Living with books and looking out for them
To read books or not to read? That is the question, says book reviewer COLIN STEELE who is reviewing three books about, well, books! Looking after them, looking out for them and loving them in libraries.
Books
The question of whether audiobooks count as reading is about to get more complicated thanks to a feature from a major tech firm.
HELEN MUSA reports on a National Library exhibition that showcases the remarkable, decades-long efforts of the NT's Papunya community to record, preserve and sustain its language and culture.
Female writers are currently dominating the Australian crime fiction scene, with more women writing crime, psychological thrillers, and domestic noir than men, writes reviewer ANNA CREER.
Books
New novels from the dark side of modern living
COLIN STEELE reviews two new books by Australian authors that take their inspiration from dark themes.
Books
There’s cosy crime and then there’s hardboiled
Reviewer ANNA CREER takes a look at a couple of new crime books – one "cosy", the other not so much.
Books
Local author wins Victorian fiction prize
Queanbeyan author Omar Musa has won the 2026 Victorian Premier’s Award for Fiction for his novel Fierceland.
“Being published is amazing, but I treated it as a bonus – all I wanted was to write something that I could look at and go: 'I’m really proud of what I’ve created'." TIA PRIEST-WILLIMOTT meets excited debut author Scott Woodard.
Book reviewer COLIN STEELE looks at the lives of two very different people.
Criminals are feeding Australians' social media information into AI to create targeted romance scams ahead of Valentine's Day.
Three recent, excellent crime novels set in Scotland, have caught the eye of book reviewer ANNA CREER.
While an apology from Adelaide Festival is welcome, a dumped Palestinian-Australian author says her words continue to be "twisted" by an unapologetic premier.
A leading writers' festival has offered an invitation and issued an unreserved apology to Randa Abdel-Fattah over her ditching that triggered its 2026 collapse.
A writer dumped from a major literary festival is threatening defamation action against a premier over what she alleges is a "vicious personal assault".
The axing of a Palestinian-Australian author has led to the cancellation of one of Australia's premier writers' festivals as its embattled board stepped down.
Swiss author Erich von Däniken, whose books offered up extraterrestrial explanations for humanity's mysteries, has died.
Dozens of authors have withdrawn from a major Australian festival over a decision to remove its only Palestinian writer because of "cultural sensitivities".
The board of a major festival has cancelled the appearance of a prominent Palestinian author citing 'cultural sensitivity' following the Bondi terror attack.
Book reviewer COLIN STEELE reflects on his top five books for 2025.
