Readers of Encounters—Australia and New Zealand's non-fiction series from Reader's Digest—will be delighted, and probably not very surprised, to know that two Encounters authors wrote books that are top picks on the National Year of Reading's list for 2012! Eight novels and memoirs were chosen as best representing the Australian experience. The two books that we published with pride some time ago, in Encounters, are Listening to Country by Ros Moriarty, and Well Done, Those Men by Barry Heard. Well done, those authors, for creating such clear mirrors in which Australians may learn about themselves.

Barry's memoir takes the reader into one of the most shattering conflicts in recent history: the Vietnam War. Most tellingly of all, his emotional account opens up the aftermath of that war. Barry didn’t consider he’d had a worse time in Vietnam than any other patriotic veteran. But years after the war was over, it just about destroyed his life. Well Done, Those Men, is the inspiring story of his recovery. After his book was published in Encounters he received over fifty letters from readers.

To read an extract, cli ck here.

Ros Moriarty is not Aboriginal, but in August 1982, she married John, a member of the Yanyuwa people of the Gulf of Carpentaria. On their honeymoon they returned to John’s home country, Borroloola. Hers is an intimate, moving journey into the land and culture of Aboriginal Australia.

To read an extract, click here.