Book Review #797 - A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey

This is the extraordinary life of an ordinary man. It is the story of Albert Facey, who lived with simple honesty, compassion and courage. A parentless boy who started work at eight on the rough West Australian frontier, he struggled as an itinerant rural worker, survived the gore of Gallipoli, the loss of his farm in the Depression, the death of his son in World War II and that of his beloved wife after sixty devoted years - yet he felt that his life was fortunate.

My Rating: 4.5/5

As a sandgroper (a Western Australian) this book has been on my radar for such a long time with my grandfather having read it and my father having tried to get me to watch the mini series for as long as I can remember.

Firstly, I loved the setting as it was set in places that I know so well yet were obviously not as I know them. I was also amazed at how much of my home state of WA he covered especially in the days of minimal transportation.

Facey has such an amazing writing style. It was like he was telling you the story himself rather than me reading it. 

I was also amazed at just about everywhere Facey went, it seemed to have some connection to my family. For example, Fremantle is where my great-grandfather was born, Geraldton is where my grandfather (and a lot of generations of his family) were born, Kalgoorlie is where my mum was born and I could keep going. 

If you are looking for a very inspiring, genuine Australian read this is the ideal book I would recommend.

Book Review #778 - Grim Crims and Convicts 1788 -1820 (Fair Dinkum Histories #2) by Jackie French

I read this book for the 2018 Popsugar Reading Challenge to read a book relating to your ancestry. I'm an amateur genealogist and so far have discovered three convict ancestors.

I shamefully did not know that much about the settlement of New South Wales at all. I am from Western Australia and we have a strong convict history ourselves and so that is what I learnt in school.

I've said this many times before but I love history books aimed at children because they are packed full of information but at the same time are told in such a fun and entertaining way.

There was a small mention of the Launceston settlement which I loved because that was where 2 of my convict ancestors (my 3x great grandparents) were sent.

I would definitely recommend this book to Australians wanting to learn Australian history in an effortless way or any fans of Horrible Histories and this is most definitely the Aussie version of that.

Book Review #754 - The Jerilderie Letter by Ned Kelly and Alex McDermott

"I have been wronged & my mother & four or five men lagged innocent & is my brothers & sisters & my mother not to be pitied also who has no alternative only to put up with the brutal & cowardly conduct of a parcel of big ugly fat-necked wombat headed big bellied magpie legged narrow hipped splay-footed sons of Irish Bailiffs or english landlords which is better known as Officers of Justice or Victorian Police."--Ned Kelly

The Jerilderie Letter is Ned Kelly's manifesto, the story of a widow's son outlawed.

My Rating: 4/5

I really enjoyed the introduction written by Alex McDermott as Ned Kelly's part was written like you were already supposed to be familiar with his story and it had been a while since I learnt Ned's story in any great detail.

I had no idea this letter even existed until I visited the State Library of Victoria when I was in Melbourne recently. I went there to see Ned Kelly's real armor and was surprised to see the real handwritten (by Joe Byrne) Jerilderie Letter and once I saw the book for sale in their bookshop of course I picked it up and actually started reading it on the roadtrip to Glenrowan.

Ned Kelly's part of the book was rather confusing. It was obvious that they weren't that educated as there was no real coherency to the story. I really enjoyed the part about Stringbark Creek and this was my favourite part in the book. 

Book Review #709 - 1915 (Australia's Great War #2) by Sally Murphy

The silence was eerie. In the darkness I could just see the mist that swirled around the rowboat. The men in the boat seemed lost in their own thoughts. No-one spoke, no-one made a sound. Somewhere ahead a loud report. A shot? Rifle fire, from the beach, which was only dimly coming into view. This was it. 

When Australia throws its support behind Britain in its fight against Germany, young teacher Stan Moore is one of the first to join up, swapping the classroom for adventure in Europe. But the 11th Battalion is sent with the newly formed Anzac Corp to Gallipoli where Stan is confronted by the hard lessons of war. 

Though conditions are dismal and death is everywhere, so is the humour and bravery that is the true spirit of Anzac.

My Rating: 7/10

I loved how this book included some well known Australian WW1 heroes such as the journalist Charles Bean and the medic on the donkey John Simpson Kirkpatrick. 

I loved this book so much more than the first one 1914. The protagonist in this one is from my home state of Western Australia so that helped but I also felt like we got a greater insight into the life of the brave men in the trenches in this book. 

Like with the first book, enough is shown to understand the true horror and loss of the war, but it is never overly graphic to feel out of place in a YA novel. 

These books blend real historical events with intriguing and relatable characters so well. I loved the letters between Stanley on the western front and his sister Elizabeth back home in Bunbury.

I also found the field hospital really interesting as that is where my great-grandfather spent the majority of his time during the war with illness. It was good to be able to add some personal details to the story in that aspect. 

Book Review #656 - 1914 (Australia's Great War #1) by Sophie Masson

A small black bottle or a torch came sailing through the air, and landed on the side of the car, close to the Archduke. An instant later came a terrific bang, the road exploded in a shower of dust and stones, and tiny sharp things went flying through the air like angry bees.

In June 1914, Louis and his brother Thomas are enjoying the European summer in a small town near Sarajevo. In the shadow of the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne, the world erupts into war and Louis' life changes forever. Old Europe is torn apart and Louis finds himself in the midst of his own battle - and fighting for the truth in war means that sometimes even your own side is against you. 

My Rating: 5/5

World War One has become a really fascinating topic for me over the last year or so and so I was really fascinated to read this book. 

What I loved most about this book was how well it blended fiction with fact. There were strong, interesting, fictional characters put into real historical settings. 

I loved the whole journalism aspect - it enabled the story to delve into the true horrific nature of the war without going too deeply (it is a children's book after all). 

A distant cousin of mine died at Polygon Wood and it is very rarely mentioned in any history books so I was really impressed that it got a mention in this book. 

Overall, this was a very compelling and emotional read and I can't wait to read the sequels. 

Book Review #602 - World War One: A History in 100 Stories by Bruce Scates, Rebecca Wheatley and Laura James

My Rating: 4.5/5

Source: Penguin Australia

Buy: The Book Depository

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There has been no shortage of heroic stories over the course of the Anzac Centenary: stories of courage and sacrifice, fortitude and endurance, mateship and resolve. But a hundred years on, there is a need for other stories as well - the stories too often marginalised in favour of nation-building narratives.World War One: a history in 100 stories remembers not just the men and women who lost their lives during the battles of WWI, but those who returned home as well: the gassed, the crippled, the insane - all those irreparably damaged by war.

Drawn from a unique collection of sources, including repatriation files, these heartbreaking and deeply personal stories reveal a broken and suffering generation - gentle men driven to violence, mothers sent insane with grief, the hopelessness of rehabilitation and the quiet, pervasive sadness of loss. They also retrieve a fragile kind of courage from the pain and devastation of a conflict that changed the world.

This is an unflinching and remarkable social history. It is an act of remembering in the face of forgetting. Telling the truth about war requires its own kind of courage.

I have extensive family connections (like most Australians) to World War One and so I was really looking forward to this book. 

This book was obviously published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli Landing and is the reason for there being exactly 100 stories.

This book tells 100 unique, compelling stories about people with different connections to the Great War. For example, some stories follow the brave young men who made the ultimate sacrifice on the front line while others follow women back home in Australia doing anything they can to help. 

I loved the amount of research that was obviously done to create this book. All the letters from parents to the War Office were harrowing and showed how incompetent the government was when Australia was in its infancy as a nation. 

I found this book to be more of a coffee table book in that I would randomly pick it up every now and then and read a few stories at a time. The size and weight of the book really prevent cover to cover reading anyway.