Ravensbourne (Amy Coomer, Bakers Lane Books)
Young adult
Released October 2026, reviewed by Erin Wamala.
Amy Coomer’s Ravensbourne opens with the apparent promise of a murder mystery, but beneath its compelling premise is a story...
The Sky Is Concave (Majeda Awawdeh, University of Queensland Press)
Nonfiction
Released October 2026, reviewed by Eman Mourad.
Majeda Awawdeh’s The Sky Is Concave is one of those books best devoured in a single sitting. Its unflinching honesty...
The Cruise (Naïma Brown, Allen & Unwin)
Fiction
Released October 2026, reviewed by Emma Nield.
Naïma Brown (The Shot, Mother Tongue) serves up sweet revenge in The Cruise, proving it’s best dished out on a...
Sauces: Japanese Eats and Beats (Takako Tamura, Melbourne Books)
Nonfiction
Released October 2026, reviewed by Jess Lomas.
In Sauces: Japanese Eats and Beats, Japanese-Australian chef and Melbourne restaurateur Takako Tamura puts sauces at the centre of everyday...
People Skills (Nina Kenwood, Text Publishing)
Fiction
Released October 2026, reviewed by Andrea Kress.
Nina Kenwood’s People Skills is a romantic comedy about second chances, rebuilding confidence and discovering that sometimes life’s biggest setbacks...
Tell Me Something True (Michael Robotham, Hachette)
Fiction
Released October 2026, reviewed by Michelle Thomson.
In Tell Me Something True, Michael Robotham (The Suspect, The White Crow) trades procedural suspense for a coming-of-age family epic, crafting...
Meena’s Moving Day (Brenton Cullen, illustrated by Jennifer Horn, Wombat Books)
Children’s picture book
Released October 2026, reviewed by Thuy On.
Sibling love and rivalry are at the heart of Brenton Cullen and Jennifer Horn’s Meena’s Moving Day. Meena and Lina...
Something He Did (SK Lynch, Ultimo Press)
Fiction
Released October 2026, reviewed by Tara Lee.
Thriller buffs will devour SK Lynch’s assured crime-fiction debut, Something He Did, a tightly plotted novel exploring how a single...
The Starving Bride (Catherine Chidgey, Penguin)
Fiction
Released October 2026, reviewed by Abe Theobald.
Catherine Chidgey’s latest novel, The Starving Bride, imagines a dystopian near-future England where extreme dieting becomes the stuff of literal...
50 Ways to Die in the Ocean (Eileen O’Hely, illustrated by Nico O’Sullivan, Hawkeye Publishing)
Graphic novel
Released October 2026, reviewed by Tony Doyle.
Eileen O’Hely and Nico O’Sullivan’s graphic novel 50 Ways to Die in the Ocean is a saltwater standalone sequel to...
The Unpronounceables (Balli Kaur Jaswal, Allen & Unwin Children’s)
Young adult
Released October 2026, reviewed by Joy Lawn.
Navkiranjhot (Navy) Ahloowalia, the protagonist of Balli Kaur Jaswal’s debut YA novel, The Unpronounceables, has Punjabi–Sikh heritage. She and her...
The Country Schoolmaster: A Mystery in 88 Letters (Kate Grenville, Black Inc.)
Nonfiction
Released October 2026, reviewed by Alex Durac.
Kate Grenville (The Secret River, Unsettled) returns to familiar ground in The Country Schoolmaster: A Mystery in 88 Letters, a...
The Lonely Generation: Why Our Kids Are in Crisis – and How We Can Fix It (Michelle Lim, Pantera Press)
Nonfiction
Released October 2026, reviewed by Megan Cheong.
The belief that loneliness primarily affects older people is one of the first myths associate professor Michelle Lim dispels in...
Armchair Bear (Gavin Bishop, Gecko Press)
Children’s picture book
Released October 2026, reviewed by Thuy On.
In Gavin Bishop’s Armchair Bear, Uncle Norman is happily settled in his comfy armchair, about to watch TV, when he...
Ordinary Funny Tragic (Bridie Jabour, HarperCollins)
Fiction
Released September 2026, reviewed by Joanne Shiells.
For readers who like rollicking rom-coms packed with quirky characters and family dynamics, Ordinary Funny Tragic delivers. In her second...
The Burn (Jessica Mansour-Nahra, Hachette)
Fiction
Released September 2026, reviewed by Jess Lomas.
How well do we ever really know the people closest to us? Jessica Mansour-Nahra poses this unsettling question in The...
Protector of Beyond 1 (Shara Curlett, Penguin)
Younger readers
Released September 2026, reviewed by Ananya Thirumalai.
Shara Curlett’s Protector of Beyond, the first instalment in a new middle-grade fantasy series, follows Elder, who leaves the walled...
Between Reading and Screens: Navigating Changes in Children’s Digital Lives (Sybil Nolan, Wonsun Shin, Katherine Day & Xin Pei, Melbourne University Press)
Nonfiction
Released September 2026, reviewed by Jess Lomas.
Parents, teachers, librarians and booksellers are all grappling with the same question: how do we encourage children to read in...
Our Dark Unravelling (Margot McGovern, Penguin)
Young adult
Released September 2026, reviewed by Anneliese Gates.
Our Dark Unravelling by Margot McGovern (This Stays Between Us, Neverland) is the story of two girls who don’t know...
Crimson in Quietus (Eugen Bacon, Meerkat Press)
Fiction
Released September 2026, reviewed by Stefen Brazulaitis.
Eugen Bacon’s Crimson in Quietus is a standalone science fiction novel set within the Sauútiverse, a shared fictional setting created...
