Wow - one of the Summer Read books, Addition, is has been featured in the Unshelved Book Club…

The full review is here.

I am a card-carrying member of Hopeless Romantics, Inc. Always have been, for as long as I can remember. I have been hopelessly in love with, in vaguely chronological order:  Donny Osmond, James Reyne, Simon Le Bon, Han Solo (NOT Harrison Ford), Colin Firth (der)…well, the list goes on. I almost failed out of uni in my first year because I was utterly unable to concentrate on anything other than the sound of my own breathing if sitting next to a boy. Even now, well into my forties, I  blush a sensational red if a handsome man kisses me on the cheek, even in the most brotherly fashion. (I blame my many years of girls-only convent education. Those nuns have a lot to answer for.) So it was only natural that anything I write should include a love story.

Many of my favourite novels are love stories. Fiona Capp’s Musk & Byrne (also on the summer reading list) is a recent favourite, and two of my all-time beloved books are A.S. Byatt’s Possession, and the incomparable Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda. I also adore Pride and Prejudice, Much ado about nothing and Dorothy Sayer’s marvellous Gaudy night. So, with so many wonderful romance novels, why do books about love get such a bad wrap? Often in interviews I’m asked if Addition is ‘chick lit’, as if I’m expected to defend my writing against that kind of label. But as far as I can understand, ‘chick lit’ isn’t about the subject matter—it means ‘written for and marketed to young women’ (according to Wikipedia). I don’t think Addition meets either of those criteria. But if I reply: no, Addition isn’t chick lit, I feel like I’m criticising books that are, or worse, that I’m looking down my nose at young women readers. I’m caught in a Seinfeld sketch: I’m not a chick lit writer. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

But the label chick lit does imply that exclusivity, and I’ve had many kind comments about Addition from people of all ages and all walks of life: from the elderly retired male engineer who was delighted the world hadn’t forgotten about Nikola Tesla, to the female sufferer of obsessive compulsive disorder in her fifties who was so excited that someone understood.

My mother always said I’d get over being in love with love, but I haven’t yet. As Brother Arvide says in Guys and Dolls: Why would anyone wanna get over the thing you hope for from the minute you’re born and remember till the day you die? It seems such a short time ago that crime novels were simplistic whodunits. Now we have writers like Peter Temple and Shane Maloney who craft superbly written, intelligent and revealing stories about people, but the stories are based around a crime. Love stories can be just as terrific: think smart, sassy 1940s films starring Cary Grant or Katherine Hepburn, with sensational dialogue and important things to say.

Toni Jordan is next Summer Read author blogging from 6 – 10 December.

Toni Jordan has a BSc in physiology and qualifications in marketing and professional writing. She has worked as a sales assistant, molecular biologist, quality control chemist and marketing manager. Toni’s published work includes numerous magazine articles, a short story and a chapter in a medical textbook. She lives in Melbourne.

Her book Addition is one of the books on the Summer Read shortlist.

Addition tells the story of Grace Lisa Vandenburg, for whom numbers hold the world together. And so she counts. Everything. Seamus Joseph O’Reilly thinks she might be better off without the counting. She might be able to hold down a job, for example. Grace’s problem is that Seamus doesn’t count. Her other problem is…he does.

As part of the free Summer Read events across Victoria, Toni will be appearing at:

• Clayton Theatrette, Clayton Community Centre,
Cooke Street Clayton on Thursday 12 February 2009, 6.30 – 8.00 pm
For more information phone Clayton Library 9544 0668 or book online at http://summerread20.eventbrite.com

• Rosebud Library, McDowell St, Rosebud for morning tea on Valentines Day on Saturday 14 February 2009, 11.00 – 12.30 pm
For more information phone 5950 1230 or book online at http://summerread24.eventbrite.com

• Frankston Library, 60 Playne Street, Frankston for Cake and Champagne on Valentines Day, Saturday 14 February 2009, 2.00 – 4.00 pm
For more information phone 9784 1020 or book online at http://summerread23.eventbrite.com

What Toni says about summer reading

“Over summer I attack my teetering to-be-read pile, but also patch those embarrassing gaps in my reading history. This year will be Dickens (The Pickwick Papers and A Christmas Carol) and Eleanor Dark (A Timeless Land and Return to Coolami).”