Biography and memoir
Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassef
Let me tell you where I have been this week – Cairo! Jealous? Of course, but the good news is you can go too. I loved the visit: it was hot, culturally interesting, and I browsed a wonderful bookshop, but…
How We Love: Notes on a Life by Clementine Ford
There are so many adages running through my head as I try to sum up the latest work of author and commentator Clementine Ford. Mainly though, I have Tina Turner’s words on repeat: what’s love got to do with it…
How to End a Story: Diaries, 1995–1998 by Helen Garner
One can only imagine the enormous bravery it must take to publish a diary. Sharing your most private thoughts with the world is not for the faint of heart. But, faint of heart is not a term I would ever…
Whole Notes: Life Lessons Through Music by Ed Ayres
Writer, musician, teacher and broadcaster Ed Ayres had the idea for his fourth book, Whole Notes: Life Lessons Through Music, long before the pandemic. Yet you’d be hard-pressed to find a book more fitting for these uncertain times than…
Nina Simone’s Gum by Warren Ellis
When I was a boy, my mother declared chewing gum to be a filthy habit. I dutifully took up smoking. Dr Nina Simone chose to do both, right up to the end. And why not. She was a god. Tempestuous…
Funkytown by Paul Kennedy
The title of Paul Kennedy’s memoir, ‘Funkytown’, is the name that Kennedy’s sister gives to Frankston, the large suburb next to their home in Seaford in bayside Melbourne. TheABC journalist grew up in the area, and this book explores his…
My Friend Fox by Heidi Everett
Heidi Everett meets her friend the fox on a rainy, winter’s night in Melbourne. She has been walking for two weeks. The encounter is life-changing as the fox helps her to understandthat she needs support to survive: ‘It’s one thing…
Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi
Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir is written as a collection of letters to friends. It’s both exhilarating and exhausting – like a friend calling you up and unloading their dramas onto you – but if you’re patient and let…
Muddy People: A Memoir by Sara El Sayed
Muddy People is the warm and welcoming debut memoir from Egyptian-born Brisbane-based writer Sara El Sayed. As vividly realised as the book’s enticing cover, El Sayed’s stories centre on her relationships with her family (her Mama, Baba, maternal grandmother Nana…
Late Bloomer by Clem Bastow
Throughout her life, Clem Bastow went through periods of intense obsession with dinosaurs, musical theatre and professional wrestling. Fresh out of school, she threw herself into music journalism and feature writing, outpacing just about every other freelancer on the scene…
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