Teaser Tuesday (11th of June, 2013)

Today's book crosses the FARAWAY theme twice: It is about running, and it's about a country faraway from our own.

"They are always surging ahead, only to slow down suddenly, or sprinting off at a crazy pace right from the start. I love the way it befuddles the TV commentators, who are constantly predicting that a Kenyan athlete is going too fast, only to then see him go suddenly even faster." 

- Running with the Kenyans, by Adharanand Finn

About the book:

Whether running is your recreation or your religion, Adharanand Finn’s incredible journey to the elite training camps of Kenya will captivate and inspire you, as he ventures to uncover the secrets of the fastest people on earth. Finn’s mesmerizing quest combines a fresh look at barefoot running, practical advice on the sport, and the fulfillment of a lifelong dream: to run with his heroes. Uprooting his family of five, Finn traveled to a small, chaotic town in the Rift Valley province of Kenya—a mecca for long-distance runners, thanks to its high altitude, endless paths, and some of the top training schools in the world. There Finn would run side by side with Olympic champions, young hopefuls, and barefoot schoolchildren, and meet a cast of unforgettable characters. Amid the daily challenges of training and of raising a family abroad, Finn would learn invaluable lessons about running—and about life.  — From the publisher.

About the author:

Adharanand Finn is a journalist at The Guardian and a freelance writer, contributing regular features for The Guardian, The Independent, and Runner’s World (U.K.) . — From the publisher.

Find a copy:

• Running with the Kenyans is available at the Kuring-gai campusat 796.425 FINN.

About Teaser Tuesdays:

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly book meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading! Everyone is welcome to play!

How it works:

1. Grab a book from your collection

2. Select 2 sentences that make an interesting teaser (avoid spoilers please!)

3. Post the sentences, along with author and book title in the comments of this post

This month's reading theme is FARAWAY, which comes from the Read Watch Play blog!

Teaser Tuesday (4th of June, 2013)

Faraway, and yet so close, science fiction does the amazing job of showing us how mutable and alien our very own homes can be. This month's theme is FARAWAY.

"Every orphan was an explorer, sent to map uncharted territory . . . And every orphan was the uncharted territory itself." 

- Diaspora, by Greg Egan

About the book:

A dramatic insight into the future of Man in the 30th century and beyond where life is divided into three; fleshers - true homo-sapines; Gleisner robots - human minds within machines; and polises - supercomputers teeming with intellgent software containing copies of human personalities. — From the publisher.

About the author:

Greg Egan (born 20 August 1961) is an Australian science fiction author. . . He specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology themes, including the nature of consciousness. Other themes include genetics, simulated reality, posthumanism, mind uploading, sexuality, artificial intelligence, and the superiority of rational naturalism over religion. He is known for his tendency to deal with complex technical material, like inventive new physics and epistemology, in an unapologetically thorough manner. He is a Hugo Award winner (with eight other works shortlisted for the Hugos), and has also won the John W Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel . . . Egan does not attend science fiction conventions, does not sign books, and appears in no photographs on the Web, though both SF fan sites and Google Search have at times mistakenly represented photos of other people with the same name as being of the writer.—From Wikipedia.

Find a copy:

• Diaspora is available at the city campus in our Australian Culture Collection, at 823.3 EGAD.

About Teaser Tuesdays:

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly book meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading! Everyone is welcome to play!

How it works:

1. Grab a book from your collection

2. Select 2 sentences that make an interesting teaser (avoid spoilers please!)

3. Post the sentences, along with author and book title in the comments of this post

This month's reading theme is FARAWAY, which comes from the Read Watch Play blog!

Teaser Tuesday (28th of May, 2013)

Well, on one hand, we've used this book before. On the other hand, it's really terrifically on theme and has some great quotes. So with that in mind, let's make a double-dip into the Teaser Tuesday well, and revisit a book we've teased before...

"They talk about giving jobs to our people with this Aboriginal Employment Initiative rubbish. But they'll be paying our people with the very money that the government stole from our grandparents."

- The Boundary, by Nicole Watson

About the book:

Hours after rejecting the Corrowa People’s native title claim on Brisbane’s Meston Park, Justice Bruce Brosnan is brutally murdered in his home. Days later, lawyers against the claim are also found dead.

Aboriginal people were once prohibited from entering Brisbane’s city limits at night, and Meston Park stood on the boundary. The Corrowa’s matriarch, Ethel Cobb, is convinced the murders are the work of an ancient assassin who has returned to destroy the boundary, but Aboriginal lawyer Miranda Eversely isn't so sure. When the Premier is kidnapped, the pressure to find the killer intensifies ...

While the investigation forces Detective Sergeant Jason Matthews to confront his buried heritage, Miranda battles a sense of personal failure at the Corrowa’s defeat. How far will it take her to the edge of self-destruction?

The Boundary is new Australian crime that will keep you guessing. It is also the winner of the 2009 David Unaipon Award. — From the publisher (slightly rearranged by me).

About the author:

Nicole Watson is a member of the Birri-Gubba People and the Yugambeh language group. Nicole has a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Queensland and a Master of Laws from the Queensland University of Technology. Nicole was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1999. She has worked for Legal Aid Queensland, the National Native Title Tribunal, the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency and as a columnist for the National Indigenous Times. Nicole is currently a senior research fellow at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology, Sydney. — From the publisher.

Find a copy:

• The Boundary is available at the city campus at 823.4 WATB.

About Teaser Tuesdays:

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly book meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading! Everyone is welcome to play!

How it works:

1. Grab a book from your collection

2. Select 2 sentences that make an interesting teaser (avoid spoilers please!)

3. Post the sentences, along with author and book title in the comments of this post

This month's reading theme is INDIGIREAD, which comes from the Read Watch Play blog!

Teaser Tuesday (21st of May, 2013)

"These days I make art on the run, under pressure, as a reflex to the itinerant life I lead between Canberra and the Kimberly . . . Part of this process involves being in the thick of it, which has its moments of epiphany but is also a test of physical and psychological resilience."

- "Art on the Run" by Kim Mahood in Kimberley Stories, edited by Sandy Toussaint

About the book:

There are a thousand ways to connect to country. Kimberley Stories is one of them. Once known, never forgotten, the Kimberley gets under your skin. Kimberley Stories tunes readers into one of Australia’s most intriguing and exotic regions via the work of talented authors and artists.
Interweaving fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, lyrics and artworks, the book is a must-have for anyone travelling north in mind, body or spirit.

Contributors include Kate Auty, Jimmy Chi (Bran Nue Dae), Lesley Corbett, Steve Hawke (Jandamarra), Pat Lowe, Kim Mahood, Donna Bing-Ying Mak, Marminjiya Joy Nuggett and Stephen Scourfield along with newcomers Jacqueline Wright (T.A.G. Hungerford award winner for Red Dirt Talking) and 13-year-old Luisa Mitchell who lives and writes in Broome. —From the Publisher.

About the editor:



Sandy Toussaint has worked extensively as an applied anthropologist, including as senior researcher for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

She lectures in legal and applied anthropology at The University of Western Australia. — From UWA Publishing.

Find a copy:

• Kimberley Stories can be found in our Australian Culture Collection on level four of the city campus, at 823.4 TOUS.

About Teaser Tuesdays:

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly book meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading! Everyone is welcome to play!

How it works:

1. Grab a book from your collection

2. Select 2 sentences that make an interesting teaser (avoid spoilers please! And yes, only one sentence this week. Only needed one!)

3. Post the sentences, along with author and book title in the comments of this post

This month's reading theme is INDIGIREAD, which comes from the Read Watch Play blog!

Teaser Tuesday (14th of May, 2013)

Welcome back to a new month and a new theme: Indigireads!

"Aboriginality and all its facets — identity, history, family, culture — are all a basis for Aboriginal women's writing. Whether it takes a political form like the poetry of Kerry Reed-Gilbert, or the life experiences of autobiography in Ruby Langford's Don't Take Your Love to Town, , or the political song words of Toni Janke's Get Outta My Car, intentional or not, the experience of being Aboriginal comes across in Aboriginal women's writing."

- "Why Does a Black Woman Write?" by Anita Heiss in The Strength of Us as Women, compiled by Kerry Reed-Gilbert

About the book:

Dedicated to "[The editor's] mother, my aunties, my daughters, my sisters, my tiddas, my family and all the Aboriginal women of this country," The Strength of Us as Women is an exploration of Aboriginality and feminism through a mix of poetry and non-fiction prose. Much of it is personal and autobiographical rather than political, and seeks to express those themes not explicitly but as the underlying motivation behind the work itself.

Find a copy:

• The Strength of Us as Women can be found in our Australian Culture Collection on level four of the city campus, at 820.808915 REED.

About Teaser Tuesdays:

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly book meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading! Everyone is welcome to play!

How it works:

1. Grab a book from your collection

2. Select 2 sentences that make an interesting teaser (avoid spoilers please! And yes, only one sentence this week. Only needed one!)

3. Post the sentences, along with author and book title in the comments of this post

This month's reading theme is INDIGIREAD, which comes from the Read Watch Play blog!