Book Babblers babbles in July 2010

What our Book Babblers at Maroochydore Library have been reading in July 2010

Helen and Jane have both read Khaled Hosseini’s A thousand splendid suns and while it was good, they found it not as enjoyable as The kite runner.

Geraldine Brooks’ A year of wonders: a novel of the plague tells of an isolated village in England and how its inhabitants dealt with the coming of the plague in1666. Sue, Jane and Helen read and loved this one.










Swedish crime writer Henning Maknell’s Italian shoes looks at the impact of an unexpected visitor on the isolated life of surgeon Fredrik Welin. Mankell’s works include the Inspector Wallander mysteries. Helen recommends this one.

Helen enjoyed The elegance of the hedgehog by French author Muriel Barbery, which tells of Renee, the concierge at a block of luxury apartments in Paris who hides her superior intelligence from the tenants. Paloma, a twelve-year old tenant, and a Japanese businessman named Kakuro Ozu are the other main characters in this ‘different’ and engaging story.

In Norwegian author Per Pettersen’s Out stealing horses, an elderly man reminisces about his childhood in German occupied Norway. This book won the British ‘2006 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize’ and Helen recommends it too!

Rose Tremain’s novels Music and silence (Whitbred winner), The road home (Orange Prize winner), and Trespass all have main characters who are coping with life in a foreign land. Helen says read them!

Lionel Shriver’s The female of the species is set in Kenya where a female anthropologist falls in love with the wrong man. Sue listened to & liked this audio book, by the author of We need to talk about Kevin.








Margaret Atwood’s Bodily harm didn’t live up to expectations for Sue and Helen. Sue thought it had a confusing plot, and she felt no connection with the main character.

Jane read Australian writer Cate Kennedy’s The world beneath. In it, a man makes contact with his daughter on her 16th birthday, and takes her bushwalking. He and his ex-wife were activists in the campaign to save the Gordon below Franklin many years before, but the man has not been a bushwalker for many years, and he and the daughter become lost. Jane said although she could appreciate that the book was well written, she didn’t feel much for any of the characters except the daughter.

Michael Robotham is, according to Jane, Australia’s most translated crime writer. His novels include Bomb proof, The drowning man and Shatter, which Jane says is an easy, enjoyable read.

Helen Garner’s The spare room is available from the library as an audio book. Jane liked Helen Garner’s honesty in this true story of a dear friend who comes to stay, and is in denial about the fact that the cancer she has is terminal.

Book Babblers babbles in June 2010

What our Book Babblers at Maroochydore Library have read in June 2010…..

Mary attends a U3A book club at which she was introduced to Irish playwright/ poet/ novelist Sebastian Barry’s book A long, long way. His novels have characters in common, but are not part of a series, as such. His latest novel The secret scripture is the second of his novels to be shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Fiona read: Augusten Burrough’s You better not cry. This is another autobiographical novel from the author of Running with scissors. It centres on Christmas-related events in Burrough’s life, including his childhood confusion involving Jesus and Santa. This is a book from which the reader emerges knowing that nothing was held back, it’s warts ‘n’ all, and may leave some readers thinking “Eeeew, I didn’t want to know that!” Funny, insightful, honest….loved it!

The slap by Christos Tsiolkas was recommended by both Jill and Sue. The repercussions of one small incident, and how it is interpreted by the people involved, form the nucleus of this story.

Tim Winton’s Breath with its economy of language was appreciated by Mary, who said that she wouldn’t normally have chosen to read a book about surfing.

Sue says that Ian McEwan’s Solar is worth reading, as long as you accept that, like in all his books, ‘things are just going to get worse, and worse and worse!”

The landscape of farewell by Australian author Alex Miller is about a German historian delivering a lecture on massacre. Mary found it depressing, but got enough out of it to have decided that she will read Miller’s latest novel Lovesong.

Both Sue and Mary read Natasha Solomons’ Mr Rosenblum’s list, about a man and his immediate family who escape Germany just prior to World War 11, and arrive in England as refugees. On arrival in England Mr Rosenblum is given a list of helpful hints for refugees, and this heart warming story is about his efforts to assimilate.








 

We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver is a fabulous book according to Mary, Sue and Jane.

Jane has been reading some items from the library’s Youth Fiction collection. The knife of never letting go is a fast-paced, right of passage novel for 12-16 year olds. In this story, people no longer live on earth, and society consists only of men and boys, who incidentally can hear each other’s thoughts, and those of animals. Like many YF tales, this one is about learning to cope with life and its challenges.

Jane also enjoyed The boy in the striped pyjamas which is in both the Adult Fiction & YF collections at Sunshine Coast Libraries.











Bookings are now open for the next Book Babblers gathering which will be held at Maroochydore Library on 29 July 2010.

What are library staff reading?

Jane is reading: The Knife of Letting Go by Patrick Ness.

Todd Hewitt lives in Prentisstown, where all boys become men at the age of 13. Todd has one month to go, and as far as he knows, Prentisstown is the only settlement in the world. After a native group known as the 'Spackles' released a germ, all the women have died. As a side effect of this germ, the remaining men in Prentisstown can hear each other's thoughts, known as the ever present cascade of ‘Noise’. Just before Todd becomes a man he hears something he shouldn't…. Silence and silence belongs to Women. The town has plans for Todd and these are not good plans so begins Todds' adventure.

Fiona is reading: You better not cry by Augusten Burroughs.
 
First half of the book is about Augusten’s childhood belief that Santa and Jesus were one and the same. An entertaining autobiography based on the antics in his dysfunctional first family. Also author of “Running with scissors”.
A great read.

Tamara is reading: The Norseman’s Song by Joel Deane.

Australian fiction. Two narratives running through the story. One is about a Melbourne taxi driver who is an ex-criminal whose passenger is a former journalist who hops into his taxi with a head in a hat box. The other narrative is about a Norwegian killer. Set 140 years apart yet they are connected. Gritty storyline but beautifully crafted.

Book Babblers babbles in April 2010

What our Book Babblers at Maroochydore Library have read in April 2010…..

Fiona is reading Crimespotting: an Edinburgh crime collection.
A collection of 10 short stories by bestselling writers, especially commissioned for this book. A mixture she really enjoyed, despite usually not being a reader of short stories.

Nina is reading The English patient by Michael Ondaatje.
A great story, told via flashbacks.

Nina is also reading Q and A by Vikas Swarup. Nina didn’t expect it to be so different from the movie, that even the characters names have been changed.

Faye – is writing a short story and after attending author Anna Campbell’s talk at the library last year, is reading a variety of books in order to learn what makes a good conclusion to a story.
Faye says that Bettina Arndt writes about sex “like it is vegemite”! 13 ½ by Nevada Barr was a great example of how to finish with an unexpected ending.
Fay also enjoyed Three weeks to say goodbye by C. J. Box, in which an adopted child’s biological father wants to reclaim her from the adoptive parents.

Anne finds Jodi Picoult’s books rather predictable. She enjoyed Lionel Shriver’s We need to talk about Kevin in which the mystery was sustained right to the end of the novel. Anne also recommended works by Flannery O’Connor which are often about African Americans and the fight for equal rights. On a lighter note, Elizabeth Noble’s The book club is a good quick read. Trying to be still was something Anne found a bit different, as it looks at a journalist’s attempt to find ‘stillness’ in her busy world.

Both Jane & Anne recommend Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, pray, love about a woman who travelled and did the things she had always wanted to do….a journey of self-realization. They noted that there is a sequel: Committed.

Sylvia likes Jodi Picoult because the realism of her stories allows the reader to imagine what they would do if facing the same dilemmas as the characters. Two Jodi Picoult books that Sylvia recommends are Handle with care and My sister’s keeper.

Markus Zusak’s The book thief was Jane’s favourite book this month. Death narrates this tale set in World War II, which demonstrates how people adapt to and survive dreadful situations. A triumph of the human spirit story.



 
 
 
 
 
Next ‘Book Babblers’ will be at 10.30 am on 27th May at Maroochydore Library.
Book a place by phoning 5475 8900.

2010 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist

The 2010 Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist has been released. Click on the titles to take you to the library catalogue:

Lovesong Alex Miller (Allen & Unwin)

Summary: Seeking shelter in a Parisian cafe from a sudden rainstorm, John Patterner meets the exotic Sabiha and his carefully mapped life changes forever. Resonant of the bestselling Conditions of Faith, Alex Miller's keenly awaited new novel tells the deeply moving story of their lives together, and of how each came undone by desire.

The Book of Emmett Deborah Forster (Random House)

Summary: Emmett Brown was a charming young man who quoted poetry and read to his wife and young family from the great novels of the world. But failed efforts to win a fortune at the racetracks turned Emmett into a broken down gambling drunk who terrorized his wife and children. Starting at Emmett’s funeral and reflecting back, the two eldest Brown children—Louise and Rob—recount the rise and fall of their family. Each of Emmett’s children must address the fallout of Emmett, and each comes to discover that they loved and learnt from their father in both his golden and his dark days.

The Bath Fugues Brian Castro (Giramondo Publishing)

Summary: This book is composed of three interwoven novellas, the first centred on an ageing art forger; the second on a Portuguese poet, opium addict and collecter; the third told by a well-connected doctor, with a cabinet of venom, and an art gallery on the north Queensland coast.

Truth Peter Temple (Text Publishing)

Summary: Stephen Villani is acting head of the Victoria Police homicide squad. His first months on the job have not gone well: two Aboriginal teenagers shot dead in a botched operation he authorised in the provincial city of Cromarty; no progress on the killing of a man in front of his daughter outside a private girls' school.Now five men are found dead in horrifying circumstances on the outskirts of the city. Villani's superiors and the media are baying for arrests. To add to his woes, some of the country's richest people are alarmed by the baffling killing of a young woman in the high-security tower where they live.Villani, a man who has built his life around his work, begins to find the certainties of both crumbling. As the pressure mounts, he finds that he must contemplate things formerly unthinkable.Truth is a novel about murder, corruption, family, friends, honour, honesty, deceit, love, betrayal. And truth.

Jasper Jones Craig Silver (Allen & Unwin)

Summary: Jasper Jones has come to my window. I don't know why, but he has. Maybe he's in trouble. Maybe he doesn't have anywhere else to go.Late on a hot summer night at the tail end of 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and bookish boy of thirteen, is startled by a knock on his window. His visitor is Jasper Jones. Rebellious, mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress.Jasper takes him to his secret glade in the bush, and it is here that Charlie bears witness to a horrible discovery. In this simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns to discern the truth from the myth.By turns heartbreaking, hilarious, tender and wise, Jasper Jones is a novel to treasure.

Butterfly Sonya Hartnett (Penguin Group-Australia)

Summary: A portrait of a suburban thirteen-year-old girl, her desperate need for her friend's approval and how far she'll go to gain it.

More information.

What are library staff reading?

Wendy at Maroochydore Library:

The iconic house : architectural masterworks since 1900 by Dominic Bradbury.

Features one hundred of the most important and influential architect-designed houses from around the world. First, 20 important houses are shown, followed by another 80 influential houses. Approximately 4 Australian homes are included. Some pages have floorplans included. Easy to read without using architectural jargon.

Wendy at Maroochydore Library:
Cleaving : a story of marriage, meat and obsession by Julie Powell

Author of Julie/Julia. Memoir of author, follows on from her previous book, however now her marriage is incrisis, she is in the midst of a torrid love affair and she becomes obsessed with butchery. Follows her journey discovering the art of butchery, which has no parallels to her personal life. Lots of good information on how to butcher meat if you are interested and the author takes romance advice from Spike in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ ie Love you from your eyeballs to your entrails…Could give it a miss. (Audio version).

Jen at Maroochydore Library:

Ultramarathon man: 50 marathons, 50 states, 50 days by Dean Karnazes.

Jen recommends this inspirational / motivational DVD which follows endurance athlete and best selling author Dean Karnazes, in his attempt to run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 consecutive days to raise awareness for youth obesity and to get America active.

What are library staff reading? Twitterature!

Yes. We have now seen everything!

Karen from Library Support is reading:

Twitterature : the world's greatest books retold through Twitter / Alexander Aciman and Emmett Rensin.
Summary:
Perhaps you once asked yourself, 'What exactly is Hamlet trying to tell me? Why must he mince his words, muse in lyricism and, in short, whack about the shrub?' No doubt such questions would have been swiftly resolved were the Prince of Denmark a registered user on Twitter.com. This, in essence, is Twitterature . Here are over 60 of the greatest works of literature - from Beowulf to Bronte, Kafka to Kerouac, Dostoevsky to Dickens - distilled in the voice of Twitter to their pithiest essence, providing everything you need to master the literature of the civilised world, while relieving you of the task of reading it.

Anzac Day images

With Anzac Day approaching, check out these great images of Anzac Days past from Picture Sunshine Coast.

Unveiling of the Caloundra War Memorial on Caloundra Head, Anzac Day 1948. [picture]

Anzac Day, opening of the Tewantin RSL Memorial in the park, Gooloi Street, Tewantin (ca. 1922) [picture]

Anzac Day service at the Cenotaph, Nambour, 1961 [picture]

Take a look at other images from Picture Sunshine Coast.

What are library staff reading?

What are library staff reading?

Jane from Maroochydore Library is reading The blue notebook / James A. Levine:

Based in India. Sad story about how kids are sold off into a life of crime and prostitution. Was sold off to pay for her father’s gambling debts. Inc life in an orphanage only to be sold again. Way she survives is write in the blue book. Profits of the book go to helping these kids.

Sam from Maroochydore Library is reading The 7th victim : a novel / Alan Jacobson:

Recommended by a borrower. Really good as a thriller and got the reader involved very quickly.