What we're reading

What we're reading: Broder, Hazelwood & Stevenson

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.

Aurelia Orr is reading Milk Fed by Melissa Broder

This book is an absolute feast of every delight and pleasure the world has to offer. Rachel, a non-practicing Jew, has made calorie restriction and intensive cardio exercise her religion. When she meets Miriam, an Orthodox Jewish woman intent upon feeding her, Rachel suddenly…

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What we're reading: Eloff, MacAskill & McAlister

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.

Clare Millar is reading Chronic Pain Couple by Karra Eloff

When I heard this title was being published, I was very excited! There’s nothing else like it – so many books on managing chronic pain, but very little acknowledging how it can impact couples and families.

Eloff – who lives with chronic pain…

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What we're reading: Ypi, Rippin, Gould & Pritchard

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.

Ruth McHugh-Dillon is reading Free by Lea Ypi

Albania is a word I remember being flung around in the 90s during conflicts in the Balkans, but I know so little about the place and its people that this book really opened my eyes to its particular and peculiar history. The author, Lea Ypi…

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What we're reading: Solà, Riley & Rosen

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.

Emma Clarke is reading When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà

There’s a special kind of magic to this book that I’ve only experienced a few times. After reading the first page, I became hooked on the expressive language, the languid and hateful Mountains of Catalan and the intimate lives of the…

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What we're reading: Gentill, Kennedy & Jasinska

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.

Joanna Di Mattia is reading Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

Sometimes you pick up a book, think it looks okay, and it turns out to be so much more than that. Trespasses by Louise Kennedy is one of those books. It arrived at the store with little fanfare, but I found myself drawn to…

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What we're reading: Fallada, Turton & Lizzo

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 Lilly and Her Slave by Hans Fallada

Lilly and Her Slave is a recently discovered collection of stories by the German writer Hans Fallada.

Best known for his novel Alone in Berlin, Fallada died just after war and struggled with mental illness and drug addiction throughout his life…

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What we're reading: Rennex, Shamsie & Sehee

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.

Gabrielle Williams is reading Life With Birds by Bronwyn Rennex

I’ve just finished reading Life With Birds by Bronwyn Rennex, an unexpected delight that Dan from Readings Carlton recommended to me.

Surprisingly funny and gentle and quirky, Bronwyn Rennex is an artist and writer whose dad was a Vietnam veteran who died when…

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What we're reading: Zambra, Heti & McCulloch

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.

Ruth McHugh-Dillon is reading Chilean Poet by Alejandro Zambra (translated by Megan McDowell)

Alejandro Zambra is a big name in Latin America and I’ve been meaning to read him for a while. Chilean Poet is his latest work and comes with glowing reviews from lots of other trustworthy writers - but, when I…

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What we're reading: Stronach, Cleeves & Yang

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.

Ele Jenkins is reading The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach

I’m reading this Māori-inspired debut New Zealand fantasy, in which a disillusioned beat cop is murdered, but brought back to life by mysterious entities to defend her home city.

A queer fungal-punk romp with all the world-building richness of China Mieville’s Bas-Lag novels, and…

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What we're reading: Bunyan, Madden & Joy

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 Wayward: Just Another Life to Live by Vashti Bunyan

In the mid-1960s under the guidance of the Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham, Vashti Bunyan released several singles…all of which bombed. While The Beatles were filming Let It Be in 1969 Vashti Bunyan was traveling to the Isle of…

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What we're reading: Farrell, Marney & Styles

Grace Gooda is reading The Singapore Grip by J.G Farrell

The humour J.G Farrell uses to ridicule colonialism and the arrogance of British Imperialism is unlike anything I’ve ever read.

I love the strong personalities which make up this book – each character is a bit of an icon in their own way. The thoughts and conversations between characters intertwine perfectly to paint an image of what 1940s Singapore was to multiple demographics, and how the motivations of different nations…

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What we're reading: Christopher & Tan

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.

Tracy Hwang is reading Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

It’s been a while since I picked up a fantasy novel and I’m really enjoying dipping my toes back in with Sue Lynn Tan’s Daughter of the Moon Goddess.

I’ve only read a few chapters so far but the…

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What we're reading: Beech, Draper & Welch

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 Sunbathing by Isobel Beech

There is a passage half way through the novel of Sunbathing where Isobel is walking up the Rucker’s Hill in Northcote with friends. They stop to look over the roof tops, over the trees to the city. Such a wonderful iconic Melbourne scene.

Isobel Beech’s…

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What the Teen Advisory Board are reading

Our Teen Advisory Board have been busy reading and letting us know what they’re loving. From fairytale adaptations and Greek mythology, to galvanising non-fiction and twisty murder mysteries, here are some recommendations from seven of our fantastic 2022 board members.

Shania is reading The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller:

I’m in the middle of The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller and it is honestly the most beautiful thing I’ve read in a while. I’m sure this has already…

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What we're reading: Enríquez & Taddeo

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.

Emma Clarke is reading The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez made me feel as if I had snuck into a screening of a horror movie. I could leave at any moment if I wanted to (I hadn’t even paid for a…

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What we're reading: Stanley, Yee & Black

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 A Great Hope by Jessica Stanley

First of all, reading A Great Hope by Jessica Stanley made me feel old. This novel centres around the Kevin Rudd years of 2007 through to the turbulent years of Gillard and I found myself amazed/dismayed that it was all so LONG ago…

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What we're reading: Rushton, Burr & Thornton

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.

Jackie Tang is reading The Most Important Job in the World by Gina Rushton

I reviewed Gina Rushton’s The Most Important Job in the World a little while ago (in short: it’s amazing, go read it) but I wanted to shout out its brilliance again in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s…

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What we're reading: Ali, O’Farrell & Jordan

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 Love Marriage by Monica Ali

I’m reading the excellent Love Marriage by bestselling and all-round literary rock star Monica Ali. (I fell in love with her work with one of her first novels, Brick Lane.)

If the book was a dancefloor it would be that part right before…

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What we're reading: Dick, Krakauer & Leigh

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.

Joanna Di Mattia is reading They by Kay Dick

It really, truly is the case that the less you know about Kay Dick’s tense, haunting, perfectly controlled novella before you start to read it, the better. So I’ll say little more than that and that it’s one of the best books I’ve read…

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What we're reading: Mellors, Davis & 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.

Aurelia Orr is reading Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors

Reading Cleopatra and Frankenstein was like falling in love for the first time: you’re so blinded by the glamour and rose-coloured view of the world before you, you never expect the heartbreak to follow. Like Cleo and Frank, who fall so hard for…

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What we're reading: McGuire, Miller & Li

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.

Tracy Hwang is reading Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li

I was lucky enough to have been given an early copy of Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li (publishing next week on 12 April), and upon finishing it I felt so grateful to have been able to read it—not…

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What we're reading: Tabucchi, Ratajkowski & Lo

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.

Baz Ozturk is reading Little Misunderstandings of No Importance by Antonio Tabucchi

I just finished the short story collection Little Misunderstandings of No Importance by Antonio Tabucchi. It was recently published, along with the novels Pereira Maintains and Requiem, by Penguin in their Modern Classics series. Discovering Tabucchi was one of the highlights…

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What we're reading: Briggs, Caro & Clarke

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 Fungus the Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs

A recent episode of the Backlisted Podcast prompted me to dig into the shelves for a copy of Fungus the Bogeyman, the Raymond Briggs graphic novel of 1977. Briggs, a graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art, takes the reader on…

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What we're reading: Winn, Reid & Scholte

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 Wild Silence by Raynor Winn

I picked up a copy of a book we have on the bargain table called The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn.

Raynor’s husband, Moth, has a brain disease that can’t be cured. Raynor has a strong connection to nature and finds power and…

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What we're reading: Hinton & Gardner

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.

Tye Cattanach is reading The Loudness of Unsaid Thing by Hilde Hinton

I meant to read The Loudness of Unsaid Things at the same time everyone else was reading it, but somehow, it just never happened that way. Then, I was asked to read and review Hinton’s forthcoming novel - A Solitary Walk

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What we're reading: Hartnett, Miller & Scholte

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.

Tye Cattanach is reading Go Home, Cat! by Sonya Hartnett, illustrated by Lucia Masciullo

Isn’t liquorice a delicious word? If you didn’t think so before, you certainly will once you have revelled in the magical new picture book from the uber talented Sonya Hartnett. A gorgeous (and long awaited) sequel to Come Down,

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What we're reading: Keyes, Smith & 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.

Julia Jackson is reading Cooper Not Out by Justin Smith

I’ve read many a cricket book in my lifetime, from the Iceman’s Captain’s Diaries right through to Duncan Hamilton’s erudite biography of cricket laureate Neville Cardus, but I haven’t read a cricket book as downright fun as Cooper Not Out.

Here, Justin…

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What we're reading: Osman, Nunez & Amba

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.

Baz Ozturk is reading What Are you going Through by Sigrid Nunez

I’m enjoying this novel about a woman dealing with a friend who’s coming to terms with terminal cancer. Enjoying doesn’t seem like the right word because it sounds heavy, and it is! But only in subject-matter. Yes, it’s sad, and even…

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What we're reading: Norman, Au & Reilly

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.

Karl Sagrabb is reading Permafrost by SJ Norman

This debut collection of short stories is striking and incisive, exploring desire and loss, and playing with, subverting, and inverting classic traditions of literature like the Romantic and the Gothic.

I absolutely adore work that plays around with Gothic traditions and, having written my thesis…

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What we're reading: Wright, Towles & Bruchmann

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 She Kills Me by Jennifer Wright

Jennifer Wright’s collection of essays about terrible break-ups in history, It Ended Badly, remains one of the funniest and most entertaining non-fiction books I’ve ever read. Her second book, Get Well Soon, was an equally hilarious romp through history’s worst plagues…

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What we're reading: May, Billingsley & Steinkellner

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 Wahala by Nikki May

I just started reading Wahala, a debut novel about three women whose close-knit friendship is blown apart with the arrival of a fourth woman. Boo, Simi, and Ronke are three anglo-Nigerian women who became friends while at university. Now in their thirties, each of…

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What we're reading: Cho, Down and Susskind

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 Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

Yangsze Chu’s wonderful novel The Ghost Bride is one of my all-time favourite books, so when I heard about Black Water Sister by Zen Cho I snapped it up immediately. Like The Ghost Bride, this is a terrific story that combines a…

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What we're reading: Novak, Clements & Datta

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 View Was Exhausting by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta

The funny (not really) thing about the romance genre is that there’s a certain subset of people that assume that romance readers are a bit dim, or uneducated, or anti-feminist; when in reality the complete opposite is true. There’s…

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October recommendations from our Teen Advisory Board

Our Teen Advisory Board have been busy reading and letting us know what they’re loving; below, you can read June recommendations from five of our fantastic 2021 board members. You can also browse the favourite books by favourite authors collection – compiled by the entire board – here.

Teen Advisory Board Member Tahlia Malojer is reading Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, The Other Side of Perfect by Mariko Turk, and Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu.

Imagine a world where looks are…

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What we're reading: Osman, Riley & McGann

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.

Gabrielle Williams is reading The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman.

I’ve just finished reading Richard Osman’s second book in the Thursday Murder Club series. It’s very light and funny and utterly enjoyable. I’m recommending it all over the place.

It centres around four old people living in a retirement village, one…

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Our favourite reads of 2021 so far

We asked staff to let us know which book stands out as exceptional amongst everything they’ve read so far this year. Below are the books they’ve loved the most and you can browse our more extensive collection of favourites here.

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

I haven’t yet stopped thinking about Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder. Its dry humour and refreshing weirdness was just what I needed.

— Alison Huber, head book buyer

Wild Abandon by Emily Bitto

Happily for me…

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What we're reading: Birch, Marillier & Bitto

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.

Tye Cattanach is reading Dark as Last Night by Tony Birch

If you wanted to start a fight with me, one of the surest ways would be to try to convince me Tony Birch is not one of the FINEST storytellers in this country. Because, to sound kinda ‘90s right now. HE SO…

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What we're reading: Andrada & de Beauvoir

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.

Angela Crocombe is reading The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir and That Weekend by Kara Thomas

I enjoyed Simone de Beauvoir’s The Inseparables this week. Based on de Beauvoir’s formative childhood friendship with a charismatic, highly religious young woman, it was a beautiful treatise on youthful female friendship. Written with great intensity, admiration…

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What we're reading: Yoder & Butcher-McGunnigle

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.

Joanna Di Mattia is reading Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

I purchased a copy of Rachel Yoder’s debut novel Nightbitch after I was seduced by a simple 30-word blurb that managed to say a lot while not revealing much at all. Turns out, this is the only way to talk about this novel about…

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What we're reading: Trethewey, Murphy & McCrossen

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.

Gabrielle Williams is reading Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey.

I’m reading Memorial Drive by Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey. The synergy of growing up on Memorial Drive in Mississippi, and then writing a memorial to her mother who was murdered by her stepfather, isn’t missed by Trethewey. Firmly placing us on the streets she…

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What we're reading: Rippin, Thompson and Lippincott

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.

Tye Cattanach is reading Big Dog, Little Dog by Sally Rippin and illustrated by Lucinda Gifford.

Friends, can I tell you, there was no one more ecstatic that I to learn that Melbourne’s favourite children’s author was working on a picture book. About DOGS. With Lucinda Gifford. I’ll give you a moment to…

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What we're reading: Heller, Huron & Mathieu

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.

Tye Cattanach is reading The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

Some books feel more to me like I’m watching a movie rather than reading. This sensation is extremely rare, so I am always delighted when it happens.

The Paper Palace is a complex, enthralling love story that reads more like a psychological…

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What we're reading: Mitford, Down & Turk

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.

Gabrielle Williams is reading The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

I’m reading an old classic, The Pursuit of Love, the first in a trilogy of books by Nancy Mitford. It’s amazing how relevant it is. Well, apart from the furs and the landed gentry and the fox hunts and the coming…

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What we're reading: Gott, McGeachin & Brown

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.

Tye Cattanach is reading Frankie and the Fossil by Jess McGeachin

The newest picture book offering from one of my favourite author/illustrators is everything we have come to expect from his work. Sweet, thoughtful stories featuring curious, intelligent characters. Beautifully detailed illustrations in soft, muted palettes. McGeachin has consistently delivered delightful read aloud…

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What we're reading: Clements & Datta, Thapp, & King

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.

Jackie Tang is reading The View Was Exhausting by Mikaella Clements & Onjuli Datta

Never mind the view, this whole misbegotten year has been exhausting. I don’t know about you but lockdown after lockdown has scrambled my hidden wiring into a truly cursed tangle of nerves, anxiety and emotions, so I was relieved…

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What we're reading: Winterson, McKay & Pippos

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.

Tye Cattanach is reading 12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next. by Jeanette Winterson

There are quite a few books I am excited for this year (TBR groans audibly) However! Perhaps the one I was most excited for publishes next week and I was beyond delighted to get my…

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What we're reading: Montgomery, Rooney & Caletti

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.

Tye Cattanach is reading Soul of An Octopus, The House in the Cerulean Sea, and Once There Were Wolves.

Friends, it has been an interesting (albeit slow) week of reading for me. I have been lucky enough to read not one, but three delightful books!

First up, Soul of An

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What we're reading: Jago, Pollan & Yee

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.

Gabrielle Williams is reading This is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan

I’m currently reading This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan, which explores the effects of opium, caffeine and mescaline on the human brain.

I’ve just finished the section on opium, and it follows Pollan’s surprising journey growing opium…

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What we're reading: Stubbins, King & Nieman

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 In My Defence, I Have No Defence by Sinead Stubbins

My toddler is going through some kind of dreadful sleep regression thing at the moment and I actually can’t remember the last time I slept through the night (2018?) so my usual bedtime routine of cuddling up with a…

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What we're reading: Brandi, Chambers & Zisin

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.

Tye Cattanach is reading – surprise, surprise – a whole heaps of books!

It’s been a rich and varied week of reading for me, in which I read three books that could not be more different from one another. Let’s begin with Mark Brandi’s latest literary crime novel - The Others. Tense…

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