Count me in on loving The Office. Brilliant and funny and painful and unflinchingly truthful.

Hey, ANZistas, I have a question for ya.

A friend of mine is going to be stationed overseas, or rather, more overseas than he is currently stationed, and I want to send him a care package including some books. He had the opportunity to visit the west coast of Australia this past winter and absolutely madly deeply loved it. As such, I'd like to send him something from the Australian (or Kiwi) canon, but I'm ashamed to admit I haven't the slightest idea where to begin looking.

Any reading list suggestions from Australia or New Zealand? Recommendations of novels or exciting non-fiction (biography, adventures, exploration) would be very much appreciated.

Your ignorant American cousin, jengod

A friend of mine is going to be stationed overseas, or rather, more overseas than he is currently stationed, and I want to send him a care package including some books. He had the opportunity to visit the west coast of Australia this past winter and absolutely madly deeply loved it. As such, I'd like to send him something from the Australian (or Kiwi) canon, but I'm ashamed to admit I haven't the slightest idea where to begin looking.

I'd plug Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang. A novel based upon Australia's last and most notorious bushranger, and a Booker Prizewinner. (I also loved Thea Astley's Drylands, but I'm not sure how well that would translate. From left field there's Randolph Stow's The Merry Go Round in the Sea. It's an older book, published in 1965, but I found it very moving (even as a teenager). It's also set in WA. But being more removed in time, it may be less accessible.

I agree with Billytea's suggestions, especially Randolph Stow if you can find anything by him (unlikely even in Australia), but if you're looking for some West Coast flava you really can't go past Tim Winton. I'm personally not a fan of his but practically everyone else is, so you probably can't go wrong there. And you should be able to get hold of his books relatively easily. (Actually I seem to remember one of the other US Buffistas was reading him...was it Scrappy?)

I agree with Billytea's suggestions, especially Randolph Stow if you can find anything by him (unlikely even in Australia)...

This is true; but it can be done. And if you do come up with a selection and are having trouble finding it, I'm sure we'd be happy to help track it down for you. (I found and bought both The Merry Go Round in the Sea and his Miles Franklin winner To the Islands while here in the States, and had them shipped over.)

I'm already in love with The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea and it looks like I can order it through Bookfinder.com or even Half.com, but I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you say anything at all, because these suggestions rock and I want you to keep 'em coming!

P.S. (Post serial!) I take it that the Miles Franklin Award is roughly equivalent to our National Book Award, Pulitzer or PEN awards?

Correct. It's our main national literary prize.

Also Powells tends to have really good selections - though prices tend to higher than half.com.

Jedi knights????