Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This hardcovered, 30x24cm, children’s picture book was produced as the result of a collaboration between children of Yalingbu Yirramboi – The Royal Children’s Hospital school – and two award-winning children’s authors, Alison Lester and Jane Godwin. The book begins with a question, “If you could travel wherever you choose, to worlds
Reviewed by Rod McLary Jane Harper has now written six books all of which have been set in outback Australia and all within communities on the decline. Last One Out is no exception and while the earlier books may have been thrillers in all senses of the word, this one is more a slow burn
Reviewed by Ian Lipke The book, Circle of Days, is another massive text that threatens to do the reviewer damage if he were foolish enough to drop it on an errant toe. Yet this book is a mere 600 pages, reasonably short by Follett’s standards. Unlike The Evening and the Morning where a pre-1000 AD
Reviewed by Richard Tutin When a club or organisation is fortunate enough to celebrates its centenary, the usual starting point is the formation story. From there the rest of its story unfolds until it reaches the point or date when the centenary is celebrated. The 100-year period that Australian Football’s 100 Year Club marks is
Reviewed by Clare Brook Perspective is everything – it’s not what we’re looking at, it’s where we’re looking from. The Greek philosopher, Socrates, said, “the unexamined life is not worth living”. But such an examination is not as easy as it sounds, there’s a lot going on in the mind. You need a guide. John
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Countless thrillers and books with the World War theme have been written, so to produce an original one of either genre is a nearly insurmountable task. Oriana Ramunno has accomplished this by setting her second full length novel in Berlin in 1944 and partly in Kiev in 1941. The chief character
Reviewed by Ian Lipke I found the initial chapters of Tony Abbott’s new book bracing and balanced, comprehensive within limits and a jolly good read. I was all too familiar with the author’s political philosophies and his blind acceptance of Roman Catholicism. I even found myself warming to him as I worked my way patiently
Ngaio Marsh Awards 2025 The 2025 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel went to Otago-based academic turned author Wendy Parkins, for THE DEFIANCE OF FRANCES DICKINSON (Affirm Press), based on a true 1830s story, a young heiress has a daring plan to escape her abusive, gaslighting husband. 2025 Ngaios Best Non-Fiction winners are investigative journalist Kirsty
Reviewed by Colleen McLennan William McInnes is an Australian author and actor. He grew up on the Redcliffe Peninsular in Queensland and attended the Humpybong Primary School and Clontarf Beach State High School. In 1985 he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Rockhampton Campus of Capricornia Institute of Advanced Education (now Central Queensland University).
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Despite the odd nature of the title, this is a serious piece of research. Lesley Synge identified an unresearched area of knowledge from our nation’s history and, employing accepted means of academic scholarship, has unfolded a new area of knowledge and published it for the benefit of mankind. Her study is
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Aficionados of mystery writing are used to greeting the latest Michael Connelly story with enthusiasm and pleasure. The American author has written many books, all mysteries, and most where a murderer is brought to justice or a spy comes undone. A simple outcome in each case but delivered to justice only
Reviewed by Ian Hamilton To be blunt, this autobiography starts poorly but, fortunately, the second third of the book is more insightful and the last third of the book is engaging and challenging. In some ways it resembles a play where slowly but surely a one-dimensional (flat) character evolves into a three dimensional (round) one.
ARA HISTORICAL NOVEL PRIZE The winners of the 2025 ARA Historical Novel Prize were announced last night at a well-attended event at The Sydney Mint. Run by The Historical Novel Society Australasia since 2020, the prize is open to novels where the majority of the narrative takes place more than 50 years ago. Known as the richest individual
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Of the millions of detective novels that have been written over time, one has to wonder which attributes determine the success of one, as opposed to another. Ann Cleeves has written forty or more very successful ones, and in the case of the Shetland and Vera series, they have become much
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Clinton Fernandes was once an intelligence officer in the Australian Army. More recently he co-founded the Indo-Pacific Studies program at the UNSW where he assessed the threats, risks and opportunities that military forces will face in the future. There is little doubt of his qualifications to comment on the subject matter