Anne Frank's friend

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Hello and welcome to hear this. I'm Francis Keyland, and you're listening to the Vision Australia Library show, where we talk about books that are on the Virtual Vision Australia library shelves, well over 40,000 of them, and a library that's free for people with a print disability. Today we've got some samples of books, but we also have community engagement coordinator Leanne Seshadri in to tell us about what's happening with the library. I'm here again with Leanne Seshadri with her regular update on Vision Australia library and what's going on. Leanne is the community engagement coordinator at Vision Australia Library. Hi, Leanne.

01:06S2

Hi, Frances. It's good to be in the studio with you.

01:08S1

Yeah, lovely to see you. So the big thing coming up next is Judy Nunn. Yes.

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Yeah. So Judy Nan is joining us on the 17th of November. We're very excited to be hosting her in conversation with our library members. She's a really fun author, just fantastic historical based and fiction. So really sweeping tales that cover different eras of Australia's history. And she'll be talking about her latest novel, which is Black Sheep, which should be in the library this week. We've been we've been waiting for it. It's coming. So it should be in the library this week in Daisy. So yeah, we hope that many of you can join us for our conversation with Judy. It'll be a real treat to have her.

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And that's still the glory is going to be speaking.

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Darla will be interviewing and Judy. So she's been brushing up on Judy's novels. And Stella, we all know she's a fabulous interviewer, so that'll be a lot of fun.

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Yeah. And the last treat your shelf for the year. Yes.

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So. Well, I do want to mention we did have our Halloween treat yourself at the end of October, which was a lot of fun. So we hosted Ellen Baxter and Erin Dries as our special guest. So there was some fabulous storytelling and we have an excellent reading list. So if you are into horror fiction, if you're into supernatural fiction, please contact the library and get some suggestions for your own reading. There are many, many great titles mentioned, and you're very welcome to to ask for some suggestions from that great conversation. We can also share the recording with you as well. Yes. So our next and final treat yourself will be on December the 11th and we'll be talking Australiana. So looking at Australian fiction, bonus points if you can weave in books that have a bit of a Christmas thing going on as well, I think that would be fun. But yes, for this final treat your shelf, we are hosting it as a bit of a hybrid session, so we will be here at Kooyong. So if you're based in Melbourne and would like to join us in person, please do. We'll have a morning tea for you. And but we will also be joining all of our friends from across the country online via zoom. So you've got the option to join us in person or via zoom.

03:25S1

That sounds lovely. A good way to round off the year, I.

03:28S2

Think so, Frances, and will you be joining us?

03:31S1

I'd love to. Well, I'm close by to the you know, I can I can come in. I'd love to. Thank you. Yeah.

03:36S2

Please do come.

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Along. I'd be absolutely honoured. Thanks, liane.

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So I was chatting to some of our some of your regular listeners. Frances, a bit of a shout out to Sheila and Janine who who are in Korean with us last week. And I know that they'd love to see you.

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They have great recommendations to the books.

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Yes, they do really avid readers. So they were meeting there with their book club. Yeah. So look, we've got a great community of readers all across the country. So yeah, please do join us for our final Treat Yourself.

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And what have you been reading?

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Yeah. So I've been reading some nice threads, Frances, I've been in the mood for for some cozy, some crazy fiction. So I've really enjoyed Kate Sully's debut novel, so Kate. Sally wrote Tuesday evenings with the Captain Craft resistance. Kate Sally was interviewed a little while ago by Stella for the show, so I finally got around to reading that one. It's a really fun read. Yeah, it's a great, great kind of rollicking story about a really diverse group of people that come together over a love of crochet and, you know, their craft group comes to mean a lot more than just just the craft. It becomes really a story about kind of community, what it means to belong, about friendship. A really, really lovely, fun, fun, light reads. I recommend Tuesday evenings with the Captain Craft Resistance, and I've just started reading a book by Santa montefiore called wait for Me. It's a romance set across the Second World War. It's kind of spans Australia and England, and we don't have that one in the library currently, but we do have a number of other titles by Santa montefiore. So if you enjoy love stories, she might be an author you want. To explore.

05:25S1

That sounds great. I don't feature just love stories and romance enough. Are they all historical or.

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Yeah, I believe so. Just checking out her kind of back catalogue. She's quite an extensive writer, so she's good. Yeah, we've got quite a number of her titles in the collection. And yeah, she describes herself as as a novelist who writes about capital Love. So, yeah.

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Just putting it out there. Yeah. Um, and I know that we don't have this book in the library, but you've been reading all you read an interesting book? Yeah.

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So I was just mentioning to you earlier that I just finished reading a memoir by Hannah Goslin called My Friend and Frank. So Hannah was a childhood friend of Anne Frank's who grew up with her in Amsterdam. Yet prior to the Second World War, she was also a Jew, and her experience of the war was quite different to Anne's and of course, went into hiding from where she wrote her. Her incredible diary, which most of us would be familiar with. Hannah's family were taken to the concentration camps, and so she had a very, very different experience, but a really, really powerful read. Another perspective on the war from the perspective of a child. She was she really lived through her teen years during the war. So a really, really powerful memoir there.

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There's a great collection of memoirs from survivors from World War Two and the Holocaust in the library. There's really human stories about lived experience of the horror.

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Yeah, the Happiest Man on Earth by Jacqui. That was one of our most borrowed books last year. So that's that's another one we can recommend if you're interested in, in learning more about World War Two experiences and Holocaust experiences.

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So the next time I see you, we'll be getting close to Christmas land.

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We will. Yeah. So just one more chat together for the year. And we do want to remind our borrowers about our braille loans over the holiday period. So if you are a braille, if you're reading hardcopy braille that we post out to you and you can borrow an additional five titles to to get you through the holiday season. So please let us know. Now would be a great time to let us know about the titles that you'd like, because we'll be starting to post those additional holiday books over the next couple of weeks.

07:55S1

Nothing better than when everything quietens down and shops are closed and everything that you've got that good supply of books.

08:01S2

Absolutely. Yeah. You want to have enough to see you through. See you through the Christmas break until we're back. Back in the office in January.

08:10S1

Thank you so much, Leanne, for coming in. And. Yeah, I'll see you next month. Excellent.

08:15S2

Thanks, Frances. We'll see you in December.

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And thank you there to Leanne CJD for her update on what's happening in the library. And yes, December the 11th. Come on down to Kooyong. If you're around in the area, just give the library a call to find out more and to let them know that you'll be coming. Or for the zoom, you also just need to let the library know so they can have an idea of the numbers. One of the authors Leanne mentioned was Santa montefiore. And yes, there are lots of books, as Leanne said in the library by this author, that might be a good one if you're into romance books. I have a sample of The Beekeeper's Daughter England 1932. Grace Hamblin, the beekeepers daughter knows her place and her future until her father dies. She's alone, except for one man who she just can't shake from her thoughts. Massachusetts, 1973. Grace's daughter, Trixie Valentine, is in love, but when he has to go home to England, he promises to come back if she will wait for him. Both mother and daughter are searching for love and happiness, unaware of the secrets that bind them. Laodicea A sample of The Beekeeper's Daughter by Santa montefiore and that's narrated by Penelope Rawlins.

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And Acid Island, Massachusetts, 1973. Of all the weathered, gray shingled buildings on Acid island, Crab Cove Golf Club is one of the prettiest. Built in the late 19th century by a couple of friends from Boston who shared the sentiment that an island without a golf course is an island deficient in the only thing that truly matters. It dominates the western coastline with an uninterrupted view of the ocean. To the right, a candy cane red and white lighthouse stands on a grassy hill, used more for birdwatchers nowadays than sailors lost at sea. Under the left, yellow beaches and grassy sand dunes undulate like waves carrying on their crests. Thick clusters of wild rose, a softer variety of climbing rose adorns the walls of the clubhouse, and dusty pink hydrangeas are planted in a border that runs all the way around the periphery, blossoming into a profusion of fat, flowery balls. The effect is so charming that it is impossible not to be touched by it, and rising above it all on the grey slate roof, the American flag flutters in the salty wind that sweeps in off the sea. Reachable only by small plane or boat. The island of Tekken Asset is cut off from the rest of the country, so that while the Industrial Revolution changed the face of America, it missed Tekken Asset altogether.

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And that there was a sample of The Beekeeper's Daughter by Santa montefiore. Santa is spelt Santa. Santa. Montefiore is Monte e Fiore, Monte e Fiore, and that book goes for 12 hours and 50 minutes. Santa montefiore was born in England in 1970. Santa is married to Simon Sebag Montefiore, who's also a historian and author. And in case you like animal stories, they've written a book here called The Royal Rabbits of London. It's part one of a series by both of them. Shiloh has always been the weakest and quietest of all his family. His siblings spend their days making fun of him for not being like the rest of them. But when Shiloh stumbles across a band of Rosi's rats and overhears their evil plan to take a photo of the Queen in her nightie, it's up to this unlikely hero to inform the Royal Rabbits of London about the diabolical plot. But can a rabbit as timid as Shiloh convince them that the Queen is in danger? So a little bit of fun and whimsy from the author team there of Santa montefiore and Simon Sebag Montefiore. But as Leon has said, there are so many books by Santa montefiore in the library, including The Devil Chronicles and Part One are The Songs of Love and War. Kitty Deverell was born on the ninth day of the ninth month of 1900, the youngest daughter of an aristocratic Anglo-Irish dynasty living in the south west of Ireland. Her future is already determined marriage to an English lord, quiet subservience and a life away from home. But Kitty has ideas of her own, and when the ruggedly handsome son of the local vet catches her eye, her future starts to feel less like a privilege and more like a prison. Will she follow her head or her heart? So that's part one of the Deverell Chronicles by Santa montefiore. Wait for me. The book that Leon has been reading was published just this year. She goes from strength to strength. A really popular author. Her novels are well researched and they're always about love with a capital L, and I'm reading from Wikipedia here. Montefiore is married to the writer and historian Simon Sebag Montefiore. They were brought together by the historian Andrew Roberts, who thought they would absolutely be perfect for each other because they were the only two people he knew who could remember the words to Evita. Off by heart. Leon also mentioned The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddy Jack and also Anne Frank. In the diary of Anne Frank. They're both available in the library. I think diary of a Young Girl is the title for Anne Frank The Diaries that, as you mentioned, there are lots of Holocaust memoirs, less so memoirs of Palestinians. I did a bit of a search, and I sort of wanted to balance it all a little bit, to show just books that can give all sorts of perspectives on what's happening over in the Middle East. At the moment. I know there is a well respected all his past away. Now, Edward Sayeed and I don't have a sample of any of the books of Edward Sayeed, but he's an academic, cultural and political critic. He was, and he was long considered one of the world's most compelling and versatile public figures. And we have a book in the collection called power, Politics and Culture. It's actually by Gouri Viswanathan. It's interviews with Edward Saeed that were conducted. The narrator is Nol Hodder, but in this book he addresses everything from Palestine to Pavarotti, from his nomadic upbringing under colonial rule to his politically active and often controversial life in America and reflections on individuals such as Jane Austen, Beckett, Conrad, Naipaul, Mahfouz and Rushdie, as well as fellow critics Blume, Derrida and Foucault. And there's also the book Orientalism by Edward Saeed as well. And he's a Palestinian Arab in his background. And now the next book is on the light side. It is Celeste Barber and her book Challenge accepted. Funny woman Instagram star and international comedy sensation Celeste Barber's Challenge Accepted is a raucous, hilarious and outspoken guide to life, unwanted guests and how to rock a sexy scar. Part memoir, part comedy routine, part advice manual. Challenge accepted is Celeste at her best, revealing her secrets to love, friendship, family and marriage and how to deal with life's. Any challenges like motherhood and what to do when your local bottle shop owner can't remember your name. It's real. Like totally real. Real. Let's hear a sample of Challenge Accepted by Celeste Barber, narrated by Celeste Barber.

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I have four kids. I have two boys of my very own who came tearing out of me, and I inherited two girls as a package deal with my husband, R.P. Sara was two and Kai was four when I first met them. I've been a stepmother since the age of 21. I had my first boy, Lou, in a small town on the mid-north coast of New South Wales. I had bought a house there after his first daughter was born, and when I found out I was pregnant, I moved up there with him. So for those of you playing at home who have no idea where the hell I'm talking about, the Mid-North coast is an area on the east coast of Australia, about 45 minutes south of hygiene, and approximately one hour and 20 minutes north of where all forms of inspiration go to die. Imagine Paris take away the culture, the art, the amazing food, the bustling metropolis and the traffic. And add trees, a beach, teen mums, two pre-teen stepdaughters, narrow mindedness and a woolies and bam, you're there. There was nothing to do on the Mid-North coast. Nothing. This is the appeal for a lot of people. But I ain't one of those people. I had to do something to stay occupied. I was living in the middle of nowhere, pregnant and raising two girls. My hormones were on a roller coaster, and I needed to focus on something to avoid the temptation to pack my shit up and waddle as far as possible away from my situation. So I decided to not only be pregnant, I was going to throw myself so far into this pregnancy that I would be too busy to do anything other than create life, God damn it!

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And that was challenge accepted by Celeste Barber. Celeste is spelt Celeste, Celeste Barber is bar b e r b a r b e r, and that book goes for six hours. Recently, Michael Caine announced that he's retiring. So no more Michael Caine on our screens. But what a legacy he's left behind in film. He's written an autobiography, which is an elephant to Hollywood. This was originally published in 2010. It's been a long journey for Maurice Michael White, born with rickets in London's poverty stricken elephant and castle, to the bright lights of Hollywood. With a glittering career spanning more than five decades and starring roles that have earned him two Oscars, a knighthood and an iconic place in the Hollywood pantheon, the man, the man now known to us as Michael Caine looks back over it all funny, warm and honest. Caine gives us his insider's view of Hollywood. He recalls the films, the legendary stars and the off screen moments. Hollywood has been his home and his playground, but England is where his heart lies and where he blames the French for the abundance of snails in his garden. Laodicea A sample of The Elephant to Hollywood by Michael Caine. It's narrated by Michael Caine.

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That voice well, it's a long way from London's Elephant and Castle to Hollywood, and the shortest distance between two points is not always a straight line, as my story is going to prove. But then, I'd never been known for doing things the easy way. I wouldn't have minded easy, but things just never worked out like that. In fact, although I couldn't have known it at the time. They worked out a whole lot better. 18 years ago, I thought that my career as an actor was over. So I wrote my autobiography, What's It All About, to round off my professional life. And that, as far as I was concerned, was that. Fortunately, and not for the first time, I was wrong. Very wrong. The best was yet to come. Which, when you look back at my life. The crazy 60s, the stardom, the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. It's really saying something. The last 18 years have been different. Different style, different places and different ideas of happiness. But different has not only been good, it has been better than I could ever have imagined. So this is a story of a man who thought it was all over and found out it wasn't. It's a story of the last 18 years, but it's also the story of where I came from and where I'm going. I know many people have read my first book, but you don't get to my age without looking back. And God knows I've been to plenty of memorial services, so I'm not going to apologize for telling some of the old tales, but there are plenty of new stories too, because I've had the good fortune to work with a whole new generation of movie stars.

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That was the Elephant to Hollywood by Michael Caine. Michael is Michael, Michael Caine is c a I n e c a I n e. And that book goes for ten hours and 20 minutes and big news for him. He isn't retiring from acting. He's released a novel, and it's a thriller called Deadly Game. Good reads called a stunning thriller from the screen legend Michael Caine. Zahn Brooks, the reviewer from June 2023, says most actors make terrible novelists, but writing the cracking thriller Deadly Game was life affirming for the veteran star. Michael Caine is 90, and he's been the mainstay of British cinema and spent lockdown writing his first novel, tapping away at his iPad every day, toiling to master the intricacies of the craft. As Michael Caine puts it, paragraphs, he said, punctuation and all that. One of Michael Caine's favorite authors is Tom Clancy and Lee child, and he says, I'm an adventure man. I don't do literature. I just do fun. Gangs, guns, war, that sort of thing. If you wanted to get the digital audio book before it hits the library, it's narrated by the wonderful Eddie Marsan, another wonderful British actor. I can't actually find a review for it, which is kind of funny, but oh, wait a minute. On Goodreads here they say the stunning thriller from the screen legend. Well, it gets four stars, but if you'd like to order it, yes, it's called The Deadly Game or suggest it for the library. Michael Caine's first venture into post acting retirement activity as a novelist. The next novel is by author Colson Whitehead, who was very famous for writing The Underground Railroad. This is a novel that goes back in time. He published it in 2001. At the time, it was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. This is a postmodern social satire that weaves together several narrative threads to create a novel with in quotes from a website called Super Summary, with encyclopedic aspirations akin to Moby Dick or Ulysses. And that was, according to David Foster Wallace. The synopsis is Jay Sutter is a bona fide junk auteur, a freelance writer traveling from city to city, hungry for free meals and the discarded sales receipts of others to claim on his expense account. Traveling into the backwoods of West Virginia to write a piece on the unveiling of the new John Henry postage stamp and the ensuing John Henry John Henry Days Festival, Jay continues his nearly record setting three month junket binge, but when he begins to choke on a piece of prime rib at a press dinner, shadows from the past are summoned forth and he leaves the mountain a changed man. Colson Whitehead is the author of the critically acclaimed The Intuitionist, and John Henry Days is both an ingenious retelling of the American legend of John Henry and a fascinating look into the world of contemporary journalism. Let's hear a sample of John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead. It's narrated by Peter J.

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Fernandez about 45 years ago, I was in Morgan County, Kentucky. There was a bunch of darkies came from miss to assist in driving a tunnel at the head of Big Caney Creek for the O and K railroad. There is where I first heard this song, as they would sing it to keep time with their hammers. Having seen your advertisement in the Chicago Defender, I am answering your request for information concerning the old time hero of the Big Bend Tunnel Days or Mr. John Henry. I have succeeded in recalling and piecing together 13 verses dedicated to such a splendid and deserving character of bygone days. It was necessary to interview a number of old timers of the penitentiary to get some of the missing words and verify my recollections, so I only hope it will please you and be what you wish. In regards to the reality of John Henry, I would say he was a real live and powerful man some 50 years ago and actually died after beating a steam drill. His wife was a very small woman who loved John Henry with all her heart. My grandfather on my mother's side was a steel driver and worked on all them big jobs throughout the country in them days when steam drills were not so popular. He was always boasting about his prowess with the hammer, claiming none could beat him but John Henry.

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That was that was John Henry. Days by Colson Whitehead. Colson is spelt Colson, Colson Whitehead is wit h a d w h Whitehead. That book's along when it goes for 17 hours and 40 minutes, so a good one if you feel like a fairly involved read. And that brings me to Christmas and your recommendations for Christmas. I remember years ago, somebody who was a member of the library suggested the complete works of Sherlock Holmes, because sometimes over the Christmas period, it's lovely to just indulge in a really fabulous collection of the total works of somebody, whereas other people prefer the, you know, romance. And. But we'll be looking for books with a bit of a Christmas theme. There's actually a lot of them around. I've been doing a bit of a search, so someone will be coming up. I might start that in the beginning of December, though a bit early now, but if you've got any suggestions about really good involving reads that you think people might like, just give the library ahoy. Thank you for joining us on here this today. I'm Frances Kelland. If you would like to know more about the books and if you would like to suggest books of any sort, we're always looking for suggestions. And the library is always looking to to increase its membership, because the more library members there are, the more the library has a voice. So if you would like to join the library, or you're making an inquiry on behalf of somebody's family or friend, you can always call one (300) 654-6566 1300 654 656. Or you can email library at Vision Australia. Org that's library at Vision Australia. Org. If you've got any Christmas recommendations remember to send them through. Have a lovely week and we'll be back next week with more here. This.