- Phosphorescence by Julia Baird
- Normal People by Sally Rooney
- The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
- Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
- Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
- Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe
- A Bigger Picture by Malcolm Turnbull
- Preserving the Italian Way by Pietro Demaio
- See What You Made Me Do by Jess Hill
- The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
There are plenty of familiar books on our bestsellers this week, but it’s also apparent that our readers are continuing to consume a varied diet, whether it’s Sally Rooney’s intimate and perceptive novels (Normal People and Conversations with Friends), the feather-ruffling political memoir A Bigger Picture, prize-winning fiction like Girl, Woman, Other or prize-winning non-fiction like See What You Made Me Do. Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize win has also boosted his devastating novel about a Jim Crow-era reform school, The Nickel Boys back into our top ten.
There are also signs in our list that this is a time of deep reflection and slow cooking. Julia Baird’s search for inner happiness, Phosphorescence, continues to be a runaway success and Bruce Pascoe’s phenomenal Dark Emu helps Australians reframe our history. And finally, we suspect you’re all doing a fair amount of pickling and preserving at home these days, with perennial Readings favourite Preserving the Italian Way dishing up some good, old-fashioned homemaking wisdom.