
December 2013–January 2014, no. 357
Welcome to our summer edition! Never before have we published 78 people in a single issue. ‘Books of the Year’ is our major feature – always fun to commission. Find out what leading writers, critics and artists enjoyed reading in 2014. Poetry is a strength this month: we have poems from Felicity Plunkett, American Paula Bohince, and Porter Prize winner Michael Farrell, among others. Dion Kagan reviews that audacious French film Stranger by the Lake, and Ian Dickson admires the STC’s Waiting for Godot. Other highlights include Robert Dessaix on Colm Tóibín’s The Testament of Mary, Robyn Williams on Stephen Hawking, and former agent Mary Cunnane’s defence of the slush pile.
My Brief History by Stephen Hawking
The Mad Marathon: The story of the 2013 Election by Mungo MacCallum
Moving Among Strangers: Randolph Stow and My Family by Gabrielle Carey
Contemporary Asian Australian Poets edited by Adam Aitken, Kim Cheng Boey, and Michelle Cahill
Gardens of Fire: An Investigative Memoir by Robert Kenny
by Ian Gibbins
The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane
The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
Tide by John Kinsella
His Stupid Boyhood: A Memoir by Peter Goldsworthy
Bitter Wash Road by Garry Disher
by Ray Cassin
Getting Warmer by Alan Carter
The Shadow Year by Hannah Richell
by Milly Main
Watching You by Michael Robotham
by Ray Cassin
Banana Girl: A Memoir by Michele Lee
by Sara Savage
Changing Gears: A Pedal-powered Detour from the Rat Race by Greg Foyster
How to Tell Your Father to Drop Dead by Jeremy Fisher
Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain by John Darwin
by Robert Dare
The Writing Culture of Ordinary People in Europe, c.1860–1920 by Martyn Lyons
Cinema by Alain Badiou, translated by Susan Spitzer
by Hamish Ford
World Film Locations: Melbourne edited by Neil Mitchell
Stolen Glimpses, Captive Shadows: Writing on Film 2002–2012 by Geoffrey O'Brien
by Jake Wilson
Living in a Modern Way: California Design 1930–1965 edited by Wendy Kaplan
Even in the Dark by Rose Lucas
Ephemeral Waters by Kate Middleton
The Watchmaker's Imprint by Ian Templeman
It Comes From All Directions by Rae Desmond Jones
One Soufflé at a Time: A Memoir of Food and France by Anne Willan
by Gay Bilson
Shakespeare Beyond Doubt: Evidence, Argument, Controversy edited by Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells
English as a Vocation: The Scrutiny Movement by Christopher Hilliard
For the True Believers: Great Labor Speeches that Shaped History edited by Troy Bramston
Henry Friendly: Greatest Judge of His Era by David M. Dorsen
Queen's College the University of Melbourne: A Pictorial History 1887–2012 edited by Jennifer Bars, Sophia T. Pavlovski-Ross, and David T. Runia
The Last Girl by Michael Adams
Wildlife by Fiona Wood
by Emma Hayes