A year of reading - 2015

I like tracking what I've read and of course Goodreads is perfect for this.

Apparently in 2015 I read 67 books with a total of 21,475 pages - go figure.

    

  

Doorways into science and science fiction reading

This is my presentation from last week's Readers Advisory seminar at the State Library of New South Wales: The Librarian's Guide to the Galaxy.
You can catch the Storify of the day's tweets here.

Tiddas by Anita Heiss : a review

Even though I finished reading Anita Heiss' latest novel "Tiddas" earlier this month, it has taken me some time to focus my thoughts for a review and I still find it not an easy task. There are things I want to say about this novel but I find I struggle putting the words into context. I found it, as with Heiss' other novels, a delightful read which touches on the heart of friendship and identity. Tiddas takes place over the course of a year in the lives of Izzy, Nadine, Xanthe, Veronica, and Ellen.
Tiddas deftly touches on a myriad of social issues and concerns but does so in a way which is both subtle and provoking. As the five women come to terms with changes in their lives and challenges to their friendships, they consider the impact of their own past and history on their current lives and any possible future for their children. Family is important. Cultural and social history is important. Friendship is colour-blind.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Tiddas, sharing the journey of these five friends. I immediately felt connected with the characters and most certainly connected with the setting of Brisbane (having lived there myself for a few years many moons ago) - and Mudgee. Anita Heiss writes with such a deft hand. The depth of connection between the characters is heart-warming, their frailties real, their struggles touching.
It is, quite simply, a lovely read.

5/5 stars.

Mary Bennet by Jennifer Paynter : a review

I enjoyed this quirky tale which so delightfully fitted in with the original Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Mary Bennet is a character we know so little about and often find ourselves disliking from the little the original book (or movies) reveal of her character. She seems the odd duck in the family of Bennets and here she has her chance to show her true nature and the background to who she is.
I thoroughly enjoyed this and I admire Jennifer Paynter for taking on this character and revealing her beauty and individuality as she has done.

3/5 stars (I liked it) - as reviewed on Goodreads

The Rogue by Trudi Canavan : a review

When I first started the Australian Women Writers challenge for 2014 I'd planned on reading ten different authors but after stumbling across The Rogue by Trudi Canavan and having enjoyed the first book in this series so much I simply threw that idea out the window.

The Rogue is book 2 of Trudi Canavan's Traitor Spy trilogy and follows on from the events of The Ambassador's Mission. The story will conclude in book 3: The Traitor Queen. 

It's interesting the approach you take to reading a book which you know will be incomplete as far as the story goes. I expect less of a middle book than I do of the first or last book in a series. The Rogue cleverly puts all the characters in place for the final book, introducing a few new characters and events which will obviously impact upon the conclusion of the story. Given that The Traitor Spy trilogy is built around already existing characters from The Black Magician trilogy and may perhaps lend itself to another series, I'm also not expecting book 3 to be an ultimate conclusion. It's a fantasy series. Worlds are built which constantly change and the scope for new characters and new stories which inhabit those worlds is never-ending - Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is a classic example of this.

I like this series. I find the characters interesting and the worlds they inhabit equally so. I am also impressed by the way in which Canavan deftly builds these worlds and cleverly twists the events surrounding characters so that you know there's going to be a confrontation. By the end of this book the reader knows that there are some serious issues to be addressed. There is political intrigue, assassination attempts, drug use, black magic, murder, mayhem and mystery. Underlying the entire story is the question of black (or higher) magic and how all the cultures of this world approach its use and application. When young Lilia accidentally learns black magic through reading a book, the belief that this form of magic could not be learned from books is turned on its head. When she also determines how to unblock her magic it additionally brings into question everything that has been considered as true in regards to magic itself. The Guild has a lot of questions they can no longer ignore nor deny. And about time too.

I keenly await reading book 3 now. I'm happy with the questions Canavan has posed to her characters and interested to see how the various pieces will tie together. I enjoy her writing style and have adapted well to the constant flow from character story to character story to characters story within the same chapter. It adds to the sense of the passage of time and shows how each character is developing in relation to the others. While The Rogue brings the new magician character of Lilia to the forefront of the action in Kyralia and focuses less on Cery, you know he is still there in the background and will continue to have a major role to play in the story. Learning more about the Traitors, the Sachakans, and the Duna adds to the overall landscaping of this world. Each small piece of information adds to the whole and establishes the footings for the following book.

This is solid fantasy writing. Trudi Canavan is an Australian writer of great skill and definitely a voice to pay attention to within the Fantasy genre.

4/5 stars (really liked it).

The Betrayal by Y. A. Erskine

I read this novel as part of the #aww2014 challenge to read at least 10 books by Australian women writers this year. The following is the review I put up on Goodreads with a rating of 2/5 stars (It was ok).

This is a solid police procedural but lacks the grit of an Ian Rankin, P M Newton, or Patricia Cornwell. While it pries open the lid of police and political corruption it fails to provide a likeable character and gives the sense that this story is part of a larger whole - a much larger whole. In itself it seems somewhat incomplete.
The Betrayal is the second novel by Y. A. Erskine, following on from The Brotherhood - which I have not read. The sheer naivete of the main character seems somewhat implausible given her chosen career. The sexual  deprivations of most of the characters also seems a little over the top. The arrogance and chauvinism and heightened levels of anger expressed by one character is excessive, yet oddly plausible.
The feelings and thoughts expressed by the spouse of a police office with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are spot on and for me provide the only sense of resonance with this novel.
Y. A. Erskine is a talented writer whose skill continues to develop with her characters. While this genre is not one I read often, I would certainly read her work again.

I didn't really take to this book and the more I thought about it the more I realised it was mostly due to the overall feeling that the story was incomplete. The Betrayal unfolds around the crime of date-rape but features so many other characters and events/crimes that the starting point gets a little lost. Rather than tying pieces together it opens up more and more story lines until the reader (ie, me) is left feeling that the date-rape crime is being swept aside for the larger story. The ending is unsatisfactory.
All that aside, there's some definite talent here and I would like to see how Erskine pulls these characters together to solve the larger issues/crimes.

The Ambassador's Mission by Trudi Canavan : a review

The Ambassador's Mission is book one of the Traitor Spy trilogy and follows on from Trudi Canavan's previous seven novels (two trilogies and a standalone). For a reader coming in without any of the previous back-story there is little sense of missing any required history or appreciation of the characters. Canavan cleverly reintroduces the important players and provides whatever context is required for the story to progress. I'm still amazed that I've gone all this time and not read any of Canavan's stories before.

There are three key characters whose tales intersect at various levels and who the story follows throughout. Sonea is a Black Magaician and tied to the guidance and control of the Kyralian Guild of Magicians. She is a Healer and has emerged from within the ranks of the very poor to be a powerful magician (and somewhat feared by her colleagues). Her son, Lorkin is also a magician but an Alchemist. He agrees to accompany Lord Dannyl, the newly appointed Guild Ambassador, to Sachaka as his aid - both to help Dannyl in his search to fill some of the gaps in Kyralian history and also to explore more of the world than the city of his birth. Cery is an old friend of Sonea and a Thief in the City, he's familiar with the darker side of life.

"The Ambassador's Mission" ends on the delightfully teasing note of intrigue and deception, and as any good story does leaves you wanting more. Sonea has helped catch the rogue magician and Thief Killer; Cery has avenged his family's deaths and grown closer to his only surviving child (and learned a nice tidbit of information about a certain other Black Magician.... no spoilers); and Lorkin has come closer to discovering more about the Sachakans, the people they call Traitors, his father Akkarin, and hidden magic.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and am keen to continue reading the trilogy to discover what happens with our three main characters. It has everything: political intrigue, clash of cultures, fighting, magic, avoiding capture, more magic, quips. But more importantly it is enjoyable and I really do want to know how this story ends. I've ended up caring about these characters, curious about the Sachakans and Traitors and blood gems and magic, wondering how the Wasteland fits into all of this, and whether the Guild will let go of old prejudices and fears.

Grace Beside Me by Sue McPherson: a review

Grace Beside Me by Sue McPherson takes place in 2008 and follows young teenager Fuzzy Mac (Ocean Skye McCardell) and her life in the country town of Laurel Dale. Raised by her grandparents she explores her relationships with them, with her mostly absent father, with her dead mother, with her friends, neighbours, and  community. Fuzzy's grandparents are a mix of Islander and Koorie and the absolute cornerstone of Fuzzy's life. They instill a pride in family and heritage in Fuzzy which shines through her interactions with everyone she meets. 2008 is a big year for this family: it's the year the nation says "sorry" for removing Aboriginal children from their parents. It's the year Fuzzy is faced with some tough decisions and learn to find grace beside her -the grace which comforts and settles torn emotions, the grace which provides wisdom, the grace to be at peace with you are  and within your own skin whatever that may be.
Grace Beside Me is a well written young adult story. The story labours a little to start with, laying deep and somewhat complex foundations, but goes on to find its own rhythm and flow. It is a novel which is very much about the value of stories in identifying who we are and where we come from. The book does tend to cover a lot of ground and attempt to expose Fuzzy to as much of the darker side of Australia's past which Aboriginal people have been subjected to as McPherson can fit within the pages. At times the story itself seems to lose its focus as a result.
That said, this is a powerful story and one which explores what it means to be Aboriginal in Australia and the impact Australia's past has even now. It does not sugar coat anything but provides a simple and straightforward insight into a young girl's family and life. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was heartened by the choices Fuzzy makes and the wisdom her grandparents use to guide her.

This is the second book I have read as part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge for 2014. It is Sue McPherson's debut novel and written with the support of the State Library of Queensland's 2011 kuril dhagun Indigenous Writing Fellowship which is part of the State Library's black&write! Indigenous Writing and Editing Project.

Friday Brown by Vicki Wakefield

on GoodReads

Friday Brown is a beautiful story of self-discovery and self-determination. It is the coming-of-age tale of a young girl, discovering who she is, but on her own terms. At 17 Friday's life has been under the singular influence of her mother until she finds herself alone and lost in Sydney. As she falls into the company of a group of homeless children she learns the value of friendship, the meaning of love, and finally the meaning behind her mother's philosophy of life: that if you can't make a good choice, at least make a choice you can live with.

I enjoyed this story immensely (4/5 stars). Wakefield describes Sydney and the various country towns Friday finds herself in with clarity and detail. Her characters are honest and flawed, the dialogue cleverly reinforcing their various natures. Friday is an engaging character and her struggle to remain true to herself whilst also discovering who she is, the sort of person she chooses to be, is universal.

When all is said and done, Friday Brown is a story about how the choices you make are what end up defining you as a person, and accepting people for who they are, regardless, is the sign of true friendship.

I look forward to more by Vikki Wakefield. Her first novel, All I Ever Wanted, was shortlisted for the 2011 Gold Inky Awards, shortlisted for the 2012 REAL Awards, a 2012 CBCA Notable Book and winner of the Young Adult Fiction Award at the 2012 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature. Friday Brown is her second novel and was shortlisted for the 2013 CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers.

2014 Australian Women Writers Challenge

A new year brings a new reading challenge.
As well as #rwpchat and the ubiquitous GoodReads challenge, this year I've decided to participate in the Australian Women Writers Challenge.

For me the challenge will be in developing my review writing skills. I've done a little bit of reviewing for ALIA's inCite magazine a few years ago but mostly keep my personal reviews to GoodReads or this blog. (Let's be honest, mostly I just rate a book on GoodReads and leave it at that, call me lazy). Which is why I'm excited about #aww2014. It's a challenge that not only stretches me as a reader and reviewer but more importantly highlights the work of Australian women writers.
And if there's one thing which I am passionate about as a reader, it is supporting Australian writers.

So I've joined the AWW challenge group on GoodReads and I'll be signing up and focusing my reading efforts (and reviewing efforts) on the work of Australian women. I am still debating what level to aim for (Stella = 4; Miles = 6; Franklin = 10) but am really looking forward to sharing my reviews and reading the reviews of other readers participating in #aww2014.

This is going to be fun!

My Reading Year

2013 has been a reasonably quiet reading year for me.

Seriously, 120 books is pretty average for me. But I did set myself the challenge of reading stuff I wouldn't normally read and ended up with quite a neat list in the end.

But what's my favourite read of 2013? What's the one title that struck such resonance with me that I reluctantly put it aside when I finished it? That's a tough one.
Discovering the Laini Taylor Daughter of Smoke and Bone series was a huge delight. The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Muriel Barbery) and The Book of Emmet (Deborah Forster) struck me deeply. John Scalzi's Redshirts and The Android's Dream saw me laughing out loud in public (as did The Mallet of Loving Correction). Mark Lawrence's series The Broken Empire is just plain wow, I waited with baited breath for each instalment and loved the blend of fantasy and science fiction. Darren Shan and Derek Landy were pretty constant throughout the year and anything Neil Gaiman writes is usually very very good (no disappointments there). The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is heartbreakingly beautiful as is Kate Forsyth's The Wild Girl. Tad Williams, Terry Pratchett, John Marsden,Brandon Sanderson, Stephen King, Joe Hill, Jim Butcher, Jack Heath, John Flanagan, Matthew Reilly, Dean Koontz, James A Owen, Cinda Williams Chima, Justine Larbalestier, Melina Marchetta, P M Newton, Libby Gleeson, Cassandra Clare, Emma Donoghue, to name but a few. There were very few stories I read which disappointed (always nice when this happens). I took on the recommendations of others more this year and discovered a range of new authors to explore. It's been a delight.

But, what's my favourite read of 2013? ....... Yeesh.

I'm going to give that honour to Laini Taylor and Daughter of Smoke and Bone. This title was suggested to me by a work experience student as excited by books and reading and authors and stories as I am and was a delight to spend a week with showing her the ins and outs of library land. I read this and was wowed.   Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence comes a close second but I started this series last year so I was already exposed to the characters and story whereas Daughter of Smoke and Bone was completely new.    Neil Gaiman's Fortunately the Milk entertained me for days. Even now I can induce giggles with "Ve vill wiwisect you".    I was excited to be part of Jack Heath's Ink, inc. Pozible project and delighted by the end product.

this book on GoodReads

It's been a really good reading year for me and I am keenly anticipating 2014 and the continuation of the Read Watch Play twitter reading group (follow @readwatchplay for the latest updates) which has inspired some cleverly themed reading choices. #rwpchat is a fun conversation to be involved in and the monthly tweetups have led to some very satisfying new discoveries. Talking books and games and movies and music and reading in all its myriad forms is positively delightful!

So, cheers to 2013 and bring on 2014 - may it be keenly filled with reading delights and discoveries!

Ramblings....

Back towards the end of July I came across an article written by Kerry Parnell listing the 25 books you really don't have to read before you die. 

The books listed include:

• Eucalyptus / Murray Bail
• Ulysses / James Joyce
• Cloudstreet / Tim Winton
• The Dice Man / Luke Rhineheart
• Catch 22 / Joseph Heller
• To The Lighthouse / Virginia Woolf
• The Slap / Christos Tsiolkas
• Twilight / Stephanie Meyer
• On The Road / Jack Kerouac
• The Metamorphosis / Franz Kafka
• Midnight's Children / Salman Rushdie
• Oscar & Lucinda / Peter Carey
• My Sister's Keeper / Jodi Picoult
• Sons and Lovers / D H Lawrence
• We Need To Talk About Kevin / Lionel Shriver
• 50 Shades of Grey / E L James
• Crime and Punishment / Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Eat, Pray, Love / Elizabeth Gilbert
• Shantaram / Gregory David Roberts
• Tess of the D'Urbervilles / Thomas Hardy
• Charlie and The Great Glass Elevator / Roald Dahl
• Memoirs of a Geisha / Arthur Golden
• The Devil Wears Prada / Lauren Weisberger
• The Secret / Rhonda Byrne
• The Celestine Prophecy / James Redfield

There's a comment from Grant of Melbourne right at the end that neatly sums up a lot about how I feel about this article....

I [am] so glad that we have someone like this reviewing books who is clearly more intelligent than the multitudes who have enjoyed these books or the people who as a group have reviewed the books and deemed them worthy [of] recognition. Sorry Kerry but many of us have progressed beyond the Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham, have laid down the crayons from our colouring books and can follow stories that have multiple threads, moral dilemma, convolutions or the other issues that seem to plague you with these books. The reason that people enjoy them or that they are deemed classics is that they reflect in many regards our lives. You inability to connect to this either indicates a bland life or some other disconnection with the world around you... rather sad either way,

Moving on.

There are various ways of looking at this list - one is to take the list at face value and consider the merits (or not) of each title, another is to consider the act of list making itself (after all who am I or anyone else to tell others what to read and what not to? I honestly dislike lists that state "100 books to read before you die", or "100 places to visit before you die", and so on - seriously, a slow reading year for me is roughly 100 books, does this mean my death is imminent?). 

I guess the chief part of this article that I truly take umbrage to, before I even get to the books listed are the words .... "I'd like to relieve you of some literary pressure and reveal the titles life's just far too short to waste time on". Since when is life too short to read whatever takes your fancy? Since when is life too short to read what has won an award? Since when is life too short to read outside your comfort zone and push the boundaries of what reading (and indeed writing) is?

I personally have no intention of reading beyond Twilight or 50 Shades of Grey - I've read both those titles and have no inclination to read the remainder of either series. Whilst I consider both books to have some literary flaws I also see great merit in both. I will continue to hold up 50 Shades as an example of writing that has got locale descriptions down perfectly - R L James certainly knows how to describe a room, what people look like, what they are wearing. The rest of the book didn't do a lot for me personally but I do recognise and accept the appeal to others. Aside from what I think, both books got people reading and the bottom line is that it's all about "bums on seats".

I have read Ulysses by James Joyce. It's not an easy read but I do believe it's worth it. Reading Ulysses forced me to reconsider the experience of reading and to be challenged to accept that a story can be told in oh so many ways - all within the one novel. I am also a serious fan of train-of-thought (as anyone who knows me well will attest) so the ending pages were an absolute delight where lack of punctuation fought hard against the flow of words - I loved it!

I personally cannot stand Thomas Hardy, but I put a lot of that down to a bad experience reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles during high school. Being forced to read a book and choosing to read one can really influence how you go on to feel about that book and this one is certainly a case in point. Here I was frustrated by the number of pages Hardy spent describing the heath yet leaving me simply with a feeling that it was low and a green-purplish colour.... But, I am an impatient reader - I want to know now what is happening and certainly as a 17 year old I had no patience at all for the casual meanderings that established the scenery. Now I see the cleverness, now I see the beauty in the prose, now I see the clever use of language, now I see that the pages were worth it .... I'm still an impatient reader but I'm a lot more forgiving these days.

I could discuss each and every title on this list but it will only and always be my own opinion, to which you are very welcome to disagree. There is no definitive list, there will never be any agreement. Disparity is as natural as agreement. I adore Shakespeare. I like dark vibrant colours. I prefer Fantasy fiction over World fiction. I am me. You are you. And to be blunt, thank goodness for that for if we were all the same it would be a jolly boring world we live in!

I remain however, vehemently opposed to anyone who tells me that I shouldn't waste my time on a particular book. After all, it's my time to do with as I please. Reading is a personal experience and one which should be respected. I don't think there can ever be a list which definitively gathers those books which are worthy of reading and those which are not. You need only look at any title listed on GoodReads to see the sheer variance in rating and opinion for each and every title there. And I for one think that the difference of opinion is what adds to the discussion and to the value of each reading experience.

Oh and by the way, I've only not read 6 out of the 25 books listed ... 

long long ago, in a land far far away

I love the very idea of this month's #rwpchat twitter reading group theme - #faraway. The idea of exploring places not here, worlds that don't exist, and times long past is exciting and intriguing, and just downright fun!  I feel like a small child in a fancy toy store - it's all so bright and sparkly and I want to look at and touch everything at once!

So what are some of my favourite #faraway reads? Where are some of my favourite #faraway places?

Anything Fantasy, anything Science Fiction immediately springs to mind. But so do Westerns and Historical fiction. Anything set overseas 'cause hey, it's not here and here being Australia means that overseas is faraway. Even something that explores a concept I am unfamiliar with is a #faraway read. And of course cooking books which explore cultures from around the world falls naturally into this group as well. 

I love this theme - the choice is limitless!

Lord of the Rings / J R R Tolkein
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever / Stephen R Donaldson
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn / Tad Williams
The Dirty Streets of Heaven / Tad Williams
Zoe's Tale / John Scalzi
The God Machines / John Scalzi
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy / Douglas Adams
Discworld series / Terry Pratchett
The Long Earth / Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Shakespeare
Chaucer
John Donne
American Gods / Neil Gaiman
any / all of the NASA twitter feeds
any / all of the ABCStarStuff twitter feeds
Wuthering Heights / Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre / Charlotte Bronte
Emma / Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice / Jane Austen
Shades of Grey / Jasper Fforde
The Eyre Affair (Tuesday Next series) / Jasper Fforde
The Lightbringer series / Brent Weeks
Wanderer of the Wasteland / Zane Grey
A Song of Ice and Fire / George R R Martin
Harry Potter series / J K Rowling
Where the Wild Things Are / Maurice Sendak
The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek / Jenny Wagner
Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks

Global Village / SBS
Food Safari / SBS
Star Trek
Red Dwarf

Star wars
Shrek
Willow
The Princess Bride
The 13th Warrior
The Searchers
Harry Potter

Bioshock
Game of Thrones
Assassin's Creed


... just to name a few

be afraid, be very afraid....

Over the last few years I have noticed a bit of a change not just in what I read but also in the way I read. Notably has been a consistent shift towards reading, and enjoying, horror fiction. I'm not talking blood and guts and gore (think any one of the Saw movies - that's really not my cup of tea at all), but more along the lines of deep and scary and profoundly terrifying. 
I've always enjoyed reading thrillers, but I think the first tale which tipped me towards reading 'horror' was 'The Book of Lost Things' by John Connolly. There is this one scene in this book where I found myself so engaged with the main character that when I could see the bad thing coming I found myself saying "no, no no" out loud - trying to warn David not to take the bad man's hand, that the bad man was very, very, very, very, very bad. That moment left me breathless, my heart was pounding so hard - it felt like that very same moment when you are abseiling and you move from standing upright to leaning out over the cliff edge completely perpendicular and you simply cannot see where to put your feet only you know you must move and so you reach your foot out into nothingness, trusting that you will find rock. That moment. That one fearful moment when it could all go horribly, horribly wrong. Wow. I had finally read a book which gave me an adrenalin rush - the adrenalin rush of fear.

Just as with abseiling I was obviously hooked from then on.

Alfred Hitchcock was the master of film noir and horror - think the shower scene in Psycho

So I devoured Dean Koontz and Darren Shan, and actually challenged myself to read Stephen King who I had steered clear of at all times previously (blame a very bad experience seeing 'Misery' at the movies ... *shudders*). I sought out lists of horror writers and found my library had compilations of short horror stories - Blood and other Cravings and Teeth: vampire tales. What struck me most when I read these stories was how clever the writing was, how excellent the use of language to quickly engage and terrify. I came to admire the quality of writing which seemed to be required to tell a good horror story. Like with any good story the writing must also be good (and the writer therefore somewhat talented), but horror writing seemed to require a higher level of skill than I had struck previously (and I am someone who reads all types of fiction). I found myself reading more and more horror fiction not just for that adrenalin rush of fear but to simply enjoy the clever use of language and the high quality of writing skill which was displayed.

Don't get me wrong, I don't believe that horror fiction is the absolute best and only genre you can read - or that writers of other genres are any less talented or less skilled or that their use of language is poor. No, I admire all writers and enjoy most genres. My point is more that horror fiction deserves to be treated fairly as a genre, that what it offers is not simply blood and gore and guts but a quality of tale that reaches in under your skin without you even noticing until you are suddenly aware how deeply affected you are by the turn of events .... and how clever the author has been on insisting that you keep reading, that you turn the next page, that you peer under the bed and into the dark shadowy corners and look the monster in the eye.


My favourite 'scary' writers include:
Algernon Blackwood
Bram Stoker
Edgar Allen Poe
H. P. Lovecraft
Richard Matheson
Wilkie Collins
John Connolly
Dean Koontz
Peter Straub
Darren Shan
Stephen King
Neil Gaimain
Ellen Datlow
Kaaron Warren
B. R. Collins

My favourite 'scary' games include:
Alan Wake
Bioshock

My favourite 'scary' TV shows and movies include:
The X-Files
Twin Peaks
The Woman in White (1948)
Psycho
Rear Window
(basically most Hitchcock movies fit the bill here)
and seriously, any Doctor Who episode is bound to give you a good scare every now and then

Adventures in gratitude ....

As 2012 draws to a close it seems an opportune moment to thank a few people for their contributions to my learning - as a Librarian and as a person.
- Pam, whose ready ear and clever wisdom have kept me sane throughout the madness of this past year, everyone should have a friend like this who understands them implicitly and is ever ready to embark on yet another mad hatter scheme (she also has a wonderful line in perfect cards for every occasion).
- Ellen, whose steady advice and inspiration in all things Librarian has led to a friendship which I value enormously, collaborating with Ellen on any number of projects has always been the absolute highlight of my career and I look forward to many more collaborations to come.
- Vassiliki, always quick to offer help and a shoulder when needed, her deeply held love of reading is an example, and a challenge, to all. There is no greater afternoon well spent than one discussing all manner of genres and authors with her.
- the Ref-Ex crew for continuing to work on this project and see it grow bigger and better all the time, taking the responsibility for enhancing the reference skills of public library staff across NSW is a huge thing and I have truly valued working with each and every one of you.
- the NSW Reference and Information Services Group (RISG) for all the hard work that goes into the annual seminars, the blogs, the wiki and the regular meetings; listening to and informing NSW public library staff of developments and innovations in all things to do with providing reference and information services is a  big thing (you're also a really nice bunch of people).
- the NSW Readers Advisory group, well girls what can I say? Working on the twitter reading groups since 2011 has been amazing, first with #readit2011 and now with #nyr12 (love2read2012). We have come leaps and bounds since we all got together in 2005 and I am so looking forward to continuing the twitter reading group phenomenon next year and beyond with #rwpchat (read watch play). Together we have developed new social media skills and as a collaborative group have really shown the value of team involvement. Congratulations on a successful year of blogging and tweeting about all things reading and here's to another year of exploring and immersing ourselves in the different ways in which people read and explore reading.
- the ALIA Biennial social media team - wow, what a learning curve. It has been an absolute pleasure collaborating on this project and working towards a successful conference presence using a multitude of social media tools. I have learnt a lot from each of you and have come away so much richer from this experience. Thank you, it was a blast.!
2012 has certainly been a big year and I am truly grateful for each and every person who has contributed to it - my family, my friends, my work colleagues, and my professional colleagues - I am definitely the richer for it. I hope each and every one of you has a great 2013. Thank you.