Every year our staff vote for their favourite books of the past 12 months. Here are the nonfiction books of the year, as voted by Readings' staff, and displayed in alphabetical order by author.

Art Monsters by Lauren Elkin

Who are Art Monsters? Lauren Elkin characterises them as women who break the social norms of behaviour and appearance. They are women who redefine the truth of their own bodies, not by how they are perceived through the traditional male lens.

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Every year our staff vote for their favourite books of the past 12 months. Here are the best international fiction books of the year, as voted by Readings' staff, and displayed in alphabetical order by author.

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Imagine a Squid Game-style gladiator program that combines elements of the ‘reality’ TV show and the ancient ‘sport’, but is run as a fight-to-the-death competition for freedom in the, near future, US prison system – and is…

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Every year our staff vote for their favourite books of the past 12 months. Here are the best young adult books of the year, as voted by Readings' staff, and displayed in alphabetical order by author.

The Stolen Heir by Holly Black

Jump back into the world of Elfhame in The Stolen Heir. It’s been eight years since the Battle of the Serpent and we are now following Jude’s brother Oak and the changeling queen, Suren. The two were…

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Every year our staff vote for their favourite books of the past 12 months. Here are the best Australian fiction books of the year, as voted by Readings' staff, and displayed in alphabetical order by author.

Women & Children by Tony Birch

In Women & Children, beloved local writer Tony Birch takes us to 1965 and, in his inimitable style, introduces us to Joe Cluny and his sister Ruby, who are growing up in a working-class suburb with their…

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Every year our staff vote for their favourite books of the past 12 months. Here are the best picture books of the year, as voted by Readings' staff, and displayed in alphabetical order by author.

Pasta! by Felice Arena & Beatrice Cerocchi (illus.)

Who doesn’t love Pasta? Not only does it taste delicious, but pasta names are also fun to say. Felice Arena has created a rhyming feast with his new picture book, Pasta! Paired with bold and beautiful illustrations…

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This year was another fantastic one for music books. Below you'll find a selection of our favourites that include memoir, essay, nonfiction and even the fashion of an icon.

Half Deaf, Completely Mad by Tony Cohen & John Olson

Maverick music producer-engineer Tony Cohen defined Australia’s punk and rock sounds in the late ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. His long and celebrated career took him from the studios of Melbourne and Sydney to West Berlin and London’s Abbey Road, working with…

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Congratulations to Paul Lynch who has been named the winner of this year's Booker Prize for his fifth novel, Prophet Song. The Booker Prize is a £50,000 literary prize awarded each year for the best original novel, written in the English language, and published in the UK. Paul Lynch is the fifth Irish author to win the prize.

Prophet Song is an exhilarating, propulsive and confrontational portrait of a country – and an ordinary family – on the brink…

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Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.

Bernard Caleo is reading Ultrawild by Steve Mushin

Steve Mushin’s Ultrawild is a book full of visionary, revolutionary plans and schematics for rewilding the world, one city at a time (or actually, if Steve has his way, all of the cities in the world simultaneously). In meticulous, large-format, comic-book-style pages, he steps us through his designs for flinging compost balls down city streets…

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The festive season is upon us, and with it comes celebrations and gifts and forced socialisation with people you definitely don't see eye to eye with. Grit your teeth and bear it ... or even better, gift them one of our carefully chosen passive aggressive gifts and enjoy watching them read between the lines.

For the person who's always posting their fast fashion hauls » Wear Next by Clare Press

The current fashion system is wasteful, environmentally harmful and exploitative…

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Women & Children by Tony Birch

It's 1965 and Joe Cluny is living in a working-class suburb with his mum, Marion, and sister, Ruby, spending his days trying to avoid trouble with the nuns at the local Catholic primary school. One evening his Aunty Oona appears on the doorstep, distressed and needing somewhere to stay. As his mum and aunty work out what to do, Joe comes to understand the secrets that the women in his family carry, including on…

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