Ghost Cities (Siang Lu, UQP)
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Recently fired from his translating job at the Chinese Consulate in Sydney for lying about his translation skills and using Google Translate to do his job, Xiang Lu is a...
All the Beautiful Things You Love (Jonathan Seidler, Macmillan)
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
A romantic comedy told in reverse, All the Beautiful Things You Love charts Elly and Enzo's relationship over 10 years, leading up to their divorce. But what happens to their...
Ultra Violet: Down to Business (Cristy Burne, illus Rebel Challenger, Larrikin House)
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Ultra Violet: Down to Business is the first in a new junior graphic novel series with a hilarious—but very scientific—premise. Violet (a science genius who wears a lab coat) and...
The Kindness Project (Deborah Abela, Puffin)
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Nicolette is unconfident and shy and feels like she doesn’t fit in anywhere. However, she loves spending time with her nanna and takes comfort in her visits to her nursing...
Because I’m Not Myself, You See (Ariane Beeston, Black Inc.)
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Ariane Beeston’s debut, Because I’m Not Myself, You See, chronicles her postpartum psychosis, as a mother and clinical psychologist. The memoir weaves personal experiences with scientific evidence, and makes recommendations...
How to Avoid a Happy Life (Julia Lawrinson, Fremantle)
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
How to Avoid a Happy Life is a lively memoir by Julia Lawrinson (Losing It), the author of over 15 books for young people. This memoir takes readers through a lifetime of sad and...
Peripathetic: Notes on (un)belonging (Cher Tan, NewSouth)
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
The nine essays in this collection, Peripathetic by Melbourne-based Cher Tan, use the form’s digressive capacity well. In elastic prose informed by wide reading, Tan heads down wordy, winding rabbit...
Safe Haven (Shankari Chandran, Ultimo)
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Miles Franklin–winning author Shankari Chandran turns her focus to Australia’s inhumane practice of mandatory detention in her fourth novel, Safe Haven. As in Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, a focal...
The Unexpected Mess of It All (Gabrielle Tozer, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Gold Inky award-winning author Gabrielle Tozer’s fifth YA novel, The Unexpected Mess of it All, displays her trademark empathy, humour and cheekiness. Jamila’s life is an unexpected mess. Since their...
Cora Seen and Heard (Zanni Louise, Walker)
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
When Cora’s family moves to Tasmania to renovate a decrepit theatre, Cora, 12, is thrilled at the opportunity to reinvent herself as Cora 2.0: more confident, admired, and interesting. But...
What Stars Are For (Margeaux Davis, Affirm)
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
What Stars Are For is the first picture book by sewing pattern and soft toy designer Margeaux Davis. The emerging children’s book illustrator’s love for the natural world is informed...
Circadia (Judith Bishop, UQP)
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
Judith Bishop’s Circadia is a collection of neatly formed, intelligent poems in which you can discover something new with each read. Bishop is in conversation with a chorus of voices and introduces...
To Sing of War (Catherine McKinnon, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
From Miles Franklin–shortlisted author Catherine McKinnon (Storyland), To Sing of War confronts the interconnectedness that binds humanity. Against the backdrop of WWII, we find ourselves immersed in the jungles of...
The Land Recalls You (Kirli Saunders, illus David Cragg & Noni Cragg, Scholastic)
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
The title of multi-awarded Gunai poet Kirli Saunders’s picture book The Land Recalls You honours the Stolen Generations and their descendants, as well as others who have been taken from Country, in a story...
Our Flag, Our Story (Bernard Namok Jnr & Thomas Mayo, illus Tori-Jay Mordey, Magabala)
Tuesday, 5 March 2024
Reading Our Flag, Our Story: The Torres Strait Islander Flag by Bernard Namok Jnr and Thomas Mayo on so-called Australia Day feels incredibly poignant. In October 2023, Australians voted against establishing the...
Saltblood (Francesca de Tores, Bloomsbury)
Tuesday, 5 March 2024
Saltblood is an engrossing, deeply felt historical novel by Melbourne poet, author and academic Francesca de Tores (with previous works published as Francesca Haig), fictionalising the life of pirate Mary...
Country (Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson, illus Cheryl Davison, Wild Dog)
Tuesday, 5 March 2024
Country is a celebration of earth and sky, sun, moon and stars—central to First Nations Culture. Through intricate, warm and entrancing artwork by renowned artist and Walbunja, Ngarigo woman Cheryl...
The Mistress of Dara Island (Averil Kenny, Echo)
Tuesday, 5 March 2024
Traversing the 1950s to 1960s, Averil Kenny’s The Mistress of Dara Island follows Tally Ramsey, who spent her childhood on a paradisiacal tropical island. Despite its setting in the real-world...
Ela! Ela! (Ella Mittas, Murdoch)
Tuesday, 5 March 2024
Ela! Ela! means 'Come! Come!', and it’s a wonderfully fitting title for this generous, delicious and personal book of Turkish-Greek recipes, photography and essays, which documents Ella Mittas’s travels to Istanbul, Alaçatı,...
The Apprentice Witnesser (Bren MacDibble, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 5 March 2024
Bren MacDibble has become well-known for her unique and heartfelt adventure novels for middle-grade readers, including How to Bee, The Dog Runner and Across the Risen Sea, as well as The Raven’s...
How to Measure the Ocean (Inda Ahmad Zahri, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 5 March 2024
How to Measure the Ocean by scuba diver and surgical doctor Inda Ahmad Zahri prompts and encourages children aged 4–8 to interact with their environment scientifically and mathematically. In the...
The Deed (Susannah Begbie, Hachette)
Tuesday, 5 March 2024
Small-town cattle farmer Tom Edwards knows he is going to die—before he does, he pays a visit to the local solicitor to change the terms of his will. Upon his...
Human? (Ziggy Ramo, Pantera)
Tuesday, 5 March 2024
For those familiar with the sounds of Ziggy Ramo, Human?—while his debut book—is but the latest in a collection of revolutionary literary works by the artist. Human? is Ramo’s powerful...
Work Backwards (Tim Duggan, Pantera)
Tuesday, 27 February 2024
If you’ve ever felt disenchanted by the daily grind or pondered the pointlessness of the eternal wheel of capitalism, then Work Backwards: How to design the life you want will...
Thunderhead (Miranda Darling, Scribe)
Tuesday, 27 February 2024
Set over one fever-pitched day of errand-running, child-rearing, appointment-hopping and dinner-party prep in the suburbs, Thunderhead is about Winona Dalloway’s desperate desire to be free of her domestic shackles and...
The Work (Bri Lee, A&U)
Tuesday, 27 February 2024
Having tackled power, privilege and sexual politics in her nonfiction books, Eggshell Skull, Beauty and Who Gets to Be Smart, Bri Lee brings the same shrewd scrutiny to her debut novel,...
Tree (Claire Saxby, illus Jess Racklyeft, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 27 February 2024
Tree, by multi-award-winning picture book creators Claire Saxby and Jess Racklyeft, explores the life of a mighty mountain ash, the tallest in a forest of tall trees. Similar to their...
Sanctuary (Garry Disher, Text)
Tuesday, 27 February 2024
Grace has been stealing her whole life. She is an expert thief, taught by pros and specialising in small, high-value items, such as stamps and watches. However, a life of...
Wurrtoo (Tylissa Elisara, illus Dylan Finney, Lothian)
Tuesday, 27 February 2024
As a Nunga woman reading to her young Nunga and Murri son, Tylissa Elisara was fed up with the lack of First Nations representation in her beloved childhood stories. Wurrtoo...
Deep Water (James Bradley, Hamish Hamilton)
Tuesday, 27 February 2024
The first chapter of Deep Water is named ‘The Word for World Is Water’, a reference to science fiction writer Ursula K Le Guin’s novella The Word for World Is...
