October Gleaner 2022

gleaner gleebooks

From David’s Desk

As the title might suggest, Gail Jones’s Salonika Burning is a tough book to read. But it’s arresting, gripping, profound, and altogether rewarding.

Set around the historical facts of the razing of the Ottoman city during the First World War; it centres on the experiences of four historical figures (one of them is Miles Franklin) who have found themselves embroiled in the horrors of war as they work at a field hospital near the ruined city. Their past and present lives are beautifully interwoven in a narrative that explores how to find meaning and a way to live in a time of chaos and destruction.

If you’re not a fan of Elizabeth Strout and her Lucy books, you’re missing out. The third, Lucy by the Sea (November), is a quiet and wise masterpiece, just like the earlier two Lucy books. Lucy is literally by the sea, in Maine, after her ex-husband, William (of Oh William!, the second of the Lucy Barton books), pleads with her to escape Covid-engulfed New York in March 2020. This novel was written out of Lucy’s rememberings and anxieties, and as such, it stands alongside, but separate from, the early books. Everything is refracted through the prism of Lucy’s understanding, and it’s Strout’s wonderful gift to make something rich and satisfying. What a wonderful writer.

Heather Rose is a gifted writer, but I didn’t know what to expect from her memoir, though the title Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here (November) is inviting and intriguing. It is, as the cover endorsement says, compelling and utterly surprising. The crucial rationale in the book for the disarming candour and revelatory rendering of self, is a family tragedy that profoundly transformed the course of the lives of all close to her (she was a child of twelve at the time). What follows is an account of a life lived and being lived with extraordinary passion and joy. It’s a journey well worth telling and exceptionally well-told.

More, much more to come in the springtime of fabulous reading.

Meanwhile, I’m sinking blissfully into Jane Harper’s Exiles, thrilled with her reprising of Aaron Falk from The Dry.

Australian Literature

International Literature

Biography & Memoir

Thrillers & Crime Fiction

p. 6

p. 8

p. 3 p. 4 p. 11

Essays & Criticism p. 13

Science & Environment

History & Politics p. 14

Self-Help & Psychology

p. 16

Philosophy & Culture Studies p. 18 p. 19

Kids p. 20

Teen Fiction & YA p. 22 p. 24

Performing Arts & Poetry

p. 12 p. 27

Art & Photography p. 26

Specials

Events p. 28

At a busy festival site, a baby lies alone in her pram, her mother vanishing into the crowds. A year on, Kim Gillespie’s absence casts a long shadow as her friends and loved ones gather to welcome a new addition to the family. Joining the celebrations is federal investigator Aaron Falk. But soon he begins to suspect this tight-knit group may be more fractured than it seems. Dark questions linger as long-ago truths begin to emerge.

Seeing Other People

After two years of lockdowns, there’s change in the air. Eleanor has just broken up with her boyfriend, Charlie’s career as an actress is starting up again. They’re finally ready to pursue their dreams— relationships, career, family—if only they can work out what it is they really want. When principles and desires clash, the sisters are forced to ask: where is the line between self-love and selfishness?

Moon Sugar

Angela Meyer

Mila can’t shake her grief for the life she thought she’d have. She’s broke, childless, and single. But her developing relationship with Josh, a ‘sugar baby’, opens her eyes to new possibilities. When Josh goes missing on a trip to Europe – a presumed suicide, Mila suspects something is amiss. She feels compelled to trace Josh’s steps across Budapest, Prague and Berlin, seeking clues in his last posts online. Is running toward danger the only way for Mila to meet her true capacity? Or will it mean yet more loss?

The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre

Natasha Lester

After spearheading several successful advertising campaigns in New York, PR wizard Alix St Pierre finds herself recruited into a fledgling US intelligence organisation. She is tasked with getting close to a Nazi who might be willing to help the Allied forces. Alix moves to Paris after the war, to run the Service de la Presse for the yet-to-be-launched House of Christian Dior. But when a figure from the war reappears and threatens to destroy her future, Alix realises that only she can right the wrongs of the past and bring him to justice.

Double Lives

Kate McCaffrey

Newly returned to Western Australia, journalist Amy Rhinehart pitches a crime podcast to increase her radio station’s ratings. Her idea: to use the listeners of the show as its co-creators, with live-time calls and suggestion boards. The case: Jonah Scott, who pleaded guilty for the murder of his girlfriend—and whose body Jonah went to great lengths to hide. Amy believes there is something darker at the heart of this case and sets out into a world of drugs, sex, gender identity and religious cults.

Fiona Kelly McGregor

Who is Iris Webber? A thief, a fighter, a wife, a lover. A musician, a worker, a big-hearted fool. A woman who has prevailed against the toughest gangsters of the day, defying police time and again, yet is now trapped in a prison cell. Guilty or innocent? Based on actual events and set in an era of cataclysmic change, here is a fierce, fascinating tale of a woman who couldn’t be held back.

The Sun Walks Down

Fiona McFarlane

In Octember 1883, the South Australian town of Fairly huddles under strange, vivid sunsets. Six-year-old Denny Wallace has gone missing during a dust storm, and the whole town is intent on finding him. As they search the desert and mountains for the lost child, the residents of Fairly - newlyweds, landowners, farmers, policemen - explore their own relationships with the complex landscape and the unsettling history of the Flinders Ranges.

This Devastating Fever

Alice had not expected to spend most of the twenty-first century writing about Leonard Woolf. Uncertain of what to do as the new year rolls in, she picks up an unfinished project and finds herself trapped with the ghosts of writers past. What began as a novel about a member of the Bloomsbury Set, colonial administrator, publisher and husband of one the most famous English writers of the last hundred years becomes something else altogether.

Jane Harper

Diana Reid

Sophie Cunningham

Highly Recommended

A Ballet of Lepers

Leonard Cohen

Allen & Unwin, $33.00

Leonard Cohen explores themes that would come to permeate his later works - shame stemming from feelings of unworthiness; sexual desire, in all its sacred and profane dimensions; and longing, whether it be for love, family, freedom or transcendence. A haunting examination of these elements in tandem, this novel and stories are about toxic relationships and the lengths we go to maintain them.

Liberation Day

George Saunders

Bloomsbury, $30.00

George Saunders is back wit a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose - wickedly funny, unsentimental, and perfectly tuned - Saunders continues to challenge and surprise- here is a collection of prismatic, deeply resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality.

The Winners

Fredrik Backman

Simon & Schuster, $33.00

Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there’s something about this place that prevents it. As the locals of Beartown struggle to overcome the past, great change is on the horizon. Someone is coming home after a long time away. Someone will fall in love, someone will try to fix their marriage, and someone will submit to hate. What are the residents of Beartown willing to sacrifice for their home? Everything.

Nights of Plague

Orhan Pamuk

Penguin, $33.00

In 1901, with the stealth of a spy vessel, the royal ship Azizye approaches the famous vistas of Mingheria. The ship carries Princess Pakize, her doctor husband, and the Royal Chemist, Bonkowski Pasha. Each of them holds a separate mission. Not all of them will survive the weeks ahead. There are rumours of a deadly plague, but it is not the only killer. Soon, the eyes of the world will turn to this ancient island, where the future of a fragile empire is at stake.

Acting Class

Ten strangers are brought together under the tutelage of John Smith, a mysterious and morally questionable leader. The group of social misfits and restless searchers have one thing in common: they are out of step with their surroundings and desperate for change. With thrumming unease, the class sinks deeper into their lessons as the process demands increasing devotion. When the line between real life and imagination begins to blur, the group’s deepest fears and desires are laid bare.

Our Missing Hearts

Celeste Ng

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in Harvard’s library. He knows not to ask too many questions, stand out too much, stray too far. When the authorities force the libraries to remove books seen as unpatriotic, including the work of Bird’s mother who left them years ago, Bird isn’t one to protest. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is drawn into a quest to find her. A deeply heart-wrenching novel.

Swanfolk

Kristin Omarsdottir

In the not-too-distant future, a young spy named Elisabet Eva is about to discover something that will upend her carefully controlled life. Elisabet’s work is the lynchpin of her existence in the city; her friends and social life centre around the Special Unit. On her solitary walks along the lake, she sees two creatures emerging from the water, halfhuman, half-swan. She follows them through tangles of thickets into a strange new reality. An astonishing mind-bending novel.

Kaikeyi

Vaishnavi Patel

A retelling of the life of the infamous queen from Indian epic the Ramayana. The only daughter of a king, Kaikeyi watches as her mother is banished and her own worth is reduced to what marriage alliance she can secure. She turns to her mother’s library and discovers a magic that is hers alone and transforms herself from an overlooked princess into a warrior, diplomat and favoured queen. But when evils from her childhood stories threaten her world, the path she has forged clashes with the destiny the gods have chosen for her family. A must for readers of historical and mythological retellings.

Nick Drnaso

Read Australian writers

New books from Text Publishing

An extraordinary chronicle of life, land and love by the award-winning author of Flames and

Rain Heron

of Australia’s finest writers.’

An immensely powerful memoir of a boyhood in Australia’s underclass, and an unlikely escape into another life.

‘Honest…inspiring.’

KENNEDY

Brooke’s new share house has three rules:

pets, no romance and absolutely no unnecessary drama.

loveable rom-com from the bestselling author of It Sounded Better in My Head

A daughter abducted. An anonymous caller. A descent into madness. After You Were Gone is an edgeof-your-seat thriller that’s bound to keep you up at night.

The Mountain in the Sea

There’s something in the water of Con Dao. To the locals, a monster. To the corporate owners of the island, an opportunity. To the team of three sent to study and protect, a revelation. Their minds are unlike ours.

DIANIMA, a transitional tech corporation, knows that the octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence and there are vast fortunes to be made if they can take advantage of their advancements. But no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think about it.

Less Is Lost

Andrew Sean Greer

For Arthur Less, life is going surprisingly well: he is a moderately accomplished novelist in a steady relationship with his partner, Freddy Pelu. But nothing lasts: the death of an old lover and a sudden financial crisis has Less running away from his problems yet again as he accepts a series of literary gigs that send him on a zigzagging adventure across the US. A profound and joyous novel about the enigma of life in America, the riddle of love, and the stories we tell along the way.

Lucy By The Sea

Elizabeth Strout

In March 2020 Lucy’s ex-husband William pleads with her to leave New York and escape to a coastal house he has rented in Maine. Lucy reluctantly agrees, expecting to be back in a week or two. Weeks turn into months, and it’s just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the sea. A rich novel that evokes the fragility and uncertainty of the recent past, as well as the possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire.

Li Kotomi

Cho Norie, twenty-seven and originally from Taiwan, is working an office job in Tokyo. While her colleagues worry about the economy, life-insurance policies, marriage, and children, she is forced to keep her unconventional life hidden—including her sexuality and the violent attack that prompted her move to Japan. A powerful novel about the LGBTQ rights movement and gay love in Japan and Taiwan, from the most important queer voice of East Asia’s millennial generation.

Ray Nayler

Simon

Making A Scene

Constance Wu

$35.00

Growing up in the friendly suburbs of Richmond, Virginia, Constance Wu spent most of her childhood suppressing her bold, emotional nature. When Constance found an early outlet in local community theatre, it was her refuge, her touchstone, and eventually her vocation. Through raw, hilarious, and relatable stories, Constance fearlessly shares her experiences of scraping by as a struggling actress, falling in love again and again, confronting her identity and influence, and navigating the pressures and pleasures of existing in today’s world.

Three Times A Countess

Tina Gaudoin

Little Brown

$35.00

GB SpecialPrice

Debutante of the year. Able politician. Evil stepmother. Astute businesswomen. Just a smattering of the many labels attached to the irrepressible Raine Spencer: Countess, socialite and stepmother to Diana, Princess of Wales. But who was the real Raine? What was hidden behind the immaculately manicured and coiffed public facade? A must-read for those fascinated by social history, the inner workings of the Royal Family, or what life was really like for Diana behind closed doors.

README.txt

Chelsea Manning

Random House

$40.00

HC

Time Flies Too

Al Clark

Time Flies Too is the sequel to 2021’s beguiling and absorbing memoir Time Flies by Al Clark, who in its last paragraph married and settled in Australia after a Spanish village childhood, a Scottish boarding school education and nearly two decades of living and working in London in the pioneering days of Virgin Records. It completes the journey of a solitary boy who fell in love with cinema, and of the man who strove to bring it to life.

The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man

Paul Newman

In 2008, Paul Newman tasked his best friend with interviewing the people who had shaped his life, in order to create an oral history of it. After hearing and reading what they had to say, Newman dictated his own version. Now, this long-lost memoir will be published. Full of wonderful stories and recollections by his family, friends, this book will surprise and shock readers as it reveals Newman’s previously unknown sides.

Random House

$30.00

In 2010 Chelsea Manning, working as an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army in Iraq, disclosed classified military documents that she had smuggled out. She was sentenced to thirty-five years in military prison, and charged with twenty-two counts relating to the unauthorized possession and distribution of classified military documents. The day after her conviction, Manning declared her gender identity as a woman and began to transition. This powerful memoir will stand as one of the definitive testaments of the digital age.

Joan Didion: The Last Interview

Joan Didion

Melville House

$30.00

Some writers define a generation. Some a genre. Joan Didion did both, and much more. But as a bicoastal writer of fiction and nonfiction whose writing ranged from personal essays and raw, intimate memoirs to reportage on international affairs and social justice, Didion is much harder to pin down than her reputation might suggest. This collection encompasses it all, in conversations that delve into her under-appreciated mid-career works, her influences, the loss of her husband and daughter, and her most infamous essays.

& Schelsinger

GB SpecialPrice

On D’ Hill

Spring has well and truly sprung, and with it, an abundance of remarkable new books. Spoilt for choice? You bet.

The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li. Where do I begin? I loved, loved, loved this novel. Moving between the present day and post-war France, Yiyun Li takes the reader deep into the private, intense world of girlhood and female friendship. Agnes and Fabienne are children left largely to their own devices – and their spectacular, if not dangerous, imaginations. Fabienne is the leader – the wild one – in this friendship and decides they must write a book. And they do. Comparisons to Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend are, I think, inevitable and welcome. But fear not - there is nothing unoriginal here. Bravo, Yiyun Li. (And speaking of Ferrante, Kelly in our team just read The Lying Life of Adults - highly recommended).

The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane. I had the great pleasure of meeting Fiona McFarlane earlier this year. Fiona is delightful and unassuming in person – and an absolute powerhouse on the page. Set in the late 1800s in the Adelaide Hills, a boy goes missing, and a frantic search ensues. Against this backdrop, the characters and dynamics of a small town are unearthed in a story that elegantly handles the complexities of class, race and colonisation. As evocative as a Frederick McCubbin painting, this will be one of the great Australian novels of 2022.

Seeing Other People by Diana Reid. Ah, Diana!!! What a year it has been for Sydney’s breakout young novelist! Hot off the heels of Love & Virtue comes Diana’s second novel – and it doesn’t disappoint. Seeing Other People is a thoroughly contemporary story about love, sex, relationships and family. Clever, astute and witty, this is a perfect summer read – you can practically smell Clovelly on the pages. Is Diana Reid Australia’s answer to Sally Rooney? Perhaps.

As this Gleaner goes to print, I am halfway through The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding - I am loving it. Captivating, mysterious and ethereal, there is something so magical about Holly Ringland’s storytelling.

So what has the rest of the team been reading? Dasha has just finished The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith, describing it as an excellent addition to the Cormoran Strike series. “I absolutely loved every one of the 1024 pages of JK Rowling’s brilliant writing and can’t wait for the next one!”

Meanwhile, Soren is excited because Cressida Cowell has released the first in a new series, Which Way to Anywhere! “This is a very funny and exciting book about a blended family who must learn to get along while saving an alien planet and their parents. It’s on the fantasy side of the fantasy/sci-fi divide, but with a bunch of robots and obvious influences from Hitchhiker’s Guide. Perfect for readers aged 7 to 12. I’ve also been doing my best to beam every single word Neil Gaiman ever wrote directly into my brain. I reread Good Omens, Neverwhere and American Gods – and they were even better than I remembered. Anansi Boys is next in the Festival of Neil. More on this as it develops.”

Ava is reading Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel and rereading The Bell Jar by Silvia Plath. “While Plath’s novel can be interpreted as auto-fiction, it’s interesting to contrast the two books as views of New York City through the lens of female depression.” (On Plath, look out for the brilliant novelisation of the final year of her life, Euphoria by Elin Cullhed. Out November).

Zara is reading Vivian Gornick’s essay collection on culture, literature and feminism, Taking a Long Look Not usually a classics reader, Zara is also enjoying Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights - and is looking forward to the new Diana Reid and hopes to read it lying in the sun.

Bring on Summer reading!

Letitia and the Dulwich Hill team

Allen & Unwin

Tilt

A man runs for his life in a forest. A woman plans sabotage. A body is unearthed. Newlyminted homicide detective Nell Buchanan returns to her home town, annoyed at being assigned a decades-old murder - a ‘file and forget’. But this is no ordinary cold case, as the discovery of more bodies triggers a chain of escalating events in the present day. The nearer Nell comes to uncovering the secrets of the past, the more dangerous the present becomes for her, as she battles shadowy assailants and sinister forces.

The Ghost of Gracie Flynn

Joanna Morrison

Fremantle Press

$33.00

Gracie Flynn may be dead, but she’s not gone. Three university friends are divided by a tragic death. Eighteen years later, chance reunites them. Robyn is still haunted by memories of her best friend Gracie, and Cohen’s heart has never healed. Only Sam seems to have moved on and found success and happiness. But death rocks their lives again when Sam’s body is found in mysterious circumstances.

The Disappearance of Josef Mengele

For three decades, Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death who performed horrific experiments on the prisoners of Auschwitz, floated through South America in linen suits, keeping two steps ahead of Mossad agents. In this factual novel drawn almost entirely from historical documents Olivier Guez traces Mengele’s footsteps through these years of flight. This chilling novel situates the reader in a literary manhunt on the trail of one of the most elusive and evil figures.

Thrilling Reads

No Plan B

Lee Child & Andrew Child

Random House, $33.00

One tragic event. Two witnesses. Two conflicting accounts. One witness sees a woman throw herself in front of a bus - clearly suicide. The other witness is Jack Reacher. And he sees what really happened. Reacher follows the killer, not knowing that this was no random act of violence. It is part of something much bigger...a sinister, secret conspiracy, with powerful people on the take, enmeshed in an elaborate plot that leaves no room for error.

Harper Collins

$33.00

Brade

Charlotte Goodwin looks directly at the camera and reveals a chilling truth to the thousands watching her Instagram Live broadcast. She has killed her ex-boyfriend’s new partner in cold blood. But she is not finished yet. The viewers must now vote to decide whether he should live or die. A thrilling read that explores our darkest fears of the relationship between social media and mental health, but, most importantly, the strength of sisterhood against all the odds.

The Book Eaters

Sunyi Dean

Hidden across England and Scotland live six old Book Eater families. The last of their lines, they exist on the fringes of society and subsist on a diet of stories and legends. Children are rare and their numbers have dwindled, so when Devon Fairweather’s second child is born a dreaded Mind Eater – who consumes not stories but the minds and souls of humans – she flees before he can be turned into a weapon for the family…or worse.

After You Were Gone

In a busy street market, Abbie lets go of six-year-old Sarah’s hand. She isn’t a bad mother, just exhausted. When she turns around, her daughter isn’t there. Six years later, Abbie is in love and getting married. But her fragile peace is constantly threatened- not knowing what happened to Sarah is like living with a curse. A phone call claims someone knows what happened to Sarah, but if Abbie tells anyone or fails to follow his instructions, she’ll never find out.

Leech

Hiron Ennes

Tor Books, $35.00

In an isolated chateau, the baron’s doctor has died. The Interprovincial Medical Institute sends out a replacement. But when the new physician investigates the cause of the suicide, there’s a mystery to solve. It seems the good doctor was hosting a parasite. Yet this should have been impossible, as the physician was already possessed – by the Institute. The parasite is spreading fast and these two enemies will make war within the battlefield of the body. Whichever wins, will humanity lose again?

Chris Hammer

Oliver Guez

Vikki Wakefield

True Crime

Killers Amidst Killers

Billy Jensen

Icon Books

$33.00

Billy Jensen takes on the unsolved cases of dead and missing women in Ohio, whom he suspects were victims of undetected serial killers operating under the cover of the opioid epidemic. When two young women go missing within weeks of each other Jensen investigates the facts not found in police reports and faded photos but unfolding before readers’ eyes - and he discovers eighteen other open cases and that no one is talking about it.

Suburban Noir

Peter Doyle

Sibyl Recommends

The Way It Is Now

Garry Disher

Text Pub

$23.00

A stunning standalone crime novel from one of Australia’s most revered writers.

Bitter Wash Road

Garry Disher

Text Pub

$23.00

A gripping prequel to Garry Disher’s Peace, the must-read Australian rural crime novel.

NewSouth

$35.00

Nothing in the post-war decades reveals the underbelly of Australian life the way police records do. Small time heists. Failed robberies. Runs of bad luck. Payback. Love gone wrong. Peter Doyle – author of City of Shadows and Crooks Like Us – explores the everyday crime and catastrophe that went on in the fibro and brick veneers, the backyards, bedrooms, vacant lots and pokie palaces of 1950s and 1960s Sydney suburbia.

Agatha Christie Lucy Worsley

Hodder & Stoughton

$35.00

One brilliant woman writing about another: an irresistible combination.

K LLER READS

the season to be spooked,

new to the genre or a veteran, these

The Watsons

’t

For the ones who cannot resist a good old cozy mystery and screaming “I knew it!” when the killer is finally revealed Dim the lights, and tread into your mind palace with Sulari Gentill as she presents a murder that begins in the Boston Public Library What follows are numerous acts of betrayal and a heavy serving of twists.

make

If you ’ ve got a strong stomach to withstand all things gore and an appetite for thrilling dystopias, Bazterrica’s novel might just become your new favourite When animal meat is no longer consumable, the new legalised go to is human meat, and our protagonist Marcos is in charge of procuring them But his latest specimen might just drive him over the edge.

No Crime Like True Crime

Let’s be honest, fictional thrillers and horrors are great but they just don’t cut it for you Keefe’s account of the gripping and shocking story of three generations of the Sackler family is an immersive read The Sacklers were revealed to be the makers and marketers of OxyContin, which was a catalyst for the opioid crisis What follows is the story of a dynasty

The Scientist

Nothing says horror like science gone incredibly wrong For the ones who have a pre packed apocalypse kit, you could probably brush up your skills from Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. Set in 1976 Los Angeles, the novel details the life of Robert Neville, you guessed it, the last surviving man on earth.Vampires, science experiments, betrayal, and dilemmas What's not to like? And yes, the book is better than the movie

Into The Unknown

If dystopian fiction is your calling, and you are a brave heart ready to dive into all things bleak, surreal and definitely weird, Williams' work should be your next pick The Doloriad is dark and absurd in the best possible ways, circling a family of survivors led by the Matriarch, living in a post apocalyptic hellscape It is an unforgettable piece of work that will also make you question the cost of survival.

Now in B-Format

Essays & Criticism

p. 11

Animal Joy

Nuar Alsadir

Allen & Unwin, $28.00

An outburst of spontaneous laughter is an eruption from the unconscious that, like political resistance, poetry, or selfrevelation, expresses a provocative, impish drive to burst free from external constraints. Taking laughter’s revelatory capacity as a starting point, and rooted in Nuar Alsadir’s experience as a poet and psychoanalyst, these essays seek to recover the sensation of feeling alive and embodied.

How To Read Now

Elaine Castillo

Atlantic, $35.00 (HC)

How many times have we heard that reading builds empathy? That we can travel through books? How often have we were heard about the importance of diversifying our bookshelves? Or claimed that books saved our life? By widening the lens of reading to include the ways we digest all media, Elaine Castillo brings fresh philosophical and moral clout to our discussions of the power of reading.

These Precious Days

Ann Patchett

Bloomsbury, $23.00

As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth as she explores family, friendship, marriage, failure, success, and what it all means. Illuminating, penetrating, funny and generous, These Precious Days is joyful time spent in the company of one of our greatest living authors.

2022: Reckoning with Power and Privilege

Edited by Michael Hopkin

Bloomsbury, $33.00

A collection of The Conversation’s most insightful essays from leading thinkers, explaining the potent forces that continue to shape our worldthe winding back of abortion rights in the US, relations redefined in the Pacific, the UK Prime Minister forced to resign - and how those with the privilege of power don’t always prevail.

$35.00

AFA 16: The Return of the West

Jonathan Pearlman

How has Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed the international security, economic and political terrain? The latest issue of Australian Foreign Affairs examines the global upheaval caused by the war in Ukraine, which has heightened the tensions between democracies and authoritarian states, and has led to a more assertive Europe that could represent a new force in world affairs.

The Superpower Transformation

Ross Garnaut proposes a practical plan to turn Australia into an economic superpower of the post-carbon world. Garnaut outlines new evidence that stronger and earlier action on climate change would be good for jobs and incomes, including in the old gas and coal communities and in rural and regional Australia. He looks at the challenges for the new federal governmenthow Australia can meet the objectives set at the Paris and Glasgow climate conferences - and the growing costs of not doing so. He shows that our national decisions matter greatly for the world.

Plants

Various Authors

Thames & Hudson

$25.00

Plants are the foundation of life on Earth. For millennia, reciprocal relationships with plants have provided both sustenance to Indigenous communities and many of the materials needed to produce a complex array of technologies. This book celebrates the deep cultural significance of plants and shows how engaging with this heritage could be the key to a healthier, more sustainable future.

Highly Recommended

Under Her Skin

Sue Williams

Allen & Unwin, $35.00

When three bombs tore out the heart of Bali and destroyed so many Australian lives in 2002, burns surgeon Professor Fiona Wood and her team were there to help. Fiona made world headlines with the use of her groundbreaking invention of ‘spray-on skin’ to help minimise her patients’ terrible scarring. This is the story of her extraordinary life. Fiona, the daughter of a fifth-generation coalminer in the north of England, became one of Australia’s most innovative, respected and dedicated surgeons and researchers.

Finding the Heart of the Nation

Thomas

Australia is set to vote on a referendum to enshrine a First Nations voice in the constitution as a result of the 2022 federal election. In this book, Thomas focuses on the stories of First Nations People, including some new voices, looking at the truth of our past and present, and hopes for a better future. Importantly, he shares with you – the Australian public – how we all have the power to make change.

The Careless State

Mark Considine

The lives of all Australians are profoundly affected by the quality of social services available, but a long list of royal commissions and public inquiries have revealed them to be failing. In this powerful statement Mark Considine shows that the preferred model of reform has failed to adapt and improve. Considine also points to alternative ways that reforms could be configured to get the best from both private and public agencies, and find a new approach to save these failing services.

Hanging Ned Kelly

When it came time to hang Ned Kelly, the job fell to Elijah Upjohn. Such is life indeed. Hanging Ned Kelly looks at the life and times, crimes and demise of Australia’s most famous anti-hero from a new perspective: that of the ‘rogue and vagabond’ who finally put the noose around his neck. Here, Elijah Upjohn’s tale becomes the rusty scalpel that slices open the underbelly of colonial Victoria.

Wizards of Oz Brett Mason NewSouth, $35.00

In this fast-paced and compelling book, Brett Mason reveals how childhood friends from Adelaide — physicist Mark Oliphant and medical researcher Howard Florey — initiated the most significant scientific and industrial projects of the Second World War: manufacturing penicillin, developing microwave radar and building the atomic bomb. These innovations gave the Allies the edge and ultimate victory over Germany and Japan. Almost eight decades later, this is their unforgettable story.

Ross Garnaut

La Trobe Uni

Michael Adams

$40.00

Whether it’s at McDonald’s, Coles, 7-Eleven, Woolworths, the major banks, high-end restaurants, or on farms, wage theft has become endemic. This is an examination of why this has occurred and what it says about inequality and power in twenty-first century Australia. It tells the stories of individual workers, temporary migrants, and those without influence and connections. It shows the scale of the wage-theft problem, and what needs to be done to change what is, in effect, a massive rip-off of ordinary workers.

The Edge of the Plain

Today, nationalism, climate change, globalisation, technology and mass migration are all colliding with everhardening borders. At stake is the future of the world as we know it. Borders are the ultimate test - can we let go of the lines that separate us? Or are we fated to repeat the mistakes of the past, as our angry, warming and segregated planet lurches towards catastrophe? Combining history, travel and reportage, this is a wide-ranging journey through the history of borders and an examination of their role in shaping our world today.

Papyrus

Long before books were mass produced, those made of reeds from along the Nile were worth fighting and dying for. Journeying along the battlefields of Alexander the Great, beneath the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, at Cleopatra’s palaces and the scene of Hypatia’s murder, awardwinning author Irene Vallejo chronicles the excitement of literary culture in the ancient world, and the heroic efforts that ensured this impressive tradition would continue.

The Storm Is Here

On the morning of January 6, a gallows was erected on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. A little after noon, as thousands of Trump supporters marched past the structure, some paused to climb its wooden steps and take pictures of the US Capitol framed within an oval noose. This is the definitive eyewitness account of how--during a season of sickness, economic uncertainty, and violence--a large segment of Americans became convinced that they needed to rise up against dark forces plotting to take their country away from them, and then did just that. Bravely reported and beautifully written.

How Many More Women?

Jennifer Robinson & Keina Yoshida Allen & Unwin, $35.00

We are in a crucial moment: women are breaking through the cultural reticence to speak out about gender-based violence. In this book, Jennifer Robinson and Keina Yoshida examine the laws around the world that silence women, and explore the changes we need to make to ensure that women’s freedoms are no longer threatened by the legal system that is supposed to protect them.

Colditz

Ben Macintyre Penguin, $35.00

In a forbidding Gothic castle on a hilltop in the heart of Nazi Germany, an unlikely band of British officers spent the Second World War plotting daring escapes from their German captors. Or so the story of Colditz has gone, unchallenged for 70 years. But that tale contains only part of the truth. The astonishing inside story, deeply researched and full of incredible humans is revealed for the first time in this definitive book.

Personality and Power

Ian Kershaw

Allen Lande, $55.00 (HC)

A compelling, lucid and challenging attempt to understand the rulers who did whatever they wished; whether operating on the widest stage (Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini) or with a more national impact (Tito, Franco). What was it about these leaders and the times they lived in that allowed them such untrammelled and murderous power? And what brought that era to an end? Ian Kershaw explores how far individual leaders can alter the course of history.

China After Mao

Frank Dikotter Bloomsbury, $35.00

Frank Dikotter explores how the People’s Republic of China was transformed from a backwater economy in the 1970s into the world superpower of today. Unfolding with great narrative sweep, this riveting, richly detailed chronicle recasts our understanding of an era that both the regime and foreign admirers celebrate as an economic miracle.

James Crawford

Allen & Unwin

Irene Vallejo

Luke Mogelson

Ebury

Why Do Birds Do That?

Dr. Grainne Cleary

For thousands of years birds have fascinated us. We’ve observed what they do - their behaviours, their characteristics, their survival skills, the food they eat and their habitats - and wondered why they do it. This book provides fascinating and comprehensive information about the birds we watch every day, in an easy to find question & answer format.

The Hidden Universe

Alexandre Antonelli

Combining inspiration stories and the latest scientific research, this brief, lucid book by the Director of Science at Royal Botanical Gardens takes you on an unforgettable tour of the natural world, showing how biodiversity - the rich variety of life in the world and in our own backyards - provides both the source and the salvation of our existence. It reveals the wonders of biodiversity at a genetic, species and ecosystem level - what it is, how it works, and why it’s the most important tool in our battle against climate change

Engines

Theodore Gray

From the first steam engines to giant turbines to today’s tiny electrical engines, this book is a visual exploration of the inner workings and functionality of the engines that run our world. In Engines, Theodore Gray explores the glorious guts and intricate innards of dozens of impressive machines. Through his engaging and unexpected stories and Nick Mann’s trademark gorgeous photography, Gray takes us on a journey from ancient Greek steam engines to our most sophisticated twenty-firstcentury machinery.

gleebooks favourites

Aussie Ark

Tim Faulkner

Bonnier, $45.00 (HC)

From the time he was old enough to focus on an object, Tim Faulkner has had his eyes glued on things that slither, climb, claw, wrap, shake, hop and burrow. Over the past twenty years, Tim Faulkner’s wild life has revolved around dangerous and exciting events including crocodiles, venomous spiders and building Aussie Ark from scratch. These are Tim’s stories and lessons from his remarkable life in animal conservation.

Black

Koala: A Life in Trees

Danielle Clode

Despite their iconic status and celebrity, koalas remain something of a mystery. Often affectionate in captivity, they seek out human assistance when in need of water or care yet can also be fierce and belligerent. They are beloved worldwide and feature in popular children’s stories, but are also maligned for a lack of intelligence. Koala takes readers up into the trees to reveal the truth about this extraordinary animal and what must be done to ensure its survival.

Saving The Reef

Rohan Lloyd

An original and potent social history. The Great Barrier Reef has come to dominate Australian imaginations and global environmental politics. In Saving the Reef, environmental historian Rohan Lloyd charts the social history of Australia’s most prized yet vulnerable environment, from the relationship between First Nations peoples and colonial settlers, to the Reef’s most portentous moment - the Save the Reef campaign launched in the 1960s.

The Skeptics’ Guide to the Future

Steven Novella

Our predictions of the future are a wild fantasy, inextricably linked to our present hopes and fears, biases and ignorance. The best we can do is try to absorb from futurism’s checkered past, perhaps learning to do a little better. Steven Novella builds upon the work of futurists of the past by examining what they got right, wrong, and how they came to those conclusions. Applying trademark skepticism, he carefully extrapolates upon each scientific development, leaving no stone unturned to lay out a vision for the future of tomorrow.

The Naturalist

Brendan Atkins

NewSouth, $35.00

Allan Riverstone McCulloch was a leading scientist and talented illustrator, the Australian Museum’s most senior curator and its star exhibition designer. So why has history ignored his many contributions? Brendan Atkins explores McCulloch’s scientific genius and artistic talents, and his crucial role in the development of the Australian Museum. It’s a revealing and unflinching look at the remarkable life of a brilliant yet troubled scientist.

Pan Macmillan

First Nations Food Companion

We know more about pine nuts than bunya nuts, kale than warrigal greens, but there’s an edible pantry of unique flavours that First Nations people have been making the most of long before anyone came up with the word ‘foodie’. Welcome to a foodlover’s guidebook to the First Foods of this continent. Including an informative guide to more than 60 of the most accessible Indigenous ingredients, including their flavour profile, along with tips for how to buy, grow and store them.

The Agrarian Kitchen

Rodney Dunn

Rodney Dunn and his wife moved from Sydney to Tasmania, and set about transforming a nineteenth-century schoolhouse into a sustainable farm-based cooking school. Nestled in a misty valley outside Hobart, The Agrarian Kitchen struck a chord with people seeking respite from fast-paced lives and a meaningful connection with the food we eat and the land that produces it. This collection of recipes from the phenomenally popular cooking school celebrates the simple pleasures of cooking and eating in tune with the seasons, and the rhythm of a life lived close to the earth.

Rooted

Sarah Langford

Sarah Langford had left her country roots behind to live and work in the city as a barrister. But when she found herself moving to the countryside, back to an agricultural life, she saw farmers dealing with very different problems to those faced by her grandfather, who had fed a starving nation after war. Sarah weaves her own story around these farmers who taught her what being a farmer means. Intimate and moving, these stories shine a light on the human side of modern farming, and show us how land connects us all.

Tenderheart

Hetty Lui McKinnon

This is a book about vegetables. It is also a story of unbreakable family bonds, love and loss, and the legacy of food as a way to stay connected to loved ones, including those who have passed. In this masterwork from Australia’s most respected vegetableloving food writer, Hetty Lui McKinnon takes readers on a vegetable-by-vegetable journey, packed with clever and inventive ways to combine ingredients, flavours and texture. 180 new, inspired and always delicious recipes will change how you see the humble vegetable and what it is capable of, forever.

Through her phenomenally popular online food site, RecipeTin Eats, Nagi Maehashi talks to millions of people a year who tell her about the food they love. Now, in her first cookbook, Nagi brings us the ultimate curation of new and favourite RecipeTin Eats recipes - from comfort food, to fast and easy food for weeknights, this is a kitchen-shelf must-have for the novice cook, the expert seeking to perfect technique, and everyone in between.

Oren

Oded Oren

The modern cultural hub of the Middle East, Tel Aviv, provides a true East-meetsWest juncture. The simplest way to describe the food is flavours of the Mediterranean mingled with accents of the Middle East. In Oren, Oded Oren celebrates Tel Aviv with simple, seasonal recipes which pay tribute to every ingredient. From Tamworth pork chop with confit garlic to grilled butter beans with barrel aged feta and slow roast tomatoes, this book is perfect for novice and keen cooks alike.

Bloom

Lauren Camilleri & Sophia Kaplan

Bloom travels the world, featuring interviews with plant lovers who have filled their homes with blooming plants. Learn all about the different types and how to care for them, and find inspiration to introduce and style flowers in your own apartment. Whether you’ve never owned a plant or you’ve cultivated a greenhouse of orchids, Leaf Supply has tips for care, style, and arrangements that will turn your house into an indoor garden.

Garden Life

Richard Unsworth

A gardening book with soul. Richard Unsworth, leading landscape designer shares his boundless enthusiasm for all things green. He gives expert tips on incorporating features from his gardens into your own, and detailed advice on plant selection, including growing your own fruit and veggies. Equally passionate about the power of gardening to help us connect with one another, Richard also shares the garden journeys of the people he has met along the way.

Damien

Nagi Maehashi

Pan

SpecialPrice

oin leading Australian and international authors, thinkers, and speakers in an engaging discussion of their work. All events take place upstairs at 49 Glebe Point Road.

Book launches are free and open to the public. Our Literary Events are $12 & $9 concession (pensioner/student) and free to gleeclub members – though bookings are still required, as popular events do sell out. Weekday events generally commence at 6pm for 6.30pm, and weekend events at 2.30pm for 3pm. Places are unreserved, so arrive a little early if you require a particular seat.

Monday Tuesday

November

6 for 6:30 Event: Against DisappearanceEssays on Memory

6 for 6:30 Event With Paddy Manning - The Successor 2/11

Wednesday Thursday

3/11 6 for 6:30 Event with Amy Thunig - Tell Me Again

6 for 6:30 Event Inga Simpson - Willowman 10/11 Anna Howell launches All That I Forgot

Oct

Fiona Kelly McGregor launches Iris

Al Clark launches Time Flies Too

Oct

Queer Literature Book Club: As Beautiful As Any Other by Kaya Wilson

Events on Monday

Oct

Lessons From History: Leading Historians tackle Australia’s Greatest Challenges

6 for 6:30 with Simon Holmes a Court: The Big Teal

Oct

Events on Monday

Purchase of tickets are mandatory for events marked with E.

Oct

6 for 6:30: Growing In To Autism with Sandra Thom-Jones

Oct

Tim Bowden & Hilary Roots Launch- Ros: An Adventurous Life & One Rose In Bali

Oct

6 for 6:30 with Clinton Fernandes - Sub Imperial Power

Bookings are essential for both free and ticketed events, so we can staff and cater the event appropriately. Phone 02 9660

or book online on our website

An order confirmation will be emailed immediately upon completion of your booking; please bring a copy as proof of your booking, as we do not issue physical tickets. For virtual (zoom events) we send a Zoom link to all registered attendees by late morning on the day of the event.

Friday Saturday Sunday

Sept

Barbara

6 for 6:30 with Andrew L. Urban & Margaret Cunneen SC discussing two powerful books! E

Kids’ Event at 2PM: Discuss Furball with Adrian Beck! Kids’ Event at 4PM: Introducing Trilby Moffat

6 for 6:30 with Ben Schneiders - Hard Labour : Wage Theft In The Age of Inequality

E

11:30 for 12:00 with Debra: We Come with This Place

E

Amber Petty launches This Is Not A Love Song

Kids’ Event at 2PM: Surprising Sea Creatures with Sami Bayly

Hugh Crago launches Self and Story in Early Childhood

Oct

Highly Recommended

The Book of Phobias and Manias

Profile Books

$30.00

Ever been struck dumb when speaking in public? Do your book-buying habits verge on bibliomania? Our fears and compulsions often feel like part of our deepest selves - yet they’re bound up in the currents of the world around us. This thrilling compendium of 99 phobias and manias, rare and familiar, delves into the obsessions that shape us all. Kate Summerscale takes us from the Middle Ages to the present day, using rich and riveting case studies to trace the links between the private and the public, the personal and the political.

Minding Your Mind

Ian Hickie & James O’Loghlin

Penguin

$35.00

The mind is a marvel. It’s at the centre of our most rewarding experiences. It lets in awe and laughter, love and wisdom, and helps us overcome life’s great trials. It’s our greatest asset, but it can also be our greatest adversary, allowing in selfdoubt, anxious thoughts and depression. It can magnify our fears and undermine our best intentions, and lead us into life’s darkest corners. This book is an exploration into everything you’ve ever wanted to know about how the mind works, and the thoughts and emotions that steer our lives.

Tinder Translator

Aileen Barratt

Hardie Grant

$27.00

HC

Ten years after the introduction of Tinder, dating apps have changed the terrain of human interaction and healthy relationships, but many feel like they’ve been sent into the wilderness without a guide. For those dating cishet men especially, the blatant misogyny encountered during every swipe session is depressing and enraging in equal measure. Through her Instagram account, Aileen has heard from thousands of people on their dating experiences, in addition to her own years spent on dating apps. This dictionary of douchebaggery is part reference, part rant and part rallying cry for anyone navigating the sometimes gross and exhausting experience of dating, but also just for everyone who is sick of the patriarchy, whatever their relationship status.

Free Time

Jenny Blake

Swift Press, $33.00

Are you consistently doing the work that you and only you can do? Or are you burdened by busywork, the bottleneck blocking your company’s profit and potential? This playbook is not about working as little as possible. Nor is it about creating alifestyle business purely for one’s own gain. It is about creating a life-giving business energizing every single person who is a part of it, from the owner to team members, to clients and community.

Just One Thing

Dr Michael Mosley

Hachette, $35.00 (HC)

Based on the popular BBC programme Just One Thing, Dr Michael Mosley shows how changing one small thing in your daily routine can significantly benefit your health. We all want quick and easy ways to improve our health, but when it comes to diet, fitness and wellbeing it can be hard to know where to turn for accurate information. Dr Mosley explains all of this, and presents many more surprising scientifically proven facts.

Mind Over Money

Evan Lucas

Major Street, $33.00

Understand how your thinking drives your money behaviour to master your finances and make better financial decisions. There is limitless financial information in our modernday, connected world. This fascinating book explores the things people do to overcome their money habits and looks to instill tips on how we can make better money decisions just by acknowledging our own learned behaviours. It helps us understand our money personalities, our money cognition and why we do what we do. It then takes us through ways we can work with our strengths so that we meet our financial goals and live the lifestyle we desire.

The Journey

James Norbury

Penguin, $35.00

Big Panda and Tiny Dragon have inspired readers across the world with their message of kindness, hope and resilience. Join the two friends as they continue their journey overcoming life’s obstacles together. And although they often find themselves lost, the beautiful sights along the way show us that the wrong path can often lead to the right road.

Kate Summerscale

Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries

Kate Mosse

Pan Macmillan, $35.00

Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries brings together Kate’s rich and detailed knowledge of unheard and under-heard women’s history, and of how and why women’s achievements have routinely been omitted from the history books. This beautiful illustrated book is both an alternative feminist history of the world and a personal memoir about the nature of women’s struggles to be heard, about how history is made and by whom.

The Poverty of Ethics

Anat Matar

Bloomsbury, $35.00 (HC)

The Poverty of Ethics argues that moral principles do not in fact underlie or inform political decisions. It is, rather, the conceptual primacy of political discourse that rescues ethics from its poverty. Clarifying and justifying the seemingly odd statement that morality is left-wing, is the main purpose of this essay. Appealing to philosophical ideas on the essence of language, on meaning, on understanding and persuasion, this book scrutinizes the system of concepts and attitudes informing our common view of the relationship between the moral and the political.

Not Now, Not Ever

Julia Gillard

Random House, $30.00

On 9 October 2012, Prime Minister Julia Gillard stood up and proceeded to make all present in Parliament House that day pay attention - and left many of them squirming in their seats. The incisive ‘misogyny speech’, as her words came to be known, continues to energise and motivate women who need to stare down sexism and misogyny in their own lives. In this book Julia Gillard explores the history and culture of misogyny, tools in the patriarchy’s toolbox, intersectionality, and gender and misogyny in the media and politics.

Road To Nowhere

Paris

Silicon Valley wants us to believe that technology will revolutionize our cities and the ways we move around. This book exposes the problems with tech’s visions of the future and argues that we cannot allow ourselves to be continually distracted by technological fantasies that delay the collective solutions we already know are effective.

Philosophy & Culture Studies

Faber Factory

Stalking The Atomic City

For many, the 1,000-square-mile Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is a symbol of total disaster: a reminder of the day thousands of lives were shattered, now a toxic no-man’s-land. For Markiyan Kamysh, it is a place to relax. He and dozens like him call themselves ‘stalkers’: wild adventurers who sneak past border patrols and police to spend days exploring the desolate corners of abandoned villages and settlements. Kamysh, invites us into this alien world.

When Women Lead

Julia Boorstin

In her groundbreaking work, Julia Boorstin reveals the odds-defying leadership approaches of women running the world’s most innovative and successful companies - and what we can learn from them. Boorstin brings together the stories of over sixty of those female CEOs and leaders, and dozens of new studies. Her combination of narrative and research reveals how onceunderestimated characteristics, from vulnerability and gratitude to divergent thinking, can be vital superpowers - and that anyone can work these approaches to their advantage.

The Passengers

Will Ashon

Between October 2018 and March 2021, Will Ashon collected voices - people talking about their lives, needs, dreams, loves, hopes and fears - all of them with some connection to the British Isles. He used a range of methods including letters sent to random addresses, hitchhiking, referrals from strangers and so on. Interview techniques ranged from asking people to tell him a secret to choosing an arbitrary question from a list. The resulting testimonies tell the collective story of what it feels like to be alive in a particular time and place - here and now. This is a book about how we give shape to our lives, find meaning in the chaos, acknowledge the fragility of our existence while alleviating this anxiety with moments of beauty, love, humour and solidarity.

Markiyan Kamysh

Sharatt (ill)

Books,

Little Baby’s Busy Day

Poke your fingers through the holes of this brilliant board book to make wiggly legs for eight little babies

they go about their busy day! Kick, shuffle, and tap those toes

you and your baby share the joy of reading together.

We are thrilled to be launching Sami Bayly’s new book, How We Came to Be: Surprising Sea Creatures with an underwater book party on Saturday 22nd of October at 2pm. Sami will be doing a drawing workshop where we will be making artwork to pop in our window.

We also have book designer and illustrator extraordinaire, Astred Hicks drawing on our window to highlight her beautiful new picture book, Swifty. We will be showcasing her amazing talents throughout October.

Full of Life Isabel Thomas

Phaidon, $35.00

Science meets design in this graphically stunning introductory tour of Earth’s amazing biodiversity. This artful guide helps young readers understand how every living creature, from the tiniest germ to the biggest blue whale, is part of one big family tree.

Early Readers

Helen Milroy Magabala,

Bush Mob Counting

A fun and colourful way for young children to learn how to count to 10. The characters in this book are a group of animals- Eagle, Sugar Glider, Bat, Platypus, Koala, Wombat, Kookaburra, Echidna and Kangaroo, who work together to solve problems.

further details

kids’ events

age

Kids’ NonFiction

events are free but bookings

book a spot

more details,

Wonders Under the Sun Tai Snaith

Thames & Hudson, $30.00

Some animals are part of a Gangly Gang whilst others belong to the Woolly Wanderers; there are also Legless Legends, Spotted Bottoms and Magic Mimics. These are just a few of the quirky groupings in this beautifully illustrated reference book filled with facts about curious creatures.

Calling all of our bookworms to share their favourite reads! We want to feature more of our wonderful book clubbers in our Gleaner magazine, so if you’ve got a book you’d love to review or if you want to write about an author visit, send us an email on rachel@gleebooks.com.au! We have exciting giveaways waiting for you!

Furball

Adrian Beck

Larrikin House, $15.00

Despite being the world’s most famous spy, Furball is happiest napping or snacking. But when he and and his spy friends, Jade and Kit, visit a waterpark on their day off, they learn Furball’s greatest enemy is using the park as a secret base! Can Furball and his friends stop them before they flood the city?

Or will Furball get distracted by the snack bar?

A Line In The Sand Laura & Philip Bunting

Scholastic, $16.00

In the paw-sizzling heat of summer, Wombat and Roo need to cool their toasted toes. They find themselves on a beautiful beach with more than enough ocean for everyone. But there is one very little problem ... Quokka thinks he owns the beach. And he is not in the mood for sharing.

Sally

Picture Books

11 Words for Love

Randa Abdel-Fattah & Maxine B. Clarke (ill) Lothian, $25.00

A family flees their homeland to find safety in another country. As their journey unfolds, the oldest child narrates 11 meanings for love in Arabic as her family show, and are shown; in their new home, love they have for their homeland and for those left behind or lost along the way.

Come Over to My House

Eliza Hull, Sally Rippin & Daniel Gray-Barnett (ill) Hardie Grant, $25.00

A delightful picture book that explores the home lives of children and parents who are Deaf or disabled. A cast of friendly characters invite friends over for a play – there’s fun to be had, food to eat and families to meet!

My Deadly Boots

Carl Merrison, Hakea Hustler & Samantha Campbell (ill) Lothian, $25.00

Spikes on the bottom boots, my favourite colour boots, making me too deadly. Can the shoes on your feet really make you jump higher? Dream bigger? A joyous, empowering story about finding confidence within yourself, boots or no boots.

The Best Hiding Place

Jane Godwin & Sylvia Morris (ill) Affirm, $25.00

Archie has found the best hiding place. But after a while, it feels too quiet. Is the game still on? Has Archie been forgotten? A rich and atmospheric story that captures the highs and lows of hide-and-seek, and the joy of being found.

The Three Wishes

Anthony Browne Penguin, $28.00

Lambert, Hilda and Ros are bored on the sofa, watching tv and a little bit grumbly. However after a surreal turn of events, the three friends are visited by a mysterious blue fairy who gives them more than they bargained for. Be careful what you wish for, it might just come true. A brilliantly funny story with a moral message at its heart.

Children’s Fiction

The Dangerous Business of Being Trilby Moffat

Kate Temple

Lothian, $17.00

This is NOT just any old book. THIS is a legal document. It contains a truthful record of how Trilby Moffat was accidentally promoted to the most important job that ever existed. The job of Time Keeper. The story of how one ordinary girl finds herself on a deliciously fast-paced adventure, fleeing to an island where time doesn’t exist and cake is always on the menu.

Evie and Rhino

Neridah McMullin & Astred Hicks (ill) Walker, $19.00

A young girl with a tragic past and a rhinoceros facing life in captivity form an unlikely and magical bond after a fateful storm and a shipwreck bring them together. A moving tale about love, connection and the healing power of friendship.

The Ministry of Unladylike Activity

Robin Stevens Penguin, $33.00

Britain is at war, and a secret arm of the British government called the Ministry of Unladylike Activity is training up spies. May Wong knows there is no one more perfect to become a spy than a child. But when the Ministry turns her away, she decides to take matters into her own hands.

Digging Up Dad

Morris Gleitzman Penguin, $17.00

Another winning set of short stories from one of our best-loved authors, on a theme for our times - kids helping adults to be their best selves. Funny hopeful stories just when we need all the hope and humour we can get!

Dusty in the Outwilds

Rhiannon Williams Penguin, $23.00

Dusty has grown up hearing whispers about her mysterious aunt Meg, who went off to live ‘out wild’ and never returned. When Dusty learns that her family’s beloved bushland property might be sold, she knows only Meg could stop it. As Dusty sets off to find her, she discovers what ‘out wild’ means.

gleebooks favourites

The Jammer

Nova Weetman

Uni of Queensland Press

$17.00

Fred has moved around her whole life, one small town after another. She never minded starting over because she always had her mum, her dad and her love of roller derby. On the track she was Fred or Dead, the star jammer, a gun at smashing through a line of bodies and scoring for her team. But now Fred’s life has fallen apart, and she can’t imagine putting her skates on again. What do you do when the thing that could save you is what hurts the most? (14+)

Into The Heartless Wood

Joanna Ruth Meyer

St Martins

$23.00

The forest is a dangerous place, where siren song lures men and women to their deaths. For centuries, a witch has harvested souls to feed the heartless tree, using its power to grow her domain. When Owen Merrick is lured into the witch’s wood, one of her tree-siren daughters, Seren, saves his life instead of ending it. Every night, he climbs over the garden wall to see her, and every night her longing to become human deepens. But a dangerous curse might lead them into an ancient war. (14+)

The Stand In

A J Rushby

When new girl Millie shows up at Lena’s boarding school, she arrives with a question. Why is Lena pretending to be someone she’s not? Until Millie shows her photo after photo of someone who looks like her. Lena agrees to meet her lookalike, Saskia. Saskia is wild. And rich. So when Saskia offers Lena cold, hard cash to stand in for her at family events, Lena finds she can’t say no. Until Saskia gives her one last job, that just might be her last. (14+)

The Killing Code

Ellie Marney

The year is 1943. A young codebreaker at Arlington Hall - the secret WWII Signals Intelligence unit in Washington DC - joins forces with other female codebreakers to hunt a murderer who is killing US government girls. Join Kit, Moya and Violet as they work to crack the killer’s code. A fast-paced page-turning thriller.

Hodder

A Scatter of Light

Malinda Lo

Aria Tang West thought she’d be spending one last summer on Martha’s Vineyard with her friends before starting MIT in the fall. But after topless photos of her are posted online, she’s abruptly uninvited from her friends’ summer homes. Aria is sent stay with her artist grandmother, Joan West, in Northern California. Although Aria has never been attracted to girls before, she finds herself drawn to Joan’s gardener, Steph Nichols, an aspiring musician a few years older than Aria. The only problem? Steph isn’t single; But the chemistry between Aria and Steph seems undeniable, and this will be a summer that will turn her world upside down. (14+)

Unnecessary Drama

Eighteen-year-old Brooke has always been the responsible one who always follows the rules-and she plans to keep it that way during her first year of university. Her new share house only has one rule- ‘no unnecessary drama’. But when one of her housemates turns out to be Jesse, her high-school nemesis, she realizes ignoring him isn’t as easy as she thought it would be. (14+)

Graphic Novels

Neverlanders

Tom Taylor & Jon Sommariva

Penguin, $23.00

Bee and her fellow runaways are their own found family. So when a stranger named Paco saves her life, Bee invites him to join their crew, thinking he’s another lost teen. The truth is Paco’s not just a lost teen, he’s a Lost Boy from Neverland. And he needs Bee and the others to come back with him. Because Neverland has become a war zone and it’s up to a new group of lost teens to set things right.

Demon in the Wood

Leigh Bardugo & Dani Pendergast (ill)

Hachette, $35.00

Before he led Ravka’s Second Army, before he created the Fold, and long before he became the Darkling, he was just a lonely boy burdened by an extraordinary power. Eryk and his mother, Lena, have spent their lives on the run. But they will never find a safe haven. They are not only Grisha - they are the deadliest and rarest of their kind. They must hide their true abilities wherever they go. But sometimes deadly secrets have a way of revealing themselves.

Reid All About It

Two further selections from our Folio Society collection:

Freya Stark – The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadhramaut.

London. 2014. Introduction by Sara Wheeler. Blue cloth with gilt silver titles. Photographic onlay to the front cover. Illustrated endpapers, xv, 318pp., maps, b/w photographs, appendix, bibliography, index. Blue slipcase. First published by John Murray in 1936. This edition follows the text of the reprint in December 1936, with minor emendations.Previous owner has retained the original shrink wrap to the slipcase. Fine condition. $75.00.

‘A mistress of endurance and fortitude in travel and in the suffering of terrors and danger.’

British explorer and travel writer Freya Stark (1893-1993), was one of the greatest adventurers of the 20th century. She journeyed into remote regions of the Middle East and Afghanistan where few Europeans – let alone women – had ever ventured. This is the trailblazing account of her 1934-35 journey into modern day Yemen, still one of the wildest and most inaccessible regions. Sara Wheeler – no mean traveller herself - considers this to be Stark’s best book: ‘a heady mix of hardship and luxury, scholarship and mischief, loneliness and intimacy’. This edition features 61 of Stark’s original photographs, integrated with the text. The binding shows a photograph of a town in the Wadi Do’an.

In description, Stark is masterful: That lovely coast, unfurling for all time on a moonlit night, eternal as words on a page; a dhow, casting off so that ‘the beautiful pale triangle bellied out between us and the town, and moved noiselessly into the darkness of the sea’; the sand foreground of the Makalla estuary ‘whose sober colours gather themselves discreetly to a climax in the living browns and fawns of camels crouched in circles’

Isabella Bird – The Yangtze Valley and Beyond

London. 2018. Introduction by Dervla Murphy. Blue cloth. Illustrated boards stamped with gilt design. xxv, 420pp., 106 duotone photographs and four mono drawings, itinerary, appendices, contemporary place names, index. Foldout map. Blocked red slipcase with gilt design. First published by John Murray in 1899. This edition follows the text of the first edition with minor emendations.

Previous owner has retained the original shrink wrap to the slipcase. Condition – Book: Minor rubbing to boards. Near Fine. lipcase: Fine. $150.00.

Isabella Lucy Bird (1831 – 1904) was a nineteenth-century English traveller, writer and natural historian. This book is her account, aged 65, of a seven-month solo exploration along the Yangtze River in China in 1896. Journeying from Shanghai to Somo, Bird completed much of the expedition in a traditional junk, sharing the same hardships that beset her hired crew: hunger, cold and loneliness. Only thirty years after the end of the Second Opium War and the opening of China’s ports by British forces, foreign visitors were certainly not always welcome. Frequently verbally and physically attacked, Bird writes freely of the fear she experienced and recounts an incident when she was chased by two thousand angry, stick-wielding locals crying ‘Beat her! Kill her! Burn her!’

Bird was also at times welcomed and treated without suspicion, able to provide stunning depictions of towering mountains and vast rivers, tranquil villages and ornate palaces. From the traditional dress of soldiers and labourers, to the hospitals, villages, guesthouses and temples visited along the route, the images provide a valuable record of China on the cusp of change and under pressure from foreign influence.

This edition features over 100 of Bird’s original photographs, including some previously unpublished. The original map charting Bird’s route across the Yangtze basin has also been beautifully reproduced on a larger, fold-out scale, and is presented in a corner pocket at the rear of the book.

Signing off, Stephen Reid

‘Wonderful.’ — PETER FITZSIMONS

‘Enthralling.’ — ROBYN WILLIAMS

‘Compact and easy-to-use.’

FRED WATSON

‘Meticulously attentive.’ VANESSA BERRY

Manga for teens

Assassination Classroom, Vol. 1

Yusei Matsui

Simon & Schuster

$15.00

Meet the would-be assassins of class 3-E: Sugino, who let his grades slip and got kicked off the baseball team. Karma, who’s doing well in his classes but keeps getting suspended for fighting. And Okuda, who lacks both academic and social skills, yet excels at one subject: chemistry. Who has the best chance of winning that reward? Will the deed be accomplished through pity, brute force or poison? And what chance does their teacher have of repairing his students’ tattered self-esteem? (Rated: Older Teen)

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Vol. 1

Koyoharu Gotouge

VIZ Media

$15.00

In Taisho-era Japan, kindhearted Tanjiro Kamado makes a living selling charcoal. But his peaceful life is shattered when a demon slaughters his entire family. His little sister Nezuko is the only survivor, but she has been transformed into a demon herself! Tanjiro sets out on a dangerous journey to find a way to return his sister to normal and destroy the demon who ruined his life. (Rated: Teen) Elissa Says: If you haven’t heard of Demon Slayer you need to rethink what you’re doing with your life!

Komi Can’t Communicate, Vol. 1

Tomohito Oda

Simon & Schuster

$30.00

Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 1-3

Hiromu Arakawa

In an alchemical ritual gone wrong, Edward Elric lost his arm and his leg, and his brother Alphonse became nothing but a soul in a suit of armor. Equipped with mechanical “auto-mail” limbs, Edward becomes a state alchemist, seeking the one thing that can restore his and his brother’s bodies...the legendary Philosopher’s Stone. (Rated: Teen) Elissa Says: Best manga ever written. There, I said it & I meant it. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is the best adaptation. Read the manga before you watch the live action films.

My Love Mix-Up!, Vol. 1

Wataru Hinekure & Aruko

HarperCollins

$15.00

Socially anxious high school student Shoko Komi’s greatest dream is to make some friends, but everyone at school mistakes her crippling social anxiety for cool reserve! Timid Tadano is a total wallflower, and that’s just the way he likes it. But all that changes when he finds himself alone in a classroom on the first day of high school with the legendary Komi. He quickly realizes she isn’t aloof— she’s just super awkward. Now he’s made it his mission to help her on her quest to make 100 friends! (Rated: Teen)

Manga for Grown Ups

Junji Ito

VIZ

Aoki has a crush on Hashimoto, the girl in the seat next to him in class. But he despairs when he borrows her eraser and sees she’s written the name of another boy—Ida—on it. To make matters more confusing, Ida sees Aoki holding that very eraser and thinks Aoki has a crush on him! (Rated: Teen)

Elissa Says: Hilarious and adorable. A boys’ love romance with fantastic characters

Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 1

Kamome Shirahama

In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream- She wants to be a witch, but she was not born with the gift of magic. Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch...until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, travelling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem. (Rated: All Ages)

Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but a pattern: UZUMAKI, the spiral—the hypnotic secret shape of the world. The bizarre masterpiece horror manga is now available all in a single volume. Fall into a whirlpool of terror!

Grace Tame

Jane Harper

The Wilder Aisles

Some time ago, I wrote about a book called The Missing Corpse, a Brittany mystery. I loved it, and when I found The Granite Coast Murders, I was delighted. Both books are by Jean-Luc Bannalec, set in Brittany and feature the wonderful Commissaire Georges Dupin.

In this story, Dupin has been ordered to take a break, so he and his girlfriend Claire Lannoy go to Tregastel, a small town in Brittany. They spend their time on The GrevedeToul Drez, the most northerly of Tregastel’s twelve beaches. The hotel, L’Ile, where they are staying, is owned by Rosmini Bellet, who sees himself as a bit of a crime expert and becomes quite involved in the happenings inside and outside of his hotel.

Dupin enjoys the sea and sand, but what he loves more is investigating a murder. To him, lying on a towel, on the sand, no matter how beautiful the surroundings, is like hell on earth. However, he has been ordered not to work, while his girlfriend has been told to keep him from any involvement if, by any chance, a murder takes place. She, a cardiologist, has also agreed not to get involved with any medical issues that may come her way. We shall see if they keep their word.

At first, there are rumours about a stolen statue of a saint, which provides a small amount of interest. But, when a tourist goes missing and an attack is made on a deputy to the local assembly, Dupin’s interest is most definitely aroused. Later, when a corpse is found, he tries to be part of the investigation, but orders have been given to the local police and the officers at his headquarters not to provide him with any information. Even his friend Nolwenn, who works with Dupin, won’t help. Later on, as Dupin conducts a secret investigation with the help of his neighbours, and Nolwenn finds out that something she loves in the area where Dupin is threatened, she is more than happy to help.

Dupin, of course, has to keep all this hidden from his partner Claire, which means many phone calls made in secret, an unnecessary visit to the barber, and lots of conversations with Monsieur Bellet, who thinks of himself as Dupin’s offsider. When Dupin discovers that Claire has been talking to her hospital about this complex case, he realises that neither of them held their bargain.

Hetty Lui McKinnon

This is such a good book. The characters are great, and the story has enough twists to keep you reading. I have always loved Brittany, although maybe the idea of it, rather than the reality. I had the chance to go there once but didn’t take it. The description of the area known as The Granite Coast- the amazing pink rock formations, the fantastic shape of the huge lumps of granite lying on the sand and in the sea, and the tall twisted groups of granite, towering over the small cove where each day, Dupin and Claire laid the towels, and pretended to be on vacation, made me regret my lost opportunity.

After reading these books, I looked up the history of Brittany, that mystical place where legends of fairies and the devil abound and links to Celtic myths and ancient druid cults.

Fiona Kelly McGregor

Until next time,

Janice

Atticus Poetry

A collection of new and beloved poems from Atticus. He captures what is both raw and relatable about the smallest and the grandest moments in life: the first glimpse of a new love in Paris; skinny dipping on a summer’s night; or the irrepressible exuberance of the female spirit; Atticus distils the most exhilarating highs and the heart-breaking lows of life and love into a few perfectly evocative lines, ensuring that his words will become etched in your mind and will awaken your sense of adventure.

Mourning Is Women’s Business

Lee Cataldi

These poems were written over a period of about 20 years. Some relate to living in an Aboriginal community in WA with the last speakers of the Ngardi language. The India poems are the result of spending 3 months meeting poets in India on an Asialink grant. The other poems relate to growing old, the great leveler.

Lost Music of the Holocaust

Francesco Lotoro

For more than thirty years Francesco Lotoro, an Italian pianist and composer has been on an odyssey to recover music written by the inmates of Adolf Hitler’s concentration camps and the gulags of Stalin’s Soviet Union. Across three decades of relentless investigation, Lotoro unearthed over eight thousand unpublished works of music, ten thousand documents as well as locating and interviewing many survivors who in a previous life had been trained musicians and composers.

Highly Recommended

Googlecholia

Michael Farrell

Giramondo, $25.00

As a many-armed search engine, Google represents both the boundless realms of the internet, and the reductive image of knowledge that we hold in our heads. This new collection of poems by Farrell alludes to the range of emotional affects and feelings that the internet induces.

Here Google’s elements populate and drive the poetic imagination, creating realities in which anything might be related to something else, and the strange, the unsettling and the fantastic are the natural order of things.

A Pocketful of Happiness

Richard E. Grant

Richard E. Grant emigrated from Swaziland to London in 1982, with dreams of making it as an actor, when he unexpectedly met and fell in love with renowned dialect coach Joan Washington. When Joan died in 2021, her final challenge to him was to find ‘a pocketful of happiness in every day’. This honest and frequently hilarious memoir is written in honour of that challenge. Told with candour, this is a powerful, funny and moving celebration of life’s unexpected joys.

Stephen King

Bev Vincent

Explore the evolution and influences of Stephen King’s body of work over his nearly 50-year career, and discover how the themes of his writing reflect the changing times and events within his life. This work also features archival photos and documents from King’s personal collection alongside the stories behind how his novels, novellas, short stories, and adaptations came to be.

Staging A Revolution

Kath Kenny

In January 1972, five women took to the stage of Carlton’s Pram Factory to preview their women’s play Betty Can Jump. They mocked the ocker character beloved by Pram Factory playwrights, and performed monologues about men, sex, and how they felt “as a woman”. On the 50th anniversary of this ground-breaking play, Kath Kenny considers they play’s ongoing impact on Australian culture, and asks why the great cultural renaissance of women’s liberation has been largely forgotten.

This Is What It Sounds Like

Dr. Susan Rogers

Bodley Head, $35.00

Despite being unable to play an instrument, Susan Rogers became an extraordinarily successful record producer - and certainly one of the most successful women record producers in history - because of her ability to listen. In helping readers understand and embrace their personal musical identity, Rogers explores the different ways music appeals to our mind and body, how falling in love with a song is a lot like falling in love with a person, and what your preferred music reveals about what you need to feel whole.

Ikuntji Artists

$72.00

Textiles

Various Artists

Ikuntji Artists presents Ikuntji Textiles, a book about the development of the designs, their stories and the artists behind them, and the collaborations. This full colour publication gives an insight into our range of wearable art textiles. This book is the result of years of artistic workshops and the recording of stories with the artists. The research is funded by Indigenous Languages and Arts funding.

Surf Life

Gill Hutchison & Willem-Dirk du Toit

Thames & Hudson

The women of Surf Life are strong, independent and resilient - incredible surfers who live, work and create on the coast. They are connected to their community and well-respected in their fields. Here you’ll learn about their lives by the sea and their experiences. With stunning photography and in-depth interviews, Surf Life gorgeously showcases these women, their creativity and their coastal lifestyle.

Liam Wong: After Dark

Liam Wong

Thames & Hudson

$70.00

HC

In this singular photographic publication, Liam Wong weaves together a series of cinematic images that reveal the people and places, the slivers of life, that inhabit the mysterious space of night-time cities. Through sleepless and solitary nights, After Dark explores the phenomenon of loneliness in city life, capturing urban interstices between dusk and dawn, from Hong Kong and Seoul to London and Edinburgh.

Life Unhurried

Celeste Mitchell, Krista Eppelstun & Katie Gannon

Octopus

Tasmania Living gleebooks favourites

Joan-Maree Hargreaves & Marita Bullock

From restored historical residences to contemporary, experimental masterpieces, the Tasmanian landscape is dotted with spectacular and innovative homes. Now, their inhabitants reveal how they stumbled upon their island properties. They share their journeys to discovering rich, lesserknown Tasmanian treasures, acknowledging its dark history, and embracing an ever-soslightly ‘off the grid’ lifestyle.

The Atlas of Abandoned Places

Oliver Smith

The globe is littered with forgotten monuments, their beauty matched only by the secrets of their past. A glorious palace lies abandoned by a fallen dictator. A grand monument to communism sits forgotten atop a mountain. Explore these and many more of the world’s lost wonders in this atlas like no other. With remarkable stories, bespoke maps and stunning photography of fifty forsaken sites this book allows one to travel the world beneath the surface.

Creature

Shaun Tan

Hardie Grant

$50.00

HC

Based on the travel and lifestyle website of the same name, Life Unhurried is a fresh and inviting coffee table book featuring 50 of the best slow and sustainable stays hidden across Australia. These covetable properties – found in some of the country’s most underrated destinations – are places where you can truly slow down and reconnect with yourself and nature.

Pathways of Art

Esther Tisa Francini

Peribo

$75.00

Pathways of Art offers an important contribution to the current debate about the status and impact of non-European art in the global North. It aims to foster awareness of colonial and post-colonial contexts of trading and collecting such art works and to help establishing new, more informed and just, and less Eurocentric, museum narratives.

A collection of Shaun Tan’s artwork from the past 25 years. The drawings and paintings in the book come from his work in picture books and other works including films and graphic novels. Others were created for no specific purpose beyond the desire to see what something looks like, or just to follow a sketched line to see where it goes. Many works are previously unpublished. The collection explore Shaun’s use of nonhuman creatures as a motif throughout his artwork.

Rooftop Paris

Laurent DeQuick

A spectacular accordion-folded gift book that is a love letter to the city of Paris, as seen in panoramic views high above the city streets. Presenting a unique panoramic and comprehensive visual tour of one of the world’s most iconic cityscapes, photographer Laurent Dequick invites you to explore, from dawn to dusk, a seemingly infinite landscape of zinc, slate, and copper from which emerge the great gilded monuments of the City of Light.

Specials

Specials

What We’re Reading

Jonathon Reviews A Woman’s Battles and Transformations - This a delicate love letter from son to mother. Louis has not understood his mother throughout his life. He only begins to truly see who she is and who she has been when she finally escapes the disfiguring force of the men around her - both her ex-husbands and her sons. She finally arrives in Paris and finds some hint of the bourgeois freedom her gendered, working class life has revoked. Louis effects a beautiful turn around from a quite sad opening to a glorious happy blossoming. Really, a short book about love, freedom and understanding.

Jack Reviews The Last Days of Roger Federer: And Other Endings - Match report: Dyer tosses the ball high, hits it cross court to Federer’s forehand - it’s the essay collection Dyer has been waiting to serve for ten years. Federer, surprised by its finesse, steps forward, wonders if he has the game to outwit Dyer’s dazzling range and lobs a return. Dyer anticipates it (he sees everything) and whips his racket into an overhead smash...and it’s game, set and match to the reader. Unmissable.

Anna Reviews Her Fidelity - Kate works in a record shop amongst predominantly male co-workers. “To fit in”, she puts up with a lot, at work in the pub but not without a nagging feeling that things should be different. Told with humour and framed by references to pop songs and culture. Lots of those went over my head but that did not deter my enjoyment. The friendship amongst the female characters see you through with rage and laughter.Lots has changed for girls growing up and plenty has stayed the same. The struggle to work out what sort of human I am and how to stay true to yourself, is depicted in this novel. A timeless tale with a backdrop of a workspace that has already become a rarity.

Zac Reviews Bolla - Statovci writes as if breathing on embers, kindling small moments of grace and levity out of an immense darkness. This is true of his moving third novel Bolla, which paints in exquisite detail a relationship between two men, a Serb and an Albanian, against the backdrop of the Kosovan war in the 1990s. Interweaving moments of cruelty and humanity, and delineating the visceral effects of shame, fear, and trauma on our most intimate relationships, Bolla is a powerful and haunting novel about our capacity to heal or destroy one another.

Judy Reviews The Sun Walks Down - This is a wonderful novel which seems to me to live lightly, honestly as a kind of myth. It takes on the Australian colonial story of the lost child. The characters who inhabit this piece of Aboriginal land move across the landscape like pieces in a game for almost the entire arc of the story. Every character, every interaction offers yet more insight into power around ownership of the land. There are no characters you don’t care about. The storytelling is masterful, and the effect it had on this reader still reverberates.

Nick Reviews The Island - The title refers to Spinalonga Island off the coast of Crete. It was, until the 1950’s, Greece’s last leper colony. Hislop has created a beautifully evocative, moving and thought-provoking work, which in its first ten years of publication, has become a best-seller and readers’ favourite. It works on so many levels: as a family saga, as a wartime political thriller and as a tale of lost love and devotion. The Island has rightly become a modern-day classic.

2023 Calendars

Shaun Tan - 2023 Deluxe 12 Month Wall Calendar ($50) & The Blue Island Press Calendars ($35 & $45) are available for purchase at our shops in Glebe, Dulwich Hill and Blackheath! Printed and assembled in Australia, the Blue Island Press Calendars features works by Australian and global artists. Each page has a framable image to keep after the year has passed. You can also immerse yourself in Shaun Tan’s gorgeous artwork throughout the year with his calendar!

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Bestsellers—Fiction

1. The Marriage Portrait

Maggie O’Farrell

Lessons Ian McEwan

3. The Ink Black Heart

Robert Galbraith

Something Else Alicia Thompson

5. The Bullet That Missed Richard Osman

Exiles Jane Harper

Small Things Like These Claire Keegan

Terra Nullius Claire G Coleman

Love & Virtue Diana Reid

All That’s Left Unsaid Tracey Lien

Bestsellers—Non-Fiction

1. Beyond the Gender Binary Alok Vaid-Menon

2. Strongmen Ruth Ben-Ghiat

3. Englightenment Now Steven Pinker

Rise of the Extreme Right Lydia Khalil

Lies, Damned Lies Claire G Coleman

Futureproof Kevin Roose

Everyday Ethics Simon Longstaff

Through Her Eyes Trevor Watson

Always Another Country Sisonke Msimang

10. Farm: The Making of a Climate Activist

Nicola Harvey

For more October new releases go to:

Main shop—49 Glebe Pt Rd; Ph: (02) 9660 2333, Fax: (02) 9660 9842. Mon to Sat 9am to 6pm; Sunday 10am to 5pm Blackheath—Shop 1 Collier’s Arcade, Govetts Leap Rd; Ph: (02) 4787 6340. Open 7 days, 9am to 5pm Blackheath Oldbooks—Collier’s Arcade, Govetts Leap Rd: Open 7 days, 10am to 5pm Dulwich Hill—536 Marrickville Rd Dulwich Hill; Ph: (02) 9560 0660. Tue-Fri 9am to 6pm; Sat 9am to 5pm; Sun 10am to 4pm; Mon 9am to 5pm www.gleebooks.com.au. Email: books@gleebooks.com.au; oldbooks@gleebooks.com.au