Vroom by the Sea by Peter Moore - Australian edition

An entertaining read about an enchanting part of Italy not always covered in travel books.

In line with Travel Tuesday (#traveltuesday) on Twitter, Wandergurl will be reviewing a travel book once a month.

Peter Moore is one of my favourite travel writers. I discovered him on a trip to Sydney in 2002, prompting me to return home with all his books at that time. He’s exceedingly funny and has a tendency to get himself into hilarious situations. When I found out that this book was released on Kindle, I just had to get it.

This book is a sequel of sorts to Vroom with a View, a book he wrote about travelling around Italy on a Vespa for his 40th birthday. This time around he takes a Vespa around southern Italy, partly to contemplate his impending fatherhood. There’s no need to read the previous book, as lord knows I didn’t remember much of it before reading this one. He does a good job of explaining any previous references.

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This article is based on notes and a memory that will possibly be needing gingko biloa soon. Please do not take everything here as gospel; I tried to quote when I could, and paraphrased when I couldn’t.

I have to admit, I’ve never actually read Anthony Bourdain (most famous book: Kitchen Confidential). I’ve seen his shows and particularly enjoyed his episode on the Philippines, where he ate balut (duck embryo—don’t ask me why) and generally looked like he was having a good time. I had never, before booking this event, ever heard of A A Gill, but enjoyed his sharp wit so much that I went out and bought his book, Here & There: collected travel writing, right after.

Bourdain and Gill were speaking at the Food Fighters panel as part of the Sydney Writers Festival. The panel was facilitated by Sydney celebrity chef Tony Bilson. It was not an easy job to facilitate conversation, but Bilson was able to keep two strong personalities back on track despite the risk of distraction. I’ve done my best to categorise their discussion as they tended to jump about a bit. I’m sure that based on the title alone you can tell that most of it will be about food!

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Mea culpa

I apologise for the silence on the blog for the past few weeks. Life away from blogging got very busy very suddenly, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to finish off our Aussie Author posts. However, I will be making up for it by posting the remaining author quickies over the coming months. (It will be impossible for me to sustain the pace we kept in April!)

So from next week, new posts should be going up again, and we’ll be announcing the giveaway winners from April.

Melbourne book blogger meet-up

Marg over at The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader is organising the first ever Melbourne book blogger meet-up. Bloggers, tweeters, authors and any other bookish people are welcome to come along.

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If you’ve ever met Paula Roe, you’d remember it. She’s one of the bubbliest authors I’ve ever met and can talk a mile a minute. (Check out Decadence’s recap of a library talk that Paula did earlier this year.) She designs websites, and you may have seen some of her work without knowing it (such as websites for Anna Campbell, ARRA and Bronwyn Jameson).

She was a 2009 R*BY finalist and has won the Australian Romance Readers Award for Favourite Category Romance two years in a row. She writes for Mills and Boon (Desire), but I’m told she’s ‘also writing a bunch of other stuff—space opera/fantasy, romantic comedy, historical…’

Her latest book, Promoted To Wife? is set in Queensland, and has just been released in Australia as part of the 2011 Mother’s Day gift selection pack.

Website: www.paularoe.com
Social networks: Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
Genre: Category contemporary romance
Latest release: Promoted To Wife?

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Christine Darcas is a freelance writer, novelist and Dancesport competitor. She is also the reigning Queen of Bling after blowing the competition away with her gorgeous ballroom dancing gown at the ARR Awards last month.

Christine has written two novels, Dancing Backwards in High Heels and Spinning Out, both of which draw on her experiences as a dancer.

Website: www.christinedarcas.com
Social networks: Goodreads
Genre: Women’s commercial fiction (but often referred to as Chick lit)
Latest release: Spinning Out

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Border Watch by Helene Young (formerly called Border Watch)

In which we discover that an Aussie book by a real Aussie does not include the words ‘fair dinkum’.

You can probably tell that I haven’t read many Aussie authored novels. Or, if I have, I didn’t really know they were. Or they weren’t set here (or in this era!). Most of my Australian based romances came in category form, where characters lived in the outback, were written by Americans, said ‘ass’ instead of ‘arse’ (Kat’s mega pet peeve) and said ‘fair dinkum’ a hell of a lot. Now, there’s nothing wrong with ‘fair dinkum,’ but honestly I think I have heard it fewer times than the number of years I have been in this country.

Wings of Fear was nothing like the stereotypical category romance I read growing up, proving that if you want to write about Australia, you really do need an Aussie to get it right.

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Photo: www.karlylane.com

Karly Lane was a panellist at ARRC 2011, and Allen & Unwin has just released her latest Australian rural fiction novel, North Star. The book is also featured in the Get Reading! campaign’s list of 50 Books You Can’t Put Down.

Lane is the alter ego of romance author Karlene Blakemore-Mowle, whose romantic suspense books are published by The Wild Rose Press. She also has an Australian contemporary romance published by Eternal Press under this pseudonym.

Website: www.karlylane.com
Social networks: Blog
Genre: Romantic suspense, Rural lit
New release: North Star (16/4/2011)

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Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal’s Journey from Down Under to All Over by Geraldine Brooks

A lovely if at times a bit sad armchair read if you’re looking for a bit of recent history and adventure.

In line with Travel Tuesday (#traveltuesday) on Twitter, I’ll be reviewing a travel book once a month, since I read so many and love them so much. Fortunately, Australians love to travel, so there’s no shortage of books to choose from for Aussie Author Month.

Geraldine Brooks grew up in a sleepy neighbourhood in Sydney without a car, without ever making an international phone call or getting on a plane. To explore the world from her house she made pen pals and wrote to people from New Jersey, France, Israel and even not so far away in the Eastern Suburbs. Later in life, she decided to meet them all.

This story isn’t just about Brooks—who later became a foreign war correspondent—meeting her pen pals and finding out what became of them, but it is also a capsule of history of what Sydney was like in the 60s and 70s when she was growing up.

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Jess Dee is a Sydney-based erotic romance author, whose work is published by Samhain and Aspen Mountain Press. She won the Australian Romance Readers Award for Favourite Erotic Romance in 2010 for Raising The Stakes, a novella from her Three Of A Kind series. The next book in the series, Full House, was released last week.

Website: www. jessdee.com
Social networks: Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Down Under Divas
Genre: Erotic romance
Latest release: Full House (Three Of A Kind, Book 3)

Where you do your best writing

In my office, in my house, when I’m all alone. I’m at my most creative in my own space.

Favourite thing in your writing space

My Mac. Hands down the best writing tool ever.

Best food and/or beverage to accompany a good read

A big mug of hot, strong, milky tea.

One thing you would never do in the name of research

LOL, I  write erotic romance. There’s a whole heap of stuff I wouldn’t do in the name of research. Suffice it to say, as far as research goes, the internet is a wonderful place.

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A weekly round-up of Aussie Author Month activity around teh interwebs.

This week has been a bit slow at Book Thingo—my fault entirely as I haven’t been able to keep up with the reading, blogging, editing and link compilations—but Aussie Author Month continues to grow, with more reviews and contests around the blogosphere.

At Book Thingo, we reposted Decadence’s review of Border Watch by Helene Young. This book won the Australian Romance Readers Award for Favourite Romantic Suspense in 2010. I also posted my much-delayed Mixed Bag for April, which features a variety of Aussie Authors that we haven’t previously reviewed at Book Thingo.

Next week, look out for loads of author quickies—I have a backlog of them to get through and they will all be posted in April, so it’s going to be a busy fortnight. Also look out for book giveaways courtesy of some fabulous Aussie authors.

Fundraising total: $211.50

Again, a quick reminder that, as part of Aussie Author month, we’re also promoting the Indigenous Literacy Project. I encourage you to support them in whatever way you can. If you’d like to make a donation, you may do so via Go Fundraise and help us reach our goal of $1000 by the end of the month.

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