CAROLINE BAUM Only: A singular memoir. Reviewed by Shelley McInnis
Baum’s memoir is replete with examples of emotional deftness of the highest order. I have very much enjoyed Caroline Baum’s published essays, and it is a delight to see two of them appearing as familiar landmarks in this big map of a memoir. One, entitled...
Crime Scene: JAYE FORD Darkest Place. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Darkest Place is Australian thriller writer Jaye Ford’s fifth book of stand-alones involving women under threat who are definitely not victims. In 2011 Jaye Ford released Beyond Fear, telling the story of a girls’ weekend away at an isolated country hideaway....
DEBRA JOPSON Oliver of the Levant. Reviewed by Michelle McLaren
Oliver of the Levant is a wise and nuanced coming-of-age story set in troubled times. Like many 15-year-old boys in the late 1960s, Oliver Lawrence has a poster of Jimi Hendrix on his bedroom wall, and he’d rather hang around Bondi Beach than go to school. But unlike...
Rebellious Daughters giveaway
It’s the first day of spring and to celebrate we’re giving away a copy of Rebellious Daughters: True stories from Australia’s finest female writers, edited by Maria Katsonis and Lee Kofman (reviewed today by Shelley McInnes). To go in the draw, just email...
MARIA KATSONIS & LEE KOFMAN (Eds) Rebellious Daughters: True stories from Australia’s finest female writers. Reviewed by Shelley McInnis
The authors in Rebellious Daughters write about family honestly and without clichés. It’s been a while since, in My Mother, Myself, Wellesley College graduate Nancy Friday invited Baby Boomer women to reflect on their first impressions of life and how these...
BRIOHNY DOYLE The Island Will Sink. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
A dystopian future, inventive language and an irresistible finish distinguish Briohny Doyle’s debut novel. This is an exciting and fascinating read, a very clever speculative dystopian novel set in a not too distant future. The world faces...
Crime Scene: JANE HARPER The Dry. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
There is a very good reason for all the buzz around about The Dry, another great debut thriller from an Australian writer. In a country with a lot of mythology built around rural connections, it has always come as a surprise how much of Australia’s rural-based...
Crime Scene: ANN TURNER Out of the Ice; LA LARKIN Devour. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Two Australian thriller writers have each set their latest novels amid the beauty and danger of Antarctica. Antarctica is one of the planet’s last great wilderness areas – for some, a place ripe for plundering, for others, an area that must be protected. Ann...
ALICIA SOMETIMES and NICOLE HAYES (Eds) From the Outer: Footy like you’ve never heard it. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
From the Outer, a collection of tributes to and critiques of Aussie Rules, canvasses fresh perspectives on the game its fans just call ‘footy’. This book is well named. In AFL parlance the Outer was the uncovered, and usually unfavourably vantaged, spectator...
CATH FERLA giveaway
We have a copy of Cath Ferla’s debut crime novel Ghost Girls to give away. To win, simply email us at editors@newtownreviewofbooks.com.au by 6pm tonight (April 1st) with your name and address and ‘Cath Ferla’ in the subject line. As we cannot afford...
Kirsten Tranter giveaway
We have a copy of Kirsten Tranter’s new novel Hold to give away. To win, simply email us at editors@newtownreviewofbooks.com.au by 6pm today, Tuesday 29 March with your name and address and ‘Kirsten Tranter’ in the subject line. As we cannot afford...
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