What we're reading
What we're reading: Jane Harper, Ann Turner and Helen Oyeyemi
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.
Stella Charls is reading The Dry by Jane Harper
I’ve always thought of myself as a slow reader, until I picked up The Dry. It’s a cliché, but I mean it when I say I could not put this book down. For two days my copy seemed glued to my hands, and…
What we're reading: Guy Gavriel Kay, Steve Toutonghi and Riad Sattouf
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.
Nina Kenwood is reading The Other Side of Summer by Emily Gale
This book…. Oh man, I LOVED this book. The Other Side of Summer is Emily Gale’s new novel for readers aged 11+. It tells the story of Summer and her family, who are trying to recover from the tragic death of…
What we're reading: Svetlana Alexievich, Olivia Laing and Nigel Slater
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.
Bronte Coates is reading Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich (translated by Keith Gessen)
Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich was awarded last year’s Nobel Prize in Literature for ‘her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time’. This past week I’ve been reading her…
What we're reading: Rainbow Rowell, Stephen Marche and Luke Williams
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.
Chris Gordon is reading The Ice Age by Luke Williams
I picked up Luke Williams’ memoir about his addiction to crystal meth for a couple of reasons. First, I heard Luke speaking on the radio and was impressed by his candour. Second, I have two wonderful teenage kids and I want them to…
What we're reading: Cassandra Clare, Yangsze Choo and Jean-François Vernay
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.
Mike Shuttleworth is reading A Brief Take on the Australian Novel by Jean-François Vernay
The French writer and academic Jean-François Vernay has done a tremendous service to Australian readers and writers.
A Brief Take on the Australian Novel gives us a brisk 200 year tour of the preoccupations and patterns of Australian writing…
What we're reading: Charlie Jane Anders, Julia Leigh and Tom Drury
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.
Chris Somerville is reading The End of Vandalism by Tom Drury
Last year we saw, finally, the re-issue of the strange and wonderful novels of Tom Drury, mostly set in the small hamlets that make up the (invented) Grouse County in Iowa. 1994’s The End of Vandalism, his first novel, interweaves the…
What we're reading: Justine Larbalestier, Maggie Nelson and Sulari Gentill
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.
Lian Hingee is reading My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier
I’ve been wanting to read Justine Larbalestier’s My Sister Rosa since it started doing the rounds with my workmates at the beginning of this year. This story of Che, a young man trying to keep the world safe from his pathological younger sister…
What we're reading: Michael Grant, Dodie Smith and Roald Dahl
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.
Isobel Moore is reading The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith
I just finished this novel from the always delightful Dodie Smith, which tells the story of a young actor and her first summer in London. It’s beautiful – of course it is, thank you Dodie – and sublimely written. Everything that I’ve…
What we're reading: Jhumpa Lahiri, Georgia Blain and Fiona Barton
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.
Holly Harper is reading The Widow by Fiona Barton
Last week I was complaining to a colleague about the fact that, while I’d read some really good books lately, there hadn’t been anything that had gripped me in that feverish can’t eat, can’t sleep, must keep reading until I’m done sort of way.
…
What we're reading: Helen Garner, Thornton McCamish and Karen Hitchcock
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.
Mark Rubbo is reading Our Man Elsewhere by Thornton McCamish
Alan Moorehead was an Australian journalist, travel writer and historian. He was also a highly-regarded war correspondent who covered battles in Africa, Italy and Normandy, and later his books published in the the forties and fifties were bestsellers. Then, at the age of…
What we're reading: Tana French, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney and Daniel Clowes
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.
Lian Hingee is reading The Secret Place by Tana French
I first discovered Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series after falling down a Gone Gir-shaped hole. I wanted to find another contemporary crime novel that was smart, didn’t revel in graphic depictions of violence against women, and had interesting, flawed, but ultimately…
What we're reading: Daniel Clowes, Aoife Clifford and Paul Kalanithi
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.
Annie Condon is reading When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
I’ve just finished this memoir from neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi. This book was published posthumously – Kalanithi was diagnosed with cancer, and died at the age of 37. The memoir was started when Kalanithi knew his diagnosis was terminal, and describes his life…
What we're reading: Pierre Lemaitre, Richard Denniss and Frances Hardinge
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.
Mark Rubbo is reading The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaitre
I’ve just started this novel from Pierre Lemaitre. Lemaitre is known for his crime stories, but The Great Swindle is actually a work of historical fiction. It won the Prix Goncourt (a major literary prize for French literature) back in 2013, but was…
What we're reading: Megan Jacobson,Valeria Luiselli and Jane Harper
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.
Ann Le Lievre is reading Megan Jacobson and Kirsty Eager
The year for OzYA is exploding with some wonderful talent, and I have just finished what I’m sure is one of the best OzYA books ever! That’s a big call, but it’s a call I am very happy to make. Summer Skin by…
What we're reading: Gabriel Packard, Sally Andrew and Annabel Crabb
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.
Stella Charls is heading to Adelaide Writer’s Week
I’ve never been to Adelaide during peak festival season, a sad fact that I’m planning to rectify this weekend.
When Adelaide Writer’s Week was announced, I spent several weeks wondering if I should commit to going (like I do every year) until the spectacular program…
What we're reading: Elizabeth Strout, Kirsty Eagar and Larissa Behrendt
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.
Leanne Hall is reading Summer Skin by Kirsty Eagar
I’ve just finished reading Kirsty Eagar’s new YA novel. This is an up-close look at university residential college life with all its messiness, hooking up, friendship pacts, tribal behaviour, part-time jobs, exams, and yes, plenty of drinking. Eagar zooms in on intimacy, sex, sexism…
What we're reading: Jennifer Wright, Katherine Heiny and Anna Starobinets
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.
Lian Hingee is reading It Ended Badly by Jennifer Wright
I came across mention of this book in an article titled ‘The One Book You Need to Read After a Breakup’ and thought: challenge accepted.
My last breakup is thankfully a distant enough memory that I can recount outrageous stories to my friends…
What we're reading: Madeleine St John, Rajith Savanadasa and Michael Robotham
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.
Ed Moreno is reading The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
Historical fiction doesn’t usually grab me but Alexander Chee’s novel made for obsessive reading. I’m a fan of nineteenth-century French realism (especially Émile Zola) so the time and setting appealed, but the subject matter (opera) was new to me. However, the…
What we're reading: Kelly Link, Nick Hornby and Fiona McFarlane
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.
Lian Hingee is reading Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
I got Kelly Link’s Pretty Monsters from a mystery staff member as my Secret Santa gift last Christmas. This author is described as ‘a flat out genius’ by Holly Black and ‘almost certainly not human’ by Neil Gaiman. With such breathless endorsements from two…
What we're reading: Martin McKenzie-Murray, Leanne Hall and Kurt Vile
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.
Stella Charls is watching The Jinx
I’m obsessing over crime right now. Not committing it, but consuming it, from true-crime tales to fictional thrillers. I’ve binge-watched Making a Murderer on Netflix (refusing to acknowledge 2016 had started until I finished all 10 episodes), am stuck into Season 2 of the podcast Serial, and…
What we're reading: Justine Larbalestier, Susana Moreira Marques and Kate Di Goldi
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.
Fiona Hardy is reading The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
When my partner is on school holidays (he’s a teacher), I spend a few days during the week taking myself off to the library in order to write the Great Australian Novel while he wrestles with our kid on his…
What we're reading: Richard Price, Benjamin Law and Tove Jansson
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.
Stella Charls is reading The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
I started 2016 reading Tove Jansson’s aptly named The Summer Book. I’d finished 2015 with a handful of thrilling page-turners, which I’d enjoyed and read in a breathless, adrenaline-fuelled state, but The Summer Book offers a completely different reading experience. It’s gentle…
What we're reading over summer
Our staff share the books they’re planning to read over summer.
I’m going on a crime binge. My next book club book is I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes, a daunting 912 page (hence the summer read) crime thriller which has received a lot of media attention and positive reviews. But I’ve also lined up an award winner (the CWA Gold Dagger 2015) by Australian author Michael Robotham called Life Or Death, which is billed as a fast paced…
What we're reading: Marlee Jane Ward, Peggy Frew & Emma Donoghue
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.
Stella Charls is reading Room by Emma Donoghue
Emma Donoghue’s novel comes with a stack of endorsements. A beloved literary bestseller, shortlisted for both the Man Booker and Orange prize, this summer also sees the release of a critically acclaimed feature film adaption, with a screenplay by Donoghue. Motivated to read the book…
What we're reading: Patricia Highsmith, Lindsay Hunter and Lauren Groff
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.
Nina Kenwood is reading Vendela Vida and Lauren Groff.
President Obama has just revealed his favourite book of the year to be Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies (which is also one of our top ten fiction books of the year), so it seems a relevant time for me to mention I…
What we're reading: Alison Goodman, Anne-Marie Slaughter and Christopher Currie
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.
Lian Hingee is reading Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman
I was lucky enough to score an advance reading copy of Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club, which is the first in a new trilogy by Alison Goodman. It’s a fascinating mash-up of two of the most…
What we're reading: Nelika McDonald, Stan Lee and Hanya Yanagihara
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.
Fiona Hardy is reading Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan Lee, Peter David and Colleen Doran
I’m a huge fan of graphic novels and superhero movies, but not such a fan of superhero comics - though of course I totally adore Stan Lee, one of the forefathers of Marvel and the…
What we're reading: Meghan Daum, Sonja Dechian and Mal Peet
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.
Lian Hingee is reading The Murdstone Trilogy by Mal Peet
The late, great Mal Peet has been one of my favourite authors since his award-winning YA novel Keeper unexpectedly managed to instil an interest in football in this decidedly non-sporty reader. He started writing at 52, went on to win numerous awards including…
What the team at Kill Your Darlings is reading in November
The team behind Melbourne literary journal Kill Your Darlings tell us what they’re reading this month.
Veronica Sullivan, Online Editor:
Fiona Wright’s personal essay collection, Small Acts of Disappearance, floored me. Each essay focuses on a different aspect of the physical and psychological hunger that has shadowed Wright throughout her adult life. She seamlessly interweaves the theoretical with the personal, providing readers with medical, cultural, historical and literary contexts for anorexia and its manifestations. Describing the ways anorexia consumes…
What we're reading: Rainbow Rowell, Eka Kurniawan and Jacqui Newling
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.
Mark Rubbo is reading Beauty Is A Wound by Eka Kurniawan
I’ve just been to Indonesia and read this remarkable novel by Eka Kurniawan. At 498 pages, it’s a monster but I finished it in a few days. Kurniawan tells the story of modern Indonesia through the eyes of a prostitute, Dewi Ayu…
What we're reading: Alison Goodman, Rainbow Rowell and Xiaolu Guo
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.
Leane Hall is reading I Am China by Xiaolu Guo
It’s made me extremely happy that there seem to be more Chinese books appearing in English translations in recent years, making it much easier to keep up with contemporary Chinese voices. I’ve had my eye on Xiaolu Guo, a young Chinese-British novelist, for…
What we're reading: Claire Vaye Watkins, Helen Ellis and Jon Morris
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.
Chris Somerville is reading Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins
Now that Claire Vaye Watkins’s second book, Gold Fame Citrus is almost upon us, it’s a great time to revisit her first book, Battleborn, a collection of short stories. Though these stories stand apart, they’re linked by place, in this case Nevada, which…
What we're reading: Miles Allinson, Heidi Swanson and Robert Galbraith
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.
Fiona Hardy is reading Fever of Animals by Miles Allinson
I’m currently losing all sense of time and place as I read Miles Allinson’s book, Fever of Animals. This is a story set across Melbourne, London, Berlin, Venice – and it’s a story about about grief and relationships, about searching for meaning…
What we're reading: Lauren Groff, Debra Adelaide and Colin Barrett
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.
Ann Le Lievre is reading Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life by Jonathan Bate
This is an insightful, engaging book. It was happily residing in the middle of a pile of fabulous new October releases, but when I saw it had been shortlisted for the 2015 Samuel Johnson Prize, it made a sudden…
What we're reading: Fiona Wright, Miles Allinson and Charlotte Wood
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.
Jason Austin is reading The Three by Sarah Lotz
The supernatural thriller is a genre that I could never live without. Whenever I am feeling disenchanted by whatever I am reading, I often regress to my teenage self and bury my head in a Stephen King novel.
I was travelling to Bendigo last…
What we're reading: Samantha Wheeler, Denis Johnson and Vendela Vida
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.
Chris Somerville is reading Train Dreams: A Novella by Denis Johnson
I was a big fan of Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son years ago when I read it, and possibly let it have a disastrous effect on my life. I’ve since followed Johnson’s career idly, not reading all his books but taking them up…
What we're reading: Hanya Yanagihara, Clare Wright and Megan Abbott
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.
Holly Harper is reading We are the Rebels: The Women and Men Who Made Eureka by Clare Wright
One of the first things I did when I was a brand new resident of Victoria was visit Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. I loved it: the old-fashioned lolly shop, the candle-making, the panning for gold…
What we're reading: Janet Hawley, Lauren Holmes and Marcus Westbury
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.
Chris Gordon is reading Wendy Whiteley and the Secret Garden by Janet Hawley
If you enjoy the romance of dappled light, the glory of mixed leaves and the sanctuary that a garden can provide, Wendy Whiteley and the Secret Garden is for you.
I simply cannot get enough of this book. It is…
What we're reading: Miles Allinson, Anna Jones and Laini Taylor
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.
This week, we not only share what our own staff are reading, but also what the team behind Melbourne literary journal Kill Your Darlings is reading too (see here).
Nina Kenwood is reading Fever of Animals by Miles Allinson
Everyone at Readings is talking about this debut Australian novel (our head book…
What the team at Kill Your Darlings is reading in September
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.
This week, we not only share what our own staff are reading (see here), but also what the team behind Melbourne literary journal Kill Your Darlings is reading too.
Hannah Kent, Publishing Director:
I recently read the slender, beautiful A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler, translated from the German by Charlotte Collins…
What we're reading: Eliza Henry-Jones, Karen Joy Fowler and Sarai Walker
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.
Bronte Coates is reading In the Quiet by Eliza Henry-Jones
We announced the shortlist for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction last week and I’m in the process of reading my way through the list. I want to finish all six books in time for our Shortlist Showdown, to be hosted by…
What we're reading: Fiona Wood, Ron Rash and Elena Ferrante
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.
Emily Gale is reading Cloudwish by Fiona Wood
This week it was my pleasure to read Fiona Wood’s young adult novel, Cloudwish, the third in a series of connected stories that can be read completely independently of each other or as a set. Six Impossible Things introduces us to some characters in…
What we're reading: Patti Smith, Fiona Wright and Elena Ferrante
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.
Chris Somerville is reading Small Acts of Disappearance by Fiona Wright
I’ve been looking forward to this essay collection since reading different versions of them in various magazines. While being subtitled, ‘Essays on Hunger’ and being based around her struggle with anorexia, the collection, like the best essay writing, covers a wide and…
What we're reading: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jan Bauer and Miles Allinson
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.
Emily Harms is reading Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
I really do believe that the world would be a better place if everyone read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me.
Written in the form of a letter to his adolescent son, Coates attempts to answer the big questions…
What we're reading: Eliza Henry-Jones, Eka Kurniawan and Sally Morgan
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.
Ann Le Lievre is reading In the Quiet by Eliza Henry-Jones
In the Quiet by Eliza Henry-Jones is a radiant Australian debut – full to the brim of beautifully-drawn characters, against the backdrop of a semi-rural Aussie landscape. The plot centres around a family of three teenagers, their father and their close friends…
What we're reading: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Rebecca Stead and Katrine Marcal
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.
Nina Kenwood is reading Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
I have just finished Joanna Rakoff’s A Fortunate Age, which is a terrific novel, but also a very long and absorbing one, and after spending a few weeks with her characters, I’m ready to spend time with someone new!
To…
What we're reading: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Martine Murray and Kate Beaton
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.
Emily Gale is reading Molly and Pim and the Millions of Stars by Martine Murray
This is a story that burrowed into my heart this week and has set up camp in there. Yes, it really got to me that much.
Molly is at the age of noticing how her life compares with…
What we're reading: Harper Lee, Joanna Rakoff and Larissa Dubecki
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.
Alan Vaarwerk is reading Melbourne literary journal Kill Your Darlings
I really should be used to it by now, but I’m constantly blown away by the breadth and quality of writing on display in Kill Your Darlings.
In their most recent issue, Gillian Terzis’ exploration of online grief and hashtag activism…
What we're reading: Hoa Pham, Moira Fowley-Doyle and Fiona Wright
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.
Emily Gale is reading The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle
Months ago I was able to sneak a look at the first page of The Accident Season, and it made a strong first impression. The premise immediately appealed – a family (a mother and three teenagers) meet with a series of accidents…
What we're reading: Claudia Rankine, Elena Ferrante and James Rebanks
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.
Bronte Coates is reading Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Earlier this week, I read an amazing and upsetting article from Claudia Rankine about the Charleston shootings and ideas of public mourning. (You can find it here.) By the time I finished reading, I knew that here was another author I…
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