Our latest blog posts
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
We love Iris and the Tiger by Leanne Hall
Our Children’s Book of the Month is Leanne Hall’s Iris and the Tiger. Here’s why our staff love it.
‘I’ve read books that I’ve wanted to see as films and TV shows, but I’ve never read a book I’ve wanted to see as a painting until now. Hall’s descriptions of the beautiful, mad, surreal paintings in her story left me desperately wishing I could visit the NGV with Iris and spend hours lost in each painting – all the…
What we're reading: Jennifer Wright, Katherine Heiny and Anna Starobinets
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 It Ended Badly by Jennifer Wright
I came across mention of this book in an article titled ‘The One Book You Need to Read After a Breakup’ and thought: challenge accepted.
My last breakup is thankfully a distant enough memory that I can recount outrageous stories to my friends…
Meet our new guest judge for the Readings Prize
We’re thrilled to announce Maxine Beneba Clarke as our guest judge for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction!
Maxine is an Australian writer of Afro-Caribbean heritage. She is the author of two poetry books, Gil Scott Heron is on Parole (2009) and Nothing Here Needs Fixing (2013). Her fiction collection Foreign Soil won the 2015 Indie Award for Debut Fiction and the 2015 ABIA Award for Best Literary Fiction, saw her named a Sydney Morning Herald Best…
What to read when life sucks
If you want to feel warm and fuzzy…
Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows co-wrote The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, an epistolary novel that draws readers into the Second World War. While the book may make you cry in places, it’s ultimately a story of hope.
Graeme Simsion’s two novels – The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect – are rom-coms set in Melbourne and New York. Happy endings guaranteed.
Between You and Me is a…
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