Miles to Go

Woohoo! The Miles Franklin Winner for 2016 has been announced! Imagine the drum roll for...

Black Rock White City

by A.S. Patrić

During a hot Melbourne summer Jovan’s cleaning work at a bayside hospital is disrupted by acts of graffiti and violence becoming increasingly malevolent. For Jovan the mysterious words that must be cleaned away dislodge the poetry of the past. He and his wife Suzana were forced to flee Sarajevo and the death of their children.
Intensely human, yet majestic in its moral vision, Black Rock White City is an essential story of Australia’s suburbs now, of displacement and immediate threat, and the unexpected responses of two refugees as they try to reclaim their dreams. It is a breathtaking roar of energy that explores the immigrant experience with ferocity, beauty and humour. 

And just because I can here are the judges' comments about the book from the Miles Franklin Award website. 

A fresh and powerful exploration of the immigrant experience and Australian life, Black Rock White City explores the damages of war, the constraints of choice, the possibility of redemptive love and social isolation amid suburbia.

Traumatised by the carnage and personal tragedies of war-torn Yugoslavia, Jovan and Suzana wash up in mid-90s Melbourne where, a former poet and an academic, they find themselves limited by language and cultural stereotype into roles as cleaners. 

A menacing sense of anarchy inhabits the hospital where Jovan works after an anonymous ‘Dr Graffito’ begins defacing the wards with cryptic, distressing messages. It is Jovan’s job to erase the evidence, all the while negotiating the blandness of a society that doesn’t see him, or the flashbacks of his former life and his dysfunctional marriage to Suzana.

In language as crisp and pungent as the chemicals Jovan uses to erase the graffiti, Black Rock White City submerges the reader in its unapologetic intimacy.  It is at times brutal, and frequently challenging, yet a deft poetry underlies its cinematic reach. Patric’s idiosyncratic awareness and sometimes disconcerting vision inhabits the margins between realism and fable as the novel’s invigorating vitality, astute wit and adroit observations on the links between language and identity gives us a roller-coaster read that pins the immigrant – and the wider Australian  - experience with an eye that is unflinchingly, and unforgettably, honest.

But what is the Miles Franklin Award? 

Established in 1957 to help foster Australian literature and talent, the award has seen some of the best writing that Australia has to offer. Alongside the Stella Prize, it isn't hard to see why Melbourne is a City of Literature!

Miles Franklin was a pretty cool lass but I'll let you do some detective work yourself...

It's a Cath Kind of Day

We have suddenly gotten in stock some of Cath Crowley's collection of writings for young adults - including her latest WORD IN DEEP BLUE! Why you may be asking? Well the answer is that we've heard on the grapevine that one of the local schools are holding an author talk so naturally if you're going to meet an author you need a book to sign! And what better time to update your collection.

I love going to hear authors talk about their books, it's so easy to forget that someone is tapping away on their computers to write the story (or by hand if you're a bit old school). I've had the privilege of seeing Leigh Hobbs (thanks primary school), Cassandra Clare, Marcus Zuzack, Alice Pung, Melina Marchetta and Leanne Hall. I feel like there's more but I kind of can't remember... I'd love to meet Jaclyn Moriarty for one and ask her why she created a fictional character who I can never truly marry, I mean meet, in real life. It's hard not to have great respect for authors, especially those who write absolutely massive tomes, the sheer dedication. I struggle to write more than five thousand words. Practice! 

But back to Cath Crowley, we have 
- Words in Deep Blue
- Graffiti Moon
- The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain
- Gracie Faltrain Takes Control & Gets it Right


Which author or illustrator would you meet if you could? 

Happy reading!
 

You Look Like A Book

Woah, so there are these things called #bookface ! Basically, where people take photographs of themselves with a book but as if they're a part of it... Okay that was a terrible explanation, let me show you an example from the internet or more specifically the Burlingame Public Library in Washington USA . 

I think you get the picture! Haha, get it? Yes I am super lame sometimes. It's pretty cool though and lots of different libraries are getting on the band wagon. I feel like people have been doing this for years - with CD covers and Vinyl - perhaps with just a little less precision.

You can read an article from the New York Times about it here!

The YPRL has been running a pretty amusing social media campaign. But here are some of the best (and worst) collated from l'internet. Imagine a world without the internet. Without books! Photographs are from a number of different library and private social media accounts. Actually, it's really hard to find bad ones online because who uploads bad ones? 

Show us yours and tag us in the picture on Instagram or Facebook!

National Bookshop Day!

That's right folks, next weekend (Saturday 13th to be exact!) We'll having a bit of a smaller affair this year but still have plenty of giveaways! Come in and see us, we'd love to have a bit of a chat! Somethings that have happened since last Bookshop Day:

Our number of Facebook Likes has grown to 170

We started an Instagram account which has over 100 followers already! 

 We sell posters! And films! The last Harry Potter was released! So many good things.

Thank you everyone!