LAURIE WOOLEVER Care and Feeding: A memoir. Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Laurie Woolever – cook, writer, and fixer for chef Anthony Bourdain – enjoyed the glamour of a celebrity lifestyle. But it came with a price. Laurie Woolever’s memoir opens with an introduction noting that none of us has very much control over anything in life,...
PHIL CRAIG 1945: The Reckoning. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
This conclusion to Phil Craig’s Finest Hour trilogy shows how, far from marking an end to war and suffering, 1945 created more of it. The world is imperfect, the relationships between and within nations held together by decaying, infected band aids and fraying string....
FAITH TIBBLE The Crown of Thorns. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Historian Faith Tibble examines the origin of one of the most famous images in the Christian world and how it changed over the centuries. Almost everyone, whether they are Christian or not, is familiar with the image of Jesus on the cross, his head bound with a...
RAINA MACINTYRE Vaccine Nation. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Professor Raina MacIntyre was a prominent voice during Covid. Now she fears the backlash against vaccination will have devastating effects. We dodged a bullet – or did we? The panic created by Covid-19 has (apparently) gone away. Somehow or other policy-makers...
KERRIE DAVIES Miles Franklin Undercover. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Author Kerrie Davies explores Miles Franklin’s life in the decades after the success of My Brilliant Career. A book is written in solitude and in a crowd, at night, in the early morning, on weekends, and in thoughts and in dreams. So writes Kerrie Davies in her...
ROBERT MANNE A Political Memoir. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
Robert Manne’s memoir charts the life of a public intellectual and independent thinker unafraid of a fight. A Political Memoir is an important work that says a lot about Australia and the sort of country we are. As well as some personal history, Robert Manne provides...
MARK LILLA Ignorance and Bliss: On wanting not to know. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
In Ignorance and Bliss, political scientist Mark Lilla gives a timely examination of why we can be so keen to avoid the truth. The Enlightenment, aka the Age of Reason, is based on the assumption that we want to acquire knowledge about ourselves and how the world...
CLEM BASTOW and JO CASE (eds) Someone Like Me: An anthology of non-fiction by Autistic writers. Reviewed by Kylie Mason
This diverse anthology challenges stereotypes by bringing together Autistic women and gender-diverse writers to share their experiences. In their introduction to Someone Like Me, editors Clem Bastow and Jo Case say: Spending time with these twenty-five essays, piecing...
DAVID MARR My Country: Stories, essays and speeches. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck
In this collection, David Marr presents 50 years of his thinking and writing about Australia. David Marr is one of Australia’s leading journalists, and he has been commenting on things Australian for over fifty years. In his preface he says, ‘Curiosity, mischief and...
LIZ PELLY Mood Machine. Reviewed by Naomi Manuell
Liz Pelly’s analysis of music streaming giant Spotify and its impact on independent artists is both fascinating and disturbing. Since its beginnings in 2006, Spotify has grown into the largest provider of music streaming in the world. For almost the last decade, music...
PAT CUMMINS Tested. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
In Tested, Australia’s cricket captain speaks to leaders in diverse fields to discover their motivation and draw lessons from their success. The blurb on the front cover of Tested says ‘Big Decisions. Small Decisions. The remarkable power of resolve’ and this provides...
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