Wrathall Books

30/04/2026

A story of Christmas Island from Alexander Macdonald’s 1913 book “In the land of pearl and gold; a pioneer’s wanderings in the backblocks and pearling grounds of Australia and New Guinea” …

“Almost every kind of tropical tree is to be found in the great forest which extends all over the island. Cocoa-nut palms grow in profusion along the water’s edge, where also banyan trees and limes flourish abundantly. The sago palm finds root on the upper altitudes along with many other varieties of that prolific family, and the most rare and beautiful flowering orchids blend their radiance with gorgeous fern-like plants and creeping tendril growths unnameable.

“But one strange tree is found here amid the thick underscrub which never recommends itself to the traveller. It gives forth a most baneful odour, and taints the air within a radius of several hundred yards of its presence with its harsh perfume. It further has the property of imparting, and, indeed, forcing its disagreeable characteristic on the person of any unfortunate who may touch, even ever so slightly, its solid oak-like trunk, and, should its aspen branches brush across the face, a course of carbolic treatment is necessary to eliminate the horrid stench conveyed.”

The tree is Celtis timorensis commonly known as Stinkwood and according to a contact of the Christmas Island Archives blog, the tree does indeed stink. On the island, the Malays call the tree “Pokok kayu taik” (s**t wood tree) and the Chinese “Chau see mok” (smelly s**t wood). 😱😱😱

23/04/2026

Currently reading There Was a Ship: Patsy Adam-Smith’s Story of Her Years at Sea.

The blurb says:

From the moment Patsy
Adam-Smith saw the little coastal trader ease her way out of Bass Strait, masts and rigging festooned with mutton birds, and heard her crew talk of reefs and wrecks, sand shoals, birdin’ and the folk lore of the Furneaux Islands, she was bewitched.

Determined to go to sea herself, she persuaded the owner to let her sail on the Sheerwater, cooking, taking a trick on the wheel, working her passage round the lovely, scattered islands of Bass Strait and the coast of Tasmania.

Patsy then spent six years on the Naracoopa and was the first woman to be granted signed Articles in Australian waters. As radio officer, she shared the hard life of a small ship’s crew and was rescued from the sea three times in some of the most hazardous waters in the world.

During her innumerable voyages, Patsy took hundreds of photographs and she has used these to illustrate this account of her adventurous life.

They show the remote and vanishing lifestyles of the Cape Barren Islanders, the lighthouse families, the mutton birders and the men who sail in small wooden ships.

At the end of Hear the Train Blow, Patsy is a young girl going off to war; in There was a Ship she tells us of her love affair with the sea and ships, with the small ketches that no longer trade around our Australian coastline.

Much of what she describes so vividly has gone forever, but her fascination with a unique way of life endures.

22/04/2026

‘Book of Life: Recipes & Stories from Across Gippsland’ (Gippslandia, 2019)

17/04/2026

The world tends to see Myanmar (Burma) as an ancient, idyllic land of emerald-green rice paddies dotted with golden pagodas, yet sadly tarnished by a contemporary reality of grinding poverty, a decades-long civil war, and the most enduring military dictatorship in modern history. Burmese society is frequently stereotyped as isolated, hidebound to Buddhist cultural foundations, or embroiled in military rule and civil strife. Its thriving, cosmopolitan film industry not only questions such orientalist archetypes but also provides an incisive lens to explore social history through everyday popular practices.

In a tour-de-force study of sixty years of cinematic entertainment, Silver Screens and Golden Dreams traces the veins of Burmese popular movies across three periods in history: the colonial era, the parliamentary democracy period, and the Ne Win Socialist years.

Author Associate Professor Jane Ferguson engages cinema as an interrogator of mainstream cultural values, providing political and cultural context to situate the films as artistic endeavors and capitalist products.

15/04/2026

Newly released Kurnai books are available

29/03/2026

Visiting the library 📚

28/03/2026

Andrew Wrathall releases a diary of his experience as a bookseller at Clunes Booktown Festival.

The article is currently available to paying subscribers of Books+Publishing.

https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2026/03/25/326529/booksellers-diary-clunes-and-the-pleasures-of-re-homing-vintage-books/

28/03/2026

Bookseller John Scott said New Morning Books has operated in Adelaide for 38 years, although this location is fairly recent.

Contact New Morning Books if you want any of these books pictured.

27/03/2026

Excellent in-flight reading. Chloe Hooper has been to Morwell before, because she wrote The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire, about the 2009 Black Saturday fire, which was lit close to Morwell.

25/03/2026

The Stella longlist as art 😍

An absolutely stunning artwork by Emily Snowdon featuring our 12 longlisted books!

We love seeing the Stella Prize books brought to life in such a beautiful and creative way 🎨✨

Thank you .snowdon.artist for sharing your talent and for this wonderful tribute to the Stella Prize longlist 💛

22/03/2026

‘That’s What They Do’ is the latest poetry collection by Greek-Australian author and poet Koraly Dimitriadis.

‘Abusers, that’s what they do,’ said Dimitriadis. ‘They only need one punching bag, not two. Treat everyone around them like gold, just not you, to pack the biggest punch.’

Dimitriadis previously released the poetry books ‘Love & F**k Poems,’ ‘Just Give Me the Pills’ and ‘She’s Not Normal.’