All five books on the most mentioned chart received equal mentions this week. Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating has published a volume of speeches and occasional pieces in After Words: The Post-Prime Ministerial Speeches (A&U). An English teacher finds a portal to 1958 and is given the chance to stop the assassination of John F Kennedy in Stephen King’s 11.22.63 (Hodder & Stoughton). Cold Light (Random House) is the third book in Frank Moorhouse’s Edith Campbell Berry Trilogy, set in postwar Australia. The rise and metamorphosis of double-entry bookkeeping is one of history’s best-kept secrets and one of its most important untold tales in Jane Gleeson-White’s Double Entry (A&U). And finally, media personality and foodie Indira Naidoo embarks on a mission to transform her tiny balcony into a bountiful kitchen garden in The Edible Balcony (Lantern)–Media Extra.
Archive for the ‘Most mentioned books’ Category
Most mentioned this week
Most mentioned this week
Gillian Mears’ Foal’s Bread (A&U) is set among the country show high-jumping circuit that prevailed in rural New South Wales prior to World War II and tells the story of two generations of the Nancarrow family and their fortunes as dictated by the land. In Hiroshima Nagasaki (HarperCollins), Paul Ham explains that most people believe the Allies ended the Pacific War and saved millions of American and Japanese lives in doing so. Ham challenges this view, arguing that the bombings, when Japan was on its knees, were the culmination of a strategic Allied air war on enemy civilians. Joan Didion’s Blue Nights (Fourth Estate), Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 (Harvill Secker) and Billy Connolly’s Route 66 (Billy Connolly & Robert Uhlig, Sphere) also appeared on the most mentioned chart–Media Extra.
Most mentioned this week
Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot (HarperCollins), the third novel from the Pulitzer prize-winning author of Middlesex, is about a love triangle between three Ivy League undergraduates in the early 1980s. It’s followed on the most mentioned chart by Elliot Perlman’s The Street Sweeper (Vintage), which explores the varied histories of its New York-based characters, from the experience of the Nazi regime in Europe to the civil rights movement in the US. Julian Barnes’ Man Booker Prize-winning A Sense of an Ending (Random House), Alex Miller’s Autumn Laing (A&U) and Kerryn Goldsworthy’s Adelaide (NewSouth) also appeared on the most mentioned chart this week–Media Extra.
Most mentioned this week
An 85-year-old Autumn Laing is moved to write about her affair with Australian artist Patrick Donlon and the near-catastrophic effects their relationship had on those closest to them in Alex Miller’s Autumn Laing (A&U). Another elderly lady, Lola Quinlan, is the protagonist of Monica McInerney’s latest novel. In Lola’s Secret (Penguin), Quinlan has sent her family away for Christmas and invited a number of mystery guests to stay with her instead. On Shakespeare (A&U) is John Bell’s insight into the world of contemporary Shakespearean acting. In Tasmina Perry’s Private Lives (Headline), Anna Kennedy is the lawyer to the stars, hiding their sins from the hungry media. Heather Brooke’s The Revolution Will Be Digitised: Dispatches from the Information War (Bloomsbury) also gained a spot on the most mentioned chart–Media Extra.
Most mentioned this week
Charlotte Wood’s Animal People (A&U), an urban love story set over 24 hours, and Alex Miller’s Autumn Laing (A&U), a novel about love, loyalty and creativity, made it to the top of the most mentioned chart this week with the same number of mentions. Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve: How the Renaissance Began (Vintage) is about one man’s discovery of an old manuscript in the 15th century, which fuelled the Renaissance and changed the world. A Private Life (A&U) is Michael Kirby’s collection of reminiscences that reveal his private side. Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot (Fourth Estate) is a novel about Madeleine Hanna, who falls in love with Leonard Morten, a charismatic loner and college Darwinist–Media Extra.
Most mentioned this week
At the top of the most mentioned chart is Elliot Perlman’s The Street Sweeper (Vintage), a story that combines the civil rights struggle in the United States with the Nazi crimes against humanity in Europe. Susan Mitchell’s Tony Abbott: A Man’s Man (Scribe) was a hot topic this weekend. Mitchell’s book describes the Opposition Leader as a sore loser and as someone afflicted by ‘innate and deeply embedded sexism and misogyny’. Christos Tsiolkas’ The Slap (A&U), Alice Pung’s Her Father’s Daughter (Black Inc.) and Michael Kirby’s A Private Life: Fragments, Memories, Friends (A&U) also featured on the most mentioned chart–Media Extra.
Most mentioned this week
Diane Armstrong’s Empire Day (Fourth Estate) is set in Sydney’s Bondi Junction in the late 1940s. It is a microcosm of changing Australia, and life is changing too fast for locals like Pop Wilson, who resents the European ‘reffos’ who have moved in. Stephen Sewell’s Babylon (Victory) is about Mick, an English backpacker, who is heading to the north of Australia for the chance of making his fortune on the prawn trawlers plying the gulf. Anna Funder’s debut novel All That I Am (Hamish Hamilton) continues to generate interest from reviewers and readers. Also on the most mentioned chart is Francesca Rendle-Short’s Bite Your Tongue (Spinifex), the story of a teenage girl growing up in Queensland in the 1970s, and Andrew Robb’s Black Dog Daze (MUP) on the challenges of managing depression. Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Biography (Text) was also a notable entry this week, gaining publicity from its release without Assange’s permission–Media Extra.
Most mentioned this week
Novelist Richard Flanagan’s collected short pieces of nonfiction called And What Do You Do, Mr Gable? (Random House) received the same number of mentions as Peggy Frew’s debut novel House of Sticks (Scribe). In Frew’s novel, Bonnie has given up her life as a musician to become a stay-at-home mother to three small children. In The Flight Attendant’s Shoe (UNSW Press), Prudence Black writes about the stiletto heels, miniskirts, bobbed wigs, shiny new technology and exotic locations that were all part of the cosmopolitan life style of flight attendants. Alice Pung’s Her Father’s Daughter (Black Inc.) looks at Pung’s relationship with her father and her Chinese-Cambodian ancestry. Freedom (Fourth Estate), by touring author Jonathan Franzen, was also listed on the most mentioned chart–Media Extra.
Most mentioned this week
Anna Funder’s Stasiland was a massive hit when it was released several years ago, so it’s no surprise that her debut novel All That I Am (Hamish Hamilton) is generating huge interest. Two years after Hitler came to power in Germany, the bodies of Dora and her friend Mathilde, prominent anti-Hitler activists in exile, lie poisoned in a flat in Bloomsbury. In Lynda La Plante’s Blood Line (S&S), Anna is given her first case and she has to figure out if it is a full-blown murder investigation or purely a missing person’s case. Arguably (A&U) is Christopher Hitchens’ collection of essays looking at Afghanistan, Iran and totalitarianism, and back to the American Revolution and Founding Fathers. Paul French’s Midnight in Peking (Viking) is set in January 1937. The city is a mix of privilege and scandal, lavish cocktail bars and opium debs, warlords and corruption, rumours and superstition–and the clock is ticking down to find a killer. Marieke Hardy’s You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Dead (A&U) was also featured on the most mentioned chart–Media Extra.
Most mentioned this week
Kate Grenville’s new novel Sarah Thornhill (Text) is continuing to generate interest, with her book again at the top of the most mentioned chart. Joining Grenville as a guest of the recent Melbourne Writers Festival was Peggy Frew, whose debut novel House of Sticks (Scribe) also received attention in the media this week. Also mentioned were Andrew Robb’s memoir Black Dog Daze (MUP), Michael Ondaatje’s The Cat’s Table (Jonathan Cape) and Bryan Gaensler’s Extreme Cosmos (UNSW Press)–Media Extra.
