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The Advertiser
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
The acclaimed Australian novelist who withdrew from literary life
Read Michael Robotham's new crime saga The White Crow and Helen Trinca's Looking for Elizabeth. Helen Trinca. La Trobe University Press. $36.99. The acclaimed Australian novelist Elizabeth Harrower was in full command of her craft when, after the publication of her fourth book, The Watch Tower, and suffering from writer's block, she stopped writing and faded from view. Harrower's withdrawal from literary life after missing out on the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 1967 earned her frequent admonishments from her irascible friend Patrick White, but it wasn't until decades later that she permitted her final novel, In Certain Circles, to be published. Trinca explores Harrower's sense of abandonment and how, even 70 years after the fact, she still described herself as "a divorced child". Kate Marvel. Scribe. $36.99. Climate scientist Kate Marvel offers a refreshingly different perspective on our changing planet by anchoring her thoughts in emotions. Each of the nine chapters uses a different feeling - from wonder to grief and love - to illuminate the complex realities of climate change. Drawing on science, memory, and even moments of humour, Marvel blends intellect with intimacy to reveal the personal stakes of a global crisis. "The future remains uncertain," she writes. "But I'm sending my children there, and they are never coming back. I think about it every day. And then, I feel." An eloquent discussion about a shifting world. Dr Rami Kaminski. Scribe. $32.99. Are you the awkward odd one out at parties, but completely comfortable - even energised - when socialising over dinner with a friend? You're definitely not an extrovert, but how can you be an introvert? You don't crave solitude, so what's going on? Psychiatrist Rami Kaminski examined his own "non-belonging" and coined the term "otrovert" to describe someone who looks "neither inward nor outward: our fundamental orientation is defined by the fact that it is rarely the same direction that everyone else is facing". Kaminski discusses abandoning the urge to fit in and the advantages of a life "off the communal grid". Julian Kingma. NewSouth Books. $49.99. This is an incredibly confronting book. It is also an incredibly intimate and important book, because it is about voluntary assisted dying. It tells the stories of people courageously facing the final day of their life on their own terms. Photographer Julian Kingma spent a year documenting VAD, meeting those with incurable conditions, their relatives and carers, and the doctors, pharmacists and palliative specialists who are part of the process. His black-and-white photographs and the words that accompany them are powerful tributes to their subjects, whose stories will help others to understand. With essays by Andrew Denton and Richard Flanagan. Michael Robotham. Hachette. $32.99. First introduced in Michael Robotham's hit 2021 crime thriller When You Are Mine, PC Philomena McCarthy is a devoted London cop whose father and uncles just so happen to be old-school crims. In this new saga, PC McCarthy is called to a jewellery store robbery when she discovers a child in pyjamas wandering the street whose family has been targeted in a violent home invasion. The links between the two crimes, and evidence suggesting her father is involved, thrust our heroine into a gang war; her career in jeopardy and her family dangerously outgunned by a vicious new underbelly boss. P.A. Thomas. Echo Publishing. $32.99. Byron Bay-based P. A. Thomas, who studied medicine in Newcastle and now works as a specialist at a Brisbane public hospital, follows his 2024 debut The Beacon with another Byron-set murder mystery featuring Jack Harris, a reporter at the local newspaper, The Beacon. When forensic pathologist Nicola Fox arrives for a long-overdue break at her beachside holiday house she's shocked to discover someone sunbaking on a sun lounge in the backyard - and the bloke's been dead for some time. When police suggest she is their prime suspect, Nicola teams up with journalist Jack to investigate the who, want, when, where and why. The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson Belinda Lyons-Lee. Transit Lounge. $34.99. Australian author Belinda Lyons-Lee's 2021 debut novel, Tussaud, was based on the life of Madame Marie Tussaud, who was forced to make wax death masks of those guillotined during the French Revolution. Her new literary historical fiction explores the relationship believed to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Told in the voice of Robert's wife Fanny, this gothic saga blending biography and macabre murder mystery is set in 19th-century France and Scotland and follows Robert's friendship with the seemingly charming Eugene Chantrelle, who was tried and hanged for murdering his wife. Brandon Jack. Summit Books. $34.99. The son of Balmain Tigers rugby league legend Garry Jack and younger brother of Sydney Swans legend Kieren Jack, Brandon Jack played 28 AFL games for the Swans - 28 being the title he gave his bold 2021 memoir about a footy dream thwarted. Now Jack parlays those experiences into his debut novel, a satire of a professional football club full of towering egos, toxic machismo, painkillers and perverse rituals, where fringe players Fangs, Stick, Squidman and Shaggers chase on-field adulation - if they can survive the locker room. "Nothing like this has ever happened at a footy club. Honest," the back cover blurb winks. Read Michael Robotham's new crime saga The White Crow and Helen Trinca's Looking for Elizabeth. Helen Trinca. La Trobe University Press. $36.99. The acclaimed Australian novelist Elizabeth Harrower was in full command of her craft when, after the publication of her fourth book, The Watch Tower, and suffering from writer's block, she stopped writing and faded from view. Harrower's withdrawal from literary life after missing out on the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 1967 earned her frequent admonishments from her irascible friend Patrick White, but it wasn't until decades later that she permitted her final novel, In Certain Circles, to be published. Trinca explores Harrower's sense of abandonment and how, even 70 years after the fact, she still described herself as "a divorced child". Kate Marvel. Scribe. $36.99. Climate scientist Kate Marvel offers a refreshingly different perspective on our changing planet by anchoring her thoughts in emotions. Each of the nine chapters uses a different feeling - from wonder to grief and love - to illuminate the complex realities of climate change. Drawing on science, memory, and even moments of humour, Marvel blends intellect with intimacy to reveal the personal stakes of a global crisis. "The future remains uncertain," she writes. "But I'm sending my children there, and they are never coming back. I think about it every day. And then, I feel." An eloquent discussion about a shifting world. Dr Rami Kaminski. Scribe. $32.99. Are you the awkward odd one out at parties, but completely comfortable - even energised - when socialising over dinner with a friend? You're definitely not an extrovert, but how can you be an introvert? You don't crave solitude, so what's going on? Psychiatrist Rami Kaminski examined his own "non-belonging" and coined the term "otrovert" to describe someone who looks "neither inward nor outward: our fundamental orientation is defined by the fact that it is rarely the same direction that everyone else is facing". Kaminski discusses abandoning the urge to fit in and the advantages of a life "off the communal grid". Julian Kingma. NewSouth Books. $49.99. This is an incredibly confronting book. It is also an incredibly intimate and important book, because it is about voluntary assisted dying. It tells the stories of people courageously facing the final day of their life on their own terms. Photographer Julian Kingma spent a year documenting VAD, meeting those with incurable conditions, their relatives and carers, and the doctors, pharmacists and palliative specialists who are part of the process. His black-and-white photographs and the words that accompany them are powerful tributes to their subjects, whose stories will help others to understand. With essays by Andrew Denton and Richard Flanagan. Michael Robotham. Hachette. $32.99. First introduced in Michael Robotham's hit 2021 crime thriller When You Are Mine, PC Philomena McCarthy is a devoted London cop whose father and uncles just so happen to be old-school crims. In this new saga, PC McCarthy is called to a jewellery store robbery when she discovers a child in pyjamas wandering the street whose family has been targeted in a violent home invasion. The links between the two crimes, and evidence suggesting her father is involved, thrust our heroine into a gang war; her career in jeopardy and her family dangerously outgunned by a vicious new underbelly boss. P.A. Thomas. Echo Publishing. $32.99. Byron Bay-based P. A. Thomas, who studied medicine in Newcastle and now works as a specialist at a Brisbane public hospital, follows his 2024 debut The Beacon with another Byron-set murder mystery featuring Jack Harris, a reporter at the local newspaper, The Beacon. When forensic pathologist Nicola Fox arrives for a long-overdue break at her beachside holiday house she's shocked to discover someone sunbaking on a sun lounge in the backyard - and the bloke's been dead for some time. When police suggest she is their prime suspect, Nicola teams up with journalist Jack to investigate the who, want, when, where and why. The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson Belinda Lyons-Lee. Transit Lounge. $34.99. Australian author Belinda Lyons-Lee's 2021 debut novel, Tussaud, was based on the life of Madame Marie Tussaud, who was forced to make wax death masks of those guillotined during the French Revolution. Her new literary historical fiction explores the relationship believed to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Told in the voice of Robert's wife Fanny, this gothic saga blending biography and macabre murder mystery is set in 19th-century France and Scotland and follows Robert's friendship with the seemingly charming Eugene Chantrelle, who was tried and hanged for murdering his wife. Brandon Jack. Summit Books. $34.99. The son of Balmain Tigers rugby league legend Garry Jack and younger brother of Sydney Swans legend Kieren Jack, Brandon Jack played 28 AFL games for the Swans - 28 being the title he gave his bold 2021 memoir about a footy dream thwarted. Now Jack parlays those experiences into his debut novel, a satire of a professional football club full of towering egos, toxic machismo, painkillers and perverse rituals, where fringe players Fangs, Stick, Squidman and Shaggers chase on-field adulation - if they can survive the locker room. "Nothing like this has ever happened at a footy club. Honest," the back cover blurb winks. Read Michael Robotham's new crime saga The White Crow and Helen Trinca's Looking for Elizabeth. Helen Trinca. La Trobe University Press. $36.99. The acclaimed Australian novelist Elizabeth Harrower was in full command of her craft when, after the publication of her fourth book, The Watch Tower, and suffering from writer's block, she stopped writing and faded from view. Harrower's withdrawal from literary life after missing out on the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 1967 earned her frequent admonishments from her irascible friend Patrick White, but it wasn't until decades later that she permitted her final novel, In Certain Circles, to be published. Trinca explores Harrower's sense of abandonment and how, even 70 years after the fact, she still described herself as "a divorced child". Kate Marvel. Scribe. $36.99. Climate scientist Kate Marvel offers a refreshingly different perspective on our changing planet by anchoring her thoughts in emotions. Each of the nine chapters uses a different feeling - from wonder to grief and love - to illuminate the complex realities of climate change. Drawing on science, memory, and even moments of humour, Marvel blends intellect with intimacy to reveal the personal stakes of a global crisis. "The future remains uncertain," she writes. "But I'm sending my children there, and they are never coming back. I think about it every day. And then, I feel." An eloquent discussion about a shifting world. Dr Rami Kaminski. Scribe. $32.99. Are you the awkward odd one out at parties, but completely comfortable - even energised - when socialising over dinner with a friend? You're definitely not an extrovert, but how can you be an introvert? You don't crave solitude, so what's going on? Psychiatrist Rami Kaminski examined his own "non-belonging" and coined the term "otrovert" to describe someone who looks "neither inward nor outward: our fundamental orientation is defined by the fact that it is rarely the same direction that everyone else is facing". Kaminski discusses abandoning the urge to fit in and the advantages of a life "off the communal grid". Julian Kingma. NewSouth Books. $49.99. This is an incredibly confronting book. It is also an incredibly intimate and important book, because it is about voluntary assisted dying. It tells the stories of people courageously facing the final day of their life on their own terms. Photographer Julian Kingma spent a year documenting VAD, meeting those with incurable conditions, their relatives and carers, and the doctors, pharmacists and palliative specialists who are part of the process. His black-and-white photographs and the words that accompany them are powerful tributes to their subjects, whose stories will help others to understand. With essays by Andrew Denton and Richard Flanagan. Michael Robotham. Hachette. $32.99. First introduced in Michael Robotham's hit 2021 crime thriller When You Are Mine, PC Philomena McCarthy is a devoted London cop whose father and uncles just so happen to be old-school crims. In this new saga, PC McCarthy is called to a jewellery store robbery when she discovers a child in pyjamas wandering the street whose family has been targeted in a violent home invasion. The links between the two crimes, and evidence suggesting her father is involved, thrust our heroine into a gang war; her career in jeopardy and her family dangerously outgunned by a vicious new underbelly boss. P.A. Thomas. Echo Publishing. $32.99. Byron Bay-based P. A. Thomas, who studied medicine in Newcastle and now works as a specialist at a Brisbane public hospital, follows his 2024 debut The Beacon with another Byron-set murder mystery featuring Jack Harris, a reporter at the local newspaper, The Beacon. When forensic pathologist Nicola Fox arrives for a long-overdue break at her beachside holiday house she's shocked to discover someone sunbaking on a sun lounge in the backyard - and the bloke's been dead for some time. When police suggest she is their prime suspect, Nicola teams up with journalist Jack to investigate the who, want, when, where and why. The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson Belinda Lyons-Lee. Transit Lounge. $34.99. Australian author Belinda Lyons-Lee's 2021 debut novel, Tussaud, was based on the life of Madame Marie Tussaud, who was forced to make wax death masks of those guillotined during the French Revolution. Her new literary historical fiction explores the relationship believed to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Told in the voice of Robert's wife Fanny, this gothic saga blending biography and macabre murder mystery is set in 19th-century France and Scotland and follows Robert's friendship with the seemingly charming Eugene Chantrelle, who was tried and hanged for murdering his wife. Brandon Jack. Summit Books. $34.99. The son of Balmain Tigers rugby league legend Garry Jack and younger brother of Sydney Swans legend Kieren Jack, Brandon Jack played 28 AFL games for the Swans - 28 being the title he gave his bold 2021 memoir about a footy dream thwarted. Now Jack parlays those experiences into his debut novel, a satire of a professional football club full of towering egos, toxic machismo, painkillers and perverse rituals, where fringe players Fangs, Stick, Squidman and Shaggers chase on-field adulation - if they can survive the locker room. "Nothing like this has ever happened at a footy club. Honest," the back cover blurb winks. Read Michael Robotham's new crime saga The White Crow and Helen Trinca's Looking for Elizabeth. Helen Trinca. La Trobe University Press. $36.99. The acclaimed Australian novelist Elizabeth Harrower was in full command of her craft when, after the publication of her fourth book, The Watch Tower, and suffering from writer's block, she stopped writing and faded from view. Harrower's withdrawal from literary life after missing out on the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 1967 earned her frequent admonishments from her irascible friend Patrick White, but it wasn't until decades later that she permitted her final novel, In Certain Circles, to be published. Trinca explores Harrower's sense of abandonment and how, even 70 years after the fact, she still described herself as "a divorced child". Kate Marvel. Scribe. $36.99. Climate scientist Kate Marvel offers a refreshingly different perspective on our changing planet by anchoring her thoughts in emotions. Each of the nine chapters uses a different feeling - from wonder to grief and love - to illuminate the complex realities of climate change. Drawing on science, memory, and even moments of humour, Marvel blends intellect with intimacy to reveal the personal stakes of a global crisis. "The future remains uncertain," she writes. "But I'm sending my children there, and they are never coming back. I think about it every day. And then, I feel." An eloquent discussion about a shifting world. Dr Rami Kaminski. Scribe. $32.99. Are you the awkward odd one out at parties, but completely comfortable - even energised - when socialising over dinner with a friend? You're definitely not an extrovert, but how can you be an introvert? You don't crave solitude, so what's going on? Psychiatrist Rami Kaminski examined his own "non-belonging" and coined the term "otrovert" to describe someone who looks "neither inward nor outward: our fundamental orientation is defined by the fact that it is rarely the same direction that everyone else is facing". Kaminski discusses abandoning the urge to fit in and the advantages of a life "off the communal grid". Julian Kingma. NewSouth Books. $49.99. This is an incredibly confronting book. It is also an incredibly intimate and important book, because it is about voluntary assisted dying. It tells the stories of people courageously facing the final day of their life on their own terms. Photographer Julian Kingma spent a year documenting VAD, meeting those with incurable conditions, their relatives and carers, and the doctors, pharmacists and palliative specialists who are part of the process. His black-and-white photographs and the words that accompany them are powerful tributes to their subjects, whose stories will help others to understand. With essays by Andrew Denton and Richard Flanagan. Michael Robotham. Hachette. $32.99. First introduced in Michael Robotham's hit 2021 crime thriller When You Are Mine, PC Philomena McCarthy is a devoted London cop whose father and uncles just so happen to be old-school crims. In this new saga, PC McCarthy is called to a jewellery store robbery when she discovers a child in pyjamas wandering the street whose family has been targeted in a violent home invasion. The links between the two crimes, and evidence suggesting her father is involved, thrust our heroine into a gang war; her career in jeopardy and her family dangerously outgunned by a vicious new underbelly boss. P.A. Thomas. Echo Publishing. $32.99. Byron Bay-based P. A. Thomas, who studied medicine in Newcastle and now works as a specialist at a Brisbane public hospital, follows his 2024 debut The Beacon with another Byron-set murder mystery featuring Jack Harris, a reporter at the local newspaper, The Beacon. When forensic pathologist Nicola Fox arrives for a long-overdue break at her beachside holiday house she's shocked to discover someone sunbaking on a sun lounge in the backyard - and the bloke's been dead for some time. When police suggest she is their prime suspect, Nicola teams up with journalist Jack to investigate the who, want, when, where and why. The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson Belinda Lyons-Lee. Transit Lounge. $34.99. Australian author Belinda Lyons-Lee's 2021 debut novel, Tussaud, was based on the life of Madame Marie Tussaud, who was forced to make wax death masks of those guillotined during the French Revolution. Her new literary historical fiction explores the relationship believed to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Told in the voice of Robert's wife Fanny, this gothic saga blending biography and macabre murder mystery is set in 19th-century France and Scotland and follows Robert's friendship with the seemingly charming Eugene Chantrelle, who was tried and hanged for murdering his wife. Brandon Jack. Summit Books. $34.99. The son of Balmain Tigers rugby league legend Garry Jack and younger brother of Sydney Swans legend Kieren Jack, Brandon Jack played 28 AFL games for the Swans - 28 being the title he gave his bold 2021 memoir about a footy dream thwarted. Now Jack parlays those experiences into his debut novel, a satire of a professional football club full of towering egos, toxic machismo, painkillers and perverse rituals, where fringe players Fangs, Stick, Squidman and Shaggers chase on-field adulation - if they can survive the locker room. "Nothing like this has ever happened at a footy club. Honest," the back cover blurb winks.
The Advertiser
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
Addicted to watching reels on your phone? Blame it on your biology
New releases include police procedural Broke Road by Matthew Spencer and Super Stimulated by Nicklas Brendborg. Nicklas Brendborg. Hodder Press. $32.99. Are you addicted to your smartphone? Specifically, to social media or perhaps those endless videos so engaging that you just can't help scrolling? What about those sugary doughnuts? Brendborg engagingly explains the science behind how we are being hacked by companies that want us to eat their empty-calorie junk food and watch their mindless videos. We are, it seems, being played for fools, obese, lonely, depressed and anxious as a society because our biology is being manipulated. Scariest quote? An inventor of the Like button: "I find myself getting addicted - yes, in some cases to the very things I've built." Jeff Apter. Echo Publishing. $34.99. American promoter Lee Gordon had an extraordinary impact on post-war Australia. Arriving in Sydney in 1953, Gordon transformed show business by bringing hundreds of international stars, such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and Buddy Holly, to Australian audiences. He was a friend to rocker Johnny O'Keefe, opened the nation's first drive-in restaurant and introduced roller derby. Gordon's bold approach and larger-than-life persona - he once had a coffin in his living room - helped to lay the foundations for the modern entertainment industry. He paved the way for showbiz names such as Harry M. Miller, Michael Gudinski and Michael Chugg. Katherine Biber. Scribner. $36.99. On January 18, 1901, when the Australian Federation was 17 days old, Wiradjuri man Jimmy Governor was hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol. Governor and his brother Joe murdered nine people in NSW - killings triggered, he said, by racial taunts towards his white wife. In the ensuing manhunt, Joe was killed near Singleton. Jimmy was caught near Wingham. Legal scholar Katherine Biber's detailed research was guided in part by Governor's descendants. Biber reconstructs events, explores attitudes of the time and aims "to see how law, politics, science and religion - but especially law - made modern Australia in the wake of the Governor brothers". Jaap de Roode. NewSouth Books. $44.99. Why do dogs eat grass? An explanation is in this book, which is a journey through the many ingenious ways that animals find and use medicine, from apes that swallow certain leaves whole to kill parasites to elephants that eat clay and sparrows that cleverly use discarded cigarette butts to protect their nests from blood-sucking mites. Scientist Jaap de Roode demonstrates that observing animals can provide more than a few clues for healing humans. He also argues that we can help our animals by repairing damage we have done to the environment, starting with the "biodiversity deserts" that are lawns. Pip Smith. UWA Publishing. $26.99. In December 2010, more than 50 asylum seekers died when a rickety Indonesian fishing boat, the Janga, known as Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel-221 or SIEV-221, crashed against rocks and sank off Christmas Island. The footage of the unfolding tragedy shocked the world. This poignant novel for young adults explores the horror, heartbreak and humanity of the tragedy through the experiences of a 13-year-old Australian girl living on Christmas Island. As Coralie throws lifejackets to people on the boat that has crashed into the cliffs she locks eyes on 11-year-old Iranian boy Ali who soon disappears beneath the waves. She resolves to find him. Matthew Spencer. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. From its clever opening line, this police procedural leads you with compelling precision through an increasingly suspenseful murder investigation in the fictional village of Red Creek located between the authentically drawn (and very non-fictional) hardscrabble town of Cessnock and the luxurious cellar doors, lush golf resorts and other tourist traps of Hunter Valley wine country. Homicide detective sergeant Rose Riley and journalist-turned-crime author Adam Bowman, first introduced in journalist-turned-crime author Matthew Spencer's 2023 debut novel Black River, make an engagingly reluctant double act probing the suspiciously staged murder of a young woman in a townhouse in a new residential estate. A Forbidden Alchemy Stacey McEwan. Simon & Schuster. $34.99. TikTok sensation and Australian fantasy novelist Stacey McEwan creates a rich new world in her newest dystopian series. This slow-burn adventure follows Nina Harrow as she tries to escape her mining town upbringing in dazzling Belavere City. Nina is desperate to become an "Artisan", wielding magical powers to fulfill the city's grand ambitions. But when a violent revolution comes, she faces an impossible choice. Expect political intrigue, suspense and romance, plus a few heart-stopping moments. McEwan, who was raised on the Gold Coast, has said her love for period dramas and World War I inspired the world of Belavere City. Jessica Dettmann. Atlantic Books Australia. $32.99. The fourth novel by Jessica Dettmann is billed as a witty heartwarmer for "every woman who has looked up and wondered where the past decade or two has gone, and whether she's made the right choices in the juggle of family, work and life". When Margot receives an email from friend Tess, it comes as a shock. Tess, the English backpacker Margot met in Sydney but never ended up travelling across Europe with because love and life got in the way, died 20 years ago. Now Tess is giving her the means to have that adventure but is Margot ready for her second chance? New releases include police procedural Broke Road by Matthew Spencer and Super Stimulated by Nicklas Brendborg. Nicklas Brendborg. Hodder Press. $32.99. Are you addicted to your smartphone? Specifically, to social media or perhaps those endless videos so engaging that you just can't help scrolling? What about those sugary doughnuts? Brendborg engagingly explains the science behind how we are being hacked by companies that want us to eat their empty-calorie junk food and watch their mindless videos. We are, it seems, being played for fools, obese, lonely, depressed and anxious as a society because our biology is being manipulated. Scariest quote? An inventor of the Like button: "I find myself getting addicted - yes, in some cases to the very things I've built." Jeff Apter. Echo Publishing. $34.99. American promoter Lee Gordon had an extraordinary impact on post-war Australia. Arriving in Sydney in 1953, Gordon transformed show business by bringing hundreds of international stars, such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and Buddy Holly, to Australian audiences. He was a friend to rocker Johnny O'Keefe, opened the nation's first drive-in restaurant and introduced roller derby. Gordon's bold approach and larger-than-life persona - he once had a coffin in his living room - helped to lay the foundations for the modern entertainment industry. He paved the way for showbiz names such as Harry M. Miller, Michael Gudinski and Michael Chugg. Katherine Biber. Scribner. $36.99. On January 18, 1901, when the Australian Federation was 17 days old, Wiradjuri man Jimmy Governor was hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol. Governor and his brother Joe murdered nine people in NSW - killings triggered, he said, by racial taunts towards his white wife. In the ensuing manhunt, Joe was killed near Singleton. Jimmy was caught near Wingham. Legal scholar Katherine Biber's detailed research was guided in part by Governor's descendants. Biber reconstructs events, explores attitudes of the time and aims "to see how law, politics, science and religion - but especially law - made modern Australia in the wake of the Governor brothers". Jaap de Roode. NewSouth Books. $44.99. Why do dogs eat grass? An explanation is in this book, which is a journey through the many ingenious ways that animals find and use medicine, from apes that swallow certain leaves whole to kill parasites to elephants that eat clay and sparrows that cleverly use discarded cigarette butts to protect their nests from blood-sucking mites. Scientist Jaap de Roode demonstrates that observing animals can provide more than a few clues for healing humans. He also argues that we can help our animals by repairing damage we have done to the environment, starting with the "biodiversity deserts" that are lawns. Pip Smith. UWA Publishing. $26.99. In December 2010, more than 50 asylum seekers died when a rickety Indonesian fishing boat, the Janga, known as Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel-221 or SIEV-221, crashed against rocks and sank off Christmas Island. The footage of the unfolding tragedy shocked the world. This poignant novel for young adults explores the horror, heartbreak and humanity of the tragedy through the experiences of a 13-year-old Australian girl living on Christmas Island. As Coralie throws lifejackets to people on the boat that has crashed into the cliffs she locks eyes on 11-year-old Iranian boy Ali who soon disappears beneath the waves. She resolves to find him. Matthew Spencer. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. From its clever opening line, this police procedural leads you with compelling precision through an increasingly suspenseful murder investigation in the fictional village of Red Creek located between the authentically drawn (and very non-fictional) hardscrabble town of Cessnock and the luxurious cellar doors, lush golf resorts and other tourist traps of Hunter Valley wine country. Homicide detective sergeant Rose Riley and journalist-turned-crime author Adam Bowman, first introduced in journalist-turned-crime author Matthew Spencer's 2023 debut novel Black River, make an engagingly reluctant double act probing the suspiciously staged murder of a young woman in a townhouse in a new residential estate. A Forbidden Alchemy Stacey McEwan. Simon & Schuster. $34.99. TikTok sensation and Australian fantasy novelist Stacey McEwan creates a rich new world in her newest dystopian series. This slow-burn adventure follows Nina Harrow as she tries to escape her mining town upbringing in dazzling Belavere City. Nina is desperate to become an "Artisan", wielding magical powers to fulfill the city's grand ambitions. But when a violent revolution comes, she faces an impossible choice. Expect political intrigue, suspense and romance, plus a few heart-stopping moments. McEwan, who was raised on the Gold Coast, has said her love for period dramas and World War I inspired the world of Belavere City. Jessica Dettmann. Atlantic Books Australia. $32.99. The fourth novel by Jessica Dettmann is billed as a witty heartwarmer for "every woman who has looked up and wondered where the past decade or two has gone, and whether she's made the right choices in the juggle of family, work and life". When Margot receives an email from friend Tess, it comes as a shock. Tess, the English backpacker Margot met in Sydney but never ended up travelling across Europe with because love and life got in the way, died 20 years ago. Now Tess is giving her the means to have that adventure but is Margot ready for her second chance? New releases include police procedural Broke Road by Matthew Spencer and Super Stimulated by Nicklas Brendborg. Nicklas Brendborg. Hodder Press. $32.99. Are you addicted to your smartphone? Specifically, to social media or perhaps those endless videos so engaging that you just can't help scrolling? What about those sugary doughnuts? Brendborg engagingly explains the science behind how we are being hacked by companies that want us to eat their empty-calorie junk food and watch their mindless videos. We are, it seems, being played for fools, obese, lonely, depressed and anxious as a society because our biology is being manipulated. Scariest quote? An inventor of the Like button: "I find myself getting addicted - yes, in some cases to the very things I've built." Jeff Apter. Echo Publishing. $34.99. American promoter Lee Gordon had an extraordinary impact on post-war Australia. Arriving in Sydney in 1953, Gordon transformed show business by bringing hundreds of international stars, such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and Buddy Holly, to Australian audiences. He was a friend to rocker Johnny O'Keefe, opened the nation's first drive-in restaurant and introduced roller derby. Gordon's bold approach and larger-than-life persona - he once had a coffin in his living room - helped to lay the foundations for the modern entertainment industry. He paved the way for showbiz names such as Harry M. Miller, Michael Gudinski and Michael Chugg. Katherine Biber. Scribner. $36.99. On January 18, 1901, when the Australian Federation was 17 days old, Wiradjuri man Jimmy Governor was hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol. Governor and his brother Joe murdered nine people in NSW - killings triggered, he said, by racial taunts towards his white wife. In the ensuing manhunt, Joe was killed near Singleton. Jimmy was caught near Wingham. Legal scholar Katherine Biber's detailed research was guided in part by Governor's descendants. Biber reconstructs events, explores attitudes of the time and aims "to see how law, politics, science and religion - but especially law - made modern Australia in the wake of the Governor brothers". Jaap de Roode. NewSouth Books. $44.99. Why do dogs eat grass? An explanation is in this book, which is a journey through the many ingenious ways that animals find and use medicine, from apes that swallow certain leaves whole to kill parasites to elephants that eat clay and sparrows that cleverly use discarded cigarette butts to protect their nests from blood-sucking mites. Scientist Jaap de Roode demonstrates that observing animals can provide more than a few clues for healing humans. He also argues that we can help our animals by repairing damage we have done to the environment, starting with the "biodiversity deserts" that are lawns. Pip Smith. UWA Publishing. $26.99. In December 2010, more than 50 asylum seekers died when a rickety Indonesian fishing boat, the Janga, known as Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel-221 or SIEV-221, crashed against rocks and sank off Christmas Island. The footage of the unfolding tragedy shocked the world. This poignant novel for young adults explores the horror, heartbreak and humanity of the tragedy through the experiences of a 13-year-old Australian girl living on Christmas Island. As Coralie throws lifejackets to people on the boat that has crashed into the cliffs she locks eyes on 11-year-old Iranian boy Ali who soon disappears beneath the waves. She resolves to find him. Matthew Spencer. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. From its clever opening line, this police procedural leads you with compelling precision through an increasingly suspenseful murder investigation in the fictional village of Red Creek located between the authentically drawn (and very non-fictional) hardscrabble town of Cessnock and the luxurious cellar doors, lush golf resorts and other tourist traps of Hunter Valley wine country. Homicide detective sergeant Rose Riley and journalist-turned-crime author Adam Bowman, first introduced in journalist-turned-crime author Matthew Spencer's 2023 debut novel Black River, make an engagingly reluctant double act probing the suspiciously staged murder of a young woman in a townhouse in a new residential estate. A Forbidden Alchemy Stacey McEwan. Simon & Schuster. $34.99. TikTok sensation and Australian fantasy novelist Stacey McEwan creates a rich new world in her newest dystopian series. This slow-burn adventure follows Nina Harrow as she tries to escape her mining town upbringing in dazzling Belavere City. Nina is desperate to become an "Artisan", wielding magical powers to fulfill the city's grand ambitions. But when a violent revolution comes, she faces an impossible choice. Expect political intrigue, suspense and romance, plus a few heart-stopping moments. McEwan, who was raised on the Gold Coast, has said her love for period dramas and World War I inspired the world of Belavere City. Jessica Dettmann. Atlantic Books Australia. $32.99. The fourth novel by Jessica Dettmann is billed as a witty heartwarmer for "every woman who has looked up and wondered where the past decade or two has gone, and whether she's made the right choices in the juggle of family, work and life". When Margot receives an email from friend Tess, it comes as a shock. Tess, the English backpacker Margot met in Sydney but never ended up travelling across Europe with because love and life got in the way, died 20 years ago. Now Tess is giving her the means to have that adventure but is Margot ready for her second chance? New releases include police procedural Broke Road by Matthew Spencer and Super Stimulated by Nicklas Brendborg. Nicklas Brendborg. Hodder Press. $32.99. Are you addicted to your smartphone? Specifically, to social media or perhaps those endless videos so engaging that you just can't help scrolling? What about those sugary doughnuts? Brendborg engagingly explains the science behind how we are being hacked by companies that want us to eat their empty-calorie junk food and watch their mindless videos. We are, it seems, being played for fools, obese, lonely, depressed and anxious as a society because our biology is being manipulated. Scariest quote? An inventor of the Like button: "I find myself getting addicted - yes, in some cases to the very things I've built." Jeff Apter. Echo Publishing. $34.99. American promoter Lee Gordon had an extraordinary impact on post-war Australia. Arriving in Sydney in 1953, Gordon transformed show business by bringing hundreds of international stars, such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and Buddy Holly, to Australian audiences. He was a friend to rocker Johnny O'Keefe, opened the nation's first drive-in restaurant and introduced roller derby. Gordon's bold approach and larger-than-life persona - he once had a coffin in his living room - helped to lay the foundations for the modern entertainment industry. He paved the way for showbiz names such as Harry M. Miller, Michael Gudinski and Michael Chugg. Katherine Biber. Scribner. $36.99. On January 18, 1901, when the Australian Federation was 17 days old, Wiradjuri man Jimmy Governor was hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol. Governor and his brother Joe murdered nine people in NSW - killings triggered, he said, by racial taunts towards his white wife. In the ensuing manhunt, Joe was killed near Singleton. Jimmy was caught near Wingham. Legal scholar Katherine Biber's detailed research was guided in part by Governor's descendants. Biber reconstructs events, explores attitudes of the time and aims "to see how law, politics, science and religion - but especially law - made modern Australia in the wake of the Governor brothers". Jaap de Roode. NewSouth Books. $44.99. Why do dogs eat grass? An explanation is in this book, which is a journey through the many ingenious ways that animals find and use medicine, from apes that swallow certain leaves whole to kill parasites to elephants that eat clay and sparrows that cleverly use discarded cigarette butts to protect their nests from blood-sucking mites. Scientist Jaap de Roode demonstrates that observing animals can provide more than a few clues for healing humans. He also argues that we can help our animals by repairing damage we have done to the environment, starting with the "biodiversity deserts" that are lawns. Pip Smith. UWA Publishing. $26.99. In December 2010, more than 50 asylum seekers died when a rickety Indonesian fishing boat, the Janga, known as Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel-221 or SIEV-221, crashed against rocks and sank off Christmas Island. The footage of the unfolding tragedy shocked the world. This poignant novel for young adults explores the horror, heartbreak and humanity of the tragedy through the experiences of a 13-year-old Australian girl living on Christmas Island. As Coralie throws lifejackets to people on the boat that has crashed into the cliffs she locks eyes on 11-year-old Iranian boy Ali who soon disappears beneath the waves. She resolves to find him. Matthew Spencer. Allen & Unwin. $34.99. From its clever opening line, this police procedural leads you with compelling precision through an increasingly suspenseful murder investigation in the fictional village of Red Creek located between the authentically drawn (and very non-fictional) hardscrabble town of Cessnock and the luxurious cellar doors, lush golf resorts and other tourist traps of Hunter Valley wine country. Homicide detective sergeant Rose Riley and journalist-turned-crime author Adam Bowman, first introduced in journalist-turned-crime author Matthew Spencer's 2023 debut novel Black River, make an engagingly reluctant double act probing the suspiciously staged murder of a young woman in a townhouse in a new residential estate. A Forbidden Alchemy Stacey McEwan. Simon & Schuster. $34.99. TikTok sensation and Australian fantasy novelist Stacey McEwan creates a rich new world in her newest dystopian series. This slow-burn adventure follows Nina Harrow as she tries to escape her mining town upbringing in dazzling Belavere City. Nina is desperate to become an "Artisan", wielding magical powers to fulfill the city's grand ambitions. But when a violent revolution comes, she faces an impossible choice. Expect political intrigue, suspense and romance, plus a few heart-stopping moments. McEwan, who was raised on the Gold Coast, has said her love for period dramas and World War I inspired the world of Belavere City. Jessica Dettmann. Atlantic Books Australia. $32.99. The fourth novel by Jessica Dettmann is billed as a witty heartwarmer for "every woman who has looked up and wondered where the past decade or two has gone, and whether she's made the right choices in the juggle of family, work and life". When Margot receives an email from friend Tess, it comes as a shock. Tess, the English backpacker Margot met in Sydney but never ended up travelling across Europe with because love and life got in the way, died 20 years ago. Now Tess is giving her the means to have that adventure but is Margot ready for her second chance?
The Advertiser
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
Beyoncé's mum offers rare insights into famous family
New books sampled this week include a memoir by Beyoncé's mum and He Would Never, the new novel by Holly Wainwright. Tina Knowles. Hachette. $34.99. Tina Knowles is Beyoncé's mum. In this memoir, the fashion designer recounts the family history and upbringing of the pop music megastar (and her singer sister Solange). Knowles offers rare insights into her famously private daughter's early life of school shyness and the discovery of her talent. She also writes about raising "bonus" daughter Kelly Rowland, as she and the other members of chart-topping '90s girl group Destiny's Child juggled fame and stardom at a young age. Billed as a celebration of "the world-changing power of black motherhood", the book has attracted praise from the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama. Raina MacIntyre. NewSouth Books. $34.99. "If there was a vaccine against heart attacks, would you take it?" asks world-leading epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre, before explaining that the answer is right in front of us. Vaccines that will help reduce the chances of cardiac issues already exist. Flu, shingles and (surprise!) COVID shots are among them. MacIntyre explains how vaccines changed the world, and how ignorance and complacency threaten to change it back. Among the important messages: COVID isn't over. If we don't act it will be with us for decades. (If you can't be bothered getting a flu jab, maybe start with the chapter on influenza.) Damon Young. Scribe. $32.99. Just how much is there to consider, analyse and write about the simple gesture involved in asking for a restaurant bill? Quite a lot, as it turns out, and it is fascinating. You know the signal: you pretend to hold a pen and twirl your wrist in the waiter's direction. What then, can be said about the "shush" gesture, or a shrug, or the "unsanitary and unnecessary ritual of the handshake" (ick warning)? Philosopher Damon Young goes deep into 13 gestures, drawing from Degas to Dr Who. Yes, it is about gestures, but this book is really about much more. Phil Craig. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. The final book in Phil Craig's Finest Hour trilogy examines how the closing chapters of World War II played out for Britain and its empire. In Europe, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was being liberated. In India, nationalists faced a choice between the Raj and the Axis. In Borneo, Australian soldiers are dropped behind enemy lines, but sadly not to rescue Australian prisoners from the infamous Sandakan POW camp. Perhaps most astonishingly, in Vietnam, where Ho Chi Minh was trying to curry favour with the US, the British used freed Japanese prisoners to attack his army and return Saigon to French control. Gareth Ward & Louise Ward. Penguin. $34.99. In 2013, six years after relocating to Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, former British police officers Gareth and Louise Ward bought a local bookshop that was closing down. They went against everyone's advice, including the shop's owner, but built the business back and opened a second store. The heroes of their Bookshop Detectives cosy crime mysteries are the husband-and-wife owners of the Sherlock Tomes bookshop in a tiny NZ town. The Wards follow their 2024 debut, Dead Girl Gone, with Tea and Cake and Death, in which book-selling sleuths Garth and Eloise Sherlock investigate deadly poisonings ahead of their annual Battle of the Book Clubs fundraiser. Cassie Hamer. HarperCollins. $14.99. For her fourth suburban noir since her 2020 debut After The Party, Sydney author Cassie Hamer adds misery, mystery and mayhem to the usual festering family angst of Christmas as Maz Antonio hosts her first big family gathering after two years in jail. To atone for her terrible mistakes and show their guests she can maintain her sobriety, Maz wants the lunch to be perfect for her husband and children. But who is the man impulsively invited along by her mum? Is he really a stranger or is he connected to the past Maz is so desperate to put behind her? Jacqueline Maley. 4th Estate. $34.99. The second novel by Nine newspapers columnist Jacqueline Maley (after 2021's The Truth About Her) follows half-sisters and their unreliable mother as they reconcile with the family ties that bind them and the hidden trauma that threatens to tear them apart. Lara is a model living carefree in France. Matilda is a chef in a fancy Sydney restaurant who prefers her life solitary and self-contained. Lara is 10 years younger than Matilda, but they are close - until a visit home by Lara and the return of her long-absent, erratic father trying to make amends for his past misdeeds, blows up Matilda's buttoned-down life. Holly Wainwright. Pan MacMillan. $34.99. The fifth novel by Mamamia podcaster Holly Wainwright is inspired by her family's long-standing annual camping holidays with a bunch of other families, and the diverse perspectives and strong bonds of friendship shared by the women. For her fiction, the NSW South Coast-based author follows five women as they gather with their families for their traditional summer camping holiday at Green River. They all met at a mother's group 14 years earlier. Liss and Lachy Short are still the gang's golden couple. But is Liss prepared to listen to her second family of truth-tellers about the kind of toxic man her husband really is? Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest book reviews and articles with ease. New books sampled this week include a memoir by Beyoncé's mum and He Would Never, the new novel by Holly Wainwright. Tina Knowles. Hachette. $34.99. Tina Knowles is Beyoncé's mum. In this memoir, the fashion designer recounts the family history and upbringing of the pop music megastar (and her singer sister Solange). Knowles offers rare insights into her famously private daughter's early life of school shyness and the discovery of her talent. She also writes about raising "bonus" daughter Kelly Rowland, as she and the other members of chart-topping '90s girl group Destiny's Child juggled fame and stardom at a young age. Billed as a celebration of "the world-changing power of black motherhood", the book has attracted praise from the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama. Raina MacIntyre. NewSouth Books. $34.99. "If there was a vaccine against heart attacks, would you take it?" asks world-leading epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre, before explaining that the answer is right in front of us. Vaccines that will help reduce the chances of cardiac issues already exist. Flu, shingles and (surprise!) COVID shots are among them. MacIntyre explains how vaccines changed the world, and how ignorance and complacency threaten to change it back. Among the important messages: COVID isn't over. If we don't act it will be with us for decades. (If you can't be bothered getting a flu jab, maybe start with the chapter on influenza.) Damon Young. Scribe. $32.99. Just how much is there to consider, analyse and write about the simple gesture involved in asking for a restaurant bill? Quite a lot, as it turns out, and it is fascinating. You know the signal: you pretend to hold a pen and twirl your wrist in the waiter's direction. What then, can be said about the "shush" gesture, or a shrug, or the "unsanitary and unnecessary ritual of the handshake" (ick warning)? Philosopher Damon Young goes deep into 13 gestures, drawing from Degas to Dr Who. Yes, it is about gestures, but this book is really about much more. Phil Craig. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. The final book in Phil Craig's Finest Hour trilogy examines how the closing chapters of World War II played out for Britain and its empire. In Europe, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was being liberated. In India, nationalists faced a choice between the Raj and the Axis. In Borneo, Australian soldiers are dropped behind enemy lines, but sadly not to rescue Australian prisoners from the infamous Sandakan POW camp. Perhaps most astonishingly, in Vietnam, where Ho Chi Minh was trying to curry favour with the US, the British used freed Japanese prisoners to attack his army and return Saigon to French control. Gareth Ward & Louise Ward. Penguin. $34.99. In 2013, six years after relocating to Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, former British police officers Gareth and Louise Ward bought a local bookshop that was closing down. They went against everyone's advice, including the shop's owner, but built the business back and opened a second store. The heroes of their Bookshop Detectives cosy crime mysteries are the husband-and-wife owners of the Sherlock Tomes bookshop in a tiny NZ town. The Wards follow their 2024 debut, Dead Girl Gone, with Tea and Cake and Death, in which book-selling sleuths Garth and Eloise Sherlock investigate deadly poisonings ahead of their annual Battle of the Book Clubs fundraiser. Cassie Hamer. HarperCollins. $14.99. For her fourth suburban noir since her 2020 debut After The Party, Sydney author Cassie Hamer adds misery, mystery and mayhem to the usual festering family angst of Christmas as Maz Antonio hosts her first big family gathering after two years in jail. To atone for her terrible mistakes and show their guests she can maintain her sobriety, Maz wants the lunch to be perfect for her husband and children. But who is the man impulsively invited along by her mum? Is he really a stranger or is he connected to the past Maz is so desperate to put behind her? Jacqueline Maley. 4th Estate. $34.99. The second novel by Nine newspapers columnist Jacqueline Maley (after 2021's The Truth About Her) follows half-sisters and their unreliable mother as they reconcile with the family ties that bind them and the hidden trauma that threatens to tear them apart. Lara is a model living carefree in France. Matilda is a chef in a fancy Sydney restaurant who prefers her life solitary and self-contained. Lara is 10 years younger than Matilda, but they are close - until a visit home by Lara and the return of her long-absent, erratic father trying to make amends for his past misdeeds, blows up Matilda's buttoned-down life. Holly Wainwright. Pan MacMillan. $34.99. The fifth novel by Mamamia podcaster Holly Wainwright is inspired by her family's long-standing annual camping holidays with a bunch of other families, and the diverse perspectives and strong bonds of friendship shared by the women. For her fiction, the NSW South Coast-based author follows five women as they gather with their families for their traditional summer camping holiday at Green River. They all met at a mother's group 14 years earlier. Liss and Lachy Short are still the gang's golden couple. But is Liss prepared to listen to her second family of truth-tellers about the kind of toxic man her husband really is? Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest book reviews and articles with ease. New books sampled this week include a memoir by Beyoncé's mum and He Would Never, the new novel by Holly Wainwright. Tina Knowles. Hachette. $34.99. Tina Knowles is Beyoncé's mum. In this memoir, the fashion designer recounts the family history and upbringing of the pop music megastar (and her singer sister Solange). Knowles offers rare insights into her famously private daughter's early life of school shyness and the discovery of her talent. She also writes about raising "bonus" daughter Kelly Rowland, as she and the other members of chart-topping '90s girl group Destiny's Child juggled fame and stardom at a young age. Billed as a celebration of "the world-changing power of black motherhood", the book has attracted praise from the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama. Raina MacIntyre. NewSouth Books. $34.99. "If there was a vaccine against heart attacks, would you take it?" asks world-leading epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre, before explaining that the answer is right in front of us. Vaccines that will help reduce the chances of cardiac issues already exist. Flu, shingles and (surprise!) COVID shots are among them. MacIntyre explains how vaccines changed the world, and how ignorance and complacency threaten to change it back. Among the important messages: COVID isn't over. If we don't act it will be with us for decades. (If you can't be bothered getting a flu jab, maybe start with the chapter on influenza.) Damon Young. Scribe. $32.99. Just how much is there to consider, analyse and write about the simple gesture involved in asking for a restaurant bill? Quite a lot, as it turns out, and it is fascinating. You know the signal: you pretend to hold a pen and twirl your wrist in the waiter's direction. What then, can be said about the "shush" gesture, or a shrug, or the "unsanitary and unnecessary ritual of the handshake" (ick warning)? Philosopher Damon Young goes deep into 13 gestures, drawing from Degas to Dr Who. Yes, it is about gestures, but this book is really about much more. Phil Craig. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. The final book in Phil Craig's Finest Hour trilogy examines how the closing chapters of World War II played out for Britain and its empire. In Europe, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was being liberated. In India, nationalists faced a choice between the Raj and the Axis. In Borneo, Australian soldiers are dropped behind enemy lines, but sadly not to rescue Australian prisoners from the infamous Sandakan POW camp. Perhaps most astonishingly, in Vietnam, where Ho Chi Minh was trying to curry favour with the US, the British used freed Japanese prisoners to attack his army and return Saigon to French control. Gareth Ward & Louise Ward. Penguin. $34.99. In 2013, six years after relocating to Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, former British police officers Gareth and Louise Ward bought a local bookshop that was closing down. They went against everyone's advice, including the shop's owner, but built the business back and opened a second store. The heroes of their Bookshop Detectives cosy crime mysteries are the husband-and-wife owners of the Sherlock Tomes bookshop in a tiny NZ town. The Wards follow their 2024 debut, Dead Girl Gone, with Tea and Cake and Death, in which book-selling sleuths Garth and Eloise Sherlock investigate deadly poisonings ahead of their annual Battle of the Book Clubs fundraiser. Cassie Hamer. HarperCollins. $14.99. For her fourth suburban noir since her 2020 debut After The Party, Sydney author Cassie Hamer adds misery, mystery and mayhem to the usual festering family angst of Christmas as Maz Antonio hosts her first big family gathering after two years in jail. To atone for her terrible mistakes and show their guests she can maintain her sobriety, Maz wants the lunch to be perfect for her husband and children. But who is the man impulsively invited along by her mum? Is he really a stranger or is he connected to the past Maz is so desperate to put behind her? Jacqueline Maley. 4th Estate. $34.99. The second novel by Nine newspapers columnist Jacqueline Maley (after 2021's The Truth About Her) follows half-sisters and their unreliable mother as they reconcile with the family ties that bind them and the hidden trauma that threatens to tear them apart. Lara is a model living carefree in France. Matilda is a chef in a fancy Sydney restaurant who prefers her life solitary and self-contained. Lara is 10 years younger than Matilda, but they are close - until a visit home by Lara and the return of her long-absent, erratic father trying to make amends for his past misdeeds, blows up Matilda's buttoned-down life. Holly Wainwright. Pan MacMillan. $34.99. The fifth novel by Mamamia podcaster Holly Wainwright is inspired by her family's long-standing annual camping holidays with a bunch of other families, and the diverse perspectives and strong bonds of friendship shared by the women. For her fiction, the NSW South Coast-based author follows five women as they gather with their families for their traditional summer camping holiday at Green River. They all met at a mother's group 14 years earlier. Liss and Lachy Short are still the gang's golden couple. But is Liss prepared to listen to her second family of truth-tellers about the kind of toxic man her husband really is? Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest book reviews and articles with ease. New books sampled this week include a memoir by Beyoncé's mum and He Would Never, the new novel by Holly Wainwright. Tina Knowles. Hachette. $34.99. Tina Knowles is Beyoncé's mum. In this memoir, the fashion designer recounts the family history and upbringing of the pop music megastar (and her singer sister Solange). Knowles offers rare insights into her famously private daughter's early life of school shyness and the discovery of her talent. She also writes about raising "bonus" daughter Kelly Rowland, as she and the other members of chart-topping '90s girl group Destiny's Child juggled fame and stardom at a young age. Billed as a celebration of "the world-changing power of black motherhood", the book has attracted praise from the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama. Raina MacIntyre. NewSouth Books. $34.99. "If there was a vaccine against heart attacks, would you take it?" asks world-leading epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre, before explaining that the answer is right in front of us. Vaccines that will help reduce the chances of cardiac issues already exist. Flu, shingles and (surprise!) COVID shots are among them. MacIntyre explains how vaccines changed the world, and how ignorance and complacency threaten to change it back. Among the important messages: COVID isn't over. If we don't act it will be with us for decades. (If you can't be bothered getting a flu jab, maybe start with the chapter on influenza.) Damon Young. Scribe. $32.99. Just how much is there to consider, analyse and write about the simple gesture involved in asking for a restaurant bill? Quite a lot, as it turns out, and it is fascinating. You know the signal: you pretend to hold a pen and twirl your wrist in the waiter's direction. What then, can be said about the "shush" gesture, or a shrug, or the "unsanitary and unnecessary ritual of the handshake" (ick warning)? Philosopher Damon Young goes deep into 13 gestures, drawing from Degas to Dr Who. Yes, it is about gestures, but this book is really about much more. Phil Craig. Hodder & Stoughton. $34.99. The final book in Phil Craig's Finest Hour trilogy examines how the closing chapters of World War II played out for Britain and its empire. In Europe, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was being liberated. In India, nationalists faced a choice between the Raj and the Axis. In Borneo, Australian soldiers are dropped behind enemy lines, but sadly not to rescue Australian prisoners from the infamous Sandakan POW camp. Perhaps most astonishingly, in Vietnam, where Ho Chi Minh was trying to curry favour with the US, the British used freed Japanese prisoners to attack his army and return Saigon to French control. Gareth Ward & Louise Ward. Penguin. $34.99. In 2013, six years after relocating to Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, former British police officers Gareth and Louise Ward bought a local bookshop that was closing down. They went against everyone's advice, including the shop's owner, but built the business back and opened a second store. The heroes of their Bookshop Detectives cosy crime mysteries are the husband-and-wife owners of the Sherlock Tomes bookshop in a tiny NZ town. The Wards follow their 2024 debut, Dead Girl Gone, with Tea and Cake and Death, in which book-selling sleuths Garth and Eloise Sherlock investigate deadly poisonings ahead of their annual Battle of the Book Clubs fundraiser. Cassie Hamer. HarperCollins. $14.99. For her fourth suburban noir since her 2020 debut After The Party, Sydney author Cassie Hamer adds misery, mystery and mayhem to the usual festering family angst of Christmas as Maz Antonio hosts her first big family gathering after two years in jail. To atone for her terrible mistakes and show their guests she can maintain her sobriety, Maz wants the lunch to be perfect for her husband and children. But who is the man impulsively invited along by her mum? Is he really a stranger or is he connected to the past Maz is so desperate to put behind her? Jacqueline Maley. 4th Estate. $34.99. The second novel by Nine newspapers columnist Jacqueline Maley (after 2021's The Truth About Her) follows half-sisters and their unreliable mother as they reconcile with the family ties that bind them and the hidden trauma that threatens to tear them apart. Lara is a model living carefree in France. Matilda is a chef in a fancy Sydney restaurant who prefers her life solitary and self-contained. Lara is 10 years younger than Matilda, but they are close - until a visit home by Lara and the return of her long-absent, erratic father trying to make amends for his past misdeeds, blows up Matilda's buttoned-down life. Holly Wainwright. Pan MacMillan. $34.99. The fifth novel by Mamamia podcaster Holly Wainwright is inspired by her family's long-standing annual camping holidays with a bunch of other families, and the diverse perspectives and strong bonds of friendship shared by the women. For her fiction, the NSW South Coast-based author follows five women as they gather with their families for their traditional summer camping holiday at Green River. They all met at a mother's group 14 years earlier. Liss and Lachy Short are still the gang's golden couple. But is Liss prepared to listen to her second family of truth-tellers about the kind of toxic man her husband really is? Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest book reviews and articles with ease.
