NewsBite

Summer reads

Yesterday

Former Japanese kamikaze pilot Hichiro Naemura wears his old uniform at London’s Imperial War Museum in 2002.

Japan’s enduring fascination with kamikaze pilots

Japanese tourists still flock to memorial sites to remember the young men who crashed their planes into Allied warships.

  • Alexander Wooley

This Month

Cabanas at Bondi Beach on Australia Day.

When did Sydney’s beaches start looking like campgrounds?

Call me an old hippie, but I still believed that respect for our hallowed coastline extended beyond not littering to keeping visual pollution to a minimum as well.

  • Mark Mulligan
Cabanas have become a feature of Australian beaches over summer.

‘Everyone owns the beach’: Albanese slams cabana sand hogs

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it is “not on” for Australians to use cabana shades to reserve space at popular beaches.

  • Updated
  • Michelle Bowes and Lucy Slade

December 2024

Tom Holland, left, and Dominic Sandbrook, hosts of The Rest is History podcast.

The podcast all of federal parliament is obsessed with

Australia’s political leaders have ambitious reading and streaming plans for the summer break, but one audio program is winning bipartisan support.

  • Tom McIlroy

January 2023

The etiquette guru who broke up with a boyfriend over text

On ‘Mind Your Manners’, Netflix star Sara Jane Ho offers practical advice for a new, global world.

  • Maureen O'Connor
Advertisement

January 2022

Changpeng Zhao began his career at McDonald’s - now, as CEO of Binance, his personal fortune is estimated at some US$96billion.

The world’s biggest crypto fortune began with a friendly poker game

He used to make cheeseburgers at McDonald’s. Now, Changpang Zhao is crypto royalty, worth almost $100 billion.

  • Tom Maloney, Yueqi Yang and Ben Bartenstein
Lang Hancock’s interview from the April 30, 1970 edition of The Australian Financial Review.

Behind the scenes with a hostile Lang Hancock

AFR Classic | John Edwards spent five days with Lang Hancock in April 1971. He came to like Mr Hancock, as most people do, but dislike his opinions and everything he stands for.

January 2021

President Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump may be preparing for a political career to continue the family's legacy.

Ivanka the inevitable?

After four years as a "senior adviser" in her father's administration, Ivanka Trump seems to be preparing her own political career.

  • Nina L. Khrushcheva
 AFR Life and Leisure stills from The Crown. 
*** Please note any use of the image of Diana in the wedding dress must be accompanied by the text in the description area of the image metadata.*** 
The Crown S4. Picture shows: Princess Diana (EMMA CORRIN) and Prince Charles (JOSH O CONNOR). Filming Location: Kensington Town Hall .

How Netflix changed the channel

The unorthodox philosophy that transformed a struggling mail-order DVD company into one of the tech industry's great powers.

  • Ian Leslie
Singers with a British charity perform opera  online  to individuals feeling stressed and isolated during the  pandemic.

Opera-wellness: Pioneering charity combats problems with music

At a time when many are feeling particularly isolated or anxious, the appeal of a personal recital online can get straight to the emotional core.

  • Louis Wise
Since Jared Kushner departed his role in the family real estate business to become an adviser for President Trump, his father Charles has been undoing many of the decisions made by his son.

The costly legacy of Jared Kushner's real estate gambles

The family company that Donald Trump's son-in-law once ran has spent the better part of the past four years unwinding its scion's New York property bets.

  • Caleb Melby and David Kocieniewski
To some 2020 was a chaotic dumpster fire of a year, but what memories of it will we store away?

How will you remember 2020?

It’s hard to imagine forgetting the momentous world events of 2020, but human memory is a tricky thing and the repetition of lockdown further complicates matters.

  • Sarah Manavis
Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon in The Queen's Gambit.

All the right moves in The Queen's Gambit

Super-fast computer programs and massive databases have had a profound impact on professional chess in recent years, but the game is currently in remarkable creative and economic health.

  • Kenneth Rogoff

October 2019

David Caon

High-flying designer David Caon on the books that keep him grounded

At work, the creative mind behind the Qantas Dreamliner cabin refit has his head in the clouds. But when reading, he connects with the mundanities of life.

  • Nicole Abadee

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/summer-reads-1m4a