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…

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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…

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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…

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I 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…

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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…

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The 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…

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Maggie Beer’s Winter Harvest Recipes by Maggie Beer

I associate Maggie Beer with quinces, with pheasant pâtés, mushrooms, and with delicious slow-cooked country cooking. This delightful collection of recipes has everything you could expect for cold nights. The recipes are from the winter section of Maggie’s bible, Maggie’s Harvest. Included in this collection are detailed descriptions of meals (think perfectly planned menus for you to copy, step-by-step) with family and friends. I love this glimpse into Maggie’s life, her…

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The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna is the winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2015!

First awarded in 1957, the Miles Franklin Literary Award is presented annually to a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases. As the winner, Sofie Laguna will receive $60,000 in prize money.

Our reviewer said of the winning book, ‘Sofie Laguna tackles the intricacies of love and marriage, brotherhood, power dynamics, medical…

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Bronte Coates talks with Helen Macdonald about her award-winning memoir, H is for Hawk.

In H is for Hawk, you decide to train a goshawk (Mabel) in response to the grief you felt at your father’s death. Would you now recommend this decision to others?

Ha! No, I don’t recommend it at all. Training and free-flying a captive-bred goshawk was my own rather eccentric way of dealing with bereavement. But there’s no ‘right’ way to go about grieving…

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The Mindfulness Colouring Book: Anti-Stress Art Therapy for Busy People by Emma Farrarons

Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom by Millie Marotta

Certain Admissions: A Beach, a Body and a Lifetime of Secrets by Gideon Haigh

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Supermarket Monsters: the Price of Coles and Woolworths’ Dominance by Malcolm Knox

Gut: the Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Under-Rated Organ by Giulia Enders

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

The…

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