Bookends

2011 the year of the great Australian Book?

2012-01-26T10:46:00.004+11:00

By Claire at Kew Library.
Did you, last year, like me, often look up from your reading to think: what a great book - and it's Australian? Like me did you cry at Rory's funeral in Kylie Ladd's Last Summer ? (This book has been likened to Christos Tsiolkas' The Slap - only with people you actually like) Who were you cheering for in Derek Hansen's a Man You can Bank On? Were you carried away by Caroline Overington's I came to say goodbye? Did you hope against hope that Harry in Favel Pavretti's Past the Shallows would survive his brutish father? From the hilarious Aunts up the Cross by Robyn Dalton to the stirring Worse things happen at sea: tales of life, love, family and the everyday beauty in between by William McInnes and Sarah Watts, published just before Watts' death from cancer, it has been a moving, touching, funny and adventurous year.

Or did you miss this bumper year in Australian books? Never mind, because the great thing about books is that they can still be borrowed this year. They live on the library shelves, calling out "borrow me! Read me!" So this Australia Day - well not on the actual day, as we will be closed for the celebration- get out of the heat and head into your local library branch to make the most of Australian writing .

I started the year with Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey, Australia's answer to To kill a Mockingbird. It recalled small town adolescence, and I particularly loved the conversations between Charlie and Jeffrey. Having lived in a small country town myself I knew the joys and the prejudices that lurk in the shadows of people's good intentions. These things could have easily happened where I grew up; although I'm sure most locals would deny it. A bit more fanciful was Ed in Marcus Zusak's The messenger, the local ne'er-do-well righting the wrongs of his small town. As he slobbed around his share house with his equally unmotivated mates I was reminded of the young blokes I knew in my 20s. And the coming of age novel of Me and Mr Booker by Cory Taylor certainly didn't reflect my youth, but it reminded me of the teenage angst. The past really is another country.

And speaking of other countries, one of the great attributes of Australians is that they like to travel. I delighted in the adventures of Jane Paech and her family in A family in Paris: stories of food, life and adventure, more than I can every describe in words. If the story wasn't enough, the photos had me wanting to buy a ticket to Paris on the next plane (although I won't be enrolling my child in a French school anytime soon). Wanting to one day walking the pilgrimage Santiago de Compostela, I read both The year we seized the day: a true story of friendship, fury and sore feet (Elizabeth Best and Colin Bowles) although I confess Elizabeth annoyed me with her cavalier attitude toward her stress fractures and her on-going inner turmoils (relax woman, it's not all about you) - perhaps I am getting a bit old? Much more soothing was A food lover's pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela by Dee Nolan. The photos were as sumptuous as the food. When on a driving holiday to NSW we popped the audio book From Here to There written and read by Jack and John Faine into the CD player. Whilst we weren't driving as far as them it was perfect company on our not quite so long drive, and was also suitable listening for our six year old. And finally for the most eccentric mode of travel, Going postal: the ups and downs of travelling the world on a postie bike by Nathan Millward was a delightful read. Sometimes you can't worry about whether you have all the right equipment and if the time is right. Sometimes you just have to have faith and just go.

But not all the travel was one way - The happiest refugee by Anh Do recounted the journey coming the other way. Other personal stories included Cooking with Baz : how I got to know my father by the birdman himself, Sean Dooley, where he describes looking after his father as he is dying of cancer; Lessons in letting go : confessions of a hoarder by Corinne Grant, and Unbearable lightness : a story of loss and gain by Portia De Rossi. I laughed at The 700 habits of highly ineffective parents by Jonathan Biggins, commiserated with Fifteen percent pregnant : a man, a woman and IVF by Tony Hardy, was inspired to get out and dig with the Kitchen gardens of Australia : eighteen productive gardens for inspiration and practical advice by Kate Herd. Susanna de Vries excelled again with The complete book of heroic Australian women: twenty-one extraordinary women whose stories changed history; she really is the grand dame of Australian women's history.

Australian writing at the moment is as varied, complex, multifaceted as those who make up the population in our wide brown land. There is much joy in the lack of stereotypical-ness, much delight in its originality. From the bush in Our houseless home : a colourful bush childhood during the great depression by Lyle Courtney to the small holding in Tasmania in Four seasons with a grumpy goat by Carol Altmann, to the suburbs in the The Bogan Delusion by David Nichols, every corner of our nation is covered.

Finally, honourable mentions for great fiction reads are: Bereft by Chris Wormsley; Book of lost threads by Tess Evans; Ghost Child by Caroline Overington; At home with the Templetons by Monica Mcinerney (why did I ever think she was Irish?); Six impossible things by Fiona Wood and Fall girl byToni Jordan (although I liked Addition better - really loved it actually - this was still a good read). There should be more dancing by Rosalie Ham was a humorous look at old age, but Last Chance Cafe by Liz Byrski was a celebration of it.

Phew I'm exhausted! What a huge collection of books - and I didn't include all the cookbooks. I think I'd better have a good lie down and a bit of a read but I can't choose between Jane Caro's Just a girl. Or Housewife superstar: the very best of Marjorie Bligh. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Happy Australia Day!

Work

2012-01-20T15:08:00.013+11:00

Love it or hate it we spend a lot of time at work. Here are a few titles to get you started.

National Year of Reading Launch

2012-01-19T10:18:00.003+11:00

We would like to invite you to help us launch into the National Year of Reading. Come and hear funny man Dave O'Neil & author P.D. Martin talk about their love of reading and City of Boroondara Mayor Councillor Heinz Kreutz will also officially launch us into an exciting year of reading, discovery and excitement.

Book here.

Dave’s friendly and easy going manner has made him oneof Australia's most popular and versatile comics. He is well known in Melbourne for his radio work on Nova 100with Kate Langbroek and Dave Hughes, and on Vega 91.5 with Sean Micallef, DeniseScott, Chrissy Swan and Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson,and nationally on The Panel, Good NewWeek, Comedy Festival Galas, The Fat andSpicks and Specks.

He has written books, including “Everything Tastes BetterCrumbed.. and other BIG Statements”, and has also written and acted infilms, numerous sketch comedy, and even starred in a film alongside Eric Bana! He's performed at twelve Melbourne International Comedy Festivalsand in various comedy clubs in Sydney and Brisbane and for companies aroundAustralia...please welcome Dave O’Neil.

Tuesday 14 February 7.00pm

Phyllis Hore RoomKew LibraryCnr Cotham Road &

Civic DriveKew 3101

Admission is free, however bookings are essential.

Phone 9278 4666 or register online.

Book review - Sacred Hearts, by Sarah Dunant

2012-01-18T08:47:00.000+11:00

How do you choose what to read next? Some titles jump off the shelf,don't they? Others are recommended. Then there are those worthy books you feelyou really must read. But, after that, how do you actually choose from all thethousands of titles out there?

When you are a librarian the pressure is worse. We adviseothers on their choice of reading material. To this end, we read reviews,listen to author interviews, and attend festivals, keeping our ears to the polishedlinoleum of the publishing world.

Here at City of Boroondara, we have another secretweapon and here today, I am going to reveal it to you.

It's called shelving time.

If you are a regular user of this library service, youwill have noticed that our staff shelve for forty five minutes twice a day. Ifyou have been around for a quite a while, you may have seen one of us, a bookopen, eyes focussed, our black shelving trolley all but forgotten. This is thepower of shelving time. If you stick around long enough, you will notice someof those books don't get shelved. They stay on our trolleys. At the end of theday, they are carried out of the door in bulging library bags.

This is how I found SacredHearts, by Sarah Dunant. I had read reviews and interviews about Dunant's work.I knew she was an international best-selling author of historical fiction, myfavourite genre, that her work was experimental in its treatment of time andspace - and edgy in its use of multiple plots and viewpoints. But for somereason, I had never got round to reading any of it.

Until recently.

I am not sure what drew my eye this time. The Nun onthe cover, perhaps? I'll be confess, I have a weakness for convent books. To mymind, they fall into the same category as the boarding school books, I read asa child. I always wanted to go to boarding school - I blame Enid Blyton forthat entirely. And though I have never had any desire to be a nun, there is alsosomething about the cloistered world that holds a fascination for me.

I opened the cover and read the historical note:

'By the second half of the sixteenth century, theprice of wedding dowries had risen so sharply within Catholic Europe that mostnoble families could not afford to marry off more than one daughter. Theremaining young women were dispatched - for a much lesser price - intoconvents. Historians estimate that in the great towns and city states of Italy,up to half of all noble women became nuns.

'Not all of them went willingly ...

Okay, she had me. A convent, a young woman ripped froman illicit love affair, a scholarly nun who runs a dispensary (shades ofBrother Cadfael). I decided to give it a try. Here is how it starts: those few paragraphs, you can see some of the majorthemes emerging - motherhood, sexuality, genius, suffering and the politicalmanoeuvrings of the counter-reformation church. Once I started Sacred Hearts, it was difficult to itdown. The characters were likeable, the situation credible, and the outcome althoughmaybe not completely realistic, was very satisfying. I will be keeping an eyeout for Sarah Dunant's other books during shelving time.
Written by Liz Corbett.

Judging a book by its colour

2012-01-13T10:22:00.000+11:00

We all judge books by their covers whether we like it or not. But how much do we judge the cover by its colour? Colour is deeply linked to emotions and the cover of a book can be vital to our decision to pick it up and give it a try.

Go and have a look at some of your favourite books. Do many of them have the same colours?

Look at these shelves - which book would you choose? Would you go for black hoping it might be science fiction or a dark and deadly crime novel? Would you choose pastels; wanting a light romance or chicklit? What about browns and sepias? Does that make you think of yesteryear? What if there aren't any colours? Just a black and white drawing? What does that say about the book inside?

Google Books even allow you to narrow a book search based on their colour! Search for the author, click on images on the left hand side, then one of the options to narrow your search is colour! Fabulous! I never knew there were so many purple Roal Dahl books!

Day 12 of Blogging the twelve days of Christmas #blog12daysxmas

2012-01-05T20:27:00.000+11:00

More ways to get into books!
We now have downloadable talking books that you can borrow and listen to one your devices. Listen to the latest bestseller or a great classic while you walk the dog, drive to work or doing the housework!

Just click the Bolinda icon on the right of your library's homepage. You can browse the collection and check out the product details for more information about the book. Click on the Borrow icon and enter you library card number and PIN (your date of birth - DDMMYY). On your first visit you will have to enter some details but then you will be right to starting borrowing, downloading and listening!

Handy hint: you can just enter 'eaudio' into your library catalogue and you will find the entire downloadable talking books.

Day 11 of blogging the twelve days of Christmas #blog12daysxmas

2012-01-04T14:13:00.001+11:00

Watching the detectives.

A guide to crime & mystery on DVD.

Use your catalogue to search for some criminal viewing.

Ironside Series 1-7

Midsomer Murders. Series 1-12

A touch of Frost series 1- 15 coming soon

Case histories coming soon

The No. 1 ladies detective agency Series 1

Ruth rendell mysteries

The P.D James collection

Rosemary & Thyme Series 1 - 3

Wire in the blood Series 1 - 6

Poirot - lots to choose from.

Rebus

Miss Marple

The eagle : a crime odyssey Volume 1 - 4

Day 10 of Blogging the twelve days of Christmas #blog12daysxmas

2012-01-03T10:52:00.000+11:00

If you need some help with your New Year's Resolutions check out these titles:

A new career in mind?

What colour is your parachute? 2012 - Richard N Bolles.

Getting unstuck : a guide to discovering your next career path - Timothy Butler

Get moving

Fitness illustrated - Brian Sharkey

20 years younger : look younger, feel younger, be younger - Bob Greene

The biggest loser families : change your life together, over 70 delicious recipes plus weight loss advice

Stress relief and relaxation

10 mindful minutes : giving our children and ourselves the social and emotional skills to reduce stress and anxiety for healthier, happier lives Goldie Hawn with Wendy Holden.

The best meditations on the planet : 100 techniques to beat stress, improve health and create happiness in just minutes per day - Martin Hart and Skye Alexander

Giving up

Fit, healthy and intoxicated : a self help book for alcohol lovers - Cindy Cannon.

Allen Carr's easy way to stop smoking: be a happy non-smoker for the rest of your life.

Day 9 of Blogging the twelve days of Christmas #blog12daysxmas

2012-01-02T13:46:00.002+11:00

It's a New Year - a great time to get into some New Fiction!

Have a look a these books just out and reserve them today on your library catalogue.

A common loss - Kirsten Tranter. Four friends come together to mourn their lost leader. A captivating tale of friendship, loss, loyalty and grief told in Tranter's impeccable literary style.

Foal's bread - Gillian Mears. It's been some years since Gillian published a novel but it has been worth the wait. The Nancarrow family exist at the mercy of the harsh New South Wales bush. They are a horse jumping family tossed about by scandal, war and superstition.

Poor man's wealth - Rod Usher. El Gordo is the mayor of Higot, a dusty village in an unnamedSpanish-speaking country under military rule. He and the secretMarisol Committee dream up a plan tosave the village from economic death and the exodus of its youngpeople. They start a hoax.

The nightmare thief - Meg Gardiner. If you don't know what a psychological autopsy is you should read this book. A crime thriller with a spin. Autumn Reiniger's birthday 'crime spree weekend' turns bad and forensic psychologist Jo Beckett has to sort out fact from fiction; killer from actor!

The devil's queen - Jeanne Kalogridis Confidante of Nostradamus, scheming mother-in-law to Mary, Queen of Scots, and architect of the bloody St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, Catherine de Medici is one of the most maligned monarchs in history. In her latest historical fiction, Jeanne Kalogridis tells Catherine’s story—that of a tender young girl, destined to be a pawn in Machiavellian games.

Day 8 of blogging the twelve days of Christmas #blog12daysxmas

2012-01-01T11:44:00.000+11:00

Happy New Year and welcome to 2012! Welcome to the National Year of Reading. This year lots of different organisations are doing extra special things to encourage and celebrate reading. You can be a part of the action just by deciding to read more, read everyday, read something new.

Here at Boroondara, we love to read and we want to help you get the most out of your reading experience. We want you to get more out of life and we think reading is vital to happiness. Visit your library and speak with one of reading professionals (sometimes called librarians) to find out how you can expand your reading horizons. Be it literature, crime fiction, romances or science fiction; be it reading for fun or reading for knowledge - we can help you find that next great book!

Join us on 14 February 7 pm at Kew Library with special guests to help us launch the year. Read our blog to get great ideas for new books, interesting authors and reading events.

Love2read is a great website where you can find out about things that are happening this year.

Participate in a huge book club by joining The Reading Room and put your vote in through the ABC website for Our Story. Have a look at these websites to see what's happening near you.

Follow Love2Read on twitter or facebook to get all the goss.

Add you email address to our mailing list to get details on events that we will be running in 2012.

Most of all, just make 2012 your year of reading!

Day 7 of Blogging the twelve days of Christmas #blog12daysxmas

2011-12-31T10:36:00.001+11:00

Clearing the (Christmas) clutter.

Here are a few titles to help you get your home back into shape after Christmas...

Ewer, Cynthia Townley. Cut the clutter: get thrifty, speed your cleaning, be eco-smart

Koll, Randall. The organized home: design solutions for clutter-free living.

Ramsland, Marcia. Simplify your space: create order & reduce stress!

Oliver, Lissanne. Sorted: the ultimate guide to organising your life - once and for all. "Professional organiser Lissanne Oliver shares her knowledge and hands-on experience from years of organising people's lives for a living. In 42 clear and easy-to-follow recipes, Lissanne will teach you the steps and systems that will help sort your personal, work and living spaces - once and for all."

Walmsley, Bernice. Teach yourself decluttering.

Rosace, Nina. Home sorted!: a simple and effective guide to organising your home. Maintaining your home is one of the most important jobs to do. But sometimes, a little bit of cleaning can turn into a lot if you don’t do it often. Home Sorted is here to help you organise your household. There are easy reference tabs divided into different rooms of the house. Within these sections are plenty of quick tips and cleaning advice to fast track you to a clean and happy home!

Click here to access the catalogue.

Day 6 of Blogging the twelve days of Christmas #blog12daysxmas

2011-12-30T10:09:00.004+11:00

Our Story Summer Reading Program

As part of the National Year of Reading, eight books will be chosen by Australia that describe our country. There is a shortlist of books for each state and territory and you can vote for the book that you think best represents your state.
You can vote in any of the Boroondara Library Branches or just vote online or join an online conversation at The Reading Room.

The Victorian books are

Bearbrass by Robyn Annear

The Comfort of Water by Maya Ward

Sold by Brendan Gullifer

Radical Melbourne by Jeff and Jill Sparrow

Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung

Well done those men by Barry Heard

There's only a few days left to vote so get reading!

Day 5 of Blogging the twelve days of Christmas #blog12daysxmas

2011-12-28T21:06:00.002+11:00

New Year's Eve is coming up in only a couple of days so why not have a party to celebrate the New Year arriving!

Your library has some great books that might help you get started. There are some cookbooks here in this list but there are also some great books on making cocktails. Click here for the library catalogue.

For making cocktails check out these books:

Fizz : recipes for fabulous cocktails & party food by Pamela Clark.

500 cocktails : the only cocktail compendum you'll ever need

The cocktail Jane Rocca - fabulous drinks and fabulous illustrations by Kat Macleod.

Or maybe you want to venture out have a look at Melbourne's bars and pubs for 2012 to find a special place where someone else will make the cocktails!

For fun party food check out these books:

Dress your cupcake : bake them! Dress them! Eat them! by Joanna Farrow

Hip hip hooray : 40 fun party cakes Julie Lanham

Make me cake and cookie pops

Party : how to make a brilliant bash : the essential guide

Food, fashion, friends Karen Bussen

My party Pete Evans

Party music to get your groove on!

Disco music : originals various artists for the retro discotheque!

Born this way Lady Gaga put your meat suit on and boogie off to this one!

Zonoscape Cut/Copy quirky, catchy tunes that will keep this one on replay!

Beyond the sea Various artists - groovy tracks to dance to from the fifties to now!

Day 4 of blogging the twelve days of Christmas #blog12daysxmas

2011-12-28T14:00:00.002+11:00

What is summer in melbourne without a barbecue?

Try these books for some bbq inspiration....

The Heart Foundation BBQ and grill cookbook. Written by award-winning author Loukie Werle, it brings you dozens of mouth-watering recipes and provides healthy eating through a variety of inspirational foods. You can be confident that the recipes meet the Heart Foundation's strict guidelines based on healthy food options and nutrients, including saturated fat, kilojoules (energy), sodium (salt), and fibre and serve size. The Heart Foundation BBQ & Grill Cookbook also includes practical heart health information, alternative cooking methods, a healthy shopping list, a meat cuts cooking chart and answers to frequently asked questions.

500 bbq bites : the only barbecue compendium you'll ever need. by Paul Kirk. With 500 sizzling recipes, this book in the popular 500 series caters for every taste and encompasses all styles of barbecue. With tips for selecting ingredients for the grill, preparing mouthwatering marinades, and making delicious accompaniments, this is the only barbecue book you will ever need.

Stéphane Reynaud's BBQ .With over 140 recipes irresistible recipes including tender cutlets, succulent roasts and ribs, as well as a selection of accompaniments, from minted grilled vegetables to a decadent baked camembert, there's a recipe for every barbecue get-together. Written in his well-known eccentric style, Stephane never fails to entertain, and his passion for barbecuing is highly contagious.

Peter Howard's BBQ collection. This is a combination of the best recipes from Peter's first three books, "Barbecued!", "Licence to Grill" and "Barbecue Seafood" plus more new recipes including pizzas and souffles. Includes roasting and wok frying recipes done on the side burner.

Ainsley's ultimate barbecue bible. The book is packed with mouth-watering dishes inspired by flavours from around the world including a host of sensational salsas, marinades, barbecue breads and summertime drinks to complete your menu.

The complete book of vegetarian barbecuing : over 150 delicious recipes plus tips and techniques.

The great Aussie barbie cookbook. An irreverent celebration of the great Australian barbecue, this superb collection of recipes shows you how to make the most of this enduring tradition. The Great Aussie Barbie Cookbook covers al the basics of cooking on a barbie and a bit more, and is full of ideas for delicious dishes to suit any occasion, whether it be for a family gathering, a special celebration or just a regular evening meal.

Asian barbecue. The days of boring barbecues are over! Asian Barbecue brings you spicy sweet satays, tangy grilled chicken, skewers loaded with fresh seafood, and even fresh fruit flamed to caramelised perfection. Asian Barbecue will show you how to barbecue, grill and hibachi your way to wonderful Asian-inspired flavours time and again!

Click here to access the library catalogue online.

Day 3 of blogging the twelve days of Christmas #blog12daysxmas

2011-12-27T17:17:00.000+11:00

You might have spent yesterday at the cricket, the Boxing Day sales or eating ridiculous amount of leftovers from your Christmas lunch. By now you might be feeling that there should be more to life than watching men wacking balls around, low quality plastic wares supposedly marked down or inventing new ways to eat cold ham and turkey (turkey tacos, maybe?).

Then you need to get back into reading.

Here's some stimulating brain food to feast on for the summer holidays. Use our catalogue to reserve something today.

1835 : The founding of Melbourne and the conquest of Australia by James Boyce. Go back in time to see Melbourne from a whole new light with this amazing historian. Learn how Melbourne was established and how that history might still have an impact on how we see our city today.

Kinglake 350 by Adrian Hyland. Follow Roger Wood police officer from Kinglake through Black Saturday as he attempts to comprehend the day that changed everything. Hyland writes fiction and has crafted this nonfiction book deftly to tell the stories of the people of Kinglake.

The magic of reality: how we know what's really true by Richard Dawkins. Ever contentious Dawkins takes on magic in his new book to get people excited about reality! He explains how the universe works, what we are made of, how stuff happens and how to love science even if you hated it in high school! His books are very readable but are great brain food too.

The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Henrietta had some of her cells taken from her during the 1950s without her knowledge. The cells were the first to be grown in a laboratory and are still alive today even though she had been dead for sixty years. They played a vital role in the development of a polio vaccine, cancer research and side effects of the atomic bomb. This book tracks the authors search for more about this woman's life.

The psychopath test by Jon Ronson. This is a book about madness. How is madness defined and why do people challenge and resist its definition? Jon is inspired by the Psychopath Test and the psychiatrist who developed it to use the test to see if he can spot a psychopath in the corporate world. The book is funny, insightful and a little scary.

Blogging the 12 days of christmas. Day 2

2011-12-26T19:39:00.002+11:00

Boxing Day in Melbourne.

Cricket.

The Boxing day test at the MCG.

Six and out - Non Fiction.

Wisden's cricket almanac. Published annually. Everything you wanted to know about cricket but were afraid to ask.

Ryan, Christian. Australia: story of a cricket country. A selection of Australia's best writers share their thoughts on different aspects of the game and its place in our national culture; from bowling, captaincy and scoring, to alcohol, media and literature.

Hawkes, Chris. World cricket records 2012. If you ever get into an argument about cricket facts and stats, anywhere in the world, "World Cricket Records 2012" will not only provide you with the definitive answer, it will also give you loads of additional information that will amaze your audience.

Ford, Daniel. A fan's guide to world cricket. A guide to some of the world's top cricket teams and their homes. It covers the various test teams, including history, their test and ODI records, championships won, key players and the grounds. It also contains information about the cities and countries of each team, including local culture, the best attractions and great places to eat and drink.

Cannane, Steve. First tests: great Australian cricketers and the backyards that made them. The backyard has been the real academy of Australian cricket. Don Bradman′s unique grip, stance and backlift all evolved in response to the pace at which the golf ball rebounded off the tank stand in his backyard games. Greg Chappell′s trademark flick off the hip shot was invented on his backyard wicket where the best scoring opportunities lay on the leg side. Alan Davidson bowled accurately because he had to. If he missed the stumps on his home-made pitch, he had to chase the ball down the hill into the scrub. Doug Walters played spin with ease because his ant-bed backyard pitch spun like a top. Neil Harvey′s immaculate footwork came from playing balls that darted viciously off the cobblestones in his back lane.

Batchelder, Alf. Only yesterday: Don Bradman at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. from acclaimed sports writer Alf Batchelder, author of the magnificent history of the Melbourne Cricket Club 'Pavilions in the Park', a gripping account of the exploits of The Don at the MCG. The great man's Melbourne performances are set in the context of events surrounding him in Australia and overseas.

Santhanam, Vijay. If cricket is a religion, Sachin is God. Sachin Tendulkar is in Australia with the Indian cricket team. The 'little master' is one of the greatest cricketers of all time and this book looks at his cricket and his country.

Thompson, Harry. Penguins stopped play: eleven village cricketers take on the world. A group of unlikely cricketers attempt to play cricket on every continent. Their Antarctica match is particularly amusing as a group of penguins wandered onto the pitch to check out the action.

FICTION

Greenwood, Kerry. Death before wicket. Phryne Fisher is on holiday. She means to take the train to Sydney (where the harbour bridge is being built), go to a few cricket matches, dine with the Chancellor of the university and perhaps go to the Arts Ball with that celebrated young modernist, Chas Nutall. She has the costume of a lifetime and she's not afraid to use it.

McInnes, WIlliam. Cricket Kings. Step into the lives of a team of regular middle-aged men who meet each week to play cricket in their local park. They don't seem to be extraordinary - they are just like the rest of us - but like everyone, they each have a story to tell.

Blogging the 12 days of christmas.

2011-12-25T18:59:00.000+11:00

The boss has laid down the challenge... Can each of the Library Blogs take part in the #blog12daysofxmas challenge on twitter.

Challenge extended.

Challenge accepted.

So for the next 12 days we will be blogging everyday.

Let the challenge begin.

**********

Crimes for Christmas ( a select list of crime novels with a festive holiday theme)

Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity's Christmas.

Baldacci, David. The Christmas train.

Beaton, M.C. A highland Christmas.

Clark, Mary Higgins. Dashing through the snow.

Dunnett, Kaitlyn. A wee Christmas murder.

Fluke, Joanna. Candy cane murder.

Morrell, David. The spy who came for Christmas.

Mortimer, John. Rumpole at Christmas.

Page, Katherine Hall. The body in the sleigh.

Penny, Louise. Dead cold.

Perry, Anne. A Christmas homecoming.

Wingfield, R.D. Frost at Christmas.

Click here to check the library catalogue.

Gift ideas - fire up your foodie friends

2011-12-19T10:17:00.001+11:00

Gingerboy - Teage Ezard, Chris Donnellan. Like it spicy? Ezard can deliver!

Plenty - Yotam Ottolenghi. Deliciousness itself by the flavour gurus!

Cumulus Inc. - Andrew McConnell. Make this restaurant come to your kitchen!

Indulge - Rowie Dillon. You won't be allergic to this cookbook!

Zumbo - Adriano Zumbo. Not the dance craze...the sugar craze!!

New Middle Eastern Food - Greg & Lucy Malouf. Wish this had scratch and lick pages!

Reading advent calendar at Ashburton Library

2011-12-11T10:08:00.001+11:00

Ashburton Library has their Reading Advent Calendar up again! Each day in December a new book will be revealed. All the books were chosen because they won an award in 2011 or they were just fantastic books! Come in and have a look and maybe get an idea on what to read over the summer holidays!

Some icy reads to chill you through summer!

2011-12-01T16:33:00.003+11:00

Scandanavian crime/mystery author list

Alvtegen, Karin
Dahl, K.O.
Davidsen, Leif
Edwardson, Ake
Ekman, Kerstin
Eriksson, Kjell
Fossum, Karin
Holt, Anne
Indriðason, Arnaldur
Joensuu, Matti-Yrjana
Jungstedt, Mari
Kjærstad , Jan
Läckberg, Camilla
Larsson, Asa
Larsson, Stieg
Mankell , Henning
Marklund, Liza
Nesbsbø, Jo
Nesser, Håkan
Roslund, Anders & Hellstrom, Borge
Sewell, Kitty
Sigurðardóttir, Yrsa
Sjöwall, Maj & Wahlöö, Per
Staalesen, Gunnar
Theorin, Johan
Tursten, Helene

Reserve from our catalogue and check out the book album by liking us on facebook.

Booktalk at Kew Library

2011-11-28T08:00:00.000+11:00

Our final booktalk for the year will be at Kew Library at 2pm on 30th November.
If you need some holiday reading or maybe even some suggestions for books to buy as Christmas presents, come along to our booktalk and listen to staff talk about what their reading!

Join our mailing list to make sure you know when the booktalks for next year will be.

Ashburton Library goes Vintage

2011-11-15T14:26:00.001+11:00

Last week at Ashburton Library Nicole Jenkins came and talked about the glory and beauty of vintage clothing. Nicole runs the Circa Vintage clothing store in Fitzroy and has a great love for Australian vintage clothing from the 1920s tothe 1970s. It was a fabulous night. Nicole is a great speaker and was very interactive with the audience. It was a very girlie event and it was nice to see several mums with their adolescent daughters (in lovely gowns). Nicole brought along several garments for a show and tell; she knows a lot about the history of Australian vintage clothes from the 1920s onwards and the talk was very informative as well fun. Nicole describes herself as a recovery goth who tries to wear colour but ends up still wearing a lot of black. She wrote the Wikipedia entry for shoulder pads as she knows everything about them and she loans her dresses to Alannah Hill! Read her book Love Vintage by reserving on the library catalogue today. Below are some photos of the treasured outfits that the audience wore on the night!

Nicole judged this lovely blue number our winner for the night!

Heirloom Vegetable growing talk

2011-11-11T08:00:00.000+11:00

On Thursday 17 November Simon Rickard will talk about growing heirloom vegies at Kew Library.

Simon Rickard is a passionate gardener and classical musician with a keen interest in heirloom fruits and vegetables.

He is best known as the former head gardener of the Digger’s Club, where he oversaw two of Australia’s best-known public gardens, Heronswood and the Garden of St Erth.

More recently Simon has been a kitchen gardener, growing bespoke produce for Annie Smithers’ Bistrot in Kyneton, Victoria, and as a botanical guide for Botanica World Discoveries. He has lectured and held masterclasses for the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, the University of Melbourne and many local horticultural societies. He has contributed to Your Garden and ABC Organic Gardener magazines and made several appearances on radio and television, most notably on ABC television’s Gardening Australia. In 2011, CSIRO published his book The New Ornamental Garden.

This session is free but bookings are essential.

Booktalk highlighted some great books!

2011-11-08T08:00:00.000+11:00

At Ashburton Library last week three fabulous staff members recommended the books they have been reading lately. Here are their books if you missed the talk.

Myra

BYRSKI, LIZ. Lastchance cafe

DRAYSON, NICHOLAS Aguide to the birds of East Africa: a novel

DASHNER, JAMES Themaze runner

EVANS, TESS Bookof lost threads

ST LEON, MARK Circus:the Australian story

Clare

TRUMBO, DALTON Johnnygot his gun

Edgar, JIM Badcat

Katz, BARRY Practicalgreen remodeling : down-to-earth solutions for everyday homes

SAMBROOK, Clare Hide& Seek

Liz

GRENVILLE, Kate SarahThornhill

Donoghue, EMMA LifeMask

DUNANT, Sarah SacredHearts

GOODMAN,Alison Eon

Our Story Summer Reading Program

2011-11-06T15:33:00.000+11:00

Bearbrass by Roby Annear

The Comfort of Water by Maya Ward

Sold by Brendan Gullifer

Radical Melbourne by Jeff and Jill Sparrow

Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung

Well done those men by Barry Heard

Murakami's new book 1Q84

2011-10-31T09:04:00.000+11:00

Japanese author Haruki Murakami release his latest book in English a few days ago. It's titled 1Q84 and has been much anticipated by his fans who stretch from Japan where is revered as a god to most of the English speaking world. In typical Murakami style the book is surreal, strange and captivating. The book is set in 1984 and follows Aomame who wanders into a mysterious other world encountering a strange religious cult. We also meet Tengo, a literary novelist who is asked to rewrite a young woman's entry into a literary prize. It might be fiction, it might be fraud.

Fans of Murakami are saying this is a masterpiece. It's written in his characteristic style and draws the reader into a world that world that can't be true and yet he is always exploring the nature of reality. See what all the fuss is about and reserve a copy today through our catalogue.

Calling all knitters!!!

2011-10-25T09:54:00.004+11:00

Keen on learning how to knit or on brushing up your skills? Come to Balwyn Library tomorrow night to meet Valerie Elliot, secretary of the Handknitters' Guild. Valerie will talk about this popular craft. The Guild is a community group with a collective pool of skills, knowledge and huge enthusiasm for this timeless handicraft and caters to all levels.
With lots of links to information to support the eager knitter, Valerie will have you reaching for your knitting needles while borrowing some of the beautiful knitting books from the library.

Wednesday 26 October at 7:30 pm
Balwyn Library, 366 Whitehorse Road, Balwyn.
9278 4666
Admission is free, however bookings are essential.

SheKilda convention goes off!

2011-10-20T10:42:00.001+11:00

Asa newcomer to the crime fiction genre, it was interesting to treadamong the die-hard fans of various strands of crime writing - hardcore/hardboiled; cosy; true crime; TV crime shows; crime set inexotic international locations and everything inbetween at theSheKilda Convention. The devotees take their crime seriously andthere was a lot of animated discussion in the reception spaces andlively presentations and questions in the sessions.

Writingfor Justicerepresented some of the best Australian true crime writers at the topof their form: Robyn Bowles, Liz Porter Kathryn Fox, Colleen Eganand Vikki Petraitis. They discussed how 'justice' has many meaningsand expressions; sometimes it might be about revenge, sometimes aboutclosure but certainly it is not always available to the poor throughthe legal system and the courts. Often it takes years, perhaps insome cases generations, for justice to be delivered to thewrongly-accused or for families to find out exactly what happened toa victim of crime or to reveal the identity of the killer. Thecomplexities of dealing with police, barristers, legal aid,witnesses, judges and juries had frustrated many of the panel intheir investigative work, however they also met individuals frommany of these arenas who were pursuing or championing the need forjustice and who contributed to the integrity of the authors'research.

The added dimension of the media brought out stories fromthe panel that were fascinating as well as very disturbing, perhapseven downright frightening. Sometimes the lead that shaped anauthor's book or took their story in new directions came by sheerchance; sometimes it was methodical process-driven work; sometimespure instinct that 'something was not quite right', say, in atestamony or set of circumstances. All the writers at this sessiondisplayed tenacity, curiosity, dedication, intelligence and thecompelling need to tell the story and, ultimately, to help peoplefind justice.

McCall Smith charms one of our librarians!

2011-10-11T10:07:00.003+11:00

Popularity andprolificacy are two words that spring instantly to mind when thinkingof the hugely successful Scottish author, Alexander McCall Smith. Tocoincide with the Australian TV debut of the popular No 1 Ladies'Detective Agency, the Age in conjunction with Dymocks, provided awonderful opportunity for McCall Smith's fans to be even furthercharmed as he spoke in conversation with Jason Steger in Melbournelast week.

Alexander charmedand entertained an audience of several hundred loyal fans - perhaps97 percent being "women of a certain age". He spoke withgreat affection for his characters and told hilarious stories of howhe incorporates his real friends into his novels and then brings themtogether at "real-time" dinners. Despite the gentle tone ofhis many novels, McCall Smith is an astute and deep philosophical thinker. The recent riots in the UK have caused him to re-examinemuch of his thinking in regard to the morality and values of modernsociety. He spoke with great insight about the problems he saw facingour society today.

A writer of over 90books to date, Alexander discussed a typical day in his writing life- rising at 3.00am to write for about 2 hours before popping back tobed before breakfast - further hours of writing each afternoon andearly evening - producing between 3,000-4,000 words per day!!! Hehas so far this year published 6 new novels, featuring all of hispopular characters - Mma Ramotswe, Isabel Dalhousie, Professor DrMoritz-Maria von Igelfeld and the characters from the CorduroyMansions and 44 Scotland Street. He is at present working on anotherhalf dozen. On a recent 10 day trip thought the Australian outbackwith his wife, Elizabeth, he managed to produce 6 short stories - afeat that must cause despair in the hearts of other writers!

It was a privilegeto listen to a man of such integrity and humility; a man with so muchto share and a man who gives so generously to his readers and friendsin both the developed world and the developing countries of hisbeloved Africa. I wait with eager anticipation for his next book -The Unusual uses of olive oil.

New Gardening books in your library

2011-10-03T08:35:00.001+11:00

Spring is here (even thought it's freezing as I write this) which is a great time for gardeners. Have a look at these brand new gardening books in your library to help you along the garden path!

Attracting butterflies to your garden Densey Clyne

Butterflies just can't help themselves when it comes to certain plants. This book describes the life cycles of 32 of the most common butterflies in Australian gardens. It also helps you select the best plants if you want these beauties in your garden.

Drugs in pots : over 40 home-made remedies for everyday ailments / Anne McIntyre

This book's title might give you the wrong idea! It's really just a guide to some of the plants that have excellent medicinal value. It has 40 natural remedies which you can use to soothe common health problems - all with things from your garden!

The edible balcony : how to grow fresh food in a small space plus 60 inspiring recipes Indira Naidoo

Indira used to read the news on SBS but more recently she has become interested in food and where it comes from. She has a tiny 13th floor balcony and has converted it into a vegie garden. She takes you through the seasons on her balcony and includes some delicious things to do with your produce. It's a great read even if you don't have a balcony!

Kitchen gardens of Australia : eighteen productive gardens for inspiration and practical advice Kate Herd

Gardeners from all over Australia share their secrets to successful produce gardening including surviving drought conditions to environmentally friendly pest control. There are garden plans and histories

The new ornamental garden / Simon Rickard

Another great book from CSIRO, this one tries to look at Australian gardening practices with fresh eyes. It helps gardeners select the right plants for their location and also helps you consider microclimates. The plant index is very useful and extensive.
Simon Rickard talks at Kew Library on 17 November, make a booking now!

The best gardens in Italy : a traveller's guide / Kirsty McLeod

Italy has been experiencing a gardening renaissance recently and there are some fascinating gardens springing up (no pun intended). Some old historic gardens are also being rescued and brought back to life. This books take you on a tour of the best gardens and shows you their story with beautiful photographs.

Garden designers at home : the private spaces of the world's leading designers Noel Kingsbury

Slip through the garden gate of these famous garden designers to see what they do in their own backyard! These gardens are often experiments which have unusual plants or new and different way of dealing with the garden space! You might be surprise by what our famous garden designers prefer for their themselves.

Booktalk at Balwyn Library

2011-09-27T18:10:00.000+10:00

Do you need some suggestions for new authors and good books? Do you find it hard to get your hands on a really good book despite there being so many out there?

Come to one of our booktalks and see what the library staff are reading. We will introduce you to new titles and review old favourites. A selection of new books will be available for loan.

The next booktalk will be at Balwyn Library on Monday 17 October at 11:00 am

Refreshments will be served.

This session is free and no bookings are required.

These are some of the books we recommended previously:

Jane recommends:

LEON, Donna Drawing Conclusions

LEAL, Suzanne Border Street

DE BLASI, Marlena Amandine: a novel

SEE, Lisa Snow flower and the secret fan

Lee recommends:

BAKKER, Gerbrand The twin

MICHAELS, Anne Fugitive pieces

TREVOR, William Two lives : reading Turgenev and my house in Umbria

CHAMBERS, Jeremy The vintage and the gleaning

Ros recommends:

NESBO, Jo The leopard
SATTIN, Anthony A winter on the Nile : Florence Nightingale, Gustave Flaubert and the temptations of Egypt

BAUER, Jon Rocks in the belly

GORDON, Audrey & GORDON, Phillip Audrey Gordon's Tuscan summer : recipes and recollections from the heart of Italy

MJ Hyland named BBC short story finalist

2011-09-20T12:02:00.000+10:00

MJ Hyland was recently named a BBC short story finalist for a version of this story in The Monthly magazine.

MJ Hyland is the author of three acclaimed novels This is how, Carry me down and How the light gets in.

Find them on the library catalogue today.

Everything old is new again

2011-09-18T07:05:00.000+10:00

Our new series of talks is coming soon!

Our first talk is on Op Shops with Kelly Lainson

Kelly is a resourceful and enthusiastic bargain hunter. She is the author of The Op Shop Guide (Victoria), a stylish, practical and easy reference directory to locating and shopping at these valuable outlets.

This book provides the perfect companion for short-term and long-term op shoppers. Kelly will talk about her research and share her observations and tips on this increasingly popular shopping experience.

This session is free but bookings are essential.

Wednesday 12 October at 7:30 pm

Location: Hawthorn Library meeting room -Hawthorn Council Offices, 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn (off plaza, eastern side of Town Hall precinct)

Phone 9278 4666.

Click here for our events calendar to see information on the other talks.

Booktalk at Kew Library

2011-09-17T12:19:00.008+10:00

Library staff will introduce you to new titles and review old favourites at our regular BookTalks. These sessions are free and you don't need to book.

So come along and be introduced to new books and friends. A selection of new books will be available for loan, and refreshments will be served.

What people are saying about booktalks.....

"I often choose books from the booktalk for my bookclub and they have all been excellent"

"Thank you so much - I had a great morning. It was really interesting"

"I have come to one other Book Talk at another branch and I think these are wonderful events. I will be coming to more."

Good reading magazine now online!

2011-09-14T11:57:00.000+10:00

If you love books you'll love the Good Reading magazine. It's a great resource full of author interviews, books reviews, reading programs and articles for the bookish type.

Go through to our website and click on eresources and use the Books, authors, reviews link to find Good reading online.

Use your whole library card number to log in and you'll be reading in no time!

Get Reading!

2011-09-13T12:22:00.000+10:00

The Get Reading! campaign is on again. There is something for everyone in the list of 50 books!

If you hurry, you might be able to pick a guide up from your local library. Don't worry if you miss out because the list of books is available from the Get Reading website.

Follow Get Reading! on Facebook and Twitter for regular updates.

Man Booker shortlist

2011-09-11T11:39:00.001+10:00

Man Booker Prize 2011 shortlist announced

Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending
Carol Birch Jamrach’s Menagerie
Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers
Esi Edugya n Half Blood Blues
Stephen Kelman Pigeon English
A.D. Miller Snowdrops

Check out the library catalogue to reserve something today!

The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2011 - Winners!!!

2011-09-07T09:55:00.019+10:00

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

Check out the library catalogue to reserve a copy today.

Fiction

That deadman dance

Kim Scott

Nonfiction

An eye for eternity : the life of Manning Clark
Mark McKenna

Young Adult
The three loves of Persimmon
Cassandra Golds

Drama
Do Not Go Gentle & The Berry Man
Patricia Cornelius

Poetry
The Taste Of River Water
Cate Kennedy

Meet the author - David Walker

2011-08-11T16:26:00.010+10:00

Meet David Walker - author of Not dark yet : a personal memoir at Ashburton Library. Wednesday 17 August 11am.

David is Professor of Australian Studies at Deakin University and he wrote Not dark yet : a personal history after becoming legally blind from macular degeneration. He reflects on his own past, mixing the historical and the personal. He champions the five generations of his family and explores 20th century Australia and its culture and sensitivities.

It was loss of sight that propelled David to write this compelling and moving story. He writes with humour, insight and intelligence as he traces the Walkers and the Bournes, from their settlement in the mid-north of South Australia, just south of the Goyder Line, in the late nineteenth century.

Admission is free, however bookings are essential.
Call 9278 4666 or book online.

More hightlights from the Crime festival

2011-07-27T05:22:00.005+10:00

So many great authors...one highlight would have to be Phil Rickman known as the 'grandfather' of supernatural/paranormal-ish crime writing, his best known character is Merrily Watkins, a priest in small village near the English-Welsh border who specialises in exorcism..., he explained that he tries to write an explicale mystery with some unexplainable elements.

The 'New Blood' session was one I was looking forward to having just read 'Before I go to sleep' by S J Watson, a gripping psychological thriller about a woman whose memories are erased each time she goes to sleep...Julie Crouch, author of 'Cuckoo' about obsessive love and the consequences it has on a family is another first time author generating a lot of interest.

Other great sessions included 'Legal eagles' M R Hall, Martin Edwards, Helen Black and one of my favourites France Fyfield....'Blood from a stone' is one of the most disturbing mysteries I have ever read.

More great sessions included

A deep and meaningful with Lee Child about his crime writing pet hates

A panel of authors talking about the importance and influence of location...CJ Box [Wyoming], Urban Waite [Seattle], Ann Zroudi [Greece] and a new fav of mine Elly Griffiths [Norfolk, character Ruth Galloway forensic archeologist]

Dennis Lehane writer of many great novels including 'Mystic River' and 'Gone baby gone'

And... to top it off a dinner to celebrate M C Beaton's 75th birthday, the author of the Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin series is a gorgeous woman who sounds like the Queen.

It has been such a great 4 days...and now I've got lots of reading to do { & way too much excess baggage...}

The UK Underbelly.....

2011-07-23T22:26:00.002+10:00

Martina Cole's 2 pack a day voice and North London accent set the scene for a hugely entertaining talk about her gritty books set in the murky underworld of London's East End and Essex. She has sold over 10 million books but at school one of her teachers said she 'would never amount to nothing' to which Martina replied 'it could be worse - I could be working in a sh*t school like this wearing the same jacket for thirty years' .. she is a straight talking woman.

We next met a number of authors who had for various reasons been in prison...Cass Pennant, Jonathan Aitken and perhaps most interesting Erwin James who served a life sentence for murder before becoming a Guradian columnist...a powerful session emphasising the redemptive power of writing.

So much to hear here and I don't want to bang on for too long but some highlights have included

Andrew Taylor' s appearance on the panel discussing psychological thrillers which included Sophie Hannah, sadly one of my favourites Camilla Lackberg, recently diagnosed with Lyme's disease was unable to attend.

Tess Gerritsen's session..the presenter broadcaster Jenni Murray said the most frightening night of her life was spent reading The Surgeon and Tess's son's friend said, after reading one of her books 'Dude, your Mum is sick'

S J Bolton describing her work as Scooby Doo-esque

The very witty Patricia Duncker

Val McDermid's Madonna impersonation with the cool hands free microphones they are using this year.

Will keep you posted...

Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival

2011-07-23T04:59:00.003+10:00

Old Swan Hotel Harrogate 21-24 July 2011 I'm having such a great time here with hundreds of other crime fiction tragics, despite quite severe jet lag which I don't remember having last time I travelled to the UK although admittedly that was about 25 years ago.....I was much younger, fitter etc.
The festival kicked off with the Crime Novel of the year award and festival opening party, for me the highlight was the presentation of the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award to
P D James, what a gorgeous woman, 90 years old and delightful. She was thrilled to be here and to accept the award and she promised that from now on Adam Dagliesh, her renowned detective, would only drink Theakston's ale {festival sponsor}. Lee Child followed her to accept the Crime Novel of the Year for 61 hours, he was unprepared as despite selling 50 million books he hasn't won an award for ages but said that what he will remember most is following P D James onto the stage.
I'll keep you posted on hightlights from the sessions www.harrogate-festival.org.uk/crime

Franklin and Eleanor

2011-06-26T14:47:00.001+10:00

Youtube is a great historical resource! I have been reading Hazel Rowley's Franklin and Eleanor: an extraordinary marriage (Melbourne University Press, 2011) and just idly flicked in a search to Youtube as one does. Yes, there is Eleanor at the Human Rights Declaration at United Nations and also masses of other stuff from the FDR collection including family movies as well as more notable speeches and occasions.

Eleanor was an amazing woman and I have read other stuff on her and seen at least one documentary. This book by Hazel Rowley is a really enjoyable read. It's well-researched and well-written and has some great photographs. As she focuses on the relationship between Eleanor and Franklin the part of Eleanor's life that is mainly featured is that between her marriage in 1905 and Franklin's death in 1945, though the context of before and after is well set. I got a bit confused with all the relatives in the beginning and think that perhaps a family tree would have made a good addition to the book! But that's a minor quibble!

Last gift of time: life beyond sixty

2011-06-26T14:41:00.001+10:00

I first started reading Carolyn Heilbrun's writing decades ago under her pseudonym of Amanda Cross. Her crime novels about a feisty academic feminist, Kate Fansler, really stood out for me among other early feminist crime fiction which was very issues based and not necessarily good writing or attractive publishing. Cross' novels, on the other hand, were well-written reflective pieces with a good story line and, at that, usually a storyline set in academic circumstances which I understood.

In 1970 an investigative journalist discovered who was the real person behind Amanda Cross and I came to know the writing of Carolyn Heilbrun herself, such as the classic Writing a woman's life. Heilbrun, atheist, feminist and a woman with strong views, had decided that she did not want to live beyond the term of a natural life i.e. 70, the Biblical three score years and ten though as an atheist the Bible was not a construct that ruled her life. The Last gift of time: life beyond sixty was written when she was approaching 70 and looking back on the last ten years of her life. She decided then that the time was not right but when she was 77 ended her life at her own time and in her own place and space, in a room of her own indeed.

Recently author, Paddy Leigh Fermor, died at 96. He was still living part of the year in the Mani and part in England. He is reputed to have still been writing and revising. Carolyn Heilbrun decided at age 77 in full possession of her faculties to choose her own time of ending her life. My friend's father, John, who is 90 and has dementia was a member of the Euthanasia Society but now he is in a high care dementia ward and doesn't know what euthanasia means. There are many pathways. But I really recommend that people read Carolyn Heilbrun and savour her prose.

In tearing haste

2011-06-26T14:38:00.001+10:00

When Patrick Leigh Fermor died recently, I went to the Boroondara library catalogue to hunt out my Fermor favourites. Much to my delight I discovered a book I didn't know. Edited by Charlotte Mosley, In tearing haste is a collection of letters between Patrick Leigh Fermor and Deborah Devonshire. The correspondence which is two-sided (i.e. I mean there are letters from both of them) spans the period from 1954 to 2008. It is illustrated by a great series of photos of them and lots of other familiar bods and ends in a poignant one taken in 2008 at Edensor with both of them, backs to the camera, heading away from the viewer.

I have just been dipping into it since I brought it home but think it deserves a solid cover-to-cover read now!

Anita Heiss: Manhattan Dreaming

2011-06-26T14:36:00.000+10:00

Interested in life in the world of art galleries, life in Canberra, sexist footballers, life in the Big Apple, the sights and sounds and wonders of arriving in New York? Anita Heiss' chicklit novel, Manhattan dreaming, published by Random House, has all of this and more. It's a quick fun and funny read set in the life of Lauren, an indigenous art curator, who hails from Goulburn but has a ball when she hits New York City.

Anita is a great ambassador for indigenous Australia and I have long admired her speaking skills and the writing and storytelling work she has done with teenagers. This is the first book of hers that I have read, but after I finished I went straight out and reserved the sequel, Paris dreaming! It's next on my pile of books to start!

Lord Peter : the end

2011-06-26T14:33:00.000+10:00

Weeks ago when I was sick I started reading or rather re-reading Dorothy L. Sayers' crime fiction. I quickly romped through the books which are all held in Boroondara's collection and then with some misplaced reluctance turned to the Jill Paton Walsh novels about Lord Peter Wimsey.

Novels past, I was left only with short stories and today I finally finished the last volume of her short stories: Lord Peter: the complete Lord Peter Wimsey stories. I have really struggled to complete this volume as short stories are simply not my favourite type of writing. I know they can be beautiful gems of construction but I really prefer the development of plot and character to be found in a longer work.

This volume is a compendium of all DLS's Peter Wimsey stories and some of them I reread recently in other collections such as Striding folly and In the teeth of the evidence. Don't get me wrong, some of these stories are very clever pieces of detection and there are passages that I love. One such is the scene in "The learned adventure of the Dragon's Head" where nephew Lord St George is visiting and purchases a secondhand book that turns out to provide an interesting mystery. How about this for writing?

"Yes, Uncle Peter," said the viscount dutifully. He was extended on his stomach on the library hearthrug, laboriously picking his way through the more exciting-looking bits of the Cosmographia, with the aid of Messrs. Lewis and Short, whose monumental compilation he had hitherto looked upon as a barbarous invention for the annoyance of upper forms.

These short stories contain lots of little gems that are reminiscent of her full-blown novels. I am very glad I have read them again but so wish there were more novels. Short stories are not the same.

In the teeth of the evidence

2011-06-26T14:29:00.001+10:00

The book, In the teeth of the evidence, is a 1939 compilation called In the teeth of the evidence after the first (and Wimsey) short story in the book. The book contains two Lord Peter stories (the above mentioned and "Absolutely elsewhere"), five stories with wine and spirits salesman Montague Egg as detective, and ten other stories of mystery and suspense with no detective.

I enjoyed them all as little jewels of cleverness and wonder as I frequently do how someone has the ingenuity to come up with plot after plot. However, on a whole short stories are not my preferred style of reading. I have one more collection of DLS's short stories and then I am back to a full-blown book where there is more plot and character development.

Striding Folly

2011-06-26T14:27:00.000+10:00

Striding folly is a collection of three Dorothy L Sayers short stories featuring Peter Wimsey in his detective role. "Striding folly" and "The Haunted policeman" were originally published in 1939 and "Talboys" was written in 1942. All the stories date to a time after Peter and Harriet's marriage in Busman's Honeymoon. "The Haunted policeman" depicts him as a new father after the birth of Bredon whilst "Talboys" depicts him as the father of three boys and the mystery of the stolen peaches. Whilst they are all good stories and offer some insight into Lord Peter's later life, #shortstoriesarenotthesame :( The volume Striding folly also has an informative introductory essay by Janet Hitchman entitled "Lord Peter Wimsey and his creator" and that essay is well worth a read.

More Peter Wimsey

2011-06-26T14:25:00.000+10:00

I got on a real roll reading Dorothy Sayers crime fiction and, of course, once I had finished all her novels I wanted to read more about Peter Wimsey. That left me with two options: to read the ones written by Jill Paton Walsh and to search out the various short stories written by Dorothy L Sayers about him. So I have been doing both.

Jill Paton Walsh in 1998 published a completed form of Dorothy Sayers last but unfinished Wimsey novel, Thrones, Dominations. After its success, she followed up with two other Wimsey titles A Presumption of Death in 2002 and The Attenbury Emeralds in 2010. Both of the latter titles were based on ideas or hints of cases from DLS who refers to the Attenbury Emeralds as Wimsey's first case after the war and who wrote a series of letters to and from various members of the Wimsey family on which A Presumption of Death is based. In fact A Presumption of Death is identified as co-authored by the two writers as is Thrones, Dominations.

I had read Thrones, Dominations previously and read it again at the end of my recent Sayers burst. Coming as it did at the end of weeks of reading DLS's prose and allusions I really didn't find it as good (though certainly not bad). I had decided I wasn't going to read Jill Paton Walsh's other Wimsey titles but they came up in conversation with some friends, one of whom said the next two were very good. So I did read them and I have enjoyed both of them particularly The Attenbury Emeralds. But, they just are not Sayers. One can read her books on so many levels and the prose is just filled with literary and other allusions including, I am sure, many I don't get. But if you like the Wimsey stories do read the Jill Paton Walsh ones bearing in mind that this is another writer who writes well but differently.

Kim Scott wins Miles Franklin Award

2011-06-22T21:40:00.004+10:00

Kim Scott has won the 2011 Miles Franklin Award for his novel That Deadman Dance.

From the PanMacmillan website: "

Big-hearted, moving and richly rewarding, That Deadman Dance is set in the first decades of the 19th century in the area around what is now Albany, Western Australia. In playful, musical prose, the book explores the early contact between

the Aboriginal Noongar people and the first European settlers.

The novel's hero is a young Noongar man named Bobby Wabalanginy. Clever, resourceful and eager to please, Bobby befriends the new arrivals, joining them hunting whales, tilling the land, exploring the hinterland and establishing the fledgling colony. He is even welcomed into a prosperous local white family where he falls for the daughter, Christine, a beautiful young woman who sees no harm in a liaison with a native.

But slowly – by design and by accident – things begin to change. Not everyone is happy with how the colony is developing. Stock mysteriously start to disappear; crops are destroyed; there are "accidents" and injuries on both sides. As the Europeans impose ever stricter rules and regulations in order to keep the peace, Bobby's Elders decide they must respond in kind. A friend to everyone, Bobby is forced to take sides: he must choose between the old world and the new, his ancestors and his new friends. Inexorably, he is drawn into a series of events that will forever change not just the colony but the future of Australia.."

About the author: Born in 1957, Kim Scott's ancestral Noongar country is the south-east coast of Western Australia between Gairdner River and Cape Arid. His cultural Elders use the term Wirlomin to refer to their clan, and the Norman Tindale nomenclature identifies people of this area as Wudjari/Koreng.

Kim's professional background is in education and the arts. He is the author of two novels, True Country and Benang, poetry and numerous pieces of short fiction.

Scott became the first Aboriginal writer to win the Miles Franklin in 2000 with his book Benang. He tied that year with writer Thea Astley.

One Bowl: Allergy free baking

2011-06-18T10:27:00.006+10:00

Meet Linda Bosnic, author of One bowl: allergy free baking at Balwyn Library on Wednesday June 22nd at 7.30pm.

Linda Bosnic has always had a love for both cooking and writing.

When her nephew was diagnosed with anaphylaxis to dairy, nut and egg over eight years ago, Linda started to search for suitable recipes for him. Most of the cookbooks she found were complicated and time consuming so she worked on developing her own recipes.

Being a Mum of two young boys, she never had the time to get out the electric mixer so she made sure the recipes didn’t need one.

‘One Bowl: Allergy Free Baking’ is the result.

Linda is a passionate advocate for organic, fresh and artificial-free food. Her idea of a perfect weekend would involve baking with her children, digging in the backyard vegetable garden and visiting one of the local Farmer’s Markets to stock up on fresh produce.

Come and meet Linda (and maybe try one of her recipes)... by clicking here to book.

Balwyn Library

336 Whitehorse Road

Balwyn 3103.

92784666

Hawthorn Booktalk 9 June

2011-06-14T19:35:00.002+10:00

FIONA

ROZAN, S.J.
On the line
FIC ROZAN

CASEY, Jane
The missing
FIC CASEY

TAPPLY, William G.
Outwitting trolls
FIC TAPPL

JAUNCEY, James
The reckoning
T FIC JAUNC

TELFER, Kevin
Peter Pan's first XI
796.358092 TEL

ROBYN

BRYSON, Bill
At home
306.09 BRY

BROOKS, Geraldine
Caleb's crossing
FIC BROOK

OBREHT, Tia
The tiger's wife
FIC OBREH

GIBB, Camilla
The beauty of humanity movement
FIC GIBB

CLAIRE

PORTIS, Charles
True grit
FIC PORTI

McKENNA, Clodagh
Homemade: irresistible homemade recipes for every occasion
641.5 MACK

McCLOUD, Kevin
Kevin McCloud's 43 principles of home: enjoying life in the 21^st century
FOL 747 MACC

ROBINSON, Barbara
The best school year ever
J FIC ROBIN

Library Services Advisory Committee - Call for Nominations!

2011-06-10T17:17:00.000+10:00

The City of Boroondara is currently calling for community nominations for its Library Services Advisory Committee. If you live, work or study in Boroondara and would like to have a say about your libraries, have a look at the Committee's Terms of Reference on Council's website. Nominations close on 20 June and should be emailed to anne.holmes@boroondara.vic.gov.au.

#blogjune Dorothy L. Sayers

2011-06-06T08:24:00.004+10:00

During the last month or so I have had a very yucky run of being poorly. That was the down side but the up side of this was that I was only in the mood for very recreational reading. And well let's face it for me that really means crime fiction. But I didn't want some new titles. I needed some comfortable old rereads that would delight me by their prose and give me the thrill of the chase when sometimes I really knew the outcome.

So I decided to read a Dorothy L Sayers or two. In fact, it ended up being not stopping at two but encompassing her whole corpus of crime novels as well as the one she left partly written, Thrones, Dominations, which was completed by Jill Paton Walsh. I decided I wanted to read them in order so I searched out a chronology first off and found one here (along with a lot of other information). This was a list in internal chronology rather than by year of publication. Some of these I had reread on a number of occasions but there were others that I hadn't read for decades.

So in due course, I read: Whose body?, Clouds of Witness, Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Strong Poison, The Documents in the Case, The Nine Tailors, The Five Red Herrings, Have his Carcase, Murder must Advertise, Gaudy Night, Busman's Honeymoon, and the afore-mentioned Thrones, Dominations. I was amused to see as I clocked these up on Goodreads which then broadcast my reading to Twitter and Facebook how I seemed to be starting a trend amongst my followers! I hope they had as much please as I did :)

What a pleasure were they all! I love her prose and her literary allusions and, of course, her plots. They are all really fabulous but Nine Tailors and Gaudy Night are still my definite favourites! Some things don't change in decades. I didn't really like Thrones, Dominations as much as the real DLS but I was encouraged last weekend to start reading the other couple of Wimsey books that Jill Paton Walsh wrote as the person recommending them said they were good. I am currently reading A Presumption of Death which is also based partly on some extant DLS stuff. So I will be reporting back further on these titles.

Tartan Noir

2011-06-02T20:19:00.008+10:00

Balwyn Booktalk: the books

2011-05-23T12:30:00.001+10:00

SUE

JONES, Gail.

Five bells

FIC JONES

A selection of food & wine books inspired by a recent trip to Western Australia

GORDON, Audrey.

Audrey Gordon's Tuscan summer: recipes & recollections from the heart of Italy

641.50207 GOR

SUSANNE

FAINE, Jon.

From here to there

910.4 FAI

DO, Anh.

The happiest refugee

792.7098 DO

POWELL, Julie.

Julie & Julia

920.71 POW

926.41 POW

POWELL, Julie.

Cleaving

641.5092 POW

FIONA

TAPPLY, William G.

The nomination

FIC TAPPL

O'SHAUGHNESSY, Perri.

Show no fear

FIC OSHAU

McLEAN, Russel D.

The good son

FIC MACLE

HENRY, Sara J.

Learning to swim

FIC HENRY

Ashburton Booktalk 4 May

2011-05-11T16:57:00.003+10:00

What we talked about:

Jane

LEON, Donna.
Drawing conclusions.
FIC LEON

LEAL, Suzanne.
Border Street.
FIC LEAL & TALK CD LEA

De BLASI, Marlena.
Amandine : a novel.
FIC DEBLAS

SEE, Lisa.
Snow flower and the secret fan.
FIC SEE & LP FIC SEE

Lee

BAKKER, Gerbrand.
The twin.
FIC BAKKE

MICHAELS, Anne.
Fugitive pieces.
FIC MICHA

TREVOR, William.
Two lives: reading Turgenev and my house in Umbria.
FIC TREVO

CHAMBERS, Jeremy.
The vintage and the gleaning.
FIC CHAMB

Ros

NESBO, Jo.
The leopard.
FIC NESBO

SATTIN, Anthony.
A winter on the Nile : Florence Nightingale, Gustave Flaubert and the temptations of Egypt.
926.1073 NIG (S)

BAUER, Jon.
Rocks in the belly.
FIC BAUER.

GORDON, Audrey & GORDON, Phillip.
Audrey Gordon's Tuscan summer: recipes and recollections from the heart of Italy.
641.50207 GOR.

The 2011 Pulitzer Prize Winners

2011-04-19T09:27:00.002+10:00

FICTION

For distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000)

EGAN, Jennifer.
A visit from the goon squad.
FIC EGAN

GENERAL NON FICTION

For a distinguished and appropriately documented book of nonfiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in any other category, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

MUKHERJEE, Siddhartha.
The emperor of all maladies: a biography of cancer.
616.994 MUK

View the complete list of winners and finalists here.

Check our catalogue here.

Kew Booktalk 23 March.

2011-03-30T15:01:00.002+11:00

This is what we talked about:

Claire.

War & Navy Depts. Washington DC.
Instrutions for American servicemen in Britain 1942
940.541273 INS

Dooley, Sean.
Cooking with Baz
928.21 DOO

Peacock, Molly.
The paper garden: Mrs Delaney (begins her life work) at 72.
709.2 DEL(P)

Paech, Jane.
A family in Paris: stories of food, life and adventure
914.436 PAE

Lisa.

Hill, Susan.
A kind man
FIC HILL

Cannell, Dorothy.
Goodbye Ms Chips: an Ellie Haskell mystery
FIC CANNE
LP FIC CANNE

Robertson, Michael.
The Baker Street letters
FIC ROBER

McCall Smith, Alexander.
The lost art of gratitude: an Isabel Dalhousie novel
FIC MACCA
LPFIC MACCA

Phillips, Juanita.
A pressure cooker saved my life: how to have it all, do it all and keep it all together
641.587 PHI

Miles Franklin Longlist

2011-03-28T12:04:00.000+11:00

The nine novels selected for the 2011 Miles Franklin Literary Award longlist are:

Bauer, Jon.
Rocks in the belly

Brown, Honey.
The good daughter

Holland, Patrick.
The Mary Smokes boys

Marchetta, Melina
The piper's son

McDonald, Roger.
When colts ran

Orr, Stephen.
Time's long ruin

Scott, Kim.
That deadman dance

Tranter, Kirsten.
The legacy

Womersley, Chris.
Bereft

The short list will be announced on April 19, and the winner will be announced on June 22.

Hawthorn Booktalk 10th March

2011-03-11T10:50:00.001+11:00

Here's what we talked about.

JUSTINE

RACHMAN, Tom
The imperfectionists
FIC RACHM

GRIFFIN, Kate
The midnight mayor
FIC GRIFF

WOMERSLEY, Chris
Bereft
FIC WOMER

HOLLEY

BAGEANT, Joe
Rainbow pie: a redneck memoir
928.1 BAG

DREWE, Robert
Walking Ella: a dog-day dossier
636.7 DRE

WAY, Twigs
Crocodile in the fernery, pelicans in the pond: histories of entertaining and unlikely garden pets
712.60942 WAY

ELLIOTT, Charles
More papers from the potting shed
635 ELL

CAROL

COTTERILL, Colin
The coroner's lunch
FIC COTTE

McDERMID, Val
The grave tattoo
FIC MACDE

McFARLANE, Brian
Real and reel: the education of a film obsessive and critic
791.43015 MACF

Balwyn Booktalk 21/2/11

2011-02-21T12:30:00.000+11:00

Lisa

HILL, Susan.
The small hand: a ghost story
FIC HILL

WATERFIELD, Giles.
The hound in the left-hand corner
FIC WATER

JOHNSTON, Alexa.
Ladies, a plate
641.815 JOH

BARTULIN, Lenny.
A deadly business
FIC BARTU

VALENT, Paul.
In two minds: tales of a psychotherapist
155.9 VAL

Hannah

BROWN, Ian.
The boy in the moon: a father's search for his disabled son
362.196042 BROW

LITT, Toby.
King Death
PB LIT

SEDARIS, David.
Squirrel seeks chipmunk: a wicked bestiary
FIC SEDAR

LEVENSON, Thomas.
Newton & the counterfeiter: the unknown detective career of the world's greatest scientist
925.3 NEW(L)

Fiona

MAUSHART, Susan.
The winter of our disconnect: how three totally wired teenagers (& their mother who slept with her iphone) pulled the plug on their technology and lived to tell the tale
928.21 MAU

LIPPMAN, Laura.
I'd know you anywhere
FIC LIPPM

TRACY, P.J.
Snow blind
FIC TRACY

SANDERS, Ben.
The fallen
FIC SANDE

Ashburton Booktalk

2011-02-09T15:13:00.000+11:00

Here's what you missed!

Jane

CLARKE, Lindsay.
The water theatre.
FIC CLARK

RUBENFELD, Jed.
The interpretation of murder.
FIC RUBEN, TALK CD RUB & LP FIC RUBEN.

CLIFFORD, Lisa.
Death in the mountains : the true story of a Tuscan murder.
364.1523 CLI &
TALK CD 364.1523 CLI

FRANCIS, Jeremy & TAKACS, Claire.
Cloudehill : a year in the garden.
630.9945 FRA

Susanne

JONES, Lloyd.
Hand me down world.
FIC JONES

GRIFFIN, John Howard.
Black like me.
305.896073 GRI

MACKINNON, A. J.
The well at the world's end.
910 MACK

Cain, Kenneth, Postlewait, Heidi, Thomson, Andrew.
Emergency sex (and other desperate measures).
327.172 CAI

Ros

MORIARTY, Ros.
Listening to country : a journey to the heart of what it means to belong.
305.89915

RIDPATH, Michael.
Where the shadows lie.
FIC RIDPA

CEDER, Camilla.
Frozen moment.
FIC CEDER.

MALOUF, Greg & Lucy.
Saraban : a chef's journey through Persia.
FOL 641.5955 MAL.

Elizabeth Peters: a lot of books to read

2011-01-06T16:58:00.000+11:00

In 2010 one of the reading tasks I set myself was to read or reread all the titles written by Elizabeth Peters (under that pseudonym). As we both share a primary fascination in antiquity and archaeology how can crime fiction linked to that not be a pleasure for me? Both being ailurophiles makes it even better.

The award-winning writer was born in 1927 and has more than 50 novels to her names. Elizabeth Peters is one of two pseudonyms of Barbara Mertz who has published her archaeological titles under her real name. Her other pseudonym is Barbara Michaels under which she writes more gothic crime/adventure books but still often with an archaeological background.

Under the name of Elizabeth Peters, she was published three series (Amelia Peabody, Vicki Bliss and Jacqueline Kirby) as well as nine stand-alone titles. The stand-alone titles commenced with the Jackal's Head in 1968 and end (to date) with the C0penhagen connection in 1982. The non-series titles are as follows:

The Jackal's Head
The Camelot Caper
The Dead Sea Cipher
The Night of 400 Rabbits (Shadows in Moonlight UK & Oz)
Legend in Green Velvet
Devil-May-Care
The Love Talker
Summer of the Dragon
Copenhagen Connection

The first series that I became acquainted with was the Jacqueline Kirby series. With my British School at Athens background I loved the Seventh sinner published in 1972 and read it not long after publication when I had actually visited Rome and the San Clemente site. Of course, I loved the librarianness of the books and the tracking of Jacqueline's life from small town librarian through to well-known romance writer. The titles in this series finish with Naked once more from 1989. Aside from the first one archaeology didn't provide the scene for this series but the library character sure makes up for that. They are as follows:

The Seventh Sinner
Murders of Richard III
Die for Love
Naked Once More

Peters' other small series is the Vicki Bliss series with six titles. The eponymous hero of the series, Vicki Bliss, is an American art historian but the titles are set in Europe and Egypt. Trojan gold, Night train to Memphis and the Laughter of the dead kings draw on archaeology. The Night train to Memphis is a fabulous take-off of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Nile but also has some great tongue in cheek connections to the Peabody/Emerson excavations. The final title, while not her best, pulls it all together. The titles are:

Borrower of the Night
Street of Five Moons
Silhouette in Scarlet
Trojan Gold
Night train to Memphis
The Laughter of Dead Kings

And then there are the nineteen Amelia Peabody books which are set in the late 19th and early 20th century against a backdrop of the developments of scientific archaeology and the struggle of women to be able to study and practice in their own right as professionals. What can I say? Crime fiction set in an archaeological environment? This is one of the joys of classic Agatha Christie for me, and of Peters too. There is Agatha Christie here and Rider Haggard and totally over the top plots and characters. But it is all set in a thoroughly researched background both for the contemporary history and settings as well as the archaeological sources. The Peabody series are as follows:

Crocodile on the Sandbank
Curse of the Pharaohs
The Mummy Case
Deeds of the Disturber
The Last Camel Died at Noon
The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog
The Hippopotamus Pool
Seeing a Large Cat
The Ape Who Guards the Balance
The Falcon at the Portal
He Shall Thunder in the Sky (also: Thunder in the Sky)
Lord of the Silent
The Golden One
Children of the Storm
Guardian of the Horizon
Serpent of the Crown
Tomb of the Golden Bird
A River in the Sky

And how did I go with the challenge? Well, I am still working on it. I read all the Jacqueline Kirby books; I am currently reading the final Vicki Bliss and I have one or two Amelia Peabody titles on reserve. Of the non-series books, I only reread the Dead Sea Cipher so I had better get on and reserve some of those. This looks like it is becoming a two year effort :)

A Christie for Christmas!

2010-12-28T12:41:00.002+11:00

When I was in England earlier in the year I promised to be a "foreign correspondent" for this blog and report in particular on my proposed visit to Agatha Christie's house, Greenway in Devon. It has taken Christmas and its association with Christie to trigger my memory on this. I also needed to remember that I had said I would blog about her recent biography so I will finish up with that.

For many years a new Agatha Christie was always part of my Christmas! Well Agatha always said "A Christie for Christmas" so it was quite appropriate. So when I was planning to go to England earlier in 2010 and emails were going back and forth about places we all wanted to go to, I realized we were going to be in Devon. Wow! So I put my hand up for Greenway, Agatha Christie's house in Devon, that I knew had been given to the National Trust by her grandson. Luckily Hazelanne, Maria and Ronnie with whom I was doing the West country road trip were agreeable and what a fabulous experience that was! Well, the whole road trip was but I found it wonderful to visit Agatha's house, see the pet cemetery, see her bedroom, see her piano and sitting room and see Max' artefacts. Though it was never her primary residence and later given to her daughter and son-in-law, so many of the classic Agatha photos depict her there that it seemed very familiar.

You can see the house and and its location overlooking the Dart above as well as a shot of the garden. If you want to see the other photos I took you can check them out on Flickr in my West Country 2010 folder. If you start with this one and go forward you will catch them all.

Agatha was born in 1890 so we all felt that there would be a new book in the lead up to that anniversary. And sure enough Richard Hack's Duchess of death: the unauthorized biography of Agatha Christie appeared in 2009. Hack is an investigative writer who has previously undertaken investigative biographies of Howard Hughes, Michael Jackson and J. Edgar Hoover. Hack has done a very thorough job of his research, focusing in particular on the 5,000 or more documents at the University of Exeter's Special Collections division. These documents provide a wealth of documentation that has not previously been used.

I enjoyed reading Duchess of death. There was much in it that was familiar but often written with a different viewpoint given the sources and it was certainly interesting to get some family views on other members. Hack doesn't care for Max Mallowan and some of his comments about him are not very well substantiated whilst he leaves out other stuff that would have been interesting to pursue. Some don't like his writing style, but for anyone who is a Christie fan, I recommend the book as a good read. Maybe you could get it out of your local library and read it over the 12 days of Christmas so that you get the Christie/Christmas association? I'll be taking this copy back to my library tomorrow.

Agatha Christie's Poirot books came in at number 84 on the Boroondara 150 favourite books list. So maybe you could start your Boroondara Summer Read with some of those old favourites?

Summer time and the reading is easy

2010-12-20T12:59:00.000+11:00

The Summer Reading Program.

Dream, reflect, imagine with Boroondara's favourite 150 books!

As part of our 150th birthday celebrations, Boroondara libraries asked you to nominate your favourite books of all time. We have now compiled the top 150 books and there are some great reads among them. In fact, they're all good and we'd like you to read them all!

Our Summer Reading Program features all 150 of the favourite books, which will provide you with plenty to do over the holiday period.

The Summer Reading Program is as easy as:

Picking up your own copy of Boroondara's 150 favourite books and reading log in December 2010.
Ticking the boxes of any of the 150 books you read this summer.
Handing in your completed reading log with your contact details to any Boroondara library branch by Friday 25 February 2011.
Joining us for morning tea and the Summer Reading Program lucky prize draw on Tuesday 15 March 2011 at Ashburton library, 154 High Street, Ashburton at 10.30am.

Boroondara's 150 favourite books

2010-12-14T12:32:00.007+11:00

As voted by you!

To celebrate 150 years of continuous public library service in Boroondara in 2010, we asked you to vote for your all-time favourite book. The votes are in and we are proud to present Boroondara's 150 favourite books, as voted by you!

There's a great mix of Australian and international books, recent releases and classics. Did your favourite make the list?

Click here to see the list.

2010 Prime Minister's Literary Awards.

2010-11-08T12:00:00.003+11:00

And the winners are:

Fiction winner

Dog Boy by Eva Hornung

In a deserted Moscow apartment building four-year-old Romochka waits for Uncle to come home. Outside the snow is falling, but after a few days hunger drives Romochka outside, his mother's voice ringing in his ears. Don't talk to strangers. Overlooked by passers-by, he follows a street dog to her lair in a deserted basement at the edge of the city. There he joins four puppies suckling at their mother's teats. And so begins Romochka's life as a dog.

The author

Eva Hornung is an award-winning writer of literary fiction and criticism. Her many awards include The Australian/Vogel Literary Award, the Nita May Dobbie Award, the Asher Literary Award, and the Steele Rudd Literary Award. She has been shortlisted for many more including The Age Book of the Year, NSW Premier's Literary Award, Victorian Premier's Award for Fiction, the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Eva lives in Adelaide.

Judges' comments

To the ancient folkloric and literary traditions of children lost, then raised and nurtured in the animal world, Eva Hornung brings her own compassionate and contemporary outrage at the treatment of refugees and outcasts. Dog Boy is a testing but triumphant feat of the imagination. Hornung challenges us to believe that an abandoned child in a decaying city in deep winter can sympathetically enter the small, embattled but protective society of a dog pack. The resonances of the novel are bleak and unsettling, but the resolution is both shocking and apt, the experiment and the manner of its telling have a compelling assurance. The winner of the 2010 Fiction Awards is a remarkable work of international standing.

Non-fiction winner

The Colony: The History of Early Sydney by Grace Karskens

The Colony is the story of the marvellously contrary, endlessly energetic early years of Sydney. It is an intimate account of the transformation of a campsite in a beautiful cove to the town that later became Australia's largest and best-known city.

From the sparkling beaches to the foothills of the Blue Mountains, Grace Karskens skilfully reveals how landscape shaped the lives of the original Aboriginal inhabitants and newcomers alike. She traces the ways in which relationships between the colonial authorities and ordinary men and women broke with old patterns, and the ways that settler and Aboriginal histories became entwined. She uncovers the ties between the burgeoning township and its rural hinterland expanding along the river systems of the Cumberland Plain.

This is a landmark account of the birthplace of modern Australia, and a fascinating and richly textured narrative of people and place.

The author

Grace Karskens teaches Australian history at the University of New South Wales. Her groundbreaking book The Rocks: Life in Early Sydney won the 1998 NSW Premier's Award for Local and Regional History and established the author as a leading historian of colonial Australia. As Project Historian for the world-renowned Cumberland-Gloucester Streets Archaeological Project (1994-1999) she combined history and archaeology to explore the lost world of the Rocks neighbourhoods in her book Inside the Rocks. She has also written local histories and is a regular contributor to journals on topics ranging from convicts to museums to grave-robbers.

Judges comments

The Colony is a marvellous story grounded in the landscape—from pre-history to successive transformations of the colony from campsites to towns, from garden plots to huge land-holdings.

Tracing and exploring the sense of place is the backbone of Karskens' narrative. Always present in Karskens' story is the Indigenous population, a dynamic, pervasive presence, a presence with victories as well as defeats, of shapers as well as of the dispossessed.

Karskens' scholarship is rich in the exploration of what she lovingly calls ‘the city of words’ – the work of fellow historians, archaeologists, geologists, museologists, and art and architectural historians. Karskens' own voice is a confident one, balanced, perceptive and startling in its simplicity and directness as she challenges received wisdom.

The Colony deserved this year's award for its high literary quality and originality. As a fine history, it is a story which also informs the present and gives us signposts for the future. The narrative is enthralling in its detail and exciting in the picture it draws of the great, brave achievement that the colony was from its earliest days.

Young adult fiction winner

Confessions of a Liar, Thief and Failed Sex God by Bill Condon

I have this annoying problem that gives me a lot of trouble: a conscience. Neil Bridges attends a Catholic boys' school in which teachers rule with iron fists and thick leather straps. Some crumble under the pressure but Neil toughs it out, just as his Vietnam-bound older brother has done before him. He has to be a man, after all. But at sixteen, how can he be sure of himself when he's not sure of anything else?

He loses a friend and finds another, falls in love and unwittingly treads a path that leads to revenge and possibly murder.

The author

Bill Condon's young adult novels, Dogs (2001) and No Worries (2005) were Honour Books in the Children's Book Council Book of the Year Awards. No Worries was also shortlisted for the Ethel Turner Prize in the 2005 NSW Premier's Literary Awards.

Daredevils made the long-list in the inaugural Inky Awards, Australia's first teenage choice awards. Give Me Truth is Bill's most recent young adult novel for Woolshed Press. Before devoting himself to novels, Bill had a long and successful career as a writer of short stories, plays and poetry for young people. His work encompasses many genres and he has close to one hundred titles to his credit. He lives on the south coast of New South Wales with his wife, the well known children's author Di (Dianne) Bates.

Judges' comments

Confessions of a Liar, Thief and Failed Sex God is a poignant, funny and deeply insightful rite of passage novel. Set in 1967, the author makes it seem contemporary, skilfully employing a nuanced first-person narration.

Neil Bridges attends a Catholic boys' school where classmate Ray (Zom) is accused by a Brother of stealing a wallet and is expelled after a fight with his accuser. Neil knows who stole the wallet, but refuses to tell. Ray's father is so ashamed that Ray is cut off from his family—save for his older sister Sylvana.

Neil falls in love with Sylvana, but, implicated in Ray's disgrace, his loyalties and motives are deeply conflicted. The pain of first love, and the morality attached to individual life choices, is evoked with real empathy.

Confessions of a Liar, Thief and Failed Sex God also portrays the strength of ordinary families and the love even between warring brothers. There's a poignant hint too, of more loss ahead, in Neil's brother Kevin's conscription for the Vietnam War. Condon declines to indulge in historical revisionism, while the economical prose attains a rhythm that is almost poetry.

The short, chiselled chapters ensure that not a word is wasted. Condon is a writer of considerable craft who eschews the flamboyant in search of deeper truths.

The winner of the 2010 Young Adult Fiction Award is a work of tremendous honesty and integrity, exploring moral issues pertaining to the rite of passage experienced by teenagers. Judges were enormously impressed with the way the writer canvasses these concerns in a concise, emotionally charged novel.

Children's fiction winner

Star Jumps by Lorraine Marwood

A poignant verse novel depicting the joys and heartbreaks of a farming family as they struggle to cope with the devastating effects of long-term drought. Told through the eyes of Ruby, day to day farm life involves playing in grassy paddocks with siblings, doing jobs and helping out, and witnessing birth, death and sacrifice. The family is devastated when they have to sell-off some of their herd, but in the spirit of hope it is Ruby who tries in her own small way to help the family by making miniature bales of hay.

The author

Lorraine Marwood was born and raised in rural Victoria and has lived for most of her married life on a dairy farm with her husband and their six children. Lorraine is an award-winning poet who has been widely published in literary magazines across Australia, as well as magazines in the UK, USA, New Zealand and Canada. She has also published several children's novels and collections of poetry.

Lorraine is the Australian editor of the UK literary magazine Tears in the Fence and is a writer of poetry ideas and teaching plans for The Literature Base. Lorraine was also the recipient of a May Gibbs mentorship in children's writing. Her titles with Walker Books Australia include Ratwhiskers and Me, published in 2008 and Star Jumps, which was shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards 2010, Lower Primary Category and received a Notable mention in the Children's Book Council of Australia Awards, 2010.

Judges' comments

Lorraine Marwood's Star Jumps is a verse novel set on a dairy farm, and is a lyrical portrait of rural life seen vividly through the eyes of Ruby, the youngest of three siblings. Star Jumps is the favourite game of Keely, Connor and Ruby, a game they play among the marshmallow weed when their work is done; and is also a metaphor for the joy of life, for the here and now.

As prolonged drought threatens to take the farm and Dad has to sell many of the best stock, Ruby makes a list of the things they can do to help and comes up with mini hay bales made from the grass around the fences. Ruby tells the family's story in a voice which offers us a child's view of a changing world.

This is a moving evocation of home and family bonds, and the rhythms of farm life, and explores the effect of drought on all of these things. Star Jumps speaks with a natural poetry and unfussy richness, offering the reader evidence of the power of individual action and of hope in a small, perfectly inscribed way.

Star Jumps was selected as the winner of the 2010 Children's Fiction Award for it is a deceptively simple work with enormous resonance which, in the verse novel format, both evokes a place with warmth and great empathy, and enters into the world of the child with lucid charm and clarity. Star Jumps takes the reader into the lives of a family at a moment of change, sharing with the reader joy, fear and hope. It was the ‘surprise package’ in the list and the voice in which it is written is appealing, authentic and irresistible.