{"id":83253,"date":"2018-10-02T14:17:24","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T03:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.booktopia.com.au\/?p=83253"},"modified":"2019-04-23T17:57:21","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T06:57:21","slug":"sally-piper-on-her-top-10-australian-reads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2018\/10\/02\/sally-piper-on-her-top-10-australian-reads\/","title":{"rendered":"Sally Piper on her Top 10 Australian Reads"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SallySally Piper\u2019s debut novel, Grace\u2019s Table<\/em><\/a>, was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier\u2019s Literary Award\u2013Emerging Queensland Author category and she was awarded a Varuna Publishing Fellowship for her manuscript.<\/p>\n

Sally holds a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Queensland University of Technology. She has had short fiction and non-fiction published in various print and online publications, including the first One Book Many Brisbanes<\/em> anthology, The Weekend Australian, WQ plus other literary magazines and journals in the UK. She currently mentors other writers on the Queensland Writers Centre \u2018Writer\u2019s Surgery\u2019 program.<\/p>\n

Sally’s second novel, The Geography of Friendship<\/em><\/a>, is a heartbreaking honest and fiercely emotional book about about the lasting damage of trauma and the complex bonds that can form between women.<\/p>\n

When asked about her favourite Australian books, Sally Piper provided the following list of Top 10 Australian Reads …<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Top 10 Australian Reads<\/strong>
\nby Sally Piper<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"australian<\/a>Blinky Bill<\/strong>
\nby Dorothy Wall<\/strong><\/p>\n

I include this Australian classic not just because I loved the derring-do of the cheeky koala at the heart of Wall\u2019s story, but because it\u2019s a book that represents my earliest memories of being read to as a child. I still recall the warmth from the bricks around the fireplace I leant against as I listened to my mother read of Blinky Bill\u2019s escapades over many nights as a small child. By day I would try and decipher the words for myself, desperate to know what he\u2019d get up to next.<\/p>\n

Click here to order your copy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"australian<\/a>Lilian\u2019s Story<\/strong>
\nby Kate Grenville<\/strong><\/p>\n

The character of Lilian in Grenville\u2019s first novel is a masterful creation. Lilian rejects the image of femininity that her father, other and an era would hold for her, choosing instead to be a large and clever woman who ultimately ends up living on the streets. It is a brutal, funny and tragic account of a woman\u2019s life trajectory that left me in awe of the character\u2019s tenacity, but also Grenville\u2019s skill to make me care for her so much.<\/p>\n

Click here to order your copy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n


\n\"australian<\/a>Tracks<\/strong>
\nby Robyn Davidson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Davidson\u2019s memoir about her 2700 kilometre trek from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean with dog Diggity and four camels is an ode to courage and resilience. Reading her story helped me break down some of my own habits of fear that as women we often hold and which prevent many of us from living braver, more adventurous lives.<\/p>\n

Click here to order your copy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"australian<\/a>An Isolated Incident<\/strong>
\nby Emily Maguire<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maguire takes two seemingly ordinary female characters \u2013 one a barmaid, forced to navigate the aftermath of her younger sister\u2019s brutal murder, the other a troubled journalist who becomes part of the media circus that follows it \u2013 and gives them the most engaging and extraordinary lives. Each is beautifully flawed and imperfect and all the closer to reality for the treatment. This genre-diverse novel is less about finding a girl\u2019s murderer and more about the often forgotten \u201cother\u201d victims: those left behind who must find ways to rebuild their lives in order to accommodate such an atrocity.<\/p>\n

Click here to order your copy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"australian<\/a>Boy, Lost<\/strong>
\nby Kristina Olsson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Olsson\u2019s memoir is a beautiful and courageous account of her half-brother who as an infant was snatched from Olsson\u2019s mother\u2019s arms and was not seen by her again for forty years. It is one of those rare books that speak for the many, in this case all those mothers who have had children stolen from them. It is a sober reminder of the intergenerational legacy of trauma such cruelties inflict and how the forces of guilt and shame irrevocably shape lives.<\/p>\n

Click here to order your copy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"australian<\/a>
\nThe Natural Way of Things<\/strong>
\nby Charlotte Wood<\/strong><\/p>\n

What drew me immediately into Wood\u2019s dystopian novel was her restraint. The story is less about the supposed \u201ccrimes\u201d that each of the young women in the story is imprisoned for in an unknown, remote location, and more about imagining the powerful men capable of putting, and keeping, them there. While set in a parallel world it disturbingly speaks to the manipulative and destructive power of shame that\u2019s used against women in the world we live in now, but also the determination of some women not to be defined by it.<\/p>\n

Click here to order your copy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n


\n\"australian<\/a>
\nWasted: A story of alcohol, grief and a death in Brisbane<\/strong>
\nby Elspeth Mui<\/strong>r<\/p>\n

Muir\u2019s unflinchingly honest memoir interweaves the loss of her brother, who fell to his death from Brisbane\u2019s Story Bridge while intoxicated, with a culture that allows for drunkenness \u2013 encourages it even \u2013 and her own excesses of alcohol consumption. It is an intimate recollection of a much-loved brother as much as it is a forensic account of Australia\u2019s drinking culture that strikes to the very heart of why and how much we drink. This is a courageous memoir, with Muir asking hard questions of herself and by extension her readers.<\/p>\n

Click here to order your copy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"Australian<\/a>
\nDying: A memoir<\/strong>
\nby Cory Taylor<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a deep intellect and wisdom to Taylor\u2019s memoir about her imminent death \u2013 but also humour and honesty \u2013 which I expect comes from the knowledge that time is short and this is the last opportunity she will have to reflect upon her life. But this memoir about dying is a celebration, not a tragedy, and speaks directly to the right to choose the circumstances of our own deaths, which is a gift of validation and hope for those of us who might one day be similarly faced with such choices.<\/p>\n

Click here to order your copy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"australian<\/a>Dark Emu<\/strong>
\nby Bruce Pascoe<\/strong><\/p>\n

If any book can persuade those responsible for school history curriculums to re-evaluate the one currently being taught in relation to pre-colonial Australian history, then it\u2019s Pascoe\u2019s Dark Emu. This meticulously researched account of how Aboriginal societies were not mere hunter-gatherers, but lived, farmed and governed in sophisticated ways for millennia prior to white settlement, is as fascinating as it is sobering. Marcia Langton says of the book: This is the most important book on Australia and should be read by every Australian. I couldn\u2019t agree more.<\/p>\n

Click here to order your copy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Storyland <\/strong>
\nby Catherine McKinnon<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have only recently read McKinnon\u2019s novel but I know it is one that will stay with me, and mainly because of its unique structure of imagining the occupation of one area of ground from colonisation to hundreds of years into the future. It is a timely reminder that no matter what the human species does to itself, the lands that provide the theatre for those acts will likely prevail long after we\u2019re gone and carry only the scars of our existence.<\/p>\n

Click here to order your copy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sally Piper\u2019s debut novel, Grace\u2019s Table, was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier\u2019s Literary Award\u2013Emerging Queensland Author category and she was awarded a Varuna Publishing Fellowship for her manuscript. Sally holds a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Queensland University of Technology. She has had short fiction and non-fiction published in various print and online publications, including the first One Book Many Brisbanes anthology, The Weekend Australian, WQ plus other literary magazines and journals in the UK. She currently mentors other writers on the Queensland Writers Centre \u2018Writer\u2019s Surgery\u2019 program. Sally’s second novel, The Geography of Friendship, is a heartbreaking honest and fiercely emotional book about about the lasting damage of trauma and the complex bonds that can form between women. When asked about her favourite Australian books, Sally Piper provided the following list of Top 10 Australian Reads …   Top 10 Australian Reads by Sally Piper Blinky Bill by Dorothy Wall I include this Australian classic not just because I loved the derring-do of the cheeky koala at the heart of Wall\u2019s story, but because it\u2019s a book that represents my earliest memories of being read to as a child. I still recall the warmth from the bricks around…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":83260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[4,6677],"tags":[7375,936,1031,9218,8871,1230,9216,9217,9215,9214,7376,9213,2990,3119,9210,3347,4559,9207,9179,9208,9211,9209,6248,9212],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Social-sally-piper.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83253"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93393,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83253\/revisions\/93393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}