Our latest reviews
Under Pressure: How the Epidemic of Hyper Parenting is Endangering Childhood: Carl Honore
The author of In Praise of Slow – and scribe of the Slow movement – tackles just one of the areas in which our wired, achievement-oriented society is running on overdrive in Under Pressure. Honore visits schools, parents, child…
The Same Earth: Kei Miller
When Tessa Walcott’s blue, green and polka-dot panties go missing in the small village of Watersgate Jamaica, Imelda Richardson hits on the idea of starting a Neighbourhood Watch program. But Pastor Braithwaite, long resentful of Imelda’s high standing in the…
The Story of Forgetting: Stefan Merril Block
Abel Haggard is the only one left on the family farm in Dallas. His hermetic life is slowly closing in around him as he watches the years fall away, hoping his estranged daughter will return. Seth Waller is an awkward…
Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures: Vincent Lam
Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures has as its subtitle: Stories, although the 12 stories in the collection are interlinked, and the book also works as a novel. The author is a doctor in Toronto, Canada, and his writing is so evocative…
The Butt: Will Self
Will Self has never been known for taking the easy way out. Faced here with post-9/11 politics, he has taken the trajectory of a discarded cigarette butt and transformed it into an allegory about fate, responsibility and the gap between…
The Dog of Marriage: Collected Stories: Amy Hempel
Every so often a book comes along of such a standard that the efforts of reviewers and publishing house spruikers are rendered inadequate. The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel is an example. Her perfectly crafted sentences seem to flow one…
Texas: Sarah Hay
Fans of 2001 Vogel winner Sarah Hay will be pleased to learn that her second novel has a distinctly Australian flavour. Set on a remote Kimberly cattle station during the 1980s, Texas charts the lives of third generation farmers Susannah…
Musk and Byrne: Fiona Capp
Award-winning Australian author Fiona Capp (That Oceanic Feeling) has ventured into the eventful world of historical fiction with her new novel. Set in 1860s Victoria, its heroine is Jemma Musk, an independent young woman of single-minded artistic ambition…
The Odd Couple: Gnarls Barkley
I know Crazy was a huge, huge sick-to-the-gills-with-it hit, but give this album a go anyway! I love listening to Cee-Lo Green’s fantastic gospel gravelly-edged vocals. I love the funky drive of Danger Mouse’s hip-hop infused, groove-based instrumentation. The Odd…
Hard Sweet and Sticky: The Bellrays
Tough title to live up to, but the Bellrays are up to the challenge. Fronted by the powerhouse vocals of Lisa Kekaula this California four-piece have delivered a killer little record that is full of R&B swing and rock n…
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