What we're reading
What We're Reading: Sved, Lobel
byEach week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Chris Gordon is reading A Universe of Sufficient Size by Miriam Sved
The Hungarian people have had their hearts ripped out of their country for years, but yet they have retained a wonderful pride in their heritage. I’m married to a second generation Hungarian and this is what I’ve learnt about Hungarians; that innate mentioned…
What We're Reading: Sales, Darke and Cheng
byEach week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Fiona Hardy is reading Any Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales
After selling piles of Leigh Sales’ book on trauma, I was looking forward to reading Any Ordinary Day for my book club last week, even though it seemed obvious that a book about the very worst day of peoples’ lives would require tissues to read…
What we're reading: London, Tokyo and Greece
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Lian Hingee is reading The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary
I’ve just finished reading The Flatshare by debut writer Beth O’Leary. Set in London, it’s the story of Tiffy Moore – a poorly-paid editorial assistant with a dreadful ex-boyfriend – who answers an advertisement for a housemate, and finds herself sharing not only a flat, but…
What we're reading: McLean, Kerr and Perlman
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Chris Gordon is reading The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone by Felicity McLean
Last week I read the wonderful The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone by Felicity McLean. This is an atmospheric read about a summer in 1992 when three girls disappear from a small Australian town. McLean evokes such a strong sense of time…
What we're reading: Robinson, Hendrick and Gale
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Chris Gordon is reading The Glad Shout by Alice Robinson
The premise of The Glad Shout by Alice Robinson completely threw me. Set in the (not-so-distant) future, Australia is flooded, and the main protagonist, Isobel, is left with her daughter in a survival site at the city’s main sports oval – essentially a refugee camp…
What we're reading: Hadley, Gilbert, Nwosu and Yoshitake
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Mark Rubbo is reading Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley
I’ve been reading Tessa Hadley’s Late in the Day. Two middle-class couples – a teacher, an artist, a gallery owner and a dilettante – are inseparable. Add in death, adultery, fame, and angst and you might get a saucy romp – but you…
What we're reading: Jenkins Reid, Choo, Davis-Goff and Guillaume
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Ellen Cregan is reading Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
This novel follows the rise and fall of a legendary rock band from the 1970s, The Six, whose journey to fame took off when they were joined by singer and ‘it girl’ Daisy Jones. The book is written in a ‘rockumentary’ interview…
What we're reading: Johnson, Jameson, Gooch and Oh
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
George Delaney is reading The Breakaways by Cathy G. Johnson
I’m really excited about The Breakaways by Cathy G. Johnson, a graphic novel for tween readers about a motley crew of very un-sporty kids in a C-Grade American High School soccer team. It’s a sweet story about friendship and not fitting in, and has a…
What we're reading: Boochani, Winn and some new music
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Marie Matteson is listening to Better Oblivion Community Centre
I seldom come across new music. I am definitely out of all the loops. This week though, while listening to one of my favourite podcasts I heard the name Better Oblivion Community Center. A name that long and concrete (in all senses) stuck, and I’m so…
What we're reading: Ali Smith, Philip Pullman and the classics
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Paul Goodman is catching up on the French classics
This year I’m aiming to catch up on a fistful of classics I should have read by age 30. Now that I’m two years late, I should really begin in earnest.
Having once attempted Proust on an e-reader while travelling, and finding it akin to listening…
What we’re reading: Nunez, Marchetta and parenting books
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Gabrielle Williams is reading The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
Sigrid Nunez won the National Book Award for fiction last year for this story about a woman whose friend commits suicide and leaves her to care for his ageing harlequin Great Dane. The book is written almost like the narrator is composing a series of letters…
What we’re reading: Sylvia Plath, Adam Gidwitz and a crop of YA thrillers
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Paul Goodman is reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
It’s unnerving reading The Bell Jar. Not just because of its content: the trajectory of protagonist Esther Greenwood’s depression is marked by remarkable prose and a dry wit that makes this hard-to-read book really, really readable. And actually very funny. It’s a classic for…
What we’re reading: Jennifer Spence, Jonathan Haidt and M.J. Tija
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Mark Rubbo is reading The Lost Girls by Jennifer Spence
I’ve been reading The Lost Girls by Sydney author Jennifer Spence. It’s an intriguing concept. Returning from a trip to the city Stella finds her suburb familiar yet changed. Her warehouse apartment building is just that, a warehouse. The home that she raised her family…
What we’re reading: Lang Leav, Andy Miller and Naomi Novik
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Tracy Hwang is reading Sea of Strangers by Lang Leav
This was my first dive into Lang Leav’s poetry. Leav’s poems are simply expressed, but extremely heartfelt and poignant, making Sea of Strangers a good collection for first readers of poetry. What surprised me is her ability to capture so many of the emotions that…
What we're reading: Nicola Redhouse, Fonda Lee & Marissa Meyer
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Mark Rubbo has been immersed in French history
Over summer I read Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks and watched the DVD series of Un Villages Francais. Both crossover to some extent. Faulks’s novel is set in contemporary Paris where the French treatment of Algerians during their fight for independence and their complicity in the…
What we're reading: Richard Ayoade, Melina Marchetta & April Genevieve Tucholke
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Paul Goodman is reading by Ayoade on Ayoade by Richard Ayoade
After making a name for himself co-writing and directing the cult UK series Garth Merenghi’s Dark Place, giving an award-winning performance as Moss in The IT Crowd and then going on to make two excellent films in Submarine and The Double, Richard…
What we're reading: Alice Nelson, Jenny Hval & J.P. Pomare
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Bronte Coates is reading The Children’s House by Alice Nelson
The Children’s House is the first book I read in the new year, and I found it incredibly moving. This is a generous story about trauma and displacement, family and finding home. Alice Nelson’s prose is beautifully crafted and contains that same quiet, yet intensely…
What we're reading over summer
Our staff share the books they’re planning to read over summer.
‘As I’ll be spending Christmas overseas (and leading on from reading Patrick Leigh Fermor’s A Time Of Gifts in anticipation) I will be packing Patrick Leigh Fermor’s Between The Woods And The Water, among other things, to accompany me. The second volume documenting his incredible journey on foot from Amsterdam to Constantinople, we pick up in Budapest, where we left the young Fermor wondering at what awaited him…
What we're reading: Camille Perri, Patrick Leigh Fermor & Katherine Heiny
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Bronte Coates is reading Camille Perri & Katherine Heiny
It is that time of the year where everyone shares their end-of-year wrap-ups and the internet is flooded with recommendations for approximately one billion books that you missed out on reading this year. After seeing it crop up a few times, I impulsively picked up a…
What we're reading: Karen Foxlee, Allie Brosh & Oyinkan Braithwaite
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Bronte Coates is reading My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
My Sister, the Serial Killer may just be the perfect summer read. This is a pulpy, pacy thriller with a razor-sharp sense of humour. Set in Lagos, Nigeria, the story follows methodical Korede and her beautiful younger sister Ayoola who has the unfortunate…
What we're reading: Tana French, Ben Aaronovitch & Jan Morris
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Marie Matteson is reading Trieste And The Meaning Of Nowhere by Jan Morris
At the moment I am wholly enthralled in Jan Morris’s evocation of Trieste over the centuries, fading in and out of the spotlight as Europe ebbs and flows. When you need to be in Trieste – or simply, anywhere but here –…
What we're reading: Curtis Sittenfeld, Karl Ove Knausgaard & Lisa Hanawalt
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Paul Goodman is reading Inadvertent by Karl Ove Knausgaard (translated by Ingvild Burkey)
I took another break from the new Murakami to read Karl Ove Knausgaard’s contribution to the Windham-Campbell Why I Write series, Inadvertent. With characteristic suspicion and microscopic analysis he addresses his ‘reasons’ for writing one by one, asking how legitimate it…
What we're reading: Jock Serong, John Boyne & Dorothy Baker
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Bronte Coates is reading two American classics
I’ve recently read my way through two American classics that I’ve had on my TBR list for a while: Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker (1962) and The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston (1976). The first is a smart and blackly funny novel about a young…
What we're reading: Jasmine Guillory, Sarah Moss & Ottessa Moshfegh
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Mike Shuttleworth is reading Helen Oxenbury: A Life in Illustration by Leonard S. Marcus
Generations of adults – children once – grew up reading the books of Helen Oxenbury: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, Farmer Duck, There’s Going to Be a Baby, and…
What we're reading: Brandy Colbert, Karen Foxlee & Behrouz Boochani
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Bronte Coates is reading Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
I read this YA novel after it was recommended to me by a coworker and (as per the rule of recommendations from my colleagues) I really loved it. Suzette was unwillingly sent away to boarding school when her much-loved older brother, Lionel, was diagnosed with…
What we're reading: Liane Moriarty, Carey Pietsch & Atelier Sento
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Ellen Cregan is reading Onibi: Diary of a Yokai Ghost Hunter by Atelier Sento (translated by Marie Velde)
This is a delightful graphic novel that follows a two tourists as they search for yôkai – the supernatural beings from Japanese folklore. Two adventurers, Cecile and Olivier, are visiting Niigata, a seaside city in Japan. Cecile…
What we're reading: Haruki Murakami, Eleanor Davis & Luke Pearson
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Lian Hingee is watching The Haunting of Hill House and Hilda
I’ve just started watching The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix, which is based on Shirley Jackson’s book of the same name. Where Jackson’s book is the story of four people who are invited by a paranormal investigator to spend the summer living…
What we're reading: Nancy Campbell, Tana French & Nick Drnaso
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Lian Hingee is reading The Wych Elm by Tana French (available November)
I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of Tana French’s upcoming book The Wych Elm, a great big brick of a novel that stands outside her wonderful Dublin Murder Squad series.
Toby Hennessy lives a charmed life: he’s well off…
What we're reading: April Genevieve Tucholke, J.M. Coetzee & Clémentine Beauvais
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Paul Goodman is reading Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
Emotions are raw this week after taking a recommendation from a customer and finally reading the copy of J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace that had been collecting dust on my shelf.
I was lured into what seemed like a story of campus scandal, of protagonist David Lurie’s abuse of…
What we're reading: Dervla McTiernan, Anna Burns & Adam Liaw
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Paul Barr is listening to Lanterns by Ryan Ayers
Former classical guitarist Ryan Ayers has picked up a steel string guitar to great effect on Lanterns. Ayers has a gift for melody and unlike a lot of the current crop of acoustic players, his music has echoes of the Windham Hill sound rather than…
What we're reading: Dervla McTiernan, Karl Ove Knausgaard & April Genevieve Tucholke
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Bronte Coates is reading The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke (available October)
Frey is the leader of a band of boneless mercies – women who roam the land and are hired to bring a merciful death to the sick and the old. It is gruelling work and Frey, raised on the heroic sagas of…
What we're reading: Meg Medina, Ibi Zoboi & Brian K. Vaughan
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Paul Barr is listening to Deran by Bombino
Tuareg musician Bombino has a new album out and it’s a beauty. Similar in style to other desert blues bands like Tinariwen, Bombino has a heavier guitar sound and likes to riff and rock out a bit more than most. This album features songs about love and…
What we're reading: Ottessa Moshfegh, Ambelin Kwaymullina & Ezekiel Kwaymullina
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Paul Goodman is reading Karl Ove Knausgaard’s Seasons Quartet
To whet my appetite for Knausgaard’s finale to My Struggle, I have been dipping into his Seasons Quartet – the series of essays he wrote for his (then) unborn daughter. Ranging from reflections on the changing seasons and painting a stunning picture of Scandinavia throughout…
What we're reading: Weike Wang, Michel Houellebecq & Nick Drnaso
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Paul Goodmam is reading Submission by Michel Houellebecq
I’ve just finished Michel Houellebecq’s controversial Submission and found that, as with all illicit fiction, a simple reading of the text takes you past the scandal to a novel that reads more like a cry for help than an attack. Houellebecq’s oeuvre wrestles time and again with…
What we're reading: Liane Moriarty, Sarah Selecky & Rachael Brown
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Bronte Coates is reading Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty (available 18 September)
I was extremely excited last week to get my hands on an early copy of Liane Moriarty’s forthcoming novel. A group of strangers attend a wellness retreat where they find themselves exposed to some unusual treatment methods. To say much more would…
What we're reading: Liane Moriarty, Shirley Jackson & Min Jin Lee
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Lian Hingee is reading We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson is one of those writers that everyone tells you that you must read. A master of American Gothic, she was reclusive, agoraphobic and obsessed with witchcraft. She’s probably best known for her short stories (especially ‘The Lottery’), but her…
What we're reading: Nick Drnaso, Pat Barker & Sayaka Murata
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Bronte Coates is reading Sabrina by Nick Drnaso
Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina made literary history a few weeks ago when it became the first graphic novel to be longlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. As a comic fan, it feels like a long overdue achievement, though I definitely think it’s a deserving pick. An…
What we're reading: Emily Gale, Hannah Richell & Lewis Carroll
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Bronte Coates is reading I Am Out With Lanterns by Emily Gale
This juicy YA novel will grip you from page one. Emily Gale has skilfully brought together the perspectives of multiple characters to create a single cohesive work that investigates the ways in which we misunderstand one another, and sometimes ourselves too. Every one…
What we're reading: Vera Brosgol, Sarai Walker & Kayla Rae Whitaker
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Lian Hingee is reading Dietland by Sarai Walker
I’ve had Dietland sitting on my TBR pile for, oh, about two years now, and it’s been recommended to me countless times, but it took the release of a new TV adaptation to give me the kick in the butt that I needed to finally start reading…
What we're reading: Peter S. Beagle, Sally Rooney & Rupert Thomson
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Ele Jenkins is reading In Calabria by Peter S. Beagle
I just finished In Calabria by Peter S. Beagle. You may recognise Beagle as the author of fantasy classic The Last Unicorn, and fifty years later (fifty!) he has returned to write about his favourite mythical creature with just as much wistful…
What we're reading: Aldous Huxley, Sarah Matthias & Peter Hamilton
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Robbie Egan is reading Salvation by Peter Hamilton (available September)
I am reading an advance reading copy of Salvation by Peter Hamilton. I haven’t read him for years, but when the beginning of a new series was plonked onto my desk it proved irresistible.
Using multiple future time-settings, Hamilton presents an advanced humanity that has…
What we're reading: Sara Varon, Sally Rooney & Julie C. Dao
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Bianca Looney is reading New Shoes by Sara Varon
Sara Varon’s earlier book, Robot Dreams, is already one of my favourite graphic novels for younger readers and I know I’m not alone. A mother of a child in prep recently told me how after reading the story, her son created his own comic about…
What we're reading: Meg Wolitzer, Weike Wang & Drew Rooke
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Ellen Cregan is reading One Last Spin by Drew Rooke
This week I read Drew Rooke’s One Last Spin, which interrogates the questionable ethics of the presence of poker machines in Australian bars and pubs. I have to be honest – this is a pretty depressing book. But it is also a very fascinating…
What we're reading: Melissa Broder, Patricia Lockwood & Erin Gough
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Bianca Looney is reading The Colour of the Sun by David Almond
A summer day. A young lad wandering free. Drifts of blazing poppies. Lying on rock in the sun. Wondering and dreaming at the aliveness of the world. The magical and the real all melting together.
This tale unfolds in a single day as…
What we're reading: Hilary Mantel, Daisy Hirst & Sharlene Teo
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Bronte Coates is reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
This past year, I’ve been making efforts to read backlist titles and seek out older books that have been repeatedly recommended to me. My latest pick is a recommendation from my colleague Jan – Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel’s first Booker-Prize-winning novel about the life of…
What we're reading: Clare Atkins, Michelle McNamara & Bri Lee
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Chris Gordon is reading Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee
I have been putting off reading Bri Lee’s memoir because I felt like I already knew the story. I worked in the field of women’s health before I was involved in the book trade and I already knew that the legal system was not usually favourable…
What we're reading: Andrew Sean Greer, Erin Gough & Sarah Rees Brennan
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Julia Gorman is reading In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
A customer recently came into the kid’s shop and told me that this book is so good that she was buying herself a second copy. Due to this recommendation, and the very appealingly and gorgeous cover, I decided to buy myself a copy.
Elliott…
What we're reading: Tayari Jones, Ali Berg & Michelle Kalus
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Ellen Cregan is reading The Book Ninja by Ali Berg & Michelle Kalus
This week I’ve been reading a debut Australian novel from co-authors, Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus. Berg and Kalus are the founders of the Books on the Rail project, which aims to get commuters off their phones and stuck into a book…
What we're reading: Eleanor Davis, Mat Larkin & Karen Liberman
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Kim Gruschow is reading You & a Bike & a Road by Eleanor Davis
I absolutely loved this thoughtful illustrated travelogue. The book follows a big cycle journey that the author made through the southern states of the USA, from Tucson Arizona to Athens Georgia. The trip was tough, both physically and emotionally, and the…
What we're reading: Hilary Reyl, Elizabeth Acevedo & Ally Carter
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Ellen Cregan has just returned from Sydney Writers’ Festival
I attended Sydney Writer’s Festival on the weekend, and I spent a large part of Saturday listening to excellent authors discussing their books and the ideas they each delve into.
The first session of the day was Jamila Rizvi and Angela Saini discussing Saini’s book, Inferior…
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