It’s almost the end of the year so what better time to celebrate our year in reading. Every day for the next 12 days you’ll hear a Yarra Libraries team member championing the book they loved reading most this year. Think of it as some inspiration for your holiday reading, your gifting, or your to-read list for 2020. On the third day of reading it’s Meaghan Dew from Carlton Library.

It’s almost the end of the year so what better time to celebrate our year in reading. Every day for the next 12 days you’ll hear a Yarra Libraries team member championing the book they loved reading most this year. Think of it as some inspiration for your holiday reading, your gifting, or your to-read list for 2020. On the second day of reading it’s Sam Boivin from Fitzroy Library.

Each day leading up to Christmas a Yarra Libraries staff member reviews a book they loved reading in 2019. On the First Day of Reading Bargoonga Nganjin, North Fitzroy’s Connor Borchard-Burns recommends 'Daisy Jones and the Six' by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

Our theme song is Add And by Broke for Free

“There is a woman somewhere in Australia who will be dead next week, and the only thing we don’t know about her is her name.” – Jane Gilmore

Journalist Jane Gilmore discusses the myths we’re subconsciously sold about violence against women through the way it’s covered in the media. In ‘Fixed it: Violence and the representation of women in the media’ she analyses media headlines, highlights trends and discusses ways to fix newsrooms themselves. Jane was in conversation with Margaret Simons at Bargoonga Nganjin, North Fitzroy Library. This is an edited recording.

Fixed It

“‘Fixed It’ demonstrates the myths that we’re subconsciously sold about violence against women and undercuts them in a clear and compelling way. This is a bold, powerful look at the stories we are told – and the stories we tell ourselves – about gender and power, and a call to action for all of us to think harder and do better.”

Jane Gilmore

Jane Gilmore was the founding editor of The King’s Tribune. She is now a freelance journalist and a regular columnist for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Jane has a Master of Journalism from the University of Melbourne and has a particular interest in feminism, media and data journalism.

Margaret Simons

Margaret Simons is an award-winning freelance journalist and the author of thirteen books and numerous articles and essays.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

Eggshell Skull – Bri Lee

Fixed It – Jane Gilmore

Hunger – Roxane Gay

Invisible Women – Caroline Criado-Perez

#MeToo – Miriam Sved (ed.)

Not that bad: dispatches from rape culture – Roxane Gay (ed.)

On Violence - Natasha Stott Despoja

See What You Made Me Do – Jess Hill

She Said - Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

This House of Grief – Helen Garner

Our theme song is "Add And by Broke for Free"

“Always choose a plant purely on the lighting you have, rather than the aesthetic. Because I say there is nothing nice about a dead plant in your house.” – Jason Chongue

Jason Chongue didn’t want to ruin gardening by making it his job, but starting The Plant Society has brought the therapeutic joys of gardening to a brand new cohort. In ‘Place Society: Create an Indoor Oasis for Your Urban Space’ and ‘Green: Plants for Small Spaces, Indoors and Out’ he demystifies gardening, and makes certain people aren’t afraid to make mistakes.

This is an edited recording of our live event at Bargoonga Nganjin, North Fitzroy Library, where he discussed his first book with Collections and Reader Development Librarian (and plant murderer), Meaghan Dew.

‘Plant Society’ is now available at Yarra Libraries and ‘Green’ will join it this December. Find a copy at your local branch or place a reservation on our website.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

Plant Society – Jason Chongue

Green – Jason Chongue

Get Plants: how to bring green into your life – Katherine Price

Urban botanics : an indoor plant guide for modern gardeners – Emma Sibley

My tiny indoor garden : houseplant heroes and terrific terrariums in small spaces – Lia Leendertz

Tiny tabletop gardens : 35 projects for super-small spaces - outdoors and in – Emma Hardy

Plant love : how to care for your houseplants – Alys Fowler

Succulents : the ultimate guide to choosing, designing, and growing 200 easy-care plants – Robin Stockwell

Writing in response to climate change and the Black Saturday bushfires respectively, Alice Robinson and Alice Bishop emotionally connect their readers with disaster to brilliant, devastating effect. They both joined Mel Cranenburgh (3RRR presenter of Back Story) at Carlton Library to discuss their novels.

In Alice Robinson’s ‘The Glad Shout’ (Affirm Press), we follow a young mother and her child in Melbourne as they struggle through the aftermath of an unprecedented storm. In Alice Bishop’s ‘A Constant Hum’ (Text Publishing) individual experience following a devastating bushfire is explored in a series of short stories. Together, they explore the impact of climate-change fueled environmental events, response to loss, breaking down our ability to disconnect from disaster and the route they took to writing and structuring their stories.

This is an edited recording. Thanks to Alice Bishop, Alice Robinson, Mel Cranenburgh, Text Publishing and Affirm Press. Our theme song is Add And by Broke For Free.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

The Glad Shout – Alice Robinson

A Constant Hum – Alice Bishop

Anchor Point – Alice Robinson

The Trespassers - Meg Mundell

Dyschronia – Jennifer Mills

The Arsonist – Chloe Hooper (also available on Borrowbox and Cloud Library)

Things We Didn’t See Coming – Steven Amsterdam

City of Trees – Sophie Cunningham

School Holidays are back and so are we! If you’re spending more time with the children in your life you might be wondering... how do I encourage them to love reading? Don’t stress, when it comes to helping kids grow into voracious readers our Children’s Librarian Lizzie Gilmour is a professional. Have a listen to her top five tips for raising an avid reader.

Tips inspired by Mem Fox’s ‘Reading Magic’.

Our theme music is ‘Add And’ by Broke for Free.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

Reading Magic - Mem Fox (also available as an ebook in Cloud Library)

Repetition and Rhyme

Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy - Lynley Dodd

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle

Giraffes Can’t Dance - Andrea Giles

LLama LLama Red Pyjama - Anna Dewdney

Green Eggs and Ham - Dr Seuss

As a dedicated Richmond fan, author and journalist, if George Megalogenis knew that if he was going to write a football book he wasn’t going to stick to the sport alone. In 'The Football Solution : How Richmond’s Premiership can save Australia' George investigated the history of the Richmond Football Club, its rivalry with Collingwood, and the lessons Australian politics could learn from Richmond’s win in 2017. He discussed the book at Richmond Library on Election Day in 2018. This is an edited recording.

George Megalogenis

George is an author and journalist with three decades of experience in media. 'The Australian Moment' won the 2013 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for non-fiction and the 2012 Walkley Award for Non-Fiction. It formed the basis of his ABC documentary series Making Australia Great. George is also the author of 'Faultlines', 'The Longest Decade', 'Australia’s Second Chance' and 'The Balancing Act'. He’s also a massive Richmond fan.

Our theme is Add And by Broke for Free.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

The Football Solution : How Richmond’s Premiership can save Australia - George Megalogenis

From the Outer : Footy like you’ve never heard it - Sometimes, Alicia (ed.)

Balancing Act : Australia between Recession and Renewal - George Megalogenis

The Australian Moment : how we were made for these times - George Megalogenis

“No one really wants to talk about the writing, they just want to talk about the murders” - Sarah Schmidt

Sarah Schmidt’s debut novel, 'See What I Have Done', is an incredible look inside the mind Lizzie Borden, famously accused of murdering her father and stepmother in 1892. In this recording, Sarah Schmidt discusses the story she felt compelled to tell with Kylie Carlson, Coordinator of Community Learning and Partnerships at Yarra Libraries. This is an edited recording of a live event.

Among other awards and shortlists, 'See What I Have Done' won Best Fiction at the Australian Book Industry Awards in 2018. You can find it in branch at Yarra Libraries, or through the RB Digital App.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

See What I Have Done - Sarah Schmidt (also available on RB Digital)

Half Wild - Pip Smith (also available on Borrowbox and Cloud Library)

The Portrait of Molly Dean - Katherine Kovacic (also available on Cloud Library))

From the Wreck - Jane Rawson

Burial Rites - Hannah Kent (also available on Borrowbox and Cloud Library)

The Wonder - Emma Donoghue (also available on Borrowbox)

The Good People - Hannah Kent (also available on Borrowbox)

The Secret Art of Poisoning - Samantha Battams

“Young people are naturally so brilliant and so challenging that they challenge our norms, and rightly so. If we don’t fear them we certainly don’t respect them. We don’t give them enough of a voice. In so much of what we do we don’t value the voice of young people and their ideas. And it’s to our detriment.” – Sarah Hopkins

Yarra Libraries presents author Sarah Hopkins in conversation with Briohny Doyle. Sarah discusses the experiences and research that shaped her latest novel, The Subjects. The Subjects details the path a group of teenagers are offered as an alternative to entering a correctional facility. The teenagers understand, to a degree, that their treatment is experimental – but the more they learn the more they understand about where they fit in the schemes of others.

The Subjects is currently a Red Hot Read at Yarra Libraries, and you can find it, along with Briohny Doyle’s titles, at your local branch.

This is an edited recording of an event at Richmond Library.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

The Subjects – Sarah Hopkins (also available RBdigital audio)

The Island will Sink – Briohny Doyle

Adult fantasy: Searching for true maturity in an age of mortgages, marriages, and other adult milestones – Briohny Doyle

The Overstory – Richard Powers (also available Borrowbox audio and Cloudlibrary ebook)

A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey

Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro (also available Cloudlibrary ebook)

The Sense of an Ending – Julian Barnes (also available Borrowbox audio)

The Secret History – Donna Tartt (also available RBdigital audio)

Emile, or, Treatise on Education – Jean-Jacques Rousseau