Book Recommendations Archives

See-Saw Films, the company that produced The King’s Speech, has secured the rights to Saroo Brierley’s bestselling autobiography A Long Way Home, the story of reuniting with his birth mother in India, after tracking her down using just Google Earth and childhood memories of his hometown 25 years after being separated from her. Brierley was adopted by a couple in Tasmania after being... Read more

As part of Australian Romance Month, Romance Specialist Haylee Nash will be interviewing one Australian Romance author per day. Much like a beauty pageant, each author will be using their charm, wit and grace (and the power of social media) to take home the Booktopia Romance Bestseller crown. Booktopia invites bestselling urban fantasy author Tracey O’Hara to the stage. 1. Describe the pe... Read more

Huge news in the world of books to film as word has it that the long awaited movie adaptation of Lauren Kate’s Fallen series has now gone into casting, and will start filming in September. Lauren Kate had this to say on her website… Double exclamation points for two exciting pieces of movie news. Some of you saw whispers of this online on Friday, and most of you have been waiting fe... Read more

As part of Australian Romance Month, Romance Specialist Haylee Nash will be interviewing one Australian Romance author per day. Much like a beauty pageant, each author will be using their charm, wit and grace (and the power of social media) to take home the Booktopia Romance Bestseller crown. Booktopia invites bestselling rural romance author Fiona McCallum to the stage. 1. Describe the perfect... Read more

The story of one of the most extraordinary episodes in recent Australian political history, of how a powerful media pack, a vicious commentariat and some of those within her own party contrived to bring down Australia’s first woman prime minister. ‘Don’t write crap. Can’t be that hard. And when you have written complete crap, then I think you should correct it.’ Ju... Read more

Congratulations to the R*BY finalists! For all of those not in the know, every year the brilliant women (and a few supporting men) at the Romance Writers of Australia award the best of romance written by Australian and New Zealand authors. Much like the Academy Awards, these awards are highly desired, and the awards ceremony has its fair share of glamour, champagne and the occasional (happy) te... Read more

Guest Blogger Justin Cahill shares his thoughts on John Thavis’ much talked about book The Vatican Diaries. What is it about large, hierarchical institutions that attracts so much interest? Is it their enormous wealth and power? The eccentricities of their leaders? When that leader is, in name at least, Jesus Christ, and its power are said to include universal salvation, such questions as... Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Claire Scobie author of The Pagoda Tree 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 in Newbury, England, and brought up near Oxford. We always lived about an hour from London so in my teens ... Read more

The story of Jock Palfreeman has captivated Australia. Booktopia’s Andrew Cattanach took a look at award-winning journalist Belinda Hawkins’ account of the harrowing story of a young Australian jailed for murder. Wrong place, wrong time. Some phrases are uttered so often in our daily lives that they lose their punch, struggling to convey the real horror behind them. Sometimes you ca... Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Tim Fischer author of Holy See, Unholy Me and many more… 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 at Lockhart in the Riverina, south eastern Australia in 1946 as a baby boomer, and went to school at Boree Creek and Melbourne. I served in the Army before... Read more