Schedule for the second half of 2012

The schedule for the second half of 2012 has been added to the Current Schedule (2012) section in the sidebar.

Note that three of the books - A difficult young man, The mystery of a Hansom Cab and The Plains - have recently been published in the new Text Classics series. They have new introductions and are only $12.95 each. If you are a Friend of the NLA you get a discount - and the NLA Bookshop is carrying the full range. These classics are also available as eBooks. Let's support Aussie classics!

We agreed that we would do Hilary Mantel's Bring up the bodies next year, when it is in paperback, and that we would consider Frank Moorhouse's epic Cold light for our summer read.

We hope those who weren't present approve. You missed a great dinner to farewell Susan, too!

Miles Franklin Award 2012 shortlist

Posting the shortlist for this year's Miles Franklin award just in case it might provide more options for our schedule deliberations:

• Tony Birch's Blood
• Anna Funder's All that I am
• Gillian Mears' Foal's bread
• Frank Moorhouse's Cold light
• Favel Parrett's Past the shallows

Click on this link for a page linking to a description of the books and the judges' comments.

We've read one already - woo too. Go us! And at least one of us has read Anna Funder I believe.

Do any strike your fancy for us?

Text Australian Classics

This month, Text Publishing has published a collection of 30 Australian classics.

You can check them out by clicking this link. The collection is the brainchild of Text's Pubisher, Michael Heyward, who has said, among other things, that

... it takes just a generation or two, sometimes less, for us to lose the plot . We put our books and writers on the high shelf of the past, where we forget about them. Imagine if our art galleries decided to banish the works of Brett Whiteley or Fred Williams to their darkened basements for a decade or two. That’s what we routinely do to so many significant writers whose books are out of print.

Hmmm ... hadn't thought of it this way, but he has a point.

Anyhow, these new editions all have new introductions, lovely bright yellow coloured covers, and are all on sale for, I think, $12.95 each. A steal, really! The National Library Bookshop has them - and hopefully other shops around town too.

You know where this is leading ... I'm thinking we might like to choose one or two for our second half of 2012 schedule, that we will be deciding at our May meeting.

So, have a look at the link above and see if any grab your attention ... and let us know what you think.