Last updated: June 14, 2017

Harry Potter and the magic tome

11/01/2001 PIRATE: Actor Daniel Radcliffe in a scene from the 2001 film 'Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone.
Twenty years on from his first adventure, JK Rowling’s boy wizard continues to enchant readers.

Delusion or massive conspiracy?

George Pell and the new book about his controversies.
We expect a 384-page hatchet job on Cardinal George Pell from author Louise Milligan. Does she deliver?

Macarthur Park takes the cake

Macarthur Park takes the cake
Veteran American songwriter Jimmy Webb’s Australian tour is bound to be peppered with anecdotes from his new memoir.

Awful apostrophes

Awful apostrophes
Readers have responded wonderfully to my recent column on awful apostrophes and other grammatical gangsters.

Searching for meaning

British Army Deployed On The Streets As UK Terror Alert Increases To Critical
Two authors offer different views on modern political thought in a world that has gone wrong.

Ladies of legend

Battle of Greeks and Amazons. Marble sarcophagus. Pio Clementino Museum; Octagonal Court. Vatican Museums.
When Achilles saw the queen of the Amazons, he instantly fell in love. You can see why.

Tale will leave you terrified

fever dream fever dream fever dream
This slim volume is best consumed in a single sitting, preferably with the lights on and the doors locked tight.

Sentences pack patrician punch

An 1856 portrait of Gustave Flaubert by Eugene Giraud
Michel Winock distinguishes himself as a biographer in his contextualised analysis of Flaubert’s fiction.

Antidotes to misogyny

Author author author Jenny Valentish
Two authors offer orginal takes on the issues of self harm and addiction.

Picking up pieces of his past

Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Ford in Sydney for the Sydney Writers Festival.
This is a deeply beautiful book by a master craftsman that will remind you of your own parents.

Awful apostrophes

Awful apostrophes
Readers have responded wonderfully to my recent column on awful apostrophes and other grammatical gangsters.

Macarthur Park takes the cake

Macarthur Park takes the cake
Veteran American songwriter Jimmy Webb’s Australian tour is bound to be peppered with anecdotes from his new memoir.

Wanders of the urban world

Reid Sawyer
To the flaneur, the sights, sounds and smells of city streets are the stuff of life.

Dylan’s belated Nobel lecture

Dylan’s belated Nobel lecture
Bob Dylan finally delivers the lecture required to keep the $1.2m prize money, eight months after he won the Nobel prize for literature | LISTEN

Maternal warmth lights lives

Maternal warmth lights lives
Linda Shum became determined to make a difference after visiting an orphanage in China.

Keeping keen eye on the past

Keeping keen eye on the past
Barbara Fisher is one of a ­group of Australian women poets who started late and had to make up for ‘‘lost’’ time.

Strout’s uneasy truths

Strout’s uneasy truths
Elizabeth Strout again proves in this book of interwoven short stories that nothing is off limits in her writing.

Out of the woods

Out of the woods
US biologist David George Haskell and Inga Simpson, an Australian writer, share a fascination with ancient trees.

Damn lies and statistics

Damn lies and statistics
Three new reports give us a revealing glimpse of the numbers behind Australia’s book industry and its readers.

Blues bombshell’s consequences

Blues bombshell’s consequences
In and around the chaos, Hari Kunzru weaves pertinent thoughts on race, exploitation and the power of music.

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