Samurai vs Ninja: The Battle for the Golden Egg 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’ll get the most reluctant readers reading.

Samurai? Check. Ninja? Check. An epic battle pitting one side against the other involving cunning, treachery and hilarity? Check, check, check. This is a funny, energetic read that will have even the most reluctant reader begging for the next chapter.

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We won The Bookstore of the Year Award last month at London Book Fair’s International Excellence Awards! We won it for our ‘community outreach, support of Australian authors and [our] help for non-profit organisations working on literacy initiatives’. It’s the first time the award has been presented, but there have been awards in other areas. In 2014, Australia’s Indigenous Literacy Foundation won the inaugural Education Initiatives Award. An email from a journalist friend with a curt note, ‘FYI’, alerted me…

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The Australian Book Industry Awards Academy has announced the ABIA Book shortlists for 2016. Congratulations to all the authors, illustrators and publishers.

Biography Book of the Year

Reckoning: A Memoir by Magda Szubanski (Text Publishing)

Flesh Wounds by Richard Glover (ABC Books)

A Mother’s Story by Rosie Batty (HarperCollins Publishers)

The Anti-Cool Girl by Rosie Waterland (HarperCollins Publishers)

General Fiction Book of the Year

The Perfumer’s Secret by Fiona McIntosh (Penguin Random House)

The Lake House by Kate Morton, Allen…

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In Miniscapes, Clea Cregan presents a beautifully designed step-by-step guide to creating your own terrariums!

This week our staff put Miniscapes to the test, and the author dropped by to judge the best one!

I like pot plants, but I also have a cat, which means terrariums are the only way I can introduce a bit of greenery into my home. I have a few that I’ve bought here or there, but they’re fiendishly expensive so I was excited…

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Boone Shepard by Gabriel Bergmoser

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

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

In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek and Christine Roussey

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek

The Bad Guys: Episode 1 by Aaron Blabey

Rockhopping by Trace Balla

Pax by Sara Pennypacker and Jon Klassen

Crazy Weird: WeirDo Book…

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Everywhere I Look by Helen Garner

The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood

The Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Talking to My Country by Stan Grant

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)

The Course of Love by Alain de Botton

The Memory Artist by Katherine Brabon

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Zero K by Don DeLillo

Helen Garner has topped our bestsellers list for…

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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.

Chris Somerville is reading The End of Vandalism by Tom Drury

Last year we saw, finally, the re-issue of the strange and wonderful novels of Tom Drury, mostly set in the small hamlets that make up the (invented) Grouse County in Iowa. 1994’s The End of Vandalism, his first novel, interweaves the…

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Charlotte Wood has recently been named the winner of this year’s Stella Prize for her fifth novel, The Natural Way of Things. Here’s a look over her earlier books for readers who loved this novel, and now want to explore her backlist.

(I haven’t included Wood’s 1999 debut novel, Pieces of a Girl, as it is sadly out of print. However, this is a great excuse to visit your local second-hand bookshop!)

The Submerged Cathedral (2004)

Spanning many…

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Are you, like our reviewer, a lover of the art novel? If yes, then our book of the month, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith, is most definitely for you: it’s an involving story that spans time and place (with a heist thrown in for good measure). Dodge Rose is an audacious debut novel from Sydneysider Jack Cox, and is everything good writing should be: challenging, creative and truly original. I suggest you answer its readerly…

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We were blown away this month when London Book Fair named us Bookstore of the Year. In the words of our managing director Mark Rubbo: ‘We’re delighted and extremely honoured to receive this award. It’s a reflection of the quality of Australian independent bookshops.’

Three authors won notable literary prizes this past month. Viet Thanh Nguyen was awarded this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Sympathizer – an astonishing debut that takes a fresh look at the enduring…

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