Nonfiction
The Trials of Portnoy by Patrick Mullins
In 1969 Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint – a book so widely accepted now that it is deemed boring – was banned in Australia. Undercover police raided bookstores, charged booksellers and seized all the copies they could find of this grotesque…
Landscapes of Our Hearts by Matthew Colloff
Mathew Colloff works at the Fenner School of Environment & Society at the ANU, and prior to that was a research scientist for twenty- three years at the CSIRO. So, although this book is a very personal meditation and reflection…
How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference by Rebecca Huntley
Rebecca Huntley is one of Australia’s most experienced and respected social researchers. As she quips, ‘I make a living out of understanding why people think the way they do.’ Here, in her sixth book, Huntley uses a tried and tested…
Hazelwood by Tom Doig
In February 2014, the Hazelwood open-pit brown-coal mine caught fire and burned out of control for forty-five days. Residents of the impoverished Latrobe Valley endured months of toxic air pollution. Many became sick and several workers in the mine, who…
Square Haunting by Francesca Wade
I love women’s history. I love group biographies. I love English social and cultural history in the period between the wars. And I love Bloomsbury, the place and its lore. So it’s no surprise then that I really love Francesca…
Notes from an Apocalypse by Mark O’Connell
This isn’t the first time I’ve written a book review while wearing trackpants in bed but it’s the first time I’ve written like that on a weekday morning and in accordance with government instructions. I read this book before the…
Phosphorescence by Julia Baird
We already know and love Julia Baird. She has written many articles and (two) books addressing gender and politics. She is a journalist with something to say. She is the host of ABC TV’s The Drum and we love to…
Design Lives Here by Penny Craswell
The beauty of this book is that it does many things in a (seemingly) effortless, elegant fashion. For every house or apartment featured, the sum of its parts creates the whole: architecture, interior design, furniture and lighting.
All projects are…
She I Dare Not Name by Donna Ward
This is Donna Ward’s first book, but she has been writing for a long time. Her essays have appeared in all our major journals and she is known as a thoughtful and concise author. She I Dare Not Name is…
Truganini by Cassandra Pybus
Cassandra Pybus’s Truganini tells the story of a journey full of deception and dead ends as George Augustus Robinson, ‘Protector of Aboriginals’, leads a group of Indigenous survivors from Lunawanna-alonnah around lutruwita on a mission of ‘conciliation’, which turns into…
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