In this special piece, Australia-born, LA-based author of Like Mother ($32.99) Cassandra Austin reflects on her favourite mothers in fiction ... but just because they're her favourite doesn't mean they are easy to love. Read on... Medea, Marmee and Mrs Bennett; there are some wonde...

I find it difficult to write fathers. No matter how hard I try, they always turn out to be good. I’ve never had trouble with the mothers in my novels, who have come to mind with faults already sewn in. Or rather, the story comes to mind an...

Crossing to Safety Wallace Stegner Stegner’s classic, written in his late seventies, on the lifelong friendship between two couples. One of my all-time favourite books.     The Spare Room Helen Garner I love this possibly most among all Garner’s b...

Our most recent Harry Hartog Woden Book Club book was this year's Australian/Vogel Award Winner, "The Yellow House" (Allen & Unwin) by Emily O’Grady. Claire Leyton, bookseller at Harry Hartog Woden, interviewed the book’s extraordinary author, Emily O&rsq...