Last year, the First Tuesday Book Club show made a list of Australia’s favourite books (as voted by viewers/readers.)
We’ve done lots of book club choosing here on this blog. THIS time, I thought we could all choose a book from their list. I thought we could even make the First Tuesday of each month book chat day, a la the ABC. Does that sound like a good idea? Yes? Maybe we could even do a monthly giveaway… and get publishers to send us great books to share?! Am I onto something? Maybe?
There’s a few books I have read on this list, but there’s lots I haven’t. There’s some I’d like to re-read… and a few I am a bit amazed that I have not taken the time to get acquainted with. Here’s their list:
Australia’s 50 Favourite (Australian) Books
1. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
3. A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey
4. The Harp in the South Trilogy by Ruth Park
5. The Power Of One by Bryce Courtenay
6. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
7. The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay
8. The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
9. The Secret River by Kate Grenville
10. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
11. Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner
12. My Brother Jack by George Johnston
13. My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
14. True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
15. Eucalyptus by Murray Bail
16.. Power Without Glory by Frank J. Hardy
17. The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
18. Monkey Grip by Helen Garner
19. The Riders by Tim Winton
20. The Tree Of Man by Patrick White
21. The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes
22. Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James
23. Tall Man: The Death of Doomadgee by Chloe Hooper
24. The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
25. The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham
26. The Fortunes of Richard Mahony by Henry Handel Richardson
27. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally
28. Capricornia by Xavier Herbert
29. Wake in Fright by Kenneth Cook
30. Ransom by David Malouf
31. The Year of Living Dangerously by Christopher J. Koch
32. The First Stone by Helen Garner
33. Gallipoli by Alan Moorehead
34. Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy
35. The Monkey’s Mask by Dorothy Porter
36. Wanting by Richard Flanagan
37. Come in Spinner by Dymphna Cusack
38. Grand Days by Frank Moorhouse
39. 1788 by Watkin Tench
40. It’s Raining In Mango by Thea Astley
41. Riders in the Chariot by Patrick White
42. Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
43. The Tyranny Of Distance: How Distance Shaped Australia’s History by Geoffrey Blainey
44. That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott
45. For Love Alone by Christina Stead
46. An Intruder’s Guide To East Arnhem Land by Andrew McMillan
47. The Life by Malcolm Knox
48. The Watcher on the Cast-Iron Balcony by Hal Porter
49.. Here’s Luck by Lennie Lower
50. Visitants by Randolph Stow
(Go here for links to reviews of all these books – and author profiles too! So helpful!)
Would you like to start our own First Tuesday Book Club?
Sign up in the comments below and tell me which book you might choose from this list…?
Which of these Australian books would you like to read?
Which books are missing from this list?!
x Pip
PS: Apparently they are doing Favourite Classics next. Go here to vote for yours!