Our latest blog posts

Read an extract from Laurinda by Alice Pung

by Alice Pung

In Laurinda, Alice Pung tells an involving, original story that captures the drama and pain of school life today, as well as revealing much about the choices of young women.

In anticipation of the release of this new young adult novel later this month, you can read an extract below.

When my dad dropped us off at the front gate, the first things I saw were the rose garden spreading out on either side of the main driveway and…

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Gone Girl: Book vs. Film

by Nina Kenwood

As a fan of both the novel and film adaptation of Gone Girl, I am here to pit them against one another in an ultimate showdown so you can know, definitively, which version is better. My scientific process involves comparing each in random categories that I have deemed important.

(Warning: plot spoilers ahead.)

Nick:

I never liked Nick in the book. Not for one minute – not at the very beginning, not after the Big Twist and not even…

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What we're reading: Jeff VanderMeer, Julia Gillard, David Nicholls and Lena Dunham

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.

Chris Gordon is reading My Story by Julia Gillard

My Story is not an angry or bitter tale. Rather, it is the story of a woman doing what no other woman in Australia has done before. Within the local and federal political footy ground Julia Gillard did two things: first, she tried to…

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Meet the bookseller with Tara Kaye Judah

by Tara Kaye Judah

We chat with Tara Kaye Judah about her fondness for feminist film theory and capitalist critique, and why she loves the cover of David Vann’s Goat Mountain.

Why do you work in books?

If I were to build a fort with walls of knowledge, the final result would be a bookstore. I want to live peacefully in a fort of knowledge. At Readings, the fort is also friendly.

What book would you happily spend a weekend indoors with?

Anything…

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Our thoughts on the Gone Girl movie (from two fans of the book)

Nina Kenwood, our digital marketing manager, and Fiona Hardy, our crime book specialist, attended a special preview screening of the Gone Girl movie this week. Here’s a (relatively) spoiler free discussion of the experience.

Nina: Hi Fiona. We both saw the Gone Girl movie last night. Let’s start with the most pressing question: did you see Ben Affleck’s penis? No wait. We’ll come back to that. Did you enjoy the film?

Fiona: Yes, I did enjoy Ben Affleck’s…

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What five books should be on your bookshelf? David Walsh responds

by David Walsh

I’m going to assume that by ‘everyone’s bookshelf’ you mean everyone that is likely to stroll into Readings. And not the kind of person that would then dart out of Readings with a stolen tome underarm. And not people of a particular moral or philosophical bent. I wouldn’t recommend the same books for a jihadist that I would for as schoolteacher. Then again, perhaps I would. Teachers, of course, are probably more coerced by economic circumstance to purloin a letter…

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NAW Reading Challenge: Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey

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

This week our participants have read Only The Animals by Ceridwen Dovey. Here are their responses to the book (Ed. note: may contain spoilers!)

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

Alice says:

One could make a list of all the animals mentioned in this book – from antelopes to zebras…

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Q&A with Yotam Ottolenghi

by Chris Gordon

Our resident foodie Chris Gordon chats with chef Yotam Ottolenghi about his gorgeous new cookbook.

The Sydney Morning Herald recently called you ‘the man who sexed up vegetables’. What’s the one ingredient you couldn’t live without to spice up a veggie dish?

As it takes two to tango, I’ll definitely need more than one, please!

Something to provide the background strength to a dish – tamarind paste, for example, which I’m using a lot at the moment. It’s very easy…

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Street Art v. Book Art

by Kyle Hughes-Odgers

Kyle Hughes-Odgers is the illustrator of Meg McKinlay’s Ten Tiny Things and has just released his first solo picture book, On A Small Island. Kyle is also a street artist who gets commissioned to produce large-scale public artwork. We were interested to find out about the process for each. Here is Kyle’s response.

Street art from Perth International Airport

I often get asked if it’s hard to switch between creating artwork across different scales and mediums, particularly children’s books…

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News from The Shop Floor

In our new monthly column, we share news from our five shops.

Hawthorn

Yotam Ottolenghi is universally adored by the staff here at Hawthorn and after a long, cold winter we are happy to be celebrating spring and its produce by cooking recipes from Ottolenghi’s new book Plenty More. We’ve been busy with lots of events, the rowdiest of which was Andy Griffiths’s, who entertained a packed shop and signed books like a rock star. He is so popular…

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