High Browse Online

HAPPENIN’ . programmes + events
Meet novelist, short-story writer and children’s author Anita Desai in person! Don’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to speak to one of the world’s most eminent writers!
Details as follows:
Monday, 25 August 2008
7.00 pm
The Pod, Level 16, National Library
Admission is Free.  All are Welcome.
More about Anita Desai:
Now a Professor of Humanities at […]

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Title: Sundays at Tiffany’s
Author: James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet
Published by London: Century, 2008
Call No.: PAT -[RO]
Call me a sentimental fool but I have a weakness for anything associated with Tiffany’s, the famed jeweler that Audrey Hepburn made timeless. So, it’s no surprise that this title caught my eye, especially when combined with the name of […]

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(Editor’s note: Our contributor, an avid comics fan, here conducts his own personal inquiry into the oft-discussed topic of whether comics have taken a decided shift towards embracing darker themes, and correspondingly, heroes who have become more complex, even conflicted personalities.)
Comics are getting darker – that seems to be the vibe going around for quite […]

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WHO’S READING WHAT . reader’s recommendations
Empress Orchid by Min Anchee
Boston : Hougton Mifflin, 2004
English MIN
What goes behind the minds of the powerful and elusive? A figure both historical and romantic, the Empress Cixi is a person who has captured the imagination of the public due to her unprecedented rule—the rule of a powerful woman in […]

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Rawi Hage has won the prestigious award for his debut novel, which is set against the desperate civil war of Lebanon of the 1980s. The book takes its title from the film, Deer Hunter, which starred Robert De Niro. The game in question refers to the rounds of Russian Roulette which De Niro’s character subjects […]

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Anyone tried out the ebooks yet - thanks to my last post? Anybody?
Well, to help you along, we’ve created a landing page here so that it’s a little bit easier for you. There are various categories to suit the palette - from fiction to audio books as well as kiddie books.
Also, for a limited time, […]

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HB Squad ALERT! . gossip + snippets
Those who are familiar with the DDC will know that strange stuff can be found in the 000s section. Although it’s boringly entitled “Generalities”, it’s a haven for fans of the paranormal/unexplained - crop circles, lake monsters, yetis, aliens, hauntings… you name it, if it’s weird, it’s probably located in that shelf!  
Just yesterday, whilst browsing […]

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(Bernard shares with us his lament for the passing of the science fiction luminary. -Ed)
An Odyssey through Space with Arthur C. Clarke by Bernard Leong.
The last of the three giants in science fiction genre, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, CBE (along with Issac Asimov and Robert Heinlein) passed away in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 19 March 2008. […]

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Australian author, Sonya Hartnett, was announced as this year’s awardee for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial award for literature. The award comes with a 5m Swedish kronor prize (S$1.41m) and this is the sixth installment of the award. She would be presented with the award on 28 May by Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria at Stockholm’s open-air […]

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WHO’S READING WHAT . reader’s recommendations

The Tap Dancer
Andrew Barrow
Call No.: English BAR-[AW] (Click here for item availability)
Andrew Barrow won the “McKitterick Prize” and the “Hawthornden Prize” for The Tap Dancer. The reason I know this is because I found this novel on the “award winning shelf” at the Central Library and decided to borrow it […]

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