The Hate U Give

I don't think it's hyperbole to call The Hate U Give the YA book of 2017. It was at number one on the New York Times Best Seller list for more than six months, and I don't think it has fallen below #2 since. It has deservedly won lots of awards already and two categories of the Goodreads Reader Awards 2017. I read it in August/September last year because I was going to seeAngie Thomas speak at Melbourne Writers Festival.

The Hate U Give is the story of Starr Carter who lives in a poor black area, Garden Heights, but attends a predominantly white school across town. Her life straddles the divide between the two. 

As long as I play it cool and keep to myself, it should be fine. The ironic thing is though, at Williamson I don't have to "play it cool" - I'm cool by default because I'm one of the only black kids there. I have to earn coolness in Garden Heights, and that's more difficult than buying retro Jordans on release day. 

Early on in the book Starr witnesses her best friend Khalil be shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop.

Khalil stares at the sky as if he hopes to see God. His mouth is open like he wants to scream. I scream loud enough for the both of us. 

The rest of the book is about the fallout and repercussions of Khalil's murder. 

The Hate U Give is a really powerful story and addresses the issues of race, drugs, poverty and injustice for black people in America really well, but I was surprised that the American gun culture wasn't really addressed specifically. 

"Always some shit," he mumbles. "Can't have a party without somebody getting shot."

Starr is 16 and she's seen two of her friends shot. Outside of a war zone I can only imagine one country where this is even possible. 

When I was twelve, my parents had two talks with me. One was the usual birds and bees...... The other talk was about what to do if a cop stopped me. 

Momma fussed and told Daddy I was too young for that. He argued that I wasn't too young to get arrested or shot. 

Wow, that is a talk that I would never even had considered with my son. Or that it could ever be necessary. But for Starr, and all the black kids like her, it is. 

I'm used to gun shots, but these are louder, faster.

In this PBS interview Angie talks about how she set out to make the political personal, and that growing up in Mississippi she didn't she any authors who looked like her. Angie Thomas has written a moving Author's Note at the end of the book outlining her motivations to tell this story, and its origins as a  short story she wrote at university. Angie learned of Emmett Till when she was a young girl, but half a world away I've only heard of him in the past few years. Of course young black American men are still being killed in extraordinary numbers and in extraordinary circumstances. Black Lives do Matter. 

Because of my advanced age there were a number of pop culture references that puzzled me.  Right from the first page "Some rapper calls out for everybody to Nae-Nae.." So I texted Master Wicker. He knows it of course, and is mortified by my asking. "It's so horrible and so old". Ah yes, so old, so 2015. There was a bit of vocabulary that made me feel old and out of touch from time to time, but it in no way interfered with my enjoyment of the story, even if it did sound like another language at times! And I'm clearly not the only parent confused by such things.

I'm somewhat mortified that it has taken me so long to finish this post, but am glad of the push from #Femmeuary to get it done. 

Eat Melbourne 2017 Edition

It's no secret that I love Melbourne. I've had a wonderful relationship with Melbourne since 1987 when I lived there for a year. These days I try to visit as often as I can. Often I get there for Melbourne Writers Festival, one of my very favourite times of the Melbourne year. And so it was again this year. And once again I ate out for the entire ten days.

It's always a cracking pace in Melbourne and within hours of landing I was at the Sofitel for bubbles. Comme d'habitude. 

After dinner elsewhere we were back for more bubbles and some some fantastic back of house leftovers from a function (the perks of friends in high places).

The next morning, rather predictably, we were once again at Shark Fin House in Little Bourke St for yum cha. There was much deliciousness consumed.

Excuse my bad photo, but these are fab-
a definite favourite
lotus root and seafood

Saturday night was a dinner at Philippe. A return visit for the beautifully tasteful French food. 

Prawn in brik pastry. Amazing. 

Cassoulet. Robust and gorgeous

Ouef a la neige, hazelnut praliné,
vanilla bean sauce anglaise
Transcendental

Many of my Melbourne excursions consist of Another Day, Another Yum Cha, but this time there was sadly only two. Another visit to Tim Ho Wan. There may have been more than two dishes...

I'd been aware of Supernormal for some time, but had never managed to fit in a visit. This time I made certain I did.  I was by myself this evening, and had a fabulous light dinner at the bar. Hip Melbourne eateries don't have great lighting, excuse my poor low light photography skills. I need to go back in a group to sample many more things.

A scallop special
Delicate and extraordinary 

The legendary Lobster Roll
brought back memories of my childhood,
sweet fresh crab sandwiches
 made with crabs caught that day by my grandfather

Pan fried pot sticker dumplings
Supernormal is very accomodating for solo diners
I had 3 dumplings not the usual serve of 5

Naturally I fell in the door of Chin Chin once, or more likely, twice. It's very hip in there, so naturally lighting is difficult whatever the time of day. These two are my absolute favourite dishes (even though I'm far from having eaten my way through the menu), and my meal always consists of these with other things depending on the number of diners. 

Son in Law Eggs with Broccolini,
Herb Salad and Chilli Jam

Pad Seuw of Braised Wagyu Beef
Gai Laan, Rice Noodles and
Crispy Shallots

Chin Chin has just recently opened in Sydney to much excitement. It will be quite some time before I get there, but hope they have the eggs and beef on the menu.  

Most mornings I breakfasted at Bowery to Williamsburg in Oliver Lane. I discovered it last year, and just love it. It's convenient to where I stay, and has fabulous food and great staff. I've worked my way through much of the breakfast menu over multiple visits. 

Corn and sweet potato hash
with bonus thumb

One of my favourite breakfasts, I had this a few days.
Lox and potato latkes

Sour cherries on porridge. Oh my. So very good.
The apple, pecan and cinnamon helped too.

I absolutely fell in love with the
Spiced Hot Apple Tea

One morning I ventured forth to Higher Ground, a super hip cafe at the Spencer St end of Little Bourke St. There is often a queue. The food was worth it, the service a bit hit and miss. 

Avocado, seed cracker,
macadamia feta, mojo verde
poached eggs, toasted and fresh seaweed
So many phytonutrients!
With a side of Berkshire bacon-incredible. 

Other new experiences this year included:

The hunt for Butterbing was more exhaustive than I anticipated, but I finally found some at a cool cafe called Kinfolk, that looked well worth checking out at another time. 

They may have looked better before
 being smooshed in my bag for the day

You can only walk past these so many times without succumbing, both to temptation and curiosity. 

I was lucky and got a still molten glaze... 

I sought the sage advice from Agathé 

and had a magnificent Paris style chausson aux pommes for breakfast before I popped into The House of Dior show at NGV (which is totally incredible. Stop what you're doing right now and GO)

Naturally I experienced the full gamut of Melbourne weather in my 10 days or so in the city. One morning in particular you could feel the wind coming off the Antarctic, and yet after I spent 5.5 hours in The House of Dior (what did I say? It's jaw dropping. GO!) it was so warm that I was compelled to have a gelato whilst wandering about at Southbank. 

Gingerbread and banana

I wandered into Doughboys a little late in the day one day and many of the deliciousness was already sold out. Pandan seemed to be a thing this year. I didn't have it so I can't report back. I was sad that whatever the meringue spiked delight in the middle was was sold out. Still I consoled myself with French Toast. 

I discovered that my friends were holding back on knowledge of Jimmy Grants. 

Mr Popadopolous may not look much here
but that slow cooked lamb is incredible
fall apart incredible

I ventured into the suburbs a few times this trip (some trips I barely leave Flinders Lane), and it was worthwhile, for the company and the food. Ayam Chef is a Malaysian restaurant in South Melbourne. 

Fried Kueh Teow always my favourite
-those rice noodles...

Beef Rendang with Roti- best ever Roti. 

One night I made a long awaited trip to the Valley Cellardoor at Moonee Ponds. 

The rather incredible Mushroom and Brie pizza,
the Bress pinot was also fabulous

During my Melbourne visit I was limbering up for my Steptember adventures, so I walked out to Collingwood one day to visit the Australian outpost of Parisian boulanger Gontran Cherrier. They have somehow evaded my grasp in Paris, but Collingwood was on the list for this visit. I've been meaning to get there since they opened of course. 

Lovely flaky croissants

The sadly for next time
pain au chocolat

I was very intrigued by the squid ink bread,
but it too fell in the next time basket

There may have been some pastries of deliciousness consumed that night in Moonee Ponds, but there's no photos so perhaps it didn't really happen. 

See my previous Eat Melbourne adventures. 

Eat Melbourne 2016 Yum Cha and Dumpling Edition

Eat Melbourne 2015 My Paris Day in Melbourne

Eat Melbourne 2014

Saturday Snapshot is a wonderful weekly memenow hosted by WestMetroMommy

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking
a fabulous weekly meme at BethFishReads

Supporting Marriage Equality in Melbourne

Australia is in the midst of a divisive, completely unnecessary and non-binding postal vote on whether we should adopt Marriage Equality. (You may guess from that opening that I voted Yes. Yes I did) When I was in Melbourne recently for Melbourne Writers Festival 2017 it was in the lead-up to the ballot being mailed out. 

I was rather astonished, and very pleased, at all the widespread support in Melbourne for the Yes vote. Marriage Equality doesn't need to be divisive. The Yes vote can bring together church and state (well, city). 

The church where my
great-great-great grandparents
were married in the 1840s

The City of Melbourne supports Marriage Equality night and day. 

and in the gloaming

Lots of businesses were supporting the Yes vote. 

The people, the community support Equality and the Yes vote. 

In amongst this rainbow of support I only saw the occasional dissenting No. 

Please vote Yes Australia. 

Saturday Snapshot is a wonderful weekly memenow hosted by WestMetroMommy

Melbourne Writers Festival 2017 - The Books

Whenever readers go away the first thing we always do is pick our holiday TBR. We do this long before thinking about what clothes or other sundry items we might need to pack. Even if we're going to a readers festival, where we absolutely know that we will buy more books, we pack books to take with us. 

And so I did. 

A mere five books. I'm getting better though. Last year I took six. And this year it was all MWF themed reads, books for authors I hoped to see. I managed to read 2.5 of them, and had 4 signed.

This year I decided to share my book buying love around Melbourne. I was also on a bit of a quest to visit some new bookshops. My recent fondness for certain corners of book tube has obviously had quite an effect on my book buying habits. 

My first visit was to Hill of Content, obviously not a new destination for me. I bought two books, but one is a present, and still a surprise so not included here. 

Next it was The Paperback Bookshop, a small gem near Hill of Content. For some inexplicable reason I'd never managed to darken the door. This time I did and came aware with a positively restrained three books. 

Then my first visit to the Readings Festival Bookshop was similarly restrained, just two books added to my smallish stack. I had been planning to by The Hate U Give as part of my MWF purchases, and so it was this day. I wasn't expecting to buy Dark Roots, but I have a burgeoning interest in short story (especially Australian short story) and remembered that this was very well thought of. 

One day I popped into Bourke St Book Grocer, a discount chain where books are $10 or less (or 6 for $50, but look how good I was- I stopped at 3!)

Soon after the downfall really started. I stumbled down the stairs of City Basement Books on Flinders St, a great second hand bookstore. I found some long sought after books for my 1001 quest. 

Then the next day I went back to get another six books that I had rather sensibly checked if I already owned. 

At this stage I knew that I needed an intervention. So I mailed 4 kilos of books home knowing that I still had some festival buying to go. I'd planned to buy the top three of these books, but the bottom two were a little surprise. There are of course more festival books that I will buy over time, I just won't be able to get them signed.

All was then going extremely well (I think over 24 hours had passed without me buying any books whatsoever!) and then I had two hours to wait at Central Station in Sydney. I tried going to White Rabbit Gallery in nearby Chippendale, but it was a Monday, and so they were shut. Nothing for it then and I was off like the proverbial white rabbit down the hole to Basement Books. And oh my- I did some damage...

And wouldn't you know it? I got home and two books had arrived while I was away!

Now if you'll excuse me I've got some reading to do.