We asked some of the La Trobe community’s brilliant writers, thinkers and researchers: what’s the best book you’ve read in the past year?
Their recommendations are thoughtful, powerful, and deeply personal. Whether you’re into political memoirs, magical realism or unflinching social commentary, this list has something for everyone. Add these to your to-be-read pile, stat!
Kelly Gardiner
Kelly Gardiner is a La Trobe alum, former creative writing lecturer, and now an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow. She’s the award-winning author of The Firewatcher Chronicles, 1917, Act of Faith, and Goddess, which is being adapted for the screen. Her new crime novel, Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Detective, is co-authored with Sharmini Kumar.
Recommended read: Cherrywood by Jock Serong
"Jock is well-known for his searing portrayals of colonial life such as in The Settlement — an award-winning must-read, if tough reads. But Cherrywood is very different. Two stories set in the past weave in and out of each other in a whimsical, playful, sometimes poignant, sometimes magical and always clever dance."
Dennis Altman AM
Dennis Altman is a Professor of Politics and Director of the Institute for Human Security at La Trobe University. He has written eleven books exploring sexuality and politics in Australia, the US and globally, including Global Sex, The Comfort of Men, Gore Vidal’s America, and 51st State?. In 2008, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia.
Recommended read: The Director by Daniel Kehlmann
"The German film director, G W Pabst, was a reluctant conscript to Nazi propaganda, after he was trapped in Austria during the war. Kehlmann has imagined his life in ways that make the sheer horrors of totalitarianism come to life in all the details of its brutality and what Hannah Arendt termed its banality. I admire the book for the sheer bravado with which Kehlmann brings this tragic story to life."
Professor Andrea Carson
Andrea Carson is Professor of Political Communication at La Trobe University. A former journalist with the ABC and The Age, she is an internationally recognised expert in journalism, political science and misinformation. Her research explores how media and politics shape democracy and public trust, with a focus on the rise of disinformation and how to counter it.
Recommended read: Repeat: A Warning from History by Dennis Glover
"This is the best book I have read in the past year – and I have read many. It’s a chilling comparison of the rise of Nazi Germany and the Trump era in American leadership. It systematically shows how we are not heeding the lessons of history and gives very good historical evidence for why we should be worried about the USA sliding into autocracy or something similar. For anyone who cares about history and is worried about democratic backsliding, this is a book not to be missed. But in my view, it is essential reading for all of us because our way of life is at stake."
Professor Clare Wright OAM
Professor Clare Wright is an award-winning historian, author, broadcaster and public commentator. She is Professor of History and Public Engagement at La Trobe University and Chair of the National Museum of Australia Council. Clare is the author of five works of history, including The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, You Daughters of Freedom and Näku Dhäruk: The Bark Petitions.
Recommended read: The Mother Wound by Amani Haydar
"Hands down the best book I’ve read in the past year is Amani Haydar’s The Mother Wound. It’s not a new book and, technically, I didn’t actually ‘read’ it – I listened to the author read it on audiobook. Not an easy listen but so intelligent, important and urgent. It’s a devastating story of the ways that domestic abuse, Islamophobia, patriarchy and the justice system dovetail to do untold damage and the ways that sisterhood, education, intergenerational resistance and mother love can and do heal. Above all, it is a story of modern Australia told in unflinching prose by an exceptionally gifted writer, thinker and woman."
