What we're reading
What we're reading: Iglesias & Parton
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Jason Austin is reading The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias
Winner of both the Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker Awards this year, The Devil Takes You Home is a beautifully paced supernatural crime-noir-horror novel about a man on the brink.
Mario's small daughter has died of leukemia, and he's freshly estranged from his wife, Melisa. Finding himself deeply in debt with…
What we're reading: Flanagan & Rundell
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Chris Gordon is reading Question 7 by Richard Flanagan
I'm at that time of the year when I reflect on the year that has been. I'm looking at all the pathways I could have, should have, would have taken if I had stopped to take some time to think a little longer.
Reading Richard Flanagan's Question 7 can be blamed for this newly…
What we're reading: Mushin, Kingsolver & Rundell
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Bernard Caleo is reading Ultrawild by Steve Mushin
Steve Mushin’s Ultrawild is a book full of visionary, revolutionary plans and schematics for rewilding the world, one city at a time (or actually, if Steve has his way, all of the cities in the world simultaneously). In meticulous, large-format, comic-book-style pages, he steps us through his designs for flinging compost balls down city streets…
What we're reading: Tremain, Paolini & Spears
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Joanna Di Mattia is reading Absolutely & Forever by Rose Tremain
Over the past three months, I have read one great book after another. I recently finished Rose Tremain’s latest novel, Absolutely & Forever, which has continued this golden streak.
This is a book of young passions written with the insight of age, told from the perspective of Marianne Clifford, a teenager…
What we're reading and listening to: Mitski, Hobbs & McBride
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Emma Davison is listening to The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We by Mitski
I have been a bit slow on the reading front this week but on a musical note, I have been loving Mitski’s album The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We which came out just last month, a great album for all the sad girls out there, and…
What we're reading: Yoshitake, Levy & Ward
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Dani Solomon is reading I Can Open That! by Shinsuke Yoshitake
Another Shinsuke Yoshitake book, another hit. I Can Open That! begins with a little boy who laments how hard it is to open things like chocolate wrappers and orange juice. This leads to him imagining how great it will be when he can open things on his own, he'll be an official…
What we're reading: Lucashenko, Penelope & Boynton
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Rosalind McClintock is reading Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko
I was lucky enough to see Melissa Lucashenko in conversation with David Marr at the BookPeople conference. Lucashenko came across as fiercely intelligent, generous and funny, that along with the passages she read aloud from her new book Edenglassie prompted me to hunt down a copy. It did not disappoint, it is all these things…
What we're reading: Fawcett, Collins & Jackson
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Lian Hingee is reading Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
I don't know if it's the general dreadful state of the world, the awfulness of the news, or the looming dread of climate catastrophe, but there's been a really big uptick in 'cosy' iterations of my favourite genres, and I for one am here for it. People being nice to each…
What we're reading: Özlü, Jackson & Hammer
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Baz Ozturk is reading Cold Nights of Childhood by Tezer Özlü & Maureen Freely (trans.)
Translated and published into English for the first time this year, this modern Turkish classic is a beautiful, brutal and surprisingly life-affirming novella. It’s the story of a woman – in and out of psychiatric wards, being forcefully treated with electroshock therapy – struggling to assert her will…
What we're reading: McCarthy, Kaminsky & Keegan
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Emma Davison is reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
I have been making my way through Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy this week and it’s definitely been a tough read. This isn’t to say I’m not enjoying it, I love McCarthy’s bleak and ruthless writing style, Blood Meridian is a treacherous journey which I am glad I embarked upon.
Based on true historical…
What we're reading: Atkinson, Skinner & Batrouney
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Lian Hingee is reading Normal Rules Don't Apply by Kate Atkinson
I've been listening to Kate Atkinson's marvellous new book Normal Rules Don't Apply on Libro.fm this week. This excellent collection of short stories is a little bit funny, a little bit sad, a little bit spooky, and all brilliant. From a Stephen King-esque dystopia about the end of the world, to an…
What we're reading: Aoyama, Nolan & McKinty
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Megan Wood is reading What You Are Looking for is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama
This delightful book features five people who are feeling stuck and questioning their place in the world. Each finds themselves at the local library, getting recommendations (and a bonus gift) from the mysterious librarian who has a particular talent for knowing what people need to read to…
What we're reading: Cohen, Batrouney & Yu
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Lian Hingee is reading Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen
Having read Aurelia's rave review in our most recent Readings Monthly, Julie Mae Cohen's crime novel Bad Men rocketed to the top of my TBR list. Saffy Huntley-Oliver is a former supermodel, a socialite on the board of several charities (including one for donkeys that she doesn't want to talk about), a devoted…
What we're reading: Huang, Islington & Flanagan
Each week our amazing staff bring you a sample of the books or music they're immersed in.
Aurelia Orr is reading Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang
When our unnamed protagonist's parents become debilitated from a horrible accident, she is eager to take any job that pays well, including a position in the glamorous beauty company Holistik. The luxury and allure of working at Holistik is at first the most pampered and beautiful she has ever felt before. But when…
What we're reading: Stevenson & Reyes
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.
Lian Hingee is reading Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
Benjamin Stevenson's Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone has been on my TBR list for a while so when I saw it on Libro.fm (the new audiobook platform that supports independent booksellers rather than Jeff Bezos) I downloaded…
What we're reading: Novik & Saint
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.
Angela Crocombe is reading The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik
I am reading The Golden Enclaves, Lesson Three of the Scholomance trilogy by Naomi Novik. I hardly ever read the second or third book in a series, but these books are just so addictive and set in such a fascinating world that…
What we're reading: Eng & Adegoke
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.
Mark Rubbo is reading The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng and Judas Boys by Joel Deane
Struck down by Covid on my very first day of retirement, I was lucky to have a copy of Tan Twan Eng’s Booker longlisted novel, The House of Doors beside my bed. Sadly, it was…
What we're reading: Bechdel, Kuang & James
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 Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
If you meet Bernard Caleo at Readings Carlton and receive a graphic novel recommendation from him, take it. His knowledge of this genre is tremendous. Last week he put Alison Bechdel’s latest novel, The Secret to Superhuman Strength in my hands…
What we're reading: Laing & Skinner
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.
Tracy Hwang is reading The Lonely City by Olivia Laing
I’m currently making a rare foray into nonfiction with The Lonely City by Olivia Laing. It’s an extremely well researched, introspective and empathetic look at loneliness and its intersection with art and the artists who we might not see, or think to see…
What we're reading: Lewis & Brennan
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.
Fiona Hardy is reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S Lewis
Last weekend, on a road trip to Phillip Island, my partner read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe aloud in the car while I drove. He and my daughter had read the previous book — the Magician’s Nephew…
What our Teen Advisory Board are reading
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.
Caspian is reading The Isles of the Gods by Amie Kaufman
Last month I read The Isles of the Gods by Amie Kaufman.
I’m a sucker for fantasy and a sucker for pirates so this book was perfect. The magic system was so unique and awesome with the spirits and sacrifices. The world…
What we're reading: Lawson & Sittenfeld
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 Cook, Eat, Repeat by Nigella Lawson
I was not in Australia when Nigella Lawson came to captivate us all but I did manage to purchase her latest cook book, Cook, Eat, Repeat at a marvellously bargain price this week, all in the comfort of my own work place.
I…
What we're reading: Garmus, Paulsen & Fisher
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.
Lian Hingee is reading Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
I first heard about Lessons in Chemistry way back before the book was published and thought to myself 'ooh, that sounds right up my alley!'. But the thing about working in books is that there's always a million and one books to read…
What we're reading: Taylor & Plath
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.
Rosalind McClintock is reading Search History by Amy Taylor
I have just finished reading Search History by Amy Taylor, and absolutely loved it. Taylor's writing is sharp and funny. Her characters are flawed and real. Based in Melbourne (which I always love), Ana has moved over from Perth running from a bad break…
What we're reading: Johnston, Williams & Everett
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.
Mark Rubbo is reading Aphrodite’s Breath by Susan Johnson
I’ve been reading Aphrodite’s Breath by Susan Johnson. Susan is the author of many books and has spent much her working life overseas; in the 70s she spent some idyllic months on the Greek island of Kythera and as she entered her early 60s…
What we're reading: Zevin & Burton
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.
Aurelia Orr is reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
When Sadie and Sam meet as children in the gaming room of a hospital, they quickly bond over their love of video games. As they grow into adulthood, you witness the ups and downs of friendship; the jealousies, the miscommunication, watching…
What we're reading: Lien & Littlewood
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 her heart out while on vacation!
Without wanting to distress you all, the truth is I’m heading to the tropics to read for six whole weeks. Of course, like all lifelong readers, I will be taking some of my favourite novels to revisit, but I’m also packing not-yet-read books…
What we're reading: Johnson & Morrow
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.
Joanna Di Mattia is reading Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen by Rebecca May Johnson
Rebecca May Johnson’s Small Fires has ignited a pretty big fire in my brain. It’s a work of personal and cultural memoir about what bodies do when they cook. Johnson is interested in ‘unromancing’ what happens in…
What we're reading: Pouliot & Heisey
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 Underground Lovers by Alison Pouliot
This week I was fortunate enough to meet a fungi lover and ambassador for all things underground, Alison Pouliot. Pouliot is the author of Underground Lovers – a book that celebrates the nature of fungi and the impact this extraordinary organism has on our…
What we're reading: Prior, Legge & Bryon
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.
Lian Hingee is reading Childless by Sian Prior
I just finished reading Sian Prior’s intensely personal memoir Childless. I’ve had this book on my shelf for a while, but I had my own traumatic experience with infertility, the fertility industry, and being childless (as distinct to being child free), so I knew…
What we're reading: Adjei-Brenyah & Sasha Kutabah Sarago
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.
Joe Murray is reading Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
I recently read Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's debut short story collection Friday Black, which perfectly encapsulated the exhilarating imagination that I search for in short stories.
The stories are deeply off-kilter and weird – in one, retail workers fend off Black Friday shoppers…
What we're reading: Chu, Spratt & Schaeffer
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.
Lian Hingee is reading The Stand-In by Lily Chu
I marked Lily Chu's debut rom-com The Stand-In as a 'must-read' as soon as it was announced in 2021, but I somehow managed to completely miss its 2022 release until seeing it in a round-up of great contemporary romance reads last week. I snapped…
What we're reading: Groom & Boygenius
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.
Ruth Mchugh-Dillon is reading The Vampire: A New History by Nick Groom
I was looking for some nonfiction that would jolt my January-brain back into action and The Vampire: A New History by Yale literature professor Nick Groom is proving just the thing.
The book explores the immense cultural potency of the vampire…
What we're reading: Throsby & Murdoch
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.
Lian Hingee is reading Clarke by Holly Throsby
I bought Clarke on a whim just before Christmas thinking it might be a good book to give to my Mum, but I'm glad I ended up keeping it for myself because I turned the last page last night, and let me tell you: it's…
What we're reading: Kennedy, O'Farrell & Hogarth
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.
Rosalind McClintock is reading Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
Each time I visited one of our shops a colleague would ask me if I'd read Trespasses. So, when it came to selecting my summer reading, Trespasses was on the top of my pile, and I am so glad it was. This is an…
What we're reading: Mathers, Harden & Watson
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.
Mark Rubbo is reading King & Godfree: The Corner Grocer by Michael Harden and The Passion of Private White by Don Watson
I’ve been reading King & Godfree: The Corner Grocer by Michael Harden; anyone who has spent any time around Carlton will (or should) have a deep love for this Melbourne institution…
What we're reading: Greer, Fitzharris & Boyd
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.
Gabrielle Williams is reading Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer
A follow up to Greer’s Pulitzer-Prize winning Less, Less is Lost again follows Arthur Less, middlingly successful novelist and indecisive lover as he tries to come to terms with the death of his ex-lover, the poet Robert Brownburn. Although Less is…
What we're reading: Wilson & Baldree
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 A Year with Wendy Whitley by Ashleigh Wilson
I feel like I spent the entire weekend with Wendy Whitley and her mate Ashleigh Wilson. Reading A Year with Wendy Whitley is like being at an afternoon tea, seated at Wendy’s re-imagined table (read the book to know what I…
What we're reading: Manning & Gale
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.
Mark Rubbo is reading The Successor: The High Stakes Life of Lachlan Murdoch by Paddy Manning
Given the influence of the Murdochs on both Australian society and the world through their pervasive media interests, this book is essential reading. With his lively and engaging style Paddy Manning presents his extensive research in a…
What we're reading: Chan, Weetman & Diaz
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
Angela Crocombe is reading Every Version of You by Grace Chan
I read Grace Chan’s Every Version of You this week and I cannot get it out of my head. It’s a speculative fiction novel set in a future Melbourne in the 2080s and it's cleverly unclear if it is describing a dystopia…
What we're reading: Hogeland, Diaz & Swift
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.
Annie Condon is reading The Long Answer by Anna Hogeland
The Long Answer by Anna Hogeland is a brilliant novel about mothering, not mothering, and all the states in between including wanting a child, losing a child, and bearing witness to other women’s experiences.
The novel begins when the narrator is twelve weeks…
What we're reading: Kenwood, Ng & Parks
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.
Lian Hingee is reading Unnecessary drama by Nina Kenwood
So apparently mind-reading isn’t real, and it’s impossible to look at someone and know exactly what’s going on in their head, but honestly I have no other explanation for how Nina Kenwood managed to crack open my skull and write every single one of…
What we're reading: Reid, Diaz & Everett
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.
Lian Hingee is reading The Trees by Percival Everett
The title of Percival Everett's Booker Prize-shortlisted novel The Trees doesn't give much away, but crack the cover on this extraordinary book, and you're in for a wild, wild ride. Deep in Trump country a brutal murder has taken place. At the crime scene…
What we're reading: Lukins, Williams & Petterson
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.
Gabrielle Williams is reading Loveland by Robert Lukins
So far as I'm concerned, Loveland by Robert Lukins is one of the best books of the year. May is married to the violent and volatile Patrick, and unfortunately their son Francis is turning into a chip off the old block. When May's grandmother bequeaths…
What we're reading: Godwin, Au & Yoshitake
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.
Aurelia Orr is reading A Walk in the Dark by Jane Godwin
What’s the worst that can happen when a group of year nine students go hiking in the woods at night, with no adults … and no phones? A Walk in the Dark takes the wilderness survival story and twists it into…
What we're reading: Batuman & Ponthus
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.
Baz Ozturk is reading Either/Or by Elif Batuman
I’m currently immersed in Selin’s world at Harvard, in this follow-up to The Idiot.
I am one of those readers who loves nerdy books about books, and Either/Or is definitely one of them. In fact Selin is one of the most bookish characters I’ve…
What we're reading: Broder, Hazelwood & Stevenson
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.
Aurelia Orr is reading Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
This book is an absolute feast of every delight and pleasure the world has to offer. Rachel, a non-practicing Jew, has made calorie restriction and intensive cardio exercise her religion. When she meets Miriam, an Orthodox Jewish woman intent upon feeding her, Rachel suddenly…
What we're reading: Eloff, MacAskill & McAlister
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.
Clare Millar is reading Chronic Pain Couple by Karra Eloff
When I heard this title was being published, I was very excited! There’s nothing else like it – so many books on managing chronic pain, but very little acknowledging how it can impact couples and families.
Eloff – who lives with chronic pain…
What we're reading: Ypi, Rippin, Gould & Pritchard
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.
Ruth McHugh-Dillon is reading Free by Lea Ypi
Albania is a word I remember being flung around in the 90s during conflicts in the Balkans, but I know so little about the place and its people that this book really opened my eyes to its particular and peculiar history. The author, Lea Ypi…
What we're reading: Solà, Riley & Rosen
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.
Emma Clarke is reading When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà
There’s a special kind of magic to this book that I’ve only experienced a few times. After reading the first page, I became hooked on the expressive language, the languid and hateful Mountains of Catalan and the intimate lives of the…
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