Welcome to Tsundoku – the podcast for addicted readers. Tsundoku is the Japanese word for that pile of books by your bed – the ones you fully intend to read – sometime! If you can’t resist a good story, are endlessly curious about new books and love nothing better than discussing an old favourite – this is the podcast for you. In Tsundoku we’ll talk to the authors of the moment, we’ll pull out the ‘hits and memories’ from years past and chat them back into life, and we’ll talk to readers from all walks of life about how they acquired their reading pa...
Latest episodes
-
50 min
Lauren Williams stylish suburban thriller Neighbourhood Watch + Jasmine Graetz’s self-publishd dragon fantasy…
Lauren Williams’ novel Neighbourhood Watch is set in a fictional Melbourne suburb, and the plot features a murder bizarre enough to rival British TV favorite Midsomer Murders. Amon…
-
47 min
Episode 67: Lainie Anderson’s historic thriller The Death of Dora Black + Frogsong by Melissa Manning
It’s 1917, shop assistant Dora Black has been found dead on a city beach, and Adelaide’s legendary early 20th century policewoman Kate Cocks is on the case. Mixing real history, a…
-
54 min
Episode 66: Michael Caleb Tasker’s grim and gripping Just Like the Night + Elisabeth Storr’s Fables and Lies
Michael Caleb Tasker’s grim and gripping Just Like the Night + Elisabeth Storr’s Fables and Lies Lena has only really known a life of petty crime after spending her childhood on th…
-
24 min
Episode 65 Laila’s Story told by refugee activist author and poet Mij Tanith
In 2023 Afghan single mother Laila was desperate to get herself and her five daughters out of Iran. The chances were slim, but she was willing to try anything. When she called an A…
-
50 min
Episode 64 Sarah Bailey’s techno-thriller Click + the amazing and tragic life of Charmian Clift
A serial killer is on the loose in Melbourne in Sarah Bailey’s ‘Click’. Three women, a journalist, a cop and a politician are on the case. The approaching pandemic is a dark hoveri…
-
25 min
Episode 63A - Poet Michael Farrell switches to prose in The Victoria Principle
Award-winning poet Michael Farrell’s latest book is a foray into storytelling through the medium of the short story. In “The Victoria Principle” his playful fictions, some autobiog…
-
47 min
Episode 63 - Meet Vikings and murderers in two very different books
Cath is entertained by Penny Tangey’s tale of murder, motherhood and caffeine as a group of unlikely sleuths solve a crime at the local library. + Michaela talks to Lisa Hannett ab…
-
27 min
Minisode 62A - Poet Miriel Lenore’s final poetry collection ‘Driving to Mulberrygong’
Adelaide poet Miriel Lenore didn't take to poetry until two thirds of her way through an adventurous life. She was over her many years a botanist, researcher, traveller, student, t…
-
38 min
Episode 62 - Antonia Pont’s ‘Plain Life’ + Tsundoku team’s recommended reads
In the midst of the anxiety-ridden chaos of late-stage capitalism, is it really possible to lead a plain life? Philosopher, essayist and yogi Antonia Pont’s book is far more a phil…
-
47 min
Episode 61 - Photographing the Southern Flinders Ranges + “Do We Deserve This?”
Meet Dr Annette Marner who has spent eight years documenting her ‘patch’, South Australia’s geologically extraordinary Southern Flinders ranges. With patience and respect for wildl…
-
32 min
Episode 60 -Michael Brissenden’s rural thriller Dust & getting to know spy writer Mick Herron
Former journalist, Michael Brissenden, brings insider knowledge and a sharp world view to the crime and thriller genre. “Dust” goes into that now familiar territory, the dark under…
-
36 min
Episode 59: “The Woman in the Watchtower” by Susan Wyndham
Cath and Annie take a deep dive into the brilliant, celebrated and mysterious life of Elizabeth Harrower, author of the 1960s Australian classic “The Watch Tower”. Cath first revie…
-
38 min
Episode 58: “A Great Act of Love” by Heather Rose + new publisher Aniko Press
Drawing on her own family history for inspiration, Heather Rose delivers a compelling and heart rending saga of a father and daughter torn apart by a terrible crime. In “A Great Ac…
-
41 min
Episode 57: “The Seeker and the Sage” by Brigid Delaney + “The Pacific Tale” by Mandy Treagus
In “The Seeker and the Sage” a traumatised journalist is given a dream assignment - track down the mayor of a mysterious town whose citizens are the happiest people on Earth. She w…
-
44 min
Episode 56: “The Slip” by Miriam Webster + a chat with new publishing duo “Pink Shorts”
Miriam Webster makes her literary debut with a sharp, funny and often dark collection of short stories about love, loss and very modern dilemmas. With an eye for what isn’t said an…
-
45 min
Episode 55: “The Oasis” by Anne Buist & Graeme Simsion + “The Body Next Door” by Zane Lovitt
Since shooting to fame with “The Rosie Project”, Graeme Simsion has formed a successful writing partnership with his psychiatrist wife, Anne Buist. Here they share with Annie why t…
-
39 min
Episode 54: “Chinese Postman” by Brian Castro + “Reunion” by Bronwyn Rivers
Brian Castro's “The Chinese Postman” is a meditation on old age with a central character whose life mirrors his own. The story strays into fiction when the protagonist, Abe Quin, b…
-
38 min
Episode 53: “Landfall” by James Bradley & “Panic” by Catherine Jinx
James Bradley introduces his latest novel; one of crime in a time of climate crisis. The desperate search for a missing child is set against a terrifying Sydney of the future, wher…
-
19 min
Minisode 52.5: Kate Grenville and her new book “Unsettled”
Kate Grenville is best known for her book “The Secret River” published in 2005 which became an analogy for white settlement of Australia. More than two decades on, and following th…
-
42 min
Episode 52: “Delirious” by Damien Wilkins + how to style a second hand bookshop
Cath discovers the people in Damien Wilkins’ life who inspired his latest novel, “Delirious”. It’s an emotionally powerful novel about families, ageing and the surprising ways seco…