Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill

The size of this slender book lures you in.. what possible impact could such a story have that can be read cover to cover on one Sunday afternoon. It's been months since I finished it and I still can't stop thinking about it. Extremely funny, often sad - Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill invites you in for a cup of tea and kicks you in the guts. From the point of view of a young writer referred to simply as 'the wife', we are shown short bursts of observation and memory—comic, startling, searing. Daily life, narrative of marriage, parenthood, ageing, introspective questions - how to be the artist. A book I couldn't put down and then forced into the hands of all my friends.





Category: Literary Fiction

Who'll want to read it? Lovers of intense and witty meditations on motherhood, infidelity, and identity.

Point of no return: “My plan was to never get married. I was going to be an art monster instead. Women almost never become art monsters because art monsters only concern themselves with art, never mundane things. Nabokov didn't even fold his own umbrella. Vera licked his stamps for him.” 

Classic line: So many...

“And that phrase - 'sleeping like a baby.' Some blonde said it blithely on the subway the other day. I wanted to lie down next to her and scream for five hours in her ear.” 

“I bought a warmer coat with many ingenious pockets. You put your hands in all of them.”

“Advice for wives circa 1896: The indiscriminate reading of novels is one of the most injurious habits to which a married woman can be subject. Besides the false views of human nature it will impart … it produces an indifference to the performance of domestic duties, and contempt for ordinary realities.” 

“Her neighbor’s husband fell in love with a girl who served coffee to him every morning. She was twenty-three and wanted to be a dancer or a poet or a physical therapist. When he left his family, his wife said, “Does it matter to you how foolish you look? That all our friends find you ridiculous?” He stood in the doorway, his coat in his hand. “No,” he said. The wife watched her neighbor get fat over the next year. The Germans have a word for that. Kummerspeck. Literally, grief bacon.” 

Publisher: Penguin Random House

 Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.

PK e-Magazine

Newcastle Library wants to introduce you to another great online resource for students and teachers. PK Magazine is an Australian digital magazine for primary kids that publishes creative works in writing, video, music, art sent in by kids all over Australia. You can read it on your computer, iPad or tablet; flick through the pages just like a magazine.

Find the link in the libraries e-Magazines collection and start reading book reviews by kids  - for kids, meet talented authors and illustrators, discover fun facts, and enter into awesome competitions. It's educational and great fun!

name, date Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

By the author of The Five People You Meet in Heaven (which I loved), and Tuesdays with Morrie (which I haven't read, but must get around to one day), this book is about three main people: Victor, a man who wants more time; Sarah, a teenager who wants time to stop; and Dor, the first person to count and measure time.

Category:
Adult fiction

Who'll want to read it?
People who like the concept of time, and those who enjoy Mitch Albom's writing style.

Point of no return:
page 4, the last three lines of the prologue:
"Soon Father Time will be free.
To return to Earth.
And finish what he started."

Classic lines:
page 18:
Pass time. Waste time. Kill time. Lose time.
In good time. About time. Take your time. Save time.
A long time. Right on time. Out of time. Mind the time. Be on time. Spare time. Keep time. Stall for time.

page 61:
The pool of voices was formed by Dor's tears, but he was only the first to weep. As mankind grew obsessed with its hours, the sorrow of lost time became a permanent hole in the human heart.

Publisher:
Sphere

Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.

Sense of home

The home ownership aspiration of Australians has widely been referred to as 'the great Australian dream'. For higher income households, purchase affordability is an issue of choice rather than access. For those with more modest means, affordability is a more significant issue. Housing provides people with shelter, security, and privacy. Having an adequate and appropriate place to live is fundamental to people's wellbeing.

Improvement to the overall accessibility of appropriate housing for Australians is important in determining whether life in Australia is getting better. Home ownership is a widely held aspiration in Australia, providing security of tenure and long term economic benefits to home owners. Owning a home can also bring social and cultural benefits such as a sense of belonging. For some home owners, the dwelling and the land on which it stands is a major asset, and for many it is their main asset.

As house prices skyrocket, many young Australians are being forced to deal with some pretty tough and depressing questions, like: how do you buy a home when the average price of a house is 10 to 11 times the average wage? Or how do you keep a job when the only place with affordable rent is many hours away? Using the resources of our wonderful library, we think we might just have ticket for the D.I.Y generation.

The Small House Book by Jay Shafer is a rare find. A leader in the small house movement that is challenging western standards Shafer breaks down designing a space for your needs and step by step building instructions accompanied with a beautiful collection of photographs.  The consideration of aesthetics is not lost and as you read on a philosophy of simple becomes more and more clear and appealing, "The happiness we really seek cannot be found by purchasing more space or more stuff. Those who do not recognise what is enough will never have enough". 

Until recently, the issue of over-consumption was conspicuously absent from mainstream green discourse. Bigger is better is certainly the favoured by building financiers and the real estate industry.  "If you do one thing to make your new home more environmentally sound, make it small" says Shafer.

With a recent study in Australia showing that Australians value money spent on experiences rather than material possessions The Small House Book shows smaller spaces not only are cost effective and environmentally sustainable, but also give opportunities to explore other things in life.

"For most Americans, big houses have come to symbolise the good life; but, all symbolism aside, the life these places actually foster in more typically one of drudgery. Mortgage payments can appropriate thirty to forty per cent of a household's income not counting taxes, insurance, or maintenance expenses. When every spare penny is going towards house payments, there is nothing left over for investments, travel, continued education, more time with the kids, or even so much as a minute to relax and enjoy life. At this rate, an oversized house can start to look more like a debtor's prison than a home. " 

Another title we have in the collection Tiny Houses written by Mimi Zeiger, is a book focused on dwellings under 1,000 square feet. Zeiger's book challenges readers to take a look at their own homes and consider how much space they actively use.

Francesc Zamora Mola's 150 Best Sustainable House Ideas features the latest innovations in environmentally friendly home design. From heating and cooling solutions to wind energy systems, solar panelling, thermal glazing, and even Trombe walls, the ideas featured inside are complemented by photographs and architectural plans of gorgeous, sustainable houses around the world. 

Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.

Britannica ImageQuest

Students! Teachers! Librarians! 

EResources are making our lives wonderfully uncomplicated. Looking for images for assignments, lesson plans, or educational projects? 

BritannicaImageQuest provides nearly three million rights-cleared photos and other images for homework, classroom activities and lesson plans. Images come from more than 50 of the best collections in the world, including the Bridgeman Art Gallery, Dorling Kindersley Images, Getty Images, the National Geographic Society and Encyclopaedia Britannica. 

Water-lillies by Claude Monet

All images are copyright cleared for educational use and the images are curated carefully, making this database a reliable, safe source. This is a wonderful resource to use to show your visual literacy skills.

Seal with young - British Antarctic Expedition (Terra Nova)
The Royal Geographical Society 

The database couldn't be simpler to use. Available day or night on any device, sign up is quick and easy ;all you need is your email address.  Searching is as quick as a key word or you can go on to selecting more filters to help you find the perfect picture.

Richie Benaud 1961 - John Birdsall Social Issues Photo Library

Once a desired image is found, users can click for a brief description. Another click yields a larger view plus a few more details. Once the image is enlarged, there are additional possibilities: citation information, the ability to add the image to a personal collection under “My Images,” and download, email, and print options. 

Royal Wave 1954
Queen Elizabeth II gives a wave as she leave Newcastle Town Hall, NSW Australia
Central Press, Getty Images

Photographs, maps, and drawings of nearly everything in the world: from Bunsen burners to Harry Potter, from Stonehenge to the Rolling Stones. Each photo comes with complete metadata, including the source, the copyright holder, caption, and keywords.

Carl Sagan - Science Source

Even if you don't have an assignment looming, perusing the collection images is a wonderful afternoon spent. Examples of available collections include Chicago History Museum, National Geographic Society, National Portrait Gallery, Natural History Museum, PlanetObserver, Science Photo Library. COOL!

 Visit Newcastle Region Library's Catalogue and Website.