We’re rounding up the Best Books of 2019 across all genres and categories – scroll down to see our favourites in current affairs!
She Said
by Jodi Cantor & Megan Twohey
Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey are the journalists who broke the Weinstein #MeToo story wide open – with the help of many brave women (and men) who went on the record against their better judgement and at huge personal cost. This book breaks down how they tracked down the sources and convinced them to come forward, and demonstrates the lengths to which Weinstein and his enablers went to try to stop them.
Buy it here
Australia Day
by Stan Grant
The bestselling follow-up to Stan Grant’s Talking to My Country, Australia Day is in some ways a more contemplative, introspective book – still fuelled by anger, but an anger filled with sadness. This book successfully functions as a constructive critique of Australian policy and culture that also enables the vindicated sorrow of Indigenous people to be heard.
Buy it here
How Powerful We Are
by Sally Rugg
Sally Rugg is one of Australia’s most prominent activists, who lead the marriage equality campaign at GetUp (she’s now the Executive Director of Change.org). Her book is partially an insider’s guide on how a campaign of this level of complexity works, but (more importantly) it’s the re-telling of a period in Australian history that is being written by the victors. Namely that the fight for marriage equality was won by the community of activists and LGBTQ+ people who fought for equality for years – not by the politicians who did everything they could to stop it.
Buy it here
Finding the Heart of the Nation: The Journey of the Uluru Statement towards Voice, Treaty and Truth
by Thomas Mayor
Since the Uluru Statement from the Heart was proclaimed in 2017, Thomas Mayor has travelled the country to promote its message, interviewing key people to understand how it changes Australia’s relationship with First Nations people. This is an important and beautifully produced book that commemorates and investigates this historic moment and puts it into context.
Buy it here
About a Girl: A Mother’s Powerful Story of Raising her Transgender Child
by Rebekah Robertson
About a Girl is nominally about trans activist and actor Georgie Stone, but since it’s written by Georgie’s mother, Rebekah Robertson, this is as much about the journey of raising, protecting and nurturing a trans child as it is about Georgie’s own story. Told with warmth and conviction, this is a potent memoir for any parent, whether they’re experiencing this themselves or not.
Buy it here
Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do
by Eve Rodsky
One of Reese Witherspoon’s book club picks of 2019, this is a practical and insightful guide that helps level the playing field in the world of gendered domestic tasks. That makes it sound boring, but this is anything but – it’s almost guaranteed to cause arguments, conversation and, hopefully, change.
Buy it here
Favourite Australian Book Award 2019: A year in non-fiction! 
The Booktopia Podcast: Jay Kristoff, Rachael Treasure, Diane Armstrong, and Rebekah Robertson!
Comments
No comments