Do you enjoy Australian fiction? or maybe you want to know more about Australian history than you learnt in school? Does no-one rock you like the Rockmelons? Our libraries have a broad collection of works on, by and for Australians:
Toni Jordan
It is 1939 and although Australia is about to go to war, it doesn't quite realise yet that the situation is serious. Deep in the working-class Melbourne suburb of Richmond it is business - your own and everyone else's - as usual. And young Kip Westaway, failed scholar and stablehand, is living the most important day of his life.
Kip's momentous day is one of nine that will set the course for each member of the Westaway clan in the years that follow. Kip's mother, his brother Francis and, eventually, Kip's wife Annabel and their daughters and grandson: all find their own turning points, their triumphs and catastrophes, in days to come. But at the heart of all their stories is Kip, and at the centre of Kip's fifteen-year-old heart is his adored sister Connie. They hold the threads that will weave a family.
Sir Henry Parkes: The Australian Collosus
Stephen Dando-Collins
Henry Parkes arrived in the colony of New South Wales with his young wife Clarinda, and newly born daughter, in 1839. He went on to be five-time Premier of New South Wales, a father to seventeen children and a fierce proponent of the need to federate. Politican, social reformer and newspaper proprietor, Henry Parkes' legacy will never be forgotten.
Jeff Apter
Beginning with Peter Allen’s unlikely journey from the plains of Tenterfield to the stage of New York’s Radio City Music Hall — astride a camel, no less — and charting the rollercoaster rides of the Little River Band, Helen Reddy, the Bee Gees, Air Supply, Rick Springfield, Men at Work, Keith Urban and recent Grammy-winner Gotye, this broad panorama plots the massive influence our tiny population has had on popular culture over the past 40 years.
Jen Storer
Funny, exhilarating and a little bit scary; a bewitching blend of Norse mythology and urban fantasy.
Since moving to Australia with their father, Angus Jack and his sister, Martha, have moved house constantly. They end up living next door to a peculiar old lady called Reafen, who is a second-hand dealer. To Angus and Martha, Reafen seems harmless enough. But who is she really and where did she get all the weird stuff in her shop?
Without his knowledge, Reafen draws Angus into her world; into ancient feuds, Wild Magick and bitter rivalries - into the secret dealings of Vikings and goblins and all those who have lived in the Old Realm.
Stan Grant
Stan Grant spent many years outside Australia, working in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, a time that liberated him and gave him a unique perspective on Australia. This is his very personal meditation on what it means to be Australian, what it means to be indigenous, and what racism really means in this country. Talking to my Country is a rare and special book that talks to every Australian about their country - what it is, and what it could be. It is not just about race, or about indigenous people but all of us, our shared identity. Direct, honest and forthright, Stan is talking to us all. He might not have all the answers but he wants us to keep on asking the question: how can we be better?
