I usually make a joke around this time of year that, for book buyers and retail buyers in general, it really is a case of Christmas in July, as many of us need to make decisions about our Christmas stock at this time of year (cue disbelief from those not involved in the seasonal show). I attended the annual publisher presentations a couple of weeks ago, and my takeaway from those meetings is that it’s going to be a really strong year for fiction at Readings as the year heads towards its end, because so many of our favourite authors have books on the way: Tony Birch, Christos Tsiolkas, Melissa Lucashenko, Anne Enright, Sigrid Nunez, Zadie Smith, Trent Dalton, Richard Osman, Anne Michaels, Jesmyn Ward, Charlotte Wood, Mona Awad, Lauren Groff … I could go on.

But while it is exciting and/or tiring (depending on the day) to think about that part of the year, it turns out that August’s fiction offerings are also incredibly strong, full of new books and authors that I think you might keep hearing about for some time to come. We’re highlighting a fantastic collection of short stories as our Fiction Book of the Month: Firelight by debut Melbourne author John Morrissey. I completely agree with our reviewer who writes that that this collection is a ‘beguiling, evocative delight’, and is one that should be read widely and beyond a dedicated speculative fiction readership. It’s really impressive! I was also excited by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu’s But the Girl, another wonderfully assured debut from an emerging Melbourne talent. Our Melbourne City Reads pick this month is Thaw by Dennis Glover, recommended as a book that explores, ‘our planet’s awesome, unpredictable, and intractable climate’. We also review a bunch of other Australian fiction, including the new books from Peter Polites, Angela O’Keeffe, Laura Elizabeth Woollett, Jessica Seaborn, and Sydney-born UK-based writer Lauren Aimee Curtis, whose debut, Dolores, was shortlisted for the 2020 Readings Prize, and who was recently named on Granta’s prestigious list of best fiction writers under 40 in 2023. Also on that list was Eliza Clark, author of the cult book Boy Parts: her new book is Penance. Our staff reviewers also recommend Colson Whitehead’s follow-up to Harlem Shuffle, Crook Manifesto, books by Yomi Adegoke, Catherine Chidgey, Michiko Aoyama, and Ann Patchett, as well as the new book from Jenny Erpenbeck, Kairos, which our reviewer speculates could be the book of the year: yikes! I can also recommend to you Claire Kilroy’s Soldier Sailor, which read to me like a cross between Rachel Cusk’s A Life’s Work and Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch (i.e., I loved it!).

Our Nonfiction Book of the Month is by writer, translator, and thinker, Lauren Elkin, whose Art Monsters is, in the words of our reviewer, ‘a major work, thoroughly researched, beautifully executed, and frequently surprising’. The time is now for this kind of feminist writing and publishing. Our reviewers also consider Martin Flanagan’s memoir, The Empty Honour Board, David McAllister’s Ballet Confidential, and Marie Darrieussecq’s memoir of insomnia, Sleepless. The Shrinking Nation is a must-read state-of-the-nation piece written by one of Australia’s most influential humanities scholars, Graeme Turner. Also out this month: Emmett Stinson on Gerald Murnane; a new essay collection from Samantha Irby, Quietly Hostile; new books from Timothy Morton and Julia Ebner; Glenn Barkley’s gorgeous visual and cultural history, Ceramics: An Atlas of Forms. And, fellow vegetarians rejoice, because there are not one but TWO bestselling authors doing plant-based takes on their own books: Niki Segnit (The Flavour Thesaurus) and Lucy Tweed (Every Night of the Week). Hurrah! On page 5, you’ll find an excerpt from Everything You Need to Know about The Voice by Megan Davis and George Williams, containing more information and historical context to help inform Australian voters about the importance of the referendum to our nation. The book is in stores now.

And finally, dear reader, thanks to our friends at Hachette, we have a 3-for-2 offer running in August for fiction favourites to help get you through this last, long month of winter.