The other day I was in a rehearsal room with a bunch of young women. Several were reading one of the Fifty Shades of Grey  trilogy while waiting to perform. I was surprised. I thought this was a book you might want to read in private (as you can tell, I haven’t read it). I asked one of these young women how it felt to be reading this book at work, in a public place and she replied: ‘Oh I’m on t... Read more

I’ve always wondered why Ikea didn’t make a bookcase that converts at the end of your life into a coffin. Well, now someone else has done it first, but I am sure it will not be long before Ikea comes up with a cheaper version which will have a suitably short, expletive kind of name like the things in their catalogues called Malm and Flytta and Adum. On second thoughts, the Swedish f... Read more

Vale Nora. You were one of those writers who sounded so confiding, so intimate that I thought of you as a friend I’d never met- and that was before Facebook exploited and devalued that concept. I loved Heartburn. Think it was the first novel I ever read that interrupted the narrative to give readers a recipe. What a trend that started! Can anyone remember any other novelist doing this before No... Read more

Booktopia is pleased to welcome Caroline Baum to the role of Editorial Director of our monthly newsletter the Booktopia BUZZ. Here is Caroline’s introduction from the BUZZ plus some of this month’s highlights. Some of the most compelling fiction published this month shares a common theme: violence, and its aftermath, the psychological scarring of war and upheaval pushing people to t... Read more

Tony Nash, the CEO of Booktopia, announced this week that they have appointed Caroline Baum as their Editorial Director. Caroline will be responsible for the headline editorial pieces for the Booktopia Buzz, an online newsletter that has been running for over 4 years as well as contributing to other newsletter programs already in place. She will also be producing exclusive promotional book vide... Read more