Children's Author of the Month

Pamela Allen

Pamela Allen was born in New Zealand, trained as a teacher and began her working life teaching art in an Auckland secondary school.

In 1978 she moved with her family to Australia and it was here, in Sydney, that her first picture book Mr Archimedes Bath was published in 1980.

During the following 25 years, Pamela produced over 30 picture books, many of which have won awards in Australia and overseas.

Pamela has won a number of Awards for her children's books, both in Australia and around the world. She is the only person to win The CBCA Children's Picture Book of The Year in two consecutive years. In 2001 her picture book, Who Sank The Boat?, won the Gaylyn Gordon Award. She has also won The New South Wales Premier's Award For The Best Children's Book twice and an International Board On Books For Young People Honour Diploma For Illustration. In 2004 Pamela won The Margaret Mahy Medal, New Zealand’s most prestigious award for children's literature.

Pamela currently lives in Auckland, New Zealand with her husband Jim Allen (conceptual artist). Pamela has two children, Ben and Ruth (glass artist), and two grandsons.

Books Available by Pamela Allen at
Blue Mountains City Library

Mr McGee and the biting flea. (Easy)
The pear in the pear tree. (Easy)
Who sank the boat? (Easy)
Mr McGee and the perfect nest. (Easy)
Inside Mary Elizabeth’s house. (Easy)
Fancy that! (Easy)
Belinda. (Easy)
Alexander’s outing. (Easy)
Clippity-clop. (Easy)
Mr Archimedes’ Bath. (easy)
Daisy All-sorts. (Easy
Grandpa and Thomas. (Easy)
Mr McGee and the big bag of bread .(Easy)
Cuthbert’s babies. (Easy)
My cat Maisie. (Easy)
Can you keep a secret. (Easy)
Waddle giggle gargle! (Easy)
Where’s the gold? (Easy)
Black dog.(Easy)
Doodledum dancing. (Easy)
Grandpa Thomas and the green umbrella. (Easy)
Shhh! Little mouse. (Easy)
Share said the rooster. (Easy)
Is your grandmother a goanna. (Easy)
My first ABC. (Easy)
My first 1 2 3. (Easy)
Our daft dog Danny. (Easy)
The toymaker and the bird. (Easy)
The potato people. (Easy)
I wish I had a pirate suit. (Easy)
Felix. (Easy)
The bear’s lunch. (Easy)
Herbert & Harry. (Easy)

Blue Mountains City Library in Goodreading

We're pleased to be featured on the Goodreading website this month - take a look here.

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

This month there are interviews with Mark Dapin, Conn Iggulden and Ros Moriarty among others, articles on books about Cairo and Canberra, secret men's business, lots of reviews and competitions. And with Father's Day coming up in September, there are lots of literary gift ideas for the Dad in your life.

Log in now

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

eBook Milestone

Do you own an e-book reader? I was quite excited by the thought of a Kindle for a little while, until I read that we in Australia won't be getting the full range of titles our North American cousins do and that we'd have to pay more per title. I have a friend who posted their excitement on getting a Kindle on Facebook. I may get one yet . . .

Amazon has announced that Stieg Larsson has become the first author to sell over 1 million electronic copies of his posthumously published Millenium crime trilogy - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.

"Larsson's books have captivated millions of readers around the world and ignited a voracious interest in the lives of its main characters Lisbeth Salander and Michael Blomqvist," said Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle content. "It's been exciting to have been a part of introducing so many people to these great books."

Hot on Larsson's heels is thriller writer James Patterson (over 860,000 ebooks sold) followed by paranormal romance authors Stephenie Meyer (Twilight series) and Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse series) and romantic suspense author Nora Roberts who have each sold more than 500,000 Kindle books in the US.

This news follows an announcement by Amazon late last week that Amazon sales of ebooks had begun to outstrip sales of hardback books - Amazon is now selling 180 Kindle books for every 100 hardbacks.

(Via The Guardian)

Man Booker Prize 2010 Longlist

The Man Booker Dozen, the longlist for the Man Booker Prize, was announced last night from a total of 138 entries. The prize winner, to be announced in October, receives £50,000 as well as greatly increased sales and worldwide recognition while each of the six shortlisted authors, to be announced in September, will receive £2,500 and a designer-bound edition of their book.

In announcing the longlist Andrew Motion, chair of judges, commented : "Here are thirteen exceptional novels - books we have chosen for their intrinsic quality, without reference to the past work of their authors. Wide-ranging in their geography and their concern, they tell powerful stories which make the familiar strange and cover an enormous range of history and feeling. We feel confident that they will provoke and entertain."

The 2010 longlist includes two Australians, Peter Carey (two time winner already - Oscar and Lucinda in 1988 and True History of the Kelly Gang in 2001 - also shortlisted in 1985 for Illywhacker and longlisted in 2006 for Theft) and Christos Tsiolkas. who has already won the Commonweath Prize for The Slap.



Here is the Man Booker Dozen for 2010 :

• Peter Carey - Parrot and Olivier in America (Australia)
• Emma Donoghue - Room (Ireland)
• Helen Dunmore - The Betrayal (Britain)
• Damon Galgut - In a Strange Room (South Africa)
• Howard Jacobson - The Finkler Question (Britain)
• Andrea Levy - The Long Song (Britain)
• Tom McCarthy - C (Britain)
• David Mitchell - The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Britain)
• Lisa Moore - February (Canada)
• Paul Murray - Skippy Dies (Ireland)
• Rose Tremain - Trespass (Britain)
• Christos Tsiolkas - The Slap (Australia)
• Alan Warner - The Stars in the Bright Sky (Britain)

You can see a list of previous longlisted, shortlisted and winning novels from 1969 to 2009 here or here (with book covers).

Book Club Anyone?

Hello Fellow Mountains Readers!

My name is Nicole and I am a resident of Lawson who, when she isn't studying for her publishing degree, enjoys devouring book after book.

I am looking to establish a book club that either meets fortnightly or monthly in the Blue Mountains, which reads and discusses a wide variety of books. I am hoping for Thursday night meetings.

I was thinking that, when we have a few numbers, we can meet one night to organise how the club will run; how often we will meet, where we will meet, what books we will read.

To kick things off our first meeting will be Thursday 5th August 2010 at 7pm. Contact me for address details (see below)

BYO: List of favourite books, plate of picky food, wine (if you are up for it!) and a cheery disposition.

If you are interested, please email/phone me ASAP with your details and what you are looking for in a book club : E: nicoletrist@hotmail.com or P: (02) 4759 2827 http://bookywooks.blogspot.com/

National Family History Week

Over the past decade or so, family history and genealogy have become very popular hobbies around the world. Family history is the second biggest subject on the web and in Australia there are over 250,000 Australians who are members of family history related organisations. Programs such as Who do you think you are? with Australian, British and American versions have proved to be enormously appealing.

National Family History Week, which will run between the 1st and 7th of August this year, is an initiative of the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations. During the week events will be conducted across the country that focus on genealogy, family history, heraldry and related subjects including family reunions, seminars, talks, open days, history walks, book launches, film evening and expos.

Springwood Library will be hosting a Family History display and volunteers from the Blue Mountains Family History Society will be assisting customers with their family history research every day of Family History Week.

If you are interested in starting your own family history you could do no better than have the tireless members of the Blue Mountains Family History Society give you tips to get you going and how to avoid running into problems and they can show you the wealth of resources held in the Family History area of Springwood Library.

There is also Library Genealogy webpage with useful sites to visit.

What Library staff are reading . . .

• Born Standing Up : A comic’s life by Steve Martin ~ a nostalgic and interesting account of Martin’s life. Sensitive and articulate, his childhood stories are particularly fun to read – who knew he was so into magic tricks? I had to watch The Three Amigos again after reading this autobiography, with a new-found appreciation of Martin’s surreal approach to comedy.


• Love, Janis by Laura Joplin ~ a comprehensive and intimate biography of rock-goddess Janis Joplin’s life, written by her (more conservative) sister Laura. The writing is a little stilted in parts, however the flamboyance and energy of Janis and her life still shines through.


• Look Who’s Morphing by Tom Cho


• Afterbirth ~ a collection of short stories by various writers and comedians, about the way their lives changed by becoming parents.


• Footsteps by Katharine McMahon ~ Helena’s husband dies unexpectedly in a climbing accident and she finds a love letter by chance in his belongings that suggests he was being unfaithful to her. This affects her grief for him and she becomes frustrated and angry. Helena researches a book about her grandfather, a photographer named Donaldson, and this leads Helena to her grandmother’s Suffolk village. I loved this historical romance even the switching from past to present.


• Antipodes ~ a collection of short stories by David Malouf, all either set in Australia or about Australians overseas. Each story is a snapshot, an extraordinary moment in otherwise ordinary lives - a quiet entertainment, beautifully written.


• The River Baptists by Belinda Castles ~ this was suggested by my best friend and as I started reading, I thought she had gone mad. It took me until page 100 until I started even liking the characters. But once I got over this hurdle, I was finding excuses to go to bed and read the book - the story had been built up so much that I couldn't wait to read until the end to find out what was going to happen! Romance, intrigue, violence and family secrets. Much better than anticipated.


• My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin.


• Nation by Terry Pratchett ~ an adventure story for adults.


• The marriage bureau for rich people and The many conditions of love by Farahad Zama ~ parts 1 & 2 respectively in the series Marriage bureau for rich people – delightful stories set around an Indian marriage bureau, providing an interesting little peek into the lives of the clients of the bureau as well as the man who runs it, his family and staff. Can’t wait for part 3 to come out.


• A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf ~ this is an extended essay (111 p.) based on a series of lectures Woolf gave at Cambridge University way back in 1928 where she offers the opinion “that a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”. Loved it – such an insight into the barriers and obstacles that have faced women with aspirations to write and why early female writers are almost non-existent. Can’t understand why I’ve never read it before.


• I’m now taking my time getting through Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez but I mustn’t say more – book group rules.


• At lunch time today I picked up A Week at the Airport by Alain de Boton ~ pretty much half way through in only an hour – his observations are spot on as he watches the comings and goings during a week as writer in residence at Heathrow’s Terminal 5.


• The Pages by Murray Bail – another book group read – ho hum.


• Solar by Ian McEwan ~ a hoot.


• Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie ~ book group read – got an heroic 200+ pages read then couldn’t bear any more.


• Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson – sweet village story about the love between a retired Major and the local corner shop lady.


• Sexually, I'm More of a Switzerland: More Personal Ads from the London Review of Books edited by David Rose – my apologies to Naomi who had to endure my giggles and snorts and reading aloud while she tried to have a quiet lunch – very funny stuff.
  

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly : Reviewed by You

A review by Library user, Jeff, in one of our The Good, the Bad, the Ugly : Reviewed by You journals. Look out for them in your library and add your own review.

The New Nature by Tim Low

As I write I can look out my window at the "New Nature" in action.

Pied Currawongs compete with Crimson Rosellas for the seed in the birdfeeder. Both birds have benefitted from the arrival of Europeans here over two centuries ago, both proliferating for different reasons.

The rosellas benefit because of their percieved beauty; it's why we feed them.

The currawongs benefit because of their predatory and omnivorous nature, thriving on our scraps and the misguided kindness of the people who feed them.

Tim Low has written a book which has changed the way I personally percieve wilderness and nature, a book, as it says on the back cover, that is "meticulously researched, accessible and entertaining".

I found it a fascinating read with the pragmatic interpretation of the effects that humanity has had on the "balance of nature".

Of special interest are his thoughts on the unfriendly nature garden, how our sewage supports whole ecosystems and species, why weeds can be important adn why native animals are not always good, and also questions our concepts of wilderness.

Anyone interested in the natural world, animal liberation, native gardens, wildlife sustainability and the domino effect we have on the environment should read this book.

I found parts of it challenging and it should be read with an open mind.

Tim Low has written many books and articles on bush tucker, native medicine and wildlife.

I highly recommend this book.

Jeff

"Mini Movies"

This week, 16 students (aged 5 - 12) from Blaxland Library's Art Class rose to the challenge of creating a stop-motion short film within 1 hour. Working together they produced the film below, entitled "Mini Movies". They all deserve a huge round of applause for their ingenuity, direction, teamwork and movie-making skills!

Make sure to watch with your sound turned up, and visit here for the option of full-screen viewing: www.youtube.com/user/TheMountainsTube 

Bookworms @ Blackheath Library

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly : Reviewed by You

A review by Library user, Susan, in one of our The Good, the Bad, the Ugly : Reviewed by You journals. Look out for them in your library and add your own review.

Warm Earth - Organic Gardening is a journal that is published every two months. Every issue contains information about growing food in the home garden or on small acreage. It also includes articles on soil building, natural pest and disease control, water management, eco-friendly landscaping, care of poultry and animal husbandry, plus lots of information on simple sustainable living.

Naturally they have a very good web page and if you want to subscribe, they will send a monthly email full of good ideas and tips.

I always look forward to the arrival of this great little Australian magazine and would like to thank the Library for subscribing to it.

Susan

Warm Earth - Organic Gardening is held at Blackheath Library but can be requested and delivered to any of our other library branches. Ask our staff if you don't know how to make a request.

Alison's Picks - July 2010

Raymond Carver: Beginners

Anne Summers: The Lost Mother: a story of art and love

Anne Fine: All Bones and Lies

Rosie Thomas: Lovers and Newcomers

Craig Silvey: Jasper Jones

Art Classes @ Blaxland Library

Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2010 Shortlist

Peter Garrett, Minister for the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts has announced the shortlist for the 2010 Prime Minister's Literary Awards.

Mr Garrett said being shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards is a great achievement for authors that will bring further public recognition of their writing.

For the first time, Young Adult Fiction and Children’s Fiction categories have been added to the awards. Mr Garrett said, “this year we announce the inaugural Young Adult Fiction and Children’s Fiction awards. These two awards recognise the special talent that authors and illustrators of books for young audiences bring to the page. Importantly it is the quality of this storytelling through writing and illustration that engenders a life-long passion for reading".

The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards provide a $100,000 prize for the winners of each of the categories:

Fiction shortlist
Summertime by J.M. Coetzee
The Book of Emmett by Deborah Forster
The Lake Woman by Alan Gould
Dog Boy by Eva Hornung
Ransom by David Malouf
Lovesong by Alex Miller
As the Earth turns Silver by Alison Wong

Read about the books, the authors and the judges comments for the Fiction shortlist here.

Non-Fiction shortlist
The Water Dreamers: The Remarkable History of Our Dry Continent by Michael Cathcart
Strange Places: A Memoir of Mental Illness by Will Elliott
The Colony: A History of Early Sydney by Grace Karskens
The Life and Death of Democracy by John Keane
The Blue Plateau: A Landscape Memoir by Mark Tredinnick
The Ghost at the Wedding by Shirley Walker

Read about the books, the authors and the judges comments for the Non-fiction shortlist here.

Young Adult Fiction shortlist
Stolen by Lucy Christopher
The Winds of Heaven by Judith Clarke
Confessions of a Liar, Thief and Failed Sex God by Bill Condon
The Museum of Mary Child by Cassandra Golds
Swerve by Phillip Gwynne
Jarvis 24 by David Metzenthen
Beatle meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams

Read about the books, the authors and the judges comments for the Young Adult Fiction shortlist here.

Children’s Fiction shortlist
Cicada Summer by Kate Constable
The Terrible Plop written by Ursula Dubosarsky and illustrated by Andrew Joyner
Just Macbeth! written by Andy Griffiths and illustrated by Terry Denton
Mr Chicken goes to Paris by Leigh Hobbs
Running with the Horses by Alison Lester
Star Jumps by Lorraine Marwood
Mannie and the Long Brave Day written by Martine Murray and illustrated by Sally Rippin
Tensy Farlow and the Home for Mislaid Children by Jen Storer
Harry and Hopper written by Margaret Wild and illustrated by Freya Blackwood

Read about the books, the authors and the judges comments on the Children's Fiction shortlist here.

Find out more about the shortlists here.

A Week at the Airport by Alain de Botton

A Week at the Airport : a Heathrow Airport Diary by Alain de Botton, photographs by Richard Baker.

London - Profile - 2009, 107 pages.

Book Description : In the summer of 2009 Alain de Botton was invited to be writer-in-residence at Terminal 5, Heathrow Airport. He was put up in a nearby hotel, provided with a desk in the terminal and allowed unrestricted access to all parts of the airport. He observed and spoke to people from all over the world.

This slim volume consists not of boring facts about the comings and goings and workings of this enormous airport, although you are given a sneak peak at some of the behind-the-scenes activity, but of his observations of people and the things they do.

I love watching people myself but this guy is a master; he reads so much more into the mundane than I could. It was wonderful stuff and I shall indulge myself with lengthy quotes to illustrate this:

The beginning and end of the film, Love Actually, always makes me cry with its images of people who love each other greeting each other. Here de Botton observes a couple saying their goodbyes.

p. 34 - Not far from the incautiously hopeful man, a pair of lovers were parting. She must have been twenty-three, he a few years older. There was a copy of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood in her bag. They both wore oversize sunglasses and had come of age in the period between SARS and swine flu. It was the intensity of their kiss that first attracted my attention, but what seemed like passion from afar was revealed at closer range to be an unusual degree of devastation. She was shaking with sorrowful disbelief as he cradled her in his arms and stroked her wavy black hair, in which a clip shaped like a tulip had been fastened. Again and again, they looked into each other's eyes and every time, as though made newly aware of the catastrophe about to befall them, they would begin weeping once more . . . Passers-by evinced sympathy. It helped that the woman was extraordinarily beautiful. I missed her already . . .There seemed no end to the ritual. The pair would come close to the security zone, then break down again and retreat for another walk around the terminal . . . Then quite suddenly, in the middle of an embrace by the Travelex desk, the beauty glanced down at her watch and, with all the self-control of Odysseus denying the Sirens, ran away from her tormentor down a corridor and into the security zone . . . my photographer and I divided forces. I followed her airside and watched her remain stoic until she reached the concourse, only to founder again at the window of Kurt Geiger . . . For his part, Richard pursued the man down to the train station, where the object of adoration boarded the express service for central London, claimed a seat and sat impassively staring out the window, betraying no sign of emotion save for an unusual juddering movement of his left leg.

Does everyone feel relief after having gone through the security gates without setting off the arlarm?

p. 55 - A long wait for a scanning machine can induce many of us to start asking ourselves if we have perhaps after all left home with an explosive device hidden in our case, or unwittingly submitted to a months-long terrorist training course.

p. 58 - (talking about the various curencies in a bureau de change) - These notes, in every colour and font, were decorated with images of strongmen, dictators, founding fathers, banana trees and leprechauns. Many were worn and creased from heavy use. They had helped to pay for camels in Yemen or saddles in Peru, been stashed in the wallets of elderly barbers in Nepal or under the pillows of schoolboys in Moldova. A fraying fifty-kina note from Papua New Guinea (bird of paradise on the back, Prime Minister Michael Somare on the front) hardly hinted at the sequence of transactions (from fruit to shoes, guns to toys) that had culminated in its arrival at Heathrow.

And Alain de Botton is very humorous.

p. 59 - I had a chat with a manager named Manishankar, who had been working at the shop since the terminal first opened. I explained - with the excessive exposition of a man spending a lonely week at the airport - that I was looking for the sort of books in which a genial voice expresses emotions that the reader has long felt but never before really understood; those that convey the secret, everyday things that society at large prefers to leave unsaid; those that make one feel somehow less alone and strange.

Manishankar wondered if I might like a magazine instead.

MS Novel Challenge

The MS Society's MSReadathon for children is well-known to all parents of primary school children and has been going for many years. Now there is a similar event for us grown ups - the MS Novel Challenge.

You can join in as an individual or as part of a team. All you have to do is register online and create a fundraising page or you can download a registration form. Then you need to choose what to read - you can read your own books or read something from the recommended books lists. You read for 30 days (or more) during the months of June, July and August and get sponsorship from friends, family, and colleagues! There are lots of ideas for raising money in other ways too. You have until 30th September to send the MS Society any cash, cheques or money orders that you have received. Download a final payment form here and post them in to us.

Funds raised from The Novel Challenge for MS allows the MS Society to provide services to assist people living with MS such as physiotherapy, access to specialist MS nurses and respite care, whilst also working towards funding research into this mystery illness.

July gr now online

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

This month there are interviews with Honey Brown, Bret Easton Ellis and Benison Anne O'Reilly.

There is also a look at two very different genres - romance and steampunk - and you can explore the region of Germany that inspired the Brothers Grimm.

Reviews in July's gr include Private Life by Jane Smiley, The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly, At Home by Bill Bryson, Sew Darn Cute by Jenny Ryan and The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall.


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!

Knit In at Lawson Library

The 702 ABC Sydney ‘Knit In’ is a fantastic community event supporting the organization ‘Wrap with Love’ which creates colourful wraps for communities in need around the world.

Lawson Library hosted a ‘Knit in’ on Friday June 25th. 20 keen women, now known as Lawson LitKNITS, gathered to knit and crochet squares and also sew squares together to make some beautiful wraps. These women were able to share their skills in a very relaxed and social environment. There were lots of laughs and delicious refreshments were enjoyed.

Thank you to all those who contributed to making this such a pleasurable event.

Katoomba Library closure

Unfortunately the renovation work to the Civic Centre at Katoomba has not gone all according to schedule and we have had to extend the closure of Katoomba Library accordingly.

Katoomba Library will re-open on

Thursday 15 July at 10am

A community bus will be provided on the following dates to enable library patrons to borrow from Wentworth Falls Library:

Tuesday 13 July

Wednesday 14 July

Please meet the bus outside Katoomba Library, Katoomba Street at 10am on these days.

61 Hours by Lee Child

61 Hours by Lee Child (Book 14 in the Jack Reacher series)

Plot Summary : Military police officer Jack Reacher hitches a ride with a senior citizen church group tour bus in South Dakota. However, a car ahead fishtails on the icy snow laden road; the experienced but tired bus driver overreacts on the frozen bridge; he does everything else right, but weight wins out and the bus crashes near Bolton.
The local cops are slow on helping the twenty elderly passengers; the bus driver remains in shock. Reacher takes over. However, in town, he will find the reason behind the delay is a methamphetamine lab run by a brutal Mexican cartel out of a nearby abandoned military post. At the same time Reacher helps the Washingtonians, an assassin has arrived in Bolton to kill a brave witness, her lawyer, and the outsider who suddenly protects her. (Source : Angus and Robertson )

Review : This is an exciting Reacher thriller as the storm and two upcoming storms isolate the already remote town. Fast-paced throughout, Jack Reacher as the roaming hero is true to his character as we know him from previous novels. Readers will enjoy the clock ticking down on Reacher and others as the inevitable showdown in the Badlands is imminent.

Carolyn's Books of the Month - July 2010

Best read for the month : 61 Hours by Lee Child

Thriller : The Blood Men by Paul Cleave

General Fiction : The Promised World by Lisa Tucker

Australian Author : Bleed for Me by Michael Robotham

Saga/Romances : Broken Fences by Camilla Noli

Crime : Fever of the Bone by Val McDermid and Chosen to Die by Lisa Jackson

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest Winner 2010

I love this competition.

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest originated at San Jose University in 1982 and was inspired by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton's famous opening lines to Paul Clifford (1830) "It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness," the contest celebrates awful, purple prose and is my favourite literary prize.

The winner of the 2010 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is Molly Ringle of Seattle, Washington is the 2010 winner of the prize. Ms Ringle is already the author of one published novel, The Ghost Downstairs (which Amazon readers have given an average rating of 4.5 out of 5), and has another two in the pipe-line. She claims to only write bad fiction when she fails at good fiction but refuses to disclose how often this happens.

Here is the winning entry : For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss--a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity's mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world's thirstiest gerbil.

And I'm pleased to be able to report that there was one Australian entrant, John Mackesy of Victoria, who got a prestigious dishonourable mention for : Faintly silhouetted against the shadowy murk of a nameless Devonian sea, the Megalodont shark was unaware of trilobites foraging in the primordial ooze not far below, trilobites that unlike the shark’s cartilaginous being would become part of the fossil record of an ancient seabed that would in time heave up, dry out and go through the crusher at the Marulan Cement Works somewhere north of Sydney, Australia.

Here's a couple I really liked :

• She walked into my office wearing a body that would make a man write bad checks, but in this paperless age you would first have to obtain her ABA Routing Transit Number and Account Number and then disable your own Overdraft Protection in order to do so - Steve Lynch


• Cynthia had washed her hands of Philip McIntyre - not like you wash your hands in a public restroom when everyone is watching you to see if you washed your hands but like washing your hands after you have been working in the garden and there is dirt under your fingernails -- dirt like Philip McIntyre -Linda Boatright

I've met a few Philip McIntyre's myself . . .

Anyway, enough hilarity, if you want to read all the winners, runners-up and dishonourable mentions take a look at the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest website.

Australian Book Industry Awards 2010

These awards were announced on 30th June in Sydney and are awarded to Australian authors, booksellers and publishers by judges from the Australian bookselling and publishing industry.

There are 20 awards in all. Here are the awards to authors :

• The Book of the Year and Literary Fiction Book of the Year ~ Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey (Overall Winner, Indie Book of the Year Award 2009 and Winner, Indie Book of the Year 2009 - Fiction)
• General Fiction Book of the Year ~ Truth by Peter Temple (also winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Prize this year)
  

• General Non-fiction Book of the Year ~ Australians: Origins to Eureka by Thomas Keneally (this is the first in a series on Australian history)
• Biography of the Year Award ~ Bart : My Life by Bart Cummings
• Newcomer of the Year ~ Piano Lessons by Anna Goldsworthy
• Illustrated Book of the Year ~ Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Companion by Stephanie Alexander



• Book of the Year for Older Children ~ Parlour Games for Modern Families by Myfanwy Jones and Spiri Tsintziras
• Book of the Year for Younger Children ~ Baby Wombat’s Week by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley (on the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge K-2 list)

July School Holidays: Easy Friendship Bracelets

Friday 16th July
@ Springwood Library
"Easy friendship bracelet, necklace or key lanyard" with Naomi
10:30am - 12 noon
6yrs - 12yrs
$5.00 per child
Bookings essential!

NAIDOC IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS 2010

NAIDOC week is held in early July each year and is marked by celebrations that highlight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s culture, history and achievements. In addition the week provides opportunities for all Australians to participate in celebrating with Aboriginal communities along with promoting a better understanding of Aboriginal people. NAIDOC stands for the National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Celebration being originally focused on one day, being NAIDOC Day, though the acronym is now used to describe the week.

The theme chosen by the National NAIDOC Committee for NAIDOC week 2010 is “Unsung Heroes – Closing the Gap by Leading Their Way”.

This year NAIDOC in the Mountains will be launched at 10am in the Council Chambers on Monday 5 July followed by an official flag raising. There will be a march down Katoomba Street, Katoomba after the flag raising, then a light lunch and get together at the Katoomba Public School.

The Library has already held a special NAIDOC Storytime on Thursday but there are plenty of other activities and events during July to celebrate NAIDOC in the Mountains include :

• Aboriginal Art from Across the Blue Mountains exhibition at Braemar Gallery, Springwood from Saturday 26 June to Saturday 11 July, 2pm-4pm. The exhibition features original art by local Aboriginal artists.


• Mt Vic Flicks will be screening Bran Nue Dae on Tuesday 6 July at 11am. All tickets for this event are $8 and can be purchased at the door.


• The Edge Cinema in Katoomba will be screening You and Me ,a local film by Aunty Carol Cooper and Virginia Field on Wednesday 7 July. All tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door.


• An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Fun Day will be held at the Katoomba Sports and Aquatic Centre will be held on Wednesday 7 July from 11am–3pm. There will be lots of activities for the kids including free pool entry, giant inflatable, ball games and a sausage sizzle by Rotary.


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  The annual NAIDOC Ball at the Palais Royale Friday 9 July from 7pm.

You can support the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community by getting behind these events.

Children's Activities from July 2010

See below for our new programs. Changes made are:

1. Blaxland Library no longer holds Babytime

2. Lawson Library will have weekly storytimes on a Wednesday

3. A NEW Art Class is being held at Blaxland Library on a Wednesday arvo.

July School Holidays: Family Workshop

Thursday 15th July @ Blackheath Library

Family Workshop

"Decorate frames for your favourite photos" with Jane

10:30am - 12noon

$10.00 per family

Bookings essential!