My Australian TBR - Vote Now!

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

What do you do when you're behind in your blogging schedule?
You make up a new list, of course!

A new list that sucks hours of your time and does nothing to help you finish any of the other posts in draft, but leaves you feeling weirdly satisfied.

A new list, inspired by N@ncy, to help international readers find Australian books.

A new list, that highlights just how severe my TBR issue really is.

A new list that you can help me reduce.

In the comments below suggest 3-5 books (or more if you have a lot of opinions) from this list that I REALLY should read sooner rather than later.

I will compile the numbers by the end of December.
I will then solemnly vow and promise to read the top FIVE books in 2020.

Below are the physical books and ebooks currently in my house or on my ipad. Some are new and some have been languishing for years. Help me decide which ones to read next?

Vote early and vote often!

The List:

1788 by Watkin Tench
7 Steps to Get Your Child Reading by Louise Park

Agamemnon's Kiss by Inga Clendinnen
Almost French by Sarah Turnbull
An Australian Girl by Catherine Martin
An Australian Lassie by Lilian Turner
Anatomy of Wings by Karen Foxlee
The Art of Reading by Damon Young
The Art of Time Travel by Tom Griffiths
Arthur Phillip by Michael Pembroke
At Midnight & Other Stories by Ada Cambridge
Australia Day by Stan Grant
Australian Life, Black and White by Rosa Praed
Australian Notebooks by Betty Churcher
Autumn Laing by Alex Miller
Axiomatic by Maria Tumarkin

The Battlers by Kylie Tennant
Beauty by Bri Lee
Benang by Kim Scott
The Body in the Clouds by Ashley Hay
Boys Will Be Boys by Clementine Ford
Bridge of Clay by Marcus Zusak
The Bush by Don Watson
Bush Studies by Barbara Baynton

The Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
A Child's Book of True Crime by Chloe Hooper
Cold Light by Frank Moorhouse
Conditions of Faith by Alex Miller
Coonaroo by Katharine Susannah Prichard
The Cost of Courage in Aztec Society by Inga Clendinnen
Craft for a Dry Lake by Kim Mahood

Dancing With Strangers by Inga Clendinnen
The Danger Game by Kalinda Ashton
Darwin's Armada by Iain McCalman
Dead Man's by Mary Gaunt
Dear Parents by Gabbie Stroud
Dear Reader by Debra Adelaide
The Death of Jesus by J M Coetzee
Down in the World by Mary Gaunt
Dragon and Kangaroo by Robert Macklin
The Drover's Wife by Leah Purcell
Dr Space Junk Vs the Universe by Alice Gorman
The Dyehouse by Mena Calthorpe
Dymphna by Judith Armstrong

Elizabeth Macarthur by Michelle Scott Tucker
End of the Earth (short stories) by Mary Gaunt
The Essence of the Thing by Madeleine St John
Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany
Exiles at Home by Drusilla Modjeska

The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes
The First Book of Samuel by Ursula Dubosarsky
A First Place by David Malouf
From the Edge by Mark McKenna
Fugitive Anne, A Romance of the Unexplored Bush by Rosa Praed

Georgiana by Brenda Niall
Ghost Empire by Richard Fidler
The Great Barrier Reef by Bowen
Gum by Ashley Hay

A History of Books by Gerard Murnane
Home by Larissa Behrendt
The House by Helen Pitt
A Humble Enterprise by Ada Cambridge

Inner Worlds Outer Space by Ceridwen Dovey
The Insane Root by Rosa Praed
Island Home by Tim Winton
It's Raining in Mango by Thea Astley

Joe Cinque's Consolation by Helen Garner
Journey from Venice by Ruth Cracknell
Journey to the Stone Country by Alex Miller

Lady Bridget in the Never-Never Land by Rosa Praed
Landscape of Farewell by Alex Miller
A Little Bush Maid by Mary Grant Bruce
Longlegs by Glenda Adams

Maurice Guest by Henry Handel Richardson
Maybe the Horse Will Talk by Elliot Perlman
The Media and the Massacre by Sonya Voumard
A Mere Chance by Ada Cambridge
The Midnight Dress by Karen Foxlee
A Million Windows by Gerald Murnane
Modern Love by Lesley Harding & Kendrah Morgan
Mr Hogarth's Will by Catherine Helen Spence
My Love Must Wait by Ernestine Hill
Myself When Young by Henry Handel Richardson

Napoleon: Passion, Death and Resurrection 1815 - 1840 by Philip Dwyer
No Friend But the Mountain by Behrouz Boochani
Not Drowning, Reading by Andrew Relph
Nothing New by Robyn Annear
Notebooks by Betty Churcher

The Old Lie by Claire G. Coleman
Omega Park by Amy Barker
On the Wallaby by Elinor Mordaunt
Only in New York by Lily Brett
Origin Story: A Big History of Everything by David Christian
The Original Australians by Josephine Flood

The Paperbark Shoe by Goldie Goldbloom
The Pea-Pickers by Eve Langley
The Penance of Portia James by Tasma
The Perversity of Human Nature by Ada Cambridge
The Pioneers by Katherine Susannah Prichard
Policy and Passion by Rosa Praed
Position Doubtful by Kim Mahood
Possum by Mary Grant Bruce

Quitting Plastic by Clara Williams Roldan & Louise Williams

Reading by Moonlight by Brenda Walker
A Reef in Time by Charles Veron
Resilience by Anne Deveson
The Retrospect by Ada Cambridge
Riding the Trains in Japan by Patrick Holland
The Romance of a Station by Rosa Praed
The Rose Grower by Michelle de Kretser

Sagaland by Richard Fidler and Kari Gislason
Shallows by Tim Winton
Silent Invasion by Clive Hamilton
A Single Tree by Don Watson
The Slow Natives by Thea Astley
Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters by Margot Neale
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
The Spare Room by Helen Garner
Stasiland by Anna Funder
Stories by Helen Garner
The Swan Book by Alexis Wright
Sydney Harbour: A History by Ian Hoskins
A Sydney Sovereign & Other Tales by Tasma

Terra Nullius by Claire G Coleman
Thirty Days by Mark Raphael Baker
The Three Miss Kings by Ada Cambridge
The Timeless Land by Elenor Dark
Tiger's Eye by Inga Clendinnen
Tivington Nott by Alex Miller
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein
Trick of the Light by Laura Elvery
True North by Brenda Niall
True Stories by Helen Garner
The Turning by Tim Winton

Uncle Piper of Piper's Hill by Tasma
The Unknown Judith Wright by Georgina Arnott
Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung

Watershed by Fabienne Bayet-Charlton
We of the Never-Never and The Little Black Princess by Aeneas Gunn
Welcome to Your New Life by Anna Goldsworthy
What Was Left by Eleanor Limprecht
Whipbird by Robert Drewe
The White Earth by Andrew McGahan
The White Girl by Tony Birch
A Wind from the Wilderness by Mary Gaunt
A Woman in China by Mary Gaunt
A Woman's Experiences in the Great War by Louise Mack
Women Kind by Dr Kirstin Ferguson & Catherine Fox
The Writing Life by David Malouf

You Daughters of Freedom by Claire Wright

Photo by Joey Csunyo on Unsplash

CC Spin #21

Can you believe this is our 21st CC Spin?
And that I have participated in ALL 21.

Now that we have come of age, I'm going to mix this spin up a little.

Photo by Lysander Yuen on Unsplash

The rules are easy: compile your list of 20 books by Monday - the 23rd September.

On that day a number will be randomly selected.

That's the book you read.

You have until the 31st October 2019 to finish your book and review it.

Join in the fun by visiting the other players and commenting on their lists.

It's a great way to meet like-minded bloggers and explode your TBR classics wishlist!

CC Spin #21.

It was very tempting to simply write Moby-Dick for all 20 positions, since I have just started a slow read of this MAMMOTH classic. But our end date is not until February 2020.

So, I've decided to make this particular Spin help me with my plans for #AusReadingMonth in November instead.

I have a whole stack of classic Australian stories saved on my iPad. Most are now out of print and/or unavailable to purchase elsewhere. I prefer to read real books, but I make an exception for classics when I cannot source the real thing. Not all of the books below are on my Spin List: Take 2, but they are on Spin List: The Rest, so it's only a little cheat.

If you're thinking of joining in #AusReadingMonth and wondering what to read, you can find all of these books on either Project Gutenberg or Project Gutenberg Australia.

Welcome to my ALL Australian CC Spin!

1. The Penance of Portia James by Tasma 
2. 1788 by Watkin Tench
3. Down in the World by Mary Gaunt
4. Coonaroo by Katharine Susannah Prichard
5. The Wonder Child: An Australian Story by Ethel Turner
6. Mr Hogarth's Will by Catherine Helen Spence
7. An Australian Lassie by Lilian Turner              
8. An Australian Girl by Catherine Martin
9. The Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
10. A Humble Enterprise by Ada Cambridge
11. A Little Bush Maid by Mary Grant Bruce
12. We of the Never-Never by Jeannie Gunn
13. The Romance of a Station by Rosa Praed
14. The Pioneers by Katharine Susannah Prichard
15. Uncle Piper of Piper's Hill by Tasma            
16. The Retrospect by Ada Cambridge
17. A Woman's Experiences in the Great War by Louise Mack
18. Maurice Guest by Henry Handel Richardson               
19. The Perversity of Human Nature by Ada Cambridge
20. On the Wallaby Through Victoria by Elinor Mordaunt

My Previous 20 Spin Results:

Happy Spinning!

The Plains by Gerald Murnane

Well!

Gerald Murnane!

What on earth am I going to say about you and this amazingly, stupendous, spectacular display of writing?

How do you sum up or explain your experience with a book that pushes, exposes and plays around with so many ideas in one compact little piece of speculative writing? Where do you even begin to describe just how profound an effect it has had on you? And how delighted to have a discovered a new-to-me writer with at least another nine books to dive into?

The blurb on the back of my Text Classic says,

Gerald Murnane's The Plains tells the story of the families of the plains - obsessed with their land and history, their culture and mythology - and of the man who ventured into their world.

Okay, The Plains is that - on the very tip of the surface - but how to adequately describe the layers and depth?

Goodreads goes a little further with their synopsis,

On their vast estates, the landowning families of the plains have preserved a rich and distinctive culture. Obsessed with their own habitat and history, they hire artisans, writers and historians to record in minute detail every aspect of their lives, and the nature of their land. A young film-maker arrives on the plains, hoping to make his own contribution to the elaboration of this history. In a private library he begins to take notes for a film, and chooses the daughter of his patron for a leading role. 

Twenty years later, he begins to tell his haunting story of life on the plains. As his story unfolds, the novel becomes, in the words of Murray Bail, 'a mirage of landscape, memory, love and literature itself'.

This brings us a little closer, thanks to the use of words like 'distinctive', 'minute detail', 'haunting' and 'mirage'. However, to really pin down the elusive, yet elaborate nature of this story will take a much better writer and thinker than moi!

Let's try Shannon Burns' 2015 article in the Sydney Review of Books, Gerald Murnane: An idiot in the Greek Sense:

I noticed the obvious things first: his sentences, above all else, were pristine; his tone was direct; his narrative control was stupefying; and he seemed to be writing about something that was at once totally unique to him and recognisably Australian. Over the following weeks and months Murnane’s other novels and collections of fiction – most of which were out of print and difficult to find at the time – revealed to me a local writer who could be mentioned in the same breath as literary greats (and eccentrics) like Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf and Franz Kafka. Here was the kind of Australian writer I’d never dreamed of encountering, yet none of his books had received a major literary award.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part read like a parody of serious literature. It was quite funny at times, in a satirical way, as culture, philosophy, religion and love of nature were exposed and extolled in the same breath.

It was as though each plainsman chose to appear as a solitary inhabitant of a region that only he could explain.

The middle part was pretty dense with ideas and could almost be described as a monologue by Murnane through his characters. I'm not sure I understood what he was trying to do here. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry!

So I keep away nowadays from the volumes in which Time itslef is made to appear as one more sort of plain. I have no wish to be seen...as a man in sight of Time, the Invisible Plain, or approaching Time, the Plain Beyond Reach, or finding his way back from Time, the Pathless Plain, or even surrounded by Time, the Boundless Plain.

The last section seemed to sum up Murnane's ideas on seeing and perception, light and dark, memory and time. I felt like I had missed whole layers of thought and philosophy though, that where just within my grasp, but not quite knowable in the end.

I lifted my own camera to my face and stood with my eye pressed against the lens and my finger poised as if to expose to the film in its dark chamber the darkness that was the only visible sign of whatever I saw beyond myself.

See what I mean?

Intellectual, almost obtuse, experimental books can often leave me cold, but I found myself ridiculously excited by The Plains. There was something so compelling and captivating about the whole inner and outer Australian concept, that turns the way we see ourselves as Australians on its head. The incredible depth of detail that Murnane developed about this way of life and the people who populated this world - the plainsmen - who were so gob-smackingly self-absorbed, left me breathless. And bewildered.

A reread is definitely on the cards!

#AusReadingMonth
Winner of the Patrick White Award 1999

The Commandant by Jessica Anderson

The Commandant came recommended to me in a roundabout fashion. Earlier on in the year, I attended an 'Honouring the Author' event at the State Library, NSW. The author in question was Jessica Anderson.

Anderson won the Miles Franklin Prize twice (in 1978 & 1980), but not for The Commandant.

By the end of the honouring event, though, I was convinced that The Commandant was the book for me to start my Jessica Anderson journey with (and not one of her two more contemporary award winning books). Historical fiction based on real life events and people will always win me over.

The Commandant is based on Captain Patrick Logan, the man in charge of the Moreton Bay convict settlement on the present day site of Brisbane.

Moreton Bay Settlement 1835

He was a cruel task master, feared by all the convicts.

But the story is told mostly from the point of view of his young (fictional) sister-in-law, Frances, recently arrived from Ireland.

In some ways, this story could be seen as a simple drawing room story about two sisters, but of course, the outside world intrudes regularly on their domestic dramas. There is a strong message about the role of women in the early years of colonisation and how they coped with the isolation, the lack of modern amenities and the constant fear of the unknown. Frances is told by one of the other women,

'Whatever course you take,' she said, half-shutting her eyes, 'no doubt in ten years or so you will arrive at the state of the most of us - simply of making do with what one has. Surprisingly enough -' she opened surprised eyes - 'it is an art in which one may progress. I thought I knew all about making do with what one had, but now I find I can do more with it than I dreamed.'

Anderson's deceptively straightforward plot also hides many viewpoints and tensions.

We see the doubt and confusion that the soldiers and their wives feel about Logan's actions. The young doctors, who have to tend the battered backs of the recently whipped convicts, have another story to tell. The threat of a highly publicised court case in Sydney to deal with the rumours of Logan's cruelty bubble away underneath the surface, only to rear up every time a ship arrives with mail. The menace of the convicts, who far outnumber the soldiers, is felt throughout the story. How the convicts view the settlers and how they, in turn, view the convicts is a tension that Anderson plays with deftly. 

Underlying all this, though, is another viewpoint. The local Aboriginal population are spoken of and seen fleetingly by our main characters. They know they are being watched, rumours and myths are rampant. Yet the reader can also see this little settlement, barely clinging onto the land around the Brisbane River, through the eyes of the Aboriginals, wondering who on earth where these strange people with their stone walls and inappropriate clothing and guns. 

Image source

Even further away, are the Sydney based journalists and intelligentsia who are driving social change and asking questions about reform, mercy and justice for the convicts. Frances represents this new world order while her brother-in-law represents the old world order of duty, a firm hand and punishment. Logan is understandably confused and even, hurt, by the possibility of change. Anderson portrays his loneliness and brooding behaviour in a sympathetic light, thanks to the tender, loving concern he evokes in his young wife (a woman with a lisp not unlike the one that Anderson, herself battled with all her life).

It is not just Logan's right to rule that is called into question here. Anderson also leads us to see how tenuous and uncertain these early settlements actually were. A so-called civilisation perched on the edge of wilderness, halfway round the world, for the spurious idea of containing the poor and dispossessed of England, was always going to be fraught with danger. Most of the poor and dispossessed ended up on the wrong side of the law as a result of the Industrial Revolution. So many of the convicts were shipped off to Australia for one single offence, often stealing food or clothes. The colony of Australia became the dumping ground for a problem the English didn't want to face. Instead of dealing with the problem of a growing divide between the haves and have-nots at home, they shipped as many of the have-nots off to the other side of the world to basically fend for themselves.

Image source

Anderson's story brings to vivid life this period of history. There are fabulous, meaty characters, shifting points of view and a pervading sense of mercy. Logan's demise is deliberately left as confused and murky as the official reports of the time. Anderson doesn't try to give us the answers that weren't available to her characters at the time.

The story ends, as it began, with Frances on board a ship, musing about her fate. The innocence and conviction of her beginning has been tempered by experience and sympathy.

I'm so grateful to Text Publishing for bringing such tremendous Australian stories back into print. I hope they never go out of print again.

#AusReadingMonth
#Australian Women Writers challenge

Sisters by Ada Cambridge

Happy Birthday Ada Cambridge!

My copy of Sisters by Ada Cambridge (21st November 1844 - 19th July 1926) was a fairly recent find in a second hand book shop. It's a 1989 Penguin Australian Women's Library edition which was apparently the first time this glorious 1904 book had ever been reprinted.

With wealth and good birth behind them the four Pennycuik sisters expected to marry well and live happily ever after, but Ada Cambridge, in this turn-of-the-century novel, dispenses with conventional romantic notions about marriage. 

Deborah Pennycuik refuses three proposals in one day; Mary invents one to last her whole life; Rose marries for love and into poverty; while Francie marries for money. 

Whatever the motive and how ever careful the choice, marriage is no guarantee of happiness. Instead, Ada Cambridge presents a cutting satire on the institution of marriage.

The title appealed immediately as I am also, one of four girls.

According to the brief bio in the front of the book, many of Cambridge's 25 novels were serialised in the Australiasian and The Age and she was one of Australia's most successful and best known writers at the time. Really?

How is it then, that a review by Ali @Heavenali a few years ago, was the very first time I had ever heard of this extraordinary Australian writer?

Where did she go? Why did she fall out of favour? How did she fall out of favour?

And who was she?

Cambridge's online biography says:

Ada Cambridge (1844-1926), writer, was born on 21 November 1844 at St Germans, Norfolk, England, daughter of Henry Cambridge, gentleman farmer, and his wife Thomasina, née Emmerson, a doctor's daughter. She grew up in Downham, Norfolk.

On 25 April 1870 at Holy Trinity, Ely, she married George Frederick Cross, a curate committed to colonial service; on 19 August they landed in Melbourne. 

In the following years pastoral work took them to Wangaratta (1870), Yackandandah (1872), Ballan (1875), Coleraine (1877), Bendigo (1883), Beechworth (1885) and Williamstown (1893).

Ada was centred on but not confined by home and family in those decades and the busy life of their different parishes gave her a wide range of colonial experience which she later recalled in the engaging and valuable Thirty Years in Australia (1903). 

This and her childhood reminiscences, The Retrospect (1912), inspired by a return visit to England in 1908, show to what extent she drew upon personal experience and private dream-world for her novels. 

She herself emerges as frail and charming, never robust after a carriage accident in the 1870s; her ideas were considered a little daring and even improper for a clergyman's wife.

She sounds utterly fascinating. As does her very pragmatic, class-conscious story about marriage.

Ada Cambridge, c. 1920, by Spencer Shier

Sisters is the story of four young women coming of age on a rural property in northern Victoria. But it is also the story of Guthrie Carey, a young sailor whose life crosses paths with the sisters at various points.

The perils and pitfalls of love and marriage dominate the story. It would seem that Cambridge had a pretty cynical view and very low expectations for happiness within the confines of marriage.

Poor Mary married in a fit of madness, an older man beneath her in every way, even though he was a man of the cloth. Her marriage was one of quiet desperation; her only joy an ungrateful son and the eventual death of her husband.

'I am happy. For Debbie...I'm clean now - I never thought to be again - to know anything so exquisitely sweet, either in earth or heaven - I'm clean, body and soul, day and night, inside and outside, at last.'

Ouch!

Rose, also married beneath her - way beneath her - a draper no less, but she married for love. To the modern reader, it seems like she has a pretty happy marriage. There's enough money to live very comfortably, they appreciate and feel grateful for their good fortune and they have eleven healthy, adoring children! Rose doesn't miss the society life of her childhood, but her sisters still judge her and deem her marriage unsatisfactory due to the taint of 'new money'.

Such a sordidly domestic person she was!...Love - great, solemn, immortal Love, passionate and suffering - was a thing unknown to comfortable, commonplace Rose....Was it come to this - that marriage and family were synonymous terms?

Frances, pretty and wilful, the baby of the family, shockingly marries a much older man for his money. They quickly head off to the Continent to live the society life deemed necessary back then. Just as quickly, she begins an affair with an old family friend.

Poor Francie! she was born at a disadvantage, with that fascinating face of hers set on the foundation of so light a character. 

Deb, the beauty, stayed defiantly single for most of her life, until she succumbed to the charms of her very first lover in his dotage. She is lonely for children, but consoles herself with some kind of high-minded ideals about pure love. But basically she's left nursing a grumpy, old man!

Young Carey's first wife tragically dies in a boating accident after five weeks of married life together. Lily's ghost and their brief marriage becomes his ideal. He falls for the beauty of both Deb and Frances and nearly gets ensnarled in a romantic fantasy gone wrong with Mary. Eventually he marries an English country cousin, after finally attaining everything he ever dreamed of, yet still idealising his love for Lily, instead of being grateful for what he has.

Lily in the retrospect was the faultless woman - the ideal wife and love's young dream in one...'Whatever is lacking now, I have known the fullness of love and bliss - that there is such a thing as a perfect union between man and woman, rare as it may be.' It will be remembered that he was married to her, actually, for a period not exceeding five weeks in all.

Cambridge finishes her tale about love and marriage with Jim, the station manager, who has secretly pined after Debbie all his life, listening outside the window to her play the piano to her slumbering husband.

He did not know what a highly favoured mortal he really was, in that his beautiful love-story was never to be spoiled by a happy ending.

A rather twisted version of the 'it's better to have loved than lost, than never to have loved at all' idea perhaps? We have an unhappy marriage with a power imbalance, a domestic goddess whose life is taken up with child bearing and child rearing, an adultress, a nursemaid, a man still in love with his former wife's ghost and a lonely old, man dreaming of a love that will never be!

I'm certainly very curious to know more about Cambridge's own marriage now.

If Sisters is a fair example of her work, then I will certainly be seeking out more. She doesn't write with the same breadth and depth as Henry Handel Richardson, but she does tackle women's issues and class consciousness head-on in a time when this was not really the done thing in literature.

Sisters features some fabulous dialogue and memorable descriptions. Debbie and Carey in particular, are fully realised characters that will live with me for a long time to come.

Bill @The Australian Legend is planning an Australian Women Writers Gen 1 Week. Cambridge is considered to be Gen 1 writer according to Bill's list of generations. Pop over to his page to join in the discussion or to check the list for your own reading pleasure. The idea is to read and link up Gen 1 AWW on his post that will go live on the 15th Jan 2018, to create a fabulous online resource for all of us.

Bill's post alerted me to the fact that the AWW Gen 1 women, including Cambridge were dismissed by the (mostly male, Sydney-centric) Gen 2 writers. In much the same way that many men still try to dismiss Jane Austen as a romance writer for women, it appears that Cambridge was relegated to the status of being nothing more than a writer for women, writing about female domestic concerns. And therefore not worthy of male attention.

Have you ever read any books by Ada Cambridge?
#AusReadingMonth
#AustralianWomenWritersChallenge

The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough

Regular followers of my blog will already know how much I love The Ladies of Missalonghi. It's not only a deliciously light, confectionery offering of a book, it's also a murky story mired down in a controversy involving plagiarism and L. M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle. A recent readalong for The Blue Castle was all the convincing I needed to not only reread it, but also to tack Missalonghi onto my #AusReadingMonth TBR pile.

The last time I read the books, TBC was read after TLOM, and The Ladies came out slightly ahead in personal preference, so I decided to reverse the order this time. And guess what? This time The Blue Castle was the preferred story.

I love the setting of TLOM. The Blue Mountains is one of my favourite places in NSW, in fact, Mr Books and I were married 8 years ago on a Blue Mountains clifftop overlooking one of the beautiful valleys mentioned in the story. It's wildness and grand views are perfect for a BIG romance and the cool nights seem designed for snuggling up with a cosy book and someone you love. But I could be biased! (FYI - Byron is a fictional Blue Mountains village, but it could also be any of the gorgeous villages that do actually hug the line of the cliffs and the railway).

On winter mornings the valley was filled with brilliant white cloud that sat like milk below the level of the cliff tops, and suddenly as the sun increased in warmth it would lift up in a moment and vanish. Sometimes the cloud would come down from above, fingers seeking out the tree tops far below until it succeeded in covering them from sight under a spectral blanket. And as sunset approached, winter and summer, the cliffs began to take on deeper, richer colour, glowering rose-red, then crimson, and finally purple that faded into night's mysterious indigo. Most wonderful of all was the rare snow, when all the crags and outcrops of the clilffs were picked out in white, and the moving leafy trees shook off their powdering of icy moisture as fast as it fell upon them, unwilling to accept a touch so alien.

This is the mountains to a tee!

I also love that Missy's immediate family in TLOM are much kinder and more loving than poor Valancy's in TBC. Missy has grown up poor with a strict but loving mother. She knows what poverty and love  feels like. Poor Valancy only knows poverty.

Both novels can be seen as fairly classic examples of the romance genre - with a down trodden, plain heroine-to-be, a family that gets in her way/puts her down/hides her away, a mysterious, stranger hero-to-be, a misunderstanding that becomes the agent of change so that our 'to-be's' finally become fully fledged heroine and hero, in love and living happily ever after!

It has been suggested by some reviews I've read online, that McCullough's story is in fact a parody of the romance genre, but for a parody to work, there have to be clear signs for the reader to pick up on. Having read both books more than once, I couldn't find any evidence of parody or spoof, although McCullough does seem a little self-conscious at times.

The mystery in TLOM is more modern, and dare I say a more believable story (despite the ghost!) than Valancy's mere wondering about what on earth it is that Barney gets up to in his locked room. The satisfaction the reader gets when Missy's extended family get their comeuppance is far more thrilling than the mild pleasure we feel when we eventually discover what most readers have already worked out about who Barney really is and what he is doing.

As for the ghost in TLOM!

Where did that come from? 

I don't think that McCullough gives the reader anywhere near enough clues and it isn't resolved very well, but it does inject a lovely bit of fairy tale-like magic into this romance. And it's the feel of this story that people respond to after all, not the logic.

The main thrill for readers of TBC is Valancy's blossoming. In true Cinderella style, Valancy overcomes parental and societal restrictions to finally come into her own and be happy in a life of her own choosing. She does it all by herself and we couldn't be prouder! Whereas Missy is guided and encouraged by Una to do the same.

The deception at the heart of both stories is one that Valancy also visited on herself. She is totally unaware that the doctor's letter was not meant for her. Whereas Missy sets out to deceive to get her man. And that's where TLOM loses a little of its charm, but gains some in moral complexity.

Did McCullough plagiarise The Blue Castle?

The jury still seems to be out on this.

Both Montgomery and McCullough are frequently associated with national stereotypes: as McCullough ruefully acknowledges, part of her problem seems to be that she has interfered with an author who is a ‘Canadian icon’. Montgomery’s writing is recognised as playing a major role in establishing one of the most persistent images of Canadians—as wholesome, vigorous, close to nature. On the other hand McCullough’s own brashness and sense of herself as a tall poppy under attack draw upon a stereotypically Australian set of images. The authors in play in this controversy, then, are recognisably national, if quite dissimilar.

                                                   (Double Trouble: One or Two Women? Gillian Whitlock, March 26 2015, Meanjin Quarterly)

McCullough always denied any plagiarism. However her theory that she was merely using the known tropes of romantic fiction doesn't really hold up either. There are just too many similarities.

I suspect the truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle.

As an Anne fan, McCullough no doubt read The Blue Castle at some point in her childhood, but didn't remember doing so. Instead it stayed, tucked away, cosy and warm in her subconscious, until she was ready to write her very own fairy tale romance. The controversy doesn't diminish either story, and can actually be seen as a bonus. Thanks to the debate, both books have now been read by a much wider audience than what may have happened if they'd just been left to their own devices. I, for one, would never have discovered TBC if not for the controversy and I will always be grateful for that.

Both books are light, sweet, fluffy reads, just like a box of chocolate or a glass of bubbles! They're perfect in small doses or as a tonic to lift you out of the blues. And together, they are a splendid way to spend a rainy weekend, comparing and contrasting, til your heart's content!

LyzzyBee's 2017 TLOM review
My 2017 reread of The Blue Castle
Naomi @Consumed by Ink's review for the 2017 The Blue Castle re-readalong
My very first read of The Blue Castle in 2014
My original 2013 flashback post for The Ladies of Missalonghi that got me started on this journey.

#AusReadingMonth - Q&A

It's time to let everyone know that #AusReadingMonth is fast approaching.

Many of you may have Aussie authors and Aussie books on your TBR piles, but some of you may need to visit the library, bookshop or plan your Netgalley reading to include a book from Australia in your November reading plans.

To give you plenty of time to get ready (& get excited) I thought it might be fun to have a bit of a question and answer post to find out what your plans are for #AusReadingMonth and what you know about Australia?

If you're thinking of joining in, or even just hoping to join, post your Q&A responses between now and November.
Pop back here to add your post to the linky.
Then spread the Aussie spirit by tweeting, commenting and sharing as much as you can.

1. Tell us about the Australian books you've loved and read so far.

2. When you think of Australia, what are the first five things that pop into your mind?

3. Have you ever visited Australia? Or thought about it? 

What are the pro's and con's about travelling to/in Australia for you?

What are/were your impressions? 

4. If you have been or plan to visit, where will you be heading first?

If you already live in this big, beautiful land, tell us a little about where you are, what you love (or not) about it and where you like to holiday (or would like to visit) in Australia.

5. Do you have a favourite Australian author/s or book/s?

Tell us about him/her/it.

6. Which Aussie books are on your TBR pile/wishlist?

7. Which book/s do you hope to read for #AusReadingMonth?

8. It came to my attention recently (when I posted a snake photo on Instagram) that our overseas friends view Australia as a land full of big, bad, deadly animals.

Can you name five of them?

What about five of our cuter more unique creatures?

(For the locals, which five animals from each category have you had an up close and personal with)?

9. Can you name our current Prime Minister (plus four more from memory)? 

No googling allowed!

10. Did you know that Australians have a weird thing for BIG statues of bizarre animals and things?

Can you name five of them?

Flyby Night

If time is of the essence, one book from the BINGO card may be the prefect option for you.

A quick getaway is better than none!

Backpackers 

With their compact swags, backpackers need to travel light.

If this is you, simply select one line (horizontal, vertical of even diagonal) on the BINGO card and read three books about our country.

Grey Nomads 

If you have more time up your sleeve join the grey nomads in their self-contained campervans as you travel around this big, brown land of ours. 

With every crossroad on the map, there's a choice to be made; you cannot do it all, so select two lines on the BINGO card to be eligible for Grey Nomad status.

The Whole Hog

If you're feeling a little touched by the sun, then the Whole Hog may be for you.

Read NINE books this November from all of the 8 states and territories plus one freebie.

The FREEBIE can be any book by an Australian author or a book written by an overseas author but set entirely in Australia.

Photo source

Some of you might like to take advantage of next weekend's Dewey's 24hr Readathon to get a head start on your #AusReadingMonth books (I know I will be!)
The readathon is celebrating 10 fantabulous years this October while #AusReadingMonth is celebrating 5 amazing years of Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.

Also hitting the 5 year mark is my other favourite thing to do in November - Non-Fiction November.

Why not combine all 3 and read a fabulous non-fiction Australian title for the 24hr Readathon!

A Dangerous Language by Sulari Gentill

Most of you know my love for the Rowland Sinclair series. I've had to wait nearly 12 months for the latest instalment, A Dangerous Language...and it was so worth the wait!

I had the pleasure of hearing Sulari Gentill talk about her books recently and was thrilled to hear that she has long term plans for Rowland and his friends that will take us all the way through to the end of WWII. Initially she planned to write a book set in each year from 1932 - 1945. However we have now just finished book 8...and we're still in 1935!

One of the things I love about this series is the mix of fictional and real life characters. Gentill talked about how she always sticks to the known facts but that her stories exist in the gaps in between.
A quick wiki search on the journalist Egon Kisch shows that he did in fact jump from his ship in Melbourne in 1934 and break his leg. Gentill has simply added Rowly and his friends to the picture with a plausible reason about why Kisch may have 'jumped'.

Having an historian as a husband has kept Gentill honest in all matters relating to these times. It's this authenticity that makes Rowland feel so real...and the fact that he is such a lovely, lovely man. It must be wonderful to carry him around in your head all the time, as Gentill does.

This particular story is mostly set in Victoria and Canberra as Rowly and his friends help the members the Movement Against War & Fascism get Kisch into the country to speak his 'dangerous language'. Naturally, Rowland's brother, Wilfred, is not happy about this turn of events, but there are many others even unhappier. This unhappiness quickly turns into violence and places our much loved characters in many dangerous situations.

Poor Rowly has been shot, stabbed, tortured, kidnapped and hit over the head so many times, it's amazing that he's still standing. It's getting a little harder to classify these books as 'cosy crime' or 'gentle crime', perhaps historical fiction that just happens to have crime and political intrigue is a more apt description.

Gentill is getting better and better with each of the Rowly stories. I love how she brings to light little known historical events for her characters to engage with. Fact and fiction are woven together seamlessly and gracefully and her main characters are being allowed to evolve into nuanced, complex individuals. Does anyone else feel that little break/ache of their heart every time Mrs Sinclair calls Rowland, Aubrey?

Sense of place is a another thing that I love about these books. Gentill's good eye for detail brings 1930's Sydney to life (or in this case 1930's Melbourne and Canberra). I have a real sense of walking beside Rowly and his friends, seeing what they see and feeling what they feel.

As for Rowly and Edna? It's so obvious that the adore each other, but will they ever be able to work things out? They are the Mulder & Scully or the David & Maddie of 1930's Sydney!

Any of these stories would be great choices for this year's #AusReadingMonth BINGO card. Most of the books are set in Sydney, NSW, except for Book 4 that took us to Munich, Germany and this latest one.

#1 A Few Right Thinking Men
#2 A Decline in Prophets
#3 Miles Off Course
#4 Paving the New Road
#5 Gentlemen Formerly Dressed
#6 A Murder Unmentioned
#7 Give the Devil His Due
Prequel - The Prodigal Son (e-book only - download your copy here.)
#8 - A Dangerous Language
#9 - due for publication Sept 2018

#AusReadingMonth - which book?

To help you find the right book for your #AusReadingMonth challenge, I've listed a selection of Aussie books by genre with their State or Territory. 

Which BINGO challenge will you be trying?

Flyby Night

If time is of the essence, one book from the BINGO card may be the prefect option for you.

A quick getaway is better than none!

Backpackers 

With their compact swags, backpackers need to travel light.

If this is you, simply select one line (horizontal, vertical of even diagonal) on the BINGO card and read three books about our country.

Grey Nomads 

If you have more time up your sleeve join the grey nomads in their self-contained campervans as you travel around this big, brown land of ours. 

With every crossroad on the map, there's a choice to be made; you cannot do it all, so select two lines on the BINGO card to be eligible for Grey Nomad status.

The Whole Hog

If you're feeling a little touched by the sun, then the Whole Hog may be for you.

Read NINE books this November from all of the 8 states and territories plus one freebie.

The FREEBIE can be any book by an Australian author or a book written by an overseas author but set entirely in Australia.

For the crime lovers amongst you:

Comeback by Peter Corris - NSW

The Rowland Sinclair series by Sulari Gentill (historical crime) - NSW (mostly)

Roger Rogerson by Duncan McNab (true crime) - NSW

Crucifixion Creek by Barry Maitland - NSW

Wimmera by Mark Brandi - VIC

The Phyrne Fisher series by Kerry Greenwood (historical crime) - VIC (mostly)

Jack Irish novels by Peter Temple - VIC

The Dry by Jane Harper - VIC

To Know My Crime by Fiona Capp - VIC

The Sunken Road by Garry Disher - SA

Bitter Wash Road by Garry Disher - SA

Olmec Obituary by L. J. M. Owen - ACT

Three Crooked Kings by Matthew Condon (true crime) - QLD

Can You Keep a Secret - Caroline Overington - QLD

Last Drinks by Andrew McGahan - QLD

Before it Breaks by Dave Warner - WA

Taking a Chance by Deborah Burrows (historical crime) - WA

The Build Up by Phillip Gwynne - NT

Gunshot Road by Adrian Hyland - NT

Bay of Fires by Poppy Gee - TAS

Fatal Impact by Kathryn Fox - TAS

General fiction options:

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough - QLD

Elianne by Judy Nunn - QLD

Rain Music by Di Morrissey - QLD

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Moreton - QLD

Tiddas by Anita Heiss - NSW

Maralinga by Judy Nunn - SA

Hello From the Gillespies by Monica McInerney - SA

Skylarking by Kate Mildenhall - ACT

The Silent Country by Di Morrissey - NT

Territory by Judy Nunn - NT

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman (historical fiction) - WA

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey (historical fiction) - WA

The Woman Next Door by Liz Byrski - WA

The Alphabet of Light and Dark by Danielle Wood - TAS

Family Secrets by Liz Byrski - TAS

Tiger Men by Judy Nunn - TAS

If romance is more your thing try:

Secrets Between Friends by Fiona Palmer (fiction) - WA

Northern Heat by Helene Young - QLD

Beyond the Orchard by Anna Romer - QLD

The Greatest Gift by Rachael Johns (fiction) - NSW
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty - NSW
The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough (historical fiction) - NSW

Cleanskin Cowgirls by Rachael Treasure (rural fiction) - NSW

The Farmer's Wife by Rachael Treasure (rural fiction) - NSW

The Naturalist's Daughter by Tea Cooper (historical fiction) - NSW

The Cedar Cutter by Tea Cooper (historical fiction) - NSW

Sara Dane by Catherine Gaskin (historical fiction) - NSW

Down the Dirt Roads by Rachael Treasure (memoir) - TAS

Jewel in the North by Tricia Stringer (rural fiction) - SA

Paycheque by Fiona McCallum (fiction) - SA

A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute (fiction) - NT

Outback Heart by Joanne van Os (rural fiction) - NT

Finding Hannah by Fiona McCallum (fiction) - VIC

I Know My Love by Catherine Gaskin (historical fiction) - VIC

Talk of the Town by Rachael Johns (rural fiction) - WA

Children's books:

I Can Jump Puddles by Alan Marshall (junior fiction) - VIC

Looking For Alibrandi by Marlena Marchetta (YA) - NSW

Alexander's Outing by Pamela Allen (picture book) - NSW

Alphabetical Sydney by Hilary Bell &         (picture book) - NSW

Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park (junior fiction) - NSW

Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner (junior fiction) NSW

My Place by Nadia Wheatley (picture book ) - NSW

Mirror by Jeannie Baker (picture book) - NSW

Pastures of the Blue Crane by R. M. Brimstead (teen) - NSW

The Girl Most Likely by Rebecca Sparrow (YA) - QLD

Don't Call Me Ishmael by Michael Gerard Bauer (teen) - QLD

Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker (picture book) - QLD

Into That Forest by Louis Nowra (junior fiction) - TAS

Meet Alice: Our Australian Girl by Davina Bell (junior fiction) - WA

Lochie Leonard by Tim Winton (teen) - WA

Blueback by Tim Winton (junior fiction) - WA

The Deep by Tim Winton (picture book) - WA

Storm Boy by Colin Thiele (junior fiction) - SA

Rockhopping by Trace Balla (picture book) - SA

The Year it All Ended by Kirsty Murray (YA) - SA

Meet Nellie: Our Australian Girl by Penny Matthews (junior fiction) - SA

If you'd like to read some Indigenous literature, try this fabulous new site I just read about today (thanks Sue) called Writing Black @if:book Australia. The writing is contemporary and downloadable. Some of the writing will be set in a specific place, but many of the pieces could fit the FREEBIE box as well.
Magabala Books is an Indigenous publishing house with a great selection of titles.
The University of Queensland Press also has a great list of Black Australian Writing here.

My #AusReadingMonth Possibilities

As many of you know, my TBR pile is out of control. A bigly number of those books are by Australian authors (I feel safe using bigly now that 1. we know that Trump actually said big league and 2. that bigly is a real work, although archaic and rarely used.)

I thought I'd list some of them, focusing on the state, territory or town that each is predominantly set in, to help our overseas #AusReadingMonth participants.

Since I haven't read any of these books yet, I'm using their blurbs and goodreads reviews to help me work out where they're set. If anyone would like to correct me, please feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Aunts Up the Cross by Robin Dalton (memoir) - Kings Cross, Sydney, NSW
The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough (historical fiction) - The Blue Mountains, NSW
The Dyehouse by Mena Calthorpe (fiction/classic) - Sydney, NSW
Mirror Sydney by Vanessa Berry (non-fiction) - NSW
The Timeless Land by Elenor Dark (fiction/classic) - NSW
Watershed by Fabienne Bayet-Charlton (fiction) - NSW, I think.
True North by Brenda Niall (biography) - NSW (& elsewhere)

Home by Larissa Behrendt (fiction) - NSW

1788 by Watkin Tench (history/memoir) - NSW

Everyman's Rules of Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany (fiction) - VIC
The Pea-Pickers by Eve Langley (fiction/classic) - VIC
Sisters by Ada Cambridge (fiction/classic) - VIC
The Danger Game by Kalinda Ashton (fiction) - Melbourne, VIC
The First Book of Samuel by Ursula Dubosarsky (historical fiction)- Melbourne, VIC
Conditions of Faith by Alex Miller (fiction/memoir) - Melbourne, VIC predominantly

A Child's Book of True Crime by Chloe Hooper (historical fiction) - TAS

The Commandant by Jessica Anderson (historical fiction/classic) - QLD
It's Raining in Mango by Thea Astley (fiction) - QLD
The Slow Natives by Thea Astley (fiction) - QLD
The White Earth by Andrew McGahan (fiction) - QLD
Omega Park by Amy Barker (fiction) - QLD
Journey to the Stone Country by Alex Miller (fiction) - QLD

A Dangerous Language by Sulari Gentill (historical fiction/crime)- ACT predominantly

Shallows by Tim Winton (fiction) - WA
Benang by Kim Scott (memoir/fiction) - WA
Coonardoo by Katharine Susannah Prichard (fiction) - WA

My Place by Sally Morgan (memoir) - WA

Island Home by Tim Winton (memoir/essays) - FREE - it covers various areas of Australia, although being Winton it will probably be predominantly WA based.

Maurice Guest by Henry Handle Richardson (fiction/classic) - FREE - an Australian writer with an overseas setting.

My Love Must Wait by Ernestine Hill (historical fiction/classic) - FREE - a fictional story about Matthew Flinders
Cabin Fever by Elizabeth Jolley (fiction) - FREE - an Australian writer with an overseas setting.
The Swan Book by Alexis Wright (fiction) - FREE - futuristic novel set in Australia

The Rose Grower by Michelle de Kretser (historical fiction) - FREE - an Australian writer with an overseas setting.
Dancing with Strangers by Inga Clendinnen (history) - FREE - all of Australia.
The Bush by Don Watson (non-fiction) - FREE - all of Australia.

As you can see, I actually need a year-long AusReading event to come close to reading all these books! Can you recommend any of these books? Which one should I tackle first?

My Top Ten all-time favourite Australian books.