This reading list is a contribution to the sharing of books. All sorts of books make their way to my bedside table. Some are sent, some recommended, some given as gifts or lent by someone who has enjoyed reading them.
Others (let’s be frank – many) I see on a bookstore shelf, find irresistible and bring home. A few of these become family members who may not leave my bookshelf, but can be read by guests who stay. Some wander on to other homes and hearts.
If you have books you’d like to talk about contact me via the web contact form.
Independently published, Australia, 2026
Cover image Mary Wettenhall (1809-1896)by Robert Wettenhall from the author’s collection
The Mary Poems is an affecting imagining of the life and thoughts of the poet’s ancestor, Mary Burgess Wettenhall née Bussell (1809 to 1896).
Penguin, Australia, 2026
Cover design Christabella Designs
Cover image Posnov/Getty Images
It seems that magical realism meets a seedy underbelly in the small Australian town of Possible Springs.
Allen & Unwin, Australia 2026
Cover design Christa Moffitt, Christabella Designs
Cover images Jaroslaw Blaminsky/Trevillion Images; Shutterstock
Commercial litigation lawyer Ruth Dawson is beset both professionally and personally in Bad Neighbours, a twisty tale of greed, property and betrayal.
EK Books, Australia, 2026
Book design Mark Thacker
Jemima Parker’s gentle story of a creative and resourceful little girl reminds us of the importance of following through one’s ideas, of valuing small treasures and of helping one’s friends.
Continue Reading“Jemima Parker and Karen Erasmus – Poppy makes pockets “
Riveted Press, Australia 2026
Cover art Tamlyn Teow
The Prime Minister Problem is a book of considerable charm. Its main character Wren is a gentle lad, never feeling like he belongs, not ‘in’ with the popular kids and often teased or left out at school.
Allen & Unwin, Australia 2026
Cover design Christa Moffat, Christabella Designs
Cover illustrations Nastia/Adobe Stock
The Followers is a whip-smart fiction, delving into the dark hothouse that girlhood can be from pre-puberty, through teenhood and into young womanhood.
Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia 2026
Cover design Hazel Lam
Cover images Adobe Stock; shutterstock.com; rawpixel.com
Kathryn Heyman has captured both the delicacy and the rawness of sharing the dying time of a loved one.
Affirm Press, Australia 2026
Cover design Deb Parry
The Writers Retreat is a clever work with almost an ‘insiders’ feel to it. Anyone who has anything to do with the writing and publishing world or who has ventured on a writing retreat will find that it strikes chords.
Affirm Press, Australia 2026
Cover design Nada Backovic
Cover images Nada Backovic; iStock.com: Fourleaflover, moonnoon, svetolk, tassel78, YURII ZASIMOV; Shutterstock.com: Vladimir Grigoriev
Kate Solly has mastered the art of plumbing the depths of contemporary society, whilst simultaneously telling a rollicking good fun story, full of the gamut of real people we recognise from our world and some loveable and/or quirky ones from her imagination.
HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia 2026
Cover design Emily O’Neill
Cover images rawpixel.com and shutterstock.com
Arianne James’ tale of selkies and other merfolk plunges us into the waters of Tasmania and Scotland with a rich heritage of folklore and seafaring. The powerful feminine is at its core – sisterhood, family and women’s wisdom.
Allen & Unwin, Australia 2026
Cover design Christabella Designs
Cover images Silas Manhood/Trevillion; iStock; Shutterstock
The brooding presence of the now overgrown and dilapidated manor at Thornwood Park is the setting for much of this novel, and a stark metaphor for decay and decline, for the buried past.
Hachette, Australia, 2026
Cover design Alex Ross Creative
Cover art courtesy Alamy/Steve-x-art; Alamy/The Natural History Museum; Shutterstock/Maomi Marcin
Inga Simpson’s writing about the natural world is so very beautiful that for me the purity of her language acts as a kind of counterweight to the darkness of her storytelling.
Allen & Unwin, Australia 2026
Cover design Hazel Lam
Cover illustration Louisa Maggio
The Bookshop of Buried Pasts is a lusciously rich tale of mothering and forgiveness. Spanning two timeframes and places – the 1960s in Cambridgeshire and the recent past and present day in a NSW Southern Highlands village, the story takes us on an historical investigation of crimes, coercion and connection.
Windy Hollow, Australia, 2026
Design by Nuovo Group
Love can be both gentle and intense at the same time. And thus it is in Sarah Wallace’s story Learning You By Heart.
Allen & Unwin, Australia 2026
Cover design Deborah Parry Graphics
Cover images Elisabeth Ansley/Trevillion Images; Allusioni/iStock; Ekaproeka/Creative Market
With a decided nod to Golden Age detective fiction, Kirsty Manning gives us a female journalist amateur sleuth who works in concert with the metropolitan police in Paris and provincial police as the case widens.
