Our latest blog posts
Eggcelent picture books starring chickens
Some chickens cheer from the sidelines and others set their sights on outer space, but all chickens know it's best to be yourself and dare to dream. Below are four new stories about some very unique, but all equally inspiring, chickens!
Woo Hoo! You’re Doing Great! by Sandra Boynton
Whether you are learning to skate, baking a cake, or even making a mistake, this hilarious and heartfelt rhyming book reminds us that trying our best is reason to celebrate. From…
Top picks for book clubs this month
Australian Fiction | Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton
A girl and her mother are on the lam. They've been running for sixteen years, from police and the monster they left in the kitchen with the knife in his throat. They've found themselves a home inside an orange 1987 Toyota HiAce van with four flat tyres parked in a scrapyard by the edge of the Brisbane River.
The girl has no name because names are dangerous when you're on…
What we're reading: Lucashenko, Penelope & Boynton
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Rosalind McClintock is reading Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko
I was lucky enough to see Melissa Lucashenko in conversation with David Marr at the BookPeople conference. Lucashenko came across as fiercely intelligent, generous and funny, that along with the passages she read aloud from her new book Edenglassie prompted me to hunt down a copy. It did not disappoint, it is all these things…
The best food and gardening books of the month, with Chris Gordon
The Farm Table by Julius Roberts
Do you love Matthew Evans’ recipes? Perhaps Jamie Oliver’s? Now, combine those two tremendous cooks and consider the way they both use food in season with simple recipes. Well, move over boys because Julius is in town. This is English farmer and cook Julius Roberts’ first book, although you may have seen him on TV, and it is a beauty. It’s filled with ideas and ideals, all suited to anyone out there with a…
Q&A with the 2023 Readings Young Adult Prize shortlist authors
With the upcoming announcement of this year's winner, our Young Adult 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 your story?
Alice Boyle (Dancing Barefoot): The initial inspiration for Dancing Barefoot came in my final year of my creative writing degree. I was doing a subject on writing for young adults and…
Finding your inner artist through books
by Poppy, Teen Advisory BoardArt is everywhere around us, including in the books we read. To help find the perfect gift for the art lover in your life, or to unlock your own creativity, here are some personal favourites which might provide inspiration.
Prolific children’s author Peter H. Reynolds is probably already on your child’s bookshelf. But I think two of his picture books are as perfect for adults as they are for young readers. Ish shares the story of Ramon, a boy who…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we're reading fiction translated from Japanese, French, Norwegian, Korean & Italian.
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa (translated from Japanese by Eric Ozawa)
Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo is a booklover's paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building lies a shop filled with hundreds of second-hand books. Twenty-five-year-old Takako has never liked reading, although the Morisaki bookshop has been in her family for three generations. It is the pride and joy of her uncle…
Our September 2023 children's and young adult bestsellers
The 169-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths, Terry Denton (illus.)
Never a Hero by Vanessa Len
No Words by Maryam Master
Cat of Death! by Aaron Blabey
If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang
Evie and Rhino by Neridah McMullin, Astred Hicks (illus.)
This Camp is Doomed by Anna Zobel
One of Us is Back by Karen M. McManus
Ghost Book by Remy Lai
Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
The Bookseller’s Apprentice by Amelia Mellor
The…
Our September 2023 bestsellers
The Last Devil to Die (The Thursday Murder Club, Book 4) by Richard Osman
Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder
Would that Be Funny?: Growing up with John Clarke by Lorin Clarke
The Fraud by Zadie Smith
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi & Geoffrey Trousselot (trans.)
The Voice to Parliament Handbook by Thomas Mayo & Kerry O'Brien
Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran
Yellowface by Rebeca F Kuang
Jon Fosse wins The Nobel Prize in Literature 2023
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2023 has been awarded to the Norwegian author Jon Fosse.
The Swedish Academy awarded Fosse the prize 'for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable'.
His immense oeuvre written in Norwegian Nynorsk and spanning a variety of genres consists of a wealth of plays, novels, poetry collections, essays, children’s books and translations. While he is today one of the most widely performed playwrights in the world, he has also become increasingly…
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