Programmes

Lifestyles at the Library

Join us at 10.30am on the third Wednesday of every month to try your hand at:

Health Information Genealogy Yoga Upper Hutt City Community Archive

January 21 February 18 March 18 April 11

Please note:

• Morning tea and coffee will be served.
• Registrations required.

Tea and Tales

Tea and tales for adults.  Join us in the library for morning tea and be entertained for an hour with stories, poems, excerpts and anecdotes from our collection - with Joan Moran, Sylvia Lawer, Betty MacArthur and Tony Packer.

Venue: Central Library

When:  10.30 - 11.30am - Last Wednesday of the month

Our readers entertaining the crowd at Tea & Tales

Book Discussion Group

Do you enjoy reading...and talking to friends about books?

Why not join our Book Discussion Group?  Meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 10.30am at the Central Library.

Upper Hutt City Library Book Discussion Group Meetings

Date	Topic for Discussion
7th January 4th February 4th March 1st April	Kiwi Bios Foodies Out of Africa Comic Novels

December - Historical novels set in England - Books read and discussed

Redfern, Elizabeth        Music of the Spheres                 ****
Kingston, Beryl            Gates of Paradise                      ***
Chadwick, Elizabeth     The Love Knot                           ***
Sutcliff, Rosemary        Eagle of the Ninth                     *****
Armitage, Aileen          The Seamstress                        *
Gabaldon, Diana          Lord John & the Private Matter    **
Starling, Belinda          The Journal of Dora Damage      ****
Healey, Judith Koll        The Canterbury Papers             ****1/2
Barrett, Susan              Fixing Shadows                        **1/2
Stace, Wesley              Misfortune                                ***1/2
Overall, Sonia              A Likeness                                ***1/2



REVIEWS - December

A Likeness, by Sonia Overall

Reviewer: Kathy

Set in Tudor England, this is the story of a young man who moves from a comfortable rural life to London to try and become a portrait painter at the court of Elizabeth I. Ostracised because of his refusal to kowtow to those he sees as inferior artists, and held back by his insistence on painting nobles as he sees them, he must carve a living by having a courtesan find commissions on his behalf. This novel was a light, enjoyable read, well-written, with some fascinating detail of the technical aspects of painting and court life of the time.  The characters were mostly sympathetic and well-drawn, but the novel lacked real depth and I found the ending quite weird, really!

The Music of the Spheres, by Elizabeth Redfern

Reviewer: Carlie

Set in London in the year 1795 when England is at war with France, the main character works in the Home Office where his job is to catch spies.  He is, however, much occupied with the unsolved murder of his 15 year old daughter. He stumbles upon a society of astronomers who are searching for a missing star, and suddenly realises that the spies, the astronomers, and a serial killer are all involved in the same political intrigue. The London of the time is brought alive in this ingeniously-plotted novel.

The Seamstress, by Aileen Armitage

Reveiwer: Margaret

This is the story of a sewing maid called Garnet who, after being unjustly dismissed for theft and rejected by her family, saves the life of a child, and is offered the position of housekeeper by the grateful father. However, her ambition to become a lady takes her from warmth and security to the illustrious court of Charles II with all its dangers and temptations.  Once again Garnet is alone and vulnerable. I struggled to finish this book as the characters were so stereotyped and the storyline all too predictable - not one I would recommend.

Lord John and the Private Matter, by Diana Gabaldon

Reveiwer: Betty

The year is 1757 and Lord John is engaged in two inquiries at once.  The first involves his cousin Olivia and her fiance the Honourable Joseph Trevelyan who, it seems, has syphilis.  The engagement must be broken, but without scandal.  The second is the investigation into the brutal murder of an Army comrade and the possibility he had been a traitor. To give the book an historical flavour, a number of names and events were briefly alluded to - Mr Pitt, White's Club, the Duke of Gloucester, Clive of India, the Seven Years War - without expanding my knowledge of any of them.  I found this a book without substance, almost as though it were written to a formula.

The Journal of Dora Damage, by Belinda Starling

Reveiwer: Airdre

London 1859.  Dora Damage is a thoroughly modern young woman forced to take over the unlawful running of her increasingly crippled husband's bookbinding business, only to find herself blackmailed into binding expensive volumes of pornography for a group of aristocratic patrons. Her life is complicated by an endless struggle against dirt and decay, a violent debt collector, her drug-dependent husband and epileptic daughter, nosy neighbours and the ever-present threat of the poorhouse.  Also into her life come an escaped American slave, a young woman abused and abandoned, an apprentice imprisoned for sodomy, and a lady threatened with being declared insane. Starling draws a very realistic picture of life in mid-Victorian London, the dichotomy of wealth and poverty, conservatism and reactionism, and the restrictions of gender, class and race, the ties of family and love and the price of freedom. This is a book about learning to make the best of things, and also about book making, which I found fascinating.  I was absorbed from beginning to end, and would recommend this as a great read.

    

Creative Crafting

A new library programme for adults which consists of a series of displays and demonstrations from local art and craft groups.

Meeting every second Wednesday of the month at 10.30am for one hour.

Registration is required, please register at the Enquiries Desk at Upper Hutt City Library.

Schedule

12 March	Hutt Calligraphers
9 April	Upper Hutt Spinners & Weavers Club
14 May	Upper Hutt Embroiderers' Guild
11 June	Upper Hutt Floral Art Club
9 July	Upper Hutt Cross Stitch Club
13 August	Pinestream Quilters
10 September	Wellington Bonsai Club
8 October	Upper Hutt Herb Society
12 November	Scrapbooking - ARCHIBALDS
10 December	Christmas Craft - ARCHIBALDS

The Creative Crafting programme is sponsored by ARCHIBALDS THE ART PLACE.

Getting tips and ideas from the Pinehaven Quilters		An assortment of material from the Spinners and Weavers demonstration