Aussie YA playlist for the Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop

This is my post for the very special Australia Day Book Giveaway Hop, organized by the incredible Book’d Out and Confessions fromRomaholics.

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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

·      The Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta: listen to Paul Kelly ‘How to Make Gravy’ 

·      On The Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta: listen to ‘Flame Trees’ (original song by Cold Chisel, also a cover song by Sarah Blasko) 

·      Chasing Charlie Duskin by Cath Crowley: listen to Clare Bowditch ‘When The Lights Went Down’ 

·      Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley: listen to ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’ by Hunters and Collectors 

·      Night Beach by Kirsty Eagar: listen to ‘Overture’ by Patrick Wolf 

·      Beatle Meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams: listen to ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ by The Beatles 

·      Holier Than Thou by Laura Buzo: listen to Holly Throsby feat. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - 'Would You?' 

·      Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield: listen to ‘Dark Storm’ by The Jezabels 

·      This is Shyness by Leanne Hall: listen to ‘Howl’ by Florence + The Machine 

·      Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood: listen to The Six Parts Seven ‘Song of Impossible Things’ 

·      Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell: listen to ‘With God On Our Side’ by Bob Dylan 

·      Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan: listen to ‘Alone Apart’ by The Swell Season 

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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 28^th 
I will announce the lucky winner on January 30^th