Autumn Highlights: 7 Great Reads We Loved Last Season

Winter is here! Time to rug up, curl up, and lie somewhere warm with a book. But before we stoke the winter fires with all the great reads coming up this season, let’s take a look at some of the highlights of the last few months, with our autumn reads (or as they’re known now, the great lockdown reads).There were so many great reads over the past few months, and this is by no means a full list – but these books were a few of the highlights for us.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Why we love it: Meticulously researched and exquisitely written, Pip Williams has delivered one of the most remarkable debuts I’ve ever read. I was quickly swept up into this delicious, clever, deeply moving read. Suffice to say, The Dictionary of Lost Words is extraordinary.

What it’s about: This is a fictional story threaded into the real events around the creation of the Oxford Dictionary. In 1901, the word bondmaid was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

A Theatre for Dreamers by Polly Samson

Why we love it: A Theatre for Dreamers is a glorious combination of The Durrells and Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1996 film, Stealing Beauty. Perfect setting, tick. A cast of creative, complex characters, tick. Good times threaded with darker themes and questions around art and the artist. Tick, tick.

What it’s about: 1960. The world is dancing on the edge of revolution, and nowhere more so than on the Greek island of Hydra, where a circle of poets, painters and musicians live tangled lives, ruled by the writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston, and a young Canadian poet named Leonard Cohen. Into their midst arrives teenage Erica, with little more than a bundle of blank notebooks and her grief.

The Darkest Shore by Karen Brooks

Why we love it: This is a powerful novel, at times brutal, but always enthralling. The Darkest Shore is meticulously researched, the characters complex and compelling, and the themes around women’s friendship are as relevant today as back then.

What it’s about: The independent women of Scotland stand up to a witch hunt, male fury and the power of the Church in a battle for survival in this compelling historical novel based on true events in early eighteenth century Scotland.

Untethered by Hayley Katzen

Why we love it: Part love story and part off-the-grid adventure, Untethered is a beautifully written memoir. You’ll be cheering Hayley on, through seemingly insurmountable odds as she searches for those things we all crave – connection and home.

What it’s about: When urban academic Hayley Katzen moves to a remote Australian cattle property to live with her farmer girlfriend, she hopes, at last, to find home. But this is no ordinary tree change. Lecture halls, law reform and the arts are replaced with castrating calves, shovelling manure, fire-fighting and anti-gas blockades. In a place that attracts people who live by their own rules, Hayley must confront her limitations and preconceptions to forge her own identity.

Torched by Kimberley Starr

Why we love it: An explosive, haunting and utterly compelling crime novel about mothers and sons and the ties that bind them. Polished prose, complex, compelling characters, and a harrowing premise kept me glued to this book until the final pages. A powerful reminder of what Australia faced earlier this year, and an all round great read.

What it’s about: A small Yarra Valley town has been devastated by a bushfire, and Reefton Primary School Principal Phoebe Warton can’t sleep. She’s the single mother of Caleb, struggling teen with an emo style and a talent for art, who is accused of starting the fire – on purpose. Twelve people are dead, students from her school among them; only a monster would cause such carnage. But where was her son that day? No one knows but Caleb, and he’s not talking.

Small Mercies by Richard Anderson

Why we love it: Small Mercies is stunning. Richard Anderson’s writing is exceptional. Ruthie and Dimple are compelling characters, beautifully drawn, and what a refreshing change to read a book about an “older” couple. This is the rural romance we need to read.

What it’s about: After enduring months of extreme drought on their modest freehold, farming couple Dimple and Ruthie face uncertain times on more than one front. Desperate not to dwell on the past but to face up to the future, Dimple and Ruthie make a crucial decision they soon regret.

The Lost Jewels by Kirsty Manning

Why we love it: Kirsty Manning has taken a fascinating true story, and brought it to life in vivid, rich detail. The research in this book is exceptional, especially the descriptions of gems and jewellery. Set in three different eras – the present day, 1912 and the mid 1600s, each time period shines.

What it’s about: The Lost Jewels is a riveting historical fiction novel that will captivate readers from the beginning to the unforgettable, surprising end. Kirsty Manning tells an incredible tale of thievery, sacrifice and hope through the generations of one family.