Pugs Don’t Wear Pyjamas (Michelle Worthington, illus by Cecilia Johansson, New Frontier)
Monday, 23 October 2017
As far as dogs go, pugs are pretty adorable with their squishy faces, flat noses and curly tails, but Ellie is no ordinary dog. Her owner Roz treats her like...
Dyschronia (Jennifer Mills, Picador)
Monday, 23 October 2017
In a remote, single-industry Australian town, a young girl, Sam, starts to suffer from migraines. The sharp pain is accompanied by visions of the future, which her sceptical mother warns...
Hangman (Jack Heath, A&U)
Monday, 23 October 2017
In the age of the anti-hero, morally ambiguous characters compel readers to empathise with and root for them, despite their troubled natures and character flaws. Enter Timothy Blake, the Hangman,...
The Lebs (Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Hachette)
Monday, 23 October 2017
Punchbowl Boys High, often dubbed ‘NSW’s most troubled school’, was the subject of a 2016 autobiographical essay by Michael Mohammed Ahmad. Now, that reminiscence of his alma mater has become...
Initiate: Palace of Fires Book One (Bill Bennett, Penguin)
Wednesday, 4 October 2017
Sixteen-year-old Lily lives a pretty normal life with her mum, Angela, on a farm in Northern California—until Angela vanishes. Lily discovers that her mum has been abducted by a secretive...
Between Us (Clare Atkins, Black Inc.)
Wednesday, 4 October 2017
Clare Atkins follows up her award-winning debut novel Nona & Me with this moving tale of two young people in Darwin who make a connection, though one of them lives...
Quark’s Academy (Catherine Pelosi, Lothian)
Wednesday, 4 October 2017
Once a year the prestigious and mysterious Quark’s Academy admits 15 exceptional young scientists for a week’s study that will culminate in the Best Invention Competition. This year’s batch of...
Border Districts (Gerald Murnane, Giramondo)
Thursday, 28 September 2017
In Border Districts, which is conceived as Gerald Murnane’s last work of fiction, the narrator has moved to a remote town, near the border of a neighbouring state, so that he...
A Timeline of Australian Food (Jan O’Connell, NewSouth)
Wednesday, 27 September 2017
Jan O’Connell’s A Timeline of Australian Food is a worthy and useful addition to the small but growing canon of Australian food history writing. Spanning 1860 to 2010, the book...
The Woman Who Fooled the World: Belle Gibson’s Cancer Con (Beau Donelly & Nick Toscano, Scribe)
Wednesday, 27 September 2017
The now infamous story of how Belle Gibson gave false hope to cancer patients in a global health and wellness scam is a treasure trove of lies and complicit enabling....
Tracker (Alexis Wright, Giramondo)
Wednesday, 27 September 2017
A biography can be written in a standard form: subject born, raised, educated, worked and died. And that will be fine for most people. But not Tracker Tilmouth. He was a polarising, intelligent, charismatic...
Accidental Heroes: The Rogues Book One (Lian Tanner, A&U)
Wednesday, 6 September 2017
The first in a new series by the bestselling author of ‘The Keepers’ series, this book has all the key ingredients of another spellbinding adventure. Duckling, the deceitful granddaughter of...
This Mortal Coil (Emily Suvada, Puffin)
Wednesday, 6 September 2017
Catarina has survived a genetic apocalypse, a disease that has ravaged humanity, turning some into the walking dead, doomed to explode in a toxic, highly contagious cloud. The daughter of...
Bird to Bird (Claire Saxby, illus by Wayne Harris, Black Dog Books)
Wednesday, 6 September 2017
A bird drops a seed. A seed becomes a tree. Eventually, the tree leaves the forest for the big city, and from there, to the other side of the world...
It’s OK to Feel the Way You Do (Josh Langley, Big Sky Publishing)
Wednesday, 6 September 2017
It’s OK to Feel the Way You Do is a gentle journey through the emotions that everyone feels at some point—happiness, anger, sadness, loneliness, pride, fear and anxiety. It guides...
Homecamp (Doron and Stephanie Francis, Hardie Grant)
Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Homecamp is 250 pages of pure escapism. Compiled by Doron and Stephanie Francis, creators of the popular Homecamp blog and stylish outdoor lifestyle brand, this unusual coffee-table book features short...
Whiteley on Trial (Gabriella Coslovich, MUP)
Wednesday, 30 August 2017
From the dramatis personae of the opening pages—the Suspect Paintings, the Authentic Painting and the Individuals—I was taken by this story of true crime and courtroom drama. Who would want...
The Greatest Gift (Rachael Johns, HQ)
Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Rachael Johns is best known for her rural romances, but her more recent books, including the ABIA-winner The Patterson Girls, have moved into contemporary women’s fiction, or ‘life-lit’, as Johns...
Atlantic Black (A S Patric, Transit Lounge)
Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Seventeen-year-old Katerina is an ambassador’s daughter on the precipice—and perhaps already over the edge—of womanhood. Travelling on board the transatlantic ocean liner RMS Aquitania en route to her beloved father...
If Baby Could Talk (Michael Wagner, illus by Jess Racklyeft, Windy Hollow Books)
Friday, 4 August 2017
It’s never too early to start reading books to children; even newborns will derive pleasure from listening to words read out loud by a loved one. If Baby Could Talk...
The Sorry Tale of Fox and Bear (Margrete Lamond & Heather Vallance, Dirt Lane Press)
Wednesday, 2 August 2017
Bear and Fox have a tumultuous friendship, marred by Fox’s pranks and mean tricks. However, when Fox disappears, Bear finds he misses his buddy. New companions Rooster and Hare seem to...
Drawn Onward (Meg McKinlay, illus by Andrew Frazer, Fremantle Press)
Wednesday, 2 August 2017
Drawn Onward is a clever picture book for older children that explores the transformative power of perspective. Author Meg McKinlay has crafted a palindrome that will delight observant young readers with the...
The Lion in Our Living Room (Emma Middleton, illus by Briony Stewart, Affirm)
Wednesday, 2 August 2017
Emma Middleton and Briony Stewart’s The Lion in Our Living Room is a gentle picture book that celebrates the spirit of imagination in the same vein as Judith Kerr’s The...
Koalas Eat Gum Leaves (Laura and Philip Bunting, Scholastic)
Wednesday, 2 August 2017
Koalas Eat Gum Leaves is a funny take on the one fact that every budding naturalist knows about Australia’s beloved marsupial: they eat gum leaves. ‘Gum leaves for breakfast. Gum...
Dungzilla (James Foley, Fremantle Press)
Tuesday, 1 August 2017
Sally Tinker is an inventor—the world’s foremost inventor under the age of 11, to be precise—and her latest invention is a doozy. The Resizenator can shrink anything to microscopic size...
The Trauma Cleaner (Sarah Krasnostein, Text)
Thursday, 27 July 2017
Sandra Pankhurst was adopted through the Catholic Church in the 1950s by a Melbourne couple who would prove to be horrendously abusive parents. Driven out of home by the age...
Baby Lost: A Story of Grief and Hope (Hannah Robert, MUP)
Thursday, 27 July 2017
Baby Lost is a heartbreaking study of the aftermath of an accident that changed the author’s life. Hannah Robert—a law lecturer at Melbourne’s La Trobe University—is not a saccharine writer,...
Force of Nature (Jane Harper, Macmillan)
Thursday, 27 July 2017
Jane Harper’s follow-up to her 2016 bestseller The Dry is another well-written, pacey crime thriller. Force of Nature is set after the events of The Dry but can be read...
Suburbia (Jeremy Chambers, Text)
Thursday, 27 July 2017
Melbourne author Jeremy Chambers’ second novel is a nostalgic coming-of-age story set in the unglamorous outer-eastern suburbs of Melbourne in the 1980s. The book’s protagonist Roland is a bookish outsider...
Two Steps Forward (Graeme Simsion & Anne Buist, Text)
Thursday, 27 July 2017
Martin, a divorced English engineer, and Zoe, a widowed American artist, are each at a turning point in their lives. Unexpectedly alone, without money or young families to care for,...
