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Dear Reader, July 2016
July’s Book of the Month is the superb Music and Freedom, a debut novel from multi-talented Melbourne-based writer Zoë Morrison. It is my long-held opinion that it’s incredibly difficult to write well about music, but this book’s accounts of piano and Rachmaninov make it look easy, and are truly sublime. I recently learned that my childhood piano teacher is a reader of this column: dear Mrs M, I must tell you that this book made me very sorry I…
June in review
This month, we were delighted to announce that the winner of our Readings Children’s Book Prize is Run, Pip, Run – a moving, tender, wonderfully wry story for readers 9 and up. You can read more about the Prize announcement here, as well as an interview with winning author J.C. Jones here.
June also saw Lisa McInerny named the winner of the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Biting, moving and darkly funny, her novel The Glorious Heresies tells…
New editions of old favourites
The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf
$22.99
Alexander von Humboldt is the great lost scientist. Napoleon was jealous of him, Simon Bolivar’s revolution was fuelled by his ideas, Darwin set sail on the Beagle because of Humboldt, and Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo owned all his many books. He simply was, as one contemporary put it, ‘the greatest man since the Deluge’. Taking us on a fantastic voyage in his footsteps – racing across anthrax-infected Russia or mapping tropical rivers…
Books for reluctant readers
Reluctant reader – it’s a label that gets thrown around a lot for kids who would rather do anything else than pick up a book. And if you’re a book-loving parent of a reluctant reader, it can be heartbreaking to see your child miss out on the joys of a good book.
It’s important to recognise why somebody is a reluctant reader, and the reasons range from low reading confidence to a lack of interest. Luckily there are countless books…
The most interesting books customers have special ordered this month
We love hearing new recommendations. Here’s 10 of the most interesting books customers have special ordered this past month…
Freshwater Aquariums Manual: A Beginners Guide to Keeping and Feeding Freshwater Aquarium Fish by Alkeith O Jackson
Women of Ice and Fire: Gender, Game of Thrones and Multiple Media Engagements edited by Anne Gjelsvik and Rikke Schubart
Everything Explained That Is Explainable: On the Creation of the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s Celebrated Eleventh Edition, 1910-1911 by Denis Boyles
Zoë Morrison on music and language in her debut novel
by Zoë MorrisonWe’re delighted to be hosting an event next week with Zoë Morrison – a talented new voice in Australian fiction. Morrison will discuss her debut novel, Music and Freedom, with author Alice Pung. Find more details and booking information here.
In the lead-up to this event, we asked Morrison what role she saw the language of music as playing in her story. Here’s her response.
I started playing the violin when I was three and the piano when…
Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week
Run, Pip, Run by J.C. Jones
The World’s Worst Children by David Walliams and Tony Ross
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek and Christine Roussey
The Readings Children’s Book Prize 2016 Shortlist Pack
The Treehouse Fun Book by Andy Griffiths, Jill Griffiths and Terry Denton
Tom Gates: Super Good Skills (Almost) (Book 10) by Liz Pichon
Pax by Sara Pennypacker and Jon Klassen
The 65-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
The BFG (film tie-in…
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
The Dry by Jane Harper
Barkskins by Annie Proulx
Speaking Out: A 21st-Century Handbook for Women and Girls by Tara Moss
The Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith
Everywhere I Look by Helen Garner
The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Vinegar Girl: The Taming of the Shrew Retold by Anne Tyler
The Vegetarian by Han Kang (translated by Deborah Smith)
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann…
What we're reading: Sabahattin Ali, A.J. Rich and Jay Kristoff
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 Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali
I’m currently reading this novel from Sabahattin Ali, a Turkish writer and teacher who was murdered by the Turkish Secret Service in 1948.
When Madonna in a Fur Coat was first published in Turkey, back in 1943, it was largely ignored…
Novels inspired by the art world
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
A small, captivating painting of a goldfinch lies at the heart of Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning third novel. When the life of 13-year-old Theo Decker is set spinning off-course by an act of terrorism, he commits an impulsive act of his own that will come to define the rest of his life. What follows is a haunted odyssey through present-day America, and deep into the art underworld of New York.
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