Books+Publishing Friday
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4 July 2025

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Book Club

 

Junior Book Club – This Month's Reads

Searching for your next great read to share with kids? Our Junior Book Club highlights 10 new titles each month that are perfect for classrooms, libraries and family reading time.... Read more
 
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Bestsellers

The White Crow cover

 

Robotham enters the charts; cosy colouring remains on top x

Top 10 bestsellers Cozy Corner (Coco Wyo, Penguin) The Let Them Theory (Mel Robbins & Sawyer Robbins, Hay House) Cozy Cuties (Coco Wyo, Penguin) The White Crow (Michael Robotham, Hachette)... Read more
 
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Books in the media

 

Books in the media this weekend, 5–6 July x

A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend.  National The Saturday Paper Cure (Katherine Brabon, Ultimo) Notes to John (Joan Didion, Fourth Estate)... Read more
 

Unlocked reviews: New-release fiction

 

Be a good girl, Valerie
Marcia van Zeller, Ventura Press, July 2025, reviewed by Jess Lomas x

Be a good girl, Valerie by Marcia van Zeller is a quietly absorbing novel set predominantly in 2018 Perth with flashbacks to 1974 Toronto and 1978 London. It explores enduring... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

Cure
Katherine Brabon, Ultimo, July 2025, reviewed by Joy Lawn x

Katherine Brabon’s Cure is a natural extension and companion to her novel Body Friend; both are introspective literary works centred on women living with autoimmune diseases – conditions Brabon herself... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

Dead Ends
Samantha Byres, UQP, July 2025, reviewed by Melissa Mantle x

Is closure possible, or is it just a convenient fiction? This is the central question explored in Dead Ends, the meditative debut novel by Aotearoa New Zealand–born Naarm/Melbourne-based writer Samantha... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

Eden
Mark Brandi, Hachette, July 2025, reviewed by Ilona Urquhart x

Mark Brandi has established himself as a master of gritty yet lyrical thrillers that appeal to connoisseurs of Australian crime fiction since his explosive 2017 debut, Wimmera, which won him... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
the cover for A Forbidden Alchemy 

A Forbidden Alchemy
Stacey McEwan, Atria, July 2025, reviewed by Abbey Taylor  x

A Forbidden Alchemy is an enthralling romantasy that blends magic, politics and passion in a world on the brink of revolution. It follows a talented dreamer, a quick-witted loyalist, and... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
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The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson
Belinda Lyons-Lee, Transit Lounge, July 2025, reviewed by Kathryn Wheaton Grierson x

Ghosts from the past awaken strange obsessions in Belinda Lyons-Lee’s second novel, The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson, a gothic retelling of the stranger-than-fiction history of Robert Louis Stevenson’s... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

Love Overdue
Ali Berg & Michelle Kalus, A&U, July 2025, reviewed by Kate Cuthbert x

Love Overdue, the new novel by Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus (Fancy Meeting You Here), is an uneven but ultimately charming contemporary romance for readers who enjoy Jodi McAlister (An... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

Nock Loose
Patrick Marlborough, Fremantle, July 2025, reviewed by Anica Boulanger-Mashberg x

Patrick Marlborough’s Nock Loose is a wryly postmodern and cynically satirical novel that hits the ground running and never lets up. Marlborough scorns the ‘dire humourlessness’ of Australian literature in... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

The Occupation
Chloe Adams, Penguin, July 2025, reviewed by Catherine Manning x

Chloe Adams’ debut, The Occupation, brings to life the constraints placed on Australian women in the aftermath of the Second World War. The story follows Mary as she travels to... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

The Pearl of Tagai Town
Lenora Thaker, Text, July 2025, reviewed by Tierney Khan x

Lenora Thaker’s debut novel, The Pearl of Tagai Town, is a fast-paced story that follows Pearl, a young Torres Strait Islander descendant, growing up in a northeastern Australian shantytown in the... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

The Revisionists
Michelle Johnston, Fourth Estate, July 2025, reviewed by Kate Frawley x

Michelle Johnston’s third novel, The Revisionist, is a beautifully crafted story that follows the journey of Christine Campbell, a young woman with strong beliefs and misguided ambitions. Christine goes to great lengths... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

What Kept You?
Raaza Jamshed, Giramondo, July 2025, reviewed by Nilab Siddiqi x

Raaza Jamshed’s debut novel, What Kept You?, is a dazzling, poignant tale of defiance and metamorphosis in an ever-changing world. Whipping between the past and present, we first meet Jahan... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

When Sleeping Women Wake
Emma Pei Yin, Hachette, July 2025, reviewed by Marina Sano x

Expansive yet tightly plotted, When Sleeping Women Wake is a deeply empathetic novel that examines the devastation of war. Set in 1940s Hong Kong, it traces the city’s transformation from... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

Your Friend and Mine
Jessica Dettmann, Atlantic, July 2025, reviewed by Sophie Pusz x

Margot is a middle-aged, married mother of one who runs a busy restaurant in Balmain with her husband. Life is full, but not necessarily fulfilling – she’s growing weary of... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 

 

 

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