Darkness For Light by Emma Viskic Echo Publishing A bout of meningitis left Caleb Zelic deaf when he was 5 years of age so he became proficient at watching body language and picking up tell-tale signs that people try to hide. Lip reading can be full of hazards – beards, swollen lips and people looking […]
Further Fables: Queer and Familiar by Margaret Marrilees Wakefield Press Fables: Queer and Familiar started online and then the stories were broadcast as a radio serial before being published as a collection in 2014. These further fables take the characters from Australian writer Margaret Marrilees’ most recent novel Big Rough Stones and the reader is […]
How Fear Works: Culture of Fear in the 21st Century by Frank Furedi Bloomsbury The television news headlines were as depressing as usual. This time is was forecasts of “hellish catastrophic weather for Sydney”, “fears that the black plague might return” and surveys finding that “most people are anxious about the state of the economy”. […]
The Four Paws of Spiritual Success by David Michie Hay House For those of you who have met the Dalai Lama’s cat before in a previous book by Subiaco writer David Michie (The Dalai Lama’s Cat, The Art of Purring, The Power of Meow), she is back … just as vain and just as insightful […]
Sex Power Money by Sara Pascoe Allen & Unwin Highly acclaimed comedian, writer and actor Sara Pascoe has turned her attention to all things that matter to us human animals – sex, power and money – concentrating mainly on how evolution has molded human sexuality. Noticing that the male/female dichotomy is imposed from birth, she […]
I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott Murdoch Books Mary Laura Philpott has written for The New York Times, The Paris Review and O The Oprah Magazine, examining the overlap between the absurd and the profound in her life. In this memoir-in-essays, she shares the humour of her life’s more memorable moments […]
In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy by Frederic Martel Bloomsbury Publishing This timely book has been published simultaneously in 8 languages and 20 countries. The result of a 4 year investigation where 1500 people were questioned at the Vatican and in 30 countries, it reveals “fifty shades of gay” in the men […]
Rolling with the Punchlines by Urzila Carlson Allen & Unwin Comedian Urzila Carlson has made a big splash in Australia and New Zealand where she lives with her wife and two children. Originally from South Africa, she did her first stand-up gig did as a dare from her workmates in 2008. She now has regular […]
Without A Doubt by Fleur McDonald Allen & Unwin Esperance farmer and writer Fleur McDonald has written a succession of books that allow her readers to get to know rural Australia much better. In Without A Doubt, she continues the adventures of Detective Dave Burrows, who has been posted to the remote country town of […]
Thirty Thousand Bottles of Wine and a Pig Called Helga By Todd Alexander Simon & Schuster Australia Todd and Jeff had had enough of the city. Todd was a high-flying marketing executive “living the classic city lifestyle of hard work and even harder play”. He lived with Jeff, who worked for a cancer charity, in […]
