Holiday Reading

As usual we start off the year sharing what we have read over the holidays

 Wednesday 9 March

**Meeting in the Mackay Campus Library, Upstairs Building 19, Boundary Rd, Planlands 5.30pm**

Travel Biography
Choose a tale of a personal journey to a far off land or perhaps somewhere a little closer to home and let the author share their experiences of discovery.

For reading ideas check out:

• The Thomas Cook Travel Book Awards - www.thomascookpublishing.com/ba_prev_winners.htm
• British Book Award for Travel Writer of the Year (Awarded in years 1990-1993) - http://everything2.com/title/British+Book+Award+for+Travel+Writer+of+the+Year
• Dolman Travel Book of the Year - http://dolmanprize.wordpress.com/about/

Historical Fiction

The Tudor period of English history seems to be popular lately.  "Wolf Hall' by Hilary Mantel, retelling the story of Thomas Cromwell at the court of Henry VIII, won the Mann Booker Prize in 2009, and "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Philippa Gregory set during the same time period was also a best-seller a few years ago and was filmed in 2008.

If you're not interested in the Tudor period have a look at the following website for a wide range of historical novels arranged according to time period or country.

http://www.historicalnovels.info/

 All things French

 "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbery, filmed as just "The Hedgehog" was one of the bestsellers of 2010, and for this month we have decided to read something either by a French author or set in France, or both.

 Brisbane

Again we are looking at books either set in Brisbane or written by Brisbane authors.  A few suggestions are:

"The Mayne Inheritance" by Rosamund Siemon (non-fiction);
"Johnno" David Malouf's first novel;
"Over the top with Jim" by Hugh Lunn or "A man's got to have a hobby" by William McInnes, both memoirs of growing up in Brisbane;
anything by Nick Earls;
or see if you can get hold of one of the anthologies "One Book Many Brisbanes" published annually since 2007.

Have a look at this website for a few other suggestions-
http://www.ourbrisbane.com/lifestyle/literary-brisbane/