Our latest blog posts

Animal tales for young readers

by Holly Harper

Whether they’ve got fur or scales or feathers, animals are a big part of our lives, and so it’s no surprise that you could fill a whole bookshelf with great animal stories for children. Here’s a selection of our favourite animal tales for readers aged 7+.

CAT LOVERS

Carbonel by Barbara Sleigh

If we’re talking books about cats, we can’t go past the King of Cats: the one and only Carbonel. After shopping for a surprise for her mother, Rosemary…

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Our top ten bestsellers of the week

My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem

The Course of Love by Alain de Botton

Everywhere I Look by Helen Garner

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith

The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood

Stop at Nothing: The Life and Adventures of Malcolm Turnbull by Annabel Crabb

Heartlines: The Year I Met My Other Mother by Susannah McFarlane and Robin Leuba

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (translated…

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The Australian Book Industry Awards 2016

The Australian Book Industry Awards were announced last night in Sydney. The industry awards celebrate the best books, publishers and booksellers of the year.

We are thrilled and honoured to have won this year’s Independent Book Retailer of the Year award!

Our Managing Director Mark Rubbo says, ‘Having just won International Bookseller of the Year, we are especially pleased to also have been acknowledged by our own peers. It’s a great tribute to our staff and our customers. I am

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What we're reading: Svetlana Alexievich, Olivia Laing and Nigel Slater

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.

Bronte Coates is reading Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich (translated by Keith Gessen)

Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich was awarded last year’s Nobel Prize in Literature for ‘her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time’. This past week I’ve been reading her…

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The CBCA Book of the Year Awards shortlists 2016

The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) have announced their Book of the Year Awards shortlists for 2016. Congratulations to all the authors, illustrators, editors and publishers!

Here are the shortlists for each category.

Older Readers

The Flywheel by Erin Gough

The Pause by John Larkin

Freedom Ride by Sue Lawson

A Single Stone by Meg McKinlay

Inbetween Days by Vikki Wakefield

Cloudwish by Fiona Wood

Younger Readers

The Cleo Stories: A Friend and a Pet by Libby Gleeson (Illust…

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Vale Gillian Mears

Gillian Mears died in her home on Monday. She was in her early 50s. She will be dearly missed here at Readings, having won over the heart of many a reader with her ferociously beautiful books.

Our Managing Director Mark Rubbo is a longtime fan of Mears, and expressed his sadness at her passing: ‘Gillian was a wonderful writer and enriched all our lives – we will miss her.’

Mears was born in 1964, and grew up around Grafton in…

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Our favourite pieces from The Toast's archives

Following the announcement that the hilarious, wonderful website The Toast will be closing on Friday 1 July, our staff have been sharing some of their favourite articles from the archives with one another in commiseration.

Here’s just a sample of what we love best about The Toast.

I’ve loved Mallory’s mini-essays in celebration of minor Simpsons characters – as she writes at the start of each piece, the world owes them a great deal. From the blissful ignorance of Ralph

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A visit to the Melbourne Indigenous Transition School

by Leanne Hall

The Readings Foundation assists Victorian organisations that support the development of literacy, community integration and the arts. Readings donates 10% of its overall profit to The Readings Foundation each year, and crucial funds are also raised from donations by Readings customers.

Last week, Grants Officer Leanne Hall went out to visit the Melbourne Indigenous Transition School – one of the seven organisations being supported by the Foundation in 2016.

Imagine having an idea about how things could be done better……

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Five reasons we love 88 Lime Street by Denise Kirby

by Holly Harper

88 Lime Street: The Way In is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Children’s Book Prize. Here are five reasons why we think it’s brilliant.

1. It’s spooky… but not too spooky!

After Ellen’s family moves into the rambling 88 Lime street, she starts to notice weird things happening in the old house. There’s a strange presence that seems to follow her around, and the kids at school claim that it’s haunted. But is it ghosts…

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