Steven Carroll, The Afterlife of Harry Playford - This novel is the second in Steven Carroll's series featuring Detective Stephen Minter, and it is remarkably good.  - Carroll takes us w...

Booknotes: Steven Carroll, The Afterlife of Harry Playford.
Carroll takes us well beyond the standard crime novel, exploring human character and frailty with literary precision and sensitivity.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2026/02/stev...

George Saunders, Vigil - I've long been a fan of the celebrated American author George Saunders so this new novel was a must read.  - Much like his previous nove...

Booknotes: George Saunders, Vigil.
A powerful oil tycoon faces death, and questions about the world he's leaving. Brilliant.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2026/02/geor...

Michael Robotham, The White Crow - Celebrated Australian novelist Michael Robotham has just released The White Crow , his nineteenth. - I've read a few of his crime thrill...

Booknotes: Michael Robotham, The White Crow.
Take a break from the ugly world we live in and immerse yourself in this thriller. You won't regret it.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/08/cele...

Rob Franklin, Great Black Hope - This is a debut novel from a young Black American gay writer. It's about the challenges the narrator and his friends constantly face jus...

Booknotes: Rob Franklin, Great Black Hope.
Slick prose, set in New York after dark, and a very satisfying read.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/08/rob-...

Philip Coggan, The Economic Consequences of Mr Trump - This short book by former Economist and Financial Times journalist, Philip Coggan, is a masterful demolition of Trump's obsession wit...

Booknotes: Philip Coggan, The Economic Consequences of Mr Trump.
An excellent demolition of Trump's tariffs. A must read.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/07/phil...

Sam Guthrie, The Peak -Political thriller. - This Australian novel is an absolutely absorbing read. It's a political drama set in Canberra, Hong Kong and Beijing. A little congested...

Booknotes: Sam Guthrie's The Peak.
This political drama set in Canberra, Hong Kong, and Beijing, is an absolutely absorbing read. And very enlightening.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/07/sam-...

Emily M. Bender & Alex Hanna, The AI Con - Careful, I thought…is this going to be like those old anti-internet books of the 1990's? Thankfully, it's absolutely not! It calls out the...

Emily M. Bender & Alex Hanna, The AI Con.
Essential reading if you really want to know what's going on the AI world.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/07/emil...

James Bradley, Landfall - Celebrated Australian literary author James Bradley has written a highly dramatic and very intense story about a police investigation into...

Booknotes: James Bradley, Landfall.
Highly dramatic and intense police procedural in a disastrous climate catastrophe setting.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/05/jame...

Jens Beckert, How We Sold Our Future: The Failure to Fight Climate Change - This is a depressing read, because it’s profoundly realistic.  - Let's not kid ourselves. Where the world is now, and where it inevitabl...

Booknotes: Jens Beckert, How We Sold Our Future: The Failure to Fight Climate Change.
This is a depressing book, because it's profoundly realistic. A must read.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/05/jens...

Asako Yuzuki, Butter. - This novel gets clotted with so much detail as it progresses you can’t help but be bogged down. It's 452 pages long and 100 pages could ...

Booknotes: Asako Yuzuki, Butter.
This novel is long but a fascinating read. It's a deep dive into the plight of women in Japanese society, and how captured they are by traditional social roles.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/04/asak...

David Szalay, Flesh - This novel by Booker Prize-shortlisted author David Szalay (pronounced So-LOY) was highly recommended by well-regarded literary critic P...

Booknotes: David Szalay, Flesh.
This novel is a thoroughly absorbing story from a master of the craft. I can't recommend it highly enough.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/04/davi...

Robert Lukins, Somebody Down There Likes Me - It’s 1996. The wealthy Gulch family live in a mansion in the very up-market enclave of Belle Haven in Connecticut.  - The successful cor...

Booknotes: Robert Lukins, Somebody Down There Likes Me.
It seems wealth doesn't redeem, it condemns.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/04/robe...

Andrea Goldsmith, The Buried Life. - Australian author Andrea Goldsmith has written an extraordinary novel. It's a microscopic examination of love, literature, religion and ...

Booknotes: Andrea Goldsmith, The Buried Life.
An extraordinary novel. A microscopic examination of love, literature, religion and abuse. It's a must read and will inevitably win many Australian and international awards.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/04/andr...

Peter Beinart, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza - This is a superb, thoroughly enlightening read. Beinart, in this short book, digs deep into the Israel-Palestine conflict and clarifies ...

Booknotes: Peter Beinart, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza.
A superb and essential read.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/04/pete...

Omar El Akkad, American War - This novel by acclaimed journalist Omar El Akkad, who was born in the Middle East and raised in Canada and the US, is an extremely power...

Booknotes: Omar El Akkad, American War.
An extremely powerful condemnation of the warmongering character of America.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/04/omar...

Colum McCann, Twist - Colum McCann's novels are always worth reading. He tells big stories full of big characters and fills them with ruminations about virtua...

Booknotes: Colum McCann, Twist.
McCann tells big stories about big characters and Twist is no exception.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/03/colu...

Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This - This is an extraordinarily powerful book. Omar El Akkad is an author and journalist. He was born in Egypt, grew up in Qatar, moved to Ca...

Booknotes: Omar El Akkad: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/03/omar...

Diana Reid, Signs of Damage - Prize-winning Australian author Diana Reid's third novel once again focuses on personal and family relationships and their intricate dyn...

Booknotes: Diana Reid, Signs of Damage.
In this, her third novel, Reid explores the legacies of broken families, abandoned children, and sexual abuse. She digs deep.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/03/dian...

Jeremy Cooper, Brian - This is a delightful story of a sad, lonely, middle-aged man who gets hooked on movies. He sees a movie every night at the British Film ...

Booknotes: Jeremy Cooper's Brian.
A delightful story of a sad, lonely, middle-aged man who gets hooked on movies.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/03/jere...

Han Kang, We Do Not Part - This newly translated novel by 2024 Nobel prizewinner Han Kang is a frequently strange but in the end mesmerising tale of death,  vulnerab...

Booknotes: Han Kang, We Do Not Part.
Like Nobel Prize winning Han Kang's other novels this new one is a powerful whack in the gut. In today's war torn world it's an awakening.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/03/han-...

Pankaj Mishra, The World After Gaza - This new book by celebrated Indian political essayist Pankaj Mishra is a masterpiece. It is so incredibly enlightening, thought-provokin...

Booknotes: Pankaj Mishra's The World After Gaza.
An absolutely incredible and enlightening examination of Israel, its history, and its wars over the decades. A classic.
notaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2025/02/pank...

Clarifies the whole Syria situation so well.

I’ve read most of these. They’re so good and enlightening.