Dirrayawadha (Anita Heiss, S&S)
Tuesday, 18 June 2024
Dirrayawadha is a work of searing historical fiction set during the Wiradyuri wars in 1820s Bathurst and centring on a love story between a young Wiradyuri woman and an Irish...
Adventures Unlimited: The Land of Lost Things (Andy Griffiths, illus Bill Hope, Pan Australia)
Tuesday, 4 June 2024
Adventures Unlimited is the latest series from middle-fiction superstar Andy Griffiths, with the first instalment, The Land of Lost Things, full of the wacky, exuberant, imaginative shenanigans fans have come...
The Honeyeater (Jessie Tu, A&U)
Tuesday, 28 May 2024
The Honeyeater is the second novel by Jessie Tu, acclaimed author of A Lonely Girl Is a Dangerous Thing. The story centres around Fay, an academic and emerging translator who works on...
Big Time (Jordan Prosser, UQP)
Tuesday, 21 May 2024
I’m not sure what’s going on at UQP, but they seem to have developed a passion for speculative fiction, and I’m here for it. Their latest offering, Big Time, is...
A Language of Limbs (Dylin Hardcastle, Picador)
Tuesday, 7 May 2024
Dylin Hardcastle’s tender and steamy third novel, A Language of Limbs, follows two sapphic young women (Limb One and Limb Two) on different paths through the febrile 1970s and beyond...
Fragile Creatures (Khin Myint, Black Inc.)
Tuesday, 16 April 2024
Debut author Khin Myin’s Fragile Creatures is a remarkable memoir in many ways. Myin’s writing is gracious and honest; at its core, his life story is devastatingly sad. The opening chapter reveals...
Every Last Suspect (Nicola Moriarty, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 2 April 2024
Nicola Moriarty’s latest novel combines the domestic drama she’s known for with a compelling hook that will draw in mystery and thriller readers. Harriet Osman lies dying on the floor,...
Ghost Cities (Siang Lu, UQP)
Tuesday, 19 March 2024
Recently fired from his translating job at the Chinese Consulate in Sydney for lying about his translation skills and using Google Translate to do his job, Xiang Lu is a...
Peripathetic: Notes on (un)belonging (Cher Tan, NewSouth)
Tuesday, 12 March 2024
The nine essays in this collection, Peripathetic by Melbourne-based Cher Tan, use the form’s digressive capacity well. In elastic prose informed by wide reading, Tan heads down wordy, winding rabbit...
Country (Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson, illus Cheryl Davison, Wild Dog)
Tuesday, 5 March 2024
Country is a celebration of earth and sky, sun, moon and stars—central to First Nations Culture. Through intricate, warm and entrancing artwork by renowned artist and Walbunja, Ngarigo woman Cheryl...
Wurrtoo (Tylissa Elisara, illus Dylan Finney, Lothian)
Tuesday, 27 February 2024
As a Nunga woman reading to her young Nunga and Murri son, Tylissa Elisara was fed up with the lack of First Nations representation in her beloved childhood stories. Wurrtoo...
Alice™: The biggest untold story in the history of money (Stuart Kells, MUP)
Tuesday, 13 February 2024
An Australian inventor patented the future of world finance. An Australian journalist saw what finance had become and told the world. Business and finance writer Stuart Kells (The Library: A...
Excitable Boy: Essays on risk (Dominic Gordon, Upswell)
Tuesday, 6 February 2024
Dominic Gordon’s Excitable Boy: Essays on risk is a collection of punchy vignettes about his life growing up in Melbourne in the 1990s and early 2000s. Gordon sets out an...
Seed to Sky: Life in the Daintree (Pamela Freeman, illus Liz Anelli, Walker)
Tuesday, 6 February 2024
With breathtaking illustrations, Seed to Sky: Life in the Daintree is packed with fun facts about the animals and plants native to the Daintree Rainforest region. After the success of...
What Happened to Nina? (Dervla McTiernan, HarperCollins)
Tuesday, 16 January 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...
Countdown to Yesterday (Shirley Marr, Puffin)
Tuesday, 5 December 2023
Shirley Marr’s latest novel, Countdown to Yesterday, takes young readers on a heartwarming journey through time, memories, and the complexities of family and friendship. This enchanting tale is a delightful...
Ladybirds Do Not Go to Day Care (Ali Rutstein, illus Niña Nill, Bright Light)
Tuesday, 10 October 2023
Ladybirds Do Not Go to Daycare is the story of Ravi, a young boy who loves dressing up as his favourite insect—a ladybird. He loves brushing his teeth (or mandibles)...
Penguin Oh Penguin (Gladys Milroy, illus Helen Milroy, Magabala)
Tuesday, 19 September 2023
Penguin Oh Penguin is a mother/daughter collaboration between Palyku women Gladys and Helen Milroy, and a charming picture book for early childhood. Gladys Milroy, author of Silver Leaves, wrote this...
Kimmi: Queen of the dingoes (Favel Parrett, illus Astred Hicks, Lothian)
Tuesday, 12 September 2023
For young readers who enjoyed Favel Parrett’s alpine dingo tale in Wandi (2021), Kimmi follows a real-life tropical dingo who, like Wandi, now lives at the Dingo Discovery Sanctuary and...
Edenglassie (Melissa Lucashenko, UQP)
Tuesday, 15 August 2023
Melissa Lucashenko’s Edenglassie is a literary epic that skilfully weaves between the present day, where Grannie Eddie is looked after by her feisty granddaughter Winona and Dr Johnny, and mid-1850s Brisbane, where...
Body Friend (Katherine Brabon, Ultimo)
Tuesday, 25 July 2023
Katherine Brabon distinguished herself with her first novels, The Memory Artist and The Shut Ins, but she has surpassed these and reached an early career pinnacle with her enigmatically titled novel, Body Friend. If a...
Borderland (Graham Akhurst, UWA Publishing)
Tuesday, 25 July 2023
Jono is a young Indigenous man who has little connection to Country and community. While his best friend, Jenny, seems to know exactly who she is, Jono struggles with his...
Every Night at Midnight (Peter Cheong, Affirm)
Tuesday, 18 July 2023
Up-and-coming author-illustrator Peter Cheong casts a magnificent glow with Every Night at Midnight, his heart-warming picture book about finding friendship in unexpected places. With the repetitive refrain, ‘Every night at...
Let’s Never Speak of This Again (Megan Williams, Text)
Tuesday, 4 July 2023
Sixteen-year-old Abby’s life may not be perfect, but it is manageable. With a best friend like Ella, it doesn’t matter that there’s tension between Abby and her mum, or that...
Tamarra: A story of termites on Gurindji Country (Violet Wadrill, Topsy Dodd Ngarnjal & Leah Leaman, Hardie Grant Explore)
Tuesday, 30 May 2023
Tamarra is a nonfiction picture book that explains the relationship between the Gurindji people and termites. With gorgeous illustrations, the text not only provides information about termites—explaining their life cycles...
The House With All The Lights On (Jessica Kirkness, A&U)
Tuesday, 23 May 2023
Jessica Kirkness weaves each page of her memoir The House With All The Lights On with care, offering a deeply personal glimpse into growing up as a hearing child with...
Picasso and the Greatest Show on Earth (Anna Fienberg, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 16 May 2023
Anna Fienberg has had a long and illustrious career in children’s writing, with over 40 books and a swag of awards under her belt. Her latest, Picasso and the Greatest...
Wifedom (Anna Funder, Hamish Hamilton)
Tuesday, 9 May 2023
When researching a new book on George Orwell, powerhouse writer Anna Funder noticed an interesting omission—Eileen Orwell, George’s first wife, was curiously absent. The basis of Wifedom is six newly...
Endo Days (Libby Trainor Parker, Wakefield)
Tuesday, 25 April 2023
Libby Trainor Parker has written the perfect book adaptation of the cabaret show she performed in her PJs about endometriosis. The vibe? Women have been in pain, and ignored, forever....
Feast (Emily O’Grady, A&U)
Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Like her Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award-winning debut The Yellow House, Emily O’Grady’s Feast is a compelling but often uncomfortable work of literary fiction. In a secluded manor house in the Scottish...
