The list of Radio National’s Top 100 Australian Authored Books, as voted by listeners, is shown below. I voted in the poll. You could vote for ten books. Four of the books I voted for are in the top 100 (in green). I have also read eight other books on the list (in red).

Of the books I had read, I wasn’t that impressed with three: The Secret River, due to its use of the harsh convict life as an excuse for the slaughter of Indigenous Australians; The Power of One lost its bite after I read that Bryce Courtney had manufactured his history to make it seem autobiographical; and Eucalyptus failed to impress me. I also question A Fortunate Life’s inclusion as questions remain about the authenticity of his experiences in Gallipoli, which I discussed in a post I wrote many years ago.  

I am disappointed that only one science fiction novel made the list, Juice by Tim Winton, which is hopefully more a result of Radio National listeners’ demographics than of the favourite books of Australian readers as a whole.  I thought Juice was a very good dystopian novel. 

I have read one book in John Marsden’s Tomorrow series. 

I have six other books on the list on my bookshelves and will endeavour to read them over the next year or so. 

1 Cloudstreet Tim Winton 1991

2 The Book Thief Markus Zusak 2005

3 Boy Swallows Universe Trent Dalton 2018

4 Burial Rites Hannah Kent 2013

5 A Fortunate Life A.B. Facey 1981

6 Tomorrow, When the War Began John Marsden 1993

7 The Dictionary of Lost Words Pip Williams 2020

8 The Narrow Road to the Deep North Richard Flanagan 2013

9 The Secret River Kate Grenville 2005

10 The Dry Jane Harper 2016

11 Possum Magic Mem Fox and Julie Vivas 1983

12 Dark Emu Bruce Pascoe 2014

13 Looking for Alibrandi Melina Marchetta 1992

14 Year of Wonders Geraldine Brooks 2001

15 The Slap Christos Tsiolkas 2008

16 Wild Dark Shore Charlotte McConaghy 2025

17 Storm Boy Colin Thiele 1964

18 My Brilliant Career Miles Franklin 1901

19 Magic Beach Alison Lester 1990

20 Wifedom Anna Funder 2023

21 My Place Sally Morgan 1987

22 The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book Maryanne Blacker and Pamela Clark 1980

23 Stasiland Anna Funder 2003

24 The Power of One Bryce Courtenay 1989

25 Seven Little Australians Ethel Turner 1894

26 Picnic at Hanging Rock Joan Lindsay 1967

27 The Harp in the South Ruth Park 1948

28 Mad Mabel Sally Hepworth 2025

29 The Happiest Refugee Anh Do 2010

30 My Brother Jack George Johnston 1964

31 Monkey Grip Helen Garner 1977

32 Animalia Graeme Base 1986

33 Breath Tim Winton 2008

34 The Rosie Project Graeme Simsion 2013

35 Lola in the Mirror Trent Dalton 2023

36 Limberlost Robbie Arnott 2022

37 I Can Jump Puddles Alan Marshall 1955

38 Joe Cinque’s Consolation Helen Garner 2004

39 Big Little Lies Liane Moriarty 2014

40 Oscar and Lucinda Peter Carey 1988

41 Dirt Music Tim Winton 2001

42 The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie May Gibbs 1940

43 People of the Book Geraldine Brooks 2008

44 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000

45 All That I Am Anna Funder 2011

46 The Thorn Birds Colleen McCullough 1977

47 Playing Beatie Bow Ruth Park 1980

48 Where is the Green Sheep? Mem Fox and Judy Horacek 2004

49 The Female Eunuch Germaine Greer 1970

50 Mao’s Last Dancer Li Cunxin 2003

51 The Light Between Oceans M.L. Stedman 2012

52 Horse Geraldine Brooks 2022

53 Stone Yard Devotional Charlotte Wood 2023

54 Schindler’s Ark Thomas Keneally 1982

55 The Magic Pudding Norman Lindsay 1918

56 The Cook’s Companion Stephanie Alexander 1996

57 The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Holly Ringland 2018

58 The Yield Tara June Winch 2019

59 The Happiest Man on Earth Eddie Jaku 2020

60 The Man From Snowy River Banjo Paterson 1890

61 Too Much Lip Melissa Lucashenko 2018

62 Are We There Yet? Alison Lester 2004

63 Question 7 Richard Flanagan 2023

64 Damned Whores and God’s Police Anne Summers 1975

65 Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens Shankari Chandran 2022

66 Carpentaria Alexis Wright 2006

67 Voss Patrick White 1957

68 Unreliable Memoirs Clive James 1980

69 A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute 1950

70 Diary of a Wombat Jackie French and Bruce Whatley 2002

71 The Tree of Man Patrick White 1955

72 This House of Grief Helen Garner 2014

73 Scrublands Chris Hammer 2018

74 The Fatal Shore Robert Hughes 1986

75 The Bookbinder of Jericho Pip Williams 2023

76 The Natural Way of Things Charlotte Wood 2015

77 The Broken Shore Peter Temple 2005

78 Power Without Glory Frank Hardy 1950

79 Johnno David Malouf 1975

80 For the Term of His Natural Life Marcus Clarke 1874

81 We of the Never-Never Aeneas Gunn 1908

82 Eucalyptus Murray Bail 1998

83 Wombat Stew Marcia K Vaughan and Pamela Lofts 1984

84 Shantaram Gregory David Roberts 2003

85 The Dressmaker Rosalie Ham 2000

86 The Lost Man Jane Harper 2018

87 The Trauma Cleaner Sarah Krasnostein 2017

88 Juice Tim Winton 2024

89 Edenglassie Melissa Lucashenko 2023

90 Puberty Blues Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey 1979

91 Where the Forest Meets the Sea Jeannie Baker 1987

92 The Tall Man Chloe Hooper 2008

93 The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead 1940

94 The Spare Room Helen Garner 2008

95 The Museum of Modern Love Heather Rose 2016

96 RecipeTin Eats: Dinner Nagi Maehashi 2022

97 Devotion Hannah Kent 2021

98 The Arrival Shaun Tan 2006

99 The 13-Storey Treehouse Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton 2011

100 Round the Twist Paul Jennings 1990

Finally, I have gotten around to reviewing Time Travel for Beginners by Jaclyn Moriarty. I finished reading it about six weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a more light-hearted time-travel story than I usually read.

The novel is set in a near-future Sydney, Australia. Anna, a single mum, finally tires of her overbearing retail boss and quits. She then tries out for a business called the Time Travel Agency. Much to her surprise, she gets the job.

Three other staff work there, with a mostly absent, mysterious owner/manager. They seem to believe the time travel is actually real, but Anna thinks it is just very clever virtual reality created from a huge database. If it were real, she would go back in time and prevent an accident that injured her daughter. Anna is asked to create her time-travel tours for clients. As an English literature major, she uses the time-travel booths to research famous authors like Jane Austen and create literature time tours for clients.

One of those clients is Teddy, whose recently married wife has left him. He wants to time-travel into the past to find out where he went wrong with his estranged wife. Much of Teddy’s story is told through amusing blokey text messages between him and two friends as they discuss his marriage breakup and future dating prospects.

A third main character is a woman who is gifted a writing mentorship with one-on-one classes conducted in an office above the time-travel business. Her mentor asks her to keep a journal, which she writes under the pseudonym of Jade Giovane.

About two-thirds of the way through the novel, I wondered if I had missed the real name of Jade Giovane, and actually went looking for it, but I was to discover later that the author had deliberately kept Jade’s background secret.

The novel is very well written. Its prose flows in short chapters told from the alternating viewpoints of the three main characters. Those viewpoints are often interrupted by amusing client reviews of the business. Many of them are not complimentary.

Most time-travel stories warn of creating paradoxes if the past is changed. For example, Marty McFly risks erasing himself if his mother falls for him when he goes back to the past in Back to the Future. The author of Time Travel for Beginners avoids this paradox by having every trip to the past create a branching time-path, with the traveller returning to their unchanged timeline, until…

Moriarty is an Australian author I hadn’t heard of before, perhaps because she lived in the US for many years before returning to Australia. She previously mostly wrote young adult fiction. 

I really enjoyed this frequently amusing novel, which is much more light-hearted than what I usually read. Whether you are a science fiction fan or not, you should enjoy the whimsy of Time Travel for Beginners.

So sad and upset about the attack on Dr Helen Haines, my local MP. I live in Wangaratta and walk past Helen’s office on my way to the Ovens River nearly every day. I have voted for her in the last two elections. So her attack has really hit home. She seems genuinely caring about the world and wanting to build a better Australia. I can’t imagine the trauma she, her family and staff are going through. I hope she recovers. 

I just donated to Save the Children, one of her favourite charities, as requested by her husband.

https://www.savethechildrenfundraising.org.au/helenhaines

I have been frequently close to tears over the past few days.  

Science fiction is not as dominant in my votes as I thought it would be, with five novels, two of which were written by George Turner. Only one of the books is non-fiction (The Spike). Most of the books are post-1987. Surprisingly, only one book is written by a female, which is not indicative of my reading in recent decades. This year, I am reading my eighth novel, and five of them have been written by women. My favourite author is Margaret Atwood. I have read ten of her novels. If you are wondering how DBC Pierre got on the list as he was born in Australia, but then grew up in Mexico, and he now lives in Ireland. Radio National said he could receive votes and they included his book Vernon God Little in their list. 

I wanted to read The Slap after reading that it was written with eight distinctive voices. The novel also won a boatload of awards.

It is split into eight sections, with each section written from a different POV. The voices are distinctive in their hopes and concerns, but all of them seemed hopelessly compromised and unhappy, except for the man who did the slapping, who was a deluded materialist and adulterer. The advertising world had told him exactly what he should be, and he was happy getting it.

The most interesting character was Aisha, a beautiful, poised woman whom people envied, but inside she was as insecure and unhappy as the other characters. One reason she wanted to stay with her husband was that they looked so good together.

When I started reading the book, I hoped that the author would not go for the cliché of having the slapper being abused as a child by his parents, but he did. The only other violence in the novel also came from a character who had a dysfunctional family.

As I read the book, I was reminded of the characters in John Updike’s novel Couples, written nearly 50 years ago. It would seem that the middle class has not come very far in nearly half a century.

A good book, but not a great one, as the plot sagged towards the end once the Slap’s consequences had been dealt with. In fact, it is more of a character study than a novel with a tension-filled plot.

[PS] Over the years, I find myself thinking about this novel, and one of the things that really stood out was the fact that all the characters put up a false persona to the world, usually of happiness and control, when in fact they felt neither. It reinforces my thinking that, in reality, we are all guilty of such false personas. (This is also the case in Updike’s Couples, which I have since learnt is one of Tsiolkas’ favourite novels.)

Consequently, I have increased my rating of the novel.

Shroud

Shroud starts when a human exploration, or more appropriately, exploitation, ship discovers a dark moon hidden behind a planet. The moon is pitch black with no starlight illuminating its surface. The atmosphere is thick with gases deadly to humans. They send down probes to investigate the blackness, and nearly all of them are instantly destroyed.

A catastrophic accident occurs on part of the ship, causing some of the crew members to escape in pods designed to explore the dark world. Most of the plot then follows two inhabitants of one of those pods as they traverse the world. And what a weird world it is.

The pods’ searchlights can only illuminate a limited area around them, but what they illuminate is a mass of alien creatures; many resemble moving frames with wormlike creatures inside. The radio sphere is full of electromagnetic signals, like these aliens are using radar and constantly exchanging information with each other.

The creatures take an instant interest in the pod. Its two occupants are the engineer who designed and built the pods, and a liaison officer whose job had been to smooth relations between the various egos and fractious self-preservation desires of the crew. They fear that the alien creatures want to tear open their pod and examine its contents.

Partway through the book, we start getting a view of what is going on in the alien’s mind. A mind that is scattered into segments all over the planet and that struggles to maintain focus on what is going on around it. We slowly learn what its interest is in the pod.

The crew of the ship have been genetically bred in farms, with no concept of family or empathy for others. All they care about is their own survival. They are part of the Concern, whose only concerns are expanding throughout the universe by making a profit. Which I imagine is the path workers for today’s tech giants are on. The crew have no choice but to go along with the Concern’s pursuit of profit if they don’t want to be put back in storage.

Unless I missed it, the liaison officer’s name, gender, and physical appearance are not mentioned when they are introduced. I did not find out what sex they were until about two-thirds of the way into the book. This didn’t affect the plot or message of the book for me. I thought it could be the author playing around with the Shroud metaphor, i.e., shrouding the sex of the liaison officer. More likely it was because they did not discuss their personal lives because they had no time for personal lives.

Many science fiction stories show humanity trying to exploit the resources of an alien world with no regard for its inhabitants. But Shroud is much more than the boring, regimented, populist shit of Avatar. Humans are not out to rape a tropical paradise; they are out to destroy a world and alien species they know nothing about, and can’t communicate with. Shroud introduces a different, amazing alien species that has evolved to live in a freezing, desolate alien environment.

Shroud is a different, wonderfully imagined read. I will be reading more of Tchaikovsky’s novels.

I primarily wanted to discuss writing, books, science fiction, science, the future and technology. Unfortunately, when I spent time writing posts on these subjects, they often garnered no audience. Whether that was because of Facebook’s algorithms, people not having time to read my posts, or lack of interest in what I had to say, I don’t know. This left me deflated. This probably happens to many of my Facebook friends as they shout at the void.

I also spent too much time doomscrolling.

I will miss reading about the writing, lives and concerns of Facebook friends with whom I felt I had developed a genuine online relationship.

ABC Radio National ran a survey in October of the top 100 books of this century, as voted by listeners.  You could vote for up to 10 books.  My votes are shown in the image. Five of them are definitely science fiction (The Dark Forest, Oryx and Crake, The Passage, Terra Nullius and Klara and the Sun), one is apocalyptic fiction (American War), another is speculative fiction (Meanwhile in Dopamine City), one is historical fiction (The True History of the Kelly Gang), while two, for want of a better term, are literay fiction (The Slap and The Corrections).

Three are by Australian authors (Peter Carey, Christos Tsiolkas, and Claire G. Coleman), although the much-travelled DBC Pierre (Mexican/British?) is sometimes claimed as Australian as he was born here. Four authors are American (Cronin, Franzen, Akkad and Ishiguro), one author is Canadian (Atwood), and one is Chinese (Liu).

The Corrections made my list because one of its main characters had dementia, and I was looking after my father with dementia at the time. It had a real emotional impact on me. I live in Kelly country, so I was very interested in Peter Carey’s fictional account of Kelly and his gang in The True History of the Kelly Gang. Nearly every day, I walk past a railway bridge in Wangaratta, where, near it, Carey had the gang crossing the Ovens River on horseback. Terra Nullius has a unique way of telling the story of how badly Indigenous Australians were, and continue to be, treated. The Slap is a fascinating book that goes behind the facade of several characters,  showing their lives are just tenuous fronts. It makes you wonder how much bullshit the people around you are putting on. The Passage turns it back on pretty-boy vampires that are so common these days on television and in books, and displays them as the vicious monsters they would be. Meanwhile in Dopamine City is a hilarious and clever send-up of where our social media-dominated world is heading. Oryx and  Crake is a very interesting take on mad scientists and their attempts to shape the world. It is the first book in a fantastic trilogy. American War is set after a second civil war, where skirmishes still occur, and one of its many factors is showing how a refugee whose relatives died and were persecuted in the war can be transformed into a terrorist.  Its scenario for the civil war is very believable. The Dark Forest is the second book in The Three-Body Problem trilogy and, among other things, investigates why we have not found any civilisations beyond Earth. Klara and the Sun is different science fiction, told from the point of view of an uninformed android trying to make sense of the world.

The top 100 list is here. Two of the books I voted for, The True History of the Kelly Gang and The Slap, made the top 100. I have only read eight of the books on that list. I have no interest in reading many of the others.

Note: The misspelling of Jonathan is the fault of the ABC, which preloaded many books on its voting page.

I have been quiet on this blog because my mum died on the 23rd of December. It was unexpected. A fall, which seemed to do no damage, then a week later she died. With help from my sister, I organised her funeral. I loved my mum.

My eulogy:

Remember to speak up.

Thanks for coming.

My mum enjoyed a long life. A life of supporting her husband in his teaching career, raising a family, being a proud homekeeper and touring Australia and the world. She enjoyed the love of her husband, children, sisters, relatives and a small circle of friends.

Sadly, some of them have passed away, while others were too sick to attend today. But I know some are watching the live stream of this funeral.

Look at audience.

Mum grew up in Bairnsdale with two much younger sisters, Lynn and Cathy, whom she helped to look after. She went to Bairnsdale High School, where her best friend was Norma Alvin. As the Alvin’s were a Salvation Army family, Mum and her sisters joined up.  Mum sang with the Salvos chorus. Her sister Cathy tells me that Mum had a wonderful wobbly voice with a great range. When Norma’s mother died, Dot helped Norma look after her siblings.

Look at audience.

Dot left school around 14 and got a job in a dress shop. From her knitting, wool spinning and sewing throughout her life, it was clear that Mum enjoyed creating and working with clothes. But she didn’t like the way the dresses smelt after being tried on by many customers at the dress shop.

Her sister Cathy remembers Dot making her a lovely pleated skirt and knitting her a fuzzy wuzzy cardigan when she young. Mum even sold her knitting at a local shop in Wangaratta. I still, on very cold days, pull out a jumper she made 30 or so years ago.

Look at audience.

Dot and Norma went to dances. That’s where Mum met Dad. She married Neil in her early twenties. Children came soon after that, and she settled down to be the best mother she could be. Due to Neil’s teacher’s job, my mum lived in many parts of Victoria. Heathcote, Bendigo, Newry, Baxter, Heyfield, Wangaratta, to name a few.

Mum made the best of raising a family in the various education department houses we lived in. One of those houses was condemned while we lived in it. My parents finally purchased their own house in Wangaratta about 40 years ago. No more outside toilets, leaky roofs, sloping floors or long drafty corridors.

Look at audience.

Mum didn’t have a greedy bone in body. She always put others before herself. She just wanted to create a loving home for her family. When I was young and something had gone wrong, she loved to tell me a story about Dad when he was at teacher’s college. He had saved up for months to buy a wireless radio so he could listen to the footy and cricket. One day he came back to his room and found that the cleaner had knocked it off its shelf and broken it. Look at audience. We all have set backs.

Mum was a great traditional cook. She made a delicious lamb roast with spuds peas and gravy, a moist and fruit packed Christmas cake, and a pavlova that beats any others I have eaten.

Look at audience.

Mum was a bibliophile. She loved reading thrillers like Jon Cleary and Jack Higgins. She joined in with my Dad’s book collecting at fetes and second-hand bookstores. She collected Mary Grant Bruce and Enid Blyton books for herself.

Unfortunately, her eyesight weakened with age, so it was just as well she had gotten into listening to book cds. Her love of Bony Detective stories made it easy for me to get part of her Christmas and birthday presents.

Look at audience.

Mum loved musicals throughout her life. Her Aunt Edna used to take mum to pantomimes. Mum would get dressed up with gloves and everything, and then they would have high tea afterwards.

Look at audience.

Later in life, Mum was swept up in Dad’s travel fever. From trips around Australia to New Zealand and then to many other parts of the world, including Europe and North America.

One of Kay’s favourite memories is when Mum, Dad, and her were at Disneyland.  They went on the small world boat ride which travels through different countries while the song It’s a Small World After All is played. Mum loved it. She enjoyed it so much that they had to go back into the line and do the ride again. The following day, once the gates open, mum took off to do the small world ride once again.

Look at audience.

But one could never get past the feeling that Mum was happiest at home. Happy with the routine of cooking, shopping, knitting, reading and watching thrillers while catching up with friends and local shopkeepers.

Mum loved a coffee, frequently walking down the street to her favourite coffee shop where they would often give her free cake. On one of those trips, local independent at the time, Cathy McGowan came in, and mum told her that she voted for her. Cathy then invited her for a coffee. Oh to have heard that conversation.

Later in life, mum enjoyed Kay’s frequent visits to take her shopping and go for a coffee. She also loved talking to her sisters and Geoff every couple of weeks on the phone.

Look at audience.

Mum was always there to support her family. She made you feel like you had done the right thing, even when you may have been in the wrong. Mum tried to see the best in people, except for a few politicians. She just wished people would just get along.

She rarely whinged about life. Even though later in life she had a number of health concerns. All she wanted was for her family to be healthy and happy, as was shown by her signature telephone sign off of (pause) “Look after yourself”.