The Bookshelf

On this special edition of The Bookshelf, ahead of the Top 100 Australian Books Countdown, Kate Evans speaks with historian Professor Martyn Lyons about the history of reading in Australia and what our reading lives can reveal about the nation. Plus, crime fiction expert Sue Turnbull traces the evolution of Australian crime writing before sharing three books she loves. Singer-songwriter Fanny Lumsden and artist-performer Maeve Marsden also reveal their top three Australian reads. And in the podcast edition, music journalist Stuart Coupe joins us with three Australian books he can't live without.

Guests

• Martin Lyons – Emeritus Professor of History and European Studies in the School of Humanities and Languages at UNSW
• Sue Turnbull – Honorary Professor of Communication and Media at the University of Wollongong, with expertise in crime fiction, television and popular culture
• Maeve Marsden – Theatre maker, performer and Creative Director of Varuna, the National Writers' House in the NSW Blue Mountains
• Fanny Lumsden – ARIA Award-winning country singer-songwriter whose fifth studio album, Traditions, is due for release on 30 October
• Stuart Coupe – Australian music journalist, author, band manager, promoter, publicist and record label founder

Books mentioned and Guest Recommendations

Literary Foundations

• Martyn Lyons, The Uses of Literacy in Colonial Australia
• Jane Austen, works
• Walter Scott, works
• Henry Kendall, poetic works
• Adam Lindsay Gordon, poetic works
• A B ‘Banjo’ Paterson, works
• Henry Lawson, works
• Charles Dickens, works

Classic Australian Fiction 

• Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms
• Eleanor Dark, The Timeless Land
• Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career

Crime & Mystery

• Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes stories
• Fergus Hume, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
• Lucy Sussex, Blockbuster!
• Peter Corris, The Empty Beach
• Marele Day, The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender
• Sharon Kernot, Night Swimming
• Dorothy Porter, The Monkey’s Mask
• Peter Temple, The Broken Shore
• Garry Disher, Bitter Wash Road
• Jane Harper, The Dry
• Peter Corris, The Dying Trade

Contemporary Fiction 

• Geraldine Brooks, Horse
• Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words, The Bookbinder of Jericho
• Helen Garner, Monkey Grip
• Eda Gunaydin, Root and Branch
• Evelyn Araluen, The Rot
• Jane Harrison, The Visitors
• Jessie Tu, A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous thing

Children's Literature

• Alison Lester, Kissed by the Moon

Music, Culture & Memoir

• Colin Talbot’s Greatest Hits
• Garrie Hutchinson, From the Outer
• Renee Geyer, Confessions of a Difficult Woman
• Stuart Coupe and Toby Creswell, Sounds Like Teen Spirit: The Anarchic Unauthorised Story of Triple J & Double J

Kate and Cassie are joined by rockstar Tim Rogers and novelist Madeleine Gray to discuss some big new releases.

Australian crime heavyweight Chris Hammer swaps the outback for the world of high finance in Full Circle, a thriller of money, power and corruption. Then there's Jem Calder's I Want You to Be Happy, a zeitgeisty portrait of young Londoners searching for connection in an increasingly disconnected world; and Pip Williams' The German Wife, her eagerly anticipated follow-up to The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder of Jericho, a sweeping World War I story of forbidden love and art.

Plus, as Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books countdown draws closer, novelist, essayist and art critic Fiona Kelly McGregor discusses three Australian books that have had an impact on her life and writing. 

FEATURED BOOKS

• Full Circle by Chris Hammer, Summit Books
• I Want You to be Happy by Jem Calder, Faber
• The German Ward by Pip Williams,  Affirm Press 

FIONA KELLY MCGREGOR'S TOP 3 AUSTRALIAN BOOKS

• Working Hot by Mary Fallon
• The Other Side of the Frontier: Aboriginal Resistance to the European Invasion of Australia by Henry Reynolds
• Voss by Patrick White

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

• Famesick by Lena Dunham
• The Book of George by Kate Greathead
• Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte
• Lean Cat, Savage Cat by Lauren J. Joseph
• Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
• Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados
• Johnno by David Malouf
• Night Boat to Tangier, Beatlebone by Kevin Barry
• A Suitable Man by Jock Serong

This week, Kate and Cassie are joined by regulars Hannah Kent and Tom Wright to discuss three books that echo one another across themes of art, beauty, family and transformation.

In Barbara Kingsolver's Partita, a young woman longs to escape her small town and difficult mother through music (and there are dogs and an accident); Ayad Akhtar's The Radiance follows a man whose vivid, radiant life is shaped by music and ambition (and there’s a terrible accident); And in Colm Tóibín's The Bridge, a son and father navigate change, possibility and belonging in a new world (accompanied by a whole pack of dogs).

Plus, voting may have closed for The Bookshelf's Top 100 Australian Books, but we're still taking inspiration from readers' recommendations. Actor, writer and trans activist Zoe Terakes joins us to share their three favourite Australian books.

Featured books

• Barbara Kingsolver, Partita, Faber
• Colm Toíbín, The Bridge, Picador
• Ayad Akhtar, The Radiance, Summit

Zoe Terakes' Top 3

• Christos Tsiolkas , Loaded
• Chelsea Watego, Another Day in the Colony
• Timothy Conigrave, Holding the Man 

Other Books mentioned

• Stephanie Alexander, The Cook's Companion
• Alison Lester, Magic Beach
• Shirley Hazzard, The Great Fire
• Hannah Moloney, The Good Life: How To Grow A Better World
• Christina Stead, Seven Poor Men of Sydney

In American Hagwon, the bestselling author of Pachinko, Min Jin Lee, explores family, education, ambition and the long shadow of economic upheaval, set between Seoul, Sydney and California. Louise Kennedy's Stations offers a tough and deeply felt Irish family story, while Catherine Chidgey's The Starving Bride turns hunger into a strange gothic performance. Kate and Cassie are joined this time by regulars, novelist and academic Professor Tony Birch and critic and literary judge Beejay Silcox. And, as we count down to the Top 100 Australian Books, Frank Moorhouse's biographer Matthew Lamb reveals his top three.

Books featured

• Min Jin Lee, American Hagwon, Fourth Estate
• Louise Kennedy, Stations, Bloomsbury Circus
• Catherine Chidgey, The Starving Bride, Penguin 

Matthew Lamb's Top 100 picks

• Forty-Seventeen (1988) by Frank Moorhouse
• Tourmaline (1963) by Randolph Stow
• Writer Reader Critic (1992) by Dorothy Green 

Other books mentioned

• Janet McCalman, Struggletown
• Peter Carey, The Fat Man in History
• The Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book
• Leonie Norrington, Djawundil Maymuru, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs and Djawa Burarrwanga, A Piece of Red Cloth
• Gretchen Shirm, Out of the Woods
• Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds

Kate and Cassie take a look at bestselling author Emily St. John Mandel's latest, Exit Party, an epic that follows a doppelgänger and a man who disappears from a Los Angeles party in 2031, leading to a journey across parallel worlds and fractured timelines. Internationally-bestselling crime writer Michael Robotham is in to discuss The Weight of Angels by John Boyne; and Graham Akhurst, novelist, academic and Director of Indigenous Studies at the University of Technology  on Turkish writer Kenan Orhan's Booker Longlisted novel The Renovation; and historian and author Anna Clark is in to share her Top 100 picks.

Books featured

• Emily St John Mandel, Exit Party, Picador
• John Boyne, The Weight of Angels, Doubleday
• Kenan Orhan, The Renovation, Hamish Hamilton

Anna Clark's Top 100 picks

• Raimond Gaita, Romulus, My Father
• Gay'wu Group of Women, Songspirals: Sharing Women’s Wisdom of Country through Songlines
• Billy Griffiths, Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia
• The Macquarie Dictionary, first edition published 1981
• Ken Simpson and Nicolas Day, Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, first edition published in 1984

Other books mentioned

• Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
• James Joyce, Ulysses
• Alexis Wright, PraiseworthyChina Miéville, The City & the City
• Claire G. Coleman, works
• Curtis Sittenfeld, Rodham
• Peter Carey, Illywhacker
• Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole
• Alexis Wright, Carpentaria
• Kim Scott, Benang: From the Heart

We want to know what you think of Radio National's book podcasts (The Book Show and The Bookshelf). Help us understand what's working, what's not, and how we can make our book programs even more useful, relevant and unmissable. Please take this quick survey.

We step into Irish bestseller Donal Ryan's world in Where Are the Kings, a tender coming of age story about a boy navigating grief. Inside a fracturing mind in Emma Cline’s Booker Longlisted novel Switzy, read with novelist Madeleine Gray. A chronicle of DIY activism, collectives and autonomous living in Sydney's west in Australian writer Max Easton’s Now, Autonomy, read for us by singer-songwriter Tim Rogers, and a newer world emerges in the wake of the American Civil War in Sebastian Barry’s new novel, The Newer World, read by author Hannah Kent.

BOOKS FEATURED

• Donal Ryan, Where Are the Kings, Doubleday
• Emma Cline, Switzy, Chatto & Windus
• Max Easton, Now, Autonomy, Giramondo
• Sebastian Barry, The Newer World, Faber

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED

• Sigrid Nunez, What Are You Going Through
• Meg Howrey, Body Language
• Colum McCann, Apeirogon
• Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi
• Abigal Ulman, Hot Little Hands
• Patrick White, The Tree of Man
• Heather Rose, The Museum of Modern Love
• Elizabeth Jolley, The Well

We want to know what you think of Radio National's book podcasts (The Book Show and The Bookshelf). Help us understand what's working, what's not, and how we can make our book programs even more useful, relevant and unmissable. Please take this quick survey.

Kate and Cassie with regular reviewer Tom Wright discuss new releases including Melissa Harrison’s The Given World and Malcolm Knox’s The Second Child. Plus, novelist and memoirist Mandy Sayer on her Top 3 Australian books ahead of Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books Countdown.

Mandy Sayer's Top 3 Australian Books

• Christina Stead, The Man Who Loved Children (1940)
• Robin Dalton, Aunts up the Cross (1965)
• David Malouf, Johnno (1975) 

Other books mentioned

• A.B. Facey, A Fortunate Life
• George Johnston, My Brother Jack
• Eric C. Rolls, They All Ran Wild
• Emily St John Mandel, Exit Party
• Colm Toibin, The Bridge
• Barbara Kingsolver, Partita
• John Boyne, The Weight of Angels
• Marlon James, The Disappearers
• Max Porter, works
• Patrick Gale, works
• Sarah Moss, works
• Joseph Furphy, Such is Life
• Peter Carey, Illywhacker
• Gerald Munane, The Plains

Voting in Radio National's Top 100 Books countdown is about to open and this year we're celebrating Australian books. As you think about your own Top 10, Kate and Cassie bring together a trio of award-winning writers (including last year's Top 100 Books winner!) to reveal the Australian books they have loved and been influenced by: Trent Dalton, Claire Thomas and Steve MinOn, with a surprise appearance in the audience from Grimmish and Griefdogg author Michael Winkler.

Books mentioned

• Storm Boy by Colin Thiele
• Hating Alison Ashley by Robin Klein
• Cole's Funny Picture Book by E.W. Cole
• The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay
• Johnno; Fly Away Peter by David Malouf
• Wake in Fright by Kenneth Cook
• The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson
• Ruth Park, works
• Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
• The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith; Schindler's Ark  by Thomas Keneally
• Possum Magic by Mem Fox
• The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
• Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
• Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
• Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
• The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
• She Is Me by Tahlia Isaac
• Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen
• Zigzag Street by Nick Earls
• The Garden Book by Brian Castro
• The Children's Bach by Helen Garner
• A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey
• My Brilliant Career by Miles Stella Franklin
• A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville
• The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough
• The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazard
• The Vivisector by Patrick White
• A Short History of Longans by Mirandi Riwoe
• The Lebs by Michael Mohammed Ahmad

Credits

• Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
• Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
• Sound engineer, Steve Fieldhouse
• Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

Anjet Daanje's The Song of Stork and Dromedary, translated from the Dutch, explores the intimate work of death and care in the eighteenth century. Liane Moriarty returns to the world of Big Little Lies with Big Little Truths, reuniting readers with the coastal suburb of Pirriwee and her cast a decade on,  just with a little more menopausal rage, teenage angst, and a severed finger. Joining us are regular reviewer Beejay Silcox, along with Cheryl Akle from Better Reading. Plus, critic and publisher Geordie Williamson shares his Top 3 Australian books.

Books

• The Song of Stork and Dromedary by Anjet Daanje, translated from Dutch by David McKay (Scribe)
• Big Little Truths by Liane Moriarty (Macmillan)

Geordie Williamson's Top 3 Australian Books

• Such is Life  by Joseph Furphy
• Translations from the Natural World by Les Murray
• The Eye of the Crocodile by Val Plumwood

Other books mentioned

• The Secret History by Donna Tartt
• The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
• Mine by Adam Ousten
• Dark Places by Kate Grenville
• John Brown, Rose, and the Midnight Cat by Jenny Rose
• Little Bear series by Maurice Sendak
• Tell Me Something True by Michael Robotham 

We want your feedback! Help us understand what's working, what's not, and how we can make our book programs even more useful, relevant and unmissable. Please take this survey:

• https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/RsSBGWuFEU

Credits

• Presenter, Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
• Producer, Kate Evans and Sarah Corbett
• Sound engineer, Craig Tilmouth and Micky Grossman
• Arts editor, Rhiannon Brown

We review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more.