Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life

/in , /by

Review by Wendy Tucker

by Anna Funder

Two new arrivals have filled our TV screens, newspapers and social media during the last month. And both use the word patriarchy a lot! Both have feminist messages. One is the Barbie movie. The other is Anna Funder’s Wifedom, which has had more publicity, both pre- and post-publication, than any other recent book. Funder has been interviewed widely on 7.30, The Drum, Conversations, the SMH and at numerous Writers Festivals.

Wifedom has been reviewed in most major newspapers, both here and overseas. So, what is all the … Read more »

Read more»

Agatha Christie – an elusive woman

/in , /by

reviewed by Wendy Tucker

Lucy Worsley
Hodder and Stoughton

‘Give a Christie for Christmas’ was the publicity slogan for Christie’s publishers in the 1950s and again in 2022 many received a Christie for Christmas with this new, detailed, very readable and extremely sympathetic biography by Lucy Worsley. Worsley is a social historian and television presenter and a televised series, based on her book, is currently showing on the ABC. 

In 1961, UNESCO declared Christie … Read more »

Read more»

Book Review highlights for 2021

/in , , , /by

2021 was not the greatest year of our lives but, for avid readers, it has had some terrific highlights. Here are my selections for the best of – would love to hear which books gave you the most pleasure. 

Overall favourites/champions

After Story – Larissa Behrendt; and Kazuo Ishiguro – Klara and the Sun

Best biography

James Campbell – Talking at the Gates: A Life of James Baldwin

Best political histories

Johanna Perheentupa – Redfern: Aboriginal Activism in the … Read more »

Read more»

Not Just Black and White


/in , /by

Reviewed by Heather O’Connor

Not Just Black and White

Lesley Williams and Tammy Williams

UQP, $32.95

One of the easiest and best ways to learn about Indigenous culture and history is to work your way through the winners of the David Unaipon Award. It was established to celebrate both Indigenous writers of both fiction and non-fiction, in collaboration with Queensland University Press. This award … Read more »

Read more»

Speaking up

/in , /by

Gillian Triggs
Speaking up
$45.00

I chose this book for The Triangle because I thought that the work of the Human Rights Commission and of its President has seldom been out of the news for the last few years. Here is the chance to understand the importance of the Commission and to try to understand why Gillian Triggs has attracted so much criticism from the government and from conservative commentators. What the book does is outline the arguments and the ideological struggles over such issues as … Read more »

Read more»

No friend but the mountains: Writings from Manus prison

/in , /by

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 phone … Read more »

Read more»