Our latest blog posts
Princesses who don't play by the rules
It’s a frequent complaint from our customers: ‘I’m bored with buying pink, sparkly princess books, but my child loves them.’ Well, princesses may be a necessary evil in the world of kids’ literature, but this doesn’t mean all of them are pink and sparkly. Here is a collection of our favourite princesses who are a bit more switched on than your average frog kisser.
The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton
Princess Pinecone is sick and tired of being…
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
The Shock of Recognition: The Books and Music That Have Inspired Me by Barry Jones
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
Credlin & Co: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself by Aaron Patrick
The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Reckoning by Magda Szubanski
Blood Year: Islamic State and the Failures of the War on Terror by David Kilcullen
Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek and Christine Roussey
Iris and the Tiger by Leanne Hall
Pig the Winner by Aaron Blabey
My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier
Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard
Sister Heart by Sally Morgan
Fog a Dox by Bruce Pascoe
Squishy Taylor and the Bonus Sisters by Ailsa Wild and Ben Wood
Little People, Big Dreams: Coco Chanel by Isabel Sanchez Vegara and Ana Albero
What we're reading: Elizabeth Strout, Kirsty Eagar and Larissa Behrendt
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.
Leanne Hall is reading Summer Skin by Kirsty Eagar
I’ve just finished reading Kirsty Eagar’s new YA novel. This is an up-close look at university residential college life with all its messiness, hooking up, friendship pacts, tribal behaviour, part-time jobs, exams, and yes, plenty of drinking. Eagar zooms in on intimacy, sex, sexism…
Our predictions for Harry Potter And The Cursed Child
Fans farewelled Harry Potter as he waved goodbye to his children at the start of the school year, nineteen years after the battle of Hogwarts. But his story didn’t end there…
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the official rehearsal script for the West End stage play and will continue on from where the novels finished. Here are our (admittedly, rather unlikely) predictions of what will happen in the new story.
“Harry’s wife Ginny has died (sorry!) and he’s…
Fascinating fiction about climate change
Climate fiction, or climate change fiction, usually abbreviated to cli-fi (modelled on the rhyming sounds of ‘sci-fi’) is a literary genre that deals with climate change. Here are some of our top picks.
The World Without Us by Mireille Juchau
Told from the perspective of six, interconnected characters, The World Without Us is a tale of love in all its forms, a mystery, and an elegy for a denatured landscape. This astonishing novel was recently named the winner of the…
Contemporary antidotes to terrible classics
We all have them – books that were forced on us in school; essential classics that we choked down despite hating every word; the worthy, the venerable, the WORST. Here are my favourite antidotes to those so-called ‘must-read’ classics.
Found Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre tedious?
Try Love Nina by Nina Stibbe
Between wandering the moors and making calf eyes at the (quite frankly) emotionally manipulative Mr Rochester, Jane didn’t actually seem to spend a lot of time looking after children…
Three terrific children's books from Indigenous Australians
In anticipation of the Blak & Bright festival (which kicks off tomorrow evening, hooray!), children’s bookseller Angela Crocombe shares a sample of her favourite books from Indigenous Australians for young readers.
For YA readers:
I recently had a chance to read Becoming Kirrali Lewis, last year’s debut YA novel from Festival Director Jane Harrison, and I could not put it down.
Set in the late 80s, this is the story of Kirrali, a naive country girl who is off…
Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week
My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier
Summer Skin by Kirsty Eagar
Iris and the Tiger by Leanne Hall
Mr Chicken Lands on London by Leigh Hobbs
Mr Chicken Goes to Paris by Leigh Hobbs
Horrible Harriet by Leigh Hobbs
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek and Christine Roussey
The Big Book of Mr Badger by Leigh Hobbs
Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Two terrific and provocative new YA…
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
The Shock of Recognition: The Books and Music That Have Inspired Me by Barry Jones
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Credlin & Co: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself by Aaron Patrick
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
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