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Soaring twenties: 20 years of Hardie Grant

Monday, 23 October 2017
Hardie Grant Publishing celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Books+Publishing looks back over the publisher’s many highlights. When Hardie Grant Publishing was established in 1997, the company had two clear...

Warm welcome: Kyneton’s Squishy Minnie 

Monday, 23 October 2017
When children’s bookstore Squishy Minnie opened in the Victorian town of Kyneton, it filled an important gap in the regional community. Owner and manager Kristen Proud shares her bookseller’s diary....

What next for school libraries? 

Monday, 23 October 2017
Jackie Tang explores the changing nature of school libraries in Australia. In September 2017, Australian children’s laureate Leigh Hobbs voiced his concern that Australian school libraries and librarians are ‘disappearing’,...

From the heart: Shivaun Plozza on ‘Tin Heart’ 

Monday, 23 October 2017
In her second YA novel Tin Heart (Penguin, March), Shivaun Plozza tells the story of a teenage girl who undergoes an organ transplant. The book ‘cements Plozza as a writer with...

Reading ahead: 2018 children’s and YA preview 

Monday, 23 October 2017
2018 sees the release of a new YA series from Jay Kristoff and a middle-grade series from Amie Kaufman; the re-release of a 10-year-old series from Liane Moriarty; and the...

Book blogger spotlight: The Bookish Manicurist

Wednesday, 4 October 2017
Amanda Salles creates ‘bookish nail art’ inspired by the covers of her favourite books. Pictures of her nail art and tutorial videos accompany reviews of YA fiction on her blog,...

Book blogger spotlight: Trish Talks Texts

Wednesday, 27 September 2017
Trish Buckley is a teacher-librarian who brings a critical perspective to YA literature. ‘I have been reading YA novels since I was a teenager, so that’s 30-odd years of context,...

Book blogger spotlight: The Unlikely Bookworm

Wednesday, 20 September 2017
Londoner-turned-Sydneysider Lucy Pearson blogs about books and travel at The Unlikely Bookworm. Pearson reviews and recommends a range of fiction and nonfiction, and will soon be launching a series of...

Book blogger spotlight: Libretto Reviews

Wednesday, 13 September 2017
Italian expat Erica Puggioni now lives in Brisbane, where she blogs about crime, literary fiction and fantasy at Libretto Reviews. ‘I am bilingual and so is my blog,’ says Puggioni....

Blast off: Sha’an d’Anthes on ‘Zoom’ 

Thursday, 7 September 2017
Sha’an d’Anthes is the first-time author and illustrator of Zoom (Lothian, November), a picture book about a young boy’s adventures in space. Reviewer Bronte Coates spoke to d’Anthes about visual...

Book blogger spotlight: Children’s Books Daily

Tuesday, 5 September 2017
Queensland-based blogger and teacher-librarian Megan Daley has a longstanding involvement with children’s and YA literature, which gives her blog a unique viewpoint. ‘I feel like I’ve been wandering around the...

Laughing matters: Tony Martin on ‘Deadly Kerfuffle’ 

Thursday, 31 August 2017
Writer and comedian Tony Martin’s debut novel Deadly Kerfuffle (Affirm, November) is a ‘rip-roaring ride through suburban Australia, its anxieties, obsessions and weird imaginings’, writes reviewer Chris Saliba. He spoke...

A fine art: Gabriella Coslovich on ‘Whiteley on Trial’

Thursday, 31 August 2017
Arts journalist Gabriella Coslovich’s Whiteley on Trial (MUP, October) investigates the twists and turns in the biggest case of alleged art fraud the Australian criminal justice system has seen. ‘The...

Book blogger spotlight: Romancing the Social Sciences

Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Dani St Clair brings her unique perspective as a social and political scientist to her blog, Romancing the Social Sciences. ‘I was inadvertently analysing everything I read recreationally, and my...

Book blogger spotlight: Lectito

Wednesday, 23 August 2017
Since starting her book blog Lectito in 2015, Margot McGovern believes that blogging has become ‘much more fluid’. ‘Most of the bloggers I follow work across multiple platforms and use...

Book blogger spotlight: ReadLikeWildfire

Wednesday, 16 August 2017
BookTuber Chami Rupasinghe experimented with different platforms before settling on YouTube. ‘Although YouTube does take quite a bit more effort to produce content for compared to other platforms like Twitter...

Book blogger spotlight: Babbling Books

Wednesday, 9 August 2017
Multi-platform blogger Tamsien West shares her eclectic reading tastes across her blog, Instagram, YouTube and book club under the name Babbling Books. She has found that ‘deeply personal stories and...

Something wundrous: Jessica Townsend on ‘Nevermoor’

Wednesday, 2 August 2017
Queensland author Jessica Townsend’s debut Nevermoor (Hachette, October) is a middle-grade fantasy about a cursed 11-year-old girl ‘that will hook readers aged 10 and up with intricate imaginative detail and...

Book blogger spotlight: Half Deserted Streets

Wednesday, 2 August 2017
For blogger Danielle Carey, Instagram ‘feels like the most enthusiastic and inviting place to flail about books online’. Her Instagram-based microblog, Half Deserted Streets, reaches 11,000 followers, but she also...

On tour: Reni Eddo-Lodge

Thursday, 27 July 2017
British journalist and activist Reni Eddo-Lodge is the author of Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race (Bloomsbury) and will be one of the international guests at...

Counter narratives: Vanessa Berry on ‘Mirror Sydney’ 

Thursday, 27 July 2017
Since 2012, Vanessa Berry has been conducting deep dives into the mysterious local histories around Sydney on her blog, and her book Mirror Sydney (Giramondo, October) continues that exploration. ‘Beautifully...