Books

THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE BY JULIE ORRINGER, VIKING, $32.95. Hate, war and the machine of corrupt bureaucracy take Julie Orringer’s finely drawn characters and fling them cruelly into the hands of fate. The Invisible Bridge begins in 1937, when sensitive student Andras Levi leaves Budapest to study architecture in Paris. His financial struggles and the difficulties […]

THE RED QUEEN BY PHILIPPA GREGORY, SIMON & SCHUSTER, $36. We all love a Tudor and since, for the time being, we’ve bled Henry VIII and his wives and daughters dry, we turn to his paternal grandmother, Margaret Beaufort. At age 14, she gave birth to the last male of the once mighty House of […]

THE BOTTICELLI SECRET BY MARINA FIORATO, ALLEN & UNWIN, $32.99. A man and a young woman race to decode the secrets of a painting, while pitched against a powerful secret society and trailed by a freakish assassin. Yes, it’s all a bit The Da Vinci Code, but The Botticelli Secret is a lot more fun […]

WILDFLOWER HILLBY KIMBERLEY FREEMAN, HACHETTE AUSTRALIA, $32.99. “The worst mistake we can make about old people is to forget they were young once,” says award-winning women’s fiction writer, Kimberley Freeman. And so, in her latest novel, she heads up into the attic and opens up Grandma Beattie’s old memory box to discover a poignant chapter […]

HOMECOMINGBY CATHY KELLY, HARPERCOLLINS, $32.99. Seventy years after leaving Ireland, Eleanor Levine, now a famous psychoanalyst, returns to her homeland. She becomes drawn into the lives of three women: beautiful young actress Megan, who is in hiding after an affair became public; Rae, a pillar of the community with a secret past; and Connie, a […]

Hell On The Way To Heaven, BY CHRISSIE FOSTER WITH PAUL KENNEDY, BANTAM AUSTRALIA, $34.95. Chrissie Foster’s experience is almost beyond belief. Two of her three daughters were abused by a paedophile priest, leading to the suicide of one and the secret alcoholism of another, who was severely disabled in a drunken car accident. The […]

The Confessions Of Catherine De Medici, BY C.W. GORTNER, HODDER & STOUGHTON, $32.99. A riveting first person account of the extraordinary life of Florentine-born Caterina (Catherine) de Medici, 14-year-old bride of the 14-year-old Duke of Orleans, later crowned King Henry II of France, to whom she bore three kings among her seven children. In spite […]

Hawke: The Prime Minister, BY BLANCHE D’ALPUGET, MUP, $54.99. The most important thing to do when reading Hawke: The Prime Minister is to keep reminding yourself that it is written by his second wife, Blanche D’Alpuget. If you forget, even for a few pages, then you could be lulled into thinking he was the greatest […]

Food Fashion Friends, BY FLEUR WOOD, PENGUIN, $59.95. If you’ve yet to discover Sydney-based fashion designer Fleur Wood and her soft, slightly bohemian but always elegant sense of style, this book is a good place to start. As well as making great frocks, Wood is a fervent home cook and her passion shines through the […]

Getaway presenter Catriona Rowntree discusses her favourite books in our new monthly Book Club feature. What was the last book you read? After reading a recommendation in this very magazine, I grabbed at the airport, en route to Tuscany, Frances Mayes’ latest offering Every Day Iin Tuscany. To read her colourful description of her beloved […]