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In my last post I related my bread baking past and told you about Peter Reinhart’s amazing book The Bread Baker’s Apprentice (see “Give us this day, our daily bread”). In today’s post, I thought I would share with you some of the things I learnt from this book. Mixing and kneading is not the [...]

The winners of this year’s Ned Kelly Awards for Australian Crime Writing have been announced in Melbourne. Pig Boy by J C Burke (Woolshed Press) was selected as the winner of the best fiction category. The Cartographer by Peter Twohig (Fourth Estate) won the best first fiction category. Sins of the Father by Eamonn Duff (A&U) was the [...]

Veteran first time novelist, Peter Twohig wins Ned Kelly Award for THE CARTOGRAPHER Fourth Estate Australia is delighted to announce that Peter Twohig’s The Cartographer has been awarded the Ned Kelly Award for First Fiction 2012, from a very strong field. Peter Twohig has enjoyed many surprises in his life but having his first novel published at 62 [...]

Which genre of children’s books do you like most and why? I can’t just pick one genre: my top four are fantasy, adventure, history and mystery – and if these can be combined in the one book, that’s the best of all! I also love a little tingle of romance in the blend. So here [...]

Buddhaland Brooklyn is the story of a middle-aged, Japanese Buddhist priest, Seido Oda, who, after a quiet life creating and teaching art in his mountainside monastery in Japan, is suddenly sent to New York to lead a group of American believers and to manage the construction of a new Buddhist temple there. Seido Oda tells his [...]

Bread! One of the most basic and ubiquitous of foods. Not your mass-produced, supermarket sandwich loaf… but real bread. Fresh out of your own oven. Is there anything better? If you just answered NO, then you need to get a copy of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. I love fresh bread. I rarely buy bread from [...]

Next to Mirror, this is possibly my favourite of Jeannie Baker’s incredibly beautiful picture books. Not only is the imagery stunning, but the power of its wordless form is something Jeannie does with consummate style. Belonging is deceptive in its simplicity. It features repeat double page spreads of a square window, showing an outdoor scene [...]

The shortlist for the 2012 Inky Awards for young adult literature has been announced. The shortlisted Australian titles for the Gold Inky are: Shift (Em Bailey, Hardie Grant Egmont) Night Beach (Kirsty Eagar, Penguin) Act of Faith (Kelly Gardiner, HarperCollins) Queen of the Night (Leanne Hall, Text) The Reluctant Hallelujah (Gabrielle Williams, Penguin). The shortlisted international titles for the Silver [...]

Blue Weston is back! Another authentically Australian and laugh-out-loud funny tale in the Red Dirt Diary series for young readers aged 8–12  Katrina Nannestad has spent most of her life living and working in small rural communities, so communicating the joys and sorrows of rural life to children in a fun and accessible tone was at the [...]

Bereft, by Australian author Chris Womersley, is one of four titles shortlisted for this year’s Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Gold Dagger Award. The British award is presented every year for the best crime novel and carries a prize of £2500. The Crime Writers’ Association Daggers have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over fifty [...]

This year’s Get Reading! campaign was officially launched on 26 August and the ‘50 Books You Can’t Put Down’ list is now available here on Boomerang Books.  The campaign will run until 30 September.This year’s list consists of 50 Australian books – the first time in the campaign’s history that all 50 books have emanated [...]

For the last month I have spent the first moments of each online day deleting 50 shades of spam. As part of being a Boomerang blogger, I keep an eye on book news. I’m signed up to a lot of publishers and author’s websites and newsletters, and get lots of information on new book releases. [...]

The winners of this year’s Age Book of the Year Awards were announced on 23 August at the opening of the Melbourne Writers Festival at Melbourne Town Hall. 1835: The Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia by James Boyce won the overall Age Book of the Year Award, worth $10,000.  The book also won the Non-Fiction Prize, worth [...]

Toni Jordan’s much-anticipated third novel hit stores this week and the response has been sensational. Peter Pierce called Nine Days ’a triumph’, comparing it to the work of Charles Dickens and Patrick White, and this epic story of love, folly and heartbreak has already won over many readers. Nine Days was inspired by the beautiful photograph displayed on its cover, [...]

Craig Taylor is Canadian, but after living for several years in London and growing attached to the place he began to ask “What is a Londoner?”. It seems that there are almost as many answers to that question as there are people living in London but my favourite is that ” a real Londoner would [...]

The Olympics are over and many sport-loving Dads from all over the world are feeling a little flat, my own father included. After several weeks with an excuse to always have the channel set to Sport he’s had to relinquish the remote. It’s not that he’s deprived normally; my Mum and I also like a good game played well but [...]

It’s a delight to see a flood of brand new fiction titles for kids in recent months. If your children devour books like mine do, you’ll be thrilled with this line-up of new releases. There’s truly something for everyone. My only problem is trying to wend these copies out of my kids’ clutches. These titles [...]

Seems like everybody is getting on the romance bandwagon in the wake of Fifty Shades – and digital publishing seems to be preferred avenue for getting the content out there to the millions of women (and men?) who read these books by the truckload. Penguin have just announced Australia’s first romance digital imprint: Penguin Australia is [...]

We invented it. We love it. The ute is a national icon, alongside the pie and sauce. It is the very symbol of our resourceful ingenuity. No matter what you drive, this collection of 80 ute yarns will charm you with its laconic humour and Aussie warmth. Written by everyday Australians in praise of our [...]

Random House Australia today announced that E L James’s Fifty Shades of Grey has sold well in excess of 1.28 million copies in physical* and ebook combined in Australia, making it the bestselling Australian book since records began. The first book in the trilogy remains in the No.1 slot for the 16th week running and overall sales have [...]

‘Dazzlingly different … a novel about transformation that has the power to transform every reader. Tiffiny Hall is the new voice in children’s fiction.’  – JOHN MARSDEN As legendary children’s author John Marsden suggests, Tiffiny Hall is far from just another TV star-turned author. Her remarkable first fiction novel in a new trilogy for young readers,White Ninja, is [...]

Massage your way to Health and Well-Being With a history rooted in Egypt and spanning thousands of years, this book will teach you about reflexology and how to apply it practically to your everyday life. The reflex points on the foot represent a ‘map’ of the rest of the body and by applying pressure to [...]

Author Ursula Dubosarsky? Check. Illustrator Andrew Joyner? Check. Elephants? Check. But not too many at all. In fact, this book wouldn’t be even half way as cool if it didn’t have simply too many elephants, which raises the question: can anyone really have too many elephants? Eric really likes elephants. He has them everywhere. In [...]

Another cookbook made it’s way across my desk this week and this one is just a little bit different from the norm.  “The Food Clock”, by Fast Ed Halmagyi (Harper Collins), takes current fondness for the thoroughly sensible trend of eating seasonally and gives it quite a whimsical little twist that I’ve not really seen before.  [...]

When the bonds of family love and trust are betrayed by murder What compels a loved one to commit murder? Chilling accounts of crimes where the victim knew their killer intimately In Australia an astonishing 80% of homicides are committed by someone related to the victim or within their close family circle. But why do [...]

The R*BY Award, affectionately known as The Ruby, is the premier award of the Romance Writer’s of Australia association and the only one of its kind in Australia. Voted on by Australian readers, this contest is open each year to any Australian or New Zealand romance author who has published a long or short romance [...]

The shortlists for the Queensland Literary Awards for 2012 have been announced.  Here are the nominees! Fiction book award The Chemistry of Tears (Peter Carey, Penguin) All That I Am (Anna Funder, Penguin) Sarah Thornhill (Kate Grenville, Text) Autumn Laing (Alex Miller, A&U) Cold Light (Frank Moorhouse, Random House) Science writer award Seduced by Logic (Robyn Arianrhod, UQP) Gone Viral (Frank Bowden, [...]

For some illogical, galling, apoplexy-inducing reason, zoos and animal sanctuaries are not (unlike hospitals) protected under the Geneva Convention. Which means that when war breaks out in a country, animals kept in captivity and entirely reliant on humans for their food, water, shelter, and safety are left to fend for themselves. While they’re still locked [...]

Experimental ebook/app The Numinous Place will be published late this year or early next year after a successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter raised more than $75,000 for the project. You can read more about The Numinous Place in an earlier post here and see the campaign at Kickstarter here. Backers helped take the tally to [...]

‘Creating an organised home, a happy family and a life worth living – life’s most joyful pleasures are often the simplest.’ I want to savour and appreciate what I have right here, right now rather than obsessing over what the future holds or what I could be. Antonia Kidman In The Simple Things Antonia Kidman and Sally Collings encourage [...]

Did you know that Boomerang Books is Australia’s first and only carbon neutral online bookstore?  We offset all book purchases by contributing to a renewable energy fund that is independently accredited by the Carbon Reduction Institute (Certification #NC166).  You can read more about our carbon neutral status here… Unsurprisingly, the introduction of the Federal Government [...]

The writers of the Emmy-winning hit show Modern Family bring a hilarious new book to fans everywhere MODERN FAMILY: Wit and Wisdom from America’s Favourite Family By the writers of Modern Family Touching on everything from motherhood and teenagers to siblings, school, and love, Modern Family:Wit and Wisdom from America’s Favourite Family is a collection of humour and wisdom, highlighting favourite [...]

The winners of the 2012 Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards were announced on 17 August 2012. The winners and honour books in each of the categories are: Older Readers Winner: The Dead I Know (Scot Gardner, A&U) Honour books: A Straight Line to My Heart (Bill Condon, A&U) When We Were [...]

A personal journey, a profound teaching and a spiritual path that explores physical and emotional practices for healing ANA T. FORREST is an internationally recognised pioneer in yoga and emotional healing. She is the creator of Forrest Yoga, a unique fusion of traditional yoga, new poses and sequences, Eastern wisdom and Native American medicine. This is [...]

Which genre of children’s books do you like most and why? I like fantasy and science fiction best – and a lot of my favourites are cross-genre. I generally like books for readers of 10 and up, and especially the ones where authors have thought out their settings rather than just grabbing something someone else [...]

In what is more an echo-chamber than a sequel, Patrick Gale returns us to the landscape of Notes From An Exhibition, unfurling the complex web of a Cornish community with an empathy that touches clairvoyance and a sure eye for significant mundanity. A Perfectly Good Man is the faithful register of a community’s fortunes, its [...]

The explosive final novel featuring one of Australian crime fiction’s most iconic heroines Crime writer, TV presenter, brand ambassador for Jacqui E, goodwill ambassador for UNICEF and now UNICEF Patron for Breastfeeding for the Baby Friendly Health Initiative in Australia – Tara Moss is a modern-day superwoman, and her books are mega-sellers. Assassin is the last [...]

Katie is running late for school. Again. Dashing through the park, past the nooks of huddled trees, Katie trips on a tree root and falls sprawling to the ground. That’s when she hears the voice. A high-pitched squeaky voice – with a funny accent. Katie can hardly believe her eyes when a little man with [...]

The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Graham Pizzey Frank Knight Edited by Sarah Pizzey Buy the book here… Graham Pizzey (1930-2001) was highly regarded among professional and amateur ornithologists. The longevity of The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia, first published in 1980 and now in its ninth edition, is testament to [...]

HarperCollins staff take the future of publishing into their own hands with Project Flash Pub In early 2012 HarperCollinsPublishers Publishing Director, Shona Martyn, and Head of Digital, Mark Higginson, gathered together a small but intrepid group of staff from various departments and issued a challenge: to go where no traditional, book-loving trade publisher had gone before — [...]