Sunday, February 14, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Favourite Australian novels
To my shame I have only read five of the top ten favourite Australian novels as anounced by Australian Book Review (ABR) this month. Of course I've heard of Voss and The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, and I've started and never finished Cloudstreet and The Man Who Loved Children, but I could hardly believe that I had only read half of the top ten.
ABR asked their readers to nominate their favourite Australian novel and 290 individual novels were nominated. I scrambled to nominate Kate Grenville's The Secret River and Tim Winton's Dirt Music as mine. Although these were easy for me others came very close.
I am a great fan of Australian writing. After a childhood living in an imaginary country somewhere between England (think Beatrix Potter, Noddy, The Famous Five and What Katy Did books) or Canada (Anne of Green Gables) and Australia, it was a great joy to find people writing about the land I actually knew - dusty paddocks and endless summer heat rather than snow, rain and green fields.
So what were the top ten you ask? Here they are and the link to ABR's complete list follow. Jump onto
Australian online bookshop Fishpond and buy some soon! I'm off to catch up on a bit of reading.
1. Cloudstreet Tim Winton
2. The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney Henry Handel Richardson
3. Voss Patrick White
4. Breath Tim Winton
5. Oscar and Lucinda Peter Carey
6. My Brother Jack George Johnston
7. The Secret River Kate Grenville
8. Eucalyptus Murray Bail
9. The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead
10. The Tree of Man Patrick White
ABR Favourite Australian Novels
ABR asked their readers to nominate their favourite Australian novel and 290 individual novels were nominated. I scrambled to nominate Kate Grenville's The Secret River and Tim Winton's Dirt Music as mine. Although these were easy for me others came very close.
I am a great fan of Australian writing. After a childhood living in an imaginary country somewhere between England (think Beatrix Potter, Noddy, The Famous Five and What Katy Did books) or Canada (Anne of Green Gables) and Australia, it was a great joy to find people writing about the land I actually knew - dusty paddocks and endless summer heat rather than snow, rain and green fields.
So what were the top ten you ask? Here they are and the link to ABR's complete list follow. Jump onto
Australian online bookshop Fishpond and buy some soon! I'm off to catch up on a bit of reading.
1. Cloudstreet Tim Winton
2. The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney Henry Handel Richardson
3. Voss Patrick White
4. Breath Tim Winton
5. Oscar and Lucinda Peter Carey
6. My Brother Jack George Johnston
7. The Secret River Kate Grenville
8. Eucalyptus Murray Bail
9. The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead
10. The Tree of Man Patrick White
ABR Favourite Australian Novels
Saturday, February 6, 2010
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