Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Meet Ed Kennedy—underage cabdriver, pathetic cardplayer, and useless at romance. He lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog, the Doorman, and he’s hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That’s when the first Ace arrives. That’s when Ed becomes the messenger. . . . Chosen to care, he makes his way... (more)

Ten Things I Hate About Me

by Randa Abdel-Fattah

"At school I'm Aussie-blonde Jamie -- one of the crowd. At home I'm Muslim Jamilah -- driven mad by my Stone Age dad. I should win an Oscar for my acting skills. But I can't keep it up for much longer..." Jamie just wants to fit in. She doesn't want to be seen as a stereotypical Muslim girl, so she does everything possible to hide that part of herself. Even if it means pushing her friends away because she's... (more)

How to Ditch Your Fairy

by Justine Larbalestier

Welcome to New Avalon, where everyone has a personal fairy. Though invisible to the naked eye, a personal fairy, like a specialized good luck charm, is vital to success. And in the case of the students at New Avalon Sports High, it might just determine whether you make the team, pass a class, or find that perfect outfit. But for 14-year-old Charlie, having a Parking Fairy is worse than having nothing at... (more)

The Thorn Birds

by Colleen McCullough

Now, 25 years after it first took the world by storm, Colleen McCullough’s sweeping family saga of dreams, titanic struggles, dark passions, and forbidden love in the Australian Outback returns to enthrall a new generation. As powerful, moving, and unforgettable as when it originally appeared, it remains a monumental literary achievement -- a landmark novel to be read . . . and read again!

Once

by Morris Gleitzman

The Boat

by Nam Le

A stunningly inventive, deeply moving fiction debut: stories that take us from the slums of Colombia to the streets of Tehran; from New York City to Iowa City; from a tiny fishing village in Australia to a foundering vessel in the South China Sea, in a masterly display of literary virtuosity and feeling. In the magnificent opening story, “Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice,” a young... (more)

Wanting: A Novel

by Richard Flanagan

One of our most inventive and important international literary voices, Richard Flanagan now delivers Wanting , a powerful and moving tale of colonialism, ambition, and the lusts and longings that make us human. It is 1841. In the remote penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land, a barefoot aboriginal girl sits for a portrait in a red silk dress. She is Mathinna, the adopted daughter of the island’s governor, Sir John... (more)

Dirt Music

A Novel

by Tim Winton

Winner of The Miles Franklin Literary Award, The Christina Stead Award, WA Premier's Book of the Year, Book Data/ABA Book of the Year Award, Goodreading Award-Readers Choice Book of the Year Set in the dramatic landscape of Western Australia, Dirt Music tells the story of Luther Fox, a broken man who makes his living as an illegal fisherman -- a shamateur. Before everyone in his family was killed in a freak... (more)

True History of the Kelly Gang

A Novel

by Peter Carey, Alec Geoffrey Brierley

“I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences my dear daughter you are presently too young to understand a word I write but this history is for you and will contain no single lie may I burn in Hell if I speak false.” In True History of the Kelly Gang , the legendary Ned Kelly speaks for himself, scribbling his narrative on errant scraps of paper in semiliterate... (more)

The Simple Gift

by Steven Herrick

I'm not proud. I'm sixteen, and soon to be homeless. Weary of his life with his alcoholic, abusive father, sixteen-year-old Billy packs a few belongings and hits the road, hoping for something better than what he left behind. He finds a home in an abandoned freight train outside a small town, where he falls in love with rich, restless Caitlin and befriends a fellow train resident, "Old Bill," who slowly... (more)

Becoming Bindy Mackenzie

by Jaclyn Moriarty

The Female Eunuch

by Germaine Greer

The clarion call to change that galvanized a generation. When Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch was first published it created a shock wave of recognition in women, one that could be felt around the world. It went on to become an international bestseller, translated into more than twelve languages, and a landmark in the history of the women's movement. Positing that sexual liberation is the key to women's... (more)

Does My Head Look Big In This?

by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Sixteen-year-old Amal makes the decision to start wearing the hijab full- time and everyone has a reaction. Her parents, her teachers, her friends, people on the street. But she stands by her decision to embrace her faith and all that it is, even if it does make her a little different from everyone else. Can she handle the taunts of "nappy head," the prejudice of her classmates, and still attract the cutest boy... (more)

Sylvia

by Bryce Courtenay

Sylvia is the story of the Children's Crusade - 1212 - possibly the strangest event to take place in European history. It is the story of the power of a young girl's love in the midst of medieval darkness to fight brutality and bigotry.

The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . . Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters... (more)

Oscar and Lucinda

by Ralph Fiennes, Peter Carey

Winner of the Booker Prize, a critically acclaimed, large-scale, brilliantly styled, continuously engrossing love story set in mid-19th-century England and Australia.

The Road from Coorain

by Jill K. Conway

From the shelter of a protective family, to the lessons of tragedy and independence, this is an indelible portrait of a harsh and beautiful country and the inspiring story of a remarkable woman's life.

Eucalyptus: A Novel

by Murray Bail

The gruff widower Holland has two possessions he cherishes above all others: his sprawling property of eucalyptus trees and his ravishingly beautiful daughter, Ellen. When Ellen turns nineteen Holland makes an announcement: she may marry only the man who can correctly name the species of each of the hundreds of gum trees on his property. Ellen is uninterested in the many suitors who arrive from around the world,... (more)

Foundling: Book One (Monster Blood Tattoo)

Monster Blood Tattoo: Book 1

Foundling: Book One (Monster Blood Tattoo)

by D. M. Cornish

Meet Rossamünd—a foundling, a boy with a girl’s name who is about to begin a dangerous life in the service of the Emperor of the Half-Continent. What starts as a simple journey becomes a dangerous and complicated set of battles and decisions. Humans, monsters, unearthly creatures . . . who among these can Rossamünd trust? D. M. Cornish has created an entirely original world, grounded in his own deft,... (more)

The Slap

by Christos Tsiolkas

At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own.This event has a shocking ricochet effect on a group of people, mostly friends, who are directly or indirectly influenced by the event.In this remarkable novel, Christos Tsiolkas turns his unflinching and all-seeing eye onto that which connects us all: the modern family and domestic life in the twenty-first century. The... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: australian literature

by Markus Zusak

by Randa Abdel-Fattah

by Justine Larbalestier

by Colleen McCullough

by Morris Gleitzman

by Nam Le

by Richard Flanagan

A Novel

by Tim Winton

A Novel

by Peter Carey, Alec Geoffrey Brierley

by Steven Herrick

by Jaclyn Moriarty

by Germaine Greer

by Randa Abdel-Fattah

by Bryce Courtenay

by Markus Zusak

by Ralph Fiennes, Peter Carey

by Jill K. Conway

by Murray Bail

by D. M. Cornish

by Christos Tsiolkas