Celebrate

We've kept some specials til last. Our very popular Italian Collection has had some new additions. If you won't be in Italy over Christmas for either the food, the gardens or the coastline retreats, why not choose a couple of books from this sumptuous group and relax with them over the holidays.


                                                             

Judy Nunn is coming to the Highlands

We are excited to announce that Judy Nunn will be visiting us in the Highlands on Wednesday 13th November for a Literary Afternoon Tea to launch her latest publication "Elianne".

 
Judy Nunn’s career has been long, illustrious and multifaceted. After combining her internationally successful acting career with scriptwriting for television and radio, Judy decided in the 90s to turn her hand to prose.
Her first three novels, The Glitter Game, Centre Stage and Araluen, set respectively in the worlds of television, theatre and film, became instant bestsellers, and the rest is history, quite literally in fact. She has since developed a love of writing Australian historically-based fiction and her fame as a novelist has spread rapidly throughout Europe where she is published in English, German, French, Dutch, Czech and Spanish.
Her subsequent bestsellers,
Kal, Beneath the Southern Cross, Territory, Pacific, Heritage, Floodtide, Maralinga and Tiger Men confirm Judy’s position as one of Australia’s leading fiction writers.

We are taking bookings now for Judy's talk at Bowral Library. Tickets are $10 for Friends of Wingecarribee Libraries members and $15 for non-members. Our Friends will as usual be serving a delicious afternoon tea from 2.30pm, Judy's talk will start at 3pm and The Bookshop Bowral will have copies of "Elianne" available for purchase.
Judy's visit is a joint collaboration between the Friends of Wingecarribee Libraries and The Bookshop Bowral and promises to be a very entertaining afternoon. We'd love you to attend and perhaps a copy or two of Judy's new book would be wonderful Christmas presents?

Looking forward to seeing you on the 13th,
Helen

Brighter futures

 

It's Tulip Time in the Highlands. This year's colour theme is red and the slogan is "towards brighter futures". In the library, we think information is definitely a way towards a brighter future, so come and see what we have to offer. You may also like to see how many of our "tulip" titles you have already read.

Revisit the 1900s with a penguin

It may be Spring in the Highlands, but in the library we are over run with penguins! No, not black and white ones, but green, popular and perennial re-releases from Penguin Publishers. If you haven't already read these crime novels now may be a good time to try a few. If you have read them, are they worth another look? Do you feel the same way about them this read around?

Creative writing

On Saturday 7th September, we are holding two adult writing workshops in the library. They will be facilitated by author and presenter and all round interesting guy Keith Whelan. The morning session is Creative Writing, the afternoon session is Short Story Writing. Both these sessions are free to you as the Friends of Wingecarribee Libraries are generously covering Keith's fee for the day. Now, I do know that this is Election Day, but it won't take you long to vote (it's only next door) and maybe that could be your topic for writing. Or maybe you feel you need something to take you mind off the whole thing anyway... So, if you have untapped creativity trapped inside of you, or a whole load of ideas you need to get organised, or you'd just like to see how the process works, then book yourself (and a friend) in for one or both of our sessions. Just phone Bowral Library 4861 1167. I can promise you this will be a fun day, oh and I'll supply morning and afternoon tea too.

Art

 

 

 

Here's a small sample of our artreads for July. Happy reading.

 

Outline’s of Australian Art, the Joseph Brown Collection/ Daniel Thomas

Beyond tattoo/ Allan Graves

Beyond the page/ Quentin Blake 

Freestyle Tattoo Australia/Elias Velis

The secret museum/ Molly Oldfield

Masters of the world/ William Bernstein

The art of the First Fleet

Lost, stolen or shredded/ Rick Gekoski

Digital painting tricks and techniques/ Gray Tonge

 

The girl with a pearl earring/Tracey Chevalier

Theft/ Peter Carey

The art thief/ Noah Charney

The killer’s art/ Mari Jungsted

The Da Vinci code/ Dan Brown

My Name is Red/ Orhan Pamuk

Sunflowers/ Sheramy Bundrick

The biographer/ Virginia Duigan

 

Some, but not all,  children’s illustrators

 

                                                   Pamela Allen       Kerry Argent     Jeannie Baker

                                                   Graeme Base      May Gibbs           Eric Hill       

                                                  Judy Horacek      Dee Huxley          Alison Leicester 

                                                  Deborah Niland  Jan Ormerod       Donna Rawlins          

                                                  Michael Salmon  Shaun Tan          Julie Viva 

                                             Bruce Whatley

   

DVDs and CDs

The pink panther  DVD

Return of the pink panther DVD

Mistral’s daughter DVD

Billy Elliot DVD

Chicago DVD

Footloose DVD

Les Misèrables DVD

Dreamgirls: music from the motion picture CD

 

Grand designs Australia magazine

 

http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/insideartexpress

 

 

Dinner at eight

This month our reading is "Faraway". Fantasy, travel, escapism, family history, space etc etc... What is your favourite faraway story? Here's mine.

 

 

I visited a distant relatives’ farm when I was about 11. I have vague memories of most of the house and property, the mangy cattle dogs and sheep in the back of the ute and people yelling “shut the gate” at regular intervals, probably to me. The kitchen though, oh I do remember that. The scrubbed pine table was definitely the heart of the home. Everything happened on it- breakfasts, lunch, dinner preparation, a cuppa and a slab of cake, cleaning up my brother after a fall into the barbed wire fence and so on, but it was the pantry that captivated me. On the shelves, rows and rows of pickled and preserved vegetables, fruits, jams, marmalade, potted meats, huge bags of potatoes and onions hanging to dry. I was gobsmacked, speechless, in awe. I was mesmerized by the colours, the shapes, the order and the impressive quantity of deliciousness on those shelves. It was miles away from what I knew, faraway you might say.

Years later on a farm stay holiday and the memories this childhood holiday came flooding back as I slurped, chomped and generally feasted on fresh eggs, vegetables, slabs of bread, cakes, scones, homemade jam and lamb, cutlets, roast legs, chops all grown, harvested and cooked by our hosts, again, so far, far away from my usual eating lifestyle. Today my faraway feasts are as close as the contents of my fridge and pantry and as far away as the inspiration from my latest cookbook. What do I fancy? Will I travel to Morroco, Greece, China, Vietnam, India, Spain or France? I’m transported to local markets, salivating as I wander amongst the fresh produce, spices, breads. I can create luscious delectable, ambrosial feasts. Ghillie Basan, Skye Gyngell, Jamie Oliver, Kylie Kwong, Christine Manfield, Luke Nguyen, Yottam Ottolenghi, Mourad Lahlou, Greg Malouf, Rick Stein and a miriad of others all tempt me to tables far away. They aren’t all scrubbed pine but they are essentially the same. Scrumptious, dainty or robust, gourmet or gourmand, hot and spicy, cool, creamy or crunchy.
There really isn’t time or space here to truly describe how delicious it is to lose myself in any of these cookbooks and then create something from them, and that’s just the cookbooks. Lets’ not forget food blogs, dvds, magazines, tips from friends, work colleagues, and the family’s treasured and closely guarded recipes. I’ve even been given a a set of music cds (play the music, cook the meal – unfortunately I have to supply my own wine) that match a recipe book.
I wander around my local growers market and I am amazed that the smells and food displays can immediately take back to my childhood or into another country, time or season. I can pick fruit from the trees in the backyard, pick herbs from the garden (if the bunnies have left me some) and cook away. I am transported far away for a while, then I realise, the essential ingredient in my far away feast is very close. It’s not a feast without company, so come on in, the table’s set, dinner’s at eight, don’t be late…
Helen

Indigireads

This month we celebrate Indigenous writing, films and music. We would like to show our respect and acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, of elders past and present.
Our libraries have some wonderful books on display, all for borrowing or browsing.
We also found the following website full of interesting facts for school projects, general information, booklists and my favourites, indigenous film and music lists. If you have some time, you might like to have a look too.
www.creativespirits.info


                                        

Helen

Murder is a messy business

Yes, April is murder. Lock the doors, close the curtains and curl up with a killer.

Murder is a messy business. The motivations behind committing murder can be complicated. The murder weapon needs to be considered, a pistol perhaps? Or, the ubiquitous blunt instrument? The location and the timing of the murder need to be carefully planned. Witnesses are to be avoided. An alibi has to be constructed. Then, of course, the question of what to do with the body must be answered.

If murder is so difficult, why is it so fascinating?

Crime fiction is the world’s largest genre. One of the reasons for this is that crime fiction writers have so successfully capitalised on the appeal factors of reading: character; language; setting; and story. Many crime fiction readers are very familiar with these appeal factors: the numerous characters from cerebral sleuths who can solve a crime in their living room over a cup of tea (Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle) to weapon wielding heroes who track cup of tea (Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle) to weapon wielding heroes who track down villains on foot in darkened alleyways (James M Cain, Raymond Chandler, Peter Corris, Dashiell Hammett); the language of the cultured conversations from the novels of the genre’s Golden Age between World Wars I and II (Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L Sayers) to the hard-hitting terminology of forensic procedurals (Patricia Cornwell, Gabrielle Lord, Kathy Reichs) and legal procedurals (Sydney Bauer, John Grisham, Scott Turow); the settings that range from Australian towns and cities (Shane Maloney, Peter Temple, Arthur Upfield) to glamorous locations around the world (Ian Fleming, Patricia Highsmith); and the diversity of detective stories from the classic locked room (John Dickson Carr, Fergus Hume) to modern day military thrillers (Tom Clancy, Matthew Reilly). Crime fiction also covers the continuum of stories that focus on solving the crime (G K Chesterton, P D James, Ellis Peters) to works that explicitly detail criminal acts (James Ellroy, Thomas Harris, Mo Hayder). There is, quite simply, a dead body for every reader.

So, this April read a work of crime fiction. If you are already familiar with the genre try a sub-genre or author you have not read before. If you are new to crime fiction then you're about to find out that as a great read, crime does pay.

What are your favourite crime related reads? Any films or games? What are the blogs, twitter streams or magazines you read for #crimeread? Any apps which form part of your #crimeread enviroment?

There will be a live twitter discussion on 30 April starting at 8.00pm Australian Eastern Standard Time. 9.00pm New Zealand Time, 6.00pm Singapore Standard Time, 12.00 noon Central European Summer Time. Note : this is a staggered start to the discussion.

Use the tags #crimeread and #rwpchat as you discuss the reading, watching playing that is your experience of crimeread, so others can join in the conversation too.
Rachel Franks @rachel franks

Eco reads at your library

2013 is the International Year of Water Cooperation.
March is celebrating #ecoread, where you can discuss all your ideas of ecology, environment, water use and conservation, whatever you think fits as an #ecoread.

How do you recycle or reuse your reading, watching and playing?

 

Libraries are part of a sustainable solution as you do not need to own everything you read.

What does #ecoread make you think of? Is is recycling/upcycling? Is it science fiction with tales of worlds destroyed because of overuse of resources?

What are your favourite water related reads? Any films or games? What are the blogs, twitter streams or magazines you read for #ecoreads? Any apps which form part of your #ecoread enviroment?

Don't forget our twitter chat on 26 March starting at 8.00pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time. 9.00pm New Zealand Daylight Time, 6.00pm Singapore Standard Time, 12.00 noon Central European Summer Time. Note : this is a staggered start to the discussion.

Use the tags #ecoread and #rwpchat as you discuss the reading, watching playing that is your experience of ecoread, so others can join in the conversation too.

You can add your pins to this board on Pinterest (once you follow it and we add you as a pinner) for #ecoread too. Please use #rwpchat in the text of items which you pin.

Love love love February

Is there anything better in this world than that rush of adrenaline, that natural high at the feeling of love? For the reader and viewer, genuine, swooning, pulse-racing, fever inducing, gleeful, heartful love can be so much fun.This month you could start at historical romance and indulge yourself in Julia Quinn’s On the Way to the Wedding. Or you could watch Shakespeare in Love or oh-so-many versions of Pride and Prejudice. If you prefer contemporary reads there are some wonderful characterisations in Rachel John’s Jilted. Susan Elizabeth Phillips' books pull at the heart strings with their depth of emotions that have you wrought by the end of her books. As for film and movies who can go past the hilarity of Coupling, the sweetness of Amelie.There are so many heartreads out there – this will be a month full of love.
Don't forget to join our live twitter discussion on 26 February starting at 8.00pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time. 9.00pm New Zealand Daylight Time, 6.00pm Singapore Standard Time, 12.00 noon Central European Time.  Everyone is welcome.

Use the tags #heartread and #rwpchat as you discuss the reading, watching playing that is your experience of love and romance, so others can join in the conversation too.

Best loved books - reread

This January it’s time to pick up your favourite book and read it again, read a controversial book for a second time a decade later, or reread a book you first read at 16 at 30 or 60 to see if it still has the same impact or has improved on re-reading. Or, consider re-watching that favourite movie or television series, re-playing (again) that game which had you hooked so many years/months/weeks/days ago.
So if you’re hot at the beach, or curled up in front of a fire place during the coldest month of the year – January is the time to reconsider and reflect upon our reading, watching and/or playing.

Here’s a few of our favourite rereads :

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton

The year after by Martin Davies
Truth and The broken shore by Peter Temple
All creatures great and small by James Herriot
In the skin of a lion by Michael Ondaatje
Journey to the stone country by Alex Miller
Northern lights by Philip Pullman
Spirit House by Mark Dapin
The Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobellle Carmody
and it’s always reread time for Jane Austen

 We have some favourite rewatches too:

Babe

Star wars
Men in black
Grease
Big bang theory
and anything by Jane Austen