Dear Reader, October 2017
When October rolls around in bookselling, a certain kind of anticipation fills the air. The deliveries get bigger, shelving becomes a serious logistical exercise, and we start to prepare ourselves in earnest for the annual book-exchanging festival ahead (also known as ‘Christmas’). Lots of authors come to our party too, offering us some of the big books of the year. It’s an exciting time to be in the shop.
Richard Flanagan publishes First Person, our Fiction Book of the Month, and his first novel since 2013’s Man Booker Prize-winning The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Mark Rubbo says ‘this is Flanagan’s best work to date’, which means it’s simply a must-read for 2017. Meanwhile, 2016’s break-out success story, Jane Harper, follows her debut, The Dry, with Force of Nature, and Miles Franklin winner Michelle de Kretser brings us The Life to Come. Our reviewers praise the debuts of David Unaipon Award recipient Paul Collis (Dancing Home), and Tasmanian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Prize winner, Lois Murphy (Soon). Jennifer Egan’s biggest fan at Readings is Robbie Egan (no relation). He got us all reading A Visit from the Goon Squad way back in 2011 – his new mission is Manhattan Beach (I agree: it’s great).
Look out for new books from Jesmyn Ward, Helen Sedgwick, Jeffrey Eugenides, Kamila Shamsie, Alan Hollinghurst, Ann Leckie, John Banville, Jonathan Dee, Edward St Aubyn, Amit Chaudhuri, Alice McDermott… and the final work of the late Henning Mankell. YA readers of all ages have been longing for new work from Philip Pullman and John Green: both publish books mid-month.
Our Non-fiction Book of the Month, The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein, immediately ignites interest in anyone who hears its premise; I predict it will be one of the books of the year. I love putting advance copies into the hands of the right staff member: Armistead Maupin’s autobiography, Logical Family, found its rightful home with Jason Austin, who describes reading it as ‘like being wrapped in a warm blanket of words and memory’. Other notable releases in memoir/biography include Eddie Ayres’ Danger Music, Jonathan Eig’s Ali, Sigrid Rausing’s Mayhem, Sarah Goldman’s Caroline Chisholm, and Alice Waters’ Coming to My Senses.
The author of last year’s bestselling The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben, turns his attention to The Inner Life of Animals. Margareta Magnusson’s The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning provides a genuinely charming perspective on how to deal with a life’s worth of material accumulation. I’m keen to read new writing from Rebecca Solnit and Ta-Nehisi Coates. Patti Smith’s Devotion gives keen insight into the process of creative production, while fellow unique creative mind John Waters advises us to Make Trouble. Michael Brooks’s The Quantum Astrologer’s Handbook will appeal to readers of popular science, philosophy, biography, history and all points in between.
