Our Favourite Books of 2021

Our booksellers share their favourite books of 2021

Anna

- Fiction -

- Non-fiction -

Simon

- Fiction -

- Crime Fiction -

Naomi

Steve

Stephen

- Fiction -

- Non-Fiction -

Tim

- Fiction -

- Non-Fiction -

Anjelica

Eamonn

Indigenous Literacy Day 2021

Indigenous Literacy Day is
Wednesday 1st September!

The Indigenous Literacy Foundation, along with Jessica Mauboy, Gregg Dreise, Shelley Ware and Archie Roach, is excited to celebrate and share the unique stories and languages of First Nations peoples and communities in a virtual program launched for Indigenous Literacy Day (ILD) on Wednesday, 1 September.

This year's theme is Celebrating Stories and Language. You will be able to pick and choose from a suite of diverse and inspiring two minute video stories from First Nations. You can see what will be available from 9am here.

We have supported the Indigenous Literacy Foundation since its inception. Its purpose is, quite simply, to make a difference to the lives of Indigenous families by not only gifting thousands of new, culturally appropriate books - with a focus on early literacy and first language - but also by running programs to inspire the communities to tell and publish their own stories, in the languages they choose.

Our Favourite Books of 2021 . . . so far!

Each Potts Point Bookshop bookseller selects their five favourite books of 2021 so far…

Anna

Simon

Naomi

Steve

Stephen

Our Favourite Books of 2020

Our booksellers share their favourite books of 2020

Anna

Simon

Naomi

Steve

Kate

STEPHEN

TIM

STELLA

Review: Kokomo by Victoria Hannan

First rate fiction from a writer to watch, writes Simon McDonald.

“Mina wondered what other secrets lay between these people, wondered if maybe every family was built on an intricate web of lies, or at least things people chose not to tell each other. She’d learned that not every truth deserves air: some truths were better smothered, extinguished before they could take hold and burn everything to the ground.”

Victoria Hannan’s seriously impressive debut Kokomo charts the complex, resilient relationship of a mother and daughter, and the toxicity of decades-long secrets finally surfacing. It’s a sharply-observed portrait of devastating loneliness and human fallibility, and what it means to belong.

When Mina’s agoraphobic mother leaves her house for the first time in more than a decade, she rushes from her life in London to be by Elaine’s side in Melbourne. On the one hand, it’s to commemorate her mother’s decision to unshackle herself from the house; on the other, it’s to untangle the mystery of why Elaine has chosen this moment to return to the world. But Elaine is reticent to explain, or delve into the agony of the past; and Mina’s homecoming engenders emotional fallout of her own with people she thought she’d left behind long ago.

Smart and sensitive, punctuated with moments of real humour, Hannan has crafted a novel in the mould of Anne Tyler’s finest work. Like Tyler, Hannan trades expertly in the themes of the struggle for identity, the lack of meaningful communication between loved ones, and individual isolation; and although it positively glows with poignancy, it’s somehow free of gross sentimentality. This is first rate fiction from a writer to watch.

Simon McDonald is the senior bookseller at Potts Point Bookshop. This review also appears at writtenbysime.com

Our Favourite Books of 2020

Our booksellers share the best recently published books they’ve read so far this year.

Anna Low

Simon McDonald

Naomi Fisher

Steve Sines

Stephen Madsen

Our Top 10 Bestsellers of March 2020

Our Top 10 Bestsellers of the Week - 12 August 2019