What Am I Reading?
Love Objects – Emily Maguire
Love Objects (Allen and Unwin 2021) by author Emily Maguire, is graced with a stunning cover by designer Sandy Cull and artwork by Cecelia Paredes: a gorgeous profusion of flowers with a woman hidden in plain sight in the riot of blooms. You would be right to begin...
The Overstory – Richard Powers
Writing and reading friends have been asking me for ages whether I’d read The Overstory (Vintage Penguin Random House 2018) by Richard Powers, the winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and my answer was always that it was on my list but I hadn’t gotten around...
We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson
My review of another classic that I have only just got around to reading: WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE (Penguin Classics 2009; first published in 1962) by Shirley Jackson, an author renowned for her darkly funny and shocking writing. This was her last book;...
Dirt Circus League – Maree Kimberley
Strap yourselves in, because DIRT CIRCUS LEAGUE (Text 2021), the debut novel by Maree Kimberley, is quite a ride. This genre-bending story is a violent dystopian fantasy with young adult themes of self-identity and belonging, with an action-packed plot, unusual...
The Philosopher’s Daughters – Alison Booth
The Philosopher’s Daughters (Red Door 2020) is an historical romance / drama novel by author Alison Booth. The story follows the lives of sisters Sarah and Harriet, from the Suffragette movement in London to 1890’s outback Australia. It is love that beckons Sarah...
New Animal – Ella Baxter
Ella Baxter’s debut novel NEW ANIMAL (Allen and Unwin 2021) is primarily about sex, death and grief. Amelia is a cosmetician at her family’s mortuary business and is used to rearranging the dead for funerals, mostly to comfort their loved ones. She enjoys her job but...
The Beautiful Fall – Hugh Breakey
The Beautiful Fall (Text Publishing 2021), the debut novel by Hugh Breakey, is a will-they or won’t-they romance with a difference – underneath the burgeoning romantic liaison is a nail-biting countdown and a puzzle comprised of secrets. This genre-bending book is not...
From Where I Fell – Susan Johnson
And why shouldn’t the minutia of women’s lives be examined and celebrated in domestic fiction? Men have been celebrating their own domestic lives for centuries! In her latest novel FROM WHERE I FELL (Allen and Unwin 2021), author and journalist Susan Johnson gives us...
Lie Beside Me – Gytha Lodge
Lie Beside Me (Michael Joseph Penguin Random House 2021) by Gytha Lodge is a psychological suspense / thriller / crime story with a possibly unreliable narrator, a detailed police procedural narrative, and the interesting combination of a variety of perspectives which...
Murmurations – Carol Lefevre
Oh, my. This book. Wow. Murmurations (Spinifex Press 2020) by Carol Lefevre is a slim, stunning, literary marvel. A masterclass in characterisation. A beautiful and poetic novella. If you love Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout then you will adore Murmurations. It’s...
Once, I Munched a Mango – Samantha Wheeler
A delightful picture book with words by Samantha Wheeler and illustrations by Shannon Horsfall, Once, I Munched a Mango (State Library of Queensland 2021) is published as part of the First5Forever program, in which SLQ released 12 new children’s picture books for...
The Emporium of Imagination – Tabitha Bird
We could all do with a little more magic in our lives, and whether you are eight or 108, The Emporium of Imagination (Penguin Random House 2021) by Tabitha Bird will calm, enlighten, inspire, thrill, rescue, ignite and magic you into another realm of possibilities....