Christchurch City Libraries Blog

Construction of the road at Morgan’s Valley, Heathcote, Christchurch. June 1910.

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Also contact us if you have any further information on any of the images. Want to see more? You can browse our collection here.

Have you landed a new job as a community worker who has to consult with diverse groups?

Are you an experienced facilitator looking for a new perspective on working with different cultural groups?

If you are looking for some ideas on how to fine-tune your skills or expand your knowledge, check out these titles.

Speakout by Wendy Sarkissian and Wiwik Bunjamin-Mau explains step-by-step the process of creating an interactive, drop-in style of engagement with community groups. It also gives clear instructions of how to organise, plan and manage community planning workshops, and make sense of the outcomes.

The Art of Community by Jono Bacon looks at strategies to bring your community together, including how you can use social media to engage with your audience.

An oldie but a goodie outlining a different approach to group discussions is The World Cafe by Juanita Brown. It’s a way to host conversations about things that matter, to get people talking and engaging, and to harness the collective intelligence, experience and knowledge of the group to move forward.

There’s also wealth of good ideas and further information on the The World Cafe website.

Appetites were whetted for a good big feed of public art when Blair French, convenor of the curatorial group for SCAPE 2010, lifted the cone of silence from the artists’ names at Christchurch Art Gallery in April.  Christchurch flâneurs are promised a set of startling and thought provoking encounters as we walk through the city between the 24th of September and the 7th of November.

The artists participating in the “seepage of the work into the world” in SCAPE 2010 are:

• Hector Zamora
• Ahmet Ogut 
• Ash Keating
• Darryn George
• Robert Hood
• Gregor Kregar
• Joanna Langford
• Ruth Watson
• Richard Maloy

It’s all happening in the inner city and will be supplemented by an extensive series of events giving lots of opportunities to reflect on what we’ve seen.  Roll on September.

Marina Lewycka’s latest offering has just turned up on hold for me.  It came just in time as I had devoured A bone to pick by Charlaine Harris and I was looking for something more.  I  tried the Aurora Teagarden series earlier in the year but up until recently we didn’t have the second book  in the series.  It was a good, quick read but I think I might leave Aurora to her murder mysteries.  The characters are less engaging than those of the Sookie Stackhouse series.  Phew – didn’t really need another series.  I need a bit more meat with my potatoes at the moment.  

The meat came in the form of  my well timed hold from earlier in the blog - “We are all made of glue”.  I am only a short way in but I find myself skulking off to bed early to read it and finding non-populated parts of the staff room to indulge.  It has lovely quirky characters with history and mystery.

I find it really hard to believe that it took Marina Lewycka, of Two caravans and A short history of tractors in Ukrainian fame, so long to be published.  Unless it is because publishers are like the New Zealand Immigration Service and don’t know what a treasure they have.  I have found all of her books thoroughly readable with colourful characters  and interwoven plotlines that aren’t so convoluted you get lost in a plot-hole on the road to the end of the book. 

So what is the meat (or meat substitute) and potatoes on your plate at the moment?

Do you have a favourite New Zealand writer who you think is up with the best and deserves acknowledgement and financial reward? Here’s your chance to try and give them a helping hand. New Zealanders are being asked to nominate outstanding New Zealand writers in each of the three genres of poetry, fiction and non-fiction for the Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement 2010. Worth $60,000 each, the annual awards were established in 2003 to recognise writers who have made an enduring contribution to New Zealand literature. Creative New Zealand adminsters the awards which will be presented later this year. Nominated writers must be living New Zealand citizens or resident in New Zealand and should have written a body of work that has received national acclaim and/or international recognition. Previous recipients are not eligible for consideration in other genres.

The nominations are assessed by an expert literary panel and recommendations forwarded to the Council of Creative New Zealand for approval. The closing date for nominations is Friday 28 May 2010. All eligible nominations will be assessed by an expert literary panel and recommendations will go to the Council of Creative New Zealand for approval.

The Prime Minister’s Awards for Literary Achievement were established in 2003. The complete list of recipients to date is:

• Fiction: Janet Frame (2003), Maurice Gee (2004), Margaret Mahy (2005), Patricia Grace (2006), Fiona Farrell (2007), Lloyd Jones (2008), CK Stead (2009).
• Poetry: Hone Tuwhare (2003), Kevin Ireland (2004), Alistair Te Ariki Campbell (2005), Vincent O’Sullivan (2006), Bill Manhire (2007), Elizabeth Smithers (2008), Brian Turner (2009).
• Non-fiction: Michael King (2003), Anne Salmond (2004), Philip Temple (2005), Judith Binney (2006), Dick Scott (2007), WH (Bill) Oliver (2008), Dr Ranganui Walker (2009).

To nominate your choice please find the nomination form on the Creative New Zealand website. Alternatively contact Creative New Zealand with your nomination at pmawards@creativenz.govt.nz.

The Lost Man Booker Prize shortlist was announced at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival on 25 March 2010.

Why a Lost Man Booker? In 1971 the Booker Prize ceased to be awarded retrospectively and became  a prize for the best novel of the year of publication:

At the same time the award moved from April to November and, as a result, a wealth of fiction published for much of 1970 fell through the net and was never considered for the prize.  Now, 40 years on, a panel of three judges – all of whom were born in or around 1970 – has been appointed to select a shortlist of six novels from that year. 

The reading public get to decide the winner of The Lost Man Booker. The public vote closes at midday on Friday 30 April. The overall winner will be announced on 19 May 2010.

Shortlist:

Nina Bawden: The Birds on the Trees
J G Farrell: Troubles
Shirley Hazzard: The Bay of Noon
Patrick White: The Vivisector
Mary Renault: Fire from Heaven
Muriel Spark: The Driver’s Seat

You can go to the voting page to have your say.

The World Cinema Showcase has just started in Christchurch and one of the documentaries sounds fascinating, with a local connection (library and Christchurch) which can’t be beat. Anne Perry – Interiors is a portrait of the successful detective fiction writer who was revealed a few years ago to be Juliet Hulme of the notorious Parker-Hulme murder.

It might seem a bit gruesome to keep revisiting a murderer but the combination of folie a deux, matricide, teenage girl killers and staid 1950s Christchurch, plus adult redemption has proved irresistible to writers, readers and film makers over the years.

The connection with the library has come from several directions. Peter Jackson researched “Heavenly Creatures” in our New Zealand collection and due to pressure of interest over the years the original information file of original newspaper reports of the trial has been digitised on the library website.

Anne Perry has had a successful career writing novels featuring Victorian detectives Thomas Pitt and William Monk. She is a prolific writer and we have many of her works including in large print and audio book format.  Her latest novel The sheen on the silk has ventured into 13th century Byzantium.

The film programme says:

Filmmaker Dana Linkiewicz has snuggled very closely into the comfort zone that Perry has created for herself. Tellingly attentive to her subject’s insistence on routine and decorum, she has emerged with an absolutely fascinating portrait of the artist and the devoted circle of three that supports her. The question of how the hunger for exoneration shapes her life and fuels her work hovers suggestively in every elegant frame.

Never fear Jack Reacher fans – Jack’s still got plenty of life left in him.  The James Hay Theatre was packed with Jack Reacher fans last night as his creator, Lee Child, landed in Christchurch as part of his Australasian tour.  He held his audience captive for over an hour with anecdotes about the craft of writing, the appeal of Jack Reacher, and his dislike of the Fleming family.

He started by discussing why he sets his books in America instead of his native Britain.  Jack Reacher, he said, is an isolated loner so you can’t have him in a populated, civilised country like Britain.  He needed the American frontier mysteriousness to give Jack the wide-open spaces and lots of isolated small towns.  While other crime writers tie their main character to a particular place, Reacher is able to go anywhere and do anything. 

Child also has a dislike of James Bond and his creator Ian Fleming.  I think it was Frederick Forsyth that compared Reacher to James Bond, but Child disagreed with this comparison and said that he’s more like the Lone Ranger or a medieval knight errant because you don’t know much about his past or who he really is and there is always somebody who needs his help when he rolls into town.  Although, Reacher firmly believes that he’s not helping the little man, he just hates the big man.

People have asked Child what the appeal of Jack Reacher is, particularly to women, and he thinks that it is probably because he is offended by injustice and he treats women well.  It is a compelling character, such as Reacher, that Child suggests is the most important part of a story, and that all the details of the plot are secondary to this compelling character.  The character of Reacher is definitely the main reason I love his books.

Lee Child will keep writing the Jack Reacher books for as long as he can (and as long as they sell) so we don’t need to worry about losing him quite yet, although Child already has Reacher’s final scene worked out so I now know how he’ll die.

Lately I’ve been reading some new children’s books that are written by New Zealand authors about Kiwi kids.  I really like it when New Zealand authors write about life in New Zealand, because I can relate to it so much better than American authors writing about American kids.  The scenery is something I recognise and the experiences of the characters is often something that has happened to me or something I did when I was a kid.  

Jack Lasenby is an author who has been writing for years and his books always have a slice of Kiwi life.  I like to think of him as Barry Crump for kids, because his books are made up of lots of little stories about life in a small country town, the mischief that kids get up to, and the crazy stories that adults tell them.

 Jack’s latest book, The Haystack, is full of these amusing and entertaining stories that are told from the point of view of Maggie who is being brought up by her dad in the 1930′s Depression.  They’re set in a little Waikato dairying township called Waharoa, where several of Jack’s other books have been set and where he grew up.  I loved these stories because of the closeness of Maggie and her father, and the way that Jack creates the atmosphere of Waharoa.  You can almost smell the wood smoke and feel the hot sun beating down on the dusty roads.

If you like the Percy Jackson books, you should try The Taniwha’s Tear by David Hair.  This is the second in the series and so it carries on the story of Matiu Douglas who came face to face with creatures from Maori legend in the first book, The Bone Tiki.  Like Percy Jackson, Matiu discovers he has powers and that the gods and monsters of legend (in this case Maori legend) are real and he must help to save our world. 

This is another book for children that is distinctly New Zealand and the combination of scenery that you recognise, action, adventure, myth and legend makes it an exciting and unique read.

If you’re interested in New Zealand children’s authors, we have a great page on our Kids website which has interviews with authors such as Joy Cowley, Margaret Mahy, David Hill and Brian Falkner.

TumbleBook Library is an online collection of  animated talking picture books which teach kids the joy of reading. TumbleBooks are created by adding animation, sound, music and narration to existing picture books in order to produce an electronic picture book.

TumbleBooks are designed to be experienced in either automatic or manual mode. In automatic mode the pages turn by themselves and are narrated – while in manual, the narration is turned off and children turn the pages and read at their own speed.

• Story Books: Old time favourites such as “The Paper Bag Princess” by Robert Munsch, as well as favourite fairy tales such as “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

• TumbleReadables: Older students can read classics such as “Black Beauty” and “Anne of Green Gables.”

• Audio Books: A collection non-fiction and fiction children and teen books.

• TumblePuzzles and Games: A collection of online puzzles, concentration games, spelling games that reinforce concepts from the book featuring a picture from the book.

• Language Learning: A growing selection of bilingual books in French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese and Russian.

You can access Tumblebooks and many other useful databases from home with your library card number and PIN, or at our community libraries.