Mark Rubbo
Mark Rubbo is chairman of Readings. He is a past president of the Australian Booksellers Association and was founding chair of the Melbourne Writers Festival. In 2006 he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia.
Blog post — 11 Oct 2024
Nonfiction bargains from Melbourne University Press
Melbourne University Press is arguably one of Australia’s finest publishers of nonfiction. As they will soon be moving to a new warehouse they are reducing their stock in readiness. Luckily…
Review — 23 Sep 2024
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
I can’t remember when I first read this wonderful historical adventure set in Roman Britain, but it must have been six or seven years after it was published in 1954…
Review — 23 Sep 2024
Race Mathews: A Life in Politics by Iola Mathews
As an adolescent at Melbourne Grammar, Race Mathews discovered The New Statesman in the school library and, through that, Hewlett Johnson’s The Socialist Sixth of the World. Together, they…
Review — 23 Sep 2024
The Deal by Alex Miller
The Deal is Alex Miller’s 14th novel, and he’s already well into his 15th, The Minister, which draws on his long friendship with former immigration minister Ian McPhee. Like…
Blog post — 15 Oct 2024
A Day in Carlton: Mark Rubbo's pick
Mark Rubbo, Readings Chairman, shares his top pick from the event program of the upcoming A Day in Carlton Festival. Explore the program now, and join us for 24…
Blog post — 1 Oct 2024
Mark's Say
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 the Mark Rubbo's column from…
Review — 29 Jul 2024
Running with Pirates: On Freedom, Adventure, and Fathers and Sons by Kári Gíslason
When he was 18, Kári Gíslason decided to head off overseas from his home in Brisbane, in part to reconnect with his father in Iceland. His father had an affair…
Review — 29 Jul 2024
The Men Who Killed the News: The Inside Story of How Media Moguls Abused Their Power, Manipulated the Truth and Distorted Democracy by Eric Beecher
Early in The Men Who Killed the News, Eric Beecher wistfully remarks that he worked in a golden age of journalism; as a journalist starting out in the early…
Review — 23 Jun 2024
How to Be a Citizen: Learning to Rely Less on Rules and More on Each Other by C.L. Skach
C.L. Skach is a respected constitutional lawyer; she’s advised governments around the world, including Iraq, on developing their constitutions – rules-based order, if you will. Her career has been based…
Blog post — 5 Jun 2024
The end of an era
Mark Rubbo chats with Desiree Boardman, Readings Hawthorn’s beloved manager of almost three decades, ahead of her much-deserved retirement.
Desi chuckles when I catch up with her in the lead…