It’s big release season as we get ever closer to the big Christmas haul! As we countdown to the end of the year, the book options in this round up take us all over the world and across time – and beyond! From Greek immigrants in 1940s Western Australia to modern day Argentina, exploring the…
Read MoreUnconventional Women by Sarah Gilbert, published in July, is an impressively researched and empathetically put together biography of a group of Melbourne-based nuns. In Unconventional Women, Gilbert masterfully recounts their personal stories which span over decades of tremendous social changes in Australia between 1950 and 1970, touching on religion, women rights, historical events and much…
Read MoreChristian White’s The Ledge is a thriller-mystery about revisiting the past and not liking what you find there. Set in the fictional Victorian mountain town of West Haven, chapters alternate between the present and the past, carefully holding the tension between the two in terms of both storytelling and broader themes of nostalgia and growing…
Read MoreIf you’ve been an Australian for more than about five minutes, you know some of the wild things we can get up to – legal and illegal. It’s the latter that Australia’s Most Bizarre Crimes author Dr Peter Coleman takes a deep-dive into – the weirdest and wackiest crimes that Aussies have committed over the…
Read MoreCosy fantasy is in the midst of a bit of a boom right now, and Rebecca Thorne’s new novel Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea is an intriguing entry into the genre. Originally self-published in 2022, it follows the blossoming relationship – and the struggles of – two young women living in a fantasy world filled…
Read MoreIn 1647, rector’s wife Frances Wolfreston is uneasy about a new task she has been given. England is under Puritan rule, and it is Frances’s job to record the names of those who are not attending church – those who may still be practising the Catholic faith in secret. But, Frances knows that those whose…
Read MoreJust as the world seems to be again on the verge of WWIII, Lest serves as a timely reminder of previous wars and military operations the ADF were part of. Mark Dapin, who has a PhD in military history, adopts a fresh approach of debunking popular myths around Australia’s military record, emphasising the cultural shifts…
Read MoreDylin Hardcastle’s A Language of Limbs is a profound and compelling exploration of Queer identity set against a backdrop of 1970s and 1980s Australia. Written as part of their PhD in Creative Writing at UNSW, the narrative unfolds through two intertwined ‘limbs’, each following a distinct yet deeply connected journey of self-discovery. Beginning in 1970s…
Read MoreThis Is Where You Have To Go – that is what Dunghutti woman Lynda Holden was told when she became pregnant. Directed to stay at a Catholic home for unmarried mothers, her child was taken from her and put up for adoption without her consent. Many years later, those same words have become the title…
Read MoreReaders should be advised that this book contains themes of sexual assault. Inspired by the Ancient Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter, Rachel Lyon’s sophomore novel Fruit of the Dead is an inventive tale that explores mother-daughter tensions, power plays and addiction amidst the backdrop of a billionaire’s private island. If you haven’t brushed up…
Read MoreI have to admit, I mostly picked this one up for two reasons – the title, and because I chuckled at the premise. The Hitwoman’s Guide to Reducing Household Debt, the debut novel from Mark Muposta-Russell, promised to be everything I love in a book – funny and quirky, but still full of enough heart…
Read MoreThe Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is a sweet, cosy fantasy story about letting people in, building community, and making a home for oneself. Kiela has lived and worked in the Great Library in the city of Alyssium for many years. She’s sequestered in the stacks with the previous volumes that she is responsible for…
Read MoreKing Richard the Third is dead, but his soul is not at peace. Guided by a quixotic raven, he makes his way through the space in between life and dead, searching for the angel who will lead him to what is next, whatever that may be. Meanwhile, at an Abbey in Oxenbridge, a monk named…
Read MoreAward-winning West Australian writer, Brooke Dunnell, published her second novel earlier this year, turning her pen to the climate crisis and modern motherhood. While her first novel, the Fogarty Literary Award winning The Glass House explored themes of aging parents and suburban life, the follow-up, Last Best Chance has a bit more of a futuristic view. Following two…
Read MoreJulia Lawrinson, known for her books for young adult and middle grade readers, has written about her own life before – albeit in a highly fictionalised way. Longtime readers of Lawrinson’s work will recognise elements of her new memoir, How to Avoid a Happy Life, released this May through Fremantle Press. And though the book itself…
Read MoreKatherine Allum‘s debut novel was released in May after winning the 2023 Fogarty Literary Award last year. The Skeleton House is the story of Meg, a young woman living in a tight-knit Mormon community in a small American town outside Las Vegas, Nevada. Meg lives with her husband and two children in a caravan when…
Read MoreThere are books where you feel like you are watching the action unfold and there are books where you feel like you are somehow part of the action. The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wasteland, a historical fantasy by Sarah Brooks, is certainly one of the latter. This is largely due to its intimate setting on…
Read MoreWe have already sped on past the halfway point of the year and we’re edging ever closer to the busiest time of the bookselling year. As ever there is another bumper selection of books being published in the coming months to comb through. From fantasy to horror, from historical fiction to mythic retellings, and from…
Read MoreI recently spoke to Kat Kruimink about her brand new novel, Heartsease, a complicated book about familial ties, friendships, flowers, grief, trauma, memory, ghosts, and sisterly love. You can read my review of the book HERE, and read on for our interview! Hi Kate, thank you so much for taking time out of your day…
Read MoreA diary is the only place that someone writes with complete candour. So, only in a diary do we often get the truest insight into a person’s life and motivations. Dune: Exposures may be billed as a photo book, and although it’s true that Dune 2 cinematographer Greg Fraiser has taken some gorgeous photos capturing…
Read MoreA portrait of two people, of their grief and regrets and relationships, Depth of Field is author and photographer Kirsty Iltners’ emotionally charged and deeply effective debut novel. It was the winner of the 2023 Dorothy Hewett Award, and it’s a beautiful novel well deserving of its accolades. Told through simple yet evocative prose, Depth…
Read MoreLast month saw Australian musician and writer Ziggy Alberts release sun memos, his second collection of poetry. The collection, was self-published, through his family founded independent imprint Commonfolk Publishing. It follows the release of Alberts’s first collection brainwaves, which was released in 2021. As you would expect from someone who has made a name from…
Read MoreCrime writing duo, Nicci French (a.k.a. husband and wife team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French) returned with a new detective series earlier this year. The first offering, Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? is set to be the first in the Maud O’Connor detective series. Though curiously, the eponymous heroine does not actually appear until the latter…
Read MoreThis past week, Brisbane hosted its annual Brisbane Writers Festival, drawing thousands of eager bookworms to Southbank for four days of literary celebration. With 150 events packed over four days, there was certainly plenty on offer. Featuring author panels, speeches, and performances showcasing both international and domestic talents from blockbuster bestsellers to literary luminaries, BWF…
Read More“Here, one man becomes a multiplicity. Here, the star is both indie and a block, busting.” – Scott-Patrick Mitchell, “Hello Keanu” Canadian actor Keanu Reeves has captured hearts around the globe with his thrilling action blockbusters on screen and genuine affable nature off-screen. Hello Keanu! is a quirky love-letter to the actor from the contemporary poets…
Read MoreFollowing his well-regarded first novel The Whitewash, Siang Lu returns to long form fiction with his latest novel Ghost Cities, an unusual tale filled with imaginative twists and turns, philosophical discussions and sparks of dry humour. Ghost Cities is a novel told in two parts. The first in the modern day, follows a young man…
Read MoreSome books really pack a punch, stuffing so much into their pages that it’s difficult to know where to start in a review. Kaliane Bradley‘s The Ministry of Time is one such book. The endorsements plastered across the cover and inside pages describe it as everything from clever, witty, charming and wonderful, to brilliant, thrilling,…
Read MoreBestselling author of historical fiction, Lauren Chater returned this year with her latest novel, The Beauties – a story of independence, loyalty, desire and fine art. The novel follows Emilia Lennox, a noblewoman who loses everything when it is discovered that her husband’s family have aided and abetted traitors to the crown in the years following the restoration…
Read MoreAuthor and former journalist Erina Reddan delves into grief, cults, and power in her latest novel Deep in the Forest. The result is a thriller which, though not perfect, holds a deliciously tense and twisty layered mystery. As her hometown’s resident pariah and suspected arsonist, our protagonist Charli is a young woman who spends most…
Read MoreKate Kruimink, the Fiction Editor at Tasmania’s literary magazine Island, has just released her second book – Heartsease. Heartsease is a beautifully complicated story that focuses on two sisters, Charlotte (Lot) and Ellen (Nelly), who are doing their best to process their mother’s death while also trying to get sober at a retreat. However, this…
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