Literary Anything

Bonus episode! We thought we'd give you some extra content to consume in January, for those still on holidays or for those long car rides.

We’re sharing our author talk with SA Storytellers Nicole Yates, Robert Horne and Satish Gupta. This is an interesting conversation covering a diverse range of topics across poetry, politics and South Australian history.

Learn something new and discover local SA voices.

For this month's Literary Anything episode, we're excited to share Alli Parker in conversation with Lyn Dickens at the Marion Cultural Centre Theatre!

Together they discuss Alli's latest book 'Until the Red Leaves Fall', how young historical fiction writers are changing the narrative and how fiction in general is important for building connections and encouraging empathy.

We hope you love this talk as much as we do!

Our favourite episode of the year is out now (a bit late because Salma had jury duty!) Listen to find out the top ten borrowed fiction and non-fiction books for 2025 (for the first time ever there's no James Patterson). Also, Paula and Salma offer some good book recs for summer reading and the books we're looking forward to next year!!

We also farewell Paula from the podcast for now (she'll have FOMO and will be back) and welcome Jasmine who will be joining Salma in 2026!

Books they mention:
House Of My Mother – Shari Franke
Cat Person - Kristen Roupenian
We Solve Murders – Richard Osman
Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman
Beautiful Ugly – Alice Feeney
The Mushroom Tapes - Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein
The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire – Chloe Hooper
The Trauma Cleaner - Sarah Krasnostein
This House of Grief – Helen Garner
Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver
Mongrel – Hanako Footman
I Want Everything - Dominic Amerena
Wellness - Nathan Hill
The Nix - Nathan Hill
The Let Them Theory – Mel Robbins
Here One Moment – Liane Moriarty
The Memoir Part 1 - Cher
The Whole Truth - Jackie O
A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing – Jessie Tu
Daisy Darker – Alice Feeney
Nemesis – Patricia Wolf
Salt Upon The Water – Lyn Dickens
Until the Red Leaves Fall – Alli Parker
At the Foot of the Cherry Tree – Alli Parker
Average at Best – Astrid Jorgensen
Bird Box - Josh Malerman
The Testaments - Margaret Atwood

For this month's podcast episode, we’re excited to share with you Walkley winning columnist, author, novelist and social commentator Jane Caro in conversation with the wonderful Ali Clarke, discussing Jane's latest novel 'Lyre Bird'. Jane talks about where her ideas come from, the writing process, how she responds to trolls online and the power of fiction. This is an amazing conversation and well worth a listen.

For this month's podcast, Paula and Salma read 'Cat Person' by Kristen Roupenian, because sometimes you just need a quick, impactful short story to get you out of a reading slump! 'Cat Person' gained significant attention when it was published in The New Yorker in 2017, for exploring the complexities of modern dating. If you haven't read it yet, head over to The New Yorker now and read it before listening to the pod.

Cat Person in The New Yorker >> https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/11/cat-person

Books they mention:
The Metamorphosis - Kafka
The House of my Mother – Shari Franke
I Want Everything - Dominic Amerena
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid
Yellowface – R F Kuang
Lyrebird – Jane Caro
The Mother – Jane Caro
What Happened to Nina? - Dervla McTiernan
The Scholar - Dervla McTiernan
The Murder Rule - Dervla McTiernan
The Housemaid's Secret – Freida McFadden
The Housemaid - Freida McFadden
Onyx Storm – Rebecca Yarros
The Help - Kathryn Stockett
Beautiful Ugly – Alice Feeney
Great Big Beautiful Life – Emily Henry
Here One Moment – Liane Moriarty
We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver