Two books to buy if your flight is delayed
I was flying Qantas Economy, row 10, and all around me were noses in books. My flight turned into a Book Club at 20,000 feet.
Books
Literary superstar abroad, barely known at home
Patricia Shaw told compelling stories of Australians, generally set against the backdrop of 19th-century harshness. But we weren’t listening.
Hijinks and madness? It’s just not Lemony Snicket
The wickedly funny children’s author, Daniel Handler, tells how he survived a spell in a mental asylum and went on to sell 60 million books.
The hero of Keanu Reeves’ novel is 80,000 years old — which is how I felt by the end
We might have known that Keanu Reeves was harbouring literary ambitions as soon as he started saying words like ‘gestalt’ in interviews and publishing hand-stitched collections of poetry.
Novel reasons for men to embrace joys of reading
Fiction is ignored by young males addicted to self-improvement – but they’re missing a trick.
You’re invited on Andy Griffiths’ next adventure
His Treehouse series with illustrator Terry Denton has sold millions. But Andy Griffiths has drawn a line under that to embrace a new challenge, and he’s bringing along your kids.
In the shadows of death
A serial killer stalks the highway. A new book by one of Australia’s finest writers examines all the ways in which Australian lives are impacted.
Writers won, and sadly lost
Alexis Wright, Charlotte Wood, the death of Ray Lawler, and more in our weekly wrap of the book world.
Andrew Hamilton on prison’s ‘profound benefits’
Four months in remand was more than enough time for the Sydney comedian (and former drug dealer) to ask himself what he wanted to get out of life.
Country girl who never lost her accent
Acclaimed and groundbreaking novelist Edna O’Brien conveyed the Irish experience in prose that was spare, luminous and sexually candid.
Alexis Wright wins the Miles Franklin Literary Award, again
Alexis Wright has now won both the Miles Franklin Literary Award, and the Stella Prize, both of which are named for Stella Miles Franklin, twice.
Considering Ozempic? Here’s the skinny on weight loss injections
Ozempic may well be the weight loss pill in a needle form that we’ve all been waiting for. But do the risks – including blindness and thyroid cancer – outweigh the benefits?
The world’s highest mountain was once a peak only the most elite mountaineers and madmen would think to scale. Thanks to one-on-one Sherpa support and copious supplemental oxygen, things have changed.
No Rooney or Toibin – this year’s Booker longlist is all about the Americans
Australian author Charlotte Wood is in the running for the prize, but with a longlist featuring few bestsellers, who is this really for? | SEE THE LIST
How did we forget this war hero?
Born in Japan and raised as a Samurai, Harry Freame had a legitimate claim to be considered the most famous Anzac soldier to have landed at Gallipoli.
All the pretty horrors
Stephen King insists in his new collection of short stories that he’s no Cormac McCarthy but Jack Marx sees similarities.
A hauntingly good story
Evie Wyld has won many literary prizes. Her new novel nods to the gothic.
The Australian Fiction Prize: your questions
The Australian Fiction Prize: your questions answered. Plus, Jewish book week, and a famous son returns to Sydney
From cult disciple to free speech advocate
Megan Phelps-Roper still deals with the fallout from leaving a sect dubbed America’s ‘most hated’ family. That hasn’t stopped her from tackling our era’s most divisive social issue.
Final word with few conclusions
Bernie Madoff: the man behind the $US68 billion Ponzi scheme remains a mystery. So is he an evil genius or common crook.
Distinguished economist offers his capital ideas
Joseph E. Stiglitz’s Road To Freedom writes passionately about economic fairness but what does this mean in practice?
What to read this week
A bunny, a puppy, and an office printer feature in our list of Notable Books to read this week.
The nonagenarian still drawing for kids
Pamela Allen, author of Who Sank The Boat, is now 90 and still producing delightful children’s books.
How to enter The Australian Fiction Prize
The Australian Fiction Prize, sponsored by HarperCollins, is the newest, most exciting prize on the literary calendar
Biographers savage secular sinners (Beckhams) and saints (Mother Teresa)
‘Who would be so base as to pick on a wizened, shrivelled old lady, well stricken in years, who has consecrated her entire life to the needy and the destitute?’ This taboo-tearing writer would, and he’s just getting started.
Wallabies facing extinction? Gordon Bray on rugby’s Immortals
Their names were known to generations and the achievements of the Immortals of rugby union live long in our memories.
JD Vance is Trump’s pick for Vice President
The Hillbilly Elegy author who was once a Trump critic has styled himself as a MAGA warrior.
What to read this week
A memoir of breast cancer treatment, and an account of the lives of nurses on the frontline of the HIV-AIDS crisis in this week’s list of Notable Books
Alice Munro wrote like an angel — but her halo is shattered
The Nobel Prize winner sided with the pedophile who abused her daughter. How could so empathetic a writer have a heart of stone?
Insider’s guide to the hard heart of Hollywood
Griffin Dunne’s book is hugely entertaining, but the story turns dark with the murder of his sister Dominique.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/books/page/10