Australia Books

Catastrophe Cat is a young adult novel about a girl who survives Cyclone Tracy, but loses her beloved cat Tia, swept away by the fierce winds. Evacuated with her family to Melbourne, she struggles with grief welling up in her heart. But amid the rubble of her devastated home city, miracles are still possible, and Tia is a hardier survivor than one might expect of a small Siamese! Catastrophe Cat is an emotionally well crafted tale of perseverance.

Lots of before unknown information on thenlife of one of my favorite authors - Catherine Cookson

This is a fascinating little book about caves, graves, grave robbers, ancient sewer systems, cave dwellers, and more. Although the book is written for children, you might enjoy reading it after your child has finished with it. One of my favorite stories is about the family of cannibals living in a cave in Galloway, Scotland during the period of King James VI (1566-1625). The book also mentions lesser-known nature facts, such as the orchids that can grow underground, and the world's largest earthworms that can grow to 16ft in length. An interesting read!

I loved everything about this story, the descriptions of emotion and surroundings were deep and at times I was surprised a male author could be so in touch. The story line was great up until when Ned is injured, the boy dies, she goes mad etc etc, I have a good mind to rewrite it, in fact it's all in my head. I was absolutely heart broken when I read the last couple of chapters, what happened Richare Masefield, to make you do such a thing to the end of my favorite story, it just caught me by surprise. But I did love it till that point, now I'll read Brimstone.

Gooneratne's fictional work covers on notions diaspora, hybridity and transcultural negotiation with humour and irony. A Change of Skies is a story of a journey by a Sri Lankan couple who had only known Australia through fissured and distant visual images as "a blank pink space shaped like the head of a Scotch terrier with its ears pricked up and its square nose permanently pointed westward, towards Britain" (1991: 11)

When Gooneratne published A Change of Skies in 1991, she also established a tradition of representing the Sri Lankan diaspora in the Australian literary scene. Nevertheless, there have been other writers, including Earnest McIntyre (1981), who have used drama to portray the Sri Lankan diaspora in Australia. (1) Following that Chandani Lokuge (2000, 2003) has also provided her perspectives on Sri Lankan diaspora "Down Under" and my own writing (Govinnage, 2002) has followed a similar path. (2)

Unlike Lokuge's or my own work, Gooneratne's protagonists are early Sri Lankan immigrants who arrived in Australia at the end of the White Australia policy. Her novel represents a portrayal of early Sri Lankan migrants, their socio-economic status and also their connection with the British Empire as a journey between colonial and national boarders. These journeys take Gooneratne's protagonists into "a culture that is once familiar and unfamiliar." (Paranjape, 2003: 288) The issue of familiar and unfamiliar journeys has been observed by Paranjape in his analysis of the south Asian diaspora in Australia. However, he has failed to provide observations on Gooneratne's work. Nevertheless, Paranjape's observations of familiarity and unfamiliarity of Australia is an important discourse to examine the journeys as represented by Gooneratne. He writes that Australia has "... a culture that is once familiar and unfamiliar. It is familiar because of the shared and enduring connection with the British Empire" (2003: 288)

Sunil Govinnage, Perth, Australia

A wonderful book for anyone travelling in NZ and wanting a range of prices for their accommodation. Most stays have a map on how the find the B&B and lots of photos. Easy to use keys to the different types of lodging available.

In the publicity, the documentaries about the Royal Air Force, it is often overlooked that the British RAF really was composed of people from the British Empire. Australians, South Africans, New Zeelanders, Canadians and more fought along the airmen who were actually from England itself. Only lately have the contributions of these other forces to the overall effort been written about. This is the story of the Australians, approximately 10,000 pilots plus many more aircrew and support people.

4,050 Australians killed in Bomber Command. In all of the North Africa fighting against Rommel, 3,552 were killed.

This book is well illustrated with pictures, most are of aircraft, of course. But the picture on page 73 is most striking to me. It shows the seven man crew of a 460 Squadron Lancaster. Seven young men in the prime of life with a whole lifetime ahead of them. The caption says that Pilot Officer Thomas Lynch, standing at the rear of the crew was badly wounded and the only survivor when the plane was shot down.

This book is so grea

5th edition available in the US since Jan 20th. As I am the author, I may be biased. It's Australian; but if you liked Crocodile Dundee, Muriel's Wedding, Piano, you'll love this book. Happy to discuss it with readers.

".... The purpose of the book is to deal with the chemical and physical properties of cements and concretes and their relation to the practical problems that arise in manufacture and use.

As shch it is addressed NOT ONLY TO THE CHEMIST AND THOSE CONCERNED WITH THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF SILICATE MATERIALS, but also to those interested in the use of concrete in building and civil engineering construction......"
[from the book of the preface by F. M. L.]