Spectrum
Opinion
Review
A critic’s pick of the best and worst of the Archibald Prize portraits
A handful of works stand out from a selection that seems to have been made for variety rather than quality.
- by John McDonald
Latest
Help! My daughter is starting to remind me of myself
What are children if not divine vengeance?
- by James Colley
The Australian band beloved by Prince, Beyonce and Questlove
Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and Jay-Z have all sampled songs from this Melbourne musical quartet.
- by Barry Divola
Music in the ’80s belonged to Kim Gordon. At 71, she still plays hard
Long after Sonic Youth’s bitter split, artist, writer and musician Kim Gordon is inspiring a new generation of women.
- by Jo Roberts
A gentle love song to a cultural historian’s home territory
Alexandra Harris has written a remarkable book that melds personal memory with investigations of the historical record.
- by Gregory Day
Yes, it’s true. Reading really can affect the way you behave – in a good way
Studies show that reading can have a significant impact on your brain.
- by Jane Sullivan
The satire is as high as this novel’s anti-hero, but the dystopia is bleak
Jordan Prosser’s action-packed first novel will make you laugh but will unsettle you as well.
- by Justine Hyde
The best celebrity memoirs have exactly what literature today lacks
As more and more crossed my desk, I found that the best of them were written with a robust, fearless honesty that I’ve almost given up looking for in current fiction.
- by David Free
The Afghans is an empathic look at life for women under the Taliban
Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstad returns to Afghanistan for the first since she wrote the controversial book, The Bookseller of Kabul.
- by Christopher Kremmer
The Twisters reboot has no right being this good
And charismatic star Anthony Ramos is a key part of its winning equation.
- by Robert Moran
Ed Zwick’s laugh-out-loud memoir of working in Hollywood
The creator of thirtysomething has written a perceptive and entertaining account of his life behind the camera and the people he has worked with and fallen out with.
- by Tom Ryan