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[Pat]

And I'm SUPER excited that Australian Author Margaret A. Rowe has given me two books to use as a giveaway. So we have a fun new book question!

Make a comment by Feb 13 and you could win both her novels! Margaret is also a quilter and both books are novels with quilts woven in... woot woot! answer the question -
 
"Since Margaret is an Australian author,  tell us which novels you have read that were set in Australia, or written by an Australian author.  Or tell us what part of Australia you would love to visit and why!'

Visit her blog at http://www.margaretarowe.blogspot.com/

[Mego]

50 million years ago I read 'Botany Bay' when Austraila was still New South Wales.  I was so obsessed with the area that I have read the book several times at different periods in my life.  And then of course, there was The Thornbirds...yum.

[bergyal]

Must admit that I don't read a lot of Aussie authors, the last one I read was The Shifting Fog by Kate Morgan which was set in England.  Always wanted to go to Broome and the Blue Mountains.  My husband always wants to holiday by the beach so I think I will probably get to see Broome before I see the Blue Mountains....as we are not great travellers it might be a while.

[KarenInTucson]

I have always been fascinated with Australia and read "Thornbirds" twice and watched the TV series a number of times.  My DH and I read "Intermission: A True Story" by Anne Baxter - about her life in the Outback in the early 1960's.  Last year I saw "Australia" in the theater and again at home a couple of times.  Of course, I can't remember the other books now but will add them as I discuss it with DH at dinner!

In 2002 I spent 10 days in Australia on a tour of Sydney, The Blue Mountians, The Outback and Cairns area.  Wish I could go back and see a lot more of the country.

[bergyal]

Hi Karen, can't say I share your enthusiasm for Australia I couldn't even sit through it all the way.  I really wanted to like it because of all the hype that we were subjected to here in Australia about it (felt like being unpatriotic), but I kept waiting for them to break into song and then every bad Australian clique was really getting on my nerves.  I don't talk like that and no body I know talk's like it (just Brian Brown and Steve Urwin and they make/d their living by being Occa Australian) they might in the outback in the middle of no where but not in the cities.  But then again that is just me I am probably a snob, my MIL loved it.

[Jean in IL]

I've always wanted to go to Austrailia. I read a couple of LARGE heavy historical fiction books about Austrailia, don't remember the author,  a Dick Francis mystery based in Austrailia, and used to subscribe to the Patchwork and Quilting magazine published in Aus. I've read Bill Bryson's book about traveling around Austrailia. I think I'd like to visit the north and east coast cities and perhaps the Snowy mountain area. It's all interesting to me!!

[Sharon]

I listened to a talking book set in Australia and liked it. The title "----Pleasures" I honestly can't remember the first word in the title. I'll search for it if it is necessary to be in the pot for the books, but if not then just know I liked it. It was about a baker in perhaps Sydney who left corporate finance to open her own business. There was a bit of mystery about who was sabataging a neighbor chocolates shop. Who would do that? No, I don't remember the author, but the heroine loved cats and had an outdoor rat police enter her shop at night when everyone was gone. They did their jobs well. 

[Pat]

I'm so tickled by what you DO remember about the book Sharon! that would excactly how I remember things.. not the title or their names..but some key items in the books that interested me!

Amanda you are funny.. you ARE Australian!! I'm sure here in the US people jump off the roof about movies depicting their area of the country and it's too over the top...

Remember the movie 'Grease'? when it came out I saw it with my mom.. and quizzed her on 'did you do this.. did you do that?.. she said that somewhere in someone did thing one.. in another area they did thing 2..but NOBODY did it all in the same place.. LOL!

[KarenInTucson]

I felt "Australia" was a bit "hammy" but still enjoyed it.  Also, does anyone remember a movie about 20 years ago called "The Last Wave" about the tidal wave that wiped out Australia coastline?  All the surfer dudes thought it was about surfing and was so funny when they left the theater when they realized what it was really about.  That was when I really became fascinated with the Aborigines and found so many similarities with the Native Americans here.  About the same period in time both peoples had their children moved to white homes and educated so as to lose their heritage - the "lost children" of the nations. 

Sorry for carrying on but it is very interesting to read history - wish I had cared more in school - but then don't we all!  So boring as kids.
 

[Sharon]

If they wrote history scool books like they do these stories, we would all have paid better attention in those courses. I also think they could revamp the math books to make them relevent also. JMNSHO - used to be a teacher.

[louise]

I can't remember the names of Australian themed books I've read, but Margaret Rowe's books sound interesting.  I think I'd like to visit Tasmania.  I don't know much about it, but it sounds like an interesting island, and maybe I'd see a Tasmanian Devil!   Louise

[valeriel112]

Hi, I can't remember any book titles i read but I always loved Australia. I remember when I was 13, I read a novel about dingos, those wild dogs which I loved and since then I always wanted to travel there but still haven't...
I am curious to read more about those 2 books from Margaret A. Rowe!
Val

[Margi is here!]

Now that I think about it I've not read any Australian authors that I'm aware of.  Looks like that is all about to change.  Looking for Margaret's book for my reader now!

[Sparker]

I have searched and searched my memory banks and cannot come up the name of an Australian author that I have read...although my memory banks aren't quite as trustworthy as they used to be--they resemble a block of lacy swiss cheese these days...

However, I have ALWAYS dreamed of going to Australia--and I'm not very picky about where in Australia; however, I would love to also see the Great Barrier Reef while there, so would probably have to limit my trip to the north eastern part of Australia and stick to the state of Queensland.  But--who could go to Australia and not visit Sydney and/or Melbourne?!?!  And then, come to think of it--you've got to see a koala bear and a kangaroo in their natural habitat, right?!  Sounds like my vacation is turning into a 6 month sabbatical!   

[TheaM1]

I honestly didn't read the book.... but I saw 'The Man From Snowy River' at an outdoor theater in the early '80's while I was camping (yes, really camping - in a TENT, no less!!)  and that movie so impressed me with it's scenery that I've wanted to go to Australia ever since - so wherever that movie was filmed, that's where I want to go... besides Sydney & Melbourne, of course, and a jog over to Christchurch.... sigh, 3 or 4 months walkabout should do it!