Our latest blog posts
What we're reading: Claire Vaye Watkins, Helen Ellis and Jon Morris
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.
Chris Somerville is reading Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins
Now that Claire Vaye Watkins’s second book, Gold Fame Citrus is almost upon us, it’s a great time to revisit her first book, Battleborn, a collection of short stories. Though these stories stand apart, they’re linked by place, in this case Nevada, which…
Six teen reads that will give you nightmares
Do you think you’re brave? Think you don’t scare easily? Do horrifying nightmares sound like your idea of fun? If you answered yes, yes and YES! then we challenge you to read these six spooky young adult reads which are guaranteed to terrify you. From haunted asylums to zombie wastelands, these chilling reads will have you glancing over your shoulder as you turn the page.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
After his grandfather dies, Jacob sets…
Spooky stories for kids
If you’ve got some younger readers looking for spooky books to put them in the Halloween mood, check out our collection of scary (and not-so-scary) Halloween reads for different ages.
FRIGHTENING TALES FOR 5 AND UNDER
For readers under five you might not be looking for something quite as scary as The Exorcist, so these picture books all feature plenty of ghosts and ghouls while promising not to give them nightmares.
In Winnie’s Haunted House, everybody’s favourite scatterbrained witch…
Dear Reader, November 2015
Our book of the month is Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, Carrie Brownstein’s utterly fabulous memoir. A number of us here at Readings have been hanging out for this book to arrive, and like our reviewer, I am completely besotted by it. But I hear your concern, dear reader: you are worried that it’s ‘not for you’ because you’re not keen on music bios, or perhaps you have limited interest in the riot grrrl scene and its radical…
Why you should celebrate Halloween this year
Every year when Halloween draws closer and the supermarkets start to place their chocolate displays a little nearer to the registers, the same debate seems to make the rounds in Australia: Is Halloween even relevant to our nation? Isn’t it a bit crass to celebrate ‘horror’? It’s all just a commercial gimmick, isn’t it?
Three booksellers tell us why all these doubts are moot, and you should go right ahead and celebrate this spooky, creative, un-American holiday.
Holly Harper says…
Stephanie Bishop wins The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction
Stephanie Bishop has been named the winner of The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction 2015 for her second novel, The Other Side of the World. Bishop will receive $4,000 in prize money.
Chair of judges and the editor of Readings Monthly Elke Power described The Other Side of the World as unforgettable. She says, “Stephanie Bishop’s affinity for landscape is profound; her prose is elegant and viscerally evocative. Bishop has a rare gift for capturing the intangible –…
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
Keating (special edition) by Kerry O'Brien
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
ST Gill & His Audiences by Sasha Grishin
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Reckoning: A Memoir by Magda Szubanski
M Train by Patti Smith
Island Home: A Landscape Memoir by Tim Winton
The Crossing by Michael Connelly
The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks
Our bestseller for last week is Kerry…
Our children's and YA top ten bestsellers of the week
The Singing Bones by Shaun Tan
Girl Online: On Tour by Zoe Sugg
The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers
The 65-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek and Christine Roussey
What Do You Wish for? by Jane Godwin and Anna Walker
Top of the Class (Nearly) by Liz Pichon
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Illustrated edition) by J.K. Rowling and Jim Kay
…
How the Readings Prize carves its own space in Australian literature
by Veronica SullivanVeronica Sullivan reflects on the six shortlisted books for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, and considers how this relatively new Prize fits within the literary prize landscape of Australia.
On the eve of the announcement of the winner of The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, it seems fitting to cast an eye over the six books on this year’s shortlist and consider what impact winning this particular prize can have on a writer’s life. The $4000…
What we're reading: Miles Allinson, Heidi Swanson and Robert Galbraith
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 Fever of Animals by Miles Allinson
I’m currently losing all sense of time and place as I read Miles Allinson’s book, Fever of Animals. This is a story set across Melbourne, London, Berlin, Venice – and it’s a story about about grief and relationships, about searching for meaning…
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