Top 5 Aussie Books That Need To See Foreign Shores

If there's a problem with a lot of Aussie YA, it's how limited the readership can be. It's difficult, if not impossible, to get most books by our fabulous Australian authors anywhere but in Australia. Some Aussie greats are available overseas, like Marcus Zusak's and Melina Marchetta's books. But there are so many more amazing books that might never (or not for a while) that we might never see reach the larger audience they deserve. Here are five books (in no particular order) that I feel this way about:

A Straight Line To My Heart by Bill Condon

This one because it is just so Australian. A lot of popular internationally available Australian novels don't capture our atmosphere like A Straight Line To My Heart did so effortlessly. I'd really love for non-Australian readers to feel this ambiance.

Alaska by Sue Saliba

Alaska was just written in such a gorgeous way. Mia's voice is just so innocent and sweet and oddly melancholic and the setting felt like another plaintive character in itself. Reading it, I felt like I was on the verge of tears even while nothing sad was happening. I'm feeling that again either just thinking about the story or how relatively few people could have the chance to read it.

All I Ever Wanted by Vikki Wakefield

All I Ever Wanted also captures that Australian atmosphere, but a different side of it. The run-down, crime-ridden side. Mim began at a contrast to this setting, but her character arc and change of heart had her a completely different person at the end. A beautiful, true, and inspiring novel.





Good Oil by Laura Buzo

Because it's such a feel-good read. It's not all about mucking around at work and crushes on funny, smart, older boys; it has touching and sad moments too. But I remember finishing this book with a warm, fuzzy feeling and a sudden urge to work at Woolworths.




This Is Shyness by Leanne Hall

Breathtakingly imaginative. The peculiar setting and character in This Is Shyness had the kind of allure of something so strange that you couldn't help but stare. But as the story enfolds and our protagonists explore Shyness further, it stops being compelling based on it being a spectacle an more on the affinity you develop to the characters.



So what Australian books do you wish were available elsewhere? Or are there any books from other countries that you wish were published in more places?

Also, did you guys know that you can win Alaska and A Straight Line To My Heart in my internationally open Aussie August giveaway? Just in case I persuaded you to read them.

Aussie August: What makes Aussie fiction Aussie fiction?

So what makes Australian fiction Australian?

Before you guys get excited for a thorough and eloquent discussion of a widely-loved genre, stop and turn turn turn down your expectations meter. A couple of people said they were looking forward to this post, and that scared the crap out of me.

Australian fiction is, on the most basic level, fiction penned by Australians, and ordinarily set in Australia. So the major difference between Australian fiction and fiction from overseas is the context, but it’s such an unbelievably large component to a story. The setting, the language, the social conventions the characters adhere to -- they all have a huge effect on the story.

The small suburbs outside of Australia’s biggest cities that pose as backdrops to Aussie YAs like All I Ever Wanted and A Straight Line To My Heart give the stories a whole different atmosphere. Things as simple as the characters speaking in Strine help to create a unique feel to the setting. Reading foreign books, there's always a small suspension of disbelief required as the characters talk (I thought people only said things like that on TV?) or just plain do things (You take the same classes everyday? Really?). Some of the smaller things in Aussie YA feel so natural that sometimes they just slide by unnoticed (and often in my case, unappreciated).

There are also many Aussie YAs not set in Australia that still have an Aussie vibe to them, like Alaska and Burn Bright. The authors' experiences have an undoubtedly huge effect on their writing, and Australian writers bring a little of their country with them even into their other settings.

And I think this is what gives Aussie YA its allure: the familiarity. It’s why, in a book market dominated by American books, we cherish the small Australian novel. It’s like coming home after the long journeys other books take us on; it's comfortable. I read part of Beatle Meets Destiny on the very tram that Beatle took to school. The day after I read Graffiti Moon I went and toured all of the painted alley ways in Melbourne. The characters in Aussie YA can be so incredibly relatable on a whole other level. It isn't just like knowing the character -- it's like being friends with the character.


So what do you think makes Aussie fiction Aussie fiction? What do you think makes Aussie fiction unique?

P. S. A couple of the books I mentioned specifically here are prizes in my Aussie August giveaway -- open internationally until the 30th of August.

Aussie August: Australian Favourites

Welcome to my second featured post for Aussie August. You can go here to see my first -- an international giveaway -- and here to see all the other awesome features and a schedule of the rest to come.


I was going to talk just about one of my favourite Australian novels, but we probably don't have the same tastes, so I've asked around for some other recommendations. So aside from just me sharing my favourite, wonderful Australian authors Leanne Hall, Rhiannon Hart, Aimee Said, and Sue Saliba will also be sharing theirs!


Rhiannon Hart is the debut author of the amazing upcoming fantasy novel Blood Song. Her pick is Obernewytn by Isobel Carmody:

The Obernewtyn Chronicles are almost as old as I am. But of course, I didn't discovered them until years after the first was published--probably around the time The Keeping Place appeared in 1999, when I was in year 10. The books are set thousand years or so after a nuclear holocaust, called the Great White, has destroyed the land. Technology is forbidden, for it is feared that any sort of advancement might bring about more destruction. Those who have mutations are also feared, and persecuted by the Herder Faction, the religious order appointed by the ruling Council.

Elspeth Gordie is a Misfit, and has a mutation that she must hide that gives her advanced mental abilities. In the first book, she is discovered and sent to a place called Obernewtyn where it is claimed that people like her can be cured. All is not as it seems, and Elspeth uncovers a truth far worse than she or any of the other Misfits there expected.

These are brilliant adventure books. You might call them dystopian or fantasy, or even science fiction, but it's the adventure that I love, along with the simple world building and interesting characters. I have happy memories of getting lost in this series, and it makes me sad to think that it will finally be coming to a close. Especially as I haven't read The Stone Key yet! I have a signed copy sitting on my shelf, just waiting for me to re-read from The Farseekers onward. I heard Isobelle Carmody speak at the Melbourne Writers Festival two years ago and I was particularly taken by her role in animal activism--something that comes through in her books as well.

For some reason I've never been taken with any other of Carmody's books. But the Obernewtyn Chronicles will always be close to my heart. 

Leanne Hall wrote the richly imaginative This Is Shyness and is currently working on a sequel. Her pick is Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar:

I was going to pick something really old and classic, so you could admire my obscure tastes in Australian fiction. But in the end I decided to tell the truth. My favourite Australian book is a recent one, and a book that has been admired especially by YA bloggers - Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar. Everything about Raw Blue rings true for me. I've read it several times now, and each time I find myself sucked into Carly's world of working at a cafe, surfing whenever she can, and trying to keep her demons at bay. I'm not a surfer, in fact I don't think I've ever even held a surfboard, but Eagar (a diehard surfer herself) really takes you into the surfing world in this book. I feel like I know the water and the waves and the regulars of the northern beaches of NSW through reading it. I had no idea before reading this, how beautiful and complicated the ocean could be.  

Carly is a vivid, unique character going through tough times as best she can. I love it that she's taciturn, I love it that she takes her work at the cafe seriously, I love it that she acts foolishly at times. Eagar paints a really accurate picture of someone trying to get over a very traumatic event. Carly has a lot of strength, but it's still not easy for her to be happy. The story of her learning to trust and be close to people again is an important story to tell.

Aimee Said is the author of contemporary novels Finding Freia Lockhart and Little Sister. Her pick is Clara In Washington by Penny Tangey:

Asking me to talk about my all-time favourite Aussie YA is like asking a mother to pick her favourite child: impossible! Instead I’ve chosen my favourite recent release, Clara in Washington by Penny Tangey. 

What it’s about: Clara, who’s just finished high school, accompanies her mum on an extended business trip to America’s capital, hoping for new experiences and a chance to step outside her studious-geek persona. It’s also a way to avoid some things (and someone) at home that she’d rather not deal with. But Clara’s time in Washington doesn’t quite live up to her expectations, mainly because she’s terrified to leave the house. Then she meets brooding Campbell and his anarchist group and begins to question the beliefs by which she defines herself and her plans for the future.

Why I love it: Clara is an insightful narrator with a dry, self-deprecating (and very Australian) sense of humour. I empathised with many of her fears and insecurities, and the great weight of expectation that comes with her post-school transition. I also found the setting – around the time of Obama’s inauguration – fascinating, especially viewed through Clara’s eyes.

Sue Saliba wrote Watching Seagulls, Something In The World Called Love, and the gorgeous recently-released Alaska. Her pick is Saltwater Moons by Julie Gittus:

One of my favourite Australian young adult novels is ‘Saltwater Moons’ by Julie Gittus. Sun will soon be finishing Year 12 when she meets two older guys: Mark, who has just broken up with her best friend and Tycho, a university student who surfs, paints and reads poetry. Sun feels an attraction to and affinity with Tycho and when he asks her to spend the weekend with him and his family at their beach house, she is excited and nervous and all those things you would expect of emergent first love. But then Mark appears and Sun ends up taking a late-night walk with him – and things get
very complicated.

There’s such honesty to the way this story is told, I found myself having an incredible sympathy with Sun. While she’s an intelligent and sensitive person, things seem to happen in her life at this time that are just beyond her grasp of fully understanding or controlling. There’s betrayal and love and heartbreak and, all the time, a yearning for something or someone who seems unreachable.


This novel is written with real wisdom and kindness and the characters are complex and layered. I felt like I was being given a privileged look back at my own young adult years by someone who understood all the confusion and yearning and ‘wrong’ situations I had found myself in – and who did not judge me but encouraged me to look again, this time with real compassion.

And me? My favourite Australian novel is On The Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta. It tells Taylor and Hannah's highly emotional stories of loss, but ends with hope. Marchetta introduces a plethora of plot threads -- romance, war games, friendship, and family -- that the sympathetic characters will work painstakingly hard to tie together into a neat conclusion. It's not even just my favourite Australian novel, but one of my favourite novels outright.

So, what are your favourite Australian novels?

Aussie August: International giveaway!

Welcome to my first featured post for Aussie August! If you missed them, check out the first three days' features:

• The Mega Aussie Author giveaway at The Australian Bookshelf
• A signed(!) Beautiful Malice giveaway at Book Probe Reviews
• A review of A Pocketful of Eyes by Lili Wilkinson at My Girl Friday
• A guest post and giveaway with Jane Routley at The Australian Bookshelf

Here, I'm giving EVERYONE (yes, it's international!) the chance to win six much-loved Australian titles that aren't readily available overseas.

In case you can't see the titles, from the top down they are:

• Alaska by Sue Saliba
• A Straight Line To My Heart by Bill Condon
• Beatle Meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams
• The Comet Box by Adrian Stirling
• Winter's Shadow by M. J. Hearle
• Angel Fish by Lili Wilkinson

Clicking the titles will open up their Goodreads page in a new tab, in case you haven't heard of them before.

I'll be drawing a winner for each book, you just need to tick which ones you'd like to be entered for in the entry form. It's possible to win more than one of the books!

Are you ready for the third bullet-point list of this post? Because here come the conditions:

• You need to be following me to enter.
• The entries close at midnight AEST on the 30th of August. Winners will be announced the next day.
• You can receive optional extra entries by spreading word of this giveaway, following me on Twitter (an easy link to that at the top left of this page), or putting the giveaway link or button in your site's sidebar.

CLICK THROUGH TO THE ENTRY FORM.
Entries now closed!

May the odds be ever in your favour!

Introduction: Aussie August

Aussie August is a month-long celebration of Australian literature. Each day will have one or two featured posts from great Aussie bloggers -- giveaways, reviews, interviews, guest posts, and more. In short, it's going to be a very awesome month!

The idea was originally from Braiden at Book Probe Reviews, but since, Lux from The Paperback Heart and Sas from Tea Mouse have put in a lot of work organising it. A huge thank you to them!

At the main Aussie August blog you can find a schedule and more information about the event. Check it out HERE.

My featured posts for the month will be:

• An international giveaway of six Aussie titles that aren't readily available internationally (I've reviewed four of them here before. In fact, I reviewed one of them just this morning, if you want to know what you can win early.)
• A collaborative post of Aussie favourites, featuring picks from several great Australian authors.
• A discussion of what makes Australian fiction Australian (beyond the obvious 'the author is Australian').

If any of those interest you, stick around for them. On top of those three, I'll also be reading more Aussie YA than usual, so I'll be posting more reviews of Australian books than usual.

So are you guys as excited about this as I am?!

P.S. I know there are quite a few international guys who appreciate Aussie YA as well, and so this whole month doesn't seem like a big tease, I'll direct you guys to the wonderful Nomes' post about where to find Aussie books internationally.