The Name of the Sister (Gail Jones, Text)
Tuesday, 8 April 2025
The latest novel from award-winning author Gail Jones, The Name of the Sister, is a literary whodunnit set in a small mining town. The book begins with a woman stumbling onto...
Lucky’s Star: The Story of a Meteorite (Mark Greenwood, illus by Lucia Masciullo, CSIRO Publishing)
Tuesday, 8 April 2025
Children are naturally fascinated by the night sky, and Lucky’s Star will surely delight primary-aged students with its clever combination of storytelling and facts. Based on the real-life 1969 Murchison...
King of Dirt (Holden Sheppard, Pantera)
Tuesday, 8 April 2025
Holden Sheppard hits again with the blunt edge of Australian queerness in his latest novel, King of Dirt. Continuing his work in the gay coming-of-age genre (Sheppard’s 2019 debut Invisible...
Bombard the Headquarters! The Cultural Revolution in China (Linda Jaivin, Black Inc)
Tuesday, 8 April 2025
Chairman Mao’s decade of terror is the subject of Bombard the Headquarters!, Australian sinologist Linda Jaivin’s excellent primer on China’s Cultural Revolution. In 1966, Peking University’s Nie Yuanzi created a...
Stinkbug (Sinéad Stubbins, Affirm)
Tuesday, 8 April 2025
Sinéad Stubbins’ debut fiction novel, Stinkbug, is a sharp, darkly funny reflection on the corporate ‘normal’ and the compromises we make to survive in a hostile environment. It meditates on...
Bestsellers: Sun still rises on Suzanne Collins, plus conversations, crime
Friday, 4 April 2025
Top 10 bestsellers Sunrise on the Reaping (Suzanne Collins, Scholastic) The Let Them Theory (Mel Robbins & Sawyer Robbins, Hay House) The Next Conversation (Jefferson Fisher, Penguin) Nobody’s Fool (Harlan...
Books in the media this weekend, 5–6 April
Friday, 4 April 2025
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. National The Saturday Paper Melanesia (Hamish McDonald, Black Inc.) Memorial Days (Geraldine Brooks, Hachette) The...
R.I.P. Nanny Tobbins (Lucie Stevens, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 1 April 2025
R.I.P. Nanny Tobbins by Lucie Stevens is a deliciously macabre and unexpectedly funny debut fantasy for advanced middle-grade readers, blending tension, mystery and moments of humour with remarkable skill. Albertine...
When Nothing Feels Real (Nathan Dunne, Murdoch)
Tuesday, 1 April 2025
When Nothing Feels Real is a raw and immersive first-person account of journalist Nathan Dunne’s experience of depersonalisation. It begins with a moment – a dive into cold water –...
Ever Blessed (Olivia O’Flynn, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 1 April 2025
Ever Blessed by Olivia O’Flynn is a confident debut in the romantasy genre, featuring a recalcitrant heroine, a taciturn hero, and potentially world-ending stakes. Captain Elva, a warrior princess of...
A Farm by the Sea (Jillian Packer, Berbay)
Tuesday, 1 April 2025
Fans of Alison Lester, Freya Blackwood and Trace Balla will be captivated by A Farm by the Sea by debut author and illustrator Jillian Packer. This new picture book invites young readers...
Rytual (Chloe Elisabeth Wilson, Penguin)
Tuesday, 1 April 2025
In her unsettling and sharply constructed debut, Rytual, Chloe Elisabeth Wilson dissects the seductive promise of transformation through beauty, rituals and belief systems. Marnie Sellick once dreamed of writing screenplays....
Sun rises on new number one as Suzanne Collins tops charts
Friday, 28 March 2025
Top 10 bestsellers Sunrise on the Reaping (Suzanne Collins, Scholastic) The Let Them Theory (Mel Robbins & Sawyer Robbins, Hay House) Cozy Corner (Coco Wyo, Penguin) Onyx Storm (Rebecca Yarros,...
Books in the media this weekend, 29–30 March
Friday, 28 March 2025
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. This week's round-up will be updated as information becomes available. National The Saturday Paper The...
Our Dance (Jacinta Daniher & Taylor Hampton, illus by Janelle Burger, Lothian)
Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Our Dance by Jacinta Daniher and proud Ngiyampaa/Wiradjuri man Taylor Hampton celebrates Australian First Nations culture through the joy of movement as children dance and sing in the corroboree. The...
My Supercharged ADHD Brain (Dani Vee & James Layton, illus Ruth-Mary Smith, Larrikin)
Tuesday, 25 March 2025
My Supercharged ADHD Brain is a brightly coloured picture book that candidly explores some of the positive aspects of having ADHD, celebrating differences and encouraging a better understanding of neurodivergence....
The Book of Guilt (Catherine Chidgey, Penguin)
Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Welcome to an alternative version of the UK in the 1970s. In Catherine Chidgey’s The Book of Guilt, Hitler is assassinated in 1943. After a purge of senior Nazis and...
The Letter Writer (Binny Talib, Windy Hollow)
Tuesday, 25 March 2025
The Letter Writer by author and illustrator Binny Talib (Sloths Love Parties) opens with stunning endpapers – a delightful collage of envelopes adorned with scribbles and doodles that immediately draws...
Find Me at the Jaffa Gate: An Encyclopaedia of a Palestinian Family (Micaela Sahhar, NewSouth)
Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Several generations into the Palestinian diaspora in Australia, Micaela Sahhar explores the complexities of being disconnected from her ancestral land in Find Me at the Jaffa Gate: An Encyclopaedia of...
The Edge of Everything (Miranda Luby, Text)
Tuesday, 25 March 2025
In The Edge of Everything, Miranda Luby (Sadie Starr’s Guide to Starting Over) tells a poignant story of a teenager recovering from tragedy. It’s been eleven months since Lucy’s older...
The Haunting of Hindmarsh Hall (Kate Gordon, Riveted Press)
Tuesday, 25 March 2025
The Haunting of Hindmarsh Hall is the first book in The Secret Detectives Club middle-grade series by Kate Gordon (Xavier in the Meantime). Set in the quiet town of Table...
I Want Everything (Dominic Amerena, S&S)
Tuesday, 25 March 2025
An unnamed aspiring writer leaves a Melbourne hospital and, seeking distraction, swims laps at his local pool. There, he recognises an elderly woman as Brenda Shales, one of Australia’s best...
Lonely Mouth (Jacqueline Maley, Fourth Estate)
Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Jacqueline Maley (The Truth About Her) returns with Lonely Mouth, a powerful exploration of family, trauma and identity. Half-sisters Matilda and Lara share a mother but have different fathers. Abandoned...
No surprises, just reshuffling in this week’s top sellers
Friday, 21 March 2025
Top 10 bestsellers The Let Them Theory (Mel Robbins & Sawyer Robbins, Hay House) Wild Side (Elsie Silver, Piatkus) Onyx Storm (Rebecca Yarros, Piatkus) RecipeTin Eats: Tonight (Nagi Maehashi, Macmillan)...
Books in the media this weekend, 22–23 March
Friday, 21 March 2025
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. National The Saturday Paper Elegy, Southwest (Madeleine Watts, Ultimo) Show Don't Tell (Curtis Sittenfeld, Doubleday)...
Too Many Dogs (Maura Finn, illus Lucinda Gifford, Affirm)
Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Too Many Dogs is a charming and light-hearted picture book from the creative pairing behind Too Many Cats that explores what it means to be top dog. In their new collaboration,...
Nightingale (Laura Elvery, UQP)
Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Grounded in history and buoyed by Laura Elvery’s elegant, moving prose, Nightingale is a fictional reimagining of the near-mythic figure of Florence Nightingale, told in three parts. The first and...
Viet Kieu: Recipes Remembered from Vietnam (Thi Le, Murdoch)
Tuesday, 18 March 2025
‘Viet Kieu’ is a Vietnamese term used for people of Vietnamese heritage who were raised and are living in the diaspora. In Viet Kieu: Recipes remembered from Vietnam, Thi Le,...
Diggers, Dozers, and Dumpers (Ole Könnecke, Gecko)
Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Picture books about machinery are always a hit, but they don’t always deliver an engaging narrative – this one does, seamlessly blending fiction with nonfiction. Diggers, Dozers, and Dumpers, written...
The Bearcat (Georgia Rose Phillips, Picador)
Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Based on true events, The Bearcat is an ambitious, mesmeric and deeply affecting debut novel that imagines the inner life of Anne Hamilton-Byrne, a rare female cult leader who founded...
