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. 19 HR AGO

    Mothers and Sons...is the story as fraught as the title?

    An examination of family dynamics through three novels...Adam Haslett’s Mothers and Sons reflects on unspoken stories and familial divides; The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr, set in 1970s Ireland, tells the story of a family that takes in a child washed ashore, and Robert Lukins’ Somebody Down There Likes Me depicts an uber-rich family who gather together as their wealth and corruption begin to unravel. BOOKS Adam Haslett, Mothers and Sons, Hamish Hamilton Robert Lukins, Somebody Down There Likes Me, Allen & Unwin Garrett Carr, The Boy from the Sea, Picador GUESTS Claire Mabey, founder of NZ’s Verb Wellington literary organisation and writers’ festival; books editor at The Spinoff; writer whose middle-grade children’s book The Raven's Eye Runaways was published last year. And, here's a link to the NZ book awards Claire mentions: https://www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-book-awards/) Jonty Claypole, CEO Red Room Poetry; co-host of podcast The Secret Life of Books; author, Words Fail Us: In Defence of Disfluency  OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Percival Everett, James Charles Dickens, David Copperfield Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead Samantha Harvey, Orbital Robert Lukins, The Everlasting Sunday; Loveland F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby Mark Twain, Moby Dick Shakespeare, Hamlet Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited Audrey Magee, The Colony Paul Murray, The Bee Sting Paul Lynch, Prophet Song Colm Toibin, works Niall Williams, Time of the Child Fiona McFarlane, The Sun Walks Down James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice Marilynne Robinson, Gilead Susannah Clarke, Piranesi Damien Wilkins, Delirious Harriet Baker, Rural Hours CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: John Jacobs, Ann Marie Debettencor Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

    54 min
  2. 6 FEB

    A story of yearning, belonging, secrets and identity from Native America

    A brief foray into the world of ‘romantasy’ and the international bestseller Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. A story of yearning, belonging, secrets and identity from Native America in Morgan Talty’s Fire Exit; rusted robots, prosthetic limbs, AI and noisy families in Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor’s Death of the Author; and coercive control and walking on eggshells in Irish writer Roisín  O’Donnell’s Nesting. BOOKS  Morgan Talty, Fire Exit, Scribe  Rebecca Yarros, Onyx Storm [Book three in the Fourth Wing/Empyrean series], Piatkus  Nnedi Okorafor, Death of the Author, Gollancz  Roisín O’Donnell, Nesting, Scribner  GUESTS  Bruce Isaacs, Associate Professor of Film Studies at the University of Sydney; and co-host of the podcast Film Versus Film  Sarah Gilbert, journalist, Executive Producer, Impact Studios, University of Technology, Sydney. Her latest book is Unconventional Women: The Story of the last Blessed Sacrament Sisters in Australia. She is currently writing a biblio-memoir set in Buenos Aires, and has a podcast coming with Sydney Review of Books called Fully Lit OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Nikki May, Wahala Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Cazalet Chronicles Elsa Morante, Lies and Sorcery Elene Ferrante, works CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans + Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, John Jacobs and Harvey O'Sullivan Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

    57 min
  3. 23 JAN

    Escaping a drunken rant in Catherine Jinks' Panic

    Kate and Cassie are back for 2025 to discuss Panic by Catherine Jinks, about a young woman looking for a fresh start after posting a drunken rant that went horrifically viral. Novelist George Haddad, and Professor Sue Turnbull, who specialises in crime drama and fiction, are also along, to take a look at new novels by Miles Franklin winner Shankari Chandran and American author Garth Greenwell. BOOKS Catherine Jinks, Panic, Text Garth Greenwell, Small Rain, Picador Shankari Chandran, Unfinished Business, Ultimo Press GUESTS George Haddad, novelist, artist and lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Western Sydney. His novel Losing Face was published in 2022 Sue Turnbull, Professor of Communication and Media at the University of Wollongong, who specialises in crime drama and fiction. She is also chief crime fiction reviewer for The Age and SMH OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time Alice Winn, In Memoriam Richard J. Evans, Hitler's People George Eliot, Middlemarch Caroline Darian, I'll Never Call Him Dad Again:  Turning our family trauma of Chemical Submission into a collective fight Curtis Sittenfeld, Show Don't Tell; Romantic Comedy; Eligible Garth Greenwell, Cleanness Shankari Chandran, Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens Katherine Brabon, Body Friend Ben Watt, Patient  Alexandros Papadiamantis, The Murderess Michelle de Kretser, Theory and Practice Ronni Salt, Gunnawah  Ashley Kalagian Blunt, Cold Truth; Dark Mode Katherena Vermette, The Stranger family trilogy   CREDITS Presenter: Kate Evans, Cassie McCullagh Producer: Kate Evans, Sarah Corbett Sound engineer: Tegan Nicholls, Harvey O'Sullivan Executive producer: Rhiannon Brown

    54 min

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    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.

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