Giveaways

Email entries to giveaways@ieu.asn.au with the title of the book you would like to receive in the subject line. Write your name, membership number and postal address in the body of your email. All entries must be received by 15 Janurary 2022.

Sticking Together

Publisher: Victorian Trades Hall Council

Author: James Raynes

Illustrator: Mitzi McKenzie-King

What can animals teach our children about working together and solidarity? Quite a lot! Take a journey through the animal kingdom and discover how. For instance, did you know otters link up their paws and form a ‘raft’ before they fall asleep, so that no otter drifts off while they’re napping? Or that vampire bats bring back food and share it with their hungry counterparts? These and many other real-life stories of solidarity are told in rhyme and accompanied by vibrant and funny illustrations. Proudly produced by Trades Hall, this is the perfect Christmas gift for unionists of all ages.

Dreams They Forgot

Publisher: Wakefield Press

Author: Emma Ashmere

Two sisters await the tidal wave predicted for 1970s Adelaide after Premier Don Dunstan decriminalises homosexuality. An interstate family drive is complicated by the father’s memory of sighting UFOs. Two women drive from Melbourne to Sydney to see the Harbour Bridge before it’s finished. An isolated family tries to weather climate change as the Doomsday Clock ticks.

Emma Ashmere’s stories explore illusion, deception and acts of quiet rebellion. Diverse characters travel high and low roads through time and place – from a grand 1860s Adelaide music hall to a dilapidated London squat, from a modern Melbourne hospital to the 1950s Maralinga test site, to the 1990s diamond mines of Borneo.

Undercut with longing and unbelonging, absurdity and tragedy, thwarted plans and fortuitous serendipity, each story offers glimpses into the dreams, limitations, gains and losses of fragmented families, loners and lovers, survivors and misfits, as they piece together a place for themselves in the imperfect mosaic of the natural and unnatural world.

Wotan’s Daughter: The Life of Marjorie Lawrence

Publisher: Wakefield Press

Author: Richard Davis

Wotan’s Daughter recounts the turbulent life and career of Marjorie Lawrence, one of Australia’s most renowned opera stars. From humble beginnings in rural Victoria, Lawrence rose to become one of the pre-eminent Wagner singers of her generation, acclaimed and honoured in Europe and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York where she shared roles with the legendary Kirsten Flagstad.

Stricken by polio at the height of her career, Lawrence fought back courageously against physical disability and prejudice to rebuild her shattered life and return to the stage. This is a book for all music lovers and those who value an inspiring story of triumph over adversity.