Our latest reviews
Reaching One Thousand: A Story of Love, Motherhood and Autism by Rachel Robertson
Firstly, I read Reaching One Thousand because I’m the mother of a child with learning differences, and love another child with autism. I think there are many of us out there that love someone who is a tad different to…
Partners and Crime: The True Stories of Eight Women and Life with their Notorious Partners by Rochelle Jackson
It’s easy to judge the wives and girlfriends of the notorious Australian criminals that populate our news stories, but in reality, the stories of these women are much more complicated than they appear. Journalist Rochelle Jackson has the stories of…
The Rules of Inheritance by Claire Bidwell Smith
Claire Bidwell Smith is 14 when her mother is diagnosed with cancer; by the time she is 25 she will have lost both her parents to the disease. The intervening years, and those that follow, see her so plagued with…
As I Was Saying by Robert Dessaix
In a speech given by Robert Dessaix at the awards ceremony for the Calibre Prize in 2010, Dessaix pondered whether the art of the essay is dead. After all, he mused, nobody ever won the Nobel Prize for essays, even…
Fishing the River of Time by Tony Taylor
In his debut book, 82-year-old Tony Taylor looks back on a life of fishing and adventure in England, Australia and British Columbia. It reads like the man is setting things down at the end of life and is part angling…
Manu's French Bistro by Manu Feildel
This is what you need to remember home chef … European food is easy to cook, especially if under the heading of ‘bistro’. After all, bistro food is often fast, or a one-pot job. To test this, I cooked coq…
A Tiger in Eden by Chris Flynn
Flynn’s debut novel sees Billy Montgomery, an Irish loyalist foot soldier, on the run from his violent past and hiding out in Thailand during the mid nineties. There, Billy attempts to find solace on the beaches, in the beers or…
Trupps' Wholefood Kitchen by Walter & Dorota Trupp
Here is a collection of recipes that are good for you, earthy, and delicious. As they should be, given the Melbourne-based authors’ credentials: Walter was the executive chef at Marco Pierre White, and Dorota is a nutritionist. Now don’t be…
Mr Wilkinson's Favourite Vegetables: A Cookbook to Celebrate the Seasons by Matt Wilkinson
Bravo to a man who puts his carrots before his lamb chops. For chef Matt Wilkinson, vegetables clearly come first. Whether he’s cooking at his Melbourne eatery Pope Joan or at home, Matt obviously lets seasonal vegetables do the work.
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Queen of the Night by Leanne Hall
Second novels are notoriously hard to write, especially when, as here, the first novel, This is Shyness, won an award (The Text Prize) and has an eager following.
Which makes Queen of the Night a triumph. The writing in…
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