Coming soon to the Vision Library

00:05 THEME/ID

Let's. Take a look. To take a look inside the book. Take a look...

00:24 S1

Hello and welcome to Hear This. I'm Frances Keyland, and you're listening to the Vision Australia Lshow here on Vision Australia Radio. We have a great show today. We've got Maureen O'Reilly coming in with her usual enthusiasm, talking about things coming up in the library and how you can get some really great books. So I hope you enjoy today's show. Can you believe it? It is almost Christmas time and we have a special guest today, Maureen O'Reilly, who's come in to talk to us once more about library happenings. A festive, a festive show, a festive show.

01:03 S2

Yes, indeed. How are you, Frances? 

01:07 S1

I'm well, thank you. How are you?

01:07 S2

You? I am really good. We're just cruising into the end of the year now, so it's very nice tidying up our last couple of events and getting all the planning for next year. Got pretty bows on it, Christmas bows on it. So we've got our whole calendar of programs and events finalised and it's going to be a very, very exciting year.

01:27 S1

Oh that's fantastic, and you're all having a bit of a break. So I did mention last week the dates but... yeah, what are the dates again?

01:34 S2

Oh, we are going to finish up on Friday week. So all of Vision Australia will actually be closed. So that will be on Friday the 20th. And then we'll all come back rejuvenated. And with a spring in our step on Monday the 6th of January. Okay.

01:51 S1

So people can send emails, but they won't be answered until... the staff are back at work.

01:56 S2

That's right. But the library is always open. The library is a lovely 24-over-seven online library, so you'll still be able to download new books. You can still populate your bookshelf, you can still get your daily newspapers. All of that will still go ahead. You just won't be able to speak to any actual staff. So if you want any advice or anything on books to read. Unfortunately there won't be anyone there. However, you can always go onto our website under the news section, and we've got a couple of great reading lists that are there. So we have our biographies and autobiographies that we put together. Oh, I think it would be about, um, six weeks, eight weeks ago now that's under the news section. 

And we also put together a lovely Christmas... reading list. So we figured that... the holiday period is when everyone packs their bags and they hit the road or the train, or, if they're lucky enough, the airports. And we've given an entire list to be able to take away on your holiday travels. And then if you're not fortunate enough to be going away, the theory is that you can vicariously travel at home. So they're all books on lovely, both Australian and overseas destinations so you can vicariously go on a beautiful holiday.

03:17 S1

Oh that's great, I love I love travel books. Yeah. Just because you pick up a bit of history, you pick up a bit of humour. Usually there's some humour in them, unless it's a, you know, dangerous spot. 

03:29 S2

But yeah, well, the list was... featured in our December newsletter, which went out at the start of last week, and it links to the library website on the news page. So if you miss the newsletter, you can always just go straight to the website and get the list.

03:46 S1

Fantastic.

03:47 S2

And then you can look back over other... reading lists that were put together as well. There was a coming of age reading list. There was another summer reading list last year. And just check if there's any books that you missed. 

03:58 S1

For those people who aren't into like, books and magazine reading is a lovely thing to do over the holidays as well. Relax with a magazine. If you're lucky enough to have a pool by the pool or at home. But Vision Australia Library has lots of magazines as well, including, you know, really popular ones like Women's Weekly, Women's Day now as well, which people used to ask for. And we didn't have it for a few years, and also Scientific American.

04:26 S2

And National Geographic. So there's a number of them are there, and also the daily newspapers are there. So you can keep up on everything that's going on in the world. And the best part is you can skim through the sections that you don't want. So if you just really aren't interested in your summer of cricket, you can skip over the whole sports section.

04:48 S1

Mm. Thank you. So what is happening next year? Maureen, I know you've been, you know, still thinking ahead, so...

04:56 S2

Yeah, we have, we've got together a wonderful calendar of programs and events. So we have, um, rested some for a year because we felt that the demand wasn't there anymore. Some of them, um, we will bring back some we decide have run their course. Really, we've resurrected some ones that we used to do that we felt that everyone had participated in. But now there's a demand that's come back and we've created some really lovely new ones. And then we have our favourites that everyone loves. 

So under reading we have a lovely new program called Book Chat with the Vision Australia Library. So that will be quarterly sessions. We have our Sun Kissed Summer book chat. That's on February 20th. We have our autumnal April book chat, we have our cosy winter book chat and our Sunny Spring bookshop. So that will be... featuring one of the Vision Australia librarians who will give a review of two new release books. So having a chat about the author, what that book is about, and really a no holds barred analysis of it. Whether it's great or what the failings are or so forth. 

Then we'll go around the group and everyone will have their moment to be a book critic as well, so they can talk about a particular book, what they really liked about it, what they enjoyed, why they think people should read it or shouldn't read it. And then we'll have a discussion about a particular genre at the end. So we will do crime fiction, given that's one of our most popular genres for summer. Then we're going to do classical fiction, then we'll do detective and mystery. And our last one will be, uh, history. So historical fiction and also non-fiction. So we think that'll be really good. It'll give people an opportunity to see what else is out there and to share their favorite books and help populate people's reading lists.

06:56 S1

Yes, sometimes you can get stuck in a genre and you go, Oh, I don't know what else to read. And then something like that could open up a few different books in different genres.

07:06 S2

And then we have another new one, which I'm very excited about, which is a sort of like a first cousin of our In Conversations. So we're going to have live author readings. So we'll start with an introduction of the author and a bit of an overview of their bio. Then we'll have a discussion about the book that they're going to read to the audience. And then we'll have 20 minutes of them reading from their new release book, and then we'll have a close with the author, just including any questions that our listeners have posted into the chat or posted prior to the commencement of the session. 

So it'll be really lovely, like, um, sitting down, having an adult storytime, really, with the authors who are so passionate about the book that they've put together and the characters that they can then bring to life as well. Yeah.

07:55 S1

And interesting to see what what their excerpt would be like, what what they choose as a, as a point in their book.

08:02 S2

Yeah. And we're going to be a little bit flexible. So if some of the authors say, well, I'd like to read from two sections of the book that are really focus on different characters or different sort of, um, climactic points in the plot, like, that's okay. And it's one of the pieces of feedback that we've had is that when we do our own conversations, people say they would love to have heard the author read part of that book, and our in conversations always run over, particularly if I'm running them. So, um, this is a nice opportunity to be able to embrace that.

08:35 S1

Lovely. Okay. And what else? 

08:38 S2

Well, we have our new writing group, and I think we discussed that last month. So the application form, for want of a better term is up online under the library news section. So and it was also referenced in our newsletter. So anyone interested in joining the writing group are really encouraged to apply. Unfortunately, it can only have ten participants, but we will do our best to keep running that each year. And then we have our... writing... program. So we have the lovely and gorgeous Andrea Rowe that's joining us for Writer's Toolbox, which is all about... writing creative fiction. So that'll be really exciting. She does children's books, but she also does lots of other books, and she's just she's so passionate and so generous with her time and her thoughts and her energy. 

Then we've brought back... a Journey Through Poetry with Maria Takolander. So she wrote, uh, or ran a course for us back in March last year that was really popular. So a lot of our members have been requesting we do another poetry one. So I think that'll be really well received. And it's far less imposing to sit down, to write a poem than to write an entire novel. So I think that's a lot more accessible for people in some ways not as intimidating. Mm. 

And then we have Jonathan Butler coming back to join us again. Jonathan was with us last year as well uh with writing family history. So that junior genealogy research and family history, it's a very big thing with a lot of both our members and just generally the population. So Jonathan will help people learn about researching and writing family history and leading them through three weekly sessions on how to actually get all that information and what's the best way to format it together, and so forth. So I think that'll be hugely popular with people. 

And then we have the lovely Emily McGuire joining us, and she's doing a program called Finding Your Story, Finding Your Voice, and this is about getting the words on the page fast. Um, discovering your writing voice, overcoming the fear and self-consciousness when it comes to writing. So getting over that blank page syndrome and just getting the words on the page. And... a lot of people who want to write something but they just don't know how to start. They've got all these ideas buzzing around their head. Yeah. And Emily does, as well as being a highly awarded writer, does a lot of writing courses and mentoring and so forth. So we're very privileged to have her on board. 

And then our last writing course is crime fiction. So I've gone with the theory that our readers favorite genre, our most popular genre is, um, crime fiction. So if they enjoy reading it, they'll probably enjoy writing it as well. So that will be our last one for the year.

11:44 S1

What what month is that roughly?

11:47 S2

That one is in November. Okay. So that is our last one of the year. So we'll have we'll finish with crime fiction, but we'll have some really great introductory ones. We'll have our beautiful family history. We'll have it. I'm really looking forward to poetry. And we've got such talented, talented facilitators who are with us. Yes. And then we also have all our favorites that are in there as well. So we will have our in conversation. And then we have another newbie that I'm very excited about for our reading programs, which is Meet Your Vision Australia Library narrators, which is a very long name. I should have come up with something a bit punchier, I think. 

But... that's going to be in June and October, so it's just twice for next year and we will introduce a Vision Australia narrator with a brief overview of their history with Vision Australia. And then they're going to do a live reading from their favorite book that they've narrated for Vision Australia. Or they can choose one that they would really like to have narrated, and then we'll have an interview that again will be posted by our members in the chat or beforehand. And that came as a result, again, of a lot of feedback from our members. Who are they? They're just very attached, emotionally attached to the narrators because they've listened to them, they've welcomed them into their home, and some of our members have grown up with them. They've been listening to their books for 20 or 30 years, so it's like a family member to them.

13:23 S1

It is. And a lot of people will... just say, give me anything narrated by this. I don't care what the genre is. I just love the voice. 

13:32 S2

Yeah, exactly. So I'm really proud of and excited about this program because I think it's very much been shaped by our members and what they've asked for. So the things that we've done in the past, they wanted to come back. The things we've been doing this year that they wanted us to continue doing, like the in conversation and then new things that have sort of morphed out of that. So we'd like to hear author readings. So rather than shortening our conversations, we've brought a whole new thing together. 

So and then we have our other favorites which were hugely popular this year. So the accessible writing tools, the reading tools, and a lot of those ones that added a lot of value to people. And if the registrations were there and the feedback was really positive, then we keep them on board as well.

14:22 S1

Yeah. And look, I hate to ask this because I'm already thinking in the back of my mind now, what have I been reading lately? I don't know, I can't remember, but Maureen, what have you been reading lately?

14:31 S2

Oh well, that was easy for me because I have the privilege of interviewing Emily McGuire on Library Lovers Day, which is also known as Valentine's Day on the 14th of February next year. So I'm reading Emily's latest release book, Rapture, so I would recommend it highly to anyone. Um, Emily is an awarded writer, but I think personally, more importantly, she's just, um, you get completely absorbed and lost in her books, so I would really recommend that for anyone. And then they can read it, and then they can come and join me on Valentine's Day, and they can hear me interview Emily, and they can fire all their questions at her.

15:17 S1

Oh, good. So the book is Rapture - wonderful. Okay. 

15:21 S2

And what about you? What are you reading?

15:22 S1

Oh, look, this is what the question I've been... I tend to be dipping in and out of books. I still have to read the Candice Fox book, The High Wire. High Wire, thank you. And I have that by my bed. In terms of what I've been listening to... Martin Edwards. I started to read him. He's a British mystery writer. He's very cosy. I can't remember the title, but he's a lovely cosy but not too light, not cosy, cosy, cosy. Like it's not about having, you know, scones and tea. It's sort of English villages where things go wrong and somebody gets murdered. 

He's got a lot of books in the library collection, so I've been reading the first one... of a series, and I can't remember the series. I'm going to have to look it up, Maureen. I'm going to have to, you know, be more prepared. My goodness.

16:11 S2

It must be the day for putting people on the spot.

16:14 S1

Yeah, well, you've you've behaved admirably. Yeah. And do you have any plans for yourself over the Christmas break that you'll be...?

16:21 S2

I do. So we have the two weeks off and my husband also has the same period of time that his business closes. So we are dragging our tribe and their friends because nobody will go anywhere without their friends. And we're going down to Rye. We've Hired, hired, rented a holiday house. And we're just going to spend a lot of time on the beach. A lot of time eating, a lot of time getting a little bit sunburnt because I do have the Irish skin and a lovely family time together.

16:53 S1

It sounds lovely. 

16:54 S2

Yeah, it's been a very, very busy year and next year will be busy because my youngest will be in year 12. So it's intended to be a nice little stop, pause, have a bit of family bonding, see if we can not kill each other. That would always be good and then be all rejuvenated for next year.

17:15 S1

But also it's Christmas. As you get older, it's a little bit sad as well, because you remember Christmases from the past and the family members that you no longer get to see. It's a good time. Also, just thinking about how lucky to have family and not to be lonely over this time, which probably is a bigger, bigger issue than a lot of people realise. So thinking about Christmases past can be very poignant and sad and... yep. So anybody that's out there, I wish everybody a good Christmas. And no matter what your circumstances, that you have a bit of joy.

17:49 S2

And I hope so. And I think it's a lovely reminder to people to reach out and also to remember it's not just elderly or widowed neighbors that can be lonely and like time at Christmas. I know my daughter has a lot of friends at uni who are overseas students, and they're all alone at Christmas as well, and people have marriages that break up and children get pulled in different directions over Christmas. So it's a nice opportunity to bring some joy by actually bringing other people into your Christmas as well.

18:24 S1

Yeah. Lovely. Lovely, thought Maureen. Lovely. All right. Look, thank you so much for coming in today and a happy Christmas. Happy New Year and happy Hanukkah. All right. Thanks Maureen.

18:34 S2

Bye bye Frances.

18:41 S1

Through this week, I had the great pleasure of attending the last Treat Yourself that the library held for this year. And it was Christmas reads. But also like looking back on the year and what books you enjoyed. And it was fabulous. And there's a big list that's going to be sent out by V, and it will be on the library web page. There were so many great suggestions, and it was lovely to catch up with some familiar people, Gina and Rob. Big shout out to you guys who are always enthusiastic library members. And Gina, who's a Candice Fox fan, also mentioned another really popular author, Fleur MacDonald. And I thought we would play a sample of one of her books. 

She is a prolific Australian author of outback Romance and mystery, and I'll play a sample of the ninth in the series, the Dave Burrows series of books. But of course we've got all nine in the series, and you might want to start at the beginning. This one's title is Into the Night by Fleur MacDonald. A fire, a missing man and his dog. Send Dave and his partner Bob Holden, south of Perth to investigate. Leo Perry has been missing for two days when they realize he's probably not dead. In fact, he's more likely to have left his life in exchange for a new one. But why? They find CCTV footage showing them that Leo is alive only two days earlier. But then disaster strikes. A phone call from Meekatharra police station changes everything that Dave and Bob already know about the case. 

Let's hear a sample of part nine of the Dave Burrows series of books by Fleur MacDonald, into the Night, and it's narrated by Lani Tupu.

20:25 S3

Why do you have to be so bloody difficult? Leo's hands shook as he tried to start the engine of the water pump. Pull out. Yank. Flick back in. It wound over once, but didn't fire. Come on, you mongrel of a thing. This time the compression had built up inside the engine and the cord was tight. The starting rope was ripped from his hands as he pulled, and the wooden handle hit him on the knuckles as it flew back inside the guard. Leo wanted to swear, but instead he stood up, wiped his brow, and looked outside. The pumphouse was set on the edge of a creek. White painted corrugated iron for the sides and green for the roof, all dirty and peeling. 

A mirage shimmered across the hilly landscape, Golden grass bent over in the heat, the air hot and oppressive, but still eerily still to the north. There was the normal build up of huge white thunder clouds accompanied by crickets chirping in anticipation of a cooler night. Leo scoffed at the insects hopefulness. The temperature hadn't dipped below 25 degrees during the hours of darkness and nearly two weeks, and there was no reason why it would today. Coffee. His kelpie was laid out flat on the back of the ute, puffing under the sun. Coffee in colour. Coffee in nature. Calming and enjoyable. When Leo let her off the chain in the morning. Her large welcoming grin. The sort where her tongue lolled out the side of her mouth, always made the start of his day a good one.

22:09 S1

And that was a sample of Into the Night by Fleur MacDonald, part nine of The Dave. Detective Dave Burrows series Fleur is spelt [spells author's name]. And that book goes for eight hours or 8.5 hours. And that book was published back in April 2023. So a fairly recent release. Good to have that whole series here in the library. Dave Burrows first appeared in 2009, in Fleur's book Red dust. So if you want to embark on a really great rural suspense detective and mystery series, try Fleur MacDonald and Red dust, the first one. And thank you, Gina and Rob. And as I said, lovely to catch up with you both. 

And one of the books Maureen O'Reilly mentioned and one of the author events coming up in the new year is, uh, Maureen chatting with Emily Maguire, Australian author, and she mentioned the book rapture. This may be a good one to listen to before February and that I'm in conversation. So rapture the motherless child of an English priest living in ninth century Mainz. Agnes, wild and brilliant girl with a deep, visceral love of God. At 18, to avoid a future as a wife or nun, Agnes enlists the help of a lovesick Benedictine monk to disguise herself as a man and devote her life to the study she has denied as a woman. 

So begins the life of John the Englishman, a matchless scholar and scribe of the revered Fulda monastery, then a charismatic heretic in an Athens commune, and by her middle years a celebrated teacher in Rome. There, Agnes, as John, dazzles the church hierarchy with her knowledge and wisdom and finds herself at the heart of political intrigue in a city where gossip is a powerful and deadly currency, and when the only person who knows her identity arrives in Rome, she will risk everything to once again feel what it is to be known and loved. Let's hear a sample of Rapture by Emily Maguire. It's narrated by Rose Ackroyd.

24:21 S4

Heaven is never ending light. It is Jasper and crystal. Pearls and gold. It is lightning and rainbows and a great rushing river. It is white. Horses and doves and angels singing. Holy, holy, holy. And there is no sadness or pain. No hunger or thirst, or there is hunger and thirst, but only to make the feasting tables, which are never bare, more pleasurable. Still baths. To get there you must be pious and humble, and follow God's laws every day of your earthly life. Baths to the motherless five year old, listening to such talk from beneath her father's table. It does not seem worth the effort. Sweet as heaven might be, it cannot truly be better than life here and now in mines in the year 821. Baths. 

Could Angel song truly be sweeter than the plain chant that floats down from the abbey on the hill. And fills all the empty spaces in her chest? Our white doves, truly more lovely than the woodland throstles. With their pale speckled bellies and gold tinted wings. As for horses, they have those here, as well as lightning and rainbows and the mightiest of all rivers running through town. Pearls and jasper are unknowns, but she has seen crystal and gold, and though they are pretty, there is not much use to either.

25:42 S1

And that was Rapture by Emily Maguire. Emily is [spells author's name]. And that book goes for seven hours and six minutes. In a Guardian review from 2024, Bec Cavanna, the reviewer, writes... In Rapture, her seventh novel, Emily Maguire turns her hand to historical fiction, drawing inspiration from the life of Pope Joan - the woman who, according to legend, disguised herself as a man and served as pope for two years during the Middle Ages. 

Cavanna goes on to write... Rapture is steeped in history, but it wears those trappings lightly. It's an easy read, with plenty of intrigue and high stakes, given the catastrophic consequences for Agnes if she is found out. Rapture is also a book that exults in the joys of curiosity and of understanding the world through the act of writing and reading. Agnes might be the same eager reader as any of us brought to life by a story's energy. She is not only Pope Joan, but also a child, a scholar, a woman, a lover, a teacher, and through her, McGuire manages to tease apart, if only for a moment, the purity of faith itself from the ambitions of the institutions that control it. So that's the Guardian review from October 2024 by Bec Kavanagh. 

Thank you for joining us on Hear This today. Thank you to Maureen O'Reilly and to VA for... holding that wonderful treat your shelf that I attended this week with wonderful library members like Gina, who recommended the Fleur MacDonald book and other library members that I haven't heard from in a while. Just really a great catch up and very informative. We learned all. I learned that Vision Australia has now 60,000 titles and that's just the books. So on top of that there's the magazines, newspapers and podcasts. And also Vision Australia adds around 2000 books to that collection every year. 

So if you would like to join the library and remember, the more people that join a library, the louder the voice that library has and the more vital it is for the community. So join the library by calling 1300 654 656. That's 1300 654 656 - or email library@visionaustralia.org - that's library at Vision Australia dot org. Well that's another week over and done with and we'll be back next week with more Hear This.