Kate Constable's Blog

The Library Book Sale Haul

New Guinea, James L. Anderson & Donald Hogg
A big glossy photo book from 1969, which is exactly the right era to help me with my PNG WIP.

Frontier, Henry Reynolds
One of the first so-called "black armband" (ie truthful) accounts of white violence in Australian history.

The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides
Never read it. Haven't seen the film either. I suspect I might find it a bit, well, stupid. But it's a very pretty edition.

The Binna Binna Man, Meme McDonald & Boori Monty Pryor
I just finished Njuljul The Sun; this is the second book in the series about the same indigenous boy.

White Time, Margo Lanagan
My introduction to the extraordinary world of Margo Lanagan, and the first book anyone at Allen & Unwin ever lent me. Coming from the record industry, where visitors routinely helped themselves to armfuls of CDs, I was somewhat dismayed that it was only a loan. But I get to keep this copy.

Keeper, Mal Peet
After this Onion's recommendation, I couldn't walk past this one.

Bachelor Kisses, Nick Earl
Never read this either. Think it looks sweet and funny. Also I love The Go-Betweens.

The House That Was Eureka, Nadia Wheatley
Man, this is one fat book. But it's Oz history. And this is the updated version. And it features a girl called Evie.

Leviathan, John Birmingham
Did someone say FAT? This is a door-stopper, John Birmingham's history of Sydney, which I've been searching the shelves for ages just to borrow. So when I saw it on the sale table I shrieked aloud (much to the distress of the nice elderly gentleman examining poetry books to my left).

I think we can see that my Australian history re-education phase is far from over. In fact I realise now that, unusually, almost all these books are Australian.

Alice came with me this time and picked up her own haul. A Famous Five book, the third volume of the Wind on Fire trilogy by William Nicholson, a very handsome red-and-gold Reader's Digest volume which she chose for its aesthetic appeal (I persuaded her to put back the two Danielle Steeles she picked up for similar reasons), book about creatures of the night (owls, not vampires), and a rather dubious looking graphic novel which appears to include a disturbing number of near-naked ladies (or perhaps it's the same near-naked lady, it's hard to say.)

On the way back to the car, the moor hens from Edwardes Park Lake moved toward us with sinister intent. Alice scared them away by barking like a dog. We thought they wanted to peck our feet, but perhaps they were just after our books.