australian history | Parra Reads

City of Parramatta Libraries have teamed up with Public Libraries NSW for the final time this year to end our FREE online author talks with a bang! These are the last three author talks for 2021 that you can attend from the comfort of home and we thank you for attending the talks throughout the year. Recordings of our previous talks can be found here and are certainly deserving of a watch or even a re-watch. I think my favourite might be Judy Nunn, she is such an engaging and enthusiastic speaker.

In case you missed it don’t forget tonight is the author talk with the beloved host of ABC Gardening Australia, Costa Georgiadis, with his new book Costa’s World, he is sure to be an entertaining and enlightening speaker.

David Hunt presents Girt Nation in conversation with Wendy Harmer
Friday 5 November, 1.00pm

Noted historian David Hunt will be in conversation with Wendy Harmer, one of Australia’s much loved personalities, speaking about his latest historical work.
David Hunt tramples the tall poppies of the past in charting Australia’s transformation from aspiration to nation – an epic tale of charlatans and costermongers, of bush bards and bushier bastards, of labourers and ladies who weren’t going to take it anymore.Girt Nation introduces Alfred Deakin, the Liberal necromancer whose dead advisors made Australia a better place to live, and Banjo Paterson, the jihadist who called on God and the Prophet to drive the Australian infidels from the Sudan ‘like sand before the gale’. And meet Catherine Helen Spence, the feminist polymath who envisaged a utopian future of free contraceptives, easy divorce and immigration restrictions to prevent the ‘Chinese coming to destroy all we have struggled for!’
To register book online – https://parra.city/hunt21

Michael Connelly presents The Dark Hours in conversation with Ben Hobson
Friday 19 November, 12.00pm

Best selling author Michael Connelly will be in conversation with Australian author Ben Hobson about his latest Ballard & Bosch thriller The Dark Hours, in one of only two live events that Michael will deliver directly to an Australian audience.
A brazen and methodical killer strikes on New Year’s Eve and LAPD Detective Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch must join forces to find justice for the victim in a city scarred by fear and social unrest. There’s chaos in Hollywood at the end of the New Year’s Eve countdown. Working her graveyard shift, LAPD Detective Renée Ballard waits out the traditional rain of lead as hundreds of revellers shoot their guns into the air. Only minutes after midnight, Ballard is called to a scene where a hardworking auto shop owner has been fatally hit by a bullet in the middle of a crowded street party. Ballard quickly concludes that the deadly bullet could not have fallen from the sky and that it is linked to another unsolved murder—a case at one time worked by Detective Harry Bosch.
To register book online – https://parra.city/connelly21

Fiona McIntosh presents The Spy’s Wife
Wednesday 24 November, 1.00pm

Fiona McIntosh will be in conversation with Mel Tong from Macquarie Regional Library chatting about her highly anticipated new historical adventure The Spy’s Wife.
Evie, a widow and stationmaster’s daughter, can’t help but look out for the weekly visit of the handsome man she and her sister call the Southerner on their train platform in the wilds of northern England. When polite salutations shift to friendly conversations, they become captivated by each other. After so much sorrow, the childless Evie can’t believe love and the chance for her own family have come into her life again. With rumours coming out of Germany that Hitler may be stirring up war, local English authorities have warned against spies. Even Evie becomes suspicious of her new suitor, Roger. But all is not what it seems.
Penguin Random House Australia and Fiona McIntosh are giving one lucky attendee a chance to win a beautiful Hermès silk scarf. To register book online – https://parra.city/mcintosh21

City of Parramatta Libraries have once again teamed up with Public Libraries NSW to offer our communities the chance to attend FREE online author talks over the coming months.
There are two author talks for the month of September that you can attend from the comfort of home – Tom Keneally and Matt Murphy.

Tom Keneally Presents ‘Corporal Hitler’s Pistol’
Thursday 9 September, 12.30pm

Tom Keneally will be in conversation with Christine Dearness from Willoughby City Libraries discussing his compelling new story set in early twentieth-century Australia.
How did Corporal Hitler’s Luger from the First World War end up being the weapon that killed an IRA turncoat in Kempsey, New South Wales, in 1933?
Corporal Hitler’s Pistol speaks to the never-ending war that began with ‘the war to end all wars’. Rural communities have always been a melting pot and many are happy to accept a diverse bunch … as long as they don’t overstep.
To register book online – parra.city/keneally21

Matt Murphy Presents ‘Rum: a distilled history of Colonial Australia’
Wednesday 15 September, 6.30pm

Matt Murphy will be in conversation with Eric Dodson from Lane Cove Library taking us through his account of the formation of Australia through the distorted view of a rum bottle.
He will cover questions like Would the Eureka Stockade have been different if the rebels weren’t pissed? And how were prisoners able to get drunk if Macquarie closed the only pub in the goal?..
To register book online – parra.city/murphy21