Markus Zusak uses words like “challenging” and “ complex” to describe his three dogs, Reuben, Archie and Frosty. In this interview Zusak recounts the joy of remembering his hounds in all their unvarnished glory for this, his first memoir. Also, the challenge of recording his own audio books, the old favourites he likes to read and re-read “forensically”, and which of his favourite books piqued Archie’s literary tastebuds!

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Our beloved reviewers of literary classics, Kylie Cardell and Lisa Bennett, return to reassess Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women”. Kylie has read it many times and Lisa for the first time this year. The tale has obviously endured in our popular culture, movies and vernacular but is it still a “good read”?

Guests:

Markus Zusak, author of “Three Wild Dogs and the Truth”. Also “The Book Thief”, “Bridge of Clay”, “The Messenger” and the young adult trilogy “The Underdog”, “Fighting Ruben Wolfe” and “When Dogs Cry”.

Associate Professor Kylie Cardell teaches and researches life narrative with the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University.

Associate Professor Lisa Bennett teaches undergraduate and Honours classes in Creative Writing and English, Flinders University.

Maddie recounts the books she first fell for as a teenager, her passion for Margaret Atwood’s dystopian creations and a series that explores indigenous knowledge.

Other books that get a mention:

Annie mentions “Butter” by Asako Yuzuki and “All Fours” by Miranda July.

Michaela mentions “Want; Sexual fantasies by anonymous” edited by Gillian Anderson.

Markus mentions “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver, “All the Pretty Horses” written by Cormac McCarthy and narrated by Brad Pitt, “Cairo” by Chris Womersley, “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” by Peter Hedges, “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” by Michael Chabon and “Barbarian Days; A surfing life” by William Finnegan

Maddie mentions young adult author Margaret Clark, “Puberty Blues” by Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, “Oryx & Crake”, “The Year of the Flood” and “MaddAddam” by Margaret Atwood, the six-part “First Knowledges” series, in particular “Astronomy” edited by Margo Neale.

INSTAGRAM

@markuszusak

@macmillanaus

@kyliesays

@lisahannett

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Sean Williams, author of 5 million words, is famous for his hugely successful forays into the worlds of Star Wars, Dr Who, the Marvel Universe, but did you know he also writes ghost stories for young readers? ”Honour Among Ghosts” and “Her Perilous Mansion” are exciting, mysterious, witty and clever reads, officially for 8-12 year olds, but really for anyone who enjoys a rollicking adventure.

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It’s a case of “Art vs Mother’ in two “gloriously unhinged…yet deeply philosophical” novels celebrated by our special guest Associate Professor Kylie Cardell. In “Nightbitch” Rachel Yoder’s protagonist unleashes her inner canine to navigate the new imperatives of motherhood. In “All Fours” Miranda July’s heroine, also at a hormonal crossroad, finds a space to explore who she is and what she will make of her changing reality.

Guests

Sean Williams, author of “Her Perilous Mansion” and “Honour Among Ghosts”. He’s the NYTimes Bestselling author of 50 books and over 120 short stories.

Associate Professor Kylie Cardell teaches and researches life narrative with the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University. She's the author of “Dear World: Contemporary Uses of the Diary” and Editor (with Kate Douglas) of “Telling Tales: Autobiography of Childhood and Youth”. She’s also the essays Editor for the Australian scholarly journal, “Life Writing”.

Other books that get a mention:

Sarah mentions “Shantaram” by Gregory David Roberts.

Michaela mentions “Three Wild Dogs and the Truth” by Markus Zusak and Robbie Arnott’s books, “Dusk” and “Limberlost”

Sean mentions author Georgette Heyer, his own books “Ink” and “Impossible Music” and the series he co-wrote with Garth Nix, “Troubletwisters”

Nikki mentions Hilary Mantel’s books “Wolf Hall” and “Bring up the Bodies” and Anne Patchett’s books “Tom Lake”, “The Dutch House”, “These Precious Days”, “Commonwealth” and “Bel Canto”. She also mentions “Shoe Dog” by Nike’s founder, Phil Knight.

INSTAGRAM

@allenandunwin

@penguinrandomhouse

@aucklanduniversitypress

@adelaidesean

@raijoy

@mirandajuly

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As Mills and Boon Australia celebrates 50 years of taking readers on journeys of love and lust, Annie speaks with Barbara Hannay about her latest novel, "The Wife's Secret", and Michaela discusses medical romance with Amy Andrews, author of "The Outback Doctor's Surprise Bride".

Guests :

Barbara Hannay, author of "The Wife’s Secret"

Amy Andrews, author of "The Outback Doctor's Surprise Bride" and co-founder of the "How to Write Academy" (www.howtowriteacademy.teachable.com)

Barbara’s recommendations:

"Seven Little Australians" by Ethel Turner

Amy’s recommendations:

"Working Class Boy" and "Working Class Man" by Jimmy Barnes

"In Pieces" by Sally Fields

Annie’s recommendations:

"Yellowface" by Rebecca F. Kuang

"James" by Percival Everett

Michaela’s recommendation:

"Other Houses" by Paddy O’Reilly

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Amy Stewart paints a powerful portrait of the human passion for plants in “The Tree Collectors” with fifty different tales of people who, for one fascinating reason or another, devote their life to trees. The book is illustrated with Amy’s vibrant watercolours of the trees and their idiosyncratic owners.

Compared in his heyday to Brett Whitely, painter, printmaker, teacher, writer and ornithologist Don Binney (1940–2012) was an artistic icon in New Zealand in the 1960s. His unmistakable, stylised depictions of birds and the Te Henga coastline are imprinted upon the psyche of that nation. Don Binney was a mercurial, eccentric and often abrasive character whose early brief fame defined his life. In “Don Binney: Flight Path” award-winning author and curator Gregory O’Brien follows the painter from the wild coast of New Zealand through Latin America and Europe, using his letters, journals, and distinctive bird paintings to take us inside Don Binney’s world.

Guests

Amy Stewart, NYT best-selling author of “The Tree Collectors; Tales of arboreal obsession”, “The Drunken Botanist; The Plants that Create the World’s Great Drinks” and “Wicked Plants; The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities”.

Greg O’Brien: Wellington-based poet, painter and curator who has written books on art for young people as well as several other books on artists including Ralph Hotere and Pat Hanly, and co-edited several poetry anthologies besides his solo poetry collections. His most recent book of poems is “House and Contents”, Auckland University Press.

Other books that get a mention

Cath mentions “An Uneasy Inheritance; My family and other radicals” by Polly Toynbee and Shankari Chandran’s new novel “Safe Haven”.

Michaela mentiones “The God of No Good” by Sita Walker.

INSTAGRAM

@amystewart

@text_publishing

@aucklanduniversitypress

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A story that is difficult to pin down to a narrative, playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer’s debut novel explores arrivals and departures, time and space, through the experiences of a curious cast of characters.

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Annie Warburton explores why we read the works of old writers, dissecting the work of Nancy Mitford in the context of her era and the happenings in the world around her.

Guests:

Finnegan Kruckemeyer, playwright whose works have been performed on six continents in 12 languages.

Annie Warburton, former ABC Broadcaster and reading addict.

Danny, our Random Reader

Danny mentions the following books:

“The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams

Author: Ruth Parks

“1984” by George Orwell

“The Mayor of Casterbridge” by Thomas Hardy

“Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo

“Shantaram” by Gregory David Roberts

“The Life Of Pi” by Yann Martel

“The White Tiger” by Aravind Adiga

Author: George Monbiot

“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari

“The Dawn of Everything” by David Graeber

“Entangled Life” by Merlin Sheldrake

“The Well Gardened Mind” by Sue Stuart-Smith

“The Secret Life of Trees” by Colin Tudge

“The Argonauts” by Maggie Nelson

“My Gita” by Devdutt Pattanaik

INSTAGRAM

@textpublishing

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Cath carries this episode with two great chats; the first with author Sophie Cunningham and the other with self-professed “book snob”, Ron Hoenig.

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Ostensibly a novel about Alice, a woman who’s spent the last 20 years writing the biography of Virginia Woolf’s husband, Leonard, “This Devastating Fever” is an insightful, moving and witty tale of what it’s like to live through a time that feels like the end of days, and how we can find comfort and answers in the past.​

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Meet Ron Hoenig, member of The Jewish Men’s Book Club where weighty tomes such as “The Book of Jacob” by Olga Tokarczuk (all 1,000 pages of it) are discussed.

Guests

Sophie Cunningham, author of “This Devastating Fever” and six other books including “Geography” (2004) and “Bird” (2008)

Ron Hoenig, enthusiastic member of the Jewish Men’s Book Club. Ron mentions “Anti-Judaism”by David Nirenberg, “Not In God’s Name: Con­fronting Reli­gious Violence”by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and “The Book of Jacob”, a novel by Olga Tokarczuk.

Other books that get a mention

Annie mentions “Kings in Grass Castles” by Mary Durack

INSTAGRAM

@ultimopress

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Peeling back the veneer of the New York art scene, Bri Lee takes readers into the background world that fuels the industry. ‘The Work’ follows the lives of two protagonists from vastly different backgrounds: gallery owner, Lally, and antiquities dealer, Patrick, as they each follow a path to success, but at what cost?

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Victoria Purman takes readers back to the golden years of radio broadcasting in post-war Australia, to the post war world when women were no longer content to sit in the background, instead stepping forward to write radio plays that held a nation captive.

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When a car veers off the road with devastating consequences, the small wheatbelt town of Garringarup is left reeling, but no one's worlds are more shattered than those of Hannah and Freya, the partners of the passengers. On a day when wedding bells should have been ringing, their lives are torn apart by the web of lies the accident has exposed.

Think Jodi Picoult meets Liane Moriarty and you have an idea of the fast-paced, page turning ethical dilemmas explored by Fiona Lowe in “The Accident”.

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Dumped by her husband of twenty-five years, Jo Peck—smart, successful and sixty—is totally floored. She’s hurt, angry and devastated…but not for long! In this candid memoir Jo discovers the comfort and support of friends, newly forged connections with extended family, good therapy…and internet dating!

Annie loved Jo’s raunchy rediscovery of self because, as Jo explained, “The unvarnished truth is very compelling”.

Guests

Fiona Lowe, author of 37 books. Her latest is “The Accident”

Jo Peck author of “Suddenly Single at Sixty”

Our random reader is Sameer

Other books that get a mention

Samir mentions “Master of the Game” by Sidney Sheldon, “Le Miserables” by Victor Hugo, “Cultural Heritage of India” six volumes gathered under the guidance of the Ramakrishna Institute of Culture.

Sarah mentions “The Animals in that Country” by Laura Jean McKay.Annie mentions “Long Island” by Colm Toibin. He is the author of 7 books, including “Brooklyn”.

INSTAGRAM

@fionaloweaustralianauthor

@text_publishing

@goyougoodthing57

@harpercollinsaustralia

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