Children's Author of the Month

ODO HIRSCH
b. 1962

Odo Hirsch has a rare knack of creating stories that make the reader think. His characters face moral and ethical choices with all the enthusiasms and fallibilities of real life, yet the settings often lurk just outside the everyday. He draws on the depths and richness of several different traditions (particularly Eastern European and Jewish) to build those settings and delivers them with humour and sensitivity.

Odo Hirsch was born and grew up in Melbourne where he trained to be a doctor. He now lives in London and writes excellent books that are published not only in Australia but also in the US, UK, Netherlands, Korea, Germany and Italy.
Why I write
'I love it. For me, writing is great fun. I get to make up a world and I get to look at that world with freshness and curiosity. I've always loved using language, shaping ideas and images with words. It gives me great satisfaction when I think I've produced something really good.

'But in turning that story into a book, there's also a lot of hard work - a lot of redrafting and re-editing. So it's not all fun. I like to think of my books as opening doors in the reader's imagination. If each one of my readers, just once during one of my books, puts the book down, stares into space, and wonders "What if…" or "Why…" then I think I've done something worthwhile. After all, the great thing about reading is that it allows you into the mind of someone else, while at the same time allowing your own imagination to wander and grow. I hope my books contribute to this tradition.'
Influences
Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It's a kind of satire of the conventions of modern society, of Carroll's society as it was then. The concept is absolutely brilliant, revolutionary at the time and still the foundation of a lot of good children's writing in the sense of challenging conventions.
Inspiration
'I'm inspired by all kinds of things, especially history and people I meet.'
Advice to would-be writers
'Write about what you feel and what excites you.'
Most memorable experience
'I wrote chapter five of Bartlett and the City of Flames on a flight from London to New York. As the plane took off I had this great idea for a character, Sol. He still makes me laugh when I think about him. I laughed when I was writing it as well. I don't know what all the business people around me imagined. Probably thought I'd found some hilarious mistakes in a spreadsheet.'


Books available by Odo Hirsch at
Blue Mountains City Library

Amelia Dee and the peacock lamp
Antonio S and the mystery of Theodore Guzman
Bartlett and the City of Flames
Bartlett and the forest of plenty
Bartlett and the ice voyage
Bartlett and the island of kings
The book of changing things and other oddibosities
Darius Bell and the glitter pool
Have courage Hazel Green
Hazel Green
Slaughterboy
Something’s fishy Hazel Green
Think smart Hazel Green!
Will Buster and the carrier’s flash
Will Buster and the crucible choice
Will Buster and the gelmet helmet
Yoss

Online Premium Sites

The Library subscribes to specialised online resources for the Blue Mountains Library community. You will find electronic encyclopaedias, current information, biographies, recent newspaper and magazine articles on a variety of topics (health, literature, science, family history research and more). Many of these sites can be accessed from the comfort of your home, or anywhere else (you will need your Library membership number). Others can be freely accessed from the Library computers.

For information you won't get to with a search engine, for research, homework and fun, whatever your project, go to the new Premium Sites page of the Library website.

Arthur C. Clarke Awards for Science Fiction

The Arthur C. Clarke Award is the UK’s premier prize for science fiction. This year's winner has been announced with China Miéville winning with his book The City and The City. This novel also won the British Science Fiction Association prize for best novel earlier this month. It is the third time China Miéville has won the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

According to the Guardian, The City and the City is set up as a straightforward crime novel set in the dilapidated city of Beszél in eastern Europe. Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad is trying to solve what initially looks like a routine case but, as he looks deeper into the murder of a mysterious woman, he discovers that she has links to Ul Qoma, a city that exists in the same physical space as Beszél but whose inhabitants studiously ignore any sign of overlap.

This year’s six shortlisted titles were selected from a long list of forty-one :

Spirit by Gwyneth Jones
The City & The City - China Miéville (Macmillan)
Yellow Blue Tibia - Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
Galileo's Dream - Kim Stanley Robinson (HarperCollins)
Far North - Marcel Theroux (Faber & Faber)
Retribution Falls - Chris Wooding (Gollancz)

There are links to reviews of each title in this Guardian article if you'd like to take a look and Wikipedia has a list of previous winners.

ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day on 25th April each year is an important national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand. It is a day to remember Australian men and women who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. The spirit of ANZAC; courage, mateship and sacrifice, continues to influence our sense of national identity. Cities, towns and villages all over the country will have services of one kind or another today.

We have been marking the 25th of April since it was officially named ANZAC Day in 1916. For the rest of the war ANZAC Day was used as an occasion for patriotic rallies and recruiting campaigns and parades of serving members of the AIF were held in most cities. During the 1920s ANZAC Day became established as a national day of commemoration. 1927 was the first year every state observed some form of public holiday on ANZAC Day. By the mid-1930s, all the rituals we now associate with the day – dawn vigils, marches, memorial services, reunions, two-up games – were firmly established as part of ANZAC Day culture (from the Australian War Memorial ANZAC tradition webpage).

Students often get projects and assignments to do at this time of year and there is a wealth of information in libraries and online to help. Here are just a very few of the online resources :

• The Australian War Memorial - the ANZAC tradition ~ the whys and hows of ANZAC Day and the signigicance of the various elements of an ANZAC Day service


• The Australian War Memorial homepage


• NSW Board of Studies ANZAC Day webpages ~ lots of links to interesting ANZAC topics including a guided tour of Gallipoli for ipod and MP3 players, the Kokoda Track and women at Gallipoli

Remember, the ANZAC Day public holiday falls on Monday 26th April and all Blue Mountains City Libraries will be closed on that day.

Library services will return to normal on Tuesday 27th April.

World Book and Copyright Day

World Book and Copyright Day is a day nominated by UNESCO for people to pay tribute to books and authors, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity. The idea for this celebration originated in Catalonia where on 23 April, Saint George's Day, a rose is traditionally given as a gift for each book sold.

April 23rd is a symbolic date for world literature for on this date in 1616 Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors including Maurice Druon, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.

Click here for a message from Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of the World Book and Copyright Day: 23 April 2010.

Blackheath Library Storytime for May

May gr is now online

The May issue of goodreading magazine is now online here - all you have to do is enter your library card number.

This month, as well as reading reviews of all the lastest books, meet author Adriana Trigiani; read a posthumous interview with Jane Austen; visit Ruen, home of Gustave Flaubert; brush up on your book gossip; find out if computer games really stop kids reading; chat with Mitch Albom and enter fantastic competitions.

There is a competition celebrating Puffin’s 70th birthday. You could win $1000 worth of books from Penguin by logging into the online magazine and finding 7 puffins throughout the magazine. Log in now to find out how.

The paper version of goodreading magazine is also available at the library, pop in and check it out!

What Library staff are reading . . .

• How fat was Henry VIII? And 101 other questions and answers on Royal History by Raymond Lamont-Brown ~ lots of trivia about the British monarchy
• The angry island: hunting the English by AA Gill
• Dead Air by Iain Banks ~ this author is wonderful
• The queen of subtleties by Suzannah Dunn ~ historical fiction with Anne Boleyn's rise and fall narrated by Anne herself and by Henry VIII's confectioner
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee ~ recently given a perfect 5/5 by my book group!
• Hollywood Moon by Joseph Wambaugh ~ the master of the modern police novel…full of grit, humour and truth that makes it impossible to put down
• Song yet sung by James McBride ~ a novel about slavery in southern USA
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout ~ this won the 2009 Pullitzer Prize for fiction and it is seriously good. I'm not getting much else done because I'm always picking it up and reading some more! Luckily it is a collection of thirteen short stories, so I'm fitting in the household chores between stories. The stories are based around a related (by blood, friendship, animosity, geography) group of characters and the same characters pop up in the different stories; most notably Olive Kitteridge - a head strong, caring, rude, middle-aged school teacher. All the characters are flawed, which makes them seem so real
• The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Shaffer ~ what a delightful novel and sadly the author died without seeing her book in print. The main character, Juliet Ashton, newspaper columnist, starts corresponding with members of the society. Juliet and the readers learn about Guernsey and the German occupation there during World War 2. Juliet is intrigued with the members’ letters so decides to visit the island and her life changes forever. I really enjoyed this story
• I also read the 1st in Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ~ I, like many others, found this a compelling read and I’m looking forward to the 2nd book in this suspenseful trilogy
• Three Dog Night by Australian writer Peter Goldsworthy ~ it’s a very powerful story about the unravelling of a couple in a triangular situation, and the central desert country is part of the setting. What a brilliant writer Goldsworthy is!
• The Book of Rapture by Nikki Gemmell ~ a thought-provoking story of three children who wake up in a room, unaware of what has happened and where their parents are; this novel is ultimately an exploration of human morality
• Perfume: the story of a murderer by Patrick Suskind ~ a deliciously intriguing and repulsive main character who is besotted by scent, who sets out to create the ultimate perfume. This is my new favorite book!
• I’ve read Gregory David Roberts Shantaram ~ a brilliant book about Mumbai (soon to be a movie with Johnny Depp apparently)
• I’ve had a history lesson with Kate Summerscales’ The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
• I’m about to read Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl (on the recommendation of a customer) and The Curse of the Mistwraith by Janny Wurts
• Poisoned Pens: Literary invective from Amis to Zola edited by Gary Dexter
• It doesn’t take long to read Paradise Fields by Katie Fforde ~ this is another witty romance by Katie Fforde and it’s good escapism. Nel, a youngish widow with 3 children is busy organising a farmer’s market to raise money for a local hospice. Nel is horrified to learn that the land they use for the markets is to be sold for housing. She is attracted to the young solicitor, Jake, who is acting for the other side. You easily guess what happens but there are a few surprises along the way. An enjoyable quick read

Katoomba Library Video Sale

One for the diary . . .

Our superceded stock of videos will be on sale for

the month of May at Katoomba Library.

Prices will be $1 each or 3 for $2.

Come along and grab a bargain.

Orange Prize shortlist

Last night the shortlist for the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction was announced in London. Chair of the judges, Daisy Goodwin said: “The shortlist achieves the near impossible of combining literary merit with sheer readability . . . With a thriller, historical novels that reflect our world back to us, as well as a tragi-comedy about post 9/11 America, there is something here to challenge, amuse and enthral every kind of reader.”

The winner will be announced at the Royal Festival Hall on 9 June.

So here, courtesy of the Orange Prize for Fiction website (where you can find a video of the announcement) and the London Evening Standard, is the shortlist:

The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison
Anna Sands, eight, is evacuated from wartime London to Yorkshire where she gets drawn into the unravelling relationship of the childless couple who offer to put her up.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
At the time of the Mexican Revolution, Harrison Shepherd works for artists Diego Riviera and his wife Frida Kahlo before violent upheavals send him to America where he finds himself torn between two nations.

Black Water Rising by Attica Locke
Saving a distressed woman from drowning in the Houston bayou, Jay Porter opens a Pandora's Box which ensnares him in a murder investigation that could put his own life and work in danger.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Blacksmith's son Thomas Cromwell rises to become the powerful adviser to Henry VIII and the fixer of his desire for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Wolf Hall has already won the Man Booker Prize and was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel Award.

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
Just after the September 11 attacks, a Midwestern farmer's daughter takes a job as part-time nanny to a couple and gets drawn into their complicated lives.

The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey
George and Sabine settle in Trinidad and rub along in marriage until George discovers unsent letters revealing Sabine's hopes and fears.

Also announced earlier in the month was the Orange Award for New Writers 2010 shortlist which includes three novels :

The Book of Fires by Jane Borodale
The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini
After The Fire, A Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld

Photos from the Puppet Show

Springwood Library helded a Puppet Show last Friday, 16th April, as the finale` to our school holiday program. The Puppet Show was presented by Chris Gaskin and he had the children captivated throughout the performance. Check out the photos!

Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2010 Winners

On April 12th the winners of the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize were announced.

Rana Dasgupta won the Best Book prize for Solo and Glenda Guest won the Best First Book prize for Siddon Rock. The Best First Book winner claims £5,000 while the writer of the Best Book wins £10,000.

According to the Commonwealth Foundation judges, Solo was chosen as Best Book for its innovation, ambition, courage and effortlessly elegant prose. "A remarkable novel of two halves, this is a book that takes risks and examines the places where grim reality and fantastical daydreams merge, diverge, and feed off each other. Solo, the judges concluded, is a tour de force, breathtaking in its boldness and narrative panache."

Rana Dasgupta was born in the UK butnow lives in New Delhi. His first book, Tokyo Cancelled, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize previously.




The judges praised Siddon Rock and awarded it the Best First Book prize for its rich cast of odd characters and blending of the everyday with fantasy. Behind every door in town lurk secret desires and wild imaginings. The novel, they concluded, deftly delves into the hauntings and disjunctions of settler Australia, and in its fable-like quality captures the laconic mannerisms of the Australian outback.

Glenda Guest grew up in Western Australia and currently lives in our own Blue Mountains. She teaches at Macquarie and Griffith Gold Coast universities.


The finalists for Best Book and Best First Book in each of the four Commonwealth Regions: Africa, Caribbean and Canada, South Asia and Europe, and South East Asia and Pacific were:

Africa
Adaobi Tricia Nwaubeni from Nigeria won Best First Book for I Do Not Come to You by Chance
Marié Heese from South Africa won Best Book for The Double Crown

Caribbean and Canada
Shandi Mitchell from Canada won Best First Book for Under This Unbroken Sky
Michael Crummey from Canada won Best Book for Galore

South Asia and Europe
Daniyal Mueenuddin from Pakistan won Best First Book for In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
Rana Dasgupta from the UK won Best Book for Solo

South East Asia and Pacific
Glenda Guest from Australia won Best First Book for Siddon Rock
Albert Wendt from Samoa won Best Book for The Adventures of Vela

Storytime and Babytime at Katoomba Library

We're back! Storytime will be recommencing on Wednesday April 28 and Babytime on Friday April 30 at Katoomba Library.

Babytime is a two way communication between infant and parent where reading and music becomes a rich sensory experience for the newborn. Don’t forget to pick up the April and May newletters for Babytime. The themes are: ‘Signs of a bad babysitter’ and ‘Naming your baby’.

Here are all of the Children’s programs:

Babytime 10am
Blaxland Library - first Wednesday of every month
Springwood Library - first Friday of every month
Katoomba Library - last Friday of every month

Storytime 10:30am (during School Terms only)
Blaxland Library - every Friday
Springwood Library - every Thursday
Lawson Library - first Thursday of every month
Katoomba Library - every Wednesday
Blackheath Library - first and third Thursday of every month
Wentworth Falls Library - every Tuesday Grandmas Read

Fab Friday 4pm
Springwood Library - first Friday of every month

ANZAC Day

Blue Mountains Libraries will be closed on

Anzac Day, Monday April 26.
All Libraries will resume normal opening hours on

Tuesday April 27.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, No.1 in the Dexter Morgan series.

Having listened to an ABC Radio podcast of the Conversation Hour interview with authors MJ Hyland (This is How) and Jeff Lindsay, I was intrigued to follow up on their work and I can highly recommend MJ Hylands book.

I got the first Dexter TV series out of the library on DVD and spent a busy couple of nights watching all the episodes, taking me way past my usual bedtime. I then read the first book in the series, Darkly Dreaming Dexter.

My husband, and several other people I have mentioned Dexter to, have a philisophical objection to a story being told from the point of view of a serial killer, but I found Dexter rather endearing.

Victim of a childhood trauma, Dexter has to battle with the urge to kill. His adopting father, Harry, a policeman, recognised this trait and taught Dexter to channel his urge and only kill people who 'deserve' it. This Dexter does, choosing only other killers to kill, after appropriate research. Harry has also taught Dexter to cover his tracks forensically and Dexter's job as a blood spatter analyst for the police also helps. In this first book, as in the TV series, Dexter comes across a killer who is obviously as well-informed and clever as Dexter himself and Dexter feels the killer is trying to impress him.

With apologies to my husband and co, I found Dexter to be very sweet and as I said before, endearing. Devoid of emotions himself, he feigns normality and tries to blend in but is mostly bemused by the behaviour of most other people. The book(s) are easy to read and fast-paced with a spattering of technical information. It's a different take on the usual police procedural and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Reviewed by : Alba

The Other Family

AUTHOR: Joanna Trollope

PUBLICATION DATE: 2010

No PAGES: 332

TIME PERIOD: Contemporary

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: England (London and Tyneside)

CATEGORY: Adult fiction

PLOT SUMMARY: Popular musician Richie Rossiter, his partner Chrissie and their three daughters live in comfortable circumstances in London. As the story begins Richie has died, suddenly. The family is in deep shock, and not coping well. The shock is compounded when they discover that Richie has recently altered his will, to leave the Steinway grand piano and some of his musical estate to the small family he left behind in Tyneside: wife Margaret, whom he never divorced, and son Scott. There is fierce resentment in the London camp - except from daughter Amy, who chooses instead to open her heart and mind to these strangers in the North.

COMMENTS: A novel by this writer will always give you a perceptive reading of human behaviour. I love to follow her through the labyrinths of each character's emotional life, and watch the meetings and the leavings, this ballet of human activity whose choreography Trollope has designed with wisdom and a quiet wit. One could question all's-well-that-ends-well endings (is life really like that?) but art is not life. Art expounds a point of view.

REVIEWER: Alison Jones.

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

Plot summary : Jacob Hunt is a teenage boy with Asperger's Syndrome. He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject — in his case, forensic analysis. He's always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do...and he's usually right. But then his town is rocked by a terrible murder and, for a change, the police come to Jacob with questions. All of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger's — not looking someone in the eye, stimulatory tics and twitches, flat affect — can look a lot like guilt to law enforcement personnel. Suddenly, Jacob and his family, who only want to fit in, feel the spotlight shining directly on them. For his mother, Emma, it's a brutal reminder of the intolerance and misunderstanding that always threaten her family. For his brother, Theo, it's another indication of why nothing is normal because of Jacob. And over this small family the soul-searing question looms: Did Jacob commit murder?

Review : Jodi Picoult would be one of my favourite authors and I always look forward to her new book. It is emotionally powerful from beginning to end, as House Rules looks at what it means to be different in our society, how autism affects a family, and how our legal system works well for people who communicate a certain way — and fails those who don't.

Jodi is known for expertly blending provocative themes with family conflicts and difficult moral choices, and she always keeps her readers riveted with heartfelt yet impeccably researched novels.

Reviewed By : Carolyn

Book Chain - Maralinga

Maralinga by Judy Nunn

Plot summary (from the Random House Australia website) : During the darkest days of the Cold War, in the remote wilderness of a South Australian desert, the future of an infant nation is being decided . . . without its people's knowledge.

A British airbase in the middle of nowhere; an atomic weapons testing ground; an army of raw youth led by powerful, ambitious men - a cocktail for disaster. Such is Maralinga in the spring of 1956.

Maralinga is a story of British Lieutenant Daniel Gardiner, who accepts a twelve-month posting to the wilds of South Australia on a promise of rapid promotion; Harold Dartleigh, Deputy Director of MI-6 and his undercover operative Gideon Melbray; Australian Army Colonel Nick Stratton and the enigmatic Petraeus Mitchell, bushman and anthropologist. They all find themselves in a violent and unforgiving landscape, infected with the unique madness and excitement that only nuclear testing creates.

Maralinga is also a story of love; a love so strong that it draws the adventurous young English journalist Elizabeth Hoffmann halfway around the world in search of the truth. And Maralinga is a story of heartbreak; heartbreak brought to the innocent First Australians who had walked their land unhindered for 40,000 years.

Maralinga . . . a desolate place where history demands an emerging nation choose between hell and reason.

Book Chain Comments :

• A thoroughly enjoyable read. Judy Nunn writes a deep, insightful story and gives an eye-opening take on an historically important time for Australia under British rule. I shuddered at the thought of the poorly informed young Army personnel blithely led to witnessing the bomb tests.
• Easy read but disappointed by the padding added to tell the story of Maralinga. I was very interested in the historical aspects of what happened at Maralinga, but felt some of the romance and sex to be gratuitous to keep the reader interested. Whilst I wanted to finish the book to see what happened, it's not a book I would recommend to friends as a good read.
• An enjoyable, easy read. The facts of Maralinga were shocking and the fictional characters as well as the chapters seen through the Aboriginal people of the land combined to make a riveting tale.
• A good blend of fact and fiction - an easy and enjoyable read. It would be very interesting to find out what has happened to all the 'real' stakeholders involved in the area of Maralinga.

What is a Book Chain?

Carolyn's Books of the Month - April 2010

Best read for the month : House Rules by Jodi Picoult
Thriller : Web of Deceit by Glenn Meade
Non Fiction : Australia's Birthstain by Babette Smith
Australian Author : Cold Justice by Katherine Howell
Saga/Romances : Pearl in a Cage by Joy Dettman
Crime : Blood Moon by Garry Disher and Complicit by Nikki French

New to the Reference Collection - Music, writing and succulents

The illustrated encyclopedia of musical instruments

The authors explain how early musical inventions were scattered across the globe and how they evolved in various cultures. The structure of the book provides an overview of the history, symbolism, construction and playing technique of each of the instruments discussed.

Held at Katoomba and Springwood Reference

A student's writing guide

This text covers everything a student needs to know about writing essays and papers in the humanities and social sciences. Starting from the common difficulties students face, it gives practical examples of all the stages necessary to produce a good piece of academic work: • interpreting assignment topics • drawing on your own experience and background • reading analytically and taking efficient notes • developing your argument through introductions, middles and conclusions • evaluating and using online resources • understanding the conventions of academic culture • honing your ideas into clear, vigorous English.

Held at Katoomba and Springwood Reference

Australian succulent plants

This book covers approximately one hundred species from 40 genera and most are described and illustrated in some detail. There are additional notes on traditional and modern foods, availability, cultivation, conservation and other items of interest. Included are some of the most under-appreciated, diverse, and interesting Australian plants. Many of them are among the most drought or dry tolerant of all plants, though some are not always obviously succulent.

Held at Blaxland and Katoomba Reference

April School Holiday Program 2010 - Finger Puppets

Thursday 15th April

@ Lawson Library

Simple Puppet making:

finger puppets

with Jane Davidson

10:30am - 12 noon

6 - 12yrs $5.00

Visit your local Library to place your booking. Bookings essential!

Bookworms at Blackheath Library

Themes for the April "Bookworms" Storytime are:

1st Teddy Bears

8th Farm

15th Autumn

22nd Grandparents

Come and join us @ 10:30am for all the fun !