I was suprised to come across this article in The Guardian about John Le Carre's request to be taken out of consideration for this year's Man Booker International Prize. Read the following article to find out why!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/feedarticle/9570766

Here is the list of the 13 authors shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize which is awarded every 4 years and which was announced in Sydney…

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As today is St Patrick's Day I thought we should celebrate Irish writers. So here is the link to the 2010 Irish Book Awards for some suggestions for great Irish reads.

My favourite Irish writers are Colm Toibin, Sebastian Barry and John Banville

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The Nobel Prize in Literature 2010 was awarded to Mario Vargas Llosa "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat".

Read more about his life and work here…

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John Birmingham who is visiting Mosman Library on 5 July to discuss his latest book " After America" has written an interesting article about female action heroes in literature. Here's the link:…

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There was no Booker prize awarded for the year 1970.

In 1971, just two years after it began, the Booker Prize ceased to be awarded retrospectively and became, as it is today, a prize for the best novel in the year of publication. At the same time, the date on which the award was given moved from April to November. As a result of these changes, there was whole year's gap when a wealth of fiction, published in1970, fell through the net. These books were simply never considered…

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Check out this article from the UK. Interesting to see UK libraries are starting to catch up with us!

Britain’s terminally dull libraries are looking more like Heathrow’s Terminal 5 courtesy of a nationwide transformation............…

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To carry on from Wallerawang's St Patrick's Day Blog here is a link to the Irish Book Awards site for the 2009 winners in the fiction category. Some great reads especially the Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

http://www.irishbookawards.ie/AwardDetails.aspx

Over the December/January holiday season Mosman Library is allowing its patrons to borrow as any books, DVDs, CDs and audio books as they like.
Extended loans are also available for those going away on holidays.

This is a great concept set up by International PEN - an association of writers dedicated to preserving freedom of expression. Take the time to have a look.

http://www.internationalpen.org.uk/go/literary-events/free-the-word-world-book-club

Winners of the 2009 Prime Minister's Literary Awards

Minister for the Arts Peter Garrett has just announced the winners of the 2009 Prime Minister's Literary Awards.



The winner of the 2009 Fiction award is Nam Le for his book of short stories The Boat. The judging panel was impressed by the daring scope and excellence of its execution, the generous breadth of its emotional and social traverse and the excitement generated by every… Continue

Since the success of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series and the adaptation of the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire series for the True Blood television series, paranormal romance as a genre has really taken off. What is paranormal romance? Well it's a combination of horror and romance with the main characters usually being vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, succubi, demons and other supernatural beings.It's the perfect escapist literature for the modern young women as usually this genre… Continue

The Times newspaper has just published its top 50 paperbacks for the year. Some great reads are included. Check it out.

The Times picks the 50 best paperbacks of 2009

It certainly is the season for literary awards and shortlists.

Here is the latest:

The 2009 Prime Minister's Literary Awards Non-Fiction and Fiction shortlists.Some great reads by Australian authors to follow up.



Seven fiction and eight non-fiction works have made the 2009 shortlists, selected from more than 250 entries:



Non-Fiction

Van Diemen's Land - James Boyce

Doing Life: A Biography of Elizabeth Jolley -… Continue

Here are the winners. Some great reads to follow up.

Wanting by Richard Flanagan has won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award for fiction. 'This distinguished Australian writer brings history to life in this fascinating novel based on events in early colonial Australia and England,' say the judges. The other winners are:



Non-fiction book: The Tall Man by Chloe Hooper



Unpublished Indigenous Writer: The Boundary by Nicole Watson



Film Script: Max and Mary… Continue

Check out this year's shortlist. How many have you read?





A S Byatt The Children's Book (Random House, Chatto and Windus)



J M Coetzee Summertime (Random House, Harvill Secker)



Adam Foulds The Quickening Maze (Random House, Jonathan Cape)



Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall (HarperCollins, Fourth Estate)



Simon Mawer The Glass Room (Little, Brown)



Sarah Waters The Little Stranger (Little, Brown, Virago)



For more information… Continue

Mosman Library is launching its new collection of Book Club Kits on Thursday 28 May and will be following up on this event by running special seminars for those who want to set up their own Book Clubs.



Book Clubs have become increasingly popular over the last few years. Mosman Library runs six Book Clubs including a special Men’s Reading Discussion Group and we are receiving many requests for multiple copies of books from people running their own book clubs. The new collection of 25… Continue