Our latest blog posts
Our featured writer for June: Zoë Norton Lodge
Every month, we do a spotlight feature on one Australian author on our blog and Zoë Norton Lodge is our chosen author for June. Her debut book, Almost Sincerely, is a laugh-out-loud collection of stories about her life and family in Annandale, Sydney.
What’s the book about?
The stories in Almost Sincerely – about neighbourhood warfare, wacky relatives, quashed dreams and facial disfigurement – are told with Norton Lodge’s characteristic comic verve and eye for absurdity and menace. Their…
Read an excerpt from Almost Sincerely by Zoë Norton Lodge
by Zoë Norton LodgeZoë Norton Lodge is the author of Almost Sincerely. Here is an extract from her book: ‘The Red Light’.
A little fly buzzed its way around the room. It bounced from wall to table to wall and then it flew up to the top of the cupboard and settled next to the flashing red light. It nestled itself down next to the red light and it said to me, ‘Zoë, see this red light? This red light is probably…
Zoë Norton Lodge on storytelling and performance
by Zoë Norton LodgeZoë Norton Lodge is the author of Almost Sincerely. Here she tells us about how she came to write her book, and her love of storytelling.
My book is a series of short stories about me, my family and the place I grew up – a suburb in Sydney called Annandale. Taking the maxim ‘write what you know’ to uncomfortable extremes, I have literally just written about people I know and stuff that happened to me. In that sense…
The last five books I've read
by Zoë Norton LodgeZoë Norton Lodge is the author of Almost Sincerely. Here she tells us the last five books she read, and how she rated them.
The very last thing I read was the Magna Carta. Would not recommend. V boring. 1 Star. Does have some highlights – like how we should measure booze and the right to a fair trial, but otherwise it’s a snoozefest.
The last book I read was The President’s Desk by Shaun Micallef. It’s a mish-mash…
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
The Mindfulness Colouring Book: Anti-Stress Art Therapy for Busy People by Emma Farrarons
The Brain’s Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity by Norman Doidge
Leap by Myfanwy Jones
The Strays by Emily Bitto
Blood Year - Terror and the Islamic State by David Kilcullen (Quarterly Essay 58)
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Drunk Tank Pink: The Subconscious Forces That Shape How We Think, Feel,…
Mark's Say, June 2015
For those of you who’ve read Drusilla Modjeska’s most recent novel, The Mountain, you’ll be aware of her affection for the people of Papua New Guinea. The Mountain is set primarily in the lower reaches of Mt Lamington, an active volcano in Oro Province. Modjeska first went to PNG as the wife of a young academic, in the late 1960s, at a time full of optimism as the nation was preparing for independence. She began returning to PNG many…
Photos from SEAM (Sustain Education Art Melanesia)
Our managing director Mark Rubbo recently travelled to Papua New Guinea to learn more about SEAM, which was founded by author Drusilla Modjeska. You can read about his trip, and the project, here.
Below are some photos.
Arriving at the village
The welcoming ceremony
A Bird of Paradise headdress
Bilums – traditional string bags from Papua New Guinea
Fjord
The audience as Stephen demonstrates the Schoolmate
Children from the school
Children from the school
A final group shot (Mark…
Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian Novelists 2015
We love this year’s list of Best Young Australian Novelists by Sydney Morning Herald. Here’s our thoughts on the five shortlisted authors’ books.
Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of short-story collection Foreign Soil.
Our Head Book Buyer Martin Shaw has been a fierce supporter of Beneba Clarke’s debut short-story collection ever since he first read an early version of it, pre-publication. At the time, he wrote: “With stories of migration and emigration ranging across America, Africa, the…
What we're reading: Jane Harrison, Jessica Treadway and Masha Gessen
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on or the music we’re loving.
Bronte Coates is reading Becoming Kirrali Lewis by Jane Harrison
I’ve been on a little bit of an OzYA journey lately, having just read and loved Ellie Marney’s smart, sexy and suspenseful Every series and the first two books of Jaclyn Moriarty’s pretty-much-perfect-in-every-way The Colours of Madeleine series.
Then, earlier this week I…
Meet the final two stars of the Readings Children’s Book Prize Shortlist
Both of these authors are enjoying new success writing for a younger age group having published several novels for adults and teens. One of them comes from a writing family and has followed in her mother’s footsteps, while the other spent many years working as a nurse before turning to her favourite childhood past-time of making up magical stories.
Meet Karen Foxlee and Allison Rushby.
In these interviews, you’ll find out what sparked the idea in Karen Foxlee’s mind for…