Our latest blog posts

Jamila Rizvi interviews Briohny Doyle

by Jamila Rizvi

Jamila Rizvi interviews Briohny Doyle about her memoir of ‘adulthood’, Adult Fantasy.

Briohny Doyle and I are seduced by the same kinds of clickbait.

Acknowledged collectively with the hybrid term ‘listicle’, these are the stories Buzzfeed pioneered but that are now produced en masse by everyone from Cosmopolitan to Business Insider. Thirty things you should know by thirty, 12 signs you’re ready to settle down, What percentage ‘grown up’ are you really? and, of course, How

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The ABA Bookselling Awards

We’re delighted to share the news that three of our wonderful staff members have been shortlisted in the ABA Bookselling Awards by the Australian Booksellers Association. The award recognises a bookseller not only for their exceptional performance within the bookshop that they work but also for their achievements within the book industry as well as the local and wider community.

Readings Kids

, online children’s specialist, and Grants Officer for the

Readings Foundation

. She is a passionate advocate of…

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Vinyl picks of the month

by Declan Murphy

St Kilda Music Buyer Declan Murphy shares his high-rotation vinyl obsessions of this month.

Wrecking Crew (soundtrack)

Here is the soundtrack to the truly fab 2015 documentary of the same name. In the tradition of Standing in the Shadows of Motown’s tribute to the Funk Brothers, The Wrecking Crew focused on the eponymous collective of West Coast session musicians who played on a bewildering amount of influential records throughout the 60s. From Spector to Sinatra, from the Beach Boys to…

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This month's recommendations for classical music fans

RECOMMENDED NEW CLASSICAL MUSIC

Chaconnes and Fantasias: Music of Britten and Purcell by Emerson String Quartet

‘At first glance, you might think Purcell and Britten have nothing in common bar their English origin. However, when you dig deeper you find that Britten was somewhat of a fanboy of Purcell and frequently looked to his predecessor (by over 200 years) for inspiration. With this in mind, the American Emerson String Quartet paired these two composers and their most closely aligned works…

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Mark's Say, June 2017

by Mark Rubbo

A year ago I joined the board of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. In May, I went with the Foundation on a field trip to Melville Island, the largest of the Tiwi Islands. Melville has two primary schools and a secondary boarding school, Tiwi College, on the island. The main purpose of the trip was to run programs for both primary schools and the College. We were accompanied by singer and ILF ambassador Josh Pyke, and authors and illustrators Alison Lester…

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The Readings Young Adult Book Prize shortlist 2017

by Leanne Hall

We’re thrilled to reveal the inaugural shortlist for the Readings Young Adult Book Prize! We’re delighted to shout from the treetops about these talented local authors.

The Prize celebrates exciting emerging voices in Australian youth literature. First and second published works of young adult fiction and memoir are eligible, and the Prize is awarded to the best new contribution to Australian young adult literature.

The six shortlisted titles for 2017 are…

Boone Shepard by Gabriel Bergmoser

Freedom Swimmer by Wai…

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Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week

A Most Magical Girl by Karen Foxlee

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo

Party Time (Hot Dog Book 2) by Anh Do and Dan McGuiness

My Life as a Hashtag by Gabrielle Williams

Family, Friends and Furry Creatures (Tom Gates Book 12) by Liz Pichon

Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices Book 2) by Cassandra Clare

The Blue Cat by Ursula Dubosarsky

The Bad Guys Episode 5: Intergalactic Gas by Aaron Blabey

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Our top ten bestsellers of the week

Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami (translated by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen)

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Depends What You Mean by Extremist by John Safran

The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose

The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay

Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

The 7th Function of Language by Laurent Binet (translated by Sam Taylor)

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Haruki Murakami’s new…

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What we're reading: Amy Engel, Sally Thorne & Philip Pullman

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.

Lian Hingee is reading The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

I’ve been in a serious reading rut lately, unable to commit the time and attention to finishing any of the many books sitting in an increasingly unstable pile on my bedside table. I was moaning to a friend about my predicament. I asked her what…

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The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists for 2017

Four emerging Australian writers have been named The Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists for 2017. Congratulations to Jennifer Down, Julie Koh, Josephine Rowe and Rajith Savanadasa!

Here are our reviews of their most recent works.

Our Magic Hour by Jennifer Down

‘Jennifer Down’s Our Magic Hour is a brilliant Australian debut. Intimate, raw and occasionally heartbreaking, this is a book that demands to be devoured quickly, but stayed with me long after I finished the final page.

The…

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