June 2011

Seventh Birthday Celebrations

Thank you to all of you who supported our birthday book events last month. About 100 people (big and small) turned up for champagne, juice, and fruit with Wendy Harmer- a magical morning.  We also enjoyed great evenings with local Authors Roger Andrew and Steve Williamson and on Saturday the 28th of May a wonderful literary luncheon with Karen Viggers at Blue Lake Brasserie. The people (60) the food and a brilliant speaker were a fine combination and enjoyed by all. Please note we have signed copies Wendy Harmer’s book “Friends Like These”, Roger Andrew’s “Thredbo My Story” and  “Fishing and Camping Guide to the Snowy Mountains” by Steve Williamson which comes with a beautiful free artistic poster by Trevor Hawkins- who is currently featured at the Thredbo Gallery “Raw Energy”. We also have copies of Karen Viggers’s memorable book “The Lightkeeper’s Wife”.

Winter magic at Snowprint

We have loads of new stock arriving every week so if you are after a great read or are ready for your winter hibernation now is the time to come in and grab yourself some books! From Friday June 10th our opening times will extend to 10am – 6pm 7 days a week (and sometimes later on a Friday). So bring your winter guests in to meet us. We always receive great feedback from our visitors – “what a beautiful bookshop!”, “You have such a wide range of books”. We are very proud of what we have achieved at Snowprint and we have some wonderful plans for a reading writing festival in 2012- The Inaugural Snowy Mountains Reading Writing Festival! You will all be the first to know of further developments re this now community literary adventure! Shaaron did announce this idea at our “Mad Hatters Tea Party” at Easter and we hope to have a committee established and this zany idea will become a reality. Please contact Shaaron at the bookshop for any further information.

Snow Paws news

Next story time for the pre-schoolers will take place in Spring. 

  • Beautiful gifts for new babies: Hand made owls, babushkas and Winnie the pooh, In The Night Garden and Peter Rabbit toys and an array of bright stimulating books to delight babies of all ages.
  • Pre- schoolers: “Emu and Roo”, “The Stickman” “Douglass”, There Are No Cats In This Boo”, “Winnie In Space”.
  • Primary age children: “Pearlie” of course! , “Our Australian Girl” the second book in this series of four different stories have arrived.” “Charlie Burr”, “Where’s Waly”.
  • Upper primary: “Vinnie’s War”, “The Emerald Atlas”.
  • For teenagers: “ Birthmarked”, “ Pig Boy”.

New educational toys have arrived with a fantastic range of dinosaur collectables to really enchant- think fun for older children. New creative long sleeved puppets and the creative wooden “Animaz” animals.
And of course loads of Usborne art ideas and books full of arty inspiration, we also stock Usborne brain teasers, puzzle cards and number game cards, plenty of chicken socks klutz packs to keep you busy over the winter, schleich figurines and beautiful wooden toys and puzzles as well as loads of activity books for those pyjama days in front of the fire! 

Bookclub news

Our next bookclub meeting will take place on Thursday July 7th at 6:30pm at Jackie’s house (ask in-store for directions) where we will be discussing the books we have chosen for the winter. We have a few books chosen for the Winter period and they are……”Anna Karenina”, “The Paris Wife” we will meet at Jackie’s for , July and August (to keep our motivation up…and for a little “me time”) and will get together again in Spring to discuss our great winter reads. So get reading and if you can’t make the meetings over winter we will see you in Spring when we will discuss the books in more detail! 

Staff picks for June

  • Shaaron: Some gorgeous recipes for winter cooking can be found in the paper back edition of “Snowflakes And Schnapps”,“Girl in Translation” “The Hypnotist” “Under the influence”, “Alice Bliss”.
  • Britt: “Water For Elephants”.
  • Rhi:  “ Starcrossed”, “Nightshade”, “Nightroad”, “Plugged”.
  • Maryline:  “The Lightkeeper’s Wife”, “Friends Like These”.
  • Jackie:  “My Heart Wanders”, “The Sandalwood Tree”, “Pearlie And The Silver Fern Fairy” ,“The Stylists Guide To NYC”, “The Other Boleyn Girl”, “The Lightkeeper’s Wife”.

Book reviews by Snowprint fan Kerry Henderson

Water For Elephants

Jacob Jankowski is 93 a retired vet and lives in a nursing home.  Life is unpleasant for Jacob, enduring a bland institutional diet, he is surrounded by nagging widows and nurses and controlled by drugs.  The nursing home is a caricature of the one we all dread being abandoned in. But then the circus comes to town, while all the residents have recollections about the circus a new resident, a retired barrister, who announces that when he was younger he had worked in a circus; carrying water for the elephants.  Jacob calls him a liar and he is banished to his room.  The extraordinary adventures of Jacob’s past then unfold.  His past is filled with wonderful characters including a dwarf clown, a charismatic masochistic animal trainer and a cunning circus owner. But there is also a dreadful secret. As Jacob remembers his past it becomes obvious why he feels confined within the nursing home forgotten by his family and without the passionate love of his wife.  
The story will cause you to dread the nursing home.  But you will cheer Jacob when he does finally escape, just another adventure in his life.  This is really a great read, and to add to the story each chapter includes an illustration from the collection of the Ringling Circus Museum.

Crime by Ferdinand von Schirach (translated from German)

This is a collection of short stories, told in the bone dry spare style of a master story teller.  The sentences are unadorned; they do not include excess adjectives or description.  It is hard to tell if the stories are fact or fiction, either is possible.  The characters are realistic and the stories enjoyable.  I have read a lot of crime fiction, my first choice is usually crime fiction when I need something to read, and this is the best I have read. My favourite was the story of the Japanese tea bowl, the crime is simple, the revenge is swift, focused and severe, it is wonderful.

At the movies and Snowprint

  • Water For Elephants
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin
  • The Long Walk
  • The Lincoln Lawyer
  • Harry Potter
  • Norwegian Wood

Until next time, happy reading from Shaaron , Rhi, Britt, Maryline, Jackie, Holly and Jack.