Holiday Reading List

What’s on your holiday reading list? The Christmas/New Year holiday represents a great opportunity to sit back and relax and read. Here’s some of the books on our list:

“Corporal Hitler’s Pistol” by Tom Keneally (Winner of the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize). Set in Kempsey, NSW, this novel tells a compelling story of the interactions and relationships between black and white Australians in early twentieth-century Australia.

“Cold Enough for Snow” by Jessica Au (Winner of the 2022 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction). This is the story of a mother and daughter who travel in Japan together, revealing gaps in their ability to communicate. Into these gaps, Au writes of mother-daughter relationships, of the immigrant experience of dislocation and of a profound love for the transformative qualities of art.

“Bodies of Light” by Jennifer Down (Winner of the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award). This is the story of a woman who receives an unexpected Facebook message that jolts her back to the past. A history she’s reluctant to revisit: dark memories and unspoken trauma, bruised thighs and warning knocks on bedroom walls, unfathomable loss. She became a new person a long time ago. What happens when buried stories are dragged into the light?

“The Untold Story of Adelaide’s Family Murders” by Debi Marshall (Shortlisted for Best True Crime in the 2022 Ned Kelly Awards). The book begins with Marshall's examination of the liberalisation of South Australia under the premiership of Don Dunstan and moves on to ask who were the Family killers? Why are suppression orders still protecting suspects four decades later? Why do some of these serial killings remain unsolved? Only one suspect, Bevan Spencer Von Einem, has been charged and convicted – why is that?

“She’s on the Money: Take Charge of Your Financial Future” by Victoria Devine (Winner of the ABIA General Non-fiction Book of the Year 2022; Winner of the Best Personal Finance & Investment Book of the Year at the 2021 Business Book Awards). This book by popular podcaster Devine, is all about learning how to be more secure, independent and informed with your money, with clear steps on how to budget, clear debts, build savings, start investing, buy property and much more. And along with all the practical information, you’ll be guided through the psychology surrounding money so you can establish the values, habits and confidence that will help you build your wealth long-term.

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• Literature / Writing