"Salt Creek" by Lucy Treloar

I started reading this book as part of the Aussie Author Challenge 2018. It is an historical novel set in the Coorong in South Australia during the 1800s. The author is female, and it is the first book I have read by this author. The book was recommended to me by my friend Kathryn.

Started reading: 13th April 2018
Finished: 24th April 2018
My score: 9/10

"A fig at the gate" by Kate Llewellyn.

Borrowed this book from the local library. The author is one of the lovely ladies in my Strength For Life fitness classes that I teach at my local community centre, the one who brought me the most delicious fig from her garden a couple of weeks ago. This book is about her garden she set up in Adelaide in her 70s plus musings on life in general. Would love to see her garden one day.

 

April 2017.

 

 

 

"Gifts of the Peramangk" by Dean Mayes

I read "Gifts of the Peramangk" by Dean Mayes as part of the Aussie Author Challenge.It was recommended to me by a friend (Paula) who often suggests good books to me. She told me 'to do yourself a favour and read this book'. She was not wrong. This is a 10/10 book for me. It is set mostly in Adelaide, South Australia, where I am currently living, as so all the little details about locations, such as the Elder Hall on North Terrace and the environment here really connected with me.

The story is a mix of tragedy and heartwarming moments and achievements in the face of adversity. The story is split between two main narrators: Virginia - a young girl who is part of the 'Stolen' generation - taken from her mother without consent during the notorious White Australia Policy, - and her granddaughter Ruby. 

Virginia's life is mostly hell, in an orphanage and then as basically a slave on an outback property. The only bit of joy really in her life is when the wife of the brutal property manager secretly teaches her to play the violin a few hours per week when he is absent. Virginia obviously has a huge musical talent, but as events unfold in her tragic life she doesn't have the opportunity to follow up on her dreams and musical talent. Then enter Ruby, who discovers her grandmother's old violin and also has a gift for playing it. While also surrounded by contemporary issues of being disadvantaged, discriminated against, living in poverty and being caught up in domestic violence and crime, Ruby (with the encouragement of her grandmother) follows her musical dreams. While many dark and unhappy themes and events happen throughout the book, it is in the end uplifting and beautiful.

Started reading: 21st August 2014
Finished: 28th August 2014
My score: 10/10

"Wish" by Peter Goldsworthy

I read a review of this book on page 12-13 of the current issue of "The Adelaide Review" which prompted me to download it onto my kindle. This book is a novel set in Adelaide about a sign language teacher who teaches Sign to a gorilla liberated from a Melbourne research lab. This isn't a new book, but it has been recently re-released with a new introduction. Peter Goldsworthy is an Australian medical practitioner who also writes amazing books. I found this novel to be really interesting, page-turning, powerful, sometimes confronting which felt almost non-fictional in it's believability, exploring the boundaries between human and ape, language, intelligence. Unlike anything I have read before. It's also set in Adelaide (where I live now) so a lot of the setting is very familiar and makes the book come to life even more for me. This book, combined with recently seeing Adam Hills' live comedy performance translated for the deaf has seeded a desire in me to attempt to learn the basics of Auslan (Australian Sign Language). I thoroughly recommend this book.

Started reading on my kindle: 3rd August 2013
Finished: 4th August 2013
My score: 9.5/10