Free/bargain Australian & New Zealand History & other Non-Fiction authors & books

[Lynx-lynx]

Kobo Aus has got Steve Biddulph's

Raising Girls
$7.69 and discountable (bookriot50 is working at time of posting)

Steve Biddulph, Australia's leading family psychologist and best selling author, tackles the subject of raising girls to be confident, caring and resilient.

[ClareK]

Years ago I borrowed a copy of this book of letters written by an Englishwoman in mid-19th century Australia. I was so enthralled that as soon as I'd finished the book I went out and bought my own copy. Now I have it on my ereader as well, free from the University of Adelaide. http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/henn...achel-henning/

[Lynx-lynx]

Kobo Aus has got Robyn Davidson's

Tracks
$5.13 and discountable (bookriot50 works at time of posting)

WITH A NEW POSTSCRIPT BY THE AUTHOR AND A STUNNING COLOUR PICTURE SECTION

'I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know you have conned yourself into doing something difficult and there's no going back.' So begins Robyn Davidson's perilous journey across 1,700 miles of hostile Australian desert to the sea with only four camels and a dog for company.

Enduring sweltering heat, fending off poisonous snakes and lecherous men, chasing her camels when they get skittish and nursing them when they are injured, Davidson emerges as an extraordinarily courageous heroine driven by a love of Australia's landscape, an empathy for its indigenous people, and a willingness to cast away the trappings of her former identity. Tracks is the compelling, candid story of her odyssey of discovery and transformation.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by ClareK

Years ago I borrowed a copy of this book of letters written by an Englishwoman in mid-19th century Australia. I was so enthralled that as soon as I'd finished the book I went out and bought my own copy. Now I have it on my ereader as well, free from the University of Adelaide. http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/henn...achel-henning/

Thank you for the recommendation Clare

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by ClareK

Years ago I borrowed a copy of this book of letters written by an Englishwoman in mid-19th century Australia. I was so enthralled that as soon as I'd finished the book I went out and bought my own copy. Now I have it on my ereader as well, free from the University of Adelaide. http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/henn...achel-henning/

Thanks for the lead, it looks to be an interesting read. As a narrow-minded male I would not normally consider looking at a book of a woman's letters but having enjoyed Shute's Australian fiction (often having strong women characters) I download it and took a peek.

So from a male's and non Australian's perspective (although I have visited Australia a lot): On just the first page I looked at I learnt something as I didn't realise that the ss Great Britain (famous in her time, unique when launched and now preserved) spent time on the Australian immigrant run. And the rest looks very interesting and of wide interest.

I grabbed the adelaide.edu copy too, but I see it also on Kobo where it would work out at a few dollars if one uses one of their frequent 50% or 75% discount voucher offers; I don't know how well it is presented there though as there is a Kindle version free on Amazon but it turns out that one is just the Gutenberg text version with a cover slapped on.

[Lynx-lynx]

Free on Kobo Aus

Black Sheep and Gold Diggers
Barry Allan

Richard Venvill served five years of a seven year sentence for his part in the Swing Riots in Gloucestershire in 1830. He was an assigned convict in Van Diemens Land when he was pardoned in 1836.He moved to the mainland before Melbourne was founded and helped establish Ballark, one of the first sheep stations in the Port Philip District.

Joseph Allen was sentenced to ten years for assault and robbery in Glasgow in 1843. He became one of the 'Exiled' convicts sent to Melbourne and was pardoned upon arrival in 1846. He immediately became a policeman and then one of the original four detectives in Melbourne. In 1854 he was dismissed from the force and then became one of the discoverers of gold at Blackwood not far from Ballark.

The two men never met but some of their children did, and the families became linked. The book spans the years from 1830 to 1902 and follows them through their convict years, the settlement of Port Philip,the foundation of Melbourne, the gold rush and other events that affected their lives.

Edit

This is a DRM free Smashwords ebook - so Save As and add 'epub' to the end of the file details.

[Lynx-lynx]

Amazon Aus has got Paul Ham's

1913: The Eve of War
$3.99

Christmas 1913.

In Britain, people are debating a new dance called ‘the tango’.

In Germany, they are fascinated by the wedding of the Kaiser’s daughter to the Duke of Brunswick.

Little did they know that their world was on ‘The Eve of War’, a catastrophe that was to engulf the continent, cost millions of lives, and change the course of the century.

And yet behind the scenes, the Great Powers were marching towards what they thought was an inevitable conflict.

In this controversial and concise essay, the military historian Paul Ham argues that the First World War was not an historical mistake, a conflict into which the Great Powers stumbled by accident. Nor was it a justified war, in which uncontained German aggression had to be defeated. Instead the politicians and generals of the day willed the war, and prepared for it – but eventually found themselves caught up in an inferno they could no longer control.

‘The Eve of War’ is a brilliant re-examination of the causes of the First World War that is both an introduction to one of the most complex subjects in history and an original and thought-provoking contribution to the debate over the origins of the conflict.

Paul Ham’s military histories have been widely praised.

"[A] vivid, comprehensive and quietly furious account...Paul Ham brings new tools to the job, unearthing fresh evidence of a deeply disturbing sort. He has a magpie eye for the telling detail" - Ben Macintyre The Times.

"Provocative and challenging..A voice that is both vigorous and passionate" - Christopher Sylvester, Daily Express.

"Controversial...Well documented and stringently argued" - Peter Lewis, Daily Mail.

Paul Ham is the author of the forthcoming 1914: The Year the World Ended, to be published by Random House in Britain in 2014. He has previously written the acclaimed Sandakan, Kokoda, Vietnam: The Australian War and Hiroshima Nagasaki.

A former Australia Correspondent of the Sunday Times, he was born in Sydney and educated in Australia and Britain. He now lives in Sydney and Paris.

Kobo Aus has Paul Ham's books, but I can't find this one.

[artig]

"The Bassett Road Machine-Gun Murders: New Zealand's gangster killings" by Scott Bainbridge is available at Amazon for $2.99 (US, presumably) and at Kobo for $3.99 (NZ). Eligible for Kobo discount codes.

On Saturday morning, 7 December 1963, Eric Lewis called around to his property in Bassett Road, Remuera, Auckland, to collect the rent. He was not prepared for the scene that greeted him when he opened the door: his two tenants, George Walker and Kevin Speight, had been violently murdered days before.

The machine-gun execution of Walker and Speight marked the beginning of a new, more sinister era of crime in New Zealand. The two men convicted of the killings - Ron Jorgensen and John Gillies - became household names. Both the victims and their killers were deeply involved in Auckland's burgeoning criminal scene. But the real story behind the killings has never been told.

Sly-grogging, horse-doping, prostitution, drugs, rival gangs and tough cops - the story has all the hallmarks of a classic crime novel. Only it's all true, and it happened in 1960s Auckland.

I remember the newspaper coverage of the incident described in the book.

Unfortunately Kobo will not let me buy this book, since my Kobo account and credit card are registered with a post office box address, and apparently Kobo no longer accept this as a valid address.

[koland]

free on amazon au:

http://www.amazon.com.au/Gypsy-Crown...p/B006MEA0HQ/r

and

http://www.amazon.com.au/Fated-Soul-...p/B007Y5OYPG/r

short story:
http://www.amazon.com.au/Dear-Ruth-B...p/B00EVP8A98/r

there are a couple of others on this search (along with worthless samplers):

http://www.amazon.com.au/s/ref=nb_sb...alia&price=0-0

[Lynx-lynx]

Koland thank you for contributing .... (and I don't want to hurt your feelings or dissuade you from posting again) .... this is the non-fiction thread and from what I've read on the blurbs each of the books is fiction.

[koland]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Koland thank you for contributing .... (and I don't want to hurt your feelings or dissuade you from posting again) .... this is the non-fiction thread and from what I've read on the blurbs each of the books is fiction.

Sorry about that (I didn't read closely enough to realize there were two Aussie threads).

[Lynx-lynx]

Kobo Aus has Ernest Scott's

Terre Napoleon: A History of French Explorations and Projects in Australia
$4.21 and discountable (bookriot50 works or grab a higher discount from the Kobo Discounts thread)

Ernest Scott (1867–1939) emigrated to Australia in 1892, settling in Melbourne where he worked as a journalist. In 1913 he was appointed Professor of History at the University of Melbourne.

This volume, first published in 1910, discusses the aims and outcome of the survey of the south Australian coast performed by Nicholas Baudin's French expedition between 1800 and 1804, and established Scott's reputation as a historian.

Scott traces the path of Baudin's expedition along the then unexplored south coast of Australia, estimating the amount of original surveying performed by the expedition to address the accusation that the French expedition plagiarised British surveys of the same coastline.

Scott also discusses the origins of the expedition to investigate possible political motivations behind the survey. This detailed and meticulously researched volume presents a valuable revised view of Baudin's expedition.

Note - Cambridge University Press has this in paper book format for $46.95 (published 2011)

[slex]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Kobo Aus has Ernest Scott's

Terre Napoleon: A History of French Explorations and Projects in Australia
$4.21 and discountable (bookriot50 works or grab a higher discount from the Kobo Discounts thread)



Note - Cambridge University Press has this in paper book format for $46.95 (published 2011)

It's free at Project Gutenberg.

[Lynx-lynx]

Kobo Aus has got Damien Brown's

Band-Aid for a Broken Leg
$3.99 and discountable (bookriot50 works if you can't get a better code from the Discounts thread)

Damien Brown, a young Australian doctor, thinks he's ready when he arrives for his first posting with Medecins Sans Frontieres in Africa. But the town he's sent to is an isolated outpost of mud huts, surrounded by landmines; the hospital, for which he's to be the only doctor, is filled with malnourished children and conditions he's never seen; and the health workers - Angolan war veterans twice his age and who speak no English - walk out on him following an altercation on his first shift.

In the months that follow, Damien confronts these challenges all the while dealing with the social absurdities of living with only three other volunteers for company. The medical calamities pile up - a leopard attack, a landmine explosion, and having to perform surgery using tools cleaned on the fire being among them - but it's through Damien's evolving friendships with the local people that his passion for the work grows.

Band-Aid for a Broken Leg is a powerful, sometimes heart-breaking, often funny, always honest and ultimately uplifting account of life on the medical frontline in Angola, Mozambique and South Sudan. It is also a moving testimony of the work done by medical humanitarian groups and the extraordinary and sometimes eccentric people who work for them.

[Lynx-lynx]

Kobo Aus has got Jessica Irvine's

Zombies, Bananas and Why There Are No Economists in Heaven
$3.99 and discountable (bookriot50 works if you can't get a better code from the Discounts thread)

Can economics help you lose weight? How does an emissions trading scheme work? Why are bananas so expensive? What really goes on inside the federal budget lock up? How can you spot a zombie bank? Does Australia take too many refugees? Why do boy bands make so much money?

From asylum seekers to bananas, Jessica Irvine's weekly Irvine Index in The Sydney Morning Herald uses fun facts to get to the heart of our biggest political and economic debates. Part economics lesson, part quirky observation on modern life, this collection of easily digestible, bite-sized nuggets of factual goodness will help transform even the most economically illiterate person into an insightful commentator at their next work drinks or weekend barbeque.

'Jessica has a rare ability to communicate complex economic theories in a simple and entertaining way. But I still don't understand her obsession with zombies.' - Ross Gittins, Economics Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald