The start of a new month means that there's a new issue of Readings Monthly available online and in our shops. Below you can read Alison Huber's column from the latest issue – and keep an eye on the blog for more updates and recommended new releases throughout the month!

Last year I remember calling October O for Overwhelming, and I must say that this declaration is even more Obvious in 2024. This is a proper whopper of a month of new releases in all the subject areas you could possibly imagine, so if there is ever a month to visit a bookshop (and I know you don’t need a reason, dear Reader!), Overwhelming October (the 2024 edition) is it! It’s also the month we celebrate Love Your Bookshop Day (12 October), so if you need an exact date that you should visit us, mark that one in your diary.

I’m writing this column on the morning of the Booker Prize shortlist announcement. It’s always a highlight of the literary year to learn what is on the list, and this year is extra-special because we can rejoice at the inclusion of an Australian author! Congratulations to Charlotte Wood! Stone Yard Devotional is the first Australian novel to be shortlisted in many years, and Charlotte joins the likes of Richard Flanagan, Gail Jones, Peter Carey, and Kate Grenville (among others) whose work has been acknowledged by the award. You can find our blog for the full shortlist of six outstanding novels here.

Our Fiction Book of the Month just had to be Juice by Tim Winton, a bona fide Australian literary blockbuster for 2024. Our reviewer calls it ‘a Winton novel unlike any other’, but with ‘… writing … just as superb as we have come to expect … The pacing is propulsive, the story addictive’. But really, Winton is just the start. Australian fiction is strong this year, and our reviewers tell you all about the new work from Robbie Arnott, Nardi Simpson, Alex Miller, Nikki Gemmell, Emily Maguire, and Melanie Cheng, as well as debuts from Lauren Keegan and Ann Liang, a previous winner of The Readings Young Adult Prize.

By the time you read this, Sally Rooney fever will have overtaken much of the globe, with the author’s longed for new novel’s publication on 24 September. Intermezzo is such a good book! And you should definitely read it so you can join the global analysis in an informed manner. But again, Rooney is just the start on the international side of things: Alan Hollinghurst, Olga Tokarczuk, Richard Powers, M.L. Rio, Mariana Enríquez, Michel Houellebecq, Louise Erdrich, Pedro Almodóvar, and Alan Moore all have new work out, and these are only the authors whose books we’ve had space to review!

The October Overwhelm continues as I think about how many copies of RecipeTin Eats: Tonight will be arriving in our warehouse ready for Nagi Maehashi’s on-sale date: 15 October. Local Melbourne food heroes Tony Tan, Alice Zaslavsky, and Julia Busuttil Nishimura also release their books this month. Speaking of food heroes, Ben Shewry (of Attica fame) has a memoir, Uses for Obsession, out this month too. Ben dropped in to a few of our shops to share his famous lockdown lasagne with our staff, which was quite a treat! Thanks, Ben!

Our Nonfiction Book of the Month is an important and timely book about freedom of speech and corporate control exercised over the lives of workers, Working for the Brand by Josh Bornstein. Unlike our reviewer of Gina Chick’s memoir We Are the Stars, I’m a big fan of reality TV (this fact may surprise you!), so I knew Gina’s achievements on Alone Australia were only part of her story. What an amazing woman she is; I’m so pleased she’s put some of her wisdom into a book. Our reviewers also introduce you to the new book by Jessica Friedmann, and the biography of Race Mathews.

But wait: there’s more! So, so much more, including: Rick Morton on the Robodebt scandal; memoirs from Rick Astley (yes!), Al Pacino, Kasey Chambers, Noni Hazlehurst, Lisa Marie Presley, Virginia Trioli; a new book of food writing from the wonderful Stanley Tucci; the third instalment in Clare Wright’s Democracy Trilogy, Näku Dhäruk: The Bark Petitions; the final of Stephen Fry’s retellings of the Greek myths, Odyssey; and the landmark publication about the art of Australia’s First Peoples by Marcia Langton and Judith Ryan, 65,000 Years: A Short History of Australian Art.

And finally, dear Reader, there are so many big authors with big books coming out between now and Christmas that we thought it was the perfect opportunity to highlight some of their oeuvres at large: look out for one of our 3 for 2 offers on books from authors including Tim Winton, Haruki Murakami, Kate Atkinson, Deborah Levy, Ali Smith, Pat Barker, Richard Osman, Stephen Fry, William Boyd, Elizabeth Strout, and Elif Shafak.