GeoKit Oceania 2021
Conversazioni2021 Category Challenge
Iscriviti a LibraryThing per pubblicare un messaggio.
1pamelad
Papua New Guinea
Fiji
Kalyana Rajni Mala Khelawan
Samoa
Leaves of the Banyan Tree Albert Wendt
Where We Once Belonged Sia Figiel
Telesa The Covenant Keeper Lani Wendt Young
Scar of the Bamboo Leaf Sieni A.M.
Solomon Islands
Where Leaves had Fallen: a collection of poems by Celo Kulagoe SINU Library
Vanuatu
Black Stone, Black Stone II, Colonised People by Grace Stone (Poetry)
Kiribati
Waa in Storms by Teweiariki Teaero
Federated States of Micronesia
Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia Edited by Evelyn Flores and Emelihter Kihleng
Pohnpei
My Urohs by Emelihter Kihleng (Poetry)
Tonga
Tales of the Tikongs Epeli Hau'ofa
Marshal Islands
Iep Jaltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner
Palau
The Palauan Perspectives: a poetry book by Hermana Ramarui
Tuvalu
Tuvalu: A History by Simati Faaniu
Nauru
Rapa Nui/Easter Island (Chile)
New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna (France)
Frangipani Célestine Hitiura Vaite
The Wreck by Déwé Gorodé
Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands (USA)
Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen by Liliuokalani
Mariquita - A Tragedy of Guam by Chris Perez Howard
Pitcairn Islands (Britain)
Pitcairn’s Island Charles Nordhoff
Non-indigenous Writers
The writers listed above are, in the main, indigenous. Many others have written about the region:
Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener
The Happy Isles of Oceania by Paul Theroux
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life by Herman Melville
South Sea Stories by Somerset Maugham
The War in the Pacific
Many, but not all, of these books are set in Oceania.
Asylum Seekers on Manus Island (New Guinea) and Nauru
The Australian Government has imprisoned asylum seekers illegally and indefinitely.
No Friend but the Mountains: from Manus Prison by Behrouz Boochani (from Iran, now in New Zealand)
Freeing Ali by Michael Gordon
Offshore: Behind the Wire on Manus and Nauru Madeline Gleeson
Sending Them Home: Refugees and the New Politics of Indifference by Robert Manne, David Corlett
2pamelad
Australian Indigenous Writers
Non-fiction
Jack Charles: Born-again Blakfella by Jack Charles
Australia Day by Stan Grant
Tell Me Why by Archie Roach
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia by Anita Heiss
My Place by Sally Morgan
Because A White Man’ll Never Do It by Kevin Gilbert
The Indigenous Literature of Australia by Mudrooroo
Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe
Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington
Fiction
Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko
That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott
The Yield by Tara June Winch
Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
Publisher
Magabala
Websites
Fifteen Must-Read Books by Aboriginal Australians
First Nations Australia Writers Network
Seven Must-Read Books by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Authors
Australian First Nations Fiction
Top Ten Summer Reads from Indigenous Australian Authors
3pamelad
Assorted Australian Writers
Crime
Alan Carter
Peter Corris
Garry Disher Ned Kelly Award
Candice Fox Ned Kelly Award
Kerry Greenwood
Chris Hammer
Jane Harper (from Britain)
Katherine Howell Davitt Award
Katherine Kovacic
Gabrielle Lord Ned Kelly Award
Shane Maloney Ned Kelly Award
Leigh Redhead
Jock Serong Ned Kelly Award
Peter Temple (from South Africa) Miles Franklin Award
Emma Viskic Davitt Award
Over fifty years ago
Patricia Carlon
Charlotte Jay
Arthur Upfield (from Britain)
Fiction
Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson Miles Franklin Award
It's Raining in Mango by Thea Astley
The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey Booker
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan Booker
The Spare Room by Helen Garner
Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam by Peter Goldsworthy
The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
The Well by Elizabeth Jolley
Sixty Lights by Gail Jones
Schindler's Ark by Thomas Kenneally Booker
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough
Mateship with Birds by Carrie Tiffany Stella Prize
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas Commonwealth Writers Prize
The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood Stella Prize
Over fifty years ago
Come in Spinner by Dymphna Cusack
The Timeless Land by Eleanor Dark
My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
The Watch Tower by Elizabeth Harrower
The Pea Pickers by Eve Langley
The Shiralee by D'Arcy Niland
The Harp in the South by Ruth Park (from New Zealand)
Coonardoo by Katherine Susannah Pritchard
The Fortunes of Richard Mahony by Henry Handel Richardson
The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
The Tree of Man by Patrick White Nobel
Isobel on the Way to the Corner Shop by Amy Witting
Non-fiction
The Tyranny of Distance by Geoffrey Blainey
Tracks by Robyn Davidson
The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes
Animal Liberation by Peter Singer
The Bush by Don Watson
Prizes
Miles Franklin
Ned Kelly Award
Scarlet Stiletto Award and Davitt Award- Sisters in Crime
The Stella Prize
Overseas Writers
Down Under by Bill Bryson
In the Land of Oz by Howard Jacobson
4pamelad
New Zealand, Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau - Indigenous Writers
Alan Duff Once Were Warriors
Patricia Grace Potiki
Keri Hulme The Bone People Booker
Witi Ihimaera The Whale Rider
Paula Morris Rangatira Nga Kupu Ora Maori Book Award
Hone Tuwhare No Ordinary Sun (Poetry)
Web Sites
Focus on Maori Writers
HUIA Book Shop
Maori and Pacific Writers - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
5pamelad
New Zealand Writers
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton Booker
Tamar by Deborah Challinor Family saga
An Angel at My Table by Janet Frame Classic
Plumb by Maurice Gee
The Book of Fame byLloyd Jones
The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield Short stories set mainly in NZ.
Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh Crime, Golden Age
Pink Flannel by Ruth Park
All Visitors Ashore by C K Stead
Overseas Writers
Erewhon by Samuel Butler
The Colour by Rose Tremain
Websites
The Fifty Best New Zealand Books of the Last Fifty Years
New Zealand Book Awards
Ockham New Zealand Book Awards
13 Classic Books from New Zealand
Best Books By New Zealand Authors to Read in 2020
Academy of New Zealand Literature
New Zealand Crime Fiction: 12 Authors to Try
6pamelad
Getting started. Thinking of ways to select and organise the Australian writers because there are so many.
Looking for suggestions of New Zealand writers.
Still seeking writers from the Pacific Islands. Samoa is well represented, but most of the others are not.
Looking for suggestions of New Zealand writers.
Still seeking writers from the Pacific Islands. Samoa is well represented, but most of the others are not.
7NinieB
>6 pamelad: I highly recommend Ruth Park's Pink Flannel, also published as Dear Hearts and Gentle People, for New Zealand. She grew up on the North Island, where the book is set.
8pamelad
>7 NinieB: Thank you. I'll put her in NZ.
9spiralsheep
>1 pamelad: Thread's looking good! I saw you setting this up and added a link to the wiki.
Palau: The Palauan Perspectives: a poetry book by Hermana Ramarui was published in 1984 and is showing its age but it does represent Palau well at that time.
Pohnpei (Federated States of Micronesia): My Urohs by Emelihter Kihleng is a single author poetry book.
Nauru and Manus islands have a whole body of refugee literature written by people imprisoned there, including some professional writers such as No Friend but the Mountains: from Manus Prison by Behrouz Boochani.
I might think of some more when I'm properly awake.
Palau: The Palauan Perspectives: a poetry book by Hermana Ramarui was published in 1984 and is showing its age but it does represent Palau well at that time.
Pohnpei (Federated States of Micronesia): My Urohs by Emelihter Kihleng is a single author poetry book.
Nauru and Manus islands have a whole body of refugee literature written by people imprisoned there, including some professional writers such as No Friend but the Mountains: from Manus Prison by Behrouz Boochani.
I might think of some more when I'm properly awake.
10spiralsheep
Vanuatu: Grace Molisa published her poetry in Black Stone II, and Colonised People, and the original Black Stone.
11spiralsheep
Solomon Islands: Where leaves had fallen: A collection of poems by Celo Kulagoe.
12pamelad
>9 spiralsheep: Thanks. I've added them all.
13MillieWhitehouse
Questo utente è stato eliminato perché considerato spam.
14MissWatson
Wow, that's a great set-up. I need to get my skates on for South America!
15Jackie_K
>15 Jackie_K: I was thinking the exact same thing! I don't think Europe will be quite as extensively covered in the opening post, somehow! :)
16DeltaQueen50
Great set up for our first GeoKit of the year! Seeing this up and ready is making 2021 seem much closer.
18MissBrangwen
I wanted to buy The Yield by Tara June Winch when it came out, but it wasn't available in Europe. I just checked again and I'm happy to see that I can finally order it. My plan is to not order that many books online next year, but I think this will be one of the few I'll order!
And thank you >1 pamelad: for the great selection of choices. There are some that I've read or heard about, but also many that are new to me and that I will check out.
And thank you >1 pamelad: for the great selection of choices. There are some that I've read or heard about, but also many that are new to me and that I will check out.
19pamelad
>18 MissBrangwen: Thank you. Being from Australia it's a temptation to see Oceania as Australia and the Rest, so it's been interesting to look for books from all over Oceania. I'd like to read something Samoan, as well as more books by Australian indigenous writers. The Yield is on my list.
21LittleTaiko
I read Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay - a classic novel set in Australia. Definitely had a good sense of the place though I'm not sure I liked how ambiguous the novel was.
22pamelad
>21 LittleTaiko: It's a long time since I read this, so it could be due for a re-read. I remember the eeriness and the ambiguous ending, which go together.
I've just finished A Few Days in the Country a collection of short stories by Elizabeth Harrower. Memorable. Also worth reading are her novels, including The Long Prospect and The Watch Tower.
I've just finished A Few Days in the Country a collection of short stories by Elizabeth Harrower. Memorable. Also worth reading are her novels, including The Long Prospect and The Watch Tower.
23JayneCM
The Yield is well worth the read. Also Terra Nullius.
24Jackie_K
I started reading Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice for the April 2020 GeoCAT, but kept getting distracted. Finally finished it today, so am counting it instead for this year's GeoKIT! I did enjoy it (despite taking months to read it).
25pamelad
I just read Friends and Rivals: Four Great Australian Writers by Brenda Niall.
26spiralsheep
I read Tiare in Bloom by Celestine Vaite, which is a chicklit-style novel set in Tahiti about a middle-aged couple in their forties but told mostly from the husband's point of view and especially delves into the meaning and practice of various forms of fatherhood. It's technically the third novel in a series but it worked for me as a standalone. As ever with this relatively light-hearted style of social commentary, a reader is either in tune with the author's humour and perspective on life or not but I think this novel is easy to enjoy (and I'm not the target audience for this genre). 4*
I've now read at least one book from all seven GeoKIT areas!
I've now read at least one book from all seven GeoKIT areas!
27MissBrangwen
I finished my first book for this challenge: Never Never by James Patterson and Australian author Candice Fox. It takes place in the outback of Western Australia, relatively close to Kalgoorlie. Although I didn't like the characters or the plot, the setting was fascinating.
28pamelad
>27 MissBrangwen: Candice Fox has written a series of mysteries set in Cairns, in tropical north Queensland. They make a change from the usual drought dramas. The first is Crimson Lake.
I have just bought a second-hand copy of Geoffrey Dutton's The Australian Collection: Australia's Greatest Books and from it am reading The Middle Parts of Fortune, which is Frederic Manning's account of his experiences as a private soldier in the French trenches in 1916.
I have just bought a second-hand copy of Geoffrey Dutton's The Australian Collection: Australia's Greatest Books and from it am reading The Middle Parts of Fortune, which is Frederic Manning's account of his experiences as a private soldier in the French trenches in 1916.
29MissBrangwen
>28 pamelad: Oh, thank you for telling me!!! I‘m quite excited now, because I studied abroad in Cairns at JCU and I‘d love to read something set there! And I read many reviews saying that Crimson Lake was much better than the Harriet Blue series.
30DeltaQueen50
I have completed my read of Voss by Patrick White. I am sure this is a brilliant novel but it wasn't for me. Set in the 1840's Voss is an explorer who heads an expedition to cross Australia from east to west.
31pamelad
I am reading Finding Eliza: power and colonial storytelling by Larissa Behrendt and am finding it eye-opening. Behrendt looks at the colonists' myths used to justify dispossession and genocide. She stars with Eliza Frazer and branches out.
32spiralsheep
I read The Women in Black, by Madeleine St John, which is a novel about the lives of women working in the Ladies' Frocks Department at Goode's Department Store in Sydney, Australia, during the 1950s. 4*
Quote
Xmas at the beach: " 'Are you happy?' he asked her. 'Of course not!' said Magda. 'What a very vulgar suggestion. Are you?' 'Oh dear, I hope not,' said Stefan. "
Quote
Xmas at the beach: " 'Are you happy?' he asked her. 'Of course not!' said Magda. 'What a very vulgar suggestion. Are you?' 'Oh dear, I hope not,' said Stefan. "
33Tess_W
I read War with the Newts by Karel Capek. It was set somewhere in the "Malays" and Indonesia.
34sturlington
I read Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings. This is a lovely little book that draws on Australian myth and folklore. It is set in a small town in Queensland.
35susanna.fraser
I read Tales of the Tikongs by Epeli Hau'ofa, a Tongan author who set these satirical short stories on a fictional South Pacific island. They're not my usual genre or style of reading, but they did hold my interest.
36dudes22
I've read A Life by Design by Siobhan O'Brien, a biography about the life of Florence Broadhurst which takes place in Australia.
37MissWatson
I have finished The beach of Falesá, a short story by RL Stevenson set on an unnamed Samoan island.
38MissWatson
And the other South Sea story in the book is The ebb-tide.
39pamelad
I read Wish by Peter Goldsworthy. Australian author, set in South Australia. I liked it.
40susanna.fraser
The Women in Black by Madeline St John is a lovely, deftly written and rather comic novel set in a Sydney department store in the 1950s during the Christmas rush. (And if I ever forgot I was reading a book set in Australia, all the talk of hot summer weather at Christmas reminded me!)
41spiralsheep
>40 susanna.fraser: I also enjoyed The Women in Black. And I loved seeing the Christmas at the beach cliche subverted by the characters. :D
>1 pamelad: I read Potiki, by Patricia Grace, which is a novel set in a Maori community in Aotearoa (New Zealand) about family, cultural and economic survival, and how all are linked to environmental caretaking. 4*
>1 pamelad: I read Potiki, by Patricia Grace, which is a novel set in a Maori community in Aotearoa (New Zealand) about family, cultural and economic survival, and how all are linked to environmental caretaking. 4*
42pamelad
May 27th to June 3rd is National Reconciliation Week. Here are lists of relevant adult and children's books.
43VivienneR
I read Bliss and other stories by Katherine Mansfield. The two I liked best were Bliss and The Garden Party.
45JayneCM
I read All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton.
This book is very evocative of place - the author has spent a lot of time and effort researching deep country with the traditional owners and this is reflected in the beautiful descriptions of the area. It really shows Australia in all her beauty and terror.
" . . . the land gives you all you need if you know the right way to ask for it."
"Is there a land in this world more in awe of oblivion? Death resides in its branches, in its rivers, in its soils. Death crawls here and death slithers. . . Tell me of a land more determined to kill those who would dare embrace its beauty."
The book reads as a modern day myth or fairy tale and I loved the whole story, the writing, the atmosphere. But I just wish it had been more sparingly told. It was a story that needed to stand for itself, without all the flowery embellishments. Definitely a case of less would have been more.
That being said, it is still a wonderful story and if you would like to read more about Australia's traditional country, this is a great book.
This book is very evocative of place - the author has spent a lot of time and effort researching deep country with the traditional owners and this is reflected in the beautiful descriptions of the area. It really shows Australia in all her beauty and terror.
" . . . the land gives you all you need if you know the right way to ask for it."
"Is there a land in this world more in awe of oblivion? Death resides in its branches, in its rivers, in its soils. Death crawls here and death slithers. . . Tell me of a land more determined to kill those who would dare embrace its beauty."
The book reads as a modern day myth or fairy tale and I loved the whole story, the writing, the atmosphere. But I just wish it had been more sparingly told. It was a story that needed to stand for itself, without all the flowery embellishments. Definitely a case of less would have been more.
That being said, it is still a wonderful story and if you would like to read more about Australia's traditional country, this is a great book.
46pamelad
From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia Got Compulsory Voting by Judith Brett is a history of the Australian electoral system.
On Patrick White: Writers on Writers by Christos Tsiolkas is an assessment of White's writing.
On Patrick White: Writers on Writers by Christos Tsiolkas is an assessment of White's writing.
47pamelad
The Nancys by R. W. R. McDonald won the Ngaio Marsh Best First Novel Award. It's a crime novel set in a tiny town near Dunedin, in New Zealand's South Island.
48VivienneR
Just finished Great Australian Journeys by Graham Seal.
Beginning with the arrival of the first peoples in Australia about 70,000 years ago, Seal follows the many arrivals and journeys of Australians and visitors to their island. The stories of transported convicts were interesting and provided more detail than usual about the colourful characters and the dire conditions they left behind. The most entertaining chapter was about Tigga, a cat found in a garden in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. His microchip revealed he was from Australia, via London, England, where he had been treated by a vet. The puzzle of his travels was eventually solved but sadly he died while in care and it was Tigga's ashes that made the journey back to Australia. Mark Twain's visit to Australia was another highly entertaining section. His witty remarks are as funny now as they were when delivered. Wisely, Seal's stories are not chronological but enticingly jump around in time. From historical to contemporary, the comings and goings of Australians are fascinating.
Beginning with the arrival of the first peoples in Australia about 70,000 years ago, Seal follows the many arrivals and journeys of Australians and visitors to their island. The stories of transported convicts were interesting and provided more detail than usual about the colourful characters and the dire conditions they left behind. The most entertaining chapter was about Tigga, a cat found in a garden in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. His microchip revealed he was from Australia, via London, England, where he had been treated by a vet. The puzzle of his travels was eventually solved but sadly he died while in care and it was Tigga's ashes that made the journey back to Australia. Mark Twain's visit to Australia was another highly entertaining section. His witty remarks are as funny now as they were when delivered. Wisely, Seal's stories are not chronological but enticingly jump around in time. From historical to contemporary, the comings and goings of Australians are fascinating.
49DeltaQueen50
I have just completed The Blue Lagoon by Henry de Vere Stacpoole. Although somewhat dated, I found this a very good read.