Books, Movies, TV Suggestions

AUSTRALIAN SPY MUSEUM

Members expressed interest when this was mentioned at the end of last month’s talk.

Founded by Mike Pritchard, the Australian Spy Museum is an idea in the making: a private collection of more than 1,500 items associated with espionage and spycraft.

It is the biggest collection in the southern hemisphere, with artefacts dating from the Renaissance to the digital age. There are hopes of a physical museum being built in Canberra, and a recent travelling exhibition was sponsored by ASIO.

In the meantime, see their website https://spymuseum.com.au or follow Australian Spy Museum on Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram.

Beverley Dunstan

BOOK: Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout (2024) – 326 pages – fiction

Small town America seethes with secrets. Ordinary people with ordinary lives hide so many stories. The author is an expert in this genre, having uncovered the secret lives of these people since 1998. In the process she has picked up a Pulitzer prize and been recognised as the number 1 New York Times bestselling author. This book fully supports her reputation and is unbelievably good for those who like fiction of this nature. From Olive at 90 through to Bob and Lucy at 65 and their parents, siblings, children , friends and enemies all is laid bare through their stories. This book is about ordinary people, who have survived Covid and seem to have extraordinary stories and back stories. The book unfolds through the stories they tell each other, so that very little happens – except a murder which, while the only action, is not really the central feature.

So read it if you like this author, who writes brilliantly about the people she knows, the settings inkwhich they live and the stories they tell. Not a word is wasted and the omissions and silences speakkvolumes. Read it also if you like the stories of ordinary people, brilliantly told. David Castle

TV recommendations - Barb Renshaw

7 Plus ABC Iview

1. North Shore (Set in Sydney, 6 episodes) 1. Too Close – Movie, stariing Emma Watson

SBS ON DEMAND

1. The Old Man (Series 2, 8 episodes)

2. Oxen (Swdish, Series 1, 6 episodes)

3. Code of Silence (6 episodes)

Code of Silence is also recommended by Mike and Jenny Ryan. It is is a British drama series about a deaf girl starring Rose Ayling-Ellis as Alison Brooks. Alison is a deaf catering worker who is recruited by police to use her lip-reading skills for a dangerous surveillance operation.