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Ice Breaker: The Hidden Series Book 1 (Lian Tanner, A&U)
Released November 2013
When the world fell to technophobic zealots, a mechanical child was hidden in a ship that was sent to sail the waters of the South Pole. In the 300 years... Read more
Shimmer (Jennifer McBride & Lynda Nixon, Fremantle Press)
Released October 2013
When I was asked if I wanted to review Shimmer, it was pitched to me as ‘a teenage genie from another planet is sent to earth …’ and I didn’t... Read more
The Last Girl (Michael Adams, A&U)
Released October 2013
Everyone thought Danby was going mad at first, even Danby. It wasn’t possible that she was hearing other people’s thoughts. Except it was, and Danby was just one of the... Read more
Find Your Feet (The 8 Things I Wish I’d Known before I Left High School) (Rebecca Sparrow, UQP)
Released September 2013
Find Your Feet is the second nonfiction book that Rebecca Sparrow has written for young women, following Find Your Tribe (And 9 Other Things I Wish I’d Known in High... Read more
The Last Thirteen: Book 1: 13 (James Phelan, Scholastic)
Released September 2013
It begins with a nightmare: teenage Sam dreams of a shadowy figure that, with the click of his fingers, brings instant death. Rattled, he brushes it off as another night... Read more
Stay Well Soon (Penny Tangey, UQP)
Released September 2013
Horse-mad Stevie is 11 years old and lives with her perpetually dieting mother and older brother Rhys, who, for the first time in his life, has turned down a potato... Read more
Every Breath (Ellie Marney, A&U)
Released September 2013
Picking up on the current Sherlock Holmes zeitgeist, Every Breath is the story of two teenagers playing at detective, trying to solve the death of their friend Homeless Dave. Rather... Read more
The Vanishing Moment (Margaret Wild, A&U)
Released September 2013
A weeping girl, a haunted somnambulist and a mysterious magician named Bob—Margaret Wild’s latest YA novel is a riveting exploration of the measure of human life and happiness, worlds away... Read more
You Don’t Even Know (Sue Lawson, Walker Books)
Released September 2013
Stuck in hospital after an accident he can’t remember, Alex is forced to try to put together the events that led him to this moment, starting with the terrible loss... Read more
In Praise of Ageing (Patricia Edgar, Text, October)
Released October 2013
This challenging book has two sections. The first is a summary and critique of public and private attitudes and policies towards older Australians; the second is a series of short... Read more
The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka (Clare Wright, Text, November)
Released November 2013
Lively, incisive and timely, Clare Wright’s account of the role of women in the Eureka Stockade is an engrossing read. Assembling a tapestry of voices that vividly illuminate the hardscrabble... Read more
The Vale Girl (Nelika McDonald, Pan Macmillan, August)
Released August 2013
This impressive debut novel from Melbourne writer Nelika McDonald had me hooked from the beginning. Told through realistically drawn characters, this part thriller, part coming-of-age story revolves around 14-year-old Sarah... Read more
His Stupid Boyhood: A Memoir (Peter Goldsworthy, Hamish Hamilton, August)
Released August 2013
The subject of Peter Goldsworthy’s memoir is his first 18 years and ‘the getting of stupidity’. ‘The getting of wisdom would have to wait,’ he writes. Goldsworthy’s father was a... Read more
The Young Lion (Blanche d’Alpuget, HarperCollins, September)
Released September 2013
The Tudor family has long been a focus for historical novels, with authors such as Alison Weir, Philippa Gregory and Hilary Mantel flooding the market with Henry VIII and his... Read more
What the Ground Can’t Hold (Shady Cosgrove, Picador)
Released August 2013
What the Ground Can’t Hold is the story of an avalanche and its aftermath from the point of view of five characters. Emma meets up with two American men in... Read more
The Double (Maria Takolander, Text)
Released September 2013
Maria Takolander’s first collection of short stories is a captivating and slightly uncomfortable series of tales that are in turns frightening, amusing, haunting and reassuring. They explore humanity on the... Read more
Snake Bite (Christie Thompson, A&U)
Released August 2013
When we meet Jez she has just finished Year 11 and is hanging with her best friend Lukey and considering her 12th piercing. Jez and Lukey live in the outer... Read more
Tsunami and the Single Girl (Krissy Nicholson, A&U)
Released September 2013
This honest and revealing memoir documents Krissy Nicholson’s incredible time as an aid worker in poverty- and disaster-stricken countries, where she lives it up as a single 30-something amid the... Read more
Infamy (Lenny Bartulin, A&U)
Released October 2013
It is 1830. William Burr, who has been adventuring in South America, is contacted by his old friend and former employer John McQuillan, who has moved to Van Diemen’s Land.... Read more
Zac & Mia (A J Betts, Text)
Released August 2013
As far as introductions go, a cancer ward is not the first place that comes to mind, but that is exactly where Zac and Mia meet while undergoing treatment. What... Read more
