THE holidays may be over, but that doesn't mean your summer reading has to stop.
Whether you've finished making your way through your Christmas book pile, or have found yourself in a reading slump, here are 24 titles to get stuck in to in 2020 (if you haven't read them already).
From Archie Roach's intimate memoir Tell Me Why and Paul Byrnes' The Lost Boys - untold stories of the under-age soldiers who fought in World War I - to Charlotte Wood's novel The Weekend about three women in their 70s who reunite for a life-changing weekend in the beach house of their late friend, there's plenty for everyone on this eclectic list.
The books have all made the shortlist of the 2020 Indie Book Awards, celebrating the best of Aussie writing as voted by the country's independent booksellers, members of Leading Edge Books.
Author Bruce Pascoe's book Young Dark Emu: A Truer History - an adaptation of his landmark book Dark Emu for younger readers - is shortlisted in the Children's category.
"Our independent booksellers work tirelessly to champion the work of Australian writers and illustrators and so it means a lot to me that Young Dark Emu has been shortlisted by these very booksellers, at the heart of our industry," he said.
The 24 shortlisted books, across six categories, will be vying for the top spot as the Overall Indie 'Book of the Year' on March 23 at the Leading Edge Books annual conference in Brisbane.
Since the awards inception in 2008, past Book of the Year winners include Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton; Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend, The Dry by Jane Harper; The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood; The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan; All That I Am by Anna Funder; The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do; Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey; and Breath by Tim Winton.
Indie Book Awards 2020 shortlist
FICTION
- There Was Still Love by Favel Parrett (Hachette Australia)
- Bruny by Heather Rose (Allen and Unwin)
- The Wife and the Widow by Christian White (Affirm Press)
- The Weekend by Charlotte Wood (Allen and Unwin)
NON FICTION
- Your Own Kind of Girl by Clare Bowditch (Allen and Unwin)
- 488 Rules for Life: The Thankless Art of Being Correct by Kitty Flanagan (Allen and Unwin)
- Tell Me Why by Archie Roach (Simon & Schuster Australia)
- Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta (Text Publishing)
DEBUT FICTION
- Wearing Paper Dresses by Anne Brinsden (Macmillan Australia)
- Allegra in Three Parts by Suzanne Daniel (Macmillan Australia)
- The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone by Felicity McLean (Fourth Estate Australia)
- Heart of the Grass Tree by Molly Murn (Vintage Australia)
ILLUSTRATED NON-FICTION
- The Lost Boys by Paul Byrnes (Affirm Press)
- Finding the Heart of the Nation by Thomas Mayor (Hardie Grant Books)
- The Whole Fish Cookbook by Josh Niland (Hardie Grant Books)
- In an Australian Light edited by Jo Turner (Thames & Hudson Australia)
CHILDREN'S
- The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Ugly Animals by Sami Bayly (Lothian Children's Books)
- Into the Wild: Wolf Girl, Book 1 by Anh Do, illustrated by Jeremy Ley (Allen and Unwin Children's)
- The Tiny Star by Mem Fox & Freya Blackwood (Puffin Australia)
- Young Dark Emu: A Truer History by Bruce Pascoe (Magabala Books)
YOUNG ADULT
For more info on the Indie Book Awards visit indiebookawards.com.au
Geraldine Cardozo
Features Editor at The Senior.
Features Editor at The Senior.
