Book Recommendations Archives

For a very limited time when you buy the paperback edition of The Strays, winner of the 2015 Stella Prize,  you will receive the full ebook edition, absolutely free! The Strays by Emily Bitto In The Strays, Evan Trentham is the wild child of the Melbourne art world of the 1930s. He and his captivating wife, Helena, attempt to carve out their own small niche, to escape the stifling conservatism ... Read more

Australian novelist Cathryn Hein, author of The Falls, The French Prize, Heartland and much more gives her verdict on the books she’s been reading. With nine books to read and judge for the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA awards – none of which I can tell you about, sorry! – I didn’t have much personal reading time left. But I did manage three wonderful books. Al... Read more

March and April were amazing months for prizes! We gave three fans of Fleur McDonald the chance to win her backlist pack, worth $99, and fans of the new movie Home the chance to win a Home pack! All you had to do to enter was order Emerald Springs before April 30th! Emerald Springs by Fleur McDonald When suspicions are wrongly aimed at Amelia following the theft of proceeds from the local rodeo... Read more

After the success of our Australia’s Favourite Author poll, with John Flanagan coming out on top, we wanted to keep the ball rolling on this Aussie-book-love-in. We put iconic books, from all the authors voted by you as Australia’s 50 Favourite, into a series and offered the chance to win this amazing collection to anyone who ordered from the collection. All you had to do to enter w... Read more

In the lead up to Mother’s Day we’ve had some amazing prizes to give away, perfect for any Mum! We’ve had a Pan Macmillan Mother’s Day hamper worth $500, 1 of 5 Liane Moriarty backlist packs and a $250 gift voucher from Leona Edmiston! All you had to do to enter was order Wardrobe 101 for Mums by April 28th! Wardrobe 101 for Mums: Fashion Formulas for Modern Mothers by D... Read more

The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy was a fun, engaging read. While at times I was filled with anxiety for the characters I was also laughing really hard at other moments. And trust me, it takes something really special to make me laugh hard. That’s what I love about regency books and authors today, especially Julia Quinn. The stories reflect humans that are just as strange, endearing an... Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Jacinta Tynan author of Mother Zen 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’s Sutherland Shire (known simply as ‘The Shire’) as one of six kids in a suburb called Yowie Bay, but I went to high school in the eastern suburbs co... Read more

The importance of valuing the hard work of writers. The effort that goes into good short form writing is frequently undervalued. People often imagine that all it takes is for someone to come up with an idea, sit down and type out an essay, run a spell check, then deliver their work. Of course writing a strong essay is so much more than this; for most of us it’s a long and arduous process, from ... Read more

My favourite chocolate recipe: chocolate beetroot cake… This recipe comes from The Saffron Girl. I talk about chocolate a lot. I think about it a lot. And, yes, I even eat it a lot. But what I’ve learned while doing research for The Chocolate Promise, is that you need to know how to eat it in order to get all the great health benefits without all the fat and sugar nastiness that comes wit... Read more

In celebration of the release of Testament of Youth, which has been described by the Evening Standard as “Stunningly good…desperately moving”,  we are giving you a free double pass to see the film when you order a copy of the book. Synopsis: Testament of Youth is a powerful story of love, war and remembrance, based on the First World War memoir by Vera Brittain, which has beco... Read more