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. -6 J

    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
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. 20 SEPT.

    French provocateur Michel Houellebecq + Olga Tokarczuk's health resort horror

    Novels from France, Poland and India – with politics, sanatoriums, automata and horror in the mix too. Kate and Cassie read French writer (and provocateur) Michel Houellebecq’s Annihilation (but can they get to the end of the book? There’s the question); while Polish reader and publicist Anna O’Grady joins them to discuss Nobel Prize winning writer Olga Tokarczuk’s The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story; and academic, novelist and memoirist Kári Gislason joins them to review Tania James’ Loot. BOOKS Michel Houellebecq, Annihilation, Picador Olga Tokarczuk, The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story, Text Tania James, Loot, Harvill Secker   GUESTS Anna O’Grady, Publicity Director, Simon & Schuster. Born in Poland, both her parents and grandparents were connected with the Polish publishing industry Kári Gislason, Professor in Creative Writing & Literary Studies, Queensland University of Technology. His books include The Promise of Iceland, the novel The Sorrow Stone and Saga Land (co-authored with Richard Fidler). His latest is the memoir Running with Pirates OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain Samantha Harvey, Orbital Carys Davis, Clear Jennifer Croft, The Extinction of Irena Rey Debra Dank, We Come With This Place Tegan Bennett Daylight, The Details Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals Karl Over Knausgaard, My Struggle series Anna Jacobson, How to Knit a Human CREDITS Presenter, Kate Evans + Cassie McCullagh Producer, Kate Evans  + Sarah Corbett Sound engineer, Harvey O'Sullivan + Simon Branthwaite Executive producer, Rhiannon Brown

    55 min

À propos

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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