Tenth, Exiles, by Jane Harper. I’ve enjoyed Harper’s outback noir since her first, and this was good, too, though it took a little longer to get going than her previous books, I thought. It picked up about halfway through and was satisfying, like Harper’s others

Ninth, The Fertile Earth, by Ruthvika Rau. In the way it casts characters against larger social and political forces and changes, this novel reminds me of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet, but it is very different in style and voice. Rau’s narration richly evokes life in post-independence India.

Eighth, Stone Yard Devotional, by @charlottewood.bsky.social. To start, this reminded me of The Cloister Walk, by Kathleen Norris, but it is its own work, anchored in local Australian experiences of class, religion and history. A moving, grounded novel, generous in spirit in the face of grief.

Seventh, The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck, which I saw on the library shelf and decided to read again for the first time since year seven. It doesn’t flinch from the rampant sexism of the time in which it’s set, and also shows how the effects of a principled life can be undone rapidly.

Sixth, Caledonian Road, by Andrew O’Hagan. The first book for me this year that drew me back to it almost compulsively. Perhaps it was the combination of the meditation on aging (middle age particularly), the incisive at contemporary England, and the ever-growing sense of morbid dread… Very good

Fifth, For the Wellbeing of All, a compilation of quotations on eliminating the extremes of wealth and poverty. This book offers a reminder of the consequences of rising inequality, a clarion call to address it, and practical principles to apply in the endeavour.

Fourth, Bininj Kunwok Phrase Book, by Bininj knowledge holders in West Arnhem Land. A marvellous marker of a marvellous visit to Bininj homelands between Maningrida and Jabiru, and another reminder of the great stores of knowledge that sit outside of what I am familiar with already

Third, and much more niche, Understanding Quality Use of Research Evidence in Education, by Mark Rickinson and colleagues. This is one of the outputs of the Monash Q Project, which we at the Paul Ramsay Foundation supported. I enjoyed its elegant and systematic distillation of a complex topic

Second, The Bookbinder of Jericho, by Pip Williams. It was nice to enter a world adjacent to the one in The Dictionary of Lost Words, and I particularly liked the exploration of class, formal education and intercultural conflict layered on top of gender. #booksky

First, Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell. I really enjoyed this storywith its emotionally resonant family life and its insistence on the value or older ways of knowing at the cusp of modernity. My enjoyment was deepened for the way it also widens a story I had already come to enjoy, Shakespeare’s life