For those already in a Book Club or thinking about starting one – why not check out how the Library can help you! Head to our Book Club Kit page for more details and to look at the variety of we have for loan – now with even more titles.
Category Archives: Memoirs & Biographies
ABIA 2016 Shortlists
First half of the year we’re always bombed with awards and prizes lists. Sometimes it can be very overwhelming. However it’s still worth to mention that this year’s Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) have announced its shortlists. You can, of course, pick up the titles that you’d like to read or recommend to others. It’s better having a variety of choices than a fewer titles. Continue reading
H is for Hawke
H is for HawkSummary
As a child, Helen MacDonald was determined to become a falconer, learning the arcane terminology and reading all the classic books. Years later, when her father died and she was struck deeply by grief, she became obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk. She bought Mabel for £800 on a Scottish quayside and took her home to Cambridge, ready to embark on the long, strange business of trying to train this wildest of animals.
H is for Hawk is an unflinchingly honest account of Macdonald’s struggle with grief during the difficult process of the hawk’s taming and her own untaming. This is a book about memory, nature and nation, and how it might be possible to reconcile death with life and love.
Comments
There is a lot of buzz around the publication of this book, it seems to have struck a chord with a lot of readers. Basically it is part memoir and part memorial to both T.H. White the author of “The once and future King” and “The Sword in the Stone”, (these books were written in the 1940’s and are about the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the round table), and the author’s recently deceased and beloved father. The story is about a young woman who has a fascination with Hawks and Falcons, literature and the history of England, she acquires a young Hawk and raises it and trains it to hunt. The book is basically a beautifully written meditation on Hawks and birds of prey and coming to terms with grief and finally reconciliation and acceptance of things past.
Read By Katherine
“Read outside your comfort zone” Challenge
Are you looking for something different to do over the Summer? Do you want to expand your reading horizons and challenge yourself? Why not take part in our Adult Reading Challenge starting Monday 1 December! Continue reading
Drink, smoke, pass out: an unlikely spiritual journey
Drink, smoke, pass out: an unlikely spiritual journey by Judith Lucy
Abstract – Judith Lucy has looked everywhere for happiness. Growing up a Catholic, she thought about becoming a nun, and later threw herself into work, finding a partner and getting off her face. Somehow, none of that worked. So lately, she’s been asking herself the big questions. Why are we here? Is there a God? What happens when we die? And why can’t she tell you what her close friends believe in, but she can tell you which ones have herpes? No-one could have been more surprised than Judith when she started to find solace and meaning in yoga and meditation, and a newfound appreciation for what others get from their religion. In her first volume of memoir, the bestselling The Lucy Family Alphabet, Judith dealt with her parents. In Drink, Smoke, Pass Out, she tries to find out if there’s more to life than wanting to suck tequila out of Ryan Gosling’s navel. With disarming frankness and classic dry wit, she reviews the major paths of her life and, alarmingly, finds herself on a journey.”
Comments
- One reader found the book more interesting than expected. It was good to read about the ‘lightbulb’ moments; but annoying to read about being adopted all the way through.
- There were some very funny sentences and comic sequences.
- It was sad and depressing to read about the lack of self-worth and the length of time that it took for Judith to realise that her personal standard of perfection was self-imposed.
- The book was repetitious and self-indulgent and didn’t seem genuine.
- The discussions about Catholicism were interesting and the limited choices that Judith felt that she had – a mother, or a nun, or a career woman.
- One reader thought that she would totally dislike the book and found it more readable than expected. Some portions really resonated with the reader.
Read by – The Second Tuesday Evening Book Group