I've been building up a healthy pile of Aussie books for AusReading Month (see yesterday's master post below) which I already know is Mount Impossible, but I'd rather have too many books on hand than not enough!
My list includes:
Tim Winton's latest book Eyrie (contemporary fiction - classic prediction!)
Bill Gammage's award winning The Biggest Estate on Earth. (non-fiction history)
Terra Australis by Matthew Flinders (classic non-fiction)
Sarah Murgatroyd's The Dig Tree (non-fiction history)
The Middle Parts of Fortune by Frederic Manning (classic fiction)
Landscape of Farewell by Alex Miller (contemporary fiction)
Cate Kennedy's Like a House on Fire (short stories)
The Conversation by David Brooks (contemporary fiction)
2 Dorothy Porter's - The Bee Hut and The Best 100 Poems of Dorothy Porter (poetry)
Ash Road by Ivan Southall (children's modern classic fiction - a timely addition with all the bushfires around at the moment) (reread)
Mem Fox's Possum Magic (because no Australian bookshelf is complete without this modern day classic picture book!) (reread)
Are We There Yet from Alison Lester as well as Celeste Sails to Spain & Tessa Snaps Snakes. (reread)
Jeanie Baker's Window and Where the Forest Meets the Sea (reread)
Big Rain Coming by Katrina Germein & Bronwyn Bancroft (reread)
One Woolly Wombat by Kerry Argent (reread)
Penny Matthew's A Year on the Farm (reread)
Meet Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by May Gibbs (modernised - no really?)
Duncan Ball - Jeremy's Tail (reread)
I may have got a little excited and started the Tim Winton last week!
I've also been dipping into the Cate Kennedy short stories over the past month or so :-)
But for now here is your...
Trivia Answer: There were 11 ships in the First Fleet. They were Sirius, Supply, Alexander, Charlotte, Friendship, Lady Penrhyn, Prince of Wales, Scarborough, Golden Grove, Fishburn & Borrowdale.
Anyone who regularly travels on the Sydney Ferries will recognise these names.
FYI: Tim Tam's are a highly addictive chocolate biscuit. It's a chocolate biscuit, covered in a layer of chocolate with a creamy chocolate centre.Tim Tam's go beautifully with tea or coffee.
A Tim Tam slam involves biting off diagonal corners, placing one end in your hot drink and sipping like a straw through the top bite. As the softened creamy chocolate centre hits your mouth, you slam the rest into your mouth...or risk losing the biscuit into your hot drink!
Most Australians have mastered this delicate art by their late teens!There are now many different flavoured Tim Tam's (caramel, white, dark etc) but for me the original is still the best.
Tim Tam's alone make the long trip to Australia worth it!
November is also Ausmusic month on ABC radio.
Triple J is the youth network. If you'd like to enhance your AusReading experience by listening to Ausmusic as you read click here to visit the Triple J Ausmusic page. Simply click on the 'listen live' tab at the top.ABC Classic FM is also running a programme of Ausmusic - click here.
Happy AusReading AND Ausmusic Month.
Yum! Tim tam slammers!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't sure if I should mention the type of Tim Tam slammers I enjoyed at uni or not?
DeleteI love the Australia trivia! I had no idea what Tim Tams were and now I'm dying to try them. I've started working on 2014 reading lists and I'm planning on getting into a lot of Australia books. I think Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Secret River and the True History of the Kelly Gang are high on my list so far.
ReplyDeleteGreat choices Melissa - Tim Winton's Cloudstreet is definitely worth a look in too, esp if you'd like to read a book that has Perth & WA as it's focus (your 3 choices are based in Victoria and NSW so far).
DeleteWe'll definitely put Tim Tam's on the afternoon tea agenda when you come out next year :-)
Sounds just like Proust eating Madeleine petite cakes, dipping them in tea before eating. I must try TimTam's now. I've seen them on grocery shelves, but haven't tried them yet. I'm a chocoholic... and love choc biscuits. I'm afraid this will be another addiction for me. ;)
ReplyDelete