Carpentaria, Alexis Wright, 2006
- Australia, #24
- Hardcover, Alibris.com, $0.99
- Read December 2014
- Rating: 5/5
- Recommended for: Vengeful ghosts, ancient mariners, environmentalists
Carpentaria
Fiction
Death of a River Guide
Death of a River Guide, Richard Flanagan, 1994
- Australia, #22
- Paperback, Alibris.com, $0.99
- Read January 2015
- Rating: 3.5/5
- Opening line: As I was born the umbilical cord tangled around my neck and I came into the world both arms flailing, unable to scream and thereby take in the air necessary to begin life outside of the womb, being garrotted by the very thing that had until that time succoured me and given me life.
- Recommended for: Reading breaks between fever dreams
Tomorrow, When the War Began
Tomorrow, When the War Began, John Marsden, 1993
- Australia, #21
- Paperback, Alibris, $0.99
- Read December 2014
- Rating: 2/5
- Recommended for: teenagers, as long as they are fairly naïve and not sensitive to being talked down to.
Cloudstreet
Cloudstreet, Tim Winton, 1991
- Australia, #20
- Kindle, £4.19
- Read January 2015
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Recommended for: daydreamers, homebodies, fishers of men
The Great World
The Great World, David Malouf, 1990
- Australia, #19
- Paperback, alibris.com, $0.99
- Read: November 2014
- Rating: 3/5
- Recommended for: War enthusiasts, very serious white men (or are these even distinct categories?)
Oscar and Lucinda
Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey, 1988
- Australia, #18
- Paperback, price unknown (it was on my shelf when I started the project, having been bought, started, and abandoned at some point in the past)
- Read July 2014
- Rating: 3/5
- Recommended for: timid agnostics and unlucky poker players
The Thorn Birds
The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough, 1977
- Australia, #15
- Kindle, £2.99 from Amazon
- Read June 2014
- Rating: 1/5
- Recommended for: Lapsed Catholics and hysterical neo-Victorians
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Picnic at Hanging Rock, Joan Lindsay, 1967
- Australia, #14
- Kindle, £4.37
- Read March 2014
- Rating 4/5
- Opening line: “Everyone agreed that the day was just right for the picnic to Hanging Rock – a shimmering summer morning warm and still, with cicadas shrilling all through breakfast from the loquat trees outside the dining-room windows and bees murmuring above the pansies bordering the drive.”
- Recommended for: proper young ladies who read Patricia Highsmith and Daphne du Maurier, have a secret love of Unsolved Mysteries, and appreciate the pathos of the opening scene of Carrie but find the rest of the movie lacking in subtlety
My Brother Jack
My Brother Jack, George Johnston, 1964
- Australia, #13
- Bought from Alibris for $3.00
- Read October 2014
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Recommended for: Fans of Graham Greene and other mid-century realists
Voss
Voss, Patrick White, 1957
- Australia, #12
- Kindle, £4.68 from Amazon
- Read May 2014
- Rating: 5/5
- Recommended for: Fans of Faulkner and Virginia Woolfe (who are looking for something different, of similar quality); lovers of literary fiction who are up for a challenge
Around the World in 2000 Books 