Book Bites with author Joy Dettman

Joy Dettman is a born writer, who wrote her first short stories at 11 years of age. After raising a family, a stay at her childhood home prompted her to write what would become her first novel Mallawindy. Joy took a writing and editing course at TAFE and before long was the winner of the Judah Waten and Henry Lawson awards for her short stories. Dusting off her manuscript she submitted it to the publishers and was rewarded with a contract with Pan Macmillan.

Since that time Joy has become one of our most prolific and loved authors, her latest book Thorn on the Rose was published in 2010.

Come along to our Book Bites session and hear Joy speak.
When: Thursday 8th July 12:30pm
Where: Croydon Library, Civic Sq, Croydon
Cost: $10 includes lunch
Bookings essential phone 92945640
Cheers, Maryanne

Book Bites – Meet Jane Clifton

Show business all rounder Jane Clifton has had a busy career as an actress and singer, equally at home on television, radio or stage.

In 2002 Jane’s first book Half Past Dead was published to both critical and popular acclaim. Her second novel A Hand in the Bush was published in 2005. Jane has received two fellowships to pursue her writing and is hard at work on both fiction and non-fiction projects.

Join us for an entertaining event.

When: Thursday 10th September 12:30pm
Where: Croydon Library, Civic Square, Croydon
Cost: $10 includes lunch
Bookings essential phone 92945640

Cheers, Maryanne

Ann Creber recommends

Ann Creber has had a wonderful career as an author, journalist, editor, food consultant and stylist. Ann will be joining us for Book Bites at Croydon Library next week. Join us for a feast of contemporary Australian literature.

When: Thursday 9th July 12:30pm
Where: Croydon Library, Civic Square, Croydon
Cost: $10 includes lunch
Bookings essential phone 92945640

Ann has generously shared a few recommendations with us.

Cookbooks

My cousin Rosa by Rosa Mitchell (Sicilian cooking)
Pete's table by Pete Evans (Australian)
Serendip by Peter Kuravita (Sri Lankan)
Eating for eye health by Ita Buttrose & Vanessa Jones (sounds a bit dull I know, but very good recipes and ita was fun to interview!)
Ingredients by Skye Gyngell
Snowflakes & Schnapps by Jane Lawson (some of the recipes are pretty exotic but both the photography and presentation of the book are gorgeous!)

Factual/biographical/autobiographical/historical

Shooting balibo by Tony Maniaty
On paths of ash by Peter Townsend (POW story)
One for the road by Janelle McCulloch
Roots of civilization by John Newton (beautiful book - lovely to handle)
1788 by David Hill
Foxey's hangout by Cathy Gowie (includes recipes)
The well-dressed ape by Hannah Holmes
Strange places by Will Elliott (an exploration of of his schizophrenia)
The artists' lunch by Alice McCormack & Sarah Rhodes (published late last year but my favourite book for 2008)
Reunion by Andrea Goldsmith
The girl on the landing by Paul Tordray (favourite book so far)
The better woman by Ber Carroll (bit w/weekly but an interesting concept)
A lost life by Steven Carroll ( a really beautiful book to handle and an intriguing theme.... A "story" of T.S. Eliot and the woman who was the love of his life, as Steven interpreted it, juxtaposed with the tale of young lovers whose paths they crossed.

Crime

Close up by Esther Voerhoef (translated from the Dutch)


Other

Penguin anthology of poetry compiled by John Kinsella


Cheers, Maryanne

Book Bites – Meet Ann Creber

Ann Creber has had a wonderful career as an author, journalist, editor, food consultant and stylist. Ann is no stranger to broadcasting, having been a regular guest on ABC radio. She now has her own radio program on 3MDR The Good Life which features interviews with some of Australia’s best known authors and many future greats.

Join Ann for a feast of contemporary Australian literature.

When: Thursday 9th July 12:30pm
Where: Croydon Library, Civic Square, Croydon
Cost: $10 includes lunch
Bookings essential phone 92945640

Cheers, Maryanne

Book Bites with Robyn Annear

Writer, historian and one of the most fascinating speakers you will ever hear, Robyn Annear’s first book Bearbrass: Imagining Early Melbourne (1995) won the A A Philips Prize for Australian Studies in the 1995 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards. Since then she has written several books on such diverse subjects as the Tichborne Case, Whelan the Wrecker and the Eureka Rebellion. Her expertise has been recognized by her election to the Board of the State Library of Victoria, her selection as a judge of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and the Age Book of the Year, and even a page on the Tourism Victoria website.

Robyn will talk about her favourite books. Join us for a delightful literary lunch.

When: Thursday 14th May 12:30pm
Where: Croydon Library, Civic Square, Croydon
Cost: $7.50
Bookings essential phone 92945640

Cheers, Maryanne

Book Bites - Kevin Rabalais

Kevin Rabalais is an author, editor, reviewer, critic and a reader. It is in his capacity as a book lover that we have invited him to be our guest, to talk about some of the books and writers that have influenced him in his literary career.

This lunch is an opportunity to share in the joy of reading, and is really not to be missed.

When: Thursday 12th March 12:30pm
Where: Croydon Library, Civic Square, Croydon
Cost: $7.50 includes lunch
Bookings essential phone 92945640

Cheers, Maryanne

November Book Bites cancelled

The Book Bites session at Croydon Library featuring author Stefan Laszczuk has been cancelled.

Cheers, Maryanne

Book Bites - Meet Stefan Laszczuk

Writer and musician Stefan Laszczuk first came to public notice with the unpublished manuscript of his book The Goddamn Bus of Happiness (2004) which won a South Australian Festival of Literature Award. He gained further publicity and praise when his next unpublished manuscript won the 2007 Vogel Award. The result is I Dream of Magda, published by Allen and Unwin in August 2008. Discover the secrets of Stefan's success.

When: Thursday 13th November 12:30pm
Where: Croydon Library, Civic Square, Croydon
Cost: $7.50 (includes lunch)
Bookings essential phone 92945640

Cheers, Maryanne

Book Bites - meet Ilsa Evans @ Croydon Library

Since her debut novel Spin Cycle was released in 2002, Ilsa Evans has gone on to publish five further novels. Drip Dry and Odd Socks continued the Laundry Series to be followed by two stand alone novels Each Way Bet and Flying the Coop. The sixth novel Broken (2007) was a complete breakaway in style from light fiction, to a work that looks at marriage breakdown and its effects on the family. Broken was selected as an Australian Women's Weekly Good Read, and as a Summer Read in the State Library of Victoria's Summer Reading list.

Ilsa has successfully completed her PhD in the area of women's studies, and manages to combine writing with a family and a career in community information and welfare.

When: Thursday 10th July, 12:30pm
Where: Croydon Library, Civic Square, Croydon, 3136
Cost: $7.50
Bookings essential phone 9294 5640

Cheers, Paul

Book Bites - Meet Heather Graves

Born in the UK, Heather has spent most of her adult life in Australia. After traveling extensively along the East Coast, she finally settled in Melbourne where she now lives with her husband and daughter. A writer for more than twenty years, her interest in early Melbourne history motivated her to write several historical romances including Beyond the Purple Hills and Across the Sapphire Seas, both published by Piatkus books. More recently, the excitement and glamour of horse racing, particularly the Melbourne Cup, has been the inspiration for her latest contemporary novels, including Flying Colours, Red for Danger and Starshine Blue.

When: Thursday 8th May 12:30pm
Where: Croydon Library, Civic Square, Croydon
Cost: $7.50 includes lunch
Bookings essential phone 9294 5640

Cheers, Maryanne

Book Bites - Meet Ellie Nielsen

Ellie Nielsen fell in love with Paris, so in love that she felt the need to own a little piece of it for herself. She had two weeks and a French phrase book to realise her dream. Chosen as a Women’s Weekly Great Read Buying a Piece of Paris is for everyone who ever had a dream of Paris, and who loves a good book.

Ellie studied acting at the Victorian College of the Arts, where she played a tap-dancing Sir John Kerr in the musical The Golden Years of Gough, and Olive in Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, before graduating to a very small role in the television series Prisoner. In the 1990s she worked at the Playbox Theatre Company as a publicist, curator, and script assessor. After the birth of her son she started writing and dreaming. Buying a Piece of Paris is the result.

When: Wednesday 12th December 12:30pm
Where: Croydon Library, Civic Square, Croydon
Cost: $7.50 includes lunch

Bookings essential 9294 5640

Still some more places left so book now!

Cheers, Maryanne