PODCAST · arts
Good Reading Podcast
by Good Reading Magazine
Book talk and author interviews aimed at helping you discover your next favourite read, presented by Good Reading Magazine.
Episodes
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Wayne Marshall's ARA Historical Novel Society Australasia's People's Choice novel, 'Henry Goes Bush'
In 1892, New South Wales' most promising writer and least promising teetotaller, Henry Lawson, is banished to Bourke to 'find the real bush'. The goal: sober up, gather fresh material, and stop being such a disappointment. But what Australia's favourite literary son discovers in the river town is...
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Meg Caddy on her 2026 ARA Historical Novel Society Australasia's prize-winning YA novel, A 'Flash in the Dust'
1899, Fremantle Asylum, Western Australia. For three years now, Gilberta Brady has kept quiet and stayed out of trouble, hoping to soon be released. But when Norah Devaney screams into the ward with revenge in her heart and a story no-one believes, Brady’s carefully guarded peace is shattered. On...
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Bernice Barry on her Historical Novel Society of Australasia award-winning book, 'The Names of a Hare'
Cornwall, 1628. Steeped in herbal lore, a woman with no name guards a dangerous secret, while across the land whispers of witchcraft turn deadly. When a witch hunter sets out to track down the woman, their meeting will change the course of history. Can she survive in a world that burns what it…
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Carrie Tiffany on her powerful exploration of dementia in the novella. 'The Lady With The Dog'
An elderly couple are driving to the pound. At last, the old lady is getting a dog. The dog is driven through a gate in the fence to its new home. It goes to sleep in front of the black stove, but when it wakes, the old lady is confused. Doesn’t she already have a dog? The old lady slips a pair…
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Matt Nable on his testosterone-fuelled high stakes crime-thriller, 'Mire'
They say your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. For Dan Milligan it isn't his life ... it's memories of his dad. Dan has spent his whole life chasing something. Fast cars, leggy blondes, the rush of making a lot of money and the cocaine high to celebrate. But as the stock market...
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Dr Norman Swan on 'The Brain Cliff' and how to stay away from the edge
What many of us fear, especially as we hit our forties and fifties, is not being as quick of mind. Not remembering as well as we used to. By our 60s and 70s we worry there's nothing we can do and that we are falling helplessly into an abyss which leads to dementia. Dr Norman Swan, one of...
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Annabel Stafford on the forgotten horrors of a Western Australian apartheid hospital
When the Wet comes to Wyndham, bones wash down with the loose shale of the surrounding Bastion ranges. Year round, lost spirits wander this tiny port town on the northern tip of Western Australia. Some say they belong to the forgotten inmates of an apartheid hospital, built here in 1936 on the...
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AJ Mackinnon on 'Realms of Gold: The Remarkable Return of Jack de Crow'
AJ Mackinnon on 'Realms of Gold: The Remarkable Return of Jack de Crow When A.J. 'Sandy' Mackinnon sailed a tiny dinghy through twelve countries from North Wales to the Black Sea, he survived pirates, the English Channel, international incidents and all the disasters, big and small, that can…
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Dr Barbara Lemon on a unique record of Australian history in, 'The Memory Tapes'
The Memory Tapes is a new podcast from the National Library of Australia that brings history to life through the voices of the people who lived it. Drawing on one of the nation’s most significant oral history collections, the series explores remarkable stories of resilience, innovation…
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Elisabeth Storrs on her heart-breaking story of love and war in, 'Fables and Lies'
WWII Berlin. Freyja Bremer, a patriotic museum assistant, marries Kaspar Voigt, an ambitious SS scholar, to protect her father. Yet she is unaware her husband is instrumental in Himmler’s twisted quest for Aryan supremacy. As she strives to safeguard the priceless Priam’s Treasure from air raids,...
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Danielle Binks on war, friendship and finding common ground in 'Shakespeare in the Orchard'
Langwarrin, Victoria, 1914. The whole world is at war. In Langwarrin on the Mornington Peninsula, fourteen-year-old Jack Thorning is the best marksman in military cadet training. His brother, Matt, taught him everything he knew, after their father died. But now Matt has joined the war effort, and...
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Warren Rankine on childhood trauma and finding your feet in 'Fifteen Feet Tall'
Fifteen Feet Tall is Warren Rankine's own account of a journey from trauma, tragedy, sadness, to, success and self realisation. Others may have put him on a path. Ultimately he forged his own. In this episode Gregory Dobbs chats to Warren Rankine about his memoir - story of childhood trauma,...
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James O'Loghlin on mesothelioma and friendship in 'The Accidental Activist'
Usually when a friend is dying, there’s not much you can do. But what if there was? James O’Loghlin’s best friend at university was Jum Wallner, but once careers and kids came along, they drifted apart. That was, until the day Jum felt a pain in his side and remembered he had grown up in a house...
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Justine Hausheer on the fight against extinction in 'The Vanishing Wild'
Australia is a country celebrated for its wildlife, yet native species are in crisis. In the last 200 years, Australia has lost more biodiversity than any other developed nation. In this book, award-winning science writer Justine E. Hausheer encounters pygmy possums that live high in the Snowy...
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Jess Kitching on love, loss and new beginnings in, 'The Secrets of Strangers'
After suffering a loss, Janine and her husband, Kamal, need a fresh start. They leave their family and everything they know in Manchester and move to Bamblethorpe, a picturesque Lancashire village where they expect nothing but peace and quiet. It’ll be just what Janine, a thriller writer, needs…
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Kerry Jewell on her compelling, candid and darkly funny novel, 'A Little Unwell'
For Amy, being a doctor was supposed to mean winning at life. Helping people. Saving lives. Having a secure job. Earning good money. Tick, tick, tick, tick. But now, in her second year in a city hospital the reality is a world away from Amy's med school dreams. She is finding out that people…
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Martin McKenzie-Murray on the shadow world of first responders in 'Sirens'
Three first responders – a paramedic, a police officer and a firefighter – are motivated by a desire to serve the community. But they are drawn to their work by more complicated impulses as well: a need for control, an acute awareness of danger, and childhood experiences they are still running...
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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 paintings were the Djang who made his country and…
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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 understand her life in pre-war Berlin and Mandate…
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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 concisely. In Speak Up, she shows you how to successfully…
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Vikki Petraitis on a forty-year-old true crime mystery, '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, Vivienne had killed Beth and then herself. Vivienne’s body...
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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 come to know them, but there were always whispers and...
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Vicki Bennett on her story of love, war, and inter-generational 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 family for generations. She meets her young grandfather…
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Chris Blake on his 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 keeps their little world safe. And he's working in...
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Henry Reynolds on 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 remedy the situation and ended up transforming...
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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 on the black market, Seka vows to investigate the...
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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 eccentric elderly mother, Edwina. Recently bereaved…
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Suzanne Leal on her HNSA award-winning book for young adults, '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 place, with little comfort and even less food. When Klara...
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Tasma Walton and Robbie Arnott on their ARA HNSA 2025 prize-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 spirit that refuses to bow/ From her idyllic life in...
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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 people can do at their local library. Libraries offer...
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Garry Disher on the fifth in the Hirsch crime thriller series, 'Mischance Creek'
Hirsch 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, and Hirsch is responsible for the welfare of his scattered flock of...
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Inga Simpson and Tannya Harricks on their 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 grows. But darker changes are stirring. Soon rain is...
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Blake Johnston on surfing success, change and resilience in 'Swellbeing'
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, though, is that they change - sometimes by choice and...
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Mark Greenwood and Frané Lessac on their children's picture book, '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 cracker, sharpshooter and rough rider. She would…
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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 help her come to terms with her grief. But the property...
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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, dreamers and thieves, the city comes alive with story. Written...
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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 apprentice to her father until she can become a…
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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 past not easily forgotten – or forgiven. When he crosses...
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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 wanted to present to the world. To his son Adam…
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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 way of coping, of not taking too seriously what was…
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Book talk and author interviews aimed at helping you discover your next favourite read, presented by Good Reading Magazine.
HOSTED BY
Good Reading Magazine
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How many episodes does Good Reading Podcast have?
Good Reading Podcast currently has 405 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Good Reading Podcast about?
Book talk and author interviews aimed at helping you discover your next favourite read, presented by Good Reading Magazine.
How often does Good Reading Podcast release new episodes?
Good Reading Podcast publishes regularly with 405 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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Good Reading Podcast is created and hosted by Good Reading Magazine.
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