#artreads Twitterchat- Tuesday, 30th July, 8.00pm


Have you been reading some #artreads throughout July? Share what you have been reading, playing or watching for #artread, by joining in the twitter discussion. Use the hashtag #artread so that other people can have a conversation with you about your #artread.  You can add to the discussion on Pinterest too.
The live twitter discussion is on this evening, Tuesday 30 July, starting at 8.00pm Australian Eastern Standard Time,   9.00pm New Zealand Time, 6.00pm Singapore Standard Time, 12.00 noon Central European Summer Time.  Note: this is a staggered start to the discussion.
Use the tags #artread and #rwpchat as you discuss the reading, watching playing that is your experience of artread, so others can join in the conversation too.

To read or not to read....


A raunchy romantic comedy involving art forgery, theft, family secrets, millions of dollars, and true love.







To read or not to read... that is the question! Read the opening paragraphs of this book and you decide!


Matilda Goodnight stepped back from her latest mural and realised that of all the crimes she had committed in her thirty-four years, painting the floor to ceiling reproduction of Van Gogh’s sunflowers  on Clarissa Donnelly’s dining room wall was the one that was going to send her to hell.  God might forgive her the Botticelli Venus she painted in the bathroom in Iowa, the Uccello battle scene she’d done for the boardroom in New Jersey, even the Borsch orgy she’d painted in the bedroom in Utah, but these giant, glaring sunflowers were going to be His Last Straw. “I gave you a nice talent” he was going to say to her on Judgement Day, “and this is what you did with it.”
Tilda felt her lungs tighten and stuck her hand in her pocket to make sure she had her inhaler.
Beside her, Clarissa wrapped her thin little arms around her size two chenille sweater and squinted at the brownish-yellow flowers.
“It’s just like his, isn’t it?
“Yes,” said Tilda with regret and handed her the museum print of the original.
“The flowers look so…angry,” Clarissa said.
“Well.” Tilda closed her paint box. “He was nuts.”
Clarissa nodded. “I heard about that. The ear.”
“Yeah. That got a lot of press.” Tilda shrugged off her painting shirt. 

To keep reading this book, request it from the library!

Wrap With Love has wrapped up for another year


Yesterday morning at 9.30am our special visitors started to arrive at Engadine Library.  Soon we had 45 eager volunteers knitting and sewing furiously to create wraps to send to the millions of people in the world suffering extreme cold.  Apart from our regular Engadine Library Knitting Groups we also had groups from Bundeena and Caringbah, among others, join us.

The Library was decorated in style with wraps draped here and there to inspire and entice, and a welcome sign at the entrance.  With ‘oohs and aahs’ over handiwork, much laughter and cups of tea consumed you might be forgiven for thinking that not much work was done.  But it took several volunteers a good half hour to transport all the wraps to their various cars.  Completed wraps, 10” squares and yarn can be donated at any time to Engadine Library and volunteers will make sure that they get where they need to go.

Starting in 1992 Wrap With Love has sent more than 323,000 wraps to over 75 countries including Australia, all due to the hard work and generosity of volunteers.  Wrap With Love is run by donation and has no regular financial support.  Over 20 aid agencies collect the wraps and make sure that they are sent to those in need.  For more information on this worthwhile cause why not check out their website.

To read or not to read...

This week's selection is a fantasy novel. Beautifully written, this is a haunting, spellbinding depiction of love, magic, madness and schizophrenia. It is a complex book- not easy to read, but well worth the effort-should you decide to read it!






Read the opening paragraphs then decide whether to read or not to read the rest of this book...

"I'm going to write a ghost story now," she typed.
"A ghost story with a mermaid and a wolf," she also typed. 
I also typed. 
My name is India Morgan Phelps, though almost everyone I  know calls me Imp. I live in Providence, Rhode Island, and when I was seventeen, my mother died in Butler Hospital. which is located at 345 Blackstone Boulevard, right next to Swan Point Cemetery, where many notable people are buried. The hospital used to be called the Butler Hospital for the Insane, but somewhere along the way "for the Insane" was dropped. Maybe it was bad for business. Maybe the doctors or trustees or board of directors or whoever makes the decisions about such things felt crazy people would rather not be put away in a n insane asylum, that truth in advertising is a detriment. I  don't know, but my mother, Rosemary Anne, was committed to Butler Hospital because she was insane. She died there, at the age of fifty-six instead of dying somewhere else, because she was insane, and it's not like I didn't know it too, and if anyone were to ask me, dropping "for the Insane" is like dropping "burger" from Burger King because hamburgers aren't as healthy as salads. Or dropping "donuts" from Dunkin' Donuts because doughnuts cause cavities and make you fat.
My grandmother Caroline-my mother's mother, who was born in 1914, and lost her husband in World War II- she was also a crazy woman, but she died in her own bed in her own house down in Wakefield. No-one put her away in a hospital, or tried to pretend she wasn't crazy. Maybe people don't notice it as much, once you get old or only older. Caroline turned on the gas and shut all the windows and doors and went to sleep, and in her suicide note she thanked my motherand my aunts for not sending her away to a hospital for the mentally insane, where she might have been forced to live even after she couldn't stand it any more. Being alive I mean. Or being crazy. Whichever or both.
It's sort of ironic that my aunts are the ones who had my mother committed. 

To keep reading this book, request it from the Library. 

This Day in History ( July 18, 0064 )

Robert, Hubert - Incendie à Rome

The Great Fire of Rome is started, ultimately destroying two-thirds of the city. 

The Great Fire of Rome broke out on 18 July AD 64 in the merchant district of the city, near the Circus Maximus, Rome's huge chariot stadium. Because of the strong summer winds, the fire quickly spread. It burned for six days and seven nights, then reignited and burned for another three days. In that time, the fire destroyed two-thirds of the city, including the 800-year-old Temple of Jupiter Stator and the Atrium Vestae, the hearth of the Vestal Virgins.

Bust of Nero
Musei Capitolini, Rome
The Emperor Nero was blamed for his inaction, and there were even suggestions that he may have started it himself in order to bypass the senate and rebuild Rome to his liking. Evidence to support this theory includes the fact that the Domus Aurea, Nero's majestic series of villas and pavilions set upon a landscaped park and a man-made lake, was built in the wake of the fire. To diffuse the blame, Nero targeted the Christians. There were Christians who confessed to the crime, but it became known that the Christians were forced to confess by means of torture, and it is unclear as to what the Christians confessed to — being arsonists or Christians. Thus began the earliest persecutions of Christians in Rome, actions which included feeding them to the lions. The city was rebuilt after the fire, greater and more spectacular than before.

Sketch of Ancient graffiti portrait of
Nero found at the Domus Tiberiana.
Note: After the fire, Nero opened his palaces to provide shelter for the homeless, and arranged for food supplies to be delivered in order to prevent starvation among the survivors. In the wake of the fire, he made a new urban development plan. Houses after the fire were spaced out, built in brick, and faced by porticos on wide roads. Nero also built a new palace complex known as the Domus Aurea in an area cleared by the fire. The size of this complex is debated (from 100 to 300 acres or 40.5 to 121.4 hectares). To find the necessary funds for the reconstruction, tributes (taxes) were imposed on the provinces of the empire.

JULY - ArtReads for Teens

Marvin lives with his family under the kitchen sink in the Pompadays’ apartment. He is very much a beetle. James Pompaday lives with his family in New York City. He is very much an eleven-year-old boy. After James gets a pen-and-ink set for his birthday, Marvin surprises him by creating an elaborate miniature drawing. James gets all the credit for the picture and before these unlikely friends know it they are caught up in a staged art heist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that could help recover a famous drawing by Albrecht Dürer. But James can’t go through with the plan without Marvin’s help. And that’s where things get really complicated (and interesting!). This fast-paced mystery will have readers on the edge of their seats as they root for boy and beetle.


The Girl with the Pearl Earring  by Tracy Chevalier
Tracy Chevalier's second novel 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' centers on Vermeer's prosperous Delft household during the 1660s. When Griet, the novel's quietly perceptive heroine, is hired as a servant, turmoil follows. First, the 16-year-old narrator becomes increasingly infatuated with her master. Then Vermeer employs her as his assistant--and ultimately has Griet sit for him as a model. Chevalier vividly evokes the complex domestic tensions of the household, ruled over by the painter's jealous, eternally pregnant wife and his taciturn mother-in-law. At times the relationship between servant and master seems a little anachronistic. Still, 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' does contain a final delicious twist.



Onion Girl by Charles de Lint
In novel after novel, and story after story, Charles de Lint has brought an entire imaginary North American city to vivid life. Newford: where magic lights dark streets; where myths walk clothed in modern shapes; where a broad cast of extraordinary and affecting people work to keep the whole world turning.
At the center of all the entwined lives in Newford stands a young artist named Jilly Coppercorn, with her tangled hair, her paint-splattered jeans, a smile perpetually on her lips - Jilly, whose paintings capture the hidden beings that dwell in the city's shadows. Now, at last, de Lint tells Jilly's own story... for behind the painter's fey charm lies a dark secret and a past she's labored to forget. And that past is coming to claim her now.


Birth of Venus: Love and death in Florence  by Sarah Dunant
The Birth of Venus is a tour de force, the first historical novel from one of Britain’s most innovative writers of literary suspense. It brings alive the history of Florence at its most dramatic period, telling a compulsively absorbing story of love, art, religion, and power through the passionate voice of Alessandra, a heroine with the same vibrancy of spirit as her beloved city.


by Dan Brown
An ingenious code hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci. A desperate race through the cathedrals and castles of Europe. An astonishing truth concealed for centuries . . . unveiled at last. While in Paris, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened by a phone call in the dead of the night. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, his body covered in baffling symbols. As Langdon and gifted French cryptologist Sophie Neveu sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci—clues visible for all to see and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter. A compelling read!

Computer Courses for Seniors: What options are available?

We tend to get a lot of enquiries from older people who are looking for formal training programs in using computers.  We don't run that type of training here a the library but there are a few options in and around the Sutherland Shire. The library can't recommend one course over another but here's the ones we know are available.


St George & Sutherland Community College

127–129 Sutherland Road, Jannali. (Ph. 9528 3344)
website: http://www.sgscc.edu.au/

TECH Savvy Seniors (Contact Fiona Rickert 85437427) Cost $5.00 per class

Introduction to the Internet
Tuesday 23 July, 2013 Hurstville Centre / 1 session: 11.00am-2.00pm
Wednesday 24 July, 2013 Jannali Centre / 1 session: 11.00am-2.00pm

Introduction to Email
Tuesday 30 July, 2013 - Hurstville Centre / 1 session: 11.00am-2.00pm
Wednesday 31 July, 2013 - Jannali Centre / 1 session: 11.00am-2.00pm

Introduction to Social Media (Facebook)
Tuesday 14 August, 2013 - Hurstville Centre / 1 session: 11.00am-2.00pm
Wednesday 15 August, 2013 - Jannali Centre / 1 session: 11.00am-2.00pm

Introduction to Skype
Tuesday 20 August, 2013 - Hurstville Centre / 1 session: 11.00am-2.00pm
Wednesday 21 August, 2013 - Jannali Centre / 1 session: 11.00am-2.00pm

Introduction to Tablets (iPads) & iPhones
Tuesday 27 August, 2013 - Hurstville Centre / 1 session: 11.00am-2.00pm
Wednesday 28 August, 2013 - Jannali Centre / 1 session: 11.00am-2.00pm

Computer Basics for Seniors

Fridays, 26 July, 2013 - 16 August, 2013 / 4 sessions: 9.30 am-12.30pm
Mondays, 5 August, 2013 - 26 August, 2013 / 4 sessions: 9.30am-12.30pm
Cost $190.00

iPads for Seniors

Wednesday September 4, 11.00am-2.00pm Cost $40.00

Skype for Seniors

Wednesday September 11, 11.00am-2.00pm Cost $40.00

Endeavour Seniors Computer Club (Ph. 95226087)

Training and Computer courses approx. $6.00 per hour.

Have you got a computer and don’t know how to use it? A wide range of classes available from basic courses for beginners to Internet/email and various other courses depending on your needs and interests. Classes held during the day in our training room at Port Hacking Community Centre, 184 Gannons Road South, Caringbah. Come along to a monthly meeting to discuss your training needs and to book in for classes.

See website: Endeavour Web for Senior Citizens for courses, prices and venue details.
Meetings held 3rd Mon of the month, 10am at Sylvania Community and Youth Club,
22 Box Rd, Sylvania. ($3.00 for members, $5.00 visitors)

Meeting topics:
19 August, 2013 – Duress/distress Smartphone application (app)
16 September, 2013 – Question & Answer session
21 October, 2013 – Internet Security

$25 annual membership fee, plus $10.00 joining fee.

Gymea Community Aid and Information Service (Ph. 95249559)

Six-week computer workshop

39 Gymea Bay Road, Gymea. Cost $60.00
‘Experienced tutors will give you the basic internet and Word skills and knowledge that you want. You can use the PC desktop computers or bring your own’. Classes started in July. Plans for course to be offered again in October. (Contact centre in September).

Sydney Institute TAFE – Sutherland College

Vocational and Community Engagement (Everyday Computing)

This course is EXEMPT from the TAFE NSW Fee. However there is a
$40 per semester part-time day course related charge at Sutherland College.

Term 3 at Loftus College: 25th July to 19th September
Term 4 at Gymea College: 12th October to 7th December
Please check late September 2013 for details on enrolment in 2014 Semester 1.

This course is for people who are absolute beginners or have never touched a computer. It is for those seeking to enter further education or work and who can only study for 3 hours each week. The specific course content is negotiated with the student group but will probably include basic instruction in computer fundamentals, word processing, email and internet.

For further information contact the Sydney Institute Information Centre on 1300 360 601 or visit the Sydney TAFE website.

This Day in History ( 14 July,1972 )


Deborah Mailman 
born: 14 July, 1972 

Deborah is an Australian television and film actress. She was the first Aboriginal actress to win the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She is well known for having played the character 'Kelly' on successful Australian television series, The Secret Life of Us.

Deborah grew up in Mount Isa in north west Queensland and is one of five children born to Walter John, a famous Rodeo Rider and horseman, and Jane (Heeni) Mailman. She has both Indigenous Australian (Bidjera) and Māori (Ngati Porou and Te Arawa) heritage. She played the role of Kate in a La Boite Theatre production of Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew' in 1994. She also had a difficult time when she was in primary school because she was constantly teased about her weight.

She appeared in the film Rabbit-Proof Fence in 2002. She played a lead role in the 2010 musical film Bran Nue Dae. In the play The Sapphires and the subsequent film of the same name she played the role of singer Gail McCraethe. In 1992 she graduated from Queensland University of Technology Academy of the Arts with A Bachelor of Arts majoring in Performing Arts. Since then she has worked extensively in Australian film, television and theatre as well as many contributions overseas.


Whether Deb entertained your children (or helped you learn to tell the time as a child) during her 1990s stint on Playschool, or you followed her character Kelly through young adulthood in The Secret Life of Us, or caught up with her more recently as nurse Cherie in Offspring, there's no doubt you've at some stage been captivated by her larger than life presence and her infectious smile.

Radiance (DVD) ~ http://bit.ly/15CMCoI
Mabo (DVD) ~ http://bit.ly/18flmjR


To read or not to read...a fictional tale about a controversial painter

In keeping with this month's ReadWatchPlay theme of  #artreads, this novel was a Booker prize finalist in1989. It is the story of a controversial painter who returns to her hometown for a retrospective of her art, only to find herself  vividly reflecting on her childhood and youth.  
Read these opening paragraphs then decide whether to read or not to read the rest of this book...

 Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space. If you can bend space you can bend time also, and if you knew enough and could move faster than light you could travel backwards in time and exist in two places at once. 
It was my brother Stephen who told me that, when he wore his raveling maroon sweater to study in and spent a lot of time standing on his head so that the blood would run down into his brain and nourish it. I didn't understand what he meant, but maybe he didn't explain it very well. He was already moving away from the impression of words. 
But I began to then think of time as having a shape, something you couldn't see, like a series of liquid transparencies, one thing laid on top of another. You don't look back along time but down through it, like water. Sometimes this comes to the surface, sometimes that, sometimes nothing. Nothing goes away. 

 Chapter 2. 
"Stephen says time is not a line" I say. Cordelia rolls her eyes, as I knew she would. 
"So?" she says. This answer pleases both of us. It puts the nature of time in its place, and also Stephen, who calls us "the teenagers, " as if he himself is not one. 
Cordelia and I  are riding in the streetcar, going downtown, as we do on winter Saturdays. The streetcar is muggy with twice- breathed air and the smell of wool. Cordelia sits with nonchalance, nudging me with her elbow now and then, staring blankly at the other people with her gray-green eyes, opaque and glinting as metal. She can outstare anyone, and I am almost as good. We're impervious, we scintillate, we are thirteen. 

To keep reading this book, request it from the Library. 

This Day in History ( July 12 )


Symbolising the Aboriginal Flag

The Australian Aboriginal flag is flown for the first time.


The Australian Aboriginal flag is dominated by a yellow sun in the centre, red in the lower half and black in the upper half. It was first flown at Victoria Square, Adelaide on National Aborigines' Day, 12 July 1971. 

Harold Thomas - 8th July 2001
The flag was created by Aboriginal activist and artist Harold Thomas. Harold Joseph Thomas was born 1947. He is an Indigenous Australian descended from the Luritja people of Central Australia. An artist and land rights activist, he is best known for designing and copyrighting the Australian Aboriginal Flag.

On 14 July 1995, together with the Torres Strait Islander Flag, the Aboriginal flag was proclaimed by the Australian government as one of the 'Flags of Australia' under Section 5 of the Flags Act 1953.

Later Harold was involved in a high-profile case in the Federal Court and the High Court, to assert copyright over his design.

JULY - ArtReads for Kids

Quote: Every artist was first an amateur.
                                    ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson



Animalia  by Graeme Base
It is an A - Z book which has a wealth of hidden objects and ideas. Within the pages of this book you may discover, if you look beyond the spell of written words, a hidden land of beasts and birds. For many things are 'of a kind,' and those with keenest eyes will find a thousand things, or maybe more - It's up to you to keep the score.  Beautifully illustrated and well worth a viewing!

Imagine a Night  
by Sarah L. Thomson
Imagine a night when you can ride your bike right up the stairs to your bed. Imagine a night when your toy train rumbles on it's tracks out of your room and roars back in, full sized, ready for you to hop on for a night-time adventure. Imagine a night when a farmer plays a lullaby on his fiddle, and his field of sunflowers begins to dip and sway to the rhythm. Imagine a night when ordinary objects magically become extraordinary... a night when it is possible to believe the impossible.

by Sarah L. Thomson
Imagine a day when your swing swings you higher than the highest treetops. Imagine a day when you can ride your bike up a path of falling leaves into the very tree they are falling from. Imagine a day when you release a handful of blue balloons into a cloudy, grey sky to create a postcard-perfect day. Imagine a day when the ordinary becomes the extraordinary... a day when anything is possible.


Cezanne and the apple boy  by Laurence Anholt
Paul Cezanne was on of the greatest French impressionist painters. This delightful book follows his son, also called Paul, as he travels to the mountains to spend a summer with his father. He discovers that his father paints the natural worls with a passion that few can understand. But one day they meet an art dealer who offers to sell the paintings in Paris and the rest is history. The reader gains a real insight into Cezanne the man through the eyes of a child - sometimes frightening, driven by his passion for art. And it provides a vivid introduction to Cezanne's work, with reproductions of his most famous paintings incorporated in the illustrations.

Can you find it?  by Judith Cressy
Discover all the intriguing details that make great art so fascinating. Each spread in this exciting new book offers a work of art and at least eight items to hunt for somewhere within the painting. Turn the thrill of artistic discovery into a trip through history and around the world, as Can You Find It? invites young readers to look into shadows and reflections, through windows and in the branches of trees. * Find a baby and a yellow bowl in a busy scene from ancient China. * Find a traffic light and a pair of pinky rings in a quiet snack bar of a movie theater. * Find three hands and a white bird in a portrait of a five-year-old French king alone on his throne. * Find five butterflies and two owls in an Egyptian tomb painting. * Find a water pump and a haystack in a view down Main Street in small-town America. The nineteen paintings in Can You Find It?, all from the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, include art ranging from ancient Egyptian friezes to 20th-century works. This book is a great tool to show young readers a wonderful new way to look at art.

To read or not to read- Fiction about the Art World


Unpredictable and humorous, take  a peek behind the scenes of the  New York art world in this fictional tale. The author, an avid art collector, has included 22 colour reproductions of artworks, all cited the narrative. 








Read the opening paragraphs of this book, then you decide whether to read or not to read the rest of the book!


I am tired, so very tired of thinking about Lacey Yeager, yet I worry that unless I write her story down, and see it bound and tidy on my bookshelf, I will be unable to ever write about anything else.

 My last name is Franks. Once in college, Lacey grabbed my wallet and read my drivers licence aloud, discovering that my forenames are Daniel Chester French, after the sculptor who created the Abraham Lincoln Memorial. I am from Stocbridge, Massachussetts, where Daniel Chester French lived and worked, and my parents, being pariochal Americans, didn't realise that the name Daniel Chester French Franks read funny. Lacey told me she was related to the arts by blood, too, but declined to tell me the full story, saying "Too long. Later I'll tell you French fries."  We were twenty.

I left Stockbridge, a town set under the glow of its even more famous citizen, the painter of glad America, Norman Rockwell. It is a town that revels in art, although uncomplicated art, not the kind that is taught in educational institutions after high school. My goal, once I discovered that my artistic aspirations were not accompanied by artistic talent, was to learn to write about art with effortless clarity. This is not as easy as it sounds: whenever I attempted it, I found myself in a convoluted rhetorical tangle from which there was no exit.




To keep reading this book, you can request it from the Library!

NAIDOC Week 2013 7th - 14th July.



NAIDOC Week, celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people throughout Australia. It's a great opportunity for the community to get involved and show support.

Visiting Sutherland Library during NAIDOC Week?
A selection of titles by Aboriginal and Torres Strait authors have been made available near the front door.

Here is a list of works by Aboriginal authors selected from the Sutherland Shire Libraries collection for NAIDOC Week.

The Boundary / Nicole Watson

Manhattan Dreaming / Anita Heiss

Paris Dreaming / Anita Heiss

Bloke / Bruce Pascoe

Carpentaria / Alexis Wright

Not meeting Mr Right/ Anita Heiss

Avoiding Mr Right / Anita Heiss

Legacy / Larissa Behrendt

Home /Larissa Behrendt

Caprice: a stockman's daughter / Doris Pilkington

Under the Wintamara tree / Doris Pilkington

Follow the rabbit proof fence / Doris Pilkington Young Adult Fiction.

Njunjul the sun / McDonald and Pryor

Who am I? The diary of Mary Talence / Anita Heiss

There'll be new dreams / Philip McLaren

Biography/Autobiography

Double native / Fiona Wirrer-George Oochungyung

Ten Hail Marys : a memoir / Kate Howarth

Life b'long Ali Drummond: a life in the Torres Strait / Samantha Faulkner with Ali Drummond

Black swan: a Koorie woman's life / Carolyn Landon & Eileen Harrison

Raparapa: stories from the Fitzroy River drovers / Barney Barnes...et al

Back on the block: Bill Simon's story / Bill Simon, Des Montgomerie and Jo Tuscano

Up from the mission: selected writings / Noel Pearson

Hey mum, what's a half caste? / Lorraine McGee-Sippel

Speaking from the heart /

Isabel Flick

Last truck out / Betty Lockyer

Nova: my story / Nova Peris

My Ngarrindjeri calling / Doreen Kartinyeri

The Mish / Robert Lowe

Once in Broome / Sally Bin Demin

Kimberley stories / edited by Sandy Toussaint

My place / Sally Morgan

Shadow Lines / Stephen Kinnane Non Fiction

Other

The Aboriginal soccer tribe / John Maynard

Our stories are our survival / Lawrence Bamblett

Singing the coast / Margaret Somerville and Tony Perkins

Indigenous peoples / Larissa Behrendt

Kurlumarniny: we come from the desert / Monty Hale (Minyjun)

Maybe tomorrow / Boori (Monty) Pryor

Kayang & me / Kim Scott, Hazel Brown

Mari Nawi : Aboriginal odysseys / Keith Vincent Smith

My people's dreaming : an Aboriginal elder speaks on life, land, spirit and forgiveness /Max Dulumunmun Harrison ; featuring photographs and recordings by Peter McConchie.
.............The ABC's Message Stick Program features a video of Uncle Max

Heartsick for country / Sally Morgan

Indigenous Australians for Dummies / Larissa Behrendt

Am I black enough for you? / Anita Heiss


Children's collection

Fog a Dox / Bruce Pascoe

Dead man's gold / Michael Torres

Playground: listening to stories from country and from inside the heart / compiled by Nadia Wheatley

The story of crow : a Nyul Nyul story / written and illustrated by Pat Torres

Savannah dreams / by Lolla Stewart, illustrated by Elaine Russell

Shake a leg / Boori Monty Pryor and Jan Ormerod

Demon guards the school yard / Anita Heiss and the students of La Perouse public school

Yirra and her deadly dog demon / Anita Heiss

Stolen Girl / Trina Saffioti

Celebrating survival day / Trish Albert

Curly saves grandma's house / Sally Morgan...

Born to run: my story / Cathy Freeman

Dharawal: the story of the Dharawal speaking people.../Les Bursill...

Babu the baby dugong / Selena Soloman

Island treasures: Torres Strait children share stories

Have you read any other great stories, celebrating the lives of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people?
Please tell us about them below.

This Day in History ( 6 July )

Photo by Pierre Lamy Petit
July 6th, 1885
An untested vaccine for 'Rabies' was successfully used on a 9 year old boy after he was mauled by a rabid dog.

Louis Pasteur is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases, and his discoveries have saved countless lives ever since.

Pasteur was to prove that airborne microbes were the cause of disease. Pasteur built on the work of Edward Jenner and helped to develop more vaccines.  

Louis Pasteur was born on 27 December 1822 in Dole in the Jura region of France. After several years research and teaching in Dijon and Strasbourg, in 1854, Pasteur was appointed professor of chemistry. He was able to demonstrate that organisms such as bacteria were responsible for souring wine and beer (he later extended his studies to prove that milk was the same), and that the bacteria could be removed by boiling and then cooling the liquid. 
This process is now called pasteurisation.

Pasteur then undertook experiments to find where these bacteria came from, and was able to prove that they were introduced from the environment. This was disputed by scientists who believed they could spontaneously generate. He was asked to help the silk industry in southern France, where there was an epidemic amongst the silkworms. With no experience of the subject, Pasteur identified parasitic infections as the cause and advocated that only disease-free eggs should be selected. The silk industry was saved.

Pasteur's various investigations convinced him of the rightness of the germ theory of disease, which holds that germs attack the body from outside. Many felt that such tiny organisms as germs could not possibly kill larger ones such as humans. Pasteur now extended this theory to explain the causes of many diseases - including anthrax, cholera, TB and smallpox - and their prevention by vaccination. He is best known for his work on the development of vaccines for rabies on the 6th of July, 1885

Institut Pasteur de Lille
In 1885, a young boy, Joseph Meister (9), had been bitten by a rabid dog, and was brought to Pasteur. The boy almost certainly would have died an agonising death if nothing was done so Pasteur took the risk on using his untested vaccine.The boy survived and Pasteur knew that he had found a vaccine for rabies. Three months later, when he examined Meister again, Pasteur reported that the boy was in good health. Ironically, though Pasteur and his team now knew that the vaccine worked, no one then in the world of science knew how it worked!  
In 1888, a special institute was founded in Paris for the treatment of diseases. It became known as the Institut Pasteur. Pasteur was its director until his death on 28 September 1895. He was a national hero and was given a state funeral.

Note: Louis met and courted Marie Laurent, daughter of the university's rector, in 1849. They were married on May 29, 1849, and together had five children, only two of whom survived to adulthood; the other three died of typhoid. These personal tragedies were his motivations for curing infectious diseases.

Download Free online magazines using Zinio


Do you like to keep up to date with your favourite magazines? Then you’ll love Zinio – a free digital magazine service that has just been launched at Sutherland Shire Libraries as part of its range of online collections.
The current issue of popular magazine titles can be downloaded onto many devices including PC, Mac, iPad or Android tablet.  Zinio enables readers to move seamlessly between text, graphics, animated illustrations and videos; making reading their favourite titles an interactive experience.

Titles cover a wide range of interests and age groups including Elle, Gardening Australia, Harper’s Bazaar, Inside History, MacUser, PC & Tech Authority, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Rolling Stone, Slam Skateboarding, Small Gardens, Balconies & Courtyards, Surfing Life, Sustainable & Water Wise Gardens, Vogue Australia, Weight Watchers and Wellbeing


As it is Artread month, why not try Drawing, Photoshop Projects or Architecture Australia. The choice will be difficult with over 100 titles available for download.
Information and step-by-step instructions on setting up and using Zinio are available on the Sutherland Shire Libraries website.