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Five reasons we love The Secrets We Keep by Nova Weetman
The Secrets We Keep by Nova Weetman is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Children’s Book Prize. Here are five reasons why we think it’s brilliant.
1. Clem is an unforgettable main character.
11-year-old Clem isn’t having the easiest time. Her family home has burned to the ground, she’s living in a strange new area in a small apartment with her dad, and she’s started at a new school, right in the middle of term. In…
Nine Australian books to read this month
Things That Helped by Jessica Friedmann
In this stunning collection of essays, Jessica Friedmann navigates her journey through postpartum depression after the birth of her son. Drawing on critical theory, popular culture, and personal experience, her wide-ranging essays touch on class, race, gender, and sexuality, as well as motherhood, creativity, and mental illness.
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt
On 4 August 1892 Andrew and Abby Borden were murdered in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. During the…
Colson Whitehead wins the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Colson Whitehead has been awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel, The Underground Railroad.
The Underground Railroad has been described as a literary blockbuster, earning widespread commercial and critical success. For this novel, Whitehead asks the question: What if the Underground Railroad was a literal railroad? The story centers on a young woman named Cora, who escapes her life as a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia and flees via this fantastical subterranean network of…
Children's books that teach empathy
We begin to encounter difference right from the beginning of our lives, and all the way through to the end. There will always be different ideas about and ways of doing things, different needs and desires, different clothes and hairstyles, different cultures and different ways of communicating. So it’s smart to start teaching kids how to recognise, understand and respect difference right from the beginning. In short, let’s teach our kids empathy.
Here are some of my favourite children’s books…
International Dublin Literary Award shortlist 2017
Congratulations to the 10 authors shortlisted for this year’s International Dublin Literary Award.
This year’s shortlist includes…
The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli (translated by Christina MacSweeney)
Confession of the Lioness by Mia Couto (translated by David Brookshaw)
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa (translated by Daniel Hahn)
The Green Road by Anne Enright
Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week
Really Weird! (WeirDo Book 8) by Anh Do and Jules Faber
13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Florette by Anna Walker
The Blue Cat by Ursula Dubosarsky
The Maddie Diaries by Maddie Ziegler
Grover Finds a Home (Grover McBane, Rescue Dog Book 1) by Claire Garth and Johannes Leak
The Treehouse Fun Book 2 by Andy Griffiths, Jill Griffiths and Terry Denton
Escape to the Moon Islands (Quest of the Sunfish Book 1) by Mardi McConnochie
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
The White Queen – One Nation and the Politics of Race (Quarterly Essay 65) by David Marr
A Writing Life by Bernadette Brennan
Eyes Too Dry by Alice Chipkin and Jessica Tavassoli
The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape
Earthly Remains by Donna Leon
Dear Quentin by Quentin Bryce
The Dry by Jane Harper
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt
Things That Helped by Jessica Friedmann
Scummy Mummies by Ellie Gibson and Helen Thorn
Our bestselling book of…
Recommended new kids' books in April
This month, we recommend a crop of funny picture books, enough quality junior and middle fiction to last the school holidays, the best of the Easter books, and some very good-looking and fascinating non-fiction.
(Find our best recommendations for teen books this month here.)
PICTURE BOOKS
My Pictures After the Storm is a colourful and anarchic picture book that will please adults as much as children. Magic happens, someone cannonballs into the swimming pool, too many potato chips are…
Recommended new YA books in April
In April, teenagers ponder the impossible future in a bumper crop of Australian YA fiction, YouTube and TV stars take over the YA memoir genre, and some very classy international fantasy hits our shelves.
(Find our best recommendations for kids’ books this month here.)
LOVEOZYA PICKS
The impossibility of deciding on a future and moving into the freedom and potential of adulthood is explored in three very different, but equally excellent Australian YA novels this month.
What we're reading: Bill Hayes, Jenevieve Chang and Ariel Levy
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Amy Vuleta is reading Insomniac City by Bill Hayes
I’ve just started reading Insomniac City by Bill Hayes. This is a memoir of New York City, of insomnia and grief, of loss and love, and of the author’s relationship with the writer and neurologist, Oliver Sacks. I can already tell this is going to be…
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