No doubt like many people, when I first watched Jane Campion’s 1990 film An Angel at My Table, some ten years ago, I intended to read Janet Frame’s three-part autobiography – To the Is-Land, An Angel at My Table and The Envoy from Mirror City – on which the film is based, and anything else of hers I could get my hands on.

The books cover, respectively, Frame’s childhood and teenage years; then her twenties, much of which…

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This Saturday 9 August is National Bookshop Day, a special day to celebrate bookstores, booksellers, book-lovers and, of course, books! We are delighted to announce we will have some very special guests on the day…

The Gruffalo and the mouse will be joining us for storytime at three of our shops!

Bring the kids along to Readings St Kilda at 10.30am (details here), Readings Carlton at 12pm (details here) or Readings Hawthorn at 2pm (details…

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The best kind of storytellers are the ones so adept at their craft that they can hypnotise even those readers bitterly opposed to the subject matter. So it is with Miriam Sved, whose debut novel, Game Day, addresses the complex, often insidious and interweaving relationships formed between the members of an Australian Football League club.

The book is being sold as the journey taken by two young rookies, Mick ‘Mickey’ Reece and Jake Dooley, as they endure the gruelling…

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It’s National Bookshop Day this Saturday 9 August! To celebrate, we’d love you to come into any of our shops and take a #readingsselfie! Our favourite pictures will win a $100 Readings gift voucher.

To enter the competition, take a picture of yourself in any Readings shop on National Bookshop Day (Saturday 9 August), use the hashtag #readingsselfie (note the double s!) and either:

tweet your picture

upload your picture on Instagram

post your picture to our Facebook page

We…

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Belle Place interviews Sophie Cunningham about her new work of non-fiction.

This year marks 40 years since Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin on Christmas Eve – what is your motivation for wanting to write this book now?

I have always been fascinated by Cyclone Tracy – it had a big impact on me as a child. But, as I write in the book, my biggest motivation was the fact that the human race is transforming the land, the seas and the…

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Paddy O’Reilly’s new novel, The Wonders, is populated with misfits of all kinds. Here, she talks on other misfits and monsters she’s loved in books.

We learn early what it is to be a misfit.

The first week at school the misfit will be spotted, singled out, made to understand she doesn’t belong. She’ll be left standing in a distant corner of the playground, looking at her hands or scanning the sky, trying to pretend it’s okay. At the…

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The latest installment of our book advice column where you can ask our wise bookseller Agatha all your tricky (book-related) questions.

I’m into literature but I think most of it is painfully unfunny. What books can I read that will actually make me laugh?

To my thinking, Lorrie Moore is essential reading for the Literary lover who enjoys funny books. Of her latest short-story collection, Bark, our reviewer writes: ‘Moore’s use of humour is underhanded, her jokes sneaking up…

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On my recent holidays I had the great pleasure of reading an advance of the new Colm Tóibín novel, Nora Webster (due for release in October). I have to confess that the only Tóibín I’ve read is The Testament of Mary, which I was fairly diffident about, and read, largely, because I’d been invited by his publisher to have dinner with Tóibín when he was here last year for the Melbourne Writers Festival. Tóibín was charming, witty and slightly…

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James Halliday Australian Wine Companion 2015 by James Halliday

All the Birds Singing by Evie Wyld

Demons by Wayne Macauley

The Book of Paul: The Wit and Wisdom of Paul Keating by Russell Marks

The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna

The Life of I: The New Culture of Narcissism by Anne Manne

The Fights of My Life by Greg Combet with Mark Davis

Lost & Found by Brooke Davis

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

The Goldfinch by Donna…

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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.

Emily is reading Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Liane Moriarty is my number one go-to for a holiday read. But since I’m not due a holiday for ages and she has a new book out, I’ve had to make an exception.

What I really enjoy about Moriarty’s writing is that she simultaneously…

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