Summer 2018 Giveaway #2
Oh, to be swinging in a hammock by the sea on a fine summer day … with a good book, of course. Well, we can’t provide the hammock but we can provide some books. To win this bundle of four titles, simply email us at...
Summer 2018 Giveaway #1
We’re back! Welcome to 2018 and the first of our fabulous summer giveaways to kickstart the year. To win this bundle of four titles, simply email us at editors@newtownreviewofbooks.com.au by 6pm Wednesday 17 January 2018 with Summer #1 in the subject line...
NRB Editors on their favourite books of 2017
For the first time in NRB’s history, Jean and Linda both have the same title on their books-of-the-year lists. What could it be? Read on to find out … Jean’s picks (As I was one of the judges for the Ned Kelly Awards this year, I read a lot of wonderful Australian...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on his best books of 2017
This year I’ve listened to 70 audio books and read two on my Kindle – very slowly, at about 25 words per screen and mostly in doctors’ waiting rooms. Here is a list of the five books I’ve valued most highly, in no order than that in which I came to them. The Romanovs,...
OLIVER SACKS The River of Consciousness. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
Oliver Sacks continues to enrich our understanding of ourselves and our world. In the first essay of this posthumous collection (Sacks died in 2015), ‘Darwin and the Meaning of Flowers’, Charles Darwin’s son Francis is quoted on his father: ‘[it was] … as...
ANNA GEORGE The Lone Child. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
The Lone Child focusses on character development, imbued with sadness, longing, regret and loss. Following on from her stunning debut novel, What Came Before, Anna George has created another claustrophobic and compelling character study of somebody...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on the bushrangers project
In 1987 author, journalist and scriptwriter Robert Macklin had an idea for a television docu-drama on Australian bushrangers. He recruited six writers and, after consultation, each was assigned a bushranger. The writers and their subjects were: Jean Bedford (Captain...
HILARY SPURLING Anthony Powell: Dancing to the music of time. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
This biography of Anthony Powell is a fine examination of the creative process and the time between the two world wars. For those who have read and loved – or, as in my case, wallowed in – the 12 novels of A Dance to the Music of Time, this...
MICHAEL GIACOMETTI My Life and Other Fictions. Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Michael Giacometti is skilled in the short form – with much to excite, to heighten our senses, before a swift close. Running through many of the stories in this collection is discovery and the yearning, futility and fallout that it brings. The act...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on brushes with fame Part 2
Continuing from last week, here are some more famous and notable people I have met, however briefly. The Feminist – Germaine Greer said some complimentary things about my writing on a TV program so my publisher invited her to launch a Hardy novel at the Adelaide...
TOBY CRESWELL Shine Like it Does: The life of Michael Hutchence. Reviewed by Annette Hughes
Shine Like it Does is an empathetic and thoughtful portrait of one of the great performing artists of his generation. There are several books about Michael Hutchence and INXS – so why does the world need another one? Because Toby Creswell, with 40...
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