This post is a follow-up to a post from 2012 with the same title.
At that time (Dec 2012 – four years ago!!), I’d watched the final episode of ‘The First Tuesday Book Club’ for that year, during which they announced the top 10 Great Aussie books, as voted by viewers throughout the year.
At the time, I was ashamed to note that out of the top 10 I’d only heard of 6, and I hadn’t read any, so I set myself a challenge to read them all over the course of coming the year. 1
Unfortunately, I failed. And I can still only say I’ve read 4 of the top 10. Appalling! To be completely honest, I completely forgot about the post at all until I was scrolling back through my ‘insights’ checking out my most popular posts, of which this was one.
As a reminder (and a glance at what I actually did read) the ten were:
1 – Cloud Street by Tim Winton (read – From memory this book annoyed me a little to start with – but by the end I was won over.)
2 – The Book Theif by Markus Zusak (read and loved!)
3 – A Fortunate Life by A B Facey
4 – The Harp in the South by Ruth Park
5 – The Power of One by Bryce Courtney
6 – Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey (read. loved. What a wake-up to those odd little assumptions we make about people!)
7 – The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsey (This is now on my bookshelf… but still a to-read)
8 – The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
9 – The Secret River – Kate Grenville (read. As a student of history, I already knew what happened to the Aboriginal people during colonisation, but fiction always manages to open yours eyes that little bit further.)
10 – Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsey (I had seen the movie years before and now I can say I’ve read the book – I’ve always been absolutely fascinated by this story – the girls who go missing in mysterious and spooky circumstances and the book did not disappoint.)
But it’s been four years since this top 10 list was announced – what Australian books published since 2012 would you add to this list?
Heather Ewings 