Most anticipated nonfiction books for the second half of the year
It's hard to believe we're already in August and publishers have finalised (mostly!) their lists for Summer 2024. It will be difficult to eclipse what has already been a very strong year, but we think you'll agree from the preview selection below that there's much to look forward to in the coming months. Many of our favourite authors are releasing books and we hope to see you as they begin to grace our shelves and online collections.
📚 BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
Three Wild Dogs and the Truth by Markus Zusak
What happens when the Zusaks open their family home to three big, wild, pound-hardened dogs: Reuben, a wolf at your door with a hacksaw; Archer, blond, beautiful, deadly; and the rancorously smiling Frosty, who walks like a rolling thunderstorm? The answer can only be chaos: there are street fights, park fights, public shamings, property trashing, bodily injuries, stomach pumping, purest comedy, shocking tragedy, and carnage that needs to be seen to be believed ... not to mention the odd police visit at some ungodly hour of the morning. There is a reckoning of shortcomings and failure, a strengthening of will, but most important of all, an explosion of love - and the joy and recognition of family.
We Are the Stars by Gina Chick
Gina Chick, the inaugural winner of Alone Australia, tells the story of her extraordinary, indomitable life in one of the most powerful, moving memoirs you will ever read.
From day one of her wildly unconventional childhood, Gina Chick blazed her own trail, which led her to dance through the hidden world of 90’s Sydney nightlife into the arms of a conman. She fled to the wilderness to find healing, began a wondrous love affair with the deepest lessons life – and death – can offer, and found that all the answers are written in the wisdom of the body and the whirling silence of stars.
If you’re ready to get lost in jungles, wander into wolf-dens, sing with storms, rescue orphaned animals, dive to the depths, dance ‘til your knees wobble, fall in love, find yourself by losing it all, and most of all be real; this book is for you.
Australian Gospel by Lech Blaine
Michael and Mary Shelley are Christian fanatics who loathe their fellow Australians – especially their 'foul language, reckless indulgence of alcohol and obsession with idiotic ball sports'.
Lenore and Tom Blaine are working-class Queensland publicans raising a large family in a raucous, loving, rugby-league-obsessed home.
There's just one problem. The Blaines are foster parents to three of the Shelleys' children, who were removed from Michael and Mary as infants. And the Shelleys are prepared to do anything to get them back. Anything.
From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa Marie Presley & Riley Keough
In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-gestating memoir. A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and grieved.
Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, laid in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran towards his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they shared in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother's wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world.
📖 Also look forward to books by/about Alexei Navalny, John Farnham, Elle MacPherson, Robert Manne, Bill Clinton, Al Pacino, Cher, Didion & Babitz, Richard Scolyer, Kasey Chambers, Noni Hazelhurst, Ben Shewry, Darren Hayes, and more.
📚 NONFICTION
The Season by Helen Garner
It's footy season in Melbourne, and Helen Garner is following her grandson's suburban team. She turns up not only at every game (give or take), but at every training session, shivering on the sidelines in the dark, fascinated by the spectacle.
She's a passionate Western Bulldogs supporter (with a rather shaky grasp of the rules) and a great admirer of the players and the epic theatre of the game. But this is something more than that. It is a chance to connect with her youngest grandchild, to be close to him in his last moments as a child and in his headlong rush into manhood. To witness his triumphs and defeats, to fear for his safety in battle, to gasp and to cheer for the team as it fights its way towards the finals.
Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari
For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI - a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. If we are so wise, why are we so self-destructive?
Nexus considers how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age through the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism and the resurgence of populism today, Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence.
Always Was, Always Will Be by Thomas Mayo
Since the referendum, supporters and volunteers have been asking for guidance as to how to continue to support Indigenous recognition. Mayo, a leader of the Yes 23 campaign and co-author of the bestselling The Voice to Parliament Handbook, has penned a new book to answer that question. Always Was, Always Will Be is essential reading for those people who want to keep the positive momentum going and the number of allies growing. It’s for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who are ready to do everything they can to close the gap.
For the thousands of people who have been feeling sad, empty and powerless since last October, Always Was, Always Will Be aims to be a positive rallying cry. This book will map the path toward next steps on how to create a fairer Australia.
The Position of Spoons by Deborah Levy
Deborah Levy invites the reader into the interiors of her world, sharing her most intimate thoughts and experiences, as she traces and measures her life against the backdrop of the literary and artistic muses that have shaped her. From Marguerite Duras to Colette and Ballard, and from Lee Miller to Francesca Woodman and Paula Rego, we can relish here the richness of their work and, in turn the richness of the author’s own.
Each page draws upon Levy’s life in exalting ways, encapsulating the wonderful precision and astonishing depth of her writing, as she seamlessly shifts between and meditates on questions of mortality, language, suburbia, gender, consumerism and the poetics of every day living. From the child born in South Africa, to her teenage years in Britain, to her travels across the world as a young woman, each page is a beautiful, tender composition of the questioning self: a portrait of Deborah Levy’s writing life and intellectual vitality in all of its dimensions.
📖 Also look forward to books by: David Marr, Clare Wright, Stephen Fry, William Dalrymple, Virginia Trioli, Tim Minchin, Thomas Piketty, John Safran, Tom Holland & Dominic Sandbrook, Gillian Anderson and more
📚 COOKBOOKS
RecipeTin Eats: Tonight by Nagi Maehashi
Australia's favourite home cook, Nagi Maehashi, is back to solve the perennial problem of what's for dinner tonight and every night. Following on from her record-breaking first cookbook, Dinner, Nagi brings us Tonight with more than 150 brand-new foolproof, flavour-packed recipes, 800 variations on those recipes and 3000 possible combinations that match formulas (including the world-famous Charlie sauce) with different ingredients.
There are crave-worthy crowd-pleasers, dinners which can be cooked in 20 minutes, and others using only pantry staples. Each recipe has a stunning photo and link to a how-to video – this is a book for every Australian kitchen, every level of cooking ability, every budget and every single night of the week.
Good Cooking Every Day by Julia Busuttil Nishimura
Julia Busuttil Nishimura is one of Australia's best-loved food personalities, renowned for her generous, uncomplicated, seasonal cooking. Good Cooking Every Day is all about simple food and creating memorable meals.
This collection of brilliant recipes includes a guide to creating menus for any occasion, from a celebration of summer produce to pure comfort food in cooler weather, a simple family dinner to a relaxed lunch with friends. Julia pairs ingredients in harmonious and delicious ways, with recipes for every season. This is everyday eating at its very best.
Ottolenghi COMFORT by Yotam Ottolenghi & Helen Goh
In his much-anticipated new book, Yotam Ottolenghi brings his inspiring, flavour-forward approach to comfort cooking, delivering new classics that taste of home.
A bowl of pasta becomes Caramelised Onion Orecchiette with Hazelnuts & Crispy Sage, a warming soup is Cheesy Bread Soup with Savoy Cabbage & Cavolo Nero, and a plate of mash is transformed into Garlicky Aligot Potato with Leeks & Thyme.
Weaving memories of childhood and travel with over 100 irresistible recipes, Ottolenghi COMFORT is a celebration of food and home – of the connections we make as we cook, and pass on from generation to generation.
Vegan Italian Food by Shannon Martinez
In Vegan Italian Food, Australia's number one vegan chef Shannon Martinez celebrates the joys of Italian food in signature riotous style.
Discover meat-free versions of delicious antipasti, elegant pastas such as tortellini in brodo, red sauce meatballs (vegan, of course), plus vibrant vegetables, sides, salads and an extensive range of desserts inspired by the world's favourite cuisine.
A magnificent meat-free celebration of the joy of Italian food – taking style cues from Scarface to La Dolce Vita – Vegan Italian Food is a party for the ages and one you won't want to miss.
