Nonfiction
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
Young Mungo by Douglas Stewart
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
Ten Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby
Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
Pure Colour by Sheila Heti
French Braid by Anne Tyler
Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
Sea of Tranquility Emily St. John Mandel
Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes
A Solitary Walk on the Moon by Hilde Hinton
Our chart topping book this week is the second novel from Booker-prize winning author…
An extract from The Future Is Fungi
The Future Is Fungi explores the mighty mycelial reach of fungi across four key areas: food, medicine, psychedelics and the environment. With mushroom profiles, informative texts on foraging and glorious 3D art, it’s a fascinating introduction to this hidden kingdom.
Nothing alive exists in isolation. To be alive means to be part of an intricate, sprawling web of cause and effect. Our lives are interwoven with that of plants, animals, bacteria and fungi, forming the beating heart of the planet…
Prose by your favourite poets
These poetic novels and works of non-fiction and memoir are from some of our most beloved and revered poets!
Son of Sin by Omar Sakr
An estranged father. An abused and abusive mother. An army of relatives. A tapestry of violence, woven across generations and geographies, from Turkey to Lebanon to Western Sydney. This is the legacy left to Jamal Smith, a young queer Muslim trying to escape a past in which memory and rumour trace ugly shapes in the…
An extract from the new anthology, We've Got This
More than 15 per cent of Australian households have a parent with a disability. This month, a new anthology, We’ve Got This: Stories by Disabled Parents, shines a spotlight on those stories that are rarely shared in parenting literature. In this edited extract, contributor Jax Jacki Brown writes about their experience.
‘Do you want to have kids some day?’ I asked her on a cold winter’s night, while we waited for a cab in Fitzroy.
Before meeting Anne, I’d…
The Stella Prize longlist 2022
The longlist for this year’s Stella Prize has been announced! The Stella Prize seeks to elevate the work of Australian women writers – cis, trans, and non-binary inclusive. The $50,000 prize is awarded annually to one outstanding book deemed to be original, excellent, and engaging.
Below are the 12 longlisted books for the 2022 Stella Prize.
Coming of Age in the War on Terror by Randa Abdel-Fattah
We now have a generation - Muslim and non-Muslim - who have grown…
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
The Future Is Fungi by Michael Lim & Yun Shu
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
Still Life by Sarah Winman
On Reckoning by Amy Remeikis
The Big Switch by Saul Griffith
Love Stories by Trent Dalton
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Making Australian History by Anna Clark
Black and Blue by Veronica Gorrie
Maid by Nita Prose
Our best-seller from the past week is the wonderful The Future Is Fungi, an informative and richly illustrated guide to…
Five books to help curb your consumption
Too many things in your cart or on your wish-list? These books can help you think more critically about what you’re buying, where you’re buying it from, and why we – as a society – feel so compelled to consume in the first place.
Consumed by Aja Barber
In the ‘learning’ first half of the book, Barber will expose you to the endemic injustices in our consumer industries and the uncomfortable history of the textile industry; one which brokered slavery…
What we're reading: Kang, Hadley & Baume
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.
Tracy Hwang is reading The White Book by Han Kang (translated by Deborah Smith)
Having loved Han Kang’s writing in the past, I knew going into The White Book that I would likely enjoy it. Turns out, ‘enjoyable’ is really too simple a word to describe the reading experience this book provides.
In…
Our books of the month, February 2022
OUR FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
Reviewed by
This highly anticipated follow-up to 2015’s A Little Life is an epic tour de force. In fact, it’s impossible for me to praise To Paradise enough. Set in an alternative America, this is a novel of three parts, its narratives traversing a slew of human experience and emotion.
Locational echoes and characters’ names recur from one story to the next, as if they are reincarnated or reimagined…
Fury and Joy: International Women’s Day
Join us for an event this International Women’s Day!
One of the most joyful ways I have chosen to celebrate International Women’s Day is to gift my son and my daughter, each year, a book about a woman that was or is incredible. I want their heads to be filled with women’s stories because we are not there yet.
All the way back in 1911, only eight countries allowed women to vote, equal pay for equal work was unheard of…
ICYMI 50 – some recommendations to help you choose your next read
There’s still time to discover your next read within the excellent range of titles that make up the ICYMI 50: Must-read new Australian books you might have missed collection.
To celebrate our brilliant local authors (and ensure that you don’t miss out on their wonderful books) we’re offering 20% off fifty recent releases that might have flown under your radar. From brilliant short story collections, we highly recommend trying Hold Your Fire, She is Haunted, or Born into…
The most anticipated books of 2022
Dare I say it: here we go again? With another Covid-dominated year on the horizon, it is easy to feel not a little despondent: I don’t mind admitting, dear reader, that I’m very, very tired, and after a particularly difficult but still pretty fun Christmas trading period following our 2021 lockdown (like retailers across the land, I could recount a gripping, personal account of the infamous supply chain issues, but I’ll save that for my memoir…), I am sure I’m…
25% off 25 personal development favourites
Right now we’re offering 25% off a select range of our personal development favourites! Simply apply the code PD25 at checkout to receive a 25% discount on all participating titles.
A new year is the perfect time to reflect on how we can ensure both our own wellbeing as well as how to live more consciously and empathetically towards others. With this in mind, our 25% off collection features both titles focused on personal development as well as additional…
Fight the doomscroll when you read these hopeful non-fiction picks
Right now it’s understandable to be overwhelmed by feelings of hopelessness and fear. But in current times, when we’re feeling increasingly disillusioned and disenfranchised, books can be the path to reclaiming our empowerment. The following non-fiction books can help reinvigorate your resolve for enacting change while also reminding us there’s still hope yet.
Luminous Solution by Charlotte Wood
Writer Charlotte Wood shares the insights she has gained over a career paying close attention to her own mind, to the world…
Challenge your thinking
It’s the time of year where we begin to think about how we want to make our lives and the lives of those around us better in the new year. Committing to the work of challenging and deconstructing the thoughts, preferences and values that derive from oppressive systems is a good place to start. Below are our recommendations for books published in 2021 that can help you along the way.
Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego
A ground-breaking…
The Prime Minister's Literary Awards winners 2021
The winners for this year’s Prime Minister’s Literary Awards have been announced! The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards celebrate outstanding literary talent in Australia and the valuable contribution Australian literature and history makes to the nation’s cultural and intellectual life.
Fiction winner:
The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey
Non-fiction winner:
The Stranger Artist by Quentin Sprague
Australian History winner:
People of the River by Grace Karskens
Poetry winner:
The Strangest Place by Stephen Edgar
Young Adult winner:
Metal Fish, Falling Snow by…
The best of non-fiction 2021
Every year our staff vote for their favourite books and music of the past 12 months. Here are our top 10 Australian fiction books of the year, voted for by Readings’ staff, and displayed in no particular order.
Emotional Female by Yumiko Kadota
Yumiko Kadota was a young, gifted medical student - the top of her class - on her way to becoming an outstanding plastic and reconstructive surgeon. For fourteen years she’d studied and worked hard. She put in…
10 women writing history in 2021
2021 was a terrific year for history books written by women.
Some of the many brilliant reads include an incisive look at the ongoing colonial violence experienced by First Nations people, a humorous look at advice to women over the ages, a history of the piano, an exploration of racism in the Jazz Age in Australia, and an in-depth exploration of the female body in art. Read on to discover some brilliant history titles of 2021…
The Prime Minister's Literary Awards shortlists 2021
The shortlists for this year’s Prime Minister’s Literary Awards have been announced. These awards celebrate outstanding literary talent in Australia.
Fiction
A Treacherous Country by K M Kruimink
In the Time of Foxes by Jo Lennan
Lucky’s by Andrew Pippos
The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld
The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey
YA literature
Loner by Georgina Young
Metal Fish, Falling Snow by Cath Moore
The End of the World is Bigger than Love by Davina Bell
The F Team by…
Celebrate 10 years of Stella
Dreams of the Stella Prize emerged in early 2011 out of a panel held at Readings on International Women’s Day. Now in its tenth year, the Stella Prize has become an indispensable part of Australia’s literary culture, driving book sales, sparking book clubs, and championing the careers of women and non-binary writers.
To celebrate, we’re offering 20% off each past winner of the Stella. We’re also hosting an event to discuss all things Stella on Thursday 7 October. Find out…
Extract from Questions Raised By Quolls
This is an edited extract from Questions Raised by Quolls by Harry Saddler, out now through Affirm Press. This compelling work of local non-fiction is an eloquent examination of extinction and conservation set against the backdrop of global climate change.
One night I was walking home from Merri Creek at the end of my street in the inner north of Melbourne just after dark when, a few doors from my house, I saw something I’d never seen before: a common…
The Wainwright Prize 2021
The winners of the much-loved Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing and for Global Conservation Writing have been announced!
Now in its eight year, The Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing is awarded annually to the book which most successfully inspires readers to explore the outdoors and to nurture a respect for the natural world. In 2020, the prize was extended to include a second category for books about global conservation and climate change.
2021 winner of the Wainwright Prize…
Books to quieten minds and help reshape thoughts
Many of us have never faced so much uncertainty or carried so much anxiety, as we are now; we’ve also never faced such unique barriers to meaningfully reaching out to family, friends, and finding clinical support. Below are some suggestions for books that may assist individuals who are seeking, in addition to current care plans, supplementary support and strategies on how to cope with the challenges we are experiencing.
Unwinding Anxiety by Judson Brewer
We are living through one of…
Interview with Annie Smithers
Chris Gordon interviews Annie Smithers about her new book,
I’m always struck by how personal your writing is, how you take responsibility for each of your decisions. Where did you learn to keep everything so honest?
Failure. Failure has been the best teacher for me and keeps me honest. I muck things up all the time, but learning from those mistakes makes the experience richer. If I fail a recipe, I look carefully at what I have done and analyse…
Essay collections to read in May
What makes a body, a person, a life? Explore these questions, among others, through these newly released essay collections.
Black is the Body by Emily Bernard
In twelve intensely personal, interconnected essays, Emily Bernard sets out to tell stories from her life that enable her to talk about truth, race, family and relationships, and much more.
She observes the complexities and paradoxes, the haunting memories and ambushing realities of growing up black in the South with a family name inherited…
20% off cookbook favourites + win a cookbook library!
This month we have an exclusive offer on a select range of cookbook favourites both in store and online! From mastering decadent layer cakes to beginning your preserving or fermenting journey, there’s something for every level and taste in these collections of recipes.
For online customers, simply buy any title from our cookbook favourites collection, use the code 20COOKBOOKS at checkout and receive a 20% discount on participating titles.
For in store customers, simply head into one…
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