Hi there, It's Ruby Jones and I'm back to introduce the last episode of Read This for twenty twenty four. Schwartz Media's Books podcast is hosted by the editor of The Monthly, Michael Williams, and it's show about the books we love and the stories behind them. In this final episode for the year, host Michael Williams went to Fitzrow Pool in Melbourne's in and North to find out what people are reading now that summer is finally here coming up in just a moment, we went back to fitzroy Pool.
There's a few things to note about fitzro Pool if you've got the time and you're not too busy scoping out a concrete perch at which to bake and take in the scene, or maybe just plunging into the water to escape the summer heat. This is as we noted when we've visited at the end of last year Helen Garnet Country. It's indelibly seared on the national literary consciousness by her Classic Monkey group. The pool was nearly shut down in the nineties by a local government who deemed
it economically unviable. There was this community campaign full of locals and musicians and artists, and more than a few writers who fought successfully to save it. The famous painted sign up one end of the words aqua Profounder is slightly misspelt, a bastardized blending of Latin and Italian. Local law has it that it was painted in the nineteen fifties by this pool manager who'd grown tired of and I quote, hauling the kids of Italian migrants out of the deep end. It pops up again and again in
our literature. Earlier this year, I was reading Jocksorong's magical new Fantastical history Cherrywood, and was delighted when the pool raided a mention. One of my nephews was equally delighted to discover it was the inspiration for Courtney Barnett's song aqua Profounder.
A sill and laying to me, you to freestyle than switch? I could see dark cold hair.
What a cultural impact this pool has had. So we are back again. It's our final episode audit of what the people lining the pool are reading. There are lots of phones, to be sure, and even more closed eyes and tired faces, just looking to forget the year that's been and soak up the sun instead of the literary greatness. But over there's a copy of Sally Rooney's Into Metso and a dog eared John Lecare lying battered in the sun.
One handsome, middle aged bloke is so intensely reading To Kill a Mockingbird that he hasn't looked up no matter how many times we try to approach it. So that's it. Even though I'm loath to interrupt a content reader, I'm going to lean into my nosiest snoopiest self for the final read this of twenty twenty four. It's time to ask some of these people what they're reading now that
summer is here. From Schwartz Media. I'm Michael Williams, and this is Read this show about the books we love and the long summer reading sessions ahead of us.
This is Clara.
Hi, I'm Charlie.
Charlie.
That's weak, Yeah, an Ally, that's a thing.
Yeah, I mean I've only just picked it up. Really, I actually found it on the street, someone just left a box of books and I thought, why not, I'll give it a go.
So, yeah, enjoy.
Its fan five hour reading.
Though pul side.
Yeah, I'm not going to lie.
It's a warm day and I'm kind of struggling through, but it's still pretty interesting. I mean, yeah, it's so far, you know, talking about her life in Paris, and yeah, I mean I'm enjoying it because I've come to Australia, you know, I got here like a month ago, and so she's talking about her travels and I'm kind of enjoying it.
Really excellent.
Well, I hope next time you pick up a box of books it's slightly less worthy and a little more conducive to like summertime.
Ready.
Yeah, I think maybe I'll just give myself a really easy read after this and see what I can find.
Oh well, best of Lack, thanks for chatting.
Thank you so much.
Do you mind if we haressled you while you're sitting in the pool. I'm going to sit down properly because I've discovered that my crouching has a shorter shelf life than I realized. If you could each say your names before your chat.
I'm really Ruby, I'm babe, really.
I understand you're reading the Slap at the moment. How are you going with it?
I am loving the Slab. I've been meaning to read it for years, and a few friends are reading it recently. And it's so fun BINGI summer read Melbourne Cultural Commentary, loving.
It as one that you've heard talked about for years. How does it measure up with the expectation, like is it is it more or less what you thought it was from the conversation around it, or is it a different beast?
I think you know, my parents read it and they were really obsessed with it, and I always saw it on the bookshelf and kind of had it as like my parents' generation kind of story. But now maybe that I'm a bit older, like resonates a bit more and it's funny to imagine kind of our friendship group having having children and navigating these questions about private public school, you know, cultural clashes in suburban Melbourne. So loving it, loving it.
Which of your friend's kids you would most like to hit?
We were literally just talking about this. Who would it be?
Which friend we did?
It's a good like talking point.
Yeah, it's a good thing. Did you bring some little into that? I did?
I did.
I've got a couple of books with me. Actually, one of them is an advanced copy of Ritual by Chloe Elizabeth Wilson, which is coming out next year, which the whole stick is like imagine if.
Your favorite cult beauty.
Brand was actually a cult. So it's a lot of fun, it's very Melbourne.
I'm loving it.
And then I also brought a copy of the Shadow of the Wind by color through Safon, which I read many years ago, but I'm now trying to read in Spanish.
You did a circuit before to kind of work out who had box and I saw the zaphon and then saw it was in the Spanish, and I was like, that's impressive. Someone's really committed that trying.
There's a lot of Google Translate being picked up along the way.
But were you a fan of Shadow of the Wind when you first read it?
I adored it.
Yeah, and I never went back and read like the second or the third, so hoping to get there on this round. But yeah, it was a beautiful book, like so Gothic and so fun to like imagine that barcel owner.
Of the past. And did you bring a book to that?
Yeah, I brought to I have I couldn't believe it by Shandlier and then unlicensed bootlegging as a creative practice.
Why did you pick those two? And why did you bring two? Is one to back up in case the book.
I just started Shawndlier's one, so I wasn't sure if I was gonna like it or not, but I think I will, And then the other ones more like Theory are theory.
You never know what mood you're going.
To be in.
No, I'm the same. I'm repeatedly mocked for having multiple books, but nothing worse than sitting down beside the pool and suddenly being like, oh no, why did I think I was a worthy person? I'm on trash or the opposite. Yes, thank you all so much. And yeah, it feels very intrusive at the pool, but it's really great to change. I'm thrilled that you're reading Jackie Collins tell us about Deadly Embrace, so I've.
Actually only just started it. This is probably my thirtieth Jackie Collins. In the last few months. I'm writing a book on Jackie Collins with the colleague of mine, so this is technically work amazing, but I love her. I was quite late to the bonkbuster genre, you would say, so I've read a lot of Jackie Collins quite quickly,
and she's amazing. So I haven't read this one, but it's just like the third in a series with Madison Castelli, who is this journalist woman and she's found out her dad possibly murdered her mother, and you know, they're all just full of characters like this, and she's, you know, she's flying to La to go have dinner with her friend who's a TV presenter, and someone's going to get kidnapped, someone will probably get murdered again.
It's yeah, is this your primary genre of reading or is this a kind of reading where you enjoy it but then you read other stuff for pleasure or other stuff differently.
I read quite widely, I think. So I'm an academic, I saw. I work at university and I teach genre fiction romances my specialty, so that's kind of where the Jackie Collins thing came from. But for pleasure, I read much more widely than that. I'm very, very fussy with romance reading this kind of reading, I think because it's my job a little bit. But I quite like crime fiction, love a bit of fantasy. I'm reading another book which
is like a kind of retelling, Nettle and Bone. It's like a fantasy, kind of fairy tale retaelling, which is quite good.
And last question before I let you go, did you watch the adaptation of Rivals, the Jilly Cooper book, and what did you think of it?
I loved it.
I'm thrilled they're doing a second season. I think they've really lent into kind of the eighties nostalgia of it actually adapting it also from modern twenty twenty four sensibilities. These books can be problematic and some of the lingering, especially the eighties ones, the racism. They're quite homophobic in some ways, so it's nice that they've managed to kind of make something that's palatable in twenty twenty four and
the TV show. And yeah, it looks like what these books may make me imagine it.
That's the saying. That's enough. Jilly Cooper talk perfectest, Thanks heaps.
I just finished to Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia my kids. Yeah, I really, I really love my curves And the only thing I haven't read by him is Love at the Time of Cholera, and then I found that in a book library the other day, So it looks like it's all meant to be.
What is it you like about his books?
He's so primal, He's so like raw, like like visceral, you know, like the way he talks about emotions, people's relationships and things like that. But that's and I guess obviously this saga, you know, it's like everything turns back in on itself and stuff like. That's really nice. That's my take.
I love it. Are you guys big readers or is it something that you only get to give over to like summer sitting around.
I read, he said, He said, he also, so we go three.
I work at readings conflict of intro and we've got a journey over there, and we've got an editor over there, and yeah, I think I yeah, I think I saw a mean about a long time ago about monkey Grip and the circular when you come to the pool and therefore a part of the original that's on in.
The Yeah, there is there is a circle happening. We're all kind of subject to the cliches of literature. That's fine, it's a healthy thing. I haven't seen a monkey group today. I did see someone reading Garna when I was here last week, and I was like, all.
Right, what do you want? Yeah?
Yeah, I loved it. Yeah this season.
Yeah.
My partner works for Enguin and she got it for me three months.
Trying to pull some strings and.
Arrived like forty five minutes before we.
Went out for like my birthday.
Oh, that's pretty good.
It's pretty And Helen, I've Flemington.
Helen lives nearby and so we see her around a bit.
That's pretty good. You guys, thank you. You've really delivered on the Melbourne But yeah, okay, I think I have pested enough people for the day.
Microphone a time for a dip when we come back.
Some of Australia's best writers share their recommendations for summer reading.
We'll be right back. This year we hosted forty five writers.
On Read This, each and every one of them an unmitigated delight. We couldn't be more grateful to them for their company, for their generosity and their wisdom. And you can catch up on the archive of those episodes anytime.
That can be your company on the long road trip ahead, or maybe when you're cleaning the house after you've gotten rid of the relatives and you're munching on leftovers, and not just hours of excellent listening to the Read This archive, but once you're done, you can go to the audio version of the books we discussed. You'll be spoiled for choice. So if you need one more recommendation before the year
is done. Maybe there's a Christmas gift you've forgotten. Maybe you're just thinking about your own book list for those days off. We've invited some of our supremely well read guests from this year to offer their advice for summer reading.
Hello, my name's Briany Doyle, and it was wonderful to be a guest of read this in twenty twenty four, the year of novels that are both thought provoking and titillating. So my recommendations for the summer are The Safe Keep by Yale Van der Wooden and All Fours by Miranda July. I say picked the first if you want racy historical content and the second if you want to stay in
the racy present. Both are queer, smart page turners with important social implications for a summer that will be hot yet deeply engaged.
I hope you enjoy my.
Bruce Pasco and my favorite book for the year was Time's Monster by Preyasatia.
This is a work of genius. Hi, my name's Melanie Chang. And last Christmas, I was engrossed in Jumna Kasab's book The Lovers I just adored it. I would love to be encountering it again for the first time this summer holiday. It is fable like magical, but it was also brimming with truth about love across the life cycle, good and bad. I just think Yumna is one of the smartest writers working in Australia today. I highly recommend it. You won't be disappointed.
I'm Robbie Onnatt and my summer reading recommendation is Deep Water by James Bradley my loyal li Lay. My name's Winnie Dunn and I'm the author of dirt Porn Islanders. My summer reading recommendation is The Tribe by Michael Muhammad Ahmad, who is my dear friend. The Tribe, in its anniversary edition, which was published this year, is about members of a small Muslim sect who fled to Australia just before the
Civil War in Lebanon. So it really is a book that speaks to our times, despite the fact it was published ten years ago. What I really love about The Tribe is that he focuses on three generations of an extended family, as seen through the eyes of one of its youngest Offsprings, a child named Banni Adam so the tribe is short and sweet and perfect for summer reading.
Of fwato Hi.
I'm Claire right, and twenty twenty four has been a big year for me, with the completion of my Democracy trilogy, which I've been working on for over two decades, with the publication of the final installment, Knaku Darruk, and what I'm looking forward to diving into this summer is appropriately a trilogy, and that Frank Moore House's The Edith Trilogy. I can't quite believe that I've never managed to get
to these books. So many people would have expected that it would be right up my alley and that I would have taken to them like a duck to water. But instead of continuing to mix my metaphors, I'm just going to start reading them top to bottom, and I think it's going to be a very happy summer's worth of reading.
A happy summer to you too.
What a treat.
A big thank you once again to all our guests from this year. One of the reasons this show is so much fun to make is that the best writers are always terrific readers themselves. It's the books we love, the stories behind them, the authors we love and the stories they read themselves. So just to finish up for a different flavor of summer, there's a poem that I
go back to this time of year without fail. It's by the late glorious genius John Clark, who put together a collection called The even More Complete Book of Australian Verse. The book took us its central conceit the idea that the world's great poets were all actually Australian and they're best understood through that lens. It's both an absolutely pitch perfect literary satire, but also they're gorgeous palms in their
own right. The John Clark version of Dylan Thomas. He calls Dylan Thompson and introduces him as a martyr to the terps, who often woke in unfamiliar circumstances and attempted to catch the speech rhythms of the sea. Here's John reading that poem. I think it's glorious.
A child's Christmas in Warnamball. One Christmas was so like another in those years around the sea town corner now that I can never remember whether it was one hundred and six degrees in nineteen fifty three or whether it was one hundred and three degrees in nineteen fifty six, all the Christmases roll into one down the wave, roaring salt,
squinting years of yester boy. My hand goes into the fridge of imperishable memory, and outcome salads and sunburned lotions, the brief exuberant hiss of beer being opened, and a laugh of wet haired youths around a zephyr six, the smell of insect repellent and eucalyptus, and the distant, constant, slowly listless bang of the flywire door and resting on a forour micer altar waiting for Ron, the biggest pav in the world, a magic pav, a cut and come again pav for all the children in all the towns
across the wide brown bee, humming trout fit, sheep rich two horse country, and the ants always, the ants in
the kitchen. On the black and white photograph beach of the past, playing out the rope to a shared childhood, caught in the undertow and drifting, and some numerous uncles wondering occasionally why they weren't each other, coming around the letterbox to an attacking field in the test match and being driven handsomely by some middle order nephew skipping down the vowel flattening pitch and putting the ball into the tent flaps on the first of puberty.
Thank you so much for listening to the final episode of Read This for twenty twenty four. The show will be back every Thursday starting January sixteenth, and you'll be able to catch it on Sundays here on seven am each week after that. As always, if you want to dive further into read This, you can search for it wherever you listen to podcasts. There are more than seventy episodes in the archive for you to enjoy. Happy holidays, See you next year.