Our books of the month, March 2022

OUR FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH


Hovering by Rhett Davis

Reviewed by

Alice has landed back on home turf, and she’s certain the taxi from the airport is going in the wrong direction to get her into Fraser, the fictional Australian city that she’s returning to after 16 years of life lived overseas. She’s vaguely heard that things – buildings mainly – are literally moving around in the city, so does that explain the change in the road’s coordinates? She arrives at the house she grew up in, now the home of her sister Lydia. The reunion is not joyous; Lydia still holds onto the tensions that began with Alice’s escape to the excitements promised by the international cities of the world. These days, Lydia has an escape of her own, spending many hours in the parallel reality of an online game world. Lydia’s teenaged son is also in the picture, but he has taken a vow of silence and only communicates in text form. But Alice is home to escape again: an art collaboration that promised a utopian artistic future has gone awry. She’s being investigated. It could be serious.

This is a hugely imaginative and brilliantly executed literary debut, written in a register that is perhaps best described as surreal, but also very readable… In publishing, sometimes timing is a gift, and there is no better time than right now for Rhett Davis’ Hovering and its inventive take on our strange present.

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OUR CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH


When We Fall by Aoife Clifford

Reviewed by

As she walks along the beach with her mother, discouraged barrister Alex Tillerson wishes she wasn’t back in her childhood town of Merritt. Alex is going through a painful divorce, her mother’s health is deteriorating due to younger onset dementia, and Merritt holds no good memories. She wants to leave, but there’s nobody to go home to, and her job prospects seem bleak. All that fades into the background when her mother finds, in all that seaweed on the shore, a human leg. Looking for a distraction, and distanced enough from the town to see things more clearly – at least, when her mother isn’t involved – Alex can’t help but investigate…

A suspenseful, rattling thriller with an ending that will have you gnawing your fingernails to the bone.

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OUR NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH


Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood

Reviewed by

Burning Questions is Atwood’s third collection of essays. Each of her collections spans approximately 20 years of her career and this is her 21st-century collection, containing pieces written from 2004 to 2021. The bulk of the essays concern two of Atwood’s greatest passions: literature and the environment, with the occasional economic or political piece thrown in for good measure. If we needed more proof of Atwood’s erudition and wit (and we don’t, really) this would be it.

Arranged chronologically rather than thematically, Burning Questions was made to dip in and out of, to follow one’s interests rather than the page numbers. It has kept me company on my bedside for the past month, asking me to slow down and consider rather than race through.

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OUR KIDS BOOK OF THE MONTH


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When You’re Older by Sofie Laguna & Judy Watson (illus.)

Reviewed by Alexa Dretzke, children’s book buyer at Readings Hawthorn

Books such as When You’re Older fuel the imagination, encouraging children to dream and wonder. As a young boy impatiently watches his baby brother sleep, he wishes the baby could do more than just eat and sleep. His mind starts to conjure all the wonderful places they will visit and exciting adventures they will have when they are older.

On every gorgeous double-page spread, he visualises a wild and wonderful place. They will be explorers who revel in serendipitous discoveries, but frustratingly, he will have to be patient.

With lush endpapers that promise an enchanting story ahead, When You’re Older delivers a joyous collaboration from two of Australia’s top children’s book creators. Highly recommended for ages 2+.

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OUR YOUNG ADULT BOOK OF THE MONTH


League of Liars by Astrid Scholte

Telene is an interesting place. There is a permanent misty cloud that hangs over the city blocking out the sun and diffusing all shadows into a safer shade of soft grey, while the streets and public places are brightly lit from all angles, preventing shadows from forming.

Shadows hide ‘edem’, a type of dangerous and chaotic extra-dimensional magic. Cayder is one of those who has illegally used edem as a child, but his time in Vardean Academy – a sort of juvenile reform school for young users of edem – set him on the straight and narrow. The world of Telene is fully formed with a unique system of magic. Now Cayder has one goal in life – to bring all those who use edem to justice…

The first in a trilogy, The League of Liars is a fantastic set-up for the books to follow. For ages 13+.

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OUR CLASSICAL ALBUM OF THE MONTH


Underwater by Ludovico Einaudi

Ludovico Einaudi is one of the most streamed classical artists worldwide, and I will admit to considerably adding to those numbers. When I’m not sure what to listen to, when I’m feeling a bit out of sorts, Einaudi is my go-to guy. His latest album is his first solo piano album in 20 years. Simply titled Underwater, it has an understated simplicity that gives you space to breathe again. During the struggles of the last two years, for the first time in a while, Einaudi found himself with the time to sit at his piano and just be with the music – and himself – again. Born out of this experience, the record’s title is a metaphor, with Einaudi describing it as ‘an expression of a very fluid dimension, without interference from outside’. It’s a fitting description of the last couple of years when many of us were in lockdown.

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Cover image for Hovering

Hovering

Rhett Davis

In stock at 4 shops, ships in 3-4 daysIn stock at 4 shops