New reads: From bookish bad behaviour to a parents' bedtime saviour

Fans of novelist John le Carre, master of the Cold War thriller, will lap this up. Varese, who was a close friend and collaborator of David Cornwell (le Carre's real name), has collected pieces from nine writers with the aim of shining "a light on the author's method of work, what we call his tradecraft". Think meticulous research trips, handwritten manuscripts, endless rewrites and characters built before plot. Photos of first drafts, letters and edits to works in progress are among the highlights. The book closes with a poignant final chapter by Nicholas Cornwell about picking up his dad's baton.

Cory Doctorow. Bloomsbury. $44.99.

Sci-fi author, internet activist and self-described leftist Cory Doctorow coined the word "enshittification" to describe the cycle of profit-driven decay which, in his analysis, has infected once-beloved platforms such as Facebook - and, by extension, the internet - turning them into, well, "giant piles of shit". We are living, he explains, through "the Great Enshittening". "All our tech businesses are turning awful, all at once, and they're not dying," Doctorow writes. "We remain trapped in their rotting carcasses, unable to escape." Having named and described the disease (which he maintains is not just a sweary euphemism for capitalism), Doctorow prescribes a cure.

Jessica Brady. Wiley. $34.95.

Financial adviser Jessica Brady, host of the Financially Fierce podcast and creator of the Evergreen Money Club, has spent more than two decades helping people untangle their money habits and break free of the cycle of earning and spending with nothing to show for it. Her first book promises to "cut through the jargon and judgement to deliver a refreshingly honest, down-to-earth and slightly sweary guide for growing your wealth". One of her key strategies is establishing a "goals-based money ecosystem that automates savings and dials down daily money stress". Her book explains the behavioural science behind bad habits and outlines practical steps to reset.

Alex Johnson. British Library Publishing. $29.99.

Gore Vidal hated Truman Capote. When the writers met, Vidal mistook Capote for a colourful ottoman. "When I sat down on it, it squealed." Evelyn Waugh said of James Joyce: "A poor dotty Irishman - he wrote absolute rot, you know." Mark Twain reportedly said of a Henry James novel: "Once you put it down, you simply can't pick it up." This book is unconcerned with literary merit. Instead, it looks at bad behaviour in the book business: the insults, errors, feuds and fisticuffs, the deliciously withering reviews, the thefts, lost manuscripts, poisonous bindings and "romantic monkey business". What the Dickens!

C.L. Miller. Macmillan. $34.99.

English author C. L. Miller grew up in the world of antiques. Her parents published the bible of the antiques world, Miller's Antiques Price Guide, and her mother Judith was a specialist on the long-running BBC TV favourite, Antiques Roadshow. The third instalment of Miller's inexplicably apostrophed cosy sleuthing series takes antiques experts Freya Lockwood and her Aunt Carole to the hauntingly beautiful Scottish countryside, where a mission for stolen art turns dire when one of their colleagues on the trip goes missing in the mysterious, snow-dusted hills. The discovery of ancient Scottish silverware linked to a laird's murder deepens the intrigue.

MORE BOOKS:

Alan Fyfe. Transit Lounge. $32.99.

Following 2022's T, this is the second book of a planned trilogy by Western Australian author Alan Fyfe. It's set in coastal Mandurah, the major regional city of WA's Peel region. As two skinny, hungry and homeless boys set out from their squat by a slow river on a not-quite-mythic quest for revenge, a local pastor is driving from his beachside home to visit a dying parishioner. What each means to the other will be revealed as brothers Gark and Pell run for their lives over the course of a single, desperate night. The trilogy will conclude with Fyfe's upcoming The Nine Angles.

Tayari Jones. Penguin. $34.99.

From the author of 2019's acclaimed An American Marriage comes a powerful portrait of best friends who grow up together in 1950s Louisiana but are fated to live starkly different lives. Bound by love and shared loss, motherless girls Vernice and Annie are raised as sisters, but as they age, circumstances and choice lead them down diverging paths. As Vernice is initiated into Atlanta's affluent Black society with its power and prestige, Annie leaves home in search of the mother who abandoned her. Jones explores how they each carry the past with them and find their place in worlds that insist on defining you.

Tanya Hennessy. Albert Street Books. $19.99.

Multimedia livewire Tanya Hennessy, the Newcastle-raised former Canberra breakfast radio star with more than 2.3 million followers across Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram and YouTube, released Pink Santa, her first children's picture book, just in time for Christmas in 2023. Now comes an Easter-themed bedtime read for tots told in cheeky rhyme and playfully illustrated by Sophie Kent. A joyfully silly celebration of all things Easter Bunny and eggs, it's a simple story for toddlers and pre-schoolers exploring themes of friendship, cooperation and how every cloud has a silver (or sometimes even pink!) lining.

Love books? Us too! For more reads and recommendations, browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest book reviews and articles with ease.