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Why you should keep track of every book you read
For the past three years, I’ve kept a record of all the books I read in an Excel spreadsheet. I note the title, author, publication date, genre, month I read the book and I give each book a letter grade (I like the report card feel of assigning a letter grade – I feel very authoritative and teacherly). I can’t remember exactly why I formed this habit, but it’s one I’ve stuck to. And now I think that keeping track…
What books should I read before I travel to Japan?
If you’re planning a holiday to Japan you might like to consider reading one of the following books.
The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide (translated by Eric Selland)
A couple in their thirties live in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo, and work at home as freelance writers. They no longer have very much to say to one another. One day a cat invites itself into their small kitchen…
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
Grieving the grandmother…
Every Kazuo Ishiguro novel, ranked
In anticipation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s upcoming novel The Buried Giant – his first in ten years – Bronte Coates ranks his previous novels from worst to best.
A dreamlike and surreal novel about three days in the life of famous pianist Ryder The Unconsoled is undoubtedly a challenging read. While some consider the novel a masterpiece (it’s arguably Ishiguro’s most ambitious work), it’s generally accepted as the author’s weakest – literary critic James Wood famously said it…
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
We are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
The Book of Paul: The Wit and Wisdom of Paul Keating by Russell Marks
Community: Salad Recipes from Arthur Street Kitchen by Hetty McKinnon
The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide (translated by Eric Selland)
Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s ‘Learned’ by Lena Dunham
My Brilliant Friend by Elena…
International young adult books to look forward to in 2015
Early in December the Readings children’s specialists were fortunate enough to attend ‘The Year Ahead in Youth Literature’, a preview of young adult fiction for 2015.
In part one (which you can find here) we picked out a generous handful of Australian YA to look forward to. Here’s what we’re most excited about from the international authors featured in the presentation.
All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
This is the only one on the list that you can…
What we're reading: Scot Gardner, Miranda July & Sonya Hartnett
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.
Emily Gale was absolutely floored by The Dead I Know by Scot Gardner and Golden Boys by Sonya Harnett
Two novels absolutely floored me this week: Golden Boys by Sonya Hartnett and The Dead I Know by Scot Gardner. What they have in common is stunning prose, restraint, terrible things happening to innocent…
Questions for popular authors
After the recent announcement that Haruki Murakami is starting an advice column to answer ‘questions of any kind’, we imagine it’s only a matter a time before several other authors follow suit. Here’s our top questions for them as they step out of the shadows, and into the burning fluorescent light that is the Internet.
Questions for Jonathan Franzen:
What are birds?
Questions for Cormac McCarthy:
How can I break in a horse?
How can I navigate the wasteland that…
Why you should read Elena Ferrante
Here’s a collection of testimonials from Readings staff who have read, and loved, Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels: My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name and Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay.
It’s no hyperbole to say that My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name and Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay are collectively one of the greatest literary undertakings I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.
– Gerard Elson, Bookseller
I…
Four books that resonated with me in 2014
Bronte Coates shares four books she read in 2014 that have stayed with her.
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
But although we were all women, we struggled to understand what a woman was. Our every move or thought or conversation or dream, once analysed in depth, seemed not to belong to us.
In my review of Elena Ferrante’s most recent release (the third in her series of novels about two women…
Dani Solmon reflects on Cat Out of Hell by Lynne Truss
I have to confess that even though I do own a cat I am not – as I discovered in the early days of my cat ownership – a cat person. Not at all. Not in any way. And perhaps it was because of this that this book resonated with me so strongly.
Cat out of Hell starts off with freshly retired librarian, Alec, escaping to a cottage by the sea to mourn the recent and not yet suspicious passing…
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