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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We love hearing new recommendations. Here’s some of the most interesting books customers have special ordered this past month…

Outback Survival by Bob Cooper

Cooking as Fast as I Can by Cat Cora

The New Negro edited by Alain Locke

Cathedral of the Pines by Gregory Crewdson and Alexander Nemerov

True Light and Shade: An Aboriginal Perspective of Joseph Lycett’s Art by John Maynard

_Her Blue Body_by Warsan Shire

Face Paint: The Story of Makeup by Lisa Eldridge

…

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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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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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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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Pax by Sara Pennypacker and Jon Klassen

The Hidden Oracle: The Trials of Apollo Book 1 by Rick Riordan

The Bad Guys: Episode 1 by Aaron Blabey

The Treehouse Fun Book by Andy Griffiths, Jill Griffiths and Terry Denton

The Cat with the Coloured Tail by Gillian Mears and Dinalie Dabarera

Crazy Weird: WeirDo Book 6 by Anh Do and Jules Faber

The Bad Guys Episode 3: The Furball Strikes Back by Aaron Blabey

The World’s Worst Children by David…

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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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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 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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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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