Fuse is coming

FUSE IS COMING!! It ignites across Auckland Libraries on Monday 23 July and runs for a month. It provides the chance for Auckland teens to party, achieve online fame and win vouchers for I-goodies or extreme adventures. Its our new teen competition to spark your interest and imagination.

The question is - are you a Big Bang kind of a person or more of a Slow Burn? You get to choose between doing one Big Bang challenge (either by yourself or team up with your friends) or six Slow Burn Challenges (these are individual challenges). Completing either track gets you an invite to the Fuse party on 25th August (music, entertainment, food....) and the chance to win some great prizes.

To be ready to enter when Fuse starts on the 23rd of July start reading now. All you have to do is read 50 pages of a library book (teen, adult or graphic) and write 50 words about it (we call it the 50/50 challenge). Fuse is open to all Auckland teenagers 13 to 18 years of age with a library card (if you haven't already got a library card or if you aren't sure just pop into your local library and talk to one of us).

And like our Fuse Facebook page now so you stay up to date with all the events that are happening across Auckland, get ideas on what to read from other teens and find out what everyone else is doing as part of Fuse. During Fuse we will also be on Twitter, YouTube and the Fuse website.

We look forward to catching up with you all, either in the library or online.

French collections

To celebrate Bastille Day this week (on Saturday), I have compiled ze little list of items that have ze authentic French flavour.

According to the clever hamsters who churn out Wikipedia, Bastille Day is properly La Fête Nationale (The National Celebration), and most French people call it le quatorze juillet (that's...the fourteenth of July). Of course, it celebrates the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris in 1789, which liberated a cache of gunpowder and weapons, and seven prisoners. Ninety-nine people died in the attack.

There were also three births - Liberté, Egalité and their brother Fraternité.

Some say they're still alive today.

But ahem, the list:

Secrets of a Lazy French Cook - Marie-Morgane Le Moël

A homesick French journalist in Australia uses Maman's recipes to help her get through the culture shock. With chapters called things like "Crocodiles, Mimi and the salade niçoise", what's not to like? Will have you salivating and sympathising by turns, and comes complete with recipes. Bon appetit.








Heartbreaker (DVD)

This is a fun romantic comedy of the kind the French do brilliantly. Vanessa Paradis plays the estranged daughter of a wealthy gangster, who is concerned his little girl is marrying for security rather than love. He hires professional heartbreaker Alex (Romain Duris) to test her affections. Alex is a master at wooing women from unsuitable partners, then skipping into the sunset. Or at least he was...Could this be the one woman he can't love and leave?

I also recommend Hugo and Midnight in Paris, which recently featured in Tosca's blog.


The Lavender Keeper - Fiona McIntosh

Lavender farmer Luc Bonet is raised by a wealthy Jewish family in the foothills of the French Alps. When the Second World War breaks out he joins the Resistance. Lisette Forestier is on a mission of her own: to work her way into the heart of a senior German officer - and to bring down the Reich in any way she can. What Luc and Lisette hadn't counted on was meeting each other. When they come together at the height of the Paris occupation, German traitors are plotting to change the course of history. But who, if anyone, can be trusted? As Luc and Lisette's emotions threaten to betray them, their love may prove the greatest risk of all.
 


Le Road Trip - Vivian Swift

Sounds a bit Eat Pray Love, with illustrations. Here's what the blurb says: "Part journal of the splendor of being footloose in the French countryside, part instruction manual on how to survive the pitfalls of the vagabond lifestyle, Le Road Trip is a beautiful celebration of the pleasurable perils of travel, love, and France".







Murder on the Eiffel Tower - Claude Izner

Just to leaven the romance a bit, here's a mystery from the belle epoque. The brand-new Eiffel Tower is the glory of the 1889 Universal Exposition. But one day a young woman collapses and dies on its second floor. Can a bee-sting really be the cause of death? The first in the popular French series starring bookseller and amateur sleuth Victor Legris. "Claude Izner" is actually two sisters, both booksellers on the banks of the Seine...Read them all!






French Food Safari - Maeve O' Meara with Guillaume Brahimi

Another one for foodies. Accompanies the TV series (which we also have on DVD). Co-author Guillaume Brahimi is a French chef who owns two top restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne, and recently featured as a judge on Junior Masterchef Australia. The book is an adventure through all the best of French cuisine. Read, watch, drool.







Peaches for Monsieur le Curé - Joanne Harris

The sequel to Chocolat and The Lollipop Shoes. It isn't often you receive a letter from the dead. When Vianne Rocher receives a letter from beyond the grave, she has no choice but to follow the wind that blows her back to Lansquenet, the village in which eight years ago, she opened a chocolate shop. But returning to her old home, Vianne is completely unprepared for what she is to find there. Women veiled in black, the scent of spices and peppermint tea - and there, on the bank of the river Tannes, facing the church, a minaret. Nor is it only the incomers from North Africa that have brought big changes to the community. Father Reynaud, Vianne's erstwhile adversary, is now disgraced and under threat. Could it be that Vianne is the only one who can save him?

Paris I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down - Rosecrans Baldwin
 

Rosecrans Baldwin always dreamed of living in Paris - drinking le café, eating les croissants, walking in les jardins - so when an opportunity presented itself to work for an advertising agency in Paris, he couldn’t turn it down. Despite the fact that he had no experience in advertising. And that he barely spoke French. But when he and his wife arrived, things were not exactly as he remembered from a family vacation when he was nine. This is a comic account of observing the French capital from the inside out, a book about a young man finding his preconceptions replaced by the oddities of a vigorous, nervy city - which is just what he needs to fall in love with Paris for the second time.


The French Dog / The French Cat - Rachael McKenna

In The French Dog, renowned New Zealand animal photographer Rachael McKenna (née Hale) has captured a host of unforgettable dogs: dachshunds, poodles, Labradors, bulldogs, and more in a variety of stunning locations, from stately chateaux to chic Paris addresses to cobblestoned streets in quiet villages. In The French Cat, Rachael also tells the story of her move to France and experience discovering the beauty of her surroundings, the culture, and, of course, the cats, with her husband and new baby in tow.

My French Affair - Amanda Taylor-Ace

A Kiwi woman moves to France with her teenage son for a change of scene and in the process of living out a new, European life and renovating two 18th century houses into guest accommodation, finds her 'joie de vivre'. Everyone is jealous. The End. Also includes more than 30 French recipes.

It's a mag, mag, world

I love magazines. There is something about their shiny covers and flickable pages that makes them so satisfying to read.

Books, of course, will always be my first love but magazines come a close second. It's a love affair that goes a long way back.

The first magazine I can remember reading was Bunty. It was the most perfect magazine for a seven year old reading fanatic such as myself, filled as it was with stories about boarding schools and girl detectives. I so wanted to be like the girls in the stories I read. To share in their adventures, to solve crimes and to have midnight feasts while trying not to be caught by the headmistress. It all sounded so wonderful.

As I got older other magazines came and went. There was My Guy and Oh Boy and Tiger Beat but the best of them all was Jackie, it was the ultimate teen girl mag and throughout my teens I followed this magazine with a dedication that only a teenage girl can have as each week I eagerly waited for the latest issue to arrive only to devour its contents within a few hours.

Now days my reading taste has changed a little but when a shiny new magazine hits my hands I still get that same thrill. They are to me, glossy, bite size pieces of joy.

So here's to magazines. Long may they live and continue.

SciFiNow : the premier sci-fi fantasy horror & cult TV magazine

It probably comes as no surprise that I include this title as one of my favourites. After all the latest issue has Dean and Sam, the boys from Supernatural on its cover (sign...) which is reason enough to read it.

It is though a bloody good magazine, filled with articles about all the latest in the world of sci-fi, from Supernatural to Promenthus to interviews with writers such as George R. R. Martin.

Now go away while I study this magazine with the intensity it deserves.

Writing magazine
A recent discovery for me and one that I am enjoying immensely.

If you're into writing and books and reading then I recommend that you read this as it will open you to all kinds of aspects of the written world from how to write a good crime novel to publishing your own e-book to where authors get their ideas from.

It's fascinating stuff.

Good reading : the magazine for book lovers

Another magazine aimed at those who love everything about books and reading. Being an Australian publication it has a slightly more local flavour and is filled with lots of reviews of upcoming books.

If you're anything like me, you'll come away with an ever increasing list of books that you'll want to read.

Empire

Empire has been around awhile, since 1989 in fact. That it's survived when so many other magazines have fallen under the blade is probably a testament to how good it is.

Like Sci-Fi Now this is a mag that I look forward to and read from cover to cover. No skimming articles here, instead I work my way through each and every little tidbit, often with a pen by my side so that I can take note of any movie that I decide that I just have to see. As you can imagine this list, like my book list, can get pretty long, actually make that really long...

Who do you think you are? magazine.

As you probably know from my last post I've been doing my family tree for some time now and like all family treers (okay so it's not a real word) I need all the help I can get in how to find that elusive and sneaky relative who refuses to be found.

Family history has become big business in the last few years and Who Do You Think You Are has been partially responsible for the sudden interest in finding one's ancestors.

Tying in with the show is the magazine which contains much more than what is shown on screen. There are Q & A sections, book reviews, hints and tips on where to go next; the amount of detail that is covered is endless.

BBC Good Food.

Now, though I'm not much of a cook I am a bit of foodie. In fact I love food; the smells, the colours, the taste, it's tantalising stuff.

I love looking through foodie books and magazines too. Everything always looks so perfect, so eatable, that it makes me wish that I could cook just so I could try some of the amazing recipes that are featured.

My favourite foodie magazine is this one, with its brightly filled pages and meals that make my mouth water. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

Matariki celebrations continue until 21st July

Matariki celebrations commenced at Auckland Libraries in June and continue right up until 21st July. Toi Oho - awakening creativity at Auckland Libraries is our theme. We are celebrating Matariki, the Māori New Year, with more than 150 events. At libraries all over Auckland, there’ll be a chance to hear special Matariki Storytimes, turn your hand to skills such as carving, weaving and poi making, play games and learn more about your whakapapa.

There are still three weeks of events to go. Check out the Matariki pages on the Auckland Libraries website but here are a couple of highlights.

Central City Library will also host two special Matariki events in our regular Family History Lunchtime Series, focusing on whakapapa research and the interactions between Māori and Sir George Grey.

Hopefully the weather is clear this Thursday night as Mangare East searches the sky for the stars. Thursday 5 July, 6pm - 7.30pm: Can you find Matariki stars? -- Come along to find out about the Matariki stars, plus how & where to find them. Learn about some other constellations too including the Southern Cross and Scorpius. Includes a viewing of the real night sky weather permitting.

Tupu Youth Library have a special guest on Friday 20 July, 2pm: Living Book with Dr. Pita Sharples -- Have you ever wanted to ask Dr. Pita Sharples something? Come and listen to the inspirational Dr. Pita Sharples share stories of his life and success, and ask that question!

From Flax to Fibre is an exhibition at Auckland's Central City Library by the late Emily Schuster who is acknowledged internationally as one of the most gifted weavers of her generation. It runs from Saturday 30 June 2012 11.00am - Monday 16 July 2012 4.00pm in Te Whare Wānanga Level 2. Entry is free.

Have an Arty Party over the school holidays

For me the beginning of July 2012 means several things. Mostly they are to do with sport. The Tour de France has kicked off which means some early morning rises for me to catch the highlights (I don't have the stamina to stay up all night). Shortly after Le Tour finishes the pinacle of sporting achievement and drama kicks off when the London Olympics open. Stay tuned for some Olympic themed posts later in the month.

However for those of you not so driven by sport, Auckland Libraries decided to do something different for the holidays. During the July school holidays all our activities are themed to be "Arty Party". Join us for a fun-filled arty adventure.We have lots of exciting stories and activities for the kids to enjoy across the Auckland region, including:

Storytimes
Crafty kids – let your imagination run wild with origami, paint, stencils and more.
Quizzes – challenge your friends and see who will come out on top.
Scavenger hunts – get your friends together and find the answers to all the clues.

Check out the Auckland Libraries website school holidays page for whats happening around Auckland.