Today I’m going rom-com because after finally seeing a bit of sun over the weekend it’s looking like the rain and cold might be setting in again. And so what better to remind us that despite the rain there’ll be sun again than a genre that always has the sun come out at the end. Nina Kenwood’s Unnecessary Drama is the exact right balance of the aforementioned drama and dappled sunshine to see me through till the next five minutes of spring.

School’s out and Perth’s leavers are descending on the coast. Leonardo doesn’t love that he’s found himself in the back of Jared’s 4WD. They haven’t been friends since high school started but since Leonardo’s so-called friends ditched on him he hasn’t got much choice. So now he’s stuck with Jared, Mason, Valentina and just about every other person who made his life hell at high school When their holiday accommodation decides to turn Leavers away, the group are in search of a new place to party. The Brink is an isolated community, famous for its insularity and not known for welcoming outsiders. When Ryan gets them in with a guy called Machete Max, who rents them some cabins, it all seems too good to be true; a week on Brink Island. No adults, no rules, no consequences. But you know what they say about things that are too good to be true… And there are always consequences.

Moon Sugar is a beautiful expansive novel of love, both for others and ourselves, that melds the corporeal with the fantastic in a way we should all hope to discover.

Neverlanders introduces the reader to a group of homeless kids, the Lost Ones, who are about to have their whole world change when they meet Paco. The Lost Ones are canny and self reliant, they can look after themselves but there’s no sense that their lives are moving forward. Paco wants to offer them a deal; a world just for them, a place where they can thrive. But it’s a world under threat and the Lost Ones will have to learn pretty quickly whether have what it takes to save it…

Salt and Skin is a story about place. It is firmly grounded in our experience of environmental tragedy. Through the evolving stories of Luda, Min, Darcy and Theo we see our own connections and must confront that we don’t live apart from our world but are in fact there in it, even as it crumbles beneath us.

For nearly thirty years Final Draft has found its home at 2ser 107.3. 2ser is a Community Radio Station broadcasting from Sydney, Australia. Today's special bonus episode is a little look at the history of 2ser and a big Happy Birthday for Radiothon.

This week on book club we're helping you with your school holiday fun with some reading recommendations and a fantastic exhibition to share the love of reading with young and old.

The National Young Writers’ Festival is an annual gathering of young writers. A place for them to showcase their work, share ideas, and learn. 2022 sees NYWF as a hybrid festival, with both in person and online events.

Jasmine Seymour is a Dharug woman, a language teacher and language activist. Open Your Heart to Country offers young readers the chance to discover the ideas and language of the Dharug people wrapped up in the spectacular visuals of Jasmine's art.

CBCA Winner Shirley Marr joins us to discuss her book A Glasshouse of Stars, winner of the Early Childhood Prize at the Children's Book Council Awards, as well as her new book All Four Quarters of the Moon

CBCA Winner Andrea Rowe joins us to discuss her book Jetty Jumping, winner of the Early Childhood Prize at the Children's Book Council Awards

Today I have got something truly unique; thought provoking, puzzling, laugh out loud funny. Siang Lu’s The Whitewash might just be the whole package

A woman stumbles out of a bar, unsteady on her feet. A man has followed her out but as he grabs at her it’s clear he’s not there help… A string of drink spiking incidents in bars around Deception Bay points to a serial rapist. So why isn’t anyone joining the dots? Detective sergeant Antigone Pollard has seen this before. It’s the case that drove her out of Melbourne. Can she take on the system that says it’s all a bit of fun and boys will be boys? Can she help the women of Deception Bay protect themselves?

Jesustown is a fascinating examination of colonial legacy and contemporary responsibility. It holds a light up to the crimes of the past and leaves the reader in no doubt that there is much to recompense.

Yasmin Abdel Magied is an engineer who has run oil and gas rigs, a formula one mechanic, a social advocate and a writer, novelist and public intellectual. Her new book Talking About a Revolution collects essays, writings and speeches from the past ten years.

Sulari Gentill’s The Woman in the Library takes us into the fictional world of Hannah Tigone, bestselling Australian crime writer. And Hannah Tigone takes us into the fictional world of Winifred Kincaid, Australian writer in residence in Boston, working hard to plot out her new novel.Winifred is in the Boston Public Library when a blood curdling scream throws her into the path of Cain, Whit and Marigold and together they form a bond that just might throw them into the path of a killer.Hannah is meanwhile crafting Winifred’s story in correspondence with Leo, a super fan of dubious social acumen.Keeping up so far?Sulari’s whodunnits are delightful riffs on crime conventions and an absolute blast to try and figure out. They take us into the world of the writer and often blur (or perhaps I should say cross) the lines between where the story ends and reality begins.

It’s a sad fact that tragedy brings us together. Dane, Jac, and Josh don’t get together as much as they should. Spread out across the country; Jac in Sydney, Josh all over the country as his TV work takes him and Dane, who never left Pent. It just never seems like there’s enough time. Now the siblings must converge on their hometown after their father is in a car accident that leaves him in a coma. It’s not just the accident. Each of the siblings has their own drama eating away at their peace. The reunion isn’t destined to go smoothly. Pent is no longer the same town they grew up in, but the ghosts of the past still rest there. While their father remains in a coma, questions emerge that have them wondering if there is more to his accident that they first assumed. What had been happening in their dad’s life that could lead him to do something desperate? Join me as we discover Matthew Ryan Davies’s Things We Bury...

All Four Quarters of the Moon takes us into the world of Peijing as she and her family prepare to migrate to Australia for her father’s work. In Singapore Peijing understood how everything worked; her Ba-Ba worked hard seven days a week, her Ma-MA worked to raise the family and her Ah-Ma worked at making delicious mooncakes. Peijing and her little sister Biju worked at creating their little world and populating it with animals both real and mythological, and telling fantastic stories about the animals' lives. In Australia things seem upside down to say the least. Ba-Ba now goes to work for only five days and is wearing a polo shirt. Ma-Ma needs Peijing to translate and is not happy that she is not allowed to bring her daughters lunch at school. And Ah-Ma seems confused and is always asking Peijing her name. Peijing must be strong and honourable for her family but that is not always easy when everything is so new.

Georgina Young’s debut novel Loner won the Text Prize for Young Adult novels, was commended by the CBCA as a notable book for older readers, and was shortlisted for a Prime Minister’s Literary Award. Now Georgina is back with her new novel Bootstrap and she’s joining us today on the podcast. Ginsborough’s famous for its chicken and leek pies and not much else. Down the road in Koornang all they’ve got is Al’s Takeaway and Jackson Sweeney is doing his best to sour that reputation. Sweeney’s not languishing in Koornang per se. Languishing sounds way more active than what Sweeney is doing. With nothing but Hooley Dooley’s on a Friday to look forward to (and Sweeney’s pashed most of the available blokes there) life is looking dire. That is until a tall, dark and very out of place bloke named Bootstrap splits into Sweeney’s life saying he’s come to see the night that Sweeney becomes a hero! Join me as we discover Georgina Young’s Bootstrap...

It seems like just another ordinary day... Sarah is doing bar work at the club. A nice normal job while she’s on stress leaving from her job as a cop. She’s tending bar when a man walks into the club with a shotgun. Mary is just trying to enjoy a quiet drink. She’s always enjoying a quiet drink and doesn’t appreciate the loud man in the balaklava interrupting her reverie. Daydrinking isn’t exactly a long term plan and so Mary decides to do something foolish. And poor Dean. He can’t understand why everybody won’t just get down on the ground and give him the money. He needs this and one big score could set him up for a while. In one brief flurry of activity Criminals throws Sarah, Dean and Mary’s lives together and sets them on a path to explore what it means to be a criminal and how life is more than simply a matter of Black and White.

*WARNING SPOILERS* This part of our conversation with Claire contains spoilers for Enclave. Definitely don't tune in until you've read Enclave! What are you waiting for? Go get a copy now! In this special bonus of outtakes from the Enclave interview Claire talks about inspirations for the story, famous fans and the potential for her work to be adapted. Enclave takes us to the community of Safetown. There residents live a comfortable life, secure in the knowledge they are protected by ‘the wall’. Within that concrete edifice security patrol their streets and drones surveil the airway to ensure even the smallest transgression is met with swift consequences. Christine has spent her entire life basking in the comfort her fathers wealth and Safetown’s security provide the daughter of an influential family. Sure her father is a distant figure, her mother a high functioning alcoholic, but they’ve just bought her an apartment and extended her a line of seeming unlimited credit. Safetown was built to protect families like Christine and she should be happy with this safety. Except her best friend Jack is missing and Christine has begun to notice her servants, people who don’t look quite like her… Join as we discover Claire G Coleman’s Enclave. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Enclave takes us to the community of Safetown. There residents live a comfortable life, secure in the knowledge they are protected by ‘the wall’. Within that concrete edifice security patrol their streets and drones surveil the airway to ensure even the smallest transgression is met with swift consequences. Christine has spent her entire life basking in the comfort her fathers wealth and Safetown’s security provide the daughter of an influential family. Sure her father is a distant figure, her mother a high functioning alcoholic, but they’ve just bought her an apartment and extended her a line of seeming unlimited credit. Safetown was built to protect families like Christine and she should be happy with this safety. Except her best friend Jack is missing and Christine has begun to notice her servants, people who don’t look quite like her… Join as we discover Claire G Coleman’s Enclave. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Ginsborough’s famous for its chicken and leek pies and not much else. Down the road in Koornang all they’ve got is Al’s Takeaway and Jackson Sweeney is doing his best to sour that reputation. Sweeney’s not languishing in Koornang per se. Languishing sounds way more active than what Sweeney is doing. With nothing but Hooley Dooley’s on a Friday to look forward to (and Sweeney’s pashed most of the available blokes there) life is looking dire. That is until a tall, dark and very out of place bloke named Bootstrap splits into Sweeney’s life saying he’s come to see the night that Sweeney becomes a hero! Book Club is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Reece is in limbo, and as far as it goes there are worse places to be stuck than the beachside town of Hamilton. But it’s not just the place Reece is stuck in her memories. Memories of The Terrible Thing Happened and the way it has basically put her life on hold. Maybe she can ride out the last year of school, but fate and a resident shark named Bruce are determined to throw her in the way of Gideon and there’s a whole other set of secrets. Discover Lauren Draper’s The Museum of Broken Things... Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.

Frank Moorhouse was an author, journalist and essayist. He is best known for his Edith Trilogy chronicling the life of Edith Campbell Berry and her time as a diplomat around the formation of the League of Nations. Frank was a terrific chronicler and interrogator of Australia and our way of life. Frank died last week at the age of 83. This episode features a conversation with Frank from 2017 where he discussed his essay on the writers life. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople Want more great conversations with Australian authors? Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.