Exclusive subscriber discount: 10% off Booktopia
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If you need a great read but are questioning which story comes next, here are some suggestions from our Books Editor Jason Steger. Purchase using this unique link where your 10% discount will be automatically applied.
Back Up by Liam MannixCredit: Booktopia
Back Up, Liam Mannix - $28.50
The chances are that everyone has had it, haven’t they? Back pain, that is. But Liam Mannix, the science reporter for this masthead, reckons the world has got the treatment of bad backs and the way we think about them all wrong. He’s not alone, of course. Many scientists “believe back pain is one of the greatest problems in world health today. And it is one almost entirely of our own creation.” Here, Mannix exposes the old ways of treatment and looks at new ideas about pain and the crucial connection between the brain and the back.
Crossing the Line by Nick McKenzieCredit: Booktopia
Crossing the Line, Nick McKenzie - $28.50
An explosive exposé and testament to the power of investigative journalism.
In mid-2017, whispers from Australia’s most secretive and elite military unit reached Walkley Award-winning journalist Nick McKenzie. McKenzie and veteran reporter Chris Masters began an investigation that would not only reveal shocking information about Australia’s most famous and revered SAS soldier but plunge the two reporters into the defamation trial of the century. An enthralling and meticulously researched book, Crossing the Line tells the untold story of how a small group of brave soldiers and two determined reporters exposed one of the greatest military scandals in Australian history.
Anam by Andre DaoCredit: Booktopia
Anam, Andre Dao - $26.95
Andre Dao has described Anam as a “fictionalised family history”, and it’s clear that this novel, which won the Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award two years ago, has a lot of real family history in it. The narrator’s grandfather was imprisoned by the communists in Vietnam for a decade, “it served as the anchor for my self image. I was the son of refugees, the grandson of a political prisoner”. And so begins this exploration of family, the past and the present, memory, belonging and exile.
Personal Score by Ellen Van NeervenCredit: Booktopia
Personal Score, Ellen van Neerven - $28.50
Poet Ellen van Neerven loves football and played as a striker as an 11-year-old with Stamford Rangers in Queensland. But this is not a memoir of their sporting days, although that is part of it. This is an investigation of gender and racism in sport based on their own experiences and those of the many people the author spoke to. The question at the heart of the book is “what does it mean to play sport on First Nations land?” What van Neerven wants is for “sport to return to its origins of inclusion and care for land”.
Naked Ambition by Robert GottCredit: Booktopia
Naked Ambition, Robert Gott - $28.90
Gregory Buchanan is a junior minister who has been painted for the Archibald. He has hung the huge picture in the family dining room. But there’s one awkward thing about it – he’s stark bollock naked. “In the middle of all that beauty,” as his wife puts it, “at eye level in fact, there is what is inescapably a penis.” And guests are arriving imminently, including the mother-in-law who loathes him and the State premier with a political crisis to deal with. Cue a delicious comic novel from the wonderfully witty Robert Gott.
The Wager by David GrannCredit: Booktopia
The Wager, David Grann - $28.25
You probably know David Grann from his journalism in The New Yorker, and his books, which include The Lost City of Z and the astonishing Killers of the Flower Moon. His latest is an investigation into the wreck of the eponymous British ship in 1740 and the conflicting stories told by two separate shiploads of survivors that led to a court martial and scandal involving, among others, the poet Byron’s grandfather.
Knowing What We Know by Simon WinchesterCredit: Booktopia
Knowing What We Know, Simon Winchester - $26.95
As Simon Winchester points out in his latest erudite but fascinating book, “the arc of every human life is measured out by the ceaseless accumulation of knowledge”. With The Surgeon of Crowthorne he helped to usher in a new genre, narrative non-fiction, and here he is investigating how knowledge has been passed on to us humans and how the way it is passed on has changed over the years. He’s always worth reading.
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