Books

Writers' literary labours bear fruit

Jason Steger In one of her poems, Jennifer Maiden likens her role as a poet to an ox, ploughing 'my furrow heavily and fruitfully''.

Liquid Nitrogen poet Jennifer Maiden wins Australia's richest literature prize

JASON STEGER In one of her poems, Jennifer Maiden likens her role as a poet to an ox, ploughing "my furrow heavily and fruitfully". Her labour proved fruitful on Tuesday evening at Government House when she was named winner of this year's Victorian Prize for Literature for her most recent collection, Liquid Nitrogen.

Convict life revealed

A long-lost book is a precious part of Australia's heritage, writes Robert Willson.

By the light of the moon

We were once fearful, reluctant, shy about the beach, writes Tim Baker. Now look at us.

Michaela McGuire: books that changed me

Author, blogger and editor Michaela McGuire talks about her favourite books.

James Patterson is writing like crazy

Marylou Tousignant Author James Patterson has long liked telling stories, and loves encouraging children to read.

Bookshop

Reviewed by Thuy On On the bookshelf this week: Bird, Living with Dr Who and The Kept.

I Am Pilgrim review: Gripping mix of terrorist cliches

Review By Anne Susskind The US President is set to tell the population, on TV, to be on high alert for a nuclear attack. But that's only the cover story for something much worse, which he doesn't tell them about. A nuclear attack, unlike the chemical warfare that is only hours away, can be contained and localised, and won't panic them as much.

For Today I am A Boy: Author Kim Fu on her debut novel

Psychology studies shaped a debut novel about gender identity, writes Marc McEvoy.

Measured but vexing tangent

Review By Gerard Windsor A biographer turns his hand to the geometry of the Iron Age.

Veronica Roth: Out of the dark

She is young, talented and her star is on the rise, but Veronica Roth has battled demons on her road to literary success, writes James Kidd.

Lunch with... Richard Flanagan

JASON STEGER Richard Flanagan learnt early about the value of words, and life's upheavals have strengthened their hold.

Silence of the movie machine

Louise Adler The moral cost of doing business with Nazi film interests was high.

Report From The Interior review: The good, the bad and the execrable end in torpor

Catherine Ford Reading Paul Auster's fiction has never been satisfying, in my experience, but I put my dislike of the acclaimed New Jersey author's novels - when his post-modern parlour games failed to enthral, say, or his cheesy tough-guy dialogue made me smirk - down to inexplicable blind spots in my discernment.

The Everything Store: The infinite emporium

Jeff Sparrow 'Get big fast' was the slogan plugged by the online bookstore's founder. It worked.

Well-read: fiction's big sensations

Louise Schwartzkoff Literary crazes were driving fans into frenzies for centuries before J.K.Rowling dreamed of a boy wizard, or teenagers went batty over The Hunger Games. Here are some of literature's big hits.

Infinite emporium

Reviewer: JEFF SPARROW Brad Stone's account of Amazon's engagement with the publishing industry is particularly striking.

Inside story brings Auster to the surface

Reviewed by Catherine Ford Paul Auster's autobiography consists of plodding tales of being alive in mid-century America.

Books

New focus on Hitler

Reviewed by Louise Adler Two new books examine the controversial relationship between the Hollywood film industry and Nazi Germany's film-loving leader.

Wotsername

Ric Hambleton A story about a woman's path to the top and the inadvertent help she gets from her husband's girlfriend has won Ric Hambleton third prize in the Age/ Readings short-story competition.

Bringing up the bodies

Reviewed by Owen Richardson The centenary of World War I is approaching and printing presses are going into action.

The man who sold the world

Reviewed by Jeff Sparrow Bezos started off selling books, but he always wanted Amazon to be an 'Everything Store'.

The word on Wolf Creek

Jane Sullivan He's a loveable larrikin, as Aussie as they come. He's also given to wearing human skin.

A big dip in the Atlantic

JASON STEGER Allen & Unwin takes on the Atlantic; Peter Temple's dog days; Scribe signs up in Britain; and Penguin and Random snuggle up closer.

Vale Oxlade

Death in Brunswick author Boyd Oxlade dies of cancer, aged 70

JASON STEGER Boyd Oxlade, the man who created one of the most darkly comic scenes in Australian film, died early on Friday. He was 70 and had been suffering from cancer. His 1987 novel Death in Brunswick was turned into the 1990 film of the same name, starring Sam Neill, John Clarke and Zoe Carides.

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Girlfriend Guide to Life to help with birds and bees

KIM STEPHENS Uptight Australian parents are continuing to eschew the birds and the bees talk with their teenagers, Queensland researchers say.

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Oxford blues

Tom Rachman The new man at the helm of the iconic dictionary wants to profit from a digital revolution, writes Tom Rachman.

Original slang … Whatever

Traditionalists lament the decline of the English language, but historical quotations in the Oxford English Dictionary show that many infamous terms of today are older than expected.

Oxford English Dictionary: Language by the book, but the book is evolving

Tom Rachman Oxford English Dictionary's new chief editor Michael Proffitt is looking to serve traditionalists and the users to come while ensuring relevance in an era of Googled definitions and text talk.

Relax books

Ann Patchett talks straight

The author and bookstore owner is something of a traditionalist, writes Janet Maslin.

Stephen Ward Was Innoncent, OK

Reviewed by Peter Craven Geoffrey Robertson QC, Australia's international celebrity silk, takes apart the Profumo Affair.

Bookshop

Reviewed by Thuy On On the shelf this week: Alphabetical, Hades, and the story of a dog, a hepcat and a crocodile.

Knowing Mandela

Reviewed by Owen Richardson Written before his death, this book deals with the effects Mandela had on those he met.

A mother's internal harem

Mireille Juchau Parenthood drives an exploration of literary conventions.

Barefoot snakes and ladders

Angie Schiavone Six months between release dates isn't the only thing that separates Nikki Gemmell's latest two books. The first, the Bride trilogy's final erotic instalment, was - as the author puts it - the most ''out-there'' adult book she'd written. The second, a Christmas-time mystery-adventure for children, is credited to N. J. Gemmell; a safeguard perhaps, against any young new fans mistaking Gemmell's The Bride Stripped Bare as another The Kensington Reptilarium.

Burnt-out world where all but the horror disappears

Anne Susskind That Anthony Marra composed this book - and I say composed deliberately, because it is so full of lyrical imagery - in his 20s is astonishing. That's not the reason I admire it, because it stands alone but, for the record, it was started when he was 22, finished when he was 28 and, bar a few small irritations, a more polished book would be hard to find. It was named among the best books of 2013 by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Interview: Simon Singh

NICK GALVIN It takes a scientific mind to decipher the link between maths and the world's most famous cartoon series.

Sounds that keep the soul young

Warwick McFadyen The landscape has changed irrevocably from Elvis to Gaga, but in that evolution an exuberant beat still matters.

Travel shapes a revolutionary

Christopher Kremmer South Africa turned a shy Indian lawyer into a freedom fighter.

A mother's cast of thousands

Reviewer: MIREILLE JUCHAU Author Elif Shafak draws on the female struggle for creative expression within patriarchal cultures.

Chilling crime novel breaks down facades

Reviewer: ANNA CREER This is a dark story that explores the nature of evil and how it can hide behind the most respectable of facades.

Republic shapes a revolutionary

Reviewer: CHRISTOPHER KREMMER A great man has found a great biographer in Ramachandra Guha, a wise and elegant historian.

Sounds that keep the soul young

Reviewer: WARWICK McFADYEN If you read only one book on the history of popular music, let it be this one, writes Warwick McFadyen.

Science and Springfield

Simon Singh is one of Britain's best-known science writers. So why is his new book about The Simpsons, asks Nick Galvin.

India under the microscope

Reviewer: VERONICA SEN The assassination of Indira Gandhi are at the centre of works by Jhumpa Lahiri and Jaspreet Singh.

Barefoot snakes and ladders

Reviewer: ANGIE SCHIAVONE The Reptilarium is impressive with its deadly reptiles and foreboding signs like "enter at own risk, death may follow".

Forging a fighter for freedom

Reviewed by Christopher Kremmer That a shy, pious, food-fussy lawyer from India would lead one of the 20th century's great uprisings to victory remains one of history's most counter-intuitive narratives.