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Winners of the 2023 Davitt Awards
Sisters in Crime Australia has announced the winners of the 2023 Davitt Awards for best crime books by Australian women.
The winning titles in each category are:
Best Adult Novel: All That's Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien
‘Just let him go.’ Those are words Ky Tran will forever regret. The words she spoke when her parents called to ask if they should let her younger brother Denny out to celebrate his high school graduation. That night in 1996, Denny is…
The 2023 Ned Kelly Award Winners
The Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) has announced the winners of the 2023 Ned Kelly Awards.
Here are the recipients for each category:
Best Crime Fiction: Exiles by Jane Harper
At a busy festival site on a warm spring night, a baby lies alone in her pram, her mother having vanished into the crowds.
A year on, Kim Gillespie's absence casts a long shadow as her friends and loved ones gather deep in the heart of South Australian wine country…
Debut fiction to read this month
Before we dive headfirst into September new releases, we're taking the time to spotlight some of the wonderful August debut novels that you may have missed!
Firelight: Stories by John Morrissey
An imprisoned man with strange visions writes letters to his sister. A controversial business tycoon leaves his daughter a mysterious inheritance. A child is haunted by a green man with a message about the origins of their planet.
In this striking collection of stories, the award-winning John Morrissey investigates…
What we're reading: Cohen, Batrouney & Yu
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Lian Hingee is reading Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen
Having read Aurelia's rave review in our most recent Readings Monthly, Julie Mae Cohen's crime novel Bad Men rocketed to the top of my TBR list. Saffy Huntley-Oliver is a former supermodel, a socialite on the board of several charities (including one for donkeys that she doesn't want to talk about), a devoted…
The Readings Prize 2023 shortlists
The Readings Prize, now in its 10th year, has been an important barometer of up-and-coming literary talent since 2014. We began with The Readings New Australian Fiction Prize and shortly thereafter extended it to include children’s fiction for ages 5–12 years and then young adult fiction for ages 12 and up. It’s a prize for debut and second novels, and it really does put writers on the map, giving them a much-needed boost (and financial support) for their career. Writers…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we're reading fiction translated from German, Swedish, Japanese, Korean and Spanish!
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (translated from German by Michael Hofmann)
Berlin. 11 July 1986. They meet by chance on a bus. She is a young student, he is older and married. Theirs is an intense and sudden attraction, fuelled by a shared passion for music and art, and heightened by the secrecy they must maintain. But when she strays for a single night he cannot forgive her…
The Readings New Australian Fiction Prize shortlist 2023
The Readings New Australian Fiction Prize is presented to the best new contribution to Australian fiction from an emerging author.
Our staff judges for the 2023 prize are Nicki Levy (chair of judges, Readings Carlton), Angie Tsimaras (Readings Doncaster), Ruth McHugh-Dillon (Readings Emporium) and Rosalind McClintock (head of marketing). We're excited to announce this year's six shortlist titles below.
You can also view our recently announced Children's Prize and Young Adult Prize shortlists.
All That's Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien
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The August crime review
These are the crime books which have been read and reviewed by our excellent booksellers this month – all in one place!
Dark Corners by Megan Goldin
True crime podcaster Rachel Krall is back, in search of a popular influencer who disappears after visiting a suspected serial killer.
Always know what you're walking into. Dark corners can be danger points.
True-crime podcaster Rachel Krall gets pulled into the cut-throat and narcissistic world of social media influencers as she investigates the…
The winners of the CBCA Shadow Judging Book of the Year Awards
The winners of the 2023 Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Shadow Judging Book of the Year Awards have been announced. Inaugurated in 2022, the awards this year were judged by over 2000 young readers from more than 250 groups across Australia.
A vibrant network of young readers, from emerging to young adult, dive deeply into the 2023 CBCA Shortlist and express their opinions and share their responses as judges ‘shadowing’ the CBCA Judges. They use the same criteria to…
What we're reading: Huang, Islington & Flanagan
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Aurelia Orr is reading Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang
When our unnamed protagonist's parents become debilitated from a horrible accident, she is eager to take any job that pays well, including a position in the glamorous beauty company Holistik. The luxury and allure of working at Holistik is at first the most pampered and beautiful she has ever felt before. But when…