My reading list for ‘Medieval Europe: Crusades to the Black Death’. There is no way in hell I’ll be able to read all that before classes start in March! I’m going to have to prioritise those which look the most… Read More ›
history
Top Ten Horrible Histories Songs
Horrible Histories is a popular British television series based on the best-selling book series by Terry Dreary. The show was produced for CBBC by Lion Television with Citrus Television and ran from 2009 to 2013 with an additional ‘reincarnation’ in 2015…. Read More ›
Rationing References
When researching my rationing challenge, I used the following websites: New Point Ration Chart Remember When… Food Investigators Episode 5: The WWII Diet 1301.0 – Year Book, Australia, 1944 – 45, Australian Bureau of Statistics John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library… Read More ›
Arrack and Sympathy
During the second world war two Aussie soldiers were in Damascus on leave from a camp nearby. During their perambulations around the city they sampled quite a number of noggins of the local brew, arrack, and eventually they became hopelessly… Read More ›
The Year I Was Born
An awful lot happened the year I was born – it was quite an eventful year. People were born, people died, disasters happened and politics continued as usual. Here are some of the events that made my birth year unique:… Read More ›
Australia: A History in Photographs by Michael Cannon
Opening Sentence: The camera is like most human beings: it sometimes distorts reality, but it usually tries to tell the truth. Synopsis: Over two centuries a great nation has emerged from the most unlikely beginnings. Millions of incidents on that… Read More ›
Herbert V Prochnow & Herbert V Prochnow Jr in Jokes Quotes & One Liners
A reporter was interviewing a man who was believed to be the oldest resident in town. ‘May I ask how old you are?’ the newsman enquired. ‘I just turned a hundred this week,’ the old man proudly replied. ‘Great! Do… Read More ›
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
Opening Sentence: One afternoon, when Bruno came home from school, he was surprised to find Maria, the family’s maid – who always kept her head bowed and never looked up from the carpet – standing in his bedroom, pulling all… Read More ›
The Chemist’s War
It was Christmas Eve 1926, the streets aglitter with snow and lights, when the man afraid of Santa Claus stumbled into the emergency room at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital. He was flushed, gasping with fear: Santa Claus, he kept… Read More ›
Simon Winchester in ‘Krakatoa’
“Indonesia itself has and has had more volcanoes and more volcanic activity than any other political entity on the earth, in all recorded history.” ~ Simon Winchester in ‘Krakatoa’
Books I Read in May 2010
Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden The Tower by Valerio Massimo Manfredi The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent Violent Crimes by Hugh Holton Hour Game by David Baldacci Darkness Creeping by Neal Shusterman Related articles Best-selling author David… Read More ›
Reverend Mr Beecher quoted in ‘Fiend: The Shocking True Story of America’s Youngest Serial Killer’ by Harold Schechter
“A child dying, dies but once; but the mother dies a hundred times.” ~ Reverend Mr Beecher quoted in ‘Fiend: The Shocking True Story of America’s Youngest Serial Killer’ by Harold Schechter
Harold Schechter in ‘Fiend: The Shocking True Story of America’s Youngest Serial Killer’
“…there is some abiding human need to imagine the past as a paradise – a golden age of innocence from which we have been tragically expelled. But a dispassionate look at the historical facts suggests there are few, if any,… Read More ›
Harold Schechter in ‘Fiend: The Shocking True Story of America’s Youngest Serial Killer’
‘Living at a time of pervasive pollution, we yearn for those delightful pre-automotive days when the air was free of car exhaust – forgetting that the streets of every major nineteenth-century city reeked of horse piss, manure, and the decomposing… Read More ›
Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir
Opening Sentence:It is over. Synopsis:Lady Jane Grey was born into times of extreme danger. Child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother, for whom she was merely a pawn in a dynastic power game with the highest stakes, she… Read More ›
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Opening Sentence:Mr Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. Synopsis:’It is the history of a revolution that went wrong – and of the excellent excuses… Read More ›
More Censorship? Rudd ‘Epic Fail’ Group Goes Offline
Today, we can reveal that online political speech has been dealt another blow with Facebook, the popular social networking site, being accused of political censorship after it removed the group “KEVIN RUDD = EPIC FAIL”. Before it was removed the… Read More ›
Joe Queenan in ‘Balsamic Dreams’
“Life spins out of control when middle-aged men refuse to accept that they are no longer twenty. It happened with Bill Clinton. It happened with Mick Jagger. Frankly, I don’t know what happened with Ozzy Osborne. But clearly something.” Related… Read More ›
Joe Queenan in ‘Balsamic Dreams’
“Boomers persist in the belief that they are the most resourceful, most ingenious, most sophisticated, and most important in the history of mankind.” Related articles Book Review Podcast: Joe Queenan on a Lifetime of Reading (artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com) Disgruntled (aspiringwriter25.wordpress.com) This Could… Read More ›
Mnemonics
Every Good Boy Deserves Fun (lines on a treble clef; the spaces are remembered as FACE) Mites Grow Up, Tights Come Down (Difference between Stalagmites & Stalactites) Spring Forward, Fall Back (Which way to turn clocks for daylight savings) My… Read More ›
Grim Crims & Convicts: 1788 – 1820 (Fair Dinkum Histories) by Jackie French
Opening Sentence:It was an incredible idea – to found a colony of convicts eight months’ sail away from Great Britain. Synopsis:Telling it like it really was – true-blue Aussie history! It was the craziest, wildest and most daring expedition the… Read More ›
The Little Election
Synopsis:One day at lunchtime, Rory decides to become the Prime Minister because then he can do anything he wants. Before you know it, the whole class is having an election. Who will be the new Prime Minister: Rory or Debra-Jo… Read More ›
Books I Read In June 2009
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova Lockie Leonard: Human Torpedo by Tim Winton Christianity: An Ancient Egyptian Religion by Ahmed Osman An Obedient Father by Akhil Sharma Splinter by Adam Roberts Related articles 10 of my Favourite Books (meetmeatthebookparade.wordpress.com) 2013 Reading… Read More ›
A Fortunate Life by A. B. Facey
Opening Sentence:I was born in the year 1894 at Maidstone in Victoria. Synopsis: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… Read More ›
When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS by James Cross Giblin
Opening Sentence:Like all epidemic diseases, the Plague of Athens struck suddenly and without warning. Synopsis:And no bells tolled, and nobody wept no matter what his loss because almost everyone expected death…And people said and believed, “This is the end of… Read More ›
