Two Birds; One Stone.

In preparation for #AusReadingMonth in November, I will create a few posts full of Aussie books to help inspire and expand your true blue wishlists.

Today we start with Non-Fiction.

November has become one of my busiest reading and blogging months of the year. In 2013, not only did I start hosting #AusReadingMonth for the first time, but Kim & Leslie began the very first Non-Fiction November. Doing two reading challenges in one month is certainly not unheard of for me, but it is a juggle!

This year, to make life easier for myself, I'm determined to combine both events by focusing on Australian non-fiction.

This is harder than it sounds.

I love Australian non-fiction, but only a few Aussie bloggers participate in Non-Fiction November, so what happens as I go around visiting everyone else's posts, is that I get excited and tempted by a whole stack of international non-fiction titles and suddenly my TBR wishlist explodes with non-Australian titles.

However, this year, I'm going to be strong and stick to my Australian non-fictions goals.
It's not like I don't have enough choices.

Below are all the Aussie non-fiction books on my real-life TBR pile.

If you're looking for #AusReadingMonth inspiration that combines with #NonficNov, then look no further!

Agamemnon's Kiss by Inga Clendinnen
Almost French by Sarah Turnbull
The Art of Reading by Damon Young
The Art of Time Travel by Tom Griffiths
Arthur Phillip by Michael Pembroke
Australia Day by Stan Grant
Australian Notebooks by Betty Churcher
Axiomatic by Maria Tumarkin

• Winner of the 2018 Melbourne Prize for Literature’s Best Writing Award
• Shortlisted for the Stella Prize 2019
• Shortlisted for the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction at the 2019 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards
• Shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards Non-fiction
• Shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Non-fiction

Boys Will Be Boys by Clementine Ford
The Bush by Don Watson
The Cost of Courage in Aztec Society by Inga Clendinnen
Craft for a Dry Lake by Kim Mahood

Dancing With Strangers by Inga Clendinnen
Darwin's Armada by Iain McCalman
Dragon and Kangaroo by Robert Macklin
Dymphna by Judith Armstrong

Elizabeth Macarthur by Michelle Scott Tucker

The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes
From the Edge by Mark McKenna

Georgiana by Brenda Niall
Ghost Empire by Richard Fidler
The Great Barrier Reef by Bowen
Griffith Review #63 Writing the Country
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Anita Heiss

• Winner of Small Publisher’s Adult Book of the Year at the 2019 ABIA Awards

Gum by Ashley Hay

Inner Worlds Outer Space by Ceridwen Dovey
Island Home by Tim Winton

Joe Cinque's Consolation by Helen Garner
Journey from Venice by Ruth Cracknell

Modern Love by Lesley Harding & Kendrah Morgan

Napoleon: Passion, Death and Resurrection 1815 - 1840 by Philip Dwyer
No Friend But the Mountain by Behrouz Boochani

• Winner of General Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the 2019 ABIA Awards
• Winner of the Prize for Non-fiction and the overall Victorian Prize for Literature at the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards
• Winner of the Special Award at the 2019 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards
• Winner of the National Biography Award 2019

Not Drowning, Reading by Andrew Relph
Notebooks by Betty Churcher

Only in New York by Lily Brett
Origin Story: A Big History of Everything by David Christian

Position Doubtful by Kim Mahood

Quarterly Essay #73 Australia Fair
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
Riding the Trains in Japan by Patrick Holland

Sagaland by Richard Fidler and Kari Gislason
Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta
Silent Invasion by Clive Hamilton
A Single Tree by Don Watson
Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters by Margot Neale
The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
The Spare Room by Helen Garner
Sydney Harbour: A History by Ian Hoskins

Thirty Days by Mark Raphael Baker
Tiger's Eye by Inga Clendinnen
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein

• Joint Winner of the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction at the 2019 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards
• Winner of the Victorian Prize for Literature 2018 and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Writing for Non-fiction 2018
• Winner of the Dobbie Literary Award 2018
• Shortlisted for the National Biography Award 2019

True North by Brenda Niall
True Stories by Helen Garner

The Unknown Judith Wright by Georgina Arnott
Unpolished Gem by Alice Pung

Welcome to Your New Life by Anna Goldsworthy
Women Kind by Dr Kirstin Ferguson & Catherine Fox
The Writing Life by David Malouf

You Daughters of Freedom by Claire Wright

• Shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Australian History

YES, I have a problem!
I grant you, it's a good problem to have. Although a little overwhelming when I see all these wonderful books lined up in one place, waiting for me to read them.

However, if that was not enough list for you, let me tempt with this year's award winning Australian non-fiction titles!

Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee

• Winner of the Davitt Award for Debut 2019
• Winner of the Ned Kelly Award for True Crime 2019
• Winner of the People’s Choice Award at the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards
• Shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards Non-fiction
• Shortlisted for the 2019 Indie Book Award for non-fiction

Family: New Vegetable Classics to Comfort and Nourish by Hetty McKinnon

• Winner of Illustrated Book of the Year at the 2019 ABIA Awards
• Shortlisted for the 2019 Indie Book Award for illustrated non-fiction

Deep Time Dreaming by Billy Griffiths

• Winner of Book of the Year at the 2019 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards
• Joint Winner of the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction at the 2019 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards
• Winner of the 2019 Ernest Scott Prize
• Shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Australian History

The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie

• Winner of the 2019 Stella Prize
• Shortlisted for the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction at the 2019 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards

The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper

• Winner of the Davitt Award for Non-fiction Crime 2019
• Winner of the 2019 Indie Book Award for non-fiction
• Shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards Non-fiction
• Shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Non-fiction

Welcome to Country by Marcia Langton

• Winner of the 2019 Indie Book Award for illustrated non-fiction
• Shortlisted for General Non-fiction Book of the Year at the 2019 ABIA Awards

Sorry Day by Coral Vass and Illustrated by Dub Leffler

• Winner 2019 CBCA Eve Pownall Award for Information Books

Any Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales

• Shortlisted for the 2019 Indie Book Award for non-fiction
• Shortlisted for General Non-fiction Book of the Year at the 2019 ABIA Awards

The Land Before Avocado by Richard Glover

• Shortlisted for the 2019 Indie Book Award for non-fiction

Australian Dreamscapes by Claire Takacs

• Shortlisted for the 2019 Indie Book Award for illustrated non-fiction

A Painted Landscape: Across Australia from Bush to Coast by Amber Creswell Bell

• Shortlisted for the 2019 Indie Book Award for illustrated non-fiction
• Shortlisted for Illustrated Book of the Year at the 2019 ABIA Awards

Teacher by Gabbie Stroud

• Shortlisted for Biography Book of the Year at the 2019 ABIA Awards

Boys Will Be Boys by Clementine Ford

• Shortlisted for General Non-fiction Book of the Year at the 2019 ABIA Awards

Mirka and Georges by Lesley Harding & Kendrah Morgan

• Shortlisted for Illustrated Book of the Year at the 2019 ABIA Awards

Special Guest by Annabel Crabb and Wendy Sharpe

• Shortlisted for Illustrated Book of the Year at the 2019 ABIA Awards

The Cook’s Apprentice by Stephanie Alexander

• Shortlisted for Illustrated Book of the Year at the 2019 ABIA Awards

Tracker by Alexis Wright

• Shortlisted for the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction at the 2019 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards

Sagaland by Richard Fidler and Kári Gíslason

• Shortlisted for the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction at the 2019 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards

A Certain Light: A memoir of family, loss and hope by Cynthia Banham

• Shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Non-fiction

Half the Perfect World: Writers, dreamers and drifters on Hydra, 1955–1964 by Paul Genoni & Tanya Dalziell

• Shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Non-fiction

Rusted Off: Why country Australia is fed up by Gabrielle Chan

• Shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Non-fiction

Dancing in Shadows: Histories of Nyungar performance by Anna Haebich

• Shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Australian History

The Bible in Australia: A cultural history by Meredith Lake

• Shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Australian History

The Land of Dreams: How Australians won their freedom, 1788–1860 by David Kemp

• Shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Australian History

Staying: A Memoir by Jessie Cole

• Shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards Non-fiction

Miss Ex-Yugoslavia by Sofija Stefanovic

• Shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards Non-fiction

Dr Space Junk vs The Universe: Archaeology and the Future by Alice Gorman

• Shortlisted for the University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award 2019

An Unconventional Wife: The Life of Julia Sorell Arnold by Mary Hoban

• Shortlisted for the University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award 2019

Shakespeare’s Library: Unlocking the Greatest Mystery in Literature by Stuart Kells

• Shortlisted for the University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award 2019

The Eastern Curlew by Harry Saddler 

• Shortlisted for the University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award 2019

Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson

• Shortlisted for the University of Queensland Non-Fiction Book Award 2019

Are you tempted?

Indigenous Picture Books for Children

For Lisa's Indigenous Literature Week I had planned to post a selection of new Indigenous picture books, however my plans were bigger than my time management abilities!

Fortunately, these beautiful books deserve to be shared at any time, regardless of NAIDOC week or ILW.

Baby Business (2019) by Jasmine Seymour is a wonderful story for new parents, showing us, sharing with us, one way to welcome a new baby to country. However it's not just baby business, but also mother, grandmother and aunty business.

Respect, love and tradition embues every page as we follow the rituals of a smoking ceremony of welcome.

I loved this a lot.
I loved it for its celebration of new life, diversity and belonging. For its pride in our heritage and traditions. For its openness in sharing personal rituals and beliefs.

It's a book that reminds us that we belong to Country; that it doesn't belong to us. That we should only 'take what we need and no more' then 'give back what you can, and help your Mudgin (family) and Nura (country) when they need it.'

Durag words are scattered naturally throughout the text.

Seymour's beautiful, warm earthy illustrations create tender scenes of family, women and country. The background has a soft, dreamy quality which draws the eye towards the action around the sharp-focused baby on each page.

Jasmine is a member of the Durag Custodian Aboriginal Corporation. Her bio at Magabala Books also says that she is,

a descendant of Maria Lock, daughter of Yarramundi, the Boorooberongal elder who met Governor Phillip on the banks of the Hawkesbury in 1791. Maria was the first Aboriginal woman to be educated by the Blacktown Native Institute. She was married to carpenter and convict, Robert Lock and their union resulted in thousands of descendants who can all trace their Darug heritage back past Yarramundi.

When I was growing up, this kind of Indigenous family history and acknowledgement of local Indigenous heritage did not exist. In certain circles, there was a lament that this information had been lost, but most (white) people didn't see the point of remembering it.

But then colonial family history research took off during the 1980's, as so many of us searched for our convict ancestors and the UK county of our forebears. Suddenly (white) Australians were proud of their convict past as they (re)claimed a small patch of the UK as an ancestral 'home'.

It feels like it has taken a lot longer for pride in our Indigenous history to also be embraced. It is still an evolving idea in many circles. But books like this can help all of us to acknowledge, understand and respect the traditional heritage of our land. To learn some of the language, to have a window into another culture, to share a moment together - theses are all tiny, baby steps towards truth telling, reconciliation and treaty.

Sorry Day (2018) by Coral Vass and illustrated by Dub Leffler tells two stories told side by side - a modern story set on the lawns of Parliament House on the day that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised for the Stolen Generation.

The older story provides a window into what it felt like to be stolen.

"Hide. HIDE!!" 

"White men  

The children trembled."

I have read sections of the Stolen Generation report and feel that I am open to seeing things from a perspective other than my own, but it is still confronting to realise that Aboriginal children today, and of old, automatically viewed all white men as people who they should fear. 

Dub Lefller is from the Bigambul and Mandandanji people of SW Queensland. His illustrations include a sepia style for the historic story, while the modern story is in full colour. A double page spread opens up at the end to combine the two styles. A timeline with the relevant facts and figures about the Stolen Generation and the events leading up to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's apology are provided at the end.

The book includes a foreward by Lee Joachim, Chair of Rumbalara Aboriginal Coop and Director of Research & Development for Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation.

It was Shortlisted for the 2019 CBCA Eve Pownall Award and a Winner of the Speech Pathologist Book of the Year 2018.

*August Update* Sorry Day won the Eve Pownall Information Book Award.

Little Bird's Day (2019) by Sally Morgan is a gorgeous picture book about a day in the life of a bird. Sally belongs to the Palyku people from the eastern Pilbara region of Western Australia and is best known for her 1987 autobiography, My Place.

However, for me, Johnny Warrkatja Malibirr's stunning illustrations are the main attraction of this book. Malibirr is a Yolgu man from the Ganalbingu clan who has recently been awarded the Inaugural Kestin Indigenous Illustrator's Award. His bio on Magabala Books also says that he,

is known for his paintings of Ganalbingu song lines as well as his mother’s Wägilak clan stories. Along with other members of his clan, Johnny keeps culture strong through painting, song, dance, and ceremony. Johnny lives in the remote East Arnhem Land community of Gapuwiyak, where he is Chair of the Gapuwiyak Culture and Arts Aboriginal Corporation.

The illustrations have a strong connection to nature, using a traditional colour palate and styles. The sense of movement on each page is gracefully achieved, with a pleasing balance of details and open space.

It's a lovely nature story for a 3+ audience, that lends itself to simple dramatisation and dance moves.

Welcome to Country (2016) by Aunty Joy Murphy and illustrated by Lisa Kennedy is one of my favourite picture books of the moment. It not only feels worthy (of awards and recognition) and timely, but it's also sensitively and beautifully executed.

The initial 'welcome to the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri People' is presented in both English and Wurundjeri language, with a another reminder to 'only take from this land what you can give back.' The book celebrates Indigenous language, culture and art and is another example of a book naturally introducing the local language to a wider audience. 

Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin AO is an Elder of the Wurundjeri People of Melbourne and surrounds. She is a storyteller who 'is passionate about using story to bring people together and as a conduit for understanding Aboriginal culture.'

Lisa Kennedy is a descendant of the Trawlwoolway People on the north-east coast of Tasmania.

It was then my challenge to find a way to express this living culture in a contemporary way in my illustrations. I wanted to show the physical and the spiritual connection to Country and Ancestors using imagery accessible to a wide audience.

• Winner of the Environment Award for Children’s Literature
• Winner Educational Publishing Award
• CBCA Notable Book 
• Short-listed for the CBCA Crichton Award 
• Short-listed NSW Premier’s Literary Award
• Short-listed Speech Pathology Book of the Year Award

Land of the Echidna People (2019) by Percy Trezise and illustrated by Mary Lavis.

I wasn't completely sure about including this book in my collection of Indigenous picture books. Neither Percy Trezise (1923 - 2005) nor Mary Lavis are Aboriginal. However in the end I decided that the story behind this book was interesting and a good conversation starter around the whole cultural appropriation topic.

The Land of the Echidna People is the eighth book in Trezise's Journey to the Great Lakes series,
first begun in 1996. The eight books follow Jacinda and his younger sister Lande, brother Jalmor and dog, Lasca after a violent storm has carried them away from them family. The series follows their journey through various countries as they try to make their way home. Many of the books contain maps that allow the reader to follow the path they took. The stories are full of adventure, danger, belonging and family.

The first seven books were illustrated by Trezise himself. Sadly he died before finishing the last book. Mary Lavis offered her services to the family to finish Trezise's work to bring this series to an end.

• Home of the Kadimakara People (1996)
• Land of the Dingo People (1997)
• Land of the Emu People (1997)
• Land of the Snake People (2000)
• Land of the Brolga People (2001)
• Land of the Magpie Goose People (2001)
• Land of the Kangaroo People (2002)
• Land of the Echidna People (2019)

Trezise devoted his life to Aboriginal causes. In 1956 he moved to Cairns as a pilot to be closer to Aboriginal people. Discoveries of rock art during the 60's by road crews, encouraged Trezise to use his aerial skills to search for other 'lost' rock art areas. One of the most significant finds was the Quinkin Rock Art, in Cape York Peninsula, the oldest art site in the world. He helped the local Aboriginal community to advocate for this area to become a national park administered by them. He also purchased two properties to preserve and protect further rock art sites.

There is absolutely no doubt that Trezise's heart was in the right place. Various interviews and articles, including an Australia Story episode on ABC TV, show his life-long passion and support of Aboriginal culture and art. His collaborative friendship with Mornington Island illustrator, Dick Roughsey (1920 - 1985), gave him access to many of the 'old people'. He was granted the Aboriginal name, Gubbaladalli from the people of Mornington Island Mission.

After his death, two of his sons have continued his work in the area.

I suspect if Roughsey had still be alive, they would have collaborated on this series of myth-making stories, as they did with so many books before. My understanding is that they shared creative ideas and painting techniques. Trezise's interest in Aboriginal culture was not just a passing thing. It was a passion and belief that guided his whole life.

Reading Race: Aboriginality in Australian Children's Literature (2001) by Clare Bradford. She discusses at length the 'complex cultural politics' evident in the Trezise/Roughsey relationship. She claims that their work sits somewhere between an older style assimilationist approach and the contemporary retelling of traditional stories, 'caught between times and between changing practices.'

She sees Trezise's post-Roughsey work as 'redolent not so much of appropriation...as of a set of formulae not too remote from Aboriginal traditions to function effectively for contemporary readers.'

Wilam: A Birrarung Story (2019) is another story by Aunty Joy Murphy with Andrew Kelly, illustrated by Lisa Kennedy.

Andrew Kelly is a Yarra Riverkeeper, who had this to say about the writing process with Aunty Joy on the Booktopia Q&A site,

The writing of the book was a process of bouncing words and ideas between myself and Aunty Joy. The first draft of the manuscript had many more words and it was a matter of whittling them down to a sufficient elegance. The other part I really liked was working with Aunty Joy on the language and creating a seamless flow between Woiwurrung words and English.

I love this trend in embracing and sharing Indigenous languages in a natural way. We should all be growing up, hearing and using Aboriginal words, not just in the names of our country towns and rivers, but in songs and everyday speech.

Aunty Joy Murphy and Andrew Kelly use traditional language to name many known animals and natural things (like rain, tree, creek, river etc) in a beautifully illustrated story about the water cycle.

As ngua rises, Bunjil soars over mountain ash, flying higher and higher as the wind warms. Below, Birrarung begins its long winding path down to palem warreen. Wilam – home.

Kennedy has merged scenes of modern life into and around her central images of the natural environment. Gorgeous end papers bookend the story.

A glossary at the back provides definitions for all the Indigenous words used throughout the story.

My Culture and Me (2019) by Gregg Dreise.

Dreise is a descendant of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi tribes, from south-west Queensland and north-west New South Wales. As the Penguin blurb says, this is indeed a 'heartfelt and stirring story of cherishing and sustaining Indigenous cultures.'

One of the trends in children's picture books at the moment, is pride in Indigenous culture. They encourage Indigenous readers to reclaim, embrace and celebrate their cultural heritage. They allow non-Indigenous readers a window into another way of life. These stories embody a wonderful sense of sharing, acceptance and understanding with all Australians. 

It is such a long overdue idea that I'm hopeful this new trend is just one more signpost along the way to a more meaningful reconciliation process and a more 'fair and truthful relationship'* between us all. 

*Uluru Statement From the Heart

As an early childhood teacher in a previous life, I know the importance of the early years in laying down the foundation stones for a strong sense of self. Books like this help promote positive images and pride in culture. It is so important to have heroes and role models that look like you and sound like you in books. 

My one concern is that most Aboriginal children in Australia today, now live in cities and large urban areas, whereas most of these books are set in rural or remote areas. Country is such an important concept in Aboriginal culture and this shines through in all these books. But it's not only important to see people who look like you in books and stories, it's also important to have stories that reflect the lives you actually live in the places you are living them. 

Which leads me very nicely into Black Cockatoo (2018) by Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler

Mia is a 13-year-old girl from a remote community in the Kimberley. She is saddened by the loss of her brother as he distances himself from the family. She feels powerless to change the things she sees around her, until one day she rescues her totem animal, the dirran black cockatoo, and soon discovers her own inner strength.

When I was teaching, the Aboriginal children in my class, were mostly being cared for by their grandparents. In fact, I can only think of one family where this was not the case. Stories that reflect this situation are important for a sense of belonging, but also for opening up the wider discussion around the why's and wherefore's of this reality.

Black Cockatoo is a short story that oozes themes of connection, standing up for yourself, freedom (for birds, animals and humans), family, totem, animal rights, respect and complicated family relationships. It's contemporary, real-life nature is suitable for 10+ readers.

Jaru words are used throughout the story.

The story includes evocative black and white paintings, mostly of the cockatoo. There is a glossary of indigenous terms used in the story at the back of the book.

Carl Merrison is a Jaru man from Halls Creek. Carl was nominated for Australian of the Year in 2016.

His partner, Hakea Hustler was a high school English teacher at Halls Creek District High School. She is committed to Indigenous education with a particular focus on 'school engagement, English language and story as learning, understanding and empowerment.'

Their book has been Shortlisted for the 2019 ABIA's Small Publishers' Children's Book of the Year and the 2019 CBCA Younger Readers Book of the Year.

I had planned on including Young Dark Emu: A Truer History (2019) by Bruce Pascoe in this post, but 

1. it's first print run sold out in a matter of days, so I've been waiting for the reprint to turn up to read it properly. 

2. this post is already too long and 

3. I suspect Pascoe's book will require a longer response than the few paragraphs I could give it here!

For now I will leave you with the words of Michael Warren in his 2012 thesis, Exclusive Inclusion: Aboriginality, The 'Juggernaut' of Modernity and Australian National Identity. 

Contradiction is indeed a feature common to the relationship between Aboriginal people and white Australia.

Since creativity evolves from and is inspired by the contradictions in our lives, I'd say we can look forward to many more engaging, confronting Indigenous stories in the years to come.

Flames by Robbie Arnott

It's a long weekend in Australia, and for the first time in over a year, we've enjoyed a lazy, nothing-to-do-but-flop-around-the-house kind of weekend. It has been blissful. Even with the ghastly high temps and even higher humidity, or maybe because of, it has been the perfect time for reading, snoozing and listening to music as we sporadically clean and tidy the house.

Typing up reviews has been the furthest thing from my mind.

Lots of changes (the good, positive, life-going-forward kind of changes, but changes nonetheless) are coming our way this year - starting next week when B18 goes away to Uni.

The teenage years are not easy for anyone to live through, which is maybe Nature's way of making it easy for both teens and their parents to let go. But as tough as the last few years have been (and there were times when I thought my sanity would not survive intact), I wouldn't now swap them for anything.

Which brings me to Flames by Robbie Arnott. Like a teenager in full flight, it's a hard novel to define or pin down. Like a teenager, it's a debut with flights of fancy, bravado and wild schemes. It's on the verge of greatness, oozing potential and grand ideas. But unlike living with teenagers, I loved every minute of it and can't wait to see what Arnott does next!

The Tasmanian environment is one of the prominent characters throughout this genre-defying story which Arnott uses to stress the interconnectedness between us all. Fire, water, trees and the gods play their parts too.

Flames has a fablesque quality and is mythological in tone with different writing styles to suit each characters story. Arnott plays around with magic realism, an epistolary chapter, report writing and the fabulous chapter with the female private eye that reads like a Tasmanian Philip Marlowe, just to name a few. It should have felt disjointed and all over the place, but just like a teen, it somehow made sense and seemed like just the right thing to do at that time.

Through his various characters, Arnott explores the wild, raw nature of grief, mourning and love. We watch them come to terms with letting go of what they thought they knew as they learn to embrace the unknowable future and whatever it might bring. No matter how far apart you may seem to be, you are still family, you are still connected, and it will ultimately keep you afloat, if you let it.

Arnott is a young Tasmanian copywriter. Flames has been shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction, the Indie Book Awards for Debut Fiction, and the Queensland Literary Awards: University of Queensland Fiction Book Award 2018.

Facts:

• Longlisted | 2020 International Dublin Literary Award.
• Winner | Margaret Scott Prize | Tasmanian Premier's Literary Awards 2019
• Shortlisted | Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction 2019
• Longlisted | Indie Book Awards for Debut Fiction 2019
• Shortlisted | UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing | NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2019
• Shortlisted | Queensland Literary Awards Fiction Book Award 2018
• Shortlisted | Kathleen Mitchell Award 2019
• Longlisted | ALS Gold Medal 2019
• Longlisted | Miles Franklin Literary Award 2019
• Longlisted | Voss Literary Prize 2019
• Shortlisted | Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize UK 2019

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

I suspect I'm going to be the lone dissenting voice when it comes to Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton.

This is a debut Australian novel garnering a HUGE amount of attention and rave reviews. In the lead up to our Christmas rush at work last year, this is the book many, many locals were asking for. Customers were returning to tell us how much they ADORED the book and every second book club, including mine, seemed to pick it for their summer holiday read.

I was thrilled that I was going to have a good excuse to make time for this book and I couldn't wait to get stuck into it.

To start with what I loved:

• The cover - just gorgeous, vibrant and psychedelic. The blue wren makes sense once you start reading. For an in depth look into how cover designers settle on the finished design read this fascinating piece from the Australian Book Design Association. They interviewed Darren Holt and Claire Ward, the Australian and UK designers for Boy Swallows Universe (as well as other designers for other books).
• The writing - Dalton took my breath away. I was completely and utterly WOWED.
• The protagonist, Eli Bell is a wonderful narrator. His voice is believable, charming and unique.
• The introduction of ex-con Slim Halliday as Eli's babysitter added a quirky touch.
• I loved the themes - a young boy looking for a 'good man' to love and model his life on, brotherly love, redemption and protection, a young boys fierce need for mother love.
• Early on I also began to suspect that this book was also heavily embedded in real life events.
• Slim Halliday was a real criminal who did his time in Boggo Road Gaol.
• How much else was real?

However around the 50 page mark, the underbelly criminal stuff started to take centre stage. Drugs, drug running and drug lords took over the story. Because I now suspected that this was based on a true story (I hadn't googled at this point) I made myself keep reading even though, every single extra sordid drug reference and act turned me off more and more and more. 

I've always believed that if someone actually had to LIVE through something ghastly, the very least I can do from my safe, white, middle class home, is read about it with understanding and compassion and a huge dose of gratefulness for my very ordinary upbringing.

True crime is not my usual genre, but I have been known to be fascinated by the occasional story. We watched the second season of Underbelly that starred Matthew Newton which was centred around the murder of Donald Mackay in Griffith in 1977, but I haven't been able to watch any of the other seasons. I also haven't got into Breaking Bad, The Sopranos or Orange is the New Black.

However, with Boy Swallows Universe, I got to a point, about 100 pages in, where the amazing writing and the affection I felt for the two brothers, wasn't enough to sustain me through the relentless criminal activity. 

I admire Dalton for finding such an incredible way to process the trauma from his childhood. There is so much love for this story 'out there', that I'm sure it will pop up in most of the Australian book awards this year. It deserves it too. The praise being heaped on it, is valid, but the content is just not my thing. There are so many books, about topics that I have way more interest in, waiting for me to read them, that I don't want to give too much time to one of those that just fails to fit the bill...for me.

Boy Swallows Universe has just been shortlisted for the Indie Debut Fiction Book Awards.

I've labelled this with the Did Not Finish tag, but it was more a case of skim reading the last three quarters of the book before slowing down to read the last chapter properly.

March update: I gave this to Mr Books to read because I suspected that he would love it. He did.
He felt the criminal activity was within context and didn't dominate the story. For him, the story of the boys, the search for goodness and what makes a person 'good' and the power of redemption were powerful, moving themes.
He was surprised I couldn't finish it, even though he has had years of watching me hide behind pillows and my hands in violent movies! (We're rewatching Game of Thrones in preparation for the final season. Because I know what's coming, I'm spending even more time behind the pillows than I did with the first viewing, when many of the violent/cruel scenes caught me by surprise. I also know to leave the room whenever Bolton walks on screen).

Facts:

• Longlisted for the 2020 International Dublin Literary Award.
• Winner 2019 ABIA Book of the Year Award | Literary Fiction Book of the Year
• Winner 2019 Indie Book Award
• Winner 2019 UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing | NSW Premier's Literary Awards
• Winner 2019 People's Choice Award | NSW Premier's Literary Awards
• Winner 2019 ABIA Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year
• Longlisted for the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award
• Shortlisted for the 2019 Colin Roderick Award

Dark Emu Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? by Bruce Pascoe

Dark Emu Black Seeds challenges the orthodoxy of how Australia was settled and what the settlers actually saw when they arrived.

To the victor goes the spoils...as well as the right to write history their way.

Reading E.H. Carr's What is History? during my first year at Uni was the first time I had cause to think about the nature of history, facts and evidence. I was amazed, at the tender age of 18, to think that facts where selected by historians to suit the story they wanted to tell. They decided which facts were important and which ones weren't. Personal bias and agenda abounded.

The belief in a hard core of historical facts existing objectively and independently of the interpretation of the historian is a preposterous fallacy, but one which it is very hard to eradicate.

It was also the first time that I considered the role of revisionism in history and how modern thinking could colour how we viewed the 'historical facts' at different times throughout history. Carr also went on a bit about the progress of man towards some kind of better, more evolved state which was an idea that even at the tender age of 18 I struggled to swallow!

The progression of man towards some better end was definitely in the minds of many of the early white explorers and settlers to Australia. To that end, they saw everything about the Aboriginal way of life as backward and evidence of their lesser standing. This belief made it easier for them to dismiss and ignore any signs of civilisation or community. And to deny Aboriginals many basic human rights, including the most basic of all, life itself.

Pascoe writes with a barely contained anger. By the end of this slim volume it's hard not to acknowledge that this anger is justified. Through his anger, Pascoe explores the writings and texts of many of the early explorers, settlers and historians. He pulls out all the documentation showing examples of large, established Aboriginal settlements, farming and fishing industries, food storage as well as the finely tuned water and fire management that many people may already be familiar with.

It's fascinating stuff and I urge you to read this book to see all the evidence for yourself.

I've just started reading Shashi Tharoor's Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India which addresses many similar issues. In his Introduction, Tharoor discusses the idea of reparation, but personally feels that atonement is probably a more do-able option. He also discusses the idea of
teaching alternate histories or histories told from the other side of colonisation in schools throughout the former Empire.

Books like Tharoor's and Pascoe's are a good start.

It seems improbable that a country can continue to hide from the actuality of its history in order to validate the fact that having said sorry we refuse to say thanks.

 

The Most Beautiful Walk in the World by John Baxter

Subtitled A Pedestrian in Paris, I was expecting The Most Beautiful Walk in the World to be all about walking around Paris, seeing the sights and getting some great tips for places to visit next time...one day....

But TMBWW is more of a memoir. Part boastful name dropping, part journal, with quite a bit of "look at me! look at me!" thrown in. It seems that Baxter wanted to impress us with his literary connections and elegant taste in food.

I wanted to love this book.
I wanted to lose myself in the streets and parks and cafes of Paris.
I wanted to dream, plan and hope.

Instead I clunked and shuddered from one anecdote to the next, always expectant, always waiting for that moment when Paris would reveal itself from underneath Baxter's seemingly endless supply of words.

I understood his "look at me" approach completely.
Growing up in rural Australia is not an easy thing when you're shy, with intellectual tendencies and a burning desire to not only see the world, but to make your mark on it. I just didn't feel in the mood to read his book about it though.

At some point I also realised that I was enjoying the well-selected chapter quotes more than I was enjoying the actual chapters.

The only section that really piqued my interest was early on when Baxter was talking about a French family Christmas.
His wife had a

stoneware vinegar bottle....Into it, she emptied a few trickles of red wine left after a dinner party. Inside, the mere, or mother, a gel-like colony of bacteria, transformed it into an aromatic vinegar. This bottle, with the mere already inside, came to Paris in 1959 with Aline, the housekeeper hired to cook for Marie-Do, her young sister, and their widowed mother. Before that, who knew...? As long as you kept it fed, the mere was immortal.

I had never heard of this before, although I guess it's like those 'live' cake mixes that go around every now and again. A regenerating vinaigrette is more my style though - and more anecdotes like this would have appeased me.

Sadly my one excursion into Paris for Paris in July has left me feeling a little 'meh', although I can still be found Dreaming of France :-)

Breaking News:
At work today, I picked up Snow Kimono by Mark Henshaw (winner of this year's NSW Premier's Literary Award for fiction) as my lunch time read. If the stars align this week, I may be able to get in one more Paris book before the end of July and also fulfill my Japanese Literature challenge at the same time.

On the same day that retired police inspector Auguste Jovert receives a letter from a woman claiming to be his daughter, he returns to his Paris apartment to find a stranger waiting for him.

That stranger is a Japanese professor called Tadashi Omura. What's brought him to Jovert's doorstep is not clear, but then he begins to tell his story - a story of a fractured friendship, lost lovers, orphaned children, and a body left bleeding in the snow.

As Jovert pieces together the puzzle of Omura's life, he can't help but draw parallels with his own; for he too has lead a life that's been extraordinary and dangerous - and based upon a lie.

This now also counts as my cheats-I'm-too-busy-packing-to-blog #IMWAYR post!

J is for Elizabeth Jolley

Monica Elizabeth Knight was born in Birmingham, England on the 4th June 1923.
She was privately tutored at home until age 11, before being sent to a Quaker school in Banbury for her highschool years. By all accounts, her childhood was not a particularly happy one.

She then trained as an orthopaedic nurse in London. It was here that she met and fell in love with one of her patients - Leonard Jolley (1914 -1994) who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. When Leonard was transferred to Birmingham as a librarian, Monica followed. Unfortunately he was already married to Joyce.

In a bizarre romantic triangle, both women fell pregnant to Leonard at the same time. Elizabeth even moved in with Leonard & Joyce for a while. 
Her daughter, Sarah was born in 1946, 5 weeks before Joyce's daughter, Susan. 
Joyce was told that Elizabeth's daughter was fathered by a doctor dying of TB.

In 1950 Leonard left Joyce & secretly married Elizabeth. They had another two children, Richard and Ruth.

In 1959 they emigrated to Australia with their three children. They settled in Claremont, Perth where Leonard was appointed chief librarian at the University of Western Australia.

Curiously Leonard told his English family that he had emigrated with Joyce & Susan. Elizabeth helped maintain the ruse by writing to the family as Joyce!

Elizabeth began writing in early twenties, but had nothing published until 1976.

In the late 70's she began teaching at Curtin University (or WA Institute of Technology as it was called then). Her most well-known student was Tim Winton.

Elizabeth Jolley (courtesy SMH)

Elizabeth developed dementia in 2000 & died in 2007.

Andrew Reimer:  "Jolley could assume any one of several personas – the little old lady, the Central European intellectual, the nurse, the orchardist, the humble wife, the university teacher, the door-to-door salesperson – at the drop of a hat, usually choosing one that would disconcert her listeners, but hold them in fascination as well."

Susan Swingler:  "It was one lie leading to another, you do one thing to deceive and then how do you undo it. It snowballs and accumulates until it gets so big that you can't stop it."

Drusilla Modjeska:  "Her novels are so deftly entangled with the material of her life that she has both laid out the terrain and erected a very effective shield."

Romona Koval:  "She wrote about lesbians and surrogate mothers, murder and rape, incest and adultery. Her characters were nurses and loners and cleaning ladies. She was drawn to stories of family misunderstandings."

Novels

• Palomino (1980)
• The Newspaper of Claremont Street (1981)
• Miss Peabody's Inheritance (1983)
• Mr Scobie's Riddle (1983)                     Winner Age Book of the Year
• Milk and Honey (1984)                Winner NSW Premier’s Literary Award (Christina Stead Prize for Fiction)
• Foxybaby (1985)
• The Well (1986)                      Winner of the Miles Franklin Award
• The Sugar Mother (1988)
• My Father's Moon (1989)                   Winner Age Book of the Year
• Cabin Fever (1990)
• The Georges' Wife (1993)                    Winner Age Book of the Year
• The Orchard Thieves (1995)
• Lovesong (1997)
• An Accommodating Spouse (1999)



Portrait of Elizabeth Jolley by Peter Kendall 1986

• An Innocent Gentleman (2001)

Short stories and plays

• Five Acre Virgin and Other Stories (1976)
• The Well-Bred Thief (1977)
• The Travelling Entertainer and Other Stories (1979)
• Woman in a Lampshade (1983)
• Off the Air: Nine Plays for Radio (1995)
• Fellow Passengers: Collected Stories of Elizabeth Jolley (1997)

Non-fiction

• Central Mischief: Elizabeth Jolley on Writing, Her Past and Herself (1992)
• Diary of a Weekend Farmer (1993)
• Learning to Dance: Elizabeth Jolley: Her Life and Work (2006)

Biographies

Doing LIfe by Brian Dibble (2008) 
The House of Fiction by Susan Swingler (2012)

Order of Australia for Services to the Arts (1988)
Elizabeth was made a Professor of Creative Writing at Curtin University in 1998.

My one and only Jolley novel is The Orchard Thieves.

I fell in love with the cover and impulse bought it based on the promise of a story about a family of sisters (I'm one of four sisters).

But I struggled to get into it. I struggled to connect to any of the characters & I failed to fall into Jolley's writing style.

But I was only in my twenties.

A few years ago I decided to reread a few of those pivotal, amazing, life changing books from my 20's. They all fell flat. They no longer said anything to my 30-something self.

And that's okay. Some books are meant to be read and loved by 20-something's only.

I also believe that there are some books and some authors that need to be read when you are older and more experienced (in a literary sense as well as a life sense).
When I read The Orchard Thieves I knew it was being wasted on my 20-something self.

Writing this post has made me very curious about Jolley's very secretive life. I suspect a Jolley bio is on my 40-something horizon!

This post is part of Alphabe-Thursday.

The Simple Gift by Steven Herrick

I read my first Herrick last year when I fell in love with Pookie Aleera. I knew I would have to read more.

The Simple Gift is an older teen read, written in verse. (Please, please, please do not be put off by the fact that this is a verse novel. Herrick writes so simply and cleanly that you quickly forget that you're reading a verse novel.)

Billy is growing up tough. An alcoholic, abusive father and neighbours who don't give a shit. He decides to run away.

The Simple Gift is his story on the road...or to be more accurate, on the tracks.

He hitches a ride on a freight train, meets with kindness from strangers, works things out for himself & repays the kindness to others.

With very few words, Herrick packs an emotional punch. We enter into Billy's world completely for an enriching, nuanced story about belonging, self-discovery, kindness, generosity & love.

The story does contain some sex scenes & sexual references (appropriate for 14+ readers).

My only beef with Billy's story is the heart-warming, happy ending.
Anyone working with runaway youths would know that most of the real-life stories don't end out as well as Billy's did.

The Simple Gift was shortlised for the 2001 CBCA & NSW Premier's Literary Award.

Longlists and Shortlists Take 2

This is the week of the Sydney Writers' Festival.

Realistically though, the whole month of May can be taken up with major book events.
For anyone in Sydney or in the book trade this can be a big deal.

I'm in both!

Last week I had my book sellers cap on and attended two invitation only events.

One was hosted by Harlequin to meet two of their authors - Karen Brooks and Ryan Campbell.
It was an impressive event held at Otto's on Woolloomoloo Wharf. The wine flowed freely as the authors did their spiels. Afterwards we relaxed around the table to chat and laugh.
As for the food - exquisite!

The other event was hosted by Random House for booksellers to meet our former Prime Minister Julia Gillard!

Gillard has written a memoir about her time in politics and this was the first step into the limelight for 'My Story'.

I didn't always agree with her politics, & the Labor way of running a political party leaves a lot to be desired, but I went from being proud, to uneasy, to appalled by the vitriolic and extremely personal comments that were made about Gillard in the press and by media personalities.

It is in my mind again today with the whole Tony Abbott wink incident. The first problem is that this issue takes over the media cycle. It's being discussed and debated and most people think it's pretty off, but curiously the shock jocks seem to be very quiet about this and the opinion just seems to be "oh well some blokes like to wink, no harm in that love!"

(I know, I know, don't get me started!)

(This is not a political piece or a critique on the state of journalism in Australia or even a commentary on the etiquette of winking, this is a bookish blog...)

(arghhhhhhhhhhhhh - okay back on track....)

I also had the pleasure of attending Gillard's first outing last year, after she was toppled as leader, at the sell-out event held in the Opera House.
It was hosted by Anne Summers who wrote The Misogyny Factor.

At both events I was impressed by Gillard's warmth, intelligence & humour. She was gracious and down to earth.

It was a great start to the festival.

But this week I have caught a nasty flu bug and have failed to attend any of the wonderful events on offer.

I'm hoping to feel well enough to attend the Saturday sessions at Walsh Bay, but for now I thought I would update the Longlists and Shortlists post from last month.

The Stella Award this year went to Clare Wright for her non-fiction work The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka.

The Miles Franklin Shortlist now looks like this:

The NSW Premier's Literary Awards were announced on the 19th May.

The winners included:
Michelle de Kretser's Questions of Travel (Christina Stead Prize for Fiction & Book of the Year)
Fiona McFarlane's The Night Guest (UTSGlenda Adams Award for New Writing)
Joint winners:
Michael Fullilove's Rendezvous with Destiny & Kristina Olsson's Boy, Lost (Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction)
Katrina Nannestad's The Girl Who Brought Mischief (Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature)
A J Bett's Zac and Mia (Ethel Turner Prize for Young Peoples Literature)
Ashley Hay's The Railwayman's Wife (People's Choice)  Yippee! One of my favourites this year :-)

The Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) had their annual conference last weekend in Melbourne where they announced their Bookseller's Book of the Year - Hannah Kent's Burial Rites.

Christine Piper's After Darkness won this years The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award for unpublished manuscript.

The Victorian Premier's Literary Award for fiction went to Alex Miller's Coal Creek. While their People's Choice Award went to Hannah Kent's Burial Rites.

There is now also a 'reinvented' Australian Book Industry Award (whatever that means!) that will be announced tomorrow night.

I'll keep you posted!

Happy Sydney Writers' Festival!


PS. I have entered this post as a 'cheat's post' for the Armchair BEA. I hope you don't mind that it covers several topics as well as the topic of 'author meetings'.

Wildlife by Fiona Wood

I wanted to like Wildlife more than I did.

It was well written with familiar teen characters doing many unfamiliar things (i.e. godmothers who organise a photo shoot & billboard campaign for their 15 year old goddaughters, spending a whole term of Year 10 at a sport & rec camp).

Before starting this review I spent some time reading all the love for this book out there in blogger land by bloggers much younger than me.

I am not one of those adults who look back on my teens years as being some sort of golden age or the best years of my life.
In fact I would never ever want to repeat those years of insecurity & angst!
But I accept that we all have to go through this period of blundering blindly towards adulthood trying to make as few long term ghastly mistakes as possible.

And that's what Wood has recreated so perfectly with Wildlife (& why I probably struggled to like the book).

The manipulative best friend, the romantic & sexual experimentation, the fear of missing out, who am I, what's right & what's wrong and getting caught up in other peoples dramas & gossip.

It all came rushing back - the reasons why being a teenager once in a lifetime is more than enough!

This is a YA novel. It contains lots of chat about sex & foreplay as well as actual sex. It is realistic, awkward, embarrassing and confusing.

Wildlife has been shortlisted for this years CBCA and the NSW Premier's Literary Award.

Boy, Lost: A Family Memoir by Kristina Olsson

I've been going through a phase of reading sad, bittersweet books these past few weeks...and I feel like I've been through the wringer!

Boy, Lost is no different.

Based on the true story of what happened to Olsson's family in the 1950's in Queensland, Australia, this memoir is retold with grace, understanding and a deep, overarching love and care for everyone concerned. She gently walks through the complexities of memory, loss and grief.

But this is so much more than a beautiful told family memoir. It is also so much more than one family's attempt to confront their past & lay their ghosts to rest.

Olsson takes the time to consider all the other 'lost' children in Australia during the 1950's. She discusses how it was that our society allowed these children to be taken, and so often mistreated, as well.

I'm feeling so awash with emotion from this book (and Tyler's and Hay's) that I know I have not done it justice with this review.

All I can do is give it a highly recommended, a big thumbs up and five stars!

Boy, Lost won the Queensland Literary Awards last year. It was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards this year.

Breaking news: Boy, Lost shared the first prize for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction 2014 with Michael Fullilove's Rendezvous with Destiny.

The Railwayman's Wife by Ashley Hay

This is my kind of fiction.

The Railwayman's Wife is heart-achingly sweet.

Hay has created an emotional world that is absorbing and very tangible. She see-saws between loss & grief and love & hope. Her writing is tender & lyrical and full of the wonder & healing power of nature.

I devoured this book in two days. I could barely put it down.

Anikka Lachlan's world of post WW2 Thirroul became one of my parallel universes of existence. The first night, I hugged Mr Books close as Anikka's grief engulfed me.

Whilst driving to soccer yesterday, I was really walking along Thirroul beach with Ani and Isabel.

At half time, I read another chapter. With the first sentence I was back inside Hay's emotional bubble. The hard, cold stadium seating, the cool, autumnal wind and the smell of teen spirit disappeared completely.

At a dinner party last night, I kept feeling Ani's presence beside me. And I woke this morning aching to be with Ani, with fingers crossed for happy endings.

I love books that take me on an emotional journey. A journey that feels authentic - without histrionics, extravagance or manipulation. A gentle journey of the interior of a gentle, sensitive woman.

The Railwayman's Wife is a beautifully nuanced & bittersweet journey that has left me wanting more story by Hay. For me, it doesn't get any better than this.

Image of Hay at Thirroul courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Railwayman's Wife has been longlisted for this years Miles Franklin and shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards.

Breaking News: The Railwayman's Wife has won the People's Choice Award at this years NSW Premier's Literary Awards night. 

I'm delighted!