Please join Alan Brough at a celebration at the State Library on Friday 20 March, 4 - 5pm when he announces the the top five books, as voted by Victorian readers in the State Library of Victoria’s Summer Read program 2008-9, and voter’s prizes.

Experimedia
State Library of Victoria
328 Swanston Street, Melbourne

RSVP by Wednesday 17 March 2009

Telephone                   8664 7555
email                          learning@slv.vic.gov.au
book online                summerreadawards.eventbrite.com

Thanks Sophie for your enjoyable posts, sharing your snaps as you were getting the hang of your new Nikon D80 camera and updating us all with the outcome of the ‘emu egg cup’.

As part of the free Summer Read events across Victoria, Sophie will be appearing at:

* Yea Library on Tuesday 3 February 2009, 7.00 – 8.00 pm

For more information phone 5797 2209 or book online at http://summerread17.eventbrite.com

* Mildura Library on Wednesday 11 February 2009, 7.30 – 8.00 pm

For more information phone 5018 8350 or book online at http://summerread19.eventbrite.com

Vote for Bird or SMS BIRD to 13 46 88

Sophie Cunningham is the next Summer Read author blogging from 26 – 30 November.

Sophie has worked as an editor, publisher and journalist since 1989. Her first novel, Geography, was published in 2004. She is currently the editor of Meanjin and working on a novel This Devastating Fever, about Leonard Woolf’s time as a colonial administrator in Ceylon.

Her book Bird is one of the books on the Summer Read shortlist.

Bird tells the story of Ana-Sofia’s mother Anna Davidoff – ‘Bird’ – a famous wartime refugee, fifties movie starlet, sixties party girl and drug-charged acolyte of the jazz greats. Anna Davidoff went on to become a Buddhist nun and finally died alone in a Himalyan cave. Ana-Sofia now feels the need to confront the ghosts of the past; to find out who Anna was.

As part of the free Summer Read events across Victoria, Sophie will be appearing at:

- Yea Library on Tuesday 3 February 2009, 7.00 – 8.00 pm
For more information phone 5797 2209

- Mildura Library on Wednesday 11 February 2009, 7.30 – 8.00 pm
For more information phone 5018 8350

What Sophie says about summer reading
“Summer is a time I try to read for fun, rather than work. This often means a thriller of science fiction novel – two genres that I enjoy a lot, and that have the advantage of not triggering the ‘at work’ part of my brain. I also like to read books about the place I’m holidaying in. This year I’m lucky enough to be going to Vietnam so I plan to read a book that I’ve never read but always wanted to: The Quiet American by Graham Greene.”