This Month
Here’s a puzzle: what is a cruciverbalist’s job?
Should they reflect the linguistic biases of a paper’s readership, or correct those leanings?
- Becca Rothfeld
March
This woman is like ‘the Beatles for children’
You might not have heard of her, but Raina Telgemeier is an author who defines a generation of children’s literature, and whose books have encapsulated a generation’s experience of childhood.
- Jordan Kisner
Why we should revisit the dramas of postwar France
Author Julian Jackson says French history over the last century is full of thrills and spills that have fresh relevance in an era of tawdry politics.
- Andrew Clark
Investment banks’ secrets revealed in insider’s new novel
After 20 years at the likes of Barrenjoey, Deustche Bank, ABN Amro and Jarden, Jill Valentine explores leadership styles, drug-fuelled parties and the dark art of “blue hushing” in her fiction.
- Jemima Whyte
February
Why ‘romantasy’ books are in a sales boom
Readers are devouring spicy tales of dragon riders, beautiful assassins and brooding faerie lords, and say there’s no “guilt” in this pleasure.
- Lucy Dean
Forget the 5am club; this famous author is up at 3am – even on Sundays
Edinburgh-based Sir Alexander McCall Smith writes in the wee hours, and then goes back to bed and starts the weekends again later, with fried eggs and bacon.
- Fiona Carruthers
The expert who unmasked a Hitler forgery and appraised Nixon’s papers
Safeguarding History is a fun read about the life of a history expert who hobnobs with the rich and famous.
- Michael Dirda
Hugh Hefner’s widow reveals what he was like between the sheets
Crystal Hefner has written about her life inside the Playboy mansion and surviving the “trauma” of her marriage to the notorious libertine.
- Pippa Bailey
January
How TikTok made the ‘Hugh Grant bookshop’ viral - again
A new generation is discovering the joy of reading on paper thanks to an electronic medium.
- Madeleine Ross
Books to watch out for this year
A selection of non-fiction titles that are already generating buzz.
- Foreign Policy
December 2023
Meet the man who conned the world
Long before Nigerian princes became a fixture of email inboxes, John Ackah Blay-Miezah spun a web of lies that promised untold riches from Ghana’s colonial past.
- Yepoka Yeebo
The books flying off the shelves right now
Richard Flanagan’s “best thing yet”, a graphic novel for teenagers, Trent Dalton’s latest novel and ‘dragons and young love’ are flying off bookshop shelves.
- Hannah Wootton
The first Australian writer to make politics and sex sing
Frank Moorhouse was one of Australia’s most adventurous and productive authors. A new biography explains his rise.
- Andrew Clark
Author Anna Funder takes on her critics
Sydney Grammar School used Funder’s take on George Orwell’s wife to help its HSC students understand the author and his book,1984. Others are not so pleased.
- Emma Connors
Looking for a good book? Try these 10 chosen by foreign policy experts
Writers at Foreign Policy pick a selection of non-fiction titles, from AI’s hype and fear to one of the biggest financial scandals in world history.
- Foreign Policy
The year’s top 20 books as chosen by the newsroom team
From cookbooks and design tomes to literary page-turners to savour, with subjects that include living longer, garden design and a fallen crypto king.
- Staff writers
November 2023
- Christmas Gift Guide 2023
- Life & Leisure
You can’t go wrong with these beautiful books for time-poor people
We’ve selected 14 image-driven options in which the pictures do the talking.
- Stephen Clark
I survived the hell of Twitter 2.0 - then Elon Musk fired me
As the head of new products, Esther Crawford was one of the few Twitter employees prepared to say no to the company’s new owner. It went well, until it didn’t.
- Ben Mezrich
‘iPhone of the 19th century’: how an old curio inspires design today
What had people obsessed and bumping into walls in the 1800s? The kaleidoscope, says a British designer whose work will be on show at the NGV Triennial.
- Stephen Todd
October 2023
How Michael Lewis made a fortune writing about money
The author’s nose for a story has made him a figure as influential in finance as most of the people in his books – and probably as rich.
- Jake Kerridge