Ellen Cregan
Ellen Cregan is the former marketing coordinator for Readings.
Reviews
Letter To You by Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band go back a long way – they first played together almost five decades ago, in 1972. Springsteen selected the members of this band to back him on his debut record…
Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings
Nineteen-year-old Bettina hasn’t been the same since her father and brothers disappeared. She lives with her mother, Nerida, in the family home, spending her days running errands and taking care of t…
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
Ava is an Irish expat living in Hong Kong, teaching English to privileged Hongkonger children. She is in her twenties, and is a rudderless kind of high-achiever: intelligent, but unable (or unwilling…
The Inland Sea by Madeleine Watts
Against a backdrop of familiar ecological catastrophe – fires, floods, and the terrifying spectre of the future of a warmed world – a young woman’s life is unravelling in Sydney’s inner west. She wor…
Strange Hotel by Eimear McBride
Hotels are strange places to exist – each is different, but there’s an element of same-ness to them. The room might be big or small, have blinds or curtains, be spotless or grimy, but there’s still t…
The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West
Lindy West’s is the voice we need in 2019 – she’s snarky, sensible, accessible, inclusive and aware, and above all, hilarious. In The Witches are Coming, West takes her reader on a journey through po…
Grand Union by Zadie Smith
There are few things more exciting to me than new writing by the literary goddess-tier author Zadie Smith. Her latest offering, Grand Union, brings together nineteen short stories set across differen…
Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roper
Megan Phelps-Roper was born into the infamous fringe Christian sect, the Westboro Baptist Church, well-known for its intense homophobia and picketing protests at soldiers’ funerals. Mostly made up of…
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
A disclaimer before I begin – I read this book very quickly, and these are my first impressions. And there are minor spoilers below, so if you’d prefer to be a blank slate for this book, read no furt…
Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Toby Fleishman is going through a divorce, and is feeling quite sorry for himself. Toby is a highly regarded hepatologist working in a prestigious New York hospital. He has two children, Solly and Ha…
Lucky Ticket by Joey Bui
There is nothing quite like reading a wonderful collection of short stories – I believe that the power of fiction to mentally transport us is at its strongest in this shorter, punchier format. Joey B…
The Trespassers by Meg Mundell
The Trespassers shifts between the points of view of three migrants travelling from overcrowded, disease-ridden countries to a better future – Billie, a Scottish healthcare worker; Cleary, a young Ir…
Bowraville by Dan Box
Twenty-nine years ago in the tiny, rural NSW town of Bowraville, three Aboriginal children were killed within six months of each other: teenagers Colleen Walker-Craig and Clinton Speedy-Duroux, and f…
This Taste for Silence by Amanda O'Callaghan
Short fiction is a versatile and, in my opinion, very useful form of writing. A good short story can immerse you in a totally new world over the course of a train trip, or help you consider things fr…
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Queenie’s life is not going to plan. She and her long-term partner are on a break that has no end in sight. She’s been forced to move out of the flat they shared together and into a disgusting shareh…
Killing Eve: Season 1 by Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Some television shows beg to be binged, others are better enjoyed slowly. Killing Eve, painfully for me, is both. As each episode finished, I desperately wanted to hit play on the following one, but …
Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi
The Lee family gingerbread is legendary – it has been known to cause obsession in a single bite. Margot and her daughter Harriet are quite unusual. They come from the land of Druhástrana, which doesn…
Beyond Words: A Year with Kenneth Cook by Jacqueline Kent
In 1985, Jacqueline Kent was living in Sydney and working as a freelance book editor. At a dinner party, she met Kenneth Cook, author of classic Australian novel Wake in Fright. The two quickly fell …
Wintering by Krissy Kneen
Jessica is a PhD candidate living in southernmost Tasmania, studying the activity of the glow worms that inhabit Winter Cave, an untouched haven she discovered herself. Aside from study and work, Jes…
Inappropriation by Lexi Freiman
Ziggy Klein is fifteen years old, and has just left her comfortable, Jewish high school for the chaos of the uber prestigious Kandara Girls School, where Sydney’s elite send their teenagers. Surround…
The Fireflies of Autumn by Moreno Giovannoni
In this debut work of fiction, Moreno Giovannoni brings together many tales from the small town of San Ginese in Tuscany, Italy. While the stories of The Fireflies of Autumn are fictional, San Ginese…
Sculptor by Luluc
Australian indie-folk duo Luluc’s third studio album, Sculptor, is laid-back indie-folk in the vein of artists like Nick Drake, Angus and Julia Stone, and Sufjan Stevens. Randell and Hassett’s wonder…
Pink Mountain on Locust Island by Jamie Marina Lau
Sometimes a book comes along that doesn’t just make me very happy, but also makes me excited for the future. Jamie Marina Lau’s debut novel, Pink Mountain on Locust Island, is one such book. Told in …
The Lucky Galah by Tracy Sorensen
Lucky is a galah living in the remote town of Port Badminton, on the north-west coast of Australia, and she is a born storyteller. With the help of a defunct satellite dish, which can sporadically co…
Domestic Interior by Fiona Wright
When I was at uni, one of my favourite tutors gave me an excellent, simple piece of advice on writing poetry. She said the title of the poem should be treated as its first line, and ideally set the t…
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
Prosper and his little brother Bo have run away to the magical city of Venice, following the death of their beloved mother. They join forces with a group of young runaways taking shelter in an abando…
The Life to Come by Michelle de Kretser
I have to be honest – this is the first time I’ve ever read Michelle de Kretser. She is one of those names in Australian literature who has been on my mental ‘to read’ list for quite some time. I’m g…
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
Imagine living in a world where every act you undertake is politicised, against your will. For some readers, this will be a reality. Kamila Shamsie’s latest novel, Home Fire, depicts this very phenom…
Rain Birds by Harriet McKnight
Pina and Alan have lived in Boney Point, a town in rural East Gippsland, for decades. When Alan develops early-onset dementia, the fiercely independent Pina struggles to give up her life to care for …
Siren by Rachel Matthews
After a night of underage clubbing, 16-year-old Jordi Spence goes home with with two late-career AFL players. They are both more than double her age. Hours later she leaves, bruised and emotionally b…
News
My five favourite reads of 2020
Each year I try to read plenty of Australian fiction, and 2020 was no different. This debut novel was a stand-out of this year’s cohort, and is one of the best ne…
The best pop albums of 2019
At first glance, this could be labelled an album of background music, but it’s…
Which Zadie Smith book should you read first?
Interweaving 10 completely new and unpublished stories with some of her best-loved pieces from the New Yorker and elsewhere, Grand Union is a sharply alert and slyly prescient collection ab…
Chilling reads to keep you cool in summer
This book takes on the mammoth task of telling the story of ice – a substance that covers a great deal of our planet, but is rapidly shrinking away. Nancy Campbell packed up her life and left on a…
The best pop CDs of 2018
With Wide Awake!, New York’s Parquet Courts have given us a lively punk masterpi…
Jennifer Down wins the 2018 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction
The winner of the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction in 2018 is Pulse Points by Jennifer Down.
The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, now in its fifth year, is awarded to a work of fiction by an Australian author. Authors’ first and second works of fiction are eligible for the prize. The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction is one of three literary prizes that Readings awards…
