Book Recommendations Archives

I first became acquainted with Benjamin Law’s writing in the pages of frankie magazine several years ago and he has since become one of my favourite Australian writers. So when a copy of Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East turned up at the Booktopia office I acted like a deranged fangirl and declared that I must – MUST! – review this book. And, unsurprisingly, my instincts we... Read more

Growing up in a small country town in Australia, my only experience of the wider world came through grainy black and white TV images and the magic of the books that I borrowed from the local library. I remember being eight-years-old, in July 1969, when teachers assembled the entire school – barely a hundred students – into one classroom. They wheeled in a television and we watched Neil Armstron... Read more

Like a lot of men, Jesse Fink never thought it would happen to him. But it did. His wife of 10 years and mother of his child walked out on him and into the arms of another man. In that moment he lost his best friend, his soul mate, his family, his identity. LAID BARE is his brutally honest account of one man’s emotional and mental oblivion after separation and divorce. Jesse’s searc... Read more

What’s your take on coincidence? Sometimes it’s hard not to ask yourself how themes and ideas come to share  the same moment in the ether… so when I read Courtney Collins’ The Burial this month, a remarkable début novel based on the true story of a female bushranger, swiftly followed by Amanda Coplin’s The Orchardist, another very polished first novel from the US, ... Read more

Booktopians, I’ve got a real treat for you. Within the folds of The Orchardist, I give you not only Amanda Coplin’s debut as a novelist, but also her debut as one of the most poignant, tender and gripping writers to emerge from the US in many years. The Orchardist, set in the late 1800’s, tells the story of the tender, if slightly hermitish orchardist, William Talmadge, as he encounters two pre... Read more

“You decided to re-engineer an ancient virus that would transform a dozen death-row inmates into indestructible monsters who live on blood..?” asks  the Chief of Special Weapons disbelievingly in The Twelve, Justin Cronin’s sequel to The Passage. Answer: Yeah, they did. If you’re unfamiliar with The Passage, allow me to enlighten you. It begins with a Nobel-Prize winning scientist finding... Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Su Dharmapala author of The Wedding Season 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 Singapore but grew up between Sri Lanka and Singapore before I immigrated to Australia... Read more

I often wish I’d been born a man. This statement has nothing to do with the perceived favouritism that is touted in relation to the world of publishing but instead is a reflection on the practicalities of being a fourth-generation grazier in the male-dominated world of agriculture. I’m pretty sure that this desire to be more than hands-on, on-farm can partly be attributed to Ernest Hemingway, w... Read more

It may seem bizarre to imagine that Florence Nightingale provided the inspiration for Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, yet in The Twelve Rooms of the Nile we are invited to do just that. Set in 1850, Enid Shomer’s debut novel imagines a blossoming relationship between Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert as they tour the ruins of Egypt. I should make clear that this is a work of fictio... Read more

Thank you, I’ve now filled two places on my literary dinner party table. Ernest Hemingway has been joined by Jane Austen. More than I could have hoped for! Which brings us to today’s task. I still need your help. Remember, I want particular kinds of guests. I want variety. I want spice. I want argument and passion. I’d like this dinner party to be filled with spectacular wit a... Read more