Aussie Author Challenge

Hosted by Booklover Book Reviews.

1 January 2010 to 31 December 2010

I have chosen the FAIR DINKUM category. "Read and review 8 books by Australian authors, a minimum of 5 different Australian authors."

Books on hand, with completed books numbered or linked to reviews:

1.Of a Boy***** by Sonya Hartnett (What the Birds See in US)
2.The Arrival***** by Shaun Tan 
3.Dog Boy***** by Eva Hornung
4. The Siege***** by Helen Dunmore
5.Living in the Maniototo***+ by Janet Frame (actually NZ lit)
6.Picnic at Hanging Rock**** by Joan Lindsay

The Shiralee by D'Arcy Niland
The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore
Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
The White Earth by Andrew McGahan
1988 by Andrew McGahan
The Turning by Tim Winton
That Eye, The Sky by Tim Winton
Prochownik's Dream by Alex Miller
Talking to the Dead by Helen Dunmore
Mourning Ruby by Helen Dunmore
Listening for Small Sounds by Penelope Trevor
The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Richard Flanagan
Gould's Book of Fish: A Novel in Twelve Fish by Richard Flanagan
Year of Wonders: a novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks
Sixty Lights by Gail Jones
The Sixteen Pleasures by Robert Hellenga
The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway
The Orchard by Drusilla Modjeska
The Book of Colour by Julia Blackburn
My Place by Sally Morgan
My Father's Moon by Elizabeth Jolley
Listening for Small Sounds by Penelope Trevor
Illywhacker by Peter Carey
How the Light Gets In by M. J. Hyland
Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany
The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones
Drown Them in the Sea by Nicholas Angel
Devotion by Ffion Murphy
Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally
Victim of the Aurora by Thomas Keneally
A Family Madness by Thomas Keneally
Season in Purgatory by Thomas Keneally
Coonardoo by Katharine Susannah Prichard
Corfu by Robert Dessaix
Night Letters by Robert Dessaix
The Chosen by David Ireland
The Book of Mercy by Kathleen Cambor
Birds of Passage by Linda Leith
Angel Rock by Darren Williams
The Ancestor Game by Alex Miller
The Artist is a Thief by Stephen Gray
Morgan's Run by Colleen McCullough
Another World by Pat Barker
Kewpie Doll by Barbara Hanrahan
Morgan's Run by Colleen McCullough
Riders in the Chariot by Patrick White
Grace by Robert Drewe
Careless by Deborah Robertson
The Garden Book by Brian Castro
The Voices by Susan Elderkin
Candle Life by Venero Armanno
Pieces of Light by Adam Thorpe

Non fiction:

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
Walkabout (The Outback Saga) by Aaron Fletcher
A Secret Country by John Pilger
Mutant Message Down Under     Marlo Morgan

Australian fiction I have read and can recommmend:

Careful, He Might Hear You**** by Sumner Locke Elliott
The Submerged Cathedral****+ by Charlotte Wood
Salt Rain**** by Sarah Armstrong
Addition**** by Toni Jordan
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith**** by Thomas Keneally (Schindler's Ark)
Cloudstreet***** by Tim Winton
Dirt Music**** by Tim Winton
The Riders**** by Tim Winton
Breath****by Tim Winton
Wanting****+ by Richard Flanagan
After the Fire, a Still Small Voice****+ by Evie Wyld
The Book Thief***** by Markus Zusak
Sorry***** by Gail Jones
Eucalyptus**** by Murray Bail
Homesickness*** by Murray Bail
Holden's performance*** by Murray Bail
The People of the Book***** by Geraldine Brooks
Carpentaria**** by Alexis Wright
The Secret River****+ by Kate Grenville
The Idea of Perfection**** by Kate Grenville
The Lieutenant****+ by Kate Grenville
Dreamhouse*** by Kate Grenville
Disquiet***+ by Julia Leigh
The Lost Dog**** by Michelle de Kretser
Orpheus Lost***** by Janette Turner Hospital
Carry Me Down**** by M.J. Hyland
This Is How**** by M.J. Hyland
The Spare Room***+ by Helen Garner
The Leper's Companions***+ by Julia Blackburn
Lost***** by Michael Robotham
Suspect**** by Michael Robotham
The Night Ferry**** by Michael Robotham
Shatter**** by Michael Robotham
The Well***** by Elizabeth Jolley
Newspaper of Claremont Street**** by Elizabeth Jolley
Theft: A Love Story**** Peter Carey
Tirra Lirra by the River*** by Jessica Anderson
A Town Like Alice**** by Nevil Shute 
Unreliable Memoirs: Autobiography**** by Clive James
The Man Who Loved Children**** by Christina Stead
The Broken Book*** by Susan Johnson
Arthur Upfield Mysteries***** several:
An Author Bites the Dust
The Lure of the Bush
The Will of the tribe
The Bone is Pointed
The Bachelors of Broken Hill
Death of a Lake
The Widows of Broome
The Mountains Have a Secret
Murder Must Wait
Wings Above the Diamantina
The Torn Branch
Venom House
Winds of Evil
The Devil's Steps
Murder Down Under
Bony And The White Savage
Sinister Stones
Bony and the Kelly Gang
Death Of A Swagman
The Lake Frome Monster

Non fiction:

The Fatal Shore***** by Robert Hughes
Rabbit-Proof Fence***** by Doris (Nugi Garimara) Pilkington
Burning Bush: A Fire History of Australia***** by Stephen J. Pyne

________________________________

Miles Franklin Awards

I'm including this major Australian award list for those interested. It's where I find some of my best reads in Australian literature. The official award site may be found here.

A full list of past winners (1957-2009) and the 2010 nominees may be found here .

Nominees I have read:

2009 Winner - Breath***** by Tim Winton
2007 Winner - Carpentaria**** by Alexis Wright
2002 Winner - Dirt Music***** by Tim Winton
1999 Winner - Eucalyptus***** by Murray Bail
1992 Winner - Cloudstreet***** by Tim Winton -
1986 Winner - The Well***** by Elizabeth Jolley
1983 Careful, He Might Hear You**** by Sumner Locke Elliott 
1978 Winner - Tirra Lirra by the River**** by Jessica Anderson

2009 Shortlist - The Pages***+ by Murray Bail
2009 Shortlist - Wanting***** by Richard Flanagan
2009 Longlist - Addition**** by Toni Jordan
2008 Shortlist - Sorry***** by Gail Jones
2008 Shortlist - Orpheus Lost***** by Janette Turner Hospital
2007 Shortlist - Theft: A Love Story**** by Peter Carey
2006 Shortlist - The Secret River***** by Kate Grenville
2005 Shortlist - Salt Rain**** by Sarah Armstrong
2005 Shortlist - The Submerged Cathedral**** by Charlotte Wood
2003 Shortlist - Of a Boy***** by Sonia Hartnett (What the Birds See in US)

On my shelves Tbr

1957 Winner - Voss by Patrick White
1961 Winner - Riders in the Chariot by Patrick White
1967 Winner - Bring Larks and Heroes by Thomas Keneally
2005 Winner - Prochownik's Dream by Alex Miller
2007 Shortlist - Careless by Deborah Robertson

2006 Shortlist - Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany
2005 Shortlist - Sixty Lights by Gail Jones
2005 Shortlist - The Submerged Cathedral by Charlotte Wood
2002 Shortlist - Gould's Book of Fish  by Richard Flanagan
1994 Shortlist - Remembering Babylon by David Malouf

Unowned but wanted

1984 Shallows by Tim Winton

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson

Review of A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson

Fiction, paperback, 202 pgs.

Houghton Mifflin Company, September 2008

Set in Nairobi, Kenya, this delightful story captures us with its warm humour, beautiful scenery and sightings of many of its one thousand species of birds. Rose Mbikwa leads a bird watching group on a walk every week for the East Africa Ornithological Society. She's a Scottish widow and Mr. Malik, also widowed, is secretly in love with her and has gone on these walks to enjoy her company for three years now. Just as he's working up the courage to ask her to the Nairobi Hunt Club Ball, the really big social event of the year, his old school nemesis, playboy Harry Kahn, breezes into town announcing that he intends to ask her. Their conversation is witnessed by everyone at the gentlemens' Asadi Club and a way to determine who has the right to ask her is decided. Whoever identifies the most bird species in a week's time can ask her to the Ball.

Mr. Malik, sixty, is described in birders terms as "small, dumpy brown-skinned, nondescrepit; distinguishing feature: hairstyle owes more to artifice than nature" (he has a comb-over). Harry Kahn, playboy, is identified by "brown skin, white hair, white teeth and a tendency to dress in white; distinguishing characteristics: highly ornamented, noted for flamboyant mating display." Harry proceeds by hiring people and vehicles (not strictly according to the rules) as if on a great hunt to chalk up the most birds. Mr. Malik goes about things more quietly and has a few adventures and mishaps along the way but we are rooting for him.The birding details are fascinating as are the detailed pencilled drawings by the author that acompany each chapter heading. But the story also shows some of the corruption in the government and the dangers of being mugged in the everday life of the city. It's a good story, told by a somewhat cheeky narrator, laugh out loud funny in places and well worth reading. I enjoyed it very much. Four stars out of five.

Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Company for the review copy.

"Nicholas Drayson was born in England and has lived in Australia since 1982, where he studied zoology and a Ph.D. in 19th century Australian natural history writing. He has worked as a journalist in the UK, Kenya and Australia, writing for publications such as the Daily Telegraph and Australian Geographic. From 1998 to 2001 he wrote for the National Museum of Australia. His first novel, Confessing a Murder, was published in 2002, his latest is A Guide to the Birds of East Africa. He was recently the winner of the inaugural WILDCARE Tasmania Nature Writing Prize."

Out Stealing Horses,Elephant Winter,Tirra Lirra By the River

Out Stealing Horses***** by Per Petterson (Norway)

This won the Dublin Impac Award 2007. That's the big one cash-wise:100,00 Pounds. This prize is chosen by librarians around the world.

Other Awards:

Norwegian Critic's Award

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

Winner Norwegian Booksellers' Prize

American Library Association Notable Book

Time Magazine Best Book of the Year

New York Times Best Books of the Year

New York Times 100 Notable Books for 2007

Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist

Out Stealing Horses is about boyhood friendship, tragedy and loss, fathers and sons and their expectations of one another. And how the main character deals with loneliness both in his youth and late in life. Well worth reading. A good place to start on Scandinavian literature if you haven't tried any yet. Four and a half stars. Highly recommended.

Elephant Winter***** by Kim Echlin (Canada)

A very good story set in the Africa Lion Safari Park, close to where I live in Ontario. Elephants figure prominently but there is love, loss, illness, and trust between both animals and human for those of you who need people in your stories too. An original story, highly recommended.

The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy (Canada) will be my next novel about elephants. An elephant family comprises the characters of this story.

Tirra Lirra by the River**** by Jessica Anderson

This won the Miles Franklin Award (Australia) in 1978.

I Bookmooched it so I could read it and it was worth it. An oldie but goodie about how a woman's life turns out differently than she'd expected. Denied independence, then having it forced upon her by her husband, she reflects on her two lives. One lived in Australia and the other in London until she returns to her childhood home in old age and finds the world a very different place. A very good read, I recommend it.

Currently reading Under The Skin by Michael Faber

I'm 40 pages in and scared to find out what the woman is doing with the hitchhiking men she keeps picking up in Scotland. They disappear, you see, and it's giving me the creeps.

Reading recommendations and comments are always welcomed.

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