In the Rockpool (Andrea Rowe, illus Hannah Sommerville, Little Hare)
17 October 2023
Andrea Rowe’s In the Rockpool transports us to a sunny beach where children play on the rock platform. With the sea in the background and the alluring rockpool in the...
Deep in the Forest (Erina Reddan, Pantera)
10 October 2023
The Trenthen family’s revered reputation in Stone Lake crumbles when a damaging bushfire uncovers an item that appears to belong to Charli, a bookbinder and the family’s last surviving member, right...
Ladybirds Do Not Go to Day Care (Ali Rutstein, illus Niña Nill, Bright Light)
10 October 2023
Ladybirds Do Not Go to Daycare is the story of Ravi, a young boy who loves dressing up as his favourite insect—a ladybird. He loves brushing his teeth (or mandibles)...
Secret Sparrow (Jackie French, HarperCollins)
10 October 2023
Jackie French’s latest middle-grade novel, Secret Sparrow, focuses on the unheralded work of women in World War I. This exciting adventure story is told with dual timelines and begins in...
The Wiregrass (Adrian Hyland, Ultimo)
10 October 2023
With wild weather, swollen rivers, falling trees, a disgraced cop, a cult and a dead man, Adrian Hyland’s The Wiregrass is a thrilling mix of wry humour and page-turning crime....
The Locked-Up Country: Learning the lessons from Australia’s Covid-19 response (Tom Chodor & Shahar Hameiri, UQP)
3 October 2023
After reading The Locked-Up Country, you may rethink your position on Australia’s Covid-19 response. It’s not a comfortable read, but important books rarely are. Authors Tom Chodor (senior lecturer in Politics...
The Drowning (Bryan Brown, A&U)
3 October 2023
The accidental drowning death of a local Gumbaynggirr boy—David, from whose viewpoint the book opens—brings a shadow of sadness over a small NSW coastal town. Then a backpacker doesn't turn up...
Silver Linings (Katrina Nannestad, ABC Books)
3 October 2023
Following the multi-award-winning success of Katrina Nannestad’s World War II novels for younger readers, Silver Linings sees her move from the battlefields of Europe to post-war Australia, and a story...
Stuck Up & Stupid (Angourie Rice & Kate Rice, Walker)
3 October 2023
Stuck Up & Stupid is the debut novel from a mother-daughter writing team: actor Angourie Rice and playwright Kate Rice. With a familiar yet fresh narrative, this contemporary YA reimagining of Pride and...
Good Night, Good Beach (Joy Cowley, illus Hilary Jean Tapper, Gecko Press)
26 September 2023
A celebration of summer, holidays and the natural world, award-winning Aotearoa New Zealand author Joy Cowley’s latest picture book, Good Night, Good Beach, follows five children and their adventures across one day as...
Meatsmith (Andrew McConnell & Troy Wheeler, Hardie Grant)
26 September 2023
Acclaimed restauranteur Andrew McConnell (Cutler & Co) and butcher Troy Wheeler opened the specialist butcher Meatsmith with a passion for close relationships with farmers and producers with shared ethical values....
Days of Innocence and Wonder (Lucy Treloar, Picador)
26 September 2023
Lucy Treloar’s third novel centres on a woman named Till, whose life was cleaved in two when her childhood friend E was kidnapped right before her eyes 18 years ago—‘nothing...
A Woman of Courage (Tania Blanchard, HarperCollins)
26 September 2023
Set in the late 1800s in Ebberfield, northern England, Tania Blanchard’s A Woman of Courage is an engrossing historical fiction work about the suffragette movement. Recent teaching graduate Hannah Todd dreams...
Penguin Oh Penguin (Gladys Milroy, illus Helen Milroy, Magabala)
19 September 2023
Penguin Oh Penguin is a mother/daughter collaboration between Palyku women Gladys and Helen Milroy, and a charming picture book for early childhood. Gladys Milroy, author of Silver Leaves, wrote this...
Into Your Arms: Nick Cave’s songs reimagined (ed by Kirsten Krauth, Fremantle)
19 September 2023
Short story anthology Into Your Arms draws on what editor Kirsten Krauth calls the ‘deep, rich and often dark vein’ of Nick Cave’s musical oeuvre. Twenty-one Australian writers (several of...
The In-Between (Christos Tsiolkas, A&U)
19 September 2023
Christos Tsiolkas’s The In-Between begins with Perry, a man past his youth, preparing to go on a date. He’s nervous about meeting Ivan, the stranger he will have dinner with,...
A Brilliant Life (Rachelle Unreich, Hachette)
19 September 2023
A Holocaust story is never an easy read, but A Brilliant Life has such a harrowing prologue that it throws the reader right into the thick of it, so be prepared....
Women & Children (Tony Birch, UQP)
12 September 2023
Tony Birch’s latest novel, Women & Children, is a thoughtful and profound story of a working-class family doing their best to resist a system that’s geared against them. In 1965...
Crow Baby (Helen Milroy, Fremantle)
12 September 2023
Set in a time long ago, when the universe was newly created and things were ‘unpredictable and unique’, a baby is born containing two spirits—one human and one crow. The...
An Unexpected Party (ed by Seth Malacari, Fremantle)
12 September 2023
The queer experience is immensely diverse, too vast and evolving as a space to be summed up by any one representation, but An Unexpected Party—an anthology of queer speculative short stories—aims...
Artichoke to Zucchini (Alice Oehr, Scribble)
5 September 2023
If you’re looking for an A–Z book with a twist, Alice Oehr’s Artichoke to Zucchini: An alphabet of delicious things from around the world is it. From ubiquitous bananas to...
Mrs Winterbottom Takes a Gap Year (Joanna Nell, Hachette)
5 September 2023
‘Books with heart and humour,’ reads the tagline of author Joanna Nell’s website, and her latest book, Mrs Winterbottom Takes a Gap Year, is no exception. After the bestselling The...
World (Martine Murray, illus Anna Read, Parachute Press)
5 September 2023
World is the third collaboration between author Martine Murray and illustrator Anna Read and is another powerful fable. A man leaves the city and comes to the forest with an axe...
Ask Aunty: Seasons (Aunty Munya Andrews, illus Charmaine Ledden-Lewis, HGE)
5 September 2023
Seasons provide a beautiful and poetic lens through which to begin understanding a culture, and the brief cross-section that Ask Aunty invites us to peer into is brimming with knowledge and ways of...
Epic: Adventures across Aotearoa (Ray Salisbury, Exisle)
5 September 2023
Covering 10 iconic journeys around and across Aotearoa New Zealand, Ray Salisbury retells each adventurer’s inspiring and often harrowing trek, working from first-hand accounts in blogs and books to bring...
The Vanishing Point (Andrea Hotere, Ultimo)
29 August 2023
Journalist and researcher Andrea Hotere has put her investigative skills to work in The Vanishing Point: a dual-timeline historical mystery novel concerning Diego Velázquez’s 1656 royal portrait, Las Meninas. In 17th-century...
Everything Under the Moon (ed by Michael Earp, illus Kit Fox, Affirm)
29 August 2023
Everything Under the Moon: Fairy tales in a queerer light is a collection of insightful stories from a variety of authors, including Michael Earp, Alison Evans, Helena Fox, Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner,...
The Things We Live With (Gemma Nisbet, Upswell)
29 August 2023
Gemma Nisbet is a writer and journalist who holds onto things, but this book isn’t about hoarding. It’s not even a self-help antidote to ‘Marie Kondo-ing’ your stuff. In this...
Home to Biloela (Priya Nadesalingam with Rebekah Holt, A&U)
22 August 2023
Raw and poignant, Priya Nadesalingam’s Home to Biloela is a personal account of what became a national campaign to bring one family home. It provides an intimate insight into the well-known story...
Giinagay Gaagal, Hello Ocean (Melissa Greenwood, ABC Books)
22 August 2023
With Giinagay Gaagal, Hello Ocean, Gumbaynggirr artist Melissa Greenwood, from the NSW region known as Coffs Harbour, once again gifts us with a beautiful ode to family and the land....