You could be forgiven for having no idea where to start with the books of October 2015. I mean, really – this is a bumper month. First, may I suggest you read the new work of Tony Birch? Ghost River is further testament that Melbourne has in Birch both its champion and its quintessential raconteur. It’s our book of the month.

Or perhaps you’d like to start as if it’s the end of the world? How about reading the new book from the godmother of dystopian fiction, Margaret Atwood, for starters. She’s back in full flight with The Heart Goes Last, a book that our reviewer read with compulsion until it was finished: now that’s my kind of reading experience. You could follow that offering with a serve of Charlotte Wood’s equally compelling – and truly terrifying – vision of misogyny’s endgame, The Natural Way of Things, a book I just know people will be talking about for the rest of the year and beyond.

After that doom and gloom, you could perhaps visit Hope Farm, Peggy Frew’s lovely new novel set in the twilight of the hippy era, or meet Todd Alexander’s memorable character, Tom Houghton, or immerse yourself in Geraldine Brooks’s consummate storytelling in The Secret Chord. But don’t stop there: Jesse Eisenberg’s short story collection, Bream Gives Me Hiccups, is nothing short of delightful; Jeanette Winterson’s fans will be happy that she’s the writer to begin Hogarth Shakespeare’s new series of retellings (The Gap of Time is her reinvention of The Winter’s Tale); Jane Smiley wraps up her simply stunning Hundred Year Trilogy with Golden Age; and did anyone tell you that Steven Patrick Morrissey has written a novel? List of the Lost is its name, and it’s out this month too, along with too many other novels to mention.

But wait a minute: it’s also a huge month for non-fiction! Patti Smith fans assemble: her new book, M Train, is a non-negotiable requirement for your library. Edmund de Waal, writer of surprise bestseller, The Hare with Amber Eyes, has a new book this month: The White Road. Thomas Harding re-imagines the history of Germany through the prism of The House by the Lake, while M.R. O’Connor tackles the ethical dimensions of so-called Resurrection Science. Modern Love takes another look at those two hugely influential figures in the Australian art world, John and Sunday Reed. George Megalogenis exposes Australia’s Second Chance, and David Marr turns his typically piercing gaze on Bill Shorten in the new Quarterly Essay, Faction Man, an account that is sure to draw even more interest given recent events in Parliament. And I can’t think of a month where we’ve seen more new Australian memoirs: Magda Szubanski, Tim Winton, Drusilla Modjeska, Gerald Murnane, Peter Garrett  … goodness me! And that’s not all of them.

And finally, dear reader, I was slightly alarmed to discover that it is ten years this month since Readings took custodianship of the shop formerly called Cosmos in St Kilda – it doesn’t feel like that long ago to me that we announced that news, but then again, it’s hard to remember a time without our St Kilda store in the fold. The shop opened in 1960 and since then has had a couple of different locations and three different owners before Readings bought the business in 2005. We recently signed a further ten-year lease on its premises, so 2025 here we come!

To celebrate this milestone, we are having a bit of a party: mark Saturday 17 October in your diary for 20% off all full-priced items (in St Kilda only), plus morning tea and storytime at 10.30am, followed by champers and chats with comedian and writer, Greg Fleet, at 5pm (bookings required for Greg Fleet). Cheers and congrats Readings St Kilda: we love your work!

Alison Huber