Nonfiction
Skin Deep: The Inside Story of Our Outer Selves by Phillipa McGuinness
How often do you think about your skin? Its biology, its cultural signifiers, its protective qualities and weaknesses? It’s the largest organ in our body (although this book taught me this is up for debate with some experts arguing for…
Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood needs no introduction. But here’s one anyway. Born in Ottawa, Canada in 1939, Atwood has published more than 50 works of fiction, poetry, critical essays, works of nonfiction, children’s books and graphic novels. She has won countless awards…
Sweat: A History of Exercise by Bill Hayes
Bill Hayes is deeply fascinated by the human body. A writer and photographer best known for his generously moving memoir Insomniac City, Hayes has built a career in weaving history, science, literature and details from his own life into…
The Cost of Labour by Natalie Kon-yu
As a feminist, birthing parent and mother, The Cost of Labour validates much of what I have thought, felt and experienced since I entered the foetal abyss. Beyond just validation, it offers facts, figures, case studies, historical context and anecdotes…
Making Australian History by Anna Clark
It is generally proposed that history is written by the victors. Anna Clark, however, may argue that it is written by historians – which makes it no less biased. Australian history is famously contested, from the ‘history wars’ to the…
Found, Wanting: A Memoir by Natasha Sholl
When Natasha Sholl was 22, she woke up to the horror of her long-term boyfriend Rob dying beside her, his heart stopping with no warning. In the wake of such an incomprehensible tragedy, Sholl shut down, struck numb as she…
Oppositions by Mary Gaitskill
In The Observer’s review of Mary Gaitskill’s new book, Oppositions, Abhrajyoti Chakraborty writes: ‘Gaitskill is gloriously trenchant, but never gimmicky, in these unsparing essays’. There it was, the word I had been futilely casting about for in my own…
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett has made a habit of keeping me company over Melbourne lockdowns. In March 2020, as the world began to shut down, I immersed myself in her multilayered family saga, The Dutch House. In our second lockdown I…
Doing Politics: Writing on Public Life by Judith Brett
In recent years, avid readers have been rewarded with collections of writings by Don Watson, David Marr and Robert Manne. Now, it’s Judith Brett’s turn, with this excellent collection that brings together some of her best written works, from journal…
Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego
Professor Chelsea Watego is a Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman who grew up on Yuggera country. She recently joined Queensland University of Technology within the School of Public Health and Social Work to lead a $1.7 million project to…
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