Aussie Readers discussion

For our April challenge, we can choose anything in the Non Fiction/Biography/Memoir category...


Writers' Festivals are happening all around the country now - Newcastle Writers' Festival is on in April. Plus the Emerging Writers' Festival Launch: Fact vs Fiction is happening 30th April - a perfect time to read some non-fiction!




Relax and enjoy your choices as our weather cools in the countdown to winter:)



Best Memoir/Biography/Autobiography
Must Read Non Fiction
More Non Fiction
Best Non Fiction (Non Biography)
Top 100 Best Non Fiction

I know someone who will do this one with ease!!! Elaine:)

Doubling up with my **Autumn Reading Challenge – 2014** list, I'll be reading 'One Way Road: The Autobiography of Three Time Tour de France Green Jersey Winner Robbie McEwen'

Great idea Visible:) Enjoy!

I do need to read more Non-Fiction.

Good opportunity for you in April then Michael:)

I have a few lined up - Black Market Baby: An Adopted Woman's Journey by Renee Clarke
To Die For by Gary C. King
The Last of the Nomads by W.J. Peasley

Not sure how many I'll get to, but at least that's a start!!

I'm going to read Twelve Years a Slave

I have Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis on my shelf that I'd like to read.

I am going to read
The White Masai by Corinne Hofmann and The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do

I will read Welcome to Your New Life. Anna Goldsworthy is one of my favourite Australian Writers/Pianists.

I like my novels, but I also enjoy some non-fiction reading to break things up and make me more informed (I hope!). Next month I am intending to read The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman and The Tom Hanks Enigma: The Biography of the World's Most Intriguing Movie Star by David Gardner.

I am going to read one from my TBR A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog. The other 2 are The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death and Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Hopefully I will get to, and finish, At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson who has always been a favourite author. And it's the next NF read on my TBR....

Just so happens that I have a couple of non-fiction books on my TBR pile that i need to read before we fly to New Zealand in July - so this is the perfect prod I need to do it :)

I will read:

Slipping into Paradise: Why I Live in New Zealand by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

Straying from the Flock: Travels in New Zealand by Alexander Elder

For this one I'll start with : Lucky by Alice Sebold
It's been sitting on my bookshelf for awhile now :)

Some fabulous choices from everyone so far!

Brenda wrote: "I know someone who will do this one with ease!!! Elaine:)"

I'm loving this challenge already Brenda. Thanks soooo much!!! As long as you don't say that I can't read any JFK books!!! :) Although I have picked up A Century of Wisdom: Lessons from the Life of Alice Herz-Sommer from the library so will definitely be including that in the challenge.

Oh that's a wonderful book Elaine, and even more poignant now she has just passed away! I hope you enjoy it - what a wonderful, inspirational lady:)

And of course you can read JFK! That's why I said it'll be a piece of cake for you:)

Thanks Brenda. I definitely chose Alice's book because of your review and recommendation and I'm sure I will enjoy it and this challenge is so timely as I have a few biographies/memoirs to read.

Great choices Kathryn. I really enjoyed The Zookeeper's Wife and although I haven't read the other one, Tom Hanks is such an amazing,talented and versatile actor, it's bound to be good. Personally I'm very excited about this challenge!!!!

Elaine wrote: "Great choices Kathryn. I really enjoyed The Zookeeper's Wife and although I haven't read the other one, Tom Hanks is such an amazing,talented and versatile actor, it's bound to be go..."

Thanks, Elaine - I thought your choice sounded good when I read Brenda's review of it earlier this year. Have managed to not add it to my TBR just yet but maybe your comments will make me change my mind! Which JFK-related books are you considering for April?

There are so many interesting non-fiction books on such a vast range of subjects. I've just started A Family in Paris: Stories of Food, Life and Adventure by Jane Paech about the trials and tribulations of a family who moved to Paris for a year or so - I'm really enjoying it (if a book has the words "Paris" or "France" or derivatives in the title, I'm 3/4 of the way toward wanting to read the book and there's a very good chance I'll enjoy it!), but if I'd known, I could have held off reading it til April!!

Janine - the Happiest Refugee is a great book - I read it when it first came out, and the kids at school (I think year 9 or 10) are doing it this year again for English - hope you enjoy it

I am going to read She Left Me the Gun by Emma Brockes. Someone lent me this book earlier this week and just fits this challenge perfectly.



According to the description t is a family memoir/history. The author writes about her mother's life in Africa, which she did not know any details of until after her mother died.

I'll be reading On the Trail of Genghis Khan: An Epic Journey Through the Land of the Nomads by Tim Cope, and if I have enough time I will also read Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick.

Kathryn wrote: "Elaine wrote: "Great choices Kathryn. I really enjoyed The Zookeeper's Wife and although I haven't read the other one, Tom Hanks is such an amazing,talented and versatile actor, it's..."

I would normally read a variety of books for this kind of challenge Kathryn as it is one of my favourite genres but seeing as I'm in the middle of a love affair with JFK and Camelot at the moment, I think I'll stick to these. Not sure yet which ones. I borrowed a whole heap from the library today so I have a few more to choose from now!!! I'm also listening to an audio book Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy which is fascinating as it is actually Jackie speaking. I'm listening to this in the car. Audiobooks are fairly alien to me but so far so good. :)

If its ok to double up I will be reading Nurses of the Outback and hoping to also read A Long Way Home and maybe (if I can sneek another one in - does it matter if it's not an Australian book???) Fly a little higher - I saw the film about her son and even downloaded his song - heartbreaking but beautiful story - really want to read this book!

I'm going to read The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville

Andrea wrote: "I'll be reading [book:On the Trail of Genghis Khan: An Epic Journey Through the Land of the Nomads|..."

I saw this when it was a mini-series on TV - very interesting journey - hope the book is just as good!

I've never heard of Welcome to Your New Life, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea or The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville and I think they all sound very interesting. I have heard of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers before and have heard good things about it (and I'm intrigued by another by the same author - Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal). I also like the sound of Sally's NZ books...

Maybe I'd better stop looking at this thread!!

I am going to read

Tutankhamun: The Exodus Conspiracy

and

Leadbelly: Inside Australia's Underworld Wars

Sharon wrote: "For this one I'll start with : Lucky by Alice Sebold
It's been sitting on my bookshelf for awhile now :)"

Great choice Sharon. I hope you like it

Bec wrote: "If its ok to double up I will be reading Nurses of the Outback

and hoping to also read A Long Way Home

and maybe (if I can sneek another one in - does it matter if it's not an Australian ..."

Some fantastic choices from everyone!

No, they don't have to be Aussie Bec:) I've read A Long Way Home and loved it!

I forgot - I'm also intending to read Other People's Country- A woman's journey from suburbia to life as a remote area nurse by Maureen Helen next month for one of my autumn challenge reads and I'm looking forward to that.

Sharon wrote: "For this one I'll start with : Lucky by Alice Sebold
It's been sitting on my bookshelf for awhile now :)"

I read this some years ago and thought it was very good....

Robert Redford: The Biography by Michael Feeney Callan: I have to read this after the 'moth in my pj's' episode, lol.

I was given Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson for my birthday last year so this will be a good opportunity to read it (before my next birthday!)

Okay (although it's hardly a challenge as I read a lot of historiography), I'll read something I've meant to read for years and haven't got to it.

The World We Have Lost

Marianne wrote: "Sharon wrote: "For this one I'll start with : Lucky by Alice Sebold
It's been sitting on my bookshelf for awhile now :)"

I read this some years ago and thought it was ver..."

That's good to know thanks, Marianne :)

Everyone tells me Mao's Last Dancer is amazing, so this is a good time for me to read it.

There are some great suggestions going on here :)

My mother loaned me her copy of The Necessary Aptitude: A Memoir by Pam Ayres about two years ago and it has sat on my shelf accusingly since then. This would seem to be the right time for me to read it!

How about poetry Brenda? That's non fiction too.

That's a good question Dale..would you be able to read another non fiction/biography/memoir as well as your poetry?

This is a hard one Dale. Not all poetry is non-fiction. The 'owl and the pussy cat' and the 'pobble who had no toes' comes to mind. Even lots of Banjo Patterson poetry were just yarns rather than an outpouring of personal feelings.

But then we have poems like My Country by Dorothea Mackeller and no-one can argue that is anything other than a personal account of her feelings for Australia. So would class that as non-fiction.

I guess the answer is a cautious yes - as long as the poems aren't telling a make believe story or fantasy. The poems would need to be true reflection or lyrically re telling a major true event. Still some could argue that an autobiography can be fiction because the author will only give the information they want you to know, and may highly gloss over some facts that don't suit them to let their readers know.

Clear as mud?

Maybe a few poems and then a memoir or biography about a poet?

I personally have certainly have always thought of poetry as being fiction.

Sally906 wrote: "This is a hard one Dale. Not all poetry is non-fiction. The 'owl and the pussy cat' and the 'pobble who had no toes' comes to mind...I personally have certainly have always thought of poetry as being fiction. ..."

And yet, just to muddy the waters even further, isn't poetry shelved in the non-fiction section of the library? Certainly the classic poets like Tennyson, Shelley, Byron etc are. But then so is Shakespeare and all of works including his plays which are obviously fiction!

I know Kathryn. I even googled the question and it seems to be very divided out there in the cyber world. Which is why I suggested some poems AND a biography :)

Have some friends over here at the movement and 4 say yes it's non-fiction and 4 say fiction.

Sally906 wrote: "I know Kathryn. I even googled the question and it seems to be very divided out there in the cyber world. Which is why I suggested some poems AND a biography :)

Have some friends over here at the ..."

Well, your friends are no help!! Maybe you'd better call in a neighbour for a deciding vote! I see Brenda suggested the same as you - it's an interesting question, isn't it? I'm not a big poetry reader, so it never occurred to me. Thanks to Dale for giving us something to ponder!!

I'm going to join in with this one.
So far I've selected:

I, Rhoda by Valerie Harper
Got this for my mother originally, but thought I would read it too at some stage...so now is a good time!

The Lost Child of Philomena Lee: A Mother, Her Son and a 50 Year Search by Martin Sixsmith
I haven't seen the movie, but it sounds like an interesting story.

Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman
I have seen the TV show, but I'm going to assume the book is probably quite different. I bought the audiobook a little while ago and it's read by one of my favourite narrators Cassandra Campbell.

Patricia wrote: "I'm going to join in with this one.
So far I've selected:

I, Rhoda by Valerie Harper
Got this for my mother originally, but thought I would read it too at some stage...so now is a ..."

I saw the movie, Patricia - it was very good - a little emotional, so be warned! I haven't read the book though, so the story may have been altered to be more emotional for the movie...