Politicians vote for best books, reveal summer reading lists

Four MPs will read Trent Dalton’s All Our Shimmering Skies over the break, and it is one of Tony Burke’s best books of 2020. Picture: Justine Walpole

This is the 10th year I have asked politicians what books they most enjoyed in the past 12 months and what they plan to read over the summer holiday period. The idea was sparked by a conversation with a senior Labor figure to whom I lamented that too few politicians wrote books. “I’d be happy if they just read a few,” he said. So, I started asking politicians what they read and their choices have been revealing.

Julia Gillard told me she read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals and re-read Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Kevin Rudd took up Christopher Clark’s The Sleepwalkers and Niall Ferguson’s Civilization. Bill Shorten dived into JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy and Antony Beevor’s The Second World War, and divulged his love of Tintin comics. Anthony Albanese liked Tim Winton’s The Turning and Kim Scott’s That Deadman Dance.

Tony Abbott enjoyed Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In and Winston Churchill’s A History of the English-Speaking Peoples. Malcolm Turnbull read Sebastian Smee’s The Art of Rivalry and Joe Biden’s Promise Me, Dad, and leafed through Alex Tabarrok’s Launching the Innovation Renaissance.

 

Scott Morrison devoured Edmund Morris’s The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Ron Chernow’s Washington biography and Tim Jeal’s Explorers of the Nile. As for the other treasurers over the decade, all avid readers, Wayne Swan told me he liked Nicholas Wapshott’s Keynes/Hayek. Chris Bowen loved Robert Caro’s fourth instalment of his epic Lyndon Johnson biography, The Passage of Power. Joe Hockey enjoyed Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise. And Josh Frydenberg read Bear Grylls’s Mud, Sweat and Tears and Barry Goldwater’s The Conscience of a Conservative.

This year, Morrison read Anne Henderson’s biography of Joseph Lyons; Amity Shales’s account of the Great Depression in The Forgotten Man; Erik Larson’s saga of Winston Churchill during The Blitz, The Splendid and the Vile; Amitav Ghosh’s novel Gun Island; Robert Kagan’s assessment of US foreign policy, The Jungle Grows Back; and Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography, which uses maps to explain global politics.

 

Over the Christmas period with the family at the Lodge, the PM has an ambitious pile of books to get through, including William Dalrymple’s Marco Polo-inspired In Xanadu; Jonathan Sacks’s ­Morality; Thomas Keneally’s The Dickens Boy; and Kate Grenville’s A Room Made of Leaves.

Labor leader Albanese — who may have more time to read next year — has in his summer book stack Siobhan McKenna’s racy novel, Man in Armour; Samantha Power’s memoir, Education of an Idealist; Stuart Coupe’s biography of singer-songwriter-musician Paul Kelly; and Archie Roach’s memoir, Tell Me Why.

The book the Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack most enjoyed this year is The Crossroad by Victoria Cross recipient Mark Donaldson. Over the summer holiday he will read Courage Under Fire by another VC recipient, Daniel Keighran.

 

Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles’s favourite read of 2020 is Ben Macintyre’s thriller, The Spy and the Traitor. He plans to read David McCullough’s magisterial biography of Harry Truman.

The Treasurer’s pick of the year is Eddie Jaku’s memoir, The Happiest Man on Earth. Over summer, he will read AFL legend Bachar Houli’s Faith, Football and Family. Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers’s best book this year is Jared Diamond’s examination of crises in Upheaval. He will read Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now over the holidays.

Shorten’s favourite book of 2020 is Virginia Eubanks’s Automating Inequality. He is keen to read Brian MacArthur’s collection The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches over the holiday. Tanya Plibersek, obsessed with Jane ­Austen, lists Janice Hadlow’s The Other Bennet Sister as her favourite tome of the year. Her summer book is Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind.

 

Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls is Christian Porter’s highlight this year. He will read the first volume of Barack Obama’s autobiography, A Promised Land. Peter Dutton’s favourite book is Angela Shanahan’s biography of businessman Paul Ramsay. He has just started Paul Kengor’s biography of Ronald Reagan’s confidant, William P. Clark.

Dan Tehan also enjoyed Kengor’s The Judge. He will next read Ashley Gray’s account of the West Indian cricketers who toured apartheid South Africa in The ­Unforgiven. This year Paul Fletcher enjoyed Caro’s, Working, and is eager to read Michael Fullilove’s account of Franklin Roosevelt and World War II in Rendezvous with Destiny.

 

Bowen, a UK politics buff, most liked Left Out by Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire and has Andrew Adonis’s Ernest Bevin to read next. Ed Husic recommends Thomas Ricks’ Churchill and Orwell and has Philip Coggan’s More, about the world economy, on his reading list. Linda Burney’s favourite this year is Richard Fidler and Kari Gislason’s Saga Land. She will tackle Fidler’s The Golden Maze over summer.

Anne Ruston, Sussan Ley, Jason Clare and Amanda Rishworth will read Trent Dalton’s All Our Shimmering Skies over the break. It is one of Tony Burke’s best books of 2020.

Burke is looking forward to reading Sophy Roberts’ The Lost Pianos of Siberia. Ley named The Overstory by Richard Powers as her favourite. Clare said Obama’s Promised Land was a ripper. And Rishworth chose Bernadine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other as her favourite book this year.

 

Darren Chester also nominates Jaku’s memoir as his best book of 2020 and is eager to read Keighran’s Courage Under Fire. Karen Andrews opted for James Patterson’s novel Killer Instinct as her most enjoyable read and is excited to dive into Dolly Parton’s Songteller.

For Linda Reynolds, Helena Bryndzej Studdert’s No Bed of Roses is her best read this past year and she will pick up Curtis Sittenfeld’s Rodham next. Michelle Rowland names Rodham as her favourite this year. Matt Ridley’s How Innovation Works is one of Angus Taylor’s picks of 2020. He has Daron Acemoglu’s The Narrow Corridor on his to-read list.

Brendan O’Connor highly rates Steven Conte’s The Tolstoy Estate and has Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste on his list. Terri Butler chose Shannon Molloy’s memoir, Fourteen, as her favourite book and will dive into Chris Hammer’s Trust. Madeleine King’s best book is Anna Funder’s Stasiland and has Randolph Stow’s The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea to read next.

 

Keith Pitt names the historical novel Sword of Kings by Bernard Cornwell as his favourite this year and will catch a Reagan book of quotations in the Christmas break. Alan Tudge chose Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens as his best read this year and has Lionel Shriver’s The Mandibles to read next. Stuart Robert reread Jim Collins’s Good to Great this year and recommended it to his departmental executive. His Christmas read is Ally by Michael Oren, a former US ambassador to Israel.

Clare O’Neil names Michael Lind’s The New Class War as her best book this year and will read Tara June Winch’s prize-winning novel The Yield in the holidays. Matt Keogh’s favourite book was Ian Geary and Adrian Pabst’s Blue Labour. Kimberley Kitching recommends Jack Fairweather’s The Volunteer and will read Joe Scarborough’s Saving Freedom, about Truman and the Cold War.

I hope this annual column has helped focus the limited time politicians have on making good reading choices. While many typically read politics, history, biography and memoir, they also read poetry, crime and spy thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, romance and travel books. And that is fine. The point is that reading books broadens the mind, and after a challenging year we can all be thankful for that.