Open a Book and Soar Into the Blue Beyond

“Australia’s like an open door with the blue beyond,” wrote D.H. Lawrence. “You just walk out of the world and into Australia.”

And what better way to show you that world than great books?

* “Patrick White: A Life,” by David Marr. Letters, interviews and narrative, of White, the complicated novelist who in 1973 became the only Australian to win the Nobel Prize in literature.

* “The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature,” edited by William H. Wilde. Features important achievements in literature and the impact of key historical events on Australian authors from 1788 to the 1990s.

* “Australian Literature: An Anthology of Writing from the Land Down Under,” edited by Phyllis Fahrie Edelson. Short stories, memoirs, novels and Aboriginal writings. Explore themes deeply important in the Australian experience, including the land, the legacies of the convict past, the displacement of the Aborigine, and the search for a national identity.

* “Lonely Planet Australia,” 10th edition, by Denis O’Byrne, Jon Murray and Paul Harding. A classic guide to Australia that includes wildlife-spotting in Kakadu in the Northern Territory. Features maps and information on from pubs to opera, and a glossary of Australian slang.

* “Aboriginal Art of Australia: Exploring Cultural Traditions (Art Around the World),” by Carol Finley. Features art from three regions: Arnhem Land (in the Northern Territory), the Kimberley (in Western Australia), and the desert.

* “Australia: True Stories of Life Down Under (Travelers’ Tales),” edited by Larry Habegger and Amy G. Carlson. Go along for an adventure to well-known places like Bondi Beach and Uluru (Ayers Rock).

* “Australian Animals,” by Caroline Arnold. Highlights Australia’s variety of wildlife, including Tasmanian devils, koalas, kangaroos, wombats and fairy penguins, which live along the coast.