The Bookshelf

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The Bookshelf

What are you reading, loving or being challenged by? We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more.

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    The Case for Critics - on stage at Canberra Writers' Festival with Christos Tsiolkas, Beejay Silcox and James Jiang

    Derided, disparaged and cursed to the heavens, book critics are depicted as literature’s grand villains – as frustrated creators and gleeful wreckers. But what do critics really do? And why are they necessary for a healthy literary ecosystem? James Jiang, Beejay Silcox and Christos Tsiolkas join Kate and Cassie as part of a panel discussion at Canberra Writers' Festival - five Aussie critics - making the case for criticism.

    54 min

  2. 8 NOV

    Niall Williams’ Time of the Child might just be the big ‘feel-good book of the year’

    Niall Williams’ Time of the Child might just be the big ‘feel-good book of the year’—but there’s more to it than that. This is a beautifully written Irish story, full of ordinary lives described in painfully funny detail. Also, Scottish writer Ali Smith and her too-real-to-be-allegorical Gliff; and in Alan Moore's The Great When, we're presented with a hallucinatory vision of an alternative London, anchored in post-World War ll realism. BOOKS Ali Smith, Gliff, Hamish Hamilton Alan Moore, The Great When, Bloomsbury Niall Williams, Time of the Child, Bloomsbury GUESTS Garth Nix, sci-fi and fantasy writer whose books include the Old Kingdom series, Angel Mage , and  The Left-Handed Booksellers of London; his latest is a middle-grade novel, We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord Chris Hammer, crime writer whose books include Scrublands, Silver, and The Tilt. His latest, featuring his characters Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic is The Valley  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These Fintan O'Toole, We Don't Know Ourselves Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove Chris Whittaker, We Begin at the End C.S. Robertson, The Trials of Marjorie Crowe CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Craig Tilmouth, Ann-Marie Debettencor Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

    54 min

  3. 1 NOV

    Dark Skies, a quest and nature writing in Inga Simpson’s The Thinning

    The Dressmaker’s backstory, a universe of stars to expand our ideas about nature writing, and fragments and tricks galore: Kate and Cassie read Inga Simpson’s The Thinning, Brian Castro’s Chinese Postman and Rosalie Ham’s Molly with guests Ella Jeffery and Amanda Hampson BOOKS Inga Simpson, The Thinning, Hachette Brian Castro, Chinese Postman, Giramondo Rosalie Ham, Molly, Picador GUESTS Dr Ella Jeffery, poet and lecturer in Creative Writing at Griffith University, Qld; ABC Radio National ‘Top 5 Arts’ candidate; currently examining insecure housing as a theme in 21st-century literature Amanda Hampson, novelist whose latest series feature tea ladies in 1960s Sydney . . . solving crime. The first, The Tea Ladies, won the 2024 Danger Award for Best Crime Novel. The second is The Cryptic Clue; and the third – The Deadly Dispute – will be published in April 2025. There will be five in the series. Other books mentioned: Patricia Wrightson, The Nargun and the Stars John Marsden, Tomorrow when the War Began James Bradley, Deep Water: The World in the Ocean Richard Powers, Playground Robert C. O’Brien, Z for Zachariah Cormac McCarthy, The Road  Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career A B Facey, A Fortunate Life Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life Ruth Park, works  Helen Garner, Works John Birmingham, He Died with a Felafel in his Hand Andrew McGahan, works Bernadette Brennan, Brain Castro’s Fiction: The Seductive Play of Language CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: Harvey O'Sullivan, Peter Climpson, Emrys Cronin Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

    54 min

  4. 25 OCT

    Matricide, the (Virginia) Woolfmother, Norwegian woods: Graeme Macrae Burnet, Michelle de Kretser, Karl Ove Knausgaard

    The latest from double Miles Franklin Award winner, Michelle de Kretser, Theory and Practice, a novel that evokes the 1980s and Virginia Woolf. Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet plays a French literary game in A Case of Matricide; and summer days under the light of a strange star in Norway in Karl Ove Knausgaard’s The Third Realm. BOOKS Graeme Macrae Burnet, A Case of Matricide, Text Michelle de Kretser, Theory & Practice, Text Karl Ove Knausgaard, The Third Realm, (Translated from the Norwegian by Martin Aitken), Harvill Secker GUESTS Clare Monagle, Professor of Mediaeval History, Macquarie University – who specialises in the history of ideas, and theology in the Middle Ages Mark Mordue, freelance music writer and poet whose latest book is the biography, Boy on Fire - The Young Nick Cave. He is also co-director of the Addi Road Writers Festival  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED  Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca Helen Garner, works C.J. Sansom, Shardlake series Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose  Jack Gilbert, Collected Poems Juno Gemes, Until Justice Comes: Fifty Years of the Movement for Indigenous Rights  CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Tegan Nicholls, Ann Marie de Bettencor Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

    54 min

  5. 18 OCT

    Melanie Cheng's The Burrow: can a pet rabbit heal a family dealing with tragedy?

    Kate and Cassie read Melanie Cheng’s The Burrow, a pandemic-set novella that details the healing powers of a pet rabbit for a family dealing with tragedy. Plus, Native American writer Louise Erdrich’s The Mighty Red, a beautifully crafted novel about a love triangle and everyday life in a farming community in North Dakota, and the latest from Yuwaalaraay storyteller Nardi Simpson, The Belburd, a poetic montage of life and death. BOOKS  Melanie Cheng, The Burrow, Text  Louise Erdrich, The Mighty Red, Corsair  Nardi Simpson, The Belburd, Hachette  GUESTS  Steph Harmon, Culture Editor, The Guardian  Tom Wright, theatre writer and adaptor; Associate Director, Belvoir Theatre  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Nardi Simpson, Song of the Crocodile Emeric Pressburger, The Glass Pearls Claire Kilroy, Soldier Sailor Alan Murrin, The Coast Road  Dan Hogan, Secret Third Thing ​CREDIT Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: Craig Tilmouth, Beth Stewart Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

    54 min

  6. 11 OCT

    Twins, pumas and a colonial western in Robbie Arnott’s Dusk

    Twins, pumas and a colonial western in Robbie Arnott’s Dusk; gay lives, racial politics, class, theatre and exquisite writing, in Alan Hollinghurst’s Our Evenings; and writing between the myths, rumours and religious speculation of a mediaeval woman pope in Emily Maguire's Rapture. BOOKS Robbie Arnott, Dusk, Picador Alan Hollinghurst, Our Evenings, Picador Emily Maguire, Rapture, Allen & Unwin GUESTS Huw Griffiths, Associate Professor of English Literature, University of Sydney – with a special interest in Shakespeare and contemporary gay literature. His books include Disavowing Authority in the Shakespeare Classroom and Shakespeare’s Body Parts: Figuring Sovereignty in the History Plays Meredith Lake, presents Soul Search on ABC Radio National as well as Mornings on ABC Alice Springs. She is also a historian of religion, whose latest book is The Bible in Australia: A Cultural History   OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Jon Ransom, The Gallopers Max Porter, works Cynan Jones, works Arelhekenhe Angkentye - Women’s Talk, Poems of Lyapirtneme from Arrernte Women in Central Australia Kim Mahood, Craft for a Dry Lake; Position Doubtful; Wandering with Intent   CREDITS  Presenter, Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Roi Huberman, Ann-Marie Debettencor Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

    54 min

  7. 4 OCT

    Tim Winton and the ruined future of his novel Juice 

    The Bookshelf is a program for dedicated readers and those who wished they read more.

    54 min

  8. 27 SEPT

    What's the verdict on Sally Rooney's new novel Intermezzo?

    Many people have been awaiting the release of Intermezzo, the latest book by Irish writer Sally Rooney, which explores love, grief, growing up, playing chess, understanding and misunderstanding family...Kate and Cassie begin the show with this one, with additional input from millennial author Madeleine Gray. Also, under the sea with Richard Powers in his new novel Playground; and searching the American South with Gayl Jones in The Unicorn Woman, with guidance from historian Ethan Blue. BOOKS Sally Rooney, Intermezzo, Faber Richard Powers, Playground, Hutchinson Heinemann Gayl Jones, The Unicorn Woman, Virago GUESTS Madeleine Gray, critic and writer whose debut novel, Green Dot, was published in 2023 and is now being adapted for screen. Winner of the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year at the 2024 ABIAs Ethan Blue, Associate Professor of History at the University of W.A., where he specialises in histories of punishment, migration and incarceration.  Author of The Deportation Express: A History of America through Forced Removal https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-deportation-express/hardcover OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry Reginald Rose, Twelve Angry Men Miriam Toews, Women Talking Julia Langbein, American Mermaid Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body  Neil Stephenson, Termination Shock Eleanor Catton. Birnam Wood Zora Neal Hurston, There Eyes are Watching God Langston Hughes, works W.E.B. Du Bois, works Richard Wright, works Ella Baxter, Woo Woo Anne Carson, Eros the Bittersweet Percival Everett, James Ivan Chaar Lopez, The Cybernetic Border: Drones, Technology, and Intrusion Felicity Amaya Schaeffer, Unsettled Borders: The Militarized Science of Surveillance on Sacred Indigenous Lands Frederick Jamieson, The Political Unconscious Margaret Drabble, works Thomas Hardy, works CREDITS CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: Harvey O'Sullivan, Simon Branthwaite Executive producer: Rhiannon Brown

    55 min
See All (445)

About

What are you reading, loving or being challenged by? We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more.

Information

  • Creator
    ABC listen
  • Years Active
    2012 - 2024
  • Episodes
    445
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2024, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All right reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Bookshelf

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