Sutherland Shire Libraries News

It’s dark, bleak and lonely. The protagonists are often flawed, fractured characters with damaged souls. These are some of the ingredients of Scandinavian-noir, a sub-genre of crime writing popularised by writers such as Stieg Larsson (Swedish), Jo Nesbo (Norwegian) and Henning Mankell (Swedish).

My first encounter with Scandi-noir was via the author Asa Larsson, who I mistakenly borrowed in the place of Stieg in the prime of his popularity. Larsson continues to be a favourite of mine in the genre, her sparse prose borders on the poetic, and the atmosphere she creates of Kiruna in far-North Sweden is visceral and raw. Asa Larsson and the other writers on this list may be lesser known, but they are no less powerful.

Note: This list contains both writers of stand-alone novels and writers of series. It is also not an exhaustive list but rather those I most recommend.
 
Alvtegen, Karin (Swedish)

Arnaldur Indridason (Icelandic)

Blaedel, Sara (Danish)

Bohman, Therese (Swedish)

Edwardson, Åke (Swedish)

Enger, Thomas (Norwegian)

Eriksson, Kjell (Swedish)

Fossum, Karin (Norwegian)

Heivoll, Gaute (Norwegian)

Hjorth, Michael (Swedish)

Høeg, Peter (Danish)

Holt, Anne (Swedish)

Jungstedt, Mari (Swedish)

Kallentoft, Mons (Swedish)

Kepler, Lars (Swedish)

Larsson, Asa (Swedish)

Nesser, Håkan (Swedish)

Ohlsson, Kristina (Swedish)

Persson, Leif G. W. (Swedish)

Roslund, Anders (Swedish)

Tursten, Helene (Swedish)

Yrsa Sigurðardóttir (Icelandic)

Let us know what you think of these writers or of Scandi-noir in general!
(Dasha - Cronulla library)

We know you've been waiting for them and now they're here. The first test New Items Lists are now available.  Thanks for your patience while we worked on these lists and now we'd really like to hear what you think.

Initially we've only created a couple of lists.  Once we've heard your feedback we will create more new items lists for different types of materials.

The first set of lists for New Adult Fiction, New DVDs and New Mills & Boon titles are available now on the Library's catalogue at
http://webpac.sutherlandshire.nsw.gov.au/

A bit more about the New Items Lists...

These new lists work a bit differently to the lists you may have been familiar with on our old system.  Where previously the library produced a self-contained list each month, for example new fiction in July, in the new system the lists are updated daily and cover the previous month.

For instance, the New Adult Fiction list will show adult fiction titles received by the library in the past 4 weeks.  Each day new items added to the collection are then added to the list, while items older than 4 weeks will drop off the list.  Some lists may cover a different period, but all will work on the same continuous rolling model.

In addition, we have added the ability to subscribe to email updates for each list.  If you are interested in new DVDs, for example, you can sign up to receive a daily email listing the new titles added that day.  If there are no new DVDs added that day, no email.  And for any fans of RSS, there's also a feed for each list.


The list of new items in each category are coming from a direct query on our system database. Unfortunately, the items aren't really sorted in any useful order such as title or author. Also, the links to each title point to our 'classic catalogue' and not our main discovery interface (Encore), however, you can still perform all the actions you would otherwise have available (reserve, add to list, etc.)

Ideally we would change those two aspects if we could but it's just not possible.


Check these lists out and leave us a comment with your thoughts and questions or suggestions for other lists you'd like created. We can't promise anything now but we will look at your suggestions and requests and see what we can do.

Are you having trouble deciding what titles to choose for Christmas gifts, or to soak up yourself, during the (potentially wet) holidays? Then here is a list of some of the online tools which can help you to choose. All are freely available, though the first, NoveList Plus, does require you to be a library member.

NoveList Plus offers over 200,000 titles to choose from. It includes fiction and non-fiction catering for all reading levels for children, young adults and adults. You can discover titles by a range of options including using plot descriptions, award lists, read alike suggestions, genre, style and of course author and title. Click to check if Sutherland Library holds your choice.

Checkmeout.blog is your local booklovers blog. It’s a blog for anyone who loves books, DVDs or music. Here, you can check out what other people are reading/watching/listening to and find that next good book, movie or sound recording. You can even register to become a contributor and tell others of your favourites.

All Readers features a detailed search by plot, setting or character. Finding a story about farm life, featuring animal care, set in Australia is just a few clicks away. Lists by genre are also available.

Fiction DB says it has ‘everything you need to know about fiction books and authors’. You can find complete author book lists, books in series, descriptions, reviews, and author pages.

Gnooks.com is a fun way to get an author suggestion. Enter an author and get a map of similar works or type in 3 of your favourite authors and get a suggestion, reject this and get other!

Libraries Alive has an impressive set of links to many Australian book choice tools.

There is something new and exciting for everyone within every one of these sites, so try some out today. Don’t forget to check the Sutherland Library catalogue, and reserve your copy.

Happy Christmas reading!