Book

It’s L day for me today… Launch Day. My book, Love Wisdom Motherhood. is heading out into the wider world. And I keep pinching myself when I think about who is launching it for me — our Governor-General Quentin Bryce. She is one of the fabulous women that I interviewed for my book. What a […]

The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt, Sceptre, $25 When Mia’s husband of 30 years calls for a pause in their marriage (“the Pause was French with limp but shiny brown hair. She had significant breasts”) she goes mad briefly, is hospitalised, and emerges from hospital shaken but sane into a world entirely made up […]

Savages, by Don Winslow, William Heinemann, $29.95 It was Sir Michael Parkinson — well-known TV interviewer, lesser-known crime buff — who first put me onto Don Winslow, describing his 2005 novel The Power of the Dog as the best crime thriller ever written. He’s probably right. Four books on, Winslow returns to Dog territory, where […]

The Philanthropist by John Tesarsch, Sleepers Publishing, $27.95 The good man who does bad things is a familiar figure in fiction. So points to first-time author John Tesarsch who’s taken the harder road and given us a thoroughly rotten protagonist who does good things (like, philanthropy) though for all the wrong reasons (status and tax-deductions). […]

Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carré, Viking, $32.95 The key question whenever a new Le Carré comes out is: is it a good one? He’s the master of the spy thriller but, as even fans concede, he can be patchy. The good news: yes, novel number 22 is a very good one. A […]

Vivian Rising by Daniella Brodsky, Simon & Schuster, $29.99 She has a dead end job, a dead boring boyfriend, and a deadbeat mother. Vivian Sklar’s one true joy is her feisty grandmother, who dies in her hospital bed, as poor Viv cowers in the loo. Lost and bereft, she’s cared for, and constantly fed, by […]

We Had It So Good, by Linda Grant, Virago, $29.99 The title sums it all up, We Had It So Good, and oh yes they did. This is the familiar but fascinating story of the baby boomers, and their journey from sweet self-absorbed hippies to a lost self-absorbed middle age. It’s 1968 and Californian Stephen […]

Mennonite In A Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen, Allen & Unwin, $29.99 Rhoda Janzen writes with wit and fondness of growing up in a “painfully uncool”, but happy and supportive community of Mennonites; they’re the less picturesque cousins of the better-known Amish people. Years later her glamorous and sophisticated life in the city falls […]

Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, $32.99 Nur Abuzeid has it all, he’s the heir to his father’s business empire, and he’s betrothed to Soraya, the girl he loves. He’s a gentle, optimistic soul, and this is a gentle story of love and growth. When poor Nur is badly injured in an accident, […]

In Bligh’s Hand by Jennifer Gall, National Library of Australia, $34.95 William Bligh’s water-stained pocket notebook, kept by the sea captain following the mutiny on The Bounty, when he was cast adrift with 18 crew in a 7-metre open boat, is one of our most important historical documents. For years the Bligh family retained the […]