January, 2020

World Tour 2020: Australia, New Zealand and thereabouts

Posted on January 1, 2020 by | Posted in about LibriVox, Blog, Books, For Volunteers, Monthly Picks, News | Comments: Comments Off on World Tour 2020: Australia, New Zealand and thereabouts

Happy New Year 2020!

The world will come together to celebrate the Tokyo Olympics this year. What better time to go on another LV world tour! And with New Zealand and Australia being among the first countries to welcome 2020, let’s start there with 10 gems from our catalog!

First to celebrate the New Year, but last continent to have been explored. George and Alexander Sutherland give an overview of the History of Australia and New Zealand from 1696 – 1890. Find out about discoveries and early white settlements and the often difficult relationships with the native Aborigines and Maoris.

“Difficult” is also a good description of the brand-new marriage of Biddie and Colin, who fell in love with an image they had of the other. When an old suitor of Biddie’s shows up on their Australian farm, things get even more complicated… See how the life of Lady Bridget in the Never-Never Land turns out in this novel by Rosa Campbell Pread.

Equally mismatched are Alice Roland and her husband Tom. Add to that the dreary logging settlement where they live, and things could hardly be worse. Jane Mander tells The Story of a New Zealand River with much love for her wild country.

Not everything is meant to be and sometimes it’s best to call it quits. The Gladstone Colony was a failed settlement in North Australia, which, after an initial gold rush, saw many disappointed diggers. Read a detailed account of the ill-fated experiment by James Francis Hogan.

Steele Rudd is one of Australia’s best-known writers. In his most famous work On Our Selection, he tells the story of the Rudd clan who try to settle in the Australian Wilderness. Contending with famine, bush fires, and unsympathetic wildlife, they rely on their humour – and a large portion of luck.

If you could ask Roald Amundsen about his 1910 – 1912 expedition to The South Pole, he would tell you that “luck had nothing to do with it.” Meticulously prepared, he pioneered a brand new route to the pole and returned to tell the tale in this memoir.

Aussie poet Henry Lawson conjures up memories of days long past in the poetry collection In the Days When the World Was Wide and Other Verses. Among the 51 poems are other gems like “The Star of Australasia” or “City Bushman”.

In the capital city, the premier has set his mind on an important task: He wants to find himself a wife. Being unsure on how to go about this, however, he enlists the help of his stenographer… Let’s see where this is going in the fun play Mrs. Pretty and the Premier by Arthur Adams.

Harry Heathcote of Gangoil, a huge sheep station in Queensland, has more pressing matters to attend to: Disgruntled ex-workers set fire to his property, and only the unexpected help of neighbor Medlicott prevents a disaster. This incident sets the stage for Anthony Trollope’s novel.

The South Sea Islands between Europeans looking for a new life and ancient superstitions are the stage for three short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson. “The Beach of Falsea”, “The Bottle Imp” and “The Isle of Voices” provide interesting Island Nights’ Entertainment.

Enjoy – and have fun on our World Tour 2020!

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