We’ve had a veritable swag of exciting news to share this past month.

We revealed that we’ll be opening two new Melbourne bookshops this year. One will be a dedicated children’s bookshop based in Carlton, and the other will be based in Westfield Doncaster shopping centre. We were also thrilled (and humbled) to have been shortlisted for the London Book Fair’s Bookstore of the Year Award alongside three other international bookshops: Hoepli in Italy, Rahva Raamat in Estonia, and Sanlian Bookhouse in China.

And… in equally exciting news, we announced our shortlist for this year’s Readings Children’s Book Prize.

The six shortlisted books were The Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey, Samurai vs Ninja: The Battle for the Golden Egg by Nick Falk and Tony Flowers, Run, Pip, Run by J.C. Jones, 88 Lime Street by Denise Kirby, The Cat with the Coloured Tail by Gillian Mears and Dinalie Dabarera, and Mister Cassowary by Samantha Wheeler.

You can read individual comments for each shortlisted book here.

March was also thick with news about literary prizes. The longlists for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker International Prize were announced, as well as the shortlist for the Wellcome book prize (which rewards the best new work of fiction or non-fiction centred on medicine and health). For younger readers, the shortlists for the highly-regarded Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals were also released.

Looking to Australian literary prizes now, March saw the announcements of the Indie Book Awards winners (voted for by independent booksellers from around the nation), the Inky Award longlists (voted for by real-life teenagers), and the Stella Prize shortlist. While we obviously recommend you should read all books ever, we’ve made a handy guide as to which book to read from the Stella Prize shortlist here if you’re time-poor – or you just don’t know where to start.

If you’ve already read every book on the Stella Prize shortlist, we have plenty more reading suggestions for you. This month our blog featured a round-up of staff recommendations for eight new Australian novels, our top picks book clubs (depending on what kind of book club you’re in!), and a selection of fascinating true stories from doctors. We also asked our staff to tell us the most interesting women they’ve met in books and why they love Roald Dahl’s Matilda.

Finally, we featured a couple of interviews with talented Melbourne authors this month: one with debut author Jennifer Down, and one with the legendary Helen Garner.