WELCOME! *********

BC CANBERRA Meet-ups ---- usually LAST Saturday of the month from 3pm

* BookCrossers, family and friends get together to chat (and maybe bookcross a little...) *

Our unofficial home is at

King O'Malleys pub,
131 City Walk, Civic / Canberra City
www.kingomalleys.com.au/

* meet from 3pm, on the last saturday of even months
...Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, and Oct *
(the other months we go to different cafes around Canberra)

FAMILY AND FRIENDS WELCOME!
...just look for the pile of books...


*



MANY WARM THANKS & COSMIC HUGS TO...

lolkathryn/KLL, amberC, wookiebender/tqd, jeniwren, L1nda, Carole888, jennymidget, sally906, crimson-tide, and tantan (OZ VBB)
*
bookfrogster of Edinburgh, Scotland
for a wonderful wishlist RABCK, 'Tuesdays With Morrie' (12Jun2013)X
lovely Carole 888 again,
for a Christmas surprise parcel with 'The Man Who Disappeared'
and lovely celtic bookmarks and other goodies (21Dec2012)r
awaywithfairies of Sydney, NSW
for an RABCK from a fav series!, 'In the Company of Cheerful Ladies'' (16Nov2012)
catsalive
for a bag of RABCKs celebrating her 8th Anniversary,
with requested books and book donations for the Canberra UnCANvention 2012. Thanks so much! (Sep2012)
crimson-tide
for OZVBB pick 'The Tenderness of Wolves' and 2 RABCK Wishlist books, 'Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat' and 'The Zookeeper's Wife'. Thank you, very much appreciated. (Sep2012)
marmee463 of Vic, Australia
for 3 wishlist books! 'The Red Tent', 'Lake in the Clouds' and 'Accordion Crimes'
and other wonderful RABCKs (9Jun2012)
Melanie2474 of ACT, Australia
for 'The Memory Keeper's Daughter' by Kim Edwards (May 2012)x
crimson-tide of Balingup, WA
for 'A Fine Balance' by Rohinton Mistry (a 1001 book) and 'The Broken Shore' by Peter Temple,
and a whole bag of wonderful RABCKs, thank you! (OzVBB, 23Mar2012)x
the lovely Carole888 of WA
for RABCKs 'Tomaree' by Debbie Robson, from my wishlist
and 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'. Wonderful. (3Feb2012)R
pinkozcat, my 2011 BCAUS Secret Santa
for 'The Girl Who Played with Fire' from my wishlist (5Dec)r
laevina of Denver, Colorado
for sharing 5 volumes of the manga series 'Ooku: The Inner Chambers'
with the Canberra BXers. (2011)R
nikkilovesbooks of Nhulunbuy, NT
for a huge bag o' yummy books to keep me busy! Thankyou thankyou. (16Jun11)R
Cassiopaeia of Cardiff, Wales
for a wonderful RABCK from my Wishlist (5Dec2010)
'Searching for the Secret River' - Kate Grenville

lmn60 of Melbourne
for starting me off on the Stephanie Plum series,
One For The Money - Janet Evanovich (16Jan09)
LadyIndigo of NSW
for my first ever RABCK received!
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver (26Nov08)R


Thankyou also to...FreePages, 1001 reading buddy -- for many bookrings/loans & rays (R) libertine101 of Perth -- for a 3kg cat-a-ganza of 'Cat Who...' books and others! (Feb2011)R amberC of Darwin -- for a 3kg jam packed bag for her 6th Anniversary draw (Feb2011)x sujie (Kangaroo Valley, NSW) -- for my Canberra Secret Santa Challenge book, East of the Mountains - David Guterson (27Nov2010)x the lovely Carole888 from Perth -- who 'winged' me rosy! (21Nov2010) Dancesports (Petcheys Bay, Tas) -- for a Plum-a-ganza of Janet Evanovich books! (18Oct2010)R tabby-cat-owner (Phoenix, Az, USA) -- for Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell, from Jozebedee's *1001* Book Relay (20Aug2010)x goldenwattle -- for Addition by Toni Jordan (27Feb2010)x innae (Aurora, Colorado, USA) -- Calendar & Book Exchange 2010, a beautiful calendar of Colorado; Miracle and Other Christmas Stories & To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis (7Jan2010)x rmjwold again! -- for RABCK The Valley of Horses - Jean M. Auel (2Jan2010) rmjwold -- for a Christmas surprise spoily box of chocolates, bath treats and RABCK The Plains of Passage - Jean M. Auel (24Dec09)R Bjorg (Reykjavik, Iceland) -- Secret Santa 2009 RABCK, The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova (20Nov09)x wombles (Caboolture, QLD) -- for RABCK The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel (23Oct09)R Carole888 (Perth, WA) -- for RABCK The Sunday Philosophy Club - Alexander McCall Smith (18Sep09)R and previously, RABCK Two Caravans - Marina Lewycka (16Feb09) chucklesthescot (Paisley, Scotland) -- for Long Spoon Lane - Anne Perry (International Summer Giveaway RABCK 28Jul09) burningtoast (Galway, Ireland) -- for a trade, Angels and Demons - Dan Brown (26May09)R MyssCyn (San Antonio, Texas) -- for my amazing BC book labels and address labels (13May09)r Calissa -- for The Queen's Fool - Philippa Gregory, RABCK with The Virgin's Lover ray (8May09) sorcha-sidhe (Quorn, SA) -- RABCK The Custodians - Nicholas Jose, for Aussie reading (1May09) The mystery winger who gave me roses on my 1st BC-versary! (Apr09) chucklesthescot (Paisley, Scotland) -- for a trade of a packet of photos, souvenirs, postcards, bookmarks & info on Paisley/Scotland, home of my ancestors! (31Mar09)R lucy-lemon (Llandudno, Gwynedd, Wales) -- for 3 amazing Wishlist RABCKs!: Autobiography of a Geisha; The Welsh Girl; The Thirteenth Tale (17Mar09)R lucy-lemon -- for Sugar and Slate - Charlotte Williams, plus Welsh goodies (Welsh RABCK 18Feb09) Melanie2474 -- for The Jerilderie Letter - Ned Kelly & Alex McDermott, plus BallyCumber keyring (January Celebration Draw 09)R mummafour (Adelaide, SA) -- for RABCKs The Full Cupboard of Life; The Good Husband of Zebra Drive - Alexander McCall Smith, plus BC goodies (3Dec08)R

***** NOW READING ***** 10 Short Stories You Must Read in 2010 - various Australian authors From Shamrock to Wattle: Digging Up Your Irish Ancestors - Trevor McClaughlin (non-fic) Breathing Lessons - Anne Tyler (started 30/12- ) No Place for a Woman - Mayse Young with Gabrielle Dalton (started 17/10- ) Snow Mountain Passage - James Houston (finished - ) Someone Like You / Animal Husbandry - Laura Zigman (finished 5/4/2012) 7.5* Ruddy Gore (A Phryne Fisher Mystery) - Kerry Greenwood (finished 25/3/2012) 8minus* Bettany's Book - Tom Keneally (finished 18/3/2012) 7.5ish* This Town: and other illustrated verse about life in Yass - Roger Buckman (13/2/2012) 8* The Waiting Sands - Susan Howatch (finished 29/12/2011) 7.5-8* Four to Score - Janet Evanovich (finished 9/12/2011 ish) 8minus * Alice Bliss - by Laura Harrington (finished 2/12/2011) 8-8.5* 84 Charing Cross Road & The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street (non-fic) - Helene Hanff (finished 12/10/2011) 7* & 8* Chicken With Plums - Marjane Satrapi (graphic book) (finished 7/10/2011) 7.5* The Family Book of Mary-Claire - Eleanor Spence (finished 3/10/2011) 8* Yass Town: Part of Our Historic Shire - Russ Whitehurst, drawings Bill Nesbitt (finished 30/9/2011) 8* The Last Time They Met - Anita Shreve (finished 5/9/2011) 7.5* Ooku: The Inner Chambers vol. 3 - Fumi Yoshinaga (manga) (finished 25/7/2011) 8* Ooku: The Inner Chambers vol. 2 - Fumi Yoshinaga (manga) (read 23/7/2011) 8.5* Marrying Ameera - Rosanne Hawke (Young Adult) (finished 22/7/2011) 8-8.5* Falling Angels - Tracy Chevalier (finished 14/7/2011) 8minus* The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway (finished 16/6/2011) 7.5* Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton (finished 6/6/2011) 8.5-9*Evening Class - Maeve Binchy (finished 31/5/2011) 7* The Dickinson Papers - Mark Ragg (finished 25/5/2011) almost 8* The Cat Who Moved a Mountain - Lilian Jackson Braun (finished 3/5/2011) 7.5* Ooku: The Inner Chambers, vol. 1 (manga) - (read 22/4/2011) 9*Addition - Toni Jordan (finished 18/4/2011) 8* The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare - Lilian Jackson Braun (finished 30/3/2011) 7.5* The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne (finished 23/3/2011 ish) 7.5-8* Three to Get Deadly (Stephanie Plum no.3) - Janet Evanovich (finished 14/3/2011) 7.5-8* The Siege of Krishnapur - JG Farrell (unfinished). A Tribute to the Group Settlers - Philip E M Blond (finished 7/2/2011) 8* A Bunyip Close Behind Me - Eugenie McNeil & Eugenie Crawford (finished 18/1/2011) 7.5* The World's Stupidest Signs - Michael O'Mara (finished 9/1/2011) 8* The Sign of Four (Sherlock Holmes) - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (finished 18/12/2010) The Virgin and the Gipsy - DH Lawrence (finished 1/12/2010) The Enchantress of Florence - Salman Rushdie (finished 20/11/2010) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson (finished 12/10/2010) Kitchen - by Banana Yoshimoto (finished 7/9/2010)The Mermaid Chair - Sue Monk Kidd (finished 30/8/2010) 8* Penmarric - Susan Howatch (finished 19/8/2010)Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys (a 1001 book) (finished 9/8/2010) 8-9* The Hound of the Baskervilles - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (a 1001 book) (finished 30/7/2010) 9+* Thank You, Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse (a 1001 book) (finished 21/7/2010) 9* Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha - Roddy Doyle (finished 29/6/2010) 8-9* Dippers: Poetry of the Mountains - Mark O’Connor, photos Ian Brown Behind the Bestsellers - Jenny Bond & Chris Sheedy Great Victorian Lives: An era in obituaries - The Times (non-fic)

MY 2018 CHALLENGES

2018 Year of Reading BookCrossingly
(first priority to other BXers' books)

2012 Celebrate Australia Day Release Challenge
Davros-10 is hosting the Australia Day Release Challenge
see www.bookcrossing.com/---/470644

2011 ANZAC Day Release Challenge
Davros-10 is running a challenge for ANZAC Day again this year.
See www.bookcrossing.com/---/455885 for details and to register.


Back in my study days I read all centuries of English (and French) literature and poetry - and my reading speed never recovered! Since joining BC in Apr 08 I've been re-learning how to read faster than you can say a soliloquy, where sentences don't have footnotes to explain the meaning! Yay for just losing yourself between the pages!

I love historical fiction and 'fleshed out' history, and biographies especially of women and historical kings & queens. I've become a 'genie' and am writing my family history, so I like to read books that will give me a feel for the time and place of my forbears. or fivebears... Dublin in early 1800s, Co. Clare, North Wales, Paisley Scotland, Australian pioneer farming families, convicts, Sydney in the 1800s...

I also like armchair travelling by reading books which let you visit another culture. I still love my classic fiction though, and the occasional non-fiction and well-written verse.

But thanks to BC and it's wonderful members I have stretched my horizons and now tasted a real smorgasbord of new genres:
historical romance - (Into the Wilderness series by Sara Donati)
women's fiction - (Nora Roberts)
'gumshoe' detectives - (Cliff Hardy series by Peter Corris), (The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series & The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith), (Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich), (The Cat Who... series by Lilian Jackson Braun)
forensic detectives - (Kathryn Fox)
and other series -
(Earth's Children series: The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel)
(The Milennium Trilogy: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson)
also graphic books - (Persepolis / Embroideries / Chicken With Plums by Marjane Satrapi)
(Ooku: The Inner Chambers by )
even children's fiction.
And now my first Salman Rushdie! (The Enchantress of Florence)
And waiting on Mt TBR is a western by Louis L'Amour!, a Sci-Fi, and a whodunnit by Dorothy L Sayers.

I aim to read and release as many books from the 1001-Books-You-Must-Read list as take my fancy and widen my reading of Aussie authors. I'm also interested in trying winning books from other awards: Pulitzer Prize, Man Booker Award, Orange Prize and especially the
Miles Franklin Literary Award

*** any suggestions for a good book from a new genre I could try?? Please send me a PM /message via the BC site. ***

My Top 10 BC Reads... A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini 9-10* Fugitive Pieces (esp. Part I) - Anne Michaels 9* A Spy in the House of Love - Anais Nin 9* The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon 9* Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys (a 1001 book) 8-9* Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha - Roddy Doyle 8-9* Persepolis 8*; Embroideries 7.5* (graphic books) - Marjane Satrapi The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer 8* The Mermaid Chair - Sue Monk Kidd 8* The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne 7.5-8*

www.webmaster-tool.co.uk/---/australia_flag_LH.gif" WIDTH="57" HEIGHT="44" BORDER="0" ALT="australia flag LH"> My top recent Australian reads... The Hunter - Julia Leigh 9* (a page-turner. I loved the way the author *walks* you through the Tasmanian bush. I read it longing and dreading to go back up that escarpment.) The Long Travail - NJ Gallagher 9* (a really well done family and local history of the Bungendore, NSW region. very interesting.) The Well - Elizabeth Jolley 8.5* The Jerilderie Letter - by Ned Kelly 8* A Tribute to the Group Settlers - Philip E M Blond 8* (a really good, fascinating history of the Group [farmer] Settlers of WA) A Bunyip Close Behind Me - Eugenie McNeil & Eugenie Crawford 7.5* (charming true childhood stories of French-Australian sisters growing up in Sydney at the turn of the century)

A Webmaster Tool flag



Wish I could read faster!... so many wonderful books...


BOOKRINGS / RAYS I'm hosting:
The Hunter - Julia Leigh 9* - AUS Bookring - CLOSED
Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence - Doris Pilkington (Nugi Garimara) - Bookring CLOSED
The Jerilderie Letter - by Ned Kelly 8* - AUS Bookring CLOSED

STEPHANIE PLUM bookrays - PM me if you would like to join a Stephanie Plum bookray for no's 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, or 15 - IOPEN


BOOKRINGS / RAYS / VIRTUAL BOOKBOXES joined:
Two Worlds VBB: The Immigrant Experience - Round Two (hosted by loveamystery) (4th) - book rec'd: Silences of the Heart (from bookguide); 27/9/10 end of round
*1001* Book Relay (hosted by Jozebedee) - 3/8 book rec'd: Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell (from tabby-cat-owner)

Coming: (as of 8/2/2011)
My Name Is Memory by Ann Brashares
Geisha of Gion TBC (tantan) - www.bookcrossing.com/---/1428910
Ooku: The Inner Chambers by Fumi Yoshinaga (graphic novels):
Vol 06 - forum post - www.bookcrossing.com/---/451721 - 6/12/2011 2nd

Bookrings / rays received:
Ooku: The Inner Chambers by Fumi Yoshinaga (graphic novels):
Vol 04 - 1Aug 2012 - Canberra BXers
forum post - www.bookcrossing.com/---/438742
www.bookcrossing.com/---/8234028/
Vol 05 -
- forum post - www.bookcrossing.com/---/447556

Completed bookrings / rays:
A Random Act of bookcrossing madness - a record-breaking attempt (hosted by FrancesinSA)
The book was released on Monday 26 January 2009. It is currently in Singapore after travelling in Australia.
The list of participants in Australia were:
Tinina67-QLD, Mozette-QLD, LadyIndigo-NSW, Elddau1-NSW, countdebeans-NSW, peggypostcard-NSW, rmjwold-NSW/ACT, bookworm76-QLD

Other completed bookrings / rays:The Enchantress of Florence-Salman Rushdie (FreePages' ring) (L) 7.5-8* - 3/9/10 rec'd, 20/11/10 read, 21/12/11 returned Chicken With Plums-Marjane Satrapi (D-face's unofficial bookray) - Dec2011 read & sent to Carole888 as Christmas RABCK Ooku: The Inner Chambers Vol 03-by Fumi Yoshinaga (manga) (laevina's ray) 8* - 22/7 rec'd, 26/7/11 to Hotfrog Ooku: The Inner Chambers Vol 02-by Fumi Yoshinaga (manga) (laevina's ray) 8.5* - 18/7 rec'd, 26/7/11 to Hotfrog Ooku: The Inner Chambers 01-by Fumi Yoshinaga (manga) (laevina's ray) 9* - to rmjwold 28/4/11 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas-John Boyne (froggirlwendy's ring) 7.5-8* - to star1978 & Hotfrog, 3/4/2011 The Siege of Krishnapur-JG Farrell (shnedwards' bookray) - unfinished, posted 14/3/11 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo-Stieg Larsson (chich's bookray) 7.5* - posted 19/10/10 Kitchen-Banana Yoshimoto (shnedwards' ray) 8* - posted 30/9/10 Embroideries-Marjane Satrapi (Graphic Novel) (SqueakyChu's bookray) 7-8* - sent 6/7/10 People of the Book-Geraldine Brooks (Tinina67's ring) 7.5* - posted 18/6/10 Two for the Dough (Stephanie Plum no.2)-Janet Evanovich (solskinn's ray) 7.5* - 3/5 to countdebeans; posted 11/6/10 The Well-Elizabeth Jolley (FreePages' ray) 8.5* - to Di 17/4/10 Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society-Mary Ann Shaffer (LadyIndigo's ring) 8* - posted 14/4/10 Eleanor of Aquitaine-Alison Weir (lauraloo29's ray) - incomplete, posted 1/3/10 Girl With a Pearl Earring-Tracy Chevalier (solskinn's ray) 7.5* - posted 23/2/10 The Kite Runner-Khaled Hosseini (FreePages/ bookseekerAT's ray) 8* - posted 18/1/10 Persepolis (graphic book)-Marjane Satrapi (Carole888's Aus Bookring) 8* - 2/1/10 to rmjwold %3