Our latest blog posts

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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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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