Moon Landings Anniversary

It's 40 years since Apollo 11 was sent to the moon. I was a very small child living in England at the time but vaguely remember being woken up in the middle of the night to watch the moon landing. My husband, a schoolboy in Canberra at the time tells the whole school watched it on a TV set up in the school hall. All over the world, people held their breath and watched a miracle take place.

To commemorate there is a real-time interactive recreation of the mission. Called We choose the Moon, there are 11 stages to the mission with archival images and video available for each stage. You can only see up to stage 6 today but after the anniversary of the moon landing on July 20, you will be able to see all 11 stages as you desire.

With a nod to modern technology you can also follow the astronauts on Twitter.

Fascinating for today's youngsters.

(screen shot of We Choose the Moon)

In a Far Country by Linda Holeman

In a Far Country by Linda Holeman is "a hugely absorbing, satisfying read, beautifully crafted but thrillingly told, in the style of The Far Pavilions.
Pree Fincastle, daughter of impoverished British missionaries in India, is left alone and destitute when tragedy strikes. Turned away by the Church, she embarks on a journey in search of Kai, the son of her mother’s ayah, and the only person she can trust. But Kai is not the man Pree thought he was, and the secrets he holds will unlock the door to another world, another time and, shockingly, another life.
Haunting, powerful, heartbreaking and magnificent, In a Far Country tells of one young woman’s enthralling journey. A passage through penury and prostitution, tragedy and bloodshed, secrets and love, it is ultimately a story of hope; a story that, once read, will never be forgotten." (Source Fantastic Fiction)

Review : As the daughter of poor medical missionaries in India, Pree Fincastle's life is far from glamorous or easy. There's much to do and she spends her time tending the gardens, learning the languages of the area and helping her parents look after the needs of the villagers who come to the mission for medical relief. There is little occasion for fun or frivolity in her austere upbringing. As well, the atmosphere at the mission is not a happy one and there is much about her family's strange situation she can't understand. While she recognises her mother's slow descent into madness, it is not until the tragic death of both her parents that she learns part of the dark secret that the mission station holds. That knowledge leads her into even more distressing circumstances and towards the compelling and gripping conclusion.
It is an enjoyable read - though often disheartening and depressing - and yet it held me spellbound. Linda Holeman is an extremely competent writer whose wonderful descriptions bring the hot and sundrenched countryside of India to life.
If you enjoy this one, read her others as they are equally enjoyable.

Reviewed by Carolyn

Great Big Books

Yesterday I came across this post, 10 Bizarre Things You Didn't Know You Could Buy Online, on the Oddee blog which features the world's biggest book. It's called Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom and is published by Friendly Planet.

This 112-page book measures 1.5m x 2.1m, weighs over 60kg, takes over 3 litres on of ink for printing and costs $2,000 to produce. Each copy is built expressly for the recipient, is numbered, and can include a personal dedication message. Profits from each sale goes to Friendly Planet. It is selling via Amazon for just US$30,000.

Needless to say, you won't be finding Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom on any Blue Mountains City Library shelves.

However, just the day before, we'd catalogued the next best thing; Life-Sized Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya. (Inside subtitle: From tiny rodents to gigantic elephants, an actual-size animal encyclopedia).
This book measures 26cm x 37cm and costs a fraction of Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom and is available for loan.

Each page has a different animal, pictured at life-size - some in double-spread, fold-out pages - and also gives information on the animal, including which part of the animal makes it into the picture, as you might imagine getting life-sized pictures of some animals is quite a challenge.

(Giraffe page - the apple is mine)

It's a beautiful and interesting book and I can't wait to take it home to my 8 year old.

Alison's Picks - July 2009

David Sedaris: When you are engulfed in flames

Michael Ondaatje: In the Skin of a Lion

Belinda Starling: The Journal of Dora Damage

Robert Dessaix: Arabesques: a tale of double lives

Adele Parks: Young Wives’ Tales

8 Ways Reading Makes You Better at Life

For the full rundown, have a read at the post from the LifeDev blog called 8 Ways Reading Makes You Better at Life.

Here is the list, unembellished:

1. Enhanced Smarts

2. Reading reduces stress

3. Greater tranquility

4. Improved analytical thinking

5. Increased vocabulary

6. Improved memory

7. Improved writing skills

8. Helps prioritize goals

I'm sure this is preaching to the converted and I'm also sure this is way too short a list, what other points would you add?

Rain over the School Holidays? Here's a cool activity . . .

Bushwalking in the Blue Mountains

I spent the last couple of days last week in one of my other guises - that of volunteer firefighter looking for a missing English backpacker. He left the youth hostel in Katoomba on Friday 3rd July to go for a bushwalk. He was only discovered to be missing when he didn't show up for a pre-booked tour in the Jenolan Caves.

I joined fellow volunteer Rural Fire Service and State Emergency Service volunteers, National Parks and Wildlife Service staff and police but, hundreds of man hours later, our boy is still missing.

As I discovered during our searches, arduous as it was bashing through dense bush and climbing up and down the hills, ours is a stunning part of the world but it is a wilderness and it is vast and should be approached with caution and respect.

Be prepared for every eventuality - even when going out for a few hours carry food, water, warm clothing - even in summer it can cool at night if you are caught out.

Carry a first aid kit.

Check the local weather forecast.

Tell people your planned route and when you expect to be back.

Borrow an Emergency personal beacon (EPERB) - especially if you expect to be away for more than a day. These are available AT NO COST from the Police stations at Springwood and Katoomba and from the National Parks and Wildlife Service Office at Blackheath.

Blue Mountains City Library has numerous books for loan on bushwalking in this area:
Walks in the Blue Mountains National Park by Neil Paton
The Blue Mountains on Foot by Bruce Wyatt Williams
Bushwalking, cycling, jogging in the Lower Blue Mountains by Robert Sloss
North and South Lawson Walks Blue Mountains by Keith Painter
Take a Walk in Blue Mountains National Park by John & Lyn Daly
Sydney and Blue Mountains Bushwalks by Neil Paton

You can also look at the Blue Mountains Tourism website for information on where to go and what to see.

Ancient Bible online

The earliest surviving copy of the Bible, the Codex Sinaiticus , has been made available online - Codex Sinaiticus. The 1,600-year-old Codex Sinaiticus manuscript, written in Greek on parchment leaves, has been studied by scholars in the UK, Germany, Egypt and Russia. The original version contained about 1,460 pages each measuring 40cm by 35cm. It was found in 1844 in a Sinai monastery and split between Egypt, Russia, Germany and Britain. It is thought to have survived because the desert air was ideal for preservation and because the monastery was never invaded. Dr Scot McKendrick, head of Western manuscripts at the British Library, said the wide availability of the document presented many research opportunities. "The availability of the virtual manuscript for study by scholars around the world creates opportunities for collaborative research that would not have been possible just a few years ago," Dr McKendrick said.

Codex Sinaiticus from http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/

At the British Library there is an exhibition which includes a range of historic items and artefacts linked to the document. If you visit the British Library's online gallery you can turn the pages of the codex (as you can at the Codex Sinaiticus webpages) and listen to curator talks and other podcasts. While you are there you will also find links to other ancient texts.

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2009

Image via Wikipedia

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is an international literary parody contest in memory of novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873). Bulwer-Lytton opened his novel Paul Clifford (1830) with the immortal words:
"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."


This year the winner is David McKenzie of Federal Way, Washington who wrote:
"Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the "Ellie May," a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests."
It's not the first time Mr McKenzie has entered the contest, he's previously had wins in the Western and Children's Literature categories. Congratulations David McKenzie!

As I often find with 'literary' awards and contests, I didn't quite agree with the judges - here's my favourite which earned a dishonourble mention in the Detective category:
Detective Pierson mentally reviewed the group of suspects milling around the recent crime scene - two young siblings eating gingerbread, a young girl in a red hoodie, a beautiful girl with narcolepsy, and seven little people with the profession of miners - then gave his statement of "it's a grim tale" to the press. ~ Shannon Gray, Wichita, Kansas. Shades of Jasper Fforde there I think!

But read the Bulwer-Lytton winners, runners up and dishonourable mentions for yourself and see if you agree or not. There's a fair few hum-dingers and worth a giggle.


Read Last year's Bulwer-Lytton post in Readers in the Mist.

High(er) brow?

As a bit of a contrast from the previous post, take a look at the entries for the Designer Bookbinders International Competition (also from The Guardian). Sights for sore eyes.

Alain Taral came first in the Designer Bookbinders International Competition with the above design made of pear wood covered with Karelian birch veneer.

The theme for the competition was water this year. This design by George Kirkpatrick, made of calf and various goatskins with palladium tooling, silver rhodium, and gilded brass, is very Australian-looking and probably my favourite.