They Cannot Take the Sky is a collection of first-person accounts of the reality of life in mandatory detention. It has been compiled and edited by Behind the Wire, an award-winning oral history organisation.

Amir Taghinia is a 23-year-old man who has been in immigration detention on Manus Island since 2013. His story appears in They Cannot Take the Sky, under the title ‘We are all convicted to live on this planet’. It is based on two long conversations…

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The shortlist for this year’s Wellcome book prize has been announced. This prize is awarded annually to the best new work of fiction or non-fiction that ‘celebrates the topics of health and medicine in literature’.

The 2017 shortlist comprises four non-fiction and two fiction titles, including the first posthumously published title and the first translated title to be shortlisted for the prize.

Here is the full shortlist:

How to Survive a Plague by David France

When Breath Becomes Air by…

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A Most Magical Girl by Karen Foxlee is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Children’s Book Prize. Here are five reasons why we think it’s brilliant.

1. It gave me that ‘Harry Potter feeling’.

From the first moment that 12-year-old Annabel Grey steps into Misses E & H Vine’s Magic Shop, the reader is aware that this girl’s life is about to change forever, and that almost everything she thought to be true is going to…

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First, We Make the Beast Beautiful by Sarah Wilson

Gut by Giulia Enders (translated by David Shaw)

The Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape

And Then I Found Me by Noel Tovey

The Dry by Jane Harper

The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney

Insomniac City by Bill Hayes

Why I am Not a Feminist by Jessa Crispin

Fight Like a Girl by Clementine Ford

South of Forgiveness by Thordis Elva and Tom Stranger

Our bestselling book of last week is First,…

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Frankie Fish and the Sonic Suitcase by Peter Helliar and Lesley Vamos

I’m Australian Too by Mem Fox and Ronojoy Ghosh

A Most Magical Girl by Karen Foxlee

Hotaka: Through My Eyes - Natural Disaster Zones by John Heffernan (edited by Lyn White)

In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek and Christine Roussey

Escape to the Moon Islands (Quest of the Sunfish Book 1) by Mardi McConnochie

Grover Finds a Home (Grover McBane, Rescue Dog…

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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.

Leanne Hall is reading Little Paradise by Gabrielle Wang

I rarely re-read books – when you work in a bookshop there are so many tempting new titles that it’s difficult to go back and visit a favourite. But I did pick up the wonderful Little Paradise by Gabrielle Wang again last week, and it was…

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Jean Harley Was Here by Heather Taylor Johnson

A woman opens her car door, knocking a passing cyclist into the path of an oncoming van. The cyclist is Jean Harley. But this is not Jean’s story, nor is it the story of her death. It is the stories of the people she leaves behind. Heather Taylor Johnson’s Australian debut novel is fast becoming a staff favourite here at Readings, the kind of story that you can disappear inside of for…

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CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda

While I mostly try to challenge myself with genres for this column, I’ve inadvertently picked two small-town America books in a row for book of the month, and both by women with alliterative M names. But when struck by something as instantly readable as this, it’s hard to put it down, and impossible to resist.

From the moment Nicolette Farrell hears her brother’s message – that they need…

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New books from some of our favourite authors, award-winners, books that cover topical issues and an Australian classic from the 90s – March is set to be a good month for teen readers and YA fans of all ages.

(Find our best recommendations for kids’ books this month here.)

LOVEOZYA PICKS

Frogkisser! has all of our in-house Garth Nix fans a-tizz, and no wonder – it’s a funny, flipped-around fairytale quest that’s great for teens, all the way through…

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This month we recommend a glut of gorgeous picture books, read about ghosts and time-traveling granddads, and celebrate the 2017 shortlist for the Readings Children’s Book Prize.

(Find our best recommendations for teen books this month here.)

PICTURE BOOKS

In Anna Walker’s Florette, Mae has just moved to from the country to the city and is having a hard time with her new environment. She’s desperate to find some nature in the centre of Paris, and eventually finds…

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