Hi friends,

And it’s spring! To see out the winter, I took to the ocean for a snorkel on the weekend. Unlike the swimmers ahead of me, wearing only their cozzies, I’d zipped my wetsuit over my spring suit and, following the suggestion of writer and ocean swimmer Joanne Fedler, covered my head with two swimming caps. Reader, the water was still freezing.

In celebration of spring, this week has seen the release of a raft of new books, including Cul-de-Sac by Eleanor Limprecht, A Suitable Man by Jock Serong, The Second Child by Malcolm Knox and Wild Hope by Claire Scobie.

Meanwhile, I’ve just finished listening to Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason. The writing is dry and perceptive and I was thoroughly engaged with the story.

As I mentioned last week, I joined Mark Dapin for the BAD Sydney Crime Book Club at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts for an intriguing conversation. Mark is a journalist and author of The First Murderer I Ever Met, a fascinating first-hand account of his own encounters with some of Australia’s most infamous criminals.

If this interests you, I’d encourage you to check out the BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival. BAD26 returns 20–21 November – the program will be released soon. I’ll be there and I’d love for you to join me.

You can find out more by clicking the button below.

Learn more about BAD

I’m really looking forward to my conversation with Canadian Irish painter, Sarah Quick this evening at Thursday Book Club. I’m also excited to bring you my first Writer’s Room for Substack paid subscribers on 23 September.

As always, I’m thrilled you’re part of this community – and thank you for supporting my work. To those who can make it, see you online tonight!

Suzanne xx

Reserve your spot: Writer’s Room

I’m delighted to invite you to join us for our inaugural Writer’s Room on Wednesday 23 September.

What to expect?

• A hands-on workshop for aspiring writers, covering practical tools and techniques for the creative process, facilitated by me.

• The chance to connect with other community members.

• A worksheet of exercises to keep you writing after the session ends.

• An introduction to fellow writers in our community to help you stay inspired and engaged.

Who is it for?

This session is perfect for aspiring writers looking for tools and tips to sharpen their creative process and refine their writing skills.

How to register?

To be part of this exclusive session, you’ll need to be a paid subscriber. If you’d like to subscribe, you can support my work for just $8 a month.

Subscribe now

It’s one of the ways paid subscribers get more from Thursday Book Club, alongside exclusive conversation replays, Q&As, writing reflections and live sessions.

Upcoming Events

In Conversation with Sarah Quick tonight!

As always, there are a few literary events coming up, beginning with my conversation with Sarah Quick tonight – online and free to all Thursday Book Club community members. I’d love you to join us for a conversation centred on creativity. Sarah and I will discuss her art and her upcoming exhibitions.

Support Sarah’s work and go into the draw to win!

Thank you to everyone who has supported Sarah’s impressive artwork by voting for her painting, Another Day, currently displayed (pictured below) at the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the annual exhibition for the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award.

Sarah hasn’t won the main prize but the People’s Choice vote is open until 30 September. Voting takes a few moments and you’ll go in the running for a prize.

Vote here

For my Sydney-siders…

Randwick’s Reading Takeover: Celebration of Reading Author Panel

I’d love you to join me at Randwick City Council’s Reading Takeover: Celebration of Reading Author Panel on Saturday 12 September. The event will be held on the ground floor of Randwick Town Hall, 90 Avoca Street, Randwick.

I’ll be in great company with Dinuka McKenzie and James McKenzie Watson, on a panel hosted by Ashley Kalagian Blunt. We’ll share what inspires our writing, what keeps us reading late into the night, and the books we secretly wish we’d written ourselves.

After the panel, there will be dedicated reading time, book signings and refreshments, plus the chance to connect with other readers and writers.

You can reserve your spot by clicking the button below.

Reserve your spot

Save the date: BAD Sydney Crime Writer’s Festival

BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival turns 10 in 2026 and they’re celebrating with a series of 10 crime writing events across the city, suburbs and regions. There are many events coming up in September and October for my Sydney-based friends. Events include thought-provoking author panels, walking tours through historically crime-rich locations, drinks and afternoon teas, and weekend trips away – each month offering something new to crime enthusiasts.

The extended crime-writing celebration will culminate 20-21 November with the annual Crime Writers Festival and Danger Awards in Sydney.

Professor Sue Turnbull, Chair of BAD Sydney, says

“Our mission here at BAD has always been to spread the word about the great crime writing that is happening in Australia today. This year, we’ve decided to take a new approach by getting out and about across the state of New South Wales. We’re also creating more opportunities for readers to engage with the books and the authors and the issues they raise. This is going to be a very good BAD year!”

Stay tuned for more details to come. I’d love to see you there!

Register for updates

Save the date: GGOBC - Annual Reader & Author Lunch

Join me at the GGOBC Annual Reader & Author Lunch on Sunday 29 November.

Enjoy an entertaining afternoon, with a 2-course meal while you listen to featured authors talk about their writing process and latest books. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions and book signing with book seller, The Book Attic, Richmond onsite.

I’ll be in great company, alongside Candice Fox, Lisa Heidke (Darcy), Joanna Nell, Susan Mackie, Pamela Cook, Johanna Craven, Sally Colin-James and many more inspiring Australian authors.

You can grab a ticket via the button below.

Grab your ticket

A poem I love

I’ve not written much poetry myself and have great admiration for all the poets out there. I’d like to showcase more poetry on Thursday Book Club and would love to hear your thoughts on poems I should include, be they well known, little known or unknown. And for all the poets in our Thursday Book Club community, I’d particularly like to feature some of your own work.

You can send me your poetry or poetry suggestions here.

This week, I’m delighted to share a poem from a long-standing Thursday Book Club community member, .

Transition: a form of resilience by Gillian Hunt

‘…speaking from a robustly vulnerable place…’ David Whyte

If first you knew what it will look like,

who will be there to greet you

and your destination reached with ease

you will not need to account for the moment

when you send the resignation

end a commitment, cease to pretend,

feel ashamed for taking on too much or

admit that you have had enough.

Trust your instincts before the Whys begin.

Own your strengths

mocked by some as feebly seeking common ground

and let the den of your mistakes be found.

Wear any stigma for choosing truth or loosening

a contagion of fear in those whose mirrors tell them

only what they wish to hear

now hold the pause, your breathing neither in nor out,

fast nor slow, and rest in the blessing of emptiness,

your soul exposed as never before,

skin tingling with a brisk transitioning breeze.

Gillian Hunt

As always, I’ll leave you with the usual wonderful reviews from my friends at Abbey’s and Katrina Davis. Happy reading!

Abbey’s Reviews

About Abbey’s Bookshop

In business since 1968, Abbey’s Bookshop is Sydney’s much-loved iconic independent bookshop, featuring a large children’s book section, Australia’s biggest in-store crime fiction collection, a full range of fiction, history, science and philosophy and an extensive foreign language books department.

Steve’s Pick of the Week

Fierceland: Winner of the 2026 Miles Franklin Award by Omar Musa

ABBEY’S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- After years abroad, siblings Roz and Harun return to Malaysian Borneo following their father’s death, confronting the troubling legacy behind their family’s wealth. Their attempt to make amends draws them into questions of corruption, environmental destruction, colonialism and belonging.

Moving between Malaysia, Sydney and Los Angeles, the story blends family drama with bigger political and cultural themes. It’s ambitious and at times confronting, but ultimately an engaging exploration of inheritance, guilt and redemption.

— Steve

Buy it now

Thursday Book Club Exclusive Offer

Save 20% off Abbey’s weekly recommendation when you use the promo code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB (all caps, no gaps) in the checkout at abbeys.com.au

Abbey's on Instagram

Rescue & Recent Reads from Katrina Davis

About Katrina

I’m Katrina, a Thursday book club devotee and sometimes co-host. I’m a reader, bookseller, wannabee librarian, and completely unqualified reviewer. You can find my bookish stuff on Instagram at RescueReads for op-shop finds, book-fair hauls, and other back-catalogue goodness - I also post all things new release here.

Katrina’s recent reads

Educated by Tara Westover

KATRINA’S PICK ----- I know you probably all read this in 2018 when Barack Obama told you to, but as I am too much of a snob to read what’s popular when it’s popular I am only getting around to it now. My loss. Educated by Tara Westover is really very good. Westover not only has an irresistible story to tell, she is also a talented writer. Growing up in a radical survivalist and religious family Westover lived an undocumented life - her parents didn’t register her birth, she didn’t go to school, and her family eschewed western medical intervention even in the wake of the most horrific of accidents. In writing this memoir she exposes all that was hidden and the reader is witness to an epic battle of loyalties, on the one hand to familial belonging and sticky religious belief, on the other to safety and freedom and its attendant terror.

Katrina on Instagram

Thursday Book Club

Thursday Book Club is on tonight – 3 September. I hope you can join us.

Use the button below to join us tonight via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Join Now

If you’ve been here for a while, I’m so glad you are. And if you’re new – a warm welcome. It’s lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx

Hi friends,

I’m writing this on the way to the Sydney Mechanic’s School of Arts to host the BAD Book Club, a monthly initiative by BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival. The book featured for August is The First Murderer I Met by Mark Dapin who will be joining us to talk about his writing and answer all our questions. Mark is a great writer and entertaining speaker whose bio for the ABC opens like this:

Dr Mark Dapin is a well-known journalist, author and screenwriter. Although he comes across as an idiot, he has degrees in the History of Art (BGS), Social Studies (BA Hons). Journalism (MA) and Military History (PhD).

Perhaps my favourite opening paragraph for a bio yet!

Meanwhile, I’m working away on my new novel. The drafting stage isn’t easy, but I’m forcing myself to just keep going.

I’ve been thinking about what I love most about Thursday Book Club - the community, the conversations, the book recommendations, our guests - and would love to hear what you like best and what else you’d like me to include. If you have some thoughts and ideas, please complete the quick poll below.

Thank you to all of you for supporting my work. Being a paid subscriber means getting more from Thursday Book Club: exclusive events, conversation replays, Q&As, writing reflections and live sessions. Keeping it accessible matters to me, so for just $8 a month you can be part of it all and help keep Thursday Book Club growing.

The first event for paid subscribers is my Writer’s Room coming up on Wednesday 23 September. I’m really excited to bring this session to you.

There are also some wonderful events coming up in-person and online, and I’d love to see you at one (or all!) of them. Details below.

As always, thanks for being part of this community, and I look forward to seeing you tonight.

Reserve your spot: Writer’s Room

I’m delighted to invite you to join us for our inaugural Writer’s Room on Wednesday 23 September.

What to expect?

• A hands-on workshop for aspiring writers, covering practical tools and techniques for the creative process, facilitated by me.

• The chance to connect with other community members.

• A worksheet of tools and exercises to keep you writing after the session ends.

• An introduction to fellow writers in our community to help you stay inspired and engaged.

Who is it for?

This session is perfect for aspiring writers looking for tools and tips to sharpen their creative process and refine their writing skills.

How to register?

To be part of this exclusive session, you’ll need to be a paid subscriber. If you’d like to subscribe, you can support my work for just $8 a month.

Subscribe now

It’s one of the ways paid subscribers get more from Thursday Book Club, alongside exclusive conversation replays, Q&As, writing reflections and live sessions.

Upcoming Events

As always, there are a few literary events coming up soon, beginning with my conversation with Sarah Quick, at Thursday Book Club on 3 September. This is a free conversation for all community members, and I’d love to see you online.

For my online Thursday Book Club community…

In Conversation with Sarah Quick

Join us for a conversation centred on creativity, as Sarah and I discuss art and her upcoming exhibitions

Support Sarah’s work and go into the draw to win!

Sarah’s painting, Another Day, is currently displayed (pictured below) at the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the annual exhibition for the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award.

Sarah hasn’t won the main prize but the People’s Choice vote is open until 30 September. Voting takes a few moments and you’ll go in the running for a prize.

Vote here

For my Sydney-siders…

Randwick’s Reading Takeover: Celebration of Reading Author Panel

I’d love you to join me at Randwick City Council’s Reading Takeover: Celebration of Reading Author Panel on Saturday 12 September. The event will be held on the ground floor of Randwick Town Hall, 90 Avoca Street, Randwick.

I’ll be in great company with Dinuka McKenzie and James McKenzie Watson, on a panel hosted by Ashley Kalagian Blunt. We’ll share what inspires our writing, what keeps us reading late into the night, and the books we secretly wish we’d written ourselves.

After the panel, there will be dedicated reading time, book signings and refreshments, plus the chance to connect with other readers and writers.

You can reserve your spot by clicking the button below.

Reserve your spot

Save the date: GGOBC - Annual Reader & Author Lunch

Join me at the GGOBC Annual Reader & Author Lunch on Sunday 29 November.

Enjoy an entertaining afternoon, with a 2-course meal while you listen to featured authors talk about their writing process and latest books. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions and book signing with book seller, The Book Attic, Richmond onsite.

I’ll be in great company, alongside Candice Fox, Lisa Heidke (Darcy), Joanna Nell, Susan Mackie, Pamela Cook, Johanna Craven, Sally Colin-James and many more inspiring Australian authors.

You can grab a ticket via the button below.

Grab your ticket

A poem I love

I’ve not written much poetry myself and have great admiration for all the poets out there. I’d like to showcase more poetry on Thursday Book Club and would love to hear your thoughts on poems I should include, be they well known, little known or unknown. And for all the poets in our Thursday Book Club community, I’d particularly like to feature some of your own work.

You can send me your poetry or poetry suggestions here.

This week, I’m delighted to share a poem from a long-standing Thursday Book Club community member, .

Airborne by Gillian Hunt

fog descends

dense and impenetrable

at the airport

confusion over cancellations and delays

and city traffic honks its halting way

through the miasma

while bar-tailed godwits

rested and well fed

take off from the mud flats by the Bay

steer their course north, undaunted,

the steady flapping of their wings

inaudible over idling jets waylaid

passengers contemplate the inflight movie list,

take mollifying sips of something alcoholic

calculating added minutes to their destination

but godwits will not eat or drink or sleep

‘til half a world from this hysteria;

a wan sun appears, apologetic,

and a city picks up speed

as if it too is flying to Siberia

As always, I’ll leave you with a couple of fabulous reviews from my friends at Abbey’s and Katrina Davis. I hope they inspire your next read.

Abbey’s Reviews

About Abbey’s Bookshop

In business since 1968, Abbey’s Bookshop is Sydney’s much-loved iconic independent bookshop, featuring a large children’s book section, Australia’s biggest in-store crime fiction collection, a full range of fiction, history, science and philosophy and an extensive foreign language books department.

Steve’s Pick of the Week

The Barman of the Ritz by Philippe Collin

ABBEY’S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- The Barman of the Ritz is a gripping and atmospheric historical novel that blends glamour, fear, and moral ambiguity inside the famous Ritz Hotel during Nazi-Occupied Paris. Philippe Collin brings bartender Frank Meier vividly to life, capturing the tension of serving powerful German officers while secretly protecting lives. The novel shines through its rich historic detail, emotional restraint, and exploration of survival, compromise, and quiet courage. Compelling yet unsettling, it is both a captivating wartime drama and a thoughtful reflection on humanity under pressure.

— Steve

Buy it now

Thursday Book Club Exclusive Offer

Save 20% off Abbey’s weekly recommendation when you use the promo code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB (all caps, no gaps) in the checkout at abbeys.com.au

Abbey's on Instagram

Rescue & Recent Reads from Katrina Davis

About Katrina

I’m Katrina, a Thursday book club devotee and sometimes co-host. I’m a reader, bookseller, wannabee librarian, and completely unqualified reviewer. You can find my bookish stuff on Instagram at RescueReads for op-shop finds, book-fair hauls, and other back-catalogue goodness - I also post all things new release here.

Katrina’s recent reads

Being: Why It’s Harder to be Human than a Hamster or a Herring by Rachel E. Menzies and Ross G. Menzies

KATRINA’S PICK ----- This daughter and father writing duo - also accomplished psychologists - first came to my attention with their 2021 collaboration: Mortals: How the Fear of Death Shaped Human Society. It was an influential book for me, sparking further reading and an exploration of Stoicism as a guide for life (and death). Being goes beyond death anxiety to tackle a broad range of problems faced by our species. Chapter titles include ‘The Inner Voice’, ‘The Need for Love’ and ‘The Quest for Meaning’ and across the book Menzies and Menzies draw on psychological studies, philosophy, literature, and case material from their professional practice, to provide some clues on how we might live alongside the predicaments of being human. Being is a smart and accessible account of how humans have tried to make sense of themselves.

Katrina on Instagram

Thursday Book Club

Thursday Book Club is on tonight – 27 August. I hope you can join us.

Use the button below to join us tonight via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Join Now

If you’ve been here for a while, I’m so glad you are. And if you’re new – a warm welcome. It’s lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx

Hi friends,

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, I’m back home now and focused on writing my new novel. I never find the early drafts easy but am doing my best to keep my head down and just keep writing. Writers, someone said, are those who find writing more difficult than most. There is, I think, more than a grain of truth in this. For me, tenacity is the key - just keep going!

There are some wonderful events coming up, both in-person and online, and I’d love to see you at one (or all!) of them – details below. I’m especially looking forward to my new Writer’s Room on Wednesday 23 September.

As always, thank you for your support, and I look forward to your company tonight.

Your Invitation: Writer’s Room

Save the date!

I’m delighted to invite you to join us for our inaugural Writer’s Room on Wednesday 23 September.

What to expect?

• A hands-on workshop for aspiring writers, covering practical tools and techniques for the creative process, facilitated by me.

• The chance to connect with other community members.

• A worksheet of tools and exercises to keep you writing after the session ends.

• An introduction to fellow writers in our community to help you stay inspired and engaged.

Who is it for?

This session is perfect for aspiring writers looking for tools and tips to sharpen their creative process and refine their writing skills.

How to register?

To be part of this exclusive session, you’ll need to be a paid subscriber. If you’d like to subscribe, you can support my work for just $8 a month.

Subscribe now

It’s one of the ways paid subscribers get more from Thursday Book Club, alongside exclusive conversation replays, Q&As, writing reflections and live sessions.

Upcoming Events

As always, there are a few literary events coming up both in-person and online, and I’d love to see you there!

Randwick’s Reading Takeover: Celebration of Reading Author Panel

Sydney friends, I’d love you to join me at Randwick City Council’s Reading Takeover: Celebration of Reading Author Panel on Saturday 12 September. The event will be held on the ground floor of Randwick Town Hall, 90 Avoca Street, Randwick.

I’ll be in great company with Dinuka McKenzie and James McKenzie Watson, on a panel hosted by Ashley Kalagian Blunt. We’ll share what inspires our writing, what keeps us reading late into the night, and the books we secretly wish we’d written ourselves.

After the panel, there will be dedicated reading time, book signings and refreshments, plus the chance to connect with other readers and writers.

Tickets are available now – click the button below to reserve your spot.

Reserve your spot

In Conversation with Sarah Quick

I’m excited to welcome my talented friend, Sarah Quick, to Thursday Book Club next month on Thursday 3 September.

Join us for a conversation centred on creativity, as Sarah and I discuss art and her upcoming exhibitions

Support Sarah’s work and go into the draw to win!

Sarah’s painting, Another Day, is currently displayed (pictured below) at the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the annual exhibition for the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award.

Sarah hasn’t won the main prize but the People’s Choice vote is open until 30 September. Voting takes a few moments and you’ll go in the running for a prize.

Vote here

Save the date: GGOBC - Annual Reader & Author Lunch

Sydney friends, I’d love you to join me at the GGOBC Annual Reader & Author Lunch on Sunday 29 November.

Join us for an entertaining afternoon, enjoying a 2-course meal while you listen to featured authors talk about their writing process and latest books. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions and book signing with book seller, The Book Attic, Richmond onsite.

I’ll be in great company, alongside Candice Fox, Lisa Heidke (Darcy), Joanna Nell, Susan Mackie, Pamela Cook, Johanna Craven, Sally Colin-James and many more inspiring Australian authors.

Tickets are available now – simply click the button below.

Grab your ticket

Writing inspiration

In place of a poem this issue, I’m delighted to share words from Zhang Pu, on her inspiration for her debut novel, A Tibetan Girl Called Ata.

I loved hearing Zhang’s personal source of inspiration – it’s different for every writer, author and creative. There’s so much power in sharing knowledge, experience and creative wisdom, and I hope this excerpt sparks ideas for your own writing. We’ll explore this further in our upcoming Writer’s Room so if it resonates with you, I invite you to join us for practical tools and techniques for creative writing.

Tibetan Girl Called Ata by Zhang Pu

A Tibetan Girl Called Ata, published in the UK this April, is my first novel in English.

For years, I had wanted to write something that explored the complicated relationship between Tibetans and Han Chinese, but I did not want to write a political lecture. I wanted to show how political divisions and historical legacies affect the lives of ordinary people.

My hometown, Chengdu, lies on the doorstep of the Tibetan Plateau and is home to a vibrant Tibetan community numbering in the hundreds of thousands. I first became acquainted with Tibetans through my interest in antiques. Whenever I returned to Chengdu to visit my family, I would spend time at the antiques market in Songxianqiao, where several Tibetan dealers had their shops. Through them, I came to know a young Tibetan woman who had adapted well to life in the city and was engaged to a Han Chinese man.

Then came the Lhasa uprising in March 2008, and her life changed overnight.

When I returned to Chengdu that September, she told me that she had broken off her engagement. In the aftermath of the unrest, the atmosphere in the city had become tense. Some of her friends had been arrested after police discovered photographs of the Dalai Lama on their mobile phones during routine identity checks. She herself had also been questioned. Frightened by the situation, her fiancé eventually found an excuse to leave her.

As I listened to her, I realised that I was hearing far more than the story of a failed romance.

I had found the story I had been searching for.

Her experience gave me the human story through which I could explore the much larger tensions between Tibetans and Han Chinese. It was the emotional foundation I needed.

And that was how the idea for A Tibetan Girl Called Ata was born.

About the Book

My novel follows a Han Chinese man who falls deeply in love with a young Tibetan woman, Ata, only to discover, far too late, that their love will destroy them both. Their extraordinary relationship unfolds in Lhasa in 2008, amid a period of profound unrest—a moment in history that makes their tragic fate all but inevitable. The novel explores how history, politics, and cultural divisions can profoundly shape—and sometimes shatter—the lives of ordinary people.

A Tibetan Girl Called At is available now – you can grab a copy via the button below.

Buy it now

And as always, I’d love for you to send me your poetry or poetry suggestions or your own source of creative inspiration here.

Now I’ll leave you with inspiration for your next read from my wonderful friends at Abbey's and Katrina Davis.

Abbey’s Reviews

About Abbey’s Bookshop

In business since 1968, Abbey’s Bookshop is Sydney’s much-loved iconic independent bookshop, featuring a large children’s book section, Australia’s biggest in-store crime fiction collection, a full range of fiction, history, science and philosophy and an extensive foreign language books department.

Lindy’s Pick of the Week

Land by Maggie O'Farrell

ABBEY’S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Liam is chain-boy for his father Tomas, who is employed by the British redcoats in surveying and mapping Irish localities in 1865. Tomas is a taciturn, driven, hard and unbending man who 10yo Liam both loves and fears. So when Tomas disappears into a wild and unmapped place, and reappears days later full of words and strange unworldly notions, Liam is astounded, frightened and confused. Somehow the land had transformed Tomas and from then on life takes a strange and unexpected turn for his family, changing all their futures...

This compelling novel sweeps through Irish history of the 19th century but also reaches back to a past both mythical and mystical, combining geographical notions of land with the layers of story that both land and man hold... A fine novel that once again shows O’Farrell’s mastery of the historical narrative and the mysteries of the human heart.

— Lindy

Buy it now

Thursday Book Club Exclusive Offer

Save 20% off Abbey’s weekly recommendation when you use the promo code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB (all caps, no gaps) in the checkout at abbeys.com.au

Abbey's on Instagram

Rescue & Recent Reads from Katrina Davis

About Katrina

I’m Katrina, a Thursday book club devotee and sometimes co-host. I’m a reader, bookseller, wannabee librarian, and completely unqualified reviewer. You can find my bookish stuff on Instagram at RescueReads for op-shop finds, book-fair hauls, and other back-catalogue goodness - I also post all things new release here.

Katrina’s recent reads

Said the Dead by Doireann Ní Ghríofa

KATRINA’S PICK ----- This book is categorised by its publisher and Australian distributors as memoir/biography, but it challenges any such traditional labels. After some struggle, I found it only possible to review Said the Dead if I present it as a novel. And so: the novel’s protagonist, “the Reader”, is living near a Victorian era lunatic asylum being converted into modern residences. She becomes obsessed both with the site, and then as she explores archival records, with the lives of the women housed there and most closely, with the life of psychiatrist Dr Lucia Strangman. As the dead speak, boundaries between the past and the present, between documentation and delusion, collapse.

I have often thought about writing a novel set in an asylum from the past. I worked for many years on the site of a decommissioned psychiatric hospital in which, coincidentally, an ancestor of mine spent his last days. When I first heard about this book, I feared my imagined text had already been written. I was soon calmed, realising nothing from my own pen could ever emulate the mastery displayed here by Doireann Ní Ghríofa. I cannot imagine another supplanting Said the Dead as my book of the year.

Katrina on Instagram

Thursday Book Club

Thursday Book Club is on tonight – 20 August. I hope you can join us.

Use the button below to join us tonight via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Join Now

If you’ve been here for a while, I’m so glad you are. And if you’re new – a warm welcome. It’s lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx

Hi friends,

Last Tuesday I flew to Melbourne as a guest of Melbourne Jewish Book Week and spent the day visiting schools and speaking to students about my writing and their writing. It’s always exciting to recognise the emerging writers amongst the group: it’s the attentiveness, the sparkle and the obvious interest in the craft.

I spent the remainder of the week as a writer-facilitator for the Writing Better Judgments program developed by the National Judicial College of Australia to encourage judges and other decision makers to make their judgments and decisions easier to understand and so more accessible to a general audience. I love presenting and running workshops as part of the program.

Back home this week, and I’ve been trying to keep my head down to write my new novel. The early drafts are always a bit of a struggle, so I’ve been gritting my teeth and doing my best to stay focused.

On a brighter note, I’m excited by my new Writer’s Room and looking forward to our first meeting on 23 September. I’m also excited to introduce you to my artist friend, Sarah Quick, who will be my guest on Thursday Book Club on 3 September.

As always, I’m delighted to have your support and look forward to your company tonight.

Your Invitation: Writer’s Room

Save the date!

I’m delighted to invite you to join us for our inaugural Writer’s Room on Wednesday 23 September.

What to expect?

• A hands-on workshop for aspiring writers, covering practical tools and techniques for the creative process, facilitated by me.

• The chance to connect with other community members.

• A worksheet of tools and exercises to keep you writing after the session ends.

• An introduction to fellow writers in our community to help you stay inspired and engaged.

Who is it for?

This session is perfect for aspiring writers looking for tools and tips to sharpen their creative process and refine their writing skills.

How to register?

To be part of this exclusive session, you’ll need to be a paid subscriber. If you’d like to subscribe, you can support my work for just $8 a month.

Subscribe now

It’s one of the ways paid subscribers get more from Thursday Book Club, alongside exclusive conversation replays, Q&As, writing reflections and live sessions.

Upcoming Events

In Conversation with Sarah Quick

I’m excited to welcome my talented friend, Sarah Quick, to Thursday Book Club next month on Thursday 3 September.

Sarah studied at Mount Allison University Fine Arts and was a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Award. I love Sarah’s artwork and so looking forward to learning more about her creative process. I've included two paintings from her upcoming solo exhibition called Liminal Lines.

Join us for a conversation centred on creativity, as Sarah and I discuss art and her upcoming exhibitions.

Support Sarah’s work and go into the draw to win!

Sarah’s painting, Another Day, is currently displayed (pictured below) at the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the annual exhibition for the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award.

Sarah hasn’t won the main prize but the People’s Choice vote is open until 30 September. Voting takes a few moments and you’ll go in the running for a prize.

Vote here

Save the date: GGOBC - Annual Reader & Author Lunch

Sydney friends, I’d love you to join me at the GGOBC Annual Reader & Author Lunch on Sunday 29 November.

Join us for an entertaining afternoon, enjoying a 2-course meal while you listen to featured authors talk about their writing process and latest books. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions and book signing with book seller, The Book Attic, Richmond onsite.

I’ll be in great company, alongside Candice Fox, Lisa Heidke (Darcy), Joanna Nell, Susan Mackie, Pamela Cook, Johanna Craven, Sally Colin-James and many more inspiring Australian authors.

Tickets are available now – simply click the button below.

Grab your ticket

A poem I love

I’ve not written much poetry myself and have great admiration for all the poets out there. I’d like to showcase more poetry on Thursday Book Club and would love to hear your thoughts on poems I should include, be they well known, little known or unknown. And for all the poets in our Thursday Book Club community, I’d particularly like to feature some of your own work.

You can send me your poetry or poetry suggestions here.

This week I've chosen a poem written by William Shakespeare from Love's Labour's Lost.

Spring by William Shakespeare

When daisies pied, and violets blue,
And lady-smocks all silver-white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
‘Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo!’ O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.

When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,
And merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks,
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer smocks,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
‘Cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo!’ O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.

As always, I’ll leave you with this week’s fabulous reviews from the team at Abbey's and Katrina Davis – I hope they inspire your next read.

Abbey’s Reviews

About Abbey’s Bookshop

In business since 1968, Abbey’s Bookshop is Sydney’s much-loved iconic independent bookshop, featuring a large children’s book section, Australia’s biggest in-store crime fiction collection, a full range of fiction, history, science and philosophy and an extensive foreign language books department.

Lindy’s Pick of the Week

When I Am Sixty-Four by Debra Adelaide

ABBEY’S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- A writer mourns for her lost friend, another writer who was renowned and much loved and has died. Her friend suffered from deep and unshiftable depression in the last part of her life, and the narrator recalls their shared past and her attempts to lift her out of her dark places. It was a friendship that stretched back to their shared youth, their early years as mothers, and through the tribulations of the publishing and academic worlds. As the narrator meditates on loss and grief, life and guilt, the nature of their long friendship shifts in the kaliedoscope of her memory...

This is a profoundly touching and quiet novel that hovers on the edge of memoir, as it is based on Adelaide’s long friendship with Gabrielle Carey. It is reminiscent of Helen Garner’s The Spare Room in a way, but is a beautiful piece of writing in its own class, full of love and regrets and all the pain that comes from not being able to help a person who means so much to you. And then it is about acceptance and understanding and love, again. A gorgeous book...

— Lindy

Buy it now

Thursday Book Club Exclusive Offer

Save 20% off Abbey’s weekly recommendation when you use the promo code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB (all caps, no gaps) in the checkout at abbeys.com.au

Abbey's on Instagram

Rescue & Recent Reads from Katrina Davis

About Katrina

I’m Katrina, a Thursday book club devotee and sometimes co-host. I’m a reader, bookseller, wannabee librarian, and completely unqualified reviewer. You can find my bookish stuff on Instagram at RescueReads for op-shop finds, book-fair hauls, and other back-catalogue goodness - I also post all things new release here.

Katrina’s recent reads

Fierceland by Omar Musa

KATRINA’S PICK ----- When I picked up a copy of Fierceland, soon after it was published in September 2025, I read with notebook and pen in hand, suspecting early that the novel would find its way to the pointy end of judging for the Miles Franklin Award, and that I would then need to discuss it knowledgably with bookstore customers. I didn’t quite get around to reading any other book on the shortlist so when Omar Musa was announced last week as the award’s winner I felt both relieved and smug. On the one hand, this is a family story: brother and sister Harun and Roz return to Malaysian Borneo when their father dies and contend with his legacy. This story also lives on an epic scale with waves of the history of their homeland coming to bear on the present. At the heart of all this is the forest. Omar Musa is supremely creative in his telling of this story. It is an easy recommendation for my customers.

Katrina on Instagram

Thursday Book Club

Thursday Book Club is on tonight – 13 August. I hope you can join us.

Use the button below to join us tonight via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Join Now

If you’ve been here for a while, I’m so glad you are. And if you’re new – a warm welcome. It’s lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx

Hi friends,

I enjoyed seeing so many of you last week for my conversation with Elisabeth Storrs. For those who couldn’t make it, the replay is now available – more on that later.

I want to thank you for your ongoing support of my work. This community has grown substantially over the years – it’s now larger than ever, and I’m delighted you’re part of it.

Enjoy this week’s news, and I’m looking forward to seeing those of you who are able to make it tonight!

Thursday Book Club conversations

As always, joining us for these conversations is free.

I’m delighted to have two special guests join us for Thursday Book Club, and I know you’ll enjoy the conversations we have planned.

In Conversation with Elisabeth Storrs

Missed Thursday Book Club last week? Catch my recent conversation with Elisabeth Storrs, author of the trilogy, A Tale of Ancient Rome.

Elisabeth has a deep love of history and myth. Her new novel, Fables and Lies, immerses readers in the world of a fractured German family living through the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler.

I really enjoyed my conversation with Elisabeth and have no doubt you will find it inspiring!

Watch the replay here:

Meet Sarah Quick on 3 September

I hinted at it in my last newsletter and I’m excited to share that my talented friend, Sarah Quick, will be joining us at Thursday Book Club next month.

Sarah studied at Mount Allison University Fine Arts and was a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Award. I was blown away with Sarah’s artwork and I’m thrilled to learn more about Sarah’s creativy process.

Join us for a conversation centred on creativity, as Sarah and I discuss art and her upcoming exhibitions.

Support Sarah’s work and go into the draw to win!

Sarah’s painting, Another Day, is currently displayed (pictured below) at the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the annual exhibition for the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award. The portrait of her husband, Mark, was painted over December 2025, in the middle of moving house with their two young boys.

Sarah hasn’t won the main prize but the People’s Choice vote is open until 30 September. Voting takes a few moments and you’ll go in the running for a prize.

Vote here

Upcoming Events

Save the date: GGOBC - Annual Reader & Author Lunch

Sydney friends, I’d love you to join me at the GGOBC Annual Reader & Author Lunch on Sunday 29 November.

Join us for an entertaining afternoon, enjoying a 2-course meal while you listen to featured authors talk about their writing process and latest books. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions and book signing with book seller, The Book Attic, Richmond onsite.

I’ll be in great company, alongside Candice Fox, Lisa Heidke (Darcy), Joanna Nell, Susan Mackie, Pamela Cook, Johanna Craven, Sally Colin-James and many more inspiring Australian authors.

Tickets are available now – simply click the button below.

Grab your ticket

Your Invitation: Writer’s Room

Save the date!

I’m delighted to invite you to join us for our inaugural Writer’s Room on Wednesday 23 September.

What to expect?

• A hands-on workshop for aspiring writers, covering practical tools and techniques for the creative process, facilitated by me.

• The chance to connect with other community members.

• A worksheet of tools and exercises to keep working with, well after the session ends.

• An introduction to fellow writers in our community, so the conversation doesn’t stop when the session does.

Who is it for?

This session is perfect for aspiring writers looking for tools and tips to sharpen their creative process and refine their writing skills.

How to register?

To be part of this exclusive session, you’ll need to be a paid subscriber. If you’d like to subscribe, you can support my work for just $8 a month.

Subscribe now

To register your interest, please get in touch with me directly here.

It’s one of the ways paid subscribers get more from Thursday Book Club, alongside exclusive conversation replays, Q&As, writing reflections and live sessions.

A poem I love

I’ve not written much poetry myself and have great admiration for all the poets out there. I’d like to showcase more poetry on Thursday Book Club and would love to hear your thoughts on poems I should include, be they well known, little known or unknown. And for all the poets in our Thursday Book Club community, I’d particularly like to feature some of your own work.

You can send me your poetry or poetry suggestions here.

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Enjoy this week’s reviews from the team at Abbey's and Katrina Davis – I hope they inspire your next read.

Abbey’s Reviews

About Abbey’s Bookshop

In business since 1968, Abbey’s Bookshop is Sydney’s much-loved iconic independent bookshop, featuring a large children’s book section, Australia’s biggest in-store crime fiction collection, a full range of fiction, history, science and philosophy and an extensive foreign language books department.

Lindy’s Pick of the Week

An Ocean and a Day by Hannah Richell

ABBEY’S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- When Hannah lost her husband Matt in a dreadfully tragic misadventure, she had to withstand not only his loss but do it in the public gaze. Matt Richell was the 41-year-old CEO of Hachette Australia, well known, respected and admired by the book industry. The aftermath of his surfing accident was also caught by news crews, so right from the beginning it was not a private matter of grief and mourning.

This heartfelt memoir details the two hard years of sustaining such loss, of trying to navigate life without her beloved, of being a single mother and witnessing their two children’s incomprehension and grief while barely dealing with her own. Hannah tells the stories of the years before the accident, of meeting Matt, making a life together, moving to Australia and motherhood. It is also about finding shards of light in the darkest chasms of grief and an honest account of slowly going onwards through the fog towards a different life and eventual love that were inconceivable in those earlier years.

— Lindy

Buy it now

Thursday Book Club Exclusive Offer

Save 20% off Abbey’s weekly recommendation when you use the promo code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB (all caps, no gaps) in the checkout at abbeys.com.au

Abbey's on Instagram

Rescue & Recent Reads from Katrina Davis

About Katrina

I’m Katrina, a Thursday book club devotee and sometimes co-host. I’m a reader, bookseller, wannabee librarian, and completely unqualified reviewer. You can find my bookish stuff on Instagram at RescueReads for op-shop finds, book-fair hauls, and other back-catalogue goodness - I also post all things new release here.

Katrina’s recent reads

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar

KATRINA’S PICK ----- A reader of contemporary fiction would need to make a determined effort to avoid a solid sampling of novels concerned with the climate crisis in their literary diet. I’ve loved, or liked, or abandoned, a good number of them in the preceding few years.

My two most recent reads are particular highlights. I’m likely the last to have read Charlotte McConaghy’s 2025 Wild Dark Shore. It’s won or been listed for a fistful of awards. On an island somewhere near Antarctica a global seed bank is being closed down before it is lost to rising seas. Dominic and his children are the last to leave, packing up whatever can be saved. They live with whales and penguins, spirits and secrets, and after she washes up among the seals, Rowan, a woman looking for her missing husband.

In Megha Majumdar’s 2025 A Guardian and a Thief Ma, Dadu and Mishti are due to take up their climate visas and swap a ravaged Kolkata for Michigan and a new life. In the seven-day span of the novel, as the day of their booked flight approaches, safety slips in and out of their grasps. Majumdar is as skilful as McConaghy in rendering place and both writers take on the moral implications of collapsing landscapes and communities and the hopeful and brutal choices we may find ourselves making.

Katrina on Instagram

Thursday Book Club

Thursday Book Club is on tonight – 6 August. I hope you can join us.

Use the button below to join us tonight via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Join Now

If you’ve been here for a while, I’m so glad you are. And if you’re new – a warm welcome. It’s lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx

Hi friends,

It’s just over a week since I returned from overseas, and I’ve been reflecting on how wonderful it is to travel, to see the world and experience new things. Wonderful, but also a reminder that it takes time to find your feet again. I’m feeling that this week.

There’s always news to share in this newsletter, and today is no exception.

Happy reading and I look forward to seeing those of you who can make it to Thursday Book Club tonight!

First-ever Writer’s Room

I’m delighted to bring you a first for the Thursday Book Club community: a Writer’s Room on Wednesday 23 September.

What to expect?

• A hands-on workshop for aspiring writers, covering practical tools and techniques for the creative process, facilitated by me.

• The chance to connect with other community members.

• A worksheet of tools and exercises to keep working with, well after the session ends.

• An introduction to fellow writers in our community, so the conversation doesn’t stop when the session does.

Who is it for?

This session is perfect for aspiring writers looking for tools and tips to sharpen their creative process and refine their writing skills.

How to register?

To be part of this exclusive session, you’ll need to be a paid subscriber. If you’d like to subscribe, you can support my work for just $8 a month.

Subscribe now

To register your interest, please get in touch with me directly here.

It’s one of the ways paid subscribers get more from Thursday Book Club, alongside exclusive conversation replays, Q&As, writing reflections and live sessions.

Thursday Book Club conversations

As always, joining us for these conversations is free.

I’m delighted to have two special guests join us for Thursday Book Club, and I know you’ll enjoy the conversations we have planned.

Thursday 30 July

Elisabeth Storrs will be joining me tonight. Elisabeth has a deep love of history and myth which is reflected in her novels. Following her passion for ancient history in her fiction writing, Elisabeth published the A Tale of Ancient Rome trilogy, endorsed by Ursula Le Guin (!), Kate Quinn and Ben Kane. She has just published her new novel, Fables & Lies, a World War II story that explores survival, resistance and impossible choices. Seen through the prism of one fractured German family, Fables & Lies examines both the pull and the horror of Nazi ideology. I can't wait to welcome Elisabeth to Thursday Book Club to discuss her writing and her research.

I hinted at it in my last newsletter and I’m excited to share that my talented friend, Sarah Quick, will be joining us at Thursday Book Club in September.

Sarah studied at Mount Allison University Fine Arts and was a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Award.

Her painting, Another Day, is currently displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the annual exhibition for the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award. The portrait of her husband, Mark, was painted over December 2025, in the middle of moving house with their two young boys.

Sarah hasn’t won the main prize but the People’s Choice vote is open until 30 September. Voting takes a few moments and you’ll go in the running for a prize. If Sarah’s work impresses you, as it does me, I’d love you to support it.

Vote here

I can’t wait to speak with Sarah about her creative process, what inspires her work, and her journey to becoming an artist.

A poem I love

I’ve not written much poetry myself and have great admiration for all the poets out there. I’d like to showcase more poetry on Thursday Book Club and would love to hear your thoughts on poems I should include, be they well known, little known or unknown. And for all the poets in our Thursday Book Club community, I’d particularly like to feature some of your own work.

You can send me your poetry or poetry suggestions here.

Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Rabindranath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

As always, I'll leave you with fabulous reviews from the team at Abbey's and Katrina Davis. I hope they inspire your next read.

Abbey’s Reviews

About Abbey’s Bookshop

In business since 1968, Abbey’s Bookshop is Sydney’s much-loved iconic independent bookshop, featuring a large children’s book section, Australia’s biggest in-store crime fiction collection, a full range of fiction, history, science and philosophy and an extensive foreign language books department.

Steve’s Pick of the Week

All Them Dogs by Djamel White

ABBEY’S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- All Them Dogs is a fierce, atmospheric debut that drags readers deep into Dublin’s violent underworld while exposing unexpected tenderness beneath its brutality. Djamel White writes with raw energy, blending street slang, emotional vulnerability, and simmering tension into a gripping crime story. The story follows Tony Ward, a volatile debt collector and small-time criminal trying to navigate violence, loyalty, and fractured relationships in the city’s roughest corners. He is both repellant and strangely sympathetic, making the novel difficult to put down. Its portrayal of desperation and survival gives the narrative emotional weight alongside the brutality and moral tension threaded throughout the story.

— Steve

Buy it now

Thursday Book Club Exclusive Offer

Save 20% off Abbey’s weekly recommendation when you use the promo code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB (all caps, no gaps) in the checkout at abbeys.com.au

Abbey's on Instagram

Rescue & Recent Reads from Katrina Davis

About Katrina

I’m Katrina, a Thursday book club devotee and sometimes co-host. I’m a reader, bookseller, wannabee librarian, and completely unqualified reviewer. You can find my bookish stuff on Instagram at RescueReads for op-shop finds, book-fair hauls, and other back-catalogue goodness - I also post all things new release here.

Katrina’s recent reads

Clean Straw for Nothing by George Johnston

KATRINA’S PICK ----- Who else loves a reading rabbit hole? Columnist, novelist, and memoirist Charmian Clift (1923-1969) is at the centre of one of mine. Her world offers literary abundance, networks of famous friends, and exotic locations to get caught up in. Nadia Wheatley’s ongoing illumination of Clift’s life and work, along with the recent re-release of Suzanne Chick’s Searching for Charmian, foster ongoing fascination.

While Clift’s own pen has supplied plenty to get on with, a curious reader will likely also look to the work of her husband George Johnston (1912-1970). Clean Straw for Nothing (1969) is the second part of an unfinished ‘Meredith’ trilogy, both completed volumes winning the Miles Franklin Award. You may have to trawl book fairs and second-hand bookstores to pick up a copy, but this can only enhance the rabbit hole experience.

While emphasising it is a work of fiction, Johnston does admit Clean Straw for Nothing is ‘pegged to a background of actual autobiographical experience’ - Clift and Johnston’s expatriate lives on a Greek Island are clear sources, but I chose to leave aside conjecture about which bits might be true (and true according to whom) and delight in its treats as a novel only. It follows David Meredith, a war journalist unable to find himself in postwar Australia, and his attempts, with wife Cressida, to pursue art and coherence in Europe.

Clean Straw for Nothing offers much to admire (and one or two problems), but Johnston makes the reader work hard for its payoffs. The novel opens and closes in 1968, Sydney, but darts, seemingly haphazardly, between passages spread across time and geography. (Johnston also moves between first and third person narration, and writes sentences so long they often require repeated attempts to conquer.) Ultimately Johnston manages the plotting triumphantly and lands a satisfying narrative arc.

Katrina on Instagram

Thursday Book Club

Thursday Book Club is on tonight – 30 July. I hope you can join us.

Use the button below to join us tonight via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Join Now

If you’ve been here for a while, I’m so glad you are. And if you’re new – a warm welcome. It’s lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx

Hi friends,

It’s wonderful to be back after the school holidays and my time away overseas. I hope you enjoyed the break too.

I returned home to Sydney yesterday after a fabulous month in Ireland, where I attended writers’ residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre and celebrated the launch of a new collection by my talented friend, — How to Read a City, Your Place of Last Resort, published by 5 Islands Press.

The launch event

It was a fabulous evening at The Bean Box Coffee Shop in Dublin, celebrating the launch in great company. I had the pleasure of hosting a conversation with Elizabeth Walton and Caelainn Hogan, who shared excerpts from her essential book Republic of Shame — a confronting account of the mother and baby homes, the treatment endured there, and the graves and histories still being overlooked today.

Later in the evening, we enjoyed a song cycle for string quartet composed by Richard Lawson in response to Elizabeth's work.

How to Read A City, Your Place of Last Resort

This short but complex work is Elizabeth’s first published collection. In an exploration of grief and loss - focused both on nature and family - Elizabeth laments what has been lost and celebrates what remains. Her writing is sometimes savage, sometimes whimsical and always powerful. She confronts the difficult while retaining hope for her world that, despite being ravaged by bushfires close to hand, remains a place of beauty and wonder and hope.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, you can purchase the book via the button below.

Buy it now

The artist’s residency

As a writer, it's a sheer delight to spend time at writers' residencies — they're a chance to harness creativity, find inspiration, and put words to the page free of distraction. The residency at Tyrone Guthrie Centre offered all of this and more. It was a charming place to write, surrounded by beautiful countryside, working alongside like-minded, inspiring writer, poets, visual artists and musicians.

The view from my writing desk at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig, Annaghmakerrig House, Mullaghmore.

My visits

While in Ireland, I made the most of my spare time to visit a few places, including the iconic Trinity College in Dublin. It is Ireland’s oldest and most prestigious university, world renowned for its historic Old Library. Famous alumni include literary names like Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett.

I stayed a few nights at Trinity College and really enjoyed the experience — here are some photos to give you a glimpse.

I also paid a visit to the exhibition of photographs by Anton Corbijn. It was wonderful to view his work. I was blown away by many of the photographs, though a favourite of mine is one of The Rolling Stones.

Introducing my friend, Sarah Quick

I’d like to introduce a friend I think is on the cusp of something wonderful: Sarah Quick, a Canadian Irish painter based out of Ireland.

Her painting, Another Day, is displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the annual exhibition for the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award. The portrait of her husband, Mark, was painted over December 2025, in the middle of moving house with their two young boys.

Sarah hasn’t won the main prize but the People’s Choice vote is open until 30 September. Voting takes a few moments and you’ll go in the running for a prize. If Sarah's work impresses you, as it does me, I'd love you to support it.

Vote here

I own one of Sarah’s paintings, pictured below. Watch this space – I’m hoping to have her join us at Thursday Book Club soon.

The next chapter of Thursday Book Club

Paid subscriptions are now open, and first up, something I’m especially excited to share: our first-ever writer’s room will take place online on Tuesday 8 September.

Expect a hands-on workshop for aspiring writers, covering practical tools and techniques for the creative process, and I’ll be facilitating it myself. Every participant walks away with a worksheet of tools and exercises to keep working with well after the session ends, plus a personal introduction to other writers in our community so the conversation doesn’t stop when the session does.

More on the writer’s room soon. For now, consider this your invitation to get in early – it’s one of the ways paid subscribers get more from Thursday Book Club, alongside exclusive conversation replays, Q&As, writing reflections and live sessions.

Keeping this accessible matters to me. If you'd like to subscribe, you can support my work for just $8 a month.

Subscribe now

Of course, joining us online at Thursday Book Club, access to our weekly newsletter, book reviews, event updates and community highlights remain free – always. A paid subscription simply opens the door to more.

A poem I love

I’ve not written much poetry myself and have great admiration for all the poets out there. I’d like to showcase more poetry on Thursday Book Club and would love to hear your thoughts on poems I should include, be they well known, little known or unknown. And for all the poets in our Thursday Book Club community, I’d particularly like to feature some of your own work. You can send me your poetry or poetry suggestions here.

In continuing celebrating the wonderful work of Elizabeth Walton, here’s a poem from How To Read A City, Your Place of Last Resort.

On Love Lost Days

Everything is a work of art—
the mother-of-pearl beads
laced to fading curtains.
Bleached abalone inlaid
in memories shined by river salts.

The snow-clipped berry
in wet-montane at my car door,
the sallow sky on your dry skin,
your face,
in this sand-blown evening,

everything—
is a work of art. Your heart in folds,
asking for a kindness which drives beyond
the listener’s balm I offered up
this lonely night as witness.

Your mind, too,
is a work of sorts—
a tide the Inglis River writes
in silence, shaping siltstones
laid over our lost names and stories.

The soft-felt crying on
freeze-dried days
which find you
larger than
your wounds, everything—

is a work, to start.
A heart left hard will soften the boil,
the smartening yolk
will smother the sullen sky,
where side roads hint of poplar gold.

And love, you will find, is a work of heart—
a second exit laughed in smiling folds,
encircled by this road
that calls you on and on
in restless words of hope.

…………………you will
………………………………………..see me
………….there
…………………………………………………on and
…………………on and

As always, I’ll leave you with reviews from the wonderful team at Abbey’s and Katrina Davis. I hope they inspire your next read.

Abbey’s Reviews

About Abbey’s Bookshop

In business since 1968, Abbey’s Bookshop is Sydney’s much-loved iconic independent bookshop, featuring a large children’s book section, Australia’s biggest in-store crime fiction collection, a full range of fiction, history, science and philosophy and an extensive foreign language books department.

Lindy’s Pick of the Week

Mantle by Romy Ash

ABBEY’S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Ursula is an academic geologist who specialises in stratigraphy. She’s self-possessed, in her fifties, and has a distant relationship with her mother, Delores, who follows an alternative lifestyle. But when Delores becomes seriously ill with something mysterious, Ursula goes to Tasmania to be with her. As the days go by, Ursula becomes increasingly aware of symptoms that seem impossible - has something taken root within? Becoming involved with a younger man she picks up in the local pub, she also starts to see the neighbouring salmon farms are emblematic of a wider environmental imbalance and the careful carapace she has crafted to keep the world at bay erodes...

This is a finely layered novel, with immaculate prose of great beauty and thoughtfulness. It is unearthly in places, but the central concept is highly plausible and believable. Meditations on ageing, grief and our place in the world, of time and twilights and giving way to what follows make this novel a cut above the ordinary. Look for it on all the award lists in due course!

— Lindy

Buy it now

Thursday Book Club Exclusive Offer

Save 20% off Abbey’s weekly recommendation when you use the promo code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB (all caps, no gaps) in the checkout at abbeys.com.au

Abbey's on Instagram

Rescue & Recent Reads from Katrina Davis

About Katrina

I’m Katrina, a Thursday book club devotee and sometimes co-host. I’m a reader, bookseller, wannabee librarian, and completely unqualified reviewer. You can find my bookish stuff on Instagram at RescueReads for op-shop finds, book-fair hauls, and other back-catalogue goodness - I also post all things new release here.

Katrina’s recent reads

Touched by Kim Kelly

KATRINA’S PICK ----- Time to let you into a little secret, dear readers. Several months ago, ignited by whimsy, sustained by grit (university bureaucratic processes are numbing), I enrolled myself in a Master of Creative Writing. The algorithm gods then threw writer and editor Kim Kelly into my feed, a graduand of the same school I’m attending. In this award-winning 2025 memoir Kelly recounts her panic, her life-long companion, in the three days leading up to her graduation. Kelly is a big believer in stories and over the three days she shares many about the people and happenings that have formed her.

One of the tricks I’ve so far learned in the course is to privilege verbs. Kelly conjures plenty to make visceral her experience of anxiety: burn, scald, flood, belt, engulf, shoot, all as she struggles to breathe on page two. I know all these verbs, anxiety authoring the shape of my own life. I was so moved by these descriptions I heaved a few sobs in my backyard when I finished Kelly’s book. I felt seen. I felt touched.

This book is as beautiful in its physicality as in its resonance. Order it from Finlay Lloyd and look out for a delicious brown paper package arriving on your doorstep. Kelly, also an accomplished novelist, won the Finlay Lloyd 20/40 publishing prize for this manuscript, an award that celebrates works of prose between 20,000 and 40,000 words.

Katrina on Instagram

Thursday Book Club

Thursday Book Club is back tonight – 23 July. I hope you can join us.

Next week, I’m delighted to welcome Elisabeth Storrs as my guest at Thursday Book Club – it promises to be an inspiring conversation, and I’d love for you to be there.

Use the button below to join us tonight via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Join Now

If you’ve been here for a while, I’m so glad you are. And if you’re new – a warm welcome. It’s lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx

I’m back from Ireland with lots of exciting news to share – more on that soon!

In the meantime, I’m delighted to announce that entries for The Better Reading Top 100 are now open. It’s a celebration of the books Australian readers have loved, and the chance for you to win a terrific book pack.

Your favourite can be Australian or international, old or new, a beloved classic or a recent release as long as it’s currently available in print.

I’m truly grateful for your support of my work over the years. Writing brings me such joy, as does knowing how my work has connected with readers like you. If you enjoyed The Watchful Wife, it would mean so much to me if you voted for it in The Better Reading Top 100. If chosen, The Watchful Wife would feature in Big W’s book selections for the next year and ensure it remains on the shelves.

Vote now

Your vote does more than support my work, which I appreciate more than I can say – it also puts you in the running for one of seven prize packs valued at $3,500 each, including the final list of the 100 most-voted-for books (subject to availability).

Voting closes 5pm AEST, 2 August. Simply complete the form on the Better Reading website to cast your vote.

Vote here

Once voting closes, Better Reading will announce the Top 100 – Australia’s favourite books, as voted by readers.

If you’d like friends and family to join in the voting, I’d love you to share my newsletter with them now!

Thank you for your ongoing support of my work and Thursday Book Club.

Suzanne xx

Hi friends,

Last week I visited Victoria's beautiful countryside for the Winter Writers Roundtable. It was a wonderful event and I really enjoyed meeting those of you who came along to be part of it. The event ran across two days in Mount Beauty, Bright & Myrtleford. I was in great company, joined by Michael Brissenden, Siobhan O'Brien and Zahid Gamieldien.

I‘m very much looking forward to my next adventure, travelling to the other side of the world to Ireland for a writers’ residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. It’s come around quickly and is only a week away now! More to come when I’m back.

While in Ireland, I’ll be joining , Richard Lawson and for an evening of poetry, music and conversation in Dublin - celebrating the launch of Elizabeth’s new collection, How to Read A City, Your Place of Last Resort, published by 5 Islands Press.

The evening will also feature a song cycle for string quartet composed by Richard Lawson in response to Elizabeth’s work, an open mic, and books available on the night.

Details:

• Thursday 2 July, 5–7pm

• Location: The Bean Box Coffee Shop, Dublin 2

Tickets are available now via the button below. I’d love to see you there — it’s not every day that I have the opportunity to connect with my Thursday Book Club community around the world!

Grab a ticket

The next chapter of Thursday Book Club

Paid subscriptions are now open, and I can’t wait to share what will be on offer for paid subscribers: exclusive conversation replays, Q&As, writing reflections, live sessions - and something I’m especially excited about: a first-ever writer’s room event, coming in September.

Keeping this accessible matters to me. It's about giving you more ways to grow your writing and connect more deeply with this community. If you'd like to subscribe, you can support my work for just $8 a month.

Subscribe now

Of course, joining us online at Thursday Book Club, access to our weekly newsletter, book reviews, event updates and community highlights remain free – always. A paid subscription simply opens the door to more.

School holidays break

We’re taking an extended break around the school holidays and will return on Thursday 23 July. There will be plenty to catch up on, and I look forward to letting you in on my residency in Ireland.

If you come across any poetry that inspires you, please send it through here over the break. I’d love to feature your contributions in my newsletter going forward.

A poem I love

I’ve not written much poetry myself and have great admiration for all the poets out there. I’d like to showcase more poetry on Thursday Book Club and would love to hear your thoughts on poems I should include, be they well known, little known or unknown. And for all the poets in our Thursday Book Club community, I’d particularly like to feature some of your own work. You can send me your poetry or poetry suggestions here.

In the meantime, a poem from the great Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886).

Success is counted sweetest

Success is counted sweetest

By those who ne’er succeed.

To comprehend a nectar

Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple Host

Who took the Flag today

Can tell the definition

So clear of victory

As he defeated – dying –

On whose forbidden ear

The distant strains of triumph

Burst agonized and clear!

As always, I’ll leave you with fabulous reviews from the team at Abbey’s and Katrina Davis. I hope they inspire your next read.

Abbey’s Reviews

About Abbey’s Bookshop

In business since 1968, Abbey’s Bookshop is Sydney’s much-loved iconic independent bookshop, featuring a large children’s book section, Australia’s biggest in-store crime fiction collection, a full range of fiction, history, science and philosophy and an extensive foreign language books department.

Steve’s Pick of the Week

Redbelly Crossing by Candice Fox

ABBEY’S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Redbelly Crossing by Candice Fox is a gripping Australian crime thriller set in a remote town where estranged brothers Russell and Evan Powder, both police officers, investigate the murder of journalist Chloe Lutz. As the case unfolds, buried family secrets, corruption and past trauma threaten both the investigation and their fragile relationship. Fox combines a compelling murder mystery with complex characters, sharp dialogue and relentless tension, creating an engrossing and memorable read.

— Steve

Buy it now

Thursday Book Club Exclusive Offer

Save 20% off Abbey’s weekly recommendation when you use the promo code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB (all caps, no gaps) in the checkout at abbeys.com.au

Abbey's on Instagram

Rescue & Recent Reads from Katrina Davis

About Katrina

I’m Katrina, a Thursday book club devotee and sometimes co-host. I’m a reader, bookseller, wannabee librarian, and completely unqualified reviewer. You can find my bookish stuff on Instagram at RescueReads for op-shop finds, book-fair hauls, and other back-catalogue goodness - I also post all things new release here.

Katrina’s recent reads

Percy Jackson and the Olympians – The Lightning Thief: The Graphic Novel by Rick Riordan, Robert Venditti, Attila Futaki, and Jose Villarrubia

Keeper of the Lost Cities: The Graphic Novel Volume 1 by Shannon Messenger, Celina Frenn, and Gabriella Chianello

KATRINA’S PICK ----- As a bookseller, I always want to make the best possible recommendations to customers, and to this end, I’ve set myself a goal of reading more middle grade fiction this year. Graphic novels are very common for this age group and I chose to begin my reading with graphic adaptations of two already popular series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan, and Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger. Both series are fantasy adventures in which regular children with supernatural powers learn how to harness them in new worlds. Graphic novels get a bit of a bad rap, sometimes not seen as real books, but these two academics from the University of Tasmania argue the medium is a legitimate tool for improving reading and comprehension skills and attitudes to reading. I’ll certainly keep grabbing them from the shelves when parents ask for help in choosing something engaging for their younger readers.

Katrina on Instagram

Thursday Book Club

Thursday Book Club is taking a break around the school holidays. We’ll be back again on 23 July. I hope you can join us then.

Join via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Join Now

If you’ve been here for a while, I’m so glad you are. And if you’re new – a warm welcome. It’s lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx

Hi friends,

Last Thursday, I welcomed Sue Woolfe to Thursday Book Club. We talked about her new novel, The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves. It’s a beautifully written work about mothers and daughters, what we tell and what we keep secret. Many of you will know that Sue is a highly-regarded teacher of creative writing, both within Australia and internationally, particularly in relation to her research on the links between neuroscience and creativity. Speaking to Sue about her writing practice and neuroscience-informed approach was fascinating.

It was terrific to see so many of you online to join in the conversation with Sue. For those who were unable to make it, there’s some good news: as a Substack subscriber, you have first access to the replay. You can watch it on YouTube via the link below.

In only a couple of weeks, I'll be on the other side of the world in Ireland for a writers' residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. I'm really looking forward to it and will let you know all about it on my return.

While in Ireland, I’ll be joining , Richard Lawson and for an evening of poetry, music and conversation in Dublin - celebrating the launch of Elizabeth’s new collection, How to Read A City, Your Place of Last Resort, published by 5 Islands Press.

The evening will also feature a song cycle for string quartet composed by Richard Lawson in response to Elizabeth’s work, an open mic, and books available on the night.

Details:

• Thursday 2 July, 5–7pm

• Location: The Bean Box Coffee Shop, Dublin 2

Tickets are available now via the button below. I’d love to see you there — it’s not every day that I have the opportunity to connect with my Thursday Book Club community around the world!

Grab a ticket

See you soon Victorian-based friends!

I’m looking forward to the Winter Writers Roundtable on 18 & 19 June in Victoria’s beautiful countryside. The event runs across two days in Mount Beauty, Bright & Myrtleford. I’ll be in conversation with Michael Brissenden, Siobhan O’Brien and Zahid Gamieldien. All sessions are free but bookings are essential.

Secure your spot — and get a little preview of what’s in store here.

Secure tickets

The next chapter of Thursday Book Club

Paid subscriptions are now open, and I can’t wait to share what will be on offer for paid subscribers: exclusive conversation replays, Q&As, writing reflections, live sessions - and something I’m especially excited about: a first-ever writer’s room event, coming in September. Stay tuned for more details on this soon.

Subscribe now

Of course, joining us online at Thursday Book Club, access to our weekly newsletter, book reviews, event updates and community highlights remain free — always. A paid subscription simply opens the door to more.

A poem I love

I’ve not written much poetry myself and have great admiration for all the poets out there. I’d like to showcase more poetry on Thursday Book Club and would love to hear your thoughts on poems I should include, be they well known, little known or unknown. And for all the poets in our Thursday Book Club community, I’d particularly like to feature some of your own work. You can send me your poetry or poetry suggestions here.

In the meantime, a love poem from John Donne (1571 – 1631).

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

As virtuous men pass mildly away,

And whisper to their souls to go,

Whilst some of their sad friends do say

The breath goes now, and some say, No:

So let us melt, and make no noise,

No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;

‘Twere profanation of our joys

To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears,

Men reckon what it did, and meant;

But trepidation of the spheres,

Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers’ love

(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit

Absence, because it doth remove

Those things which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,

That our selves know not what it is,

Inter-assured of the mind,

Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,

Though I must go, endure not yet

A breach, but an expansion,

Like gold to airy thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so

As stiff twin compasses are two;

Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show

To move, but doth, if the other do.

And though it in the center sit,

Yet when the other far doth roam,

It leans and hearkens after it,

And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,

Like th’ other foot, obliquely run;

Thy firmness makes my circle just,

And makes me end where I begun.

As always, I’ll leave you with fabulous reviews from the team at Abbey’s and Katrina Davis. I hope they inspire your next read.

Abbey’s Reviews

About Abbey’s Bookshop

In business since 1968, Abbey’s Bookshop is Sydney’s much-loved iconic independent bookshop, featuring a large children’s book section, Australia’s biggest in-store crime fiction collection, a full range of fiction, history, science and philosophy and an extensive foreign language books department.

Lindy’s Pick of the Week

Whistler by Ann Patchett

ABBEY’S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Daphne has always attracted older men, including her husband Jonathan who is 17 years senior to her, so she isn’t particularly surprised when he tells her they are being followed in the Met by an old guy. But she is surprised when it turns out to be Eddie, her mother’s second husband, and briefly Daphne’s beloved stepfather around her ninth year. More than 43 years have passed since she last saw him, and she hasn’t thought of him for most of those years, but they instantly resume a father/daughter relationship with great delight and joy.

So this gentle novel starts. It flows back and forth in time, showing how Daphne and her younger sister Leda grew up, how Daphne married Jonathan, how Eddie’s life flourished, how they become close again – and the pivotal event when she was 9, that was the most dangerous, brave and daring thing she ever did, and which no one ever asked her about, because it got subsumed into other dramatic events of the time. It turned out to be the pivotal event of Eddie’s life too, and this is all gradually unfolded as they both reconnect as adults...

Patchett’s fans will read this anyway, whatever the story, whoever the characters, and they will not be disappointed. It’s everything we love and expect – warm, observant, wise, and writing so pitch perfect and smooth as silk, yet sometimes so revealing about the human heart and its failings, whether intentional or inherent. If you haven’t read Patchett before, do yourself a favour and pick this one up – you’ll soon see why she has such a devoted following!

— Lindy

Buy it now

Thursday Book Club Exclusive Offer

Save 20% off Abbey’s weekly recommendation when you use the promo code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB (all caps, no gaps) in the checkout at abbeys.com.au

Abbey's on Instagram

Rescue & Recent Reads from Katrina Davis

About Katrina

I’m Katrina, a Thursday book club devotee and sometimes co-host. I’m a reader, bookseller, wannabee librarian, and completely unqualified reviewer. You can find my bookish stuff on Instagram at RescueReads for op-shop finds, book-fair hauls, and other back-catalogue goodness - I also post all things new release here.

Katrina’s recent read

Land by Maggie O’Farrell

KATRINA’S PICK ----- Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet was one of my ten nominations for last year’s Radio National Top 100 Books of the Twenty-First Century countdown. Thus primed, I assertively snaffled a reading copy of her new work, Land, when it came into the bookstore I work in. Land is an ambitious title; it evokes creation stories; histories of possession and dispossession; and stories of homes, homelands and diasporas. O’Farrell meets the challenge, journeying deep into the past and across the globe, but focusing most closely on Tomás and his family and their lives in nineteenth century Ireland. It is a slow read and often bleak – O’Farrell’s descriptions of poverty and hunger penetrate deeply and resistance, resilience, and any kind of triumph are hard in these circumstances. Land is a major 2026 release and if you’re up for the challenge there are rewards to be had.

Katrina on Instagram

Thursday Book Club

Our next Thursday Book Club session is on 18 June. I’d love to see you there.

Join via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Join Now

If you’ve been here for a while, I’m so glad you are. And if you’re new - a warm welcome. It’s lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx

Hi friends,

What a busy few weeks it’s been! From Words on the Waves on the NSW Central Coast to the Sydney Writers’ Festival, it’s been great to be surrounded by so many terrific writers and readers. Which raises the question: what is the collective noun for writers? A shelf of writers? A volume? A chapter?

And what about for readers? A library of readers? A club? A tok? Further suggestions welcome!

Next week I’ll be in one of the most beautiful parts of Victoria for the Winter Writers Roundtable. Together with authors Michael Brissenden, Siobhan O’Brien and Zahid Gamieldien, I’ll be in Bright, Mt Beauty and Myrtleford. You can scroll down for more details.

Right after that, I’ll be spending two weeks at a writers’ residency in Ireland. More on that soon.

In the meantime, I’m so looking forward to interviewing Sue Woolfe at Thursday Book Club tonight. Scroll down for the link to join us. It would be lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx

PS The response to last week’s news has been wonderful - thank you for your ongoing support of my work and Thursday Book Club. It means so much.

Paid subscriptions are now open, and I can’t wait to share what will be on offer for paid subscribers: exclusive conversation replays, Q&As, writing reflections, live sessions - and something I’m especially excited about: a first-ever writer’s room event, coming in September. More on that soon.

Subscribe now

Of course, joining us online at Thursday Book Club, access to our weekly newsletter, book reviews, event updates and community highlights remain free - always. A paid subscription simply opens the door to more.

Reminder: upcoming events

I'd love to see you at one of these events - on Zoom or in person if you’re based in Victoria.

Thursday Book Club Tonight!

Tonight I'll be in conversation with Sue Woolfe, author of The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves. There's still time to join us but please RSVP now so I can share the link. It's a conversation not to be missed!

RSVP now

Winter Writers Roundtable — Mount Beauty, Bright & Myrtleford, 18–19 June

Two days across three beautiful Victorian towns with Michael Brissenden, Siobhan O'Brien and Zahid Gamieldien. All sessions are free but bookings are essential.

Secure your spot — and get a little preview of what's in store here.

Secure tickets

If you have any questions about these events, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

A poem I love

I’ve not written much poetry myself and have great admiration for all the poets out there. I’d like to showcase more poetry on Thursday Book Club and would love to hear your thoughts on poems I should include, be they well known, little known or unknown. And for all the poets in our Thursday Book Club community, I’d particularly like to feature some of your own work. You can send me your poetry or poetry suggestions here.

In the meantime, here’s a poem by the remarkable Emily Dickinson.

Hope is the thing with feathers By Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops — at all -

And sweetest — in the Gale — is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet — never — in Extremity,
It asked a crumb — of me.

Now, I’ll leave you with two great reviews - first from the team at Abbey’s, followed by Katrina Davis. I hope they inspire your next great read.

Suzanne xx

Abbey’s Reviews

About Abbey’s Bookshop

In business since 1968, Abbey’s Bookshop is Sydney’s much-loved iconic independent bookshop, featuring a large children’s book section, Australia’s biggest in-store crime fiction collection, a full range of fiction, history, science and philosophy and an extensive foreign language books department.

Dylan’s Pick of the Week

Murder In Paris ‘68 by Edward Chisholm

A True Story of Death and Glamour

ABBEY’S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Monumental change marked 1960s Paris, from art and social liberation, to the fracturing of de Gaulle’s once impervious leadership. In cinema, actor and icon Alain Delon became synonymous with the burgeoning New Wave movement, but when Stevan Markovic, a member of Delon’s inner circle, is found murdered, a volcanic scandal erupts, embroiling everyone in both high and low society.

Chisholm’s greatest achievement is not simply the characterisation of the mystifying Delon, but of Markovic, a victim of his colliding ambitions and anxieties. The dualities between Delon and Markovic, art and life, performance and reality, are respectfully captured by Chisholm, and as the case unfolds, the pull of the scandal’s intrigue becomes stronger. Ultimately, this is the captivating true story of one man’s life in the shadows of another’s limelight.

— Dylan

Buy it now

Thursday Book Club Exclusive Offer

Save 20% off Abbey’s weekly recommendation when you use the promo code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB (all caps, no gaps) in the checkout at abbeys.com.au

Abbey's on Instagram

Rescue & Recent Reads from Katrina Davis

About Katrina

I’m Katrina, a Thursday book club devotee and sometimes co-host. I’m a reader, bookseller, wannabee librarian, and completely unqualified reviewer. You can find my bookish stuff on Instagram at RescueReads for op-shop finds, book-fair hauls, and other back-catalogue goodness - I also post all things new release here.

Katrina’s recent read

American Rust by Philipp Meyer

KATRINA’S PICK ----- I’ve previously written in this space that I am often disappointed by crime fiction because I care more about the ‘why’ rather than the ‘who’ of a crime. Philipp Meyer cannot be accused of leaving the inner lives of the protagonists of American Rust unexamined. In the notes I kept while reading the book the most common word is ‘reflects’: ‘X goes home and reflects’, ‘Y on the road, reflects’, ‘X is in a jail cell. He reflects’, ‘Z reflects, probably dying’. Living in a depressed Pennsylvania former steel town, and caught up in a violent crime, Meyer’s six focus characters have regrets on their mind, choices and how things ended up the way they did, how things might get worse. I got everything I asked for and really liked this book, but it is not the ‘propulsive thriller’ one jacket reviewer claimed. I will be seeking out the television adaption to see how this very interior, haunting book is brought to life on the screen.

Katrina on Instagram

Thursday Book Club

Our next Thursday Book Club session is on 11 June. I’d love to see you there.

Join via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Join Now

If you’ve been here for a while, I’m so glad you are. And if you’re new - a warm welcome. It’s lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx

I’m thrilled to welcome a very special guest to Thursday Book Club on tonight, Sue Woolfe.

Join us live at Thursday Book Club at 8pm AEST when Sue will be talking about her beautiful new novel, The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves.

This is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

Use the button below to join via Zoom.

JOIN NOW

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

I look forward to seeing you there!

Suzanne xx

I’m thrilled to welcome a very special guest to Thursday Book Club on Thursday night, Sue Woolfe.

Join us live at Thursday Book Club at 8pm AEST when Sue will be talking about her beautiful new novel, The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves.

This is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

Use the button below to join via Zoom.

JOIN NOW

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

I look forward to seeing you there!

Suzanne xx

Hi friends,

The sun shone on the NSW Central Coast last weekend. It was the weekend of this year’s Words on the Waves Writers Festival and, as usual, it was fabulous. I enjoyed interviewing Tara Moss about her most recent novel, The Italian Secret. Set in 1948 and featuring private investigator Billie Walker, it’s a great read.

The festival closed with a literacy cruise from Patonga which was a lot of fun. I hosted the trip which included an in-conversation event with journalist, author and presenter, Lisa Wilkinson whose new book, The Titanic Story Of Evelyn, is the fascinating story of the Australian nurse who survived the sinking of the Titanic. Journalist turned crime writer Chris Hammer, the other guest author on the cruise, spoke of his delight in seeing his novels come to life on the screen. On the back of the success of the series Scrublands, the sequel, Scrublands: Silver, is streaming now just as filming is wrapping up for the opal town murder mystery, Treasure and Dirt. And he has a new novel out in October.

Reminder: upcoming events

I'd love to see you at one of these events - on Zoom or in person if you’re based in Victoria.

Thursday Book Club — 11 June

I’ll be in conversation with Sue Woolfe, author of The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves. If you haven’t yet RSVP’d, please do - I’d love to have you join us. It’s a conversation not to be missed!

RSVP now

Winter Writers Roundtable — Mount Beauty, Bright & Myrtleford, 18–19 June

Two days across three beautiful Victorian towns with Michael Brissenden, Siobhan O’Brien and Zahid Gamieldien. All sessions are free but bookings are essential.

Secure tickets

If you have any questions about these events, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

If there isn't an event near you this time, please do stay tuned. There is more to come.

A poem I love

I’ve not written much poetry myself and have great admiration for all the poets out there. I’d like to showcase more poetry on Thursday Book Club and would love to hear your thoughts on poems I should include, be they well known, little known or unknown. And for all the poets in our Thursday Book Club community, I’d particularly like to feature some of your own work. You can send me your poetry or poetry suggestions here.

In the meantime, here’s a poem by Joanne Fedler - bestselling author, poet, publisher, creative writing teacher, lawyer, traveller and my very good friend. Her new book is Bring Us Home from Sorrow.

A Writing Tip for Too Much Abstraction

The body is staged

against tides and temperature

lunar rises and eclipses

incoming high-pressure cells

twisters and wind chill factors;

we are weather and water

each cramp

cry

breath

is moon-baked

cloud-covered

dust-caked.

Curl toes in sand

taste the wind for rain.

Inside this gripping grace

is where

every story begins.

As always, I hope to see you soon - on Zoom, at an event, or somewhere in between.

Until then, here’s some reading inspiration from Abbey’s Books and Katrina Davis to guide your next read.

Suzanne xx

Abbey’s Reviews

About Abbey’s Bookshop

In business since 1968, Abbey’s Bookshop is Sydney’s much-loved iconic independent bookshop, featuring a large children’s book section, Australia’s biggest in-store crime fiction collection, a full range of fiction, history, science and philosophy and an extensive foreign language books department.

Lindy’s Pick of the Week

Laws of Love and Logic by Debra Curtis

ABBEY’S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Lily knows exactly how her life will pan out. She will marry her boyfriend, he will become a famous footballer, they will have children and her younger sister (and best friend) Jane will always be near. But when an end-of-school party turns bad, her carefully planned future falls to bits and her life takes a very different turn. Logic may not have much to do with love’s workings...

Set on Rhode Island and New York, stretching from the 70s to the early 2000s, this has dashes of Ann Patchett. Despite some reservations about a couple of internal inconsistencies in the story, they weren’t enough to get in the way of this sweeping novel of love and chance.

— Lindy

Buy it now

Thursday Book Club Exclusive Offer

Save 20% off Abbey’s weekly recommendation when you use the promo code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB (all caps, no gaps) in the checkout at abbeys.com.au

Abbey's on Instagram

Rescue & Recent Reads from Katrina Davis

About Katrina

I’m Katrina, a Thursday book club devotee and sometimes co-host. I’m a reader, bookseller, wannabee librarian, and completely unqualified reviewer. You can find my bookish stuff on Instagram at RescueReads for op-shop finds, book-fair hauls, and other back-catalogue goodness - I also post all things new release here.

Katrina’s recent read

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (1908)

KATRINA’S PICK ----- One of my obsessions as a child was the 1985 television adaptation of Anne of Green Gables. I can picture now clearly the VHS tapes jostling for space with my brother’s Star Wars movies in my Dad’s stereo system cabinet. Watching some clips while writing this review I find my chest bursting anew with love for Anne and her Prince Edward Island family. Given all this, I am bewildered as to why I never read the book, or any of the L.M. Montgomery series, as a child. I read ferociously and am confident the books would have been as much a favourite as the television series was. As an adult reader, I stumbled over references to casual prejudice in the 1908 text that I understand the 2017 Anne With An E television series reckons with, offering yet another vehicle for spending time with this most beloved character.

Katrina on Instagram

Thursday Book Club

Our next Thursday Book Club session is on 4 June. I’d love to see you there.

Join via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Join Now

If you’ve been here for a while, I’m so glad you are. And if you’re new - a warm welcome. It’s lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx

Hi friends,

What a week it’s been!

Sydney Writers’ Festival has just wrapped up for another year and it was great to be part of it. I loved An American Marriage by Tayari Jones and really enjoyed seeing her in conversation with Miles Franklin winner, Shankari Chandran, who was a terrific moderator. As, of course, and as always, was Kate Evans who joined Yann Martel, Tasma Walton and Robbie Arnott onstage in the session Writing about the Past. Music filled the room in My Writing Soundtrack as everyone in the audience was cajoled into dancing the Nutbush. On Sunday, I joined Tristan Bancks and Sue Whiting onstage in our sold-out session Riveting Reads for Tweens which was a lot of fun.

And a little personal news - in about a month, I’ll be heading to Ireland for a writers’ retreat at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in County Monaghan. I’m very much looking forward to it and will no doubt have plenty to share when I’m back.

Reminder: upcoming events

If you're based along the Central Coast or in Victoria, I'd love to see you at one of these events. Or join us on Zoom for my conversation with Sue Woolfe on 11 June.

Thursday Book Club — 11 June

I’ll be in conversation with Sue Woolfe, author of The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves. If you haven’t yet RSVP’d, please do - I’d love to have you join us. It’s a conversation not to be missed!

RSVP now

Words on the Waves — Central Coast NSW, to 1 June

If you’re on the Central Coast over the weekend, I hope to see you at Sunday’s conversation with Tara Moss or Monday’s literary cruise with Chris Hammer and Lisa Wilkinson.

Secure tickets

Winter Writers Roundtable — Mount Beauty, Bright & Myrtleford, 18–19 June

Two days across three beautiful Victorian towns with Michael Brissenden, Siobhan O’Brien and Zahid Gamieldien. All sessions are free but bookings are essential.

Secure tickets

If you have any questions about these events, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

If there isn't an event near you this time, please do stay tuned. There is more to come.

A poem I love

I’ve not written much poetry myself and have great admiration for all the poets out there. I’d like to showcase more poetry on Thursday Book Club and would love to hear your thoughts on poems I should include, be they well known, little known or unknown. And for all the poets in our Thursday Book Club community, I’d particularly like to feature some of your own work. You can send me your poetry or poetry suggestions here.

In the meantime, here’s a particularly arresting poem by Elizabeth Walton, included in her collection How to Read A City and written during the Black Summer bush fires.

Evacuee Diary

black skies after tuesday dawn/wake to flammagenitus—a pyrocumulus/

grab a change of clothes and an optimistic op-shop crystal glass/find ice

bricks for leftovers and birthday champagne/bring a book i am writing

(subject suddenly changed)/cut sunflowers, close gate/we leave by car/

emergency crews in pay phone queues/fire captain news: flames to reach

coast in 3 days 3 hours/first night: five thousand sleep at golf club sports

club surf club/no post no power or petrol no fresh-food people/evacuee

vet sedates cats in cars/all stores ditch fridge food/chef serves 2-minute

noodles to multitudes/roads closed/no in, no out/beach promenade:

ponies, dogs, chickens, goats/fishing trawler sells watery ice, cash only/

stranded backpackers, buses, floaties, cars, surfboards, lego, bananas,

grandkids/volunteer rotarian says: NO VEGAN OPTIONS think of

refugees who live like this for years/we sleep in the car with the dog/\

midnight: hot beers/faint HAPPY NEW YEAR hny, yeah …

hf’ny/no rubber duck hunt this year/no-one showers in these early

days/ageing volunteer fire crews, out of puff/80 fire trucks to cover

9468.2 km²/urgent update: no homes will survive the weekend/

last drop of petrol used to search for reception/phone national

radio/shock-jock on air: you can’t expect an emergency vehicle in every

driveway!/???/???/???/

week 3 week 4: still sleeping in car/a day at home now and then

before flames take off again/army reserves arrive and newbie

evacuees/antiques strapped to cars/evacuation chic: flowing

kaftans, heirloom jewels and so many questions—why the masks,

why the scarves, why all the long faces/too soon for the blackness

that will run from the nose/

week 5: midnight skies at noon/toss the last of the last

sunflowers (bee-food)/ATTN: EVERYONE! ATTN: prepare

to jump in the sea/zip-wrap: credit cards, heart meds, car

keys, slung over shoulder/woollen blanket for face and

head/teach the pound pup to swim in mangrove shallows/

sea a-bob with floating gas tanks where they won’t explode/

men on golf carts shout: NO TRESPASSING NEAR

PRIVATE TREES!!!!!/we stand beneath skies raining cinders

beneath sea eagles swooping empty swings/

names pinned to aged-care evacuates/3am help fallen

man to his car/tractor-dug beach trenches reclaimed at

high tide/mountains of hardwood at eden chip mill on

fire on fire on fire/scomo returns from hawaii or honolulu or wherever he went before deciding to have a go/

wyn jones says only fire-dependent species grow back when

country burns/wildlife-lungs-oceans-atmosphere depend

on what little is left of nature/some wish to eradicate

trees/and then comes the news: you cannot own nature;

nature owns you/

cobargo friends nurse 200 cattle through scorched

grounds, version 2,3,4,5/hot showers + washing

machine if they can just get out get out get out/

volunteer to get bread back in bellies again/the shop

will get back to us tomorrow tomorrow/tomorrow could

be a long way away at times like these/fill bins with

water to stand around the house/damp smoke rolls

in/and so it continues until COVID begins

As always, I hope to see you soon - on Zoom, at an event, or somewhere in between.

Until then, here’s some reading inspiration from Abbey’s Books and Katrina Davis to guide your next read.

Suzanne xx

Abbey’s Reviews

About Abbey’s Bookshop

In business since 1968, Abbey’s Bookshop is Sydney’s much-loved iconic independent bookshop, featuring a large children’s book section, Australia’s biggest in-store crime fiction collection, a full range of fiction, history, science and philosophy and an extensive foreign language books department.

Steve’s Pick of the Week

The Informant by Christine Gregory

ABBEY’S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- The Informant is a gritty crime thriller set in the violent world of outlaw motorcycle gangs, organised crime, and corruption. The story follows Ashley, a woman who becomes trapped in escalating danger after serving as a police informant while being involved with the president of a motorcycle club who is later murdered. As the investigation unfolds, journalist Lars Nilsson becomes a central figure in the story, digging into the murder and gradually uncovering the deeper links between gang violence, corruption and the people caught in its orbit. As both bikers and law enforcement close in, she is forced to navigate shifting power dynamics while trying to protect herself from the fallout surrounding the killing.

Christine Gregory builds tension steadily through intimidation, secrecy, and psychological pressure, creating a plot that feels grounded and believable. Combined with Gregory’s polished, accessible writing style, the novel delivers an engaging and suspenseful crime thriller throughout.

— Steve

Buy it now

Thursday Book Club Exclusive Offer

Save 20% off Abbey’s weekly recommendation when you use the promo code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB (all caps, no gaps) in the checkout at abbeys.com.au

Abbey's on Instagram

Rescue & Recent Reads from Katrina Davis

About Katrina

I’m Katrina, a Thursday book club devotee and sometimes co-host. I’m a reader, bookseller, wannabee librarian, and completely unqualified reviewer. You can find my bookish stuff on Instagram at RescueReads for op-shop finds, book-fair hauls, and other back-catalogue goodness - I also post all things new release here.

Katrina’s recent read

Ghost Stories by Siri Hustvedt

KATRINA’S PICK ----- I read for the first time recently The Year of Magical Thinking (2005) by Joan Didion and joined the masses who love this book. In 2026 Siri Hustvedt published Ghost Stories, similarly wonderful and reminiscent of Didion’s work. Like Didion, Hustvedt is a brilliant writer chronicling her grief and life following the death of her writer spouse. (Clearly, I must next turn to Geraldine Brook’s 2025 award-winning Memorial Days, also about grieving her writer husband, to further my survey of what perhaps we may now call its own genre.) While Hustvedt’s smart, poignant prose is the heartbeat of Ghost Stories, fans of her late husband, Paul Auster, will welcome the inclusion of the last of his writing – a sprinkling of letters left for his baby grandson, born just months before Auster’s death. In recommending these works I admit I have no personal experience of bereavement to compare, but suspect the books’ full powers are revealed to those who do.

Katrina on Instagram

Thursday Book Club

Our next Thursday Book Club session is on 28 May. I’d love to see you there.

Join via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Join Now

If you’ve been here for a while, I’m so glad you are. And if you’re new - a warm welcome. It’s lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx

I have some news I’ve been looking forward to sharing.

Thursday Book Club began during the uncertainty of COVID-19 lockdowns - a small, informal gathering on Zoom for anyone who wanted to share their love of books and reading. What it became is something I could not have anticipated. The community has continued to grow, and it’s a genuine pleasure seeing each of you online on a Thursday. You share recommendations, ask generous questions of our guests, and remind me why this community matters.

It has always been, and will always remain, free to join. That will not change.

But I’ve been thinking about how to offer something more for those who would like a closer, deeper connection to the work.

Very soon, I’ll be introducing a paid subscription tier on Substack. Paid subscribers will have access to things I’m genuinely excited to share: full replays of Thursday Book Club conversations, exclusive author Q&As, extended writing reflections, subscriber-only Zoom sessions, an annual book giveaway and more.

The free newsletter: your weekly Thursday Book Club news, book reviews from Katrina Davis and Abbey’s Bookshop, event news and community highlights - remains exactly as it is. The paid tier simply opens a door for those who’d like more.

I’ll share full details, including pricing, very soon.

In the meantime, I’d love to know - is there something you’ve always wished Thursday Book Club offered? A conversation, a resource, an experience? I’d greatly appreciate your thoughts.

With gratitude, as always, for your readership and friendship.

Suzanne xx

Hi friends,

Monday night saw the announcement of the winners of the NSW Literary Awards. As a shortlisted author, I was there to soak in the atmosphere and catch up with writers and publishers and teachers and librarians. Arriving at the venue - the beautiful new auditorium in the State Library of NSW - I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be winning my category, the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature. Because the thing is, writers are often told they’ve won an award some time before the public announcement. I hadn’t been told so I assumed I hadn’t won. Still I jotted down some points for a thank you speech because, well, you never know.

Reader, my speech notes stayed in my pocket all evening. Instead, Michel Streich author of the winning title, Gone, was called up to the stage. His was a very good speech and I’ll look forward to reading the book.

Amongst the other winners were Clare Wright who won both the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction and Book of the Year for Näku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions and Moreno Giovannoni, who won the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction for his novel The Immigrants.

It was great to see some of you at the launch of How to Read A City, Your Place of Last Resort last week. What a beautiful evening it was! Congratulations again to Elizabeth Walton, a Thursday Book Club community member, on the publication of her poetry collection and to her musician partner, Richard Lawson, for his musical score.

I also want to congratulate Sue Woolfe on the publication of her novel, The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves. I had the pleasure of attending the launch at Gleebooks last week and listening to Sue in conversation with former NSW premier and foreign affairs minister Bob Carr. I’m looking forward to being in conversation with Sue myself at Thursday Book Club on 11 June. If you haven’t yet RSVP’d, you can do so via the button below.

Join us

Upcoming events

I love sharing book events and other creative occasions with you, whether they’re evenings I’ve popped into or functions I’ve hosted or attended as a guest author. It’s particularly delightful to see members of our Thursday Book Club community when I’m out and about and wonderful to have the chance to catch up, often for the first time in person rather than on the screen or through social media. At 5am last Sunday morning, for example, I bumped into Morrin, local librarian extraordinaire, at the fabulous Eurovision party put on by the Georges River Council. May and June are filled with festivals and I hope to see you at some of them.

For my Sydney-based friends…

Sydney Writers’ Festival has kicked off and at 1.30 pm this Sunday, I’ll be on stage with fellow writers Sue Whiting and Tristan Bancks to discuss Riveting Reads for Tweens. You can see all that’s on offer at the festival here.

For my Victorian-based friends…

I'd love you to join us at the Winter Writers Roundtable, a two-day event across Mount Beauty, Bright and Myrtleford on 18 and 19 June. I'll be joined by Michael Brissenden, Siobhan O'Brien and Zahid Gamieldien - an extraordinary mix of talent spanning journalism, fiction and screenwriting.

All sessions are free, but bookings are essential. Secure your spot via the button below.

Secure tickets

For my friends on the Central Coast…

Words on the Waves is back and I’d love you to join us. This wonderful festival celebrates words and ideas on the scenic Central Coast, NSW, with author talks and panels, evening conversations, writing workshops, local book launches, a literary cruise, a family fun day, a schools program and more. This year’s festival runs from 27 May to 1 June.

On Sunday 31 May, I’ll be in conversation with Tara Moss - bestselling author of 15 books, UNICEF Ambassador and funeral celebrant. Tara Rae Moss is someone who defies convention, and her feminist Nazi-hunter heroine is the result of extraordinary research, from FBI visits to earning a racing driver’s licence and private investigator credentials. It promises to be an interesting conversation. On Monday 1 June, I’ll be your host on a literary cruise with authors Chris Hammer, Prema Arasu and Lisa Wilkinson

Tickets are available now. You can secure yours by clicking the button below.

Secure tickets

If you have any questions about these events, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

I hope to see you there - and if there isn't an event near you this time, please do stay tuned. There is more to come.

A poem I love

I’ve not written much poetry myself and have great admiration for all the poets out there. I’d like to showcase more poetry on Thursday Book Club and would love to hear your thoughts on poems I should include, be they well known, little known or unknown. And for all the poets in our Thursday Book Club community, I’d particularly like to feature some of your own work. You can send me your poetry or poetry suggestions here.

In the meantime, here’s one of Elizabeth Walton’s poems, reproduced with her permission. For anyone (like me) who has found themselves stranded in the Swedish homewares giant, Ikea Tempe might just hit the spot.

As always, I’ll leave you with some reading inspiration - a review from Katrina Davis. Happy reading!

Suzanne xx

Rescue & Recent Reads from Katrina Davis

About Katrina

I’m Katrina, a Thursday book club devotee and sometimes co-host. I’m a reader, bookseller, wannabee librarian, and completely unqualified reviewer. You can find my bookish stuff on Instagram at RescueReads for op-shop finds, book-fair hauls, and other back-catalogue goodness - I also post all things new release here.

Katrina’s recent read

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar

KATRINA’S PICK ----- A reader of contemporary fiction would need to make a determined effort to avoid a solid sampling of novels concerned with the climate crisis in their literary diet. I’ve loved, or liked, or abandoned, a good number of them in the preceding few years. My two most recent reads are particular highlights. I’m likely the last to have read Charlotte McConaghy’s 2025 Wild Dark Shore. It’s won or been listed for a fistful of awards. On an island somewhere near Antarctica a global seed bank is being closed down before it is lost to rising seas. Dominic and his children are the last to leave, packing up whatever can be saved. They live with whales and penguins, spirits and secrets, and after she washes up among the seals, Rowan, a woman looking for her missing husband. In Megha Majumdar’s 2025 A Guardian and a Thief Ma, Dadu and Mishti are due to take up their climate visas and swap a ravaged Kolkata for Michigan and a new life. In the seven-day span of the novel, as the day of their booked flight approaches, safety slips in and out of their grasps. Majumdar is as skilful as McConaghy in rendering place and both writers take on the moral implications of collapsing landscapes and communities and the hopeful and brutal choices we may find ourselves making.

Katrina on Instagram

Thursday Book Club

Our next Thursday Book Club session is on 21 May. I’d love to see you there.

Join via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Join Now

If you’ve been here for a while, I’m so glad you are. And if you’re new - a warm welcome. It’s lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx

Hi friends,

I’m delighted to share that I’ll be in conversation with Elizabeth Walton at the launch of her collection of poems, How to Read A City, Your Place of Last Resort, at WestWords in Parramatta on Friday evening. Elizabeth is a Thursday Book Club community member, and a literary writer, cross-disciplinary artist and performer whose journalism has appeared in The Guardian, the New York Times, Reuters, the ABC and The Australian. Elizabeth’s creative writing has also been published in Overland, Passionfruit Review, The London Reader and Portside Review.

How to Read A City is Elizabeth’s debut collection, and it is a remarkable one. As reviewer Magdalena Ball describes it:

At only forty pages, How to Read a City is a short book, part of the 5 Islands Shorts series, but it is a book with big impact. These poems read beautifully on the page and can also be heard transformed in a stunning musical collaboration with Richard Lawson and the Acacia Quartet on iTunes:

The evening promises to be a memorable one - a celebration of literary culture, community and creativity. It opens with readings from two emerging 5 Islands poets, Hemat Malak and Kai Jensen, before I join Elizabeth in conversation about her poems, her music, her prose and her hopes for the future. Elizabeth will then perform selected works alongside a listening experience of Richard Lawson's song cycle for string quartet, performed by Acacia Quartet and recorded at Four Winds.

The launch is free to attend and I’d love to see you there. For Sydneysiders, it’s only half an hour by train from Town Hall to Parramatta Station and a five-minute walk to WestWords: Western Sydney Centre for Writing.

Event details

• Friday 15 May, 6pm - 7:30pm AEST

• WestWords, 41 Hunter St, Parramatta NSW, Australia

Secure tickets

A poem I love

I’ve written little poetry myself and have great admiration for all the poets out there. I’d like to share one the poems in Elizabeth Walton’s collection How to Read a City. I’d like to showcase more poetry at Thursday Book Club and would love to hear your thoughts on poems I should include, be they well known, little known or unknown. And for all the poets in our Thursday Book Club community, I’d particularly like to feature some of your favourite work. You can send me your poetry or poetry suggestions here.

In the meantime, here’s…

On Love Lost Days

by

Elizabeth Walton

Everything is a work of art— the mother-of-pearl beads laced to fading curtains. Bleached abalone inlaid in memories shined by river salts.

The snow-clipped berry in wet-montane at my car door, the sallow sky on your dry skin, your face, in this sand-blown evening, everything—is a work of art.

Your heart in folds, asking for a kindness which drives beyond the listener’s balm I offered up this lonely night as witness.

Your mind, too, is a work of sorts—a tide the Inglis River writes in silence, shaping siltstones laid over our lost names and stories.

The soft-felt crying on freeze-dried days which find you larger than your wounds, everything—is a work, to start.

A heart left hard will soften the boil, the smartening yolk will smother the sullen sky, where side roads hint of poplar gold.

And love, you will find, is a work of heart—a second exit laughed in smiling folds, encircled by this road that calls you on and on in restless words of hope; you will see me there on and on and…

Coming soon

I'll be in conversation with Sue Woolfe on Thursday 11 June. More details to follow soon. In the meantime, mark the date in your calendar.

And now, I’ll leave you with another much-loved review by Abbey’s Bookshop and by Katrina Davis to inspire your next read.

Suzanne xx

Abbey’s Reviews

About Abbey’s Bookshop

In business since 1968, Abbey’s Bookshop is Sydney's much-loved iconic independent bookshop, featuring a large children’s book section, Australia’s biggest in-store crime fiction collection, a full range of fiction, history, science and philosophy and an extensive foreign language books department.

Lindy’s Pick of the Week

Iluka by Cassie Stroud

ABBEY’S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- When Paddy dies, his three grandchildren gather at the dilapidated house where they grew up down the south coast, to sort things out and make decisions. Helen, the oldest, won't sell it, if she gets her way. Sylvie and Brendan don't have the same attachment. Everyone has problems, but they aren't really so close that they share them. When they discover a cache of letters that their late, implacable grandmother Iris has hidden, they are staggered to learn that their mother – who they were told died of an overdose when they were little – is still alive.

Switching from character to character and back and forth in time, this is a finely controlled and absorbing novel of family dynamics and secrets, and the fallout from past decisions.

— Lindy

Buy it now

Thursday Book Club Exclusive Offer

Save 20% off Abbey’s weekly recommendation when you use the promo code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB (all caps, no gaps) in the checkout at abbeys.com.au

Abbey's on Instagram

Rescue & Recent Reads from Katrina Davis

About Katrina

I’m Katrina, a Thursday book club devotee and sometimes co-host. I’m a reader, bookseller, wannabee librarian, and completely unqualified reviewer. You can find my bookish stuff on Instagram at RescueReads for op-shop finds, book-fair hauls, and other back-catalogue goodness - I also post all things new release here.

Katrina’s recent read

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

KATRINA’S PICK ----- Normally if I don’t like a book I simply decide not to review it. Why be unkind? I make an exception here - until science really does figure out how to restore the dead, as Frankenstein does here in creating his monster, there is little risk of me hurting Mary Shelley’s feelings. I understand Frankenstein is an important book and Mary Shelley is a remarkable writer, but this just isn’t for me. Frankenstein’s unrelenting wretchedness – Shelley is very effective at conveying this - was too much like living inside my own head on its worst days, but without the consolation of coffee and doggos. I shall move swiftly along to next in the list of 1000 books you should read before you die in hope of something a little bit more cheerful.

Her mother’s also a famous advocate of women’s rights so this review probably makes me a bad feminist.

Katrina on Instagram

Thursday Book Club

Our next Thursday Book Club session is on 14 May. I’d love to see you there.

Join via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Join Now

If you’ve been here for a while, I’m so glad you are. And if you’re new - a warm welcome. It’s lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx

It’s with great excitement that I share this month’s Thursday Book Club guest: the wonderful Sue Woolfe.

Her new novel, The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves, is a luminous and deeply moving story of mothers and daughters, memory and silence, and the mysterious ways creativity can emerge from experience. It is a beautiful, searching novel. And it marks Sue’s return to fiction after eight years.

Sue Woolfe is one of Australia’s renowned literary voices. Her novel Leaning Towards Infinity won the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, was published internationally and became a long-running bestseller. Sue has also written widely on creativity and neuroscience - The Mystery of the Cleaning Lady remains one of the most compelling explorations of what neuroscience reveals about the creative mind and has been taught at the University of Sydney and NIDA.

I cannot wait to speak with her and I know you’ll really enjoy our conversation.

Details:

• Suzanne Leal in conversation with Sue Woolfe at Thursday Book Club - Live via Zoom

• Thursday 11 June, 8pm AEST

As a Substack subscriber, you have first access to the conversation. Use the button or link below to join via Zoom.

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

JOIN HERE

If you’re already subscribed, I’m pleased you’re here! If you’re new - a warm welcome. Subscribing is free, and it’s where all my future newsletters, Thursday Book Club details and updates will be shared.

I look forward to seeing you on 11 June.

Suzanne xx

Hi friends,

I have some news I’ve been looking forward to sharing.

The Year We Escaped has been shortlisted for the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature at the 2026 NSW Literary Awards.

The Patricia Wrightson Prize is awarded for fiction, non-fiction or poetry written for children up to secondary school level. I’m delighted to be shortlisted alongside Michel Streich, Caroline Stills, Zoe Meagher and Julia Darling, Gus Gordon and Sandy Bigna.

Winners will be announced on 18 May at the NSW Literary Awards, to be held at the State Library of NSW. I’m looking forward to the evening and will report back with all the news.

If you haven’t yet had a chance to read The Year We Escaped, I’d love to hear what you think when you do. Thank you, as always, for reading and for your support. It means a lot to me.

I’m also delighted to share that Sue Woolfe will be joining us for an in-conversation at Thursday Book Club on 11 June.

Sue will speak with us about her new novel, The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves - a story about mothers and daughters, memory and silence, and the mysterious ways creativity can emerge from experience.

More details to come soon - in the meantime pencil it in your calendar so you don’t miss out.

For now, enjoy the wonderful reviews from Abbey’s Bookshop and Katrina Davis for your next reading inspiration.

Suzanne xx

Abbey’s Reviews

About Abbey’s Bookshop

In business since 1968, Abbey’s Bookshop is Sydney's much-loved iconic independent bookshop, featuring a large children’s book section, Australia’s biggest in-store crime fiction collection, a full range of fiction, history, science and philosophy and an extensive foreign language books department.

Steve’s Pick of the Week

The Keeper by Tana French

ABBEY’S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- The Keeper brings Cal Hooper’s story to a tense close in a divided Irish village after a young woman’s death – ruled suicide – unravels into something far darker. As Hooper probes, buried loyalties, generational grudges, and a looming power struggle surface, pulling him deeper into danger and straining his fragile peace.

French leans hard into atmosphere over pace, letting suspicion coil slowly. The plot isn’t about clever twists, but consequence – how small communities fracture under pressure, and how justice rarely arrives clean or complete.

— Steve

Buy Now

Thursday Book Club Exclusive Offer

Save 20% off Abbey’s weekly recommendation when you use the promo code THURSDAYBOOKCLUB (all caps, no gaps) in the checkout at abbeys.com.au

Abbey's on Instagram

Rescue & Recent Reads from Katrina Davis

About Katrina

I’m Katrina, a Thursday book club devotee and sometimes co-host. I’m a reader, bookseller, wannabee librarian, and completely unqualified reviewer. You can find my bookish stuff on Instagram at RescueReads for op-shop finds, book-fair hauls, and other back-catalogue goodness - I also post all things new release here.

Katrina’s recent read

Kill Your Boomers by Fiona Wright

KATRINA’S PICK ----- I said in my last review that literary essays are my favourite thing to read. Fiona Wright is a great essayist; I first came to know her through her essay collection Small Acts of Disappearance. Kill Your Boomers is her first novel and asks what the logical conclusion is to being made quite unhinged by the impossibility of ever owning property in Sydney. This is the dilemma facing thirty-something writer and nanny, Keira. Maybe the hole in the kitchen floor of your shabby rental will start speaking to you. Perhaps the impossible will start to seem inevitable. Absurdist, serious, fun. If you’ve ever lived the share-house life in Sydney’s inner-West you will feel very seen by this novel.

Katrina on Instagram

Thursday Book Club

Our next Thursday Book Club session is on 7 May. I’d love to see you there.

Join via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8521042343

Meeting ID: 852 104 2343

Join Now

If you’ve been here for a while, I’m so glad you are. And if you’re new - a warm welcome. It’s lovely to have you with us.

Suzanne xx