Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

Image. Advertisement:

Review search

 

Love and Hunger (Charlotte Wood, A&U)

Released May 2012

Is this a memoir, a collection of erudite essays punctuated by good recipes or a literary cookbook?  Whatever section you decide to shelve this in, this is a book to... Read more

The Wedding Season (Su Dharmapala, S&S)

Released May 2012

In The Wedding Season, a Sri Lanka-born, Australia-raised woman tries to find true love while avoiding her mother’s matchmaking. Shani has a good job as an accountant, lives in her... Read more

‘Waarda’ series (ed by Sally Morgan, Fremantle Press): Emu and the Water Tree (Gladys Milroy) and Yippee! Summer Holidays (Tjalaminu Mia & Jessica Lister)

Released May 2012

This is a great new series by Indigenous authors for beginner readers. Initiated by artist and writer Sally Morgan and created in association with The School of Indigenous Studies at... Read more

Red (Libby Gleeson, A&U)

Released May 2012

Libby Gleeson’s latest book for junior readers is a sophisticated and atmospheric amnesiac mystery revolving around the question: if one day you lost everything, how far would you go to... Read more

Mystery at Riddle Gully (Jen Banyard, Fremantle Press)

Released May 2012

Pollo di Nozi, supersleuth and investigative reporter-in-training, is on a case. Aided willingly by her ever faithful, if a little sheepy, assistant Shorn Connery and somewhat unwillingly by Will Hopkins,... Read more

Love-shy (Lilli Wilkinson, A&U)

Released April 2012

YA author Lili Wilkinson is well known for her insightful views into the teenage mind, with books such as The (Not Quite) Perfect Boyfriend and Pink. Love-shy is the next... Read more

Love Notes from Vinegar House (Karen Tayleur, Walker Books)

Released April 2012

Family secrets. A cursed house. Things that go bump in the night ... Freya Kramer doesn’t believe in ghosts. Not really. But spending her holidays at Vinegar House might just... Read more

Losing It (Julia Lawrinson, Penguin)

Released April 2012

Award-winning YA novelist Julia Lawrinson’s latest book, Losing It, is a sassy coming-of-age tale with a uniquely Australian twist: in a bid to preserve their sexual dignity and avoid the... Read more

The Industry: The Industry Book 1 (Rose Foster, HarperCollins)

Released April 2012

Fans of ‘The Hunger Games’ will lap up this debut YA trilogy from young Melbourne author Rose Foster. Kirra Hayward, 16, is her school’s top maths student. When she stumbles... Read more

I’ll Tell You Mine (Pip Harry, UQP)

Released April 2012

Yate Elliot has a secret—an even darker side to her already Goth persona—that has landed her in boarding school. Bound by the rules and restrictions of her new life, she... Read more

Grace beside Me (Sue McPherson, Magabala)

Released April 2012

One of the winners of the inaugural black & write! kuril dhagun Indigenous Writing Fellowship, Grace beside Me is a YA debut that is simply written but affecting nonetheless. After... Read more

A Confusion of Princes (Garth Nix, A&U)

Released April 2012

Khemri is a prince of the empire, which governs the staggeringly huge population of humanity scattered across the galaxy. Taken from their parents as children and equipped with the ultimate... Read more

The Children of the King (Sonya Hartnett, Viking)

Released April 2012

The Children of the King challenges stereotypes of war from the first page, which opens, not with a sombre and terror-filled London, but with a lively household full of love... Read more

A Boy Like Me (Libby Hathorn, illus by Bruce Whatley, ABC Books)

Released May 2012

Libby Hathorn and Bruce Whatley have teamed up to tackle very difficult subject matter in an inventive and evocative way in A Boy Like Me. We see the world through... Read more

‘Andy Roid’ series (Felice Arena, Puffin): Andy Roid and the Superhero Secret and Andy Roid and the Field Trip Terror

Released April 2012

Andy Reid always thought his parents were bakers. He was wrong, as he discovers after a horrifying accident. His parents are actually scientists working on secret military technologies for the... Read more

10 Futures (Michael Pryor, Woolshed Press)

Released April 2012

Sam and Tara are best friends. Sam has an artistic bent and loves working with his hands, while Tara is passionate and driven by social justice. Across the 21st century... Read more

A Youth Not Wasted (Ian Parkes, HarperCollins)

Released April 2012

In 1951 at the age of 16, Ian Parkes decided to leave his Perth home to work on a sheep station. For the next few years he was a stockman... Read more

One Way or Another (Nikki McWatters, Black Inc.)

Released April 2012

In her Gold Coast home in 1981, with the aid of a stuffed rabbit named Andy Gibb and numerous Countdown viewings, 15-year-old Nikki McWatters connects her ever-consuming lust with rock... Read more

The Office: A Hardworking History (Gideon Haigh, Miegunyah Press)

Released May 2012

We have had histories of salt, porcelain and even double-entry bookkeeping—so why not the office? It is an integral part of many people’s lives and yet we know so little... Read more

A History of Books (Gerald Murnane, Giramondo)

Released May 2012

A History of Books is in many ways a continuation of the musings of Gerald Murnane’s 2009 book Barley Patch. It’s a safe prediction that A History of Books will... Read more