Hell's Angels by Hunter S Thompson

I'm a bit of a Hunter Thompson fan, so thought it was get across this one. An interesting insight into the lives and culture of the Hell's Angels circa 1960-70s.

Possibly the only journalist crazy enough to live, ride and write about the Hell's Angels on their own terms, and coping his fair share of brawls in the mean time, Thompson writes his accounts of his time with America's, once most feared, outlaws.

Written from a journalists perspective, Hunter goes into detail about the contrasts between what was written in the media and political reports compared to the facts of the fraternity at the time.

Hunter certainly doesn't paint the Angels as anything more than they are, but presents the facts based on what he knew first hand.

Very interesting read.

(I'm now up-to-date on my books from this year - until I finish the five chapters I have left on my current book that is.)

Book Club - Month 1: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

So when Sara and Nick, who had moved to Sydney a year ago, announced they were moving back to Brisbane, I jumped on the chance to resurrect book club. Previously, it had just been the four of us: me, Sara, Tiff and Rachel - this time Rachel didn't want any part of it, so we started looking around for fresh blood.

We arranged a first 'meet up' at a bar for drinks after work to meet everyone and decide on how we were going to run book club. Everything looked rather promising with the three of us, Claire (a friend of Sara's who drifts in and out of our lives but mostly makes a living out of working overseas as a camp counsellor and sled dog trainer - although currently she's working as a teacher's aid on Thursday Island), Michelle (an old work friend of Sara's) and another possible friend who ended up choosing not to come.

Every time someone wants to bring a new woman into the book club it's always prefaced with, 'She's childless... by choice!' which is always a bonus for us, since we're all childless by choice also and want to be around more people in the same boat.

Anyway, everyone decided we should kick off with my book, A Visit from the Goon Squad. I got wind of this book via The First Tuesday Book Club on the ABC, which is one of my television guilty pleasures. I chose this one because it was one of the few books I've seen all panel members say they loved. Here's snapshot of the segment.

While I did enjoy this book, it puzzled me why it was a Pulitzer Price winner. The first half was a bit of a struggle, because each chapter is about a different character at different moments in time, and everyone agreed that we all kept trying to make the connections. By half way you stop trying to make those connections and just enjoy the story.

I galloped through the second half, especially loving the chapter where the daughter of one of the main characters keeps a 'slide journal'. It was engaging and different and equally as powerful in it's story telling as prose would have been. In fact, more so because the visual representations of the PowerPoint's aided her story.

This was the type of book that once I finished the last chapter I immediately wanted to read it over from the start. All book club members said exactly the same thing. Very few books ever have that affect.

Highly recommended read.

Chasing Bohemia by Carmen Michael

I saw this author some years ago at the Brisbane Writers Festival and found her fascinating to listen to. It was probably the first writers festival I went to shortly after I moved here. I remember it being an exciting one because there were a lot of travel focused topics and travel writing guests on panels and I was about to take off to South America.

Unfortunately, this book had sat on my shelf for a number of years since that festival, unopened. A few times I cracked the cover and tried to make a go of it, but I always ended up discarding it for another book I was more into at the time. You know what they say about a good opening.

But after my last book, We Need to Talk About Kevin, I needed something light, something frothy, something... Brazilian. We are in the height of summer after all, and with the salsa music in my ears, the tropical smoothie excursions I was taking at lunch times to Boost Juice and this book buzzing in my head, I slipped into extreme travel withdrawals.

While, not my favourite of the many travel literature I indulge in when I feel the need to do some armchair travelling, it certainly gave me an insight into the Brazilian culture and the fun of carnival. And again prompted that side of me who loves to up and leave her house, her job, her friends and life in general for that of one that fits into a backpack. I tried to focus on my new resolve to live on a much smaller percentage of my wage in order to get to my goal of taking a year off. Let me rephrase that (since I have taken years - more than that even - off before)... take a year off and not be broke and/or counting every penny. A planned year off with the funds to sustain me without concern.

I didn't power through Michael's book the way I have other travel literature, but I understood her viewpoint better than most because she was similiar in age to me at the time of writing this book and had also given up corporate jobs to basically become a bum in Rio de Janeiro. Okay, the people I admire probably says a lot about me, but even though I like my job I can't help but peer out the cubical grey window and think, 'Why am I even bothering with this when there's a whole big world out there I have yet to explore?'

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

I was a little behind in reading this infamous novel, but I felt I needed to be in the right frame of mind to tackle it. Turns out, there is no right frame of mind to read such a book. It's disturbing from the start and nearly every woman I've spoken to who has read it all same the same thing, 'It makes you think twice about having children'. I'm not sure if I totally agree with that statement, I think if you are having children for the right reasons, i.e. you want them, unlike our main character in this book, then this books shouldn't alter your decision.

Having said that, this book does bring up the question of nature vs nurture and leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions. There were times in this book where I just wanted to close the chapter and take a break, it was emotionally taxing and hats off to Shriver for coming up with such a unique and incredibly written book. Horrifying to read, yet addictive. I didn't want to know more, yet I couldn't help myself from continuing to turn the page and watching the horror unfold.

I think what is disturbing was how much I related to the mother in this book, though I like to think I wouldn't choose to have a child based on 'wanting to try something new'. Child birth doesn't strike me as an experience I desperately want to try 'just to see'. You don't have to fling yourself off a bridge to know it's going to hurt.

Having only just reconvened with book club I wish this had been on the list of books to discuss. I found myself at BBQs raising the subject with people who had read the book because I was desperate to hear what they thought of it all. Especially since Rich told me he didn't want to hear anything about this book and at 468 pages, it was in my life for a little while, with me busting to tell him all about it.

I saw the preview for the movie, but am less inclined to watch it since the characters don't look or act anything like I imaged. I'm also not sure I want some of those scenes realised in visual form, my imagination is frightening enough.

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez

When Richard saw me reading this, the first words out of his mouth were, 'Another coffee book?' While less informative on the actual coffee process, a much more enjoyable read than the previous coffee book.

Author Deborah Rodriguez, spent five years teaching at the Kabul Beauty School, the first modern beauty and training salon in Afghanistan, so brings a wealth of local knowledge to her writing. The characters and descriptions of the lifestyle of Kabul in this book are so rich and full of colour and gives us an inside into the life of the women behind the modern burqa. And also the lives of foreign women in the country and the contrast of freedom that the different women feel.

It's a wonderful story that touches on the politics, but doesn't dwell on it, rather allows it to become the backdrop for the individual lives that meet in Sunny's coffee shop and how five very different personalities can form a strong and united bond.

The Devil's Cup by Stewart Lee Allen

Over the summer I've been doing a lot of reading and not very much writing (not in this blog anyway — my day job still keeps me busy), so I'm now taking the time to sit down and update on the pages my nose has been stuck in.

'The Devil's Cup' is Stewart Lee Allen's journey into the history of coffee, from it's beginnings in Ethiopia, through the Middle East and eventually filtering through Europe and the rest of the western world. I was sold on this author's integrity when he travelled two hours from Harrar to Jiga-Jiga for a cup of coffee, even after warnings from locals not to go for fear for his life. Sounded extreme... and like something I would do.

Admittedly, this wasn't quite the page turner I was anticipating — I did struggle through many of the chapters which leant to boredom of Allen's own personal journey on his travels to find out about coffee, however the history was interesting.

I think my favourite story was when he tells a story he heard about when the Ottoman's ruled, '...a woman could get a divorce from her husband if he failed to provide her with enough coffee beans for her needs.'

This, of course, was the part I choose to read out to the man in my life — I don't think he bought it though.