Here are our top ten classical CDs of the year, voted for by Readings’ staff. Displayed in no particular order.

Max Richter: The Blue Notebooks by Max Richter

The Blue Notebooks, a tenth anniversary rerelease of Max Richter’s second album, is breathtaking. Richter cites Sigur Rós as an influence, evident in the meditative ‘Horizon Variations’. This, along with tracks such as ‘Written on the Sky’, will similarly appeal to Arvo Pärt fans for its elegance and simplicity. The Blue…

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Heartland: Celebrating 50 Years of the Australian Conservation Foundation by Australian Conservation Foundation

This lovely celebration of the fifty year history of the Australian Conservation Foundation is fantastic value. The photography is all the original work of MAPgroup documentary photographers, a non profit organisation with a mission to create a visual archive of Australian life for future generations. Heartland is a beautiful gift and a worthy way to commemorate Australia’s oldest and largest national environmental group.

The Invention of Nature:…

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Your friends who ‘don’t read’

Why would a man escape from prison the day before he’s due to be released? You’ll have to read Michael Robotham’s Life or Death to find out… This crime thriller won the CWA Gold Dagger this year so comes highly recommended.

Music lovers may be tempted by The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic. Jessica Hopper’s short and snappy pieces are immensely readable.

Hadley Freeman’s Life Moves Pretty Fast is…

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It can be tough work buying books for kids. Maybe they’re picky readers. Maybe they’ve read everything. Or maybe the last time you saw them they were in nappies and now you have absolutely no idea what they like. If you’ve got some hard-to-buy-for kids in your life, we’ve got some suggestions for you.

Early readers

Here are some of our favourite picks for kids transitioning from picture books to their very first read-alone novels:

Elephant and Piggie is a…

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We chatted to Lian Hingee, our new Digital Marketing Manager, about her favourite books

Describe your taste in books.

I’m a fiction reader primarily, but I binge-read across a broad range of genres. Usually what happens is that I’ll read one book that really grabs me, then I’ll spend a couple of months powering through similar titles until I hit saturation point and have to start from scratch to find my Next Big Thing.

I’ve got a long history with…

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

The Red Queen by Isobelle Carmody

The Singing Bones by Shaun Tan

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

The Wonder Garden: Wander Through The World’s Wildest Habitat and Discover More Than 80 Amazing Animals by Jenny Broom and Kristjana S Williams

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

Top of the Class (Nearly) by Liz Pichon

My…

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Special Delivery: Favourite Recipes to Make and Take by Annabel Crabb and Wendy Sharpe

Keating (special edition) by Kerry O'Brien

World War One: A History in 100 Stories by Bruce Scates, Rebecca Wheatley and Laura James

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

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

Even Dogs in the Wild: The New…

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The team behind Melbourne literary journal Kill Your Darlings tell us what they’re reading this month.

Veronica Sullivan, Online Editor:

Fiona Wright’s personal essay collection, Small Acts of Disappearance, floored me. Each essay focuses on a different aspect of the physical and psychological hunger that has shadowed Wright throughout her adult life. She seamlessly interweaves the theoretical with the personal, providing readers with medical, cultural, historical and literary contexts for anorexia and its manifestations. Describing the ways anorexia consumes…

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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.

Mark Rubbo is reading Beauty Is A Wound by Eka Kurniawan

I’ve just been to Indonesia and read this remarkable novel by Eka Kurniawan. At 498 pages, it’s a monster but I finished it in a few days. Kurniawan tells the story of modern Indonesia through the eyes of a prostitute, Dewi Ayu…

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For the past four years, Readings has been proud to offer our customers free shipping for all online orders within Australia. Over this time postage costs have continued to rise, and shipping has become a cost we are no longer able to absorb. Consequently we need to introduce a small delivery fee on all orders. We remain committed to offering our customers the best value possible, so we’re keeping our shipping fee to an absolute minimum.

From Wednesday 18 November,…

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