Bruce Pascoe - Dark Emu

Stunning!

J.R.R Tolkien - The Hobbit/Lord Of The Rings

Super!

Robert Hutchinson - The Spanish Armada

 An integral part of Irish history.

Richard Flanagan - The Living Sea Of Waking Dreams

 The Flan at his best.

David Almond - Clay

 Wonderful.

Larissa MacFarquhar -Strangers Drowning

 Spellbinding. 

Assorted

Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Infidel

Christos Tsiolkas - The Slap

Mesmerising. 

Anne Tyler - A Patchwork Planet

 Great.

Siri Hustvedt - The Sorrows Of An American

 Astonishing.

Gillian Triggs - Speaking Up

 A joy.

John J. Mearsheimer - Liddell Heart And The Weight Of History

Got the whole Mearsheimer collected works.

Billy Bragg - The Three Dimensions Of Freedom

 Recommended by my father.

John Harris - North Strike

 Superb find.

Tessa Hadley - Late In The Day

 What a score!

Richard Flanagan - Death Of A River Guide

 More Guardian columnists.

Fleur McDonald - Emerald Springs

Reading a lot of Guardian writers at this moment.

Also picked up Peter Knudtson/David Suzuki - Wisdom of the Elders

Wilbur Smith - The Angels Weep

 Check out your local book depot- it may surprise you!

Assorted

Tony Parsons - My Favourite Wife

Jane Green - Saving Grace

Book depots are great!

Assorted

David Suzuki - Time To Change

John Gray - Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus 

Dave Eggars - What Is The What

David Suzuki And Holly Dressel- Naked Ape To Superspecies

All interesting books sourced from West Hobart book depots.

Jodi Picoult/ Patricia Cornwell - Picture Perfect/The Scarpetta Factorr

Splendid.

Jonathan Holslag - A Political History Of The World

Problems stemming from colonisation was thrusting the liberal ideals onto the colonised. Many people in the enlightenment periods in Europe thought that they had unearthed the world's secret and spread liberalism throughout the world. This concept of shared values, or to put it bluntly, nationalism, believes people have shared values. So it was pitting white Europeans against the significant ''other''. It was brutal systemic colonisation of Africa, America and the rest of the world, and what the colonisers left behind was boundaries, many that don't match up with the colonised. They may not be a nation, but merely a collection of a tribal, linguistic or ethnic group. They weren't obedient nations. Liberalism manifests itself into freedom, and the ultimate freedom is to discriminate against others. To pit yourself higher than others. Racism.

Greg Barns - Rise Of The Right

Greg Barns is Julian Assange's lawyer and barrister noted for his pieces in the Mercury. At the heart of a deceitful government is the oppression of truth-tellers. Journalists and writers whose job is to keep the public up-to-date with the truth. Oppression of the truth-tellers is in fact anti-democratic. A good society has intellectual individuals who share stories and give people different view on things, rather than what they are told by the propaganda machines. It is bizarre that the truth and writing especially has been policed in such a way like a criminal act when people have been writing since the dawn of man, communicating and drawing with different mediums.

Ann Oakley - The Men's Room

One has to acknowledge the role of good journalism in a tightly restricted authoritarian style government and the first is monitoring what is published and cracking down on dissent with the police force. Once the police have been engaged, the money is sapped from the news outlet, until it withers away. Remember the greatest writer possibly ever, Franz Kafka kept all his work unpublished during his lifetime and never made any money from his works. Writing is frequently attacked by authoritarian governments to stop people from gaining a different view of things.

Hanif Kureishi - The Buddha Of Suburbia

It is fascinating what you can find in a book grocer. There is certainly fabulous finds, and I also think the fact that living in a university city adds to the factors of the type of books you pick up in second-hand stores and the like. I stumbled on Kureishi's Midnight All Day and was rightfully impressed. Tales of urban frustration and a tendency to look at the subversive themes with an astute grasp of storytelling.

Jennifer Egan - A Visit From The Goon Squad

An eclectic collection of stories and a myriad of characters awaits. Egan writes with tremendous conviction with an astounding grasp of pop culture and intertextuality. There is no morose melancholy but hard-hitting journalism in the manner of the great American storytellers like Kerouac and Burroughs. There is a range of characters, each with their own stories and what is unearthed is a great plethora of a cast. With the tenacity of teenage rebellion not since the days of Irvine Welsh at his peak, Egan confronts the challenging subject matter of the rock and roll lifestyle with a fresh approach, devoid of the boring.

Unknown - Lebor Gabala Erenn (The Book Of The Taking Of Ireland)

The Scots, the great migraters. They went in search of a new home, and they fought for it, for they are children of war. Then once they settled in a new home, they were dislodged by the sheer evil that pervaded them, for the English would want every bit of land for themselves, the whole world would be seemingly for the taking of the English, but the Scots resisted. They lay their arms across their chest to fight for their people. They were flung to the far corners of the world, without knowing their language and their songs of old, and their descendants would live their lives knowing they were different from the others, but not knowing their story, and it is in the words written here that these people will learn about the sufferings of their ancestors.

Peter Singer - Animal Liberation

The divides between rich and poor, between the haves and the, have nots, is a political construction. Racism is not real, because we are closer to each other than suspected. It is an instrument of politicians to cause division, and it is very successful. Instead of welcoming outsiders into our country, with the potential of booming employment and diversity, we are turning them away, and if there was any great deed of unification, it should be reflected on how we as states treat the less fortunate. Because how we treat the less fortunate is how we would be treated if we were in the same situation. We are all vulnerable, we are people.

Richard Flanagan - Gould's Book Of Fish

One thing that people need to realise in the West, is that they have great resources at their disposal, ones that many others do not have. They need to take the time to consider how lucky they are, and once they glimpse into the furnace of such desperation, they have to come to the conclusion that there is no afterlife, so whilst one goes through turmoil at the demise of their kin, it is onwards and upwards, as to live is to be lucky, so they should make the most out of it. Because life only comes around once, you need not all the resources in the world, only but some chores, and then your life will be complete.

Georgie Dent - Breaking Badly

Politicians are a sickening sort, and they do not care for the endeavours of ordinary folk, for the ordinary folk shall be left behind because it is a power battle. Each politician is only in his or her job for a power battle, they do not care about the people, and it is the people of the world that need to change it. So let's begin to bridge the gap built by politicians, for we are people of the world, where the politicians have laid claim over our land and left us destitute, for the people have been left to rot in the ground. So as citizens of the world, let us come as one where our leaders have left us to rot, let us come together as one.

Ronald Harwood - Home

For the world is doomed, so the intelligent few will take and store whatever they can to ride out the storm that is harming man. With each stranglehold man goes through, there will be another crisis to ride. With each triumph, there shall be a wave of misfortune, and each mountain top climbed will be embarrassingly forgotten. For a leader has to deal with the burden of every citizen, and they cannot so they choose not to listen. A job in the reigns is a job well paid, but it sucks the life and very soul out of a man and leaves him to rot in public, a mule to the slaughter after a race, for every waking hour of crisis there shall be another one around the corner.

Geraldine Brooks - Year Of Wonders

The way of the future should be a frugal way, where one only needs what they should require, for without the toxins of life and life's luxuries then life is complete. Everything shall be accessible at the click of a switch, such is the way of the future. No one will be left behind because there is plenty of time, and travel and waiting will not be an issue. Such is the way of the future and without this instantaneous action then there is no future, for the future is just the flick of a switch away, and the man of the future will be looked on as mad, and without the progressives, there is no one to show the way forward, and without the eccentrics then there is a pale life.

Andrew Solomon - The Noonday Demon

For the way this country is changing, where the right headed minds are few and far between, where one generation falters as the new one emerges. Where there are people getting away with worse crimes than murder. Where the people are being robbed and luxury has a cost. Where the law is trying to hold the people back from sheer and utter carnage, waiting not to explode from the pressure of violence from the veins throbbing with the determination to destroy, and once the law is overwhelmed then there shall be chaos, for without law then mankind will be truly flung into a mass and vortex of crime.

Peter Frankopan - The New Silk Roads

In the future, there will be a barren wasteland, as man has plundered his soils and ruined them. People will fight with one another to stay alive and the bell tower will tell whose time has come as the passers-by will steal from the shelves of their masters. The law is the only thing holding back mankind from resorting to his very primal state, but the law needs obedience and hard work to enforce it, but this hard work is the job of the people, and when the law admits defeat to the strenuous toll that life gives, well then there shall be chaos, and the men will fight it out for everything that it is unprotected, for the law does not want the secret getting out, that the land will plunge the world into chaos and destroy the law.

Julian Baggini - How The World Thinks

To understand mankind is to acknowledge the structures put in place are deceitful. Mankind has been robbed by power, a vacuum was so taut that it has strangled man and left him susceptible to influence. Man is not bad, the society is bad and the state is the greatest invention of man because it will save mankind from the predicament that he has found himself in. The world needs saving and only tearing down the structures and starting a new way of thinking will truly serve to give man his justice, for without the radical changing of life mankind will merely slip to the depths that is the tragedy of mankind.

James Salter - Burning The Days

The systems put in place by a Judeo-Christian society essentially divides people and discriminates, rather than unites people. If they abide by a set of rules they are distinguished as one of the good people and welcomed into the sect, but if they do not abide by these regulations, then they are cast away and rejected. So the realisation of what shall divide the people is religion, and then what shall unite the people in love, a burning love for all people. So that someone can reach out their hand and make contact with the unfortunate, and create a love so strong that will not seek to divide, but to unite.

Iain Pears - The Titian Committee

One of the prevailing phrases thrown around is ''good journalism'', and in a world of dire and appalling journalism, therefore good journalism should shine brightest. The only way to veer away from ''bad journalism'' is in fact for the author to explore the subversive content matter, and to not shy away from the incredibly controversial. It is up to the modern journalist to ''go in at the deep end'' and find a story that changes public discourse and tells a story that someone may not have seen or thought that way. The media has an immense influence on the everyday person, their vision is in fact shaped by what they read, and the author should recognise that people are easily swayed, but to protect the reader and gain trust and compassion in the subject, to, therefore, protect them from harm, and save the innocent from corruption.

Hanif Kureishi - Midnight All Day

Some of the frustrations we writers feel at this very moment, where the news outlets are commodified, where it is rigid and conforming about what is published. Writers have been misled and should retreat and give up all allegiances, to become truly devoid of influence is to remove oneself from the pillars of society, and to reflect on the very deep and dark condition of humanity. Where there are discrimination and corruption, and to capture this essence will captivate people the world over, whereas the path of recirculating a message as a minion, will only serve to do the master's bidding.

Thomas Wright - Circulation

Liberal countries in the world have successfully damaged the very life force of journalism. They saw it as a threat to their control of the people, of democracy. Julian Assange was the figure that threatened liberal control as corrupt and is paying the price. Since then journalism has had the lifeblood sucked dry and most news reporting has a bias. Governments destroyed Assange, a true journalist and truthteller and plunged the field into disarray and have successfully borrowed the devices that journalism used, like public relations and the web, and these devices have been harnessed for political gain and means.

Will Self - The Butt

With the demise of journalism, the art of storytelling will disappear to be consumable pieces from an invisible hand. Gone are the days of celebrity poets and playwrights, and today there is a domination of the same strands of a story, diluted to be consumed immensely by the ghostly public, who gauge their public opinion and what others do. A conglomeration of news and the destruction of the celebrity writer has killed off journalism to a point where there could almost be a robot to disperse the stories that are discovered, for the soul of the storyteller is a rare gift indeed, one that is rarely come across by the denizens of the public and the mass stupor that they possess.

Richard Flanagan - The Narrow Road To The Deep North

With the onset of digital news radicalising how people consume information and gauge public opinion, so the timid book will become digitalised. With the world, we are currently living in, with massive deforestation taking place on an unprecedented scale, the time is now for enviro-friendly literature. With the coming of unpredictable weather patterns that are looking ever so quickly to making an uninhabitable planet, there is a place and space for digital media, because with dangerous weather conditions, trusting in physical and material wealth is astoundingly quixotic.

Richard Flanagan - First Person

The onset of digital news stories is an enigma of the modern age. In the past which may seem like a very distant past, news stories were brief write-ups in a physical paper. There was no room for errors, and you see in lots of current online news stories, they have been updated numerous times, but in the past, once it was out there it was out there in the public waiting to be scrutinised. With the digital news era, there is an onus on opinion pieces, not just a story from an invisible source, but these opinions writers have specialisations in a field, or they are celebrities whose judgement is severely respected. They offer their incite and philosophise about matters that prompt thought in the reader.

David Marr - The Prince: Faith, Abuse And George Pell

One of the most widespread and prevalent religions in Australia is in fact Catholicism. The main answer for this is that there were a lot of Irish convicts brought to Australia, thus bringing their religion and thus it being dominant because we were primarily a convict penal settlement. Marr is an expert in his field of religious criticism and is well known for his observations of the Catholic Church. Some of the weapons at hand for the religious conservatives which they will always guarantee you is their ability to discriminate, and they see that as their right. Thinly-veiled racism and homophobia are the weaponry of the conservatives, and Marr is known for his quote akin to ''Not extending freedom of speech to others is not a right, but a privilege.''

Christopher De Bellaigue - The Islamic Enlightenment

The Koran is a fascinating read, at first glance, it looks like a very Abrahamic text, with members of the Bible referenced in its pages. You could almost mistake the Koran as the Bible it is that similar. There are extreme parts that terrorist groups have harnessed, and it has given these groups reference points, but apart from one or two moments where it is advocating violence, it appears as a very peaceful text, reminiscent of a song or a long poem. The halal diet is very intriguing also, with high ranking doctors like Michael Mosley praising the period of Ramadan and fasting in general as ways ordinary people can seriously lose weight 

Geoffrey Hosking - Russia And The Russians

One thing that every leader should fear, that has repeated itself numerous times throughout history, is the fact a poor people that are oppressed from labour and poverty will rise up and take control. So leaders should not just look to appease the rich of society, but look after all people. They are certainly playing and living life dangerously if they neglect the poor because it has been proven time and time again that poverty leads to violence. The case could be made for pre-war Germany. The abomination of dire inequality leads to people resorting to violence and revolution. Look no further than the Russian Revolution.

Peter Singer - Ethics In The Real World: Eighty-Seven Brief Essays On Things That Matter

Labelling visionaries like Singer radical is trying to escape their scope and belittle their argument. In a time of drastic danger, we need people Peter Singer. How many more years are we going to cope with losing land the size of Scotland every bushfire season? There should be radical changes in our society. With the volunteer fire service members perishing fighting raging infernos, could they cope with again in another bushfire season? That is just in Australia, throughout the world, there will unfathomable catastrophic weather events due to a changing climate. Australia is really at the forefront of the effects of climate change, we really should be leading from the front.

Karen Armstrong - Islam: A Short History

Islam is an easy target of the vitriol from the West, simply because they have no Pope equivalent. They have no representative in the public eye. Many myths that need to be debunked, one is that the Muslim world is seriously engrossed in hatred of the West, but the enemy that has done the most damage to the Muslim world over many years was, in fact, the Mongols. The Moors pioneered things like the astrolabe which measures the stars, and they had gas-lighting in their streets and were highly advanced people, not like the savages portrayed by the Western media.

Peter Singer - One World: The Ethics Of Globalisation

Peter Singer, labelled one of the most controversial philosophers of his time. Many of his works discuss human rights and animal rights intertwined in a sort of living rights. He goes to explore the term ''specieism", where grounds of discrimination are expressed within an animal group towards another animal group. It sort of makes sense to think that the human race sees violence to animals as justified, because they are only animals. He argues that they experience senses like us so they must be capable of the same feelings as people. He expresses the importance of living rights. It is interesting to think that the vegan diet has gained so much importance with the climate crisis also bringing the diet to the forefront of its importance.

Richard Flanagan - Wanting

What is clearly evident and comprehensible in Flanagan's work is this ability to capture real larrikin Australian-isms and the overwhelming vernacular. Some of his even recent stunts include publishing an article for the Guardian, where he pledges to ''Go to jail to save my beloved country.''  He was involved in the Stop Adani protests. Don't think Flanagan because of the fact he writes best-selling books that he is sappy and emotive. He taps into the Australian rebellious culture and attributes akin to that of bushrangers like Ned Kelly. The Australian rebel is hugely popular. Some of the other latest stunts in the Flanagan canon is openly criticising Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and casting him aside like a meek child, labelling him famously ''Scotty from Marketing''.

Henry Reynolds - Forgotten War

Look no further to what the unsettling and unnerving effects of colonialism had on the oldest continuing culture on Earth, a people so at one with the land, with so much intelligence for the natural world. It is alarming to compare the nations of New Zealand with that of Australia. One has a treaty and one has not, and if there should a step towards unity, then a peace treaty with the Indigenous Peoples of Australia, but sadly that won't be enough. To inflict a sort of dangerous violence, indiscriminately on a people who were not used to European standards was volatile. Call it colonial terrorism, for the vision of the Australians, have for the glory of the country, sadly excludes to the original inhabitants. Patriotic Australians see the Aboriginal inhabitants as the enemy and this nationalism and fierce connection to the British, the dangerous foes of basically everyone who is not European, a vast majority of the world. Well, guess what Europeans, you are in the minority.

Robert Service - Stalin

Socialism has got bad appraisals from the West, but let's compare to say, Hitler's Germany. Fascism is about the individual, there is a momentous worshipping of Hitler and all Nazis and neo-Nazis worship Hitler as a central autocratic ruler. Hitler is a discriminatory ruler, it is not like socialism that accommodates all citizens. This is evident in the concentration camp phase of the Third Reich, where many ''different'' people were rounded up and exterminated. Fascism is also very backwards-looking, they aspire to be like the great nations of the past, like Prussia of old, and in the case of Mussolini, ancient Greece. It is evident in socialist countries the quality of life was astoundingly superior to other countries.

Richard Flanagan - The Sound Of One Hand Clapping

The importance of democracy is paramount to human life because criticising governments and fact-checking is astoundedly important. Politicians are getting away with things that ordinary people would be punished for. Saying one thing and doing another. Corruption in supporting the powerful elite who are hell-bent on only supporting themselves. The billionaires are securing their own safety if the world collapsed, and are tightening their grip on the people who control the country. The politicians are merely minions of the doing of the powerful elite. You do not need money to cast your voice and let your voice be heard, this is the basis of human nature. It is a human right. Politicians are ever-increasingly having their decisions made for them, such is the case, they only answer to their master. The importance of criticising the powers that be is the only way people who control the country do not get with anything they want. But they don't like being told how to do their job, so a critic must be valorous.

Greta Thunberg - No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference

We are at a crossroads, there is no doubt about it. The climate activism of youth is interesting because childhood, as we know it, is a relatively new phenomenon. In the past children were coerced into getting jobs and doing work at a young age, whereas today's society protects children as vulnerable, but they are not as gullible as they seem, in fact, Thunberg has genuinely removed the veil from children all over the world's eyes to awaken them from their slumber and show them the carnage of their future. Climate change is a social and rights issue as not only being environmental. The older generations have had their fun and games and are leaving the world in chaos for the younger ones to clean up. Once things like the Himalayas start to melt, things will look very different. If there was anything to scare people into mass unity, extinction would surely shock people into coming together as one entity.

Peter Singer - The Most Good You Can Do

Peter Singer's homage to altruism asks the big questions of altruism. Many of the world's problems could be resolved if people thought not to accumulate material wealth and start seeing the world as a sort of collective, with every person in the great battle of life in it together, not just to rip up and profit from your foes. Many people would be more peaceful if there were fewer limitations on ordinary people from the great blockade of liberal democratic states. Since when do politicians have a precedent of the average citizen? The overall goal of freedom and peace permeate from the writings of Singer, similar to the great minds like Satre and company.

Robert Service - Trotsky

Impressive work on one of the most influential figures of modern socialism. Trotsky was a Jewish intellectual, who won plaudits from the left and the right in his open criticism of Stalinism. He wrote many books and was an astute philosopher. The number of works he has rivalled some of the great writers, and like Che Guevara, they were very well-read. Che Guevara could boast of reading an assortment of books every day, and Trotsky is one of the great Russian authors, he has a massive legacy not only on politics but literature.

Richard Powers - The Overstory

This is a stunning work situated around the oppression of conservation activism, so it is more important than ever. What people can do on an individual level to combat the effects of climate change has been publicised greatly by writers like George Monbiot. He explains to mitigate the effects of climate change on an individual level is to go vegan or vegetarian, because veganism is one-third of the emissions of a regular meat-eating diet's contribution to climate change, and vegetarianism is two thirds. People should also limit the amount of flying in planes and actively engage in green political groups who are actively engaged in protecting forests, which are decreasing more than ever.

Jeff Sparrow - Fascists Among Us

This is a great analysis of the circumstances that a man, not from New Zealand where it happened, this massacre, Christchurch, but how Australia created a monster, a monster that would brag about administering death and destruction to innocent people. To boast that he would film it and sing songs when delivering his carnage. The far-right like Reclaim Australia loved it and even the right-wing politicians were satisfied. The rise of mass violence is associated with fascism perpetrated by politicians because of they, fascists take the word from people like Hitler and idolise him. They pick a vulnerable target and vent hate which is formed into extreme violence.

Richard Flanagan - The Unknown Terrorist

This book is dedicated to David Hicks and really captures the paranoia of Australia post nine-eleven. The day that the world changed, where there were massive security protocols put in place. It has a very Australian crime vibe to it and there is humour dispersed throughout it to lighten it up in a very Australian way. It is a very Kafkaesque, unafraid of delving into regions that may come across as controversial, or give up the role of mediator of a story and start unveiling a political bias. He also scatters great quotes throughout the book. Discover Flanagan if you are interested in a great Tasmanian novelist.

Behrouz Boochani - No Friend But The Mountains

I'm going to deviate from political realism and Scottish history into Guardian and Al Jazeera columnists, and this stunning work by Boochani has captivated many. Winner of numerous awards it chronicles Boochani's voyage to Manus, and he is very particular about describing the conditions and he does this in the way of actually portraying it as a prison, with a typical prison system. With all the aspects of incarceration, and this man has his body thrown behind bars with many others. It is dark, dreary and filthy in the way it describes the setting and the fierce brutality of the guards is expressed well.

E.H. Carr - What Is History?

Machiavelli's ideas would prove influential on neo-Marxism proposed by Gramsci. Antonio Gramsci was a deformed labour organiser and I'm pretty sure he contributed to a socialist newspaper. Anyways he decided to run as a politician and was subsequently jailed. His prison notebooks would lay down the foundations for modern Marxism, which differs from classical Marxism, with Gramsci's invention of cultural hegemony. A person could suffer oppression because of race or religion as well as being a proletariat, in the constant struggle with the bourgeoisie.