Two Can Play That Game (Leanne Yong, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 22 November 2022
Leanne Yong’s debut Two Can Play That Game is a joyful and fun addition to the growing Asian-Australian Own Voices YA movement, joining the likes of Tiger Daughter and The...
A Man of Honour (Simon Smith, Echo)
Tuesday, 22 November 2022
When debut novelist Simon Smith was a child he was told, ‘Someone in our family shot a prince.’ That man was Henry James O’Farrell, whose failed attempt in 1868 to...
Books in the media this weekend, 19–20 November
Friday, 18 November 2022
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. National The Saturday Paper Liberation Day (George Saunders, Bloomsbury) Salonika Burning (Gail Jones, Text) The...
Smashing Serendipity (Louise K Hansen, Fremantle Press)
Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Proud Binjareb Nyoongar woman Louise K Hansen unfortunately passed away before her profound memoir, Smashing Serendipity: The story of one Moordtj Yorga, was published. But the strong stories from her...
The Death of John Lacey (Ben Hobson, A&U)
Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Ben Hobson’s third novel tells the fragmented story of the life and demise of John Lacey, a ruthless, violent settler of a Victorian gold rush town. John and his brother...
Maggie (Catherine Johns, Hachette)
Tuesday, 15 November 2022
In Catherine Johns’s debut novel, a 17-year-old Catholic school girl’s life is derailed when she becomes enamoured of her priest. It’s 1967 and Maggie is a straight-A student whose education...
Tumbleglass (Kate Constable, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Rowan is helping her big sister Ash with painting her room when suddenly they find themselves in 1999, at a party in the very same house. While Ash wants to...
This Time it’s Real (Ann Liang, Penguin)
Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Ann Liang’s This Time it’s Real is a vibrant young adult romantic comedy with its heart in the right place. When 17-year-old Eliza Lin’s school essay about her fabricated love...
Taking to the Field (Jane Carey, Monash University Publishing)
Tuesday, 15 November 2022
The most surprising thing to be found in a book about the history of women in science—for the author, as well as the reader—is the fact that the field has...
Books in the media this weekend, 12–13 November
Friday, 11 November 2022
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. National The Saturday Paper Dandelions (Thea Lenarduzzi, Fitzcarraldo) The Successor: The high stakes life of...
Little Plum (Laura McPhee-Browne, Text)
Tuesday, 8 November 2022
Little Plum is the second novel by the award-winning author of Cherry Beach, Laura McPhee-Browne. The story unfolds around 29-year-old Coral, who decides to follow through with a pregnancy from...
You Talk, We Die (Judy Ryan, Scribe)
Tuesday, 8 November 2022
Safe injecting rooms have been a polarising issue in Victoria for decades. Years of debate, government inquiries, coroner’s reports, media conjecture and scare campaigns have plagued any productive conversation. But...
Brain is (Not) Always Right (Scott Stuart, Scholastic)
Tuesday, 8 November 2022
Scott Stuart may have come to creating books for children in an unconventional way, but the social media storm surrounding his support for his child to be everything they could...
Cloud Land (Penny van Oosterzee, A&U)
Tuesday, 8 November 2022
In the gripping and extensively researched Cloud Land, Penny van Oosterzee imagines what a small region of Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands has witnessed over both geological time and since white settlement....
Books in the media this weekend, 5–6 November
Friday, 4 November 2022
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. National The Saturday Paper A Guest at the Feast (Colm Tóibín, Picador) Men I Trust...
The Exclusion Zone (Shastra Deo, UQP)
Wednesday, 2 November 2022
‘You are searching for something,’ begins The Exclusion Zone. It's a provocation that forms the manifesto for the enthralling and ingenious second poetry collection from Shastra Deo following her ALS...
How to Kill a Client (Joanna Jenkins, A&U)
Tuesday, 1 November 2022
Gavin Jones is the slimiest, most unpleasant client at big law firm Howard Greene—and that’s with some stiff competition. When this misogynistic, manipulative man dies suddenly it’s not so much...
The Cockatoo Wars (Helen Milroy, Magabala)
Tuesday, 1 November 2022
The Cockatoo Wars is the latest picture book in Helen Milroy’s vibrant Tales from the Bush Mob series. Featuring a cast of Australian animals including Dingo, Willy Wagtail, Platypus and Wombat, and drawing...
Timeless (Kelly Canby, Fremantle Press)
Tuesday, 1 November 2022
A topical theme in these social media-obsessed days, Timeless tells the tale of Emit, a young boy whose parents are always too preoccupied to pay attention to him. Tired of...
Books in the media this weekend, 29–30 October
Friday, 28 October 2022
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. National The Saturday Paper Iris (Fiona Kelly McGregor, Picador) Lucy by the Sea (Elizabeth Strout,...
Who Cares? Life on welfare in Australia (Eve Vincent, MUP)
Tuesday, 25 October 2022
What is it like to live on welfare in Australia today? In Who Cares? researcher Eve Vincent endeavours to answer this question, with a special focus on the experiences of...
Compulsion (Kate Scott, Hamish Hamilton)
Tuesday, 25 October 2022
Lucy is a music journalist with a penchant for 80s party dresses, long, languorous walks, and throwing decadent dinner parties for her friends. Robin is the dark-eyed, softly spoken man...
A Man and His Pride (Luke Rutledge, Michael Joseph)
Tuesday, 25 October 2022
In Luke Rutledge’s A Man and His Pride, 26-year-old Sean Preston navigates the realities of being in his 20s—work, relationships, sexuality, mental health—against the backdrop of Australia’s 2017 same-sex marriage...
Books in the media this weekend, 22–23 October
Friday, 21 October 2022
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. National The Saturday Paper Moon Sugar (Angela Meyer, Transit Lounge) The Passenger (Cormac McCarthy, Picador) ...
Headland (John Byrnes, A&U)
Wednesday, 19 October 2022
It’s a well-worn storyline for Australian crime fiction: a detective arrives in a small town only to discover that danger lurks beneath quaint country manners; the detective is usually running...
The Last Love Note (Emma Grey, Michael Joseph)
Wednesday, 19 October 2022
Recently widowed, Kate Whittaker is trying her hardest to navigate the grief of losing her husband, Cam, while also being a single mother to their young son. That’s not to...
The Matchmaker (Saman Shad, Viking)
Wednesday, 19 October 2022
Playing cupid for the Sydney Pakistani community is Saima Khan in The Matchmaker. Pairing lovers is second nature for Saima until the handsome, young white-collar Kal (Khalid) Ali unwittingly saunters...
Books in the media this weekend, 15–16 October
Friday, 14 October 2022
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. National The Saturday Paper Hard Labour: Wage theft in the age of inequality (Ben Schneiders,...
Why Does it Still Hurt? (Paul Biegler, Scribe)
Tuesday, 11 October 2022
The way we understand pain evolves, and it is misunderstood even within the medical community. Part physical, part psychological, it is notoriously difficult to study. In Why Does it Still...
Seven Sisters (Katherine Kovacic, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 11 October 2022
Katherine Kovacic’s latest novel is an intense, page-turning psychological thriller that explores the depravity of domestic violence, the failings of the justice system and the lengths families will go in...
