Free Book Wednesday!
Another FREE BOOK is up for grabs (Interested in free books? Why not check out the BookCrossing website for more information). This time, I'm offering The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson. If you'd like to read it, email me at jess(at)fushmush(dot)net and I'll send it your way.

Terms and Conditions: first in, first served. Feel free to journal book on BookCrossing. Feel free to share the book when you've finished it.

My BookCrossing activities mean that I get a lot of FREE BOOKS! (Interested in free books? Why not check out the BookCrossing website for more information). Abiding by the BookCrossing "Share my books with the world" ethos, I've decided to advertise books from my BookCrossing back catalog here on Free Book Friday.

Would you like to read The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier? The book has received some mixed reviews from others, but I found it to be a good read. Why don't you read it and judge it for yourself. If you'd like to read it, email me at jess(at)fushmush(dot)net and I'll send it your way.

Terms and Conditions: first in, first served. Feel free to journal book on BookCrossing. Feel free to share the book when you've finished it.

This month's BookCrossing meeting was held at The Australian Heritage Hotel in the Rocks. This is one of my favourite Sydney pubs; it has delicious food, great atmosphere and is centrally located. (Although the pub can be hard to find, as the Rocks is a bit of a maze. The trick is to use the Argyle stairs off Argyle Street.)
The Australian Hotel can be added to our list of "pubs with interesting bathrooms". In one toilet cubicle, in the women's facility, there is a statue hidden behind the toilet door. When I first entered this stall, it scared me half to death. I thought there was someone standing behind the door. I wonder if the staff at the Australian put it there on purpose to frighten their customers.

August's book recommendation:

• Rebecca . Daphne DuMaurier
  What a wonderful novel; I really loved this book. The young, shy narrator falls desperately in love with Max De Winter, a much older and wealthy widower. After a whirlwind romance they marry and return to his much lauded estate, Manderley. The new bride has to compete with the memory of Max's ex-wife Rebecca, who had been beautiful and sophisticated, the opposite of the dowdy and timid narrator. She also has to deal with the forbidding housekeeper, Mrs Danvers, who is utterly devoted to the memory of Rebecca. I particularly liked how the narrator remains anonymous to emphasise the contrast between her and the larger-than-life Rebecca. This is a fascinating tale of love and jealously, trust and betrayal. Anyone who enjoyed Jane Eyre will also love this novel. I can't believe it's the first time I've read this classic. One of my favourite reads from this year.

Conference Lesson 3: Happy Pride Day
On Saturday morning, the three M-skteers, the Divine Ms Em, the lovely Ms Michelle and me, Ms Mess had a very early breakfast in Brunswick and squeezed in a quick browse through Brunswick St. markets (Brunswick is Brisbane's Newtown equivalent). It was far too early in the morning, and neither Michelle nor I had had a good night's sleep. We were staying in the Palace Backpackers and seemed to be the only people who were interested in sleeping during the night. The other guests preferred to sleep when the sun was out. (We BookCrossers were the crotchety, old people who grumpily yelled "You kids keep it down! Some of us are trying to sleep!")

After breakfast, Michelle, Emma and I headed off to meet the other BXers at King George Square. Andrew has always said that BookCrossing is just a front for my lesbian activities (Apparently, all women are either lesbians or bisexuals). Andrew has always been suspicious of BookCrossing meetups which are mostly attended by women, and my weekends away to visit Tash and Michelle in Melbourne. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that not only was I in Brisbane for Pride Day (Brisbane's equivalent of Mardi Gras) but the conference meeting place for the morning, King George Square, was also the meeting place for the Pride Day march. A coincidence, which both Andrew and I found hilarious.

Our morning event was a flash mob. I've defined flash mob before so you should know what it is, but just in case you've forgotten: flash mob v: A large group of people who gather in a predetermined location, perform some brief action, and then quickly disperse. We were directed to make our way over to the Energex Arbor at Southbank. At 10am, we were to walk single file through the archway. When our fearless leader, Neesy, released her book on the ground, we were instructed to follow suit and place our books in line along the ground. We were to disperse and head over the way to a coffee shop which had a good view of our books, lined up and awaiting new owners.

So how did it go? I think it went off without a hitch. We generated a lot of interest with many people stopping to browse the books that were lined up on the grass. I don't think there were any books left over by the time we'd finished our morning tea.

Conference Lesson 4: Winning isn't everything
Saturday evening, we were back at Con the Fruiterer's for an evening of trivia fun. Our team, Passion Palace, had been boasting about trivia prowess throughout the course of the day. Unfortunately we didn't manage to come up with the goods on the evening; we tied for last place. However, if there had been a trophy for the "loudest and rowdiest" team I think we would have won that prize hands down. Congratulations to the winning team, The Honeymooners!

Photos from Day 2:

• FuShMuSh photos

Last weekend I headed North to attend the Australian BookCrossing Conference (or the book nerd convention as Andrew likes to call it) in Brisbane.

Conference Lesson 1: Brisbanites are friendly, neat and organised
I was trying to make my weekend away as economical as possible, so my very cheap and very early flight deposited me at Brisbane airport at 9am. The first conference event didn't start until 6pm that evening so I had a whole day to explore and get to know the sunny city.

Who would have thought people whose idea of fashion includes stubbies, wife beaters and thongs could be so neat and organised. I'm not sure that Brisbanians have got Expo 88 out of their system. It would seem they like direction and order. Signs everywhere instruct you where you should walk and how you should do it. Michelle and I were very confused by the queuing system in Woolies. Apparently, they favour the one-to-many system up North, with one queue feeding the open registers.

The layout of Brisbane CBD is well structured and very easy to navigate. The main street of Brisbane is Queen St. All the streets that run parallel to Queen Street are named after the women of the House of Hanover (Ann, Adelaide, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Mary, Margaret and Alice). All the streets that run perpendicular are named after Hanover men (William, George, Albert and Edward). I've already memorised the streets of Brisbane and I spent 3 days there. I've lived in Sydney for more than 25 years, and I still forget the name of Bathurst Street and I get Liverpool and Goulburn Streets mixed up. I guess it's the difference between a planned city and one that grows unchecked.

Conference Lesson 2: You have to know the secret signal to be a cool BXer
Friday evening's event was registration and welcome drinks at Jawin's fruit and veggie stand. It was a chance to catch up with some of the conference regulars (if you can call attending two conferences being a regular) and meet some new BookCrossers. Over the course of the evening, we discussed some of life's important questions like "who is going to win the Amazing Race?", "what is in the toy chest in Desperate Housewives?" and "What's in the jungle in Lost?". For a bunch of book nerds we watch an awful lot of television.

Friday night also saw the beginning of the international gesture for BookCrosser. Emma decided we could use this very hip, cool sign (Emma's students use it) to identify other BookCrossers when shopping in bookstores. If you see another person with a stack of $2 books, you discreetly make the special BookCrossing sign and they'll either subtly nod or stare at you strangely and call security. Over the course of the weekend we added to this sign and developed the BookCrossing secret handshake. Stay tuned to learn the full greeting.

Photos from Day 1:

• FuShMuSh photos