The new Autumn 2017 edition of our reading guide, All About Books is now available. For your FREE copy ask a Library Staff member at any of our branches.
It is filled with lots of reading ideas to inspire you over the season and has a little something for everyone…check out our special Books to Screen section, so many wonderful titles are being made into a movie or tv series this year.
Can’t get to the Library and don’t want to wait until your next visit? Click on the cover to download your copy.
Category Archives: Fiction
Book Review: The good people
The 1st Wed Reading Group at Parramatta Library discussed ‘The good people‘ by Hannah Kent.
This is the second novel written by Hannah Kent after much acclaimed Burial rites.
‘Nóra Leahy has lost her daughter and her husband in the same year, and is now burdened with the care of her four-year-old grandson, Micheál. The boy cannot walk, or speak, and Nora, mistrustful of the tongues of gossips, has kept the child hidden from those who might see in his deformity evidence of otherworldly interference. Continue reading
Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist 2017
On International Women’s Day, sixteen brilliant books were selected to make up this year’s Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist.
The longlisted books are as follows:
Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
The Power by Naomi Alderman
Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood
Little Deaths by Emma Flint
The Mare by Mary Gaitskill
The Dark Circle by Linda Grant
The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride
Midwinter by Fiona Melrose
The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan
The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso
The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
Barkskins by Annie Proulx
First Love by Gwendoline Riley
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain
Read Watch Play – March 2017 #waterread
The Read Watch Play blog is the home of a monthly reading group that encourages everyone to ‘read’ & tweet about what they are reading.
Each month has a different theme, even if you don’t tweet why not use the themes as reading inspirations.
‘Reading’ can encompass anything that provides enjoyment, knowledge, understanding, and relaxation…be it a book, a movie, a game, or a piece of music.
Book Review: To kill a mickingbird by Harper Lee
Summary
‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird‘. Atticus finch gives this advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of this classic novel – a black man charged with attacking a white girl. Through the eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Lee explores the issues of race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s with compassion and humour. She also creates one of the great heroes of literature in their father, whose lone struggle for justice pricks the conscience of a town steeped in prejudice and hypocrisy.
Comments
While this story seemed to lack the ‘punch’ of a modern story, there were quite a lot of pros for this book. We enjoyed the overall simplicity of the writing, the simple setting and the quiet strength of the main characters. We’d all wished we had a father like Atticus. We can also see the impact this book would have had when it was first released and understand completely why it is studied in schools. While we have come a long way, the subject matter is still very much relevant today.
For some of our readers, it did lack the ‘pace’ of today’s stories. Overall though, we rated this book a commendable 7! This is definitely a book that everyone should read it at least once.
Rating – 7/10
Read by – Cultcha Club