Nonfiction
Out of the Box: A One-Stop Guide to Navigating Neurodivergence by Madonna King & Rebecca Sparrow
Finally, we have the first Australian book on parenting a neurodivergent child! The authors surveyed 1,300 families who have an immediate family member, mostly children, who identify as neurodivergent. They also interviewed 600 educators about neurodiversity in the classroom and…
Enchantment by Birds: A History of Birdwatching in 22 Species by Russell McGregor
Reading, like birdwatching, draws participants of every plumage, from the studious (ornithologists), to the appreciative (birdwatchers) and the voracious list-tickers among us (twitchers). Russell McGregor’s Enchantment by Birds is for all types of readers and birders – it’s a history…
Noble Fragments: The Maverick Who Broke Up the World’s Greatest Book by Michael Visontay
At home, my bookshelves abound with volumes regarding art collectors and collections, and book collectors, mostly relating to the research and recovery of looted and dispersed objects. I love reading about the rich and complex histories of collectors of paintings…
The Season by Helen Garner
Helen Garner came late to football. In her new book, The Season, she reflects on how she only started to appreciate it in recent years, as Melbourne bounced in and out of lockdowns. She writes, ‘I saw it as…
Murriyang: Song of Time by Stan Grant
Stan Grant needs no introduction. When he retired from the ABC in 2023 after a string of racial abuse, just months before the Voice to Parliament Referendum, he said, ‘Don’t mistake [First Nations Australians’] love for weakness – it is…
Black Convicts: How Slavery Shaped Australia by Santilla Chingaipe
The history of slavery in Australia is a history that has been largely silenced. In 2020, then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison went as far as to claim that ‘there was no slavery in Australia’. In Black Convicts, Santilla Chingaipe problematises…
Twenty-Two Impressions: Notes from the Major Arcana by Jessica Friedmann
In Twenty-Two Impressions: Notes from the Major Arcana, Jessica Friedmann takes readers on an enlightening exploration of the Tarot, reflecting many of our own serendipitous encounters with these intriguing cards. Like Friedmann, I once believed the Tarot wasn’t for…
Uses for Obsession: A (Chef’s) Memoir by Ben Shewry
Ben Shewry’s book is an argument in favour of creative control. The Attica head chef and owner highlights the best parts of hospitality while wrestling with the worst. He goes all in: this is manifesto territory. Rants in all directions…
Race Mathews: A Life in Politics by Iola Mathews
As an adolescent at Melbourne Grammar, Race Mathews discovered The New Statesman in the school library and, through that, Hewlett Johnson’s The Socialist Sixth of the World. Together, they opened his eyes to the possibility of people cooperatively living…
We Are the Stars by Gina Chick
Gina Chick will be known to many as the woman who spent 67 days alone in the wilds of Tasmania in the first series of SBS’s Alone Australia. Initially Gina came across as a wild, muddy, crazy hippie who…
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