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Sit up straight! What is the point of table manners?
Don’t put your elbows on the table, don’t talk with your mouth full. Who made up these rules, and what are they for?
- by Felicity Lewis
Latest
I was 12 years old when a bomb blast changed my life forever
Shooting and bomb blasts became everyday events in Rahila’s early teens in Pakistan. But then came a new life in Australia, and a chance to follow her dreams.
- by Rahila
Jodi Picoult: ‘My husband is the only reason I have a writing career’
“I knew if I were to increase my productivity, I couldn’t be at home with our three kids. So he left work to be the primary caretaker.”
- by Robyn Doreian
Happy days as champion of writers turns 40
Nurturing new Australian voices has been the goal of this university anthology for 40 years.
Cricket isn’t life or death to Adam Zwar, it’s much more important
The award-winning comedy writer and actor has turned his love of the game into a very funny memoir.
- by Louise Rugendyke
She said she might have written her last book – then along came Trump
Writing about a fictional pandemic during a real one was eerie for A Little Life’s Hanya Yanagihara who, in To Paradise, again explores what it is to be alive.
- by Jane Wheatley
By the book: Good Weekend’s Christmas reading guide
Rich stories that transport you away from the mundane abound at this end of the year.
- by Nicole Abadee
Who are the real animals in Susan Orlean’s book?
The New Yorker writer’s essays are about animals, but they say a lot about humans too.
- by Leah Kaminsky
Extraordinary moments that changed everything: Ann Patchett’s essays
The American novelist’s essays show gratitude for people she has loved, lost, and those who have saved her.
- by Susan Wyndham
Stories from another Wolitzer and Evaristo’s manifesto: What to read
Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen and Steven Carroll have cast their eyes over recent fiction and non-fiction releases,
- by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen and Steven Carroll
The sheer grace of radio host Ed Ayres and his love of music
Ed Ayres’ devotion to sharing his passion for music is at the heart of Whole Notes.
- by Jessie Tu