Our staff share the books they’re planning to read over summer.

You can also find plenty of summer reading recommendations over on the Readings Podcast! Listen to our picks for adults here, and our picks for kids and teens here.

‘There’s a big stack of books I’m excitedly planning to make my way through over the summer months, including They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib, Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward and The Night Garden by Polly Horvath, whose previous books I have absolutely adored! I also can’t wait to read the new graphic novel Spinning by Tillie Walden.’

Kim Gruschow, children’s and YA buyer at Readings St Kilda

‘My summer reading list includes Pachinko, a sweeping saga set in Korea that is beloved by many Readings staff and was voted onto our top 10 fiction books of the year list; The Idiot by Elif Batuman, which looks smart, interesting and a little bit different; Call Me By Your Name, which I want to read before I see the movie; and They Both Die At The End, a YA novel with an intriguing premise.

I’m also judging for the Readings Young Adult Book Prize in 2018, so I have a big stack of brilliant Australian YA books on my bedside table as well, including The Build Up Season, Between Us, P is for Pearl, and This Mortal Coil.’

– Nina Kenwood, marketing manager

‘I’m the crime columnist for Readings’ monthly newsletter, Readings Monthly, which means I read a lot of crime books throughout the year. Over the summer, I give myself a little break and this year I’ve picked up a copy of Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (I adored two of her earlier novels, Bel Canto and State of Wonder), and an esteemed colleague has let me borrow her copy of Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng – a family drama which has been roundly adored by staff.‘

– Fiona Hardy, bookseller at Readings Carton

'As a judge for the 2018 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, my summer will be filled to the brim with exciting new Australian fiction. I won’t give anything away about what I’ve read so far but I will say there have been a lot of talking points for the judging panel already.’

– Jan Lockwood, human resources manager

‘Over summer I will be attempting to read my way through my TBR pile. First up is The Power by Naomi Alderman, which all of my colleagues have raved about, and I’m also planning to dive into her earlier novel, Disobedience, which has been on my radar as a faint blip for many years. Now seems the time.’

– Marie Matteson, buyer at Readings Carton

‘I’m delighted to have the chance to savour Helen Garner’s recent collections of stories and essays. I am looking forward to Jennifer Egan’s Manhattan Beach, which I’ve been saving to read on a trip to Torquay, and I’m planning to get stuck into Gabriella Coslovich’s Whiteley on Trial, paired with a visit to the art galleries of Melbourne.’

– Chris Gordon, events manager

‘I have had a copy of Sour Heart sitting next to my bed for almost two whole months now, and I think it’s finally time to get stuck into it. I decided to read this book after hearing its author, Jenny Zhang, interviewed on the Guardian Books podcast by one of my favourite musicians, Emma-Lee Moss (Emmy the Great). As part of the interview, Zhang read one of the stories from the collection aloud, and it intrigued me.

I’ll also be reading Made For Love, the new novel from Alyssa Nutting, author of the infamous novel Tampa. This book was really divisive at the time of its release, but I loved it – I read it over the course of a few hours on a stinking hot summer day, and it totally had me under its spell.

I have to admit, I’d sort of forgotten about Nutting after that, so when I head about the release of Made For Love my heart skipped a beat. In my opinion, the subject matter of Tampa (a relationship between a female teacher and her young male student) caused such a stir that the quality of Nutting’s prose sort of flew under the radar, which was a disappointment as it’s so excellent. I am looking forward to rediscovering her writing.’

– Ellen Cregan, bookseller at Readings Doncaster