Good Reading Podcast
Book talk and author interviews aimed at helping you discover your next favourite read, presented by Good Reading Magazine.
Episodes
390 episodes
Luke Taylor on Peter Marralwanga, Painter of the Djang of Western Arnhem Land
Peter Marralwanga (1916–1987) was a leading figure in one of the great art practices of the world. He grew up in western Arnhem Land surrounded by artists painting in rock shelters and he learned to paint this way himself. The subjects of his p...
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24:39
Jane Messer on her compelling memoir, 'Raven Mother: War, family and inheritance'
In Raven Mother, Jane Messer weaves together her Jewish family’s tragic story – stretching back and forth between Berlin, Israel, Palestine, Melbourne and Sydney. Messer retraces the steps of her Jewish grandmother Bella, as she tries to unders...
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26:59
Theresa Miller on stepping up to the microphone and making an impact in 'Speak Up'
Theresa Miller has spent decades working as a journalist and now media trainer, coaching people across all industries – from CEOs and academics to climate campaigners, entrepreneurs and artists – to communicate confidently, clearly and concisel...
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28:28
Vikki Petraitis on a forty-year-old true crime mystery in, 'The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron'
In 1986 on Phillip Island, a young woman called Beth Barnard was savagely murdered and her boyfriend’s wife, Vivienne Cameron, went missing. The police immediately jumped to what they thought was the obvious conclusion: in a jealous rage, Vivie...
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28:01
Debra Dank on family, culture, connection and the power of memory in 'Ankami'
Debra Dank had long been desperate to paint a fuller picture of her family, to add flesh to the name-bones and the few precious stories she possessed. Debra had been aware of her father's five siblings, some of whom had died before she could co...
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36:31
Aaron Tait on his journey from war to peace in 'Far Horizons'
As a seventeen-year-old officer Aaron Tait was deployed to a war in the Middle East. Far Horizons is the story of what happened next. From war zones to slums, Aaron Tait has travelled to and worked in more than 70 countries across the globe as ...
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27:04
Vicki Bennett on her story of love, war, and intergenerational healing, 'The Letters'
When rebellious Ruby is bequeathed her late grandfather’s personal letters, she is pulled from peacetime 1973 Australia, to 1917 World War 1 France. Without identification or any way home, she sets out to right a wrong that has broken her famil...
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17:57
Chris Blake on his gripping crime thriller set on New Zealand's wild west coast, 'Softly Calls the Devil'
Things are going well for Matt Buchanan. After some hard times, life is peaceful as sole-charge constable for the small, isolated settlement of Haast on New Zealand's wild West Coast. He's made friends among the locals, won their trust. He keep...
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18:38
Henry Reynolds’ ground-breaking re-examination of Australian colonisation from the top down, in 'Looking From the North'
When acclaimed historian Henry Reynolds moved from Hobart to Townsville to teach Australian history in the 1960s, he discovered the books of the period covered very little about northern Australia and First Nations peoples. He set out to help r...
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34:13
Amra Pajalic on her thrilling Balkan war murder mystery, 'Time Kneels Between Mountains'
Overnight, Seka Torlak’s life as a regular teenager is upended as Srebrenica, her once peaceful town, falls under siege and she faces starvation, shelling, and sniper attacks. When desperately needed antibiotics and food disappear and are sold ...
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21:47
Joanna Nell on her heart-warming story celebrating life and love in, 'The Funeral Crashers'
Retired academic Martin Pottinger's romantic aspirations for the delectable head of his former university's archaeology department, Professor Mary Blake, seem about to be realised. If only he could devise a plan to manage the demands of his ecc...
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18:58
Suzanne Leal on her Historical Novel Society Australasia 2025 award-winning novel for young readers, 'The Year We Escaped'
Europe, 1940. With war on their doorstep, German classmates Klara and Rachel, and French brothers Lucien and Paul, are forced to leave their homes. They are taken to Gurs, a French detention camp in the south-west of France. It's a crowded plac...
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17:34
Tasma Walton and Robbie Arnott on their Historical Novel Society Australasia 2025 award-winning novels
'I am Nannertgarrook' is based on the true story of Tasma Walton’s ancestor, a powerful, heart-wrenching novel about maternal love that endures against pitiless odds. Kidnapped by sealers and enslaved far from her homeland, Nannertgarrook has a...
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28:45
Katie Edmiston from Queensland State Library on 'How do you Library?'
"How do you library?" is a statewide campaign that aims to expand visitation and encourage deeper engagement and participation at libraries across Queensland by highlighting the diversity of services, programs, resources and surprising things p...
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22:07
Garry Disher on the fifth in the Hirsch crime thriller series, 'Mischance Creek'
Constable Paul Hirschhausen is checking firearms. The regular police audit: all weapons secured, ammo stored separately, no unauthorised person with keys to the gun safe. He’s checking people, too. The drought is hitting hard in the mid-north, ...
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21:10
Inga Simpson and Tannya Harricks their new picture book for children, 'The Peach King'
When Little Peach Tree was just a sapling, all they could see was row upon row of other peach trees. And, on top of the hill, watching over the orchard - the Peach King. As seasons pass, bringing cycles of change, Little Peach Tree grows and gr...
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15:25
Blake Johnston on surfing success, change and resilience in 'Swellbeing: Everyone Deserves to Feel Awesome'
For Blake 'Blakey' Johnston growing up around the beaches of Cronulla, life was good and surfing was everything. At sixteen, he turned pro and took off around the world, chasing his dream to become the world's best. The thing about dreams, thou...
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21:12
Mark Greenwood and Frané Lessac on their new picture book for children, 'The Legend of Jessie Hickman'
Jessie Hickman was a woman who lived outside the norms of her time. A brave and formidable woman, Jessie lived a life full of adventure, action and danger. At the age of eight she joined a travelling bush circus, learning to perform as a whip c...
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17:17
Jessica Mansour-Nahra on her first novel, an eerie gothic psychological thriller, 'The Farm'
When 37-year-old Leila suffers a health tragedy, she doesn't recover as quickly as she expected. Her partner, James, suggests a year away from the city - they'll stay on his family farm, where the wide, open spaces and clean country air will he...
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24:55
Belinda Castles on discovering literary Sydney on foot in 'Walking Sydney'
Walking Sydney invites you to walk with a city’s writers as they share their places of home and imagination. From the streets of the suburbs to the shores of the harbour, as we walk amid diasporas, countercultures, activists, artists, ...
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33:02
Toni Jordan on greyhounds, gambling and growing up in her new novel, 'Tenderfoot'
Brisbane, 1975: Andie Tanner's world is small but whole. Her mum is complicated, but she adores her dad and the kennel of racing greyhounds that live under their house. Andie is a serious girl with plans: finish school with her friends, then ap...
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23:03
Tanya Scott on her high-octane debut crime thriller, 'Stillwater'
After years away from his home town of Melbourne, Luke Harris is back on track. All he wants is a normal job, his own house and a dog. But Luke is a man with a past, when life was anything but peaceful and his skills ran to the dark side. A pas...
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23:13
Adam Courtenay on the dynamic, complex and driven man in his memoir 'My Father Bryce'
Bryce Courtenay was one of Australia's highest-selling and most-loved authors. From his first book, The Power of One, he captivated readers. Many of his fans would have thought they knew him, and they did - they knew the version of him that he ...
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29:58
Mike Amor on the highs and lows of a career as a foreign correspondent in 'News Cowboys'
News cowboys – it was the nickname the reporters and camerapeople at Seven Network’s Los Angeles bureau jokingly gave themselves as they headed off on assignments, not knowing what to expect and often unprepared for what they found. It was a wa...
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27:25
Olivia Purvis on her first book for young children, 'Where's Moon?'
Where’s Moon?’ follows a day in the life of June, a toddler who is searching for the moon! The story was written by Speech Pathologist, Olivia Purvis, and edited by her sister, Amelia. The story was inspired by their young nephew, Sebastian, wh...
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13:48