reading I discovered my Kindle needed recharging *horror* so I decided to pick up a 'real' book and read that while it was charging, and now I can't put it down! What is more unusual is that this is a non fiction book, and although I do read non fiction books I usually read them slowly, chapter by chapter alongside devouring various novels.


"The brain that changes itself"  is by Norman Doidge, who is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and researcher in the USA. This book was originally recommended to me by my friend Georgie. This is a Non-Fiction book about the human brain and neuroplasticity. I heard an interesting scientific presentation by Simon Koblar on a similar topic recently and  his discussion of the potential for using patients stem cells from their teeth to help stroke patients brains recover. This seminar combined with my friend's recommendation inspired me to read this book. 

Started reading: 4th Feb 2014
Finished reading: 22nd February 2014
My score: 9.5/10

Really awesome book - very fascinating. I really recommend it, even for non-scientists, most of it is explained clearly, and it is just mind-blowing what the human brain can do. If your interested in stroke therapy, preventing dementia or old-age related memory loss, managing addiction, understanding autism - anything to do with how the brain functions and what it can be taught to do, how even adult brains have some level of 'plasticity' enabling them to recover lost function or develop new functions with the correct exercises - this is a must-read. There were 2 chapters that I thought were a bit too 'Freudian' for me, dealing more with psychoanalysis of sexual relationships and loss of a mother in infancy, which is why I gave the book 9.5 instead of 10/10, but apart from those two chapters the rest of the book is an amazing, insightful and well explained journey into neuroplasticity.

"The Pirates in the Deep Green Sea" by Eric Linklater

This is a children's book written in 1949. I remember my Dad reading it to me and my brother when we were about 10 years old, from an old hardbound book he had been given when he was a child. It is such an immaginative and wonderful adventure story, and I find myself with the urge to re-read this book every 5-10 years. I recently discovered it is now available in Kindle format for approximately $5, and although it doesn't have the lovely illustrations that the print version had, it is still an awesome book that I would recommend anyone looking for a good kids adventure story consider. I reckon this book could be made into a spectacular movie, especially with all the special effects and ability to bring fantasy creatures to life that modern movies like The Lord of the Rings or Pirates of the Caribbean have done so well.

 

"Barracuda" by Christos Tsiolkas

This is the second book I have read as part of the Aussie Author Challenge in 2014. Unfortunately I found it to be a really disappointing read. The story is about a young Australian teenager, Dan/Danny/Daniel from an immigrant family in Melbourne who is an athlete swimmer. He wins a scholarship through his swimming achievements and attends an elite boys school (referred to as C**t's College throughout the book), continuing to train in the hope of Olympic Gold. I thought this would be a really interesting book to read, to learn a bit more about the focus and drive and dedication required to become an elite swimmer especially at such a young age. However I found the main character extremely unlikeable....very selfish/arrogant, self-destructive, stirring trouble, and also uncaring or antagonistic towards any family member or friend who was trying to help him. His young life seems to be a collection of immature failings which he then seems to blame on anything other than himself. Apart from being unable to sympathise with the main character (or any of the supporting characters really), I also found the structure of the book hard to follow (it seems to jump back and forth erratically in time from when Dan was a young teenager, to being in prison, to the aftermath in his twenties. While I am all for Gay rights, this book also has elements of Fifty Shades of Grey, homosexual style which may be confronting if you are not expecting it when you pick up a novel about a teenage swimming athlete.

Started reading on my kindle: 15th January 2014
Finished: 25th January 2014.
My score 4/10

Aussie Author Challenge 2014 Stats: Male author, who is new to me, book published in 2013, Genre is probably considered 'contemporary fiction'.

Summary of books read in 2013 :-)

 

2013 was a great year of reading for me. I read 32 books in total (including 1 audio book), and I read a lot of different authors and genres I might not have read in the past due in part to participating in the Aussie Author Challenge of 2013. I find it hard to pick a single book that is a 'stand out' winner since I read so many AWESOME books this year! But if I had to pick it would be a tie between "The Rosie Project" and "The Book Thief". Two very different books, both by Australian authors. However, there were many books I read this year that were wonderful in different ways, I really enjoyed "Burial Rites", "People of the Book", "Sisters of Mercy", "The boy in the striped pyjamas", plus the highly popular 'Game of Thrones' books and 'Hunger Games' trilogy.

On the flip side, the books I did not enjoy and don't recommend reading are "The girl with the cat tattoo" and "Antidote to Murder". The first of these was just a brainless read (like a junior teenager romance), the second book had promise but I just couldn't finish it, and it is VERY rare that I start reading a book and get so bored with it that I can't finish it. I also was not overly impressed with "Tsunami and the single girl", "All Good Things" or "A short story of tractors in Ukrainian". 

I am setting myself the Challenge to read more than 32 books for fun in 2014 if possible (not counting all the scientific reading I do for work), and am attempting the Aussie Author Challenge in 2014 too.

Happy Reading everyone :-)
I'd love to hear what other people thought were their favourite books that they read in 2013 and why?

"Chasing the Light" by Jesse Blackadder

This is the first book I have chosen to read as part of the Aussie Author Challenge for 2014.

According to the publishers it is "A fictional recounting of the little-known true story of the first woman to ever set foot on Antarctica, and her extraordinary fight to get there". http://www.harpercollins.com.au/books/Chasing-Light-Novel-Antarctica-Jesse-Blackadder/?isbn=9780732296049

This is an historical novel, and I found it to be very interesting from the historical perspective of learning something about whaling in Antarctic waters in the 1920-30s as I knew nothing about it really, despite being a supporter of anti-whaling campaigns in modern times. The author (as part of her arts thesis) actually did a lot of historical researching and quite a few little known details and facts of the first women to land on Antarctica are embedded in this novel. However, being a novel, there is lots of speculation and invented angles and interpretations, hyped up romances etc. Some of the invented 'dramas' irritated me, making me think 'really, are you, like, at high school, or in your 30s?' even though I know some 'liberties' and 'equalities' we take for granted now were more taboo in the early 1900s.
Overall I enjoyed the book and feel like I now know a little bit more about that slice of history involving Norwegian whaling in the early 1900s in Antarctic waters and a little more of the adventures of the first women to land in Antarctica. I recently saw a really interesting exhibition on Antarctica and Australian exploration of the continent at the South Australian Museum, and although I dont recall any mention of women explorers or adventurers in the exhibition, it was still fascinating. So if you live in or will be visiting Adelaide soon i recommend you visit the museum and check it out (it's free entry too).  

"Chasing the Light" by Jesse Blackadder
Started reading on my kindle on 6th January 2014
Finished: 15th January 2014
My score: 7/10

Aussie Author Challenge Stats: 
Male Author, New to me, First published in 2013 or 2014.
Genre: Historical fiction