Our latest reviews
My Little World by Julia Cooke & Marjorie Crosby-Fairall
Sssh, be very still. It helps if you are small(if tall, bend down quietly) – look closelyand carefully and you will see a world ofinsects and plants that most people miss.For budding young naturalists, this bookis a delightful introduction…
Art for Baby
Child research suggests thatbabies see images inblack-and-white moreclearly than coloured ones– and of course it’s easy tosee why, even as an adult.The simplicity and clarity of black-and-whiteis visually more striking; colour can confusethe eye and the mind. In Art for…
My Korean Deli by Ben Ryder Howe
Ben Ryder Howe is formereditor of* The Paris Review*.Yet it seems he had a highercalling in life. After spendinga good part of a year living inhis parents-in-law’s basementin order to save for a house,his wife Gab one dayannounced that she…
Collected Stories of John Cheever
John Cheever’s CollectedStories, first awarded thePulitzer Prize for Fiction in1979, is a magnificent,inspiring collection, andone that has resolutelystood the test of time.Spanning from his earliestwritings in the mid 1940s to the late1970s,* Collected Stories* features Cheever’smost iconic works, including…
You Think That's Bad by Jim Shephard
A new story collection fromJim Shepard is one of thetreats of my reading life. Hisnew book, You Think That’sBad, is as original and diverseas the previous three, andreminds me most of hisbrilliant second collection,Love and Hydrogen. What makes Shepard…
22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson
World War II is always apainful subject to tackle andin her debut novel,* 22Britannia Road*, AmandaHodgkinson doesn’t shyaway. She writes not onlyabout the terrors of war andsecrets people hold once it’sover, but also has a frank and open look atwhat…
Bearings by Leah Swann
The newest addition to thedivine Long Story Shorts –and one that will neatlycomplete the S-H-O-Rcollection on your bookshelfwith the T on its spine – isanother example of Australia’sknockout talent when itcomes to short stories. Leah Swann’sinvolving tales are perfect little…
A Man of Parts by David Lodge
David Lodge’s latest novelopens in 1944 as London isbeing hit by the Blitz andH.G. Wells – once but nolonger the most famous writerin Britain – discovers he hascancer. Approaching deathevokes in Wells an internalinterviewer, who draws out his life story…
Me and Mr Booker by Cory Taylor
In some senses, Me and Mr Booker is your conventional coming-of-age story. Sixteen-year-old girl is bored; sixteen-year-old girl falls in love; sixteen-year-old girl learns many important lessons about life. But by the end of chapter one, you know this novel’s…
Snake by Kate Jennings
Snake is Kate Jennings’s firstnovel, first published in 1996and now reissued – because,quite frankly, it is a brilliantnovel written, with sparseeffective language. Jennings,firstly, is a poet and her moveto writing a novel easilydemonstrates her power of lucid imagination.It is the…