#blog12daysxmas Day 6 Six great books!

Six geese a laying! Well with my well known ornithophobia that wasn't going to go down too well. If I was going to post on my Hecuba Reads blog, however, I needed to think about six things relating to reading. This task is becoming quite a challenge I realize. When we did our 150 favourite reads I had huge difficulties trying to decide on five books. So now I have to think about six. Hmm. Well I do know six great books: they are the six wonderful local history publications available for sale in our libraries. They are as follows.

Boroondara's yesterdays: a history resource kit for middle years students in the City of Boroondara by Jill Barnard is our most recent publication and its cover is shown above. Whilst written with the school audience in mind, it is actually a great introduction for any ages to the study of local history and its sources as well as the history of our municipality.

Clubhouse: a celebration of local sport in Boroondara by Sonia Jennings & Mary Sheehan was published 2006 to celebrate the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. It is a great read for information about sport, sporting clubs and famous sporting people from Boroondara. Clubhouse is available in print form but also as a talking book on CD narrated by Tony Porter.

Faint traces: Chinese in Hawthorn before the Second World War by Mary Sheehan and Diane Nicholas was published jointly by the City of Boroondara Library Service and the Hawthorn Historical Society and documents the story of Chinese in Hawthorn, particularly focussing on two waves of migrants, namely the market-gardeners and the laundry proprietors. Faint traces is available as a talking book on CD narrated by James Wright.

Voices of Camberwell: from Alamein to North Balwyn by Geraldine McFarlane was written as a result of an oral history project covering the history of the former City of Camberwell. The print publication is no longer available but a talking book on CD is still available for sale. This is narrated by Beverley Dunn and James Condon.

Telling lives: locating and mapping the cultural heritage of Boroondara by Sonia Jenning (with Jill Barnard) celebrates the rich cultural history of our area and provides biographical notes on a large number of writers, artists, dancers, musicians etc. Telling lives is also available on talking book narrated by the library's very own Jane Nolan.


Our final publication is A history of Hawthorn by Victoria Peel, Deborah Zion and Jane Yule which was published by MUP in 1994. This publication traces the history of the former municipality of Hawthorn from aboriginal settlement to local government amalgamtions in 1994.

These six books are titles that I have read and reread and which I have on my desk and consult regularly. Friends and family have often received them as Christmas presents from me. I am not sure that they actually share my passion for these books. But they are six very special books to me.

#blog12daysxmas Day 5 Five gold rings?

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent me five gold rings.... Not something I really want as I really don't like gold jewellery. But when I was Googling to check that it really was five gold rings I discovered that the five gold rings are meant to symbolize the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament. Books and writing seems a bit more my thing but really I don't want anyone to send me any more versions of the Pentateuch. I have plenty of versions in English, Greek and Latin and I think I probably still have Genesis in Hebrew.

I am interested in this symbolism for the 12 Days of Christmas as I really knew nothing about it until five minutes ago. But what I would really like to blog about are Five Great Birthday Presents. I blogged the other day about the books I scored for Christmas but I have another stash relating to my big birthday this year.

Probably the very best present I got was my iTouch which I got as an early birthday present in time to take on my overseas trip in April/May. The iTouch was a gift from my parents and was definitely about books and writing and reading as I specifically got it so that I could load up ebooks and take them with me. It was a great success (and still is) and meant that I had some favourite authors on tap for the plane trip to say nothing of a range of other apps and my ability to access various email accounts at once. I love my iTouch and am very happy reading books on it as they are available in a range of formats and apps. What I am not happy about is the limited range available in Australia and of Australian publications. Some people find the iTouch too small but its smallness and lightness depict its very value to me and also why I can't quite bring myself to see the value to me of an iPad. It's bigger and heavier and... well maybe for films. I'll see.

So the iTouch was one fabulous reading device for my birthday and an early present, but once I had returned from my travels and was cajoled into late birthday celebrations, I got some books as well!! How lovely was that. All four were non-fiction and reflected people's knowledge of my long-term interests.


Penny and Mark gave me Peter Stothard's On the Spartacus road: a spectacular journey through ancient Italy. This is the story of Stothard's journey along the route that was taken by the gladiators (Spartacus et al.) who raged and waged war on the Roman Republic between 73 and 71 B.C. It is described as "a journalist's notebook, a classicist's celebration, a survivor's record of a near fatal cancer and the history of a unique and brutal war." Many buttons are pressed for me in that summary and I really look forward to reading it.

The other three books could be said to have the same theme: food, cooking and writing. Claudia Roden's Arabesque: a taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon was given to me by my friends Margaret and TK who share my love of the Middle East and of its food. I have long loved Claudia Roden's writing about food and this was a title I didn't own. I look forward to relishing the writing and food contained in it. Marg and TK hosted my Canberra birthday celebration which is depicted above and was fabulous. I am sorry that unfortunately I was ill during it and didn't enjoy celebrating as much I normally do. But a great time was had nonetheless.

Mairin, Sebastian and Alex gave me Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris' Your place or mine? The authors of this were Masterchef judges and well-known in Melbourne for their restaurants, Fenix and The Press Club. The book is well presented and divided into the categories of Providore, Greengrocer, Butcher and Fishmonger. There are recipes from each - some standard favourites, some very special. I read this the day I received it!


Tessa Kiros' Venetian journal: foo, travel, dreams was given to me by Karyn. This book is a combination of recipes, photos of Venice and opportunities for reflection and comments and a companion volume to Kiros' Venezia. I know one is supposed to write experiences in the book but I am not sure that I will be able to sully it!

These Five Presents really are so much more to my taste than Five Gold Rings or the Pentateuch. Thanks to all who thoughtfully gave me gifts aligned to my pleasures!

#blog12daysxmas Agatha Christie Day 4

On the fourth day of Christmas I finally got around to blogging about the Agatha Christie biography that I have out from the library and that is overdue. Well, I hope I will.


As I have mentioned in previous posts, for many years a new Agatha Christie was always part of my Christmas! Well Agatha always said "A Christie for Christmas" so it was quite appropriate. So when I was planning to go to England earlier in 2010 and emails were going back and forth about places we all wanted to go to, I realized we were going to be in Devon. Wow! So I put my hand up for Greenway, Agatha Christie's house in Devon, that I knew had been given to the National Trust by her grandson. Luckily Hazelanne, Maria and Ronnie with whom I was doing the West country road trip were agreeable and what a fabulous experience that was! Well, the whole road trip was but I found it wonderful to visit Agatha's house, see the pet cemetery, see her bedroom, see her piano and sitting room and see Max' artefacts. Though it was never her primary residence and later given to her daughter and son-in-law, so many of the classic Agatha photos depict her there that it seemed very familiar.


You can see the house and and its location overlooking the Dart above as well as a shot of the garden. If you want to see the other photos I took you can check them out on Flickr in my West Country 2010 folder. If you start with this one and go forward you will catch them all.


And so to the overdue book. Agatha was born in 1890 so we all felt that there would be a new book in the lead up to that anniversary. And sure enough Richard Hack's Duchess of death: the unauthorized biography of Agatha Christie appeared in 2009. Hack is an investigative writer who has previously undertaken investigative biographies of Howard Hughes, Michael Jackson and J. Edgar Hoover. Hack has done a very thorough job of his research, focusing in particular on the 5,000 or more documents at the University of Exeter's Special Collections division. These documents provide a wealth of documentation that has not previously been used.

I enjoyed reading Duchess of death. There was much in it that was familiar but often written with a different viewpoint given the sources and it was certainly interesting to get some family views on other members. Hack doesn't care for Max Mallowan and some of his comments about him are not very well substantiated whilst he leaves out other stuff that would have been interesting to pursue. Some don't like his writing style, but for anyone who is a Christie fan, I recommend the book as a good read. Maybe you could get it out of your local library and read it over the 12 days and blog your experience? I'll be taking this copy back to my library tomorrow.

#blog12daysxmas Dromkeen literary lunch

At Christmas we all have lots of regular things that we do and many of them are related to books and writing. Well, they are for me anyway. One of these is the annual Dromkeen literary luncheon. The City of Boroondara Library Service always has a table at the this event. I love the drive out there (my rule is my car but someone else drives because of my well-known hatred of driving), wandering around the grounds, viewing the peacocks from a distance, looking at the great illustrations in the gallery, hearing the guest speakers, and most of all just spending some time with the fabulous City of Boroondara Library Service Youth Services team.

At the Dromkeen literary lunch the Librarian of the Year is always announced and we at Boroondara are very proud that our own Cathy Mulcahy was runner up in 1996 and some years later in 2004 the Hawthorn Library Youth Services librarian, Rita Fellows won! I always enjoy going to look at the list of librarians and this year I managed to take a photo of Rita standing by the plaque with her name. We are proud of our Rita at Boroondara.

One of the things, however, that always disappoints me at Dromkeen is the lack of attendance by other public librarians. Do other public libraries know about the history and wealth of the illustrations collection at Dromkeen and the enjoyment of going to the literary lunch? I often wonder and feel regret that they are missing out on what is to me a wonderful Christmas experience.

#blog12daysxmas Summer reading Day 2 post

Christmas Day is past and, whilst we all have our new books to read, it is also time to dream, reflect and imagine with Boroondara's 150 favourite reads. This year on July 26 the City of Boroondara Library Service celebrated 150 years of continuous public library service in the area we now call Boroondara. As part of the celebrations, we asked our users to tell us what their all time favourite reads were. From this, we compiled a list of 150 favourite reads and we are currently running a Summer Reading program based on these.

The list includes adult and junior and both recent and old time favourites. You can download the list here. One of my tasks in the 12 days of Christmas is going to see how many of these titles/series I have already read and how many I haven't read. I know that there are some that I will never read because I have tried and don't like them but I am equally sure that there will be some new titles that I will discover and want to read over the summer.

If you want to take part in the Boroondara summer reading program the details are on our website. Though there will be some random prizes, this isn't so much a competition as an opportunity to explore Boroondara's favourite reads and to use the opportunity to dream, reflect and imagine. I'm off to check out the list! Will you join me?

#blog12daysxmas Christmas books Day 1 post

After quite a bit of nagging from @shewgirl who seems to have her blogging mojo back here I am on the third day of Christmas trying to start the #blog12daysxmas challenge! Part of the reason for my delay was that I simply had missed the call to the challenge and only realized it was happening when I started seeing all the tweets and blogposts labeled thus. And, of course, as my hash tags don't even show up in searches you all will be very lucky to read this. Another third world problem that I have had for ages.

The good thing about this challenge is that it sent me back to my Hecuba Reads blog that I set up after Christmas last year with the aim of documenting all my reading. I didn't succeed very well in that aim - on the blog at any rate - but more of that anon. What I want to talk about here is one of my greatest joys at Christmas. Yes! Yes! Getting books for presents.

If I think back to childhood Christmases, my favourite presents were almost always books. I, of course, except the fabulous Christmas when I was nine and my very, very favourite present was a black kitten whom I creatively called Kitty! The photo above is from that Christmas but I must have been enticed to the table and willing to leave my kitten as I can't see her anywhere. Mother nursing Mairin, Peter and Aunty surround me while Father was taking the photo with the Kodak box brownie I also got for Christmas that year.

Every year I used to fall on my book presents: new installments of Famous Five to add to my set shared alas with Mairin who to this day has the other half of the set, Elsie Oxenham, and then over the years moving on to Agatha Christie and Georgette Heyer. There were always new books to read on Christmas afternoon. As I have grown older and perhaps more significantly moved to working in libraries people are less likely to give me books. They think I have read them all or maybe even have too many! Last week when I opened the first book I got this Christmas and said I hadn't read the book and didn't even know it, there was a huge sigh of relief from the giver who almost always gives me books but with an anxiety that I may have read them or already own them. In fact, I don't think I ever have. Well chosen always, Mark!


So yes, I got books for Christmas. Yay! They were mostly non-fiction interestingly when I think of the childhood joys at getting latest fiction titles, but that is not to complain. And I hadn't read ANY of them. Sue, Brian, Calum and Tom gave me Lynn Santa Lucia's First and only women which is a fascinating compendium of female trailblazers from ancient times i.e Pharaoh Hatshepsut and Hypatia of Alexandria through to contemporaries like Dawn Fraser and Auung San Suu Kyi.


Penny and Mark gave me the only novel: David Grossman's To the end of the land. I haven't read anything by this Israeli writer whom I have now discovered to be a prolific author. This novel is set in Galilee and depicts daily life in Israel and the effects that constant war and its ambivalence have on one household.


And my interest in cooking emerged with the other three books. Karen gave me the CWA's Preserves, filled with absolutely luscious jams, pickles and preserves in a lovely new presentation that doesn't look anything like the traditional CWA books.


Marcus Wareing's How to cook the perfect... was Sebastian's contribution to introduce me to his favourite TV cook. The Earl Grey tea cream was particularly pointed out to me as something good to try. And it sounds delicious. I need to buy some Earl Grey teabags as I can't quite come to the challenge of using loose tea. Though now that I think about it I could use tea infusers, I suppose. And my final book? It was from Peter and Tim and is the Australian Women's weekly's World table with recipes from all over. I love the photos of the places that transport me there when I am reading of the food.

So Christmas is come and gone but, as it does every year, it lives on for me in the Christmas books I have received. Now I wonder will I read them during the 12 days of Christmas?