The highly anticipated collaborative account of Erin Patterson's triple murder trial, The Mushroom Tapes, topped our November bestsellers! Australian nonfiction in general was strong last month, with the release of Helen Garner's 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize-winning diary collection; Earthquake from acclaimed political writer Niki Savva; the powerful memoir from Virginia Roberts Guiffre; the 100th edition of the Quarterly Essay; and Troy Bramston's commanding biography of Gough Whitlam.
And not to be outdone, there was some great new Australian fiction and poetry, including a razor-sharp literary thriller; an epic story of queer love and friendship; a follow-up to one of 2023's most lauded and bestselling fantasy novels, and the latest collection from Stella Prize-winning poet Evelyn Araluen.
Lastly, a shout out for this year's winner of The Booker Prize – and one of Readings' favourite international fiction books of the year – Flesh, a propulsive, hypnotic novel about a man who is unravelled by a series of events beyond his grasp.
1. The Mushroom Tapes: Conversations on a Triple Murder Trial by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper & Sarah Krasnostein
2. Last One Out by Jane Harper
3. Gravity Let Me Go by Trent Dalton
4. How to End a Story: Collected Diaries 1978–1998 by Helen Garner
5. Flesh by David Szalay
6. Bread of Angels by Patti Smith
7. Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre
8. The Hiding Place by Kate Mildenhall
9. Earthquake: The Election That Shook Australia by Niki Savva
10. The Impossible Fortune (The Thursday Murder Club, Book 5) by Richard Osman
11. How They Get You: Sneaky Everyday Economics and Smart Ways to Hold on to Your Money by Chris Kohler
12. The Rot by Evelyn Araluen
13. Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy
14. Chosen Family by Madeleine Gray
15. What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
16. The Strength of the Few (Hierarchy Book 2) by James Islington
17. Quarterly Essay 100: The Good Fight - What Does Labor Stand For? by Sean Kelly
18. Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
19. Gough Whitlam: The Vista of the New by Troy Bramston
20. Eros: Queer Myths for Lovers by Zoe Terakes
