Blog Posts

Big issues wrapped in the energetic veil of campus life

28/3/2022

LOVE & VIRTUE
By Diana Reid

Diana Reid injects youthful vitality into some big contemporary issues – sexual consent and the role of privilege in power – in this fresh Australian campus novel.

First published in The Newtown Review of Books.

Published by Ultimo Press | October 2021 | Fiction, Australian author

Quirky, sensory thriller unveils power of scent

15/3/2022

PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER
By Patrick Suskind

A terrifyingly humorous and sinister examination of blind obsession, explored through the mind of a man who perceives the world not through vision but by smell.

Published by Penguin | 1985 | Historical Fiction

A stunning tale that will hook all word lovers

26/1/2022

THE DICTIONARY OF LOST WORDS
By Pip Williams

In a wonderfully original debut, Pip Williams weaves a moving and brilliantly imagined fictional story around the very real case of a word quite literally lost as the Oxford English Dictionary was compiled.

Published by Affirm Press 2020 | Historical Fiction, Australian author

A wildly imaginative epic

16/1/2022

CLOUD CUCKOO LAND
By Anthony Doerr

A kaleidoscopic novel, superbly told, Cloud Cuckoo Land reveals the power of stories in binding us over millennia.

Published by 4th Estate | September 2021 | Mythological saga

A broody, atmospheric Kiwi noir by budding NZ author

7/1/2022

TO THE SEA
By Nikki Crutchley

The shocking events in the opening pages of To The Sea provide a brutal first taste of this seaside thriller set on New Zealand’s east coast.

Published by HarperCollins Australia December 2021 | Crime fiction, Thriller

Women front and centre of this dystopian thriller

24/12/2021

THE HUSH
By Sara Foster

An unsettlingly plausible near-future UK provides the backdrop for Sara Foster’s dystopian thriller, The Hush.

This review was first published in Newtown Review of Books.

Published by HarperCollins, November 2021 | Fiction, Australian, Women

A wondrous gem that will charm book lovers

10/12/2021

THE CAT WHO SAVED BOOKS
by Sosuke Natsukawa

Despite its simple prose and slim spine, this little gem of a book packs in a whimsical adventure of courageous self-discovery while underscoring the tremendous power of books.

Published by Pan McMillan, October 2021 | Fiction

Searing insider's account of Black Summer

23/11/2021

CURROWAN
by Bronwyn Adcock

This debut provides a searing insider’s account of the bushfire that terrorised the NSW South Coast during Black Summer, and offers a warning: fires on this tragic scale will happen again.

This review was first published in The Newtown Review of Books.

Published by Black Ink Books, October 2021 | Non-fiction, Australian, Women

Teen love story that doesn't shy from today's big issues

14/11/2021

HOW TO REPAINT A LIFE
By Steven Herrick

Rumbling just beneath a light, easy, hope-filled story of two teens finding their own path is an exploration of big contemporary issues, like domestic violence and sexual consent.

Published by UQP, September 2021 | Young Adult, Australian, Fiction

Aussie noir runs strong in new crime thriller

2/11/2021

THE WAY IT IS NOW
By Garry Disher

Veteran crime novelist Garry Disher has kept the Aussie noir bar high in his latest nicely-paced, well-crafted thriller.

Published by Text Publishing, November 2021 | Fiction, Crime, Australian

A lyrical love story entwined in an epic pilgrimage

24/10/2021

DEVOTION
by Hannah Kent

True to form, Hannah Kent’s intense, lyrical prose is utterly immersive in her new novel, Devotion, a love story entwined within a fascinating historical context.

Published by Pan Macmillan-Picador, October 2021 | Fiction, Australian, Women, Historical

Original spin on age-old adulterous theme

4/10/2021

HERE IS THE BEEHIVE
by Sarah Crossan

Sarah Crossan brings a spellbinding, original perspective to the well-worn theme of infidelity in Here is the Beehive, a gripping first novel for adults by the Irish children’s literature laureate.

Published by Bloomsbury, August 2020 | Fiction, Verse, Women

The untold story of a colonial enigma

12/9/2021

A ROOM MADE OF LEAVES
by Kate Grenville

Kate Grenville has captured the imagined voice of enigmatic pastoralist Elizabeth Macarthur in a way that makes you rethink everything you may have learnt about colonial Sydney, in her new novel A Room Made of Leaves.

Published by Text Publishing, August 2021 | Historical Fiction, Australian, Women

Transgender influencer's turbulent adolescence laid bare

2/8/2021

WHAT IT FEELS LIKE FOR A GIRL
by Paris Lees

It’s hard to imagine one of the UK’s most influential transgender women, was a rent boy aged 13, suffered regular school yard beatings and spent time in prison for robbery. Yet, it's all laid bare in the prominent journalist's memoir, What it feels like for a girl.

Published by Penguin, May 2021 | Memoir, Non-fiction

Messy dynamics of racism in a page-turning saga

14/7/2021

SUCH A FUN AGE
by Kiley Reid

Nestled within a page-turning saga of awkward relationships, betrayals and startling twists, Kiley Reid’s Booker-nominated debut novel, Such a Fun Age, provides a witty examination of the messy dynamics of privilege and racism.

Published by Bloomsbury, December 2019 | Fiction, Women

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