Book Recommendations Archives

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 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

This September we’ve been running Operation GMR, Get Men Reading. To celebrate, we’ve asked some of our favourite Australian authors to give us Five Books Every Man Should Read. Today’s guest is the one of Australia’s finest thriller writers, L.A. Larkin. Thrillers are a hugely popular genre with both men and women, so I work hard to please both sexes, constantly asking ... Read more

This September we’ve been running Operation GMR, Get Men Reading. To celebrate, we’ve asked some of our favourite Australian authors to give us Five Books Every Man Should Read. Today’s guest is Hannah Richell, author of the award-winning Secrets of The Tides and The Shadow Year. Hannah, take it away… The Stand by Stephen King No man should be allowed to reach adulthood ... Read more

This September we’ve been running Operation GMR, Get Men Reading. To celebrate, we’ve asked some of our favourite Australian authors to give us Five Books Every Man Should Read. Today’s guest is the one of Australia’s most exciting new writers and author of the exquisite Past The Shallows, Favel Parrett. Favel, take it away… The Road by Cormac McCarthy McCarthy is ... Read more

It is with deep sorrow that we share the sad news that Christopher Koch passed away peacefully in the early hours of this morning near his home in Tasmania. A leading Australian literary novelist, Christopher Koch was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his contribution to Australian literature in 1995 and was twice winner of the Miles Franklin Award for fiction. Born and educated in ... Read more

In Australian cuisine, they don’t come much bigger than Serge Dansereau. Dansereau started work in Sydney at The Regent in 1983, spending 18 years there while shooting their flagship restaurant to three-hat fame. Serge encouraged a greater knowledge of what we can produce in Australia and worked hard to get it from paddock to plate. In 1998 Dansereau was approached to head up the kitchen ... Read more

The cover of this book is interesting to say the least. It features a man’s face completely black with soot. His eyes seem to be on fire, two miniature flames in the centre of two red irises, red also replacing where the whites of the eyes should be. His hands are on his face, because we can see several fingers – which are also black with soot – on his cheeks. His forehead is mostly obscured by... Read more

Yesterday The New York Times reviewed Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep and gave it a glowing endorsement. Calling it a a “very quick and nimble story”, reviewer Janet Maslin also added “(King) is so good at scaring that he can even raise goose bumps when he writes about the measles”. So…Stephen King…great reviews…the sequel to The Shining… What h... Read more