CASSANDRA PYBUS Truganini: Journey through the apocalypse. Reviewed by Suzanne Marks
Cassandra Pybus places Truganini centre stage in Tasmania’s history, restoring the truth of what happened to her and her people. The subtitle Cassandra Pybus has chosen is a powerful pointer to how she sees Truganini: not as the ‘last of the Tasmanian...
CAROLYN EVANS and ADRIENNE STONE with JADE ROBERTS Open Minds: Academic freedom and freedom of speech in Australia. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Is freedom of speech under threat in Australia’s universities? In Open Minds authors Evans and Stone examine the evidence. In 2018 two incidents occurred that prompted the federal government to initiate an investigation into the internal operations of...
JOCK SERONG Lines to the Horizon: Australian surf writing. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
These six essays provide insights into the world of surfing both as individual passion and national symbol. In his introduction to this collection of Australian surf writing, Jock Serong asks whether surfing is a sport or a culture. It is estimated there are between...
BRIAN DEER The Doctor Who Fooled The World: Andrew Wakefield’s war on vaccines. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Investigative journalist Brian Deer reveals how the anti-vax movement began with an elaborate fraud designed to enrich its perpetrator. One way to view the history of the world is as a struggle between superstition and science. In trying to understand what is...
STUART CLARK Beneath the Night. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Stuart Clark ranges across myths, archaeology and astronomy to chart the history of our obsession with the stars. On a mountain in ‘Australia’s Warrumbungles range’, English astronomer Stuart Clark stood under the clear night sky and experienced the sublime: There was...
CARLY FINDLAY (ed.) Growing Up Disabled in Australia. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
These stories range widely across different experiences of disability, and question why disabled people must always be the ones to adapt to the world. In her introduction to this remarkable collection of personal essays, Carly Findlay writes that she didn’t identify...
CRAIG MUNRO Literary Lion Tamers: Book editors who made publishing history. Reviewed by Bruce Sims
Craig Munro examines the author-editor relationship through the lives of four Australian editors. Like most editors, sometimes I wish that I had a whip that I could use with authors. However, as Craig Munro demonstrates in his engaging tour through Australian letters,...
RAMACHANDRA GUHA The Commonwealth of Cricket. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
Subtitled ‘A lifelong love affair with the most subtle and sophisticated game known to humankind’ Ramachandra Guha’s memoir explores one man’s multiple connections with cricket, from boyhood fandom to clear-eyed assessments of the state of the game. Timing matters,...
NRB readers’ top 10 for 2020
We’ve crunched the numbers and come up with the ten most popular reviews we’ve run this year, based on reader views. Is your favourite book among them? Here’s a chance to catch up on some you may have missed, or to revisit books that have resonated with...
LESLEY BLUME Fallout: The Hiroshima cover-up and the reporter who revealed it to the world. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Lesley Blume recounts how world learned the human cost of the Hiroshima bombing, to the dismay of the US government. On 31 August 1946, the New Yorker magazine devoted its entire issue to a 30,000-word essay by John Hersey entitled ‘Hiroshima’. It told the story of...
KATE SUMMERSCALE The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A true ghost story. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Kate Summerscale recounts the surprising story of Alma Fielding, ghost magnet. ‘GHOST’ WRECKS HOME … FAMILY TERRIFIED – Sunday Pictorial 20 Feb. 1938 Alma Fielding was 34 years old and living with her family in a modest house in the London suburb of Thornton Heath...
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