This month marks the retirement of Peter Blake, the Sales Director of Penguin Books Australia. Peter’s name may not mean much to you but he’s probably touched your life in some way. Text publisher Michael Heyward called Peter a publishing genius for his simple yet brilliant idea of repackaging backlist titles in the distinctive orange and white livery of the Penguin Popular Classics at an affordable price – a bit like classy plain packaging!

Peter and I spoke about this…

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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.

Fiona Hardy is reading The Witch of Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper

The cover of this book was as seductive as I’ve ever seen on our young adult fiction shelves, and so when it came to pick a title for the book club I’m part of, I waved a picture of this…

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Lauren Beukes

South African novelist Lauren Beukes is an entirely original voice in crime fiction, blending together sci-fi, horror and crime. Her 2013 novel, The Shining Girls, which featured a time-traveling serial killer, was intensely creepy and earned her praise from Stephen King and James Ellroy. In her latest novel, Broken Monsters, Detective Gabriella Versado is stumped when part-human, part-animal corpses start appearing in Detroit.

Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler is best known as a sci-fi author but her…

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Well just the other day we announced the winner of the inaugural Readings New Australian Writing Award, which goes to Sydneysider Ceridwen Dovey for Only the Animals. I was genuinely thrilled by this, her second published work: Michelle de Kretser has described it as ‘wholly extraordinary’, and that really is the only suitable epithet for this amazing book. I was disoriented at first – animal narrators, and dead ones at that, so it’s their souls talking?! – but I…

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Our staff share some of the books that scared them when they were children.

Emily Gale on the Long Legged Scissor Man:

I still have my childhood copy of Struwwelpeter, a picture book first published in 1845 which is basically a catalogue of children wilfully ignoring the good advice given to them for their own safety and, as a result, ending up maimed, bedridden, tortured, alone, or just plain dead.

As a child, these stories became part of my…

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Given the sizeable number of new releases that arrive in store each month, it’s easy to miss some hidden gems. We’ve compiled a short list of books you might have missed this October.

Indigo by Clemens J. Setz

Set in a world uncannily familiar and yet entirely strange, Indigo (Austrian writer Clemens J. Setz’s first novel to be translated into English) is part thrilling detective story, part post-modern puzzle. It is 2007 and Austria is in the grip of a…

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We’re loving Alice Pung’s new young adult novel, Laurinda! Here she tells us what she sees as the challenges and freedoms of writing fiction for young adults as opposed to adults.

No other books have moved me or shaped me as much as the books I read as a teenager, when I had time to think about the world and my place in it. Young adulthood is a time when, for the very first time, you have the thoughts…

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Hello. I am a Taylor Swift fan and I spent last night listening to her new album. Now I am here to make some unscientific, non-expert snap judgements about her music. (To be fair and equal, I am only considering those songs that appear on both the standard and deluxe edition of the album).

Here is every song on 1989, ranked in order from best to worst:

Wildest Dreams: I may be alone in my love for this…

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Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey is the winner of the inaugural Readings New Australian Writing Award 2014! Dovey will receive $4000 in prize money.

Our judges said:

‘ Only the Animals is surely one of the boldest Australian short-story collections in recent years. Here is a rare beast – a work of fiction that is not only richly imaginative, but also intelligent, ambitious and universal in theme. Ceridwen Dovey has created a book that wears its literary antecedents –…

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

I want to read a prize winner from this year but don’t know which one! Help?

Well, well, well this question is perfectly timed! We just happen to be announcing the inaugural winner of our New Australian Writing Award this very evening. So, of course, the best place to start with prize winners is to read our winner (announced sometime…

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