2014 Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with , , , , , , ,

australiadaybloghop2014

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

These words never date as far as I’m concerned (for non-Aussies, it’s an extract from Dorothea Mackellar’s poem, My Country). I particularly love the bits about jewel-seas and far horizons (to prove it, see my last post). And of course, my professional life has been dominated by ‘droughts and flooding rains’ (I worked in catchment management and hydrology for more than a decade).

So when it came to putting together this post for the 2014 Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop, hosted by Shelleyrae at Book’d Out, my immediate thoughts turned to books that really told a story about the Australian landscape. Here are my five favourites:

australiadaybloghop2014-booksaremyfavouriteandbest

Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living By Carrie Tiffany
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
Eucalyptus by Murray Bail
Foal’s Bread by Gillian Mears
The Engagement by Chloe Hooper

Giveaway details

In honour of our ‘sunburnt country’ I’m giving one reader their choice of one of the books I’ve mentioned above. Each of the books makes mention of the Australian landscape in a unique and memorable way.

To go into the running to win one of the books, simply leave a comment below, including the name of the book you’d like to win (I’ll use one of those clever randomisers to select the winner and then I’ll contact the winner for their address details). And because I’m lovely (!), this competition is open to anyone, wherever they live.

Of course, feel free to tweet and Facebook the hell out of this page (even though that means more entries… And less chance of you winning… But do it anyway, in the spirit of Australia Day, mateship and all that).

Entries close Monday 27th Jan at midnight. I’ll post the winner on Tuesday 28th January.

For more chances to win great Aussie stories check out the list of blogs over at Book’d Out. So many fabulous books are up for grabs.

COMP is now CLOSED. Winner is Sally Howes.

30 responses

  1. Pingback: 2014 Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop |

  2. The poem is good – though as the rain batters off my London windows it’s not necessarily made me feel better!!!! I’ve only read Picnic at Hanging Rock and don’t know the other books you list so will look out for those – if I won I’d let that clever randomiser choose which book!! And because I’m lovely too (!!!!!) I’ve done as requested and self-destructed my chances of winning by sharing through my blog and on Twitter! If I don’t win, can you send some sunshine as a consolation prize????!

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  4. That book ‘Eucalyptus’ sounds amazing – yes please!

    As for the Dorothy Mackellar poem, I used to have the most gorgeous illustrated book of that – I wish I knew what had happened to it! And we sang a setting of the poem when I was in year seven, so that’s now going around and around in my head like an earworm… I always loved the ‘Core of my heart’ verses – I’m not a child of the tropics, so the other images are less vivid to me, but we had family in Gippsland and I’m a Melbourne girl, so I always knew what dry countryside looked like, and what it was like after rain.

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  8. Ah, books about the Australian landscape to explore for those of us who are stuck in the city!

    As with the others, I’ve only read Hanging Rock, but I’d choose, ah, Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living: A Novel.

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  9. I was present when Gillian Mears received the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Foal’s Bread and was impressed that she is handicapped and yet able to be as creative and as gifted as she obviously is. Would love to have a copy of her book!

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  10. I would love to win The Engagement by Chloe Hooper as I thought the Tall Man was brilliant. Currently reading beautifully illustrated version of Dorothea McKellsr poem ( learning verses I did not know) to my 5 year old son who loves it! Eucalyptus was a brilliant evocation of the Australian landscape as was the much earlier mesmerising Picnic at Hanging Rock (what Victorian born and bred here hadn’t had one!). Shared on Facebook. Thank you.

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  19. I would love to win Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living as it is not one I have heard mention of before, but would be one I would like to read

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  22. Everyman’s rules for a Scientific Living sounds interesting. (Eucalyptus is a truly wonderful Australian text)
    Happy to tweet and share your giveaway! Thanks

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  23. Oh my goodness, this blog hop is amazing. I am having so much fun discovering some fabulous new Australian authors, and remembering some old favourites, too. Thanks for such a great giveaway.
    It’s an extremely hard choice, as they all sound like fabulous books (there goes the TBR list!). I have Picnic At Hanging Rock here waiting to be read (see what I mean), but if I was the lucky winner, I would be more than happy to own any of the others.
    To narrow it down though, I really love the sound of Eucalyptus. It sounds very intriguing.
    Happy Australia Day holiday.
    Karen

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  25. Hello there. I would love to win Foal’s Bread. One of my favourite Australian books that depicts the landscape so beautifully is Tim Winton’s Dirt Music. I loved Eucalyptus too. Thanks for running this comp!

    Reply

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