Blackheath Bookworms

Katoomba Library closure

Due to excessive flooding this morning, Katoomba Library will be closed all day today.

To make up for this loss of service, Blackheath and Wentworth Falls Libraries will be open from 10am-5pm.

Read It 2011

The theme for June is Go Reads.

In June how about reading about journeys, adventures and experiences of new places. Read about things that make you dream of far off destinations and help you imagine or remember particular senses of place from all over the world.

Discover travel writing, fiction and non fiction that reminds us of all those special places in your life, encouraging feelings of nostalgia and gentle homesickness that feed into your longing to go out into the world and experience it to the fullest.

You can join in and tweet about what you are reading in June using the twitter hashtag #goreads. You can also use this tag on other social media sites such as flickr or when you post about your reading on your blog.

So as winter sets in we hope you will join us in exploring the world from armchairs everywhere – fueling your own wanderlust as you read and share your travel titles during #goreads.

Read It 2011 Online Discussion

On Tuesday there will be real time twitter discussion for #readit2011.

At 8pm (AEST) on Tuesday 31st May come online to talk about this month's #grrlpower - reading books about and by women.

What titles did you enjoy reading for this category? To participate you will need a twitter account. Don't forget to use #grrlpower in your tweet. If you don't have a twitter account you can still watch the discussion by going to twitter search http://search.twitter.com/ and searching on #grrlpower.

Australia's Biggest Morning Tea

The absolutely final figures are yet to come but it looks like over $280 was raised at the Australia's Biggest Morning Teas at Blaxland, Springwood and Lawson libraries this week.

Not only have we raised a useful sum of money for the Cancer Council, we have hosted a feel-good event enjoyed by visitors and staff equally. The atmosphere at all venues was lovely with our regulars and newbies enjoying each others company.

Thanks to the branch staff who not only organised and laid out the morning tea, but contributed with home-made treats.

Congratulations.

Prime Minister's Literary Awards Shortlists 2011

Federal Arts Minister, Simon Crean, has announced the 2011 Prime Minister's Literary Awards shortlists.

Mr Crean 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. The judging panels were enormously impressed by the breadth of talent displayed in this year's entries, and applauded the inventiveness, artistry and flair for which Australian creators and publishers are justly renowned.

So here are the shortlists :

Non-fiction
• Sydney by Delia Falconer
• How To Make Gravy by Paul Kelly
• The Party by Richard McGregor
• The Hard Light of Day by Rod Moss
• Claude Levi-Strauss: The Poet in the Laboratory by Patrick Wilcken

Fiction
• Traitor by Stephen Daisley
• Notorious by Roberta Lowing
• When Colts Ran by Roger McDonald
• Glissando by David Musgrave
• That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott

Young Adult Fiction
• Good Oil by Laura Buzo
• Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
• The Three Loves of Persimmon by Cassandra Gold
• About a Girl by Joanne Horniman
• The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta

Children's Fiction
• Why I Love Australia by Bronwyn Bancroft
• Flyaway by Lucy Christopher
• Now by Morris Gleitzman
• April Underhill, Tooth Fairy by Bob Graham
• Shake a Leg by Boori Monty Pryor and Jan Ormerod

More information about the shortlists is available from the Australian Government's Arts and Culture web pages.

The winners will be announced in early July.

What Library staff are reading . . .

Disgrace by J M Coetzee ~ This was a dark read dealing with among other themes, Aparthied issues in South Africa. The subject content wasn’t by any means pleasant, but it was thought provoking and well written and was a Booker prize winner.

Currently I'm reading This body of death by Elizabeth George for a book group read. I rarely read crime, so am looking forward to a title by this celebrated author who seems to have a good reputation as a crime writer.

The Philanthropist by John Tesarsch ~ Very recognisable Australian setting, wonderful writing.

Daughters-in-law by Joanna Trollope ~ She can always be trusted to offer a wry and accurate analysis of family life.

Duende: a journey in search of flamenco by Jason Webster ~ Young Englishman leaves dull, predictable life in England to live in Spain and discover the real flamenco, and its practitioners. Compelling reading, very visceral portraits of the gypsy fraternity.

A parrot in the pepper tree by Chris Stewart ~ also about foreigners coming to live in Spain, in this case the Alpujarras region in the Southern mountains. (See a theme developing here?)

At home by Bill Bryson ~ Wide-ranging research, entertaining as usual.

The Creative Life by Julia Cameron~ Nope, this wasn’t interesting. Her past books on this subject have been far better.

Kingdom of shadows by Barbara Erskine ~ set in modern day England and 16^th century Scotland

The Castings trilogy by Pamela Freeman

The Island by Victoria Hislop

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo andThe Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson.

Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue ~ I was inspired to read more of Donoghue’s work after reading Room recently, and loving it. Slammerkin is a dramatic shift in genre – it’s historical fiction, set in 18^th Century, grimy, fetid old Londontown. A bleak yet exciting story of a young girl who falls into prostitution in order to survive.

Life Mask by Emma Donoghue ~ I’ve just started this one. Also set in late 18^th Century London, this time focussing on the more glamorous, artistic and aristocratic side of life. The pace is slower than Slammerkin and is a more gentile tale about a theatrical love triangle (so far).

The Romantic: Italian days and nights by Kate Holden ~ a lot like In My Skin, quite dark territory but well written and insightful. Narrated in the third person, Holden examines her life after a long period of drug addiction and hard living, by exploring Rome and navigating tumultuous European romances. Ah, the life of a writer…

A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French ~– I idolise French and Saunders, so of course I’m going to like this book! Written alternately from the points of view of different members of a family, this is a comic and endearing novel. The teenage daughter’s voice is a little grating and unnatural (lots of ‘like’ and ‘sooo’ peppered within her commentary) but all in all: a gentle, light and fun read.

Give Me Your Heart: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates ~ deliciously dark short stories.

Women photography by Annie Leibovitz, essay by Susan Sontag ~ Amazingly powerful images of women from all walks of life.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty ~ I read this on a recommendation. I really enjoyed it. The story is based in Sydney and one of the characters even loses a jumper in Katoomba so that was nice to have that connection. Alice has an accident and loses the last 10 years of her memory. She believes she is a happy newly wed about to give birth to their first baby. As the story unfolds, it is hilarious to find Alice horrified that she has 3 children and she doesn’t even know what to feed them. I was happy with how the story ended up too as at one stage I thought it was going in a different direction. And to be honest, I didn’t like the Alice that she had turned into 10 years later – I liked the sweeter, younger Alice. So I wanted her to learn something about herself and become more like she used to be…..anyway, it got me thinking….what would happen if I lost the last 10 years of my memory….my friends would be the same, I am still married to the same person, yes, there are a couple of things that I should change and should not have let happen….I like that you re-evaluate your own life along the way thanks to this story…..

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling ~ last one on talking book by Stephen Fry. Now it will all be fresh in my head for when I see the last instalment at the movies

Mr Rosenblums List by Natasha Solomons ~ An odd little story that was recommended to me. Not something that I would normally pick up and read. All about a man’s insistence on fitting into English society after arriving in England as a refugee. I enjoyed the story more once the main characters migrated to the English countryside – the people they met there were much more entertaining

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez ~ Set in war-torn Afghanistan, in a little coffee shop in downtown Kabul brings a very different group of women together.
SUNNY, the proud proprietor, who needs an ingenious plan - and fast - to keep her café and customers safe…
YAZMINA, a young pregnant woman stolen from her remote village and now abandoned on Kabul's violent streets …
CANDACE, a wealthy American who has finally left her husband for her Afghan lover, the enigmatic Wakil …
ISABEL, a determined journalist with a secret that might keep her from the biggest story of her life…
and HALAJAN, the sixty-year-old “den” mother, whose long-hidden love affair breaks all the rules.
I have heard this story described as if Maeve Binchy wrote The Kite Runner – very good way of putting it.

Katherine Parr : a guided tour of the life and thought of a Reformation queen by Brandon G. Withrow ~ dry and dusty Tudors

Old Dogs by Donna Moore – Scottish crime novel about the theft of two priceless porcelain dogs from a Glasgow museum - by multiple theives. Reads like one of those old Ealing comedies

The Island by Victoria Hislop – novel about a woman sent to live on the island of Spiralonga off Crete – a leper colony

I came to say goodbye by Caroline Overington

The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry – my first eBook experience

Revolting people by Andy Hamilton – hilarious radio play on CD

Digital Photography Classes for Adult Beginners

As part of Library and Informaton Week 2011, the popular Digital Photography classes for adult beginners will be held at

Katoomba Library - Thursday 26th May 9am-11am

Springwood Library - Friday 27th May 9am-11am

Workshops are free, and places limited to 10 at Katoomba and 12 at Springwood (owing to a maximum of 2 persons per PC).

Classes will begin with computer work from 9am-10am, followed by practice 10am-11am.

See your librarian at the Katoomba and Springwood branches to book!

Or to book over the phone:

Katoomba (02) 4780 5750

Springwood (02) 4723 5040

Man Booker International Prize 2011

Well, they're like buses aren't they? Literary prizes I mean. We've had a few months respite then a flurry of prizes: the National Biography Prize and the NSW Premier's Literary Awards and today the winner of the Man Booker International Prize was announced at the Sydney Writer's Festival.

This prize has been awarded since 2005 on a bi-annual basis to one writer for his or her achievement in fiction. Past winners are Ismail Kadaré in 2005, Chinua Achebe in 2007 and Alice Munro in 2009.

Philip Roth is the 2011 winner. While he was unable to attend the Sydney Writer's Festival due to ill health he was able to speak to the audience via a video link, saying said it was a great honour and a delight to receive the prize. See what the Library has by Philip Roth here.


Roth is best known for his 1969 novel Portnoy's Complaint, and for his late-1990s trilogy comprising the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Pastoral (1997), I Married a Communist (1998), and The Human Stain (2000). His most recent book is Nemesis (2010.)

National Biography Award

The National Biography Award is administered and presented by the State Library of NSW and, with a $20,000 is Australia's richest prize for biographical writing and memoir.

Yesterday Grand Obsessions: The Life and Work of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin by Alasdair McGregor was announced as this year's winner at the State Library of NSW.

The judges said Grand Obsessions is 'marvelously written and produced', in which Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin emerge as 'staunch, idealistic, [and] not always widely respected'.

Acting NSW state librarian and chief executive Noelle Nelson said McGregor's work stood out 'in a notable year for Australian biography and memoir. 'Grand Obsessions is as much a book about architecture as it is about two extraordinary talented people in our history.'

Grand Obsessions was one of six titles shortlisted from an initial 58 entries. You can read about the shortlisted titles here.

NSW Premier's literary awards

The winners of the 2011 NSW Premier's Literary Awards have been announced.

Christina Stead Prize for Fiction
Lovesong by Alex Miller
Shortlisted : Peter Carey - Parrot and Olivier In America
Stephen Daisley - Traitor
Lisa Lang - Utopian Man
Kristel Thornell - Night Street
Ouyang Yu - The English Class

Book of the Year and the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction
Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs by Malcolm Fraser and Margaret Simons
Shortlisted : Anna Krien - Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania's Forests
Tony Moore - Death or Liberty: Rebels and Radicals Transported to Australia 1788-1868
Ranjana Srivastava - Tell Me The Truth: Conversations With My Patients About Life And Death
Maria Tumarkin - Otherland
Brenda Walker - Reading By Moonlight: How Books Saved a Life

Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry
Pirate Rain by Jennifer Maiden
Shortlisted : Susan Bradley Smith - Super Modern Prayer Book
Andy Jackson - Among the Regulars
Jill Jones - Dark Bright Doors
Anna Kerdijk Nicholson - Possession
Andy Kissane - Out to Lunch

Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature
Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
Shortlisted : Michelle Cooper - The FitzOsbornes in Exile. The Montmaray Journals: 2
Kirsty Eagar - Saltwater Vampires
Belinda Jeffrey - Big River, Little Fish
Melina Marchetta - The Piper's Son
Jaclyn Moriarty - Dreaming of Amelia

Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature
My Australian Story: The Hunt for Ned Kelly by Sophie Masson
Shortlisted : Jeannie Baker - Mirror
Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood - Clancy and Millie and the Very Fine House
Cassandra Golds - The Three Loves of Persimmon
John Heffernan - Where There's Smoke
Emma Quay - Shrieking Violet

Script Writing Award
Offspring by Debra Oswald
Shortlisted : Shirley Barrett - South Solitary
Glen Dolman - Hawke
Michael Miller - EAST WEST 101, SEASON 3: The Hero's Standard
John Misto - Sisters of War
Samantha Strauss - Dance Academy. Episode 13: Family

Play Award
Do Not Go Gentle... by Patricia Cornelius
Shortlisted : Jonathan Gavin - Bang
Jane Montgomery Griffiths - Sappho...In 9 Fragments
Melissa Reeves - Furious Mattress
Sue Smith - Strange Attractor
Anthony Weigh - Like a Fishbone

NSW Premier's Translation Prize & PEN Medallion
Ian Johnston

Community Relations Commission Award
The English Class by Ouyang Yu
Shortlisted : Ali Alizadeh - Iran: My Grandfather
Anh Do - The Happiest Refugee
Maria Tumarkin - Otherland
Yuol Yuol, Akoi Majak, Monica Kuol... - My Name is Sud

UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing
Traitor by Stephen Daisley
Shortlisted : Ashley Hay - The Body in the Clouds
Lisa Lang - Utopian Man
David Musgrave - Glissando: A Melodrama
Kristel Thornell - Night Street
Gretchen Shirm - Having Cried Wolf

Special Award
Libby Gleeson

People's Choice Award
Lovesong by Alex Miller

The Philanthropist

AUTHOR: John Tesarsch
PUBLICATION DATE: 2010
No PAGES: 284
TIME PERIOD: Contemporary
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: Melbourne, Australia
CATEGORY: Australian fiction
PLOT SUMMARY: Wealthy 59-year-old businessman Charles Bradshaw flies home to Australia after promoting a business proposition in Jakarta. Exhausted and unwell, he just wants to rest: but his wife Trish has organized a big party to celebrate his having just received an Australia Day award for his philanthropy. He survives the party, and next morning goes down to the beach, hoping to repair himself in a place he loves. He dives into the chill water, and moments later has a heart attack. He regains consciousness some time later, and understands he has been rescued. While recovering in hospital he has time to think. And to dream. One disturbing dream features a gaunt young man who sneers at him: “You took everything from me…” This young man sits at the heart of Charles’ story, and will drive his future.
COMMENTS: “A very fine piece of work,” is John Banville’s comment on this book. And it is. The immense power of the story lies in Tesarsch’s ability to sustain our sympathy with Charles, even while we understand he has been a Very Bad Boy. Gradually the pieces of Charles’ life are put in place for us, and we track him down the years of his corruption to his death, alone, on an urban footpath. Charles cannot help himself. He has learned to make money, sometimes ruthlessly, and to use it to solve all inconveniences and legal embarrassments. When he makes a sincere effort to act more morally, no one believes him! That is the real tragedy here. His die has been cast: he is not allowed by a vengeful world to reinvent himself. And we should all be allowed that.
REVIEWER: Alison

National Simultaneous Storytime 2011

National Simultaneous Storytime will be held at Blue Mountains City Library. It is an important annual national literacy campaign that guarentees more young Australians will 'Get Reading'. This year, reading takes place on Wednesday 25 May at 10:30am at Springwood, Katoomba and Lawson Libraries.

The 2011 National Simultaneous Storytime book is "Feathers for Phoebe" by Rod Clement, a wonderfully illustrated Australian tale about self-esteem, self-acceptance and learning that appearances aren't everything.

Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea

Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea will be held at the following Libraries:

Springwood Library on Monday May 23, at 10.30am

Blaxland Library on Wednesday May 25, at 11am

Lawson Library on Thursday May 26, at 10.30am

Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea is one of Cancer Council Australia’s major fundraising events and the largest, most successful event of its kind in Australia.

Come along with a gold coin donation and support your local morning tea at any of the above libraries and enjoy a cuppa and chat. Funds raised go to research, education programs and support services for cancer patients and their families.

Next generation eBook

Take a look at this :




The bit at 02:43 especially is just WOW!

Happy Birthday Roger Hargreaves

How delightful to go to Google today and find that it is commemorating 75 years since the birthy of Mr Men author, Roger Hargreaves, or it would be were he still alive.


Born on 9th May 1935, Roger Hargreaves' Mr Men books have been a staple of children's lives in book and on television since 1971 when the first Mr Men book, Mr Tickle, was written. Wikipedia reports that Hargreaves' son Adam asked his father what a tickle looked like so Hargreaves drew a figure with a round orange body and long, rubbery arms.

The books and the television series were favourites of mine as a child and have sold over 85 million copies worldwide in 20 languages.

Room by Emma Donoghue

Room by Emma Donoghue

Plot Summary : It's Jack's birthday, and he's excited about turning five. Jack lives with his Ma in Room, which has a locked door and a skylight, and measures 12 feet by 12 feet. He loves watching TV, and the cartoon characters he calls friends, but he knows that nothing he sees on screen is truly real - only him, Ma and the things in Room. Until the day Ma admits that there's a world outside ...Told in Jack's voice, "Room" is the story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible. Unsentimental and sometimes funny, devastating yet uplifting, "Room" is a novel like no other (from Fantastic Fiction)

Review : At the start of this new novel, narrator Jack and his mother, who was kidnapped seven years earlier when she was a 19-year-old college student, celebrate his fifth birthday. They live in a tiny, soundproofed cell in a converted shed in the kidnapper's yard. The sociopath, whom Jack has dubbed Old Nick, visits at night, grudgingly doling out food and supplies. The book is seen entirely through Jack's eyes and childlike perceptions. Ma, as Jack calls her, proves to be resilient and resourceful, creating exercise games, makeshift toys, and reading and math lessons to fill their days.

While there have been several true-life stories of women and children held captive, little has been written about the pain of re-entry, and Donoghue's bravado in investigating that potentially terrifying transformation grants the novel a frightening resonance that will keep readers rapt.

Room is one of the most profoundly affecting books I've read in a long time and I adored Jack and his innocence and Ma and her profound love for Jack.

Reviewed by : Carolyn

The 10 best fictional mums

For Mother's Day

Take a look at The 10 best fictional mums - in pictures

Wanted: a Happy Miss Havisham and Rushed to Print

The Guardian online reports that the Royal Society of Chemistry is looking for a woman with the maiden name Havisham to recount her successful wedding day (unhappily married Havishams need not apply).

The society is marking the 150th anniversary of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations by recreating Miss Havisham's mouldering wedding cake, and it wants someone to give it to (pre-decay).


They've published the recipe:
5lb flour
3lb butter
2lb sugar
5lb currants
1lb ground almonds
1lb candied peel
16 eggs
two grated nutmegs
half an ounce each of mace and cloves
a gill each of wine and brandy

The scientists have calculated that it provides around 30,000 calories – enough for a fortnight.


And on the subject of weddings, who enjoyed the spectacle of the royal wedding last week?

It won't be long before you can read all about it. Publisher Michael O'Mara is hoping to make it into the record books after hustling Diana biographer Andrew Morton's book on William and Kate into shops just 72 hours after the couple were married.

Photographs for William and Catherine: Their Lives, Their Wedding were chosen and the text for the final chapter completed on the day of the wedding. It was then sent for overnight printing in Italy, with the first copies in the 100,000 print run delivered to Waterstone's Charing Cross at 3pm on Monday, 72 hours after the last photo in the book was taken (via The Guardian online Andrew Morton publishes royal wedding book in record time and The Bookseller MoM rushes first Royal Wedding title)

And another rush-to-print job is
Seal Team Six : Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal Sniper by Howard E Wasdin and Stephen Templin, a behind-the-scenes account of the elite counter-terrorism unit that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on Sunday 1 May. The book was to be published on 24 May but is now, according to US Publishers Weekly, being rushed out to be in shops in the US planned by the middle of next week (via The Guardian online Navy Seal memoir raced into print after Bin Laden killing)

Keep your eyes peeled for a Harper Lee biography

To Kill a Mockingbird has to be my favourite book of all time, and such a fabulous film too so I was thrilled to bits to read in The Sydney Morning Herald that the reclusive author, Harper Lee, is cooperating on a biography.

The elusive Lee, who celebrated her 85th birthday on Thursday, has co-operated with a new biography that will reveal why she never wrote another novel.

The Mockingbird Next Door, written by Marja Mills, should lay to rest the conspiracy theories surrounding Lee's retreat from the public eye - from unsubstantiated claims that she became an alcoholic to the suggestion that To Kill a Mockingbird was actually written by her best friend, Truman Capote.

You can be sure we'll be buying it when available.

Privacy Awareness Week

The focus of this year's Privacy Awareness Week is "protect your privacy" and is directed at all individuals who use social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner in conjunction with the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities (APPA) has produced a short animation focusing on “protecting your privacy".



The short animation and an on-line survey (open 1-31 may 2011) are available on the Privacy Awareness Week website. Also on the Privacy Awareness Week website is an 'ID Theft Toolkit', an online test to assess how exposed you are to identity theft.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner website has also provided new resources including fact sheets, a 'Guide to protecting your privacy in NSW' and a 'Cyber safe and savvy' information sheet containing tips to protect your childs safety online.

This information has been provided by Michael Alchin, Privacy Contact Officer at the State Library of NSW

Book Launch at Katoomba Library

Tuesday 3rd May at Katoomba Library from 10am

Zen Druid : a paganism for the 21st century

is being launched at Katoomba Library tomorrow.

This free event includes a talk by the author, Jon Moore and morning tea.

All welcome.

Jon Moore is a resident of the Megalong Valley. Jon is studying horticulture at Wentworth Falls TAFE and working on Zen Druid Booke of Dayes, his next publication.

Read It 2011

And so here we are in a new month so it's time for a new topic in the Read It 2011 challenge.

The 8th of May is Mother's Day (don't forget!) and in our reading this month we will be celebrating women – authors, artists and musicians; spokeswomen, adventurers, scientists, politicians and sportswomen; characters, relationships and imagery, and of course mothers, daughters, aunts and nieces. Join the Twitter conversation by using #grrlpower and don’t forget the end-of-month Tweet-up on May 31st at 8pm.


Consider authors such as Virginia Woolf, Janet Frame, Kate Forsyth, Sandy Fussell, Cecelia Dart Thornton, Anita Heiss.

Take a look at the Orange Prize shortlist or the longlist.

Musicians like Amanda Palmer, Cyndi Lauper, Annie Lennox, Sara Storer, Madonna, Katy Perry, Lily Allen

Women such as Sorrel Wilby, Jessica Watson, Kay Cottee, Cathy Freeman, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Quentin Bryce, Marie Bashir, Caroline Chisholm, the late Jane McGrath, Skye Bortoli, or perhaps a famous Australian scientist

Or characters like Mrs Dalloway, Cinderella, Lara Croft, Emma Grey, Elizabeth Bennett, Thursday Next,

What titles did you enjoy reading for this category? To participate you will need a twitter account. Don't forget to use #grrlpower in your tweet. If you don't have a twitter account you can still watch the discussion by going to twitter search http://search.twitter.com/ and searching on #grrlpower.

Goodreading magazine in the library and online

The May edition of the wonderful Goodreading magazine is now available online here as well as in library branches - all you have to do is enter your Blue Mountains Library card number and you're in.

This month there's an interview with Geraldine Brooks on her new book, Caleb's Crossing.

Me My Shelf I features Professor Ron McCallum, the first totally blind person to be appointed to a full professorship in any subject (his is the Law) at an Australian university.

Ireland is our destination this month with past and present Irish writers who have made a big impact.

And then there are the regular features: Your Say, Books of the Month (The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and Gallipoli by David Cameron), Book Trivia as well as Word of Mouth (reviews) and competitions.

The 'hardcopy' is available at Springwood, Blaxland and Wentworth Falls Libraries. If you haven't already dipped into this magazine, make this the month you do.

Carolyn's Books of the Month - May 2011

Best read : Room by Emma Donoghue
Thriller : The Soul Collectors by Chris Mooney
General Fiction : The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
Saga/Romance : Rescue by Anita Shreeve and The Search by Nora Roberts
Australian Author : Cherry Tree Lane by Anna Jacobs
Crime : The Night Cafe by Taylor Smith

2011 Edgar Allan Poe Awards Winners

The Mystery Writers of America announced the winners of the 2011 Edgar Allan Poe Awards which honour the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2010 at the 65th Gala Banquet on 28th April 28 in New York.

BEST NOVEL
The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Rogue Island by Bruce DeSilva

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard

BEST FACT CRIME

Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime and Complicity by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and his Rendezvouz with American History by Yunte Huang

BEST SHORT STORY
"The Scent of Lilacs" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Doug Allyn

BEST JUVENILE

The Buddy Files: The Case of the Lost Boy by Dori Hillestad Butler

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Interrogation of Gabriel James by Charlie

BEST PLAY
The Psychic by Sam Bobrick

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY

“Episode 1” - Luther, Teleplay by Neil Cross

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD

"Skyler Hobbs and the Rabbit Man" – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine by Evan Lewis

GRAND MASTER
Sara Paretsky

RAVEN AWARDS
Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, Forest Park, Illinois
Once Upon A Crime Bookstore, Minneapolis, Minnesota

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

You can read our post on the shortlisted titles here.