WBN advance reviews | Books+Publishing

The Food of Bharat: A Chef’s Journey Through India’s Rich Culinary History (Helly Raichura, Hardie Grant Books)

Tuesday, 4 February 2025
Self-taught chef Helly Raichura started her career in 2018, hosting a supper club called Enter Via Laundry out of her Melbourne home, and she quickly gained national popularity. Raichura set...

The Colours of Home (Sally Soweol Han, T&H)

Tuesday, 4 February 2025
As the title The Colours of Home suggests, colour plays a central role in this beautiful picture book by Korean-Australian artist Sally Soweol Han (Nightsong, Tiny Wonders). The story follows...

First Name Second Name (Steve MinOn, UQP)

Tuesday, 28 January 2025
In Steve MinOn’s debut novel, First Name Second Name, the story spans four generations of the Chinese Australian Bolin family, whose roots in Australia date back to the late 19th...

The Buried Life (Andrea Goldsmith, Transit Lounge)

Tuesday, 28 January 2025
In The Buried Life, Andrea Goldsmith – renowned for her sharp insights into contemporary life and relationships – once again delves into the complexities of human connection. Known for The...

Washpool (Lisa Fuller, Lothian)

Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Lisa Fuller’s Washpool is a fun, heartwarming and insightful exploration of family and kinship that takes the portal fantasy genre to a new level. When Murri sisters Bella and Cienna...

Misfit: The Unravelling of Samantha X (Amanda Goff, Echo)

Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Amanda Goff was a successful journalist in London and Sydney before leaving her corporate career at 38 to become Samantha X, an escort. She later founded her own escort agency...

Melanesia: Travels in Black Oceania (Hamish McDonald, Black Inc)

Tuesday, 28 January 2025
As a foreign correspondent, Australian journalist Hamish McDonald (Demokrasi) frequently flew in and out of Melanesian hotspots during his career. Fascinated by the region’s complexity, he traversed it slowly by...

The Thrill of It (Mandy Beaumont, Hachette)

Tuesday, 28 January 2025
The Thrill of It is the latest crime novel by Mandy Beaumont, author of the Stella Prize–longlisted The Furies. The story follows Emmerson Kerr, whose grandmother was brutally murdered in...

SoXiety (Tamlyn Teow, Riveted Press)

Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Tamlyn Teow’s SoXiety offers a thought-provoking, immersive experience that mirrors the anxiety of today’s world. Teow’s graphic novel, the first in a new collection called The Book of Kin, is...

Love Unedited (Caro Llewellyn, Picador)

Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Reading Caro Llewellyn’s debut novel, Love Unedited, is like reading someone’s diary entries on life and love, which is fitting for this story within a story. Set predominantly in New York...

Soaring with the Sugarbird Lady (Dianne Wolfer, Fremantle)

Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Soaring with the Sugarbird Lady is based on the true story of Robin Miller, who single-handedly flew life-saving vaccines to remote Western Australia in the late 1960s. This new middle-grade novel...

Ariana Treasure: The Missing Book (Jacqueline de Rose-Ahern, illus Karen Erasmus, Wombat)

Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Ariana Treasure: The Missing Book is the first in a new series for beginner readers by Jacqueline de Rose-Ahern. Ariana’s family own the Treasure Chest, a local thrift shop filled...

How Australian Democracy Works: And Why We Need It More Than Ever (ed by Amanda Dunn, T&H)

Tuesday, 21 January 2025
At a time when democracy seems under threat globally, Australia’s democratic system is often seen as one of the best. Compulsory voting, democracy sausages and electoral boundaries set by a...

Sunny at the End of the World (Steph Bowe, Text)

Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Steph Bowe’s Sunny at the End of the World, published posthumously, provides clear evidence of Bowe’s creative skills levelling up. The book is set across dual timelines in 2018 and...

The First Sunrise (Vanessa Stevens, illus Paul Seden, Magabala)

Tuesday, 21 January 2025
The First Sunrise is the first Mbabaram creation story to be published and was passed down to Mbabaram, Yidinji, Kaanju and Taribelang Bunda woman Vanessa Stevens from her father, Colin...

Geraldine (Andrea Thompson, Fremantle)

Tuesday, 21 January 2025
In this heartwarming debut novel, spanning the 1960s to the early 2000s, music journalist and artist manager Andrea Thompson tells the story of Geraldine, a fierce protagonist who remains true...

The Last Seed Keeper (Paul Russell, EK Books)

Tuesday, 21 January 2025
In The Last Seed Keeper, the first in Paul Russell’s cli-fi (climate fiction) trilogy of the same name, not a narrative minute is wasted. Tense action, complex speculative cautionary concepts,...

Best, First and Last (Amy Matthews, S&S)

Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Best, First and Last is a fun romance novel that has everything you could ask for: an unexpected, all-expenses-paid holiday, a charming stranger, a nosy family with no concept of...

Signs of Damage (Diana Reid, Ultimo)

Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Diana Reid’s third book is an engrossing, meticulously crafted drama that explores memory, trauma, repression and self-preservation, examining how these themes intersect, overlap, are misinterpreted or deliberately distorted to devastating...