2022 Summer Reading Guide

This season’s best books selected by your favourite independent bookseller

A BRIEF AFFAIR

On the face of it, Dr Frances Egan is a woman who has it all – a husband, two children, a farm in central Victoria and an academic career destined to progress to a professorship. But then a brief, perfect affair and the discovery of an old diary written by a stranger reveal an imaginative dimension to her life that had previously been missing. As a result, Fran finds the courage and the inspiration to risk everything and change her direction at the age of 42. A sensitive exploration of the interior life and the dangerous navigation of love in all its forms, A Brief Affair is an impressive addition to the 15-book oeuvre of this Miles Franklin Award–winning writer.

THE LOVERS

Yumna Kassab

IRIS

1930s Sydney: as the illegal liquor trade skyrockets, razor gangs and sly groggers thrive in the slums. Within this heady setting emerges Iris Webber, known as ‘the most violent woman in Sydney’ for her ruthless retaliation against anyone who crosses her. Using punchy prose and vivid historical detail, McGregor deftly brings to life this infamous yet compelling woman. The real Iris was a notorious sly-grogger, accordion-player, lesbian and thief. She shot her husband and faced court multiple times for mugging, assault and attempted murder with a tomahawk. Here, continuing a theme she pursued in the bestselling 2010 novel Indelible Ink, McGregor tells the tale of an unconventional woman pushing against Sydney’s confines and finding her own path.

LIMBERLOST

Robbie Arnott’s first two award-winning novels, Flames and The Rain Heron, marked him as one of the most original young Australian novelists at work today. Limberlost cements this reputation. Its story follows 15-year-old Ned, the youngest of four siblings living with their widowed father on an orchard in Tasmania’s Tamar Valley, where their fortunes rise and fall with the weather and the river’s tides. Years pass, and Ned grapples with grief for his brothers, missing at war, as well as with conflicted feelings about his own role as a son, a man and, eventually, a father. Nonetheless, he finds hope and a sense of the fantastic in the landscape that surrounds him. As he grows up, Ned learns to understand the delicate balance between the human and natural worlds, and the catastrophic consequences that ensue when it is disrupted.

Highly Recommended

OF LIGHT

BODIES

Jennifer Down

Text PB $32.99

The winner of this year’s Miles Franklin Literary Award is a harrowing but ultimately hopeful study of how trauma can shape a life.

THE BOOK OF FORM AND EMPTINESS

Ruth Ozeki

Text PB $32.99

Awarded the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction, Ruth Ozeki’s novel observes recent social and political crises through the story of one boy struggling to find a voice.

MOON SUGAR

Angela Meyer

Across a suite of fable-like vignettes, The Lovers unfolds the nonlinear story of one couple. Jamila and Amir share a volatile love and a fervent desire to know each other’s bodies and minds. Their passion blurs the boundaries between devotion and compulsion. The reader is swept back and forth through the various stages of their relationship – from its heady beginnings to the increasing fractures of jealousy, boredom and resentment that threaten to tear them apart. Along the way, we witness the disapproval of their families and friends; the pressures of differing class and cultural backgrounds; the frustrations of gendered expectations; and the many ways lovers can hurt and reject one another. Kassab’s mythic, fragmentary story is a reminder of both the potency and fragility of love.

MARSHMALLOW

Victoria Hannan

In her laudatory review of Victoria Hannan’s debut novel Kokomo, Guardian critic Zoya Patel reflected that ‘With Kokomo as a starting point, one can only imagine what heights [Hannan] will soar to next’. Now, with the publication of Marshmallow, we can report that this talented Australian novelist continues to soar very high indeed.

In this raw, relatable and extraordinarily moving book, Hannan returns to the themes of Kokomo – friendship, love and loss – in a story about how five close friends deal (or don’t deal) with the death of a toddler at a birthday party. The ways in which grief can manifest and be mitigated and survived are the subject of this character-driven novel, and they are handled with enormous sensitivity and insight.

MINDS WENT WALKING: PAUL KELLY’S SONGS REIMAGINED

Mark Smith, Neil A. White & Jock Serong

Paul Kelly’s status as singer and songwriter of five decades is legend, so it’s no surprise that the number of books by or about him is growing. This clever compendium showcases short stories by 21 writers, each of whom have used a Kelly song as their starting point. Some, such as Tim Rogers on ‘When I First Met Your Ma’, are about the song itself, while others, including Gina Williams’ ‘Special Treatment’, recount the powerful lived experiences of the songs’ themes. For others, the song title kickstarts fiction – Neil A. White reimagines ‘It Started with a Kiss’ as a creepy first date story. The stories traverse the desert to the cities, but all tap into the memory of where, when and who we were with when we heard these Kelly songs.

DROPBEAR

Evelyn Araluen

UQP PB $24.99

Bundjalung woman Evelyn Araluen was awarded this year’s Stella Prize for her innovative volume of poetry and essays interrogating the complexities of colonial and personal history.

LEAPING INTO WATERFALLS

Bernadette Brennan Allen & Unwin PB $34.99

Bernadette Brennan’s intimate portrayal of the complicated life and premature death of Australian novelist and shortstory writer Gillian Mears was the winner of the 2022 National Biography Award.

Heartsick and lonely, Mila meets sugar baby Josh online. Their initially transactional relationship deepens into mutual intimacy, but Mila’s tentative peace is shattered when Josh disappears while backpacking in Berlin in what is presumed to be an act of suicide. Joining forces with Josh’s sensitive best friend, Kyle, Mila sets out to retrace his travels through Europe, seeking answers to an unbearable question. This genre-defying novel is many things: an unnerving mystery, a love story, a work of speculative fiction and a narrative with a science-fiction edge that tests the limits of reality itself. Meyer is an astute observer of people and relationships: of what we conceal and reveal, of the jagged edges of loss and longing, and of the journeys we make in search of connection.

A ROOM MADE OF LEAVES

Kate Grenville

‘Do not believe too quickly’, we are instructed at the beginning of this brilliant work of historical fiction. Grenville has imagined that Elizabeth Macarthur’s mostly ‘unrevealing’ and ‘dull’ letters were a mask to hide her real self – a person whose thoughts and feelings about her governor husband, the new colony and the people whose country she found herself in were not those expected of one coming from her position and background. As a result, this fictional memoir stands as a reminder to always question received truths. Those readers who missed A Room Made of Leaves when it was originally published can catch up courtesy of this hardback edition, which is offered at a bargain price.

SALONIKA BURNING

Gail Jones

Though her name is regularly included on the shortlists for prestigious literary awards in Australia and overseas, Australian writer Gail Jones seems to have flown below the radar of many readers. This is a shame, because her nine novels and two collections of short-stories comprise an extremely impressive body of work. Salonika Burning showcases Jones’ signature style, which is both precise and lyrical. Set in an Allied field hospital during the WWI Serbian campaigns, it evokes the wartime experience of four real-life characters: Stella (Miles) Franklin and Olive King from Australia and Grace Pailthorpe and Stanley Spencer from Britain. The experiences of these characters, their souls ‘tainted with trench slime’, illuminates not only the devastation of the war but the vast social upheaval of the times.

LOVE & VIRTUE

Diana Reid

Ultimo PB $22.99

Diana Reid’s debut novel dealing with toxic campus culture at a prestigious Australian university was voted the book of the year at the 2022 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs).

THE NETANYAHUS

Joshua Cohen Fitzcarraldo PB $22.99

Joshua Cohen’s wildly inventive, genre-bending comedy of blending, identity and politics set in upstate New York in the late 1950s won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

THE SEVEN MOONS OF MAALI ALMEIDA

Shehan Karunatilaka

Sort Of/Profile PB $32.99

Ambitious in scope and employing narrative techniques that are as hilarious as they are audacious, this novel by Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka was awarded the 2022 Booker Prize.

SHE WHO BECAME

THE SUN

Shelley Parker-Chan Pan PB $19.99

Australian writer

Shelley Parker-Chan’s bold historical epic about Asian queerness won the Best Novel Award at the 2022 British Fantasy Awards.

Alex Miller

Fiona Kelly McGregor

Robbie Arnott

SEEING OTHER PEOPLE

After three years of upheavals, missed opportunities and isolation, sisters Charlie and Eleanor are ready for a fresh start. For Eleanor, it’s a break-up with a disappointingly average boyfriend; for Charlie, it’s – finally – a return to the spotlight and the stage. Diana Reid’s follow-up to the much-admired Love & Virtue is a razor-sharp queer dramedy about falling in love with the wrong person, at the wrong time, and making all the wrong decisions. Reid captures the emotion and heartbreak that seems to have defined our ‘return’ to reality –raw vulnerability coupled with a desperation to connect. It’s messy, quick-witted and bursting at the seams with heart.

THE SETTLEMENT

Jock Serong

In his third historical novel, Jock Serong again shows his gift for guiding readers inexorably towards tragic ends while keeping us wholly entranced. In one of his strongest books yet, the author of Preservation and The Burning Island takes us to the land we now call Tasmania, where ‘the Man’ is sweeping through the wilderness to find what he believes are the last of the Aborigines, offering them protection and a promise that eventually they will be able to return to their country. Later, the Man becomes the Commandant of the small island where he ‘settles’ them. Here, disease in all its forms – physical, spiritual and moral – ravages the inhabitants. Based on the writings of George Augustus Robinson, The Settlement shows us the brutalism and betrayal that the belief of superiority brings.

THE SEVEN SKINS OF ESTHER WILDING

Holly Ringland

This is a luxuriously long novel to lose yourself in over extended summer days. A fabulous follow-up to Ringland’s debut, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, it follows Esther Wilding as she seeks to discover the truth behind the loss of her much-loved older sister, Aura. The discovery of Aura’s fairytale-filled journal takes Esther from Tasmania to the Faroe Islands via Copenhagen, guided by the stories of swans and selkies in the journal, as well as by verses that were inked on Aura’s skin. Symbolism abounds. Gradually, over seven sections of the novel, Esther revisits the past, bringing truth into some sort of focus and balancing her grief with joy..

THE SUN WALKS DOWN Fiona McFarlane

Early endorsements for Fiona McFarlane’s second novel have come from some big names – Ann Patchett called it ‘brilliant, fresh and compulsively readable’ and Michelle de Kretser said that McFarlane brings a ‘profound understanding … to people, places and the past’. Set in the fictional South Australian town of Fairly in 1883, the story follows the town’s residents as they search for a six-year-old child who has gone missing during a dust storm. As they search, they explore their own relationships with the complex landscape and unsettling history of the Flinders Ranges. The Sun Walks Down more than matches the magnificent achievement that was The Night Guest, reinforcing McFarlane’s position in the ranks of our country’s most exciting writers.

SWEENEY AND THE BICYCLES

Philip Salom

The sixth novel by Miles Franklin–shortlisted author Philip Salom is an endearing, exquisitely observed story involving a fascinating cast of interlinked characters who keep encountering each other serendipitously and finding a semblance of family in one another. There’s Asha, a precise psychiatrist with excellent powers of deduction but a personal life mired in crisis. There’s the debonair Sweeney, a compulsive bike thief and a former petty criminal. There are the intelligent sisters Rose and Heather, too alike to be mere sisters but not alike enough to be twins. And there’s The Sheriff, a hardened man with a heart of gold. Suffused with detail, this propulsive read delivers a world where everything, down to the caprices of the weather, is described expansively and evocatively.

THIS DEVASTATING FEVER

Sophie Cunningham

An ambitious and clever novel, This Devastating Fever has many strands – in parts it’s an account of the unorthodox lives and marriage of Virginia and Leonard Woolf (including Bloomsbury characters and gossip galore), but it’s also the story of Alice Fox, a writer living in contemporary Australia who is enmeshed in an interminable project to write a novel about Leonard, a project that Alice’s agent fears will never come to fruition. And that’s not all: along the way Cunningham tackles colonialism, the pandemic, sexual politics, the climate emergency and the sacrifices involved in making art. There are even ghosts involved in this novel of intertwined literary lives – one that in a classic example of life reflecting art (or vice-versa), took Cunningham 14 years to complete.

WANDERING WITH INTENT

Kim Mahood

‘A sort of written equivalent of hunting and gathering’ is how Kim Mahood describes the process of putting together this collection, which was written over a 15-year period as she moved between her home in NSW and a small community in the Kimberley. Mahood’s writing is also informed by her early years in Central Australia, a childhood she revisited in the award-winning Craft for a Dry Lake. So, what has she hunted and gathered over this time? Stories of the cultural spaces where white Australia intersects with the traditional owners of this country, and stories about the relationships between people, country and art. As Mahood feels out the meaning and shape of these relationships, we are privy to her intellect and insight.

WILDFLOWERS

Peggy Frew

The fragility of families has featured as a theme in Peggy Frew’s three previous novels, but it is perhaps given its greatest prominence in Wildflowers. Meg and Nina have been outshone by their charismatic younger sister, Amber, since childhood. But Amber’s life has not gone the way they all thought it would, and now the three sisters are on the road to a remote holiday rental in Far North Queensland, where Meg and Nina intend to help Amber overcome her drug addiction. As good intentions gradually become a terrifying reality, the sisters test the limits of love and the line between care and control. And as the situation worsens, the sisters come to the realisation that they know very little of each other, and perhaps even less about their real selves.

WILLOWMAN

Inga Simpson

Heralded by British novelist Sarah Winman as ‘joyous storytelling at its best’, Inga Simpson’s latest novel is a heartfelt homage to cricket and to those who play it and spectate with dizzying levels of devotion. Unfolding in tandem are the inextricable lives of bat-maker Allan Reader and prodigious young batter Todd Harrow. Harrow’s inescapable skill awakens something in Reader, who sends him a custom-made bat with the best piece of willow he’s harvested in years. Willowman is steeped in reverence for cricket, from the crack of Harrow hitting a ball with the sweet spot of his bat – ‘as pure a sound’ as Reader’s heard in years – to the single tree species that makes the best cricket bats, the white willow. A meditative and moving read.

CLARKE

ALL THAT’S LEFT UNSAID

Tracey Lien HQ PB $32.99

Set in 1990s Cabramatta, Tracey Lien’s debut novel is both a literary thriller and a powerful meditation on generational trauma and social discrimination.

AN AFTERLIFE FOR ROSEMARY LAMB

Louise Wolhuter Ultimo PB Was $34.99 Now $29.99

December Release

Special Price

Featuring three strong female protagonists with complex pasts, Louise Wolhuter’s debut novel tells the story of what happens when a nineyear-old girl goes missing in a quiet seaside town.

& of

BEST OF AUSTRALIAN POEMS 2022

Jeanine Leane & Judith Beveridge Puncher & Wattmann PB $34.95

December Release

This year’s edition of a nowannual anthology examines the contemporary moment through poetic responses.

CAUTIONARY TALES FOR EXCITABLE GIRLS

Anne Casey-Hardy Scribner PB $29.99

Rich in humour and evocative prose, this collection of short stories about fierce, wild girls and women heralds the arrival of a distinctive literary voice.

Holly Throsby Allen & Unwin PB $32.99

A literary mystery about small towns, family violence, identity and longing from the author of Goodwood and Cedar Valley

PLAINS OF PROMISE: 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Alexis Wright UQP PB $27.99

This new edition of Alexis Wright’s brilliant 1997 debut novel includes an introduction by Geordie Williamson.

RESILIENCE

Michelle Cahill, Monique Nair & Anthea Yang Ultimo PB $29.99

This anthology addresses and explores the theme of resilience through fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction by predominantly Indigenous, migrant and Asian-Australian writers.

SONG OF THE SUN GOD

Shankari Chandran Ultimo PB $34.99

Set in Ceylon/Sri Lanka and Australia between 1932 and 2010, this novel tells the story of three generations of a family that remains dedicated to its homeland while learning to embrace its new home.

Diana Reid

ACT OF OBLIVION

Robert Harris

Readers could be forgiven for assuming that because Robert Harris is such a prolific and bestselling writer, his work is more mass-market than literary. However, that would be a mistake. Harris’ novels, which are set in historical periods and places, including ancient Rome, medieval England, WW2 Europe and post-Soviet Russia, feature meticulous research, polished prose and gripping storylines. His most recent book is no different: set in England and America in the decades immediately following the 1660 restoration of King Charles II to the throne, it follows lawyer Richard Naylor as he hunts down the fugitive Cromwellians who signed the death warrant of Charles I. A powerful tale of obsession and fanaticism, it explores the corrosive potential of politics and religion, the hollow reality of retribution and the complicated nature of loyalty and love.

ALL THE BROKEN PLACES

John Boyne

This sequel to the beloved (and controversial) Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is not explicitly a fable. But it is deeply engaged with morals. Gretel, whose brother was the protagonist of the previous novel, and whose father was the commandant of an unnamed but identifiable concentration camp, is now in her 90s, living in London. She has long grappled with the guilt not just of being the daughter of a Nazi but also of having known what was happening in the ‘farm’ over the fence, and for having escaped Germany with her mother in the last days of the war. She has chosen self-preservation and maintained secrecy over decades, but after becoming involved with a troubled family she must decide whether to risk exposure.

BEST OF FRIENDS

Kamila Shamsie

Written by the author of Home Fire, which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2018, Best of Friends is about friendship, growing up, cultural politics and so much more. At 14, Maryam and Zahra are friends at an elite school in Karachi, though they come from contrasting backgrounds. Against the backdrop of Pakistan’s dictatorship, they emerge into adulthood together but very differently. Thirty years later both women are in London, where their friendship has endured but become even more complex as they find themselves on different sides of a cultural divide. How well can we know someone else? What compromises are we willing to make? What defines our lives? These are just some of the questions Kamila Shamsie asks us to consider in this brilliant novel.

Highly Recommended

AS LONG AS THE LEMON TREES GROW

Zoulfa Katouh Bloomsbury PB $16.99

This cross-over YA and adult love story is set against the backdrop of the brutal, ongoing Syrian civil war.

THE BOY AND THE DOG

Seishu Hase (trans. Alison Watts)

This heart-warming tale of survival, resilience and love is a bestseller in Japan, where it was awarded the prestigious Naoki Prize for the best work of popular fiction in 2020. Now available in an English version, it tells the story of a dog called Tamon, who has been separated from his beloved owner, a boy called Hikaru, by a devastating earthquake and tsunami. Tamon is adopted by a series of owners as he journeys south to find Hikaru, who has not spoken since the trauma of the tsunami. Tamon’s journey is recounted in a series of vignettes about his temporary owners, all of whose lives are enriched by their association with this guardian-angel dog.

DEMON COPPERHEAD

Barbara Kingsolver

Dickensian in its scope, social conscience and cast of colourful characters, the latest novel by the author of The Poisonwood Bible was inspired by Dickens’ David Copperfield. Its protagonist, Demon Copperhead, is born in the Appalachian South to a teenaged single mother who is in and out of rehab. With no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and coppercoloured hair, Demon relies on his caustic wit and fierce talent for survival to get through life. Kingsolver, who was clearly motivated by her fury at the current state of America when writing this book, takes Demon on a harrowing journey through the modern perils of foster care, child labour, derelict schools, addiction, disastrous loves and crushing losses, all recounted at a fast and furious pace. Unflinching truth-telling from a master storyteller.

GHOST MUSIC

An Yu

An Yu’s debut novel, Braised Pork, was hailed as startlingly original, and her second book continues in the same strain. In Ghost Music, Yu introduces us to pianist Song Yan just as her mother-in-law moves into the Beijing apartment Song Yan shares with her new husband, Bowen. As a result, family secrets are uncovered: a disappeared sister, a former wife. Trapped and disorientated, Song Yan begins to question whether she knows anything at all about the man she chose to marry. He, in turn, withdraws from her completely. Then, when mysterious parcels of mushrooms begin to arrive on the doorstep and Song Yan determines to track down their sender, the situation builds to a climax. Will she be able to regain her identity as a musician and forge a new beginning?

THE GLASS HOTEL

Emily St. John Mandel

Is it a ghost story? A tragedy? Or an incisive and imaginative commentary on the corrosive impact of neo-liberalism? However you choose to read it, this 2020 novel by Emily St. John Mandel, author of the critically acclaimed Station Eleven, is sure to grip your imagination. Employing a fractured but tightly controlled narrative, Mandel tells the intertwined stories of a cast of characters who collide at a remote luxury hotel owned by New York financier Jonathan Alkaitis, a Bernie Madoff-type character. We meet the beautiful Vincent, her damaged half-brother Paul, a shipping executive called Leon and elderly artist Olivia. When Jonathan’s dodgy investment scheme unravels, the connections between these characters are made clear, and the disastrous impact of their proximity reverberates over time and continents.

EX LIBRIS

Michiko Kakutani

THE LAST CHAIRLIFT

When legendary literary critic Michiko Kakutani retired from her position at the New York Times after 34 years, readers from around the globe lamented the absence of her insightful (and sometimes wonderfully caustic) reviews. Fortunately, one of her first post-retirement projects was to compile this collection of passionate essays devoted to over 100 works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry that have had a profound effect on her life. Ex Libris includes classics (F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Homer’s Odyssey, T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet), children’s books (Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time and Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are) and the unexpected (Judd Apatow’s Sick in the Head four books by and about Muhammad Ali). Essential reading about essential reading!

A BALLET OF LEPERS

Leonard Cohen

Canongate PB $32.99

Written between 1956 and 1961, this collection of writing by the late musician and poet includes a novella and 16 short stories.

BABEL

R. F. Kuang Voyager PB $32.99

The author of the acclaimed Poppy War trilogy continues to explore themes of colonisation, this time in a dense novel set in an alternative version of Victorian-era Oxford.

BEFORE YOUR MEMORY FADES

Toshikazu Kawaguchi (trans. Geoffrey Trousselot) Picador PB $19.99

The third novel in the bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold series explores how holding on to the past can affect our future.

John Irving

Returning to our bookshelves after a seven-year hiatus, American writer John Irving (The Cider House Rules) presents a hefty novel that is part ghost story, part love story and part commentary on contemporary gender politics. The Last Chairlift opens in Aspen, Colorado in 1941, where we meet Rachel Brewster, a slalom skier at the National Downhill and Slalom Championships. Little Ray, as she is called, finishes nowhere near the podium, but she does get pregnant. Back home, in New England, she forges a relationship with Molly and together they raise her son, Adam. Years later, Adam goes to Aspen looking for answers, along the way encountering often-hilarious ghosts conjured by the lost paternity that haunts him.

THE BOOK OF GOOSE

Yiyun Li 4th Estate PB $29.99

Set in rural France, Paris, England and America, this novel recounts the vastly different lives of two childhood friends, Fabienne and Agnès.

THE COLONY

Audrey Magee Faber PB $29.99

Longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize, Audrey Magee’s lyrical novel about belonging, loss and the oft-oppressive weight of tradition is set on a remote island off Ireland’s west coast.

DIARY OF A VOID

Emi Yagi (trans. David Boyd & Lucy North) Harvill Secker PB $29.99

A mash-up of social commentary and satire, Emi Yagi’s debut novel tells the story of a female office worker’s unorthodox protest against gender-based discrimination.

EUPHORIA

Elin Cullhed (trans. Jennifer Hayashida) Canongate PB $29.99

Swedish writer Elin Cullhed conjures Sylvia Plath in the final years of her life in this carefully researched work of historical fiction.

A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA

Isabel Allende

Described by the New York Times as ‘one of the strongest and most affecting works in her long career’, Allende’s 2019 novel takes its name from the description of Chile in a Pablo Neruda poem and its inspiration from Neruda’s ‘ship of hope’, a cargo ship that took 2000 Spanish refugees fleeing Franco’s regime from France to Chile. Allende is, of course, an exile herself, and, as she imagines the lives of two of those refugees who end up experiencing the rise of Pinochet in a country that was meant to be their haven, she asks us to confront the effects of repression and displacement.

LESSONS

Ian McEwan

Ian McEwan’s latest novel may well be his magnum opus. But as his body of work includes masterpieces such as Enduring Love Atonement and On Chesil Beach this won’t be an easy call for his readers to make. The protagonist of Lessons is baby boomer Roland Bains, whose life refracts the historical events he lives through. There’s a degree of auto-fiction at work here (Roland’s life mirrors McEwan’s in a number of ways), as well as great compassion. Not every reader will identify with Roland – he is, in many ways, a weak and self-indulgent character – but all are likely to acknowledge his humanity and essential goodness. McEwan handles the book’s discursive narrative with great dexterity – few writers can match his skill in this regard – and delivers a deeply affecting, moral and resonant story.

LIBERATION DAY

George Saunders

The first short-story collection in almost ten years from Booker Prize–winning author George Saunders, Liberation Day is a weird and wonderful assemblage of nine stories, ranging from the downright absurd and dystopian to everyday settings such as the family home and the workplace where human fallibilities come to the fore. The title story and the first in the collection, which details three ‘Speakers’ indentured to entertain a rich family as storytelling machines, is by far the most unsettling, but no less discombobulating is The Mom of Bold Action where a mother’s pervasive worry about her son gives rise to an unforgiveable act. Saunders’ writing is frenetic and fast paced, charting themes as complex as political protest, resistance and civic responsibility.

International Fiction & Essays

LUCY BY THE SEA

Elizabeth Strout

In her latest novel, Elizabeth Strout reintroduces us to Lucy Beaumont, one of her recurrent characters, as ex-husband William whisks her away from New York as the pandemic descends. Lucy stays in a friend’s beach house in Maine with William, and as they try to keep themselves and their daughters and their families safe, she reflects on her past as much as this strange present. Strout perfectly captures the uncertainty, the divisions, the pure shock of the world we found ourselves in. But as well as this broader picture, Strout gives us again a detailed and deft portrait of a woman. How does she create these vivid evocations of place and character –and most of all feeling – through such understated prose? It’s a mystery, but one we should all be very thankful for.

THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT

Maggie O’Farrell

‘That’s my last duchess painted on the wall / Looking as if she were alive.’ Robert Browning’s poem ‘My Last Duchess’ was the stimulus for Maggie O’Farrell’s latest novel, which imagines the childhood and brief marriage of Lucrezia, daughter of Cosimo de’ Medici and his wife Eleanor of Toledo. O’Farrell’s fictional evocation of Lucrezia draws on the historical record – raised in a Florentine palazzo, married to Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, when only 13, and dead a mere three years afterwards – but is predominantly driven by the premise of Browning’s poem, which implies that Alfonso had his child bride murdered. The Gothic scenario unfolds in a fast and dramatic narrative replete with rich description of Lucrezia’s surrounds, and the book’s climax is both unexpected and satisfying.

What are conbini?

MY SOUL TWIN Nino Haratischvili (trans. Charlotte Collins)

The new novel from the author of The Eighth Life is an epic story in the mode of Wuthering Heights. Eight years have passed since Stella last saw Ivo, but when he returns, the reunion of their unconventional family will change the course of her ordinary life. As children, Stella and Ivo grew close as their parents embarked on an affair that would shatter both families. Later, as teenagers, their own relationship would be the cause of further scandal. Now, as adults, they set out on an Eastern European odyssey to uncover the truth about another family’s past and to understand their own.

NIGHTS OF PLAGUE

Orhan Pamuk

Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk has good reason to steer clear of criticising his home country – in today’s Turkey, expressing any criticism can land people in jail. No doubt this is the reason that Pamuk has chosen to use allegory rather than realism in his latest novel, a hefty work with equally hefty themes: nation building, political repression, authoritarianism, and ethnic and religious conflict. Set against a backdrop of an outbreak of plague on an island outpost in the first decade of the 20th century, the novel plays with the notion of the ‘Sick Man of Europe’, a description used to describe the declining power of the Ottoman Empire. Pamuk’s analogy to the present day is pointed and powerful, and the murder mystery he uses to propel the plot is both playful and engrossing.

NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO PANIC

Kevin Wilson

Hot on the heels of Kevin Wilson’s bestselling 2021 novel Nothing to See Here comes this nuanced exploration of young love, identity and the power of art. When 16-year-old Frankie Budge meets Zeke, romantic and creative sparks fly. Together, they make an unsigned poster that becomes both ubiquitous and infamous in their Tennessee town. Twenty years later, famous author Frances Eleanor Budge receives a telephone call from a journalist asking about the poster. Could Frances’ past destroy the life she has so carefully built? Interrogating big questions – How do we end up in the lives we have? How can we reinvent ourselves? – Now is Not the Time to Panic is a witty and thoughtprovoking read.

OUR MISSING HEARTS

Celeste Ng

Dystopian fictions often speak to our present and our future – this one is equally about our past. Our Missing Hearts is set in an America that has been economically ravaged by a recent crisis and where an anti-authoritarian regime is targeting anything ‘anti-American’. Living amid this climate of intolerance is Bird, whose Chinese-American mother has been gone for three years. Knowing that his mixed-race son is at risk of ‘re-placement’, Bird’s father protects him by insisting he keep his head down. But then Bird hears from his mother. Should he try to reconnect with her? In her new novel, Ng, the author of Little Fires Everywhere, directly asks the reader to think about the policy of child separation as it has been used as a weapon of oppression in both recent and distant history.

HAVEN

Emma Donoghue

Picador PB $32.99

novel by Zimbabwean-American writer

NoViolet Bulawayo explores the fall of Robert Mugabe.

A GUEST AT THE FEAST: ESSAYS

Colm Tóibín

Picador PB $34.99

In this collection of essays, the great Irish writer delineates the bleakness and strangeness of life, as well as its richness and complexity.

Set in medieval Ireland, Haven traces the story of three monks who struggle to preserve their humanity and faith on an isolated and inhospitable Atlantic island.

HORSE

Geraldine Brooks Hachette HB $39.99

Brooks tackles the legacy of enslavement and racism in America in this sweeping story about a famous 19th-century racehorse, its young Black groom and its depiction in an oil painting.

IDOL, BURNING

Rin Usami (trans. Asa Yoneda) Canongate PB $27.99

Written by one of Japan’s most exciting young writers, this novella addresses fandom culture, the avaricious pop-idol industry and the seductive power of social media.

ILLUMINATIONS

Alan Moore Bloomsbury PB $32.99

The first-ever collection of short stories by the author of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen takes the reader deep into the fantastical underside of reality.

LAPVONA

Ottessa Moshfegh

Jonathan Cape HB $32.99

Set in a medieval European village plagued by drought, famine and disease, Lapvona is another original, bleak and perverse novel from the author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation

THE LAST WHITE MAN

Mohsin Hamid

Hamish Hamilton HB $32.99

In this Kafkaesque but ultimately hopeful novel, British-Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid examines the way that race conditions both our reaction to others and our conception of ourselves.

THE PASSENGER STELLA MARIS Cormac McCarthy

It’s been 16 years since Cormac McCarthy released his last novel, the extraordinary The Road, so few literary releases have been as eagerly anticipated as these two books.

The Passenger and Stella Maris tell the interconnected stories of Bobby and Alicia Western, children of a physicist who helped Oppenheimer birth the atom bomb.

In The Passenger McCarthy transports us to the American South in 1980 where Bobby, a salvage diver, discovers a sunken jet with nine bodies still buckled in their seats. Mysteriously, the pilot’s flight bag, the plane’s black box and the tenth passenger are missing. In Stella Maris we are introduced to 20-year-old Alicia, who has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. She has one request of her therapist: she will discuss anything except her brother.

THE PICTURE BRIDE

Lee Geum-yi

It is 1918 and the Korean peninsula is under Japan’s brutal occupation. For Willow, Honju and Songhwa, escape comes in the form of becoming picture brides: women promised in marriage to Korean labourers working on the plantations of Hawaii. The lure of a better life glitters on the horizon, but when the three girls arrive, they find deceptive and distant husbands and days of hardship. Told in the intimate, straightforward style of a cherished family story, this novel by bestselling Korean author Lee Geum-yi portrays a little-known aspect of Korean diasporic history as seen through the eyes of complex and resourceful women.

THE ROMANTIC William Boyd

William Boyd’s 17th novel traverses similar territory to his masterwork Any Human Heart, following the roller-coaster fortunes of a man as he tries to negotiate the random stages, adventures and vicissitudes of his life. Born in Ireland in 1799, Cashel Greville Ross travels the world working in jobs as varied as soldier, farmer, pawnbroker, writer and gigolo. After stints as both a bankrupt and a jailbird, his final job is as a minor diplomat based in Trieste, a city where he sees out the end of his days. As fellow novelist Jonathan Lee commented in his Guardian review of The Romantic, ‘One of the many pleasures of Boyd’s fiction is that history doesn’t just happen around his characters – it happens to them’. That’s certainly the case here.

SAHA

Cho Nam-Joo (trans. Jamie Chang)

In the shadows of a privatised city-state that officially allows only two classes of citizens, there are the Sahas. This dystopian Korean novel, which exposes the ugly conjunction of capitalism and authoritarianism, takes us to the housing estate for which these non-citizens are named. We meet some of the estate’s outcasts, see into their histories and get an acute sense of their humanity – their fragility and their strength. The book opens with a mystery: Jin-Kyung’s brother is a murder suspect, but as she tries to find the truth about the crime, more mysteries accumulate. Answers, where given, are not always entirely clear. Eventually, Jin-Kyung uncovers a reality far darker and crimes far greater than she could ever have imagined.

THE SECRET HISTORY: 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Donna Tartt

When reviewing The Secret History on its release in 1992, legendary New York Times literary critic Michiko Kakutani wrote: ‘How best to describe Donna Tartt’s enthralling first novel? Imagine the plot of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment crossed with the story of Euripides’ Bacchae set against the backdrop of Bret Easton Ellis’s Rules of Attraction and told in the elegant, ruminative voice of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. The product, surprisingly enough, isn’t a derivative jumble, but a remarkably powerful novel.’ Now released in a special 30th-anniversary edition, this murder mystery involving a group of clever, eccentric misfits under the influence of a charismatic classics professor at a New England college is as compelling today as it was in the 1990s, and it will make a fabulous gift for readers who were too young for it the first time round.

SHE AND HER CAT

Makoto Shinkai & Naruki Nagakawa (trans. Ginny Tapley Takemori)

This slim, tender book of linked stories is an ode to the companionship between women and cats. Moving seamlessly between human and animal perspectives, it explores the interwoven lives of four women and their feline companions in one Tokyo neighbourhood. While the women struggle to navigate the weight and expectations of womanhood, their feline companions gently nudge them away from isolation and towards connection and communication. The cats are a constant, mercurial presence, narrating their own idiosyncratic relationships with each other and with their owners in a series of stream-of-consciousness vignettes.

SHRINES OF GAIETY

Kate Atkinson

Prodigiously talented writer Kate Atkinson introduces her new novel with lyrics from the Jazz Age hit ‘Ain’t We Got Fun’, signalling the tenor of Shrines of Gaiety from the get-go. And fun she has – plenty of it. Set in the 1920s Soho underworld, this rollicking tale follows librarian and undercover operative Gwendolen Kelling and police detective John Frobisher as they seek to locate two missing girls and to expose the dubious dealings of infamous nightclub owner Nellie Coker. Atkinson clearly did a lot of research for this project – the descriptions of Nellie’s clubs, London's postwar social scene and the criminal underclass are detailed, colourful and enthralling. Shrine of Gaiety’s plot moves as briskly as a foxtrot, its characters and settings are exuberant and the result is an utter delight.

SUCH A FUN AGE

Kiley Reid

This incisive story of the race, class and gender dynamics in modern-day America is as hugely enjoyable as it is thoughtprovoking. The scene is set when Emira takes the child she is babysitting to a high-end supermarket to get her out of the house at her employers’ request. An interfering woman and a security guard imply that the young Black woman has kidnapped the cute blonde white girl because … well, you can guess. Through the rest of the novel, we follow Emira as her boss befriends her, as a woke white guy courts her, and as she tries to sort out her life. A devastatingly impressive debut.

THE UNFOLDING A.M. Homes

A. M. Homes’ previous, award-winning novel May We Be Forgiven was praised by critics as a dazzlingly original and viscerally funny subversion of the American dream. Now comes The Unfolding, in which Homes once again turns her subversive eye on America’s socio-political system. The story focuses on a character known as ‘the Big Guy’ who, undone by the election of a Black president, encourages a group of like-minded Republicans to reclaim their revisionist version of America. As the Big Guy and his acolytes build a scheme to disturb and disrupt, he also faces turbulence on the home front – his wife enters rehab and his daughter explores a political future that deviates from her father’s ideology. A biting satire of contemporary American politics and its political elite.

LESS IS LOST

Andrew Sean Greer Little, Brown PB $29.99

The protagonist of Andrew Sean Greer’s 2017 Pulitzerwinning novel Less is back, and this time his hilarious travels take him across America.

NOVELIST AS A VOCATION

Haruki Murakami (trans. Philip Gabriel & Ted Goossen) Harvill Secker HB $35

This series of essays by the great writer discusses the path he has taken as a novelist and the ideas and thoughts he’s had in the process.

OUR SHARE OF NIGHT

Mariana Enriquez (trans. Megan McDowell) Granta PB $32.99

Spanning the brutal years of Argentina’s military dictatorship and its aftermath, this Gothic horror epic is about broken families, cursed inheritances and parental sacrifice.

PURE COLOUR

Sheila Heti Harvill Secker PB $32.99

Heartbreaking, profound and startlingly original, the latest novel by the author of Motherhood explores issues of love, ageing, mortality, grief and creation.

THE RABBIT HUTCH Tess Gunty Oneworld PB $29.99

Set in a housing estate in one of America’s post-industrial heartlands, this powerful and bitingly funny novel evokes the desperate lives of some contemporary Americans

THE SEAMSTRESS OF SARDINIA Bianca Pitzorno (trans. Brigid Maher) Text PB $32.99

One of 2022’s quiet bestsellers, Pitzorno’s novel about class and gender follows the life story of a Sardinian woman who is born into poverty at the start of the 20th century.

THEY’RE GOING TO LOVE YOU

Meg Howrey Bloomsbury PB $29.99

Written by a former dancer, this novel is about the world of ballet, but it’s also about relationships – between parent and child, between queer lovers and between art and life.

WRITING FROM UKRAINE: FICTION POETRY AND ESSAYS

SINCE 1965 Mark Andryczyk (ed.) Penguin Press PB $24.99

A selection of work from 15 of Ukraine’s most important, dynamic and entertaining contemporary writers.

ASHES IN THE SNOW

Oriana Ramunno (trans. Katherine Gregor)

Inspired by the story of her grandfather, who was detained in a Nazi concentration camp, German writer Oriana Ramunno has written a thriller that offers a unique perspective on life and death in Auschwitz. It’s Christmas 1943, and a German doctor has been murdered in the concentration camp. His body is discovered by Giole, a bright and inquisitive Jewish boy imprisoned along with his twin brother, Gabriele. Detective Hugo Fischer is sent from Berlin to investigate the doctor’s death. The case that unfolds is gripping and sensitively told, as the secretive but compassionate Fischer witnesses firsthand the horror and inhumanity of the camp and of Josef Mengele’s medical experiments on children like Giole and Gabriele. Suspects emerge among doctors, guards and prisoners alike – all of whom have something to hide.

THE BULLET THAT MISSED

Richard Osman

The third and most recent instalment of The Thursday Murder Club series of cosy crime novels is as witty, warm-hearted and thoroughly entertaining as its predecessors. In The Bullet That Missed, we follow former intelligence operative Elizabeth Best; ex union activist Ron Richie; deceptively dithery former nurse Joyce Meadowcroft; and startlingly handsome psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif as they attempt to solve the decade-old cold case of the murder of journalist Bethany Waites. Soon, the cold case morphs into an active investigation in which they, multi-talented handyman Bogdan Jankowski, DCI Chris Hudson, PC Donna de Freitas, Ron’s grandson Kendrick and Donna’s mum Patrice all play starring roles. Perfect summer reading!

EXILES

Harper

After taking a short break from her Aaron Falk series, Jane Harper has returned to the character she made her stellar reputation with. Aaron is in the South Australian country town of Marralee, staying on Greg Raco’s family vineyard. He’s here on holiday and to attend the christening of Greg and Rita’s son, but soon he is drawn into a year-old investigation into the disappearance of Kim Gillespie. Kim’s husband believes that his wife abandoned him and their infant daughter, but Kim’s older daughter Zara is convinced that her mother has been the victim of foul play. As Harper did in The Dry, she expertly propels the narrative to a climax with a twist, keeping the reader with her every step of the way.

2

DAY’S END

As is usually the case, Paul Hirshhausen (Hirsch) has a heavy and complicated workload. A German backpacker has gone missing and when a mutilated body is discovered outside Tiverton, Hirsch must identify the victim. Could it be Willi Van Sant? There’s also a crew of scammers at work in town, and a group of right-wing Covid deniers mobilising in the area. As has been the case with the previous three Hirsch novels, writer Garry Disher delivers a cleverly plotted tale in finely honed prose that is almost as laconic as Tiverton’s wheatbelt farmers. Day’s End illustrates why Disher was honoured with an Australian Crime Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. Put simply, he’s one of the best in the business.

Highly Recommended

DESERT STAR

Michael Connelly

Allen & Unwin PB Was $32.99 Now $29.99

Renée Ballard is back with the LAPD, building a new coldcase unit. She wants Harry Bosch’s help and knows just how to entice him – with one of his past unsolved cases.

THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE

Richard Osman

Comedian, television presenter and creative producer Richard Osman has a long list of successful projects under his belt, but none have achieved the global reach and success of his Thursday Murder Club novels. After introducing us to the delightfully quirky septuagenarians who are residents of Cooper’s Chase (a retirement village that ‘hums with birdsong and Amazon delivery vans’) in the first instalment, Osman has gifted us with two subsequent volumes. In The Man Who Died Twice, the second book in the series, former intelligence operative Elizabeth Best receives a letter from an old colleague requesting her help. But this particular former colleague has form when it comes to deception, so Elizabeth is wary. What ensues is a riotous series of events involving stolen diamonds, drug dealers and international money launderers.

Where were drag ballets staged?

GEMINI FALLS

Sean Wilson

Set during the Great Depression and polio epidemic of the 1930s, this hybrid coming-of-age and crime novel is narrated by 13-year-old Maurice Turner, who is visiting the rural town of Gemini while his police-detective father Jude investigates the murder of a young woman. With no clear suspect, suspicion has fallen on the residents of a makeshift camp just outside town, and the atmosphere is tense. Then, when Maurice and two friends decide to carry out their own investigation of the crime, the situation comes to a head. Incorporating a wealth of historical detail, Gemini Falls is a remarkably assured debut from Australian writer Sean Wilson.

A HEART FULL OF HEADSTONES

Ian Rankin

Back in 2007, Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin announced that he was sending his beloved character John Rebus into permanent retirement. We can be thankful that his resolution only held for a few years, because the latest Rebus outing, A Heart Full of Headstones, is an absolute cracker of a read. It opens with the former Edinburgh detective in the dock, charged with a serious crime, and then flashes back to how this situation has arisen (here’s a hint: Big Ger Cafferty is involved). As is often the case in the Rebus books, the narrative is divided into two occasionally intertwining strands, one following Rebus and the other an investigation into domestic abuse and potential police corruption being led by his friend and former colleague Det. Insp. Siobhan Clarke.

THE RESEMBLANCE

Lauren Nossett

This debut novel by Lauren Nossett garnered an enthusiastic review from bestselling crime novelist Alafair Burke on its release (‘A timely, expertly plotted mystery about power and privilege, The Resemblance will grab you from the first page and keep you guessing until the final twist’). Set predominantly on the University of Georgia’s campus in Athens, it opens with the death of a student in a hit-and-run incident. Detective Marlitt Kaplan is the first on the scene and suspects that this wasn’t an accident. Soon, she uncovers a connection between the crime and the university’s network of fraternities and sororities. Though a police procedural in form, The Resemblance is given extra depth by its scathing indictment of these places where students from privileged and well-connected backgrounds live and socialise.

THE TILT Chris Hammer

Australian writer Chris Hammer has now written five crime novels with multi-layered and fast-paced plots, three of which sit comfortably in the popular outback noir genre. The Tilt is one of these, and while it reintroduces us to rookie homicide detective Nell Buchanan, one of the major characters in Treasure & Dirt, it is a stand-alone book. Nell returns to her home town on the Murray, annoyed at being assigned a decades-old murder. But this is no ordinary cold case, as the discovery of more bodies triggers a chain of escalating events in the present day. As Nell joins the pieces together, she begins to question how well she truly knows those closest to her. Could her own family be implicated in the crimes?

DIRT TOWN

Hayley Scrivenor Macmillan PB $32.99

One of the most assured Australian crime debuts since Jane Harper’s The Dry, Hayley Scrivenor’s novel follows DS Sarah Michaels as she investigates the disappearance of a 12-yearold girl in a rural town.

LYING BESIDE YOU

Michael Robotham Hachette PB $32.99

The third book in Robotham’s Cyrus Haven series of psychological thrillers sees him working with Evie Cormac to solve a murder and two mysterious disappearances.

MURDER IN WILLIAMSTOWN

Kerry Greenwood Allen & Unwin PB $32.99

Stylish sleuth Phryne Fisher takes on two baffling cases, one of which involves opium smuggling. Meanwhile, her adopted daughters Jane and Ruth have a baffling case of their own.

THE MURDER RULE Dervla McTiernan HarperCollins PB $32.99

Set in America, this clever psychological thriller by the author of the Cormac Reilly novels deals with concepts of innocence and guilt, retribution and forgiveness.

THE RISING TIDE

Ann Cleeves Macmillan PB $34.99

Set on the tidal island of Lindisfarne, the tenth novel in Cleeves’ Vera Stanhope series sees the dishevelled detective working to solve two interlinked crimes, one historic and one in the present day.

THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY

Sulari Gentill Ultimo PB $32.99

Cleverly constructed and fast paced, this twist-laden meta-crime tale set in Boston has been one of 2022’s bestselling Australian crime novels.

Garry Disher

Jane

BOHEMIAN NEGLIGENCE

Bertie Blackman

ARIA Award–winning musician Bertie Blackman grew up in an artistic, free-spirited world. How could she not, with celebrated Australian artist Charles Blackman as a father? But the messy, vivid palette of her childhood was also marked by devastating cracks of darkness, such as surviving sexual assault and witnessing her father’s alcoholism. Told in a series of lyrical vignettes that span several years, Bohemian Negligence charms with evocative details from Blackman’s memories – horse-riding camps, Yothu Yindi concerts, Mardi Gras parties and creating music on a staircase constructed like piano keys. Then there are the more difficult passages to read, where horrifying moments are recounted in abstract ways. Throughout it all, Blackman writes with courage, creating a brief and lingering portrait of a spontaneous and creative life.

CANNON FIRE: A LIFE IN PRINT

Michael Cannon

A journalist, editor, publisher and historian, Michael Cannon was also well known as a raconteur, something that is apparent in this posthumously published memoir. Proud of his journalistic lineage (his great-grandmother was one of Australia’s first women journalists, his grandfather was one of the country’s most influential newspaper editors, his mother was a newspaper journalist and his parents ran a country newspaper), Cannon followed in their footsteps and forged a long career working with the printed word. In his case, this involved everything from working as a copy boy on the Melbourne Argus, taking on the challenging job of being one of Rupert Murdoch’s editors, typesetting and printing trade journals and authoring more than 30 acclaimed historical books, most notably The Land Boomers. This account of his eventful life and eclectic career offers fascinating insight into the Australian newspaper and book publishing industries in the 20th century.

CHILDHOOD

Shannon Burns

It seems like the stuff of fiction – a damaged boy transformed and saved by the classics of literature. But for Shannon Burns this was real life. A child of what he calls the ‘welfare class’, Burns grew up in Adelaide’s poorest suburbs. He lived sometimes with his neglectful mother, sometimes with his drug-dealing father, sometimes with strange foster carers, at one stage with a friend’s mother and sometimes alone. In most of these situations he was in physical or emotional danger, often both. By the time Burns hit his teens, school was not a refuge either. And yet he found his way to novels and poetry that spoke to his experiences and sensibilities. Now an academic and critic, Burns has written a thoroughly literary and engrossing memoir.

THE CONTRARIAN

Max Chafkin

This far-reaching account of the life and ideology of billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel is as much social commentary as biography. Chafkin sees Thiel as epitomising the amorality of Silicon Valley’s Big Tech. Thiel founded PayPal, but also made money from investments in Facebook and SpaceX. Later, he became increasingly enmeshed in right-wing politics, seeking power behind the scenes. (Eventually, he would donate $1 million to Trump.) He was deliberate in defining himself against the liberal values thought to be common in Silicon Valley – a contrarian, in fact. Wondering what Thiel actually believes prompted Chafkin to write this book. As Thiel has supported even more extreme causes since this book’s publication, The Contrarian is more relevant and urgent than ever.

DYING OF POLITENESS

Geena Davis

Filled with genuinely laugh-out-loud moments, this delightfully candid memoir makes us feel like we truly know actor Geena Davis. We meet her as a shy but overly enthusiastic child, and then go with her to Hollywood (with plenty of gossip while we’re there). Why the title? Davis was brought up in a family where decorum was everything, even if one’s life was literally at stake. But gradually Davis came to see that women should be able to stand up for themselves. Paralysed by politeness, Davis had never been able to ask for her due. ‘I kicked ass onscreen way before I did so in real life.’ All her characters transformed her, but when she met Susan Sarandon filming Thelma and Louise ‘everything changed.’

ELIZABETH & JOHN

Alan Atkinson

Award-winning historian and author Alan Atkinson has been researching the pioneering pastoralists Elizabeth and John Macarthur for half a century, and Elizabeth and John is certainly the richest and most detailed portrait of the iconic duo ever produced. The book explores with equal interest the practices, ideas and values of two people intimately involved in reshaping Australia’s land, economy and identity. How Enlightenment thinking shaped them and their marriage is a revelation. Atkinson draws on the extensive collections of their letters and other documentary evidence to vividly convey the Macarthurs’ thoughts, values and feelings. Historian Mark McKenna describes the book as ‘breathtaking in its ability to retrieve past worlds’, while Professor Marilyn Lake says that Elizabeth and John is ‘truly a tour-de-force’.

THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF AN ORDINARY MAN

Paul Newman

In 2008, Paul Newman asked Stewart Sterne, a close friend and Hollywood insider, to help compile a recorded oral history of Newman’s life and career. Sterne subsequently interviewed the actor, as well as his family, friends and colleagues. But then, in 1991, Newman destroyed all of the interview tapes. After his death in 2008, printed transcripts were found in a locked filing cabinet in the Newman family home and these form the base of this memoir. Though the ethics of its publication may be dubious, the book is a fascinating read. Newman discusses his unhappy childhood, his naval service and his career in theatre and film, as well as his drinking and marital problems. Stories drawn from interviews with John Huston, Sidney Lumet and other Hollywood figures offer plenty of context and colour.

FREEDOM, ONLY FREEDOM

Behrouz

Boochani et al

This follow-up to the award-winning No Friend But the Mountains is Behrouz Boochani’s second testament to the horrors and injustice of Australia’s offshore detention system. While the KurdishIranian journalist and academic’s first book was a full-length autobiography, this is a collection of the short pieces – short prose, essays, columns for newspapers, and some poetry – that he wrote while imprisoned on Manus Island. As well, there are essays by other thinkers, both about Boochani and about Australia’s inhumane policies and practices. One of the cruellest elements of this system is the deprivation of freedom, which Boochani experienced for years. In the piece from which the title is taken, he reminds us that the core concern is freedom – plain and simple – and that any other issues are peripheral.

HOW TO END A STORY: DIARIES 1995–1998

Helen Garner

After what she describes as a ‘lifelong habit of recording and analysing my private life’, Helen Garner has offered readers access to her diaries in recent years. This third volume of curated entries was written from 1995 to 1998, covering the final fraught years of her marriage to the egocentric ‘V’ and the aftermath of The First Stone being published, although the former looms far larger than the latter. Garner’s diaries are a space for deep reflection – on herself, her marriage and her writing, as well as broader themes. Their publication has no doubt been cathartic for Garner but must have been V’s worst nightmare – she recounts how he ‘hated and deplored’ the idea that she wrote about him in her diaries, and worse, that other people may eventually read them.

A KIND OF MAGIC

Anna Spargo-Ryan

What a powerful creative work. Anna Spargo-Ryan, the author of two novels and a writer of perceptive essays and reflections, takes us into a life lived with serious, severe mental illness. Spargo-Ryan generously and vividly shares her experiences from early childhood to now, as fear overwhelms, reality fractures and compulsions compel. She also gives a broader insight into the framing (and misframing) of mental illness in our world and shows us the power of that rare creature – a truly good therapist. Not that there is an easy trajectory from sick to cured, but as the cover assures us, there is optimism to be found. Thrumming with feeling, this memoir is underpinned by a keen intelligence and a persistent, irrepressible sense of humour.

THE LETTERS OF SHIRLEY JACKSON

Laurence Jackson Hyman (ed.)

American writer Joyce Carol Oates describes the legacy of Shirley Jackson, author of horror and mystery books that include the acclaimed The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, as a ‘treasury of uncanny tales’ that she and many of Jackson’s peers admire enormously. This compilation of Jackson’s personal correspondence was edited by one of Jackson's sons and provides a fascinating profile of a writer who was renowned as a chronicler of the female experience.

Sometimes humorous, always insightful, these letters were written over the course of nearly three decades, from Jackson’s college years to six days before her early death at the age of 48. Her accounts of family life are turned into remarkable stories: entertaining, revealing and wise.

MADLY, DEEPLY: THE ALAN RICKMAN DIARIES

Alan Taylor (ed.)

One of the most admired actors of his generation, Alan Rickman was also an avid diarist. These posthumously published diaries, which focus on the period from 1993 to 2015, are a colourful evocation of the man himself: intelligent, indiscreet, irritable, witty and gossipy. As well as taking the reader behind the scenes on films and plays ranging from Sense & Sensibility to the Harry Potter series, they offer an insight into Rickman’s private life and beliefs. He had a frenetic lifestyle and was an inveterate restaurant-goer (one reviewer has suggested that this book would have been better titled ‘Dine Hard’). Rickman didn’t suffer fools gladly and was known and feared for his cutting comments, many of which are included here. It was an

that he was well aware of

MY DREAM TIME

Ash Barty

The Australian tennis superstar tells her story in My Dream Time, starting with the first time she picked up a racquet as a five-year-old in Ipswich and following her extraordinary career through to its apogee – the night she won the 2022 Australian Open. In typically unassuming fashion, Barty discusses her highs and lows; honours her family, friends and support team; and speculates as to the secret of her success. We read of her strategies to conquer nerves and anxiety, and to deal with defeat, pain and success. Barty believes that life should be about the power and joy of doing that thing you love and seeing where it can take you. In her case, it has taken her a very long way indeed.

THE NINTH LIFE OF A DIAMOND MINER

Grace Tame

As a prominent activist and advocate for survivors of childhood sexual abuse, Grace Tame has been the subject of public assessments both laudatory and critical. Now she tells her harrowing but inspirational story in her own words, and on her own terms. In The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner, Tame writes about being subjected to horrifying abuse, but dwells on the things that have driven and sustained her through her life – people, places, love, connection and radical, unwavering honesty. Tame writes that the biggest blessings and curses of her life are her open-heartedness and humour, and readers will find that these traits characterise this powerful memoir.

THE PASSION OF PRIVATE WHITE

Don Watson

This inspiring book about biological anthropologist and activist Neville White focuses on his 50 years of living and working with the Donydiji and Yolngu people of northeast Arnhem Land. It describes how, as White began to understand this ancient culture struggling between the demands of Western modernity and the equally pressing need of its custodians to preserve their lands, customs, laws and language, he was also trying to transcend the mental scars inflicted during his time serving on the battlefields of Vietnam. Eventually, when White began taking his old platoon mates to the homeland, two wildly different groups found in each other some of the solutions and some of the therapy they both needed. White’s story offers an insight into history both ancient and modern, and Don Watson’s telling of it is both moving and enlightening.

A POCKETFUL OF HAPPINESS

Richard E. Grant

Actor and raconteur Richard E. Grant emigrated from Swaziland to London in 1982, driven by his dream of making it as an actor. When there, he met and fell in love with renowned dialect coach Joan Washington. Their relationship and marriage, navigating the highs and lows of Hollywood and parenthood, lasted almost 40 years. When Joan died in 2021, her final challenge to him was to find ‘a pocketful of happiness in every day’. This memoir was written in honour of that challenge. Replete with gossip and name-dropping, it includes many stories about his career in show business but is in essence a moving tribute to his wife and testament to the importance of love, family and friendship in our lives.

A PRIVATE SPY: THE LETTERS OF JOHN LE CARRÉ

README.TXT

Chelsea Manning

We all know the story: in 2010 Chelsea Manning, working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, sent 720,000 classified military documents to WikiLeaks. As a result, the United States Army charged Manning with 22 counts relating to the unauthorised possession and distribution of classified military documents. Found guilty, her sentence was 35 years in military prison. In this memoir, Manning recounts how her act to promote increased institutional transparency and government accountability took place alongside the declaration of her gender identity as a woman and the process of transitioning. We read about Manning’s challenging childhood, her struggles as an adolescent, what led her to join the military, and how and why she made the decision that landed her in jail for seven years. A riveting and important read.

SHIRLEY HAZZARD: A WRITING LIFE

Brigitta Olubas

Olubas’ vivid portrayal of Shirley Hazzard (1931–2016) captures this cosmopolitan writer’s life from her childhood in Sydney and years in Hong Kong after WW2 to her life as a writer living between New York and Capri. Through diaries, letters, speeches and published works, most notably The Transit of Venus and The Great Fire, the author contextualises the events and literary influences that shaped Hazzard’s heightened sensitivity, keen observations and poetic imagination. The last chapter is especially poignant, revealing her sorrow, grief and loneliness after the death of her devoted husband, Francis Steegmuller. Olubas ensures that the beauty and authenticity of Hazzard’s erudite, articulate and distinctive prose shimmers throughout.

THE SUCCESSOR Paddy Manning

NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS HERE

Heather Rose

In her latest book, which is subtitled ‘A Memoir of Loss and Discovery’, Heather Rose, the Tasmanian author of the Stella Prize–winning 2017 novel The Museum of Modern Love and 2019's Bruny offers her deeply personal reflections on love, death, creativity and healing. Rose writes about the family tragedy that occurred in her childhood, which set her on what she describes as a course to explore life and its myriad mysteries. The result is a book that fellow author Bri Lee (Eggshell Skull) describes as ‘Funny, devastating, miraculous, and delightful … an extraordinary life story, extraordinarily told’.

Highly Recommended

ANNA: THE BIOGRAPHY

Amy Odell Atlantic PB $34.99

This revealing portrait of Anna Wintour chronicles her steep and relentless climb to the powerful positions of editor-in-chief of American Vogue and the global chief content officer for Condé Nast.

CHASING WRONGS AND RIGHTS

Elaine Pearson Scribner PB $34.99

The Australia-based director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division shares her experiences of working around the world to defend human rights.

Tim Cornwell (ed.)

Edited by le Carré’s son, the late journalist and editor Tim Cornwell, this hefty collection of letters from the great spy novelist spans decades of his life. Revealing a thoughtful though often tetchy character, they were written to correspondents including Philip Roth, John Banville, Margaret Thatcher, Stephen Fry and Tom Stoppard, as well as to many of his devoted readers. The letters offer a revealing picture of le Carré’s daily life, interests, tastes and politics (for instance, he hated Tony Blair for his role in drawing the UK into the Gulf War and despised Boris Johnson for his role in promoting Brexit). Drawn together, the letters evoke a fascinating portrait of one of the bestselling novelists of the 20th century.

DEAR DOLLY

Dolly Alderton

Fig Tree HB $35

Dolly Alderton offers wise, warm and witty answers to correspondents seeking advice on issues including love, sex, friendship, selfimage and dating.

DESI GIRL

Sarah Malik

UQP PB $32.99

Dissecting her own multilayered identity, Walkley Award–winning investigative journalist Sarah Malik considers issues of faith, race, religion, class and feminism.

DIARY OF A TUSCAN BOOKSHOP

Alba Donati W&N PB $29.99

This is the story of how a high-powered book publicist decides to leave her life and job in the city and open a bookshop in a small Tuscan village.

EDDA MUSSOLINI

Caroline Moorehead

Chatto & Windus PB $35

This action-packed biography of Edda Mussolini – Benito Mussolini’s favourite daughter – is also a fascinating account of the unravelling of the fascist dream in 20th century Italy.

As heir apparent to his father’s global media empire, Lachlan Murdoch is one of the world’s most powerful people. Yet despite a life in the spotlight, Lachlan’s personality, politics and business acumen remain enigmatic. Is he a risk-loving adventurer or dutiful son? Ultra-conservative ideologue or thoughtful libertarian? Scarred by a series of spectacular business failures or an underrated leader who has shrewdly repositioned his family’s assets? And will the third generation of Murdoch moguls prove to be the last? In this unauthorised biography, journalist Paddy Manning explores Lachlan Murdoch’s upbringing, political beliefs and role as head of Fox Corporation, exposing many facts about the good, the bad and the ugly of the global media industry in the process.

FARM: THE MAKING OF A CLIMATE ACTIVIST

Nicola Harvey Scribe PB $32.99

A young female farmer recounts the story of how she and her husband left their careers and inner-city life to farm cattle in rural New Zealand in an ethical and climate-conscious way.

GROWING UP IN COUNTRY AUSTRALIA

Rick Morton (ed.) Black Inc PB $29.99

This anthology includes over 40 stories recounting the experience of growing up and living outside Australia’s cities and larger regional centres.

SULTAN

Wasim Akram & Gideon Haigh

Pakistani cricketer Wasim Akram is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest fast bowlers in the history of the game. Impressing with his speed and swing, he played at an elite level for two decades. In this memoir, which has been written with Gideon Haigh, Akram recalls being identified as a potential star by Imran Khan, who mentored him and who, as captain, would welcome him into the national team in the 1980s. We read about his subsequent captaincy of the same team and his sporting rivalry with cricket stars including Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne. We also get his defence regarding the serious 1990s ball-tampering and match-fixing accusations. As Haigh says, Akram’s reflections here are every bit as incisive as he was with the ball.

TELL ME AGAIN

Amy Thunig

A Gomeroi/Gamilaroi/Kamilaroi woman, Amy Thunig grew up hearing an oftrepeated story told by her parents about the day of her birth. Years later, she learned that the story she had been told wasn’t true. Once acknowledged, the real story made sense of many childhood events; why, for instance, her father was so often ‘away for work’ and why the name on her birth certificate wasn’t her real name. In this memoir, Thunig, an academic and regular media commentator on Indigenous and other issues, recounts her experience growing up in a family dealing with endemic poverty, intergenerational trauma, addiction and incarceration. Thunig’s story is testament to her belief that we are all beings with unlimited possibilities, and that even those who face huge obstacles in life can survive and succeed.

TEN STEPS TO NANETTE

Hannah Gadsby

Hannah Gadsby’s career-defining show Nanette took the world by storm in 2018. A blistering critique of stand-up comedy, self-deprecation and misogyny, the show became ‘the most-talked-about, writtenabout, shared-about comedy act in years’ (The New York Times). With her equally harrowing and hilarious memoir Ten Steps to Nannette, Gadsby traces her life before it changed completely. In sharing the ways in which her growth as a queer person growing up in rural Tasmania, her evolving relationship with comedy and her late-in-life diagnoses of autism and ADHD all contribute to her staunch belief in the moral significance of truth telling, Gadsby opens up intimately and powerfully.

Highly Recommended

I

AM NOT FINE, THANKS

Wil Anderson

Allen & Unwin PB $32.99

Part memoir and part manifesto, this guide to enduring turbulent times showcases the comic dry humour that the presenter of Gruen is well known for.

IT’S A SHAME ABOUT RAY

Jonathan Seidler

Allen & Unwin PB $32.99

Sydney-based music journalist and culture critic Jonathan Seidler writes about families, death, hope, love, survival and the power of music in this lyrical memoir.

Special Price

TERRY PRATCHETT: A LIFE WITH FOOTNOTES

Rob Wilkins

Rob Wilkins was Terry Pratchett's personal assistant for 17 years, and in this biography he offers an intimate, affectionate and at times unvarnished portrait of his employer, a writer who sold a staggering 80 million books during his lifetime. As Pratchett goes from precocious youth to bankable trans-Atlantic publishing megastar, we also get cameos by Roald Dahl, J.K. Rowling and a very young Neil Gaiman. Beginning his professional writing life as a journalist helped Pratchett develop the iron discipline to produce 41 Discworld novels, often at a rate of two a year. The book ends with Pratchett facing his tragically early Alzheimer’s diagnosis and death at 59 with unflinching courage.

THOSE DASHING MCDONAGH SISTERS Mandy Sayer

Readers of history and biography, as well as anyone with an interest in filmmaking, will find much to enjoy here. Mandy Sayer details the lives and works of sisters Paulette, Phyllis and Isabel McDonagh, who founded their own film production company in 1920s Sydney. Raised within a large, boisterous family, these sisters’ lives were punctuated by the kind of dramatic events one expects to find in Hollywood films themselves: sumptuous soirées, broken engagements, unexpected pregnancies. Fascinating details about technical aspects of early filmmaking are shared throughout, including descriptions of the experiments with special effects undertaken by Paulette with cameraman Jack Fletcher. Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters is a lively and engaging tribute to three memorable women whose pioneering films indelibly shaped the future of Australian filmmaking.

THREE MARTINI AFTERNOONS AT THE RITZ

Gail Crowther

Two of the greatest American poets of the 20th century – Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton – are profiled in this meticulously researched biography, which chronicles their friendship as well as their considerable rivalry. Introduced at a university poetry workshop, Plath and Sexton led curiously parallel lives, haunted by mental illness, suicide attempts, self-doubt and difficult personal relationships. Forged over weekly martini meetings at the Boston Ritz, where they discussed everything from sex to suicide, theirs was a relationship as complex and subversive as their extraordinary poetry.

JAN MORRIS: LIFE FROM BOTH SIDES

Paul Clements

Scribe HB Was $55 Now $49.99

December Release

This biography of transgender pioneer Jan Morris documents her life and careers as a soldier, foreign correspondent and acclaimed travel writer.

LANDLINES

Raynor Winn Michael Joseph HB $39.99

An account of the people, wilderness and wildlife that Raynor Winn (The Salt Path) and her husband, Moth, encountered during a 1000-mile walk from northwest Scotland to southwest England.

TRIPPING OVER MYSELF

Shaun Micallef

Shaun Micallef is a much-admired comedian known for his wit, dazzling command of language and A-grade irony. But this memoir has surprises – he was a terrible reader when young and used to drive a red Capri. This is not an absurd riff on his life, as might be expected, but a generous, conversational chronological telling of an ordinary suburban boy with a love of humour (his mother’s influence) and a flair for showing off. Tripping Over Myself tells of finding his talent for writing and performing comedy when studying law in Adelaide, before moving to the comedy mecca of Melbourne. It’s also a lively history of 30 years of the Australian comedy scene (including a shortlist of the famous names he has offended).

UNDER HER SKIN

Sue Williams

A woman of seemingly superhuman intelligence, mental strength and physical stamina, Fiona Wood came to our attention after the Bali bombings, when she helped the multitude of burns victims. But Wood had been working on her revolutionary ‘spray-on skin’ for years before that. This admiring biography takes us back to her childhood in a Yorkshire mining town and then to her life in Perth as a dedicated doctor, caring mother of six and innovative researcher. We hear not just from Fiona, but from her parents, her children, her friends and her colleagues. And, most touchingly, we hear from the patients whose lives she has impacted. Equally fascinating as the insight into her life experiences are the glimpses we get of scientific progress and invention.

A YEAR WITH WENDY WHITELEY

Ashleigh Wilson

Wendy Whiteley is a well-known figure in Australia’s cultural landscape. The former wife of Brett Whiteley, she was handed control of the artist’s estate in 2001, after their only daughter, actress Arkie Whiteley, died from adrenal cancer. The garden that Wendy forged from within her grief is a stunning ode to her love of both Brett and Arkie, and is clear evidence of her own creative yearnings.

Ashleigh Wilson draws from hours spent in conversation with Wendy to offer glimpses of the woman behind the roles she inhabits.

This book is a reckoning of sorts, as Wendy reflects on her life, the years with Brett and those without, and the responsibility she has borne as keeper of his legacy. A warmly candid read for art lovers.

LIFE & DEATH DECISIONS

Lachlan McIver Ultimo PB $34.99

This is a no-holds-barred memoir and call to action from an Australian doctor who has worked in some of the most remote, neglected and wartorn parts of the world.

MAKING A SCENE

Constance Wu Scribner HB $35

American actor Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians, Fresh Off the Boat) writes about growing up in Richmond, Virginia, moving to New York and hitting the big time in Hollywood.

A VISIBLE MAN

Edward Enninful Bloomsbury PB $32.99

A Black, gay and workingclass icon recounts his journey from Ghana into the wild and vibrant fashion scene of 1980s London and his current influential role at the helm of British Vogue

WE DON’T KNOW OURSELVES

Fintan O’Toole

Head of Zeus PB $24.99

December Release

Irish writer Colm Tóibín is one of many critics to laud this personal history of Ireland since 1958, describing it as ‘sweeping, authoritative and profoundly intelligent’.

ABYSS: THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS 1962

Max Hastings

In these increasingly uncertain days, it can be useful to remind ourselves that this isn’t the first time the world has seemed to be on the brink of collapse. Moreover, it can be informative to see how an event such as the the earlier crisis, the subject of this fascinating book, was resolved. Max Hastings draws parallels between current events and the Cuban Missile Crisis, even though he began writing before Putin invaded Ukraine. Providing welcome context, and having done extremely thorough research, Hastings delves deep into the politics (the Cold War, of course, but domestic politics too) and the people (beyond just Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro) that were key to the build-up and the backdown. Though almost 500 pages in length, there is nothing extraneous in this timely and eminently readable book.

THE BODYLINE FIX

Marion Stell

This entertaining book casts light on the pioneering women’s Test cricket series between Australia and England in 1934–35, which was held in the aftermath of the controversial Depression-era ‘Bodyline’ Ashes series of 1932–33. At the time, relations between the two national teams were tense and the aim of the women’s series was to prove that fair play remained central to cricket. Having overcome many obstacles, the players quickly established their exceptional skills and talent. Much respect was garnered over that summer; respect that carried into the 1937 reciprocal tour. Born from a series of interviews with surviving players, Marion Stell’s book restores these women and their achievements to their rightful place in the annals of Australian cricket history.

BOLD TYPES

Patricia Clarke

‘Anonymous’ may usually have been a woman, but female journalists have long been sourcing quotes for newspapers, breaking into ‘the boys club’ to write about history as it happened. Patricia Clarke stepped into a newsroom in the early 1950s. Among crowded newsrooms, clattering typewriters and overflowing cigarette trays, Clarke spent a lifetime fighting gender barriers in an androcentric profession. Here, she profiles inimitable women who were absolute trailblazers in the industry, including Anna Blackwell, the first female correspondent for Australia; Edith Dickenson, our first female war correspondent; and Frances Taylor, an adventurous editor. Taking readers on a journey through history, this is a captivating and long-overdue homage to these professional women.

THE BOOK OF ROADS & KINGDOMS Richard Fidler

When writer and ABC radio journalist Richard Fidler came across the account of Ibn Fadlan – a tenth-century Arab diplomat who travelled all the way from Baghdad to the Volga Bulgaria (site of modern-day Russia) – he was struck by how modern Ibn Fadlan’s voice was, almost like that of a 21st-century time-traveller dropped into a medieval wilderness. After further research, Fidler discovered this was just one of countless reports from Arab and Persian travellers of their adventures in medieval China, India, Africa and Byzantium. The Book of Roads & Kingdoms is the story of these medieval wanderers who travelled out to the edges of the known world during Islam’s fabled Golden Age, an era when the caliphs of Baghdad presided over a dominion greater than the Roman Empire at its peak.

COLDITZ: PRISONERS IN THE CASTLE

Ben Macintyre

In his latest book, Ben Macintyre recounts the legendary tale of how an unlikely band of POWs plotted daring escapes from a forbidding Gothic castle on a hilltop in the heart of Nazi Germany. However, Macintyre’s account differs to that usually told because his story is also one of class conflict, racism, homosexuality, espionage and farce. The cast of characters featured is diverse and quite extraordinary, ranging from the elitist members of the Colditz Bullingdon Club (very fond of staging drag ballets) to Birendranath Mazumdar, the only Indian officer in the British Army. Many of the POWs were astonishingly imaginative in their escape attempts (there were more attempts from Colditz than from any other WW2 camp), but this is a story about what went on inside the castle rather than a dedicated ode to escapology.

CONDEMNED Graham Seal

Written by a leading expert on Australian cultural history, Condemned is an eye-opening historical account of ‘the criminals, the poor, the rebellious and the simply inconvenient’ who powered Britain’s rise to global domination and became a crucial element of the expansion of Britain’s empire in the Americas, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Australia. Charting the cruel system of transportation through firsthand accounts, letters and official documents, Seal elevates the ‘ghosts in the empire of chains’ by narrating their stories and preventing them from being consigned to myth or forgotten history.

DREAMERS AND SCHEMERS

Frank Bongiorno

Think Australian politics is boring? Think again. ANU History professor Frank Bongiorno guides us through our democracy’s evolution – the highs and lows – in crisp, jargon-free prose. Starting with Indigenous decision-makers, Dreamers and Schemers moves on to colonial governors, who ruled like kings. Then comes the emergence of political parties, parliaments and Federation, right up to the 2022 election. There’s no gimmick to the writing and no axe to grind or ‘Canberra bubble’ perspective. Bongiorno nimbly weaves the voices and views of ordinary voters with those of the big figures of our politics.

EMPERORS IN LILLIPUT

Jim Davidson

What are the traits of a great editor? In this book, Jim Davidson, himself a former editor of Meanjin, examines this question through his accounts of the 34-year founding editorships of Clem Christesen at Meanjin and Stephen Murray-Smith at Overland. Their greatness, he maintains, lies in how these public intellectuals and their progressive literary magazines responded to their times. Emperors in Lilliput recounts the foundation stories and the many controversaries of both publications, giving much space to Christesen’s legendarily cantankerous personality, spotlighting the important literary figures who contributed work and highlighting the editors’ different editorial approaches – Overland’s aspiration to articulate a national culture (‘Temper Democratic, Bias Australian’) and Meanjin’s more cosmopolitan impulse. Essential reading for anyone interested in Australian history and literature.

FEMINA

Medieval history is dominated by powerful male figures: bloodthirsty Vikings, pious saints and commanding kings. Women are wives or footnotes, or are omitted entirely. In Femina, BBC historian Janina Ramirez reappraises this fascinating era through a female lens. She explores the lives and impact of forgotten women of the Middle Ages – queens, warriors, artists, leaders and scientists. Throughout, Ramirez integrates contemporary archaeological and scientific evidence with primary writings and artefacts, illuminating the so-called Dark Ages anew. In doing so, she doesn’t rewrite history – rather, she moves its focus from pervasive patriarchal narratives to centre the extraordinary women who shifted the course of this pivotal time in history.

BORN IN BLACKNESS

Howard W. French Liveright PB $32.95

A former NYT bureau chief in West and Central Africa reveals the central, yet intentionally obliterated, role of Africa in the making of the modern world.

BOUNDARY CROSSERS

Meg Foster NewSouth PB $34.99

The stories of Australia’s ‘other bushrangers’ –Aborigines Jimmy Governor and Mary Ann Bugg, Chinese man Sam Poo and AfricanAmerican William ‘Black’ Douglas – are revealed in this colourful history.

CHINA AFTER MAO

Frank Dikötter Bloomsbury PB $34.99

This compelling account of China in the wake of Chairman Mao explores how it was transformed from a backwater economy in the 1970s into the world superpower of today.

THE DAWN OF EVERYTHING

David Graeber & David Wengrow Penguin Press PB $26.99

This is not just a debunking of the many myths about the history of the world we have been fed; it’s also a history of how they came about and why they persist today.

EUROPEAN VISION AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC: THIRD EDITION

Bernard Smith

Miegunyah PB $49.99

Written by the late, great Australian art historian, this seminal work, which is recognised as opening up the dialogue on decolonisation, has been published in a new edition.

HAROLD HOLT: ALWAYS ONE STEP FURTHER

Ross Walker

La Trobe PB $34.99

Walker offers a revelatory biography of the ambitious, debonair telegenic and self-destructive 17th prime minister of Australia.

HOW TO BE YOU

Skye Cleary Ebury PB $32.99

What does the philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir offer us today? Skye Cleary argues that de Beauvoir’s defiant strategies for living can teach us to free ourselves of fears and stereotypes.

THE LONG ALLIANCE

Gabriel Debenedetti Scribe PB $35

American journalist Gabriel Debenedetti offers an inside look at the complicated, co-dependent and at times rocky relationship of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Janina Ramirez

FOR VALOUR

Craig Blanch & Aaron Pegram

The Victoria Cross is the highest military honour awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces, recognising exceptional acts of bravery and self-sacrifice in battle. For Valour tells the extraordinary stories of the 100 Australians who have been presented with the Victoria Cross. Beautifully bound and featuring new archival research and striking photographs and artworks from the Australian War Memorial, this comprehensive publication blends vivid descriptions of events on the battlefield with biographical profiles of each of the recipients, giving insightful context into their lives outside wartime service. Spanning centuries to cover heroic actions in the Boer War, WWI, North Russia, WW2, Vietnam and Afghanistan, this is a landmark collection recognising vital leadership and gallantry.

THE FRENCH MIND

Peter Watson

If you are curious about philosophy, politics, literature, theatre, science, feminism, fashion, food, hairdressing or royal peccadillos, this book should be on your bookshelf. In 700 pages, Watson looks at what makes the French so French for the benefit of those who might find self-regarding ‘French exceptionalism’ so annoying. Covering the period from the 17th century until the very recent past, he canters through the esoteric and the mundane to argue why the French are different to the rest of us. The thread of Watson’s argument is the advent of the ‘salon’ in the 1600s as an alternative to the royal court. These female-led salons were not frivolous, he says. Instead, they were the engine rooms for ideas that became movements and revolutions up to and including the 1990s.

H. M. BARK ENDEAVOUR

Ray Parkin

The Miegunyah Press is known for its limited editions of important historical works, and H.M. Bark Endeavour is certainly that. First published in 1997, and now in its third edition, this astonishing reference work on Captain Cook’s famous ship and voyage remains as fascinating as ever. Parkin’s intricate drawings and diagrams work with the smooth writing that stitches together the contemporaneous accounts to give a thorough sense of the Endeavour. Many historical works are described as comprehensively researched, but few will surpass Parkin’s in detail and intensity. Similarly, few authors will demonstrate such genuine love and admiration as Parkin does for the ship and various marine techniques and practices, though he is sometimes less enamoured of Cook himself.

PAPYRUS

Irene Vallejo

How did stories become words on a page that were then bound together in a book? Irene Vallejo’s latest project aims to answer this question. Papyrus is literary history at its most exciting, crossing Egypt, Alexandria and the Roman Empire. The author of fiction, essays, newspaper columns and children’s books, Vallejo brings a thoughtful and poetic eye to her subject. Dive in for a contemplation not just of the book as object but of the miracle of text, the revelation of reading and the necessity of story in all of our lives.

PERSONALITY AND POWER

Ian Kershaw

This most recent work by English historian Ian Kershaw explores how far individual leaders can alter the course of history. Focusing on the modern era, Personality and Power: Builders and Destroyers of Modern Europe is a compelling, lucid and challenging attempt to understand 12 of the leaders – some dictators, others democrats – who were instrumental in shaping modern Europe. How far is the leader’s power shaped by personality, and how much by circumstance, Kershaw asks. And what was it about these men and the times they lived in that allowed them such untrammelled and sometimes murderous power? Analysing the characters, strengths, working styles and mistakes of Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Churchill, de Gaulle, Tito, Adenauer, Franco, Gorbachev, Thatcher and Kohl, Kershaw provides an important framework for understanding power and how it is used.

SUB-IMPERIAL POWER

Clinton Fernandes

How does Australian foreign policy operate in the world? And for whom? In this book, a former Australian Army intelligence analyst categorically debunks Australia’s greatest myth: that it is independent. Now a professor of international and political studies at UNSW, Clinton Fernandes argues that our claim to be a middle power trying to uphold a rulesbased international order is spurious; rather, we are a sub-imperial power slavishly upholding a US-led imperial order. Fernandes explains how this global system, which has domination as its aim, works and he outlines Australia’s role in it. A dedicated chapter examines AUKUS and the nuclear submarine deal, and another addresses what Fernandes calls ‘the China divide’, looking at how China has become an ideological, military and economic challenger to the US-led order.

SYDNEY: A BIOGRAPHY

Louis Nowra

Playwright and author Louis Nowra has previously written non-fiction titles about the Sydney suburbs of Kings Cross and Woolloomooloo, and now he has expanded his gaze to write about the city of Sydney in its entirety. This big, bustling portrait of Australia’s oldest and most populous city is told through profiles of its residents past and present, featuring a cast of criminals and premiers, ordinary folk, entertainers, artists, thieves and visionaries. Alongside these portraits, Nowra surveys the city’s architecture and its global identity. An expatriate Melburnian, Nowra clearly adores his adopted home, and his biography is remarkably successful in conveying Sydney’s energy, beauty, vulgarity, dynamism and sense of self-importance.

TWO HOUSES, TWO KINGDOMS

Catherine Hanley

Acclaimed historian Catherine Hanley takes readers back to the warring, fractious 12th and 13th centuries in this eminently enjoyable narrative of the two dynastic lineages that ruled France and England: the Capetians and the Plantagenets. Following the Norman invasion of 1066, the Kingdom of England became inextricably tied to its neighbour across the Channel. Two Houses, Two Kingdoms is about the families whose personal ambitions and domestic disfunction affected the lives of millions. All the familiar names are here – Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard I, a seemingly inexhaustible list of Philips, Henrys and Louis – as well as lesser-known but pivotal figures such as Empress Matilda and Blanche of Castile.

Confident and lively in tone, Hanley’s telling is full of drama, scheming and quick, devasting reversals of Fortune’s Wheel.

THE WORLD: A FAMILY HISTORY

Simon Sebag Montefiore

‘This is a world history that I wrote during the menacing times of Covid lockdown and Ukraine war.’ So writes award-winning British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore (The Romanovs) in the preface of this singular work, which narrates the history of the world through stories of family dynasties. Opening with Enheduanna – an Akkadian princess and high priestess who is known to have recorded the first writings on sexual assault – and closing with the arrival of Russian tanks in Ukraine, Montefiore’s envisioning of the world is at once intimate and expansive. Families are shown here as sources of warmth and solace, as well as perpetrators of unimaginable cruelty within their own ranks. History that is as compelling as any fiction, The World is a magisterial and unputdownable read.

SERVANTS OF

QUEENS OF THE AGE OF CHIVALRY

Alison Weir

Jonathan Cape PB $35

time.

MY PEOPLE’S SONGS

Joel Stephen Birnie Monash PB $34.95

This chronicle of a prominent Tasmanian Indigenous family, the Smiths, focuses on the stories of three of its female members who lived in colonial times: Tarenootairer and activists Mary Ann Arthur and Fanny Cochrane Smith.

This third volume of Weir’s magisterial history of the queens of medieval England focuses on Marguerite and Isabella of France, Philippa of Hainault, Anne of Bohemia and Isabella of Valois.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE FIVE EYES

Richard Kerbaj Bonnier PB $34.99

Stories of spies, code-breakers and secret operations feature in this history of the eightdecade-long international intelligence collaboration between the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and NZ.

THE DAMNED

David Enrich Scribe PB $35

The astonishing yet shadowy power wielded by the world’s largest law firms is the subject of this exposé by NYT journalist David Enrich.

SISTERS IN RESISTANCE

Tilar J. Mazzeo Scribe PB $35

This is a riveting account of how three women –Mussolini’s daughter, a German spy and an American socialite – collaborated to stop the Nazis and fascists from destroying incriminating documents.

THE STORY OF RUSSIA Orlando Figes

Bloomsbury PB $32.99

Told chronologically, this thousand-year history illustrates how narratives from Russia’s past have been used to shape its autocratic present.

SURVIVAL OF THE RICHEST Douglas Rushkoff Scribe PB $29.99

Rushkoff traces the origins of what he calls ‘The Mindset’, the tech elite’s certainty that their technology and immense wealth will allow them to escape the societal catastrophe that they believe is coming.

BLACK LIVES, WHITE LAW

Russell Marks

Powerfully illustrating the realities of a ‘Great Australian Incarceration’ of First Nations people, this book demonstrates the clear and urgent need for change. And what needs to change? The entrenched practices, processes and assumptions of what Russell Marks calls ‘Settler Australia’s system of criminal justice’. A criminal defence lawyer and academic, Marks pulls together myriad individual case studies, historical events, various strands of research and Aboriginal perspectives to explain and explore the huge discrepancy between the rates of incarceration of First Nations and non-Indigenous people in Australia. Marks doesn’t pretend there are easy answers, but he is absolutely convincing in his argument that we need to do better.

BULLDOZED

Niki Savva

Having worked as both a political journalist and a Liberal Party staffer, Niki Savva has impeccable credentials as a commentator on the Coalition governments that reigned in Canberra from 2013 to 2022. Bulldozed is the third volume in her trilogy documenting this time, bringing the bloody and unstable era that was introduced in The Road to Ruin and continued in Plots and Prayers to a conclusion. Focusing on Scott Morrison’s fall and Anthony Albanese’s rise, Savva documents the unravelling of the Coalition at the hands of a resurgent Labor Party and the so-called teal independents.

Fellow journalist Laurie Oakes describes Bulldozed as ‘The gripping inside story of how Scott Morrison went from miracle man to roadkill’, praising Savva’s portrayal of him as ‘a fatally flawed leader who trashed his government, his party, and his legacy’.

Essential Auspol reading.

THE CARE-LESS STATE: REFORMING AUSTRALIA’S SOCIAL SERVICES

Mark Considine

There is new thinking to be done,’ Considine declares at the opening of this book about social services in Australia. Using examples that illustrate shared problems across sectors – from employment services to maternal and child health, with stops including aged care, childcare and the NDIS – Considine argues that the system we have now, with its emphasis on market mechanics and the illusory promise of choice, is not working. Instead, it is ‘the very opposite of a system designed to care for everyone’. A distinguished professor of political science, Considine kick-starts the new thinking that is required, proposing different frameworks and approaches. He makes a cogent case.

Highly Recommended

BEST AUSTRALIAN POLITICAL CARTOONS 2022

Russ Radcliffe (ed.)

Scribe PB $35

An Auspol institution, this annual collection of the most incisive and humorous political cartoons published in Australia features work by 29 masters of the form.

DISCONNECT

Jordan Guiao Monash PB $29.99

A former digital strategist at the ABC and head of social media at SBS considers the rise of internet extremism and questions how we can use the internet safely and for social good.

CHOKE POINT CAPITALISM

Rebecca Giblin & Cory Doctorow

A stellar cast of creatives has gone on record in praise of this call to action for the creative class and labour movement to rally against the power of Big Tech and Big Media (Seth Godin describes it as ‘An urgent, profound, and approachable take on what it’s going to take to save our culture’ and Margaret Atwood says that ‘it tells us how the vampires crashed the party, and provides protective garlic’). Giblin and Doctorow argue that we’re in a new era in which exploitative businesses (particularly Google, Meta and Amazon) are creating insurmountable barriers to competition that enable them to capture value that should rightfully go to others. All workers are weakened by this, but the problem is especially well illustrated by the plight of creative workers.

FINDING THE HEART OF THE NATION: 2ND EDITION

Thomas Mayor

Five years after the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and three years after the first edition of this book was published, we are finally heading towards a referendum on a Voice to Parliament. This, then, is a timely second edition, with a new introduction and conclusion. Mayor, a Torres Strait Islander man, exhorts all non-Indigenous Australians to ‘walk with us’. Part of walking together is listening to First Nations voices, and Finding the Heart of the Nation is the perfect way to do so. Mayor tells his own story as it relates to the development of the Uluru Statement, interwoven with a variety of voices from around the country. But, as he says, it is the next steps that are particularly important: we must all act and advocate.

HARD LABOUR

Ben Schneiders

In his first book, Walkley Award–winner Ben Schneiders shares stories from his investigative journalism to highlight the inherent inequality that underpins Australia’s economy. From banks to burger chains, supermarkets to high-end restaurants, wage theft and job insecurity are ongoing issues. Naming and shaming, Schneiders reveals the minutiae behind the stories that made Age headlines. Backed by data, research and extensive interviews with undocumented and underpaid workers, Hard Labour details the shifting of power from the labour market and unions to private equity firms and corporate boards. Forecasting the pressure for change facing the Albanese government, Schneiders pulls no punches and provides suggestions for a more democratic future.

HOW MANY MORE WOMEN?

Jennifer Robinson & Keina Yoshida

High-profile human-rights barristers

Jennifer Robinson and Keina Yoshida make a sobering point in this book, namely that the law is being wielded to reinforce the status quo of silence that existed before MeToo. Robinson and Yoshida argue that we are at a crucial moment – as women are starting to speak out about gender-based violence and have grown empowered to speak, a new form of systematic silencing has become more evident: the spike in survivors speaking out has been followed by a spike in legal actions against both them and the media outlets that are telling their stories. Examining the laws around the world that facilitate this, Robinson and Yoshida explore the changes needed to ensure that women’s freedoms are no longer threatened by the legal systems that are supposed to protect them.

NOT NOW, NOT EVER

Julia Gillard (ed.)

It’s been 10 years since Julia Gillard’s monumental misogyny speech in federal parliament, but its impact and influence are still immense. As she writes in this book, the trigger for the speech – ‘The frustration that sexism and misogyny could still be so bad in the twenty-first century. The toll of not pointing it out.’ – is as applicable today as it was in 2012. In Not Now, Not Ever contributors including Jess Hill, Mary Beard, Katherine Murphy and Jennifer Palmieri discuss the speech and its subject, while Gillard herself explores the roadmap for the future with next-generation feminists Sally Scales, Chanel Contos and Caitlin Figueiredo. Proceeds from book sales go to the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership.

TIME FOR SOCIALISM

Thomas Piketty

French economist Thomas Piketty is known for his informed, accessible melding of political theory and economics. His first book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, was a surprise bestseller, examining the relationship between economic growth and social inequality. Now Piketty turns his eye to our contemporary moment. These collected essays were first published in French newspaper Le Monde, for which Piketty is a regular correspondent. They cover five tumultuous years with characteristic insight and clarity, encompassing mammoth global political and financial events such as Brexit, the elections and presidencies of Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron, and the social and financial impact of Covid-19. Collectively, they are a clarion call for anyone interested in understanding and engaging with progressive economic and political thought.

NOTHING TO HIDE

GOOD ARGUMENTS

Bo Seo

Scribner PB $29.99

Two-time world debating champion Bo Seo argues that the art of debating can teach us about listening better and disagreeing well.

Sam Elkin, Alex Gallagher, Yves Rees & Bobuq Sayed (eds)

Allen & Unwin PB $34.99

This anthology showcases the work of 32 trans and gender-diverse Australian writers.

LONE WOLF: ALBANESE AND THE NEW POLITICS

Katherine Murphy Quarterly Essay PB $24.99

December Release

The political editor of Guardian Australia profiles Anthony Albanese, offering a telling portrait of our new prime minister.

PROVOCATIONS

Jeff Sparrow NewSouth PB $32.99

Drawing on decades of work, this compilation of newspaper, magazine and online pieces by Jeff Sparrow demonstrates that he is one of Australia’s leading public intellectuals.

2022:

RECKONING WITH POWER AND PRIVILEGE

Michael Hopkin (ed.)

Thames & Hudson PB $32.99

In this compilation of essays, The Conversation’s experts analyse the issues that have dominated the 2022 global landscape.

VOICES OF US

Tim Dunlop NewSouth PB $29.99 December Release

Dunlop analyses the strong support for independents in the federal election and suggests that this indicates we are on the precipice of a transformative era for democracy in Australia.

THE BEST AUSTRALIAN SCIENCE WRITING 2022

Ivy Shih (ed.)

A welcome fixture in Australia’s literary calendar, this anthology is always both a treasure trove of incisive writing (not just essays but creative works too) and a reflection of the current concerns of our scientific community. Through her selections this year, editor Ivy Shih reminds us that Covid is not the only thing going on in the world. As in other editions, climate change is a frequent theme, but there are also pieces on, for example, space exploration, psychedelics, and the necessity of – and joy to be found in – pure research. As Shih says in her introduction, Covid has emphasised the importance of clearly communicating scientific findings. Fortunately, the writers collected here have a talent for this.

THE BODY – ILLUSTRATED

Bill Bryson

How well do you know your body? The Body – Illustrated is a handsome reboot of the 2019 book The Body: A Guide for Occupants and, once again, Bill Bryson’s celebrated big-picture approach astounds with telling details, some astonishing facts and a few painful truths. The illustrations add piquancy to the text and highlight human drama, with much fascinating material on medical research included. The discovery of insulin by a Canadian GP who could not even spell diabetes is among the most extraordinary of stories recounted. Bryson’s insatiable curiosity is matched by his eye for a good story and a crisp punchline, making The Body as delightful to read as it is informative.

CAPTURING NATURE

Vanessa Finney

In this extraordinary book, which is subtitled ‘Early Scientific Photography at the Australian Museum 1857–1893’, the Australian Museum’s chief archivist and librarian, Vanessa Finney, showcases the ground-breaking scientific photographs of Australian Museum curator Gerard Krefft and taxidermist Henry Barnes. Digging deep into the museum’s vaults, Finney has uncovered glass-plates and hidden treasures created by Krefft and Barnes as they began to experiment with the revolutionary new artform of photography in the mid-19th century. Capturing myriad specimens – from whales and giant sunfish to lifelike lyrebird scenes and fossils – this documentation paralleled the museum’s mission to become more scientific in its practices, and Finney shares the compelling stories of curators, taxidermists and scientists working over this pioneering time alongside the images themselves.

Highly Recommended

ANIMAL

Dorling Kindersley HB Was $85 Now $69.99

Special Price

This updated edition of DK’s landmark photographic encyclopedia of the animal kingdom showcases 2000 species using descriptions, photographs, distribution maps and statistics, including conservation status.

AN ANTHOLOGY OF AQUATIC LIFE

Sam Hume

Dorling Kindersley HB $39.99

More than 100 incredible aquatic life forms feature in this lavishly illustrated compendium to our underwater world, which will appeal to readers of every age.

CHOOSE COMPASSION

James Kirby

Drawing on his years of experience as a clinical psychologist and researcher, Dr James Kirby brings together hard science and real-life examples in this guide to achieving a more compassionate life and society. Utilising philosophy, psychology and pop culture references, Kirby debunks the myth that compassion is simply a feeling and shows us how it is a motivational force that can shape our behaviour and relationships with each other and the world. Kirby considers how it might help with self-criticism, parenting and grief, and he also explores what part artificial intelligence might play in a compassionate future.

FEN, BOG & SWAMP

Annie Proulx

The second foray into non-fiction by Pulitzer Prize–winner Annie Proulx is an impressive and timely volume on the fascinating peatlands (fens, bogs and swamps) of the world. Writing in the tradition of naturalist writer-observers Robert Macfarlane, Henry David Thoreau, Nan Shepherd and James Rebanks, Proulx charts the history of peatlands’ use during this Anthropocene era, which is characterised by large-scale industrial capitalism and environmental destruction. Writing with urgency, she succinctly argues for their reclamation. Transporting readers to several key swamps, fens and bogs across Europe, the UK and the American continent, Proulx demonstrates the value of peatlands to biodiversity and discusses the vital role they play in sequestering damaging carbon levels in the Earth’s surface.

THE CLIMATE BOOK

Greta Thunberg

Created by climate activist Greta Thunberg with a group of more than 100 geophysicists, mathematicians, oceanographers, meteorologists, engineers, economists, psychologists and philosophers, this substantial volume aims to give readers an informed understanding of the climate crisis we face and inspire us to act collectively to secure a safe future for life on Earth.

Thunberg shares her own stories of learning about and uncovering greenwashing around the world, revealing the extent to which the global population has been kept in the dark. She argues that we all have the responsibility and privilege of being alive at the most decisive time in the history of humanity, and that we have a duty to act to save the planet for future generations.

DARK WINTER

Raina MacIntyre

A fixture on our television screens throughout the pandemic, Professor Raina MacIntyre is an epidemiologist and expert in global biosecurity. In Dark Winter she provides insights into historical biological attacks, lab accidents and epidemics, revealing a recurrent theme of denial, silence and cover-up around unnatural epidemics. Unsurprisingly, Covid-19 – its origins, treatments and consequences –features prominently. MacIntyre argues that the solution to the existential threat we face from misuse of biotechnology will not come from scientists but from the community having a voice in the future of the planet and humanity. She also provides a fascinating glimpse into new frontiers of biosecurity.

THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 100 PLANTS

Simon Barnes

Humans couldn’t live for a day without plants. They take in carbon dioxide and push out the oxygen that we breathe. They give us food, direct the rain that falls and moderate the climate. And they also give us shelter, beauty and joy. This inspirational book by journalist and naturalist Simon Barnes, author of How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher, looks at the 100 plants that have had the greatest impact on humanity, profiling them using informative text and stunning photographs.

HUMANITY’S MOMENT

Joëlle Gergis

Here, Australian climate scientist Joëlle Gergis makes a profound plea to humanity today. In quoting renowned environmentalist Rachel Carson, who once said ‘It is not half so important to know as to feel’, Gergis sets out to share her emotional journey as well as the scientific data she found while working on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Gergis knows that the information on climate change is bleak and overwhelming, but she also knows that this is the moment at which humanity can still act. In sharing her own emotional response as well as her expert science, she presents a powerful and hopeful blueprint for change.

BLACK HOLES

ASTRONOMY: SKY COUNTRY

Karlie Noon & Krystal de Napoli Thames & Hudson PB $24.99

The fourth volume in the First Knowledges series explores the connections between Aboriginal environmental and cultural practices and the behaviour of the stars.

THE BIG SWITCH

Saul Griffith Black Inc PB $27.99

Saul Griffiths argues that the global community can fight climate change, create millions of jobs and build a healthy and sustainable environment by making the switch to renewable electricity.

Special Price

Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw

ABC PB Was $34.99 Now $29.99

Black holes dot our universe. Here, two professors of particle physics explore these mysterious places in space and time where the laws of gravity, quantum physics and thermodynamics collide.

THE BOOK OF PHOBIAS & MANIAS

Kate Summerscale Profile PB $29.99

Do you suffer from nomophobia (the irrational fear of being without a mobile phone)? This compendium looks at this and many other phobias and manias.

THE CARBON ALMANAC: IT’S NOT TOO LATE Penguin PB $37.99

December Release

Including contributions from leading environmental experts, this guide to the facts of climate change argues that established facts should be used to plan collective action.

THE COMPACT

AUSTRALIAN BIRD GUIDE Jeff Davies et al CSIRO PB $34.99

Lavishly illustrated, this pocket-sized quick identification guide covers all bird species regularly occurring in Australia. Perfect for novice birdwatchers!

KOALA: A LIFE IN TREES

Danielle Clode

The koala is one of Australia’s most iconic animals, and yet we know surprisingly little about it. Enter biologist and award-winning natural history author Danielle Clode, who has delved into the world of the koala to debunk the myths and uncover the truth about this incredible animal and its complex relationship with humans. The result is Koala: A Life in Trees, a highly engaging and thoroughly researched account of this extraordinary mammal. Clode takes the reader into forests to reveal the daily lives of koalas, and in doing so invites us to consider how we might honour and protect these animals in the face of climate change. A rigorous, evocative read for environmentalists, nature lovers and readers of Helen Macdonald, Sy Montgomery or Peter Wohlleben.

A LIFE ON OUR PLANET

David Attenborough

Desperate pleas for action to save our planet are increasing in quantity and volume. Written by a man who has experienced the planet in a way few others have, A Life on Our Planet pleas with humankind to take our final opportunity for positive change.

Attenborough starts with a witness statement, evidence from his own eyes as well as scientific measurements, of decreasing wilderness and biodiversity across decades. Then he offers a vision for the future, a run-down of the decisions we need to make: losing our obsession with growth, switching to clean energy and rewilding our lands and seas, for example. If we don’t heed the wonderful David Attenborough, who brings his trademark warmth and awe to this manifesto, who will we listen to?

THE NATURALIST

Atkins

Allan Riverstone McCullough began working for the Australian Museum in 1898, aged only 13. Despite having no formal schooling, he became a talented scientist, artist and adventurer with a huge passion for the natural world, travelling to the Torres Strait, the Great Barrier Reef and Papua New Guinea to collect scientific specimens and cultural artefacts. In this book about McCullough’s extraordinary career, ecologist and ex-editor of the Australian Museum’s Explore magazine Brendan Atkins also turns a modern eye to the unethical practices of bygone ethnologists and explores the practice of repatriating items stolen by wealthy Western countries. As well as reckoning with the past, this story is complemented by 100-year-old photographs and illustrations of flora and fauna.

Highly Recommended

CURLEWS ON VULTURE STREET

Darryl Jones

NewSouth PB $32.99

Brisbane-based urban ecologist Darryl Jones reveals the not-so-secret lives of the birds we share our towns and cities with.

OCEAN

THE SONG OF THE CELL

Siddhartha Mukherjee

Did you know that 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water and 96.5 per cent of that water comes from the ocean? This and other watery facts feature in Ocean: Exploring the Marine World, a celebration of the ocean’s past, present and future. Images from the art world, underwater photography, sculpture and film are juxtaposed to highlight differences in the mediums used and similarities in the works: a medieval manuscript sits comfortably beside a NASA image of the ocean from space, for instance, and a David Hockney painting of The Sea at Malibu contrasts perfectly with a Richard Herrmann photo of a pod of Pacific dolphins. Handsomely illustrated throughout with expertly curated images, this book is a captivating and thought-provoking journey from both above and below.

PLANTS: PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

Pulitzer Prize–winning author, biologist and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee turns to the smallest and most vital of all subjects, the cell, in his latest book. This most elementary of all biological building blocks, which is invisible to the naked eye, is the focus of an epic tale of discovery and hope. Mukherjee renders the history of microbiology as a classic thriller of human ingenuity and derring-do, but balances this with the thoughtfulness exhibited by the best memoirists. From the highs of discovering tiny living cells in the rainwater of 17th-century Amsterdam to scientific advances during the time of Covid, Mukherjee charts an epic course through the history of medicine.

THE JOY OF SCIENCE

Jim Al-Khalili

Princeton HB $29.99

Quantum physicist and bestselling author Jim AlKhalili (The World According to Physics) reveals how eight lessons from the heart of science can help you get the most out of life.

Zena

Cumpston,

Michael-Shawn Fletcher & Lesley Head

The First Knowledges series is edited by Wiradjuri/Gumbayngirr academic and researcher Margo Neale. It offers an introduction to Indigenous knowledges in vital areas and the application of these knowledges to the present day and the future. This fifth book in the series, which has been written by Barkandji writer and curator Zena Cumpston, Wiradjuri geographer Michael-Shawn Fletcher and geographer Lesley Head, focuses on the uses and cultural significance of plants. It and the other books in this series bring together two very different ways of understanding the natural world: one ancient and based in deep cultural knowledge, the other modern.

SAVING THE REEF

Rohan Lloyd

A world wonder, tourism magnet and environmental battlefield – the Great Barrier Reef is all of these things. In Saving the Reef historian Rohan Lloyd examines the reef’s management and protection both before and after the landmark Save the Reef campaign of the late 1960s that resulted in the establishment of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in 1975. Lloyd also delves into the relationship between the reef and First Nations peoples and early settlers, up to the moment in 1967 when a local cane grower lodged an application to mine a coral reef for limestone. With the threat of global warming, coral bleaching and the health of the Great Barrier Reef making headlines, this is a timely account as the world watches on.

THE SUPERPOWER TRANSFORMATION Ross Garnaut (ed.)

Economist Ross Garnaut has long argued that Australia – rich in resources for renewable energy and for capturing carbon in the landscape – could become an economic superpower of the post-carbon world. In this book, he and a number of contributors present a practical plan to reshape our nation and achieve this aim.

The Superpower Transformation 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. Covering electricity, hydrogen, steel, exports and carbon capture in the landscape, it considers how Australia can meet the objectives set at the Paris and Glasgow climate conferences and warns of the growing costs of not doing so.

THE WAY THROUGH THE WOODS Long Litt Woon

When Malaysian-born Long Litt Woon loses her Danish husband of 32 years to an unexpected death, she is utterly bereft. As an immigrant in his country, she loses more than the love of her life – she also loses her compass and her passport to society. It is only when she wanders deep into the woods with mushroom hunters and is taught there how to see clearly what is all around her that she returns to life and to living. In this hybrid memoir and work of natural history, Litt Woon shares descriptions and line drawings of the mushrooms that she encountered in her therapeutic rambles through Norwegian woods and tells how these guided her through the process of grief.

PROVING GROUND

Kathy Kleiman

Hurst PB $34.99

Kathy Kleiman tells the fascinating story of six women who programmed the world’s first computer but have never been given the credit they deserved for their groundbreaking work.

SWEET IN TOOTH AND CLAW

Kristin Ohlson Scribe PB $32.99

This book argues that our narrow view of evolution has caused us to ignore the generosity and cooperation that exist in the natural world.

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING ELSE

Dan Schreiber

HarperCollins UK PB $34.99

UK comedian Dan Schreiber takes us on a hilarious voyage into the world of crazy theories from exponents of what he describes as the ‘rejected sciences’.

THIS IS WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE: WHAT THE MUSIC YOU LOVE SAYS ABOUT YOU

Susan Rogers

Bodley Head PB $35

A record-producer-turnedbrain-scientist explains the ways in which our minds and bodies respond to music.

VISUAL THINKING

Temple Grandin Rider PB $35

Academic and activist Temple Grandin offers advice on how to thrive as a visual thinker in a verbal world.

WHY DO BIRDS DO THAT?

Gráinne Cleary Allen & Unwin PB $32.99

Utilising an accessible Q&A format, wildlife ecologist Gráinne Cleary (Your Backyard Birds) addresses often-asked questions about the birds we watch every day.

Brendan

ARCHIPELAGO: AN ATLAS OF IMAGINED ISLANDS

Huw Lewis-Jones

‘Draw the map of an island. An island of your own imagining … ’. This was the brief sent to 70 illustrators from around the world by editor Huw Lewis-Jones. The result is this beautiful, full-colour celebration of creativity and invention. It’s also a celebration of the literary and mythological islands that have already captured our imaginations, including those that feature in classics such as Robinson Crusoe. Defoe’s bestselling tale inspired a whole literary genre, and Archipelago has been compiled to celebrate its tercentenary. Worldbuilders, lovers of fantastical fiction and art aficionados alike will enjoy poring over the intricate imagined islands in this collection, dreamed up by some of the world’s leading illustrators.

ARTISTS AT HOME

Karina Dias Pires

The working and living spaces of 32 contemporary Australian women artists, including Prudence Flint, Lindy Lee, Janet Laurence and Patricia Piccinini, feature in this beautifully produced book of photographs. Each location is preceded by an elegant full-page photographic portrait of the artist and a biographical snapshot informed by the artist’s own perspective on the significance of her intimate surroundings. The studios and living spaces often reflect qualities of the artist’s oeuvre, but regardless of their connection to the art, they are sophisticated and quixotic. The sensitive spirit of the homes offers a glimpse into originality and shows how the contemporary artistic landscape boasts many women with beguiling artistic talent.

BANKSY: COMPLETED

He’s quite possibly the world’s most famous living artist, yet few people (if any) know Banksy’s true identity. If artist and art critic Carol Diehl is in possession of this information, she isn’t telling in this book. Instead, she discusses the street artist’s paintings, installations, writings and film work, arguing that he is the ultimate provocateur and that the questions that he raises through his artistic practice – the uses of public and private property, the role of the global corporatocracy and the gap between artworks as luxury goods and as vehicles of social expression – make him one of the most important artists working today. Generously illustrated, Banksy: Completed is a fascinating investigation of this audacious artist and the contemporary art market that he loves to challenge.

A BOOK OF DAYS

Patti Smith

More than 365 images taken from her @thisispattismith Instagram feed, which has more than one million followers, feature in Patti Smith’s latest book. Mainly shot with her beloved Polaroid Land Camera 250, the images function as miniature windows into Smith’s idiosyncratic world, featuring her children, her daily coffee, the books she is reading, her Abyssinian cat and pretty well anything that captures her imagination. Presented together, the images profile Smith’s passions, devotions, obsessions and whims. Accompanied by an introduction by Smith, notations and some hitherto unshared images, these photographs form an inspirational map of this singular artist’s life.

CHINA ADORNED

Deng Qiyao & Cat Vinton

In his introduction to this book, cultural anthropologist Professor Deng Qiyao recalls growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution, when he was sent from his home in Yunnan to the China–Mongolia border to be ‘reformed’. It was there, he says, that he first encountered members of China’s ethnic groups, who wore clothing that stood in dramatic contrast to the drab Mao suits that were standard revolutionary garb elsewhere in the country. China Adorned showcases the rich traditional clothing and jewellery of China’s ethnic groups, documenting them in the face of their increasingly endangered status. Cat Vinton’s gorgeous colour photographs of ethnic minority groups in Yunnan, Qinhai, Sichuan and Guizhou accompany Professor Qiyao’s archival images of more than 30 minority groups, which have been collected over three decades and record a number of communities that no longer exist. A magnificent achievement.

CINEMA SPECULATION

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino’s first work of non-fiction makes for an adrenaline-fuelled read. Delving into significant American films from the 1970s, the iconic filmmaker weaves together film criticism and theory with memoir and off-the-cuff reportage. This is unvarnished storytelling, rife with political opinions, industry gossip and intimate personal details. Tarantino’s breadth of knowledge is remarkable, and he provides unique insight into the impact of films such as Dirty Harry and The Getaway across American culture. He is quick to credit these films and their creators with fostering his own passion for the medium, and pays tribute to those who nurtured this passion in his youth. While Cinema Speculation is an obvious pick for any Tarantino fan, it will be of interest to any dedicated cinephile.

GREAT WOMEN PAINTERS

‘How can the lives of women be known if men write all the books?’, asks international curator Alison M. Gingeras in the introduction to Great Women Painters. With a task of re-envisioning history in a way that sees and honours the contributions of women in the art world, this book uncovers achievements of women that have long been obscured by systemic misogyny and bias. A deluxe and elegant hardback that is full of incredible images, it reveals 500 years of hard work, great knowledge and powerful skill, as well as showcasing emerging artists today. Art lovers, feminists and history buffs unite –Great Women Painters will be a rich and rewarding education.

LIVING IN THE FOREST

Forests are an antidote to the stress of modern living. Their restorative benefits have long been recognised, especially in the Japanese ritual shinrin-yoku (forest bathing). This book showcases 50 pioneering projects from every continent that seamlessly integrate houses into their sylvan surrounds. Their tranquil, minimalist designs convey the architects’ respect for and connection to the woodlands and forests in which they are built. The houses themselves are constructed of vernacular materials and reflect the cultural aesthetics and climatic conditions of their locations. Interiors frame the spectacular natural scenery and flow onto decks and terraces to embrace the wooded landscapes beyond. When basking in the beauty of this book’s photography, the soothing benefits of bringing ‘nature, houses and human beings together into a higher unity’ is apparent.

TASMANIA LIVING

Joan-Maree Hargreaves & Marita Bullock

The photographs and words within this handsome account of how creative Tasmanians live is as moody, evocative and quietly beautiful as the island itself. The two authors speak to more than 20 creative people – artists, chefs, architects, conservationists and renovators – about their homes, how they use them, what they place in them and what led them to live there. Each account taps into the allure and challenges of solitude. The island’s dark and tragic past is ever-present, and the book’s subjects tell of creating a space for living that doesn’t ignore the past. The homes range from convict-built cottages to revived sandstone piles to contemporary architectural wonders overlooking wild, unpredictable and unforgiving seas.

DREAMING THE LAND

Marie Geissler

Thames & Hudson HB $100

This visually rich survey of the evolution of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement in remote areas of Australia features profiles of 100 artists.

CRESSIDA

work of one of

Australian artists working today is showcased in this handsome book, which has been published to accompany the current exhibition at the NGA.

GUNYAH GOONDIE + WURLEY

Paul Memmott

Thames & Hudson HB $120

A new, richly illustrated edition of Paul Memmott’s seminal work, which explores the range and complexity of Indigenous-designed structures and spaces.

HOW ART CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Susie Hodge

Thames & Hudson PB $29.99

More than 70 artists and their artworks are used as tools to assist the reader in dealing better with emotions, adopting new viewpoints and approaching the world more positively.

RECLAIMED

Penny Craswell

Thames & Hudson HB $65

Featuring 24 houses and apartments from across the globe, this guide to re-using building materials such as bricks, timber and metal in new designs offers plenty of inspiration.

THE STORY OF ART WITHOUT MEN

Katy Hessel Hutchinson Heinemann HB $55

Covering the Renaissance to the present day, this book aims to give important women artists their rightful place in the accepted narrative of art history.

SUNDRESSED

Lucianne Tonti Black Inc PB $32.99

The fashion editor of The Saturday Paper looks at the garment industry and argues that using regeneratively farmed natural fabrics is the only way to deliver truly sustainable fashion.

Carol Diehl

BOB DYLAN: NO DIRECTION HOME

Robert Shelton

First published in 1986, No Direction Home has long been considered the definitive, though unauthorised, biography of the great Bob Dylan. Written by the late Robert Shelton, a principal chronicler of the 1960s US folk revival, it has now been republished in a thoughtfully abridged edition edited by Elizabeth Thomson, author of The Dylan Companion and Joan Baez: The Last Leaf The book documents Dylan’s formative years and was enriched by Shelton’s access to Dylan’s family and friends, including muse Suze Rotolo, who was immortalised on the album cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Covering the period up until Dylan’s year-long 1978 world tour, it includes more than 150 images and a new foreword and afterword by Thomson.

THE COMPLETE LYRICS 1978–2022

Nick Cave

Revised and updated by the superstar musician, this new edition of The Complete Lyrics spans Nick Cave’s career from The Birthday Party days through to his most recent work. Cave has been described by a number of prominent music critics as one of the best lyricists in rock history, and the lyrics included here are undeniably powerful. Themes of death, religion, love and violence feature heavily, as do references to scripture. With a foreword by Scottish writer Andrew O’Hagan, this will be an essential purchase for every devoted Cave fan.

FAITH, HOPE AND CARNAGE

Nick Cave & Seán O’Hagan

This book-length conversation between musician Nick Cave and Irish journalist Sean O’Hagan centres on the indelible themes that have preoccupied Cave throughout his career and life: love, religion, death, beauty, creativity, anxiety, doubt and wonder. Transcribed from more than 40 hours of interviews between the two men, Faith, Hope and Carnage is suffused with the candour and contemplation that have enraptured legions of Cave fans through five decades. Inevitably, Cave’s grief over the 2015 death of his 15-year-old son, Arthur, looms large over their conversations. Readers will find Cave now an older, wiser thinker who is as at ease discussing philosophy and poetry as he is recounting stories about his heroin-fuelled youth and his often-volatile adventures with The Bad Seeds.

MIRROR IN THE SKY

Simon Morrison

In 1973, the unknown singer Stevie Nicks released an album with her boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham to little acclaim. Just two years later they had joined Fleetwood Mac and would release one of the bestselling albums of all time, Rumours. Penned by music historian Simon Morrison, Mirror in the Sky takes a deep dive into Nicks’ life and work. Focusing on the singer’s development as a songwriter and performer, he provides an in-depth analysis of her songs and looks at the effect of stardom on a creative female artist working in a male-dominated industry. The book forgoes the more sensationalist side of Nicks’ life and loves, and is a reverential portrait of an artist who has become one of the most influential and successful songwriters of her generation.

SURRENDER: 40 SONGS, ONE STORY

Bono

There have been a number of books written about U2’s charismatic front man, but this is the first to be written by Paul David Hewson (aka Bono) himself.

Starting with his childhood in Dublin, including the sudden loss of his mother when he was 14, he chronicles U2’s unlikely journey to become one of the world’s most influential rock bands in 40 chapters (each named for a U2 song), and he also writes about his decades of activism dedicated to the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty. Forty original drawings by the man himself are scattered throughout the book.

FOLK MUSIC: A BOB DYLAN BIOGRAPHY IN SEVEN SONGS

Greil Marcus

A new book by music writer and cultural critic Greil Marcus is always a pleasure, and Folk Music is no exception. The celebrated author of Mystery Train and Lipstick Traces is the go-to living expert on Bob Dylan, and here he distils the songwriter’s life and genius into seven songs spanning seven decades: from 1962’s ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ to 2020’s ‘Murder Most Foul’. Marcus uses the songs to float his own memories, and to scrutinise how much or how little America has changed since Dylan’s words were written. As the meaning of each song is unravelled, the importance of biography in Dylan’s song writing provides a rich background to the insightful social and cultural commentary that results. An essential addition to the vast pool of writing on His Bobness.

NO BULL

Vika & Linda

While most music careers stalled during the early years of the pandemic, Vika and Linda Bull managed to release two chart-topping albums: their greatest hits album ’Akilotoa and a gospel album titled Sunday (The Gospel According to Iso). Now comes this joint memoir, which recounts the story of their musical lives. The sisters, who have a Tongan mother and who launched their careers singing at the Tongan church they attended as children, write of growing up as dark-skinned girls in 1970s suburban Doncaster, then hitting the city to work in a hip café, perform with bands including the Black Sorrows, forge solo careers, collaborate with Paul Kelly, provide backing vocals for the TV show RocKwiz and much more.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN SONG

Bob Dylan

His first book of new writing since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, this book is a labour of love that Dylan started to work on more than a decade ago. A master class on the art and craft of song writing, it includes appreciations of 66 songs recorded by artists as diverse as Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Little Richard, Hank Williams, Nina Simone, Cher, The Eagles, Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash and Elvis Costello. Dylan analyses what he calls the trap of easy rhymes and breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song. Interspersed throughout the book are nearly 150 carefully curated photos, as well as a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem.

TIME OF MY LIFE

Myf Warhurst

As down to earth and engaging as the woman herself, Myf Warhurst’s memoir is a page-turning romp packed with memories and laughs. Honest and unflinching, and at times bittersweet, the stories she shares are connected by the thread of music. Since the pivotal moment as a three-yearold, when she glimpsed Sherbet performing ‘Howzat’ on Countdown, music has been her guiding star – from leading the editorial team at street paper Inpress to hosting shifts at Triple R, Triple J and Triple M. Of course, the backstory to her time on Spicks and Specks plays a central role in her book, along with her love of all things daggy, camp and fabulous.

VERSE, CHORUS, MONSTER!

Graham Coxon

The Britpop movement of the mid-1990s was dominated by four bands: Oasis, Suede, Pulp and Blur. This memoir by Graham Coxon, co-founder and lead guitarist of Blur, offers a fascinating account of riding the Britpop wave, with its highs (fame and money) and lows (relationship breakdowns, touring exhaustion, alcoholism). Coxon writes of growing up in Essex, meeting his Blur co-founder Damon Albarn at secondary school and bassist Alex James at Goldsmiths, signing Blur’s first record contract in 1989 and launching the blockbuster albums Parklife and The Great Escape in 1994 and 1995. Then comes a marriage breakdown and a stint in rehab for alcoholism, followed by a break from Blur and development of a solo musical career. Intimate and honest, Verse, Chorus, Monster! is an extremely readable reflection on music, fame and addiction.

WRITING IN THE SAND

Matt Garrick

SOUND AS EVER

Jane Gazzo & Andrew P. Street

Was the 1990s the greatest decade in the history of Australian music? This fanzine-style compilation of reminiscences, playlists, set lists and posters will have you convinced that it was. Gazzo and Street's book grew out of the Facebook community whose discussions have kept the memories and music of the grunge decade alive, and it includes contributions by the musicians who played those legendary thrashy gigs in now long-closed venues. From the Big Day out to Recovery and Magic Dirt, the Punters Club to the Annandale, Sound as Ever captures the energy, style and freedom of a time before YouTube, TikTok and Spotify. A welcome reminder of the era’s thriving indie music scene, the likes of which we’re unlikely to see again.

Long before becoming ARIA Hall of Fame inductees, Yothu Yindi was a bunch of Yolngu (Aboriginal people of East Arnhem Land) and balanda (non-Indigenous) mates rocking out in the remote Top End. Soon they were creating some of the best music in the country, splicing traditional sounds with modern instruments (electric guitar, drumkit and keyboard) and spreading a message of unity. In this authorised biography, Matt Garrick recounts how ‘Treaty’, the protest song written by Mandawuy Yunupingu and Paul Kelly with the band members and Peter Garrett, was recorded by Yothu Yindi and released in 1991, giving voice to Indigenous Australia’s hard-fought struggle for recognition. Based on extensive interviews with current and former

members

FIRST NATIONS FOOD COMPANION

Damien Coulthard & Rebecca Sullivan

The authors of this book operate a native-food enterprise so they are well placed to write about delicious Indigenous ingredients such as warrigal greens, bunya nuts, anise myrtle and quondong. Many of the foods featured can be foraged in the bush (author Bruce Pascoe says that after reading it, ‘A walk in the bush will never be the same’) and Coulthard and Sullivan, whose previous cookbook Warndu Mai won the prize for best Australian food heritage book at the prestigious global Goumand Awards, have showcased bush foods and flavours in more than 100 easy-to-achieve recipes. There’s also an informative guide to more than 60 of the most accessible Indigenous ingredients, including their flavour profiles, along with tips for how to buy, grow and store them.

THE FOOD SAVER’S A–Z

Alex Elliott-Howery & Jaimee

JAPANEASY: BOWLS & BENTO Tim Anderson

Subtitled ‘Simple and Satisfying Japanese Recipes for All Day, Every Day’, this book is a celebration of the simple but delicious food sold at Japanese conbini (convenience stores). Anderson, a Japanese food enthusiast and former restaurateur, delivers a guide to reproducing conbini-style dishes at home. His strategy is simple: prep your recipes ahead and eat them later, either cold or reheated (in fact, he argues that some of the dishes improve after a day or two in the fridge). The simple building blocks – rice, pickles and soup – are served along with side dishes in bentos, boxes of multi-element meals that are balanced and visually attractive. Replete with vegetable and vegan options, this clever guide to preparing quick, easy and healthy Japanese food will be a great resource for both experienced and novice home cooks.

THE JOY OF BETTER COOKING

LUNE: CROISSANTS ALL DAY, ALL NIGHT

Yes, it has been described as the home of the best croissants in the world. And yes, the queues outside Lune’s five shops (three in Melbourne and two in Brisbane) are as long as they are ubiquitous. So why not skip the queue and enjoy the croissants by baking your own? Author and Lune founder Kate Reid is a former Formula 1 aerodynamicist, so she’s a natural when it comes to clarifying technical details. Her step-by-step techniques for rolling and shaping croissants will have you emulating the Lune magic at home in no time, delighting your household with your newfound pastry prowess.

Edwards

The creative minds behind the Cornersmith café and cooking school in Sydney are passionate about using every ingredient in their fridge, pantry and fruit bowl before it passes its useful and healthy life. Their latest book encourages and guides all of us to cut down on food waste, saving money and producing delicious meals, side dishes, condiments and baked goods in the process. A worthy follow-up to the team’s bestselling Cornersmith and Use It All cookbooks, The Food Saver’s A–Z includes hundreds of recipes, as well as waste hacks, storage tips and shortcuts. As sensible as it is sustainable, it’s sure to be successful in its aim to keep delicious and simple food on the table and out of the bin.

HOW WILD THINGS ARE

Analiese Gregory

When chef Analiese Gregory relocated to Tasmania after years of cooking in some of the world’s most acclaimed restaurants, she forged a new and very different lifestyle. No longer slaving over a kitchen stove for long stretches, she added fishing, foraging, hunting and discovering to her days, giving greater meaning and enjoyment to her existence. How Wild Things Are interweaves more than 40 recipes with Analiese’s compelling story and stunning photography by Adam Gibson, resulting in a book that is an inspiring ode to nature and Antipodean slow-food life. The recipes are divided into three sections: one featuring New Zealand produce (possum sausages, anyone?); another Tasmanian produce (wallaby tartare, mulberry clafoutis); and a final section showcasing ferments (kefir butter, garum, kombucha, goat’s curd).

Highly Recommended

AROUND THE TABLE

Julia Busuttil Nishimura Plum PB $44.99

This compendium of recipes for family-friendly dishes that Busuttil Nishimura likes to cook for her friends and family ranges across cuisines and levels of difficulty.

COOK Karen Martini

Hardie Grant HB Was $100 Now $79.99

Special Price

Having delivered this 100-recipe masterwork, Karen Martini will rightfully take her place alongside Stephanie Alexander and Margaret Fulton in the highest rank of Australia’s cookbook authors.

Alice Zaslavsky

Any book that garners accolades from Nigella Lawson and Yotam Ottolenghi is bound to be a worthy addition to our cookbook shelves, and the second book by author and food broadcaster Alice Zaslavsky (In Praise of Veg) is just that. Featuring veg-forward recipes – many, but not all of which are vegetarian – this book is full of practical advice that will lay the foundations for a lifetime of better cooking. Divided into sections including ‘Slapdash’ (tasty dishes simply thrown together), ‘On Autopilot’ (great go-tos for weeknights on the fly) and ‘Making the Most of It’ (leftover makeovers), The Joy of Better Cooking will assist even reluctant home cooks to relax into the rhythm of cooking and truly enjoy creating meals for family and friends.

KOLKATA: RECIPES FROM THE HEART OF BENGAL Rinku Dutt

An exhilarating amalgam of old and new India, the city of Kolkata has a vibrant foodie scene. Incorporating influences from the Mughal and British colonial empires, China and Tibet, the cuisine of West Bengal and its major city is known for its focus on fish and for its delectable sweets and desserts. A UK-based restaurateur and travel blogger, Rinku Dutt has a close family connection to Kolkata, and in her debut cookbook she showcases the best food the city has to offer through arresting photographs and more than 70 simple recipes that can be easily recreated in home kitchens. These include dishes for sustaining breakfasts, simple lunches and fragrant dinners, as well as popular street-food snacks.

THE MEXICAN VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK

Margarita Carrillo Arronte

Following the success of Mexico: The Cookbook, chef and restaurateur Margarita Carrillo Arronte has produced a second cookbook featuring the diverse cuisine of Mexico. A rich and colourful collection of vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free dishes, The Mexican Vegetarian Kitchen highlights the home-cooking style that Arronte is renowned for. Coming in at more than 400 pages, the book is filled, bumper to bumper, with healthy, traditional and modern Mexican dishes, covering breakfasts, lunches, snacks, salads and soups. Arronte’s straightforward, unfussy recipes feature easily sourced staples such as corn, beans, vegetables, legumes and seeds, and the book’s illustrations are as vivid and inspiring as the Mexican landscape.

MORO EASY

Sam & Sam Clark

Moro in London is a restaurant renowned for its delicious Moorish cuisine.

Continuing to be inspired by the evocative flavours of southern Spain and North Africa, the restaurant’s husband-and-wife owners Samuel and Samantha (aka the Sams) have created their fourth cookbook, which focuses on simple and fast dishes from Spain and Morocco. Their recipes are characterised by bold flavours and vivid presentation – our favourites include roasted aubergines with pomegranates and pistachios; a one-pot fish stew with green beans, potatoes and aioli; and chicken with preserved lemon labneh.

FIRST, CREAM THE BUTTER AND SUGAR

Emelia Jackson Murdoch HB $59.99

This guide and companion to sweet baking covers everything from cookies, cakes and tarts to chouxpastry creations, yeasty bakes and sweet sauces.

IS THIS A COOKBOOK?

Heston Blumenthal Bloomsbury HB $49.99

Resembling a scrapbook, this book is a mix of recipes, drawings, thoughts, stories and hacks. Recipes range from the strange (parsnip granola) to the comforting (creamy tomato soup).

THE KEW GARDENS COOKBOOK

Jenny Linford (ed.)

Kew Publishing HB $45

Including vegetarian recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi, Fuchsia Dunlop, Claudia Roden and others, this anthology celebrates edible plants and the world-famous Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

A MATTER OF TASTE

Carody Culver (ed.)

Griffith Review PB $27.99

The 78th edition of this quarterly literary and current affairs journal is a smorgasbord of essays, fiction and reportage about what we eat and how we talk and write about it.

PASTA GRANNIES: COMFORT COOKING

Vicky Bennison Hardie Grant HB $45

More recipes and stories from those unlikely YouTube stars. Handmade pasta dishes are the focus, but there are also recipes for pies, rice dishes and pizzas.

TASTE: MY LIFE THROUGH FOOD

Stanley Tucci

Fig Tree PB $22.99

Actor Stanley Tucci is a great storyteller, especially when food is the subject. This memoir recounts his gastronomic journey through life’s ups and downs, focusing on memorable meals.

Kate Reid

Who said ‘It is not half so important to know as to feel’?

NOMA 2.0: VEGETABLE, FOREST, OCEAN

René Redzepi, Mette Søberg & Junichi Takahashi

Awarded the top spot on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list five times, René Redzepi’s Copenhagen restaurant derives its name from two Danish words – ‘nordisk’ (Nordic) and ‘mad’ (food) – and is probably the most famous restaurant in the world. Known for his focus on foraging and invention, Redzepi’s version of New Nordic cuisine is heavily reliant on the edible bounty bequeathed by the forest, ocean and earth. His latest cookbook, which features nearly 200 dishes, reflects this emphasis, offering recipes grounded in true seasonality and terroir. Lavishly produced, every exquisite dish is photographed in detail, making this a book as much for art lovers as it is for fervid foodies.

OTTOLENGHI TEST KITCHEN: EXTRA GOOD THINGS

Noor Murad & Yotam Ottolenghi

Just when you thought you didn’t need any more Ottolenghi in your life, the charming genius does it again. In the same approachable flexi-bound format of its predecessor, Shelf Love, this book helps the home cooks of the world unlock a secret process, flavour or ‘extra thing’ to transform a good dish into an excellent one. Gone are Ottolenghi’s long, intricate recipes of the early days; this is a pragmatic but still joyful and delicious style of home cooking. Organised into fantastic condiment-driven chapters, Extra Good Things helps you decide what to put on toast, pasta and roast veg, and what to pair with rice or eggs – mixing and matching depending on your cravings. The harissa butter and crispy tofu recipes alone make this latest Ottolenghi a must-have.

RECIPETIN EATS: DINNER

Nagi Maehashi

Devotees of Nagi Maehashi’s online recipe blog ‘RecipeTin Eats’ won’t need to be convinced to buy her debut cookbook. In fact, they are likely to be queuing at bookshop doors on the day of its release. A carefully curated mix of 150 new and favourite ‘RecipeTin Eats’ recipes – from comfort food (yes, cheese galore) to fast and easy food for weeknights, Mexican favourites, hearty dinner salads, Asian soups and noodles – it features a photo and how-to video for every recipe (follow the QR code), helpful notes and photographic appearances by Dozer, Nagi’s trusty canine food tester. Focused on using readily available ingredients to create delicious dinners, this is a kitchen-shelf must-have for novice and experienced cooks alike.

THE SHARED KITCHEN Clare Scrine

With its Kinfolkian styling – think muted colour palette and photos of groups of 20-somethings enjoying home-cooked vegan and vegetarian dishes in communal settings – The Shared Kitchen is the second cookbook from food writer, community organiser and legal advocate Clare Scrine. Following on from The Shared Table, her book has a breezy, magazine feel with a simple A–Z format, a conversational style and interviews with shared householders from across the author’s home city of Meanjin (Brisbane). Featuring simple-tosource and affordable ingredients, the recipes for starters, mains and desserts offer plenty of variety but are simple enough for the kitchen novice to master. Imbued with a community vibe, the book has an alternative quality that is reflected in the informal styling and a ‘fun to be young’, healthy-living outlook.

SUPER NATURAL SIMPLE

Heidi Swanson

Californian cook and writer Heidi Swanson is known for her ‘101 Cookbooks’ food blog which focuses on healthy recipes for every day. She is also a James Beard Award–winning author of four cookbooks, the most recent of which is Super Natural Simple. Subtitled ‘Whole Food, Vegetarian Recipes for Real Life’, the book celebrates the benefits of cooking with nutrient-dense plants, fruits, vegetables, whole grains and other natural foods. More than 120 recipes are included, divided into sections focusing on make-ahead mornings, weeknight noodles, one-bowl baking, the best salads, nourishing soups and stews, and easy grills.

TONIGHT’S DINNER 2

Adam Liaw

Nightly meal inspiration, courtesy of the talented and genial cookbook writer and TV presenter, Adam Liaw. Tonight’s Dinner features 80 delicious recipes featured on SBS’s popular food show, The Cook Up. Requiring minimal preparation, these recipes are balanced in nutrition, affordable and the opposite of messy – washing up will be a breeze! Sections cover light meals; weeknight dinners; vegetables; pasta and noodles; wok wonders; snacks, sides and sandwiches; and sweets. Liaw believes that a recipe’s difficulty has no bearing on how good it tastes, and with this book he well and truly proves his point.

TORTA DELLA NONNA

Emiko Davies

Let us start this review with a warning: this book encourages readers to eat sugar and ignore the consequences. In short, it’s the type of book we all love. A collection of classic Italian recipes for sweet treats, it covers breakfasts (lemon and ricotta cake, brioche croissants); cakes and tarts (hazelnut cake, chocolate and amaretti flan); snacks (rosemary and sultana buns, sweet breadsticks); biscuits (almond biscotti); recipes for celebrations (Florentine cake, chocolate-filled sponge roll); treats to eat with a spoon (coffee-laced ricotta, Zuppa Inglese); and frozen treats (plum sorbet, Gianduia semifreddo). All are accompanied by Emiko Davies’ evocative storytelling about living in Italy and her beautiful photographs shot in Tuscany.

TENDERHEART

Hetty Lui McKinnon

Hetty Lui McKinnon is passionate about vegetables. The author of bestselling cookbooks including Community and Neighbourhood she is particularly well known for her salad recipes, which feature exciting combinations of ingredients, flavours and textures. In Tenderheart Lui McKinnon takes readers on a vegetable-by-vegetable journey, devoting chapters to each of her 22 favourite vegetables. These veggies are widely available and economic to use, and the 180 new recipes she has included are globally inspired, with an emphasis on simple yet inventive weeknight cooking.

WHAT I COOK WHEN NOBODY’S WATCHING Poh Ling Yeow

MasterChef contestant, TV presenter, artist and the author of three previous cookbooks, Poh Ling Yeow is known for her bubbly personality, entrepreneurial drive and considerable culinary talent. In her fourth cookbook, which is subtitled ‘Recipes and Musings for a Simple Life’, Poh shares recipes for the food she cooks when nobody’s watching her on the TV –nourishing bowl food, comfort combos and crowd-pleasing feasts for family and friends that take everyday ingredients to new and delicious places.

Travel

Highly Recommended

AROUND THE WORLD

Lonely Planet HB Was $55 Now $19.99

Special Price

A celebration of global circumnavigation, this lavishly illustrated volume recounts notable journeys by ship, bicycle, plane, boat, foot, car, balloon, train and motorcycle.

EPIC HIKES OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Lonely Planet HB $44.99

Full of photographs and sensible advice, this volume is sure to inspire you to embark on explorations of Australia’s and New Zealand’s most thrilling treks and trails.

INTO IRAQ

Michael Palin Hutchinson Heinemann HB $35

Peppered with his trademark warmth and wry humour, this journal of Palin’s 2022 journey along the River Tigris offers a valuable insight into the history and culture of Iraq.

THE ISLANDS BOOK

Lonely Planet HB Was $49.99 Now $39.99

Special Price

Featuring stunning full-colour photographs, this handsome book showcases 150 islands that are notable for their varied history, wildlife or cultural qualities.

Special Price

LOVING COUNTRY

Bruce Pascoe & Vicky Shukuroglou

HG Explore HB Was $49.99 Now $19.99

A guidebook presenting Australia through an Indigenous narrative, this book features 18 places and covers history, Dreaming stories, traditional cultural practices and Indigenous tours.

OCEAN POOLS

Chris Chen & Marie-Louise McDermott

Thames & Hudson HB $59.99

Celebrating 75 of Australia’s spectacular ocean pools, this book features photographs accompanied by details of each pool’s accessibility, amenities and location.

Special Price

TRAVELS

Broadsheet HB Was $54.99 Now $49.99

Cultural pundits Broadsheet Media showcase a selection of unforgettable destinations and experiences across Australia.

ULTIMATE WALKS & HIKES: AUSTRALIA

Laura Waters

ULTIMATE CARAVAN

TRIPS: AUSTRALIA

Catherine Best

ULTIMATE FOOD & DRINK: AUSTRALIA

Ben Groundwater

Hardie Grant Explore PB $45 each

These touring guides offer inspirational and practical travel advice.

THE AGE OF SEEDS

Fiona McMillan-Webster

In the face of a growing global population, a changing climate and declining biodiversity, it has never been more important to understand how best to make seed plants last. In this thought-provoking book, Australian biophysicist and science writer Fiona McMillan-Webster addresses the crucial role that seeds play in our everyday lives and what that might mean for our future. Using the example of a 2000-yearold seed from an extinct date palm that, when discovered, was used to sprout a healthy young date palm, she argues that plants evolved seeds to hack time, enabling them to cast their genes forward into the future and to endure across seasons, years and occasionally millennia.

DREAM GARDENS

Michael McCoy

This book inspires the reader to dream, envisioning gardens that are havens of serenity and beauty but also practical and useful spaces. There is a garden to pique every taste and imagination, from those inspired by the industrialist or modernist aesthetic to the romantic and arcadian idyll. Each chapter focuses on a brief for a particular landscape – inner city, suburban, coastal or rural – and a specific design concept, such as useability, minimising bushfire danger, framing vistas or creating privacy. Q&As with the designers reveal both the challenges and potential of their spaces, the overarching design principles and their application to specific projects. The accompanying photographs are both seductively attractive and exceptionally informative, highlighting the interplay of textures, colours and materials in plantings and built features.

PAUL BANGAY’S GUIDE TO PLANTS: EXPANDED TENTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Paul

Bangay & Simon Griffiths

Gardening styles and climatic conditions have changed considerably since celebrity landscape designer Paul Bangay released the first edition of his Guide to Plants in 2011. Acknowledging this, he and photographer Simon Griffiths have put together this keenly priced updated edition, which responds to the growing need for plant choices that reflect the new reality of a hotter and drier world. The much-loved plants of our parents and grandparents are no longer suitable for Australian gardens, Bangay says, so we must look for alternatives. As a result, there’s a new chapter on succulents, which Bangay says he is increasingly using in his designs. His landscaping styles are changing, too, as new photographs illustrate. Gone are the rigid box-bordered geometric garden beds that were his signature, replaced by more organic shapes.

BLOOM

Lauren Camilleri & Sophia Kaplan

Another gorgeous volume from the owners of Sydney-based interior-design nursery Leaf Supply, Bloom is chock-full of tips for the care, selection, styling and arrangement of flowering plants in interior spaces and on balconies. Camilleri and Kaplan believe that plants bring happiness, life and a bit of fun to the home, and that every space can be beautified with a bit of greenery. Dedicated sections of the book focus on practical information such as light, soil and care requirements, when to plant and when flowers bloom. More than 60 flowering plant profiles are included, as are illustrated interviews with plant-lovers who have filled their homes with blooming plants.

BOB FLOWERDEW’S COMPLETE BOOK OF FRUIT IN AUSTRALIA

Bob Flowerdew

Written by a well-travelled organic gardener, author and UK media personality, the Complete Book of Fruit in Australia is a comprehensive how-to guide about growing, caring for, harvesting and cooking fruit and nut varieties in our part of the world. Chapters covering orchard and cane fruits through to subtropical species are packed with all the essential information needed to get you started on establishing your mini garden orchard. Additional tips on culinary and medicinal uses are offered through tasty recipes and illustrations throughout. A detailed chapter on planning your fruit garden includes soil preparation, plant propagation, growing from seed, glasshouse and container growing, maintenance and management.

EAT WEEDS

Diego Bonetto

One of 2022’s unexpected bestsellers, Eat Weeds is a practical guide to identifying, harvesting and using wild plants in Australia. Bonetto is passionate about foraging and his enthusiasm is infectious; as Costa Georgiadis writes in the book’s foreword, Bonetto’s ‘love of weeds will set you off on a journey that will open up a landscape of new views, outlooks, tastes, flavours and connections’. Inspired by his belief that foraging promotes sustainability and self-sufficiency, Bonetto wants us all to recognise food growing where we previously only saw weeds. Dedicated sections cover the backyard, urban streets and parklands, the sea, rivers and forest.

FUTUREPROOF YOUR GARDEN

Angus Stewart & Emma Stewart

Father-and-daughter horticulturalists Angus and Emma Stewart are dedicated to achieving a sustainable gardening future. In this information-packed and extremely practical guide they demonstrate how to use, capture and store water efficiently in times of drought and deluge. Fully illustrated sections are dedicated to the science of irrigation, harvesting water, creating futureproofed soil and designing sustainable landscapes. There’s also a useful photographic directory of 154 water-efficient native and exotic plants, which includes their position, climate and soil requirements. Photo essays throughout demonstrate step-by-step garden DIY techniques, including deep planting, installing an ag-pipe subsurface drain, making biochar and creating wicking beds.

SUPER BLOOM

Jac Semmler

Passionate Australian gardener Jac Semmler believes that there is a heroic quality to flowers and foliage, and that they make the world a more joyful place. In this informative and beautiful field guide to flowers, she profiles 73 plants, ranging from achillea to zinnia, dedicating multiple pages of full-colour photographs by Sarah Pannell to each. Semmler also includes practical fully illustrated sections on gardening fundamentals (seeds, seedlings, planting and transplanting, soft-tip cutting, division, self-seedling plants, saving and storing seeds, training and supports, pruning, cycles of dormancy).

WITH NATURE

Fiona Brockhoff & Earl Carter

Celebrated Australian landscape designer Fiona Brockhoff is known as much for her clever designs for urban spaces as she is for her stunning rural and coastal design projects. This book, which she describes as a resource ‘for garden makers and land carers far and wide’, offers advice and inspiration in equal parts. Brockhoff tells her story of becoming a landscape designer and introduces us to her most famous project, the garden at the Mornington Peninsula property ‘Karkalla’. She describes the most important principles and elements of her approach to garden design, including how she assesses a site’s potential, chooses materials and deals with space, texture and arrangement when designing. The book concludes with a signature plant list and photographic profiles of 13 of her realised garden designs.

LIFE IS SHORT

ELIOT’S BOOK OF BOOKISH LISTS

Henry Eliot

Particular HB $29.99

December Release

Including supplementary maps and illustrations, this miscellany of literary trivia in list form includes everything from the name of George Orwell’s pet cockerel to the history of literary fart jokes.

Dean Rickles

Princeton PB $34.99

Dean Rickles challenges us to rethink what gives life meaning and how to make the most of it.

MOLE, THE FOX AND THE HORSE

Charlie Mackesy Ebury HB $45 December Release

This edition of the muchloved story of the journey of a boy and his animal friends in search of home includes new illustrations.

I, MILLENNIAL

Tom Ballard

Scribner PB $32.99

December Release

Tom Ballard’s diatribe about the raw deal that he, his fellow Millennials and generations to come have been given is a serious but also very funny call to arms.

Special Price

THE LIGHT WE CARRY

Michelle Obama

Viking HB Was $55 Now $45

The former American First Lady shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today’s highly uncertain world.

TRICKED Cosentino & Paul Daviz (illus.)

Hardie Grant Children’s HB $29.99

This step-by-step guide to performing magic tricks is filled with tips from master illusionist Cosentino. With it, you and your kids will master floating rings, self-levitation and more!

Whose Instagram feed has more than one million followers?

AFRICANA

BOOKED

Explicitly acknowledging and embracing the incredible diversity of Africa, this encyclopedia introduces young readers to the ‘mother continent’. Going beyond fearsome creatures and Egyptian mummies, the book travels deeper into history and culture than many kids’ books on the topic, and it uses some innovative approaches to portray people and place. The ‘Ten ways Africa has influenced the world’ section in particular contains some eye-opening surprises. With embossed covers and bold endpapers, this hardback is a beautiful object in itself, perfect for the curious child in your life. 8+

ALL IN A DAY

Chihiro Takeuchi

In her latest picture book, renowned Japanese paper-cut artist Chihiro Takeuchi follows the inhabitants of a very busy clock-tower apartment building and retail space over a 24hr period. There’s a lot to see, find and learn in this upbeat, interactive story that highlights the importance of community. Questions throughout prompt little ones to engage with the illustrations and spot the changes that we see from one spread to another. And the time on the clock, which reflects common activities at that hour of each day, helps in learning to tell the time. 3+

AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS

Did you know that when threatened the common wombat uses its strong backside to block the entrance to its burrow? That baby echidnas are called puggles? And that feathertail gliders are smaller than a grain of rice when born? These and plenty of other facts about the appearance, habitat and behaviour of 46 Australian animals accompany gorgeous illustrations by artist and writer Matt Chun in this lavishly produced volume. The animals profiled range from the iconic (platypus, red kangaroo, emu, koala) to the lesser known (weedy sea dragon, southern marsupial mole). 5+

BIG IDEAS FROM HISTORY

School of Life

The inspiration for this substantial hardback is made clear at the start of the book: ‘One of the really nice things history can do is show us how ideas have changed over time’. Exploring the purpose of history for young readers, it’s the perfect gift for curious minds – to engage, educate and encourage analysis. Topics include how money was invented, the discovery of DNA and the history of pandemic diseases. The text is accompanied by ample illustrations and images. 9+

THE BOOK THAT NO ONE WANTED TO READ

Richard Ayoade & Tor Freeman (illus.)

The life of a book isn’t easy, especially when people judge you by your cover. Not every book can be adorned with sparkly unicorns, after all. And that’s not the only indignity that books have to suffer – readers bend back their pages, break their spines (ouch!) and even leave them under piles of whiffy undies. The narrator of this particular book knows all about these sorry circumstances because it’s the book itself, and it shares plenty of opinions in this hilariously subversive take on the nature of books and reading. 9+

Kwame Alexander & Dawud Anyabwile (illus.) Kwame Alexander’s prize-winning 2016 novel Booked is transposed onto striking illustrations in this graphic-novel adaptation Alexander is a dream writer for reluctant readers and dedicated wordsmiths alike – his stories are raw and furiously energetic, authentic and accessible. Twelve-year-old Nick resents the amount of studying his dad insists on, when all he wants to do is play football. But it turns out that words give Nick the key to work through some pretty big issues –including his parents’ divorce, his first crush and an injury that makes him miss out on the biggest game of the year. 10+

THE DANGEROUS BUSINESS OF BEING TRILBY MOFFAT

Kate Temple

When Trilby Moffat’s mother catches a strange illness, causing her to speak dead languages and embrace ancient hairstyles, Trilby must go and stay with her 300-yearold aunt. Things go downhill from there (in the best possible way), and soon Trilby finds herself on an island where time doesn’t exist and the cats are very rude. Here, the adults are admin-obsessed, the children are enterprising and cake is always the main course! Brimming with Lemony Snicket-esque absurdities, Temple’s first foray into solo writing (she normally collaborates with partner Jol Temple) is a joyful romp. 9+

THE BOOKSELLER’S APPRENTICE

Amelia Mellor

From the bestselling author of The Grandest Bookshop in the World comes a glorious new adventure set in 1870s Melbourne. Twelve-year-old Billy loves the filthy and wild Paddy’s Market – and he isn’t keen to leave it and work at the boring nail factory with his boring father. Can he instead get his dream job at the market’s book stall (precursor to the Grandest Bookshop)? Mellor has created an original world of sinister magicians (who deal in ‘things people believe cannot be bought or sold’), inspiring eccentrics, brave children and plenty of magic. 9+

DIGGING UP DAD

Morris Gleitzman

A former Australian Children’s Laureate, Morris Gleitzman has written 43 books that have been published in more than 20 countries. Among his many bestsellers are the short-story collections Pizza Cake and Snot Chocolate, and this most recent book is another contribution to this perennially popular genre. Digging Up Dad has a powerful and positive theme – kids helping adults to be their best selves – and it’s bursting with hope and laugh-out-loud humour. Sure to be a mega-hit with primary schoolers aged. 8+

CLASH CRUNCH

Kayla Miller

Kayla Miller’s Click series of graphic novels, which feature primary schooler Olive and her best school buds, are popular with avid and reluctant readers alike. In the fourth instalment, Clash, a new and mega-cool kid called Natasha enrols at school. Olive really wants to welcome her, but worries that her friends will start to like Nat more than they like her. The fifth instalment, Crunch, sees Olive having difficulties juggling all of the activities in her jam-packed school schedule. How will she cope? 8+

Note: Crunch is a December release.

COME OVER TO MY HOUSE

Eliza Hull, Sally Rippin & Daniel Gray-Barnett (illus.)

Co-written by disability advocate Eliza Hull and bestselling author Sally Rippin, this delightful picture book explores the home lives of children and parents who are deaf or disabled. Every house is different – the residents in one talk with their hands, for instance – and the visitors in the story adapt to suit the physical, neurodivergent or intellectual disabilities of each household. They also have lots of fun! A useful tool to use when starting conversations about disability with young children, Come Over to My House is suitable for children aged 3+.

COME TOGETHER

Isaiah Firebrace & Jaelyn Biumaiwai (illus.)

Pop star Isaiah Firebrace introduces children to 20 important concepts of First Nations knowledge in his debut picture book. Drawing from his connection to the topics as a Yorta Yorta and Gunditjmara man, he describes the value of caring for country, highlights key figures and events from history, explains the Indigenous origins of AFL and more. Come Together is an engaging, informative read featuring bright illustrations and a bold design from Mununjali and Fijian artist Jaelyn Biumaiwai, and Waanyi and Kalkadoon designer Keisha Leon. 5+

DUSTY IN THE OUTWILDS

Rhiannon Williams

Dusty always thought that the Outwilds was a story made up by Gran. But now, Dusty is searching for the truth. Like, what happened to her Aunt Meg, who left home when she was about Dusty’s age? When Dusty decides she must track down Meg, she discovers a place that is oddly familiar. It’s also where she begins to learn the reality behind all those Outwilds stories. Rhiannon Williams, author of the beloved Ottilie Colter trilogy, blends elegantly crafted magical realism with relatable themes such as family and the importance of friendship. 9+

11 WORDS FOR LOVE

Randa Abdel-Fattah & Maxine Beneba Clarke (illus.)

A collaboration from two stars of Australian literature, this gorgeous book shows a family leaving its homeland to forge a new life in a different land, while a child describes different meanings of the word love. These meanings are based around 11 words for love taken from the Arabic language – of which there are more than 50! Each word is depicted in Arabic script and spelled phonetically in English below. Randa Abdel-Fattah’s descriptive language is a pleasure to read out loud, and it is wonderfully complemented by Maxine Beneba Clarke’s vibrant, tactile artwork. 3+

EVIE AND RHINO

Neridah McMullin & Astred Hicks (illus.)

A ship bearing a rhino and other exotic animals bound for the Melbourne Zoo is wrecked on Cape Otway. And Evie, silent since the loss of her parents, encounters a rhino on the beach. Recognising a fellow creature in need, she finds a way through her grief to help the rhino, and others besides. An historical event – the shipwreck of the SS Bancoora in 1891 – was the inspiration for this middle-grade novel, but McMullin leads the tale down a new, heart-warming path, showing the

Kim Chakanetsa

Matt Chun

EXPLORAPEDIA

Emma Marriott & Michelle Pereira

THE WEATHER BOOK

In recent years, travel publisher Lonely Planet has released a number of colourful and informative non-fiction titles for children. Celebrating our amazing and diverse world, this rapidly growing list focuses on topics as varied as the animal kingdom, astronomy, the ocean, dinosaurs, transport and technology. Recent additions to the list include Explorapedia, which profiles the amazing explorers of the world and their journeys of discovery, and The Weather Book, which is a thrill-packed journey through the extraordinary world of weather. 9+

THE LAST CUENTISTA Donna Barba Higuera

It’s the year 2061 and Petra is reluctantly leaving Earth – and her beloved grandma, with all her wonderful cuentos, or stories – to move to Sagan, a planet outside our solar system. The three ships leaving Earth have the perfect genetic diversity to continue the human race; now they must ‘sleep’ the 380 light years it will take to get there. But not everyone has the same vision for the future of the human race. By melding Mexican folklore and futuristic tech, this dystopian middle-grade novel, the 2022 winner of the prestigious Newbery Medal, shows unexpected heart, hope and humanity. 9+

Special Price

BUSY BUILDERS FARM PLAYSET

Walker Playset Was $26.99 Now $12.99

A perfect gift for young children interested in animals, machinery and farm life, this set includes a book packed with fun facts and a fold-out interactive playset. 3+

DIRT BY SEA

Michael Wagner & Tom Jellett (illus.)

Puffin HB $24.99

FREEDOM DAY

Rosie Smiler, Thomas Mayor & Samantha Campbell

This powerful story of truth-telling explores the events that led to the Wave Hill walk-off and the gains from that movement. Earthy full-page illustrations tell the story of the Gurindji people in an accessible way, and the upfront and plain-language storytelling is personal and moving. Presenting this history for all Australians, Freedom Day promotes First Nations hopes for reconciliation and presents a hopeful vision for the future. 5+

THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL STRIKES BACK

Emma Carroll & Lauren Child (illus.)

Bridie works hard selling matches on the streets of Victorian London, and her mother works in a match factory where the chemicals are making her ill. After Bridie is left with only three matches, the magical strike of each one sees her tumble into visions of a brighter future and encourages her to lead the match-factory workers out on strike to attain better working conditions. Inspired by the 1888 matchgirls’ strike in London, this powerful feminist reworking of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale features vivid block-colour illustrations and is sure to engage readers aged 7+.

FULL OF LIFE

Thomas & Sara Gillingham (illus.)

This exceptional book uses a simple evolutionary tree to explore the mind-boggling diversity of life on Earth, including microbes, fungi, plants, animals and even humans. Each double-page spread focuses on one clade (a group, of varying size, that shares a single common ancestor), showing clearly what its members have in common and the unusual aspects of some species within it. Stunning graphics and easy-to-understand presentation make this a must-have guide to the incredible biodiversity of living creatures on Earth. The perfect gift for budding scientists aged 10+.

A GIRL CALLED CORPSE

(illus.)

Its publisher describes this novel as one of the most exciting children’s fantasy debuts to hit the shelves since Jessica Townsend’s Nevermoor, and we must concur. Corpse is a lonely kid-ghost who has a body made of wax, seaweed for hair and polished abalone shells for eyes. She has no memory of the kid she was before she was snatched and ended up haunting a witches’ sea-shack. But then she receives an unexpected message and sets off on a quest to discover her real name and her family. Will she be successful? Delightfully ghoulish and perfect for readers aged 8+.

THE JAMMER

Nova Weetman

Described as ‘the new-generation Judy Blume’, Nova Weetman perfectly captures the ache and powerlessness of grief and adolescence in The Jammer. After Fred’s mother dies, she struggles to hold onto who she is. Her mum is gone, her body is changing and roller derby, which was her source of strength, has become a reminder of what she’s lost. Without ever being trite or dismissive, this is a story of navigating grief and growing up, of holding on to – and being held by – the people who can show us who we are. 10+

MEANWHILE BACK ON EARTH

Oliver Jeffers

Thank goodness we have Oliver Jeffers here on Earth! In this extraordinary picture book, the Irish author-illustrator takes a typical car trip – kids squabbling over territory in the back seat – and turns it into an intergalactic romp. The further they ‘drive’ into space, the further back in time Jeffers goes. What could have been a dire account of history’s territorial disputes (‘we humans have always fought each other over space’) becomes poignant and optimistic in the hands of Oliver Jeffers. No shelf is complete without this gem. 3+

THE MUDDY CHEF

Penny Whitehouse & Emma Bear

Aimed at connecting kids with nature, this mud kitchen cookbook is filled with simple recipes using ingredients from the backyard such as mud, leaves and flowers. Though inedible, the results are many and varied, and the ‘cooking’ and ‘baking’ processes foster creativity. The Muddy Chef offers absorbing outdoor activity play for children aged 5+.

Hit the road with five-yearold Daisy and her dad, who embark on a fun-filled road trip exploring the Australian coastline. The comic-strip format makes this an accessible read for aspiring adventurers aged 7+.

THE 156-STOREY TREEHOUSE

Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton (illus.) Pan PB $14.99

Andy and Terry are celebrating Christmas in their magical treehouse, which has 13 new storeys. Join the fun as they visit the lost sausage office, the super-stinky-stuff level and other crazy spaces. 7+

SCIENTISTS ARE SAVING THE WORLD!

Saskia Gwinn & Ana Albero

Magic Cat HB $29.99

A celebration of science now, this illustrated book introduces more than 20 inspiring, real-life scientists and tells the stories of how they started asking questions and arriving at answers. 5+

THE SECRET UNICORN CLUB

Emma Roberts, Rae Ritchie & Tomislav Tomic

Magic Cat HB $44.99

Join a secret society of unicorn experts searching for and looking after unicorns in the wild! This set includes a book full of unicorn facts and a secret compartment with 10 badges and a hidden handbook. 4+

SLOW DOWN AND BE HERE NOW

Laura Brand & Freya Hartas (illus.) Magic Cat HB $39.99

These stories grounded in real science encourage the young reader to stop, look at and be amazed by the tiniest things in nature. 5+

HOUSE? CALL

MS MOUSE!

George Mendoza & Doris Susan Smith (illus.)

Originally published in 1981 as House by Mouse this wonderfully whimsical picture book about design and architecture has been reissued with a new title celebrating its main character, the industrious architect Ms Henrietta Mouse. Henrietta designs houses to fit the special needs of her animal friends, inventing clever features such as a trapdoor for Mole and a telescope platform for Owl. Doris Susan Smith’s detailed illustrations are a delight – children will be fascinated by Caterpillar’s house in a pear, Squirrel’s abode high in a pine tree and other clever solutions devised by this very creative rodent. 3+

THE ZEBRA’S GREAT ESCAPE

Katherine Rundell & Sara Ogilvie (illus.)

Bloomsbury Children’s HB $29.99

Mink is a young girl with an adventurous spirit, so when a baby zebra called Gabriel asks her to help find his kidnapped parents, she is quick to agree.

Action-packed (and just a little bit scary), this picture book has a happy ending that readers aged 7+ will love.

Isabel

Reece Carter & Simon Howe

Alice Oehr

Artist and designer Alice Oehr is well known for her colourful artwork, which she creates using a mix of collage, cut-outs and drawing. Her first foray into children’s publishing is a celebration of markets, cooking and fresh produce, and it’s an absolute delight. A mother and child embark on their weekly shopping expedition, stopping at a variety of market stalls to chat with the multicultural stallholders and make wholesome purchases. Full of facts about produce (how to use different types of potatoes; when particular fruits are in season) and with informative labelled illustrations, this is sure to engage and inspire children aged 3+.

A TINY LIGHT

Alison Lester

Known for her distinctive illustrations and lyrical rhyming verse, Alison Lester is one of our country’s best-loved writers for young children. Her most recent picture book is a delightfully calming bedtime tale about the Twinkles in the Milky Way, who ‘… twirl like fireflies round your room, and chase away the dark and gloom’. The Twinkles also enjoy demonstrating all of the wonderful things that happen when the sun goes down. A Tiny Light is a perfect choice when reading aloud to young children who fight sleep because they are scared of the dark. 0+

Young Adult

DEMON IN THE WOOD

Leigh Bardugo & Dani Pendergast

Orion HB $34.99

Discover the Darkling’s origin story in this graphicnovel prequel to the blockbuster Shadow and Bone fantasy series.

THE FIRST TO DIE AT THE END

Adam Silvera

Simon & Schuster Children’s HB $24.99

UNSTOPPABLE US: VOLUME 1

Yuval Noah Harari & Ricard Zaplana Ruiz (illus.)

Written and illustrated by the brilliant Professor Helen Milroy, Australia’s first Indigenous doctor and an expert in childhood and adolescent psychiatry, this picture book is a celebration of the magical moments of dusk, a time ‘when anything was possible, both good and bad’, and dawn, ‘where life and death stand side by side’. Owl and Star explores the intricate connection between the animal kingdom and the natural world, and it reminds us of the courage it will take to restore harmony between them. 0+

PARADISE SANDS

Levi Pinfold

Australian-based artist, writer and illustrator Levi Pinfold came to prominence with his first children’s book, The Django. Global acclaim followed with publication of Black Dog, which was awarded the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal for excellence in children’s book illustration. His latest picture book, Paradise Sands, is illustrated with his distinctive stylistic realism and has all of the lyricism of his previous works. A gripping story about a young girl, her brothers, an eerie hotel and a mystical bargain, it will be a popular bedtime read for children aged 4+.

ROBINSON CRUSOE

Daniel Defoe & Robert Ingpen (illus.)

This version of the classic 300-year-old adventure story has been carefully adapted for today’s young reader. Its language has been simplified but retains a classic feel, and a handy glossary of archaic and obsolete words has been included. It is, however, the illustrations by Robert Ingpen that are the real highlight of this edition. Muted colours prevail, but there is great clarity here. Whether showing Crusoe or Friday, animals or boats, landscapes or seascapes, Ingpen’s assured and restrained pictures spark the reader’s imagination rather than direct it. 10+

RUNT

Craig Silvey & Sara Acton (illus.)

Great news! The author of Australian classics Jasper Jones and Honeybee has now turned his considerable talent to writing a book for children, and in doing so he has given all of us a real treat. Annie lives in the country with her best friend, an adopted stray dog called Runt who loves to herd sheep. When a greedy local landowner puts her family’s farm at risk, Annie sets her sights on Runt winning the main prize at the lucrative Krumpets Dog Show in London. Can Annie and Runt beat the odds and the fastest dogs in the world to save the farm? 8+

When his book Sapiens was first published in 2014, Israeli historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari was unlikely to have predicted how successful it would be (it has been published in more than 60 languages and has sold more than 23 million copies globally). Now, Harari has released an illustrated book for middle-grade readers that, like Sapiens, discusses the history of humankind in an ultra-accessible way. Unstoppable Us utilises text, maps, a timeline and full-colour illustrations to show how humans became the most dominant (ie, ‘unstoppable’) species on the planet. 9+

WAITING FOR THE STORKS

Katrina Nannestad

It’s WW2 and Zofia, an eight-year-old Polish Catholic, is kidnapped by the Germans. Like other Polish children with fair hair and blue eyes, Zofia is torn from her family by the occupying forces and declared to have Germanic blood. ‘From now on, we speak only German.’ What does it mean to lose your family, language, identity? Awardwinning author Katrina Nannestad, high priestess of historical middle-grade fiction, is skilled at weaving lesser-known events into her works. Waiting for the Storks is a brilliant, tough but uplifting novel for mature readers aged 12+

WINTHALI (FIRE)

Joe Willigan Ross & Stacey Bush, with Remi Nyandat Ross & Boheme Baiana Ross (illus.)

Told in Banuba and English, this traditional story from the Daṉ̱ggu people of the Fitzroy Valley is about Greedy Old Man Crocodile, who won’t share his fire. Daṉ̱ggu country is cold and dark, so clever Brown Falcon enlists the young animals to lure the croc out of the water, meaning that fire can be shared with the rest of the people and country. Beautiful watercolour backgrounds and line-drawing collages of the animals contribute to a delightful read, and a portion of the royalties goes towards publishing more Banuba stories. 3+

UNDER THE SUN

Here, artist Tai Snaith has produced a glorious collection of 278 animals that are active during the day. The creatures are drawn, cut out and painted with meticulous attention to detail and accuracy. Quirky titles such as ‘Spikey Spunks’, ‘Spotted Bottoms’ and ‘Happy Hoppers’ group species together, with each animal drawn to scale, using human body parts for comparison. The

Special Price

Orion and Valentino, two strangers, spend a lifechanging day together on the night before Death-Cast first goes live in this prequel to Silvera’s bestselling They Both Die at the End

THE HEARTSTOPPER YEARBOOK

Alice Oseman

Hodder Children’s HB

Was $32.99 Now $27.99

Packed with content from the Heartstopper LGBTQ+ universe, this full-colour yearbook includes an exclusive mini-comic, character profiles, trivia and never-before-seen illustrations.

IF YOU COULD SEE THE SUN

Ann Liang

HQ Young Adult PB $19.99

Alice Sun, a Chinese-American scholarship student at an elite Beijing international boarding school, discovers that she can turn invisible and hatches a plan to monetise her strange new power. But could she endanger her conscience – or even her life – as a result?

NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER

Sophie Gonzales

Hodder Children’s PB $19.99 December Release

The new rom-con from the author of Only Mostly Devastated is an exhilarating mix of romance, revenge and reality TV.

TRIPLE THREAT

Katy Warner

Hardie Grant Children’s PB $19.99

Set in an Australian performing arts school, this novel about musical theatre, first romance and standing up for yourself has a strong female protagonist and an action-packed plot.

UNNECESSARY DRAMA

Nina Kenwood

Text PB $24.99

Leaving home for the first time can be difficult and share-house living can be complicated, as 18-year-old Brooke finds out in this heartwarming novel by the author of It Sounded Better in My Head

OWL AND STAR

Helen Milroy

Competition Entry

To win a $1000 gift voucher:

• Pay close attention as you read the reviews in this guide

• Answer the questions scattered throughout the guide

• Fill in the form below with your answers

• Attach the form to a receipt from the purchase of an item from this guide (NB: your purchase must be from one of our shops) Return to one of our shops by Thursday 2 February 2023 I’d like to enter the competition. My answers are:

Jon Molvig: The Tree of Man Paintings Bruce Heiser $45.00 [Available November] (Koro Press & AndAlso Books)

Meticulously researched and richly illustrated, this study of the final series of paintings produced by iconic Australian artist Jon Molvig just prior to his premature death investigates the background and symbolism of this misunderstood bracket of his works.

Fiona Foley Provocateur: An Art Life Louise Martin-Chew $30.00 (QUT Art Museum)

An absorbing and uplifting insight into Foley’s courage and determination in confronting racism, the weight of history and the need to forge new models. It traverses the life of this important Australian artist, documenting the seismic shifts that have accompanied the decades in which her work has been made.

Etching Past & Present: Paul Bong, Yidinji Artist $30.00 (AndAlso Books)

Paul Bong uses centuriesold European printmaking techniques to tell his own stories from Yidinji culture, which have lived for thousands of years. His artworks, featuring rainforest motifs and hunting traditions from Far North Queensland, are held in several national collections.

Entries are accepted from Friday 11 November 2022 and must be received by 5pm on Thursday 2 February 2023. The prize will be drawn at Gleebooks at 5pm on Friday 10 February 2023. The winner will be notified by post and announced in The Australian newspaper on Wednesday 15 February 2023. Employees of participating bookshops are not permitted to enter the competition. The winner has 14 days from the date of the original draw to claim their prize; if unclaimed, a re-draw will take place at the same location on Thursday 2 March 2023. Gift voucher valid at the store where the winning entry was lodged. Promoter: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe NSW 2037. Tel: (02) 9660 2333. Name  Address  Postcode   Tel [BH]