Our latest blog posts
Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week
Storm Whale by Sarah Brennan and Jane Tanner
The Wayward Witch and the Feelings Monster (Polly and Buster Book 1) by Sally Rippin
A Most Magical Girl by Karen Foxlee
Boone Shepard’s American Adventure by Gabriel Bergmoser
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo
The World’s Worst Children 2 by David Walliams and Tony Ross
Family, Friends and Furry Creatures (Tom Gates Book 12) by Liz Pichon
…
What we're reading: Emma Chastain, Sarah Bailey & Simon Rowe
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.
Nina Kenwood is reading The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey
The Dark Lake is a terrific Australian crime fiction debut. Set in rural NSW, it opens with a dead body in a lake and a police detective juggling lots of complicated secrets. It has the small town mystery of The Dry, the police procedural…
Dear Reader, June 2017
Knowing I am among friends, I can confess to expressing inappropriate book-related outrage on occasion. ‘What do you mean you haven’t read The Handmaid’s Tale?’, I exclaimed to a colleague last year. So strong is my feeling that this book must be read, the words involuntarily escaped my mouth. One must be careful, of course, in casting this kind of judgement, because, let’s face it, we all have our own list of Very Important Books we haven’t read. My…
Jamila Rizvi interviews Briohny Doyle
by Jamila RizviJamila 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…
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.
, online children’s specialist, and Grants Officer for the
. She is a passionate advocate of…
Vinyl picks of the month
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…
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…
Mark's Say, June 2017
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…
The Readings Young Adult Book Prize shortlist 2017
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…
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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