Summer of Shipwrecks (Shivaun Plozza, UQP)
Tuesday, 2 July 2024
Award-winning children’s author Shivaun Plozza’s Summer of Shipwrecks is a vividly real, heartfelt middle-grade novel that explores the capriciousness of tween friendship. Sidney has been waiting all year for her...
Anomaly (Emma Lord, Affirm)
Tuesday, 2 July 2024
Anomaly, the debut YA novel by Emma Lord, is fast-paced, compelling and confidently plotted. In 2020, Piper Manning awakens 52 days after a virus has wiped out her town—and perhaps...
Protecting Indigenous Art (Colin Golvan, MUP)
Tuesday, 2 July 2024
Scepticism is probably reasonable, at first, reading a book about Indigenous art written by a non-Indigenous person. Colin Golvan, however, has earned his bona fides by working as a barrister...
Jasper Cliff (Josh Kemp, Fremantle)
Tuesday, 2 July 2024
Western Australian author Josh Kemp’s debut novel, Banjawarn, won several prestigious awards, including the Dorothy Hewett Award, a Ned Kelly Award, and a Western Australian Premier’s Prize. For his second...
The Best Present Ever (Zoë Foster Blake, illus Lucinda Gifford, Puffin)
Tuesday, 2 July 2024
The most delightful stories can often stem from the simplest of ideas, as seen in The Best Present Ever, a playful celebration of creativity, imagination and the joy of giving....
In the Margins (Gail Holmes, Ultimo)
Tuesday, 2 July 2024
Inspired by the life of Frances Wolfreston, a book collector who preserved the earliest part of Shakespeare’s legacy, Gail Holmes’s elegant debut speaks about the injustices and lack of freedom...
Maehashi back at number one
Friday, 28 June 2024
Top 10 bestsellers RecipeTin Eats: Dinner (Nagi Maehashi, Macmillan) The Housemaid Is Watching (Freida McFadden, Poisoned Pen Press) Not in Love (Ali Hazelwood, Sphere) The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King...
Books in the media this weekend, 29–30 June
Friday, 28 June 2024
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. National The Saturday Paper Everything Is Water (Simon Cleary, UQP) Song in the Grass (Kate Fagan,...
Translations (Jumaana Abdu, Vintage)
Tuesday, 25 June 2024
Translations is a powerful, character-driven debut novel by Jumaana Abdu. It follows young mother Aliyah and her daughter, Sakina, who leave Sydney for a property in the Northern Rivers region...
Dragonfire: 18,000 Holes in the Universe (Adam Wallace & Lisa Foley, illus James Hart, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 25 June 2024
Tee off into the surreal world of Dragonfire: 18,000 Holes in the Universe, the first book in a new graphic novel series by Adam Wallace and Lisa Foley, with imaginative...
Chae: Korean slow food for a better life (Jung Eun Chae, Hardie Grant)
Tuesday, 25 June 2024
Originally from Seoul, South Korea, chef Jung Eun Chae worked in the renowned Melbourne restaurant Cutler & Co before opening her cosy six-seater restaurant, Chae, in her Brunswick apartment. Her...
Girl Falling (Hayley Scrivenor, Macmillan)
Tuesday, 25 June 2024
Girl Falling is the second novel by award-winning crime writer Hayley Scrivenor. Three women—Daphne, Magdu and Finn—head out for a day of rock climbing in the Blue Mountains, but only...
The Girl with No Reflection (Keshe Chow, Penguin)
Tuesday, 25 June 2024
The Girl with No Reflection by Keshe Chow is a debut YA historical fantasy novel set in Imperial China, drawing on Chinese mythology. The story begins with Ying, a young...
Bird (Courtney Collins, Hachette)
Tuesday, 25 June 2024
Following the success of her first novel, The Burial, Courtney Collins’s new dual-narrative novel, Bird, centres on the titular 14-year-old girl. The story is told in alternating chapters differentiated by...
Tiny: A memoir about love, letting go and a very small house (Louise Southerden, Hardie Grant Explore)
Tuesday, 25 June 2024
Award-winning travel writer Louise Southerden’s first memoir, Tiny, tackles some big topics. Ostensibly an account of her experience of building a tiny house with her partner, Max, Tiny is so...
Dung Beetle on a Roll (Sandra Severgnini, CSIRO Publishing)
Tuesday, 25 June 2024
Dung Beetle on a Roll by Sandra Severgnini (Meet Mim, Grub) follows an ambitious dung beetle who is working on his best dung ball yet. But what exactly is a...
Between Husbands and Wives (Susannah Glenn, Pantera)
Tuesday, 25 June 2024
Jennifer’s life is changed after her vehicle crashes into a car carrying a woman in labour, killing the mother and her unborn child. Escaping jail time but wracked with guilt...
Books in the media this weekend, 22–23 June
Friday, 21 June 2024
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. National The Saturday Paper Heartsease (Kate Kruimink, Picador) Parade (Rachel Cusk, Faber) Sing Like Fish (Amorina Kingdon, Scribe)...
‘The Housemaid Is Watching’ debuts at number one
Friday, 21 June 2024
Top 10 bestsellers The Housemaid Is Watching (Freida McFadden, Poisoned Pen Press) The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King (Carissa Broadbent, Tor) Not in Love (Ali Hazelwood, Sphere) RecipeTin Eats: Dinner...
Dirrayawadha (Anita Heiss, S&S)
Tuesday, 18 June 2024
Dirrayawadha is a work of searing historical fiction set during the Wiradyuri wars in 1820s Bathurst and centring on a love story between a young Wiradyuri woman and an Irish...
Liars (James O’Loghlin, Echo)
Tuesday, 18 June 2024
In James O’Loghlin’s murder mystery Liars, every character has secrets to hide. The novel is set in the fictitious Bullford Point, a coastal town on NSW’s Northern Beaches, untouched by...
Captured: How neoliberalism transformed the Australian state (ed by Philip Toner & Michael Rafferty, SUP)
Tuesday, 18 June 2024
Privatisation, deregulation and fiscal restraint are some of the major hallmarks of neoliberalism. Each is an intervention taken by governments in economics and public policy to privilege free markets and...
Stickboy (Rebecca Young, illus Matt Ottley, Scholastic)
Tuesday, 18 June 2024
From the multi-award-winning creators of Teacup comes a lyrical new picture book about a young boy’s hope and determination in the face of adversity. In a dry and barren land...
How to Break a World Record and Survive Grade Five (Carla Fitzgerald, UQP)
Tuesday, 18 June 2024
How to Break a World Record and Survive Grade Five is the new novel from Carla Fitzgerald, author of the popular middle-grade title How to Be Prime Minister and Survive...
Voyagers: Our journey into the Anthropocene (Lauren Fuge, Text)
Tuesday, 18 June 2024
The Anthropocene—the geological period dominated by humanity’s activity on the planet—is increasingly seen by scientists and academics as an era of devastation wrought by overconsumption and insatiable industrialisation. In Voyagers,...
Bernie Thinks in Boxes (Jess Horn, illus Zoe Bennett, Affirm)
Tuesday, 18 June 2024
This charming story by debut author Jess Horn features a child, Bernie, who likes to classify her world into different categories (portrayed as boxes) in her head. When Bernie is...
Books in the media this weekend, 15–16 June
Friday, 14 June 2024
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 ABC Radio National The...
Combined print and ebook bestsellers for first quarter 2024
Friday, 14 June 2024
Top 10 print House of Flame and Shadow (Sarah J Maas) Fourth Wing (Rebecca Yarros) Iron Flame (Rebecca Yarros) RecipeTin Eats: Dinner (Nagi Maehashi) Lola in the Mirror (Trent Dalton)...
‘Eruption’ is the week’s highest new entry
Friday, 14 June 2024
Top 10 bestsellers The Serpent and the Beast (The Bad Guys #19) (Aaron Blabey, Scholastic) RecipeTin Eats: Dinner (Nagi Maehashi, Macmillan) Think Twice (Harlan Coben, Century) When the Moon Hatched...
Love Unleashed (Melanie Saward, Michael Joseph)
Tuesday, 11 June 2024
Melanie Saward’s Love Unleashed is a bingeable, warm and soulful romantic comedy. Saward (whose debut novel, Burn, was released in 2023) draws on her own experience in New York to...
