Reviews
Adult fiction
Remember Me (Charity Norman, A&U)
Released March 2022
Remember Me begins with a call in the middle of the night, when illustrator Emily is awakened in her London flat. Her father’s health is failing and Emily is the only one willing and able to help. But returning to her childhood home awakens not just unpleasant memories of family dysfunction but also of the… Read more
Hovering (Rhett Davis, Hachette)
Released March 2022
Alice returns to the fictional Australian city of Fraser after 16 years away. The city itself has changed—and continues to change—beyond recognition. Streets, houses and other buildings literally shift and move overnight. Alice, meanwhile, is on the run: the European art collective she was a member of has gone awry, and she and the other… Read more
Adult nonfiction
Triple Helix (Lauren Burns, UQP)
Released March 2022
Lauren Burns received a fork inscribed with the word ‘agitator’ as a present from her boyfriend while trekking through the extreme wilderness of Utah. Burns’s journey as a donor-conceived person is a similar trip: surprising and difficult, traversing tough terrain but with amazing payoffs at the end. Her memoir is also the story of her… Read more
This is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch (Tabitha Carvan, HarperCollins)
Released March 2022
When Tabitha Carvan suddenly falls in love with the actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who she has never met, she doesn’t know what to make of it. Her growing obsession simultaneously puzzles, embarrasses and intrigues her so she sets out to understand women’s passions, those deemed embarrassing and unserious by society. This book takes the reader back… Read more
Children's picture books
The Love That Grew (Sarah Ayoub, illus by Mimi Purnell, HarperCollins)
Released March 2022
In the vein of Sam McBratney’s You’re All My Favourites comes a picture book that captures the idea that a mother’s love is unlimited when it comes to her children, no matter how many there are. Sarah Ayoub is paired with debut picture book illustrator Mimi Purnell to show that love is an open-ended resource,… Read more
That Cat (Jacqueline Harvey, illus by Kate Isobel Scott, Puffin)
Released March 2022
Cat lovers and nonsense lovers, this is the book for you. Jaqueline Harvey, bestselling author for children, plays on words that rhyme with ‘cat’ in order to make a list of all the cats across the country that the narrator has met and thought were interesting. Kate Isobel Scott’s zany illustrations interpret the simple rhyme… Read more
Younger readers
Pearly and Pig and the Great Hairy Beast (Sue Whiting, Walker Books)
Released March 2022
Pearly Woe is not your average 10-year-old. She can speak 27 languages, talk to and understand most animals and, in this tale, travels to Antarctica. However, this is no holiday. Pearly and her faithful friend Pig (a pig) are representatives of the Adventurologists Guild and need to find Pearly’s missing parents—all the while trying to… Read more
Moth in a Fancy Cardigan (Charlotte Lance, illus by David Booth, Berbay)
Released March 2022
This illustrated middle-grade novel is a cute and quirky story about self-expression and the courage to be seen, told from the perspectives of a shy moth and a popular butterfly. School is tough and dreary for quiet Gary Grey Moth: he doesn’t fit in but he doesn’t stand out either. Meanwhile, clumsy, scattered Florence Butterfly… Read more
Young adult
Growing Up in Flames (Zach Jones, Text)
Released March 2022
Zach Jones’s debut novel Growing Up in Flames is as gritty as bushfire ash. Written for a doctorate in creative writing at the University of the Sunshine Coast, the novel’s provenance is evident in Jones’s masterly use of the extended metaphor of fire to explore the relationship between intergenerational trauma and adolescent identity formation. In… Read more
Only a Monster (Vanessa Len, A&U)
Released February 2022
Joan is enjoying her summer in London with her eccentric family and dream job at the historic Holland House. After unexpectedly losing several hours out of her day after a fall, she discovers that her family are not just eccentric, they are monsters—monsters that are capable of time travel, but at the expense of human… Read more
Recently released titles
Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens (Shankari Chandran, Ultimo)
Released January 2022
Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens immerses the reader in the microcosm of the Cinnamon Gardens Nursing Home. Against the backdrop of the heartbreaking trauma of the Sri Lankan Civil War, the novel explores how the family behind Cinnamon Gardens came to be in Sydney and how they’ve made a home for all in the community. Through five different… Read more
Family Tree (Josh Pyke, illus by Ronojoy Ghosh, Scholastic)
Released January 2022
Family Tree shares the beauty of life through the growth of a tree, one that unites families and communities around the world, spreading joy, love and spirit—and it all starts with one seed. Australian singer–songwriter and children’s author Josh Pyke delivers this deeply poignant and lyrical narrative that touches every fibre of our being. Representative… Read more
