Skysong (C A Wright, Pantera)
Tuesday, 20 August 2024
C A Wright’s debut novel, Skysong, is inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale ‘The Nightingale’. Oriane is the latest in a long line of skylarks: women who transform into...
A Lot of Silly (Joy Cowley, illus David Barrow, Gecko)
Tuesday, 20 August 2024
A Lot of Silly is a collection of poems and short stories for young children by the prolific Aotearoa New Zealand writer Joy Cowley (Good Night, Good Beach), who has...
The Natural Advantage (Jenny Brockis, Major Street)
Tuesday, 20 August 2024
The message of Jenny Brockis’s The Natural Advantage is straightforward: the cure for stress in our increasingly hectic modern world is to spend more time in nature. ‘Intuitively, we know...
The Belburd (Nardi Simpson, Hachette)
Tuesday, 20 August 2024
Written with the same lyrical prowess and evocative tone as her award-winning debut, Song of the Crocodile, Yuwaalaraay storyteller Nardi Simpson’s second novel, The Belburd, is a powerful ode to...
George the Wizard (Tony Armstrong, illus Emma Sjaan Beukers, Lothian)
Tuesday, 20 August 2024
Gamilaroi man, professional footballer, and radio and TV personality Tony Armstrong adds ‘children’s author’ to his CV with George the Wizard. It’s the first picture book in a new series...
Prize Catch (Alan Carter, Fremantle)
Tuesday, 20 August 2024
Alan Carter’s latest crime novel, Prize Catch, is a page-turning thrill ride set on Australia’s Emerald Isle. With the action taking place in Hobart and its surrounds, and brimming with...
A Song to Drown Rivers (Ann Liang, Macmillan)
Tuesday, 13 August 2024
A Song to Drown Rivers is a bold departure from Ann Liang’s critically acclaimed YA rom-com novels (This Time It’s Real, I Hope This Doesn’t Find You, If You Could...
Double Happiness (Rochelle Siemienowicz, MidnightSun)
Tuesday, 13 August 2024
In Double Happiness, journalist and film critic Rochelle Siemienowicz explores the intricacies, challenges and taboos surrounding polyamory and ethical non-monogamy (ENM). Set in Melbourne between 2014 and the Covid lockdown...
Game On (Prank Wars #1) (Louise Park & Mo Johnson, illus Jules Faber, Larrikin)
Tuesday, 13 August 2024
If Game On is any indication, Louise Park and Mo Johnson’s new series, Prank Wars, will be a hit with middle-grade readers who are high in energy and imagination. It’s a...
Twenty-Two Impressions (Jessica Friedmann, Scribe)
Tuesday, 13 August 2024
For years, Jessica Friedmann (Things That Helped) circled the tarot, feeling a combination of mild embarrassment, curiosity and intellectual bewilderment when a pack was inevitably drawn at the end of...
Stand Proud (Nicho Hynes with Marlee Silva, illus Blak Douglas, Puffin)
Tuesday, 13 August 2024
Stand Proud is a picture book that shares one man's powerful story of self-discovery during childhood. Wiradjuri author and rugby league star Nicho Hynes tells his story with the help...
Giinagay Juluum, Hello Mountains (Melissa Greenwood, ABC Books)
Tuesday, 13 August 2024
Following the success of Miimi Marraal, Mother Earth, and Miimi and Buwaarr, Mother and Baby, the latest picture book by Melissa Greenwood (Giinagay Gaagal, Hello Ocean) is a vivid storytelling...
No One Will Know (Rose Carlyle, Text)
Tuesday, 13 August 2024
Pregnant, homeless, and alone, 24-year-old Eve Sylvester is faced with a desperate future when a meeting at her dead fiancé’s gravesite offers a chance too glorious to refuse: nannying for...
Dusk (Robbie Arnott, Picador)
Tuesday, 6 August 2024
In his fourth novel, Dusk, Robbie Arnott returns to familiar terrain. ‘Dusk’ is the name the highland graziers have given to a puma who has begun to ‘take’ shepherds and...
Shapeshifting (ed by Jeanine Leane & Ellen van Neerven, UQP)
Tuesday, 6 August 2024
In UQP’s new First Nations anthology, Shapeshifting, Daniel Browning meditates on the significance of the fact that there is no Bundjalung word for queer; Alison Whittaker intimately dissects the shifting...
My Dad’s Gone Away (Andrew Krakouer & Jacqueline Dinan, illus Paul Seden, Magabala)
Tuesday, 6 August 2024
My Dad’s Gone Away by Minang (Nyoongar) and Inggarda (Yamatji) author Andrew Krakouer and former foster carer Jacqueline Dinan is a sensitive exploration of a family navigating the incarceration of...
The Ledge (Christian White, Affirm)
Tuesday, 6 August 2024
When reading author and screenwriter Christian White’s fourth novel, The Ledge, it’s worth remembering the adage: ‘When you assume, you make an ass of u and me.’ As a seasoned...
Matia (Emily Tsokos Purtill, UWA Publishing)
Tuesday, 6 August 2024
Emily Tsokos Purtill’s debut novel, Matia, is a generational story that follows the lives of four Greek women in Australia over 125 years. Sia emigrated from Greece to Perth in...
Dig Deep (Junkyard Fairies #1) (Edwina Wyatt, illus Lauren O’Hara, Walker)
Tuesday, 6 August 2024
Deep in a quiet scrap heap on the edge of a forest live the junkyard fairies: Fur, Tip and Nug. Dig Deep is the first in the new Junkyard Fairies...
Sabina and the Cats of Rome (Sophie Masson, illus Laura Wood, Christmas Press)
Tuesday, 6 August 2024
Sabina and the Cats of Rome, a light fantasy chapter book for readers aged 6 to 9, packs adventure, action, mystery, love and fun into its pages. Sophie Masson (The...
To Stir with Love (Kate Mildenhall, illus Jess Racklyeft, S&S)
Tuesday, 6 August 2024
To Stir with Love by Kate Mildenhall (The Hummingbird Effect, The Mother Fault) and illustrator Jess Racklyeft (Tree, Australia: Country of Colour) is a beautiful picture book that’s sure to...
Karkalla at Home (Mindy Woods, Murdoch)
Tuesday, 30 July 2024
Karkalla at Home: Native foods & everyday recipes for connecting to Country by Mindy Woods is a remarkable cookbook showcasing contemporary recipes with native Australian ingredients. The book ‘extends an...
Townsend of the Ranges (Peter Crowley, NLA)
Tuesday, 30 July 2024
In Townsend of the Ranges, Peter Crowley pieces together from archival materials the biography of Thomas Scott Townsend (1812–1869), a surveyor previously forgotten by history. With the voice of a...
The Audition (Stage Stars #1) (Penny McNamee, Scholastic)
Tuesday, 30 July 2024
The Audition, the first book in actor Penny McNamee’s Stage Star series, introduces us to Millie Von Trapp, an enthusiastic but lonely Year 6 student whose immediate family are all...
Zoom (Dannika Patterson, illus Ross Morgan, Ford St)
Tuesday, 30 July 2024
Dannika Patterson’s Zoom is a touching story about a boy named Tom. After a bad day at school, Tom comes home upset and withdrawn. Although he initially shuts his mum...
rock flight (Hasib Hourani, Giramondo)
Tuesday, 30 July 2024
Hasib Hourani’s debut, rock flight, is a structurally experimental long-form poem of grief, rage and resistance against the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine. Hourani’s voice is assertive, demanding attention from...
The Death of Dora Black (Lainie Anderson, Hachette)
Tuesday, 30 July 2024
Award-winning historian and journalist Lainie Anderson brings her research skills to the world of crime fiction in this engrossing and entertaining novel about Kate Cocks, the first policewoman in the...
Sarah Evans (Bernice Barry, Echo)
Tuesday, 30 July 2024
Sarah Evans is a richly imagined and meticulously researched historical fiction novel based on a true story. The tale begins in grimly Dickensian early 19th-century Clerkenwell, London, where powerful men...
The Best Witch in Paris (Lauren Crozier, Text)
Tuesday, 30 July 2024
Lauren Crozier won the 2023 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing for her middle-grade novel The Best Witch in Paris. With a charm reminiscent of Jill Murphy’s Worst...
Immortal Dark (Tigest Girma, Lothian)
Tuesday, 23 July 2024
Tigest Girma’s debut novel, Immortal Dark, is the book YA readers of dark academia and romantasy have been waiting for—something with the violence and passion of genre bestsellers such as...
