Sutherland Shire Libraries News

Fiction Follies is a monthly newsletter containing a selection of NEW fiction added to the collection of the Sutherland Shire Libraries. Click on the book title to reserve your copy.

New Mysteries

Cinnamon kiss by Walter Mosley
Described by Publishers Weekly as the superb 10th volume in the Easy Rawlins series. A gruesome murder takes place against the “summer of love” in 1966; while Easy is contemplating robbing an armoured car to raise money for his daughter’s desperately needed medical treatment. Received rave reviews for its gripping plot and convincing characterisation of the flaws and dilemmas of its main character.

The malice of unnatural death by Michael Jecks
The country's number one author of medieval murder mysteries brings us a riveting tale of murder and intrigue in the King's Court. It is 1324, and the kingdom is in uproar. Escaping from the Tower, Roger Mortimer - the King's most hated enemy - makes his way to France, and hires an assassin to murder the King.

The waxman murders by Paul Doherty
Sir Hugh Corbett is sent to negotiate with the holder if some important lost maps and documents. However instead of a meeting he finds a scene of murder and carnage. The valuable documents are not stolen. Sir Hugh must discover why such a vile and barbarous crime has been committed. An excellent medieval mystery set in 1300. For fans of Ellis Peters.

New Thrillers

Dream girl by Robert B. Parker
The 34th Spenser novel. A must for people who like hardboiled mysteries with nimble plotting and prose, wit and a character that detective readers can warm to. In this Spenser is enlisted to help an upmarket call girl operation. This all woman enterprise is being threatened by the heavies in organised crime. Can Spenser help the lady in distress?

Stalemate by Iris Johansen
A forensics based thriller for fans of Patricia Cornwell and Julie Garwood. In a departure from the earlier Eve Duncan thrillers Johansen has the character showing some fallible human traits. Here Eve finds herself attracted to a sleazy, amoral arms dealer who promises to help her solve the mystery of her seven year old daughters disappearance

Hot blood by Stephen Leather
Dan 'Spider' Shepherd is used to putting his life on the line. It goes with the turf when you're an undercover cop. Now working for the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Shepherd is pitting his wits against the toughest criminals in the country. But when the man who once saved his life is kidnapped in the badlands of Iraq, thrown into a basement and threatened with execution, Shepherd has to decide whether his loyalties lie with his country, his career, or his friend.

Shadow dance by Julie Garwood
An unexpected guest at a wedding warns that there is bad blood between the clans stemming from a long ago theft of a family treasure. Investigating these claims brings Jordan Buchanan danger, intrigue and romance.

New Fiction

Backward in high heels by Judith Kelman
If you want to get to know someone, divorce him - The day Maggie heard her husband's office had burned down, she was heartbroken. But actually, the disaster was worse than she thought. Harold wasn't in the building: he was in bed with a beautiful twenty-three-year-old graduate student. Now he's leaving her, and Maggie has to pull herself together. But who should she listen to? Her lawyer? Her overbearing mother? In the end the best advice comes from a most surprising source...

Love songs and lies by Libby Purves
Sally, Kate and Marienka. Three young women who meet as undergraduates in 1970s Oxford and share their romantically shabby canal side house with Max Bellinger -- clever, attractive, enigmatic Max. Sally -- our narrator --idolises Max, who is something of a homme fatale. But it is Max's wayward rock singer brother, Marty, who is to play the most important role in her life, when one of his songs (for which she provided the lyrics) becomes an unexpected hit. Although their paths diverge once they leave Oxford, Sally stays in touch with all the housemates and their lives remain interwoven throughout the momentous second half of the twentieth century.

New Romance

The loner by Josephine Cox
Devastated by the death of his mother and disappearance of his father, Davie flees his home town but is haunted by tragic memories. On the run Davie finally finds friendship. But is it safe to settle down or should he keep running. From one of Britains most popular writers.

New Fantasy

Envious gods by Geoff Gillan
An adventure set amongst a troupe of actors. Trouble is in store when one of the troupe decides to impersonate a god, because in this world the gods walk the earth and are jealous. Full of derring do sword play and adventure.

New Historical Fiction

Heart of oak by Alexander Kent
It is February 1818, and Adam Bolitho longs for marriage and a safe personal harbour. But with so much of Britain's fleet redundant, he knows he is fortunate to be offered H.M.S. Onward, a new 38-gun frigate whose first mission is not war but diplomacy, as consort to the French frigate Nautilus. Under the burning sun of North Africa, Bolitho is keenly aware of the envy and ambition among his officers, the troubled, restless spirits of his midshipmen, and the old enemy's proximity. It is only when Nautilus becomes a sacrificial offering on the altar of empire that every man discovers the brotherhood of the sea is more powerful than the bitter memories of an ocean of blood and decades of war.

An awkward commission by David Donachie
Another rip roaring sea adventure along the lines of Julian Stockwin and Alexander Kent.

Cape Farewell by Peter Tonkin
When Richard Mariner's tug Sisyphus is hit by a huge rogue wave off the Greenland coast, only superb seamanship and good luck save her. The vessels ahead of Sissy are not so fortunate and an ever-more desperate race begins as Sissy must pull the stricken submarine Quebec up towards the surface, and somehow keep her there as they battle towards their rendezvous with a rescue fleet at the southern point of Greenland the ominously named Cape Farewell...


* Note: Descriptions of the books are taken mainly from the synopsis supplied by the publisher.

Have you recently seen an interesting book that we don’t have? Visit our web site to Suggest an Item for the Library's collection.

After breakfast at Tiffanys I was reflecting on how it's a wonderful life, though this was understandable given I had enjoyed a room with a view on my Roman holiday. Observing the travelling birds in little Britain I met my friends with money, borrowed a fistful of dollars and boarded the Imperial Express at 4.50 from Paddington, seeing a bleak house here or there from the window. I had booked a flight and made my great escape, returning to Miranda for Muriel’s wedding. I knew her through our mutual friend in Casablanca, the woman of substance. Far from a marriage of convenience it was love actually, for she was a good woman, although she had courted a few good men. Fifty first dates she’d had, no less. The groomsmen passed us in tuxedos like a march of the penguins while we went to meet the parents, who had great expectations of the groom, David Copperfield. When the wedding crashers arrived I was gone with the wind, heading for home until I was told an inconvenient truth that there was a body in the library. A body? No it was DVDs! In the library! At Miranda!

Miranda library now have a selection of DVDs for loan – feature films, documentaries and television programmes. Visit the library to see our collection or ask the friendly staff to help in your selection.

Evening Book Group meetings will take place in the meeting room at Sutherland Library on the fourth Thursday of each month (excluding December). Meetings start at 7.00pm.

In our first meeting we began by talking about the books and authors we liked to read. We mentioned best sellers like James Patterson, Joanna Trollope, modern literary novels like Memoirs of a Geisha, the humour of Bill Bryson and good political mysteries. As a result, we decided to try to read a selection of modern and classic novels with the occasional non-fiction title thrown in. Our aim is to discover new and interesting authors but also revisit some much loved titles.

The group decided that on the main we would try to borrow books from the Library’s collection but occasionally purchase any high demand best sellers that we can’t wait to read. We decided to set 3 titles for the next three months to enable members to start reading the books.

You are most welcome to join the group. These are the books we will be discussing in the coming meetings:

• On March 22nd we will talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver - Unputdownable but very disturbing. All I can say is I’m glad I have cats and not children. Terrifying!
• The April 26th meeting will consider The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.
  The film of the book is one of the most beautiful and moving that I have ever seen and the member recommending it promises the book is equally wonderful.
• On May 24th we will talk about The Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan Boyle.
  A novel contrasting the lives of privileged Californians with the struggles faced by illegal Mexican immigrants.
• Finally, one of the members mentioned To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and the response was so positive that we decided to make it our June 28th book.

Each week a different member will begin with a short talk about the books and the author then a general discussion will follow. Members are also welcome to bring snacks.

So, if you want to join a friendly group to share a love of books and reading please contact Kaye on 9710 0346 or email kjohnson@ssc.nsw.gov.au

Some time ago we told you that the State Library of NSW was providing at home access to a number of databases to all NSW residents on a trial basis. The good news is that the trial is now over and the State Library is continuing to provide access to the databases. These databases are additional to the online databases you have access to as a member of Sutherland Shire Libraries.

To gain access to these databases you must first register for a Reader's Card, which can take up to 10 days to arrive. We recommend that you register now so that you have access later on if and when you need it.

These databases may be especially helpful for HSC and University Students when researching essays and assignments. In particular, Informit and Proquest 5000 include a wide ranging collection of journal titles covering most subjects. The Times Digital Archive could be very useful for modern history students with contemporary accounts of the various topics studied and Film Index could obviously benefit anyone studying Film in English.

The full list of available databases includes:

• Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
  Nearly 150,000 English-language titles and editions published between 1701 and 1800.
• Early English Books Online (EEBO)
  An ongoing project of the full text of publications in the English language produced by printing presses in England and its colonies between 1473-1700.
• Film Indexes Online
  Brings together Film Index International and the AFI (American Film Institute) Catalog, providing full international coverage of films and film personalities from over 170 countries.
• Health and Wellness Resource Centre
  Fulltext medical encyclopaedia, alternative health encyclopaedia, medical dictionary and drug and herb information. Also includes fulltext magazines, journals and pamphlets from a wide variety of authoritative medical sources.
• INFORMIT Online
  Provides online access to a wide range of Australian, Asia and Pacific research and information resources covering social sciences, education, law, criminology, film studies, health, medicine, accounting and economics, business, management, drug information, and sport.
• Literature Resource Center
  An online collection of traditional literary reference works, contemporary literary criticism on authors and their works, current journal articles plus other resources.
• ProQuest 5000
  (Includes: Australia and New Zealand Newsstand and US Historical Newspapers)
  A multidisciplinary collection of 19 separate databases indexing the contents of 7,900 journals and the full text of articles from 3,900 journals. The subject coverage is from the humanities to the pure and applied sciences, and the geographic coverage is international
• Times Digital Archive 1785-1985
  The London Times newspaper including all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos and divided into categories to facilitate searching.

Happy Searching!

Update: 12 March, 2007 - Unfortunately, this course has been cancelled.

Do you sometimes wonder whether you're getting the best results from your web searches? Do you ever feel like you're missing something? Do you wish you knew how the experts search the Internet?

Shameless self promotion no.1

Enrol in the Library's upcoming Internet Searching and Security course, beginning on Thursday 15 March, and learn the techniques of the professionals. As librarians, we are searching for information every day. In this course we teach you the secrets of our success including:

• How do Search Engines work?
• Developing a search strategy.
• Advanced searching.
• How do the pros do it?

In addition to learning how to improve the quality of information you find on the Web, the course will introduce the main safety/personal security issues surrounding Internet access and explain the basic precautions that you should take including:

• Viruses and Anti-Virus software.
• Personal Firewalls.
• Secure Sites/Encryption.
• SPAM

For more details about the course dates and times, location and how to make a booking visit Sutherland Shire Libraries Events Calendar.