When I was living in Amsterdam I had two wonderful colleagues Haidee and Charlotte who I exchange books with. They lent me out a handful of particularly stellar ones that I still think of often when I think of great literature I have enjoyed since finishing my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (you don’t get a chance to read a lot of literature in a theatre degree understandably!). Marley and Me was one that had me both in fits of laughter and an uncontrollable sobbing at the end. I even enjoyed the film adaptation. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier was one of the most intense books I have read in years. I am a very fast reader as many of you know but this book took me a few weeks to read as the content was so deeply disturbing but something I am so glad I read. And then there was Interpreter of Maladies a truly wonderful collection of short stories. This collection is what sparked my interest in short stories, a genre I did not typically gravitate towards when reading. Shamefully I have not read more of Jhumpa Lahiri but maybe I will suggest her for my next book club selection in a few months.

I am thrilled though at the moment to be reading two different collections of short stories and I just finished another collection last week. The latter was the first time I read one of the great American writers we lost last year Mr John Updike. In high school we were required to take a Contemporary American Literature class where we read Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, Steinbeck and Tennessee Williams. It was a fantastic selection of books to be reading at sixteen. I plan to before starting my Masters to reread many of these books a decade later. But back to Updike’s collection I read last week, My Father’s Tears. One reason I have never enjoyed Hemmingway is that I find his writing too simple and bland. Updike is a very simple writer too but the simplicity was far more enchanting and had me hooked at the end of each story. I look forward to reading more of his stuff in the future to see if my enthusiasm for him continues. Do any of my faithful readers have any suggestions of which to read of his next?

This week I have started reading this months book club selection Nam Le’s The Boat and on the side Peter Allison’s Whatever You Do, Don’t Run. The Boat is a collection of Vietnamese short stories written by a local Vietnamese Melbournian. I have only read the first one but he already has me hooked and I am excited for the next two hundred or so pages. I have a feeling I am going to have to head to Little Saigon whilst reading this book to fulfil my Vietnamese craving as Le writes in detail about delicious food. Allison’s book was lent out to me by my friend Alana and is written by a Botswana Safari Guide. Having been fortunate enough to spend nearly a month in South Africa when I was eighteen on a life changing trip I am able to relate to a lot of what he is talking about. No I was not a guide at eighteen (Peter started off at nineteen!) but I came across many of the animals he mentions on my excursion and slept under the stars night after night on one of the worlds most beautiful terrains.

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