Culture
Books
Albo’s holiday reading list: Six books to keep the PM busy at the beach
Each year the Grattan Institute recommends a short selection of must-reads for the nation’s top office holder.
- by Jason Steger
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The fictional heroes who have helped shape our next leaders
From Stranger Things to Barbie, our brightest young voices celebrate the characters who helped them find their way.
Why are funny writers always looked down upon?
Let’s not forget Proust’s roasts. Because I’m here for a fun time, not a Lost Time.
- by Richard Glover
Fact-checkers beware: Did The Twelfth Man invent this famed Aussie slang?
It’s time to dive back into the origins of “goneski”, with a timely assist from the Socceroos.
- by David Astle
We’re blessed to have Bob Dylan’s wild book of 66 game-changing songs
Headlong passion is cut with a flinty old timer’s asides in the Nobel Prize winner’s new book, The Philosophy of Modern Song.
- by Michael Dwyer
The secrets of the men who have won - and lost - the World Cup
How to Win the World Cup implies a promise on which author Chris Evans knows he cannot deliver.
- by Ian Syson
‘It’s all very surreal’: the local cookbook author outselling Ottolenghi and Oliver
RecipeTin Eats founder Nagi Maehashi has the bestselling cookbook of the year – and it only launched in October.
- by Kerrie O'Brien
Holly Ringland’s new novel is a story of love and total escapism
The ABC presenter is a virtuoso of fairytale storytelling for adults and clings to the pattern of her bestselling debut novel.
- by Jessie Tu
Forget Netflix’s gloomy Marilyn Monroe movie. Read the masterful book instead
Joyce Carol Oates is one of the most prolific novelists working today and Blonde is her masterpiece.
- by Jane Sullivan
Why it’s time to change the law and stop ignoring women’s rights
Jennifer Robinson and Keina Yoshida’s demand for action on violence against women leads our wrap-up of new book reviews.
- by Cameron Woodhead and Fiona Capp
Shannon Burns had a childhood few would envy. This is his story of escape
Like Jimmy Barnes’ memoir Working Class Boy, Childhood is a painfully dignified book about life with a violent and dysfunctional family.
- by Michael McGirr