Barbara Miller Books Newsletter July-August 2023 


Which reading space would you choose?

BOOK OF THE MONTH FEATURE

A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles
By Thomas Sowell (a famous black American economist)

Controversies in politics arise from many sources, but the conflicts that endure for generations or centuries show a remarkably consistent pattern. In this book, which the author calls a “culmination of thirty years of work in the history of ideas,” Sowell attempts to explain the ideological difference between liberals and conservatives as a disagreement over the moral potential inherent in nature.

Those who see that potential as limited prefer to constrain governmental authority, he argues. They feel that reform is difficult and often dangerous, and they put their faith in family, custom, law, and traditional institutions. Conversely, those who have faith in human nature prefer to remove institutional and traditional constraints. Controversies over such diverse issues as criminal justice, income distribution, or war and peace repeatedly show an ideological divide along the lines of these two conflicting visions. Get book HERE

Daughter of the River Country
by Dianne O’Brien & Sue Williams
(Dianne is William Cooper’s great-granddaughter)

A heartbreaking, redemptive memoir of raw power, Daughter of the River Country is the story of an extraordinary journey from a childhood as one of Australia’s Stolen Generation to Aboriginal Elder

Born in rural Australia in the 1940s, baby Dianne is immediately taken from her parents and placed with a white family. Raised in an era of widespread racism, she grows up believing her Irish adoptive mother is her birth mother.

When her adoptive mother tragically dies and she is abandoned by her adoptive father, Dianne is raped, sent to the brutal Parramatta Girls Home and forced to marry her rapist in order to keep her baby. After suffering years of domestic abuse, but refusing to let her spirit be broken, Dianne finally discovers she is a Yorta Yorta woman, a daughter of the river country, and is reunited with her birth mother. She learns that her great-grandfather was a famous Aboriginal activist and from here she becomes a powerful leader in her own right, vowing to help others in any way she can.

Daughter of the River Country explores for the first time the devastation caused to Australia’s Aboriginal Stolen Generation, who were forcibly placed with white families as part of a government assimilation programme.

‘A compelling memoir about the power of love and staying the course.’ LINDA BURNEY, the first Aboriginal Member of Australia’s House of Representatives.
Find it HERE

REQUEST A FREE HANDBOOK ON THE HOLOCAUST AND THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL RESPONSE WRITTEN BY BARBARA MILLER & PUBLISHED BY ELI RABINOWITZ OF THE WE ARE HERE FOUNDATION

This contains educational modules with videos and activities and is suitable for high school students, tertiary education and adult education. It also contains antisemitism education. It is highly suitable for the Australian context using examples from the life of Aboriginal William Cooper and the Australian Aborigines’ League. It is a highly engaging and free resource on a difficult topic and is highly relevant today. Get it HERE

Fun Facts About Books! 

The largest collection consists of 1.5 million books!

According to the Guinness World Records, the largest privately owned collection of books is a massive 1.5 million.

They are owned by John Q. Benham who lives in Indiana in the USA.

He has to keep them in lots of different places because he doesn’t have enough space in his house.

They are in the garage, in his two-storey building and even outside!

If you read 20 minutes a day, you would have read 1.8 million words in a year

All it takes is 20 minutes a day.

If you read for this long every day for a year, then you would have read 1.8 million words.

You will be like a human dictionary!

You can read books in many different ways including e-books & audiobooks!

There used to be a time where we only had books to read.

Lucky for us, we can access them in lots of different ways now.

Whether it’s online, an e-book or even an audiobook there are lots of ways to access your favourite stories.

The person who draws pictures in books is called an illustrator.

Take a look at your books and they will say “Illustrated by…”.

The illustrator is the person who draws all the pictures in the book.

Books don’t always have to have one illustrator, there can be multiple.

If you love art then you might like to work as an illustrator when you are older!

Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press.

We need to thank Johannes Gutenberg for the books we have today.

He invented the printing press, which prints words on to paper.

This was in 1440.

It meant that thousands of books could be produced very quickly!

Send us your favourite facts! Above facts are from:

Sometimes you just want a book that’ll give you a laugh!
Must admit my books are a bit serious but very interesting!

White Australia Has A Black History Book
shattered lives broken dreams

FIND THESE WILLIAM COOPER BOOKS WHCH GO TOGETHER- HERE

FIND THESE MEMOIRS WHCH GO TOGETHER – HERE

Have You Always Dreamed of Being a Published Author? – The Successful Author Kit is for You.

Bestselling author Barbara Miller has produced the following guides to help you on your way to fulfilling your dream. It is called the Successful Author Kit. She knows what it takes to have a successful writing career. You can get the following guides in the kit:

  • Guide to Choosing Your Niche
  • Guide to Finding Your Book Topic and Title
  • Guide to Structuring Your Non-Fiction Book, and as a bonus
  • List of Resources for Authors

If you would like more information, check it out HERE

My books can be found at the Munganbana Reef and Rainforest Aboriginal Art Gallery at 33 Lake St Cairns, at Cairns Books bookshop at Cairns Central Shopping Centre, on Amazon, and on my website – www.barbara-miller-books.com.

Happy reading!!

THE EUROPEAN QUEST TO FIND TERRA AUSTRALIS INCOGNITA: Quiros, Torres and Janszoo

Left – Who were the first Europeans to set foot on Australian soil and where did it happen? Find out in “The European Quest to Find Terra Australis Incognita: Quiros, Torres and Janszoon.”Check it out here.

Right – Available as an audio book – a first-hand account of the Holocaust from a Polish Jewish woman who faced death daily in “If I Survive.” Find out more here.

The Dying Days of Segregation in Australia: Case Study Yarrabahgives a blow-by-blow description of the days of apartheid in Qld and how an Aboriginal community lobbied tirelessly for local government and finally got it in 1984 and their progress to today with land rights and native title. Hear the words of Aboriginal leaders themselves. Find it HERE.

William Cooper Gentle Warrior: Standing Up for Australian Aborigines and Persecuted Jews is the first book by Barbara Miller on William Cooper and tells his amazing story and that of the Australian Aborigines’ League as they work for the uplift of their people and stand up for Jews at Kristallnacht, the start of the Holocaust when Aborigines were not citizens in their own nation. Find it HERE