THE GOLDFINCH : Donna Tartt, author of the phenomenal bestsellers The Secret History and The Little Friend, returns with a breathtaking new novel. Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented b... Read more

The shortlist for the 2014 Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction is here. I am left gob-smacked by some of the exclusions – The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton and The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert, for example. Surely a Man Booker Prize winner can win Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, too. And isn’t it time to forgive Elizabeth Gilbert for Eat, Pr... Read more

In news just handed to me, the creative genius behind hit films, Clueless, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bride and Prejudice has died. Perhaps better known these days for her novels Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, she was once revered for her wit, intelligence, light touch and moral clarity. When asked to comment on the news, a shocked and dismayed Ali... Read more

Terms and Conditions was a publisher proof copy in a pile of publisher proof copies beside my bed. I had been told that everyone at Bloomsbury Australia loved the book – which is only right since they were taking the trouble to publish it. They think it could be one of those surprise hits. They are going to back it with marketing. My first thought on hearing this pitch is, try Googling th... Read more

Caroline Baum: I’m going to say what everyone else is going to say: When Mr Dog Bites does for Tourette’s what Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time did for Asperger’s. Dylan Mint (great name) is a wonderfully realised creation, a boy with a wonderfully fruity turn of phrase and a great attitude. Of course he gets the wrong end of the stick about a lot of adult things,... Read more

These days I always have more than one book on the go. It is part of the job. A perk, if you like. An abundance. At the moment I am moving between three books. Three black, to varying degrees, comedies. And all three I want to finish because I am enjoying them so much. Which is tricky. I want to give each my full attention. But I also do not want to be seen to be preferring one over the other. ... Read more

elBulli 2005-2011 is the catalogue raisonné of elBulli, which was widely regarded as the world’s best restaurant until its closure in 2011. Having held three Michelin stars from 1997 to 2011, and regularly voted ‘Best Restaurant in the World’ by a panel of 500 industry professionals, elBulli was at the forefront of the restaurant scene from when Ferran Adrià became sole head c... Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks T.M.Clark author of My Brother-But-One Ten Terrifying Questions ———————— 1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled? I was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and although I spent my junior school years in boarding school and on a ranch in Zimbabwe, my Senior school years (Standard 6 – 10 or as they say i... Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Nicole Hayes author of The Whole of My World Ten Terrifying Questions 1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled? I’m a Melbourne girl, born and raised. I got lost for a decade or so in various foreign locales — England, France, Japan, Hawaii, and, um, Canberra — but the first twenty plus years I ... Read more

This unusual mystery opens in a field hospital in Marne in early 1916 when a woman finds herself suffering from minor shrapnel injuries, shellshock and amnesia.  Her VAD uniform tells her that she must be a nurse’s aid but she knows little else about herself or her name.  She believes her name is Stella Bain, and learns that she is an American. Once her physical injuries are healed she goes bac... Read more