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The Locked Room (Adam Cece, PRH) 

Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Adam Cece’s The Locked Room is built on an excellent premise: four teenagers trapped in an escape room must solve a series of puzzles – each on a one-hour countdown...

The Eagle and the Crow (JM Field, UQP) 

Tuesday, 17 June 2025
The Eagle and the Crow is a work of many layers – lyrical, intellectual and political – all grounded in Gamilaraay knowledge and resistance. JM Field (Etta and the Shadow...

Starry Eyed (Katharine Pollock, Wakefield Press) 

Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Katharine Pollock’s Starry Eyed is delightfully hard to categorise, combining romantic comedy and science fiction elements and loosely held together by a fan fiction narrative. Fundamentally, it’s a touching story...

The Wicked Ship (Oceanforged #1) (Amelia Mellor, Affirm) 

Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Amelia Mellor follows The Grandest Bookshop series, her bestselling, award-winning historical fantasy trilogy, with the new swashbuckling Oceanforged series for readers aged 8–10. The Wicked Ship is the first of...

Book Club – this month’s reads

Friday, 13 June 2025
Looking for your next great group read? Our monthly Book Club rounds up new release titles that are perfect for sparking conversation and perhaps even some debate. From compelling fiction...

Books in the media this weekend, 14–15 June 

Inconvenient Women cover Friday, 13 June 2025
A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend.  National The Saturday Paper The Death of Stalin (Sheila Fitzpatrick, Black Inc.) Inconvenient Women (Jacqueline Kent,...

Applications for the Peter Blazey Fellowship are now open

Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Applications for the Peter Blazey Fellowship are now open! This award is for a work-in-progress by writers with a publishing record. Worth $20,000 this year, the Fellowship honours the larger-than-life...

Olivia De Zilva on ‘Plastic Budgie’ 

Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Tarndanya/Adelaide-based writer Olivia De Zilva’s debut, Plastic Budgie (Pink Shorts Press, August), is described as a ‘sharply funny, sad and sentimental reflection on the people, places and cultural forces that...

Stillwater (Tanya Scott, A&U) 

Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Tanya Scott’s debut, Stillwater, masterfully weaves together the past and present in a suspenseful, emotionally charged crime thriller. Luke Harris returns to his hometown of Melbourne seeking a 'normal life'...

In Spite of You (Patrick Lenton, Pantera) 

Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Genuinely funny and smartly observed, In Spite of You channels the charm of classic rom-coms – idealistic and entertaining – but adds a fresh twist with a plot driven by...

Run (Sarah Armstrong, HGCP) 

Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Sarah Armstrong’s latest middle-grade novel, Run, is a fast-paced survival tale that explores themes of trust, resilience and complicated families. It follows Armstrong’s previous titles for younger readers, Big Magic and Magic Awry, and her...

Plastic Budgie (Olivia De Zilva, Pink Shorts Press) 

Tuesday, 10 June 2025
Olivia De Zilva’s autofiction debut Plastic Budgie is a sharply funny, sad and sentimental reflection on the people, places and cultural forces that shape us as we grow up. In the novel,...

Books in the media this weekend, 7–8 June 

The Drop Off by David Stavanger cover. Friday, 6 June 2025
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 The Saturday Paper The...

The Ghost Walk (Karen Herbert, Fremantle) 

Tuesday, 3 June 2025
Ruby Rose Gillespie lives with cystic fibrosis and is admitted to the hospital for a fever on the same day the body of Dr Gabriel Beaufort – her high school...

A Gift from the Birds (Caroline Stills, Text) 

Tuesday, 3 June 2025
A Gift from the Birds is the first middle-grade novel by picture book author Caroline Stills. Winner of the 2024 Text Prize – and the final recipient before the prize...

The Golden Sister (Suzanne Do, Macmillan) 

Tuesday, 3 June 2025
The Golden Sister is a fast-paced mystery set in a small fictional NSW coastal town, exploring complex and dysfunctional family dynamics and the impact of grief. Suzanne Do’s prose is...

Death at Booroomba (AL Booth, Ventura Press) 

Tuesday, 3 June 2025
On the eve of his deployment to the Western Front in 1915, Jack O’Rourke has a chance encounter with an elderly Russian man, Samuel Lomond, that will profoundly impact his...

The digital life of a neighbourhood bookstore 

Ramona Books logo Monday, 2 June 2025
Ramona Books is a new independent bookstore in Melbourne that’s quickly made a name for itself online. Books+Publishing's reviews editor Jess Lomas spoke with store owner Katie Smith about how...