Our latest blog posts
Q&A with Mark Mulholland
Our Readings Monthly editor Belle Place interviews Irish writer Mark Mulholland about his debut novel, A Mad and Wonderful Thing, the story of an IRA sniper in the 1990s .
Your novel takes place in Dundalk, Ireland, in the 1990s. You’re from Dundalk, which explains your rich portrayal of the setting, but what drew you to explore this particular historical territory in a novel, and how much personal experience of The Troubles did you have to draw on?
I…
What I loved: Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
My favourite books hook me with their first lines: Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing, for example, or Christopher Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin, or Carson McCullers’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. The best deliver an uninterrupted flow of intriguing sentences, beginning to end. Clarice Lispector’s Hour of the Star does this in a brutal, disconcerting way, while conveying its story through a scrim of self-consciousness. It is bizarre and unsettling, but full of gems; it is bleak but funny…
Our big birthday sale!
It’s our 45th birthday today and to celebrate, we’re having a HUGE online sale, offering 20% off all books on our website, for one day only!
The terms and conditions of the special offer are as follows: The 20% off promotion only applies to books currently listed as in stock (to see if a book is in stock, click through to the book’s page and look at the information on the right hand side – if it is listed as…
Suzanne McCourt chats to Romy Ash about The Lost Child
Suzanne McCourt’s debut novel is set in Burley Point, a quiet fishing town on Australia’s wild southern coast. Here, McCourt talks with Romy Ash about writing her young protagonist, Sylvie, and constructing the troubled narrative of a small town and a missing child.
The Lost Child is a quiet epic, spanning a decade of immense change in the lives of its characters and the small rural town of Burley Point where the novel is set. This is a book that…
Event highlights in March
Events Manager Chris Gordon shares some highlights from our March program of events, one for each week of the month.
Rafael Epstein in conversation with Jon Faine
Melbourne’s own voices are coming together for this event. Rafael Epstein will talk on his early friendship with Ben Zygier, a young Australian swept up in international intelligence, with radio presenter Jon Faine as part of a discussion on Raf’s new book, Prisoner X.
When: Tuesday 11 March, 6.30pm.
Where: Readings Carlton…
Laura Jean McKay on Lorrie Moore's Birds of America
by Laura Jean McKayReading Lorrie Moore for the second time is a different experience to reading her for the first. Not just because of that extra skin of insight, though there’s that. Once you know Moore, you also know that she’s very likely to wreak havoc on the lives of her characters: a woman who is holding a baby one minute will fall off a picnic bench and kill it the next; a ghost in a roof will turn out to be an…
Last week's top ten bestsellers
Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain by Daniel J. Siegel
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Chequered Lives: John Barton Hack and Stephen Hack and the early days of South Australia by by Iola Mathews with Chris Durrant
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Piranesi’s Grandest Tour: From Europe to Australia by Colin Holden
The World’s Best Spicy Food by Lonely Planet
The Age: Good Food Under $30 by Simone Egger
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
What we're reading
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.
Nina is reading Look At Me by Jennifer Egan
I read A Visit from the Goon Squad back when it was first released, and I was deeply impressed by Egan’s writing.
I wanted to read Look At Me after reading an interview with Egan where she spoke about how hard it was for…
Our 2014 Oscar Predictions
With the Oscars due to be announced on Monday 3 March (Australian time) we’re making our predictions of who will take out this year’s top awards. You can view the full list of nominees
Nina Kenwood, Online Manager
Best Picture: 12 Years A Slave
Best Directing: Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)
Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Best Actress Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years A Slave
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Best…
March highlights
Well, it behoves me to mention, first of all, the latest work by one of Readings’ own , namely, children’s book buyer Emily Gale, who has penned two books for younger readers: Eliza Boom’s Diary: My Explosive Adventure and Eliza Boom’s Diary: My Fizz-tastic Investigation. Having witnessed firsthand her agony at having to order her own book for the shops, all I can say is that she ordered very conservatively for what will surely be an immensely popular new…