InaGuddle: Lists

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Sunday, 25 October 2026

Top 100 Australian Books (2026) - Extended List

A few days ago I posted about ABC Radio National's Top 100 Australian Books for 2026, as voted by Australian readers. The ABC has now shared the books that missed out on the top 100 with the extended list.

Here are one hundred more favourite Australian novels:

Note that I have read the titles in Bold, and I have linked to my review where available. The Asterix means it was on my ballot. Double Asterix means it was on my Wishlist.

101. Julia Baird - Phosphorescence
102. Peter Carey - Bliss

103. Hannah Kent - Always Home Always Homesick *

104. Alison Lester - Kissed by the Moon

105. Richard Flanagan - The Sound of One Hand Clapping

106. Kate Grenville - A Room Made of Leaves

107. Graeme Base - The Eleventh Hour

108. Amanda Lowrey - The Labyrinth

109. Clementine Ford - Fight Like A Girl

110. Bri Lee - Eggshell Skull

111. Heather Rose - Bruny

112. Leigh Sales - Any Ordinary Day

113. Behrouz Boochani - No Friend But the Mountains

114. Helen Garner - The Season

115. Pamela Allen - Who Sank the Boat?

116. Markus Zusak - Bridge of Clay

117. Tim Winton - The Riders

118. Raimond Gaita - Romulus My Father

119. A B Banjo Paterson - Banjo Paterson's Bush Ballads

120. Nevil Shute - On the Beach

121. Kenneth Cook - Wake in Fright

122. Shirley Hazzard - The Transit of Venus

123. Dorothy Wall - The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill

124. Henry Handel Richardson - The Fortunes of Richard Mahony

125. Trent Dalton - All Our Shimmering Skies

126. Isobelle Carmody - Obernewtyn

127. David Malouf - An Imaginary Life

128. P L Travers - Mary Poppins

129. Richard Flanagan - Death of a River Guide

130. J M Coetzee - Disgrace

131. Dervla McTiernan - The Ruin

133. Mem Fox and Julie Vivas - Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge

132. Robin Klein - Hating Alison Ashley

134. John Birmingham - He Died with a Felafel in His Hand

135. Meg Mason - Sorrow and Bliss

136. Richard Flangan - Gould's Book of Fish

137. Robbie Arnott - Dusk

138. Doris Pilkington and Nugi Garimara - Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence

139. Archie Roach - Tell Me Why

140. Anita Heiss - Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhurray

141. Christopher Koch - The Year of Living Dangerously

142. Timothy Conigrave - Holding the Man

143. Helen Garner - How to End a Story

144. Henry Lawson - The Drover's Wife

145. Alex Miller - Journey to the Stone Country

146. Frank Moorhouse - Grand Days *

147. Ted Prior - Grug

148. David Malouf - Ransom

149. Jess Hill - See What You Made Me Do

150. Bruce Chatwin - The Songlines

151. Randolph Stow - The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea

152. Geraldine Brooks - Memorial Days

153. Jessica Anderson - Tirra Lirra by the River

154. Helen Garner - The First Stone

155. Emily Rodda - Rowan of Rin

156. Tony Birch - The White Girl

157. Hannah Kent - The Good People

158. Madeline St John - The Women in Black

159. Garry Disher - Bitter Wash Road

160. CWA - The CWA Cookery Book

161. Morris Gleitzman - Once

162. Jessica Townsend - Nevermoor

163. Robyn Davidson - Tracks

164. Ruth Park - Poor Man's Orange

165. Bill Gammage - The Biggest Estate on Earth

166. Lech Blaine - Australian Gospel

167. Christian White - The Wife and the Widow

168. Andrew McGahan - Praise

169. Thomas Keneally - The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith

170. Peter Carey - Illywhacker

171. Charlotte McConaghy - Migrations

172. Scott Pape - The Barefoot Investor

173. Favel Parret - Past the Shallows

174. Tim Winton - Blueback

175. David Hunt - Girt: The Unauthorised History of Australia

176. Garth Nix - Sabriel

177. A J Mackinnon - The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow

178. Christos Tsolkas - Barracuda

179. Ruth Park - The Muddleheaded Wombat

180. Magda Szubanski - Reckoning

181. David Marr - Killing for Country

182. David Malouf - Fly Away Peter

183. Nicolas Day and Ken Simpson - The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia

184. Steve Toltz - A Fraction of the Whole

185. Shaun Tan - The Lost Thing

186. Amanda Hampson - The Tea Ladies

187. Henry Handel Richardson - The Getting of Wisdom

188. Robbie Arnott - Flames

189. Jennifer Down - Bodies of Light

190. Diana Reid - Love and Virtue

191. Charlotte Wood - The Weekend

192. James Islington - The Will of the Many

193. Kate Morton - Homecoming

194. Donald Horne - The Lucky Country

195. Xavier Herbert - Capricornia

196. Hannah Gadsby - Ten Steps to Nanette

197. Xavier Herbert - Poor Fellow My Country

198. Randa Abdel-Fattah - Discipline

199. Christian White - The Nowhere Child

200. Kerry Greenwood - Cocaine Blues

The extended list includes many more of my favourite novels. Glad to see that Frank Moorhouse, Garry Disher and Dervla McTiernan were included. Also pleased to see Ted Prior made the list for Grug!

I will never complain about a list which contains multiple titles by Charlotte Wood, Richard Flangan, Helen Garner or Hannah Kent!

Overall, I find the top 200 a bit perplexing. I am surprised to see so many random books like the Women's Weekly Cookbook, The Barefoot Investor and The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia listed. I can see why people like them, but are they really a favourite? The list also skews to an older, whiter demographic than mainstream readers, which likely says more about the ABC Radio National audience than anything else. Many of the titles are children's books, which I suspect have been included by grandparents who have read these on repeat to their kin. It would be interesting to see a demographic breakdown of voters.

Sunday, 18 October 2026

Top 100 Australian Books (2026)

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Radio National Program is naming Australia's Top 100 Australian Books of all time.

I voted in early September for my favourites. I included:

Miles Franklin - My Brilliant Career (1901) (#18)
Anna Funder - Stasiland (2003) (#23)
Chloe Hooper - The Tall Man (2008) (#92)
Helen Garner - This House of Grief (1993) (#72)
Hannah Kent - Always Homesick, Always Home (2025) (#103)
Sarah Krasnostein - The Trauma Cleaner (2017) (#87)
Charlotte McConaghy - Wild Dark Shore (2025) (#16)
Frank Moorhouse - Grand Days (1993) (#146)
Heather Rose - The Museum of Modern Love (2016) (#95)
Charlotte Wood - The Natural Way of Things (2015) (#76)

Because I could only vote for ten, I had to whittle it down and could not include all of these on my Wishlist:

Mark Colvin - Light and Shadow - Memoir of a Spy's Son (2016)
Richard Flanagan - The Narrow Road to the Deep North (2015) (#8)
Anna Funder - All That I Am (2011) (#45)
Helen Garner - The Spare Room (2008) (#94)
Chris Hammer - Scrublands (2018) (#(73)
Jane Harper - The Dry (2016) (#10)
Hannah Kent - Burial Rites (2013) (#4)
Joan London - The Golden Age (2014)
Rick Morton - One Hundred Years of Dirt (2018)
ML Stedman - The Light Between Oceans (2012) (#51)

After several weeks of online voting, the results were announced on Radio National on 17-18 October 2026. Here is how Australia voted:

Note that I have read the titles in Bold, and I have linked to my review where available. The Asterix means it was on my ballot. Double Asterix means it was on my Wishlist.

Top 100 Australian Books

100. Paul Jennings - Round the Twist
99. Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton - The 13-Storey Treehouse
98. Shaun Tan - The Arrival
97. Hannah Kent - Devotion
96. Nagi Maemhashi - RecipeTin Eats: Dinner
95. Heather Rose - The Museum of Modern Love (2016) *
94. Helen Garner - The Spare Room (2008) **
93. Christina Stead - The Man Who Loved Children
92. Chloe Hooper - The Tall Man (2008) *
91. Jeannie Baker - Where the Forest Meets the Sea
90. Kathy Letter and Gabrielle Carey - Puberty Blues
89. Melissa Lucashenko - Edenglassie
88. Tim Winton - Juice
87. Sarah Krasnostein - The Trauma Cleaner (2017) *
86. Jane Harper - The Lost Man
85. Rosalie Ham - The Dressmaker
84. Gregory David Roberts - Shantaram
83. Marcia K Vaughan and Pamela Lofts - Wombat Stew

82. Murray Bail - Eucalyptus
81. Mrs Aeneas Gunn - We of the Never-Never
80. Marcus Clarke - For the Term of His Natural Life
79. David Malouf - Johno
78. Frank Hardy - Power Without Glory
77. Peter Temple - The Broken Shore
76. Charlotte Wood - The Natural Way of Things (2015) *
75. Pip Williams - The Bookbinder of Jericho
74. Robert Hughes - The Fatal Shore
73. Chris Hammer - Scrublands (2018) **
72. Helen Garner - This House of Grief (1993) *
71. Patrick White - The Tree of Man
70. Jackie French and Bruce Whatley - Diary of a Wombat
69. Nevil Shute - A Town Like Alice

68. Clive James - Unreliable Memoirs

67. Patrick White - Voss

66. Alexis Wright - Carpentaria

65. Shankari Chandran - Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens

64. Anne Summers - Damned Whores and God's Police

63. Richard Flanagan - Question 7

62. Alison Lester - Are We There Yet?

61. Melissa Lucashenko - Too Much Lip

60. Eddie Jaku - The Happiest Man on Earth

59. Banjo Patterson - The Man from Snowy River

58. Tara June Winch - The Yield

57. Holly Ringland - The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

56. Stephanie Alexander - The Cook's Companion

55. Norman Lindsay - The Magic Pudding

54. Thomas Keneally - Schindler's Ark

53. Charlotte Wood - Stone Yard Devotional

52. Geraldine Brooks - Horse

51. M L Stedman - The Light Between Oceans **

50. Li Cunxin - Mao's Last Dancer

49. Germaine Greer - The Female Eunuch

48. Mem Fox and Judy Horacek - Where is the Green Sheep?

47. Ruth Park - Playing Beattie Bow

46. Colleen McCullough - The Thorn Birds

45. Anna Funder - All That I Am **

44. Peter Carey - True History of the Kelly Gang

43. Geraldine Brooks - People of the Book

42. May Gibbs - The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie

41. Tim Winton - Dirt Music

40. Peter Carey - Oscar and Lucinda

39. Liane Moriarty - Big Little Lies

38. Helen Garner - Joe Cinque's Consolation

37. Alan Marshall - I Can Jump Puddles

36. Robbie Arnott - Limberlost

35. Trent Dalton - Lola in the Mirror

34. Graeme Simsion - The Rosie Project

33. Tim Winton - Breath

32. Graeme Base - Animalia

31. Helen Garner - Monkey Grip

30. George Johnson - My Brother Jack

29. Anh Do - The Happiest Refugee

28. Sally Hepworth - Mad Mabel

27. Ruth Park - The Harp in the South

26. Joan Lindsay - Picnic at Hanging Rock

25. Ethel Turner - Seven Little Australians

24. Bryce Courtenay - The Power of One

23. Anna Funder - Stasiland*

22. Maryanne Blacker and Pamela Clark - The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book

21. Sally Morgan - My Place

20. Anna Funder - Wifedom

19. Alison Lester - Magic Beach

18. Miles Franklin - My Brilliant Career *

17. Colin Thiele - Storm Boy

16. Charlotte McConaghy - Wild Dark Shore (2025) *

15. Christos Tsiolkas - The Slap

14. Geraldine Brooks - Year of Wonders

13. Melina Marchetta - Looking for Alibrandi

12. Bruce Pascoe - Dark Emu

11. Mem Fox and Julie Vivas - Possum Magic

10. Jane Harper - The Dry (2016) **

9. Kate Grenville - The Secret River

8. Richard Flanagan - The Narrow Road to the Deep North **

7. Pip Williams - The Dictionary of Lost Words

6. John Marsden - Tomorrow, When the War Began

5. A B Facey - A Fortunate Life

4. Hannah Kent - Burial Rites **

3. Trent Dalton - Boy Swallows Universe

2. Marcus Zusak - The Book Thief

1. Tim Winton - Cloudstreet

So, what to make of the list?

I am pleased that 9 of my top 10 picks, and 7 of my extended picks made it to the list. I have read 36 of the top 100. There are a bunch of other titles on the list that I have on my shelf. This countdown is a good reminder of titles to read.

While I picked books that were literary or had an impact on me long after finishing them, I had expected there would be a lot of popular titles on the list, but was surprised to see so many children's books on the list. I had predicted that Muzak and Dalton would be in the top ten, especially given they were voted as the top 100 books of the 21st century last year. Good to see so many books by Garner, Funder, Kent, Flanagan, Brooks and many more favourites.

The countdown of the ABC Radio National Top 100 Australian Books was lovely to listen to and it is great to hear so many people excited by books.

Friday, 7 August 2026

The NYT 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century

The New York Times has just released a list of the best thrillers of the 21st century, compiled by ballots sent to writers, librarians, critics, editors and influencers. From this ballot they have compiled the top fifty. As a lover of thrillers and a lover of lists, this is right up my alley. Let's check it out and see whether it resonates.

Bold = read. Linked = reviewed on this blog.

50. Lisa Jewell - None of This is True (2023)
49. Anthony Horowitz - Magpie Murders (2017)
48. Chris Whitaker - All the Colors of the Dark (2024)
47. Ashley Audrain - The Push (2021)
46. S J Watson - Before I Go to Sleep (2011)
45. Silvia Moreno-Garcia - Mexican Gothic (2020)
44. Jennifer Hillier - Jar of Hearts (2018)
43. Richard Price - Lush Life (2008)
42. Caroline Kepnes - You (2014)
41. Harlan Coben - Tell No One (2001)
40. Blake Crouch - Dark Matter (2016)
39. Sarah Waters - Fingersmith (2002)
38. Terry Hayes - I Am Pilgrim (2014)
37. Steph Cha - Your House Will Pay (2019)
36. Alex Michaelides - The Silent Patient (2019)
35. S A Cosby - All the Sinners Bleed (2023)
34. Tana French - The Likeness (2008)
33. Tana French - The Witch Elm (2018)
32. Danya Kukafa - Notes on an Execution (2022)
31. William Landay - Defending Jacob (2012)
30. Việt Thanh Nguyễn - The Sympathizer (2015)
29. Jean Hangg Korelitz - The Plot (2021)
28. Leila Slimani - The Perfect Nanny (2018)
27. Liane Moriarty – Big Little Lies (2014)
26. Dan Brown – The Da Vinci Code (2003)
25. Daniel Woodrell – Winter’s Bone (2006)
24. Jane Harper – The Dry (2017)
23. Donna Tartt – The Goldfinch (2013)
22. John Le Carre – The Constant Gardener (2001)
21. Emma Donoghue – Room (2010)
20. Tana French – Broken Harbor (2012)
19. Gillian Flynn – Sharp Objects (2006)
18. Stephen King – 11/22/63 (2011)
17. Dennis Lehane – Shutter Island (2003)
16. Michael Connelly – The Lincoln Lawyer (2005)
15. Megan Abbott – Dare Me (2012)
14. Lionel Shriver – We Need to Talk About Kevin (2003)
13. Kate Atkinson – Case Histories (2004)
12. Paula Hawkins – The Girl on the Train (2015)
11. S A Cosby – Blacktop Wasteland (2020)
10. Attica Locke – Bluebird, Bluebird (2017)
9. Mick Herron – Slow Horses (2010)
8. S A Cosby – Razorblade Tears (2021)
7. Liz Moore – The God of the Woods (2024)
6. Oyinkan Braithwaite – My Sister, The Serial Killer (2018)
5. Cormac McCarthy – No Country for Old Men (2005)
4. Steig Larsson – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2008)
3. Tana French – In the Woods (2007)
2. Dennis Lehane – Mystic River (2001)
1. Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl (2012)

This is a fascinating list. I have read 15 of the titles and have many more in my personal library. There are lots of novels on this list that I have seen the film/TV adaptations for (Crouch, Moriarty, Donoghue, Lehane, Connelly) and several novels that I have not heard of (Slimani, Kukafa, Audrian, Hillier). I had thought we would see novels by Karin Slaughter, Freida McFadden, Lee Child, Robert Harris, Louise Penny, Ruth Ware and other writers who routinely land on bestseller lists.

I was a bit surprised that Tana French is listed so many times. She is a brilliant author (I loved her Searcher, Hunter, Keeper series) and I have the novels listed here (the Dublin Murder series) ready to read. So this is a timely reminder to start that series.

I am delighted to see SA Cosby listed three times for his amazing thrillers. I have only read one (All the Sinners Bleed) but I have the others so will get on to those when I can.

If I were to add to this list, I would include some of my favourites of the genre:

Graeme Macrae Burnet - His Bloody Project (2015)
Eleanor Catton - Birnam Wood (2023)
Garry Disher - Bitter Wash Road (2013)
Percival Everett - The Trees (2021)
Robert Galbraith - The Cuckoo's Calling (2013)
Chris Hammer - Scrublands (2018)
Robert Harris - Conclave (2016)
Emily Maguire - An Isolated Incident (2016)
Charlotte McConaghy - Wild Dark Shore (2025)
Ian McGuire - The North Water (2016)
Dervla McTiernan - The Ruin (2018)
Matthew Spencer - Dark River (2022)

This list got me thinking about thrillers as a genre. So often crime or mystery novels (which I read a lot of) are put together as 'crime thrillers'. Some crime novels are slow burns which are more focussed on solving a mystery - something has happened and police/detectives have to figure out why. Thrillers in my mind are more action packed page-turners but do not necessarily involve a crime. There is a tension as something is coming and there is a sense of threat, danger or dread. Harris' Conclave is a good example of this - high stakes action, lots of suspense - a political/religious thriller. Likewise, Catton's Birnam Wood is an eco-thriller. I often read thrillers as a palate cleanser between heavier works of fiction.

Sunday, 17 May 2026

The Guardian's 100 Best Novels

You know I love a list! In May 2026 The Guardian published a list of the 100 Best Novels of all time. They asked 172 authors, critics and academics about their top 10 novels published in English, and to rank the choices by preference. To this they applied a weighting scale to come up with the 100 best.

Here is the Guardian's 100 Best Novels. I have marked in Bold books I have read (45 titles), and included a link for any reviews on my blog.

100 My Antonia by Willa Cather
99 The Go-Between by LP Hartley
98 The Road by Cormac McCarthy
97 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
96 Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
95 The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
94 The Known World by Edward P Jones
93 Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
92 Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
91 Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
90 Jacob's Room by Virginia Woolf
89 The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin
88 Ragtime by EL Doctorow
87 The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
86 The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
85 The Vegetarian by Han Kang
84 The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
83 A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
82 The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
81 Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann
80 Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
79 Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
78 A House for Mr Biswas by VS Naipaul
77 The Rainbow by DH Lawrence
76 Dracula by Bram Stoker
75 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
74 Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
73 Austerlitz by WG Sebald
72 Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
71 Kindred by Octavia E Butler
70 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
69 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
68 Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
67 The Man Without Qualities by Rubert Musil
66 The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
65 The Color Purple by Alice Walker
64 The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
63 White Teeth by Zadie Smith
62 Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
61 The Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald
60 Howards End by EM Forster
59 Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
58 Disgrace by JM Coetzee
57 The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
56 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
55 The Waves by Virginia Woolf
54 Orlando by Virginia Woolf
53 The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
52 The Golden Bowl by Henry James
51 My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferret
50 Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
49 A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
48 The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
47 Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
46 The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
45 The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
44 Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
43 Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
42 The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
41 Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
40 Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
39 Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
38 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
37 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
36 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
35 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
34 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
33 David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
32 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
31 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
30 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
29 Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
28 The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
27 The Trial by Franz Kafka
26 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
25 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
24 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
23 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
22 Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
21 The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
20 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
19 The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
18 Persuasion by Jane Austen
17 One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
16 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
15 Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
14 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
13 Emma by Jane Austen
12 Bleak House by Charles Dickens
11 The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
10 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
9 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
8 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
7 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
6 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
5 In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
4 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
3 Ulysses by James Joyce
2 Beloved by Toni Morrison
1 Middlemarch by George Eliot

Thrilled that Middlemarch made the number one slot. I love that novel and am overdue for a re-read. I would have added Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth to this list - it is brilliant but often overlooked in favour of The Age of Innocence. Many of these books which I have not read yet are on my Fifty/Five list, which I have barely made a dent in, so better get reading!

Among the 172 contributors were some of my favourite writers - Ian Rankin, Anne Enright, Colm Toibin, Bernardine Evaristo, Ian McEwan, Jennifer Egan, Maggie O'Farrell, Roxane Gay, Sarah Waters and many more. It was fun to see which books they chose as well.

Monday, 20 October 2025

Australia's Top 100 Books of the 21st Century

Last month I wrote about how the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Radio National Program is naming Australia's Top 100 Books of the 21st Century, naming my top picks. After several weeks of online voting, the results were announced on 18-19 October 2025.

Here is how Australia voted:

Note that I have read the titles in Bold, and I have linked to my review where available. The Asterix means it was on my ballot. Double Asterix means it was on my Wishlist.

1 Trent Dalton, Boy Swallows Universe

2 Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

3 Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

4 Anthony Doerr, All The Light We Cannot See

5 Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry

6 *Hannah Kent, Burial Rites

7 Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words

8 *Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

9 Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

10 Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

11 Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These

12 Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing

13 *Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North

14 Gail Honeyman, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

15 Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonders

16 **Sarah Winman, Still Life

17 Anna Funder, Wifedom

18 Bruce Pascoe, Dark Emu

19 **Cormac McCarthy, The Road

20 Kate Grenville, The Secret River

21 **Ian McEwan, Atonement

22 Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

23 Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

24 Craig Silvey, Jasper Jones

25 Craig Silvey, Honeybee

26 Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

27 Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend

28 Jane Harper, The Dry

29 Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror

30 *Anna Funder, Stasiland

31 **Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

32 Sally Rooney, Normal People

33 Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

34 Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
35 *Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge

36 Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club

37 Christos Tsiolkas, The Slap

38 Tim Winton, Breath

39 **Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet

40 Tim Winton, Dirt Music

41 Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain
42 Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove
43 Anna Funder, All That I Am
44 Robbie Arnott, Limberlost
45 Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife
46 Geraldine Brooks, Horse
47 JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
48 Yann Martell, Life of Pi
49 Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns

50 Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones

51 Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
52 Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
53 Paul Lynch, Prophet Song
54 Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project

55 Bernadine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
56 Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
57 Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens
58 *Percival Everett, James
59 Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
60 Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles
61 Helen Garner, Joe Cinque's Consolation
62 Abraham Verghese, The Covenant of Water

63 **Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk about Kevin
64 Ann Patchett, Bel Canto
65 Richard Flanagan, Question 7
66 Heather Morris, The Tattooist of Auschwitz
67 **Madeline Miller, Circe
68 Tara Westover, Educated
69 Matt Haig, The Midnight Library
70 Emily St John Mandel, Station Eleven
71 Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
72 Mary Ann Schaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
73 Eddie Jaku, The Happiest Man on Earth
74 Richard Powers, The Overstory
75 Anh Do, The Happiest Refugee
76 Mem Fox, Judy Horacek, Where is the Green Sheep?
77 Kate Atkinson, Life After Life
78 Kristin Hannah, The Women
79 **Colm Tóibín, Brooklyn
80 Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything
81 Melissa Lucashenko, Too Much Lip
82 Alexis Wright, Carpentaria

83 Holly Ringland, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart
84 Charlotte Wood, Stone Yard Devotional
85 Shankari Chandran, Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens
86 David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
87 Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing
88 *Helen Garner, This House of Grief
89 Geraldine Brooks, People of the Book
90 Adam Kay, This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor
91 Pip Williams, The Bookbinder of Jericho
92 Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl
93 Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary
94 George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo

95 **Susanna Clarke, Piranesi
96 Ann Patchett, Tom Lake
97 Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang
98 John Boyne, The Heart's Invisible Furies
99 Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex
100 Liane Moriarty, Big Little Lies

So, what to make of the list?

I am pleased that 7 of my top ten picks, and 9 of my extended picks made it to the list. I have read 46 of the top 100, and at least eight others that I tried and did not finish. And there are a bunch of other titles on the list that I want to read and the countdown was a great reminder to put some of these higher up on my priority list.

While I picked books that were literary or had an impact on me long after finishing them, I had expected there would be a lot of popular titles on the list - overseas authors, titles popular with celebrity book clubs, and those that had been adapted. While there is a lot of this on the list, I find it odd that Chris Hammer was not included for Scrublands.

Unsurprisingly, the top 100 list is dominated by Australian authors with Muzak and Dalton taking out the top two spots. I have not read any of the top five - popular novels that have been adapted for TV/film. The list is predominately fiction, but some wonderful non-fiction, like Anna Funder's Wifedom and Stasiland, and Helen Garner's Joe Cinque's Consolation and This House of Grief, along with memoirs by Eddie Jaku and Anh Do, and Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens are included. Great to see Aboriginal authors Alexis Wright, Melissa Lucashenko and Bruce Pascoe on the list, but was surprised Tara June Winch was not included.

If nothing else, the ABC Radio National Top 100 Books of the 21st century provided me with lots of enjoyment, and there are plenty of titles left for me to explore.

Friday, 3 October 2025

Sunday Times 25 Best Novels of 21st Century

As we come to closer to the end of 2025, there are many 'best of' lists being published, documenting the best books of the first 25 years of the 21st Century. I love a good list and have explored many of those on this blog, including:

The New York Times '100 Best Books of the 21st Century'
Readings '30 Best Australian Books of the 21st Century'
ABC Radio National's 'Top 100 Books of the 21st Century'

The Sunday Times (UK) recently released their '25 Best Novels of the 21st Century'. This is another interesting list, which includes many books on the NYT list and some of my favourites. It also includes a number of novels I have not read or even heard of.

Here is their list*:

25. Zadie Smith - White Teeth (2000)
24. Philip Pullman - The Amber Spyglass (2000)
23. Matthew Kneale - English Passengers (2000)
22. William Boyd - Any Human Heart (2002)
21. Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (2003)
20. Zoe Heller - Notes on a Scandal (2003)
19. David Peace - Nineteen Eighty-Three (2008)
18. Edward St Aubyn - Mother’s Milk (2006)
17. Colm Toibin - Brooklyn (2009)
16. Eimer McBride - A Girl is a Half Formed Thing (2013)
15. Rachel Cusk - Outline (2014)
14. Anne Enright - The Green Road (2015)
13. Sebastian Barry - Days Without End (2016)
12. Francis Spufford - Golden Hill (2016)
11. Sally Rooney - Conversations With Friends (2017)
10. Pat Barker - The Silence of the Girls (2018)
9. Andrew Miller - Now We Shall Be Entirely Free (2018)
8. Anna Burns - Milkman (2018)
7. Douglas Stuart - Shuggie Bain (2020)
6. Paul Murray - The Bee Sting (2023)
5. Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go (2005)
4. Ian McEwan - Atonement (2001)
3. Claire Keegan - Small Things Like These (2021)
2. Alan Hollinghurst - The Line of Beauty (2004)
1. Hilary Mantel - Bring Up the Bodies (2012)

* Bold = Read, Link is to my review

I have only read 11 of the 25 novels, and there are only about three or four left on the list which I have on my To Be Read pile. There are others that haven't been on my radar so it is good to add a few more to the pile.

Having said that, I am so pleased they put Philip Pullman on the list. While The Amber Spyglass is not my favourite in the His Dark Materials trilogy, its inclusion is warranted as the series is brilliant. I also happy to see Toibin, McEwan, Barker, Enright and Keegan on the list - although I admit I preferred Enright's The Wren The Wren (2023) to The Green Road. There are also few here that did not work for me - like Haddon and Ishiguro - which always pop up on 'best of' lists but I could not warm to.

I am sure there will be more of these lists published as we come to the end of the year. Looking forward to seeing what other lists there are.

Tuesday, 30 September 2025

Selecting Australia's Top 100 Books of the 21st Century

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Radio National began soliciting votes on 1 September 2025 from listeners to nominate their favourite books of the 21st Century. All books published between 1 January 2000 and 31 August 2025, are be eligible. You could select from a list of hundreds of books, or write-in your own title. Voting closes on 30 September and over two days, 18-19 October, Radio National conducted a countdown of the top 100.

While we await the compilation of the Top 100 list, I thought I would share my votes and the ones I hope make the cut.

My Top 10

I participated in the vote and found it devastatingly difficult to pick only ten titles. In fact, I had dozens on my shortlist and kept trading them off until I came up with a list of books I love.

My list includes Australian authors Anna Funder (Stasiland), Charlotte Wood (The Natural Way of Things), Heather Rose (The Museum of Modern Love), Helen Garner (This House of Grief), Hannah Kent (Burial Rites), Sarah Krasnostein (The Trauma Cleaner) and Richard Flanagan (The Narrow Road to the Deep North). That didn't leave much room for others but I managed to squeeze in Barbara Kingsolver (Demon Copperhead), Elizabeth Strout (Olive Kitteridge) and Percival Everett (James). As soon as I voted, while satisfied with my list, I immediately felt the loss of the other titles that didn't make the cut.

If I had the opportunity I would have added to this list:

Margaret Atwood - The Testaments (2019)
Graeme Macrae Burnet - His Bloody Project (2015)
Eleanor Catton - Birman Wood (2023)
Susanna Clarke - Piranesi (2021)
Jennifer Down - Bodies of Light (2021)
Jennifer Egan - A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010)
Anne Enright - The Wren, The Wren (2023)
Tayari Jones - An American Marriage (2018)
Andrea Levy - Small Island (2004)
Joan London - The Golden Age (2014)
Emily Maguire - Rapture (2024)
Cormac McCarthy - The Road (2006)
Ian McEwan - Atonement (2001)
Ian McGuire - The North Water (2016)
Madeline Miller - Circe (2018)
Emily St John Mandel - Sea of Tranquility (2022)
Maggie O'Farrell - Hamnet (2020)
Lionel Shriver - We Need to Talk About Kevin (2003)
Douglas Stuart - Young Mungo (2020)
Donna Tartt - The Goldfinch (2014)
Colm Toibin - Brooklyn (2009)
Sarah Winman - Still Life (2021)
Alice Winn - In Memoriam (2023)
Charlotte Wood - Stone Yard Devotional (2023)

I am hoping that all of these will land on the Top 100 list when it is revealed in a few weeks. Can't wait to find out. In the meantime, there is still time to vote!

Tuesday, 15 April 2025

Celebrating 30 Years of The Women's Prize for Fiction

To celebrate 30 years of the Women’s Prize for Fiction there will be an Outstanding Contribution Award presented on 4 June 2025. This one-off literary honour will be bestowed on a living female author “in recognition of her body of work, her significant contribution to literature, and her strong advocacy for women.” To be eligible, authors must have been previously longlisted, shortlisted or winners of the Women’s Prize for Fiction in the past thirty years and they must have published a minimum of five books.

I love this Women’s Prize for Fiction and this special prize is intriguing. I thought I would come up with my list of contenders. I have spent the past few days exploring the longlists of the past 30 years and have been reminded of how much reading joy I have had from these incredible authors. Over the 15 years I have been blogging, I have been heavily influenced by the longlist.

There are some incredible authors here - Kate Atkinson, Siri Hustvedt, Elif Shafak, Hilary Mantel, Toni Morrison, Rachel Cusk, Pat Barker, Anne Tyler, Naomi Alderman, Marilynne Robinson, MJ Hyland, Maggie O'Farrell, Linda Grant, Kate Grenville, Andrea Levy, Madeline Miller, Joyce Carol Oates, Jennifer Egan, Elizabeth Strout, Carol Shields, Donna Tartt, Bernardine Evaristo, VV Ganeshananthan, Amy Tan and many, many more.

When thinking about the criteria there are a lot of women who have made an outstanding contribution and I reckon the prize will go to one of the following:

Ali Smith won the Women's Prize in 2015 for How to be Both. She was shortlisted twice, for Hotel World in 2001 and The Accidental in 2006, and longlisted for There but for the in 2012 and Summer in 2021.

Ann Patchett won the Women's Prize in 2002 for Bel Canto. She was shortlisted for The Magician's Assistant in 1998 and State of Wonder in 2012, and longlisted for The Dutch House in 2020.

Anne Enright has never won, but has been on the list five times. She was longlisted for her Booker Prize winning novel The Gathering in 2008, and again in 2020 for Actress. She was shortlisted three times - for The Green Road in 2016, The Forgotten Waltz in 2012 and most recently for The Wren, The Wren in 2024.

Barbara Kingsolver is the only person to have won this award twice. She won in 2010 for The Lacuna, and again in 2023 for Demon Copperhead. She was shortlisted in 1999 for The Poisonwood Bible and in 2013 for Flight Behaviour.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won for Half of a Yellow Sun in 2007. She has also been shortlisted in 2004 for Purple Hibiscus and in 2014 for Americanah. She was longlisted in 2025 for Dream Count.

Kamila Shamsie won in 2018 for Home Fire and was shortlisted twice, in 2009 for Burnt Shadows and in 2015 for A God in Every Stone.

Linda Grant won in 2002 for her novel When I Lived in Modern Times. She was shortlisted in 2017 for The Dark Circle, and longlisted twice - in 1997 for The Cast Iron Shore and 2008 for The Clothes on Their Backs.

Margaret Atwood has never won, but has made the list five times. She was shortlisted for Alias Grace in 1997, for the Booker Prize winning The Blind Assassin in 2001, and for Oryx and Crake in 2004. She was longlisted for Hag-Seed in 2017 and for Maddaddam in 2014.

Sarah Waters has been shortlisted three times - for Fingersmith in 2002, The Night Watch in 2006 and The Paying Guests in 2015. She was longlisted for The Little Stranger in 2010

Zadie Smith won the Women's Prize for On Beauty in 2006. She was shortlisted on three other occasions - for White Teeth in 2000, The Autograph Man in 2006 and for N-W in 2013.

If I had to narrow my shortlist of ten down, I reckon the award will either go to Margaret Atwood in recognition of her influential lifetime of writing or to Barbara Kingsolver who is so beloved by the Women's Prize. Cannot wait to find out which incredible author is recognised for outstanding contribution.

Want more?

I have compiled a list of all the longlisted books over the past thirty years below with links to any blog posts I have written about them and my reviews of longlisted books.

2025 Longlist

Aria Aber - Good Girl (Shortlist)
Kaliane Bradley - The Ministry of Time
Jenni Daiches - Somewhere Else
Saraid de Silva – Amma
Karen Jennings - Crooked Seeds
Miranda July - All Fours (Shortlist)
Laila Lalami - The Dream Hotel
Sanam Mahloudji - The Persians (Shortlist)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Dream Count
Roisin O'Donnell – Nesting
Rosanna Pike - A Little Trickerie
Rose Ruane - Birding
Lucy Steeds - The Artist
Elizabeth Strout - Tell Me Everything (Shortlist)
Yael van der Wouden - The Safekeep (WINNER)
Nussaibah Younis – Fundamentally (Shortlist)

2024 Longlist

Maya Binyam – Hangman
Effie Black - In Defence of the Act
Alicia Elliott - And Then She Fell
Anne Enright - The Wren, The Wren (Shortlist)
Kate Foster - The Maiden
VV Ganeshananthan - Brotherless Night (WINNER)
Kate Grenville - Restless Dolly Maunder (Shortlist)
Isabella Hammad - Enter Ghost (Shortlist)
Claire Kilroy - Soldier Sailor (Shortlist)
Mirinae Lee - 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster
Karen Lord - The Blue, Beautiful World
Chetna Maroo - Western Lane
Peace Adzo Medie – Nightbloom
Megan Nolan - Ordinary Human Failings
Aube Rey Lescure - River East, River West (Shortlist)
Pam Williams - A Trace of Sun

2023 Longlist

NoViolet Bulawayo – Glory
Jennifer Croft – Homesick
Jacqueline Crooks - Fire Rush (Shortlist)
Camilla Grudova - Children of Paradise
Natalie Haynes - Stone Blind
Louise Kennedy – Trespasses (Shortlist)
Barbara Kingsolver - Demon Copperhead (WINNER)
Sophie Mackintosh - Cursed Bread
Elizabeth McKenzie - The Dog of the North
Priscilla Morris - Black Butterflies (Shortlist)
Maggie O'Farrell - The Marriage Portrait (Shortlist)
Sheena Patel - I'm a Fan
Cecile Pin - Wandering Souls
Laline Paull – Pod (Shortlist)
Parini Shroff - The Bandit Queens
Tara M Stringfellow - Memphis

2022 Longlist

Lisa Allen-Agnostini - The Bread the Devil Knead (Shortlist)
Lulu Allison - Salt Lick
Kirsty Capes – Careless
Catherine Chidgey - Remote Sympathy
Miranda Cowley Heller - The Paper Palace
Rachel Elliott – Flamingo
Louise Erdich - The Sentence (Shortlist)
Violet Kupersmith - Build Your House Around My Body
Meg Mason - Sorrow and Bliss (Shortlist)
Charlotte Mendelson - The Exhibitionist
Ruth Ozeki - The Book of Form and Emptiness (WINNER)
Leone Ross - This One Sky Day
Elif Shafak - The Island of Missing Trees (Shortlist)
Maggie Shipstead - Great Circle (Shortlist)
Dawnie Walton - The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
Morowa Yejide - Creatures of Passage

2021 Longlist

Brit Bennett - The Vanishing Half (Shortlist)
Clare Chambers - Small Pleasures
Susanna Clarke – Piranesi (WINNER)
Amanda Craig - The Golden Rule
Naoise Dolan - Exciting Times
Avni Doshi - Burnt Sugar
Dawn French - Because of You
Claire Fuller - Unsettled Ground (Shortlist)
Yaa Gyasi - Transcendent Kingdom (Shortlist)
Cherie Jones - How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House (Shortlist)
Raven Leilani - Luster
Patricia Lockwood - No One is Talking About This (Shortlist)
Annabel Lyon – Consent
Kathleen MacMahon - Nothing But Blue Sky
Torrey Peters - Detransition, Baby
Ali Smith - Summer

2020 Longlist

Deepa Anappara - Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line
Taffy Brodesser-Akner - Fleishman is in Trouble
Candice Carty-Williams - Queenie
Angie Cruz - Dominicana (Shortlist)
Anne Enright – Actress
Bernardine Evaristo - Girl, Woman, Other (Shortlist)
Luan Goldie - Nightingale Point
Natalie Haynes - A Thousand Ships (Shortlist)
Jing-Jing Lee - How We Disappeared
Claire Lomnardo - The Most Fun We Ever Had
Hilary Mantel - The Mirror and the Light (Shortlist)
Edna O’Brien – Girl
Maggie O’Farrell – Hamnet (WINNER)
Jenny Offill – Weather (Shortlist)
Ann Patchett – The Dutch House
Jacqueline Woodson - Red at the Bone

2019 Longlist

Pat Barker - The Silence of the Girls (Shortlist)
Yvonne Battle-Felton - Remembered
Oyinkan Braithwaite - My Sister, the Serial Killer (Shortlist)
Melissa Broder - The Pisces
Anna Burns - Milkman (Shortlist)
Akwaeke Emezi - Freshwater
Diana Evans - Ordinary People (Shortlist)
Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott - Swan Song
Tayari Jones - An American Marriage (WINNER)
Lillian Li - Number One Chinese Restaurant
Sophie van Llewyn - Bottled Goods
Valeria Luiselli - Lost Children Archive
Bernice L. McFadden - Praise Song for the Butterflies
Madeline Miller - Circe (Shortlist)
Sarah Moss - Ghost Wall
Sally Rooney - Normal People

2018 Longlist

Nicola Barker - Happy
Elif Batuman – The Idiot (Shortlist)
Joanna Cannon – Three Things About Elsie
Charmaine Craig – Miss Burma
Jennifer Egan – Manhattan Beach
Imogen Hermes Gowar – The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock (Shortlist)
Jessie Greengrass - Sight (Shortlist)
Gail Honeyman - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Meena Kandasamy - When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife (Shortlist)
Fiona Mozley - Elmet
Arundhati Roy - The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Sarah Schmidt - See What I Have Done
Rachel Seiffert - A Boy in Winter
Kamila Shamsie - Home Fire (WINNER)
Kit de Waal - The Trick to Time
Jesmyn Ward - Sing, Unburied, Sing (Shortlist)