This Month
What legal jargon taught this solicitor about translating literature
Stephanie Smee left corporate law to become a translator, where she says the ‘discipline of thought’ from her legal training remains influential.
March
‘No room for nuance’: Melbourne Writers Festival avoids Gaza
After the war in the Middle East tore apart the organisation last year, new artistic director Veronica Sullivan’s 2025 program has adopted a small target strategy.
February
Sydney Writers’ Festival ex-chair breaks silence on resignation
Kathy Shand says she was not aware of any plot to remove her from the Sydney author talkfest’s board, although sources said her pro-Israel views had left her “isolated”.
Sydney Writers’ Festival chair quits as culture war spreads
The proxy war being fought in Australia’s arts community over the Israel-Palestine conflict has claimed another high-profile representative.
January
How we misread ‘The Great Gatsby’
There are many theories about what makes the classic American novel so great, and its ability to keep producing different reasons is part of the answer.
December 2024
Formula 1 is booming. So are romance novels about the sport
The sports romance genre is seeing a new trend thanks in part to the popularity of the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive.
What the Dickens have they done to the year 12 English syllabus?
Charles Dickens, George Orwell and Sylvia Plath will all disappear from the HSC English syllabus in NSW, but their replacements aren’t too shabby.
What our top CEOs read, watched and listened to in 2024
From business books to crime thrillers and podcasts, here’s what our CEOs did in their spare time this year.
You’ve seen this book everywhere. TikTok is responsible
The romance novel “Icebreaker” has sold almost 2 million copies since publisher Anthea Bariamis discovered it on BookTok, a forum turning the fiction industry on its head.
The year’s best books as chosen by the Financial Review newsroom
From highly anticipated novels to memorable memoirs, here are the top picks from our journalists to make your summer reading list sizzle.
Oliver Sacks’ letters from a beautiful mind
The great neurologist offered a lesson in treating our fellow humans with care and true attention.
Booker winner’s protest shows the new perils of arts sponsorship
Richard Flanagan said he’d only accept the Baillie Gifford Prize when the sponsor divested fossil fuels. It helps explain why “artwashing” corporates are moving to less controversial sponsorships.
November 2024
How Barbara Taylor Bradford put Boris Johnson in his place
From matrimony to sexism, the seller of 90 million novels - who has died aged 91 - had sage advice, and a blunt way of communicating them.
‘India, not China, is the historic centre of the Asian world’
Scottish author William Dalrymple argues in his new book that Indian thinkers like Aryabhata and Brahmagupta should be as familiar to the West as Archimedes and Galileo.
October 2024
The Dublin slum dweller who became Ireland’s global intellectual
‘Buffoonery as tyranny’ is Fintan O’Toole’s phrase for Donald Trump, and growing up in Catholic Ireland, tyranny is a concept the writer knows something about.
Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point sequel oversimplifies the times
The C-suite’s favourite thinker has written a follow-up to his runaway bestseller of 2000. One problem: it’s like the internet still doesn’t exist.
The Aussie novel Camilla ‘adores’ and what she reads on tour
The Queen champions literature through her Reading Room charity, which has thrived since it was launched during the pandemic as part of a global boom in book clubs.
Religion has made Sally Rooney boring
“Intermezzo”, the fourth book by the kingpin of Millennial fiction, sees a growing preoccupation with religion flatten out her once enigmatic prose.
At home with Plum Sykes, the author who skewers the rich and famous
The satire in the writer’s novels about wealthy and glamorous women is all the sharper for being written by an insider.
September 2024
The rise and rise of the self-help book
For as long as there have been selves, they have needed help – and books have offered it. As the genre has grown, so have its claims.