Whittaker’s poetic language is urgent but timeless, vernacular but formally rigorous, totally unique.
Review: Superpower by Ross Garnaut
This book could radically transform Australia’s approach to climate change.
Review: Welcome to Bellevue by Seth Robinson
Welcome to Bellevue is an action-packed and satisfying mystery.
Review: Find Me by André Aciman
What feels at first like a somewhat cheeky bait-and-switch turns out to be rich ground for investigating the passage of time, fate, and the many people we are over our lifetimes.
The best books I’ve read 2019
In 2019 I gravitated to stories of radical, political change (can you blame me?), and there seemed to be a surplus available.
Review: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Girl, Woman, Other is a book intensely concerned with the politics of identity and creativity, and how they have shifted over the 20th century.
Review: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
The Testaments is now a book that is completely inseparable from the politics surrounding it.
Review: The Enchantment of the Long-haired Rat by Tim Bonyhardy
The long-haired rat proves to be an excellent subject for an environmental history of Australia since colonisation.
How many men are turned into flowers in Ovid’s Metamorphoses?
Adonis, Narcissus, Hyacinthus: all run afoul of the gods in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Review: The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin
The Obelisk Gate is the second part of N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, set in alternative world known ironically as the Stillness.
The Library Is Open 