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A song is a sense of time and place – for me, Elvis
Presley’s ‘If I Can Dream’ will be irrevocably linked to driving through Rosebud on a burning summer day
with my best friend. Likewise, Crowded Houses's 'Don't Dream It's Over' tastes like salt tears and takes me back to my Year 12 graduation ceremony.
Songs hold memories and people, and for that reason whenever
I read and love a book, I find a special song that encapsulates that story and
those characters for me. Sometimes the book and the song are already entwined,
like Paul Kelly’s ‘How to Make Gravy’ being the ballad of the Finch-Mackees,
for youngest son Joe: “Hello Dom, it's Joe here”. Sometimes I’ve asked authors
what songs they listened to while writing, as I did with Laura Buzo who
introduced me to the artist Holly Throsby. Other times, it’s my unique reading
and interpretation of the book that finds the song and forms its own
connection.
Below is a collection of my favourite Australian young adult
novels, and the songs I associate with them. I would love to know if you associate songs with books and characters, and if you want to give me a little listening/reading recommendation, I’d be thrilled!
Aussie YA playlist
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The book I'm offering up for the Australia Day Book Giveaway Hop is Margo Lanagan's epic 'Sea Hearts'.
Here are the details for how you can win:
How to enter:
☼ Become a follower of my blog (if you aren't already)
☼ Leave a comment on this blog post, with a way to contact you (e-mail addy or Twitter handle is fine)
☼ One post per entrant
☼ This is an INTERNATIONAL give-away
☼ Contest closes midnight on January 28th
I will announce the lucky winner on January 30th
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