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Good Reading Podcast

Good Reading Magazinegoodreadingmagazine.com.au
Book talk and author interviews aimed at helping you discover your next favourite read, presented by Good Reading Magazine.
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Episodes

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, who innocently enquired about the Moon’s whereabouts one day. Olivia’s inner Speech Pathologist could not resist weaving a strong narrative with a variety of language features to support emergent literacy during shared book reading. The story works in harmony...

Jul 02, 202514 min

Belinda Lyons Lee on her gothic horror story, 'The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson'

The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson tells the story of Robert Louis Stevenson’s friendship with the charming Eugene Chantrelle and the murder mystery that contributed to Robert’s need to create a novel focused on the dualistic nature of the psyche. From a séance with the Shelleys at Boscombe Manor to a haunted wardrobe made by an infamous Scottish criminal, the novel is underscored by the story of two writers very much in love. Fanny and Robert were married in 1880, when she was forty and he wa...

Jun 29, 202525 min

Kaarina Parker on a remarkable woman of the Ancient Roman Empire, 'Fulvia'

In the dying days of the Roman republic, a remarkable woman steps out of the shadows and beyond the boundaries imposed on her sex, driven by an unstoppable ambition. Kaarina Parker's stunning debut novel, told in the compelling voice of this brilliant woman from history, brings Fulvia and the society in which she lived vividly to life. Born into a wealthy but unimportant family, Fulvia is raised in the peace of the Etruscan countryside but longs for a life of excitement and influence. When her f...

Jun 28, 202525 min

Sarah Di Lorenzo on the steps to transform your liver health in 'The Liver Repair Plan'

The liver's ability to heal and regenerate can greatly improve your wellbeing. Clinical nutritionist and bestselling author Sarah Di Lorenzo’s four-week plan has helped hundreds of her#diet patients repair their inner health and now she’s sharing it with you. One in three Australians have a fatty liver, one of the most prevalent liver conditions worldwide. Revitalising your liver health can increase energy, aid weight-loss, improve sleep, slow aging, reduce headaches, improve skin health, reduce...

Jun 11, 202523 min

Simon Mustoe on unlocking the power of nature in 'How to Survive the Next 100 Years'

As animals, our brains float above the planet’s surface. We were made to be mobile and carry our intelligence with us. A huge leap for mankind is happening right now. Contained within our minds and everything around us is the solution to our anxiety. Ecologist and naturalist Simon Mustoe shows us how to consume a more balanced variety of knowledge to become healthier and happier by reconnecting with nature. The key to avoiding disaster is to work within the natural balance of our beautiful world...

May 21, 202529 min

Erna Walraven on her memoir about zoo-keeping and feminism, 'Hear Me Roar'

In the early 1980s, when Erna Walraven decided to follow her dreams and become one of the first female zookeepers in Australia, she thought her biggest challenges would be feeding big cats and subduing irate gorillas. In fact, it was her male colleagues who made work miserable, harassing and humiliating her for doing a 'man's job'. So, she looked to the animals under her care to prove them wrong. Despite what Erna's colleagues seemed to think, the females of the animal world were far from weak a...

May 13, 202529 min

Jessica Townsend on the fourth in her Nevermoor series, 'Silverborn The Mystery of Morrigan Crow'

In the magical city of Nevermoor, long-buried secrets are coming to light, and Morrigan Crow's life is about to turn upside down. When Morrigan is invited into Nevermoor's wealthy Silver District, she discovers a world of extravagance and a family mystery she's eager to unravel. She could never imagine where it will lead: a white wedding, a golden dragon and a red pool of blood. Embroiled in suspicion and danger, Morrigan leaps headfirst into a murder investigation, while also grappling with her...

May 07, 202527 min

Raina MacIntyre on science, reason and the threat to 200 years of progress in 'Vaccine Nation'

Vaccination is arguably the greatest public health achievement in history, yet the disappearance of many diseases has also seen an increased focus on the side effects of vaccines and the rise of the anti-vax movement. The COVID-19 pandemic propelled anti-vaccination sentiment into the mainstream – including from some leaders in the medical profession – in an explosion of pseudoscience and disinformation that’s made it increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction. In Vaccine Nation, inter...

Apr 27, 202532 min

Dianne Wolfer on the retelling of an Australian classic in 'The Colt From Old Regret'

You may have heard the story of the man from Snowy River and his fearless ride through the mountains. This is Colt’s story, of nickering mares and a rearing stallion. How did Colt escape the man? What did Colt see, feel and smell as he charged through the bush? Beloved children’s author Dianne Wolfer responds to The Man from Snowy River, creating an essential companion to the original poem. It is illustrated with exquisite collages by Erica Wagner, which convey the depth of emotion with great te...

Apr 10, 202520 min

Stephen Gapps on his new book 'Uprising: War in the colony of New South Wales, 1838–1844

The First Wiradyuri War of Resistance ended in 1824 with a series of massacres conducted by settlers in the Bathurst region. From the 1830s, colonists began occupying more and more Aboriginal land across western New South Wales and stocking it with sheep and cattle. By 1838, a dramatic fightback began across the entire frontier of the colony. What has been called the Second Wiradyuri War of Resistance, from 1839 to 1841, was, in fact, part of a vast arc of conflict from present-day northern Vict...

Mar 31, 202526 min

Kate Grenville on her family pilgrimage in 'Unsettled: A Journey Through Time and Place'

‘What does it mean to be on land that was taken from other people? Now that we know how the taking was done, what do we do with that knowledge?’ Kate Grenville is no stranger to the past. Her success and fame as a writer exploded when she published The Secret River in 2005, a bestseller based on the story of her convict ancestor, an early settler on the Hawkesbury River. More than two decades on, and following the defeat of the Voice referendum, Grenville is still grappling with what it means to...

Mar 31, 202532 min

'How to Be Normal' Q&A with author Ange Crawford and Cerdon College Merrylands

Ange Crawford is the winner of the the inaugural Walker Books Manuscript Prize. With themes including coercive control, coming of age, and finding yourself, her debut young adult novel, How to be Normal, authentically deals with timely issues with insight, sympathy and well crafted humour. Good Reading and six students from Cerdon College in Merrylands, NSW, caught up with Ange to ask her about her inspiration and what to do if you know someone who is experiencing coercive control. Age Guide 12+...

Mar 26, 202518 min

Judy Friedlander's new book for kids, 'The Bee Squad: Boosting Biodiversity in Your Neighbourhood'

From the coast of Western Australia to Sydney’s suburbs, young people are discovering nature in their neighbourhoods and setting up nesting boxes for birds, cleaning up waterways, planting to attract bees and koalas, and building insect hotels. They’re learning about amazing native species and finding ways to protect them. The Bee Squad inspires you to take part in these exciting adventures and projects that support threatened species by doing things like: learning how to put together a nature s...

Feb 11, 202522 min

Porscia Lam on a life-changing journey in 'The Unlocking: An Autism Story'

The Unlocking: An Autism Story unfolds in pandemic-stricken Melbourne, charting one family’s desperate battle against the escalating behavior of their autistic toddler. Amid the lack of in-person services, Harry exhibits severely restricted eating, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, crippling separation anxiety, and a demand avoidance that impedes every function in his young life. Harry meets the description of Pathological Demand Avoidance, a sub-type of autism that is not yet recognised in Austr...

Feb 04, 202525 min

Ronni Salt on her debut crime thriller about guns, drugs and small town life in 'Gunnawah'

When nineteen-year-old farm girl Adelaide Hoffman applies for a cadetship at the Gunnawah Gazette, she sees it as her ticket out of a life too small for her. The paper's owner, Valdene Bullark, seeing something of the girl she once was in young Adelaide, puts her straight to work. What starts as a routine assignment covering an irrigation project soon puts Adelaide on the trail of a much bigger story. Water is money in farming communities, and when Adelaide starts asking questions, it's like she...

Dec 30, 202419 min

Judy King on a childhood betrayed and reclaimed in 'Agnes'

After a 30-year absence Agnes is returning to Australia, the country of her birth, at the behest of her aging, narcissistic mother. Having undergone a long period of psychotherapy she now entertains a hope that burning questions will be answered, haunting mysteries solved, and buried memories encouraged into the light. Something has blighted her life since childhood. Something has cast a long shadow over her existence, affecting her ability to grasp at life fully, to develop sustained relationsh...

Dec 23, 202421 min

Garth Nix on his new novel for kids, 'We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord'

All Kim wants to do is play Dungeons & Dragons with his friends and ride his bike around the local lake. But he has always lived in the shadow of his younger sister. Eila is a prodigy, and everyone talks about how smart she is, though in Kim's eyes, she has no common sense. So when Eila finds an enigmatic, otherworldly globe which gives her astonishing powers, Kim not only has to save his sister from herself, he might also have to save the world from his sister! In this episode Gregory Dobbs...

Nov 18, 202417 min

Isobelle Carmody on a reluctant hero on an epic quest in 'Comes the Night'

Will Helloran is sixteen years old and lives with his father in the Canberra dome complex that protects its inhabitants from the corrosive atmosphere outside. At night his dreams are haunted by his beloved uncle Adam, who unexpectedly died in his sleep almost a year ago. As the nightmares grow increasingly disturbing, Will comes to believe that his uncle's death may have been suspicious - and he begins investigating. Meanwhile, his best friend Ender is becoming concerned about her brilliant, tro...

Nov 18, 202421 min

Chris Baker on life, love, memory and taking the plunge in 'Swimming Sydney'

Swimming Sydney is a tale of 52 swims in and around Sydney that take place over a calendar year. From Palm Beach to Cronulla, Mount Druitt to Bondi, Chris Baker swims at iconic beaches, municipal pools, harbour baths, tidal rock pools, bushland lakes and a backyard pool. Taking his weekly plunges, Baker reflects on friendship, history and family, and how swimming can help us better understand ourselves. Swimming Sydney is a valentine to the beautiful obsession of swimming in the world’s most bea...

Nov 03, 202429 min

Chris Hammer on small town crime and blood relatives in 'The Valley'

A controversial entrepreneur is murdered in a remote mountain valley, but this is no ordinary case. Ivan and Nell are soon contending with cowboy lawyers, conmen, bullion thieves and grave robbers. But it's when Nell discovers the victim is a close blood relative that the past begins to take on a looming significance. What did take place in The Valley all those years ago? What was Nell's mother doing there, and what was her connection to troubled young police officer Simmons Burnside? And why do...

Oct 31, 202419 min

Melissa Lucashenko on her HNSA award-winning novel, 'Edenglassie'

When Mulanyin meets the beautiful Nita in Edenglassie, their saltwater people still outnumber the British. As colonial unrest peaks, Mulanyin dreams of taking his bride home to Yugambeh Country, but his plans for independence collide with white justice. Two centuries later, fiery activist Winona meets Dr Johnny. Together they care for obstinate centenarian Granny Eddie, and sparks fly, but not always in the right direction. What nobody knows is how far the legacies of the past will reach into th...

Oct 24, 202417 min

Beverley McWilliams on her 2024 HNSA prize-winning novel for children, 'Spies in the Sky'

Royal Blue is a royal racing pigeon from a long line of champions. Every morning he wakes in his comfortable loft at Sandringham House, eats the very best seeds and spends the day training with his best friend to be the fastest and strongest pigeon in Britain. But there’s a war going on, and things are changing. Then one day the King himself comes to the loft and chooses Blue for a very special assignment. As Blue goes on missions, helping with rescues, carrying secret messages and facing danger...

Oct 24, 202419 min

Kathy Mexted on the incredible stories of Australian women who reach for the sky in 'Take Flight'

From balancing on a wingtip to circling with eagles, Take Flight tells the stories of Australian women who have leapt, tumbled and dived, and reached for the stars. Helicopter pilot Alida Soemawinata ascends over Kata Tjuṯa. Paramotor pilot Sacha Dench follows migrating swans from the Arctic tundra to the English countryside. Birdwoman Stef Walter wing walks. Hot air balloonist Donna Tasker glides over Bristol, Myanmar and much of Australia. Gomeroi astrophysicist Krystal De Napoli studies the S...

Oct 16, 202419 min

Emily Rodda on her epic three part fantasy adventure, 'Landovel'

Derry knows no other life than that of a captive on Cram's Rock, shunned by the other young prisoners for being Cram's poison taster. Until the day everything changes, when a traveller arrives, on the run from the sinister El executioners. She leaves Derry with a magical notebook full of secrets, secrets that might hold the key to Derry's destiny – and his past. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Emily Rodda about the joy she still finds in writing fantasy fiction for young people, the fasci...

Oct 13, 202419 min

Tim Winton on a story of catastrophe, survival and the power of humanity in 'Juice'

Two fugitives, a man and a child, drive all night across a stony desert. As dawn breaks, they roll into an abandoned mine site. From the vehicle they survey a forsaken place – middens of twisted iron, rusty wire, piles of sun-baked trash. They’re exhausted, traumatised, desperate now. But as a refuge, this is the most promising place they’ve seen. The child peers at the field of desolation. The man thinks to himself, this could work. So begins a searing, propulsive journey through a life whose c...

Oct 04, 202423 min

Justin Fox on the pathway to his first novel, 'Quietly Waiting'

Justin Fox on the pathway to his first novel, 'Quietly Waiting' Tanya is a strong, independent young woman living in England. Surrounded by limitless possibilities, her biggest fear is not being able to find her true place in the world. Never usually driven by emotions, her world is turned upside down when she meets Evan. Evan is instantly her soulmate connection and he feels the same way about her. When Evan is deployed to Afghanistan, to fight a war he does not understand, Tanya must wait at h...

Sep 20, 202415 min

Dr Norman Swan on his latest book, 'So You Want to Know What's Good For Your Kids?'

We all want our kids to grow into happy, healthy adults and the first ten years count more than any other time in our lives. So what should we be doing to give them the best chance? Most books on childhood stop at age five and start again in adolescence. They miss the critical primary school age years leading to adolescence - the years that make all the difference. With a background in paediatrics and an over thirty-year career monitoring and broadcasting the latest medical research, Dr Norman S...

Sep 19, 202429 min

Sean Williams, Connor Chamberlain and John Goodwin on the 40th Volume of 'Writers of the Future'

L. Ron Hubbard created the Writers of the Future Writing Contest in 1983 to provide "a means for new and budding writers to have a chance for their creative efforts to be seen and acknowledged." The 559 winners and published finalists of the Writing Contest have published over 8,000 novels and short stories, created 36 New York Times bestselling novels, and their works have sold over 60 million copies. Selected from a field of thousands of entrants from 180 countries, Volume 40 features winners ...

Sep 05, 202433 min

Elifie Shiosaki on the galaxy of Noongar stories in her new poetry collection, 'Refugia'

'Refugia' is an unparalleled work of vision and political fury from Noongar and Yawuru poet and scholar Elfie Shiosaki. Inspired by the beeliar (Swan River) and the NASA James Webb Space Telescope’s first year of science, this collection draws on colonial archives to contest the occupation of Noongar Country. As the bicentennial year of the colony of Western Australia approaches, Shiosaki looks to the stars and back to the earth to make sense of memory and the afterlife of imperial violence. In ...

Aug 25, 202426 min

Shelley Davidow on love in Berlin and the creative urge in 'The Girl With the Violin'

It's 1989 and for a young Jewish-Australian violinist, a scholarship to Berlin is the chance of a lifetime. Germany is on the verge of change as the wall is torn down, and Susanna is swept along by the tumultuous event. Under the careful guidance of Stefan Heinemeyer, her renowned violin teacher and the grandson of a Nazi, she begins a composition in memory of her grandmother, Mirla, who died in the Buchenwald concentration camp during the Second World War, and Susanna is inspired to retrace Mir...

Jul 12, 202420 min
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