Why Poetry is Like Wine

My name is Pippi and I have a habit ...
a poetry habit. I need to have a daily fix of poetry to feel satisfied. I think that poetry is good for you, it's healthy like that small daily glass of red wine is healthy. Reading poetry daily increases my sense of well being, so I 'read' poetry in all sorts of ways... by listening to Poetica on Radio National, by downloading poetry to my ipod, by browsing poetry sites on the Internet, by borrowing collections of poetry and literary journals from the library, and by compulsively scouring second hand bookshops for the work of poets that I most enjoy.
Last year, two important things happened that helped me to take my daily poetry habit more seriously. The first was hearing a fascinating interview with novelist Jeanette Winterson on ABC Radio in which she talks about her practice of memorising poems, saying "if you can remember things then they're yours, they belong to you, and they can sustain you in times of difficulty or trouble. And I often say to people, use that part of your brain, learn things, because it's fantastic in a stressful situation to remember great lines or to have something there as a prop or a comfort, or even a challenge or a guide...". The second was reading Jay Parini's informative book 'Why Poetry Matters'.
Just one poem a day is enough for me to feel the positive effect that poetry can have and I've found poetry anthologies to be a fun way to get variety into my daily poetry read. Last Christmas my family gave me 'The Best Australian Poems 2008', edited by Peter Rose and published by Black Inc. This anthology is like a case of clean skins (unlabeled wine bottles) because apart from the region, the vintage and the claim that these are the best quality, there is little else to guide the reader in terms of context. The poems are arranged in alphabetical order only, by poet's surname, so there are many interesting juxtapositions - some rather startling.
If the idea of drinking a case of clean skins is unsettling for you, try a wine festival sort of anthology, like 'Poem for the Day Two' published by the Nicholas Albery Foundation in association with Chatto & Windus. Here the poems are loosely organised by predictable events in the calendar year, such as New Year, the seasons, and Christmas. This book will also delight trivia buffs as there is a short biographical entry on each poet, as well as a list of significant poetic happenings in history for each day.
For me, the gourmet wine tasting dinner of all anthologies has been 'A Book of Luminous Things, an international anthology of poetry', edited by Czeslaw Milosz and published by Harcourt Brace & Company. The way the poems are arranged in this book just shines... there are sections titled Epiphany, Nature, The Secret of a Thing, Travel, Places, The Moment, People Among People, Woman's Skin, Situations, Non Attachment, History. This anthology is a delightful degustation that left me wanting more of everything! I challenge you to stick to just one poem a day with this treasure. Pippi.

Book Chain - The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway (2008)

The Cellist of Sarajevo was reviewed about a year ago in Readers in the Mist. Read that review here.

Plot summary from Fantastic Fiction : Snipers in the hills overlook half the intersections in Sarajevo. In the streets below, two inhabitants, Dragan and Kenan, trapped, like all their neighbours, in the city, strive to go about their daily lives, trying to second guess when and where the next bullet will strike.
One man, a cellist, defies this game of 'Sarajevo Roulette'; in memory of the city's dead, for 22 consecutive days, he becomes a sitting target as he plays Albinoni's 'Adagio' in the street outside his building. Unbeknown to him, one young woman watches his performances with unflinching attention.
Tense and heart-wrenching to its last page, The Cellist of Sarajevo shows how life under siege creates agonizing and almost impossible choices. When the mere act of crossing the street can risk lives, the human spirit is revealed in all its fortitude - and frailty.


Book Chain Comments :

• I found this book quite sad at times; hopeless and terrible as portrayed in the lives of Kenan, Dragan and Arrow with the only hope being given by the cellist who gives hope to so many. A vivid description of life in a broken city. As I know the music called Albinoni's adagio I could imagine all the more the sense of hope for survival this beautiful music could have imparted and the courage needed to perform this. A story about the strength of the human spirit in adverse times.
• Wonderful book. Thought-provoking.
• Very sad but thought-provoking book bringing lives to the characters and hope for them in times of despair.
• Prefer to read for entertainment and enjoyment on daily commute. Not interested in being depressed.

Want to give a Book Chain a try? Read more about them here then contact your nearest Blue Mountains library.

Blackheath Storytimes

Did you know that Blackheath Library now has Storytime sessions for pre-schoolers on the first Thursday of the month?

The next Storytime session will be Thursday 2nd July at 10.30am.

The topic will be Fairies.

Wondering who to spend the weekend with?

Good old Bookninja, he has the best lines for his links (he's going on hols for a while soon, I'll miss him) - how could I go past "Date a Penguin (think about it, they’re always dressed nice and in the winter you can ride them to work—you could do worse)"?

And if you click on the link there's information about a new service “Penguin Dating,” which pairs people up by the books that they enjoy.

In the interests of research I tried joining up for their free 72 hour membership (using my sister's UK postcode) but, while I managed to create an account, I couldn't get it to let me do anything else. Never mind my husband will be back on Sunday . . .

Library Doings - New Katoomba Library and Cultural Centre Display

A display featuring the new Katoomba Library and Cultural Centre will be at Katoomba Library for the month of July. Please come and see what is in store for Katoomba!

Read more here at the Parke Street Development web pages.

Book of the Year 2009

It seems a bit early in the year to be choosing the book of the year, but the Book Award Tragic tells me that last night, in Sydney, the Australian Book Industry Awards (of which there are 18 in all) were awarded. The winners are chosen by 150 booksellers and publishers who voted online in April/May 2009.

You can read Book Award Tragic's full run-down here. It's a comprehensive and lovingly put together list of all the winners and honorable mentions. Just let me tell you that the winner of the Book of the Year was The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas.

Good Reading Online now available

For several years now, Blue Mountains City Library has subscribed to the wonderful Good Reading magazine but now Blue Mountains City Library members can read it online too.

Good Reading Online is an Australian resource with information on 'Everything About Books' including thousands of easy to read independent book reviews and lots of Australian and International articles, author profiles, stories on writers' houses, bookshops, short stories, book trivia and more. It also aims to provide not only a central place for book lovers to find useful information, but also a place for readers (and writers) to exchange thoughts and ideas.

The online edition is an exact digital copy of the print magazine with the benefits of access to the archive of past issues plus links to interesting websites and more. You'll also be able to browse and keyword search through all issues.

GRO is accessible from all PCs in the libraries (no password required) and from your home PC using your library card barcode to enter. You will find it in the Online Databases section of the library website (down at the bottom of the page).

As you scroll down the page, check out the other wonderful databases available to you:

• NSW.net supplies public libraries with free access for all branches to the following databases. These databases are available from all library PCs, no password required and some are available from home PCs. Select Blue Mountains Library in the top right hand corner and click "go".


• Britannica Online Library Edition - Home Access ~ offers three libraries: Encyclopaedia Britannica for adults, Britannica Student for high school students, and Britannica Junior for primary school students.


• Magpies: The Source ~ children's literature online database. Only available from a library PC.


• Auslit ~ provides authoritative information on hundreds of thousands of creative and critical Australian literature works relating to more than 75,000 Australian authors and literary organisations. It also makes available selected critical articles and creative writing in full text.


• New South Wales Family History Document Service's Internet History Resources ~ provides you with images of historical documents which contain information which can help you trace people who lived and worked in New South Wales during the period 1850 - 1920.


• Ancestry Library Edition ~ provides access to a wide range of unique resources for genealogical and historical research. Only available from a library PC.

Poetry Slam 2009 Katoomba Heat Winners

Last Thursday night the third annual Katoomba heat of the National Poetry Slam was held at the Carrington Hotel, Katoomba. The evening was once again hosted by wordsmith, Miles Merrill. (See previous post)

There were 14 very keen participants being watched by an audience of about 50. The two winners of this heat (1) Peter Hines and (2) Gregory North (pictured) will both be representing Katoomba at the State Final in November at the State Library of NSW.

The poems ranged from rants about being conned, a popular place called Nowhere that cannot be found on any map, the non-nutritional value of tofu, the black panther and zombies of Katoomba, the history of the Winter Magic festival, how to win Poetry Slams, and Lapstone Beach (due to climate change) . . . plus many more very funny and entertaining.

The Life of a Library Book

Have you ever wondered what sort of life a library book leads? I've imagined something like this...As the first fat drops of rain fall, she pushes me up against the back door of the building; planks of ribbed, splintered wood, still icy cold and damp against my face this early in the day. My back, pressed against her chest, is warm and dry but I am in an awkward position and can feel that a corner of me is bent the wrong way. She turns the key in the lock and the door springs open throwing us both forward into the dim quiet of the room beyond. The expectation in the air is always what I notice first when I return to the library; as if the books are holding their breath … waiting on the shelves to be picked up, waiting to be touched and waiting to be read.
It is my purpose in life, to be read, and I can’t imagine what it would be like to belong to only one person and be read once then gather dust or, much worse, become mildewed and discarded. Every reader leaves their mark upon me, intentional or accidental; this morning’s hurried entrance, in escaping the bad weather, has creased my front cover badly. Last night it was the pages between my covers that became ruffled as the librarian read some of my more explicit passages to her husband, while they lay in bed together.
Every home visit is exciting though. Last month I received my first body piercing, courtesy of a yellow budgerigar whose owner had been reading aloud, to herself, at breakfast. I think it was the traces of butter, smeared from fingers onto one of my corners that gave the bird such an appetite for the printed word. That wasn’t the most alarming thing ever to have happened, however; if you turn to page 13 you will see a peppering of tiny burn marks from ash fallen from the cigarette of a grieving husband, sobbing as he chose poems for his wife’s funeral.
I’m like a translator, putting into words the love that seems unsayable; no matter how well the feeling is known. As my pages are turned I breathe this unfamiliar language into the minds and mouths of readers. Special occasions, like birthdays, weddings and Valentine’s Day mean that I’ll never be on the shelf for long – besides, I am just too sexy with my pink, red and gold cover. I feel sorry for “10 Easy Tea Cosies for Beginners to Knit”, I don't think she’s ever been out of the building, poor dear.
What do you think? Pippi.

JD Salinger lawsuit continued . . .

Further to the post earlier this month announcing that JD Salinger was suing the author of a 'sequel' to The Catcher in the Rye, Publishers Weekly is reporting that Salinger has been granted a temporary injunction against the 'sequel' being published.

United States federal judge, Deborah Batts, ruled that J.D. Salinger’s character, Holden Caulfield, is protected by copyright. She did not rule, however, that Fredrik Colting’s use of Salinger’s iconic character in his book 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye was allowable under fair use, and issued a temporary restraining order blocking its publication. The judge now has 10 days to come to a decision, though she can extend that period by another 10 days. AS the article goes on to say, however, this is unlikely to be the end of the matter, no matter which side the judge comes down on, a final decision in the case will most likely come from the appellate court, since Batts's decision will be appealed by either losing side.

Miles Franklin Award 2009 winner announced

Last evening Tim Winton was announced the winner of the 2009 Miles Franklin Award for his most recent work, Breath. The award, set up in accordance with the will of Australian author, Miles Franklin, is worth $AU42,000.

This is the fourth time Tim Winton has won this award, other winners were Shallows (1984), Cloudstreet (1992) and Dirt Music (2002)

Here's a precis of Breath from Fantastic Fiction : Breath is an extraordinary evocation of an adolescence spent resisting complacency, testing one's limits against nature, finding like-minded souls, and discovering just how far one breath will take you. It's a story of extremes—extreme sports and extreme emotions. On the wild, lonely coast of Western Australia, two thrill-seeking and barely adolescent boys fall into the enigmatic thrall of veteran big-wave surfer Sando. Together they form an odd but elite trio. The grown man initiates the boys into a kind of Spartan ethos, a regimen of risk and challenge, where they test themselves in storm swells on remote and shark-infested reefs, pushing each other to the edges of endurance, courage, and sanity. But where is all this heading? Why is their mentor's past such forbidden territory? And what can explain his American wife's peculiar behavior? Venturing beyond all limits—in relationships, in physical challenge, and in sexual behavior—there is a point where oblivion is the only outcome. Full of Winton's lyrical genius for conveying physical sensation, Breath is a rich and atmospheric coming-of-age tale from one of world literature's finest storytellers.

Past Miles Franklin Award Winners

Refresh your memory from previous Readers in the Mist posts on the Miles Franklin Award 2009 longlist and shortlist.

What Library Staff are Reading . . .

• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini ~ another very interesting, moving and confronting novel from him
• The Choice by Nicholas Sparks ~ quite moving – makes the reader stop and think about what they would do if faced with the same decision one of the characters must make
• Beat, Heat, Eat – a cooking manual, eat or die by Dean Lahn ~ Living on takeaway? Beat, heat, eat – no skill needed. If you want tricky food, go to a restaurant – that’s what they’re there for. But if you need to make something easy at home that tastes mighty fine, this here is the deal for you. A cooking manual written specially for blokes, with diagrams, parts lists, tools and assembly instructions for each “recipe”
• Callisto by Torsten Krol ~ features a likeable innocent from the Midwest, who gets involved with a gang of evildoers. Listen to it on talking book, the reader is fantastic, all those accents!
• The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama ~ a delightful novel set in southern India
• I've just finished listening to An Open Swimmer by Tim Winton on talking book and found it really disturbing! I think listening to it was perhaps more unsettling than reading it
• Breath by Tim Winton ~ not a patch on The Turning. Otherwise I’ve had my head in quilting books - Jelly Roll Quilts is a real boon for someone like me who just can’t resist jelly rolls in quilt shops. The book is by Pam and Nicky Lintott and instructions are easy to follow, the quilts themselves are a delight and there are added suggestions for different colourways
• Susan Duncan’s Salvation Creek ~ which I really enjoyed and I’m sure many, like me, can relate to parts, if not, all of this story
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part- time Indian by Sherman Alexie is the story of Junior, a cartoonist who leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school. This sad and also funny story is based on the author’s own experiences. It won the 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature
• I’ve read the best book over this weekend and for all of those with sisters I encourage you to read it too. It really struck a chord with my family and our relationship with each other. Quite humorous in parts and well written I thought. And the title is: Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty who is Australian. This is her debut novel. So, have a read!!!
• Duet by Kimberley Freeman
• Chez Moi by French author Agnes Desarthe
• Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch ~ a great read for those who enjoyed the Ya-Ya Sisterhood books
• I really enjoyed the collection of short stories in the book The Bird Man and the Lap Dancers by Hanson, Eric. I had to ration myself to one story each night – fabulous stories to read last thing at night – uplifting and thought provoking without being at all depressing. Wonderful. Chocolate for the mind
• This month, I surreptitiously experienced the fast-paced, spontaneous, reckless beatnik life in On the Road by Jack Kerouac. My pulse was racing throughout – what a trip!
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Instructions for Living Someone Else's Life by Mil Millington
• Conversations in a Brothel : Men Tell Why They Do It by J. Willcox-Bailey
• The Secret People of the Palaces by Joan Glasheen
• At a Loss for Words : a Post-Romantic Novel by Diane Schoemperlen
• House of Treason : the Rise and Fall of a Tudor Dynasty by Robert Hutchinson
• The Arrival by Shaun Tan
• Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell

The Time Traveler's Wife

This is a lovely book and I've been waiting for the film to be released for ages. Not sure when it's being released in the Southern Hemisphere.

Here's the trailer : The Time Traveler's Wife

Eric Bana is just an added bonus.

Borrow the book before it does come to our cinemas!

Library Doings - National Drug Action Week

Next week is Drug Action Week (21st-27th June) and we are holding a quiz competition with gifts to give away and prizes to be won.

Every entry receives a gift (Drug Info torches, lip balms, Drug Action week pouches with goodies).

Entries with the correct answers will go in the draw for a silicon wristband USB (1G).

Entry forms are available at all Blue Mountains City Libraries and answers can be found using the library’s collection of free pamphlets. The completed quiz should be handed to library staff. Each branch will have at least one winner drawn from the entries at their branch.

The competition closes Friday 3rd July.

National Drug Action Week, an initiative of the Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia (ADCA). The Blue Mountains City Library will showcase the drug info@your library collections and hold a competition in each branch. The quick and easy drug info@your library quiz is designed to raise awareness of drug and alcohol issues within the community.

Get your checkbooks out

Any fans of Scottish author, Ian Rankin, out there? Me, me, me.

I just love his stuff and was saddened when grouchy, rumpled cop, Rebus was retired last year. (I also enjoyed the TV adaptations, especially those starring Ken Stott).

Not only does Rankin write outstanding crime fiction, he takes me back to Edinburgh. I spent six or seven very happy years in 'Auld Reekie' earning myself a nursing degree (a natural prerequisite for librarianship) before seeking out warmer climes.

Ian Rankin is giving the public a chance to have a sneak preview of his next book, The Complaints - for a price. The first four pages of typescript plus Rankin's handwritten annotations have been donated to the Edinburgh branch of the Samaritans for a charity auction to mark its 50th anniversary later this month.

The Complaints starts a new series featuring Malcolm Fox who works for the Complaints and Conduct Department investigating other policemen which replaces the wildly successful Rebus series. According to The Guardian blog, Rankin said earlier this month that when he was writing The Complaints, he "had the feeling that Rebus was just down the hall from this other guy". (Breathing down Rebus' neck I should say) "Maybe after two books I'll think it's time to go back and find out what Rebus is up to."

Also up for auction is a previously unpublished, handwritten poem by Alexander McCall Smith, which deals with the subject of loss. The poem is due to be included in the sixth novel in McCall Smith's Sunday Philosophy Club series featuring Isabel Dalhousie, The Lost Art of Gratitude.

The Samaritans auction will be held at 7pm on 22 June at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh for those who'd like to make a bid.

Reading Group Survey Results

Want to know about other reading groups?

US-based ReadingGroupGuides.com has published the results of an extensive survey (nearly 8000 respondents) of reading groups from around the country. For more information, including the full report, click on Reading Group Survey Results

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Transnational Literature

Transnational Literature – the new e-journal edited by Gillian Dooley – is now freely accessible. This international journal is published twice yearly by the Humanities Research Centre at Flinders University.

The theme of the current issue is Jane Austen and it has articles and reviews on all sorts of things Jane Austen including the recently aired Lost in Austen and the deliciously titled The Bedside, bathtub & armchair companion to Jane Austen. This issue also contains reviews of current literature, new poetry and short fiction.

To have a look and perhaps subscribe, go to: http://fhrc.flinders.edu.au/transnational/.

Hooray for ANIAY

Now that six months of semi-secret scribbling have passed by, it seems time to tell you about the ANIAY group that I belong to. A few locals (some library staff, some not) have been meeting one evening a month since the start of the year and sharing the results of creative writing exercises we have been working on from Louise Doughty’s book ‘A Novel in a Year’. Now you can see where the anagram ANIAY comes from (we have also begun to address each other as ANIAY’ists)!

The idea of writing a novel in a year is outrageous, of course, so I think that Louise Doughty would probably admit that she had her tongue in her cheek, and perhaps her fingers crossed behind her back, when she chose this as the title of her book.

The writing exercises came from a column that Doughty wrote in 2006 for the English newspaper the ‘Daily Telegraph’, called Novel in a Year. There are twenty six exercises in all, with every second week being a short discussion about a particular aspect of writing practice. It’s all grist for the mill, as far as I am concerned, because the book encourages you to explore some things more fully than the exercises actually demand and / or to go off on tangents and write about something completely different! The actual, and quite realistic aim, of this year of guided writing practice is to end up with a pile of ‘raw material’; how big the pile of ‘raw material’ is depends on a few things… like, how much time have you actually spent writing!

I’ve never been good with homework, always relying on the last minute cram session and the frantic, writer’s cramp inducing ‘all-nighter’ to come up with a reasonable word count. I think it’s got something to do with the adrenaline rush of a deadline almost missed. Once I get around to it though, the exercises are fun; but by far the best bit is sharing what I have written with others and listening to what their response has been to the very same exercise - usually with amazingly diverse results.

It is this wonderful experience of group enterprise that prompted me to share my experience of ANIAY with you. The Blue Mountains City Library has A Novel in a Year by Louise Doughty in the collection, as well as several other brilliant books on creative writing.

So, how about getting a group of like minded people together and forming a DIY creative writing group?

Pippi.

Today is Bloomsday

Eh?

Bloomsday is an annual event, observed on 16th June, which celebrates the life ofIrish author, James Joyce and in particular to re-enact/relive the events in his novel Ulysses which documents one day in Dublin in 1904. Bloomsday takes its name from the main character of Ulysses, Leopold Bloom.

Bloomsday is celebrated all over the world. In Dublin the James Joyce Centre in North Great George's Street hosts a range of activities including Ulysses readings and dramatisations of the novel and pub crawls. Enthusiasts often dress in Edwardian costume and retrace Bloom's route around Dublin. Hard-core devotees have even been known to hold marathon readings of the entire novel, some lasting up to 36 hours.

In Sydney Fecundity, Profanity and the Eternal Imagination: Stephen Dedalus at Holles Street Maternity Hospital Dublin is the theme of this year's Bloomsday celebrations. Doctors, scientists, professors, clerics, midwifes, actors and singers will meet at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital at 6.30pm tonight to read and discuss the episode in Ulysses set in Holles Street Maternity Hospital. Find out more here.

Read more about the whole phenomenon in these Wikipedia entries for James Joyce, Ulysses and Bloomsday.

Notoriously difficult to read, we'd love to hear from anyone who has managed to get through all 24 hours of Ulysses.

State Librarian's visit to Blue Mountains City Library

Deputy Mayor Cllr Janet Mays, Regina Sutton (NSW State Librarian),

Francis Sims (Public Library Network Consultant),

Cllr Terri Hamilton, Vicki Edmunds (Blue Mountains City Library Manager)

The plans for the new Katoomba Library left a big impression on the NSW State Librarian, Regina Sutton, during a recent visit to the Blue Mountains.

Blue Mountains Libraries hosted the visit from the State Librarian and the Public Library Network Consultant, Francis Sims, which included a visit to Springwood, Lawson, Katoomba and Wentworth Falls Libraries.

The State Librarian also visited the site of the new Katoomba Library and Cultural Centre precinct.

Councillor Terri Hamilton, Chairperson of the Katoomba Library Technical Advisory Panel said, “The State Librarian is very enthusiastic about the new Katoomba Library and Cultural Centre precinct.

Having the new Katoomba Library and the City Gallery together in the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre complex, means that residents will be able to access the high standard of exhibitions, collections, displays and forums currently found in the State Library”, continued Cr Hamilton.

The new Katoomba library is to be a two-level, open plan design with twice the floor space of the existing library. The new library will share the pedestrian access and foyer with the planned Blue Mountains Cultural Centre.

“Indeed, the State Librarian was envious of the Blue Mountains having the opportunity to development a new library and cultural centre complex, recognising the benefits to the local and regional community”, stated Cr Hamilton.

Council is currently working with the developer of the Parke St site, Coles Group Property Development, to finalise the fit-out of the new, state of the art Katoomba Library.

BMCC Media Release

Libraries come to the fore when the economy takes a dive

From America via Stephen's Lighthouse blog :

(You may have to endure a few seconds of hamburger advertising first for which I apologise)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Winter Story Telling Magic

Come along to the Bunyip’s cave at Katoomba Branch Library at Winter Magic on Saturday 20th June for FREE story telling.

• 10:30am-11am ~ Children’s story teller Rachel Besser with interactive story time for young children
• 11am-12pm ~ ‘Grandma Reads’ – children’s favourite books
• 12pm-12:30pm ~ Stephen Measday, local children’s author of ‘A Pig Called Francis Bacon’ and others
• 12:30pm-1pm ~ Karen Maber, local Aboriginal artist will read Indigenous stories
• 1pm-1:30pm ~ Book characters come to life to tell their stories.

There will be chances to win story books and enter a competition to guess the Bunyip’s name!

Just next to the Library, the Katoomba Civic Centre is turning into a kids’ wonderland for Winter Magic providing FREE kids’ activities inside from 9:15am-12:15pm.

Come along to make a mask or badge and your very own Winter Magic story book.

Girls in Trucks

AUTHOR: Katie Crouch

PUBLICATION DATE: 2008

NO. PAGES: 241 pages.

TIME PERIOD: Contemporary.

CATEGORY: Adult fiction.

GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING: USA (Charleston & New York)

PLOT SUMMARY: Sarah Waters is a reluctant Camellia Society debutante. She has always felt ill-fitted to the old-fashioned gentility of Southern womanhood and family life, but in Charleston, established rules and manners mean everything.
As Sarah grows older, moving north and navigating love and life in New York, she and her group of displaced deb sisters try to define themselves within the realities of modern life. Heartbreak, illness, addiction, career disappointments: this was not the hazy, happy future promised to them by their Camellia mothers.
But events outside her control - an unplanned pregnancy, a family death - lead Sarah back home to Charleston and to some difficult choices. And only then does she realise that as much as she tries to deny it, where she comes from will always affect where she ends up. Perhaps the motto 'Once a Camellia, always a Camellia' has more of a power over her than she would care to admit.

COMMENTS: I just loved the title and had to read this book no matter what! Luckily it was in the vein of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood books. The story is written chronologically but in the form of short stories. Funny, sad, poignant and worth the effort. You wont put down and haven't we all been there????

REVIEWER: Porphyria

Alison's Picks - June 2009

• Callisto by Torsten Krol
• Home by Marilyn Robinson
• The Philosopher's Doll by Amanda Lohrey
• The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama
• Let me Sing you Gentle Songs by Linda Olsson

NIGHT by Elie Wiesel

Night is Elie Wiesel’s masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion Wiesel, Elie’s wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author’s original intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie Wiesel reflects on the enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication to ensuring that the world never forget man’s capacity for inhumanity to man (Source : the book’s jacket).

Review
I have wanted to read Night since I saw Elie Wiesel interviewed on Oprah and knew it had won the Nobel Peace Prize. I was not disappointed as Elie Wiesel's Night is truly a book for the decades. It is very easy to read and a short story.

It is about the Holocaust and mainly the relationship between father and son as they try to survive in the camps. The emotional impact that this book creates can be overwhelming at times since you realize that Wiesel lived through one of the worst nightmares ever to grace the Earth. Somewhere deep inside us, there is a reservoir of determination, hope, and will that won't let us quit, no matter how horrendous the things around us. Few of us ever find it, but Wiesel did. He survived to ensure that the world never forgets.

Carolyn

Orange Prize for Fiction 2009 winner

Last night in London, American author Marilynne Robinson was awarded the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction with her third novel Home.

Fi Glover, Chair of Judges who presented the author with the £30,000 prize and the ‘Bessie’, a limited edition bronze figurine, said of Home. : 'A kind, wise, enriching novel, exquisitely crafted. We were unanimously agreed – it is a profound work of art.'

Precis of Home from the Orange Prize website : Jack – prodigal son of the Boughton family, godson and namesake of John Ames, gone twenty years, has returned home looking for refuge and to try to make peace with a past littered with trouble and pain. A bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold down a job, Jack is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his traditionalist father, though he remains Boughton’s most beloved child. His sister Glory has also returned to Gilead, fleeing her own mistakes, to care for their dying father. Brilliant, loveable, wayward, Jack forges an intense new bond with Glory and engages painfully with his father and his father’s old friend, John Ames.

Home is a sequel to Gilead, Robinson's last novel which won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize.

JD Salinger to sue over 'sequel'

Following Monday's post on fan fiction, JD Salinger's lawyers have announced the author is to sue the writer, publishers and distributor of 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, a 'sequel' by John David California to Salinger's famous novel The Catcher in the Rye.

The lawsuit says the right to create a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye or use the character Holden Caulfield belongs only to Salinger. The lawsuit says Salinger – who has never allowed the novel to be filmed, staged or otherwise adapted – has "decidedly chosen not to exercise that right".

Read more about it here in The Guardian and here in The Telegraph.

Poetry Slam 2009

Blue Mountains Libraries in partnership with the Winter Magic Festival will host a

Poetry Slam on Thursday June 18 @ 7pm in the Carrington Hotel Ballroom, Katoomba.

The winner and runner-up will perform in the State Final of the Australian Poetry Slam.

Poetry slams are an international performance phenomenon. Started in 1986 in a Chicago jazz club, slams were created to make poetry more exciting for a broader audience. They are a fast, feisty and frenetic way of delivering poetry. The competitive nature of battling it out with words allows for plenty of audience entertainment. Similar to MCs fighting the contest out with rap, this is a way to show what you've got in a short space of time. Beginners can blow everyone away, regulars get a chance to be fresh and anyone can be in it.

Wordsmith Miles Merrill will be the host for the evening.

Last year local poet Gregory North won the State final to represent NSW at the Nationals. You can re-read Gregory's posts from last year here.

For more information on the Australian Poetry Slam 09 visit the State Library Poetry Slam web pages.

Carolyn's Books of the Month - June 2009

• Best read for the month : Play Dead by Richard Montanari
• Thriller : Kill for Me by Karen Rose
• General : A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
• Saga / Romance : Cara Gayle by Geraldine O'Neill
• Non-Fiction : Night by Elie Wiesel
• Crime : Run for Your Life by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge
• Australian Author : The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville

999 Challenge - May

This month I have been on a bit of a crime binge.

Lady Killer: how conman Bruce Burrell kidnapped and killed rich women for their money by Candance Sutton (Crime).
Police conducted one of the biggest manhunts that lasted over ten years, after the disappearance of Kerry Whelan who vanished on her way to a beauticians appointment in Parramatta in 1997. Her husband receives a ransome note the next day demanding a payout of one and half million dollars for Kerry's release. Bruce Burrell a friend of the family and also worked for Bernie Whelan becomes the prime suspect in the case. Burrell turned up at the Whelan house three weeks before Kerry disappeared. It was thought that he intended to kidnap her then but her son was home from school sick. Burrell's property at Bungonia south west of Goulbourn was searched relentlessly by police over a matter of months but no body was ever found. What police did find was any empty chloroform bottle that was recently purchased and notes on the kidnap and ransome plan. Denis Bray the police officer in charge of the case would not give up as he also thought Burrell killed an elderly widow Dorothy Davis two years previously. Dorothy was a close family friend of Burrell's then wife. Burrell had borrowed a large amount of money from Davis and when she asked for the money back she disappeared.
After a hung jury and two trials later Burrell was finally convicted of both murders.
This book was quite an eye opener for me as I did not understand why the police were so hell bent on Burrell as the person of interest. I did not realise there was a suppression order on the evidence so that Burrell could given a fair trial. I really enjoyed the book and felt it was well written by Constance Sutton and Ellen Connolly journalists who followed the case from the start. They painted a sinister picture of a seemingly ordinary man who loved money and didn't want to work for it.

Behind the Night Bazaar by Angela Savage (Crime)
Jane Keeney is an Australian working as a private detective in Bangkok. After running in to trouble with a case she decideds to take time out and goes to visit her good friend and cosy mystery reader Didier de Montpasse in Chiang Mai. Montpasse is accused of murdering his lover and it is claimed by police that he tried to escape when they were questioning him so they shot him dead. Jane of course does not believe this and sets out to find the truth. The story is dominated by corupt police lieutenant Ratratarn and his men. Angela Savage displays a deep understanding of Thailand, its culture and customs. It was an enjoyable thriller. I picked up this title in the Goodreading magazine.

Monster by Allan Hall (Crime)
In 1984 Josef Fritzl drugged his teenage daughter Elisabeth and imprisoned her in an underground cellar beneath his home for twenty four years. In this time he raped and abused her. She bore him seven children of which one died. Three of the downstairs children as they were known were left on the doorstep upstairs with a note claiming there mother who had supposedly joined a religious sect, had abandoned them and left them for her mother and father to raise. The other three children were left downstairs were the Elisabeth raised them in appalling conditions.
When I first heard this story I wondered like everyone else why didn't Elisabeth's mother know what was going on. Fritzl was a very cunning man bordering on genius. Fritzl owned a guesthouse in an other district which his downtrodden wife ran for at least three months of the year along with Elisabeth's siblings. He had started building the cellar long before he abducted his daughter and as he was an engineer he was able to make sure the cellar was well sound proofed. In hindsight neighbours and friends now realise they saw things they should have been reported. As he was aging he was trying to find a way to bring his downstairs family out of the cellar. Before he had a chance to achieve this the eldest daughter downstairs became exremely ill. Elisabeth begged her father to take her to hospital. The rest is history. The ramifications of living underground with no sunlight, poor ventilation and a poor diet has left the downstairs family with many health issues along with the mental issues. It not only affected the downstairs family but also the upstairs family who thought their mother had abandoned them and to find their grandfather was really their father. This story was well written and researched. It will be interesting to see how the family progresses in the future as I'm sure someone will write a continuing story.

Breaking the Spell by Jane Stork (Word of Mouth)
Jane was raised in Western Australia in a loving Catholic family. Jane married at twenty one and had two children by the time she was thirty. It was at this time she was experiencing difficulties in her marriage. Jane and her husband sought the help of a psychologist. The psychologist was involved with the Rajneesh movement led by Baghwan Shree Rajneesh. Jane and her husband become devotees of the Baghwan's teaching. They gave away all their worldly possessions and moved to the Baghwan's ashram in India. Like most cults there was free love and casual relationships which lead to the breakdown of Jane's family unit. The movement decides to move to Oregon in America were the cult constructs a new centre called Rajneeshpuram as the central town and commune. Jane is drawn deeper into the cult by the second in charge Ma Anand Sheelah and all their leadership struggles. Jane is caught up in the attempted murder of the Baghwan's doctor and the plot to kill the US Attorney of Oregon. Jane serves time in jail for her part in the crimes. When released she settles in Germany. Jane starts to find her way back to personal freedom. She finds love again and marries and reconciles with her children who are now living back in Australia. Her family welcome her back with open arms. When everthing seems to be back on track her son develops a brain tumor.
I found this an interesting book into the teachings of the Baghwan 'The Rolls Royce Guru'. This was a very big cult all over the world and at its height during the seventies and eighties. Cults seem to draw in people who are looking for a prop to hold them up and are therefore easy to manipulate. I felt sad for Jane who ended up sacrificing her life, marriage, children and family for so long. There is redemption in the end of the story. Jane was lucky she had a loving family who were there when she finally came to her senses. Maybe there are other members out there that didn't fair as well.
This is another book I found in the Good reading magazine

Fans or plagiarists?

There's a long-running debate in my book group about spin-offs by one author on the original work of another (called fan fiction) and I've come across a couple of items on the subject in the media in recent days.

It is the topic of an article in the June 2009 edition of Goodreading magazine called Fan tales. Fan fiction is a genre of fiction which is written by fans of a book or author. Fan fiction authors take the characters, setting or plot of existing works and create their own stories. According to the Goodreading article, one of the earliest examples of fan fiction was a sequel to Don Quixote by Cervantes that was written in 1614 by Alonso Fernandez de Avellanada. Avellanada's sequel was published just months before Cervantes own!

Recent examples have been Geraldine Brooks March which is about what happened to the father of The Little Women when he was away at the war and which won the Booker Prize in 2006 and Colleen McCullough's most recent offering, The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet which, as the title suggests, looks at the youngest Bennet sister in more detail.

Indeed Jane Austen spin-offs is a huge market it seems. I have written before about
Being Elizabeth Bennet : create your own Jane Austen adventure. A tiny taste of the other Austen-inspired titles include Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith and waiting on my desk is The Darcy's and the Bingley's by Marsha Altman.

Now I thoroughly enjoyed the aforementioned Being Elizabeth Bennet and found Pride and Prejudice and Zombies absolutely hilarious. My sons enjoyed Barry Trotter and the shameless parodyby Michael Gerber when they were reading the Harry Potter books, but some people do not like fan fiction at all; some think it's lazy and that authors should create their own characters and plots.

Authors are similarly divided. Apparently Meg Cabot, for example, is flattered that her Princess Diaries series inspire fan fiction, Fantasy fiction author Anne McCaffrey also doesn't mind, nor does JK Rowling as long as it is non-commercial and free of pornographic material (apparently pornographic adaptations are common). Anne Rice, however, has been "aggressive" in opposing fan fiction. In the news over the past week or two has been the story about a book called 60 Years Later Coming Through the Rye by John David California, a sequel to JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. Salinger's US literary agency is consulting lawyers.

If you're interested, take a look at the Fanfiction website - under the books link there are a host of books which have spin-offs. The Anne of Green Gables series has 454 spin-offs listed, Alice in Wonderland 527 and The Bible 2,699. JK Rowling's Harry Potter books have inspired a staggering 402,190!!!

So, I don't mind it, but what do you think?