Our latest blog posts

Our top ten bestsellers of the week

The Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith

The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood

Everywhere I Look by Helen Garner

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Use Your Words by Catherine Deveny

The Course of Love by Alain de Botton

A Prescribed Life by Tony Atkinson with Lynn Smailes

The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Talking to My Country by Stan Grant

Two terrific Australian novels top our bestsellers…

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Environment Award for Children’s Literature shortlists 2016

Congratulations to all the authors and illustrators shortlisted for this year’s Environment Award for Children’s Literature.

The Wilderness Society’s annual Award encourages children to take an interest in nature and feel a sense of responsibility for the places we love and our unique wildlife. This year, the Award includes three categories.

Here are the shortlists for each category.

Non-fiction

Atmospheric by Carole Wilkinson (Read our review)

Platypus by Sue Whiting and Mark Jackson

Phasmid by Rohan Cleave and…

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Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist 2016

The Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlist for 2016 has been announced. Congratulations to the shortlisted authors and publishers – and an extra special hurrah to our own St Kilda bookseller A.S. Patrić!

To celebrate the shortlist we’re offering a pack of all five shortlisted novels at a super special special price of $107 (). Please note, this offer is only available online.

Hope Farm by Peggy Frew

It is the winter of 1985 and Silver’s mother, Ishtar, has fallen for…

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What we're reading: Guy Gavriel Kay, Steve Toutonghi and Riad Sattouf

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 The Other Side of Summer by Emily Gale

This book…. Oh man, I LOVED this book. The Other Side of Summer is Emily Gale’s new novel for readers aged 11+. It tells the story of Summer and her family, who are trying to recover from the tragic death of…

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30 reasons to read the entire Readings Children’s Book Prize shortlist

This year’s shortlist for the Readings Children’s Book Prize features six amazing books! Here are 30 reasons why you should read all of them.

If you’d like to buy all six books at once – and we recommend you do! – the entire shortlist is available here at a special price.

The Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey

1. It’s funny. Seriously funny.
2. It’s great for beginner readers.
3. It reads like a graphic novel.
4. It’s all about not…

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Emily Gale on writing about death for young readers

by Emily Gale

Emily Gale’s new YA novel features the dreaded ‘D-word'… Here she reflects on death in children’s and young adult books – on why it gives some parents nightmares, and on why it needs to be there anyway.

It struck me that parents could have concerns about my new book when my publisher and I were writing the back cover blurb. Blurbs capture the beginnings of a story so it was impossible to avoid letting readers know that the premise of…

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Entries now open for the Melbourne Prize for Music 2016 and Awards

The annual Melbourne Prize runs on a three-year awards cycle, alternating between books, music and urban sculpture and this year sees the focus return once again to music.

Valued at more than $130,000 in total, the Melbourne Prize for Music 2016 and Awards is one of the most valuable music prizes in Australia, providing significant opportunities for Victorian musicians across all music genres and career stages. This year’s judges include six esteemed music sector professionals: Professor Paul Grabowsky AO, Patrick…

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Limited signed books from Jonathan Franzen, Hanya Yanagihara and Jon Klassen

We had three international authors visit us this week to sign copies of their books for our Carlton shop and online customers. There’s a very limited number of signed copies available so get in quick.

Jonathan Franzen

Jonathan Franzen is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel, The Corrections, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist, earned a James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary…

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Melbourne Writers Festival announce their Schools' Program

Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) have announced their Schools’ Program, which will run from Monday 29 August to Thursday 1 September.

(Spoiler: It looks amazing!)

We are SO excited about this year’s School’s Program for MWF.

Students will have the chance to hear from the likes of performer Magda Szubanski (whose memoir, Reckoning, just won Book of the Year at the ABIA Awards), our recently-appointed Children’s Laureate Leigh Hobbs (the brains behind such delightful creations as Old Tom, Mr…

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