Sydney Writer's Festival 2007

This year's Sydney Writer's Festival runs from the 28th May - 3rd June.

The program for the festival is now available online.

Some highlights include Kate Grenville discussing Writing and Research; Alice Pung, who wrote Unpolished Gem (reviewed here), discussing Childhood Memoirs; Richard Dawkins in conversation (via satellite); and also Lionel Shriver, author of Orange Prize winning We Need to Talk About Kevin, talks to Caroline Baum.

Children's Book of the Year Awards 2007

The Children's Book Council of Australia's shortlist for the Children's Book of the Year award has been announced. A PDF of the entire list can be downloaded here and listed below with Manly Library call numbers (the book may be on loan, but you can check on our online catalogue and place holds there).

Book of the Year: Older Readers
Don't call me Ishmael!: Bauer, Michael Gerard - YAPB /B
One whole and perfect day: Clarke, Judith - YAPB /C
Monster blood tattoo book 1: Foundling: Cornish, D. M. - YA /CORN
The red shoe: Dubosarsky, Ursula - YAPB /D
Red spikes: Lanagan, Margo - YA /LANA
My big birkett: Shanahan, Lisa - YAPB /S

Book of the Year: Younger Readers
Being Bee: Bateson, Catherine (Young Adult Fiction) - JF /BATE
The tuckshop kid: Flynn, Pat (Young Adult Fiction) - JPB /F
Macbeth and son: French, Jackie - JF /FREN
The cat on the mat is flat: Griffiths, Andy - JF /GRIF
Bird & Sugar Boy: Laguna, Sofie - YAPB /L
Layla, Queen of hearts: Millard, Glenda - Held at Lanecove, Stanton, Mosman, Chatswood

Book of the Year: Early Childhood
Grandpa and Thomas and the green umbrella: Allen, Pamela - EA /ALLE
Doodledum dancing: Costain, Meredith - EA /COST
Ella Kazoo will not brush her hair: Fox, Lee - Held at Lanecove, Stanton, Chatswood
Amy & Louis: Gleeson, Libby - EA /GLEE
Eight: Lee, Lyn - EA /LEE
Chatterbox: Wild, Margaret - EA /WILD

Picture Book of the Year
Brian Banana Duck Sunshine Yellow: McKimmie, Chris - Held at Mosman, Stanton
Home: Oliver, Narelle - Held at Lanecove, Stanton
Water Witcher: Ormerod, Jan - EA /ORME
The Rainbirds: Rippin, Sally - EA /METZ
Woolvs in the sitee: Spudvilas, Anne - QJF /WILD
The Arrival: Tan, Shaun - QJF /TAN

Eve Pownell Award for Information Books
Red haze: Australians & New Zealanders in Vietnam: Davidson, Leon - J 959.7043
Queenie: one elephant's story: Fenton, Corinne - EA /FENT
Amazing facts about Australian dinosaurs: Hocknull, Scott - Held at Lanecove, Stanton
All cats have Asperger Syndrome: Hoopmann, Kathy - EA /RED DOT
The penguin book: birds in suits: Norman, Mark - J 598.47/MOR
Leaf litter: Tonkin, Rachel - Held at Lanecove, Stanton

Holdings information correct as at 25th May 2007.
The CBCA also runs Children's Book Week which this year is 18th -24th of August.

Man Booker International Prize

The Man Booker International Prize is awarded once every two years and recognises one author for their achievement in fiction. Seperate from the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, which awards one book annually, the International Prize rewards one writer's continued achievements. The list of contenders for 2007 has just been announced and includes one of my favourites - Australian author Peter Carey. There is also a forum where anyone can have their say on the contenders.

- Anne

Moral courage

by Rushworth M Kidder. Morrow books, 2005.

In this absorbing work, Rushworth Kidder examines what it means to be morally courageous. How easy is it to do the right thing? Why are people sometimes unable to speak out to prevent a wrong? Why do people cheat, lie and steal? Using numerous examples, some momentous, others relatively trivial, but all well-chosen, he shows how making ethical decisions is something we are all called on to do. He reveals that across all cultures, the same basic values are held high – honesty, fairness, respect and compassion are chief among them - and that moral courage depends on a clear grasp of these values. Asking oneself certain key questions should result in the right, morally right decision being made.

Although there is an American bias towards the content and to some extent the tone of this book, it is a highly readable and very worthwhile examination of the topic. It may be somewhat difficult to locate in the Library – you’ll find it in the non-fiction area at 179.6, which is ‘Philosophy - ethics’, though it could as easily be placed with the books on leadership, since great and respected leaders invariably exemplify moral courage. Kidder demonstrates how each of us can, in the manner of James Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life, make a greater difference than we will ever know.

- John.

Broken for you

by Stephanie Kallos. Grove Press, 2004.

Margaret, a 75 year old woman finds out that she has a brain tumour and is not expected to live much longer. She decides that she wants to take in a border; she has a huge mansion with ten out of eleven bedrooms going to waste and with only her porcelain knickknacks for company she feels it is finally time to shake things up a bit.

Enter Wanda Shultz, a woman who is completely content to let the broken pieces of her life remain that way. She has travelled in search of a man who no longer wants her and refuses to let anybody else get close to her, not even Margaret, until a tragic accident changes everything for both women. Broken for You is a complicated novel with many characters and many themes. Kallos expertly deals with the grief, suffering, obsession, abandonment and forgiveness. I particularly loved the joining of both women’s secrets into the ‘mosaic’ of this story….and the beautiful writing.

“Look now…look at what you value; look at the faces and bodies of people you love. The explicit beauty that comes not from smoothness of skin or neutrality of expression, but from the web of experience that has left its mark. A moment in time, of memory preserved and enshrined within a body. You need not be told that these records are what render your beloved beautiful”

I loved this book

- Wendy