This marks my first inventory after August’s Winter Reads. I’ve crested three more. First was Storm Child by Michael Robotham. The Aussie crime maestro shines with this page turner. With each entry into his series, he raises the bar. Further to this, I deconstructed Anthony Keidis’s Scar Tissue. The 2004 memoir packs a lot and offers insight into one of our foremost rock bands. Finally, I delved into another memoir. The Mozart of Basketball gives an inside look into Drazen Petrovic’s life. The latter was one of the NBA’s preeminent European cagers. He paved the way for future Euros. Draz was the first born and bred European to be an All-NBA selection. As a nationalist, he represented both Yugoslavia and Croatia. To add colour, I will focalise quotes from the three books, rather than the garden variety recount. So here they are.

Storm Child by Michael Robotham was the year’s cleverest read. The novelist is nowhere near as popular as Grisham or Dan Brown. He makes up for it with his heavy dose of references and humour. To be honest, not the most painless exercise but worth it. The following are some quips from his latest work.

1. We wait in a patient lounge decorated by posters of healthy, attractive people doing active things because they’ve been vaccinated…or have eaten five serves of vegetables a day.

2. ‘…the storm has created a strange twilight, which is not of this world, or the next. Maybe we’re trapped here, waiting for the ferryman.’

3. Evie whispers, ‘She’s lying!’ and dips a spring roll into chilli sauce.

4. ‘And a tattoo…Popeye the Sailor Man…but it didn’t make me want to eat spinach.’

5. ‘Finn admitted to being involved in smuggling.’

‘Was that before or after he blew his head off?’

6. Ogilvy has a hard-on for Florence. I mean that literally. He keeps adjusting his crotch like he’s turning a sausage at a barbeque.

7. Wearing waders that make them look like Oompah Loompahs.

8. ‘No, I’m careful and methodical because I’m a professional investigator, not some amateur, poor man’s Poirot, who randomly hurls criminal accusations at politicians and public figures.’

9. She’ll get through this. We both will. Mutually assured survival.

10. ‘And I will remind Addie every day, of the people who came before her and made her life possible.’

Rating: 4.8/5

Anthony Keidis’s Scar Tissue highlights his boyhood, early struggles, drug use, and romantic relationships. Very little on his songwriting or creative process. More is allocated on his band members’ struggles with sobriety. He talks of his conquests and failures. His rehab stints, going cold turkey, and relapses. His insatiable thirst for his next hit. Regardless, he’s a very switched-on writer. The book is chock full of lovely vignettes. Call it a guilty pleasure. The memoir will be adapted into a biopic and is in production.

1. ‘I never missed school. It was important to me to be a straight-A student. In a way, I was a rebel by getting good grades, because most of the stoners and druggies were getting no grades.’
2. ‘A rich family in Hancock Park needed a dogwalker for their two German Shepherds.’
3. ‘…So I came up with the idea of picketing the store. We made up some signs that said UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICES. DANNY IS A GREEDY MONSTER. ‘What the fuck are you little punks doing? Get out of here before I break these signs over your head.’
4. ‘No, I’m serious about this. It should be okay, but I have to check with my astrologer first’, he said.
5. ‘This young hippie girl walked backstage. She had brown hair, was really pretty, and had these huge tits that kept poking out through her tank top that couldn’t help but be in everybody’s face.’
6. ‘Now I felt that I could write anything – a melody, a rhythm, a lyric – and go to this new friend of mine and sit down and when we left that session, we’d have a song.’
7. ‘At that point, we decided that we’d rather cancel the dates than present a half-assed version of ourselves.’
8. ‘Oh, Mr Keidis. My bad. I’m sorry, sir, excuse me for the interruption but I really have to tell you that this is a really dangerous area so you might want to exercise caution around here. You have a good night now.’
9. Former guitarist Dave Navarro: ‘Fuck you guys! How can you do this to me, you motherfuckers!‘Dude, there’s no band here’, I said. ‘When was the last time you showed up? You’re making a solo record, you’re off getting loaded. You’re not really into this anyway.’
10. On guitarist John Frusciante. ‘I don’t care if he was a genius or a fucking idiot. He was rotting away and it wasn’t fun to watch.’
11. ‘She’d lie there steaming in bed over a fight the size of a ladybug.’

Rating: 4.2/5

Todd Spehr authors The Mozart, which unpacks the legend of Drazen Petrovic. This is the list’s second ebook. Robotham’s was a paperback. Draz was the league’s first Euro star. After a very successful career across the pond, he brought his talents to Uncle Sam.

In the L, he started out as a catch and shoot benchwarmer. He was on a stacked Blazers squad. In his rookie year, they reached the NBA Finals. By his third season, he became the Association’s purest shooter. In New Jersey, he had a star turn. He was paired with forward Derrick Coleman and guard Kenny Anderson. They formed a formidable young trio.

In ‘93, he was snubbed on the all-star team but made All-NBA. He championed Croatia, his homeland as it fought to break away. At the 92 Olympics, Petrovic led them to a runner-up finish. During the offseason, he passed away on an autobahn. Napping, he was not wearing his seatbelt. Draz was posthumously inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Did you know? The author is Aussie. I loved his scoop on the fallen hero. Sometimes, the number of characters can be confusing.

1. ‘There are great teams in the European league,’ Peterson told reporters after the game, in a sentence that became famous. ‘But Petrovic is a one-man team.’
2. ‘The type of effort where an extravagant nickname like Mozart seemed appropriate.’
3. ‘…the language barrier, as at first Petrovic’s Spanish was limited, but grew exponentially in a very brief amount of time. Over the season, he became quite fluent.’
4. ‘The Prince does not go down,’ a local told McCallum. ‘Larry Bird goes up.’
5. ‘The nature of the case led to a bizarre courtroom scene. With the involved parties located in Portland, New York, and Madrid, three local lawyers were quickly engaged to represent theNBA, ACB, and Real Madrid. However, none of these lawyers had much familiarity with their clients or their cases by the time they convened in a courtroom some week or so after the lawsuit was filed.’
6. ‘And what came with Petrovic’s scant early-season minutes were questions and puzzlement.’
7. ‘It was a reprogramming of his thinking; to ready himself to shoot the ball before the ball found him.’
8. ‘Petrovic had never wanted to be Glouchkov or Martin, he had wanted to be the first success story, the first to break through and change the attitudes held over Europeans.’
9. And find Petrovic pedaling furiously on a stationary bike, covered in sweat. ‘What are you doing?’ Dalatri asked Petrovic. ‘I ride the bike everyday for an hour, sometimes two,’ Petrovic answered.
10. ‘In Portland, he did not have difficulty fitting in. It was a veteran, professional, and businesslike group, and they respected his approach and work ethic….’
11. After containing Reggie Miller: ‘Dance motherfucker, dance!’ It was Petrovic. The room erupted in laughter. It was, to those in the inner sanctum, a seminal Petrovic moment, one that was not to be forgotten.
12. The Celtics were his fave team. ‘I remember you, I remember you,’ Petrovic would say to Carlisle, waving an imaginary towel above his head.
13. ‘Daly had a very keen sense of- a heightened sense among his contemporaries – that coaching was less about the coach himself, that any measure of success started and ended with the players.’
14. ‘By the time Szalantzky left, she and Petrovic had established a mutual attraction for each other and were on friendly terms…They remained in contact after Szalantzky departed for Europe.’
15. ‘There were to be reminders of his life everywhere. Drazen Petrovic was not to be meteoric, his life quickly forgotten.’

Rating: 4.8/5