The eye-catching cover design had been tempting me for a while before I picked up My Dark Vanessa, and I had no idea of the dynamo it would be. My…

You would have to have been living under a rock not to have heard all the hype surrounding Percival Everett's retelling of Huckleberry Finn, James. Everett turns Mark Twain's classic…

I'm in a bit of a reading slump so I wasn't in the right place to read Michelle de Krester's book of ideas, Theory and Practice. As I wrote recently,…

Having loved The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend - two very different books by Charlotte Wood - I didn't know what to expect from Stone Yard Devotional. All…

I was recommended Bodies of Light by a colleague with no warning of the harrowing read that it is. Certainly, the title didn't give me any clue as to the…

Green Dot is really making me feel old … and maybe a little judgmental. I started off absolutely loving the story and narrator as she had her first encounter with…

I always feel like a bit of an upstart when I write a review of one of the great works of fiction by an author like Jane Austen, but I…

The Improbable Life of Ricky Bird was recommended to me as a 'strange' read, so I really wasn't sure what to expect from it. It turns out that it was…

The author of Limberlost, Robbie Arnott, has won various awards for his previous works, and so this one came with some sense of anticipation. Limberlost is set in Tasmania and…

What Happened to Nina was the fourth book I had read by Dervla McTiernan and it is another page-turner that is both satisfying and highly readable. I read it under…

Books can arrive on my bedside table for many reasons - they might have been recommended by a friend, been written by an author I admire, or in the case…

Larissa Behrendt's After Story included some of my favourite bookish elements - travel, relationships and culture. After Story centres on an Indigenous mother and daughter who take a literary tour…

I read Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid just before attending the Australian Open, and I was glad I did. Tennis is at the heart of the novel…

Maybe it was my super-high expectations that meant that Wifedom was never had a chance. I absolutely loved Anna Funder's Stasiland and All That I Am, so I was thrilled…

Wild Abandon is one of the best books I've read in ages. The story begins with Will travelling to the US in search of his big adventure ... and to…

I have an admission straight off the bat - I've never read Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, on which Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead is based. Despite this hole in my background…

I did not know that I'd be encountering another neglected boy so soon after reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. Like Shuggie, Mungo is…

After having loved A Gentleman in Moscow, I was looking forward to reading Amor Towles' The Lincoln Highway. I was surprised by how different this second of the writer's books…

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro is one of those books that I would have no hesitation in recommending to anyone. Told by a butler in a grand…

This book has cemented my opinion that plot-driven – rather than prose-driven – novels are much better suited to listening. I listened to Mortimer’s book while walking, vacuuming and mowing…

I read Bruny while considering a trip to Tasmania, and nothing could make a visit more appealing. I loved reading about the unique landscape and community in the Apple Isle…

I have mixed feelings about Fleishman is in trouble. I almost loved it, but I really hated the last few pages. Fortunately, I had been warned that this might be…

It's disappointingly rare to read a book about older women, so I was interested to see how Charlotte Wood approached her novel about three women who return to clean the…

Knowing that the movie based on A Man Called Ove was in the cinemas, I raced to read the novel on my Kindle. My friends who had already read it…

When I am reading Elisabeth Strout's books I can almost hear the voices of the characters. They seem to be so solidly constructed in their mannerisms and temperaments that their…

Oh no, I just realised haven't reviewed To Paradise yet, about two months after reading it. This is going to be a tough one. How do you sum up a…

I have written before about Heather Morris’s ‘too good to be true’ portrayal of victims of the Holocaust, after having read The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka’s Journey. I found…

There is something very appealing about the narrator of the Ordinary People audiobook and I couldn’t stop listening. Ordinary People is the story of two couples living in the UK,…

I was attracted to The Promise after hearing positive reviews of it following its Booker win. The Promise is set in South Africa and centres on a white family, and…

The author of Nightcrawling, Leila Mottley, conceived the idea for the novel after hearing a news story in her home of Oakland in the US. The story was about a…

I have to admit right now that science fiction is not my thing. For some reason, the idea of distant planets or alternative universes leaves me cold. It's the same…

I'm so glad I finally got around to reading Sorrow and Bliss, after it had received glowing reviews from almost everyone I knew. Happily, I enjoyed reading it as much…

If you want a comforting family saga, it’s hard to go past Anne Tyler. Having recently read and enjoyed A Spool of Blue Thread by Tyler, I thought I’d give…

I have to admit I’ve become a bit of a Pat Barker fan in the past few years, having read her Regeneration trilogy and now her two novels about the…

The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku I listened to The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku and it was an absolute delight. It was one of those…

The title of Lisa Taddeo’s book speaks volumes about what lies within. Animal is a book of trauma and its consequences, played out by Joan, who is introduced to the…

The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire attracted a lot of attention when it was published, which was unsurprising, given its topic. Chloe Hooper’s book looks at Victoria’s Black Saturday fires…

There are many books that I forget almost as soon as I finish reading them. Even those that I love are often lost in a dusty part of my mind…

The Leavers centres on the story of a young boy, Deming, who is seemingly abandoned by his Chinese mother in New York. The story revolves around the impact of the…

Sofie Laguna has to be my favourite Australian author. I absolutely love her style of writing and the emotional subjects she broaches in her books. Infinite Splendours once again deals…

I shied away from American Dirt after hearing controversy surrounding Jeanine Cummins’ bestseller. However, after one of my best friends said she had loved it and I found it at…

After loving Burial Rites and The Good People, I was pretty sure that I’d enjoy Hannah Kent’s latest novel. And when I started reading Devotion, I immediately knew I was…

Any book that starts with a mother visiting her son in prison is bound to capture my attention and Amanda Lohrey’s novel was certainly promising. The book won the 2021…

Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library is a modern-day fable that tells the story of a young woman’s journey towards the discovery that her life is worthwhile, and in fact, beautiful…

Can you enjoy a book that disturbs you and frighten you? Who am I kidding, I love a book that makes your stomach churn and your heart sink, and that's…

It’s rare to encounter a book that is so far removed from anything else you have read. But that was exactly what happened when I picked up The Plains by…

It took me a while to get to The Dictionary of Lost Words, after hearing rave reviews about it, and I have to say it was well worth the wait…

I have to admit that Cormac Reilly is REALLY growing on me. I think Dervla McTiernan might have found the perfect hero in her good cop at the centre of…

Apeirogon is by no means a comfortable or enjoyable read. I didn’t find myself excitedly reaching for it or wanting to keep reading deep into the night. But the more…

Harry and his friends really are growing up in the sixth instalment of the Harry Potter series. There is less mischief and a little more darkness in Harry Potter and…

Queenie was one of the funniest books I’ve read in a long time. The book follows the sharp and hilarious title character, Queenie, after her boyfriend decides he wants a…

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix begins dramatically, with Harry and his cousin being attacked by Dementors. Forced to use magic to defend them both, Harry is threatened…

I'm usually no fan of police procedurals or detective novels, but somehow Dervla McTiernan makes the topic of murder and the ensuing investigation completely moreish. I listened to The Scholar…

After the show was put on hold in Melbourne due to the coronavirus lockdowns, I felt incredibly fortunate to be among the first to see the reopened Harry Potter and…

After reading Mirandi Riwoe’s haunting Fish Girl novella, I had high expectations of Stone Sky Gold Mountain. Set on the Queensland goldfields, this was a very different story, but did not disappoint.  The story…

I’m not sure if you can call an audiobook a page-turner, but that is how I would describe The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth. The Good Sister starts out as…

Gosh, I loved this book. Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet imagines the home life of Shakespeare and the impact of the death of his son, Hamnet - a name that was interchangeable…

In Cilka’s Journey, we are introduced to Cilka Klein, who first appeared in the bestselling The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Cilka survived the Nazi death camp after senior officers took a…

It has been too long between Ferrantes ... and beach holidays but this week I’ve been lucky enough to indulge in both. After reading The Brothers Karamazov over what seemed…

Akin is a heart warming meditation about family, age and history. The story centres on a retired professor who is suddenly thrust into the position of guardian of a young…

I was initially worried that the audiobook format wouldn’t suit Bernadine Evaristo’s award winning Girl, Woman, Other, but how wrong I was. I loved walking along and listening to the…

I was used to reading dark and grim books by Emile Zola set in poverty-stricken mining towns, and while Therese Raquin took place in beautiful Paris, it was just as…

It might have been the timing – I listened to Redhead by the Side of the Road when I was holidaying in country Victoria – but I found this book…

The Gustav Sonata tells the story of a young boy who is rejected by his mother, but who finds love elsewhere. Gustav is growing up in Switzerland, which prides itself…

It’s always great to read a book that challenges your assumptions and The Reluctant Fundamentalist definitely did that for me. The book is set in Lahore, where a man, who…

Tara Westover’s Educated was such a fascinating read. This bestselling book is the memoir of a woman who was brought up a devout Mormon in the US by a mentally…

Firstly, I have to say that See What You Made Me Do is an intelligent, thorough and necessary book about domestic abuse in Australia ... BUT if you’re Victorian, maybe…

The Eye in the Door is the second book in Pat Barker’s World War I trilogy that explores life at home for soldiers. The first of the trilogy, Regeneration, was…

As promised, this is one mind and genre bending read. Into the Wreck is the story of a man who survived a historical shipwreck. However, it is not his story…

If there is one reliably enjoyable writer, for me it is Ian McEwan. I hadn’t read one of his books for quite some time and found The Children Act audiobook…

The Color Purple is Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker’s beautiful story of pain and hope. It follows Celie, and African American woman growing up in rural Georgia in the early…

I had been warned that My Absolute Darling was a harrowing read, but I’m still not sure that I was ready for the violence and abuse that was part of…

The Yield is a book that requires concentration, and so I feel like I didn’t do justice to it by listening to it on audiobook, rather than reading the print…

Such a Fun Age is one of those books that are easy to read and entertaining, while delivering a big message that can change minds and attitudes. The story is…

It might be no Angela’s Ashes, either in misery or in degree of poverty, but One Hundred Years of Dirt is an eye-opening reflection on inequality in Australia. Rick Morton…

Novellas might be small, but they can certainly make a big impact. I haven’t read many of this form of novel, but the ones that I have read have been…

The Erratics is the story of the rescue of Vicki Laveau Harvie’s father from the clutches of his cruel wife. Travelling from her home in Australia to the prairie landscape…

What a story! While reading The Trauma Cleaner, I couldn’t help myself from marvelling at what an extraordinary story Sarah Krasnostein had stumbled on when she met Sandra of the…

Could Pride and Prejudice be the perfect isolation read during the coronavirus pandemic? Funny, escapist and romantic, it just might be. After having watched the series starring Colin Firth a…

It is easy to lose sight of Helen Garner’s way with words as she writes about everyday objects and happenings. In Everywhere I Look, she writes with such apparent ease…

I loved reading Ann Patchett's Commonwealth, so I was looking forward to reading her most recent novel about families, and all of the complication and complexity of those relationships. At…

The Nickel Boys was the first audiobook that I have read, and it did nothing to discourage me from enjoying books in this form in the future. Read by author…

Remind me to do my research before picking up what I think will be a relaxing romance – Wuthering Heights is a long, long, LONG way from being relaxing or…

Just like everyone else who has ever read one of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books, I am hooked. After reading four books in the series, I can say with confidence…

I’ve been reading a lot about race lately, starting with The White Girl, then the fabulous Too Much Lip, and now Americanah. Each in its own way has been eye-opening…

I started reading This is How We Change the Ending by Vikki Wakefield as it was longlisted for the Stella Prize, and I am trying to read at least a…

This book was so much fun. While the title might point to a more sinister book, My Sister, the Serial Killer is surprisingly funny and light, with a warm ending…

Don't worry, I know that it's too late in the day to review Harry Potter - a literary phenomenon like this is well and truly beyond being reviewed. But I…

So far, February has been a month of blockbusters: first The Handmaid’s Tale, then Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and now The Testaments. And the best bit is that I…

How did Margaret Atwood know? In The Handmaid's Tale, there are so many themes and ideas that seemed prescient that while I was reading, I had to check when it…

Eggshell Skull is Bri Lee’s thoughtful and thought-provoking memoir of her time as a judge’s associate, and later, pursuing justice for her own childhood abuse.Both sections expose the weaknesses of…

In Bram Presser’s debut, The Book of Dirt, the search for what happened during the Holocuast is personal. Presser’s grandfather survived Auschwitz and Theresienstadt concentration camps, but spoke little of…

There is no doubt that the title of this book is gorgeous, and that’s what attracted me to Ocean Vuong’s novel. The same poetry that is in the title also…

I think I’ve found my new favourite writer. I loved reading Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls and can’t wait to get my hands on more of his books – Naked…

I have always loved reading a family saga, whether it’s A Suitable Boy, set in India, or Thornbirds, in Australia, and so Pachinko was right up my alley. This one…

I thought I was going to struggle reading this one as I only had it as a one week loan from the local library, but ended up reading it in…

I might have been the last person on earth to have read Gone Girl, but I’m glad I finally got around to reading it. What a ride! Gillian Flynn’s bestseller…

The headline in The Washington Post read: “If you like despair and ‘Orange is the New Black’, You’ll Love The Mars Room’. After having loved The Mars Room, it made…

There is so much in Alice Munro’s short stories that it is hard to know where to start in reviewing Dear Life. I don’t usually read short stories as I…

It sounds macabre, but for some reason I feel attracted to books about the Holocaust. In recent years, I have read The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Nightingale and The Book…

Black Rock White City is a difficult book to sum up, as there are so many themes and ideas at play. But I’ll do my best to do justice to…

I had no idea what to expect from Hot Milk, but as soon as I started reading, I was swept along by Deborah Levy's beautiful language. This is one of…

I read Tony Birch’s The White Girl in three days – once I started reading about grandmother, Odette, and her granddaughter, Sissy, I couldn’t put it down. The White Girl…

I came to The Witches of Eastwick as a big fan of John Updike. I had read Couples and the Rabbit series years ago, and loved his keen eye for…

Where the Crawdads Sing is a book that has been all over social media, so I was intrigued to have a read and see what everyone was talking about. The…

After seeing Roxane Gay on the ABC’s Q&A program, I thought I knew what to expect with her memoir, Hunger. She is renowned as having a fierce intellect, and being…

I might have come to Autumn a little uninformed, believing it to have been written by Zadie Smith, rather than its true author, Ali Smith. However, the aesthetic was right,…

Set in Sydney in 1942, The Aunts’ House is the charming story of a young recently orphaned girl named Angel who is sent to live in a boarding house run…

Review by Sam, 8 years What is the book about? There are seven short stories that all have a completely different theme but all starring Alex Rider. Alex Rider is…

Bridge of Clay is an intimidating book, the size of a brick and as eagerly anticipated as it was, following the success of Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. And at…

In literary fiction, it is often the language that rises above the plot. Sometimes, little seems to happen, but the reader is carried away with the lyricism of the language…

I’ve been holding off on reviewing Toni Morrison's Beloved because how can you really critique such a book? It won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and its author Toni Morrison won…

With the follow up just published, I finally got around to reading Dervla McTiernan’s The Ruin. Set in Galway, The Ruin spans two decades, from the time a young police…

Kamila Shamsie's award-winning novel Home Fire begins as a story of two families on either side of the fight against terrorism, but becomes an exploration of  love, loss, politics and…

A child goes missing in the US, only to be found decades later on the other side of the world. Who wouldn’t want to read a book about the search…

Who knew a book about death could be so uplifting? Maggie O’Farrell’s  I Am I Am I Am details 17 brushes with death, ranging from a chillingly close encounter while…

This book came highly recommended – my mum loved it and even though she had a copy of her own, she bought another one for me. Fortunately for our family…

I had heard a lot about Australian author Emma Viskic before I had picked up any of her books. From the Wreck had recently been shortlisted for various literary awards,…

There have been a few books this year which have been unlike any I have read before, and this is certainly one of them. Somewhere between an essay and a…

It is hard to comprehend how Sally Rooney has managed to capture the dynamics of a relationship as well as she has in Normal People. Aged just 27, Rooney tells…

I’m not usually drawn to memoirs, but I’d heard such good reports about Magda Szubanski’s Reckoning that I happily picked it up when I saw it was available at the…

By Sam, 7 What was the book about? It was about a girl, Amelia, who went to Elfhelm to live with Father Christmas and a woman called Mary. The girl…

Young journos are famously advised to start their stories as if they are telling their best friend the most exciting thing that has happened that day. Rachel Cusk’s widely celebrated…

I was almost relieved when, partway into reading The Kite Runner, I realised this was definitely a ‘good’ book. Otherwise, I’m not sure that I could have written a review…

Sam, 7 years * Caution - there may be spoilers below The story was about: It was a story about science and a place that used science to make people’s…

This year I’ve read some extraordinary books written by Australian writers, from the perspective of a child, including Sofie Laguna’s The Choke and Mark Brandi’s Wimmera. Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows…

The Fish Girl seems at first glance to be a light book, easily read in a day, perhaps even one sitting. But within the Stella Prize shortlisted novella is story…

I have read a lot about World War II, from brutality of the concentration camps in The Tattooist of Auschwitz to the ‘what ifs’ of Life After Life and the…

I never read The Little Prince as a child, so I was looking forward to reading it with my seven-year-old son. Unfortunately, this strange and charming little story didn’t capture…

Review by Elizabeth Morrison, 10 years old Nevermoor is a heartwarming story that will soon become the favourite of most children and adults. I liked if from the start and…

What is it about this series that so takes hold of the reader? Is it the Italian setting, so vividly evoked by Ferrante? Or is it the gorgeous, understated language?…

Don’t let the title fool you – Toibin’s book is just as much about Ireland as it is about Brooklyn. Place looms large in the novel, set in the 1950s,…

The Geography of Friendship is set in a beautiful bush land setting, through which a group of friends retraces a bush walk of decades earlier. However, there is nothing calm…

For anyone who is curious about the ancient classics, but reluctant to give them a go, Circe is the perfect introduction. However, it is equally appealing as a stand-alone story…

Twenty years ago, I fell in love with the magical realism in One Hundred Years of Solitude. I had never read this type of novel before and was carried away…

Many of Australians' favourite books of all times, according to the Dymocks 101 list  are familiar. Unsurprisingly, there was Harry Potter and The Handmaid’s Tale, alongside more recent bestsellers like The…

It’s hard for a booklover not to be drawn to a novel that is about …. a book. And what a book it is. The Sarajevo Haggadah at the centre…

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine has attracted a lot of hype, including taking the top spot on the Sunday Times bestseller list. And for me, it lived up to that…

It’s hard not to love a book in which Ballarat plays a minor role, but there are plenty of other reasons that made Wimmera so easy to recommend. The first…

I had high hopes for Anything is Possible, after enjoying Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, and it didn’t disappoint. In both books, Strout beautifully captured intimate moments of significance in the…

It has been some time since I have come across a book that has been so widely read and talked about. There seem to be very few people who have…

There is something endearing about an author who introduces a book by saying that the final story was nothing like he had planned, and he expected it to be a…

Evie Wyld’s All the Birds Singing is like a beautiful dot-to-dot for grownups, tracing the story of Jake’s life back to the distant past in order to make sense of…

Most tourists see a certain side of Italy. There are the rolling hills of Tuscany, fascinating cities and idyllic coastal towns, topped off by warm and friendly locals and some…

I had been told that The Elegance of the Hedgehog would make me cry. For me, the ability to make a reader cry is high praise, and even though the…

There’s a strange sense of synchronicity when an event in the news closely aligns with a book that you are reading. That happened when I was finishing The Bodysurfers by…

Often, family sagas centre on a great love, either thwarted or consummated. While Behind the Scenes at the Museum might be the story of a family, with limbs reaching back…

“Everyone has a chapter they don’t read out loud.” (Anonymous) Bob Dylan’s memoir might be as lyrical as his songs and offer fascinating insights about his arrival on the music…

It can sometimes be difficult to describe what a book was ‘about’. While some might centre on an earth shattering event, others carry on quietly, with the reader bobbing along…

I don’t usually read memoirs, or much non-fiction of any type, but I was curious about reading Bob Dylan’s book after he (controversially) won the Nobel Prize for Literature. At…

I am no modern art lover – at best I am curious and at worst I am bewildered. However, in reading The Museum Modern Love, I found that I have…

Sibling relationships are at the heart of many novels, with Little Women, My Family and Other Animals and The Cement Garden among the most memorable. However, to that list we…

Labelled by some as historical fiction and others as science fiction, Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad is a book that does not slot easily into any one category. I came…

Some books are so famous that it seems redundant to review them, but it's always nice to see a classic book through new eyes. This is true of Jane Eyre,…

Regeneration is a different type of war book to what readers or students might be used to, with the action taking place in a hospital rather than in the trenches…

Books can either reflect the world as the reader already knows it, but in a new and surprising way, or introduce a whole new world, which is unfamiliar and exotic…

It feels as if spring has gone on strike, enabling winter to continue until December. The mercury is sluggish and the wind is fierce, and I have been stuck at…

From the popularity of The Bachelor to the amount of paraphernalia surrounding Valentine’s Day, it seems that romance is having a renaissance. And with all the roses, candlelit dinners and…

I usually prefer books that can be described as moving, heartbreaking, uplifting or captivating. I like to be lifted up and shaken when I read, and I love books that…

Oh Billy Pilgrim, you are one of a kind. Has there ever been a character so pitiable, so pathetic, but so likable as the lead character in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse…

Sometimes it is not the spoken but the whispered threat that is the most menacing. So it is with sexism. While important issues such as the gender pay gap and…

It is very difficult to empathise with people we have never met, who lived a long time ago, in a country on the other side of the world. It is…