Steven Carroll
The Year of the Beast
$29.99
This is the sixth and final novel of Steven Carroll’s Glenroy series, Glenroy being a suburb of Melbourne known to few, and which grew after the Second World War to accommodate the explosion of home ownership. The six novels can be read in any order, and this one actually goes right back to the beginning of the family saga in 1917. The main character is Maryanne, a 40 year old woman, … Read more »
Behrouz Boochani, No friend but the mountains: Writings from Manus prison. $32.99
It is hard to know where to start with this, except to say if there was ever a book that should be compulsory reading (especially for politicians) it is this one. It has just won the Victorian prizes for Literature and for Non-fiction, and it easy to see why.
The book was produced over five years from within the Manus detention centre, relayed to his translator in Melbourne by mobile … Read more »
Joanna Nell, The Single Ladies of the Jacaranda Retirement Village, $29.99
Well, here’s something new for the New Year, a new literary ‘genre (don’t you hate that word!) It’s called Uplifting Literature or Up Lit—as if Jane Austen isn’t! ‘Something to lift readers into a warm, fuzzy, happy place’ is how it’s described—an antidote to reading about disasters, violence, misery and Donald Trump. Apparently, Up Lit was the leading trend at recent international book fairs, so it’s probably alright to review at least one for the year.
I got sucked into … Read more »
Amy Bloom,
White Houses
$27.99
When I read an advance review of this book, I immediately got onto Candelo Books to order my copy. I have been a huge fan of Eleanor Roosevelt all my life so I was excited to see a new book on her. Eleanor and Franklin entered the White House in 1933, living through one of the most tumultuous times in American history – the Great Depression … Read more »
Viv Groskop
The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature
$29.99
Here we are approaching the end of another year, and yet again I am promising to (re)read the great Russian Classics—about the tenth year in a row I planned to do so! Imagine my joy when I came across this terrific book; it saves you reading thousands of pages and sorting out who is who. Each chapter summarises one of … Read more »
Melissa Lucashenko,
Too Much Lip, $29.95
We should all give thanks each day for Queensland University Press, which is up there with the ABC in my list of institutions for which we owe eternal gratitude. QUP is a strong supporter of emerging (and established) Indigenous writers, none of whom are more entertaining than Melissa Lucashenko. If you haven’t already read her first novel, Mullumbimby, I highly recommend it. Too Much Lip is a terrific follow-up.
