Our latest blog posts
The most interesting books customers have special ordered this month
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
…
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…
Animal tales for young readers
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…
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…
Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…