Blog Archives
#NYR12 Twitter Night – November
Cry is the theme for the penultimate month in the Love2Read / National Year of Reading monthly themes.
A good cry can do you a power of good whether you are crying at the sadness of it all, or crying with laughter. Did you shed a tear reading this month?
There will be a live Twitter discussion on May 29th, starting at 8pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (and lasting until about 10pm Western Standard Time).
Join in using the tag #NYR12 as you discuss what made you cry this month.
#NYR12 Twitter nights will be held at 8pm AEST on the last Tuesday of each month throughout 2012 - just one more month to put in your diary.
Podcast With Poet Craig Billingham
Our latest podcast episode is now online – join John Merriman as he talks to Craig Billingham, a Blue Mountains based poet. Craig’s poems have been published in many Australian journals, including recently in Heat, Meanjin, Snorkel, and Antipodes. Craig’s poem “The Fan” was published in 2011 as part of The Red Room Company’s Sun Herald “Extra” Series. He will also be one of the poets performing at Poetry Under the Stars on Friday 30th November 2012, at the new Katoomba Library in the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre.
Click here to listen to the podcast online, or search for ‘Listeners in the Mist’ in iTunes.
You can also read some of Craig’s work here:
http://reviewofaustralianfiction.com/product/9781922171153
http://meanjin.com.au/articles/post/waiting-for-the-train/
http://redroomcompany.org/poet/craig-billingham/
POETRY UNDER THE STARS
Blue Mountains City Library, in collaboration with local poets, presents a FREE family-friendly, National Year of Reading 2012, community event.
Bring family and friends, a picnic tea (no alcohol please), a rug or folding chair, and sit beneath the stars in the shared courtyard of the new Blue Mountains Cultural Centre and Library – 30 Parke Street, Katoomba. (If the weather is bad, we’ll move inside the new Katoomba Library).
Be enchanted by our talented local poets, reading their original work.
MC’d by Lis Bastian with musical entertainment provided by the Mudlarks choir and friends.
Friday 30th November 2012 from 6pm-9pm
Poetry Podcast
In the lead-up to the Poetry Under the Stars event at Katoomba (more about that, below), two of our latest podcasts feature poets and performers Gregory North and Sandy Holmes – including wonderful recitations from each. Click on the links below to hear the podcast audio online, or search for ‘Listeners in the Mist’ in iTunes to subscribe.
Episode 24 – Poet Gregory North
Discovered wandering in the Blue Mountains, this man of many hats will have you wondering which voice is really his. Known for his rendition of ‘The Man From Snowy River’ in 15 different accents and his adventures with sticky tape, the voices and characters in his poems and yarns could be the result of medical experimentation or maybe he’s just a freak of nature. Whichever it is, this three-time Australian bush poetry champion brings a multitude of characters to life whenever he performs. His DVDs ‘Man of Many Hats’ and ‘Stick It’ are great ways to relive the experience. www.gregorynorth.com.au
Episode 25 – Poet Sandy Holmes
Local poet Sandy Holmes talks about her favourite poets, love of bush poetry and performance, all with a wonderful sense of humour. She is involved in many community poetry events including the ‘Poet’s Breakfast’ at the Winter Magic Festival, Katoomba, and will be one of the poets featured at the upcoming event ‘Poetry Under the Stars’ at the new Katoomba Cultural Centre on November 30, 2012. Her book, Sandy Versus Sandy: A Bad Case of Poetic License will be available for sale on the night.
POETRY UNDER THE STARS
Blue Mountains City Library, in collaboration with local poets, presents a FREE family-friendly, National Year of Reading 2012, community event.
Bring family and friends, a picnic tea (no alcohol please), a rug or folding chair, and sit beneath the stars in the shared courtyard of the new Blue Mountains Cultural Centre and Library – 30 Parke Street, Katoomba. (If the weather is bad, we’ll move inside the new Katoomba Library).
Be enchanted by our talented local poets, reading their original work.
MC’d by Lis Bastian with musical entertainment provided by the Mudlarks choir and friends.
Friday 30th November 2012 from 6pm-9pm
October Book Review Competition Winner
We have the pleasure of announcing the latest winner of our Love2Read Book Review Competition today: the winner for October, with the theme of ‘Explore’, is Doreen Patricia Allen with her review of The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester.
The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester
Simon Winchester, a prolific author, was born in England, but having lived in Africa, India and China, he has a wide cultural experience and writes in an easy readable style that becomes a page-turner. He had been a journalist in East Asia.
The Man Who Loved China, the fantastic story of the eccentric Scientist who unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom of 336 pages, was published in hardback in 2008. There followed other editions in paper-back and e-book.
It is a well researched biography of the relatively unknown Joseph Needham, ( Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham) who was born in 1900, the only son of a Harley Street Specialist who was always stimulating the young boy’s enquiring mind. Needham was a brilliant Cambridge Don, who, although married, took a mistress with his wife’s knowledge. He was an eccentric, a nudist, open-minded intellectual, a scientist (biochemist), musician, with leftist leanings politically. He became a member of the prestigious Royal Society at the age of 41.
In the late 1930s he met Lu Gwei-djen, a Chinese research student at Cambridge, fell for her, and took her as his mistress. He learnt fluent Mandarin during their daily close encounters. She ultimately became his second wife after the death of his first wife. Japan invaded her homeland, China, in 1937 and Japanese power spread west as far as the ancient city of Chonqing. It became the provisional capital under Chiang Kai-shek and the anti-fascist headquarters till 1945.
When World War 2 broke out, the British Government sent Joseph Needham to China via India and flew him across the Himalayas to spy out the land. He spent a long time in western China and that part of the Silk Road, recording his findings and some amorous adventures, before returning to Britain and the other women in his life. His zest for living, and his insatiable curiosity, was legendary. He questioned why the Chinese fell behind when they had been so far ahead of the West technologically, for millennia. Needham was an astonishing scholar, and intrepid traveler, who gathered data as he traversed the vast land of China, He left an 18 volume love letter to China: Science and Civilization in China.
Winchester tells the story with quick character sketches and does justice to Needham’s impressive accomplishments. He had access to the diaries of Needham for this account.
We wish for more details, since Needham’s fame and work faded after his death in 1994.
At the end of this book Simon Winchester has recorded many pages of innovations and things Dr Needham found to have been invented by the Chinese, not just the abacus or gunpowder, but much, much more going back to 3 thousand years BC, including printing, the umbrella, and the compass.
It is a bizarre yet fascinating account, a compelling masterpiece, which I found edifying. It will expand the reader’s understanding of the roots of the Chinese civilisation.
Anyone can enter the monthly Book Review Competition, there is a nice National Year of Reading prize pack to be won. Read the rules here and put your entry in for next month. The winner has, with their permission, their entry published here on this blog and if they are happy to, we also interview them for our Listeners in the Mist podcast.
November’s theme : Cry
December’s theme: Love2Read
#NYR12 Twitter Night – October
Throughout October you’ve been asked to Explore in the Love2Read / National Year of Reading monthly themes.
Did you explore a genre you’ve never tried before? Did you research something new to do? Did you read about the explorations of others?
There will be a live Twitter discussion on October 30th, starting at 8pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (and lasting until about 10pm Western Standard Time).
Join in using the tag #NYR12 as you discuss your exploratory reading this month.
#NYR12 Twitter nights will be held at 8pm AEST on the last Tuesday of each month throughout 2012 - you’ve only two months left - put it in your diary now.
‘Explore’ Books With Melanie Elkan
Our latest episode of ‘Listeners in the Mist’, the library podcast, is online now here (or search for ‘Listeners in the Mist’ in iTunes to download it for free). This week, Heidi Colquhoun interviews Melanie Elkan (Branch Librarian at Blackheath library) about her love of reading and the Love2Read theme for this month – ‘Explore’.
Enjoy!
Hang on – what IS a ‘podcast’? A podcast is like a radio show, only it is broadcast on the internet rather than radio. You can listen to podcasts online, or download them to listen to later on your computer or MP3 player of choice.
