Each episode, we ask our guests to recommend any writing by women they’ve read and loved lately.

We add their suggestions here, too, along with some of our own. It’s your ultimate To-Be-Read pile.

Episode 25: On characters (December 2018)

Sarah Dollard recommends:

• The Miseducation of Cameron Post (film), director Desiree Akhavan with screenplay  by Akhavan and Cecilia Frugiuele
• The Bisexual (Channel 4) by Akhavan and Fruguiele

Lili Wilkinson recommends:

• Broken Earth Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin
• I Am Out With Lanterns by Emily Gale

Episode 25: On sisters (September 2018)

Kate Forsyth recommends:

• The Good People by Hannah Kent
• The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose
• Love and Hunger  by Charlotte Wood
• The Botanist’s Daughter by Kayte Nunn

Belinda Murrell recommends:

• Kensy and Max series by Jacqueline Harvey
• The Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee by Deborah Abela
• The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell
• The Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning
• The Witchfinder’s Sister by Beth Underdown

Episode 24: On world building (July 2018)

Amie Kaufman recommends:

• An Uncertain Grace by Krissy Kneen
• Temporary by Sarina Bowen and Sarah Mayberry
• Faster, Strong and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton
• Toxic by Lydia Kang (November 2018)

C.S. Pacat recommends:

• In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
• Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

Episode 23: On collaboration (May 2018)

Mira Robertson recommends:
Black Diamonds: the rise and fall of the English Dynasty by Catherine Bailey

Ana Kokkinos recommends:
Mustang (2015) directed by Deniz Gamze Erguven

Episode 22: On murder (March 2018)

Vikki Petraitis recommends:

• The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg
• Redemption Point by Candice Fox
• Look What You Made Me Do by Megan Norris
• When Fire Came Down by Emma Viskic
• Night Games by Anna Krien
• The Silver Well by Kate Forsyth and Kim Wilkins
• Story Genius by Lisa Cron
• All Liane Moriarty’s books
• And all Jane Harper’s books.

Lindy Cameron recommends:

• All of Val McDermid’s books
• JM Redmann’s Micky Knight series
• L.J.M.Owen’s Dr Pimm series
• Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller (and her new book, Circe)
• Adrienne Mayor’s The Amazons.

Kerry Greenwood recommends:

• One For the Money by Janet Evanovich
• Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L Sayers
• A Bullet in the Ballet by Caryl Brahms
• The Family Vault by Charlotte Macleod
• The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan (written in 1405 and still relevant).

Episode 21: On academia (February 2018)

Texts mentioned in our round-table on academic writing include:

Adams, Mary Louise, 1997. The Trouble with Normal: Postwar Youth and the Making of Heterosexuality, University of Toronto Press, Toronto. (Recommended by Serena Petrella.)

Butler, Judith, 1993. Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”, Routledge, New York. (Recommended by Serena Petrella.)

Haraway, Donna J, 1991. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, Routledge,  New York, pp.149-181. (Recommended by Chantelle Gray van Heerden.)

Kristeva, Julia, 1992. Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia, Columbia University Press, New York. (Recommended by Marianne Schleicher.)

Le Guin, Ursula K, 2004. The Wave in the Mind, Penguin Random House, New York. (Recommended by Deirdre Byrne.)

Rose, Gillian, 1996. Love’s Work, Schocken, New York. (Recommended by Wernmei Yong Ade.)

Stengers, Isabelle 2015. In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism, Open Humanities Press/Meson Press – or anything at all by her. (Recommended by Chantelle Gray van Heerden.)

(See what we did there? Harvard, baby.)

Episode 20: On kissing (2 December 2017)

Kylie Scott recommends:

• Complicated by Kristen Ashley
• Roar by Cora Carmack

Anna Campbell recommends:

• The Crossing Place by Elly Griffiths
• Crime novels by Julia Spencer Fleming and Agatha Christie.

Episode 19: On illustrations (4 November 2017)

Judy Horacek recommends:

• Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Stout
• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
• Birds Art Life Death: A Field Guide To The Small and Significant by Kyo Maclear

Gabrielle Wang recommends:

• Jane, the Fox and Me by Isabelle Arsenault and Fanny Britt
• The Lion and the Bird by Marianne Dubuc
• Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley
• The Secret Place by Tana French

Episode 18 – On voice (3 October, 2017)

Eleanor Jackson recommends:

• The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
• Argosy by Bella Li

Lian Low recommends:

• Wild Tongue created, compiled and edited by Azja Kulpińska and Timmah Ball.   
• Still talkin’ up to the white woman by Timmah Ball (Griffith Review 56: Millenials Strike Back)
• Resisting the institution by Evelyn Araluen (Overland 227 Winter 2017)
• Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh 
• Australia Day by Melanie Cheng 

Episode 17 – On form (30 July, 2017)

Alison Croggon recommends:

• The House of Binding Thorns (#2 – Dominion of the Fallen series) by Aliette de Bodard
• Muyum: a transgression ( winner of the Nakata Brophy Prize) by Evelyn Araluen
• Overland literary journal, 227 Winter 2017.

Jane Harrison recommends:

• Terra Nullius by Claire G Coleman
• Heat and Light by Ellen van Neerven
• The Green Road by Anne Enright
• Poems by Ali Cobby Eckermann.

Episode 16 – On teaching (28 May 2017)

Alexis Drevikovsky recommends:

• Leap by Myfanwy Jones
• Avalanche by Julia Leigh

Alison Ravenscroft recommends:

• The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose (Winner of this year’s Stella Prize)
• The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

Penni Russon recommends:

• Raw Feels by Leonie Brialey
• Eyes Too Dry by Alice Chipkin and Jessica Tavassoli

And the writing/autobiographies mentioned are:

• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
• Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood by Anne Enright

Our Autumn reading (April 2017) includes:

Adele

• Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven
• Hera Lindsay Bird by Hera Lindsay Bird
• The Thing About Love by Julie James
• Pitch Perfect by Mickey Rapkin

Kelly

• Captain Thunderbolt and His Lady by Carol Baxter
• Light Thickens by Ngaio Marsh
• Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki
• The Lost Men by Kelly Tyler-Lewis
• Victoria the Queen by Julia Baird

Episode 15 – On knowledge (26 March, 2017)

Robyn Annear recommends:

• The Dark Flood Rises by Margaret Drabble
• Handfasted by Catherine Helen Spence.

Lynne Kelly recommends:

• Skin by Ilka Tampke

Episode 14 – On Austen (22 February 2017)

Alison Goodman recommends:

• Corpselight by Angela Slatter (out in July)

And can’t wait to get her hands on:

• Victoria: The Queen by Julia Baird.

Kylie Mirmohamadi recommends:

Episode 13 – On sounds (19 January 2017)

Natalia Molebatsi recommends poetry by:

• June Jordan
• Warsan Shire
• Suheir Hammad
• Diana Ferrus

Phillippa Yaa de Villiers recommends poetry by:

• Jackie Kay
• Vangile Gantsho
• Mthunzikazi Mbungwana
• Genna Gardini

They both recommend:

• Myesha Jenkins
• Makhosazan Xaba
• Napo Masheane
• Lebogang Mashile.

Our summer reading (January 2017)

Adele Walsh:

Kelly Gardiner:

• Captive Prince and Prince’s Gambit by C.S.Pacat
• Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club and Lady Helen and the Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman
• Rangatira by Paula Morris
• Give the Devil His Due by Sulari Gentill
• Legend by Marie Lu
• Elizabeth’s London by Liza Picard
• The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson.

Episode 12 – On labels (15 November 2016)

Anita Heiss recommends:

• The Soldier’s Wife by Pamela Hart
• Grand Slam – Kathryn Ledson
• Comfort Food by Ellen van Neerven
• Eating My Grandmother: A Grief Cycle by Krissy Kneen.

Jessica Walton recommends:

• None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio
• What We Left Behind by Robin Talley
• Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
• the miseducation of cameron post by emily m danforth*
• Sister Heart by Sally Morgan*
• Welcome to Orphancorp – Marlee Jane Ward.*

* Sadly edited for time.

Episode 11 – On research (4 October 2016)

Hannah Kent recommends:

• Eating Women is Not Recommended by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne
• The Pale God of Alaska by Eilis Ni Dhuibhne.

Kate Mildenhall recommends:

• Wasted: A Story of Alcohol, Grief and Death in Brisbane by Elspeth Muir
• The Turner House by Angela Flournoy.

Episode 10 – On rebellion (18 September 2016)

Silvia Kwon recommends:

• Under My Skin by Doris Lessing

Lee Kofman recommends:

• My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Episode 9 – On pictures (3 September 2016)

Raina Telgemeier recommends:

• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Bronwyn Bancroft recommends:

• The Tribe series by Ambelin Kwaymullina

Episode 8 – On Festivals (17 August 2016)

Anne O’Brien recommends:

• My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Rose Brock recommends:

• Saving Red by Sonya Sones

Lisa Dempster recommends:

• The Hate Race by Maxine Beneba Clarke

Stephanie Convery recommends:

• The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

Veronica Sullivan recommends:

• Fight Like A Girl by Clementine Ford
• Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West (audio book)

Episode 7 – On Process (23 July 2016)

Paddy O’Reilly recommends:

• Six Bedrooms by Tegan Bennett Daylight

Charlotte Wood recommends:

• Selected Diaries by Virginia Woolf
• The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick

What we’ve been reading (June 2016):

Adele Walsh:

• Run by Kody Keplinger
• Reckoning by Magda Szubanski
• Things No-One Will Tell Fat Girls: A Handbook for Unapologetic Living by Jes Baker
• Bittersweet by Sarina Bowen
• Winning Lord West by Anna Campbell

Kelly Gardiner:

• Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot by Masha Gessen
• The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
• Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work by bell hooks
• Elizabeth I: Renaissance Prince by Lisa Hilton
• Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar

Episode 5 – On Swearing (19 June 2016)

Patricia Cornelius recommends:

• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Toni Jordan recommends:

• The World Without Us by Mireille Juchau
• The Captive Prince trilogy by CS Pacat

Episode 4 – On Romance (19 June 2016)

Tessa Dare recommends:

• The works of Courtney Milan, Carey Baldwin and Brenna Aubrey
• All In by Simona Ahrnstedt
• Works by Alyssa Cole
• The Bollywood Bride and Change of Heart by Sonali Dev

Vox pop recommendations:

• Works by Nalini Singh, Lisa Kleypas, Anna Campbell, Kylie Scott, Julia Quinn, Anne Stuart, Elizabeth Hoyt and Laura Kinsale.
• Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
• The Professional series by Kresley Cole

Episode 3 – On Editing (19 June 2016)

Clare Wright recommends:

• Rebellious Daughters, edited by Maria Katsonis and Lee Kofman

Mandy Brett recommends:

• The works of Denise Mina and Fred Vargas

Episode 2 – On Friendship (19 June 2016)

Cath Crowley recommends:

• Everywhere I Look by Helen Garner
• The Love Goodbye by PJ Parker
• Summer Skin by Kirsty Eagar

Simmone Howell recommends:

• Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
• Asking for It by Louise O’Neill
• The Guy, the Girl, the Artist and his Ex by Gabrielle Williams

Fiona Wood recommends:

• The Stars at Oktober Bend by Glenda Millard
• Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman
• The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
• Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar
• The Other Side of Summer by Emily Gale

Episode 1 – On Story (19 June 2016)

Vivian Gornick recommends:

• The works of Elizabeth Bowen.

Sian Prior recommends:

• The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood