May
China’s curse is to raise hopes and dash them
In her book “Wild Ride”, an American journalist details her life in China as it opened to the world, then regressed back to an oppressive, inward-looking regime.
- Anne Stevenson-Yang
How Reese Witherspoon built a multimillion-dollar empire on books
The businesswoman’s book club may not make money from sales, but it offers an opportunity to option stories that can be turned into TV shows by her production company.
- Elisabeth Egan
Five new business books to read this month
Lessons from venture capital, problems with innovation, and tips and tricks on learning new things.
- Andrew Hill, George Hammond, Leo Cremonezi and Bethan Staton
Famous, poor and gay, this lawyer scandalised her class, and country
Constance Debré left her husband for women. Denied custody of her son, she turned the story into a book that shocked France.
- Claire Allfree
April
This writer packs a lot into her weekends and still finds time to work
Lauren Groff is an athlete, a mother, a best-selling writer and she’s taking on the censors in her home state of Florida. She describes her typical Saturday and Sunday.
- Lauren Sams
Salman Rushdie’s memoir is horrific, upsetting – and a masterpiece
In “Knife”, the author recounts his wounds and recovery in graphic detail, a documentary record which he leavens with humour.
- Erica Wagner
Here’s a puzzle: what is a cruciverbalist’s job?
Should they reflect the linguistic biases of a paper’s readership, or correct those leanings?
- Becca Rothfeld
March
This woman is like ‘the Beatles for children’
You might not have heard of her, but Raina Telgemeier is an author who defines a generation of children’s literature, and whose books have encapsulated a generation’s experience of childhood.
- Jordan Kisner
Why we should revisit the dramas of postwar France
Author Julian Jackson says French history over the last century is full of thrills and spills that have fresh relevance in an era of tawdry politics.
- Andrew Clark
Investment banks’ secrets revealed in insider’s new novel
After 20 years at the likes of Barrenjoey, Deustche Bank, ABN Amro and Jarden, Jill Valentine explores leadership styles, drug-fuelled parties and the dark art of “blue hushing” in her fiction.
- Jemima Whyte
February
Why ‘romantasy’ books are in a sales boom
Readers are devouring spicy tales of dragon riders, beautiful assassins and brooding faerie lords, and say there’s no “guilt” in this pleasure.
- Lucy Dean
Forget the 5am club; this famous author is up at 3am – even on Sundays
Edinburgh-based Sir Alexander McCall Smith writes in the wee hours, and then goes back to bed and starts the weekends again later, with fried eggs and bacon.
- Fiona Carruthers
The expert who unmasked a Hitler forgery and appraised Nixon’s papers
Safeguarding History is a fun read about the life of a history expert who hobnobs with the rich and famous.
- Michael Dirda
Hugh Hefner’s widow reveals what he was like between the sheets
Crystal Hefner has written about her life inside the Playboy mansion and surviving the “trauma” of her marriage to the notorious libertine.
- Pippa Bailey
January
How TikTok made the ‘Hugh Grant bookshop’ viral - again
A new generation is discovering the joy of reading on paper thanks to an electronic medium.
- Madeleine Ross
Books to watch out for this year
A selection of non-fiction titles that are already generating buzz.
- Foreign Policy
December 2023
Meet the man who conned the world
Long before Nigerian princes became a fixture of email inboxes, John Ackah Blay-Miezah spun a web of lies that promised untold riches from Ghana’s colonial past.
- Yepoka Yeebo
The books flying off the shelves right now
Richard Flanagan’s “best thing yet”, a graphic novel for teenagers, Trent Dalton’s latest novel and ‘dragons and young love’ are flying off bookshop shelves.
- Hannah Wootton
The first Australian writer to make politics and sex sing
Frank Moorhouse was one of Australia’s most adventurous and productive authors. A new biography explains his rise.
- Andrew Clark
Author Anna Funder takes on her critics
Sydney Grammar School used Funder’s take on George Orwell’s wife to help its HSC students understand the author and his book,1984. Others are not so pleased.
- Emma Connors