There are titles by Aussie writers that might not be listed for any literary awards but they’re equally well written. The titles, with their diverse styles and literary fields, reviewed by critics here, you can add any to this year’s City of Parramatta Library Summer Reading Challenges, because they all fit our reading theme: reading Australia.
AF
City of Crows by Chris Womersley – This book is set in 17th-century France and involves witchcraft and diabolical politics, plague and ordinary people, so it’s a significant shift from his brilliant Australian novels such as The Low Road, Bereft and Cairo.
Get Poor Slow by David Free – a noirish drama set in Sydney’s media and publishing worlds.
Suburbia by Jeremy Chambers – suburban life in Melbourne
The Restorer by Michael Sala – a novel about family relationships.
The Last Garden by Eva Hornung – is set on a settlement founded by people who expect the imminent return of the Messiah.
An Uncertain Grace by Krissy Kneen – This one involves a virtual reality suit, sex, life and the technological postponement of death.
Storm and Grace by Kathryn Heyman – centres on a world-famous free diver.
Rubik by Elizabeth Tan – is about a woman who “can’t seem to stay dead”.
From the Wreck by Jane Rawson
Gwen by Goldie Goldbloom
The Golden Child by Wendy James
To Know My Crime by Fiona Capp’s
Some Tests by Wayne Macauley’s
Down the Hume by Peter Polites
Storyland by Catherine McKinnon
The Trapeze Act by Libby Angel
Old Growth (short story) by John Kinsella
Billy Sing by Ouyang Yu
The red coast by Di Morrissey
Pulse Points by Jennifer Down
Common People by Tony Birch’s
A Long Way from Home by Peter Carey
The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser
The Last Days of Jeanne d’Arc by Ali Alizadeh
Their Brilliant Careers: The fantastic lives of sixteen extraordinary Australian writers by Ryan O’Neill
Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh
The Windy Season by Sam Carmody
This Water: Five tales by Beverley Farmer
Attrib. and other stories by Eley Williams
The Last Garden by Eva Hornung
Drawing Sybylla by Odette Kelada
First Fruits by Matthew Hall
Argosy by Bella Li
The Honeymoon Stage by Oscar Schwartz
The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose
Half Wild by Pip Smith
Mischka’s War by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
Skylarking by Kate Mildenhall
Underground Fugue by Margot Singer
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander
Dodge Rose by Jack Cox
A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee
The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman
Terra Nullius by Clare Coleman
Common People by Tony Birch
The Man Who Took To His Bed by Alex Skovron
I Hate the Internet by Jarett Kobek
Australia Day by Melanie Cheng
Jean Harley Was Here by Heather Taylor Johnson
Down the Hume by Peter Polites
Heat and Light by Ellen Van Neerven
Extinctions by Josephine Wilson
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
Ground Zero, Nagasaki, a short-story collection by Seirai Yuichi
Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward.
To Become a Whale by Ben Hobson
Crime Fiction
Win, Lose or Draw by Peter Corries
Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly by Adrian McKinty
Marshall’s Law by Ben Sanders (NZ)
Crimson Lake by Candice Fox
The Unmourned by Tom Keneally and Meg Keneally
The Student by Iain Ryan
The Unfortunate Victim by Greg Pyers – introduces a German-born detective to Australian crime-solving
Too Easy by JM Green
Wimmera by Mark Brandi
And Fire Came Down by Emma Visic
Winter Traffic by Stephen Greenall
See What I have Done by Sarah Schmidt
General NF
A Long Time Coming: Essays on old age by Melanie Joosten
300 Arguments by Sarah Manguso
Adult Fantasy by Briohny Doyle
Australians in Shanghai: Race, rights and nation in Treaty Port China by Sophie Loy-Wilson
On John Marsden by Alice Pung
The Catch by Anna Clark
On Kate Jennings by Erik Jensen
Biography/memoirs
A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work by Bernadette Brennan (ANF)
The Case Against Fragrance by Kate Grenville (ANF)
After by Nikki Gemmell
Only: A Singular Memoir by Caroline Baum
Scoundrel Days by Brentley Frazer
Understory by Inga Simpson
The Tempest-Tossed Church by Gerard Windsor
Martin Sharp by Joyce Morgan
High Voltage: The Life of Angus Young, AC/DC’s Last Man Standing by Jeff Apter
Mrs Kelly: The Astonishing Life of Ned Kelly’s Mother by Grantlee Kieza
Mothertongue by Sybille Smith
Evatt: a life by John Murphy
The Enigmatic Mr Deakin by Judith Brett
Tracey Moffatt: My horizon, edited by Natalie King
The Unknown Judith Wright by Georgina Arnott
A Führer for a Father: The domestic face of colonialism by Jim Davidson
The Memory of Music by Andrew Ford
Light and Shadow: Memoirs of a spy’s son by Mark Colvin
The Tracker by Alexis Wright
The Trauma Cleaner: One woman’s extraordinary life in death, decay and disaster by Sarah Krasnostein
The Green Bell by Paula Keogh
Talking to My Country by Stan Grant
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
Collection of Australian poetry
Contemporary Australian Poetry
The Fremantle Press Anthology of Western Australian Poetry
100 Australian Poems You Need to Know
The Collected Poems of Fay Zwicky
Thea Astley: Selected poems, edited by Cheryl Taylor
The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx by Tara Bergin
New and Selected Poems 1991–2017 by Alison Croggon
Lionel Fogarty: Selected poems 1980–2017
Preparations for Departure by Nathanael O’Reilly
Injury Time by Clive James
Transparencies by Stephen Edgar
Euclid’s Dog by Jordie Albiston
Goodbye, Cruel by Melinda Smith
Rallying by Quinn Eades
Music Our Bodies Can’t Hold by Andy Jackson
Reading for a Quiet Morning by Petra White
Australian political writings
On Politics and Prejudice Quarterly Essay by David Marr
Please Explain: The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Pauline Hanson by Anna Broinowski
Balancing Act: Australia Between Recession and Renewal by George Megalogenis
Still Lucky: Why You Should Feel Optimistic by Rebecca Huntley
Reflections by Tony Abbott
Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World Since 1942 by Allan Gyngell
Fighting with America: Why Saying ‘No’ to the US Wouldn’t Rupture the Alliance by James Curran
True Crime
Last Words: The Hanging of Ronald Ryan (true crime) by Barry Dickins – book on the last man executed in Australia
Getting Away with Murder (true crime) by Duncan McNab