cread | read & see

“I didn’t need a next book, I have everything that matters to me,” author of The Shack , William Paul Young, told Publisher's Weekly earlier this year. But a much-anticipated new book is exactly what he has with the novel Cross Roads published worldwide this week (Faith Words - Hatchette Group, hardcover, 480 pages) although in Australia it is available as 304 page paperback . Once again Young turns to fiction as spiritual metaphor and this time the main character is not working out his pain in a shack in the woods but reassessing his life while in a coma: "Anthony Spencer is egotistical, proud of being a self-made business success at the peak of his game, even though the cost of winning was painfully high. A cerebral hemorrhage leaves Tony comatose in a hospital ICU. He 'awakens' to find himself in a surreal world, a 'living' landscape that mirrors dimensions of his earthly life, from the beautiful to the corrupt. It is here that he has vivid interac

I first saw The Inca Curse advertised on a Sydney bus, competing for space there with Val McDermid's The Vanishing Point. It seems those of use often confined to city traffic gridlock are seen as susceptible to suspense and intrigue. And there is plenty of that in author Christopher Ride's latest thriller, the third in his successful Overseer series. Having lived in Peru, Ride moves confidently through its landscape, history and culture - providing a mountainous backdrop for a supernatural thriller with time travel, demonic power, crucifixion, omens and Amazons. The Golden Cube of the Sun God has been stolen from its hiding place in Machu Picchu and its embedded evil has taken over the most powerful religious figure in South America. It is unleashing horror and interferes with Overseer's seemingly simple task of aiding the discovery of the lost Inca city. Genetically modified as a kind of super human, overseer Wilson Dowling carries our hopes for vanquished evil o

The Book Thief continues to find new audiences and after passing two million US sales at the end of 2011, has now been adapted for the stage and chosen for the One Book, One Chicago literary event. Author and Sydney-sider Markus Zusak was in Chicago last weekend for the premiere of The Book Thief play produced by the Steppenwolf Theatre for Young Adults. Adapted by Heidi Stillman, The Book Thief play has received positive reviews including this: " The Book Thief is a beautiful story, well told by a cast of solid performers. The transformation from book to stage works quite well and the emotions that it is meant to stir up in us, come through." While visiting Chicago, Zusak took part in a Q & A following the Sunday matinee performance before speaking at Teen Volume Conference and being interviewed at the Chicago Library Centre by columnist Dawn Turner Trice. Alongside the play, The Book Thief has been chosen for Chicago's One Book, One Chicago which is a

JK Rowling's new novel is the most pre-ordered book of 2012, and it's no Harry Potter either. (Click image to order yours.) A Casual Vacancy is a book for adults and its content is real world not fantasy. Set in the rural English town of Pagford, it's a novel about the death of a man named Barry, a parish council election with class-warfare, addiction and teen sexuality. Writer Ian Parker has read A Casual Vacancy , and has written about it in The New Yorker. He made a point of the fact that it's for adults, quoting this: “leathery skin of her upper cleavage radiated little cracks that no longer vanished when decompressed” and "...with an ache in his heart and in his balls". While these quotes demonstrate the change from writing for children to writing for adults, in some ways the writing – according to Parker – hasn't changed so much. “...but whereas Rowling’s shepherding of readers was, in the Harry Potter series, an essential asset, in The Casu

"All over the world, brutal attacks are crippling entire cities." I began reading action novel Zoo within a few hours of reading Sweet Tooth and after a few pages was wondering if I could go on. After the tight, intense characterisation of Ian McEwan's new novel I was feeling unconvinced by the almost clumsy attempts to build the central character of Zoo , Oz. I've had this experience before. A few years ago after being captivated by the prose of Hilary Mantel in Wolf Hall I picked up Ted Dekker's Emmanuel's Veins . To be honest (sorry Ted) I couldn't read past the first few pages. Here I go again, I thought, and this time it involves one of the world's top-selling and most prolific authors, although admittedly, I was a Patterson virgin. But I lay back and thought of the readers of Cread (Creaders?) and turned another page. After a few more pages I began to accept the kind of NCIS approach to characterisation - American individualist

Australian author Jessica Shirvington's fantasy series - The Violet Eden Chapters (also known as the Embrace series) - has been picked up by the US television network CW, which plans to adapt the series into a TV series in association with Spielberg's Amblin Television. Her first novel, Embrace , was published in October, 2010, by Hachette Australia followed by Entice in March 2011, Emblaze in October 2011 and this month, Endless . Following its release in Australia and New Zealand, the series has been picked up in a number of international markets.  The books have been likened to the Twilight series, but rather than teenage vampires there is a teenage angel at the centre of a battle between light and dark forces. Shirvington says the four books in the series, could potentially be followed by a fifth and sixth. The TV show is said to be in development with release expected for next season in the US. Jessica Shirvington lives in Sydney with her husband of 10 years,

There's no doubt the world of publishing is in turmoil with no-one quite sure where the future lies so perhaps that's why so many big name authors have all come out with new books this Spring. JK Rowling, Tom Wolfe, Salman Rushdie, Junot Diaz, Zadie Smith and Michael Chabon are just some of the award winning, best selling authors to compete for shelf space while Australian authors such as Bryce Courtenay and Kate Grenville are also in the mix but perhaps in danger of being somewhat overwhelmed. Then there are the celebrity releases such as Justin Bieber's Just Getting Started and Kylie Minogue's new book Fashion . And let's not forget the Navy SEAL's first hand account of the killing of Osama bin Laden. So let's hope electricity bills aren't too high and we've all got plenty of reading money. In no particular order, here's a (partial) wrap-up of a particularly literary spring... Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe is due for release in Australia

If the stars are your companions and new forms of space travel are coursing through your imagination then go to warp speed 7 because you've got about a month to write at least 70,000 words and submit your spectacular novel directly to a major publisher. Don't despair if ogres eating elves who are on long contemplative journeys through uncharted lands are more your bowl of ale, the offer is open to all new, unpublished speculative fiction. Forbes magazine The Guardian are reporting today that science fiction imprint of Harper Collins, Harper Voyager, will accept manuscript submissions directly from authors from October 1 to 14 with the goal of finding 12 undiscovered authors that they will digitally publish monthly for the next year. The Harper Voyager submission portal is advertising the opportunity as a joint effort between Voyager Australia, US and the UK: "We’re seeking all kinds of adult and young adult speculative fiction for digital publication, but particu

The Man Booker Prize is one of the world's most important literary awards, with a very straight forward goal– to honour the very best book of the year by a British, Irish or Commonwealth author. Beginning in 1969, the Man Booker Prize is now in its 44th year and today the shortlist of six books was announced, cutting in half the longlist announced in July. The panel of judges is chaired by Peter Stothard, Editor of the Times Literary Supplement, the six authors/titles to be shortlisted are: Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books)
 Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories/Faber & Faber) Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies (Fourth Estate)
 Alison Moore, The Lighthouse (Salt) Will Self, Umbrella (Bloomsbury)
 Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis (Faber & Faber) Check out an examination of the shortlisted books Peter Stothard commented: “After re-reading an extraordinary longlist of twelve, it was the pure power of prose that settled most debates

A new Bryce Courtenay novel and writing masterclass have taken special significance after the celebrated author's revelation last week that he may only have months to live. The South African born Australian made public the news that he is suffering from terminal gastric cancer  in an interview with Channel 9's A Current Affair . Courtenay told Tracy Grimshaw that his novel Jack of Diamonds – to be released in November this year – will be his last. He also discussed the impact of his prognosis on his own state of mind and that of his family. The sometimes controversial Courtenay has written 21 books in his impressive career, but when asked what he was most proud of his answer was “having a family.” He also gave some insight into his writing and critics' claims he had not always been straight-forward with the facts of his own life. “...you bet I exaggerate!... I do a Fred Astaire with a fact, but I never ruin a fact... I just give it life.” The last hands-on masterc

By Josiah Hallett The Big Issue is a five dollar magazine sold by vendors who retain $2.50 of that sale price for themselves. These vendors are people like Lea, a former drug addict, who became homeless and lost her kids after separating with her husband. Lea's story is told in the current edition of The Big Issue , where she expresses her thanks to the publication for giving her the opportunity to make some money, when what she had become accustomed to was “no.” The “fiction edition” of The Big Issue is in circulation until September 10. It features 12 short works of fiction, and each of these stories has been matched with artworks by modern artists. When flicking through the magazine, the positioning of these artworks seemed random, but once I'd read the accompanying stories my mind made the most of the fiction's framing, leaping one way or another to make sense of why each artwork belonged where it was. I think that's the way it's supposed to be with art, r

I began reading Thomas Keneally's The Daughters of Mars while travelling in Europe, a deliberate plan to bring alive both the landscape and text. In a very Australian way, this is one of the attractions of the many world war books that we consume - they reflect back to us the experiences our parents and grandparents and our own pilgrimages to those distant shores. Just as sisters Sally and Naomi Durance walk the narrow streets of Rouen, wondering at the cathedral and the place where Joan was martyred, or travel to Paris through Gare du Nord, or feel afraid in Amiens, so too countless Australians will be instantly drawn back to their own moments in these locations. And all the more along the shores of Gallipoli where the sisters from the Macleay Valley, NSW, begin their WWI nursing services on the hospital ship Archimedes. It's not just a tourist's "I've been there", it's more the feeling that we share a common legacy and longing in these far-from-ho

You would not be surprised to find Catcher in the Rye , Gone with the Wind , Huckleberry Finn or even Catch 22 on a definitive list of books that shaped America but the "Big Book" of Alcoholic's Anonymous would probably not have easily come to mind. The Books that Shaped America list was developed by the US Library of Congress for an on-site exhibition it is holding as part of its multi-year "Celebration of the Book". Alcoholics Anonymous, on reflection a very apt choice considering the devastation of addiction in US (and human) existence, was written by co-founders Bill Wilson and Dr Bob Smith to help people recover from alcoholism. It has spawned many other 12-step programs but they all can be traced to the original inspiration for Wilson and Smith - the Beatitudes of Jesus Christ recorded in Matthew 5 . Other interesting inclusions Christopher Colles' A Survey of the Roads of the United States of America (1789) and Amelia Simmons' American C

Fresh from winning three out of 12 of the Prime Minister's Literary Awards announced on July 26, Allen & Unwin have also picked up two awards in the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year. In the PM's Awards, Gillian Mears' novel Foal's Bread won the fiction category, Luke Davies' Interferon Psalms won the poetry category and Bill Gammage received the Prize for Australian History with The Biggest Estate on Earth . In the CBCA awards, Kate Constable’s Crow Country and Scot Gardner’s The Dead I Know were award recipients. Meanwhile, A & U's Top 10 Sellers right now are:   1 Between the Lines Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer  2 The Happiest Refugee Anh Do    3 Fit, Fifty and Fired Up Nigel Marsh  4 Hannah & Emil Belinda Castles    5 Life Without Limits Nick Vujicic  6 My Droving Days Pe

Harry Potter author JK Rowling's first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, goes on sale worldwide on September 27. Considering the phenomenal interest in the book and allowing for a 10 hour time difference, it's quite likely some Australian readers will have finished reading the book before Rowlings has attended her first book signing at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London, 7.30pm. Here she will chat with BBC journalist Mark Lawson, followed by a book signing and will follow this up on October 6 with another interview and signing at The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival. Meanwhile Australian booksellers are trying to get in on the action with pre-orders from Dymock's offering The Casual Vacancy for $25.99 (Hardcover, 480 pages) and Readings for $32.95 - but you get 512 pages by their count... Readings are also offering the audio CD for $55. In the meantime, debate rages over the final version of the cover although in the long run, it could be plain-pa

Noticed a nasty cough lately? If you've just read Lord of the Rings and find yourself delighting in dark places, you could be channelling Gollum through a phenomenon called "experience-taking" according to Ohio State University researchers. They examined what happened to people who, while reading a fictional story, found themselves feeling the emotions, thoughts, beliefs and internal responses of one of the characters as if they were their own. In the right situations, this "experience-taking" may lead to real changes, if only temporary, in the lives of readers. One example involved students reading about a student overcoming obstacles to vote in an election. They were found to be more likely to vote in an actual election shortly after. The experience-taking phenomenon is short-lived it would seem and doesn't always occur. “You have to be able to take yourself out of the picture, and really lose yourself in the book in order to have this authen