PAM MENZIES Port Kembla: A memoir. Reviewed by Pip Newling
In this lively and affectionate social history of place, Pam Menzies reveals Port Kembla to be both remarkable and ordinary – a driver of the nation as well as being, like so many places in Australia, on the receiving end of change and globalisation. The book is...
KATE MASCARENHAS The Psychology of Time Travel. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
In this debut novel Kate Mascarenhas creates a world where time travel is not only possible, it could be linked to a murder … In 1967, four female scientists invent time travel, but only three of them become household names for the right reason. The fourth,...
ROB HART The Warehouse. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Rob Hart’s dystopian novel about an online fulfilment warehouse describes a world that feels disturbingly familiar. Consumerism and the American Dream are in the firing line in Rob Hart’s debut novel The Warehouse. David Eggers mashed Google, Microsoft and Apple...
TANYA HEASLIP Alice to Prague and YONGEY MINGYUR RINPOCHE with HELEN TWORKOV In Love with the World. Reviewed by Ann Skea
These two memoirs of travel and dislocation present contrasting approaches to venturing into the unknown. Alice to Prague and In Love with the World are very different books with contrasting styles and perspectives and different stories to tell. Yet, fundamentally,...
JP POMARE Call Me Evie. Reviewed by Ashley Kalagian Blunt
Who is Evie? JP Pomare’s taut debut thriller has already been shortlisted for crime writing awards. A man holds a young girl against her will. She bolts, reaching the front door of the house, but the man catches up and drags her back inside. He forcibly...
PETER CORRIS See you at the Toxteth: The best of Cliff Hardy and Corris on crime. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
This collection gives an insight into a trailblazer who created one of the most enduring series in Australian crime fiction. It is hard to believe these days that there was ever a time when there was no market for Australian crime fiction. The strength, the range, the...
Exclusive Peter Corris extract
See you at the Toxteth: The best of Cliff Hardy and Corris on crime, published this week, brings together in one volume some of Peter Corris’s best short stories, selected by Jean Bedford, together with his ‘ABC of Crime Writing’ and a selection of...
OLIVER SACKS Everything in its Place: First Loves and Last Tales. Reviewed by Ann Skea
This second posthumous collection of essays again reveals the passions and intellectual range of the bestselling neurologist, Oliver Sacks. Those who knew of Oliver Sacks as the practising neurologist who wrote The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and...
JUDITH BRETT From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia got Compulsory Voting. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
Australian politicians might rank low in public esteem but as this incisive book from Judith Brett reveals, our system of voting is admirable compared to the rest of the world’s democracies and certainly superior to those of the United Kingdom and the United States....
PETER LEWIS Webtopia: The world wide wreck of tech and how to make the net work. Reviewed by Kurt Johnson
Peter Lewis examines the history and impact of the internet in Australia, and what might happen next. It is curious how often the story of the Soviet Union is invoked to anchor the story of the internet. There are many parallels between the two. For one, their...
SALLIE MUIRDEN Wedding Puzzle. Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Sallie Muirden’s fourth novel explores love and life choices. How does anyone ever manage to choose a partner for life? Given the imperfections of every choice, given that we are all complicated individuals with our own distinct bundles of neuroses, Muirden asks...
Recent Posts
2026 Summer Surprise Giveaway12 February 2026Surprise! Here’s a very special giveaway of four recent novels. Take your [ … ]
WRIGHT THOMPSON The Barn: The murder of Emmett Till and the cradle of American racism. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck10 February 2026Wright Thompson’s account of the 1950s murder of a Black teenager in [ … ]
JOSHUA BLACKBURN The Language-Lover’s Lexipedia. Reviewed by Ann Skea5 February 2026Joshua Blackburn has compiled a treasure-trove of the humorous, the obscure, [ … ]
MARIAN WILKINSON Woodside vs The Planet: How a company captured a country. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck3 February 2026Australian governments are addicted to fossil-fuel exports that harm the [ … ]