{"id":143622,"date":"2021-06-02T14:09:52","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T03:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=143622"},"modified":"2021-06-07T10:23:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-06T23:23:00","slug":"reviews-ben-hunters-top-6-winter-reads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2021\/06\/02\/reviews-ben-hunters-top-6-winter-reads\/","title":{"rendered":"REVIEWS: Ben Hunter’s top 6 winter reads!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Ben<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Our fiction expert Ben Hunter is here to share some reviews of his top winter reads – books by Sarah Winman, Charlotte McConaghy, Alice Pung and more!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Still Life<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

by Sarah Winman<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"9780008283360<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This book restored my faith in the refuge of novels \u2013 that a good novel can transport you from the humdrum and horrible in your world to the paradise of another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all kicks off when Ulysses Temper, an extraordinarily goodhearted English soldier meets Evelyn Skinner, a sexagenarian art historian and possible spy, as bombs crash down on Florence. It will be decades before they meet again and in those years Ulysses will change the lives of a remarkable jumble of East End unlikelyies as he goes off in search of art, love and la dolce vita.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A whole family of characters will move into your house when you read this book and they\u2019ll stay as long as they bloody like. Winman will transport you to a city where passion, art and love are bound into every cobblestone. Joy is wielded as a weapon against our troubled times in Still Life. It\u2019s a brilliantly cast, big-hearted, laugh-out-loud, soul-nourishing novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy it here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

One Hundred Days<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

by Alice Pung<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"9781760641832<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In her first novel for adults, Alice Pung demonstrates why she\u2019s one of Australia\u2019s most celebrated writers working today. One Hundred Days<\/em> is a powerful story of mother-daughter friction exploring love, control, poverty, racism and the migrant experience. Pung\u2019s sharp use of humour and irony breaks down the Anglo-centric beauty standards and colourism that pervades the Asian Australian community. There\u2019s a myriad of small touches in this book that come together to break the reader\u2019s heart and leave them thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This novel will appeal to readers of Pung\u2019s YA novel Laurinda <\/em>as well as anyone who loves Melanie Cheng, Yaa Gyasi or Brit Bennett.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy it here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

by Anita Heiss<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"9781760850449<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Anita Heiss is a living legend and having a new novel from her is a real treat. It\u2019s exciting, also, to see major fiction from a commercial publisher with an Indigenous language title – why isn\u2019t there more of that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray<\/em> is set on Wiradjuri Country in the aftermath of the devastating flooding of Gundagai in 1852, and follows the life of Wagadhaany, who is taken away from her family at Gundagai to serve wealthy pastoralists out at Wagga Wagga. It\u2019s an epic story of tragedy, love and belonging enriched with Wiradjuri language and cultural and historical insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy it here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

We Were Not Men<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

by Campbell Mattinson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"9781460759523<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This one reduced me to tears. It\u2019s one of the most physically beautiful new novels I\u2019ve seen in a long time and the story itself is an absolute gem. It\u2019s a story of twin brothers growing up fast in the devastating silence of their parents\u2019 deaths in a freak accident. A yearning for their mother calls Eden and Jon to the water where they swim hard against whatever currents they encounter. There\u2019s an intimacy and sparseness in the writing here that shows years of hard writing and concentrated editing. All the humour, and warmth and passion and fury of life are in here, appealing to readers of Sofie Laguna, Tim Winton, Christos Tsiolkas and Trent Dalton. You\u2019ll catch yourself whispering sentences back to yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy it here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Nothing But My Body<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

by Tilly Lawless<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"9781761065149<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Startling, brief, urgent and honest, Nothing But My Body<\/em> demonstrates just why Tilly Lawless is such a highly-celebrated voice in the queer community and beyond. Described as an eight-day journey into the mind of a young woman who is a queer Australian sex worker, the writing here moves seamlessly between narrative and a kind of personal essay. Themes of love and obsession, class and merit, sex and intimacy are explored against a back drop of the Black Summer bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was blown away by the clarity and thoughtfulness this fluid kind of novel presented \u2013 there\u2019s no limit to the compassion that Lawless brings to her writing. This book is the perfect celebration of queer community and rejection of the hegemonic lauding of romantic love. Few other authors could write about sex work in such an authentic and nuanced way. Challenge yourself to read this and you\u2019ll be richly rewarded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy it here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Once There Were Wolves<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

by Charlotte McConaghy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"9781761043222<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Charlotte McConaghy\u2019s first novel for adults, Migrations <\/em>(also published as The Last Migration<\/em>) is one of the best books I read in 2020. Once There Were Wolves<\/em> is equally as moving and well-constructed, but with a great deal more pace delivered from its murder mystery element. A story of our inner wildness, the unique languages forged in shared trauma, love, violence and the desperate work to save the last of our planet\u2019s remaining wilderness, this novel takes readers into the depths of the Scottish Highlands. There, a woman named Inti Flynn leads an international effort to reintroduce wolves to the ailing forests, much to the dismay of the local community. When a body is found, Inti goes to extraordinary lengths to protect her kin. This is heartracing, unputdownable fiction at its very best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy it here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Winter Reads Winter Reads Winter Reads<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Books by Charlotte McConaghy, Sarah Winman, Alice Pung and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":143644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[6678],"tags":[7972,588,715,723,12896,13029,11553,1974,13017,12479,12476,4484,4710,12969,13018,13028],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/WinterReading-Social.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143622"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143622"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143892,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143622\/revisions\/143892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}