Books

Elizabethby J. Randy Taraborrelli, Pan Macmillan, $24.95. The obituary writers were probably right when they claimed Elizabeth Taylor was the last Hollywood icon, but she was also the first celebrity to live every moment of her life publicly. Operations, romances, tragedies, break-ups, rehab, never before had a star shared everything with the world. Yet Taraborrelli […]

The Block sweethearts take their relationship to the next step – and Josh takes Woman’s Day along to buy Jenna’s spectacular engagement ring. Before the hammer had even dropped on the final bid at The Block auction, one contestant was already a winner – in love. Josh Densten knew that win, lose or draw the […]

Life can change in a heartbeat Four minutes and eight seconds. That’s how long my husband, Michael Dunhill, was dead. Four minutes and eight seconds. That’s how long it took for my husband to become a complete stranger to me. To read the first chapter of Skipping a Beat click here. Win our Book of […]

On Canaan’s Side, Faber and Faber, $29.99. Sebastian Barry woos with words. His lyrical prose carries you off on a warm and engrossing journey conjuring incredibly special characters, gently etched at first then skilfully coloured in as the story deepens. On Canaan’s Side is told through narrator 89-year-old Lilly Bere, who as the novel opens […]

Bossypants by Tina Fey, Sphere, $32.99. Before she perfected her Sarah Palin impersonation, Tina created and played the sparky, sharp-tongued Liz Lemon on TV’s 30 Rock. Before that, she was first female head writer in the legendary boys’ club of Saturday Night Live. Now she’s queen of American comedy and this memoir shows you why […]

The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan, Text, $32.95. You think I’m joking? A book on werewolves? Oh, but such an elegant, tongue-in-hairy-cheek take on the genre it makes you wonder why anyone wastes their time on those dreary and insipid vamps, eternal enemies of the lycanthrope tribe. Our hero (so to speak) is Jake Marlowe, […]

The Roving Party by Rohan Wilson, Allen & Unwin, $27.99. The Vogel literary award has been recognising and rewarding young writers for 30 years now, and this year’s winner is an absolute stand-out. Yes, it is dark and it tells a brutal story of a party of “rovers” (read thugs and killers) roaming the harsh […]

Friends Like These by Wendy Harmer, Allen & Unwin, $32.99. Write what you know, is the standard advice to authors. And as a top-rating and high-earning radio presenter, Wendy Harmer spent long enough on Sydney’s so-called A-list to know it inside out. Now she’s “ratting on it”, as she puts it, and a highly amusing […]

Exposed by Liza Marklund, Bantam Press, $32.95. Annika Bengtzon is a young journalist eager to leave her dead-end relationship and quiet hometown and earn a full-time job on Stockholm’s tabloid Evening Post. Josefin Liljeberg also wants to be a reporter, but she’s a stripper in a seedy club owned by her violent boyfriend and, before […]

An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas, Harvill/Secker, $32.95. Commissaire Adamsberg, chief of Paris’ Serious Crimes Squad, will live to rue the day he discovers 17 severed feet outside London’s Highgate Cemetery. Like all good fictional detectives, he’s a bit of a loner, quietly rebellious and loved by all his (mostly) loyal officers. The feet will […]