Reviewed by Ian Lipke Tim Bowden’s book has been given the royal treatment by his publishers Allen & Unwin who have produced a very attractive 400-plus page book. The cover design is a splendid one. There is something about irreverence that attracts Australian readers, and I have no doubt that this book on that very

Reviewed by E.B. Heath The latest Griffith Review – The New Disruptors – aims to broaden readers’ perspective of the digital world beyond personal experience. The contributions range widely such as: Russian trolls attacking western democracy; the ‘forever war’ going on in Pine Gap; how democracy can be refreshed via sortition; the rise of the

Reviewed by Rod McLary That I shall say goodnight til it be morrow.Parting is such sweet sorrow.Romeo and Juliet. Act 2:scene 2. Shakespeare’s play does not provide only the title for David Nicholls’ most recent book, it also provides the structure on which the plot hangs. In a thoroughly creative and imaginative way, the author

Reviewed by Ian Lipke Bill Swiggs’s writing style shows the influence of Wilbur Smith, whether Swiggs knows it or not, and that’s not a bad thing. Swiggs tells a comfortable tale if murder and bushranging combined with fraud and deceit can still be comfortable. It is Swiggs’s writing style that dispenses comfort. The reader knows

Reviewed by Ian Lipke Physics for many students has the same effect as being caught by police for running a traffic light – you want to just run away and hide. If that is you, then there is no more need to panic. To qualify that statement a little: if you’re studying thermodynamics with Professor

Reviewed by Ian Lipke A Free Country: Australians’ Search for Utopia 1861 – 1901 is the second volume in a five part series that “describes the dominant stream of ideas behind this country’s development, the stream of liberalism…the volume is…carefully illustrative of the history, influence and adoption of the dominant ideas animating that development” (Philip Ayres

Reviewed by E. B. Heath The take home message from Duncan McNab’s The Snapshot Killer might be that a give-them-the-benefit-of-the-doubt attitude towards first time sexual offenders by the judiciary could result in the death of many women.    Christopher Wilder was charged with rape in his teens. He received only a good behaviour bond and

Reviewed by Antonella Townsend Trevor Noah was born into a truckload of disadvantage that will be beyond the imagination of most of his readers.  His auto-biography, It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime, Stories from a South African Childhood, (adapted for young readers) applies intelligent analysis of Noah’s early life in South Africa, chronicling a personal

Reviewed by Wendy Lipke At a time when so many people are being dispossessed of their homes through war and starvation and are moving in search of a safe haven, it is timely that a novel foregrounding the refugee’s perspective is brought to public notice. One can understand that countries close their borders when the

Reviewed by Rod McLary On 11 May 1995, the then Labor Federal Government announced that the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission would conduct an inquiry into and report on the history and effects of the forced separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.  In the subsequent report, entitled Bringing Them

Reviewed by Ian Lipke Caitlin Maling is an experienced poet with several publications to her record. Fish Song is her third book of verse. Her affinity with ordinary Australians is captured by her dedication to her husband with a sly dig at him in a parlance every ordinary bloke would understand immediately: To Greg –

Reviewed by Norrie Sanders Throughout Irish history, brave people have fought to rid their land of invaders.  Over many centuries, Vikings, Normans and several English monarchs tried and failed to control Ireland. But liberty for the inhabitants was ephemeral and ultimately the rising might of the British Empire prevailed. By 1800, any semblance of Irish

Reviewed by Angela Marie  ” …one other that clearly signposted exactly where Jimmy Page intended to go next in his career – with or without The Yardbirds. It was called ‘Happenings Ten Years Time Ago’ and it was a monumental piece of work. Released … in October 1966, months before first albums by Cream, Jimi

Reviewed by Angela Marie This morning I sat on a train reading a novel written for children. At times I was smiling, at times moved. Always engaged. The novel was BOOT and as the cover tells us Boot is a small robot on a big adventure. The reader immediately realises our hero is not human.

Reviewed by Rod McLary Michael is fourteen and he has misplaced his mother.  Or – more accurately – his mother has been replaced by the eponymous ‘other mother’.  He doesn’t really understand how he knows she has been replaced except that everything about the other mother seems a ‘little off’ such as her smile being