We’re delighted that The High Places by Fiona McFarlane is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. Here is a short extract from ‘Exotic Animal Medicine’, one of the stories in the collection.

Find more information about this year’s shortlisted books (including the judges’ report) here.

The wife was driving on the night they hit Mr Ronald.

‘My first drive since getting married,’ she said.

‘First this, first that,’ said her…

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We’re delighted that Ruins by Rajith Savanadasa is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. Here is a short extract from the novel.

Find more information about this year’s shortlisted books (including the judges’ report) here.

It was dark by the time we got to Battaramulla. The lane was full of vehicles. We parked among the brand-new Benzs, BMWs and Pajeros all lined up with drivers waiting. Mano started fussing over…

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We’re delighted that Portable Curiosities by Julie Koh is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. Here is one of the stories from the collection: ‘The Three-Dimensional Yellow Man’.

Find more information about this year’s shortlisted books (including the judges’ report) here.

It was only when a one-dimensional yellow man stepped out of a cinema screen and into a plush red theatre on George Street that audience members noticed him from…

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We’re delighted that Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. Here is a short extract from the novel.

Find more information about this year’s shortlisted books (including the judges’ report) here.

The journey to that place was like moving knowingly, dutifully, towards death. I have seen beasts as resigned. People say it is not so, that they are ignorant to the end, but this is…

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The 78-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton

Welcome to Country by Joy Murphy and Lisa Kennedy

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon

The Treehouse Fun Book by Andy Griffiths, Jill Griffiths and Terry Denton

Don’t Call Me Bear by Aaron Blabey

Pax by Sara Pennypacker and Jon Klassen

Run, Pip, Run by J.C. Jones

The Boundless Sublime by Lili Wilkinson

The World’s Worst Children by David Walliams and Tony…

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September is a blockbuster month for events! Here are some of the exciting guests we’re hosting over the coming month.

Hetty McKinnon

Hetty McKinnon’s Community was our bestselling cookbook of last year, and we’re delighted to be hosting an event celebrating her newest cookbook: Neighbourhood. McKinnon will be chatting with food activist Rohan Anderson about the inspiration she finds in her own neighbourhood.

When: Tuesday 6 September, 6.30pm.
Where: Church of All Nations, 180 Palmerston Street, Carlton.
Bookings: Free…

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Harry Potter And The Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

The Course of Love by Alain de Botton

The Island Will Sink by Briohny Doyle

The Hate Race by Maxine Beneba Clarke

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer

The Dry by Jane Harper

The Girls by Emma Cline

Ghost Empire by Richard Fidler

Planet Jackson by Brad Norington

Our bestselling books of last week include some…

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

The Interrogative Mood by Padgett Powell

My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz by Sarah Greenough

The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker

The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914: Global Connections and Comparisons by C.A. Bayly

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts by Christopher de Hamel

The Elements: An Illustrated History of the Periodic Table by Tom Jackson

…

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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.

Nina Kenwood is reading You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott

If, like me, you’re enjoying the Olympics and looking to theme your reading a little, then I suggest You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott. Like all of Abbott books, it’s about teenage girls and involves a page-turning mystery but at its…

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Our digital content coordinator Bronte Coates shares some of her favourite picture books about siblings.

Stupid Baby by Stephanie Blake

Stephanie Blake is a favourite at Readings, and so she should be! Her stories about Simon, a small, irreverent rabbit, are nose-snortingly-laugh-out-loud with bold, colourful illustrations and a healthy dash of grossness that kids will love. In this story, Simon’s parents bring home a new baby, much to Simon’s dismay – now he has to be quiet all the time…

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