A few thoughts about Greek cafes and milk bars of Australia by Effy Alexakis and Leonard Janiszewski

Greek cafes and milk bars of Australia by Effy Alexakis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a lovely book (and I can't believe it was not already on Goodreads).

This detailed study of Greek cafes and milk bars, in Australia, looks at both the big picture of their history, but also in the detail, the individual stories of the cafes and milk bars. Through a mix of oral history, old and new photographs, a wonderful, complex story is told. It is joyful, sad, nostalgic and modern. This is a book to keep dipping into as each person and each cafe is explored.

This would be an excellent addition to many local studies collections across Australia as the cafes and milk bars and the people who ran them or who run them are featured. I was able to read about several Greek cafes I know, from where I grew up, but also places I have visited.

This is an excellent local studies book. One minor comment, it would have been helpful to have an index entry for all the towns mentioned, the cafes and people are searchable in the index, but not the towns. Perhaps this addition could be considered for a second edition.

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Catch up with some John le Carre reading...

Women's Institute centenary and award winning embroidered tweets

This came via my Storify alerts.  It is a lovely celebration of the Women's Institute in the UK, and there are tweets being stitched.

The centenary happened last year, but they won a social media campaign award for this work.

Very pleased to announce we won Social Media Campaign of the Year with @umpf for the #theWI_100years tWItterstitch https://t.co/amh45ShFeG

— Women's Institute (@WomensInstitute) March 10, 2016

Have a look at their twitter stream and you will see much potential for local studies and contemporary collecting.

Every building tells a story: A guide to architecture through anime - by Matthew Li

Every Building Tells a Story: A Guide to Architecture Through Anime: Matthew Li is one of the internet’s leading experts on anime and creates popular guides on the art and design of animation on his Youtube channel RCAnime. He...

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Go and read/watch this article.  It is great.  It implicitly highlights the importance of collecting anime for local studies as some use settings around the world, or modify exisiting buildings for anime.

some thoughts about Digital vs Human: how we'll live, love, and think in the future by Richard Watson

Digital vs Human: how we'll live, love, and think in the future by Richard Watson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a book to read slowly, and then to start reading again. It is a bringing together of many ideas about how people live, and challenging us about how we think about technology. It is speculative based on evidence, and is an enjoyable, and thought provoking read.

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a few thoughts on The book of haps

The Book of Haps by Kate Davies
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had not heard about haps until I found out about this book. I am glad that I came across this as it is a lovely exploration of a very specific part of the history of knitting, and of knitting in a specific local area. This would be a great book for a Shetland public library local studies collection, and for other libraries to consider for their knitting collections.

It is exciting the way this book combines the history with new designs, based on the history. The focus on the purpose of haps, and their heritage has led to some very exciting designs from around the world, using different knitting techniques. The designs are so interesting that I foraged around at home and have already put together the makings of two haps. The challenge will be sorting out the time to make them. I look forward to learning some new techniques to be able to knit them.

A nice note to add, when this book is bought in paper, the ebook is also included. This is a very good publishing feature. I would be interested to know if they have thought of making both formats available to libraries.

This is an enjoyable read for people interested in social history.



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