The tree is up, the menu is planned and the playlist of cheesy Christmas carols is set – but are you stocked up on stocking stuffers? Here’s a selection of gifts to hang over the fireplace (or door handle).

If you have a kid with a crafty streak – the kind who’s constantly gluing glitter to everything and colouring in the walls – take a look at The Pointless Book 2, I Scream DIY Nail Art or Dinosaur Origami…

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A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

A Spool of Blue Thread very well might be Anne Tyler’s last book, which made reading it a somewhat bittersweet experience. Tyler’s books are sad, warm, funny and always incredibly insightful about human nature. Slipping into Tyler’s prose is like snuggling under a warm blanket on a rainy night. I know what I’m going to get with an Anne Tyler novel – a character-driven literary story about a complicated family – and…

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 10: Old School by Jeff Kinney (both the paperback and hardback editions)

Adam Spencer’s Enormous Book of Numbers by Adam Spencer

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Laugh Your Head Off: Funny Stories for All Kinds of Kids by various authors

My Dog Bigsy by Alison Lester

This & That by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek

The Adventures of Miss Petitfour by Anne Michaels, Emma Block

The Letter for the King by Tonke…

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Political Amnesia: How We Forgot How To Govern (Quarterly Essay 60) by Laura Tingle

This Annoying Life: A Mindless Colouring Book for the Highly Stressed by Oslo Davis

The Moroccan Soup Bar: Recipes of a Spoken Menu and a Little Bit of Spice by Hana Assafiri

The Other Side of the World by Stephanie Bishop

Keating by Kerry O'Brien

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

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

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The Readings Foundation has announced $93,000 worth of grants to support a range of projects and organisations within Victoria in 2016.

The Readings Foundation grant funding in 2016 will focus strongly on organisations that provide targeted grassroots assistance with literacy and education to the most disadvantaged Victorian communities. The Foundation will also support two projects working with Indigenous communities in Victoria.

The Readings Foundation received 63 applications this year, and is proud to award grants to the following seven organisations:

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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.

Fiona Hardy is reading Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan Lee, Peter David and Colleen Doran

I’m a huge fan of graphic novels and superhero movies, but not such a fan of superhero comics - though of course I totally adore Stan Lee, one of the forefathers of Marvel and the…

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Every November the word-buffs at Oxford Dictionaries choose one word from their lexicon that has risen in prominence and now best exemplifies the year that has passed.

2013 (selfie) saw the rise and rise of Instagram queen Kim Kardashian and in 2014 (vape) e-cigarettes became mainstream as cities around the world clamped down on smoking in public. This year – to raised eyebrows and scandalised op-ed pieces – Oxford Dictionaries announced that their word of the year was… an emoji…

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For delicious nuggets of storytelling: Story Club

I’m super jealous of all the cool stuff that goes on at Sydney’s Giant Dwarf Theatre – luckily, podcasts like Story Club help to ease the pain. Hosts Zoë Norton Lodge (author of Almost Sincerely) and Ben Jenkins present a selection of short, snappy stories recorded at their monthly storytelling nights, featuring emerging writers and comedians alongside names like David Marr and Masha Gessen. At around 15 minutes each, the episodes are…

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If your teen is looking for some reading material for the summer holidays, here’s a guide to some of the best YA fiction written by Australian authors this past year.

Sci-fi and fantasy

Illuminae: The Illuminae Files_01, from talented Melbourne duo Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, is the YA book that everyone is talking about right now. Set in the distant future (and space), the story is very cleverly told through a series of documents as opposed to a…

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Christmas is right around the corner, so we’ve selected our favourite books for kids of all ages to get you in the festive mood!

What Do You Wish For? by Jane Godwin and Anna Walker

What’s your Christmas wish? All of the kids in Ruby’s neighbourhood have something different to wish for – things like puppies and camping trips and new toys. But Ruby’s Christmas wish is something different, and she really hopes it comes true. This is a warm…

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