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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…
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…
Our top ten bestsellers of the week
My Story by Julia Gillard
Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s ‘Learned’ by Lena Dunham
Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi
The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion
Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín
The President’s Desk: An Altered History of the United States by Shaun Micallef
The Wife Drought by Annabel Crabb
Lenny: With All My Heart by Lenny Hayes
The Bush: Travels in the Heart of Australia by Don Watson
Read an extract from Laurinda by Alice Pung
by Alice PungIn 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…
Gone Girl: Book vs. Film
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…
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…
Meet the bookseller with 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…
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…
What five books should be on your bookshelf? David Walsh responds
by David WalshI’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…
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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