Our latest blog posts
Readings is the official bookseller for MWF
We’re so pleased to share the news that we’ll be the official bookseller for Melbourne Writers Festival in 2016.
Melbourne Writers Festival is Australia’s biggest literary festival and is set to welcome thousands to events featuring more than 350 international and local guests from the worlds of literature, journalism, philosophy, science and the arts. This year’s festival will run from 26 August to 4 September – look out for the full 2016 program to be launched in late July.
Readings’…
Best Translated Book Award longlist 2016
This year’s longlist for the Best Translated Book Award has been announced.
Over 560 eligible titles were published last year, written by authors from more than eighty countries and published by 160 different publishers. The judges have selected the following 25 titles.
Arvida by Samuel Archibald, translated by Donald Winkler (French, Canada)
Beauty Is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan, translated by Annie Tucker (Indonesian, Indonesia)
Berlin by Aleš Šteger, translated by Brian Henry, Forrest Gander, and Aljaž Kovac (Slovene, Slovenia)
…
Highlights from our April event program
Events Manager Chris Gordon shares some of her top six picks from our April event calendar.
Inga Simpson in conversation with Favel Parrett
Join us for an intimate evening with two award-winning authors: Inga Simpson and Favel Parrett. The two will talk about Simpson’s new novel, Where the Trees Were, a story about the innocence of childhood and the scars that stay with you for life.
When? 6.30pm, Tuesday 5 April
Where? Readings Carlton
Bookings? Free, but please book…
March in review
We’ve had a veritable swag of exciting news to share this past month.
We revealed that we’ll be opening two new Melbourne bookshops this year. One will be a dedicated children’s bookshop based in Carlton, and the other will be based in Westfield Doncaster shopping centre. We were also thrilled (and humbled) to have been shortlisted for the London Book Fair’s Bookstore of the Year Award alongside three other international bookshops: Hoepli in Italy, Rahva Raamat in Estonia, and Sanlian…
Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week
The Treehouse Fun Book by Andy Griffiths, Jill Griffiths and Terry Denton
The Bad Guys: Episode 1 by Aaron Blabey
Samurai vs Ninja: The Battle for the Golden Egg by Nick Falk and Tony Flowers
Crazy Weird: WeirDo Book 6 by Anh Do and Jules Faber
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek and Christine Roussey
The Cat with the Coloured Tail by Gillian Mears and Dinalie Dabarera
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
Everywhere I Look by Helen Garner
The Road to Ruin by Niki Savva
Balancing Act – Australia Between Recession and Renewal (Quarterly Essay 61) by George Megalogenis
Talking to My Country by Stan Grant
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Ice Child by Camilla Lackberg
The Light on the Water by Olga…
The ABIA Book longlists 2016
The Australian Book Industry Awards Academy has announced the ABIA Book longlists for 2016. Congratulations to all the authors, illustrators and publishers.
Biography Book of the Year
Inside by Chris Judd (Allen & Unwin)
Second Half First by Drusilla Modjeska (Penguin Random House)
Plain-speaking Jane by Jane Caro (Pan Macmillan)
Keating by Kerry O’Brien (Allen & Unwin)
Reckoning: A Memoir by Magda Szubanski (Text Publishing)
Born to Rule by Paddy Manning (Melbourne University Publishing)
Flesh Wounds by Richard Glover (ABC…
What we're reading: Tana French, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney and Daniel Clowes
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.
Lian Hingee is reading The Secret Place by Tana French
I first discovered Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series after falling down a Gone Gir-shaped hole. I wanted to find another contemporary crime novel that was smart, didn’t revel in graphic depictions of violence against women, and had interesting, flawed, but ultimately…
Mark Rubbo interviews Helen Garner
Mark Rubbo talks with Helen Garner about her new book, Everywhere I Look, a collection of her short non-fiction pieces.
What drew you to reportage?
I was faced with an immediate need to make a living, after I got the sack from teaching in 1972. Also, it has always felt natural. It suits me. It gets me into places and situations that I would otherwise be too shy to broach.
I remember asking Peter Carey once whether he drew…
Winners of the Indie Book Awards 2016
The winners of the Indie Book Awards 2016 have been announced.
Each year, independent booksellers from around the nation get together and vote for their favourite titles in four different categories, as well as their favourite book overall. Here are the winners for each category, along with comments from our booksellers.
The Fiction winner and the overall Indie Book of the Year winner is…
The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
‘One of the best books I’ve read in…