Australia flag Historical books from Australia

Recommended historical books (10)
Travel the world without leaving your chair. If you are into historical here are some historical books from Australia for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.

1.

August in Kabul : America's Last Days in Afghanistan by Andrew Quilty EN

0 Ratings
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
Told through the eyes of witnesses to the fall of Kabul, Walkley award-winning journalist Andrew Quilty's debut book offers a remarkable record of this historic moment. As night fell on 15 August 2021, the Taliban entered Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. After a 20-year conflict with the United States, its Western allies and a proxy Afghan government, the Islamic militant group once aligned with al Qaeda was about to bury yet another foreign foe in the graveyard of empires. And for the US, world superpower, this was yet another foreign disaster. As cities and towns fell to the Taliban in rapid s... continue

2.

Australia Day by Stan Grant EN

0 Ratings
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
As uncomfortable as it is, we need to reckon with our history. On January 26, no Australian can really look away. There are the hard questions we ask of ourselves on Australia Day. Since publishing his critically acclaimed, Walkley Award-winning, bestselling memoir Talking to My Country in early 2016, Stan Grant has been crossing the country, talking to huge crowds everywhere about how racism is at the heart of our history and the Australian dream. But Stan knows this is not where the story ends. In this book, Australia Day, his long-awaited follow up to Talking to My Country, Stan talks about... continue

3.

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton EN

Rating: 4 (4 votes)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
From award-winning author Tim Winton comes an epic novel that regularly tops the list of best-loved novels in Australia. After two separate catastrophes, two very different families leave the country for the bright lights of Perth. The Lambs are industrious, united, and--until God seems to turn His back on their boy Fish--religious. The Pickleses are gamblers, boozers, fractious, and unlikely landlords. Change, hardship, and the war force them to swallow their dignity and share a great, breathing, shuddering house called Cloudstreet. Over the next twenty years, they struggle and strive, laugh ... continue

4.

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
Charlie Bucktin is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleep-out. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the mining town of Corrigan. Jasper takes Charlie to his secret glade in the bush, and it's here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper's horrible discovery.

5.

March : A Novel by Geraldine Brooks EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize--a powerful love story set against the backdrop of the Civil War, from the author of The Secret Chord. From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and crafted a story "filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man" (Sue Monk Kidd). With "pitch-perfect writing" (USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage ... continue

6.

Rabbit-Proof Fence : The True Story of One of the Greatest Escapes of All Time by Doris Pilkington EN

0 Ratings
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
Following an Australian government edict in 1931, black aboriginal children and children of mixed marriages were gathered up and taken to settlements to be institutionally assimilated. In Rabbit-Proof Fence, award-wining author Doris Pilkington traces the story of her mother, Molly, one of three young girls uprooted from their community in Southwestern Australia and taken to the Moore River Native Settlement. There, Molly and her relatives Gracie and Daisy were forbidden to speak their native language, forced to abandon their heritage, and taught to be culturally white. After regular stays in ... continue

7.

Sand Talk : How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
Originally published as 'Sand Talk' in Australia in 2019 by The Text Publishing Company.

8.

Searching for the Secret River by Kate Grenville EN

Rating: 2 (1 vote)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
Kate Grenville describes her quest to find her convict ancestor, and to understand his life.

9.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak EN

Rating: 5 (62 votes)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME The extraordinary, beloved novel about the ability of books to feed the soul even in the darkest of times. When Death has a story to tell, you listen. It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to rea... continue

10.

The Secret River by Kate Grenville EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
'Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize and Australian Book Industry Awards, Book of the Year. After a childhood of poverty and petty crime in the slums of London, William Thornhill is transported to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife Sal and children in tow, he arrives in a harsh land that feels at first like a de...