August Recommended Reads

Australian Recent Release: Song Spirals by Gay’wu Group of Women.

“A rare opportunity to connect with the living tradition of women’s songlines, as recounted by Yolngu women from far north Australia.” – Allen and Unwin.

We want you to come with us on our journey, our journey of songspirals. Songspirals are the essence of people in this land, the essence of every clan. We belong to the land and it belongs to us. We sing to the land, sing about the land. We are that land. It sings to us. 

For Yolngu people from North East Arnhem Land, women and men play different roles in singing songlines. Up until now, the vast majority of published writing has been about men’s place in songlines. Songspirals is a rare and generous insight into Aboriginal women’s experience in crying the songlines. Filled with beauty and deep knowledge, this book is a must read.

“A rare and intimate window into traditional women’s cultural life and their visceral connection to Country. A generous invitation for the rest of us.” – Kerry O’Brien, Walkley Award-winning journalist.

Tasmanian Recent ReleaseThe Sky Falls Down – An Anthology of Loss, Edited by Terry Whitebeach and Gina Mercer.

This beautiful, engaging anthology is a testament to the human capacity for resilience. Contributors share their experiences of diverse loss, from absent partners, to cancer, to landscapes rendered unrecognisable by climate change and the desolation of exile, and many, many more.

The majority of contributors in this anthology are early or mid-career authors. Three are asylum seekers on Manus Island. Two are refugees only recently released from immigration detention, and many others live in remote or regional Australia.

As Petrea King (Quest for Life Foundation) writes in her foreword to this anthology, this book may serve as “a friend and a warm companion. It has the power to bring solace as well as deep pleasure.”

To find out more about this stunning collection, visit www.ginninderrapress.com.au or find us on Facebook: The Sky Falls Down: An Anthology of Loss.

Kids Recent Release: Ella and the Ocean by Lian Tanner, illustrated by Jonathan Bentley.

“A very Australian story of drought and renewal, of family, of imagination and of the power of hope.” Allen and Unwin.

Ella lived in the red-dirt country
where the earth was as dry as old bones
and it hadn’t rained 
for years
and years
and years.

One night, Ella dreamt of the ocean …

Ella and the Ocean is a beautifully illustrated, inspiring book both children and adults will enjoy.

Tasmanian Classic: Make Me An Idol by Katherine Scholes.

Ellen Kirby, or ‘Liberty,’ is America’s favourite ballerina. Despite her fame and enormous fortune, the darkness of her past is never far away. In an effort to escape her memories, Ellen must make the ultimate sacrifice…

Twenty years later, Zelda Madison is shaken out of her safe and content existence by a shocking discovery. Leaving everything behind, she goes on a journey in search of the mother she always believed to be dead.

Spanning an isolated Tasmanian island to the ashrams of India to the foothills of the Himalyas, Make Me An Idol is a compelling, beautifully written story about self-discovery, the pull of the past, and the power of love to heal.