I haven’t got anything ready to review as I’ve been concentrating on a read and review for Shiny New Books, but I have had some lovely Incomings that I don’t want to get mixed up with anything that might or might not be arriving for my upcoming birthday, so here we go with a small but perfectly formed pile of lovelies.

Bill from The Australian Legend and I had been discussing how it was almost impossible to order books on or by Indigenous Australian people in the UK (this is similar to how US publishers are often unable to ship to the UK and it’s well-nigh impossible to get anything by Indigenous Canadian authors, too, hence me falling on that slightly weird book about the first premier of Nunavut at a good price and available a while back. Sometimes you can obtain these books in ebook form but if I’m going to pay more than a few pounds for something, I like to have it physically in front of me, able to be kept or passed on (I keep my Kindle for cheap light reads and NetGalley).

Bill then very kindly sent me a selection of books by and about Indigenous Australian people (I’m using that term after Brona helped me to research best practice in terms: this may change in the future of course) and they arrived in much less than the promised 25 days! “Growing up Aboriginal in Australia” edited by Anita Heiss does what it says on the tin: an anthology by both well-known and high-profile authors and newly discovered writers. Nugi Garimara / Doris Pilkington’s “Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence” is the original book that inspired the film of the same name I was too feeble to watch, and is the story of the author’s mother’s escape from an institution in 1931. And “Another Day in The Colony” by Chelsea Watego is a collection of essays by Watego looking at the ongoing daily racism faced by what she describes as First Nations people in so-called Australia. These look wonderful and powerful and I now need to decide if I am going to save them for Brona from This Reading Life‘s AusReading Month or Lisa from ANZ Litlover‘s Indigenous Lit Week in July!

I do like being a subscriber for Unbound books – you get to help all sorts of more unusual books that can’t – or don’t want to – attract a conventional publisher, you pay a bit of money upfront and in the fullness of time, you get a book that has your name in the back (the books go on to be published and available; I’ve bought quite a few books published by Unbound over the years that I didn’t realise came from them and hadn’t subscribed for). The only problem is that you come in right at the beginning of the publishing process, sometimes even before the author’s finished writing the book, and then suddenly you get an update that it’s on its way and there it is, trying to squeeze onto your already crowded shelves! But this, Lucy Leonelli’s “A Year in the Life”, looks like a good one, as they all are, of course: the author tires of the corporate ladder and decides to spend a year exploring Britain’s many subcultures, finding amusement and eccentricity but also community and care.

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Have you read or subscribed to any of these? How’s your book buying going this year so far?