Book Recommendations Archives

Historian Walter Elliot has unearthed the first unseen Sherlock Holmes story in more than 80 years that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote to help save a town bridge. The 1,300-word tale starring the famous detective was found in a collection of short stories written for a local bazaar. The story is entitled Sherlock Holmes: Discovering the Border Burghs and, by deduction, the Brig Bazaar. It is beli... Read more

THE 5 STAGES OF WRITING: 1. This is genius. 2. This isn’t working. 3. This is useless. 4. Really useless. 5. But this toast is nice. — Matt Haig (@matthaig1) February 20, 2015 WRITING TIPS: 1) Stare out of window. 2) Feel a bit hungover. 3) Wonder if you had enough love as a child. 4) Eat toast. 5) Go on Twitter. — Matt Haig (@matthaig1) February 20, 2015 Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Hai... Read more

In case you haven’t been following, we’re kind of obsessed with Stephen King’s twitter feed. It’s a treasure trove of crazy genius. You can find tweets in the third person where he refers to himself as ‘Honey Badger’. Honey Badger don’t give a shit about Valentine’s Day. But I like it. — Stephen King (@StephenKing) February 14, 2015 And some magni... Read more

We’re so lucky to be able to host guest blogs from some of Australia’s Favourite Authors, and with the dust settling on Valentine’s Day, we’ve got a special treat for Romance lovers. A guest blog from romance bestseller Rachael Johns! Rachael unveils her Top Ten Romance Books of All-Time. Did your favourites make the cut? Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding Thi... Read more

The longlist for the 2015 Stella Prize has just been announced, and what an exciting list of Australian authors! Named after one of Australia’s most important female authors, Stella Maria Miles Franklin, The Stella Prize celebrates Australian women’s contribution to literature, awarded last year to Clare Wright for The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka. Don’t miss the chance to grab a copy of th... Read more

We love reading romance, so nothing gives us more pleasure than to share the finalists for the 2014 Australian Romance Readers Awards with you. The awards will be announced at The Australian Romance Readers Convention in Canberra, of which we’re one of the major sponsors! Told you, we love it! Have you read all the books on this list? No? Why not acquaint yourself with an acclaimed romanc... Read more

Recently we gave Bryce Courtenay fans the chance to win a First Edition pack signed by the late great author. The pack included 9 limited edition bookmarks and a signed First Edition of his books Jessica, Sylvia and Fortune Cookie. All you had to do to enter was buy a copy of The Silver Moon…   …and the winner is: I.Stojkovski, Calamvale, QLD Congratulations to the winner! Not ... Read more

A few years ago TIME magazine asked 125 of the world’s most celebrated writers to name their Top 10 novels of all time. No doubt after the resignations of many, many unpaid interns, they combined all these lists to make the ultimate Top 10 list. We thought we’d share it with you. We’d like a few more women on there but hey, isn’t that always the way. Do you agree with th... Read more

We had 2 original artworks during December and January to giveaway. These pieces were created by Cheralyn Darcey and Sofan Chan. They themselves are the authors of Australian Wildflower Reading Cards and Buddhism Reading Cards, respectively. All you had to do to enter was buy a Rockpool Reading Card Set. Check out if you are a winner below…. Artwork by Cheralyn Darcey       ... Read more

Earlier this week The New Yorker produced a short film about Man Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan, focusing on his ‘writing shack’ on Bruny Island. It’s a beautiful piece, full of vintage musings on life, happiness and the writer’s life. We also get a glimpse into the award-winning author’s writing room: a modest, empty desk with a laptop, a lamp and a couple o... Read more