With all the wonderful international film festivals in town, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of one’s roots. In celebration of our local talent, we have a selection of Australian films on offer for less than $20 each.

Take home memorable classics such as Picnic at Hanging Rock and Monkey Grip, and cult flicks such as Love Serenade and Bad Boy Bubby.

Don’t miss out on this wonderful opportunity to own a cut of Australian film history. Available…

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Here are five reasons to read S.J. Watson’s thriller Before I Go To Sleep before you see the film (due for release in October).

1. The structure of the novel works so well!

Given this book is from the perspective of Christine, a woman with some serious memory issues (think Drew Barrymore in 50 First Dates but much, much creepier), the fact that the structure of Before I Go To Sleep works so well is actually quite impressive. S.J. Watson…

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Our staff bring us an update from the Melbourne International Film Festival – what they’ve seen so far and what’s still to come!

Suzanne Steinbruckner absolutely adored the newest Dardenne brothers film.

I’ve enjoyed a trimmed down MIFF this year, picking films to fit my schedule rather than trying to play tetris with that mammoth MIFF program grid – which is full workout in itself!

My favourite has been the documentary The Salt of the Earth which looks at the…

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Here are five ways to enjoy staying in during the cold winter evenings.

Commit yourself to a beloved TV show that you missed out on when it was actually aired.

Make this the year you finally watch Twin Peaks which is probably the greatest television series of all-time (who us? Biased?). If you’re asking yourself, do I really have to watch this old show then check out this great response from Margaret Lyons over at Vulture. Other must-see recommendations…

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Here are our top picks for what to see at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) this year!

Nina Kenwood has a thing for American indies.

I love indie films from the USA so my initial reaction when I first saw the MIFF program was to circle all the films I already knew about and was dying to see: Richard Linklater’s extraordinary Boyhood, filmed once a year over the course of twelve years (the longest scheduled shoot in film…

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The crying hangover that follows reading (or watching the film of) The Fault In Our Stars has been described as epic. Here are some other books and films that have also left our staff puffy, splotchy and teary.

Amy Vuleta, Assistant Manager at Readings St Kilda:

Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell made me cry more than TFIOUS. I bought a copy when travelling in the US a couple of years ago and finished it sitting at…

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The Melbourne International Film Festival has released First Glance and their sneak peek at this year’s festival program reveals a wide-ranging array of incredible narrative features, documentaries and short films - not to mention a fantastic Next Gen program specially curated for younger viewers.

Here are ten films that have already made their way onto our shortlists…

20,000 Days on Earth: British visual artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard present a biopic of post-punk poet Nick Cave that’s…

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Thanks to Penguin, several of our staff members were invited to attend a special preview screening of The Fault In Our Stars film. Here, two staff chat about their reactions.

Nina: On a scale of 1 to 10, how much did you cry in this movie? (1 being eyes glimmering with unshed tears, ten being full-on sobbing)?

Bronte: A 7? I think I started crying about 20 minutes in. Possibly the whole cinema started at that same time…

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Based on Piper Kerman’s acclaimed memoir of the same name, Orange Is the New Black is a sharp, blackly-funny series set in a women’s prison. Here, our staff tell us what they think of the show.

Nina says:

I adore this show. It hooked me from the pilot episode, and only got better and better as it went along.

The show’s greatest strength is its huge cast of talented women. Over the course of a season, it intimately tells the…

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If you were a True Detective devotee and you’ve been feeling a bit bereft since the finale, then we recommend you turn to literature (as you should in all difficult situations).

We’ve asked our crime specialist Fiona Hardy to recommend five books that would appeal to True Detective fans.

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker (translated by Sam Taylor)

For those who enjoy the meatiness of this television series over the brief stab-n-solve of a movie…

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With the Oscars due to be announced on Monday 3 March (Australian time) we’re making our predictions of who will take out this year’s top awards. You can view the full list of nominees

Nina Kenwood, Online Manager

Best Picture: 12 Years A Slave
Best Directing: Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)
Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Best Actress Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years A Slave
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Best…

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If you love Borgen…

The story of charismatic politician Birgitte Nyborg who unexpectedly becomes the first female Prime Minister of Denmark was our bestselling DVD of the last year - and justifiably so! This fast-paced political drama is an excellent, addictive show which touches on issues that are very close to the surface in our own homegrown politics as well. For an Australian spin on the show, pick up a copy of Bewitched and Bedevilled: Women Write the Gillard…

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Here are our 10 bestselling DVDs from the past year.

Reflecting an enduring thirst for crime and politics, the following list is predominantly populated with smart, savvy television dramas, some of which have very dark undertones. A stellar list of writers, actors and directors is featured here including Jane Campion for Top of the Lake, and Aaron Sorkin for The Newsroom: Season 1.

The list also includes some amazing documentaries: I Am Eleven from Melbourne-born filmmaker Genevieve Bailey…

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Our top ten DVDs from 2013, as selected by our film expert Lou Fulco. (Displayed in no particular order).

The Perks of Being A Wallflower

The Perks of Being A Wallflower is a film that actually does justice to the book it was based on. On screen, Stephen Chbosky’s novel of teenage angst and life-changing friendships is honestly and unflinchingly portrayed. Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller brilliantly play the three outsiders trying to manoeuvre their way through adolescent…

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Are you the type who always wants to read the book first? Here’s a list of movies based on books YA fans love, which are due to be released over the next few months.

1.

The second installment in the Hunger Games trilogy will be released in November. This is one of the rare times when I’ve enjoyed a movie (Hunger Games, the first installment) more than a book but wider opinion is very much divided.

2.

This…

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Our online manager (and TV addict) Nina Kenwood picks out her favourite female leads on TV right now.

With the end of Breaking Bad, I say let us now also bring to an end the era of the male anti-hero.

Look, I loved Breaking Bad as much as the next person, but I am tired of talking about Walter White, Don Draper, Dexter Morgan, Tony Soprano, Nucky Thompson, Francis Underwood, Raylan Givens and all the other flawed men that…

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I’m an optimistic when it comes to adaptations - I like to believe the new interpretation will be better than expected rather than fear for the worst - so it’s disappointing to come to terms with one of my most-anticipated book-to-screen projects falling deep into development hell. Here’s why I think HBO should hurry up and create a television series of Karen Russell’s Pulitzer prize-shortlisted novel Swamplandia! like they said they were going to in 2011.

1. The structure feels…

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Bookseller Marie Matteson tells us about the secret Readings

A few years ago Lorrie Moore wrote a wonderful piece for The New York Review of Books about the television show Friday Night Lights. She spoke of finding herself at a party, heads together with two other authors, united in what had been a previously isolated love of a show easily dismissed.

I think this may be a universal experience for lovers of Friday Night Lights.

I’ve found myself…

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Chris Somerville talks about some of his music highlights in the television drama,

Currently I’m trying to catch up on Breaking Bad before the season ends and everyone talks about it on social media. I realise, of course, that this is entirely my own fault, and that I’ve had ample time to catch up. Even so it irked me when recently a woman sitting next to me on a plane saw me watching the show on my laptop, identified the…

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‘Is anyone seeing this?’ asks Curtis (Michael Shannon) in Jeff Nichols’ second film, Take Shelter (2011). Curtis has pulled his car over to the side of the road to watch a dry lightning storm approaching ominously from the fields beyond. His wife and daughter are asleep in the back seat and, indeed, no one sees it but him. Curtis’s portentous visions are leaking from his dreams into his days. Is he going crazy, or is he the lone receiver of…

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When it screened at last year’s Alliance Française French Film Festival, Bertrand Bonello’s lavish, lugubrious fin de siècle bore the superior title House of Tolerance. The term was a euphemism for a brothel around the turn of the twentieth century and, given the tenor and milieu of Bonello’s film (which is set in the languid world of high-end prostitution), this was perhaps a far more befitting name than the more commonplace one under which the film has been quietly…

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Here at Readings, we’re very excited about the Melbourne International Film Festival.

Nina’s MIFF List

I bought a ten session eMini pass and my list of MIFF movies includes:

Fruitvale Station

Inspired by the true story of a police shooting in 2009, this film won the Grand Jury prize and Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival. It also stars Michael B Jordan, who I personally love from his work on Friday Night Lights and Parenthood.

Drinking Buddies

A smart…

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I consumed Silver Linings Playbook in this order: the film trailer, the book, then the film itself.

After watching the trailer a few months before the film release, I bought the book with the assumption I would be reading a romantic comedy. And that’s essentially what the film is – a smart, funny, heartwarming romantic drama. But that’s not how I would classify the book at all.

Both the film and the book follow the same basic plotline…

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Before the Oscars are announced on Monday 25 February (Australian time) we’re making our predictions of who will take out this year’s top awards. You can view

Nina Kenwood, Online Manager

Best Picture: Argo

Best Director: Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Sally Field, Lincoln

Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay: Silver Linings Playbook

Best Writing, Original…

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