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Dear Reader, April 2016
In March, the winners of the Windham-Campbell Prizes for literature were announced. First awarded in 2013 and administered by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, prizes are given in the categories of fiction, drama and non-fiction for writers from anywhere in the world whose work is written in English. These prizes are awarded through an anonymous judging process, publishers and writers don’t actually know that their work is being considered. As a result, being informed that…
Books with LGBTQIA+ themes for kids and teens
“It’s okay to be yourself.”
It’s a pretty universal piece of advice that many kids and teens hear, and it makes sense. After all, the difficulty in trying to maintain a façade – to be somebody you aren’t – is a huge burden, especially when you’re already going through the turbulent years of growing up. But with the current opposition to the Safe Schools program and the fact that many people are calling into question the suitability of the material…
3-for-2 Faber Special Offer
Throughout April, we’re offering a special offer on a select range of award-winning and popular Faber titles - buy two books, and choose a third book in the range (of equal or lesser value) for free!
The range includes fiction, non-fiction and poetry, with titles from Paul Auster, Marilynne Robinson, Lorrie Moore, P. D. James, Kazuo Ishiguro, Rohinton Mistry, Barbara Kingsolver, Miriam Toews, and Willy Vlautin, among others.
This offer is exclusively available in all Readings shops and online, until…
20% off vinyl this April
Record Store Day is officially on Saturday 16 April, but Readings is celebrating all month long with 20% off all vinyl.
Handpicked by our passionate music team, our vinyl collection includes old favourites alongside terrific new releases. Come on down to chat with our specialists in person and complete your own collection.
The sale runs from 1 April to 30 April at our Carlton, St Kilda, Hawthorn and State Library of Victoria bookshops. The offer only applies to vinyl currently…
Readings is the official bookseller for MWF
We’re so pleased to share the news that we’ll be the official bookseller for Melbourne Writers Festival in 2016.
Melbourne Writers Festival is Australia’s biggest literary festival and is set to welcome thousands to events featuring more than 350 international and local guests from the worlds of literature, journalism, philosophy, science and the arts. This year’s festival will run from 26 August to 4 September – look out for the full 2016 program to be launched in late July.
Readings’…
Best Translated Book Award longlist 2016
This year’s longlist for the Best Translated Book Award has been announced.
Over 560 eligible titles were published last year, written by authors from more than eighty countries and published by 160 different publishers. The judges have selected the following 25 titles.
Arvida by Samuel Archibald, translated by Donald Winkler (French, Canada)
Beauty Is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan, translated by Annie Tucker (Indonesian, Indonesia)
Berlin by Aleš Šteger, translated by Brian Henry, Forrest Gander, and Aljaž Kovac (Slovene, Slovenia)
…
Highlights from our April event program
Events Manager Chris Gordon shares some of her top six picks from our April event calendar.
Inga Simpson in conversation with Favel Parrett
Join us for an intimate evening with two award-winning authors: Inga Simpson and Favel Parrett. The two will talk about Simpson’s new novel, Where the Trees Were, a story about the innocence of childhood and the scars that stay with you for life.
When? 6.30pm, Tuesday 5 April
Where? Readings Carlton
Bookings? Free, but please book…
March in review
We’ve had a veritable swag of exciting news to share this past month.
We revealed that we’ll be opening two new Melbourne bookshops this year. One will be a dedicated children’s bookshop based in Carlton, and the other will be based in Westfield Doncaster shopping centre. We were also thrilled (and humbled) to have been shortlisted for the London Book Fair’s Bookstore of the Year Award alongside three other international bookshops: Hoepli in Italy, Rahva Raamat in Estonia, and Sanlian…
Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week
The Treehouse Fun Book by Andy Griffiths, Jill Griffiths and Terry Denton
The Bad Guys: Episode 1 by Aaron Blabey
Samurai vs Ninja: The Battle for the Golden Egg by Nick Falk and Tony Flowers
Crazy Weird: WeirDo Book 6 by Anh Do and Jules Faber
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek and Christine Roussey
The Cat with the Coloured Tail by Gillian Mears and Dinalie Dabarera
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
Everywhere I Look by Helen Garner
The Road to Ruin by Niki Savva
Balancing Act – Australia Between Recession and Renewal (Quarterly Essay 61) by George Megalogenis
Talking to My Country by Stan Grant
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Ice Child by Camilla Lackberg
The Light on the Water by Olga…