Reviews
Adult fiction
The Fifth Season (Philip Salom, Transit Lounge)
Released November 2020
Philip Salom has twice been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin, and The Fifth Season will attract serious readers as a result. But this is not a book for everyone; its seriousness (and even its wit and wordplay are serious) makes it a demanding read. With an ostensible focus on missing people and unidentified bodies, the… Read more
Most viewed adult fiction
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- Return Ticket (Jon Doust, Fremantle Press)
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Adult nonfiction
Songlines: The power and promise (Margo Neale & Lynne Kelly, Thames & Hudson)
Released November 2020
The first in a series of six books introducing Indigenous knowledges, Songlines: The power and promise explains the use of mnemonics, or memory systems, in Aboriginal culture. Songlines archive knowledge in the landscape and are often associated with major ancestral beings, animals, natural elements or even contemporary events. For example, a landslide of red rocks… Read more
Most viewed adult nonfiction
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- The Trials of Portnoy: How Penguin brought down Australia’s censorship system (Patrick Mullins, Scribe)
- A Year in the Mud and the Toast and the Tears: My (semi) rural kind of life (Georgie Brooks, Bad Apple Press)
- Shark Arm: A shark, a tattooed arm and two unsolved murders (Phillip Roope & Kevin Meagher, A&U)
- Nothing New: A history of second-hand (Robyn Annear, Text)
- Maurice Blackburn: Champion of the people (David Day, Scribe)
- Father of the Lost Boys (Yuot A Alaak, Fremantle Press)
Children's picture books
Anemone is Not the Enemy (Anna McGregor, Scribble)
Released November 2020
Everybody needs a special friend—one they can rely on, one who’s there for them—but Anemone is lonely and finding it very difficult. The problem is he accidentally stings everybody who comes near him in the rock pool where he lives. Every time the tide comes in Anemone hopes a friend will come with it, but… Read more
Most viewed children's picture book
- Three (Stephen Michael King, Scholastic)
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- Coming Home to Country (Bronwyn Bancroft, Little Hare)
- I See, I See (R Henderson, A&U)
- Mum’s Elephant (Maureen Jipiyiliya Nampijinpa O’Keefe, illus by Christina Booth, Magabala)
Younger readers
Little Jiang (Shirley Marr, illus by Katy Jiang, Fremantle Press)
Released October 2020
Born under a confluence of inauspicious signs and hitherto haunted by all manner of hungry ghosts, it’s difficult for Mei to dismiss her aunt’s firmly held belief that she is cursed. And that’s before the arrival of Jiang—sweet, quiet, almost certainly undead and followed by a horde of soul-swallowing hopping vampires. It’s impossible to adequately… Read more
Most viewed younger readers
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- Eloise and the Bucket of Stars (Janeen Brian, Walker Books)
- Evie and Pog: Take Off! (Tania McCartney, HarperCollins)
- Shoestring, the Boy Who Walks on Air (Julie Hunt, illus by Dale Newman)
- The Republic of Birds (Jessica Miller, Text)
- The Secrets of Magnolia Moon (Edwina Wyatt, illus by Katherine Quinn, Walker)
- Ready, Set, Code! (Heather Catchpole & Nicola O’Brien, CSIRO Publishing)
Young adult
Future Girl (Asphyxia, A&U)
Released October 2020
The events of Future Girl play out in a future Melbourne that is eerily plausible. Food has been largely replaced by recon, an all-in-one food replacement that is marketed as safer than ‘wild food’ with the added benefits of built in fat zappers and cancer cures—and Piper’s mum is the scientist behind it all. Irene… Read more
Most viewed young adult
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- Deep Water (Sarah Epstein, A&U)
- The Dark Tide (Alicia Jasinska, Penguin)
Recently released titles
Vida: A woman for our time (Jacqueline Kent, Viking)
Released September 2020
It’s a sad fact that most Australians are unaware of the correct pronunciation of Vida Goldstein’s name (a long ‘i’ in both), let alone that she was the first woman in the Western world to stand for national parliament—and went on, heroically, to stand five times before she was done. Nor that she campaigned tirelessly… Read more
Most viewed reviews of all time
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