Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series

"Hello, I'm the Doctor. Basically, run."

Things to love about Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series.

• Matt Smith's Doctor.
• Karen Gillan's Amy Pond. The girl who waited.
• River Song.
• The move to filming in HD. The series has never looked better.
• The latest arrangement of the theme music. It does grow on you.
• Standout episodes: The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone (remember, don't blink!), Amy's Choice (killer OAPs), The Lodger (the Doctor stranded without the TARDIS and attempting to live like a normal person. If such a thing was even possible!).
• The new look Daleks.
• The Winders from The Beast Below (I swear one day I'll put on on my desk so people know if I'm in a good mood or not).
• The Pandorica Opens.. and it's Doctor Who's Woodstock.
• A Dalek begging River for mercy.
• The reason why the TARDIS makes that noise whenever it arrives or departs.

And many more.

Free DVDs

DVDs are free to borrow from Hurstville City Library. New titles come in regularly so keep checking here to see if there is something you would like to watch.
Here are a few new titles that will be on our stands within the next few days:
The Cup
Love Never Dies
Salvation Boulevard
Mozart's Sister
Win Win
Warrior
The Three Musketeers
What movies would you like to see in our DVD collection? Post the titles here.

Womadelaide

Womadelaide is a music, arts and dance festival held all over the world with a fantastic diversity of styles. It has become the biggest world music festival in Australia and is held in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. This year it is on from the 9th March to 12th March.
There is a great line up of performers from Australia and overseas. Some of the Aussie's performing are: Gurrumul; Dirty Three; Blue King Brown; Pajama Club. Overseas artists include: Baaba Maal (Senegal); First Aide Kit (Sweden); Eddie Reader (Ireland); Dobet Gnahore (Ivory Coast);Groundation (Jamaica/USA): Anda Union (China).
There are so many more artists on the list of this years festival but if you would like to listen to past Womadelaide music try these: Sounds of the Planet Womadelaide 2009; Womadelaide: Sounds of the Planet 2010; Womadelaide - Sounds of the Planet 2011

Family Christmas Movies

Below is a selection of family Christmas movies in our collection that arrived this week. Relax and enjoy watching a movie or two with your family over the Christmas period.
Walk a mile in my Prada's
The Nutcracker
Beethoven's Christmas Adventure
A Princess for Christmas
Ice Age. A mammoth Christmas
What is your favourite Christmas movie? Post the title here.
Merry Christmas. Bella

New Christmas Music at Your Library

We have just received new Christmas music Cd's from our supplier which will be on our stands today. I hope there is something in our collection that will add that special touch to your Christmas celebrations.
Rockwiz-The Christmas Album
The Worlds Greatest Christmas Concertos
Christmas Cocktails
A Christmas Carole by Carole King
What is your favourite Christmas album? Post the title here. I hope to post one more Christmas movie blog by tomorrow so stay tuned. Bella.

Christmas Movies at Hurstville City Library & Penshurst Branch Library

Do you need to be inspired to get you into the Christmas Spirit? I know I need all the help I can get at this busy time.
The list below is a selection of Christmas themed movies. Our collection holds both classic and more recent titles so take a look at our catalogue.
A Very Glee Christmas
A Nanny for Christmas
Miracle on 34th Street (1947 and 1994)
The Muppet Christmas Carol
Chefs Christmas - series 1
Would you like to tell us what you like to watch over the festive season? Post your suggestions here.
Keep checking here for more ideas. Bella.

Christmas Music at Your Library

Are you ready to get into the festive spirit? Keep checking here over the next few weeks for Christmas movies and music that you may like to borrow. All titles are held at Hurstville City Library and/or Penshurst Branch Library.
Season's Greetings - A Jersey Boys Christmas
Under the Mistletoe - Justin Bieber
Christmas - Michael Bublé (coming soon)
Glee: The Music: The Christmas Album volume 2 (coming soon)
Do we have your favourite Christmas music in our collection? If not, let us know by posting the title here.

Holiday Readings

I can almost smell the salt air. At long last my holidays have arrived and as you can see, I will be cruising the high seas on my way to New Zealand. But no holiday is complete without a couple of good reads packed away in the suitcase.
If you don't like shuffle board try this
All that I am
The drop
Tiger men
Vault
Bon Voyage
Susie Q

Christmas DVDs at Hurstville & Penshurst Branch Library

Both Hurstville and Penshurst Branch Library have a selection of Christmas themed movies and music Cd's in our collections. Keep checking here in the weeks leading up to Christmas for ideas to get you into the Christmas spirit. Here are some movie ideas to start you off.

It's a Wonderful Life - directed by Frank Capra. Starring James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore. A classic Christmas movie.

White Christmas - directed by Michael Curtiz. Starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney (George's auntie). A classic Christmas musical.

The Holiday (one of my favourites) - directed by Nancy Meyers. Starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black. A Chick flick.

A Christmas Carol - directed by Michael Zemekis, starring Jim Carey, Colin Firth and Gary Oldman. An animated movie.

Christmas - Celtic Thunder. A Musical performance.

Do we have your favourite Christmas movie in our collection? If not post the title here.

ARIA Awards - Nominated Albums at Hurstville City Library

The ARIA Awards are being held on Sunday 27th November. The library collection holds many of the nominated albums.
Moonfire by Boy & Bear - nominated for Album of the Year; Single of the Year; Best Group;
Breakthrough Artist Album & Single; Best Adult Alternative Album.
Rrakala by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu -nominated for Album of the Year; Best Male Artist; Best Independent Release; Best World Music Album.
Insomnia by Washington - nominated for Best Female Artist.
Temptation by The Waifs - nominated for Best Blues & Roots Album.
Listen Here by Jasmine Rae - nominated for Best Country Album.
Tex Perkins & The Dark Horses by Tex Perkins & The Dark Horses - nominated for Best Independent Release.
Mark Seymour & The Undertow by Mark Seymour - nominated for Best Adult Contemporary Album.
Zonoscope by Cut Copy - nominated for Best Dance Release.
Heartbound by Dream & Dreamer - nominated for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album.
The Life of Riley by Drapht - nominated for Best Urban Album.
Down The Way by Angus & Julia Stone - nominated for Highest Selling Album.
Mad Rush by Sally Whitwell - nominated for Best Classical Album.
First Seed Ripening by Elixir featuring Katie Noonan - nominated for Best Jazz Album.
Check our catalogue for more ARIA nominated albums.
Post your suggestions here for music albums you would like to see in our collection.

Coming Soon to the DVD Collection

The following DVDs should be on our DVD stand very soon.

Water For Elephants - based on Sara Gruen's best seller. A story of unforbidden love between a veterinary student and a beautiful circus performer. Starring Reese Witherspoon, Christoph Waltz and Robert Pattinson.
Fresh Fast & Simple - Donna Hay gives us her tips on how to create fast and simple dishes.
Oranges & Sunshine - based on a true story of a determined social worker who reunited thousands of families that were split up by the organised deportation of children from the UK to Australia. Starring Emily Watson, David Wenham and Hugo Weaving.
Scre4m - reviewed as the best of the Scream sequels. Starring David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courntey Cox, Emma Roberts and Hayden Panettiere.

Keep checking the DVD stands for lots of new titles expected to arrive soon.

If you have a suggestion for titles that you would like to see in our Audio Visual collection please post them here.

Say it with Feeling

Gerald Stone has a long and distinguished career in Australian journalism. Amongst other things he was of the founding reporters on This Day Tonight, which shook up current affairs reporting in this country (not to mention the ABC itself), and also established 60 Minutes for the Nine Network in this country.

Say It With Feeling covers that period and more. Starting with Stone's arrival in Australia from the U.S., it covers his rise from a journalist with the Daily Mirror to one of the most senior executives in Australian television. It also covers his views on the difference between Australian and American culture.

A most interesting read.

Movies Adapted From Books

Lot's of great movies have been adapted from books. Maybe the list below will inspire you to watch the movie and read the book to make a comparison.

The library holds both the movie and the book in this list at the time of writing this blog.

1. Never Let Me Go: based on the book by Kazuo Ishiguro

2. Crossing the Ditch: based on the book by James Castrission

3. The Kite Runner: based on the book by Khaled Hosseini

4. Pillars of the Earth: based on the book by Ken Follett

5. The Color Purple: based on the book by Alice Walker

6. The Green Mile: based on the book by Stephen King

7. Winter's Bone: based on the book by Daniel Woodrell

8. Dear John: based on the book by Nicholas Sparkes

Is there a movie you like that was adapted from a book and isn't in our DVD collection? You could post the title here and we will see if we can purchase it for our DVD collection.

STOCK UP! Get first pick of the new stock

Be among the first to take home some great new holiday reading, listening and viewing when

Hurstville City and Penshurst Branch libraries make available a great new selection of fiction and nonfiction books, CDs and DVDs for loan. Everyone is welcome, bring your library card or join on the spot. Membership is free!

Meet staff and take the opportunity to tell us what you think of the collections and what you'd like to see more of. We'll show you how to make suggestions and requests.

Find out about our eLibrary where you can download audio and e-books from home and about Freegal where you can download 3 tracks of music per week for free.

Hurstville City Library

cnr Queens Rd & Dora St, Hurstville

Wednesday 21 September

9.30am - 9pm

Penshurst Branch Library

630 Forest Rd, Penshurst

10.30am - 1pm, 2pm - 6pm

HOLLYWOOD STARS COME TO SYDNEY

Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan and Isla Fisher are in Sydney for the next few months working on Baz Luhrmann's 3D film "The Great Gatsby", an adaption of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel of the same name. They have been out and about whilst in Sydney being spotted at Darling Harbour, swimming at Bondi and shopping in Paddington. The Library DVD collection holds a number of movies these Hollywood stars have appeared in take a look below.

Leonardo DiCaprio: Titanic; The Aviator; The Departed; Blood Diamond; Inception; Shutter Island;

Tobey Maguire: Spider-man; Spider-man 2.

Isla Fisher: Confessions of a Shopaholic; Rango.

Carey Mulligan: Never Let Me Go; The Greatest; Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; An Education.

Do you have a suggestion for titles to add to our DVD, CD or Audio book collection? All you need to do is post your suggestions here.

If you like

If you like Lee Child why not come in to Hurstville Library and try this.
These are Authors who write in the same style as Lee Child
Authors such as
Stephen Leather
Len Deighton
John Stanford
Robert Crais
James Lee Burke
Daniel Silva
Harlen Coben
Come in and have a browse on Wednesday 31st August

Coming Soon: New DVDs

Murundak: Songs of Freedom: a documentary about some of Australia's finest Indigenous musicians and the heart of Aboriginal protest music.

The Fantastic World of Michael Crawford: a behind the scenes documentary about the actor Michael Crawford.

Mountain Gorilla: a documentary about Gorillas living on forested peaks of isolated volcanoes surrounded on all sides by a growing human population, and the dedicated teams of vets, rangers, researchers and conservationists that work together to raise awareness of the uncertain future of this species.

Kingdom of the Forest: a documentary that explores Europe's remarkable primeval forests.

Secretariat: a true and moving story of an incredible horse and his owner who risked everything to make him a champion.

Do you have a suggestion for DVD, music CD or audio book titles to add to our collection? Please post your suggestions here.

FREE MUSIC DOWNLOAD

Freegal is a new service Hurstville City Library is providing to current members who have no fines or stops on their library card. Library members can now download 3 tracks per week for free from Freegal. The music titles are taken from the Sony music catalogue. The tracks have no DRM so any track downloaded on an MP3 player will stay until deleted by the owner. The download procedure is similar to downloading from iTunes.

To log in select the eLibrary catalogue from the homepage, then the link under Freegal. http://lmg.hurstville.nsw.gov.au/elibrary.html

(Post suggestions here for any titles you would like us to purchase for the audio visual collection.)

New DVD Titles Coming Soon

New exciting DVD titles will be on our shelves this week. The following list will give an idea of some of the movies available to borrow free for our library members. Black Swan; True Grit; Hereafter; 127 Hours; Unknown; The Royal Wedding William & Catherine; The Green Hornet; Rabbit Hole; Winter's Bone; Unstoppable; The Fighter; The Hit List; Sanctum; Welcome To The Rileys; How Do You Know; Yogi Bear.

But there's more! Keep checking our DVD stands for more titles available soon. Would you like to suggest a movie or music CD to be purchased for the library collection? All you need to do is post your suggestions here.

The Old School

Sydney, 1992. Nhu "Ned' Kelly is a detective in what was, until recently, the best police force money could buy (until ICAC threw Roger Rogerson into the spotlight). When two bodies are found in the foundations of an old building in Bankstown, Ned is drawn into the city's past. As she works to discover who the bodies are - and who dumped them there - she uncovers secrets that not only threaten to expose the rotten core of the police force, but also the mysteries of her own family.

Author P.M. Newton worked for thirteen years in the New South Wales Police so The Old School is as authentic as it gets. A thrilling debut by a promising new crime author. More please!