Biography and memoir
The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick
The Odd Woman and the City is Vivian Gornick’s memoir of her most enduring friendship: her friendship with New York. She starts with her friend Leonard. Every week they meet and walk and talk through the streets of New York…
The Long Run by Catriona Menzies-Pike
Catriona Menzies-Pike came late to running. Until she turned 30, she was known to friends and family as the person ‘least likely to run around the block’; a gin-addled bookworm who rolled her eyes at runners prancing through the park…
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
This is a short but profoundly moving and powerful book. Kalanithi, a young and brilliant neurosurgeon, is confronted by what proves to be his own terminal cancer. In his undergraduate days he had contemplated a career as a writer and…
The Shock of Recognition by Barry Jones
‘Seize the moment!’ is the key message in this book that ultimately raises the question of what constitutes an educated and enlightened mind. Barry Jones is a well recognised Australian icon, and in his latest book, The Shock of Recognition…
My Life On The Road by Gloria Steinem
We know about Gloria, we women. We know that she has been supporting us, urging us and demanding us to speak up for decades now. She has travelled the world to bring our stories to a global platform. She is…
Home is Burning by Dan Marshall
Dan Marshall doesn’t care whether or not you like him. From the half-censored profanity on the middle of his memoir’s front cover, this self-proclaimed ‘spoiled white asshole’ is clear about one thing – having two parents diagnosed with a terminal…
Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
I don’t think I’d be exaggerating if I were to say that watching Carrie Brownstein in Sleater-Kinney play a live show in Brisbane in the early 2000s after the release of their album One Beat was a life-changing experience for…
Wendy Whiteley and the Secret Garden by Janet Hawley
I met Wendy Whiteley once at a book launch. We sat on the steps of an art gallery and talked about the weird root systems of Morton Bay fig trees. When I next visited Sydney, I dragged myself up high…
Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
Furiously Happy had me from the title. Or, perhaps it was the stuffed raccoon on the front cover? Hard call. But a happy read was high among my hopes. Following on from the success of her earlier book, Let’s Pretend…
M Train by Patti Smith
As a bookseller, not a week goes by where I am not asked the question, ‘What is your favourite book?’ Invariably, my answer is Patti Smith’s memoir Just Kids.
Just Kids is Smith’s deeply affecting love letter to Robert…
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