Library Doings

Changes to Children’s Programs
Due to increased numbers attending Library programs, the Library has rescheduled its days to suit public demand. Regular children’s activities beginning March 4, 2009 at Blue Mountains Libraries:

Babytime: 10am—11am

• Springwood Library ~ First Friday of every month
• Katoomba Library ~ Last Friday of every month

Storytime: 10.30 am—11.30am

• Blaxland Library ~ Every Friday
• Springwood Library ~ Every Thursday
• Katoomba Library ~ Every Wednesday
• Lawson Library ~ First Thursday of every month

Fab Friday: 4pm—5pm

• Springwood Library ~ First Friday of every month
  

Senior’s Week “Live Life” Events

• Free Internet Sessions for Seniors ~ Do you want to learn how to search the Internet? These free 1 hour sessions will give you an introduction to searching methods and how to find interesting, relevant websites.


• Bookings are essential - contact the relevant Libraries.
  All sessions 9am-10am


• March 6 Katoomba (4780 5750)
• March 10 Blackheath (4787 8893)
• March 13 Wentworth Falls (4757 2095)
• March 16 Springwood (4723 5040)
• March 24 Lawson (4759 1446)
• March 27 Blaxland (4739 4284)
  

Agathas shortlists announced

Crime stories are really popular with readers in the Blue Mountains as they are just about everywhere so this is likely to be an award of interest. The Agatha Awards are given to mystery stories that contain no explicit sex, no excessive gore or gratuitous violence, usually feature an amateur detective, take place in a confined setting and contain characters who know one another.

There are several categories for the awards (see below) which will be decided by secret ballot of attendees of the Malice Domestic 21 conference, which will be held May 1-3, 2009.

The nominees for this years Agatha Awards are:

Best Novel

• Six GeeseA-Slaying by Donna Andrews
• A Royal Pain by Rhys Bowen
• The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
• Buckingham Palace Gardens by Anne Perry
• I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Best First Novel

• Through a Glass, Deadly by Sarah Atwell
• The Diva Runs Out of Thyme by Krista Davis
• Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris
• Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet
• Paper, Scissors, Death by Joanna Campbell Slan

Best Non-fiction

• African American Mystery Writers: A Historical & Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey
• How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries by Kathy Lynn Emerson
• Anthony Boucher, A Bibliography by Jeff Marks
• Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories by Dr. Harry Lee Poe
• The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale

Best Short Story

• The Night Things Changed by Dana Cameron, Wolfsbane & Mistletoe
• Killing Time by Jane Cleland, Alfred Hitchock Mystery Magazine - Nov 2008
• Dangerous Crossing by Carla Coupe, Chesapeake Crimes 3
• Skull & Cross Examination" by Toni Kelner, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - Feb 2008
• "A Nice Old Guy" by Nancy Pickard, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - Aug 2008

Best Children's/Young Adult

• Into the Dark by Peter Abrahams
• A Thief in the Theater (A Kit Mystery) by Sarah Masters Buckey
• The Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein
• The Great Circus Train Robbery by Nancy Means Wright

You can follow this link for a list of past Agatha Award winners.

And if 'cozy myesteries are your cup of tea try Madison Public Library Cozies Booklist and
Cozymystery.com for inspiration.

The value of your public library

There are numerous articles in the media and in Libraryland about how, especially in these times of economic crisis, public libraries are becoming important centres of stability and refuge. Here's a sample :
* Libraries an information refuge in tough times in the Wasau Daily Herald online
* As the economy goes down, traffic at the library goes up in the Wisconsin State Journal online
* not wanting to bore you, there are a whole lot more links here at the Madison Public Library Foundation.

Anyway, you surely get the gist by now, libraries are important at any time but especially now and offer great value for money with free access to all sorts of resources and programmes to all members of a community without discrimination.

Some libraries in the US are putting Library Value Calculators on their websites. We're not technically savvy enough to adapt it exactly to our Blue Mountains library services (too much fiddling about with html codes and numbers) so the following example is working with American dollar amounts in an American city but we're putting this link to the Denver Library Value Calculator for you to have a play with so you can start to get some idea of the value of public libraries to this and other communities.

Here's the result of my calculations of my personal use:


$56.27 worth of value for every $1 from my rates that is spent on the library, now that's clever!

Well that was quick!

No blinking round here. The Australia-Asia Literary Award was announced as the Down Under rival to the Man Booker prize last year. David Malouf was the first winner with The Complete Stories. Now, less than 6 months later Book Award Tragic tells me it may be all a flash in the pan!

Appointed in September 2008, Arts Minister John Day said the $110,000 prize was under review. “There will not be an Australia-Asia Literary Award held in 2009, although it is expected that the award will be held in early 2010, pending the review recommendations,” Mr Day said, according to the Western Australian.

How many other Literary and other cultural awards will suffer because of the current economic crisis? What legacy are we leaving our grandchildren?

Diagram Prize shortlist announced

Time again for one of my favourite prizes, The Diagram Prize, a prize for the oddest title of the year. The award was created by publisher Bruce Robertson in 1978 when the winning title was Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice. Past titles have included Stray Shopping Carts (see picture) and Bomb-proof Your Horse (a must for homes everywhere I should think).

Nominees for the Diagram Prize are selected from submissions sent in by librarians, publishers, and booksellers. Winning titles were initially chosen by a panel of judges but since 1993 readers of The Bookseller have been allowed to vote. Now votes can be cast online and I urge you to take yourself off to thebookseller.com website to enter your vote and then look out for the winner being announced on 27 March. At the time of writing The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais (with my vote) is out in front.

This year's shortlist includes:

• Baboon Metaphysics


• Curbside Consultation of the Colon


• The Large Sieve and its Applications


• Strip and Knit with Style


• Techniques for Corrosion Monitoring


• The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais

To my surprise, I find that NONE of these books are held by BMCC Library, but registered borrowers are always welcome to make purchase suggestions, just ask a friendly staff member for a Purchase Suggestion form.

Now, with your appetite for more silliness whetted, go take a peek at the list of past winners in Wikipedia's Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year page.

More than A B C ... Rediscovering the Joy of Letter Writing

Dear Reader,
I've begun eyeing-off stationary lately; beautiful paper, decorative envelopes, fountain pens and coloured inks. I remember that growing up, Christmas and birthdays always brought some of these treasures my way; matching writing paper, notelets and envelopes in neat cardboard wallets or sturdier cardboard drawers. These georgeous materials were enough to inspire me to write to friends and family, both near and far.
Even without fancy trimmings though, I still enjoy receiving a letter in the post. One family friend, now in her 90's, sends me an aerogramme from the UK each Christmas. Seeing the words written in her small, impeccably neat hand is a Christmas present that I look forward to. This year I have taken up her example and begun writing letters to friends on their birthdays; as both an affordable gift and as a way of keeping in touch.
I know that wide access to email has replaced the need for regular correspondence by post but we don't write emails with the same care and attention that we give to a hand written letter. The language of a letter is different. When I write a letter I am mindfull of using correct grammar (to the best of my ability, at least) and I am more adventurous with my vocabulary. Writing a letter is an occasion that inspires me to greater effort and, because of this, letter writing gives me much satisfaction. Now I am looking in the mail box out the front of my place with anticipation. It may not be just another bill in there... surely someone will reply.
The joy of long hand and language aside, letter writing seems to more effectivley capture the mood of an era, in both the details of everyday life and the celebration of special events. I have recently read two books of letters from the library collection and relished every word (once I got past an uncomfortable feeling of eavesdropping). The first was "Dear Sun: the Letters of Joy Hester and Sunday Reed", the second "Portrait of a Friendship: the Letters of Barbara Blackman and Judith Wright".
I have also had the good fortune of being able to read a bundle of my own letters, written to my parents over a period of two years when I was living overseas. It was like reading a diary (which I never did keep, although it was an ambition of mine) and brought back those times strongly - the good and the bad - in vivid detail. My mother treasured these letters and recently returned them to me, a gift from the past. Go on, treat yourself and others and put your pen to paper. Fountain pen, biro, pencil / onionskin, A4, or butcher's paper... it won't matter and I'm sure it will be well worth your effort.
Yours sincerely, Pippi.

Big Book Sale

There's going to be another of

Blue Mountains City Library's Big Book Sales

Friday 27th February from 12noon to 5pm

& Saturday 28th February from 9amto 4pm

Blaxland Community Centre (next door to the Library)

Lots of Bargains! Novels, Biographies

Travel, Art, Encyclopedias, Children’s books

Videos, CDs, Magazines and lots more!

A Question of Power, The Geoff Clark Case

AUTHOR : Michelle Schwarz

PUBLICATION DATE : 2008

No. PAGES : 207

CATEGORY : Non-Fiction

GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING : Australia

TIME PERIOD : Present Day

SUMMARY : Geoff Clark was once the most powerful Aboriginal man in Australia. At the pinnacle of his career, when he was chairman of ATSIC, a newspaper report revealed that four women were accusing him of rape. The crimes dated back to the 1970's and thus were difficult to test, but the reports ruined Geoff Clark's life and career.

Michelle Schwartz interviews the key players in the case. She digs deep to show the story behind the case and raises some hard questions; was this trial by media? Was there more to the story than at first suggested?

COMMENTS : This is a gripping read. I couldn't put it down. I remembered when the reports first came out about Geoff Clark, and I heard that four women were accusing him, I immediately made up my mind, "Yup, he's guilty". This book has changed all that. I now "Don't Know". Michelle Schwartz has produced an extremely intelligent, balanced, well researched work of investigative journalism, one that should be read by everyone in these times of biased media reports. I was left terrified about how someone's life could be ruined, with no corroborating evidence, just because a journalist believed one person's account and published it.

Highly recommended.

NAME OF REVIEWER : Wendy

Commonwealth writers' prize 2009

The short lists for the Commonwealth writers' prize 2009 have been announced. The objectives of the prize are to "promote new voices, reward achievement, encourage wider readership and greater literacy, thereby increasing appreciation of different cultures and building understanding between cultures."

In each of four regions (Africa, Canada and the Caribbean, Europe and South Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific), two prizes are awarded: one for the Best Book and one for the Best First Book. The eight winners that emerge from the regional judging then go through to the final phase of the competition to decide the overall Commonwealth winners for Best Book and Best First Book.

The full complement of regional short lists can be viewed here, but the Best Book and Best First Book shortlists for our (South East Asia and the Pacific) region are:

Best Book

• Aravind Adiga (Australia) Between The Assassinations


• Helen Garner (Australia) The Spare Room


• Joan London (Australia) The Good Parents


• Paula Morris (New Zealand) Forbidden Cities


• Christos Tsiolkas (Australia) The Slap


• Tim Winton, (Australia) Breath

Best First Book

• Aravind Adiga (Australia) The White Tiger


• Nam Le (Australia) The Boat


• Mo Zhi Hong (New Zealand) The Year of The Shanghai Shark


• Bridget van der Zijpp (New Zealand) Misconduct


• Preeta Samarasan (Malaysia) Evening is the Whole Day


• Ashley Sievwright (Australia) The Shallow End

Alison's Picks - February 2009

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Vincenzo’s Garden by John Clanchy

The Good Mayor by Andrew Nicoll






The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield






Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan

Serendipity?

How apt! The very next article I read in my RSS feeder is Tories condemn prisoners' freedom to read criminal memoirs in the Guardian book blog.

"The Conservative party has attacked prisons for allowing inmates access to books which glorify crime and detail escapes from jail."

The world's most stolen book?

The Times online has an article on Britain's most stolen book - can you guess what it might be? The kama sutra? The Bible? Twilight?

Nope - according to a straw poll of more than 50 independent bookshops across Britain, the most stolen book is the London A-Z. According to one bookseller, Patrick Neale, “A-Zs were like porn - you had to keep them under the till. I've been in bookselling for 20 years and the London A-Z is the most stolen book in the world." ("In the world"? How does he know that? Hyperbole or ethnocentricity?)

Reference books feature strongly in the most-stolen Top 10n (to follow below): Local Ordnance Survey maps, the Oxford English Dictionary and the Highway Code are all there. “The worst theft we've had was of The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, which was worth £100,” says Peter Donaldson of Red Lion Books in Colchester, Essex. “How someone had a big enough coat to walk out with that under it I really don't know.”

In 2004 a man was jailed after it was revealed that he ran a gang of thieves who stole Lonely Planet travel guides to order. He had sold an estimated 35,000 stolen books a year. And in 2008 a Glasgow man was jailed for 26 months for selling stolen books worth £50,000 on eBay, under the pseudonym “easypeesy”.

Crime books are extremely popular. The works of Martina Cole appear high on the list. Her books are also among those most read in prisons. She claims to be perfectly happy about this: “If people want my books badly enough to go and steal them it's a compliment, really.”

Children's books are also targeted. Jacqueline Wilson, the most borrowed children's author in the UK, is also among the most stolen. In times gone by, Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit books were often pilfered too. Booksellers blame underfunded teenagers, and young mothers with prams in which to hide stolen goods, as the main culprits.

Finally, there are some thefts that simply elude comprehension. The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger was stolen from Liverpool Central Library so often that eventually the librarians stopped restocking it.

10 most stolen books from UK shops
1. London A-Zs: London Street Atlas
2. Ordnance Survey maps: Exmoor Explorer Map (now that's very specific!)
3. Terry Pratchett novels
4. Harry Potter books, especially the last one, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
5. Lonely Planet travel guides: Great Britain
6. The Lord of the Rings trilogy
7. Martina Cole novels
8. Jacqueline Wilson novels
9. The Oxford English Dictionary
10. The Highway Code

10 most borrowed books from UK libraries
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
2. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton (published in Australia as The Shifting Fog)
3. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
4. Relentless by Simon Kernick
5. The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
6. The Quickie by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge
7. The 6th Target by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
8. The Savage Garden by Mark Mills
9. Cross by James Patterson
10. Step on a Crack by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge
(according to Public Lending Right)

The UK's Guardian newspaper blog has come up with 1000 novels everyone must read: the definitive list. Selected by the Guardian's Review team and a panel of expert judges, this list includes only novels – no memoirs, no short stories, no long poems – from any decade and in any language. The list is divided into 7 categories: comedy, crime, family and self, love, science fiction and fantasy, state of the nation and war and travel (?!).

Now, I usually avoid lists such as these, I usually come away feeling inadequate - 1001 books you must read before you die, which was edited by Peter Boxall, is a case in point. Of the 1001 books listed there, I'd only read about 3. I would have read 4 if our book group had been able to get a copy of one of the books listed but it was out of print, none of us could source a copy anywhere and a replacement had to be chosen. ANYWAY, I am pleased to report this list is much more me friendly - I've read 13 in the comedy list alone - yay!

What Library Staff are Reading . . .

• Portobello by Ruth Rendell
• Chosen by a Horse : How a broken Horse fixed a broken heart by Susan Richards
• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
• The Household guide to dying: a novel by Debra Adelaide ~ touching yet with some humour as Delia prepares herself and her family for her death. I recommend this one
• Alexander: Child of a Dream, Alexander: The Sands of Ammon and Alexander: The Ends of the Earth by Valerio Massimo Manfredi
• Four Cornered Circle and Morning's Gone by Jon Cleary
• The Islands by Di Morrissey
• 50 Harbour Street by Debbie Macomber
• Angel Wings by Nicole Conn
• Sisters and Husbands by Amanda Brookfield
• Nineteen Minutes by Jodie Picoult
• The Historian: a novel by Elizabeth Kostova
• The Moving Image by Judith Wright
• I’m knee-deep into Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy ~ an emotionally-rich, compelling Russian saga
• Amongst others I’ve read The Good Mayor by Andrew Nicoll ~ a beautifully written story about love, with innocence at its heart
• Dance for a diamond by Melinda Hammond (historical romance)
• The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
• Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday ~ a novel that captivates the grumpiest reader within moments. What begins as hare-brained becomes increasingly plausible, in all its details. Written by someone who has spent most of his life working in industry, it describes the maddening world of petty officialdom sent into riffs of lunacy by political will; if you imagine The Office crossed with Yes, Minister, you may get some inkling of how very funny it is
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
• Tales of Beedle the BardThe by JK Rowling - with my daughter, I'm not fussed about it but she loves it
• An Incomplete History of WWI by Edwin Kiester Jr
• Soldiers' Tales: a collection of true stories from Aussie soldiers by Denny Neave
• A most wanted man by John Le Carre ~ had no idea what was going on most of the time, but it's a page-turner
• The kidnap of Alice McGilvray by Rae Litting
• Bill Bryson's African Diary by Bill Bryson
• At Work by Annie Leibovitz
• When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr - with my daughter. Given this book for Christmas in 1973, it has been a favourite of mine since childhood
• Disquiet by Julia Leigh
• A Lady Raised High: a novel of Anne Boleyn by Laurien Gardner
• Joan Makes History by Kate Grenville
• The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale
• Arabeques: a tale of double lives by Robert Dessaix
• The Duchess by Amanda Foreman
• Auld Reekie: an Edinburgh anthology by Ralph Lownie
  
  

Romantic Novel of the Year 2009 Winner Announced

Julia Gregson's East of the Sun, a story about love, friendship and adventure, has won the Romantic Novel of the Year 2009.

The prize was presented to Ms Gregson at the Romantic Novelists' Association's Awards lunch in London on Tuesday 10th February. The judges, Alice O'Keeffe, Fanny Blake and Peter Crawshaw, said of the winning book: "The last days of the British Raj in India, at a pivotal moment of its history during the ascendancy of Gandhi, were brilliantly evoked in the author's skilled hands. With three remarkable women at its centre, each with different flaws, strengths and voices, the novel engages the reader from the first page and never lets go, following their various fortunes until it reaches its truly satisfying ending."

See our previous post for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2009 shortlist

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

AUTHOR : Muriel Barbery

PUBLICATION DATE : 2006

No. PAGES : 320pp.

CATEGORY : Fiction

GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING : Paris, France

TIME PERIOD : Present Day

PLOT SUMMARY : Renee Michel, is a fifty-four-year-old woman who has worked for twenty-seven years as concierge of a small Parisian apartment building. To the residents she is a drab, uncultivated yet honest and reliable concierge, but Renee has a secret. She is passionate about culture and art and has a rich intellectual life, which she finds prudent to keep from the residents.

She reads Kant and Marx, appreciates Mozart and an avid fan of Tolstoy. She has immersed herself in 17th century Dutch painting and smuggles literature home in her shopping bag along with cat food. No one suspects her keen intellect and she wants to keep it that way.

Alternating with Renee's thoughts about her life and studies are the musings of Paloma Josse, a twelve-year-old who lives in the apartment building, the daughter of wealthy parents who have active professional lives. Like Renee, Paloma pretends to be just average, carefully constructing her own façade so that she can fit in at school, though she has the intellectual level of a senior in college. Ignored by her parents and her school, Paloma plans to commit suicide on her thirteenth birthday. As the lives of Renee and Paloma unfold and overlap, the rough parallels in their lives become obvious, both in their isolation and in their need to hide their talents.

A particularly loathsome apartment owner dies and someone new moves in. Wealthy, cultured and thoroughly civilised, who sees through both Renee's and Paloma's deceptions, altering the course of their lives forever.

COMMENTS : This is my favourite book by far this year. It is a beautiful piece of work. I marveled at Barbery's erudite prose and her intellect astonished me. She sent me scurrying to listen to Purcell's "When I am Laid in Earth" from the Opera Dido and Aeneas, read Kant and to the dictionary to look up words I had never seen. I laughed out loud, sobbed at the end and clutched the book to my chest as if it were a friend. The three main characters are the people I would want to be stranded on a desert island with and only wish they were real. This is a book to be savoured.

Highly Recommended.

NAME OF REVIEWER : Wendy

Available at Blue Mountains Libraries

999 Challenge

Scarlett's Journey Begins: the 999 Challenge January
Hi Everyone. Well, I've made a start on this rather daunting task, and I thought I'd let you know how I'm getting along so far. I've read a few books, and these have been my faves thus far:
Silk by Alessandro Barrico. I really enjoyed this novel. It is only very short, but still manages to be one of the most moving, beautifully written, and (dare I say it) sexiest novels I've read in a very long time!
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimananda Ngozi Adiche (also available in Large Print). This is the 2007 Orange Prize winner, and is quite an epic. Set in Nigeria during the Civil War of the 1960s, it is a kind of African "Gone with the Wind" (I know that sounds quite bizarre, but it is a very interesting and informative novel). A word of warning, though . . . this is quite a hefty tome, so be prepared to put aside a little time.
Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda. Translated from the original French, this novel has a beautifully chic flavour. I enjoyed it very much: the characters are quirky and hence delightful, and the plot moves along at just the right pace (if a tad predictably). A "nice" read, and I am looking forward to seeing the movie, which stars the lovely Audrey Tatou.
Eat, Pray, Love: one Woman's search for everything by Elizabeth Gilbert. This would have to rank as an all-time fave!!! My new "bible". Funny, self-depricating and soul-searching, Elizabeth takes us with her as she travels to Italy, India and Indonesia searching for inner peace and wisdom. Sound schmaltzy? Not at all! She is almost heroic in her honesty and self-awareness.I liked her personally, I enjoyed her vivacious and engaging style of writing, and I just LOVED the book as a whole. This is a cross between a guide to spirituality and an autobiography - take a look . . . if nothing else, you'll have a good laugh!

Robin's Journey Begins: the 999 Challenge - January 2009
Over the Christmas break I started on the 999 journey of 81 books for 2009.
The books I have read so far have been The Appeal by John Grisham (Crime). The story is set in Bowmore Mississippi where the Kramer Chemical Company has been dumping chemical waste causing a huge cancer cluster. A husband and wife team take the company to court. The story is all about the justice system and how it is manipulated by gutter politics.I did not enjoy this book, it all could have been written in about two chapters.
Shopaholic and Sister by Shophie Kinsella (Chic Lit). I love all Shopie Kinsella's books and this one did not disappoint. Becky Brandon returns from her honeymoon to find she has an older sister from a relationship her father had in his youth. Becky sees hours of shopping, coffees and doing girly things with her new found sister. Things do not go according to plan. A very funny read.
Dewey by Vicki Myron (Biography).Vicki Myron finds a kitten in the after hours book return bin one winter morning in Spencer, Iowa. She decides to keep him at the library and share him with the community. It is a very entertaining and moving story.
Everything I Knew by Peter Goldsworthy (Australian author). Robbie Burns is a fourteen year old who lives in a small town in South Australia. It is all about growing up, forbidden disires, friendships and what happens when boundries are crossed. From funny to tragic.
Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks (Books made into movies). Adrienne, a divorced mother explaining to her daughter who has just lost her husband with cancer, how she met the man who was the love of her life. Paul was staying at an Inn in Rodanthe for the weekend and Adrienne was looking after the Inn for a friend. Paul who never had time for his family and Adrienne recently divorced find love and compassion in each other. Nicholas Sparks really understands romance and feelings from a woman's point of view. The message in this short novel is, it is better to have loved and lost than to never love at all. Lovely read.

More overdue books

The Boston Globe is reporting on an overdue book on Abraham Lincoln which may have been borrowed by John F Kennedy (or less interestingly) by one of his staff.

The Library of Congress book, A. Lincoln by Ross F. Lockridge, was found in Kennedy's pre-presidential papers. It has been listed as missing in the Library of Congress online catalog, and will be returned to its collection after it has taken part in a President's Day display at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

As is often the case, the comments make good reading too including: "We should be thanking the Democratic party for their innovative assistance in this time of fiscal disaster. Obviously, with all the collection of overdue taxes from Presidential nominees and library book fines from the families of former Presidents, we will have the national debt under control in a matter of months, and still have billions left over to allocate to the economic stimulus bill, without having to increase the taxes on a single American."

Here's a campaign Australians will love to get behind . . .

I read about this on on the Book Award Tragic blog.

Scottish bookshop owner, Jayne Ramage, is urging her customers to beat the recession and escape the worries of the economy by spending the day in bed with a good book.

Jayne recently spent 24 hours in bed at her shop in Aberfeldy, Scotland to show how books can help us escape the financial gloom and raise our spirits. She spent the day in bed with a succession of escapist, inspiring and uplifting books, sustained by cups of tea, biscuits, a cat at the end of the bed, a telephone off the hook, lots of fluffy pillows and a warm duvet and, of course, a pile of books.

The books Jayne picked for the day included:

• The Unbearable Lightness of Being


• Castaway


• Get the Life You Want


• 1000 Ultimate Travel Experiences

She said: “This is something I try and do three or four times a year myself. I always find reading a chapter a night is never enough so I try and spend the whole day surrounded by everything I need and just read.

TheBook Award Tragic blog article goes on to suggest how these National Read in Bed Days could proceed. The list of potential benefits is impressive.

We love our public holidays here in Australia and I reckon we should aim for 4 National Read in Bed Days a year. I'd probably use them for catching up with Book Group reading, or perhaps actually reading the stuff that I reserve as it comes across my desk, instead of taking it out, finding I haven't the time to read it because of aforementioned Book Group reading then bringing it back unopened. Or perhaps I'd just take the 'snoooze every few hours' option.

And while on the subject of romance . . .

A shortlist of six has been chosen for the UK's Romantic Novel of the Year Award. The shortlist was chosen by a panel of members of the Romantic Novelists' Association. Each title was scored on criteria covering romantic content, readability, characters, plot, dialogue, style and ending. The winner will be chosen by a judging panel of Alice O'Keeffe, books editor at the Bookseller, Fanny Blake, books editor of Woman & Home, and Peter Crawshaw, who runs Lovereading.co.uk.

The shortlisted books for this year are:

• Star gazing by Linda Gillard


• Sophia's secret by Susanna Kearsley (on order)


• Before the storm by Judith Lennox*


• Thanks for the memories by Cecelia Ahern*


• The last concubine by Lesley Downer*


• East of the sun by Julia Gregson*

* = available at BMCC libraries

The winner will be announced at an awards lunch on 10 February

Library Lovers Day

Blue Mountains Library will be celebrating

Library Lovers Day

on

Saturday February 14

Come into the Libraries to recommend

Books you Love

with special bookmarks,

and enjoy limited edition chocolate hearts

and other giveaways on the day.

Getting library fees waived

We've read before about harsh punishments for overdue books. Now the LA Times is giving tips on getting your library fees waived.

Make sure you read the comments - seems some out there in Libaryland would be very hard to persuade to waive your fees, no matter how convincing your story.

Here at Blue Mountains Libraries we try to be accommodating in cases of sudden hospitalisation and other crises, but do remember that you can renew your library laons online 24 hours a day using your library card number and password (ask staff to put one on your record or remind you next time you are in) or you can ring during library open hours and staff can renew your loans over the phone.

Nocturne

AUTHOR : Diane Armstrong

PUBLICATION DATE : 2008

No. PAGES : 560 pp.

CATEGORY : Fiction

GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING : Poland

TIME PERIOD : WWII

PLOT SUMMARY : It is Warsaw in 1939, and Elzunia is an indulged teenager dreaming of heroism and romance. But when war breaks out, her illusions are shattered. As bombs fall, she meets Adam, a taciturn airman who becomes an activist in the Polish Underground, and later flies bombers for the RAF. Meanwhile, in occupied Warsaw, Elzunia discovers her own strength in ways she never imagined.

Nocturne is the story of two people whose relationships are played out against the turbulent events of the Second World War in Poland and England. Drawing on her extensive research and her own experiences as a child during the war in Poland, Diane has recreated the tension, confusion and terror of civilians when their lives are on the line and their humanity is put to the test.

Some of the characters in Nocturne were inspired by real people. One of them was the remarkable Australian nursing sister, Muriel Knox Doherty, who was placed in charge of the hospital set up in the grounds of the Belsen-Bergen concentration camp. Another was the heroic Underground courier Jan Karski who tried to change the course of history by alerting Allied leaders about the genocide in Poland. Source (Harper Collins Publisher)

COMMENTS : I loved this book as it is an inspirational story of how ordinary people are forced to find strength and courage within themselves when the world around them falls apart and they have to choose between honour and survival. It is a long read but well worth it as it is so thought provoking.

NAME OF REVIEWER : Caroline

Apostrophe catastrophe

Uproar in the UK as Apostrophes abolished by council - Birmingham council has banned the use of apostrophes in street signs because its staff spend too much time dealing with complaints about grammar. (It seems being forced to spend extended periods indoors with a blizzard raging outside has been all too much!)

This is a move that has deeply upset John Richards, the founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society. Mr Richards suggested the move could prove to be the first step towards linguistic anarchy. "If you don't have apostrophes," he said, "is there any point in full stops, or semi-colons, or question marks? Is there any point in punctuation at all?"

I thought I'd sorted my problem out last year after reading Girls like spagetti by Lynne Truss, but I'd soon forgotten it all and as a chronically confused user of apostrophes, I applaud the decision. And as for the rest of the punctuation, my dear departed granny managed just fine without punctuation in her letters - she wrote as she spoke, no room for a breath in (she seemed to be on intravenous oxygen and it could take quite a while to get away as we waited for her to take a breath in so we could say, "got to go now Gran.")

What do others think?

Do check out the comments at the bottom of the article and some of the related stories in the links to the right such as Council bans jargon and orders staff to return to 'common sense speaking' and Primary school drops word school from name as 'too negative'. Hooray for political correctness gone mad!

Literary Bad Guys

Here's a fun list from The Telegraph in the UK; 50 of the greatest villains in literature. Read on to find out who are the naughtiest boys and girls. Who would you put in that list that isn't there?

Carolyn's Books of the Month - February 2009

• Best reads for the month : Final Theory by Mark Alpert and Nocturne by Diane Armstrong
• Non Fiction : Don’t Take Your Love to Town by Ruby Langford Ginibi
• Thriller : Nothing to Fear by Karen Rose
• General : Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
• Saga/ Romance : The Long Way Home by Audrey Howard
• Australian Author : The Darkest Hour by Kathering Howell
• Crime : Missing by Susan Lewis