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There are few stories more abjectly fascinating than those surrounding Lance Armstrong’s triumph over a cancer he was given infinitesimally small chance of surviving and his subsequent seven Tour de France (AKA Tour de Lance) victories. Consequently, there are few stories more assumptions-shattering than the revelation that Armstrong had, in fact, been using drugs to […]

I had the ‘I should have re-watched the last film before seeing this film’ feeling about a minute in to Mockingjay 2, the final film instalment of The Hunger Games trilogy. (The last book of which has, confusingly, filmicly been split into two to make the trilogy a kind of quadrilogy.) For I couldn’t remember […]

I’ve been avoiding Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything. Because the only thing that makes climate change-themed book harder to read than its already difficultly depressing subject matter is a climate change-themed book that’s the thickness of a brick. Seriously, Klein has written War & Peace. Coupled with the fact that her writing is fairly dense […]

I can’t remember if I put my hand up to review Miles Allinson’s Fever of Animals or if it was sent to me because the publisher’s PR team thought it might be up my alley. Either way, I was pleasantly and slightly surprised and confused when it arrived. The winner of the 2014 Victorian Premier’s […]

Lee Watson’s Peace & Parsnips: Vegan Cooking for Everyone looked so good from the preview cover art and blurb that I went out of my way to see if I could obtain a review copy of it. I mean, who wouldn’t be sold on the adorable cover with almost-stamped images of pears, broccoli, and what […]

There are few things that excite me more than stumbling across something that has the three following components: a book letterpress themes Chronicle Books the publisher. The book part is self-explanatory. The letterpress part—or the old-school form of printing that involves pressing patterns into paper and card via plates—is also self-explanatory provided you know what […]

While I won’t deny I’ve been beside myself with anticipation awaiting the release of Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman, I’ve simultaneously been terrified about how it might read, for the publishers announced it would be printed in its organic, unedited form. Go Set A Watchman is, after all, a kind of first draft rejected […]

George Friedman (AKA New York Times bestselling author of The Next 100 Years) asks three questions in his latest book, Flashpoints: How did Europe achieve global domination, politically, militarily, economically, and intellectually? What was the flaw in Europe that caused it to throw away this domination between 1914 and 1945? Is the period of peace […]

National Geographic writer Joel K Bourne Jr studied something MEGO—short for ‘my eyes glaze over—at university. For agronomy, a combination of soil and plant science, doesn’t exactly inspire intrigue. Or even understanding of what it is for that matter. (I’ll confess I had no idea what an agronomist was prior to reading this book—I’d have […]

There are some nights when it’s bitterly chilly, assignments are looking even less appealing than usual, and all you want to do is curl up with an inspiring book to dream about fabulous spaces in which you’d be completely inspired to write. Clearly this is one of those chilly, assignment-avoiding nights. Naturally I’ve gravitated towards […]

You need a solidly designed cover to sell legumes, and that’s exactly what Chrissy Freer’s Superlegumes part cookbook, part guide has. With vividly displayed and shot legumes, it’s the kind of cover worthy of more enticing ingredients that would not only inspire you to pluck the book from the shelves but even buy it. For, […]

It never ceases to amaze me that every so often you come across a cultural product (in this case, a writer) you’ve never heard of, but that’s (who’s) immensely popular and bestselling in another country. Tommy Wieringa is an award-winning Dutch writer. He’s published many books to critical and award claim, and the book most […]

The benefit of reviewing a film later than usual (I could not for the life of me make it to any of the Samba media screenings, so Think Tank Communications provided me with a double pass to see it once the film was out) is that you get to hear what other reviewers think about […]

Bees in the City: The urban beekeeper’s handbook sold me on both cover design and title. The cover, with its watermarky aesthetics, hints at a modern, professionally designed book that marries content with form (something that’s often missing from beekeeping books, which look like they’ve been run off on a photocopier and patched together in […]

Print magazines are—contrary to the kind the-sky-is-falling-in predictions that always accompany the arrival of new media—not dead. They’re not even dying. They’re actually undergoing a bit of a vinyl-like renaissance. Jeremy Leslie has picked up on this phenomenon and penned a solid, gorgeous print book to discuss the magazine industry context and its plays. Entitled […]

A few days late and a few books read short, I’m getting round to getting my head around the Stella Prize shortlist. There are six books on the list, none of which I’ve read and only three authors I’ve heard of (Maxine Beneba Clarke, Christine Kenneally, and Ellen van Neervan): Foreign Soil The Strays The […]

I’m a long-time fan of Aardman studios (I owned Wallace & Gromit DVDs, and Chicken Run: Hatching The Movie, an aesthetically rich behind-the-scenes Chicken Run coffee table book detailing the making of the film, remains one of my most treasured possessions). Suffice to say, I was signing up to preview Shaun the Sheep film just […]

I recently had a fairly robust mutual rant with a friend about how school reading lists desperately need an overhaul. As writers and editors, we’re huge readers. But most of our love for reading was formulated outside, and in spite, of the books we were forced to read at school. Sure, there were some classics […]

There’s this bizarre disconnect in my life where my work spans multiple, discrete fields, but the people who know me in a work sense tend to only know me in one field. For I write about social and environmental issues, football (soccer), and the arts and, for reasons both obvious and not, these worlds don’t […]

Warning: While not overly explicit, this blog does acknowledge the existence of, and briefly discuss, sex. If you’re not keen to read a blog about such things, I suggest you temporarily avert your eyes. I couldn’t attend the Fifty Shades of Grey preview, so fronted up for the 10am session on the day of the […]

It’s a sign you like a series when you’re willing to try to overlook—albeit to ultimately still be largely infuriated by and not be able to forget—an incredibly annoying error on page one of the latest release. The series? Richelle Mead’s Bloodlines. The new book? The Ruby Circle. The error? Having Adrian (the male protagonist) […]

Every so often I’m reminded that of the sheer volume of good books in the world and the narrowness of my reading vocabulary. Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game is one example of a book that had until recently escaped my awareness. Hugely touted via a recommendation on a podcast I listen to (if I recall […]

While this blog post doesn’t contain uncensored swearing or sexual references, it does refer to a website story that does (and a related topic that features some random what-the information). So if you’re easily offended, now might be the time to temporarily click away. The sweary/sexual innuendo website story in question is BuzzFeed’s If Hermione […]

Winner, winner chicken dinner is not perhaps the most appropriate response for a vegan to make to anything. And especially not in response to reviewing a vegan cookbook. But that’s the phrase that sprang to mind when I cracked open Sue Quinn’s Easy Vegan, which arrived as a review copy from Murdoch Books. My other […]

A well-timed, well-executed infographic is always welcome. An exquisitely designed one you didn’t know anyone needed and don’t know how anyone either dreamt up the idea or went on to execute it can sometimes make your day. This was the case with the By the book: What age did the greatest authors publish their most […]