Book Recommendations Archives

Booktopia’s newly appointed full-time Romance Specialist Haylee Nash tells us about her love of the love of love. In year five, I was given ‘The Talk’. At school that day, we’d just had a rather clinical explanation of the wheres, hows and what-fors of the birds and the bees, but I wanted details. My mother sat awkwardly on the end of my bed and asked if I had any questions. “Just one.” “... Read more

The awards news just keeps on coming, with the shortlist for the 2013 Women’s Prize for Fiction announced. For those that like a familiar face, this is a party you’ll enjoy. Literary juggernaut Hilary Mantel is joined by multiple award-winners Zadie Smith and Barbara Kingsolver. There’s also some new blood, with the author of the brilliant Life After Life Kate Atkinson getting... Read more

Carrie Tiffany, author of the acclaimed Mateship With Birds, has been awarded the inaugural Stella Prize for women writers. Named after one of Australia’s most important female authors, Stella Maria Miles Franklin, the Stella Prize is worth $50,000, and both fiction and non-fiction books are eligible. The Melbourne based writer said after her win she would share part of her prizemoney with the ... Read more

The shortlists for this year’s Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards have been announced. Already with a few awards this year, Margo Lanagan joins other award-winning authors like Jackie French, Morris Gleitzman and Margaret Wild in a wonderful field of authors and illustrators. Older Readers The Ink Bridge by Neil Grant A remarkable and gripping story about one re... Read more

There’s nothing like a kid’s review for a kids book. One of Booktopia’s younger friends, Isabel Blackmore, shares her thoughts on the upcoming Fairytales For Wilde Girls by Allyse Near. Fairytales for Wilde Girls has taken me on a journey that no other book has before. It puts you on a wondrous rollercoaster, taking you on unexpected twists and turns. Even a simple sentence ha... Read more

muse 1 (noun) a woman, or a force personified as a woman, who is the source of inspiration for a creative artist The death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has been met with the very attitude she maintained until her final day. Black and White. There are those that applaud the courage of her convictions, her attention to a task she felt important to a country that she felt had... Read more

Christina Stead Prize for Fiction ($40,000) and nominees for the People’s Choice Award The Voyage by Murray Bail Frank Delage, piano manufacturer from Sydney, travels to Vienna, a city immersed in music, to present the Delage concert grand. He hopes to impress with its technical precision, its improvement on the old pianos of Europe. How could he not know his piano is all wrong for Vienna? Perh... Read more

Huge news this afternoon with the announcement that a new novel by Tim Winton will be published on 14 October 2013. “I’m delighted to be able to announce that on October 14 this year we will be publishing a new novel by Tim Winton, his first since the Miles Franklin Award-winning Breath, ” Ben Ball, Publishing Director, Penguin Books Australia revealed today. “Each new work from Tim... Read more

Booktopia’s Editorial Director Caroline Baum sat down with award-winner Ashley Hay to discuss her new book The Railwayman’s Wife. In a small town on the land’s edge, in the strange space at a war’s end, a widow, a poet and a doctor each try to find their own peace, and their own new story. In Thirroul, in 1948, people chase their dreams through the books in the railway&#... Read more

If you haven’t read Kirstie Clements’ memoir The Vogue Factor you must. It’s all the things you wanted to know about the fashion industry and more. Clements has created a sensation internationally with her tell-all book of an industry whose inner-workings are as strange and shocking as any around. The Devil Wears Prada has nothing on The Vogue Factor. The most refreshing part ... Read more