STALINGRAD/GROSSMAN

Reviewed by BOOKBARN BERRIMA

Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman  – the prequel to Life and Fate Stalingrad is a strange and complicated book. It is undoubtedly an amazing achievement of translation and scholarship. It’s lucid and readable, with moments of wonderfully evocative prose... (continued)

'Writers & Lovers' by Lily King

Reviewed by Michela

A compulsively readable novel following the trials of the artist as a young woman.   We meet Casey Peabody as she arrives back in Massachusetts after the tragic death of her mother and tries to figure out what she's meant to do next. She spends her time alternating between wor... (continued)

Elephants With Headlights by Bem Le Hunte

Reviewed by Monika Sheridan

Elephants With Headlights is a gripping book with good pace.  It brings two cultures together showing the good and bad of both.  The author Bem Le Hunte uses the most beautiful expressive language.  It was a joy to read. (continued)

A Painted Landscape by Amber Creswell

Reviewed by Kylie

A comprehensive collection of current Australian artists as diverse as the landscape itself.  Each artist offers a unique insight and understanding into their deep connection to place, and how it inspires them and stirs their creativity.  Nature is the perfect subject matter to study... (continued)

The Weekend by Charlotte Wood

Reviewed by Michela

This unputdownable new novel by one of Australia's most celebrated authors follows three friends in their seventies as they gather for a last weekend at the holiday home of their recently deceased fourth best-friend. In this sharply observed, excruciatingly funny, and brilliantly written n... (continued)

Very Nice by Marcy Dermansky

Reviewed by Michela

A brilliantly funny novel concerning money, sex, race, and bad behaviour centred around a wealthy Connecticut divorcée, her college-age daughter, and the famous American novelist who is seduced by them both. This is a vicious little novel and I loved every minute. Perfect summer reading... (continued)

The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne

Reviewed by Alex

The story of Cyril starts in Ireland in the 1940s and continues until today. At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from. This book made laugh and cry, the beautiful writing elevating  the sometimes difficult circumstance... (continued)

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

Reviewed by Bru

Lori is a therapist who after a personal crisis went to see another therapist. The book interweaves chapters about her own experiences in therapy and her experiences supporting her clients. Expect quite a few laughs and a couple rounds of tears alongside her and her clients. Perfect for any th... (continued)

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin

Reviewed by Sarah, Mona Vale

Stepping aside from crime, I picked up The Last Romantics and found myself immersed in the lives of the Skinner siblings Renee, Joe, Caroline and Fiona. Spanning five decades, The Last Romantics opens in the year 2079. Fiona Skinner, the narrator, is a famous poet, aged 102, and is in the mids... (continued)

The Binding by Bridget Collins

Reviewed by Jo, Mona Vale

Bridget Collins’s first adult novel is so good when I finished it I went hunting for a signed hardback first edition because this is going to be a classic. In a Victorian-esque England, young Emmett Farmer is forced to become an apprentice bookbinder instead of taking over the family far... (continued)

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien

Reviewed by James, Mona Vale

Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a modern masterpiece. Very little I have ever read has stayed with me like this book has.  Spanning the course of decades and generations, this epic of modern Chinese history tracks the lives and loves of a musical family, who live for their art, as they ... (continued)

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Reviewed by James, Mona Vale

There is simply no book like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. It has something for everyone; a fan of Jane Austen? This is the book for you. How about Raymond E Feist or Tolkien? This is the book for you. Set in a Britain prior to the Napoleonic Wars where practical magic has long since fade... (continued)

The Expanse Series by James S.A. Corey

Reviewed by James, Mona Vale

The Expanse is a truly masterful SF series of epic proportions. Two hundred years from now, Earth and Mars are opposing military superpowers with their boots firmly on the throats of the solar system's 'Belter' population - the teeming blue collar inhabitants of asteroids and space... (continued)

The Three Body Trilogy by Cixin Liu

Reviewed by James, Mona Vale

The Three Body trilogy is without a doubt one of the best and most imaginative series I have ever read. Liu's work encompasses the math and philosophy of our world, technology and space in a story of truly epic proportions that begins during China's cultural revolution and finishes at ... (continued)

No Friend But the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani

Reviewed by Bru

No Friend But the Mountains was written entirely on a mobile phone by Behrouz Boochani, an Kurdish journalist detained on Manus Island.  When the book won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, the author, still incarcerated, was unable to collect his award. This lyrical, brave mem... (continued)

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Reviewed by Michela

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh charts the journey of a young nameless narrator who enters a drug-induced hibernation to escape the societal demands placed on her by being a white, wealthy, and  beautiful inhabitant of New York City in the early 2000s. Moshfegh’s ... (continued)

You Know You Want This by Kristen Roupenian

Reviewed by Bru

Kristen Roupenian shot to fame with her viral short story in the New Yorker Cat Person. Her new collection You Know You Want This follows in the famed story’s tradition, ruthlessly examining the dark underbelly of modern relationships and love. Perfect for fans of Sally Rooney and Elena ... (continued)

The Arsonist

Reviewed by Rebecca Milne

  The Arsonist is a fascinating and incredibly compelling account of the Churchill Fire, one of 400 in Victoria on Black Saturday in 2009, and the subsequent investigation and arrest and trial of Brendan Sokaluk. The horrifying descriptions of the heat and ferocity of the fire... (continued)

Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee

Reviewed by Claudia Ashton

Through her compelling transcript of her observations as Judges associate, Bri Lee candidly reveals the ineffectual and bias treatment of women in our legal system. What she’s relaying is unbearable and unthinkable. And what is remarkable is that she has the courage and conviction to do ... (continued)

Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee

Reviewed by Natalie, Cronulla

A fiercely articulate, well-constructed, courageous reckoning of one woman's past meeting the limitations and inadequacies of the judicial court system. A brave personal journey coupled with a relentless professional pilgrimmage. A 2018 must read. (continued)