Alison Huber
Alison Huber is the head book buyer for Readings. She has been selling books in Melbourne for twenty years. She is also a recovering academic.
Review — 23 Oct 2023
The Postcard by Anne Berest & Tina Kover (trans.)
A postcard arrives in the Berest family’s mail in 2003, containing only four handwritten words, each the given name of a relative who died in the Holocaust. ‘Who could have…
Review — 23 Oct 2023
Held by Anne Michaels
Fellow fans of Anne Michaels’ novels will have learnt the art of patience: Michaels’ prize-winning debut, Fugitive Pieces (a key touchstone in my personal reading autobiography, as it will be…
Blog post — 3 Oct 2023
Dear Reader, with Alison Huber
Friends, October is officially O for Overwhelming. I spend each one of these columns trying to cover as many new releases as I can, but there are so many great…
Review — 21 Sep 2023
Body Friend by Katherine Brabon
Body Friend is told by an unnamed narrator who is suffering from a chronic autoimmune illness and living with daily debilitating pain. Her hostile body fights against itself, and to…
Blog post — 12 Sep 2023
Dear Reader, with Alison Huber
As you’ll read in Joe Rubbo’s wonderful piece of writing, the person whose name is synonymous with Readings (and the Australian books and publishing industry at large), Mark Rubbo, has…
Blog post — 8 Aug 2023
Dear Reader, with Alison Huber
I usually make a joke around this time of year that, for book buyers and retail buyers in general, it really is a case of Christmas in July, as many…
Review — 31 Jul 2023
The Sitter by Angela O’Keeffe
In The Sitter, the spirit of Hortense Cézanne – wife of the more famous Paul – is reanimated by the interest of her biographer and coexists in a hotel…
Blog post — 10 Jul 2023
Dear Reader, with Alison Huber
We have just returned from the annual gathering of Australia’s bookselling association (formerly known as the ABA, recently renamed BookPeople). It was a terrific event, and we heard some fantastic…
Blog post — 8 Jun 2023
Dear Reader, with Alison Huber
Every now and again, we booksellers are invited to spend an evening with a publisher and their authors. You may have romantic visions of what this involves – a little…
Review — 30 May 2023
Where I Slept by Libby Angel
Described as a work of autofiction, Where I Slept is firmly set in 1990s Melbourne and its streets, share houses, op-shops, squats, pubs, clubs, and cafes. Its narrator is found…
