language AND LITERATURE
ICHI BOOK CLUB Meeting Wednesday, 12 May 2021
We have two books this month an e-book and a real book. The e-book is 'Losing the plot' (the title really spoke to me!) It is by Elizabeth Coleman who is the author of four published plays, including the smash hits Secret Bridesmaids' Business and It's My Party (And I'll Die If I Want To). Her theatre writing has also appeared in several anthologies. As a screenwriter Elizabeth adapted Secret Bridesmaids' Business into an award-winning ABC telemovie and has written for many of Australia's most popular dramas, including Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and Bed of Roses, which she co-created with Jutta Goetze. (Remember this? it was filmed in Meeniyan) Losing the Plot is her first novel.
Vanessa Rooney is a thirty-something dental hygienist who finds herself a single mum with a hole in her heart where her husband had been. Somehow she finds the courage to fulfil her childhood dream of writing a romance novel but soon discovers that her novel has been plagiarised by her idol, celebrity author Charlotte Lancaster. Vanessa reluctantly sues Charlotte with the help of suburban solicitor Dave Rendall, who's nursing some unfulfilled dreams of his own. When gun QC Marcus Stafford agrees to join their legal team, Vanessa feels like her perfect man has stepped right out of the pages of her book and into her life. As all hell breaks loose publicly and privately, Vanessa confronts a painful past and realises what Dave already knew - that she's an intelligent, funny, amazing woman and Marcus Stafford is, well, a tosspot. Vanessa finally understands that what she wanted wasn't what she needed, but has this realisation come too late?
There will be no prizes for figuring out how this ends - but apparently it gets there with writing that is (suprisingly) satisfactory. You can find it here https://wgrlcvic.overdrive.com/media/4657431?cid=1185457
Anyhoo the physical book may be more appealling. We are reading 'The last painting of Sara de Vos' by Dominic Smith. Dominic Smith is the author of three previously published novels. His awards include a Dobie Paisano Fellowship, the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Prize, the Gulf Coast Fiction Prize, and a new works grant from the Literature Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. His debut novel, The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre, was a Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers Book, and received the Turner Prize for First Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters. His second novel, The Beautiful Miscellaneous, was a Booklist Editors' Choice and optioned for film by Southpaw Entertainment. His most recent novel, Bright and Distant Shores, was named by Kirkus as one of the 'Best Books of 2011' and chosen by the ALA for its annual reading list. In Australia, he was shortlisted for the Age Book of the Year and the Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction. His fiction has appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including The Atlantic Monthly.
This is what we long for: the profound pleasure of being swept into vivid new worlds, worlds peopled by characters so intriguing and real that we can't shake them, even long after the reading's done. In this extraordinary novel, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Australian writer Dominic Smith brilliantly bridges the historical and the contemporary, tracking a collision course between a rare landscape by a female Dutch painter of the Golden Age, an inheritor of the work in 1950s Manhattan, and a celebrated Australian art historian who painted a forgery of it in her youth... In 1631, Sara de Vos is admitted to the Guild of St. Luke in Holland as a master painter, the first woman to be so honoured. Three hundred years later, only one work attributed to de Vos is known to remain-a haunting winter scene, At the Edge of a Wood, which hangs over the Manhattan bed of a wealthy descendant of the original owner. An Australian grad student, Ellie Shipley, struggling to stay afloat in New York, agrees to paint a forgery of the landscape, a decision that will haunt her. Because now, half a century later, she's curating an exhibition of female Dutch painters, and both versions threaten to arrive...As the three threads intersect with increasing and exquisite suspense, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos mesmerises while it grapples with the demands of the artistic life, showing how the deceits of the past can forge the present.
You will need a WGRLC membership to borrow either book.
Dates: 2nd Wednesday of the Month
Time: 5:15 pm—6:00pm
Cost: FREE
Venue: The RACV resort, Inverloch (drinkies and nibbles available)
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL PH: 5674 2444
Previous books read
We have two books this month an e-book and a real book. The e-book is 'Losing the plot' (the title really spoke to me!) It is by Elizabeth Coleman who is the author of four published plays, including the smash hits Secret Bridesmaids' Business and It's My Party (And I'll Die If I Want To). Her theatre writing has also appeared in several anthologies. As a screenwriter Elizabeth adapted Secret Bridesmaids' Business into an award-winning ABC telemovie and has written for many of Australia's most popular dramas, including Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and Bed of Roses, which she co-created with Jutta Goetze. (Remember this? it was filmed in Meeniyan) Losing the Plot is her first novel.
Vanessa Rooney is a thirty-something dental hygienist who finds herself a single mum with a hole in her heart where her husband had been. Somehow she finds the courage to fulfil her childhood dream of writing a romance novel but soon discovers that her novel has been plagiarised by her idol, celebrity author Charlotte Lancaster. Vanessa reluctantly sues Charlotte with the help of suburban solicitor Dave Rendall, who's nursing some unfulfilled dreams of his own. When gun QC Marcus Stafford agrees to join their legal team, Vanessa feels like her perfect man has stepped right out of the pages of her book and into her life. As all hell breaks loose publicly and privately, Vanessa confronts a painful past and realises what Dave already knew - that she's an intelligent, funny, amazing woman and Marcus Stafford is, well, a tosspot. Vanessa finally understands that what she wanted wasn't what she needed, but has this realisation come too late?
There will be no prizes for figuring out how this ends - but apparently it gets there with writing that is (suprisingly) satisfactory. You can find it here https://wgrlcvic.overdrive.com/media/4657431?cid=1185457
Anyhoo the physical book may be more appealling. We are reading 'The last painting of Sara de Vos' by Dominic Smith. Dominic Smith is the author of three previously published novels. His awards include a Dobie Paisano Fellowship, the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Prize, the Gulf Coast Fiction Prize, and a new works grant from the Literature Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. His debut novel, The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre, was a Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers Book, and received the Turner Prize for First Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters. His second novel, The Beautiful Miscellaneous, was a Booklist Editors' Choice and optioned for film by Southpaw Entertainment. His most recent novel, Bright and Distant Shores, was named by Kirkus as one of the 'Best Books of 2011' and chosen by the ALA for its annual reading list. In Australia, he was shortlisted for the Age Book of the Year and the Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction. His fiction has appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including The Atlantic Monthly.
This is what we long for: the profound pleasure of being swept into vivid new worlds, worlds peopled by characters so intriguing and real that we can't shake them, even long after the reading's done. In this extraordinary novel, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Australian writer Dominic Smith brilliantly bridges the historical and the contemporary, tracking a collision course between a rare landscape by a female Dutch painter of the Golden Age, an inheritor of the work in 1950s Manhattan, and a celebrated Australian art historian who painted a forgery of it in her youth... In 1631, Sara de Vos is admitted to the Guild of St. Luke in Holland as a master painter, the first woman to be so honoured. Three hundred years later, only one work attributed to de Vos is known to remain-a haunting winter scene, At the Edge of a Wood, which hangs over the Manhattan bed of a wealthy descendant of the original owner. An Australian grad student, Ellie Shipley, struggling to stay afloat in New York, agrees to paint a forgery of the landscape, a decision that will haunt her. Because now, half a century later, she's curating an exhibition of female Dutch painters, and both versions threaten to arrive...As the three threads intersect with increasing and exquisite suspense, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos mesmerises while it grapples with the demands of the artistic life, showing how the deceits of the past can forge the present.
You will need a WGRLC membership to borrow either book.
Dates: 2nd Wednesday of the Month
Time: 5:15 pm—6:00pm
Cost: FREE
Venue: The RACV resort, Inverloch (drinkies and nibbles available)
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL PH: 5674 2444
Previous books read
- Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
- Alice to Prague by Tania Heaslip
- Six Minutes by Petronella McGovern
- The Weekend by Charlotte Wood
- The Life to Come by Michelle de Krester
- Death in Daylesford by Kerry Greenwood
- The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose
BASS COAST WRITERS
Do you like to write? We are people of all ages with different writing ability and support each other. We enter competitions and publish a book once a year. Come along to the House on a Thursday afternoon to be part of something very special.
All welcome!
Date: Thursdays– ongoing
Time: 12:30pm—3:00pm
Cost: $5
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL PH: 5674 2444
Do you like to write? We are people of all ages with different writing ability and support each other. We enter competitions and publish a book once a year. Come along to the House on a Thursday afternoon to be part of something very special.
All welcome!
Date: Thursdays– ongoing
Time: 12:30pm—3:00pm
Cost: $5
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL PH: 5674 2444
FRENCH FOR BEGINNERS with Bernadette
(Native Speaker Teacher)
Learn to speak, write, and understand basic French used in everyday situations. Beginners with some French grammar knowledge may be suitable for this class but will need to confirm with Teacher prior to commencing.
Commencing date: Thursday 22nd April
Time: 9:30am—10:30am
Cost: $140 (M) $150 (NM) Full Term (10 weeks)
Course requires a minimum of 5 people to commence
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL PH:5674 2444
FRENCH FOR INTERMEDIATE with Bernadette
(Native Speaker Teacher)
For students with a good basic knowledge of French grammar.
In this class the focus is on vocabulary and role play (eg: booking a train/plane ticket/a hotel room, at the restaurant/café, asking for directions etc to prepare you for your next trip to France.
Commencing date: Thursday 22nd April
Time: 10:30am—11:30am
Cost: $140 (M) $150 (NM) Full Term (10 weeks)
Course requires a minimum of 5 people to commence
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL PH: 5674 2444
(Native Speaker Teacher)
Learn to speak, write, and understand basic French used in everyday situations. Beginners with some French grammar knowledge may be suitable for this class but will need to confirm with Teacher prior to commencing.
Commencing date: Thursday 22nd April
Time: 9:30am—10:30am
Cost: $140 (M) $150 (NM) Full Term (10 weeks)
Course requires a minimum of 5 people to commence
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL PH:5674 2444
FRENCH FOR INTERMEDIATE with Bernadette
(Native Speaker Teacher)
For students with a good basic knowledge of French grammar.
In this class the focus is on vocabulary and role play (eg: booking a train/plane ticket/a hotel room, at the restaurant/café, asking for directions etc to prepare you for your next trip to France.
Commencing date: Thursday 22nd April
Time: 10:30am—11:30am
Cost: $140 (M) $150 (NM) Full Term (10 weeks)
Course requires a minimum of 5 people to commence
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL PH: 5674 2444
ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS with Lucia
Learn Italian from an Italian! Lucia, our tutor, is a native speaker. This class is for adult beginners who want to understand basic Italian.
We will go through very common situations and a bit of grammar. You will learn to ask for information, to talk about yourself, to talk to your Italian relatives and friends. You will also learn something about Italian traditions, food, historical sites, local habits. All you need to bring with you is an exercise book.
Commencing date: Monday 19th April
Time: 11.00am—12.00pm
Cost: $140 (M) $150 (NM) Full Term (10 weeks)
Course requires a minimum of 5 people to commence
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL PH: 5674 2444
Learn Italian from an Italian! Lucia, our tutor, is a native speaker. This class is for adult beginners who want to understand basic Italian.
We will go through very common situations and a bit of grammar. You will learn to ask for information, to talk about yourself, to talk to your Italian relatives and friends. You will also learn something about Italian traditions, food, historical sites, local habits. All you need to bring with you is an exercise book.
Commencing date: Monday 19th April
Time: 11.00am—12.00pm
Cost: $140 (M) $150 (NM) Full Term (10 weeks)
Course requires a minimum of 5 people to commence
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL PH: 5674 2444