Gleaner October 2023

Gleaner Issue 6 Volume 30 October 2023

Extract Matilda Boseley on learning to love her brain p9 Recipes Rick Stein serves up three simple suppers p10

From David’s Desk

A

quick update on progress at 49 Glebe Point Road: we are still on track to be at the Old Post Office for the rest of the year, and to move back into our renovated premises in late January. So you can expect a bells-and-whistles shout from us about a grandish sort of reopening in early February, fingers and toes crossed (equipment/labour/council sign off, etc). And yes, to answer again some FAQs: the events space will be great, and fully accessible (lift), there will be a cafe/bar upstairs as well, and we’re up for as flexible a number of uses as is practical (music? performance? yoga? book clubs?). Stay in touch, and let us know.

I’ve been reading ...

Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional is an intriguing, deeply thoughtful and moving novel. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, it traces the retreat of an unnamed narrator from society, from marriage and a socially engaged life to a nunnery on the Monaro tablelands. This is a serious, exploratory, meditative work, about empathy, about forgiveness, and about the perennial search for meaning.

Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake. I’ve gone in and out of love with Patchett novels over the years. Bel Canto and Dutch House have stayed with me, others not. Tom Lake seems the perfect vehicle for Patchett’s “Covid” novel: three grown daughters marooned with parents on the family cherry farm, where their mother helps pass the time as they pick the crop, by retelling the story of her “fairytale” summer at Tom Lake theatre when she was a young actor in love with her costar. It’s soothing, compassionate, wise storytelling and enlightening on motherdaughter relationships, but I was left wanting more.

Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song. It’s a big call, but I don’t know when I last read a novel as unrelentingly bleak and harrowing as this. Which is a feat in itself, I’m sure. But this story of a Dublin woman’s attempts to hold her family of four children together after her unionist husband is “disappeared’’ in an imagined fascist Ireland descending into civil war is very hard to read.

Having said that, it is superbly paced, grippingly and convincingly imagined, and for me, it was indeed unputdownable. It’s a serious book tackling an immensely serious subject, and it’s shortlisted for the Booker, and I commend it, but it’s a very discomforting read.

David Marr’s Killing for Country is a rare and valuable thing: it’s a personal history of the Frontier Wars that is as timely as it is important. Marr has brought a searing forensic intelligence and inescapable moral compass to bear on the history of dispossession of land from the original inhabitants of this country.

To this he’s added the history of the role of the native police, and the role of his forebears. Crimes, bodies, trials, rorts, cover-ups are all there in great detail, and needing to be read.

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Gleebooks Gleaner

‘It’s a big call, but I don’t know when I last read a novel as unrelentingly bleak and harrowing as this.’

And I went on a brief holiday and took with me my favourite P.G. Wodehouse Leave It to Psmith – last read somewhere between 55 and 60 years ago. Wodehouse without question had an enormous influence on my love of language and literature: I devoured the complete catalogue at Hurstville Library in the 1960s. Anyway, of course it’s absurdly dated, it was then. But he’s a comic genius, with exceptional descriptive powers and I loved it again.

Fiction AUSTRALIAN FICTION

Stone Yard Devotional

Edenglassie

Green Dot

A woman abandons her city life and marriage to return to the place of her childhood, holing up in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Monaro.

As she gradually adjusts to the rhythms of monastic life, she finds herself turning to thoughts of her mother, whose early death she can’t forget. Disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations: a terrible mouse plague; the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who left the community decades before; and finally, a troubling visitor to the monastery. This is a deeply moving novel from one of Australia’s most acclaimed and best-loved writers.

When Mulanyin meets the beautiful Nita in Edenglassie, their saltwater people still outnumber the British.

As colonial unrest peaks, Mulanyin dreams of taking his bride home to Yugambeh Country, but his plans for independence collide with white justice.

Two centuries later, fiery activist Winona meets Dr Johnny. Together they care for obstinate centenarian Grannie Eddie, and sparks fly, but not always in the right direction. What nobody knows is how far the legacies of the past will reach into their modern lives. In this brilliant epic, Melissa Lucashenko torches Queensland’s colonial myths, while reimagining an Australian future.

Hera Stephen is clawing through her mid-twenties, working as an underpaid comment moderator in an overly air-conditioned newsroom by day and kicking around Sydney with her two best friends by night.

Instead of money or stability, she has so far accrued one ex-girlfriend, several hundred hangovers and a dog-eared novel collection. Then she falls into a romance with an older married colleague that everyone knows is doomed to fail.

Madeleine Gray has created an irresistible and messy love story about the terrible allure of wanting something that promises nothing and the joys and indignities of coming into adulthood in the 21st century.

$32.99, UQP

$32.99 Allen & Unwin

Charlotte Wood

Gleebooks price $29.99 (RRP $32.99) Allen & Unwin

Melissa Lucashenko

Madeleine Gray

Lola in the Mirror Trent Dalton

A girl and her mother have been on the run for 16 years, from police and the monster they left in their kitchen with a knife in his throat.

The girl has no name because names are dangerous when you’re on the run. But the girl has a dream. And there’s only one person who can help make her dreams come true.

That person is Lola but to find her, the girl with no name must first do one of the hardest things we can ever do. She must look in the mirror. Lola in the Mirror is a blackly funny, heartbreaking and beautiful novel of love, fate, life and death. $32.99, HarperCollins

Salt River Road Molly Schmidt

In the aftermath of their mother’s death, the Tetley siblings’ lives are falling apart. Left to fend for themselves as their family farm goes to ruins, Rose sets out to escape the grief and mess of home. When she meets Noongar elders Patsy and Herbert, she finds herself drawn into a home where she has the chance to discover the strength of community, and to heal a wound her family has carried for a generation. Salt River Road is a touching exploration of resilience, small-town racism and the power of human connection.

Penguin Black Classics

Special Offer

Revisit timeless literature, vivid historical accounts, revealing biographies and much more with this special offer from Penguin Classics.

hree Buy

for the price of two

The cheapest of the three books is free

The first 50 customers receive a free Classics tote bag

$32.99, Fremantle

October 2023

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Fiction INTERNATIONAL FICTION

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store James McBride

In 1972, in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a skeleton is found at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there are two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighbourhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans live side by side and share ambitions and sorrows. As the story moves back in time to the 1930s, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is revealed, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community that sustain us. $32.99, W&N

The Phoenix Crown

The Mountain Lion

San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a railroad magnate whose collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown. But their lives are thrown into turmoil when an earthquake rips San Francisco apart and Thornton disappears. This is an unforgettable story about the intertwined lives of two wronged women, set against the chaos of the San Francisco earthquake and the glittering palaces of Versailles.

Ralph and Molly are inseparable siblings united against the stupidity of daily routines; their prim mother and prissy older sisters; and the world of adult authority.

One summer, they are sent from their childhood home in suburban Los Angeles to their uncle’s Colorado mountain ranch, where they write, hunt and roam. But this untamed wilderness becomes tainted by dark stirrings of sexual desire and as the pressures of growing up drive a rift between them, their innocent childhoods hurtle towards a devastating end.

Kate Quinn and Janie Chang

$32.99 HarperCollins

WHAT WE’RE READING Glory

NoViolet Bulawayo

$22.99, Chatto & Windus

At times hilarious, spine-chilling, comforting and devastating, Glory is a ground-breaking work of fiction that weaves stories together to create the impression of a nation that struggles to escape the cycle of corruption, violence and censorship. – Imogen

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women Lisa See

$32.99, Scribner

Set in China in the 14th and 15th centuries and inspired by a true story about a woman doctor from an elite family, this book also describes what it was like to be a woman at that time, including a full description of the binding of feet! It is also about the intricacies of Chinese medicine which is still used today and friendships between women. A captivating story that would appeal to those who enjoyed The Marriage Portrait or Hamnet. – Victoria

Jean Stafford

$22.99, Faber

The Goodbye Cat Hiro Arikawa

A needy kitten rescued from the recycling bin teaches a new father how to parent his own human baby. A colony of wild cats on a holiday island shows a young boy not to stand in nature’s way. A family is perplexed by their cat’s devotion to their charismatic but uncaring father. These seven stories set against the changing seasons in modern Japan are bursting with empathy and love. A huge bestseller in Japan, every page in The Goodbye Cat is a joyous celebration of cats and how we cannot resist sharing our lives with them. $32.99, DoubleDay

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Gleebooks Gleaner

Fiction INTERNATIONAL FICTION

The Opposite of Success Eleanor Elliot Thomas

$32.99, Text

Lorrie Hope is hoping for change. It’s launch day for her big work project and she’s applied for a promotion she’s not sure she wants. Meanwhile, her best friend, Alex, is stuck in a mess involving Lorrie’s rakish ex, Ruben – or, more accurately, his wife. And Ruben’s boss happens to be the mining magnate, who is sponsoring Lorrie’s project ... As the day spirals from bad to worse, Lorrie and Alex must reconsider what they can expect from life, love and middle management.

A riotously funny debut novel about work, motherhood, friendship – and the meaning of failure itself.

I Will Greet the Sun Again

Khashayar J. Khabushani

$35, Viking

Three young brothers leave Los Angeles in the dead of night for Iran, taken by their father from their mother to a country and an ancestral home they barely recognise.

They return months later, changed in inexorable ways. Under the dazzling light of the California sun, our protagonist, the youngest brother, begins to piece together a childhood shattered by his father’s violence, a queer adolescence marked by a shy, secret love affair, and his everchanging status as a Muslim in America.

Lyrical and open-hearted, I Will Greet the Sun Again is an unforgettable portrait of a family being torn apart, and a boy emerging from its ashes.

And Then She Fell Alicia Elliot

Alice has just given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Dawn; her ever-charming husband, Steve, is nothing but supportive; and they’ve moved into a new home in a wealthy neighbourhood in Toronto. But Alice could not feel more like an imposter. Her self-doubt hinders the one vestige of her old life she has left: writing a modern retelling of the Haudenosaunee creation story. Then she finds herself hearing voices she can’t explain. Alice suspects something is very wrong, and that her creation story holds the key to her, and Dawn’s, survival. And Then She Fell is an unflinching and fiercely witty debut novel of Indigenous life, womanhood and mental health. $32.99, Atlantic

‘Brilliant. Riveting.

Sharp. Funny. Dark.

I want to give Green Dot all the adjectives but will content myself with saying it is one of the best books you will read all year.’

Elizabeth Day, author of How To Fail

Light Over Liskeard Louis de Bernières

$34.99, Harvill Secker

Q’s work as a quantum cryptographer for the government has led him to believe a crisis is imminent for civilisation. He buys a ruined farmhouse in Cornwall and begins to build his own self-sufficient haven. Over the course of this quest he meets the eccentric characters who live on the moors nearby – the park ranger in charge of the reintroduced lynxes and aurochs that roam the area; an Arthurian knight on horseback and the amorous ghost of an Edwardian woman. In this entertaining and heart-warming novel Louis de Bernières makes us reconsider what is really precious in our short and precarious lives.

‘Absolutely delightful, Eventually Everything Connects deserves returning to over and over. Sarah Firth is a marvel.’

Michelle Law

October 2023

5

Fiction INTERNATIONAL FICTION

Beyond the Door of No Return David Diop

The Door of No Return, on the island of Goree off the coast of Senegal, is where millions of Africans last touched their home continent’s soil, before being transported to slavery in the Americas.

When French naturalist Michel Adanson travels to Senegal in 1749, he hears the story of a woman who passed through the door ... then returned. His search for this fabled woman leads him on a journey through a land torn apart by slavery. Set against the backdrop of the Enlightenment and the Atlantic slave trade, Beyond The Door of No Return is a thrillingly subversive story of romance and adventure.

$32.99 Pushkin

The Naturalist of Amsterdam Melissa Ashley

When Maria becomes entranced by the plant and insect life of Suriname, she is determined to record it for herself. Her 20-yearold daughter decides to join her and all the family’s savings are ploughed into the dangerous expedition. The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname will be Maria’s masterpiece, but ensuring its legacy - and her own survival – will become her daughter’s burden.

From the jungles of South America to the bustling artists’ studios of Amsterdam, Melissa Ashley charts an incredible period of discovery with stunning lyricism and immaculate research.

$39.99 Affirm

The Royal Windsor Secret Christine Wells

Cleo Davenport has been told she was an orphan. But she has heard the rumours – that her father is the Prince of Wales. When she turns 17 she is sent to London under the chaperonage of her very proper aunt. But Cleo longs for independence and she can’t move forward until she finds out about her past. Determined to unlock the truth, she travels from London, back to Cairo, and then Paris, where her investigations take her into the world of the Parisian demimonde, and a high-class courtesan whose scandalous affair with the young Prince of Wales threatened to bring down the British monarchy long before anyone had heard of Wallis Simpson. $32.99, HarperCollins

The Premonition Banana Yoshimoto Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths

Special Offer

The legendary Australian literary figure was the author of a huge and diverse body of work.

He was an unapologetic activist, intellectual, libertarian and champion of freedom of spe ech.

Though he lived his life publicly, his private stories have not been shared – until now.

Pre-order Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths from Gleebooks before 28th November and go into

a draw to win a set of the first six Frank Moorhouse books

Order online or phone the shop on (02) 9660 2333.

We’ll contact the lucky winner on the 29th November

Yayoi lives with her perfect, loving family. But while her parents tell happy stories of her childhood, she is haunted by the sense that she’s forgotten something important about her past. She goes to stay with her mysterious aunt Yukino, whose strange behaviour includes waking Yayoi at two in the morning to be her drinking companion and throwing away all the things she wants to forget. Yayoi starts to recover lost memories, and everything she knows about her past threatens to change forever. This is a deeply moving new novel from the bestselling author of Kitchen. $29.99, Faber

Family Meal Bryan Washington

Growing up, T.J. was Cam’s boy next door.

When Cam needed a home, TJ’s parents took him in. Years later, Cam’s world is falling apart.

The love of his life, Kai, is gone: but his ghost keeps haunting Cam, and won’t let go. When Cam has a chance to return to his hometown, he takes it. Back in the same place as T.J., they circle each other warily, drawn together despite past and current drama. But T.J. is no longer the same person Cam left behind. This is a story about how the people who know us the longest can hurt us the most, but how they also set the standard for love and create a family. $32.99, Atlantic

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Gleebooks Gleaner

Fiction CRIME AND THRILLERS

Lowbridge Lucy Campbell

$34.99, Ultimo

Katherine Ashworth, shattered by the death of her daughter, moves to her husband’s hometown.

Searching for a way to pick up the pieces of her life, she joins the local historical society and becomes obsessed with a three-decades-old mystery of a missing girl. She stumbles upon the trail of a second girl who vanished when no one cared enough to see what was happening in plain sight. Her trail could lead right to Katherine’s door. In a town simmering with divisions and a cast of unforgettable characters, Lowbridge is a heart-wrenching mystery about the girls who are lost, the ones who are mourned and those who are forgotten.

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect Benjamin Stevenson

$32.99, Michael Joseph

When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invites Ernest Cunningham to a crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, he is looking for inspiration for his second book – and a break from homicide ... which doesn’t quite pan out. There are six writers on the train, but after one is murdered, six authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, they should know how to solve a crime. Or commit one. An original smart and funny book from the author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone.

The Seven Chris Hammer

$32.99, Allen & Unwin

Yuwonderie’s seven founding families have lorded it over their district for a century, growing ever more rich and powerful. But now one of their own is found dead in a ditch and homicide detectives Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan are sent to investigate.

Could the murder be connected to the execution of the victim’s friend 30 years ago or even to the long-forgotten story of a servant girl on the brink of the Great War? The Seven is a compelling thriller filled with intrigue, emotional depth and an evocative sense of place.

Mr Einstein’s Secretary Matthew Reilly

$44.99, Macmillan

All Hanna Fischer ever wanted to do was to study physics under the great Albert Einstein. But when, as a teenager in 1919, her life is suddenly turned upside down, she is catapulted into a new and extraordinary life – as a secretary, a scientist, a sister and a spy. From racist gangs in Berlin to gangsters in New York City, Nazis in the 1930s and Hitler’s inner circle during the Second World War, Hanna will encounter some of history’s greatest minds and most terrible moments, all while desperately trying to stay alive. Spanning 40 years, this is the thrilling tale of a young woman propelled through history’s most dangerous times.

I Am Already Dead David Whish-Wilson

Trainee private investigator Lee Southern finds himself drawn into a web of danger and deceit as he investigates a series of bribery attempts targeting a wealthy entrepreneur.

Under the expert tutelage of retiring PI Frank Swann, Lee uses all of his developing skills, instincts and cunning to get to the heart of a sordid mystery. As he delves deeper into the case he finds himself the target of increasingly ominous threats and several attempts on his life.

A gripping and high-paced noir that will keep you on the edge of your seat. $34.99, Fremantle

Summer of Blood Dave Warner

Two Australian police officers travel to San Francisco and Los Angeles in the summer of 1967 in search of a missing young man, only to find themselves fully immersed in the world of music, free love, drugs and hippie counterculture.

They soon realise this isn’t just any ordinary missing person investigation. A big gig is the perfect place to get away with murder, and their search becomes a thrilling journey through the seamy side of the 1960s counterculture. This book is not to be missed for fans of gripping crime fiction and rock’n’roll. $32.99, Fremantle October 2023

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Fiction HORROR

Night Side of the River Jeanette Winterson

$32.99 Jonathan Cape

Our lives are digital, exposed and always-on. We track our friends and family wherever they go. We have millennia of knowledge at our fingertips. We have changed, but our ghosts have not. They’ve simply adapted and innovated, found new channels to reach us. They inhabit our apps and wander the metaverse just as they haunt our homes and our memories, always seeking new ways to connect.

These are the stories of the dead; of those we’ve lost, loved, forgotten ... and feared. Some are fiction. But some may not be. This is a genre-bending and masterful new collection of ghost stories from Jeanette Winterson.

FANTASY

Gunflower

A Stroke of the Pen

A family of cat farmers gets the chance to set the felines free. A group of chickens tells it like it is. A female-crewed ship ploughs through the patriarchy. A support group finds solace in a world without men. With her trademark humour, energy, and flair, McKay offers glimpses of places where dreams subsume reality, where childhood restarts, where humans embrace their animal selves and animals talk like humans. The stories in Gunflower explode and bloom in mesmerising ways, showing the world both as it is and as it could be.

Twenty early short stories by one of the world’s bestloved authors, each accompanied by exquisite original woodcut illustrations, are contained in A Stroke of a Pen. These are rediscovered tales that Pratchett wrote under a pseudonym for newspapers during the 1970s and 1980s. None are set in the Discworld, but they contain all of his trademark wit, satirical wisdom and fantastic imagination and they hint at the world he would go on to create.

Laura Jean McKay

$29.99, Scribe

WHAT WE’RE READING When One of Us Hurts

Terry Pratchett

$32.99, DoubleDay UK

Monica Vuu

$34.99, Macmillan

A small, tight-knit community who don’t like strangers.

Two suspicious deaths, and local police are brushing them under the rug. Dark secrets that haunt this tiny, suffocating town. I loved this book, it’s creepy, surprising and so well written. – Jane

Wednesday’s Child Yiyun Li

$32.99, Fourth Estate

Yiyun Li’s collection of short stories spans 15 years of writing and is written with precision and purpose. The characters are sensitively portrayed and reflect broader issues on how to deal with things like loss, loneliness and ageing. Yiyun Li gives voice to complex emotions that are difficult to name, and each of her stories are fascinating and memorable. – Imogen

The Will of the Many James Islington

Vis Telimus was orphaned after his family was killed in a tragic accident.

But was it really an accident, or was the ruling government, the Hierarchy, to blame?

He must conceal his true identity as he searches for answers, an ancient weapon and the secrets the Hierarchy is hiding – which could tear it apart. This is the gripping first instalment in a new fantasy series by the bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy. $34.99, Text

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Gleebooks Gleaner

Extract

Mind reader Guardian journalist Matilda Boseley was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, after watching TikTok videos about the disorder. She is one of a growing number of people to receive the diagnosis. But what exactly is ADHD? What does it mean for people like Matilda and society as a whole? In her new book, The Year I Met My Brain, she chronicles how her diagnosis brought a sense of relief after years of frustrating and sometimes debilitating symptoms but also gave her the ability to see the ‘wonderful things’ her ADHD brain can do.

W

hat if, as a culture, we started thinking about ADHD more as the “flavour” of mind some people are born with, rather than just “a problem”? This is what the neurodiversity movement is about.

Asking what society would look like if our educational institutions, workplaces and social systems were more flexible – adapting to accommodate those whose brains work differently rather than building a wall around what’s ‘normal’ and asking those who fall outside to find a way to climb over in order to fit in.

There’s a lot to be said for this framework, and I agree with so much of it … but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me a little nervous as well, because of the potential for the conversation to race from one extreme to another, and leave people in the dust as it does.

As much as I don’t think terms like “severe”, “mild” or “high” and “low-functioning” are particularly useful or accurate when it comes to ADHD, I still clearly have a version of the disorder that allowed me to live a relatively normal life before ever receiving a lick of treatment. I don’t want to blithely dismiss the struggles that I’ve faced, but in my case, the disorder was more about making things much harder instead of utterly impossible. And the truth is, a lot of us newly diagnosed adult ADHDers who are now joining this conversation tend to be towards the low end of the support-needs spectrum.

I’m worried that if we’re all shouting “ADHD isn’t a disorder”, we’ll drown out the rest of our community’s calls for better access to treatment, workplace and educational accommodations, and governmental support. And unfortunately, ADHD medications are still so controversial and stigmatised that there are plenty of people out there who will hear “ADHD is just a different version of normal” and twist that into “and therefore we shouldn’t diagnose or medicate for it”.

We can’t afford to let that happen.

‘Unfortunately, ADHD medications are still so controversial and stigmatised’ But surely there’s a way we can talk about all the things we love about having the minds we do without dismissing how excruciatingly hard it can be? There must be a way I can come to terms with the harm my condition has done to my life while still loving my mind for the wonderful things it’s brought, too.

An extract from The Year I Met My Brain by Matilda Boseley (Penguin, $35)

Photo: October Ellen2023 Smith

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Nonfiction FOOD

Simple suppers The latest book by chef and bestselling author Rick Stein pairs more than 100 easy and delicious recipes with stories that celebrate the simple things in life. In this extract from Rick Stein’s Simple Suppers, he shares three stylish, easy recipes for midweek, weekends and every eventuality in between Extracted from Rick Stein’s Simple Suppers (BBC Books, $59.99). Photography by Elena Heatherwick

Roasted nectarine salad with feta & mint Serves four as a side or two as a light supper Salad 3 tbsp olive oil 2 tbsp runny honey 6 nectarines, stoned and halved 2 red onions, cut into wedges 80g pea shoots or lamb’s lettuce 150g feta, cubed or crumbled A few mint sprigs, leaves only, roughly torn 30g almonds, roughly chopped Vinaigrette 1 tbsp red wine vinegar 2 tsp runny honey 3 tbsp olive oil Salt and black pepper

Salty cheese, fruit and mint with a bit of honey is the sort of salad that makes me long to be back in Sydney. I remember a lunch at the house of a famous, now sadly departed, art dealer named Ray Hughes, and a long table surrounded by great works of art including a couple by one of the guests, Tim Storrier. The table was literally one long line of large platters of salads like this one, with acres of prosciutto, melon, basil everywhere, halloumi, pomegranates, prawns and oysters, all partnered with sensational chardonnays. It was one of those lunches you never want to end.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C. Mix the olive oil and honey in a roasting tin, add the nectarines and red onions, then toss to coat. Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes until tender, then leave to cool to room temperature.

Mix the vinaigrette ingredients in a jug and season with salt and pepper. Scatter the pea shoots or lamb’s lettuce over a serving dish and arrange the red onions and nectarines on top. Pour over any roasting juices.

Add the feta, scatter over the mint and almonds, then dress with the vinaigrette at the table.

Green rice with garlic, parsley & mussels Arroz verde Serves 4-5 60ml olive oil 60g shallots, finely chopped 12 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 litre chicken stock 100g flatleaf parsley, leaves chopped 1 1/2 tsp salt 400g short-grain paella rice 500g raw mussels, scrubbed Juice of 1/2 lemon To serve Aioli

I love these Spanish paella-type dishes. There’s a similar, but slightly more complicated and expensive, version of this recipe in my book Long Weekends. I remember filming it at a restaurant on the beach in Cádiz. I chose the arroz verde, but the crew went for seafood paella coloured with the extremely bright yellow of fake saffron. The camera pulled away from my demure green and white bowl to reveal everybody else wearing sunglasses while eating.

Heat the olive oil in a shallow flameproof casserole dish over a medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic, then fry gently for 5 minutes until soft. Stir in the stock, parsley and salt and bring to the boil.

Sprinkle in the rice, stir once, then leave to simmer vigorously over a medium-high heat for 6 minutes. Put the mussels on top and shake the pan briefly so that they sink into the rice slightly. Lower the heat and leave to simmer gently for another 12 minutes. At the end of this time, almost all the liquid should be absorbed, the mussels opened and the rice will be pitted with small holes. Squeeze over the lemon juice and serve with aioli.

Nonfiction FOOD

Chicken, lemon & garlic tray bake

Even More Basics to Brilliance

Serves 6-8

When Donna Hay launched her stunning Basics to Brilliance in 2016, she had no idea its pages would become home to some of her (and the country’s) most cherished cult recipes, including the failproof fall-apart slow-cooked beef brisket and the most addictive molten choc-chunk brownies. The follow up gives home cooks the confidence to elevate their cooking to delicious new heights with simple flavour switch-ups and shortcuts to take you from basics to brilliance in the kitchen. Recipes include a simple base stock for ramen; oven-roasted tomato sauce; yoghurt flatbreads; and a show-stopping Basque cheesecake.

4 tbsp olive oil 12 chicken thighs, skin on and bone in Juice of 1-2 lemons 5 garlic cloves, chopped Small bunch of thyme, leaves stripped from stalks 3 courgettes, cut into thick slices on the diagonal 2 fennel bulbs, trimmed and sliced 8 new potatoes, scrubbed and cut into thick slices Sea salt and black pepper

I suppose I should have asked for this recipe from Lulu Bonneville, having enjoyed it at a lovely long lunch with her and Hugh (aka Lord Grantham). But what I love doing is taking someone’s recipe that I really like and not copying it but just paying homage with my own version. I love getting recipes from those understated but really good cooks who manage to produce something delicious and are also so organised that they are around for the glass of champagne on arrival. They just seem to magic the food up.

Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C. Add a small amount of the oil to a large frying pan and place it over a medium-high heat.

Working in batches, fry the chicken thighs for a few minutes until the skin has taken on a deep golden colour.

Turn the chicken over and cook for a minute or so on the underside.

Mix the lemon juice, garlic, thyme and the rest of the olive oil in a bowl. Arrange the slices of courgette, fennel and potato in a large roasting tin and pour over twothirds of the lemon and oil mixture. Toss to coat the vegetables and season with salt and pepper. Arrange the chicken on top, skin-side up, and pour over the remaining lemon and oil mixture. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the chicken skin is crisp and golden and the vegetables underneath are tender. Nice with a green salad or green beans.

Donna Hay

$55, 4th Estate

7 Days of Dinner

Ester

This kitchen companion captures the diversity of how Australians eat and cook today, with spins on Asian hits including sesame chilli noodles or pepper and coriander chicken; Mexican-inspired dishes like beef and bean taco rice, plus a range of fast favourites from Norwegian hot dogs to Cuban macaroni.

Adam includes handy how-to guides for exceptional roast potatoes, spot-on salads and two-ingredient stir fries.

Mat Lindsay’s cooking resists easy labels. It is a distinct kind of full-flavoured Australian food: generous, mindfully chosen seafood; darkly caramelised wood-fired bread; vegetables cooked to just the right level of doneness; meat that has been treated with respect and, often, time; and the odd burnt pavlova, a true signature. Whether it prompts you to rethink the possibilities of toast, roast your fruit, or embrace Sunday lunch, the Ester playbook presents many ideas to cook and live by.

Adam Liaw

$49.99, Hardie Grant

Now & Then Tessa Kiros

This is beloved food writer Tessa Kiros’ definitive reflection on a lifetime of cooking and eating.

With characteristic generosity of spirit, Tessa invites us into her kitchen to share what she’s cooking now: an exciting blend of new discoveries and enduring favourites that connect the threads of her life. The Tuscan countryside has been Tessa’s home for more than 20 years, but her myriad culinary influences are drawn from her travels around the globe. Part memoir, part travel guide, this collection of more than 150 new recipes is accompanied by Tessa’s personal reflections and favourite memories.

Gleebooks price $54.99 (RRP $59.95), Murdoch

Mat Lindsay with Pat Nourse

Gleebooks price $49.99 (RRP $55), Murdoch

More Is More Molly Baz

“More is more” is a philosophy that encourages more risk-taking, better intuition and fewer exact measurements.

The recipes are fit for any day of the week and for cooks of all skill levels. Start your morning with a Crispy Rice Egg-in-aHole, throw together a Chicken Salad with Coconut Crunch for lunch, look forward to Drunken Cacio e Pepe for dinner, and save room for a fat slice of Ooey Gooey Carrot Cake for dessert. The Only Meatloaf that Matters will teach you the power of re-frying, while Miso-Braised Chicken and Leeks will ensure you never throw away the green tops of the leeks again. $55, Murdoch October 2023

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The Wilder Aisles

W

andering Through Life is the name of a memoir by Donna Leon, the author of the many wonderful Commissario Brunetti mystery novels set in Venice. I have read all the Brunettis and fallen in love with him, his wife

and Venice.

This memoir is so interesting because it shows that Leon has led a most adventurous life during the past 80 years. Living in New Jersey with her parents and brother, she would occasionally visit her grandfather on his farm. With her love of animals and nature, it felt like paradise. And after her parents moved the family to a small house on the farm, Leon’s love of nature was confirmed.

These times are in contrast to her later adventures which span the globe. She applied for a job teaching English in Iran by post and months later landed in Isfahan, an employee of the Telemedia company (called “tell l’em Anything” by its employees). Two weeks later, she found herself teaching English to members of the Iranian Air Force.

When China opened its doors, she was offered a year’s contract as a professor of English Literature at the University of Suzhou,100 miles from Shanghai. Next, Leon moved to Saudi Arabia, where she and her friends made up a game called $audiopoly. This wonderful game makes up for the price of the book. I won’t go into its complicated details, but they derived a lot of pleasure from playing it.

After some time teaching English literature to members of the army at the University of Maryland, Leon found herself in Italy, and it was there she found the love of her life. This to me is the best part of the book, as I am a complete Italy lover – it is the one country I would love to live in.

Unfortunately, the first part of this section is about the end of a love affair; Leon no longer wants to live in her beloved Venice. But there are things to be enjoyed along the way. One of the chapter headings is The Perfect Cappuccino. A creature of habit, she went to the same bar where the brioche was wonderful and the

Photo: Moonik

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Gleebooks Gleaner

coffee only acceptable. After her friends told her she could do better, she decided to look further afar. I won’t say more, but this is to me, so Italian.

Another chapter is called waiting for the plumber, something that happens, not just in Italy. There is so much in this part of the book, it is hard to write about it. Just a few more things: first of all she fell in love with Tosca, knowing that it is not taken seriously by some opera lovers, but she didn’t care. Next it was hearing, when walking home through a fog-blinded Venice in a campo, the angels singing Hallelujah. She stopped to listen, and thought it had to be Handel and it had to be the Hallelujah chorus – what else in a fog-filled campo near the church of Santa Maria Formosa? Then she heard I know that My Redeemer Liveth and she knew it came from the church.

Seeing the door slightly open, she slipped in and was moved to tears during the four-minute choral “amen” – something that has happened to me. She was now a life-long Handel lover.

I will just touch on the reasons that the love affair with Venice is over. Of course it is the cruise ships and the 30 million tourists a year, and after 50 wonderful years together, it is time to go.

Although asking for a divorce, she still loves the country and it is the love of her life. There is so much in this book. I haven’t touched much on her early years or what happens after Venice, but to find out you must buy the book, which is written with great charm and wit.

– Janice Wilder

Children PICTURE BOOKS

Someone Just Like You Helen Docherty

Have you ever stopped to think that there might be someone out there who is just like you?

And if they needed you, would you help them?

Helen Docherty’s lyrical rhyming text and David Roberts’ stunning, thoughtful illustrations create a deeply moving, vitally important picture book that encourages empathy and kindness. $24.99, Simon & Schuster Children’s

Say My Name

Joanna Ho and Khoa Le Names reveal generational ties and histories, weaving an intricate tale of the past.

Names, and correctly saying them, are important.

Each one carries the hopes, dreams, and traditions of those who came before us. Joanna Ho’s lyrical story and Illustration by David Roberts Khoa Le’s gorgeous illustrations within Say My Name explain how saying a person’s name is the only way we can truly know another. Six children, of Chinese, Tongan, Persian, Navajan, Mexican, and Ghanaian descent connect with the reader and proudly celebrate their names, backgrounds, ancestors, and cultural histories.

Cat Family at the Museum

Lucy Brownridge and Eunyoung Seo Discover artefacts from around the world and throughout history on a day out to the museum with the Cat Family in this charming lift-theflap book. Wander through the 140 doors of the museum and gaze up at European masterpieces that include something for every kitten to enjoy. Each room explores something different, from the dinosaurs to sabretooth tigers, from prehistoric times and East Asia to the Stone Age and the modern world of space. Lift the flap on each page to uncover the inner workings of the museum and reveal what’s hidden beneath paintings, statues, display cabinets, and even floorboards! $24.99, Frances Lincoln Children’s

Nightsong Sally Soweol Han

$24.99, HarperCollins

Giinagay Gaagal, Hello Ocean Melissa Greenwood

$24.99, ABC Books

Gaagal (ocean) is our special place, we love to swim in the waves. We’ll catch some yamaarr (fish), eat, dance and play games. Giinagay Gaagal, Hello Ocean is an ode to happy days spent by the ocean, by Gumbaynggirr artist Melissa Greenwood, the creator of the heartstirring picture books Miimi Marraal, Mother Earth and My Little Barlaagany. It’s a story of play, dance, and one’s connection to the land.

If I Was a Horse Sophie Blackall

$24.99, Lothian Children’s Books

If I was a horse, I would gallop all day. I could go anywhere I want … If you were a horse, what would you do? Could you fit in your clothes? Would you give your little sister a ride? Would your brother even notice?

Gallop along with two-time Caldecott Medallist Sophie Blackall through this riotous day in the life of a horse.

Sophie’s delightful text and illustrated giant horses offer a visual feast and a grand dose of imagination to help us navigate the world.

After a big day in the noisy city, Lewis and his mother are heading home.

But on the way, their bus breaks down, leaving them stuck on the side of a country road. It’s still and quiet, but when Lewis ventures into a nearby field, he discovers that nature is full of wonder and music. He discovers nightsong. This is a joyful story about listening to the world around you. $24.99, UQP

October 2023

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Children FICTION 8-12

The Broken Rainbow (Nerra: Deep Time Traveller) Tasma Walton and Samantha Campbell

When Nerra’s great-grandmother passes away, she leaves a box of artefacts. Nerra is drawn to the clapsticks and when she picks them up, she is transported back in time. Dreaming is out of balance and a hero needs to help. Bineal and Pirnbial, husband and wife of the rainbow, have been split apart and captured by the evil Devour’ena. With the help of the Keeper of Clean Sand and Clear Water and the cleverman, Bobbinary, can Nerra reunite the rainbow and bring Dreaming back into balance? $15.99, Scholastic

Puppets of Spelhorst

Bright

Once, there was a king. And a wolf. And a girl with a shepherd’s crook. And a boy with a bow and arrow. And also, there was an owl ... They were puppets, and they were waiting for a story to begin.

Written by Kate DiCamillo and exquisitely illustrated by Julie Morstad, five puppets who find themselves together in an abandoned trunk are carried off into the adventure of a lifetime.

Marianne Blume knows she’s one of the stupid kids. After years of trying and feeling like she’s always failing, she has mastered the art of turning off her brain whenever questions arise. She gets by in school on a combination of luck, deflection, and charisma – until she lands in the classroom of Mr Garcia. Can Marianne learn to be smart if she puts her mind to it? And what does it really mean to be “bright”, anyway? Brigit Young’s Bright is a readable and empowering story about bucking labels, overcoming preconceptions, and learning to find and uphold your own self-worth.

$24.99, Walker Books

$16.99, Square Fish

Kate DiCamillo and Julie Morstad

Brigit Young

EARLY READERS

A Nursery Rhyme for Every Night of the Year

Cub and Brown

Edwina Wyatt and Evie Barrow Cub loves exploring the Great Outdoors – he is prepared for everything.

Well, he tries to be. There are plenty of things to learn and tips to follow. However, Cub isn’t quite sure what he would do if he ever met a bear in the woods. So when Cub meets Brown, he finds that the outdoors, and the indoors, are full of surprises. Cub and Brown is a beautiful and heartwarming tale of friendship and adventure by award-winning author Edwina Wyatt and illustrator Evie Barrow. $19.99, Walker Books

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Gleebooks Gleaner

Allie Esiri and Emily Faccini

$44.99, Macmillan Children’s Books

The 366 rhymes in this book are accompanied by enchanting illustrations by Emily Faccini. Perfect for ending each night reading aloud and sharing with children of all ages, the rhymes include Oranges and Lemons, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Twinkle Little Star. Children will be delighted with each month’s unique theme, from February’s Pancake Day to April Fools Day. Hidden within Esiri’s daily introductions are historical facts and answers to riddles.

GLEEBOOKS BOOK CLUB Calling all bookworms: we want to hear about your favourite reads! We’d love to feature more of our wonderful book clubbers in our Gleaner magazine.

So if you’ve got a book you’d like to review or if you want to write about an author that’s visiting, send us an email at rachel@gleebooks.com.au. We have exciting giveaways waiting for you!

Children YOUNG ADULTS

Borderland Graham Akhurst

Borderland is a heart-pounding horror gothic that follows Jono, a city-born Indigenous teenager, on an epic quest to find himself in the face of unbelievable challenges. Graham Akhurst, the brilliant mind behind this coming-of-age gem, is a Fulbright scholar from the Kokomini of northern Queensland.

Brace yourself for a fresh, mind-bending tale exploring Indigenous identity, the impact of colonisation, and what happens when you take a stand. Ages 13+ $22.99, UWA Publishing

NONFICTION

Return of the Wild Helen Scales

$32.99, Laurence King Publishing

Discover the extraordinary ways nature has come back from the brink in this collection of 20 environmental success stories from around the world. From humpback whale populations thriving again in the freezing seas of Alaska and the recovery of kiwi populations in New Zealand, to the setting up of tiger sanctuaries and reserves in India and return of elephant seals from “extinction”, this book plants a message of hope and shows children that positive change is possible. Ages 8+

Lore of the Stars Claire Cock-Starkey and Hannah Bess Ross

For millennia, humans have looked to the heavens to explain the world around and above them.

The myths, folktales and lore that have arisen from these wonders are as mysterious as they are varied. Lore of the Stars takes readers deep into space and back through the mists of time to discover the myriad answers to our most ancient questions.

Uncover the secrets of augury, the meanings of types of weather, the birth of the Milky Way, and the beings and deities said to govern the worlds above in this beautifully illustrated book. Ages 6-12

A Million Quiet Revolutions Robin Gow

For as long as they can remember, Aaron and Oliver have only ever had each other.

In a small town with few queer teenagers and fewer young trans men, they’ve shared milestones like coming out as trans, buying the right binders and falling for each other. But just as their relationship has started to blossom, Aaron moves away. Feeling adrift, separated from the one person who understands them, they seek solace in digging deep into the annals of America’s past and discover the story of two Revolutionary War soldiers who they believe to have been trans men in love. As they learn, they delve further into unwritten queer stories, and discover the transformative power of reclaiming one’s place in history. Ages 14+ $22.99, Square Fish

GRAPHIC NOVELS

Enlighten Me

Minh Lê and Chan Chau

How do you find your way around, get your food and drink, connect with your friends and family?

How do you know the right and safe way to do things, or how to make things?

Before the white people came to the continent, all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples knew how to do all these things – and much more.

Learn about history, art, song, science and more in this engaging and inviting introduction to Indigenous traditional knowledges, how they apply today and how they can help all people thrive into the future. Ages 8+

When Binh fights back against a bully who makes fun of his Vietnamese heritage, he expects to be cheered as the hero.

Instead, it gets him a stern warning from his vice principal and worried parents. Binh is stuck on a family trip to a silent meditation retreat. That means no talking – and no video games!

– for a whole weekend. Could things possibly get any worse? However, when a nun gathers all the kids to tell them the Jataka tales – the stories of the Buddha’s many past lives – Binh takes a fantastical dive into his imagination and starts to see himself in these stories. Awardwinning author Minh Le and bestselling illustrator Chan Chau team up for a fun and enlightening graphic novel about one kid’s journey to finding inner peace and belonging. For ages 12+

$24.99, Thames & Hudson

$22.99, Little, Brown

Songlines Margo Neale

$29.99, Wide Eyed Editions October 2023

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From the Heathens

T

he Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival is almost upon us! From 20-22 October, the beautiful Carrington Hotel in Katoomba will host more than 85 speakers over 47 sessions including 2023 Miles Franklin winner, Shankari Chandran; 2023 Stella Prize winner, Sarah Holland-Batt; Julia Baird; David Marr; Charlotte Wood and Robert Dessaix. Check out the full program on the festival website bluemountainswritersfestival.com.au as tickets are selling fast.

Here is the Blackheath team’s springtime reading …

Coincidently, the last three novels Victoria read are writers writing about writers: Wifedom by Anna Funder about George Orwell and his invisible wife Eileen; Larchfield (published in 2018)

by Polly Clark, loosely about W.H. Auden’s life while teaching in Scotland, and Zadie Smith’s The Fraud, about William Ainsworth and a host of other Victorian authors.

The Fraud is a novel weaving fiction around the true story of The Tichborne Case – a fraudster who claims to be the inheritor of a large estate, which was a huge scandal at the time. What makes this book a great read are Smith’s two main characters – the smart-witted Eliza Touchet who is the housekeeper and editor to her cousin, William Ainsworth, and the formerly enslaved Jamaican, Andrew Bogle who is a witness at the trial. Through Eliza there is also a fictional account of the campaign for the abolition of slavery and what it means to be human by asking us to question who is telling the truth. A great read.

Ava caught up on two Aussie classics: Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang and Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip. Both books are tight, fast-paced stories about social outsiders living on the wrong side of the law. Ned Kelly famously became an outlaw who faced lifelong persecution at the hands of the police, mostly because he was poor and Irish, while Garner’s Nora is a single mother struggling with addiction and a tumultuous relationship. Ava would recommend either of these books to someone looking for a literary page turner.

Jane has just read Doppelganger

by Naomi Klein and says this is a must-read political discourse for anyone who has a conspiracy theorist in their life, or had anyone they love fall down the QAnon rabbit hole and become unrecognisable. This book is about how Naomi Klein has continuously been mistaken for once great feminist, now fallen right-wing extremist Naomi Wolf.

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Gleebooks Gleaner

Author Julia Baird is part of the Blue Mountains Writers’ Festival line-up.

She delves into polarisation in politics and social issues, and the way the Right mimics the Left, the way the Far Left has been absorbed into the Far Right (anti-vaxxers, fitness gurus, etc). It gives an insight into what drives some mass behaviours on social media that, on the surface, seem utterly baffling. A must read for a profoundly weird time in modern Western society, well thought out and well written.

She also read The Guest by Emma Cline. Alex is a young girl, just out of an affair with an older man, who is drifting without a plan. Hanging around Long Island, grifting, edging into social situations where she knows no-one, she is just like the Talented Mr Ripley, but without the brilliant mind and ability to plot. A great story about a young woman who takes couch-surfing to an extreme.

And Then She Fell by Mohawk Canadian author Alicia Elliot has had Tiff pretty much spellbound for the past week. Highly original, ambitious and darkly comedic, Elliot explores notions of identity, intergenerational trauma, motherhood, love, kinship and mental illness. Straddling the real world as well as the spiritual realm, it’s alive and crackling with an infectious electricity. This brilliant novel is an important reminder to be kinder to others – especially ourselves – much more than we often are.

Nonfiction BIOGRAPHY

POLITICS

On Disinformation Going Infinite Michael Lewis

Gleebooks price $45 (RRP $55), Allen Lane

Sam Bankman-Fried wasn’t just rich. Before he turned 30 he had become the world’s youngest billionaire, making a record fortune in the crypto frenzy. CEOs, celebrities and world leaders vied for his time. At one point he considered paying off the entire national debt of the Bahamas so he could take his business there.

Then it all fell apart. Both a psychological portrait of a preternaturally gifted “thinking machine”, and wild financial roller-coaster ride, Going Infinite is a 21stcentury epic of high-frequency trading and even higher stakes, of crypto mania and insane amounts of money, of hubris and downfall.

Every Man for Himself and God against All Werner Herzog

$49.99, Jonathan Cape

Werner Herzog is the undisputed master of extreme cinema – from his early movies to his later documentaries, he has made a career of exploring the boundaries of human endurance. But these are not just great cinematic themes. During the making of his films, Herzog has pushed himself and others to the limits, often putting himself in life-threatening situations. Filled to the brim with memorable stories and poignant observations, this memoir unveils the influences and ideas that drive his creativity and shape his unique world view.

A Life of Curtain Calls Nance Grant

$65, Heads and Tales

Nance Grant’s world has been a rich tapestry of musical and operatic performances, in the company of many great singers, producers, musicians and conductors, renowned both in Australia and internationally. Nance Grant: A Life of Curtain Calls breathes life into this world, taking us behind the curtain and onto the stage to share Nance’s singing and performing triumphs and to honour the many people who made her performing life such a bounteous one.

Ian Fleming: The Complete Man Nicholas Shakespeare

Gleebooks price $35 (RRP) $42.99, Harvill Secker

Ian Fleming’s greatest creation, James Bond, has had an enormous and ongoing impact on our culture. What Bond represents about ideas of masculinity, the British national psyche and global politics has shifted over time, but Fleming himself was more mysterious and subtle than anything he wrote. His dramatic personal life and impressive career in Naval Intelligence put him at the heart of critical moments in world history, while also providing rich inspiration for his fiction. Nicholas Shakespeare’s unprecedented access to the Fleming family papers and his nose for a story make this a fresh and eye-opening picture of a man whose life was overshadowed by his famous creation.

Lee McIntyre

The effort to destroy facts and make America ungovernable didn’t come out of nowhere.

It is the culmination of 70 years of strategic denialism. In On Disinformation, Lee McIntyre shows how the war on facts began, and how ordinary citizens can fight back against the scourge of disinformation that is now threatening the very fabric of our society. Drawing on his 20 years of experience as a scholar of science denial, Lee McIntyre explains how autocrats wield disinformation to manipulate a populace and deny obvious realities, why the best way to combat disinformation is to disrupt its spread, and most importantly, how we can win the war on truth. $29.99, MIT Press

Tyranny of the Minority

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt In this razor-sharp analysis of one of the most important issues facing us today, leading Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt draw on their combined expertise of over 40 years to offer a dire warning about rightwing efforts to undermine multiracial democracy. Exploring the 2024 American election and the Capitol riots, as well as global examples from history, including post-1945 Germany and Brazil and Chile during the ’60s and ’70s, the authors show how ossified political conventions can be pernicious enablers of minority rule, creating a situation in which partisan minorities can consistently thwart and even rule over popular majorities. $36.99, Viking

WE’RE ON THE WEB Find more new releases at www.gleebooks.com.au

October 2023

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Nonfiction POLITICS

HISTORY

Asylum Speakers

Conflict

Anthology

David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts

$37.99 HarperCollins

Conflict is both a sweeping history of the evolution of warfare up to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and a penetrating analysis of what we must learn from the past, and anticipate in the future, in order to navigate an increasingly perilous world. In this deep and incisive study, General David Petraeus, the former CIA director who commanded the US-led coalitions in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and the prize-winning historian Andrew Roberts, explore more than 70 years of conflict, drawing significant lessons and insights from their fresh analysis of the past.

Emperor of Rome Mary Beard

Based on the popular podcast, Asylum Speakers is a collection of 31 stories of migration, from those leaving everything they know behind, to those working alongside them. Here are the voices that often go unheard – the humans behind the statistics and the headlines. From Syria to Venezuela, Eritrea to Afghanistan, these powerful stories of displaced people, asylum seekers and those volunteering on the frontline of the refugee crisis are told in their own words and accompanied by beautiful photography and collage art.

$65, Profile

Sex: Two Billion Years of Procreation and Recreation David Baker

$42.99, Dorling Kindersley

Australia’s Pivot to India

$34.99, Black Inc

Andrew Charlton

Australian cities are full of thriving “Little Indias” created by a rapidly growing diaspora estimated to become the largest migrant group in the nation in just over two decades. Andrew Charlton provides an authoritative analysis of Australia’s relationship with India, explains why now is the time to seize the opportunity for collaboration and cooperation, and outlines a vision for a partnership that will enhance Australia’s security and prosperity in the 21st century. He argues that both Indians and Australians have an outdated view of each other, trapped in decades-old stereotypes and misunderstandings $32.99, Black Inc

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Gleebooks Gleaner

Cruel control freaks, diligent workaholics or extravagant teenagers?

What were the emperors of Rome really like? In her international best-seller SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome. Now, she shines her spotlight on the emperors who ruled the Roman empire, from Julius Caesar (assassinated 44BCE) to Alexander Severus (assassinated 235CE). Emperor of Rome goes directly to the heart of Roman (and our own) fantasies about what it was to be Roman, offering an account of Roman history as it has never been presented before.

From the basic chemical process of two microbes sharing DNA to the modern phenomena of OnlyFans, author David Baker guides the reader towards a clear understanding of one of the deepest and most abiding forces of human nature. He looks at how sex changed for humans across the foraging, agrarian and modern eras, and how we arrived at a period in history where the present nature of our sex lives has no historical or evolutionary precedent. Sex is a revealing and utterly unique insight into history and human behaviour.

Unruly

David Mitchell This will be the most refreshing, entertaining history of England you’ll have ever read. Certainly, the funniest.

Because David Mitchell will explain how it is not all names, dates or ungraspable historical headwinds, but instead show how it’s really just a bunch of random stuff that happened with a few lucky bastards ending up on top. Some of these bastards were quite strange, but they were in charge, so we quite literally lived, and often still live, by their rules. $36.99, Michael Joseph

Nonfiction ESSAYS

Opinions Roxane Gay

$32.99, Little Brown Corsair

Since the publication of the groundbreaking Bad Feminist and Hunger, Roxane Gay has continued to tackle the big issues embroiling society-state-sponsored violence and mass shootings, women’s rights post-Dobbs, online disinformation, and the limits of empathy.

Alongside such weighty subjects she also takes on more individual matters: Can I tell my coworker her perfume makes me sneeze? Is it acceptable to schedule a daily 8am meeting?

Opinions is a collection of Gay’s best nonfiction pieces from the past 10 years, offering nuanced analysis that never shies away from difficult topics. This sharp, thought-provoking anthology will delight Gay’s devotees and draw new readers to this inimitable talent.

I Will Write to Avenge My People

Bite Back

“I will write to avenge my people.” It was as a young woman that Annie Ernaux first wrote these words in her diary, giving a name to her purpose in life as a writer. She returns to them in her stirring defence of literature and of political writing in her Nobel Lecture, delivered in Stockholm in 2022. To write of her own life, she asserts, is to “shatter the loneliness of experiences endured and repressed”; to mine individual experience is to find collective emancipation.

Ernaux’s speech is a bold assertion of the capacity of writing to give people a sense of their own worth, and of one writer’s commitment to bearing witness to life, its joys and its injustices.

Founded in 2020, Cheek Media Co. quickly established itself as the go-to platform for daring feminist opinions on everything from right-wing politics to overcoming taboos around sex and pleasure. In Bite Back, Cheek co-founder Hannah Ferguson turns her sharp, progressive perspective on the issues that matter, from diet culture to the future of the #MeToo movement and more.

Her bold ideas will provoke you to think, spark important conversations and inspire meaningful social change.

Annie Ernaux

$19.99, Fitzcarraldo

AUSTRALIAN HISTORY

Killing for Country: A Family Story David Marr

“This book is more than a personal reckoning with Marr’s forebears and their crimes. It is an account of an Australian war fought here in our own country, with names, dates, crimes, body counts and the ghastly, remorseless views of the ‘settlers’.” – Marcia Langton

Gleebooks price $34.99 (RRP $39.94), Black Inc

David Marr was shocked to discover forebears who served with the brutal Native Police in the bloodiest years on the frontier. Killing for Country is the result – a soul-searching Australian history. This is a richly detailed saga of politics and power in the colonial world – of land seized, fortunes made and lost, and the violence let loose as squatters and their allies fought for possession of the country – a war still unresolved in today’s Australia.

Life As We Knew It

Aisha Dow and Melissa Cunningham

$35, Scribe

With unmatched access to Australia’s top politicians and pandemic officials, Life As We Knew It is a gripping investigation into the nation’s Covid-19 response and its incredible untold human stories. It delves into the worst days of the pandemic and its terrible disasters. But it also shows Australians at their best, and the public spirit of collectivism over individualism that set the country apart.

Hannah Ferguson

$34.99, Affirm

Best Wishes Richard Glover

Do you hate noisy restaurants, preripped jeans and pedestrians who walk five abreast? Do you also have a problem with plastic-wrapped fruit, climate-change deniers and takeaway sandwiches priced at $14.95? And, most of all, do you think the world would be a better place if people got back their sense of humour? Here’s proof you are not alone. Heartfelt and hilarious, serious but sly, Richard Glover’s Best Wishes is the encyclopedia of “can do better”. It’s a plea for a better world – one wish at a time. $34.99, ABC Books

October 2023

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Nonfiction INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS

Right Story, Wrong Story Tyson Yunkaporta

$35, Text

The award-winning author of Sand Talk returns with a formidably original yarn with Indigenous thought leaders from around the globe. Right Story, Wrong Story describes how our relationship with land is inseparable from how we relate to each other. It is a sequence of thought experiments, which are, as Yunkaporta writes, “crowd-sourced narratives where everybody’s contribution to the story, no matter how contradictory, is honoured and included ... the closest thing I can find in the world to the Aboriginal collective process of what we call ‘yarning’.”

Our Voices from the Heart

Patricia Anderson and Professor Megan Davis

$39.99, HarperCollins

The story of the 12 Regional Dialogues and the Uluru National Constitutional Convention has never been told. It is a yarn borne from centuries of struggle, full of vision, determination and courage.

These community gatherings, led and attended by 1,500 everyday First Peoples, represent the largest consultation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in history. The unanimous result was the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and its call for Voice and Makarrata. Filled with powerful never-before-seen photography and helpful information to share with friends and family, Our Voices From The Heart charts the world’s oldest living civilisation’s ongoing fight for constitutional recognition.

SCIENCE

In a Flight of Starlings Giorgio Parisi

$39.99, Allen Lane

Studying the movements of starlings became a path to understanding complex systems of all kinds – from atoms to planets to other animals like ourselves – for Nobel Prize winner Giorgio Parisi. In In a Flight of Starlings, he reflects on the lessons he has taken from a life in pursuit of scientific truth. In so doing, he removes the practice of science from the confines of the laboratory and brings it into the real world. Part elegant scientific treatise, part thrilling intellectual journey, In a Flight of Starlings is an invitation to find wonder in the world around us.

Eve

Cat Bohannon

$36.99, Hutchinson Heinemann

In Eve, Cat Bohannon answers questions scientists should have been addressing for decades. With boundless curiosity and sharp wit, she covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex. Eve is not only a sweeping revision of human history, it’s an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long. Bohannon’s findings will completely change what you think you know about evolution and why Homo sapiens have become such a successful and dominant species, from tool use to city building to the development of language.

LANGUAGE

Writely or Wrongly Joanne Anderson

An essential guide for anyone with cause to communicate in written form (most of us), a passing interest in doing it better (some of us), and a disinterest in a book on said subject that is humourlessly preoccupied with rules (almost all of us). Author Joanne Anderson has expanded on the popular tips she shares weekly with writers at Nine mastheads so that readers everywhere can benefit from her entertaining and incisive observations. This is a humorous and irreverent guide to writing with more $29.99, Murdoch

PSYCHIC PHENOMENA

Threshold

Alexander Batthyany In this remarkable book, cognitive scientist Dr Alexander Batthyany offers the first major account of terminal lucidity, using hundreds of case studies and his research in the related field of near-death studies to explore the mind, the body, the nature of consciousness – and what the living can learn from those who are crossing the border from life to death. $32.99, Scribe

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Gleebooks Gleaner

Reid All About It Notable Books: 2023 “Have you read every book in the shop, yet?” is still a fairly common question one gets asked by customers.

“Not quite yet,” is my usual reply, offered with a rueful smile.

Here is a selection of some titles I did manage to get through this year.

Across the Great Divide: The Band and America Barney Hoskyns $49.99, Pimlico

It’s hardly an original thought, but with the passing of musician Robbie Robertson in August, I realised that increasing numbers of my favourite musicians and groups are now rapidly leaving the stage permanently. Either passing into musical retirement or dying all around me.

A few recent examples: Jimmy Buffett; Devo – on their final tour; the B-52’s; Elton John; Fleetwood Mac; Depeche Mode; the Stranglers.

Robertson was co-founder, songwriter and guitarist of The Band. Formerly known as the Hawks, the Crackers, then simply The Band – as Bob Dylan’s backing group.

They consisted of four Canadians and one American.They blended folk, blues, country and rock together in a unique musical alchemy.

As a university student in the 1970s I watched The Last Waltz – their Martin Scorsese-directed retirement concert film – many times. British music critic Barney Hoskyns’ book – originally published in 1993 and revised a decade later – remains the best account of The Band’s unique musical journey.

Hollywood

Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson $50, Faber Film

The Writers Guild of America strike started in May, and the Screen Actors Guild joined them in July. With production of film and television brought to a halt by labour disputes, it seemed a good time to dip into a 750-page history of Hollywood – with a difference.

“Dip in” is the operative method. Selected from the American Film Institute’s interviews between Hollywood professionals and AFI students, the editors have arranged these trimmed extracts into a thematic history.

Beginning in 1969, the AFI interviews feature artists, directors, craftspeople,

producers, studio bosses, salespeople. Famed and obscure. One chapter on the impact of sound is enlightening: it is salutary to remember sound films are less than a century old.

Director King Vidor (1894-1982) commented: “When sound came in, that’s when popcorn, all the drinks and necking in the theatre started ... you could turn away and do all sorts of things and still hear. You wouldn’t miss anything. In silent pictures you had to pay attention the whole time. Directors who had made silent films were still thinking in terms of photography ... there are quite a few directors like Rene Clair, Sergei Eisenstein who were sad about sound coming in ...”

Abraham Lincoln: A Life Michael Burlingame

$79.99, John Hopkins University Press

On 12 February 1909 – the occasion of the 100th birthday anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln – Joaquin Nabucco (1849-1910), the Brazilian Ambassador to the United States, made the following remarks to a celebratory gathering at Washington DC: “With the increased velocity of modern changes, we do not know what the world will be a hundred years hence … the ideals of the generation of the year 2000 will not be the same of the generation of the year 1900 ... But whether the spirit of authority, or that of freedom increases, Lincoln’s legend will ever appear more luminous in the amalgamation of centuries, because he supremely incarnated both these spirits.”

Ambassador Nabucco was more prescient than he knew. Like the nation that he saved, Lincoln is endlessly fascinating.

Some 17,000 books have been written about Abraham Lincoln. More books than have been written about any other person in world history, with the exception of Jesus Christ. The 16th President has inspired every generation since to produce landmarks of literature, history and biography.

This current work is an abridged edition – revised and updated – of Michael Burlingame’s influential, mammoth 2,000page, two-volume 2008 biography. A work regarded as the most exhaustively researched and fully documented biography of Abraham Lincoln ever written.

Michael Burlingame has also written or edited 20 other books about Lincoln. He probably knows more about Abraham Lincoln than any person alive. Here in these pages, Lincoln still lives.

– Stephen Reid

October 2023

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Nonfiction VISUAL ART

Edvard Munch Pop-Ups

Courtney Watson McCarthy and Bjørn Arid Ersland Edvard Munch was one of modernism’s most significant artists. He was active throughout more than 60 years; from the time he made his debut in the 1880s, until his death in 1944. Munch was part of the symbolist movement in the 1890s, and a pioneer of expressionist art from the beginning of the 1900s onward. His tenacious experimentation within painting, graphic art, drawing, sculpture, photo and film has given him a unique position in Norwegian and international art history. Here, Munch’s most famous works of art can be experienced as 3D pop-ups. The book showcases The Women on the Bridge, Woman with Poppies, The Building of the Winter Studio, Children in the Forest, The Yellow Log and the iconic Scream accompanied by explanatory texts and sketches by Munch.

$49.99, The Munch Museum

Revelation

Iwantja

Leonora Carrington This is the first overview in a decade of the dazzling surrealist universe of Leonora Carrington: artist, author, occultist, feminist. Revelation introduces her singular artistic universe, displaying an extensive array of her wideranging creations (including paintings, drawings and tapestries) and fusing a chronological narrative of her life with a study of the most prominent themes in her work, from her training and early influences in England and Florence to her contact with the surrealists in Paris, through her immigration to New York and her new homeland in Mexico. Punctuating the reproductions are archival materials, book excerpts and documentary photographs. $145, RM Verlag

$79.99, Thames & Hudson Australia

Located on a small ridge at the edge of the Indulkana Ranges, approximately 575km south of Alice Springs, Iwantja art centre is home to some of Australia’s most exciting Indigenous art. It was founded in the 1980s when many Aboriginal communities were fighting for land rights and it was then that now senior artists campaigned for an art centre and for the 1981 APY Land Rights Act. The centre is now a bustling intergenerational hub. Told through the artists’ own words, this searing bilingual publication charts the history of Indulkana from being one of the first pastoral leases in the region to the culturally rich creative hub it is today. Iwantja is a showstopping monograph of the Anangu artists everyone needs to know.

Captivate

National Art School

$50, National Art School

In 2022 the National Art School celebrated two important milestones: the 100-year anniversary of the art school’s presence on its current site in Darlinghurst, and 200 years since the first stones were quarried and laid for walls of the Darlinghurst Gaol in 1822. To mark this occasion, the National Art School produced this richly illustrated book that tells the stories of two centuries of life behind the walls of the former jail and celebrates two significant Sydney institutions that helped shape the penal and cultural history of New South Wales.

PERFORMANCE ART

Nomadic Journey and Spirit of Places Marina Abramovic

$99, Prestel

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Gleebooks Gleaner

Never before published, this self-curated, intensely personal collection of travel notes and sketches by the world’s most revered performance artist offers readers a kind of iconography of Abramovic’s daring and utterly original body of work. An artist’s notebooks are arguably the most authentic means of understanding her process, techniques, and impulses. And, for a performance artist, a rare, permanent record of how she develops her craft.

Compiled over the course of four decades on stationery from various hotels, and other temporary residences, this collection of Marina Abramovic’s original drawings, collages, poetry, writings, cut-outs, photographs and doodles offers glimpses of a brilliant mind in constant motion.

Nonfiction PHOTOGRAPHY

ARCHITECTURE

Studio Malka: Habitats of the Twenty-First Century

Press Graphics: 1819 – 1921

Stéphanie Malka

Alexander Roob

This comprehensive compendium celebrates the golden age of graphic journalism as a distinct and unique genre and a laboratory for developing avantgarde aesthetics.

Spanning 1819 to 1921, it covers a broad range of news graphics and political and satirical cartoons. Alongside the works of renowned artists such as Jean Cocteau, Juan Gris, and Käthe Kollwitz, the most famous illustrators of the time are also well represented, including Thomas Nast, Honoré Daumier and Gustave Doré.

$160, Rizzoli

Architecture: The Definitive Visual History

$150, Taschen

PHOTOGRAPHY

Retro Sydney

Studio Malka is an expression of Stéphane Malka’s daring aesthetic and conscientious ethos, and features his groundbreaking exploration of contemporary housing. Included is his cliffside Mugu House, in Malibu, California, a dramatic expression of dwelling meets mountain in a delicate tracery of slatted wood and glass. Beyond freestanding structures, showcased as well are Studio Malka’s interventions and transformations of existing architecture and the exploration and development of green building and design, embracing the adaptation and reuse of existing structures and materials—a dazzling expression of artistry and innovation that opens its doors and windows on the future.

$75, Dorling Kindersley

Nathan Mete

Covering over 6,000 years of human history, Architecture charts the most important developments in building materials, technology, and design, and examines the social changes that have shaped the architectural landscape. Take a tour of some of the world’s most iconic buildings, beautifully illustrated with a combination of stunning photography and CGI artworks. Find out why so many ancient Roman structures have withstood the test of time and discover the secret of the soaring ceilings of Gothic cathedrals. The book also looks to the future and the architectural innovations that are helping to combat climate change.

MUSIC

Shoulda Been Higher: A celebration of 30 Years of Triple J’s Hottest 100 Tom Clarke

Adapted from the popular Instagram account created by civil engineer Nathan Mete, Retro Sydney is a photographic celebration of Sydney’s iconic sights and scenes from its “Golden Age”. These photos, from 1950-2000, revisit the bustling heart of the CBD, the quaint suburbia of the outer suburbs, and the carefree beachside suburbs of Sydney.

Retro Sydney captures the city’s most significant postwar milestones and highlights its transformation into an international metropolis.

$34.99, Melbourne Books

Triple J’s Hottest 100 has become a national institution of modern Australia. Every year since 1993, Australia’s national youth broadcaster has held a countdown of listeners’ 100 favourite songs. But it has become more than music. Whether it’s at a beach, barbecue, or bonfires, the great musical democracy sparks joy and despair, drama and debate.

Shoulda Been Higher is a fun retrospective celebration of the Hottest 100’s social, musical, and cultural impacts. From Augie March to Ziggy Alberts, this book is jampacked with stats and little-known stories that make the Hottest 100 what it is.

$55, Scribe

October 2023

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Nonfiction PSYCHOLOGY, HEALTH AND SELF-HELP

The Book You Want Everyone You Love to Read Philippa Perry

Life is all about relationships and the quality of those connections, whether that’s with family, partners, friends, colleagues or, most importantly, yourself. How do you find and keep love? What can you do to manage conflict better? How can you get unstuck and cope with change and loss?

What does it mean to be content? Are other people just annoying or are you the problem? With a healthy dose of sanity, Philippa Perry’s compassionate advice could help you become a happier, wiser person. $35, Cornerstone

It’s the Menopause

A Therapeutic Journey

Get the lowdown on everything you need to know about menopause. Does it really go on for years? Should you take HRT, and what’s MHT? What the hell is happening to your hair? Why do you want to bite everyone? Which medical or “natural” treatments can you trust? Kaz Cooke’s reassuring, practical go-to book is laced with humour and informed by menopause doctors and other experts, as well as the voices of thousands of real women. Here is help for the mental and physical challenges of perimenopause, menopause, “early” menopause and is-this-even-menopause.

Alain de Botton explores how we can cope with a variety of forms of mental pain and illness, from the mild to the severe.

He considers how and why we might become ill; how we can explain things to friends, family and colleagues; how we can find our ways towards recovery; and how we can build resilience, so as to live wisely alongside our difficulties. Written with kindness, knowledge and sympathy, A Therapeutic Journey is a practical guide and a source of consolation and companionship in what might be some of our loneliest, most anguished moments.

Kaz Cooke

$45, Viking

The Devil You Knew Professor Ian Hickie

$34.99, Penguin

Informed by internationally renowned psychiatrist Ian Hickie’s 35 years of clinical experience and extensive case studies, The Devil You Knew explores the inner workings of the depressed mind and the myriad influences – environmental, physiological, social – to guide us towards the right diagnosis and offer pathways to healing. Useful tips on what to do and how to get better healthcare abound. Along the way he dispels some of those common fears and myths that keep people in need away from best possible care.

Alain de Botton

$36.99, Hamish Hamilton

4am

Zara McDonald and Michelle Andrews

The House that Joy Built Holly Ringland

$29.99, 4th Estate

The House that Joy Built is about permitting ourselves to be creative. It explores two big forces: the fear that can block our creativity, and the permission we can give to yourselves to meet that fear; to not just create but to revel in the life-changing wonder and joy of doing so. It offers a jumpstart for the nervous heart of anyone whose desire to create is overruled by the fear of vulnerability, criticism, and judgement.

Since 2021, tens of thousands of readers have looked to the Ask Shameless weekly columns podcast for guidance on dating, friendship and selfdevelopment. In 4am, hosts Zara and Michelle have curated 50 columns on subjects ranging from navigating toxic friendships and romantic dilemmas to finding the courage to pursue your dreams. These conundrums are answered with compassion, wisdom, and wit. 4am is a must-read for anyone seeking advice and inspiration in the modern world. $39.99, Viking

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AC/DC: Album by Album Martin Popoff

Adam Smith: Father of Economics Jesse Norman

All That’s Left Unsaid Tracey Lien

The Babel Message Keith Kahn-Harris

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The Banished Immortal: A Life of Li Bai (Li Po) Ha Jin

Camouflage Steve Parker

Clarice Bean: Think Like an Elf Lauren Child

Cloud Cuckoo Land Anthony Doerr

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Dante Alessandro Barbero

Dying of Politeness Geena Davis

Eat Vegan Smith & Daughters

Gino’s Italian Adriatic Escape Gino D’Acampo

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Green is For Christmas Drew Daywalt

The Last Emperor of Mexico: A Disaster in the New World Edward Shawcross

Lethal White: A Cormoran Strike Novel Robert Galbraith

Life: Harley Davidson Darwin Holmstrom

October 2023

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The Long War Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

Loulou & Yves: Christopher Petkanas

Love is Blind William Boyd

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Meanwhile Back on Earth Oliver Jeffers

Mysterious Affair at Olivetti Meryle Secrest

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Schumann: The Faces and The Masks Judith Chernaik

Our Bodies, Their Battlefields Christina Lamb

Something to Hide Elizabeth George

Rebel Cities Mike Rapport

Suffrage Ellen Carol Dubois

Sweet Dreams Dylan Jones

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Vainity Fair’s Women on Women Radjika Jones

Wallpaper: The Ultimate Guide Charlotte Abrahams

Tapestries of Life Anne Sverdup-Thygeson

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Lotharingia Simon Winder

Gleebooks Gleaner

Unnecessary Wars Henry Reynolds

Poetry

Mirror of Obedience Simone Weil

Simone Weil (1909-1943) was one of the foremost French philosophers of the 20th century; a mystic, activist, and writer whose profound work continues to intrigue and inspire today. Mirror of Obedience collects Weil’s poetry and autobiographical writings translated into English for the first time. It offers a rare glimpse into a more personal and introspective Weil than we usually encounter. She was writing and re-working her poems until the end of her life and in a letter from London to her parents, dated 22 January 1943, she expressed the wish for her verses to appear together in print in chronological order, a wish which this volume honours. Weil was a thinker who wrote with discipline and spareness and cherished the poetic form for its power to compress language and distil meaning.In these poems and literary writings, we see her own efforts to craft poems as essential expressions of thought, bringing into view another aspect of Weil’s quest for beauty and truth.

$29.99, BLM Academic

Liberty Faber Poetry Diary 2024 Anthology

The Faber Poetry list, originally founded in the 1920s, was shaped by the taste of T.S. Eliot, who was its guiding light for nearly 40 years. Each passing decade has seen it grow with the addition of poets who are arguably the finest of their generation. The Liberty Faber Poetry Diary 2024 is a celebration of this remarkable Faber list. This A5 hardback diary is covered in Liberty fabric and contains a new selection every year of more than 40 poems along with illustrations from the Faber Archive. $32.99, Faber Poetry

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Bestsellers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

The Voice to Parliament Handbook

Thomas Mayo and Kerry O’Brien

Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life

Anna Funder

The Visitors

Jane Harrison

Country Town

Isolde Martyn

The Last Devil to Die

Richard Osman

Songs for the Dead

Sara M Saleh

Tom Lake

Ann Patchett

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens

Shankari Chadran

The Fraud

Zadie Smith

10 You’re Head’s Not the Place to Store Problems Josh Pyke

11 The Wren, the Wren Anne Enright

12 I’ll Let Myself In Hannah Diviney

13 The 169-Storey Treehouse Andy Griffiths

14 Hamlet Is Not OK R.A. Spratt

15 Russia’s War Against Ukraine: The Whole Story Mark Edele

16 Small Things Like These Claire Keegan

17 Dharma the Christmas Llama Matt Cosgrove

18 Lessons in Chemistry Bonnie Garmus

19 Storytellers Leigh Sales

20 The Milkwood Permaculture Living Handbook Kirsten Bradley

For more new releases go to: Main shop—181a Glebe Pt Rd; Ph: (02) 9660 2333. Mon to Sat 9am to 6pm; Sunday 10 to 5 Blackheath—Shop 1 Collier’s Arcade, Govetts Leap Rd; Ph: (02) 4787 6340. Open 7 days, 9am to 5pm Blackheath Oldbooks—Collier’s Arcade, Govetts Leap Rd: Open 7 days, 10am to 5pm Dulwich Hill—536 Marrickville Rd Dulwich Hill; Ph: (02) 9560 0660. Tue-Fri 9am to 6pm; Sat 9am to 5pm; Sun 10 to 4; Mon 9 to 5 www.gleebooks.com.au. Email: books@gleebooks.com.au; oldbooks@gleebooks.com.au