scribepub's reviews
497 reviews

The result is a forensically researched and brutally revealing chronicle of the days and weeks before and after the August coup — one told with the precision of an investigative journalist but in the elegant narrative style that always makes Savva a great read.
Paul Williams, Australian Book Review

How good is this book! So much intrigue. So many revelations. Such a brilliant read.
Laurie Oaks

A forensic and gripping account of Turnbull’s departure and Scott Morrison’s arrival ... Savva has written an account that moves at the velocity of an express train without brakes.
Stephen Loosely, Weekend Australian

Explosive.
Daily Mail

Plots and Prayers provides a detailed and fascinating look at one of the craziest weeks in Australian politics. It’s part documentary, part thriller. You’ll not want to put it down, but also throw it across the room because of frustrations with the central characters ... this book is a must read.
Tobi Lotus, Chronicle

Canberra insider Niki Savva’s new book burrows deep inside the ousting of former PM Malcolm Turnbull ... accurate and an important historical record.
Ellen Whinnett, The Observer

Niki Savva’s Plots and Prayers is heroin for political junkies. It is a fast-paced, funny and detailed chronicle of the events that led to the ousting of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the rise of Scott Morrison as Australia’s latest prime minister.
Neos Kosmos

The result is a forensically researched and brutally revealing chronicle of the days and weeks before and after the August coup — one told with the precision of an investigative journalist but in the elegant narrative style that always makes Savva a great read.
Paul Williams, Australian Book Review

How good is this book! So much intrigue. So many revelations. Such a brilliant read.
Laurie Oaks

A forensic and gripping account of Turnbull’s departure and Scott Morrison’s arrival ... Savva has written an account that moves at the velocity of an express train without brakes.
Stephen Loosely, Weekend Australian

Explosive.
Daily Mail

Plots and Prayers provides a detailed and fascinating look at one of the craziest weeks in Australian politics. It’s part documentary, part thriller. You’ll not want to put it down, but also throw it across the room because of frustrations with the central characters ... this book is a must read.
Tobi Lotus, Chronicle

Canberra insider Niki Savva’s new book burrows deep inside the ousting of former PM Malcolm Turnbull ... accurate and an important historical record.
Ellen Whinnett, The Observer

Niki Savva’s Plots and Prayers is heroin for political junkies. It is a fast-paced, funny and detailed chronicle of the events that led to the ousting of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the rise of Scott Morrison as Australia’s latest prime minister.
Neos Kosmos

Scientifically literate and sexually cliterate … an exuberant unfettering of female sexuality that challenges us to ‘think outside her box.’ Viva la Vulva!
Ian Kerner, Sex Therapist and Author of She Comes First

If you have ever felt different, other, or just weird when it comes to love, sex, or intimacy, read Untrue. Wednesday Martin bulldozes the sexual stereotypes that have silenced women for eons. By bringing the voices of women who love in a range of ways to the surface, she shows us all that it's not us and our desires that are abnormal: it is a system that has constrained and shamed women. I love this book.
Rachel Simmons, Co-Founder of Girls Leadership and Author of Odd Girl out

Wednesday Martin understands female sexuality – from the #MeToo movement and polyamory to women’s prehistoric and cultural heritage. She goes far beyond our current psychological understanding of women’s infidelity to tell the real story of women’s ubiquitous, tenacious, and primordial sexual strategies. And her writing is not only informative, timely, and refreshing but wonderfully engaging. Brava, Wednesday.
Helen Fisher, Author of The First Sex and Why We Love

For centuries, men have been telling the story of female sexuality. Unsurprisingly, it was was riddled with condescension, bias, and sheer ignorance. With Untrue, Wednesday Martin sets the record straight, shining a light on some of the female researchers reshaping our understanding of what turns women on, and why. This is an important story, beautifully told. Highly recommended.
Christopher Ryan, Co-Author of Sex at Dawn

A simultaneously frothy and substantive tour of female sexual desire … An indispensable work of popular psychology and sociology.
Kirkus

Wednesday Martin deconstructs many of the false beliefs that have negatively affected the way women's sexuality is viewed … This book turns everything we think we know about women and sex completely on its head, essentially undressing the falsehoods of female sexuality to reveal what lies beneath the layers of distortion women operate under.
Kerri Jarema, Bustle

Chapters cover topics like infidelity, open marriage, polyamory, and even cuckolding to show that women are not the demure, sex-hating bearers of morality that history and long-standing research (by men) would lead us to believe.
Kathy Sexton, Booklist

Riveting.
Stephen A Russell, The New Daily

At times playful, the narrative teems with fascinating commentary about everything from bonobos and paleolithic gender roles to Craigslist ads, as Martin examines how female sexuality continues to be shaped and stigmatised by artificial social constructions, sociopolitical values, and economics, all under the guise of ‘natural’ female biology and desire. A timely take on femininity and sexuality. STARRED REVIEW
Emily Bowles, Library Journal

Combining Barbara Ehrenreich’s immersive reporting style and Carrie Bradshaw’s savoir faire, [Wednesday Martin] dispels many myths about female desire.
O, The Oprah Magazine

A revelation of a book: Rachel Nuwer pulls back the curtain of dry statistics to reveal the illegal and sordid world of wildlife trafficking as well as the valiant efforts to stem the tide. A firsthand account that is hard to put down.
Thomas E. Lovejoy, President, International Union of the Conservation of Nature – US

Poaching has reached crisis proportions, and Rachel Nuwer pursues this story to places few journalists go. The result is a vivid and urgent book.
Elizabeth Kolbert, Author of The Sixth Extinction

Our planet’s most iconic species — particularly African elephants — are facing devastating declines because of poaching. This is an important book that should inspire all of us to action.
Paul G. Allen, Microsoft Co-Founder and Philanthropist

Fellow animal-lovers, don't be deterred: This is not a book of despair. It will make you angry as hell — but then give you hope. Read about the brave people fighting the poaching syndicates. Learn what's working, what's not, and why. This extensively researched, personal, and riveting book is badly needed. Read it and act!
SY Montgomery, Author of The Soul of an Octopus

A must-read.
The Revelator

Nuwer’s intimate look at different poaching industries is educational and overall heartfelt.
Library Journal

Nuwer’s engaging and immersive reporting style ... illuminates and animates the larger forces driving the trade that’s wiping out our remaining wildlife.
Sierra

Nuwer, a conservation biologist turned science journalist, traces at first hand the front lines across the globe in her hard-hitting, wince-inducing report.
Nature

Remember the kid in your classroom who was passionate about stopping poaching and saving the elephants? Rachel Nuwer is that kid, now grown up and writing devastating, deeply impactful pieces.
Thrive Global, ‘Women to Watch in 2018

Nuwer writes with breathless urgency about some of the most poached animals on the planet ... Poached overflows with information — Nuwer definitely did her homework — while remaining readable for non-scientists.
Edge Effects, Kaitlin Stack Whitney

Poached gives readers an up-front look at the vulnerability of endangered animals that are worth more dead than alive … But these anecdotes aren’t just for shock value. Nuwer also documents the political, cultural, and economic factors driving wildlife trafficking … her takeaway is abundantly clear: This business has major consequences … Nuwer … show[s] how obsession, especially when profit is involved, can be a dark force.
Will Gordon, Outside

Not only is the book thoroughly researched, featuring interviews with hunters, conservationists, traders, collectors and users of illegal animal products, but it has a quirky, personal touch.
The Refresh

It’s easy to criticise the poachers, but we have no understanding of the desperation of the poor in Africa and Asia – and Nuwer does not turn away from that, nor from the excruciating realities of the trade. 4.5 STARS
Robyn Douglas, Adelaide Advertiser

The optimism expressed in Poached … is refreshing and much-needed.
Simon Caterson, Sydney Morning Herald

The most important book published this year is Poached ... Brilliantly researched, Poached exposes the full horrific absurdity of the global trade in endangered animals as well as portraying the heroes doing what they can to save them before they vanish forever.
Weekend Australian, ‘Books of the Year’, Simon Caterson

Reads like a thrilling piece of fiction — which makes it even more heartbreaking when you remember the events are true.
Earther

This second collection of work begins with an acerbic, witty musing on middle age by award-winning author Christos Tsiolkas. What follows is a range of writing styles and topics from a diverse group of authors and poets.
Sally Bogle, SA Weekend

[A] unique collection.
Happy Mag

[Fly Already] touches the heart of the experience of global disruption. The existence of Israel becomes a crumb of being in a world without hierarchies that has no single center, and has no controlling point of view. Through the language and seeming lightheartedness of Etgar Keret emerges a very deep sadness. The different characters are connected to each other through alienation, loneliness, and a strong feeling of abandonment in the world. Keret has turned the genre of short stories into the refined and necessary literary expression of this time.
Sapir Prize Judges’ Notes

Reading Fly Already is like settling down for a ride in a luxurious car with a world-class driver who has an extremely crazy worldview that doesn’t interfere with his amazing driving. Is there any better way to see the world?
Elif Batuman

I am in awe of Keret’s ability to simultaneously make me laugh while crying, explore the joy and horror of everyday life with precision, brevity and great psychological depth. His recognition of and engagement with the absurd is profound and he never loses his humanity, his heart along the way.
A.M. Homes

Brilliantly edgy, unsettling, Kafkaesque and often very funny.
Joyce Carol Oates

Etgar Keret, the writer of absurd, sad, funny and very short stories, grows up ... These sardonic and very short fables are the next installment in the series of strange scenarios cooked up in Keret’s brain ... They are absurd stories your stoned friend might unfold while giggling, but the best of them land at some insight into the human condition, all economy and charm. This new collection, though, plumbs darker depths.
Gal Beckerman, The New York Times

A grandmaster of the incongruous, Keret’s flights of fancy range from a dash of fantasy to the outright absurd ... The strongest stories are those that maintain some tether to reality, making the discrepancies between our expectations and the outrageous occurrences concocted by Keret all the funnier. His dips into dystopia...are less compelling. The whimsical scenarios belie a deeper gloom ... Keret has always conveyed an underlying awareness of mortality in his work. But Fly Already displays a particular gravitas: most of its protagonists are grieving, or alienated ... It’s Keret’s particular brand of brilliance that can simultaneously hold tragedy and comedy, and in such compact packages.
Mia Levitin, Financial Times

An Israeli writer is making short stories fun again. Etgar Keret doesn't avoid a punch line. The fiction writer and This American Life regular tackles Big Important Subjects in his work — death, family, war, etc. — but he does so in a way that's not, well, a bummer — By embracing the comic and the absurd, Keret achieves something rare among modern short-story writers: He's actually worth reading.
Men’s Journal

hese stories — swervy, thrillingly funny, honest, and almost shockingly alert — disarm a reader in abundant ways. Keret will look at any situation and any type of character with an open eye to all defences, and slowly (or really quickly) peel these away.
Aimee Bender

As a reader, you’re so immersed in Keretworld, that the twist in the tale is particularly more outrageous and unexpected than usual. Fantastical, heart-breaking, laughter-inducing, fabulist, and sometimes just downright wacky, Keret’s writing is palpably imbued with a distinct element of intimacy, as though the author has just invited you into his local café or pub to chat about the state of the world — of our world — over your drink of choice. Keret’s stories shimmer with an energising, evocative amalgam of comedy, both dark and light, and a high-level tolerance for the absurd. And always — always — even when it feels as though he's finessing his pages with a giant shrug about the ridiculous vagaries of the universe, inherent in Keret’s writing is a resolute insistence on adhering to life, as well as to the ineluctable joys of wordplay … If you’re already familiar with Keret’s work, this is a welcome addition to his canon; if you haven’t read him yet, this collection is a terrific place to start.
Daneet Steffens, Boston Globe

When you read an Etgar Keret story, it’s hard not to go straight to ‘genius’. The stories in this collection are wide-ranging, and many have that fantastical, highly imaginative Keret element. There is dark humour, wry humour, really-fucking-funny humour. There’s depth and sadness. And mostly there’s life: people falling into and out of relationships with themselves and others.
GOOP

[R]azor-sharp, satiric wit and genre-shifting style.
BBC

Keret at his best — tender and inventive, not giving too much away … Keret shines when he’s gentle and when he gives himself room to explore his characters ... [‘Pineapple Crush’ is] a lovely, understated story about the human need for connection, and Keret approaches it subtly, portraying the narrator’s loneliness without resorting to pity. He doesn't overplay his hand or feel the need to wax whimsical; he’s content to consider the human condition in a compassionate, unshowy way. The story is nearly perfect.
Michael Schaub, NPR

Like Lydia Davis, Etgar Keret has written stories of such singular diminutive style it took the culture a few years to realise: this is not a novelty act. This is the work of a genius, and he can pack more comedy and heartache into a single tale than just about any writer alive. A new book is cause for celebration.
John Freeman, LitHub

Keret continues his streak of writing short stories that are mordantly funny and bizarre in his latest collection ... Threaded through his sense of humour, you feel a little less lonely, a little more light.
Tomi Obaro, Buzzfeed

Sly and subversive collection ... full of modern-day fables about family, angels, UFOs, cloning and other weirdness.
Chicago Tribune

It’s difficult to characterise the work of a writer as prodigiously talented as Keret ... for whom nothing seems off limits ... [S]mart, strange, completely enthralling ... [R]eaders new to Keret will be dazzled.
Booklist

[Q]uirky, funny, touching, immensely readable, pure pleasure — and though most [stories] are very short, they are tightly scripted and satisfyingly complete. Originally written in Hebrew, the pieces in this fine collection lose nothing in translation; the wit and humanity of each tale survive intact. Ideal reading for short bursts of time or short attention spans.
Library Journal

Clive James has called [Keret] “one of the most important writers alive” — and these 22 tales showcase why. In Keret’s world, whimsy often conceals gut-wrenching wisdom, and heartache usually comes laced with hilarity. If Kafka were reincarnated as a comedy writer in Tel Aviv, his work might look something like this … The invention in these stories is dazzling: time and again, Keret hits on an idea so good that another writer would turn it into a novel … Where older Israeli writers such as Amos Oz and David Grossman have railed like prophets against their nation’s sins, Keret mounts his protest in the form of pitch-black satire … Although the tales are divided between five translators, each captures Keret’s dry, almost clinical style superbly. The book shows a master of the short story pushing against the limits of what the form can achieve … There’s only one thing Keret is incapable of doing with a story: writing one that’s boring.
Matt Rowland Hill, The Guardian

Israeli author Etgar Keret doesn’t just produce memorable short stories but short short stories … this collection features some of the darkest imagery Keret has brought to print to date … Keret plays with reality in ways that are reminiscent of Salman Rushdie but also have a splash of Kurt Vonnegut … In order to enjoy Keret’s stories you have to accept his approach: He cares less about Saki-like revelations, and more about crafting characters that feel like those you know, even if they’re dropped into absurd situations … Keret teases out humour in the darkest corners of our world, and his stories can have you laughing on one before clamping your throat shut with melancholy by the next. It’s a gift he’s brought to every collection … Keret has the admirable ability to find the poetry in gritty situations swirling with cannabis smoke and sour regrets. This marriage pulls in readers hungry to learn about the human condition and all its messiness.
David Silverberg, The Washington Post

The stories of Israeli writer Etgar Keret comprise a kind of magic show, a mystical whirl of light and dark, humour and heartbreak. His new collection, Fly Already, transports us into his quirky yet profound world, shaped by an obsession with the twinned masks of comedy and tragedy reminiscent of writers as varied as George Saunders, Gary Shteyngart, and Isaac Bashevis Singer … To Keret’s credit, he never brings the Palestinian conflict into full focus, allowing his characters (usually men) to stumble through mishaps of their own making … Their reversals of fortune are both sudden and moving … Keret’s ear for the whacky and revelatory is pitch-perfect … Keret’s stories are not all created equal, but happily the misses are few. Fly Already showcases a writer with a wealth of tricks up his sleeve and a rich, slangy voice, a recognised talent on the global stage who deserves a wider American audience.
Hamilton Cain, Chapter 16

Keret … balances gravitas and drollery … Stories … immediately engage … The endlessly inventive Keret finds the truth underlying even the simplest human interactions.
Publishers Weekly

Etgar Keret’s latest collection of short stories will take you on an emotional rollercoaster ... A great short story is a minor miracle: traversing the gamut of the human experience in a few short pages. In Fly Already, Keret manages this feat 22 times, with stories that encompass love and despair through an intelligent, eccentric lens.
Happy Mag

One of Israel’s most celebrated writers ... Keret’s stories begin and end quickly; he creates a world in a few pages. Writing with economy and magic, he has an ear for the way people talk to each other.
Sandee Brawarsky, Australian Jewish News


Keret writers with a twinkle in his eye, sprinkling his work with a good amount of humour despite the dark content ... each piece is entertaining, satisfying, and quickly done.
Margot Lloyd, The Advertiser

[A] master of the genre.
Anna Aslanyan, Spectator

Israeli writer Etgar Keret is a challenging, wildly imaginative writer who writes some scenarios that can knock the breath out of the unwary reader.
Kerryn Goldsworthy, The Age

Keret doesn’t simply write unforgettable short stories (half a dozen pages is common), but some consist of a meagre, yet nonetheless magical, 500 words. His work is at times reminiscent of Murakami, Rushdie, Marquez, Kafka, Vonnegut and Shalom Aleichem (and even Rabbi Nachman of Breslov), yet Etgar Keret’s voice is clearly his own.
Geoffrey Zygier, J-Wire

His brief tales, filled with black wit and iron whimsy, are wise without ever fully relinquishing pure comedy.
The Australian Georgie Williamson

This short but incisive book builds to a stirring and well-argued conclusion ... What Sparrow does so eloquently ... is overtly link fascism, historically and theoretically, with political violence. b>FOUR STARS
Kelsey Oldham, Books + Publishing

With conceptual clarity and meticulous research, Jeff Sparrow has produced an indispensable guidebook to the intellectual and political sewers from which the Christchurch mass murderer emerged. Sparrow understands the role social media has played in the rebirth of fascism. He also understands that ideas matter.
Robert Manne, emeritus professor of politics and vice-chancellor's fellow at La Trobe University

Part history lesson, part detective story, part deep-dive into an online swamp, Fascists Among Us is essential reading for anyone who wants to take a stand against hate.
Scott Ludlam

Jeff Sparrow charts the ideological underpinnings of fascism with uncommon clarity, demonstrating the importance of confronting the truth rather than retreating from its horrors. Read. This. Book.
Sisonke Msimang

Lit with insight and urgency. Read it, just read it.
Chloe Hooper

Sparrow’s analysis is poignant and confronting, yet avoids being voyeuristic or disrespectful.
Ellen Muller, ArtsHub

This short but incisive book builds to a stirring and well-argued conclusion ... What Sparrow does so eloquently ... is overtly link fascism, historically and theoretically, with political violence. FOUR STARS
Kelsey Oldham, Books + Publishing

With conceptual clarity and meticulous research, Jeff Sparrow has produced an indispensable guidebook to the intellectual and political sewers from which the Christchurch mass murderer emerged. Sparrow understands the role social media has played in the rebirth of fascism. He also understands that ideas matter.
Robert Manne, emeritus professor of politics and vice-chancellor's fellow at La Trobe University

Part history lesson, part detective story, part deep-dive into an online swamp, Fascists Among Us is essential reading for anyone who wants to take a stand against hate.
Scott Ludlam

Jeff Sparrow charts the ideological underpinnings of fascism with uncommon clarity, demonstrating the importance of confronting the truth rather than retreating from its horrors. Read. This. Book.
Sisonke Msimang

Lit with insight and urgency. Read it, just read it.
Chloe Hooper

Sparrow’s analysis is poignant and confronting, yet avoids being voyeuristic or disrespectful.
Ellen Muller, ArtsHub

This is my chance to speak for my people, who continue to suffer, but who are voiceless.
The Guardian

More than 688,000 Rohingya fled western Burma since August 2017, at the launch of punitive operations, a sweep of violence without precedent. Habiburahman, though, left the zone well before this happened — 18 years ago. He passed through Thailand and Malaysia, was stopped by a fishing boat, then tried to reach Australia by sea, getting as far as the Christmas Islands. After two and a half years in Australian detention centers, he was released at the end of 2012.
Le Monde

Habiburahman without doubt presents an unambiguous view of the Burmese situation … But there is little evidence from the Rangoon government to seriously deny it.
L’EXPRESS

The gripping, chilling inside story of the incubation of a genocide ... Habib’s moving family history emerges as a powerful and, to my knowledge, unique historical document. His compelling storytelling relates how playground prejudice against the Muslim Rohingya of Arakan escalated into pogroms, terror, and apartheid ... Incredible.
Jonathan Miller, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Channel 4 News

The book is written in simple language and tells the story without embellishment. There is no need for flourishes; it is relentless.
Gay Alcorn, The Guardian

The greatest barriers to stories such as Habiburahman’s being heard, though. Are invalidation and indifference. Do not be indifferent to this urgent, humane book. Read it, share it, talk about what has been happening — and in so doing safeguard the humanity of Habiburahman, the Rohingya and all asylum seekers, as well as the imperilled humanity of this country.
Maria Takolander, The Saturday Paper

[First, They Erased Our Name] tells the first-hand truth behind the global humanitarian crisis.
Business Standard

For the first time, Habib’s book gives written voice to the history of fate and his people who have been left stateless in their own country. Habib’s own story is an odyssey of danger, resistance, torture and courage.
James Taylor, Surf Coast Times

Compelling. FOUR STARS
Robyn Douglass, SA Weekend

This is my chance to speak for my people, who continue to suffer, but who are voiceless.
The Guardian

More than 688,000 Rohingya fled western Burma since August 2017, at the launch of punitive operations, a sweep of violence without precedent. Habiburahman, though, left the zone well before this happened — 18 years ago. He passed through Thailand and Malaysia, was stopped by a fishing boat, then tried to reach Australia by sea, getting as far as the Christmas Islands. After two and a half years in Australian detention centers, he was released at the end of 2012.
Le Monde

Habiburahman without doubt presents an unambiguous view of the Burmese situation … But there is little evidence from the Rangoon government to seriously deny it.
L’EXPRESS

The gripping, chilling inside story of the incubation of a genocide ... Habib’s moving family history emerges as a powerful and, to my knowledge, unique historical document. His compelling storytelling relates how playground prejudice against the Muslim Rohingya of Arakan escalated into pogroms, terror, and apartheid ... Incredible.
Jonathan Miller, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Channel 4 News

The book is written in simple language and tells the story without embellishment. There is no need for flourishes; it is relentless.
Gay Alcorn, The Guardian

The greatest barriers to stories such as Habiburahman’s being heard, though. Are invalidation and indifference. Do not be indifferent to this urgent, humane book. Read it, share it, talk about what has been happening — and in so doing safeguard the humanity of Habiburahman, the Rohingya and all asylum seekers, as well as the imperilled humanity of this country.
Maria Takolander, The Saturday Paper

[First, They Erased Our Name] tells the first-hand truth behind the global humanitarian crisis.
Business Standard

For the first time, Habib’s book gives written voice to the history of fate and his people who have been left stateless in their own country. Habib’s own story is an odyssey of danger, resistance, torture and courage.
James Taylor, Surf Coast Times

Compelling. FOUR STARS
Robyn Douglass, SA Weekend