Penguin

Best Books 2023

The Best Books of the Year: 2023

With Christmas less than a week away, at the AU we’ve got to the task of agonising and arguing over our end of year lists – best albums, best films, best games, and of course best books. The Books team have taken a look over the year’s releases and compiled a list of some of…

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Briohny Doyle

Book Review: Briohny Doyle’s Why We Are Here teaches that when life knocks you down have faith in Dog

Miles Franklin Award nominated author Briohny Doyle earlier this year released, Why We Are Here, a touching new novel about love, loss, dogs and golf courses. Frankly any book that starts with discussions of dogs’ scrotums and golf course mishaps has succeeded in piquing my interest. The novel follows the story of a girl –…

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But The Girl

Book Review: But the Girl by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu is a vividly realised and compelling novel

Author and University of Melbourne lecturer Jessica Zhan Mei Yu is a writer of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Holding a PhD in Creative Writing, But The Girl, is her first novel. A deeply introspective and at times heavy read, the story transports us to the vibrant streets of London. Here, we encounter an Australian narrator…

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Pageboy

Book Review: Elliot Page’s Pageboy is an honest and generous memoir

Pageboy is the recent memoir from Elliot Page, an actor known for his starring roles in Juno, Whip It!, and most recently The Umbrella Academy series. Pageboy is different from many other celebrity memoirs in that the subject wrote it entirely himself, and not through using a ghost writer. This has the effect of the…

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The AU’s Most Anticipated Books of 2023: Jul – Sep

Somewhat inexplicably we are over half way through the year. This means, for publishers at least, it’s time to start thinking about Christmas, with September often seeing some of the year’s biggest titles drop.  We in the AU Books Team aren’t thinking about Christmas just yet, but we are here to bring you some more…

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Wild Dogs

“The way it feels, the way it smells, and the way it sounds”: Michael Trant talks about his new thriller Wild Dogs

Michael Trant is a WA country boy who now resides in Perth after a variety of careers ranging from farmer, marine draftsman, pastoralist, and FIFO pot washer. He writes with an authentic rural voice, drawing on his experiences to open readers to places and lifestyles foreign to many. Trent is passionate about farming, writing and…

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Best Books 2021

The Best Books of The Year: 2021

2021. We had high hopes. But it’s been another year of uncertainty and upheaval – albeit perhaps not as bad as last year. It has been another strong year for books and publishing, with some big names returning with new books: Colson Whitehead, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Sally Rooney to name just three.  It’s also…

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Drew Barrymore

Recipe: Cook Harissa Spaghetti from Drew Barrymore’s new cookbook Rebel Homemaker

Actress Drew Barrymore is joining the ranks of lifestyle authors, with her debut lifestyle guide and cookbook Rebel Homemaker.  In Rebel Homemaker, Barrymore takes you inside her kitchen and her life, as she shares stories, recipes and personal photos. Alongside thirty-six recipes, she will also be sharing personal essays and stories about topics such as…

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The AU’s Most Anticipated Books of 2021: Oct – Dec

2021 is coming into the final stretch, the final quarter, and with that comes more books – all vying for the Christmas market. It’s 81days to go, if you were curious.  So we’re back for our final instalment of our AU’s Most Anticipated Reads feature for this year. Though we’ll be back just before Christmas…

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Tour

Book Review: Andrew Mackie’s The Tour is marketed as a treat for fans of The Crown, but does it measure up?

In 1954, the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II undertook a royal tour of the colonies to meet her new subjects. She was accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, and the usual bevy of ladies in waiting and staff. The Tour, the debut novel by Transmission Films producer and film distributor Andrew Mackie fictionalises this journey…

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The Freedom Circus

Book Review: Survival, love, and circus clowns abound in Sue Smethurst’s The Freedom Circus

The first time Sue Smethurst sat down with her husband’s grandmother and asked about her experiences during the Holocaust, she was shooed away. Surrounded by fellow survivors in the Montefiroe Jewish nursing home in Melbourne, Mindla (pronounced Marnya) Horowitz felt no need to share her story. Everyone around her had one much the same, after…

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Book Review: Sohaila Abdulali’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape is an uncomfortable yet vital discourse on sexual assault and its aftermath

Combining memoir, social science, and collected stories, author Sohaila Abdulali provides readers with a well-researched exploration of the many discursive threads surrounding rape and sexual assault. It is, quite simply, a vital piece of literature for the post #MeToo world and beyond. All around the world, definitions differ, and coping mechanisms vary, making the topic both…

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The AU Review’s Top Ten Books of 2017

Happy New Year everyone. Now we’ve packed away the Christmas decorations and finished the last of the festive treats, we in the book review team at the AU thought it’d be a good time to look back at some of our favourite books of the last year. A veritable smorgasbord of great books were released…

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