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Winners of the Inky Awards 2017
The Centre for Youth Literature has announced the winners of the 2017 Inky Awards!
The Inky Awards recognise high-quality young adult literature, with the shortlist selected by young adults, and the winners voted for online by teens. There are two awards: the Gold Inky Award for an Australian book, and the Silver Inky Award for an international book.
Gold Inky Award
The Gold Inky Award winner is Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley.
Words in Deep Blue is a…
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
First Person by Richard Flanagan
Force of Nature by Jane Harper
Phillip Adams – Insights and Reflections by Phillip Adams
The Dry by Jane Harper
Moral Panic 101 (Quarterly Essay 67) by Benjamin Law
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
Extinctions by Josephine Wilson
Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh
The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein
Our top 10 bestselling books from last week include much-anticipated new…
Our children's and YA top 10 bestsellers of the week
The Bad Guys Episode 6: Alien vs Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey
The 91-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
A Tale of Two Kitties (The Adventures of Dog Man Book 2) by Dav Pilkey
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo
Hello, Melbourne! by Megan McKean
Pig the Star by Aaron Blabey
Spooky Weird! (Weirdo Book 9) by Anh Do and Jules Faber
The Wonderling by Mira Bartok
What we're reading: Jennifer Egan, Lindsey Lee Johnson & Tamara Moss
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films and TV shows we’re watching, and the music we’re listening to.
Bronte Coates is reading Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
I’ve always felt slightly guilty for my indifference towards Jennifer Egan’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel A Visit from the Good Squad, and especially at Readings where it is such a favourite with my colleagues. It’s not that I thought the novel was badly written but…
Dear Reader, October 2017
When October rolls around in bookselling, a certain kind of anticipation fills the air. The deliveries get bigger, shelving becomes a serious logistical exercise, and we start to prepare ourselves in earnest for the annual book-exchanging festival ahead (also known as ‘Christmas’). Lots of authors come to our party too, offering us some of the big books of the year. It’s an exciting time to be in the shop.
Richard Flanagan publishes First Person, our Fiction Book of the…
Mark's Say, October 2017
We’ve just completed judging the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. The Readings judges Gabrielle Williams (Malvern), Marie Matteson (Carlton), Annie Condon (Hawthorn) and Ann Le Lievre (Library sales and in absentia) were joined by myself and writer Christos Tsiolkas to choose a winner from the six books shortlisted by the Readings judges: The Windy Season by Sam Carmody, Australia Day by Melanie Cheng, Jean Harley Was Here by Heather Taylor Johnson, The Good People by Hannah Kent, The Lost…
Mark Rubbo interviews Richard Flanagan
Our Managing Director Mark Rubbo chats with Man Booker prize winning author Richard Flanagan about his new genre-bending novel, First Person.
Your new novel First Person has some connection to your own experience, in that it is about a young writer who is commissioned to ghostwrite the memoir of a notorious conman. You were commissioned to ghostwrite the memoir of notorious conman John Friedrich. Why did you decide to write a novel based on this experience?
Why not? At…
Recommended reads for the long weekend
With a long weekend coming up in Melbourne, our booksellers share some of their best recommendations for long weekend reading – new and old.
Nina Kenwood recommends What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton
I don’t normally read political memoirs – this might, in fact, be my first. But last year’s US election wasn’t a normal campaign, and nothing has been normal since, and I can’t stop consuming information about how the world got to this place. Reading What Happened is…
The best board books for early development
There are so many board books on the shelves that it can be hard to find the right ones for a baby’s first year.
Some board books offer full-length narratives (scaled down from the original picture books), others are all about detailed interaction. But for those early months, from birth to 12 months, you might want to concentrate on stimulating colours, shapes, sounds, sensory experiences and words.
Here are some great board books for early development and learning.
HIGH-CONTRAST BOARD…
A monthly update from our Teen Advisory Board
This month our Teen Advisory Board had an exciting visit from book blogger, agent and champion of LoveOzYa, Danielle Binks. Danielle was one of the instigators of the Love OzYA movement and is also the editor of the Australian young adult anthology: Begin End Begin.
Danielle is an incredible powerhouse of energy and enthusiasm. She talked to us about her passion for Australian YA literature, and unpacked why she can sometimes be critical of it (because she loves it…