The Commando Way by Bram Connolly Allen & Unwin Bram Connolly spent 20 years in the armed forces from the age of 17. After rigorous training, he was deployed to Somalia at the age of 19 and also served several tours of duty in East Timor and Afghanistan. As a commander for the Australian Special […]
The winners of the 2019 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards were announced at the State Library of Western Australia on Friday night. Holden Sheppard was awarded the $15,000 Premier’s Prize for an Emerging Writer for his young adult novel Invisible Boys. The judges lauded the powerful young adult novel as funny, yet devastating with vividly imagined […]
The Dead Line by Holly Watt Raven Books Casey Benedict works as an investigative reporter for the Post newspaper in London. When the fashion editor presents her with a taffeta and tulle skirt for a high end fashion shop, she sees there is a piece of white silk folded among the petticoats. Embroidered on the […]
Bush School by Peter O’Brien Allen & Unwin In 2017 Peter O’Brien was invited to a reunion of students who had graduated from Balmain Teachers College sixty years before. At the gathering, it was suggested that those who had been sent to remote one-teacher schools record their experiences for historical interest. It wasn’t long before […]
Olive by Emma Gannon HarperCollins Olive is the same age as her mother was when she gave birth to her and she faces the “mother of all choices”. The number one conversation of everyone around her, including her boyfriend of 9 years, is – when is she going to consider having a baby? Olive finds […]
Money for Something by Mia Walsch Echo It was a relief when nineteen year old Mia Walsch was fired from her job in the windowless room full of filing cabinets. Pretending to be ‘normal’ for eight hours a day was sucking at her soul. So she answered a newspaper ad – “Erotic Massage, Good Money. […]
Enid by Robert Wainwright Allen & Unwin Enid’s grandfather Dr Henry Lindeman was a Hunter Valley pioneer in establishing Australia’s wine industry. Her father and his brothers carried on the business, with her father buying hotels to stock Lindeman wines in their cellars. Enid, born in 1892, was the fifth child after four sons. Her […]
Western Australian author Holden Sheppard continues to rack up accolades for his debut novel, Invisible Boys, taking a place on the shortlist for the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards. The multi-award winning novel tells the story of three young gay men learning to understand their sexuality in rural WA, and has now been nominated for the Premier’s […]
Not That I’d Kiss a Girl by Lil O’Brien Allen & Unwin This Kiwi girl’s tale begins with a ‘bang’ – of her parents’ front door. Nineteen year-old Lil is on her semester break from the University of Otago in Dunedin. She stays at her parents’ place even though she knows that being gay is […]
Better Luck Next Time by Kate Hilton Allen & Unwin We meet the Goldstein-Hennessey family at a Christmas gathering of the clan and fortunately there is a list of characters at the beginning of the book to help keep track of them as the reader follows the many unfolding dramas. Trying to play happy families […]
