Our latest blog posts

Readings shortlisted for LBF's Bookstore of the Year Award

We’re honoured to have been shortlisted for the London Book Fair’s Bookstore of the Year Award for 2016! Readings has been shortlisted alongside three other bookstores: Hoepli in Italy, Rahva Raamat in Estonia, and Sanlian Bookhouse in China.

Managing director Mark Rubbo says, ‘It’s such a thrill and a wonderful acknowledgement for a great team of booksellers, wonderful writers, innovative Australian publishers and beautiful customers. I am so pleased and proud to be amongst this group of booksellers from around…

Read more ›

The most interesting women we've met in books

Happy International Women’s Day. Here our staff share some of the most interesting women they’ve met in books.

There’s a lot of hate out there for the character of Sansa Stark, but I’m going to come out and say that I think she’s one of the most interesting, smartest, and strongest characters in George R.R. Martin’s Westeros. Over the course of five novels we’ve seen her evolve from a naive young girl who believes in the romantic ideals that she…

Read more ›

Our top ten bestsellers of the week

The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet by Michael Mosley

Our Magic Hour by Jennifer Down

The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine by Alexander McCall Smith

Chance Developments by Alexander McCall Smith

Talking to My Country by Stan Grant

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Enemy by Ruth Clare

All These Perfect Strangers by Aoife Clifford

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

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Our bestselling novel for last week…

Read more ›

Mark's Say, March 2016

by Mark Rubbo

The 8th of March is International Women’s Day and it’s appropriate that the longlist for the UK Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction will be announced in the same month, on the 8th of March. The Bailey’s Prize was established in 1996 as The Orange Prize, and in 2001 Australian Kate Grenville’s The Idea of Perfection won the prize, beating works by Ali Smith and Margaret Atwood. The Bailey’s Prize was one of the inspirations for the Stella Prize, the shortlist…

Read more ›

What we're reading: Megan Jacobson,Valeria Luiselli and Jane Harper

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.

Ann Le Lievre is reading Megan Jacobson and Kirsty Eager

The year for OzYA is exploding with some wonderful talent, and I have just finished what I’m sure is one of the best OzYA books ever! That’s a big call, but it’s a call I am very happy to make. Summer Skin by…

Read more ›

The best birthdays in children's books

It’s Readings’ 47th birthday on Saturday 5 March, and to celebrate we’re offering our customers the chance to win a $500 Readings gift voucher! And if you’re looking for birthday inspiration, here are some of our favourite birthdays in picture books.

A Birthday for Bear by Bonny Becker and Kady MacDonald Denton

Bear does not like birthdays. He doesn’t like parties or balloons, cards or candles. In fact, Bear does not like anything to do with birthdays at all…

Read more ›

Staff recommend 8 new Australian novels

A loving, faithful animal by Josephine Rowe

Readings Monthly Editorial assistant Alan Vaarwerk says: “There’s a hint of the Australian Gothic in the book’s portrayal of small town despair, and Rowe’s portrayal of her characters is tender but uncompromising – each is deeply flawed but heart-rendingly sympathetic. A loving, faithful animal is quietly, catastrophically beautiful, a powerful new work by one of Australia’s most gifted writers.”

Read the full review here

Wildlight by Robyn Mundy

Bookseller Suzanne Steinbruckner says “Mundy’s…

Read more ›

Elke Power interviews Jennifer Down

by Elke Power

Readings Monthly editor Elke Power talks with Jennifer Down about her debut novel, Our Magic Hour.

Those of us at Readings who have been fortunate enough to read Jennifer Down’s debut novel, Our Magic Hour, have struggled with fears that anything we say or write about this outstanding book will be dismissed as hyperbole. Admittedly, we are not the first to recognise Down’s talent. Down won the 2013 Overland Short Story Award in 2013, and is now a…

Read more ›