Reviews
Adult fiction
Canticle Creek (Adrian Hyland, Ultimo)
Released December 2021
When Daisy Baker’s body is discovered on her outback property the case appears to be straightforward. Daisy’s boyfriend Adam Lawson, new to the Victorian town of Canticle Creek from the Northern Territory, is named the killer. His body is found in a car crash a kilometre away while ‘escaping’ the crime scene, and the case… Read more
Most viewed adult fiction
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- The Silent Listener (Lyn Yeowart, Viking)
- Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams) (Anita Heiss, S&S)
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- The Shut Ins (Katherine Brabon, A&U)
- Happy Hour (Jacquie Byron, A&U)
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Adult nonfiction
Buying and Selling the Poor: Inside Australia’s privatised welfare-to-work market (Siobhan O’Sullivan, Michael McGann & Mark Considine, SUP)
Released December 2021
When Paul Keating put elements of Australia’s ‘welfare to work’ system out to tender in the mid-1990s, he could scarcely have imagined the system we have in place today: one dominated by short-term contracts, employee churn, and for-profit and multinational corporations. Buying and Selling the Poor takes a rigorous but accessible look inside the ‘black… Read more
Most viewed adult nonfiction
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- Recipe for a Kinder Life (Annie Smithers, Thames & Hudson)
- Eating With My Mouth Open (Sam van Zweden, NewSouth)
- The Believer (Sarah Krasnostein, Text)
- No Document (Anwen Crawford, Giramondo)
- Dingo Bold: The life and death of K’gari dingoes (Rowena Lennox, Sydney University Press)
- Return to Uluru (Mark McKenna, Black Inc.)
Children's picture books
My First Book of Aussie Birds (Gordon Winch, illus by Stephen Pym, Catch a Star)
Released December 2021
Bright and colourful, lively and engaging, lift-the-flap board book My First Book of Aussie Birds contains a magical menagerie of unique native birds waiting to be discovered by little hands. Much-loved author Gordon Winch, known for his humorous Australiana books such as Can You Find Me? and Koala Sees the World, delights with a new book that invites babies and toddlers to… Read more
Most viewed children's picture book
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- With a Little Kelp from Our Friends (Mathew Bate, illus by Liz Rowland, Thames & Hudson)
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- Main Abija My Grandad (Karen Rogers, A&U)
- Iceberg (Claire Saxby, illus by Jess Racklyeft, A&U)
- Common Wealth (Gregg Dreise, Scholastic)
- Bear and Rat (Christopher Cheng, illus by Stephen Michael King, Puffin)
- The Katha Chest (Radhiah Chowdhury, illus by Lavanya Naidu, A&U)
- A Human for Kingsley (Gabriel Evans, Little Hare)
- The Incredibly Busy Mind of Bowen Bartholomew Crisp (Paul Russell & Nicky Johnston, EK Books)
Younger readers
Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief (Katrina Nannestad, ABC Books)
Released November 2021
Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief is a historical novel for middle-grade readers set during WWII. Young Sasha lies in a hospital in Berlin, recovering after the end of the war. His recollections take the reader back to 1942, where a six-year-old Sasha lives in a picturesque village in rural Russia. After German soldiers burn his village to the… Read more
Most viewed younger readers
- Lola Online: #TheSecretUpstairsFanClubParty (Shannan & Tayla Stedman, Omnibus)
- Footprints on the Moon (Lorraine Marwood, UQP)
- Paws (Kate Foster, Walker Books)
- The Detective’s Guide to Ocean Travel (Nicki Greenberg, Affirm)
- The Edge of Thirteen (Nova Weetman, UQP)
- Fil & Harry (Jenny Blackford, illus by Kristin Devine, Christmas Press)
- Huda and Me (H Hayek, A&U)
- The Story of Australia: For the young (and the curious) (Don Watson, Black Inc.)
- You’ve Let Them In (Lois Murphy, Transit Lounge)
- Tish (Edwina Wyatt, illus by Odette Barberousse, Berbay)
Young adult
The Midnight Girls (Alicia Jasinska, Penguin)
Released December 2021
Alicia Jasinska’s The Midnight Girls will be eagerly devoured by fans of her dark fantasy YA debut The Dark Tide. In Lechija, a kingdom much like 18th-century Poland, three witches rely on their servant girls to bring them the pure hearts of princes that sustain them. With the kingdom at war and the two-month-long festive season of Karnawał… Read more
Most viewed young adult
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- Waking Romeo (Kathryn Barker, A&U)
- The Prison Healer (Lynette Noni, Penguin)
- Can’t Say it Went to Plan (Gabrielle Tozer, HarperCollins)
- 100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze (Clayton Zane Comber, HarperCollins)
- How to Repaint a Life (Steven Herrick, UQP)
- Terciel and Elinor (Garth Nix, A&U)
Recently released titles
Into the Rip (Damien Cave, Scribner)
Released October 2021
Damien Cave’s Into the Rip considers how we calculate and cope with risk in Australia. As the first bureau chief of the New York Times Australian outpost, Cave leverages his journalistic point of view and Americanness to explore real and imagined dangers to our society, with examples ranging from the mundane (why we sit in the front… Read more
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