Books
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
A Pocketful of Happiness by Richard E. Grant
Lessons by Ian McEwan
Old Vintage Melbourne, 1960–1990 by Chris Macheras
RecipeTin Eats: Dinner by Nagi Maehashi
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
Exiles by Jane Harper
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
My Dream Time by Ash Barty
A Book of Days by Patti Smith
Our best-seller from the past week is the memoir from beloved actor Richard E. Grant…
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
A Book of Days by Patti Smith
I Am NOT Fine, Thanks by Wil Anderson
My Dream Time by Ash Barty
Exiles by Jane Harper
Old Vintage Melbourne, 1960–1990 by Chris Macheras
Murder in Williamstown by Kerry Greenwood
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
Lessons by Ian McEwan
Minds Went Walking by various
RecipeTin Eats: Dinner by Nagi Maehashi
Our best-seller from the past week offers a glimpse into Patti Smith's creative life through 365 personal photographs shot on…
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
My Dream Time by Ash Barty
Exiles by Jane Harper
Old Vintage Melbourne, 1960–1990 by Chris Macheras
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
Seeing Other People by Diana Reid
Lessons by Ian McEwan
Lune: Croissants All Day, All Night by Kate Reid
A Year with Wendy Whiteley by Ashleigh Wilson
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
Not Now, Not Ever by Julia Gillard
Our best-seller from the past week is tennis superstar, Ash Barty's memoir, My Dream Time…
Dear Reader, with Alison Huber
Somehow or other we have arrived at the final issue of Readings Monthly for 2022, and we are busily prepping our stores for something like ‘normal’ festive trading, the kind that doesn’t involve QR codes, density limits or immunisation passport checks at the door (to future readers of the Readings archive, this is not a joke!). To celebrate, our Fiction Book of the Month is Inga Simpson’s brilliant Willowman, a book about life told through cricket. All of us…
Mark's Say, November 2022
A few weeks ago, some For Lease signs went up outside our Hawthorn shop, alarming many customers. Readings moved to Hawthorn in the early 1970s and has become a fixture of that community, and we have no intention of leaving the area. Our lease is coming to an end and we couldn’t work out anything satisfactory with the landlord. We’ve long admired the rejuvenation of the area around Lido Cinema, and emailed the owner, Eddie Tamir, on the off-chance that…
On events, with Chris Gordon
As with any excellent dinner party, we are covering all bases for our final month of programming this year. We are rejoicing in music, food, laughter, politics (because what is a dinner party without heated discussion) and a touch of whimsy. I am hoping each event you attend lightens your soul and makes you realise how glorious our fine city is, filled as it is with creative geniuses.
A soundtrack is always one of the most crucial elements of a…
Neurodiverse stories for young adults
Adolescence is a confusing, difficult time - even more so when your brain is wired differently to other teens. Here are a collection of powerful stories, both fiction and non-fiction, about living with neurodiversity as a teenager that provide insights and empathy for the complexity, challenges, and joy of living neurodivergently.
Different, Not Less by Chloe Hayden
Growing up, Chloe Hayden felt like she’d crash-landed on an alien planet where nothing made sense. She moved between 10 schools in 8…
New Kids and YA books for book clubs
We are delighted to have many recent children’s books that are richly imagined and would be perfect for study by book clubs and in classrooms. Here are some of our favourites.
AGES 5 AND UP
My Strange Shrinking Parents by Zeno Sworder
With humour and pathos, Sworder reflects on the strange nature of giving and receiving love and celebrates those parents who embrace a hard life for themselves in the hope of a better life for their children.
Themes include:
…
Our favourite interactive books for young readers
I remember, back in the distant 1980s, the thrill of Choose Your Own Adventure books and the excitement of being able to constantly re-read a book, choosing a different outcome each time.
Today, there’s now a swathe of beautiful interactive stories that young readers can enjoy reading over and over again, as well as amazing seek-and-find books (that are also stunning, artistic adventures). Discover some of our recent favourite below.
Spin to Survive: Deadly Jungle by Emily Hawkins & R…
Our children's and YA top 10 bestsellers of the week
Triple Threat by Katy Warner
The 156-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton
Little Gem by Anna Zobel
My Strange Shrinking Parents by Zeno Sworder
The Goodbye Year by Emily Gale
Nothing More to Tell by Karen McManus
A Glasshouse of Stars by Shirley Marr
The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Wylah the Koorie Warrior by Jordan Gould & Richard Pritchard
Chippy Chasers: Chippy Jackpot by Sam Cotton
Our bestselling title this week was the latest young adult…
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman
Lessons by Ian McEwan
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
This Devastating Fever by Sophie Cunningham
Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Jack Charles: Born-again Blakfella by Jack Charles
Wildflowers by Peggy Frew
People Who Lunch by Sally Olds
The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes
_Life and Death Decisions by Dr. Lachlan McIver
Our best-seller from the past week is the third book in the beloved Thursday Murder Club series…
What we're reading: Godwin, Au & Yoshitake
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on, or the music we’re loving.
Aurelia Orr is reading A Walk in the Dark by Jane Godwin
What’s the worst that can happen when a group of year nine students go hiking in the woods at night, with no adults … and no phones? A Walk in the Dark takes the wilderness survival story and twists it into…
Recommended reading: short story collections
We love short stories and their unique ability to distill so much insight and entertainment with artful brevity and fervour. This month we’re highlighting six collections that have recently hit our shelves.
Between Two Worlds selected by Tara June Winch and Behrouz Boochani
Offering a snapshot of contemporary Australia, this diverse collection of stories explores sense of place, family, loss, culture, sexual awakening and the abiding connections to people and place that make us who we are. Told with utterly…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we’re reading novels translated from Japanese, Spanish, French, Italian and Turkish.
The Pachinko Parlour by Elisa Shua Dusapin (translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins)
It is summer in Tokyo. Claire finds herself dividing her time between tutoring twelve-year-old Mieko in an apartment in an abandoned hotel and lying on the floor at her grandparents.
The plan is for Claire to visit Korea with her grandparents. They fled the civil war there over fifty years ago, along…
Neurodiverse stories for middle grade readers
It is heartening to see more books with neurodiverse main characters. Not only are these stories fantastic for young people who experience neurodiversity in one way or another, but it’s wonderful for all readers to learn about what might be going on in someone else’s mind and build empathy.
Below are some of our most popular stories that champion neurodiversity.
When I See Blue by Lily Bailey
Sometimes Ben’s brain makes him count to 4 to prevent bad things happening…
Recommended children's books and news for September
We have some extraordinary picture books to pore over this month, including our Book of the Month by rising star, Zeno Sworder, which looks at the immigrant experience through a different lens - shrinking parents! We also have a picture book from Alice Pung about a little boy whose parents want to keep him wrapped in cotton wool, when all he wants is to run free, plus a stunning new picture book by Caldecott-winner, Sophie Blackall.
In fiction, we are…
Recommended YA books and news for September
We have so many exciting Australian young adult new releases this month. Our Book of the Month is a feel-good queer rom-com that our reviewer absolutely adored. We’re also excited by a First Nations fantasy that goes back in time to Australia pre-colonisation. It is utterly brilliant!
Hotly anticipated new novels by Frances Hardinge and Karen McManus have finally arrived, we’re loving a Gothic coming of age story about two very different sisters, not to mention a thriller set in…
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
This Devastating Fever by Sophie Cunningham
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
Astronomy: Sky Country by Karlie Noon & Krystal De Napoli
After the Tampa by Abbas Nazari
Wildflowers by Peggy Frew
The Settlement by Jock Serong
Quarterly Essay 87: Uncivil Wars by Waleed Aly & Scott Stephens
Humanity’s Moment by Joëlle Gergis
Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
This All Come Back Now edited by Mykaela Saunders
Our best-seller from the past week is September’s Melbourne City Reads…
Our children's and YA top 10 bestsellers of the week
The 156-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton
Dancing Barefoot by Alice Boyle
Nothing More to Tell by Karen McManus
Hasina: Through My Eyes by Michelle Aung Thin
My Strange Shrinking Parents by Zeno Sworder
Sadie Starr’s Guide to Starting Over by Miranda Luby
Be Careful Xiao Xin! by Alice Pung & Sher Rill Ng
A Glasshouse of Stars by Shirley Marr
Where You Left Us by Rhiannon Wilde
The Goodbye Year by Emily Gale
Our top selling title…
What we're reading: Batuman & Ponthus
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on, or the music we’re loving.
Baz Ozturk is reading Either/Or by Elif Batuman
I’m currently immersed in Selin’s world at Harvard, in this follow-up to The Idiot.
I am one of those readers who loves nerdy books about books, and Either/Or is definitely one of them. In fact Selin is one of the most bookish characters I’ve…
The James Cropper Wainwright Prize winners 2022
The James Cropper Wainwright Prizes for UK Nature Writing are awarded annually to books that successfully inspire readers to explore the outdoors, celebrate nature, and to nurture and respect the natural world. In 2022 there are three prize categories: nature writing, conservation writing, and children’s writing.
2022 winner of the prize for Nature Writing
Goshawk Summer: The Diary of an Extraordinary Season in the Forest by James Aldred
In early 2020, wildlife film-maker James Aldred was commissioned to make a…
The 2022 Age Book of the Year winners
The 2022 Age Book of the Year winners have been announced! This year the award once again encompassed a prize for nonfiction as well as for fiction.
Miles Allinson has won the Fiction prize for his sophomore novel, In Moonland, while Bernadette Brennan has won the Non-fiction prize for her work of biography, Leaping Into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears. Each winner receives $10,000 thanks to the Copyright Agency. The winners were announced during last night’s Melbourne Writers…
The best food & gardening books of the month
Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things by Noor Murad & Yotam Ottolenghi
Do you know that little skip in your step you get when you smell jasmine in full bloom? It happens towards the end of September and coincides with another great gift: a new Ottolenghi cookbook! I know it’s impossible to consider right now, but I promise by mid-month you will be making harissa butter and spreading it over everything. You will be bottling jars of tamarind dressing and…
Get thinking at this year's Melbourne Writers Festival
The Melbourne Writers Festival begins today! If you’re like us and feel like your reading and planning has gotten away from you, below are some of the fabulous panels, debates and in-conversations that can challenge your thinking, without requiring any festival pre-reading!
Few topics have inspired authors, artists, poets and pop stars alike as that of love. Join two of Australia’s favourite writers, Trent Dalton (Love Stories) and Clementine Ford (How We Love), as…
Books to celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day 2022
Today is Indigenous Literacy Day; a day where we celebrate the culture, stories and language of our First Nations peoples.
Indigenous Literacy Day is organised by The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF), a not-for-profit organisation that seeks to foster a love of reading and books with First Nations children in remote communities. Below are four recent titles published by the ILF, which feature First Nations languages and are delightful stories to read with small children.
Winthali: Fire by Joe Ross, Stacey…
The 2022 Booker Prize shortlist
The shortlist for the 2022 Booker Prize has been announced! The Booker Prize has brought recognition, reward and readership to outstanding fiction for over 50 years. It is awarded annually to the best novel of the year written in English and published in the UK or Ireland.
Below are the six shortlisted titles:
Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
Glory tells the story of a country seemingly trapped in a cycle as old as time. And yet, as it unveils the myriad…
Books to read at bedtime
On these cold winter nights there is nothing nicer than snuggling up under the covers for a cosy, long storytime. Here we highlight some classics and contemporary titles that are gentle, soothing and perfect for a longer than normal bedtime reading routine. All of these titles are suitable for children aged four and up who can be still for a longer storytime, but there are still plenty of pictures for them to enjoy as you read.
Mark's Say: September, 2022
The Melbourne Writers Festival is one of Australia’s oldest writers’ festivals. Launched in 1986, its first two years were held at the Athenaeum Theatre in Collins Street. Early guests included Margaret Atwood, Vikram Seth, Angela Carter, August Kleinzahler and A.S. Byatt from overseas, and Australian writers Frank Moorhouse, Elizabeth Jolley, Kevin Gilbert and Helen Garner. The first program director was author Colin Talbot, assisted by a board that included critic Peter Craven, publisher Michael Heyward and writer Helen Garner. Thirty-six…
Our children's and YA top 10 bestsellers of the week
My Strange Shrinking Parents by Zeno Sworder
Bindi by Kirli Saunders
Whodunnit Eddie Woo?: Time Out by Eddie Woo, Jess Black & Mitch Vane
Nothing More to Tell by Karen McManus
Treasure in the Lake by Jason Pamment
The Final Gambit: The Inheritance Games 3 by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Zadie Ma and the Dog Who Chased the Moon by Gabrielle Wang
All the Little Tricky Things by Karys McEwen
Little Gem by Anna Zobel
Our books of the month, September 2022
OUR FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH
Wildflowers by Peggy Frew
Reviewed by
‘Sisters. They can be the strongest of allies, the fiercest of enemies. In her latest novel, Wildflowers, Peggy Frew delves, with startlingly precise detail, deep into the fraught history and heartbreaking present of three girls born to Robert and Gwen Atkins … Frew has a singular, remarkable gift for writing human emotion; her characters live and breathe beyond the page. My heart ached for each and every…
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
Cut by Susan White
The Boy From Boomerang Crescent by Eddie Betts
Neil Balme: A Tale of Two Men by Anson Cameron
Marshmallow by Victoria Hannan
Wildflowers by Peggy Frew
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Harold Holt by Ross Walker
Humanity’s Moment by Joëlle Gergis
Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Our best-seller from the past week is the latest from novelist Maggie O'Farrell (Hamnet), The Marriage Portrait…
Teen Advisory Board: what to read after Heartstopper
by AnanyaWe’ve all read Heartstopper, but what should you read next? Whether we related to the themes, the characters, or just loved the vibes; here are some books that we think you’ll enjoy after you’ve read the popular webcomic turned television series.
Read below for some personal recommendations or browse our full list of suggested reads here.
Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales
Perfect on Paper is the perfect rom-com any YA reader could ask for. It’s also the…
Spotlight on Kids and YA Manga favourites
Passionate about manga or curious about the artform? To help build your manga collection, this month we have a 3-for-2 offer on the first three volumes in a range of bestselling manga series. Buy two books and choose a third title in the range (of equal or lesser value) for free. This offer is available in all Readings shops (excluding SLV and online) until 30 September 2022 on stickered, in-stock items only, while stocks last.
Below are six popular series…
All the world's a stage — YA set in the theatre world
There is nothing I love more than a book set inside the world of the theatre. Backstage shenanigans, identity crises, overblown egos, stories within stories, and the long hours characters are forced to spend together create highly combustible, and often hilarious, scenarios.
Recently it seems that young adult fiction is brimming with titles focused around school or university theatre or musical productions, community theatre, or even big Broadway dreams. And why not, because when you’re young and dramatically inclined, all…
Dear Reader, with Alison Huber
I already know (thank you, dear Editor) that I simply don’t have enough space this month to explain how great September’s releases are, so my apologies in advance for any and all omissions. Our fiction book of the month is the glorious Wildflowers, Peggy Frew’s fourth novel which showcases her sharp eye for character and the complexity of familial relationships. Our Melbourne City Reads alliance has chosen Sophie Cunningham’s This Devastating Fever for September’s pick, a genre-defying novel many…
What we're reading: Broder, Hazelwood & Stevenson
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on, or the music we’re loving.
Aurelia Orr is reading Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
This book is an absolute feast of every delight and pleasure the world has to offer. Rachel, a non-practicing Jew, has made calorie restriction and intensive cardio exercise her religion. When she meets Miriam, an Orthodox Jewish woman intent upon feeding her, Rachel suddenly…
On Events, with Chris Gordon
Honestly, I’m delighted winter is over. I find the last weeks of that bitter frigid wind unpleasant. I yearn to sit outside surrounded by friends on a balmy afternoon and talk about how we are going to change the world, one book at a time. The wonderful Melbourne Writers Festival, which has chosen ambition as its theme this year, is thinking along the same lines. Speak up and often. Listen together.
The authors in our events calendar this month…
Interview with Selby Wynn Schwartz
We were thrilled to have the opportunity to chat with of one of this year’s Booker Prize longlisted authors, Selby Wynn Schwartz. Read on for a wonderful conversation between bookseller Aurelia Orr and Schwartz about writing, mythology and her nominated work, After Sappho.
Can you tell us a bit about your novel and perhaps even about the eponymous, Sappho?
Very little is known about Sappho, a lyric poet who lived on the island of Lesbos around 630 B.C., and…
Our children's and YA top 10 bestsellers of the week
The Wintrish Girl by Melanie La'Brooy
The Sugarcane Kids and the Red-Bottomed Boat by Charlie Archibold
A Glasshouse of Stars by Shirley Marr
The Baddies by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler
Treasure in the Lake by Jason Pamment
Little Gem by Anna Zobel
Tiger Daughter by Rebecca Lim
What We All Saw by Mike Lucas
The Museum of Broken Things by Lauren Draper
What to Say When You Don’t Know What to Say by Davina Bell
Our top selling title…
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
Love and Virtue by Diana Reid
Around the Table by Julia Busuttil Nishimura
Neil Balme: A Tale of Two Men by Anson Cameron
The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood
I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee (translated by Anton Hur)
Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down
Marlo by Jay Carmichael
The Making and Unmaking of East-West Link by James C Murphy
Readings Prize Shortlist Pack 2022
Our…
The Davitt Award winners 2022
Congratulations to this year’s winners of the Davitt Awards for the best crime books by Australian women.
ADULT CRIME NOVEL
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team tasked with reintroducing fourteen grey wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but a broken Aggie, too. However, Inti is not the woman she once was, and may be in need of…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
New in translated fiction for August are three excellent novels translated from Japanese.
Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata (translated from Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori)
An engaged couple falls out over the husband’s dislike of clothes and objects made from human materials; a young girl finds herself deeply enamoured with the curtain in her childhood bedroom; people honour their dead by eating them and then procreating.
Published in English for the first time, this exclusive edition also includes the story…
Children's and young adult books by women in translation
To celebrate Women in Translation month in August we are showcasing five fabulous children’s and young adult books both written and translated by women.
My Happy Life written by Rose Lagercrantz, illustrated by Eva Eriksson,
Translated from Swedish by Julia Marshall
The first in a seven-book series, this is one of our favourite junior fiction titles about friendship and resilience.
Dani is happy because she’s going to start school and she’s been waiting to go to school her whole life…
Our top picks of the month for book clubs
For book clubs who are fans of Black Mirror …
Every Version of You by Grace Chan
In late twenty-first century Australia, Tao-Yi and her partner Navin spend most of their time inside a hyper-immersive, hyper-consumerist virtual reality called Gaia. They log on, go to work, socialise, and even eat in this digital utopia. Meanwhile their aging bodies lie suspended in pods inside cramped apartments.
When a new technology is developed to permanently upload a human brain to Gaia, Tao-Yi…
Debut fiction to read this month
Hydra by Adriane Howell
Anja is a young, ambitious antiquarian. When her career goes awry, Anja finds herself adrift. Cast out from the world of antiques, she stumbles upon a beachside cottage that the neighbouring naval base is offering for a 100-year lease. The property is derelict, isolated, and surrounded by scrub. Despite of, or because of, its wildness and solitude, Anja uses the last of the inheritance from her mother to lease the property. Yet a presence –…
Gift ideas for Fathers looking to a brighter future
We’ve collated a collection of gift ideas for Fathers who are wanting to learn more about how they can help shape a better world for future generations! To make a better future we’ll need to tackle personal, collective and systemic change; these books can help. Some philosophical, some instructional, but all insightful.
What We Owe the Future by William MacAskill
We are still five hundred million years away from the sterilisation of the Earth by the Sun, and one hundred…
The Readings Prize: New Australian Fiction shortlist
The Readings New Australian Fiction Prize is presented to the best new contribution to Australian literature. Our 2022 staff judges are: Christine Gordon (community engagement and programming and chair of judges), Carolyn Watson (Readings Doncaster), Susan Stevenson (Readings Malvern) and Tye Cattanach (schools and libraries specialist).
Discover the six shortlisted titles below.
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
A daughter arranges to meet her mother in Japan; a reunion of sorts. As they travel through art galleries and temples…
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves
Around the Table by Julia Busuttil Nishimura
So You Want to Live Younger Longer? by Dr Norman Swan
Marlo by Jay Carmichael
Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down
The Boy From Boomerang Crescent by Eddie Betts
Provocations by Jeff Sparrow
You’ll Be a Wonderful Dad by Ailsa Wild
Raised by Wolves by Jess Ho
What We Owe the Future by William MacAskill
Our best-seller from the past week is the latest novel from the…
Our children's and YA top 10 bestsellers of the week
The Readings Prize Children’s Shortlist Pack 2022
A Glasshouse of Stars by Shirley Marr
Little Gem by Anna Zobel
Floof by Heidi McKinnon
Guardians: Wylah the Koorie Warrior 1 by Jordan Gould & Richard Pritchard
The Sugarcane Kids and the Red-Bottomed Boat by Charlie Archibold
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
The Readings Prize Young Adult Shortlist Pack 2022
Treasure in the Lake by Jason Pamment
What We All Saw by Mike Lucas
Our top-selling title this week…
Recommended children's books and news for August
We are madly in love with our August Book of the Month, which is focused on discovering the tiny indicators of nature, even in the most crowded city. It’s an utter delight for picture book lovers.
We also have a stunning book featuring the most beautiful of nature’s insects – butterflies. Plus, a great picture book about sustainability, some wonderful fantasy stories for middle fiction readers, and our classic of the month, The Velveteen Rabbit, is celebrating its 100…
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