Nobel Literature Prize

Ladbrokes in the UK have posted their odds for the Nobel Prize in Literature. See here.

A few I have read, or at least attempted : Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, John Banville, David Malouf, Cormac McCarthy, Haruki Murakami, Alice Munro, AS Byatt, Maya Angelou, Salman Rushdie, Paul Auster, Julian Barnes, Umberto Eco, Michael Ondaatje and the ubiquitous Peter Carey (doesn't he appear on almost all literary shortlists these days?) but the big surprise for me is down the very bottom (maybe no surprise in that) where lurks BOB DYLAN????? at 150/1

Read more :

1. Facts about the Nobel Prizes in Literature


2. Nomination and selection of Literature Laureates


3. Past winners

Children's Author of the Month

Mem Fox

Personal Life
Mem Fox was born Merrion Frances Partridge in Melbourne, Australia but grew up in Southern Rhodesia. Her parents were missionaries and she attended Hope Fountain mission school, near Bulawayo. When she was eighteen, she went to England where she was accepted into an English Drama school.
In 1969, she married Malcolm Fox, a teacher. The following year they returned to Australia and in 1971 she gave birth to her only child Chloe Fox, who is now an ALP member of the South Australian Parliament. She dislikes her given name, and adopted the shortened form "Mem" at around the age of 13. She has never taken the step of legally changing her name, so remains "Merrion" for official purposes.


Career
In 1981, while working in drama, Fox decided to retrain in literacy studies and says: "Literacy has become the great focus of my life — it’s my passion, my battle and my mission and my exhaustion." She has published books on literacy aimed at children, their parents and teachers and educators. She held the position of Associate Professor, Literacy Studies, in the School of Education at Flinders University until her retirement in 1996.
Since her retirement from teaching, Fox travels around the world visiting many countries and doing presentations and speaking on children's books and literacy issues.


Possum Magic
Fox wrote her first draft for the internationally acclaimed Possum Magic in 1978 during a course in children’s literature at Flinders University. Nine publishers rejected the draft over a five year period. When it was accepted by Omnibus Books in Adelaide they asked Fox to reduce the 4½ page book, then entitled Hush the Invisible Mouse, by two thirds and to change the mice to Australian animals to place emphasis on her Australian theme. Possum Magic is now one of the most recognised picture books in Australia and has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.




















Books available
by Mem Fox @
Blue Mountains City Library

Whoever you are (Easy & JNF 305.8 FOX))
Sleepy bears (Easy)
Harriet, you’ll drive me wild! (Easy)
Reading magic: how your child can learn to read before school and other read-aloud miracles (ANF 372.4 FOX)
Wombat divine (Easy)
The magic hat (Easy)
Possum magic (Easy)
Koala Lou (Easy)
Mem Fox magic: Possum magic and other stories (FOX CD)
Hunwick’s egg (Easy)
Wilfirid Gordon McDonald Partridge (JF FOX)
Night noises (Easy)
Time for bed (Easy)
Sail away: the ballad of Skip and Nell (JF FOX)
English essentials: the wouldn’t-be-it guide to writing well (JNF 808.042 FOX)
The goblin and the empty chair (Easy)
Shoes from Grandpa (Easy)
Where is the green sheep (Easy)
A particular cow (Easy)

Banned Books Week

Pop over to The Guardian books pages to see a slideshow of the top 10 most challenged books in the US - to "celebrate" banned books week. There's some interesting reads there. How many would you agree with?

Banned Books Week (September 25−October 2) is an annual event designed to celebrate the freedom to read and draw attention to the harms of censorship by highlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the US.

FictFact

FictFact is a site for those who like to read books in a series and do a bit of social networking while they are about it.

You create a free account and then you can create lists of favourite series, read the books in order and get notified when books are released or added. You can add your own tags to books and read books of similar genre or setting.

You can browse by series, author or popularity.

Let's take a quick look . . .

Here's historical crime writer, C.J. Sansom with his Shardlake series set in Tudor England.

You can either click on the Shardlake link and be taken to the series list

You can see what other people who have been reading the Shardlake series are also reading

Or you can click on one of the tags and see other series with similar genre criteria

Log in and explore for yourself.

"Name Art" Class, Blackheath Library

The Apprentice Lover

AUTHOR: Jay Parini

PUBLICATION DATE: 2002

No PAGES: 307

TIME PERIOD: 1970

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: Capri

CATEGORY: Adult fiction

PLOT SUMMARY: It’s 1970, and 22-year-old Alex Massolini, his family’s Great White Hope, is in a bad way. Resisting the parental big guns of guilt and expectation, he drops out of his course at Columbia University, and goes to live on Capri, a small island off the Southern Italian coast in the Bay of Naples. His brother Nicky, with whom he has an uneasy relationship, has recently been killed during “a routine reconnaissance mission” in Vietnam. This death is deeply disturbing to Alex. He applies for a position as secretary to Rupert Grant, an eminent Scottish writer who has been living on Capri for ten years and gathering around him the best and brightest of literary intellects. “I wanted,” says Alex “a canvas where I could paint myself into the picture… a place where I had no former history from which I had to be absolved.” Grant’s other two secretaries are pretty young women. Innocent Alex’s education is set to proceed apace.

COMMENTS : Parini writes engagingly. On the boat bound for Italy, Alex meets a young man who “was fair, with milky skin and a face like an axe blade. A thickly-accented English nested in that thin, rather nasal, voice. His eyes were large and compelling, and they invaded my foggy presence like search lamps.” (p 21) Nice imagery. The pace of his writing is quite leisurely. He stays to dwell on an experience, this is no headlong hurtle towards resolution.
The writer for whom Alex goes to work is a self-appointed guru, as thoroughly obnoxious as he is powerful. Rupert Grant manipulates the lives of all those who orbit round him. While he may have a superior fund of literary wisdom, this is counter-balanced by a truly ugly drive for power and control, which in turn involves a lack of human sympathy. It is the task of those who live in his ménage to come to their own terms with this. I am always interested in stories that grapple with power imbalances, because they can to a large extent determine who we become. And I can’t help hearing the clang of sabres in an Old World/New world battle: old class-ridden England versus brash new American materialism.

REVIEWER : Alison.

What Library staff are reading . . .

• The Mobile Library : The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom ~ Chewing gum for the eyes
• The Djinn In The Nightingale's Eye: Five Fairy Stories by A.S.Byatt ~ set in Turkey and the main character visits all places I went recently – Istanbul, Ephesus, Mary’s house etc. Trying to relive or extend my recent holiday
• The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson ~ recently saw the movie and it was hilarious in a very dark way. Had to see where the movie came from . . . and I have to say, the movie was much much better. The book was repetitive and paranoid. Very rarely do I say this, go and see the movie – don’t bother with the book
• The Locust and the Bird by Hanan Al-Shaykh ~ a story about living in 1950s – 1970s Lebanon. Really enjoyed this snapshot into another world, religion, culture and the reality the characters had to deal with
• I’m halfway through two of John Banville’s novels, The Infinities and Athena ~ this English writer has a mind-bending vocabulary (subfusc? grapnels? canted? irrefragable?) and some of his words are not even in my dictionary. His style is charged with the music and balance of poetry, he’s immensely knowledgeable, and I’m prostrate with admiration
• Imperial Bedrooms by Brett Easton Ellis ~ a grim tale of violence, crime and the supernatural, set in L.A
• Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
• Norwegian Wood by Haraku Murukami ~ even better than After Dark (which I loved)
• Disco Boy by Dominic Knight ~ Knight is one of the writers for the ABC’s Chasers. His debut novel is a lad-lit romantic comedy, with some sharp wit sprinkled here and there
• Just Kids by Patti Smith
• Library of the dead and Book of souls both by Glenn Cooper ~ they are suspense novels based around an ancient library of books. The novels describe the history of how the library came about right through to the present day. Some notable people from history such as Nostradamus, Jean Calvin and Shakespeare make brief appearances in connection with the library over the centuries. In the present day, the CIA is involved in keeping the library and its contents a secret at all costs, while an FBI agent who inadvertently discovers the secret to the library while working on a case, hence putting his life and the life of those around him at risk – lots of action, lots of intrigue, these are fast paced novels. I was intrigued by the historical aspects of how the library came about and what happened to it over the centuries, more so than all the modern day action
• Major Pettigrew’s last stand by Helen Simonson ~ a delightful, witty novel set in a quaint English village. Major Pettigrew, a retired British army major, befriends Mrs. Ali, a widow, who is Pakistani and runs the local shop. Major Pettigrew is very “English” and has tried to establish his values in his son, Roger. I enjoyed it
• I’ve had a few books I’ve not got all the way through: The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog and his Friend Marilyn Monroe by Andrew O’Hagan and Truth by Peter Temple (Miles Franklin winner 2010)
• The ones I did get all the way through include Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy and Popeye Never told You by Rodney Hall both of which I loved
• Last Words of the Executed edited by Robert K Elder
• The midwife trilogy by Jennifer Worth (Call the Midwife, Shadows of the Workhouse and Farewell to the Eastend ~ memoirs by a midwife who worked among the very poor in London’s East End in the 1950s)
• Anne Boleyn : Fatal Attractions by G W Bernard ~ I’m a sucker for Tudor history and this sent me reaching for Six Wives : The Queens of Henry VIII and Henry both by David Starkey
• Our Glasgow by Piers Dudgeon – a social history of Glasgow
• The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
• Oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette Winterson ~ a classic apparently and our copy certainly looked it (very old). Easy to read, light hearted in parts, I enjoyed this book, though it didn’t seem to have a resolution
• Raft by Howard Goldenberg ~ a personal account of a doctor’s experiences as a locum in many different remote indigenous communities
• Lovesong by Alex Miller ~ so well written – a lovely book
• The River: a journey through the Murray-Darling Basin by Chris Hammer. ~ the story of a river system in crisis and the effect it has on the people and the towns along its length
• I have been enthralled by a book called Little Bee. by Chris Cleave ~ it starts a little slowly but just sucked me in completely. I am now interested in Nigeria and the activities of the oil companies there.

October School Holidays @ Wentworth Falls Library

Lawson Library Temporary Closure and Refurbishment

Lawson Branch Library will be closed for one week to enable a refurbishment to take place from Monday October 18, until Saturday October 23.

The library will then resume normal opening hours and re-open on

Monday October 25 at 1pm.

Library patrons may pick up their reservations at Springwood Library or phone the Library on 4723 5040 to arrange a convenient collection branch.

Items can still be returned during the closure via the Returns Book Bin which is situated outside the Library.

Storytime will not be held on Wednesday October 20, and will be back on

Wednesday October 27, at 10.30am.

All other Library Branches will operate normal opening hours.

Blue Mountains City Library apologises for any inconvenience caused by this temporary closure.

Comic Strip Art Class, Blaxland Library

Check out the latest art class at Blaxland Library here on YouTube

Friends/ Girlie Teen Books

Inky Awards for YA Literature Longlist 2010

The Centre for Youth Literature, State Library Victoria (aka insideadog) which promotes reading as an active, pleasurable and essential activity for all young people has announced its 2010 Inky Awards longlist. The Inkys are national and international awards for teenage literature voted for online.

The Gold Inky

(for an Australian book)

Liar by Justine Larbalestier
Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey
Merrow by Ananda Braxton-Smith
Raw Blue by Kirsty Eager
Swerve by Philip Gwynne
The Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta
Confessions of a Liar, a Thief and a Failed Sex God by Bill Condon
Anonymity Jones by James Roy
Stolen by Lucy Christopher
Loving Richard Feynman by Penny Tangey

The Silver Inky

(for an international book)

The Poison Throne by Celine Kiernan
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Heist Society by Ally Carter
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
The Bride’s Farewell by Meg Rosoff
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
The Wrong Grave by Kelly Link with decorations by Shaun Tan
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by David Levithan & John Green
Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham
The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

Wait, there's more!

The nice thing about the Inkys is that published authors aren't the only ones who can win. There is also a Creative Reading Prize which is given to someone, under 20 yrs old for their creative response to a book they love (responses can be in any form including short story, poem or song, video, illustration or artwork or even a cupcake!). For 2010 the prize is an iPad!!!

Inky Dates

12th October - Shortlist announced

19th November - Voting closes

25th November - Awards ceremony and winners announced

October School Holidays @ Lawson Library

Blackheath Library School Holiday Storytime

Squirt this one all over

CB I hate Perfume has launched a fragrance called In the Library.

Thinking Eau de livre, or whiff de cardigan?? According to the website (use the link above) In the Library "is a warm blend of English Novel, Russian and Moroccan leather bindings, worn cloth and a hint of wood polish." Mmmmmmmm

In the Library is available in Australia from Icarus in Surry Hills, NSW and Meg and Wally, West Leederville, WA.

No more worrying about what to buy your Mum, aunts, sisters or girlfriends this Christmas (only 93 days to go you know!)

Storytime @ Lawson Library

October School Holidays @ Katoomba Library

October School Holidays @ Springwood Library

Video review of the Man Booker 2010 shortlist

To my annoyance, I can't get this to go in as embedded video so you'll have to click on this link to this humorous video review of the Man Booker shortlist by Ron Charles in the Washington Post. See if you can spot his mistake*.

Unfortunately you will have to endure 15 seconds or so of advertising before the video starts and there is some commentary on reading before getting down to the gritty business of the Man Booker shortlist and some practical information on impressing people with your literary choices.

Enjoy!

*Answer: It's Andrea Levy's The Long Song which has been shortlisted, not Small Island which is a 2004 book - it did win the Whitbread and Orange prizes though and I can highly recommend it.

Stephen Fry autobiography iPhone app

According to the New Yorker's Book Bench blog, Stephen Fry is releasing the next instalment of his autobiography as an iPhone/iPad app. As you can see in the video below, the app takes the form of a lovely starburst graphic.



Read more at The Book Bench. Or more generally at Stephen Fry's website, The New Adventures of Stephen Fry.

Alison's Picks - September 2010

Alison Booth : Stillwater Creek

Heather Rose : The River Wife

Liz Byrski : Bad Behaviour

Anna Goldsworthy : Piano Lessons

Farahad Zama : The Many Conditions of Love

Librarians are well regarded as the sexiest people in the world

Been wondering what goes on in your local library? This article from The Vine, Things you didn't know about your local library will clear up nearly all your questions. Click on the link and take a look.

October School Holidays @ Blaxland Library

So you call yourself a book lover?

You may love books but would you go as far as the couple in this news article from the Star Tribune in Minneapolis?

"The Ainsworth house in St. Louis Park was being slowly consumed by books.

Massive bookshelves covered an entire wall in the living room. Another room upstairs had almost no visible wall space. Nearly every room in the house was outfitted with a bookcase, including the kitchen. Still, Louis Ainsworth's book collection threatened to overrun the property.

"What Louis couldn't fit on the shelves, he kept in cardboard boxes around the house," says Sue Ainsworth, the book collector's ever-patient wife. "I would tell him, 'Louis, why do you need 500 books on the Middle Ages?'"

When the Ainsworths met their breaking point, they did something even bibliophiles might consider drastic: They bought the house next door, added a two-story atrium to bridge the 15-foot gap between the houses, and converted most of the neighbor's house into a two-story library with cherry shelves, a mezzanine, fireplace and a rolling library ladder."

Go to the article from the Star Tribune to see the photographs of the library, it's really rather beautiful both inside and out.

Graphic Novels

Come and get 'Grahic' with us