Our books of the month, May 2024
Explore our books of the month for May; each of the below titles has been read and recommended by our booksellers before being selected as our book of the month for its category.
FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH
Only the Astronauts by Ceridwen Dovey
Reviewed by Joe Murray, Readings Kids
'Where Only the Astronauts is most powerful is in the stories where Dovey almost dares you to care, reckoning with the absurd until she finds something beautiful.'
What do we owe the objects we send into space? This might seem like a strange question to ask, but after reading the five heartfelt stories of Ceridwen Dovey’s Only the Astronauts, it’s a question at the forefront of my mind. From the colossal International Space Station to the comical hundred-strong host of Original Space Tampons, the things we choose to become space-travellers alongside us reflect upon humanity and, for Dovey, have their own stories to tell.
In ‘Requiem’ the ISS, on the eve of its fiery decommissioning, fondly reminisces about the many astronauts who called it home, carrying the reader through a flurry of anecdotes, both trivial and poignant, that build a picture of lives truly lived among the stars. Similarly pensive is ‘The Fallen Astronaut’, a story which fuses Neil Armstrong’s spirit with the titular sculpture to produce a meditation on the moon and our history with it.
Yet where Only the Astronauts is most powerful is in the stories where Dovey almost dares you to care, reckoning with the absurd until she finds something beautiful. Nowhere is this more apparent than in ‘We The Tamponauts’ – yes, that neologism is short for tampon astronauts – which begins as an almost laughably didactic feminist parable, before steadily drawing you into a genuinely thrilling and resonant tale of ambition and sacrifice. Likewise, in ‘Starman’, a thwarted love between Elon Musk and the mannequin he sent into space threatens to fall into satirical flatness but doggedly resists it in favour of an earnestness that cannot help but move you, reflecting the ethos of radical sincerity at the heart of each and every story.
Returning to the question that opened this review, Dovey’s stories suggest that what we owe these object astronauts is a voice, however metaphorical, with which to observe humanity and allow us to love and understand ourselves better.
CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH
One of Us Is Missing by B.M. Carroll
Reviewed by Chris Gordon, Readings events and programming manager
'Like all excellent crime-based novels, there are twists and turns in the storyline. It will keep you guessing. However, more than that, this novel holds up a portrait of a typical family for us all to examine.'
This story is all a little too possible for my liking. The day I finished it, I woke at 3am in a cold sweat. This is the story that has since made me feel anxious on hearing Coldplay’s ‘Viva La Vida’ playing on the radio. Let me explain; when my children were younger, I took them to their first big stadium concert to experience Coldplay performing. This story is about Rachel and Rory who also take their kids, Emmet and Bridie, to their first big concert to hear Coldplay perform. But unlike my wonderful experience, one of them goes missing. This fast-moving, deftly written novel catalogues so many horrific things that could happen to a family. It is all very believable. And clever.
Like all excellent crime-based novels, there are twists and turns in the storyline. It will keep you guessing. However, more than that, this novel holds up a portrait of a typical family for us all to examine. There is empathy in the descriptions of the teenagers’ complicated lives. There is kindness in the depictions of how parents can break under pressure, or how any of us could make a mistake that impacts everyone in our family. It explores how families can be places of refuge, but also how lonely a family unit can be. And then there are the secrets we all keep. This novel, despite the genre, is all heart.
Fans of Toni Jordan will enjoy the familiar domestic setting of this novel. Readers of Aoife Clifford will relish the twist in the plot. One of Us Is Missing is a thrilling read, designed to keep us all on our toes.
NONFICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH
Peripathetic: Notes on (un)belonging by Cher Tan
Reviewed by James Marples, Readings Carlton
'Tan’s ability to draw on rich veins of cultural theory, sprinkle in surprising pop-culture references and ground her writings in personal anecdotes makes for vital reading. Fans of Maggie Nelson, Jenny Odell and Elena Savage will love this collection.'
Peripathetic is a collection of nine essays by Singapore-born Australian writer Cher Tan. The essays span a diverse range of topics, from the online punk and zine scenes in Singapore and the rise of open access file sharing platform ‘Pirate Bay’ in the early 2000s, to the precarity of workers in the casual labour market.
Many of the pieces read like manifestoes – touching on intellectual property, DIY ‘hustler’ culture, the impossibility of true protest and the appropriation of radical queer culture by the political mainstream. In Tan’s writing these topics all orbit around one central concern: power relations in the digital realm.
If you think this all sounds a bit dry, you’d be dead wrong. Her writing style and formatting are experimental and fizzing with energy: brackets are used with a playful flair, quotes float in negative space and whole paragraphs are redacted, leaving your eyes darting about, as though searching for some broken hyperlink.
The overall effect is like being walked into the hinterlands of cyberspace with Tan as your tour guide. Carefully guiding you through the ones and zeros, she gives you a glimpse of our techno-dystopian present.
It isn’t always an easy read – sentences sometimes bounce from one dense idea to another without a linear link, forcing you to pause and connect them. But Tan’s ability to draw on rich veins of cultural theory (Adorno, Deleuze, Fisher), sprinkle in surprising pop-culture references (Korn anyone?) and ground her writings in personal anecdotes makes for vital reading. Fans of Maggie Nelson, Jenny Odell and Elena Savage will love this collection.
Ultimately, the book expresses something essential about our current moment: the small joys of an extremely online existence, the grind of life under late capitalism and, above all, the constant struggle to resist.
KIDS BOOK OF THE MONTH
The Truck Cat by Deborah Frenkel & Danny Snell (illus.)
Reviewed by Kate McIntosh, manager Readings Emporium
'A picture book for all ages, and for everyone, human or feline.'
The first time I read this picture book, I read it out loud to my cat. She has never been in a truck, and she slept through the whole thing, but I could tell she appreciated the wonderful cadence of Deborah Frenkel’s words. Tinka the truck cat lives all over Australia, ‘in depots dancing with dragonflies’, as he travels in the cabin of an enormous truck that belongs to his owner, Yacoub.
The second time I read this picture book, I read it out loud to my mum. She has also never been in a truck, but she did not sleep though the story. Like Yacoub, my mother’s family came from another country, and the concept of home was a complicated one. When Tinka accidently leads Yacoub to a new family, our hearts were full. Who knew so much love could be encapsulated in only 30 pages?!
A picture book for all ages, and for everyone, human or feline.
KIDS CLASSIC OF THE MONTH
The Rainbow Serpent (50th anniversary edition) by Dick Roughsey
Reviewed by Dani Solomon, manager Readings Kids
'The story remains as compelling as it was when I first read it as a child, and the superb art is undeniably among the most recognised and loved representations of Australia’s landscape and First Peoples you’ll find.'
It’s the 50th anniversary of The Rainbow Serpent! Well, more accurately, it’s probably a little more than the 65,000th anniversary of the Rainbow Serpent. But for many of us, we were only introduced to and have had the privilege of experiencing the story of the Rainbow Serpent as it was written and illustrated 50 years ago by Dick Roughsey, a Lardil artist and storyteller, among many other things.
In The Rainbow Serpent he shares the knowledge of how Goorialla, the Rainbow Serpent, created the mountains and hills and all the living things. First by travelling across the country making mountains and rivers with his huge body, then by thrashing about wildly when he realises he’s been cut open by two brothers who were rescuing some boys he ate.
The story remains as compelling as it was when I first read it as a child, and the superb art is undeniably among the most recognised and loved representations of Australia’s landscape and First Peoples you’ll find. I’m absolutely delighted this story is still available to us and I encourage everyone to revisit it and introduce it to the little ones in their life. For ages 3+.
YOUNG ADULT BOOK OF THE MONTH
Into the Mouth of the Wolf by Erin Gough
Reviewed by Angela Crocombe, senior buyer for Readings Kids
'Peopled with a large cast of unique, wholly realistic characters, Gough’s third novel has elements of dystopia, eco-thriller and romance, all bound together in a fast-paced, exciting mystery. For ages 11+.'
Amelia Westlake was a stand-out title when it was published in 2018, winning The Readings Young Adult Prize. It’s been a long wait for Erin Gough’s next novel, but the delay has been worth it. Into the Mouth of the Wolf is radically different and pitched slightly younger, but it is no less impressive.
Iris and her mum are permanently on the run in an alternate future where earthquakes destroy towns regularly and many people have been displaced. Someone is hunting them, but Iris’s mother won’t tell her who or why. When her mother suddenly disappears, Iris has little to go on bar the Spanish phrase ‘in bocca al lupo’ (into the mouth of the wolf), which her mother made her memorise, plus the name of a hotel in a town called Glassy Bay.
In search of answers, Iris connects online with Lena, whose family runs the Glassy Bay International Travellers’ Hostel, and the two develop a growing attraction. Meanwhile, in Glassy Bay, some very suspicious things are happening, not least the washing up of a woman’s body on the shore. There are numerous plots converging within this murder mystery, not least that Glassy Bay can only be reached from Iris’s world by a secret underwater portal.
Peopled with a large cast of unique, wholly realistic characters, Gough’s third novel has elements of dystopia, eco-thriller and romance, all bound together in a fast-paced, exciting mystery. I highly recommend this fascinating Australian novel for readers aged 11+.