When Sullivan Met Lola

When Lola Quinlan, now eighty-six, was told that she was losing her eyesight, she decided that she needed to make the most of what was left of her life. This included travelling from South Australia to Melbourne to attend a concert of old time music and also visit sights that she and Alex had visited fifty years previously. 

When in Melbourne, Lola met Sullivan, a twelve year old boy who was spending most of his holidays at the hotel where Lola was staying. It was not long before they became good friends with Sullivan helping Lola when she undertook her expeditions. However both Lola and Sullivan had challenges at home that concerned them while Sullivan was also learning how to cope with bullying from some of the boys at school. During their time together both Lola and Sullivan came to better understand the importance of family as well as how to deal with challenges in the future.

When Sullivan Met Lola by Monica McInerney is the fourth book in the Lola Quinlan series. The other titles are Lola's Secret, The Alphabet Sisters and Trip of a Lifetime.

The Novel Project: a step-by-step guide to your novel, memoir or biography

Australian author, Graeme Simsion, shares his knowledge and experience in writing novels and other works with those planning to undertake such projects. The Novel Project is a step-by-step guide to writing starting with turning the idea into the completed work by following a series of procedures for writing a book. Section one of the book contains chapters about the preparation involved before the actual writing starts while the second section details the steps involved in writing a book people will want to read.

Throughout the book the author includes examples from his own books, particularly The Rosie Result and The Best of Adam Sharp. The result is a useful, informative work on the craft of writing a novel that people would want to read.

Graeme Simsion is particularly well known for his three book series, starting with The Rosie Project, centered around Don Tillman, a person who often thinks differently from others. Autism is not mentioned in the first book but by the third book it has become part of the discussion. Graeme Simsion is therefore able to also provide guidance on incorporating a range of themes into a book as well as just a good plot and characters.

Waves of Plenty: immigration and the making of Australia

In Waves of Plenty, Mark Cully examines how immigration has impacted upon the history of Australia. Much of the book examines six decades that are important in Australia's immigration history - the 1830s, 1850s, 1890s, 1950s, 1970s and 2000s. The author then describes the differences that migrants have made as Australia has become a multicultural country.

The creation and eventual removal of the White Australia Policy obviously forms much of the story as does the effects of world events impacting on additional people coming to Australia. The shape of the economy at a particular time is another factor affecting views on immigration and causing changes to immigration policy. 

Immigration has once again become a political issue largely promoted by political parties such as One Nation. Immigration is a topic prominent in other countries as well. The author provides information as to how immigration has assisted the growth of the Australian economy over the years and helped make Australia the country that it is today. By concentrating on immigration, Mark Cully in Waves of Plenty provides another work that should be read when looking at the history and development of Australia.

Tell Me Something True

Michael Robotham has written many excellent crime novels but this is his first novel set in Australia. The first draft of the book was written many years ago then put aside. However with the popularity of Australian crime fiction the author revised the book which has now been published. The result is a study of life in a small town in New South Wales when a former resident is released from gaol and returns home.

Arlo Hackett has spent twelve years in gaol after being found guilty by association when his brother, Luke, was charged with murder. Arlo returns home to a town full of hatred but initially he has nowhere else to go. His mother is in a nursing home so he decides to prepare the family home for sale in order to pay the fees required for keeping his mother in the home. 

Eventually Arlo realises that he needs to investigate what really happened when his friend Saxon was murdered. Chapters in the book reveal the story as Arlo carries out his search while other chapters provide an account of life in the town twelve years earlier. Eventually Arlo and his few friends realise that the true story about Saxon's death are very different from what what was revealed by the police at the time.

Tell Me Something True by Michael Robotham is a gripping crime novel which I read in two days. The title refers to a fun game that Saxon liked to play by asking "Tell me something true."

This book was the October 2026 book selected in in Dervla McTiernan's The Bookclub that isn't a Bookclub.

ABC Radio National Top 100 Australian books (part four)

Members of the public were asked to vote for ten of their favourite Australian books. A compilation was made of the 100 most popular books - novels, non-fiction and children's books. The results were published on the weekend17-18 October. 

Today the list of the next fifty books (101-150) that did not make the list  was released. Many favourites appear on the supplementary lists.

Books Read:

Always Home, Always Homesick by Hannah Kent

 The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Richard Flanagan

A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville 

* PB The Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base 

Books read:

Bruny by Heather Rose

* PB Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen 

 The Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

On the Beach by Neville Shute 

Wake in Fright by Kenneth Cook

* JF The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill

The Fortunes of Richard Mahony by Henry Handle Richardson

All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton [on my top 10]

* JF Mary Poppins by P L Travers 

 Books read:

The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan

* YA Hating Alison Ashley by Robin Klein

* PB Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox & Julie Vivas

Dusk by Robbie Arnott 

 Books read:

The Drovers Wife by Henry Lawson

* PB Grug by Ted Prior

 

Books marked with * are children's books. (Also YA - Young Adult; JF - Junior Fiction; PB - Picture Book CB - Cookery Books)

Titles of books with posts in this blog have hyperlinks to the post.

Many of the titles in the list  are for books that I read long before I began this blog.

ABC Radio National Top 100 Australian Books (part one)

Members of the public were asked to vote for ten of their favourite Australian books. A compilation was made of the 100 most popular books - novels, non-fiction and children's books. The results were published on the weekend17-18 October. 100 - 61 are listed in this post.

Books read: 

*JF Round the Twist by Paul Jennings

*JF The 13-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffith and Terry Denton

CB Recipe Tin Eats:Dinner by Nagi  Maehashi

*JF Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker

Books read:

Puberty Blues by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey

Juice by Tim Winton

The Lost Man by Jane Harper

The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham

*PB Wombat Stew by Marcia K Vaughan and  Pamela Lofts

We of the Never-Never by Mrs Aeneas Gunn 

For the Term of his Natural Life b Marcus Clarke

Power Without Glory by Frank Hardy

The Broken Shore by Peter Temple

The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams 

 The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes

 Scrublands by Chris Hammer

 The Tree of Man by Patrick White

*PB Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley

A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute

Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James

Voss by Patrick White

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran

 Damned Whores and God's Police by Anne Summers

Question 7 by Richard Flanagan 

*PB Are We There Yet? by Alison Lester

 

Books marked with * are children's books. (Also YA - Young Adult; JF - Junior Fiction; PB - Picture Book CB - Cookery Books)

Titles of books with posts in this blog have hyperlinks to the post.

Many of the titles in the list  are for books that I read long before I began this blog.

ABC Radio National Top 100 Australian Books (part two)

Members of the public were asked to vote for ten of their favourite Australian books. A compilation was made of the 100 most popular books - novels, non-fiction and children's books. The results were published on the weekend17-18 October. 60 - 21 are listed in this post.

Books read:

The Man From Snowy River by Banjo Patterson

The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku 

CB The Cook's Companion by Stephanie Alexander

*JF The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay 

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood 

Books read:

Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin

The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer

*PB Where is the Green Sheep by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek 

Playing Beatie Bow  by Ruth Park

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

All That I Am by Anna Funder

True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey 

*JF The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie by May Gibbs

Dirt Music by Tim Winton 

Books read:

Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey

I Can Jump Puddles by Alan Marshall

Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Breath by Tim Winton

*PB Animalia by Graeme Base

Monkey Grip by Helen Garner

Books read:

My Brother Jack by George Johnston

The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do

Mad Mable by Sally Hepworth

The Harp in the South by Ruth Park

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

*YA Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay 

CB The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book by Maryanne Blacker and Pamela Clark

 My Place by Sally Morgan

 

Books marked with * are children's books. (Also YA - Young Adult; JF - Junior Fiction; PB - Picture Book; CB - Cookery Book)

Titles of books with posts in this blog have hyperlinks to the post.

Many of the titles in the list  are for books that I read long before I began this blog.