Our latest blog posts

An extract from Everything You Need to Know About the Voice by Megan Davis and George Williams

This year, we will all vote on whether to change the Consititution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Constitutional law experts Megan Davis and George Williams have written an accessible and informative guide that explains how this proposal came about, the purpose of the Voice, and the importance of this moment for all Australians. Everything You Need to Know About the Voice is essential reading, and you can begin with

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Top picks for book clubs this month

Australian fiction | The Sitter by Angela O'Keeffe

Paris, 2020. A writer is confined to her hotel room during the early days of the pandemic, struggling to finish a novel about Hortense Cezanne, wife and sometime muse of the famous painter. Dead for more than a century, Hortense has been reawakened by this creative endeavour, and now shadows the writer through the locked-down city. But Hortense, always subject to the gaze of others, is increasingly intrigued by the woman before…

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The 2023 National Biography Award winner

The State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) has announced Ann-Marie Priest's 'perceptive' and 'creative' biography of the elusive Gwen Harwood, one of Australia's finest poets, as the winner of this year's $25,000 National Biography Award.

My Tongue Is My Own: A Life of Gwen Harwood reveals a deeply passionate figure who refused to be bound by convention, and reclaims Gwen Harwood’s unique and powerful place in Australian literary history. As SLNSW noted, 'The judges were unanimous that My Tongue

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Dear Reader, with Alison Huber

by Alison Huber

I usually make a joke around this time of year that, for book buyers and retail buyers in general, it really is a case of Christmas in July, as many of us need to make decisions about our Christmas stock at this time of year (cue disbelief from those not involved in the seasonal show). I attended the annual publisher presentations a couple of weeks ago, and my takeaway from those meetings is that it’s going to be a really…

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The 2023 Ned Kelly Awards shortlist

Running since 1995, the Ned Kelly Awards are Australia’s oldest and most prestigious recognition honouring published crime fiction and true crime writing. The Australian Crime Writers Association (AWCA) has just announced the 2023 shortlists for the awards’ four categories: Best Crime Fiction, Best Debut Crime Fiction, Best True Crime and Best International Crime Fiction. In its announcement, ACWA said that the shortlist highlights the ‘strength and identity’ of Australian crime writing.

Below are the titles for each category including comments…

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Mark's Say, August 2023

by Mark Rubbo

The horror of the Holocaust has been the topic of many thousands of books; the scale of the savagery wrought by a sophisticated Western society is something that people struggle to understand. Many European Jewish people were able to find refuge in Australia and, over the years, they and their descendants have tried to understand the Holocaust by writing about it. These works have often been inspiring and profound.

Journalist Rachelle Unreich’s mother, Mira, survived four concentration camps, including Auschwitz…

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What we're reading: Eng & Adegoke

Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on, or the music we’re loving.

Mark Rubbo is reading The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng and Judas Boys by Joel Deane

Struck down by Covid on my very first day of retirement, I was lucky to have a copy of Tan Twan Eng’s Booker longlisted novel, The House of Doors beside my bed. Sadly, it was…

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Our books of the month, August 2023

Explore our books of the month for August; each of the below titles has been read and recommended by our booksellers before being selected as our book of the month for its category.

FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH

Firelight: Stories by John Morrissey

Reviewed by Ellie Dean, Readings Carlton

'Indeed, I would be happy to recommend this collection to any curious reader – regardless of their usual position as a speculative fiction lover or hater.'

John Morrissey’s debut collection…

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Australian fiction to pick up this month

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 colonialism and identity without ever losing sight of his characters' humanity. Brilliantly imagined and masterfully observed, Firelight marks the debut of a writer we will be…

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Our Teen Advisory Board interview Kay Kerr

by Teen Advisory Board

The Teen Advisory Board were absolutely thrilled to read Kay Kerr’s recent nonfiction book, Love & Autism. It was an insightful and engaging book that showed a diverse range of experiences of young neurodivergent people growing up and experiencing love in its many different facets. Below is the Q&A that the board conducted with Kerr.

How did it feel writing and learning more about the perspectives of other people with autism? Did you develop a closer connection to them

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