What we're reading

What we're reading: Hale, Raskin & Kim

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 Kind of a Big Deal by Shannon Hale

This time of year is fantastic for getting large quantities of reading done, which I have certainly achieved. I bought my 12-year-old daughter a copy of Kind of a Big Deal by Shannon Hale for Christmas, and once she had finished…

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What we're reading: Osman, Jansson & Kerr

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.

Ellen Cregan is reading Please Don’t Hug Me by Kay Kerr

I am notoriously bad at keeping up with all of the wonderful YA releases we get each year - typically I only read one or two. This year I did a little better, and one of the awesome titles that I was…

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What we're reading: Clarke, Moreno-Garcia & Mantel

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.

Amanda Rayner is reading Mantel Pieces by Hilary Mantel

Thank goodness for Hilary Mantel this year. In 2020 I have read/re-read over 2000 pages of her writing and the release of her final book in the Wolf Hall trilogy was so exciting that I even bought a Tudor costume to wear on the…

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What we're reading: Ephron, Obama & Schlink

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 Olga by Bernhard Schlink (translated by Charlotte Collins)

I’m been reading Olga by Bernhard Schlink. This is the first book of Schlink’s I’ve read since The Reader in 2017, and I’m very much enjoying it. I particularly love the European sensibility of the story. Olga and Herbert are childhood…

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What we're reading: Disher, Papertalk Green & French

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 Consolation by Garry Disher

For a bit of escapism, I’ve been reading the new crime novel from Garry Disher. Consolation is the third in his series featuring Constable Paul Hirschhausen as he investigates crimes in the dusty, remote town of Tiverton. This new novel seems him having to solve…

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What we're reading: O’Hagan, Colwin & Mackintosh

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 Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan

By no deliberate design, I’ve spent a significant chunk of the year thinking about life in 1980s Britain and the havoc wreaked by Margaret Thatcher and her policies on the working class. It began with a re-watch of the brilliant 1996 series, Our Friends

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What we're reading: Tan, Carey & Garner

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 One Day I’ll Remember This: Diaries 1987-1995 by Helen Garner

Along with the entire population of Melbourne, I’ve been reading Helen Garner’s new volume of diaries: One Day I’ll Remember This. This volume begins in 1987 and finishes in 1995 with the publication of The First Stone.

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What we're reading: Haig, Goenawan & Novik

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.

Jason Austin is reading The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan

I finished reading The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan about a week ago and it’s one of those rare books that I have found myself still pondering. This story about the suicide of its title character and…

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What we're reading: Lockwood, Jackson & Offill

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 Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood

Patricia Lockwood’s book Priestdaddy is a favourite of our booksellers and often appears on our blog as a recommended read. I don’t read much memoir myself so it’s always passed me by, but a couple of weeks ago Lockwood’s tweet about her cat Miette popped…

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What we're reading: Boyd, Spector & Schweblin

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.

Bronte Coates is reading Samanta Schweblin

Earlier this year I listened to the audiobook of Samanta Schweblin’s 2017 Booker Prize shortlisted novel, Fever Dream, and I was completely blown away. The story is structured as a conversation between Amanda, a young mother who is dying in a rural hospital, and David, a…

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