Bookshelf: australian

Showing posts with label australian. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Jack of Diamonds (Bryce Courtenay)

Jack of Diamonds

Bryce Courtenay

Blurb: During the Great Depression there was little hope for a boy born into the slums of Cabbagetown, Toronto. But Jack Spayd is offered a ticket out in the form of a Hohner harmonica, won by his brutal drunken father in a late-night card game. Jack makes music as a way of escaping his surroundings, and his talent leads him to a jazz club and, eventually, to the jazz piano.

Jack is a virtuoso and hits the road, enchanting audiences in Canada, wartime Europe and Las Vegas, where he is caught up in the world of elite poker and falls under the spell of his boss, the enigmatic Bridgett Fuller. Vegas is a hard town ruled by the Mafia, but Jack prospers, until his luck turns bad and he falls foul of the Mob. Forced to run for his life from Vegas, he must also leave the woman he adores. His adventuring takes him to the far reaches of Africa, to a rare and valuable bird that may seal his fate - and to the love of a very different woman.

Set across three continents, Jack of Diamonds is a spellbinding story of chance, music, corruption and love by Australia's best-loved storyteller.

ISBN: 9780670076079 (Hardback)

Year: 2012

Publisher: Viking

Pages: 711 (Fiction)

Links

1. Publisher's page

2. Goodreads page

3. Article on the book and author

4. Wikipedia page for the author

5. Buy from QBD

Monday, December 3, 2012

Scandalands (Kyle Sandilands)

Scandalands

Kyle Sandilands

Blurb: Kyle Sandilands has been nominated as the most hated man in Australia, yet at the same time he's one of our most successful and highest rating on-air personalities. His career has been riddled with scandal and controversy, yet his breakfast radio show consistently sits at number one. It's fair to say that Kyle polarises people.

Now, in Scandalands, we have a chance to get to know the real Kyle, from his difficult childhood in Brisbane, his strange adolescence impersonating police officers, through to this steely determination to make it in radio and the successes and failures he's experienced along the way. Whether it's teenage humiliation, his occasionally rocky personal relationships, or full-blown on-air catastrophes, Kyle tells his life story with disarming honesty.

Funny, frank and very revealing, Kyle's memoirs are a page-turning insight into one of Australia's best known and most controversial media figures.

ISBN: 9781742611839 (Paperback)

Year: 2012

Publisher: Macmillan

Pages: 352 (Non-Fiction)

Links

1. Article on the book

2. Publisher's page

3. Another article

4. Goodreads page

5. Buy from the Book Depository

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Hunwick's Egg (Mem Fox; Illustrated by Pamela Lofts)

Hunwick's Egg

Mem Fox; Illustrated by Pamela Lofts

Blurb: When a mysterious egg appears outside Hunwick's burrow, no one is quite certain what to think. And when it doesn't hatch right away, everyone is even more bewildered. Everyone except Hunwick, that is. Hunwick understands that the egg is his friend, and he is the only one who knows its secret.

This treasure of a book promises the young reader a simple, beautifully illustrated tale of identity and belonging.

ISBN: 97807343098846 (Paperback)

Year: 2005

Publisher: Puffin

Pages: 32 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from the Book Shuttle

2. Publisher's page

3. Author's official site

4. Buy from Amazon

5. Review of the book

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Stickybeak (Hazel Edwards; Illustrated by Rosemary Wilson)

Stickybeak

Hazel Edwards; Illustrated by Rosemary Wilson

Blurb: Stickybeak is an unforgettable school pet. He gets up to all sorts of mischief. Others think he's an ugly, noisy duckling. He thinks he's a person. We love him, but... when it was my turn to take him home, it was disaster plus!

ISBN: 9780734309860 (Paperback)

Year: 1986

Publisher: Puffin

Pages: 32 (Fiction)

Links

1. Publisher's page

2. Buy from Amazon

3. Author's official site

4. Buy from Readings

5. Goodreads page

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Koala Lou (Mem Fox; Illustrated by Pamela Lofts)

Koala Lou

Mem Fox; Illustrated by Pamela Lofts

Blurb: There was once a baby koala, so soft and round that all who saw her loved her. Her name was Koala Lou.

Koala Lou is the first born in a large family. She feels sad because her mother seems too busy to pay any attention. Perhaps if she wins the tree-climbing at the Bush Olympics her mother might notice her again... Koala Lou starts training right away!

An Australian classic by the author and illustrator of Hunwick's Egg.

ISBN: 9780734309839 (Paperback)

Year: 1988

Publisher: Puffin

Pages: 32 (Fiction)

Links

1. Buy from Amazon

2. Author's official site

3. Buy from the Book Shuttle

4. Watch the book being read on Youtube

5. Publisher's page for the book

Monday, November 12, 2012

Uno's Garden (Graeme Base)

Uno's Garden

Graeme Base

Blurb: When Uno arrives in the forrest one beautiful day, there are many fascinating and extraordinary animals there to greet him. And one entirely unexceptional Snortlepig.

Uno loves the forest so much, he decides to live there. But, in time, a little village grows up around his house. Then a town, then a city...and soon Uno realises that the animals and plants have begun to disappear...

From the creator of the international bestsellers Animalia, The Waterhole and Jungle Drums, here is an illuminating blend of storybook, puzzle book and numbers book - a moving and timely tale about how we all unknowingly affect the environment around us, just by being there, and how we can always learn from our mistakes and find ways of doing things better.

ISBN: 9780734309822 (Paperback)

Year: 2006

Publisher: Puffin

Pages: 40 (Fiction)

Links

1. Publisher's page for the book

2. Author's official site

3. How to teach the book in a classroom

4. Buy from Amazon

5. Interview with the author