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Uplifting queer fiction
If you're looking for a reprieve from queer stories that end in tragedy, look no further. Here's a selection of titles with a diverse array of LGBTQIA+ characters, telling a wide array of stories, that will all leave you feeling a bit more hopeful than when you started.
The Performance by Claire Thomas
The house lights lower.
The auditorium feels hopeful in the darkness.
As bushfires rage outside the city, three women watch a performance of a Beckett play.
Margot…
A spotlight on translated fiction this month
This month we're reading fiction translated from: Dutch, French, Italian and Japanese!
The Hairdresser's Son by Gerbrand Bakker
translated from Dutch by David Colmer
Simon never knew his father, Cornelis. When his wife told him she was pregnant, Cornelis packed his bags, and a day later he was dead. Or everyone assumed he was dead; after all, he was on the passenger list of the KLM plane that crashed in Tenerife in 1977.
Simon is a hairdresser, just like his…
What we're reading: Fosse, Lispector & Footman
Each week our wonderful staff share the books that they've been enjoying.
Emma Clarke is reading A Shining by Jon Fosse and The Passion According to G.H. By Clarice Lispector
I've been reading A Shining and The Passion According to G.H., both of which are fantastic! I've paired these books together as they are both books that get at that great Kafkian quote: 'I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound us…
Ganeshananthan and Klein win the 2024 Women's Prizes
V. V. Ganeshananthan and Naomi Klein were announced last night as the 2024 winners of the Women's Prizes. Ganeshananthan won the Women's Prize for Fiction for her novel Brotherless Night, while Klein won the inaugural Women's Prize for Non-Fiction for Doppelganger.
The Women's Prize is awared annually and is open to all women writers, writing in English and published in the UK. The fiction winner receives £30,000, anonymously endowed, and the ‘Bessie’, a bronze statuette created by the…
Our Audiobook favourites
June is Audiobook Appreciation month, as well as Libro.fm's ten year anniversary, so it's the perfect time to pick up a new book on audio! Whether you're already a lover of audiobooks or you're new to the format, we've got recommendations to help you find a great read.
Did you know you can browse and buy audiobooks on Libro.fm, while supporting Readings? We have a Libro store, meaning you can buy audiobooks from Readings, see our curated recommendations…
Top picks for book clubs this month
Australian fiction | Imperial Harvest by Bruce Pascoe
Yen Se has lost everything to the Khan's brutality.
Left with one eye and one leg, he is forced out of his home village to work in the city as a horse handler. Witness to the Khan's violent crusade, their raids sweeping across Eurasia, he travels with the theatre of war, but exists outside of it; stunned every morning to find himself alive.
Yen Se moves randomly across Europe with a loose…
New queer young adult fiction
Although it's officially pride month, we like to celebrate queer literature all year round! So here's a round-up of our favourite new LGBTQIA+ young adult books, plus some to keep an eye out for later in the year! There's stories about pirates, Korean folklore, fairytale retellings, contemporary romances and plenty of romantasy.
Readers be warned, you're going to want to read them all!
A collection of pirate stories, need I say more?
Avast! edited by Alison Evans and Michael Earp
…
Our May 2024 bestsellers
Our bestseller this month was Long Island by Colm Tóibín, which continues the story of Eilis Lacey from his hugely successful Brooklyn. Our reviewer and managing director Joe Rubbo recently spoke with Tóibín about his writing and what compelled him to return to the story of Eilis. Their conversation can be found here, as well as Joe's review.
Three recent prize winners featured this month: Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright, winner of the 2024 Stella Prize; Kairos by…
Our May 2024 children's and young adult bestsellers
At the top of our bestsellers this month is a big-hearted novel about the places and people we call home.
Coming in second is the next instalment of the beautiful and cosy graphic novel series, Lightfall.
Other highlights are the latest YA thriller by Mike Lucas, our children's picture book of the month, a new release by Morris Gleitzman and a fun new series about a squad of frogs.
1. A Way Home by Emily Brewin
2. Lightfall:…
Debut fiction to read this month
Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin
The story of two couples who live in the same apartment in north-east Paris almost fifty years apart. In 2019, Anna, a psychoanalyst, is processing a recent miscarriage. Her husband, David, takes a job in London so she spends days obsessing over renovating the kitchen while befriending a younger woman who has moved into the building and is part of a radical feminist collective. Meanwhile, in 1972, Florence and Henry are redoing their kitchen. Florence is…
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