Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
This was a Bluesky thing in late 2024, and over January/February in 2025. Initially I refused to get drawn in, because I couldn't be bothered to seek out images of the book covers. But I followed what other people were skeeting, finding new books and insights into the person, and eventually I thought I'd join the throng. Part of the appeal was not having to explain anything! (Although I did write alt-text for each of the covers).
When I'd done my 20 books, I asked my mother Tish if she'd like to have a go. Tish loves to read; my annual Christmas present to her is a subscription to the Australian Book Review bundled with the Griffith Review. My brother-in-law Daniel Jordan, who owns independent bookstore Roaring Stories in Sydney, also generously brings her books. Tish is nearly 94, so she has read a LOT of books in this time.
We didn't quite get to 20, but these 16 are what she chose.
1. Tim Winton - Cloudstreet (1991)
Tish loves Tim Winton in general, but chose this one as it was the first of his that she read and representative of his work. This, of course, is one of the award-winning novelist's most loved books.
Cloudstreet is about two working class families, the Pickles and the Lambs, who share a large house in Perth called Cloudstreet. It's been called 'Australia's most iconic novel'.
I've never actually read any Tim Winton. Perhaps I should.
2. Robbie Arnott - The Rain Heron (2020)
Robbie Arnott is another Australian author. This short description, from a review by Laura Elizabeth Woollett, gives you the gist of the plot:
'In an unnamed land under the thrall of a mysterious coup, mountain-dweller Ren wants only to live off the grid, undisturbed by human contact. Ren’s familiarity with the natural world becomes a liability when a band of soldiers comes seeking information that only she can provide: the whereabouts of a fabled bird with the ability to make it rain.'
So it's speculative fiction, I guess. This book was shortlisted (and received) a gajillion awards, so perhaps I should read it too.
3. Hans Hass - Diving to Adventure (1939)
Tish has all Hans Hass' books, with original dust jackets. They were a very cool kind of science writing, autobiographical, full of science facts, and funny as well. Hans Hass was a pioneer of underwater photography and his pictures of life under the sea were jaw-dropping in the 1940s and 1950s. Maybe I liked them even more than Mum - I read them over and over again!
4. Thor Heyerdahl - Kon Tiki (1950)
In 1947 the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl built a balsa wood raft and sailed from Peru to Polynesia, nearly 7000 km, with a small crew. His intent was to prove that white people colonised the Pacific before brown people, but leaving that aside, the popular book he wrote about this expedition is a rivetting read. This is another one of Tish's books that I read over and over again as a teenager! She also had Aku Aku, his account of his expedition to Easter Island.
5. Brenda Niall - My Accidental Career (2022)
Brenda Niall is 'arguably Australia’s foremost biographer'. She's written about the lives of people like Georgiana McCrae, an English painter who moved to Australia in 1841, Archbishop Mannix, whose views on conscription in WW I divided the nation, and four Australian women writers in Friends and Rivals. Her latest book is a biography of Joan Lindsay.
Brenda and Tish went to school together and have been lifelong friends. She's also a distant cousin on the Gorman side. This book is an autobiography and chosen by Tish as her favourite. The publisher says:
'Her Jane Austen-like wit and elegant prose enlivens this story of Australian women’s history seen through the lens of her remarkable life'.
6. Richard Fidler - Ghost Empire (2016)
Tish probably loved Turkey the most of all the places she travelled. Her house reflects this in numerous souvenirs she brought back - beautiful tiles and ceramics in the classic Islamic style. She also loved Richard Fidler's part history/part travelogue about the city of Constantinople.
7. Lillian Beckwith - The Hills is Lonely (1959)
This was one of a series of books by Lillian Beckwith about her life in the islands of the Outer Hebrides. I remember Tish reading them when I was a kid. They were semi-autobiographical and filled with comical characters.
8. Alice Gorman - Dr Space Junk vs the Universe. Archaeology and the Future (2019)
Tish very kindly listed my book as one of her favourites! Her copy is face-out in the glass-fronted bookcase in her living area so everybody can see it. She is mentioned in the book a few times, in the early chapters which are semi-autobiographical. And I would credit her love of reading as a major influence on me growing up.
9. Miss Drake's Home Cookery (1940 edition; originally published 1915)
This is an old cookbook but still a classic. Tish's edition was worn and soft. She made things from it regularly. A favourite of mine was Nutties, little caramelly nutty flavoured cakes (don't put the sultanas in if you try them!). They were delicious and a staple of the morning tea table. You can download the full Miss Drake here: https://commons.swinburne.edu.au/file/677a05ac-e17c-4e86-a1b2-268667cce648/1/pub015-miss_drakes_home_cookery_hq.pdf
10-. Gerald Durrell - The Overloaded Ark (1953)
Many people may have heard of Gerald Durrell because a series was made of his wonderful autobiography My Family and Other Animals. The Overloaded Ark is about a wildlife collecting expedition to what was then British Cameroon. According to the Wikipedia article about the book, it launched his career as a writer. His books were very funny but Tish also enjoyed the much darker writing of Gerald's elder brother, Lawrence Durrell.
11. Eleanor Dark - The Timeless Land (1941)
Tish said this novel was really the first time she had ever read anyAustralian history, because they only studied European history at school. It was pretty radical for its time as it represented an Aboriginal perspective on the European invasion of Australia. Watkin Tench is one of the main characters.
12. Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose (1993)
In the 1990s, everyone was reading this - it was the Da Vinci Code of it day, but superbly written. It was a gripping murder mystery with a philosophical bent, set in a monastery. The labyrinthine library was almost a character in its own right.
13. The Bull of Minos - Leonard Cottrell
Tish actually nominated The Gold of Troy but I couldn't find a picture of the cover anywhere. She had many of Leonard Cottrell's popular books on classical or Mediterranean archaeology - of course an influence on me! I particularly remember one with a picture of Tutankhamen's mask on it. She also had Mary Renault's rivetting novels about ancient Crete. They may not be archaeologically accurate these days but they were such a vivid evocation of the mythology of Minos and the labyrinth. Inspired by these tales, I proposed Theseus as a name for a beautiful liver-spotted Dalmation we somehow acquired around the same time (my choice won). I should make a list of all the dog's names I remember (I listed the cow's names in my book). Sorry, I got a bit sidetracked there.
14. Pygmalion - George Bernard Shaw (1912)
This play was about Professor Higgins taking a bet that he couldn't transform a cockney flower-seller into a high-class woman by teaching her how to speak with a posh accent. It was made into a Broadway musical starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison. Mum had the record too, and we knew all the songs by heart, especially as it was the end-of-year performance when I was in 3rd grade or something similar. Poor Tish had to make me a costume of a race day outfit complete with parasol!
15. Orhan Pamuk - Museum of Innocence (2009)
Another book which reflects Tish's love of Turkey. It's a love story set in Istanbul. The author did actually create a museum to go along with the book!
16. Robert Graves - The Greek Myths
This is a two volume work in the Penguin Classics series. Tish had several books by Graves. I devoured The Greek Myths as a teenager and I asked her if I could have them several years ago - they now reside in my bookcase. As I remember, some of the best material is in the footnotes. These two volumes are a very extensive exploration of the entire corpus of Greek myths, with all their variants and inconsistencies. It's a fabulous way to learn about Greek culture and philosophy.
Sorry for the weird formatting, I couldn't figure out how to fix it.