I was listening the other day to a podcast from Pinky's Paperhaus, (I think it was with Tod Goldberg) and Pinky made the point that she had decided to take a book along when she was invited to someone's house for dinner. Her rationale was that she didn't know much about wine but she did know a bit about literature. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me. And if you're going to do that why not take along an Australian novel or collection of stories.
Here's a few suggestions:
Drown Them in the Sea by Nicholas Angel
Surrender by Sonya Hartnett
Sixty Lights by Gail Jones
Black Juice by Margo Lanagan
The White Earth by Andrew McGahan
Lost by Michael Robotham
The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
You should be able to find something there that anyone will like. A bit different, and it'll help to break the ice and get the conversation started. And, come on, we all drink too much at this time of year, don't we?
