A Classic Year: 15.2 Order of the Works

By Perry Middlemiss on July 2, 2008 10:35 AM

Back at the beginning of this year, when I started working my way through the entries in Jane Gleeson-White's Australian Classics I mentioned that I was unsure of how she had arranged them in order. They didn't seem to have been listed by publication date, nor was there any alternation of form - novel then poem then story then... and so on. So I was a bit stumped until I saw that Gleeson-White had included, on her contents list, the dates of birth and death of the first third of the entries. And there it was. The works are listed in order of the author's birth. Which is a strange way to do things. Publication order I can understand, but birthdate seems a little odd. I can see that publication date might cause a few problems, especially when a work has been revised a number of times over an extended period - do you chose the first or most recent date? - but I think it would provide a view of the development of Australian literature over the 135 years or so since the first publication of For the Term of His Natural Life. I'm quibbling again. Lists of this sort always seem to bring it out in me.

In It to Win It: The Australian Cricket Supremacy by Peter Roebuck
Roebuck's examination of the rise of Australian cricket post-1987. Some flashes of wonderful insight interspersed with long documentary reportage.

Things We Didn't See Coming by Steven Amsterdam
2009 Age Book of the Year. A post-apocalyptic vision of a country (Australia?) in decline, as seen through the eyes of one man. Told in a series of semi-connected short stories.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
Lewis's intriguing look into what makes a good baseball team. It's essentially about sport but should also be read from a people/project management perspective. Fascinating stuff.

Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob by Lee Siegel
Reads like a polemic against the dangers of the internet, but with little in the way of guidance towards the second part of the title.

Blood Moon by Garry Disher
The fifth of Garry Disher's Challis and Destry series set on the Mornington peninsular. A brutal bashing turns political. But is it related to the murder of a local environment protection officer?

Replay by Ken Grimwood
World Fantasy Award winner from 1988. Grimwood's intriguing novel about a man who relives his life over and over. A modern fantasy classic which most readers would not recognise as such.

The Tango Briefing by Adam Hall
The fifth of Adam Hall's Quiller series from 1973 and probably about his best. More physical than McCarry.

The Tears of Autumn by Charles McCarry
McCarry's masterful spy thriller from 1974. Paul Christopher investigates the asssassination of John F Kennedy.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K Rowling
The seventh and last book in the series. You get this far and you have to finish it off.

Why She Loves Him by Wendy James
Short stories from the author of Out of the Silence and The Steele Diaries.

Blind Eye by Stuart MacBride
Macbride's fifth DS McRae novel - hard to see it getting more gruesome than this.

State of Emergency by Sam Fisher
Cinematic, high-tech, futuristic rescue fiction. This might have started its own genre.

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
A coming-of-age novel set in a small WA mining town in the 1960s. Ticks all the relevant boxes.

Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
Chabon's homage to the adventure novel. Reminiscent of Moorcock and Leiber.

Headlong by Susan Varga
When is life still worth living, or is it better to die with dignity?

The Pages by Murray Bail
Bail's first novel since Eucalyptus, about an Outback genius philosopher - or is he? [Shortlisted for the 2009 Miles Franklin Award.]