You’re going to hear, see and read a lot about the First World War in the next few years. A hundred year anniversary is a big deal. But most of what you’re going to be told is bullsh*t. If you want to know something closer to the truth, read the works of those who were there. The First World War was an equal opportunity war, destroying the lives of rich and poor, simpleton and geniu... Read more

What the hell has happened to politics in Australia? Never before have I felt so repulsed by the goings-on in our various parliaments. The last few years have left me feeling completely disenfranchised. I am certain good work has been done in that time, but how would I know? The coverage of politics has been less about the ideas being debated and more about the personalities debating them. Corr... Read more

I loved this little book. A finished copy was recently given to me by Simon and Schuster Australia. I get sent a lot of books but I suspect this one was chosen for me the reader not me the bookseller. Whoever thought to send it probably guessed I would love it. Michael Katakis, who I have never heard of before, now feels like an old friend. Reading his short (144 pages), hard-bound book of essa... Read more

The Steady Running of the Hour is a impressive début novel by young American author Justin Go. It starts with a recently graduated Californian, Tristan Campbell, receiving a letter asking him to contact a London law firm about a possible inheritance. Tristan is intrigued and calls the firm, which represents the trustees of an estate, who explain that Tristan may be the last possible heir. They ... Read more

Andrew Solomon’s Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity is a truly amazing labour of love – and one of my favourite books of the past decade. Over seven years, Solomon has interviewed over 300 families where parents have children who are different from themselves in a defining way, across ten different categories, including deafness, dwarves, autistic and criminal chil... Read more

Inspired by the bohemian art world of 1930s Melbourne The Strays is a marvellously accomplished and assured debut, announcing a major new talent. Rich in atmosphere and beautifully observed, it tells the story of only child Lily who makes friends with Eva at school and then becomes infatuated with her family, particularly larger-than-life painter Evan and his glamorous wife Helena. Lily tells t... Read more

Don’t be put off by the apparently obscure subject and considerable heft of Lucy Hughes-Hallet’s wonderful biography of Gabriele D’Annunzio, The Pike. D’Annunzio leaps off the page as a sex-mad spendthrift poet; a crack-pot warrior who led a small army to seize and rule an Istrian port city; and an almost-but-not quite-comic prototype for Mussolini’s Fascism. The Pike is a gripping portra... Read more

Last night I went to a party at Allen & Unwin’s offices in Crows Nest. There I met a great many wonderful people – writers, booksellers, journalists, publishers, cereal manufacturers… Yep, it was the Vogels. Man Booker Prize winner Eleanor Catton was on hand to announce the winner. She spoke well, her strong Kiwi accent assuring all in the room we can never get away with c... Read more

From The Guardian: The Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez, who unleashed the worldwide boom in Spanish literature with his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, has died at the age of 87. He had been admitted tohospital in Mexico City on 3 April with pneumonia. Matching commercial success with critical acclaim, García Márquez became a standard-bearer for Latin American letters, esta... Read more

Clariel, the long-awaited and much anticipated prequel to Garth Nix’s bestselling Old Kingdom trilogy will be published in October 2014. Pub Date: Oct 2014 New Prequel: Clariel is the daughter of one of the most notable families in the Old Kingdom, with blood relations to the Abhorsen, and to the King. When her family moves to the city of Belisaere, Clariel finds herself at the centre of ... Read more