LATEST BLOG POSTS
Beloved Perth business puts out distress call as cost of living bites
In only 6½ years it’s built a whopping following, making it one of Perth’s most successful shops of its kind. So why can’t that keep the wolf from the door?
I hit the epilogue and felt confused. Then I figured out what was going on
I kept expecting more. Right up until it said “Epilogue”. Then I realised what was going on.
Em’s 2023 Reading Roundup: The 32 books read + one-line reviews of my top reads
A definite reading recovery in 2023! Here are my top picks and some Christmas gift recommendations too.
Review: Stone Yard Devotional, Charlotte Wood
This latest novel from Stella Prize-winning Charlotte Wood keeps her work firmly in that most elusive of categories: literary page-turners.
Review: Storylines, Carrie Cox
A timely and vital novel from one of Australia’s best-kept secrets.
Review: Holly, Stephen King
I was so obsessed with the master of suspense’s latest release that I finished it within 24 hours.
Review: The Reacher Guy: The Authorised Biography of Lee Child, Heather Martin
An exhaustive authorised biography of the celebrated crime writer who in recent years retired and handed his record-smashing franchise to his younger brother.
Review: Stolen Focus, Johann Hari
This is one of the most important and most gripping books I have read this year. And you need to read it too.
Reviewing a brave and funny memoir | getting out on the town
A brave, honest and funny memoir for the modern man.
Em’s 2022 Reading Roundup: The 24 books read + one-line reviews of my top 5
My top five reads of 2022.
About books and memory and sadness
You might think this is oversharing or self-indulgent. Maybe it is. But also, maybe, it’s a heads-up.
Review: The Cast Aways of Harewood Hall, Karen Herbert
Karen Herbert is Perth’s new mystery-writing machine and her second novel is polished to a shine.
Review: The Brink, Holden Sheppard
The long awaited second novel is finally coming from the Perth YA sensation who wrote the award-winning Invisible Boys. No pressure…
Review: The River Mouth, Karen Herbert
Love crime, smart contemporary general fiction or the dark beauty of Australian Gothic? This 2021 debut from Geraldton-born Karen Herbert is a crowd-pleaser.
Review: So Many Beats of the Heart, Carrie Cox
West Australian journalist and author Carrie Cox breaks new and fertile ground in this wise, funny and compassionate new novel.
Review: The Every, Dave Eggers
This novel skewering the companies we hate to love would be fun… if it wasn’t so disturbing.
Review: The Hush, Sara Foster
The Hush takes Foster’s skills with pace and plot and applies them for the first time to science fiction.