Meet Leanne Hall, our new online children’s and YA specialist! Leanne works at our new soon-to-be-open Readings Kids shop, and also writes books for teenagers and younger readers.

Describe your taste in books.

My taste in books has always been broad and wandering. As a kid I was a hungry reader. After my weekly library books were done, I would attack my parents’ book shelves, reading anything bar the phone book. These days I’ll still read any genre, but if…

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Digital Marketing Manager Lian Hingee shares some of her best picks for picture books that explore themes of grief and loss.

Grief and sadness are complicated feelings for anyone, and it can be difficult to have conversations about loss and bereavement – particularly with children who might be experiencing it for the first time. Sharing a picture book that examines those themes can be a good way to open up a discussion, answer challenging questions or even just allow a…

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We love hearing new recommendations. Here’s 10 of the most interesting books customers have special ordered this past month…

Dog Songs: Poems by Mary Oliver

How to Talk Dirty and Influence People by Lenny Bruce

New Life, No Instructions by Gail Caldwell

Good Eats: The Early Years by Alton Brown

The Grand Tour: The Life and Music of George Jones by Rich Kienzle

One Hundred Great Books in Haiku by David Bader

Bike Rides Around Melbourne by Julia Blunden

Guinness…

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Do Not Open This Book by Andy Lee and Heath McKenzie

The 78-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (including the film tie-in edition)

Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts

Mr Chicken Arriva a Roma by Leigh Hobbs

The Call by Peadar Ó Guilín

Mega Weird (WeirDo Book 7) by Anh Do and Jules Faber

Dog Man (The Adventures of Dog Man Book 1)…

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The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

The Best of Adam Sharp by Graeme Simsion

Black Rock White City by A.S. Patrić

Working Class Boy by Jimmy Barnes

Enemy Within – American Politics in the Time of Trump (Quarterly Essay 63) by Don Watson

The Age Good Food Guide 2017 edited by Roslyn Grundy

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (including the film tie-in edition)

Grand Intentions by Trevor Barr

Neighbourhood by Hetty McKinnon

Commonwealth…

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Lian Hingee, Digital Marketing Manager

Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster

The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Avalanche by Julia Leigh

The Dry by Jane Harper

Dietland by Sarai Walker

Only Daughter by Anna Snoekstra

No Patterns Needed by Rosie Martin

Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley

Amy Vuleta, Shop Manager at Readings St Kilda

Comfort Food by Ellen van Neerven
The…

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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.

Lian Hingee is reading Heartburn by Nora Ephron

I saw the Nora Ephron documentary, Everything is Copy, at MIFF earlier this year, and when I waxed lyrical at the office the next day about how much I enjoyed it, several of my co-workers impressed upon me just how wonderful her semi-autobiographical novel…

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The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

The Signature of All Things is an extraordinary story of botany, exploration and desire, spanning across much of the nineteenth century. The novel follows the fortunes of the brilliant Alma Whittaker – daughter of a bold and charismatic botanical explorer – who comes into her own within the world of plants and science. As Alma’s careful studies of moss take her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, the man she loves draws…

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Booksellers share their favourite books and best advice for comfort reading.

Nina Kenwood recommends seriously good fantasy.

I don’t think you can go past a good fantasy series for comfort – a nice long read set in a world that isn’t yours can do wonders to take your mind off of your problems. The Harry Potter series are an obvious example. They contain many crucial elements that give me great comfort – boarding school, Englishness, descriptions of food, and the…

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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 longlist has been announced and Chair of Judges, Stephanie Flanders, says that each of these 10 titles ‘takes you on a journey that is as engrossing and imaginative as any novel’.

Here is the longlist in full:

Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich, translated by Bela Shayevich

The Vanishing Man by Laura Cumming

Being a Beast by Charles…

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