Our latest blog posts

Seven crime novels to read this February

by Fiona Hardy

BOOK OF THE MONTH

Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekbäck

Swedish Lapland, June 1717 (note, this reader virtually never reads things set in the past): Finns Maija and Paavo take their children Frederika and Dorotea to Sweden, away from the fear that has beaten Paavo into a shadow of the man he once was. They settle in Lapland, beside the mountain Blackåsen, ill-equipped for living in an isolated and storm-racked area. They have been there only a short time when the…

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Our youngest ever reviewer: Meet Rocket

by Fiona Hardy

Bookseller Fiona Hardy recently interviewed her two-year-old daughter Rocket about a picture book they’d read together: Sam & Dave Dig a Hole. Here’s Fiona on what went down.

A lot of the time, customers ask if Klassen’s slightly edgy work is really for children or more for parents (I bought my first of his books before I had a kid). But my two-year-old has always loved his books, even if she doesn’t understand some of the concepts, such as…

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What we're reading: Dianne Touchell, Garth Nix and Liane Moriarty

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.

Ann Le Lievre is reading A Small Madness by Dianne Touchell

I love our Aussie young adult authors and my recent experience of reading Western Australian author Dianne Touchell’s A Small Madness was explosive. This book has made me feel as if my heart has been slammed up against a wall. The central…

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Classical music to set the mood on Valentine's Day

by Judi Mitchell

Valentine’s Day has never meant much to me and as an adult I’ve always had partners who’ve agreed it’s far too commercial. We have consciously avoided ‘the day’ and instead, unconsciously done special things for each other during the year. As a teenager though, I do remember sending a Valentine to a boy I fancied in the trumpet section of a band I was playing in. I got a secret thrill wondering if he’d received it and hoping he knew…

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February 2015 Children's & YA Highlights

by Emily Gale

There’s a stunning young adult anthology out this month. Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean is a collaboration between editors Kirsty Murray (The Year It All Ended), Anita Roy and Payal Dhar, featuring speculative fiction (including six graphic stories) from Australian and Indian authors. From the Australian contingent we’ve got Isobelle Carmody (Obernewtyn), Penni Russon (Only Ever Always), Justine Larbalestier (Razorhurst), Margo Lanagan (Sea Hearts), Alyssa Brugman (Alex As

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The Stella Prize Longlist 2015

The Stella Prize longlist for 2015 was announced today! The $50,000 prize is awarded for the best work of literature, fiction or non-fiction, published in 2014 by an Australian woman.

The twelve longlisted books are:

Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke – Read our review

The Strays by Emily Bitto – Read our review

Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey – Read our review

This House of Grief by Helen Garner – Read our review

Golden Boys by Sonya Hartnett…

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Inside the world of online romance scams

by Chris Gordon

Chris Gordon interviews Sofija Stefanovic about her new short book

I thought

Thanks very much! It’s the first big thing I’ve had published, so it’s really nice to hear you say you liked it. And yeah, it’s sad, the world of romance scams. People fall in love and are punished for it very badly.

I know you met Bill, the main subject matter, when working in TV. What made you expand his story?

Bill and I have been friends for…

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Choose your own adventure: the John Darnielle edition

by Gerard Elson

MOVE 1.

Summer, St Kilda. Strolling Acland Street, you dispose of your empty frozen yoghurt cup and peel off into Readings Books. The store’s cool interior is a welcome respite from the cramming heat outside: perfect conditions for browsing. You clock the new releases, turn the latest Murakami over in your hands. It’s a lovely object, though not what you’re after today. You saunter around a bit in happy indecision, leafing through this, admiring that. Then something catches your eye…

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Miriam Sved on Janette Turner Hospital

by Miriam Sved

I am teaching a creative writing subject this semester about short fiction. I’ve tutored in this subject a few times over the years, and I love it. Lots of grist in the reader: Chekhov, Faulkner, Garner, Munro. I can keep coming back to these stories and finding new ways into them. And short fiction is good to teach: literary techniques jump right out at you, there’s nowhere for them to hide. In novels you tend to have to search for…

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