Book Recommendations Archives

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

From the outset I want to say I’m a HUGE J.K. Rowling fan, but I’ve never really been a fan of crime fiction, and as I started reading The Cuckoo’s Calling, I wondered if Rowling would win me over. With the words over-flowing I asked myself whether I would be able to keep track or even remember the many characters who could possibly be attached to the apparent suicide of one m... 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

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

Morrissey’s much-anticipated memoir is the best written musical autobiography since Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, says The Telegraph’s Neil McCormick: “My childhood is streets upon streets upon streets upon streets.” As fans, we approach musical autobiographies with trepidation, fearing that, stripped of melody and rhythm, our lyrical heroes will reveal themselves in lumpen prose to... 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