THE POWER OF RESILIENCE AND RESOLVE A MEMOIR OF FREEDOM By Cheng Lei HarperCollins 2025 ISBN: 9781460766576 ; ISBN 10: 1460766571 RRP: $35.95 (PB) Reviewed by Keith Harvey Chinese-born Australian Cheng Lei’s memoir of her three years and two months spent in detention in China is a powerful tale of her arbitrary arrest and the [...]
AGING AS HUMOUR - WITH A MESSAGE CHALK AND CHEESE: A FABRICATION By Ross Fitzgerald & Ian McFadyen Hybrid, August 2025 ISBN: 9781922768469 RRP: $24.9 (PB) Reviewed by Eamonn O’Hanlon After suffering a stroke, veteran conservative commercial radio broadcaster Bill Bradley is admitted to an aged care facility, only to find that one of the [...]
THE PARADOXES OF WAR THE CAUSES OF WAR (Fourth Edition) By Geoffrey Blainey, Scribner 2025 ISBN13: 9781761635236 RRP $49.99 (HB) Reviewed by Geoffrey Lehmann Geoffrey Blainey’s The Causes of War, was first published in 1973. Now in its fourth edition in 2025, it has been updated for the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. A new [...]
WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS OF CHINESE COMMUNISM BOMBARD THE HEADQUARTERS! THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION IN CHINA By Linda Jaivin Black Inc Books, Old Street Publishing, 2025 ISBN: 9781760645601 RRP: $26.99 (PB) THE PARTY’S INTERESTS COME FIRST. THE LIFE OF XI ZHONGXUN, FATHER OF XI JINPING By Joseph Torigian, Stanford University Press, 2025 ISBN: 9781503634756 RRP: $50 [...]
FATHER OF LAND REFORM – AN ECONOMIST’S ASSESSMENT JOHN ROBERTSON – LIBERAL OF THE PEOPLE Australian Biographical Monographs 25 By William O Coleman Connor Court 2025 ISBN- 9781923224612 RRP: $19.95 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson Knowledge of Australian history among the young is fading. Whether this is a failure of curricula or the overwhelming emphasis [...]
A WRITER, A PUZZLE AND A SEARCH LOOKING FOR ELIZABETH - THE LIFE OF ELIZABETH HARROWER By Helen Trinca La Trobe University 2025 ISBN: 9781760645755 RRP: $36.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson There were many conundrums in the life of Australian writer Elizabeth Harrower. She produced five novels, largely based on her Australian experience of life [...]
ROBERT MANNE: A POLITICAL MEMOIR – INTELLECTUAL COMBAT IN THE COLD WAR AND CULTURE WARS By Robert Manne La Trobe University Press (in conjunction with Black Inc), 2025 ISBN: 9781760645069 RRP: $59.99 (hb) Reviewed by Gerard Henderson Former treasurer Peter Costello launched Frank Knopfelmacher: Selected Writings (Connor Court) in Melbourne last year. Frank Knopfelmacher (1923-1995) [...]
TALES OF TWO POLITICIANS: A FRACTION TOO MUCH FACTION? RACE MATHEWS – A LIFE IN POLITICS by Iola Mathews Monash University Publishers 2024 ISBN: 9781922979810 RRP: $36.99 (pb) A LONG MARCH by Kim Carr Monash University Publishers 2024 ISBN: 9781922979872 RRP: $49.99 (hb) Reviewed by Keith Harvey Late in 2024, two books [...]
TAKING ON THE MASTERS OF CRITICAL THEORY IN LITERATURE INTERPRETING LITERARY TEXTS – A POST-KANTIAN VIEW By Michael Giffin Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2024 ISBN: 978 1 0364 1050 6 RRP: £69.99 (HB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson Scholars continue to debate the impact of German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) on the way we see ourselves, [...]
BREAKING THROUGH THE CORDON OF SILENCE MATTERS OF THE HEART – A MEMOIR By Jacinta Nampijinpa Price HarperCollins Publishers 2025 ISBN: 978 1 4607 6676 7 RRP: $36.99 (PB) Reviewed by Anne Henderson This is a remarkable book, not just for its dramatic and honestly told life story but for what it represents to Australia [...]
