Book Recommendations Archives

The Book of Summers - best read on a hazy warm afternoon on a verandah. With a box of tissues. And a ticket to Budapest in your back pocket. Read more

Publishing sensation Amanda Hocking’s story reads like a fairy tale. She self-published her novels and sold a million copies within a year or so. The very thought of such overnight success can cause normally quite reasonable unpublished authors to lose their heads. On the strength of a headline – ‘Self-published author makes money’  – thousands of authors have flow... Read more

Lauren Kate author of Fallen, Torment and Passion reveals The 5 best novels I read in 2011 are… The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking th... Read more

It was recently revealed that Pippa Middleton’s envious figure was down to weekly pilates sessions at her local studio. Now Pippa’s teacher is set to pass on the secrets of her exercise routine in a new book. Margot Campbell was approached by several publishing houses after the Duchess of Cambridge’s sister recommended her on the ‘Pilates on the Go‘ website. Campbe... Read more

Lisa Heidke author of Lucy Springer Gets Even, What Kate Did Next, Claudia’s Big Break and, coming in January 2012, Stella Makes Good reveals… The 5 best novels I read this year are… Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar Lisa Heidke: Set on Sydney’s Northern Beaches and marketed as a Young Adult, Raw Blue centres around Carly, a teenage surfer trying to find her place in the world. This emotionally gr... Read more

Wendy Jones has written a surprisingly restrained and moving book. There are secrets which aren't pretty, there are shocks without sensationalism. This is a novel about duty, love, loss and responsibility and it deserves a very wide audience. Read more

Secrets and Lies is a series of eight modern classics with deception at their very core. Read more

Our Everything Lavish collection is a range of stunning titles to make you tremble, drool and sigh with envy.  From the breathtaking marine photography of  Sea to the exquisitely sensual anthology Reflections to cheeky familiarity of The Complete Collection of Calvin and Hobbes, these are books you will want to run your fingers over again and again. Read more

Frank Moorhouse author of The Edith Trilogy – Grand Days, Dark Palace and now, Cold Light, reveals The 5 best novels I’ve read are… Liber Amoris or The New Pygmalion by William Hazlitt, 1823. Frank Moorhouse: One critic has looked at the reception this book received and said, ‘seldom in literary history has a small work evoked such resolute hostility and aversion’. The critic, Cyril Conno... Read more

With historical must-reads from Peter FitzSimons on Sir Douglas Mawson, to the brilliant fiction that is Elliot Perlman's The Street Sweeper, to highly anticipated autobiographies from cricket fast bowler Brett Lee and Tour de France Green Jersey winner Robbie McEwen you will have all your Christmas gifts covered Read more