A story told with a captivating wit that draws the reader into her world, Unpolished Gem is a polished work of the storyteller’s art. A simple story about growing up the daughter of immigrant parents the author gives the reader more than just an insight into her cultural melting pot of a world. She puts you into her shoes, invites you to step into her mind and by the end of it, you feel like you are the one who has lived her rather interesting life.

When reading recreationally, it is not often that I come across a book in which I frequently catch myself laughing out loud. A story about a girl who just wants to “do the things that ordinary young people did, like falling in love without being under the spotlight of Indochinese (in)security cameras” it is charming, heartfelt and very witty all at once. Curiously, I bumped into Alice one Friday afternoon while waiting to meet someone for lunch. The next day, while catching up with some friends for lunch, I learned that she had written a book. After lunch on the following day, I decided to obtain a copy to read and, before lunch on Monday, I had read it. I knew Alice through the Amnesty International group at Melbourne University where she was my predecessor as president of the group. She was strong-willed, witty and intelligent and was a real inspiration to me during my early years at the group. After reading this book, I am beginning to understand why.

The book is very easy to read. It isn’t buttered up and padded out with flowery language. She tells it like it is, how she sees it, as it happens. Like many a master storyteller, she controls the pace and volume of the writing effortlessley and the reader can be forgiven for occasionally forgetting that they are reading a book. Much more than just words on a page, the scenes and characters jump out at you as you are immersed in the author’s world. There is possibly a danger here that someone who has not grown up in Melbourne (and did not happen to personally know the author) may not grasp the imagery in the kind of vivid detail that I clearly did. However, I doubt this would detract significantly from the experience of reading this book. After all, one does not have to come from Melbourne or be aquainted with the author to understand such delightful phrases as:”Foreign words did not seem to slip out of me as easily as the contents of my bladder”.

This is much more than just a documentary of growing up as the offspring of immigrant parents. Indeed, if information is all that was provided, I needn’t have read it being in a similar situation myself. Fundamentally, this is a very personal story about a girl growing up and discovering the world around her. The story actually begins prior to her birth and spends considerable time introducing the main supporting charaters, and telling their stories. Eventually, the book develops into a personal narrative centred around the star of show who happens to also be the author of the book. While I found the various stories to be very interesting, the real pleasure that I gained from reading this book came from the quirky insights and strange quotes found throughout the narrative. Quotes such as “having a white son in law could be good, more people kowtow to you, you know” punctuate the flowing narrative and force the reader to occasionally take a second take.

Though I was already very familiar with the world that the author introduces and describes, her book breathed new life and new perspective into it. In addition to these fresh insights to a strange world, the writing itself is a delight to read. Quirky, captivating and absolutely charming. I certainly hope that Alice continues to write many more stories for us to read and I do hope that this book is as much a success as it thoroughly deserves to be. Like a good photograph or video, this book captures the essence of life as girl growing up in Australia who happens to have Cambodian immigrants for parents. It gives us insight into not only the slightly unusual everyday happenings which decorate the landscape of her life, but also the quirky thoughts that lend perspective to it. An absolute joy to read. I couldn’t recommend it more.

You would have to be pretty naïve to believe that there are no drugs in sport. The cycling scandals, the Olympic weightlifters, Chinese swimmers and, of course, Ben Johnson are, however, only the tip of the iceberg. Nine time Australian Discus champion and 1995 Australian senior athlete of the year, Werner Reiterer, tells the story of the proliferation of drugs throughout top-level competition from the perspective of an athlete who has been on both sides of the fence. That’s right – both sides. His story as a “natural” athlete is inspiring, uplifting but, ultimately, quite sad. The story of his experiences after making the decision to dope will blow your mind. I challenge anyone to read this book and not come away with a completely different perspective on high level sport in general.

In this book you will learn the story of a very promising discus thrower who rose up the ranks in Australia and eventually the world. You will learn that when he broke a junior world record, he was treated with indifference by a hypocritical system which perpetuated the problem while simultaneously denouncing it in the media. Werner went to two Olympics as a “natural”, steadfastly sticking to his guns. In the end he gave in because “To go through all the pain and sacrifice, the hard winters, busting your guts morning and night, then to travel the world and be beaten by inferior athletes with inferior technique is very hard to deal with”.

Not only does this book talk about one person’s experience as an athlete who decided to dope, it also describes the system which allows it to happen. The extent of the cover-ups and conspiracies which allow, even encourage, athletes to resort to artificial means of performance enhancing is unbelievable. At the very highest levels of sporting organisations, players of all strata collaborate to ensure that athletes are not only able to dope, but that their country’s athletes are on the best dope available and, most importantly, that their athletes pass all the drug tests. The feigned naïvety of these organisations with regard to drug testing and even the way that they handle positive results is just downright depressing.

The extent of doping in high-level competition, particularly track and field is absolutely astounding. The argument put forward by many people against doping is that those who dope have an unfair advantage over those who don’t. However, when it gets to the point where an overwhelming majority of the athletes are on dope, it becomes more the case that anyone who doesn’t dope is at a disadvantage. Dutch coach Henk Kraayenhof puts it so “People like to think that things are better since Ben’s [Johnson's] first positive. I argue the opposite. Ben Johnson getting caught promoted drug use – He won.” Speaking of Ben Johnson, the post 1988 enquiry into his positive revealed that, since 1981 he’d taken Dianabol, Stanozolol, Furazabol, HGH, Testosterone and many masking agents. In seven years he had passed every drug test, in the two years leading up to the Seoul Olympics he passed a total of 19 drug tests.

Pearls of wisdom scattered throughout the book will make you sit up and take note, things like “Since the Seoul Games, more than 100 Australian athletes had been caught. Of course, few were role models generating money for organisers or sponsors. They were mostly third-tier athletes. ‘Socially digestible positives’, one authority described them as”. He also tells of how, when random out of competition testing was introduced, times were suddenly slower and distances of throws would drop, at least until the dopers figured out ways around the testing. Of course, the figures relating to his increases in performance after beginning his doping are equally, if not more, noteworthy.

The rather negative tone of the material contained within the pages of this book is lightened somewhat by the occasional retelling of experiences at international competitions. As an athlete who has been to many an international competition, I found this diversion more than amusing, however those who can’t relate to such experiences may find this a distraction from what is otherwise a very strongly directed statement about drugs and sport in general.

If you’re into sport, especially the Olympics, you must read this book. This is a book which should have been on the best seller lists prior to the Sydney 2000 Olympics, when it was released. The IOC, AOC, AIS, IAAF and many other acronyms did there utmost to prevent this book from ever getting published. When it was clear that that plan wouldn’t succeed, they spent their efforts trying to prevent anyone from knowing about this book. To an extent, they have succeeded. This book is very difficult to find (or at least it was difficult for me to find). The narrative is very relaxed and direct, very “tell-it-as-it-is”. I found it difficult to put down in the two days that it took me to read it. An excellent read, and a timely one considering the material. Highly recommended.