We are delighted that Jenny Ackland joins us today to share her five most influential books.
Jenny has worked in too many offices but only one themed restaurant; sold textbooks in a university bookshop; taught special education and English as a Foreign Language in Australia and overseas; and worked as a proofreader on magazines and freelance editor on technical publications. She's been blogging since 2005, and her short fiction has been listed in prestigious literary prizes and awards.
She has travelled widely, and has spent several years living in Turkey and Japan, but now lives in Melbourne with her husband and their three teenaged children. Her debut novel The Secret Son is about an Australian historian determined to find the truth, a stolen inheritance, a wishing tree, a long-lost grandmother, and an unlikely sweetheart. It is a novel about love, honour and belonging, and what it means to be a good person.
You can buy the book here.
A mother bird lays an egg but prefers to holiday in Palm Beach than sit hatching. She enlists trusting elephant Horton to sit on her nest until she returns. ‘Soon,’ she promises. He does, through the months, through threats both climatic and human. An early lesson in ethics and backbone, this book introduced me to concepts that I remain staunch about today, and the idea that social justice and issues-based books can be the most compelling for me. Buy the book here.
It is that time of year! We have started to feel all cheery as Christmas approaches.
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