Culture
Books
As a child of immigrants, my choice was clear: be a doctor or be a disappointment
My parents wanted to create something better for my sister and me, but that had nothing to do with happiness.
- by Jess Ho
Latest
‘No trends, no hype’: The indie magazines changing how we think about food
From Armenian pumpkin dishes and Venezuelan snacks to ‘unserious’ wine and recipes with invasive pests, these publications offer a fresh take on cuisine.
- by Lee Tran Lam
Opinion
WordPlay
That aching feeling after finishing a good book? There’s a word for that
John Koenig’s bestselling Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows offers a glossary of new terms for living in the modern world.
- by David Astle
Fossicking in the objects that get to the heart of Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Cocker takes us into an attic in London where he unpacks - literally - the evidence of his journey from myopic space-loving boychild to proto pop star.
- by Michelle Griffin
Jarvis Cocker tells how an attic full of junk unlocked his ‘superpower’
The musician’s sort-of memoir, Good Pop Bad Pop, is the Pulp singer’s brain unpacked in illustrated book form.
- by Michael Dwyer
Why I stopped going to the barber shop
Growing up, I’d always had a prickly relationship with barber shops. As an adult, I decided to quit going to them altogether.
- by George Haddad
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Marine life
Pioneering female scientists put spotlight on Sydney’s seashore secrets
A new exhibition of the Australian seashore shines the spotlight on the women who created a landmark book in 1952.
- by Helen Pitt
‘I believed that if I was Bengali, then I couldn’t be queer’
If I transformed my body, I would also be transforming the fundamental parts of my ma, my papa and my brother.
- by Arani Ahmed
A Day trip through nature, language and culture
Novelist Gregory Day’s award-winning nature writing is firmly on the side of the traditional owners of Country.
- by John Kinsella
Spirited memoir of travel after divorce is a long way from Eat, Pray, Love
Louise Omer’s Holy Woman tells of her marriage and its coercive control and, later, her search for a religion where women can really belong.
- by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen