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Beatrix Bakes: Another Slice (Natalie Paull, Hardie Grant)
Released March 2024
Come a Saturday morning, the line for Beatrix Bakes, a cult North Melbourne café and bakery, would snake down the street. Its closure in 2022—a personal tragedy for this reviewer—even... Read more
The Rewilding (Donna M Cameron, Transit Lounge)
Released March 2024
Jagger Eckerman, the scion of a corrupt construction mogul and protagonist of Donna M Cameron’s second novel, blows his life up one morning by sending a fateful email whistleblowing the... Read more
The Independent Pea (Maree Coote, Melbournestyle)
Released March 2024
Maree Coote’s love of vegetables, indulged vibrantly in her 2023 picture book Letters for Lunch!, gets another airing in The Independent Pea. This time, it’s an invigorating story about the... Read more
A Secretive Century: Monte Punshon’s Australia (Tessa Morris-Suzuki, MUP)
Released June 2024
A Secretive Century by Tessa Morris-Suzuki is an illuminating biography that unveils the remarkable life of Monte Punshon, an Australian woman who lived from 1882 to 1989. From her conservative... Read more
Break the Curse (Shower Land #1) (Nat Amoore, illus James Hart, Puffin)
Released March 2024
The first in a new junior fiction series, Shower Land 1: Break the Curse is a fun, whimsical book that will appeal to kids who enjoy fantasy and humour plots.... Read more
Shining Like the Sun (Stephen Orr, Wakefield)
Released March 2024
Stephen Orr's Shining Like the Sun is like an Australian version of A Man Called Ove, with the same qualities of grit and humanity that made the Swedish novel so... Read more
What Happened to Nina? (Dervla McTiernan, HarperCollins)
Released March 2024
Nina and Simon are teenage sweethearts, but cracks are starting to show in their relationship. After a stint of long distance, they decide to get away to Simon's parents’ new... Read more
Saturday Is Pancake Day (Bernadette Green, illus Daniel Gray-Barnett, Scribble)
Released March 2024
In the lively domestic chaos of Saturday Is Pancake Day—a story that might make you relieved it’s not your turn for the washing up (or that you’re not attending the... Read more
Cool Water (Myfanwy Jones, Hachette)
Released March 2024
Myfanwy Jones’s Cool Water is a cross-generational novel about the inheritance of toxic masculinity. When Frank Herbert returns to Tinaroo for his daughter’s wedding, he can’t stop thinking about his... Read more
Thanks for Having Me (Emma Darragh, JOAN)
Released March 2024
Emma Darragh’s debut novel, Thanks for Having Me, is an intergenerational familial story that offers a glimpse into the lives of three women: Mary Anne, Vivian and Evie. It’s a non-sequential... Read more
The Great Housing Hijack (Cameron K Murray, A&U)
Released March 2024
Instead of your typical dense economics book, The Great Housing Hijack: The hoaxes and myths keeping prices high for renters and buyers in Australia uses a compelling narrative with analogies,... Read more
Outlaw Girls (Emily Gale & Nova Weetman, Text)
Released March 2024
Emily Gale and Nova Weetman deliver again with Outlaw Girls, the Kelly country time-slip follow-up to their CBCA Notable Elsewhere Girls. In 1878, Kate Kelly secretly slips supplies to her... Read more
A Room for Ryel (Emma Cameron, Wombat)
Released March 2024
Within modern shifting family dynamics, Emma Cameron’s A Room for Ryel emerges as a heartwarming tale that adeptly explores the intricacies and joys of blending families. The book seamlessly transcends... Read more
One Another (Gail Jones, Text)
Released March 2024
Expect no less from Gail Jones’s tenth novel, One Another, than carefully crafted prose that will delight and assure you of an expert at work. With a languid sense of... Read more
I Hope This Doesn’t Find You (Ann Liang, Penguin)
Released February 2024
Ann Liang’s third young adult novel, I Hope This Doesn’t Find You, is a feel-good rom-com that uses all the well-worn tropes of the enemies-to-lovers subgenre. When people-pleaser school captain... Read more
The Most Amazing Thing (Ian Hayward Robinson, illus Matt Shanks, A&U Children’s)
Released March 2024
The Most Amazing Thing is a sweet story about Henry, who, one rainy day, is trying to figure out what the most amazing thing is, so he can draw it... Read more
The Girl from Moscow (Julia Levitina, Pantera)
Released March 2024
In Julia Levitina’s debut novel, The Girl from Moscow, Ella Ashkenazi, an aspiring actor on the verge of a breakthrough role, discovers she is pregnant. It’s a low-key beginning to... Read more
To and Fro (Anton Clifford-Motopi, A&U Children’s)
Released March 2024
To and Fro by debut author Anton Clifford-Motopi is a heartfelt and humorous exploration of the complexities of growing up mixed-race in Australia. This delightful offering for readers aged 8–12... Read more
Like Fire-Hearted Suns (Melanie Joosten, Ultimo)
Released March 2024
‘Deeds not words’ was the valiant cry of the suffragettes, but does the average reader know what those deeds entailed? This average reader did not. While a work of fiction,... Read more
Some People Want to Shoot Me (Wayne Bergmann & Madelaine Dickie, Fremantle)
Released March 2024
Some People Want to Shoot Me is the straight-talking biography of Wayne Bergmann, an Indigenous land rights advocate and native title lawyer who famously took on a multinational company and... Read more
