Our staff pick the Australian book they are most excited about reading in the second half of the year.

If you pre-order any of these ten Australian books, you’ll receive a copy signed by the author!

Martin Shaw recommends Demons by Wayne Macauley
(due in late July)

Back at the beginning of the year I wrote: ‘In recent years, Wayne Macauley, author of The Cook, has well and truly arrived as one of our most exciting prose…

Read more ›

Over the next few weeks we’re participating in a work experience program with students from high schools across Melbourne. Here, Tess Devine-Hercus tells us about her favourite books.

How would you describe your taste in books? Do you like romance or adventure, science fiction or history, etc?

My taste in books is incredibly diverse. I’ll read pretty much any genre, as long as it’s good, and I love books, whatever the area, that leave a lasting impression on the reader…

Read more ›

In our new Retro Reads series, we remember books from our past. Here, Bronte Coates talks about Jean Webster’s

I was a vicious reader as a child, an obsessively competitive MS-Readathon participant with a penchant for developing intense literary crushes (please see here). I consumed nearly everything I found on my family bookshelves and it was thanks to my grandmother (by path of my mother and older sister) that I first came across ‘College Girl’ stories – novels that…

Read more ›

All the Birds Singing by Evie Wyld

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

Lost & Found by Brooke Davis

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

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Gravity: Inside the PM’s Office During Her Last Year and Final Days by Mary Delahunty

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Stoner by John Williams

The Rise and Fall of Australia: How a Great Nation Lost its…

Read more ›

We can get very excited about book covers in the Readings office – the book as object is our trade, after all. Here are our favourite covers for July fiction titles.

The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. by Adelle Waldman

This is the paperback edition of Adelle Waldman’s widely read and praised debut novel. It’s quite different to the hardback, which was released last year, but equally appealing. Many readers and critics have highlighted Waldman’s skill in writing a balanced…

Read more ›

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.

Annie is reading The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

I came across this book recently, and was intrigued by the back cover blurb. Also, the front cover proudly announces the book as ‘Costa Book of the Year 2013’. So – both front and back get big ticks – but what about…

Read more ›

Here are our top picks for what to see at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) this year!

Nina Kenwood has a thing for American indies.

I love indie films from the USA so my initial reaction when I first saw the MIFF program was to circle all the films I already knew about and was dying to see: Richard Linklater’s extraordinary Boyhood, filmed once a year over the course of twelve years (the longest scheduled shoot in film…

Read more ›

At certain times a book is able to take hold of you in such a way as to direct the angle of your life for a while. W.G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn did this for me when I first discovered it a few years ago. I still think it’s the best work of fiction I’ve ever read.

Nominally the account of a long walk, which the narrator once took along the coast of East Anglia, The Rings of Saturn…

Read more ›

The Readings Foundation provides support for the PRACE Community Library.

I recently caught up with Barb, our Making Connections++ teacher, to ask how her students are managing the responsibility of looking after the PRACE Community Library. The library was established back in August 2012 through local government and community donations and has had continued support via a grant from The Readings Foundation. It is hard to believe that the library has already celebrated its one year anniversary and is…

Read more ›

Over the next few weeks we’re participating in a work experience program with students from high schools across Melbourne. Here, Kealy Siryj tells us about her favourite books.

How would you describe your taste in books? Do you like romance or adventure, science fiction or history, etc?

My taste in books is quite varied and I definitely wouldn’t consider any specific genre to be my favourite. I will often just read what’s recommended to me by family or friends, whether…

Read more ›