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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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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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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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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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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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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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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After several staff members read, and loved, Clare Atkins’ debut novel Nona and Me, we were excited to make it our Young Adult Book of the Month. Here, Clare talks on the challenges of setting a book in an Aboriginal community.

I suspect that many non-Aboriginal writers are scared of writing Aboriginal characters. I know I was. It is so easy to misrepresent. Or reinforce negative stereotypes. Or gloss over negative character traits in order to counter prejudice, and…

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If you are the parent or grandparent of boys aged between five to 12, chances are you are familiar with Minecraft, a computer game. Minecraft has spawned a range of official books, rather ugly affairs, which the developers insist can only be printed at one particular European printer. As the whole demographic worldwide wants these books, it’s often hard for the printer to keep up. For local publisher, Hardie Grant Egmont, the book has been a bonanza. In…

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

Readings recently suggested The Scarecrow’s Wedding as a cute gift for a couple getting married (see here). I like the idea but think scarecrows are quite creepy. Do you know of any other kids books that would work just as well?

Jennifer Adams and Alison Oliver are the brains behind Baby Lit – a stylish series that recreate classic…

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