Our staff share the books that made them cry this year.

‘ Jean Harley Was Here by Heather Taylor Johnson. There’s no getting away from the fact that the story is about a tragedy, yet the telling of it is a celebration of a life, almost making it a feel-good book. Told through multiple perspectives, each chapter offers insights into those left behind, and whose lives had been touched so positively by one person. I was engrossed immediately and tearing up by page two, it felt so real. This is a moving portrayal of the power of love and of friendship, and it’s wonderful.’

– Jan Lockwood, human resources manager

‘Before Georgia Blain died, she wrote about dying. The Museum of Words is the final story from her real life and it made me sob out loud. There is grace in her words and that of her partner’s that seem almost surreal when reading – one simply had to remember that this all really happened.’

– Chris Gordon, events manager

‘Bill Hayes’s memoir on his relationship with the late neurologist Oliver Sacks, Insomniac City, was an absolute romantic delight, as well as entirely devastating in its beauty and reflections on death. I can’t think of any other recent book that left me feeling so bereft and full up all at once.’

– Fiona Hardy, bookseller at Readings Carton

‘Ali Smith’s Winter is a timeless Christmas story that had me laughing and crying. I was also a sobbing mess by the end of Gravity Well. This is Melanie Joosten’s second novel and a moving exploration of friendship, grief, human connection and astronomy.’

– Marie Matteson, buyer at Readings Carton

‘ Letters of Love was created to celebrate and honour the twentieth anniversary of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation. The book contains letters from more than 60 writers, celebrities and public figures, all on the theme of love. My colleague Lian was one of the contributors, and she writes a letter to her sister. Her piece had me crying from pretty much the first line, and it’s one of the loveliest, most heartfelt things I read all year.’

– Nina Kenwood, marketing manager

‘ Insomniac City is a gentle, delightful book, full of humanity yet tinged with sadness. I’m not easily moved to tears but one simple line in the book’s final pages caught me up short, gasping, fighting back tears. Read this book. I hope it will affect you as it has me.’

– Mark Rubbo, managing director

‘This year I finally read Mary Ann Shaffer’s much-adored and bestselling novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which was first published in 2008. Set in the immediate aftermath of WWII, this epistolary novel is a wonderfully heartwarming tearjerker about kindness, friendship and books.

I also cried during Thi Bui’s evocative memoir, The Best We Could Do, and when rereading a couple of my favourite novels from young readers – Cath Crowley’s gorgeously heartfelt Words in Deep Blue and L. M. Montgomery’s timeless classic Anne of Green Gables.

And I was brought to both tears and fury by They Cannot Take the Sky, an incredible oral history documenting the stories of those who have been detained by the Australian government after seeking asylum in Australia. In my review, I called this work an act of resistance, and it truly is. I urge everyone to read it.’

– Bronte Coates, digital content coordinator