What we're reading
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…
What we're reading: Gentill, Kennedy & Jasinska
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 Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
Sometimes you pick up a book, think it looks okay, and it turns out to be so much more than that. Trespasses by Louise Kennedy is one of those books. It arrived at the store with little fanfare, but I found myself drawn to…
What we're reading: Fallada, Turton & Lizzo
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 Lilly and Her Slave by Hans Fallada
Lilly and Her Slave is a recently discovered collection of stories by the German writer Hans Fallada.
Best known for his novel Alone in Berlin, Fallada died just after war and struggled with mental illness and drug addiction throughout his life…
What we're reading: Rennex, Shamsie & Sehee
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 Life With Birds by Bronwyn Rennex
I’ve just finished reading Life With Birds by Bronwyn Rennex, an unexpected delight that Dan from Readings Carlton recommended to me.
Surprisingly funny and gentle and quirky, Bronwyn Rennex is an artist and writer whose dad was a Vietnam veteran who died when…
What we're reading: Zambra, Heti & McCulloch
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 Chilean Poet by Alejandro Zambra (translated by Megan McDowell)
Alejandro Zambra is a big name in Latin America and I’ve been meaning to read him for a while. Chilean Poet is his latest work and comes with glowing reviews from lots of other trustworthy writers - but, when I…
What we're reading: Stronach, Cleeves & Yang
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.
Ele Jenkins is reading The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach
I’m reading this Māori-inspired debut New Zealand fantasy, in which a disillusioned beat cop is murdered, but brought back to life by mysterious entities to defend her home city.
A queer fungal-punk romp with all the world-building richness of China Mieville’s Bas-Lag novels, and…
What we're reading: Bunyan, Madden & Joy
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.
Mike Shuttleworth is reading Wayward: Just Another Life to Live by Vashti Bunyan
In the mid-1960s under the guidance of the Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham, Vashti Bunyan released several singles…all of which bombed. While The Beatles were filming Let It Be in 1969 Vashti Bunyan was traveling to the Isle of…
What we're reading: Farrell, Marney & Styles
Grace Gooda is reading The Singapore Grip by J.G Farrell
The humour J.G Farrell uses to ridicule colonialism and the arrogance of British Imperialism is unlike anything I’ve ever read.
I love the strong personalities which make up this book – each character is a bit of an icon in their own way. The thoughts and conversations between characters intertwine perfectly to paint an image of what 1940s Singapore was to multiple demographics, and how the motivations of different nations…
What we're reading: Christopher & Tan
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 Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
It’s been a while since I picked up a fantasy novel and I’m really enjoying dipping my toes back in with Sue Lynn Tan’s Daughter of the Moon Goddess.
I’ve only read a few chapters so far but the…
What we're reading: Beech, Draper & Welch
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 Sunbathing by Isobel Beech
There is a passage half way through the novel of Sunbathing where Isobel is walking up the Rucker’s Hill in Northcote with friends. They stop to look over the roof tops, over the trees to the city. Such a wonderful iconic Melbourne scene.
Isobel Beech’s…
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