The Short Story Club picks one short story to read and discuss every month. Back in August of 2020 it was Elizabeth Harrower’s “The City At Night”.

Elizabeth Harrower is one of Australia’s most acclaimed mid-century authors who, during her lifetime, fell out of print for many years. Re-cently, she has enjoyed a revival and been celebrated internationally, and this story is a shining example of why.

In this episode Yarra Libraries staff members Meaghan and Tegan dis-cuss The City at Night, a story which centers on the burgeoning friend-ship between two young women working at a telephone exchange in Sydney.

You can attend The Short Story Club by booking in to our next meeting via our website.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/21/the-city-at-night-read-a-short-story-by-elizabeth-harrower

Yarra Libraries Recommends

The City at Night - Elizabeth Harrower

Neapolitan series - Elena Ferrante

Looking for Alibrandi - Melina Marchetta

A Harp in the South trilogy - Ruth Park

The Man Who Loved Children - Christina Stead

The Word for World is Forest - Ursula K Le Guin

Red, White and Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston

The Adversary - Ronnie Scott

Throne of Glass series - Sarah J Maas

Our theme is Add And by Broke for Free.

The Kill Your Darlings First Book Club celebrates debut Australian authors every month. In February, we partnered with them to bring you Sam Van Zweden discussing her debut, Eating With My Mouth Open, with Brunswick Bound’s Ellen Cregan. Sam and Ellen range from food memory to wellness culture, memoirs, routes to publication, pilates and disordered eating. If you need them at any point you can find the numbers for Lifeline and The Butterfly Foundation below.

You can find Eating With My Mouth Open at Yarra Libraries and at local bookstores like Brunswick Bound. Our next event with the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club is Wednesday March 24th and will feature Evelyn Araluen’s debut, Dropbear.

Lifeline: 13 11 14

The Butterfly Foundation: 1800 33 4673

Yarra Libraries Recommends

Small Acts of Disappearance - Fiona Wright

Eating With My Mouth Open - Sam Van Zweden

First Bite – Bee Wilson

Eat Up! – Ruby Tandoh

With Bold Knife and Fork - MFK Fisher (CloudLibrary)

Map of Another Town - MFK Fisher (CloudLibrary)

The World Was Whole – Fiona Wright (also available on Cloud Library)

In this episode of the Yarra Libraries Podcast you’ll find our interview with Nina Pasqualini; a climate activist from School Strike for Climate. She chats with Nic, a poet, author and member of the Yarra Libraries team, about the climate emergency. Nina shares how she became involved in climate activism, what it means to be an activist during a global pandemic, and how we can be involved too.

Schools Strike for Climate: WE ARE striking to tell our politicians to take our futures seriously and treat climate change for what it is: a crisis. They can show us that they care by taking urgent action to move Australia beyond fossil fuel projects, such as the Adani mega coal mine, and get the job done of moving to 100% renewable energy for all. For more information see https://www.schoolstrike4climate.com/about

Yarra Council has committed to an ambitious climate emergency plan. We’re proud to be part of a growing movement - with over 1,400 jurisdictions across 30 countries that have declared a climate emergency – and we know that collective, global effort is needed across all levels of government, businesses and communities to address the climate crisis. We also recognise the interconnectedness of global warming, human health and environmental health. https://www.yarracity.vic.gov.au/news/2020/06/15/yarra-council-commits-to-ambitious-climate-emergency-plan

In line with this initiative Yarra Libraries will roll out several climate related events in 2021. In addition to youth climate interviews like this one you’ll find events on sustainable food sources, how to reduce our carbon footprint, the “New Normal” and more. Please see the Yarra Libraries website for more details.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

Greta Thunberg, “No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference”

Tim Flannery, “The Climate Cure: Solving the Climate Emergency in the Era of COVID-19”

Michael Mann’s “The New Climate War: The Fight to take back our Planet”

Marian Wilkinson, “The Carbon Club: How a network of influential climate sceptics, politicians and business leaders fought to control Australia's climate policy”

Dr. Joelle Gergis, “Sunburnt Country: The History and Future of Climate Change in Australia”

Bruce Pascoe’s “Dark Emu”

Alice Zaslavsky, “In Praise of Veg: A modern kitchen companion”

Shannon Martinez’s cookbook “Smith & Daughters: A Cookbook (That Happens to be Vegan)”

Al Gore, “An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It”

Our theme song is Add And by Broke For Free

The Yarra Libraries Podcast is back for 2021! Our librarians have been busy watching Bridgerton and remembering all the regency romances (and tortured dukes) they’ve loved over the years. With some time to go until the next Bridgerton series why not take some of Marcia, Melissa and Connor’s recommendations on the best of the best? Still not convinced? Have a listen to what they feel really appeals about romances set in this brief yet memorable period in history. You can find our curated shelf of regency romance ebooks on Cloud Library, and a list of the books mentioned in this discussion below.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

The Bridgerton series – Julia Quinn

The Convenient Marriage - Georgette Heyer

The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer

Cotillion – Georgette Heyer

The Temporary Wife - Mary Balogh

Precious Pearl – Mary Balogh

The Portrait – Joan Wolf

Lord Richard’s Daughter – Joan Wolf

Margarita and the Earl – Joan Wolf

Miss Wonderful – Loretta Chase

Bringing Down the Duke – Evie Dunmore

The Society of Gentlemen - KJ Charles

We’d also recommend these authors

Ann Gracie

Stephanie Laurens

Elizabeth Rolls

Cat Sebastian

Carla Kelly

Julianne Donaldson

Evie Dunmore

Wattpad and Archive Of Our Own

Our theme song is Add And by Broke for Free

It Has Been A Year – but one in which one thing lifted our moods consistently. You guessed it – it’s books. Whether you’re gift shopping, planning books to entertain you during some much-deserved leave or planning your holds for 2021 we hope these recommendations from Yarra Libraries staff help you out. We couldn’t possibly list all the books we enjoyed this year, but in this podcast you’ll find some of our favourite non-fiction, fiction, junior fiction and YA from 2020. We hope whatever you do for the rest of the year it includes at least a small break with a book. Happy Reading!

Yarra Libraries Recommends

Eat A Peach – David Chang

Say Nothing – Patrick Radden Keefe (available as an ebook through Cloud Library)

The Crying Book – Heather Christle

Boyfriend Material – Alexis Hall (available as an ebook through Cloud Library)

Weather – Jenny Offill

Smart Ovens for Lonely People – Elizabeth Tan

The End – Karl Ove Knausgård (available as an ebook through Cloud Library)

The Animals in that Country – Laura Jean McKay (available as an ebook through Cloud Library and an e-audiobook through RB Digital)

The Rain Heron – Robbie Arnott (available as an e-audiobook through RB Digital)

A Memory Called Empire – Arkady Martine (available as an ebook through Cloud Library)

Parable of the Sower & Parable of the Talents – Octavia Butler

The Pull of the Stars – Emma Donoghue (available as an ebook through Cloud Library and an e-audiobook through Borrowbox)

Stepping Stones – Lucy Knisley

The War That Saved My Life & The War That I Finally Won – Kimberly Brubaker-Bradley

Loner – Georgina Young

On this episode, Chris Papachristos reads Fitzroy Blues, the winning piece in the English language category of the Ewing Trust Writers Prize: Seniors Edition. The judges of the prize admired Chris’s elegant writing style and string sense of time and place.

The next edition of the Ewing Trust Writers Prize will be a poetry edition. It opens in early January 2020 and we encourage all poets to enter. Please check the Yarra Libraries website for more details.

This episode of The Yarra Libraries Podcast is bought to you by Yarra Libraries and The Ewing Trust. Fitzroy Library is fortunate to have the continued support of the Ewing Trust, a fund that fosters literacy, libraries, and a lifelong love of learning in the historic Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy. Through the support of the Ewing Trust, Fitzroy library is able to run special events and programs, including the Fitzroy Writers festival, for the benefit of Fitzroy residents and visitors to the area.

Listen to the audio from our webinar recording to hear from speakers from Common Cause, Australian Conservation Foundation and Climate for Change about how to have effective conversations about the climate crisis to motivate others to take action.

Listen to the audio from our webinar recording to hear from speakers from Common Cause, Australian Conservation Foundation and Climate for Change about how to have effective conversations about the climate crisis to motivate others to take action.

In this webinar, Environment Victoria's Communications Coordinator will share his top tips to help you get your message right (what to say and how to say it!) and show you how to use social media platforms and other digital opportunities to increase people's awareness of the climate emergency and motivate them to take strong action.

Join us as Tammi Kirkness discusses her debut title, The Panic Button Book.

Sudden changes and stress can exacerbate anxiety, and in 2020 most of us experienced more of both than we were expecting. While Melbourne’s restrictions are reducing by the day the resumption of ‘life as normal’ comes with stressors all of its own.

With that in mind we thought it was the perfect time to revisit our September talk with an author whose new book, The Panic Button Book, is a practical step-by-step guide to help you through those moments when you feel overwhelmed, panicky or anxious.

In the book, life coach and wellness expert Tammi Kirkness has distilled the best tried-and-tested techniques from her own experience and those used with her many clients. In this talk, she takes us through her 'first-aid kit' and answers questions from audience members with some very recognisable anxiety-inducing moments. We hope you finish this podcast feeling more equipped to move through the stressful moments life throws at you – and a little less alone when you face them.

Tammi Kirkness is a life coach, corporate wellness speaker and presenter, who combines evidence-based psychology with eastern training. She specialises in helping people with high-functioning anxiety, which she experiences herself. She wrote this book for herself, for when she needs her rational mind to coach her in times of panic.

Yarra Libraries Recommends

The Panic Button Book - Tammi Kirkness (also available as an e-book on Cloud Library)

The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle