2009 Australian/Vogel Literary Award has announced its winners
Utopian man by Lisa Lang – the book tell the story of Edward William Cole in Melbourne, in 1880s. Lisa Lang is a Melbourne based writer.
Night street by Kristel Thornell – the book tells story of Clarice Beckett (1887-1935), in Melbourne. The author is Sydney based.
The Australian/Vogel Literary Award is one of Austrlia’s richest and most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under the age of thirty-five.
The shortlist for this year has been announced in September 12th. The winner will be soon announced in a week time, in September 19th.
The shortlist
Jeremy Ohlback – Squire Nation
Nathan Markham – The book of Lilith
Kristell Thornell – Night Street
Courtney Collins – The burial
Lisa Lang – Utopian man
Ali’s pick
Before I start writing this review, I would like to say that I wasn’t a big fan of horror all my life. I am a fan of horror now, and I will tell you why. It was a dark night, lightning thundered outside my room and a book materialized in front of me.
Good start? Perhaps, but that’s not what really happened. It just came to pass that I came across a book called Misery by Stephen King and the title sparked my interest, and so I picked it up, and I read the blurb at the back of the book, it said: “famous writer held hostage by a psychotic nurse” and on the cover it said “Paul Sheldon used to write for a living, now he is writing to stay alive” I immediately got hooked, I wanted to know why and how it will all will end, and by the end of this review, believe me so will you.
Okay, let’s get down to business. Misery is a journey into the mind of famous writer Paul Sheldon who has a serious car accident and when he wakes up then finds himself with two broken legs and being held captive by psycho ex nurse (Annie Wilkes) who calls herself his number one fan. She nurses him back to life, feeds him pain killing pills, and it’s all good until he discovers that she is disturbed, very disturbed.
Annie Wilkes is not only disturbed, she is murderous; an ex nurse who keeps a scarp book of newspapers and pictures of her victims. I’ll leave the rest for your imagination. She loves Paul Sheldon however, and not because he’s such a handsome man, but because she relates, in her own psychotic way to one of the characters in his novels that goes by the name Misery Chastain. As the story unfolds you will come to the realization that unfortunately before the accident Paul Sheldon decided to kill Misery Chastain so he can start writing another series about a foul mouthed car thief from Harlem city. Unfortunately he is under the mercy of Annie Wilkes, and when Annie finds out all hell will break loose. Unfortunately Annie Wilkes got the torch, the pills, the syringes, and Annie Wilkes is crazy.
There is more to this book than just scaring the reader. With the main character being a writer, you get an interesting glimpse of how creative writing works and how a book comes together. Stephen King develops a solid plot and creates original, live characters. Still, the novel is not for the faint of heart. Remember that if you want to check it out. Even when you close this book and you finish reading it, it will haunt you at night, and it will hiss and slither inside your mind like a snake might in a cave.
The Indie award is chosen by Australian independent booksellers to award an Australian author. This year, $19,000 prize will go to one of the winners shortlisted
Fiction: Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
Debut fiction: Virtuose by Sonia Orchard
Non fiction: The tall man by Chloe Hooper
Children’s book: Pearl verses the world by Sonia Orchard
The winner will be announced in September 28th. Please keep eye on this award. Parramatta City Library has all those titles in its collection. Click titles link to check our online catalogue.
Parramatta City Library starts to run and new reading group The Last Thursday Reading Group, in coordination with Neighbour Aid. This group provides a new avenue to those senior citizens, especially those dismobile or from non English backgroup, to group together and discuss their readings.
The group meets the last Thursday of the month and will discuss a same book they read. For the first meeting, the group recommends those titles for other readers
Eat, pray, love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Tea in the library by Annette Freeman
Too soon too old, too late smart by Gordon Livingston
White banners by Lloyd Douglas