Misrule

No, not the blog—me. And the cats. And several thousand books. One week from today and we move to this house:

Many of you will already know this, from Facebook and Twitter. The house is in South Windsor and was built in the 1870s. It's on a large block of land and has 3 bedrooms, plus a studio out the back (2 rooms plus en suite) that writer friends on Facebook have been dibs on for a writers' retreat. (The studio is going to be named—what else?!—Misrule. The house itself is called Medlow.)

Much of this year has been taken up with real estate—open houses on the weekend (looking and then selling my flat) and work has been insanely busy (all good but BUSY!) so I haven't had nearly as much time to read as I a.) want to and b.) need to. Hasn't stopped me buying a heap of books, but! Gleebooks, my favourite bookshop, has just opened a store in Dulwich Hill (yup, just as I'm about to leave the inner west) and I did my fair share of contributing to their first week's takings. And I've had to drop into their children's shop and main shop in Glebe once or twice as well... Yes, very sensible, buying new books as fast as I am packing the existing library... But, oh, Charlotte Wood read at the Dulwich Hill opening weekend, and I had been meaning to buy Brothers & Sisters for ages, and then I discovered that Lynne Rae Perkins has a new novel out, and I had a bunch of birthday presents to buy and, well, you know how it goes...!

At the moment I am madly reading the remaining unread books on the Older Readers shortlist of the CBCA awards. I'm MCing the Youth Reviews the Shortlist video conference on Friday, with students from schools across the state reviewing the shortlisted titles. Richard Harland, whose novel World Shaker is a CBCA Notable Book, will be our guest author, and it's all happening at Hurlstone Ag High School—the school that was my first appointment as a new graduate teacher. (Therein lies many a tale, but we won't go there right now!)

Reading my way through the shortlist I have to say I am impressed by both the strength and diversity of the selections. There's not a dud on the list, and a pleasing range of style and subjects. The two I hadn't read—David Metzenthen's Jarvis 24 and Glenda Millard's A Small Free Kiss on the Dark—are clearly examples of writers at the top of their form. Judith Clarke's The Winds of Heaven is one of my favourite books* of 2009 (and beyond). And the novels by the "newbies" to the shortlist (Justine Larbalestier, Lucy Christopher and Penny Tangey) are all also seriously impressive. I'll be interested to discover what the young reviewers have to say on Friday.

Hey! Wow! That's 5 women authors on the shortlist! Woot!

I have managed to fit in some other reading as well. A really major book for me this year is Deborah Wiles's truly remarkable book Countdown. Now, that title has particular resonance for Aussie of a Certain Age, being the name of the weekly Sunday night pop music show we all grew up with. Deborah's Countdown is not entirely unrelated, culturally, at least, in that it's set a couple of generations ago and pop music is not in the least irrelevant to it! (OK, trying not to stretch too much here!) Countdown is set during the Cold War and specifically, the Cuban Missile Crisis—a period that has previously provided rich material for the wonderful English children's author David Almond.

Deborah's Countdown is, of course, very different in every regard to Almond's novel. It's being described as a "documentary novel", as it placed throughout the narrative are reproductions of original news reports, advertisements, song lyrics, photographs, quotes from the period and so on. These don't just add "flavour" to the novel, they really serve to support and expand on the thematic concerns of the novel, placed so specifically as it is against historical events that I imagine will be pretty much entirely unfamiliar to the contemporary reader.

That's not to say that the book is in any sense dated. On the contrary, the concerns and interests of our young heroine, Franny, are as on the money for any 11-ish year old girl of any era: bothersome siblings, embarrassing older relatives, parents who simply don't get it, scarily shifting friendships... I don't recall feeling as protective of a character as I did of Franny in—well, maybe ever. She's so relate-able—and I am always so shy of that concept of needing to "relate" to a character, but I just felt so fiercely affiliated with her and what she was going through and what I knew was coming... I adored this book. I first came across Deborah's books when I worked at The School Magazine, and she's always been a wonder, but Countdown is something right out of the box. I don't know if the book will get a local release, but if you can track down a copy via your favourite international online bookseller, then I promise you won't be disappointed.

Another long-anticipated book, for me, is the sequel to the simply delightful A Brief History of Montmaray by the equally delightful Michelle Cooper. I totally squeed when my advance reader's copy of The FitzOsbornes in Exile arrived on my desk, and I have been eking out the pleasure of it for some weeks now. Books like this don't come along every day, you just can't rush them!

Speaking of which—today's long-awaited arrival:

I'm halfway through. It'll be in the shops August 30. Disclaimer: Cassandra is a great friend, but regardless of that I am already totally in love this book. And how stunning is that cover?

Also coming up, in some cases already partly read:

Belinda Jeffrey's gorgeously written Big River, Little Fish

Georgia Blain's Darkwater

The Life of a Teenage Body Snatcher—Doug MacLeod (another squee-worthy one!)

The deliciously enticing Saltwater Vampires by Kirsty Eagar and

the fabulous Deborah Abela's Grimsdon.

When the shortlist event is over, when the move is done, I'll be catching up on all this amazing reading, lounging on the daybed in my garden of my new home. I can't wait.

If there's anything you are looking forward to, tell me in the comments!

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*My mum and sister Alison also really loved it.