Our latest reviews
Dress, Memory by Lorelei Vashti
Reading Lorelei Vashti’s Dress, Memory feels akin to spending time with a dear friend – the kind who might grip your hand fiercely as they talk, who could be accused of over-sharing but also bravely reveals their private, personal world…
The Year It All Ended by Kirsty Murray
1918 should have been the ‘year it all ended’ for 17-year-old Tiney Flynn and her family, as the Great War finally comes to an end and family and friends eagerly await the return of loved ones. But Tiney’s battles have…
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Grand Budapest Hotel is Wes Anderson’s brilliant eighth feature film. It recounts the escapades of the marvellous Monsieur Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes), concierge of the movie’s titular hotel in the fictitious Republic of Zubrowka (a European alpine state). For…
This House of Grief: The Story of a Murder Trial by Helen Garner
It’s difficult to loudly sing the praises of a book that covers such a harrowing subject. I had anticipated the release of Helen Garner’s new non-fiction since early in the year, though the title of the work, in itself, seems…
Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio and Christian Robinson
Mrs Poodle adores her four children. Fi-Fi, Foo-Foo, Ooh-La-La are dainty creatures no bigger than teacups. Gaston, however, is tea-pot sized. With his different build and rough voice, Gaston puts in the most effort when it comes to lessons in…
Impro: Ferran Savall
Ferran Savall is the son of early music aristocracy: his mother, the late Montserrat Figueras (1942-2011), was among the finest recent interpreters of baroque vocal music; and his father, viola da gambist Jordi Savall, the founder of the baroque ensemble…
The Golden Age by Joan London
In 1950s Perth, Frank Gold lies awake in his bed in the boys’ ward of the Golden Age Children’s Polio Convalescent Hospital. He is thinking about Elsa, a fellow-patient. Across the road the netting factory hums, its lights shining through…
Sticks and Stones, Animal Homes by Tai Snaith
Melbourne artist and author Tai Snaith has produced a beautiful, educational picture book that oozes with appeal. Covering similar ground to her highly successful Family Hour in Australia, the narrative journeys around the world to visit unusual animals and…
Borgen: Season 3
‘Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.’ And so reads the epigraph of the final episode of Borgen. Indeed, Lincoln’s words are a fitting illustration of the political…
Gap by Rebecca Jessen
Rebecca Jessen won the Emerging Queensland Author prize at the 2013 Queensland Literary Awards for Gap, a novel-in-verse set in inner-city Brisbane that opens with the murder of a man in the shadows of the Gabba. Dorothy Porter pioneered…
Browse our reviews by category
