The Woman Booker Prize Club is a local Hobart book club. Here they share their thoughts on books by Tasmanian authors, set in Tasmania, or about Tassie topics. Over to the club!

This month we review two contrasting books – one is bright, inventive, silly and fun. The other is painstakingly researched, deeply serious, and necessary to our understanding of our island history. vision of our island home in severe environmental crisis.

Trinkets : Felt foods to sew and love by Cat Rabbit (Smith Street Books, September 2025) Review by Megan Tighe

I’ve always admired the work of Cat Rabbit (local artist, who moved to Melbourne some years ago) so I was super excited when a friend sent me a link to her book launch and craft workshop in Hobart last month. I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet Cat (who is lovely) and craft a little apple friend with a group of all ages on a cosy Saturday afternoon.

Trinkets is a fabulously friendly and approachable craft book, with a useful introduction to all of the (easy) stitches and (ordinary, accessible) materials and tools you need to complete the various projects. Inspired by my adorable apple, I got stuck into making a variety of the trinket patterns, slightly modified to be suitable as toddler toys. In less than a fortnight of evenings, I had made a whole charcuterie board; a bunch of fruits and vegetables, and a set of picnic and party foods. Thanks to Cat’s deft designs, simple stitching and clever construction, I found all the projects delightfully doable, quite quick, and really rewarding for the effort.

For the beginner or the advanced crafter, this is a fantastic feast of ideas and instructions. Make trinkets with and for little ones, adults, friends, family, or yourself! This would be a marvellous Christmas gift, or the perfect excuse to make your own Christmas gifts this year

Truganini: Journey through the apocalypse by Cassandra Pybus (Allen & Unwin, 2020) Review by Melanie Ross

It would be a rare Tasmanian who hasn’t heard of Truganini, but I wager few of us know more than the bare bones of her story.

A Nuenonne woman born on what is now called Bruny Island, Truganini became famous as (erroneously) ‘the last Tasmanian’, and during her life she was a close associate and guide of another wellknown Tasmanian, George Robinson.

This biography – based mostly on close readings of Robinson’s fulsome personal journals – draws a deeply nuanced picture of Truganini, as well as her many kin and associates across Lutruwita’s First Nations.

Utterly devastating in its frankness, as well as its evocative depictions of the barely-touched wilderness of 1830s Van Diemen’s Land, this book ought to be required reading for all non-Aboriginal people in Tasmania. It is deeply revealing about Robinson’s character and intentions, but also about the brutality of life in the colony and the violence done by settlers, sealers and convicts alike. Readers can keenly feel the deep loss of Aboriginal cultures, customs and language throughout this book, without Pybus ever becoming sanctimonious.

Book Chatter Without the Terror Australis Crime Readers & Writers Festival to look forward to, we’re especially excited about next year’s festivals, north and south – the inaugural Nipaluna/Hobart Readers and Writers Festival, 29 May – 1 June, and the 2026 edition of the Tamar Valley Writers Festival, 16-19 October. Authors have until 30 November to submit themselves to the Tamar Festival. Both festivals are always open to feedback, so readers – do contact them with ideas of what kind of speakers and events you’d love to see, hear and attend.

Correction: In the September magazine, Megan’s review of Viet Kieu: recipes remembered from Vietnam by Thi Le and Jia-Yen Lee stated the book did not contain the scrumptious banh khot Thi. She was wrong. The author has since confirmed the recipe is there, on page 246 – great news – this recipe is reason alone to get the book!

Keen to chat books with us? Find us on Instagram @thewomanbookerprizeclub or email thewbpc@ gmail.com