AUSTRALIAN NON-FICTION
Salt | Bruce Pascoe | $34.99 | Black Inc.
Growing Up Queer in Australia | Ed. Benjamin Law | $29.99 | Black Inc.
I am so looking forward to this! After reading Dark Emu, I have been keen to explore the genius of Bruce Pascoe in more depth, and this volume distils a lifetime of creative and academic work into an accessible and enlightening anthology. Not only does it feature Pascoe’s most celebrated writing to date, but it also includes previously unpublished fiction. As always with Pascoe, this is a highly thought-provoking compilation that provides us with a chance to re-assess our understanding of and relationship to our long and complex Indigenous history. — Lillian
Scientists, please direct your energies towards building a time machine: what I would have given to have had this book as a young’un! The inimitable Law flexes his curatorial muscles and delivers an evocative collection of stories from across the spectrum of queer identities. From David Marr’s hard-hitting exploration of faith, shame, and sexuality to Fiona Wright’s nuanced account of queerness and the fickleness of desire, the book overflows with tales of love, loss, community, and belonging that demand to be heard by audiences far and wide. Chicken soup for the queer soul. — Zak
The Gap | Benjamin Gilmour | $34.99 | Penguin Random House
The Art of Growing Up | John Marsden | $34.99 | Pan Macmillan
Fixed It | Jane Gilmore | $34.99 | Penguin Random House
Songspirals | Gay’wu Group of Women | $34.99 | Allen & Unwin
After twenty years as a paramedic, Gilmour reflects on one particularly hot summer on the job. The lead up to Christmas is a fiery time of year and in 2008 the Gap was burning! This is a vivid portrait of the Gap as its residents explode in all kinds of hotsummer-day emergencies. Dramatics are faced with wry humour as Gilmour explores the lengths paramedics will go to save lives. Humour meets danger in a very real way! — Dean
If there’s anyone qualified to write about education and youth, it’s John Marsden. After thirty years of experience with children, he pulls together all he’s learnt about the changing importance of education, the role of parents, and what it means to grow up and be happy. A book written about educating kids by someone who has taught, raised, and inspired so many across the world is one that is worth reading. — Ayesha
Gilmore kicked off the “fixed it” movement online when she became so enraged by a news headline about a sex worker who was murdered in her home (framed as a prostitute found dead) that she took a screenshot of it, edited it, and uploaded it to Twitter. It went viral. Now she is a passionate advocate for holding the media accountable for dangerous passive reporting about violence against women. I cannot wait to stoke my feminist rage with this vital work. — Kate
Songspirals, the product of a decade-long collaboration between five Yolngu women and three non-Aboriginal women, is an intimate, eyeopening, and deeply moving account of women’s songlines in North East Arnhem Land. Generations upon generations of wisdom are stored within these pages, and it is an absolute privilege to read, to learn from, and to share such wisdom in our uncertain times. A journey every reader should take in 2019. — Zak
The Prettiest Horse in the Glue Factory | Corey White | $32.99 | Penguin Random House It feels a bit odd to describe such a heartbreaking memoir as unrelentingly captivating, but this book was - I picked it up and didn’t put it down until I was done. White tells the tragic story of his childhood in and out of foster homes and subsequent drug addiction, and while it feels like that might make for one depressing read, it really isn’t. Corey tells his story with honesty and clarity and, more importantly, with compassion. That’s where the hope lies in this book, what makes it uplifting. You’ll be a better person for reading it. — Lucy H. At a reading a few months ago I was captivated by the story White shared of a foiled suicide attempt. It was grim and brimming with black humour, and his memoir is as painful, gorgeous and soulful as this reading led me to believe. It is a compelling read for fans of Rosie Waterland’s memoirs and a unique companion to Clementine Ford’s Boys Will Be Boys, as White offers startling insight into toxic masculinity. — Kate
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