Fab Friday

Fab Friday is a cool kids club for primary school aged children which takes place at

Springwood Library on the first Friday of each month (during term times).

Come along and hang out with Jane Davidson and your friends and try fun new things - it could be art, could be movies, could be anything!

This month it's Card Making with Jane

Not your regular card making workshop

- we will learn how to use collage to make interesting cards and gift tags.

Bring along a photo of yourself and/or you with your brother or sister

Springwood Library

Friday 4th December

4pm-5pm

Free

This will be the last Fab Friday for 2009

R U OK?

R U OK? Day will be held on November 29th, 2009.

R U OK? is an organisation committed to the prevention of suicide and R U OK? Day is an annual national day of action that aims to get Australians, right across the entire spectrum of society, connecting with friends and loved ones, by reaching out to anyone doing it tough and simply asking: “Are you OK?”

A related website is Tune In Not Out ~ a national podcast service for young people aged 16-25. The ultimate aim of the service is to help young people make safe decisions about using alcohol and other drugs. They do this by providing information that is developed for young people by young people.

Check it out!

Good Reading magazine e-newsletter for book groups

Good Reading Magazine now has a monthly e-newsletter for book clubs!

If you belong to a book group this may be something you'd like to subscribe to. Here is the blurb from Good Reading about their e-newsletter:

It is full of free resources, such as discussion notes, tips for book clubs and links to further reading. There will also be opportunities for book clubs to tell us what they’re reading and we’ll publish their comments, connecting book clubs in a very special manner. Each month we’ll run a competition for book clubs, including the chance to meet specific authors.

You can view the first book club e-newsletter here. There is a link there to subscribe to it.

Interested in being in a book group? It can be hard to join an existing group - they tend to have a finite number of members and those members stay.

So start your own! I did! It's as easy as getting together with a couple of friends and choosing your first book and your first venue. When I started our group I got together with one friend, we each invited one or two others who also invited one or two others until we had 12 on the list. We've been going for a couple of years now.

The ABC First Tuesday Book Club site has a Book Club Starter page with lots of advice and information on getting a book group started. I've found there's a series of videos about starting a book club too. Combined with Good Reading online or from the Library to choose your reading list and away you go.

Just one tip I'd like to add to the ABC's Book Club Starter page - don't try to choose a book that everyone will love - the best books are those the membership are divided on because then you've got a discussion going - if everyone loves it (or hates it) the discussion can end up being very short. Just be respectful of other people's feelings when you haven't enjoyed a book and word your opinion carefully.

Australian on Bad S*x Award shortlist

Nick Cave's novel The Death of Bunny Munro has been named as a finalist in this year's Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Now, as the Scottish wife of an Australian husband, I find it hard to imagine an Aussie male being bad at sex! (Note the British are over-represented - and people ask me why I emigrated!) However, that cover surely should win a bad taste award of some description?

The Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction Award, fiction’s most notorious honour, was created by Auberon Waugh “with the aim of gently dissuading authors and publishers from including unconvincing, perfunctory, embarrassing, or redundant passages of a sexual nature in otherwise sound literary novels” and is not intended for literature that was written as pornographic or expressly erotic. After 17 years I think it's maybe been too gentle and the goal has not been realised. And perhaps that's a good thing?

The full shortlist of nominated works is as follows:

• A Dead Hand by Paul Theroux ~ USA
• The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave ~ Australia :
"He slips his hands under her cotton vest and her body spasms and slackens and he cups her small, cold breasts in his hands and feels the hard pearls of her nipples, like tiny secrets, against the barked palms of his hands. He feels the gradual winding down of her dying heart and can see a bluish tinge blossoming on the skin of her skull through her thin, ironed hair.
"'Oh, my dear Avril,' he says.
"He puts his hands under her knees and manoeuvres her carefully so that her bottom rests on the edge of the settee. He slips his fingers underneath the worn elastic of her panties that are strung across the points of her hips, slips them to her ankles and softly draws apart her knees and feels again a watery ardour in his eyes as he negotiates a button and a zipper. It is exactly as he imagined it – the hair, the lips, the hole – and he slips his hands under her wasted buttocks and enters her like a fucking pile driver."

• The Humbling by Philip Roth ~ USA (On order)
• The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell ~ USA
• Rhyming Life and Death by Amos Oz ~ Israel
• The Infinities by John Banville ~ Ireland
• The Rescue Man by Anthony Quinn ~ GB
• Love Begins in Winter by Simon Van Booy ~ GB (On order)
• The Naked Name of Love by Sanjida O'Connell ~ GB
• Ten Storey Love Song by Richard Milward ~ GB
  
  You can read all the extracts in this Guardian article, The Bad Sex Factor. The winner will be announced in London on 30 November.

And while we're talking lists . . .

Down here in the bowels of the library we do the cataloging. By sheer coincidence the Dogaloguer (she'll hate me calling her that!) is adding Top 10 of Everything 2010 to the catalogue. Lurking about on pages 110-111 we have Top 10 lists for Books & Libraries. Here are just 2 of those lists, see if there are any surprises :

Top 10 Bestselling English Language Authors (I think the list compilers are being a bit lazy not giving us a full 10 by counting equal place holders separately).

1. Agatha Christie and William Shakespeare (sharing the top spot)

3. Barbara Cartland

4. Harold Robbins

5. Enid Blyton

6. Danielle Steel

7. Dr Seuss

8. Horatio Alger Jr, Jackie Collins, J.K. Rowling and R.L. Stine

Top 10 Books found in most Libraries (based on WorldCat listings held in 53,000 libraries in 96 countries)

1. The Bible

2. US Census (with all due respect to our US cousins, I doubt that would be quite so popular here in Oz)

3. Mother Goose

4. Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri

5. The Odyssey, Homer

6. The Illiad, Homer

7. Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

8. Lord of the Rings Trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien

9. Hamlet, William Shakespeare

10. Alice's Advenures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

And there is a wealth of other lists in this 256 page book with chapter headings like The Universe and the Earth, Music, Life on Earth, Entertainment, The Human World, The Commercial World, Town & Country, On the Move, Culture & Learning and Sport & Leisure.

The 2010 edition is a Reference book and therefore is Not for Loan but there will soon be a copy at each branch of the Blue Mountains Library so go and have a good peruse.

The Times 100 Best Books of the Decade

Did you realise we were almost at the end of the decade? Or did you, like me, think there was still a year and a tiny bit to go?

It seems The Times in London is of the former view and The Times 100 Best Books of the Decade has been published. (Sorry, it's a bit of an annoying article to get through. Because there are so many adverts, etc. on the page, the list ranges over 17 pages. Luckily I am adding this at work because, with our steam driven pooter at home, it would take me a week to get through it).
Twilight is #90 and The Da Vinci Code is #10 (2003) - are these people insane?

The top 10 are:

#10 The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (2003)

#9 Atonement by Ian McEwan (2001)

#8 Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood (2008)

#7 Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2002)

#6 The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell (2000)

#5 Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky (2006)

#4 Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers trans Robert Bringhurst (2002)

#3 Dreams From My Father : A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama (2004)

#2 Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (2003)

#1 The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006)

Related lists include The Worst 5 Books of the Decade (wot, only 5, I think someone's being lazy) Dan Brown ends up #1 on this list, deservedly so - "brown certainly is a fitting color for his writing" as one commenter on The Times 100 Best wrote.

And The 100 Best Movies of the Decade (only 9 pages to wade through this time).

Summer Reading Club

This year Blue Mountains Library will again be conducting a Summer Reading Club for the children of the Blue Mountains between
1st December 2009
and
12th February 2010

We hope that this program will introduce you to many new books and authors and that you will have
lots of fun reading!

Here's how it works :

• You need to be a Member of the library to enrol in the Summer Reading Club. Remember to bring your library card with you when you enrol. If you are not a member of the library please fill out a membership form and join the library.
• You need to read books at your reading level.
• Books recorded in your log book must be books you have borrowed from the Blue Mountains Library - you are allowed to borrow 20 books on your card at any one time.
• Record the name of all the books you read in your log book.
• Write your name, address, membership number and age on your log book.
• When you return your books ask the Librarian to stamp your log book.
• When you have read 20 books you will receive an award. Hand in your log book and replace it with a new one from the librarian at the desk.
  

A Mayoral Award will be given to the ‘BLUE MOUNTAINS BEST READER 2010’

Have breakfast with the Mayor

Members of the Blue Mountains community are invited to join Mayor Adam Searle at a Mayoral Breakfast in support of the 18th Anniversary of International White Ribbon Day at the start of 16 days of Activism Against Violence Against Women and Children. The breakfast aims to raise awareness and community consciousness that violence against women and children cannot be tolerated.

The theme of White Ribbon Day is “Not Violent, Not Silent”. Please join the Mayor and attend the breakfast, with your help we can make a difference.

Wednesday 25 November 2009
8:30am to 10am

Springwood Library, 104 Macquarie Rd, Springwood

During the 16 Days of Activism to Stop Violence Against Women, Councillors, staff and community members across Council will be pinning white ribbons to their shirt fronts to indicate their support of the world wide campaign.

Some of the compelling background to White Ribbon Day includes the research that more than one in four women will experience violence during their lives. Almost 70% of women reporting violence have said that children had witnessed the violence.

It is essential that community members intending to attend RSVP to Libby Horth on 4780 5653 or email lhorth@bmcc.nsw.gov.au by Monday 23 November so the caters can be notified.

What Library Staff are Reading . . .

• Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult ~ very emotional. It captures the effects of a person with rare condition and how it affects ALL the family members – their desperation.
• Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer and The Ellie Chronicles by John Marsden ~ I must be re-living my youth!
• I’ve almost finished listening to Bryce Courtenay’s The Persimmon Tree, read by Humphrey Bower ~ this is a love story set in the Pacific during the Second World War - I'm really enjoying this like all Courtenay’s books read by Humphrey
• And I’m close to finishing The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness ~ a young adult novel, the first in the Chaos Walking trilogy recommended to me by my adult daughter who mostly reads different styles to me. I’m not wanting to put this down; everybody can hear the inner thoughts, or ‘the noise’, of everyone else in this story
• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters ~ What can you say about a book which as you turned the last page made you feel the author had been wasting your time? The Little Stranger is a ghost story that never quite delivers mixed with the story of the decline of the British upper classes. In fairness much of the book was absorbing and it would be true to say anticipation of an ending kept me going, but the continual rational explanations of the narrator alongside each supernatural happening was frustrating and turned the book into a tale of two competing theories devoid of any element of horror. To add to the frustration after 500 pages the particular nature of the supernatural phenomenon is not revealed and my anticipated ending was not delivered
• Digital Portrait Photography by Steve Sint ~ a fascinating look at portrait psychology, framing, lighting, posing the face, equipment and the business side of photographing people, and I now know what the Rembrandt triangle is!
• Recently read Fat by Rob Grant of the Grant and Naylor team who penned Red Dwarf ~ witty and biting, this book serves as an observation of the contemporary obsession with both food and obesity - reminiscent of Ben Elton
• Friends Like These by Danny Wallace ~ Wallace is about to turn thirty - though he doesn’t feel even nearly ready for this milestone. So he decides to track down his closest childhood friends before his thirtieth birthday and reconnect with his past before he becomes a real-life grown-up, prepared to accept display cushions and gourmet sausages in his life
• Join Me by Danny Wallace ~ a very amusing account of how Wallace started a world-wide collective (“It’s not a cult!”)
• Dry by Augusten Burroughs ~a well-written account of Burroughs struggle to give up alcohol and get his life back
• I lapped up The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker ~ it was hilarious. The main character is a worse procrastinator than me (!), lurching from one crises to another, BUT he does know a hell of a lot about poetry. I learnt stuff and was entertained
• Walking the Camino: a modern pilgrimage to Santiago by Tony Kevin ~ a nicely-written account of his walk from Granada in the south of Spain up to Santiago de Compostela in the north-west. He describes the walk and the country, but digresses to Spanish history and politics. I was on the track with him!
• I have just finished My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber, 1894 - 1961 ~ first published in 1933, it is an account of odd behaviours, antics & strange goings on in his family home & home town. It is a mixture of dry wit, domestic life & the absurd. Complete with illustrations by the author it’s the funniest thing I’ve read in ages. If alive today, & so inclined, Thurber could be the script writer of top ratings sitcoms
• Small Wars by Sadie Jones ~ I chose this book because it is set in the land of my birth, Cyprus, a half dozen or more years before I was born.during the troubles in 1956-57 when Greek Cypriots were fighting the British wanting to merge with Greece. I thought I might be able to recommend it to my mother but it may be a bit too confronting for the wife of a retired British Army officer
• The Secret River by Kate Grenville ~ read for Book Group. We then followed it up with a trip to Wiseman's Ferry as the story is situated on the Hawkesbury River and the main character based on Soloman Wiseman. Had a great weekend!
• Elizabeth's Women : the hidden story of the Virgin Queen by Tracy Borman ~ while this book is very readable, it claims to have new information but for those who have read around Tudor history, it doesn't really deliver much new - except for one bit of information, casually lobbed in without references (ecerything else meticulously referenced) - that Mary Boleyn's son was intellectually disabled!
• Triumph of the airheads : and the retreat from commonsense by Shelley Gare ~ oh so scary because it is oh so true – we don’t need to be afraid of the threat of terrorism; we are destroying all the basics such as common sense, courtesy, good old fashioned decency ourselves – the title of the book says it all.
• I have just finished reading a delightful book which I loved, Playing with Water by Kate Llewellyn. This is a gentle story about the author moving from Leura to a small coastal town on the south coast where she delights in setting up a garden but it also shows an insight into her life as an author, her constant battle with making ends meets financially but enjoying her life with many friends who also love gardens, good food, wine and the good things in life. It is a good de-stressing read and a meditation on nature.
• Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura ~ the story is told through the eyes of a nine year old boy who lives in a fishing village in medieval Japan. It is really just the day to day lives of the villagers but it is beautifully written. It is at times amusing, at times thought provoking and it is sad. I thoroughly recommend it. It was recommended to me by one of my customers.

Celebrating 40 Years of Sesame Street

Goodreading magazine book lists

With summer fast approaching you might be starting to think about compiling your summer reading and Christmas present lists! Book groups may be looking to compile their reading list for the coming year.

To help you find your next good read (and the next and the next and the next) you can use the lists of advertised and editorial titles in the December/January edition of Goodreading magazine. After you've finished a book, you can leave your review on the Goodreading website.

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

Goodreading Online has '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 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.

Goodreading Online 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).

ABC First Tuesday Book Club competition

ABC TV's First Tuesday Book Club is having a competition to find out which were Australia's favourite books of 2008.

All you have to do is write in 200 words or less what your favourite novel of 2008 is and why. The prize is a full set of the 2009 Fiction and Non-Fiction shortlisted books. Answers will be judged by Jennifer Byrne with Chair of the 2009 Prime Minister's Literary Awards Fiction panel, Professor Peter Pierce.

To read more about the 2009 Prime Minister's Literary Awards and to view the Non-Fiction and Fiction shortlists please go to the First Tuesday Book Club News page:

Click here for the Submission form

Library Doings - Springwood Library Refurbishment

Have you seen the new look Springwood Library?

Springwood Library underwent a refurbishment at the end of October. This involved getting new shelving, furniture and having some walls painted. The end result has seen Springwood Library turn into a lighter, brighter place!

Come in and see the changes for yourselves!

Springwood Library is open Mon-Fri 10am-5:30pm and Sat 9am-4pm

Advice for budding writers

In this article from the Wall Street Journal, How to write a great novel, are asked about their writing process.

Who is it that finds inspiration in the shower?

Who uses eight-point Times New Roman, forcing himself to squint at the tiny type?

Which lazy so-and-so wrote while lying in bed and used a lap-top computer with voice-recognition software?

Library Doings - Lawson Book Sale

Next Saturday, November 14, Library staff will be holding a book sale as part of the Lawson Festival. As well as the great bargains of adult and children's books, CDs, videos and magazines, come along and join in the fun of the Festival.

Library Book Sale

Mid Mountains Community Centre

New Street, Lawson


10am until 1pm

Here's a photo of the Biblio Turismo motorcycling Librarians at the end of the Biblio Turismo Bat out of Hell tour which saw public librarians from across the State visiting libraries along the route of Mudgee, Parkes and Blayney and Katoomba, departing Gosford on 5 November.

Blue Mountains Library was pleased to be the last stop on this public library event on Saturday 7 November with afternoon tea being hosted by Blue Mountains Library at the Carrington at 4.00pm. The Library Manager’s husband, Paul Edmunds, rode to meet the crew at Bathurst Library so he could escort them to Katoomba. The photo shows Paul (Blue Mountains), Alan Flores (Gosford), Ross Balharrie (Manly) and Alan Arnold (Campbelltown).

A big thank you to the Welcome Committee on Saturday - Leisa Radford (Upper Mountains Library Coordinator) and John Merriman (Local Studies Librarian) who was also our official photographer. John has already uploaded photos onto the Biblio Turismo flickr site. Please also have a look at the Biblio Turismo blog for photos from their latest tour.

Alison's Picks - November 2009

David Malouf : Ransom
Colleen McCullough : The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet
John Updike : My Father’s Tears and other stories
Eleanor Dark : The Little Company
Kim and Malcolm Wells :

Camino Footsteps : reflections on a journey to Santiago de Compostela

Genesis by Karin Slaughter

Plot summary : Karin Slaughter's powerful novels of suspense set in the backwoods of Georgia and the mean streets of Atlanta have enthralled listeners and shot to the top of bestseller lists worldwide. In Genesis, she puts the small-town residents of Grant Count, Georgia, and the hard-bitten cops of Georgia's Bureau of Investigation on a collision course, in a relentlessly gripping novel guaranteed to keep the surprises coming. Sarah Linton has fled to Atlanta seeking refuge from the patient in her ER, and she'll find herself deeply ensnared in a case which rips the lid off secrets as dark and complex as they are disturbing. When Special Agents Will Trent and Faith Mitchell join forces to probe into the life of the victim, they embark on an investigation which will change all of them forever.(Source Fantastic Fiction).

Review : I love all Karin Slaughter's books and this one is no exception. In her latest suspense masterpiece, Karin Slaughter weaves together the moving, powerful human stories of characters as real as they are complex and unforgettable. At the same time she has crafted a work of dazzling storytelling and spine-tingling mystery—as three people, each with their own wounds and their own secrets, are all that stands between a madman and his next crime.

Reviewed by : Carolyn

A library in the US is accepting food instead of money to pay off overdue fines according to one news report.

For every can of food borrowers with overdue fines can have $1 of their fine cleared and borrowers can bring in as many cans of food as they want. However, only overdue fines are being waived, not charges for lost or damaged material. The food collected will be distributed to the Salvation Army and the Community Crisis Center.

Like Blue Mountains libraries, this library in the US has a generous policy toward overdue books. There is a grace period (3 days for BMCC library books) before the fines kick in and then the fines are only 20 cents a day.

Fines can be avoided :

• make sure you take note of when your library items are due back
• if you are unable to visit a library branch during opening hours you can return items via the Return bins which are located outside each library branch
• you can renew items online via the library catalogue using your library card no. (the one that starts with P216 . . .) and PIN
• or you can ring any branch and ask a staff member to renew your items for you.

Be assured though, if like me you always manage to rack up fines (and I work at the library and am here every weekday so I don't have the excuse you do), the money you give in fines is being returned to the library.

Budding bookworms

A new report, released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics last week, has pleasing results as far as libraries are concerned.

According to the report, Children's Participation in Cultural and Leisure Activities April 2009, a little over 50% of Australian children have visited a public library in the year leading up to April 2009.

However, libraries have plenty of competition; nearly two thirds of Australian children took part in organised sport (swimming is the most popular sport) and (no surprises here) TV, DVDs or videos were watched by 97% and 83% of children did other screen-based activities such as using computers or electronic games.

Further details can be found in Children's Participation in Cultural and Leisure Activities, Australia, April 2009 (cat. no. 4901.0), available for free download from the ABS website

For what Blue Mountains Library offers children, check out the Children's Services webpages.

999 Challenge - October 2009

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (Books made into movies)
This book depicts life in America in the ninteen fifies. It is a story of hope, aspirations,unrealistic dreams, deceptions and tragedy. Frank and April Wheeler with their two children move to Revolutionary Road, Connecticut. Although living in the suburbs, Frank and April think they are different from their friends and neighbours. Trying to break out of their suburban lifestyle, April convinces Frank they should move to Paris and start a new life where she would support Frank while he decides what ambition he would like to follow other than the boring office job he now holds. April finds herself pregnant with their third child much to her dismay. Their plans begin to crumble. Unexpectantly Frank's superiors suddenly start to praise his work and Frank starts to think the job is not that bad after all. April starts to question her life and her love for Frank. She doesn't want another child and tries to abort it herself and things go terribly wrong.
This is a beautifully written book that has never dated, a true classic. The story was very complelling as is the film of the same name.

Call Waiting by Dianne Blacklock ( Chic Lit)
This a romantic chic lit novel set in Bowral. If you are looking for suprises or unhappy endings you won't find it in this book; it is sentimental and terribly predictable, but lots of fun. The story line is about two old college friends, Ally and Meg, who are at a crossroad in their lives. Ally moves to Bowral to help an old friend in running a guest house to get away from a romance that is going nowhere. Meg on the other hand who has the perfect husband, child and lifstyle falls for the feckless Jamie who she mets at a photo shoot for the advertising company she works for. All comes good in the end when Meg and her husband sort themselves out and move from the corporate world to runing an art gallery in Bowral. Ally mets the local builder when he is doing some work at the guest house. She, of course, ends up as his wife and business partner working with him as an interior designer. The story is full of charm and wit. I liked it so much I have read two of her other books, Wife for Hire and Almost Perfect.

Breakout: How I escaped the Exclusive Brethren by David Tchappat (General Reading)
Could you imagine living life without television, music, computers, mobil phones, books (only those approved by the Brethren), no swimming or sport, no going out to the movies, told what you can wear or who you can marry? Children are not allowed to intergrate with the worldly children at school. Your only outing is going to church every day. Welcome to the Exclusive Brethren. It is all about controlling the followers. This is the story of a young man who was brave enough to make the break from the Brethren at nineteen. David has to be admired, coming from such a controlled environment and into the real world full of technology and things he had never experienced. He had no support from family or the friends he had known, as once you leave all contact ceases. The book tells of all the emotions David has to deal with along the way. This a very destructive sect that can take children away from parents for extended periods of time if they commit a simple misdemeanour in the eyes of the Brethren. While the leaders are running big businesses and making big money, they are telling their followers the worldly people are evil. I found this book fascinating but felt incredibly sad for the children that are brainwashed and living in an insular world.

Born or Bred : Martin Bryant : the making of a mass murderer by Robert Wainwright (Crime)
This book looks at the psychological reasons why Martin Bryant killed thirty five people and injured twenty one. Bryant was always different growing up. It is thought he suffers from Aspergers Syndrome. Trouble really started when his father committed suicide. His father was his main carer always making sure his time was occupied. After his father's death he became obessed with death. Shunned by society and fuelled by the Dunblane massacre in Scotland, Bryant began collecting guns. His father had found him gardening work in a crumbling mansion owned by Helen Harvey and her mother. Helen was a virtual recluse but Helen and Bryant seemed to hit it off. She was much older than him but she seemed to understand him and they made an odd couple around the town. Unfortunately she was killed in a car accident and left him her fortune which enabled him to buy the freedom to buy and stockpile guns. In his warped mind he feels he is the victim and wants to die. So he single handly creates one of Australia's greatest massarces. It is a no win situation for all involved, including Bryant - a pathetic man who did an unforgivable thing. He is a man with the IQ of a ten year old and the emotional state of a two year old. Why he did it we will never really know. What would have happened if Bryant was diagnosed with his problems when he was younger? If his father hadn't committed suicide? If Helen Harvey hadn't left him all that money? If that gun seller hadn't sold him the guns? But it happened and can't be changed.

Storyteller extraordinaire

Britain has recently appointed its first Storytelling Laureate.

Taffy Thomas, MBE, took to story telling after he suffered a stroke at the early age of 36, using storytelling as a kind of speech therapy.

Thomas' two-year term as storytelling laureate will begin in January 2010 during National Storytelling Week. The position is the brainchild of Birmingham's poet laureate Adrian Johnson and is backed by former children's laureate Michael Rosen and Liverpool poet Brian Patten. The position is awarded and organised by the Smethwick-based independent production company kindandgenerous.

Thomas hopes the laureateship will make both children and adults more aware of the power of stories, and of the oral tradition of storytelling.

Read the full Guardian story here.

Carolyn's Books of the Month - November 2009

Best read for the month : Genesis by Karin Slaughter
Thriller : The Accident Man by Tom Cain (No. 1 in the Samuel Carver series) and I Can See You by Karen Rose
General : Target by Simon Kernick
Australian Author : The Family Tree by Isla Evans
Saga/Romances : The Horse Dancer by Jojo Moyes
Crime : The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (No. 1 in the Millenium trilogy)

Biblio Turismo

Blue Mountains Library is pleased to be the last stop in the upcoming public library event, Biblio Turismo 4: the 'Bat Out Of Hell Tour'.

Hosted by Gosford City Library, public librarians from across the State will visit libraries along the route of Mudgee, Parkes and Blayney and Katoomba on their motorbikes, departing Gosford on November 5.

The event is best described by Gosford City Library Manager, Alan Flores, as “the most exciting public library activity of the year. Where we visit rural public libraries, share goodwill, break bread and provide opportunity for publicising libraries in a positive and unusual way. All previous tours have been a great success with feedback from as far away as New York.”

Katoomba is going to be the last stop of the tour, on
Saturday 7 November
with afternoon tea being hosted by Blue Mountains Library
at The Carrington at 3.30pm, with a photo opportunity.

If you would like to greet the Librarians on Motorbikes and share afternoon tea, please RSVP to

Vicki Edmunds, Manager, Libraries and Community Services

on 4723 5055

Have a look at the Biblio Turismo blog for previous tours and all the latest information.

Prime Minister's Literary Awards winners

The Prime Minister's Literary Awards are given to living authors who are Australian citizens or permanent residents. The winners in the two categories, Fiction and Non-fiction, each receive a cool $100,000.

Winner of the fiction prize this year is Nam Le for his collection of short stories, The Boat. Le has enjoyed great success with this debut collection : he also won the Dylan Thomas Prize for Young Writers, the NSW Premier's Book of the Year, SMH Best Young Novelist and the Australian Book Industry Newcomer of the Year awards, among others.

This year the Non-fiction prize has been shared between two books, three authors : Evelyn Juers book about Heinrich Mann, brother of the famous German writer Thomas Mann, House of Exile : the life and times of Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kroeger-Mann and Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds book, Drawing the Global Colour Line : white men's countries and the question of racial equallity which is about the Australian immigration experience.

Fab Friday

Fab Friday is a cool kids club for primary school aged children which takes place at Springwood Library on the first Friday of each month (during term times).

Come along and hang out with Jane Davidson and your friends and try fun new things - it could be art, could be movies, could be anything!

In November we have Crazy Transport with Jane

Learn elements of design to add to your art skills -

create the ultimate mode of transport as you see it

Springwood Library

Friday 6th November

4pm-5pm

Free