Joy Moody Is Out of Time (Kerryn Mayne, Bantam)
30 January 2024
For two decades, Cassiopeia (Cassie) and Andromeda (Andie) Moody have understood their destiny. They are special, chosen and kept safe, spending most of their lives within the confines of their Melbourne home,...
Kin: Family in the 21st century (Marina Kamenev, NewSouth)
30 January 2024
While women’s rights over their bodies continue to be depleted in the United States, Kin: Family in the 21st century presents the history of a related struggle: the right to...
Alphabetter (Maura Pierlot, illus Jorge Garcia Redondo, Affirm)
30 January 2024
Alphabetter: A Better You and Me, from A to Z is a new educational picture book from Affirm Press, which published the popular Life Lessons for Little Ones series. Written by...
The Rewilding (Donna M Cameron, Transit Lounge)
23 January 2024
Jagger Eckerman, the scion of a corrupt construction mogul and protagonist of Donna M Cameron’s second novel, blows his life up one morning by sending a fateful email whistleblowing the...
The Independent Pea (Maree Coote, Melbournestyle)
23 January 2024
Maree Coote’s love of vegetables, indulged vibrantly in her 2023 picture book Letters for Lunch!, gets another airing in The Independent Pea. This time, it’s an invigorating story about the...
A Secretive Century: Monte Punshon’s Australia (Tessa Morris-Suzuki, MUP)
23 January 2024
A Secretive Century by Tessa Morris-Suzuki is an illuminating biography that unveils the remarkable life of Monte Punshon, an Australian woman who lived from 1882 to 1989. From her conservative...
What Happened to Nina? (Dervla McTiernan, HarperCollins)
16 January 2024
Nina and Simon are teenage sweethearts, but cracks are starting to show in their relationship. After a stint of long distance, they decide to get away to Simon's parents’ new...
The Great Housing Hijack (Cameron K Murray, A&U)
16 January 2024
Instead of your typical dense economics book, The Great Housing Hijack: The hoaxes and myths keeping prices high for renters and buyers in Australia uses a compelling narrative with analogies,...
Outlaw Girls (Emily Gale & Nova Weetman, Text)
16 January 2024
Emily Gale and Nova Weetman deliver again with Outlaw Girls, the Kelly country time-slip follow-up to their CBCA Notable Elsewhere Girls. In 1878, Kate Kelly secretly slips supplies to her...
One Another (Gail Jones, Text)
9 January 2024
Expect no less from Gail Jones’s tenth novel, One Another, than carefully crafted prose that will delight and assure you of an expert at work. With a languid sense of...
To and Fro (Anton Clifford-Motopi, A&U Children’s)
9 January 2024
To and Fro by debut author Anton Clifford-Motopi is a heartfelt and humorous exploration of the complexities of growing up mixed-race in Australia. This delightful offering for readers aged 8–12...
Some People Want to Shoot Me (Wayne Bergmann & Madelaine Dickie, Fremantle)
9 January 2024
Some People Want to Shoot Me is the straight-talking biography of Wayne Bergmann, an Indigenous land rights advocate and native title lawyer who famously took on a multinational company and...
Sloths Love Parties (Rory H Mather, illus Binny Talib, Affirm)
12 December 2023
Have you ever wondered why sloths are so slow and sleepy? In Rory H Mather’s Sloths Love Parties, it’s not because of their low-energy diet but due to their high-energy...
Beyond Booze (Sarah Rusbatch, Murdoch)
12 December 2023
The term ‘sober curiosity’ has been around for a few years now, but Beyond Booze: How to create a life you love, alcohol-free offers something a bit more. Author Sarah...
Greater City Shadows (Laurie Steed, UWAP)
12 December 2023
Laurie Steed’s third book and debut short story collection, Greater City Shadows, collates tales of grief, loss, loneliness, unrequited love, fractured relationships and—ultimately—hope. Suburban Perth is the setting for many an...
The Beacon (P A Thomas, Echo)
5 December 2023
Living in the Byron region, doctor-turned-author P A Thomas is well placed to helm this debut crime novel featuring colourful characters and rollicking action set in this lively location. Jack...
The Intuition Toolkit (Joel Pearson, S&S)
5 December 2023
Forget the idea of intuition as a sixth sense or any of the other mysterious connotations that many gurus and self-help books have been portraying for decades. Instead, in The...
Countdown to Yesterday (Shirley Marr, Puffin)
5 December 2023
Shirley Marr’s latest novel, Countdown to Yesterday, takes young readers on a heartwarming journey through time, memories, and the complexities of family and friendship. This enchanting tale is a delightful...
Birdy (Sharon Kernot, Text)
28 November 2023
In Birdy, a compelling YA verse novel by CBCA award-winning author Sharon Kernot (The Art of Taxidermy), we meet Maddy, who began experiencing selective mutism and anxiety after an unnamed...
Gone (Glenna Thomson, Bantam)
28 November 2023
On the final day of school in 1984, Rebecca Bundy is last seen by her sister, Eliza, waiting for the bus after an argument with their mother. With the disappearance...
Gawimarra: Gathering (Jeanine Leane, UQP)
28 November 2023
In Gawimarra: Gathering, Wiradjuri poet and educator Jeanine Leane expresses her Country with poetry that overflows with celebrations of culture and acts of Blak resistance. Arranged into three sections, the...
The Health Habit (Amantha Imber, Penguin Life)
21 November 2023
There are books about health and books about habits, but rarely are the two combined as they are in The Health Habit: Shape up, sleep better, feel amazing, a practical...
Whenever You’re Ready (Trish Bolton, A&U)
21 November 2023
Trish Bolton’s debut is a reckoning with grief. An exploration of ‘those feelings [that are] impossible to separate, a great tidal wave of loss and remorse, of love and longing’....
Darkness Runs Deep (Claire McNeel, Macmillan)
21 November 2023
Gerandaroo, 1993: population 723, winner of 24 football premierships since 1899. A place where AFL is a non-negotiable part of life and where everyone is a friend—until an act of...
Your Brain Is a Lump of Goo (Idan Ben-Barak, illus Christopher Nielsen, A&U Children)
21 November 2023
Your Brain Is a Lump of Goo is a colourful and lively exploration of the brain from Idan Ben-Barak, the bestselling and award-winning author of Do Not Lick This Book....
Lani and the Universe (Victoria Carless, HarperCollins)
14 November 2023
For young readers who enjoyed Gus and the Starlight (2022) comes another heart-warming and captivating story by Victoria Carless. Lani and the Universe tells the story of Lani Scrub, who...
The Roadmap of Loss (Liam Murphy, Echo)
14 November 2023
Liam Murphy’s debut novel, The Roadmap of Loss, has all the hallmarks of sad girl (or, in this case, sad boy) literature: a self-destructive 20-something narrator and a vitriolic rage...
Life Skills for a Broken World (Ahona Guha, Scribe)
14 November 2023
Like having a therapist in your pocket, Life Skills for a Broken World is a guide to positive mental health, leading readers through potential pitfalls and prevention strategies. Ahona Guha,...
Birdsong by the Billabong (Maura Finn, illus Cate James, Affirm)
7 November 2023
Birdsong by the Billabong—the third picture book in Maura Finn and Cate James’s Billabong series—revisits the tone, style and structure of By the Billabong and Babies at the Billabong. All...
The Strip (Iain Ryan, Ultimo)
7 November 2023
Iain Ryan plunges readers into the gritty, seedy underbelly of the 1980s Gold Coast in his latest noir crime novel, The Strip. Brimming with corruption and seduction, illicit meetings held...
