Books

(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) If you read a lot of really good science fiction, it will become immediately apparent that imagination is rarely in short supply among the boundlessly creative authors of the genre. But what will also emerge is how imaginatively fertile some of the giants of the genre Continue Reading

(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) Laments about middle age are often viewed as a tired old cliché. But what is often forgotten in the midst of all the eyerolling and lowkey dismissals is that the cliché exists for a reason; middle age is a time when youth is walking Continue Reading

(courtesy Allen & Unwin Publishers) Mixing a love story in with an often excoriating though wryly funny exploration of the inhumanity of big tech in the 21st century may not sound like the most viable of narrative drivers for a novel but in the hands of Elaine Castillo it is Continue Reading

(courtesy Beth O’Leary newsletter) A fresh start is waiting for Charlie Jones.But another Charlie Jones wants it too… The Isle of Ormer: population 500, soon to be 501. Charlie Jones has landed on the island to embark on her brand new life. As the manager at Ormer’s only farm shop, Continue Reading

An escapee from the depth of this reviewer’s TBR – 2026 is supposed to be the year of the much-neglected reads though so far 13 new books have been bought so who knows who well this will go – Lost in Time by A. G. Riddle comes with a doozy Continue Reading

(courtesy Simon & Schuster Australia) What does it mean to live a good life? We all have airily vague ideas of what that might entail from doing good to others to treating people with kindness to not using plastic and prioritising people over digital obsession. But it’s wide and open Continue Reading

This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026. If we’re honest, most of us live in fairly ordinary, decidedly unexciting cities or towns where everyone is as reasonably straight down the line as you can expect the contrarily idiosyncratic human race to be. They Continue Reading

What an extraordinary story. As you reach the end of Outlaw Planet by M. R. Carey, one of the finest contemporary voices working in science fiction and fantasy, you will be consumed by the idea that here is one of the very best and most human stories you have ever Continue Reading

This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2026. At first glance, a novel premised on the idea that one man, moving across America over some decades, managed to start, and crucially, abandon, four families, who then seek to unite many years later via a Continue Reading