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What we're reading: Hannah Kent, Rainbow Rowell and Ali Smith
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.
Amy Vuleta is reading Autumn by Ali Smith
I’ve just picked up this latest novel from Ali Smith. I read and loved How to be Both last year, and had a number of full, very rich discussions about the book with two of the book club groups I host at our St Kilda…
We test out recipes from Grown & Gathered
Earlier this week we roadtested six different recipes from Grown & Gathered – a gorgeous new how-to book from Matt and Lentil Pubrick all about growing, gathering, nurturing and cooking your own food. Matt and Lentil came by to share our dishes with us, and select the best one. Here are the results…
Stella Charls made Caponata (pg. 284):
I love chopping fresh tomatoes. It makes me feel like I’m part of an extended Italian family because as I chop…
Beloved classics, continued posthumously
Gone are the days when the death of a favourite author meant that readers had to farewell beloved characters and resign themselves to a future of re-reading. Here is a collection of lost manuscripts and authorised sequels that continue the stories of much-loved literary characters after the author’s death.
The Tale of Kitty-In-Boots by Beatrix Potter with illustrations by Quentin Blake
Discovered in the archives at the Victoria and Albert Museum more than a century after it was written, Beatrix…
Ideas for spooky (and not so spooky) Halloween fun
It’s almost Halloween and for all you naysayers out there, here’s a timely reminder of why we love this holiday!
1. Lots of kids love the giddy thrill of being scared, and Halloween really is the best time for spooky fun.
2. Halloween, which is thought to have originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, is a holiday with a long history of fascinating stories and strange traditions to delve into.
3. If you spent hours making a costume…
Guardian children’s fiction prize shortlist 2016
The shortlist for this year’s Guardian children’s fiction prize has been announced. Congratulations to UK authors Tanya Landman and Alex Wheatle, US author Brian Selznick and Melbourne’s own – Zana Fraillon!
The four books on this year’s shortlist will transport young readers all over the world, and across time.
Tanya Landman’s Hell and High Water is a heart-stopping tale of a young man’s attempt to clear his father’s name set in eighteenth-century England. Alex Wheatle’s Crongton Knights is a funny…
Baillie Gifford Prize shortlist 2016
The £30,000 Baillie Gifford prize (formerly known as the Samuel Johnson prize) is the UK’s most prestigious award for nonfiction writing.
This year’s shortlist includes books from Belarusian writer and Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich, Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic Margo Jefferson, Franco-British lawyer Philippe Sands, QC, and Libyan writer Hisham Matar.
Chair of Judges Stephanie Flanders, says: ‘Of the many superb books on the longlist, these are the four books that each of us [judges] would be happy so see…
Zoë Morrison wins the 2016 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction
The winner of The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction in 2016 is Music and Freedom by Zoë Morrison.
The Readings Prize was launched in 2014, with the aim of supporting new and emerging Australian authors. It is unique in the Australian literary prize landscape as it is the only significant prize to be managed entirely by a bookshop, and it considers both first and second works of fiction by Australian authors – a point of difference that is important…
Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week
Girl Stuff for Girls Aged 8-12: Your Real Guide to the Pre-Teen Years by Kaz Cooke
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (including the film tie-in editon)
Do Not Open This Book by Andy Lee and Heath McKenzie
Lots by Marc Martin
The Gobbledygook and the Scribbledynoodle by Justine Clarke, Arthur Baysting and Tom Jellett
Magnus Chase and the Hammer of Thor (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard Book 2) by Rick Riordan
We…
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
The Good People by Hannah Kent
Fight Like a Girl by Clementine Ford
The Boy Behind the Curtain by Tim Winton
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
The Girl on the Train (film tie-in edition) by Paula Hawkins
Who Gave You Permission? by Manny Waks with Michael Visontay
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
Conclave by Robert Harris
Black Rock White City by A.S. Patrić
Neighbourhood by Hetty McKinnon
Australian Hannah Kent’s heart-rending second novel is our bestselling…
What we're reading: Emily Maguire, Briohny Doyle and iO Tillett Wright
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.
Nina Kenwood is reading Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
I’m obsessed with the US election at the moment, to a probably unhealthy degree. I listen to podcasts about it (my favourites are Slate’s Trumpcast and NPR’s Politics Podcast), read almost every article that…
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