I found We of the Never-Never by Mrs. Aeneas Gunn in a hardcover Reader’s Digest collection of four Australian novels. It had been left behind by the former occupant of the room I rented for a month while working in Alice Springs. I don’t remember the other three novels, but We of the Never-Never was so hauntingly […]
Alice On the Line by Doris Blackwell
Alice On the Line by Doris Blackwell was one of the books carried at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station for tourists interested in more history. I picked it up shortly after I started working there. I figured I needed to know more about the place, since I was selling tickets to get inside. This autobiography […]
You Carried Me: a daughter’s memoir by Melissa Ohden
Our birth stories are a significant part of who we are. I remember cringing every time my mom told my birth story. In it, I’m to blame for her 12-hour labour and subsequent emergency C-section. My older two girls love it when we drive past the hospitals where they were born. And so I can […]
5 Favourite Australian Books #5Faves Vol. 43
Long before I did any traveling in person, I traveled through the books I read. In fact, one of the big reasons I wanted to go to Australia in 2005 was that I’d enjoyed reading some books set there. And when I arrived, one of my first questions to the locals I met was about […]
Love Without Limits: A Remarkable Story of True Love Conquering All
Nick Vujicic was born without arms or legs. Growing up, he assumed no girl would ever want to marry a guy like him. Then he met Kanae. In Love Without Limits: A Remarkable Story of True Love Conquering All, Nick and Kanae share their love story—and what they’ve learned about courtship, marriage, and parenting along […]
By Faith, Not By Sight by Scott MacIntyre
For our fourth and last stories of the year, my fiction workshop instructor gave each of us a specific assignment. Mine was to write a story from the point of view of a blind, deaf, or dumb person. I chose a blind girl and received positive feedback on my story, but felt I didn’t know […]
Unsinkable by Abby Sunderland
Abby Sunderland made the news in 2010 for trying to sail around the world by herself—at age sixteen. I remember seeing a brief story about her and thinking, “You go, girl!” Recently, Abby released Unsinkable: A Young Woman’s Courageous Battle on the High Seas (written with Lynn Vincent), the story of her record-breaking trip and […]
In a Heartbeat by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy
Back when I was still working at Starbucks, one of my co-workers kept talking about this Sandra Bullock movie that she really liked. Finally, as she kept mentioning it, the title stayed in my head: The Blind Side. As I browsed through the movie rental store one day, I saw it on the shelves and […]
