Memoirs of meth addiction

This week the Library will be upgrading the computer software we use to manage our loans and records- “Spydus”. We will have limited access to some of the features of Spydus during the upgrade, so we ask all borrowers to make sure they bring their library cards with them this week.

The Library recently purchased two books, one by David Sheff and one by his son Nic Sheff. “Beautiful Boy: a father’s journey through his son’s addiction” is David Sheff’s chronicle of Nic’s descent into crystal meth addiction. Before meth, Nic was an accomplished athlete, top student and award winning journalist. After meth, he was a trembling wreck who stole money from his eight year old brother and lived on the streets. David writes of his son’s journey, from the first subtle warning signs, through attempts at rehab, to the way past addiction. Armistead Maupin has said of this story “Beautiful Boy is so beautifully written that it will come as a welcome balm to millions of parents and loved ones who thought they were making this journey alone."

After Nic Sheff’s recovery a book editor contacted him and asked if he was interested in writing a memoir about his experience, one that might inspire other young people struggling with addiction. The result is the book “Tweak: growing up on methamphetamine”. Reyhan Harmanci, staff writer at the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote of this book “Man, the kids are not "alright." But then wholesome childhoods and healthy living were never the stuff of memoir.... Nic Sheff's Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines seldom pulls punches. [He does] an admirable job of telling his story clearly and avoids heavy-handed exposition, and the effect is often moving. The trajectory of drug addiction is nothing new, but Sheff's lucid, simple prose makes the heartbreaking journey seem fresh. More than once, adults praise him for his candor - he lies frequently in his constant quest for more money and more drugs, but he also comes clean (so to speak) many times in the process. It's one of his most appealing aspects, and it's a necessary quality to autobiographical writing. One senses that he's not holding much back. [He] is a writer with a big future ahead of him.”

Both “Beautiful boy” and “Tweak” are available from the Library.

New books at Gil

The Library stocktake is now complete, a source of great relief for the people who work there. We would like to thank Gilgandra residents for their patience while the Library was closed. The good news is that we only need to stocktake every 2 years, so this won’t happen again until 2011. The stocktake triggered a stock rotation, so a lot of our books have been sent on to other branches of North Western Library. Over coming weeks, the other libraries will commence their stocktake, and our shelves will gradually fill again, as their books are sent on to us.

This week, we received a new book for older teenagers by Paul Jennings. Jennings books are well known and very popular, but he has previously written mainly for younger readers, with book series such as “Rascal the dragon”, “Wicked!” and “Deadly!” “The nest” is his first venture into “young adult” writing. On his blog , Jennings writes that it took him 4 years to write this book.

“It’s about a 16 year old boy who gets unwanted images flashing through his mind and questions about his past haunt him as he searches for clues within himself and his own writing”.

Another new arrival at the Library is “Choir Man” by Jonathon Welch. Jonathon Welch is known to most of us as the Founding Musical Director of the Choir of Hard Knocks. He is also a well known opera singer and conductor. This is the story of his personal life; his childhood in suburban Melbourne where he showed theatrical tendencies, his family story, the story of his wonderful opera and theatre career, and his involvement in the Choir of Hard Knocks. It should be a good read.

On Jonathon Welch’s website Jimmy Barnes is quoted as saying "Jonathon is not only compassionate, warm and friendly but is also extremely brave. Not because he has worked with people who are in need but because of the demons of his own that he shows to the world — his own frailty, his own fears and his own dreams. I think this is what makes him a special person. When I look at him, I see someone who is like me and someone who I'd like to be."

We hope you are enjoying whatever you are reading this week!

Library card magic with NoveList

In previous weeks, we have described how you can use your library card to get access via the internet to World Book encyclopedia online and other great e-resources. This week, we’ll tell you how to get to another useful e-resource called NoveList.

To get there, first go to the library catalogue website (http://nwls.spydus.com). Click on “Databases” in the top menu bar, and you will see a drop-down menu. Click on “NSW NET.” The first time you go into NSW.net from your computer, you may see a screen that says “Please select your library”. Click on the arrow next to this and from the drop down menu, select “North Western”. Click on “Go”. This gives you a list of e-resources you can access from home, beginning with ANZ Reference Centre. Click on the At Home “Connect” button and you will see a log in page. Type in your library card number and click “Login”. Then click on “NoveList”.

NoveList is all about fiction books and finding something good to read next. There is a search box at the top of the screen, where you can type the name of an author, book or series. Try typing “Tom Clancy” into this box, then click on Search. You’ll see a list of his books, with plot summaries and star ratings. Click on the “Author Read-alikes” tab at the top of the page. You will see two articles. Click on the first one by Joyce Saricks. You will see that she suggests Stephen Coonts and Dale Brown as other authors whose writing you might enjoy, if you like Tom Clancy.

Perhaps there is a kind of book that you particularly enjoy- for example; forensic detective stories set in the United States. Type “forensic detective United States” into the search box, select the radio button below the search box for “Describe a plot”, then click Search. This brings up a list of 23 books you might like to try. Not all of these will be available locally, as NoveList is an American database, but some of them will be.

Using the same kind of search, you can look for a book you’ve heard about, but can’t remember the title of. Perhaps you remember that it was a medieval mystery story, about a monk. Try typing in “Medieval mystery monk”, selecting “Describe a plot” and clicking Search. This yields a long list of similar books, one of which may be your mystery book. NoveList is a great tool for readers of all kinds of fiction, and a wonderful way to find some new authors to track down. We hope you enjoy exploring NoveList.

Next week, the Library will be closed for five days for our biannual stocktake, from Monday 4th May to Friday 8th May. This is necessary as every item in the library must be scanned; all 17,000 of them! We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you. Items may be returned while we are closed via the book return chute. Please do not hesitate to contact us on 6817 8877 if you have any questions.