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Chilling reads to help you stay cool this summer
Avoid the heat this summer with one of these chilling reads – everything from true crime, to arctic adventure, to classic Japanese literature.
Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekbäck
Swedish Lapland, 1717: Maj, her husband Jan-Erik and her daughters Frederika and Marit arrive from their native Finland, hoping to forget the traumas of their past and put down new roots in this harsh but beautiful land. Above them looms Blackåsen, a mountain whose foreboding presence looms over the valley and whose…
Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 10: Old School by Jeff Kinney
Laugh Your Head Off: Funny Stories for All Kinds of Kids by various authors
The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers
The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt (translated by Laura Watkinson)
My Dog Bigsy by Alison Lester
Grandpa’s Great Escape by David Walliams
The Singing Bones by Shaun Tan
The Bad Guys: Episode 1 by Aaron Blabey
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
Keating by Kerry O'Brien
This Annoying Life: A Mindless Colouring Book for the Highly Stressed by Oslo Davis
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
The Broadsheet Melbourne Cookbook
The Other Side of the World by Stephanie Bishop
What we're reading over summer
Our staff share the books they’re planning to read over summer.
I’m going on a crime binge. My next book club book is I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes, a daunting 912 page (hence the summer read) crime thriller which has received a lot of media attention and positive reviews. But I’ve also lined up an award winner (the CWA Gold Dagger 2015) by Australian author Michael Robotham called Life Or Death, which is billed as a fast paced…
A guide to TV shows to watch this summer
Here’s where I’m coming from – I like good comedies, snappy dialogue, family drama, teen angst, action-packed intrigue, survival-against-the-odds stories, anything that will make me cry and legal dramas. I don’t enjoy procedurals, most cop shows, and reality TV.
My summer viewing guide encompasses the shows I have enjoyed this year, the shows I expect to enjoy in the future, and shows I don’t personally enjoy but others will.
Shows I loved
This year had an abundance of terrific new…
Four books that broke my heart in 2015
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
No piece of writing has ever made me cry as much as this raging, eloquent letter from Ta-Nehisi Coates to his 14-year-old son, Samori. In my review I wrote, ‘I read with my heart in my throat and for the final 50 or so pages I cried without stopping. Between the World and Me attests to the power of literature.’ Coates writes specifically about the experience of being a black father to…
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
The Moroccan Soup Bar: Recipes of a Spoken Menu and a Little Bit of Spice by Hana Assafiri
This Annoying Life: A Mindless Colouring Book for the Highly Stressed by Oslo Davis
Reckoning: A Memoir by Magda Szubanski
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Broadsheet Melbourne Cookbook
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Keating by Kerry O'Brien
…
Five books I'd like to see turned into movies
Hollywood is long known for harvesting from the fertile ground of books and some of the biggest blockbusters in the whole history of film-making started out life as well-thumbed tomes on the bookshelf.
Here are five more books that would make great movies.
Alanna, the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
Before Arya of Winterfell there was Alanna of Trebond. When her twin brother is told that he is to be sent to the palace to be a page (his worst…
Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 10: Old School by Jeff Kinney
The Singing Bones by Shaun Tan
The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers
Grandpa’s Great Escape by David Walliams
The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt (translated by Laura Watkinson)
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek and Christine Roussey
My Dog Bigsy by Alison Lester
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Illustrated edition) by J.K. Rowling and Jim…
How to dip your toes into blak writing these holidays
Blak & Bright (the first ever Victorian Indigenous Literary Festival!) will take place over three days in Melbourne, and feature more than 60 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander novelists, storytellers, poets, songwriters, playwrights, academics, comedians, raconteurs and rabble-rousers. The festival organisers are currently looking to hear your personal reflections on Indigenous writing. They want to know why you read blak, or why you write blak. Find out more here.
If you haven’t read many books by Indigenous authors up…
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