A beginner's guide to...
Sometimes you want to begin reading an author but you’re not sure where to start. We’re here to help. We’ve written six beginner guides, covering the work of five of our favourite authors and an entire genre of cookbooks.
Emily Gale is the ‘ultimate fanwoman’ for Liane Moriarty. She writes: “…Moriarty feels like my incredibly funny, sharply observant and quietly clever friend. She’s no show-off. She can be warm and perceptive, artful and surprising.”
Read our beginner’s guide to Liane Moriarty here.
Curtis Sittenfeld is one of Nina Kenwood’s ‘all-time favourite authors’. She writes: “I love her books passionately. There’s a quality to her writing I find addictive, in a way I can’t quite explain. I like the way she puts her sentences together, I like her (often times infuriating) characters, I like the way she captures little details about people or places that bring them to life.”
Read our beginner’s guide to Curtis Sittenfeld here.
Nina has also put together a guide for another favourite author, Rainbow Rowell. She writes: “If you’re a Rowell newbie and you’re considering reading her novels, first ask yourself if you are open to books that include a combination of these three things: teenage protagonists, pop culture references and romantic entanglements. Did you answer yes? Excellent, come right this way.”
Read our beginner’s guide to Rainbow Rowell here.
If fantasy, sci-fi, magic realism – or, even better, all three – sounds more to your taste, Alan Vaarwek is an avid Kelly Link fan. He writes: “Link’s stories are funny, sexy, grotesque and ridiculous, and have been compared with Ursula K Le Guin, George Saunders and Neil Gaiman, among others. Rather than highlighting the fantastical in the mundane world, Link has an uncanny knack for highlighting the mundane in the fantastical, her characters just as bored and horny as the rest of us.”
Read our beginner’s guide to Kelly Link here.
Keeping in mind the trials of parenting, Dani Solomon has put together a guide for introducing your children to Emily Rodda. She writes: “If you haven’t picked up a fantasy novel since childhood but want to introduce your children to the magic of
reading about
magic – never fear. Here I provide a stepping-stone guide for your children to follow, through the books of Emily Rodda, the deserved queen of the junior fantasy genre.”
Read our beginner’s guide to Emily Rodda here.
Finally, if you’d rather keep warm by staying near a hot oven than snuggling up under a doona – and you also want to eat less meat in your diet – Bronte Coates has put together a guide to help you find the perfect vegetarian cookbooks to start with. Whether you’re a foodie-, travel-bug- or just plain old reluctant-vegetarian, there’s something for you in this guide.
