[youtube=https://youtu.be/Ss-BVEWuJo0] Writing a follow up to The Slap was never going to be easy for Christos Tsiolkas. John Purcell casts an eye over his latest, Barracuda. This is a difficult book to write about. It has a personality rather than a plot. It is built upon emotion rather than reason. It is all shouts and whispers and nothing in between. As a boy Danny Kelly wants only one thing ... Read more

Alain de Botton’s early successes How Proust Can Change Your Life and The Consolations of Philosophy attempted to teach us that literature and philosophy are not rarefied artefacts to be shut between leather binding, studied and venerated but are instead practical, useful guides to living well. In his new book, Art as Therapy, de Botton joins forces with philosopher John Armstrong to remake our... Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Eimear McBride author of A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing 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 Liverpool to Irish parents and moved back to Ireland just before my third birthday. I was raised in the west, firs... Read more

People praise Shakespeare – for his heartbreaking tragedies, for his poetry, for his ability to translate the human condition into the written word. None of these is his greatest achievement. No; the smartest thing Shakespeare ever did was kill off Romeo and Juliet before they had to consider combining their book collections. Because, for literary-inclined star-cross’d lovers, such is a fate wo... Read more

Bestselling author Matthew Reilly is one of Australia’s most reliable writers. Every couple of years he delivers his fans quality popular fiction and every couple of years he can be counted on to break Australian sales records.  But till now, all of his successes, Ice Station, Seven Ancient Wonders, Temple, The Five Greatest Warriors, Scarecrow, to name just a few, have one thing in common, the... Read more

Writing a follow up to The Slap was never going to be easy for Christos Tsiolkas. John Purcell casts an eye over his latest, Barracuda. This is a difficult book to write about. It has a personality rather than a plot. It is built upon emotion rather than reason. It is all shouts and whispers and nothing in between. As a boy Danny Kelly wants only one thing – to be the greatest swimmer of ... Read more

When a teenage Jackie Collins was seduced by Marlon Brando at a party, little did she know the experience would come in handy years later while writing her first YA novel… New York Times bestselling author Jackie Collins was recently in Australia promoting her new novel, Confessions of a Wild Child, which tells the story of the teen years of her much loved character Lucky Santangelo. Jack... Read more

Walkley Award-winning journalist and bestselling author Caroline Overington ponders the age-old question, who has time to read? Do you know that I’ve done in the last two months? I’ve read three books. That’s probably not amazing to anyone that reads a book a month – or even a book a week – or to people who have several books on the go at once … but it’s pretty amazing for me. I’ve been writing... Read more

In these months, the busiest  of the bookselling year, thousands of books will compete for your attention.  Some will have huge marketing budgets to ensure they are not missed. Some will just be placed spine out on the shelf of your local bookshop. Some won’t even have that luxury. A Meal in Winter will probably suffer the fate of the latter. But that is no great indicator of its worth... Read more

How do you review a Shaun Tan book? Each time I open Rules of Summer I find a different book. I remember my excitement on being offered a sneak peek a few months ago. I was left feeling a little bewildered. Did I like it? I don’t think I did on that first look. Then a few months later I was given an advance copy. I flicked through the pages and found a completely new book. Or so I thought. But ... Read more