Director Miles Roston is a filmmaker who has filmed around the world from Vietnam to Australia to Sierra Leone. His film, 14 Million Dreams, about five orphans of AIDS in Kenya and Malawi debuted on World Aids Day on the Sundance Channel, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, and around the world. His other films have also won him various awards and an Emmy nomination. In addition to documentaries, he co-created, and wrote and directed over 20 episodes of Aliens Among Us, a 65 part children’s series blending animation, drama and documentary for Five in the UK, and airing internationally including on the ABC. His dramatic feature film, also set against the background of the AIDS epidemic, is in pre-production with producers Graham Bradstreet, Marten Rabarts and Xoliswa Sithole.

In his inspirational and daring book ‘Making a world of difference’, Miles Roston tells the tales of people from around the world who, despite unlikely backgrounds, have used their skills and energy to change the lives of those less fortunate than themselves.

These are the stories of people who dared to live their dreams, many against all the odds. When bad luck, misfortune, or tragedy struck them, they changed their lives, and those around them – thousands of lives.

This book will be published in March 1st. Parramatta City Library is going to purchase this book as soon as it’s available. Miles Roston will be coming to the library in March 3rd for the Lunch Hour Author Talk.

The First Wed Reading Group had it’s monthly meeting. They discussed ‘In cold blood’ written by Truman Capote. It is the story of the 1959 murder of the four members of a Kansas farming family, the Clutters.

Capote left his jet-set friends and went to Kansas to delve into the small-town life and record the process by which they coped with this loss. During his stay, the two murderers were caught, and Capote began an involved interview with both. For six years, he became enmeshed in the lives of both the killers and the townspeople, taking thousands of pages of notes. Of In Cold Blood, Capote said, “This book was an important event for me. While writing it, I realized I just might have found a solution to what had always been my greatest creative quandary. I wanted to produce a journalistic novel, something on a large scale that would have the credibility of fact, the immediacy of film, the depth and freedom of prose, and the precision of poetry.” In Cold Blood sold out instantly, and became one of the most talked about books of its time.

The reading group thought the author respected facts and allowed different voices to speak without using journalistic style. While approching the family the author had knowing details. He was able to build suspense and even created sympathy for the murders. It raises questions of good and evil and crime and punishment.

Some members found the motive for killing wasn’t shown that much. But the crime was very detailed. They felt it was a good crime book – journalist crime fiction or not, but it provokes thoughts.  

Title: How to Really Talk About Books You Haven’t Read

Author: Henry Hitchings

                                                                                 S Morgan’s pick

The title of this book was the first thing that caught my eye.  Could I really pull-off talking about Leo Tolstoy and James Joyce without ever having read their books?  Well it was certainly worth a shot. 

What I found was a well written book that kept me interested enough to finish it within a few days. With chapters such as “Would You Really Want to Join the Dante Club?” and  “What’s Actually in the Bible?”,  it offers insight into books that may not normally be chosen by the average reader.  

Some might pick up this book to avoid embarrassment during conversations with bookish people. (You know the types, the ones that like to boast about having read War and Peace and Ulysses, gushing about having loved them both.)  I, on the other hand, had hopes of becoming one of those people.  I not only wanted to be able to brag about having read Ulysses, I wanted to profess to having enjoyed it too.  I have to admit that I had not read most of the books it lists, although I have picked up the Bible, the Qur’an, and most books by Shakespeare. 

What I found most appealing about this book is that it gives an uncomplicated description of the titles found inside.  This could mean that for most readers this book will be not used so much as a learning tool in the art of bluffing your way through dinner parties but as an incentive to go to your local library and borrow some of the classics listed within. Since reading this book I have started reading Ulysses and yes, I am enjoying it. Hopefully, it will be the first of many on my list.  

Discover a new love when you cuddle up with a book & ignite your passion for reading. Parramatta City Library will be encouraging readers to find romance in the written word when we celebrate Library Lovers Day on 15 February.

Enjoy a festival day packed with music, guest speakers at the end of the day and take home a mystery date with a book. Love your library and it will love you right back, we promise!

Susannah Fullerton is a well known literary lecture, writer and a very popular presenter at the State Library of NSW. She is the president of The Jane Austen Society of Australia.  Susannah Fullerton is passionate about English literature and has degrees from the Universities of Auckland and Edinburgh. 

Susannah Fullerton has written ‘Jane Austen: Antipodean views’ and ‘Jane Austen and crime’. Her latest title ‘Brief encounters: Literary Travellers in Australia’ has been published last year.  This wonderful book looks at those great literary figures who travelled to Australia, revealing what they thought of us – and what we thought of them. Anthony Trollope, Mark Twain, Agatha Christie, Rudyard Kipling, and D H Lawrence are among the one female and ten male writers featured.  

Susannah Fullerton is coming to Parramatta City Library in joining our celebration of Library Lovers Day. She will continue the romantic theme of the day and talking about Jane Austen and her romantic characters, such as Mr Darcy. 

Parramatta City Library has launched a new type of talking book collection – Playaway.

Half the size of a deck of cards, Playaway is the simplest way to listen to a book on the go and – with no tapes or CDs – it can hold up to eighty hours of content on each unit.

Using clearly marked buttons, Playaway gives listeners the ability to move back and forth within or between chapters and alter the speed of a narrator’s voice – It even has an automatic bookmark feature that remembers where you left off.   

There are over 8,000 titles on Playaway, including many selections for children, language learning programs, bestselling adult fiction, and classics. Playaway’s format is friendly for listeners of all ages; and every patron can enjoy the new format.  The Parramatta collection includes popular titles such as:   My Sister’s Keeper, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, A Thousand Splendid Sunshine, and The Da Vinci Code, and many more popular titles.