Tag Archives: Australian Authors

Parra Reads Online Book Club 2021

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Welcome to another year of reading!

2020 was our first year of reading along together in an online environment, while COVID may have been the trigger it was an enjoyable experience for me. The ‘Parra Reads’ online book club proved to be an excellent way for me to connect, collaborate and read with my colleagues. City of Parramatta Libraries operates across seven branches and it is often hard for us book nerds to catch up and talk about books. The online book club has been one way for us to come together and share our love of reading with you all.

After much discussion we have decided to do things a little differently this year, in the hopes we can encourage more of you to read along with us.

So, what will 2021 look like for our ‘Parra Reads’ online book club? Well! For starters there will be more choices in regards to what title you read each month, we will be sharing more online via our blog, podcast, social media and in our Libraries.

If you are reading along with us and would like to participate and share your thoughts on what you have been reading, please do. You can share via Twitter, using the hashtag #parrareadsbookclub, or just comment on one of our tweets. Send an email to parrareads@cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au and I will share any suitable book related comments on our blog and in the library, rest assured I will only share first names. If you are a Goodreads member and would like to join our Parra Reads Virtual Book Club, log in and send us through a request.

Don’t forget to check out our ePlatform & BorrowBox collections! We have a huge library of both eBooks & eAudiobooks available for you to download.

However you choose to read & share with us this year is up to you, our only wish is that you read!

Each month we will provide some great reading recommendations to help you along your way, look out for these online and at all our Libraries.

Here’s wishing 2021 is a great year for reading!

Jody

Parra Reads Online Book Club – Monthly Reading Themes for 2021

February – A book by an Australian Author – Aussie Authors Rule! Check out our recommended reads below.

book club recommended readsDownload

March – Books to Screen – Do you prefer to watch then read? Or read then watch? For me it is definitely read first!

April – A Thriller or mystery book.

May – Prize Winners – With so many different book awards each year what better selection could a reader ask for. Personally I will be reading my way through as many of the ‘Miles Franklin’ longlist titles that I can manage before the shortlist is announced in June.

June – Second Chances – Read a book you have tried to read before but couldn’t finish! My nemesis is ‘Wolf Hall’ by Hilary Mantel; I have tired many times and still haven’t managed to get past the first chapter.

July – Memoir – What makes a memoir a great one? Is it the setting, person or subject?

August – Big Bang Books – Books that have made a big splash in the last 10/20 years! Literally an endless supply of choices with this one!

September – Banned Books – One for the rebels!

October – The first book in a series.

November – Hot of the printing press! With so many great books planned for publication in 2021, what better way to end the year.

Coming Soon! Books I can’t Wait to Read

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One of my favourite duties is researching and staying up-to-date with all the new book releases that come out each month. After all it is our job to make sure we offer you, our community of readers a wide selection of the up-and-coming new releases!

While some deliveries and publications dates have been delayed & affected by the COVID pandemic, publishers and our amazing suppliers are working hard to ensure we don’t have to wait too long for all the amazing new books.

Below I have listed a few of the up-and-coming new releases I can’t wait to read. When I say can’t wait to read, it means I have pre-ordered my own personal copy so you our readers are first in line to reserve our ‘New Books’. And yes we have ordered copies for the library!

On order titles can be placed on hold via our online library Catalogue or by asking one of our super friendly librarians for assistance. A note to remember though any holds/reserves placed on ‘On Order’ titles may take a while to arrive and do count towards your five (5) holds/reserves limit.

Now to the important stuff, the books!

Hope you find something among my picks to read. Maybe you will discover an author you hadn’t heard of before and embark on a wonderful journey through all their titles.

Don’t forget you can also make a ‘Suggestion for Purchase’ for a any title you think our community of readers would like to read.

Happy Reading!

Jody

Continue reading →

Miles Franklin Literary Award 2020 Longlist

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On Tuesday 12 May 2020 the ‘Miles Franklin Literary Award 2020 longlist was announced. This is something I look forward to each year, as one of my passions is to read books written by Australian Authors.

I didn’t realise it was a passion until I looked back over my ‘Books Read’ list and noticed there was a distinct pattern, 97% were written by Australian Authors. At the time my choices were unconscious; I always picked the books I read by the cover, and I still do to this day, although I now actively look for books written by Australian Authors.

Needless to say each year I eagerly await all the title announcements of the different Australian Literary Awards, of which there are so many. I won’t list them all here, rather I will tell you my top three which are: ‘The Miles Franklin‘, ‘The Stella Prize‘ and the ‘Australian Book Industry Awards‘. I will just quickly mention I love checking out the State Literary Awards too.

Anyway, I can see I am about to lose focus again so returning to ‘The Miles Franklin Award’. Each year I try to read as many of the titles on the longlist as I can, pick my favourites then eagerly await the shortlist announcement, then the winner. Most years my colleague Katherine manages to read all the titles, because she is a reading machine, literally I think she might be a robot, no human can read that many books! Oh, then again my other colleagues Kate, Amanda and Sarah seem to read non stop too, hmm makes you wonder doesn’t it! Oh I did it again didn’t I, went off on a tangent. Right back on topic.

Normally, Katherine & Nisa our resident Podcasting Librarians discuss some of the ‘Miles Franklin’ titles on our Parra Pods podcast. This year, to make things a little different I was thinking to ask more of my book loving colleagues to get involved and see if we can manage to get through the whole longlist and vote for our favourites before the shortlist is announced on 17 June 2020.

Sounds like fun to me. Hopefully I get some takers otherwise I will be very busy reading. Contrary to belief Librarian’s do not spend all day reading! Although maybe I can get special permission just this once, you never know!

I will keep you all updated on my progress via our Twitter account. If you feel like reading along and sharing your thoughts with us that would be great. We have most of the longlist available via our online Library platforms, and quite a few are ‘MULTICAP’. Which means we have multiple copies so we can all read along together.

Happy Reading!

I look forward to seeing how many titles everyone manages to read.

Jody

Miles Franklin Longlist 2020

The White Girl by Tony Birch, UQP, 2019. eBook – eAudiobook

Room For A Stranger by Melanie Cheng, Text Publishing, 2019. eBook – eAudiobook

Islands by Peggy Frew, Allend & Unwin, 2019. eBook – eAudiobook

No One by John Hughes, UWA Publishing, 2019.

Act of Grace by Anna Krien, Black Inc. 2019. eBook – eAudiobook

A Season on Earth by Gerald Murnane, Text Publishing, 2019. eBook

The Returns by Philip Salom, Transit Lounge, 2019. eBook

Exploded View by Carrie Tiffany, Text Publishing, 2020. eBook

The Yield by Tara June Winch, Hamish Hamilton, 2019. eBook – eAudiobook

The Weekend by Charlotte Wood, Allen & Unwin, 2019. eBook – eAudiobook

Miles Franklin Longlist 2020

Ned Kelly Awards 2018 Shortlist

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The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has announced the shortlists for this year’s Ned Kelly Awards for Australian crime writing.

The shortlisted works in each category are:

Best crime fiction

Best true crime

Best first fiction

The winners will be announced on 26 August during the Melbourne Writers Festival.

All Australian Summer Reading Challenge

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Welcome to our All Australian Summer Reading Challenge!

This Summer City of Parramatta Library is running an ‘All Australian Summer Reading Challenge’ for readers 18+ years.

The challenge runs from Monday 4 December 2017 to 26 February 2018.

It’s easy to participate, read 10 books written by Australian authors over Summer to enter a draw to win 1 of 3 Australian book packs!

You might be asking yourself why we decided to run an All Australian Summer Reading Challenge? The answer is simple really, City of Parramatta Library staff are huge readers of Australian authors, and we also get lots of enquiries from our readers to recommend Australian authors. Given that we thought it would be a great opportunity to assist our readers in discovering the wonderful world of Australian authors available at the Library!

Don’t forget you can always choose to enjoy an ebook as part of your challenge or even a selection of the great audio and eAudio books we have available. Personally I love listening to audio books, and most of my favourites are written by Australian authors. At the top of my list for audio books would have to be Beauty in Thorns by Kate Forsyth. While I read and loved the book, the audio book added such depth and feeling to the writing. Anyway enough about audio books, I could write another 500 words; instead I will share with you my Top 10 Australian authors, which believe me was really hard to narrow down!

In no particular order:

Kate Forsyth

Caroline Overington

Sara Foster

Inga Simpson

Kylie Kaden

Trudi Canavan

Nicola Moriarty (yes she is related to Liane Moriarty and in my opinion a talented writer)

Jane Harper

Craig Silvey

AB Facey

To check out a wider list of authors take a look at our Australian Authors Guide and Australian Writers from Diverse Background.

Download an entry form Web – All Australian Summer Reading Challenge Booklet

Good Luck with the challenge everyone, I hope you discover some great new authors to read!

Happy Reading

Jody