Book Recommendations Archives

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

Jodi Picoult’s latest offering The Storyteller has been widely acknowledged as her best work for some time. Booktopia’s Andrew Cattanach shares his thoughts. Rarely do I read a copy of a new Jodi Picoult before my mother. In fact, never have I read a copy of a new Jodi Picoult before my mother. Her bookcase is drowning in books from the bestselling US author, and eagerly awaits news... Read more

Female authors have dominated the longlist for this year’s Miles Franklin literary award, earning eight of the 10 nominations. Romy Ash, Lily Brett, Michelle de Kretser, Annah Faulkner, Drusilla Modjeska, ML Stedman, Carrie Tiffany and Jacqueline Wright make up the female contingent, while Brian Castro and Tom Keneally are the only fellas. The 10 nominations will be narrowed down at a pub... Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Kim Kelly author of This Red Earth 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 Sydney, raised there at Little Bay, and schooled at La Perouse and Maroubra. A very suburban childhood, plenty of good old ... Read more