Books

The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith, Little, Brown, $34.99. What a joy to catch up once again with our old fictional friend Precious Ramotswe, and the small mysteries and daily dramas of life in Botswana. Readers familiar with the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency will be thrilled to spot this latest instalment, […]

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, Virago, $29.99. Until she was 28 years old, shy, sheltered Hadley Richardson lived an unremarkable life in suburban Missouri. But in 1920 she met a young aspiring writer, married and moved to a tiny flat in Paris. Her husband was a big drinking man of big ambitions, and his […]

Water For Elephantsby Sara Gruen, Allen & Unwin, $24.99. Orphaned and broke, just as the Great Depression begins to bite, veterinary student Jacob Jankowski runs away to join the dirty glamour of a travelling circus. There, among the weird and wonderful characters of the Benzini Bros’ Most Spectacular Show on Earth, Jacob finds two great […]

Franklin And Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage by Hazel Rowley, MUP, $36.99. Fifth generation cousins, once removed, the famously acronymed FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and wife Eleanor left indelible impressions on US generations serving four terms (1933-1945) as US President and First Lady. In this definitive biography, Hazel Rowley packs in just as much as the […]

My Sister Lives On the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher, Orion Children’s Books, $24.99. In the book industry they’re known as “crossovers” — books written for a young adult audience which are so well constructed and intelligently pitched that they are just as captivating to an adult audience. Harry Potter started the onslaught, but My Sister […]

Moth to the Flame, by Joy Dettman, Pan Macmillan Australia, $32.99. “You’re an interesting study, kiddo. You’ve got a 40-year-old seamstress’s hands, the look of a Botticelli angel and you play cards like a mafia boss …” Country Victorian author Joy Dettman knows how to write strong women, and 22-year-old mother of three illegitimate children, […]

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult, Allen & Unwin, $32.99. Once upon a time, there was only one way for babies to come into being. Now IVF, sperm donation and surrogacy have opened up a brave new world, where a child with two mums is no longer a rarity. Jodi Picoult’s latest novel focuses on […]

Notebooks by Betty Churcher, Miegunyah Press, $44.99 She was known as “Betty Blockbuster” when she was the director of the National Gallery of Australia because of her passion for bringing great international art to our shores. And when in 2003 Betty Churcher discovered she was losing her eyesight she set off on a global pilgrimage […]

Hypnotist by Lars Kepler, HarperCollins, $29.99. Riddled with irresistible, nail-biting suspense, this first-class Scandinavian thriller is one of the best I’ve ever read! When a Stockholm family is brutally murdered, surviving son, Josef Ek, remains seriously injured in hospital and in no condition to be questioned by police. Retired hypnotist, Erik Maria Bark, reluctantly agrees […]

The Andren Report by Peter Andren, Scribe, $30. Peter was my first boss at Prime TV in Orange. He nurtured my love of journalism and passion for rural Australia. In 1996, he took his fight to Canberra and created political history by becoming the independent member for Calare. He took on the big parties in […]