Gleaner November 2022

gleebooks

Issue 8 Volume 29 Nov 2022

gleaner

A Year In Books

From David’s Desk

Index

Welcome to the final Gleaner of the year, and thanks to Akshaya for so ably stepping into the void left by Viki’s retirement at the end of last year. Our Summer Guide will be available shortly, so keep an eye out for it. Lots and lots of lovely summer reading, for sunshine or rain.

Australian Literature

By our next Gleaner in the New Year, we will have relocated our Glebe store to a temporary new location, where we will be setting up shop for as long as it takes to renovate our beloved 49 Glebe Pt Rd.

Biography & Memoir

It will take a massive effort to move 30,000+ books (and bookcases), but we’ll do our best to let you know the when, where and how of the whole process. We plan a big sale post-Christmas and to move everything by mid/late January. We’d love for you to know what’s happening, so please sign up for our free gleemail soon if you’ve not already, and we’ll keep you posted.

A very popular feature of our November Gleaner is our collection of staff “best of” picks. No surprise that they are voracious readers, but there will be surprises, or timely reminders, amongst their choices. I work with them and their reading all year, and I always find books I’ve missed along the journey. To save space for them, here are my condensed choices for 2022, Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart is perhaps even more arresting and immersive than his brilliant Shuggie Bain.

Unrelenting and unforgettable. The Sun Walks Down

by Fiona McFarlane. A historical novel set in 19th Century outback South Australia in which the landscape (note the title) is all but a visceral character. Ambitious, original, and thoroughly engaging. Lucy By the Sea by Elizabeth Strout. The third in the unforgettable Lucy series, and a wise and witty take on COVID, from the peerless storyteller.

Lessons by Ian McEwan. Long enough to luxuriate in a fictional chronicle of McEwan’s times. It’s challenging, moving and reflective in the best ways. Bedtime Story

by Chloe Hooper. Painstaking care and attention to a very personal tale, the life-threatening illness of a parent, and the need to use words (and pictures) to explain to young children. Intelligently and sensitively told, a gem.

International Literature

Thrillers & Crime Fiction Essays & Criticism Australian & Aboriginal Studies History & Politics Events Science & Technology Food, Health & Gardening Self-Help & Psychology Philosophy & Culture Studies

p. 4 p. 6 p. 8 p. 9 p. 14 p. 15 p. 16 p. 18 p. 19 p. 20 p. 21

Kids

p. 22

Teen Fiction & YA

p. 24

Performing Arts & Poetry

p. 26

Art & Photography

Signing off, David

p. 3

Specials

p. 27 p. 29

Highly Recommended

Australian Literature

Willowman

p. 3

Inga Simpson

Hachette $33.00

Reader Cricket Bats, one of the last traditional batmakers in England, has Allan Reader keeping the family business alive in a small workshop in Melbourne. When Todd Harrow, a gifted young batter, catches Allan’s eye, a spark is lit and Allan decides to make a Reader bat for him. As Harrow rises in the ranks, Allan’s magical bat takes centre stage. But can Allan’s fledgling renaissance carry on after Harrow is stricken by injury and a strained personal life?

Salonika Burning

GB ial ec Sp rice P

Gail Jones

Text Pub $30.00 HC

Macedonia, 1917. The great city of Salonika is engulfed by fire as all of Europe is ravaged by war. Amid the destruction are those who have come to the frontlines to heal- surgeons, ambulance drivers, nurses, orderlies and other volunteers. Four of them-Stella, Olive, Grace and Stanley-are at the centre of Gail Jones’s extraordinary new novel, which takes its inspiration from the wartime experiences of Australians, Miles Franklin and Olive King, and British painters Grace Pailthorpe and Stanley Spencer.

Murder in Williamstown Kerry Greenwood

Allen & Unwin $33.00

When the redoubtable Miss Phryne Fisher receives threatening letters at her home, she enlists her unflappable apprentice Tinker to investigate. But as the harassment of Phryne threatens to spin out of control, her lover Lin Chung is also targeted. None of this prevents Phryne from accepting an invitation to a magnificent party. However, a shocking tragedy at the party sends Phryne in a race against time to track down the miscreants.

The Invaders Rick Wilkinson

Brolga Pub $25.00

Set in northern Australia’s Victoria River region, the narrative interweaves three eras. In 1839, British explorer Stokes, finds oily sludge in water wells on the banks of the river. In 1942, Nackeroo corporal Ash, believes a German-born missionary is collaborating with Japanese invasion plans. In 1987, after a drilling rig accident, geologist Brad is guided by Ash to look for Stokes’ water wells. But Ash has plans of his own.

A Brief Affair Alex Miller

Allen & Unwin $33.00

On the face of it, Dr Frances Egan is a woman who has it all - until a brief, perfect affair reveals to her an imaginative dimension to her life that is wholly her own.

Fran finds the courage and the inspiration to risk everything and change her direction at the age of forty-two. This newfound understanding of herself is fortified by the discovery of a long-forgotten diary from the asylum and the story it reveals. A tender love story exploring the dangerous navigation of love in all its forms.

Clarke

Holly Throsby

Allen & Unwin $33.00

On a hot morning in 1991 in the regional town of Clarke, Barney Clarke is woken by the unexpected arrival of many policemen: they are going to search his backyard for the body of a missing woman. His neighbour, Leonie is convinced that her friend is burried in Barney’s backyard. But the fate of Ginny Lawson is not the only mystery in Clarke. A masterful novel about family, longing and unlikely connections.

p. 4 5

International Literature Highly Recommended

Molly & the Captain

Ghost Music

Anthony Quinn

An Yu

Random House, $33.00

When Song Yan’s mother-in-law moves into the apartment she shares with her new husband Bowen, their carefully calibrated life is overturned. When mysterious parcels of mushrooms begin to arrive on the doorstep, purporting to arrive from a virtuoso pianist, Bai Yu, whom everyone had believed to be dead, Song Yan seizes on the invitation to track him down. So begins a surreal, soul-searching journey into music, pain and truth.

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer Fredrik Backman

Penguin, $23.00 (HC) Grandpa and Noah are sitting on a bench in a square that gets smaller every day.

Here they share jokes, discuss their love of mathematics. Sometimes he sits with Ted, Noah’s father. They’re very different but bonded by their love of Noah. A moving portrait of an elderly man’s struggle to hold on to his most precious memories.

GB ial ec Sp rice P

The Passenger

Little Brown $33.00

Dawnlands

Philippa Gregory 1685 England, is on the brink of a renewed civil war against the Stuart kings and many families are bitterly divided. Ned Ferryman cannot persuade his sister Alinor that he is right to return from America with his Pokanoket servant Rowan to join the rebel army. Instead, Alinor has been coaxed by the Simon & Schuster manipulative Livia to save the queen from $33.00 the coming siege. What follows is an epic story that follows a family from one end of the empire to another, to find a new dawn in a world with greater rewards and dangers than ever before.

Euphoria

Cormac McCarthy

Elin Cullhed

PanMacmillan, $40.00 (HC)

Bobby Western plunges from the boat deck into darkness. His divelight illuminates the sunken jet, nine bodies still buckled in their seats, hair floating, eyes devoid of speculation. Missing from the crash site are the pilot’s flightbag, the plane’s black box, and the tenth passenger.

But how? A breathtaking novel of morality and science, the legacy of sin, and the madness that is human consciousness.

Allen & Unwin $30.00

The Glass House

A woman’s life, erupting with brilliance and promise, is fissured by betrayal and the pressures of duty. What had once seemed a pastoral family idyll has become a trap, and she struggles between being the wife and mother she is bound to be and wanting to do and be so much more. The woman in question is Sylvia Plath in the final year of her life, reimagined in fictive form by Elin Cullhed, who seizes the flame of Plath’s blistering, creative fire in this novel.

Community Klepto

Brooke Dunell

Kelly I. Hitchcock

Fremantle Press, $33.00

Relieved to take time out from her faltering marriage, Julia Lambett heads across the country to her hometown to help her father move into aged care.

But moving an elderly man is easier said than done, especially when her father reveals that a guest has come to stay.

Julia bumps into her childhood friend Davina who takes a determined interest in all the things that Julia hoped she had left behind. Julia uncovers some longforgotten, deeply unsettling memories.

A celebrated artist of the Georgian era paints his two young daughters at the family home in Bath. The portrait, known as “Molly & the Captain”, becomes instantly famous. In the summer of 1889, a young man sits painting a line of elms in Kensington Gardens. One day he glimpses a mother at play with her two daughters and decides to include them in his picture. From that moment he is haunted by dreams that seem to foreshadow his doom.

Through the prism of a single painting this novel examines the mysteries of creativity, and the ambiguous nature of success.

SparkPoint $30.00

Twenty-five-year-old Ann Josephson is a kleptomaniac who satisfies her compulsion by stealing from people at her gym. When a handsome stranger strikes up a treadmill conversation, Ann must battle her crippling social anxiety to avoid suspicion as the resident petty thief, but soon finds herself in over her head when she learns the stranger’s true identity. Set in suburban Kansas City in the early 2010s, Hitchcock’s work makes incarnate the characters and shenanigans that go on in every gym in the world.

Books to suit all tastes this November . . .

International Literature Literature p. 5

Sally Hepworth

Now Is Not the Time to Panic

The Soulmate

Kevin Wilson

New York Times bestselling author of The Younger Wife, Sally Hepworth, brings you a dark, romantic and twisted story about marriage and murder.

‘Endlessly mysterious. Sally Hepworth is a born storyteller, delivering scalpel-cut insights into modern marriage and the things we overlook in the name of love.’

Trent Dalton

Text Pub $33.00

Poh Ling Yeow What I Cook When Nobody’s Watching

Idol, Burning

Rin Usami

National treasure Poh Ling Yeow invites you into her colourful world to share simple recipes, musings and more. Reconnect with yourself and others with nourishing bowl food, comfort combos and crowd-pleasing feasts that take everyday ingredients to new and delicious places.

The simpler we eat, the happier we are.

Colm Toibin A Guest At The Feast

Allen & Unwin $28.00

GB ial ec Sp rice P

‘Daring and precise.’ Roddy Doyle ‘Remarkable.’ Michael Wood PanMacmillan $30.00

Travels: Australia’s best stays, swims, walks, dining, culture and experiences

On a November morning at the University of Georgia, a fraternity brother steps into a busy crosswalk and is struck dead by an oncoming car. More than a dozen witnesses all agree on two things: the driver looked identical to the victim, and he was smiling.

Detective Marlitt Kaplan is first on the scene.

But in the course of investigating this hit-andrun, she will uncover more chilling secrets in the sprawling, interconnected system of fraternities and sororities that empower the university’s most elite students.

Meg Howrey

This is the book for anyone right now who’s missed adventures, getting away, for a weekend or a week, and exploring what’s out there.

Find us online at Pan Macmillan Australia

The Resemblance

They’re Going to Love You

There’s nowhere quite like Australia. Travels celebrates all that makes the country special, from its natural beauty and ancient culture to its creative cities.

Love talking about books?

High school student Akari has only one passion in her life: her idol, Masaki Ueno, of the boyband Maza Maza. He is the spine of her life and she cannot survive without him. When Masaki is rumoured to have assaulted a female fan, facing waves of social media backlash, Akari’s world falls apart.

Offering a vivid insight into otaku culture and adolescence, this is a brilliant story of obsession, coming-of-age and the addictive, relentless nature of fandom culture.

Lauren Nossett

A Guest at the Feast uncovers the places where politics and poetics meet, where life and fiction overlap, where one can be inside writing and also outside of it.

Broadsheet

Sixteen-year-old Frankie Budge is an aspiring writer and offbeat loner determined to make it through yet another sad summer when she meets Zeke, a talented artist who is as lonely and awkward as she is. As romantic and creative sparks begin to fly, Frankie and Zeke make an unsigned poster that becomes unforgettable to anyone who sees it. But the art that brought Frankie and Zeke together now threatens to tear them apart. A nuanced novel about the secrets that haunt us and ultimately, what the truth will set free.

Bloomsbury $30.00

Carlisle Martin dreams of becoming a professional ballet dancer like her mother Isabel. She only gets to see her father Robert, and his brilliant but troubled partner James, for a few precious weeks a year. As the years go by, Carlisle is desperate to be asked to stay permanently, even as AIDS brings devastation to their community. Instead, a passionate love affair creates a rift between the family, with devastating consequences that reverberate for decades to come.

Biography & Memoir

p. 6

Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

My Dream Time

Alba Donati used to live a hectic life, working as a book publicist in Florence - a life that made her happy but also left her feeling like a woman constantly on the run. So one day she decides go back to the small village in the Tuscan hills to open a tiny bookshop.

Alba’s enterprise seems doomed from day one, but it surprisingly sparks the enthusiasm of many across Tuscany - and beyond.

Inspiring and deeply moving, this is both an ode to the power reading and a celebration of booksellers everywhere - the true heroes of the literary world.

“It’s a tennis story. It’s a family story. It’s a teamwork story. It’s the story of how I got to where and who I am today.” Ashleigh Barty shares her story with the world, from the first time she picked up a racquet as a 5-year-old to winning the 2022 Australian Open. She looks back at every moment of the 20 years in between, capturing the highs and lows, the work and the play, the smiles and the tears. Capturing the power and joy of doing the thing you love and seeing where it can take you.

Alba Donati

Orion $30.00

Ash Barty

HarperCollins $40.00 HC GB ial ec Sp rice P

The Successor

Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here

Paddy Manning

Heather Rose

Allen & Unwin $30.00 GB ial ec Sp rice P

Born on the island of Tasmania, Heather Rose falls in love with nature, but a family tragedy at age twelve sets her on a course to explore life and all its mysteries. Here is a wild barefoot girl keen for adventure, a seeker of truth initiated in ancient rituals, a fledgling writer who becomes one of Australia’s most acclaimed authors, a fierce mother whose body may falter at any moment. Heartbreaking and beautiful, this is a love story brimming with courage and joy against all odds, one that will bring wonder, light and comfort to all who read it.

Black Inc $35.00

Madly, Deeply

Sultan

Alan Rickman

Wasim Akram & Gideon Haigh

Hardie Grant $40.00 HC GB ial ec Sp rice P

For twenty years, Wasim Akram let his cricket do the talking. Sultan tells the story of cricket’s greatest left-arm bowler, and one of its greatest survivors, who was chosen from the streets of Lahore and groomed

by Imran Khan to become champion of the world – man of the match in the final of the 1992 World Cup. It also goes frankly into the crumbling and rebuilding of Wasim’s private life, marred by the tragedy of his first wife’s death and the torment of addiction.

Allen & Unwin $45.00 HC GB ial ec Sp rice P

Saving Freud

Icon $33.00

Alan Rickman remains one of the most beloved actors of all time across almost every genre. But Rickman’s artistry wasn’t confined to just his performances.

Rickman’s writing details the extraordinary and the ordinary in a way that is anecdotal, indiscreet, witty, gossipy and utterly candid. The diaries run from 1993 to his death in 2016 and offer insight into both a public and private life. Here is Rickman the consummate professional actor, but also the friend, the traveller, the fan, the director, the enthusiast: The Real Rickman.

Tell Me Again

Andrew Nagorski March 1938, German soldiers are massing on the Austrian border, fulfilling Hitler’s dream of absorbing the country into the Third Reich. Many Jews make plan to flee to safety. But one of the most famous men in the world, unable to contemplate leaving his beloved Vienna, is not among them. His name is Sigmund Freud. This is the story of a great man’s life, and of the extraordinary people who managed to prolong it, by convincing him to escape to London. A tale of a great city, a collapsing empire, a rising terror - and of a man who would change the way we think.

As heir apparent to his father’s global media empire, Lachlan Murdoch is one of the world’s most powerful people. Yet despite a life in the spotlight, Lachlan’s personality, politics and business acumen remain enigmatic. Is he a risk-loving adventurer or dutiful son? Ultra-conservative ideologue or thoughtful libertarian? In this riveting biography, acclaimed journalist Paddy Manning explores Lachlan Murdoch’s upbringing, political beliefs and role as head of Fox Corporation - the man ultimately responsible for Fox News.

Amy Thunig

U.Q.P $33.00

For years, Amy Thunig thought she knew all the details about the day she was born, often demanding that the story of her birth be retold. Years later, heavily pregnant with her own first child, she learns what really happened that day. Amy narrates her journey through childhood and adolescence, growing up with parents who struggled with addiction and incarceration.

In recounting her experiences, she shows how the stories we tell about ourselves can help to shape and sustain us. Her story will captivate all readers with its candour and insight.

The Wilder Aisles Odd Boy Out is the title of Gyles Brandreth’s autobiography.

I had known of Gyles Brandreth for some time, but I didn’t know very much about him.

One of the things I didn’t realise was that Gyles was a writer of crime novels that I would love to read. Then I saw him on the television show QI and found him an incredible man of many parts. Writer, speaker, television personality, and former MP, he has led a full and varied life.

His family history is so incredible it is hard to believe. His forebears include Jeremiah Brandreth, the last man to be beheaded for treason in England, and Eugenie, wife of Napoleon 111, the last empress of France.

Another claim to fame was that another Brandreth was Benjamin Daubney, the wealthiest man in the world at one stage. The reason for his success was his making of Brandreth’s pills. These pills were a cure for every ailment.

Brandreth lived in America then, and when Barnum of Circus fame took up the pills, they became a sensation. Alas, like so many fortunes, the money quickly disappeared, and the Gyles family didn’t see a penny.

The family that Gyles grew up in was well-to-do but always short of money. In a way, it was a typical middle-class family, and his story tells of ordinary things-- happiness, love and ambition. It also tells of Gyles’s adventures, travels and famous encounters. It is the story of a boy with great humour and everything he did. It is also the story of Britain in the fifties and sixties, that incredible time after WW2. At that time, London seemed to be the most spectacular place in the world.

One anecdote, one of my favourites (although there are so many it is hard to choose), concerns Gyles’s love of dressing up. At one stage, he wanted to be Peter Pan, but when the Pope died, he decided he wanted to be the next. The role was an upgrade; however, when his father pointed out that they were Anglicans, Gyles chose to settle for Archbishop of Canterbury, complete with cope, mitre and crook.

Gyles’s relationship with the church is quite interesting, he loved singing evensong, and of course, when he was young, he was both choir boy and server (though not at the same time).

I know the above is very long, but I also want to mention a book that I read many years ago, and then lost, and then it went out of print.

However, I was delighted to see a reprint on the shelf and immediately added it to my collection. The book is, Too Late to Turn Back by Barbara Greene, cousin of Graham. In 1935, the two Greenes took a trip to Liberia.

They were very different people, which came out in the books they both wrote, Barbara’s as above, and Graham’s Journey Without Maps. A quote I read somewhere said that you would think, on reading both books, that they had been to two different countries. A perilous journey that somehow they both survived.

It is one of the most outstanding travel books of our time.

Until next time, Janice

THE 2022 ARA HISTORICAL NOVEL PRIZE

g n i c n u o n n A inners the W

I hope my description of this man doesn’t make you think he is a bit pompous. He is anything but. It is, at times, amusing but also very moving. It is a story of childhood, how our heritage, parents and upbringing make us who we are. I cannot tell you how much I loved this book. It spoke to me in so many different ways and I treasure the memory of being completely immersed when I was reading it. It would take more space than I have here to do justice to this beautiful book. It is my book of the year.

hnsa.org.au

Thrillers & Crime Fiction

p. 8 5

Our Share of Night

The Cat Who Caught a Killer

Gaspar is in danger. Only six-years-old, he is frightened he may have inherited the same strange abilities as his father, Juan; a powerful medium who can open locked doors and commune with the dead. Now father and son are in flight, hunted by the Order, a group of wealthy acolytes who seek to harness the Darkness, no matter the cost. Spanning the brutal years of Argentina’s military dictatorship and its turbulent aftermath, this is a thrilling novel of broken families and sacrifices.

Meet Conrad. You’ve never met a cat like him before. Neither has Lulu Lewis when he walks into her life one summer’s day.

Mourning the recent death of her husband, the former police detective had expected a gentle retirement, quietly enjoying life on her new canal boat. But the sudden death of her mother-in-law, leads Lulu to believe there’s foul play. She resolves to find out what really happened. And a remarkable cat named Conrad will be with her every step of the way.

L. T. Shearer

Mariana Enriquez

Granta $33.00

PanMacmillan $35.00

Black Lake Manor

Livid

In the former mining town of Black Lake there is a story about a shipwreck. All those aboard died, except an unnamed man who staggered ashore. His descendants have a unique ability: once in their lives they can unwind the events of the previous six hours. More than two hundred years later, Ella Manning, finds herself at a party where their host is brutally murdered. Someone is willing to use their gift to protect a killer, and everyone is a suspect.

Chief medical examiner Kay Scarpetta is the reluctant star witness in a sensational murder trial when she receives shocking news. The judge’s sister has been found dead. At first glance, it appears to be a home invasion, but then why was nothing stolen, and why is the garden strewn with dead plants and insects? Although there is no apparent cause of death, Scarpetta recognizes tell-tale signs of the unthinkable, and she knows the worst is yet to come.

Patricia Cornwell

Guy Morpuss

Profile Books $33.00

The Perfect Assassin

Little Brown $33.00

GB ial ec Sp rice P

James Patterson & Brian Sitts

Random House $33.00

Dr Brandt Savage’s plans for his sabbatical from the University of Chicago change drastically when he is enrolled in a school where he is the sole pupil. His professor is relentless in her lessons. She’s also his captor. Savage is forced to undertake intense physical and mental training, with no idea why he was chosen or what is expected of him. But as he learns more about his abductor, Savage discovers just how deeply entwined their lives are.

Desert Star

Michael Connelly

Allen&Unwin $30.00

A year has passed since LAPD detective Rene Ballard quit the force in the face of misogyny, demoralisation and endless red tape. For years, Harry Bosch has been working a case that haunts him but that he hasn’t been able to crack - the murder of an entire family by a psychopath who still walks free. Ballard and Bosch put aside old resentments to work together in the new Open-Unsolved unit, and try to close in on a dangerous killer.

Thrilling Reads Day’s End

The Thirty-One Doors

Garry Disher

Kate Hulme

Text Pub, $33.00

Hodder & Stoughton, $33.00

Local copper Hirsch’s rural beat is wide. Daybreak to day’s end, dirt roads and dust. In the time of the virus, Hirsch is seeing stresses heightened and social divisions cracking wide open. His own tolerance under strain; people getting close to the edge.

And then an international visitor’s backpacker son has gone missing while the borders were closed, but the stories don’t quite add up.

Scarpside House is famed for its beauty, its isolation, and its legendary parties.

Tonight, it hosts the Penny Club soiree.

An annual gathering of lucky men and women from all walks of life, coming together to celebrate their survival against the odds. But this year their luck is running thin. Accidents do happen, after all . . . And some are long overdue.

Give the gift of literature New books from Text Publishing

Essays & Criticism p. 9 A Guest at the Feast Colm Toibin

The star of Garry Disher’s bestselling and award-winning series returns in Day’s End. ‘Unmissable.’

HAYLEY SCRIVENOR

Picador, $35.00

This collection uncovers the places where politics and poetics meet, where life and fiction overlap, where one can be inside writing and also outside of it. From the melancholy and amusement within the work of the writer John McGahern to an extraordinary essay on his own cancer diagnosis, Tóibín delineates the bleakness and strangeness of life and also its richness and its complexity.

Freedom, Only Freedom Behrouz Boochani

Bloomsbury, $33.00

An extraordinary chronicle of life and land.

‘One of Australia’s finest writers.’

SISONKE MSIMANG

Over six years of imprisonment on Australia’s offshore migrant detention centre, the Kurdish Iranian journalist and writer Behrouz Boochani bore personal witness to the suffering and degradation inflicted on him and his fellow refugees. In this book, his collected writings are combined with essays from experts on migration, refugee rights, politics, and literature.

Novelist as a Vocation Haruki Murakami

What happens to a family when a child goes missing?

‘An original thriller full of empathy.’

SARAH BAILEY

A beautifully written and touching story that reimagines four historical figures during war time.

HARDBACK

TEXTPUBLISHING.COM.AU

Random House, $35.00 (HC)

Haruki Murakami’s myriad fans will be delighted by this unique look into the mind of a master storyteller. In this engaging book, the famously reclusive writer shares with readers what he thinks about being a novelist; his thoughts on the role of the novel in our society; his own origins as a writer; and his musings on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers, artists, and musicians.

Sleeping Among Sheep Under a Starry Sky Wallace Shawn

Europa, $35.00 (HC)

Wallace Shawn has been writing plays since 1967. This is a collection of essays written over the course of the last thirty-five years. In a way entirely unique to himself, he attempts to understand the social and political realities of his time, whilst also offering some of his thoughts about ‘the relatively innocent and provincial activity of creating small imaginary worlds with made-up characters’.

Best of 2022 "Losing Face is easily my favourite novel of the year (so far). I could bang on about this being an exploration of what it is to be disenfranchised etc., but I won't. This is a story about family, about the secrets families keep, and the damage those secrets do. Set in Sydney's west, this is an evocative portrayal of place. How free are we to choose a new way, when everything around us dictates who we should be? Teenager, Joey, is adrift and gets mixed up with a bad crowd. Meanwhile, his doting grandmother spends every cent on the pokies. Haddad presents his characters with such love and respect, that you can't help but take them to your heart, as they battle the challenges life throws at them. When I finished this book, I knew I was going to miss having this crazy, dysfunctional family in my life." - Nick Trigger warning: contains a scene of sexual assault.

"I think it would have to be Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I read this book while isolating with covid, and I couldn't put it down. The narrator is a young boy who has a very tough start in life, but he also seems to have been born with a good moral compass, luck and a great sense of humour. Throughout the tragic unfolding of his life - I found myself laughing out loud! Barbara Kingsolver has done it again for me. This time, she looks into the horrific world of addiction to prescription pills and the great divide between the haves and have-nots in today's society.

I also adored Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout. I just love Lucy. When I read about her, I feel warm and comfortable, and I love the way Strout weaves characters from previous books into each new book. This is Lucy's covid story, but it could be anyone's. Her observations and questions about life in a pandemic are the same as everyone's around the world, I suspect. One of my all-time favourite writers." - Victoria

"I can’t remember the last time I inhaled a book as quickly as I did Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down. It’s the story of Maggie, a young girl who is forced into the foster care system after her sole living parent is sent to jail. The book is a horrifying glimpse into a reality that’s all too easy to ignore, that of children and young adults who are repeatedly failed by a system designed to protect them.

One of my all-time favourite books is White Oleander

by Janet Fitch, and Bodies of Light addresses similar issues. Also relevant is the disturbing memoir The Prettiest Horse in the Glue Factory by Corey White." Ava

"This year, my favourites have been Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, and The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane, but I also really enjoyed The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid. Like his earlier and much-loved Exit West, the novel gets to the crux of the matter, with all its complications, using a poetic device. "One morning, Anders, a white man, woke up to find he had turned a deep and undeniable brown." How he, his work colleagues, his family, his community and the wider world respond to this infiltrative phenomenon is the subject of the story. But it is Anders and his friend Oona who carry us to the heart of the racist absurdity.

Mohsin Hamid has written another supremely humane novel, almost a fable. Perhaps the world's experience of the covid pandemic has made us particularly open to the truth about fear of the other, fear of infection." - Judy

"Speculative fiction has always been a favourite genre of mine, and this year delivered some excellent reads. Ned Beauman’s Venomous Lumpsucker is a hilarious, dark, perfectly realised world of extinction, exploring a near future where companies and governments pay to eradicate species. An entire economy of extermination blooms, altering political landscapes and moral boundaries. We follow an animal cognition specialist, grappling with existential grief, and a mining company executive as they hunt down a peculiar and ugly species of fish – the venomous lumpsucker. They are forced to go on a desperate dash across the landscapes of this dystopian future – a nature reserve of toxic waste; a floating city in a storm of dead gnats; the hinterlands of a totalitarian state – hunting for a surviving lumpsucker population. As they do, they unravel vast conspiracies and the mysteries behind an unprecedented terrorist attack. Devastating in its insight.

Sayaka Murata’s Life Ceremony is bizarre and horrifying in turns. Cities of flesh, middle-aged businessman as a school girl’s pet, love, sex, cannibalism. Her stories are taut, exquisitely crafted, and illuminate the intricate and warped nature of humanity." - Tilda "My two favourite “authors” of the year are Elissa and Rachel, our Children's Specialists at gleebooks. At times, I must have resembled a tongue-tied tenyear-old from darkest Peru (with a note attached that read “please be careful of this giraffe, he can’t dance") but they have expertly guided me over sea, under stone to a faraway place that is, I now realise, always within reach.....and along the way introduced me to wonderful books by Siobhan Dowd, R.J. Palacio, E Nesbit, Gary Paulsen, Zeno Sworder, Susan Cooper and Eva Ibbotson. Thank you, it’s been a joy. Are we there yet?" -Jack "My choice is Demon Copperhead. Kingsolver’s homage to David Copperfield, this too is a defiant battle cry to shine a light on the appalling plight of many children still. In Demon she has created the most wonderful, fully realised character and narrator I’ve read in a long time. Despite everything he endures, he does it with such a singular relentless determination and unshakeable sense of self. While it can be utterly harrowing in places, there is a humour, warmth and wisdom to Demon that you can’t help but fall in love with.

Another favourite is Small Things Like These. A small, but perfectly formed gem of a book. It packs an emotional and literary punch well beyond its compact novella size. A spare, quiet and beautifully written example of how less can be oh so very much more." Tiff "I was late to the party, but I must mention The Wolf Hall Trilogy by Hilary Mantel, which I devoured, one time after the other, earlier this year. However, because everything that can be said has been said about these books, I will direct you to an equal favourite this year: Klara and The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.

It’s the story of an innocent robot (an Artificial Friend) who has wonderful and innocent observational qualities of the world and the people she encounters, especially the young girl she is purposed to befriend and look after. It’s a wonderful tale, which Ishiguro, as usual, does so well." - Scott V "All That's Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien is a moving tale of love, loss and the complicated struggle of first-generation offsprings of refugees. The duty of being a child to make your parents proud and the longing for the freedom of being yourself. All that on the backdrop of shattered dreams of your elders and conflicting cultural values. Fear and misunderstandings can lead to tragic results. It makes your heart ache and still fills you with the hope that reconciliation is possible. It does expand the capacity to have empathy with those whose lives are a struggle we know nothing about. Defne Suman's At The Breakfast Table & The Silence of Scheherazade are close seconds. The former is a story of great-grandmother's 100th birthday which brings the family together during the Summer holidays. Secrets and unacknowledged events take them back in time & influence the actions of the characters. Another eye-opener of historical political events that were not told in my history classes at school. The latter is dedicated to those who have been exiled from their homeland. It opened my eyes to a historical event I was completely ignorant about. It's timely in the face of the events in all conflict zones." -Anna

"My pick is Unraveller by Francis Hardinge. Reminiscent of Diana Wynne Jones, Hardinge is an extraordinary world-builder with a gentle touch of humour and heartbreak. What an excellent fantasy novel! What a writer!

Recommended for 12+ (Keep an eye on the gleebooks_kids Instagram account for all our children's specialist's favourites of 2022)" - Elissa "For me, it was a year for the hankie. I was blindsided by just how much both of these novels moved me. Limberlost is a simple conceit; a young boy in remote Tasmania immerses himself in the restoration of a sailing boat. His father and sister are both distracted, terribly and dreadfully, by the absence of the boy’s brothers (it is nearing the end of WW2). This could have been a hot mess of cloying and sentimental cliche but it is unutterably beautiful. And the same could be said of Young Mungo - the sophomore effort that avoided every suspected pitfall. 2022 was also the year I discovered Claire Keegan (thanks Jack!) but I will play hardball with the rules and resist nominating Small Things Like These as this superlative long story was first published last year." - Andy "Lessons in Chemistry is a book that I would shove into people's hands and say 'READ IT!' Bonnie Garmus is a terrific novelist and her protagonist Elizabeth Zott is the role model I wish I had growing up." - Aks

"This was a year of weird and dystopian books for me. As a longtime vegan Augustina Bazterrica’s Tender is the Flesh spoke to me. It’s the book for when you want a shocking dystopia and also to have your love of animals affirmed. By simply replacing animals with humans in slaughterhouses, “game” enclosures and laboratories, Bazterrica creates an uneasy reminder of what it is to eat meat and to use animals for various other ends. She also touches repeatedly on what these massive helpings of brutality and death do to our minds — how they in turn brutalise us. Loved it.

Devoured it in two sittings. The other favourite was just a bizarre swirling read. Firsttime author, Missouri Williams’ Doloriad is just some weird shit! A bleak apocalypse.

An abandoned city. An incest cult. Deformed bodies. A white light burning away the world. A strange VHS moral theology following the panaceas of a hero named Aquinas. Williams’ claustrophobic blocks of long paragraphs and maze-like sentences — is this really another coma? — evoke the dying, maddening world closing inexorably in around legless Dolores and her siblings. You sit in these disturbing passages and wonder if you ought to turn away, try to eek out meaning, or just experience them." -Jonathon "My measure of enjoyment of a book is by how much it moved me. Even though it was released in February, Son of Sin by Omar Sakr has held strong in my heart for the duration of the year.

This is Sakr’s first novel and his poetic roots shine through. It reads like an epic, a saga, a tale I can imagine being sung in previous centuries. With beauty and pain, he tells the story of Jamal, coming of age as a queer Muslim in Western Sydney. An intoxicating atmosphere I gladly inhaled — more should be said but I fear I cannot do it justice. Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart deserves a mention here too. His debut Shuggie Bain was my favourite of 2020 and his sophomore novel is an equally impressive follow-up. There is a particular scene where young lovers eat pies together in the bath, and it is such a tender depiction of first love that it still makes me smile to recall it." - Ange

Sibyl Recommends

Second Place $28.00

Monkey Grip $20.00

The Rabbit Hutch $30.00

p. p.14 5

Australian & Aboriginal Studies The Battle of Long Tan

Dreamers & Schemers

By far the deadliest battle for Australian forces in Vietnam, the Battle of Long Tan has a proud place in the annals of Australian military history - and every ANZAC who fought there could hold his head high. Peter FitzSimons reveals the horror, the bravery, the wins and the losses that faced our soldiers. This is an engrossing and powerful history that shows the costs of war never end.

In this compelling and comprehensive work, renowned historian Frank Bongiorno presents a social and cultural history of Australia’s political life, from pre-settlement Indigenous systems to the present day. Depicting a wonderful parade of dreamers and schemers, Bongiorno surveys moments of political renewal and sheds fresh light on our democratic life. A work of political history like no other.

Frank Bongiorno

Peter FitzSimons

Hachette $50.00 HC

Black Inc $35.00 GB ial ec Sp rice P

The Passion of Private White

Elizabeth and John

From the bestsetlling author of The Bush comes the story of a fifty-year relationship between a Vietnam veteran and an isolated clan in north-east Arnhem Land – a unique window into Australia’s deep past and precarious present, by one of our master storytellers. The book describes the meeting of two worlds: that of the intensely driven anthropologist Neville White, and the world of hunter-gatherer clans in remote northern Australia with whom he has lived and worked for half a century, mapping their culture and history in breathtaking detail.

Elizabeth and John Macarthur were the first married couple to travel voluntarily from Europe to Australia, arriving in 1790, both aged 23, within three years of the initial invasion. Alan Atkinson draws on his work on the Macarthur family over 50 years to explore the dynamics of their strong and sinewy marriage, and family life across two generations. With the truth of Elizabeth and John Macarthur’s relationship much more complex and deeply human than known, Atkinson provides a finely drawn portrait of a powerful partnership.

Alan Atkinson

Don Watson

Scribner $40.00 HC GB ial ec Sp rice P

NewSouth $35.00 GB ial ec Sp rice P

The Mighty 747

Tongerlongeter

Jim Eames

Allen & Unwin $33.00

From its first Qantas flight in 1971, the Boeing 747 flew millions of people to Australia, overseas for work, back to their homelands, on holiday and out of danger. And now, history’s most iconic commercial aircraft is scheduled to be decommissioned around the world.

Woven with the humour and nostalgia of the people at Qantas who sold the 747 to Australia and who made it work on the ground and in the air, this is the jumbo’s story.

Highly Recommended Hudson Fysh Grantlee Kieza

HarperCollins, $45.00 (HC)

This is a fascinating, lively and thoroughly researched portrait of a modest, resolute family man, with a steady hand , Hudson Fysh. A man who guided Australia’s national airline from its humble beginnings through the dark days of the Great Depression, the perilous years of World War II, when the airline flew dangerous missions for the Allies, and into the great boom in international tourism that followed with the jet age.

Henry Reynolds & Nicholas Clements

NewSouth $30.00 Now in PB

Tongerlongeter is an epic story of resistance, sorrow and survival. Leader of the Oyster Bay nation of southeast Tasmania in the 1820s and ’30s, Tongerlongeter and his allies prosecuted the most effective frontier resistance ever mounted on Australian soil, inflicting some 354 casualties. In exile on Flinders Island, Tongerlongeter united remnant tribes and became the settlement’s ‘King’ — a beacon of hope in a hopeless situation.

Bold Types Patricia Clarke

NLA, $35.00 Patricia Clarke recounts the chequered journey of women journalists in the fight for gender equality from 1860 to the end of World War II. These were independent, adventurous women who ventured far and wide in search of news, relevance and equality. This is a book that will resound with and inspire today’s audience, in a world where women are still fighting for equal rights and often, respect in the workplace.

The Rebel and the Kingdom Bradley Hope

John Murray $35.00

History & Politics

A gripping account of an Ivy League activistturned-fugitive and his clandestine effort to subvert the North Korean regime, a heartpounding tale of a self-taught operative and his high-stakes attempt to change the world. This is an exhilarating account of a man who turns his back on the status quo-to instead live boldly by his principles.

Bradley Hope reveals the full contours of this remarkable story of idealism and insanity, hubris and heroism, all set within the secret battle for the future of the world’s most mysterious and unsettling nation.

p. 15 How To Rule Your Own Country Harry Hobbs & George Williams

NewSouth, $35.00

Many people think they can do a better job running a country than politicians – but few actually give it a go. There are around 130 of these countries – better known as micronations – across the globe. One third of them are in Australia. This book takes us into some of the most prominent and fascinating micronations around the world and the people who decided that ‘enough is enough’ and created their own nation.

Edda Mussolini

Caroline Moorehead

Random House $35.00

Edda Mussolini was Benito’s favourite daughter- spoilt, venal, uneducated but clever, a brilliant diplomat, wild but brave, and ultimately strong and loyal. She was her father’s confidante and played a part in steering Italy to join forces with Hitler.

In this heart-stopping account we come to know a complicated, bold and determined woman who emerges not just as a witness but as a key player in some of the twentieth century’s defining moments. And we see Fascist Italy with all its glamour, decadence and political intrigue, and the turbulence before its violent end.

The Mongol Storm Nicholas Morton

John Murray, $35.00

The Mongols have long been viewed in the West as violent barbarians who plundered and wrecked the societies they invaded. But in fact the Mongol Empire was highly sophisticated, and through their conquests they built a new world order.

This is an epic account of violent conflict unfolding against the vibrant backdrop of the Seljuk Turks’ magnificent garden palaces, mighty Crusader fortresses, Egyptian pyramids, Damascus’ sprawling markets, and the vast Mongol wagon cities.

The Fight of Our Lives Luliia Mendel

When Ukrainian journalist Iuliia Mendel got the call she had been hired to work for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, she had no idea what was to come. In this frank and moving inside account, Zelenskyy’s former press secretary tells the story of his Simon & Schuster improbable rise from popular comedian to the president of Ukraine. Woven into her $40.00 HC account are details about her own life as a member of Zelenskyy’s new Ukraine.

The Earl and the Pharaoh Countess of Carnarvon

HarperCollins, $35.00

The Earl and the Pharaoh tells the story of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. Carnarvon’s life, money and sudden death became front-page news throughout the world following the discovery of the tomb, fuelling rumours that persist today of ‘the curse of the pharaohs’. His beloved home, Highclere Castle, is today bestknown as the set of Downton Abbey

The Far Land Brandon Presser

Icon $33.00

In 1808, an American merchant ship happened upon an uncharted island in the South Pacific and unwittingly solved the biggest nautical mystery of the era: the whereabouts of a band of fugitives who, after seizing their vessel, had disappeared into the night with their Tahitian companions. Seven generations later, the island is still inhabited by descendants of the original mutineers, marooned like modern castaways. In 2018, Brandon Presser went to live among its families. Told through vivid historical and personal narrative, this book offers an unprecedented glimpse at life on the fringes of civilization, and how, perhaps, it’s not so different from our own.

The World

Simon Sebag Montefiore

Orion, $60.00 (HC)

GB ial ec Sp rice P

This is the story of humanity from prehistory to the present day, told through the one thing all humans have in common: family.

As spellbinding as fiction, Montefiore takes us on an exhilarating epic journey of world history on the most grand and intimate scale - spanning centuries, continents and cultures, and linking grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion, medicine and technology to the people at the centre of the human drama.

Join leading Australian and international authors, thinkers, and speakers in

Nov Monday

an engaging discussion of their work. All events take place upstairs at 49 Glebe Point Road.

Book launches are free and open to the public. Our Literary Events are $12 & $9 concession (pensioner/student) and free to gleeclub members – though bookings are still required, as popular events do sell out. Weekday events generally commence at 6pm for 6.30pm, and weekend events at 2.30pm for 3pm. Places are unreserved, so arrive a little early if you require a particular seat.

Tuesday

Wednesday

1 Nov 6 for 6:30 - Against Disappearance: Essays on Memory

7 Nov

E

8 Nov

2 Nov

6 for 6:30 with Paddy Manning: The Successor

E

9 Nov

E

Queer Literature Book Club: As Beautiful As Any Other by Kaya Wilson

21 Nov No Events on Monday

28 Nov No Events on Monday

15 Nov Bob Seldon launches Setting The Tone From The Top

22 Nov Robin Allison launches Cohousing For Life

29 Nov

6 for 6:30 with Richard Fidler: The Book of Roads & Kingdoms E

3 Nov

6 for 6:30 with Amy Thuing: Tell Me Again

E

10 Nov Anne Howell launches All That I Forgot

6 for 6:30: Willowman with Inga Simpson

14 Nov

Thursday

16 Nov 6 for 6:30 with Jordan Guiao: Disconnect

E

23 Nov 6 for 6:30 with Brook Turner: Independents’ Day E

30 Nov

6 for 6:30 with Margot Saville: The Teal Revolution E

17 Nov

6 for 6:30: Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters with Mandy Sayer

E

24 Nov Alice Godwin launches Slipstream

Bookings are essential for both free and ticketed events, so we can staff and cater the event appropriately. Phone 02 9660 2333 or book online on our website.

Events p. 17

An order confirmation will be emailed immediately upon completion of your booking; please bring a copy as proof of your booking, as we do not issue physical tickets. For virtual (zoom events) we send a Zoom link to all registered attendees by late morning on the day of the event.

Friday

Saturday 4 Nov

11 Nov

Sunday

5 Nov

6 Nov

12 Nov

13 Nov

Nicole Mathieson launches The Beauty Load

18 Nov

19 Nov

20 Nov

25 Nov

26 Nov

27 Nov

Louise Fowler-Smith launches Sacred Trees of India

6 for 6:30 with Chloe Hayden: Different, Not Less

E

p. p.18 5

Science & Technology The Song of the Cell

Bird Planet

Siddhartha Mukherjee

This book is the story of the cell - past, present and future. Since the discovery of the cell in the 1660s and the discovery in the 1850s that most diseases can be traced back to our cells, human beings have been understood as an ecosystem of units that produce exponentially complex structures Random House and effects. Answering some fundamental $35.00 questions, this is an eye-opening guide on what it means to be human.

Tim Laman

Thames & Hudson $80.00 HC

Dark Winter

The Modern Bestiary

Raina MacIntyre

NewSouth $33.00

In Dark Winter, world-leading epidemiologist and biosecurity expert Raina MacIntyre provides insights into historical biological attacks, lab accidents and epidemics, and the COVID-19 pandemic. She reveals a recurrent theme of denial, silence and cover-up around unnatural epidemics and the powerful vested interests at play. Using the lens of history, MacIntyre also provides a glimpse into new frontiers of biosecurity.

Joanna Bagniewska

Headline $30.00

The Sounds of Life

Princeton Uni Press $60.00 HC

Birds inhabit every continent and major island, and are among the most diverse group of vertebrates on the planet. In this collection, Laman shares his favourite bird photographs from more than twenty-five years in the field, along with some of his memorable adventures in pursuit of them.

From hornbills in the rainforest of Borneo to cranes in snowy Hokkaido to birds of paradise in New Guinea and also the familiar visitors to his New England backyard.

From the familiar to the improbable, the gross to the endearing, The Modern Bestiary is a compendium of curious creatures. It includes both animals that have made headlines and those you’ve probably never heard of, such as skin-eating caecilians, harp sponges, or zombie worms. Written by a zoologist with a flair for storytelling, this is a fascinating celebration of the animal kingdom.

Karen Bakker

Tree Glee

The natural world teems with remarkable conversations, many beyond human hearing range. Scientists are using groundbreaking digital technologies to uncover these astonishing sounds, revealing vibrant communication among our fellow creatures across the Tree of Life. This work shares fascinating and surprising stories of nonhuman sound, interweaving insights from technological innovation and traditional knowledge. At the frontiers of innovation, we explore digitally mediated dialogues with bats and honeybees.

Technology often distracts us from nature, but what if it could reconnect us instead?

Trees and humans essentially want the same thing - to live good, happy, purposeful lives and to flourish. Tree Glee looks at the psychology behind our fascination with trees, examining exactly how they comfort, restore and revitalise us and what we can learn from the wisdom of woodlands to improve our own wellbeing. It explores the importance of trees in our leafy suburbs and urban landscapes, sharing magical stories of remarkable ancient trees across the globe and inviting readers to reflect on their own personal ‘treestory’.

Cheryl Rickman

Welbeck $30.00 HC

gleebooks favourites The Darkness Manifesto Johan Eklöf

Bonnier, $48.00 (HC)

How much light is too much light?

Satellite pictures show our planet as a brightly glowing orb. In our era of 24/7 illumination, an excess of light is a pressing problem. This well-researched book challenges our instinctual fear of the dark and urges us to cherish the darkness, its creatures, and its unique beauties. Eklöf writes urgently and personally about the damage we inflict on ourselves and our fellow creatures simply by keeping the lights on.

Proving Ground Kathy Kleiman

Hurst Pub, $35.00

As the Cold War began, experts rushed to complete the top-secret computing research started during World War II, and among them were six gifted female mathematicians. Their mission?

Programming the world’s first and only supercomputer. These pioneers triumphed against sexist attitudes and huge technical challenges to invent computer programming, yet their monumental contribution has never been recognised—until now.

gleebooks favourites

Food & Gardening

Lune

Kate Reid

Hardie Grant $50.00 HC GB ial ec Sp rice P

Lune Croissanterie is one of the most talked about bakeries in the world. Touted as ‘the best croissant in the world’, customers are queuing quite literally around the block from the early hours to eat Lune’s pastries, but what makes this book so special is how Kate Reid elevates croissant pastry from a classic breakfast staple to a refined vehicle for breakfast, lunch and dinner. With stepby-step techniques for rolling and shaping croissants, this is the ultimate guide to baking the world’s best-loved pastry.

First, Cream the Butter and Sugar Emelia Jackson

Murdoch $60.00 HC

Make baking your happy place. It’s not so much a science; it’s practice plus play, which becomes instinct and then art. And even the failures are delicious. This is the ultimate guide for everyone who loves cake. Whether you’re here for the only choc chip cookie recipe you’ll ever need, or you’re setting your sights on conquering an opera cake, a raspberry passionfruit tart or becoming a choux-master, Emelia Jackson has done the homework on behalf of us all. Packed with advice for every level of home baker, this is the modern baking reassurance you need

Is This A Cookbook?

Heston Blumenthal

Bloomsbury $50.00 HC

Is this a cookbook? Well, it’s full of Heston’s typically brilliant, delicious and inventive recipes, including green gazpacho, beetroot and pea salad, quinoa with vegetables, Moroccan pasties, hemp panna cotta, banana and parsley smoothie, tomato and coffee muffins, parsnip granola, rice ice cream, sherry vinegar posset, cricket ketchup and thyme and orange kombucha, not forgetting popcorn chicken with real popcorn. Every recipe is simple, straightforward and totally do-able. This is Heston at his most accessible.

p. 19 Super Bloom Jac Semmler

Thames & Hudson $75.00 HC GB ial ec Sp rice P

Garden Gathered Helen Leighton

Garden Gathered captures a year on a flower farm with floral designer Helen Leighton of Riverdale Farm, on the south coast of Western Australia. Brimming with stunning photography, the book features over 20 floral ensembles showcasing Helen’s garden gathered approach to floral design The Flower Press and her timeless styling. Along with insights $90.00 into living seasonally and gardening in this HC unique part of the world, Helen shares her secrets for growing, drying and designing sustainably with flowers.

Be More Bonsai Mark Akins

Penguin $30.00 HC

Noma 2.0

Various Authors

Workman $100.00 HC GB ial ec Sp rice P

There’s a reason Noma sits atop the list of the world’s best restaurants. Every dish, surprises, delights, challenges, and deeply satisfies in a way that’s unique in the world of dining. In Noma 2.0, René Redzepi digs deep into the restaurant’s magic through the creation of nearly 200 dishes, each photographed in spectacular beauty and detail. For foodies, for chefs, for artists and art lovers, and for the kind of reader who is compelled by the idea that sometimes one person can change everything.

A super bloom is a natural phenomenon in which climate and conditions align to allow plants to flower in such abundance that they transform the landscape, bathing it in colour. When a super bloom arises, it is a miraculous sight. Plants respond to these conditions with a maximum abundance of flowers and colour. This is a love letter to flowers. It is a manifesto for maximum plants, maximum flowers, maximum beauty.

It is perfect for the current time and trends.

It also shows how to create your own super bloom.

Rooted in ancient Eastern philosophies, every part of a bonsai tree is symbolic of our life and experiences. A bonsai shedding leaves is symbolic of letting go our material possessions; tending to the roots helps support and nourish the tree, much the same as our own beliefs and values, and many more aspects of bonsai offer serene life lessons to help us enrich and enjoy our lives. The book will also delve into the philosophy and lessons, gained through the ancient practice of cultivating bonsai.

Futureproof Your Garden Angus & Emma Stewart

Murdoch $45.00

A go-to resource for anyone who wants expert advice on how to use, capture and store water efficiently in times of drought or deluge. Angus and Emma help you to choose plants that not only suit your personal style, but that can adapt to changing environments. Filled with knowledge and wisdom this is a must-have for any gardener looking to the future of what to plant and grow.

p. p.20 5

Self-Help & Psychology Death by Comfort Paul Taylor

Major Street $33.00

Our genome has not changed in over 45,000 years, but the world has changed enormously and there are multiple mismatches with modern life. Modern humans are the most overweight, depressed, and medicated cohort of adults that has ever lived, yet life has never been so good! Clearly, something is wrong with modern life. Backed by powerful research, this is a fascinating read that explores exactly what’s wrong and what we need to do in order to survive and thrive in the modern world.

Fifteen Seconds of Brave Melissa Doyle

Random House $35.00

While lockdowns and closed borders damaged livelihoods, relationships and the nation’s mental health, Melissa Doyle found herself reflecting on some of the survivors she’d met during her years of reporting. Revisiting these stories with such extraordinary people, Melissa was struck once more by their hard-won wisdom and their ability not just to survive but to find meaning in their experiences. Filled with wisdom, empathy and heartfelt practical advice, this book is about finding hope in your darkest hour.

The Ten Pillars of Success Dr Josephine Perry

Atlantic $33.00

Sport psychologist Dr Josephine Perry spends her life working with exceptional performers. She has identified ten psychological pillars that the ultrasuccessful have ingrained within their approach. And the good news is that we can all learn these mental building blocks. Illuminating and inspiring, this book will give every reader a roadmap to reach their full potential.

Purposeful Curiosity Dr Costas Andriopoulos

Hachette $33.00

Dr Costas Andriopoulos has spent the last five years interviewing the most curious minds working today, focused on people who have harnessed their inquisitive minds and innovative thinking to achieve great things across a variety of fields.

In this book he explores the way these special people have channelled and fed their curiosity with purpose and weaves in gripping insights and advice from the interviews along with cutting-edge research to illuminate the purposefully curious approach.

Volt Rush

Culture Studies & Philosophy

Henry Sanderson

Bloomsbury $40.00 HC

In the twentieth century, wealth and power was dictated by access to oil. This century we depend on a handful of metals and rare earths to power our phones and computers.

Whoever controls these finite commodities will become rich beyond imagining.

Henry Sanderson journeys to meet a new generation of scientists endeavouring to invent the next breakthrough. This is the full story of the hidden quest to power all our lives and, in doing so, to take the keys to the twenty-first century.

p. 21

gleebooks favourites How To Be Good

Massimo Pigliucci

Disconnect Jordan Guiao

Monash Uni Pub $30.00

In this compelling account, researcher Jordan Guiao reveals what happens when we fall down the rabbit hole of online addiction and radicalisation. He profiles COVID-19 ‘freedom fighters’, social media egoists, and men’s rights activists, tracing their path into obsession and how they found their way back. Drawing on psychology, neuroscience and the latest research on addiction, he prompts us to ask: how can we use the tools that connect us to stop isolating us? And what should our governments do to protect us?

Hachette $33.00

Bad Data

Georgina Sturge

Little Brown $33.00

Compelling insight from a world-leading epidemiologist.

‘Thoughtful and entertaining.’

PETER FITZSIMONS

Not all statistics are created equal. Take a look behind the scenes and you’ll discover that even most official data isn’t the solid bedrock we think it is. This book takes the reader on that behind-the-scenes journey, guided by House of Commons Library statistician Georgina Sturge. Revealing the secrets of a world that is usually closed off, it will show how governments of the past and present have been led astray by bad data and explain why it is so hard to count and measure things, and how we could better handle these problems.

Converge

‘A fabulous read.’

JACKI WEAVER

Dr Catherine Ball

Little Brown $33.00

‘A spellbinding journey.’

GRACE KARSKENS

Socrates’s greatest failure answers a couple 2,000 year old questions: is it possible to teach ourselves and others to become better people? Can we make ourselves into better human beings? Can we help others do the same? These questions have been asked for over two millennia and attempting to answer them is crucial if we want to live a better life and build a more just society. How to Be Good uses the story of Socrates and Alcibiades and examples from Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius and Machiavelli, alongside modern interpretations to explore what philosophy can teach us about the quest for virtue today.

Dr Catherine Ball takes us on an astounding journey through the next big technology breakthroughs that have the potential to positively shape our world. She presents insights into how technology and science are providing answers to many of the challenges the world is facing today - food shortages, war and conflict, the decline in local manufacturing, health and ageing, and global warming - and asks why we are not embracing these technologies more widely. Written with wit, tenacity, and deeply personal experiences, Converge offers an optimistic, in-depth and fascinating investigation into the possibilities of a world where humans fully embrace technology.

p. 22

Kids Two Dogs on a Trike

Gabi Snyder & Robin Rosenthal (ill)

Abrams, $14.00

Vehicle-obsessed readers will love seeing all the modes of transportation that the pups use—until the family cat decides to round them all up to go back home. One by one, each dog escapes its yard and joins the adventure in this hilarious counting story.

You are Loved

Liv Downing & Mel Matthews (ill)

Allen & Unwin, $25.00

We are in the home stretch of final book clubs and book parties for the year and November sees us going out with a bang. So hold on to your underpants folks, it is a massive month!

On Saturday the 12th of November at 10:30am, we are having a Bark in the Park to launch Beck and Robin Feiner’s fab new book Clyde the Greyhound. You can’t have a dog party without dogs, so we are heading to Jubilee Park (near the playground) to have a dog storytime with human and dog treats too. Bring your pooch for a fun morning of stories and treats. We do have a back up plan if the weather looks unsavoury.

On the afternoon of the 12th at 3:30pm, we are having a Youkie magazine creativity bonanza. We adore this magazine for tweens, full of fabulous kids content and Nicky the editor is after some more stories, artwork, jokes, debating and ideas.

We have Sally Rippin joining us on Saturday the 19th and Nat Amoore and Mike Barry disucssing their book on the 26th of November. Check out our website for more details!

Early Readers

You are loved when you win the race. You are loved when you don’t. A warm and reassuring celebration of unconditional love. Cut outs on each page create a beautiful heart to make this book a very special object to treasure and share.

For further details on all kids’ events and age recommendations, visit our website: www.gleebooks.com.au

Board Bo oks

Ages 0-2

X-mas Specials!

All events are free but bookings are essential. To book a spot or for more details, contact rachel@gleebooks.com.au

Cat Family Christmas

Lucy Brownridge & Eunyoung Seo (ill)

Frances Lincoln Children’s, $25.00 Find missing ingredients for the cake and go carol singing with the busy Cat Family in this lift-the-flap advent book!

With a nod to nostalgic Victorian advent calendars, open up tiny but sturdy flap ‘doors’ on each one of the 24 pages to reveal little details and surprises.

Calling all of our bookworms to share their favourite reads! We want to feature more of our wonderful book clubbers in our Gleaner magazine, so if you’ve got a book you’d love to review or if you want to write about an author visit, send us an email on rachel@gleebooks.com.au! We have exciting giveaways waiting for you!

The Courage of Magnolia Moon

Edwina Wyatt & Katherine Quinn (ill)

Walker, $20.00 Magnolia Moon returns with a story of the great daring it takes to be ten years old (almost eleven). She is is very good at finding courage. And when you’ve fought with your best friend and your grandma is sick, it will take great courage to find a way forward. A lyrical and imaginative tale which highlights everyday wonders through Magnolia’s curious and observant nature.

Silver Leaves

Gladys Milroy

Magabala, $25.00 Owl and Night Parrot are nocturnal.

They have a lovely big tree well away from all the noisy birds … until one day they are woken up by the birds fighting over space in their tree. Owl is very angry, until they discover the poor birds’ trees have been cut down.

A beautiful story about conservation, working together and hope.

Picture Books Ages 2 - 5

Children’s Fiction Ages 8 - 12

Is It Just Me?

Everywhere Blue

Thames & Hudson, $22.00

Random House, $15.00

Shinsuke Yoshitake

At the centre of this story is a little boy who has a small but embarrassing problem: every time he pees, a few drops dribble on to his underpants.

Curious, he asks other children if they have the same issue. He soon discovers a simple life lesson: everyone is battling some kind of irritation.

Joanne Rossmassler Fritz When twelve-year-old Maddie’s older brother, Strum vanishes from his college campus, her carefully ordered world falls apart. Though Maddie is the youngest, she knows Strum better than anyone. So, Maddie starts looking for clues- Could his disappearance have something to do with those endangered butterflies he loved.

People Need People

Leila & the Blue Fox

Hachette, $27.00

Kiran Millwood Hargrave & Tom de Freston (ill)

Benjamin Zephaniah & Nila Aye (ill) To walk to To talk to To cry and rely on, People will always need people From the creators of Nature Trail comes an uplifting picture book about the power of people, and the importance of connecting with others. This timely poem reminds us all to be kind to one another.

Days Like This

Oraine Smith & Alice Gravier (ill)

Abrams, $30.00

An average day can be just that: average. But it can also be extraordinary and full of surprises, if we’re mindful of the world around us.

In this book, we witness the peaks and valleys of everyday life through two different narrative voices. The tiniest detail or the most fleeting moment can look quite different, depending on your perspective!

Accidentally Kelly Street

Briony Stewart

Affirm, $25.00

A new family arrive at a new house on a new street in a new neighbourhood.

Being new can feel lonely, but on Kelly Street the neighbours are warm and welcoming, and small acts of kindness go a long way. Soon enough, strangers have become friends, and a new house becomes a home.

On the Way to School

Vikkki Conley & Lucia Masicullo (ill)

New Frontier, $27.00

Every day, children all over the world are travelling to school – by bus, by canoe, through valleys, over mountains and snow. How do you get to school? With themes of diversity and culture, this book celebrates the joy and challenges of travelling to school.

Hachette, $27.00

On a breathtaking journey across the sea, Leila rediscovers herself and the mother she thought she’d lost, with help from a determined little fox.

Based on the true story of an Arctic fox who walked from Norway to Canada in seventy-six days, a distance of two thousand miles.

Waiting for the Storks

Katrina Nannestad

HarperCollins, $20.00 It’s the Second World War and Himmler’s Lebensborn Program is in full flight when eight-year-old Zofia Ulinski is kidnapped by the Germans.

But when Zofia is adopted into a wealthy and loving German family, it is easier and safer to bury her past, so everything is forgotten. Until the Polish boy arrives. And the past comes back to haunt her.

Children’s Non-Fiction You Don’t Know What War Is Yeva Skalietska

Bloomsbury, $20.00 This is the gripping and moving diary of young Ukrainian refugee Yeva Skalietska. It follows twelve days in Ukraine that changed 12-year-old Yeva’s life forever. And it is a story the world needs to hear.

Youkie Magazine Nicky Shortridge

Kookie Magazine, $15.00 Popular girl-led magazine is now created by and for all kids. Still chockfull of remarkable role models, big ideas, optimism and screen-free fun on everything from adventure and activism to science and sport!

Teen Fiction & YA

p. p.24 5

The King is Dead

gleebooks favourites

Benjamin Dean

Sometime in Summer Katrina Leno

Little Brown $18.00

Anna Lucia Bell believes in luck: bad luck. Bad luck made her best friend stop talking to her. Bad luck caused her parents’ divorce. Bad luck is forcing her mother, Miriam, to sell the family’s beloved bookstore. And it is definitely bad luck that Anna seems to be the only person in the world Miriam is unable to recommend a life-changing book. When Anna finds out that she and her mom are spending two months in a New England seaside town called Rockport, she expects a summer plagued with bad luck too. But Rockport has surprises in store for Anna, including a comet making its first appearance in over twenty years and two new-but familiar-friends. In what will prove to be the most important summer of her life so far, Anna learns about love, herself, and the magic that an ordinary summer can bring. (12+)

The Whispering Dark Kelly Andrew

Orion $23.00

Delaney Meyers-Petrov is tired of being seen as fragile just because she’s Deaf. So, when she’s accepted into a prestigious program at Godbole University that trains students to slip between parallel worlds, she’s excited for the chance to prove herself. But her semester gets off to a rocky start when she has an awkward encounter with a pretentious upperclassman, Colton Price, whom she has every intention of keeping her distance from. After a fellow student turns up dead, she and Colton are forced to form a tenuous alliance, plummeting down a rabbit hole of deeply buried university secrets. (14+)

Simon & Schuster $18.00

Oxygen Mask Jason Reynolds

Faber $20.00 Graphic Novel

Ernie Rijs

Brolga Pub $25.00

Tim is nearing the end of his final year of secondary school and all he wants is for it to finish. Against his better judgement he agrees to the Principal’s request for him to “buddy up” with Gabriel, a refugee from South Sudan. But when both Tim and Gabriel’s father each make one simple, but momentous decision, they are propelled in directions they never imagined they’d go. Tim must reevaluate his relationships with his mother and estranged father and ultimately decide if he’s got everything all wrong, and if there’s any coming back. (14+)

Daughter of Darkness

Jeannette Arroyo & Ren Graham

Henry Holt $25.00 Graphic Novel

Intimately set within the walls of a family home, this book is an incredible artefact of the historic year we have all lived through. We travel from the depths of despair but not without hope; the mundane details contained within four walls becomes our sanctuary. This is a gift in commemoration of a time and place, of a world wide pandemic, of loss and of the murder of George Floyd. (14+)

The Crossing

Blackwater

Tony Price is a popular high school track star and occasional delinquent aching for his dad’s attention and approval.

Eli Hirsch is a quiet boy with a chronic autoimmune disorder that has ravaged his health and social life. What happens when these two become unlikely friends (and a whole lot more) in the spooky town of Blackwater, Maine? Werewolf curses, unsavory interactions with the quarterback of the football team, a ghostly fisherman haunting the harbor, and tons of high school drama. (14+)

James has been a prince all his life, and since he was born, he’s been thrust into the spotlight as the first Black heir to the throne. But when his father dies unexpectedly, James is crowned king at seventeen, and his life irrevocably changes. When James’ boyfriend suddenly goes missing, threatening envelopes appear in the palace, and gossip and scandals that only he knows are leaked to the public. James soon realises that even those in his inner circle can’t be trusted. (14+)

Katharine & Elizabeth Corr

Bonnier $20.00 Graphic Novel

Deina is trapped. As one of the Soul Severers serving the god Hades on earth, her future is tied to the task of shepherding the dying on from the mortal world - unless she can earn or steal enough to buy her way out. Then the tyrant ruler Orpheus offers both fortune and freedom to whoever can retrieve his dead wife, Eurydice, from the Underworld. Deina jumps at the chance.

But to win, she must enter an uneasy alliance with a group of fellow Severers she neither likes nor trusts. (12+)

Reid All About It Robert Harris – Act of Oblivion, Pb. $32.99 In August 1660, following the English monarchy’s restoration with King Charles II’s return, parliament passed the Indemnity and Oblivion Act. A general pardon to anyone who committed crimes during the English Civil War [16421651] and the Commonwealth of England [1649-1660], with the exception of murder, piracy, rape, witchcraft and regicide.

Thus, on 13 October 1660 at Charing Cross, Samuel Pepys, the London diarist, witnessed the public execution of regicide Major-General Thomas Harrison. One of 59 commissioners (judges) who had signed the death warrant for the execution of King Charles I in 1649.

Harrison was the first of the surviving regicides to suffer being: “Hanged by the neck and, being alive, shall be cut down, and your privy members to be cut off, and your entrails be taken out of your body and, you living, the same to be burnt before your eyes, and your head to be cut off, your body to be divided into four quarters, and head and quarters to be disposed of at the pleasure of the King’s majesty.”

Pepys drolly reported Harrison: “looking as cheerful as any man could do in that condition.”

Keith Richards – Life, Pb. $25.00 A book I enjoyed re-reading. Published over a decade ago, I picked it up again following the death of drummer Charlie Watts in August 2021. I forgot well-written it was. Dark Lord Richards may have remembered (almost) everything of his astounding life. Still, he also chose well in journalist James Fox - his collaborator and friend since the early 1970s – in organising a mass of anecdotes and memories.

Here is Keith on first meeting Charlie as a drummer: “Charlie swings very nicely, but he can’t rock. Fabulous guy, though…I wanted him to hit it a little harder. He was still too jazz for me. We knew he was a great drummer, but to play with the Stones, Charlie went and studied Jimmy Reed and Earl Phillips …that sparse, minimalised thing. Charlie was the drummer we wanted, but would he give up some of his jazz ways for us?”

He did, somewhat. But jazz never really left him.

There was only one Charlie Watts.

There is only one Keith Richards.

-Stephen

Of the thirteen regicides still at large, historical fugitives Colonels Edward Whalley and William Goffe, his son-in-law, flee to the Puritan colonies of New England. Obsessively pursued by [fictional] Richard Nayler of the regicide committee of the Privy Council.

Robert Harris uses this manhunt as the basis for his novel.

Seen from the perspective of both the hunted and hunter.

It combines vivid descriptions of ambushes, escapes and treks in “the plentiful vastness” of the continent; recalls the tumult of the civil war; colonial religious fanaticism; the shifting nature and purpose of retribution and finally, the power of forgiveness.

A terrific historical thriller.

Andy Saunders – Apollo Remastered, Hc. $130.00 For over 50 years, the NASA photographic film of the Apollo moon missions has sat in a frozen vault in Houston, Texas.

Image restorer Andy Saunders has taken newly available digital scans and, using cutting-edge enhancement techniques, has created these pristine quality Apollo photographs. Crystal-clear images of astronauts, spacecraft and moonwalks. Of the Moon and Earth. Just as the astronauts themselves saw and experienced it. A new, astonishing vision of our most significant achievement as a species. It was indescribably moving.

C o n v e r s a t i o n s a b o u t a r t , l i fe a n d g a rd e n i n g w i t h a l e ge n d a r y Au st ra l i a n f i g u re .

‘G lor iou s .’ Miriam Margolyes TEXTPUBLISHING.COM.AU

p. p.26 5

Performing Arts & Poetry The Illustrated Woman

Acrobat Music

Puncher & Wattman $25.00

Jill Jones

Helen Mort

This long-awaited collection by major Australian poet, Jill Jones, selects from her 13 full length volumes, published over three decades, as well as from numerous new and uncollected poems, and includes an introduction by the poet. Jones is well-known for her ambitious and distinctive reworkings of the lyric, and her dextrous extension of experimental modes. Thus, Acrobat Music offers a major recasting of Jones’ significant contribution to contemporary poetry.

The brilliant new collection from T.S. Eliot Prize and Costa Award shortlisted poet Helen Mort. This is a tender and incisive collection about what it means to live in a female body - from the joys and struggles of new motherhood to the trauma of deepfakes. Amidst the landscapes of the Peak District and the glaciers of Greenland, Helen Mort’s remarkable poems transfix the reader in a celebration of beauty and resilience.

Random House $33.00

The Philosophy of Modern Song

Martin Scorsese: A Journey

Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers a masterclass on the art and craft of songwriting. He writes over 60 essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyses what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan’s unique prose.

Few filmmakers, if any, make the kind of impact that Martin Scorsese has made on American cinema. The winner of every prestigious film award, including the Oscar, Scorsese is a living legend. Bestselling author and award-winning filmmaker Mary Pat Kelly’s groundbreaking biography reveals how this working-class boy from Manhattan’s Little Italy became one of our most acclaimed, celebrated, and influential filmmakers.

Bob Dylan

Simon & Schuster $50.00 HC GB ial ec Sp rice P

Mary Pat Kelly

Little Brown $30.00

Surrender

The Writer’s Journey

Bono

Travis Elborough

Quarto $40.00 HC

Some truly remarkable works of literature have been inspired by writers spending time away from their typical surroundings.

From epic road trips and arduous treks into remote territories to cultural tours and sojourns in the finest hotels, this book explores 35 influential journeys taken by literary greats and reveals the repercussions of those travels on the authors’ personal lives and the broader literary landscape.

Come follow in the footsteps of some of the world’s most famous authors

Highly Recommended

Changing with the Tides Shelby Leigh

Gallery Books, $27.00

Shelby Leigh breaks up her poignant and reflective poetry collection into two themes: the anchor and the sail. While the anchor explores issues of insecurity, heartbreak, and anxiety, the sail focuses on healing and hope after the storm.

With an emphasis on self-empowerment, changing with the tides is an evocative and celebratory set of poems for anyone who dreams of following their heart and embracing their true self.

Random House $40.00 HC GB ial ec Sp rice P

Bono - artist, activist and the lead singer of Irish rock band U2 - has written a memoir; honest and irreverent, intimate and profound, Surrender is the story of the remarkable life he’s lived, the challenges he’s faced and the friends and family who have shaped and sustained him. Bono takes us from his early days growing up in Dublin, including the sudden loss of his mother when he was 14, to his more than 20 years of activism dedicated to the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty.

Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters Mandy Sayer

NewSouth, $40.00

The trailblazing McDonagh sisters were the first women in Australia to form their own film production company.

Between 1926 and 1933, while they were in their mid-twenties, these sassy sisters produced four feature films and a number of documentaries. Mandy Sayer reveals the sisters’ remarkable story, from daughters of a respected Sydney surgeon with a love of theatre and the arts, to their first feature film, and their controversial final film.

Visions of Ancient Egypt Anna Ferrari

Sainsbury Centre $105.00

Art & Photography

From antiquity, when the Great Pyramid was revered as a wonder of the ancient world, to the Cleopatra of Shakespeare’s stage, and the medieval Arab scholars who sought hieroglyphs’ mystical wisdom, this work explores how ongoing engagement with ancient Egypt has shaped centuries of art and design. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this book explores the imagined construction of ancient Egypt promoted through painting, sculpture, photography, architecture and film, as well as design, fashion and jewellery.

p. 27

gleebooks favourites Home by the Sea

Natalie Walton

Erwin Fabian Sculptor Sasha Grishin

Peribo $50.00 HC

Erwin Fabian was one of Australia’s most highly regarded sculptors and graphic artists and is widely represented in public art collections in Australia and Europe. His career as an artist took root in Australia and he remained based in Melbourne but made frequent, usually annual trips to Europe where he had a studio in London and later was celebrated in exhibitions in both London and Berlin. Fabian was friends with the author since 1980 and his first major monograph on his art is based on many years of taped interviews, discussions with the artist as well as extensive research.

His Name Is Bansky

Hardie Grant $60.00 HC

Dog Trip Sydney

Evi O & Andrew Grune

Thames & Hudson $35.00

Francesco Matteuzzi

Prestel $50.00 HC

Told in classic comic-book form, this graphic biography invites a new audience to learn about Banksy - and uses a pitch-perfect medium to convey the artist’s message that art is for the people. Banksy is arguably the most well-known street artist of all time.

But we don’t actually know who he is. This is just one of many contradictions that are addressed in this enormously compelling graphic biography.

Artists at Home Karina Dias Pires

Thames & Hudson $60.00 HC

Painting, drawing, ceramics, sculpture, photography, installation, printmaking, film ... no matter what the medium, these formidable artists are united by their strength, passion and honesty. This richly layered compilation invites the reader into the creative spaces of 32 female artists, offering an intimate look behind the scenes and the chance to meet each artist on home ground. Featuring profiles on their practice and process, along with a candid Q&A section, they engage in an honest discussion about womanhood, career, gender inequality and the constant juggle of balancing a contemporary practice with everyday life.

Take an insider’s tour of eighteen homes belonging to interior and fashion designers, artists, makers and more. Home by the Sea tells the stories of these homes and the people who live there – uncovering, in the process, that there is so much more to Byron Bay than its natural beauty. This is a book about community and creativity, about living intentionally and the value of loving where you live.

The globe is littered with forgotten monuments, their beauty matched only by the secrets of their past. A glorious palace lies abandoned by a fallen dictator. A grand monument to communism sits forgotten atop a mountain. Explore these and many more of the world’s lost wonders in this atlas like no other. With remarkable stories, bespoke maps and stunning photography of fifty forsaken sites this book allows one to travel the world beneath the surface.

Art is Life

Jerry Saltz

Ilex $55.00 HC

Jerry Saltz draws on two decades of work to offer a real-time survey of contemporary art as a barometer of our times. Chronicling a period punctuated by dramatic turning points - from the cultural reset of 9/11 to the rolling social crises of today - Saltz traces how visionary artists have both documented and challenged the culture. This is an openhearted and irresistibly readable appraisal by one of our most important cultural observers.

Gunyah Goondie + Wurley

Professor Paul Memmott

Thames & Hudson $120.00 HC

Built on decades of research and field work and richly illustrated with rare photographs this is the only continental survey of this country’s First Nations’ innovative architecture. Offerning an insight into te cultural heritage, it explores the range and complexity of Indigenous-designed structures and spaces, from minimalist shelters to semi-permanent houses and villages, debunking false perceptions of early Aboriginal constructions and settlements.

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A Book You Purchased This Year But Have Never Read

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MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman (HC) by Ben Hubbard

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All Against All: The Long Winter of 1933 and the Originsof the Second World War (HC) by Paul Jankowski

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Becoming Kim Jong Un: A Former CIA Officer’s Insights into North Korea’s Enigmatic Young Dictator (HC) by Jung H. Pak

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by Chuck Palahniuk

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by Azar Nafisi

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2023 Calendars Shaun Tan - 2023 Deluxe 12 Month Wall Calendar ($50) & The Blue Island Press Calendars ($35 & $45) are available for purchase at our shops in Glebe, Dulwich Hill and Blackheath! Printed and assembled in Australia, the Blue Island Press Calendars features works by Australian and global artists. Each page has a framable image to keep after the year has passed. You can also immerse yourself in Shaun Tan’s gorgeous artwork throughout the year with his calendar!

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Best of 2022 - Fiction 1.

Dropbear

2.

Love Stories

3.

Still Life

4.

To Paradise

5.

Bodies of Light

6.

Horse

Evelyn Araluen Trent Dalton

Best of 2022 - Non-Fiction 1.

Stolen Focus:

Why You Can’t Pay Attention

Sarah Winman

2.

The Uncaged Sky

Hanya Yanagihara

3.

How To Lose Friends

Jennifer Down

4.

The Space Between The Stars Orwell’s Roses

Rebecca Solnit Chloe Hooper

Love & Virtue

Diana Reid

8.

Cold Enough for Snow

Jessica Au

6.

Bedtime Story

Damon Galgut

7.

The Jane Austen Remedy

Dervla McTiernan

8.

Making Autralian History

9.

On Reckoning

10. The Murder Rule

Antoinette Lattouf

Geraldine Brooks

7.

The Promise

Kylie Moore-Gilbert

& Influence White People 5.

9.

Johann Hari

10. Ten Steps to Nanette

Indira Naidoo

Ruth Wilson Anna Clark Amy Remeikis Hannah Gadsby

Best of 2022 - Children 1.

We Run Tomorrow

Nat Amoore

2.

The First Scientists

Corey Tutt

3.

Social Queue

4.

Bindi

5.

Bored 1: Milo Finds $105

6.

My Brother Ben

Peter Carnavas

7.

The Book of

Deborah Abela

Sarah Krasnostein Kirli Saunders Matt Stanton

Wondrous Possibilities 8.

Somebody’s Land

Yvette Poshoglian

9.

Dear Greta

Sisonke Msimang

10. Pawcasso

Remy Lai

For more November new releases go to:

Main shop—49 Glebe Pt Rd; Ph: (02) 9660 2333, Fax: (02) 9660 9842. Mon to Sat 9am to 6pm; Sunday 10am to 5pm 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 10am to 4pm; Mon 9am to 5pm www.gleebooks.com.au. Email: books@gleebooks.com.au; oldbooks@gleebooks.com.au