Books Australia
Terra nullius
For many people these days, exploration means peeking into some of the more unusual corners of the internet. This massive book goes some way to correcting that idea, reminding us… Read more
The lady means business
Gina Rinehart: The Untold Story of the Richest Woman in the World By Adele Ferguson PanMacmillan, $34.99, pp 490 ISBN 9781742610979 This massive but unauthorised biography of Gina Rinehart —… Read more
Progress and its critics
The Lucky Culture and the Rise of an Australian Ruling Class By Nick Cater HarperCollins, $29.99, pp 309 ISBN 9781743098134 Australia is a ‘lucky country’, said Donald Horne in his… Read more
Hunting for bogeymen
Somewhere along the line, belief in climate change became something like a religion, complete with high priests and searches for heretics. Clive Hamilton, although a senior academic, appears to be… Read more
Coming attractions
It appears inevitable that the Coalition will win the federal election to be held later this year. What can we expect from it in government? Modern history tells us that… Read more
Talk is cheap
The Rise of the Fifth Estate: Social Media and Blogging in Australian Politics By Greg Jericho Scribe, $29.95, pp 313 ISBN 9781921844935 The amount of virtual ink spilled by Australia’s… Read more
Fight to the death
Not Dead Yet: Labor’s Post-Left Future By Mark Latham Black Inc Books, $19.95, pp 99 ISBN 9781863955973 This book, by former Labor leader Mark Latham, is schizophrenic. Although not very… Read more
The bland leading the bland
A Premier’s State By Steve Bracks with Ellen Whinnett MUP, $34.99, pp 296 ISBN 9780522860795 One always approaches the memoir of a retired politician with a certain trepidation: such books… Read more
The will to survive
Pacific 360: Australia’s Battle for Survival in World War II By Roland Perry Hachette, $50, pp 512 ISBN 9780733627040 Here is another great door-stopper of a book on Australia’s role… Read more
Unreal city
It would be nice to say that most Australians have a love-hate relationship with Canberra, both as a place and a concept, but that is only half right. Outside the… Read more
Flag of our fathers?
This massive book begins by informing us, with questionable grammar and accuracy, that ‘Like most Australians the saga of the Eureka Stockade is in the very marrow of my bones… Read more
The difference one man can make
When good intentions meet hard facts on the ground, good intentions usually lose. This is essentially the truth of the long and sad story of Aboriginal politics and policy in… Read more
The ball and the man
On Warne By Gideon Haigh Penguin, $35, pp 224 ISBN 9780670076604 Which side would hoist that fragile terracotta urn were it contested not by the players on the field but… Read more
A leg at each corner
It would be wrong to say the Australian Light Horse campaign in the Middle East against the Turks in the first world war has been ignored, but it is a… Read more
Invisible man
Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East By Benjamin Law Black Inc, $29.95, pp 288 ISBN 9781863955768 Given the tight-lipped sanctimoniousness of some advocates of same-sex marriage in Australia, one could… Read more
Strange arrangements
As anyone who has read British-Australian journalist Sushi Das’s award-winning columns in Melbourne’s daily broadsheet the Age will know, you can rely on her to mount a gutsy argument. Das… Read more
Inside the First Fleet
Captain Arthur Phillip, Australia’s first governor, has always had a respected place in Australian history, but has remained something of a cardboard figure in the popular imagination. In this powerful… Read more
The good fight
Uncommon Soldier By Chris Masters Allen & Unwin, $49.99, pp. 400 ISBN 9781741759716 In military matters, separating fact from fiction and reality from legend is a difficult task. These days,… Read more
Tradition meets change
An Indian Summer of Cricket By Malcolm McGregor Barrallier Books, $39.50 ISBN 9780987168559 For those who think that sport can be a metaphor for life, this is the best sort… Read more
It happened one night
Tales from the Political Trenches By Maxine McKew Random House, $29.99, pp 256 ISBN 9780522862218 The spectre of disgruntled ex-colleagues dropping a bomb or two via dramatic tell-all memoirs haunts… Read more
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