Cart loading...
Our Summer issue is coming!
We know many of you are eager to get your hands on the next issue of Good Reading. Hang in there! Our December/January issue will be out in a few weeks. To tide you until then we've compiled a list of our favourite articles, interviews, and reviews from the past year – all free to read!
A fantastic interview with one of Australia's bestselling writers, Liane Moriarty. The Big Little Lies author spoke to Angus Dalton last month about her new book, Nine Perfect Strangers.
To celebrate the release of Laura Elizabeth Woollett's debut novel, Beautiful Revolutionary, we compiled a list of other young women authors who are making their mark on Australia's literary scene.
This year marked the centenary of The Magic Pudding, the classic Australian children’s book crafted by Norman Lindsay on the whim of a bet. But, as Angus Dalton learned, there’s much more to be discovered about the writer and illustrator at Springwood, his stone cottage in the Blue Mountains ...
With 24 books under her belt, and a few blockbuster screenplays along the way, Jodi Picoult is one of the most successful novelists in the world. In this fascinating Me My Shelf I interview, we spoke to Jodi about the books that have shaped her life, made her laugh, and defined her career.
In this exclusive Behind the Book feature, Walkley Award-winning author and journalist Kate Wild writes about how she found herself involved in an challenging event while in the midst of her investigation for her book, Waiting for Elijah about the shooting of a mentally ill young man in 2009.
Chloe Hooper enters the mind of an arsonist
As the worst fires in California's history rage across the state, and Australia enters fire season after a particularly dry winter, Walkley Award-winning author Chloe Hooper examines 2009's devastating Black Saturday bushfires and profiles a man who deliberate lit them.
Over 40,000 hectares of bushland and private property were destroyed, and 173 people died in the fires.
Chloe's new book The Arsonist is a captivating and haunting retelling of the Black Saturday bushfires through the eyes of those who were there, as well as the subsequent investigation and trial of firebug Brendan Sokaluk.
On the Good Reading Podcast, Chloe shares her own experience of the fires that swept past her house in Northern Victoria, discusses the role and response of governments when it comes to managing fires on a rapidly warming planet, and helps to answer the burning question: what kind of person is an arsonist?
Listen on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, or any other app by searching the Good Reading Podcast.
Lee Child on Tom Cruise and his most personal Reacher novel yet
Lee Child sells one of his Jack Reacher thriller novels once every 20 seconds. There are at least 100 million copies of his books in print, and the latest, Past Tense, may be one of the most personal Reacher novels yet.
The book begins as Reacher stands at a fork in the road - one path will lead him on to a large city, the other to Laconia, the town where Reacher's father was born. He decides on the route to Laconia to see what he can find of his family history.
The idea for the storyline was triggered by the death of Child's own father, the author told the Good Reading Podcast.
He joined us to chat about Tom Cruise's exit from the Reacher film franchise, the Stephen King influence on Past Tense, and how Rupert Murdoch is indirectly responsible for his huge career in thriller writing.
Listen on Souncloud, Apple Podcasts, or any other app by searching for the Good Reading Podcast.
Three young fans quiz bestselling Aussie YA fantasy author Lynette Noni
In July this year, every single book in the top five of the YA bestseller list was by Lynette Noni.
Her novel Whisper, a dystopian tale of a girl called Jane Doe who is locked up in a mysterious research facility, took the top spot.
Filling out the other four spots, and beating out Aussie YA heavyweights John Marsden, Morris Gleitzman and Garth Nix, were the books in her series, 'The Medoran Chronicles'.
The first in that series, Akarnae, sees 16-year-old Alexandra Jennings falling into a fantasy world and joining an academy for the supernaturally gifted. The author describes the series as a cross between Harry Potter, Narnia and X-men.
Lynette was quizzed by three young fans from NSW's Central Coast Grammar School when they took over the Good Reading podcast. She talked about creating characters, geting inspiration from meerkats and traffic light poles, and whether she’d rather have a finger-sized leg or a leg-sized finger.
Listen to the podcast on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, or whatever app you use by searching The Good Reading Podcast.
Listen to our podcast with cooking royalty, Stephanie Alexander
Stephanie Alexander, who has sold half a million copies of her book The Cook's Companion, introduces the young and the uninitiated to good food with her new book, The Cook's Apprentice: Tips, Techniques and Recipes for New Foodies. The legendary cook tells Gregory Dobbs about attacking pomegranates, her lamentations about modern eating habits, and how teaching her father to bake bread turned his life around.
Archibald Prize-winning artist Ben Quilty on the book that should be in every school, library and lounge room
In 2016, author Richard Flanagan asked Ben Quilty to travel with him through the areas of the world most affected by the Syrian refugee crisis. What they saw left both men at a loss for words, or in Ben's case, a loss for art.
That changed when Ben met a little girl, Heba, at a freezing bus station in Serbia. Like millions of others, she was fleeing the violence that had overrun her home country.
In this podcast episode, the Archibald-winning artist tells Angus Dalton about how that interaction led to an extraordinary collection of drawings he gathered from Syrian children that he has compiled in the book Home.
Listen on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, or any other app by searching The Good Reading Podcast.
Minette Walters, Queen of Crime, on the silver lining of the Black Death
Minette Walters was the first crime thriller author to win major international awards for each of her first three books. Her first five books were adapted for television, and she wrote almost a book per year between 1992 and 2007.
Then, she stopped. Over 25 million copies of her books had been sold, and the to the wonder of the publishing world, Minette went on hiatus for a decade.
In the midst of that hiatus, Minette stumbled across a plague pit - a mass grave of serfs that had been killed by the Black Death - in her town near Dorset, UK.
That discovery prompted a stunning return to writing for Minette. Last year she released The Last Hours, her story of how a heretic, Lady Anne, defied the church to save her people as a mysterious pestilence ravaged 14th-centry England.
The much-anticipated sequel to The Last Hours, The Turn of Midnight, is out now.
Listen to our podcast with the legendary writer to find out about her journey to success and the silver lining of one of history's worst pandemics.
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, or any other app by searching for The Good Reading Podcast.
