Book Recommendations Archives

Halloween in Australia is kind of, sort of, in a way, taking off. Slowly. Whether you love it or hate it, being scared as a kid is something we all share, and there’s nothing like a scary book to teach you the power of imagery. Here’s some of Team Booktopia’s scariest books growing up. Let us know yours by leaving a comment below. Christopher I am David – It was an illus... Read more

With sales of over 200 million albums, AC/DC is not just the biggest rock band in the world. It’s a family business built by three brothers: George, Malcolm and Angus Young. And, as with any business, some people prospered while others got hurt along the way. The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC is unlike any AC/DC book you’ve read before. Less a biography, more a critical appreciation, it ... Read more

John Purcell reviews Shame and the Captives by Tom Keneally One of the drawbacks of living in a society obsessed with the new is that we fail to recognise the simple fact that many things get better with time. There is just no story in ‘Author Gains Wisdom by Living a Long Interesting Life:  Talking, Travelling, Reading and Writing’. But there should be. Someone gaining wisdom shoul... Read more

I’ll let you behind the curtain of having the best job in the world. Publishers are awesome, and very generous. So when a book comes along that excites and surprises a publisher, so much so that we only get to look at a quick teaser before release instead of the entire book, we tend to take notice. Mike Tyson’s autobiography Undisputed Truth is one of those books. As the sports nerd... Read more

Chris Hadfield has nearly done it all as an astronaut. During this time he has broken into a Space Station with a Swiss army knife, disposed of a live snake while piloting a plane, and been temporarily blinded while clinging to the exterior of an orbiting spacecraft. The secret to Col. Hadfield’s success –  and survival –  is an unconventional philosophy he learned at NASA: pr... Read more

Last week I received a phone call from a friend telling me there was a cinematic event on the horizon I could not afford to miss. It was a screening of the cult classic The Room at Sydney’s iconic Hayden Orpheum. I was informed The Room was widely regarded as the worst movie ever made in the history of cinema, commonly referred to as ‘the Citizen Kane of bad movies’. So I, alo... 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

One of Australia’s favourite novelists Kate Forsyth, author of Bitter Greens and The Wild Girl, continues her monthly blog with us, giving her verdict on the books she’s been reading. I’ve been on the move nearly all month, with lots of Book Week events, followed by the Brisbane Writers Festival, and then the rest of the month spent on the road in England and Wales. So a lot of my r... Read more

While travelling through the U.S.A, Booktopia’s Romance Specialist Haylee Nash has been catching up with some of America’s best romance authors. In Chicago, Haylee got the chance to meet with the bestselling, and hilarious, author of Young Adult and New Adult romantic fiction, Simone Elkeles. Read more