The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Young Adult Book Prize.

Anna Chiu has her hands full with Year 11, looking after her brother and sister, and helping out at her family’s restaurant. Her dad’s new delivery boy, Rory, is a welcome distraction and Anna loves spending time working on perfecting her dumplings. But her close-knit fa…

Read more ›

Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Anita Heiss Phosphorescence by Julia Baird Normal People by Sally Rooney After Australia edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

Two…

Read more ›

Our Home, Our Heartbeat by Adam Briggs, Kate Moon & Rachael Sarra Finding Our Heart by Thomas Mayor & Blak Douglas Welcome To Country by Lisa Kennedy & Aunty Joy Murphy Respect by Aunty Fay Muir, Sue Lawson & Lisa Kennedy The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins Young Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe Bluey: Big Backyard The End of the World Is Bigger than Love by Davina Bell Bluey: The Cree…

Read more ›

Our staff share the best books they’ve read so far this year, including new releases and older titles just discovered.

I’ve read a fair bit this year, all things considered, but I have two clear fiction favourites: Weather by Jenny Offill, and The Animals in that Country by Laura Jean McKay. Both are brilliant and subversive, and star real women dealing with the effects of the ground shifting …

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. Chris Gordon is reading The Mother Fault by Kate Mildenhall (available September)

I was kept wide awake last night because of bloody Kate Mildenhall’s forthcoming novel, The Mother Fault. Set in Australia in the near (but please god, let it n…

Read more ›

If you’re looking to read more works in translation this year, we’ve compiled a list of seven new works of fiction that bring you voices from around the world. Minor Detail by Adania Shibli (translated by Elisabeth Jaquette)

Minor Detail revolves around a brutal crime committed one year after the War of 1948 – which Palestinians mourn as the Nakba, the catastrophe that led to the displaceme…

Read more ›

For book clubs who love vital portraits of the immigrant experience… Dominicana by Angie Cruz

On New Year’s Day, 1965, Ana leaves behind everything she knows in the Dominican Republic to marry a man twice her age, and hopefully provide an opportunity for her entire close-knit family. She becomes Ana Ruiz, a wife confined to a cold six-floor walk-up in Washington Heights. Lonely and miserable…

Read more ›

Devil’s Ballast is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Young Adult Book Prize.

Anne Bonny was eighteen when she ran away from her violent husband, James, and teamed up with the pirate Calico Jack. Now she’s passing as a cabin boy on Jack’s ship and playing her part in a ruthless crew that is causing terror for all aboard the ships of the Caribbean. But James Bonny still w…

Read more ›

Welcome To Country by Lisa Kennedy & Aunty Joy Murphy Our Home, Our Heartbeat by Adam Briggs, Kate Moon & Rachael Sarra Finding Our Heart by Thomas Mayor & Blak Douglas Respect by Aunty Fay Muir, Sue Lawson & Lisa Kennedy The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins Take the Shot by Susan White Sorry Day by Coral Vass & Dub Leffler Young Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe Bluey: Big Backyard The …

Read more ›

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Anita Heiss Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo Phosphorescence by Julia Baird How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge The Dicti…

Read more ›