To read or not to read... a story set in Vietnam


Set in the post-civil war of Vietnam, read this heartwarming tale of salvation and redemption, told from the viewpoint of  three seemingly unconnected characters, who are brought together in greed fear and hope.







To read or not to read?-That is the question. Read the opening paragraphs of this book and you decide...

All that was left of the little lizard was a skeleton. It was trapped behind the browning tape which held the tattered mosquito net across the window. Tail curled, body strained and snaking, it looked like it had struggled to the very end. Alexander and the lizard sat together in the dusty cafe in Hanoi's Old Quarter, watching people and sharing time. Alexander was stony faced. Dead teeth bared, the lizard smiled.

Alexander knocked back the dregs of his watery coffee and lit a cigarette. he took a long drag and ran his finger around the rim of his cup, listening to the stern, tin voice of the loudspeakers crackle in the heat as the Party marched through their evening bulletin. The street was insufferably busy, as were all in Hanoi. The buildings here squatted closer than in any other city he'd seen, and the trees they hid behind were all taller and thicker. His eyes sifted through the mess of brown faces and patrolling government uniforms and snagged on an elderly woman, crouched in a doorway on the opposite kerb. She was bending her head to the bowl in her hand and shovelling rice into her mouth through the gaps where her teeth should have been. A cat paced beside her, rubbing his mangy fur on her shin and flicking the stump of his tail, impatiently. The woman dropped a scarp and the animal chomped frantically at the ground. She paused and watched him, her tongue licking out from the corner of her mouth and her chopsticks upright in the bowl, like incense at a funerary rite. God, no, not her, thought Alexander. The lizard smiled.

Dusk was staring to creep in, but the air still boiled. In the searing heat, the sewers sweated, and hot, wet air rose up from underground and soaked people with stench. All along the tree-lined street, shops and eateries spilled over from their doorways. Women sat on the tiled steps, fanning their children with the latest order of government pamphlets. Faded red falgs hung from every awning, and they drooped as though weary of the heat too, and the strain of parading their loyalty.

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

The Big Library Read 2014

 The Big Library Read  is on again, February 17th – March 5th, 2014. The Big Library Read is the worldwide digital version of a local book club, where unlimited copies of the e-book version of Keys to the Kitchen will be available to download from Sutherland Library Service Overdrive from Monday 17th February until Wednesday, 5th March. 


Food Network and Cooking Channel star Aida Mollenkamp lays an invaluable foundation for cooks in Keys to the Kitchen. This comprehensive manual collects more than 300 innovative, contemporary recipes as well as color photographs, plenty of informative illustrations, a substantial technique primer, and helpful how-to information on subjects as wide-ranging as rust removal, throwing a cocktail party, and knife skills.

For members of the tech-savvy new generation who can’t cook but want to, this essential reference guide makes an ideal starting place and for those already at ease in the kitchen it’s full of “who knew” moments for expanding their repertoire of great recipes.




Cronulla Library Recipe Club
If you love cooking, you may be interested in joining the Cronulla recipe club, held the 1st Thursday of each  month at 2.00pm. The next meeting on Thursday 6th March. The theme for for the March meeting is diabetic cooking. For further information, please call Cronulla Library 95234980. 



Ten Books...by husbands and wives


All but one of the ten featured books have been written under a nom de plume, with a husband and wife writing team behind it. These couples are not  writing romance though,   more often they are collaborating on crime and mystery ....

Mia James is the pen name of Tasmina Perry and John Perry, writing a young adult paranormal mystery series,  the Ravenwood mysteries.  Darkness falls is set in London,  in Highgate, featuring vampires and murder....









There is no non de plume for this Scandanavian husband and wife team Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö,   who have collaborated on ten mysteries featuring Detective Inspector Martin Beck. Roseanna is the first in this masterful series of ten novels, collectively titled "The story of a crime."



Written by well known crime writing duo,  Nicci Gerard and Sean French, who use the slogan- 'one writer, two minds'. Their current project is a new series of books  featuring psychotherapist Frieda Klein.
Blue Monday. A day for murder is the first book in the new series.









Jan Coffey is the pseudonym of married couple James A McGoldrick and Nikoo K. Coffey McGoldrick. Fourth Victim combines a heartwarming romance with a tense, edgy, wholly convincing suspense,  creating a great romantic suspense story. 









Lars Kepler is actually a  Swedish marriedcouple, Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril. Their book, The hypnotist, was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, 2013. 
Read the number one Scandanavian crime bestseller taking the world by storm.
Karolinska Hospital,Stockholm.  Detective Inspector Joona Linna is face with a boy who has witnessed the gruesome murder of his family.He's suffered more than one hundred knife wounds and is comatose with shock.







Cleo Coyle, Cozy mysteries are written by Alice Alfonsi and husband Mark Cerasini. 
A brew to Kill A shocking hit and run in front of her Village Blend coffeehouse spurs Clare Cosi into action. A divorced, single mom in her forties, Clare is also a dedicated sleuth, and she is determined to track down this ruthless driver who ran down an innocent friend and customer.






Simon Beaufort is the pseudonym of Susanna Gregory and Beau Riffenburgh when they write together. The Bishops brood  is a Sir Geoffrey Mappestone mystery. 
When the treacherous Bishop of Durham escapes from the Tower of London, Geoffrey and his frined Roger-who is the Bishop's son-must travel north in search of a killer who threatens the stability of the entire country. 





Barbara Allan-is the joint pseudonynm of acclaimed short story writer Barbara Collins and New York Times bestselling author Max Allan Collins. They write the Trash and treasure mysteries.
  Antiques knock off is a laugh out loud cozy mystery. Brandy Borne is pretty sure her charmingly eccentric(aka off the meds)mother, Vivian, did not kill that viperous mousy haired busybody Connie Grimes. But there's the small matter of her guilty plea...





Alex Rutherford is the pen name of Dianna and Michael Preston, who write a series historical sagas, Empire of the Moghul. Book one is Raiders from the north. This series covers the rise and height of the Moghul Empire in early modern India. 








Michael Gregorio, consisting of Daniela De Gregorio and Michael G. Jacob, are crime writers. Critique of criminal reason  is the first in a series of books set in East Prussia in the height of the Napoleonic Wars. It chronicles the attempts of magistrate Hanno Stiffeniis to solve a murder mystery. 

Welcome to our New Website

Well, it's been a while coming but the new design for our website is now live. Forgive us a little boasting but we think it looks pretty good.


Everything that was there before is still there and only a few things have moved around. Some of the main navigation menu labels have changed, but hopefully we haven't caused anybody trouble in getting around the new site.

However, we know that not everybody likes change, so why did we do it?

To read or not to read...about love, life, death and new possibilities.


Read this unabashedly romantic story of love, life, death, food and the magic of new possibilities.








To read or not to read?-That is the question. Read the opening paragraphs of this book and you decide...

Here is one way to say it: Grief is a love story told backward.
Or Maybe that is not all. Maybe I should be more scientific. Love and the loss of that love exist in equal measure. Hasn't an equation like this been invented by a romantic physicist somewhere?
Or maybe I should put it this way: Imagine a snowglobe. Imagine a tiny house inside of it. Imagine there's a woman inside of it, and this one is standing in the kitchen, shaking another snowglobe, and within that snowglobe...
Every good love story has another hiding within it.

Part One
Ever since Henry's death, I'd been losing things. I lost keys, sunglasses, checkbooks. I lost a spatula and found it in the freezer, along with a bag of grated cheese.
I lost a note to Abbot's third grade teacher explaining how I'd lost his homework.
I lost the caps to toothpaste and jelly jars. I put these things away open mouthed, lidless, airing. I lost hairbrushes and shoes-not just one of a pair, but both.
I left jackets behind in restuarants, my pocketbook under my seat at the movies, my keys on the checkout counter of the drugstore-afterward I sat in my car for a moment, disoriented, trying to place exactly what was wrong and then trudged back to the store, where the checkout girl jingled them for me above her head.
I got calls from people who were kind enough to return things. and when things were gone-just gone-I retraced my stpes and then got lost myself.

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

Adult Summer Reading Club Winner 2013-2014.



The Adult Summer Reading Club  for 2013-2014 has come to an end. Congratulations to Cronulla Library customer, Martin, who has won the Major Prize of an iPad Mini for his entry reading, rating and reviewing  The Navigator by Clive Cussler. Martin rated this book 5 stars.



Martin's review:
Iran.2013. When UN investigator Carina Mechadi learns about a missing statue in the Iran Museum. she locates this statue and ships it to America, but on route the boats attacked by pirates. The statue ends up in Turkey....But is the original or another statue made by the Phoenicians? A great mystery!













Thank you to all participants in the Adult Summer Reading Club for your  reading, rating and reviews of lots of books borrowed from the Library. Keep telling us what you think of the books you are reading!  It's easy to do, by simply posting your reviews on the Sutherland Shire Library Catalogue:

  • Login to your library account from the Sutherland Shire Libraries website.
  • Click on new search. From the drop down menu, choose Encore
  • In the search box, type in the name of the book you would like to review. 
  • Click on the title of the book. 
  • On the next screen, scroll down to community reviews, and click on add a review.
  • Type in your book review, and press submit.  














A New Library Website is Coming!

Over the next few weeks we will be implementing a new design for the library website that is modern and more friendly to smartphones, tablets and other small screen devices.

To read or not to read...a police procedural.

A police procedural series by a Swedish husband and wife writing team. Translated into English in 2011, it was made into a film in 2012. 











To read or not to read, that is the question!


 Read the opening paragraphs of this book and you decide...

Like fire, just like fire. Those were the first words the boy uttered under hypnosis.  Despite life threatening injuries- innumerable knife wounds to his face, legs, torso , back, the soles of his feet, the back of his neck, and his head, the boy had been put into a state of deep hypnosis in an attempt to see what happened with his own eyes
“I’m trying to blink” he mumbled. “I go into the kitchen, but it isn’t right; there is a crackling noise between the chairs and a bright red fire is spreading across the floor.”
They thought he was dead when they found him among the other bodies in the terraced house. He’d lost a great deal of blood, gone into a state of shock, and hadn’t regained consciousness until  seven hours later. He was the only surviving witness.
Detective Joona Linna was certain the boy would be able to provide valuable information, possibly even identify the killer.
But if the circumstances had not been so exceptional, it would never even have occurred to anyone to turn to a hypnotist.   

 Want to read more? Request a copy from the Library. 
After you read the book, watch the movie. How do they compare? 

Library Lovers Day...Go on a blind date with a book.

Celebrate Library Lovers Day by going on a blind date with a book!
If things don't work out...just return it-no hurt feelings!

Don't judge a book by its cover, select one of our
 plain wrapped books on display at each branch of the Library by reading the tantalizing keywords on the covered books giving  you some clues about the book. 

Will your dream date be a thriller, a romance or an action packed adventure?
Where will you read your book date? In the Library, the park, at home on the lounge? Tell us  about your book date in the comments...

Ten books...read some romance in February!

It's February, the month of love and romance.  Paranormal, classic, historical or contemporary there is romance novel for everyone...


Entwined with you by Sylvia Day. The hotly anticipated follow up to Bared to you, this is the  third book in this series, and the latest erotic romance novel by this international best-selling author. 
Eva and Gideon face the demons of their past, and accept the consequences of their obsessive desires.


Lover at Last by J.R Ward. Winner of the Goodreads Best Romance 2013, this paranormal romance is the 11th in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, featuring vampire warriors. This is Qhuinn and Blaylocks story. If you want to start at the very beginning, read Dark lover.

Hotshot by Julie Garwood. A contemporary romance novel of family drama,suspense and of course, romance. 
Inheriting a luxurious oceanfront resort under a condition that she must run it profitably for one year to claim full ownership, food critic Peyton Lockhart is targeted by dangerous rivals and protected from a threat against her life by childhood friend and attractive FBI agent Finn McBain. 

True love by Jude Deveraux. An author of unforgettable romance stories. This is the first book in her new series, the Nantucket brides trilogy. After she mysteriously inherits a nineteenth century Nantucket house, Alix Madsen gets drawn into the unsolved disappearance of her ancestor two hundred years ago, and begins to have feelings for Jared Montgomery who lives in the property's guesthouse. 

The lemon orchard by Luanne Rice. A romantic love story of two people from seemingly different worlds. In the five years since Julia last visited her aunt and uncle's home in Malibu, her life has been turned upside down by her daughters death. She expects to find nothing more than peace and solitude as she house sits with only her dog, Bonnie, for company. But she finds herself drawn to the handsome man who oversees the lemon orchard. Roberto expertly tends the trees, using the money to support his extended Mexican family. What connection could these two people share? 


The Taming of Ryder Cavanaugh by Stephanie Laurens.  The second in the Cynster sisters series, (Mary's story) this is a historical romance with a twist. The honorable Miss Mary Cynster alwaus gets what she wants. As the last unwed Cynster of her generation, she is determined to stay in charge of her life and the man she will marry. At the very bottom of her list is Ryder Cavanaugh, the daring and devastating Marquess of Raventhorne, an overwhelming and utterly unmanageable lion of a ton. But destiny has other plans...


Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. This innovative and enduring classic romance novel continues to engage and provoke readers. 

Rake's midnight Kiss by Anna Campbell. Enjoy this latest love story by the winner of the Australian Romance Readers Favourite Australian Romance Author 2012. Brilliant scholar Genevieve Barrett knows how to keep a secret. Her identity as the as the author of her fathers brilliant academic articles has always been her greatest deception- until a charming housebreaker tries to steal the mysterious Harmsworth jewel from her. She doesn't reveal that she recognises her father's devastatingly handsome new student as the thief himself. 


The girl in steel capped boots by Loretta Hill. A bestselling debut, this rural romance is a story of red dust and romance. 
This is the Pilbara. And it's the Pilbara that makes the rules. Lena Todd is a city girl who thrives on cocktails and cappucinos. So when her boss announces he is sending her to join a  construction team, her world is turned upside down. Lena's new accomodation will be an aluminium box called a dongar. Her new social network: three hundred and fifty men. Her daily foot attire: steel capped boots. Unfortunately, Lena can't refuse. Mistakes of the past are choking her confidence.

Half moon Bay by Helene Young. Read a novel combining fabulous romance and compelling suspense, by one of  Australia's most popular and award winning authors of romantic suspense.
Ellie Wilding has been running from her past, but when the residents of Half Moon Bay call for help, she knows its time to finally return home. As an international photojournalist, she's used to violence in war zones, but she is shocked when it erupts in the sleepy hamlet on the North Coast of New South Wales, threatening all she holds dear.   

Twitter Reading group February: #Smoochread

#smoochread

Golden Retrievers, Passionate Romances and Christmas Pudding
Smooch Me













Join the discussion this month about #smoochread. We will be focusing on all things inspiring passion in this discussion (and it will be great to see what ideas people include).
Her golden hair glistened in the late afternoon sun. Her eyes looked into mine. Love. Loyalty. Trust. I reached towards her. She was so beautiful. She was, in short, the best golden retriever a man had ever had. Okay, so some people are closer to their pets than others. There are, however, lots of great books about smooching animals from John Grogan’s Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog and Vicki Myron’s work Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World or Gene Zion’s Harry the Dirty Dog. There are also animals with attitude such as the Schnauzer Asta in The Thin Man by tough-guy writer Dashiell Hammett. Not all smoochable animals are domesticated: there is, for example, the wonderful collection of animals that populate the 100 Acre Wood in A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh.
There is a vast array of different types of romance stories to choose from: Crime and romance (read: The Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane Series by Dorothy L. Sayers, watch: Mad Dog and Glory starring Robert De Niro); GLBT romance (read: anything written by Claire McNab, watch: Claire of the Moon starring Trisha Todd); Historical romance (read: anything written by Jane Austen, watch: Becoming Jane starring Anne Hathaway); Paranormal romance (read: Undead and Unwed by Mary Janice Davidson, watch: Underworld starring Kate Beckinsale); Screwball romance (read: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, watch: Bringing up Baby starring Katherine Hepburn); Young Adult romance (read: The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson, watch: Ever After starring Drew Barrymore).
Of course not everyone lives happily ever after . . . just ask Rachel Samstat of Nora Ephron’s Heartburn or explore The English Patient (book by Michael Ondaatje, movie starring Kristen Scott Thomas). Many examples of poetry also provide sad ends for lovers: all those lonely warbling, dying swans.
Smooching and playing go together too. Men are particularly good at this. The tender caress of a putter that has just helped to score a birdie on the final hole (A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the PGA Tour by John Feinstein). Kissing the Australian crest on a ‘baggy green’ cricket cap (Bradman’s War: How the 1948 Invincibles Turned the Cricket Pitch into a Battlefield by Malcolm Knox). Clutching at the club logo on a football jersey after crossing the line for a winning try (Glory Days: The Story of South Sydney’s Golden Era by Alan Whiticker).
Men and women are also good at smooching in the kitchen as seen in the books and television shows of: Jamie OliverHugh Fearnley-WhittingstallDonna Hay; and Kylie Kwong who make a vast array of tasty treats from nourishing pastas to an indulgent rocky road Christmas pudding. Similarly we can smooch in the garden.
Smooching is intensely personal. People can smooch: bears; cars; cats; coffee mugs; cupcakes; delicious pasta; dogs; favourite meals; first pair of ballet flats; flags; fresh linen; model planes; musical instruments; new pyjamas; plants; plush toys; puddings; scoreboards; soft armchairs; sporting crests; train sets; treasured books; and, occasionally, each other.
While you are reading, playing or watching your #smoochread, you might like to tweet about it using #smoochread #rwpchat so that other people can have a conversation with you about your #smoochread.  You can add to the discussion on Pinterest too. You might like to post your photographs to Instagram or Flickr and use #smoochread #rwpchat so others can share in your reading, watching and playing.
There will be a twitter discussion on 25 February starting at 8.00pm Australian Eastern Summer Time. 9.00pm New Zealand Time, 6.00pm Singapore Standard Time, 12.00 noon Central European Time. Note: this is a staggered start to the discussion.
Use the tags #smoochread and #rwpchat as you discuss the reading, watching playing that is your experience of smoochread, so others can join in the conversation too.

Starting to study? Find relevant, current research

Knowing where to start to locate research to support arguments for essays or assignments can be fraught with angst. Sutherland Shire Libraries have Research Databases in our Online Collections, which can make it easy.

Sutherland Library Service subscribes to many databases to which current library members have access, both in the library and at home. The library's biggest (but by no means the only) providers are:

Proquest - ABI/Inform Global, Proquest Australia & New Zealand Newstand, Proquest Research Library and Proquest Science Journals.                                 



EbscoHost  - ANZ Reference Center, Consumer Health Complete, Greenfile,Literary Reference Center, Masterfile Premier, Science Reference Center,   Academic Search Elite, Points of view reference centre.

These can be searched singly for a targeted result or simultaneously for a broad result.



Australian Public Affairs - Full Text or APA-FT comes from Informit. It offers articles from over 500 Australian academic journals.


On the Research Databases page one can look for a particular database, or do
 a search and decide which one to use further by the number of hits retrieved.


Once one has results, the search can be refined using the facets
on the left hand side.














Your library card number and pin number will be required to actually
 view the article.

A library home page search will also retrieve articles. It will produce
a list of items held by the library service, the first 3 of which are items
in the collections. The next 3 results are article titles retrieved from the
library's subscription databases.

Follow the links to retrieve the article itself.






















Once you are familiar with the databases you may wish to start
 in your favourite. Locate the Research Databases page and scroll
down the alphabetical list until you find the one you want and click
Start Searching. In each database you will find features which can
be used to tailor your experience.


Each database is slightly different, but all have very similar features.
The picture below highlights some of the options available for creating
 and managing your searches, look for them in any database you use.















There are very useful features once you are on the detail page
 of the article as well.













Contact the library for further information about this service and
 minimise your research stress.