“What a year 2023 has been. We hope you enjoy a well deserved and relaxing break. To help you on your way, we at ACOLA wanted to share some fun, thought-provoking and interesting research-based reading, watching and listening for wherever your holidays take you. Enjoy, and congratulations for getting to the finish line. We look forward to seeing you in 2024.”

Ryan Winn, CEO of ACOLA

At the end of each year, ACOLA develops a summer reading list to promote interesting, insightful and provocative interdisciplinary research and thinking, as well as inspire and entertain us as we all take some well-needed rest. We also aim to promote high-quality and engaging research and science writing for a non-specialist audience. For 2023, ACOLA is pleased to collaborate with The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science (CPAS) at the ANU to create the list.

The list is the culmination of the listening and reading habits of many of Australia’s research leaders and science communicators over the last 12 months. It includes a mix of fiction and non-fiction books, interesting articles and podcast episodes and series for you to enjoy on the couch, as you drive, walk the dog, cycle or laze by the beach.

Articles

• Homesick for ourselves - the hidden grief of ageing by Carol Lefevre
• What’s taking the biggest toll on our mental health? By Marlee Bower, Maree Teesson, Scarlett Smout & Amarina Donohoe-Bales
• I think my teen is depressed. How can I get them help and what are the treatment options? By Louise Birrell, Andrew Baillie, Erin Kelly, Maree Teesson
• Flat white lie: why people use an alias to order coffee by Amanda Diaz
• A rainy day in Hobart: Where did all that water go? By Anne-Marie Conde
• Safeguarding indigenous sky rights from colonial exploitation by Karlie Noon, Krystal De Napoli, Peter Swanton, Carla Guedes, Duane Hamacher
• The Discovery of the Intersititum by Jennifer Brandel
• Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey? By Ted Chiang
• The Minds of Others by David Bromwich, Garth Greenwell, Hanif Abdurraqib, Kelly Clancy, Laila Lalami, Mychal Denzel Smith, T. M. Luhrmann
• Quantum computers: what are they good for? By Michael Brooks
• Gender is dynamic for all people by B. Brady, S. Rosenberg, C. E. Newman, A. Kaladelfos, G. Kenning, E. Duck‑Chong, & J. Bennett
• The Eight Deadly Sins of Analyzing the Energy Transition by Sam Butler-Sloss and Kingsmill Bond

Books (non-fiction)

• Money in the 21st Century: Cheap, Mobile, and Digital by Richard Holden
• Escape from Model Land: How Mathematical Models Can Lead Us Astray & What We Can Do About It by Erica Thomson
• Speaking Up by Gillian Triggs
• Traffic by Ben Smith
• Facts and Other Lies by Ed Coper
• Apeirogon by Colum McCann
• An Immense World by Ed Yong
• The Secret Perfume of Birds by Danielle J Whittaker
• The Tyranny of Metrics
• Higher Imagination: A Future for Universities by Ant Bagshaw
• Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong - And the New Research That's Rewriting the Story by Angela Saini
• The Wires that Bind: Electrification and Community Renewal by Saul Griffith
• The First Astronomers by Duane Hamacher
• The Emporer of Rome
• This is not a book about Benedict Cumberbatch: The joy of loving something - anything - like your life depends on it by Tabitha Carvan

Books (fiction)

• Wifedom by Anna Funder
• Blind Faith by Ben Elton
• Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami
• My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
• The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
• Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
• Entanglements: Tomorrow's Lovers, Families, and Friends, edited by Sheila Williams

Podcasts

• The Rest is History - Tom Holland & Dominic Sandbrook
• The Great Simplification with Nate Haggens
• The Memory Palace with Nate Di Meo
• Ones and Tooze with Adam Tooze
• The Samoan Scientist Podcast

Other

• Wham! - Documentary directed by Chris Smith
• All Of The Factors Of Why I Love Tractors - Children's Book by Davina Bell & Jenny Løvlie
• How measuring impact gets in the way of real world change - Blog by Toby Love
• The Science Writer Every Science Nerd Wants You to Read - Interview by Joshua Sokol

Acknowledgments and thanks

Firstly, thank you for all the Fellows, experts and other research leaders who contributed ideas and suggestions to the 2023 reading list, including, but not limited to Prof Richard Holden FASSA, Prof Hugh Bradlow FTSE, Prof Kevin McConkey FASSA, Prof Karen Fisher FASSA, Craig Ritchie FAHA, Christina Twomey FASSA FAHA, Maree Teesson AC FAAHMS FASSA, Prof Linda Boterill FASSA, Jonathan Curtis, Eden Whitlock, Dr Will Grant, Ella Relf and Dr Lauren Palmer.

Importantly, ACOLA very much welcomes the collaboration with the COAS. As Australia’s first science communication centre, we play an important role in training and supporting new research and science communicators, in addition to the Centre’s own research and activities. This work builds on previous activities with us, with a number of their graduates now having worked with ACOLA on its research and policy outputs.

This article was first published by ACOLA.