Foster's Little Bookshop

Foster's Little Bookshop Events

SEPTEMBER

Dr Ann Dettrick will be at the bookshop on Thursday, September 9th at 11 am to sign copies of her book "A History of Medicine in Gippsland". Ann spoke about this book last year when she was a speaker at our Twilight Talks and we've been waiting with baited breath for it's release.

September is Get Reading month and we have a catalogue of the 50 Books You Can't Put Down, come and pick up your copy. When you purchase a book from the catalogue you receive a free book. The free book is a collection of short stories not previously published, from Australian authors, plus there's also a children's free book by Morris Gleitzman "Tickled Onions" which has been written for the Get Reading promotion. So................ Get Reading!!!

AUGUST

Update on Liz Rushen's Book Signing, Saturday 14th August

Liz brought quite a crowd with her on Saturday and it was a success for Liz and us. See pictures on our blog.

It looks as if August is going to be nearly as busy as July. We have two book signings this month.

On Saturday 14th August at 10.30 am Liz Rushen will be here to sign copies of her new book "Fair Game". This is a very special book signing, because the official launch of her book isn't until later in the month, so we're very pleased to be one of the first bookshops to have Liz and her new book.

The next Saturday, August 21st at 10.30 am will be Chrissie Michaels to sign copies of her book "In Lonnie's Shadow" which was published earlier this year. Chrissie lives in South Gippsland and again we're pleased she has agreed to conduct a signing at our bookshop.

You'll find information on our blog about both books and authors.

Update on the Twilight Talks

Further information (and photographs) on each of the authors is now on our blog.

July 9th

Arron Wood was our second speaker and he has raised the bar even further. What an informative evening and then to have the chance to talk with him over dinner later was a bonus.

July 2nd

The first speaker, Sue Turnbull, has given us a wonderful start to the 2010 series of Twilight Talks. Sue was entertaining and very informative and kept the audience thoroughtly entertained with her stories of crime writers, crime television script writers, etc. Our thanks to Sue for her time.

July 2010

We are again hosting the Twlight Talks each Friday in the month of July. We are supported in this by Windy Ridge Winery and Promontory Gourmet Foods, the series are held at the Stockyard Gallery, Main Street, Foster. Again this year there are five Friday nights in July and we're very happy to report we have found five quite different authors. More on this closer to the date, however mark your diary for every Friday night in July............you won't want to miss any of these speakers!

Update on Twilight Talks - these are the authors you will meet throughout the month of July at the Stockyard Gallery in Foster. The evenings run from 5.30pm to 7pm and we provide wine and warm food to keep the cold away. See below for more details on booking, etc.

July Friday 2nd - Dr Sue Turnbull

Dr Turnbull is an Associate Professor in Media Studies at La Trobe University, she's also chief crime fiction reviewer for The Sydney Morning Herald and is currently writing a book on television crime drama.

July Friday 9th - Arron Wood

Arron's family has strongly influenced his appreciation of the environment and education. His dedication to the environment has won him a number of national and international awards, the latest is the Prime Minister's Environmentalist of the Year Award. His book 'The Billabong Boy' is published this June and is about his involvement with the world around us.

July Friday 16th - Ray Smithies

Ray's book 'Scorpio's Lot' is rollicking murder mystery set in a country town and his love of the Gippsland hills and coastal seascapes is reflected in the setting for the story. It's obvious also from this first book that Ray enjoys delving into the criminal side of life with it's combination of mystery and adventure.

July Friday 23rd - Cheryl Glowrey

Cheryl is a well known Foster identity who spent her childhood on dairy farms in South Gippsland. She has a strong interest in the local environment which is evident in her recently re-released "Snake Island: The Cattlemen of the Sea". Cheryl has another book in the pipeline which is on the history of Corner Inlet.

July Friday 30th - Genevieve Moore

Genevieve is also a Foster resident, after a move from Melbourne in recent years. She published her first children's picture book in January this year. It is a heartwarming story based on Genevieve's neice Catherine who suffers from a type of epilepsy which has left her with multiple learning difficulties. The story shows how all the things that make Catherine different also make her special.

The fee for each session is $21 and bookings will be essential for all of the sessions so we can cater. Contact the bookshop on (03) 5682 2089 or by email to make sure you don't miss out.

Around mid June you'll see more information and photos of the authors, our blog .

May and June 2010

Wild Tea Cosy Competition

Win one of Loani Prior's Tea Cosy knitting books and raise money for breast cancer. $5 entry fee with no limit on the number of entries.

Turn this functional, homely item into a fabulously creative knitted sculpture full of vibrant colour and humour, something that will bring joy as well as warmth to your daily cup of tea. You can use a pattern from Loani's books or make up your own. The categories are Novelty and Traditional. With the competitor's permission entries will be sold after judging with the proceeds going to Breast Cancer Network Australia.

Entries can be submitted any time through the months of May and June with the cut off date Thursday 24^thJune. Judges will determine the winners and this will be announced at Foster's Little Bookshop on Saturday 26^th at 11am.

The judges will be: Celia Rosser for the creative aspect of each entry and Venetia Beaney for the construction of each entry.

Sponsored by Foster's Little Bookshop, 4 Station Road, Foster 3960

(03) 5682 2089 Register your entries at the bookshop.

Update on the Tea Cosies

We have a wonderful array of wild tea cosies in our window and now on our blog and we'll keep adding the photos as the tea cosies come in.

Further Update on the Tea Cosy Competition (27/06/2010)

The Winners of the Novelty Category (the Judges couldn't decide between two of the cosies) are Fleur Wheeler (Sea Urchin) and Jenny Renshaw (Ho Ho Ho), the Runner Up for this categorie is Lyn Paterson (Fifi).

The Winner of the Traditional Category is Shirley Westaway (A Bling Thing) and the Runner Up is Linda McMullen (Cosy Chic).

You can see all of these tea cosies on our blog.

Final Update on the Wild Tea Cosy Competition (20/7/2010)

We are very proud to annouce we have raised $585 for Breast Cancer Network Australia. Thank you to our community for the enthusiasim and commitment you gave to this fund raising.

April 2010

We'd like to support one of our local traders in their endeavour to provide the people of Foster and surrounding districts with fun, food and music on Friday nights. At the Rhythm Cafe on Friday March 26th Lyn and Michael presented the first of their Tapas nights and it was a major success. We believe you'll need to book to be sure you don't miss out on a table and their delicious Tapas. For those of you reading this who are out of town............what a wonderful way to begin a weekend in beautiful South Gippsland.

So, starting April 9th, each Friday night from 5pm, come and taste the food, listen to the music and rub shoulders with your friends and neighbours. Phone 5682 1612.

March 2010

Children's Easter Day

On the last Saturday in March (27th) we invite all the pre school and primary school children to the bookshop between 10am and 12 noon. There will be storytelling (we hope with Miss Jennifer again) and the children can make Easter cards and Easter baskets. Our children's days are always fun and we encourage you to bring your little ones (grandparents are welcome) and relax for an hour or two whilst the young ones are entertained.

Good News! Miss Jennifer will definitely be here on Saturday March 27th to read stories to the children.

Update on our Children's Easter Day

At one point in the morning there wasn't any room at the table and we had to ask the little ones to sit and listent to Miss Jennifer (which is never difficult), it became a marathon reading session. We thank Miss Jennifer for her fortitude! Everyone did finally get the chance to make a couple of Easter cards and decorate an Easter Egg bag (which received a couple of eggs before they left, to start their collection). Some of our young ones have a great eye for design.

February 2010

Free Reading

For the month of February we are providing a selection of proof copy and reading copy books for our customers to review. Some of these titles have been published and some are due in the next few months. When you visit the bookshop next please make a choice from the free reading titles, leave us your name and contact details; when you've finished reading the book, write a review and return the review and the book to us.

With your permission we will submit the review to our website and also make it available to the next reader of that book. It should be fun, so join with us in our first event for the year.

Update on the 'read and write a review' event.

This has been a great success and you can see the results by looking at the 'book review' section of the website. There are still a number of books out with readers, and we'll add those reviews as soon as they come in. We'll take this event through to the end of February and then invite customers to simply take a book and keep it................no review necessary (unless you really want to!!)

Book Signing

Saturday, February 13th at 11.00am

We are delighted to invite you to our first book signing for 2010. Genevieve Moore is the author and the book is "Catherine's Story". This is Genevieve's first book and it is special because it tells the story of her niece Catherine.

Update on Genevieve's book signing.

This was also a great success. We had so many people in the bookshop between 11am and noon that it was impossible to move. I think Genevieve was very pleased with the response to her book.

Keep your eye on our events page for future happenings and for links to the other events happening in South Gippsland.

More events around South Gippsland...
gecko studio gallery
Stockyard Gallery
Meeniyan Art Gallery
Prom Coast Tourism
Celia Rosser Gallery
FAMDA
3mFM

Ayaan Hirsi Ali caused a worldwide sensation with her gutsy memoir INFIDEL. Now, in NOMAD, she tells of coming to America to build a new life, an ocean away from the death threats made against her by European Islamists, the strife she witnessed and the inner conflict she suffered.

So who said it FIRST? This collection sets out to credit - as far as it's possible to do so - the people who actually created many familiar terms in common use. For example, poor Ernest Dowson is all but forgotten, but author Margaret Mitchell read his 1891 poem 'Non Sum Qualis' and brought one phrase from that poem to the attention of millions. The phrase that caught her eye was 'gone with the wind'. (In 1867, Dowson also wrote another familiar phrase: 'the days of wine and roses'.)

Written in Max Cryer's delightfully witty style, Who Said That First? is a wonderful book to dip into or settle a friendly dispute.

To rattle off the hits of Neil and Tim Finn reads like a checklist of recent pop history. And to think it all began in sleepy rural Te Awamutu - a town whose name had a 'truly sacred ring', as Neil would famously recount - where Brian Timothy Finn fell in love with the Beatles, an obsession that would also work its way straight into his younger brother Neil's DNA. Success for the brothers was a long time coming: it took several turbulent years in Split Enz - an art-pop band Neil would join in 1977, despite Tim's reservations - before they produced a genuine hit and connected with the mainstream.

Nothing much happens in the sleepy town of Venus Cove. But everything changes when three angels, Ivy, Bethany and Gabriel are sent from heaven to protect the town against the gathering forces of darkness. They work hard to conceal their true identity and, most of all, their wings. But the mission is threatened when the youngest angel, Bethany, is sent to high school and falls for the handsome school captain, Xavier Woods. Will she defy the laws of Heaven by loving him? Things come to a head when the angels realize they are not the only supernatural power in Venus Cove.

After a failed assassination attempt on the president of Zimbabwe, ex-soldier turned mercenary Sonja Kurtz is on the run and heads for her only place of refuge, the Okavango Delta in the heart of Botswana. She's looking to rekindle a romance with her childhood sweetheart, safari camp manager Sterling Smith, and desperately wants a fresh start and to leave her perilous warrior lifestyle behind.

But Sonja discovers her beloved Delta is on the brink of destruction. She is recruited as an "eco-commando" in a bid to halt a project that will destroy forever the Delta's fragile network of swamps and waterways.

Soon Sonja finds herself caught in a deadly web of intrigue involving Sterling, the handsome Martin Steele � her mercenary commander, and a TV heartthrob and wildlife documentary presenter "Coyote" Sam Chapman who blunders out of the bush in a reality show gone wrong.

The story of a mother, her son, a locked room and the outside world

Jack is five and, like any little boy, excited at the prospect of presents and cake. He's looking forward to telling his friends it's his birthday, too. But although Jack is a normal child in many ways � loving, funny, bright, full of energy and questions � his upbringing is far from ordinary: Jack's entire life has been spent in a single room that measures just 12 feet by 12 feet; as far as he's concerned, Room is the entire world.

He shares this world with his mother, with Plant, and tiny Mouse (though Ma isn't a fan and throws a book at Mouse when she sees him). There's TV too, of course � and the cartoon characters he thinks of as his friends � but Jack knows that nothing else he sees on the screen is real. Old Nick, on the other hand, is all too real, but only visits at night � like a bat � when Jack is meant to be asleep and hidden safely in Wardrobe. And only Old Nick has the code to Door, which is otherwise locked...

Told in Jack's voice, Room is the story of a mother's love for her son, and of a young boy's innocence. Unsentimental yet affecting, devastating yet uplifting, it promises to be the most talked about novel of 2010.

Somehow, I convinced myself it was a good idea. Somehow, I convinced myself that it was do-able. Now I shake my head... We drove through the Gobi desert in Mongolia in a snowstorm, avoided an Iranian sedan doing cartwheels on the freeway near Tehran, wove around the shores of the Caspian Sea and navigated the desert in Turkmenistan. We kicked an Aussie Rules footy across borders and taught customs officers how to do a drop-punt from Timor Leste to Uzbekistan. We ate bark and ox blood and worms and pigs ears and eel and curries so hot we nearly fell off our chairs. We bribed police in five countries, ignored parking tickets in another six and got lost pretty much everywhere. We squabbled over food and farting, snoring and sneezing. It was total folly and it was the best thing you can ever do. I would do it again and I would not recommend it to anyone.
In April 2008, Jon Faine and his son Jack closed their door on their Melbourne home and leaving jobs, studies, family and friends, took six months and went overland to London in their trusty 4-wheel-drive. This intelligent and funny recount of the countries they visited, people they met and trouble they got into, is also the story of a tender father-son relationship.

Top of page

A story of survival, second chances ... and a dance with danger.

Young Billy Marks is a pickpocket, transported to the penal colony of New South Wales. He and his mate reckon they��ll become bushrangers- but that��s before Billy��s had a chance to see the bush up close. And when he buys the big white brumby stallion, covered with scars but refusing to bend to any man��s will, he knows he made the right choice.

Billy��s daughter Mattie Jane thinks her father can ride any horse who ever lived ... and so can she! But when tragedy strikes, the Marks clan, including Mattie and her beloved horse, Rebel Yell, will need all the courage they can find to keep the family together.

The deeds and disputed stories of Jackie French��s own ancestors inspire another novel - a novel of proud and gutsy horses, trailblazing farmers and their resilient wives, and desperate men forced to break the law to survive.

Justin Langer scored more centuries than Ian Chappell, Doug Walters or Bill Lawry and had a better average than Mark Taylor, David Boon or Mark Waugh yet lived almost every moment of his glittering Test career as if it was his last.
In this intimate and at times poignant account, Langer looks back on the mateship, change room antics and onfield triumphs which made up his 105-Test innings as a member of one of the game's greatest teams. Peer behind the scenes to relive the night they soaked the English change rooms at Lords in beer, the midnight frolic around the SCG in their underpants and baggy green caps and the Caribbean dinner which cost the ACB $16,000.

Of all the Australians who fought in the Second World War, none saw more action nor endured so much of its hardship and horror as the crew of the cruiser HMAS Perth.Most were young - many were still teenagers - from cities and towns, villages and farms across the nation. In three tumultuous years they did battle with the forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Vichy French and, finally, the Imperial Japanese Navy. They were nearly lost in a hurricane in the Atlantic. In the Mediterranean in 1941 they were bombed by the Luftwaffe and the Italian Air Force for months on end until, ultimately, during the disastrous evacuation of the Australian army from Crete, their ship took a direct hit and thirteen men were killed.After the fall of Singapore in 1942, HMAS Perth was hurled into the forlorn campaign to stem the Japanese advance towards Australia. Off the coast of Java in March that year she met an overwhelming enemy naval force. Firing until her ammunition literally ran out, she was sunk with the loss of 353 of her crew, including her much-loved captain and the Royal Australian Navys finest fighting sailor, Hardover Hec Waller.Another 328 men were taken into Japanese captivity, most to become slave labourers in the infinite hell of the Burma-Thai railway. Many died there, victims of unspeakable atrocity. Only 218 men, less than a third of her crew, survived to return home at wars end.CRUISER, by journalist and broadcaster Mike Carlton, is their story

Missie Missinger is busy growing up in a small town. When tragedy hits the community,they call it an accident. But as more accidents unfold, the frightened locals look for an answer and find an easy target. Missie holds the clues to what happened. If she puts the puzzle together and confronts the truth she will be in danger. If she doesnt,an innocent youth could be blamed for anothers death.

Everyone wants to make good food for the people they love. Come on Over is full of recipes for simple, modern food whether you want to keep it casual or are out to impress.It contains new and classic recipes from chilli and paprika seared steak to crme caramel using affordable, seasonal ingredients.Long weekend brekkies, casual eating outside, Friday night meals and delicious desserts are all included.