The winners of this year's National Book Awards have been announced! Since 1950, the National Book Awards have been celebrating the best writing in America.

Fiction

James by Percival Everett

The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson's Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked…

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So you've got a crush, but you're not sure how to let the person know? Well good news! I have the perfect collection of books and gifts to help get the message across this holiday season! From the obvious to the subtle, you're sure to find something to make it clear how you feel.

Poems for Love

Ready to just take a leap of faith and make it abundantly clear how you feel? Then really, you can't go past a…

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This month we're reading fiction translated from Japanese, Korean, German, Chinese and Spanish.

The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami (translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel)

A novel about the porous boundary between the real and shadow worlds.

After losing his beloved as a teenager, the narrator finds his way to the Town, a mysterious place where he finds work as a Dream Reader in the library. Back in the real world as an adult he tries to…

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Looking for something juicy to discuss in your book club? Try one of these new releases, chosen by our booksellers to appeal to a wide range of readers and provide plenty to talk about.

Australian fiction

This Kingdom of Dust by David Dyer

The whole world has just watched Neil and Buzz walk on the Moon. Now they are struck by terror: the lunar module's engine has failed. There is no back-up, no other way off the surface. If the…

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Congratulations to Samantha Harvey who has been named the winner of this year's Booker Prize for Orbital. The Booker Prize is a £50,000 literary prize awarded each year for the best original novel, written in the English language, and published in the UK.

Orbital takes place over a single day in the life of six astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. Compact yet beautifully expansive, Orbital invites us to observe Earth’s splendour, whilst reflecting on the individual…

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If Hozier's touchdown on Australian soil has left you not just listening to Unreal Unearth on repeat, but wanting to make forests, whisky and pining your whole personality, then this is the reading list for you. Whether you're just looking for vibes, or you want to dive a bit deeper into the themes and influences behind his music, this list will have something for you to pick up and get lost in – until concert time roles around.

For those…

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True to form, Sally Rooney's Intermezzo has maintained its number one status this month, correctly proving the book is worth all the hype!

Two great Australian crime authors have released books this month: Christian White's The Ledge, a mind-bending novel where past and present run breathlessly, tensely parallel, leading to a cliff-hanger nobody will see coming; and Chris Hammer's The Valley, which sees the return of Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic in a page-turning plot with an evocative…

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The Goldsmiths prize has announced Rachel Cusk as the 2024 winner for her novel Parade. The prize was created by Goldsmiths College at the University of London 12 years ago, to celebrate creative daring and novels that are experimental and innovative in form and themes. It is awarded annually, with a prize of £10,000 for the winner.

🏆 Winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2024

Parade by Rachel Cusk

A path-breaking novel of art, womanhood and violence, from the author…

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One way of acknowledging women whose lives have had little or no recognition in the history books is to write about them in a fictional setting – imagining, and in some cases, reimagining, what their lives might have been like. We've chosen some wonderful books inspired by the lives of a few famous, and many less so, female figures.

✒️ Studious women

Rapture by Emily Maguire

The motherless child of an English priest living in ninth-century Mainz, Agnes is a…

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During the month of October our Readings bookseller and resident horror aficionado, Joe Murray, is sharing his picks for the very best horror short fiction to get you in the mood for Halloween. You might have seen his recommendations on our socials during the month, but here's part two of his in-depth round up of why you need to read these masterful works of horror.

Read part one here!

Horror has always been a genre of experimentation and marginality. Consigned…

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