Marketing and Events Coordinator Stella Charls shares her top five picks from our July event calendar!

Stephanie Bishop in conversation with Emily Harms

July is a fabulous month for those who love good conversation! Authors Rod Jones, Alex Hammond and Gregory Day, will all be visiting us across the month for in-depth discussions on their books. I’m particularly excited to hear Stephanie Bishop chat about her second novel, The Other Side of the World, as judging by…

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It might these days be fashionable to say it but nevertheless the seeds of all of my books have begun in walking. The trigger for my new novel Archipelago of Souls lies in a pretty arduous but wonderful walk I took around the island of Crete back when I was still at university. My eyes were opened in many ways during those days, not only to the sea-lit slopes and valleys of the classical world of Minoan and Homeric myth…

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Readings staff member Chris Gordon tells us what it’s like to watch the complete Game of Thrones series, with her teenage son.

Here is the stark truth:

I am not a fan of fantasy films or novels.

I’m well aware that dragons are not real.

Gratuitous sex and violence does not please me.

I hate anything to do with zombies.

And yet, I’ve somehow managed to watch all available seasons of Game of Thrones, without missing one single minute…

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Here’s a collection of testimonials from Readings staff who have read, and loved, the new novel from Australian author Stephanie Bishop – The Other Side of the World.

I was terribly impressed by The Other Side of the World. It’s evocative of its time and place – England and Australia in the sixties – yet has a timelessness about it that makes it totally relevant. The characters are finely drawn; they are people who you are interested in…

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The Australian merger of two publishing giants Penguin and Random House will be all but completed in early August as their distribution facilities merge into one combined facility. The process of merging the two companies will have taken almost 3 years since the original announcement. The merged companies will have a market share in Australia of close to 30%; in addition, Penguin and Random House provide different levels of sales and distribution services for a range of Australian and international…

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Eliza Henry-Jones is the author of In the Quiet. Here she tells us the last five books she read – all from women.

When I look back at the books I read in school and at university, they’re predominantly from male writers. So, this year I’m reading all books by women. And what a wonderful year of reading it’s been.

I’ve just finished The Strays by Emily Bitto and absolutely adored it. This is one of those books that…

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The Mindfulness Colouring Book: Anti-Stress Art Therapy for Busy People by Emma Farrarons

The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna

Enchanted Forest by Johanna Basford

Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Colouring Book by Johanna Basford

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom by Millie Marotta

Gut: the Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Under-Rated Organ by Giulia Enders

Enchanted Forest: 20 Postcards by Johanna Basford

The Strays by Emily Bitto

Secret Japan…

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Every month, we do a spotlight feature on an Australian author and Eliza Henry-Jones is our chosen author for July. Her debut novel, In the Quiet, is a moving story about the heartache of letting go.

What’s the book about?

Cate Carlton has recently died, yet she is able to linger on, watching her three young children and her husband as they come to terms with their life without her on their rural horse property. As the months pass…

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Eliza Henry-Jones is the author of In the Quiet. Here she talks about the role horses and grief play in her novel.

I think many of us have gone through phases of pony obsession – bedrooms filled with the silhouettes of little plastic ponies (My Little Ponies or Barbie’s Pegasus if you were really lucky) and stacks of yellowing school library books with horses on the cover. Who hasn’t been misty eyed at The Saddle Club and begged for…

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In the Quiet is the debut novel from Australian author Eliza Henry-Jones. Here is an extract from the book.

I don’t know how I died. That’s strange, isn’t it? To be dead and know that but to not know how it happened. To not know my last memory.

It’s not something that I ever considered when I was alive.

I can see and I can hear. And when I remember back to other times and other places, I see and…

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