What Hobartians are reading according to our local bookshops

Carrion Comfort – Dan Simmons

A Holocaust survivor escapes a Nazi extermination camp after a chilling encounter with an ancient evil, setting him on a decades-long quest to uncover a secret society of psychic manipulators who have influenced some of history’s darkest events. As Saul Laski finally closes in on the truth, he becomes entangled in a battle that could determine the fate of humanity itself.

 Fabulous Bodies – Chuck Tingle

Fashion influencer by day and grave-robber by night, Poppy Stringer is on call when Eddie Michaels—a flamboyant, piano-slamming rockstar and queer icon—unexpectedly dies. All Poppy has to do is retrieve Eddie’s body from the medical examiner’s office, but what starts as a routine delivery quickly goes off course when Eddie wakes up.

Poppy must fight for her life in a blood-soaked night of carnage and fabulous entertainment all across Palm Springs.

Buffalo Hunter Hunter – Stephen Graham Jones

This chilling historical novel is set in the nascent days of the state of Montana, following a Blackfeet Indian named Good Stab as he haunts the fields of the Blackfeet Nation looking for justice.

It begins when a diary written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall in 2012. What is unveiled is a slow massacre, a nearly forgotten chain of events that goes back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow, told in the transcribed interviews with Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar and unnaturally long life over a series of confessional visits.

He Who Fights with Monsters – Travis Deverell

What’s it like to wake up in a mysterious world of magic and monsters? It’s not easy.

For Jason, making the career jump from office-supplies-store middle manager to heroic interdimensional adventurer is surreal. Jason tries to be heroic, but it’s hard to be good when all your powers are evil.

He’ll face off against cannibals, cultists, wizards, monsters…and that’s just on the first day. Jason’s a stranger in a strange land, and if he’s going to survive, he’ll have to find something inside himself he never knew was there.

He’s going to need courage, he’s going to need wit, and he’s going to need some magic powers of his own. But first, he’s going to need pants.

Heresies – Richard Flanagan

From Manus to MONA to birds to the Black Summer, from the destruction of our natural world to the hope offered by Indigenous Australia to the growing corrosion of democracy, from Salman Rushdie to the Segal Report, family and love, Flanagan’s non-fiction writings carry the author’s trademark elegance, subversive wit, and humanity.

This showcase of Richard Flanagan’s heretical brilliance over twenty years speaks to the heart of our troubled times now.

Palawa tunapri – Trish Hodge

Drawing on two decades of research, Trish Hodge brings together the traditional knowledge of more than 350 native Tasmanian plants – their uses for food, medicine, tools and seasonal understanding. Woven with history and deep cultural insight, this beautiful work honours Aboriginal ecological wisdom and the enduring connection to Country.

Furnishing Van Diemen’s Land – Peter Hughes

This definitive reference explores the history of furniture-making in Van Diemen’s Land during the colony’s first 70 years, detailing the craftspeople, materials, and techniques that shaped Tasmania’s early furniture tradition. Drawing on years of research by TMAG Senior Curator Peter Hughes, the book is an essential resource for collectors, historians, and anyone interested in Tasmania’s colonial heritage.

Mine – Adam Ouston

Mine follows an ageing poet and environmental advocate who becomes trapped in an abandoned Tasmanian mine while searching for inspiration for his final work. As memories, history and hallucinations intertwine, he journeys through Tasmania’s natural and industrial past in a haunting exploration of environmental destruction, resilience, and the enduring beauty of the wild landscape.

The Things We Never Say – Elizabeth Strout

The Things We Never Say follows Artie Dam, a history teacher whose seemingly ordinary life masks a deep sense of loneliness and disconnection. When he discovers a life-changing secret, he is forced to re-examine his relationships and place in the world in this compassionate and insightful novel about love, loss, and the mysteries that connect us all.

Heresies – Richard Flanagan

From Manus to MONA to birds to the Black Summer, from the destruction of our natural world to the hope offered by Indigenous Australia to the growing corrosion of democracy, from Salman Rushdie to the Segal Report, family and love, Flanagan’s non-fiction writings carry the author’s trademark elegance, subversive wit, and humanity.

This showcase of Richard Flanagan’s heretical brilliance over twenty years speaks to the heart of our troubled times now.

Whistler – Ann Patchett

The story of Daphne Fuller, who unexpectedly reconnects with her former stepfather decades after a brief but formative relationship in childhood. Through their reunion, the novel explores memory, love, loss, and the lasting impact that even short-lived connections can have on the course of our lives.

I Eat the Stars – Sarah Wilson

A thought-provoking guide to finding meaning, hope and resilience in an era of climate change, political instability and social upheaval. Drawing on conversations with leading thinkers and her own research, Sarah Wilson offers a compassionate roadmap for living well through uncertainty while embracing community, creativity and what matters most.