Nonfiction
A cookbook for every cook
2023 has seen the release of many inspirational and thoughtful cookbooks from local and international chefs. Whether you're earth conscious, need to reduce your spending or want to recreate a meal from your favourite restaurant or country's cuisine there are options galore to suit every home cook. Below are twelve of our top choices to get you inspired.
CDMX: The Food of Mexico City by Rosa Cienfuegos
CDMX is a celebration of the food of Mexico City, the dishes that…
A book to gift every history buff
From Roman to modern times, Alexandria to Melbourne, unruly monarchs and women in science there is something to please most history enthusiasts in our recommendations for 2023.
Corners of Melbourne by Robyn Annear
What better defines a city than its street corners? A corner gives you a starting point, a destination and a place to turn. It's furnished with pillar boxes, newsstands and tram stops, and lamp-posts for light and lounging. Where would you be likeliest to find a pub…
Our November 2023 bestsellers
Question 7 by Richard Flanagan
The In-Between by Christos Tsiolkas
Good Material by Dolly Alderton
Women & Children by Tony Birch
So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan
Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder
Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton
Bright Shining: How Grace Changes Everything by Julia Baird
Killing for Country: A Family Story by David Marr
All That's Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien
Quarterly Essay 92: The Great Divide: Australia’s Housing Mess and How…
Bookseller spotlight: Joanna Di Mattia’s favourite books of 2023
Joanna Di Mattia is a bookseller at Readings Carlton.
I made an early declaration this year that Jenny Erpenbeck’s Kairos would be the best novel I’d read in 2023, and as the year now comes to a close, that declaration still stands. For me, no other book has touched it – I love its emotional and psychological complexity, and the way it recreates the last days of life in a divided Germany so vividly and sensually. I think about it…
Best nonfiction of 2023
Every year our staff vote for their favourite books of the past 12 months. Here are the nonfiction books of the year, as voted by Readings' staff, and displayed in alphabetical order by author.
Art Monsters by Lauren Elkin
Who are Art Monsters? Lauren Elkin characterises them as women who break the social norms of behaviour and appearance. They are women who redefine the truth of their own bodies, not by how they are perceived through the traditional male lens.
…
Great music books from 2023
This year was another fantastic one for music books. Below you'll find a selection of our favourites that include memoir, essay, nonfiction and even the fashion of an icon.
Half Deaf, Completely Mad by Tony Cohen & John Olson
Maverick music producer-engineer Tony Cohen defined Australia’s punk and rock sounds in the late ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. His long and celebrated career took him from the studios of Melbourne and Sydney to West Berlin and London’s Abbey Road, working with…
Christmas cookbooks to inspire
There's nothing better than gathering with friends and family for a festive feast during the summer months. Below, we've rounded up some of the best Christmas-centric cookbooks to help you celebrate this year!
Christmas Table by The Australian Women's Weekly
A modern approach to the season's fare in a beautiful book containing all the recipes you'd expect for ham, turkey, sides, desserts and puddings
Christmas is a special time of year for indulging in food and fun with your loved…
The best food and gardening books of the month, with Chris Gordon
Eat Lao by Sam Sempill
Sam Sempill is a Lao-born Australian textile artist and architect with a certain magical cooking skill developed through years spent in the kitchen with her grandmother. Like all good cookbooks, this collection of Lao-cuisine based recipes is more than a list of ingredients and instructions. It is a window into the past. Beautifully illustrated, you will find recipes for trout soup, custard pumpkin dessert and an enormous range of deliciously flavoured meals that, once seen…
Decent people, a leering myna, and an unexpected inheritance
To celebrate the release of her new book, Corners of Melbourne, award-winning author Robyn Annear very kindly investigated the history of a street corner well known to Readings Carlton and Kids customers – Carlton’s Tyne Street. Here, Annear takes us back in time and along Tyne Street, revealing a healthy locale with a surprisingly colourful history.
If we’re talking street corners, Readings Carlton is ideally positioned. The two Lygon Street shops occupy facing corners of the west-running Tyne Street…
The best food and gardening books of the month, with Chris Gordon
The Farm Table by Julius Roberts
Do you love Matthew Evans’ recipes? Perhaps Jamie Oliver’s? Now, combine those two tremendous cooks and consider the way they both use food in season with simple recipes. Well, move over boys because Julius is in town. This is English farmer and cook Julius Roberts’ first book, although you may have seen him on TV, and it is a beauty. It’s filled with ideas and ideals, all suited to anyone out there with a…
Winners of the 2023 James Cropper Wainwright Prize
The James Cropper Wainwright Prize is awarded annually to the books which most successfully inspire readers to explore the outdoors and to nurture a respect for the natural world. Marking its 10th Anniversary, this year’s winning books cast a spotlight on remarkable habitats – wild rivers, lost rainforests and the wonderous Arctic – inspiring advocacy for, and reconnection with, nature for readers of all ages.
Here are the winners for each category:
Nature Writing
The Flow by Amy-Jane Beer
On…
An extract from Everything You Need to Know About the Voice by Megan Davis and George Williams
This year, we will all vote on whether to change the Consititution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Constitutional law experts Megan Davis and George Williams have written an accessible and informative guide that explains how this proposal came about, the purpose of the Voice, and the importance of this moment for all Australians. Everything You Need to Know About the Voice is essential reading, and you can begin with…
The 2023 National Biography Award winner
The State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) has announced Ann-Marie Priest's 'perceptive' and 'creative' biography of the elusive Gwen Harwood, one of Australia's finest poets, as the winner of this year's $25,000 National Biography Award.
My Tongue Is My Own: A Life of Gwen Harwood reveals a deeply passionate figure who refused to be bound by convention, and reclaims Gwen Harwood’s unique and powerful place in Australian literary history. As SLNSW noted, 'The judges were unanimous that My Tongue…
The 2023 National Biography Award shortlist
The State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW) has announced this year’s shortlist for the National Biography Award! This Award is presented annually to a published work of biographical or autobiographical writing aiming to promote public interest in these genres.
Each shortlisted author will receive $2000 while the winner will receive $25,000.
Discover the shortlisted works below.
Unknown: A refugee’s story by Akuch Kuol Anyieth
The Ghost Tattoo by Tony Bernard
How to End a Story: Diaries 1995–1998 by Helen…
Contextualising Ukraine through literature
by Alina, Readings Teen Advisory BoardAlina from our 2023 Readings Teen Advisory Board has been working to contextualise Ukraine through literature.
As Ukraine is in the centre of a war near global proportions, its literature and art are drawn upon to sustain its cultural identity and presence in the world. From poetry in the soviet era, and authoritative texts on Ukraine's vital history, to fictional works by Ukraine's most dynamic writers, this list of books has been created to help deepen my own understanding, and…
BookPeople 2023 Book of the Year winners
The 2023 BookPeople Book of the Year winners have been announced! These awards celebrate the best books of the year, as judged by Australian book industry members. In addition to book honours, these annual awards also celebrate the wonderful work of Australian booksellers and this year our Managing Director Mark Rubbo was chosen as Bookseller of the Year!
Below are the winners titles from across the three categories.
Adult fiction book of the year
Limberlost by Robbie Arnott
Adult nonfiction…
Craft books to keep the cold away
We are now well into winter and if you're anything like me, there's nothing you'd rather do than snuggle under a blanket with a hot cup of tea and a new craft project. Here is an array of books to help you choose your next project.
For both the aspiring and seasoned quilters...
The Urban Quilted Home by Wendy Chow
The Urban Quilted Home teaches you everything you need to know about how to create stylish, modern quilts for a…
Books exploring the intersection of art, celebrity, fanaticism and cult
Everything I Need I Get from You by Kaitlyn Tiffany
In Everything I Need I Get from You, Kaitlyn Tiffany, a staff writer at The Atlantic and a superfan herself, guides us through the online world of fans, stans, and boybands. Along the way we meet girls who damaged their lungs from screaming too loud, fans rallying together to manipulate chart numbers using complex digital subversion, and an underworld of inside jokes and shared memories surrounding band members’ allergies…
Contemporary works of cultural studies to deepen understanding and broaden perspective
The digital world, the bitter legacy of colonialism, the challenges of artificial intelligence and more. These recent nonfiction reads will expand your understanding and broaden your perspective of some of today's most pressing issues.
The Dark Cloud by Guillaume Pitron (trans. Bianca Jacobsohn)
It turns out that the ‘dematerialised’ digital world, essential for communicating, working, and consuming, is much more tangible than we would like to believe. Today, it absorbs 10 per cent of the world’s electricity and represents nearly…
An extract from The Dark Cloud
Dive in to this edited extract from The Dark Cloud: How the Digital World is Costing the Earth by Guillaume Pitron & Bianca Jacobsohn (trans.), a gripping investigation into the underbelly of digital technology and the carbon footprint it leaves behind.
Let’s turn back the clocks. Tame the furious charge of time. And reflect on the daily life of our pre-19th-century contemporaries. Their endeavours, both big and small, from growing crops, raising armies, or building pyramids, depended very much on…
A recipe from the newly released cookbook, A Splash of Soy
Make your next feast one to remember with this roast chicken recipe from A Splash of Soy by rising star and Coconut and Sambal author Lara Lee. A Splash of Soy is an exploration of the incredible contrast of sweet, salty, umami, sour and spicy flavours across Asia.
Miso and Gochujang Butter Roast Chicken
Miso and gochujang bring all the sweet-spicy-umami richness you need to this buttery roasted chicken dish, their distinctive flavour profiles contributing an underlying funk to this…
The 2023 Age Book of the Year Winners
The 2023 Age Book of the Year winners have been announced! The awards celebrate outstanding Australian literature and include prizes for both Fiction and Nonfiction.
Robbie Arnott has won the Fiction prize for his novel, Limberlost, while Kim Mahood has won the Nonfiction prize for her essay collection, Wandering With Intent. Each winner receives $10,000 thanks to the Copyright Agency. The winners were announced during last night’s Melbourne Writers Festival opening gala.
Want to learn more about these…
The 2023 ABIA shortlists
The shortlists for the 2023 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) have been announced! The ABIAs celebrate the best books of the year, as judged by Australian book industry members.
Below are the shortlisted titles from each category.
Biography Book of the Year
My Dream Time by Ash Barty
Ten Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby
The Boy from Boomerang Crescent by Eddie Betts
Heartstrong by Ellidy Pullin
The Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner by Grace Tame
General Fiction Book…
Three essential reads for reclaiming your time
Right now there's a multitude of excellent books publishing that smartly explore our current cultural moment. Employing an accessible blend of sociology and psychology, below are three of our top recommendations for books to help you better understand why your time, attention and creativity are being diverted and what – individually and collectively – we may be able to do about it.
Hanging Out by Sheila Liming
Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time makes an intelligent case for…
Five books to help you better understand modern-day capitalism at work
It’s OK to be Angry About Capitalism by Bernie Sanders
It's OK to be angry about capitalism. It's OK to want something better. Bernie Sanders takes on the 1% and speaks blunt truths about a system that is fuelled by uncontrolled greed, and rigged against ordinary people. Where a handful of oligarchs have never had it so good, with more money than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes, and the vast majority struggle to survive. Where a decent standard…
The 100 bestselling books of 2022
We’ve run the reports and done the math. Here are our 100 bestselling books from the past year.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Geoffrey Trousselot (trans.)
Bulldozed by Niki Savva
Exiles by Jane Harper
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
Lessons by Ian McEwan
Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down
Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
Old Vintage Melbourne, 1960-1990 by Chris Macheras
Around the Table by Julia Busuttil Nishimura
Love & Virtue by…
Five Books if you want to learn to sew your own clothes
Growing up in the 80s and 90s I never properly appreciated the home-sewn clothes my mother and grandmother used to make for me. As far as teenage me was concerned, it wasn't 'fashion' unless it came in a bag with a recognisable logo.
As I've grown older my love for fashion hasn't diminished, but I've become much more conscious about the conditions endured by workers, and I'm far more aware of how damaging fast fashion is for the environment. Combined…
Great music books from 2022
Year to year, categories wax and wane in their popularity with readers as well as the number of titles published; 2022 was a fantastic year for essay and memoir on music. Below you'll find a selection of our favourites.
This Woman’s Work: Essays on Music edited by Sinéad Gleeson & Kim Gordon
Published to challenge the historic narrative of music and music writing being written by men, for men, This Woman’s Work seeks to confront the male dominance and sexism…
Book recommendations from Barry Jones
by Barry Jones, with an introduction from Mark RubboEach year Barry Jones, certainly one of Australia’s great thinkers, sends his friends a list of the books that have inspired him during the year. We thought it such a fabulous list that we asked Barry if we could share this with you and he kindly said yes. One of the books he omitted from the list is a new, much expanded, and completely revised edition of The Penalty is Death (Scribe) edited by Barry himself and published to mark…
Best nonfiction of 2022
Every year our staff vote for their favourite books of the past 12 months. Here are the nonfiction books of the year, as voted for by Readings’ staff, and displayed in alphabetical order by author.
Reasons Not to Worry by Brigid Delaney
This is Brigid Delaney’s fascinating, hilarious and highly practical guide to using the philosophy of Stoicism to help you deal with the vicissitudes of everyday life. From dealing with the fear of missing out, to being aware that…
Our Teen Advisory Board interview Humanity's Moment author Joëlle Gergis
The Readings Teen Advisory Board was thrilled to have the opportunity to engage with Humanity’s Moment author Dr Joëlle gergis. Gergis is an award-winning climate scientist and was recently the United Nations IPCC Sixth Assessment Report lead author. Many of the teens spoke about how deeply her book resonated with them. Below are our their questions and Gergis' fascinating and generous responses.
Emma: While reading, I could definitely feel the passion you had for the topic of climate change. What…
Katherine Rundell wins the 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction
Katherine Rundell has won this year's Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction for her recent work, Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne. Rundell's winning work explores the many unknown aspects of the life of poet John Donne. The Baillie Gifford Prize is the UK’s most prestigious award for nonfiction writing and as the winner Rundell will receive £50,000 along with the £1,000 given to each of the shortlisted authors.
Caroline Sanderson, chair of judges, says: ‘Super-Infinite, Katherine Rundell’s glorious celebration…
The James Cropper Wainwright Prize winners 2022
The James Cropper Wainwright Prizes for UK Nature Writing are awarded annually to books that successfully inspire readers to explore the outdoors, celebrate nature, and to nurture and respect the natural world. In 2022 there are three prize categories: nature writing, conservation writing, and children’s writing.
2022 winner of the prize for Nature Writing
Goshawk Summer: The Diary of an Extraordinary Season in the Forest by James Aldred
In early 2020, wildlife film-maker James Aldred was commissioned to make a…
The 2022 Age Book of the Year winners
The 2022 Age Book of the Year winners have been announced! This year the award once again encompassed a prize for nonfiction as well as for fiction.
Miles Allinson has won the Fiction prize for his sophomore novel, In Moonland, while Bernadette Brennan has won the Non-fiction prize for her work of biography, Leaping Into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears. Each winner receives $10,000 thanks to the Copyright Agency. The winners were announced during last night’s Melbourne Writers…
Gift ideas for Fathers looking to a brighter future
We’ve collated a collection of gift ideas for Fathers who are wanting to learn more about how they can help shape a better world for future generations! To make a better future we’ll need to tackle personal, collective and systemic change; these books can help. Some philosophical, some instructional, but all insightful.
What We Owe the Future by William MacAskill
We are still five hundred million years away from the sterilisation of the Earth by the Sun, and one hundred…
The 2022 Age Book of the Year shortlists
The 2022 Age Book of the Year Shortlists have been announced! This year the award will once again include a prize for works of nonfiction as well as for fiction.
Fiction
In Moonland by Miles Allinson
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
After Story by Larissa Behrendt
The Signal Line by Brendan Colley
Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down
Love & Virtue by Diana Reid
Nonfiction
Whole Notes by Ed Ayres
Leaping Into Waterfalls by Bernadette Brennan
Unknown: A Refugee’s Story
Akuch Kuol Anyieth’s Unknown is a remarkable memoir. It’s a homage to the strength of her mother in protecting her family against all the odds, a story of sadness, anger, humour, determination, survival and love.
In January 2006, Mathew and Mama took Gai and me to enrol at Western English Language School on South Road in Braybrook.
When we arrived, we waited in front of a little glass booth while Mathew told the woman sitting inside that we had an…
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
Young Mungo by Douglas Stewart
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
Ten Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby
Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
Pure Colour by Sheila Heti
French Braid by Anne Tyler
Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
Sea of Tranquility Emily St. John Mandel
Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes
A Solitary Walk on the Moon by Hilde Hinton
Our chart topping book this week is the second novel from Booker-prize winning author…
An extract from The Future Is Fungi
The Future Is Fungi explores the mighty mycelial reach of fungi across four key areas: food, medicine, psychedelics and the environment. With mushroom profiles, informative texts on foraging and glorious 3D art, it’s a fascinating introduction to this hidden kingdom.
Nothing alive exists in isolation. To be alive means to be part of an intricate, sprawling web of cause and effect. Our lives are interwoven with that of plants, animals, bacteria and fungi, forming the beating heart of the planet…
Prose by your favourite poets
These poetic novels and works of non-fiction and memoir are from some of our most beloved and revered poets!
Son of Sin by Omar Sakr
An estranged father. An abused and abusive mother. An army of relatives. A tapestry of violence, woven across generations and geographies, from Turkey to Lebanon to Western Sydney. This is the legacy left to Jamal Smith, a young queer Muslim trying to escape a past in which memory and rumour trace ugly shapes in the…
An extract from the new anthology, We've Got This
More than 15 per cent of Australian households have a parent with a disability. This month, a new anthology, We’ve Got This: Stories by Disabled Parents, shines a spotlight on those stories that are rarely shared in parenting literature. In this edited extract, contributor Jax Jacki Brown writes about their experience.
‘Do you want to have kids some day?’ I asked her on a cold winter’s night, while we waited for a cab in Fitzroy.
Before meeting Anne, I’d…
The Stella Prize longlist 2022
The longlist for this year’s Stella Prize has been announced! The Stella Prize seeks to elevate the work of Australian women writers – cis, trans, and non-binary inclusive. The $50,000 prize is awarded annually to one outstanding book deemed to be original, excellent, and engaging.
Below are the 12 longlisted books for the 2022 Stella Prize.
Coming of Age in the War on Terror by Randa Abdel-Fattah
We now have a generation - Muslim and non-Muslim - who have grown…
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
The Future Is Fungi by Michael Lim & Yun Shu
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
Still Life by Sarah Winman
On Reckoning by Amy Remeikis
The Big Switch by Saul Griffith
Love Stories by Trent Dalton
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Making Australian History by Anna Clark
Black and Blue by Veronica Gorrie
Maid by Nita Prose
Our best-seller from the past week is the wonderful The Future Is Fungi, an informative and richly illustrated guide to…
Five books to help curb your consumption
Too many things in your cart or on your wish-list? These books can help you think more critically about what you’re buying, where you’re buying it from, and why we – as a society – feel so compelled to consume in the first place.
Consumed by Aja Barber
In the ‘learning’ first half of the book, Barber will expose you to the endemic injustices in our consumer industries and the uncomfortable history of the textile industry; one which brokered slavery…
What we're reading: Kang, Hadley & Baume
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 White Book by Han Kang (translated by Deborah Smith)
Having loved Han Kang’s writing in the past, I knew going into The White Book that I would likely enjoy it. Turns out, ‘enjoyable’ is really too simple a word to describe the reading experience this book provides.
In…
Our books of the month, February 2022
OUR FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
Reviewed by
This highly anticipated follow-up to 2015’s A Little Life is an epic tour de force. In fact, it’s impossible for me to praise To Paradise enough. Set in an alternative America, this is a novel of three parts, its narratives traversing a slew of human experience and emotion.
Locational echoes and characters’ names recur from one story to the next, as if they are reincarnated or reimagined…
Fury and Joy: International Women’s Day
Join us for an event this International Women’s Day!
One of the most joyful ways I have chosen to celebrate International Women’s Day is to gift my son and my daughter, each year, a book about a woman that was or is incredible. I want their heads to be filled with women’s stories because we are not there yet.
All the way back in 1911, only eight countries allowed women to vote, equal pay for equal work was unheard of…
ICYMI 50 – some recommendations to help you choose your next read
There’s still time to discover your next read within the excellent range of titles that make up the ICYMI 50: Must-read new Australian books you might have missed collection.
To celebrate our brilliant local authors (and ensure that you don’t miss out on their wonderful books) we’re offering 20% off fifty recent releases that might have flown under your radar. From brilliant short story collections, we highly recommend trying Hold Your Fire, She is Haunted, or Born into…
The most anticipated books of 2022
Dare I say it: here we go again? With another Covid-dominated year on the horizon, it is easy to feel not a little despondent: I don’t mind admitting, dear reader, that I’m very, very tired, and after a particularly difficult but still pretty fun Christmas trading period following our 2021 lockdown (like retailers across the land, I could recount a gripping, personal account of the infamous supply chain issues, but I’ll save that for my memoir…), I am sure I’m…
25% off 25 personal development favourites
Right now we’re offering 25% off a select range of our personal development favourites! Simply apply the code PD25 at checkout to receive a 25% discount on all participating titles.
A new year is the perfect time to reflect on how we can ensure both our own wellbeing as well as how to live more consciously and empathetically towards others. With this in mind, our 25% off collection features both titles focused on personal development as well as additional…
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