Page 2 of our reviews
Radiant Shimmering Light by Sarah Selecky
Eleven Novak’s name is her brand; a teacher of enlightenment and spirituality with a powerful online presence. Eleven is beautiful, inspirational and successful and each year takes a group of followe…
The Book of Ordinary People by Claire Varley
Set in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, The Book of Ordinary People by Claire Varley is simply, as the title suggests, a book about ordinary people. It follows the separate stories of five strange…
The Biographer’s Lover by Ruby J. Murray
If you enjoyed the recent work of Gail Jones, this novel about the worth of art, set in Melbourne’s north and Geelong, will also delight you. I loved to read about the brick terrace in Carlton, the a…
Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott
Megan Abbott was a guest of the Melbourne Writers Festival in 2017, and I heard her speak in a session titled, ‘The Dark Side of Womanhood’. Abbott, a literary thriller writer, spoke about her enjoym…
Loose Units by Paul F. Verhoeven
Decades after a youthful Paul Verhoeven inadvertently sees a crime scene photo that he’s never been able to shake, he sits down with his ex-cop father John to find out why. Why he couldn’t shake it, …
No Country Woman by Zoya Patel
Zoya Patel was born in Fiji to Indian parents, and came to Australia at three years old. In her thoughtful debut essay collection, she grapples with the idea of identity, and the often confusing expe…
Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko
Melissa Lucashenko’s last novel, Mullumbimby, opened me up to a conversation about feminism, culture and land rights that has stayed with me for years, so I was excited to read her new book. Too Much…
Inappropriation by Lexi Freiman
Ziggy Klein is fifteen years old, and has just left her comfortable, Jewish high school for the chaos of the uber prestigious Kandara Girls School, where Sydney’s elite send their teenagers. Surround…
Mystery Road
Not all movies can make the jump to television with the ease with which Mystery Road does. When I first saw the 2013 Ivan Sen movie I found myself thinking that it was a perfect tale of culture, conf…
Handel: Acis and Galatea
No sooner have Acis and Galatea declared their love than the evil giant (read: sexual predator) Polyphemus tears their union asunder. After doggedly but unsuccessfully pursuing Galatea, a jilted Poly…
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