Book Review

Guest User

18 April 2017

Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple

India has an ancient, diverse and complex culture of which most visitors can only hope to scratch the surface. William Dalrymple’s Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India (Bloomsbury 2009) takes readers beyond the surface and into the skin of nine different people seeking moksha or spiritual liberation. Dalrymple reveals the extraordinary commitment of these people in maintaining their faith and the often extreme rituals they perform in order to demonstrate their devotion. Nine Lives is a must-read for any traveller intending to visit India who would like to better understand this country’s exotic religious practices.

So much love in the room for @kkneen at the launch of their memoir Fat Girl Dancing @avidreader last night. @fionastager made two of her signature uniquely different cakes, these ones made with mushrooms! And @carodyc asked the best questions like she always does. A glorious celebration!♥️📚 #kriskneen #fatgirldancing #memior #avidreaderbookshop #booklaunch @text_publishing

What a wonderful and packed-full five days it was @briswritersfest! All credit to the whole BWF team and to all the volunteers who turn up year on year to help make things run smoothly. A big thank you to artistic director @jackieryan_inc, board members and the specialist curators for such an exciting program that enabled writers and readers to come together to share and celebrate ideas, stories and laughter. Legends! #bwf23 #writersfestival

Such a joyful celebration of the body last night @briswritersfest with @christinemjackman in conversation with @kkneen about their new memoir Fat Girl Dancing. And we did get to see them dance…Burlesque. So much fun. #kriskneen #fatgirldancing #burlesque #bwf23

The answer to what would have been a perfectly good question from @cassmoriarty is up there on the ceiling somewhere. Such a joy to share what was a funny and uplifting panel about secrets and grief with @emmagreyauthor @kylie.ladd and @charlottenashauthor @briswritersfest yesterday. #bwf23

Great start to @briswritersfest last night with @mirandiriwoe in conversation with @irvine.welsh👌

So many laughs and tons of love for this gorgeous woman @avidreader last night, and not just because of the cosplay. Meanjin/Brisbane gets to claim @dranitaheiss as our own but her books are loved by readers everywhere. These two are wickedly hilarious and sassy rom-coms that are also socially and politically astute. Perfect👌 #anitaheiss #notmeetingmrright #avoidingmrright #booklaunch #romcom #deadlyreads @simonschusterau

Only one week away to go till @statelibraryqld is a buzz of words and ideas for the 2023 @briswritersfest. And I’m very excited to be on a panel with these fantastic writers @emmagreyauthor @kylie.ladd and @charlottenashauthor as we talk about our novels, secrets and grief with the excellent moderator @cassmoriarty. Bookings for the event can be made via the link in my bio. #emmagrey #thelastlovenote #kylieladd #illleaveyouwiththis #charlottenash #twentysixletters #bwf23 #writersfestival

Caption this. I’ll start… “I’ve got you.” But who’s got who? Image description: two trees, one vertical, the other at forty-five degrees and leaning against the upright tree.

@briswritersfest has a program packed full of fabulous writers who will be bringing you stories and ideas that cover a broad range of subjects and scenarios. I’m thrilled to be chatting with @drrebeccaray and @norman.swan about that age old quandary: how to grow older better. They both offer antidotes for doing just that in their fascinating and informative books. So if you want the intel from two health experts on how, come along to our panel on Sunday 14 May at 10AM @statelibraryqld Bookings are essential and can be made at bwf.org.au #bwf23 #rebeccaray #smallhabitsforabiglife #normanswan #soyouwanttoliveyoungerlonger

What a special launch it was @avidreader last night. I could listen to Ellen van Neerven speak for hours about their writing and the many things that drive and inspire it and their latest book Personal Score sounds like the most extraordinary result of all that thinking. It encompasses memoir, reportage, interview, poetry, and much more as it explores sport through the lens of culture, identity, Country, climate change, family and love. In Ellen’s hands I just know I’m going to find a new love for the round-ball game as I experience it through their life and eyes. ⚽️⚽️ #ellenvanneerven #personalscore @uqpbooks Image description: #1 three people sitting on high stools in a courtyard. Each is wearing a different football jersey. #2 a person with dark hair and wearing a red football jersey is cutting a cake with a knife. #3 the cover of a book called Personal Score by Ellen van Neerven. The cover is a design of multi-coloured connected hexagons.

Sometimes you have to pause and look back to know where you’ve come from 🥾

Such a beautiful launch of this gem last night @avidreader bookshop. Such a diverse and accomplished writer, @sjreaders spoke candidly and movingly about the emotional and physical complexities of taking her 85-year-old mother to live on the Greek island of Kyrthera. Love in all its forms beats strongly throughout this memoir: tough love, conflicted love, the often fraught nature of mother-daughter love and love for a country and it’s people. Congratulations Susan! Can’t wait to dip into its pages ♥️📚 @allenandunwin #AphroditesBreath #memoir

Really looking forward to chatting with the authors of these three fantastic books at Brisbane Writers Festival on Sunday 14 May at 2:30pm. We’ll be talking about ‘Writing the Landscape’, plus so much more with these unique and compelling novels. @nestofpages @clairegcoleman @robbie_gc_arnott @briswritersfest #bwf23 #brisbanewritersfestival #ingasimpson #willowman #clairegcoleman #enclave #robbiearnott #limberlost Image description: three books, spine out on a timber table with green plants in the background. The books’ titles are Willowman by Inga Simpson, Limberlost by Robbie Arnott and Enclave by Claire G Coleman.

A sliver of moon 🌙 Image description: a sunrise sky with dark tree silhouette to the left and a thin sliver of moon in the sky.

I’m very excited to be presenting this 3-hour workshop for the Brisbane Writers Festival on Saturday 13 May from 10am - 1pm at State Library of Queensland. Then on Sunday I’ll be speaking with Robbie Arnott (Limberlost), Inga Simpson (Willowman) and Claire G Coleman (Enclave) about writing the landscape in their fabulous novels. Check out the 2023 BWF program for the many terrific panels on offer to suit all tastes and interests. Tix for the workshop and other sessions can be made through the link in my bio. #BWF2023 #naturewriting #writingworkshop @briswritersfest @statelibraryqld Image description: head and shoulder image of a woman with shirt, fair hair, with text beneath that reads Workshop, Sally Piper: Landscape Writing at Heritage Collections Learning Room on Saturday 13 May 2023.

Look up! Brisbane’s goa billboards are going to light up with writing prompts from @briswritersfest! Free tickets for BWF events up for grabs 🎟️🎟️ [Repost from bwf.org.au/2023-festival/challenge] At Brisbane Writers Festival, we have a story for you…but do you have one for us? As part of our partnership with goa billboards, we’re running a fifteen-day writing challenge to discover Brisbane’s next generation of wordsmiths. If you have a Hills Hoist haiku, a jacaranda jeremiad or some Proustian prose about Paddington, we’d love to read it. Keep an eye out for the daily writing prompts on our billboards, website and Twitter; publish to your socials and tag us; or send directly via the BWF website. We’ll publish our favourite pieces in a commemorative zine (available at the Festival), hot off the press and ready to stick to mum’s fridge for Mother’s Day. So ink your nibs, put on an unseasonal turtleneck and take to our glorious city streets – if you don’t get a sonnet out of it, you might get a date! #bwf2023

What a fantastic launch of the @briswritersfest program last night @statelibraryqld. And indeed it’s a program full of stories just for you! With a host of international and national luminaries all expertly curated across more than 160 events by indomitable artistic director @jackieryan_inc (pictured) and her team. Can’t wait!📚📚📚 #BWF23 #HaveWeGotAStoryForYou Image description: #1 a women with short dark hair wearing a sparkly top standing at a dais and before a green sign that reads Brisbane Writers Festival #2 is a red and yellow cover of a program book which has a variety of human caricatures in black and white amongst buildings. The text reads Brisbane Writers Festival Have We Got A Story For You.

Triptych 🍄🍄🍄 Image description: three pale fungi pressed together with brown leaves in the background.

I loved this coming-of-age story by @robbie_gc_arnott. Told from the viewpoint of 15-year-old Ned, a somewhat solitary lad, growing up during the uncertainties, loss and trauma of the Second World War. He lives on an orchid in Tasmania with his father and older sister and the story traverses a single summer but also a lifetime. On the surface Ned’s world seems small, both financially and geographically, but in truth it is made large by the beauty, comfort and escape he finds in the natural world, especially the river and bush near his home. Across the summer he shoots and traps rabbits, their pelts sold to make slouch hats for the men at war, which include his two older brothers. But there is an ulterior motive to Ned’s hunting beyond contributing to the war effort, which becomes a driving force of much of his self-discovery and the novel’s beauty. ♥️📚 #robbiearnott #limberlost #booksiloved @text_publishing Image description: the cover of a novel with an artist’s impression of a white-trunked tree with gold and green leaves and a gold-coloured boat in the foreground. Text on the cover in brown and green reads Limberlost and Robbie Arnott.

I'm really looking forward to being a part of the Maleny Film Festival this weekend at beautiful Maleny. Films begin as scripts and often those scripts have their origins in published books. I'll be on a panel talking about the adaptation experience to date for my novel THE GEOGRAPHY OF FRIENDSHIP with award-winning screenwriter Anthony Mullins and Maleny novelist and host of @outspoken_maleny Steven Lang. There are four feature films being screened across the festival weekend as well. Should be fun so come along if you can.📚🎥 Bookings can be made through the website below: https://malenyfilmsociety.au Image description: shoulder and head image of a man in an orange jacket with his arms spread wide and looking up. White text reads Maleny Film Festival 24-26 March, Four Takes on Writers at Work. @uqpbooks

Great start to @briswritersfest last night with @mirandiriwoe in conversation with @irvine.welsh👌

Caption this. I’ll start… “I’ve got you.” But who’s got who? Image description: two trees, one vertical, the other at forty-five degrees and leaning against the upright tree.