Hear This 5th September 2025

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Episode Transcript

S1 (00:18):
Take a look. Take a look inside the book. Take
a look.

S2 (00:33):
Hello and welcome to hear this. I'm Frances Keeland and
you're listening to the Vision Australia library show on Vision
Australia Radio. And we have Maureen O'Reilly on today talking
about all things library, all the events coming up and
a little bit of review of what's been happening. Hope
you enjoy the show. Once again, we have Maureen O'Reilly

(00:57):
here in the In the Library radio show talking about
library things. Maureen is the library community engagement coordinator. Hi, Maureen.

S3 (01:07):
Hey. How are you, Frances?

S2 (01:09):
I'm. Well, I stumbled over your title then, but, um.

S3 (01:11):
Yeah, that's right. You can just say all round, good guy.

S2 (01:15):
Yes. And most people know who you are by now, so.

S3 (01:18):
Ah, yes. Maureen O'Reilly, legend in her own little lunch box.

S2 (01:23):
There's been a lot. We didn't catch up last month,
and that was due to a whole lot of different circumstances.

S3 (01:28):
So I think we were all just far too busy.
It's frantic. I keep waiting for the year to quieten
down and instead the year's going to finish.

S2 (01:36):
Yes, it is, isn't it? It's. And the slightly warmer
weather that's coming in too makes you feel like, oh
my gosh. Yes, that end of the year it's really
hitting hard that it's coming. Mhm. But um you had
a lovely winter type uh book chat.

S3 (01:51):
We did, we had our cozy winter book chat with
the Vision Australian Australia librarians which for winter was Marnie
who's our senior librarian. So that was fabulous. We had
a whole lot of library members that came in, and
they listened to Marnie give a review of two newly

(02:12):
released books and what she liked about them, what she
didn't like about them, what else she's read by the author,
whether she thought it was sort of on page with
the author's other works or completely different. And then Vien Nguyen,
who works with us, gave a review of a book
that he'd been reading and what he thought, whether it

(02:32):
was worth reading or whether he enjoyed it. And then
we went around the group and a lot of the
people who were present, not everyone, because some people just
like to listen, uh, gave a review of their most
recent read. So it's a really nice melting pot of
book lovers. And at the end, everyone gets to walk
away with a list of all the books that were discussed, uh,

(02:56):
specifying whether or not they're in the Vision Australia library
catalog and in what format. So it's a great way
of fleshing out your bookshelf.

S2 (03:05):
Yeah, it sounds like lots of fun.

S3 (03:07):
Because there's nothing worse than getting a book that you think, oh,
that sounds really good, and reading about a quarter of
it and you're not enjoying it, but you kind of
think you're invested and then you think, oh, maybe it'll
get better, you know, or this isn't really what I thought. So.
Or the other thing that's terrible is when you're looking
at an empty bookshelf and thinking, what to read.

S2 (03:27):
Yes. Yeah. What what can what can I read next? Um,
it is disappointing when you're halfway through a book and
you go, oh, it's actually not grabbing me. The the
characters aren't credible or, you know, for all sorts of reasons.
A book may not just work for you.

S3 (03:41):
And that's always my theory on the book chats, is
that not only do you walk away with a list
of books that you really would like to read, you
also walk away with a list of books that you
don't want to read. So, and even though I may
think it's a great book when I'm describing it to you,
you're like, yeah, that's not my cup of tea. That's
not really what I want. And that's fine, because that
means that you don't waste time reading it.

S2 (04:02):
Yeah. And you've got another one coming up.

S3 (04:05):
We do. They're our quarterly book chats. So we have
our spring one coming up because we are in a
lovely spring. So that will be on November 25th. And
that is with Siobhan Dennis. So Siobhan is one of
our lovely librarians, and Siobhan is actually a good person
to be on the right side of because Siobhan does

(04:25):
all our acquisitions. So she gets to respond to all
your requests that come in and do she basically gets
to shop for a living. She gets to go out
and buy all the books and upload them onto the
catalogue for us. So Siobhan will be there with two
books that she's read. I've got a couple of books
that I've read. I'm going to review The Occupation by

(04:49):
Chloe Adams, which, uh, was the author that we recently
had in the library for our author reading. And I'm
also going to review the book for our next author reading,
which is scheduled for December. So that'll be really good.
It'll give everyone a little bit of a preview. And
I've already read the books and I've already chatted to

(05:11):
the authors, so I feel very qualified.

S2 (05:13):
You're an expert?

S3 (05:14):
Yeah.

S2 (05:15):
Um, so that'll be nice. What date? So that was
November the 25th.

S3 (05:19):
At 2 p.m..

S2 (05:20):
Okay, lovely.

S3 (05:21):
And remembering that will be Australian Eastern Daylight Time. So
our lovely members in, uh, Western Australia, Northern Territory and
Queensland will need to factor that in when working out.
What time to join us.

S2 (05:36):
Good. Good point. Um, and the latest or the recently, uh,
Robbie Arnett we did.

S3 (05:42):
We had Robbie on board to discuss flames. We did
also touch on his, um, most recent books as well,
but his debut novel, flames, is on the VCE English
um text list, which is hard to say. Uh, so
we thought we would focus on that for our year

(06:03):
12 students to support them in their upcoming exams. So
Robbie was lovely and I got to relax completely because
we had Sarah Bladon, our library manager, interview Robbie. So
I got to just sit back and be a member
of the audience, which was very nice for me.

S2 (06:21):
Yeah. Yeah. And there was a good attendance.

S3 (06:24):
There was there was a great attendance. And the recording
has now been saved onto the excess catalogue. So anybody
that wasn't able to join us and is interested in
listening to both Sarah and myself interview, Robbie can go
to the to the catalogue and you look up the
podcast Vision Australia, and then you'll get a whole list

(06:47):
of things like our author readings, our conversations, our newsletters,
and you just pick the most recent in conversation, which
will be dated the 22nd of August.

S2 (06:59):
Great. Oh, thank you. And Robbie, I think nearly all
of his books. Well, he hasn't written, you know, huge amount,
but his books are available. All of them.

S3 (07:08):
All of them are. Yeah. From memory, there's four, um,
and they're all available. And as you said, he doesn't
have some, um, massive folio of works, but they're all
incredibly highly awarded. So I think we'll say that he
goes for quality over quantity. Yes.

S2 (07:24):
Well put.

S3 (07:25):
And he's also quite young. So he hasn't had a
lifetime of writing, is he? Yes he is.

S2 (07:30):
I didn't realise. Yeah.

S3 (07:31):
He's got two. Oh he's just had a baby this year.
So he's got two tiny little ones and they live
in Tasmania. So he spends a lot of time outdoors,
which is, I find it's quite, um, prevalent in his writing.
There's a lot of focus on the environment and setting
and that that location is a big factor in them.

S2 (07:55):
Yeah. You could have a whole, um, program on Tasmanian authors, really,
and how they use the landscape and, um, yeah, it's amazing.

S3 (08:03):
They're all you can do that for next year. I
will lock it in, Eddie.

S2 (08:10):
Great idea. All right.

S3 (08:11):
But for anyone that loves our conversations, and I must
say that based on the feedback that we receive, they
are our most popular event that we run throughout the year.
We are incredibly privileged to have Dave Steele, the blind poet,
joining us on the 10th of November. Dave is based
in the UK. Um, and he's he's quite well known

(08:37):
within the blind and low vision community. Dave developed RP
at a um. Oh gosh, now I can't put an
age on that. I'm sorry. I think it was in
his 30s, unexpectedly. And it's a genetic condition and then
progressively has lost his sight. And he has become, um,

(08:58):
very involved in the RP community. He at the time,
I mean, he found it very difficult. He lost his sight.
He lost his job. He had, um, a lot of, um, um,
both physical and financial, um, concerns. And he reached out to, um,
the community as a way of support to take him through.

(09:21):
And he just got incredibly, uh, involved as he was
a singer. And he still does sing. He did a
beautiful rendition of Stand By Me, which you can still
find online, which is Stand By Up. And it is
just wonderful. And he's an amazing advocate. He has done

(09:43):
so much work with large global corporations, um, really, um,
advocating for the rights of people with blindness and low vision.
And he personally has been highly awarded for all of
not just his achievements in that area, but also all
of his efforts. So he is a remarkable man. And

(10:06):
through all of this, he has. Every day been writing
2 or 3 poems to actually support himself and to
help his, I suppose, his well-being through, um, his journey
towards blindness. So he has three poetry anthologies, and then

(10:30):
more recently, his son, um, has also developed and has
been losing his sight. So he's written a children's book
about that journey as well, which is, uh, loosely based
on his son, about a vision impaired child going through
primary school and the challenges he faces and so forth.

(10:52):
So that's going to be a whole series with the
second book due for release this month. So I'm really,
really looking forward to interviewing Dave. I think, uh, in
his own right. Uh, he is a phenomenal poet, and
his children's book, or the first one has been incredibly
well received as well. But then, sitting alongside that, he's

(11:17):
also such a wonderful advocate and support for the community,
particularly those with RP.

S2 (11:24):
Fantastic. That sounds like a wonderful event.

S3 (11:27):
And we're very lucky to have secured him. He. I
think when I started speaking to him, he had two
days for the entire year that were available when he
could possibly meet with us. So.

S2 (11:39):
Wow.

S3 (11:40):
I count ourselves as very privileged. Yes.

S2 (11:43):
Yeah. Oh, well, that sounds really interesting. Um, what date
is that?

S3 (11:47):
That is a 10th of November, right? And it's at
6 p.m., which is a little bit later. However, that's
because we have to accommodate the UK time difference. Yeah.
But it is also daylight saving time. So for our
clients who are based in Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia,
that's actually quite a decent time. Yeah. Yeah. And for our, uh,

(12:11):
East coast and South Australian clients, then 6 p.m.. It's
it's nice. You've settled down. You can get yourself a
cup of tea and have a nice start into your evening.

S2 (12:22):
Yeah. No, he sounds absolutely fabulous. I must I must
look up that, uh, song. Stand by me. Oh, stand
by RP. Yes. Thank you. You've recently had the Family
History Month.

S3 (12:34):
We did so to coincide with Family History Month. We
had our, uh, writing course, which was writing Family History
with Jonathan Butler, and that was incredibly well received. So
we run a lot of memoir type courses, but this
one was far more about nuts and bolts and the
framework and scaffolding around a family history. And, um, Jonathan. Oh, look,

(12:59):
he's very experienced, having gone through that journey himself in
writing his own family history. Um, but ah, he was
he was really quite inspiring and motivational for everyone that
was attending. So that was wonderful. But then, not to
be outdone, we have already moved onwards and we're in

(13:20):
the midst of our, I suppose I would call it
a beginner's writing course. So this one's called Finding Your
Story and Finding Your Voice with Emily Maguire, who we
had for an in conversation at the start of the year.
So this is more, uh, encouraging people who are just
at the beginning of their writing journey. So we had

(13:42):
our first session this week, and that will go for
another two weeks. And Emily is just so generous with
her time and her thoughts and her resources. So it's really, really,
really just a pleasure to be able to sit there
and listen to her encouraging everyone.

S2 (14:02):
And it's lovely to see these names of people. Um, recurring. Um,
you know, from author talks and then, oh, now they're
holding a course and it sort of feels like they've
become part of the community and.

S3 (14:14):
Well, yeah, because Emily actually joined us, uh, last year
when her father, les PUBG, was in conversation with us.
So her and her brother Ben came along to support
their father. And in fact, les has just written another book.
So you can't hold a good man down.

S2 (14:32):
No. Wow, what a family.

S3 (14:35):
I know, but for those of you that missed out
on that course and are thinking, oh, maybe I should,
you know, do a writing course this year, it was
part of my New Year's resolution. We have one more
scheduled for the year, and this one is very much, uh,
based around what I think is, uh, one of the
big interests of our library members. So we know that

(14:58):
crime fiction is one of the most popular genres for
people to read within the Vision Australia library. So I thought,
in my infinite wisdom, if we like to read crime fiction,
perhaps we'd like to write it as well. So we
have a four week course on crime fiction, which is
commencing in November. So that will be on Wednesday the fifth, 12th,

(15:22):
19th and 26th of November. So it's a weekly course
over four weeks. It's all online, uh, an hour and
a half each day. And it's all about writing a
crime fiction novel.

S2 (15:34):
Great. Oh, that sounds exciting.

S3 (15:36):
I think it'll be fun.

S2 (15:37):
Yeah, yeah, because they are fun. A lot of them.

S3 (15:40):
I think so, yeah.

S2 (15:41):
Yeah. You can write a cozy mystery if you don't
like violence. Cozy crime? Yeah.

S3 (15:46):
Yeah, I don't know about that.

S2 (15:48):
I was just thinking. Yeah. Um.

S3 (15:51):
And, of course, that is free for all of our
Vision Australia library members. So I think it all. It all,
I don't know, I think if you're going to write
crime fiction, you need to have a little bit of
a sense of humour humor behind you, so it doesn't
become too morbid. So I think it'll be a really
fun session to finish the year.

S2 (16:09):
Oh that's fantastic. And, um, how did the Reading and
Writing Tools webinar go over?

S3 (16:16):
That was wonderful. Now, that was a, um, a carry
on from last year. So it was a brand new event.
Last year we ran a writing tools webinar and it
was so successful. We then ran a reading tools webinar.
And then this year, because it wasn't that long since
we'd run them last, and we wanted to make sure

(16:37):
that it was all fresh, new material. We combined them.
So back in July, we had, uh, Kent Waldorf join us. And, Ken, um,
many of our listeners will remember from our Reading Tools
webinar that we did in 24. And he was just fantastic.
There was a big focus on AI. Um, and a

(16:59):
lot of the new technology that's coming out does have
its foundations sitting in AI. And it's interesting. Ken has
a an approach, I suppose, a mantra nearly where it's
not about how can I read this book or this

(17:20):
stock report or, um, this newspaper or this, um, sports
fixture that I used to read before. The question should be,
how can I access that information? So he said, there
are a lot of reading and writing tools where you
can read those, um, pieces of literature or writing that

(17:42):
you used to, um, access. But what he likes to
do is to, to change that way of thinking away
from how can I read it as to how can
I get that information? How can I access it? And
that's where AI comes in. Quite, um, quite effectively. Um,
so it's a really interesting, interesting webinar and that is

(18:05):
available to everybody that missed the webinar on the Vision
Australia news page. So if you go to Vision Australia.
And you click on the news tile which is on
the home page, you'll be able to see the accessible
Reading and Writing Tools webinar recording from July. And then

(18:30):
if you want to, you can go back because we
don't take down any of those news items. You can
also review the reading tools, one from November last year
and also the writing tools one from July last year
because they're both completely relevant. So all of those pieces
of technology are still comparatively new and comparatively leading edge,

(18:52):
and they're all still available through the vision store or
through other retailers. Some of them we choose not to
stock for a variety of reasons. However, you can have, um,
a review of those in addition to the most recent one. Mhm.

S2 (19:10):
Oh, fantastic. Now you've read your sunny spring reads. Yes.
Have you been reading anything else?

S3 (19:17):
Well, I most recently read, uh, Chloe, Adam's the Occupation
because that was our author reading back in August. Yeah. Um, which, incidentally,
is on the excess catalogue now. So anybody that wasn't
able to join us again, it's a podcast. So you
just look up podcasts, you search Vision Australia and it

(19:39):
will be under Vision Australia. Author readings. Mhm. So I
just finished that one and I'm actually working through which
isn't me at all normally. Uh Dave Steele's poetry. So
I wanted to be um familiar with that to get
um particularly given it is. Well, he says, it's very

(20:04):
much about being a wellbeing tool. So in some ways
it's sort of, um, I suppose tracks his journey as well.
So that's been really interesting. And I'm also reading the
novel for our final author reading of the year, which
will be in December. But I'm not allowed to say
who that is yet.

S2 (20:23):
Oh, okay.

S3 (20:24):
So that's just something to make sure that you all
come back in October and listen to Francis and I.

S2 (20:30):
Well, thank you so much, Maureen. Have a lovely, um,
have a lovely rest of the month.

S3 (20:35):
I will. Okay. Did I ask you what you're reading?

S2 (20:37):
Oh, no. But, I mean, look, I'm enamored. Totally enamored.
And of the true crime book that I had on
the show last week in the dead of night. Um,
I forget the author, but it is about the, um,
bodies that were found that had been camping, it transpires, um,
they'd been having a bit of an affair and a
Jetstar pilot was, um, announced as the murderer. So I've

(21:01):
been half listening to that because the wonderful narration by
David Tredinnick makes it just so enthralling.

S3 (21:09):
Oh, everyone does love Dave.

S2 (21:11):
Oh, yeah. He's amazing. Um, so. Yes. And he also
narrates the library newsletter. Yes, yes. So that's the person
who's narrating this book. So please, you know. Yeah. If
you like true crime or if you're just interested in
what motivates a person because there's a lot of that
in there to to commit a crime. Uh, you really

(21:31):
feel like he captures the character of this airline pilot?

S3 (21:35):
I'm actually really surprised that the book is out already.
It just like it seems very recent. And in fact,
I think it was still in the courts recently. Um, however,
now that I think about it, I am confident that
was during Covid. So that was either 20 or 21.

S2 (21:55):
Right when it happened? Yes. Yeah.

S3 (21:57):
I'm quite sure it was in Covid, right?

S2 (21:59):
Yes. I can't pinpoint it in myself, but. Yeah, but
it was such a huge, huge story.

S3 (22:07):
But it seems so recent.

S2 (22:08):
Mhm. It does. Yeah.

S3 (22:11):
But I think that's because the court process always is
very protracted. And then you have appeals and so forth.

S2 (22:16):
And it took them a long time to track him
as a suspect as well. Um, you know, it was
kind of totally mysterious for a long time. And then. Yeah.

S3 (22:26):
And speaking of our lovely Dave and his narration of
lovely newsletters, we will have our October newsletter coming out
before we know it. So all of our Vision Australia
Library members should be receiving our bimonthly newsletter, and that
has all of our, um, events listed in it. It

(22:47):
has all of our reading lists. So the upcoming one
will have a Halloween reading list. So that'll be fun.
That actually has been a lot of fun putting together. Um,
and it also has all the news. So for example
there is one on creating. Curating is the word I'm
looking for. Um, your library, bookshelf and a whole lot

(23:08):
of knacks and tricks to doing, um, the best curation
to make sure you have the perfect delivery of books
that reflect your interests and anyone that doesn't receive their
newsletter bi monthly should ring through to the Vision Australia library,
because it's possible that you've unsubscribed to, um, marketing material

(23:32):
or promotional material, in which case that will mean that
you've also unsubscribed to our newsletter, which is quite a tragedy.
So you can always change those preferences to make sure
that you receive our newsletter every two months.

S2 (23:46):
Wonderful. Thank you so much, Maureen. Enjoy the coming spring
or we're in the we're in the very early stages
of spring. Enjoy. Yeah.

S3 (23:55):
Oh, I love spring. It's one of my favorite times.
Everyone's just in such a good mood.

S2 (24:00):
Yeah. And you start to smell flowers and that coming
to life. The jasmine and. Yeah. All right. Thank you.

S3 (24:06):
Thanks, Francis.

S2 (24:12):
We had a reader recommended through the week, and I've
got time to put this on. Um, and I think
it's a great one. This is my name is Barbara
by Barbara Streisand, and it was recommended by Virginia. Um,
and she said she recommended this to another reader. And
they think this book is great. Also, Barbara Streisand is,
by any account, a living legend, a woman who, in
a career spanning six decades, has excelled in every area

(24:35):
of entertainment. She is among the handful of Egot winners Emmy, Grammy,
Oscar and Tony and has one of the greatest, most
recognizable voices in popular music. Streisand's memoir reveals a voice
on the page that is every bit as heartfelt, entertaining,
and spectacular as her best performances. There's the chilling story,

(24:55):
which is never told before of the origins of her
legendary stage fright. There's a hilarious opening line to James Brolin,
who she's been with for 27 years. There's a page
and a half correcting the record on the Streisand effect,
a term which refers to the way efforts to minimize
a story can backfire, generating exponentially more press. As Vanity

(25:17):
Fair said, If Barbara could plug away for ten years
writing this exhaustive, exhilarating account of her life, then we
can do her the courtesy of reading it from start
to finish. Let's hear a sample of My Name Is
Barbara by Barbara Streisand. It's narrated by Barbara herself.

S4 (25:34):
There's one thing that's very hard for me to deal with,
and that's lying. Maybe that's because I was lied to
as a child. One day when I was eight years old,
my mother came to visit me at a Jewish summer
camp in the Catskills where she had sent me for
a few weeks. I didn't like that camp. They had

(25:56):
lousy potatoes, probably from a can that tasted fake. I'd
suddenly slide them off my plate and throw them down
under the table. I mean, all the way down to
the other end so no one would know I was
the culprit. The only thing to look forward to was
Friday night when you could get a great piece of

(26:18):
kosher cake. It was a yellow cake with dark chocolate
icing that I'd been searching for ever since. I was
a very forceful child, and I held on to my
mother as soon as she arrived and refused to let
her go until she reluctantly agreed to take me home
with her.

S2 (26:38):
And that was a sample of My Name is Barbara
by Barbara Streisand. Barbara is spelt brr brr brr brr.
Streisand is s t e I s a n d
s e I s. and D, and that book goes

(26:59):
for a nice hefty 48 hours and 15 minutes. So
enjoy that one. And, uh, wonderful to hear it narrated
in her voice. Thank you, Virginia, for the recommendation. Thank

(27:19):
you for joining us on Hear This today. Thanks to Maureen.
And thank you for to Virginia for her recommendation. If
you would like to recommend a book, it is so welcome.
If you would like to join the library, that is
also so welcome. You can always call 1300 654 656. That's 1300 654 656.
Or you can email library at that's library. Org. Have

(27:46):
a lovely week and we'll be back next week with
more here this.