While reading Tim Winton’s latest novel, Eyrie, I couldn’t help thinking about Charlotte Wood’s Animal People, Zadie Smith’s NW and to a lesser extent, Julian Barnes’ Sense of an Ending. All four books have been published in the last five years. Each chronicles the lives of people making do within a society they have inherited. Each book is despairing of the turn the western world has taken. Ea... Read more

I was first introduced to Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries back in May of this year at an Allen & Unwin function. The Granta representative gushed about the book (which would reward her enthusiasm by going on to win The Man Booker Prize) and many of those present were very pleased to receive a small sampler at the end of the night. Myself included. I love reading nineteenth century lit... Read more

After my 2008 book Life in His Hands, about the Sydney neurosurgeon Charlie Teo and his patient Aaron McMillan, a young pianist who had brain cancer, I declared that I would never write another book about illness and death. But then my mother died. Mum faded away so slowly that I didn’t even admit to myself that she was dying. I was an only child and she had been divorced and on her own since I... Read more

One of the many revelations exposed by this important and interesting new book is that the “DNA of Australians” was not created by either God or Darwinian natural selection, but by Captain Arthur Phillip and his superiors in the British Government in the late 1780s. Having selected Botany Bay as the replacement for their former North American colonies and as the place to transport prisoners fro... Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Emma Sutherland & Michelle Thrift Co-authors of 50 Foods That Will Change Your Life Ten Terrifying Questions ——————————— 1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled? EMMA: I was born and raised in Melbourne. After finishing high ... Read more

It’s been 29 years since Morrissey pleaded please, please, please, let me get what I want, but now fans everywhere finally have what they want. An autobiography from one of the modern era’s finest song writers and most intriguing public figures. And true to form, he only agrees to be published if he can be published straight into Penguin Classics. Read more

I was saddened to learn that bestselling author Tom Clancy had died. I was saddened because I thought of what this loss would mean to his family and friends. I was saddened too, for as a young man I enjoyed his books and subsequent the movies starring Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan. I was also saddened because as a bookseller at Christmas time when asked what book would be good for a bloke, a Tom C... Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Will Davies author of The Boy Colonel 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 and raised in Sydney, attended Ryde Primary School before going to live in Leeton in 1960. I attended the local Primary School bef... Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Jenny Bond author of Perfect North 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 and raised in Sydney. I was schooled in the public system and enjoyed it immensely. It’s no wonder that I went from school to ... Read more

UPDATE: The winner of our James Bond competition has been announced. Congratulations J. Wilson of NSW! The voice on the phone was steady and clear: Be at Sydney Airport for the arrival of British Airways Flight B15. British Airways Captain, Thomas Clark will be escorting James Bond, 007, through customs. You are to deliver him unharmed to Booktopia’s Headquarters where he will stay until ... Read more