Susan Stevenson
Susan Stevenson is from Readings Malvern
Review — 27 Jun 2021
The Story of Australia by Don Watson
In The Story of Australia: For the Young (and the Curious), Don Watson has created a toolbox of critical thinking for young readers. Not just a catalogue of the…
Review — 1 Jun 2021
The Republic of False Truths by Alaa Al Aswany
Due to his outspoken criticism of various Egyptian regimes, novelist Alaa Al Aswany has been forced to leave his country. Exile has not silenced him though. In his new book…
Review — 1 Oct 2020
A Letter to Layla by Ramona Koval
Ramona Koval’s A Letter to Layla examines what it means to be human. In an affectionate account of Homo sapiens’ origins, she explores what has given us our current dominance…
Review — 2 Aug 2020
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell
David Mitchell’s new novel, Utopia Avenue, is a love letter to the music of the 1960s on both sides of the Atlantic. In it, the process of music-making is…
Review — 23 Sep 2019
There Was Still Love by Favel Parrett
With its pared back, elegant writing, Favel Parrett’s When The Night Comes is one of my favourite Australian novels. Her new book There Was Still Love examines loss, exile and…
Review — 19 Aug 2018
Active Labour: Memoirs of a Working-Class Doctor by Percy Rogers
Active Labour, the title of Percy Rogers’ autobiography, alludes to his work as an obstetrician pioneering the Lamaze method of childbirth, and also his life-long commitment to social activism…
Review — 28 May 2018
Bluebottle by Belinda Castles
Set on Sydney’s Barrenjoey peninsula, the sea is a constant presence throughout Belinda Castles’ Bluebottle. From the cliff-top shack where architect Charlie Bright and his photogenic family spend Christmas…
Review — 22 Jul 2018
Beautiful Revolutionary by Laura Elizabeth Woollett
It is hard to imagine a society so disillusioned it could be seduced by a character like Jim Jones – and hard to believe someone could be as charismatic as…
Review — 22 Oct 2017
Mrs. M by Luke Slattery
Over the course of a long, sleepless night, Elizabeth Macquarie composes an epitaph for her husband, Governor Lachlan Macquarie. From widowhood on the Isle of Mull, she revisits their part…