May 2023

The Promise by Damon Galgut, 3.5
The Mother Wound by Amani Haydar, 3.5
The Homecoming by Kate Morton, 3.5
The Ministurist by Jessie Burton, 3.5
The House of Fortune by Jessie Burton, 3.5
The Last Paimtimg of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith, 3.5
King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild, 5
One Hundred Days by Alice Pung, 4
How to Raise an Elephant by Alexander McCall Smith, 3
Bad art mother by Edwina Preston, 3.5
The undertaking by Audrey Magee, 3.5
Victory city by Salman Rushdie, 4
The seven skins of Esther wilding by Holly Ringland, 3
Everyone in my family has killed someone by Benjamin Stevenson, 2
Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, 3.5
Indelible Ink by Fiona McGregor, 3
The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut, 3.5

April 2023

The Singularities by John Banville, 4
The God of No Good by Sita Walker, 3
Limberlost by Robbie Arnott, 3.5
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, 4
Fake by Stephanie Wood, 3.5
Turns Out I’m Fine by Judith Lucy, 3
It’s Raining in Mango by Thea Astley, 4.5
The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald, 4
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan – 4
Kingdom of Fear by Hunter S Thompson 3.5
Stoner by John Williams 4.5
Stolen Tides: among the islands and atolls of the Pacific Ocean by Tom Bamforth 3.5

March 2023

The good doctor by Damon Galgut, 4
The art of looking up by Catherine McCormack, 4
Fake A startling true story of love in a world of liars, cheats, narcissists, fantasists and ponies by Stephanie Wood, 4
And every morning the way home gets longer and longer by Fredrik Backman, 3
Cold enough for snow by Jessica Au, 3
Turns out I’m fine by Judith Lucy, 3
Nobody’s looking at you by Janet Malcolm, 3.5
Still pictures by Janet Malcolm, 2.5
Rough magic, riding the world’s loneliest horse race, by Lara Prior Palmer, 2.5
Glory by No Violet Bulawayo, 4
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, 3.5
My Father by Marilyn French, 3.5
The Bleeding Heart by Marilyn French, 3
Return to Uluru by Mark McKenna, 3
The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok, 3
Boyhood by J M Coetzee, 3
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, 3
The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy, 3
Big Sky by Kate Atkinson, 2.5
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, 3.5
Nora Webster by Colm Toibin, 3
The Shut Ins by Katherine Brabon, 3.5
Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy, 4
The Book of Roads and Kingdoms by Richard Fidler, 3.5
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, 3.5
Educated by Tara Westover, 4
Stolen Focus by Johann Hari, 3.5
Small things like these by Claire Kingston, 3.5
The other Eden by Paul Harding, 4

 

February 2023

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, 3
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy, 4
Runt by Craig Silvey, 4
Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah, 4
By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah, 4
Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah, 3.5
The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Tóibín, 3.5
House of Names by Colm Tóibín, 3.5
The Heather Blazing by Colm Tóibín, 3.5
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, 3.5
Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan, 3
Nutshell by Ian McEwan, 2
Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo, 4
Seeing Other People by Diane Reid, 2.5
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lax by Rebecca Skloot 4
The Returns by Philip Salom 3.5
The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel by Kati Marton, 3.5
Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri, 3.5
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, 3
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, 2.5
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, 4.5
Return to Uluru by Mark McKenna, 4
The gate of angels by Penelope Fitzgerald, 4
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann, 4

 

January 2023

The South by Colm Toibin, 3
One Italian Summer by Pip Williams, 3
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout, 3.5
The Story of the Night by Colm Toibin, 4
From Heaven Lake by Vikram Seth, 2.5
Horse by Geraldine Brooks, 2.5
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmun, 4
The seven moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, 4.5
The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman, 3
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes, 3.5
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout, 4
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, 4
Bulldozed by Niki Savva, 3
Foal’s Bread by Gillian Mears, 3.5
Beyond by Stephen Walker, 4
The Ride of her Life by Elizabeth Letts, 3.5
The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott, 4
The Pearl by John Steinbeck 4
The House of Unexpected Sisters by Alexander McCall Smith 2.5
Gravel heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah, 4
To the lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, 4
Phospherence by Julia Baird, 3
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne, 4

 

November 2022

The Long Song by Andrea Levy, 4.5
It’s Raining in Mango by Thea Astley 4.5
Return to Uluru by Mark McKenna, 3.5
Foals bread by Gillian Mears, 3
Chemistry Lessons by Bonnie Grams, 3
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, 4.5
Coda by Thea Astley, 4
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, 3.5
The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, 4
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson, 3.5
Lessons by Ian McEwan, 3
A Question of Age: Women, ageing and the forever self by Jacinta Parsons, 1
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, 3.5
Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, 2
A history of loneliness by John Boyne, 4.5

October 2022

How to End a Story: Dairies: 1995-1998 by Helen Garner, 3.5
The Captain and the Enemy by Graeme Green, 3.5
The Innocent by Ian McEwan, 3.5
The Master by Colm Toibin, 3.5
The Wild Silene by Raynor Winn, 3
The Heart of the Matter by Graeme Greene, 3
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson, 3
Loveland by Robert Lukins, 2
The closed circle by Jonathan Coe, 3.5
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, 3
The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, 3
The other side of beautiful by Kim Lock, 2.5
Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down, 3.5

September 2022

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, 4
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, 5
Trust by Herman Diaz, 3.5
Confessions with Blue Horses by Sophie Hardach, 4
Freezing Order by Bill Browder, 3.5
The Other Name: Septology I-II by Jon Fosse, 4
Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta, 3.5
Nora Webster by Colm Toibin, 3.5
Love stories by Trent Dalton, 2.5
Mother Wound by Amani Haydar, 3.5
Small things like these by Claire Keegan, 3.5
A mother’s disgrace by Robert Dessaix, 4
Making Australian History by Anna Clark, 4
Eyrie by Tim Winton, 4
The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman, 3.5
One Day I’ll Remember This, Diaries 1987-1995 by Helen Garner, 3.5
The Pursuit of love by Nancy Mitford, 3
The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves, 3
The Offing by Benjamin Myers, 3
Circle by Madeline Miller, 3
Oranges are not the only fruit by Jeanette Winterson, 2.5
Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta, 3.5
Nora Webster by Colm Toibin, 3.5
Beastings by Benjamin Myers, 4
Horse by Geraldine Brooks, 3.5
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, 4.5

August 2022

Loveland by Richard Lukins, 4
Fathoms The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs, 5
Everyone In My Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson, 3
The Very Last List of Vivian Walker by Megan Albany, 3.5
Night Road by Kristin Hannah, 3.5
Home Front by Kristin Hannah, 3.5
The Light Through the Leaves by Glendy Vanderah, 3
Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, 5
The Giant, O’Brien by Hilary Mantel, 3
The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire by Chloe Hooper, 3
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland, 1.5
The dictionary of lost words by Pip Williams, 3.5
Abracadabra by Robert Dessaix, 3.5
The German House by Annette Hess, 3.5
A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum, 4

July 2022

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, 4
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak, 3.5
Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee, 4
The Butterfly Man by Heather Rose, 4
A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum, 3.5
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, 3.5
The Prettiest Horse in the Glue Factory by Corey White, 3.5
Foreign Correspondence: a Pen Pal’s Journey from Down Under to All Over by Geraldine Brooks, 3
Holy Cow: an Indian Adventure by Sarah Macdonald, 2.5

June 2022

Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah, 3.5
More than I love my Life by David Grossman, 3.5
First Love by Ivan Turgenev, 3.5
By the sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah, 3
In Kiltumper by Niall and Christine Williams, 3.5
Love Stories by Trent Dalton, 2.5
The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie, 3
Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro, 3.5
England,England by Julian Barnes, 4
French Braid by Ann Tyler, 3.5
Sons by Pearl S Buck, 3
A House Divided by Pearl S Buck, 3
The Imposter by Damon Galgut, 3
In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut, 3
Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut, 3.5
The Promise by Damon Galgut, 3.5
History of Rain by Niall Williams, 3
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje, 4
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, 4
Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes, 3.5
Pulse by Julian Barnes, 3.5
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, 4.5
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan, 4

 

May2022

This is Happiness by Niall Williams, 4.5
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, 3.5
A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro, 3.5
The Lighthouse Witches by C J Cooke, 3
Pulse by Julian Barnes, 3.5
Violeta by Isabel Allende, 3.5
Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes, 3.5
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, 4
By the sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah, 4
The Tolstoy Estate by Steven Conte, 3.5
Again, Rachel by Marion Keyes, 3
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, 4

 

April 2022

Bruno by Heather Rose, 2.5
Love Stories by Trent Dalton, 2.5
Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet, 3
Devotion by Hannah Kent, 3
Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou, 3.5
The Good People by Hannah Kent, 4
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr, 4
The Passion, by Jeanette Winterson, 4
The Underground Railway by Colson Whitehead, 4
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, 2.5
Booth by Karen Joy Fowler, 3
Confession with Blue Horses by Sophie Hardach, 4
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro, 4
Away with the Penguins by Hazel Prior, 2.5
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, 2.5
This is Happiness by Niall Williams, 4
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, 3.5
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, 4
The Drinker by Hans Fallada, 4
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, 3.5
The Mother by Jane Caro,3
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, 3.5
A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantionio, 3

 

March 2022

Daring to Fly by Lisa Millar, 3
Taste by Stanley Tucci, 3
How to End a Story by Helen Garner, 4
The Glovemaker by Ann Weisgarber, 2.5
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, 3.5
Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich, 4
The River Wife by Heather Rose, 4
The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed 3.5
Tar Baby by Toni Morrison, 3.5
The Stranger by Albert Camus, 3.5
Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett, 4
There Was Still Love by Favel Parrett, 4
Towards Another Summer by Janet Frame, 3.5
The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey, 3
7 1/2 by Christos Tslolkas, 2.5
All My Mothers by Joanna Glen, 2
Silverview by John Le Carre, 2.5
Love Stories by Trent Dalton, 4

February 2022

All My Mothers by Joanna Glen, 4.5
Towards Another Summer by Janet Frame, 3.5
Eucalyptus by Murray Bail, 4
Death of a River Guide by Richard Flanagan, 4
The Strays by Emily Bitto, 3.5
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, 3
Merciless God’s by Christos Tsiolkas, 3
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, 4
Three summers by Margarita Liberaki translated from Greek by Karen Van Dyck, 3
Mr Wilder & Me by Jonathan Coe, 3.5
Middle England by Jonathan Coe, 4

 

January 2022

Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, 3
The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester, 3.5
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, 3.5
The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan, 3
Midsummer Murders by Agatha Christie, 3
The Goodwife of Bath by Karen Brooks, 3.53
The Italian Girl by Iris Murdoch, 2.5
Sweet Jimmy by Bryan Brown, 4
The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner, 3
Death of a River Guide by Richard Flanagan, 4.5
The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan, 4
The Promise by Damon Galgut, 3.5
Power Play, Elon Musk, Tesla and the Bet of the Century by Tim Higgins, 3.5
Banks by Grantlee Keiza, 4
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, 3
Life’s Edge The Search for What it Means to be Alive by Carl Zimmer, 4
All the Lonely People by Mike Gayle, 3
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, 3
Voss by Patrick White, 4.5
No, You are not entitled to your opinion The Conversation, 3.5
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason, 3.5
Love and Virtues by Diana Reid, 3
One Day I’ll Remember This: Diaries 1987 – 1995 by Helen Garner, 4
Toxic: The Rotten Underbelly of the Tasmania Salmon Industry by Richard Flanagan, 4
Beloved by Toni Morrison, 4
Oh William by Elizabeth Strout, 4
The Dickens Boy by Thoma Keneally, 3
The Silent Listener by Lyn Yeowart, 3
The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan, 2.5
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy, 2

November 2021

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton, 2.5
Dark as Last Night by Tony Birch, 3.5
Beautiful World, Where are You by Sally Rooney, 3.5
Oh William by Elizabeth Strout, 4
Mad Bad and Dangerous to know, the fathers of Wilde Yeats and Joyce by Colm Toibin, 4
Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, 2.5
Checkmate in Berlin by Giles Milton, 4
Hope Adventures of a Diamond by Marion Fowler, 3
Still Life by Sarah Winman, 3.5
Vida by Jacqueline Kent, 3.5

October 2021

Jacks and Jokers by Matthew Condon, 3
The Talented Mr Varg by Alexander McCall Smith, 2.5
A room with a View by E M Forster, 4
Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe, 4
Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood, 3.5
Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister by Jung Chang, 3
The Garden of Fugitives by Ceridwen Dovey, 3
Once More with Feeling by Ceridwen Dovey, 3
Beloved by Toni Morrison, 4
12 Bytes:How Artificial Intelligence will…by Jeanette Winterson, 4
Four Winds by Hannah Kent, 3.5
The Flicker of Old Dreams by Susan Henderson, 4
Blessed, the breakout year of Rampaging Roy Slaven by John Doyle, 3
Still Life by Sarah Winman, 3
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, 3.5
Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout, 4
Us Against You by Frederick Blackman, 4
The Things She Owned by Tamiko Arguile, 3.5
Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman, 3
Songbirds by Christy Lefteri, 3
Fury by Kathryn Heyman, 3
Muddy People by Sara El Sayed, 3
Memoir Trilogy by Deborah Levy, 4.5

September 2021

Danger Music by Eddie Ayres 3.5
The Spare Room by Helen Garner 4.5
Boy Lost by Kristina Olsen 4
Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout, 2 x 3.5
The cost of living by Deborah Levy, 3.5
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu, 4
Lean, Fall, Stand by Jon McGregor, 4
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, 4.5
Us Against You by Fredrik Backman, 2.5
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 4.5
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee, 1.5
A Movable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, 4
Real Estate by Deborah Levy, 4
The Sunken Road by Gary Disher, 3.5
Leave the World Behind by Rumann Alam, 3
Another Country by James Baldwin, 4
A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasm, 3.5
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, 4
The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey, 4
If this is a man by Primo Levi, 4
The Truce by Primo Levi, 4
Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood, 4
The Alphabet of Birds by SJ Naude, 3.5
The Death of Francis Bacon by Max Porter, 3
Still Life by Sarah Winman, 3
A room with a view by E.M. Forster, 3
The Warden by Anthony Trollope, 3
The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton, 3.5
Midwinter Murders by Agatha Christie, 3.5
The Dickens Boy by Thomas Keneally, 3
Toxic by Richard Flanagan, 4
Ghost Empire by Richard Fidler, 4
Gould’s Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan, 4
The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett, 3.5
A Column of Fire by Ken Follett, 3.5
Seed to Dust by Marc Hamer, 4
A Time to Keep Silence by Patrick Leigh Fermor,, 4.5

 

August 2021

The Yield by Tara June Winch, 4.5
Into the Loneliness: the unlikely alliance of Ernestine Hill and Daisy Bates by Eleanor Hogan, 4
The Scandal (Beartown) by Fredrik Backman, 4
The Bell by Iris Murdoch, 4
It’s Raining in Mango by Thea Astley, 3.5
Here We Are by Graham Swift, 3.5
Girt by David Hunt, 3
Your own kind of girl by Clare Bowditch, 4
Who gets to be smart by Bri Li, 3.5
Still Life by Sarah Winman, 4
I’m a stranger her myself by Bill Bryson, 3.5
One Life by Kate Grenville, 3.5
This One Wild and Precious Life by Sarah Wilson, 3
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee, 3
Wiser by Dilip Jeste, 3.5
A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville, 4.5
The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson, 3
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo, 3.5
The Recovery of Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel, 3
The drowned and the saved by Primo Levi, 4
My rock n roll friend by Tracey Thorn, 3.5
The dry by Jane Harper, 2.5
Kilroy was here by Kris Olsson 3
One Life: My Mother’s Story by Kate Grenville 3.5
When Horse Became Saw by Anthony Macris 4
Things I don’t Want to Know by Deborah Levy, 4
The Man who saw Everything by Deborah Levy, 4
The Committed by Viet Than Nguyen,3.5
In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park, 3
Orchid and the Wasp by Caoilinn Hughes, 3.5

 

July 2021

My family and other animals by Gerry Tyrrell, 2.5
Phosphorescence by Julia Baird, 3.5
Dishonesty is the second best policy by David Mitchell, 3.5
Thames sacred river by Peter Ackroyd, 4
The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey, 3.5
Transit by Rachel Cusk, 4
A Parrot in the Pepper Tree by Chris Stewart, 2.5
The Happiest Refugee by Ahn Do, 3.5
The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch, 4
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, 4
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett, 3
One Life: My Mother’s Story by Kate Grenville, 3.5
Coda by Thea Astley, 4
Drylands by Thea Astley, 3.5
The Recovery of Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel 2.5
The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay 3.5
In A Free State by V.S. Naipaul, 4
The Committed by Viet Than Nguyen, 3.5
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones, 4
Between a Wolf and a Dog by Georgia Blain, 3.5
Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood, 4
Nest by Inga Simpson, 3.5
The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi, 4
Coda by Thea Astley, 4
Tell Me Why by Archie Roach, 3.5
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, 3
Letters of Note: Grief by Shaun Usher, 3
On the Line – Notes from a factory by Joseph Ponthus, 3
Two Women in Rome by Elizabeth Buchan, 3
Seed to Dust by Mark Hamer, 4.5
Songdogs by Colum McCann, 3

 

June 2021

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, 4 and 3.5
American Firt by Jeanine Cummins,3.5
Sex Lies and Question Time by Kate Ellis, 3.5
The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld, 3.5
Toxic by Richard Flanagan, 3.5
The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, 3.5
The Details by Tegan Bennett Daylight, 3
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, 4.5
Double Blind by Edward St Aubyn, 2.5
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo, 4
Joe Cinque’s Consolation by Helen Garner, 3.5
The Round House by Louise Erdrich, 3.5
The friend by Sigrid Nunez, 4
Coda by Thea Astley 4.5
Everyman’s Guide to Scientific living by Carrie Tiffany, 3
The slow natives by Thea Astley, 3
Locations by Jan Morris, 2.5
The peppered moth by Margaret Drabble, 3.5
The nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, 2.5
The dictionary of list words by Pip Williams, 2.5
My Year of Living Vulnerably by Rick Morton, 3.5
Damascus by Christos Tslolkas, 4
Stasiland by Anna Funder, 4
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, 3
The Believer: Encounters with Love, Death & Faith by Sarah Krasnostein, 3.5
How to be Animal by Melanie Challenger, 3.5
We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hatsa Zayyan, 4
Tell Me Why by Archie Roach, 4

 

May 2021

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, 2.5
The Dry by Jane Harper, 3
The Survivors by Jane Harper, 3
The Moroccan Daughter by Deborah Rodriguez, 3
Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kwawaguchi, 3
The Museum of Words by Georgia Blain, 3.5
Between a Wolf and a Dog by Georgia Blain, 4
The Secret Lives of Men by Georgia Blain, 3.5
The Details by Tegan Bennett Daylight, 4
Toxic by Richard Flanagan, 4
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie, 4
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro, 3.5Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, 3
Your Own Kind of Girl by Clare Bowditch, 2.5
Dancer by Colum McCann, 4
Jackson’s Dilemma by Iris Murdoch, 1.5
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, 4.5
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, 3

 

April 2021

Dancer by Colum McCann, 4
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, 4
Midnight Train to Prague by Carol Windley, 3
The Baroness:The Search for Nica, the Rebellious Rothschild by Hannah
Rothschild, 3
A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson, 4
Sula by Toni Morrison, 3
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez, 3
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo, 3.5

 

March 2021

Transcription by Kate Atkinson, 3.5
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald, 2
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante, 3
The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante, 3.5
Accidental Feminists by Jane Caro, 3.5
The Details: On Love, Death and Reading by Tegan Bennett Daylight, 4
Learning from the Germans by Susan Neiman, 4
The phone box at the end of the world by Laura Imai Messina, 3.5
This has been absolutely lovely by Jessica Dettmann, 3
Rules of civility by Amr Towles, 3
Once more with feeling by Ceridwen Dovey, 3
The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner, 3.5
Mindsight by Dan Seigel, 3.5
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles, 4
Franny and Zooey by J.D Salinger, 4.5
Bringing the Fight by Merle Thornton, 3.5
Landscape of Farewell by Alex Miller, 3.5
Emma by Jane Austen, 4
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively, 3.5
Lost Children Archive, Valeria Luiselli, 3.5
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and The Birth of the FBI by David Grann, 4
Turbulence by David Szalay, 3.5
The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Dare 3.5

 

February 2021

The Last Midwife by Sandra Dallas, 2.5
Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan, 3
The Death of Mrs Westaway by Judith Ware, 2.5
Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett, 3.5
A History of the World in 10 ½ chapters by Julian Barnes, 4.5
Turbulence by David Szalay, 4
Landscape of Farewell by Alex Miller, 4
The Phone Box at the edge of the world by Laura Imai Messina, 3
The Vagrants by Yiyun Li, 4.5
The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald, 4
The Tax Inspector by Peter Carey, 3.5
An Imaginary Life by David Malouf, 3.5
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, 3.5
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante, 3
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, 3
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante, 3
The Vegetarian by Han Kang, 3
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi, 2.5
What are you going through by Sigrid Nunez, 3.5
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami, 3.5
Forgotten Women the Writers by Zing Tsjeng, 3.5
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, 4
Kim Jiyoung, born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo, 3.5
Wild woods by Richard Nairn, 3
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, 3
Cool by Annette Asp, Steven Quartz, 4
The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild, 3
And the birds rained down by Jocelyne Soucier, 3.5
The Details by Tegan Bennett Daylight, 3.5
The Italian Girl by Iris Murdoch, 3.5

 

January 2021

The Clock Winder by Anne Tyler, 3
No Friend but the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani, 4
Blue in Chicago by Bette Howland, 3.5
Pause by Rachel O’Meara, 3.5
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, 3.5
Bottled Goods by Sophi Van Llewyn, 3
Bruny by Heather Rose, 2.5
The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey, 4
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami, 3.5
If on a Winter’s night a traveller by Italo Calvino, 4.5
Shuggie Bain by  Douglas Stuart, 4
Flesh Wounds by Richard Glover, 3.5
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunderson, 3.5
The Italian Girl by Iris Murdoch, 3.5
The Anarchy: the Relentless Rise of the East Indian Company by William Dalrymple, 4.5
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt, 2
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam, 3.5
The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas, 4

December 2020

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, 3.5
Parisian Lives by Deidre Bair, 3
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart,3, 3.5 4 & 4.5
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, 4
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, 4
Atomic Habits by James Clear, 3.5
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 3.5
Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict, 3.5
England and Other Stories by Graham Swift, 3.5
Shuttlecock by Graham Swift, 3
The Kashmir Shawl by Rosie Thomas, 2.5
Tomorrow by Graham Swift, 1
Knucklehead by Adam Smyer, 3.5
The World Beneath by Cate Kennedy, 3.5
Landscape of Farewell by Alex Miller, 3
Spiderweb by Penelope Lively, 3
The white girl by Tony Birch, 3
The Kennedy Curse by James Patterson 3
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 2
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie 3.5
Jack by Marilynne Robinson, 4.5
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh, 3
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, 4
Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler, 3
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes, 3
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami, 3.5

November 2020

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, 4
The First Stone by Helen Garner, 4
My Purple Scented Novel by Ian McEwan, 4
All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton, 3.5
One Hundred Years of Dirt by Rick Morton, 3.5
Miss Iceland by Audur Ava Olafsdottir, 4
Turbulence by David Szalay, 4
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, 5
The Dissent of Annie Hall by Ros Franey, 2.5
Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett, 3.5
The Anarchy: The East India Company, … by William Dalrymple, 4
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler, 3.5
Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars by Joyce Carol Oates, 4
The Question of Love by Hugh Mackay, 3.5
Landscape of Farewell by Alex Miller, 3
The Whole Picture by Alice Procter, 5
Unquiet: A novel by Linn Uhlmann, 4
The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn, 3.5

October 2020

The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré, 3.5 and 2.5
Breath by Tim Winton, 3.5
The White Girl by Tony Birch, 3.5
Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald, 2.5
No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison by Behrouz Boochani, 4.5
The Riders by Tim Winton, 2.5
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, 4
The Plague by Albert Camus, 4
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell, 4
And the Birds Rained Down by Jocelyn Saucier, 3
Billion Dollar Whale: The Man who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood and the World by Bradley Hope and Tom Wright, 3.5
The Choice by Edith Eger, 3.5
An Improbable Life by Trevor McDonald, 3.5
Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift, 4
The Yield by Tara June Winch, 4
Such a fun age by Kiley Reid, 4
The discomfort of evening by Merieke Lucas Rijnveld, 4
The world that we knew by Alice Hoffman, 3.5
Return Ticket by Jon Doust, 2.5
Flaws in the Glass: A Self Portrait by Patrick White, 4
The Ratline by Philippe Sands, 4
A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville, 3

September 2020

The Rotter’s Club by Jonathon Coe, 3.5
Scrublands by Chris Hammer, 2.5
Lifespan by David Sinclair, 3
Cosmos by Carl Sagan, 3
Actress by Anne Enright, 3
Stone Sky Gold Mountain by Mirandi Riwoe, 3
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald, 4
Phosphorescence: on Awe, Wonder and Things That Sustain You When the World Goes Dark by Julia Baird, 3.5
Any Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales, 3
A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville, 4
Monkey Grip by Helen Garner, 3
Cosmo Cosmolino by Helen Garner, 3
True Stories: Selected Non Fiction by Helen Garner, 4
Joe Cinque’s Consolation by Helen Garner, 4
This House of Grief by Helen Garner, 4.5
Everywhere I Look by Helen Garner, 3.5
Stories: The Collected Short Fiction by Helen Garner, 3
Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses Who Stole Their Father’s Throne by Maureen Waller, 4
The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary, 2.5
The Orphan of Good Hope by Roxane Dhand, 3.5
Spiderweb by Penelope Lively, 3.5
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez, 3.5
The Inland Sea by Madeleine Watts, 3
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez, 4
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, 4
The Leavers by Lisa Ko, 3.5
The Yield by Tara Lynch, 2.5
The Periodic Table by Primo Levi, 3.5
On Brunswick Ground by Catherine de Saint Phalle, 3.5
Poum and Alexandre by Catherine de Saint Phalle, 4
Here is the beehive by Sarah Crossan, 3.5

August 2020

Actress by Anne Enright, 3
Kokomo by Victoria Hannan, 3
Suzanne by Annais Barbeau-Lavalette, 4
The Ministry of Utmost Hapiness by Arundhati Roy, 3
The Cockroach by Ian McEwan, 3
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes, 4
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively, 5
A Bigger Picture by Malcolm Turnbull, 3
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, 3.5
Seven poor men of Sydney by Christina Stead, 3.5
Heartbreaker by Claudia Dey, 3
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes, 4
Middlemarch by George Elliot, 4.5
Under Full Sail by Rob Mundle, 4
Mudlarking – Lost and Found on the River Thames by Lara Maiklem, 4, 4 and 3.5
Love in the Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Carcia Marquez, 4.5
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, 3
Poum and Alexandre by Catherine de Saint Phalle, 4.5
The sea and Us by Catherine de Saint Phalle, 4
The girl with the louding voice by Abi Dare, 3
The Things She Owned by Katharine Tamiko Arguile, 2.5
Stone sky gold mountain by Mirandi Riwoe, 2.5
Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan, 2 and 2.5
See What You Made Me Do, Jess Hill 4.5
My Name is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout 3
The Museum of Innocence, Orhan Pamuk 4
A spool of blue thread by Anne Tyler, 2.5
Humankind by Rutger Bregman, 3.5
Breath by James Nestor, 3.5
An Elephant in my Kitchen by Francoise Malby-Anthony, 3.5
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout, 3.5
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie, 3
Interviewing by William Seymour, 3.5
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman, 3.5
Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker, 3.5
Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift 4.5
One Moonlit Night by Caradog Prichard, 3.5
The Bookshop by Penelope Lively, 4
Staziland by Anna Funder, 4

July 2020

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, 3
Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee, 4
Friend of my Youth by Amrit Chaudri, 3
The Shepherds Life by James Redbanks, 4
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte, 2.5
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham, 2.5
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 4
The Outsider by Stephen King, 3
How To Kill Your Husband (and Other Handy Household Hints) by Kathy Lette, 2.5
Flaubert’s Parrot by Julian Barnes. 4.5
The Witch of Exmoor by Margaret Drabble, 3
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively, 3.5
Grandmothers by Helen Elliott 3.5
The Whole Picture: Colonial story of art in our museums by Alice Proctor 4
Beowulf by Seamus Heaney 4.5
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman 3.5
Mudlarking by Lara Maiklem 4
The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting, 3
Stone Sky Gold Mountain by Mirandi Riwoe, 3
Anything is possible by Elizabeth Strout, 4
Humankind by Rutger Bergman, 4
Here we are by Graham Swift, 3.5
The grammarians by Cathleen Schine, 3.5
The anarchy: the relentless rise of the East India Company by William Dalrymple, 3
A Fortunate Life by Albert B Facey, 3.5
In the Quiet by Eliza Henry-Jones, 3.5
On Quiet by Nikki Gemmell, 3
After by Nikki Gemmell, 4
On Violence by Natasha Stott Despoja, 3.5
See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control… by Jess Hill, 5
Flesh Wounds by Richard Glover, 4
The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner, 3
The Cockroach by Ian McEwan, 2.5
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton, 3.5
Waiting for the Barbarians by J M Coetzee, 4
Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout 4.5
Actress by Anne Enright, 4
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, 4
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, 4
Elizabeth Costello by J M Coetzee, 3
Funny Weather, Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing, 3
The Art of Rest by Claudia Hammond, 3.5
By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah, 4
The Thing Around my Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 3.5

June 2020

Getting On, Griffith Review #68, 3.5
The Booskhop by Penelope Fitzgerald, 2.5
Ordinary People by Diana Evans,3
Elizabeth Costello by J M Coetzee, 4.5
Waterland by Graham Swift, 4
To the Promised Land, David Goldberg, 4
Underland by Robert Macfarlane, 4.5
Overstory by Richard Powers, 4
Here we are by Graham Swift, 4 and 3
In the quiet by Eliza Henry Jones, 3.5
See what you made me do by Jess Hill,4 4
The whole picture: the colonial story of the Art in our museums… by Alice Procter, 4.5
The children’s Bach by Helen Garner, 4
The mirror and the light by Hillary Mantel, 4 and 4.5
We are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer, 4
In the Quiet by Eliza Henry Jones, 3

May 2020

The Dickens Boy by Tom Keneally, 3.5
Here we are by Graham Swift, 4
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, 3.5,3 & 3
The Fish Girl by Miranda Riwoe, 4
The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie, 3.5
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, 4
Unquiet by Linn Ullman, 3
The Mirror & the Light, by Hilary Mantel 4.5
On Artists by Ashleigh Wilson, 3
Outpost by Dan Richards, 3
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, 3
West with the Night by Beryl Markham, 4
The bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald, 4
The death of Noah Glass by Gail Jones, 4
Too much lip by Melissa Lucashenko, 3.5
Bruny by Heather Rose, 3
Redhead by the side of the road by Anne Tyler, 2.5
The railwayman’s wife by Ashley Hay, 2.5

April 2020

Quota by Jock Serong 3.5
Phosphorescence by Julia Baird 3.5
Sea People, the puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson, 4.5
The art of time travel, historians and their craft by Tom Griffiths, 4
The summer book by Tove Jansson, 4, 3 and 3
Crudo by Olivia Laing, 3.5
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, 3
Your own kind of girl by Clare Bowditch, 2.5
Fleishman is in trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner,2
The miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, 2
One Moonlight Night, Caradog Pritchard, 4
Mazel Tov, the Story of my Extraordinary Friendship with an Orthodox Jewish Family by J.S. Margot, 3.5
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope, 3.5
The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke, trans. Jamie Bulloch, 3.5
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, 2.5
Outer Dark by Cormack McCarthy, 3.5
Tyll by Daniel Kelhmann, 3.5
The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville 3.5
Lanny by Max Porter 3.5
The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld, 3
The Brisbane Line by J.P. Powell, 3
Troll Hunting by Ginger Gorman, 4.5
March 2020

Damascus by Christos Tsiolkas, 4
Stasiland by Anna Funder, 4
How to Live by Sarah Bakewell, 3
When I am playing with my cat, how do I know she is not playing with me… by Saul Framton, 3.5
Do nothing – service the attention economy… by Jenny O’Dell 4.5Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino 3.5
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, 4
The Rules of Backyard Cricket by Jock Serong, 3
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout 4
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout 4
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 4
Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout 3.5 and 4
Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift 3
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, 4
Amnesty by Aravind Adiga, 3
By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah, 3.5
The Professor of Poetry by Grace McCleen, 3
The Little Princess by Conor Grenman, 3
Unquiet by Linn Ullmann, 3
Not a diet book By James Smith, 4
Fleishman is in trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, 3

February 2020

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton, 4.5
Educated by Tara Westover, 2.5
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, 4.5
Lanny by Max Porter, 4
The art of growing up by John Marsden, 3
The idea of perfection by Kate Grenville, 4
Paris or die by Jayne Tuttle 2.5
Love in the time of cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 4.5
Letters to Alice, on first reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon, 3.5
Unquiet by Linn Ullmann, 4
The World that we Knew by Alice Hoffman, 2.5
The Cherry Orchard, by Anton Chekov, 3
The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman, 3.5
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout, 4.5
Grief is the thing with Feathers by Max Porter, 4

January 2020

The Trauma Cleaner, by Sarah Krasnostein 4
Last Drinks, by Andrew McGahan 3.5
Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout 5 and 4
No friend but the mountains by Behrouz Boochani, 4
There was still love by Favel Parrett, 4
After the party by Cressida Connelly, 2.5
The birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant, 2.5
A House for Mr Biswas by V S Naipaul, 3.5
The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar, 4
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout, 4.5
The Widow by Fiona Barton, 2.5
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri, 3.5
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, 3.5
Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout, 4
Beyond the Sea by Paul Lynch, 4
Blue Dog, by Louis de Berniers, 4
The Lemon Table, by Julian Barnes, 3
Cult of Two, by Michael Faudet, 3
My Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion, 4
The Erratics, by Vickie Laveau Harvie, 3.5
My Name is Why, by Lemn Sissay, 4
Lanny by Max Porter, 4.5
The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville, 4
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote 4.5

December 2019

The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman, 4
White Nights by Ann Cleeves, 3
The Spare Room by Helen Garner, 4
Boy, Lost by Kirstina Olsson, 5
The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, 4
The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak, 2.5
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein, 4
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, 3.5
Identity Crisis by Ben Elton, 3
The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie, 3.5
Quichotte by Salmon Rushdie, 3
Too Much Lip by Mellisa Lucachenko, 3.5
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, 3

November 2019

October 2019

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italio Calvino 4.5
Your Backyard birds by Grainne Cleary 3
The Mystery of things by AC Grayling 3
The Land Before Avocado by Richard Glover 3.5
The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee 4
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Chrisy Lefteri 4.5
Becoming by Michelle Obama 3
The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith 4
The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre by Dominic Smith 2.5
Just Kids by Patti Smith 3
Mind Body Life Mastery by Dr James Rouse 3
The Doctor Who Sat for a Year by Brendon Kelly 2

September 2019

The Erratics by Vicki Laveau Harvie, 4 and 4
Taking Tom Murray Home by Tim Slee, 2.5
Virgil Wander by Leif Enger, 3
Star Crossed by Minnie Darke, 3
There Should Be More Dancing by Rosalie Ham, 3
Talk on the wild side by Lane Green, 3.5
One hundred years of dirt by Rick Morton, 3 and 2.5

August 2019

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert, 3
The Good Life by Hugh Mackay, 3
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, 3.5
The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith, 4
Born a crime by Trevor Noah, 4
Butterfly on a pin by Allanah Hill, 3.5
Educated by Tara Westover, 4
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, 3
Balcony Over Jerusalem by John Lyons, 4.5
So Greek by Niki Savva, 2.5
Exploded View by Carrie Tiffany, 4
Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak, 3
A House in Norway by Vigdis Hjorth, 3.5 and 4
Banking Bad by Adele Ferguson, 4
The Erratics by Vikings Lavaeu-Harvey, 4
One Hundred Years of Dirt by Rick Morton, 4
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, 5
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, 4
Troll Hunting by Ginger Gorman, 3
Daughters of the Lake by Wendy Webb, 3
Taking Tom Murray Home by Tim Slee, 3.5
On the trail of Genghis Khan by Tim Cope, 3.5
Married to Bhutan by Linda Leaming, 3
There should be more dancing by Rosalie Ham, 3

July 2019

Mennonites don’t dance by Darcie Fiesen Hossack, 4
The Happiness Glass by Carol Lefevre, 4
The paper house by Anna Spargo-Ryan, 3
Jonno by David Malouf, 4
An Imaginary Life by David Malouf, 4
Ransom by David Malouf, 4
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wolleben, 3.5
21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Yuval Noah Harari 4
In the Garden of the Fugitives, by Ceridwen Dovey 4
The Art of the Wasted Day, by Patricia Hampl 4
Mr Wigg by Inga Simpson, 3.5
Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou, 3.5
A General Theory of Oblivion by Jose Eduardo Agualusa, 4
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, 4
The White Girl by Tony Birch, 2.5

June 2019

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, 4.5
Electric Dreams by Philip K Dick, 3.5
The Colour of Water by James McBride, 4.5
Overstory by Richard Power,3
A Tale for the Time Being by Judith Ozecki, 4
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, 4.5
The Atomic Weight of Love by Elizabeth J Church, 3.5
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson, 2.5
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, 3.5
The Last Days of the Romanov Dancers by Kerri Turner, 4
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, 4
Perfect Skin by Nick Earls, 4

May 2019

A Tale for the Time Being by Judith Ozecki, 4
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, 4.5
The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler, 4
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, 3.5
A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne, 4
100 Years of DirtRick Morton,3
Out Stealing HorsesPer Pettersen 4.5
A House in Norwa by Vigdis Hjorth, 4
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton, 3
Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak, 2.5
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, 3
Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie, 4
The Binding by Bridget Collins, 4
The Lost Man by Jane Harper, 4

April 2019

Grace by Paul Lynch, 4
The Death of Murat Idrissi, by Tommy Wieringa, 3.5
The Freedom Artist by Ben Okri,2.5
The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood, 4
A Hundred Small Lessons by Ashley Hay, 3
How to Bake Pi by Eugenia Cheng, 3
On Doubt by Leigh Sales,5
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, 5

March 2019

Commonwealth by Anne Patchett, 4
Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami, 4
Ines of my soul by Isabel Allende, 3
Blood by Tony Birch, 3
A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne, 3.5

February 2019

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami, 3.5
The Library Book by Susan Orlean, 3.5
Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson, 3
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, 4
Full Fathom Five by Kate Humphrey, 3.5
Tara Road by Maeve Binchy, 3
The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick, 3.5

January 2019

Best book of our 2018 Booklist as voted by our members

Illywhacker by Peter Carey.

Best other books read in 2018

The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein
A Horse Walks Into A Bar by David Grossman
Tirra Lirra By The River by Jessica Anderson
The End by Karl Ove Knausgaard
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
I feel bad about my Neck by Nora Ephron
The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
A Manual For Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin

December 2018

Overstory by Richard Powers, 4
French Exit by Patrick de Witt, 2.5
The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler, 3.5
The Cow Book by John Connell, 3.5 x 2
Blowing the Bloody Doors Off by Michael Caine 3.5
Clock Dance by Anne Tyler 3.5
The Odyssey by Homer new translation by Emily Wilson, 4
The Collected Stories of Lorrie Moore, 3.5

November 2018

Our book of the month was Illywhacker by Peter Carey, but we also read other books. Maximum rating is 5.

Blowing the Bloody Doors Off by Michael Caine, 3.5
Clock Dance by Anne Tyler, 3.5
The Cow Book by John Connell, 3.5 and 3.5
Overstory by Richard Powers, 4
French Exit by Patrick de Witt, 2.5
The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler, 3.5
The Ravenmaster by Christopher Skaife, 3
A Gate At The Stairs by Lorrie Moore, 3

October 2018

Our book of the month was The Commandant by Erica Anderson but we also read other books. Maximum rating is 5.

The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 5
Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin, 2.5
The Cow Book by Jon Connell, 4
Atlantic Black by A S Patrić, 3
The Butterfly Man by Heather Rose, 4 and 3.5
The Crossway by Guy Stagg, 3
The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley, 2
Dancing with Strangers by Inga Clendinnen, 4
Waiting by Philip Salom, 4
The Trauma Cleaner by Sophie, 4.5
War light by Michael Ondatjee, 2.5
Tracker by Alexis Wright, 3.5
Notes on a nervous planet by Matt Haig, 3
Always another country by Sisonke Msimang, 3.5
Happy Valley Patrick White, 4
The Narrow Road to the Deep North Richard Flanagan, 3.5
The Power of Hope Kon Karapanagiotidis, 3

September 2018

Our book of the month was Voss by Patrick White but we also read other books. Maximum rating is 5.

ZeroK by Don DeLillo, 3
I feel bad about  my Neck by Nora Ephron, 3.5
Woman at 1000 degrees by Hallgrimur Helgason, 4
The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn, 4
We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families by P. Gourevitch, 3
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, 4
The Master and his Emissary by Iain McGilchrist

August 2018

Our book of the month was The Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd but we also read other books. Maximum rating is 5.

I Feel Bad About My Neck, Nora Ephron, 4.5
The Late Show, Michael Connolly, 4
In the Skin of a Lion, Michael Ondaatje, 4
Captains Courageous, Rudyard Kipling, 3.5
The Choke, Sofie Laguna, 3
An American Marriage, Tayani Jones, 3.5
Flames, Robbie Arnott, 4
Be My Enemy, Christopher Brookmyre, 4
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson, 2.5
Stern Men, Elizabeth Gilbert, 2.5
Think Before It’s Too Late, Edward de Bono, 3
The Brain that Changes Itself, Norman Doidge, 3
Everything Here is Beautiful, Mira Lee, 3
The Butterfly Man, Heather Rose, 3.5
Written in my own heart’s blood, Outlander Book 8 by Diana Gabaldon, 3.5
Winter by Karl Ove Knausgaard, 3.5

July 2018

Our book of the month was The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose but we also read other books. Maximum rating is 5.

Flights by Olga Tokarczuk 3.5
The Salmon who Dared to Leap Higher by Ahn Do-hyun 3
The Master and Margarita by Mikail Bulgakov 3.5
Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee, 3
Wild by Cheryl Strayed, 3
Gate of Lilacs: A Verse commentary on Proust, by Clive James 3.5
Such Small Hands by Andres Barba 3
Johnno by David Malouf 4
Remembering Babylon by David Malouf 4
Breath by Tim Winton 3
A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey 3.5
The Quiet American by Graham Greene 3.5
Deep Time Dreaming by Billy Griffiths 5
The Butterfly Man by Heather Rose 3.5
The River Wife by Heather Rose 3
An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon 3

June  2018

Our books of the month was Talking To My Country by Stan Grant. but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula le Guin, 3
The Dispossessed by Ursula le Guin, 4
My Life as a Fake by Peter Carey, 3
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, 5
Danger Music by Eddie Ayres, 3
A Life Apart by Mariapia Veladiano, 3.5
The Lucky Galah by Tracy Sorensen, 3.5
A gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, 4
Snake by Kate Jennings 4
Remembering Babylon by David Malouf 4
Little Princes by Conor Grennan,3
Elizabeth Macarthur – A Life at the Edge of the World by Michelle Scott Tucker, 3
Girls at the Piano by Virginia Lloyd, 2.5
The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon, 3.5
A Breath Of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon, 3
I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephrin, 3

May 2018

Our books of the month was Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by C. J. Dennis, but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory, 3.5.
A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin, 4.5.
Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon, 3.5.
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan, 3.5.
Middlemarch by George Eliot, 4.5.
A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, 2.5.
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, 4.
The News by Alain de Botton, 3.5.
A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey, 3.5.
The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton, 3.5.
Quarterly Essays by David Malouf, 4.
Dear Mrs Bird by A.J.Pearce, 1.
The Queen Of Bloody Everything by Joanna Nadin, 2.
The End of Loneliness by Benedict Well, 3.5.
The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton, 4.
The Town by Shaun Prescott, 3.
Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbag, 2.5.

April 2018

Our books of the month were Monkey Grip and The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner, but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

Homo Deus: A brief history of tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari, 3
Island Home by Tim Winton 4
Snake by Kate Jennings, 4
A Life Apart by Mariapia Veladiano, 3.5
Dragonfly in Amber, Book 2 of Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, 3
Autumn by Karl Ove Knausgaard, 3.5
The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton, 4.5
Piano Lessons by Anna Goldsworthy, 3
Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube by Blair Braverman, 3
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine by Gail Honeyman, 3
The secret life of cows by Rosamund Young, 2.5

March 2018

Our book of the month was The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser,  but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow by Thea Astley, 3.5
The Choke by Sofie Laguna, 3.5
My Brother Jack by George Johnston, 4
A long way home by Peter Carey, 4
The Craving Mind (from cigarettes to smart phones to love – why we get hooked and how we can break bad habits) by Judson Brewer, 3.5
The Swan Book by Alexis Wright, 3.5
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, 4
Extinctions by Josephine Wilson, 3
Down in the City, Elizabeth Harrower, 3
Song of a Captive Bird, Jasmin Darznik, 3
Creativity Rules, Tina Seelig, 3

February 2018

Our book of the month was Taboo by Kim Scott, but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

Changing My Mind by Zadie Smith, 3
Swing Time by Zadie Smith, 3.5
The Mothers by Brit Bennett, 3
Wednesdays with Bob by Derek Rielly, 3.5
The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker, 4
Stay with me by Ayobami Adebayo, 3.5
The Red Coast by Di Morrissey, 2.5
Autumn by Ali Smith, 4
Clean Straw for Nothing by George Johnston, 3.5
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, 3.5
A horse walks into a bar, David Grossman, 4
Based on a true story, Delphine De Vigan, 3
The German Girl , Armando Lucas Correa, 3
Before the Fall, Noah Hawley, 2.5

January 2018

Our book of the month was Waiting by Philip Salom, but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac, 3.5
Whip bird by Robert Drewe, 2.5
Salt Blood (Essay) by Michael Adams, 4
Tirra Lirra By The River by Jessica Anderson, 5
Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout, 4
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, 4
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, 2.5
The Happiest Refugee by Ahn Doh, 3
The Gift of Anger by Arun Ghandi, 3.5
The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker, 3
The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan, 2.5
The White Queen: One Nation and the Politics of Race by David Marr, 3.5

Favourite books of 2017

The most voted book of our 2017 Reading List was New Finnish Grammar by Diego Marani with 3 votes.

Our favourite reads of 2017 are listed below.

Alexa
The Notebook Trilogy by Agota Kristof.
The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker.
Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson.
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett.

Claudia
The Notebook Trilogy by Agota Kristof.
The Animators by Kayla-Rae Whitaker.
Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson.
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout.

Gail

Understory by Inga Simpson.
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett.
Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson.
The Animators by Kayla-Rae Whitaker.

Janet
Nothing Holds back the night by Delphine de Vigan.
The Notebook Trilogy by Agota Kristof.
Understory by Inga Simpson.

Kim
The Last Man in Europe by Dennis Glover.

Nicola
The Animators by Kyla-Rae Whitaker.
Nothing holds back the night by Delphine de Vigan.
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett.
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy.

Penny
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett.
Anything is possible by Elizabeth Strout.
Barkskins Annie Proulx.
Hinterland by Steven Lang.
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy.

Viv

Thank You for Being Late by Thomas L Friedman.
Alias Grace by Margaret Attwood.
Harland’s Half Acre by David Malouf.

December 2017

Our book this month was Clinch by Swedish writer Martin Holmén, but we also read other books. Maximum rating is 5.

Heather, the Totality by Matthew Weiner, 2 and 2
The Animators by Kayla-Rae Whitaker, 4.5 and 4
Family Album by Penelope Lively, 3
Stories by Helen Garner, 3
True Stories by Helen Garner, 3
The best Australian Essays by Anna Goldsworthy 3
The last painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith 2.5
Pastures of the Blue Crane by H.F. Brinsmead 3
Birds Art Life Death by Kyo Maclear
Le Bal and Snow in Autumn by Irene Nemirovsky,  4
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundati Roy,  3
A Long way from Home by Peter Carey, 3
The Elegance of a Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, 3
Women & Power by Mary Beard, 2.5
The Spy by Paulo Coelho, 2.5
What Is It All But Luminosity by Art Garfunkel, 2
The Lake House by Kate Morton, 2.5
Thank You for Being Late by Thomas L Friedman, 3

November 2017

Our book this month was Three Faces of an Angel written by Czech writer Jiří Pehe, but we also read other books. Maximum rating is 5.

Catherine the Great: A Portrait of a Woman by Robert Massie, 3.5
One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment by Mei Fong, 3.5
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead,2
Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 2.5
The House by the Lake by Kate Morton, 3
The weather obsession by Lawrie Zion, 3
Stay with me by Ayobami Adebayo, 3.5
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margaretta Magnusson, 3
Whip Bird by Robert Drewe, 3
A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles,4
Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang, 4 and 4
Victoria by Julia Baird, 3.5
The choke by Sophie Laguna, 3
Nothing holds back the night by Delphine de Vigan, 4
The Animators by Kyla Rae Whitaker, 4.5
Lincoln in the bardo by George Sanders, 3.5
In search of my father by Helena Popovic, 2.5
The girl who saved the king of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson, 2
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, 3

October 2017

Our book this month was See how much I love you by Luis Leante, but we also read other books. Maximum rating is 5.

The Songs of Trees David by David Haskell, 3
Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving, 4
The Golden House by Salman Rushdie, 3.5
Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, 4
Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy, 4.5
The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas, 3.5
Stay with me by Ayobami Adebayo, 3
Extinctions by Josephine Wilson, 4
Jean Harley Was Here by Heather Taylor Johnson 3
Hinterland by Steven Lang, 4
A Legacy of Spies by John Le Carre’, 3
Nothing Holds Back the Night by Delphine de Vigan, 3.5 and 4.5
The Notebook Trilogy by Agota Kristof 3.5
Understory by Inga Simpson 4

September 2017

Our book this month was The House by The Medlar Tree by Giovanni Verga, but we also read other books.  Maximum rating is 5.

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell, 3.5
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively, 3.5
Siracusa by Delia Ephron, 3
Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo, 3.5
The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas, 3
Barkskins by Annie Proulx, 4
Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson, 4
Nothing Holds Back the Night by Delphine de Vigan ,3.5
A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin, 4
My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci, 3
Based on a True Story by Delphine de Vigan, 3.5 and4
Am I Black Enough For You? By Anita Heiss, 3.5
The Husband Hunters by Anne de Courcy, 4
Victoria by Julia Baird, 3

August 2017

Our book this month was They were Counted, Book One of the Transylvania Trilogy by Miklos Banffy, but we also read other books.  Maximum rating is 5.

A Palace in the Old Village by Tahar Ben Jelloun, 3.5
The Curse of the Pogo Stick: a Laotian murder mystery by Colin Cotterill, 3.5
Regions of Thick Ribbed Ice by Helen Garner, 4.5
The Last Woman Hanged by Caroline Overington,3
The Notebook by Agota Kristof, 4
Understory, by Inga Simpson, 4
Sprinter and Sprummer: Australia’s Changing Seasons, by Timothy J. Entwistle, 3
Australia Day by Melissa Cheng, 3.5
The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker, 4 and 4
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans, 4

July 2017

Our book of the month was Amongst Women by John McGahern, but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

Die Wise by Stephen Jenkinson, 5
The Marvellous Misadventures of Ingrid Winter by J.S. Drangsholt, 2
My cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci, 3.5
The Mothers by Brit Bennett, 2.5, 2,5 and 3.
The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington, 2.5
Fludd by Hilary Mantel, 3
Other chairs by Barbara Blackman,3.5
One Year of Life by Cecil Roberts, 3
Gone Afield by Cecil Roberts, 3

June 2017

Our book of the month was Flesh Coloured Dominoes by the Latvian writer, Zigmunds Skujins, but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

Barkskins by Annie Proulx, 4.5
The Green Road by Ann Enright, 3 and 4
The Woman who invented Beauty:  Helena Rubenstein by Michelle Fitoussi, 3
Only by Caroline Baum, 3.5
Miss Garnet’s Angel by Sally Vickers, 4
Waterland by Graham Swift, 4
Small Island by Andrea Levy, 3.5
The Pleasures of Leisure by Robert Dessaix, 3.5
Light and Shadow – memoir of a spy’s son by Mark Colvin, 3
Understory by Inga Simpson, 3
Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson, 4.5
Larchfield by Polly Clark, 3
The Cows [Don’t follow the herd]by Dawn O’Porter, 3

May 2017

Our book of the month was The House of The Deaf Man by Peter Kristufek, but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

My cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci, 3.5
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue, 2.5
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout, 3.5, 3 and 3
A Bad Character by Deepti Kapoor, 3
Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson, 4
The Constant Gardener by John Le Carre, 3.5
The Pleasures of Leisure by Robert Dessaix, 4
Tenth of December by George Saunders, 3
On Learning Norwegian by Lydia Davis, 4
Position Doubtful by Kim Mahood, 3.5
Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier, 3
The Swans of Fifth Avenue by Melanie Benjamin, 3.5
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, 3.5
The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing, 3
NUMBER9DREAM By David Mitchell, 2.5
My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem, 3
The Toymaker by Liam Pieper, 3
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, 4

April 2017

Our book of the month was Cold Sea Stories by Pawel Huelle, but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

Animal Farm by George Orwell, 4
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, 3.5
A Hundred Small Lessons by Ashley Hay, 2.5
A bad Character by Deepti Kapoor, 2.5
Tender is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald, 3.5
Cold Earth by Ann Cleeves, 3
Quarterly essay No. 65: The White Queen by David Marr, 4
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick, 3
Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healy, 3.5
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson, 3

March 2017

Our book of the month was The Year of the Hare by Arto Tapio Paasilinna, but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

About Grace by Anthony Doerr, 4.
The Notebook Trilogy : The Notebook, The Proof  and The Third Lie by Ágota Kristóf, 4.5.
The Door by Magda Szabó, 3.5.
Johnno by David Malouf,5.
Harland’s Half-Acre by David Malouf, 4.
An Isolated Incident by Emily Maguire, 3.5.
The Whole Wild World by Thomas Dusevic, 2.5.
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada, 2.5.
Silence by Shusaku Endo, 2.
Moonglow by Michael Chabon, 4
Commonwealth  Ann Patchett,  3.5
The Rector’s Wife by Joanne Trollope, 3.
A Village Affair by Joanna Trollope, 3.
The Hate Race by Maxine Beneba Clark, 4.
A Very English Scandal by John Preston, 3.
The Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher, 3.
Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms by Anita Heiss, 4.

February 2017

Our book of the month was All the Lights by Clemens Meyer, but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay, 3.5
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo, 4
Spark Joy by Marie Kondo, 3
Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe, 3.5
Today will be different by Maria Semple, 3.5
The Notebook Trilogy by Agota Kristof, 5
Lila by Marilynne  Robinson, 4
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, 3
Catherine the Great, Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie, 3
Johnno by David Malouf, 4.5
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett, 4
Best Australian Essays 2016 ed. Geordie Williamson, 3.5
Flesh Wounds by Richard Glover, 4

January 2017

Our book of the month was New Finnish Grammar by Diego Marani, but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

The Feel of Steel by Helen Garner, 3.5
Oranges are not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson, 4
Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days by Jeanette Winterson, 3.5, 3.5 & 3
Dumb Luck by Vu Trong Phung, 3
Life by Gwyneth A. Jones, 3.5
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor, 3.5
The Notebook Trilogy by Agota Kristof, 4
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett, 4.5 & 4
Dancing Backwards by Sally Vickers, 2
Blame by Nicole Trope, 3
The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood, 3.5
Mullumbimby by Melissa Lucashenko, 3
A Manual for Cleaning Women, 4 & 4.5
The Life Changing Magic of not Giving a F@#k, 3
The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain, 3
The Dry by Jane Harper, 4
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 2.5

Favourite books of 2016

The most voted book of our 2016 Reading List was

Book 2 of My Struggle: A Man in Love by Karl Ove Knausgard

Our favourite reads of 2016 are listed below. My name is Lucy Barton had 4 votes!

Alexa

1. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout.
2. My Struggle Book 2: A Man in Love by Karl Ove Knausgaard.
3. Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada.

Claudia

1. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout.
2. My Struggle Book 5: Some Rain Must Fall by Karl Ove Knausgaard.
3. The Vegetarian by Han Kang.

Dianne

1.American Housewife by Helen Ellis.
2.This House of Grief by Helen Garner.
3.Bonkers by Jennifer Saunders.

Janet

1.Barkskins by Annie Proulx.
2.Where the trees were by Inga Simpson.
3.My name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout.

Kim

1. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.
2. That Eye, the Sky by Tim Winton.
3. Three Letters from the Andes by Patrick Leigh Fermor.

Margie

1. The Notebook Trilogy by Agota Kristof.
2. Dumb Luck by Vu Trong Phung.
3. The Lover by Marguerite Duras.

Nicola

1.My name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Stroud.
2.Black Rock White City by A S Patric.
3.Music and Freedom by Zoe Morrison.

Penny

1.  Great Meadow: an evocation by Dirk Bogarde.
2. The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami.
3. Last hundred years trilogy Book 1: Some Luck by Jane Smiley.

Viv
The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal.

December 2016

Our book of the month was Submission by Michel Houellebecq, but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

The rules of Backyard Cricket Jock Serong 3.5.
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer 2.5.
Flanuese by Lauren Elkin 2.5.
The Tzar of love and techno by Anthony Marr 3.5.
The course of love by Alain de Botton 3.
The ministry of pain by Dubravka Ugresic 4.
Where the trees were by Inga Simpson 3, 4.
Wild cat falling by Colin Johnson 3.5.
The life of houses by Lisa Gorton 4.
The Turner house by Angela Flournoy 3.5.
Agnes by Peter Stamm 2.5.
The Dry by Jane Harper 2.5.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari  3.

November 2016

Our book of the month was The Vegetarian by Han Kang,  but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

Regions of Thick-Ribbed Ice by Helen Garner 3.5
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 2.5
The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories of my life by John Le Carré 4
White City Black Rock by A S Patric 3
Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga 3.5
The Sympatizer Viet Thanh Nguyen 4
Great Meadow: an evocation by Dirk Bogarde 4
What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi 3
Hope Farm 3
The Turner House by Angela Flournoy 4
Older and Bolder by Renata Singer 2
Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama 3.5

September 2016

Our book of the month was The Watch Tower by Elizabeth Harrower,  but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

Out in the Open by Jesús Carrasco 3.5
Hawaii by James A. Michener 4
The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry 2.5
Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey 3
The 13th Disciple by Deepak Chopra 2.5
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan 3
An Invisible Friendship by Joyce Grenfell and Katharine Moore 4
The soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery 3.5
Before The Fall by Noah Hawley 3
Swallow the Air by Tara June Winch 3
Promising Azra by Helen Thurloe 3
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy 3
What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi 4
The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks 3
The Informers by Gabriel García Vázquez 3
American Housewife by Helen Ellis 3.5
Blood Kin by Ceridwen Dovey 3.5
Beauty Is A Wound by Eka Kurniawan 2
Dumb Luck by Vũ Trọng Phụng 5
The Tiger Wife by Téa Obreht 4
The Bridge On The Drina by Ivo Andrić 2.5
Black Rock White City by A. S. Patric 4.5

August 2016

Our book of the month was The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez,  but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion 3.5
Forever Young by Stephen Carroll 2.5
I capture the castle by Dodie Smith 3
Everywhere I look by Helen Garner 4, 4
Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift 3, 2
Drink Time in the Company of Patrick Leigh Fermor by Dolores Payás 3.5
The Night Manager by John le Carre 3
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson 3.5
Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood 3.5
La Symphonie Pastorale and Isabelle by Andre Gide 3.5
The Sacred Balance by David Suzuki 4
The Dry by Jane Harper 4, 4
Wild Cat Falling by Colin Johnson 3
Teatime for the Firefly by Shonna Patel 3
This House of Grief by Helen Garner 4
Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Keran Desai 3.5
Barkskins by Annie Proulx 4
The Lover by Marguerite Dumas 4.5
Where Heaven and Earth Change Places by Le Ly Hayslip 4
The Fisherman by Chigozie Obioma 3
Dona Nicanora’s Hat Shop by Kirstan Hawkins 2.5
The submerged Cathedral by Charlotte Wood 3.5
The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera 2
Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett 3
A Long Time Coming by Melanie Joosten 3.5
Between a Wolf and a Dog by Georgia Blain 4
Out in the Open by Jesus Carrasco 4
The soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery 3.5

July 2016

Our book of the month was Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf  but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

What days are for by Robert Dessaix 3.5.
When we were orphans Kazuo Ishiguro 2.5.
Three letters from the Andes by Patrick Leigh Fermor 4.
The submerged cathedral by Charlotte Wood 4.
Barkskins by Annie Proulx 4 Janet, 4 Nicola.
The bricks that built the houses by Kate Tempest 3.
Between a wolf and a dog by Georgia Blain 3.
A whole life by Robert Seethaler 3.
Road to ruin by Nikki Savva 3.
Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe 3.5.
An isolated incident by Emily Maguire 2.5.
Hope farm by Peggy Frew 3.
Red carpets by Rupert Everett 3.
The magic faraway tree by Enid Blyton 3.
Five on a treasure island by Enid Blyton 1.
Dona Nicanora’s hat shop by Kirstan Hawkins 3.
In the sanctuary of outcasts by Neil White 4.
The Notebook Trilogy by Agota Kristof 4.
The glorious heresies by Lisa McInerney 2.5.
Only the animals by Ceridwen Dovey 4.
The last painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith 3.5.
The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal 4.
How Proust can change your life by Alain be Botton 3.
The course of love by Alain be Botton 3.5.
The art of travel by Alain be Botton 3.5.

June 2016

Our book of the month was Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline, but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

Boy Lost by Kristina Olson, 4.
Mothering Sunday By Graham Swift, 4.5.
A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler, 3.5.
The Abundance by Annie Dillard, 4.
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust, 4.
The Sheperd’s Life by James Rebanks, 3.
A Model Childhood by Christa Wolf, 3.5.
Everywhere I Look by Helen Garner 3.5.
Landskipping by Anna Pavord, 3.
The Bricks That Built The House by Kate Tempest, 3.
The Sacred Combe by Thomas Maloney, 3.
When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro, 3.
The Road To little Dribble by Bill Bryson, 4.
Falling Towards England by Clive James, 3.5.
Winter of the World by Ken Follet, 3.5.
Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler, 4.
The Beginners Goodbye by Anne Tyler,3.5.
Gilgamesh by Joan London, 3.
The Course of Love by Alain de Botton, 4.
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, 2.5.
Fineflour by Gillian Mears, 3.
Dark Palace by Frank Moorhouse, 3.
The Attack by Jasmina Khadra, 3.
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell, 3.
The Midnight Watch by David Dyer, 4.
I am Spock by Leonard Nimoy, 4.
Where the Tress are by Inga simpson, 3.5.
The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami, 4.
Zone of Interest by Martin Amis, 4.

May 2016

Our book of the month was  Go Set at Watchman by Harper Lee, but we also read other books.
Maximum rating is 5.

Etham Frome by Edith Wharton, 3.5
The natural way of things by Charlotte Wood ,3.5, 4
The taming of the queen by Philippa Gregory, 3
In other words by Jhumpa Lahiri, 3
This is Gail by Gail O’Brian, 3
Between a wolf and a dog by Georgia Blain, 4
Too close to home by by Georgia Blain, 2.5
Resilience by Ann Deveson
Summer House with swimming pool by Herman Koch, 4
Past the shallows by Favel Parrett, 4
The fisherman by Chigozie Obioma, 4
The Whites by Richard Price writing as Harry Brandt, 3
The light on the water by Olga Lorenzo, 3.5
The living by Anjali Joseph, 4
The chimes by Anna Smaill
Zero K by Don DeLillo, 4.5
Major Pettigrew’s last stand by Helen Simonson, 3
It started with Paris by Kathy Kelly, 2.5
Dinner at the homesick restaurant by Anne Tyler, 3.5
Hamlet’s Dresser by Bob Smith, 4
At Mrs Lippincote’s by Elizabeth Taylor, 4
Small Victories by Ann Lamott, 4
The truth according to us by Annie Barrows, 3

 

April 2016

Our book of the month was A Man in Love, Book 2 of My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgård, but we also read other books. Maximum rating is 5.

Under Cover: Adventures in the art of editing by Craig Munro, 2.5
Fever at Dawn by Péter Gárdos, 3
The year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, 3
American Housewife by Hellen Ellis, 3.5
Bonkers by Jennifer Saunders, 4.
According to Yes by Dawn French, 2.5
Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War… by Jason Stearns, 4
The Laughing Clowns by William McInnes, 3
Cometh the hour by Jeffrey Archer, 2.5
Bring up the bodies by Hillary Mantel, 3
I am pilgrim by Terry Hayes, 3
Owls Do Cry by Janet Frame, 4
Selected Stories by Janet Frame, 4
The cove  by Ron Rush, 2.5
Penguin and the Lane Brothers: The Untold Story of a Publishing Revolution by Stuart Kells, 4
I was only 16 by Roland Griffith-Marsh , 4

March 2016

Our book of the month was Heat and Light by Ellen Van Neerven, but we also read other books. Maximum rating is 5.

Island Home by Tim Winton 4
Family Furnishings by Alice Munro 5
The nature of passion by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala 3
A time of gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor 4
The third policeman by Flann O’Brien 2 (better one is At Swim-Two-Birds)
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert 2.5
The heart is a lonely hunter by Carson McCullers 4.5
The little Paris Bookshop by Nina George 2.5
My Struggle Book 5, Some Rain Must Fall by Karl Ove Knausgaard 3.5
Independent People by Halldór Laxness 5
Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler 4
Euphoria by Lily King 4
Gutenberg’s apprentice by Alix Christie 3.5
Crazy rich Asians by Kevin Kwan 3.5
Not my father’s son by Alan Cumming 3
My name is Lucy Barton 3.5, 4, 2.5, 4
Fine Colour of Rust by P. A. O’Reilly 3.5
The bazaar of bad dreams by Stephen King 3.5
All fall down by Matthew Condon 3
Eureka by Peter Fitzsimons 4
The women’s pages by Debra Adelaide 4
The Joke by Milan Kundera  3
The Cutting Season by Attica Locke 3
The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright 3
The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel 3 and 4
Modern Love: The Story of John and Sunday Reed  by Lesley Harding & Kendrah Morgan 4.

February 2016

Our book of the month was The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt, but we also read other books. Maximum rating is 5.

My name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout 4.5, 4.5, 4 & 4
A little life by Hanya Yanagihara 0 (Yes – 0 out of 5)
Past the Shallows Favel Parrett 3
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey 3
The Winter’s Tale by Shakespeare 3.5
The gap of time by Jeanette Winterson 3, 3.5
Jacks and Jokers by Matthew Condon 3
The Almost Nearly Perfect People: The Truth About the Nordic Miracle by
Michael Booth 2.5
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff 3
The Women in Black by Madeleine St John 4
The White Road by Edmund de Waal 3.5
The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George 2.5
The other side of the world by Stephanie Bishop 2.5
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver 2.5, 4
Lilian’s Story by Kate Grenville 2, 4
Cloud Street by Tim Winton 3.5, 4
A strangeness in my mind by Orhan Pamuk 4
The discreet hero by Mario Vargas Llosa 3.5 and 3
The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk 3.4-5
Quartet (3), After leaving Mr. Mackenzie (3), Voyage in the Dark (2), Good
morning midnight (2) by Jean Rhys
How to be good by Nick Hornby 2.5
Levels of life by Julian Barnes 3
When the night comes by Favel Parrett 4
Ghost River by Tony Birch 2.5
Blood by Tony Birch 3
The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood 3.5
Preparations for the next life by Atticus Lish 3.5
Some Luck by Jane Smiley 4
Best Australian Essays 2015 4 especially:
“Staying with the Trouble” by Sophie Cunningham (which won the 2015 Calibre
Prize) 5 and “Regions of Thick-Ribbed Ice” by Helen Garner 4.

 

January 2016

Our book of the month was The Orchard by Drusilla Modjeska but we also read other books. Maximum rating is 5.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey 2
That Eye The Sky by Tim Winton 3.5
Skylight by Jose Saramago 2.5
The Common Reader by Alan Bennett 3
The Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 3
England, England by Julian Barnes 3
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers 3.5
City of the Beasts Isabel Allende 2.4
Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand 4.5
Twilight of Love: Travels with Turgenev by Robert Dessaix 3.5
Blue Guitar by John Banville 4
The Natural Way of things by Charlotte Wood 3 and 3.5
Animal People by Charlotte Wood 3
Doghead by Morten Ramsland 3
Flesh Wounds by Richard Glover 3
Preparations for the Next Life by Atticus Lish 4
Three Crooked Kings by Matthew Condon 3
In the Heart of the Sea:The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick

December 2015

Our book of the month was  Waiting for the Past by Les Murray, but we also read other books.

Maximum rating is 5.

The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare 3
Hamlet by William Shakespeare 3.5 and 4
Purity by Jonathan Franzen 3.5
The Whites by Richard Price writing as Harry Brandt 4
A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor 3
The Green Road by Anne Enright 3 and 3.5
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín 3.5
Summer at Mount Hope by Rosalie Ham 3
Hungry Hill by Daphne du Maurier 2.5
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 4
Small Victories by Ann Lamott 1
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens 4
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 4
The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson 3.5
The Griffith Review: Looking West 3.5
The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood 4
In Tasmania by Nicholas Shakespeare 3.5
Etham Frome by Edith Wharton 3

November 2015

Our book of the month was  In The Shadow Of The Banyan by Vaddey Ratner, but we also read other books.

Maximum rating is 5.

Lilian’s Story by Kate Grenville 4
The book of Emmett by Deborah Foster 3
One Summer by David Baldacci 2
The Ash Burner by Kari Gislason 3.5, 3
Older and Bolder by Renate Singer 3.5
True Stories by Helen Garner 4
Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick deWitt 3.5
Island Home by Tim Winton 5
Across the nightingale floor by Leanne Herne 3
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith 3.3
The dust that falls from dreams by Louis de Bernières 3
Fall girl by Tony Jordan 2.5
A long way from Verona by Jane Gardan 2.5
Women in Black by Madeleine St John 3
Snowdrops by A D Miller 3
The Strays by Emily Butto 3.5
Flesh wounds by Richard Glover 3.5
Spinster by Kate Bolick 3
Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki by Haruki Murakami 3.5

October 2015

Our book of the month was My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante , but we also read other books.

Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

 

September 2015

Our book of the month was Dept.Of Speculation by Jenny Offill, but we also read other books.

Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

July 2015

Our book of the month was Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, but we also read other books.

Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

 

June 2015

Our book of the month was Benang: From the Heart by Kim Scott, but we also read other books.

Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

May 2015

Our book of month was The Unexpected Professor by John Carey but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

 

April 2015

Our book of month was The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

 

 

March 2015

Our book of month was The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

February 2015

Our book of month was  Joyful by Australian author Robert Hillman, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

 

January 2015

Our book of month was  Australian History In Seven Questions by John Hirst, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

 

December 2014 

Our book of month was  The Mill On The Floss by George Eliot, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

 

2014 Book of the Year

The reading list this year was underwhelming, so it was a vote for the one that we disliked less. The winner was Alexa’s choice A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki.

Our personal favourites for the year 2014 were

Alexa:  Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill.

Claudia: My Struggle Books 1, 2 and 3 by Karl Ove Knausgaard.

Denise: An Inconvenient Genocide by Geoffrey Robertson.

Di: The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling.

Janet: Nest By Inga Simpson.

Kim: The Unexpected Professor by John Carey.

Nicola: Lila by Marilynne Robinson.

Penny: Martini: a Memoir by Frank Moorhouse

Viv: Nest by Inga Simpson.

November 2014 

Our book of month was Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

 

October 2014 

Our book of month was Forecast: Turbulence by Janette Turner Hospital, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

September 2014 

Our book of month was The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

August 2014 

Our book of month was A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

July 2014 

Our book of month was The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

 

June 2014 

Our book of month was The Third Life Of Grange Copeland by Alice Walker , but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

 

May 2014 

Our book of month was The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

 

 

April 2014 

Our book of the month was Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

 

 

 

March 2014 

Our book of the month was For Love Alone by Christina Stead, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

 

 

February 2014  

Our book of the month was Selected Stories by Katherine Mansfield, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews. Maximum rating is 5.

 

January 2014 

Our book of the month was Snow by Orhan Pamuk, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews.

December 2013 

Our book of the month was Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews.

November 2013 

Our book of the month was The New Yorker Stories by Ann Beattie, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews.

 

 

October 2013 

Our book of the month was Cocktail Hour Under The Tree Of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller, but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews.

 

September 2013 

Our book of the month was Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel , but we also read other books.
Click on the shortlinks for reviews.

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