Australia: Country of Colour (Jess Racklyeft, Affirm)
Tuesday, 9 May 2023
Bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator Jess Racklyeft celebrates Australian flora, fauna and landscapes through the lens of the colour wheel in Australia: Country of Colour. This beautifully illustrated nonfiction...
Ember and the Island of Lost Creatures (Jason Pamment, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 9 May 2023
Jason Pamment follows up his stellar debut graphic novel, Treasure in the Lake, with the stunningly unique Ember and the Island of Lost Creatures. Tiny Ember is the size of...
Wifedom (Anna Funder, Hamish Hamilton)
Tuesday, 9 May 2023
When researching a new book on George Orwell, powerhouse writer Anna Funder noticed an interesting omission—Eileen Orwell, George’s first wife, was curiously absent. The basis of Wifedom is six newly...
Mother Earth (Libby Hathorn, illus Christina Booth, Lothian)
Tuesday, 2 May 2023
Libby Hathorn and Christina Booth are the respected creators of the timely and beautiful poetry anthology for children Mother Earth: Poems to celebrate the wonder of nature. This volume is...
The Drowning Girls (Veronica Lando, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 2 May 2023
As the summer holidays draw to a close, disgraced teacher Nate Bass arrives in an impoverished northern Queensland fishing town, begrudgingly ready for a job teaching all of Port Flinders’...
New York City Glow (Rachel Coad, Upswell)
Tuesday, 2 May 2023
The first book by Margaret River-based artist and comic maker Rachel Coad, New York City Glow is an old-school action-packed romp through 1970s American counterculture. Mixing fact and fiction, the...
Business Chickens (Jess McGeachin, Puffin)
Tuesday, 2 May 2023
Business Chickens is the latest picture book from Melbourne-based writer/illustrator/designer Jess McGeachin. Known for his CBCA-recognised titles such as Fly and Frankie and the Fossil, McGeachin has produced a new...
The Terrible Event (David Cohen, Transit Lounge)
Tuesday, 25 April 2023
The Terrible Event comprises eight accessible, absurdist stories by David Cohen, past winner of the Russell Prize for Humour Writing. Each instalment is a tightly crafted pocket of madness, driven,...
Gurril: Storm Bird (Trevor Fourmile, illus by Jingalu, Magabala)
Tuesday, 25 April 2023
Gurril: Storm Bird tells the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji (First Nations people from the Cairns area) traditional creation story of the origins of the black cockatoo and its call. Incorrigible young...
Endo Days (Libby Trainor Parker, Wakefield)
Tuesday, 25 April 2023
Libby Trainor Parker has written the perfect book adaptation of the cabaret show she performed in her PJs about endometriosis. The vibe? Women have been in pain, and ignored, forever....
The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies (Alison Goodman, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 25 April 2023
The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman is a joyous romp through Regency England that is equally entertaining, revealing, feminist, heartbreaking and humorous. Our protagonist, Lady Augusta, is...
Feast (Emily O’Grady, A&U)
Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Like her Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award-winning debut The Yellow House, Emily O’Grady’s Feast is a compelling but often uncomfortable work of literary fiction. In a secluded manor house in the Scottish...
The Interpreter (Brooke Robinson, Harvill Secker)
Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Revelle Lee is a court interpreter in London. She spends her days translating the words of victims, criminals and witnesses. It’s her job to inhabit them, wear their skin and...
Sunshine on Vinegar Street (Karen Comer, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Everything in Freya’s world has changed. Her dad has taken a job in Broome for the next 18 months and her mum has a new job in the inner-city Melbourne...
The Archipelago of Us (Reneé Pettitt-Schipp, Fremantle Press)
Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Originally written as part of Reneé Pettitt-Schipp’s PhD thesis, The Archipelago of Us is a moving travel memoir mixed with a reflective story of trauma and healing. Pettitt-Schipp decided to...
Sad Girl Novel (Pip Finkemeyer, Ultimo)
Tuesday, 11 April 2023
When we first meet aspiring writer Kim Mueller, she’s taking a train through Berlin, on her way to see her therapist. She’s wondering if she’s ‘talented or deluded’. She has...
Backyard Footy (Carl Merrison, illus by Samantha Campbell, Lothian)
Tuesday, 11 April 2023
Kicking the footy around in your backyard is fun, but playing with mates is even better! Jaru/Kija author Carl Merrison and illustrator Samantha Campbell score big with their lively, cumulative...
Minds of Sand and Light (Kylie Chan, Voyager AU)
Tuesday, 11 April 2023
Two rebel journalists get caught up in a conflict between secretive AIs in this new cyberpunk thriller. Minds of Sand and Light is set some 50 years in the future:...
Search History (Amy Taylor, A&U)
Tuesday, 4 April 2023
Most of us have left some kind of regrettable imprint on the internet. It’s with this discarded online ephemera that anxiety swells about what people may make of it all—including...
Where I Slept (Libby Angel, Text)
Tuesday, 4 April 2023
Where I Slept, by award-winning poet and author Libby Angel, is a sharp and sobering piece of autofiction that follows a struggling, unnamed poet/artist living on the margins in 1990s...
Media Monsters (Sally Young, NewSouth)
Tuesday, 4 April 2023
After breaking through to the mainstream with her 2019 Stella Prize-longlisted book Paper Emperors, academic Sally Young continues to expose the dark interplay between Australian media and politics with Media...
Anam (André Dao, Hamish Hamilton)
Tuesday, 4 April 2023
Winner of the 2021 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, Anam is a remarkable debut novel exploring memory, family, colonialism and displacement. The narrator, a young Vietnamese-Australian man...
Desert Jungle (Jeannie Baker, Walker)
Tuesday, 28 March 2023
Nearly seven years since her last picture storybook, Jeannie Baker returns in top form with Desert Jungle, a breath of fresh air in children’s books, offering a humble and vital...
Orphia and Eurydicius (Elyse John, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 28 March 2023
Set against the backdrop of ancient Greece in a time of myth and heroism, Orphia and Eurydicius is a tale of love, courage, feminine power and the strength of stories...
The Albatross (Nina Wan, Macmillan)
Tuesday, 21 March 2023
It’s widely known that an albatross is a very rare bird. In golf, it’s a move that’s even rarer—one that’s considered lucky, executed with the utmost finesse. And golf is...
We Could Be Something (Will Kostakis, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 21 March 2023
Will Kostakis’s first novel Loathing Lola was published when he was 19 years old. This uncommon experience inspires his latest book, a semi-autobiographical YA novel for readers aged 14–17. We...
Who’s Afraid of the Light? (Anna McGregor, Scribble)
Tuesday, 21 March 2023
Two seagulls bob on top of a flat ocean on a sunny day. ‘Oh, hi!’ says one. ‘The story starts down there,’ says the other, dipping its head beneath the...
Eta Draconis (Brendan Ritchie, UWAP)
Tuesday, 21 March 2023
Eta Draconis is Brendan Ritchie’s impressive third novel and the winner of the 2022 Dorothy Hewett Award. This road trip story centres around two sisters, Elora and Vivienne, who are...
Books in the media this weekend 18–19 March
Friday, 17 March 2023
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend. National The Saturday Paper Old Babes in the Wood (Margaret Atwood, C&W) Tanya Plibersek: On...
The Heart is a Star (Megan Rogers, HarperCollins)
Wednesday, 15 March 2023
The Heart is a Star is the captivating debut novel by talented writer Megan Rogers. We are introduced to anaesthetist Layla Byrnes, a middle-aged woman struggling to reconcile her career,...
