Like no other disaster before it, the coronavirus lockdown has separated the introverts from the extroverts. As news of the pandemic broke, any self-respecting introvert shut to door of their…

I’ve got to admit that I’m struggling. I know, I know – as Victoria enters its gazillionth week of lockdown I’m not the only one to feel overwhelmed. But my…

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…

As Victoria looks ahead to months of lockdown, and readers rely on great books for consolation, distraction and entertainment, here is an updated list of my favourites. Some are new…

“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.” Albert Einstein There are many things I don’t know, and probably never will. I don’t really understand…

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…

I can always tell when I am getting tired or sick – that is when I start to feel gloomy and my past embarrassments or regrets, however minor, bubble to…

Every parent I know wants their child to love reading, but it can be difficult to find the right books to give children at the right time. They think that…

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…

In recent months I have visited New York’s nightclubs, wondered at the expanse of Canada’s wilderness, journeyed through English countryside by rail and spent time on a Queensland cattle station.…

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…

What a year it has been so far. In my memory there has never been a stranger time, from the panic buying of toilet paper to an Australia-wide lock down.…

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…

A character that we all love to hate can make a book. There’s Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter, Tom Buchanan from The Great Gatsby and Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, whose…

I’ve developed quite an attachment … to Harry Potter. I started reading JK Rowling’s blockbuster series with my son and didn’t expect to enjoy it every bit as much as…

One of the great roles of literature is to introduce us to worlds and experiences that differ from our own. In recent years, I have been drawn to books on…

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…

Multitasking has lost its appeal since I became a mother. As a child, it had meant the ability to hold an icecream and ride my bike at the same time;…

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…

Normal People is in the news, but this time the fuss is not about the book, but about the television adaptation. It has broken records with 16.2 million requests for…

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…

Before coronavirus, and even in the first few weeks of social isolation, we all had visions of the way we would tackle the coming apocalypse. We would be brave and…

Helen Garner had just been inducted into the Australian Book Industry Awards Hall of Fame and I was listening to the audiobook of Everywhere I Look, which I had borrowed…

Few books divide readers the way that Wuthering Heights does. I had no idea of the passionate love, and equally passionate dislike, that readers felt towards this book before reading…

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…

At first glance, audiobooks appear to be a boon for the lazy. After all, why bother reading a book if you can get it read to you? No longer do…

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…

It’s hard not to feel a little trapped as a result of social isolation measures. No matter the size of our houses or flats, it is unsettling to have our…

So much for positivity in difficult and uncertain times – unpopular opinions posts have been popping up in my Facebook feed recently, listing things everyone else seems to like except…

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.…

The call to self-isolate was heeded with enthusiasm by many book lovers. If you ignore the terrible health, economic and social consequences of coronavirus, it would have been our time.…

Thank goodness for books. While extended time in close proximity with spouses and children due to social distancing might be testing our sanity, at least we can retreat into a…

There has been a lot of chatter about big books since the release of Hilary Mantel’s hugely anticipated and physically huge book, The Mirror and the Light. The book concludes…

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…

Anyone who has watched The Handmaid’s Tale (which is pretty much everyone) will know that Margaret Atwood wrote the book it was based on in response to her concerns about…

I was watching a news report about all of the people stuck on cruise ships as a result of the outbreak of the coronavirus and while I was mainly sympathetic…

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…

I visited a farmers market in a small country Victorian town last weekend, and one of the stalls was selling a mobile featuring signs pointing to Hogwarts, Gryffindor, Slytherin ……

Humans have long wanted to read the minds of others, to know how and what they think. Who would have thought that Twitter would provide some kind of answer to…

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…

Just when you were shaking your heads at the inexplicable behaviour of Americans, from their penchant for guns to the theatrics surrounding the current presidency, some heartening news has come…

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…

There are bestsellers and prize winners, cult classics and must-reads. All of these are worth reading, and often for different reasons. They might entertain, enlighten, move or disturb the reader,…

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…