Ten of the best

A novel doesn’t need to be a hefty tome to change your life. Forget War and Peace (1,200 pages) or Les Misérables (1,400 pages); these expert recommendations are under 150 pages – short enough to tear through over a weekend.

The disreputable birth of the novel

Ask someone today why they enjoy reading novels and they will likely say it allows them to escape real life and immerse themselves in a different world. This escapism is seen as positive today, but for centuries novel reading was thought to corrupt readers for precisely these reasons.

In search of Homer

Homer, the author of the Illiad and Odyssey, is lauded as one of the greatest poets in human history but he probably didn’t exist.

PM for Plutarch

The writings of Plutarch of Chaeronia were an important part of humanistic education in the West for many centuries, influencing everyone from Michel de Montaigne and Francis Bacon to William Shakespeare, and the practical nature of his essays keep them timely in our social media age

The end of romance

Set on an inhospitable future earth, Maria Takolander’s The End of Romance is a violent dystopia and, given the current state of the world, is all the more relatable for that.

The fantastic fifty

Many of Australia’s indigenous languages have already been lost or been reduced to a handful of speakers, but a new online project aims to preserve endangered languages like Djukun fifty words at a time.

Read all about it

The Albanese government will develop a National Media Literacy strategy as part of its $153.5m ‘News Media Assistance’ program, but it will not be an easy task.

The Doctor is out

The disastrous return of Russell T. Davies to helm Doctor Who and the dreadful ratings for Ncuti Gatwa’s tearful, gay club hopping incarnation has left the programme facing an uncertain future, if not complete oblivion.

Seven books you won’t have heard of

Recognised classics and bestsellers tend to hog the literary limelight but dedicated readers know there are plenty of great books out there that don’t necessarily get the attention they deserve.

On the calculation of volume

On the Calculation of Volume is a fantasy series written by Danish writer Solvej Balle exploring an infinite time loop in a fresh and intriguing way.

They want to believe

Amanda Lohrey’s new novel captures the uncertainties of reason, doubt and belief in telling the story of an ageing psychiatrist in his sixties who takes on a new group of patients who all claim to have been abducted by aliens.

Lost in translation

AI offers an easy and accessible translation service which is putting real translators out of business, but from courtrooms to hospitals, interpreting what people say demands more than language fluency.