AUGUST READING GUIDE 2026

AUGUST READING GUIDE

265 King St Newtown | 02 9557 8700 | www.betterread.com.au | books@betterread.com.au | @betterreadbookshop

OUR BOOKS OF THE MONTH

Juicy | Sheree Joseph | $36.99 | Pantera Press/Hardie Grant I don’t usually read memoirs but as soon as I read the first page of this, I couldn’t put it down. Sheree Joseph delivers a tender, emotionally sharp story of navigating the challenges of reinventing her life. Filled to the brim with history, culture, food, family, friendship and love, Sheree squeezes the juices of her life onto the page. Her exploration of womanhood is visceral, painful, relevant and entirely captivating. This is not just a memoir but also a manual, the necessary justification to live a messy, honest, rich and juicy life, and to arm yourself with the knowledge that no matter where you are, a fresh start is within your reach – you have only to grasp it.

– Ruby

How the Fish got their Bones | Sam Thaiday | Illustrated by Tori-Jay Mordey | $19.99 | Allen & Unwin A powerful Torres Strait Islands story about the importance of sharing and respect for the natural world from Broncos legend Sam Thaiday. When two boys decide not to share their large fishing haul with a stranger, their decision has much bigger consequences than they realised. Tori-Jay Mordey’s illustrations really bring the environment of the Torres Strait to life with its lush green mangroves and clear blue waters. The vibrancy of the illustrations paired with the story’s simple, rhythmic text makes this perfect for introducing environmental themes and Torres Strait Islander stories to young readers.

Great for story time or for kids learning to read. – Carolina

Sagittarius Rising | Maxine Beneba Clarke | Illustrated by Jade Goodwin |$17.99 | Hardie Grant This story follows Tip, a child who discovers a tiny puppy in a basket outside the neighborhood markets. Despite their Dad’s reluctance, Tip convinces the family to keep the puppy, who grows into a cheerful, messy and disobedient dog named Sagittarius Rising. Exploring childhood wonder, family life, pets and adventure, and written in snappy, sharp and fun rhyming couplets, Sagittarius Rising will be joyous fun to read aloud with kids at storytime or bedtime.

– Robert

Tonight’s Dinner, Tomorrow’s Lunchbox | George Georgievski | $29.99 | Murdoch Books George Georgievski, better known as the School Lunchbox dad, has already written four hit cookbooks and I reckon his new one is going to be a crowd pleaser, too. This book is inspired by and dedicated to his mum (aaaawwww), who used to carefully save leftovers from the family’s main meal, then give them a bit of motherly love to transform them into new and exciting lunchbox favourites for George and his siblings – and that’s exactly what George does here. With his easy-going, approachable style, George shares tasty, healthy and budget-friendly recipes that feature a secondary recipe which gives the leftovers a super next-day-lunch makeover. Cook once and eat twice! That’s the way!

Ripening | Sharon Blackie | $34.99 | Allen & Unwin I have always used stories as a form of escapism and safety. They provide a safe haven for women especially, from which we can view things from a different perspective and help us make sense of the often scary world we live in. In Ripening, Sharon Blackie explores the transformative power of fairy tales, how the struggles and perseverance of the characters can help inform and support us in our own trials in life. In a system and society that constantly crushes our whimsy, we must strive to find the magic in everyday things so that we may be inspired to flourish and grow into the most powerful versions of ourselves.

– Ruby

Kitten | Stacey Yu | $34.99 | Hachette Kitten is a strange, startling yet gentle mirror to the uncertainty of young womanhood. A cat unscrews the lid and forces Katie to reconcile with herself and all she’d rather forget. Every dynamic explored composes its own story, heavy with responsibilities and necessary upkeep. It's uncomfortable questioning Katie’s thoughts and actions as she is painfully relatable. However, there is an emotional reflection on the depressive cycle of desire to live disgustingly, pointlessly, but loved. A staggering debut that unexpectedly moved me.

– Adina

The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI | Cory Doctorow | $34.99 | Bloomsbury Cory Doctorow is a science fiction writer and an AI genius. His new book relates to the reverse centaur – basically, a tech term for humans pushed to work at breaking point by technology. Cory explains that AI can be used in ways to push the reverse centaur further, resulting in job losses which is completely unethical – but he also thinks AI should be for every one, used in a way that works for humans, and also not just for the elite class. With Cory’s sci-fi background, he’s adapt at creating new worlds where technology can help everyone – and, he suggests, if we can manage that with AI, surely that could be a good thing.

– Dan

The Girl with the Seven Lives | Vikas Swarup | $34.99 | Bloomsbury Devi is kidnapped, held captive and forced to admit to her crimes. Told in seven parts, I was particularly interested in her time growing up in the slums of Delhi, and the hardship faced by young girls denied an education; repercussions of this can be felt throughout the book. Swarup manages to channel female rage through Devi, whose anger is fueled by how men underestimate women. This book is a great combination of suspense and representation of life after a childhood in the slums. Ending in a bittersweet plot twist, I was nearly in tears. – Mazi

STAFF PICKS

A Real Animal | Emeline Atwood | $32.99 | Scribe *Content warning for sexual violence. In the wake of a sexual assault, Lucy, a college senior, gets a glimpse into a different, animalistic plane of existence. That is to say, for a few moments, Lucy is a leopard. She changes cities, friends and partners, reckoning with a profoundly altered view of the world. However – this is not a book about escapism, and I’m not sure the leopard can even accurately be described as a metaphor.

Lucy experiences the world in a decisively embodied way. It’s a great credit to Atwood that she provokes us to consider not only the traumatised body, but also the body in a traumatised world. An absolute helluva debut.

– Leona

FICTION HIGHLIGHTS

Nerve Damage | Annakeara Stinson | $29.99 | Simon & Schuster When Clarice broke up with P.T., he refused to be dumped. He sent non-stop emails and made hundreds of phone calls, and showed up outside her office and apartment. He sent her flowers, poems and, perhaps most sinister of all, a link to a Dido music video. The harassment stopped only when Clarice filed a restraining order and moved to L.A. Years later, as the restraining order is set to expire, Clarice spots a man who looks suspiciously like P.T. at a nightclub near her new apartment.

Certain her ex has returned, but with scant evidence, she spirals in an unhinged, single-mined pursuit for the truth. As reality and paranoia start to merge, Clarice must decide how far she’s willing to go to get back control of her own life.

Bad Neighbours | Joanna Jenkins | $34.99 | Allen & Unwin Ruth finds her ideal apartment at The Lumen, an Art Deco building in Potts Point. Close to work, it boasts parquetry flooring and Harbour Bridge views. It's perfect – until homeless Ben dies under the lean-to in the garden where he lived. The other residents do little to hide their relief; they can now cease their half-hearted attempts to find a solution to 'the Ben problem'. So they're not happy when Ruth calls a detective because she’s certain Ben was poisoned… and one of her neighbours knows it, too.

Mr Sidhu’s Post Office | Amman Brar | $34.99 | Harper Collins For years, Mr Sidhu’s post office has been a place of small rituals and quiet mercies: news exchanged, kindnesses remembered, a haven for all. Mr Sidhu is confidant, caretaker and witness to a community revealing itself in its loyalties and secrets. But Mr Sidhu is caught between the life he has inherited and the one he has scarcely allowed himself to imagine. When his ordered world begins to shift, he is drawn towards a new future and an unexpected love, forcing him to navigate family tensions, shifting identities and the question of who stands beside us when everything changes. And soon, the life Mr Sidhu tended so carefully may no longer be enough… Tender, wise and beautifully observed, Mr Sidhu’s Post Office is an unforgettable novel about love, duty and the communities that shape us – and save us.

Time Travel For Beginners | Jaclyn Moriarty | $34.99 | Ultimo Press/Hardie Grant When you step inside the nondescript Sydney storefront of the Time Travel Agency, you’ll be greeted by the smell of coffee and baked goods … and the question, Where in time do you wish to go? You can go whenever in the past without fear of altering the present. Have tea with Jane Austen, scream at a Beatles concert or recapture the heady days of your youth. Is it a hoax? And if it’s real, what’s the catch? When single mother Anna takes a job at the agency, she glimpses happiness; customer Teddy hopes to untangle his imploded marriage; and Jade despises the place for offering false hope. Each leap headlong into time and hurtle on a crash course towards one another.

Paul Takes the Form of A Mortal Girl | Andrea Lawlor | $24.99 | Picador/Pan Macmillan 1993: Paul tends bar at the only gay club in a uni town thrumming with politics and partying.

He studies queer theory, has a lesbian best friend, makes zines and is a flâneur with a rich love life. But Paul’s also got a secret: he’s a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub and more, Paul transforms his body at will in a series of adventures. This new edition of this speculative history of early ’90s identity politics is part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

The French Resistance Hotel | Ava Miller | $34.99 | Hachette France, 1940. Eloise, fleeing an abusive relationship, arrives at the Hotel Cordier on the French/Swiss border. When the Nazis invade, Eloise is drawn to the resistance – and Andre, its leader. Andre wants to use the hotel to help refugees fleeing persecution – but then the Germans close in, and Eloise must decide how much she is willing to risk for the cause… and for love.

Quite the Pair | Tobias Madden| $34.99 | Penguin Best friends and former flatmates Austin and Sydney are finally happy with their lives. But when everything implodes, they have to move back in together… and the pair make a pact to break their toxic habits. For Austin, this means not falling in love with every man he meets; for Sydney, it means prioritising herself. But soon Austin's resolve cracks and Sydney slips into old patterns…

The Rayburn Affair | Laurie Petrou | $34.99 | Echo By day, Dr Ruth Morgan lectures at university. By night, she works toward a writing career to rival that of literary icon Shelby Rayburn. When Shelby and her husband appear at a faculty party, Ruth can't believe her luck. The trio instantly hit it off, and an intoxicating intimacy builds between them. Then Shelby makes Ruth an offer she can't refuse – one she can't tell anyone about. As boundaries blur and secret alliances form, distrust takes root and threatens to implode it all. Ruth and Shelby need each other, but each has their own agenda when it comes to friendship, love and literary stardom.

Agrippa | Robert Harris | $34.99 | Penguin Random House Octavius, aka Emperor Augustus, ruled the world for 20 years with Agrippa, his best friend, at his side.

Later, Agrippa – 50, alone and ailing – writes his memoirs. Yet to stir up the past can be dangerous. From his meetings with Julius Caesar to the epic conflict with Mark Antony and Cleopatra and more, he describes how Octavius dominated his life, and wonders: when it comes to power, does friendship exist at all?

The Runner | Scarlett Thomas | $34.99 | Penguin Random House Jay has been hunted since he was 20 years old.

A contract on his life has been traded like a commodity, rising and falling with Bitcoin. On the run again, with no passport, and air miles as his only currency, Jay must choose between love and survival, and run for his life … The Runner is a high concept literary thriller featuring highfinance, con-artists, the Book of Jonah, ultra marathons and how falling in love can change everything. Darkly funny, sexy, exciting, philosophical and thrilling, The Runner is a gripping and intelligent read.

FICTION HIGHLIGHTS

Children of the Wild | Kevin Powers | $34.99 | Allen & Unwin Virginia, 1917. Roy is restless, determined to make his mark.

Samantha is expected to marry Roy, but hungers for more. The arrival of wild boy Ennis changes everything.

War sees Roy and Ennis forge a fierce bond; at home, Samantha endures unthinkable sacrifice. This book captures what it means to be human in times of loss, and how friendship and love endures.

NON-FICTION HIGHLIGHTS

What a Girl Wants | Roxy Bourdillon | $24.99 | Pan Macmillan From the suburbs of Leeds to the streets of Sydney, from the queer clubs of London to a quiet life by the sea, through love, family, friendship and heartache, join Roxy Bourdillon on a journey to work out exactly who she is. This is a perfect read for anyone who’s searched for their place in the world, for anyone who’s ever been catcalled, anyone who's despaired about their body, fallen in love, had their heart broken and found friends who can put it back together. From overcoming shame and finding your tribe, to surviving the dating scene and learning to really express yourself, this is a book about joy, empowerment and freedom.

Digital Freedom | Maggie Dent and Kirra Pendergast | $36.99 | Macmillan When it comes to children and screens, parents and educators face a contradiction.

Screen use is both an essential part of modern life and a leading cause of harm and mental illness. How can we protect our young people while giving them the tools to succeed? Dent and Pendergast cut through the confusion and deliver practical tools and expert advice to help parents manage their family's device use and rediscover moments of screen-free connection and creativity.

Post-Mortem | Tim Booth | $36.99 | Macmillan Death is a certainty, but what happens in the lead-up – and in its aftermath – is anything but predictable. Nobody knows this better than those who work with death every day. There's no time for an existential crisis when your 9-to-5 involves responding to fatal plane accidents, transporting organs for urgent surgery, or fending off a dying man's request for Nickelback. Here, paramedic Tim Booth reveals the darkly funny, often absurd and sometimes horrifying realities of the professionals most people hope never to meet – including crime scene cleaners, organ procurement coordinators, gravediggers, combat medics, emergency nurses and more. Blending humour with unflinching moments of poignancy, Post-Mortem tells the stories of the people who face daily life's final chapter… so we don't have to.

Blackbirding: A Reckoning with the Australian Slave Trade | Ryan Butta | $36.99 | Affirm As Australia becomes more willing to confront the violence and trauma of its colonial past, one chapter has remained largely hidden: the Australian slave trade known as ‘blackbirding’. Between 1860 and 1906, more than 60,000 Pacific Islanders were brought to Australia to work the Queensland sugarcane fields. Men, women and children were taken from their homelands through coercion, deception or outright abduction. Forced into contracts they could not read, unpaid until the end of their service and denied basic rights, they endured brutal working conditions that led to the deaths of nearly 15,000 people. In this immersive and meticulously researched work of narrative nonfiction, Ryan Butta confronts one of the least acknowledged episodes in Australian history. Exposing a deliberate ‘engineered forgetting’ that has kept these stories out of the national memory, this book brings the hidden history of blackbirding into the light.

Queerphoria | Edited by Jenna Gordon and Demi Echezona |$24.99 | Verve/NewSouth Books Queerphoria is a joyful and defiant queer-authored anthology proudly supporting Switchboard, the national LGBTQIA+ support line. Four housemates welcome the reader into their home for a birthday party; an elderly widow visits her first queer bar; a couple invite a shipwrecked sailor into their lighthouse on the stormy night of their 30th anniversary…

Through prose, poetry, essays, illustrations and more, 31 writers bring their visions of euphoria to life. This collection from Verve celebrates, subverts, expands and reimagines what joy can look like.

Seize the Moment | Bernard Keane | $34.99 | Allen & Unwin We are at a turning point in history.

So far, Australia has played its hand pretty well. But beneath the conflicts in the headlines, tech disruption is escalating, our population is ageing, the climate crisis is upon us, China is gathering power, and the US empire is retreating from its strategic roles and democratic norms. In the face of these pressures, can Australia continue to be a lucky country?

The Secret Life of a Cemetery | Benoît Gallot | $29.99 | NewSouth As head curator of France’s famous Pere Lachaise cemetery, Gallot manages over 100 acres of green space, oversees 70,000 graves, arranges burials and cremations, and contends with millions of tourists – plus film crews, birders, ghost hunters and the occasional nude performance artist. Gallot, who lives on the premises with his wife and children, demystifies his unusual and often misunderstood profession.

Pizza Before We Die | Hassan Kanafani with Yasuko Thanh | $29.99 | NewSouth Books This urgent account of life and death in Gaza is by an ordinary citizen whose life was upended by the genocide. Amid the chaos, Hassan began posting about his experiences; somehow, they reached author Yasuko Thanh, who helped Hassan frame them for a book.

Hassan's missives are a vivid, heartbreaking account of war and its toll on families and innocent civilians. This is a work of raw power and emotion, and a reminder that even amid tragedy, our humanity can remain intact.

Conscious Tribes | Amanda Tattersall | $36.99 | Pantera/Hardie Grant Many feel that meaningful change is beyond reach, but Tattersall reveals how we can build lasting change, and how we can shape it with others. Making a difference means navigating the paradoxes of life with others in ‘conscious tribes’: groups that change the world around us and ourselves. This book is an antidote to dark times, and insists we are more powerful than we think.

Indigenous Punk, Metal and Hard Rock | Al Carroll |$29.99 | NewSouth Books Native artists have always been central to heavy music. Beginning with Link Wray's trailblazing guitar sound and culminating with the all-female Maori doom metal and punk band Death and Hatred to Mankind, this eyeopening, encyclopaedic history of Native bands and musicians spans the last 60 years.

Historian and professor Al Carroll teaches us to listen critically to spot imposters, while celebrating the explosion of Indigenous bands during the rise of thrash and later nu-metal.

NON-FICTION HIGHLIGHTS

Three Shocks | George Megalogenis | $36.99 | Penguin The federal elections of 2022 and 2025 were an overdue wake-up call to three shocks that have reshaped our national identity: a population that's majority migrants and their children; professional women being the largest segment of the workforce; our allies and our key trade partners proving unreliable. These shocks have changed the electoral maths for our politicians and will define our national politics in the future.

KIDS HIGHLIGHTS

Lullaby Legends: ABC of Bad Bunny | Amber Lily | Illustrated by Aimee Wright | $16.99 | Simon & Schuster Introducing Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican music superstar! Through gentle ABC rhymes, little readers will travel from Benito’s humble beginnings to his global success, all while exploring the joy of language, culture and music. A standout bedtime story combined with learning Spanish.

How to Survive on a Desert Island | Lorenzo Coltellacci | Illustrated by Alice Ourghanlian | $24.99 | Post Wave/Hardie Grant All it takes to survive on a desert island is a single book. Inside, you'll find everything you need: shelter and shade, sustenance and escape.

Explore the island from above, lounge in the shade of your favourite tale and find shelter from the rain.

What do you need to survive on a desert island? Just one book!

A Hat for Every Harriet | Jess Horn | Illustrated by Zoë Bennett | $24.99 | Affirm Press Harriet wears many hats. She has a hat for listening, following the rules and being silly. Harriet wears a different hat for every job, as every job needs a different Harriet.

But when Harriet has too many hats to wear, can she find a way to just be herself? A beautiful story about thinking differently and accepting yourself in a neurotypical world.

Beast Mode: The Animal Awakens | J. J. Arcanjo | $16.99 | Hachette This brand-new, action-packed series from the author of Crookhaven, follows a group of street-smart kids who have the extraordinary ability to shapeshift into powerful animals. The kids must navigate a dangerous world where their extraordinary abilities are both a blessing and a curse. As they unravel the mysteries of their past and how they came to be shapeshifters, they'll face life-threatening challenges, betrayals, and an organisation that seeks to harness their power for evil – and it will be time to unleash their inner animals…

Hijab and Red Lipstick | Yousra Imran | $22.99 | NewSouth Books For 16-year-old Sara, life has always been about following the rules; her father's rules.

Makeup? Haram. Fashion magazines? Haram.

Friends who don't meet his approval? Definitely haram. When her strict Egyptian dad moves the family to the Arabian Gulf, Sara's world shrinks overnight. But Sara refuses to disappear quietly.

As her passion for writing, beauty and independence grows, so does her courage to challenge the expectations that bind her. Can she stay true to her faith while finding her own voice? And can she choose her own future?

Endlessly Ever After | Laurel Snyder | Illustrated by Dan Santat | $16.99 | Hardie Grant Which story will you choose? The authors transform classic fairytales into an ever-changing, fascinating, laugh-out-loud choose-your-ownadventure picture book, in which you may find a sleeping maiden, waste away in a sticky licorice cage, discover the gold at the end of a wild goose chase, or maybe even save yourself – and the day!

KIDS PICKS

Augie the Corgi and Jane the Great Dane | Josh Pyke | Illustrated

by Tommy Doyle | $19.99 | Scholastic Augie and Jane live next door to each and the broken fence between their homes is how they get to have fun together – until a workman arrives to fix it. What will the puppies do? Josh Pyke takes us on a wonderful journey about friendship and overcoming obstacles. – Christopher G., 9 yrs

Fútbol is Life | Cristo Fernández | Illustrated by James Rey Sanchez | $19.99 | Scholastic For fans of soccer and Ted Lasso, for any kid who dreams of being the best they can be, this debut book by Mexican actor and football player Cristo Fernández is for you! Based on Cristo’s early life, his family and his love for the beautiful game, this book shows us that little people with big dreams can do anything. – Adina

Eighty-Nine Questions For After | Ashleigh Barton | $16.99 | Lothian/Hachette When hypochondriac Ester visits her Mum at the hospice where she works, she freaks out about all the germs there’ll be. But soon Ester befriends elderly Joan, who used to be in the circus. Joan is haunted by one question. When Ester sets out to find the answer, will she finally stop thinking about dying and start living? – Robert

A River I Must Be | Kate Foster | $18.99 | HarperCollins This book paints a beautifully introspective picture of the experience of neuro-divergence, adapting to change, and the interplay between family, social life, school and sense of self. It also looks at how releasing ourselves from the pressures around us, and building bridges to help others do the same, can create a more compassionate world. – Lenny

The Moth Dreamer | Amy Lynn Farrell | $24.99 | NewSouth Books When Aubrey’s vision of her cousin’s death comes true, her world starts to splinter. At the edges of her mind, a malevolent trickster of myth is waiting to feed off her misery. A haunting journey through the physical and spiritual realms, this evocative novel draws from the rich mythology of the Anishinaabe, the indigenous peoples of northern America.

– Oliver P., 16 yrs

Bad Queer | Gayathiri Kamalakanthan | $22.99 | Allen & Unwin This verse novel unapologetically captures the lives of empowered queer teenagers. It revolves around the romance between non-binary Surya and a ‘straight’ boy, and the identity exploration and tribulations this brings. How, Surya asks, do we navigate life without losing the parts of us that make us who we are? – Lenny

STAFF PICKS

The Rising | Whitney Fitzsimmons | $32.99 | Ventura Press/Simon & Schuster Set in the fictional rural town of Birradurra, NSW. As the waters of a devastating flood recede, the skeletal remains of a baby emerge from the mud, creating a shockwave of questions, suspicion, disbelief and deeply buried secrets. The entire community of Birradurra is like sack-cloth: tightly woven, raw and honest on the surface – but break a thread and then it will start to unravel.

The writing is so rhythmically gripping in this debut, there were times I had to remind myself to breathe. Part crime drama, part psychological twister, Whitney Fitzsimmons has crafted a cast of characters that have real depth and soul. No cosy crime, this book packs a bunch – a very satisfying, winding punch. I can’t wait to see what Whitney has in store for us next.

– Robert

Screw Nice | Amy Remeikis | $34.99 | Hachette This is a really interesting take on that dichotomy of what society, or ‘civility’, dictates what we should say or do versus what we actually feel and believe. Drawing on her trademark clarity and political insight, Remeikis contends that demands to ‘be nice’ too often silence dissent while protecting entrenched power. What I particularly loved about this was the unapologetically firm stance it took against eschewing uncomfortable truths. This is perfect for those (like myself) who are so easily frustrated by fake niceties and kindnesses that have no substance whatsoever. It's a provocative call to do away with performative politeness and, instead, to prioritise honesty, accountability and justice.

– Angus

Theodora’s Tea Shop | Christy Anne Jones | $32.99 | Hachette Fantasy, magic, a 1920s vibe, Ghibli-ish spirits and a tea shop – this debut by Australian writer Christy Anne Jones speaks my language! It’s not all tea and cakes, though. The protaganist, 23-year-old Dot Walcott, suffers from a mystery illness, flees her dreadful family and arrives alone in the big smoke.

Why? Because there’s a witch there who might just teach her magic. When charismatic Theodora eventually agrees to take Dot on as her apprentice, Dot’s longed-for headlong dive into the magical world comes at a price… for both of them. – Sylvia Nautilus | Nick Croydon | $34.99 | Simon & Schuster Nautilus is the follow up to Croydon’s bestselling The Turing Protocol, and we find out what happens when the world’s most secret super-computer falls into the wrong hands. Built by Alan Turing, it can only be operated under very specific circumstances to turn back time – i.e. you have to be a descendant of Turing, follow specific protocols and only use it to avert disasters. It's no surprise that these key rules are ignored and rogue operators want to harness its abilities for power, manipulation and a cheeky bit of world domination. This book is such a fun read that you’ll finish it and probably want to use the Nautilus machine to wind back the clock so you can read it for the first time again.

– Arabella

Can Nothing Save Us? | Irvine Welsh | $34.99 | Penguin Random House Irvine Welsh trades Edinburgh's grit for Las Vegas’s glare in Can Nothing Save Us? and the shift suits him.

Molly and George Warburton, an aging couple coasting on old money and older delusions, upend their family by naming their grandson Luke – college-dropout, raver and would-be novelist – heir to their fortune. What follows is Irvine's signature chaos but also a shift in register – glossier, more thriller than social satire, but the DNA is unmistakably Welsh: families that corrode from within, characters chasing oblivion instead of meaning, an elderly couple drinking their own hot, acidic urine for their daily health benefits…

– Emily

The World Beneath Our Feet | Frank Ashwood | $34.99 | Hodder & Stoughton/Hachette Everything that happens below ground sustains all life above it – yet we rarely think about this mysterious, dark underland. Here, soil ecologist Frank Ashwood takes us on an eye-opening safari through this precious ecosystem. Every layer of the pedosphere is a world of its own, each more alien than the last as we travel deeper into the Earth. This hidden ecosystem is the single most biodiverse habitat on the planet. Without soil, there would be no life as we know it. In this story of connection and communication, we meet pioneering plants and minute animals that are essential to the health and wellbeing of our planet.

The Wonder of Whales | Melissa Hobson | $22.99 | Murdoch Full of fascinating scientific and historical insights and stories, this book surveys the extraordinary behaviors, migrations and communication skills of whales. Thoroughly researched and brimming with realistic watercolour illustrations, this is a treasure trove of information on everything from the incredible distances whales can travel to the deeper meanings behind certain whale behaviors; from the contributions of whales to our ecosystem to how we can protect whales – and much more! The Wonder of Whales celebrates these majestic creatures and is perfect for ocean and animal enthusiasts.

Being | Rachel E. Menzies and Ross G. Menzies | $36.99 | Allen & Unwin Early on, humans become aware of the difficulties we must all face: battle an inner critic, never truly know those around us, face death. These are the problems of being. So how do we find meaning, choose a life path, form an identity, face uncertainty, cope with hardship and, ultimately, bear the loss of all we love? How do we deal with the unpredictable nature of the world and our future? Psychologists Rachel and Ross explore what it means to be human, and our shared need for love, meaning and selfunderstanding. They highlight the power of hope, the role of purpose in wellbeing, and how acceptance is key to a more authentic and joyful life. This is the beauty of being.

When the Earth Was Green | Riley Black | $32.99 | Pan Macmillan Fossilised plants allow us to touch the lost worlds from billions of years of evolutionary backstory.

The constant growth of plants has allowed fascinating prehistoric creatures to evolve, oxygenated the atmosphere, coaxed animals onto land, and formed the forests that shaped our ancestors’ anatomy. Without plants, it is impossible to understand our history – or our future. Here, Riley Black takes readers back in time to the critical moments of plant evolution.

A SPOTLIGHT ON SCIENCE

Bird Life | Len Howard | $32.99 | Penguin Random House In the late 1930s, Len Howard packed up her life in London, bought a plot of land in Sussex and built herself a house there. This was to be Bird Cottage, a place where the doors of the house were open to the birds of the garden – robins, blackbirds, willow warblers and many others. Len lived the rest of her life alongside her bird neighbours, with some sleeping in her bedroom and many flitting in and out all day long. This new edition of her work contains two books, Birds as Individuals and Living with Birds. They are studies not just of bird behaviour but of their character, intelligence, singing voices, likes and dislikes. Enchanting, life-enriching, revelatory and completely original, this is a gorgeous evocation of a life lived in intimate contact with nature.

UPCOMING EVENT HIGHLIGHTS: AUGUST What's Been Broken Is All The More Sharp Book Launch with Dr Dominique Lee and Dr Bee Lim Friday 7 August at 6.30pm at Better Read Teethkicker Launch with Glenn Orgias and Josh Hortinela Wednesday 12 August at 6.30pm at Better Read Fractured Motherhood and Mother Shadow Authors’ Talk with Maggie Walters, Cynthia Banham and Anna Featherstone Monday 17 August at 6.30pm at Better Read For more information, to find out what else is on this month and to RSVP, head to www.betterreadevents.com

memoir WRITING WITH patti miller PARIS, FRANCE

14 Sept - 23 Sept 2026

Cover Art by Maxine Hamilton