Alison Huber
Alison Huber is the head book buyer for Readings. She has been selling books in Melbourne for twenty years. She is also a recovering academic.
Blog post — 1 Jun 2017
Dear Reader, June 2017
Knowing I am among friends, I can confess to expressing inappropriate book-related outrage on occasion. ‘What do you mean you haven’t read The Handmaid’s Tale?’, I exclaimed to a…
Review — 26 Jun 2016
The Girls by Emma Cline
There’s no other way for me to say it: I love this book. It’s a debut from a young writer called Emma Cline who I feel is a literary star…
Review — 24 Jan 2016
The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie
You may not immediately recognise the name of the economist, sociologist and critic of modernity, Thorstein Veblen, but you will recognise some of the concepts that he introduced into the…
Blog post — 25 Aug 2016
Dear Reader, September 2016
Here we are in September, which, as the years go on, is really starting to feel like the official start of the festive season in bookselling and publishing. That means…
Blog post — 28 Jul 2016
Dear Reader, August 2016
I feel very lucky that my time on Earth coincides with that of Maxine Beneba Clarke’s and her powerful talent. August brings us her much-anticipated memoir, The Hate Race…
Blog post — 30 Jun 2016
Dear Reader, July 2016
July’s Book of the Month is the superb Music and Freedom, a debut novel from multi-talented Melbourne-based writer Zoë Morrison. It is my long-held opinion that it’s incredibly difficult…
Review — 26 Jun 2016
Miss Jane by Brad Watson
Miss Jane Chisolm is born on a farm in Mississippi in the early part of the last century. Before too long it becomes apparent that she has a genital birth…
Blog post — 31 May 2016
Dear Reader, June 2016
June is another huge month for early career Australian authors. We have debuts from Jane Harper (with her much anticipated work, The Dry), Sean Rabin (with an intriguing tale…
Blog post — 28 Apr 2016
Dear Reader, May 2016
Are you, like our reviewer, a lover of the art novel? If yes, then our book of the month, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith, is…
Review — 26 May 2016
The Mirror Thief by Martin Seay
When I was at the American Booksellers Association Winter Institute in January this year, it seemed like pretty much everyone was talking about The Mirror Thief. First, I heard…