Our latest reviews

Boy He Cry: An Island Odyssey: Roger Averill

Reviewed by Kate Lockett, freelance writer and reviewer

Shelley, an idealistic young PhD anthropology student and her partner Roger, a writer, arrive on a remote Papuan island for 12 months without any housing, furniture or friends. The islanders agree to accommodate the couple and willingly pitch in to…

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Sideways: Travels With Kafka, Hunter S. And Kerouac: Patrick O'Neil

Reviewed by Sally Keighery, Program Coordinator of CAE Book Groups

This evocatively written, action-packed memoir is a love letter to the intoxicating strangeness of travel. Inspired by his literary heroes, O’Neil eschews pre-booked itineraries for loose plans based on fulfilling dreams and testing out life philosophies on the other side…

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The Next 100 Years: George Friedman

Reviewed by Mark Rubbo, Managing Director of Readings

Friedman is a recognised expert in geopolitics and forecasting. This will, he predicts, be the American century. Whereas the twentieth century was a transition from European to American global power, the twenty-first is solely America’s. No other geopolitical group comes…

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A Most Immoral Woman: Linda Jaivin

Reviewed by Sybil Nolan, Freelance Editor and Reviewer

This book may come as a shock to fans of Linda Jaivin, author of the erotic Eat Me and of The Infernal Optimist, a novel about detention centres, for Jaivin has deserted contemporary themes for historical fiction, a field…

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The Rainy Season: Myfanwy Jones

Reviewed by Mark Rubbo, Managing Director of Readings

There’s a new generation of Australian fiction writers coming up; confident and assured: Cate Kennedy, Nam Le, Toni Jordan, Jacinta Halloran – and now, Myfanwy Jones.

Seemingly abandoned by her Vietnam vet father when she was five, Ella has been…

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Things We Didn't See Coming: Steven Amsterdam

Reviewed by Martin Shaw, Book Buyer at Readings Carlton

Who would have seen coming - so soon after the super-nova that was Nam Le in the Australian literary firmament in 2008 - that already in early 09 we would be blessed with another debut of the most sublime conception…

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100% Me: The How, Why and When of Growing Up: Elinor Greenwood & Alexander Cox

Reviewed by Alexa Dretzke, Readings Hawthorn

This unisex book presents the facts, gives advice and tackles the myths of puberty in a cool way that will be an excellent reference for young people, families and schools. It packs just the right amount of information and tips…

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A Small Free Kiss in the Dark: Glenda Millard

Reviewed by Alexa Dretzke, Readings Hawthorn

War hits Melbourne and a young homeless boy and an old homeless man become the core for a ramshackle family trying to survive. The humanity of people who have nothing is the essence of this book and the poignancy of…

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The 10pm Question: Kate De Goldi

Reviewed by Alexa Dretzke, Readings Hawthorn

Frankie is an intelligent, artistic 12-year-old boy who has a warm, loving family, but he is anxious – and his anxieties are defining and confining his life. Then along comes Sydney, a girl so alive and bold that he is…

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Paper Towns: John Green

Reviewed by Kathy Kozlowski, Readings Carlton

When Margo Roth Spiegelman, the über-cool and very beautiful queen of school and town, chose Quentin, her next-door neighbour to accompany her in one night of wild misdemeanor and witty revenge, he wondered how things would be changed between them…

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