Mr Monk Goes to Hawaii by Lee Goldberg
A new mystery novel based on the television series "Monk". A sheer delight - funny, engaging, and very satisfying. I read this on holiday in Hawaii and had the added delight of finding it set on the island of Kauai where I was staying. I hadn't watched much of the tv series before this, and if it's anything like this novel then I've been missing something.

The Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais
The first of Crais's Elvis Cole novels. What starts out as a classic PI novel - missing husband, missing son - progresses into something else, something deeper and more violent.

Monster Blood Tattoo: Foundling by D.M. Cornish
First volume in a new fantasy series by a South Australian author. This is a very fine creation: a compelling story, beautifully illustrated by the author and wonderfully presented by the publisher. Keep an eye on this series, it promises to deliver some great treats.

The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay
Lindsay's classic Australian children's tale. In this age the extended songs seem a bit forced and quickly become tedious, but the story is funny and filled with wonderfully grumpy characters. Make sure you get the editions with Lindsay's illustrations.

The Summons by David Whish-Wilson
It is 1934 in Berlin, where Heinrich Himmler has set up a special research unit to study the occult and European witchcraft.

Snapshot by Garry Disher
The third of Disher's Inspector Hal Challis novels. Murder on the Mornington Peninsula. Disher is growing into this series quite nicely.

The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
An explanation of the new theories of the physics of the cosmos: string theory, time and quantum mechanics. Great bed time reading.

The Big Ask by Shane Maloney
Maloney's Murray Whelan finds himself in another scrape: this time involving unions, guns, missing kids, and politics. Always the politics.

The Colorado Kid by Stephen King
Stephen King tackles the crime genre in this fabulous series of hard-boiled crime novels from Hard Case Crime.

Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany
Shortlisted for the 2006 Miles Franklin Award. Set between the wars this novel explores the lives of people on the land, and the impact of progress on an ancient landscape.

The Secret River by Kate Grenville
Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and shortlisted for the 2006 Miles Franklin Award. Set in the early 19th century on the Hawkesbury River in New South Wales, it examines the clash of cultures between the indigenous Australians and the newly-arrived European settlers.

Dying Light by Stuart Macbride
The second DS Logan MacRae police procedural set in Aberdeen. It's summer, prostitutes are being killed, and MacRae is in trouble again. A friend told me that this one is deliciously gruesome.

Candle Life by Venero Armanno
An Australian novelist living in Paris encounters a beggar in the street who claims to be a famous American writer. His journeys will take him across the streets of the city, below them into the catacombs, and further into the depths of Europe. Read my review on Matilda.

Kittyhawk Down by Garry Disher
The second in Disher's Inspector Hal Challis police procedurals set on the Mornington Peninsular. A farmer runs amok and there is a series of shotgun murders to solve. Disher is gradually conquering yet another genre.

The Garden Book by Brian Castro
A rare book librarian pieces together the details of a woman's disappearance, fifty years after the event, from old books, diaries and her own writings. This novel was shortlisted for the 2006 Miles Franklin Award. Read my review on Matilda

The Best Australian Essays 2005 edited by Robert Dessaix
Essays by such writers as Inga Clendinnen, Kerryn Goldsworthy, Robert Hughes, Helen Garner, Robert Manne, and Kate Jennings.

The Wing of Night by Brenda Walker
The other side of the Anzac experience, about the women who are left behind and about returned soldiers who become exiles in their own country. This novel has been shortlisted for the 2006 Miles Franklin Award. Read my review on Matilda.

Will Dyson: Australia's Radical Genius by Ross McMullin
Biography of Will Dyson, Australia's first official war artist, cartoonist, writer, and brother-in-law of Norman Lindsay. Read my review on Matilda.

Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
Classic 1950s sf: alien contact, a very strange planet, adventure and an heroic journey. What more can you ask for?

The Dragon Man by Garry Disher
The first in Disher's Detective Inspector Hal Challis series, set on Victoria's Mornington peninsular. Someone is killing hitchhikers over Christmas.

The Berlin Cross by Gregg Flynn
A New York PI and a British Military Policeman find themselves in Berlin in 1948 dealing with a heady mix of atomic secrets, Nazis and stolen treasure - the Cross of Christ, or rather a piece of it.

The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery
Subtitled: "The history and future impact of climate change". Flannery is one of the great writers on natural history and is someone to be trusted.

Nice Try by Shane Maloney
Murray Whelan is involved in Melbourne's bid for the Olympics, the murder of a young Aboriginal athlete and state Labour politics. This is a fresh and funny look at the way politics is really done. Third in the series.

Purity of Blood by Arturo Perez-Reverte
The second Captain Alatriste novel. Our hero is set against the Church when he is asked to rescue a young woman from a convent. Classic historical adventure tale.

The Ghost Writer by John Harwood
Harwood's first novel is a ghost story (or is it?) in which Gerard Freeman's life seems to mirror, or be predicted by, a set of stories written by his great-grandmother nearly a hundred years ago. Tightly constructed classic Victoriana with a modern setting.

The Brush-Off by Shane Maloney
The second Murray Whelan novel. Whelan now finds himself in the Victorian Department of the Arts, and up to his neck in bodies, fake artworks, fake artists and poseurs. Is this the funniest crime series being written in Australia? It would take a damn good one to beat it.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
The sixth Harry Potter novel - and Harry finds himself in more trouble than the early settlers.

The Resurrectionist by James Bradley
A gothic thriller set among the anatomists and resurrectionists of 1820s London. Read my review on Matilda.

Lyra's Oxford by Philip Pulman
A novella set in the same universe as the author's "His Dark Materials" trilogy.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
The fifth in the series. I'm a couple behind and need to catch up. Basically it's too long.

The Pedant in the Kitchen by Julian Barnes
A collection of columns from "The Guardian". Slightly miffed tone rather than outright grumpy.

The Fallout by Garry Disher
Disher's last Wyatt novel. A nephew appears, a lost treasure is sought and Wyatt is up to his ears in trouble, as usual. Compelling stuff.

Out of the Silence by Wendy James
A debut novel about three Australian women from different worlds. Set in the early 1900s it examines the plight of women in Australia at that time - the prejudice, the lack of education and work opportunities, and the struggle for political acceptance. Read my review on Matilda.

Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce
A comic PI novel set in Aberystwyth, Wales. Schoolboys are turning up dead and Louie Knight suspects the local Druids.

Stiff by Shane Maloney
The first of the Murray Whelan books. An impressive debut revolving around State Labor machinations, murder, union shenanigans, and sexual politics. And funny with it.

The McDead by Ken Bruen
The third of Bruen's White trilogy. If anything, the police are getting worse.

Port Vila Blues by Garry Disher
The fifth in Disher's Wyatt series of crime novels. Wyatt has acquired a Tiffany broach that gets him into all sorts of strife.

Grace by Robert Drewe
A novel in the grand style and an attempt to deal with many problems troubling Australia today: from the individual fleeing a stalker to the fate of escaped asylum seekers. Read my review on Matilda.

Taming the Alien by Ken Bruen
The second novel in Bruen's White trilogy. The criminals aren't getting any better, nor are the police. There is a very distinctive voice behind these books.

Shards of Space by Robert Sheckley
11 science fiction stories from Robert Sheckley, originally published in 1962. This paperback edition is now 40 years old. No classics, but solid 1950s sf. Read my review on Matilda.

Soundings by Liam Davison
Davison's second novel which won the National Book Council Banjo Award for fiction, now-defunct. Set in the Westernport Bay area of Victoria, the novel describes events from several periods of Australian history. Historical events are conflated in a complex narrative that demonstrates how the past continues to exist in the present. Read my review on Matilda.

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
Bourdain's autobiography detailing his life in the restaurant business - at the dirty, smelly, hot, sexual, unpredictable, funny end. At last someone tells it like it is. Don't eat the fish on Mondays! Read my review on Matilda.

A White Arrest by Ken Bruen
The first of Bruen's White Trilogy: tough and visceral. Someone is killing off the English cricket team (this novel dates from 1998), dope dealers are being lynched from lamp posts, and the police aren't much better.

The Best Australian Essays 1998 edited by Peter Craven
The first in the series edited by Peter Craven. Originally published by "Bookman Press", features work by Helen Garner, Raimond Gaita, Catherine Ford, David Malouf, Fiona Capp and Tim Flannery. Read my review on Matilda.

Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny
A variation on Zelazny's exploration of the contrasts of light and dark, good and evil, order and chaos. Roughly contemporaneous with the start of his Amber series this short novel can be read as a riff on some of the same themes. Read my review on Matilda.

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