Our latest reviews

Everything Is True: Paul Dempsey

Reviewed by Ali Meehan, Readings Port Melbourne

This solo outing from Something For Kate frontman Paul Dempsey is like a chameleon – at first glance, a camouflage of folk-rock tunes accompanies his unmistakable voice, but with repeated listening, this record evolves into revealing storytelling.

The primarily acoustic…

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Ivy Loves to Give: Freya Blackwood

Reviewed by Holly Harper, Readings Malvern

Ivy loves to give presents. They might not always be exactly right, like giving a cup of tea to the chicken, or a dummy to an extremely unimpressed cat, but that doesn’t stop her.

A winner of the 2007 Australian…

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Open Fire: Battle Boy Book One

Reviewed by Marie Matteson, Readings Port Melbourne

A brand new series for all those Zac Power lovers, the Battle Boy books follow the adventures of Napoleon Smythe as he travels through time to observe famous battles.

Plucked from a boring Saturday morning in the library, Napoleon is…

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Stealing Picasso: Anson Cameron

Reviewed by Sally Keighery, Program Coordinator of CAE Book Groups

Anson Cameron’s fifth novel is a playful homage to Melbourne’s most infamous art heist, the theft of a Picasso from the NGV in 1986 by a group known as Australian cultural terrorists. Heads almost rolled in high places until ‘greenface’…

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Lost Days: Emily The Strange

Reviewed by Ella Robinson-Clarke, Age 10, Elwood

Lost Days: Emily The Strange is a very interesting book about confusion, losing things, finding things you never knew you had, four black cats, the number 13 and Emily!

In this book Emily, aged 13, dressed in a simple black…

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Open 16: The Art Biennial as a Global Phenomenon

Reviewed by Margaret Snowdon, Art & Design Specialist at Readings Carlton

This is a more theoretical examination of the subject of arts festivals, containing a number of lectures delivered at a debate in connection with the first Brussels Biennial. Together with supplementary texts, a ‘reader’ had been created in which the…

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Hijack Reality: Deptford X: A 'How to' Guide to Organize a Really Top Notch Art Festival: Bob and Roberta Smith

Reviewed by Margaret Snowdon, Art & Design Specialist at Readings Carlton

The past decade has seen a massive growth in arts festivals, to the point where almost no city would be without one. Apparently Deptford X is really successful, integrating diverse interests in the local community with big-name artists. With a…

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Vitamin 3-D

Reviewed by Margaret Snowdon, Art & Design Specialist at Readings Carlton

This latest offering in the Phaidon ‘Vitamin’ compendiums includes all forms of sculpture and installation, except for film and video installations. Even before Rosalind Krauss’s landmark 1979 essay ‘Sculpture in the Expanded Field’, the distinction between sculpture and its environment…

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Scruffy Old Cat: Pop Hooper’s Perfect Pets: Kyle Mewburn

Reviewed by Charlie Kerekes, Aged 10

Scruffy Old Cat is really for younger readers (aged 6-8) that enjoy cats. It is story of Lilly, who gets the idea that she should be the perfect ballerina princess, with the perfect fluffy cat as a pet. Despite her…

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The Galant Bassoon: Matthew Wilkie

Reviewed by Kate Rockstrom, Readings Carlton

Gentle lyricism opens the first track of this new CD from Melba records, and shows the virtuosity of bassoonist Matthew Wilkie. He is skilfully accompanied by Neal Deres Da Costa on harpsichord and Kees Boersma on continuo double bass.

Consisting…

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