Our latest blog posts
Elke Power interviews Antonia Hayes
Antonia Hayes talks with Elke Power about relative truth and her debut novel, Relativity.
EP: Your debut novel, Relativity, has been likened to A Beautiful Mind and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. However, it seems likely that another comparison will be hard to avoid, and that is between Relativity and Christos Tsiolkas’ award-winning, bestselling novel The Slap. Without wanting to reveal one of the compelling central questions at the heart of Relativity…
The beginner's guide to Rainbow Rowell
I adore Rainbow Rowell. Her work is funny, smart and deeply interesting, plus she writes maybe the best first kiss scenes of anyone, ever. If you’re a Rowell newbie and you’re considering reading her books, first ask yourself if you are open to books that may include a combination of these three things: teenage protagonists, pop culture references and romantic entanglements. Did you answer yes? Excellent, come right this way.
Here’s my recommended reading order for Rowell’s books:
1. Eleanor…
The beginner's guide to Liane Moriarty
When it comes to Liane Moriarty, I’ve been the ultimate fanwoman since 2009, the year that What Alice Forgot was published. That’s just my overblown way of saying that I’ve read all of her novels and drop everything when a new one comes out, suddenly finding time to sit for hours straight while the children starve, work piles up and my home turns to rubble.
For the duration of each book, Liane Moriarty feels like my incredibly funny, sharply observant…
The beginner's guide to vegetarian cookbooks
If you’re a reluctant vegetarian try…
Who you are: You’ve agreed to ‘test the waters’ of the no-meat lifestyle, barely. You just really, really love burgers/pies/sausages okay. You remain unconvinced any vegetarian dish could be as simple as a steak. You think tofu is weird.
Why this book: A Modern Way to Eat is my new favourite cookbook and conversation topic. I bought it a few weeks ago and have already made its vegetarian versions of burgers and pies (sausages…
Which dog should you take to work?
Happy Take-Your-Dog-To-Work Day!
Although there are many dog owners among our staff, unfortunately not one of our beloved friends have the qualifications necessary for work experience at Readings. So to console ourselves until the working day is over and we can return home to… see what they’ve destroyed this time… we’ve made a list of fictional dogs in picture books and junior fiction who would be a real asset to your workplace.
Bookseller:
Dog from Dog Loves Books by Louise…
The beginner's guide to Emily Rodda
If you haven’t picked up a fantasy novel since childhood but want to introduce your children to the magic of reading about magic – never fear. Here I provide a stepping-stone guide for your children to follow, through the books of Emily Rodda, the deserved queen of the junior fantasy genre.
Step One: Rowan of Rin
Rodda’s Rowan of Rin series is a gentle and exciting introduction to traditional fantasy for 7+.
Rodda has deliberately kept the fictional world of…
The beginner's guide to Kelly Link
Kelly Link has in the past been described as “the best short story writer out there, in any genre or none”. Over five collections for both YA readers and adults (with some crossover between the two), the American writer and publisher has developed somewhat of a cult following, which is now expanding with the release of her latest collection Get in Trouble.
While often categorised alongside writers of fantasy or science fiction – and fans of these genres will…
Trent Jamieson on vampires and day boys
by Trent JamiesonI love vampires. I adore the literature and film that has grown up around the myth. The vampire genre is almost as old as mainstream publishing and it constantly reinvigorates itself because vampires, like all good monsters, are something of a blank canvas. Meanings can be projected onto them. They can be monstrous, yet elegant. They can be the night refined or crude and hungry.
However, while the vampires in Day Boy infuse the book, they aren’t what sit at…
Martin Shaw's ten favourite Australian books
When my colleague Bronte asked me to write a list of my ‘ten favourite books published over the course of my career at Readings’, I admit that I (audibly) groaned. How on earth was I going to be able to recall 21-years’ worth of books? It didn’t help that my personal library was already packed up in boxes pending the arrival of the container to ship all my possessions off to my new life in Germany!
Then we started to…
The story of my book
by John TesarschThe Last Will and Testament of Henry Hoffman follows three gifted siblings whose lives are turned upside down when their elderly father is diagnosed with dementia, and shoots himself rather than end up in a nursing home. After his funeral one of his daughters, Eleanor, finds a will buried in his books and papers. He has left his entire estate to a woman she has never heard of before. Is the woman a secret lover, or just a figment of…