Jo Case
Jo Case is a former Readings Doncaster bookseller
Blog post — 27 Jul 2017
Exciting new releases in August
I first discovered Jock Serong last year, when Readings’ Stella Charls, Alice Pung and I were reading through an enormous book pile, judging the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction…
Review — 24 Jul 2017
Evening Primrose by Kopano Matlwa
Masechaba, a medical intern in a South African hospital, is a teenager suffering excruciating periods when she’s inspired to become a doctor. Her secret plan is to one day convince…
Review — 24 Jul 2017
Thirty Days by Mark Raphael Baker
Older readers (like me) might remember Mark Raphael Baker’s critically acclaimed, deeply moving family memoir, The Fiftieth Gate, about the experiences of his Holocaust survivor parents. His second book…
Review — 24 Jul 2017
Watching Out by Julian Burnside
Julian Burnside, intellectual hero of the left and early advocate for the rights of asylum seekers, voted Liberal in every election from 1972 to 1996. And while he infamously defended…
Review — 26 Jun 2017
Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy
Maile Meloy is one of my favourite writers. Her short stories are regularly published in The New Yorker (and were recently adapted for the film Certain Women, with Laura…
Review — 23 Jul 2017
Big Little Lies
Fantasy dreamscape flashes to nightmare, and back again, in the HBO limited series Big Little Lies, based on Liane Moriarty’s bestselling novel and masterfully directed by Jean-Marc Valee (…
Review — 26 Jun 2017
The Mighty Franks by Michael Frank
I gobbled up this deliciously dark, profoundly poignant memoir in two half-days. The Mighty Franks is Hollywood gothic, complete with distorted families, claustrophobic passions, silver-screen glamour (sometimes borrowed, sometimes earned)…
Blog post — 18 May 2017
My five favourite books about writers
1. Jo March
It’s no coincidence that my name is Jo. Okay, I’m not named after her, but I’ve always identified with Little Women’s tomboyish writer Jo March. The second-oldest…
Review — 25 Apr 2017
Lion
Lion opens in remote rural India, where tiny Saroo, having promised to wait for his brother on a train platform, curls up in a stationary train carriage, and wakes up…
Blog post — 4 May 2017
Exciting new releases in May
There’s something both delicious and dangerous about working in a bookshop. Every other day, I discover a new – or old – book that I suddenly can’t live without. It’s…