What Am I Reading?
Life Drawing – Emily Lighezzolo
Emily Lighezzolo’s debut novel LIFE DRAWING (UQP 2026) explores the female body from a multitude of perspectives: the physical changes of puberty, childbirth, menopause and aging; how females consider their own bodies over time; the male gaze and how it affects...
One Night at Silver Lake – Katherine Scholes
ONE NIGHT AT SILVER LAKE (Penguin Random House 2026) by Katherine Scholes is a fascinating insight into life in the 1960’s in the dual settings of Tanzania (gaining independence) and Tasmania. The author’s work is informed by her own experiences of growing up in...
Frogsong – Melissa Manning
I opened the first pages of FROGSONG (UQP 2026) with somewhat anxious trepidation, because how could author Melissa Manning have written a novel as wonderful as her first book SMOKEHOUSE (an impossibly good collection of interlocked short stories)? But my worries were...
Idaho – Emily Ruskovich
IDAHO (Penguin Random House 2017) by Emily Ruskovich is such a delightful, masterful, brilliant, expansive, heartbreaking jewel of a novel, and the rightful winner of the 2019 International Dublin Literary Award (decided by librarians and readers the world over). This...
I Who Have Never Known Men – Jacqueline Harpman
What a strange, enthralling, compassionate, haunting question of a book is I WHO HAVE NEVER KNOWN MEN (Penguin Random House 1995) by Jacqueline Harpman. This slim feminist dystopian volume has a simple yet indecipherable plot and is an absolute delight to read....
Bereft – Chris Womersley
THIS BOOK!!! BEREFT by Chris Womersley (Scribe Publications 2010) has been on my TBR pile for many years and I can’t believe it took me this long to finally read it. If you love HAMNET by Maggie O’Farrell, then BEREFT will have the same emotional effect on you,...
Dear Madman – Edwina Shaw
The extraordinary book DEAR MADMAN (&Also Books 2026) by Edwina Shaw is part ancestral memoir, part true crime, part family history, part mystery, part psychological examination and part sociological and cultural analysis. Touching on grief, murder, parenting,...
The Gambler – JP Pomare
Thriller writer JP Pomare’s latest book THE GAMBLER (Hachette 2026) is the second in a new series about Private Investigator Vince Reid, a character introduced in his previous novel THE WRONG WOMAN. Pomare’s trademark twists and surprising reveals again dominate this...
Days Without End – Sebastian Barry
Ah, the sheer pleasure of reading humanity’s tragedy and joy in the perfect words of Sebastian Barry. His novel DAYS WITHOUT END (Faber and Faber 2016) is a glittering gem: a gritty and visceral war story, a tender and wise love story. The novel explores physical and...
One Hundred Days – Alice Pung
ONE HUNDRED DAYS (Black Inc Books 2021) is a timeless classic by Alice Pung exploring complex mother/daughter relationships, generational trauma and expectations, belonging, betrayal, forgiveness and self-identity. Written with literary grace and beauty, Pung’s story...
In a Common Hour – Sita Walker
I opened this book and could not put it down. IN A COMMON HOUR (Ultimo Press 2026) by Sita Walker is a remarkable novel that immediately connects readers to characters and setting, and explores themes of coming of age, education, class, racism, mental health,...
Department of the Vanishing – Johanna Bell
DEPARTMENT OF THE VANISHING (Transit Lounge 2026) won the Tasmanian Literary Award for author Johanna Bell. This book is an eclectic mix of form, content and issues; an unusual prose poem punctuated with photographs, redacted police interviews, scientific data,...