Culture
Books
The real story of how Australian media companies amassed their huge power
In Sally Young’s second volume of her history of Australian media, she focuses on newspapers and the coming of television.
- by Matthew Ricketson
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Look back without anger: A memoir of abuse at school
Martin Flanagan’s memoir is possibly the most insightful book to so far emerge from the mangled mess of child sexual abuse in Catholic institutions.
- by Michael McGirr
Three novels that delve into sex, consent and power after #MeToo
Second novels by three award-winning women writers disrupt familiar narratives.
- by Jo Case
Got that sinking feeling? That means death in this classy mystery
Margaret Hickey’s third book Broken Bay takes the reader to the SA coastal fringe littered with dangerous sinkholes and caves.
- by Sue Turnbull
Clever, artistic and full of the devil ... then Jackie met JFK
Jacqueline Bouvier was well on her way to becoming a skilled photojournalist when up-and-coming senator John Kennedy crossed her line of vision.
- by Helen Elliott
What to read: A rollicking feminist romp and tender essays on abortion
Our reviewers cast their eyes over recent fiction and non-fiction.
- by Cameron Woodhead and Steven Carroll
No flesh nor bones: Why Nick Cave has nothing to fear from ChatGPT
Amid the hysteria about AI, humanity has a fundamental, if painful, advantage.
- by Richard King
‘Trojan horse’ novel tackling colonisation and war wins Miles Franklin
Never judge a book by its cover. That’s certainly true about Shankari Chandran’s award-winning novel.
- by Jason Steger
Violent, frightening and utterly addictive: Ellie Marney’s thrillers
The NYT bestselling YA author has long been fascinated by the “golden age” of serial killers.
- by Frances Atkinson
Tech companies ‘operate like Don Draper’s world in Mad Men’
Developments in tech are moving at a rapid pace and that poses serious human rights issues, says journalist Tracey Spicer.
- by Kerrie O'Brien
Biting humour drives heady story of life on the fringes
Libby Angel’s unsettling second novel Where I Slept paints a beautiful picture of merriment and abandon, at first.
- by Sonia Nair