SUMMER READING GUIDE
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COVER ARTIST
Meet Jules Keech… Our Summer Reading Guide Cover Artist!
We are delighted to introduce you to our cover artist, Jules Keech. Jules is a talented painter known for her Sydney scenes and landscapes. We LOVE the elegant portrait of the shop she has created, but there is more to this story than meets the eye… Jules has a very special connection to our beloved shop. In the 1860s, Jules’s great grandfather, Andrew Jarman, lived at 265 King Street, Newtown – now known as Better Read Than Dead! According to Jules’s family history, Andrew, together with his wife and 14 children (yes, 14!), lived and worked on the premises running a shoe repair shop. Jules’s grandfather, Stanley Jarman, even had some of Andrew’s shoe lasts at one stage. What an incredible bit of history! We are very thankful to Jules for telling us her story, particularly as this year is Better Read’s 30th birthday. Jules’s lovely illustration is a perfect commemoration of our shared pasts. You can find out more about Jules and her work at www.juleskeech.com.
AUSTRALIAN FICTION
One For Sorrow
Illuminated Ruins
Favel Parrett | $34.99 | Hachette Norway, 1939. At the start of a new year, Einar is walked to school by his mother. He’s expecting it to be as bad as ever, with no love for his teachers’ enigmatic attitudes towards learning. This year, however, things are about to change. This year is going to be different, electrifying and the beginning of a life-long love of words – because Einar will meet his new teacher, the young, cultured,empowering and inspiring Herr Kristiansen. This is one of my favourite books of the year. A heartwarming and heart shattering tale of a child's wonder, of hero worship, war, betrayal and the love of words.
Miriam Sved $34.99 | Ultimo Press
Hong Kong, 1956. Uri and Lujza, Hungarian Jewish doctors who escaped Europe and endured Japanese occupation, have rebuilt themselves – but the arrival of charismatic Hugh and Nancy upend their peace. As their daughters form an intense bond, a decadelong secret is revealed and lives begin to shatter. In a landscape of stolen identities, both families must finally confront the violence they can no longer outrun.
Messy
Dream Girls
Annika Johansson
Hannah Goldstein
$34.99 | HarperCollins
$34.99 | Allen & Unwin
When Daisy is hit with early perimenopause, her plans to start a family suddenly come with a deadline. Single and competing for her dream job, the timing isn't ideal. It's a good thing she already has embryos on ice. Their origins are... complicated. When her ex, Xavier, doesn’t give her his permission to use them – and then goes missing – Daisy goes ahead anyway. If the procedure works, she'll figure the rest out later. But Daisy isn't the only person telling white lies, and things are about to get more complicated than Daisy ever imagined.
Helena and Ruthie have been best friends since high school, where they bonded over Wuthering Heights, and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. They dream of living lives of great passion, art and romance. But as they drift into their late twenties, they are forced to contend with the idea that growing up might mean growing apart. Years later, when an old school friend invites Helena and Ruthie to a glamorous forest wedding, they jump at the chance to reconnect. But finding their way back to each other isn't as easy as they thought.
Wish You Were Here
The Art Lovers
Bernadette Eden
Fiona McIntosh
$34.99 | HarperCollins
$34.99 | Penguin
Widowed with two children, Sally clings to the only thing left of her late husband: a bankrupt caravan park with a penchant for blocked toilets. It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't a new resort opening up nearby… and if one more person suggests that she reopen the park's mountain-bike tracks, Sally will impale them with a plunger. It was the tracks that caused her husband’s accident, leaving her in this mess. Sally needs to find a way to haul the park back into the black and hold on to her sanity – but the past isn't finished with her yet…
While war rages in Valletta, Valentina is on the cusp of womanhood. When airman Peter falls out of the sky into her world, he captures her imagination and heart. Peter, an art historian, is captivated by Malta's spectacular cathedral and its famed Caravaggio. His passion for the painting ignites Valentina's ambition and she dreams of a life beyond her destiny. Time passes. When Peter returns to Malta, he is horrified to see what has become of the girl he once loved, and Valentina must find the courage to fight for her son and future – but at what cost?
Partum
Katrina Lawrence
Katherine Brabon
$34.99 | HarperCollins
$22.99 | Ultimo Press
1939: New Yorker Sophie Beauvais wins a trip to France. At French Vogue, she has a front‑row seat to Paris. But as war clouds darken, Sophie is determined to fight in any way she can to preserve her beloved City of Light as a symbol of beauty, tolerance and love. After Vogue opts to close rather than collaborate, Sophie takes a job as a model-salesgirl for a leading lingerie house. While the crass nouveau riche of Paris clamour for her signature satin corset, Sophie goes undercover and turns the corset into a weapon in the fight for liberation.
Partum tracks two years in the life of a woman negotiating a new and demanding reality. As she struggles to produce an artwork to represent the inexpressible, she is caught between a fading past self and an unrecognisable present. Drawing on the philosophies of language and the mind-body connection, the narrator explores the visceral states of a body uprooted – all while observing a self-imposed silence around the source of her change. Divergent, honest and intellectually soaring, Partum is not a memoir of motherhood, but a philosophy of the maternal state.
Invisible Boys
High Land
Holden Sheppard $34.99 | Fremantle Press
Sarah Hawthorn $34.99 | NewSouth Books
In Australian small towns, everyone thinks they know who you are: Charlie is a hardcore rocker, but he’s not as tough as he looks. Hammer is a footy jock with big AFL dreams and an even bigger ego. Zeke is a shy over-achiever, never macho enough for his family. But all three hide who they really are. When the truth is revealed, will it set them free or blow them apart? This award-winning novel by Holden Sheppard, who is also an ambassador for Lifeline WA, is now a Stan Original series. Look out for his follow up, Yeah the Boys, released earlier this year.
When the parachutes fail during Annie’s tandem skydive, her instructor is killed in the act of saving her. Her fall becomes world news, and sets off a chain of deadly events. In hospital, Annie finally regains consciousness but doesn’t recognise her parents, who then whisk her away to their fortresslike home in the Southern Highlands. There, Annie stumbles across information that doesn’t add up and she becomes convinced she is in danger. Annie escapes to London, Scotland and Europe, but danger follows her as the truth slowly unravels…
The Centre
Something That Never Existed in the First Place
Hannah Tunnicliffe $34.99 | Ultimo Press
Aisling Smith | $22.99 | Ultimo Press In Porto, Jamie wanders through the fog of Saudade, realising that love can’t always bridge the distance between two continents, or his addictions. In Paris, Héloïse finds that the jouissance of a secret affair curdles when brought into the light. In Melbourne, Meera seeks a fresh start, finding healing in the art of Ikebana and a friend. This story is a sweeping exploration of intimacy, isolation, and the beautiful, painful reality that some feelings simply cannot be translated.
Optimistic Clover lives in the Northern Beaches where she attends the Centre for Personal Excellence. The Centre has everyone under its spell, except for Clover’s down-on-her-luck sister, Annie. As Annie tries to get back on her feet, Clover sinks further into her new community. Annie tries to pull her sister away but without success. Annie soon realises the Centre is hiding dark secrets… can she save Clover before it’s too late?
Missing Molly
Just a Girl, Actually
Natalie Barelli
Karina May
$34.99 | Penguin Random House
$34.99 | Macmillan
Journalist Rachel lives in London with her family. When her paper launches a true-crime podcast, their first case is the disappearance of 12-year-old Molly Forster, missing since her family's brutal murder 12 years ago. But Rachel knows what happened to Molly – because she is Molly. She's spent years hiding from the killer, and now her own podcast is about to expose her. As the story goes viral, new evidence emerges that confirms what Rachel has known all along: the wrong man was convicted, meaning the real killer is still free… and now he's coming for her.
Olivia may be a romantic, but she’s not naive. As head of marketing at travel-safety app, WalkyTalky, she is passionate about helping women explore the world with confidence. When she's transfers to NY, Liv expects bagels, brownstones and maybe even a bodega guy. But she gets stuck with her egotistical coworker, Dan, instead. A sudden crisis at WalkyTalky sends the two to the UK. It should be the trip of Liv's dreams – if only her leading man wasn't her nemesis. But can a little rom-com magic save a company and spark the most unlikely love story of all?
AUSTRALIAN FICTION
The Parisian Corset
INTERNATIONAL FICTION
Catalina
On the Other Side of March
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Sólrún Michelsen, trs. by Marita Thomsen
$24.99 | Penguin Random House
When Ecuadorian student Catalina arrives at Harvard, she feels like one of the chosen. She escaped death in Latin America to be raised by undocumented grandparents and now studies at a prestigious university. So begins her era of opulent parties, secret societies, internships, flings and plenty of vodka sodas. But in her final year, undocumented immigrants become the target of political turmoil and Catalina's life back in NY begins to unravel. As the clock ticks on the precarious future of her family, what will she sacrifice to save the people she loves most?
$29.99 | NewSouth Books
Michelsen’s kids are grown and she’s at a time she’d looked forward to – but as she tends to her aging mother, she finds herself revisiting childhood scenes, family hymns and folk songs that reveal a lifetime of love, duty, awe and regret. Amid the stark rhythms of Faroese life, she realises she is being part of the 'army of women’ who inherit care. In her private goodbye to her mother, however, is also a meditation about life, at once tender and witty. Michelsen is the first female Faroese writer to be translated to English.
Music Against the Night
Arendal
Yiyun Li | $34.99 | HarperCollins I’m not usually drawn to historical settings or music themes, so I felt mild trepidation in picking this one up. Boy, was I mistaken! Within mere pages, Yiyun Li had me hooked, or rather dragged in, with a plethora of tiny impenetrable threads. The story unfolds slowly, with depth and intentionality. Li writes like a literary great; reading this feels as though every letter has been purposefully placed as she unravels the lives of two rising classical musicians. A friend said this book feels like a modern classic; I couldn’t agree more. Absolutely loved it. – Lenny
Karl Ove Knausgaard $36.99 | Penguin Random House
1976. Syvert is on his way back to his family when his car breaks down outside Arendal. It is winter and bitterly cold; ice covers the strait all the way to the sea. As Syvert is caught up in memories of his doomed love affair with Asya, a space opens between the known and unknown. Arendal is a novel about impossibility, about fire and ice, starry skies and a man trying to find his foothold in the world.
Cold
The Boy
A. S. Byatt
Mark Gyves
$29.99 | Penguin Random House
$34.99 | HarperCollins
A princess is born in summer. Frail, she is cosseted by all who surround her, and, as she grows, is protected from the outside. One winter's night, she escapes into the castle's grounds and discovers that, far from the cold being harmful, it awakens her. She is an icewoman: she becomes her true self in the frost and snow. But when princes arrive, the princess awakens a second time. Falling for a young royal from the south, she is faced with a choice. Should she follow him to the desert and live a life unfulfilled? Or remain where she is and live without love?
By turns terrifying, taut, humane and tender, The Boy tells the origin story of Ireland's organised-crime epidemic with skill and grace. When the Guards knock on the door, The Boy already knows his mother is dead. Soon, his brother draws him into a world where grief and crime are rarely separated. At the same time, a landowner harbours a grotesque secret ‘family’ of abducted boys. As The Boy moves through these fractured worlds, he becomes both witness and inheritor of a brutal legacy. Mark Gyves’s debut is unflinching, propulsive and unforgettable.
Dreamt I Found You
We Used to Dance Here
Jimin Han
Dave Tynan
$32.99 | Hachette
$24.99 | Granta/ Allen & Unwin
Since childhood, Dahee has protected her cousin, Channing. Now, Dahee, living in a New England beach town, must run to the rescue of her relative again. Channing – haunted by the tragic story of Chunhyang and Mongryong, Korea's parallel to Romeo and Juliet – has fallen in love with Minjae and is trying to ward off Kent, a local politician. As the romance blossoms and Kent's obsession grows, Dahee must prevent her cousin from a doomed end. A wondrous retelling of Korea’s classic love story, shot through with folklore and magic.
We Used to Dance Here is a portrait of both Dublin and Dubliners in flux, exploring life on the margins, toxic masculinity and frustrated ambitions. With dog tracks, late-night radio talk shows, pubs, messy break-ups, industrial accidents and the reality of housing precarity, these stories show a darker, edgier side to Dublin – and they do so in brilliant, crackling prose by Dublin writer and director, Dave Tynan. We Used to Dance Here is Tynan’s debut fiction book, and demonstrates he is a writer to watch.
Lovers of Franz K.
Éric Rohmer, trs. by Aaron Kerner
Burhan Sönmez, trs. by Sami Hêzil
$32.99 | NewSouth Books
$29.99 | NewSouth Books
1939, east of Paris. The uppermiddle-class Roby family and its matriarch are spending a listless summer in the country. The teenage children and their friends swim, flirt and lie to one another, and yet the simmering paranoia, calculated blankness and potential violence of the coming Occupation are already present. Witty banter, lust, ennui, and an undercurrent of violence percolate beneath a seemingly paradisiacal summer on the eve of World War II, in this landmark translation of the first and only novel by Éric Rohmer, the French New Wave’s most revered filmmaker.
West Berlin, 1968. Two men face each other across an interrogation table. Ferdy has shot a student; Kommissar Muller is trying to find out why. When Muller learns Ferdy’s target was actually Max Brod, Kafka's friend and executor of his literary estate, a dialogue emerges between a Kafka acolyte trying to protect the author’s final wish, and a police commissioner learning more about literature than he ever thought he would from a prisoner. Here, Sönmez vividly recreates a key period of history as he explores the issues that recur in Kafka's life and writings.
One Hundred Guinea Pigs
Before We Say Goodbye
Gustavo Rodríguez, trs. by Daniel Hahn
Toshikazu Kawaguchi
$27.99 | NewSouth Books
$40.00 | Picador/Pan Macmillan
Eufrasia is a caregiver. But Doña Carmen, a bedridden elderly woman who stares at her now-obstructed view of the sea, tests the limits of her ability to help. That is, until Doña Carmen request Eufrasia transform her caretaking from helping her to live to helping her die. A good death has much in common with a good life and incapacity, loneliness and isolation can be eased by a compassionate friend. Dignity, community and respect are what Eufrasia offers her clients, and what their friend-ship offers her; friendship makes life worth living, and worth ending.
Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s poignant story explores the age-old question: what would you do if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time? The regulars at Cafe Funiculi Funicula are well acquainted with its famous legend. Many have reunited with old flames, made amends, visited loved ones. But the journey is not without risks and there are rules to follow… The fourth book in Kawaguchi’s bestselling series is now available in this gorgeous special edition with sprayed edges, foil and beautiful endpapers.
The Hill
Born of Guilt
Harriet Clark | $34.99 | Hachette An emotional look at how the prison system affects convicts' loved ones. We follow Suzanna as she navigates her childhood and young adulthood with her mother behind bars, raised by her grandparents. The intergenerational mother-daughter dynamics make a compelling read and, while the extremity of the circumstances may not be relatable for all, family dysfunction is certainly well represented. Drawing from her own experiences, Clark demonstrates a deep and meaningful understanding of living between liberation and imprisonment. – Mazi
Joanna Elmy, trs. by Angela Rodel $34.99 | Allen & Unwin
In America, Yana breathes easier in that noisy new world, but her thoughts keep returning to her family and the country she left behind. A doctor in a Bulgaria haunted by communism, Yana's mother Lily believes she has escaped the dark horrors of her childhood, until she is trapped once more, this time in a violent marriage. Eva, Yana’s grandmother, is slowly losing herself, but urges Yana not to make the same mistakes she and Lily made.
Fractured Soul
Cosmos
Akira Mizubayashi, trs. by Alison Anderson
Lucia Odoom $24.99 | Allen & Unwin
$32.99 | HarperCollins
Cosmos, a Ghanaian refugee living in Copenhagen, works as a bottle collector. At night, he sleeps in city parks, writing WhatsApp messages to his family. By day, he cycles through the streets with The Crows, his 'Copenhagen family'. Everything changes when he meets Elizabeth and falls in love; home takes on a new meaning. Cosmos questions what it means to belong to a person as much as to a place. It is a deeply moving story of diaspora and invisible lives reduced to something temporary, precarious. A stunning portrait of love and loss in the margins.
Tokyo, 1938. A string quartet rehearsal, led by Yu, is interrupted by military police. Yu’s violin is smashed and he is arrested as his son, Rei, watches on. Rei will never see him again. With unexpected help, Rei escapes with the violin. Paris, 2003. Rei – now Jacques – has dedicated his life to the violin’s repair, but is unable to reconcile his past with the present. Then someone appears that encourages Rei to make a final bid to heal. Fractured Soul is a stunning parable for what once was lost and what there still stands to be gained.
INTERNATIONAL FICTION
Élisabeth
BOOKS OF THE MONTH 2026
February
Fire in Every Direction: A Memoir
Tareq Baconi | $34.99 | Hachette Fire in Every Direction is a tender, searing and profoundly moving memoir that left me entirely undone. Tareq Baconi traces his story across generations and continents, beginning with his grandmother’s forced flight from Haifa during the Nakba, followed by his parents’ escape from Beirut at the start of Lebanon’s civil war, and finally his own coming of age in Amman and, later, London. Each movement carries its own form of exile, shaping an inheritance of silence, grief and resistance. Baconi’s queer awakening unfolds alongside his growing political consciousness about the policing of queerness and the erasure of Palestinian identity, and about the disorientation of living between worlds. A deeply personal exploration of queerness, Palestinian identity, displacement and love, written with extraordinary care and clarity. – Steph
Ruins, Child
March
Giada Scodellaro | $32.95 | Giramondo Publishing Loose, liquid and unsettling, Ruins, Child is brought to us by a Greek chorus of six women living in the Bronx, without any temporal or spatial markers. Their apartment building is crumbling around them, as is the literal city while the government sits back and watches, claiming that decay is inevitable. We mourn the library sinking an eighth of an inch every six months, the neon orange the neighbourhood is being painted and the government that says everything is ok. Ruins, Child is both surreal and cinematic; we watch the women watch themselves being watched, and Scodellaro gives the sense that we are eavesdropping on these women’s lives. Focused around the marginalisation of black communities, and from one of the most distinctive voices I’ve read in a very long time, this book is a masterclass on the temporality of infrastructure and the importance of seeing the individual through, and despite, the collective. – Lexie
April
Lázár
Nelio Biedermann | $34.99 | Hachette I don't know how to review Lázár without calling Biedermann a wunderkind and predicting it for the IB and Dublin. Covering three generations of the aristocratic Hungarian Lázár family, from the early 20th century to the 1956 revolution, this young author focuses on the obliteration of dignity and how people live in the past to cope with a changing world. The characters are flawed but not completely unlikable, judged but not judgmental; horrible actions raise questions that could be about last week instead of a century ago, and the perils of being on the side of the victors rather than the side you believe in are brilliantly emphasised. Lázár reads less as historical fiction and more as a way to question our current political climate. What would you take with you when the government seizes your house, and when everything important to you is a wealth you didn’t earn? – Lexie
Yesteryear
May
Caro Claire Burke | $34.99 | HarperCollins I’ve always had a morbid, almost anthropological fascination with the likes of Ballerina Farm and the Duggar family – public figures who profit off the ostensibly traditional gender roles, family structures and values that they broadcast to the world. There’s something so tantalising about the tradwife™’s performance of womanhood. This debut novel pulls back this veneer of domestic, subservient bliss to examine the psyche of the women lurking beneath. Natalie is a tradwife with a substantial social media following, living in a rustic farmhouse with her children and hot cowboy husband. (Sound familiar?) Her life is perfect, and she knows it. Then one morning, she wakes up in 1855 with the same home and the same family but none of her modern comforts. Suddenly, Natalie is forced to live the pioneer life she once merely cosplayed. Yesteryear is a gripping, dark and, at times, completely hilarious satire of one of the most disturbing cultural phenomena of our time. – Carolina
June Medea Sang Me a Corrido
Dahlia de la Cerda, trs. by Julia Sanches and Heather Cleary | $27.99 | Scribe Dahlia de la Cerda’s latest novel reimagines Medea as a punk, ‘Mexican, anti-angel of birth and death’. A collection of interconnected short stories, Medea Sang Me a Corrido follows its namesake anti-angel as she shepherds ordinary people trying to survive in the crossfire of state and cartel violence. As Medea guides them through everything from abortion and births to burials and searches for the lost dead, De la Cerda masterfully elucidates the complex lives of those caught in the web of violence, corruption, poverty and war. She also elucidates the everyday acts of solidarity and resistance that so often go unnoticed. This collection is incisive, gritty, laced with humour, and brimming with compassion; reading it was as moving as it was rallying. De la Cerda also does not disappoint on the punk revival front; there’s something deeply satisfying in reading about a tatted Medea, cloaked in black, cruising through the Chihuahuan desert skies in a modded Volkswagen Jetta. – Carolina
The Vape Lord of Queanbeyan
Omar Musa | $34.99 | Penguin Omar Musa propels us full throttle into the lives of his characters in a series of short, sharp stories with seamless and intelligent articulation. Told with empathy and wit, reading Musa is like hurtling through the night on an acid-fuel-injected fast train, inviting readers to glimpse the intricate lives, loves and pains of his characters with incredible detail for such short stories. Viewed through the lens of the beautiful Muslim eye, broken systems collide with existential observations of the human condition burning bright like binary stars dancing on the fabric of literary excellence. – Emily
August
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
September
Exit Party
Emily St. John Mandel | $34.99 | Picador/ Pan Macmillan No one writes speculative fiction like Emily St. John Mandel, and her new novel, Exit Party, does not disappoint. Exit Party is for you if you’re craving a page-turning plot, ambitious and expansive worldbuilding and complex characters. It’s 2031 and America is at war with itself, and the states definitely don’t seem united – but for the first time there seems to be hope, after the Republic of California has been declared, and everyone in the city is going to a massive party. Reflecting on freedom, surveillance, art and survival in a broken world, Exit Party is a hopeful reminder of what makes life worth living, even when the end of the world is in sight. – Arabella
October
The Sky is Concave
Majeda Awawdeh | $36.99 | University of Queensland Press Threading the elegance of mathematical theory through a socio-political analogy for her own life, Awawdeh tells a devastatingly beautiful story of growing up a Palestinian female citizen of Israel, her earliest school days already carrying the shadow of Al-Nakba, and the discrimination and displacement it set in motion still shaping daily life for Palestinian citizens of Israel decades on. Amid rising religious conservatism and patriarchal oppression, education becomes her lifeboat, carrying her through an arduous journey from domestic violence and religious constraint towards freedom. Written with fierce, poetic honesty, The Sky Is Concave traces Awawdeh's transformation from a childhood of civil discrimination into a life of scholarship, entrepreneurship and the love of her three children in Australia. It is an unforgettable story about daring to question the limits of one's world and reshaping one's own sky. – Emily
November
Public Access Afterworld
Jane Schoenbrun | $34.99 | Hachette When I saw that Jane Schoenbrun was releasing a novel, I was beyond excited. I was blown away by their films I Saw The TV Glow and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma and I couldn’t wait to see what they could accomplish with a different medium. They often focus their work around media, especially physical media, as a gateway into higher consciousness or another realm. As with a lot of Jane Schoenbrun’s work, the media (in this case broadcast television) acts as a lens through which to view and critique the world we live in and to expose its true and often horrifying nature. Public Access Afterworld is surreal, weird, creative and altogether compelling. It’s the kind of book you read and then need a week or two to contemplate as you digest it. If you like mind-bending sci-fi, layered speculative narratives and nuanced queer and trans characters, I thoroughly recommend. – Ruby
BOOKS OF THE MONTH 2026
July
SCI-FI AND FANTASY
Cello’s Gate
The Fist of Memory
Maurice Africh
Wole Talabi
$34.99 | Hachette
$34.99 | Hachette
For Captain Grey and his sky pirates, there isn't a lock they can't pick, a safe they can't break, or a hidden treasure they can't find. Until now. Returning from a harrowing heist, Grey and his crew are approached by Dalia, the immortal daughter of the infamous ArchGovernor. The job? Locate and steal the Stones of Indigo – seven fabled rocks invested with godlike power. The catch? The stones don't exist. They're a myth. And to make matters worse, Dalia's definitely hiding something… and if Grey doesn’t figure out what it is, it might cost them their lives.
When a non-communicative alien spacecraft appears in the sky, global powers are thrown into turmoil. But for Tope, a principled Nigerian assassin in the employ of a mysterious witchdoctor, it's business as usual – until a job goes wrong. Joined by a South African astronomer plagued by mysterious dreams, they must find a way to survive, navigate their complicated pasts, and come to understand how they, and all of humanity, are connected to the alien craft before the world changes forever … oh, and avoid a strange assassin obsessed with a single memory.
Seasonal Folktales
Twig’s Traveling Tomes
Morvern Graham | $39.99 | Hachette A gorgeously illustrated collection of folk stories and myths from Northern Europe carefully and intentionally chosen to reflect the seasons as they change. The linocut artwork, also created by the author, is the perfect whimsical accompaniment to the folktales. I first discovered Morvern Graham on social media where she posts stunning visual story telling which is deeply immersive and intricately designed. I was delighted to find out this collection was being published and couldn’t wait to have it on my shelf. – Ruby
Gryffin Murphy $29.99 | Allen & Unwin
Unlike her fellow students, Louella Twig has a a magic affinity with books. When denied her graduation broom, Louella carves a new path, creating an ambulatory bookshop that travels the realm. She lives a cosy, life, until she collides with Everett Sharp…handsome but a rogue on the run, so not for her. But when her old mentor asks her to retrieve a valuable grimoire, Louella finds herself in need of a bandit…
Alma Vampires
A Cry for the Deep
Elena Armas
Amanda Linsmeier
$24.99 | Hachette
$34.99 | NewSouth Books
Valle's life changes when she inherits Alma, a fashion empire, from the mother she's never met. Hadrian pretends he’s a player in the game of who takes over Alma, but in truth, his blood debt is finally being collected, and it involves Val. When Val escapes to University, she learns her world has changed and Hadrian is now at the centre of it. He provides protection, and a way to satiate the longing she craves more than fears. Plagued by nightmares, can Val decipher her legacy? And can she accept that what she feels for Hadrian runs deeper than attraction?
Sélie spend most days with her best friend, Pearl, working at Bells’ Apothecaire. But when she is instructed to accompany Pearl to the island of Salille, Sélie is 1) shocked to learn that Pearl is actually Marguerite, Salille’s runaway princess; and 2) a mermaid claims Sélie is expected repay her late mother’s debt to the sea witch. Sélie must complete a series of tasks before the painful scales growing on her legs overcome her and she turns into a mermaid, losing not just her life on land but any chance of love with a certain princess…
We
Monsters of Ohio
Christelle Dabos
John Scalzi
$34.99 | Allen & Unwin
$34.99 | Pan Macmillan
Everyone has an Instinct. And everything is perfect. In a world ruled by ‘We’, each person has a role, a direction, a mission assigned by their Instinct. No choice. No deviation. No freedom. But when some students disappear into silence, Claire, who has always felt out of place, and Goliath, determined to become a Saint before time runs out, find themselves questioning everything. As they follow forbidden trails, escape a murderous Archangel, and discover that ‘We’ is not at all what it seems, all their certainties will be shattered.
Sleepy Richland, Ohio, is facing ruin after a private equity firm defrauds the local factory. Now, the town is primed to explode… just not in the way anyone expected. Because when the town is threatened, its citizens make a change. A big one. Which might involve a few unexpected tentacles. Mike Boyd left Richland decades ago. On his return, he finds more than he bargained for and becomes entangled in a wild sequence of events that will bring this tiny village to global attention, change humanity… and, perhaps, spell its doom.
Murmuration
Dan Aykroyd
TJ Klune
$34.99 | HarperCollins
$34.99 | Pan Macmillan
Doug is an ordinary insurance adjustor – until one day, alien lifeforms task him with a mission. The assignment: hide the human souls they’ve harvested in various locations across Earth by using his prowess as a risk assessor. Doug embraces his responsibility, but soon discovers he’s not just a courier – he’s a pawn. Multiple alien species are locked in interdimensional rivalry, using Doug as an unwitting middleman in their cosmic chess game. The more he understands his role, the more Doug realises that the fate of Earth itself may hang in the balance.
In idyllic Amorea, Mike works at the local bookstore. Sean at the local knows his order, and has a special smile just for Mike; after years of anticipation, the two are ready to take the next step. But the edges of Amorea are beginning to fray. There are no children or parents, and people who leave don’t come back. One night, Mike wakes up to a cloud of starlings blackening the sky that only he seems to notice. Soon, violent memories start interfering with everything good… and Mike will do whatever he can to keep Sean from the darkness that's coming for him.
Twisted Pike
You Weren’t Meant To Be Human
David Barnett
Andrew Joseph White
$22.99 | Hardie Grant
$24.99 | Simon & Schuster
Remote Withered Hill harbours dark secrets. Outsiders are unwelcome, but Rob and his film crew descends, intent on making a lowbudget horror movie: Twisted Pike. In truth, the film is a front. Rob has come to raze Withered Hill to the ground – and obliterate everyone who calls it home. Will Rob succeed in wiping out the place that took so much from him? Or are there forces at work beyond the reach of human vengeance? If the town falls, the ancient gods sleeping beneath the soil will awaken… and their wrath won't stop at the village borders.
Festering masses of worms and flies have taken root across Appalachia. In exchange for unwavering loyalty and fresh corpses, these hives offer a few struggling humans salvation. Crane is grateful. Among his hive’s followers, he has found a chance to transition. He even met Levi: an exMarine who treats him like a real man, mostly. But when Levi gets Crane pregnant – and the hive demands the child’s birth – Crane’s desperation to make it stop will drive the community that saved him into a devastating spiral that can only end in blood.
Mystery Play
Service
Elizabeth Kostova
Lauren Mooney | $32.99 | Allen & Unwin Danielle's hates her job as PA to Jeannie, and now a break-up's left her homeless. When Jeannie suggests she stay at the estate where Jeannie grew up, Danielle enjoys the luxury at first, but the house is strange, uneasy. Then Jeannie arrives. Working for Jeannie, serving her, the boundaries between Danielle and her boss begin to dissolve and their relationship slides into one that is older, stranger and harder to name. Something is happening… but is the house really haunted? Or is Danielle? A sharp, darkly funny ghost story about class and work from a bold new voice in fiction.
$34.99 | Text Publishing
Among his late mother's things, Jay finds a scrap of paper bearing the name Gael Brogan. Later, he receives an ancient book that belonged to Vlad Tepes, aka Dracula. Jay learns Brogan was an actor famous for playing the Count. With the help of Rhiannon, he discovers an actress once fell under Brogan's terrifying sway… and the two realise something is also pursuing them. Hypnotic and riveting, Mystery Play pulsates with tension.
Brokeula
Agnes, We’re Not Murderers!
Michael J. Seidlinger
Jessica Alexander
$29.99 | NewSouth Books
$34.99 | NewSouth Books
James Sugre spends most of his time in his coffin, too broke to go out. When he encounters Lauren, a gamer and vampire-lore fan, he is hopeful that his luck in business might be on the up. When Sugre discovers a dollar is worth more than a drop of blood, he and Lauren decide turning humans into vampires for a fee is a viable new venture. But Vampire Nation has other ideas… The question now is, can a broke vampire and his sidekick escape the blood-sucking monster of capitalism through an ill-conceived multi-level marketing scheme?
Agnes is wasting away. In a bed of velvet and silk, she dreams of death – and Mary. Mary, a wraith, drips mystery and menace. She materialises everywhere, turns servants feral and plunges the manor into anarchy. The maids snarl; the nights grow strange. Agnes swoons. Her brother, Arthur, calls it a curse. He stalks the halls with scissors in his fist. He wants purity and order. He is not the only one; others have begun to stir. They’ll purify the world in flame. Jessica Alexander has created a witty, atmospheric vampire tale perfect for fans of gothic horror.
SPECULATIVE FICTION AND HORROR
Soulhider
CRIME AND THRILLERS
The Pledge
Kill Shot
Freidrich Dürrenmatt, trs. by Joel Agee
Jo Nesbo
$24.99 | Allen & Unwin
When a young girl is found brutally murdered in a Swiss mountain forest, the brilliant Inspector Matthai can't put the case behind him. Not even when a local felon is arrested. Not even once the suspect has confessed. Matthai promises the girl's mother that he will stop at nothing to find the real killer… The Pledge is the chilling, almost unbearably tense story of a man in desperate search of the truth. A man driven to sacrifice everything, to commit acts of cruelty and obsession in a desperate search for a killer he can't find.
$34.99 | Penguin Random House
Harry Hole is out of the police force, finally leaving a history of violence and grief behind him. But when a woman is found murdered – her killing styled after a scene from a famous movie – and two more bodies turn up in rapid succession, newly minted homicide investigator Oleg Fauke turns to Harry for advice. As gruesome films begin to appear and victims pile up, Harry's unique expertise is needed. He is drawn back into helping his old colleagues, and his personal relationships grow as complicated as the mind of the vicious killer he is trying to catch.
Blood Caste
I Give You My Silence
Shylashri Shankar $22.99 | Hardie Grant India, 1895. When three bodies are discovered with mutilations bearing an eerie resemblance to Jack the Ripper's victims, Chief Inspector Soobramania (‘Soob’) is summoned to investigate. Suspicion alights upon three men: a Russian grand duke, an English earl and a Deccani noble. Faced with the thorny imperial politics of accusing Queen Victoria’s relatives, Soob must ally with his British rival, Inspector Wilberforce, to hunt the killer. So begins a deadly game in the shadow of empire, where high birth protects foul deeds and where spilt blood counts for less than wealth.
Maria Vargas Llosa, trs. by Adrian Nathan West $34.99 | Allen & Unwin
One night, Toño, a music journalist, witnesses a performance by virtuoso guitarist Lalo Molfino that changes his life. When he hears Molfino is dead, he decides to immortalise and establish the man’s music as a unifying symbol for their fractured country, Peru. But the more Toño writes, the more he struggles to keep control of his story. This playful and powerful love letter to Peruvian culture is legendary Vargas Llosa’s final novel.
The Writers’ Room
All In
James O’Loghlin
David Baldacci
$34.99 | Allen & Unwin
$34.99 | Macmillan
Writer Clara Newsome was 22 when she died. Twenty years later, her four best friends, now in film and TV, decide to adapt Clara's only novel into a series. They retreat to a remote mansion in the Southern Highlands to brainstorm a story that's been waiting two decades to be told. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot, as it turns out. Because housekeeper Barb Young has just found a body at the bottom of a nearby cliff. As Barb asks questions nobody wants to answer, she discovers that the real story of Clara's death might not be the one that’s been told.
When a war correspondent is shot on a Manhattan street, there are zero leads. But when the intel analyst she was due to meet also vanishes, the stakes reach terrifying new levels. Enter Travis Devine, called in to untangle a web of data and manufactured truths that take him from New York to Australia – and into the orbit of a powerful dynasty. Soon Devine, with the help of Detective Anais Jones, uncovers a campaign to redraw the global balance of power. To stop a catastrophe that could shatter the world order, Devine must question everything…
Please Help Me
The Murdered Husband Returns
Gytha Lodge
Mina Sakurai, trs. Jordan Taylor
$34.99 | Penguin
$34.99 | Allen & Unwin
A teenager at an idyllic Greek holiday resort is shocked to receive an anonymous message. It claims to be from a kidnapped girl, trapped with a family that's pretending to be her own. Detective Amanda Coton, on holiday at the resort, is in the perfect position to help lead the rescue. But with no way to identify the sender, or to lock down the sprawling resort, one wrong move could see the real victim spirited away, and vanish for good. And that's without worrying that the kind of person who'd kidnap a girl wouldn't hesitate to kill to get away with it...
One day, Mana is ambushed by an amorous client. She is saved by her husband, Kazuki. But Mana is not relieved, she’s terrified… because five years ago, Mana pushed her husband off a cliff. Kazuki claims to have no memories of their past life together and there seems to be no trace of the violent man Mana once knew. Reluctantly, she allows him to move back in with her. Just as Mana is adjusting, a mysterious letter arrives on her doorstep and a detective informs her that Kazuki's remains have been found. So just who is the man Mana has allowed into her house?
Chiisakobee Volume 1
Hirohiko Araki
Minetaro Mochizuki and Shugoro Yamamoto, trs. by Andria McKnight
$37.00 | Simon & Schuster
$29.99 | Thames & Hudson
This clever guide provides budding manga artists an insight into the art of Hirohiko Araki, creator of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Propelled by imaginative storylines and original artwork, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is one of the longest-running and most popular shonen manga ever. Araki shares techniques for making great villains, examines his work, and explains the four basic structures of manga. With commentary from his editor, investigations of characters and the panel layout of his new series, The JOJOLands, this book is a crucial part of any new manga artist’s development.
After a fire burns down his family business and claims the lives of his parents, the young heir and master carpenter Shigetsugu vows to rebuild the failing venture. When Ritsu, a housemaid with no relatives to rely on, comes rolling into his life with a group of children from a welfare facility who have nowhere to go, a dramatic last-ditch-way-oflife story begins. This bold and ambitious reinterpretation of Shūgorō Yamamoto’s classic historical novel Chiisakobee is brought to life with the full flourish of Mochizuki’s bohemian brush!
Sun-ken Rock, Vol. 1
Me and the Alien, Mumu Vol. 1
Boichi
Hiroki Miyashita
$39.99 | NewSouth Books
$24.99 | NewSouth Books
Ken Kitano has lost his family, dreams and even his first crush, Yumin, who suddenly left for Korea to become a police officer. He spends his days getting into meaningless fights, but eventually decides to follow in Yumin’s footsteps and head to Seoul. But instead of becoming a cop, he becomes the boss of a street gang! Suddenly, Ken’s strength, values and beliefs are put to the test as he navigates a new life that he's determined to keep a secret from Yumin, a cop to her core. Sun-Ken Rock is a gritty and raw actiondrama by Boichi, the renowned artist behind Dr. STONE.
Planet Earth has been invaded by a cat-shaped alien named Mumu that is obsessed with… appliances. Mumu is a survivor of a civil war that destroyed his planet's scientists, leaving only its fools alive. To try to understand the advanced technology his species left behind, he's infiltrated Earth, a planet with a lower level of civilisation, to study their so-called 'home appliances', which contain all kinds of technological knowledge. So begins the adventures of Sakurako, a university freshman and Mumu's new and unexpected accomplice, as she navigates a wild and exciting campus life.
The Wishing Well
Dune Messiah, Book 1
Gideon Sterer and Emily Hughes
Frank Herbert, adapted by Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson and Michael Shelfer
$32.99 | Hachette
Plip! Plop! Plip! The coins fall down into the well, and at the bottom is the monster who records all wishes. The people wish for puppies, or ponies, but most of all, they wish to be rich., thinkinh that will make them happy. But the monster, surrounded by money, knows that the treasures of their lives above make them rich already. The hugs, the kisses, the books, the stars and the seasons are all that he wishes for. This emotionally rich story reminds us that true wealth is measured not in coins but in love, freedom and the beauty of nature.
$39.99 | Thames & Hudson
This first volume of the spectacular graphic novel adaption of Frank Herbert’s Dune Messiah brings to life the author’s blend of adventure, politics, environmentalism, spirituality and groundbreaking look into an alternative universe. Here, Brian Herbert, son of Frank, and bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson follow Paul Atreides's prophetic journey and ascent to power.
Legends & Lattes
Don Quixote
Travis Baldree; illustrated by Shanti Rittgers and Sarah Webb
Miguel de Cervantes; illustrated by Paul Brizzi and Gäetan Brizzi
$40.00 | Macmillan
$44.99 | Thames & Hudson
Viv the orc barbarian is hanging up her sword for good, setting her sights on opening the first coffee shop in Thune – even though no one there knows what coffee is. Yet her rivals stand in her way and Thune's underbelly could make it too easy for Viv to take up the blade once more. But the true reward of the uncharted path is who you meet along the way: whether bound by magic, pastries or a freshly brewed cup, her new friends may become something more than Viv ever could have imagined… This gorgeous graphic novel adaption of Baldree’s beloved cosy fantasy won’t disappoint!
Don Quixote, first published in 1605, is widely considered to be the greatest Spanish-language novel of all time. A satire of the chivalric romance, it was the first Spanish novel to use everyday language and observations. Now siblings Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi bring their historically influenced Disney animator style and prestige to this adaptation, elevating it into an instant graphic novel classic. Perfect for fans of art history, classic literature and animation, this exquisite adaptation leaps off the page and brings the man of La Mancha to life for a new generation of readers.
MANGA AND GRAPHIC NOVELS
Manga in Theory and Practice: How to Create Villains
ESSAYS AND ANTHOLOGIES
Alone with a Book
Becoming a Man
Tessa Hadley
Ed. by Julia Baird with Sam Baird Sparks
$45.00 | Penguin Random House
In this rich and engaging collection of essays, Tessa Hadley reflects on a lifetime of reading with the clarity and perceptiveness that have made her a beloved contemporary writer. She charts her love of literature from a book-mad childhood shaped by libraries and imaginary worlds, through the long, uncertain years of writing and teaching, to the mature artistic vision vision that defines her work today. Her sharp eye and precise judgement guides the reader towards the pleasures found in each of the included texts, and in a life made richer and more fully imagined through art.
$34.99 | HarperCollins
When Julia Baird's son turned 16, she asked some family and friends to write a letter to him about what it means to be a ‘good man’. The response was overwhelming; her son Sam read them in a three-hour burst. Inspired by the sincere, funny and wise missives, Julia, together with Sam, has collected thoughts and advice from over sixty men on what it means to be, or become, a man. Each writes from the heart, hoping to spark conversation. These men have a broad, idiosyncratic and diverse outlook: funny, moving or practical, but always thought-provoking.
Songs from the Firefront
Dead and Alive
Tim Winton | $45.00 | Penguin For decades, Tim Winton has been singing the lives and loves of ordinary people. In these deeply personal reflections, he asks big and urgent questions. How do we keep going in a burning world? Why are we resistant to facing the hard facts of life? What can we do to foster community? And how do we hold on to what is pure and precious? These essays, full of rage and laughter and mourning, are about the sacred fragility of existence, and are a celebration of friendship, a call for solidarity and a testament to the deep joys and sorrows of family life.
Zadie Smith $26.99 | Penguin
Here, Zadie Smith brings her unique skills to bear on a wide range of subjects. She takes a close look at some artists, takes us to Glastonbury as well as the movies. She invites us on a walk in London and to mourn with her the passing of famed writers. She considers changes of government and the meaning of 'the commons' to us all. Throughout, Smith shows us her unrivalled ability to think critically and humanely.
Veins Open, Hands Closed
Bright Side
Ed. by Natalia Figueroa Barroso
Various
$24.99 | Sweatshop
$24.99 | Simon & Schuster
Since Trump’s re-election, there has been a disturbing surge in racial profiling, discrimination, detainment and deportation of Latinx and Indigenous peoples across North America. This campaign reflects a broader trend in the West, one that scapegoats immigration for social and economic instability and targets vulnerable migrant communities. Yet amid this crisis, we find resilience, pride and cultural power, evidenced by this debut collection of writing by Australia’s Latinx diaspora. Here, experience the beauty, vibrance and strength of our Latin American community.
In Trinidad, a woman sends a last letter to her son. In NY, an old friendship takes on a new shape. In Australia, high school friends reunite after decades. These are the prizewinning and highly commended stories from the 2025 Hope Prize, one of the world's leading short story competitions. In 20 distinctive voices, spanning continents and perspectives, Bright Side reveals the enduring belief that hope can be found in even the most troubled times. All royalties support CAMFED (The Campaign for Female Education) that mentors girls across rural Africa.
Off the Top of My Head Barbara Lazio, MD
Metamorphosis: A 2026 Anthology of Writing
$29.99 | Penguin
Various
Inside every skull is a story of heart, humanity – and the occasional hairball. You might think brain surgery is cool, and sometimes it is. But more often, it's a gritty, smelly, absurd job that involves titanium screws, tumours and moments so human they'll break your heart or make you snort with laughter Dr. Lazio peels back the sterile curtain of the operating room and shares the unexpected stories that come with a life spent elbows-deep in the human brain. With warmth and wit, she invites you into a world where mortality is never far away, but neither is meaning.
$20.00 | Better Read Kids
Better Read Kids asked young creatives everywhere to launch themselves into the mists of imagination to ponder, speculate and transport readers into the realms of the fantastic, the glorious, the bizarre and the whimsical. The responses to this challenge were full of originality! We are delighted to share these budding writers’ stories with you in Metamorposis, Better Read’s 17th anthology. It is a joy to be able to give kids their very own copy of their first published works, and we hope you will be just as transformed by their writing as we were.
Best of Australian Poems 2026
Eve Esfandiari-Denney
Guest editor Michael Farrell
$29.99 | Fitzcarraldo/ Allen & Unwin
$32.95 | NewSouth Books
In her debut collection, Eve Esfandiari-Denney wrestles with the boundaries between living and death, history and the present, and how these are preordained for us in the fabric of our DNA and in our geographical or cultural environments. Philosophical, funny, pertinent, ecological, global and intimate, this is a collection of poems for the contemporary moment, a book deeply personal yet communal in its intention, beginning from a personal history then resonating outwards, ending on a note gorgeously hopeful as 'life' moves towards the speaker, 'gloriously close'.
This new anthology captures the richness and diversity of Australian poetry created between July 2025 and June 2026. The annual anthology is introduced by 2026's guest editor, Michael Farrell, an established and respected poet with an international profile. This volume, the sixth in the series, displays the range of contemporary work coming out of the vibrant, active and broad spectrum of poetry created right now. It is published by Australia’s peak body for poetry and funded by Creative Australia and other patrons, in support of this compelling annual showcase.
Owls and Other Fantasies
Cafés
Mary Oliver
Holly Pester
$34.99 | Hachette
$27.99 | Fitzcarraldo/ Allen & Unwin
This collection brings together 26 of Mary Oliver’s poems about the birds that played an important role in her life. Here are hawks, hummingbirds and herons; kingfishers, catbirds and crows; swans, swallows and the snowy owl, among others. Also included are two beautifully crafted essays, ‘Owls’ and ‘Bird’, the last an essay of resilience that is a classic of the genre. In the words of the poet Stanley Kunitz, 'Mary Oliver's poetry is fine and deep… Her special gift is to connect us with our sources in the natural world, its beauties and terrors and mysteries and consolations.'
In Holly Pester's unique lyric, the café becomes a structure of fantasy and language exploring life at the pressurised edges. It becomes a canto or verse unearthing what this space promises us in terms of freedom and thought, and what it holds back. In each iteration, the café remakes itself through the people who pass through it. A worker tries to run a café franchise. A lover sits in the corner, waiting. A woman mourns a friendship. Both a political intervention and an elegy for communal space, Pester's collection reaffirms her as an exciting poet of our time.
What Now
Love Between Men
Tareq Baconi
Pádraig Ó Tuama $27.99 | NewSouth Books This poetry collection begins in the garden of Eden, recasting Adam, Eve and God into voices both abrasive and intimate. Then Ó Tuama details his own experiences of exorcisms and gay reparative therapies, exploring desire with its promise and fear of fulfillment. These poems – by turns, intelligent, funny, devastating and explosive – consider time, the edges of empire, and the limits of the tongue. They celebrate and challenge love: of history, poetry, language and, ultimately, of change.
$29.99 | Hachette
Palestine is a litmus test, the repercussions of which will go beyond the Middle East, argues writer Tareq Baconi. There are only two possible outcomes to the ongoing apartheid and genocide: justice or annihilation. Drawing from Baconi's work with Palestinian and global activists, What Now distils three strategic priorities for a free Palestine, priorities that could heal the wounds of WWII through challenging and upturning the colonial and genocidal mindsets animating Western thought.
Essays Lydia Davis $26.99 | Penguin
Lydia Davis's writing is a masterclass in control: penetrating, wry, lucid, every word deliberately placed. Here, she presents a dazzling collection of literary essays, each one as beautifully formed, thought-provoking, playful and illuminating as her critically acclaimed short fiction. Ranging across her many creative influences, including Thomas Pynchon, Michel Leiris, Lucia Berlin and Joan Mitchell, she returns again and again to her own writing process, joyfully interrogating the limits of literature and the ways in which we can challenge and reinvent it.
Fancy Work Alice Hattrick $34.99 | Fitzcarraldo/Allen & Unwin
What can a scrap of embroidery tell us about how to live? How can the past help us imagine lives when not all traces remain? To explore these questions, Hattrick turns to the embroidery designer May Morris and her circle, including father William Morris, mother Jane, and M.F., May's gender non-conforming partner of twenty years. Through this queer encounter with the Arts and Crafts movement, Hattrick shifts the reader’s attention towards intimacy, labour and domestic life, and traces connections between these histories and their own queer identity, family ties and precarious working conditions within an ableist society.
POETRY AND NOOK BOOKS
Girling
ILF BOOKS OF THE MONTH 2026
February
Bird Deity
John Morrisey | $34.99 | Text Publishing/ Penguin Bird Deity is speculative fiction at its thought-provoking, incisive best. It follows David, a relic hunter in a remote colony, earning a living from looting the remains of an ancient alien civilisation. Presented with an opportunity to guide an anthropologist on a risky expedition, David is forced to confront his life, his choices and the impact of his actions on another world. What makes this book so striking is its atmosphere: Morrissey’s descriptions of David’s world are evocative and deeply unsettling. The book has been described as ‘cosmic horror’ and it earns this tag not through graphic violence or space monsters, but from the haunting disquiet that it leaves in its reader. Morrissey delivers poignant insight into the far-reaching impact of colonial violence. I was completely unprepared for this book, and it has floored me. – Lewis
March
Ruby’s Web
Ellen van Neerven | $22.99 | Magabala Ruby’s Web is a moving coming-of-age novel for young teens, written by a powerhouse author, that has the makings of an Australian modern classic. Ellen van Neerven masterfully uses Ruby’s struggles as a Year 7 student navigating friendships, and online bullying and racism as a microcosm for the broader political landscape as the whole country debates the referendum for a First Nations Voice to Parliament in 2023. Ruby’s growth from timid and unsure to a proud young woman who uses her poetry-writing skills as an outlet of empowerment unfolds so beautifully, it made me want to cry. Ruby’s Web is a powerful commentary on the dangers and potential positives of the internet for teens, and the power of using your voice at any age, which will hopefully spark important conversations between friends, and between parents and children. – Mischa
April
Aunty Beryl’s Cookbook
Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo | $49.99 | Murdoch Gamilaroi Elder Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo has had a rich life dedicated to food, family and teaching, runs a catering business and has advised top chefs on the use of bushfoods. Here, Aunty Beryl has distilled her extensive food knowledge into a warm and welcoming book of recipes and stories that will have both your heart and stomach singing. There are easy dinner options plus dishes fit for a feast, and I love that there are not one, but two chapters dedicated to baked delights and desserts. Recipes include Mini Lemon Myrtle Chicken Pies; Wattleseed, Yoghurt and Ricotta Cheesecake; and Caramel Macadamia Slice. This book is a treasure trove of wonderful home cooking using unique ingredients and I reckon it will become an essential addition to every cook’s bookshelf, now and into the future. – Sylvia
When Words Fail Us
May
Stan Grant | $26.99 | NewSouth This book is a gift to all of us in a time where words don’t come easily and people can’t seem to hear them clearly. We carry the world and all of its noise and misinformation in our pockets 24/7. We are invited to multiple platforms to speak, but we are so out of touch with our identity and sense of self that miscommunication and its consequences are rife … maybe it’s better to say nothing at all? Can we find calm and empowerment in being more discerning with where our vocal energy goes? – Emily
June
Song of the Shadow of a Seed
Luisa Mitchell | $29.99 | Fremantle Press This collection, Mitchell’s debut, is a delicate articulation of Nyungar identity and language. Structured around the life cycle of a seed, Song of the Shadow of a Seed reflects on history, Country, nationhood and futurity with earthiness and sincerity. The poems are full of ‘crimes so ordinary in their ugliness/ they become acceptable taboo.’ Nonetheless, seeds are sacred, and life is sacred. – Leona
One Word
Melissa-Jane Fogarty | $24.99 | Hachette When Myra overhears her Pop speaking a language she doesn’t know, she begs him to teach her… but he refuses. Slowly, Myra uncovers his painful past and learns of what he has endured. Together, they will reclaim his language and help pass it on to the next generation. This story is based on the author’s own personal experiences and is both incredibly important and powerful in its intention, honouring history and tradition while looking to the future through perseverance. For all ages of readers, an excellent learning tool as a reminder to help keep First Nations languages alive, moving and essential, One Word will be a new staple for any family bookshelf. – Ruby
How the Fish got their Bones
August
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
September
The Doubles
Jacob K. Gallagher | $34.99 | Hachette Once I grasped its scope, I fell for The Doubles hook, line and sinker. In his debut novel, Jacob K. Gallagher has managed to merge fantasy and sci-fi with outback noir, include elements of magic and religion, then set his narrative just outside Tamworth and populate his world with strong Indigenous characters, some of whom are magical crime enforcers. What the…?? How he has pulled this off, I don’t know, but it totally works – and I really hope he continues writing in this polymathic genre. Kring, the tough protagonist – originally from Gunnedah – is teleported to Werris Creek where Indigenous teenagers are being taken by a demonic force. She teams up with the local magical enforcer Dries to solve the mystery and prevent further devastation. But that’s definitely not all… With brilliant, yet seemingly effortless, world building, intriguing characters, a palpable connection to County and an original storyline, you’ll find yourself hungrily devouring The Doubles just like I did – and then want more. – Sylvia
October
The Elders
Dan Bourchier | $36.99 | Macmillan In 2023, award-winning journalist Dan Bourchier became the ABC’s Voice and Referendum Correspondent. As part of his work, Dan travelled across Australia to interview Indigenous Elders for the series One Plus One: The Elders in the hope of fostering understanding and connection. This book is an extrapolation of that spellbinding TV series, and allows Dan, who has Indigenous heritage on his mother’s side, to further explore the experiences, wisdom, love of family and Country, resilience and determination these vital members of the community have – and wish to impart to younger generations not only before it is too late but also as an act of healing. The Elders featured here have worked tirelessly for change and recognition for First Nations peoples. The job for all of us now is to listen – truly listen – to them… and maybe that understanding and connection might finally become a reality. – Sylvia
November
Nunngoorie
Gary Knapp, as told to Margaret O’Brien | $27.99 | Magabala In this extraordinary memoir, Nunngoorie (Gary Knapp) – healer, Elder, one of the stolen generation – tells of the childhood events that impacted him in the way a hurricane rips through a town, and of his long journey to finding his culture, people and Country. Nunngoorie’s early years with his family were filled with love and care. But around age 6, he and his sister, while walking home from school, were lured away by the ‘authorities’ and taken to Roelands Mission. The pain of this separation from his family, and the subsequent years of abhorrent mental, physical and sexual abuse, made a lifelong impact on this man – yet as he recounts his experiences and emotions around them, the rage is tempered by the sense of the wonder and peace he later gained while nurturing his skills as a traditional healer. In sharing his very personal journey, Nunngoorie also offers an insight into Indigenous culture, thought and spirituality, but always with respect for the ancient traditions and secrets of his people. – Sylvia
ILF BOOKS OF THE MONTH 2026
July
INDIGENOUS STUDIES
The European Mind
Not Just Scholars but Leaders
Bruce Pascoe
Ed. by Fiona Stanley and Deborah Lehmann
$36.99 | Magabala
Bruce Pascoe’s lateset book is a global examination of Western power informed by a First Nations perspective. It delves into Christianity, capitalism and colonialism, and how our colonial history impacts where we are now. Pascoe picks apart beliefs that sit at the heart of our society, but also proposes meaningful change through shifts in cultural and moral thought. Critiquing the ideas behind empire, he takes us on a journey of how we arrived here and where we hope to be. This is Pascoe's boldest work to date, and is set to spark change.
Finding Justice Larissa Behrendt | $36.99 | UQP Larissa Behrendt has successfully moved between courtrooms and Country to explore what real justice means, and what it might become. Here, she weaves together personal reflection, Indigenous knowledge and legal experience to illuminate a deeper truth about Australia: that more than one way of understanding law, justice and responsibility has always existed. Clear‑eyed, thoughtful and, ultimately, hopeful, this is Berendt’s profound invitation to us to rethink power and policy, expand our understanding of justice and achieve genuine transformation.
$34.99 | Black Inc.
In 2005, a team of researchers in Indigenous health won a capacity building grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). This funding supported a cohort of Indigenous health scholars to complete PhDs, continue postdoctoral research, and work collectively to transform
Indigenous health care to be community-led, ethical and selfdetermined. Inspirational and practical, this book details the unique life stories of each scholar, why the grant was so successful and what lessons it offers for future funding in Indigenous health.
Indigenous Knowledge: Global Persectives Ed. by Samuel Curkpatrick, Dolly Kikon, Marcia Langton and Aaron Corn $34.99 | Simon & Schuster
Here, leading Australian and Asia-Pacific scholars explore how Indigenous knowledge tackles challenges in governance, research, environmental sustainability and cultural diversity, and how this can inform new collaborations that respect and build on local wisdom and initiative, sparking understandings of identity and place in mainstream scholarship.
Why Weren’t We Told
Nothing About Us, Without Us
Ed. by Dr. Jim Morrison, Tony Hansen, Alan Carter and Steve Mickler
Tristan Kennedy
$34.99 | Black Inc.
$19.99 | NewSouth Books
Many missions and state institutions in WA once housed thousands of stolen Aboriginal children as part of a program imbued with racial theories of eugenics that aimed to achieve a 'White Australia'. A federal inquiry in 1997 called this decades-long practice for what it was: genocide. This companion to the award-winning documentary Genocide in the Wildflower State, offers a disturbing expose of the denied and dismissed reality of racist state thinking, and gives voice to Survivors' urgent calls for truth, justice, redress and healing.
After decades of exclusion, the 1970s saw First Nations peoples’ entry into academia. Fifty years on, First Nations academics and leaders still face many challenges; surviving in institutions built on Western notions is difficult. However, as the threats of climate change and geopolitical instability increase, it is imperative that First Nations knowledges are brought to the conversation. We must embrace the legacy of those that came before and elevate global strong First Nations voices. Indigenous and Western knowledges, together, will address the challenges of our time.
The Burden and the Blessing
My Country
Edith Wright
Irene Davey, as told to Marilyn Metta
$34.99 | Magabala
$34.99 | Magabala
Edith Wright grew up with stories about her great-grandfathers, two white men who ruled the pearling industry in northwest Australia. The men changed the social and cultural fabric of the Kimberley region, fathering mixed-race children and gaining reputations for violent and exploitative behaviour towards Bardi Jawi people. Edith gives a rare insight into Broome during the heyday of the pearling and boat-building industries, and confronts the painful and challenging histories of her family – and of two men who changed the face of the Kimberley forever.
Born on Bardi Country and raised between Bulgin and Sunday Island, Irene Davey has witnessed extraordinary change across humanity and the Kimberley. From fishing the reefs with her grandmothers to navigating mission life, raising a family to becoming a respected cultural leader, Irene’s story is one of strength, humour and unwavering connection to Country. Rich with family history, traditional knowledge and memories, this is both a memoir and a gift to future generations. Irene reminds us that culture lives through those who carry it forward.
Larrikinland
Matt Lloyd-Cape
Ben Pobjie
$36.99 | Black Inc.
$34.99 | Allen & Unwin
The housing crisis is reshaping the nation. To solve the problem, LloydCape argues that we need to think bigger. Our Place shows how a bold national housing plan could end homelessness by 2045; provide the next generation with appropriate rental standards and an affordable path to home ownership; create thriving urban centres away from capital cities; and place housing at the heart of an ambitious plan for a fairer and more prosperous Australia. Our Place is a solutions-focused vision for an Australia where everyone has a place to call home.
All our greatest cultural icons are granted elite status by having the term 'larrikin' bestowed upon them. Those who do not qualify yearn to do so, and politicians will go to enormous effort to play up their larrikinesque qualities in the hopes of being tagged with the most holy of epithets. In this engaging history, comedian Ben Pobjie does a deep dive into the world of larrikins, from the origins of the term in England, to the adoption of it as a pejorative for the undesirables of colonial Australia, to its evolution into an accolade for Aussie royalty.
Going Digital
Building Bad
Margaret Simons
Nick McKenzie and Ben Schneiders
$39.99 | Black Inc.
$36.99 | Hachette
Going Digital tells the tumultuous story of how the ABC transformed itself for the digital age, revealing the key players and controversial decisions along the way. These were the years of endless political interference, and heated debates about what a public broadcaster should be. The transformation has been remarkable – but has it come at the expense of depth? Have politicians learnt from their attempts to intervene? Who really pulls the strings in our public broadcaster? This is a gripping, behindthe-scenes look at one of our most beloved public institutions.
In 2024, the spotlight fell on the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) and its links with outlaws and underworld figures. Journalists McKenzie and Schneiders joined forces to uncover evidence of blackmail, extortion, drug trafficking, sexual misconduct, bribery and rorting of government contracts. Incendiary, shocking and engrossing, Building Bad exposes the tangled web of criminal activity that consumed the CFMEU, and is a reminder that without brave investigative journalists, corrupt institutions go unchecked, leaving society to pay the price.
Spooky Ladies
The Curious Case of the Stolen Mace
Kaz Cooke | $37.99 | Simon & Schuster From first periods to teenage years, to pregnancy and menopause, Kaz Cooke has long been an iconic Australian women’s health author (and cartoonist!) and I’m so excited to see her diverge from her usual genre. This book is dedicated to women across history who have dazzled audiences with magic; whether it be mind-reading, seances, miracles or simply pure trickery. Often overshadowed by men, these mystics are celebrated here for their legacy; one that has led to modern spirituality as we know it. Includes photographs! Feast your eyes upon the spectacular! – Adina
Sally Young $36.99 | NewSouth Books
In 1891, the Victorian Parliament’s ceremonial mace was stolen. The colony’s best detectives, a dour Scot and a Ned Kelly hunter, took on the case, but the mace was never recovered. Was the thief a drunk corrupt politican? A worker seen with an odd package? Or a political activist? Historian Sally Young pieces together the evidence to reveal how the thief got away with the political crime of the century.
The Country Schoolmaster
Land and Country
Kate Grenville
Genevieve Lloyd
$36.99 | Black Inc.
$36.99 | Bloomsbury
Rummaging around in the archives, Kate Grenville comes across a file of letters about a schoolteacher in country NSW and is intrigued. Was Joseph Connor beating the students in his care? Or was he the victim of a small-town vendetta? And what went so wrong between him and his daughter? Grenville has to know: was Connor a victim or a villain? Part colonial cold case, part locked-room mystery, part the dance of a writer's imagination this is a book where the novelist comes to understand the seductive pleasure of story-making, but also its dangerous limitations.
This book brings philosophical thought into direct engagement with Australia's contested debates on identity, sovereignty and belonging. It traces the intersection of ancestral lives with the violence of settlement: land grants on stolen Country, frontier conflict, and the shifting cultural meanings of convict shame and pride. Beneath these stories lies a deeper inquiry: what does it mean to pursue family history as an act of truth-telling in a nation still struggling to reckon with its own past? Part memoir, part philosophy, part cultural criticism, Lloyd offers a compelling contribution to ongoing truth-telling.
AUSTRALIAN STUDIES
Our Place
AUSTRALIAN BIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIR
My Old Man and Me
The Life We Choose
Kim Huynh with Thiet Huyn
Anthony LaPaglia
$35.99 | HarperCollins
$45.00 | HarperCollins
In 2021, a massive stroke upended life for Thiet Huyn and his family, especially for his son Kim. As Kim washed, transported, medicated, monitored and fumed at Thiet, he forged a profound connection with the man who had risked everything for them to escape Vietnam and start a new life in Australia. They looked back at how Thiet tried to save Kim's life; how he taught Kim to run a bakery, ride a bike and turn defeat into triumph. This powerful tribute from a son to his father will help you care for your loved ones, look after yourself and know when to let go.
Actor Anthony LaPaglia’s funny and brutally honest memoir is a story of reinvention, resilience and the relentless pursuit of something more. From the suffocating suburbs of Adelaide, where family dysfunction reigned, to the gritty streets of NY, LaPaglia's journey is a meditation on identity, survival, fame and the cost of ambition. It is about a man who grew up in the shadow of his father, but refused to be defined by him. Instead, he carved his own path, stumbling through mob-run bars, failed relationships and the world of acting, searching for a truth that felt like his own.
Fifty Beating Wonders
Sabr
Michelle Johnston | $36.99 | HarperCollins
Usman Khawaja
This is about the marvels of the human body, written by an emergency physician who has spent decades fixing those bodies when they come to her broken. Over the course of one shift, this spellbinding narrative takes us into the mind of a doctor and deep into the wonders of our astonishing biology, revealing that in every unsung, overlooked part of us, there is absurdity, marvel, awe and surprise. A joyous love song to the body, this story confronts us with the most wondrous and perplexing question of all: what makes us human?
$49.99 | Penguin
Sabr, ‘patience’ in Arabic, is the philosophy that has carried cricketing legend Usman Khawaja through the turbulent highs and lows of his career and life. Here, he relates his story, from his childhood in Pakistan and Australia, to his struggles in a sporting culture that didn't always welcome him. Yet Usman trusted the journey. 'Sabr was my secret power, my strength,' he says, 'and it remains one of my greatest assets to this day.'
Only Ever Evonne
I Can’t Tell You But I Will
Evonne Goolagong Cawley
Magda Szubanski
$49.99 | Allen & Unwin
$55.00 | Text Publishing
Evonne Goolagong Cawley started hitting tennis balls as a young girl. She grew up in rural NSW, but at 12, left for Sydney, chasing a dream. She made history by being the first Aboriginal woman to win Wimbledon – twice – and became the No. 1 tennis player in the world. Here, Evonne shares her childhood memories; reflects on her experiences as a Black woman in a white-dominated sport; speaks of her domineering coach, her oncourt battles, and her epic love story with husband Roger. She also reveals her hopes for tennis, the country and First Nations peoples.
In Magda Szubanski’s second powerful, tender memoir, she writes with searing honesty about her complicated relationship with her dying mother Margaret. As Magda stepped into the fight for same-sex marriage in Australia, she was also confronting the heartbreak of her mother's decline. This unforgettable book describes the true cost of caring, the courage it takes to keep going, and the impossible pull between public duty and private grief, and is for anyone who has cared for or lost someone, or tried to hold themselves together when life demands everything.
Frank Hurley
One More Step
Grantlee Kieza
Stefan and Lachlan Lamble
$49.99 | HarperCollins
$34.99 | Allen & Unwin
A visionary photographer and film maker, Frank Hurley journeyed to the farthest corners of the earth, capturing images of people and places few had ever seen. Time and again he risked his life, in both peace and war, to take pictures that would astonish the world. Hurley wrote about his adventures and dazzled audiences with photographic exhibitions and film screenings. He didn't just document history – he lived it. This brilliant biography by respected historian Grantlee Kieza vividly captures Hurley's extraordinary life.
Brothers Stef and Lach Lamble grew up around fear, violence and addiction; then cancer changed their family forever. At 21 and 24, with no running background, they quit their jobs and ran 3400 kilometres across Australia to raise money for cancer research. By the time the finished, they’d raised $250,000 and becoming the first brothers to run across Australia. But what followed was the hardest time of their lives: broken bodies, lost direction, failed projects, relentless online abuse and a nearfatal car crash. Yet, they didn’t give up. This is their story.
My Pressures
Dustin Hoffman
Andy Serkis
$49.99 | Simon & Schuster
$39.99 | Penguin Random House
For nearly six decades, Dustin Hoffman has been one of the most compelling and unpredictable figures in American culture. He has spent a lifetime inhabiting extraordinary characters and now he turns his remarkable powers of observation on himself. Warm, candid, hilarious and deeply moving, Look at Me is an intimate memoir about art, ambition, family, friendship, love, ageing and the mysteries of a creative life. This book is more than a chronicle of a storied career, it is a meditation on mortality, identity and the enduring need to create.
Andy Serkis knew he wanted his memoir to be a bit… different. Sure, he'd take his readers to his childhood and early days as an actor, and share how he created the characters that made his name. But he realised his story was intertwined with the countless lives of extraordinary people, both real and imaginary, as well as animals and strange creatures. So here, Andy also invites his readers into a genre-defying conversation between actor and character, and asks: what would his most iconic characters make of the man who brought them to life?
Out of Place
Eleven Days
Edward W. Said
Laura Thompson
$24.99 | Granta/ Allen & Unwin
$36.99 | HarperCollins
Edward Said experienced both British and American imperialism as the old Arab order crumbled in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Said was born in Jerusalem and brought up in Cairo, spending every summer in the Lebanese mountain village of Dhour el Shweir, until he was 'banished' to America in 1951. This work is a mixture of emotional archaeology and memory, exploring an irrecoverable past. As ill health sets him thinking about endings, Said returns to his beginnings in this personal memoir of his demanding father and his adored, yet ambivalent mother.
In December of 1926, Agatha Christie vanished. Eleven days later, she was discovered alive and well. A century on, questions remain unanswered. Laura Thompson seeks to penetrate the story of the greatest mystery ever created by the greatest ever mystery writer. She undertakes a re-enactment of Christie's movements: from the moment of driving away from her home, to the abandonment of her car and her arrival at a Harrogate hotel. This is a gleaming sliver of biography; an irresistible puzzle that the reader, too, will feel compelled to try and solve.
I Shop, Therefore I Am
The Absent Woman
Mary Portas
Eve Sneider | $34.99 | Allen & Unwin Janet Malcolm is a titan of the written word, with a far-reaching impact and cult-like following. But unlike some, Malcolm was actively opposed to being a literary celebrity, even while famously controversial for challenging journalism's objectivity. The Absent Woman is a portrait of this notoriously private writer and her work, and of the people and themes that she was consumed by in her 60-year career. Here, Eve Sneider examines Malcolm's obsessions and illustrates the many ways in which the writer’s words about other people were a vehicle for Malcolm to understand herself.
$24.99 | Allen & Unwin
This is the story of how Mary Portas transformed Harvey Nichols from a dying department store to an era-defining fashion destination. With her trademark candour and wit, Mary takes us behind the shop window to the glamour and excess of the 90s, to the risks she took, the stunts she pulled, the people who kept the show on the road and the tough lessons that shaped her career. It is a story of grit, resilience and vision against all odds.
Alexandrian Sphinx
Softly, As I Leave You
Peter Jeffreys and Gregory Jusdanis
Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
$24.99 | Simon & Schuster
$24.99 | Hachette
Constantine Cavafy was a brilliant poet who sacrificed love for his art and changed the course of world poetry. This book chronicles the story of Cavafy’s family, their fortunes, and their poverty when they left Egypt. As Cavafy reached adulthood, his story centred on Alexandria, the city that nourished his imagination and became for him a metaphor of both his poetry and modern life. The authors also tell of Cavafy’s work and artistic journey, from his early poetic experiments to when he developed the radical new poetics that has influence countless others.
Priscilla Presley's divorce from Elvis left his fans incredulous. From the outside, life in Elvis's mansion looked glamorous and enviable. But inside, Priscilla Presley’s husband was constantly surrounded by a male entourage while scores of women lined up at the gates for the chance to meet their idol. During her ten years with Elvis, it became apparent that to find herself – and to survive – Priscilla would have to leave that world and seek a new life of her own. This is her deeply personal story of what she lost and what she found when she walked away from the man she loved.
INTERNATIONAL BIOGRPAHY AND MEMOIR
Look At Me
INTERNATIONAL HISTORY AND CULTURE
The Telephone
Heroes or Zeroes?
James Gleick
Lizzy Tiffin
$36.99 | Picador/ Pan Macmillan
$35.00 | HarperCollins
One hundred and fifty years ago, the telephone burst onto the world stage. Instantly, the ability to speak across vast distances began to transform every part of life. Soon, telephones became so ubiquitous that people forgot how they lived without them. Science historian James Gleick explodes myths about the telephone’s invention and reveals the corrupt scheming and ruthless tactics at the heart of the world’s most powerful business empire, showing how this commonplace object changed not only the world but who we are as human beings.
Myths and legends would be nothing without their shining star of a hero at the forefront, right? But what about those minor characters so often scrubbed out of the story? From honoured heroes such as Heracles, to savage scoundrels like Tityus, or the unexpected underdogs Iphicles and Philoctetes, Lizzy Tiffin tells the stories of the dashing and brave men of antiquity with her signature wit and humour. Uncovering the unsung heroes and side guys, Lizzy has us ask, what is it to be a ‘hero’? And should the socalled ‘zeroes’ be the real stars of the show?
Fatal Monsters
Hiroshima 8:15
Jane Draycott | $34.99 | Allen & Unwin Termed the ‘fatal monster’ by the poet Horace, Cleopatra has often been analysed as just this; the unparalleled savage and seductive queen of the ancient world. And while these descriptions align with Ancient Roman sources, the majority of studies on her have disregarded the other ‘fatal monsters’: her sisters Berenice and Arsinoe. Draycott provides a new lens through which Cleopatra’s legacy can be viewed, one that establishes all three sisters as equal drivers to the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty. This dramatic biography paints a compelling picture of sibling rivalry. – Francesca
Kiyoshi Tanimoto $45.00 | Penguin
Through his determination to save his family, church and city from total devastation, Methodist minister Kiyoshi Tanimoto was internationally recognised as a hero of the devastating bombing of Hiroshima. Now his own words about the event, written soon after that fateful day, have surfaced. Hiroshima, 8:15 is a remarkable eyewitness account of this devastating moment of history from a man who survived it.
Refugee Memory as Resistance
Time Frames
Niro Kandasamy
Dominic Dromgoole
$45.00 | Simon & Schuster
$55.00 | Allen & Unwin
Here, Kandasamy explores how war, displacement and resettlement are lived and remembered across generations and borders. He travels the routes of Tamil marginalisation in Sri Lanka, while also showing how refugees encounter new forms of exclusion from the places in which they sought safety. This book offers an urgent account of the way memory can be a form of resistance, of how remembering is not only an act of reflection but a way for refugees to preserve culture and dignity, forge belonging and challenge the political forces that seek to redefine them.
For a century, the story of the changing world was told inside proscenium theatres by a series of remarkable playwrights. In over 60 irreverent pen portraits – of both famous and lesser-known talents – Dromgoole takes us on a journey from 1865 to 1965, revealing how these writers used the framed stage to reflect the social upheavals of their times. Brought vividly to life by a generously erudite and experienced theatre director, Time Frames is a hugely entertaining journey through a fascinating theatrical century, and the era of the proscenium playwrights.
How to Be a Dissident
Co-existence
Gal Beckerman
Ethan Mollick
$27.99 | HarperCollins
$39.99 | Penguin Random House
Drawing on stories of dissidents from around the globe and across time, Beckerman reveals the defining characteristics these extraordinary figures share and how these might equip anyone navigating modern tyranny. The author charts a dissident’s journey from the solitary moment of recognising the truth, through the risks of speaking it and on to the lasting impact we can have. Beckerman then shows us that dissidence is a cultivatable human capacity – a refusal to betray one’s inner voice, no matter what forces surround us or the challenges to our conscience.
AIs can reason, plan, persuade, create and collaborate in ways that once seemed impossible. But AI capability isn't uniform; it excels beyond human ability but also fails tasks a child could master. Ethan Mollick argues that this jagged frontier is where the future will be decided. Most work now spans peaks and valleys – and humans are still best equipped to navigate that terrain. Clear, practical and witty, this guide is for anyone who needs to understand not just how to work with AI, but how to thrive at the frontier where human and machine intelligence meet.
The Melody of Things
Jelena Dokic with Hannah Vanderheide
Nadia Beard
$36.99 | Penguin
$39.99 | Allen & Unwin
Former world No. 4 tennis player, author, commentator and motivational speaker Jelena Dokic shares the insights and tools that helped her reclaim her voice and her life – and shows you how you might be able to do the same. Jelena shows you that if you feel stuck, lost, overwhelmed or held back by your past and your life, there can be a way forward. Through honest guidance, personal lessons, and practical tools and exercises, Live Free will help you to break old patterns and move forward with confidence.
Many of us set aside the pursuits of youth once the reality of working life sets in, leaving the joys and skills of those days far in our slipstream. Here, Nadia Beard depicts what coming back to those early loves entails, as she uproots her life to return to studying the piano years after she had stopped playing as a teenager. Beard explores the pleasures, frustrations and revelations of re-dedicating herself to the instrument. Her story is an invitation to seek out the restorative power waiting to be discovered in the pieces of ourselves we may have lost to time.
Unmasking for Life
Vibe
Dr Devon Price
Adam Grant
$24.99 | Hachette
$36.99 | Penguin Random House
Most masked Autistics have spent a lifetime being told how to perform neurotypically: how to behave, how to carry themselves, what to feel, and how to live. In his latest book, Devon Price helps those with Autism unmask, advocate for their needs and invent new ways of living, loving and being that work for them, and demonstrates how to use key skills to accept change, engage in productive discussion, transgress unfair social expectations, tolerate distress and much more. Unmasking for Life is a practical guide to living a fully realised Autistic life.
A vibe is an engine of happiness and success. Yet building meaningful ties is one of the most pressing problems of our time. As social media forces face-to-face interaction behind digital screens, communication gets outsourced to AI, and the world becomes more polarised than ever, our loneliness crisis shows no signs of abating. Here, Adam Grant offers us studies, insights and myth-busting real-world examples that will teach us that similarity is not necessary for solidarity, chemistry doesn't always happen quickly and closeness doesn't always take time.
Lioness
Sleeping Beauties
Dr Mel Milton-Smith
David Byrne | $55.00 | Allen & Unwin This highly engaging book by musician, writer and polymath David Byrne examines the reasons why many incredible concepts, discoveries and inventions are either ignored or lay dormant before being validated – sometimes years, decades or centuries later. Some of the examples boggle the mind. Did you know the concept that everything is made of atoms was first mooted in around 400 to 600 BC? It was not until 22 centuries later that the idea was accepted. And that’s just one example! A fascinating read by a compelling writer curious about everything. – Sylvia
$34.99 | Simon & Schuster
Dr Milton-Smith has worked with hundreds of women across industries and career stages. Time and again, she’s found that capable women often walk into rooms with quiet voices, minimised selves and a tendency to play small. Drawing on global research, she shows how systemic inequality and social conditioning can undermine women’s confidence – and what practical steps women can take to shift the balance.
The PRO Method
Sacred Art of Crystals
Rosie Nixon
Judy Hall and Rachel Hancock
$36.99 | HarperCollins
$59.99 | Murdoch
Struggling with burnout? Overwhelmed? Desperate for something new? Rosie Nixon felt this way, too. During a high-flying career, she was diagnosed with psychological exhaustion. As she took time away to recover, she realised that something in her life needed to change. Here, Rosie shares what transformed her life: The PRO Method. She reveals the three steps – Pause, Reflect and Organise – that can help you navigate change and move forward decisively. Whatever you’re facing, this method can help you change your life.
Crystals are more than beautiful objects – they are powerful tools for healing, manifestation and transformation. Here, two bestselling works are brought together for the first time, creating the most comprehensive crystal reference available. This luxurious adaptation unites authoritative insight from two crystal experts and includes 100 crystal profiles, complete with meanings, associations, and healing properties. Whether you're crystalcurious or an experienced practitioner, this book provides the tools to bring crystals into your practice-and your life.
MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT
Live Free
OUR FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2026
Plant Lady Emily’s Pick Minyoung Kang, trs. by Shanna Tan | $34.99 | Penguin Random House Back in October, Plant Lady was my personal Book of the Month, and I still can’t stop thinking about it – so it had to be my Book of the Year! It was given to me at a time when I was having ‘readers block’ and I finished it in one sitting. Yoohee runs a thriving little plant shop in a quiet corner of a South Korean neighbourhood. By day she hands out expert advice on keeping your greenery happy. On the side, she offers a much darker service to the women who come to her desperate to escape the abusive men in their lives. And really, who would ever suspect the Plant Lady? At its heart, this is a fierce ode to the sisterhood in the face of misogyny. It’s twisted, wickedly funny and deliciously dark, and Minyoung Kang (translated by Shanna Tan) packs a real punch into a slim little book. If you love your revenge served with a side of potting mix, this one is for you. Highly, highly recommended. – Emily
Yeah the Boys
Robert’s Pick
Holden Sheppard | $34.99 | Pantera Press/ Hardie Grant One of my favourite YA novels is Invisible Boys, set in the small town of Geraldton, WA, where the small-minded and conservative populace force the protagonists to take a good look at themselves, grow up a little quicker, deal with their sexuality and find their own truth. Sheppard then blew my world apart with this gritty, soulful and heartbreaking sequel, set seven years later. Charlie, Zeke and Hammer are back, swapping Geraldton for bustling Perth. Each still deal with their inner turmoils and aspirations. Charlie struggles between a desire for fame and his grief for Matt; Zeke is tortured by his duality, who he wants to be and who his family want him to be; and although Hammer is heading for a meteoric rise in the AFL, he is trying to balance his public persona and his sexuality. Sheppard seems to know just how to pull the heartstrings and make us think at the same time. He is one of the great crusaders of queer fiction in this country – and we’re very lucky he is. – Robert
Ruby’s Pick
The Unicorn Hunters
Katherine Arden | $34.99 | Penguin Random House I absolutely adored The Bear and the Nightingale, so this was a no-brainer for me and easily the best book I’ve read this year. Katherine Arden is a master of blending history and magic and something about the way she writes reminds me of the fairytale adventure stories of my childhood. The historical setting feels thoroughly researched and I can honestly feel the love the author holds for the characters, especially Anne. There is such richness to her work through the history and folklore of the setting that has the feeling of telling a story around the fire, while unknown things move in the darkness beyond. – Ruby
Leona’s Pick
Having Spent Life Seeking
Kae Tempest | $34.99 | Penguin Random House I made a joke to my friends that this, Kae Tempest's latest, could've been named 'Having Spent Life Weeping’ because that's mainly how I spent my time reading it. I'm actually reluctant to write a review of the novel because it's landed so squarely in my heart and body. I think what it boils down to is this: to read this book only for its non-binary or trans or queer representation is to miss its arterial networks; is to miss what it does. The story is about Rothko, who upon being released from prison, seeks to rebuild (or build for the first time) a life out of the numbed-out foundations of their childhood. It's a story written with poetry and with music, and probably with magic, distilling Tempest's lifetime of creativity onto rhythmic pages. So while we're here, oi, Tempest — I reckon you owe me a box of tissues. – Leona
Adina’s Pick
The Lady with the Dog
Carrie Tiffany; illustrated by Noel McKenna | $29.99 | NewSouth Books Novellas are my personal favourite: when a writer explores vast ideas in only a few carefully chosen words. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan is a universally praised piece at Better Read, and shares many of the striking qualities of Carrie Tiffany’s The Lady with the Dog – short but tender, and with a gentle hold on the finer details of day-to-day life. Tiffany points at the cruciality of the innate connection humans share with animals, told through the eyes of an older woman with Alzheimer's reminiscing on her past after adopting a dog. For what could’ve been a biography, I am so glad Tiffany instead chose to reflect her experiences with fiction, simultaneously paying homage to Chekhov’s original short story. Thoughtfully arranged in a picture book-like style with accompanying illustrations, this is an immersive, heartbreaking but loving little gem from a beloved Australian author. – Adina
The Nerd Reich
Gil Durán | $36.99 | Simon & Schuster Tech journalist Durán’s The Nerd Reich covers the rise of technofascism and its place in the Trump administration, providing a roadmap to resistance. It starts with how we got into this mess, with the first few chapters offering context via biographies of the main contenders shaping Silicon Valley. I’m sure many of us are familiar with the fact that big tech CEOs are freaky, but just wait till you read about Curtis Yarvin, university dropout and avid psychedelic guru, better known by his influencer pen name, ‘Mencius Moldbug’ (adds up…). Durán frames their mad beliefs, and where it might lead the rest of us plebs, through their strange dogmas developed in the CEO of Palantir’s hot tub. What I found most interesting was how many of these men have been deeply influenced by Christianity and the notion of a doomsday apocalypse. – Arabella
When the World Sleep
Francesca’s Pick
Francesca Albanese | $32.99 | Hardie Grant Francesca Albanese serves as the UN Special Rapporteur on occupied Palestinian territories. She has lived in Palestine, among the Palestinian people, and with this she presents a deeply personal and politically urgent account of witness to the Palestinian struggle. Sectioned into ten chapters that each focus on different individuals who have contributed to Francesca’s experience and a sharp political critique, she offers an honest and harrowing account of the Gaza atrocities as situated within its broader historical background. What makes this book so excellent and my favourite of the year is that it is not just a discussion, but a vibrant humanising record that has managed in its incredible way to bridge the gap between complex international law and the raw reality of lived, present, human trauma. When the World Sleeps will make you cry, but I think it is an absolutely essential read that will give anyone, informed or uninformed, an important message. – Francesca
Mazi’s Pick
Nymph
Sofia Montrone | $34.99 | Text Publishing Nymph is an immersive, playful yet authentic portait of a girl unearthing the experience of growing up as a queer woman set against the backdrop of a hot Italian summer. The languidity of the novel allows protagonist Leo to discern and dissect what occurs and what doesn’t – perfectly encapsulating the claustrophobia of growing up, the view of adulthood so close. I read this during winter and it transported me to Italy with its viscerally described senses. I think this would also be the perfect summer read on the beach in the sun! – Mazi
Méabh’s Pick
Fruit Fly
Josh Silver | $32.99 | Bloomsbury I am finding a lot of people saying that they feel Fruit Fly is, or could be, ‘overhyped’. However, if you haven’t read it yet (which you should) I recommend shutting out the chatter, because I loved it! As your resident social worker, I love when the themes of mental health or addiction are really well represented by someone who has clearly been exposed to it themselves. When I read that Josh is a mental health nurse, that absolutely made sense. I was on this journey from the first page. The characters are far from perfect but that is the point. They had me laughing, getting frustrated and then rooting for them. Also, it doesn’t hurt that the cover is brilliant. – Méabh
Carolina’s Pick
Worry Doll
Laura McPhee Browne | $29.99 | Scribe Heloise is in her mid-30s living with her cat and long-term boyfriend in a house his parents own. Lacy is in her early 20s and going through the motions of love and intimacy. One summer’s day in Naarm, the pair meet and begin a passionate, but short-lived, love affair. Written in two parts, Worry Doll steeps us in Heloise and Lacy’s inner worlds. In Heloise’s part, McPhee-Browne captures the stifling, hot stickiness of obsessive desire and how yearning for a person can become an all-encompassing vocation. In Lacy’s part, she explores how desire lingers, even unbeknownst to us or when it isn’t wanted. Through the unravelling of both women, Worry Doll examines how our experiences and memories collide to colour our perceptions of our relationships, such that a relationship can take on a very different meaning for each person. An unsettling, compulsive read perfect for those looking for a novel with some good old yearning and obsession to sink their teeth into. – Carolina
OUR FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2026
Arabella’s Pick
MUSIC
Wings
Full Throttle
Paul McCartney
Deniz Tek
$79.99 | Penguin
$36.99 | Picador/ Pan Macmillan
Drawn from interviews with Paul McCartney, his family and band members, as well as other key participants, Wings recounts the musical odyssey taken by a man searching for his identity in the aftermath of The Beatles’ breakup. Soon joined by his wife Linda on keyboard and vocals, drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Denny Laine, McCartney sowed the seeds for a new band that would provide the soundtrack to the decade. Wings transports the reader to the grit and glamour of 70s,and tells the story of a band that came to define a generation.
Sounds Like Teen Spirit: The Anarchic Unathorised Story of Triple J Double J Stuart Coupe and Toby Creswell $39.99 | Hachette
Before the birth of Double J, Australian radio was for conservative adults. But in 1972, a group of journalists, DJs and music lovers laid the foundations for a radio station that would change everything. From the moment Double J went live, mayhem and magnificence were broadcast; the station went on to launch the careers of countless musicians and bands. Here, music industry legends Coupe and Creswell present the unfiltered story of Double J and Triple J.
A revolutionary pioneer of Australian rock, an emergency physician, and a decorated flight surgeon with the Marines, Deniz Tek is a man of many lives. In this raw yet reflective memoir, the Radio Birdman co-founder traces an improbable journey from his childhood in Michigan to the highintensity stages of Sydney's punkrock venues, and recounts stories of survival and achievement. This isn't just a rock or medical memoir; it is a profound testament to the idea that with enough resolve, anything is possible – and it is the story of a life lived at full throttle.
Is This It Steven Hyden $49.99 | Hachette
In 2001, The Strokes broke into the indie alt-rock scene with their debut album Is This It. Despite the album's accolades, the band never reached the wide audience they'd hoped to. But then how did a band defined by their repeated failure gain such a transcendent allure? Steve Hyden provides insight into The Strokes' tumultuous longevity by turning a critical lens on their entire career, as well as the careers of their music contemporaries.
Brian Beck
Blow by Blow: The Jeff Beck Story
$55.00 | Penguin Random House
Brad Tolinski and Chris Gill
On the Records
This extraordinary collection of essays by 80 esteemed musicians, from Brian Eno to Erykah Badu to Angelique Kidjo to Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, see each revealing an overlooked but beloved album that has resonated deeply with them. Some albums reflect key chapters in the work of recognised artists, while others are long out of print, self-released or hard to find. Each artist's reflection is paired with album art and imagery that bring these records to life. On the Records unfolds with the quiet pleasure of browsing a wellloved record collection – a book to linger with as much as to read.
Jeff Beck was an icon. Yet somehow, he maintained the ineffable low-profile cool of a cult hero – gliding through six decades of musical trends with nary a lapse in taste. In his illustrious career, Beck won eight Grammy Awards, was twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and recorded with some of the most important rock, jazz and soul musicians of all time, including Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Tina Turner and Kate Bush. Here, the authors shed new light on this elusive rock genius.
Can’t Get You Out of My Head
Blitz and Beyond
Michael Cragg
Graham Smith
$34.99 | Allen & Unwin
$89.99 | Hachette
From her late-80s beginnings to her gold-plated hits soundtracking dancefloors the world over, there is only one Kylie Minogue. She has sold millions of records, is the bestselling Australian pop star of all time and has collaborated with some of the biggest names in music, fashion and photography across her various shape-shifting eras. But who is the 'real' Kylie? Michael Cragg takes us on a journey into the psyche of this enigmatic pop star. Via interviews, oral history and playful writing, this book aims to put the pop puzzle pieces together.
The New Romantic movement transcended the 'no future' ethos of the late 1970s like no other. In the dimly lit bars of Soho, a group of extravagant youths emerged, dressed in flamboyant and striking attire, ushering in a cultural moment that would define a generation. Photographer Graham Smith was at its core, capturing extraordinary images that reveal this vibrant, groundbreaking scene in unparalleled detail. This book offers an intimate, behindthe-scenes perspective on a movement that visually shaped a decade and left a lasting influence on music and fashion.
$69.99 | Penguin
Relentless
Ash Barty
Ariarne Titmus
$45.00 | HarperCollins
$34.99 | Allen & Unwin
Match Point is Ash Barty’s powerful tribute to a century of Australian tennis. With her unique perspective as a Grand Slam champion, she revisits the matches, legends and moments that have shaped the sport and inspired a nation. Barty examines 22 unforgettable matches that defined careers and showcased the courage, resilience and sportsmanship at the heart of Australian tennis. It also highlights the sport's evolution and the players who left their mark, including Rod Laver, Margaret Court, Pat Cash and Pat Rafter. This is a heartfelt celebration of a legacy that continues to live on.
Champion swimmer Ariarne Titmus, known as 'The Terminator', is renowned for her grit and determination. She has overcome setbacks, expectations and the pressure of competing at the highest level time and again. But in a carefully considered decision, while still at the peak of her athletic powers, Ariarne chose to pursue other goals. In this deeply personal memoir, she opens up for the first time about the medical issues that have impacted her fertility and explains why, at just 25, she walked away from the pool believing that family triumphs over all.
Mapping Le Tour
The Long Game
Ellis Bacon
Malcom Knox $54.99 | Macmillan
$65.00 | HarperCollins
Mapping Le Tour features a map of each Tour de France along with photos, text on the history of the race, and lists of the stages, winners and key statistics, making it essential reading for any cycling fan. Many of Le Tour’s iconic locations are also examined, offering readers a unique perspective on the places that have shaped the race's legacy. Mapping Le Tour celebrates the enduring spirit, fierce competition, and breathtaking beauty of the Tour de France. Perfect for seasoned cycling aficionados or newcomers to the sport.
With its crisp white uniforms and fifth-day miracles, Test cricket has always held a sacred place in the hearts of fans.Yet for all its claims to legend, it has continually evolved to suit the times. To mark the 150th anniversary of Test cricket, sportswriter Malcolm Knox presents a new history of the game, recounting the personalities and contexts behind iconic turning points with the passion of a life-long devotee. Knox masterfully captures the spirit of a game that has enthralled generations, and reminds us why the Test endures as the pinnacle of cricketing success.
Journey Across Japan
A Tree-Lover’s Guide to Australia
Chris Broad
Inga Simpson $39.99 | Murdoch Books Australia has more natural UNESCO World Heritage sites than any other nation, and many tree species grow nowhere else in the world. In Inga Simpson’s botanical journey, we are taken around the country to celebrate iconic species, trees and forests, the people who love them and more. This guide will help you recognise the trees you see, remind you to look up, and inspire you with suggested walks and travel ideas. As Inga says, loving and living with trees is a lifelong journey.
$36.99 | Penguin
Japan is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, yet many visitors follow the same itinerary. But with 47 prefectures, each with their own rich history, traditional crafts and local foods, Japanophile Chris Broad shows us there is much more to discover. Packed with enthralling and hilarious anecdotes, essential guides to etiquette, and top tips for what to eat, buy and see, this is the must-have guide to Japan.
Intrepid Food
One Year on a Bike
Intrepid
Martijn Doolaard
$49.99 | Hardie Grant
$115.00 | Gestalten/ Hardie Grant
Intrepid Food brings you 100 unforgettable food experiences from around the globe. But it’s not just a foodie bucket list – it’s a celebration of flavours, traditions and the people who create them. From street stalls to cooking classes, iconic dishes to hidden gems, these experiences take you beyond the plate to uncover the authentic, the truly delicious and surprising – all with a focus on sustainability and respect for culture. With over 30 years of trips under their belt, Intrepid is a go-to source for discovering the world through food.
Martijn Doolaard traded the convenience of a car and daily life for a cross-continental cycling journey: a biped adventure that would take him from Amsterdam to Singapore. Leaving behind repetitive routines, he indulged in slow travel, the subtlety of a gradually changing landscape, and the lessons learnt through travelling from Eastern Europe to Iran. This is a vivid chronicle of what can happen when the norm is replaced by exceptional self-discoveries and beautiful sceneries. Doolaard also shares the gear and knowledge that made his extraordinary trip possible.
SPORT AND TRAVEL
Match Point
SCIENCE AND ANIMALS
Tongue
The Man Who Broke Reality
Kathryn Crowcroft
Philip Ball
$32.95 | Giramondo Publishing
$36.99 | Hachette
Framed through her research into the tongue and its untold cultural significance, Kathryn Crowcroft’s debut explores how this organ has been cast as both sacred and sinful across centuries. Tongue takes the shape of a nodal essay, composed of discrete cells that mirror the organ itself: porous, muscular, bifurcated. Written in the shadow of gendered violence, this book offers a fierce and sensitive articulation of the truths we learn to lie for. Tongue creates a radical space for silence to resonate – and an exploration of how a voice might piece together what has been severed.
Lost in Space
Danish physicist Niels Bohr won the Nobel Prize in 1922 for his contribution to quantum theory; engaged in a lifelong intellectual duel with Einstein; debated in Copenhagen about the Nazi’s work on their atomic bomb; and, after escaping Denmark, joined the Manhattan Project to build the atom bomb. Later, he campaigned tirelessly for international arms control and helped to establish the centre for nuclear physics in Switzerland. Philip Ball presents a compelling portrait of a scientist whose insights continue to shape our understanding of the universe.
The Co-Creation
Dr Kirsten Banks | $36.99 | Macmillan Discover planets that are darker than charcoal, objects that wander into our solar system from interstellar space, the dark emu constellation, moon missions, five places to keep off your intergalactic holiday wish list, the time the sun burped and took out the telegraphs, First Nation names for the Moon… and so much more. This fabulous book, full of wonder, is a compelling journey through our spectacular universe with astrophysicist and Wiradjuri woman Dr Kirsten Banks, a renowned science communicator who makes the cosmos exciting, accessible and fun for everyone.
Olivia Judson $36.99 | Hachette
Evolutionary biologist Olivia Judson proposes that Earth’s story is not one of DNA, but is driven by energy. She divides the history of our planet into five epochs, each era unlocking a new energy source. Through these, she argues, Earth evolved into the planet it is today. But life, too, became a powerful force for change, and she reveals how we are not merely occupiers, but integral to Earth’s very existence.
Yap!
The Fairywrens of Australia
Stephanie Howard-Smith
Howard Loosemore
$36.99 | Granta/ Allen & Unwin
$89.99 | Simon & Schuster
Almost from humanity's very beginning, beloved small dogs have been trotting devotedly by our sides. Yap! follows in the pawprints of the breeds we have grown to love and cherish. Drawing on her own experience as a pug-owner, pet historian Howard-Smith reveals how small dogs have shaped our lives as much as we have theirs, challenging social dynamics, changing the way we spend our leisure time, contributing to a global industry now worth billions, and offering valuable companionship and a chance for self-expression. A must-read for any lover of small dogs.
Australians have long been enchanted by the dazzling colours and lively personalities of fairywrens. Yet for all their charm, much of their private lives remain hidden. This book showcases fairywrens as never before: every species, every plumage phase, and both sexes presented in vivid detail. Alongside these portraits are practical identification tables, explanations of behaviour, diet, breeding, habitat and distribution. This book is both a visual delight and an indispensable field reference – a true celebration of Australia’s most beloved small birds.
The Ghost of the Mountains
A Year with the Seals
Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi
Alix Morris
$45.00 | Granta/ Allen & Unwin
$24.99 | Allen & Unwin
Silent, solitary and beautiful, snow leopards inhabit the cliffs and rugged mountains of central Asia and are so well camouflaged that they vanish into the landscape. Biologist Suryawanshi (Kullu) has spent 20 years studying these elusive creatures in the mountainous wild, exploring their daily challenges, habitats and prey. Kullu has developed new research that shines fresh light on these vulnerable animals, and shows how entangled their survival is with the local people. His book is an invititation to see the world through the eyes of a snow leopard.
Seals have long captured people's interest and affection. Alix Morris spent a year with these magnetic creatures and brings them to life, season by season, as she learns about their intelligence, their relationships with each other, their ecosystems and the changing climate. Morris also explores the competing interests in the debate about newly recovered seal populations in our coastal waters. This is a rare look at what happens when conservation efforts actually work, and how human tampering with ecosystems continues to have consequences.
The Case of the Christmas Kitten: Classic Tales of Feline Crime
Iratxe López de Munáin
Various
$36.99 | Thames & Hudson
$24.99 | Allen & Unwin
Mount Fuji sets the scene for a soba-fuelled dinner party like no other. You might recognise The Great Wave, but what else do you know about the visionary who was Katsushika Hokusai? Light your lanterns and prepare to paint Edoperiod Japan in Prussian blue – it's time to face your laughing demons as you piece together the artists, artworks and surroundings that bring this prolific artist's world to life. Twenty interesting facts are hidden in the illustration, so prepare to take up the challenge of this 1000-piece puzzle and discover Hokusai's unique story.
A trail of pawprints vanishes under falling snow. A pair of eyes glints in the darkness outside. Something brushes past your leg ... but your beloved pet is nowhere to be seen. Curl up and settle in for a set of festive cat-themed detective stories, from the greatest writers of the genre. A perfect stocking-filler that will mystify and delight long after the last slice of pudding has mysteriously disappeared, The Case of the Christmas Kitten is essential reading for the Christmas holidays. So ask yourself: are you feline murderous?
My Little Golden Book About the 80s
Parlour Games for Friends and Family
Jennifer Dussling and Spencer
Myfanwy Jones and Spiri Tzintsiras
Wilson
$29.99 | Scribe
$5.99 | Golden Books/ Penguin
This book is bursting with games of logic and memory, wordplay, card games, role-play and rough and tumble. Not a single game requires equipment that you won't find in your average home: a pack of cards, a dictionary, dice, paper and pen. There are games that will challenge and stimulate you, and games that will have you in fits; games that can last all night or just a half-hour; games for adults and older children; and games for your four-year-old's birthday party. This is a book for fun-lovers aged four to 104!
Take a trip back to the 1980s and discover the music, toys, TV shows, movies, people and events that made the decade awesome. This colourful introduction includes everything from Cabbage Patch Kids and Trivial Pursuit, to video arcades and aerobics classes, to PCs and big hair… and so much more. Learn all about the totally tubular 1980s with this Little Golden Book, which is sure to delight kids, adults and, like, Valley Girls – for sure!
The Glam Reaper’s Guide to Slaying
The Killer Isn’t Alice
Bill Crisafi
Alice Starling is missing. In her apartment, the police find a dead body, a cryptic note and a folder of names. In a hastily written letter, Alice insists she is innocent – but she needs your help. She’s left you with 18 specific clues and a list of 46,600 potential suspects, including the murderer. Your mission is simple, but challenging: analyse the clues; eliminate the innocent and identify the culprit. Do you have what it takes to clear Alice's name? Forget everything you know about who-dunnits! This first-of-its-kind logic puzzle is easy to grasp but impossible to put down.
Iris Starling | $36.99 | Penguin Random House
$39.99 | Penguin
Join the darkly charming and wickedly funny Glam Reaper and friends as they stumble, slay and soul-search their way to 'the afters'. Full of universal themes and fierce friendship, this is your rebellious roadmap to healing, thriving, and defeating your personal demons once and for all. Here you'll find kindred spirits, uplifting incantations, and rituals for rising into your power. A funny and empowering book of uplifting messages – the perfect potion for dark days.
Penguin Books Reading Journal
Hockey Boys
Penguin Books Australia
Rombutan
$26.99 | Penguin
$24.99 | Macmillan
Celebrate the stories you've loved and the ones still waiting to be discovered by documenting them in this classic reading journal. This keepsake invites you to capture your literary journey, from setting reading goals and building your tobe-read list to tracking genres, completing reading challenges and logging completed books. Every page is designed to help you reflect on what you read and why it matters. With space for your favourite quotes, standout titles, personal stats and thoughtful reflections, this is the perfect gift that book lovers will treasure long after the last entry is written.
Unleash the heat and master the ice with this ultimate hockey romance colouring experience. Step into a world of high-stakes competition and undeniable chemistry with Hockey Boys. Inspired by the most electric tropes of the genre, this collection invites you to bring 40 steamy, intimate illustrations to life with your own touch of colour, and experience the friction between two rivals who can't keep their hands off each other. These pages capture every spark of their journey and the quiet, breathless moments of vulnerability once the stadium lights go down.
GIFT
Dinner with Hokusai: A 1000-piece puzzle
COOKBOOKS OF THE MONTH 2026
February
Lourinhã
Matt McConnell with Jo Gamvros | $50.00 | Hardie Grant As I am yet to have the good fortune of dining at Matt and Jo’s beloved restaurant in Melbourne, established now for 20 years, I am super excited to have their new cookbook to peruse until I can taste their delectable Mediterranean food in person. In this beautiful volume you’ll find much-loved recipes for tasty, varied and fresh dishes inspired by the incredible bar food of Spain and Portugal that the duo has championed for decades. Think: Pickled Sardine Banderillas, Spiced Chickpeas & Spinach, Gambas al Ajillo, Chorizo & Apple Cider, Churros & Dulce de Leche and a fresh-fig-andslivered-almond-topped Torta de Queso. Scrumptious! – Sylvia
March
Home Food
Elizabeth Hewson | $45.00 | Murdoch Books This very appealing new book by Elizabeth Hewson – author of one of my favourite cookbooks, Saturday Night Pasta – is all about making home cooking easy and delicious, especially if you are feeling a bit tired from juggling work, family, life and everything else you might be attending to. (Perhaps even actual juggling? You never know… ) What’s more, Elizabeth’s recipes offer comfort, flavour and culinary joy – three more of my favourite things! With recipe titles such as It’s Going To Be Ok Stew, Soup For Exhausted People, A Midweek Fish Pillow Pie and A Sunny Dhal with Crispy Curry Leaves, you can also feel confident Elizabeth will support you through any breakfast, lunch or dinner. And now, surely, it must be time to try Elizabeth’s Sour Cream and Strawberry Ripple Slab Cake… mmmm… – Sylvia
April
You Had Me at Cake
Emelia Jackson | $39.99 | Murdoch Books Ahh, Emelia! Here she is again, the Masterchef author of baking must-haves First Cream the Butter and Sugar and Some of My Best Friends are Cookies, back with another glorious celebration of divine baked treats, this time with a focus on cake. Because let’s face it, there is always room for cake, right? Here, Emelia covers all the basics of baking perfect cakes, and shares recipes for everything from simple-yet-delicious delights, such as One-bowl Carrot and Pecan Cake (with cream cheese icing, of course) and Olive Oil Cake with Honey, Orange and Thyme, to fancier fare, including Tiramisu Cake, Mocha Tres Leches, Torta Gianduja and a fine selection of layered cakes to boot. Emelia also dedicates an entire chapter to mini cakes, including a delectable and adorable Passionfruit Mini Bundt. Sigh. I wonder if Emelia needs a professional cake taster … – Sylvia
Plat du Tour
May
Guillaume Brahimi | $45.00 | Hardie Grant I readily admit that the only reason I watch the Tour de France is for the scenery and the Plat du Tour segments. Originally presented as ‘Taste le Tour’ by the delightful Gabriel Gaté, the baton (or should I say lardon?) was passed on to Guillaume Brahimi and, naturellement, he has made it his own. For each of the foodie portions of the great race, Guillaume highlights a town on the race’s route then offers up a speciality of the region. In this book version of his charming segments, Guillaume presents the very best of French cuisine from all around France for us to enjoy. France, a stellar and beloved chef and divine food? That definitely deserves the yellow jersey, n’est-ce pas? – Sylvia
June
Smoke, Rice, Water
Kishwar Chowdhury | $50.00 | Hardie Grant The fabulous books from MasterChef Australia alumni just keep on coming! And this one by 2021 second runner-up Kishwar Chowdhury is no exception. This gorgeous and heartfelt book is a tribute not only to Kishwar’s Bengali heritage, but also to her parents, Laila and Kamrul, who were integral to Kishwar developing a love for Bengali food – a love that shines through on every page. Here, Kishwar records and passes on exceptional recipes in a way that we can all relish, including Jewelled pulao, Nagisi Kofta (Narcissus Scotch Eggs), Prawn Do-plyaza, Mula Shukti (Radish with Dried Shrimp), Doi Begun (Eggplant in Spiced Yoghurt), Chocolate Cake with Nolen Gur, and many more. Smoke, Rice, Water delights the senses and will transport you to another, very delicious, world. – Sylvia
Native Ingredients Every Day
Nornie Bero | $45.00 | Hardie Grant In her very welcome follow up to her best-selling cookbook Mabu Mabu, Nornie Bero – talented chef and proud Meriam woman from the Torres Strait – shows us just how easy it is to incorporate flavour-packed native ingredients into our daily cooking. With the genius idea of focusing primarily on ten native ingredients, including salt bush, native citrus and kangaroo, these achievable, delicious recipes will have you heading straight to the kitchen. The 80+ options range from curries, tacos and salsas to stews, seafood dishes and sweet tarts. Think: Macadamia Chilli Oil, Warrigal Greens Dressing, Garlic-roasted Heirloom Tomato Bruschetta with Saltbush Crumb and Labneh, Lemon Aspen Fried Squid with Pepperberry Mayo (I LOVE pepperberry), and Golden Crumpets with Wattleseed Syrup Butter. Hmm, I personally can’t wait to try the Cassava Yellow Curry… – Sylvia
August
Tonight’s Dinner, Tomorrow’s Lunchbox
George Georgievski | $29.99 | Murdoch 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 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! – Sylvia
September
Saint Peter: Chapter & Verse Josh Niland | $80.00 | Hardie Grant
In 2016, Josh Niland and his wife Julie opened Saint Peter, their now internationally recognised restaurant, with a singular precept in mind: to approach fish cookery in a way that respects and utilises all parts of the fish. What followed is a decade of innovation, creativity, trial and error, openings and closing, cookbooks, COVID, losses and wins. Now located at the Paddington’s Grand National Hotel, the restaurant – and the Niland’s – have survived it all with expert grace. In his latest book, Josh presents a series of essays about his and Julie’s journey, woven throughout with 140 of Saint Peter’s exquisite recipes. This stunningly beautiful, thoughtful and inspiring book is a must for any serious foodie. – Sylvia
October
Simple Pleasures
Julia Busuttil Nishimura | $44.99 | Plum/ Pan Macmillan Each of Julia Busuttil Nishimura cookbooks have had us sighing with pleasure over her comforting, delicious and deeply satisfying recipes, and I’m delighted to say that her latest book, Simple Pleasures, continues the trend. Indeed, a food-inspired rush of dopamine is likely to embrace you from the very first page! In this love letter to home cooking, Julia celebrates and highlights seasonal produce; presents easy, often one-pan dishes that can be made any night of the week; and reminds us of the many virtues of a well-stocked pantry. The tempting recipes include Pasta e Fagioli; Lemony Tomato & Bean Broth; Casarecce with Caramelised Fennel & Sausage; Potato, Onion & Gruyère Tart; and End of Summer Plum Cake with Almond & Vanilla. Ahh, heaven! – Sylvia
November
Made Simple
Danielle Alvarez | $45.00| Murdoch Having had the very good fortune some weeks ago of tasting some of Danielle’s fab recipes – made by Danielle herself, no less! – there could be no other choice for our November Cookbook of the Month than Danielle’s latest, Made Simple. In this new work, the lovely Danielle, so passionate about food and flavour, turns her exceptional culinary skills to creating easy, delicious and accessible recipes at home – and with her chef’s background, that means they’re full of flavour, too. Recipes include Grilled Swordfish Steaks with Cherry Tomato, Olive & Caper Salsa; Eggplant Involtini with Ricotta, Tomato & Rosemary Breadcrumbs; Prawn and Risoni Puttanesca; Tamarind & Curry Butter Baked Snapper; and Pork, Apple & Sage Sausage Rolls. Simple yet simply fabulous. Thank you, Danielle! – Sylvia
COOKBOOKS OF THE MONTH 2026
July
COOKING
Vietnamese Home Cooking
Celebrations
Quang Huy Nguyen
Gourmet Traveller
$49.99 | Murdoch
$59.99 | Are Media
Vietnamese Home Cooking delivers everyone's favourites, traditional mainstays and inventive variations, from classic phở to grilled dishes, stews, curries, salads and more. Enjoy over 90 recipes with photos and how-tos, plus everything you need for bánh mì, bánh xèo your own bún vermicelli noodles and bowls, plus a range of colourful sweets and time-honoured drinks. From meats to seafood and a range of veg, all tastes are catered for, and you’ll find all the steps, sauce and ingredient tips you'll need to build your own authentic Vietnamese flavours.
For sixty years, Gourmet Traveller has been at the heart of Australia's most memorable meals. This celebratory cookbook brings together menus for every occasion, from leisurely brunches and long lunches to cocktail parties, festive feasts and elegant, celebratory dinners. This is a collection designed to inspire gathering, sharing and celebrating around the table, and its release also marks Gourmet Traveller’s 60th anniversary as Australia’s leading premium lifestyle and finedining content publication.
Mochitsuki
Gather Eddie Bulatao $60.00 | Fremantle Press Having developed his understanding of bush tucker and foraging techniques from Aboriginal Elders, WA chef Eddie Bulatao continually explores and experiments with native ingredients. Now in his debut cookbook, he shares with us how to transform everyday dishes into modern Australian cuisine using those same bush foods, and demonstrates the delicious ways you can easily do this in your own home kitchen, too.
Kristen Morita $47.00 | Hardie Grant
Explore the history, culture, and tradition of mochi and mochitsuki in this visually rich cookbook by Kristen Morita, who shares recipes inspired by her own heritage. Kristen shows you how to make fresh, authentic mochi at home, and then use it as an ingredient in a swathe of tasty and fun dishes. A chapter on holidays and occasions also offers recipes for traditional mochi treats eaten at particular times throughout the year. Squishy, tasty goodness!
Ekiben
A Sweet Trip to Paris
Brendan Liew
Elisabeth Pérotin
$45.00 | Smith Street Books
$39.99 | Murdoch Books
For travellers crossing Japan by rail, few things capture the excitement of the journey quite like the ekiben, the bento boxes that are available at train stations. Delicious dishes packed neatly, these regional lunchboxes offer a taste of the landscape that rushes past your window. Now with this book, you can explore the significance of these lunchboxes and recreate them home. Alongside the recipes are essays on the origins of this tradition, its significance today and its future. Ekiben is an invitation to try a unique aspect of Japanese culture.
Explore the irresistible world of French pâtisserie! From timeless classics to creative modern treats, celebrate the full array of French desserts and the fascinating anecdotes behind their creation. For each of the 40 recipes, there are charming illustrations and photos, a brief history of the pastry and then a recipe from historical documents, adapted for modern kitchens. Here, you'll encounter, kings, queens and culinary stars, and a travel guide to Elisabeth's favourite sweet spots by arrondissement. Bon voyage!
Lebanon
At My Nonna’s Table
Anissa Helou
Laura Sharrad
$59.99 | Bloomsbury
$45.00 | Are Media
An evocative journey through Lebanon, this gorgeous book features over 160 sumptuous recipes alongside Anissa Helou's stories, memories and cultural insights. You’ll also find information on techniques and a list of staple ingredients for making everything from colourful small plates to luscious stuffed vegetables, as well as elaborate dishes for impressing. This vibrant collection from Anissa – renowned chef, teacher, author and recipient of the Guild of Food Writer’s Lifetime Achievement Award for 2026 – showcases Lebanon's rich culinary tradition.
This lovely book is a celebration of the recipes, traditions and family stories that shape us. Inspired by generations of Italian home cooks, it honours the women in Laura's life who taught her that food is more than nourishment – it is love, memory and connection. Blending treasured family dishes with a fresh perspective for modern life, Laura invites you to embrace the spirit of Nonna: cook with heart, share generously, and always make room for one more at the table.
The Art of Living with Books
Vivienne Ayers and Brent Darby
Damian Thompson
$55.00 | Hachette
$90.00 | Hardie Grant
From the photographer and interiors writer team of Brent Darby and Vivienne Ayers, The Well-Crafted Home provides more than 15 inspiring interiors that each feature bespoke furniture, furnishings, decorative objects or materials, from artisan tile work to designer furniture, reclaimed antiques to individually created ceramics and glass. This lovely book is for anyone who wants to create a home that celebrates a unique style inspired by the creative process in architecture, design or decoration, or simply by the local landscape and materials used for home design.
Here, bibliophile Thompson explores the important role books play as decorative and functional items. As he tours each room of the home in turn, he discovers a host of techniques for stacking, shelving and closeting volumes, and a wealth of practical design solutions for each space and every size of collection. You will learn how to make the best use of existing storage and create new space for an ever-growing collection; how to combine books with other personal effects to create eye-catching displays; and how to organise and care for your books. Perfect for all book lovers!
Fashion, Annotated DK
Bajirru: A First Nations Colouring Book
$75.00 | DK/ Penguin Random House
Balarinji Studio
Prepare to be dazzled by the most groundbreaking fashions of the last 4,000 years with this expert guided tour through fashion history featuring 400 key pieces from the ancient world to the present day. Discover the exquisite detail of 17th-century embroidery; find yourself blown away by the intricacies of a traditional kimono, and marvel at galleries of the most important styles of shoes and accessories down the centuries. Fashion, Annotated profiles all of the major milestones of fashion history across the world, and the photography and artworks bring each piece to vibrant life on the page.
$24.99 | Hardie Grant
Bajirru invites the colourist to Come Walk on Country. The calming energy of Country flows through these pages in over 70 artworks to colour that depict creation stories, places under the sun and stars, the life cycles of animals, birds and insects, and flowering plants sustained by the seasons. Organised into four sections – Desert Country, Freshwater Country, Saltwater Country and Sky Country – the colourist is warmly invited into the Aboriginal way to slow down, be still and feel a sense of the natural world.
Class Act
Hook Out!
John Berendt
Molla Mills
$39.99 | Penguin Random
$34.99 | Hardie Grant
House
As a recent crochet convert, I’m very excited about this book from Finnish crochet designer Molla Mills in which she presents gorgeous and easy patterns for contemporary, casual and very wearable crocheted clothing. Think: jackets, cardigans, scarves, jumpers, shorts, tank tops, socks – even pencil skirts! With great colour blocking and fun patterns, this range of garments (with options suitable for all seasons) will have you addicted to crochet before you know it. – Sylvia
For more than a decade, Berendt wrote columns for Esquire on matters of manners and clothing. Class Act brings together over 50 of these pieces, updated and revised, plus new additions, each with a focus on an iconic item of men's fashion. Whether interviewing the Duchess of Argyll about socks or noting the definitive motorcycle jacket and how to wear it, Berendt informs and entertains in equal measure.
More Than Just a Plant
Grow it, Don’t Throw it
Krystal Duran
Simon Akeroyd
$45.00 | Quarto/ Murdoch Books
$39.99 | DK/ Penguin Random House
Here, Krystal Duran shares her deeply personal story of finding peace, purpose and growth through the act of caring for plants. With a relatable, down-toearth approach, Krystal (@_plantswithkrystal_) shows that houseplants are far more than décor – they're living companions that connect us to nature, bring daily calm and offer a powerful path to self-care. Through stories, tips and reflections, Krystal helps you build plant routines that fit your life, embrace imperfection, and find meaning in every new leaf and fallen petal.
Save money and save the planet with handy hacks that turn your waste into garden treasure! Here, Simon Akeroyd shares ingenious ideas and practical projects for turning scrap objects into useful, beautiful items for the garden. Learn how to turn egg cartons into seed trays; make a hanging herb garden by plant up old gloves; turn old tote bags into potato planters; use forks to protect seedlings; and make a garden BBQ out of old bricks. With this horticultural treasure trove, you’ll be able to garden for next to nothing, and also recycle your way to a more sustainable garden space.
LIFESTYLE AND GARDEN
The Well-Crafted Home
ART AND DESIGN
David Hockney by David Hockney
Frida
David Hockney
Ed. by Tobias Ostrander and Beatriz García-Velasco
$100.00 | Thames & Hudson
$100.00 | Thames & Hudson
First published in 1976, this book grew out of 25 hours of recorded conversation with the artist. This full-colour edition marks the 50th anniversary of the book's first publication and sees Hockney recount his early years in Bradford; his years at the Royal College of Art; his sojourn in California; and his phase in Paris, where an exhibition at the Louvre established him as a master. The text is entirely Hockney's own, and shows how he ceaselessly aimed to portray the world around him imaginatively.
This new monograph showcases Frida’s works that explore her 'many selves' – artist, wife, intellectual, political activist. It includes over 130 of Frida’s paintings, plus documents, photographs and memorabilia taken from archives, as well as the work of more than 80 of Frida’s contemporaries and artists she inspired. This volume offers a fascinating insight into the transformative role of women artists in the 20th century, the intriguing notion of fandom, and the diversity of communities who claim Frida as their own.
Dansaekhwa
Reframing Blackness
Yeon Shim Chung | $79.95 | Phaidon This is the first book to explore the major abstract art movement of postwar South Korea, celebrating its aesthetic legacy and the individual endeavours of its canon-defining artists. Dansaekhwa the movement contained a diverse group of artists who pushed the boundaries of painting and colour into drawing, craft, sculpture, installation and experimental art. This fine volume presents critical explorations of significant artists, detailing their developments within the wider cultural climate of post-war South Korea and the art world at large.
Alayo Akinkugbe $29.99 |Penguin Random House
Since the inception of mainstream art history, Blackness has been ignored. This original riposte to the current understanding of Blackness in Western art and museums by historian Akinkugbe challenges this void. Exploring how Blackness and Black figures are presented in Western art and museums, in feminist art movements and in the curriculum, Alayo unveils an overlooked but integral part of our collective art history. Refreshing and accessible, this promises to start a muchneeded conversation in culture and education.
Totem
Where They Live: Japan
Jo Baring
Paul Barbera and Kirsty Munro
$55.00 | Allen & Unwin
$59.99 | Thames & Hudson
In this story-led journey into the heart of sculpture, art historian and curator Jo Baring explores creativity, memory and why we have been driven to make art in this medium since the very beginning of humanity. Baring examines sculptures from the prehistoric Lion Man to an ancient Mayan pyramid that conjures a serpent, to icons of the Italian Renaissance. We also encounter contemporary giants such as Giacometti, Hepworth, Moore, Bourgeois and others. Totem is a celebration of art, artists and those who find meaning in this form.
From compact homes to wooden townhouses shaped by traditions, from inventive live/ work studios to family abodes on the edges of the city, each home featured here reveals the breadth of contemporary Japanese domestic life. These environments are lived in, thoughtful and deeply personal. Through candid photos and insightful profiles, each chapter tells a story of how the home is shaped by everyday rituals. This is a portrait of contemporary Japanese life, seen through the spaces people inhabit.
Public Sydney: Drawing the City
How Architects Live.
Philip Thallis and Peter John Cantrill
Marc Blazer and Dung Ngo
$199.00 | Thames & Hudson
$79.99 | Hachette
Public Sydney reveals the city through its most powerful public spaces. Through over 100 key sites in plan, section and elevation, it uncovers the layered history, harbour-shaped geography and design intelligence that give Sydney its distinct urban character. Meticulous drawings are paired with historical and contemporary images in incisive essays to trace how Sydney's public realm has been shaped over time – and why its shared spaces remain central to Sydney's vitality and everyday life. This revised edition contains new maps, images and essays to shines a light on the past, present and future of the city.
What happens when an architect designs a home for themselves, where they can express their ideas, test their convictions, and live among them? Here, the authors offers us more than a dozen unique answers to this question as they journey inside the personal homes of some of the world's most accomplished architects. By looking closely at these homes, we can learn not only about architecture, but about the life inside those four walls. How do these spaces reflect the values of the people who created them? And what do they reveal about how we might live better?
Lorrie Graham: Photojournalist
Chrissie Goldrick and Australian Geographic $60.00 | Hardie Grant
Lorrie Graham $89.99 | Peribo
From sheep stations to city streets to the ocean, 40 Years in Focus captures our landscapes, wildlife, people and culture in stunning detail, alongside remarkable stories of industry, endeavour, adventure and exploration. Curated by former Australian Geographic Editor-in-Chief Chrissie Goldrick, this beautiful collection draws on four decades of the journal’s photography and storytelling to reveal a changing Australia through the themes of Nature, Culture, People and Places, and is a compelling piece of our history to share and treasure.
Lorrie Graham is one of Australia's most celebrated photojournalists, a trailblazer in a notoriously male-dominated profession, working for major publications in Australia and abroad. Her work is held in numerous national institutions and she was inducted into The Australian Media Hall of Fame in 2017. This exceptional monograph presents a selection of her favourite images from five decades of storytelling and was created to accompany the exhibition of the same name currently on at the State Library of NSW and running until October 2027.
This is Photography
Art of the New York Subway
Ed. by Nathalie Herschdorfer
Adrian Brune
$90.00 | Thames & Hudson
$75.00 | Murdoch Books
Photography has changed how we view the world, structuring our very ways of seeing. From the earliest experiments, photography has blossomed and proliferated to a point where 1.9 trillion photos are snapped annually. Photographs are now at the core of our imagedominated culture. This book offers a cohesive, compelling path through this dizzying mass of information. Alongside pivotal and instantly recognisable works, This is Photography records the objects, cameras, technical developments, exhibitions and publications that have shaped the medium, making this an essential resource for any photographer.
Step into the world's largest underground art museum with this stunning tribute to the artistry that transforms the New York subway from a transit system into a cultural landmark. Here, you’ll discover the elegant Beaux Arts terracotta signs of Heins and LaFarage; vibrant contemporary installations by icons such as Roy Lichtenstein, Yayoi Kusama, Faith Ringgold and Alex Katz; and mosaics, sculptures and murals from world-renowned and emerging artists. Tracing several hundred stations of the subway, this book celebrates the fusion of architecture, design and public art that defines New York's identity.
Sofia Coppola
Robots on Screen Piers Bizony
Ian Nathan
$55.00 | Murdoch Books
$55.00 | Murdoch Books
Sofia Coppola’s childhood was steeped in cinema. Her lineage opened doors, but her style rejects Hollywood bombast. Sofia creates worlds of stillness and mood, perhaps in reaction to her chaotic upbringing. Influenced by Godard, photography, music and fashion, Sofia distills pop culture into something intimate, woozy and unmistakably her own. This book, presented in a fine slipcase, is perfect for fans and cinephiles alike.
Next year is the 100th anniversary of Fritz Lang's masterpiece Metropolis, the first film to feature a ‘robot’. Since then, film makers have been both fascinated and appalled by the idea of machines in our image. Now as AI is set to transform our lives, many existential questions are arising. With stunning images and film stills, this book tells the story of the film makers who have explored these questions for the past 100 years.
There and Back Again
I’ll Believe in Anything
Sam Moore
Jacob Tierney
$36.99 | Hachette
$55.00 | Hachette
This landmark oral history takes readers behind the scenes of one of the most ambitious and beloved film productions ever undertaken. Drawing on interviews with almost 100 cast and crew members, journalist Sam Moore chronicles the extraordinary journey that brought J.R.R. Tolkien's epic to the screen, revealing the story behind the story. Featuring contributions from the cast, writers, designers, technicians and key creative collaborators, this book captures the passion, ingenuity and camaraderie that defined the production.
Based on Rachel Reid's hit book series, Heated Rivalry premiered in 2025 and took the world by storm. Now Jacob Tierney takes you behind the curtain, showing how he, his producing partner Brendan Brady and the entire Accent Aigu team drew on a deep reverence for Reid's work, impeccable casting, clever sets and costume design, and thoughtful intimacy choreography to both rewrite the playbook for adapting romance novels to the screen and obliterate the long-held misconception that queer love stories have limited appeal.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM
40 Years in Focus
BABY BOOKS AND AUSTRALIAN PICTURE BOOKS
First Stories: Peter Pan
Colors with Snoopy
Campbell Books
Charles M. Schulz
$16.99 | Pan Macmillan
$14.99 | Simon & Schuster
Push, pull and slide the colourful scenes to discover J. M. Barrie’s classic story, Peter Pan! Follow the Darling children as they travel with Peter to Neverland, discover the Lost Boys and come face to face with cunning Captain Hook! This is the perfect introduction for toddlers who like to play as they read, with gentle rhyming text and chunky mechanisms. This much-loved story has been beautifully reimagined for a new generation by popular children's illustrator Miriam Bos.
Shapes in Disguise
Say hello to colors with Snoopy and the Peanuts gang! From the red of Snoopy's doghouse to the yellow of friendly Woodstock, this updated edition of a classic board book makes learning bright and fun for little ones. With bold, highcontrast artwork for young eyes, simple words and friendly characters, plius sturdy pages made for tiny hands, young children will be able to point, giggle and explore every color with everyone's favorite beagle!
Shapes with Snoopy
Penny Harrison and Zac Fay
Charles M. Schulz
$19.99 | Simon & Schuster
Watch Circle twirl into a snail and Square turn into toast in this delightfully unexpected adventure, perfect for curious minds and shared giggles. Shapes in Disguise invites little ones to spot simple shapes in the world around them. With catchy rhymes and imaginative fun, toddlers will delight in discovering shapes aren’t just shapes – they’re everywhere!
$14.99 | Simon & Schuster
Find circles, squares, stars, and more with Snoopy and the Peanuts gang in this bright, sturdy board book! From a round ball on the playground to the oval of a decorated egg, this updated edition of the classic board book turns finding squares, stars and more into happy discoveries.
Catching a Wave
Your Horse
Catherine Meatheringham; illustrated by Clara Anganuzzi
Jon Klassen
$22.99 | Affirm Press
Books
$16.99 | Walker
Lexi’s big brother and sister can boogie board. But no matter how hard Lexi paddles and kicks, the waves all pass her by – or turn her upside down! Will Lexi ever be able to catch a wave? This lovely book by the author of My Possum Plays the Drums, Goose on the Loose, Beep Beep and Knock Knock is a celebration of summer, courage and finding your own way, and is beautifully illustrated by Clara Anganuzzi.
Your horse is brown, but it could be other colours, too. It can do a lot of things, like run, walk, and jump. But best of all, it will keep your secrets. It will never ever tell. At the end of the day, it will sleep, your secrets held behind closed eyes, and you can sleep, too. This board book from beloved author-illustrator Jon Klasson is a perfect story for young horse-lovers, kids learning their first words and evening storytime.
The Everyday Tutu
I Love You… And I Like You!
Andrea Rowe; illustrated by Tess Moth $24.99 | Hardie Grant
Every day is a tutu day when you have a skipstepping-swirling, justright-for-twirling everyday tutu! From Monday to Sunday, come rain or come shine, at the dog park or the supermarket, a tutu is exactly what’s needed to bring joy, creativity and self-expression into the world. The Everyday Tutu is a delightfully warm-hearted picture book from CBCA Award-winning author Andrea Rowe and Little Hare Illustration Prize winner Tess Moh.
Scott Stuart; illustrated by Jess Racklyeft $24.99 | Hardie Grant
You know I love you very much. I also like you, too. There's just so much to like and love, in everything you do. With its uplifting text and vivid art, I Love You… and I Like You! celebrates a parent’s unconditional love for their child, and takes a look at all the reasons why they like them so much, too! This is a warm hug of a book that will wrap around every family, and show kids why they are loved and liked for being exactly who they are.
The Toast of the Town
Sesame Street
Jory John; illustrated by Pete Oswald
$22.99 | Hardie Grant
$24.99 | HarperCollins
In this beautifully illustrated sequel to the much-loved Sesame Street classic The Monster at the End of This Book, Grover, now with pal Elmo by his side, has heard that there’s something lurking on the last page of the book. Grover tries his best in all sorts of hilarious ways to stop the reader from turning the pages. But loveable, furry little Elmo, curious as always, slips by every wacky barrier.So… just who is the monster at the end of this book?
The Thieves beneath the Floorboards
Meet Toast. He knows everybody, and everybody knows him. He pops up wherever help is needed – just because. But Toast wasn't always so warm and toasty. In his younger days, he kept to himself, loafed around and mostly just felt a little… stale. It took one lifechanging moment to help him rise to the occasion. Can one ordinary piece of toast transform an entire community? And can helping others turn out to be the best thing since sliced bread?
On Nanna’s Boat
Mikey Please
Anna Pignatoro; illustrated by Max Hamilton
$24.99 | HarperCollins
$29.99 | Walker Books
Join Rene and Glumfoot at the Café at the Edge of the Woods – this time with some unexpected visitors beneath the floorboards… When Rene hears gnawing, clawing and scratching sounds from beneath the café, she just can't ignore them. Using every skill she can muster, she lays an elaborate trap – but what she finds may put all of her dreams in jeopardy. Join Rene and Glumfoot once again for more folklore figures, culinary escapades and entirely unexpected guests.
A little girl spends time with her grandma on her boat, where everything is small and cosy, even the windows. Grandma and granddaughter explore the little wonders of simple activities and daily routine, share the glorious sea and sky and the closeness of the stars. They collect sea glass and driftwood, make chimes and sing like mermaids, and wonder at the changing of the seasons… but mostly, they treasure their precious time spent in a blissful stream of unforgettable days.
Fancy Dogs
Under the Olive Moon
Tini Malina, trs. by Tammi Rechiel $29.99 | Walker
Nour Ferwana and Maria Isabek Sánchez Vegara; illustrated by Raahat Kaduji
Books
$29.99 | Penguin Random House
Fancy dogs are elegant, but of course, our lovable four-legged friends have many facets. They may have the chicest sweaters, but they still roll in mud, drink from the toilet and chew up our favorite shoes. Yet that doesn’t make us love our furry friends any less. If anything, their antics make for the perfect tale!
From the creator of the Little People, Big Dreams series comes a beautifully illustrated collection of Palestinian fables co-authored with Nour Ferwana, a mum from Gaza. When Maria Isabel began exchanging messages with Nour, she learned how Nour kept her daughters' spirits alive at bedtime from her tent in Gaza with stories. This book overflows with joy, crossing time and place to bring love and hope to all readers.
Frank Reys: A Jockey’s Dream
A Holiday for Bear
Kelly Langford; illustrated by Paul Seden
$16.99 | Allen & Unwin
$27.99 | Magabala Books
Frank Reys is the first Aboriginal Jockey to win the Melbourne Cup. In the 1973 race, he was 41 and the oldest in the field, yet he etched his name into the history books. Here, Kelly Langford tells of the highs and lows of Frank’s life, beginning with breaking in brumbies in Northern Queensland with his brother and culminating in Frank’s nail-biting Melbourne Cup win.
Duncan Beedie
Do you ever get the feeling that every day and every thing is, well, the same? Bear does. Luckily, Frog, has an idea: a holiday! But what kind? A skiing holiday? No, a beach holiday! When Bear arrives, he can’t believe his eyes. It all looks so different! Before long, he’s picnicking, playing volleyball and floating in the water. But when Bear builds a sand sculpture that looks familiar, he realises he's missing his friends. Can Bear find a way to have the best of both worlds?
PICTURE BOOKS
Another Monster at the End of This Book
KIDS BOOKS OF THE MONTH 2026
February
The Wonder Tom Percival| $24.99 | Simon & Schuster | 5+
When Daniel finds himself drenched by the rain that falls from a sky that shifts in various shades of dark grey, his shoes soaked through from wading through puddles, he feels that nothing is going to make him feel better and this may well be the worst day ever. Then something drifts on the air between the rain drops: a wistful, light and airy tune, small at first. Perhaps if he can follow it, Daniel might find there is something to brighten even the darkest day. From the incredibly talented, multi-award winning author, artist, musician and illustrator Tom Percival comes this gorgeous picture book about seeing and finding ‘The Wonder’ all around you. – Robert
March
Different
Eva Eland | $29.99 | Walker Books | 3+ Sometimes feelings can be so BIG that they overwhelm us. That's how Mia feels, when one morning she wakes up and just doesn’t seem to fit in anymore. And no matter how much she tries, different will always be different. This is Book 3 in Eland’s Big Feelings series of picture books, written for kids to help them navigate feelings and emotions. With this book, kids can celebrate being different, and discover the power of finding someone else who feels a little bit different, too. – Robert
April
Piper at the Gates of Dusk
Patrick Ness | $29.99 | Walker Books Patrick Ness was completely happy with how he finished the Chaos trilogy in 2010, believing that he had said all that could be said. But thankfully for us, New World still holds a fascination for Patrick and has more stories to tell. Set a generation after Chaos, flaming, screaming giants tear through the landscape and a new threat has appeared in the sky. This book blew my mind, with new heroes and villains, as well as treasured characters from the first trilogy standing their ground once more. This is, though, very much the story of the next generation, for both the colonists and the indigenous populace, The Land, will have to stand together. Delivered at a cracking pace, Ness just keeps getting better and better. – Robert
May
Crow: Thief of Magic
Fiona Dixon | $17.99 | HarperCollins Crow is a 12-year-old orphan living on the streets of Starsgard where he and his two best friends work for the head of the city's criminal underworld. Life is tough and dangerous, but with good friends it is a little brighter. On a routine delivery, Crow meets a sorcerer, a dream caster who invites him to be his apprentice. When a shocking disaster strikes, Crow, desperate and alone, returns to the sorcerer to begin his training. But dream magic can be dark, too … I loved this book – Crow is a lovable, relatable character that readers are going to champion and cheer for, and the plot and world building are exciting, deliciously Dickensian and wonderfully well paced. Thoroughly enjoyable. – Robert
June
The House That Walked Away Simon Howe | $24.99 | Hardie Grant
When I first held The House That Walked Away, I knew I was holding a future award-winning picture book. The story follows the journey of a house as it walks through the world trying to find its place. When a family in search of somewhere to live starts to follow the house, will the family and house finally settle and find home? – Emily
Graciela in the Abyss
Meg Medina; illustrated by Anna and Elena Balbusso | $17.99 | Walker Books Beneath the ocean an altogether other, supernatural world exists. Graciela, once a human girl 100 years ago, has become a Sea Ghost tasked with awakening and welcoming other Sea Ghosts to the watery realm. With the help of 12-year-old Jorge, these unlikely allies must track down a mystical harpoon before it falls into the hands of its evil creator, who wants nothing more than to destroy the Sea Ghosts and their ocean world. This action-packed adventure is filled with bravery and a lot of heart, and was a whole experience. Imagine falling into a magical, eerie, totally surreal world that feels like a mix of Latin-American folklore, emotional therapy and one long fever dream. – Robert
August
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
September
My Tiny Universe
Maryam Master | $16.99 | Pan Macmillan This new fiction story is from one of Better Read Kids’s all time favourite authors, Maryam Master, who never fails to impress, educate, enlighten and inspire. In My Tiny Universe, Maryam introduces us to almost-12-year-old Leif. Leif is named after a Viking, but the name is as close as he’ll ever to get to being one, as Leif is a self-professed science nerd who uses algebra to calm his ever-racing, ginormous brain… which keeps his mind off his multiple phobias and (CIA) Climate Induced Anomalies, a condition he was born with. Leif has been in desperate search of a friend, but finding one in Albe could be the biggest mistake he’s ever made. This book has genuinely engrossing characters, authentic landscapes and a writing style that holds you and won’t let go from start to finish. – Robert
October
Hometown
Shaun Tan | $35.00 | Allen & Unwin There has been an enormous amount of anticipation running through our team recently, with all of us wanting to be the first to lay their hands on the latest masterpiece from the master storyteller and artist Shaun Tan. He does not disappoint. You look around you, everything is familiar, everything is as you’ve always seen it – sisters, brothers, friends, school, even a quiet place to gather your thoughts. Until one day someone comes from far away to challenge you and tells you that you are different and don’t belong. A truly beautiful story of what it means to see with your heart not just your eyes, and what it means to belong – to family, to somewhere, to yourself – even if all those things don’t look like you. Touching, passionate, thoughtful and magical. – Robert
November
Mr Badger and the Boubles Grand Hotel Leigh Hobbs | $26.99 | Allen & Unwin
Mr Badger returns in this beautiful new picture book. With Mr Badger very excited about organising a brilliant party to celebrate the 175th birthday of the swanky Boubles Grand Hotel. He’s planning a very grown-up affair with every detail and consideration has been scrutinized, Mr Badger has left nothing to chance, until a little person decides they’d like to attend. It is so joyous to return to such a beloved character who exudes a sense of calm and preparedness but somehow always seems to fall into hilarious situations. Filled with mirth and mayhem, Leigh Hobbs’s latest offering is nothing short of delectably delicious. – Robert
KIDS BOOKS OF THE MONTH 2026
July
PRIMARY FICTION
Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody: The Pelican and his Blimp
The Wood Where Magic Grows
Patrick Ness; illustrated by Tim Miller
Andy Shepherd; illustrated by Ellie Snowdon
$16.99 | Walker Books
Book 3 in this hilarious series finds our trio of hall monitor lizards, along with their hawk pal, Miel, deal with some unexpected arrivals in town. It’s up to Zeke and Daniel to figure out what’s going on, while still keeping an eye on the massive blimp that has appeared in the sky over school bully Pelicarnassus’s house. What is their nemesis up to now? With lively illustrations, breakneck action and a big heart, this new installment from beloved author Patrick Ness is sure to please.
Koalas in Capes: The Robot Spiders Terrie Chilvers; illustrated by David O’Connell $16.99 | Allen & Unwin
Meet Bob and Archie, two hapless but enthusiastic superhero koalas who just want time off to enjoy Pawtonia's music festival… Not if Dr Colossus has anything to do with it! The evil ostrich plans to hypnotise all of Pawtonia with his team of Robot Spiders then rob everyone! Can our fluffy duo, the Koalas in Capes, put a stop to Dr Colossus and his dastardly plans? This side-splitting illustrated superhero series is where chapter books meet graphic novels meet lots of fun. Ideal for newly independent readers.
$16.99 | Allen & Unwin
When Iggy discovers Wildtop Wood at the end of his new garden, a whole new world opens up for him and his brother Cal, high in the treetops – a world of tangled greenery and unexpected adventure. But some say the wood is a place of danger and mystery. As Iggy and Cal venture further into the trees, they hear whispers of a fading green magic, and animals seem to lead them to a secret at the heart of the wood. Could it be that the wood needs them just as much as they need it?
Snake & Bat: What Will We Find in This Box? Mo Willems $16.99 | Hachette
Bat plans so that Snake does not have to. Snake goes to bat when Bat makes mis-snakes. Best Friends Snake and Bat love being themselves with each other. Here, Snake and Bat find a box. The box is exciting! The box is instructive! The box is also… not theirs! How can a box be one thing and so many things at the same time? Read and find out!
Captain Sunshine
The Polar Night Adventure
Alex Milway
Cecilia Blomdahl
$16.99 | Allen & Unwin
$34.99 | DK/ Penguin Random House
It's Bella's first day as captain of the Sunshine, but commanding a legendary cruise ship bursting with animal passengers is no easy task. From penguins to rhinos, giraffes to parrots, life is never dull. Bella has a wonderful crew to assist her – from old sea dog Mr Tatou, to the bossy passenger liaison officer Mrs Purrpot the cat, to Flip and Flap, the penguin entertainment team – but has she really got what it takes to be Captain Sunshine? To find out, travel full steam ahead with Bella into adventure!
As the light fades and polar night arrives, Grim the Finnish Lapphund finds he is lost in the vast Arctic. On this unexpected journey, he encounters brightwhite beluga whales rising from the fjord, arctic foxes and reindeer. But danger is also present – is that a polar bear in the distance or just its tracks? Beneath a sky filled with stars and shimmering northern lights, Grim finds the courage to keep moving forward. To make his way home he must face his fears and follow his heart through the darkness.
Tashi and the Giants and Other Brave Adventures
Penny & Luck: The Shadows of Rosehall
Anna Fienberg; Barbara Feinberg and Kim Gamble
Claire Karwowski; illustrated by Siân Roberts
$19.99 | Allen & Unwin
$24.99 | DK/ Penguin Random House
Tashi is as brave as he is clever. He escaped from a warlord in a faraway place and flew to this country on the back of a swan. Tashi shares his stories with his best friend Jack. There's the one about Chintu the giant and the time Tashi escaped a terrible kidnapping, and the story about monsters… And what about the sly genie? This special edition of these beloved children's stories includes three favourite books in the series: Tashi and the Giants, Tashi and the Ghosts and Tashi and the Genie.
When a cancelled summer adventure leads to a portal in her garden, nine-year-old inventor Penny Jones and her dog, Luck, are pulled into the magical world of Zollora. There, they find a kingdom dying from drought and a princess ready for war against the Shadows blamed for stealing the rain. But in a land of flying bicycles and giant, friendly tigers, Penny soon discovers the Shadows aren't what they seem. Can Penny use her inventor's eye to engineer a solution before it's too late?
Mathieu Pierloot, trs. by Charis Ainslie; illustrated by François Maumont
Sam Copeland; illustrated by Dominic Trevett
$24.99 | Hardie Grant
When two little witches are sent foraging for potion ingredients, they discover a boy and his duck, Custard. But inside the boy’s bag is a stolen dragon egg, nabbed from a group of robgoblins! They know they need to return the egg to its mother before she destroys all when searching for it. Setting off on a treacherous journey involving goblins, a fog-covered lake, evil creatures and a cute baby dragon, this action-packed adventure is sure to captivate young readers.
My Evil Twin is a Supervillain
$17.99 | Bloomsbury
Arthur Guppy is in detention. The school axolotls have been kidnapped and Arthur is the prime suspect. But how did Arthur's best friend, Carlos Chickens, and an unusual assortment of their classmates end up in there with him? Arthur is about to tell you – and you may also learn: why you shouldn't glue nits to your face; how to do a standing up wee without pulling your trousers down; and much more! Jam-packed with illustrations, this is a book full of laughter, warmth and chaos.
David Solomons
Cinnamon Crumb, Baking Detective: The Great Cake Caper
$16.99 | Allen & Unwin
Harry Woodgate
A massive supervillain, Gorgon the World Eater, is coming to destroy everything. It's up to Luke to save the day (again). As the roster of superheroes grows around him, Luke's patience continues to be tried. But when his superpowered twin from another dimension turns up and joins forces with Zack to save the world, Luke is suspicious. There's something about Stellar, with his superhero hair and rocketpropelled shoes, that just doesn't ring true. Luke knows that his twin is evil; now he just has to work out what villainy he's up to...
$16.99 | Usborne/ HarperCollins
In the town of Marzipan, home to bakers of near-magical talent, Cinnamon Crumb is no baker – but she just might be a baking detective. Because all is not sweet between Marzipan's rival superstar bakers, Victoria Sponge and Madeleine Macaron. They will stop at nothing to win the coveted Twelve Tier Crown – even sabotage. So when Victoria asks Cinnamon to spy on Maddie, Cinnamon reluctantly agrees. But then Maddie asks Cinnamon to spy on Victoria, and Cinnamon gets into a situation stickier than sticky toffee pudding.
Backpack, Boy, Berlin
All of Us
Kip Wilson; illustrated
Katrina Nannestad
by Matt Schu
$24.99 | HarperCollins
$27.99 | Walker Books
When Viggo and his friends Finn, Tove, Birgitte and Konrad start writing rude letters to Hitler, it's just a game. But soon, they find themselves writing an underground newspaper, their words inspiring people all over Copenhagen to commit small acts of defiance. Then news leaks of the Nazis' plans to round up all of Denmark's Jews in a single night. Can Viggo and his friends work together to save Tove? And can an entire population work together to save their Jewish community?
1938: Don and his parents move to Berlin, a city he falls in love with. But soon Germany descends into a state of terror and danger. When Don’s tutor gives him a book with a secret note inside, he jumps at the chance to become a covert courier between his parents and the resistance. This remarkable true story delves into the fear, hope, anger and paranoia of World War II Berlin.
Wishbound Clemency Brown
Astrid and the Accidental Slip Between Worlds
$19.99 | Scholastic Australia
Jaclyn Moriarty
What if the price of magic was your best friend? Leonie can make wishes come true, a rare gift on her tiny island of Onske. But when she finds out that her magic will cost her her freedom, she runs away to our world, where she finds a new life, a new family and a best friend, Cress. However, danger is lurking. As Leonie’s enemies close in, is her only hope of keeping her friend safe a wish that will tie them together for ever? First in a new magical adventure series, Wishbound celebrates individuality, found family and identity.
$26.99 | Allen & Unwin
When Astrid is thrown into our world – one that can steel her essence – she considers calling her sisters for help. But Esther's on a school camp in a group that have found themselves trapped. Shadow Mages keep attacking, and frying pans and grand pianos are falling from the sky; and Imogen is at the Elven Games with Bronte and Oscar seeking an evil True Mage who might tear the fabric of the universe to shreds. Neither sister knows Astrid is in danger. Can they stop the Mage’s evil plan before Astrid is lost forever?
MIDDLE GRADE FICTION
Detention Diaries: Worse than Jail
The Dragon Mountain
YOUNG ADULT
Rising Thunder
The Queen of the Spirit Woods
Neal Shusterman
Sharon Choe
$27.99 | Walker Books
As death begins to seem optional, humanity looks for ways to bend the rules of existence. Public opinion fractures. Systems strain. The world feels unstable. Two powerful artificial intelligences set out to optimise, stabilise and protect – each with its own idea of what that means. Meanwhile, in an obscure online chatroom, a small group of teenagers debate the future, never realising that their conversations, choices and very existence matter far more than they know. Discover the origins of the Scythedom in this long-awaited prequel by the master of speculative dystopia.
$24.99 | Simon & Schuster
Mirae works as a kitchen maid in the palace, which is in an uproar after a recent assassination attempt on the king. She nearly gets fired after getting in the crosshairs of Prince Jae during his investigation, then a chance encounter with a witch makes Mirae the vessel of ten thousand spirits and deities…When her new powers spill out into the kitchens, a kind nobleman lends a helping hand, but soon Mirae is embroiled in a power struggle between the queen and Prince Jae – and she must find the traitor. But just who can Mirae trust?
We Shall Be Monsters
Cut Him Out in Little Stars
Tara Sim
Lucy Strange
$26.99 | Penguin
$22.99 | Scholastic Australia
Wartime in Kent, England. A devastated Juliet returns to her mother’s ancestral home in Dungeness to stay with her sister and recover from the loss of her fiance, Xander, a dashing Spitfire pilot. But while sheltering with a group of airmen during an air raid, she uncovers a truth about Xander that challenges everything she knew about him. To restore her faith in herself and love, she must solve the tragic murder of local girl Minnie Munday, with the spirit of Samphire House and an unlikely hero.
As Kajal prepares to resurrect the sister she can’t live without, her sister's soul warps into a murderous, wraith-like spirit – and Kajal is sentenced to death for its rampage. But then two strangers offer to free her – but only if she resurrects the crown prince to aid the rebellion. Desperate, Kajal agrees – but resurrects Tav, the wrong boy. Now Kajal and Tav, complete opposites, must find the real prince before Kajal’s mistake is exposed… or her sister tries to kill her.
Salt Water Blood Manuia Heinrich
A Conspiracy of Charming Monsters
$24.99 | Allen & Unwin
Holly Black
Moe can hear and feel the sea's prophetic thoughts. That's how she experienced her father's death, and her mother's relief on leaving Moe and her brother, Tao. So when the sea warns Moe that Tao will drown, she's determined to get in fate's way. But her plans are ruined when Tao's girlfriend goes missing and Tao is found with blood on his hands. Moe will do anything she can to clear her brother's name, even if it means teaming up with her school rival, Temanea. Or relying on the sea's prophecies… because her dreaded gift may be the only way to save her brother.
$29.99 | Allen & Unwin
A reluctant king is thrown into turmoil when the girl he loves to hate is stolen by the Undersea. An exiled redcap, trapped in the mortal world, must rediscover his inner monster. A mortal girl sacrifices half of herself for an unworthy faerie lover. A sprite's determination to prove herself puts the entire High Court in danger. Here, Holly Black combines her signature wit and lush worldbuilding with stunning full-colour art in six irresistible tales that return readers to the world of the Modern Faerie Tales and Elfhame.
Ed. by Rob Costello
The Café at the End of the World
$22.99 | Hachette
Helen Comerford
Be not afraid! This YA anthology reclaims the monstrous for the LGBTQA+ community while exploring how there is freedom and power in embracing the things that make you stand out. The stories centre on both original and familiar monsters – including Mothman, Carabosse, a girl with thirteen shadows, werebeasts, gorgons, sirens, angels and others, and their stories of self-acceptance, love, resilience and empowerment. This collection is a transformative celebration of queerness and the creatures that (mostly) go bump in the night.
$19.99 | Bloomsbury
We Mostly Come Out at Night
Come for the cinnamon rolls, stay for the apocalypse. Lydie, the daughter of Death, a retired Rider of the Apocalypse, is obsessed with 'cosy': cosy books, cosy job in the family cafe, cosy low-drama life. But then secretive, attractive, and, above all, annoying, Kai, bursts into the cafe in a flurry of autumn leaves, with secrets that threaten to change everything. Big, un-cosy things are coming for Lydie whether she likes it or not, and working with Kai might be the only way to protect her town. Provided she doesn't fall for him first…
The Three Beasts Grovey Pascasio with Buddy Beaudoin
Max Brallier; illustrated by Brian Churilla $19.99 | HarperCollins
It’s still total monster zombie chaos on the streets, but now Jack has a gang of friends to help him through – science genius Quint, superstrong Dirk and all-round coolest girl ever, June. Not to mention Rover, Jack’s awesome monster pet! Plus the treehouse is more souped up than ever, chock-a-block with defensive gizmos ready to withstand anything that the monster apocalypse can throw at it.Which is just as well, because there’s something extra-big and extra-monstrous right around the corner…
Besties Crush it! Kayla Miller and Jeffrey Canino; illustrated by Sarah K. Turner $18.99 | Walker Books
Trent and Sawyer have their eyes on being the kings of the ring toss, achieve winter carnival glory, and bring home the coveted Big Banana. Nothing can get in their way... until they start going their separate ways. Sawyer is hurt by his best friend's changing priorities when Trent catches feelings for a classmate's cousin. While Trent splits his time between old friends and new, Sawyer doubles down on Mission: Big Banana – with or without his partner in crime. Is their friendship headed for a breakdown… or a breakthrough?
$36.99 | Simon & Schuster
Ten years ago, the Great Tamers saved the people of Punong Panday from a giant hydra. Now, they’re known across the land as legends. But for Dima, Espie and Keris, the Great Tamers are more than legends... they're their fathers. And to become worthy successors, the young friends must prove themselves in a physical contest against the hydra. Dima feels meek and untalented compared to Espie. Even Keris doesn’t chance. When dreams become a deadly game of pride, can they find a way out together?
Billie B Brown’s Secret Mystery Club: Code Breakers Sally Rippin; illustrated by Aki Fukuoka $17.99 | Hardie Grant
When Billie and her friends find a note tied to the collar of Jack's dog, they put their code-breaking skills to the test. Mysteriously, the first code leads the second, the second to the third… But as her friends crack one code after another, Billie starts to worry she might be a terrible detective. Can she prove that she deserves to be in the club? Filled with friendship, fun and neighbourhood adventures, the graphic novel reimagining of this series will surprise and delight readers aged 7+, and is bold, brilliant and better than ever!
Soulmates
Blunderbore
David Wilson
Sofie Laguna; illustrated by Marc McBride
$29.99 | Pan Macmillan
$29.99 | Pengiun
Kit is the golden boy of his town. But when his childhood friend, Emma, returns, Kit's life is thrown into turmoil. She's the only one who knows what happened that day he fell at the cliffs and woke alone on the shore. She's also the only one who may know the truth about the deadly visions he's been having. As Kit and Emma reconnect, Kit admits things aren't as perfect as they seem. And Emma, well, she isn't what she seems either…
Gemma loves to draw. Her latest passion is Jack and the Beanstalk, and rendering the terrifying giant, Blunderbore, in detail. Then on a visit to to her aunt, Gemma's drawing is ripped in a lightning strike and becomes a reality – Jack and the giant enter her world, and Jack is kidnapped by Blunderbore. Now it’s up to Gemma to help him. Can she survive the terrors of Blunderbore's castle, rescue the prisoners and work out how to restore the natural order between their worlds?
Queens of the Crypt Vol. 1
13 Demons Dead
Dom&Ink
Adam Tierney; illustrated by Saspy
$24.99 | Allen & Unwin
$34.99 | Penguin Random House
When Barnaby comes out to their parents as nonbinary, they expect that to be the toughest part of their day. But that was before Barnaby discovers their best friend, Fi, has been kidnapped by a faceless killer who's been abducting teens all across Widow's Creek. And then Barnaby unwittingly summons the undead and fabulous Queens of the Crypt through a portal in their bedroom closet… But now the Queens are here to help. As the horrors creep closer, can Barnaby work together with the scream queens to save Widow's Creek from destruction?
Ev Espada is walking home one night when she spots her favorite teacher, Father Serrano, suspended in mid air, choking and being ripped apart by something she can't see. Acting on pure instinct, Ev swings a nearby pipe and shatters the illusion, exposing a monstrous demon in the middle of her school. With one lucky shot, the creature is dead. And so is Ev's normal life. By killing one of Earth's Thirteen Hidden Demons, Ev has unknowingly triggered an ancient covenant and been marked as a demon hunter. Now, the rest of the demons are coming for her…
GRAPHIC NOVELS
The Last Kids on Earth and the Zombie Parade
KIDS NON-FICTION
This is Our World: Welcome Home
Footprints Stephen Davies; illustrated by Kalina Muhova
Valerie Wilding; illustrated by Åsa Gilland $19.99 | Pan Macmillan
Visit 20 different homes around the world in this fun global tour! Explore a terraced house in the UK, a houseboat in the Netherlands, a high-rise apartment in Tokyo, a cave house in Tunisia and much more. Our guides are children who tell us about their homes and environments, opening a door into diverse cultures around the world. This is the ideal book for young children who long to travel the globe and see how other people live.
Raising Hare Chloe Dalton; illustrated by Denise Nestor $29.99 | Allen & Unwin
One winter's day, Chloe Dalton went for a countryside walk and discovered a baby hare, no bigger than her hand, chased by a dog and separated from its mother. Worried for its safety, Chloe took the tiny hare home, fed and cared for it… and an extraordinary friendship began. This is the fascinating true tale of how Chloe and the hare, with its drumming paws and distinctive charm, lived alongside each other until the time came for it to return to the wild.
$26.99 | Hardie Grant
Meet Lucy. She may look familiar, but her story began 3.6 million years ago. This beautifully illustrated book imagines her world as she roams ancient landscapes with knife-toothed cats and towering giraffes, while navigating raging volcanoes and fierce storms. Inspired by the discoveries of Lucy’s skeleton and the Laetoli footprints, this gorgeous book blends scientific breakthroughs with engaging storytelling, offering a glimpse into our shared evolutionary past.
We Are All Made From Stars Marc Majewski; illustrated by Benedikt Lehnert $34.99 | Hardie Grant
In this poetic, beautiful book, children will discover how life and death are connected, but without leaning on religion – offering instead a universal story of belonging, change and renewal. Both scientific and spiritual in tone, this book shows that endings are also beginnings, and that we are made from the same stardust that fills the entire universe.
Song of the Cedars
ADHD!
Various authors
Rachel Brian
$29.99 | Thames & Hudson
$26.99 | Hachette
Turn the illustrated pages of this concertina book to discover the extraordinary plants, animals and fungi of Los Cedros Cloud Forest, one of the most biologically diverse habitats on Earth. Then fold the pages out to create a grand panoramic scene that explores the delicate interconnectedness of nature. In a publishing first, Los Cedros Cloud Forest has its moral rights asserted as a co-creator, the first time a natural being has been legally recognised in the publishing world. All royalties will be payable to the forest to support its protected status.
Every brain is different! And understanding how your brain works can help you figure out ways to make your life easier. If you have ADHD, life may seem especially hard sometimes, so the more you know, the better prepared you'll be. In this kidfriendly illustrated guide, discover what ADHD is, how it might affect you or your friends, and what strategies you could try in your own life. Kids with or without ADHD will discover empowering facts about neurodiversity, and learn how to put words to what they might be experiencing.
Betoota’s History for Kids: The Sydney Harbour Bridge
Most Haunted Hotels
Betoota; illustrated by Scott Edgar
Yvette Fielding; illustrated by Hannah Shaw
$14.99 | Simon & Schuster
$18.99 | Walker Books
With Betoota’s usual sarcastic wit, knowledge and humour, Betoota's History for Kids is an adventure that will engage kids in the historical events that shaped the future. Noone can make history more interesting than Betoota! From the unique perspective of a curious ibis (or Bin Chicken), Betoota provides a historically accurate view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, one of the most magnificent landmarks in the world. This book explores wild ideas, the challenges of building the bridge, and how one idea became an iconic landmark.
Paranormal investigator Yvette Fielding has been uncovering the ghostly pasts of places for over 20 years. Join her as she brings to life the hauntings and histories of some of the most notorious hotels in the UK. From an inn haunted by murderous landlords, to the hotel that inspired a famous horror movie, and even Yvette's own holiday cottage, prepare to discover some truly terrifying paranormal activity. Here you’ll find ghosts of restless murder victims… a captured witch… and even Lady Jane Grey. Boo!
Winnie the Pooh: Time to Unwind Colouring Book
$14.99 | Simon & Schuster
Winnie-the-Pooh
Young children will love to help Kangaroo find her animal friends in this interactive novelty book. There's a koala, a wombat, an emu, a whale and many more Australian animals waiting to be discovered. From searching the forest and exploring the sea and mountains, there's different habitats to explore and different animals to look for. Simply insert the included 'magic torch' between the pages to find Kangaroo's friends in each night-time scene and watch children glow with delight as hidden pictures appear!
It’s time to unwind! Children will love colouring in Winnie the Pooh and his friends from the Hundred-Acre Wood in this inspirational colouring book, with mindful hacks, breathwork and meditation tips to be found along the way. With intricate patterns, characters at one with nature and serene scenes, Winnie the Pooh: Time to Unwind will keep children entertained for hours and help them reach a relaxed state of mind. A welcoming and fun mindful journey awaits!
Japan Cuties Cosy Colouring Book
Detective Beans Colouring Club: Curious Cats
Suzanne Washington
Li Chen
$14.99 | Scholastic Australia
$17.99 | Penguin
Welcome to a corner of colouring joy with Cutie Colouring’s Japan Cuties! Perfect for fans of all ages, this colouring book invites you to relax, unwind and add your own splash of colour to a playful universe filled with Japanese cuteness and charm. Kawaii! Grab your favourite pens or pencils and bring all these fun creatures to life – one cute creature at a time! Get cosy with more than 45 adorable, bold and simple pictures to colour and complete.
Join the Detective Beans Colouring Club and help Detective Beans solve the case of the missing colours! Here, you'll find all the characters you know and love from the Detective Beans graphic novels like Biscuits, Beans' mum, Mr Brickle, Bear, Detective Baby Bird and more; 40 removable colouring pages featuring scenes from all over Cat Town; and a fold-out back cover to place behind each page to prevent your ink bleeding through! All you need are some colourful colouring pens and you’ll be ready to detect away!
$12.99 | Hardie Grant
Oceanarium 500-piece Jigsaw
The Mandalorian and Grogu: Colour the Galaxy
Teagan White
$12.99 | Hardie Grant
Star Wars
$34.99 Allen & Unwin
Grab your pens and bring the Star Wars universe to life! Get creative as you colour in 80 pages of iconic heroes and villains from The Mandalorian and Grogu. With plenty of details on each page, and all of your favourite characters, this colouring book will help you reach a state of Jedi tranquility in lightspeed time. There is no try, there is only do!
Bursting with intricate details, this puzzle offers a captivating way for families to explore marine life from the tiniest plankton to majestic whales while enjoying time together. Inside, you'll find a reference poster featuring the completed image and naming each species, so you can learn as you piece it together. This is the perfect way to spend a cozy afternoon!
Mini Photographers Joséphine Seblon; illustrated by Robert Sae-Heng
Mini Murdle Junior: Summer Fun G. T. Karber
$29.99 | Thames & Hudson
$14.99 | Allen & Unwin
Photography is one of the easiest ways to get creative with kids! This book features 20 art projects that can be completed either with a smart phone camera or a camera. Children will have fun experimenting with simple cynaotypes, stop-motion images and staging jump shots. Featuring street photography, selfies, fashion photography, studio portraits, documentary and still life photography, Mini Photographers has something for everyone.
Solve puzzles and crimes as a Murdle detective in this Buster McPaws adventure! Dive into summer with Buster, the greatest ever cat detective, as his relaxing holiday turns into a madcap seaside mystery. Can you help him crack coded notes, connect the dots, solve mazes and catch whodunnit? Packed with illustrations, word searches and maps, this pocketsized Mini Murdle will put your puzzling skills to the test!
KIDS ACTIVITY BOOKS
Katie Button
Goodnight Kangaroo
OUR FAVOURITE KIDS BOOKS FOR 2026
Ruby’s Pick
Is This a Plum?
Dan and Finn Ojari | $19.99 | Penguin This hilarious and surprising book will make you laugh out loud. With beautiful and endearing illustrations that may not be all that they seem, this book is delightfully deceptive but mostly uplifting. I recommend it to all ages (especially parents). Is it a plum? Who knows… you’ll have to read to find out, hehe.
Leona’s Pick
Bob the Artist
Marion Deuchars | $29.99 | Thames & Hudson The other birds tease Bob for his long, skinny legs. Feeling ashamed, Bob tries a few things to distract himself from his insecurity. A trip to the art gallery inspires Bob in all kinds of ways! My heart ached alongside Bob on his journey in this beautifully illustrated story about selfacceptance.
Sylvia’s Pick
The Bat Who Didn’t Like The Dark
Steve Small | $24.99 | Simon & Schuster I fell in love with this gorgeous book from the moment I saw the cover. A little bat is struggling with his fear of the dark when he gets lost at night – oh, no! But then he meets a kind owl who helps him find his way home, and makes quite a few night-loving, lantern-bearing friends along the way. Before he knows it, Little Bat isn’t afraid of the dark any more and he’s ready to go exploring the night with Owl. This is a gentle, enchanting story about overcoming fears, illustrated with absolutely gorgeous artwork that bring the personality of the characters alive and entices you into their welcoming world.
Piccolo and the Chicks
Arabella’s Pick
Dan Yaccarino | $29.99 | Hachette Explore Italy through the adorable adventures of Piccolo and his six mischievous chickalish chick friends. I love this book because the illustrations are too adorable and have a beautiful retro vibe, sort of like the classic Madeline series. I can’t give too much away because this is a classic you’ll need to pick up.
Emily’s Pick
The Thing About Giants
Christopher Galvin | $17.99 | Walker Books Jacq Dyer comes from a family of famous giant hunters, and she’s about to join the family business. Then an accident leaves her hurt and stranded in the wild, face to face with Corman, a young giant on his very first trip above ground. Neither is what the other expected. Told from both sides, this is the story of two kids from worlds that have always feared each other, slowly realising the old tales might be wrong. It’s packed with folklore, big adventure and plenty of laughs, but what really makes it shine is its enormous heart. This debut is bound for a future classic status and up there with literary giants like The BFG or The Enchanted Forest.
Katherine Battersby | $24.99 | Simon & Schuster A colourful flock of pigeons pride themselves on their perfect unity. All except one: a bespectacled pigeon who is happiest doing its own thing. While the flock all looks the same, this pigeon enjoys wearing cowboy boots. While the flock flies in perfect formation, this pigeon soars like a superhero. When the flock finally confronts their friend, they learn a thing or two about true perfection – and that we don’t all have to be the same to belong together.
Wolf Baby Aura Parker | $26.99 | Scholastic Australia We were watching dragons float and mountains bloom in the sky, when we first heard him cry… ‘Wolves are not our friends,’ Granny warns. But Nellie and Mateo long to bring the wolf baby home… From the Australian creator of best-selling Bowerbird Blues, Aura Parker, comes this timeless tale of love overcoming fear.
Bert and Billy Mark Carthew; illustrated by Shane McG | $24.99 | Simon & Schuster A mountain troll who desperately wants to be liked gets together with a passing billy goat to help solve his problems in this delightful story about foibles, friendship and fun. Bert and Billy is the latest book from Dr Mark Carthew, the award-winning children’s author, poet, playwright, musician and educator well-known for his books and series celebrating oral language and word play.
Aussie Mozzie, Ozzy Oi! Oi! Oi! Deano Yipadee and Craig Smith; illustrated by Jonathan Bentley $19.99 | Scholastic Australia Ozzy was an Aussie Mozzie from Tassie – or was he? Readers will be in fits of laughter trying to read (or sing) this hilarious cumulative text, adding on all sorts of adjectives, such as tizzy and dizzy, sneezy and queasy. Such a fun book to share with all ages!
Nightmare League Reece Carter | $17.99 | Penguin Maxwell Pidgeon thinks monsters only exist in nightmares – until he’s invited to join the Nightmare League, a top-secret organisation that protects the world from the creatures lurking in the dark. As an agent-in-training, Max must prove he has what it takes to keep the monsters at bay. There's only one problem: the League is hiding the truth about Max's missing dad. Can Max survive training and trust his new friends, or will he risk his life and the lives of others to make his family whole again?
Brain Dead: A Save-the-World Zombie Adventure Gareth P. Jones | $16.99 | Hachette The tech zombie apocalypse is here and Rock Stone has recruited you to help him stop the virus and save the world. Solve the puzzles, play the games, complete the challenges and keep on reading to defeat the tech-zombies. In this adventure story, you choose what happens next, but make sure you make the right decision as you only have ten lives to use. Can you battle the tech-zombies and save the world without losing any brain cells?
ROBERT ALSO RECOMMENDS…
Perfect Pigeons
KIDS CLASSICS AND GIFTS
Winnie-the-Pooh’s Wonders of the Hundred-Acre Wood Treasury
The Story Orchestra: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Winnie-the-Pooh
Jessica Courtney-Tickle
$32.99 | Hardie Grant
$35.00 | Murdoch Books
This beautifully illustrated treasury celebrates Winnie the Pooh’s most endearing qualities, like his generous heart and his ability to turn even the biggest mishap into something good. Perfect for reading aloud at bedtime or any time, this collection reminds us that even a very small bear can help make the world a kinder, funnier, and sweet-as-honey-er place. A gorgeous treasury filled with 18 Winnie the Pooh stories to cherish.
Discover a world of magic and music in this interactive retelling of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland! With the push of a button, hear an orchestra play a clip from a Royal Ballet performance, with music by composer Joby Talbot, as the story unfolds across each of the pages. Readers can also learn about Joby and explore a glossary filled with musical words and ideas.
A Treasury of Alison Lester Stories
Stories for the Holidays Enid Blyton
Alison Lester
$17.99 | Hachette
$34.99 | Allen & Unwin
With a beautiful foiled and debossed cover, this treasury brings four of Alison Lester’s stories together for the whole family to share. Find yourself deep in the jungle, under the sea, in a land of ice and snow, or in a prehistoric swamp, then turn the page and find all the animals living there. Imagine growing up on a farm, joining a group of wild ponies, and meeting a travelling circus! All this and more awaits in the worlds of Alison Lester.
Jacominus Gainsborough: With Love
Pack your bags, and get ready for a sunny adventure! Discover what happens when you find a four-leaved clover, meet a mermaid or catch the bicycle thief! These short stories from Enid Blyton are exactly what you need for an exciting holiday read, perfect for children aged five and up. These tales are ideal for younger children being read to, as well as newly confident readers to read alone.
Abel’s Island William Steig $19.99 | Murdoch Books
Join Jacominus as he waits at the docks for his dearest friend to arrive. He has an important question to ask Sweetie, but only if she arrives by noon! Follow Sweetie on her journey to the docks as the clock ticks. Will she meet Jacominus in time? With stunning artwork and incredible laser cuts, this book is a work of art and a tender story that reminds us that the best things in life are worth waiting for.
Abel and Amanda are blissfully happy. The two mice have been married for over a year and have no reason to worry. Until, one summer afternoon, a sudden storm carries off Amanda's scarf. As Abel rushes after it, he too is swept far away to a deserted island... Stranded but never defeated, Abel tries everything – constructing bridges, catapults, boats and stepping stones. But as winter draws in, the brave little mouse must endure hunger, danger and a nasty owl. Against these impossible odds, can Abel find his way back home?
The Story of the Blue Planet
Sense and Sensibility
Andri Snaei Magnason, trs. by Julian D’Arcy; illustrated by Áslaug Jónsdóttir
Jane Austen; illustrated by Anna Bond
$22.99 | Murdoch Books
When Marianne Dashwood falls in love with the John Willoughby, she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behavior leaves her open to gossip. Meanwhile Elinor struggles to conceal her own romantic disappointment. Through their parallel experience of love, the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to be happy in a society where status and money govern the rules of love. This is a stunning deluxe edition of Austen's classic, featuring cover art by Anna Bond, gold foil details, custom sprayed edges, full-color endpapers and a gold ribbon bookmark.
Rébecca Dautremer, trs. by Charis Ainslee $79.99 | Hardie Grant
Brimir and Hulda live on a blue planet where there are no grown-ups, life is wild and free, and each day is more exciting than the last. Until a rocket ship piloted by a strange adult named Gleesome crashes on the beach. He promises to make life a more fun-with flying-powder, and coated skin so that no one ever has to bathe again, and even nails the sun to their sky. But Hulda and Brimir soon discover that endless fun has consequences. This adventure of magic and generosity, selfishness and sacrifice will delight and challenge readers of every age.
$34.99 | Penguin
Jevita Nilson; illustrated by Heidi Cooper Smith
Nick Bland
$22.99 | NewSouth Books
$19.99 | Scholastic
Christmas is Rosie’s favourite time of year. She loves the presents, the tree, the twinkling lights! Rosie wishes she could bring Christmas with her on the family camping trip… but she soon learns that there Christmas surprises can be discovered in nature all year round! Christmas Wild explores Australian flora and fauna species with a Christmas connection, from spiders and mistletoe birds, to native Christmas trees and festive flowers. There is so much to celebrate!
In the Jingle Jangle Jungle, there were bells in all the trees. They jingled and they jangled as they dangled in the breeze… But all the Very Cranky Bear wants is a quiet place to read! Can Bear’s friends help him have a very merry Christmas? Find out in this latest book in author and illustrator Nick Bland’s The Very Cranky Bear series, loved by children all over the world.
Peanut, Butter, & Crackers Christmas Suprise
That’s What Makes it Christmas
Paige Braddock
Ashleigh Barton; illustrated by Erin Reeves
$16.99 | Allen & Unwin
It's Peanut's first Christmas and he's excited to open his gifts, but Crackers explains that he must wait until Christmas… so they go off for their daily walk. But while Peanut and Crackers are having fun with their friends at the dog park, someone sneaks into their house… and Butter the cat is so busy enjoying the peace, he doesn’t doesn't even notice that he's not alone. When the dogs get home, it's not long before they sniff out the stranger living in their Christmas tree… and bark a Code Red!
Australia
$24.99 | Hachette
Something in the air has shifted, steps have lightened, spirits lifted, We all have our own ways to bring the magic to these days… Traditions big, traditions small, it's the joy they bring us all. The tree is decorated, the presents are wrapped, the cricket set is ready and the barbecue is fired up – it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas! Join in the magic and excitement of a classic Aussie Christmas with one family as they prepare for the big day.
Pax the Christmas Cat
We Woof You A Merry Christmas: A Dog Lover’s Advent
Michael Rosen; illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
Insight Editions $59.99 | Simon & Schuster
Celebrate the holidays and your furry friends with this advent calendar loaded with fun surprises for both you and your dog! From patches to keychains, magnets, a dog collar charm and more, this advent calendar is a delightful way to include your dog in your holiday fun. We Woof You A Merry Christmas: Dog Lover’s Advent is the perfect Christmas countdown for anyone who loves their furry friends.
$19.99 | Walker Books
Christmas is coming, and everyone seems happy – except Evie’s family. Ever since Mum and Grandpa had their big fight, Mum has been sad and Gramps hasn’t visited. Then Evie’s cat, Pax, runs away. If only Grandpa was here! He would know what to do. As Evie searches for Pax, can she hope for not one miracle, but two?
It’s Christmas Crime! Anouk Filippini
Lottie Brooks’s Twelve Disasters of Christmas
$34.99 | Simon & Schuster
Katie Kirby
When Suzanne arrives in Paris for her apprenticeship at the Rivoli bakery, nothing goes right – starting with being stuck rolling croissants instead of learning from the head pastry chef and ending with her witnessing a murder. This was definitely not how she had intended to spend her holidays. But then she meets Sofiane and the charming Léo and realises she might be the key to solving this case. Each chapter of this clever advent-calender style book is sealed so that readers can open and read a chapter a day leading up to Christmas.
$16.99 | Penguin
Lottie loves Christmas – the chocolate, the presents, spending time with her weird but wonderful family! But what does Burger Tom get up to on Christmas Day? How does Molly celebrate in Australia? And why are the hammies so afraid of cousin Fwankie?! In these twelve fun festive short stories, find out what Bella gets up to on her first Christmas, how Toby's prank backfires, and the way Jess saves the day for her football team… oh, and hear about Lottie’s most disastrous Christmas, of course!
CHRISTMAS BOOKS
A Very Cranky Christmas
Christmas Wild
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FROM ANCIENT MYTHS TO MODERN STORYTELLERS - WITH KATE FORSYTh ATHENS, HYDRA, CRETE GREECE Sept - Oct 2027
Cover Art by Julie Keech