Our latest blog posts
A quick guide to MIFF 2016
Here’s a quick ‘at-a-glance’ guide to this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). You can see the full program here.
We’ve shared our top picks for book lovers, compiled a list of family-friendly films, and you can also find out which films our staff are planning to see here.
Most buzzed about
We recommend: High-Rise Runner up: Gimme Danger
Feel good film
We recommend: Toni Erdmann Runner up: Slack Bay
Psychological thriller
We recommend: The Handmaiden…
MIFF picks for kids and teens
Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) curates a program of entertaining and thought-provoking cinema for a youth audience with Next Gen. Here’s what’s on offer for kids and teens in 2016.
We’ve also compiled a list of literary-inspired films, shared our staff picks, and prepared a quick ‘at-a-glance’ guide for the time-poor.
RECOMMENDED FOR 8+
France | English
In a fantastical universe where the Sun and the Moon are protected by fabled warriors…
What we’re watching at MIFF 2016
Staff share what they’re planning to see at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) this year. You can find the full program here.
We’ve also prepared a quick ‘at-a-glance’ guide to the program for the time-poor, shared our top picks for book lovers, and compiled a list of family-friendly films.
Lian Hingee’s wishlist includes films about conspiracy theories and cats.
I’m a sucker for space, conspiracy theories and mockumentaries, so Operation Avalanche kind of looks like it…
What we're reading: Wendy Orr, Hans Fallada and Julie Koh
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.
Mark Rubbo is reading Nightmare in Berlin by Hans Fallada
Interest in Hans Fallada was re-ignited with the republication of his great anti-fascist novel, Alone in Berlin, a few years ago. His new work, Nightmare in Berlin, is partly autobiographical and set just as Germany is falling to the Russian troops…
Our favourite new young adult books in July
From a gender-bent Vlad the Impaler to the wisdom of Oscar Wilde, here are our top young adult picks for July.
(You can find out find our top children’s book picks here.)
YOUNG ADULT BOOK OF THE MONTH
When Michael Met Mina by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Mina is a refugee who has fled Afghanistan. She has done her time in refugee camps and detention centres, and now she has worked hard to secure her place as a scholarship student. Michael…
Our favourite new children's books in July
From geriatric paper route wars to a hilarious family of hyenas, here are our top children’s book picks for July.
(You can find out find our top young adult book picks here.)
2016 READINGS CHILDREN’S BOOK PRIZE WINNER
We’ve just announced the winner of this year’s Readings Children’s Book Prize: Run, Pip, Run by J.C. Jones.
Run, Pip, Run is a heartfelt read about a young girl on the run from the authorities after her foster grandfather is sent…
Our top picks of the month for book clubs
For an elegant affair involving Shakespeare…
Vinegar Girl: The Taming of the Shrew Retold by Anne Tyler
In this offbeat comedy, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Tyler reimagines The Taming of the Shrew for today. Kate Battista’s eccentric scientist father has cooked up an outrageous plan to prevent his brilliant young lab assistant, Pyotr, from being deported – but it relies on his forthright and strong-willed daughter being, well, less forthright and strong-willed than usual. Our reviewer promises that this modern…
Mark's Say, July 2016
I was lucky enough to meet Nicola Hill, marketing director for the Penguin Press in the UK, recently. Nicola looks after the wonderful books that come out of the Penguin Classic and Allen Lane lists. Part of the challenge for publishers these digital days is to reinforce the idea of the book as a beautiful and interesting object and Penguin with their rich backlist have a lot to work with. You may have seen on our shelves the Little Black…
Inga Simpson interviews Rajith Savanadasa
by Inga SimpsonInga Simpson interviews Rajith Savanadasa about his debut novel, Ruins.
Rajith Savanadasa’s debut novel, Ruins, is a vibrant portrait of a family, city and country in the midst of change. It is set in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, around the end of the thirty-year civil war, in 2009. Initially, the conflict is off in the distance, reflecting Savanadasa’s own experience. The war was ‘Something happening up in the north,’ he says, ‘not part of daily reality.’ And yet…
National Biography Award shortlist 2016
This year’s shortlist for the National Biography Award has been announced.
This Award is presented annually to a published work of biographical or autobiographical writing aiming to promote public interest in these genres.
The six shortlisted titles for 2016 include:
Reckoning by Magda Szubanski
Battarbee and Namatjira by Martin Edmond
Comrade Ambassador: Whitlam’s Beijing Envoy by Stephen FitzGerald
Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own Weather by Karen Lamb
Bearing Witness: The Remarkable Life of Charles Bean, Australia’s greatest war correspondent by…