Book Matters

This month we celebrate Midsumma Festival, a chance to spotlight some of the wonderful LGBTQIA+ authors and stories that the library has to offer. Literature is a way to learn and understand different perspectives and it has been a pleasure to see the Rainbow Collection, stories about or written by LGBTQIA+ authors, expand over the past few years.

Joining us for a chat this month is Dr Maria Pallotta Chiarolli, writer, researcher, lecturer and consultant on the issues of cultural, gender and sexual diversity and the editor of the wonderful collection Living and Loving in Diversity, An Anthology of Australian Multicultural Queer Adventures. In this 2018 compilation of true LGBTQIA+ stories, we explore the intersectionality of race and sexuality, the challenges and joys of finding safe spaces and communities here in Australia. 

Tim also speaks with YA author Holden Sheppard, about his novel Invisible Boys a ground breaking Young Adult story that delves into the complexities of coming out as gay in a small regional Australian town. 

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In our second episode for 2021 Janine chats to author Alli Sinclair about her new novel The Code Breakers, a novel inspired by the real world efforts of Australian Women in WW2. 

 We also have some great recommendations for you including:

 Michael Connelly's new thriller Law of Innocence 

 Kim Liggett's gripping dystopian novel The Grace Year  

 Louise Candlish's domestic suspense story, Those People 

 And the emotional When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbra O'Neal. 

 We also speak to Casey Cardinia Libraries CEO and former Libraries Victoria CEO, Chris Buckingham about how Victorian libraries dug deep to provide support to those at home. 

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And we are back - Season 2 of Book Matters! In this episode we chat to award winning Victorian author Fiona Lowe and find out about her new book A Home Like Ours. We also hear from our book club organiser Makaila about the library Book Groups and of course there are some awesome reading recommendations from our staff!

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In the next episode of our Summer Series, we look back on our chat with popular Australian writer Monica McInerney about her latest novel The Godmothers and she shares details of the research she undertook which takes us to Ireland, Scotland & England. We also hear about Monica’s writing process and her upcoming venture into Children’s books

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Over the Summer period we have a great program lined up on Book Matters for your listening pleasure.  We have the best of our In-Conversation events during the year for you to listen to in case you missed them. 

In this episode Janine chats to Victorian rural fiction author Maya Linnell about her writing and her latest book Bottlebrush Creek, we hope you enjoy listening!

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Over the Summer period we have a great program lined up on Book Matters for your listening pleasure. We have the best of our In-Conversation events during the year for you to listen to in case you missed them. 

Sue chats to Queensland writer Barbara Hannay about her new novel - The Sisters Gift which is set on beautiful Magnetic Island and we learn about her years of writing over 50 novels, an amazing achievement! 

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In our new Summer series podcast Moira talks to Australian author Katherine Firkin about her debut crime novel Sticks and Stones. They chat about Katherine's years as an investigative news journalist and how this role influenced and inspired her research for this novel. Katherine also talks about being in NYC when COVID hit and how she had to leave quickly to return to Australia.

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In this episode Sydney writer Sandie Docker takes us back to those beach holiday days with her book The Banksia Bay Beach Shack, then we speak to historical fiction writer Fiona McIntosh about her latest book The Champagne War which takes us to the trenches of WW1 and the champagne region of France and as always we  have some summer reading recommendations from our staff at the Library.

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In this episode we reflect on the theme for NAIDOC week 2020, Always Was Always Will Be, by highlighting works by First Nations authors.  Tim spoke with writer, editor, teacher and proud Wuilli Wuilli woman Lisa Fuller about her award winning YA novel Ghost Bird . Sam recommends Gomeroi woman Alison Whittaker's collection Blakwork . We keep you up at night with the haunting YA mystery novel Catching Teller Crow by Palyku authors Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekiel Kwaymullina. We include Daniel's reflection on the Miles Franklin award winning work by Tara June Winch, The Yield  and we follow the career of Miranda Tapsell in her biography Top End Girl.

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In this episode Sam chat's to author and journalist Andrew Sharwood about his new memoir From Snow to Ash, a story about hiking one of Australia's toughest walking trails and exploring the high country. We review Garth Nix's new YA adventure The lefthanded booksellers of London, Anne Youngsons Meet me at the Museum, The Long Call by Anne Cleeves and Just my Luck by Adele Parks. Jason the organizer of the Bunjil Place manga club shares his passion for graphic novels.

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