Show us a story

And Joe the Roundabout Tavern regular took his eyes half hopingly, half warily around his bar just in case he saw a mug or two he and his pals could beat up on, and just in case yesterday’s madman had returned to back up.  Then he clapped his hands together: So. So who else’s got a story to tell?

This is a paragraph from Alan Duff’s One night out stealing. It caught my eye when I was doing some booky housework along my fiction shelves here at Central Library Tuam, and started me thinking about stories, and bits of stories. We are launching ourselves into New Zealand Book Month here, and celebrating all things EnZed. And I thought to myself (because I have a mind like a mayfly), how much fun would it be to just dart around the shelves, picking up New Zealand books at random, and finding fabulous paragraphs that tell a story all their own.

Now obviously, it’s always nice to read a whole book, and get a complete story; but I reckon sometimes you can tell a story in just a paragraph or two. I’ll show you what I mean – here’s an extract from one of my favourite books here in the Aotearoa New Zealand Collection:

One night in the early 1850s, an odd event took place at a Christchurch ball. JT Peacock, a shipping man, had a partner for a quadrille, but they were without a pair to dance opposite to them. This caused a man named Joseph Longden to stand and stare contemptuously, and after the ball Peacock pulled his nose. Longden was a partner in Canterbury’s first stock and station agency, and could not ignore the affront to his dignity. He brought an action against Peacock, who was fined 2 pounds, but said that he thought the money well spent.

See? Worlds and layers of story, history and back-story, all in just a few sentences.  How cool is that?

So here’s my NZ Book Month challenge to you – either pick your fave Kiwi read, or make like a mayfly and cruise the shelves. Find a story that tells itself in just a few lines, and post it here. And let’s see how many New Zealand stories we can tell …

 

Fan girl squee – meet one of my fave authors!

As part of NZ Book Month celebrations here in Christchurch, we have very cleverly managed to organise a couple of visits by Karen Healey, one of my most favouritest authors ever.

I came across Karen’s first book Guardian of the Dead purely by accident. Sifting through a pile of new books some years ago, I found a cover that I really liked, and put it on my desk. It was only when I took the book home and started to read, that I found that it was a local book, by a local author, and set in and around my very own Christchurch. Jam-packed full of excitement, mystery, magic and Maori myth, it kept me riveted till the very end. I loved the way Karen had blended European and Maori history, literature and legend, and had set the book in a Christchurch that was absolutely recognisable.  Her second book, The Shattering, followed a year later, and was just as good a read.

Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of Karen’s third book When We Wake. I took it home and devoured it in one sitting. It’s the story of Tegan, 16 years old and living in Melbourne in 2027. She goes to a political rally, is caught in an assassination attempt and shot, and wakes to find that she’s become the first person to be cryogenically frozen and revived. It’s 100 years in the future, Tegan has lost everyone and everything from her former life, and things in the future aren’t as rosy as they should be. In fact, they seem to be worse than they were when Tegan was alive the first time round.

You can come and meet Karen Healey and hear her talk about her books and writing as part of New Zealand Book Month celebrations.  She’ll be at Upper Riccarton Library on Tuesday 12 March at 5pm (with pizza for tea!), and at Central Library Tuam on Thursday 28 March, also at 5pm.  Bring a copy of her book/s with you, and she may even sign them for you!

If you want to read more about Karen, try her website. Read our 2010 interview.

• Christchurch City Libraries NZ Book Month events
• Other NZ Book Month events in Christchurch
• NZ Book Month

 

New. Zealand. Book. Month.

1 March 2013 – New Zealand Book Month starts. But what is this Book Month, I hear you ask? If you are like me, and addicted to grammar, there are a number of possibilities. Month celebrating New Zealand books? Month celebrating books in (but not necessarily of) New Zealand? Or if you’re really lateral-thinking, a new Month celebrating books in/of Zealand, largest island in Denmark.

Less likely, that last one, I admit. So let’s have a look at what the official website says:

The clear goal of New Zealand Book Month is to form a North to South community of readers. Kiwis passionate about books, determined to share them with each other and spread the word. Telling and retelling stories, and recommending new books to read.  From friend to neighbour, school bus to sporting field, workplace to playground.

This sounds pretty good to me, whether I am thinking about New Zealand books, books in New Zealand (or even Denmark, really). As someone who can frequently be found reading, on buses, in the workplace, in playgrounds, even on a sporting field (although only by mistake, this last one), I think the idea of passionately and determinedly sharing my love of books and reading has to be a good thing.

And even though a small part of me wants to shout, but EVERY month should be Book Month, I reckon we can put some extra effort in for a few weeks. Let’s challenge ourselves to READ more, SHARE more, and spread the booky love in March.

While there’s still a few days left before celebrations officially kick off, why not think about something YOU can do in March? A bit like New Year’s resolutions, but without all the sweaty exercising and guilt-trips.  Here’s some ideas (or feel free to add some of your own below):

• Attend an official Book Month event (find library events here, or scan the NZ Book Month website for more local happenings).
• Find and enjoy a great Kiwi read – Christchurch-based, or further afield.
• Be like the old shampoo ad – pick your favourite book, then go tell two friends, and then they can tell two friends, and so on and so on …
• Visit your local library and check out the staff picks and hot picks (or even better, ask your friendly librarian for their favourite reads)
• And as an extra for experts kind of challenge, find and read a book about or from Zealand, Denmark.

 

The grumpiest books I know

We are now more than a month into 2013, and those irritatingly perky people who make New Year’s resolutions have stopped asking me what mine are (I find the threat of violence helps at these times). For some reason January for me was the month of grumps (at home, where even the cats and rats are depressed), and at work, where I seem to be fighting central city traffic, extreme exhaustion and far too much hayfever. And what’s with this crazy weather? 30 degrees – how is that okay?

Nana-naps and Telfast aren’t doing it for me, nor are brisk lunchtime walks round the block. Even reading gorgeous shiny house and garden magazines isn’t pulling me out of the slump. In desperation last week I was contemplating something along the self-help lines, when I came across Is it just me or is everything sh**. It made me remember how much I laughed when I was reading A year in the Merde. And how much I love David Sedaris, James Hamilton-Paterson, and Nigel Slater.

Is it my contrary nature that makes me want to be grumpy and pessimistic when all around me are happy people loving the high temperatures and leaping around talking about how great summer is? In winter, I come alive, and am happiest when there are heaters and blankies and big cups of hot chocolate, but right now even the possibility of icecream isn’t enough to make me smile. Grumpy books, though – they do seem to do the trick.  So I’m off on a new mission – find the grumpiest books I can, and read them all, and glory in the grumps.

I might still have that bowl of icecream, though …

 

It’s the end of the world. Again. Armageddon Expo is coming.

Dust off your Daleks and polish up your Pokemon – Armageddon is early this year (9 and 10 March 2013). Our household is full of very earnest discussions about what shade of grey is acceptable for which character, and whether international shipping can be relied upon to deliver the necessary in time for the big weekend. The girl-child is attempting two different cosplay costumes, one from the insanely popular Homestuck online comic series, and the other from something that I am not even beginning to understand. There’s body-paint involved, and horns made out of papier-mache, and that’s all I care to know, frankly.

If you or your dear ones want to join the madness this year, fear not – the library has a range of resources to help sort out those pesky costume issues, study up on pop culture and comics, or just embrace your inner fanboy/girl.

• Search the catalogue for books about making your own costume.
• Check out our huge range of graphic novels and comics, if you’re looking for inspiration.
• Read about other people’s interesting obsessions – collecting, gaming, cosplay …
• See how other people did it – there’s heaps of photos on our Flickr pages.
• Explore the Armageddon website, and see who this year’s guest stars are, plan your pillow-fighting and pizza-eating schedule, and start saving your pennies for those collectible figurines.

And if all else fails, and inspiration is still lacking, travel back in time and read our reports from previous years’ Armageddon visits.

 

How to dispose of your husband

Tired of fighting for control of the TV remote? Fed up with having to entertain your partner every evening? Sick of being the one who has to organise social events?

Try this: Great North Road, 1086 pages of pure reading pleasure, by sci-fi stalwart Peter Hamilton.  I gave it to my husband (let’s call him ‘Derwood’) two weeks ago, and I haven’t had to talk to him since. He arrives home every night from work, takes off his cycle helmet, picks up his plate of weetbix and vanishes. Depending on the weather, he is reading either in the garden (hammock), in the lounge (sofa), the family room (armchair by open French doors), or the bedroom (with accompanying cats). The giant size of the book means it’s a bit of a challenge to sling it in his backpack and take to work, but I have a feeling his patients are lucky they’ve got his full attention there, otherwise he’d probably be balancing it on their heads while fixing their shoulders or backs.

Up until a couple of years ago, Derwood was a one-man reader, Stephen King or no-one. Then I managed to bully him into reading Perdido Street Station, and he was off. Since then, he’s gotten to know China pretty well, and has also been spending time with Justin Cronin, Neil Gaiman (American Gods), Simon Green, and even Charlie Higson (zombies, not spies). Simon and Charlie seem to be a bit light for him, though – if I really want some peace and quiet of an evening, it has to be the great dense volumes of space opera or world-building or urban fantasy (NOT the vampire-y bodice-ripping ones) that involve multiple characters and storylines, with elements of fantasy and/or philosophy, and with some mystery thrown in. So it’s a bit of a relief to have thought of Peter Hamilton. I read his Night’s Dawn Trilogy a few years back, and  loved it, but I have to confess that the big world-building sci-fi books are a bit beyond my scattered concentration abilities at the moment.

I reckon with the rest of Hamilton’s back catalogue still to go, I’m sorted for the next couple of months, but after that I’ll be on the lookout again. Any suggestions as to where I should go after this? I’m thinking maybe Alastair Reynolds, but am open to all other offers …

 

Friends with (booky) benefits

I have a library friend (let’s call her ‘Barbara’). ‘Barbara’ has the amazing ability to appear silently beside me in the shelves, and casually say, Oh, that’s a great book!, and then silently vanish again.  And the books she recommends are always great.  Without fail, they are beautifully-written, genuinely engaging, and somehow just the perfect read I was looking for at that time, no matter whether I knew what I was looking for or not. Mystery, history, love story, contemporary fiction, or just plain good reads – often they are very far from what I think I am looking for, but invariably they are just exactly what I need.

She did it with Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong a couple of years ago, then again last year with Louise Penney’s Det. Insp. Gamache series, and she did it again just last week. Moonlight in Odessa is a book that I would never have given a second glance to, and yet it’s one of the most enjoyable things I’ve read in ages. An unprepossessing cover, a not-at-all engaging publisher’s blurb, and a meh-sounding title; yet once started, it proved impossible to put down. The plot is simple and linear (not a car chase, zombie or parallel universe in sight); but there was just something about it. Same with the characters, and with the setting. I even found myself wistfully browsing travel sites, and googling “Odessa opera house” just to put myself more in the picture. (I thought I’d better not go googling “Odessa women” at work, just in case I got more than I bargained for …)

I don’t know if ‘Barbara’ is aware of this gift, but it is a true and precious one. The ability to know someone and to find and recommend books for them is rare (think about all those times someone you thought knew you quite well tries to foist a completely inappropriate book on you, and then gets all stroppy when you have to confess that you didn’t really like it), and should be celebrated.  So thanks, ‘Barbara’, and may you keep appearing silently beside me among the shelves for many months and years yet …

 

From Skype to origami – People do amazing things at the library

People do amazing things inside (and outside) the library.

I was talking to a customer at my library yesterday, and he said, “Goodness, look at all those computers! Aren’t libraries supposed to be all about books? What are those people doing here?” Turned out he hadn’t visited a library for a few years, so we chatted for a bit about the changing nature of life, the universe and everything.

After he’d gone, I went for a walk around the shelves, and found all sorts of things going on this customer might raise his eyebrows at. Our libraries today are full of people not just practicing silent reading, but Skyping, typing, playing online games, writing CVs, learning languages, listening to music, watching movies, doing origami, playing chess, knitting, drinking coffee and just hanging out with friends. We have art displays, writer events, and great competitions (The Summertime Reading Club for kids has a photo comp and a colouring comp too). Information is passed along, not just via words on paper, but through e-learning, interactive classes, displays, events, websites, and more.

Not only that, but libraries are hitting the street (and the interwebs). Our new mobile vans are wherever you are in the city, we have e-books and audio books that you can take with you to the ends of the earth, and you can drop into any library and get help with all your informationy needs. Librarians go out to schools, playgroups and community events.  Apparently we even channel our inner librarian on the street – I can’t count the number of times I’ve been asked for information/directions/explanations, and I know that it happens to other librarians too. Is it the glasses? Or do we just look like we know everything?

Whatever naysayers might think they know about libraries, let’s keep proving them wrong – let’s keep our buildings full of people doing all sorts of glorious and amazing things, through the 21st century and beyond.

PS.  If you’re interested in finding out about all the things happening in and around libraries, start here with our Events Calendar, and remember to also keep an eye on the website and the blog, check out posters and displays in the library, or even easier – ask your librarian!

 

Secrets, families and lots of weeding

I have  a secret fondness for books about old houses, or old gardens. Show me a wreck of a house, or a lost garden, and I am in booky heaven.  I don’t mind if the book is fiction or non-fiction, real or made up, even what happens in it – horror, history, DIY restoration, even romance, as long as the place itself has been lost in some way, and then found in some way.  Sarah Rayne and FG Cottam’s haunted house books are great for this, as is anything about the Lost Gardens at Heligan (SO on my list of places to visit when I finally get to do a geriatric version of the Big O.E.).

I think this is how I stumbled across Kate Morton – just the title The Forgotten Garden was enough to make me lunge at it across the shelves.  Now I have to confess here that normally I wouldn’t give those great big chunky sagas a second look, but with the promise of hidden gardens, old abandoned houses and mysterious family secrets I thought I could step outside the zone and try something new.  Although when I say ‘new’, what I really mean is ‘not new’ – The Forgotten Garden was published in 2009, but I only found it recently.  I’m guessing this is because Morton’s books are so popular – her most recent title The Secret Keeper has a lot of holds on it, so obviously you guys rate her pretty highly.

The Forgotten Garden turned out to be a great read – well-written, well-researched and grounded in real, close-to-home history, and with really appealing characters.  I loved the bits about the garden and the house, with all its mysteries and family secrets, and even surprised myself by enjoying the whole ‘sweeping saga’ thing.  Now I’m thinking I might give The Secret Keeper a go too.  I know there’s a waiting list, but since it’s the holidays I might even spoil myself and pick up a best-seller copy – for the price of a (large) coffee, I can take a best-seller home, with all the usual benefits of best-sellers: they’re shiny, they’re always available even when there’s a long waiting list for regular copies, and best of all, you can say to your family, “No, I’m sorry, I CAN’T do the housework, I have to get this book finished by the end of the week.”

Sounds like a pretty good holiday plan to me.

PS. Can anyone recommend any other books about lost gardens or abandoned houses?  Or even write me one, quickly?  I’m running out of things to read here …

 

We’re all going on a summer holiday

Actually, that’s not true.  I’m not going on a summer holiday.  I’m just staying home, here in the gappy city, going to work, coming home, going to work …

And I’m sure there are others of you out there who are doing the same, so this post’s for you.  (You lot who’ve been reserving copies of travel guides to Spain and Croatia and other exotic places can just go polish up your passports or something).

Because I don’t get to go away this summer, I am having to travel vicariously, and in the spirit of the old ad campaign Don’t leave town ’til you’ve seen the country I thought I would have a go at listing some of the great New Zealand books I’ve read recently.  I’m talking here about the ones that have that amazing sense of place about them.  Ones that really make you feel like you could actually BE in Nelson, or Cape Reinga, or Central Otago.  Interestingly, many of them are young adult titles, but don’t (ever) let that put you off.

Rachael King’s books always make me feel like I’m right there with the characters, and her latest, Red Rocks, is one of the best at doing this.  Red Rocks actually lives in the children’s area of the library, but the story is a great read for all ages.  I grew up in Wellington, and the way Rachael describes the area brings those childhood memories back so vividly I can almost smell the sea and feel those jagged rocks on my bare feet.

Karen Healey has written two books recently that, for me, have a really strong sense of place.  Somewhat disconcertingly, her first book Guardian of the Dead is set mainly in Christchurch, but was written before the quakes, so many of the places she describes are not there any more, or are currently inaccessible.  This can make for a bit of an emotional read, in ways that I’m sure Karen didn’t intend, but even without this extra layer Guardian of the Dead is and will always be a top pick.  Her second book, The Shattering, is set in and around Nelson and the bays, and once again has the power to really make you feel like you can see those beaches and the countryside around you.

Like Karen Healey, David Hair weaves modern European and traditional Maori strands together in an action/fantasy story that makes for a great and gripping read. In book 1 The Bone Tiki, Napier teen Matiu Douglas finds he has power to travel between modern-day New Zealand and the alternate land of historical Aotearoa.  Pursued by a powerful tohunga makutu, and aided by spirit warrior Wiri and Pania of the Reef, he must embrace both his cultural backgrounds in order to save himself and his family.  In book 2 Mat has travelled to Gisbourne, and faces more danger.  Again, I love the way that David Hair can write about places that I know and recognise, and really bring them to life.

And finally, a wee treasure that I’m sure I’ve written about before.  How to Stop a Heart From Beating tells the tale of young Solly, who lives in Central Otago.  Set in the early 1960′s, and with such a young protagonist, this tale makes me feel not only like I am right there, but am also 9 years old again myself, and living through those long hot summers we used to have back in the olden days.

If you’re looking for a way to travel without leaving home, try one of these top reads, or check out one of our lists on Bibliocommons: we’ve got The Great Kiwi Novel, books with a Christchurch or Canterbury link,  and heaps of other EnZed-related booklists.