Love & Autism (Kay Kerr, Macmillan)
Tuesday, 31 January 2023
Apart from the obvious audience—fans of the award-winning TV series Love on the Spectrum—Love & Autism by CBCA nominee Kay Kerr will also appeal to readers who like to be...
The Quiet and the Loud (Helena Fox, Pan)
Tuesday, 31 January 2023
Helena Fox, author of award-winning debut How It Feels to Float, returns with another powerful, heart-tugging YA novel. Nine years after her dad disappeared under the lake, 18-year-old George is...
Glass Houses (Anne Coombs, Upswell)
Tuesday, 31 January 2023
Glass Houses is Anne Coombs’s (Sex and Anarchy: The life and death of the Sydney Push) posthumous final novel. Perched on a ‘neglected hillside’ near the fictional town of Glaston...
Fed to Red Birds (Rijn Collins, S&S)
Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Rijn Collins’s novel Fed to Red Birds is beguiling and moody. Our heroine, Elva, is an Australian–Icelandic woman in her mid-20s. She’s living in Reykjavik to learn Icelandic, connect with...
Nightbirds (Kate J Armstrong, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 24 January 2023
Magic is illegal in Simta, punishable by death, but that does not mean it does not exist. Matilde, Æsa, and Sayer are nightbirds: privileged girls who have the ability to...
The Glow (Sofie Laguna, illus by Marc McBride, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 17 January 2023
The Song of Lewis Carmichael brought us the excellent pairing of author Sofie Laguna and illustrator Marc McBride. The Glow is their latest collaboration, a thrilling sci-fi adventure with a...
The Wakes (Dianne Yarwood, Hachette)
Tuesday, 17 January 2023
When Clare’s husband tells her one night that he’s unhappy, she’s not sure what to do—but helping her new friend Louisa start a funeral catering business is the last thing...
The Hotel Witch (Jessica Miller, Text)
Tuesday, 6 December 2022
With a cast of larger-than-life characters that almost pop off the page, The Hotel Witch is the wonderfully imaginative new adventure from Jessica Miller, who previously brought us The Republic...
Viking Women (Lisa Hannett, Thames & Hudson)
Tuesday, 6 December 2022
Literature academic and speculative fiction author Lisa Hannett has written an evocative account of the varied lives of women during the Viking era. Hannett uses her vast knowledge of Vikings...
The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About (Elfy Scott, Pantera)
Tuesday, 29 November 2022
In The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About, Sydney-based journalist and podcast presenter Elfy Scott uses her talent for explaining complicated issues in accessible ways to examine the myths and...
Easy Peasy (Ky Garvey, illus by Amy Calautti, EK Books)
Tuesday, 22 November 2022
When Ruby is given a pair of fabulous sparkly red roller skates for her birthday, she expects to be able to skate, equally fabulously, immediately—easy peasy. Of course, it isn’t...
Two Can Play That Game (Leanne Yong, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 22 November 2022
Leanne Yong’s debut Two Can Play That Game is a joyful and fun addition to the growing Asian-Australian Own Voices YA movement, joining the likes of Tiger Daughter and The...
A Man of Honour (Simon Smith, Echo)
Tuesday, 22 November 2022
When debut novelist Simon Smith was a child he was told, ‘Someone in our family shot a prince.’ That man was Henry James O’Farrell, whose failed attempt in 1868 to...
Smashing Serendipity (Louise K Hansen, Fremantle Press)
Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Proud Binjareb Nyoongar woman Louise K Hansen unfortunately passed away before her profound memoir, Smashing Serendipity: The story of one Moordtj Yorga, was published. But the strong stories from her...
Hedgehog the Wonder Dog (Dannika Patterson, illus by Ross Morgan, Ford Street)
Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Hedgehog the Wonder Dog is a picture book with a beautiful aura around it, both visually and figuratively, telling a tender and soul-soothing story of the power of connection—in this...
Tumbleglass (Kate Constable, A&U Children’s)
Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Rowan is helping her big sister Ash with painting her room when suddenly they find themselves in 1999, at a party in the very same house. While Ash wants to...
This Time it’s Real (Ann Liang, Penguin)
Tuesday, 15 November 2022
Ann Liang’s This Time it’s Real is a vibrant young adult romantic comedy with its heart in the right place. When 17-year-old Eliza Lin’s school essay about her fabricated love...
The Matchmaker (Saman Shad, Viking)
Wednesday, 19 October 2022
Playing cupid for the Sydney Pakistani community is Saima Khan in The Matchmaker. Pairing lovers is second nature for Saima until the handsome, young white-collar Kal (Khalid) Ali unwittingly saunters...
Tell Me Again (Amy Thunig, UQP)
Tuesday, 6 September 2022
Amy Thunig is an academic and social commentator on shows such as ABC’s The Drum. She also grew up in poverty, the child of parents battling drug addictions who provided...
The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding (Holly Ringland, Fourth Estate)
Tuesday, 26 July 2022
Esther Wilding grows up in the shadow of her older sister Aura. When the once-sparkling Aura returns from Copenhagen hollowed out by life, and walks into the sea to her...
People Who Lunch (Sally Olds, Upswell)
Wednesday, 6 July 2022
People Who Lunch is the much-anticipated first book by Melbourne-based writer Sally Olds. Known among a devoted coterie of fans for her long-form standalone essays, Olds’ first full collection focuses...
Bon and Lesley (Shaun Prescott, Giramondo)
Tuesday, 28 June 2022
Shaun Prescott continues his existential explorations of modern life in his second novel, which follows his 2017 debut The Town. In the opening pages of Bon and Lesley we meet...
Farm: The making of a climate activist (Nicola Harvey, Scribe)
Tuesday, 21 June 2022
Is it possible to be a meat-eating environmentalist? How do you spend months bonding with your heifers, seeing them as they truly are—curious, playful and happy sentient beings—just to send...
Growing in to Autism (Sandra Thom-Jones, MUP)
Wednesday, 15 June 2022
Sandra Thom-Jones had a successful life before she knew she had autism. Or, more specifically, before she had a diagnosis of autism. A well-respected researcher in her 50s, Thom-Jones knew...
Faithless (Alice Nelson, Vintage)
Tuesday, 31 May 2022
Alice Nelson’s Faithless is an astonishing novel that unfolds as a love letter from protagonist Cressida to her all-consuming love, Max. In the beginning, Cressida is looking after a young...
Enclave (Claire G Coleman, Hachette)
Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Born of social media algorithms and convenience culture, with a biting critique of modern tribalism, Enclave, Claire G Coleman’s third novel, is Brave New World with every conceit flipped for...
Root & Branch (Eda Gunaydin, NewSouth)
Tuesday, 8 March 2022
Root & Branch is the debut essay collection from Eda Gunaydin, Turkish-Australian scholar and writer of academic and creative nonfiction. It examines with spectacular tenacity and wit the real-world impacts that...
The Most Important Job in the World (Gina Rushton, Macmillan)
Tuesday, 22 February 2022
Gina Rushton begins her story in a place that so many women seem to arrive at too often, both literally and metaphorically, when it comes to fertility and the question...
Dinner with the Schnabels (Toni Jordan, Hachette)
Tuesday, 1 February 2022
In this timely new novel, Toni Jordan lends her signature wit to the story of a dysfunctional yet loving family group. Simon Larsen has lost his business and his home...
Unlimited Futures (ed by Rafeif Ismail & Ellen van Neerven, Fremantle Press)
Tuesday, 25 January 2022
Unlimited Futures is a YA anthology of sci-fi and speculative fiction edited by Rafeif Ismail and Ellen van Neerven. What makes it so different from other collections like it is...
