Kate Forsyth is one of Australia’s most treasured storytellers. On today’s edition of What Katie Read, she gives us the rundown on all of the best books she’s been reading lately …
Looking for some absolutely riveting new books to read? Here are the six best books I’ve read recently – enjoy!
The Forty Elephants
by Erin Bledsoe
A swift-paced and gritty page-turner set in 1920s London, The Forty Elephants was inspired by the true story of the first all-female gang of London. This is a world of pickpockets and con-artists, razor fights and gang wars. The heroine Alice Diamond has to take her father’s place as the leader of the Mint after her father is sent to gaol, but it’s tough proving herself when you’re both young and a woman. Alice is clever and ruthless, though, and soon she has a plan to score big time…. If she can survive.
Buy it here
Bedtime Story
by Chloe Hooper
A deeply personal and heartrending memoir which explores grief, the fear of loss, and the power of bedtime stories to teach us how to navigate the dark night of the soul. When Chloe Hooper’s partner is diagnosed with a dangerous illness, she does not know how to explain to their sons the possibility of their father’s death. She turns for consolation to the great children’s books of the past, and in doing so explores many of the books that have been my own childhood’s touchstone stories – the Brothers Grimm, C.S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Frances Hodgson Burnett.
The result is extraordinary, and this is one of my favourite books of the year.
Buy it here
Orwell’s Roses
by Rebecca Solnit
A fascinating bibliomemoir that explores the life and works of George Orwell through his love of roses. Rebecca Solnit’s canvas is huge. Orwell’s political acuity and his love of this most romantic of flowers is a launchpad for her to consider the art and life of the early 20th-century photographer and activist Tina Modotti, Stalin’s determination to force lemons to grow in the snow, writer Jamaica Kincaid’s scathing critiques of colonialism, and the awful Columbian rose factories that send millions of identical red rosebuds to the American market every year. Written with such fierce intelligence & clarity – loved it!
Buy it here
Ciao Bella!
by Kate Langbroek
I’ve always dreamed of spending a year or two in Rome or Florence or Siena … a dream that is never likely to come true for me. So I loved living vicariously through Kate Langbroek and her delightful memoir about her experiences living in Bologna with her family for two years.
Her style is warm and funny and intimate and real – it’s like having a long tipsy lunch with an old friend where you keep hooting with laughter & holding each other’s hands in loving tearful support. Fabulous!
Buy it here
Horse
by Geraldine Brooks
Geraldine Brooks is one of my favourite authors, and I always rush out to buy her latest book as soon as it is released. She never disappoints me. Her books are always impeccably researched, beautifully written, and full of surprises. Horse is no exception. It tells the story of a young slave in 1850s Kentucky who loves a horse, and trains it to be the greatest racehorse known in American history.
The bay thoroughbred Lexington is most famous for racing against a stopwatch; he and his groom Jarret lived through the bloody turmoil of the American Civil War and the years of racial strife that followed. Woven together with this historical narrative is the contemporary story of an Australian scientist at the Smithsonian and a Nigerian-American art historian who are drawn together by their shared obsession with this magnificent and long-dead horse. The result is powerful and deeply moving.
Buy it here
Wake
by Shelley Burr
I love a good crime thriller, and am always on the lookout for one with masses of atmosphere, a clever premise, and lots of twists and turns. Wake, from debut Australian author Shelley Burr, was highly recommended to me and so I began it with a great deal of hopeful anticipation. It did not disappoint. Set in the hot red plains of outback Australia, it is a cold case investigation into the disappearance of a little girl from the bedroom she shared with her twin sister nineteen years earlier.
Mina McCreery’s life has been defined by the mystery of her sister’s loss. She still lives in the old family house, and rarely ventures away from it. Every day she walks the property, searching for her sister’s bones. One day a private investigator comes, determined to crack the case and so win the million dollar reward. But his motivations are unclear.
How far will he go to find the truth? What secret skeletons will he unearth? I was kept guessing right to the very end – just brilliant.
Buy it here
Kate Forsyth (Photo by Amelia Soegijono).
About Kate
Dr Kate Forsyth is an award-winning author, poet, and storyteller. Her most recent novel is The Crimson Thread, a reimagining of ‘The Minotaur in the Labyrinth’ myth set in Crete during the Nazi invasion and occupation of World War II.
Other historical novels include The Blue Rose, set during the French Revolution and the first British embassy to Imperial China; Beauty in Thorns, a reimagining of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ told in the voices of four women of the Pre-Raphaelite circle of artists and poets; The Wild Girl, the story of the forbidden romance behind the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales which was named Most Memorable Love Story of 2013; and Bitter Greens, a retelling of ‘Rapunzel’ which won the 2015 American Library Association award for Best Historical Fiction.
Kate’s non-fiction books include Searching for Charlotte: The Fascinating Story of Australia’s First Children’s Author, co-written by her sister Belinda Murrell, with the assistance of the Nancy Keesing Fellowship. It was longlisted for the 2021 Readings Non-Fiction Prize. Her collection of essays, The Rebirth of Rapunzel: A Mythic Biography of the Maiden in the Tower, won the William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism in 2017.
Books for children include the Long-Lost Fairy-Tales collection, illustrated by Lorena Carrington. The first in the series, Vasilisa the Wise & Other Tales of Brave Young Women, won a silver medal in the 2018 US Readers Favorite Book awards. Other titles in the series are The Buried Moon & Other Tales of Bright Young Women; Snow White, Rose Red & Other Tales of Kind Young Women; and The Gardener’s Son & the Golden Bird & Other Tales of Gentle Young Men.
Kate has a Doctorate of Creative Arts in fairy tale studies, and is also an accredited master storyteller with the Australian Guild of Storytellers. She has taught writing retreats in Australia, Fiji, Greece, and the United Kingdom.
Discover Kate Forsyth’s Author Page here
The Crimson Thread
May 1941. German paratroopers launch a blitzkrieg from the air against Crete. They are met with fierce defiance, the Greeks fighting back with daggers, pitchforks and kitchen knives. During the bloody eleven-day battle, Alenka a young Greek woman saves the lives of two Australian soldiers.
Read an extract from Bedtime Story by Chloe Hooper 
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