Our latest blog posts
Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek and Christine Roussey
Starting School by Jane Godwin and Anna Walker
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey (including the film tie-in edition)
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers
Adam Spencer’s Enormous Book of Numbers by Adam Spencer
The Singing Bones by Shaun Tan
Friday Barnes Book 4: No Rules by R.A. Spratt
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
Simply Nigella: Feel Good Food by Nigella Lawson
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
The Moroccan Soup Bar by Hana Assafiri
Gut: the Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Under-Rated Organ by Giulia Enders
The Whites by Richard Price
Reckoning by Magda Szubanski
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
…
What we're reading: Martin McKenzie-Murray, Leanne Hall and Kurt Vile
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.
Stella Charls is watching The Jinx
I’m obsessing over crime right now. Not committing it, but consuming it, from true-crime tales to fictional thrillers. I’ve binge-watched Making a Murderer on Netflix (refusing to acknowledge 2016 had started until I finished all 10 episodes), am stuck into Season 2 of the podcast Serial, and…
Our Stella Sparks
The Stella Prize has recently announced their Stella Sparks campaign, which celebrates writing by Australian women. A Stella Spark is the book by an Australian woman that struck a spark for you, igniting ideas, creativity and a passion for great writing. You can find out more about this fantastic campaign here.
Here, our staff share their own Stella Sparks.
My Stella Spark is Tara June Winch’s Swallow the Air. I read this when I was about 19 and…
12 novels set during key historical events
The Roving Party by Rohan Wilson
Set during the 1830 Black Line of Tasmania
The Black War saw the indigenous population of Tasmania hunted, and killed by British Colonialists. Rohan Wilson has drawn inspiration from the real life figure of John Batman – a grazier who rose to prominence as a government-authorised bounty hunter – and imagined the ‘roving party’ that set out under his direction. The Black Line is a dark period in Australia’s history that should never be…
Indie Book Awards shortlist 2016
The shortlist for the Indie Book Awards 2016 has been announced.
Each year, independent booksellers from around the nation get together and vote for their favourite titles in four different categories. Here are the shortlisted books in each category.
Fiction
A Guide to Berlin by Gail Jones (Read our review)
The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood (Read our review)
The Other Side of the World by Stephanie Bishop (Read our review)
The…
Finalists for National Book Critics Circle Awards 2015
The finalists for the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) awards have been announced. The NBCC honours outstanding writing and fosters a national conversation about reading, criticism and literature.
Fiction
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli
The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
Non-fiction
SPQR: A History of Rome by Mary Beard
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
The Family Law by Benjamin Law
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
Reckoning by Magda Szubanski
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Carol by Patricia Highsmith
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek and Christine Roussey
Friday Barnes Book 4: No Rules by R.A. Spratt
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 10: Old School by Jeff Kinney
The 65-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
Starting School by Jane Godwin and Anna Walker
Greetings from Australia by the Jacky Winter Group
The Cat with the Coloured Tail by Gillian Mears and Dinalie Dabarera
The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and…
Our top picks from Blak & Bright
Staff share what they’re planning to see at this year’s Blak & Bright festival, the first ever Victorian Indigenous Literary Festival. (You can find the full program here).
Leanne Hall is excited for the opening address
I can’t wait to see Anita Heiss deliver the opening address on 20 Reasons Why You Should Read Blak. I’ve just finished hoovering up her latest novel, Tiddas, over the summer break. This novel is the perfect blend of drama, romance…
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