Readers in the Mist

The End of This Road

2011-07-08T21:54:00.004+10:00

Having been growing increasingly frustrated by Blogger making its own mind up on formatting posts, etc., we have made the decision to move our blog. Please follow us from now on at the new Readers in the Mist

Australian Book Industry Awards 2011 Finalists

2011-07-08T16:46:00.016+10:00

The finalists for this year's Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) have been announced.

There are lots of book industry categories including Chain Bookseller of the Year, Independent Bookseller of the Year, Small Publisher of the Year and so on (see all the category finalists by clicking here) but as readers I'll cut to what I think interests us most :

Illustrated Book of the Year 2011
A Food Lover’s Pilgrimage to Santiago De Compostela by Dee Nolan
Bill’s Basics by Bill Granger
Our Family Table by Julie Goodwin
Quay by Peter Gilmore
Real Food Companion by Matthew Evans
Yiwarra Kuju: the Canning Stock Route by the National Museum of Australia
(seems being a cook book gives you a leg up in this category)

Biography of the Year 2011
Ben Cousins – My Life by Ben Cousins
How to Make Gravy by Paul Kelly
Lazarus Rising by John Howard
The Family Law by Benjamin Law
The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do

General Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2011
Here on Earth by Tim Flannery
Power Trip: The Political Journey of Kevin Rudd by David Marr
Street Fight in Naples by Peter Robb
The Changi Brownlow by Roland Perry
True Spirit by Jessica Watson

Book of the Year for Younger Children (0 to 8 years) 2011
All Through the Year by Jane Godwin, illus by Anna Walker
Feathers for Phoebe by Rod Clement
Maudie and Bear by Jan Omerod, illus by Freya Blackwood
Mirror by Jeannie Baker
Noni the Pony by Alison Lester
The Legend of the Golden Snail by Graeme Base

Book of the Year for Older Children (8 to 14 years) 2011
Conspiracy 365 by Gabrielle Lord
Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
Shakespeare’s Hamlet illus by Nicki Greenberg
Museum of Thieves: The Keepers Book 1 by Lian Tanner
Now by Morris Gleitzman

Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2011
Bereft by Chris Womersley
How it Feels by Brendan Cowell
Rocks in the Belly by Jon Bauer
That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott
The Legacy by Kirsten Tranter

General Fiction Book of the Year 2011
After America by John Birmingham
At Home with the Templetons by Monica McInerney
Campaign Ruby by Jessica Rudd
I Came to Say Goodbye by Caroline Overington
The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

Newcomer of the Year (debut writer) 2011

Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania’s Forests by Anna Krien
Poh’s Kitchen by Poh Ling Yeow
The Bark Cutters by Nicole Alexander
The Family Law by Benjamin Law
The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do

Book of the Year 2011

Bereft by Chris Womersley

How to Make Gravy by Paul Kelly
I Came to Say Goodbye by Caroline Overington
Lazarus Rising by John Howard
The Family Law by Benjamin Law
The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do

The winners of the awards will be announced at the Australian Book Industry Awards presentation dinner in Melbourne on Monday 25 July during the 2011 ABA Conference.

The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards 2011

2011-07-08T11:52:00.008+10:00

Yesterday the winners of the 2011 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards were announced by Prime Minister, Julia Gillard and Arts Minister, Simon Crean.

Now in its fourth year, the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards recognise and reward excellence in Australian literature. This year each category winner is given $80,000 and each shortlisted author received $5000. Click here for the shortlisted titles.

Fiction Prize : Traitor by Stephen Daisley
Traitor is a story of war and love, and how each changes everything, forever. It tells the story of two men thrown together by war in the battle-smoke and chaos of Gallipoli – a young New Zealand soldier and a Turkish doctor.
It is Stephen Daisley's first novel.

Non-fiction : The Hard Light of Day by Rod Moss
The Hard Light of Day is Moss’ moving memoir of his life in Alice Springs as a young art teacher and his intimate friendship with the traditional owners, the Arrernte people.

Young Adult Fiction : Graffitti Moon by Cath Crowley
Graffitti Moon is a story of graffiti artist Shadow and his friend Poet who haunt the night and the dreams of a girl named Lucy. Told from alternating points-of-view, Crowley perfectly captures the teenagers’ tenderness and their toughness.

Children's Fiction : Shake a Leg written by Boori Monty Pryor & illustrated by Jan Ormerod
When three boys go into a pizza shop in far north Queensland they meet a pizza-maker, an Aboriginal man, who reveals not only the secrets of great pizza – but the stories that he draws upon for inspiration.

Winter Tales

2011-07-07T11:50:00.001+10:00

Everyone is invited to an afternoon of stories to warm you from the inside out featuring some of Australia’s favourite storytellers and writers for young readers including :

Lee Castledine

Tohby Riddle

Louise Pfanner

Emily Rodda

Wentworth Falls School of Arts
Sunday 7 August from 1pm

This is a Free family event, but bookings are essential. Phone 4758 6811 or email admin@mocs.org.au.

Afternoon tea will be served

Books by the visiting authors available for sale courtesy of Megalong Books

Presented by WestWords, MOCS and Blue Mountains City Council

The Good The Bad The Ugly : Reviewed by You

2011-07-06T20:23:00.001+10:00

Anne Boleyn : Fatal Attractions by George Bernard.

Review : Anne Boleyn (pronounced 'Bullen"), the second wife of king Henry VIII, was beheaded in 1536 for having had several lovers. She protested her innocence to the last.

Historians have generally taken the line that she was the blameless victim of king Henry's sexual voracity, and also of her politico-religious enemies.

George Bernard explores the possibility that, desperate to give Henry a male heir, Anne was driven to take lovers because Henry himself was intermittently impotent - when he was not persuing some new mistress.

This review was written by an anonymous Library user in one of our review journals, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You.

Look out for a copy of The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You in your local branch and add your own review.

Carolyn's Books of the Month - July 2011

2011-07-04T12:57:00.000+10:00

Best read : Love You More by Lisa Gardner
Thriller : The Tulip Virus by Danielle Hermans and The Identity Man by Andrew Klavan
General Fiction : The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards
Saga/Romance : Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Australian Author : Violent Exposure by Katherine Howell
Crime : Red Wolf by Liza Marklund

Blackheath Bookworms in July

2011-07-01T15:19:00.000+10:00

School Holidays in July

2011-07-01T15:01:00.004+10:00

The Ramons present a fast moving 40-50 minute circus attraction on stage. The variety packed show includes: trick-cycling, balancing, juggling, balloon animals, comical clown acts, audience participation, giveaways and featuring small live animals. The Ramons offer 30 years experience in performing. The Ramons Circus Spectacular will provide you with a performance that is hard to equal in quality, variety and fun.

Read It 2011

2011-07-01T11:38:00.002+10:00

It's now July and time for a new theme for Read It 2011. This chilly month we will be reading crime and mystery books, both fiction and non fiction - #whodoneit

Crime reading, whether fiction or non-fiction are a huge part of most library collections.

With fiction sub genres like detective (men or women in charge), legal, historical, psychological, forensic, cosy, gourmet, comical, spy and suspense, there is a never ending supply of reading material. Blue Mountains Libraries have separate Crime/Suspense shelves so it's easy to find a crime story that will suit you.

There’s no shortage of true crime to read either. Seedy, cruel, heartbreaking, lawbreaking and fascinating, and often all at once. Look about in the Library shelves at 364.994 for Australian true crime.

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

You might also want to add tags for each month’s reading to Trove or LibraryThing so that other people can see what you are reading.

We hope you will join us in our suspenseful reading, as you share your own crime and mystery reads during #whodoneit.

Read It 2011 Online Discussion

2011-06-30T11:33:00.002+10:00

Tonight there will be real time Twitter discussion for #readit2011.

At 8pm (AEST) come online to talk about this month's #goreads. What titles did you enjoy reading for this category?

To participate you will need a twitter account. Don't forget to use #goreads in your tweet.

If you don't have a twitter account you can still watch the discussion by going to Twitter search and searching on #goreads.

For more information about #readit2011 go to the Read It 2011 blog

702 ABC Sydney Knit In 2011

2011-06-28T12:43:00.001+10:00

Can you knit?
Can you sew?
We need you!

Blue Mountains Libraries are taking part again in the 702 ABC Sydney Knit In creating knitted rugs for the charity Wrap with Love who send the rugs to communities in need all over the world.

Get knitting and drop off your squares or completed wraps by Friday 5th August.

Various Library branches are having Knit In mornings:
Springwood Library on Friday 5th August from 10am
In anticipation of the big day Springwood Library will be holding Knit Ins each Monday in July from 10am

*****
Lawson Library on Wednesday 17th August from 10am

There is a regular Knitting Group which meets in the Meeting Room of the Lawson Library building on the 3rd Wednesday of each month from 10am. Newcomers welcome

All Library branches except Blackheath are collection points for the Knit In and your completed squares or donations of wool can be left at a branch.

In Blackheath the Neighbourhood Centre is the collection point this year.

You can get knitting instructions and more information from any Library branch or go to the 702 ABC Sydney Knit In website.

Oh for a world of books like this

2011-06-28T10:50:00.000+10:00

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

What Library staff are reading . . .

2011-06-27T12:31:00.004+10:00

Once, Then and Now – three titles by Morris Gleitzman which tell the story of a holocaust survivor from childhood to old age. These children’s books are just beautifully written and I can’t wait to share them with my daughter

A Few Right Thinking Men and A Decline in Prophets by Sulari Gentill – Australian mystery series featuring Rowland Sinclair in 1930s Sydney. Great fun

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson – finally made it to the end of the Millenium trilogy

Summer Without Men by Suri Hustvedt – enjoyable read about a woman learning to survive after her husband calls for a ‘pause’ in their marriage. The ‘Pause’ is French . . .

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith. Unusual and would appeal to those who love Jane Austen’s classic novel but with a new twist . . .

Monsieur Linh and His Child by Philippe Claudel. This review on the Internet says it all : "An old man is standing on the after-deck of a ship. In his arms he clasps a flimsy suitcase and a newborn baby, even lighter than the suitcase. The old man's name is Monseiur Linh. He is the only person who knows this is his name because all those who once knew it are dead." (p.1). So begins Monsieur Linh and His Child: bitter and sweet and wistful - the very notes on which the curtain closes, come the occasion - it is a Kafka-esque elegy of friendship which handily sustains the sense of uncomplicated beauty evidenced above over its abbreviated course. A 2005 novella, lately translated from the French by Euan Cameron, from Philippe Claudel, author of Brodeck's Report and erstwhile director of the sublime foreign-language film I've Loved You So Long, at 100 small-format pages of oversized font, Monseiur Linh and His Child is in stature hardly more than a short story, but it has all the emotional impact of a gut-punch to the soul." - I am telling everyone to read it. I can’t tell you too much as it would spoil the story

A Vision of Loveliness by Louise Levene - Great little snapshot of Sixties London, how girls may have thought at the time and the lengths people will go to for nice clothes and a lifestyle – not much has changed . . .

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer – One that I had been resisting reading because everyone who read it loved it. Plus because it was written in the style of letters, I didn’t think I would enjoy the format. It took me about 50 pages to get into the rhythm of the novel but so glad I persevered. Really a rewarding, lovely story. I am sure most of you would have read it but for those who haven’t, the characters are great and I learnt about what happened to the Channel Islands during WWII

The Holy City by Patrick McCabe – Interesting read that helped me understand my Irish friends a little bit more . . . Good insight to a confused mind

I am re-reading my tattered copy of Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco - I think I bought this book with my first paycheck during my “gap year”, along with a mini Chupa Chup tree and silk singlet that is still going strong. I no longer have a craving for Chupa Chups, but so far I am enjoying the book all over again

The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman – I’m on an 18th and 19th century London kick, so I thought I’d follow Librarything’s recommendation and try this book. And . . . I adore it. Part Emma Donoghue (‘Slammerkin’), part Patrick Suskind and something new altogether. Featuring body snatching, the cholera morbus and richly-painted characters, I can’t wait to get my hands on another title by this author!

Last Chance to See by Mark Carwardine and Stephen Fry

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov – beautifully written

Lessons in Letting Go by Corrine Grant

The Inner World of Farm Animals by Amy Hatkoff – Yes, laugh all you like, but it has been proven that sheep can recognise at least 50 of their woolly friends, and that turkeys give great hugs! This book was surprisingly easy to read; not overloaded with technical explanations and the like, and filled with lovely pictures of contented farm animals (the smiling piggies were my favourite!)

The Elephant Whisperer : learning about life, loyalty and freedom from a remarkable herd of elephants by Lawrence Anthony - Does anything beat a story about a “troublesome” herd of South African elephants?

The Secret History by Donna Tartt – I’ve just started this for the second time. After reading it at school and having to extract every possible motif, I’m looking forward to some casual reading . . .

Indelible Ink by Fiona McGregor - an engaging novel set in Sydney, about a 59-year-old woman who suddenly falls in love with tattoos, after wandering into a tattoo parlour in the Cross. I loved this book and have reviewed it for Readers in the Mist.

The Female Brain by Lovann Brizendine - I found this discussion of what bio-chemical inputs influence female and male brains really interesting, until my feminist daughter said scathingly “That’s all been disproved, Mum, read this other one instead!” Oh, okay.

Murder on the Ballarat Train by Kerry Greenwood - Yes, another one of hers set in Victoria early in the 20th century

The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally. I heard Keneally speak at Katoomba’s Writers Week – terrific speaker – and decided to read this book of his. Liking it a lot.

Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman: a collection of beautifully-written short stories focusing on the inhabitants of a farmhouse in Massachussetts.

Dead Europe by Christos Tsiolkas - on an iPad, my first that way. Not the Europe I know; lots of rent boys and drugs. Tsiolkas doesn't give you an easy read but by gum he's enthralling!

Lovesong by Alex Miller - no one else in my book group liked this but I did!

Batavia's Graveyard by Mike Dash. This story of mutiny and murder off the West Australian coast in the 1600s has just been re-told by Peter FitzSimons.

July School Holidays 2011

2011-06-26T15:20:00.005+10:00

Johnny Balance is an energetic young performer who loves to amaze his audiences with comedy, magic, juggling, incredible balancing acts and plenty of FUN!

The Good The Bad The Ugly : Reviewed by You

2011-06-23T19:59:00.009+10:00

The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Vol. 3 : The Stolen Generations 1881-2008 by Keith Windschuttle.

Review : This scholarly, objective and thoroughly researched study proves that, far from being 'stolen' and abused, needy Aboriginal children were offered legitimate welfare, education and a start in life. The agents of this welfare were social workers who did the best they could with very limited funds.

If you do not want to read all 600 pages, read the Preface and Introduction (40 pages) provide a sufficient overview.

This review was written by an anonymous Library user in one of our review journals, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You.

Look out for a copy of The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You in your local branch and add your own review.

It's never too late to bring them back!

2011-06-23T12:16:00.005+10:00

Camden Library has had a first edition copy of Charles Darwin's Insectivorous Plants returned 122 years after it was borrowed on the 30th January 1889.

Apparently the book (which presumably is pretty valuable now) had been in the private collection for 50 years before being donated to the University of Sydney whose employees returned it to Camden Library.

Linda Campbell of Camden Library said it was wonderful to have the book back but it will not be lent again. Further says Miss Campbell, the book would not attract a fine because it was the library's "fine amnesty month" when borrowers could bring back late books in exchange for a donation to charity.

LUCKY!! - Camden Library has estimated that the late fees for the book were about $35,000.

Miles Franklin Literary Award Winner

2011-06-23T11:39:00.006+10:00

That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott was announced as the 2011 winner of the Miles Franklin literary award last night. The award is worth $50,000 in prize money.

That Deadman Dance is a historical novel telling the story of early contact between British colonisers, American whalers and the indigenous Noongar people on the south coast of Western Australia.

The judges described the book as historical and magical as it drifts between the settler world and the Aboriginal world.

"That Deadman Dance is alive in the spaces between these two worlds as they collide and collaborate," they said.

"We see and feel the hardship, tragedies and aspirations of the settlement, and at the same time we are transported into the mystical and spiritual life worlds of Wabalanginy and his people."

In 2000 Kim Scott was the first Aboriginal writer to win the Miles Franklin with his book Benang : from the heart. That year he tied with writer Thea Astley with her novel Drylands.

There were just three novels on the shortlist this year. Scott's rivals were Chris Womersley with Bereft and When Colts Ran by Roger McDonald. Read the Miles Franklin shortlist here and the longlist here.

International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award Winner

2011-06-22T19:55:00.000+10:00

The International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award is the largest (€100,000 = approx. AUD$138,400) and most international prize of its kind; it is open to books written in any language and the nominations came from public libraries in 126 cities and 43 countries.
Three Australians, David Malouf (Ransom), Evie Wyld (After the Fire, a Still, Small Voice) and Craig Silvey (Jasper Jones) were on the shortlist but the winner was Colum McCann with

Let the Great World Spin.

You can read about each of the nominated novels in Fiction Matters, the newsletter of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award February 2011.

The cover above is certainly one of the more arresting ones I've seen in the past 12 months, makes me dizzy to look at it.

Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

2011-06-21T19:32:00.002+10:00

I love History, fiction and non-fiction, and I love Andrea Levy so it's great to read that she's won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for her latest novel, The Long Song.

The judging paneldescribed The Long Song, the 'memoir' of an elderly Jamaican former slave woman in the early 19th-century, as "quite simply a celebration of the triumphant human spirit in times of great adversity".

The Walter Scott Prize is sponsored by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch (distant descendants of Sir Walter Scott) with support from EventScotland and was launched only last year. The prize's definition of historical is where the events described take place at least 60 years before publication, and so stand outside the personal experience of the author. The definition comes from Scott's subtitle for his novel Waverley: "Tis Sixty Years Since."

Last year's prize was won by Hilary Mantel, for her story of the life of Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall. (I've been meaning to re-read that one in anticipation of the sequel which has been delayed by illness.)

I've owned The Long Song for many months and read many rave reviews but have been saving it for August when I'll be reading it for book group. Oooooh, I may have to dip in early . . .

Alisons Picks - June 2011

2011-06-20T12:04:00.000+10:00

Bill Bryson
At Home: a short history of private life

Gregory Day
The Grand Hotel

Jason Webster
Duende: a journey in search of flamenco

Delia Falconer
Sydney

Joanna Trollope
Daughters-in-law

Indelible Ink

2011-06-20T08:33:00.003+10:00

AUTHOR: Fiona McGregor
PUBLICATION DATE: 2010
No PAGES: 452 pp
TIME PERIOD: Contemporary
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: Sydney, Australia
CATEGORY: Australian fiction
PLOT SUMMARY:
The grownup children – Clark, Blanche and Leon – have gathered at the ritzy harbourside family home to celebrate their mother’s fifty-ninth birthday. Marie lives alone there now since her husband left, and has been hitting the bottle with single-minded dedication. Leon shares her passion for gardening and has bought her a plant, even though she’s talking about selling up and buying something smaller. The children aren’t yet aware that Marie has been spending what money she has like water. Her cheques are beginning to bounce. Her best friend is a vacuous, materialistic North Shore bimbo. Her garden and her cats are all that sustain her. Her life is unraveling.
Then she discovers a tattoo parlour in Kings Cross.
COMMENTS: This is a sharply contemporary story, taking us to Sydney places we recognize - Sirius Cove, Mosman, Kings Cross, Moore Park – and rendering their precise flavour with wry accuracy. McGregor’s storytelling is rich in talk, much of the action being freighted by conversations between the characters. Each of the people here is flawed, vulnerable, all pulled by tides they fear they can’t control. Marie’s refusal to toe the party line threatens to unravel the social fabric around her.
Christos Tsiolkas speaks highly of this novel and you’ll see the same keen, unsentimental eye here for human detail as you saw in his The Slap.
REVIEWER: Alison

SYNC = YA Literature into Your Earphones

2011-06-16T15:14:00.006+10:00

Teens and other readers of Young Adult Literature will have the opportunity to listen to bestselling titles and required reading classics for the next few months. Each week from June 23rd until August 17th 2011 SYNC will offer TWO FREE audiobook downloads.

The audiobook pairings will include a popular YA title and a classic that connects with the YA title's theme and is likely to show up on a student's summer reading lists. For example, Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, the first book in a popular series with strong allusions to Romeo & Juliet, will be paired with Shakespeare's classic.

To find out when you can download titles to listen to on the run this summer, visit http://www.audiobooksync.com/

SYNC Titles coming up:

23rd to 29 June - Shiver By Maggie Stiefvater and Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare

30th June to 6th July - Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and The Trial by Franz Kafka

7th July to 13th July - Where the Streets Had a Name by Randa Abdel-Fattah and A Passage to India by E. M. Forster

14th to 20th July - The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney and Beowulf by Francis B. Gummere [Trans.]

21st to 27th July - Chanda's Secrets by Allan Stratton and Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

28th July to 3rd August - Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari and Rescue: Stories of Survival From Land and Sea by Dorcas S. Miller [Ed.]

4th to 10th August - Immortal by Gillian Shields and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

11th to 17th August - Storm Runners by Roland Smith and The Cay by Theodore Taylor

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

2011-06-13T11:59:00.000+10:00

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

Every life has a soundtrack. All you have to do is listen.

Music has set the tone for most of Zoe Baxter's life. There's the melody that reminds her of the summer she spent rubbing baby oil on her stomach in pursuit of the perfect tan. A dance beat that makes her think of using a fake ID to slip into a nightclub. A dirge that marked the years she spent trying to get pregnant.
For better or for worse, music is the language of memory. It is also the language of love.
In the aftermath of a series of personal tragedies, Zoe throws herself into her career as a music therapist. When an unexpected friendship slowly blossoms into love, she makes plans for a new life, but to her shock and inevitable rage, some people - even those she loves and trusts most - don't want that to happen.
Sing You Home is about identity, love, marriage, and parenthood. It's about people wanting to do the right thing for the greater good, even as they work to fulfill their own personal desires and dreams. And it's about what happens when the outside world brutally calls into question the very thing closest to our hearts: family. (Source Fantastic Fiction)

Review : Sing You Home is an honest and moving story of contemporary relationships and the consequences when love and desire collide with science and the law. From tragedy, to self-discovery and joy, Zoe, Vanessa and Max will realise the undeniable truth-that you can't choose whom you love.

As always, Picoult deals with the big issues. and as she usually does, Picoult tells the story in voices: in this case, Zoe, who has spent ten years trying to have a baby; Max, her husband, who has finally had enough, divorces her and finds God; and Vanessa, a guidance counsellor who becomes Zoe's friend and eventually, more.

Sing You Home is Jodi Picoults 18th novel and as with all of Picoults novels, this one is thought-provoking and well written but I did not enjoy it as much as some of her other novels.

Reviewed by : Carolyn

2011 Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards Shortlists

2011-06-10T14:46:00.002+10:00

The shortlists for the 2011 Speech Pathology Australia (SPA) Book of the Year awards have been announced. The award will be presented in Darwin on 18 October.

The SPA book of the year awards aim to 'promote literacy and the need for good literacy skills, while building a library of resources that speech pathologists, teachers and parents can use to help promote literacy and reading'.

So, here are the shortlisted titles in each category :

Young Children

Can We Lick the Spoon Now? by Carol Goess, illustrated by Tamsin Ainslie
The Flying Orchestra by Clare McFadden
The ABC Book of Cars, Trains, Boats and Planes by Helen Martin, Judith Simpson & Cheryl Orsini
One Funky Monkey by Stacey McCleary, illustrated by Sue Degennaro
The Truth About Penguins by Meg McKinlay, illustrated by Mark Jackson
A Giraffe in the Bath by Mem Fox & Olivia Rawson, illustrated by Kerry Argent
JoJo Goes to Playgroup by Christina Miesen
It's Bedtime, William! by Deborah Niland
I Found a Friend by Beth Norling
Leo, the Littlest Seahorse by Margaret Wild, illustrated by Terry Denton
Love from Grandma by Jane Tanner
The Little Drummer Boy by Bruce Whatley

Lower Primary

The Miracle of the Little Wooden Duck by Margaret Wild, illustrated by Dee Huxley
Magpie by Luke Davies, illustrated by Inari Kiuru

Duck for a Day by Meg McKinlay
Miracle on Separation Street by Bob Graham
The Boy and the Toy by Sonya Hartnett, illustrated by Lucia Masciullo
Boris Gets a Lizard by Andrew Joyner
Hairy Nose, Itchy Butt by Elizabeth Frankel, illustrated by Garry Duncan
Shake a Leg by Boori Pryor
The Snake and the Boy by Azmen Sebastien
Scaly-tailed Possum and Echidna by Cathy Goonack
The Important Things by Peter Carnavas

Upper Primary

Mosquito Advertising: The Parfizz Pitch by Kate Hunter
Red Dirt Diary by Katrina Nannestad
The Song of the Winns by Frances Watts
Arnie Avery by Sue Walker
Harriet Bright: The Star You Are by Claire Craig
Now by Morris Gleitzman
Nanny Piggins and the Runaway Lion by R.A. Spratt
Grimsdon by Deborah Abela
Raven's Mountain by Wendy Orr
Head Spinners by Thalia Kalkipsakis
Museum of Thieves: The Keepers 1 by Lian Tanner
Battle Boy: White War by Charlie Carter

Indigenous Children (a new category this year)

Guulaangga the Green Tree Frog by Gloria Whalan
Sissy's Secret by Althea McKeown
Walkabout with our Mates by Esther Fischer
The Little Moo Cow by John Delacour
Sam's Fishing Adventure by Monique Russell
Beautiful Colours by Tina Raveneau
Jakobi & Nan by Esther Fischer
Our World: Bardi Jaawi life at Ardiyooloon by One Arm Point Remote Community School
Fair Skin Black Fella by Renee Fogorty
Stolen Girl by Trina Saffioti
The Snake and the Boy by Azmen Sebastien
Scaly-tailed Possum and Echidna by Cathy Goonack
Look See, Look at Me by Leonie Norrington
Shake a Leg by Boori Pryor
The Devil You Know by Leonie Norrington
Peka-Boo, the smallest bird in the world by Eliza Feely

Orange Prize Winner

2011-06-09T15:18:00.002+10:00

Newcomer Téa Obreht has won this year's Orange Prize for Fiction for The Tiger's Wife.

Set in the Balkans, The Tiger's Wife tells the story of a young doctor who traces the life of her grandfather. The book was written as part of a creative writing course at Cornell University.

Obreht is the youngest-ever author to win the £30,000 (approximately AUD$46,000) prize.

Orange Prize chair of judges, Bettany Hughes, described The Tiger's Wife as 'an exceptional book' and Obreht as 'a truly exciting new talent'.

'Obreht's powers of observation and her understanding of the world are remarkable,' said Hughes. 'By skillfully spinning a series of magical tales she has managed to bring the tragedy of chronic Balkan conflict thumping into our front rooms with a bittersweet vivacity.'

Poetry Slam 2011

2011-06-06T14:20:00.000+10:00

The Katoomba Heat of the Australian Poetry Slam 2011,

hosted by Blue Mountains City Library,

will be held at the

Carrington Hotel on Thursday 16th June at 7pm.

All welcome.

The theme for 2011 : Write a Revolution

Carolyn's Books of the Month - June 2011

2011-06-06T11:42:00.001+10:00

Best read : Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
Thriller : Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag
General Fiction : A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay
Saga/Romance : Domestic Affairs by Eileen Goudge and The Outcast by Sadie Jones
Australian Author : Glory Girl by Peter Yeldham
Crime : Live Wire by Harlan Coben

New Book Club on Twitter

2011-06-03T20:35:00.000+10:00

1book140 is a new Twitter reading club launched on 1 June. It is based on the One Book, One City programmes which have been successful in many parts of the world in bringing readers together.

The ins and outs of 1book140 are all explained here. The first book up for discussion is Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin and Ms Atwood herself is participating.

Sound intriguing? Get along to Twitter and use the hashtag #1book140.

Addicted to Romance?

2011-06-02T20:04:00.004+10:00

Unbalanced? Dissatisfied with your relationship?

You may need to ease off on the Romance novels front.

This is apparently doing the rounds on the interwebs and I found out via The Guardian. It's war in the romance world after Kimberly Sayer-Giles in KSL.com, a news website owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wrote that "Romance novels can be as addictive as pornography " - for men, viewing pornography produces a euphoric drug in the body which causes viewing pornography becomes addictive. "When the natural high wears off, a man will crash and feel depressed (as happens with any drug) and crave another hit. Women are more stimulated by romance than sex, so when they read romantic stories (and they don’t have to be explicit to work) they can experience the same addicting chemical release as men do."

Sayer-Giles goes on to say reading romance novels can lead to dissatisfaction with real life relationships, "women may find their standard for intimacy begins to change over time because may not be able to get as satisfied with their partners as they can reading a book."

The interwebs has gone wild refuting such statements but I love the satirical responses best:

Crime writer Jason Pinter started the satirical hashtag #romancekills on Twitter. There Pinter suggests "the destruction of Alderaan was due to Darth Vader reading too many romance novels and that "King George VI only developed a speech impediment because he kept thinking about scandalously illicit romance novels".

Romance writer Rachel Grant wrote : "Fleas carrying black death were imported into Europe in romance novels," contributed romance novelist Rachel Grant.

And my favourite from literary agent Amy Boggs : "The Titanic hit that iceberg because the lookouts were too busy reading romance novels."

After a heated discussion about the standard of books chosen for my book group one weekend where several popular authors works were trashed as "airport novels" and a request was made to only choose literary fiction - something we agreed was very subjective, I found myself explaining to my book group gals the Readers' Advisory mantra that we do not judge other people's choice in reading; we assist people to find what THEY want to read, not what other people think is good for them. And said that if people want to read Mills and Boon for example that is a valid choice. Wickedly (?) I said perhaps I would choose a M&B for my choice of read next year.

Then I felt I had to put up or shut up and perused the library shelves for a M&B to try. It was not my cup of tea and perusing my LibraryThing account I find I haven't even mentioned it there - it is best forgotten. But I've read lots of books in book groups that I haven't enjoyed. We all like different stuff to read. Books I've loved have absolutely bombed at book group. Books I thought I'd hate, I've enjoyed. Books that have had rave reviews have left me cold.

I don't like Romance on the whole (Andrew Greig's That Summer is an exception) but then there's all sorts of genres I don't like - I just don't get Fantasy, SciFi bores me, Religious reading just gives me the hump. And perhaps you don't what I enjoy - crime fiction, historical fiction, Scottish fiction. I don't mind. It doesn't affect me. If you love Romance, go for it! Just as long as you are enjoying what you're reading.

Katoomba Library

2011-06-02T09:24:00.001+10:00

Katoomba Library will resume normal open hours today.

10am-5:30pm (doors close at 5:20pm).

Thank you for your patience while the library has been closed.

Katoomba Library still closed

2011-06-01T13:43:00.001+10:00

Katoomba Library remains closed today.

At this stage we will reassess the situation tomorrow morning before determining if we will be able to reopen on Thursday 2nd June.

Katoomba Storytime for today has also been cancelled.

Blackheath and Wentworth Falls branches will be open today from 10am-5pm.

Our apologies for the inconvenience.

Goodreading in the Library and Online

2011-06-01T09:18:00.000+10:00

The June 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.

In the June magazine, author Michael Robotham talks about his fascination with liars. And we take a look at the fiction inspired by the American Civil War.

For history buffs or nautical aficionados turn to our behind the scenes look at the building of the Titanic.

Bella Vendramini shares the chaos which led to her new book Naked in Public and much loved children's author Andy Griffiths shares some writing tips!

This month you can read reviews of over 60 books! Some of the titles are:

The Absolutist by John Boyne
Water Under Water by Peter Rix
The Afrika Reich by Guy Saville
Please Look After Mother by Kyung-sook Shin
A History of the World Since 9/11 by Dominic Streatfeild
Tobias Blow by Zacharey Jane
Swashbuckler by James Maloney

Don't forget to check out the dozens of reviews packed into this issue!

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.

Blackheath Bookworms

2011-05-31T16:00:00.001+10:00

Katoomba Library closure

2011-05-31T10:05:00.002+10:00

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

2011-05-30T09:09:00.003+10:00

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

2011-05-28T13:02:00.002+10:00

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

2011-05-27T15:23:00.005+10:00

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

2011-05-26T16:25:00.005+10:00

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 . . .

2011-05-26T12:12:00.004+10:00

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

2011-05-19T13:51:00.000+10:00

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

2011-05-18T19:23:00.006+10:00

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

2011-05-17T20:10:00.004+10:00

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

2011-05-17T19:32:00.005+10:00

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

2011-05-17T12:54:00.003+10:00

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

2011-05-16T16:08:00.004+10:00

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

2011-05-12T09:37:00.000+10:00

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

2011-05-10T12:53:00.001+10:00

Take a look at this :

The bit at 02:43 especially is just WOW!

Happy Birthday Roger Hargreaves

2011-05-09T19:05:00.005+10:00

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

2011-05-09T11:43:00.000+10:00

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

2011-05-08T15:15:00.002+10:00

For Mother's Day

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

Wanted: a Happy Miss Havisham and Rushed to Print

2011-05-04T08:55:00.007+10:00

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

2011-05-03T15:04:00.004+10:00

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

2011-05-03T13:00:00.006+10:00

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

2011-05-02T14:28:00.003+10:00

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

2011-05-02T12:48:00.008+10:00

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 l onglist.

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

2011-05-02T11:50:00.003+10:00

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.

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

2011-05-02T11:06:00.000+10:00

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

2011-05-02T10:36:00.016+10:00

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.

Big Book Sale this Weekend

2011-04-27T15:38:00.000+10:00

Don't forget this weekend the

Blue Mountains City Library is holding its annual

Big Book Sale

Blaxland Community Centre

Friday 29 April 12noon—5pm

Saturday 30 April 9am—4pm

Come along & grab a bargain!

Read It 2011 Online Discussion

2011-04-26T14:37:00.000+10:00

Tonight there will be real time twitter discussion for #readit2011.

At 8pm (AEST) come online to talk about this month's #oznzreads. What titles did you enjoy reading?

To participate you will need a twitter account. Don't forget to use #oznzreads 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 #oznzreads.

For more information about #readit2011 go to http://readit2011.wordpress.com/

The Coo-ee March, 1915, “The biggest wash-up I ever heard of!”

2011-04-25T14:39:00.000+10:00

This special ANZAC Day post commemorates the famous Coo-ee March as it came through the Blue Mountains and was originally posted in the Blue Mountains Local Studies blog.

“The Allies”, said the editor of the Blue Mountains Echo of 13 August 1915, “can make no further progress in the Dardanelles until reinforced with troops. Our own men there are calling for assistance.” One response to the desperate need for reinforcements originated in Gilgandra in October 1915 with 26 men, the brain wave of local plumber WT (Bill) Hitchen, captain of the Gilgandra Rifle Club and his brother Richard. The Coo-ee March was the first of many privately organised recruiting marches of the time, which gathered recruits as they progressed and became known as snowball marches.

As the march wound its way to the Sydney Domain through country towns and villages with names such as Wongarbon, Mumbil, Boomey and Yetholme, the recruits were decked with roses and treated to lunches of roast lamb and plum pudding. After ascending the western side of the Blue Mountains via Berghofer’s Pass, they reached the Explorers’ Tree at Katoomba on 5 November, where the mayor, Alderman George James, welcomed “the boys from the western plains”. The recruits responded as one with their rousing Coo-ee war cry and wearing their new blue dungaree uniforms and white canvas hats, marched into Katoomba to the accompaniment of the Leura Brass Band and the cheers of locals from footpaths and balconies, “streamers and brightly coloured bunting arched the principal thoroughfares and many public and private housed were gaily bedecked.”

After further speeches of welcome and loyalty at the official dinner at the California guesthouse that evening, Alderman Tabrett proposed the toast to “Our Boys at the Front”, declaring “the whole world would ring with the praises of the Austral heroes who were ably defending the liberty of the world. We want thousands more like you”, he told the Coo-ees, “I sincerely hope Australia will always be noted for its workers and not its shirkers.” The recruiting rally after the dinner was one of the “biggest meetings ever seen in Katoomba”, at which “no less than 21 recruits offered and were accepted”, reported the Echo. The Katoomba Red Cross Comforts Fund presented the Coo-ees with a bale of socks knitted by local ladies, including ten pairs from the industrious Mrs James, the Mayoress.

At Wentworth Falls, a road worker downed tools and stepped into the ranks to rousing coo-ees from the men, although his two mates decided “to think it over”. At Lawson they were addressed by the Governor General and ten new recruits were welcomed to the ranks.

The Coo-ees entered Springwood on Monday morning 8 November through the smoke from nearby bushfires and bearing their banner with the motto “First Stop Berlin”, accompanied by an escort of four mounted policemen, a piper playing stirring highland marches, a squad from the Springwood Rifle Club and cheering school children. “Hitchen’s Own” then made camp on the Homedale Estate.

A thousand people from Springwood and surrounds attended the evening open-air concert and recruiting meeting where more young men joined up. A local reporter wrote: “How well Springwood entertained is best told in the words of a lady who helped, ‘It was the biggest wash-up that I ever heard of,’ she said, and that is saying something coming from the sex that reckons life is one wash-up after another.” The next morning at nine o’clock with the piper again in attendance the Coo-ees marched out of town.

The 263 Coo-ees who reached Sydney on November 12 went into action on the Western Front, in particular the Albert, Pozieres and Moquet Farm battlefields; many now lie with their comrades somewhere in France and a number were decorated for bravery. The bible on which five Springwood recruits were sworn in is held in the Local Studies collection at Blue Mountains City Library.

Images: Top: Coo-ees march through Springwood

Centre: Katoomba Comforts Fund workers with socks and clothing for the troops, Mrs James may be number 10, in black, seated left

Bottom: Coo-ees in Macquarie Rd, Springwood

John Merriman, Local Studies Librarian

Read It 2011 April Online Discussion

2011-04-24T19:00:00.002+10:00

On Tuesday there will be real time twitter discussion for #readit2011. At 8.00pm (AEST) on Tuesday 26th April come online to talk about this month's #oznzreads - Australia and New Zealand reads.

What titles did you enjoy reading for this category? To participate you will need a twitter account. Don't forget to use #oznzreads 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 #oznzreads.

For more information go to the Read It 2011 blog.

What Library staff are reading . . .

2011-04-23T14:57:00.002+10:00

I had almost a week in bed with the flu - I look pretty good on it don't I? Flu does wonders for your reading though. See what my colleagues and I have had our noses into this month . . .

An exclusive love by Johanna Adorjan – Johanna’s grandparents, holocaust survivors, took their own lives in their old age after her grandfather was diagnosed with a terminal heart condition. In this book their last day is imagined

Mr Shakespeare’s bastard by Richard B Wright – historical fiction

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay – also a film

Blindness by Jose Saramago

The girl who played with fire by Stieg Larsson

Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie – hilarious goings on in wartime Scotland

The art of travel by Alain de Boton

Laidlaw by William McIlvaney – tartan noir

The elegance of the hedgehog by Muriel Barbery – tried this a while ago and gave up about half way. This time I got over half way and got to the charming bit

Me talk pretty one day by David Sedaris – my apologies to those who had to endure me guffawing in the lunchroom

I recently read, on a customer’s recommendation, The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer – it was gorgeous! Was so sad to discover this was the author’s only work and that she died before she ever saw it published!!

Have also been working my way through a historical murder mystery series by C.J Sansom – the Matthew Shardlake series, set in England during the time of Henry VIII - started with no. 4 Revelation which really did live up to its cover claim of being un-put-downable - Wow! Great read! Have since gone on to read nos. 1-3 – (Dissolution, Dark Fire, & Sovereign) which have also been also very good - but I think Revelation has been the best of the bunch so far – looking forward to no. 5 Heartstone!

The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom Only a short one, but a very good story all the same! I like that Albom chose an older protagonist; it made the idea a bit more unique (he didn’t need the death of a teenager or twenty-something to produce a bit of tragedy and make the ending an enlightening one!)

The Distance between us by Maggie O’Farrell – intriguing like The Hand that first held mine, another O’Farrell novel. I love the way her stories unravel.

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan - I’m of two minds on this one- love the writing (as always), but confused by the concept…what point was he making?? Think I missed it.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne - Probably one of the more clever stories based around the Holocaust that I have read. I wasn’t sure at first about the point of view being the young boy’s, but that ended up being the thing that made it so enjoyable! He was quite a funny kid, but also a good choice for conveying the more heartbreaking aspects of the story.

Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult - Only just begun this one, so I don’t have too much of an impression yet, but being a Picoult book, I’m preparing myself for the intricate details of a few crimes, followed by a court case! Can’t wait ;)

Muriel Barbery The elegance of the hedgehog – charming in parts, longwinded in others I think.

Emma Donoghue Room – couldn’t put it down, couldn’t forget it, have read it now three times in a week!

Pamela Freeman Blood Ties, the first in a trilogy – fantasy fiction, need I say more?

Ajahn Brahm Opening the door of your heart – I’m actually listening to it, it’s Buddhist mediations really.

Dan Brown The Lost symbol – tried this once before and got bored with the formula Brown uses. I read a bit more this time.

Trudi Cadavan The Ambassadors Mission – fantasy fiction. Am thinking of writing to her publisher to explain that when one removes something from someone and gives it to someone else one ‘takes it from’ them not ‘takes it off’ them, nearly pulled my hair out. Otherwise the tale was a good one.

Arthur and George by Julian Barnes - The lives of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a quiet, unassuming Anglo-Indian named George, intersect. What a fabulous book! Intriguing always, Barnes’ writing style chiming well with the Victorian era he writes of.

Natural Flights of the Human Mind by Clare Morrall. (on Talking Book) - Interesting rather than riveting. Talking books encourage a certain laziness of attention, which doesn’t help.

The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas - about a group of people who get together to discuss their writing, and the tortuous internal politics of the group. This was serious fun. I’m a sucker for anything around the subject of writing.

The Grand Hotel by Gregory Day, an Australian writer with a vernacular tone - a tall-story mentality and a sardonic attitude to modern life. The words tend to pour out of him in an unedited way; there’s a touch of Peter Carey here. I’m enjoying this book.

La’s orchestra saves the world by Alexander McCall Smith – a lovely read.

Preincarnate: A Novella by Shaun Micallef - a charming, mysterious little adventure story, with nostalgic illustrations and a peppering of Micallef’s trademark surreal humour. Very Douglas Adams.

Room by Emma Donahue – emotional, raw, compelling – a mind-blowing read.

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead – a cross between Twilight and Harry Potter (because it is based at a boarding school). Great Read! Highly recommend for your angsty teenagers.

The littlest bitch written by David Quinn and Michael Davis illustrated by Devon Devereaux part of the not for children childrens books. This is a graphic novel I picked up when the Internet went down at Lawson Library. What a great little read about a little toddler who ends up running a huge company and lives with her family who are completely not on her wavelength. A laugh out loud little escape from reality.

From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury – series of short vignettes around a family, their haunted home, their past and their future … are they vampires or something more? Really interesting read. You don’t have to read the stories in order and I actually started, read the last story and then went back to the others

Cold Iron by Sophie Masson – a retelling and embellishment of an English Fairy Tale. This was a very sweet story of Tattercoats and the adventures she and her friends went on. Funnily enough I enjoyed the Authors note at the end of the Story which explained the historical context, the fairy tale and where she got the inspiration for the characters and their names. Then the book finished with the original fairytale which again, I thoroughly enjoyed. This was a YA novel but would suit Junior YA

Mary Anne in Autumn by Armistead Maupin – loved loved loved this latest instalment of my San Fran friends. Picks up when they are in their sixties and the life choices they have made. Actually relates to the first series of books really well with lots of interthreads (is that a word???) back to the original stories!

I’ve been reading graphic novels – for the first time since being a young adult (so long ago!) – I have read Coraline which I loved, such a spooky story, and I also read Maus, which was a frank account of a holocaust survivor (as told to his adult son). I’ll be reading more graphic novels - as I was really impressed with the quality of the storytelling and, for me, the visuals add to the whole reading experience, not detract.

Miles Franklin Literary Award Shortlist 2011

2011-04-19T11:34:00.004+10:00

The 2011 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist has been announced this morning and consists of :

Bereft by Chris Womersley

That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott

When Colts Ran by Roger McDonald

The judging panel reflected on Miles Franklin's desire for a unique character in Australian literature. "These shortlisted books have a distinctive, indelible Australian voice. It’s a voice that has nothing to do with reflex nationalism, or jingoism - rather the reverse. The shortlisted books this year are like barometers of the state of our culture: they take the readings, and give them back to us in fiction of extraordinary accomplishment. They force us to look again at ourselves, and to think - hard." Look back on the 2011 longlist here.

Alison's Picks - April 2011

2011-04-18T13:10:00.000+10:00

David Sedaris : Squirrel seeks Chipmunk

Alison Wong : As the Earth Turns Silver

Peter Behrens : The Law of Dreams

Gregory Day : The Patron Saint of Eels

Library Closures over Easter and ANZAC Day 2011

2011-04-18T09:47:00.000+10:00

All Blue Mountains Library branches will close over the Easter and ANZAC Day long weekend.

Library branches will be open Thursday April 21 with normal opening hours.

This closure will affect the public holidays of

Good Friday 22nd April

Easter Saturday 23rd April

Easter Sunday 24th April

Anzac Day 25th April

Easter Monday Public Holiday on Tuesday 26th April

The Libraries will resume normal opening hours on Wednesday 27th April.

Click on this link for the library opening hours.

Did you know you can get FREE one-on-one computer assistance?

2011-04-15T10:56:00.002+10:00

What kind of a reader are you?

2011-04-13T19:40:00.001+10:00

Wattpad, a booky social networking thingy (unfortunately for us Down Under it looks, at first glance anyway, very US oriented) has got this reader quiz. I think I came out as The Realist but it was kind of hard to follow all those lines on the 'pooter so I think I might have to print it out. If you double click on the pic you can get it a bit bigger. Have fun and don't let your eyes go screwy!!

2011 National Biography Award shortlist announced

2011-04-13T16:00:00.004+10:00

Established in 1996 The National Biography Award, which is administered and presented by the State Library of New South Wales, is Australia's richest prize ($20,000) for biographical writing and memoir. The shortlisted titles are:

Alan ‘The Red Fox' Reid: Pressman Par Excellence by Ross Fitzgerald & Stephen Holt

Grand Obsessions: The Life and Work of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin by Alasdair McGregor

Macquarie: From Colony to Country by Harry Dilion & Peter Butler

My Father's Daughter: Memories of an Australian Childhood by Sheila Fitzpatrick

Piano Lessons by Anna Goldsworthy

Playing With Fire: The Controversial Career of Hans J Eysenck by Roderick Buchanan

The judges, Carmen Lawrence, Peter Rose and Peter Skrzynecki, said in a statement that this year's entries 'maintain the standards of this prestigious award' which 'has become synonymous with research, the highest skills of writing, a variety of styles and subject matter'.

The winner will be announced on 16th May from 11am in the Friends Room, State Library of NSW as part of the Sydney Writers' Festival. Admission is free but bookings are essential. Morning tea will be served and there will be book signings by the winning author.

International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Shortlist

2011-04-13T09:17:00.005+10:00

Another literary prize shortlist, this time for The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award which is worth €100,000 (approx. AUD$138,400).

The Mayor of Dublin, Gerry Breen, yesterday confirmed the titles on this year’s shortlist which have been nominated by public libraries in Australia, Barbados, Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, Greece, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Scotland, South Africa, Switzerland, and the USA.

The 2011 shortlist includes three Australians -David Malouf , Evie Wyld and Craig Silvey

Galore by Michael Crummey (Canada)

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (USA)

The Vagrants by Yiyn Li (China/USA)

Ransom by David Malouf (Australia)

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (Ireland)

Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates (USA)

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey (Australia)

Brooklyn by Colm Toibín (Ireland)

Love and Summer by William Trevor (Ireland)

After the Fire, a Still, Small Voice by Evie Wyld (Australia)

You can read our post on the longlist here.

Orange Prize 2011 Shortlist

2011-04-13T08:43:00.003+10:00

The shortlist for this year's Orange Prize for Fiction, awarded for the best novel of the year written by a woman in the English language, has been announced overnight and include :

Room by Emma Donoghue - Read the Telegraph's review here

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna - Read the Telegraph's review here

Grace Williams Says It Loud by Emma Henderson

Great House by Nicole Krauss - Read the Telegraph's review

The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht - Read the Telegraph's review

Annabel by Kathleen Winter

The winner will be announced on June 8th at a ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall on London's Southbank.

Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards

2011-04-12T13:25:00.006+10:00

The shortlists for this year's Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards were announced at a reception in Adelaide today.

Older Readers shortlist :

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

The Midnight Zoo by Sonya Hartnett

About a Girl by Joanne Horniman

The Life of a Teenage Body-Snatcher by Doug MacLeod

The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta

Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood

Younger Readers shortlist :

Just a Dog by Michael Gerard Bauer

Henry Hoey Hobson by Christine Bong

Violet Mackerel's Brillant Plot by Anna Branford & Sarah Davis

The Red Wind by Isobelle Carmody

Duck for a Day by Meg McKinlay & Leila Rudge

Toppling by Sally Murphy & Rhian Nest James

Early Childhood shortlist :

The Tall Man and the Twelve Babies by Tom Niland Champion, Kilmeny Niland & Deborah Niland

The Deep End by Ursula Dubosarsky & Mitch Vane

Noni the Pony by Alison Lester

It's Bedtime, William! by Deborah Niland

Look See, Look at Me! by Leonie Norrington & Dee Huxley

Maudie and Bear by Jan Ormerod & Freya Blackwood

Picture Books shortlist :

Mirror by Jeannie Baker

Why I Love Australia by Bronwyn Bancroft

Hamlet: Staged on the Page by Nicki Greenberg

Family Forest by Kim Kane & Lucia Masciullo

Two Peas in a Pod by Chris McKimmie

My Uncle's Donkey by Tohby Riddle

Eve Pownall Award for Information Books shortlist :

Theme Parks, Playgrounds and Toys by Nicolas Brasch

Drawn from the Heart: A Memoir by Ron Brooks

Zero Hour: The Anzacs on the Western Front by Leon Davidson

The Return of the Word Spy by Ursula Dubosarsky & Tohby Riddle

Wicked Warriors & Evil Emperors: The True Story of the Fight for Ancient China by Alison Lloyd & Terry Denton

Our World: Bardi Jaawi Life at Ardiyooloon by One Arm Point Remote Community School

The 2011 Crichton Award for new illustrators shortlist :

The Flying Orchestra - Clare McFadden

Starry Starry Night - Sarah Kate Mitchell

Can I Cuddle the Moon? - Lisa Stewart & Kerry Brown

The Monster Maintenance Manual - Adele K Thomas & Peter Mcinnes

The Glasshouse - Jo Thompson & Paul Collins

The Lighthouse Kids of Maatsuyker Island - Jonah Wiltshire, Evie Wiltshire & Sheryl Hamilton

The winners of the 2011 awards will be announced and presented on Friday 19 August, which marks the beginning of Children's Book Week (20 August - 26 August 2011).

Big Book Sale

2011-04-11T15:35:00.000+10:00

Blue Mountains City Library is holding its annual

Big Book Sale

Blaxland Community Centre

Friday 29 April 12noon—5pm

Saturday 30 April 9am—4pm

Come along & grab a bargain!

Kate Greenaway Medal shortlist

2011-04-07T15:16:00.002+10:00

One of our family favourites, Bob Graham, has made it on to the shortlist for the 2011 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal, which is presented each year for distinguished illustration in children's books. Graham has been shortlisted for his book April Underhill, Tooth Fairy. Other shortlisted books include:

FarTHER by Grahame Baker-Smith

Me and You by Anthony Browne

Jim : a cautionary tale - text by Hilaire Belloc, illustrated by Mini Grey

The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers

Big Bear, Little Brother - text by Carl Norac, illustrated by Kristin Oftedal

Ernest by Catherine Rayner

Cloud Tea Monkeys - text by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham, illustrated by Juan Wijngaard

You can read more about each shortlisted book here.

The Carnegie Medal shortlist has also been published. The Carnegie Medal is awarded annually to the writer of an outstanding book for children. The shortlist for 2011 includes :

Prisoner of the Inquisition by Theresa Breslin (Ages 12+)

The Death Defying Pepper Roux by Geraldine McCaughrean (Ages 10+)

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness (Ages 14+)

The Bride's Farewell by Meg Rosoff (Ages 12+)

White Crow by Marcus Sedgwick (Ages 12+)

Out of Shadows by Jason Wallace (Ages 14+)

Read more about the Carnegie Medal shortlisted books here.

The winners of the 2011 Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals will be announced on 23 June. The shortlists for the awards can be seen here.

Aussie Author Month

2011-04-07T14:51:00.003+10:00

The inaugural Aussie Author Month is up and running and will go until the end of April.

The campaign aims to support and promote Australian writing and will also raise funds for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation

Conversations about the campaign can be followed on Twitter with the hashtag #ausbooks and donations to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation as part of the campaign can be made here.

Environmental Peace Banner

2011-04-07T08:46:00.003+10:00

Blue Mountains Libraries will host the Environmental Peace Banner to allow people to write their messages of hope for the earth on the banner.

This banner came out of “The Care and Celebration of the Land” which was an Interfaith Gathering to Celebrate the Environment, held at the Brahma Kumari’s property 17 October 2010. Buddhist, Muslim, Brahma Kumari, Christian and Indigenenous representatives joined to create a Blue Mountains Interfaith network to take action for the environment and climate change, in solidarity for all who are concerned for our earth. The 2010 event included an indigenous ceremony, prayer, meditation, dance and music.

The banner is currently being displayed at Katoomba Library until Friday April 22, when it will move to Springwood Library for two weeks.

Sydney Writers' Festival Program

2011-04-04T15:21:00.002+10:00

The program for the Sydney Writers' Festival (16th-22nd May) has been released and can be viewed by clicking here. "The 2011 Sydney Writers' Festival proudly presents some of the world's finest poets, novelists and authors of literary nonfiction, including 2010 Man Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson; Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours and By Nightfall, Michael Cunningham; the acclaimed David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet) and Aminatta Forna (The Memory of Love), as well as internationally renowned Australians Peter Robb, Kim Scott, Markus Zusak, Sonya Hartnett and John Tranter." Click here for the highlights.

Carolyn's Books of the Month - April 2011

2011-04-04T12:53:00.003+10:00

Best read : The Bread with Seven Crusts by Susan Tembly

Thriller : Blood Vines by Erica Splindler

General Fiction : Sticks and Stones by Isla Evans

Saga/Romance : Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy and The Holly Tree by Nicola Thorne

Australian Author : I Came to Say Goodbye by Caroline Overington

Crime : Running Scared by Lisa Jackson

eResources from the State Library of NSW

2011-04-04T12:50:00.002+10:00

Below is a selection of the State Library of NSW eResources that you can access from home with a Reader's card. Find out how to get a Reader's Card on our Premium Sites page.

AustLit

Provides access to the Australian Literary Database which covers Australian creative writing and Australian writers. Subjects covered by the database include books, poems, short stories, articles and reviews and can be searched by author title, genre or award. The database contains records from 1880s to the current day, with comprehensive coverage from 1988.

Biography In Context

Biography in Context is a comprehensive biographical database containing nearly 600,000 brief biographies of more than 525,000 people gathered from over 780 volumes from 120 reference sources published by Gale. In addition it includes the full text of articles from over 280 periodicals.

Book Review Digest Plus

This bibliographic database indexes and abstracts current English language fiction and nonfiction books for children and adults published or distributed in the United States or Canada. Periodical coverage includes leading magazines from the United States, Canada and Great Britain although at least one review must be from a periodical published in the United States or Canada. Reviews of textbooks, government publications, and technical books in the law and sciences are excluded.

Cambridge Collections Online

Cambridge Collections Online offers subject or theme based collections of content within a functional, fully cross-searchable online environment. CCO contains two sub-collections comprising the Cambridge Companions in Literature and Classics and the Cambridge Companions in Philosophy, Religion and Culture. Each collection is updated with new Companions on publication.

The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry

The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry contains 250,000 poems in full text and 450,000 citations, numbers that will continually expand with each update. The poems in full text are the most widely-read in the English language, as well as in Spanish, French, German, and Italian. Included also is poetry in Portuguese, Polish, Yiddish, Welsh, Gaelic, and other Celtic languages, as well as poems in the ancient languages: Anglo-Saxon, Provencal and Latin

Facts on File World News Digest

A complete archive of the Facts on File World News Digest, updated weekly. It covers all major political, social, and economic events since November 1940. Includes an extensive full-text collection of biographies, historical documents, editorials, and background articles.

General Science Full Text

This bibliographic database provides the full text of over 60 journals published in Great Britain and the United States. In addition, popular science magazines as well as professional journals are indexed. Types of materials covered include feature articles, biographical sketches, reports of symposia and conferences, review articles and book reviews. Abstracting begins in 1993, full text coverage begins in 1994.

Humanities Full Text

This bibliographic database indexes articles from 400 English language periodicals covering a wide range of disciplines in the humanities. Periodicals covered include some of the best-known scholarly journals and numerous lesser known but important specialized magazines. Sources include interviews, obituaries, bibliographies, reviews, and original works of fiction, drama, and poetry. Full text coverage from selected journals begins in 1995.

INFORMIT Online

Provides online access to a wide range of Australian, Asia and Pacific research and information resources covering social sciences, education, law, criminology, film studies, health, medicine, accounting and economics, business, management, drug information, and sport. includes: AGIS Plus Text : AGIS comprehensively indexes and abstracts articles from over 120 Australian, New Zealand and Pacific law journals. Some articles are in fulltext.

JSTOR

JSTOR is a high quality, interdisciplinary digital archive of scholarly material in the social sciences and humanities and the sciences. It includes the full text of non-current issues from over 1,000 leading academic journals as well as select monographs and other materials. Academic journals form the majority of the content of the archive and are included from the earliest issue onwards except for the most recent 3–5 years of issues. All titles in JSTOR are fully searchable and interlinked by citations and references. The State Library subscribes to the Arts & Sciences Collections Parts I – VIII and the Nineteenth Century British Pamphlets collection.

Library PressDisplay

Library PressDisplay is a web-based portal which provides access to 60-day back issues of over 1,400 newspapers and magazines from more than 82 countries in 39 languages.

Macquarie Dictionary

Updated annually, this online Australian dictionary includes the Macquarie Thesaurus online.

Oxford Art Online

Oxford Art Online contains Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms with 21,000 biographies, 500,000 bibliographic citations, 40,000 image links and 5,000 images.

Oxford Music Online

Oxford Music Online contains Encyclopedia of Popular Music, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Grove Music Online and The Oxford Companion to Music with articles on composers, performers, conductors, individual works, instruments and notation, forms and genres, as well as biographical encyclopedia of rock, pop, and jazz artists etc from 1900 to the present.

ProQuest

A multidisciplinary collection of 37 separate databases. The subject coverage is from the humanities to the pure and applied sciences, and the geographic coverage is international.

Shakespeare Collection

Use The Shakespeare Collection to access and study an extensive collection of authoritative materials supporting literary, textual, historical, and performance studies. Resources include the complete works, as well as editions and adaptations of Shakespeare's works, other works published during Shakespeare's time, prompt books, the Gordon Crosse Theatrical Diaries, criticism, reviews, images, and reference.

Sydney Morning Herald Archives

The SMH archives contain 820,000 pages in almost 13,000 issues from January 1st, 1955 to December 31st, 1990. The contents of all issues of the Sydney Morning Herald and Sun Herald are fully text searchable including advertisements, captions and birth, death and marriage notices. Full-text results are returned in an exact digital reproduction of the printed pages as they were originally published

Who's Who in Australia

A browsable and searchable database of biographies of prominent Australians. It includes various categories like Nobel Prize Winners, Diplomats in Australia and more.

World Book

An online reference source that contains every article from the 22-volume print set of the World Book, etc. It also contains multimedia, maps, editor-reviewed Web sites.

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

2011-04-01T16:50:00.000+11:00

This review is by Library user, Joy, in one of our The Good, the Bad, the Ugly : Reviewed by You journals.
The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes

Review : Another unusual, informative book with in-depth characters.

Set in 1946 when Australian brides who had married British servicemen were taken by ship to the UK. A trip that changed many lives, including those of the crew.

You will meet simple and complex characters, all of them very different and interesting.

A great read.

Look out for The Good, The Bad, The Ugly : Reviewed by You in your library and add your own review

Blackheath Library "April - Bookworms"

2011-04-01T14:37:00.000+11:00

Read It 2011

2011-04-01T14:12:00.004+11:00

So here we go for the next big adventure. April in the great Read It 2011 Twitter book group challenge is #oznzreads - time to explore literature from Australian and New Zealand authors .

Try reading some Indigenous authors from Australia and New Zealand.

Delve into the histories of these countries, explore romance or politics, revisit stories surrounding our ANZAC heritage. It may be a time to re/discover the amazing writing for children and young people, or the natural history.

If you would like to share your favourite antipodean reading experiences, you can tweet while you read by adding the hashtag #oznzreads to your twitter posts about reading.

You can also use this tag on other websites like Flickr (search using 'oznzreads'), on your blog or on the Read It 2011 blog to share with us what you are reading.

There will be a twitter discussion at 8pm (AEST) on 26 April to discuss #oznzreads. See you online then.

International Children's Book Day on Saturday 2nd April 2011

2011-04-01T09:11:00.000+11:00

Since 1967, on or around Hans Christian Andersen's birthday, 2 April, International Children's Book Day (ICBD) is celebrated to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children's books.

International Children's Book Day is a project of International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). IBBY was founded in 1953 and is a non-profit organization which represents an international network of people from all over the world who are committed to bringing books and children together. IBBY's mission is to :

promote international understanding through children's books

give children everywhere the opportunity to have access to books with high literary and artistic standards

encourage the publication and distribution of quality children's books, especially in developing countries

provide support and training for those involved with children and children's literature to stimulate research and scholarly works in the field of children's literature

Activities include Children in Crisis Programme which provide support for children whose lives have been disrupted through war, civil disorder or natural disaster. Here books and storytelling are used therapeutically and book collections are created or replaced as appropriate. This programme has been active in Haiti, Chile, Afghanistan and Gaza in recent years.

Man Booker International Prize Finalist Profiles

2011-03-31T14:36:00.003+11:00

Further to yesterday's post on the finalists for the Man Booker International Prize, The Guardian has posted profiles on each author by the judges. click on each author's name to read the profile.

Wang Anyi (China)

Juan Goytisolo (Spain)

James Kelman (UK)

John le Carré (UK)

Amin Maalouf (Lebanon)

David Malouf (Australia)

Dacia Maraini (Italy)

Rohinton Mistry (India/Canada)

Philip Pullman (UK)

Marilynne Robinson (USA)

Philip Roth (USA)

Su Tong (China)

Anne Tyler (USA)

Happy Birthday Book Express

2011-03-30T16:25:00.005+11:00

Our train station library service, Book Express is

8 years old

on Thursday.

Book Express offers books, CDs and DVDs for loan to Blue Mountains commuters at

Springwood Station on

Monday and Thursday mornings

from 6:30am to 8am

and at

Katoomba Station on

Tuesdays from 6am to 7:30am.

So if you use Book Express at Springwood Station tomorrow morning, say Happy Birthday to Rita who manages Book Express and is up at the crack of nothing, in all weathers to keep you happy and occupied as you travel to and from work.

Man Booker International Prize

2011-03-30T12:31:00.004+11:00

The finalists for the Man Booker International Prize was announced in Sydney this morning by chair of the judges Rick Gekoski. The prize, awarded every two years, is worth £60,000 (AUD $93,247.40) to the winner and recognises the winner for his or her achievement in fiction. Eligible authors have published fiction either originally in English or their work is generally available in translation in the English language. The authors come from eight countries, five are published in translation and there are four women on the list.

The thirteen authors on the list are:

Wang Anyi (China)

Juan Goytisolo (Spain)

James Kelman (UK)

John le Carré (UK)

Amin Maalouf (Lebanon)

David Malouf (Australia)

Dacia Maraini (Italy)

Rohinton Mistry (India/Canada)

Philip Pullman (UK)

Marilynne Robinson (USA)

Philip Roth (USA)

Su Tong (China)

Anne Tyler (USA)

In announcing the finalists, Rick Gekoski said : ‘The 2011 List of Finalists honours thirteen great writers from around the world. It is, we think, diverse, fresh and thought-provoking, and serves to remind us anew of the importance of fiction in defining both ourselves and the world in which we live. Each of these writers is a delight, and any of them would make a worthy winner.'

However, shortly after the finalists were announced John le Carre's literary agents, Curtis Brown, issued the following statement on his behalf : "I am enormously flattered to be named as a finalist of 2011 Man Booker International Prize. However I do not compete for literary prizes and have therefore asked for my name to be withdrawn."

Rick Gekoski's response was : "John le Carré's name will, of course, remain on the list. We are disappointed that he wants to withdraw from further consideration because we are great admirers of his work."

The Man Booker International Prize winner will be announced at the Sydney Writers' Festival on 18 May 2011 and then celebrated at an awards ceremony in London on 28 June 2011.

Past winners of the Man Booker International Prize are Alice Munro (2009), Chinua Achebe (2007) and Ismail Kadare (2005).

Shaun Tan's Success Continues

2011-03-30T11:36:00.006+11:00

Congratulations from us to Aussie author-illustrator Shaun Tan who has won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award this year - which is proving to be a very successful one; Shaun Tan also he won the Oscar for best animated short film for The Lost Thing, based on his book of the same name. It is a 15-minute fable about a Melbourne boy who encounters an exotic creature above a laundromat and is narrated by Tim Minchin.

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is named for the Swedish author who gave us one of my favourite childhood characters, Pippi Longstocking.

After her death in 2002 the award was established by the Swedish government to promote interest in children's and young adult literature. The award is presented to authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and those active in reading promotion work and may be presented to a single recipient or to several, regardless of language or nationality. It is the world's richest children's literature prize with 5 million Krona (AUD$765,500).

The jury’s citation reads: "Shaun Tan is a masterly visual storyteller, pointing the way ahead to new possibilities for picture books. His pictorial worlds constitute a separate universe where nothing is self-evident and anything is possible. Memories of childhood and adolescence are fixed reference points, but the pictorial narrative is universal and touches everyone, regardless of age. Behind a wealth of minutely detailed pictures, where civilization is criticized and history depicted through symbolism, there is a palpable warmth. People are always present, and Shaun Tan portrays both our searching and our alienation. He combines brilliant, magical narrative skill with deep humanism."

Tan has written and/or illustrated more than 20 books including The Rabbits (written by John Marsden), The Arrival and Tales from Outer Suburbia, which was hailed in the Guardian as possibly "the most beautiful book you'll see all year".

Take a look here at some examples of his work in The Guardian.

I'll share with you an amusing tale : One of the members of my book group, who I shall not name and shame, is a diligent attender but has never yet read any of the books in the group's history (we started in June 2007). In 2009 her book choice was The Arrival by Shaun Tan. It's a beautiful and poignant tale of the migrant experience, all told without words. She-who-shall-remain-nameless didn't even read that book!

As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong

2011-03-29T16:20:00.001+11:00

As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong PUBLICATION DATE: 2009

No PAGES: 260

TIME PERIOD: 1905 - 1922

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: New Zealand, chiefly Wellington and Dunedin.

CATEGORY: Adult fiction. Historical fiction. New Zealand.

PLOT SUMMARY: The Wong brothers, Shun and Yung, own and run a fruit and vegetable shop in the Chinatown area of Wellington, in 1905. Shun, the elder, left Kwangtung to make a livelihood in New Zealand, his brother following after some time. The Chinese are just tolerated by the white locals, and subjected to frequent abuse. Katherine McKechnie lives not far away, with husband Donald and her son and daughter. Donald is cruel, sadistic, racist, using his power as wage-earner and head of the house to oppress the family, particularly his wife. His son idolises him, and absorbs his views and attitudes. One night Donald drowns, too drunk to save himself. Katherine is secretly elated, but finding enough money to feed and clothe the family is hard. This is when she begins to get to know Yung at the fruit shop. Yung has very little English, Katherine no Chinese. They communicate though – against a background of extreme prejudice.

REVIEW: It’s always a pleasure to read a novel by someone who uses confident and beautiful language. Wong is herself from a Chinese/New Zealand background but this is not her family’s story, it’s fiction – though she borrows the odd incident from life. I was fascinated to learn more about this Chinese diaspora, and horrified by the damage hatred is capable of inflicting. This is a strong and beautiful novel, absolutely recommended to book groups, for whom, at www.picador.com.au there are some focus questions.

REVIEWED BY: Alison.

Read It 2011 Online Discussion

2011-03-29T15:04:00.004+11:00

Tonight there will be real time twitter discussion for #readit2011.

At 8pm (AEST) come online to talk about this month's #specfic. What titles did you enjoy reading?

To participate you will need a twitter account. Don't forget to use #specfic 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 #specfic.

For more information about #readit2011 go to http://readit2011.wordpress.com/

2010 Aurealis Awards finalists

2011-03-28T16:44:00.000+11:00

The Aurealis Awards recognise excellence by Australian writers and editors for Speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy, horror and all points in between.

Eligible works for the 2010 award have to be written by an Australian citizen or permanent resident, and have been published for the first time between 1 November 2009 and 31 December 2010.

There are a number of categories and here are the finalisists in each :

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through words)

Grimsdon by Deborah Abela

Halt’s Peril(The Ranger's Apprentice series, book 9) by John Flanagan

The Vulture of Sommerset by Stephen M Giles

The Keepers by Lian Tanner

Haggis MacGregor and the Night of the Skull by Jen Storer & Gug Gordon

CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through pictures)

Night School written by Isobelle Carmody & illustrated by Anne Spudvilas

Magpie written by Luke Davies & illustrated by Inari Kiuru

The Boy and the Toy written by Sonya Hartnett & illustrated by Lucia Masciullo

Precious Little written by Julie Hunt & Sue Moss & illustrated by Gaye Chapman

The Cloudchasers written by David Richardson & illustrated by Steven Hunt

YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY

Inksucker by Aidan Doyle

One Story, No Refunds by Dirk Flinthart

A Thousand Flowers by Margo Lanagan

Nine Times by Kaia Landelius & Tansy Rayner Roberts

An Ordinary Boy by Jen White

YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

Merrow by Ananda Braxton-Smith

Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey

The Midnight Zoo by Sonya Hartnett

The Life of a Teenage Body-Snatcher by Doug MacLeod

Behemoth (Leviathan Trilogy, book 2) by Scott Westerfeld

BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK/ GRAPHIC NOVEL

Shakespeare’s Hamlet by Nicki Greenberg

EEEK!: Weird Australian Tales of Suspense by Jason Paulos et al

Changing Ways Book 1 by Justin Randall

Five Wounds: An Illustrated Novel by Jonathan Walker & Dan Hallett,

Horrors: Great Stories of Fear and Their Creators by Rocky Wood & Glenn Chadbourne

BEST COLLECTION

The Library of Forgotten Books by Rjurik Davidson

Under Stones by Bob Franklin

Sourdough and Other Stories by Angela Slatter

The Girl With No Hands by Angela Slatter

Dead Sea Fruit by Karon Warren

BEST ANTHOLOGY

Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears edited by Angela Challis & Dr Marty Young

Sprawl edited by Alisa Krasnostein

Scenes from the Second Storey edited by Amanda Pillar & Pete Kempshall

Godlike Machines edited by Jonathan Strahan

Club Wings of Fire edited by Jonathan Strahan & Marianne S. Jablon

HORROR SHORT STORY

Take the Free Tour byBob Franklin, Under Stones

Her Gallant Needs by Paul Haines, Sprawl

The Fear by Richard Harland, Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears

Wasting Matilda by Robert Hood, Zombie Apocalypse!

Lollo by Martin Livings, Close Encounters of the Urban Kind

HORROR NOVEL

After the World: Gravesend by Jason Fischer

Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson

Madigan Mine by Kirstyn McDermott

FANTASY SHORT STORY

The Duke of Vertumn’s Fingerling by Elizabeth Carroll

Yowie by Thoraiya Dyer, Sprawl

The February Dragon by LL Hannett & Angela Slatter, Scary Kisses

All the Clowns in Clowntown by Andrew McKiernan, Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears

Sister, Sister by Angela Slatter, Strange Tales III

FANTASY NOVEL

The Silence of Medair by Andrea K Höst

Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson

Stormlord Rising by Glenda Larke

Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier

Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts

SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY

The Heart of a Mouse by K.J. Bishop, Subterranean Online (Winter 2010)

The Angaelian Apocalypse by Matthew Chrulew, The Company Articles Of Edward Teach/The Angaelian Apocalypse

Border Crossing by Penelope Love, Belong

Interloper by Ian McHugh, Asimovs (Jan 2011)

Relentless Adaptations by Tansy Rayner Roberts, Sprawl

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

Song of Scarabaeous by Sara Creasy

Mirror Space by Marianne de Pierres

Transformation Space by Marianne de Pierres

The winners will be announced at a gala ceremony in Sydney on May 21.

What Library staff are reading . . .

2011-03-28T15:19:00.002+11:00

Minding Frankie ~ I enjoyed Maeve Binchy’s latest novel which is set in Dublin. This is a story about relationships and everyone has baby Frankie ‘s wellbeing in their minds. This novel grabs you the more you get into it

I’m really enjoying Three cups of tea: one man’s mission to promote peace-one school at a time by Greg Mortensen and David Oliver Relin ~ After Mortensen, a mountaineer, failed to climb K2, he arrived in a Pakistan village and was so moved by the warm heartedness of the villagers that he promised to return and build a school. I haven’t finished this biography yet but so far Mortensen hasn’t much money himself

I had to read In My Skin by Kate Holden for book group ~ Kate turned to prostitution to feed her heroin addiction - the first 1/3rd was pretty gripping but there are only so many ‘client interaction’ descriptions this gal can take . . .

I thought 1000 Years of Annoying the French by Stephen Clarke was going to be really annoying – and it is, but I also learned a fair bit too – it’s a bit Horrible Histories for adults

I thought The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives was going to be great – it wasn’t, it is a really dense academic tome and no fun at all

Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin is fabulous ~ a short time after the anti-segregation laws in the US Griffin, a white journalist, uses medication to turn his skin black and heads off to the deep south to see what life is really like as a black man

I am currently slogging my way through Blindness by Jose Saramago ~ I think I’m enjoying it but I am completely distracted by the dense text – very few paragraph breaks, little punctuation and conversations that are presented all on the same line with only a comma and a capital letter to indicate a new speaker

Michael Tolliver Lives by Armistead Maupin ~ who remembers the wonderful Tales of the City series? This picks up a few years later ... and it is great to read what all my “friends” have been up to – I really missed them - http://www.armisteadmaupin.com/

Soldiers Without Borders: Beyond the SAS by Ian McPhedran ~ an interesting read of what my life could have been like as an SAS wife. Thankfully my hubbie was not so keen to move to WA and pursue this life

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas ~ I was loathe to read this. I kept putting it off thinking it would be a book I would hate. I wish I had read it sooner now. The characters are real, gritty and Australian. I had real emotions about each of them – and not always good ones! The Slap reminded me at the beginning of a David Williamson play. A real snapshot of modern Australia. I also enjoyed the actor Alex Dimitriades reading the audio book which was how I “read” it. I must say though, I found each of the characters quite hard-going and actually would have enjoyed the book more if it was a short story that ended with the verdict after the court case

Odd One Out by Monica McInerney ~ hooking into the 2011 Librarians Reading Challenge – the theme for February month was Romance

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling ~ continuing on my Talking Book journey of Harry Potter with Stephen Fry

Crazy Age : thoughts on being old by Jane Miller ~ Enjoyable read for those of us of a certain age whose end game seems to be hurtling ever closer. With an acceptance of the world in which the 78 year old Miller finds herself she manages to convey that there is more to ageing than frailty and loneliness. Miller is a retired English professor; her husband founded the London Review of Books, so there is a real literary feel with references throughout to characters in books and the fact that literature reflects life. If that’s not your thing (and some of it was a bit too much for me) you won’t enjoy the book. No solutions - well there couldn’t be could there - just reflections on what it’s like, how it feels and a sense that it might be interesting

A very private murder by Stuart Pawson ~ Decided to give myself a real change of scenery and read a detective and mystery novel. Am I enjoying it? Yes, but I keep feeling that I am in the middle of a DVD or that I missed the end of a TV show – then I have to remind myself that I’ve a book to finish

David Sedaris Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk ~ Great fun, see my review in RITM

Peter Behrens The Law of Dreams ~ It’s 1846, and the potato blight is causing widespread starvation in Ireland. Young Fergus, starving with the rest, escapes to make a new life, with variable success. Behrens’ writing is glorious: intense, terse, accessible

Gregory Day The Patron Saint of Eels ~ I love writers who show me my own country, (in this case the area south of Geelong, near the Otway Ranges) in quirky, imaginative fiction

Randy Frost and Gail Steketee Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things ~ Do you know any serious hoarders? This book will help you understand them

And for light relief: Monica McInerny Greetings from Somewhere Else ~ A young Australian woman is transplanted to Ireland for a year

Kerry Greenwood The Castlemaine Murders ~ another of Greenwood’s very readable whodunits set in country Victoria in the twenties

The cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway ~ It was a fictional tale of the lives of several people in the city of Sarajevo during the siege/war/civil conflict. Lovely

I am just about to finish Trudi Canavan The Ambassador mission (first in a fantasy fiction trilogy)

I have slogged my way through Jose Saramago Blindness, the jury is out on it.

I’m also half way through Michelle Moran Nefertiti and I’m enjoying it, if the ff hadn’t come along it would be finished by now.

I’m about to start Raymond Feist Rides a dread legion

I did start David Astle Puzzled but I kept picking it up and putting it down and then had to return it because it was reserved. I must read it because it should help me with his cryptic crossword which is the only one I can’t do in the SMH through the week

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson - Despite my frustration over the never-ending paragraphs on the characters’ grocery lists, I am persisting! My mum has just finished this one (darn! She beat me) and she said she feels a little forlorn without it, so my slower pace is maybe a good thing

I also started Lucky. Alice Sebold’s slightly depressing autobiography. After the initial shock over the frank way in which she relates the rape, I’m hoping things will look up (maybe a more inspiring ending?)

Family Workshop @ Springwood

2011-03-28T14:56:00.001+11:00

Diagram Prize winner

2011-03-28T10:59:00.003+11:00

The winner of the 2011 Diagram Prize for the Oddest Titles has been won by a book that advises dentists to manage their practices according to the leadership techniques of legendary Mongolian warlord Ghengis Khan. Managing a Dental Practice the Genghis Khan Way by Michael R Young absolutely blitzed the opposition in the online vote at thebookseller.com.

Horace Bent, The Bookseller's diarist and custodian of the Diagram Prize said: "In the end, it wasn't even close. Much like the tyrant himself, Managing a Dental Practice the Genghis Khan Way ruthlessly slaughtered the opposition, and scored twice as many votes as the runner-up."

The share of votes among the shortlist was as follows:

Managing a Dental Practice the Genghis Khan Way - 58%

8th International Friction Stir Welding Symposium Proceedings - Papers on the development and application of friction stir welding presented at the symposium held in Lübeck, Germany, in May 2010 - 24%

What Color Is Your Dog? - Hollywood dog trainer's dog training method - 8%

The Italian's One-night Love-child - House-sitter gets pregnant with a billionaire's baby after one night of passion - 4%

Myth of the Social Volcano - Perceptions of inequality and distributive injustice in contemporary China - 3%

The Generosity of the Dead - An examination of the ongoing debate surrounding organ procurement - 3%

Goodreading magazine online

2011-03-28T10:21:00.003+11:00

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

This month there's an interview with Jean Auel about her wildly popular Earth's Children series, gift ideas for Mother's Day, another with Joanne W Jones, Peter Corris and Fiona McCallum. This month's literatary destination is Cornwall (mmmm clotted cream)

And then there are the regular features, Your Say, Books of the Month, Book Trivia as well as reviews and competitions.

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

Look at the National Library of Australia

2011-03-28T10:19:00.000+11:00

As part of Enlighten Canberra held this month in the capital, the NLA got a makeover. . . How cool is that?!

Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/41034938@N03/5524856499/ See more here: Canberra buildings in a whole new light - ABC Canberra - Australian Broadcasting Corporation. PeeCee

New to the Library's delicious account

2011-03-28T10:09:00.004+11:00

National Library of Australia e-Books The National Library of Australia's electronic books (eBooks) are available as free downloads

A History of Aboriginal Sydney This site is intended for use in schools, especially in Sydney, by Aboriginal families and organisations, by the non-Indigenous people of Sydney who wish to know and share more of the lives and achievements of Australia's first peoples.

Data Australia Australian government public information datasets

Open Library Free access to more than 1,000,000 ebooks

Calendar of Cultural and Religious Dates This calendar lists key cultural and religious events, festivals and national days. From the Australian Governemnt Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) Portal A virtual music library providing free access to scores and recordings. Over 5,000 composers and 87,000 scores.

MyNite Information about safe partying for young people. ‘mynite’ provides a basic summary of some of the most relevant laws that apply to young people and their friends when they are out having fun. NSW Police force website. Inside A Dog The Dog is a place for teens to find great reads and share your thoughts via reviews, blogs and book clubs. Read about an author’s process with a new guest Writer in Residence each month, create your own reader profile or discuss the latest news in youth literature

Take a minute to check these bookmarks out, when you get the chance!

PeeCee

More Painting & decorating eggs with Naomi

2011-03-25T14:54:00.001+11:00

Painting & decorating eggs with Naomi

2011-03-24T14:51:00.001+11:00