Our latest blog posts

Which is the best Ottolenghi salad from Plenty More?

We put Ottolenghi’s salads to the test this week with four of our staff making recipes from Plenty More, and four other staff members acting as judges. Here are the results.

Elke Power made Pink Grapefruit and Sumac Salad (pg. 32):

After turning every page of the book and being overwhelmed with choice, I chose the first salad with in-season ingredients. Even so, I could not find any red chicory and had to choose between giant green chicory or…

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Ask Agatha: Can I burn my ex's books?

Our wise bookseller Agatha answers all your tricky questions. If you have a question for Agatha please email [email protected].

My boyfriend left me because of uncertain reasons. I have some of his books. Is it morally wrong to keep the one I like and burn the rest in a pit?

Don’t punish good books because their owner is terrible. That’s my motto. Give those unwanted books to a secondhand shop, a charity shop, a free library (like the Little…

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Why Ali Smith should win the 2014 Man Booker Prize

by Marie Matteson

Tim Parks wrote recently in the New York Review of Books that the social value of a novel is the conversation it can start. He went on to point out how hard it is today to start a conversation when we all read so disparately. But people do read prize-winners. It’s a moment when you can get them on the same page.

Consisting of two sections, How To Be Both has been printed in two different ways and as such…

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What we're reading: Bret Anthony Johnston, Adelle Waldman and Tom Perrotta

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.

Annie Condon is reading Remember Me like This by Bret Anthony Johnston

Bret Anthony Johnston is a professor of Creative Writing in the USA and his writing is seamless and engaging. This novel begins where many crime novels end – in the triumphant return of a kidnap victim to his family who have…

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Best book covers of October

Lila by Marilynne Robinson

The cover of Marilynne Robinson’s Lila is a surprisingly winsome match for the themes of the book – the publishers have even chosen to use the same cover for the hardback and paperback editions. The single image of an unruly country scene washed with sunlight evokes a joyful stillness and sense of plenty. The fence, however cheerfully obscured by weeds, is an apt reference both to the boundaries of Lila’s safe and potentially happy new life…

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A conversation about The Wife Drought by Annabel Crabb

Having recently read Annabel Crabb’s The Wife Drought, our staff members Emily Harms (Head of Marketing and Communications) and Chris Gordon (Events Manager) chat about their experiences juggling work and family in relation to Crabb’s arguments.

Chris says:

I’m a dime a dozen. There are more women like me than not in Australia. I know this is true because I read about myself in Annabel Crabb’s excellent new book. I’m in my 40s (average age is actually 37), I…

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NAW Reading Challenge: After Darkness by Christine Piper

To celebrate our inaugural New Australian Writing (NAW) Award shortlist, we’re running a NAW Reading Challenge.

This week our participants have read After Darkness by Christine Piper. Here are their responses to the novel. (Ed. note: may contain spoilers!)

Our favourite response for this week (not to mention the winner of our $100 gift voucher) is…

Jill says:

It’s no accident that Christine Piper, the author of After Darkness, is interested in Japanese history and its…

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Mark Rubbo interviews Peter Carey

Readings Managing Director Mark Rubbo chats to Peter Carey about his new novel

Amnesia seems to me to be about Australia’s relations with the US: it begins with the little known Battle of Brisbane in 1942, which saw fighting between Australian and US troops over two days, but the novel also includes a substantial critique by one of the characters of the US role in Gough Whitlam’s dismissal. Is this a correct assessment and how much do the character’s views…

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