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"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."
- CS Lewis
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We hope all of our members around Australia are safe and well at this time. We hope to have an update for our groups soon and will contact secretaries when we have news.
Don’t forget our eBook library has a selection of our booklist available, which can be read on computers, tablets and selected e-readers. Please get in touch if you need a login to ePlatform or have any queries.
If you have any queries, please contact us at bookgroups@cae.edu.au. Our customer service team is currently working from home, so if you would prefer to discuss your query over the phone, please provide your phone number in the email and we will call you back as soon as possible.
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The Queensland Literary Award winners have been announced, with winners including Mirandi Riwoe’s Stone Sky, Gold Mountain for fiction and Helen Ennis’ Olive Cotton: A Life in Photography. The Voss Literary Prize has announced its longlist, with titles including Meg Mundell’s The Trespassers and Alex Landragin’s Crossings.
The Women’s Prize for Fiction was awarded to Maggie O’Farrell for her historical novel Hamnet. The International Booker Prize was awarded to The Discomfort of Evening written by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld and translated by Michele Hutchison. The Booker Prize shortlist has been announced (TBC 15/9), with debut authors dominating the list including Avni Doshi for Burnt Sugar and Brandon Taylor for Real Life. The winner will be announced in November.
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Tips for Online Book Group Discussion
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Many of our book groups have had to meet online this year and we understand it doesn’t work for everyone.
We have a few suggestions to help your book group have a great virtual discussion. |
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Thanks to Lorna Marlowe and Stonnington Readers for sharing their meeting experiences with us!
Lorna Marlowe Mentone Book Group
We have joined the online community and expanded the concept of book reading.
In the first month of lockdown, we watched the film The Illusionist online. This discussion explored the role of dialogue and animation in this bittersweet film written by the director and the famous French actor Jacques Tati in 1956.
The following month we listened to the New Zealand podcast "White Silence" and discussed with questions written by a member. The podcast of the Air New Zealand plane crash into Mount Erebus provoked some thoughtful discussion of the role and findings of royal commissions and the style of documentaries. The podcast was a new experience for some.
This month, we are reading Beowulf and a couple of poems online. Members are stepping up and preparing questions and ideas to keep the members engaged beyond the book!
Stonnington Readers
We have read and enjoyed (or found enlightening) No Friend but the Mountains and, most recently, we read Damascus by Christos Tsolkas and are looking forward to our next discussion of A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende. Only one person in our group actually enjoyed Damascus, but we did have a great discussion.
Although we miss our live meetings and our CAE books, we are still having wonderful discussions on Zoom. We find the best way to conduct our meetings on Zoom is to have a summary by the person who chose the book and then each member is given the opportunity to talk (mostly uninterrupted) about the book. Sometimes it goes off track a little when there is a contentious point made, but it seems to work well.
We love hearing what our book groups have been up to! If you’d like to share a story from your group please email us at bookgroups@cae.edu.au
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The Salt Madonna – Catherine Noske
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Hannah Mulvey left her island home as a teenager. But her stubborn, defiant mother is dying and now Hannah has returned to Chesil, taking up a teaching post at the tiny schoolhouse, doing what she can in the long days of this final year.
But though Hannah cannot pinpoint exactly when it begins, something threatens her small community. A girl disappears entirely from class. Odd reports and rumours reach her through her young charges. People mutter on street corners, the church bell tolls through the night and the island's women gather at strange hours... And then the miracles begin.
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A page-turning, thought-provoking portrayal of a remote community caught up in a collective moment of madness, of good intentions turned terribly awry. A blistering examination of truth and power, and how we might tell one from the other.
Thanks to Pan Macmillan
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Anyone is welcome to enter! To go in the draw, simply email us at competition@cae.edu.au and let us know your tips for great book group discussion. Include your name and postal address. Entries close on Wednesday 30 September. The winner will be notified and answers may be used on social media.
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Medieval to Modern: Art & Artists in Renaissance Florence (Online)
4 Sessions
Friday, 11:30am-1pm, 9 October
$189/$180 (conc)
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Novel Writing (Online)
5 Sessions
Thursday, 6pm-9pm, 15 October
$380/$361 (conc)
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Sustainable Art: Corsages (Online)
NEW
4 Sessions
Sunday, 11am-1pm, 18 October
$240/$228 (conc)
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