Discovering the “Australian Women Writers Challenge” 2015...

Do you love reading? And love a blog challenge? If you said yes to both, you’ll certainly love this! Late last year I discovered the “Australian Women Writers” Challenge. This is where readers read books written by Australian women and write reviews about them, through their blog or other means. Why only women you might ask? Well, it seems that the female authors don’t get their fair share of reviews. So the idea of the AWW Challenge was formed and the concept has taken off. By 2014 they were on their way to , and they are now getting several thousand reviews a year. Don’t you love it!! Anyone can participate (men or women), so long as you’re willing to do some kind of review of the book you read afterwards. You don’t have to be a professional reviewer, but just don’t give away the plot in your review. Fiction, or non-fiction, there’s no genre restrictions, and they don’t even have rules on how many book you are to review during the year. So I think I’ll take up this Challenge during 2015, and as my passion is history and genealogy, I’ll go with the genealogy and history genre. Though there does seem to be lack of Australian female authors in this genre – at least at this stage. For more information on the Australian Women Writers Challenge for 2015, visit their website. And be sure to read their About page to learn how it all started, and their FAQ for questions you might have, then head on over to their Sign Up page and fill in your details. And in this world of social media, you can keep up with the latest news (and reviews) by following the Australian Women...

What Happened When in Australian History?...

Yesterday was Australia Day, and I would have loved to participate in Pauleen’s Australia Day Challenge 2014, but unfortunately with my current work commitments (ie. a cruise in a week’s time), time didn’t permit me at present. So instead I’ve decided to do my own Australia Day blog post, and for this I want to share with you two of my favourite “Australian history” books. WHAT HAPPENED WHEN: A CHRONOLOGY OF AUSTRALIA FROM 1788 First up we have “What Happened When: A Chronology of Australia From 1788” which was compiled by Anthony Barker. This is a fat book, being over 500 pages, and is exactly as it says … “a chronology of Australian history”. Arranged year by year, and then by date within the year, you’ll find everything from ships arriving or sinking, many fires together with other natural disasters, convicts, bushrangers, arrests, buildings opened, newspaper started, politicians begnning or finishing their term in office, when books and movies were released and 1000s of other anecdotal facts that make this country’s history. To quote from the blurb … “When was the Melbourne Cup first run? When did women get the vote? When did Vegemite and Violet Crumble bars first appear? When did Nellie Melba give her last Australian concert? When did any noteworthy event happen in Australia? What Happened When has all the answers. If you want to know what was going on in the year you or your parents were born, you can browse. In 1932, for example, you will find that the Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened, Phar Lap died, the ABC was established, Ion Idriess wrote Flynn of the Inland, Walter Lindrum made a world-record billiards break of 4,137, the basic wage was 3 pounds 3s 11d, and over 30 per cent...

The Guide to FamilySearch Online...

I wanted to let you know about this fabulous new book I bought recently “The Guide to FamilySearch Online” by James L. Tanner. After reading about this title on James’ Genealogy’s Star blog, I went right ahead and bought my copy through the BYU Bookstore for US$39.95. I admit that I did cringe at the $30.00 freight, however that was forgiven when I received it within 3 days. I see that it is also now available through Amazon.com, though I haven’t checked out the freight. FamilySearch is largely what has MADE genealogy!! Is that too bold a statement? I don’t think so. The collecting and indexing of records, and making them available has aided in the interest (or more recently the phenomenal boom) of genealogy, and has changed the way people do genealogy, and FamilySearch is changing along with it. I will say I haven’t read this book from cover to cover yet, as it’s going to take quite some time to work my way though it all, as it not only covers FamilySearch.org, but also New.FamilySearch.org, Wiki.FamilySearch.org, Forums.FamilySearch.org, Indexing.FamilySearch.org and more. I’m not sure my head can digest it all, but I’m gonna try. I’m not going to write down the whole of the contents list as it runs to about 4 pages. But there are clearly defined chapters, many screenshot photo, as well as a glossary and index included. For anyone wanting to understand FamilySearch and all of its facets, this is a must read book. Anyway this book is being published in short runs, so it can be constantly updated as needed, which if you ask me is a very wise move. And just to be clear, no this isn’t a book that you can get...