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."

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.

ABC Radio National Top 100 Australian Books (part three)

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. 20 - 1 are listed in this post. Also included is the list of books (in no particular order)  that I submitted in the vote.

Books read:

*PB Magic Beach by Alison Lester

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin

*JF Storm Boy by Colin Thiele 

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy 

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas 

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta

*PB  Possum Magic by Mem Fox and Julie Vivas

Top 10 Australian books as voted by listeners to ABC Radio: 

No 1

No 2

No 3

No 4

No 5

No 6

No 7

No 8

No 9

No 10 

 Books read:

(10) The Dry by Jane Harper

(9) The Secret River by Kate Grenville

(8) Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan 

(7) Dictionary of Last Words by Pip Williams

(6) *YA Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden

 (5) A Fortunate Life by AB Facey 

(4) Burial Rites by Hannah Kent 

(3) Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton 

(2) The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak 

(1) Cloudstreet by Tim Winton

The ten books that I voted for - not in any order

Where my selections appeared on the top 100:

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak was second.

Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams was seventh

The Secret River by Kate Grenville was  ninth

The Dry by Jane Harper was tenth

*JF  Storm Boy by Colin Thiele was seventeenth

 Dirt Music by Tim Winton was forty-first

 

One book was on the list of the top 101-150 books:

All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton

 

The books that did not make the top 150 were:

* YA Midnight by Randolph Stow

Mystery of the Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume

* YA Sabriel by Garth Nix 

 

The list shows that there are lots more books for me to read. 

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.

Every Wild Soul

Maria Island, off the west coast of Tasmania, is a national park where Tasmanian devils have been rehoused to help conserve the species for the future. Eighteen year old Min lives on the island with her father who is head ranger on the island. Min's relationship with her father is strained though she finds support from other inhabitants of the island including Werner and Carl. As the island is a national park the preservation of the various species on the island is important, however sometimes events occur that cause a challenge to the work of the rangers.

Every Wild Soul by Katherine Johnson explores projects involving rewilding in various parts of the world including Tasmania. The novel examines the experiences of Min on the island but also of an Australian journalist, Lucie, who is writing a series of articles on projects designed to encourage animals living in a natural environment. Lucie visits Maria Island to find out about the project with the Tasmanian devils but also discovers other projects being undertaken to protect the natural environment of the island. The novel also deals with the challenges that Min faces in asserting herself and learning how she wants to live her life in the future. Lucie also discovers that she possibly needs to re-evaluate her life.

Every Wild Soul is the winner of the inaugural The Australian Fiction Prize presented by the Australian Society of Authors and Harper Collins. The award replaces the former Vogel Award and the Banjo Prize.

Maria Island - Maria Island National Park 

Conserving the Tasmanian Devil on Maria Island - Australian Wildlife Journeys

Every Wild Soul - ANZ Lit Lovers