Book & Bookgroup: The Eyre Affair

The book follows literary detective Thursday Next, who is trailing the dangerous Acheron Hades. When Hades begins stealing characters out of books, it's up to Thursday to stop him. The 1985 alternate universe is entirely believable and intriguing - filled with dodos, bookworms, and other inventions. Thursday is a wonderful heroine - strong, yet vulnerable in her own ways. This book brings up many thought-provoking ideas, and keeps you reading till the very end. It's a terrific science-fiction-esque novel without being too 'far out'. Bookgroup doesn't meet for another few weeks so I am not sure what others thought but I loved it (it did help that I recently read Jane Eyre though so remembered many of the details)!

Vedict: 50/50, half of bookgroup loved it, the other half couldn't finish it!

Book: Mozart Maulers

The Mozart Maulers is a comic memoir based on Dorian's experiences as a student at the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney. At the time he was seeing a psychiatrist who encouraged him to externalize his anger and use an alternative to drug therapy: Rugby League. Unable to convince any team to take him on, he formed his own team with other music students at the Con called The Mozart Maulers. They took on Sydney Uni and surprised everyone - by winning! It was a nice little read, not too heavy and with a good outcome. Lots of chuckles and a good look into both the Arts and Sports.

Book: The Game

I kept going with the crime feel and read another Mandasue Heller. This was a good book about Mary who got kicked out of home as a teenager, became a drug addict, prostitute etc. and ended up in the dodgy Manchester underworld, abused by her husband, lying to Police etc. Just a nice easy read!

Book & Bookgroup: Eucalyptus

What can I say except interesting book. Only half of the people in bookgroup managed to get through it. I didn't mind it. What wrecked it for me was that I read it over about 6 weeks in between other books and only in chuncks. Once I got into it it was good but otherwise it definitely wasn't something you could dip in and out of. However, now I can say that I have read a Miles Franklin winner!

Summary: On a property in western New South Wales a man named Holland lives with his daughter Ellen. Over the years, as she grows into a beautiful young woman, he plants hundreds of different gum trees on his land. When Ellen is nineteen her father announces his decision: she will marry the man who can name all his species of eucalypt, down to the last tree.

Book: The Charmer

This is the first book I've read of this author and whilst I was impressed and it gripped me from the start, I was a bit disappointed at the ending - it makes you want a sequel to finish it off completely. Also, I felt the author doesn't do enough research into the detective/criminal side of things as there were bits that seemed a bit "unreal". I mean I did love it but it was a pretty basic storyline. Needed to be a little more gritty, druggie and gangstaish! She will definitely be an author I continue to read though but she isn't quite up to Martina Cole standards yet!

Book: Blueback

Young Abel and his mother, Dora, lead a peaceful, idyllic life by the sea in Western Australia. They live off the land and sea, taking no more than they need to survive, carefully husbanding the natural resources at their disposal. Abel's best friend is an enormous fish named Blueback. Time passes, Abel grows up, and he and his mother find it harder to protect Blueback and their "Robbers Bay" from unscrupulous fishermen and developers.

WOW - what a beautiful book. Though it is quite small and easy to get through the language is just beautifully mesmerizing. Just the description of nature and the sea really made me feel like I was there - no wonder it won the Wilderness Society Environment Award. Just a magical little book.

Book: The Pact - three young men make a promise and fulfill a dream

The Pact is about three young men who lived in the projects around drugs and peer pressure from old friends who did not want anything out of life. So George and Sam and Rameck made a pact to go to college and not to let peer pressure rule their lives. I mean it wasn't all smooth sailing. Two of them ended up in juvenile detention but they overcame this. They went to college, all became Doctors and in turn gave back to the neighborhood. Very inspirational read to see what came be achieved if you have dedication and determination and little bit of help, regardless of your background.

Book: Random Acts of Kindness

Product Description:
In his bestselling book Join Me, Danny Wallace instructs his legions of followers to perform a 'Random Act of Kindness' every Friday. As a result, his thousands of followers (dubbed the Karma Army), without warning, made people happier the length and breadth of the country. Now in Random Acts of Kindness Danny and the gang bring you a hilarious, well-meaning book to encourage you to perform Random Acts of your own. 'Now, at last, the secret to a happier world! You have the power to make it a nicer place! All over the planet, thousands of people just like you are performing Random Acts of Kindness for complete strangers- Buy an old lady a hat! Give a policeman a helium balloon! Pat a dog! Hand a stranger your umbrella! Applaud a lady who's clearly made an effort! This book contains 365 real Random Acts of Kindness real people have done for real strangers- so read it, learn it, and start making your world the nicer place, today!'

Ah - this was a cool little book. Now I have to read "Join Me" (which is in my bookcase) so that I can see where it all started from.

Book: Kaitlyn

Now this one was like Martina Cole and much better than Frankie. It's the story of a girl who goes from the slums of a south London council estate to being the richest drug baron in the UK. Again the story lines are far fetched but who cares! Everything Kaitlyn does in life is for her younger brother who was taken away from her mother when he was a baby(except her brother doesn't know she exists). Drugs, murder, child abuse, prison - it has it all! Just brilliant.

Book: Frankie

I had this book because I was told the story would be similar to Martina Cole. It wasn't similar at all though. However, I still really enjoyed the book and raced through it. It's based around a young girl, murder and fraud. How do they all come together? By weaving all the different stories together. It was more detective than gangland stuff but I still really enjoyed it even though the story lines were a bit far fetched! In fact I liked it so much I read another book by the same author straight away which I very rarely do!

HLI Conference

(Laura, me and Michelle but not at the HLI Conference but at NLS4)

The 6th HLI conference was once again held at the RACV City Club on Friday October 24th. It was great to go as I hadn't seen my girls (Laura and Michelle) since May. Normally I head down for library events and we catch up every few months but not in 2008! Anyway, I was the MC for the afternoon. I must admit public speaking does get easier. I wasn't nervous at all really. Compared to the first time I chaired a conference session I think I have improved (Well I hope I have anyway!) I enjoyed most of the sessions but I mainly just love to catch up with everyone once a year from across different health libraries. Naturally I always stay on for the dinner too - any chance to socialise. Here are my notes, the theme for the day was The Evolving Library:

Jason Clarke (from www.mindsatwork.com.au)

The idea that information wants to be free.

Less expensive, more expensive

Substitute, combine, magnify, re purpose, adopt, minify, simplify, modify, adapt, rearrange, reconfigure, reverse, eliminate.

He was a wonderful speaker, very motivational.

Jenny Ward (print serials)

Discussed different storage options all which are bloody expensive!

Jill Aron (records management)

Integrating a RM and LMS together.

Interesting that one may need RM skills which are similar but VERY different to library skills.

Marie Anne Slaney (future)

We are a sector - health librarians.

Other health and library professionals look to us.

Key to our professional practice is finding QUALITY information.

How we might work = add value, drive initiatives, share, lead, develop, extend, learn.

Skills you need = business, core IM, health IM, job specific, personal niche.

Richard Sayers (professional development)

ALIA NAC paper on professional development.

Libraries are about people, not books and bytes.

Without people there is no need for libraries.

He left ALIA PD Scheme as a stand that it doesn't encompass or ensure him to undertake PD for accreditation.

Ancora Imparo - "I am still learning".

Still learning in all stages of life.

Breadth and depth of LIS courses (he thinks there are too many library schools).

Thinks we must embrace compulsory PD because if something isn't compulsory it doesn't get done.

PD is compulsory in the UK and NZ.

PD needs to add real demonstrative value to an employer.

Problems = ALIA membership may drop off, hard to co-ordinate, hard for rural/regional members

need transition, cannot happen overnight.

Stephen Due (statistics)

Most article requested are within 5 years of publication.

Most books on loan were published in last 5 years.

Books loans are on the increase.

Print journal copies on the decrease.

New libraries increase library usage so build for people, not collections.

Lisa Kruesi (MLA Cunningham Fellowship)

Patient Informatics Consult Service (PICS) - specifically targeted at patients. The doctor fills in a "lit form" specific to their patients care needs and consumer information is found for the patient.

MyHealth@Vanderbuilt - where patients can log on and look up there own medical records.

Patient Information - Australia

myDR

Aust. Health Directory

National Health Call Centre Network

Cochrane Consumer Network Project

HealthInsite

Jane and Virginia (23 things, web 2.0)

iGoogle - your own Google homepage

NLS4 Meetings

I did manage to make two trips up and down that highway for NLS4 meetings.

September 20th and November 15th. (October was a teleconferece).

Just blogging about it here so that come tax time I remember to claim the kilometres!!

Ballarat Library Industry Dinner

In November (the 12th) we once again had a dinner in Ballarat for everyone and anyone who works in a library. This time it was at Rinaldo's on Sturt St. The food wasn't that good and the room was very squishy and hot. However it was wonderful to have some faces from the public library present. I sat with Helen who I know anyway as she does the housebound books and Jan who always serves me at the counter. It was nice to chat to them more informally and learn about them and their lives in libraries. Also just by chance I went to the Avoca Races for Bec's Hen's Day a few weeks earlier and saw Melissa who works at the public library (she was in the marquee next to us) so I got to catch up with her too as she was always my favourite public library worker. She went on maternity leave but is back working now, just not at Ballarat branch which is where I most often go.

Bookgroup

The other thing I was really bad at was bookgroup. I missed a few meetings due to illness but once I got sick in August I never read another bookgroup book for the entire year (and I had read everyone so far). I was so annoyed at myself but because I wasn't choosing the books as such I just couldn't be bothered. Plus at that stage the size of a novel could make me feel ill, or even just the sight of one! I have however vowed to be better in 2009. Luck has it I was the only one who put in a booklist for this years group so all the books we will be reading have been chosen by me! So I have February's book next to my bed and hope to get onto it soon. The plan is to stay one book ahead - wish me luck!

ALIA stuff

As previously mentioned I was rather sick in my initial stages of pregnancy (pass the bucket please) so I spent most of my time sleeping. This meant that I could no longer commit to many extra curricular ALIA activities so I had to resign from many committees. I said goodbye to:

ALIA Vic LT - I have learnt so much from this group as it was my first foray into ALIA. Just a great bunch of people who I will miss. I was pleased to be able to stop Technotes, the groups newsletter as I think I had run out of steam.

ALIA Vic - this group was so different to the LT group for lots of reasons. I will miss the experience of group members the most and admire many of them for what they have achieved.

ALIA NGAC - I felt bad about pulling out of NGAC as I had just been reappointed for another term (sorry guys). I did however learn so much more about ALIA the Association and how the Board works etc. Good to see "the other side's" view. I won't miss those reports though!

The only thing I kept was NLS4 as we had been working towards this for over 2 years. I will blog more about them later.

Uni

Ok, so back in February I told you all about how I was going back to Uni to do my MBA. The first semester of 2008 was great. I thought Accounting and Finance would be really hard and scary but I had the best lecturer I have ever had in my life. Brian West - just an amazing lecturer, truly outstanding (and that is saying something). I learnt so much and am so thankful. I put the work in and it really paid off. I am still so amazed at what I got out of one subject. Never in my previous undergrad or masters in LIS have I learnt so much. I was rewarded for my efforts too by getting a Distinction (a hard fought one I tell you!).

The other subject however was crap! Marketing is very interesting but basically it was read the textbook and understand the concepts and remember the jargon for the exam. The lecturer knew a lot but it just wasn't as good as Accounting. I also got a Distinction for Marketing though so was very pleased with myself!

I definitely know that the MBA was the right course for me to pursue. It is a little MIA right now though! You see I started Business Economics in semester 2 but was really sick due to my pregnancy that I hadn't done any reading and was falling chapters and chapters behind. So I deferred for a year and had a great 6 months off at home letting bubs grow (plus working on NLS4). I have enrolled for semester 2 later in the year but I will just wait and see how I go at home with bubs and see what I feel like doing. So you may hear more about "Organisations, Behaviour, Structure and Processes" later in the year. If not, I am sure I will one day complete this course but it just may take me 10 years!

Book: The Know

The first book of 2009.

I really do love Martina Cole. I know sometimes her writing isn't perfect and that stories and characters sometimes overlap between novels but I still love her work. There is nothing like a bit of East End London Gangster/Mafia crime to get me going! The Know was a little different from the other stuff of hers I have read because it actually all took place over 6 months or so. Often her books span decades so that was a nice change. Joanie Brewer and her children, Jon Jon(18), Jeanette(14) and Kira(11) live in a run-down London Council estate. The two eldest are accustomed to crime and little Kira is innocent perfection. Then Kira goes missing... This book deals with the worst life can offer - child abduction, paedophiles and murder. But it also shows how family life can be pushed apart and thrown back together. Just brilliant!

Book: Dewey - the small town library cat who touched the world

My last read for 2008.

Dewey was a great book, not only because it was about a library but it was just one of those that pulls at the heart strings. When Spencer, Iowa, librarian Vicki Myron arrived at work that cold winter morning in 1988, she had no inkling that a small thing she would find in the overnight book drop would forever change her life and that of her whole community. That something was a tiny kitten, bedraggled and half frozen. Almost immediately, this unannounced critter won the hearts of the staff. They even named him Dewey Readmore Books. For the next 18 years, until he died in 2006, Dewey added his gentle, independent feline presence to a small library and the surrounding rural community. Am pretty sure I read somewhere that they are making a movie out of it so that should be interesting too!

Book: Rosewater and Soda Bread

I was eagerly awaiting this as I had read the first book Pomegranate Soup back in January. I was however a little disappointed as it wasn't quite as magical as the first. Story lines didn't flow as easily and there were unresolved questions at the end. I mean I still loved reading about the town and characters but there just wasn't "much" to it.

Book: Glory Garage

This was actually a really great book. I love reading about different cultures and this was about growing up a female muslim in Australia. Lots of short stories about different aspects of muslim life, issues, regulations, religion etc. I walked away from it thinking that I need to be more open on my views etc. A really easy insight into a different view from my own and how one can be caught between two worlds.