What Am I Reading?
The Competition – Katherine Collette
It’s rare to discover a book that is hilarious, well-written AND contains a compelling message, but Katherine Collette has done it again in her second novel The Competition (Text Publishing 2022), a funny, tender, vulnerable and thoughtful story about a young woman...
These Precious Days – Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett. If you know her work, I can almost guarantee you love her work: how I adored Bel Canto and then, impossibly, adored State of Wonder even more. Commonwealth, and most recently The Dutch House. That first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. Her incredible...
The Torrent – Dinuka McKenzie
Yet again we have another fantastic debut female Aussie crime author invading our bookshelves! The 2020 Winner of the Banjo Prize was Dinuka McKenzie and her subsequent published novel The Torrent (Harper Collins 2022) is a compelling exploration of family dynamics...
Social Queue – Kay Kerr
Kay Kerr’s second novel Social Queue (Text Publishing 2021) is another fantastic YA deep dive into big emotions and all the feelings that come with that liminal time between adolescence and young adulthood. To read Kerr’s books is to feel that you are sitting with her...
Ten Thousand Aftershocks – Michelle Tom
Ten Thousand Aftershocks (4th Estate Harper Collins 2021) is a powerful and moving memoir. Debut author Michelle Tom writes of her fractured family, the force and devastation of earthquakes, and the fallout and aftermath of both, with skilled prose, evocative...
If You’re Happy – Fiona Robertson
Queensland Literary Award winner Fiona Robertson, the debut author of a truly eclectic and poignant short story collection, IF YOU’RE HAPPY (UQP 2022), gifts readers an expansive, wide-ranging and yet intimate selection of diverse stories that demonstrates her skills...
Dragon Skin – Karen Foxlee
Every story that multi award-winning author Karen Foxlee creates brims with magic, heart and beauty, and features young people with big dreams, challenging obstacles and a knack for discovering parts of themselves they never knew existed. Her latest middle-grade...
Falling – T.J. Newman
Falling (Simon and Schuster 2021) by T.J. Newman is an absolutely edge of your seat, runaway thriller with a knock-out premise and knife-edge anxiety. Written with inside aviation knowledge (the author was a flight attendant), Falling is the ultimate hostage/terrorist...
After Story – Larissa Behrendt
Larissa Behrendt’s novel After Story (UQP 2021) is a blending of narratives, styles and themes, with appeal to those who love the traditions of English literature such as Shakespeare and Austen, and equally those who want to learn more about First Nations history. It...
Please Don’t Hug Me – Kay Kerr
I heard author Kay Kerr read an extract from her debut novel Please Don’t Hug Me (Text 2020) before it was published, at an Avid Reader event for author Graeme Simsion. She read the part about driving (straight through) a roundabout during a driving test and it was...
The Silent Patient – Alex Michaelides
A compulsive, page-turning psychological thriller, the New York Times bestselling book The Silent Patient (Orion Hachette 2019) by Alex Michaelides has sold over a million copies. This is an engrossing and immersive story about a psychotherapist and the patient who...
Wild Abandon – Emily Bitto
There are so many wonderful aspects to Emily Bitto’s novel Wild Abandon (Allen and Unwin 2021). She is a writer in complete control of her words and of the story. Every sentence is carefully crafted. This is a novel about endangered wildlife, capitalism, war,...