Gabrielle Williams
Gabrielle Williams works as a bookseller at Readings Malvern and is the Grants Officer for the Readings Foundation. She is also the author of books for young adults, including My Life as a Hashtag.
Reviews
The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H. Winthrop
This is writing from an author at the very top of her game, an astonishing book, with echoes of To Kill A Mockingbird (a comparison I don’t use lightly). Beautifully written, it is heartache-making i…
The Melody by Jim Crace
It was always going to be a tough act for Jim Crace to follow. I’d only just finished reading the astonishing Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, when I picked up The Melody to review. But of co…
The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott
This review is going to be difficult to write, because The Ninth Hour is so masterful, so charming, so delightful, it’s going to be hard to do it justice. I want to gush, but gushing is clumsy and kn…
The Red-Haired Woman by Orhan Pamuk
When a book starts with a quote from Nietzsche about Oedipus, you know you can expect fathers, sons, mothers and lovers to become entangled with devastating consequences. When th eauthor is a previou…
In The Darkroom by Susan Faludi
If this book was written as fiction, you’d never believe it because you’d think it was too far-fetched. In 2004, Susan Faludi received an email from her father (whom she hadn’t seen in twenty-five ye…
The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
What a delight it has been to spend time with Julian Barnes and his new novel, The Noise of Time. Elegantly written and perfectly balanced, this slight book (it comes in at under 200 pages) is Barnes…
Where My Heart Used To Beat by Sebastian Faulks
Like Alice down the rabbit hole (if Alice was a 60-year-old man, and the rabbit hole was somehow New York and London and a remote island off the coast of France), the new Sebastian Faulks novel gets …
The Blue Guitar by John Banville
Right from page one of John Banville’s new novel, you know you’re in for a ride with a tricky, slippery character. Oliver Orme describes himself as a thief and a painter, and then writes, ‘Ha! What I…
Happy are the Happy by Yasmina Reza
Happy are the Happy examines the lives of 18 Parisians as they struggle to cope with coupledom and marriage generally. And happy, it ain’t. There are 21 short stories in all, with characters who have…
The Walk Home by Rachel Seiffert
I’ve never considered the flute to be a particularly controversial instrument, but apparently it can be. Reading The Walk Home I was thrown, unexpectedly, into a world where joining a marching band c…
Thank You for Your Service by David Finkel
David Finkel can write – and how. Thank You For Your Service is his second non-fiction book delving into the lives of soldiers who were on the front line in Baghdad (his first book was the incredible…
Floodline by Kathryn Heyman
After reading the blurb for Floodline, I was worried I was in for something a little more lightweight than you’d expect from Kathryn Heyman: ‘The feisty, sexy and dynamic host of a Christian shopping…
His Stupid Boyhood by Peter Goldsworthy
Peter Goldsworthy has laid himself open for inspection – like one of his cadavers from medical school – in this memoir.
Starting with his first sexual inclination, at age four, towards crank-handled…
Boy, Lost by Kristina Olsson
Bringing her journalistic skills to what is described on the cover as a ‘family memoir’, Kristina Olsson uses perfectly balanced prose to weave breathtaking beauty into this sad yarn.
As a 19-year-o…
News
The ASRC are releasing bilingual versions of My Two Blankets
When I think of asylum seekers in Melbourne, I don’t think of cumin and turmeric and c…
Sam Carmody wins the 2017 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction
The winner of the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction in 2017 is The Windy Season by Sam Carmody.
The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction is uniquely situated in the Australian literary landscape. It is one of three literary prizes managed entirely by Readings bookshop – all of which seek to raise the profile of exciting new writers – and considers first and second works of fiction b…
The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction shortlist 2017
The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction considers first and second books from Australian authors, with the aim of recognising exciting and exceptional new contributions to local literature.
Over the past year, the judges have read their way through over 70 Australian titles and were impressed by the number of edgy voices who didn’t shy away from starkly original concepts. The task of filte…
Tackling social media in teen books
When I was at school, my friend’s boyfriend broke up with her via toilet paper. I imagine…
