Category Archives: Recommended Reading

NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Shortlist

Posted on by

UPDATE – Winners have been announced!
Book of the Year & Multicultural NSW award – Still alive – Safdar Ahmed with other winners below.
People’s Choice winner –The shut ins – Katherine Brabon.

The NSW Premier’s Literary Awards are held annually. They are the richest and longest running state-based literary awards in Australia and cover all genres of writing. The shortlisted titles for the 2022 Awards have been released with the winners being announced on 16 May during the Sydney Writers’ Festival.

People’s Choice Award – Select your favourite from the books shortlisted for the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction to enter the draw to win one of two prize packs of all six books. Click on the image above or here to enter the competition. Voting closes Sunday 1st May.

Christina Stead Prize for Fiction – Shortlist

The award may be made for a novel or a collection of stories. Works of creative non-fiction, including fictionalised memoirs, are eligible for consideration under this category. The award commemorates Christina Ellen Stead (1902–1983), Australian novelist and short story writer.

Continue reading →

Stella Prize 2022 Longlist

Posted on by

The Stella Prize is a major literary award celebrating Australian women’s writing. The $50,000 prize is awarded annually to one outstanding book deemed to be original, excellent, and engaging. Announcing the 12 exceptional books by Australian women and non-binary writers in the running for the tenth annual Stella Prize. The 2022 Stella Prize longlist includes novels, short fiction, memoir, social history, a book-length essay, a graphic novel, and – eligible for the first time in 2022 – poetry collections. Why not reserve one or more now and see if you can pick the winner before is announced Thursday 28 April.

Heather Morris Presents Three Sisters

Posted on by

City of Parramatta Libraries is very excited to present our first in-person author talk for 2022 with none other than global best selling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’s Journey, Heather Morris! Three Sisters is her third novel, and the final piece in the phenomenon that is the Tattooist of Auschwitz series.

Heather will be speaking about her heartbreaking new historical novel of love and survival Three Sisters – a story of three brave and inspiring sisters Cibi, Magda & Livia. 
Their story will break your heart.
Their journey will fill you with hope.
Their names will be remembered.

Three Sisters is a beautiful story of hope in the hardest of times and of finding love after loss. Two of the sisters are alive in Israel today, surrounded by friends and family. They have chosen Heather Morris to tell their story.

This wonderful event will be at Wentworth Point Community Centre & Library on Friday 11 March, 6.15pm arrival for a 6.30pm start.
Copies of Three Sisters can be purchased on the night and signed by the author. Tickets are limited for this free event so book your place now.

Tales of Love

Posted on by

It is that time of year, with Library Lovers’ Day (perhaps better known as Valentine’s Day) just around the corner on 14 February when you may be inspired to pick up a tale of love. The library has romantic titles of all kinds and for all ages from sweet romance to shifter romance to sexy romance and everything in between. Here are just some of the tales of love we have in our libraries.

For those of you who enjoy listening and reading online to a book then why not visit the ‘Escape into Love‘ list on our BorrowBox site or for even more eBook titles visit the ‘Love is in the air‘ list on our Wheelers site.

Finally don’t forget that if you visit one of the City of Parramatta Libraries from Friday 11 February to Monday 14 February, borrow one of our ‘blind date’ books and ‘rate the date’ you can enter our Library Lovers’ Day promotion to win a great prize.

Books that made us

Posted on by

Fans of Australian authors received a treat late last year when Claudia Karvan embarked on a literary journey to celebrate our love of books, met some of our most beloved and brilliant writers, and explored our Australian identity through the place, its people and the power of our stories in ‘Books that made us’ from the ABC. In this 3 episode series Claudia highlighted a diverse range of both modern and past Australian classic stories. The series is available to stream for free via iview so why not (re)watch the series and be inspired to read one or more of the amazing titles featured. The Library has all of the books mentioned in the show available for reserve, simply click on a cover or title. Continue reading →