5 Weeks of Christmas Giveaway #5
Our last run-up-to-Christmas giveaway, just in time for you to put these under the tree – or keep them for yourself. To enter the draw to win all four great books email editors@newtownreviewofbooks.com.au with CHRISTMAS #5 in the subject...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on toddling
It is 5.40 pm on a spring afternoon in Earlwood. I’ve been in the flat all day – listening to the radio, watching golf on TV and enjoying the reading of EL Doctorow’s Billy Bathgate (1989) as an audio book. I’ve listened to The World Today on Radio National but the...
LISA OWENS Not Working. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
Not Working is a novel for the millennial generation. The 21st century is one giant tangle of paradoxes. We have better and easier access to information than ever before, yet we seem less certain about anything. We are more educated than our grandparents could have...
JULIET MARILLIER Den of Wolves: Blackthorn & Grim #3. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
Juliet Marillier’s fine new fairy tale weaves stories within stories in complex and riveting ways. This is the third volume to follow the adventures of the healer Blackthorn and her friend and companion Grim, set in the northern Irish part of Dalriada, a sixth...
5 Weeks of Christmas Giveaway #4
Looking for something to ease the pain of all those office Christmas parties? Refresh your festive spirit and go in the draw to win this bundle of four terrific titles. Just email editors@newtownreviewofbooks.com.au with CHRISTMAS #4 in the subject line and your name...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on learning French
I failed French in the 1959 Victorian matriculation examination. This failure had been looming for some time. I passed the subject narrowly in fifth form but in the final year the degree of difficulty went up and with it my ineptitude. In the final school exam I got...
Crime Scene: BELINDA BAUER The Beautiful Dead. Reviewed by Derek Dryden
Bauer’s new novel keeps us guessing until the very end. This is the fifth book by Belinda Bauer, the Gold Dagger award-winning author now resident in Wales. Unlike some crime writers who, once they’ve developed a successful character, stick with them forever,...
GEORGINA ARNOTT The Unknown Judith Wright. Reviewed by Jeannette Delamoir
Arnott reveals the literary growth of an important Australian artist, bringing to life a complex, contradictory human being. Georgina Arnott was surprised to realise that existing biographies, autobiographical works and critical studies of Judith Wright merely skimmed...
5 Weeks of Christmas Giveaway #3
Never mind the plum pud and the mince pies, tuck into this tasty bundle of bookish pleasure. To go in the draw to win these four titles, email editors@newtownreviewofbooks.com.au with CHRISTMAS #3 in the subject line and your name and address in the body of the email...
The Godfather: Peter Corris on meeting prime ministers
I’ve met three prime ministers: one serving and two ex. I nearly met another one and I’ve also met a couldabeen – probably a shouldabeen. The first was Gough Whitlam when he launched a 1978 edition of Frank Hardy’s The Unlucky Australians to which he had contributed...
BRENDA NIALL Mannix. Reviewed by Yvonne Perkins
This biography is a valuable and engrossing contribution to Irish-Australian history. ‘Archbishop Mannix used to live there,’ my Presbyterian grandmother said as we passed the stately mansion Raheen on Studley Park Road. It was the mid-1970s and the Catholic...
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