Book Recommendations Archives

In Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, Green has done something quite remarkable. He has written a tense psychological thriller and at the same time, a warm and moving story about life, death, love, loyalty and destiny. Read more

I’m Aboriginal. I’m just not the Aboriginal person a lot of people want or expect me to be. The story of an urban-based high achieving Aboriginal woman working to break down stereotypes and build bridges between black and white Australia. What does it mean to be Aboriginal? Why is Australia so obsessed with notions of identity? Anita Heiss, successful author and passionate campaigne... Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Alain de Botton author of Religion for Atheists, The Consolations Of Philosophy, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work , Status Anxiety 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 in Switzerland, raise... Read more

The Booktopia Book Guru asks Peter Allison author of Whatever You Do, Don’t Run,  Don’t Look Behind You, But…  and now How to Walk a Puma Six Sharp Questions  ————————– 1.    Congratulations, you’ve a new book – How to Walk a Puma – what is it about and what does this book mean to you? This book shakes me out of... Read more

This is a particularly sensual novel, and in that respect, it fits very well into that bush setting. The reader feels the ooze of the soil under hoof, smells the diesel of the red Fergy in the shed, hears the plop of the milk in the pail. And when it comes to longings of a more human kind, Tiffany's sparse and unsentimental style is both deft and poetic. Read more

Sweet Old World by Deborah Robertson ‘He goes down the stairs, singing Johnny Cash. It’s a song about a man who’s fallen real low, but he’s not low, he’s forty-three years old today, there’s still time. You never know what is waiting, you just never know. This morning he can hope. And this is the thing he doesn’t ever talk about: He wants to be a father... Read more

Vivid tale of life in pre-revolutionary Paris beats Matthew Hollis’s biography of Edward Thomas to £30,000 prize cheque writes Mark Brown in The Guardian A vividly told story of life in pre-revolutionary Paris on Tuesday won the 2011 Costa book award in what turned out to be a bitterly fought two-way tussle between fact and fiction. Andrew Miller was given one of the UK’s most prest... Read more

An intrepid African safari guide sets out to discover all he can about the wildlife of the South American continent in a hilarious book about walking pumas (can be dangerous), chasing jaguars (can be elusive) and finding love (can be tricky). Not content with regular encounters with dangerous animals on one continent, Peter Allison decided to get up close and personal with some seriously scary ... Read more

Learn to bake with Britain’s favourite women’s fiction author, Marian Keyes… Saved by Cake gives an extremely honest account of Marian Keyes’ recent battle with depression, and how baking has helped her. A complete novice in the kitchen, Marian decided to bake a cake for a friend and that was it – she realized that baking was what she needed to do in order to get h... Read more

In this highly anticipated follow-up to her award winning first novel, Good to a Fault, Marina Endicott tackles the fascinating world of vaudeville in it’s hey day of the early 20th century. The Little Shadows is itself something of a variety act, at turns tragic and comedic, melodramatic and risqué. It is a theatrical performance of a book, written in four acts and separated by an overture, in... Read more