Published...Or Not

Once again, Bren MacDibble takes us into the immediate future where food secuity is compromised. 'The Dog Runner' looks at what happens when all grasses are destroyed and ten year old Ella and her half-brother, Emery, have to survive. How do you find your own identity, especially if you have a disability. Twins, Sea and Serene are co-joined physically, but does this make them agree to everything?...

Two worlds converge in Emily Brewin's, 'Small Blessings'; the priviledged life of Isobel and Rosie's social poverty. Both, however, are blessed in ways they perhaps don't realize despite the challenges they face. 

The Anne Elder Award has been bestowed annually since 1977 to recognize the best first book of poetry by Australian writers. The anthology, The Bright and the Cold, compiled by her daughter Catherine, and the biography, The Heart's Ground, written by Anne's niece, Julia Hamer, provide a perspective of a poetic voice and the creative spirit of an Australian poet who was the contemporary of such voi...

Holly Throsby has another small town crime or mystery read.  Two people come to 'Cedar Valley' on the same day, one to find out about her mother, the other to die. Australia is divided. Those effected by the virus have enhanced creativity but can't get into Cornucopia, a religous republic in the north. 'The Second Cure' is a fascinating read about scientific possibilities and political divides by...

Bill Jenkins explores the frailties, quirks and contradictions of individuals in his poetry collection, We Carry the Cave. As a psychologist,pastor and scientist, his perspective is both telling and revealing. Rosalie Ham takes us through drought, infidelity and administrative corruption in her latest novel about life on the land. It's entitles The Year of the Farmer.

Toni Jordan has written about a lost book and a secret love in 'The Fragments' which connects a literary mystery with the transitional times in politcs of 1936 and 1986.June Laurie's adolescent novel, 'into the air' is part of the Blake Collider series where we are taken into the strange world of the CERN laboratory and dimensional travel.

'(Definitely) the Best Dogs of All Time' is a charming and humorous gift book by Jadan Carroll with illustrations by Molly Dyson. A death on a remote cattle station, murder or suicide, but why?  Jane Harper's 'The Lost Man' is a crime novel involving three brothers.

If you enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and wondered what happened to some of the characters, you will delight in 'What Kitty Did Next' by Carrie Kablean. Chris Hammer takes us through the scorching landscape of outback Australia in his psychological thriller, 'Scrublands' delving into an inexplicable atrocity in a country town.

"The mystery of how boys and brothers love" is at the very core and a quote from Markus Zusak's 'Bridge of Clay'.

The latest two poetry collections by Clive James - Injury Time and The River in the Sky - seemingly defy his terminal cancer diagnosis. He continues to write and the compulsion has led to evocative recollections of his life that are touching, insightful and memorable. His inevitable demise seems to have opened up new horizons for examination and discussion.

Jock Serong delves into an often overlooked chapter of early Australian history in his novel, 'Preservation' which addresses the puzzling riddle of The Sydney Cove wreck in 1797 and its cargo of rum. Would life be simpler if relationships were mathematical instead of emotional, perhaps so, but not near as much fun as Katherine Collette has written about in 'The Helpline'.

Alec Patric delves into the impulses and desires driving individuals in his short story collection, 'The Butcherbird Stories'.A woman, learned in spirtual ways, helps to lead the tribes fighting against the Romans during the iron age in Ilka Tampke's 'Songwoman'.

Claire Varley has interconnected five characters in 'The Book of Ordinary People' who by telling their own stories, or by hearing other's stories, learn more about themselves. It is always a perfect storm of comedy, tension and second thoughts when families gather for a wedding.  Bridie Jabour fathoms these dedpths in her novel 'The Way Things Should Be'.

Maryrose Cuskelly explores the events, personalities and psychological impact of the murders that took place in the small rural Victorian town of Wedderburn in 2014. The book is entitled, Wedderburn - a true tale of blood and dust.

Sarah Myles has written a gripping moral thriller about an abduction of a young Australian aid worker. 'The Wolf Hour' is set in Africa .Myth and reality collide in Katya de Becerra's, 'What the Woods Kept'.

'August Falling' by Les Zig delves into the fraught nature of relationships and the challenges they represent. Nina Stanton chose 100 beautiful objects that related to her life and Mary Ryllis Clark wrote her biography with mini histories of the objects in 'A Tear in the Glass'.

Stuart Kells investigates the controversy surrounding the authorship of Shakespeare's works in 'Shakespeare's Library'.It is the entire family that undergoes change in 'The Last Summer of Ada Bloom' by Martine Murray.

There can never be justice after a war as Adam Wakeling's account of the Pacific War Crimes Trials in his work, 'Stern Justice' so aptly illustrates. Three women redo a 5 day trek that they did 20 years ago, will it reignite more blame and shame or restore a broken friendship in Sally Piper's 'The Georgraphy of Friendship'.

'The Honourable Thief' has archaeology, Artemis, sex and black market antiquity sales in this action packed adventure by Meaghan Wilson Anastasios. Louisa Deasey rediscovers family, her father, his love of literature and the artist's life in her memoir, 'A Letter from Paris'.

Ted Todd has written short stories about dating from a male perspective in 'Fifty Something Male' and 'A Doubtful Inheritance' is his autobiofiction as Tibor Weisz.  The title says it all - 'Sex, Drugs and the Electoral Role'. Fiona Patten reveals the current malaise within our political system.

'Into the Fog' by Sandi Wallace is a new rural crime thriller with a wild storm, a long way from home and three missing children. What lengths will you go to if your survival is at stake? Lili Wilkinson explores this conundrum in 'After the Lights Go Out', where doomsday preppers and their isolationism is challenged.

Debut director, Marieke Hardy, talks about this year's Melbourne Writers Festival, themed - a matter of life and death. Cher Chidzey's book 'Ken's Quest' has opinionated Ken wanting to live and work in Australia but will Australia, and especially Julia, change his attitudes?

'Beautiful Revolutionary' is an engrossing historical fiction by Laura Elizabeth Woollett, explaining the charismatic Jim Jones and why so many followed him to their death.  We are taken on a mythical ride in Rebecca Lim's 'The Relic of the Blue Dragon' when an ancient Chinese vase is broken releasing a girl who has been trapped for two thousand years.

'George Parker Goes Global' is a delightfully ridiculous adventure for the teenage reader by David Metzenthen. Kirsty Manning's 'The Jade Lily' is an intriguing tale of how three generations are shaped through the circumstance of war with Shanghai, as the backdrop.

The nature of narrative is exposed in 'Antidote to a Curse', an intriguing novel by James Cristina whose protagonist waits upon a HIV diagnosis. True characters give us an insight into the Victorian asylum histoy in Jill Giese's book, 'The Maddest Place on Earth'.