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The Readings Prize – pathway to publishing
The winners of the Readings Prizes will be announced later tonight. Below, a number of this year's shortlistees discuss their pathways to publishing.
Shirley Le: I have been raised by a community of writers at the Sweatshop Writers Collective, a literacy movement based in Western Sydney that empowers writers from culturally and linguistically diverse communities to tell our stories on our own terms. In 2021, Affirm Press started a mentorship for Sweatshop writers and I was fortunate to…
2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize winners
Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA), in partnership with Australia’s leading essential building and infrastructure services provider ARA Group, is excited to announce the winners of the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize.
This year’s winners demonstrates the true depth of talent of historical fiction authors. The winning novels demonstrate the irresistible prose, unforgettable characters, meticulous research, and epic storytelling for which historical fiction is known.
Winner of the 2023 ARA Historical Novel Prize – Adult Category
Salonika Burning by Gail Jones
…
Contemporary classics to gift a new baby
So your best friend/sibling/cousin/workmate/neighbour/casual acquaintance is having a baby. Books make the ideal keepsake gift, but before you accidentally buy them their seventh copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar or Where the Wild Things Are, consider one of our favourite recent release picture books that are almost guaranteed to become contemporary classics. Browse some highlights below, or drop into one of our shops and our knowledgeable booksellers will be happy to share their personal picks.
Our guide to this year's Readings Young Adult Prize shortlist, based on your previous reads
Are you finding it hard to decide which title on the 2023 Readings Young Adult Prize shortlist to read? Well this guide will help you choose based on books you've previously read and loved!
If you loved Wuthering Heights...
Where You Left Us by Rhiannon Wilde
An evocative YA mash-up that’s like Wuthering Heights meets Sherlock Holmes, with Taylor Swift’s Evermore as the soundtrack.
Sisters Cinnamon and Scarlett are home for the summer, looking after their father who’s suffering…
Recent spooky reads for children
October, and the lead-up, never fail to provide a bounty of scary, eccentric and thrilling tales for our bookshelves. Filled with doomed school camps, wandering souls, small town mysteries and, of course, a fabulous vampire – there's something for every level of spooky comfort in the below recommended reads.
Spooky Stories of the World by Wendy Shearer & Teo Georgiey (illus.)
This spine-tingling collection of spooky stories features over 20 eerie tales from across the globe. Discover bewitching retellings of…
What we're reading: Yoshitake, Levy & Ward
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Dani Solomon is reading I Can Open That! by Shinsuke Yoshitake
Another Shinsuke Yoshitake book, another hit. I Can Open That! begins with a little boy who laments how hard it is to open things like chocolate wrappers and orange juice. This leads to him imagining how great it will be when he can open things on his own, he'll be an official…
Q&A with the 2023 Readings New Australian Fiction Prize shortlist authors
With the upcoming announcement of this year's winner our New Australian Fiction Prize shortlist authors talk about their inspiration, the creative process, their perfect reader, their favourite writing advice, and what they hope readers take away from their books.
What was the initial inspiration for this story?
Amy Taylor (Search History): I’m fascinated by the way our relationships are divided between the online and offline world. When we construct an online version of ourselves and communicate with others…
Bestselling books in new, compact formats
These bestselling books are now available in smaller, more portable formats!
Willowman by Inga Simpson
Allan Reader, one of the last traditional batmakers in the country, keeps his family business alive in a small workshop in Melbourne.
When Todd Harrow, a gifted young batter, catches Allan's eye, a spark is lit and Allan decides to make a Reader bat for him, selecting the best piece of willow he's harvested in years to do so.
As Harrow charts a meteoric rise…
We test recipes from Philoxenia
Recently we tested a selection of recipes from Philoxenia: A Seat at My Table, a new cookbook from Kon Karapanagiotidis, founder of the ASRC, and his mother, Sia.
We were of course thrilled to then have Kon and Sia themselves stop by to taste test our attempts and judge the best replication.
Joe Rubbo made Spanikopita
I made the Spanikopita. Although I cheated by not making the phyllo pastry, using store bought instead. This shortcoming was spotted immediately by…
The October crime review
These are the crime books which have been read and reviewed by our excellent booksellers this month – all in one place!
Everyone On This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
Reviewed by Lian Hingee from Readings online
Benjamin Stevenson’s bestselling novel Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone was a comedic delight: Agatha Christie meets Knives Out via a distinctly Australian first-person narrator.
In Everyone On This Train Is a Suspect, Ernest Cunningham – mystery-solver and now…
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