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Our top ten bestsellers of the week

Faction Man: Bill Shorten’s Path to Power (Quarterly Essay 59) by David Marr

Island Home: A Landscape Memoir by Tim Winton

The Age Good Food Guide 2016 edited by Roslyn Grundy

Reckoning: A Memoir by Magda Szubanski

Make Me by Lee Child

Nopi: The Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ramael Scully

A Mother’s Story by Rosie Batty with Bryce Corbett

ST Gill & His Audiences by Sasha Grishin

Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Colouring Book by Johanna Basford

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What we're reading: Hanya Yanagihara, Clare Wright and Megan Abbott

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.

Holly Harper is reading We are the Rebels: The Women and Men Who Made Eureka by Clare Wright

One of the first things I did when I was a brand new resident of Victoria was visit Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. I loved it: the old-fashioned lolly shop, the candle-making, the panning for gold…

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Is Nopi home cook friendly?

by Chris Gordon

We’ve had some questions from customers about the new cookbook from Ottolenghi, all of which boil down to just one main concern: Is Nopi home cook friendly? Our resident foodie Chris Gordon investigates.

If you are considering purchasing Nopi, the lush new cookbook from Yotam Ottlenghi and Ramael Scully, I already know you are one of two types of people.

Either: 1. You are a qualified chef, or 2. You are, like me, an armchair traveller cook. If you’re…

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A short recap of our #FerranteFever event

Last week we gathered together a panel of booksellers to discuss the books of Elena Ferrante, a certifiable literary sensation who’s been heralded as the most important Italian novelist of her generation and earned herself a massive following. Since the Australian release of My Brilliant Friend (the first of her Neapolitan Novels) by Text Publishing, Readings have sold thousands of copies of this exceptional novel.

If you’re new to Ferrante, here’s a collection of staff testimonials about her work that…

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Fiona Hardy interviews Alecia Simmonds

by Fiona Hardy

Our crime fiction specialist, Fiona Hardy, chats to author Alecia Simmonds about Wild Man.

On a strange dark night in April 2012, a peaceful gathering at a remote property in New South Wales was marked by violence when Evan Johnson threatened people with a crossbow and was shot by police. These are the bare bones of Johnson’s story; in Wild Man, Alecia Simmonds does some digging. We follow Simmonds as she heads deep into the heart of this…

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What we're reading: Janet Hawley, Lauren Holmes and Marcus Westbury

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 Gordon is reading Wendy Whiteley and the Secret Garden by Janet Hawley

If you enjoy the romance of dappled light, the glory of mixed leaves and the sanctuary that a garden can provide, Wendy Whiteley and the Secret Garden is for you.

I simply cannot get enough of this book. It is…

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A recipe from Nopi: the cookbook - Courgette and manouri fritters

These were first developed for the NOPI breakfast menu by Sarit Packer and John Meechan, during the restaurant’s early days. Rumour spread and, due to popular demand, they quickly made their way on to the lunchtime and supper menus as well, where they’ve remained ever since.

They make a lovely light lunch or impressive starter and are also great as a snack or canapé with drinks. If you are serving them as a snack, make them slightly smaller – 1…

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Chart Collective have launched a new project

by Jocelyn Richardson

Melbourne not-for-profit publisher Chart Collective is inviting submissions of anonymous true micro-stories set in the Melbourne’s CBD for their I Was Here project. Founding editor Jocelyn Richardson tells us more.

So often as I retrace paths I’ve walked through the city, tumultuous memories come back to me. Passing greasy bins in laneways, crossing the tram tracks, heading up the hill to the Parisian end, ducking into a bookshop, and stopping next door for a beer at the counter, I think…

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