Good Reading Podcast

Two hundred years from now, people are migrating en masse to the poles to escape soaring temperatures. Fifteen-year-old Finch lives with his father in a near-deserted coasted town south of Sydney. Soon they must follow the great migration south, but before they go, a newly arrived couple become a point of infatuation for young Finch.Craig Ensor's The Warming is a beautifully written story about love and migration, set in an overheated world we could very well be heading towards. The author joins Angus Dalton.Listen on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2NGVDYKListen on Google Podcasts: bit.ly/2MXSxQ8The Warming: bit.ly/2WAdckE

Crossings, the novel billed as the most daring debut in decades, is made up of three compelling stories: a letter written by lyric poet Charles Baudelaire to an illiterate young girl, a noir romance story in wartime Paris that begins in a graveyard and a tale about a woman with paranormal powers. They all weave together to create a stunningly imaginative story about seven lifetimes and two souls.Author Alex Landragin joins Angus Dalton to tell us about his travel writing days in Africa, how he 'stole' this stunning story, and why literature is 'a form of recorded empathy’.

The so-called 'discovery' of Australia's world famous fauna is overwhelmingly associated with European men like John Gould and Joseph Banks. But Indigenous Australians had been living alongside these animals for tens of thousands of years, and it was their sophisticated zoological knowledge that allowed European naturalists to bring the attention of the world to Australia's bizarre and brilliant wildlife.Penny Olsen and Lynette Russell join Angus Dalton to chat about their new book, Australia's First Naturalists.Listen on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2NGVDYKListen on Google Podcasts: bit.ly/2MXSxQ8Australia's First Naturalists: bit.ly/315eIdY

When nomadic Irish author James Delargy experienced the Western Australian outback, something about the landscape enthralled and terrified him. He channelled that awe into 55, a new thriller with a terrifying premise. Two men turn up to a police station with the exact same story of being kidnapped by a serial killer - and each accuses the other of being the murderer.Angus Dalton chats with James to find out how he came to imagine this gripping story.Listen on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2NGVDYKListen on Google Podcasts: bit.ly/2MXSxQ855: bit.ly/2QsjqgF

If you’ve ever wondered just what Bitcoin is and why you should care about it then Finn Brunton’s new book, Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, And Technologists Who Built Cryptocurrency, is essential reading for the modern citizen. Gregory Dobbs talks to Finn about the genius and the madness behind the development of cryptocurrency.

The True Story of Maddie Bright by Mary-Rose MacColl follows a young serving girl on Prince Edward’s 1920 tour of Australia, a journalist hunting a story that could rock the literary world, and a reclusive elderly woman in Brisbane with secrets to keep.Mary-Rose MacColl joins Angus Dalton to talk about celebrity, the royals, why lost infants often show up in her stories, and how a baby crow came to make a cameo in her poignant novel.Listen on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2NGVDYKListen on Google Podcasts: bit.ly/2MXSxQ8The True Story of Maddie Bright: bit.ly/2WdBAVBFor a Girl: bit.ly/2IQ1ZpC

In Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak, there are five Dunbar brothers living a chaotic suburban existence alongside a border collie, a cat, a pigeon, a mule and a furious goldfish named after the King of Men. Their father, the Murderer, has fled, and their mother, the Mistake Maker, is dead.The Book Thief author joins Angus Dalton to talk about the decade it took to write Bridge of Clay, his reverence for books, and the stories that have made him.Listen on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2NGVDYKListen on Google Podcasts: bit.ly/2MXSxQ8Bridge of Clay: bit.ly/2KKYkuWCatch Markus at the Sydney Writers Festival: swf.org.au

The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone is a sharply written literary mystery infused with nostalgia that leaves its readers guessing.Journalist and author Felicity McLean joins Angus Dalton to talk 90s cuisine, the art of ghostwriting, Australian Gothic, and which iconic Aussie actor accidentally catalysed the writing of her novel.Listen on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2NGVDYKListen on Google Podcasts: bit.ly/2MXSxQ8More about The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone: bit.ly/2GmkCz0

As an award-winning writer and a professor working in the realm of pharmacology and medical research, Susan Hurley has been published in both literary magazines and medical research journals.She joins the Good Reading podcast to tell Angus Dalton about her life-saving research, the realms of medicine and biotechnology, and a medical trial that sparked the idea for her new thriller, Eight Lives.Listen on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2NGVDYKListen on Google Podcasts: bit.ly/2MXSxQ8Find out more about Eight Lives: bit.ly/2G2WCPU

Now the author of four novels who works in one of Australia's biggest publishing houses among blockbuster titles like Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Boy Swallows Universe, Matt Howard never planned to make a life surrounded by books.In this episode of the Good Reading podcast, Angus Dalton pays a visit to Matt's office to talk about his latest novel, The Time is Now Monica Sparrow, which centres on an aspiring writer, an accidental death, and a guy who takes Marie Kondo way too seriously.Listen on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2NGVDYKListen on Google Podcasts: bit.ly/2MXSxQ8Find out more about The Time is Now, Monica Sparrow: bit.ly/2G6ywoM