We Could Be Something
Will Kostakis, Allen & Unwin, $19.99

Suddenly transplanted from Perth to Sydney after his dad’s relationship breaks down, 17-year-old Harvey is thrust into a Greek family who live atop the cafe they run. It’s a lively and hardworking environment, though tragic news isn’t far away. Also 17, Sotiris has busted a gut to achieve his dream of becoming an author at an early age, only to find it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Soon love beckons in the form of Jeremy – a hot bookseller with a sharp wit – and another road begins to take shape before him. When Harvey and Sotiris meet, their stories converge in an unexpected way. Alternating between the two main characters, Will Kostakis’ We Could Be Something combines romance, grief, coming-out story, and the domestic dramedy of an extended Greek family to produce a queer YA novel full of heart and humour.

NON-FICTION PICK OF THE WEEK
The Red Hotel
Alan Philps, Headline, $34.99

When I stayed at Moscow’s Metropol Hotel in 1975 I had no knowledge of its colourful-cum-shady past, or that the rooms were bugged.

Alan Philps’ engaging study creates a portrait of an establishment that, like a grand dame, has seen it all. Especially the 1940s, which he focuses on, when foreign reporters were housed there to report faithfully on Russia’s war to the outside world. But Stalin had other ideas, and the truth had nothing to do with it. It’s a fascinating gallery of reporters, spies, prostitutes and more, cooped up in the hotel, not only being fed caviar and vodka but the party line as well. There was the occasional visit to the front, but orchestrated. Often drawing on the memoirs of the reporters, Philps creates a vivid picture of an intense time, of the seedy and the well- intentioned, true believers and conflicted loyalties.

Honey, Baby, Mine
Laura Dern & Diane Ladd, Coronet, $32.99

In 2018, actress Diane Ladd’s lungs were severely damaged by pesticide sprays from nearby farms. She was given six months to live. Her actress daughter Laura Dern refused to accept that. She forced Ladd to go on walks to exercise her lungs. And, like “a Santa Monica Scheherazade”, distracted her mother from her pain with stories – the book being an extended dialogue that covers the light, dark, guilt and deep bond of love between them. There are a few too many anecdotes about acting and films, and at times the exchanges can feel a bit stilted. But, like a good film, it gathers and becomes dramatically moving when they broach the accidental death of Dern’s sister while visiting the old family home, the scene of divorce, happiness and tragedy. Ultimately though, an uplifting record of coming through.

Our King
Robert Jobson, John Blake Publishing, $34.99

The title notwithstanding, it’s debatable whether most Australians see Charles III as “our” king. All the same this is a chatty, detailed and sympathetic portrait of the man who waited, and waited, for the top job. Robert Jobson casts him as a man of destiny, but one who hears the clock ticking. He covers key points in his life, from the formality, even coldness, of his relations with mum and dad, to the trauma of being packed off to Gordonstoun, first loves, meeting Camilla, the ill-fated marriage to Diana and the fabricated media stories that grate with him even now. The more interesting aspects of the portrait cover the progressive nature of Charles’ politics, especially his opposition to the second Gulf War. Less interesting are Jobson’s “world exclusives” on, say, Charles and Camilla’s engagement. Easy reading introduction to “the” king.

Vegemite
Jamie Callister, with Rod Howard, Murdoch Books, $32.99

In 1923 a Melbourne factory launched a national competition to name the food product they had just invented. The identity of the winning entrant is not known, not so the name of the product – Vegemite, invented by Cyril Callister, the author’s grandfather.

First published in 2012, this updated version released to coincide with Vegemite’s centenary is also a family and social history, focusing on Cyril – his early aptitude for chemistry, Melbourne University and time in Britain during WWI working on munitions. But it was his time in the early 1920s that was crucial, converting foul-smelling yeast goo into the spread that defined a nation and baffles the outside world. It’s an easy reading story with poignant moments about the product that, with the Lamington, can lay claim to be among Australia’s great culinary innovations.

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