3+ day, 1+ hour ago   (35+ words) SMH.com.au National books editor Melanie Kembrey has rounded up the best new books to read this summer. Updated September 10, 2026 — 2:17pm,first published 11:25am...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (63+ words) smh.com.au September marks the start of the bumper Christmas season, when publishers release a huge crop of books from big names and small. Here are 18 of the many new titles out this month, with loads more to look…...

1+ mon, 5+ day ago   (94+ words) In fiction this week, it’s a feast of coming-of-age and otherworldly tales that range across Australia, India and even the afterlife, while our non-fiction books explore Australian colonial violence, our legal system and a re-issue of Camille Paglia’s controversial 1990 book…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago   (307+ words) Modernist classics, speculative short stories and literary love affairs make for a wide-ranging fiction line-up this week, while the non-fiction shelves traverse Australian history and mental health to Parisian kitchens and the unsettling future of synthetic biology. Our critics deliver…...

1+ mon, 3+ week ago   (229+ words) SMH.com.au War stories, wartime Sydney, royal biographies, burnout cures and a moving book on pregnancy loss make for a varied week on the shelves. There’s also literary fiction from Ukraine and Australia, a dash of old-fashioned espionage, a…...

2+ mon, 4+ day ago   (152+ words) July 9, 2026 — 3:15pm The title of Kris Kneen’s latest book, Rite of Spring, initially brings to mind Stravinsky’s ballet and orchestral work, which dramatises sacrifice and rebirth. It’s about a virgin chosen to dance to her death to appease and please the…...

2+ mon, 2+ week ago   (75+ words) SMH.com.au From a Grisham-tier legal thriller to a satire on tabloid journalism, a novel that mines righteous horror from perimenopause, and engaging histories on queer literature and the cats of Australia, there’s truly something for everyone among this…...