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 — 9 Mar 2023
Dear Reader, with Alison Huber
Engaging in extensive discussions about the weather and changing seasons is part of being a Melbournian, so I am not at all self-conscious to raise this sometimes-prosaic topic, and mention…
Blog post — 7 Feb 2023
Dear Reader, with Alison Huber
There’s nothing quite like a controversial blockbusting release – complete with a publisher’s embargo – hitting the shelves in the usually quiet new-release month of January to get a year…
Blog post — 9 Nov 2022
Dear Reader, with Alison Huber
Somehow or other we have arrived at the final issue of Readings Monthly for 2022, and we are busily prepping our stores for something like ‘normal’ festive trading, the kind…
Blog post — 6 Oct 2022
Dear Reader, October 2022
This time last year, we were in the gruelling final weeks of that particularly long lockdown (which is somehow feeling much further in the past than just a year ago)…
Review — 19 Sep 2022
Iris by Fiona Kelly McGregor
I love a good character-driven novel, those books that bring a reader right up close to a single actor and fix that person in the reader’s mind forevermore. Iris Webber…
Blog post — 31 Aug 2022
Dear Reader, with Alison Huber
I already know (thank you, dear Editor) that I simply don’t have enough space this month to explain how great September’s releases are, so my apologies in advance for any…
Blog post — 3 Aug 2022
Dear Reader, August 2022
I am one of those annoying people who revel in the Melbourne winter. It’s not a time to bunker down so much as get out and really feel the weather…
Blog post — 5 Jul 2022
Dear Reader, July 2022
A few of us at Readings have just returned from the first in-person Australian Booksellers Association (ABA) conference since 2019. It was held in Sydney, after two years online– such…
Review — 28 Jun 2022
Forty Nights by Pirooz Jafari
Forty Nights opens with its central character, lawyer Tishtar, shopping for food in Sunshine near his office, remembering his childhood in Iran, and recalling how he learntthe traditions and stories…
Blog post — 15 Jun 2022
Dear Reader, June 2022
I’m writing this in mid-May, and you’re probably reading this in June some time, and I’ve just spent my day today with my head in August, buying new releases from…