Our latest reviews
Alice Neel: Painted Truths: Barry Walker et al
The wonderful paintings of Alice Neel are given proper treatment in this lavish catalogue. Neel painted portraits at a time when abstract expressionism dominated critical attention and portrait painting was considered no longer relevant. She finally began to receive recognition…
Margaret Priest: An Artist’s Life: Philippa O’Brien
This interesting and nicely produced volume celebrates the life of West Australian sculptor and painter, Margaret Priest.
Educated at the prestigious Glasgow School of Art, Priest won the Royal Scottish Academy’s award for best young artist, before arriving in Perth…
Conceptual Beauty: Perspectives on Australian Contemporary Art: Jacqueline Millner
Dr Millner teaches art history and visual culture at the University of Western Sydney. Her areas of special interest include art and politics, aesthetics, feminist art, artist museum dialogues and street art. This collection of essays spans from the mid…
Will Grayson, Will Grayson: John Green and David Levithan
Boys. Girls. More boys. Love. A high school musical. The magnificent Tiny Cooper. John Green. David Levithan. Two Will Graysons.
In chapter one you meet Will Grayson who just wants to get through high school unnoticed. He lives by two…
Family Forest: Kim Kane and Lucia Masciullo
In this cheerful picture book, a young girl describes her family in all its richness. Half sisters, step-parents and big brothers are all part of the mix. And it’s the felicitous marriage of text and illustration, exuberant and whimsical, which…
House Rules: Jodi Picoult
Emma Hunt is a single mother working hard to bring up her two teenage sons. What dominates her life is Asperger’s Syndrome – her struggle to ensure a place for her eldest son, Jacob, and his obsessions, in a world…
The Hard Light of Day: Rod Moss
The everyday lives of Australia’s indigenous people, particularly those who live in remote communities, are mysterious to most Australians. We tend to stigmatise or romanticise indigenous communities, depending on our political views and upbringing. This remarkable, wholly engrossing book is…
Hotel Iris: Yoko Ogawa
Innocent teenager Mari unwillingly helps her strict mother out at the desk of the family’s Hotel Iris, rundown and unloved on the coast of Japan. When an older man and the prostitute he has taken there get into a fight…
Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It: Maile Meloy
This stunning collection – acclaimed by Richard Ford and Ann Patchett, as well as publications like the New Yorker – began life as the author’s ‘secret stash’ of not-quite-right stories. When Granta told her it was naming her one its…
Mark the Hard Earth: Kris Drever
Kris Drever, a singer–songwriter from the Isle of Orkney, has played rock and jazz as well as traditional music, in bands like Fine Friday and Lau. Lately he has been making waves as a solo performer.
Drever’s laid-back singing, deft…
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