What Am I Reading?
The Siberian Dilemma – Martin Cruz Smith
From the author of the famous international bestseller Gorky Park, Martin Cruz Smith, comes his latest crime thriller featuring Moscow investigator Arkady Renko, The Siberian Dilemma (Simon and Schuster 2019). The ninth book in the series, this is another fast-paced...
You Don’t Know Me – Sara Foster
You Don’t Know Me (Simon and Schuster 2019) is a psychological crime thriller by Australian author Sara Foster which explores themes of trust, truth, shame, betrayal and memory. This is an engaging mystery that uncovers dark secrets held by the two main characters,...
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
This book has been on my TBR pile for a long while and every time somebody else recommended it, I’d think ‘I must get to that’. Finally I bought a copy from Avid Reader and what a fantastic read it has been over the Easter long weekend. Where the Crawdads Sing...
Almost a Mirror – Kirsten Krauth
Almost a Mirror (Transit Lounge Publishing 2020) by Kirsten Krauth is a highly literary celebration of the eighties and its music, while exploring loss, grief, drugs, memories, art and finding your place in the world. This book was shortlisted for the Penguin Literary...
The End of Cuthbert Close – Cassie Hamer
Author Cassie Hamer gifts us stories that are perfect for these stressful pandemic times: tales of quiet neighbourhoods brimming with secrets; of struggling parents trying their best; of the best-laid domestic plans resulting in epic fails; of the complicated...
The Loudness of Unsaid Things – Hilde Hinton
In The Loudness of Unsaid Things (Hachette 2020), Hilde Hinton has created two unforgettable female characters with distinctive voices who will each clutch at your heart. In this meandering tale of loneliness, isolation and connection, Hinton’s prose is simple,...
Stone Sky Gold Mountain – Mirandi Riwoe
Stone Sky Gold Mountain (UQP 2020) is the latest work by author Mirandi Riwoe, whose stunning novella The Fish Girl (shortlisted for The Stella Prize) subverted a traditional narrative in a retelling from the perspective of a character normally silenced. In her new...
Q&A with Sophie Hardcastle: BELOW DECK
A Q & A with Sophie Hardcastle about her new novel BELOW DECK (Allen and Unwin) In lieu of author launches and book tours due to the current pandemic crisis, we’re focusing on promoting the new work of Australian writers through alternative platforms. Reading is...
The Good Turn – Dervla McTiernan
Irish / Australian author Dervla McTiernan’s third novel The Good Turn (Harper Collins 2019) builds on her crime series featuring Detective Cormac Reilly, after the success of her previous books The Ruin and The Scholar. Once again, she gives readers a solid police...
He is Mine and I Have No Other – Rebecca O’Connor
This tender and poignant novel set in a small town in Ireland in the 1990’s is a slim, literary wonder. He is Mine and I have No Other (Canongate Books 2018) by Rebecca O’Connor is the story of local 15-year-old Lani Devine who falls in love with the enigmatic Leon...
Act of Grace – Anna Krien
Act of Grace (Black Inc Books 2019) demonstrates author Anna Krien’s ability to flex her fiction muscle after years of training in non-fiction and journalism. The result is a literary fiction novel that feels authentically grounded in fact, with characters so real...
I Choose Elena – Lucia Osborne-Crowley
I Choose Elena (Allen and Unwin 2019) is Lucia Osborne-Crowley’s extraordinary memoir of the sexual assault she suffered as a 15-year-old, the subsequent 10 years of chronic pain that followed, her courage – only two years ago – to finally break her silence and speak...