cread | read & see

Channel 10 is promoting the screening of a US 60 Minutes interview with the author of No Easy Day which first aired in America last September. It's publicity says, 'In a one-hour TEN special event, hear the remarkable first-hand account of the raid that killed the world’s most wanted terrorist, from one of the US Navy SEALS who pulled the trigger. Telling his story for the very first time on Australian television, Mark Owen – a former SEAL who was in the room when Osama bin Laden died – speaks to Scott Pelley in his only interview. Cread first reported the interview with author Matt Bissonnette (briefly known by the pseudonym Mark Owens)in our September 1, 2012 story on the then new book release, No Easy Day. Read our full story here which contains video of part of the interview which TEN is describing as a 'special event'. Of course many in Australia will have not seen the interview or read the book, which was contrvoersial at the time not only for possibl

Secularisation in western culture is due to the breakdown of the family, and not the intelligent strength of atheists or the spiritual apathy brought on by wealth. So argues author Mary Eberstadt in her new book How the West Really Lost God: A New Theory on Secularization, published by Templeton Press, 268 pages. Eberstadt attempts to dispel myths such as the idea that atheists are intellectually superior to dimwitted believers and argues that a growing secularisation is due to a less flourishing family life among people of faith. Faith reinforces family life and family life reinforces family. When this cycle is broken, both decline. She looks at the shattering of family life that occurred in 18th and 19th century Britain bringing a parallel decline in religious (until challenged by revival moments such as seen in the Methodists and Salvation Army). A similar decline in family life, such as among American farmers this century, coincides with growing secularisation, for examp

Most household bookshelves contain at least one slightly musty book with and old looking cover and vague stories of ancient pedigree. Take this copy (pictured) of Robinson Crusoe which lives in our house and whose origin no one recalls. But there's nothing musty about Melbourne's second Rare Book Week from July 18-28 culminating in the Rare Book Fair July 26-28. And among the many great features of the week is the exhibition of Italian Books Through the Ages at the University of Melbourne’s Baillieu Library, highlighting its exciting new purchase of Aldus Manutius’s Hypnerotomachia Poliphili , printed in Venice in 1499. Another event is The Art of Praise: the Italian Medieval Choir Book 1250-1550 exhibition and lecture by Professor Margaret Manion at St Mary’s Newman Academic Centre. And if poetry is more your style, you can enjoy the romance of poetry showcased by the Matheson Library, Monash University. Rare Book Week ends with the Australian and New Zealand Associ

Questions of Travel by Michelle de Krester has won Australia's richest literary prize, the Miles Franklin, from a field of all-female finalists. Described as a 'dazzling, compassionate and deeply moving novel from one of world literature's rising stars' this mesmerising literary novel charts two very different lives. Laura travels the world before returning to Sydney, where she works for a publisher of travel guides. Ravi dreams of being a tourist until he is driven from Sri Lanka by devastating events. Around these two superbly drawn characters, a double narrative assembles an enthralling array of people, places and stories - from Theo, whose life plays out in the long shadow of the past, to Hana, an Ethiopian woman determined to reinvent herself in Australia. Award-winning author Michelle de Kretser illuminates travel, work and modern dreams in this brilliant evocation of the way we live now. Wonderfully written, Questions of Travel is an extraordinary work

The 146  birthday of iconic Australian author and poet, Henry Lawson is being celebrated today through a mechanism which he could not have even imagined - a Google doodle. A 'drover', some cows and a dusty landscape accompany the Google logo and of course a click through takes internet surfers to a Google search of Henry Lawson. Searching for Henry Lawson is an apt phrase for although achieving some literary peaks - such as in short story collection While the Billy Boils (1896), Jo Wilson and his Mates (1901) and perennial favourites ranging from The Drover's Wife to The Loaded Dog - he was as well known for being restless, erratic and unwell. Many Australian homes will have his collected works somewhere on a bookshelf, the township of Grenfell celebrates his birth there every Queen's Birthday long weekend, and some of his work is re-told to modern audiences such as the recent theatrical performances of The Loaded Dog . Despite the bruising tale of

Never-before-seen photos of the Beatles by Ringo Starr will be included in his new book, titled Photograph . An e-book will be published June 12 in conjunction with the upcoming Grammy Museum exhibit, "Ringo: Peace & Love," in Los Angeles, Genesis Publications and Starr announced Wednesday. Select images from the book, which also includes unpublished images from his personal archive, will be displayed at the exhibit. A limited-edition hand-bound book signed by Starr will be available in December. Read more here

The Childhood of Jesus is a beautifully written book as you would expect from an author who has won the Nobel Prize for Literature and two Booker Prizes. But did even JM Coetzee reach his limit in his daring attempt to write a book with such a searching title? Maybe, but then we have the age-old philosophical question, can the created express without limit the qualities of the Limitless? But to the book... Is this a retelling of the hidden years of Jesus' childhood? Is the title more metaphor, allegory or descriptive? Are we learning about childhood, family, refugee, society, community or the psychosocial complexity of the individual? Are we seeing the plainness of a world without the divine spark or the goodness of a simple life? To be honest, it is all and none of these and I'm not entirely sure if there is a single motivation or intention from the author. And perhaps that's the beauty of a great writer, they do not need to tell, but keep that secret to themselves.