CATEGORIES

Patrick Ness is the author of the Chaos Walking trilogy, which includes the award-winning The Knife of Never Letting Go (2008), The Ask and the Answer (2009) and Monsters of Men (2010). Join him on Tuesday, March 9, 6-7.30pm for a unique FREE event at the University of Sydney. Seats are limited, bookings essential. Email [...]

Children’s author Anthony Horowitz has cancelled his upcoming tour of Australia and New Zealand.   “I am very sorry that I am unable to come to Australia/New Zealand this year as I had originally planned. I have just had two television related projects land on my desk which will monopolise my time. Unfortunately I simply cannot meet all [...]

Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols I was overjoyed to get this in the mail yesterday, OVAH-JOYED. Thank you so much to Jenn for organising it’s journey across the ocean to this uber-grateful Aussie. Now Jenn’s act of kindness has nothing to do with the review I am about to give because I consider Jenn [...]

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins This book has been calling my name for many months now and having finally got it in my hot little hands, I have inhaled it. It’s a darn good read but do I think it’s a great book? To be completely honest – yes….ish. On the tail of the fantastic [...]

If I Stay by Gayle Forman I have had a continuous stream of tears running down my cheeks for the last few hours. Between Jenny Downham (Before I Die) and Gayle Foreman, I have cried a lifetime of tears this past week. My house mate asked ‘why do you put yourself through it?‘ I had [...]

The Ask And The Answer by Patrick Ness This novel takes off with the speed of NASA spacecraft; the events of the previous title are picked up and tossed over the very able shoulders of Todd and Viola. Having successfully taken over Haven (now New Prentisstown), the noxious President Prentiss has decided to use our [...]

Here are the adult winners of the 2009 Aurealis Awards – some of Australia’s finest sci-fi/fantasy releases of 2009 have made the list! Best Science Fiction Novel Wonders of a Godless World by Andrew McGahan On an unnamed island, in a Gothic hospital sitting in the shadow of a volcano, a wordless orphan girl works [...]

A big congratulations to the Aurealis Award-winners i nthe children’s categories for 2009! Children’s Illustrated Work / Picture Book Victor’s Challenge by Pamela Freeman and Kim Gamble Prince Victor and Valerian want to get married. But Victor, in his own unusual way, must pass three seemingly impossible tests of bravery, endurance and cleverness. He must [...]

The images coming in from Haiti are truely devastating. The Red Cross is appealling for over $100 million in relief funds, and Boomerang Books is looking to do its part. For every order you make in January, we will be donating $1 to the Australian Red Cross Haiti Appeal. The funds raised through this appeal will [...]

I think, as a twenty-year-old, I can still speak for this current teenage, male generation – even just a small, nerdy, poetry/novel-writing subsection of it. Body image is everything. I remember hearing once that boys feel the pressure more than girls, for two reasons: 1. for girls, it is accepted to have these issues, and [...]

SHANE THAMM ON MY PRIVATE PECTUS AND BODY IMAGE The other week on ABC radio I was discussing boys and body image when the compere asked me if I had ever shaved my chest. “I did once,” I told him with great enthusiasm, which was actually an attempt to hide my embarrassment. We were talking [...]

Kaye is merely sixteen years old and yet she hangs out in bars; watching her mother’s band whilst drinking, smoking and swearing.  She shoplifts and stays out as late as she wants and her mother doesn’t care. But they do love each other and they seem to be pretty good friends. Would you call this [...]

TENDER MORSELS AND JUICY BITS Every story needs something to keep its author going. For any story I’m writing, I need to have an object in mind, a point, a reference that, when I look at it or prod it, starts leaking story-juice, starts multiplying possibilities, starts re-igniting my interest. For a short story, I [...]

Happy 2010! As always, the new month brings with it two book giveaway, one for website members, and the other, for Facebook members. Major Book Giveaway  The Hawke Legacy by Gerry Bloustien, Barbara Comber and Alison Mackinnon Bob Hawke was a popular and effective Prime Minister whose economic and social reforms are acknowledged to have shaped modern [...]