Stasiland

I have heard Anna Funder be interviewed a few times and so have been wanting to read Stasiland for some time, and this month it came up in my Once Were Wallabies book club as our non-fiction pick. In a nutshell, I found the stories within its pages very compelling.

Stasiland tells the stories of people who lived in East Germany during the time of Communism, i.e. before the Wall fell. The Stasi were, essentially, the East German spies who would hire informers, monitor the public, and essentially stop any dissidents or people trying to escape. I was only ten years old when the Berlin Wall fell, and although I knew it was something significant, I obviously didn't understand the magnitude of the event, and I certainly didn't comprehend how the German people behind that wall lived, nor how it even came to be there. I know, completely ignorant of me, but in school our European History studies stopped at World War II, and it's only now in my adult life that I've taken more of an interest in world affairs.

I believe this was Anna Funder's first book, and for me, it shows, as I struggled with the tense she chose for the book and didn't think it was particularly well written. What she does well, though, is explore East Germany from a number of different angles. Not only does she speak with people who lived under the Stasi and who had their lives drastically changed by them, but she also seeks out some ex-Stasi workers and tells their stories too. I also loved the analysis at the end of the book, where some Germans speak about how some things were actually better before the Wall fell. Having this 'bigger picture' to the events is what made this book so compelling.

Stasiland by Anna Funder - 3.5 out of 5 stars!

Stasiland by Anna Funder

Favourite things?

One of my friends has started a blog recently (thecookingchook) and amongst her cooking posts has started to list some of her favourite things. This got me thinking that I can't seem to pick favourites lately, apart from my favourite colour (which is purple, by the way). With other things like movies, music, and TV shows, I struggle to even limit what I like into a Top 10 list, because I invariably forget about something I used to love but might not have watched or listened to for a while, and then I have to re-do the list but find I end up with a whole heap.

Actually, that's not entirely true for movies. My favourite film has been and always will be Stand By Me, with Labyrinth a close second. I can't imagine those ever being removed from my Top 2 movies, because they meant so much to me as a child and have carried with them a lot of sentimental value, and I can still sit down and enjoy them, even if I don't laugh as much as I once did while watching them. But beyond those two, the other films are a jumbled mess because it's just too hard to choose.

I've now found the same with trying to reconcile my favourite book. Since its publication in 2005, The Bride Stripped Bare took its spot as my favourite book. I have read it more than any other book and at the time I first read it, it really spoke to me. I re-read it last year and found that, although I still loved some parts of it, I didn't think it was that great and was a bit sloppy in parts. This year I've read quite a few fantastic books which I think are far more worthy of becoming my new favourite, but I simply can't choose one. I think The Bride Stripped Bare might be out of favour though, although I'm sure it'll always hold a special place. But I simply can't be asked to narrow my books into a Top 5 or Top 10 list, it's just too hard!

Freedom

I originally started reading this novel about a year ago, but then stopped at around 300 pages in. I can't actually remember why; I don't think it was because I wasn't enjoying the book, but I think I probably just borrowed something else from the library or from a friend, then got distracted with my studies, and so Freedom by Jonathan Franzen sat on my side table with bookmark in place, waiting for its turn to come around again. I knew, though, that I'd enjoyed what I'd read up to that point, because I wanted other people to read it too, and so I picked it for my work book club.

This month it came up as one of our selections, so I decided to start from the beginning again, and I'm glad I did because there were some key elements of the story I'd forgotten about in the last twelve months. To explain what Freedom is about is difficult, because it isn't strictly about anything. What it does is picks what seems to be a typical American contemporary family and follows their story as their picture of perfection starts to crack and crumble.

I feel like a broken record as I've been reading so many great books lately, but I loved it. I can see this kind of story isn't for everybody, as some readers might want faster development, or find the characters really unlikeable, but the story really spoke to me. Patty is a neurotic mother, quick to find faults in others, laughs at people's expense, but deep down is just hurting and wants some of her love reciprocated. Walter loves her so incredibly much and yet seems to be not good enough for her, so focuses his passions instead on his environmental work. Each of their children are so incredibly different and messed up in their own way, and then there's Richard, Walter's life long friend, who intersects the story now and then, creates a mess and then leaves again.

One of my fellow book clubbers said that when she stopped reading it she missed the characters. That's a perfect way of summing up this book for me, too, as I feel like I know each of them intimately, and as the number of pages left to read dwindled, the more I didn't want the book to end.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen - 5 out of 5 stars!

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

My personal journey

As my 30's kick on, the importance of family, close friends, being comfortable in my own skin, and being happy in my career, have definitely been magnified. 2012 has already been a year of self-reflection and self-discovery, and I'm sure that will continue. To that end, I try each day to be a good wife. Our inability to conceive is constantly on my mind though, and to be honest makes me feel like less of a woman. I just hope something can be done about it soon,so we can continue our journey towards a family. In the meantime, we'll keep going to these appointments with doctors and specialists and I'm trying to stay positive, but it's hard.

I'm desperately trying to be better to my family; my sister is now in Tasmania and I miss her terribly, and I need to learn more patience when I speak to her and appreciate the time we have to talk to her more.

I seem to be perpetually studying although am brilliant at procrastinating. I truly hope one day I'll get to write and work in the communications sector, but at this stage I can't see how I can afford a career change, and so I continue my studies without a real plan, but with a very real dream.

Financially, things haven't improved a great deal in the last year, although now I do have a strict budget which is a positive step forward. A lotto win wouldn't go astray though ;)

There's so much more going on but that seems enough reflection for one morning. I tell you, this personal journey definitely doesn't seem to slow down even as priorities change.

The Kingmaker's Daughter

I recently finished reading The Kingmaker's Daughter, a work of historical fiction by Philippa Gregory, probably best known for books in the Tudor series such as The Other Boleyn Girl. Although I have collected a lot of Philippa's books over the years (after all, I have over 230 books in my bookshelves yet to be opened once), this was the first one I've actually read and I must say I was quite impressed and can see why she's so popular.

In this novel, Philippa has taken the era of the Cousins' War, or War of the Roses, and has written about events leading to the crowning of Edward IV and Richard III through the eyes of Richard's eventual wife, Anne Neville. No prior knowledge of this time in history is required (I certainly didn't have any, seeing as I only have vague notions of Richard III); the story can be enjoyed just as it's written, and perhaps, for historical fiction, that's the better way, as then the reader doesn't come into the novel with any expectations due to their prior knowledge.

Philippa writes beautifully and has a way of describing place so well that your imagination can soar and picture everything described perfectly - the castles, the court, the dresses, the customs... The story itself started off very strongly and started out as a real page turner, but for me it then slowed towards the end and became a little repetitive. It grew a little tiring reading for pages on end about the paranoia felt by Anne and her family, and about how Elizabeth was a suspected witch. It got to the stage where it felt like I was reading the same chapter over and over as the pace slowed and became more of the same.

Overall though it was a well-told story and I'd recommend it to anyone who's even remotely interested in historical kings and queens of England. They all seem just that bit messed up ;)

The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory - 3.5/5 stars

The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory

2013 Adelaide Festival

In yesterday's mail, I received the program for the 2013 Adelaide Festival. Traditionally, I have only been able to get to Adelaide Writers' Week which forms only a part of the festival, but this year as I happily leafed through my guide, I discovered a number of shows I would love to attend. In no particular order, these are:

• The free opening night concert with Neil Finn and Paul Kelly - Oh. My. God!!!
• Nosferatu
• Kamp
• Murder - inspired by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' Murder Ballads, you say? Say no more!
• Goran Bregovic and the Weddings and Funerals Orchestra - love this kind of music. Reminds me of home.
• Into the Bloodstream - Archie Roach, you legend.
• Van Dyke Parks - with special guests including Daniel Johns! Oh. My. God!!!
• Unsound Adelaide - 3 shows to choose from. Decisions, decisions, or a season pass to all 3.
• Australian String Quartet - this will be beautiful.
• Turner from the Tate - to mix a bit of art with my theatre and music.
• Adelaide Writers' Week - would not miss this for the world.

So, apart from Adelaide Writers' Week and the free opening night concert, I will obviously have to make some decisions about what I want to see the most as I simply can't afford to go to everything. It will be hard to choose. Even while writing this short blog post and flicking through the program again, I found a couple of other shows I wouldn't mind seeing but have refrained from adding them yet.

If you'd like to see what else is on offer, you can download the program and perhaps find something for you. Or, you could help me decide...